Beverly Chew

Beverly Chew (February 6, 1773 – January 13, 1851) was an American merchant and diplomat.

Early life Chew was born on February 6, 1773, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He was the eldest son of Col. John Chew Jr. (1740–1799), who served in the Continental Army, and Ann ( Fox) Chew (1754–1821), a daughter of Thomas Fox. His brother John Chew married Ellen Patton, sister of U.S. Representative and Acting Governor of Virginia John M. Patton.

He was a descendant of John Chew, a successful merchant, who arrived in Jamestown in 1622 on the ship Charitie; and was granted of land in Charles River (now York) County, Virginia. Extended members of the Chew family included Chief Justice of Delaware Samuel Chew, and his son, Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania. they were exclusive agents of the London-based Phoenix Fire Insurance Co. Banking interests formed a major part of their portfolios: Chew was also a major stockholder of the Bank of Louisiana. He was an active participant in land speculation in Louisiana and Texas as well as the slave trade, and purported to be a smuggler.

In July 1812 President James Madison appointed Chew as Vice consul to Russia at New Orleans to handle commercial reciprocity between the U.S. and Russia since Russia was reportedly taking a favorable view of the American effort to defend neutral shipping rights. During the War of 1812, Chew served as a volunteer rifleman under Gen. Andrew Jackson in Beale's Rifles during the Gulf Campaign and the Battle of New Orleans. a younger daughter of Continental Congress delegate William Duer and Lady Catherine Alexander. Among her siblings were Judges William Alexander Duer and John Duer and through her mother, she was a cousin of a cousin to Edward Livingston, a United States senator from Louisiana. Together, they were the parents of six children, three of whom married into the Kennedy family of Louisiana:

Lucy Ann Chew (1816–1900), who married her cousin, U.S. Representative William Duer, in 1835. John William Chew, who died unmarried. Mary Virginia Chew (1826–1863), who married Martin Gordon Kennedy. Lafayette gave the family an "ornate silver teapot inscribed with the infant's name."

Descendants Through his son Alexander, he was a great-grandfather of composer Alexander Lafayette Chew Wilder (better known as Alec Wilder).