Benjamin Ferris was a watchmaker and historian from Wilmington, Delaware.
Background
Ferris was born the sixth of seven children to Ziba Ferris (1743–1794) and Edith Sharpless (1742–1815) in a house on the northeast corner of Third and Shipley Streets in Wilmington. He was a descendant of Samuel Ferris, who had come from Reading, England, in 1682 to settle at Groton, Massachusetts, and of John Ferris, who was among the first settlers in the city of Wilmington in 1748.
Career
Ferris moved to Philadelphia at age 14, where he learned the watchmaking business. They returned to live in Wilmington in 1813, where he was appointed city surveyor in 1820. The couple had ten children together, William (#1)(1805-1805), Edward (#1)(1809-1810), Anna (#1)(1811–1814), Deborah (1813–1897), Anna (#2)(1815–1890), Benjamin (1817–1831), Martha (1819–1912), David (1821–1908), William (#2)(1822-1909), and Edward (#2)(1825-1919).
Although the treaty he recommended was ultimately rejected by the Senate, he was successful in brokering a deal which resulted in about half their land being restored to them.
Ferris was particularly interested in preserving the history of Wilmington, devoting several years of his life to research, and studying the Swedish language to enable him to use the records of the Old Swedes Church. In 1846 he published A History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware: From its Discovery by Hudson to the Colonization under William Pennsylvania