Benjamin Joy (1757-1829)
Merchant & Developer, of Boston, Massachusetts; the first U.S. Consul in India
He was a merchant at Boston and in 1792 George Washington appointed him the first U.S. Consul in India on account of the several trips he'd made there since the Revolution. He arrived in Calcutta in April 1794 and remained there until 1797. Although the British East India Company never recognized his status, it nonetheless marked the beginning of diplomatic relations between the United States and India. Back in Boston, he purchased the property of the First Church on Cornhill Square and in 1808 built “Joy’s Building” which for several decades was a Boston landmark. He was also one of the “Mount Vernon Proprietors,” acquiring and developing the land on Beacon Street which used to belong to the Loyalist portraitist, John Singleton Copley. It became a particularly valuable slice of real estate after the Massachusetts State House was built. In 1797, he married Hannah, daughter of Joseph Barrell and they had 12-children.
