Ogden Hoffman

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American politician

title: "Ogden Hoffman" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1794-births", "1856-deaths", "columbia-college,-columbia-university-alumni", "united-states-navy-sailors", "members-of-the-new-york-state-assembly", "new-york-state-attorneys-general", "united-states-attorneys-for-the-southern-district-of-new-york", "new-york-county-district-attorneys", "new-york-(state)-democrats", "hoffman-family", "whig-party-united-states-representatives-from-new-york-(state)", "people-from-goshen,-new-york", "deaths-from-pulmonary-edema", "presidents-of-the-saint-nicholas-society-of-the-city-of-new-york", "19th-century-members-of-the-new-york-state-legislature", "19th-century-united-states-representatives"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "people/1790s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogden_Hoffman" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Ogden Hoffman
birthname	Ogden Hoffman
image	OgdenHoffman.jpg
resting_place	St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
birth_date
birth_place	New York City
death_date
death_place	New York City
education	Columbia College
office1	25th Attorney General of New York
term_start1	January 1, 1854
term_end1	December 31, 1855
governor1	Horatio Seymour
Myron H. Clark
preceded1	Gardner Stow
succeeded1	Stephen B. Cushing
office2	United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
term_start2	1841
term_end2	1845
preceded2	Benjamin F. Butler
succeeded2	Benjamin F. Butler
president2	William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
state3	New York
district3	3rd
term_start3	1837
term_end3	1841
alongside3	Edward Curtis
Churchill C. Cambreleng (1837–39)
Ely Moore (1837–39)
James Monroe (1839–41)
Moses H. Grinnell (1839–41)
preceded3	Gideon Lee
John McKeon
succeeded3	Charles G. Ferris
Fernando Wood
James I. Roosevelt
John McKeon
office4	New York County District Attorney
term_start4	1829
term_end4	1835
preceded4	Hugh Maxwell
succeeded4	Thomas Phoenix
party	Democratic Party
Whig
spouse	Emily Burrall
Virginia Southard
parents	Josiah Ogden Hoffman
Mary Colden
children	5, including Ogden Jr.
::

Life

Ogden Hoffman was born on October 13, 1794, the son of New York Attorney General Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837) and Mary (Colden) Hoffman. He pursued classical studies and graduated from Columbia College in 1812.

Career

He served for three years in the Navy and was warranted a midshipman in 1814. He took part in the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War as a crew member on the USS President, and was taken prisoner when the President was captured in 1814.

After leaving the navy he studied law under his father, was admitted to the bar in 1818, and commenced practice in Goshen, New York.

Political career

Hoffman was District Attorney of Orange County from May 1823 to January 1826, and a member of the New York State Assembly (Orange Co.) in 1826. He then returned to New York City and there practiced law in partnership with Hugh Maxwell, who was New York County District Attorney.

Hoffman was again a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co.) in 1828; and was New York County District Attorney from 1829 to 1835.

He disagreed with the Jackson administration over the need for a federally chartered central bank, and abandoned Tammany Hall and the Democratic Party for the Whigs after Jackson's decision not to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.

In 1836, Hoffman defended Richard P. Robinson at his trial for the murder of Helen Jewett and got his client acquitted.

Congress

Hoffman was elected as a Whig to the 25th and 26th United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1841.

Later political offices

He was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1841 to 1845. He later was New York Attorney General from 1854 to 1855, elected on the Whig ticket at the New York state election, 1853.

Personal life

On June 27, 1819, he married Emily Burrall, daughter of Charles Burrall. Together, they had two children:

Charles Burrall Hoffman (1821–1892), who married Harriet Bronson Willett, granddaughter of Dr. Isaac Bronson.
Ogden Hoffman, Jr. (1822–1891), who served as a federal judge in California for more than 40 years.

In November 1838, he married Virginia Southard (d. 1886), daughter of Samuel Lewis Southard, who was a U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, and the tenth Governor of New Jersey. Together, they had three children:

Samuel Southard Hoffman (b. 1839), who married Sarah Acklen
Mary Colden Hoffman (b. 1840)
Virginia Southard Hoffman (b. 1842)

He died on May 1, 1856, at his home on Ninth Street in New York City, of "congestion of the lungs." He was buried at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

References

Notes

Sources

The New-York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 35, 253, 257, 353 and 431; 1863)
Death of the Hon. Ogden Hoffman in the New York Times on May 2, 1856
Genealogy of the Hoffman Family by (Dodd, Mead & Co., NYC; pg. 279ff)

References

[https://archive.org/details/genealogyofhoffm00hoff/page/n329/mode/2up?q=ogden+hoffman Genealogy of the Hoffman Family]
"HOFFMAN, Josiah Ogden – Biographical Information". [[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]].
(1899). "Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes ..". New York : Dodd, Mead & Co..
Rathbun, Richard. (1904). "The Columbian institute for the promotion of arts and sciences: A Washington Society of 1816–1838.". Bulletin of the United States National Museum, October 18, 1917.

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