agriculturist consul Diplomat Financier merchant philanthropist
Jarvis was born on February 2, 1770, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Dr. Charles Jarvis, a well-known physician of that city, by his first wife, Mary (Clapham) Jarvis. He was a descendant of Capt. Nathaniel Jarvis, a native of Wales, who settled in Boston in 1668. When William was about three years old his father married his second wife, Mary Pepperrell Sparhawk, a granddaughter of Sir William Pepperrell.
After attending schools in Boston, young Jarvis was sent, at the age of fourteen, to Bordentown Academy in New Jersey; a year later he became a pupil in the school conducted by William Waring of Philadelphia.
When he was twenty-one. having had four or more years' experience as clerk and bookkeeper for mercantile firms in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, Jarvis established a business of his own on Long Wharf, Boston, with a young Virginian, at the outset, as partner. The venture prospered and, being well connected, Jarvis was prominent in the social life of the city. Through the endorsement of notes, however, he was involved in financial disaster. He was arrested, but was ensured his liberty upon obligating himself to pay $14, 500 in five years. He then went to sea as a supercargo of a vessel, but the year following, 1797, he purchased a third interest in a brig, which he himself commanded. As a trader Jarvis was shrewd, venturesome, and successful. His experiences made him well acquainted with the complicated problems of foreign commerce arising out of the struggle between France and England, and Jefferson appointed him consul and chargé d'affaires at Lisbon, then an important trade center. He accepted with reluctance but entered upon his duties with much vigor, continuing as consul from 1802 to 1811, at the same time conducting a profitable commission house of his own. In his official capacity, Jarvis promptly undertook the protection of American seamen and persuaded the Portuguese government to put a stop to the activity of the press gangs and the impressment on the streets of Lisbon. He also obtained important modifications of the rules of quarantine against yellow fever for ships from northern countries and prevented the adoption of burdensome duties on American flour. When Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, seizing and confiscating property and pushing on into Portugal, Jarvis' command of money and credit enabled him to buy 3, 500 selected Merino sheep with license to export them to the United States. For centuries these very profitable animals had been jealously guarded against export by the Spanish government. David Humphreys, Jarvis' predecessor at Lisbon, had brought out a few, but it remained for Jarvis to introduce them in large numbers and distribute them throughout the different states. Jefferson commended him highly for his services, assured him that he was giving special attention to promoting the increase of the Merinos sent to Virginia, and invited him to "Monticello" to test the excellence of the Carrasguiera and other wines which Jarvis had procured for him in 1803. After his return to the United States in 1810 he bought a farm at Weathersfield, Vermont, on the Connecticut River, and devoted himself with meticulous care to its cultivation, although the condition of his business in Lisbon compelled him to make a hazardous visit there (1813-1815). He continued to take an active interest in public affairs; he was an ardent protectionist and in 1827 was a delegate to the Harrisburg Convention. Jarvis died on October 21, 1859.
In 1808 Jarvis married at Lisbon, Mary Pepperrell Sparhawk, a niece of his step-mother: she died in 1811 and in 1817 he married her cousin, Ann Bailey Bartlett. By his first wife he had two children, and by the second, ten.
