Frederick Augustus Tallmadge


Gender:
Male
Born:
August 29, 1792
Died:
September 17, 1869
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
New York, NY
Marriage(s):
Elizabeth Canfield Tallmadge (May 22, 1815)
Biographical Notes:
Frederick Augustus Tallmadge was the son of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, who was educated at Yale and served as a spy during the Revolutionary War, and his first wife, Mary Floyd of Mastic, Long Island. Frederick graduated from Yale College in 1811 and attended the Litchfield Law School that same year.

He was admitted to the bar in 1811, and began a law practice in New York City in 1813. During the War of 1812, he has a successful military career serving as the Captain of the Cavalry Company of New York. After the War he returned to New York and embarked on a successful political career.

He became a member of the Board of Aldermen of New York City in 1834 and served as common councilman in 1836. Tallmadge became a member of the New York State Senate from 1837 to 1840 ...
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Quotes:
"Mr. Tallmadge was possessed of great moral as well as physical courage, and to mental abilities of a high order were added genial and polished manners. Although frequently obliged, from his position, to exercise power which was calculated to arouse bitter feeling, he always acted fearlessly but discreetly, and in such a way that he seldom made an enemy, and was deservedly popular with the masses." -- His New York Times Obituary, September 18, 1869

Regarding the assumption of his position as the General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police: "The place which he now occupies was not sought by him. It sought him. He left a profession much more lucrative in its annual compensation than the salary he receives as General Superintendent. He accepted it, too, after several persons ...
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Education
Years at LLS:
1811
Other Education:
Prepared for college by the Reverend Ammi R. Robbins, and graduated from Yale College in 1811.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Military; Political Office; Lawyer
State Posts:
State Senator (NY) 1837-1840
State Committees:
President Pro Tempore of the NY State Senate.
Local Posts:
Alderman (New York, NY) 1834
City Council (New York, NY) 1836
Recorder of the City (New York, NY) 1847-1850
General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police (New York, NY) 1857
Clerk of the Court of Appeals (New York, NY) 1862-1865

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
William Key Bond List 1811-1812, Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection No. 65x669.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1811, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

Catalogue of Litchfield Law School Hartford, Connecticut: Press of Tiffany, Case and Company, 1849.
Secondary Sources:
Argument of William Curtis Noyes, Esq. on the Trial of Hon. Frederick A. Tallmadge, General Superintendent of Metropolitan Police, Before the Board of Commissioners of Police. Reported by P. H. Carey. New York: Baker & Godwin, Printers, 1858.

Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 6. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912.

Tallmadge, Benjamin. Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. New York: Thomas Holman, 1858.

New York Times. "Obituary." Published September 18, 1869. Accessed Mary 10, 2014. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0F12F9395F137B93CAA81782D85F4D8684F9

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