BOUDINOT, ELIAS, a descendant of one of the Huguenots, was born in Philadelphia, in 1740. He received a liberal education, and entered into the practice of the law in New Jersey, where he soon rose to considerableeminence. In 1777, he was chosen a member of congress, and in 1782, was elected president of that body. On the return of peace, he resumed his profession, but, in 1789, was elected to a seat in the house of representatives of the United States, which he continued to occupy for six years. He was then appointed by Washington director of the national mint, in which office he remained for about twelve years. Resigning this office, he retired to private life, and resided from that time in Burlington, New Jersey. Here he passed his time in literary pursuits, liberal hospitality, and in discharging all the duties of an expansive and ever active benevolence. Being possessed of an ample fortune, he made munificent donations to various charitable and theological institutions, and was one of the earliest and most efficient friends of the American Bible Society. Of this institution he was the first president, and it was particularly the object of his princely bounty. He died in October, 1821.
BOWDOIN, JAMES, a governor of Massachusetts, was born at Boston, in the year 1727, and was graduated at Harvard college in 1745. He took an early stand against the encroachments of the British government upon the provincial rights, and in 1774 was elected a delegate to the first congress. The state of his health prevented his attendance, and his place was afterwards filled by Mr. Hancock. In 1778, he was chosen president of the convention which formed the constitution of Massachusetts, and in 1785, was appointed governor of that state. He was a member of the Massachusetts convention assembled to deliberate on the adoption of the constitution of the United States, and exerted himself in its favor. He was the first president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, established at Boston in 1780, and was admitted a member of several foreign societies of distinction. He died at Boston, in 1790.
BOYLSTON, ZABDIEL, was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1684. He studied medicine at Boston, and entered into the practice of his profession in that place. In 1721, when the small pox broke out in Boston, and spread alarm through the whole country, the practice of inoculation was introduced by Dr. Boylston, notwithstanding it was discouraged by the rest of the faculty, and a public ordinance was passed to prohibit it. He persevered in his practice, in spite of the most violent opposition, and had the satisfaction of seeing inoculation in general use in New England, for some time before it became common in Great Britain. In 1725, he visited England, where he was received with much attention, and was elected a fellow of the Royal society. Upon his return, he continued at the head of his profession for many years, and accumulated a large fortune. Besides communications to the Royal society, he published two treatises on the small pox. He died in 1766.
BRADFORD, WILLIAM, an eminent lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, in 1755. After graduating at Princeton college, he pursued the study of the law, and in 1779, was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. In 1780, he was appointed attorney-general, and in 1791, he was made a judge of the supreme court of his native state. In 1794, he was appointed attorney-general of the United States, and held this office till his death. In 1793, he published an Inquiry how far the Punishment of Death is necessary in Pennsylvania. He died in 1795. He was a man of integrity, industry, and talent.
BRAINARD, J. G. C., a poet and man of letters, was born in Connecticut,and was graduated at Yale college, in 1815. He pursued the profession of the law, and entered into practice at Middletown, Connecticut; but not finding the degree of success that he expected, he returned in a short time to his native town, whence he removed to Hartford, to undertake the editorial charge of the Connecticut Mirror. His poems were chiefly short pieces, composed for the columns of that paper, and afterwards collected into a volume. They display much pathos, boldness, and originality. Brainard died of consumption, in 1828.
BRAINERD, DAVID, the celebrated missionary, was born at Haddam, Connecticut, in 1718. From an early period he was remarkable for a religious turn of mind, and in 1739, became a member of Yale college, where he was distinguished for application, and general correctness of conduct. He was expelled from this institution in 1742, in consequence of having said, in the warmth of his religious zeal, that one of the tutors was as devoid of grace as a chair. In the spring of 1742, he began the study of divinity, and at the end of July, was licensed to preach. Having received from the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, an appointment as missionary to the Indians, he commenced his labors at Kaunameek, a village of Massachusetts, situated between Stockbridge and Albany. He remained there about twelve months, and on the removal of the Kaunameeks to Stockbridge, he turned his attention towards the Delaware Indians. In 1744, he was ordained at Newark, New Jersey, and fixed his residence near the forks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, where he remained about a year. From this place, he removed to Crosweeksung, in New Jersey, where his efforts among the Indians were crowned with great success. In 1747, he went to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he passed the remainder of his life in the family of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. He died, after great sufferings, in 1747. His publications are a narrative of his labors at Kaunameek, and his journal of a remarkable work of grace among a number of Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1746.
