Hugh Maxwell

{{infobox officeholder | name = | image = Hugh Maxwell (1787-1873) 1964 35.jpeg | caption = | office = Collector of the Port of New York | president = Zachary Taylor<br>Millard Fillmore | term_start = 1849 | term_end = 1853 | predecessor = Cornelius W. Lawrence | successor = Greene C. Bronson | office1 = New York County District Attorney | term_start1 = 1821 | term_end1 = 1829 | predecessor1 = Pierre C. Van Wyck | successor1 = Ogden Hoffman | term_start2 = 1817 | term_end2 = 1818 | predecessor2 = John Rodman | successor2 = Pierre C. Van Wyck | birth_date = 1787 | birth_place = Paisley, Scotland | death_date = {{dda|1873|03|31|1787}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | alma_mater = Columbia College | party = Whig | parents = William Maxwell | spouse = Agnes Stevenson | children = 4 | relations = }} '''Hugh Maxwell''' (1787 – March 31, 1873) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

==Early life== Maxwell was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1787. He was the son of William Maxwell.<ref name="nyhistory">{{cite web |title=Hugh Maxwell (1787-1873) |url=https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/hugh-maxwell-1787-1873 |website=www.nyhistory.org |publisher=New-York Historical Society |accessdate=7 August 2019}}</ref>

After immigrating to the United States in 1790 around the age of three, he graduated from Columbia College in 1808 where he was classmates and close friends with Gulian C. Verplanck, later a New York State Senator and member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

==Career== After graduating from Columbia, he studied law and was admitted to the bar and built up a lucrative practice. In 1814, during the War of 1812, he was appointed Assistant Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army.<ref>Jampoler, Andrew C. A. "Who Was Henry Eckford?" ''Naval History'', December 2007, Pages 38–45.</ref>

===New York County District Attorney=== From 1817 to 1818 and again from 1821 to 1829, he was New York County District Attorney.<ref name="manhattanda">{{cite web |title=History of the Office |url=https://www.manhattanda.org/about-the-office/history-of-the-office/ |website=manhattanda.org |publisher=Manhattan District Attorney's Office |accessdate=7 August 2019}}</ref> On September 15, 1826, Jacob Barker, Henry Eckford, and other leaders of Tammany Hall were indicted for allegedly committing millions of dollars in acts of fraud against banks, insurance companies, and private citizens, and Maxwell subsequently prosecuted them for "conspiracy to defraud."<ref name="Lawson1914">{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=John Davison |title=American State Trials: A Collection of the Important and Interesting Criminal Trials which Have Taken Place in the United States from the Beginning of Our Government to the Present Day |date=1914 |publisher=Thomas Law Books |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanstatetr11howagoog/page/n539 515] |url=https://archive.org/details/americanstatetr11howagoog |accessdate=7 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref> The first trial ended in a hung jury in October 1826, although some defendants were convicted in a second trial. Eckford, a famous shipbuilder and entrepreneur of the time, was not prosecuted again after the first trial and sought an apology and public statement of his innocence from Maxwell, but succeeded only in getting Maxwell to make a statement that Eckford had been duped by others into illegal acts. Eckford challenged Maxwell to a duel in December 1827, but Maxwell ignored him.<ref name="Barker1827">{{cite book |last1=Barker |first1=Jacob |last2=Vermilya |first2=Thomas |last3=Davis |first3=Matthew Livingston |last4=Maxwell |first4=Hugh |title=Trial of Jacob Barker, Thomas Vermilya, and Matthew L. Davis, for Alleged Conspiracy: Testimony as Reported by Hugh Maxwell, Esq., District Attorney, and Certified for the Use of the Supreme Court, by Ogden Edwards, Esq., the Judge Before Whom the Cause was Tried at the Circuit, in August, 1827 |date=1827 |publisher=Coke Law-Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70kuAAAAYAAJ |accessdate=7 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

===Collector of the Port of New York=== After his term as New York County District Attorney ended in 1829, he resumed his law practice for the next twenty years, occupying a prominent position in the New York bar,<ref name="Morrison1906"/> along with his law partner, Ogden Hoffman.<ref name="Pierson1996">{{cite book |last1=Pierson |first1=George Wilson |title=Tocqueville in America |date=1996 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9780801855061 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tocquevilleiname0000pier_f1e0/page/63 63] |url=https://archive.org/details/tocquevilleiname0000pier_f1e0 |url-access=registration |accessdate=7 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

An ardent Whig, in 1849, Maxwell was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as Collector of the Port of New York and remained in office through the Fillmore Administration until 1853, when his term expired. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law, but retired after a few years.<ref name="Hough1858">{{cite book |last1=Hough |first1=Franklin Benjamin |title=The New York Civil List: Containing the names and origin of the civil divisions, and the names and dates of election or appointment of the principal state and county officers from the Revolution to the present time |date=1858 |publisher=Weed, Parsons and Co. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkcivillis00houggoog/page/n397 369], 377 |url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkcivillis00houggoog |accessdate=7 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life== Maxwell was married to Agnes Stevenson (1796–1866), with whom he had four children:<ref name="Morrison1906">{{cite book |last1=Morrison |first1=George Austin |title=History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756-1906 |date=1906 |publisher=Saint Andrew's Society of the State of NY |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/historysaintand00morrgoog/page/n7 |accessdate=26 July 2019}}</ref> Hugh Maxwell, John Stevenson Maxwell (1847–1918), Ann Eliza Maxwell, and Agnes Maxwell.<ref name="Morrison1906"/>

He was a member of the New-York Historical Society and was elected a member of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York in 1811, serving as manager from 1826 to 1828, second vice-president from 1828 to 1832, first vice-president from 1832 to 1835, and as President from 1835 to 1837.<ref name="Morrison1906"/> He was known for his love of classic literature and he entertained friends, including Thurlow Weed, William C. Rhinelander (grandfather of T.J. Oakley Rhinelander) and James Lenox, at his library, considered one of the best private collections in New York.<ref name="Morrison1906"/>

Maxwell died on March 31, 1873, at his residence, 14 St. Marks Place in New York City. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York.<ref name="1873Presentation">{{cite news |title=The Law Institute.; Presentation of Bequests from the Late Hugh Maxwell. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/07/15/79039115.pdf |accessdate=7 August 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=15 July 1873}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== *{{find a Grave|129573614}}

{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | before = John Rodman | title = New York County District Attorney | years=1817–1818 | after=Pierre C. Van Wyck}} {{succession box | before = Pierre C. Van Wyck | title = New York County District Attorney | years=1821–1829 | after=Ogden Hoffman}} {{s-gov}} {{succession box | before = Cornelius W. Lawrence | title = Collector of the Port of New York | years = 1849–1853 | after = Greene C. Bronson}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Hugh}} Category:1787 births Category:1873 deaths Category:Politicians from Paisley, Renfrewshire Category:Scottish emigrants to the United States Category:New York County district attorneys Category:Collectors of the Port of New York Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:19th-century New York (state) politicians Category:Presidents of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York