Robert Lenox (December 31, 1759 – December 13, 1839) was a Scottish-American merchant who served as the 15th president of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York.
Contents
Early life
Lenox was born on December 31, 1759, in the seaport town of Kirkcudbright on the southwest border of Scotland. He was one of eleven children born to James Lenox and Elizabeth (née Sproat) Lenox.
His paternal grandfather was William Lennox and his maternal grandfather was David Sproat, both from the parish of Kirkcudbright in Scotland.
Career
Just before the Revolutionary War, he emigrated to America with his brothers David and William. They first went to their uncle, David Sproat, a merchant in Philadelphia, who had come to America in 1760. His uncle joined the British Army at New York, and was appointed Commissary-General of Naval Prisoners in North America in the Autumn of 1779. His brother William was appointed British Commissary of Naval Prisoners in the South, based in Charleston, where he died in 1781. After schooling in Burlington, New Jersey, Robert joined his uncle and brother William in New York in 1779, dividing his time between working as a clerk in the British Commissary of Naval Prisoners, and pursuing his own concerns as a merchant, travelling between New York, Charleston, and the West Indies.