Timothy Dexter

Timothy Dexter
Timothy Dexter
Born	January 22, 1748 (1748-01-22) Malden, Massachusetts
Died	October 26, 1806 (1806-10-27) (aged 58) Newburyport, Massachusetts
Resting place	Old Hill Burying Ground, Dexter Family Plot, Newburyport
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Business sense, eccentricity
Notable work	A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress (1802)
Spouse	Elizabeth (Lord) Frothingham ​ ​ (m. 1770;  1806)​
Children	Samuel Lord Dexter, Nancy Dexter

Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1748 – October 26, 1806) was an American businessman noted for his writing and eccentricity.

Biography

Timothy Dexter was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He had little schooling and was working as a farm laborer at the age of 8. When he was 16, he became an apprentice to a leather-dresser. In 1769, he moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Frothingham, a rich widow, and bought a mansion. He was considered a lackwit by some of his social contemporaries. Many of them gave him bad business advice in order to discredit him and make him lose his fortune.

At the end of the American Revolutionary War he bought large amounts of depreciated Continental currency that was worthless at the time. After the war was over, the U.S. government made good on the dollars and by the time trade connections resumed, he had amassed a fortune. He built two ships and began an export business to the West Indies and to Europe.

Because he was largely uneducated, his business sense was considered peculiar. He was inspired to send warming pans (used to heat sheets in the cold New England winters) for sale to the West Indies, a tropical area. His captain sold them as ladles for local molasses industry and made a good profit. Next Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place. Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.

People jokingly told him to "ship coal to Newcastle", which he did, and through sheer luck there was a miners' strike going on at the time, and his cargo was sold at a premium. At another time, practical jokers told him he could make money shipping gloves to the South Sea Islands. His ships arrived there in time to sell the gloves to Portuguese boats on their way to China.

He exported Bibles to the East Indies and stray cats to Caribbean islands and again made a profit; eastern missionaries were in need of the Bibles and the Caribbean welcomed a solution to rat infestation. He also hoarded whalebone by mistake, but ended up selling them profitably as a support material for corsets.

Members of the New England high society refused to socialize with him. Dexter decided to buy a huge house in Newburyport from Nathaniel Tracy, a local socialite, and tried to emulate them. His relationships with his "nagging" wife, daughter, and son were not particularly good, either. This became evident when he started telling visitors that his wife had died (despite the fact that she was still very much alive) and that the "drunken nagging woman" who frequented the building was simply her ghost.

Dexter also bought an estate in Chester, New Hampshire. He decorated his house in Newburyport with minarets, a golden eagle on the top of the cupola, a mausoleum for himself and a garden of 40 wooden statues of famous men, including George Washington, William Pitt, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson, and himself. It had an inscription I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World.

"Lord" Timothy Dexter House, Newburyport, Massachusetts

At the age of 50 he wrote a book about himself — A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress. He wrote about himself and complained about politicians, clergy and his wife. The book contained 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but no punctuation, and capital letters were seemingly random. At first he handed his book out for free, but it became popular and was re-printed in eight editions. In the second edition Dexter added an extra page which consisted of 13 lines of punctuation marks. Dexter instructed readers to "peper and solt it as they plese".

Dexter announced his own death and urged people to prepare for his burial. About 3,000 people attended Dexter's mock wake. The crowd was disappointed when they heard a still-living Dexter screaming at his wife that she was not grieving enough. Dexter's actual date of death was in 1806.

Dexter's Newburyport house became a hotel. Storms ruined most of his statues, the statue of William Pitt being the only identified survivor. His book remains his primary legacy to this day.

References

• Samuel L. Knapp (1858). The Life of Lord Timothy Dexter, with Sketches of the Eccentric Characters that Composed his Associates, including his own writings, "Dexter's Pickle for the knowing ones", &c., &c. Boston: J. E. Tilton and Co.
• Dexter, Timothy; Quince, Peter (1881). A pickle for the knowing ones: or, Plain truths in a homespun dress. S. A. Tucker. 36 pages. Retrieved 19 May 2011. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |nopp= ignored (|no-pp= suggested) (help)

External links

• The Official Virtual Seat on the "Noue Systom of Knollege & Lite" Assigned the Notable and Most Noble Lord Timothy Dexter
• Complete transcription of "A Pickle for The Knowing Ones; or Plain Truths in a Homespun Dress" ~ with translation and annotations
• NPR’s "Weekend Edition": The 'Literary' Legacy of Lord Timothy Dexter
•  Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Timothy Dexter at Find a Grave