Samuel Huntington
Governor of Connecticut, 1786-1796
Born: July 5, 1731 (old calendar) or July 16, 1731 (new calendar), Scotland Parish, Windham,
Connecticut
College: None
Political Party: No declared political party
Offices:
Justice of the Peace, Norwich, 1765-1774
Represented Norwich, Connecticut General Assembly,
May session, 1765
King’s Attorney, 1765-1773
Assistant Judge, Connecticut Superior Court, 1773-1784
Upper House, General Assembly, 1775-1783
Council of Safety, 1775-1776
Delegate to Continental Congress, 1776, 1778-1781, 1783
Signer, Declaration of Independence, 1776
Signer, Articles of Confederation, 1778
President, Continental Congress, 1779-1781
President of the United States of America in Congress
Assembled, 1781
Lieutenant Governor, State of Connecticut, 1784-1786
Chief Judge, Connecticut Superior Court, 1784-1785
Governor, State of Connecticut, 1786-1796
Died: January 5, 1796, Norwich, Connecticut
Samuel Huntington was born in Scotland Parish (now the
Town of Scotland) in what was then the Town of Windham, Connecticut. His birth date is
smudged in the town records and has been variously reported as July 3 and July 5, 1731, but
the mystery was solved during a recent refurbishment of the tomb in Old Norwichtown Cemetery
where he and his wife Martha are buried. There is a plate on his coffin that reads, “…born July
16
th
AD 1731.” It appears that Samuel, like many others in that period, added eleven days to his
birth date to make up for a change in the calendar that eliminated eleven days from the month
of September 1752. Therefore, he celebrated the anniversary of his birth on July 16, and his
date of record must have been July 5.
Samuel’s father, Nathaniel Huntington, son of one of the founders of the town of Windham,
settled along the banks of Merrick’s Brook near the center of what is now the town of Scotland.
There he and his wife, Mehetabel (Thurston) Huntington, raised their large family and played an
active role in the community. Nathaniel was not wealthy, but ran a substantial farm, owning
other land in the town and possibly supplementing his income by working at times as a clothier.
He was among those who petitioned for permission to settle a minister in that part of town,
hosted and chaired the initial meetings of the society and donated a piece of land near his home
as the site for a meetinghouse. Eldest son Nathaniel, as befitting the status of eldest son, was
sent to Yale College, and became a Congregational minister in Ellington.
Second son Samuel watched several of his brothers attend college while he worked on the
farm. Some sources state that he was apprenticed to a cooper, completing his apprenticeship
willingly but without enthusiasm. He was much more inclined to studies and would probably
have been happier going to Yale himself. He began studying in his spare time with the
encouragement of the Reverend Ebenezer Devotion, the family minister who lived nearby.
Visits to the parson’s library may also have served as visits to Rev. Devotion’s daughter Martha,
since Samuel married her as soon as he had established himself with a home and steady
income.
Samuel expanded his reading, concentrating on law, perhaps using books borrowed from two
Windham lawyers, Eliphalet Dyer and Jedediah Elderkin. On December 2, 1754, he was
admitted to the bar in Windham, and by 1760 he had moved to the larger town of Norwich,
where there was ample work for the young lawyer. In 1761, he married Martha Devotion, and
they settled into the Norwich community, where they had numerous influential relatives to help
them along, including Lathrops, Huntingtons and other prominent families. Samuel handled a
variety of cases and soon earned a solid reputation. Often he represented the town in county
court, and his practice increased to include several out-of-state clients regarding business in
Connecticut. Records of his early career are scanty, but in a surprisingly short time Norwich
was asking Samuel to represent them at the General Assembly. The same year, 1765, he was
appointed by the General Assembly for the first of nine years as a justice of the peace in
Norwich and also became a Norwich selectman. About the same time he was appointed a
King’s Attorney, and he held this position for several years until resigning after being named to
the Superior Court. This was a County Court appointment, roughly equivalent to a State’s
Attorney today.
