Chemical Bank Check Signed by James J. Roosevelt - Grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt - 1861 Autographed Check

Check signed by James J. Roosevelt - grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt. Rare! Double signed with signature on front and back.

James John Roosevelt, known as James I. (December 14, 1795 – April 5, 1875) was an American politician, jurist, businessman, and member of the Roosevelt family. From 1841 to 1843, he served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. James I, the Roman numeral was used to distinguish him from others of the same name, was born on December 14, 1795, in New York City to James Jacobus Roosevelt (1759–1840) and Maria Van Schaak (1773–1845) and baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church. He was a great-grandson of Johannes Roosevelt, the founder of the Oyster Bay branch of the Roosevelt family. His brother Cornelius Roosevelt was the father of James A. Roosevelt, Robert Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. as well as paternal grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt graduated from Columbia College in 1815 and was admitted to the bar in 1818, becoming a partner of Peter Augustus Jay (son of John Jay), with a practice in New York City. Roosevelt owned slaves in his youth. An active Democrat, he campaigned for Andrew Jackson for president in 1828. He was elected alderman in 1828 and 1830, was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1835 and 1840. Roosevelt served in the United States House of Representatives from 1841 to 1843, but declined to seek reelection. Roosevelt became a justice of the New York Supreme Court in 1851. He was for one term an ex officio judge of the State Court of Appeals. He also was a judge of the Superior Court of the City of New York. After James Parker Barnett, a student of French Creole heritage, had completed two of the three years of required lectures to obtain a degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, a Southern student complained he was "colored" and Barnett was expelled from the institution. In 1853, Roosevelt ruled a writ issued by John W. Edmonds that ordered the institution to readmit Barnett to be invalid. From 1860 to 1861, he was the 15th U.S. District Attorney for Southern New York. He studied foreign law in the courts of England, the Netherlands, and France.

In business, Roosevelt followed in the tradition of his father as a hardware merchant. He engaged in farming after retiring. He was the first president of Roosevelt Hospital, which was founded by his cousin James H. Roosevelt.

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