Joseph Bradley Varnum | |
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President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
In office December 6, 1813 – February 3, 1814 |
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Preceded by | William H. Crawford |
Succeeded by | John Gaillard |
6th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
In office October 26, 1807 – March 3, 1811 |
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President |
Thomas Jefferson James Madison |
Preceded by | Nathaniel Macon |
Succeeded by | Henry Clay |
United States Senator from Massachusetts |
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In office June 29, 1811 – March 3, 1817 |
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Preceded by | Timothy Pickering |
Succeeded by | Harrison Gray Otis |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th district |
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In office March 4, 1803 – June 29, 1811 |
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Preceded by | Seth Hastings |
Succeeded by | William M. Richardson |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 9th district |
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In office March 4, 1795 – March 3, 1803 |
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Preceded by | inaugural holder |
Succeeded by | Phanuel Bishop |
Member of the Massachusetts Senate | |
In office 1789-1795 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Dracut, Massachusetts |
January 29, 1751
Died | September 21, 1821 Dracut, Massachusetts |
(aged 70)
Resting place | Vernum Cemetery, Dracut |
Political party | Democratic-Republican |
Children | 12 |
Military service | |
Service/branch | Massachusetts Militia |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
Joseph Bradley Varnum (January 29, 1751 – September 21, 1821) was a U.S. politician of the Democratic-Republican Party from Massachusetts.
Joseph Bradley Varnum was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, January 29, 1750 or 1751, a farmer with little formal education.
At the age of eighteen, he was commissioned captain by the committee of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in 1787 colonel by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was made brigadier general in 1802, and in 1805 major general of the state militia, holding the latter office at his death in 1821. After serving in the Massachusetts militia during the American Revolutionary War, Varnum helped to destroy the Shays insurrection before he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1780–1785) and then the Massachusetts State Senate (1786–1795). He also served as a Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas and as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of General Sessions.
In 1794, Varnum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from March 4, 1795 until his resignation on June 29, 1811. During his last four years in the House, he served as its Speaker.
Varnum was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1811 to fill the vacancy in the term. June 29, 1811 to March 3, 1817; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Thirteenth Congress; chairman, Committee on Militia (Fourteenth Congress); after returning to Massachusetts in 1817, he again served in the Massachusetts State Senate, until his death September 21, 1821.