Croswell, Harry, 1778-1858

Harry Croswell: journalist; in 1802 founded a Federalist newspaper, Wasp, in Hudson, N. Y.; tried and found guilty of libel against the Republicans of the county; started another paper in Albany, N. Y., but it failed and he was jailed for debt; entered the ministry and was ordained in the Episcopal Church, 1814; became rector of Trinity Church in New Haven, Ct., 1815-1858.

Harry Croswell: journalist; in 1802 founded a Federalist newspaper, Wasp, in Hudson, N. Y.; tried and found guilty of libel against the Republicans of the county; started another paper in Albany, N. Y., but it failed and he was jailed for debt; entered the ministry and was ordained in the Episcopal Church, 1814; became rector of Trinity Church in New Haven, Ct., 1815-1858.

Harry Croswell, diarist, journalist and clergyman, was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1778, the seventh child of Caleb and Hannah Croswell. He was privately educated, and included as part of his education one year at Noah Webster's house doing odd jobs in exchange for instruction. Having launched himself on a journalistic career in Catskill, New York, he married Susan Sherman of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1800 and moved to Hudson, New York. There his career took a political turn when, in 1802, he founded a Federalist newspaper, the Wasp, which was highly critical of the dominant Republican forces in the county. He was eventually brought to trial for libel by the Republicans and in the ensuing proceeding Alexander Hamilton came to testify on his behalf. Despite the illustrious intervention, Croswell was found guilty and was forced to suspend publication of the Wasp . Encouraged by Federalist support, he moved to Albany, New York, where he started another paper, but since the support was verbal rather than financial, the paper failed, and Croswell was jailed for debt.

Leaving politics and publishing, he joined the ministry and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1814. On January 1, 1815, he came to New Haven to be installed as rector of Trinity Church, and remained there to the end of his life. Of his seven children, four survived into adulthood. The death of his son, William, in 1851 at the age of 47, was a great grief to him, which he assuaged in the writing of a Memoir of William's life. It was published in 1853. His wife died in 1855 and he himself, although suffering from a painful bladder condition, lived till 1858, preaching and writing until the last week of his life.

A memoir based on Croswell's diaries was published by F. B. Dexter, assistant librarian of Yale University, in the Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society (vol. IX, 1918). For an account of the Croswell libel trial, see Speeches at full length of Mr. Van Ness, Mr. Caines, Mr. Harrison and Gen. Hamilton in the great cause of the People against Harry Croswell (1804).