Richard Cutts

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Richard Cutts

|image = Richard Cutts - Gilbert Stuart.png

|caption = Portrait by Gilbert Stuart

|office1 = Second Comptroller of the United States Treasury

|term_start1 = March 6, 1817

|term_end1 = March 21, 1829

|preceded1 = None (position created)

|succeeded1 = Isaac Hill

|state2 = Massachusetts

|district2 = {{ushr|MA|14|14th}}

|term_start2 = March 4, 1801

|term_end2 = March 3, 1813

|predecessor2 = George Thatcher

|successor2 = Cyrus King

|birth_date = {{birth date|1771|6|28}}

|birth_place = Pepperellborough, Massachusetts Bay, British America (now Saco, Maine)

|death_date = {{death date and age|1845|4|7|1771|6|28}}

|death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.

|party = Democratic-Republican

|spouse = Anna Payne (m. 1804-1832, her death)

|children = 7 (including Mary Cutts)

|relations =James Madison (brother-in-law)
Dolley Madison (sister-in-law)
James M. Cutts (grandson)
Adèle Cutts Douglas (granddaughter)

|alma_mater = Harvard University

|occupation = Merchant

|signature = Signature of Richard Cutts (1771–1845).png

}}

Richard Cutts (June 28, 1771 – April 7, 1845) was an American merchant and politician. A Democratic-Republican, he was most notable for his service as Second Comptroller of the United States Treasury from 1817 to 1829 and a United States representative from Massachusetts from 1801 to 1813.

Early life

Cutts was born Cutts Island on June 28, 1771.{{cite magazine |last=New England Historic, Genealogical Society |date=July 1848 |title=Obituary, Richard Cutts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQqAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA277 |magazine=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register |location=Boston, MA |publisher=Samuel G. Drake |pages=277–278 |via=Google Books}} The island was near the town of Pepperellborough in Massachusetts Bay's Province of Maine (modern-day Saco, Maine). The fifth of eight children born to Thomas Cutts and Elizabeth Scammon Cutts,{{cite book |last=Howard |first=Cecil Hampden Cutts |date=1892 |title=Genealogy of the Cutts Family in America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1wZAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA44 |location=Albany, NY |publisher=Joel Munsell's Sons |pages=44–45 |via=Google Books}} he attended the rural schools of Maine and Phillips Academy, Andover.{{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Charles C. |date=1903 |title=Biographical Catalogue of the Trustees, Teachers and Students of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., 1778-1830 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbNBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA29 |location=Andover, MA |publisher=Andover Press |page=29 |via=Google Books}} He graduated from Harvard University in 1790, then traveled extensively in Europe. Cutts' father was a shipbuilder and merchant who traded in lumber and other cargoes at ports in several Caribbean islands.{{cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Bill |date= January 2002|title=Rivers of Fortune |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOR0CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA146 |location=Camden, ME |publisher=Down East Books |pages=145–146 |isbn=978-1-4617-4545-7 |via=Google Books}} Cutts studied law, but rather than pursuing a legal career, he also became a successful trader and merchant.{{cite book |editor-last=Lossing |editor-first=Benson John |editor-link=Benson John Lossing |date=1872 |title=The American Historical Record |volume=I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vMOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA35 |location=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Chase & Town |page=35 |via=Google Books}}

Political career

A Democratic-Republican, Cutts served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1799 and 1800. In 1800 he was elected to the Seventh U.S. Congress. He was reelected five times and served from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1813. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1812 to the Thirteenth Congress.

During the War of 1812, Cutts was appointed as the federal superintendent general of military supplies, and he served from 1813 to 1817. In 1817, he was appointed Second Comptroller of the Treasury, the first individual to hold this post.{{cite book |last1=Gilkeson |first1=Benjamin F. |last2=Kern |first2=Josiah Quincy |date=1893 |title=Digest of Decisions of the Second Comptroller of the Treasury |volume=III |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c05GAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA410 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |page=410 |via=Google Books}} He served until March 21, 1829, and was succeeded by Isaac Hill.

Death and burial

In retirement, Cutts was a resident of Washington, D.C.{{cite book |last=U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Printing |date=1928 |title=Biographical Directory of the American Congress. 1774-1927 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8lAs_QeKkkC&pg=PA874 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |page=874 |via=Google Books}} He died in Washington on April 7, 1845. Cutts was buried at St. John's Graveyard, and in 1857 he was reinterred at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Family

In 1804, Cutts married Anna Payne, whose sister Dolley Madison was the wife of Secretary of State (and later, President) James Madison. They were the parents of seven children, five sons and two daughters:{{cite book |last=Clark |first= Allen Culling |date=1914 |title=Life and Letters of Dolly Madison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wB5CAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA501 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=W. F. Roberts Company |page=501 |via=Google Books}}

James Madison (1805–1863)
Thomas (1806–1838)
Walter Coles (b. 1808, d. after 1833)
Richard (1810–1815)
Dorthea (Dolley) Payne Madison (1811–1838)
Mary Estelle Elizabeth (1814–1856)
Richard Dominicus (1817–1883)

Cutts' daughter Mary was close to Dolley Madison and wrote two memoirs about her.{{Cite journal|last=Leibiger|first=Stuart|date=2014|title=The Queen of America: Mary Cutts's Life of Dolley Madison. Edited by Catherine Allgor . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. 240 pp.|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/psq.12125|journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly|language=en|volume=44|issue=2|pages=376–377|doi=10.1111/psq.12125|issn=1741-5705|url-access=subscription}} Cutts' grandson James M. Cutts was a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.{{cite news |date=February 25, 1903 |title=Union Veteran Dead: Col. J. Madison Cutts a Victim of Disease |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84041838/madison-cutts/ |work=The Evening Star |location=Washington, DC |page= |via=Newspapers.com}} His granddaughter Adèle Cutts Douglas was the second wife of Senator Stephen A. Douglas.{{cite book |editor-last=James |editor-first=Edward T. |date=1971 |title=Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVLOhGt1BX0C&pg=PA509 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Radcliffe College |pages=509–510 |isbn=978-0-674-62734-5 |via=Google Books}}