Daniel Sargent Sr.

Daniel Sargent Sr.
portrait by Henry Sargent
Born	(1730-03-18)March 18, 1730 Gloucester, Massachusetts
Died	February 18, 1806(1806-02-18) (aged 75) Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation	Merchant
Spouse	Mary Turner ​ (m. 1763)​
Children	7, including Daniel, Henry, Lucius
Parent(s)	Epes Sargent Ester McCarty
Relatives	Paul Dudley Sargent (brother) John Sargent (brother)

Daniel Sargent Sr. (March 18, 1730 – February 18, 1806) was an American merchant in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and then Boston.[1]

Early life

Portrait of Sargent's father, Epes Sargent, by John Singleton Copley, 1760

Sargent was born on March 18, 1730, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was the son of Col. Epes Sargent (1690–1762) and Ester McCarty, daughter of Florence McCarty.[2] His brothers were Revolutionary war hero Paul Dudley Sargent (1745–1828) and John Sargent (1750–1824).[3]

Through his other brother Winthrop Sargent (1727–1793), he was the uncle of Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820), the poet and advocate for women's rights, and Winthrop Sargent (1753–1820), Governor of Mississippi Territory.[4] His father was one of the largest landholders in Gloucester and had is portrait painted in 1760 by John Singleton Copley two years before his death in 1762.[5]

Career

He was a very successful merchant who was referred to as the "merchant prince".[3] He was engaged in the fishing business and foreign trade, moving to Newburyport, Massachusetts, and then to Boston, where he had his offices at 25 and then 40 Long Wharf and owned Sargent's Wharf, Boston, MA.[6]

Personal life

Portrait of Sargent's wife, Mary Turner, by John Singleton Copley, 1763

In 1763, he married Mary Turner (1744–1813), the daughter of John Turner III of the House of the Seven Gables.[7] Daniel's wife Mary was extremely close to his niece Judith Sargent Murray and many of their correspondence were kept by Judith and now at the Sargent House Museum.[8] John Singleton Copley portrait of Mary Turner Sargent is at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.[9] Together, they had one daughter, who died young, and six sons:[4]

• Daniel Sargent (1764–1842), a politician who was close friends with John Quincy Adams.[10]
• Ignatius Sargent (1765–1821)
• John Turner Sargent (1769–1813)
• Henry Sargent (1770–1845), a painter
• Mary Osborne Sargent, (1780–1781), who died in infancy.
• Winthrop Sargent (1783–1808)
• Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867), the temperance advocate.

Sargent died on February 18, 1806, at his home in Boston, at the corner of Essex and Lincoln Streets.[3]

Descendants

Through his second son Ignatius, he was the great-grandfather of Harvard botanist Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927).[3] He was also the four-times-great grandfather of John Turner Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Publishers.

References

1. Farrell, Betty (1993). Elite Families: Class and Power in Nineteenth-Century Boston. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791415931. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
2. Emma Worcester Sargent and Charles Sprague Sargent. Epes Sargent of Gloucester and His Descendants. Boston,
3. Sargent, Winthrop (1920). Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent. Philadelphia: Printed for Private Collection. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
4. Sargent, Emma Worcester (1923). Epes Sargent of Gloucester and His Descendants. Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
5. "Epes Sargent". www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
6. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1871. p. 210. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
7. "The Gable". Archived from the original on 2014-03-08.
8. "Mary Turner Sargent". salemwomenshistory.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
9. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
10. Nagel, Paul C. (1999). John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674479401. Retrieved 23 August 2017.