Charles Astor Bristed

Charles Astor Bristed (October 6, 1820 – January 14, 1874) He was the first American to write a full-length defense of Americanisms and is the earliest known person to use the term "conspiracy theory".

Biography Charles was born in New York City, New York, the son of the Reverend John Bristed, an Episcopal clergyman from a New England family, After his mother's death in 1832, Charles went to live his with grandparents, fur-trader John Jacob Astor and Sarah Todd at their home, "Hellgate" where many famous writers of the day, including Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck, visited.

He graduated from Yale College in 1839 with honors, and from Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1845, taking numerous prizes and being made a foundation scholar of the college.

Career He returned to the United States in 1847. Bristed amused himself by contributing articles, poetical translations, critical papers on the classics, and sketches of society to various journals, and in 1849 edited Selections from Catullus, for school use. In 1850, he published "Letters to the Hon. Horace Mann", being a reply to some strictures upon the characters of Girard and Astor. In 1852, a collection of his sketches on New York Society entitled "The Upper Ten Thousand", appeared in the Fraser Magazine. At the same time, he published Five Years in an English University, in which he described the manners, customs, and mode of life but little understood in the United States. His wide scholarship makes his essays valuable and marks his criticisms with the best qualities of a trained university man. He also published many clever poetical translations from the classics. In his later years, Bristed resided in Washington, D.C. He was a frequent contributor to the Galaxy under the pen-name "Carl Benson", and published The Interference Theory of Governments, a book denunciatory of tariff and prohibitory liquor laws, and Pieces of a Broken-down Critic.

After his first wife's untimely death of heart disease, he married Grace Ashburner Sedgwick (1833–1897), the daughter of Charles Sedgwick and Elizabeth Buckminster Dwight, by whom he had two sons and a daughter:

John Jacob Astor Bristed (1847–1880), who died in his 32nd year. Charles Astor Bristed Jr. (1869–1936) Mary Rosa Donnelly (1866–1931) - Married in 1894 Clementina Hill (1880–1958) - Married in 1932. who inherited most of the estate of her brother, John.

Bristed died in Washington, D.C., on January 14, 1874. His funeral was held in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.