Samuel Tudor IV, Esq. (1769 – 1862) was a prominent nineteenth-century American entrepreneur, business and civic leader of Hartford, Connecticut. He was a founding director of

Aetna Insurance Company Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

, the Phoenix National Bank and the Society of Savings Bank of Hartford,The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, James, Hammond Trumbull, Edward Osgood Publisher, 1886 as well as a founding trustee and major early benefactor of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

.Contributions to Christ Church of Hartford, Gurden Wadsworth Russell et al., Belknap & Warfield, 1895 Tudor was also connected with the establishment of many of the leading institutions of that city. He was a director of the American Asylum School for the Deaf, the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the U.S., and a co-founder of the Hartford Academy.

Background and family

Tudor was born in East Windsor, in the

Colony of Connecticut The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...

, in 1769, son of Samuel Tudor, III, and Naomi Diggens. His father was called to the Lexington alarm as a lieutenant in the Connecticut militia, while his uncle, Dr. Elihu Tudor, was a loyalist and intimate friend of loyalist Governor

William Franklin William Franklin (22 February 1730 – 17 November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. William Franklin was the last colonial Gov ...

of New Jersey. Elihu was a preeminent surgeon who attended to British General

James Wolfe James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army officer known for his training reforms and, as a major general, remembered chiefly for his victory in 1759 over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. ...

at the Battle of Quebec. Tudor’s grandfather, Samuel, Jr, was a Yale-educated Presbyterian minister. The family descended from Owen Tudor, a founder of Hartford who was in Connecticut by 1645 and who made unsubstantiated claims to be related to the British monarchs. Samuel IV, who was also commonly known as Samuel Tudor, Jr., married Mary Watson, daughter of John Watson, a wealthy Windsor, CT, merchant, and Ann Bliss. John Watson was a second cousin of Connecticut Governor

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. Jonathan Trumbull Jr. (March 26, 1740 – August 7, 1809) was an American politician who served as the 20th governor of Connecticut, the second speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticu ...

, and of his brother, the celebrated Revolutionary War painter,

John Trumbull John Trumbull (June 6, 1756November 10, 1843) was an American artist of the early independence period, notable for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Re ...

. With Watson, Tudor had 2 sons, William Watson, who married Mary Dalrymple Bruce, great-granddaughter of General Samuel Barwick II,

Governor of Barbados This article contains a list of viceroys in Barbados from its initial colonisation in 1627 by England until it achieved independence in 1966. From 1833 to 1885, Barbados was part of the colony of the Windward Islands, and the governor of Barbad ...

; and Henry Samuel Tudor, who married Mary Rowe Bradley, daughter of U.S. Senator Stephen Rowe Bradley, and sister of William Czar Bradley, U.S. Representative, both of Vermont.

Merchant and founder of banks and insurance companies

Samuel was a prosperous importer and wholesale and retail dry goods merchant, with interests in several firms, including Tudor, Woodbridge & Co, established in 1805, one of the largest in Hartford. In 1814 he joined with 2 other partners to found the Phoenix Bank, which became one of the largest banks in Connecticut. He served as director and briefly as president of that bank. He was one of the first shareholders of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company, which today is known as

The Hartford The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., usually known as The Hartford, is a United States-based investment and insurance company. The Hartford is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in its namesake city of Hartford, Connecticut. It was rank ...

, and later was elected to the founding board of directors of the Aetna Insurance Company in 1819, the second insurance company to be created in Hartford County. He served on Aetna's board of directors for forty-three years, virtually for the balance of his life. Aetna was closely allied with Phoenix Bank and was to become the largest life insurance company in the world. Tudor and his fellow board of directors appointed Aetna’s first president, Thomas K. Brace. Tudor was also a founding trustee of the Society of Savings, the first savings bank in Connecticut.

Tudor and Trinity College (CT)

Samuel Tudor served as Trinity College's Treasurer from 1823 to 1836, and he later remained as a member of Trustees from 1825 until 1858. Tudor was one of the founding member of Trinity, who helped this institution to collect and secure fundings to thrive its first decade. He was also a very generous and continuous donor to the college until his death in 1862.

Tudor and Slavery

Samuel Tudor was a slave owner according to the

1810 United States Census The United States census of 1810 was the third census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 6, 1810. It showed that 7,239,881 people were living in the United States, of whom 1,191,362 were slaves. The 1810 census included o ...

, and the twelfth column of the chart indicates he owned a slave. The later

1820 United States Census The United States census of 1820 was the fourth census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 7, 1820. The 1820 census included six new states: Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Maine. There has ...

suggests he no longer own a slave. In 21st century, Aetna confessed that they sold slave policies to the slave owners after 1853, when Tudor had been serving as the director of the company for over thirty years from 1819. Samuel Tudor should be one of the responsible parties of Aetna to sell the policies of slaves. 1810 United States Census

Philanthropy

Tudor was for 47 years a member of the vestry of and a major financial contributor to Christ Church in Hartford. He played a leading role in the expansion of the church in 1827, his committee retaining the prominent architect, Ithiel Towne for the Gothic Revival design. In 1983, Christ Church Cathedral was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. He served on a committee with 2 other parishioners that participated in the founding of Washington College, later renamed Trinity College. Trinity is the second oldest college in Connecticut after Yale. As noted on the College's website, Tudor made large contributions to the institution. He additionally served for several years as its first treasurer and as a trustee.

Personal life

Tudor owned a large property on Main Street in Hartford that included a private greenhouse, ice house, and extensive ornamental and fruit gardens, which were said to be worthy as a destination for visitors to the city. He also enjoyed a reputation as a skilled musician. He lived to be 92. The celebrated nineteenth-century American poet,

Lydia Sigourney Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), ''née'' Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a ...

was the wife of Tudor’s longtime business partner and friend, Charles Sigourney, president of Phoenix Bank. She published a memorial poem of Tudor in 1862.The Man of Uz and Other Poems, Lydia H. Sigourney, Williams, Wiley, and Waterman, Hartford, CT, 1865 Of him she wrote: :... And so, for more than ninety years :Flow'd on his cloudless span, :In love of Nature, and of Art, :And kindred love for man, :Our oldest patriarch, kind and true, :To all our City dear, :His cordial tones, his greeting words :No more on earth we hear. . .

Notes

External links

One Hundred Years of Fire Insurance, Being a History of the Aetna Insurance CompanyFirst Century of the Phoenix National Bank of HartfordContributions to Christ Church of HartfordThe Memorial History of Hartford CountyThe History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tudor, Samuel 1769 births 1862 deaths People from East Windsor, Connecticut American philanthropists Businesspeople from Hartford, Connecticut