Peter Chardon Brooks (1767 - 1849)

Born 6 Jan 1767 in North Yarmouth, Maine colony

Ancestors

Husband of Ann (Gorham) Brooks — married 26 Dec 1792 in Boston, MA

Descendants

Died 1 Jan 1849 at age 81 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: CC Lee [send private message] and Romain Lacroix [send private message]

Biography

Peter Brooks is Notable.

From Wikipedia:

Peter Chardon Brooks (January 6, 1767 – January 1, 1849) was a wealthy Massachusetts merchant born in North Yarmouth, Maine. His father, the Rev. Edward Brooks, moved to Medford, Massachusetts, his native town, in 1769, and here the boyhood of young Brooks was passed in farm work. After his father's death, in 1781, he was apprenticed to a trade in Boston, walking to the city, a distance of seven miles, every day.

In 1789 he engaged in the business of marine insurance, and accumulated a large fortune. He kept with his own hand very accurate accounts, a rare thing in those days, and made it a rule never to borrow money, never to engage in speculation of any kind, and never to take more than the legal rate of interest. He retired from business in 1803, and, until 1806, devoted himself to the settlement of all the risks in which he was interested.

He then accepted the presidency of the New England Insurance Company, the first chartered company of the kind in the state, and filled the office for several years. In his retirement at Medford he took special pleasure in the cultivation of trees, planting many thousands of them about his farm. He was at different times a member of both branches of the legislature, of the first Boston City Council, and of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820.

While in the legislature he took a prominent part in suppressing lotteries, which at that time were flourishing in the state. Mr. Brooks gave liberally, and without parade, to many benevolent objects, and, besides this, his private donations for many years exceeded his domestic expenses.

Brooks died January 1, 1849, in Boston, Massachusetts, bequeathing what was believed to be the largest estate in Boston, about two million dollars, to his seven surviving children: four sons—Edward, Peter Chardon, Gorham, and Sydney; three daughters—Charlotte, married to Edward Everett; Ann, married to Nathaniel Frothingham, minister of the First Church; and Abigail Brown, born April 25, 1808, married September 3, 1829, to Charles Francis Adams, a year older than herself. He was originally buried at the Salem Street Burying Ground in Medford, Massachusetts, but was later relocated to a family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery, near the Brooks Estate in Medford.

He was the grandfather of historians Peter Chardon Brooks Adams and Henry Adams.

The town of Chardon, Ohio is named for him. As the history of Chardon, Ohio states he donated the land that the Chardon park and courthouse stands on stipulation that the town be named Chardon and that that should be the county seat.^[1]

He is considered to have been one of the 100 wealthiest Americans, having left an enormous fortune.[1]

Peter Chardon Brooks was born in North Yarmouth, Maine in 1767 to Edward and Abigail (Brown) Brooks. He married Ann Gorham in 1792. He died in 1849 in Boston, Massachusetts.^[2]

Note

La ville de "Chardon" dans l'Ohio porte son nom en son hommage.

The town of "Chardon" in Ohio is named after him.

Il est considéré comme l'une des 100 plus grosse fortune américaine de son époque

Massachusetts's first millionaire, he made his fortune (reportedly four million) in maritime insurance.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Chardon, Ohio," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chardon,_Ohio&oldid=792600812 (accessed August 18, 2017).
2. ↑ "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7R4-1PF : 6 April 2020), Peter C. Brooks, 01 Jan 1849; citing Boston, Massachusetts, v 41 p 120, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 959,812.

• Wikipedia article: Peter_Chardon_Brooks

• Find A Grave: Memorial #30266914

• Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical

• Descendants of Thomas Brooks

• The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1860) Vol. 14, Page 85

• "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH8R-WT5 : 24 January 2020), Peter Chardon Brooks, 1792.

• Quint, Rev. Alonzo H., Memoir of Peter Chardon Brooks, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1854-1855) Vol. 8, Page 297-309, Vol. 9, Page 13-33.