George Cabot

Cabot, George (kăbˈət) [key], 1752–1823, American merchant and politician, b. Salem, Mass. He went to sea and became captain of one of the ships owned by his brothers John and Andrew Cabot of Beverly, who in 1777 took him into their firm. Cabot also helped develop the family's cotton mills in Beverly. A Federalist, he was (1791–96) one of Alexander Hamilton's most trusted followers in the U.S. Senate. Made a director of the Bank of the United States in 1793, he became president of its Boston branch in 1803. In the Federalist discontent at the beginning of the 19th cent., Cabot was a leader of the Essex Junto and presided over the Hartford Convention.

See biography by his grandson, H. C. Lodge (1877).