Benjamin Williams Crowninshield
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's2nd district
In office March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1831
Preceded by	Gideon Barstow
Succeeded by	Rufus Choate
5thUnited States Secretary of the Navy
In office January 16, 1815 – September 30, 1818
President	James Madison James Monroe
Preceded by	William Jones
Succeeded by	Smith Thompson
Member of theMassachusetts Senate[1]
In office 1812
Member of theMassachusetts House of Representatives[1]
In office 1811
In office 1821
In office 1833
Personal details
Born	(1772-12-27)December 27, 1772 Salem,Massachusetts Bay,British America
Died	February 3, 1851(1851-02-03) (aged 78) Boston,Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Republican(Before 1825) National Republican(1825–1834)
Spouse	Mary Boardman
Relatives	Jacob Crowninshield(Brother)

Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (December 27, 1772 – February 3, 1851) was an American politician who served as aU.S. Representative fromMassachusetts and as theUnited States Secretary of the Navy between 1815 and 1818, during the administrations of PresidentsJames Madison andJames Monroe.

Crowninshield was born inSalem in theProvince of Massachusetts Bay, the son of George Crowninshield (1734–1815) and Mary (née Derby) Crowninshield (1737–1813) who married in 1757.^[2] His father was a sea captain and merchant of theBoston BrahminCrowninshield family.^[2] His family owned the lands nearMineral Spring, where the first Crowninshield family was cradled in the country.^[3]

His brothers included CongressmanJacob Crowninshield and George Crowninshield Jr., who ownedCleopatra's Barge, the first yacht to cross the Atlantic.^[4] His sister Mary Crowninshield was the wife of CongressmanNathaniel Silsbee.

Crowninshield worked in the family shipping business, Geo. Crowninshield & Sons, serving at sea.

In 1811, Crowninshield was elected to theMassachusetts House of Representatives as a prominent benefactor of the firstgerrymander. The redistricting ofEssex county into two separate State House districts had led to the termgerrymander,^[5] with Crowninshield, who had lost the previous year's Senate seat in a combined Essex County,^[6] being placed in the new district specifically designed to favor Republicans over Federalists. Crowninshield would win his Senate seat by only 8 votes, over 100 votes less than the other Republican candidates.^[7]

However, Crowninshield lost his seat in the State House the next year, with theNewburyport Herald printing an editorial cartoon of a dead gerrymander and listing "B.W.C." as a "chief mourner".^[8] He was elected to theMassachusetts State Senate in 1812.^[9]

Crowninshield became Secretary of the Navy in January 1815, a position almost held by his brotherJacob Crowninshield ten years earlier, and managed the transition to a peacetime force in the years following theWar of 1812.^[10] This included implementation of the newBoard of Commissioners administrative system and the building of severalships of the line, the backbone of a much enhanced Navy. He also oversaw strategy and naval policy for theSecond Barbary War in 1815.^[9]

After leaving Navy office in 1818, Crowninshield returned to business and political affairs in Massachusetts, prospering in both.^[11] In addition to serving two more terms in the Massachusetts House, he was also elected to four terms theUnited States Congress from 1823 to 1831.^[9]

On January 1, 1804, Crowninshield was married to Mary Boardman (1778–1840), the daughter of Francis Boardman and Mary (née Hodges) Boardman.^[2] Together, they were the parents of:

• Elizabeth Boardman Crowninshield (1804–1884), who marriedWilliam Mountford (1816–1885)
• Mary C. Crowninshield (1806–1893), who married Charles Mifflin (1805–1875)
• Francis Boardman Crowninshield (1809–1877), who married Sarah Putnam (1810–1880)^[12]
• George Casper Crowninshield (1812–1857), who married Harriet Sears Crowninshield (1809–1873); they were the parents of Frances "Fanny" Cadwalader Crowninshield (1839–1911), the wife ofJohn Quincy Adams II.
• Annie G. Crowninshield (1815–1905), who marriedJonathan Mason Warren (1811–1867)
• Edward Augustus Crowninshield (1817–1859), who married Caroline Maria Welch (1820–1897). After his death, his widow married Howard Payson Arnold (1831–1910).

On his death in Boston 1851, Benjamin Williams Crowninshield was interred inMount Auburn Cemetery inCambridge, Massachusetts.^[2]

In 1810, Crowninshield, with Salem's premier architectSamuel McIntire, built a mansion at 180 Derby Street on the Salem Waterfront.^[13] Robert Brookhouse purchased the house and in 1861 deeded it to the Association for the Relief of Aged Women. Located next to theSalem Maritime National Historic Site, the house is now called theBrookhouse Home for Aged Women.

Through his son Francis, he was the grandfather ofBenjamin Williams Crowninshield (1837–1892), a soldier in the Civil War and merchant, and the great-grandfather ofBowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield (1867–1948), a naval architect who specialized in the design of racing yachts,^[14] andFrancis Boardman Crowninshield (1869–1950), who married heiressLouise Evelina du Pont (1877–1958).^[15]

Through his son Edward, Crowninshield was the grandfather ofFrederic Crowninshield (1845–1918), the artist and author, and the great-grandfather ofFrancis Welch Crowninshield (1872–1947), the journalist, critic, and editor ofVanity Fair.^[16]

Crowninshield was also the great-great-grandfather ofCharles Francis Adams III, also Secretary of the Navy from 1929 to 1933.

He was the great-great-great-grandfather of famedWashington Post newspaper editorBen Bradlee (1921–2014).

The destroyerUSSCrowninshield (DD-134) was named in his honor.

• Stephen Decatur
• George Crowninshield Jr., brother

Notes

Sources

•  This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNaval History and Heritage Command.
• United States Congress."Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (id: C000946)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-03-04

• 1772 births
• 1851 deaths
• Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Crowninshield family
• Madison administration cabinet members
• Massachusetts National Republicans
• Monroe administration cabinet members
• Politicians from Salem, Massachusetts
• American people of the Barbary Wars
• United States secretaries of the navy
• Massachusetts Federalists
• Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
• National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
• People from colonial Massachusetts
• 19th-century United States representatives

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