Colden, Cadwallader (7 Feb. 1689-20 Sept. 1776), physician, natural scientist, and lieutenant governor of New York, was born of Scottish parents in Ireland, where his mother (name unknown) was visiting. His father was the Reverend Alexander Colden of Duns, Scotland. Colden graduated in 1705 from the University of Edinburgh. He then studied medicine in London but, lacking the money to establish a medical practice in Great Britain, migrated to Philadelphia in 1710. Welcomed by his mother's sister Elizabeth Hill, Colden established himself as a merchant and physician. He returned to Scotland briefly in 1715, where in November of that year he married Alice Chrystie of Kelso, Scotland. After their marriage they returned to Philadelphia; the couple had eleven children. During a 1717 visit to New York, Colden was persuaded by Governor Robert Hunter to move to that colony. In 1720 Colden was appointed surveyor general of New York.

The assured income of his surveyor post gave Colden the leisure to pursue other interests. A multifaceted man, he became a leading scientist of his era. He was a cartographer, compiled astronomical tables, invented stereotyping, and wrote extensively on history, botany, physics, and medicine. Although Colden gave up the active practice of medicine after he moved to New York, he retained his interest in the profession and corresponded with other physicians throughout his life. He also maintained a lifelong correspondence with the leading American and European scientists and thinkers of the day, including Benjamin Franklin, John Rutherfurd, John Bartram, John Friedrich Gronovius, Carl von Linné (Linnaeus), and Robert Whytt.

In science, Colden was most successful with his work in botany, which won the attention of Gronovius and Linnaeus, who named a plant, Coldenia, for him. Colden next turned his attention to physics, where he attempted to clarify the work of Sir Isaac Newton by explaining the source of gravity. The work, Principles of Action in Matter, was published in London in 1751 and was widely criticized by Newtonian scientists. In philosophy Colden's thinking was a synthesis of and a reaction to the work of leading thinkers of his day, but he did not formulate any new ideas. As a historian, Colden published in 1727 The History of the Five Indian Nations, an imperialist tract designed to illustrate the importance of Iroquois allegiance to the English.

Colden was active in New York politics until his death. His political career began in 1720, when Governor William Burnet recommended Colden to serve on the province's council. Although Colden enjoyed the confidence of several of New York's provincial governors, he was a strong opponent of others. As a member of the opposition during the administrations of governors John Montgomerie and William Cosby, Colden instituted a press campaign to attack them. A staunch Whig in his youth, he believed that authority for government came from the people and that rulers who did not protect the best interests of the people should be removed. He appealed to the masses to stir popular discontent that could lead to the recall of both governors.

Colden's commitment to Whig principles later faded when he was allied with royal governors or when he himself was lieutenant governor. As chief adviser to Governor George Clinton (1746-1753), Colden assisted the governor in his ongoing struggle with the opposition, headed by New York's chief justice, James De Lancey. When De Lancey became lieutenant governor in 1753, Colden found it practicable to retire from active participation in politics. He returned to the political scene after De Lancey's death in 1760, when Colden, as senior councillor, became acting governor. He received a commission from the Crown as lieutenant governor and was head of New York's government during 1760-1761, 1763-1765, 1769-1770, and 1774-1775.

Colden's terms as lieutenant governor were difficult because he had alienated New York's two leading families, the De Lanceys and the Livingstons. On taking office Colden was determined to reduce the political and judicial influence of the large merchants and manor lords whose interests were represented by the De Lanceys and the Livingstons. To shake the elite's control of the courts, Colden refused to grant commissions for life for the province's judges. The colony's lawyers protested vigorously. Colden, who detested most of New York's attorneys, countered by saying he would be willing to negotiate the tenure issue if the assembly, also dominated by the elite, would guarantee permanent salaries for judges. His point was that judges should be as free of control by the legislature as they were from control by the executive.

The next major test of the elite's control of the judicial system came with the Forsey v. Cunningham case. Cunningham, the defendant, was found guilty of assault and was ordered to pay damages to Forsey of £1,500. Cunningham appealed the verdict and Colden, as chief judge of the appellate, heard the appeal, contrary to English and New York practice. His decision was later overruled by the London government.

Turmoil raised over the Forsey v. Cunningham appeal turned many New Yorkers against Colden and against the royal rule he represented. In 1765 agitation over the case blended with indignation over the Stamp Act. Colden blamed the rising discontent on the attorneys, who urged the public to oppose unpopular parliamentary measures and imperial programs. As discontent over the Stamp Act escalated, fearing for his life Colden fled the city to seek refuge on a British man-of-war. He was burnt in effigy by mobs, who resented his arming Fort George and having the fort's guns turned from the harbor to face the city. Under pressure from an irate citizenry, Colden turned stamped paper over to city officials, and on his return to the city he locked himself in Fort George.

