Josiah Ogden Hoffman

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.{{cite book|last1=Hoffman|first1=Eugene Augustus|title=Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes ..|date=1899|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogyofhoffm00hoff|access-date=21 June 2017}}

File:Josiah Ogden Hoffman, ca. 1790.jpg

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.

On July 14, 1804, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Alexander Hamilton.[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/1804-07-20/ed-1/seq-2/] National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, July 20, 1804, p. 2.

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.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1890/08/13/103258513.pdf] History of the City Superior Court, in the New York Times on August 13, 1890

On February 16, 1789, he married Mary Colden (1770–1797), and they had four children, including:

• Alice Anna Hoffman (b. 1790){{cite web|title=Josiah Ogden Hoffman|url=http://www.auburnhistoricproperties.org/upload/pdf/Hoffman%20Josiah%20Ogden.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919011804/http://www.auburnhistoricproperties.org/upload/pdf/Hoffman%20Josiah%20Ogden.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 September 2016|website=auburnhistoricproperties.org|publisher=Auburn Historic Properties|access-date=15 September 2016}}
• 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 of her death before the marriage took place.
• Ogden Hoffman (1794–1856), a Congressman,{{cite web|title=HOFFMAN, Josiah Ogden - Biographical Information|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000687|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=15 September 2016}} who married Emily Burrall and later Virginia Southard.
• Mary Colden Hoffman (b. 1796)

File:Portrait of Maria Hoffman (nee Fenno 1781-1823).jpg]]

He was a member of the New York Society Library, which has records of some of the books he borrowed between 1790 and 1805.{{Cite web |title=New York Society Library, City Readers |url=https://cityreaders.nysoclib.org/Detail/entities/514 |access-date=Mar 4, 2022}}

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), the poet

Hoffman died on January 24, 1837, in New York City.

His grandson was Ogden Hoffman, Jr. (1822–1891), a United States federal judge.

;Notes

{{reflist|30em}}

;Sources

• [https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofhoffm00hoff#page/204/mode/1up Genealogy of the Hoffman Family] by Eugene Augustus Hoffman (Dodd, Mead & Co., NYC; pg. 204ff)
• William Wickham Hoffman, Eleven generations of Hoffmans in New York; descendants of Martin Hoffman, 1657-1957 (New York: American Historical Co., 1957).
• [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsead/umich-wcl-M-2048fen?byte=4017186;focusrgn=bioghist;subview=standard;view=reslist Fenno-Hoffman family papers (1780-1883, bulk 1789-1845), Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.]

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{{succession box | before = Nathaniel Lawrence | title = New York Attorney General | years = 1795–1802 | after = Ambrose Spencer}}

{{succession box | before = Pierre C. Van Wyck | title = Recorder of New York City | years = 1810–1811 | after = Pierre C. Van Wyck}}

{{succession box | before = Pierre C. Van Wyck | title = Recorder of New York City | years = 1813–1815 | after = Richard Riker}}

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Category:1766 births

Category:1837 deaths

Category:Politicians from Newark, New Jersey

Category:Members of the New York State Assembly

Category:New York State attorneys general

Josiah Ogden

Category:New York City recorders

Category:Lawyers from Newark, New Jersey

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:People from colonial New Jersey

Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature

Category:18th-century members of the New York State Legislature