Barnabas Bidwell

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Barnabas Bidwell
Portrait by John Brewster, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 12th district
In office March 4, 1805 – July 13, 1807
Preceded by	Simon Larned
Succeeded by	Ezekiel Bacon
Attorney General of Massachusetts
In office June 15, 1807 – August 30, 1810
Governor	James Sullivan Levi Lincoln Sr. Christopher Gore Elbridge Gerry
Preceded by	James Sullivan
Succeeded by	Perez Morton
Member of the Massachusetts State Senate
In office 1801–1804
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office 1805–1807
Treasurer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts
In office September, 1791 – August, 1810
Personal details
Born	August 23, 1763 Township No. 1 (now Monterey, Massachusetts), Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died	July 27, 1833(1833-07-27) (aged 69) Bath, Upper Canada
Resting place	Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	American, British-Canadian
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Children	Marshall Spring Bidwell
Alma mater	Yale College class of 1785, Brown University
Profession	Attorney

Barnabas Bidwell (August 23, 1763 – July 27, 1833) was an author, teacher and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, active in Massachusetts and Upper Canada (now Ontario). Educated at Yale, he practised law in western Massachusetts and served as treasurer of Berkshire County. He served in the state legislature as representative and senator, as well as in the United States Congress as spokesman for the administration of Thomas Jefferson. He was effective in defending the administration's positions and passing important legislation. He resigned his seat in Congress in July 1807.

He was the Massachusetts Attorney General from 1807 to 1810, when exaggerated press accounts of irregularities in the Berkshire County books halted his political career and prompted his flight to Upper Canada. Bidwell later paid the $63.18, plus fines, which he attributed to an error by a Berkshire County clerk while Bidwell had been away on duties in Boston. Nonetheless, the controversy, exaggerated in the press by his Federalist Party enemies, effectively scuppered his potential appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Upper Canada, he won a seat in the provincial Legislative Assembly but his political opponents managed to expel him on charges of having his American citizenship, being a fugitive and having immoral character. He remained in Upper Canada for the rest of his life.