Matthew Harvey

Matthew Harvey (June 21, 1781 – April 7, 1866) was a was a lawyer, politician, and long-serving United States federal judge from Hopkinton, New Hampshire.

Born in Sutton, New Hampshire, Harvery graduated from Dartmouth College in 1806 and read law to enter the bar in 1809. He was in private practice of law in Hopkinton, New Hampshire from 1809 to 1814, and was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1814 to 1821.

He represented the state in the United States House of Representatives from 1821 to 1825 during the Seventeenth U.S. Congress and the Eighteenth U.S. Congress, and was then a member of the New Hampshire Senate from 1825 to 1827, and of the New Hampshire Executive Council from 1828 to 1829. He served one abbreviated term as Governor of New Hampshire, beginning in 1830. However, on November 2, 1830, Harvey received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire vacated by John Samuel Sherburne. Formally nominated on December 14, 1830, Harvey was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 16, 1830, and received his commission the same day. Harvey resigned as governor on February 28, 1831. He remained on the bench until his death in Concord in 1866, and is buried there at the Old North Cemetery.