Call Number:

C0228

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 2 boxes
• 27 items

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

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

Date:

1758-1898 (inclusive) and 1777-1819 (bulk)

Creator:

Boudinot, Elias, 1740-1821

Form:

Commonplace books, Correspondence, and American diaries

Abstract:

The Stimson Collection of Elias Boudinot (1740-1821) consists of papers, mostly correspondence, relating to the Boudinot family, particularly the brothers Elias and Elisha, from the Revolutionary War period and several decades thereafter, collected by Frederick B. Stimson.

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 Stimson Collection of Elias Boudinot (1740-1821) consists of papers, mostly correspondence, relating to the Boudinot family, particularly the brothers Elias and Elisha, from the Revolutionary War period and several decades thereafter, collected by Frederick B. Stimson. Among the family correspondence are 43 letters (1758-1798) by Elias to his wife, Hannah, sister of Richard Stockton, and 14 letters (1777-1784) to his daughter, Susan, wife of William Bradford. Bradford's sister, Rachel, was Elisha's second wife, and the collection contains 13 letters (1798-1800) by her to him. Other correspondents include Samuel Bayard, Clement Biddle, Ashbel Green, William Griffith, and Lewis Pintard.

In addition, there is a volume of letters (1775-1790) to Elias in his official capacity as a commissary of prisoners, with receipts, lists of stores delivered to his ships, one copy of terms of release, and an examination of three deserters; Elias' journal, entitled "Journey to Boston, 1809" which describes a trip made with his daughter and her friend from New Jersey to Maine; two commonplace books (1803) of notes, digests, and extracts from his readings; and a volume of William Bradford's notes (1772) taken on John Witherspoon's lectures on eloquence. Thirteen poems by Annis Stockton, sister of Elias and Elisha and wife of Richard Stockton, and verse by Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson highlights papers of others in the collection.

Included in Box 1 is an old checklist.