Theodore Sedgwick Theodore Sedgwick ( May 9 , 1746January 24 , 1813 ) was an American attorney , politician and jurist , who served in elected state government and as a Delegate to the Continental Congress , a US Representative , and a United States Senator from Massachusetts . He served as the fifth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives . He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1802 and served there the rest of his life . Early life and education . His father was Benjaman Sedgwick ( 1716 - 1755 ) . His paternal immigrant ancestor Major General Robert Sedgwick arrived in 1636 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony , as part of the Great Migration . The younger Sedgwick attended Yale College , where he studied theology and law . He did not graduate , but went on to study law ( " read law " ) under the attorney Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington ( He was the grandfather of the Mark Hopkins who later became president of Williams College . ) Early career . Sedgwick was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington , Massachusetts . He moved to Sheffield . During the American Revolutionary War , he served in the Continental Army as a major , and took part in the expedition to Canada and the Battle of White Plains in 1776 . Freedom suit . As a relatively young lawyer , Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve pled the case of " Brom and Bett vs . Ashley " ( 1781 ) , an early " freedom suit " , in county court for the slaves Elizabeth Freeman ( known as Bett ) and Brom . Bett was a black slave who had fled from her master , Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield , Massachusetts , because of cruel treatment by his wife . Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys . The attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780 , which held that " all men are born free and equal . " The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free . The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court . Bett marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman , and she chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household , where she helped rear their several children . She worked there for much of the rest of her life , buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown . The Sedgwicks had Freeman buried in their family plot . The family marked Freeman ' s grave with an inscribed monument , and it is beside that of their daughter Catharine Maria Sedgwick . Political career . A Federalist , Sedgwick began his political career in 1780 as a Delegate to the Continental Congress . He was elected as representative to the state house , and then as state senator . In 1789 Sedgwick was elected as US Representative to the US Congress from the First District of Massachusetts , and over time also represented the Second districts , serving until 1796 . That year he was elected as US Senator , and served until 1799 . In 1799 he was re - elected as a Representative , this time from the Fourth District , and was elected the fifth Speaker of the House , serving until March 1801 . In 1802 , Sedgwick was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts . He held this position until his death . Marriages and family . After his first wife died , Sedgwick married a second time on April 17 , 1774 to Pamela Dwight of the New England Dwight family . She was born June 9 , 1752 and died September 20 , 1807 , and was the daughter of Brigadier General Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington and his second wife , the widow Abigail Williams Sargent . Abigail was the daughter of Colonel Ephraim Williams , and half - sister of Ephraim Williams , Jr . the founder of Williams College . The Sedgwicks had ten children , although three died within a year of birth , reflecting the high infant mortality of the time . They were : After Pamela ' s death , Sedgwick married his third wife Penelope Russell on November 7 , 1808 . The two remained married until Sedgwick ' s death in 1813 . Death . While on his death bed , Sedgwick converted to Unitarianism with his daughter Catharine Maria and William Ellery Channing in attendance . On January 24 , 1813 , Sedgwick died in Boston , Massachusetts at the age of 66 . He was buried in Stockbridge , Massachusetts . His grave is at the center of the " Sedgwick Pie " . Modern day relatives . Theodore Sedgwick is the fourth great grandfather of actress of Kyra Sedgwick .