Representative Jonas Abbott Hughston

Jonas Abbott Hughston (1808 – November 10, 1862) was a United States Representative from New York and later a federal judicial officer in the American consular court system in China. He was born in 1808 in Sidney, Delaware County, New York, then a rural community in the south-central part of the state. Little is recorded about his family background or early childhood, but he completed the customary preparatory studies of the period, which provided him with the classical and practical education necessary for entry into the legal profession.

After his preparatory education, Hughston pursued the study of law, following the then-common practice of reading law under the supervision of established attorneys rather than attending a formal law school. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, marking his formal entry into the legal profession. Following his admission, he commenced the practice of law at Delhi, the county seat of Delaware County, New York. In Delhi he built his professional reputation in a community that served as a local center of government and commerce for the surrounding agricultural region.

Hughston’s legal abilities and standing in the community led to his selection for public office at the county level. He served as district attorney of Delaware County from 1842 to 1845, acting as the chief prosecuting officer for the county courts. In this capacity he was responsible for representing the people of New York in criminal matters, an experience that further established his credentials as a lawyer and public servant. At the conclusion of his term as district attorney, he resumed the private practice of law, continuing to reside and work in Delaware County.

Hughston’s involvement in public affairs extended beyond local office, and he became active in the shifting political alignments of the 1850s. In the midst of the realignment that followed the decline of the Whig Party and the rise of new political coalitions, he was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress. He served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857, representing a New York district during a period marked by sectional tensions over slavery and national expansion. As a member of the Opposition Party, a loose coalition of anti-Democratic forces that included former Whigs and others opposed to the policies of the Democratic administration, Hughston aligned himself with those seeking an alternative to the dominant parties of the era.

Following the completion of his congressional service, Hughston returned once more to his legal practice. He did not immediately seek or hold further elective office, but his experience in both law and national politics positioned him for later federal service. With the outbreak of the Civil War and the administration of President Abraham Lincoln seeking reliable appointees for posts at home and abroad, Hughston was selected for a diplomatic-judicial role in East Asia.

On March 26, 1862, President Lincoln appointed Hughston marshal of the consular court at Shanghai, China. In this position, he served within the system of extraterritorial consular courts established by treaty, which exercised jurisdiction over American citizens residing or doing business in China. As marshal, Hughston was responsible for the enforcement of the court’s orders and the administration of its processes, functioning in a role analogous to that of a marshal in federal courts in the United States, but in the distinctive context of an American consular establishment in a foreign port.

Hughston served in this capacity in Shanghai until his death there on November 10, 1862. Far from his native New York, he died while still in federal service during the Civil War era. He was interred in Poo-ting Cemetery in Shanghai, reflecting the practice of burying foreign officials and residents in designated cemeteries in treaty ports. His career thus spanned local, state, national, and international service, from his early work as a county prosecutor and lawyer in Delaware County, New York, to his term in the Thirty-fourth Congress and his final appointment in the American consular court system in China.