Elias Boudinot account books

1760-1821

Elias Boudinot (1740-1821) was an American lawyer and statesman. Born in Philadelphia, he resided in New Jersey for most of his life. During the Revolution Boudinot served in the New Jersey Provincial Congress, was Commissary General of Prisoners from 1777 to 1778, and was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1778 and from 1781 to 1783, holding a one-year term as its president, 1782 to 1783. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to 1795, and as Director of the U.S. Mint from 1795 to 1805. A devout Presbyterian, Boudinot was a trustee of Princeton University and first president of the American Bible Society. Elias Boudinot's account books (2 volumes) comprise a ledger, 1760-1814, and a waste book, 1818-1821. Together they document his finances and activities from the year he began his legal practice in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to the end of his life in retirement at Burlington. The ledger, with an index and some loose documents, contains accounts concerning his legal practice in New Jersey courts from 1760 to roughly 1775; his tenure as Commissary General of Prisoners during the Revolution (see folios 68-72); his real estate holdings and investments in land and in the U.S. government; notes and bonds; and his role as executor or administrator for family members and friends. There are extensive entries for his daughter Susan Boudinot Bradford, for the estate of Reverend James Caldwell (d. 1781) and the care of his orphaned children, and for managing the American interests of Captain James Drummond, later Lord Perth. The waste book is a journal of debits and credits, with memoranda, for his business affairs and personal expenses; there are a few entries by others after his death.