Call Number:

C0001

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

4 boxes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Thorne Collection of Elias Boudinot; Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1734-1924 (inclusive) and 1777-1819 (bulk)

Creator:

Boudinot, Elias, 1740-1821

Form:

Broadsides -- United States -- 18th century., Journals -- United States -- 18th century., and Recipes -- United States -- 18th century.

Abstract:

Elias Boudinot was an American lawyer and public official who represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress. This collection consists of correspondence, documents, and printed material relating to Boudinot and his family, collected by Langdon K. Thorne.

Elias Boudinot was an American lawyer and public official who represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress. Born in Philadelphia in 1740, Boudinot became a lawyer in 1760. At the onset of the American Revolution, he became a member of the Revolutionary Party although he was a conservative Whig. He served as deputy in the New Jersey provincial assembly and then as a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress. He later served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1795 before becoming director of the U.S. Mint from 1795 to 1805. Boudinot died in 1821.

The collection consists of correspondence, documents, and printed material relating to Elias Boudinot and the Boudinot family, collected by Langdon K. Thorne. Much of Boudinot's correspondence is addressed to his wife, Hannah, sister of Richard Stockton, while he is traveling with the Continental Army as commissary-general of prisoners (1777-1778); other letters deal more directly with his prisoners-of-war work, and there are many to his brother Elisha, covering (1777-1819) the whole range of Boudinot's public service: New Jersey member of the Continental Congress (1781-1783), president of that body (1782-1783), member of the National House of Representatives (1789-1795), director of the U.S. Mint (1795-1805), and founding member and first president of the American Bible Society (1816).

In addition, there are Boudinot's personal copy of a broadside of resolutions (1776-1777) relating to the Commissary of Prisoners Department and a copy of his proclamation (24 June 1783) as president of Congress moving it to Princeton. Among papers of others in the collection are Loyalist surgeon Uzal Johnson's journal (5 March 1780 to 6 March 1781), including accounts of the battle of King's Mountain and other military movements in and around Charleston, South Carolina, while serving under General Patterson in the 71st Regiment of Light Infantry, and a bound volume of recipes belonging to Mrs. C. Boudinot.