Governor Thomas Hart Seymour
American, 1807 - 1868
BiographyGovernor Thomas Hart Seymour was born September 29, 1807 to Jane Ellery (1766-1851) and Henry Seymour (1764-1846) in Hartford. His grandfather, Thomas Seymour, was the first mayor of Hartford from 1774-1812. Thomas Hart Seymour attended public schools, then graduated from the Middletown Military Academy in 1829. After that, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1833. Thomas was editor of the Jeffersonian, a Democratic newspaper, in 1837-1838. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1842 and served for one term, declining reelection. He was commissioned as a major of the 9th regiment in the Mexican-American War and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 12th United States Infantry for his leadership in the September 1847 Battle of Chapultepec. Thomas ran for governor of Connecticut and was elected in 1850, serving through 1853 when he resigned to accept the commission of Minister to Russia from President Franklin Pierce. Thomas continued in that role until 1858. Following that, Thomas made several unsuccessful bids for governor and also once for the presidency, losing the Democratic nomination to George B. McClellan in 1864 who would go on to lose to Abraham Lincoln. There is no record of Thomas marrying or having children. He died in Hartford of Typhoid Fever on September 3, 1868. (Sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, National Governors Association, Hale Collection, Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation, The Hartford Courant)
Person TypeIndividual
American, 1783 - 1825
American, 1806 - 1861