Benjamin H. Brewster
| Benjamin H. Brewster | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 37th United States Attorney General | |
|
In office December 16, 1881 – March 4, 1885 |
|
| President | Chester A. Arthur |
| Preceded by | Wayne MacVeagh |
| Succeeded by | Augustus H. Garland |
| Attorney General of Pennsylvania | |
|
In office January 16, 1867 – October 25, 1869 |
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| Preceded by | William M. Meredith |
| Succeeded by | F. Carroll Brewster |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Benjamin Harris Brewster October 13, 1816 Salem, New Jersey, US |
| Died | April 4, 1888 (aged 71) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth von Myerbach de Reinfeldts-Shulte Mary Walker-Deslonde |
| Children | Benjamin Harris Brewster, Jr. (1872 - 1941) |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Profession | Lawyer, Politician |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
Benjamin Harris Brewster (October 13, 1816 – April 4, 1888) was an attorney and politician from New Jersey, who served as United States Attorney General from 1881 to 1885.
He was born on October 13, 1816 in Salem, New Jersey, and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Maria Hampton, a daughter of Dr. John Thomas Hampton, a soldier of the American Revolutionary War and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. His grandmother, Mercy Harris-Hampton, was the daughter of Benjamin Harris, the "fighting Quaker" of the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Harris Brewster was named after him.
Benjamin's father was Francis Enoch Brewster, a descendant of William Brewster, a passenger on the Mayflower. The elder Brewster was a successful and well-known attorney in Philadelphia who had abandoned Benjamin's mother, Maria Hampton, for her companion Isabella Anderson, by whom he had two children out of wedlock. His step-brothers were Frederick Carroll Brewster (1825–1898), who became Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and Enoch Carroll Brewster (1828–1863).
Benjamin's sister, Anne Hampton Brewster (1818–1892), was one of America's first female foreign correspondents, publishing primarily in Philadelphia, New York and Boston newspapers. She was a "social outlaw" (as a friend described her) by refusing to marry, by converting to Catholicism, by moving out of her older brother Benjamin's house in order to live alone, by moving to Rome, and, foremost, by continuing to write through it all, first as a dilettante and then as a self-supporting professional.
In their father's will he had named his two sons Frederick and Enoch Carroll Brewster as his sole beneficiaries. Benjamin fought on behalf of his sister for her share of the estate and for the destruction of the will, which he eventually won.
He graduated from Princeton College in 1834 and was conferred upon the degrees of A.B., A.M., and LL.D. He studied law in the office of Eli Kirk Price, a noted Philadelphia lawyer and legal reformer and who was head of the Philadelphia Bar, and he was admitted to practice on January 5, 1838.
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