Cadwallader Colden
| Cadwallader Colden | |
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Cadwallader Colden
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| 29ºcolonial governors of Province of New York | |
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In office 1760–1762 |
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| Preceded by | James DeLancey |
| Succeeded by | Robert Monckton |
| 31ºcolonial governors of Province of New York | |
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In office 1763–1765 |
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| Preceded by | Robert Monckton |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 7, 1688 Ireland |
| Died | September 28, 1776 (aged 88) near Flushing in Queens County on Long Island in New York. |
| Profession | governor |
Cadwallader Colden (7 February 1688 – 28 September 1776) was a physician, natural scientist, and a lieutenant governor for the Province of New York.
He was born in Ireland, of Scottish parents, while his mother Janet Hughes was visiting there. His father, Rev. Alexander Colden A.B. of Duns, Berwickshire, sent him to the Royal High School and Edinburgh University to become a minister. When he graduated in 1705, he continued his studies in medicine, anatomy, physics, chemistry, and botany in London. In 1710, his aunt Elizabeth Hill invited him to Philadelphia where he started his practice in medicine. He briefly returned to Scotland to marry Alice Chryste in 1715, and came back with her to Philadelphia that same year. In 1717, he was invited by Governor Robert Hunter to relocate to New York, and in 1720 he became a surveyor general of New York.
Colden entered political life in 1720, when Governor William Burnett chose him for provincial council. He served as lieutenant governor and as acting governor in 1760-1761, 1763-1765, 1769-1770, and 1774-1775. He was acting governor of New York from 1760 to 1762 (replaced by Robert Monckton in 1762) and again from 1763 to 1765, and finally from 1769 to 1771 after Henry Moore's death. He was likely one of the oldest acting British governors in New York. He was replaced by John Murray after his last term.
He served as the first colonial representative to the Iroquois Confederacy, an experience that resulted in his writing The History of the Five Indian Nations (1727), the first book on the subject.
On 1 November 1765 Cadwallader Colden was confronted by a huge crowd carrying an effigy of him in a parade to protest the Stamp Act. He seemed to enjoy confrontation and had gone out of his way to defend royal prerogative. Members of the throng had appropriated his coach and added it to the parade; at the end of the route the coach was smashed to kindling and used as part of a great celebratory bonfire on Bowling Green.
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