Samuel Eddy (March 31, 1769February 3, 1839) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

. Born Johnston in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Eddy completed preparatory studies. He graduated from Brown University in 1787. He studied law, was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1790 and practiced a short time in Providence. He served as clerk of the

Rhode Island Supreme Court The Rhode Island Supreme Court is the Supreme court, court of last resort in the U.S. State of Rhode Island. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, all selected by the Governor of Rhode Island from candidates vetted by ...

from 1790 to 1793. He also served as

Rhode Island Secretary of State The secretary of state of Rhode Island is an elected office in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of 2015, the current secretary of state is Nellie Gorbea. The Rhode Island Department of State or is composed of five separate divisions: *The Ele ...

from 1798 to 1819. Eddy was elected as

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Congresses, and reelected as an

Adams-Clay Republican The National Republican Party, also known as the Anti-Jacksonian Party or simply Republicans, was a political party in the United States that evolved from a conservative-leaning faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that supported John Qu ...

to the Eighteenth Congress (March 4, 1819 – March 3, 1825). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1824 to the Nineteenth Congress and for election in 1828 to the Twenty-first Congress. He served as associate justice of the

in 1826 and 1827, and served as chief justice 1827 to 1835. Eddy wrote the Court's first published decision, '' Stoddard v. Martin'' in 1828. Eddy died in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, February 3, 1839, and was interred in North Burial Ground. He was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

in 1819.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref>

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eddy, Samuel 1769 births 1839 deaths Brown University alumni Chief Justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court Secretaries of State of Rhode Island Rhode Island National Republicans Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Rhode Island Members of the American Antiquarian Society People of colonial Rhode Island Burials at North Burying Ground (Providence)