Nathaniel Prime
{{Short description|American banker (1768–1840)}}
{{about|the financier|the naval officer|Nathaniel Prime (naval officer)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nathaniel Prime
| image = Nathaniel Prime by Oliver Ingraham Lay (1879).jpg
| caption = The b/w version of a portrait of Nathaniel Prime by Oliver Ingraham Lay, 1879 (copy after John Trumbull)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1768|01|30}}
| birth_place = Rowley, Massachusetts, British America
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1840|11|26|1768|01|30}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = Broker and banker
| parents = Joshua Prime
Bridget Hammond Prime
| spouse = Cornelia Sands
| partner = Cornelia Sands (1773–1852)
| children = Edward Prime
| relations = William Seton III (grandson)
}}
Nathaniel Prime (January 30, 1768 – November 26, 1840) was a New York broker and banker.
Early life
Prime was born in Rowley, Massachusetts on January 30, 1768. He was the son of Joshua Prime and Bridget Hammond Prime.{{cite book|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|page=833|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA833|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}}
In his early years, he was a coachman to Boston merchant William Gray and moved to New York in 1795.[https://books.google.com/books?id=V0k5AAAAMAAJ&q=William+Gray Barrett, Walter. The Old Merchants of New York City, New York. Carleton, 1864, p. 11]
Career
In 1796, Prime organized "Nathaniel Prime, Stock and Commission Broker" at 42 Wall Street. He made great wealth buying and selling bank stocks. After opening his own private bank, he allowed customers to deposit money and then loaned it out.{{cite book|last1=Burrows|first1=Edwin G.|last2=Wallace|first2=Mike|title=Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199741205|page=445|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xF4NDALYWSAC&pg=PA445|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}}
In 1808, he brought in Samuel Ward III as a partner and the firm was renamed Prime & Ward.{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=John|title=A Memoir of Lieut.-Colonel Samuel Ward, First Rhode Island Regiment, Army of the American Revolution: With a Genealogy of the Ward Family|date=1875|page=[https://archive.org/details/memoiroflieutco00ward/page/n25 1]|publisher=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/memoiroflieutco00ward|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}} In 1816, Joseph Sands, Prime's brother-in-law, was made a partner and the firm became Prime, Ward & Sands.{{cite book|author-link1=Mira Wilkins|last1=Wilkins|first1=Mira|title=The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914|date=1989|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=9780674396661|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofforeign0000wilk/page/657 657]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofforeign0000wilk|url-access=registration|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}}
In 1824, the firm was again reorganized as Prime, Ward, Sands & King when James Gore King became a partner upon his return from England.{{cite web|title=SAMUEL WARD PAPERS |url=http://archives.nypl.org/uploads/collection/pdf_finding_aid/wards.pdf |website=archives.nypl.org |publisher=New York Public Library |access-date=10 March 2018}} King, a son of U.S. Senator Rufus King, had previously been affiliated with the firm of King & Gracie, founded in 1818 in Liverpool, England by King and his brother-in-law, Archibald Gracie Jr. (the son of Archibald Gracie). In 1826, after Joseph died the firm became Prime, Ward & King.{{cite book|last1=Barrett|first1=Walter|title=The Old Merchants of New York City|date=1885|publisher=Thomas R. Knox & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/oldmerchantsnew01barrgoog/page/n35 10]|url=https://archive.org/details/oldmerchantsnew01barrgoog|access-date=10 March 2018|language=en}} Nathaniel Prime retired from the firm in 1832 and his son Edward took his place.
=Residence=
Prime and his family lived in a house on the corner of Broadway and Battery Place.
In 1807, he purchased a house and 130 acres for a country seat at Hell Gate, New York near Yorkville, New York. The building stood on the block between First Avenue and York Avenue and 89th and 90th streets.{{cite web|title=Nathaniel Prime Mansion, Hell Gate near Yorkville, New York|url=https://emuseum.nyhistory.org/search/Nathaniel%20Prime%20Mansion|website=Museum Collections|publisher=New-York Historical Society|access-date=21 August 2016}} In 1857, the mansion was purchased by the Redemptorists, who opened St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum.
John Frazee did a sculpture of Prime.
Personal life
File:Laura Prime and her Daughter 20198.jpg.]]
