Richard Cutts

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American politician

title: "Richard Cutts" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1771-births", "1845-deaths", "harvard-university-alumni", "comptrollers-in-the-united-states", "people-from-saco,-maine", "massachusetts-democratic-republicans", "burials-at-oak-hill-cemetery-(washington,-d.c.)", "democratic-republican-party-united-states-representatives-from-the-district-of-maine", "united-states-representatives-from-massachusetts", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "18th-century-members-of-the-massachusetts-general-court"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "people/1770s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cutts" 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	Richard Cutts
image	Richard Cutts - Gilbert Stuart.png
caption	Portrait by Gilbert Stuart
office1	Second Comptroller of the United States Treasury
term_start1	March 6, 1817
term_end1	March 21, 1829
preceded1	None (position created)
succeeded1	Isaac Hill
state2	Massachusetts
district2
term_start2	March 4, 1801
term_end2	March 3, 1813
predecessor2	George Thatcher
successor2	Cyrus King
birth_date
birth_place	Pepperellborough, Massachusetts Bay, British America (now Saco, Maine)
death_date
death_place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
party	Democratic-Republican
spouse	Anna Payne (m. 1804-1832, her death)
children	7 (including Mary Cutts)
relations	James Madison (brother-in-law)
Dolley Madison (sister-in-law)
James M. Cutts (grandson)
Adèle Cutts Douglas (granddaughter)
alma_mater	Harvard University
occupation	Merchant
signature	Signature of Richard Cutts (1771–1845).png
::

Richard Cutts (June 28, 1771 – April 7, 1845) was an American merchant and politician. A Democratic-Republican, he was most notable for his service as Second Comptroller of the United States Treasury from 1817 to 1829 and a United States representative from Massachusetts from 1801 to 1813.

Early life

Cutts was born Cutts Island on June 28, 1771. The island was near the town of Pepperellborough in Massachusetts Bay's Province of Maine (modern-day Saco, Maine). The fifth of eight children born to Thomas Cutts and Elizabeth Scammon Cutts, he attended the rural schools of Maine and Phillips Academy, Andover. He graduated from Harvard University in 1790, then traveled extensively in Europe. Cutts' father was a shipbuilder and merchant who traded in lumber and other cargoes at ports in several Caribbean islands. Cutts studied law, but rather than pursuing a legal career, he also became a successful trader and merchant.

Political career

A Democratic-Republican, Cutts served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1799 and 1800. In 1800 he was elected to the Seventh U.S. Congress. He was reelected five times and served from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1813. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1812 to the Thirteenth Congress.

During the War of 1812, Cutts was appointed as the federal superintendent general of military supplies, and he served from 1813 to 1817. In 1817, he was appointed Second Comptroller of the Treasury, the first individual to hold this post. He served until March 21, 1829, and was succeeded by Isaac Hill.

Death and burial

In retirement, Cutts was a resident of Washington, D.C. He died in Washington on April 7, 1845. Cutts was buried at St. John's Graveyard, and in 1857 he was reinterred at Oak Hill Cemetery.

Family

In 1804, Cutts married Anna Payne, whose sister Dolley Madison was the wife of Secretary of State (and later, President) James Madison. They were the parents of seven children, five sons and two daughters:

James Madison (1805–1863)
Thomas (1806–1838)
Walter Coles (b. 1808, d. after 1833)
Richard (1810–1815)
Dorthea (Dolley) Payne Madison (1811–1838)
Mary Estelle Elizabeth (1814–1856)
Richard Dominicus (1817–1883)

Cutts' daughter Mary was close to Dolley Madison and wrote two memoirs about her. Cutts' grandson James M. Cutts was a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. His granddaughter Adèle Cutts Douglas was the second wife of Senator Stephen A. Douglas.

References

New England Historic, Genealogical Society. (July 1848). "Obituary, Richard Cutts". Samuel G. Drake.
Howard, Cecil Hampden Cutts. (1892). "Genealogy of the Cutts Family in America". Joel Munsell's Sons.
Carpenter, Charles C.. (1903). "Biographical Catalogue of the Trustees, Teachers and Students of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., 1778-1830". Andover Press.
Caldwell, Bill. (January 2002). "Rivers of Fortune". Down East Books.
(1872). "The American Historical Record". Chase & Town.
(1893). "Digest of Decisions of the Second Comptroller of the Treasury". US Government Printing Office.
U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Printing. (1928). "Biographical Directory of the American Congress. 1774-1927". US Government Printing Office.
Clark, Allen Culling. (1914). "Life and Letters of Dolly Madison". W. F. Roberts Company.
Leibiger, Stuart. (2014). "The Queen of America: Mary Cutts's Life of Dolley Madison. Edited by Catherine Allgor . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. 240 pp.". Presidential Studies Quarterly.
(February 25, 1903). "Union Veteran Dead: Col. J. Madison Cutts a Victim of Disease". [[The Washington Star.
(1971). "Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary". Radcliffe College.

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