Stephen R. Bradley

Stephen R. Bradley

Stephen Row Bradley (born February 20, 1754 in Wallingford , Colony of Connecticut , †  December 9, 1830 in Walpole , New Hampshire ) was an American politician . He was one of the first two US Senators for the state of Vermont .

Soldier, lawyer and state politician

Stephen Bradley came from a prominent New England family . His ancestors had emigrated from England at the beginning of the 17th century . After spending his childhood in Wallingford, he studied at Yale , where he graduated in 1775. He then fought on the American side in the War of Independence , in the course of which he rose from captain to colonel .

In 1779 Bradley moved to Vermont. There he studied law and began in his home in Westminster to practice as a lawyer. He quickly became a well-known citizen of the city and held several offices at the local level, such as that of the district attorney in Cumberland County, which became Windham County in 1781 . In 1783 he became a district judge; from 1785 he sat for several years as a member of the House of Representatives of Vermont , where he initially also acted as speaker of the chamber. At that time Vermont was not yet a US state, but formally independent as the Republic of Vermont .

US Senator

In the 1780s Bradley was also a judge in the Superior Court of Vermont and acted as mediator in a border dispute with New Hampshire. After joining the Union on March 4, 1791, he and Moses Robinson were elected by the state legislature as the first two US Senators of the new state. In Congress , Bradley belonged to the anti-administration faction that was critical of the government, which later became the Democratic Republican Party . In 1794 he ran for re-election, but was defeated by the federalist Elijah Paine .

After he had subsequently worked as a lawyer in Westminster and was a member of the local council, Bradley returned to the Senate on October 15, 1801 as the successor to the resigned Elijah Paine. He remained there as a member of the Democratic Republicans after re-election until March 3, 1813. During this time he held office from December 14, 1802 to October 16, 1803 and again from December 28, 1808 to January 8, 1809 of the President pro tempore .

After serving in the Senate, Bradley lived again in Westminster before retiring in Walpole in 1818, where he died in 1830. His son William was also politically active and was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Vermont from 1813 to 1815 and from 1823 to 1827 .

Web links

• Stephen R. Bradley in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Stephen R. Bradley in the database of Find a Grave (English)