Background
John Langdon was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on June 25 1741.
John Langdon was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on June 25 1741.
He contributed largely to raise troops in 1777 to meet Burgoyne; and he served as a captain at Bennington and at Saratoga.
He received nine electoral votes for the vice-presidency in 1808, and in 1812 was an elector on the Madison ticket.
Alfred Langdon Elwyn has edited Letters by Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Others, Written During and After the Revolution, to John Langdon of New Hampshire (Philadelphia, 1880), a book of great interest and value.
He was president of New Hampshire in 1785-1786 and in 1788-1789; a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787, where he voted against granting to Congress the power of issuing paper money; a member of the state convention which ratified the Federal Constitution for New Hampshire; a member of the United States Senate in 1789-1801, and its president pro tem. during the first Congress and the second session of the second Congress; a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1801-1805 and its speaker in 1803-1805; and governor of the state in 1805-1809 and in 1810-1812.
In the later years of his life in New Hampshire he was the most prominent of the local Republican leaders and built up his party by partisan appointments.
He was president of New Hampshire in 1785-1786 and in 1788-1789; a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Langdon's father was a prosperous farmer and local ship builder whose family had emigrated to America before 1660 from Sheviock, Caradon, Cornwall. The Langdons were among the first to settle near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, a settlement which became Portsmouth, one of New England's major seaports.
He refused the naval portfolio in Jefferson's cabinet. His elder brother, Woodbury Langdon (1739 - 1805), was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779-1780, a member of the executive council of New Hampshire in 1781-1784, judge of the Supreme Court of the state in 1782 and in 1786-1790 (although he had had no legal training), and a state senator in 1784-1785.
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