Jeremiah Dummer
Encyclopedia
Jeremiah Dummer was an important colonial figure for New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 in the early 18th century. His most significant contributions to American history were his A Defense of the New England Charters and his role in the formation of Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

.

Background and early life

Jeremiah Dummer's family history can be traced back to the Dummer village in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in the 12th century. Dummer's grandfather, Richard Dummer
Richard Dummer
Richard Dummer was an early settler in New England who has been described as "one of the fathers of Massachusetts"....

, was the first in the family to settle in New England, in Newbury, Massachusetts
Newbury, Massachusetts
Newbury is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,666 at the 2010 census. Newbury includes the villages of Old Town , Plum Island and Byfield, home of The Governor's Academy , a private preparatory school.- History :Newbury Plantation was settled and incorporated...

 in 1635. Richard had five children in Newbury by his second wife, Francis Burr Dummer. Richard's son, Jeremiah Dummer, Sr.
Jeremiah Dummer (silversmith)
Jeremiah Dummer was the first American-born silversmith, whose works are today highly valued.-Life:Dummer was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, the first son of Richard Dummer and his second wife, Frances Burr....

, was a prominent colonial craftsman and one of the original silversmiths born in the Americas. In 1672, he married Anna Atwater. Jeremiah Jr., the sixth of their nine children, was born in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 in 1681. Jeremiah Jr.'s historical significance would eclipse that of his father, who has been said to have been "A man of rare versatility for the times, he learned and successfully pursued his profession of silversmith, producing pieces that today stand out in the work of the period for their dignity, simplicity, and artistic workmanship." Although Dummer's father had received little education while being raised in an agricultural setting in New England, he was able to see to it that his children were well educated.

Education and early career

Jeremiah Dummer graduated from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 in 1699. Deciding to pursue a career in theology, Dummer traveled to Europe and received a degree from the University of Leiden and a doctorate from the University of Utrecht in 1703. Dummer is widely believed to have been the first American-born individual to receive a Ph. D. from a European university. In 1704, Dummer returned to the colonies and became a preacher in Boston. The theology he acquired in Europe was not particularly well received in Massachusetts. He did not make much of an impression from the pulpit and with the exception of his "A Discourse on the Holiness of the Sabbath Day", printed in 1704, his preaching in New England had little impact. Around 1708 he left the profession to pursue a career in politics.

Politics and A Defense of the New-England Charters

Arriving back in England in the fall of 1708, Dummer started an important relationship with Henry St. John
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...

 (later Lord Bolingbroke), a statesman whose secret negotiations with Dummer landed him in trouble upon the death of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...

 in 1714. Henry St. John was disgraced and Dummer's plans for a political career in England seemed to have been dashed.

However, Dummer soon gained an important role in the politics of his native New England. Appointed as agent for the Province of Massachusetts Bay
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...

, Dummer held this position from 1710 until 1721 and served a similar role for the colony of Connecticut
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...

. Dummer was politically aligned with a faction in Massachusetts politics that opposed the creation of a land bank in order to address the ongoing inflationary issuance of paper currency. Upon the death of Queen Anne, the governorship of Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley
Joseph Dudley was an English colonial administrator. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and son of one of its founders, he had a leading role in the administration of the unpopular Dominion of New England , and served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, where he oversaw the trial...

 was set to expire, and land bank proponents successfully convinced the Board of Trade to appoint Colonel Elizeus Burgess to the governorship. Dummer and co-agent Jonathan Belcher
Jonathan Belcher
Jonathan Belcher was colonial governor of the British provinces of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.-Early life:Jonathan Belcher was born in Cambridge, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in 1682...

 bribed Burgess £1,000 to resign his commission without leaving England, and then proposed Colonel Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute
Samuel Shute was a military officer and royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. After serving in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, he was appointed by King George I as governor of Massachusetts in 1716...

 as Dudley's successor, with Dummer's brother William
William Dummer
William Dummer was Acting Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1723 to 1728.-Family:Dummer was born in Boston and died in Newbury, Massachusetts, the son of Jeremiah Dummer, the first American born silversmith, and Anna Atwater...

 as his lieutenant governor.

Upon his removal from office, Dummer continued to help his native Massachusetts "without pay and without appointment".Clarke, p. 49. Dummer's continuing role in New England politics eventually led to his two important literary works. His first work, "A Letter to a Noble Lord concerning the late Expedition to Canada", stated reasons for the expansion into French Canada
Canada, New France
Canada was the name of the French colony that once stretched along the St. Lawrence River; the other colonies of New France were Acadia, Louisiana and Newfoundland. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, each with its own government: Quebec,...