Colden remained on the periphery of New York politics from the 1765 arrival of Governor Henry Moore until the governor's death in 1769. He then returned to the office of lieutenant governor and allied with the De Lanceys, much to the outrage of the Livingstons. In return for Colden's approval of a much-needed currency bill, the assembly, now controlled by the De Lanceys, agreed to raise £2,000 to supply British troops stationed in New York. This measure was bitterly opposed by the Livingstons and by New York's urban mobs, who saw the assembly's actions as a capitulation to the British ministry. The leader of the egalitarian Sons of Liberty organization, Alexander McDougall, published a pamphlet tirade, To the Betrayed Inhabitants of New York (1769), in which he criticized both the lieutenant governor and the assembly. The assembly demanded, and Colden agreed, that the author be arrested and charged with seditious libel. McDougall was freed only because the principal witness against him died before he could testify. By permitting the prosecution, Colden further alienated New Yorkers and raised animosity toward the royal prerogative he represented.

Colden was again in retirement during the administrations of John Murray, earl of Dunmore (1770-1771), and William Tryon (1771-1780). Opposition mounted to British rule during Tryon's administration, forcing Tryon to return in 1774 to England to consult with British ministers. During Tryon's absence, Colden again assumed the governorship. Only a few weeks after Tryon's departure, New Yorkers staged a tea party to protest parliamentary taxation and to prevent East India Company tea from being landed in the province. Colden was still head of government when news of the Intolerable Acts was received in New York. By the time Tryon returned on 15 June 1775, royal authority had collapsed in New York and a revolutionary government was being formed. A distraught Colden, powerless to stop the drift of events, returned to his country estate in Flushing. Tryon soon sought refuge on a British man-of-war in the harbor, where he remained until the British retook New York on 24 September 1776.

The British reoccupation of New York came just four days after the 87-year-old Colden died at Flushing. Colden's public career in New York spanned the rise and fall of British influence in that colony. He was a study in contrasts, as was true of most royal officials. A Whig by birth and inclination, Colden was an outspoken critic of colonial policy when in opposition but defended imperial rule when he allied with royal governors or when he himself represented the royal prerogative. Ignoring his own youthful efforts to use the press to harass royal officials, he prosecuted opponents who criticized him in print. While Colden abhorred democracy, which he equated with mob rule, he distrusted more the motives of the elite and tried to curb their influence. He supported the royal prerogative and scorned excessive wealth, but as governor he ignored royal directives and approved extravagant land claims for his allies. His own personal wealth was substantially increased by collecting exorbitant fees for his approval of these illegal land grants.

Despite his efforts to govern effectively, Colden was vilified during his terms of office. In part, this was because unlike most royal governors whose stay in the province was limited, Colden was a permanent resident. His presence was a constant reminder to his enemies of long-held grudges. He was also vilified because he failed to comprehend that colonial society had changed and matured between his 1710 arrival in North America and his death in 1776. Assemblies had grown more politically astute, the elite more entrenched in power, and the lower classes more politically active. Colden also was vilified because of his rigid and unbending personality. By his own analysis, the governors who were most effective were those who appealed to a broad range of the people, both voters and nonvoters. Cadwallader Colden sought but never achieved wide popular support. He recognized and loathed the growing Whig republican tendencies that he had himself once helped to propagate. In the end he could not understand how these principles could be used to subvert the very system that he hoped to preserve.
 

Bibliography

Much of Cadwallader Colden's personal and official correspondence has been published. See publications of the New-York Historical Society, including "The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden," Collections (10 vols., 1917-1923, 1931-1935), "Colden Letter Books," Collections (2 vols., 1877, 1878), "The Colden Letters on Smith's History," Collections 1 (1868), "History of Gov. William Cosby's Administration and of Lt. Gov. George Clarke's Administration through 1737," Collections 68 (1935), and "Correspondence between Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden and William Smith, Jr.," Collections: 1848 (1849). See also Edmund B. O'Callaghan, ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York (15 vols., 1856-1887) and Documentary History of the State of New York (4 vols., 1849-1851).

For unpublished correspondence see Additional MSS, British Library, London; Colonial Office Papers, Public Record Office, London; and Colden Scientific Papers, New-York Historical Society. A full-length biography is Alice M. Keys, Cadwallader Colden: A Representative Eighteenth Century Official (1906); for a modern biography and a study of Colden as a scientist, see Stephen Charles Steacy, "Cadwallader Colden: Statesman and Savant of Colonial New York" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Kansas, 2 vols., 1987).

For a contemporary historian's view of Colden, see William Smith, Jr., The History of the Province of New York, ed. Michael Kammen (2 vols., 1972), and William H. W. Sabin, ed., Historical Memoirs of William Smith (2 vols., 1956, 1958). For a modern analysis of Colden's influence during George Clinton's administration, see Stanley Nider Katz, Newcastle's New York, Anglo-American Politics, 1732-1753 (1968). See also Patricia U. Bonomi, A Factious People, Politics and Society in Colonial New York (1971), and Kammen, Colonial New York (1975).

Mary Lou Lustig