Benjamin Williams Crowninshield
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| Benjamin Williams Crowninshield | |
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| In office March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1831 |
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| Preceded by | Gideon Barstow |
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| Succeeded by | Rufus Choate |
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| In office January 16, 1815 – September 30, 1818 |
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| President | James Madison James Monroe |
| Preceded by | William Jones |
| Succeeded by | Smith Thompson |
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| Born | December 27, 1772 Salem, Massachusetts |
| Died | February 3, 1851 (aged 78) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Federalist National Republican |
| Occupation | Merchant |
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (December 27, 1772 – February 3, 1851) served as the United States Secretary of the Navy between 1815 and 1818, during the administrations of Presidents James Madison and James Monroe.
Crowninshield was born in Salem, Massachusetts the son of a sea captain and merchant of the Boston Brahmin Crowninshield family. He worked in the family shipping business, Geo. Crowninshield & Sons, served at sea, and was also active in politics. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1811 and the state Senate in 1812.
Crowninshield became Secretary of the Navy in January 1815, a position almost held by his brother Jacob Crowninshield ten years earlier, at the end of the War of 1812 and managed the transition to a peacetime force. This included implementation of the new Board of Commissioners administrative system and the building of several ships of the line, the backbone of a much enhanced Navy. He also oversaw strategy and naval policy for the war with Algiers in 1815.
After leaving Navy office in 1818, Crowninshield returned to business and political affairs in Massachusetts, prospering in both. In addition to serving two more terms in the Massachusetts House, he was also elected to four terms the United States Congress from 1823 to 1831.
On his passing in 1851, Benjamin Williams Crowninshield was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The destroyer USS Crowninshield (DD-134) was named in his honor.
Crowninshield was the great-grandfather of Charles Francis Adams II, a Union Army General during the American Civil War, and the great-great-grandfather of his son Charles Francis Adams III, too a Secretary of the Navy from 1929 to 1933.
[edit] References
- This article includes public domain text from the Naval Historical Center.
| Preceded by Gideon Barstow |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1831 |
Succeeded by Rufus Choate |
| Preceded by William Jones |
United States Secretary of the Navy January 16, 1815 – September 30, 1818 |
Succeeded by Smith Thompson |
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