Gouverneur Kemble

Gouverneur Kemble (January 25, 1786 – September 18, 1875) was an American diplomat, industrialist, and two-term

United States Congressman

from New York from 1837 to 1841.

He helped found the West Point Foundry, a major producer of artillery during the American Civil War.

Early life and education

Kemble was born in 1786 to a prominent family in New York City, the eldest son of prosperous attorney and merchant Peter Kemble of New Jersey. Ships of the firm Gouverneur & Kemble conducted trade in the West Indies, Europe and China.^[1] Kemble was educated in New York and graduated from Columbia College in 1803, then entered the mercantile business. He was friends with Washington Irving and other members of city society, who enjoyed socializing at Cockloft Hall (an old family mansion on the Passaic River at Woodside, Newark which Kemble inherited and was sometimes known as "Salmagundi" or the "Bachelor's Elysium").^[2]^[3] He was a founding member of the "Lads of Kilkenny". His sister, Gertrude, married James Kirke Paulding in November, 1818.^[4] Through his grandmother Gertrude Bayard, Kemble descended both from the Schuyler family and the Van Cortlandt family.

Diplomat

Kemble was sent to the

Mediterranean as a naval agent during the Second Barbary War with Tripoli. As a young man with political connections, in 1816 he was appointed United States Consul at Cádiz in Spain, where his attention was attracted to the Spanish government's state-of-the-art process of casting cannon.^[2]

Manufacturer

Returning home, Kemble saw an opportunity to introduce the process in the United States. Along with other partners including his brother William and a consortium of investors including General

Robert P. Parrott became superintendent in 1836 and the Foundry weathered the Panic of 1837

. Kemble continued to be president of the association until the expiration of the charter. He became known as the "Patriarch of Cold Spring" for his charitable activities in the village.

In 1823, Gouverneur Kemble leased land in Orange County, New York, for the mineral rights to mine iron ore. Four years later, the Kembles acquired most of the nearby Greenwood Iron Foundry and related industries. In 1839, the brothers sold the foundry to Parrott. A year later, his sister Mary married Parrott.

Congress

Kemble was an active member of the

Twenty-sixth Congresses representing Westchester and Putnam counties, serving two terms during the presidency of Martin Van Buren

. In 1840, he declined a nomination for a third term.

Later political activities

He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1840 and 1860. He was elected as a delegate to the 1846 convention for the revising New York's state constitution.^[5]

In his later years, he was an active supporter of the

Harper's Monthly, and Kemble helped found the "Century Club" for artists in New York City. In 1854 Kemble was elected into the National Academy of Design

as an Honorary Academician.