He was the son of Samuel Talcott (1740-1798, grandson of
Joseph Talcott,
Colonial Governor of Connecticut) and Abigail Ledyard Talcott. On May 28, 1810, he married Rachel Skinner; their son was John Ledyard Talcott (b. 1812), a justice of the
New York Supreme Court. He graduated from
Williams College in 1809, and he practiced law at
New Hartford, New York. There he married, in 1818, his second wife, Mary Eliza Stanley (1800-1848), and their son was Thomas Grosvenor Talcott (1819-1870). He was a leading member of the
Albany Regency and was
New York State Attorney General from February 12, 1821 to January 27, 1829, when he was forced to resign "due to irregular habits", a then-used
euphemism for what is now called a "
drinking problem". Afterward, he practiced law in
New York City. He is mentioned briefly as a character in
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, written by
Elizabeth George Speare in 1958. ==Sources==