William Tudor (1779-1830)
Encyclopedia
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, sometime literary man, and cofounder of the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
and the Boston Athenaeum. It was Tudor who christened Boston The Athens of America in an 1819 letter. His brother Frederic Tudor
Frederic Tudor
Frederic Tudor was known as Boston's "Ice King", and was the founder of the Tudor Ice Company. During the early 19th Century, he made a fortune shipping ice to the Caribbean, Europe, and even as far away as India from sources of fresh water ice in New England.The Tudor Ice Company harvested ice in...
founded the Tudor Ice Company and became Boston's "Ice King", shipping ice to the tropics from many local sources of fresh water including Walden Pond
Walden Pond
Walden Pond is a 31-metre-deep lake in Massachusetts . It is in area and around, located in Concord, Massachusetts, in the United States...
, Fresh Pond
Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Fresh Pond is a reservoir and park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to the Pond's use exclusively as a reservoir, its ice had been harvested by Boston's "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, and others, for shipment to North American cities and to tropical areas around the world.Fresh Pond Reservation...
, and Spy Pond in Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, six miles northwest of Boston. The population was 42,844 at the 2010 census.-History:...
.
Life
Tudor was the oldest child of William TudorWilliam Tudor
William Tudor was a wealthy lawyer and leading citizen of Boston. His eldest son William Tudor became a leading literary figure in Boston...
and Delia Jarvis Tudor. He graduated from Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
, Andover and received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1796. Tudor's travels to Europe polished his civility, and it is said that he held George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
's interest in conversation long enough to bring complaints from the lord in waiting, who had others to present. Tudor wrote home to his mother from Paris in 1799, at age 20, that he was sending:
- ...a collection of music which I bought here, for which I paid with the binding about $400.00....s. It is a varied collection and for its size I trust a good one. There are about eighty sonates of HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, PleyelIgnaz PleyelIgnace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...
, Koseluch, SteibeltDaniel SteibeltDaniel Gottlieb Steibelt , was a German pianist and composer who died in Saint Petersburg, Russia.-Life and music:Daniel Steibelt was born in Berlin, and studied music with Johann Kirnberger before being forced by his father to join the Prussian army. Deserting, he began a nomadic career as a...
, ClementiMuzio ClementiMuzio Clementi was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer. Born in Italy, he spent most of his life in England. He is best known for his piano sonatas, and his collection of piano studies, Gradus ad Parnassum...
, MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
etc. fifteen overtures, the most celebrated that you have not at present, such as Pamorze, Psyche, Ballet de Paris, etc, de Telemaque, la Caravanne, etc. etc. There is also a number of other pieces for the piano, a small collection of the most favorite ariettes, a few pieces of Musique for a Grand Orchestre, and also a set of quatuors of Pleyel and BoccheriniLuigi BoccheriniLuigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...
, those of Pleyel are already known in America, but those of Boccherini, who is a favorite author, I suspect are not.
His children were educated in French, music, and drawing. One of his visitors in 1782, the young Marquis de Chastellux, has left a record; he was delighted to find that Mrs. Tudor had arranged a program of French songs, to be sung by a young nephew of the admiral to the accompaniment of his harp. "I thought myself in heaven, or which is the same thing, I thought myself returned to my country."
Tudor was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society
The Massachusetts Historical Society is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history...
and served as United States Consul in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
from March 27, 1824 until May 15, 1827, and as Chargé d'Affaires at Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
from his appointment on June 26, 1827 until his death by fever there on March 9, 1830.
Tudor and the Granite RailwayGranite Railway-References:** privately printed for The Granite Railway Company, 1926.* Scholes, Robert E. , .******Dutton, E.P. Published 1867. A good map of roads and rail lines around Quincy and Milton including the Granite Railroad.* * *...
Tudor was indirectly involved in the first railroad in the United States, created to carry granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill MonumentBunker Hill Monument
-External links:****: cultural context**...
. William Ticknor
William Ticknor
William Davis Ticknor I was an American publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and a founder of the publishing house Ticknor and Fields.-Life and work:...
, a well-known lawyer and antiquarian, first suggested the memorial and an interested group of men met for breakfast at the home of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Thomas Handasyd Perkins
Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, or T. H. Perkins was a wealthy Boston merchant and an archetypical Boston Brahmin. Starting with bequests from his grandfather and father-in-law, he amassed a huge fortune...
. Among them were Tudor, Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
, Professor George Ticknor
George Ticknor
George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature....
, Doctor John C. Warren, William Sullivan, and George Blake. On May 10, 1823, the first public meeting was called. Work proceeded somewhat slowly, but on January 4, 1826, citizens petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to build a Railroad, which was then completed in short order and became operational on October 9, 1826 as the first railroad in the United States.
Literary accomplishments
Tudor was co-founder and first editor of the famous North American Review, and cofounder of the Monthly Anthology, founded by Phineas Adams and then published from 1803-1811 as the vehicle of the Anthology ClubAnthology Club
The Anthology Club, or Anthology Society was organized in 1804 in Boston, Massachusetts by the Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson....
whose members included Tudor, George Ticknor
George Ticknor
George Ticknor was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature....
, Dr. Bigelow and Rev. J. S. J. Gardiner, Alexander H. Everett, and Rev. Messrs. Buckminster, Thacher, and the Rev. William Emerson (father of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
).
His chief literary works were the Miscellanies (1821), a collection of essays written for the Monthly Anthology and the North American Review, on subjects ranging from the "Secret Causes of the American and French Revolutions" to human misery, purring cats, and cranberry sauce; The Life of James Otis
James Otis, Jr.
James Otis, Jr. was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts provincial assembly, and an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to him...
of Massachusetts (1823), generally considered Tudor's best work; and Gebel Teir (1829), an anonymous satire on international politics in which a council of birds, representing the United States, Spain, England, France, and the Elysian Fields, gathers to discuss politics.
Selected works
- 1800 Letter on the Propriety of an Appropriate National Name. Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. 7, 1800.
- 1806 Considerations on the Expediency of a Bridge from one Part of Boston to another. Boston. [Anon.]
- 1809 An Oration July 4, 1809, at the Request of the Selectmen of Boston. Boston.
- 1817 Discourse before the Humane Society at their Anniversary, May, 1817. Boston.
- 1821 Letters on the Eastern States. 1820; Boston. [Anon.]
- 1821 Miscellanies. Boston.
- 1823 Life of James Otis, of Massachusetts. Boston.
- 1829 Gebel Teir. Boston. [Anon.]
- 1837 Correspondence while chargé d'affaires to Brazil. Washington. (28th cong., 1st ses., House Docs., no. 32).
- 1841 Character of Samuel AdamsSamuel AdamsSamuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American...
. Boston Book Col. - 1896 [ed.] Deacon John Tudor’s Diary, 1732 to 1793. Boston.
- 2005 "A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution". Washington