agriculturist lawyer legislator
Ezra L'Hommedieu was born at Southold, Long Island, the son of Benjamin L'Hommedieu and his wife, Martha Bourne, daughter of Ezra Bourne of Sandwich, Massachussets. His grandfather, Benjamin L'Hommedieu, a French Huguenot (born at La Rochelle), came to America about 1686, settled at Southold in 1690, and died there in 1748 at the age of ninety-two.
He graduated from Yale in 1754.
Ezra was admitted to the bar, but he appears to have occupied himself chiefly in administering his own affairs. From 1775 until his death L'Hommedieu was continuously in public service, his local, state, and national services often overlapping, since there was no "self-denying ordinance" to forbid.
He was a member of all the New York provincial congresses, and accordingly was one of the framers of the constitution of 1777, then a member of the Assembly until 1783, and thereafter until 1809 (excepting the year 1792-93) of the state Senate. Twice (1784, 1799) he served on that curious New York body, the council of appointment, and again in the interpretative constitutional convention of 1801. Meanwhile he had been sent for four successive terms (1779 - 1783) as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and once more in 1788. In January 1784 he became clerk of Suffolk County, an office which he held, except for one year (March 1810 - March 1811), for the remainder of his life.
As a legislator, whether in the Assembly or Senate of his state or in Congress, his career is marked by an active though unobtrusive participation in proceedings, particularly in the important labors of committees, whose reports he often drew. In Congress, whilst closely cooperating with his colleagues in all matters affecting his own state, as was customary in the New York delegation, on other questions he showed an independent mind, not always following the lead of his persuasive colleague, Duane, or of that other dominating character, Robert R. Livingston. Faithful to his instructions, he nevertheless did not hesitate to point out to his own government what he conceived to be errors of counsel. His letters to Governor Clinton are a valuable source of information upon proceedings in Congress. As in Congress he consistently supported measures looking toward governmental efficiency, so in the Constitutional period he was a Federalist.
L'Hommedieu's chief title to fame is as the principal author of the University of the State of New York as reconstituted in 1787. Tradition has ascribed the fatherhood of the institution to Hamilton, but legislative records seem to show conclusively that it was the measure fathered by L'Hommedieu, leader of the "country party, " rather than that proposed by Hamilton, sponsor for the Columbia College group, that constitutes the foundation of the university, although the Hamiltonian party eventually succeeded in effecting important modifications of L'Hommedieu's plan. He was a regent of the university from its first establishment in 1784 until his death.
In his later years he interested himself largely in agricultural experiments and wrote numerous papers upon agricultural subjects for the Transactions of the New York Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, of which he was for a number of years vice-president.
His death occurred at the family seat at Southold, and his monument stands near the Founders' Monument in the Presbyterian cemetery.
L'Hommedieu was active in provincial and state politics, and public affairs while at the service at various government bodies. L'Hommedieu represented the New York City Chamber of Commerce on discussions related to a lighthouse at Montauk Point, a federal project on which he advised President George Washington. Constructed in 1796, it was the first lighthouse built in New York state and the first public works project of the new United States. Ezra was the founder of the State University of New York. He also developed methods of scientific farming, including the use of seashells to fertilize soils.
In 1765 L'Hommedieu married Charity Floyd, sister of William Floyd and of the wife of Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull. His wife died in 1785. In 1803 he married Mary Catharine, daughter of Nicoll Havens of Shelter Island.
