Dudley Chase (December 30, 1771February 23, 1846) was a U.S. Senator from Vermont who served from 1813 to 1817 and again from 1825 to 1831. He was born in Cornish, New Hampshire. John Lauris Blake, A Biographical Dictionary, 1859, page 271
Career After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1791,Gerald W. McFarland, The "Counterfeit" Man: The True Story of the Boorn-Colvin Murder Case, 1993, page 83 he studied law under Lot Hall in Westminster, Vermont. In 1793, he was admitted to the Vermont bar.William R. Denslow, Harry S. Truman, 10,000 Famous Freemasons, Part One (A to J), 2004, page 201
Chase lived, farmed, and practiced law in Randolph, Vermont.Abby Maria Hemenway, The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, Volume 2, 1871, page 1051 He was Orange County State's Attorney from 1803 to 1812.Vermont Historical Society, Annual Meetings Proceedings, 1920, page 92 He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1805 to 1812, serving as Speaker from 1808 to 1812.Jared Sparks, Francis Bowen, George Partridge Sanger, American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge, Volume 18, 1846, page 331 He was elected to the state constitutional conventions in 1814 and 1822. George Thomas Chapman, Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College, 1867, page 58
Chase was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democratic-Republican in 1812 and served from 1813 to 1817, when he resigned.Zadock Thompson, History of the State of Vermont, 1833, page 245 He was the first ever Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, serving from 1816 to 1817.William F. Patry, Copyright Law and Practice, Volume 3, 1994, page 2241
After resigning in 1817, he returned to Vermont, where he was chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court until 1821.Prentiss Cutler Dodge, Encyclopedia of Vermont Biography, 1912, page 57 He served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1823 to 1824.Jacob G. Ullery, Men of Vermont Illustrated, 1894, page 111
He returned to national politics in 1825 when he was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the U.S. Senate, serving until 1831. Jacob William Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase], 1874, page 3
Dudley Chase died in Randolph on February 23, 1846.Niles' National Register, Hon. Dudley Chase Died, March 14, 1846
Family Dudley Chase was the son of Dudley & Alice (Corbett) Chase, an uncle of Salmon P. ChaseJohn Niven, Salmon P. Chase: A Biography, 1995, page 21 (Treasury Secretary, 1861–1864 and Chief Justice of the United States, 1864–1873) and Dudley Chase Denison Hiram Carleton, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont, 1903, page 356 (a U.S. Representative from Vermont). He was the brother of Philander Chase.Philander Chase, Reminiscences of Bishop Chase, 1843, page 588
Home Dudley Chase's Randolph Center home still stands and is a private residence.Mim Herwig, Randolph Center Notes, Randolph Herald, June 14, 2012
Attempts to locate portrait Chase is one of between 40 and 50 U.S. Senators for whom the Senate historian has no portrait, photograph, or other likeness on file.U.S. Senate Photo Historian, Senators Not Represented in Senate Historical Office Photo Collection, accessed July 7, 2012 According to Randolph historian and Chase descendant Harriet M. Chase, no portrait of Dudley Chase was ever painted. Other efforts to locate a likeness of Dudley Chase have also proved unsuccessful.Vermont Bar Association, Annual Meeting Proceedings, 1935, page 90
References
External resources
Dartmouth Alumni Bio from 1867