William Ferris Pell
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William Ferris Pell | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Pell by Daniel Huntington, 1838 | |
| Born | September 1779 |
| Died | October 28, 1840 (aged 61) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Columbia College |
| Spouse |
Mary Shipley (m. 1802) |
| Children | 11, including Alfred, Duncan |
| Parent(s) | Benjamin Pell Marianna Ferris Pell |
| Relatives | Robert Livingston Pell (nephew) Stephen Hyatt Pell (great-grandson) Herbert Pell (great-grandson) Theodore Pell (great-grandson) |
William Ferris Pell (September 1779 – October 28, 1840) was an American horticulturist.
Pell was born in New York in September 1779. He was the son of shipping merchant Benjamin Pell (c. 1750–1828) and Marianna (née Ferris) Pell (1757–1795), who married in 1778.[1] Among his siblings were Alfred Sands Pell (husband of Adelia Duane, a daughter of James Duane, and father of Robert Livingston Pell); Gilbert Titus Pell (husband of Elizabeth Birkbeck, a daughter of Morris Birkbeck, and father of Morris Birkbeck Pell), and representative in the Illinois Legislature, who was appointed United States envoy to Mexico in the 1850s; and Maria Pell (wife of Jacob T. Walden).[1]
His paternal grandparents were Joshua Pell (son of Thomas Pell, 3rd Lord of Pelham Manor and grandson of Sir John Pell, 2nd Lord of Pelham Manor) and Phoebe (née Palmer) Pell (daughter of John Palmer). His great-great-grandfather, Sir John Pell was the nephew of the 1st Lord, Thomas Pell, who acquired Pelham Manor from the Siwanoy Indians in 1645. His maternal grandparents were John Ferris and Marianna (née Hunt) Ferris.[1]
Pell studied botany at Columbia College under Dr. David Hosack, a well-known botanist and horticulturalist who founded Elgin Botanic Garden in 1801.[2]
Career
Pell worked in the family business Pell & Co., which imported mahogany and marble before becoming an auction house that later went into financing.[2]
Fort Ticonderoga
During a steamboat trip to Burlington, Vermont, Pell spotted the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. In 1816, he began leasing the property from Columbia and Union colleges (whom had received the property from the state of New York in 1803), and in 1820, he purchased the entire 546-acre grounds for $6,008.[3] Pell preserved the remaining stonework of the Fort and built a home known as Beaumont, which burnt down in 1825. In 1826, he built a Palladian-style country estate which he named Pavilion.[2] The home was later converted into a hotel to serve the tourist trade.[4] The Pell family later hired English architect Alfred Bossom to restore the fort, which was formally opened to the public in 1909 as an historic site.[5]
