{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox Congressman | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | image = Benjamin Ellicott.jpg | alt = An portrait illustration of Benjamin Ellicott | caption = Ellicott {{circa|1822}} | state = New York | district = 21st | alongside = John C. Spencer | term_start = March 4, 1817 | term_end = March 4, 1819 | predecessor = {{unbulleted list |Micah Brooks|Archibald S. Clarke}} | successor = {{unbulleted list |Albert H. Tracy|Nathaniel Allen}} | birth_date = {{Birth date|1765|04|17}} | birth_place = Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA | death_date = {{Death date and age|1827|12|10|1765|04|17}} | death_place = Williamsville, New York, USA | resting_place = Williamsville Cemetery }} '''Benjamin Ellicott''' (April 17, 1765 – December 10, 1827) was a surveyor, a county judge and a member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of New York. ==Biography== Ellicott was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1765.
In 1789, at approximately 24 years old, he accompanied his brothers Andrew and Joseph Ellicott in 1789 to the British Province of Upper Canada in a survey to determine the western boundary of the State of New York.<ref name=Bartlett>"Benjamin Ellicott" ''in'' {{cite journal|last=Bartlett|first=G. Hunter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdMwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA33|title=Andrew and Joseph Ellicott: The Plans of Washington City and the Village of Buffalo and Some of the Persons Concerned|pages=33–36|journal=Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society|volume=26|editor=Frank H. Severance|publisher=Buffalo Historical Society|location=Buffalo, New York|year=1922|access-date=December 26, 2014}} At Google Books.</ref>
During 1791, 1792 and 1793, he assisted his brothers in the survey and mapping of the future City of Washington and in the survey of the original boundaries of the {{convert|100|sqmi|km2}} District of Columbia, which were established in the Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref>(1) {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_D_ZJBxoCYeAC_2|title=Standard History of the City of Washington From a Study of the Original Sources|last=Tindall|first=William|chapter=IV. The First Board of Commissioners|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_D_ZJBxoCYeAC_2/page/n155 147]|location=Knoxville, Tennessee|publisher=H. W. Crew and Company|year=1914}} At Google Books.<br> (2) {{cite book |title=Andrew Ellicott: His Life and Letters |chapter=Chapter IV: The City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia, 1791–1793 |url=https://archive.org/details/andrewellicotth03mathgoog |author=Mathews, Catharine Van Cortlandt |year=1908 |publisher=Grafton Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/andrewellicotth03mathgoog/page/n45 81]–86}} At Google Books.<br> (3) {{cite journal|last=Bedini|first=Silvio A.|jstor=40072968|title=The Survey of the Federal Territory: Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker|journal=Washington History|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Historical Society of Washington, D.C.|volume=3|date=Spring–Summer 1991|number=1|page=91}}</ref>
During November–December 1792, he led a survey that helped settle a boundary dispute within the present Ontario County in Western New York, which was resolved with the establishment of the Preemption Line.<ref>(1) {{cite web|last=Henry|first=Marian S.|title=The Phelps-Gorham Purchase|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227102401/http://www.americanancestors.org/the-phelps-gorham-purchase/|archive-date=February 27, 2014|url=http://www.americanancestors.org/the-phelps-gorham-purchase/|date= February 25, 2000|access-date=December 31, 2012}}<br> (2) {{cite book |title=History of Ontario County, New York |last=Aldrich |first=Lewis Cass |editor=George S. Conover|year=1893|publisher=D. Mason & Co.|location=Syracuse, NY |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofontario00aldr|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofontario00aldr/page/94 94]–95}} At Google Books.</ref> From 1794–1797, he was employed as a surveyor and draftsman for the Holland Land Company, assisting his brother Joseph in surveys of the company's lands in western Pennsylvania.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref>(1) {{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221201133/http://www.nyheritage.org/collections/holland-land-company-maps |archive-date=February 21, 2014 |url=http://www.nyheritage.org/collections/holland-land-company-maps |title=Holland Land Company Maps |publisher=New York Heritage |year=2013 |access-date=December 27, 2014 }}<br>(2) {{cite web |last=Weissend |first=Patrick R. |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6V7upelTO?url=http://tpsjamestown.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Life+and+Times+of+Joseph+Ellicott.pdf |archive-date=December 27, 2014 |url=http://tpsjamestown.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Life+and+Times+of+Joseph+Ellicott.pdf |title=The Life and Times of Joseph Ellicott |work=Holland Land Office Museum |publisher=Holland Purchase Historical Society |location=Batavia, New York |year=2002 |access-date=December 27, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1798, he was in charge of the company's surveys in Western New York.<ref name=Bartlett/> In 1803, he became one of the first judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Genesee County, New York in Batavia.<ref name=Bartlett/>
Ellicott was elected as a Democratic-Republican representative from New York to the Fifteenth Congress (March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1819) for the 21st District.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref name=directory>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724172803/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000118|archive-date=July 24, 2014|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000118|title=Ellicott, Benjamin, (1765 - 1827)|work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=December 26, 2014}}</ref> He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1820 to the Seventeenth Congress and succeeded by Nathaniel Allen.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref name=directory/>
==Death== He then retired from active life, and in 1826 moved to Williamsville, New York, where he died December 10, 1827.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref name=directory/> He was interred at the graveyard in Williamsville (Williamsville Cemetery c. 1810).<ref name=directory/> He was re-interred at Batavia Cemetery in Batavia, New York, in 1849.<ref name=Bartlett/><ref name=directory/>
==References== {{reflist}} {{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box | state=New York | district=21 | before=Micah Brooks, <br>Archibald S. Clarke | after=Albert H. Tracy, <br>Nathaniel Allen | years=1817–1819 <br>with John C. Spencer }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
==External links== *[https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=83100 "Benjamin Ellicott"] at Historical Marker Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellicott, Benjamin}} Category:1765 births Category:1827 deaths Category:American surveyors Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States representatives from New York (state) Category:New York state court judges Category:Politicians from Bucks County, Pennsylvania Category:People from Williamsville, New York Category:19th-century United States representatives