DUDLEY, Charles Edward, senator, born in Johnson Hall, Staffordshire, England, 23 May 1780 ; died in Albany, New York, 23 January 1841. In 1794 he came with his mother to Newport, R. I., where his father, Charles Dudley, who had died in London in 1790, had been the king's collector of customs. The son first became a clerk in a counting room, but soon entered into trade, and went to the East Indies as supercargo. Subsequently he removed to New York, and then to Albany, where he became a prominent merchant. He was a member of the state senate from 1820 till 1825, and mayor of Albany from 1821 till 1828. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a democrat in 1829 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Martin Van Buren, and served till 1833. He was particularly fond of astronomical science.

His wife, Blandina Dudley, born in New York in 1783 ; died in Albany in January 1863, was the daughter of Rutgers Bleecker. In her later years she was lavish in the expenditure of her wealth, and contributed largely to scientific as well as benevolent and religious objects. In 1856 she gave $75,000 toward the endowment and erection of Dudley observatory in Albany, in memory of her husband. At the time of her death she had given more than $100,000 toward its completion.