Jeremiah Wadsworth
Born: Hartford; July 12, 1743
Died: Hartford; April 30, 1804
When only four years old, Wadsworth lost his father and was raised by his uncle, Matthew Tallcott (1713-1802), a
Middletown sea captain, merchant, and shipowner. At eighteen, to improve his health he went to sea in one of his
uncle's vessels, rising to the rank of captain during his ten-year career.
In April 1775 the General Assembly appointed him one of nine commissaries under Commissary General Joseph Trumbull to
obtain supplies for Connecticut troops serving in Massachusetts. His experience as a merchant enabled him to procure far
more supplies than any other commissary. In December 1776 he won appointment by the assembly as the commissary general of
supplies. When Congress appointed him commissary general of purchases in 1778 at Washington's insistence, he promptly
reorganized and expanded the office to include all states except Georgia and South Carolina.
In the summer of 1778 Congress made him responsible for supplying the French fleet at Newport, but he resigned in
December 1779, feeling that Congress lacked confidence in him. At the request of Rochambeau, commander of the French troops
at Newport, in October 1780 he joined with John Carter in a firm which supplied food for the French troops. With payment
to farmers made promptly and in sound French money, the French at times were glutted with food while American troops
suffered, resulting in the adoption of procedures which were fair to both French and American armies. For Wadsworth the
French contract proved very lucrative, since he received a five per cent commission on his purchases.
Elected in May 1780 as a deputy, he became a member of the upper house in 1795, serving until 1801. He served in
Congress from 1787 to 1791 and 1793 to 1795, thus being a member of the First Federal Congress. A member of
Connecticut's ratifying convention in 1788, he gave strong support to the proposed Federal Constitution.
His varied business interests were widespread: a founder of the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, of the Hartford
Bank, and of the Hartford Library Company; director of the United States Bank; president of the Bank of New York;
a founder of the Hartford Manufacturing Company, which was the first wool-manufacturing business and the first to use
power machinery in the United States; and a partner in the Hartford and New Haven Insurance Company, Connecticut's
first insurance company. Interested in the improvement of agriculture, he introduced new breeds of cattle from abroad.
He represented well the new class of entrepreneurs who led the rapid economic expansion of the young nation.
For Further Reading:
Destler, Chester M. Connecticut: The Provisions State. Chester, Connecticut, 1973.
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