A self-styled aristocrat who began life as an impoverished farm laborer, Timothy Dexter utilized a series of implausible business ventures to amass significant wealth in late eighteenth-century Massachusetts. Despite his lack of formal education, he successfully navigated the complexities of international trade and post-Revolutionary finance, leaving behind a legacy defined by profound eccentricity and a singular, unpunctuated literary work.
Early Ventures and Financial Gains
Born in Malden in 1747, Dexter left school at age eight to labor on farms. By sixteen, he worked as a tanner’s apprentice before relocating to Newburyport in 1769. His entry into high society began with his marriage to Elizabeth Frothingham, a wealthy widow, which provided the capital to open a shop selling hides and whale blubber. Following the American Revolutionary War, he purchased depreciated Continental currency that the United States government eventually redeemed at a percentage of face value, significantly bolstering his capital.
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Dexter built two ships to export goods to the West Indies and Europe. When rivals suggested he ship bed warmers to the tropical West Indies as a ploy to bankrupt him, he succeeded by having his captain market them as molasses ladles. His subsequent exports—including wool mittens for Asian merchants, coal to Newcastle during a miners' strike, and Bibles to the East Indies—consistently yielded profits where conventional wisdom predicted failure.
Public Persona and Peculiar Status
Seeking the status of the local elite, he purchased a mansion in Newburyport and adorned it with minarets, a golden eagle, and forty wooden statues of historical figures, including himself. In Chester, New Hampshire, he encouraged locals to address him as Lord Chester by offering cash rewards for the title. His public life also included a seven-year stint as the official Informer of Deer in Newburyport, despite the local absence of the animal.
Literary Contributions
At age fifty, Dexter authored A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, a rambling critique of politicians and his own wife. The first edition, printed in 1802, contained no punctuation and erratic spelling. When critics complained about the lack of grammar, he included an additional page in the second edition filled with punctuation marks, advising readers to season the text with them as they preferred.
Fast facts
- Born: 1747, Malden
- Died: 1806, Newburyport
- Burial site: Old Burial Hill
- Author of: A Pickle for the Knowing Ones
- Known as: Lord Timothy Dexter
- Estate value at death: $35,027.39
- Public office held: Informer of Deer
Questions readers ask
Did Timothy Dexter actually have a title of nobility?
No, he was not a member of the nobility; he granted himself the title Lord Timothy Dexter and frequently demanded that others acknowledge his self-proclaimed status.
What happened to the statues in his garden?
Most were destroyed or sold following an auction in 1807, with many toppled during the Great September Gale of 1815; fewer than six of the original forty are known to survive.
