Seabury, Samuel (redirected from Samuel Seabury)

Seabury, Samuel, American jurist

Seabury, Samuel, 1873–1958, American jurist, b. New York City; great-great-grandson of Samuel Seabury (1729–96). He served on the supreme court (1907–14) and on the court of appeals (1914–16) of New York state. He became nationally prominent when he headed (1930–31) investigations of New York City's magistrate courts and the city's politics. As a result of these investigations, Mayor James Walker resigned in 1932. The Tammany faction was defeated in the ensuing elections by Fiorello LaGuardia, whom Seabury had supported. He wrote The New Federalism (1950).

Bibliography

See H. Mitgang, The Man Who Rode the Tiger (1970) and Once upon a Time in New York (2000).

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Seabury, Samuel, American clergyman

Seabury, Samuel, 1729–96, American clergyman, first bishop of the Episcopal Church, b. Connecticut, grad. Yale, 1748. He studied medicine at the Univ. of Edinburgh, then turned to theology and was ordained (1753) a priest in the Church of England before returning to America as a missionary in New Brunswick, N.J. He was then rector at Jamaica (Long Island) and in Westchester co., New York, until 1775. He then avowed himself a Loyalist in the American Revolution, and for a time he had to practice medicine in New York City, which was under British occupation. He later became (1778) a chaplain to a royal regiment. After the war he was chosen bishop of Connecticut in 1783. The English bishops withheld consecration because of a legal difficulty, but in 1784 he was consecrated at Aberdeen by bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. In 1789 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States confirmed his position and he became presiding bishop.

Bibliography

See biographies by H. Thoms (1963), B. E. Steiner (1972), H. Mitgang (1979), and A. Rowthorn (1983).

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Seabury, Samuel (1873–1958) lawyer, anticorruption investigator; born in New York City. Elected the youngest judge in New York (1902), he was named to the state supreme court (1907–13) and to the court of appeals (1914–16). Investigating magistrates' courts in New York City (1930–31), he exposed widespread corruption, forcing the resignation of Mayor James J. Walker. Seabury's name became virtually synonymous with exposing municipal corruption and although he returned to private practice in 1932, he played a major role in the reform administration of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.