American politician (1763?1843)
Benjamin Pickman Jr.
(September 30, 1763 – August 16, 1843) was a
U.S. Representative
from
Massachusetts
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Pickman was born in
Salem
in the
Province of Massachusetts Bay
, a descendant of Benjamin Pickman, an Englishman from
Bristol
.
[2]
[3]
Pickman graduated from
Harvard University
in 1784 after having attended Dummer Academy (now known as
The Governor's Academy
). The descendant of a Salem merchant family dynasty related to other prominent Salem families such as the Derbys, the Pickerings and the Crowninshields,
[4]
Pickman studied law in
Newburyport, Massachusetts
, and was
admitted to the bar
, but soon relinquished the practice of law to engage in commercial pursuits, becoming one of the most active merchants of his day in Salem.
Pickman's father Col.
Benjamin Pickman, Sr.
,
[5]
one of the most important merchants in Salem, had been a
Loyalist
, his estates confiscated by the Colonial government and was forced to flee America for England, only returning to Salem in 1785 after the end of the
Revolutionary War
.
[6]
Benjamin Pickman Jr., served the new nation in several capacities. He was a member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
in 1797?1802, 1812, and 1813. Benjamin Pickman Jr. also served in the
Massachusetts Senate
in 1803, as well as a member of the
executive council of the State
in 1805, 1808, 1813, 1814, and 1819?1821.
Pickman was elected as a
Federalist
to the
Eleventh Congress
(March 4, 1809 – March 3, 1811), but he was not a candidate for renomination in 1810. He served as member of the convention to revise the
constitution of the State of Massachusetts
in 1820. He served as overseer of
Harvard University
1810?1818. He served as president of the board of directors of the
Theological School at Cambridge
. He died in
Salem, Massachusetts
, August 16, 1843, and was interred with his Pickman ancestors in Salem's Broad Street Cemetery.
[7]
He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1815.
[8]
Pickman was instrumental in the commercial development of much of the heart of historic Salem. In 1815 he and John Derby III acquired property belonging to Derby family heirs to develop Derby Square, which would encompass three brick commercial rows. The Pickman-Derby Block, built in 1817, still stands. The Pickman Building on Derby Square, built in 1816, was part of the development.
[9]
The Pickman family also owned Pickman farm. Salem's Pickman Street is named for them.
[10]
Benjamin Pickman Jr. was married to Anstiss Derby, daughter of
Elias Hasket Derby
and Elizabeth
Crowninshield
.
[11]
The son of Benjamin Pickman and the former Anstiss Derby was Hasket Derby Pickman, who died in 1815, the same year he graduated from
Harvard College
.
[12]
While he was known as Benjamin Pickman Jr., he was actually the fifth continuous Benjamin in the line. His daughter, Anstiss Derby Pickman, married John Whittingham Rogers. They were the parents of Anstiss Derby Rogers, who married merchant
William Shepard Wetmore
on September 5, 1843. Their son,
George P. Wetmore
, was the Governor of Rhode Island and a United States Senator from that state, and their daughter, Annie Derby Rogers Wetmore, married businessman
William Watts Sherman
. The daughter of Sherman, Georgette Wetmore Sherman, married
Harold Brown (Rhode Island financier)
, son of
John Carter Brown
and grandson of
Nicholas Brown Jr.
Benjamin's niece, Mary Toppan Pickman, married Massachusetts Congressman and diplomat
George B. Loring
, who is Benjamin's great-nephew through his brother Clark. She is the daughter of Benjamin's brother, Dr. Thomas Pickman. His aunt, Judith Pickman, married physician and scientist
Edward Augustus Holyoke
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Roberts, Oliver Ayer (1897),
History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called The Ancient and Honorable Company of Massachusetts. Volume II. 1738-1828.
, Boston, MA: The Ancient and Honorable Company of Massachusetts., p. 408
- ^
The Founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Sprague Saunders Smith, Sun Printing Company, Pittsfield, Mass., 1897
- ^
Naturalization papers of Benjamin Pickman, Dudley Leavitt Pickman Papers, Phillips Library Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, pem.org
Archived
December 18, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Pickman House, Essex Institute Historical Collections, Essex Institute, Peabody Essex Museum, Vol. XXXIX, Printed for the Society, Salem, 1903
- ^
The Founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sarah Sprague Saunders Smith, Sun Printing Company, Pittsfield, Mass., 1897
- ^
The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, An American in England, Samuel Curwen, George Atkinson Ward, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1864
- ^
Pickman family tomb, Broad Street Cemetery, Salem, Massachusetts, smugmug.com
Archived
August 4, 2009, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780?2010: Chapter P"
(PDF)
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
August 7,
2014
.
- ^
Architecture in Salem, Bryant Franklin Tolles, Jr., Bryant F. Tolles, Carolyn K. Tolles, Paul F. Norton, reprinted by UPNE, 2004
- ^
The Pickman Silver, Essex Institute Historical Collections, Essex Institute, Peabody Essex Museum, Vol. XXXIX, Salem, Mass., 1903
- ^
Life in a New England Town, 1787, 1788, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1903
- ^
"Gravestone of Hasket Derby Pickman, Old Burying Point, Salem, Massachusetts, gravematter.smugmug.com"
. Archived from
the original
on October 4, 2008
. Retrieved
December 26,
2008
.
External links
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
This article incorporates
public domain material
from the
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
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