Trumbull, Jonathan

Trumbull, Jonathan, 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.

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

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