His elder sister, Elizabeth Chetwood, was the wife of Aaron Ogden, a U.S.

[3] He served as prosecutor of the pleas for Essex County, became a member of the State Council of New Jersey, was a major of militia and served in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 as aide-de-camp to Major General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee.

[3] Chetwood was elected as a Whig (at the time, a coalition of National Republican Party members) to the Twenty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Philemon Dickerson.

He served in Congress from December 5, 1836, to March 3, 1837, afterwards resuming the practice of law.

[3] Through his daughter Matilda, who lived at 3 East 9th Street in Manhattan, he was a grandfather of Hetty Bull (1946-1906),[8] who married John Cuming Beatty and had three children, including Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, the American-British mining magnate.