US Congressman, US Diplomat, Lawyer, Judge. He was a United States Representative from the State of New York. He was born one of eleven children as Bradford Ripley Wood to Samuel Wood (1758-1843), and his wife Rebecca Lyon Wood (1760-1842), in Westport, Connecticut, on September 3, 1800. He was educated locally and attended the local common public schools before attending and graduating from the prestigious Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1824. Following his education, he then engaged in teaching and lecturing usually on the subject of temperance, (a social movement promoting complete abstinence from the consumption of alcoholic beverages), before studying law with Robert Lansing (1799-1878), a New York state politician, who later served as a Member of the New York State Senate representing the 5th District from 1832 to 1835, and as a Member of the New York State Senate representing the 21st District from 1854 to 1855, and Harmanus Bleecker (1779-1849), who served as a United States Representative representing New York's 7th District from March 4, 1811, to March 3, 1813, as a Member of the New York State Assembly from Albany County, New York. from 1814 to 1815, as a Member of the New York State Assembly from Albany County, New York, from 1815 to 1816, and as a United States Minister to the Netherlands from 1837 to 1842, at the prestigious Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut. He was then admitted to the bar in 1827 and commenced his practice of law in Albany, New York, on May 29, 1827. He also became the Solicitor in the Court of the Chancery of the New York State on June 6, 1830, before rising to the position of Chancellor in the Court of the Chancery of New York State and becoming Counselor of the New York Supreme Court in 1835, and Counselor in the United States Supreme Court in 1845. He also served a term as a Member of the Albany County, New York, Board of Supervisors in 1844. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Chesselden Ellis (1808-1854), on March 4, 1845. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served New York's 13th District (Twenty-Ninth Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1845, to March 3, 1847. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection to represent the Thirtieth Congress in 1846. In total, he was elected in 1844, lost reelection in 1946, and was succeeded in office in 1847. Following his term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative John I. Slingerland (1804-1861), on March 4, 1847. After leaving the United States Congress, he served a term as the President of the Young Men's Temperance Society in 1851. He also served as a Trustee of the Union College in Schenectady, New York, the Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Albany Law School in Albany, New York, and as Vice President of the Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. He was also one of the founders of the Republican Party in New York State in 1856, and he ran for office of the New York Court of Appeals on the Republican Party ticket in November of 1855. He also served as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention from the State of New York in 1856 and was personally appointed by then-President of the United States Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), as the United States Minister to Denmark on March 22, 1861, and he served in that position from August 18, 1861, to November 15, 1865. He had been preceded in office of that post by James Madison Buchanan (1803-1876), a jurist and diplomat from Baltimore, Maryland, and he was succeeded in office in that post by Samuel Jordan Kirkwood (1813-1894), a United States Senator from Iowa who served in office from March 4, 1877, to March 7, 1881, and who also served as the 5th and 9th Governor of Iowa from January 13, 1876, to February 1, 1877, and as the 14th United States Secretary of the Interior from March 8, 1881, to April 17, 1882, under the Presidents of the United States James Abram Garfield (1931-1881), and Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886). A Member of the Congregationalist faith, he also served as Vice President of the American Home Missionary Society and he founded the First Congregational Church in Albany, New York. He continued with his law pursuits and religious pursuits until his death on September 26, 1889, at the age of 89. He passed away from old age in Albany, New York, on September 26, 1889, at the age of 89, and he was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. He was married to Elizabeth Gould "Eliza" Wood (1809-1887), in Albany, New York, on August 24, 1834, and together the couple had several children including, Caroline Wood (1835-1836), Samuel Wood (1836-1905), Thomas Gould Wood (1838-1912), Elizabeth Hadwin Wood (1841-1890), Bradford Ripley Wood Jr. (1842-1914), John Hampden Wood (1843-1884), George Henry Wood (1844-), Henry Wood (1848-), and Howard Wood (1849-1870). His wife Elizabeth preceded him in death passing away in Albany, New York, on March 25, 1887, at the age of 77, and she is also buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Albany, New York.