congressman merchant sea-captain
Jacob Crowninshield was born on March 31, 1770 in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of George and Mary (Derby) Crowninshield, and brother of George and Benjamin Williams Crowninshield. Jacob was the second son and the most gifted member of the family.
He was master of the schooner Active on a voyage to Europe in 1790.
In 1791 he took the Henry to the West Indies. On November 3, 1792, he returned from Calcutta and the Isle of France (Mauritius).
On January 23, 1793, he sailed again for India in the Henry, returning in November 1794.
In April 1796 he brought to New York, in the famous armed ship America, the first live elephant ever seen in the United States. It was a female six feet four inches high and sold for $io, ooo.
Like the other members of his family, he was an uncompromising supporter of Jeffersonian policies. In 1801 he was elected to the Massachusetts state Senate. In the following year he defeated Timothy Pickering in a bitterly contested race for the national House of Representatives.
In 1805 President Jefferson invited him to succeed Robert Smith as secretary of the navy. Crowninshield felt compelled to decline, but the President nevertheless sent his nomination to the Senate.
It was confirmed, and according to the records of the Department of State Crowninshield was secretary of the navy from March 3, 1805, until March 7, 1809, although he never assumed the duties of the office. His own health grew precarious. The rugged young viking, who could take a clipper from Salem round the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta and back again, succumbed to the stuffy, unventilated atmosphere of the hall of the House of Representatives.
Blood gushed from his throat as he brought his last speech to a close. He died while Congress was still in session, and his body was brought back to Salem for burial.
He was tendered the position of U. S. Secretary of the Navy by President Thomas Jefferson, but never entered upon his duties on account of ill health. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the 8th, 9th and 10th Congresses and served from March 4, 1803, until his death in Washington, D. C. , aged 38. While in the House, in the 9th Congress, he was chairman of the United States House Committee on Commerce and Manufactures.
Quotes from others about the person
“We lament him very much for his Natural Abilities, his great Commercial knowledge, his sincere virtues, & his inflexible patriotism, ” the Rev. William Bentley wrote in his diary for April 20, 1808.
“I have known him from a lad & have nothing to blame in him. He was everything in every domestic, social, & civil relation. Had he not been confined in his early education & early been engaged in the business of the Seas he would have left none before him. ”
Crowninshield married Sarah, daughter of John and Sarah (Derby) Gardner, June 8, 1796, and remained ashore thereafter, devoting himself to his extensive commercial interests and to politics.
On May 18, 1807, his wife died.