On June 7, 1797, Prime was married to Cornelia Sands (1773–1852), the daughter of Comfort Sands (d. 1835), the celebrated merchant, banker and Continental Congressman, and Elizabeth (née Cornell) Sands. Together, they were the parents of:
- Cornelia Prime (1800–1874), who married Robert Ray (1794–1879), brother-in-law of New York Gov. John Alsop King.
- Edward Prime (1801–1883), a banker with Prime, Ward & King who married Charlotte Wilkins Hoffman (1808–1892).{{cite book|last1=Hoffman|first1=Eugene Augustus|title=Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes ..|date=1899|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co.|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofhoffm00hoff#page/54/mode/2up/search/lorillard|access-date=17 November 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Lawrence|first1=Ruth|title=Colonial Families of America|date=1930|publisher=National Americana Society|location=New York|url=http://familyhistorydocs.com/Docs/4.pdf|access-date=10 March 2018}}
- Emily Prime (1804–1854), who married William Seton (1796–1868), a U.S. Navy captain and son of Elizabeth Ann Seton, in 1832.
- Frederick Prime (1807–1887), who married Lydia Hare (1815–1883), a daughter of Robert Hare.
- Matilda Prime (1810–1849), who married Gerard Holsman Coster (1808–1880), son of John Gerard Coster in 1831.
- Laura Prime (1812–1887), who married John Clarkson Jay (1808–1891), the son of Peter A. Jay and grandson of John Jay.
Prime committed suicide on November 26, 1840, by cutting his throat. William H. Aspinwall served on the coroner's jury, and Edgar Howland informed diarist George Templeton Strong that:
"Prime went to his room at two o'clock and appears to have taken up and read his prayer book, then went before the glass, cut his throat coolly and steadily from ear to ear, replaced the razor in its case, and then walked into the next room, and there fell. The jury found "insanity." He had been dyspeptic and nervous for some time; he was retired from active life and his mind, I suppose, preyed on itself for want of occupation ..."{{Cite book|title=The Diary of George Templeton Strong|last=Strong|first=George Templeton|publisher=The Macmillan Company|year=1952|editor-last=Nevins|editor-first=Allan|volume=I|pages=152|editor-last2=Thomas|editor-first2=Milton Halsey}}
=Descendants=
Through his daughter Cornelia, he was the grandfather of Cornelia Ray (1829–1867), who married Gen. Schuyler Hamilton (1822–1903), a grandson of Alexander Hamilton; Robert Ray (1832–1860), and Nathalie Elizabeth Ray (1837–1912), who married Edmund Lincoln Baylies (1829–1869), the parents of Edmund L. Baylies Jr.{{cite news|title=E.L. BAYLIES IS DEAD; WAS LEADER IN BAR; Socially Prominent Attorney Helped to Create Cathedral of St. John the Divine. SEAMEN'S INSTITUTE HEAD Was Its President for 19 Years {{!}} Handled Many Large Estates Member of Old Family|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C07E2D9143EE633A25753C3A9629C946394D6CF&legacy=true|access-date=5 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=30 April 1932}}
Through his daughter Emily, he was the grandfather of author, novelist and popular science writer William Seton III (1835–1905),{{cite news|title=DIED. SETON|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/03/16/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|access-date=10 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=16 March 1905}} Robert Seton (1839–1927), a monsignor in the Roman Catholic Church and titular archbishop of Heliopolis.
Through his son Edward, he was the grandfather of William Hoffman Prime (1837–1881), who married Annie Rhodes Gilbert in 1879; Mary Catherine Prime (b. 1841), who married James A. Scrimper in 1868; and Henry Prime (b. 1847). William's children included Charlotte Hoffman Prime (1881–1969), who married William Massena Benjamin (1874–1928), the son of Samuel Nicholl Benjamin; and Charlotte Prime (b. 1838), who married Leonard J. Wyeth in 1858.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{Findagrave|64759336}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prime, Nathaniel}}
Category:People from Yorkville, Manhattan
Category:People from Rowley, Massachusetts
Category:American stockbrokers
Category:Businesspeople from New York City
Category:Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Category:18th-century American businesspeople
Category:19th-century American businesspeople
Category:American investment bankers
Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States