Ambrose SPENCER, Congress, NY (1765-1848)

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.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present