James de Peyster Ogden (August 26, 1790 – April 7, 1870)[1] was an American merchant, and businessman.

[1] His mother died a few months after his birth and his father, who was a friend of George Washington had studied medicine alongside David Hosack when both were students of Samuel Bard.

[4] Ogden then began his business career as a clerk with Van Horne and Clarkson, a mercantile firm in New York City, and then spent several years in Liverpool, England as an agent for LeRoy, Bayard and Company, another mercantile firm.

[2] In 1845, he began his three year tenure as the first president of Nautilus Insurance Company (today known as New York Life), which had also been chartered in 1840.

[8][9] Reportedly, he "deeply deplored the Civil War, and his sympathies were very strong with the South; yet he recognized the duty of opposing secession and exerted all his powers against it.