Benjamin Trumbull

Benjamin Trumbull
Born	(1735-12-19)19 December 1735 Hebron,Colony of Connecticut,British America
Died	2 February 1820(1820-02-02)(aged 84)
Alma mater	Yale University(DD)
Occupations	preacher historian
Relatives	Lyman Trumbull(grandson)

Benjamin Trumbull(19 December 1735 – 2 February 1820) was an earlyAmericanhistorianand preacher.

Early life

Benjamin Trumbull was born inHebron,Colony of Connecticut,in 1735 to Benjamin Trumbull.He graduated fromYale Universityin 1759 and studied theology under ReverendEleazer Wheelock.Wheelock 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.”

Career

Trumbull began as a pastor on December 24, 1760, at the Congressional Church inNew Haven.He was a pastor for about sixty years, his preaching being interrupted only by theRevolution,in which he served both as a volunteer and aschaplainfor the Wadsworth's Brigade underJames Wadsworth.After the war he published apamphletsustaining the claim ofConnecticutto theSusquehanna purchase,which influenced the decision of Congress in her favor. Yale gave him the degree ofD.D.in 1796. He publishedTwelve Discourses on the Divine Origin of the Holy Scriptures(Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1790);A General History of the United States of America; from the Discovery, in 1492, to 1792,....that was intended to be three volumes, but he lived only to complete the first,Vol. I: Exhibiting a General View of the Principal Events, from the Discovery of North America, to the Year 1765(New York: Williams & Whiting, 1810); andA Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of Its First Planters from England, in MDCXXX, to MDCCXIII(Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1797), later expanded in a second edition toA Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the Emigration of Its First Planters from England, in 1630, to the Year 1764; and to the Close of the Indian Wars(New Haven, CT: Maltby, Goldsmith, & Co. and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818).The manuscript collections from which this history is compiled are in the Yale library. His grandsonLyman Trumbullwas a U.S. Senator fromIllinois.

Trumbull was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Societyin 1814.AAS holds original copies of over 40 titles related to, or authored by Trumbull, as well as the manuscript of hisGeneral History of the United StatesHe died inNorth Haven, Connecticut.

References

• Wilson, J. G.;Fiske, J.,eds. (1900)."Trumbull, Benjamin".Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.New York: D. Appleton.

External links

• Benjamin Trumbull papers (MS 505). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.[1]
• Works by or about Benjamin Trumbullat theInternet Archive
• A complete history of Connecticut: civil and ecclesiastical, from the emigration of its first planters, from England, in the year 1830, to the year 1764; and to the close of the Indian wars(2 vols.). New Haven. 1818.Volume OneandVolume TwoatGoogle Books
• Benjamin TrumbullatFind a Grave