Amos Palmer House
Encyclopedia
The Amos Palmer House; is a historic Georgian style home located on Main Street in Stonington Borough
, Connecticut
. The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
on November 18, 1988, was built by Captain Amos Palmer in 1787 to replace his former home on the lot which burned after a neighbors' barn caught fire.
James Hammond Trumbull (1821-1897), a Connecticut state archivist, , mentioned the fire which occurred on May 24, 1789, in his journal:
Between August 9-August 12, 1814 during the War of 1812
the house was amongst 40 homes in Stonington hit with cannon fire during an attack by four British ships, HMS Ramillies
, HMS Pactolus
, HMS Dispatch
, and HMS Terror
, under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy. Amos Palmer was reputed to have taken a cannonball which hit his house to the American gun battery to fire back at the British.
Stonington (borough), Connecticut
Stonington is a borough and the town center of the town of Stonington in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,032 at the 2000 census....
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on November 18, 1988, was built by Captain Amos Palmer in 1787 to replace his former home on the lot which burned after a neighbors' barn caught fire.
James Hammond Trumbull (1821-1897), a Connecticut state archivist, , mentioned the fire which occurred on May 24, 1789, in his journal:
A barn full of hay belonging to Esq. Nathaniel Miner [1732-1815], took fire, and communicated to a store & dwelling house belonging to Capt. Amos Palmer which were both consumed, with a quantity of West Indian goods, two or three hundred bushels of Indian corn & a quantity of household furniture.
Capt. Palmer's loss is about [pounds sterling]1000.
Between August 9-August 12, 1814 during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
the house was amongst 40 homes in Stonington hit with cannon fire during an attack by four British ships, HMS Ramillies
HMS Ramillies (1785)
HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 July 1785 at Rotherhithe.In 1801, she was part of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's reserve squadron at the Battle of Copenhagen, and so did not take an active part in the battle.In August 1812, Sir Thomas Masterman...
, HMS Pactolus
HMS Pactolus (1813)
HMS Pactolus was one of eight 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy, that served in the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812. She was one of the warships that bombarded Stonington, Connecticut from 9 to 12 August 1814...
, HMS Dispatch
HMS Dispatch
Seventeen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dispatch, or the variant HMS Despatch: was a 2-gun brigantine launched in 1691 and sold in 1712. was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1745 and sold in 1763. was a 14-gun sloop that foundered in a hurricane in 1772. She may have been salved and...
, and HMS Terror
HMS Terror (1813)
HMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one and one .-War service:...
, under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy. Amos Palmer was reputed to have taken a cannonball which hit his house to the American gun battery to fire back at the British.
Former owners
- Amos Palmer:(1747 - 1816) Sea captain and privateerPrivateerA privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
during the American Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary WarThe American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
; the original owner and builder he owned the house until his death on February 18, 1816. - James McNeill WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
: The artist whose most famous work is the painting Whistler's MotherWhistler's MotherArrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeill Whistler. The painting is , displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design, and is now owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris....
, lived in the home as a child between 1837-1840 with his parents George Washington Whistler an engineer helping to build the Providence to Stonington Railroad, and Anna McNeill Whistler whose sister was married to Dr. George E. Palmer of Stonington. - Stephen Vincent BenetStephen Vincent BenétStephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...
: The Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
bought the house in 1940 and it was owned by his heirs after his death in 1943 until 1983. Benet is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Stonington. - James Archibald Houston: A CanadianCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
artist, designer, children's author and film-maker