Nathaniel Niles | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont's 2nd district |
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In office October 17, 1791 – March 3, 1795 |
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Succeeded by | Daniel Buck |
Personal details | |
Born |
South Kingstown, Rhode Island |
April 3, 1741
Died | October 31, 1828 Fairlee, Vermont |
(aged 87)
Political party | Anti-Administration Party |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Watson Niles |
Profession | law, medicine, inventor, congressman |
Nathaniel Niles (April 3, 1741 – October 31, 1828) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a United States Representative from Vermont.
Niles was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. He attended Harvard College and graduated from Princeton College in 1766. He studied law and medicine, and taught in New York City. Niles also studied theology and preached in Norwich and Torrington, Connecticut. Niles invented a process for making wire, and erected mills in Norwich.
After the Revolution, Niles moved to West Fairlee, Orange County, Vermont, was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1784 and served as Speaker. From 1784 to 1788, he was a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and a member of the council in 1785 and 1787.
He was a delegate to the Vermont state constitutional convention of 1791, and upon the admission of Vermont as a State into the Union was elected to the Second Congress as an Anti-Administration Party candidate. Niles was reelected to the Third Congress and served from October 17, 1791, to March 3, 1795.
After his terms in Congress, Niles was again a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1800 to 1803 and 1812 to 1815. He was a member of the Governor’s Council from 1803 to 1809. He was a presidential elector for the Thomas Jefferson ticket in 1804 and for the James Madison ticket in 1813. He was a delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1814.