Roderick Terry

Roderick Terry (April 1, 1849 - December 28, 1933) was an American Presbyterian clergyman and philanthropist.

Early life

Terry was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 1, 1849. He was the son of Elizabeth Roe ( Peet) Terry (1826–1899) and merchant and banker John T. Terry, an associate of Edwin D. Morgan. Among his siblings were Frederick Peet Terry (who married Ellen Mills Battell), and John Taylor Terry Jr. (who married Bertha Halsted, sister of William Stewart Halsted).

His maternal grandparents were Frederick Tomlinson Peet and Elizabeth Roe ( Lockwood) Peet. His paternal grandparents were Harriet ( Taylor) Terry and Roderick Terry, a member of the Connecticut General Assembly who was president of The Exchange Bank in Hartford. Terry traced his lineage to Gov. William Bradford of Mayflower and Plymouth Colony fame as well as Continental Army Col. Nathaniel Terry. In 1910, his name was mentioned as a possible candidate for mayor of Newport.

In 1911 Terry was elected as a hereditary member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati.

In Newport, he was president of the Newport Historical Society and as president of the Board of Directors for the Redwood Library and Athenaeum from 1916 to 1933. Together, they lived at 169 Madison Avenue in New York City and were the parents of:

Roderick Terry (1876–1951), a lawyer who also served as president of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum from 1940 to 1948. Eunice Terry (d. 1919), who married Eugene Hale Jr., a banker with Pendergast, Hale & Co. who was a son of U.S. Senator Eugene Hale and brother of U.S. Senator Frederick Hale and diplomat Chandler Hale, in 1906.

They inherited his father-in-law's home in Newport, Rhode Island, known as Linden Gate, on the corner of Rhode Island Avenue and Old Beach Road. The house was designed by noted architect Richard Morris Hunt and was built between 1872 and 1873. They were noted for their entertaining in Newport. Linden Gate, which was inherited by their son Roderick, destroyed by fire in 1973.

His wife died at Linden Gate on May 28, 1931 after a long illness. He was buried at Island Cemetery in Newport.