John Biddle (politician)
American military officer and politician (1792–1859)
John Biddle (March 2, 1792 – August 25, 1859) was an American military officer, politician, and businessman. He served as a delegate to the United States Congress from the Michigan Territory, as the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, and as mayor of Detroit.
Early life
Part of the prominent Pennsylvania Biddle family, John Biddle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1792, the son of Hannah Shephard and Charles Biddle, former Vice President of Pennsylvania, and nephew of Commodore Nicholas Biddle. He attended the common schools before entering and graduating from Princeton College.
Career
At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Biddle enlisted in the U.S. Army and was appointed a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery on July 6, 1812, and promoted to first lieutenant March 13, 1813. He was attached to the staff of General Winfield Scott on the Niagara Frontier for most of the war. He became captain in the Forty-second Infantry October 1, 1813, served as assistant inspector general with the rank of major from June 19, 1817, to June 1, 1821, and commanded Fort Shelby in Detroit for some time.
After leaving the military, Biddle was appointed paymaster and Indian agent at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1821 and 1822. He was register of the land at Detroit in Michigan Territory, 1823–1837; commissioner for determining the ancient land claims at Detroit, Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, Green Bay, and Prairie du Chien.
“John Biddle (politician)” enters the record as american military officer and politician (1792–1859). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Biddle and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q665672. VIAF identifies the subject as 39309626. The Library of Congress control number is nr2002002007. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1792, 1859, 1812 and 1813.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Biddle (politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.