Benjamin Homans (c. 1765 – December 1823)[3] was an American merchant captain,[4] and politician who served as the 4th Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth and who served from as the Chief Clerk of the Navy Department,[1][2] which was at the time the second highest civilian position in the US Navy.
Early career
Born in Massachusetts,[5] Homans had been a merchant captain during the 1780s and 1790s. During the Quasi war with France, because of the Sedition Act and because he was an ardent Jeffersonian, Homans went into exile in Bordeaux.[4]
War of 1812
Prior to the 1814 British attack, and Burning of Washington during the War of 1812, it was Homans, along with Dolley Madison who removed two wagon loads of the White House and Navy Department's archives; including saving Charles Willson Peale's classic portrait of George Washington.[2][6] The trunks were transferred onto a canal boat and taken upstream on the Potomac River, where they were stored in a barn near Cabin John, Maryland until the danger had passed.[6][7]
Later life
Homans resigned as chief clerk of the Navy Department to become naval storekeeper in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but died in Georgetown[3][8] in December 1823 before he could leave Washington to take up the new post.[3][6]
Notes
^ abcdeMcKee, Christopher (1991), A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, p. 17
^ abcElmer H. Youngman, ed. (September 1921), The Bankers Magazine, Volume CIII, no 3, New York, New York: The Bankers Publishing Co., p. 430
^ abMcKee, Christopher (1991), A Gentlemanly and Honorable Profession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, pp. 17–18
^ abc"I. Smith Homans". The Bankers' Magazine. Vol. LII, no. 1. January 1896. p. 23. Retrieved 2024-11-07.
^Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth (1903). Social Life in the Early Republic. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company. p. 174. Retrieved 2024-11-08.
