17th New York State Legislature

The 17th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 7 to March 27, 1794, during the seventeenth year of George Clinton's governorship, in Albany.

17th New York State Legislature
← 16th 18th →
The Old Albany City Hall, where the Legislature met again in 1794 (undated)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1793 – June 30, 1794
Senate
Members	24
President	Lt. Gov. Pierre Van Cortlandt
Party control	Federalist (13-11)
Assembly
Members	70
Speaker	James Watson (Fed.)
Party control	Federalist
Sessions
1st January 7, 1794 – March 27, 1794

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1777, the State Senators were elected on general tickets in the senatorial districts, and were then divided into four classes. Six senators each drew lots for a term of 1, 2, 3 or 4 years and, beginning at the election in April 1778, every year six Senate seats came up for election to a four-year term. Assemblymen were elected countywide on general tickets to a one-year term, the whole assembly being renewed annually.

In March 1786, the Legislature enacted that future Legislatures meet on the first Tuesday of January of each year unless called earlier by the governor. No general meeting place was determined, leaving it to each Legislature to name the place where to reconvene, and if no place could be agreed upon, the Legislature should meet again where it adjourned.

On February 7, 1791, the Legislature re-apportioned the Senate and Assembly districts, according to the figures of the 1790 United States Census.

State Senator Philip Van Cortlandt was elected in January 1793 to the 3rd United States Congress, leaving a vacancy in the Southern District.

At this time the politicians were divided into two opposing political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.^[1]

Elections

The State election was held from April 30 to May 2, 1793. Senator John Cantine (Middle D.) was re-elected. Ezra L'Hommedieu (Southern D.), Jacobus Van Schoonhoven (Western D.), and Assemblymen Reuben Hopkins (Middle D.), Zina Hitchcock (Eastern D.) and Michael Myers (Western D.) were elected to full terms in the Senate. Matthew Clarkson was elected to fill the vacancy in the Southern District.

Sessions

The Legislature met at the Old City Hall in Albany on January 7; and adjourned on March 27, 1794.

On January 7, 1794, John McKesson, Clerk of the Assembly since 1777, was voted out of office. Oliver L. Ker, of New York City, was elected with 37 votes against 21 for McKesson.^[2]

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (8 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (6 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange and Ulster counties.
• The Eastern District (5 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Columbia and Rensselaer counties.
• The Western District (5 seats) consisted of Albany, Montgomery, Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Saratoga and Tioga counties.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. Reuben Hopkins, Zina Hitchcock, Michael Myers changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	David Gelston*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.	also Surrogate of New York County
	Matthew Clarkson	1 year	Federalist	elected to fill vacancy, in place of Philip Van Cortlandt
	Samuel Jones*	2 years	Federalist	also Recorder of New York City
	Joshua Sands*	2 years	Federalist
	Henry Cruger*	3 years	Federalist
	John Schenck*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Selah Strong*	3 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Ezra L'Hommedieu	4 years	Federalist
Middle	David Pye*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Tillotson*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacobus Swartwout*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Joseph Hasbrouck*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	John Cantine*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Reuben Hopkins*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
Eastern	John Williams*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.	elected in April 1794 to the 4th United States Congress
	William Powers*	2 years	Federalist
	John Livingston*[3]	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Woodworth*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Zina Hitchcock*	4 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
Western	John Frey*	1 year	Federalist
	Stephen Van Rensselaer*	1 year	Federalist
	Philip Schuyler*	2 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Michael Myers*	4 years	Federalist
	Jacobus Van Schoonhoven	4 years	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: Abraham B. Bancker

State Assembly

Districts

• The City and County of Albany (7 seats)
• Columbia County (6 seats)
• Dutchess County (7 seats)
• Herkimer County (1 seat)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Montgomery County) (4 seats)
• The City and County of New York (7 seats)
• Ontario County (1 seat)
• Orange County (3 seats)
• Otsego County (1 seat)
• Queens County (3 seats)
• Rensselaer County (5 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (4 seats)
• Suffolk County (4 seats)
• Tioga County (1 seat)
• Ulster County (5 seats)
• Washington and Clinton counties (4 seats)
• Westchester County (5 seats)

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Assemblymen

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

County	Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	Johannes Dietz*	Federalist
	Jellis A. Fonda*	Federalist
	Theodorus V. W. Graham
	Jacob Hochstrasser
	Thomas Hun
	William North	Federalist
	Stephen Platt
Columbia	Matthew Adgate*	Dem.-Rep.
	John Bay	Dem.-Rep.
	James Brebner
	Dirck Gardiner
	Matthew Scott
	Ambrose Spencer	Federalist
Dutchess	Samuel A. Barker	Federalist
	James Bockée		or Jacob Bockée
	David Brooks	Federalist
	John DeWitt
	Jesse Oakley
	Jacob Radclift[4]
	Isaac Van Wyck
Herkimer	Jedediah Sanger	Federalist
Kings	Peter Vandervoort	Federalist
Montgomery	Jacob Eaker*
	Frederick Gettman
	John McArthur
	Simon Veeder*
New York	Robert Boyd
	John DeLancey*
	Richard Furman	Federalist
	Josiah Ogden Hoffman*	Federalist
	Jotham Post Jr.	Federalist
	James Watson	Federalist	elected Speaker
	William Willcocks
Ontario	Thomas Morris	Federalist
Orange	John D. Coe	Dem.-Rep.
	Seth Marvin
	John Wheeler
Otsego	Benjamin Gilbert	Federalist
Queens	Samuel Clowes*
	Harry Peters	Federalist
	Samuel Youngs
Rensselaer	Jonathan Brown
	Benjamin Hicks*	Federalist
	Hosea Moffitt	Federalist
	Jonas Odel
	Thomas Sickles	Dem.-Rep.
Richmond	Gozen Ryerss*	Federalist
Saratoga	John Ball
	Adam Comstock*	Dem.-Rep.
	John McClelland
	Beriah Palmer*	Dem.-Rep.
Suffolk	John Gelston*
	Jonathan N. Havens*	Dem.-Rep.	elected in April 1794 to the 4th United States Congress
	John Smith*	Dem.-Rep.
	Joshua Smith Jr.
Tioga	Vincent Mathews	Federalist
Ulster	Cornelius Bruyn	Federalist
	Conrad E. Elmendorf	Federalist
	Ebenezer Foote	Federalist
	Johannes Miller	Federalist
	James Oliver	Federalist
Washington and Clinton	Benjamin Colvin
	Philip Smith
	David Thomas	Dem.-Rep.
	William Whiteside
Westchester	Richard Hatfield*	Federalist
	Elias Newman*
	Abel Smith
	Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr.	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer White

Employees

• Clerk: Oliver L. Ker
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Robert Hunter
• Doorkeeper: Jacob Kidney

Notes

1. The Anti-Federalists called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.
2. Election for Clerk of the Assembly
3. John Livingston, fifth son of Robert Livingston (1708–1790), 3rd Lord of the Manor
4. It is unclear why this person is named "Radcliff", the Civil List of 1858 lists "Radclift" and he signed himself as such, see signature at his article on Wikipedia.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108 for Senate districts; pg. 115 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 167f for assemblymen]
• Election result Assembly, Albany Co. at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• Election result Assembly, Dutchess Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Kings Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Montgomery Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Orange Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Otsego Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Rensselaer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Richmond Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Saratoga Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Suffolk Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Ulster Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Westchester Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"