Elijah Boardman

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide.

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RALPH EARL, 1751-1801
Elijah Boardman
Oil on canvas; 83 x 51 in. (210.9 x 129.5 cm)

Boardman is pictured in a room of the dry-goods store he operated with his brother in Connecticut. A door open to an adjoining room reveals shelves holding bolts of plain and printed stuffs. The young merchant stands in front of an unusual piece of furniture, which probably served as a stand-up desk. This portrait, painted in 1789 during the years which are generally regarded as the finest period of Earl's work, blends truth with grace, and it embodies the whole spirit of the age and place in which it was painted. Bequest of Susan W. Tyler, 1979, 1979.395

Elijah Boardman's Wikipedia entry.

Boardman, was born in New Milford in Connecticut, the third of four children for Deacon Sherman Boardman (1728–1814) and Sarah Bostwick Boardman (1730–1818). His father, son of the first minister of the Congregational Church, was a "prosperous farmer", well educated and well versed in local politics – he was 21 times elected as a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut – and was familiar with "civil and military concerns of the town." The Boardman family were the town's founding family, and lived on a "substantial farm" on the Housatonic River.

A biographer of his later wife wrote of Elijah Boardman: "Inheriting many of the good qualities of his father and his grandfather, he combined, with those good qualities, the energy and intrepidity of his mother and of his grandmother, respecting both of whom there are preserved family traditions of much historical and domestic interest." The biographer also noted Boardman to be "dignified" in personal appearance, and handsome. His brother, David Sherman Boardman, remarked that he was "inclined" to hilarity.[1] Elijah Boardman was educated by private tutors – including tutoring in Latin by the Reverend Nathaniel Taylor and other matters by his own mother – at home before enlisting in the local militia to serve in the American Revolutionary War as a "common soldier", in March 1776 aged 16.

Revolutionary War

Under Captain Isaac Bostwick, Boardman served in one of the first sixteen regiments raised by the Continental Congress under the command of Colonel Charles Webb. Boardman was directed to Boston, and diverted to New London and New York City, where he took part in Battle of Long Island, however after defeat there and American evacuation to Washington, he was confined to a sick bed having exacerbated childhood medical difficulties and fever. After six months, having achieved an ultimate rank of sergeant, he obtained passage on a wagon back to New York, where he was discovered in poor health by a friend of his father, who sent word home for Boardman to be collected. Meanwhile, Boardman obtained a discharge from the army.

My fourth great-grandfather, John Bayless fought at the Battle of Long Island. To have a small connection unleashes the imagination.