William Peter Van Ness was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, also notable for serving as Aaron Burr's second in Burr's duel with Alexander Hamilton.

Cornelius Peter Van Ness was an American politician and diplomat who served as the tenth governor of Vermont from 1823 to 1826 and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Spain from 1829 to 1836. Van Ness was a Democratic-Republican and later a Democrat.