Henry Cruger: The Colleague of Edmund Burke in the British Parliament: A Paper Read Before the New York Historical Society, January 4Th, 1859
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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Henry Cruger Jr. was an American and British merchant at the time of the American Revolution, mayor of Bristol, England, member of Parliament, New York State senator.
Background
Henry Cruger was born on November 22, 1739 in New York City, the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Harris) Cruger.
His grandfather, John Cruger, was the first of the family to come to America, and the family association with the English cousins in Bristol was always intimate.
Education
Henry matriculated at King’s College in the class of 1758 but he did not complete his course.
Career
In 1757 he was sent by his father to the counting- house in Bristol, then a rival of London in the American trade, to familiarize himself with the Cruger business. The young man found it a simple matter to take to wife the daughter of Samuel Peach, a Bristol banker, and settle down to a successful career as merchant. He rose to a high degree of personal popularity, and eminently enjoyed the regard and confidence of his fellow citizens of Bristol”.
Cruger kept in constant touch with the members of his family in New York during the pre-Revolutionary days and felt keenly the mistakes that were being made by the British government in its treatment of the colonies.
In 1774 he stood for Parliament and induced his fellow citizens to place Edmund Burke on the ticket with him. “Burke, Cruger, and Liberty” was the party cry. Triumphantly elected and “chaired, ” Cruger entered Parliament in the session which began November 29, 1774, although his political enemies tried to get the House of Commons to refuse a seat to the American.
In his maiden speech, admirable for its restraint, he deplored the parliamentary measures that had “widened the breach instead of closing it, ” that “diminished the obedience of the colonies instead of confirming it, ” that “increased the turbulence and opposition instead of allaying them, ” and pled for a different plan of conduct which would “secure the colonists in their liberties, while it maintains the just supremacy of Parliament”.
At the next election, in 1780, Cruger was “turned out, ” as he said, “because of his attachment to the Americans during the war. ” However, he was made mayor of Bristol the following year, and was again successful as a candidate for Parliament in 1784. The Cruger family bond had been sufficiently strong to bring Henry’s father to Bristol (1775) to spend his last years with him.
Henry himself declined to run again for Parliament in 1790 in an address “to the Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders and Freemen of the city of Bristol, ” and removed with his family to New York. His political welcome was an election to the Senate of New York State in April 1792, a high compliment to his American sympathies.
He was not active in business after his return to America, but overcame ill health to live to a good old age.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
During the speech, Flood, the Irish orator, was heard to say: “Whosoever he is, he speaks more eloquently than any man I have yet heard in the House”.
Connections
Cruger was married three times, firstly in 1765 with a daughter of Samuel Peach of Tockington a wealthy linen draper and banker. Regardless, she died in 1767, leaving a son Samuel Peach Cruger, who changed his name to Samuel Peach by 1788 after inheriting his grandfather Samuel's fortune. Cruger’s second wife was Elizabeth Blair, who died soon after the family removed to New York. His third wife, whom he married about 1799, was an American woman, Caroline Smith.