Robert Rantoul, Jr.

Robert Rantoul, Jr.
United States Senator from Massachusetts
In office February 1, 1851 – March 4, 1851
Preceded by	Robert C. Winthrop
Succeeded by	Charles Sumner
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1851 – August 7, 1852
Preceded by	Daniel P. King
Succeeded by	Francis B. Fay
United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
In office 1846–1849
Preceded by	Franklin Dexter
Succeeded by	George Lunt
Personal details
Born	August 13, 1805(1805-08-13) Beverly, Massachusetts
Died	August 7, 1852(1852-08-07) (aged 46) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	Law

Robert Rantoul, Jr. (August 13, 1805 – August 7, 1852) was an American politician from Massachusetts.

He was born in Beverly, Massachusetts. He attended the common schools and Phillips Andover Academy and graduated from Harvard University in 1826. He practiced law in Salem, Massachusetts and moved to South Reading, Massachusetts in 1830, to Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1832, and to Boston, Massachusetts in 1838.

He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1835–1839), the commission to revise the laws of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Board of Education (1837–1842). He was the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts (1846–1849). He was elected in 1850 to the thirty-second Congress. Before his term there began, he was named as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation Robert Charles Winthrop, who had been appointed after the resignation of Daniel Webster and resigned when he failed to win election to a full term. Rantoul served in the Senate from February 1, 1851 to March 4, 1851, and then in the House from March 4, 1851, until his death. He was buried in Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts.

References

• Dictionary of American Biography; Bulkley, Robert D., Jr. Robert Rantoul, Jr. from 1805 to 1852: Politics and Reform in Antebellum Massachusetts. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1971.
• Rantoul, Robert, Jr. Memoirs, Speeches and Writings of Robert Rantoul, Jr. Edited by Luther Hamilton. Boston: J.P. Jewett and Co., 1854.

External links

Biography portal

• Robert Rantoul, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Robert Rantoul, Jr. at Find a Grave

v t e United States Senators from Massachusetts Class 1 Dalton Cabot Goodhue Mason Adams Lloyd Gore Ashmun Mellen Mills Webster Choate Webster Winthrop Rantoul Sumner Washburn Dawes Lodge, Sr. Butler Walsh Lodge, Jr. J. Kennedy Smith E. Kennedy Kirk Brown Class 2 Strong Sedgwick Dexter Foster Pickering Varnum Otis Lloyd Silsbee Davis Bates Davis Everett Rockwell Wilson Boutwell Hoar Crane J. Weeks Walsh Gillett Coolidge Lodge, Jr. S. Weeks Saltonstall Brooke Tsongas Kerry

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.