The Eliot family is a formerly prominent American family hailing from Massachusetts. Long associated with Boston and Harvard University, the family are members of the Boston Brahmin class that historically formed the economic and political elite of New England until the mid-20th century. [1]
The family's membership has included several influential college presidents, writers, professors, bankers, and leaders of American professional associations. The writer T. S. Eliot, considered one of the 20th century's greatest poets, was a member of the family, as was Charles W. Eliot, the Harvard president credited with transforming the institution from a provincial college to a renowned research university.
The family's paternal ancestors emigrated from East Coker, Somerset, England. All family members descend from two men, both named Andrew Eliot, father and son, who emigrated from England to Beverly, Massachusetts between 1668 and 1670. The elder Andrew (1627 – March 1, 1704) served the town and colony in a number of positions and in 1692 was chosen as a juror in the Salem witch trials. His son Andrew (1651 – September 12, 1688) married Mercy Shattuck in 1680 in Beverly and died by drowning after falling off a ship.
The poet T. S. Eliot, who spent much of his life in England, titled the poem East Coker after the village of the family's origin. Upon his death, his ashes were interred in St Michael and All Angels' Church in East Coker, the birthplace of his Eliot ancestors.
Members of the Eliot family achieved success in myriad fields, including banking, politics, academia, and the arts. Samuel Eliot, born to modest circumstances, built one of the largest fortunes in Boston. [2] His granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Bray, married Johann Heinrich Gossler III, whose family owned Berenberg Bank; their descendants would be barons, senators, and consuls in Europe.
Charles W. Eliot's tenure as President of Harvard was monumental, leading Theodore Roosevelt to refer to him as "the only man in the world I envy." [3] Branches of the family migrated westward, and were instrumental in the founding of Washington University in St. Louis and Reed College.
Thomas Stearns Eliot, better known as T. S. Eliot, was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Throughout the 20th century, Martha May Eliot, Abigail Adams Eliot, and Clara Eliot achieved prominence in the fields of public health, early childhood education, and economics, respectively.
A number of Americans who share the last name Eliot descend from Reverend John Eliot of Roxbury, Massachusetts, a Puritan missionary known as the "Apostle to the Indians." These include the Reverend John Eliot's son John Eliot, Jr., who served as the first pastor of the First Church of Christ in Newton, Massachusetts, Joseph Eliot, a pastor in Guilford, Connecticut, and Joseph's son Jared Eliot, a pastor and agricultural writer. As Henry James noted in his biography of Charles W. Eliot, no connection has been traced between the two families. [2]
Descendants of Andrew Eliot (1627 – 1704) and his son Andrew Eliot (1651 – 1688) include:
Charles William Eliot was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909, the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transformed Harvard from a respected provincial college into America's preeminent research university. Theodore Roosevelt called him "the only man in the world I envy."
Samuel Eliot Morison was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years. He won Pulitzer Prizes for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), a biography of Christopher Columbus, and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). In 1942, he was commissioned to write a history of United States naval operations in World War II, which was published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962. Morison wrote the popular Oxford History of the American People (1965), and co-authored the classic textbook The Growth of the American Republic (1930) with Henry Steele Commager.
The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's historic upper class. In the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional British-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).
William Cranch was a United States circuit judge and chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. A staunch Federalist and nephew of President John Adams, Cranch moved his legal practice from Massachusetts to the new national capital, where he became one of three city land commissioners for Washington, D.C., and during his judicial service also was the 2nd Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and a Professor of law at Columbian College.
Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, also known as T. H. Perkins, was an American merchant, slave trader, smuggler and philanthropist from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family. Starting with bequests from his grandfather and father-in-law, he amassed a huge fortune. As a young man, he traded slaves in Saint-Domingue, worked as a maritime fur trader trading furs from the American Northwest to China, and then turned to smuggling Turkish opium into China. His philanthropic contributions include the Perkins School for the Blind, renamed in his honor; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; McLean Hospital; along with having a hand in founding the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Samuel Eliot was an American historian, educator, and statesman of Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut.
