Tench Ringgold

Tench Ringgold was a businessman and political appointee in Washington, DC. He was U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia, appointed by President James Monroe (1817-1825) and serving in the position through 1830, during the first two years of the administration of Andrew Jackson. Ringgold also owned a leather factory and curing shop in Georgetown. He was appointed Treasurer of the Georgetown Savings Institution in what was then a separate jurisdiction later annexed by the District of Columbia.

Ringgold was from a prominent early-American family that came to the British colonies in the early seventeenth century. He had accompanied James Madison when the president and his cabinet were forced to flee Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. Afterward, he was named as a member of the Presidential Commission in charge of restoring important Washington buildings after the burning, including the Capitol.

In 1825 he built a house in the capital; it is now known as the Ringgold-Carroll House, referring also to a later resident. The house has been designated as an historic property and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Boarders in the house during Ringgold's residency included Supreme Court Justices John Marshall and Joseph Story, both of whom considered Ringgold a friend.

Ringgold married and had a family. Through his daughter Catherine, who married Edward Douglass White, Sr., he was the grandfather of Edward Douglass White, who was appointed a Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1894 and served as Chief Justice from 1910-1921.