David Henshaw (April 2, 1791 – November 11, 1852), son of Captain David Henshaw and Mary Sargent, was the 14th

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...

. Henshaw was born in

Leicester, Massachusetts Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States Census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid''. On January 27 ...

in 1791 and educated at

Leicester Academy Leicester Academy was founded on March 23, 1784, when the Act of Incorporation for Leicester Academy was passed by the Massachusetts General Court as a private, state chartered institution. The charter issued to the Academy bears the bold signatur ...

. Trained as a druggist, he achieved notable success in that field, then expanded his energies into banking, transportation and politics. Before he was 33 he had acquired means to become a banker and to establish an insurance company. The panic of 1837 forced his "Commonwealth Bank' into bankruptcy. He was elected to the

Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the ...

in 1826 and served as Collector of the Port of Boston from the late 1820s until 1838. Though he suffered business reverses during the later 1830s, Henshaw regained his political position as a leader of the Massachusetts Democratic Party within a few years. In July 1843, President

John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president dire ...

selected Henshaw as

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

to follow

Abel P. Upshur Abel Parker Upshur (June 17, 1790 – February 28, 1844) was a lawyer, planter, slaveowner, judge and politician from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Active in Virginia state politics for decades, with a brother and a nephew who became distinguis ...

. During his brief term in office, he addressed shipbuilding problems, selected senior officers for important seagoing commands, revised supply arrangements in the Navy Yards and attempted to establish a school for Midshipmen. Another accomplishment during his tenure was saving the USS Constitution from the scrap heap. His

recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the advi ...

as Secretary failed to receive Congressional confirmation, requiring that he leave office when his successor, Thomas W. Gilmer, was confirmed. (Gilmer was killed, after only nine days in office, by a canon explosion while firing a salute to a ship passing in review) Henshaw then returned to Massachusetts politics. After he left this post he dominated Democratic affairs in Massachusetts until the slavery issue began to disrupt parties. He died in 1852, buried Pine Grove Cemetery, Leicester, Massachusetts. David was conservative, he was a capitalist, a Mason, an opponent of prohibition and a friend of slaveholders. He read much and possessed a keen knowledge of men. Although he never married, he dispensed a generous hospitality at his country home in Leicester. USS ''Henshaw'' (DD-278) was named in his honor.

References

* Loring, James Spear. ''The Hundred Boston Orators Appointed by the Municipal Authorities from 1770 to 1852'
David Henshaw Biographical Chapter - page 564.
published 1852, 694 pages. *"Dictionary of American Biography", Charles Scribner's Sons and "American Secretaries of the Navy", Navy Institute Press. *"Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans", Johnson, Rossiter, ed.; The Biographical Society, 1904. *History of Henshaws in Scotland, in England and in America to the Present Time", Edith Henshaw Kuntz, 1956 *"Genealogy of the Denny family in England and America", Denny, Christopher Columbus; Leicester, Massachusettes, 1886. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henshaw, David 1791 births 1852 deaths 19th-century American politicians Collectors of the Port of Boston Leicester Academy alumni Massachusetts state senators People from Leicester, Massachusetts Rejected or withdrawn nominees to the United States Executive Cabinet Tyler administration cabinet members United States Secretaries of the Navy

See also

References