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Eliot family (United States)

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The Eliot family is a 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.[1]

Bust of Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University, at Eliot House on the campus

The family's membership includes 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.

Family history edit

Origins edit

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.

Rise to prominence edit

Members of the Eliot family achieved success in a myriad of 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.

Other families with the surname Eliot edit

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]

Notable members edit

Arts, architecture, and literature edit

Business and banking edit

Education and academia edit

Politics and diplomacy edit

Religion edit

Science and medicine edit

Other notable figures edit

Family tree edit

Descendants of Andrew Eliot (1627 - 1704) and his son Andrew Eliot (1651 - 1688) include:

  • Andrew Eliot (c1683 - 1749)
    • Samuel Eliot (1713 - 1745) m. Elizabeth Marshall (1714 - 1767)
      • Samuel Eliot (1739 - 1820)
        • Francis Eliot (1776 - 1820) m. Joseph Bray
          • Mary Elizabeth Bray (1810 - 1886) m. Johann Heinrich Gossler III (1805 - 1879)
            • Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler (1839 - 1913) m. Juliane Amalie Donner (1843–1916)
              • John von Berenberg-Gossler (1866–1943)
              • Frances von Berenberg-Gossler (1868–1951) m. Baron Hans von Berlepsch
              • Baron Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler (1874–1953) m. Nadia Clara von Oesterreich
                • Clara Nadia von Berenberg-Gossler (1899–) m. Emmo von Specht
                • Cornelius Johann Constantin von Berenberg-Gossler (1901–1942)
                • Cornelia Nadia Julie von Berenberg-Gossler (1905–)
                • Baron Heinrich von Berenberg-Gossler (1907–1997)
                • Cornelius Johann Heinrich Hellmuth von Berenberg-Gossler (1909–) m. Irmgard Else Meyer
                  • Cornelius Johann Heinrich Gerhard von Berenberg-Gossler
                  • Clarita Irmela Nadia von Berenberg-Gossler m. Count Hartwig (Rabe) Joachim Cornelius Alexander von Bernstorff
                • Cornelius Paul Hellmuth von Berenberg-Gossler (1911–) m. Maria Luise Francke
                  • Johann David Rudolf Cornelius von Berenberg-Gossler
                  • Alexander John von Berenberg-Gossler
                • Nadia von Berenberg-Gossler
              • Andreas von Berenberg-Gossler (1880–1938) m. Agnes Victorina von Francois
                • Maria Nadia von Berenberg-Gossler (1908–)
              • Herbert von Berenberg-Gossler (1883–1918) m. Anna Jutta Sara Elisabeth von Mallinckrodt****Catherine Eliot (1793 - 1879) m. Andrews Norton (1786 - 1853)
          • Charles Eliot Norton (1827 - 1908)
        • William Havard Eliot (1796 - 1831)
          • Samuel Eliot (Historian) (1821 - 1898)
            • Emily Marshall (Eliot) Morison (1857 - 1925) m. John Holmes Morison (1856 - 1911)
              • Samuel Eliot Morison (1887 - 1976) m. Elizabeth S. Greene
        • Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798 - 1862)
          • Charles William Eliot (1834 - 1926) m. Ellen Derby Peabody (1836 - 1869)
            • Charles Eliot (1859 - 1897)
            • Samuel A. Eliot II (1862 - 1950) m. Frances Stone Hopkinson
              • Samuel Atkins Eliot Jr. (1893 - 1984)
              • Rosamond (Eliot) Rice (1895 - 1970) m. William Gorham Rice, Jr. (1891 - 1964)
              • Theodore Lyman Eliot I (1903 - 1996) m. Martha Bigelow
              • Thomas Hopkinson Eliot (1907 - 1991) m. Lois Jameson
    • Andrew Eliot (1718 - 1778)

References edit

  • The Family of William Greenleaf Eliot and Abby Adams Eliot of St. Louis, Missouri: 1811-1931 by Henry Ware Eliot, Jr. (c. 1931)
  • The Family of William Greenleaf Eliot and Abby Adams Eliot, as Chronicled by their Descendants, to 1988 by Henry Eliot Scott (1988)
  • Asticou Foreside, genealogy written by Charles W. Eliot II, 1981
  • The Genealogy of the Somerset branch of the American Eliot Family
  • Cynthia Grant Tucker, No Silent Witness: The Eliot Parsonage Women and their Unitarian World, Oxford University Press, 2010, 344 pp.
  • A Sketch of the Eliot Family by Walter Graeme Eliot, Press of Livingston Middleditch, New York, 1887 Online at the Library of Congress

Citations edit

  1. ^ T.S. Eliot: the modernist in history, (New York, 1991) By Ronald Bush, page 72
  2. ^ a b James, Henry (1930). Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University, 1869-1909, Volume 1. AMS Press. p. 5.
  3. ^ "Harvard Square Library".
  4. ^ "I14: Edward Cranch ELIOT (3 JUL 1858 - 2 APR 1928)". Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
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