In less than a decade, Samuel was receiving notice on a larger scale. The General Assembly
appointed him an Assistant Judge of the Superior Court in 1773 and continued him in the
position until 1784, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Errors. Although personal
information about Huntington is limited, he was apparently ambitious but not arrogant, skillful but
not polished. Well-connected, and with an ability to diplomatically get things done by
persuasion or compromise, he gained the approval of freemen as well as of the “Standing
Order” of elite who governed the colony. Support also came from the backers of the
Susquehannah Company, to whose claims on Pennsylvania lands he was sympathetic.
Although by nature diplomatic, and probably hoping at first that things could be worked out with
the mother country, Samuel shared the colony’s growing frustration with the taxes and
restrictions coming from Parliament. A well-attended Norwich meeting in June 1774 chose a
committee of nine men to draw up a resolution regarding “this Alarming Crisis of affairs Relative
to the Natural Rights and Priviledges of the People.” Samuel Huntington’s name came first on
the list, and the resulting resolution, passed almost unanimously, pledged that Norwich
inhabitants would defend the “Liberties and Immunities of British America” and would cooperate
with the other colonies in doing so. Samuel was not named a member of the Committee of
Correspondence established at that meeting, nor a later Committee of Inspection, but on May 8,
1775, he moderated a meeting that instructed the Selectmen and Committee of Inspection to
take care that no one “inimical to the Common Cause of America” be allowed to settle in town.
Huntington was not a radical, but it is clear where his sentiments lay. Three days later, again
representing Norwich at Hartford, he was elected to the Upper House of the General Assembly.
Later in that session he was named to the Council of Safety and in October was chosen as one
of Connecticut’s delegates to the Continental Congress, to begin serving in January 1776. That
year in Philadelphia, he would begin his national service, forming relationships with well-known
delegates from other colonies and signing the Declaration of Independence.
By this time, Samuel was quite prosperous and had begun to accumulate real estate in
Windham and Norwich. He had close ties to the two towns and also to family. Although active
in the Congregational Church in Norwich near his home, he did not transfer his membership
from Scotland Church until the death of his father-in law, Rev. Devotion. Samuel and Martha
had no children of their own but did not have an empty household. Martha’s sister Hannah had
married Samuel’s brother, the Reverend Joseph Huntington. When Hannah died in 1771, two
of their three children came from their home in Coventry to live in the Huntington household in
Norwich. Nephew Samuel and his sister Fanny were raised by Martha and Samuel, and Fanny
stayed with Samuel until his death. The household had a reputation for youthful gatherings and
plenty of music, and Samuel was apparently quite close to this gathered family, which
eventually also included Martha’s young step-brother Mason Cogswell after his mother, too, had
died. When Samuel was asked to represent Connecticut at the Continental Congress, and then
found it difficult to get back permanently to Connecticut, it was apparently distressing for him to
be away for such a long time. He commented often on wishing he could go home.
With Oliver Wolcott, Huntington made a difficult journey of about two weeks in January 1776 to
begin service in the Continental Congress. They arrived in Philadelphia on January 15, but
Huntington soon was struggling with smallpox and was not able to carry on with his duties until
late February. In constant correspondence with individuals and government back home,
Connecticut’s delegates Huntington, Wolcott, and Sherman received word of the General
Assembly’s June vote authorizing them to join other colonies in declaring independence. Thus,
diplomatic Samuel Huntington, who had never been prominent among the radical element
agitating for breaking away from the Britain, voted for and signed the Declaration of
Independence.
Aside from brief visits home in April and June, Huntington was in Philadelphia ten long months
of 1776. Long days in Congress, a heavy load of committee assignments, dislike of the city,
slow and inadequate reimbursement for his living expenses, and worry about family and
business at home left him anxious to be done. Arriving in Norwich in November, he immediately
was caught up in the war effort at home as the Council of Safety and General Assembly
grappled with the problems of provisions, prices, raising militia, and protecting the coast.
