Egbert Benson

Egbert Benson (June 21, 1746 – August 24, 1833) was an American lawyer, jurist, politician and Founding Father who represented New York State in the Continental Congress, Annapolis Convention, and United States House of Representatives. He served as a member of the New York constitutional convention in 1788 which ratified the United States Constitution. He also served as the first attorney general of New York, chief justice of the New York Supreme Court, and as the chief United States circuit judge of the United States circuit court for the second circuit.

Education and career

Benson's ancestor, Dirck Benson, who settled in New Amsterdam in 1649, was the founder of the Benson family in America. Egbert Benson was born in New York City in the Province of New York, the son of Robert Benson (1715–1762) and Catherine (Van Borsum) Benson (1718–1794). The Benson family was one of the earliest Dutch families to have settled in Manhattan. In a letter written to Arthur D. Benson, Egbert Benson lived at the corner of Puntine and Fulton streets in the home of William Puntine. (The house was apparently not numbered until 1907, when it became No.) 436 Fulton Street.

Benson was taught in Dutch, and he learned his catechism in that language. a school of repute, and prepared himself for college. He read law, was admitted to the bar and moved to Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York. Despite his personal ownership of slaves, he was involved in the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society.

Political and judicial service

Towards the start of the American Revolutionary War, Benson approved the course of the Sons of Liberty and gave up, in a measure, his professional prospects then brightly opening and devoted himself to his country. The county made him the president of their committee of safety and in 1777 sent him to the revolutionary New York State Assembly. When the first state government was organized, Benson was appointed the first New York attorney general and served until 1788. Although he was reappointed in 1785,

Benson's writings include A Biographical Sketch of Gouverneur Morris (published in November 1816), and Brief Remarks on the 'Wife' of Washington Irving (published in 1819). father of his namesake, Egbert Benson.

According to manuscripts and notes found in the Arthur D. Benson manuscript collection at Queens Library, Benson's name was engraved on a bronze tablet on the Butterick Building on 6th Avenue and Spring Street in New York City; this tablet was placed there by the Greenwich Village Historical Society. Hevelyn Benson was also a member of the New York Historical Society, founded in 1804 by his ancestor, Egbert Benson. Benson also included a photostat of an article in The Eagle from September 16, 1935, which designated Egbert Benson as the man behind the Constitution. The state historical marker for Benson's grave was applied to Senator Thomas C. Desmond, a trustee of the New York State Historical Society, by Hevelyn Benson.