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Daniel Hubbard family papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 970

Scope and Contents

These papers pertain to two branches of the Hubbard family of New York and Connecticut, the largest portion belonging to Daniel Hubbard and his immediate family. The papers are arranged alphabetically by author, and include correspondence, business papers, and short writings.

Daniel Hubbard was a merchant living in New York City and associated in business with his brother, David Greene Hubbard. They appear to have dealt in food and dry goods imported from Europe and Asia. Among the business papers are several receipts, letters from Greene & Saltonstall and Daniel Jepson to Hubbard, and Hubbard's accounts with David G. Hubbard. Accompanying these alternate with family letters which often mention business matters in addition to family news and local and international events. Hubbard's letters contain frequent references to Napoleon and the effect that the European war was having on business. A Federalist, Hubbard was strongly pro-British and opposed to Jefferson's embargo against the British going so far as to envision a civil war in which Jefferson was over-thrown and killed and the Democrats crushed (see letters of 1803 Jun-Jul; 1804 Oct 22; 1808 Feb-Mar). More personal issues include the announcement that "on Saturday last I was drafted into the Military Service, but I got clear for one dollar, by getting another man," the necessity of postponing his marriage due to financial pressures, and a description of his father's death (1808 Nov 29; 1802 Jan 19; 1801 Apr 14).

The remaining papers of the Daniel Hubbard family include letters dealing with current events, family news and business, and one lengthy letter from David G. Hubbard entitled "Advise to a Young Man," written to encourage his brother to persevere in piety and moral behavior; Daniel Hubbard's book, "Numeration," containing arithmetic problems, tables of measures, and sample bills and business forms; and an essay on the death of George Washington by Samuel Hubbard.

The papers of the Bela Hubbard family consist entirely of family letters. The most interesting of these are six letters from Timothy Pitkin to his wife, Elizabeth (Hubbard) Pitkin, written from Washington, D.C., while he was in Congress, and describing members of the government and the social life of the capital. There is, finally, one letter from Charles Pettit to Col. Nehemiah Hubbard giving instructions from the Board of the Treasury for conveying the daughter of the steward to the president of Congress to Philadelphia.

The Daniel Hubbard family papers were donated to Yale University by Lansing V. Hammond in 1949 and 1958. Those of the Bela Hubbard family were purchased from Mrs. Robert B. Livingstone in 1952, while the letter of Charles Pettit was purchased from J. B. Grant in 1955.

Dates

  • 1779-1846

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection are in the public domain. There are no restrictions on use. Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Portions of the papers were a gift from Lansing V. Hammond in 1949 and 1958 and purchased from Mrs. Robert B. Livingstone in 1952 and from J.B. Grant in 1955.

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0970

Abstract

Family and business letters of Daniel Hubbard, a New York City merchant, and of Bela Hubbard, a New Haven minister and his daughter Elizabeth Hubbard Pitkin, wife of Timothy Pitkin.

Biographical / Historical

Daniel Hubbard: merchant in New York City, associated in business with his brother, David Greene Hubbard; they appear to have dealt in food and dry goods imported from Europe and Asia.

Timothy Pitkin, the sixth child and youngest son of the Rev. Timothy Pitkin (Yale 1747), of Farmington, Connecticut, was born in Farmington on January 21, 1766. He was prepared for College under his father and his brother-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford. His scholarship was excellent, and he was selected to give the Latin Salutatory Oration at graduation.

He decided at an early age upon the profession of the law, and after teaching for a year in the academy at Plain-field, Connecticut, he studied with the Hon. Oliver Ellsworth, of Windsor, and with Major William Judd (Yale 1763), of Farmington, and was admitted to the bar of Hartford County in 1788.

In May, 1790, at the age of 24, he was chosen a Representative in the General Assembly, and served also at twenty-two more sessions between that date and 1805. For the last three years of his service he was Speaker of the House.

In 1805 he was elected a Representative in Congress as a Federalist, and continued in that office until 1819, when in consequence of a violent upheaval in Connecticut politics, he and his colleagues were superseded. During this period he published the first and second editions of his valuable Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States. Of the second edition two hundred and fifty copies were taken by Congress for the use of the Government. He was a member of the Convention which framed the new State Constitution in 1818.

