George Bancroft (1800 - 1891)

Born 3 Oct 1800 in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died 17 Jan 1891 at age 90 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

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Preceded by 16th Secretary John Young Mason

George Bancroft 17th US Secretary of the Navy 1845—1846

Succeeded by 18th Secretary John Young Mason

Biography

George Bancroft is Notable.

George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian and statesman.

George, son of Aaron Bancroft & Lucretia, was born on 3 October 1800 in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States.^[1]

George graduated from Harvard in 1817.^[2]

His first wife was Sarah Dwight, of a rich family in Springfield, Massachusetts; they married in 1827,^[3] but she died in 1837. His second wife was Mrs Elizabeth Davis Bliss,^[4] a widow with two children to add to his two sons; she bore him a daughter.

He taught Greek at Harvard. Then President Polk appointed him Secretary of the Navy, and during his tenure, Bancroft established the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1845. Bancroft Hall, the single largest dormitory, at the Naval Academy, is named in his honor.

He was later appointed the U.S. diplomat to Britain. While he was there, he wrote his 10-volume History of the United States.

He said, "The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force."

George Bancroft died in 1891 and is interred at Worcester Rural Cemetery in Worcester, Massachusetts. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Birth: "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915"
   citing FHL microfilm: 864093;
   FamilySearch Record: VQX2-NWL (accessed 23 December 2022)
   George Bancroft born on 3 Oct 1800, son of Aaron Bancroft & Lucretia, in Worcester, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States.
2. ↑ "U.S., College Student Lists, 1763-1924"
   College Student Lists. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2207 #1035686 (accessed 23 December 2022)
   Name: George Bancroft; Publication Year: 1829; Publication State: Massachusetts; School Name: Harvard University; Residence: Northampton; Title: Catalogue of the fraternity of [Phi] B K Alpha of Harvard University; Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1829.
3. ↑ Marriage: "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001"
   citing Marriage, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004375672.
   FamilySearch Record: XPNJ-WS4 (accessed 23 December 2022)
   FamilySearch Image: S3HY-6PT9-BX8 Image number 00211
   George Bancroft marriage to Sarah H. Dwight on 20 Jan 1827 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, United States.
4. ↑ Marriage: "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924"
   citing FHL microfilm: 818094; Record number: 1014;
   FamilySearch Record: FH8F-2BH (accessed 23 December 2022)
   George Bancroft marriage to Betsy Davis Bliss on 16 Aug 1838 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States.
5. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 14 December 2018), memorial page for George Bancroft (3 Oct 1800–17 Jan 1891), Find A Grave: Memorial #5892, citing Worcester Rural Cemetery, Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .

• Wikipedia: George_Bancroft

• American Antiquarian Society ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER 24, 1900, AT THE HALL OF THE SOCIETY IN WORCESTER. Page 6 https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44806416.pdf

• Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography; Volume: Vol. I Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61360 #1668 (accessed 23 December 2022)
  

• 'The Chandler family. The descendants of William and Annis Chandler who settled in Roxbury, Mass., 1637 by Chandler, George, 1806-1893', 1883, pp 468, archive.org (accessed 23 December 2022)

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bancroft, George". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Dawes, N. H., and F. T. Nichols. "Revaluing George Bancroft," New England Quarterly, 6#2 (1933), pp. 278–293 in JSTOR

• Kraus, Michael. "George Bancroft 1834–1934," New England Quarterly, 7#4 (1934), pp. 662–686

• "Obituary for George Bancroft", Fort Scott Daily Monitor, Fort Scott, Kansas, (Tue) 20 January 1891, Page 1, Newspapers Clip: 115065655

• 'Ancestry of John Davis, governor and U. S. Senator; and Eliza Bancroft, his wife; both of Worcester, Massachusetts by Davis, Horace, 1831-1916', 1897, pp 56, archive.org (accessed 23 December 2022)

• Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, & Modern, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 482.