American Founding Father and politician
Titus Hosmer
(1736 ? August 4, 1780) was an American
Founding Father
, lawyer, and jurist from
Middletown, Connecticut
. He was a delegate for
Connecticut
to the
Continental Congress
in 1778, when he signed the
Articles of Confederation
.
Biography
[
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]
Titus was born in
West Hartford
, attended
Yale
and graduated in 1757. He
read for the law
, was admitted to the bar, and began a practice in
Middletown
. Hosmer was elected to the
Connecticut State Assembly
annually from 1773 to 1778 and served as their speaker in 1777. In May 1778, he became a member of the State Senate and remained in that office until he died. Later in 1778, the joint state legislature sent him as one of their
delegates
to the
Second Continental Congress
. He was subsequently elected by the Continental Congress on January 22, 1780, to serve as a federal judge on the
Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture
.
[1]
Titus died in Middletown on August 4, 1780, of undisclosed causes, and is buried in the Mortimer Cemetery there.
Joel Barlow
, who received Hosmer's patronage, wrote a much-admired elegy on his death.
Family
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]
Hosmer married Lydia Lord on November 29, 1761, in Middletown. One son,
Stephen Hosmer
, became a lawyer and was the chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. The other son,
Hezekiah Lord Hosmer
, became a
U.S. representative
for
New York
. A grandson, also named
Hezekiah Lord Hosmer
, became the first chief justice of the
Montana Territory
and authored several books.
The Hosmer family is traced to
Rotherfield
in
Sussex
(and much earlier to
Otterhampton
,
Somerset
), where Alexander Hosmer was native before a
marian martyr
in nearby
Lewes
and the family consequently moved to
Kent
in the following generations.
[
citation needed
]
His colonial ancestor, Colonel Thomas Titus, was a
Roundhead
in the
New Model Army
, who left
Hawkhurst
in Kent for
Boston
upon the
English Restoration
. Thomas Titus later settled in Middletown.
Hosmer had a
Whig
relative who fought and was mortally wounded in the
Battles of Lexington and Concord
against
Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland
.
[
citation needed
]
There is a Hosmer Corner in
Hampden County, Massachusetts
named for the family although the Hosmer's are more renowned as
founders of Hartford Connecticut
.
Notes
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References
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