Governor John Treadwell

JOHN TREADWELL, Connecticut’s fourth governor was born on November 23, 1745, in Farmington, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University in 1767, studied law, and started a private practice in Farmington. Treadwell first entered politics as a member of the General Assembly, serving from 1776 until 1783, when he was elevated to the governor’s council, a position he held until 1798. He served in the Continental Congress from 1785 to 1786, and was a member of the 1788 State Convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution. Treadwell served on the bench of Farmington’s Probate Court, and on the Supreme Court of Errors from 1789 to 1809. He was elected Connecticut’s lieutenant governor in 1798. On August 7, 1809, Governor Jonathan Trumbull died in office and Treadwell, who was lieutenant governor at the time, assumed the governor’s office. Treadwell was elected by popular vote on April 9, 1810, to the governorship. During his tenure, the Hartford Fire Insurance Company was proposed, and the Non-Intercourse Act was reinstated in February 1811, which resulted from Connecticut’s opposition to the United States’s impeding war with Great Britain. Treadwell was unsuccessful in his reelection bid, and left office on May 9, 1811. He later served on the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and he was a member of the 1818 Constitutional Convention. Governor John Treadwell died on August 19, 1823, and is buried at the Farmington Old Cemetery.