David Gardiner (May 29, 1784 – February 28, 1844) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of New York State Senate from 1824 to 1828. He was the father of Julia Gardiner Tyler, second wife of U.S. President John Tyler. He died in an explosion aboard the USS Princeton. Early life Gardiner was born on May 29, 1784, the son of Abraham Gardiner (1763–1796) and Phebe Dayton (1757–1810). He was a descendant of Lion Gardiner (1599–1663) who was an early English settler and soldier that founded the first English settlement in what became the state of New York on Long Island, including Gardiners Island. He graduated from Yale University in 1804 along with future U.S. Senator from South Carolina, John Calhoun. Career He practiced law for several years, but beginning in 1815 when he married Juliana McLachlan, one of the wealthiest women in New York, he managed her extensive real estate holdings in Manhattan. He was elected to one four-year term as a member of the New York State Senate representing the 1st District of Suffolk County from 1824 to 1828. Gardiner was a supporter of John Quincy Adams, member of the People's Party, which was opposed to the emerging Democratic Party, led by Andrew Jackson. He later lived at 430 Lafayette Street in Manhanttan, "when that sections was one of the social centres of the city". In the 1840s, he took his family to Washington, D.C., for several months of the year, in part to find an appropriate husband for his daughter Julia. His family became part of the social circle of President John Tyler and his family. Death aboard the Princeton Gardiner died in an explosion aboard the USS Princeton on February 28, 1844. President Tyler had proposed to his daughter Julia in February 1843. She had refused him at first but sometime in 1843 they agreed to marry at some future time out of respect for the fact that the President had only been a widow since September 1842. David Gardiner and his daughters Julia and Margaret were aboard a pleasure cruise on the Potomac River. As the neared Mount Vernon, the world's biggest naval gun, The Peacemaker that was being demonstrated exploded, killing Gardiner and six others. Funeral services for the five white victims were held in the East Room of the White House. Gardiner was interred in the Public Vault at