Biography

Tompkins was born in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York at his home, the estate of Fox Meadow.[1] He graduated from Columbia College in New York City in 1795. Tompkins studied law and in 1797 was admitted to the bar, practicing in New York City. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention in 1801, a member of the New York State Assembly in 1804, and was elected to the 9th United States Congress, but resigned before the beginning of the term to accept, at age 30, an appointment as associate justice of the New York Supreme Court, in which capacity he served from 1804 to 1807. His brother, Caleb Tompkins (1759–1846), was a United States Representative from New York from 1817 to 1821.

On February 20, 1798, Daniel Tompkins, a 23-year-old lawyer of the City married 16 year old Hannah Minthorne.[2][3] At the time of the marriage, her father Mangle Minthorne was Assistant Alderman on the Common Council, and young Tompkins had designs on a political career. Hannah was ill in the year before her husband became Vice-President, and did not attend his inauguration.[4] From 1800 to 1814, the couple had eight children, including Arietta Minthorn Tompkins (born July 31, 1800), who married a son of Smith Thompson in 1818, and (Mangle) Minthorne Tompkins (December 26, 1807 – June 5, 1881), who was the Free Soil Party candidate for Governor of New York in 1852. Their children Hannah and Minthorne were named after their mother, and Hannah and Minthorne streets in Staten Island are named for them.[5] Hannah survived her husband by nearly four years; she died on February 18, 1829, in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. She and her husband are buried in the Minthorne family vault at St. Mark's-in-the-Bouwerie, in lower Manhattan.[4]
On April 30, 1807, he defeated the incumbent Governor Morgan Lewis – Tompkins received 35,074 votes, Lewis 30,989 – and remained in office as Governor of New York until 1817. 
Tompkins was elected Vice President on the ticket with James Monroe in 1816, and was reelected in 1820, serving from March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825. In 1820, while serving as Vice President, he ran for Governor of New York against incumbent DeWitt Clinton. The election was held in April 1820; Tompkins lost. He received 45,900 votes while Clinton received 47,447. In 1821, he was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention, serving as its president.
Tompkinsville, a neighborhood on Staten Island, is named for Tompkins. There is also a Masonic lodge in the town named for him. Tompkins is credited with being one of the founding members of the Brighton Heights Reformed Church on Staten Island. The church was founded in 1823, during his term as vice president. Its first meeting place was in what was known as Quarantine, a predecessor of the facility on Ellis Island.