David Humphreys
DAVID HUMPHREYS
SOLDIER & POET
DIPLOMAT
EARLY INDUSTRIALIST
1752 - 1818
When Lord Cornwallis surrendered the British colors at
Yorktown effectively ending the Revolutionary War, it was Derby native
David Humphreys who had the distinction of receiving them and
conveying them to the Congress in Philadelphia. This remarkable man later
introduced Merino sheep to Connecticut and established the first factory
village in the United States - Humphreysville (now Seymour) where
some of the finest wool in the country was spun. Customers included U.S.
President Thomas Jefferson who once commented that, "The best fine
cloth made in the U.S., I am told, at the manufacture of Col. Humphreys...."
Humphrey's birthplace in Ansonia is now the home of the Derby Historical
Society. Click
here to learn more.
David Humphreys was born in Derby, Connecticut, the son
of the Reverend Daniel Humphreys and Sarah Riggs Bowers Humphreys. He
earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University in 1771 and a
Masters degree in 1774. He taught school briefly from 1771 to 1773 in
Wethersfield, Connecticut and then became a tutor in New York from 1773
to 1776. With the outbreak of the Revolution, David Humphreys joined a
New York Militia regiment in 1776, and later rose in the 6th Connecticut
Regiment to the rank of Brigade Major. He successively became an aide to
General Putnam (in 1778), General Nathaniel Greene (in 1780), and
General George Washington (from June of 1780 to the end of the
hostilities), attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
In 1784, Humphreys was appointed by Congress as Secretary of the
committee designated to negotiate commercial treaties in Europe, working
chiefly under Jefferson. Humphreys’ conservative (Federalist) political
convictions had not yet fully formed, and he and Jefferson were friends
until a falling out in 1801, when the third president recalled him from
his post overseas, thus ending his diplomatic career. In 1786, he was
back in Connecticut as a member of the State’s General Assembly. He was
then made Colonel of a United States detachment to suppress Shays’s
Rebellion in 1787. He spent long periods of time with the Washington's
at their Mount Vernon estate where he was a trusted advisor and
confidant of President Washington. In 1791, he was named the first
United States Minister to Portugal. In 1796, he was made Minister to
Spain, where he developed an interest in sheep breeding, and he
eventually introduced the Merino breed into Connecticut, drastically
improving the American production of quality wool. In 1797, he married
Ann Francis Bulkeley, the daughter of an Englishman who did business in
Lisbon, Portugal.
After 1801 and his replacement by Jefferson, Humphreys, now back in his
native Connecticut, had the satisfaction of seeing his own woolen and
cotton mills thrive. As he grew older, honors came to him from Brown
University, Dartmouth College, and through membership in the British
Royal Society. He was commissioned a brigadier general in the
Connecticut militia in reaction to the War of 1812. When he died at New
Haven he was a respected and successful citizen, merchant, and writer.
Humphreys grave in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven
The events of David Humphreys’ life did not make him a traditional hero
of the American Revolution nor did they place him in the limelight. He
was content to work hard in the background of the emerging Republic as
an advisor, a negotiator, and a principled and devoted servant to the
principles of Democracy and free enterprise. General David Humphreys was
a man who believed in the ideals of freedom, a man who worked behind the
scenes, for the most part, to promote and assure the highest ideals of
our new nation. He demonstrated, time and again, unswerving loyalty to
his superior officers and to the men who served under him. We honor him
as a hard-working citizen who lived the principles of the new Republic
he helped to form.
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