Odgen was a member of the Château Clique, the group of English-speaking officials who supported the Governor General, appointed by the British government.

During the Lower Canada Rebellions of 1837 and 1838, Ogden assisted the Governor General in proclaiming martial law in Montreal.

Although he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, his standing with his French-Canadian constituents had been damaged by his actions in the Rebellions and the union.

He was appointed Attorney General for the Isle of Man, and later to an additional post as Registrar of the Probate Court of Liverpool.

He was one of eleven sons of Isaac Ogden, a loyalist and puisne judge of the Court of King's Bench at Montreal, and Sarah Hanson.

[1][2] As a member of a prominent family in Lower Canada and a talented lawyer, Ogden advanced quickly in his profession and in politics.

Under a policy of the British Colonial Office, he resigned his seat in the Legislative Assembly on his appointment as attorney general.

[4] Even though the population of Trois-Rivières was largely French-Canadian, and Ogden was a member of the British Tory group, he was generally popular with his constituents.

He was notorious for his practical jokes, one of which was to paint moustaches on the sleeping passengers of a ship travelling from Montreal to Quebec City.

Ogden warned Governor General Gosford that the Assembly was "... the first public and open declaration of an intention to revolt".

[1][6][7] After Gosford was recalled to Britain in February 1838, he was replaced by General Sir John Colborne, who had led the military suppression of the Rebellion in 1837.

Ogden was appointed to the Special Council in 1840, staying in office until the Act of Union, 1840 came into force in February 1841.

[1] Upon the proclamation of the Union Act, the Governor General, Lord Sydenham, appointed the new Executive Council (the province's Cabinet) in February 1841.

Although elected, Ogden was upset that the seat of government had moved to Kingston, taking him away from his lucrative Montreal law practice.

The reformers, led by Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin, had put considerable pressure on the new Governor General, Sir Charles Bagot, to admit French-Canadian members to the Executive Council.

[1][3][16][17] Historian Donald Creighton commented that it was a curious fact that the members of the pre-Rebellion generation of Canadian public men "whether they were comparatively young, or middle-aged, or old, failed, with astonishing uniformity, to survive very long in the new political atmosphere [of responsible government].

For them, the adjustment was too difficult..."[18] After he lost the position of Attorney General of Lower Canada in 1842, Ogden went back to England.