Benjamin H. Brewster

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Benjamin Brewster
Attorney General of Pennsylvania
In office
January 16, 1867 – October 25, 1869
GovernorJohn W. Geary
Preceded byWilliam M. Meredith
Succeeded byF. Carroll Brewster
Personal details
Born
Benjamin Harris Brewster

(1816-10-13)October 13, 1816
Salem, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedApril 4, 1888(1888-04-04) (aged 71)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Elizabeth von Myerbach de Reinfeldts-Shulte
Mary Walker-Deslonde
Children1
EducationPrinceton University (BA, MA)

Benjamin Harris Brewster (October 13, 1816 – April 4, 1888) was an attorney and politician from New Jersey, who served as United States Attorney General from 1881 to 1885.

Biography

Early life

He was born on October 13, 1816, in Salem, New Jersey, and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Maria Hampton, a daughter of Dr. John Thomas Hampton, a soldier of the American Revolutionary War and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. His grandmother, Mercy Harris-Hampton, was the daughter of Benjamin Harris, the "fighting Quaker" of the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Harris Brewster was named after him.

Benjamin's father was Francis Enoch Brewster, a descendant of

Frederick Carroll Brewster
(1825–1898), who became Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and Enoch Carroll Brewster (1828–1863).

Benjamin's sister, Anne Hampton Brewster (1818–1892), was one of America's first female foreign correspondents, publishing primarily in Philadelphia, New York and Boston newspapers. She was a "social outlaw" (as a friend described her) by refusing to marry, by converting to Catholicism, by moving out of her older brother Benjamin's house in order to live alone, by moving to Rome, and, foremost, by continuing to write through it all, first as a dilettante and then as a self-supporting professional.

In their father's will he had named his two sons Frederick and Enoch Carroll Brewster as his sole beneficiaries. Benjamin fought on behalf of his sister for her share of the estate and for the destruction of the will, which he eventually won.

Education

He graduated from

Princeton College in 1834, and was conferred upon the degrees of A.B., A.M., and LL.D. He studied law in the office of Eli Kirk Price,[2] a noted Philadelphia lawyer and legal reformer and who was head of the Philadelphia Bar, and he was admitted to practice on January 5, 1838.[3]

Marriages

In 1857, he married as his first wife, Elizabeth von Myerbach de Reinfeldts, the widow of Dr. Shulte of Paris, France. Elizabeth died in 1868; however, Benjamin continued to spend many vacations with his wife's parents in Germany near Cologne. There were no children from his first marriage.

He was remarried on July 12, 1870. His second wife, Mary Walker, was born in

George Mifflin Dallas, the 11th Vice President of the United States
, who served under James K. Polk.

Mary Walker married Adrien Deslonde on May 25, 1858.

P.G.T. Beauregard[7] and his sister Mathilde was the wife of John Slidell.[8] Walker and Deslonde later divorced, after which Mary Walker married Benjamin Brewster.[6] The children of Mary Walker and Adrien Deslonde included Andre W. Brewster, who was raised by Brewster and took his name.[6]

Family

Benjamin and Mary had one child, Benjamin Harris Brewster, Jr., born on October 22, 1872, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Benjamin, Sr.'s great-grandson was

Daniel Baugh Brewster (November 23, 1923 – August 19, 2007), a Democratic member of the United States Senate, who represented the State of Maryland from 1963 until 1969. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950 to 1958, and a representative from the 2nd congressional district of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1959 to 1963.[9][10]

Career

In 1846 Brewster was appointed commissioner by

Governor John W. Geary
.

He was chief prosecutor in the case of the

U.S. Postal Service's Star Route Frauds
.

In 1881,

Attorney General of the United States, an office he held for the duration of Arthur's term.[2]

Death

He died on April 4, 1888, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he is buried in

Woodlands Cemetery.[11]

References

  1. ^ In Memoriam: F. Carroll Brewster. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. 1899.
  2. ^ a b "Attorney General: Benjamin Harris Brewster". U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  3. ^ "Benjamin H. Brewster (1882 - 1885): Attorney General". Miller Center of Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved December 6, 2015..
  4. ^ Society, Mississippi Historical (1902-01-01). Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society.
  5. ^ Rowland, Dunbar (1907-01-01). Encyclopedia of Mississippi History: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons. S. A. Brant.
  6. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  7. ^ Ball, JR (May 17, 2017). "P.G.T. Beauregard: What to know about him before his Confederate monument is removed". The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate. New Orleans, LA.
  8. ^ "Civil War Women: Caroline Beauregard". History of American Women. May 15, 2009.
  9. ^ Lamb, Yvonne Shinhoster (August 22, 2007). "Daniel Baugh Brewster; served in US Senate". The Boston Globe. The Washington Post. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  10. ^ "Daniel Brewster papers". Archival Collections at the University of Maryland Libraries. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  11. ^ "Benjamin Harris Brewster.; Death Of The Prosecutor Of The Star Route Thieves" (PDF). The New York Times. April 5, 1888.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by
Attorney General of Pennsylvania

1867–1869 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Attorney General
Served under: Chester A. Arthur
December 16, 1881 – March 4, 1885 		Succeeded by
Augustus Hill Garland
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