203: Tobias Lear
Diplomat and Personal Friend to George Washington
Born: 19 September 1762, Portsmouth, The Colony of New Hampshire (Present-day Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States of America)
Died: 11 October 1816, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America
Tobias had a fairly good education as a young person for someone of his era. He attended a school in his youth and then went on to attend Harvard for four years from 1779 to 1783.
In 1784, Tobias was hired to be the personal tutor to Martha Washington’s grandchildren, as well as being in charge of George’s correspondence and expense reports to Congress. Soon after, he became George’s personal secretary, and followed him to New York City once Washington became president (New York City was the new country’s capital city at the time). Tobias would serve the president as personal secretary from 1786 to 1799.
In 1790, Tobias married his first wife. They had one son together before she died in a Yellow Fever epidemic in 1793. Tobias’s wife passed away in the President’s House, and her funeral was the only one George attended while serving as President of the United States (according to Wikipedia anyway). Tobias’s second wife was Martha Washington’s favorite niece, who was a widow herself with three young children. George gifted the new blended family 360 acres to live on (but not actually take ownership of the land) taken from the Mount Vernon estate. Sadly, this marriage was even shorter lived. The wedding took place in August 1795, but Tobias’s wife, Fanny (who was actually blood related to George and not Martha), had contracted tuberculosis before the wedding and died in March 1796. In 1803, Tobias would marry another of Martha’s nieces, also named Fanny.
When Tobias’s second wife died, he informed the Washingtons in a letter stating, “the partner of my life is no more!” Martha replied in kind, stating, "It is the nature of humanity to mourn for the loss of our friends; and the more we loved them, the more poignant is our grief."
Tobias was given the rank of colonel as George Washington’s chief aide, though he never saw military action. It is thought that George gave Tobias this military rank to help assuage Tobias’s debts. According to Wikipedia (though I want it known that this is NOT mentioned in any other source I found), Tobias on two occasions kept money that didn’t belong to him as his debts continued to mount. Many people faced economic hardships in the early days of the United States, as the fledgling government had a very unstable economy, and Tobias was one such sufferer.
Tobias also tried to go into business, founding a company that was intended to scout out potential locations for the future, permanent, site of the nation’s capital. The business also tried to promote river traffic on the Potomac River, and Tobias traveled to Europe to try and sell plots of land for the business in what would eventually become Washington DC. The venture failed, pushing Tobias further into debt.
Tobias remained close to the president throughout George’s life, and was with him when he died. Tobias recorded the president’s last moments and planned his funeral. One of the final orders he was given by George was to compile and create an inventory of George’s correspondence from throughout his life. Tobias started the project before George died, and continued to work on it after. Martha tasked Tobias with drafting and then sending letters to acknowledge the many condolences Martha and the Washington family received. As Tobias worked on the letters, Martha busied herself with destroying the letters she and George had exchanged throughout their marriage.
After George died, Tobias was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to serve as commercial agent to the island of Santo Domingo. Tobias did not stay in the position long, and ended up fleeing the island after a slave rebellion broke out. The island is today the dual countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In 1803, Tobias was next appointed Consular General to the North African Coast, again by President Jefferson. Tobias was a lead negotiator to end the First Barbary War and oversee the signing of the Treaty of Tripoli. He lived in Algiers with his wife for nine years, before returning to the United States.
During the War of 1812, Tobias served as a secretary in the US War Department.
Tobias ended his life suddenly, by shooting himself with a pistol and committing suicide, but the reason why has been lost to history; if there even was a reason. For a man who had spent his entire adult life as a prolific writer and editor of other people’s correspondence, it seems odd that he left no note behind to explain his decision. Tobias had apparently been suffering from headaches and bouts of depression in the lead up to his death, and afterwards he was vilified in the media for his various misfortunes throughout his life.
Today, one of Tobias’s journals is held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He is remembered by some as being "George Washington's Right Hand Man."
Badges Earned:
Find a Grave Marked
Located In My Personal Library:
Affairs of State: The Untold History of Presidential Love, Sex, and Scandal (1789-1900) by Robert P Watson
American Spirit Magazine Article, “George Washington’s Right-Hand Man” by Bill Hudgins
Sources:
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/tobias-lear
https://web.archive.org/web/20120402024736/http://seacoastnh.com/history/rev/lear.html