Duncan Pell

Duncan Campbell Pell (January 18, 1807 – January 16, 1874) served as the lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, and Chairman of the State Senate in that state from 1865 to 1866.

Early life Pell was born in New York City on January 18, 1807. He was the third of eleven children born to Mary (née Shipley) Pell and William Ferris Pell. His father was a New York merchant from 1808 to 1840, who founded the famous auction firm of Pell & Company, and his brother, Alfred Shipley Pell, was a co-founder of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.

Career Pell studied at the Litchfield Law School and was admitted to the bar in Albany in 1828. He was also a commissioner with the Washington Marine Insurance Company. He was described as "the finest looking man of his day in Wall Street." likely a later iteration of W. F. Pell & Co. He was a member of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, having been elected on June 1, 1874, shortly before his death. In 1865, he was elected with 10,815 votes (vs. 97 votes for Henry Butler of Warwick) to succeed Seth Padelford as the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island under Gov. James Y. Smith.

The 1870 census lists him as a retired merchant, with a net worth of nearly $400,000 (nearly $8 million today). the daughter of Ann Low (née Carey) Cooper Clarke and George Hyde Clarke of Hyde Hall, (a mansion on Lake Otsego said to have been the largest private home in the country).

Georgina Clarke Pell (1835–1851), who died aged 16. Duncan Archibald Pell (1842–1874), His wife remained in Newport, residing at the corner of Mary and Clarke Streets in Newport.