William Pitkin Jr.

Background

He was born in 1725 in Connecticut, United States, was the fourth in a line of distinguished Hartford magistrates and prosperous manufacturers of the same name. His father was William Pitkin, 1694-1769, and his mother, Mary Woodbridge.

Education

He was trained for the law.

Career

He owned power sites and mills that had belonged to his father and his uncle, Joseph Pitkin. When, in December 1775, the General Assembly granted to George Pitkin and himself permission to establish a powder-mill three miles east of the Connecticut River, one of these earlier sites was used. This powder-mill, probably the first in Connecticut, supplied the colony during the Revolution. But the price of powder, set in 1776 by the Assembly was too low for profit, and Pitkin received additional compensation at the end of the war.

The Act of January 8, 1783, gave to him and two others a monopoly for twenty-five years upon the manufacture of glass in Connecticut, and during the next year he alone received similar rights over snuff manufacturing with exemption from taxation for fourteen years. In addition to these ventures he had an interest in a forging-mill.

Much of his life was given to public service. At thirty-one he was commissioned captain of the third militia company of Hartford, and two years later, still captain of his third company, he became major-commandant of the first regiment of Connecticut forces which was to serve under Abercromby in the campaign against New France. In 1762 he became lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment.

In the realm of politics he served for nineteen years (1766 - 85) as assistant on the governor's council. During the Revolution he sat almost continuously on the Council of Safety and was known as an ardent patriot. Elected to Congress in 1784, he seems not to have taken his seat. He was considered for the lieutenant-governorship in 1787, but he finished a poor seventh among the eight candidates in the field. The next year, however, he and Elisha Pitkin were East Hartford's delegates to the convention that ratified the new federal constitution.

In the year of his father's death, 1769, he was made a judge of the superior court and remained until the year of his death, the last year as its chief judge.

Achievements

• William Pitkin was the fourth Pitkin in the direct line to preside over the highest court of Connecticut. Pitkin was an officer during the French & Indian War and had the rank of lieutenant-colonel, a member of the Council of Safety during the American Revolution. He was one of two East Hartford's delegates to the convention that ratified the new federal constitution, and William cast his vote in its favor. Thus, East Hartford had been separated from Hartford after the war, and William Pitkin had been moderator of its first town meeting.

Connections

There is no information about his marital status.

Father:

William Pitkin

Mother:

Mary Woodbridge

coworker:

Elisha Pitkin

Brother:

Timothy Pitkin

Uncle:

Joseph Pitkin

References

• Pitkin Family of America: A Genealogy of the Descendants of William Pitkin, the Progenitor of the Family in This Country, From His Arrival From England in 1659 to 1886 (Classic Reprint)