BRANDT, a noted half-blooded Indian chief, of the Mohawk tribe, was educated by Dr. Wheelock, of Dartmouth college, and made very considerable attainments in knowledge. In the revolutionary war, he attached himself to the British, and headed the party which destroyed the beautiful village of Wyoming. He resided in Canada after the war, and died there in 1807.
BROOKS, JOHN, the son of a respectable farmer, was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in the year 1752. After receiving a common school education, he was placed with Dr. Tufts, to study the profession of medicine. On completing his studies, he commenced practice in the neighboring town of Reading, a short time before the commencement of the revolution. When this event occurred, he was appointed to command a company of minute men, and was soon after raised to the rank of major in the continental service. He was distinguished for his knowledge of military tactics, and acquired the confidence of Washington. In 1777, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and took a conspicuous part in the capture of Burgoyne, at Saratoga. On the disbanding of the army, colonel Brooks resumed the practice of medicine in Medford and the vicinity, and was soon after elected a member of the Massachusetts Medical society. He was, for many years, major-general of the militia of his county, and his division rendered efficient service to the government in the insurrection of1786. General Brooks also represented his town in the general court, and was a delegate to the state convention for the adoption of the federal constitution. In the late war with England, he was the adjutant-general of governor Strong, whom, on his retirement from office, he was chosen to succeed. He discharged the duties of chief magistrate with much ability, for seven successive years, when he retired to private life. His remaining years were passed in the town of Medford, where he died in 1825.
BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN, a distinguished novelist and man of letters, was born at Philadelphia, in January, 1771. After a good school education, he commenced the study of the law in the office of an eminent member of the bar. During the preparatory term, his mind was much engaged in literary pursuits, and when the time approached for his admission into the courts, he resolved to abandon the profession altogether. His passion for letters, and the weakness of his physical constitution, disqualified him for the bustle of business. His first publication was Alcuin, a Dialogue on the Rights of Women, written in the autumn and winter of 1797. The first of his novels, issued in 1798, was Wieland, a powerful and original romance, which soon acquired reputation. After this, followed Ormond, Arthur Mervyn, Edgar Huntley, and Clara Howard, in rapid succession, the last being published in 1801. The last of his novels, Jane Talbot, was originally published in London, in 1804, and is much inferior to its predecessors. In 1799, Brown published the first number of the Monthly Magazine and American Review; a work which he continued for about a year and a half, with much industry and ability. In 1805, he commenced another journal, with the title of the Literary Magazine and American Register; and in this undertaking he persevered for five years. During the same interval, he found time to write three large political pamphlets, on the Cession of Louisiana, on the British Treaty, and on Commercial Restrictions. In 1806, he commenced a semi-annual American Register, five volumes of which he lived to complete and publish, and which must long be consulted as a valuable body of annals. Besides these works, and many miscellaneous pieces, published in different periodicals, he left in manuscript an unfinished system of geography, which has been represented to possess uncommon merit. He died of consumption, in 1810.
BROWN, JOHN, was born, in 1736, in Providence, Rhode Island, and was a leader of the party which, in 1772, destroyed the British sloop of war Gasper, in Narragansett bay. He became an enterprising and wealthy merchant, and was the first in his native state who traded with the East Indies and China. He was chosen a member of congress, and was a generous patron of literature, and a great projector of works of public utility. He died in 1803.