Benjamin Trumbull (19 December 1735 – 2 February 1820) was an early American historian and preacher.

Early life

Benjamin Trumbull was born in

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

, in 1735 to Benjamin Trumbull. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1759 and studied theology under Reverend

Eleazar Wheelock Eleazar Wheelock (April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779) was an American Congregationalism in the United States, Congregational minister, orator, and educator in present-day Columbia, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in ...

. Wheelock delivered his ordination sermon in 1760, commending him to the people of North Haven as “not a sensual, sleepy, lazy, dumb dog, that could not bark back.”

Career

Trumbull began as a pastor on December 24, 1760, at the Congregational Church in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

. He was a pastor for about sixty years, his preaching being interrupted only by the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, in which he served both as a volunteer and as

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

for the Wadsworth's Brigade under James Wadsworth. After the war he published a pamphlet sustaining the claim of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

to the Susquehanna purchase, which influenced the decision of Congress in her favor. Yale gave him the degree of D.D. in 1796. He published ''Twelve Discourses on the Divine Origin of the Holy Scriptures'' (Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1790); ''A General History of the United States of America; from the Discovery, in 1492, to 1792, . . . .'' that was intended to be three volumes, but he lived only to complete the first, ''Vol. I: Exhibiting a General View of the Principal Events, from the Discovery of North America, to the Year 1765'' (New York: Williams & Whiting, 1810); and ''A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of Its First Planters from England, in MDCXXX, to MDCCXIII'' (Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1797), later expanded in a second edition to ''A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of Its First Planters from England, in 1630, to the Year 1764; and to the Close of the Indian Wars'' (New Haven, CT: Maltby, Goldsmith, & Co. and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818). The manuscript collections from which this history is compiled are in the Yale library. His grandson

Lyman Trumbull Lyman Trumbull (October 12, 1813 – June 25, 1896) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician who represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1855 to 1873. Trumbull was a leading abolitionist attorney and key polit ...

was a U.S. Senator from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Trumbull was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1814. AAS holds original copies of over 40 titles related to, or authored by Trumbull, as well as the manuscript of his ''General History of the United States''AAS catalog title authored by or related to Benjamin Trumbull
/ref> He died in

North Haven, Connecticut North Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States on the outskirts of New Haven. The town is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 24,253. North Haven is home ...

References

External links

* Benjamin Trumbull papers (MS 505). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

* * ''A complete history of Connecticut: civil and ecclesiastical, from the emigration of its first planters, from England, in the year 1830, to the year 1764; and to the close of the Indian wars'' (2 vols.). New Haven. 1818
Volume One
an
Volume Two
at

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trumbull, Benjamin 1735 births 1820 deaths American military chaplains American Revolution chaplains People from Hebron, Connecticut Yale University alumni People from North Haven, Connecticut 18th-century American historians 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Historians from Connecticut