Trumbull, Benjamin, 1735-1820

Dates

• Existence: 1735 - 1820

Biography

Benjamin Trumbull (19 December 1735 – 2 February 1820) was an early American historian and preacher.

Born in Hebron, Colony of Connecticut, Trumbull graduated from Yale in 1759, and received his theological education under Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, who delivered his ordination sermon in 1760, commending him to the people of North Haven as “not a sensual, sleepy, lazy, dumb dog, that could not bark back.” He continued in that charge for nearly sixty years, his preaching being interrupted only by the Revolution, in which he served both as a volunteer and as chaplain. After the war he published a pamphlet sustaining the claim of Connecticut to the Susquehanna purchase, which influenced the decision of congress in her favor. Yale gave him the degree of D.D. in 1796. He published Twelve Discourses on the Divine Origin of the Holy Scriptures (Hartford, 1790); General History of the United States of America (3 vols., Boston, 1765-1810); and Complete History of Connecticut from 1630 till 1713 (2 vols., Hartford, 1797). The manuscript collections from which this history is compiled are in the Yale library. His grandson Lyman Trumbull was a U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Trumbull was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. AAS holds original copies of over 40 titles related to, or authored by Trumbull, as well as the manuscript of his General History of the United States He died in North Haven, Connecticut.

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