1. Archibald Gracie was the son of a weaver named William Gracie.
14 Facts About Archibald Gracie
1. 2.
In 1776, Gracie moved to Liverpool and clerked for a London shipping firm.
3.
Archibald Gracie used his earnings to purchase a part interest in a merchant ship.
4.
Archibald Gracie used the proceeds to invest in a mercantile company in New York City.
5.
Archibald Gracie later moved to Petersburg, Virginia, and engaged in the export of tobacco to Great Britain.
6.
Archibald Gracie was a business partner of Alexander Hamilton and a friend of John Jay.
7.
Archibald Gracie was a member of the Tontine Association, which supervised the trading of stocks.
8.
Archibald Gracie expanded his interests and became active in the banking and insurance industries.
9.
Archibald Gracie was a director of New York's earliest savings bank New York Bank for Savings.
10.
Archibald Gracie was an incorporator of the Eagle Fire Insurance Company and vice president of the New York Insurance Company, a director of the United States Bank and of the Bank of America.
11.
Archibald Gracie served as Vice-President of the New York Chamber of Commerce from 1800 to 1825 and the 18th president of the St Andrew's Society of New York, serving from 1818 to 1823.
12.
In 1798, Archibald Gracie purchased a large tract of land on Horn's Hook near the East River, where the following year he constructed a large two-story wooden mansion on the crest of a hill.
13.
Archibald Gracie's distinguished guests at the mansion included Hamilton, future United States president John Quincy Adams, and future French king Louis Phillippe.
14.
Gracie's great-grandson, Archibald Gracie IV, was a military officer and writer who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.