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Thomas Haines Dudley was consul of the United States of America in Liverpool during the American Civil War. He was instrumental in leading efforts by the Federal Government to prevent British involvement in the war, and in particular in preventing blockade runners from Liverpool, such as the CSS Alabama, from assisting the Confederate war effort.

Family and Childhood
Thomas Haines Dudley was born in Burlington County New Jersey on October 9, 1819 to Evan and Ann Dudley. Evan Dudley died when Haines Dudley was two years old. He was raised as a quaker by his mother. Dudley was the youngest of four children.

Marriage and Children
On March 4, 1846 Dudley married Emaline Matlack. They had four children together named Edward, Mary, and Ellen. The youngest, Henry Dudley, who was named after Dudley’s idol Henry Clay, died at the age of two.

Early Career
Dudley began his career as a school teacher and later began to study law under William N. Jeffers in Camden, New Jersey. He was admitted to the bar in 1845. As a lawyer he was active in anti-slavery affairs. His first case found him disguising himself as a slave trader to retrieve a free black mother and her children from southern slaveholders. Dudley was successful in his rescue attempt and was assisted by funds amassed by The Society of Friends, a Quaker organization located in Camden. By 1850 Dudley had expanded his resume and held more prominent local positions like the city treasurer of Camden, the city solicitor, and was chairman of the New Jersey executive committee for the Republican Party.

Health
In March of 1856, when he was 37 years old, Dudley was involved in an accident involving a fire aboard the Steamboat New Jersey. As a result of this fire, fifty people died. When Dudley was pulled from the steamboat, he was near death. While he did ultimately recover, he was plagued by health and nervous system issues for the duration of his life. These health issues are ultimately what contributed to his decision to be stationed in Liverpool for his tenure as consul.

American Civil War[edit]
During the American Civil War (1861–65), consul Dudley made strenuous efforts to prevent ships from Liverpool from breaking the United States Navy blockade of Confederate ports. Great Britain remained officially neutral throughout the war but there were many Confederate sympathizers in Liverpool. The commerce raider CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead in Merseyside in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. She was eventually sunk by the USS Kearsarge in 1864.

Dudley wished to retire after the war and return to his law practice in New Jersey, but such was his knowledge of Confederate assets in Liverpool that he stayed on as consul, seizing Confederate ships and returning the proceeds of sale to the victorious United States Government. Relations between Britain and the United States were tense after the war, in part because of the role of Liverpool blockade runners and the widespread perception in America that Britain had been sympathetic to the defeated Confederacy. The claims arising out of these disputes, especially the Alabama Claims, would not be settled until the 1871 Treaty of Washington.

Other

 * Genealogy and siblings at Geni.com
 * Gravesite at Findagrave.