Although again elected a delegate for 1777, there was work to be done in Connecticut, and
Huntington stayed close to home. In July 1777, Huntington and other representatives of New
England states and New York met in Springfield to discuss economic problems brought on by
the war, such as high prices, inflation, and unstable paper money.
February 1778 found Samuel Huntington heading back to Pennsylvania with an appreciation of
the effects of the war on the state level and in communities like Norwich. In his absence,
Congress had written Articles of Confederation, but they were far from perfect, and states were
slow to ratify. Huntington saw the need for some form of unified government and supported
passage. After signing this new constitution, the Articles of Confederation, for Connecticut,
Samuel headed for home in July on a leave of absence. Again elected congressman in the fall
of 1778, he reported to Philadelphia the next May. This session involved even more committee
appointments and more visibility, especially on three major committees the Marine Committee,
a committee assigned to prepare instructions for negotiating a peace with Great Britain, and
another to plan for one or more supreme courts of appeal. He was greatly concerned with
military pay issues and problems with currency.
On September 9, 1779, Huntington requested leave to again return to Connecticut, but before
he could leave, he was elected President of the Continental Congress to replace John Jay, who
had been appointed minister to Spain. By this time, Huntington had considerable experience
and seniority and was known to not let regional biases control his stand on national issues,
making him an acceptable choice for competing regions. The presidency did not involve a great
deal of prestige or direct power, but the quality of leadership could help determine whether
factions could agree and business could be accomplished. Huntington had already impressed
fellow delegate Benjamin Rush as “a sensible, candid and worthy man, and wholly free from
State prejudices.
When it became apparent that he would need to stay in Philadelphia for a year of the
presidency, after already having been away since May, Samuel sent for Martha, who arrived
late in December. Like Samuel, she endured a bout of smallpox almost immediately upon
arrival. Congress provided an expensive home, food and household supplies, and a staff. In
spite of living more frugally than his predecessors, Huntington found the position a financial
hardship. The presidency carried no additional salary, but he was expected to entertain other
members of Congress and foreign dignitaries, while his own business interests in Connecticut
were languishing. The Connecticut treasury forwarded him funds to help, but not enough to
cover his expenses.
Huntington’s diplomatic skills were put to the test presiding over a sometimes contentious
Congress. He spent long hours in correspondence with military and governmental
officials in states and abroad, and in composing official documents. Although no longer
expected to do committee work, he was still an active delegate from Connecticut,
necessitating further correspondence with Governor Jonathan Trumbull and others back
in Connecticut. He dealt with absenteeism, irregular mail service, and constant worries
about progress of the war and the economy. Pressing the states to provide their quota
of much-needed men and supplies was difficult without a means of enforcement or a
stable currency. Huntington kept up correspondence with Benjamin Franklin, John
Adams, John Jay, and others as they worked on diplomatic missions in Europe, and
personally made friends with the French minister.
Although Huntington expected his term to expire in September 1780, Congress voted to keep
him for another term. With the ratification vote of Maryland, the last hold-out state, the Articles
of Confederation became the official constitution on March 1, 1781. The United States became
a nation, and Samuel Huntington became the first President of “The United States in Congress
Assembled.”
In July 1781, Samuel resigned the Presidency and returned to Connecticut, hoping to stay.
Business matters back home had been neglected too long, and his judgeship and seat on the
Governor’s Council had been held open for him. His homecoming itself was probably not as
comforting as he had hoped. He arrived July 25, 1781, perhaps in poor health. On September
6, Norwich native Benedict Arnold and the British brought the war to southeastern Connecticut,
attacking and burning nearby New London, then overwhelming Fort Griswold on the opposite
shore of the river. Undoubtedly friends and acquaintances of the Huntington family were among
those killed or affected, and Norwich was just upriver of the attacks. A month later, his mother
Mehetable died at home in Scotland.
Resuming his role in the General Assembly that fall, he became active in committee work. Over
the next two years he drafted the first copyright law in America and prepared numerous reports.
