Aaron Woodruff
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Aaron Woodruff (1762-1817) portrait (high contrast).png
| office = Attorney General of New Jersey
| successor1 = Theodore Frelinghuysen
| predecessor2 = Moore Furman
| termend2 = 1797
| termstart2 = 1794
| death_date = {{death date and age|1817|06|24|1762|09|12}}
| birth_date = September 12, 1762
| office2 = 2nd Mayor of Trenton
| name = Aaron Woodruff
| governor1 = William Sanford Pennington
Mahlon Dickerson
| predecessor1 = Andrew S. Hunter
| order = 3rd and 5th
| party = Federalist Party
| termend1 = June 24, 1817
| termstart1 = 1812
| successor = Andrew S. Hunter
| predecessor = Joseph Bloomfield
| governor = William Paterson
Richard Howell
Joseph Bloomfield
| termend = 1811
| termstart = 1792
| successor2 = James Ewing
}}
Aaron Dickinson Woodruff (September 12, 1762 – June 24, 1817) was the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1792 to 1811 and from 1812 to 1817.
Biography
Woodruff was born in 1762 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the oldest child of Elias and Mary Joline Woodruff. In 1779 he graduated from Princeton College as the valedictorian for his class. After serving in the American Revolutionary War, he was admitted to the bar in 1784. He served in the Electoral College and won a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly from Hunterdon County.[https://books.google.com/books?id=6tcMAAAAYAAJ Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey] (1907), pp. 425-6. As a legislator he was influential in having Trenton selected as the state capital in 1790.[http://nj.gov/oag/oag/ag_1792-1810_woodruff_bio.htm Official bio], Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey. Accessed July 18, 2008.
In 1793, he was appointed New Jersey Attorney General and served in the position until 1811, when he was replaced by Andrew S. Hunter. Woodruff, who was a Federalist, was ousted by the Democratic-Republicans who had taken control of the New Jersey Legislature in that year's elections. However, when the Federalists regained control of the Legislature in 1812, they reinstated Woodruff as Attorney General.Birkner, Michael J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kvd5l1tfUK4C Samuel L. Southard: Jeffersonian Whig] (1984), pp. 27-8.
Woodruff continued to serve until his death in 1817. He died at the home of his brother-in-law in Changewater (now Warren County, New Jersey).
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{{succession box|title= Attorney General of New Jersey|before=Joseph Bloomfield|after=Andrew S. Hunter|years=1792 – 1811}}
{{succession box|title= Attorney General of New Jersey|before=Andrew S. Hunter|after=Theodore Frelinghuysen|years=1812 – 1817}}
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References
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Category:Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey
Category:Politicians from Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Members of the New Jersey General Assembly
Category:New Jersey attorneys general
Category:18th-century American lawyers
Category:19th-century American lawyers
Category:19th-century American legislators