TRUMBULL, JONATHAN (1710-1785)

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 325 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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TRUMBULL, JONATHAN (1710-1785) , American political leader, was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the 12th of October 1710. He graduated at Harvard in 1727, and began the study of theology, but in 1731 engaged in business with his father. He next studied law, was elected to the Assembly in 1773, and held public office almost continuously afterward. He served for seven years in the Assembly, being

Speaker

SPEAKER

for three years, for seventeen years as county judge of Windham county, for twenty-two years (after 1740) as

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

's assistant, for two years as

deputy

DEPUTY (through the Fr. from a Late Lat. use of deputare, to cut off, allot; putare having the original sense of to trim, prune)

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

(1767-1769), and for three years (1766-1769) as

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

justice of the colony. In 1769 he was elected governor and continued in office until his voluntary retirement in 1784. During the War of Independence he was a valued counsellor of Washington. The story that the term " Brother Jonathan," a sobriquet for the United States, originated in Washington's familiar form of addressing him seems to be without any foundation. After the war

Trumbull

was a strong Federalist. He died in Lebanon on the 17th of August 1785
His public papers have been printed in the

Massachusetts

MASSACHUSETTS (an Indian name, originally applied to a tribe of Indians)

Historical Society's Collections, 5th

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

, vols. ix.-x. (Boston, 1885-1888), and 7th

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

, vols. ii.-iii. (1902). See I.W. Stuart, Life of Jonathan

Trumbull

, sen. (Boston, 1859).
His son JONATHAN (1740-1809) graduated at Harvard in 1759, served in the War of Independence as paymaster-general of the northern department in 1775-1778 and as a military secretary of Washington in 1778-1783, and was a member of the national

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Representatives in 1789-1795, serving as

Speaker

SPEAKER

in 1791-1793, and of the United States Senate in 1795-1796; he was lieutenant-governor of Connecticut in 1796-1798, and governor in 1798-1809. Another son, JosEPH (1737-1778), was a member of the first Continental Congress (1774-1775), became commissary-general of stores of the Continental army in July 1775 and commissary-general of purchases in June 1777, resigned in August 1777, and from November 1777 to April 1778 was

commissioner

COMMISSIONER

for the board of war. A grandson of the first Jonathan, JOSEPH (1782-1861), was a Whig representative in Congress in 1834-1835 and in 1839-1843, and was governor of Connecticut in 1849-1850.

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