David BROOKS, Congress, NY (1756-1838)

BROOKS David , a Representative from New York; born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1756; attended the public schools; during the Revolutionary War entered the Continental Army as a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Battalion of the Flying Camp in 1776; was captured at Fort Washington, November 16, 1776, and exchanged in January 1780; appointed assistant clothier general; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced; after the war settled in New York County, N.Y.; member of the State assembly 1787 and 1788; moved to Dutchess County, N.Y.; member of the State assembly 1794-1796 and 1810; judge of Dutchess County, 1795-1807; elected as a Federalist to the Fifth Congress (March 4, 1797-March 3, 1799); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1798 to the Sixth Congress and in 1800 to the Seventh Congress; appointed commissioner to negotiate a treaty with the Seneca Indians; clerk of Dutchess County, June 5, 1807, to January 25, 1809 and from February 9, 1810, to February 14, 1811, and again from February 23, 1813, to February 13, 1815; appointed an officer in the United States Customs Service; an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati; died in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, N.Y., August 30, 1838; interment probably in the Old Rural Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present