Jeremiah Wadsworth was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of the Rev. Daniel Wadsworth, pastor of the First Church of Christ, and Abigail Talcott, the daughter of Gov. Joseph Talcott. William Wadsworth, the first American ancestor of the family, came to America from England about 1632. Jeremiah was four years of age when his father died and he was placed in charge of his uncle, Matthew Talcott, a ship-owner of Middletown.
Career
At the age of eighteen, in the hope of improving his health, he embarked as a common sailor aboard one of his uncle's vessels, followed the sea for about ten years, and rose to the rank of captain. His early championship of colonial rights combined with his knowledge of mercantile affairs induced the legislature, in April 1775, to appoint him commissary to the Revolutionary forces raised in Connecticut. On June 18, 1777, the Continental Congress elected him deputy commissary-general of purchases, and he served until his resignation the following August. Upon the retirement of Joseph Trumbull as commissary-general, he was appointed, in April 1778, to fill the post and remained until he resigned on December 4, 1779. Despite scarcity of funds and lack of cooperation on the part of state authorities, he kept the Continental Army so well provisioned that Washington wrote, "since his appointment our supplies of provision have been good and ample". At the request of Rochambeau he served as commissary also to the French troops in America until the close of the war, and in the summer of 1783 he went to Paris in order to submit a report of his transactions. Proceeding to England and Ireland in March 1784, he invested the considerable balance remaining to his credit in merchandise that he disposed of profitably upon his return to America. He was a member of the state convention called in 1788 to consider the ratification of the federal Constitution, and voted in its favor, possibly for financial as well as political reasons since he held public paper that was bound to appreciate in value upon adoption of a new frame of government. He was elected a Federalist to Congress in 1787 and 1788, but attended only in 1788. He was a strong advocate of assumption, a policy in which he appears to have had a large speculative interest. In 1795 he was elected to the state legislature and to the executive council, remaining a member of the latter body by annual election until 1801. His business interests were varied and important. He was a founder of the Bank of North America in Philadelphia and of the Hartford Bank, a director of the United States Bank, president of the Bank of New York, and one of the promoters of the Hartford Manufacturing Company, established in 1788, "the first purely wool-manufacturing concern founded on a strictly business basis, and the first in which power machinery was employed". He established in 1794 the first partnership for insurance in Connecticut. He introduced fine breeds of cattle from abroad and engaged in experiments with a view to improving agriculture. He died at Hartford and was laid to rest in the Ancient Burying Ground.
Achievements
Connections
On September 29, 1767, he was married to Mehitable Russell, the daughter of the Rev. William Russell, of Middletown; they had three children.