Josiah Ogden Hoffman
Josiah Ogden Hoffman (April 14, 1766 – January 24, 1837 in New York City) was an American lawyer and politician. In the second decade of the 19th century he hired Charles Augustus Foote as his law clerk. Sometime after 1807-8 he hired the young Washington Irving as his clerk.
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Early life
Josiah Ogden Hoffman was born on April 14, 1766, in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Nicholas Hoffman (1736–1800) and Sarah Ogden Hoffman (1742–1821). He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in New York City, and entered politics as a Federalist.[Eugene Augustus Hoffman, Genealogy of the Hoffman family: descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes... 1899, New York.]
Career
Hoffman was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co.) in 1791, 1792, 1792–93, 1794, 1795. He was New York Attorney General from 1795 to 1802, and was also a member of the State Assembly in 1796–97.
From 1810 to 1811, he was Recorder of New York City; again a member of the State Assembly in 1812–13; and again Recorder of New York City from 1813 to 1815.
In 1828, he was appointed as one of the first justices (with Samuel Jones and Thomas J. Oakley) of the then established New York City Superior Court, and remained on the bench until his death in 1837.
Personal life
On February 16, 1789, he married Mary Colden (1770–1797), and they had four children, including:
- Alice Anna Hoffman (b. 1790)http://www.auburnhistoricproperties.org
- Sarah Matilda Hoffman (1791–1809), who was engaged to Washington Irving (1783–1859), who studied law at Hoffman's office, but did not wed because she died before the marriage could took place.
- Ogden Hoffman (1794–1856), a Congressman, who married Emily Burrall and later Virginia Southard. Their son was Ogden Hoffman, Jr. (1822–1891), a United States federal judge.
- Mary Colden Hoffman (b. 1796)<ref name="Auburn"/>
Following his first wife's death in 1797, on August 7, 1802, he married Maria Fenno (1781–1823), daughter of John Fenno (1751–1798), the Federalist editor of the Gazette of the United States. Maria's sister, Mary Eliza Fenno (d. 1817) married Gulian C. Verplanck. Together, Hoffman and Maria had three children, including:
- Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806–1884), a successful poet.
[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
Hoffman died on January 24, 1837, in New York City (aged 70) and is buried Saint Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery Churchyard Manhattan, New York City, New York, [findagrave;113371320]
Sources
- Genealogy of the Hoffman Family by Eugene Augustus Hoffman. New York.
- [1] History of the City Superior Court, in the New York Times on August 13, 1890
- Hoffman papers, New York Historical Society Library. Central Park West.
- https://cityreaders.nysoclib.org/Detail/entities/514
