- Isaac Roosevelt (politician)
Isaac Roosevelt (
December 19 ,1726 - October 1794) was an Americanmerchant and Federalistpolitician . He served in the New York State Assembly and the state Constitutional Convention and achieved the most political success of any Roosevelt beforeTheodore Roosevelt . He was the great-great-grandfather ofU.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt .Roosevelt was born in
New York City and baptized in the Reformed Dutch Church of New York. A member of theRoosevelt family , he was the son ofJacobus Roosevelt , grandson of Nicholas Roosevelt, and great-grandson of the immigrant Claes Martenzsen Van Rosenvelt. He was one of the first large-scale sugar refiners in New York City. He built one of the first sugar refineries in the city and originally had his store onWall Street , later removing to St. George's Square."Isaac Roosevelt is removed from his house in Wall Street to the house of his late brother, Jacobus Roosevelt, Jr, deceased, near the Sugar house, and opposite to Mr. William Waltons, being on the northwest side of Queen Street, where his customers may be supplied as usual with double, middling and single refined loaf sugars, clarified, muscovado and other molasses, & etc." -
April 25 ,1772 Active in the community, he was one of the first members of the New York City Chamber of Commerce, organized in 1768, and he was one of the original incorporators of the first public hospital in New York in 1770. He was a cofounder of the
Bank of New York in 1784, and became its second president, a post he held from 1786 to 1791.A noted
Whig , he was elected to theNew York Provincial Congress onApril 22 ,1775 . He was one of the Committee of One Hundred that took control of the state government in May of 1775. Though he felt no allegiance to England, he was initially a moderate, hoping to prevent conflict. However, he withdrew from New York when the British occupied the city, and spent the period of occupation at his wife's home inDutchess County , serving with the Sixth Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia. After the war, as one of ten representatives from New York City (amongJohn Jay ,Alexander Hamilton , andRobert R. Livingston ), he took part in the New York State Convention atPoughkeepsie onJune 18 ,1788 that deliberated on the adoption of theUnited States Constitution . He served as a State Senator from 1777 to 1783 and from 1786 to 1790.He married Cornelia Hoffman, the daughter of a prominent Dutchess County landowner, on
September 22 ,1752 . They had ten children, including Jacobus (James), great-grandfather ofFranklin Delano Roosevelt . He died in October 1794.ources
*cite book|title=The Amazing Roosevelt Family, 1613-1942|last=Schriftgiesser|first=Karl|year=1942|publisher=Wildred Funk, Inc.
*cite book|title=The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649-1902|last=Whittelsey|first=Charles B.|year=1902
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