Elias Boudinot IV & Hannah Stockton Boudinot. Oils by Charles Willson Peale, 1784. Images courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum
Elias Boudinot IV, the son of a merchant and silversmith was born on May 2, 1740 in Philadelphia. As an infant, he was baptized by the famed evangelist preacher Rev. George Whitefield at Philadelphia’s Second Presbyterian Church where his father Elias Boudinot III was a Deacon. The next door neighbor of the Boudinots on High Street, was none other than postmaster and Poor Richard’s Almanac and the Whitefield Sermons publisher Benjamin Franklin. Elias enrolled in 1751 at age 11 in the very first class of the new Academy of Philadelphia, a school Franklin had helped found and led as the president of the board of trustees. This one year was the only formal schooling Elias would ever receive, because the elder Boudinot moved his family to New Jersey in 1752 to chase a new business investment in a copper mine. The mine would ultimately fail. Elias was a teenager in 1756 when the family arrived in Princeton and rented a small home from the College of New Jersey President Aaron Burr Sr. – directly across the street from the new college building called Nassau Hall. In 1748, Richard Stockton had graduated from the college’s first class when it was still located in Newark. His father, family patriarch John Stockton had donated a tract of land to help lure the college to the sleepy village of Princeton which at that time was part of Somerset County (Mercer County was formed in 1838). John Stockton died in 1757, and left much of his land and wealth to his son Richard. The wealthy Princeton lawyer Richard Stockton took both Elias and his older brother Elisha Boudinot under his wing and gave them apprenticeships to study the practice of law at his new estate located about a mile from Nassau Hall. Richard Stockton fell in love with Elias’s older sister Annis, and married her in 1758 at Morven – the Stockton Family home in Princeton (a National Historic Landmark now known as Morven Museum and Gardens). It was Annis who named the estate “Morven” after a mythical Gaelic kingdom. Annis Boudinot became one of the first published female poets in the British colonies. Notably, Boudinot’s brother-in-law Richard Stockton, his nephew Benjamin Rush (Rush had married Annis and Richard’s daughter Susannah in early 1776), and the man they all recruited to become the President of the College of New Jersey, John Witherspoon would all be signers of the Declaration of Independence.
In 1758, a courtship had begun between Stockton’s sister Hannah (b. 1736 – d. 1808) and Elias Boudinot IV. Elias moved to start his own law practice in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth) New Jersey in 1760 at age 20. By 1761 Elias felt his business had flourished enough to propose to Hannah Stockton, and on April 21, 1762, they married.
Within 9 months after their marriage, the Boudinot’s had their first child Maria on January 14, 1763, followed eleven months later by Susan Vergereau Boudinot on December 21, 1764. The death of Maria at age 2 in 1765 devastated the young couple and they had no more children of their own. Susan grew up as a precocious only child. Famously, while the Boudinots were visiting her father’s friend and staunch loyalist Royal Governor of New Jersey William Franklin, the young Susan Boudinot calmly tossed the tea that was poured for her out a window – reminding all present that she had pledged to not drink British tea. Susan would go on 
to marry William Bradford, Esq. in 1784 at the age of 19. Bradford received multiple degrees at Princeton where his classmates included his close friend James Madison as well as Aaron Burr. He volunteered as a Private in the Continental Army, and quickly ascended to the rank of Colonel and aide to General Washington. He later became PA State Attorney General, Justice of the State Supreme Court of PA, and the second US Attorney General. William Bradford, only 39 years of age and under the care of his wife’s famous cousin Dr. Benjamin Rush died of yellow fever in the sweltering Philadelphia summer of 1795. Susan, now a 30 year old widow, never remarried and shared a home with her parents until their deaths. Susan subsequently was instrumental in collecting and preserving documents cementing her father’s legacy.
Elias Boudinot’s organized for the care and support of the 9 orphaned children of murdered patriots Hannah Ogden Caldwell (killed June 7, 1780 during the Battle of Connecticut Farms), and Rev. James Caldwell (murdered by a loyalist in Elizabethtown on November 24, 1781). Boudinot collected donations from Generals Washington, Lincoln, and Maxwell, Lafayette and other patrons. Elisha Boudinot adopted 8 year old Esther Flynt Caldwell – who would grow up to marry the Princeton graduate Rev. Robert Finley, long time pastor of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church. The Marquis de Lafayette adopted John Edwards Caldwell into his care and took him to France to be educated. Upon John’s return to the U.S. in
William Bradford, Esq.
U.S. Attorney General.
Image courtesy of U.S. Justice Dept.
