Nathaniel Niles

Rv Nathaniel Niles MA USA 1741-1828. Born at South Kingston, RI, he attended Harvard College and graduated from Princeton in 1766, obtaining his MA from Harvard in 1772. He studied law and medicine. He taught at schools in New York City. He married Nancy Lathrop in 1774, and they had four children: William, Sally, Mary, and Elizabeth. After his wife’s death in 1789, he married Elizabeth Watson from Plymouth, MA, and they had five children: Nathaniel, Samuel, Betsey, Watson, and Nancy. He invented a process for making wire and established a wire factory in Norwich, CT. He also studied theology and preached as a Presbyterian deacon in Norwich and Torrington, CT, and also Charlestown and Newburyport, MA, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war he became a famous lawyer and politician. He settled in VT, becoming a U S District Judge on the VT Supreme Court (1785-1787) and U S House of Representatives Speaker (1784-1788). He was a delegate to the VT state constitutional convention in 1791, and upon VT being admitted to the Union as a state, was elected to the 2nd Congress as an Anti-Administration Party candidate. He was also re-elected to the 3rd Congress, serving 1791-1795. After Congress, he was again a member of the VT House of Representatives (1800-1803 & 1812-1815). He was also a member of the Governor’s Council (1803-1809). He was a presidential elector for the Thomas Jefferson ticket in 1804 and for James Madison in 1812. He was also a delegate to the State Constitutional convention of 1814. He wrote a famous poem about the “Battle of Bunker Hill”. A tune was composed for it, and it was widely sung and printed into the 1830s. He died in West Fairlee, VT.

John Perry