After leaving Congress he was engaged in his professional pursuits, and in literary work. He was also at once re-elected to the Connecticut Legislature and retained his post for twelve years, until 1830. During this period his Political and Civil History of the United States appeared, in recognition of which Yale gave him in 1829 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1826 he proposed to set up a Law School in Farmington, but the experiment was not successful. In 1830 he retired from all public business, and soon after relinquished his professional pursuits, devoting his time to a careful revision of his private papers and to historical composition.

In 1840 he gave up the cares of housekeeping, and thenceforwards divided his time between his second daughter, the wife of Judge Hiram Denio, of Utica, and his youngest son. He died at his son's house in New Haven, on December 18, 1847, aged nearly 82 years, and was buried here.

He married, on June 6, 1801, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard (Yale 1758), of New Haven, who died at the residence of her youngest and only surviving son, in Albany, New York, on October 17, 1858, aged nearly 81 years.

Their children were three daughters and three sons. The youngest son was graduated at Yale in 1836, and the eldest at West Point Military Academy in 1826.

A photograph of his portrait is given in the Pitkin Genealogy.

He published:

1. Motion [in Congress, concerning the amount of duties on imports and tonnage, 1789-1810], December 23d, 1811. Washington City, 1811. 8°, pp. 4. [Brit. Mus. U.S.

2. Speech on the Loan Bill, delivered in the House of Representatives, February 10th, 1814. In Committee of the Whole. On the Question to fill the Blank in the Bill with Twenty-five Millions of Dollars. Alexandria, 1814. 8°, pp. 19./ [A. A. S. B. Ath. Harv. M H. S. N. Y. H. S. R. I. Hist. Soc. U. S. Y. C.

* 3. A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America: its connection with Agriculture and Manufacturers: and an account of the Public Debts, Revenues, and Expenditures of the United States … Hartford, 1816. 8°, pp, xii, 407, xx./ [A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Brit. Mus. Harv. M. H. S. N.Y. Soc. Libr. U.S. Y. C.

The same. 2d edition. New-York, 1817. 8°, pp. xii, 445, viii./ [B. Ath. B. Publ. Bowdoin Coll. Harv. N. Y. H. S.

The same. 3d edition. New Haven, 1835. 8°, pp. xvi, 600./ [A. A. S. B. Ath. B. Publ. Brit. Mus. Brown Univ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. R. I Hist. Soc. U. S. Y. C.

Still held in esteem as a valuable compilation.

* 4. A Political and Civil History of the United States of America, from the year 1763 to the close of the administration of President Washington, in March, 1797… New Haven, 1828. 2 vols. 8°, PP 528; 539./ [A. A. S. A. C. B. Ath. B. Publ. Bowdoin Coll. Brit. Mus. Brown Univ. Harv. M. H. S. N. Y. H. S. N. Y. Publ. N. Y. Soc. Libr. U. S. Y. C.

A continuation of this valuable work was prepared by the author in his last years, but remains unpublished.

He contributed to the North American Review for January, 1827, a review of Theodore Lyman's Diplomacy of the United States, pp. 92-110. He is also said to have been a contributor to the American Quarterly Review.

AUTHORITIES: Farmington Magazine, ii, 6-8. Pitkin Family, 27, 50-51. Pres. Memorial Biographies of the N. E. Stiles, Literary Diary, iii, 184, 475. Hist. Geneal. Society, i, 76-85. F.B. Dexter, Yale Biographies and Annals, Class of 1785, pages 437-439. One Thousand Years of Hubbard History, by Harlan Page Hubbard, 1895, 328.

For a chart outlining the genealogical relations of the Hubbard family, please consult the Genealogical Chart.

Title
Guide to the Daniel Hubbard Family Papers
Status
Under Revision
Author
compiled by Janet Elaine Gertz
Date
August 1983
Description rules
Finding Aid Created In Accordance With Manuscripts And Archives Processing Manual
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
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Location

Sterling Memorial Library
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