James Sheafe (1755 - 1829)
Sheafe (1755 - 1829) was born at Portsmouth (NH). His family were members of the coastal merchant aristocracy, and after graduation from Harvard College (Class of 1774) Sheafe returned to Portsmouth and went into the family mercantile business.

His biographers are silent on Shearfe's Revolutionary War record, but he was a member of the State House of Representatives (1788, 1789, 1790) and the State Senate (1791 - 1792, 1792 - 1793, 1798 - 1799). In 1799 Sheafe was a member of Council when he was elected a United States Senator (1801), but he served barely a year, resigning on June 14, 1802 and returning to Portsmouth and his business.

Sheafe ran unsuccessfully as a Federalist for governor in 1816, but lost (to William Plumber). After the War of 1812 the Federalists and the coastal merchant aristocracy were in decline as political forces in New Hampshire. Political power was shifting to the west and to the interior towns, and Sheafe's political career was over. He died at Portsmouth, December 5, 1829.

References: Appletons' Cycopaedia of American Biography, vol.5 (1888)