Richard Milford Blatchford was an American lawyer, politician and businessman. He served as U. S. Minister to the State of the Church from 1862 to 1863.
Background
Richard Blatchford was born on April 23, 1798, at Stratford, Connecticut, United States, the ninth of the seventeen children of Samuel Blatchford, a Nonconformist minister from Plymouth Dock, Devon, England, who came with his wife Alicia (Windeatt) to the United States in 1795.
Education
Richard attended the common schools at Stratford, Connecticut, and completed his education at Union College, Schenectady, where he graduated in 1815. He then studied law.
Career
On his admission to the New York bar in 1820, Blatchford commenced practise in New York City, devoting himself more particularly to mercantile law and finance. In 1826 he was appointed counsel and financial agent of the Bank of England in the United States and shortly afterwards was retained in a similar capacity by the Bank of the United States. When the charter of the Bank of the United States expired in 1836, to him was confided the adjustment of all outstanding matters between it and the Bank of England. His services were also requisitioned on occasion by the Bank Commissioner of the State of New York.
When the war broke out in 1861 Blatchford was indefatigable in organization work in the New York area, and President Lincoln appointed him one of the Committee of Three to superintend the disbursement of the public monies appropriated to the purpose of raising troops for the Union. In 1862 he was appointed United States minister to the States of the Church at Rome. Though he held this post only until the following year, his conduct of his delicate diplomatic duties at a critical period earned unstinted praise from the Administration. Blatchford always manifested an intense interest in the public park system of the City of New York. In 1859 he had been appointed commissioner of Central Park, continuing as such until the new city charter came into operation in April 1870. In December 1872 he became commissioner of public parks of the city, but impaired health shortly compelled him to retire. He died at Newport, Rhode Island, after a long illness.
Achievements
Politics
In politics Blatchford was a prominent adherent of the Whig party of that time, and in 1855 was elected a member of the state Assembly, serving one term. But he became a Republican when the party was founded in the mid-1850s.
Personality
A man of spotless integrity, high ideals and single-hearted devotion to public service, Richard Blatchford enjoyed unreservedly the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.
Connections
Blatchford was married three times: first on May 17, 1819, to Julia Ann, daughter of J. P. Munford of New York City, who died in 1857; second, on November 8, 1860, to Angelica, daughter of James A. Hamilton of Nevis, Westchester County, New York, who died in 1868; third, on January 18, 1870, to Katherine, daughter of Philip Hone. His son by his first marriage, Samuel, became successively United States district judge of the southern district of New York, United States circuit judge of New York, and finally associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.