Samuel Atkins Eliot was a member of the notable Eliot family of Boston, Massachusetts, who served in political positions at the local, state and national levels.
Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service private and merchant bank headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It is considered the world's oldest merchant bank.
The Lutheran Old Niendorf Cemetery is a church-operated historic burial ground in Hamburg, Germany. The cemetery is owned by the Evangelical Lutheran parish church of Niendorf, Hamburg.
Johann Hinrich Gossler was a German merchant and banker. He was married to Elisabeth Berenberg (1749–1822) and succeeded his father-in-law Johann Berenberg as head of the Berenberg & Gossler company, that was renamed Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. the year following his death. During Gossler's tenure as the company's main partner it became one of the largest merchant houses of Hamburg. Many of his descendants were prominent in Hamburg society, including his grandson, Hamburg's first mayor Hermann Gossler. Some of his descendants were later ennobled as the barons von Berenberg-Gossler. The Gossler Islands in Antarctica are named in honour of his family.
The Berenberg family was a Flemish-origined Hanseatic family of merchants, bankers and senators in Hamburg, with branches in London, Livorno and other European cities. The family was descended from the brothers Hans and Paul Berenberg from Antwerp, who came as Protestant refugees to the city-republic of Hamburg following the Fall of Antwerp in 1585 and who established what is now Berenberg Bank in Hamburg in 1590. The Berenbergs were originally cloth merchants and became involved in merchant banking in the 17th century. Having existed continuously since 1590, Berenberg Bank is the world's oldest surviving merchant bank.
Goßler is a surname of:
Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler, known as "John", was a German banker from the city-state of Hamburg and owner and head of Berenberg Bank from 1879 until his death.
Samuel Eliot (1739-1820) was an American banker and businessman from the prominent Eliot family of Boston. He served as President of Massachusetts Bank, and was a highly successful Boston merchant, owning and operating what was then the precursor to 19th- and 20th-century style department stores. At the time of his death, he had amassed one of the largest fortunes in Boston. He was an important early benefactor of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Baron Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler was a German banker, a member of the illustrious Berenberg-Gossler banking dynasty, and owner and head of Berenberg Bank from 1913. He withdrew from active management of the bank in 1932.
Baron of Berenberg-Gossler is a title in the German nobility, specifically the nobility of the Kingdom of Prussia, created in 1910 for banker Johann von Berenberg-Gossler of the Hamburg Hanseatic Berenberg-Gossler family. The title is held by one person at a time and is tied to an entailed estate (Fideikommiss), Gut Niendorf. For this reason, it is not always inherited by the eldest son. The title is currently held by humanitarian Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler. The first three title holders were all heads of Berenberg Bank.
Baron Heinrich von Berenberg-Gossler (1907–1997) was a German banker, a member of the illustrious Berenberg-Gossler banking dynasty, and owner and head of Berenberg Bank.
Elisabeth Berenberg was a Hamburg heiress, merchant banker and a member of the Berenberg family. She was the last male line member of the Flemish-origined Hanseatic Berenberg banking family in Hamburg, and ancestral mother of the von Berenberg-Gossler family, the current owners of Berenberg Bank. She is also noted as the only woman ever to serve as a partner and take an active leadership role (1790–1800) at Berenberg Bank since the company was established in 1590 by her family.
Hans-Joachim von Berenberg-Consbruch, known as Hans-Joachim Consbruch from 1940 to 1976, is a German banker, who served as a personally liable partner at Berenberg Bank from 1978 to 2005. He has also been a board member of the Berenberg Bank Foundation, a philanthropic foundation. He is the honorary consul of Monaco in Hamburg.
The Gossler family, including the Berenberg-Gossler branch, is a Hanseatic and partially noble banking family from Hamburg.