{{short description|American politician (1743-1798)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Abraham Ogden | image = Abraham Ogden 1743-1798 (cropped).tif | caption = | office = U.S. Attorney for the<br>District of New Jersey | term_start = 1791 | term_end = 1798 | predecessor = Richard Stockton | successor = Lucius Horatio Stockton | office1 = Member of the New Jersey General Assembly for Essex County | term1 = 1790 | predecessor1 = | successor1 = | birth_date = {{birth date|1743|12|30}} | birth_place = Newark, New Jersey | death_date = {{death date and age|1798|01|31|1743|12|30}} | parents = {{ubl|David Ogden|Gertrude Gouverneur}} | spouse = {{marriage|Sarah Frances Ludlow|December 22, 1767}} | relations = {{ubl|Samuel Ogden (brother)|Josiah Ogden Hoffman (nephew)}} | children = 13, including David | death_place = Newark, New Jersey | allegiance = {{flag|United States}} | branch = Continental Army | service_years = | rank = Colonel | unit = New Jersey Line }}
'''Abraham Ogden''' (December 30, 1743 – January 31, 1798) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1791 to 1798 and negotiated the Treaty of New York (1796).
==Early life== Ogden was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1743. He was the third son of David Ogden and Gertrude (née Gouverneur) Ogden.<ref name=Ogden>{{cite book |title=The Ogden Family in America |first=William Ogden |last=Wheeler |pages=103–4 |year=1907 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3JVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA103}}</ref> His father was a noted jurist and a member of the supreme court for the royal province of New Jersey before the Revolutionary War.<ref name=Appleton>{{cite book |title=Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/appletonscyclopa04wils |volume=4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/appletonscyclopa04wils/page/560 560] |year=1900|publisher=New York, D. Appleton }}</ref>
His sister, Sarah Ogden (1742–1821), married Nicholas Hoffman (1736–1800), and were the parents of Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837).<ref name=Appleton/> His brother, Samuel Ogden (1746–1810), served as a Colonel of the New Jersey Militia during the Revolutionary War, and was later prominent in the iron business. Samuel married Euphemia Morris (1754–1818), a sister of Gouverneur Morris, in 1775.<ref name=Ogden/>
==Career== Ogden trained as a lawyer, establishing his practice in Morristown, New Jersey. He was appointed Surrogate of Morris County in 1768.<ref name=Morristown>{{cite book |title=History of Morris County, New Jersey with Illustrations, and Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, 1739–1882 |publisher=Munsell & Co. |location=New York |year=1882 |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njmorris/munsellhistory/h-chpt03.htm}}</ref>
Among those who studied law at his Morristown office were Richard Stockton (later United States Senator from New Jersey) and his nephew, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, later the New York State Attorney General.<ref name=Appleton/>
During the Revolutionary War, Ogden and his brother Samuel sided with the Patriots, while their father David and brothers Isaac, Nicholas and Peter sided with the Loyalists.<ref name=Morristown/>
Ogden befriended George Washington, who often visited his family residence while the Continental Army was quartered in Morristown. During that time, his young son, Thomas Ludlow Ogden, wounded Washington's hand in a fencing bout. This is believed to be the only injury that Washington suffered in the course of the war.<ref name=Ogden/><ref name=Appleton/>
===Post-Revolutionary War=== After the war, Ogden settled in Newark. He represented Essex County in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1790.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections 1788–1790 |volume=3 |first=Gordon |last=DenBoer |year=1987 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=0-299-10650-0 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rklx9c7MJFoC&pg=PA23}}</ref> In 1791 President Washington appointed him U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,<ref>Cite as: ''The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition,'' ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. Canonic URL: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-05-07-02-0096 [accessed 15 Nov 2015] Original source: ''Presidential Series (24 September 1788 – 31 March 1795),'' Volume 7 (1 December 1790 – 21 March 1791)</ref> a position he served until his death.
