Misplaced Pages

Aaron Woodruff

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
American politician
Aaron Woodruff
3rd and 5th Attorney General of New Jersey
In office
1792–1811
GovernorWilliam Paterson
Richard Howell
Joseph Bloomfield
Preceded byJoseph Bloomfield
Succeeded byAndrew S. Hunter
In office
1812 – June 24, 1817
GovernorWilliam Sanford Pennington
Mahlon Dickerson
Preceded byAndrew S. Hunter
Succeeded byTheodore Frelinghuysen
Mayor of Trenton
In office
1794–1797
Preceded byMoore Furman
Succeeded byJames Ewing
Personal details
BornSeptember 12, 1762
DiedJune 24, 1817(1817-06-24) (aged 54)
Political partyFederalist Party

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. As a legislator he was influential in having Trenton selected as the state capital in 1790.

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.

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).

Legal offices
Preceded byJoseph Bloomfield Attorney General of New Jersey
1792 – 1811 		Succeeded byAndrew S. Hunter
Preceded byAndrew S. Hunter Attorney General of New Jersey
1812 – 1817 		Succeeded byTheodore Frelinghuysen

References

  1. ^ Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey (1907), pp. 425-6.
  2. ^ Official bio, Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey. Accessed July 18, 2008.
  3. Birkner, Michael J. Samuel L. Southard: Jeffersonian Whig (1984), pp. 27-8.
Categories: