United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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SPENCER, Ambrose

1765–1848

Office

Representative

State/Territory

New York

Party

Anti-Jacksonian

Congress(es)

21st (1829–1831)

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Biography

SPENCER, Ambrose, (fatherof John Canfield Spencer), a Representative from New York; born in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn., December 13, 1765; attended Yale College, and was graduated from Harvard University in 1783; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Hudson, Columbia County, N.Y.; city clerk 1786-1793; member of the state assembly 1793-1795; served in the state senate 1795-1804; assistant attorney general in 1796; attorney general of New York 1802-1804; justice of the state supreme court 1804-1819 and chief justice 1819-1823; resumed the practice of law in Albany, N.Y.; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress (March 4, 1829-March 3, 1831); chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Twenty-first Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection; one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1830 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against James H. Peck, United States judge for the district of Missouri; mayor of Albany 1824-1826; moved to Lyons, N.Y., in 1839 and engaged in agricultural pursuits; president of the Whig National Convention at Baltimore in 1844; died on March 13, 1848, in Lyons, N.Y.; interment in Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, N.Y.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Boston Public Library

Boston, MA
Papers: 5 letters.

New-York Historical Society

New York, NY
Papers: 1793-1847. 40 items.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Barnard, Daniel D. A discourse on the life, character and public services of Ambrose Spencer, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York : delivered by request before the bar of the city of Albany, January 5, 1849. Albany, [N.Y.]: W.C. Little & Co., 1849.

Sprague, William Buell. A discourse commemorative of the late Hon. Ambrose Spencer, late chief justice of the state of New York: delivered in the Second Presbyterian church, Albany, on Sabbath evening, April 20, 1848. Albany: J. Munsell, printer, 1849.

Van Ness, William Peter. The speeches at full length of Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Caines, the attorney-general [Ambrose Spencer], Mr. Harrison, and General Hamilton, in the great cause of the people, against Harry Croswell, on an indictment for a libel on Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States. New-York: Printed by G. & R. Waite, no. 64, Maiden-lane, 1804.

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