David Hudson (August 23, 1782 Dutchess County, New York - January 12, 1860 Geneva, Ontario County, New York) was an American lawyer, writer and politician from New York.

Life

He was the son of Asa Hudson (b. 1749) and Mary (Scott) Hudson (1752–1825). On January 16, 1816, he married Hester (Hetty) Schuyler Dey (1792–1863).

In 1821, he published a History of Jemima Wilkinson (on-line version), a biography of the Public Universal Friend, described by historians as "hostile and inaccurate", and accused of having been written to influence a then-ongoing court case over land owned by the Society of Universal Friends.^[1]^[2]^[3]

He was a Whig member from Ontario County of the New York State Assembly in 1838. In 1840, he was elected a canal commissioner, and remained in office until 1842.

He, his wife, and three of their children who died in infancy were buried at Pulteney Street Cemetery in Geneva, NY.

Sources

[1] Death notice in Ontario Messenger on January 25, 1860 (gives January 13 as death date)
[2] Burial record (gives January 12 as death date)
[3] Family tree (gives January 13 as death date)
The History of the Treman, Tremaine, Truman Family in America: With the Related Families of Mack, Dey, Board and Ayers by Ebenezer Mack Treman & Murray Edward Poole (Press of the Ithaca Democrat, 1901) [gives January 12 as death date]
The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 42, 222 and 282; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

^ Moyer, Paul B. (2015). The Public Universal Friend: Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America. Cornell University Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0-8014-5413-4.
^ Wisbey, Herbert A., Jr. (2009) [1964]. Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. Cornell University Press. pp. 150, 182. ISBN 978-0-8014-7551-1.((cite book)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary (1971): "David Hudson's Hist. of Jemima Wilkinson (Geneva, N.Y., 1821) was inspired by malice and self-interest and is inaccurate as to fact."

Erie Canal Commissioners

(*) elected but declined; (**) elected but died before taking office