CHAUNCEY LEE (1763-1842)

A recent article discussed Sylvester Sage Crosby and the first American coin book illustrated with photographs. The topic this week is Chauncey Lee and the first book illustrated with an engraving of an American coin.

 

Chauncey Lee was born in Salisbury in the British Colony of Connecticut, on November 9, 1763. His parents were the Reverend Jonathan Lee (1718-1788) and Love Graham (1732-1820). Chauncey was married three times. The first was in 1795 to Abigail Stanton (1770-1805). They had four children. As with the Crosby family, a surviving son took the name of a deceased child. His second marriage was in February 1807 to Olive Harrison (1774-1818) and produced three children. His final marriage on October 21, 1818 was to Rebecca Green Haynes (1773-1841) and her second marriage.

He graduated from Yale College in 1784 and was admitted to the bar in 1786. After a few years of law practice, he became a minister in Colebrook about 1789. In 1796 he became the principal of Lansingburgh Academy in Troy, New York. He was a pastor at Colebrook 1800 to 1827 and at Marlborough 1828 to 1837.

He then moved to Hartwick, New York, where he died on December 5, 1842 and is buried at Lakewood Cemetery in Cooperstown, New York.

Lee wrote poetry and also was the author of The American accomptant: being a plain, practical and systematic compendium of federal arithmetic, in three parts: designed for the use of schools, and specially calculated for the commercial meridian of the United States of America, published in 1797.

The book represents two firsts for American numismatics. An engraved plate frontispiece had illustrations of six coins. One was an American small gold eagle ($10) dated 1795. The others were a 1780 Spanish Pistole, a 1725 Portuguese Half Moidore (2000 Reis), a 1786 French Guinea, a 1766 Portuguese Johannes and a British Guinea. This was the first printed illustration of an American coin.

It has also been suggested that the book is the first to illustrate a dollar sign. This is controversial. There is evidence of an earlier appearance. There is also question if the symbol in the book is really a dollar sign. Page 56 of the book includes symbols for a cent, dime, dollar and eagle. Both the dime and dollar are similar to the dollar sign. This was discussed in The E-Sylum in 2011.

Page 56 also had a table showing the value of the six gold coins illustrated on the Frontispiece.

Published biographies have inconsistent information. The famousamericans.net site gives his year of birth as 1718, his date of death as November 5, 1842, and his year of retirement as 1885. This would add him to the list of hundred-year-old numismatists and also one who worked until he was 166 years old. As an experienced researcher, I tend to mistrust such information.

To read the book on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
The American accomptant; being a plain, practical and systematic compendium of Federal arithmetic in three parts : designed for use in the schools, and specially calculated for the commercial meridian of the United States of America. (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/562544)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
THE AMERICAN ACCOMPTANT: 1797 BOOK USING DOLLAR SIGN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n26a18.html)
MORE ON THE AMERICAN ACCOMPTANT AND THE FIRST PRINTED DOLLAR SIGN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v14n30a10.html)
SYLVESTER SAGE CROSBY (1831-1914) (https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n41a20.html)

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