Barnabas Bidwell

Barnabas Bidwell
black and white miniature head and shoulders painting of fair-skinned man, dark hair, in early 19th century dress suit, large lace neckcloth
Portrait by John Brewster, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 12th district
In office
March 4, 1805 – July 13, 1807
Preceded bySimon Larned
Succeeded byEzekiel Bacon
Attorney General of Massachusetts
In office
June 15, 1807 – August 30, 1810
GovernorJames Sullivan
Levi Lincoln Sr.
Christopher Gore
Elbridge Gerry
Preceded byJames Sullivan
Succeeded byPerez Morton
Member of the
Massachusetts State Senate
In office
1801–1804
Member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
1805–1807
Treasurer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts
In office
September, 1791 – August, 1810
Personal details
BornAugust 23, 1763
Township No. 1 (now Monterey, Massachusetts), Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America
DiedJuly 27, 1833(1833-07-27) (aged 69)
Bath, Upper Canada
Resting placeCataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
NationalityAmerican, British-Canadian
Political partyDemocratic-Republican
ChildrenMarshall Spring Bidwell
Alma materYale College class of 1785, Brown University
ProfessionAttorney

Barnabas Bidwell (August 23, 1763 – July 27, 1833) was an author, teacher and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, active in Massachusetts and Upper Canada (now Ontario). Educated at Yale, he practised law in western Massachusetts and served as treasurer of Berkshire County. He served in the state legislature as representative and senator, as well as in the United States Congress as spokesman for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. He was effective in defending the administration's positions and passing important legislation. He resigned his seat in Congress in July 1807.

He was the Massachusetts Attorney General from 1807 to 1810, when exaggerated press accounts of irregularities in the Berkshire County books halted his political career and prompted his flight to Upper Canada. Bidwell later paid the $63.18, plus fines, which he attributed to an error by a Berkshire County clerk while Bidwell had been away on duties in Boston. Nonetheless, the controversy, exaggerated in the press by his Federalist Party enemies, effectively scuppered his potential appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Upper Canada, he won a seat in the provincial Legislative Assembly but his political opponents managed to expel him on charges of having his American citizenship, being a fugitive and having immoral character. He remained in Upper Canada for the rest of his life.