When reelected to Congress in May 1782, he chose not to attend, leaving the representation to
others, but when again designated a delegate in 1783, he relented and returned one more time
to Congress, meeting this time at Princeton. The war was over, although as yet unofficially, and
Congress dealt with military pay problems, choosing a location for the capitol, and a variety of
issues involved in the transition from wartime to establishing a new country. Huntington had
served in Congress and as President during some of the most difficult years of the war, and he
was again in Congress in October 1783 when word arrived that the Treaty of Paris had been
signed.
In November 1783, Huntington finally returned home to stay. He was now a national figure, and
in a position to act as liaison with other states and the national government on issues of mutual
concern. Samuel was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1784 and 1785. He worked on rebuilding
his law practice, and tutored some students in law, including his namesake nephew. During the
May 1786 session of the General Assembly, he had again been elected Lieutenant Governor,
and had already taken the oath of office, but no candidate for Governor, including incumbent
Matthew Griswold, won a majority of the vote of the freemen. As a result, the General
Assembly was free to select the Governor. They chose Samuel Huntington.
The Revolution and its aftermath had caused considerable financial stress in the state. Under
Huntington’s leadership, the General Assembly addressed economic problems by giving strong
encouragement to developing industries, especially textiles, through tax exemptions and other
financial incentives. In 1786 and 1788, Connecticut established procedures for handling claims
by those injured in the Revolution. Land in the Western Reserve, held back when Connecticut
surrendered title to most of the western lands claimed under the Charter of 1662, was used to
help compensate those who had suffered loss of “homes or other property” to British actions
during the war. A sale of the remainder of that reserve was used to establish a permanent
school fund for Connecticut. As the economy improved and lingering war-related issues were
solved, Connecticut began the transformation into a more modern society. Huntington’s tenure
as Governor saw the establishment of Connecticut’s first banks, incorporation of the
Connecticut Medical Society, some state support of the struggling Yale College, and a change
to allow individuals to divert their financial support to dissenting churches. Connecticut
residents were barred from participating in the slave trade. The decision was made to erect “a
large Convenient State House in the Town of Hartford to accommodate the General Assembly,”
although this building, today known as the “Old State House,” was slow in coming and was not
dedicated until after Huntington’s death.
Samuel Huntington’s letters provide little comment on personal events and relationships, apart
from the frequent assertion that he’d much rather be home in Connecticut, tending to personal
business and spending time with his family. His health was also a cause for concern, and he
frequently referred to the strain of his work in Congress. William Strickland, an English visitor
touring New England in 1794-5, visited Huntington in the company of Jeremiah Wadsworth.
Strickland observed that Huntington was, “a respectable looking man grown gray in the service
of his country, of strong sense in conversation, of a countenance sedate, thoughtful and
begninant, and of plain unaffected manners.”
Huntington’s letters and speeches do provide glimpses of the open-minded and diplomatic
temperament that kept him in one office or another, often several at a time, for most of his life.
He recognized that many issues had more than one legitimate side, and he was anxious to hear
all when considering his position or response. As Connecticut considered ratification of the
United States Constitution in 1788, he spoke to the convention about the document he had
been working hard to promote in the state. “It does not give me pain, but pleasure, to hear the
sentiments of those gentlemen who differ from me. It is not to be expected from human nature,
that we should all have the same opinion.” He spoke of the need for representative government
and the need for two branches of legislature “that the one may be a check upon the other.”
There was a need for a national government of sufficient power “with respect to matters of
national concern.” Connecticut’s representatives had played a great role in creating the
compromise between large and small states that resulted in differing representation according
to population in the House of Representatives, an equal representation of states in the Senate
and the proposal to ratify passed by a large margin.