Washington also appointed Ogden as Commissioner to the Indians in Northern New York. He led the delegation that negotiated the Treaty of New York (1796) with the Seven Nations of Canada.<ref name=Ogden/> They had been allies of the British during the Revolutionary War. Aware that the Iroquois and other tribes were being forced to cede most of their lands in New York State, which wanted to sell the property for development, Ogden, his brother Samuel, Gouverneur Morris and others purchased a large tract of land in New York, south of the Saint Lawrence River. They intended to plat and sell it to new settlers; many migrants were entering the state from New England, and some men made fortunes in land speculation. The town of Ogdensburg, New York was named after his brother, Samuel Ogden.<ref name=Ogden/>
==Personal life== thumb|Sarah Frances Ludlow Ogden On December 22, 1767, Ogden married Sarah F. Ludlow (1744–1823), the daughter of Catherine (née Le Roux) Ludlow and Thomas Ludlow, merchant of New York. Together, they had 13 children:<ref name=Ogden/> * David A. Ogden (1770–1829), U.S. Representative from New York, married Rebecca C. Edwards * Catharine L. Ogden (1771–1814), Abijah Hammond, original landholder of Hammond, New York * Charles L. Ogden (1772–1826), who married Elizabeth Meredith * Thomas Ludlow Ogden (1773–1844), leading New York City lawyer, who married Martha Hammond * Abraham Ogden (1775–1846), who married Mary L. Barnwell * Gertrude Gouverneur Ogden (1777–1850), who married Joshua Waddington (1755–1844)<ref name="GWObit1915">{{cite news|title=George Waddington|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1915/12/30/archives/king-of-the-cocos-dies-andrew-ross-sat-on-throne-first-held-by-his.html|accessdate=8 May 2017|work=The New York Times|date=30 December 1915}}</ref><ref name="SaintNicholas1905">{{cite book|last1=York|first1=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New|title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-|date=1905|publisher=The Saint Nicholas Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJM-AAAAYAAJ&q=Elizabeth+Ogden+waddington&pg=PA179|accessdate=8 May 2017|language=en}}</ref> * Gouverneur Ogden (1778–1851), who married Charlotte Curzon Seton * William Ogden (1780–1801) * Sarah F.L. Ogden (1782–1849) * Margaretta E. Ogden (1783–1834), who married David B. Ogden * Isaac Ogden (1784–1867), who married Sarah Ogden Meredith * Samuel N. Ogden (1787–1787) * Frances S. Ogden (1788–1824), who married Nathaniel Lawrence the younger, merchant of Liverpool, England
Ogden died in 1798 in Newark.<ref name=Appleton/>
===Descendants=== His grandson, William D. Waddington (1811–1886), who married Mary Elizabeth Ogden (1810–1867), were the parents of George Waddington (1840–1915),<ref name="GWObit1915"/> who married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer (1845–1911), the daughter of Henry Bell Van Rensselaer, a U.S. Representative and the son of New York's Lt. Gov. Stephen Van Rensselaer.<ref name="sullivanrobertg">{{cite web|last1=Sullivan|first1=Robert G.|title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer Vol. IV|url=http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/vanrensselaer-3.html|website=www.schenectadyhistory.org|publisher=Schenectady County Public Library|accessdate=6 December 2016|pages=1814–1821|date=1911}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box| title=United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey| before=Richard Stockton |after=Lucius Horatio Stockton |years=1791 – 1798}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ogden, Abraham}} Category:1743 births Category:1798 deaths Category:Politicians from Morris County, New Jersey Category:Politicians from Newark, New Jersey Category:Politicians from Morristown, New Jersey Category:Lawyers from Morristown, New Jersey Category:Members of the New Jersey General Assembly Category:United States attorneys for the District of New Jersey Category:18th-century American lawyers Category:People from colonial New Jersey Category:Patriots in the American Revolution Category:18th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature