Birth Name: Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee
Date of Birth: August 26, 1921
Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date of Death: October 21, 2014
Place of Death: Washington, D.C., U.S.
Ethnicity: English, some German, distant Scottish
Ben Bradlee was a renowned American journalist. He was the executive editor of the The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, overseeing the reporting of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, and also oversaw the paper’s publishing of the Pentagon Papers in conjunction with The New York Times.
Ben was the son of Josephine (de Gersdorff) and Frederick Josiah Bradlee II, a banker. His great-uncle, Frank Crowninshield, was the founder and first editor of Vanity Fair. Ben was married to author and journalist Sally Quinn, until his death. He had a son, journalist and writer Ben Bradlee, Jr., with his former wife Jean Saltonstall; two children with his former wife Antoinette “Tony” Pinchot Pittman; and a son, filmmaker, author, and disability advocate Quinn Bradlee, with Sally.
Most of Ben’s ancestors were of English descent, and lived in the United States for many generations, going back to the 1600s colonial era. Through his father, he was a descendant of Mayflower passengers James Chilton and William Bradford.
Ben’s parents were third cousins, as the great-great-grandchildren of Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, who was U.S. Secretary of the Navy, from January 16, 1815 to September 30, 1818, and a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, from March 4, 1823 to March 3, 1831.
Ben’s patrilineal line can be traced to John Bradley, who was born, c. 1614, in Ashton-upon-Lyne, Lancashire, England.
Ben’s paternal grandfather was Frederick Josiah Bradlee (the son of Josiah Bradlee III and Alice Crowninshield). Frederick was born in Massachusetts. Ben’s great-grandfather Josiah was the son of Frederick/Frederic Hall Bradlee and Lucretia Wainwright, both from Massachusetts. Alice was the daughter of Francis Boardman Crowninshield and Sarah Gooll/Gool Putnam, and was born in Massachusetts.
Ben’s paternal grandmother was Eliza/Elizabeth Whitwell Thomas (the daughter of Arthur Malcolm Thomas and Mary Sarah Sargent). Elizabeth was born in Massachusetts. Arthur was the son of Dr. Alexander Thomas and Elizabeth Malcolm Read/Rand. Mary was daughter of Howard Sargent and Charlotte Cunningham, who herself was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, though she also had American roots.
Ben’s maternal grandfather was Carl August/Augustus/Auguste de Gersdorff (the son of Ernst Bruno von Gersdorff and Caroline Choate). Carl was born in Massachusetts, and was a prominent Wall Street lawyer. Ernst was born in Eisenach, Germany, the son of Heinrich August Freiherr von Gersdorff and Auguste/Augusta Theodora von Tschirscky/Tschirschky und Bogendorff. Caroline was was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of George Choate and Margaret Manning Hodges. Through his Choate line and great-great-grandparents, Ben was a third cousin, once removed, of actor Oliver Platt. Ben’s great-grandmother Caroline was the sister of Joseph Hodges Choate (Oliver’s great-great-grandfather), a diplomat and lawyer, who was U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., from March 6, 1899 to May 23, 1905; as well as of William Gardner Choate, a prominent lawyer and federal judge, who created private school, Choate Rosemary Hall; and George Cheyne Shattuck Choate, a physician, who founded Choate House, a psychiatric sanatorium.
Ben’s maternal grandmother was Helen Suzette Crowninshield (the daughter of Frederic/Frederick Crowninshield and Helen Suzette Fairbanks). Ben’s grandmother Helen was born in Massachusetts, or in France, to American parents. Frederick was the son of Edward Augustus Crowninshield and Caroline Maria Welch, and was born in Massachusetts. Ben’s great-grandmother Helen, also born in Massachusetts, was the daughter of William Nelson Fairbanks and Abby Augusta Reed. Abby’s ancestry was partly Scottish.
Sources: Genealogies of Ben Bradlee – https://www.geni.com
https://www.wikitree.com
https://www.findagrave.com
Ben Bradlee on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
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