Henry Cruger

Henry Cruger (1739-1827) was originally from New York but emigrated to Bristol in 1757, where he became a prosperous merchant and political figure. He was elected to the Bristol Common Council in 1765 and served as sheriff of Bristol in 1766-67.  He was elected to the House of Commons for Bristol in 1774 and 1784, and was Mayor of Bristol in 1781. In each election, the congregation at Broadmead, led by Caleb Evans and Thomas Mullett, largely supported Cruger, primarily for his pro-American position during the war. In 1783, he returned to America, accompanied by Mullett, who remained for some time conducting business (at that time Mullett and Cruger were in business together).  ruger returned to America for good in 1789, eventually serving as a state senator in New York. Mullett would have met Cruger during his time as a merchant in Bristol prior to his removal to London, sometime around 1780.  For Cruger, see Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons 1754-1790, 3 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964) vol. 2, 280-282; James E. Bradley, Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism: Nonconformity in Eighteenth Century Politics and Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 214-17.