Lyon, Matthew (1750–1822), politician in the USA, was born 14 July 1750 in Co. Wicklow, son of a farmer who died when he was a child. Educated in Dublin, he emigrated to America in 1765, paying for his passage with three years’ indentured service. In 1774 he moved to Vermont where he purchased property. He joined a local regiment and served as a lieutenant in various campaigns on the Canadian border, where he was censured for the indiscipline of his troops. He resigned or possibly (as his enemies later claimed) was discharged from the army and joined the Vermont militia. He established various entrepreneurial interests in Vermont – an ironworks, a printing-press, and other ventures – and became a leading figure in the community.
When Vermont joined the new United States in 1791, Lyon ran unsuccessfully for the house and senate. Finally elected to the house of representatives (1796), he cut an isolated figure, both because of his republican views and his unique manner. He was lampooned as an ignorant backwoodsman, but this was for the most part an unfair caricature, and he possessed many good ideas about the new nation. A major controversy arose after 30 January 1798 when he spat in the face of Roger Griswold, a member of the house who had disparaged his military record. Two weeks later, in a dramatic confrontation, Griswold assaulted him with a cane on the floor of the house. The incident was satirised soon after in two poems: John Woodworth's The spunkiad, or, Heroism improved and John Carey's The house of wisdom in a bustle. Later in the year Lyon was found guilty on a largely spurious charge of libelling President Adams, fined $1,000, and sentenced to four months' imprisonment. This persecution only increased his popularity in Vermont, and he was re-elected in 1798 with a massive majority. In the 1800 election for president of the United States, he cast the decisive vote in favour of Thomas Jefferson, and became a democratic hero in the process.
In 1801 he decided to move west, and settled in Eddyville, Kentucky, where he established more business interests. He remained active in politics, and represented the state in congress (1802–10). In this period he established himself as a major debater, forcing a readjustment of previous opinions of him. Defeated in the 1810 election because of his opposition to the approaching war with Britain, he embarked on unwise speculations in building gunboats, which left him in financial penury. President Monroe, out of friendship, gave him in 1820 a federal office as representative to the Cherokee nation in Arkansas. He was again elected to the house of representatives for Arkansas in the second territorial election (1822), but died the same year before he could take his seat.
In 1771 Lyon married a Miss Hosford, a niece of Ethan Allen. She died 1782, and the following year he married a widow, Beulah Galusha, a daughter of Governor Thomas Chittenden; he had three surviving children from the first union, and eight from the second. Lyon died 1 August 1822, at Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. His son, Chittenden Lyon (1787–1842), followed him into politics, and held office for many years in Kentucky and in congress. Matthew Lyon's move to Kentucky was the subject of a novel published in 1955 by Elizabeth A. Roe entitled Aunt Leanna, or, Early scenes in Kentucky.