Benjamin Tappan

Benjamin Tappan (May 25, 1773 – April 20, 1857) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Ohio and a United States senator from Ohio.

Education and career

Born on May 25, 1773, in Northampton, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America, Tappan attended the public schools and was apprenticed as a printer and engraver. He traveled to the West Indies and studied painting with Gilbert Stuart.

Federal judicial service

Tappan received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson on October 12, 1833 to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Ohio vacated by Judge John Wilson Campbell.

Family

Tappan was the second child and oldest son of Benjamin Tappan and Sarah (Homes) Tappan, who was a grandniece of Benjamin Franklin. Two of his younger brothers were abolitionists Arthur Tappan and Lewis Tappan. He married, March 20, 1801, Nancy Wright, sister of John C. Wright, afterwards a United States representative from Ohio. They had one son, Benjamin, born in 1812. His first wife having died, Benjamin was married a second time, in 1823, to Betsy (Lord) Frazer, the widow of Eliphalet Frazer. They had one son, Eli Todd Tappan, later president of Kenyon College.