President Thomas Jefferson as the last commissioner of the Federal City, which by then had been named Washington in the District of Columbia. He filled the seat vacated by William Cranch who was appointed to the bench in the new capitol and served for a little over a year until the Board of Commissioners of the Federal City was disbanded in 1802. Later life Dalton had married Ruth Hooper, the daughter of a wealthy Marblehead merchant, in 1761. They had grown fond of the city life in New York City (then the seat of the federal government), and moved there, and then Philadelphia. When the site of the nation's capital was selected, Dalton sold off most of his property in Massachusetts, and speculatively purchased land in Washington, D.C. Many of the family's personal items were lost when the ship carrying them to Washington foundered. Dalton's investment was also a failure, as Washington real estate did not appreciate, and he had invested through an unscrupulous agent, wiping out most of his fortune. In order to make ends meet, Dalton was given a patronage appointment as surveyor of the port of Boston, serving from November 1814 until his death on May 30, 1817. He is interred in the churchyard of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Newburyport. His wife died in 1826. Of their ten children, only three girls survived to adulthood. Slave ownership According to research conducted by The Washington Post, Dalton was one of only two member of Congress from Massachusetts who owned slaves. In 1804, Dalton buried his slave, named Fortune, in the all white consecrated Old Burying Hill Cemetery by the Bartlet Mall in Newburport. Honors and legacy Dalton was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1780. Tristram Dalton is the namesake of Dalton, Massachusetts, Dalton, New Hampshire and Dalton, Georgia. Notes References Biographical sketch by Ebenezer Stone 1738 births 1817 deaths Politicians from Newburyport, Massachusetts People of colonial Massachusetts American people of English descent Pro-Administration Party United States senators from Massachusetts Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Massachusetts state senators Harvard College alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Burials in Massachusetts American slave owners Colonial American merchants United States senators who owned slaves