1791, he lived with Elias in Philadelphia, practiced law with him, received a role in the John Adams administration, and later co-founded the American Bible Society with Elias. Elias took in the 5 year old Elias Boudinot Caldwell (Hannah and Rev. James Caldwell had named their son in admiration of their Church Trustee Elias in 1776). Young Elias B. Caldwell studied law at Princeton courtesy of his adoptive father, and then trained with him in Philadelphia. Upon moving to the new Capital in Washington, EB Caldwell formed a law practice with Francis Scott Key, and became the Clerk of US Supreme Court. It was Elias Boudinot Caldwell who held the bible or book as the Chief Justice (John Adams opted to place his hand on a law text rather than the bible for his oath) administered the Constitutional Oath of Office for the first 7 Presidential inaugurations in Washington DC. After the British burned the US Capital in 1814 (which at that time also housed the Supreme Court offices and chambers), the Supreme Court met temporarily in his Caldwell’s house on Capitol Hill, where now stands the Library of Congress.
Elias Boudinot’s talents for the law, finance, politics, his eloquent communication skills, and his new family connections gave him high a stature and wealth in colonial New Jersey. As a young man, he became president of the board of trustees of the Elizabeth Presbyterian Church, and a founding board member of Elizabethtown Academy School where young students Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr, Jr. prepared for college. In 1772-1773, after arriving in America, Hamilton was a frequent guest in the Boudinot home. He stayed in touch with the Boudinots for the rest of his life. In 1791 Hamilton partnered with both Elisha and Elias Boudinot, and William Paterson in the “Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures”, whose goal was the industrial development of Paterson New Jersey.
In 1771, Elias was on his way to creating a small personal fortune. That year he purchased what is now the Ross Farm – a little over 100 acres of land in Basking Ridge from Edward Lewis. His goal was to supply needed items such as meat, dairy products, wheat and hay for his life in the more urban Elizabethtown (he would buy Boxwood Hall there in 1772), and have a country retreat. He bought horses, livestock, seed, a wagon, and new gates. He paid for repairs to the “ditch in the meadow”, and to the “English Barn”. His official home would remain in Elizabeth for a while longer. Boudinot served on New Jersey’s first Committee on Correspondence, formed in 1774, tasked with contacting the legislatures of each colony so that they could offer concerted opposition toward British encroachments. In August 1775, Boudinot secretly rounded up and sent to General George Washington desperately-needed supplies of gunpowder. A year later he served as an aide-de-camp to 1st Continental Congress delegate and Brigadier General William Livingston, a fellow Elizabethtown lawyer and co-mentor to the young Alexander Hamilton. Livingston became the state’s first governor elected under the new state constitution in 1776, which made him a wanted man by the Tories and British. Boudinot’s next door neighbor and law client in Basking Ridge General William Alexander (a.k.a. Lord Stirling) was married to Livingston’s sister Sarah.
With the British in firm control of New York City, Staten Island, and Long Island, Elizabethtown New Jersey was proving too close to British and Tory action. Boudinot and his wife moved west to their farm on the “Baskinridge Meetinghouse Road” in November 1776. It was to this farm that General Washington delivered a formal letter to Elias Boudinot on April 1, 1777 asking him to serve as Commissary General of Prisoners and Intelligence, and offered a commission of Colonel. Boudinot initially turned him down in a face-to-face meeting. As Elias wrote, the General had no intention of accepting a denial: “he very kindly objected to the conduct of gentlemen of the country refusing to join him in his arduous Struggle. That he had nothing in view but the salvation of his Country, but it was impossible for him to accomplish it alone: if men of character and influence would not come forward and join him in his exertions, all would be lost.” Boudinot accepted the post under this pressure from the great man, and served in this arduous role with great distinction and sacrifice. He lost much of his personal wealth and health as a result. He was in and out of British held New York City (and later British held Philadelphia) negotiating prisoner exchanges. Using his own funds, he arranged for desperately needed food, clothing, and lodging for Continental prisoners in British hands. At the same time, he toiled to make sure British and Hessian captives were treated humanely behind Continental lines. His accounting books, in the possession of the NY Public Library, detail these payments made to both prisoner support, and to a network of “intelligence gathering” or spies.
In November 1778, Boudinot was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, but remained active prisoner exchanges and intelligence issues. He oversaw the exchanges that returned General Charles Lee and Ethan Allen to the Continental Army among many others.
Elias was again elected to the Continental Congress in 1781, and was unanimously chosen by its members as President in 1782-1783. He was suddenly the highest ranking person at a pivotal moment in history – even his old friend and boss Washington treated him with deference in the many letters they exchanged. On January 20, 1783 Washington wrote Boudinot with sad news concerning their mutual friend: “I have the melancholy task before me, of acquainting your Excellency and Congress of the death of Major General Lord Stirling. The remarkable bravery, intelligence, and promptitude of his Lordship to perform his duty as an Officer had endeared him to the whole Army; and now make his loss the more sincerely regretted.” During his Presidency, he signed the Cessation of Hostilities with Great Britain. As President and de-facto Secretary of State, Elias helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in concert with Jay, Jefferson, Laurens, and Franklin and completed it in its final form.
