Thomas Poynton Ives

Thomas Poynton Ives (April 9, 1769 – April 30, 1835) was an American merchant and banker from Rhode Island.

Thomas Poynton Ives
Ives, painted by James Sullivan Lincoln
Born	April 9, 1769 Beverly, Massachusetts, British America
Died	April 30, 1835 (aged 66) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Hope Brown ​ ​ (m. 1792; his death 1835)​
Children	6, including Moses Brown Ives
Parent(s)	Robert Hale Ives Sarah Ives
Relatives	Robert H. I. Goddard (grandson)

Early life

Ives was born on April 9, 1769 in Beverly in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in what was then British America, and was baptized on June 4, 1769. He was the son of Sarah (née Bray) Ives and Captain Robert Hale Ives, a master-mariner who was one of the original eighteen members of the Salem Marine Society.[1]

When Ives was just four years old, his father died and he lived with relatives in Boston who sent him to public school.[1]

Career

At the age of thirteen, Ives began as a clerk for Nicholas Brown Sr. in his mercantile trade firm of Brown & Benson. After Brown's death in 1791, Ives went into partnership with Brown's son, Nicholas Brown II by founding the firm of Brown & Ives.[1]

Ives also served as president of Providence Bank for twenty-four years and president of the Providence Institution for Savings for fifteen years.[1] He also served as a trustee of Brown University, named in honor of his wife's family, for forty-three years, and in 1829, he presented the college with a philosophical apparatus.[1]

Personal life

On March 5, 1792, Ives was married to Hope Brown (1773–1855), the sister of his partner in Brown & Ives and the only surviving daughter of Nicholas Brown Sr. and his first wife, Rhoda (née Jenckes) Brown.[2] Together, they were the parents of:[1]

• Charlotte Rhoda Ives (1792–1881), who married Professor William Giles Goddard in 1821.[1]
• Moses Brown Ives (1794–1857), who married Annie Allen Dorr (sister of Thomas Wilson Dorr) in 1833.[1]
• Elizabeth Ives (1796–1813), who died unmarried at age 16.[1]
• Robert Hale Ives Sr. (1798–1875), who married Harriet Bowen Amory in 1827 and helped establish both the Butler Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital.[3]
• Hope Brown Ives (1802–1837), who died unmarried at age 34.[1]
• Thomas Poynton Ives Jr. (1804–1804), who died in infancy.[1]

Ives died on April 30, 1835 in Providence, Rhode Island.[4]

Descendants

Through his eldest daughter, he was the grandfather of banker, industrialist, U.S. Army officer, state senator and philanthropist Robert Hale Ives Goddard.[5]

Through his son Moses,[5] he was the grandfather of U.S. Civil War Captain Thomas Poynton Ives (1834–1865) and Hope Brown Ives (1839–1909), who married Henry Grinnell Russell, one of the wealthiest men in Rhode Island.[6] Shortly before his early death while at Le Havre, France,[7] his grandson married Elizabeth Cabot Motley, daughter of U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom John Lothrop Motley. After his death, his widow, who inherited his fortune,[8] remarried to British statesman Sir William Harcourt and became the mother of MP Robert Harcourt.[9]

Residence

Between 1803 and 1806, Ives hired Caleb Ormsbee to build him a family home at 66 Power Street in the College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island.[10] The 3-1/2 story brick house, which today is a National Historic Landmark, remained in the hands of the Ives family until 1910. At that time it was sold to Brown University, retaining a lifetime occupancy right for owners.[11][12] His desk-and-bookcase is currently in a private collection. It was made by the cabinetmaker James Halyburton in Providence, Rhode Island.[13]

References

1. Cutter, William Richard (1914). New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1838. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
2. The Narragansett Historical Register: A Magazine Devoted to the Antiquities, Genealogy and Historical Matter Illustrating the History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations ... Narragansett Historical Publishing Company. 1887. p. 69. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
3. Garland, Joseph E. (1988). To Meet These Wants: The Story of Rhode Island Hospital, 1863-1988. Rhode Island Hospital. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
4. Barnard, Henry (1858). The American Journal of Education. F.C. Brownell. p. 311. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
5. Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans ... Biographical Soceity. p. 533. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
6. Emery, William Morrell (1919). The Howland Heirs: Being the Story of a Family and a Fortune and the Inheritance of a Trust Established for Mrs. Hetty H. R. Green. E. Anthony and Sons, Incorporated. p. 254. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
7. Bartlett, John Russell (1867). Memoirs of Rhode Island Officers who Were Engaged in the Service of Their Country During the Great Rebellion of the South: Illustrated with Thirty-four Portraits. S.S. Rider & brother. p. 283. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
8. Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 135, No. 2, 1991). American Philosophical Society. June 1991. p. 174. ISBN 9781422370254. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
9. Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, for ...: Including All the Titled Classes. S. Low, Marston & Company. 1908. p. 490. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
10. "Guide to the Brown and Ives records 1794-1914" (PDF). John Carter Brown Library. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
11. "Written Historical and Descriptive Data, HABS records for Thomas P. Ives House" (PDF). Library of Congress. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
12. "NHL nomination for Thomas P. Ives House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
13. "Desk-and-bookcase, RIF641". The Rhode Island Furniture Archive at the Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 February 2020.

External links

• Thomas Poynton Ives at Find a Grave