Samuel Eliot was an American banker and businessman from the prominent Eliot family of Boston. He served as President of

Massachusetts Bank BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. One of its predecessor banks started in 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 199 ...

, 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 descended from the Eliot family of South England. He was born to Samuel Eliot, a Boston publisher and bookseller; and Elizabeth Marshall, from the West Indies. Eliot married Elizabeth Barrell of Boston, and married a second time in 1786 to Catherine Atkins, daughter of Dudley and Sarah (née Kent) Atkins of

Newburyport, Massachusetts Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...

. The second marriage produced six children, one being Samuel Atkins Eliot. He was the grandfather of

Samuel Eliot Samuel Eliot (December 22, 1821 – September 14, 1898) was an American historian, educator, and statesman of Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. Biography Eliot was born in Boston, the son of William Havard Eliot (1796 - 1 ...

Charles Eliot Norton Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...

and

Charles William Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfo ...

. His granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Bray (1810–86), was married to Hamburg banker Johann Heinrich Gossler III (1805–1879), owner of

Berenberg Bank Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, commonly known as Berenberg Bank and also branded as simply Berenberg, is a multinational full-service investment bank based in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by the Flemish Berenberg family in 1590 () and ...

and a member of the Berenberg-Gossler banking dynasty. Mary was the mother of Baron

Johann von Berenberg-Gossler Baron Johann von Berenberg-Gossler (born 13 February 1839 in Hamburg, died 8 December 1913 in Hamburg; né Johann 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 ...

.John Albion Andrew, ''The New-England Historical & Geological Register and Antiquarian Journal'', 1869 (July):339 Eliot founded the Eliot Chair of Greek Literature at Harvard and was a corresponding member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(1768).Whitfield Jenks Bell, ''Patriot-improvers: 1743-1768'', American Philosophical Society, 1997. In 1806, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eliot, Samuel American bankers Eliot family (America) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Businesspeople from Boston 1739 births 1820 deaths Members of the American Philosophical Society