Connecticut kept Samuel Huntington in the governorship almost a full decade, until he died on
January 5, 1796, still in office. Martha had died in 1794, as had his brother Joseph, and
Samuel’s health declined during 1795. In January 1796, he died of “dropsy of the chest.” The
main beneficiary of his will was his nephew Samuel, who had followed in his footsteps as a
lawyer, and later moved to Ohio, where he held many of the same offices his uncle had in
Connecticut, including the governorship.
Huntington’s will and inventory show that he had acquired considerable real estate holdings,
and he used some of these to provide for certain family members, as well as giving his
childhood church land for a parsonage. Newspaper accounts of Governor Huntington’s funeral
describe a procession of bands and dignitaries from his home to the nearby Norwich church,
where his pastor and friend Joseph Strong preached the funeral sermon, characterizing
Huntington as “naturally amiable,” with a “candid deliberate manner,” and describing his close
relationship with his family.
Samuel Huntington was well-known and respected in his day. He was awarded honorary
degrees by Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale, and counted among his acquaintances George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, but his fame subsided over the years,
and many have never heard of this first “President of the United States in Congress
Assembled.” Huntington, Connecticut, founded in 1789, was renamed Shelton in 1919,
although a section still goes by the name of Huntington. Towns named for Governor Huntington
remain in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and a public school in Norwich, Connecticut bears his
name.
Samuel’s birthplace and childhood home in Scotland is managed by The Governor Samuel
Huntington Trust and is open to the public. His final home in Norwich houses the offices of a
nonprofit social service organization.
Bibliography
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The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1921-1936 [CSL call number JK 1033 .B8].
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Indians to the Year 1866. Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Co., 1866 [reprint, Chester, CT:
Pequot Press, 1976] [CSL call number F 104 .N93 C3 1976].
Dreher, George Kelsey. Samuel Huntington, President of Congress Longer Than Expected: A
Narrative Essay on the Letters of Samuel Huntington, 1779-1781. Midland, TX: Iron Horse Free
Press, 1995 [CSL call number E 302.6 .H914 D74 1995].
Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes, eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999, s.v. “Huntington, Samuel” [CSL call number CT 213 .A68 1999].
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Eastern Connecticut, 1765-1800. Photocopy. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms
International, 1998 [CSL call number F 99 .G76 1989b].
Huntington, Henry Strong. The Life of Samuel Huntington. [n.d., n.p.], 1950 [CSL call number F
99 .H86 H85 1950].
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p. 247-53 [CSL call number F 91 .C625].
Huntington Family Association. The Huntington Family in America. Hartford: Huntington Family
Association, 1915 [CSL call number CS 71 .H95 1915].
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[CSL call number F 102. W7 L5].
Norton, Frederick Calvin. The Governors of Connecticut. Hartford: Connecticut Magazine Co.,
1905 [CSL call number HistRef F 93 .N88 1905].
Obituary of Samuel Huntington, Connecticut Courant, January 8, 1796 [CSL call number AN
104 .H3 C68].
Raimo, John W. Biographical Directory of American Colonial and Revolutionary Governors,
1607-1789. Westport CT: Meckler Books, 1980 [CSL call number E 187.5 .R34].
Strong, Joseph. A Sermon Delivered at the Funeral of His Excellency Samuel Huntington:
Governor of the State of Connecticut; Who Died January 5
th
, 1796. Hartford: Hudson and
Goodwin, 1796 [CSL call number Spec Coll BV 4275 .S77 1796].
VanDusen, Albert E. “Samuel Huntington: A Leader of Revolutionary Connecticut.”
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Waugh, Albert E. Samuel Huntington and His Family. Stonington, CT: Pequot Press, 1968
[CSL call number CS 71 .H95 1968].
Portrait
39” x 46” in its frame, painted by George Wright (1828-1881) and purchased from him by the
state. It was copied from a portrait made by Charles Willson Peale in 1783.
Prepared by Carol Ganz, History and Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library, November 2007.
Further reproduction, publication, or dissemination is limited to fair use by individuals for private purposes
and research only, and may in no way be further reproduced except with the specific written permission of
the Connecticut State Library. © 2007.