Author: Prime, Benjamin Young
Biography:
PRIME, Benjamin Young (1733-91: ANBO)
The son of Experience (Youngs) and Ebenezer Prime, he was given the middle name Youngs after his mother's family but later removed the "s" and published without it; he may be found with either spelling in library records. His father was a Congregationalist minister in Huntington, Long Island NY, where Prime was born. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1751, tutored there for a time, but then turned to medicine. He studied in New York and London (at Guy's Hospital, where he specialized in obstetrics), and received his MD degree from Leyden in 1764. Although he was a highly trained physician, political activity took up much of his time. In his poetry he writes from the position of an ardent patriot, meaning that his literary work from before the period of protest and revolution tended to celebrate colonial America, whereas later it turned against the British. Major titles before 1770 are The Patriot Muse (1764) and An Excellent New Song, for the Sons of Liberty in America (1765). In 1774 he married Mary Wheelwright Greaton; they had five children. During the Revolutionary War the family had to move from New York to Wethersfield CT and then to New Haven. After the war ended they returned to Huntington, where he resumed his medical practice. He died of apoplexy. (ANBO 7 Jul. 2020) HJ