When unpaid and angry Pennsylvanian Militiamen marched menacingly on the Capitol in Philadelphia, Boudinot uprooted Congress and brought them to his beloved Princeton, utilizing Nassau Hall as the Capitol. The Stockton home of Morven became the Presidential home for these months. The Continental Army lay dispirited on the Hudson nearly two full years after the military victory was assured in Yorktown. Elias invited George and Martha Washington to Princeton to be honored by Congress and arranged for them to stay at the Widow Berrien’s large house (nearby “Rockingham”). Boudinot had the great pleasure to personally announce to the General that it was official – the signed Treaty of Paris was on its way to America. Immediately, Washington penned his famous farewell to his officers from Rockingham, and wrote a warm note to President Boudinot about wanting nothing more than to retire from public life and enjoy his Virginia plantation. Elias and George together became original honorary members of the Society of the Cincinnati at its founding in 1783.
Boudinot rented his Basking Ridge farm to Henry Southard, and returned to Elizabethtown in 1784. He then sold the property to Southard in 1785. Elias jumped back into private legal work, land and business investment. He had lost much of his wealth in the war’s 7 years. His vital work as a College of NJ Trustee helped to rebuild the institution after the Revolution. Boudinot’s retirement from public service was short lived – he was called upon to use his influence to ensure that the NJ Constitutional Convention of 1787 would quickly adopt the new US Constitution, becoming the third state to do so.
Elias Boudinot was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1789, and assumed leadership roles. He chaired the 1st Presidential Inauguration Committee which culminated in Washington’s swearing in on the balcony of NYC’s Federal Hall on April 30, 1789. Washington’s last stop on his way to NYC that morning was at Boudinot’s “Boxwood Hall” home in Elizabethtown. Boudinot had a front row seat for all phases of the day’s celebration and pomp – his letter to Hannah describing the day remains the most vivid and detailed that exists. Also in 1789 Boudinot chaired the House Committee to accept, edit, and get approval for James Madison’s submittals for the first amendments to the US Constitution which became the Bill of Rights.
With the amendments to the Constitution heading to the 11 states (North Carolina and Rhode Island had yet to ratify the original Constitution), Elias Boudinot presented a resolution to Congress asking President Washington “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity to peaceably establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” In a Presidential Proclamation issued October 3, 1789, Washington declared the 4th Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. While it wasn’t declared an official holiday until Abe Lincoln did so in 1863, Boudinot’s proposed day of thanks and peace has been celebrated every year since 1789.
Boudinot’s legal and writing prowess led to his involvement with the creation Judiciary Act of 1789, which set up the nation’s court systems. John Jay was sworn in as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court on 9-24-1789, and scheduled the first session of the new Court for February 1790. One of the first acts of the new Supreme Court that February was to admit Elias Boudinot as the very first member of the Supreme Court Bar. The next month, Elias Boudinot had perhaps his finest moment as an elected official. Exasperated that Congress would not accept petitions from the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and two groups of Quakers which asked “that you will promote mercy and justice towards this distressed race…” Boudinot took to the floor of the US House of Representatives on March 22, 1790 to deliver the first abolitionist speech by a member of Congress recorded in the Congressional record.
Boudinot’s legacy during those momentous 2 years of the first Congress were recognized when Yale University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1790 – joining his respected contemporaries George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and William Livingston in that recognition.
Boudinot would serve 3 full terms in Congress 1789-1795 representing NJ until Washington appointed Boudinot the Third Director of the US Mint in October 1795, where he served until 1805. He sold Boxwood Hall and permanently moved with Hannah to a country estate they named Rose Hill in Philadelphia that year. Their daughter Susan had just become a young widow with the death of her husband and US Attorney General William Bradford in Philadelphia, and would be by her parents’ side for the rest of their lives. Retiring from the mint, Boudinot moved his family to Burlington, NJ in 1805. He devoted his remaining years to abolitionist work, writing books and pamphlets, correspondence, and philanthropic pursuits. He financed the creation of, and was the founding President of the American Bible Society in 1816. He set up scholarships and a natural history department at his beloved Princeton, and willed land and resources for Native Americans and the poor of Philadelphia. Elias and Hannah had pet names for each other. His beloved “Eugenia” – Hannah Stockton Boudinot died October 28, 1808, and her “Narcissus” Elias died on October 24, 1821. The couple, along with their daughter Susan and her husband William Bradford are buried together in the Saint Mary’s Episcopal Churchyard, Burlington. His tombstone bears the apt words: “his life was an exhibition of fervent piety of useful talent and of extensive benevolence.”