Peter Philip James Kean

Peter Philip James Kean
Born	(1788-02-27)February 27, 1788 Elizabethtown, New Jersey, US
Died	October 2, 1828(1828-10-02) (aged 40) New Lebanon, New York, US
Alma mater	Princeton University
Spouse	Sarah Sabina Morris ​ (m. 1813)​
Children	8
Parent(s)	John Kean Susan Livingston Kean
Relatives	John Kean (grandson) Hamilton Fish Kean (grandson) Nicholas Fish II (grandson) Hamilton Fish II (grandson) Stuyvesant Fish (grandson) Peter Livingston (grandfather) Count Julian Niemcewicz (step-father)

Peter Philip James Kean (February 27, 1788 – October 2, 1828) was an American soldier and member of the Kean political family.

Early life

Kean was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, on February 27, 1788.[1][2] He was the only child born of John Kean, the cashier of the Bank of the United States and a Continental Congressmen,[3][4] and Susan (née Livingston) Kean (1759–1853).[5] After his father's early death in 1795, his mother hired Count Julian Niemcewicz as his tutor. Niemcewicz, a Polish nobleman who fled Poland after fighting unsuccessfully for Polish independence, later married Kean's mother in 1800.[1][6]

His paternal grandmother was Jane Grove and his step-grandfather was Captain Samuel Grove, a wealthy and successful merchant from Beaufort County, South Carolina.[7][8] His maternal grandparents were Peter Van Brugh Livingston, the New York State Treasurer,[9] and Mary (née Alexander) Livingston.[1] He was also the great-grandson of Philip Livingston, the 2nd Lord of Livingston Manor, and the great-nephew of New Jersey's governor William Livingston, a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.[10]

Career

Liberty Hall, the Kean family mansion purchased by Peter in 1811 for his mother, built by his great-uncle William Livingston in 1772.[11]

Kean graduated from Princeton University in 1807.[12] After his graduation, Kean assumed a prominent role in the military affairs of the State of New Jersey.[1] In 1811, Kean purchased the large estate built by his mother's uncle, known as Liberty Hall,[13] in trust for his mother.[11]

In 1824, when the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States for his grand tour, Isaac Halstead Williamson, the 8th New Jersey Governor, appointed Kean to the reception committee to welcome him due to Kean's prominence and fluency in French.[1]

At the time of his death, Kean was colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the State of New Jersey.[1]

Personal life

On February 18, 1813, Kean was married to Sarah Sabina Morris (1788–1878),[14] the daughter of General Jacob Morris and Mary (née Cox) Morris.[1][15] Sarah was a granddaughter of Lewis Morris, a signor of the Declaration of Independence.[16] Together, they were the parents of:[17]

• John Kean (1814–1895),[18] who married Lucinetta "Lucy" Halsted (1825–1912), daughter of Caleb O. Halsted, Esq., a merchant, and had ten children.[17]
• Jacob Morris Kean (1815–1817), who died young.[17]
• Julia Ursin Niemcewiez Kean (1816–1887), who married Hamilton Fish (1808–1893), a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant,[19] in 1836 and had eight children.[17] Fish served as Governor of New York, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State.[17]
• Sarah Louisa Jay Kean (1818–1828), who died young.[17]
• Susan Mary Kean (1821–1824), who died young.[17]
• Helen Rutherfurd Kean (1822–1824), who died young.[17]
• Christine Alexander William Kean (1826–1915), who married William Preston Griffin (1810–1851), a cousin of William Radford.[17]
• Cornelia Livingston Kean (1829–1829), who died young.[17]

Kean died on October 2, 1828, in New Lebanon, New York.[1]

Descendants

Through his daughter Julia,[17] he was the grandfather of Julia Kean Fish (1841–1908), who married Samuel Nicholl Benjamin (1839–1886), a Union Army officer;[20] Nicholas Fish II (1848–1902), who served as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Belgium;[21][22] Hamilton Fish II (1849–1936), a U.S. Representative and Speaker of the New York State Assembly;[23][24] and Stuyvesant Fish (1851–1923),[25] a president of the Illinois Central Railroad who married Marion Graves Anthon (1853–1915), a leader of New York Society during the Gilded Age.[26]

Through his son John, he was the grandfather of John Kean (1852–1914)[27] and Hamilton Fish Kean (1862–1941),[28] both of whom would later serve as U.S. Senators for New Jersey.[2]

References

1. Cutter, William Richard (1919). American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. Pub. under the direction of the American Historical Society. pp. 56–57. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
2. Lowndes, Arthur (1912). Archives of the General Convention III. New York: Episcopal Church General Convention Commission on Archives. p. 345. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
3. "KEAN, John - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
4. United States Continental Congress (1823). Apr. 1, 1782, to Nov. 1, 1788, inclusive; also, the Journal of the Committee of the States, from the 1st Friday in June, to the 1st Friday in August, 1784, with an Appendix. Way and Gideon. p. 772. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
5. Stahr, Walter (2012). John Jay: Founding Father. Diversion Books. p. 268. ISBN 9781938120510. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
6. Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Maynard, Arthur S.; Mann, Conklin (1880). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 75. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
7. Rowland, Lawrence Sanders; Moore, Alexander; Rogers, George C. (1996). The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: 1514-1861. University of South Carolina Press. p. 264. ISBN 9781570030901. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
8. Laurens, Henry (1988). The Papers of Henry Laurens: Jan. 5, 1776-Nov. 1, 1777. University of South Carolina Press. p. 79. ISBN 9780872495166. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
9. Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of That Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar Which Settled in the English Province of New York during the Reign of Charles the Second; and also including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the same Province, and his principal Desecendants. The Knickerbocker Press. p. 228. ISBN 9785872064213. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
10. Felzenberg, Alvin S. (2006). Governor Tom Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 9-11 Commission. Rutgers University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780813537993. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
11. Alghandoor, Erin; Esposito, Frank J.; Hyde, Elizabeth; Mercantini, Jonathan (2017). Kean University. Arcadia Publishing. p. 203. ISBN 9781439660584. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
12. Aitken, William Benford (1912). Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Knickerbocker Press. p. 145. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
13. Gerstenzang, N. M. (9 June 1974). "The Kean Estate Mirrors Family's". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
14. Whittelsey, Charles Barney (1902). The Roosevelt Genealogy, 1649-1902. Press of J.B. Burr & Company. p. 90. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
15. Cox, Henry Miller (1912). The Cox Family in America: A History and Genealogy of the Older Branches of the Family from the Appearance of Its First Representative in this Country in 1610. p. 140. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
16. Ferry, Esq., Frank J. (2012). Nucky: The Real Story of the Atlantic City Boardwalk Boss. BookBaby. p. 95. ISBN 9781483548814. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
17. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. X. New York City: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. 1879. pp. 74–76. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
18. "Col. John Kean". The New York Times. January 18, 1895. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
19. Corning (1918), pp. 20–22.
20. The World Almanac and Encyclopedia. Press Publishing Company (The New York World). 1905. p. 157. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
21. "NICHOLAS FISH WAS KILLED BY VIOLENCE; Coroner, After Autopsy, Says a Fall Not Sufficient. THREE ARRESTS IN THE CASE Private Detective Sharkey Held in $10,000 Bail and Two Women Detained as Witnesses of the Fatal Quarrel". The New York Times. 17 September 1902. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
22. "MRS. NICHOLAS FISH DIES IN WASHINGTON; Widow of New York Banker and Diplomat Succumbs to a Second Stroke of Apoplexy. MOTHER OF HAMILTON FISH Her Son Was Killed in the Spanish War--Social Rival of Her Sister-in-Law, Mrs. Stuyvsant Fish". The New York Times. 12 December 1908. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
23. "MARRIED. Fish -- Mann". The New York Times. 29 April 1880. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
24. "HAMILTON FISH, 86, DIES IN AIKEN, S.C.; Father of Representative and Son of Governor Had Himself Served in Congress. ONCE ASSEMBLY SPEAKER Aide to His Father as Secretary of Treasury Under Grant-Member of Noted Families". The New York Times. 1936. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
25. Times, Special To The New York (26 April 1923). "FISH'S ESTATE LEFT TO THREE CHILDREN; Financier Leaves Nothing to Charity, Holding That Such Gifts Are Only to 'Gratify Vanity.'". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
26. "MRS. FISH, LEADER OF SOCIETY, DEAD; Wife of Stuyvesant Fish Dies Suddenly of Cerebral Hemorrhage at Glenclyffe. WAS LAVISH ENTERTAINER Her Mother Goose and Flower Balls Were Features of Newport -- Gave Liberally to Charity". The New York Times. 27 May 1915. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
27. "EX-SENATOR KEAN OF NEW JERSEY DEAD; Passed Away Last Night at Liberty Hall, Ursino, the House in Which He Was Born. PROMINENT AS A BANKER Defeated for Governor on Republican Ticket He Was Later Elected to United States Senate". The New York Times. 5 November 1914. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
28. "EX-SENATOR KEAN OF NEW JERSEY DIES; Banker and Republican Leader of Century Served Term in Washington, 1928-34 DEFEATED BY A.H. MOORE Member National Committee, 1916-28, Aided Nomination of Charles Evans Hughes". The New York Times. 28 December 1941. Retrieved 2 April 2018.