Born in Kingston, Ulster County, New York; attended the common schools and was graduated from Columbia University, New York City; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced; moved to Florida and settled in Pensacola, Florida; served as captain in the Indian war of 1837; member of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida; appointed district attorney in 1841; appointed United States district attorney for the Apalachicola district in Florida in 1842; associate justice of the Florida Supreme Court 1846–1850; elected judge of the circuit court in January 1851; member of the Florida House of Representatives; served in the Florida State Senate; collector of customs for the port of Apalachicola; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses and served from March 4, 1857, to January 21, 1861, when he withdrew; judge of the district court under the Confederate Government 1862–1865; commissioned by the legislation of 1877 to prepare a digest of the State laws of Florida; died in Marianna, Florida; interment in St. Luke's Episcopal Cemetery.