rs in
London in the study of medicine, and emigrated to America in 1708. After
practising medicine for ten years in Philadelphia, he was invited to
settle in New York by Governor Hunter, and in 1718 was appointed the
first surveyor-general of the colony. Becoming a member of the
provincial council in 1720, he served for many years as its president,
and from 1761 until his death was lieutenant-governor; for a
considerable part of the time, during the interim between the
appointment of governors, he was acting-governor. About 1755 he retired
from medical practice. As early as 1729 he had built a country house
called Coldengham on the line between Ulster and Orange counties, where
he spent much of his time until 1761. Aristocratic and extremely
conservative, he had a violent distrust of popular government and a
strong aversion to the popular party in New York. Naturally he came into
frequent conflict with the growing sentiment in the colony in opposition
to royal taxation. He was acting-governor when in 1765 the stamped paper
to be used under the Stamp Act arrived in the port of New York; a mob
burned him in effigy in his own coach in Bowling Green, in sight of the
enraged acting-governor and of General Gage; and Colden was compelled to
surrender the stamps to the city council, by whom they were locked up
in the city hall until all attempts to enforce the new law were
abandoned. Subsequently Colden secured the suspension of the provincial
assembly by an act of parliament. He understood, however, the real
temper of the patriot party, and in 1775, when the outbreak of
hostilities seamed inevitable, he strongly advised the ministry to act
with caution and to concede some of the colonists' demands. When the war
began, he retired to his Long Island country seat, where he died on the
28th of September 1776. Colden was widely known among scientists and men
of letters in England and America. He was a life-long student of botany,
and was the first to introduce in America the classification system of
Linnaeus, who gave the name "Coldenia" to a newly recognized genus. He
was an intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin. He wrote several medical
works of importance in their day, the most noteworthy being _A Treatise
on Wounds and Fevers_ (1765); he also wrote _The History of the Five
Indian Nations depending on the Province of New York_ (1727, reprinted
1866 and 1905), and an elaborate work on _The Principles of Action in
Matter_ (1751) whi