Benjamin Say was an American physician and philanthropist, politician. He was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Background
Benjamin born on August 28, 1755 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, was the son of Thomas Say by his second wife, Rebekah (Atkinson) Budd, widow of Thomas Budd and daughter of Samuel Atkinson.
A descendant of a French Huguenot family in England and the son of William, who settled in America towards the close of the seventeenth century, Thomas Say (1709 - 96) began his business life as a harness maker but later opened an apothecary shop and set up as a physician. Although he administered medicines he also claimed to accomplish cures by means of stroking the afflicted part. He was deeply religious, with mystical tendencies.
Education
There is no definite information as to where Benjamin Say received his medical education. Although he is said to have graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, there is no record in the official registers. Probably his father was his preceptor.
Career
Say followed his father's example in conducting an apothecary shop in connection with a medical practice. The ledger preserved in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia shows that his practice was both extensive and lucrative. His lack of a degree did not prevent his becoming one of the first junior fellows of the College of Physicians and as such signing the constitution of the college at its adoption on January 2, 1787. He also served as treasurer of the college from 1791 to 1809.
He is said to have published a book on "Spasmodic Affections of the Eye" in 1792, but it is not in the library of the Surgeon-General in Washington, nor in that of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. His only other publication was An Annual Oration Pronounced before the Humane Society of Philadelphia (1799). He was one of the incorporators of the society and its president in 1799.
In 1799 he was elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania but declined to accept a renomination in 1801; in 1808 he was elected representative in Congress from Pennsylvania but resigned in the following year.
He and his father were shareholders in the company formed by John Fitch to exploit his steamboat. He was also much in horticulture and in 1802 was president of a "Company for the Improvement of the Vine. "
When he died, in Philadelphia, he left a large estate to his second wife and the six children who survived him.
Achievements
Politics
Say was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Congress and later was reelected. He was active in the movement to abolish slavery.
Membership
Say was a member of the Pennsylvania Prison Society and the Pennsylvania Humane Society.
Personality
But in spite of his mysticism Benjamin was a good man of business and a public-spirited citizen.
Connections
Benjamin married Ann, daughter of Benjamin Bonsall and granddaughter of John Bartram, the botanist, on October 1, 1776. By her he had four children, one of whom, Thomas Say, became a distinguished naturalist. After her death in 1793, he married on December 22, 1795, Miriam Moore, by whom he had two daughters and a son.