Male

August 29, 1792

September 17, 1869

Litchfield, CT

New York, NY

Elizabeth Canfield Tallmadge (May 22, 1815)

Frederick Augustus Tallmadge was the son of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, who was educated at Yale and served as a spy during the Revolutionary War, and his first wife, Mary Floyd of Mastic, Long Island. Frederick graduated from Yale College in 1811 and attended the Litchfield Law School that same year.

He was admitted to the bar in 1811, and began a law practice in New York City in 1813. During the War of 1812, he has a successful military career serving as the Captain of the Cavalry Company of New York. After the War he returned to New York and embarked on a successful political career.

He became a member of the Board of Aldermen of New York City in 1834 and served as common councilman in 1836. Tallmadge became a member of the New York State Senate from 1837 to 1840 ...and served as Recorder of the city of New York from 1841 to 1846. He was elected as a Whig to the U.S. Congress in 1847 for one term. Upon returning to New York he again served as Recorder of the city of New York from 1848 to 1851. Afterwards he became General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police from 1857 to 1862 and clerk of the New York Court of Appeals from 1862 to 1865.

In 1858, shortly after his appointment as the General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, Tallmadge was placed on trial, charged with "absolute disobedience." At the beginning of September of 1858, long seated resentment towards the presence of a quarantine hospital on Staten Island reached a violent head. Tallmadge was reluctant to send his healthy policemen into the disease ridden area, in spite of promises of assistance made by the Mayor. Despite this episode, Tallmadge remained in office until 1862.

When he left the Court of Appeals, Tallmadge resumed the practice of law in New York City. Due to his failing health, in 1869 he returned to Litchfield, where he died on September 17, 1869.

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"Mr. Tallmadge was possessed of great moral as well as physical courage, and to mental abilities of a high order were added genial and polished manners. Although frequently obliged, from his position, to exercise power which was calculated to arouse bitter feeling, he always acted fearlessly but discreetly, and in such a way that he seldom made an enemy, and was deservedly popular with the masses." -- His New York Times Obituary, September 18, 1869

Regarding the assumption of his position as the General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police: "The place which he now occupies was not sought by him. It sought him. He left a profession much more lucrative in its annual compensation than the salary he receives as General Superintendent. He accepted it, too, after several persons ...had declined it -- declined it, because they were unwilling to take office under a law which our citizens regarded with disfavor and opposed, and the constitutional validity of which was denied; and he accepted it for the purpose of inaugurating this new experiment in the government of a large district, which met with so much opposition in this city; and his large popularity and uniformly kind and urbane manners contributed not a little to its success." -- Quoted from Argument of William Curtis Noyes, Esq. on the Trial of Hon. Frederick A. Tallmadge, General Superintendent of Metropolitan Police, Before the Board of Commissioners of Police. New York: Baker & Godwin, Printers, 1858.
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1811

Prepared for college by the Reverend Ammi R. Robbins, and graduated from Yale College in 1811.

Military; Political Office; Lawyer

State Senator (NY) 1837-1840

President Pro Tempore of the NY State Senate.

Alderman (New York, NY) 1834
City Council (New York, NY) 1836
Recorder of the City (New York, NY) 1847-1850
General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police (New York, NY) 1857
Clerk of the Court of Appeals (New York, NY) 1862-1865

William Key Bond List 1811-1812, Henry Francis Du Pont Winterthur Museum Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection No. 65x669.

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1811, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

Catalogue of Litchfield Law School Hartford, Connecticut: Press of Tiffany, Case and Company, 1849.

Argument of William Curtis Noyes, Esq. on the Trial of Hon. Frederick A. Tallmadge, General Superintendent of Metropolitan Police, Before the Board of Commissioners of Police. Reported by P. H. Carey. New York: Baker & Godwin, Printers, 1858.

Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 6. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912.

Tallmadge, Benjamin. Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. New York: Thomas Holman, 1858.

New York Times. "Obituary." Published September 18, 1869. Accessed Mary 10, 2014. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0F12F9395F137B93CAA81782D85F4D8684F9