, as well as why the 1711 expedition to Quebec
Quebec Expedition
The Quebec Expedition, or the Walker Expedition to Quebec, was a British attempt to attack Quebec in 1711 in Queen Anne's War, the North American theatre of the War of Spanish Succession...

 failed. His other publication, A Defense of the New-England Charters, was an incredibly important work that argued on behalf of the New England colonies.

A Defense of the New England Charters was published in 1721 and defended the charters of New England, composed of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the colony of Connecticut, Rhode Island, with Providence Plantations
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...

, and the Province of New Hampshire
Province of New Hampshire
The Province of New Hampshire is a name first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America. It was formally organized as an English royal colony on October 7, 1691, during the period of English colonization...

. Dummer's work was prompted by a proposed bill for the British House of Commons that would annul the charters of these New England colonies. Dummer sought to illustrate the colonies' loyalty to the crown and their necessity and right to a continuation of the charters with four points that he listed at the beginning of the work:
  • "[First] I shall endeavor to show, that the Charter Governments have a good and undoubted Right to their respective Charters"
  • "[Secondly] That they have not forfeited them by any Misgovernment or Male-Administration"
  • "[Thirdly] That if they had, it would not be the Interest of the Crown to accept the Forfeitures. And,"
  • "[Fourthly] I shall make some Observations upon the extraordinary Method of Proceeding against the Charters by a Bill in Parliament"


Dummer then continued in this vein by explaining the hardships the original settlers faced and how they provided England with valuable resources and service. Dummer states, "And then the Conclusion, that I would draw from these Premises is this, That to strip the Country of their Charters after the Service has bin so successfully perform'd, is abhorrent from all Reason, Equity, and Justice." Dummer justifies the colonial charters by explaining the colonies' worth and continuing loyalty to England, ending the work with a justification for his own zealous arguments on the behalf of the colonies. He states, "Being myself a native of one of them, I could not forbear showing my good-will; for how little soever one is able to write, yet when the liberties of one's country are threaten'd, it's still more difficult to be silent." Dummer's work ended up being "one of the chief influences that defeated the bill" and enabled the New England colonies to keep their charters.

Yale

Although Jeremiah Dummer attended Harvard, his contributions to Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 cause him to be more significantly associated with the latter. During the shaky founding years of the Collegiate College in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, Dummer was an important force in the solidification of the college's future. Serving as the colonial agent for Massachusetts and Connecticut, Dummer sought donations for the school in the form of money and books, eventually securing donations from Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale
Elihu Yale was a Welsh merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honour.- Life :...

, Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

, and Richard Steele. Dummer's efforts improved the status of the school, providing students with the most current information on a variety of subjects. One of his biggest successes was to persuade Elihu Yale to donate a large sum of money. Dummer wrote Yale "that the business of good men is to spread religion and learning among mankind..." Dummer also secured 700 books for the college's library. Yale eventually agreed to aid the college and the trustees of the school commemorated Yale by renaming the Collegiate College in his honor.

Death and legacy

Jeremiah Dummer died an unmarried man on May 19, 1739, in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England. He left instructions to the executors of his will to "invite to my funeral all such New England Gentlemen as shall be in London at the time of my decease" and to reward each with a ring of the value of 20 shillings. The mode with which Dummer dealt with his death reflects his crucial role in early 18th century colonial history. He was very attached to his native New England and his most significant contribution to history was A Defense of the New-England Charters, which was revived and republished during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 by John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

. In both his support for the colonial charters and his role in securing a college in New Haven, his dedication to New England is as important as it is often unrecognized. Although the college was not named for him, Dummer's persuasion of Elihu Yale's support cemented its future. Even if not directly stated, the New England colonies also had Dummer to thank for the continuation of their charters.

Most visible memorials in New England bearing the name Dummer are to his brother William, for whom Dummerston, Vermont
Dummerston, Vermont
Dummerston is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,915 at the 2000 census. Dummerston is home to the longest covered bridge still in use inside the state borders of Vermont.-History:...

 and Dummer, New Hampshire
Dummer, New Hampshire
Dummer is a town in Coos County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 304 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Berlin, NH–VT micropolitan statistical area...

 are named. (The Indian war sometimes known as Dummer's War
Dummer's War
Dummer's War , also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the...

 is also named for William, who was acting governor for much of the period.) Jeremiah Dummer, Jr. left his mark on history by not only being the first American colonist to receive a Ph. D. from a European university, but also by remaining until his death one of the colonies' fiercest champions in the securing of their future.

External links

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