Richard Cutts


Richard Cutts was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. Born on Cutts Island near the town of Pepperellborough in Massachusetts Bay's Province of Maine, he attended rural schools and Phillips Academy, Andover. He graduated from Harvard University in 1790, studied law, and engaged extensively in navigation and commercial pursuits. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1799 and 1800, and was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventh and the five succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1801 to March 3, 1813. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1812 to the Thirteenth Congress, and was appointed superintendent general of military supplies and served from 1813 to 1817. He was then appointed Second Comptroller of the Treasury on March 6, 1817, and served in this capacity until March 21, 1829. Cutts died in Washington, D.C.; initial interment was in St. John's Graveyard, and in 1857 reinterment was in Oak Hill Cemetery.
He was the husband of Dolley Madison's sister Anna, and thus President James Madison's brother-in-law. His grandson James M. Cutts was a recipient of the Medal of Honor.