Duncan Pell

Pell was born in New York City on January 18, 1807. He was the third of eleven children born to Mary (née Shipley) Pell and William Ferris Pell.{{cite web |title=Duncan Campbell Pell |url=https://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/1941 |website=www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org |publisher=Litchfield Historical Society |accessdate=29 August 2019}} His father was a New York merchant from 1808 to 1840, who founded the famous auction firm of Pell & Company, and his brother, Alfred Shipley Pell, was a co-founder of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Cuyler |title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State, Included Within the Present Counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene |date=1911 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |page=298 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4k-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA298 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}}

Pell studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to the bar in Albany in 1828. he entered into an auctioneering partnership with his father on January 23, 1831.Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, 1831 He was also a commissioner with the Washington Marine Insurance Company. He was described as "the finest looking man of his day in Wall Street." In 1848, after approximately 17 years as a partner, Pell withdrew from D. C. & W. Pell & Co.,Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, 1848 likely a later iteration of W. F. Pell & Co. He was a member of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, having been elected on June 1, 1874, shortly before his death.

Soon afterwards, he moved with to Newport, Rhode Island, where he would remain until his death.{{cite book |last1=Bolton |first1=Robert |title=The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time |date=1881 |publisher=C. F. Roper |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQRIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA67 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}} In 1865, he was elected with 10,815 votes (vs. 97 votes for Henry Butler of Warwick) to succeed Seth Padelford as the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island under Gov. James Y. Smith.{{cite book |title=At the General Assembly of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Begun and Holden, ... at ... Within and for the Said State, on ..., in the Year of Our Lord ... |date=1865 |publisher=Henry Ward, Secretary |page=173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g4FCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA173 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}}

The 1870 census lists him as a retired merchant, with a net worth of nearly $400,000 (nearly $8 million today).

In 1834, Pell was married to Anna Clarke (1817–1899),{{cite book |title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1- |date=1905 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJM-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA119 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}} the daughter of Ann Low (née Carey) Cooper Clarke and George Hyde Clarke of Hyde Hall,{{cite web |title=Guide to the George Hyde Clarke Family Papers,1705-1937. |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM02800.html |website=rmc.library.cornell.edu |publisher=Cornell University Library |accessdate=29 August 2019}} (a mansion on Lake Otsego said to have been the largest private home in the country). Her elder brother, George Hyde Clarke (1822–1889) was married to Maria Gregory. Together, they were the parents of:{{cite book |last1=Browning |first1=Charles Henry |title=Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings |date=1891 |publisher=Porter & Costes |page=465 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIUaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA465 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}}

• Georgina Clarke Pell (1835–1851), who died aged 16.
• Duncan Archibald Pell (1842–1874), who was a colonel in the Civil War on the staff of General Ambrose Burnside. He married Caroline Plympton Cheever.
• Leslie Pell-Clarke (1853–1904), who married Henrietta Temple, daughter of Emmet Temple, in 1876.

Stricken with apoplexy, Pell died in Newport on January 16, 1874, at the age of 68. He was buried at Island Cemetery in Newport.{{cite news |title=Obituary; Duncan C. Pell. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1874/01/17/79213669.pdf |accessdate=29 August 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=17 January 1874}}{{cite book |title=The Atlantic Reporter |date=1892 |publisher=West Publishing Company |page=111 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ls4KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111 |accessdate=29 August 2019 |language=en}} His wife remained in Newport, residing at the corner of Mary and Clarke Streets in Newport.{{cite web |title=Anna Pell House, Newport, Rhode Island |url=http://lostnewengland.com/2018/03/anna-pell-house-newport-rhode-island/ |website=lostnewengland.com |publisher=Lost New England |accessdate=29 August 2019 |date=13 March 2018}}

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{{succession box|before=Seth Padelford|title=Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island|years=1865–1866|after=William Greene}}

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Category:Lieutenant governors of Rhode Island

Category:1800s births

Category:1874 deaths

Category:Pell family

Category:Politicians from New York City