Jacob Crowninshield (March 31, 1770 – April 15, 1808) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and appointee to the position of U.S. Secretary of the Navy, which he never filled. His brother

Benjamin Williams Crowninshield Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (December 27, 1772 – February 3, 1851) served as the United States Secretary of the Navy between 1815 and 1818, during the administrations of Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. Early life Crownins ...

did successfully hold the post; the Crowninshield family in general was prominent in early American maritime affairs. His ancestor, Johann Casper Richter von Kronenscheldt, immigrated from

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. (Ambiguous entry) He was the grandfather of Arent S. Crowninshield.

Biography

Jacob Crowninshield was born March 31, 1770, in Salem in the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of ...

. As a young man, he went into partnership with three of his brothers commanding trade ships between the United States and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

."Jacob Crowninshield", ''National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Volume 3''. New York: James T. White & Co., 1893; p.

/ref> In 1796, Crowninshield married Sarah Gardner, daughter of John (a direct descendant of an Thomas Gardner (planter), old planter) and Sarah (

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

, daughter of Richard (1712–1783)). Their daughter Sarah later married the Salem merchant

Richard Saltonstall Rogers Richard Saltonstall Rogers (January 13, 1790 – June 11, 1873) was an early American shipping merchant and was possibly the inspiration for a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's ''The Scarlet Letter''. Early life Rogers was born on January 13, ...

. Crowninshield was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1798, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Dwight Foster, but was elected to the

Massachusetts State Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

in 1801. In November 1802, he was elected as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to Congress and served in the

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, 9th and 10th Congresses. During the 9th Congress, he was chairman of the

United States House Committee on Commerce and Manufactures The United States House Committee on Commerce and Manufactures was a standing committee of the U.S. House from 1795 until 1819, when the two initially related subjects were split into the Committee on Commerce and the Committee on Manufactures.

. He died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

on April 15, 1808, near the end of his third term. Crowninshield was 38 years old at the time of his death. In 1805, Crowninshield was nominated to the position of U.S. Secretary of the Navy by President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

, and was confirmed by the Senate, but he declined to take up the position, and continued to serve in Congress. Crowninshield is buried in

Harmony Grove Cemetery Harmony Grove Cemetery is a rural cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. It was established in 1840 and is located at 30 Grove Street. The cemetery is approximately 35 acres in size and was designed by Francis Peabody and Alexander Wadsworth. ...

in his hometown of Salem.

Footnotes

External links

Jacob Crowninshield
at

Miller Center of Public Affairs The Miller Center is a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in United States presidential scholarship, public policy, and political history. History The Miller Center was founded in 1975 through the philanthrop ...

Jacob Crowninshield
at Find A Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowninshield, Jacob 1770 births 1808 deaths Crowninshield family Massachusetts state senators Politicians from Salem, Massachusetts Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts People of colonial Massachusetts Burials at Harmony Grove Cemetery 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Washington, D.C.

Biography

See also

Footnotes

External links