Robert Lansing (state senator)

This article is about the 19th-century New York state senator. For the U.S. Secretary of State (his grandson), see Robert Lansing.

Robert Lansing (/ˈlænsɪŋ/; February 2, 1799 Albany, New York – October 3, 1878) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Robert Lansing

Life

He was the son of Judge Sanders G. Lansing (1766–1850) and Catherine (Ten Eyck) Lansing (1769–1850). He attended Union College but did not graduate. In 1817, he removed to Watertown, studied law there with Egbert Ten Eyck (1779–1844), and was admitted to the bar in 1820. He was District Attorney of Jefferson County from 1826 to 1833. On December 22, 1831, he married Maria Hubbard (d. 1839), and they had several children, among them John Lansing (1832–1907), the father of U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing (1864–1928).

He was a member of the New York State Senate (4th D.) from 1832 to 1835, sitting in the 55th, 56th, 57th and 58th New York State Legislatures. Afterwards he practiced law in partnership with brother-in-law George C. Sherman (1799–1863).

On February 2, 1841, Lansing married Cornelia Hubbard, a sister of his first wife. He was again District Attorney of Jefferson County from 1845 to 1846; First Judge of the Jefferson County Court from 1847 to 1851; Supervisor of the Town of Watertown in 1852; and again a member of the State Senate (21st D.) in 1854 and 1855.

He was buried at the Brookside Cemetery in Watertown.

Robert Lansing's wife, Eleanor Foster.

Chancellor John Lansing, Jr. and State Treasurer Abraham G. Lansing were his uncles; Congressman Gerrit Y. Lansing was his first cousin; and Congressman Frederick Lansing was his nephew.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 129f, 137, 142, 202f, 273, 361 and 375; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Lansing genealogy at RootsWeb

External links

• Robert Lansing at Find a Grave