Abbot, G. J.

Minister and diplomat; graduate of Harvard College, 1835; private secretary to Daniel Webster, 1850-1852; professor at the Theological School at Meadville, Pa. ca. 1870; officer in the State Department, posted to England 1864-1870, and Canada 1877-1879.

George Jacob Abbot, son of the Rev. Jacob Abbot, a Unitarian minister, was born in Windham, N.H. He graduated from Harvard College in 1835, after which he opened a boys' school in Washington, D.C. After a clerkship in the State Department, he became private secretary to Daniel Webster, this during Webster's second term as Secretary of State (1850-1852).

Abbot served as United States consul at Bradford and Sheffield, England, from 1864 to 1870 and, returning to the U.S., was for several years a professor at the Theological School at Meadville, P.A. In 1877 he took another diplomatic position at Goderich and Windsor, Canada, which he maintained until his death.

More information as to Abbot and family may be found in Leonard A. Morrison's History of Windham in New Hampshire, 1719-1883 (Boston: Cupples, Upham and Co., 1883).

From the guide to the George Jacob Abbot papers, 1811-1901, (Manuscripts and Archives)