Woodbury Langdon
| Woodbury Langdon | |
|---|---|
1767, by John Singleton Copley
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| Born | 1739 Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Died |
January 13, 1805 Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
| Occupation | Merchant, statesman and justice |
| Known for | Delegate from New Hampshire to the Continental Congress |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Sherburne |
Woodbury Langdon (1739 – January 13, 1805) was a merchant, statesman and justice from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was the brother of John Langdon, a Founding Father who served as both senator from and Governor of New Hampshire, and father-in-law of Edmund Roberts.
Langdon attended the Latin grammar school at Portsmouth, then went into the counting house of Henry Sherburne, a prominent local merchant. In 1765, he married Sherburne's daughter Sarah, then 16, and went on to build and furnish a substantial home on State Street. He is described as a large, handsome man—indeed, a contemporary recalled that the three handsomest men of that era were George Washington, Lord Whitworth and Woodbury Langdon.
When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Langdon sailed to London to secure considerable monies he had invested there. The attempt was unsuccessful, and two years later he left empty-handed for New York. Upon arrival, British Commander-in-Chief General William Howe suspected Langdon's loyalty to the Crown, and consequently restricted him to the city. Entreaties to release Langdon, written both by his prominent friends in England and younger brother, John, were ignored. Nevertheless, in December 1777 he managed to escape.
If Langdon's leanings towards American Independence were at all uncertain before his confinement in Manhattan, they became unmistakable afterwards. In spring of 1779, he was elected as one of New Hampshire's delegates to the Continental Congress, serving a year. In 1780, 1781 and 1785 he was re-elected, but chose to remain in New Hampshire and serve at the revolutionary capital in Exeter, where he was a representative from 1778–1779 and a member of the Executive Council from 1781-1784. In 1781, his Portsmouth home was destroyed in a fire which started in a barn where the Music Hall now stands. He rebuilt the three-story brick mansion in 1785, called "the costliest house anywhere about," and would occupy it for the remainder of his life.
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