Cadwallader David Colden (April 4, 1769 – February 7, 1834) was an American politician who served as the 54th
Mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
and a U.S. Representative from New York.
Early life
Colden was born at
Spring Hill in
Flushing, the family home, on April 4, 1769, in the
Province of New York
The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...
.
He was the son of David Colden and Ann Alice (
née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
Willett) Colden. He was the brother of Alice Christy Colden, Maria Colden, who married
Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Elizabeth Colden, who married Edward Laight, and Catherine Colden, who married Thomas Cooper.
He was the grandson of Alice (née Chrystie) Colden and
Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), who served as the
Governor of the province of New York several times in the 1760s.
He was taught by a private tutor and then provided a classical education in
Jamaica, New York and in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. After returning to the United States in 1785, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1791.
Career

Colden first practiced law in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, then moved to
Poughkeepsie, New York in 1793. He returned to New York in 1796 and from 1798 to 1801, he was Assistant Attorney General for the First District, comprising
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
,
Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
,
Kings,
Richmond and
Westchester counties. From 1810 to 1811, he was
District Attorney of the First District, comprising the above-mentioned counties and
New York County.
In his time as an attorney, Colden argued for the defendant in the seminal property case
Pierson v. Post.
Colden was an active
Freemason. He was the
Senior Grand Warden of the
Grand Lodge of New York in 1801-1805 and 1810–1819.
He became a Colonel of Volunteers in the
War of 1812. Despite having owned slaves, in 1815 he became president of the
New York Manumission Society, established in 1785 to promote the
abolition of slavery in the state. He oversaw the rebuilding of the Society's African Free School in New York City. Later historians cited the energetic aid of Colden,
Peter A. Jay,
William Jay, Governor
Daniel D. Tompkins, and others in influencing the New York legislature to set the date of July 4, 1827, for the abolition of slavery in the state.
Colden was also a member of the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Ass ...
in 1818, and the 54th Mayor of New York City from 1818 to 1821, appointed by Governor
DeWitt Clinton. He successfully contested the
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
of
Peter Sharpe to the
17th United States Congress and served from December 12, 1821, to March 3, 1823. He was a member of the
New York State Senate (1st District) from 1825 to 1827, when he resigned.
After his resignation from the State Senate, he moved to
, where he devoted much of his time to the completion of the
Morris Canal.
Literary accomplishments
A proponent of a national canal system, in 1825 Colden was commissioned by the Common Council of New York City, during the last days of the construction of the Erie Canal,
to write his ''Memoir, Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council of the City of New York, and Presented to the Mayor of the City, at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals''. The work and its Appendix contain period lithographs of the canal construction and highlights of the "Grand Canal Celebration" in New York City.
Personal life
On April 8, 1793,
Colden was married to Maria Provoost (1770–1837), the daughter of Rt. Rev. Dr.
Samuel Provoost, 1st
Bishop of New York and Maria Bousefield Provoost.
Together, they were the parents of:
* David Cadwallader Colden (1797–1850), who married Francis Wilkes (1796–1877),
daughter of banker
Charles Wilkes and cousin of Rear Admiral
Charles Wilkes.
Death
Colden died in
, in 1834. His body was removed in 1843 from interment in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
and moved to a receiving vault in
Trinity Church Cemetery in
Upper Manhattan in New York City.
The vault was removed in 1845 and relocated to a prominent spot in the cemetery's Easterly Division, where it overlooks a rural intersection at
Broadway and West 153rd Street. By 1869, preparations to widen Broadway, where the road cut through the cemetery caused Colden to be removed to another plot in the cemetery's Westerly Division that was essentially forgotten until a local historian rediscovered it in July 2011.
References
External links
Political Graveyard*
''The White House, Where Aaron Burr arranged his memoirs'', from ''Historic Houses of New Jersey'' by W. Jay Mills, 1902
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colden, Cadwallader D.
1769 births
1834 deaths
19th-century American lawyers
New York (state) state senators
Members of the New York State Assembly
People from Flushing, Queens
Politicians from Queens, New York
New York County district attorneys
Queens County (New York) district attorneys
Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)
Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery
Abolitionists from New York City
People from colonial New York
American Freemasons
People from New York (state) in the War of 1812
Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves
American colonels
19th-century mayors of places in New York (state)
19th-century members of the New York State Legislature
19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives