US Congressman. He was born in Mamaroneck, New York, to Quaker parents and attended a Quaker boarding school and seminary known as the "Nine Partners Academy" in Dutchess County, New York, where he was educated in the Spanish and French languages. After his education, he moved to New York City with his parents in 1815. While in New York City he found work as a clerk in a store in 1818, and then was engaged in banking pursuits, working at the Bank of New York from 1824 to 1836. He then moved to Toledo, Ohio, in 1836, and worked in real estate and other business pursuits including helping to build the first railroad west of Utica, New York, from Toledo, Ohio, to Adrian, Ohio. He then decided to run for public office and was elected the 6th Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, serving in that position from 1845 to 1846. He was succeeded as Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, by Emery D. Potter. He then was elected as a Candidate in the Opposition Party to represent the Thirty-Fourth Congress. A Republican, he was then elected to another term and served Ohio's 5th District (Thirty-Fifth Congress) in the United States House of Representatives from 1855 to 1859. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1858. After his terms in the United States Congress had ended, he returned to his banking and real estate businesses in Toledo, Ohio. During the Civil War, he served as Chairman of the Citizen's Military Committee. After the Civil War had ended, he once again returned to his banking and real estate pursuits until his death. He passed away in Toledo, Ohio, at the age of 83, and was brought back to Rochester, New York, where he was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery. He was also a well-known supporter of woman suffrage and was the brother of James Mott, a Quaker leader, teacher, and a merchant as well as an anti-slavery activist, a brother-in-law to Lindley Murray Moore, an abolitionist, and educator, and brother-in-law to Lucretia Mott, an abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer.