Jonathan Trumbull

Jonathan Trumbull 1710-85, colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Lebanon, Conn. He was prominent in the colony after 1733, serving in the assembly, of which he became speaker, and in other offices. He was chief justice of the superior court and deputy governor before becoming governor in 1769. He served until 1784 and rendered great services to George Washington in the American Revolution. There is a tradition that the name Brother Jonathan, for an American, arose from a remark of Washington about Trumbull.

Bibliography: See biographies by J. Trumbull (1919), a descendant, and G. Weaver (1956).

Trumbull, Jonathan (1710–85), chief justice of the Connecticut supreme court (1766–69) and governor of the colony and later the state (1769–84), was the only colonial governor to champion the Revolutionary cause. He was an adviser of Washington and has been considered the original of the name “Brother Jonathan”. He was the father of John Trumbull (1756–1843), a painter of grand, historical canvases and portraits.