Herreshoff family


Members of the Herreshoff family of Bristol, Rhode Island, were, among other things, notable naval architects, naval industrialists, industrial chemists, and automobile designers and manufacturers.

Selected members

Charles Frederick Herreshoff III – on April 15, 1833, in Boston – married Julia Ann Lewis. Charles graduated from Brown University in 1828.


    1. Charles Frederick Herreshoff


    1. Algernon Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff, MIT class of 1911, naval architect

      1. Nathanael Greene Herreshoff III
      2. Halsey Chase Herreshoff
    2. Lewis Francis Herreshoff, American boat designer, marine engineer
    3. Nathanael Greene Herreshoff II

      1. Clara DeWolf Herreshoff
      2. Natalie Warren Herreshoff


    1. Louise Chamberlain Herreshoff, artist
    2. Sarah Lothrop Herreshoff

      1. Guido Borgianni, Sarah's son, Italian artist, identified as having been part of the Macchiaioli movement

Blindness among siblings

Of the seven sons and two daughters of C.F. Herreshoff and Julia Ann Lewis, four were blind:

Extended family and distant ancestors

Charles Frederick Herreshoff III, by way of his mother, Sarah Brown, was a grandson of John Brown, merchant, slaveholder, and statesman from Providence, who, with his brothers – Nicholas, Joseph, and Moses, an abolitionist – was instrumental in founding Brown University and moving it to their family's former land in Providence. Julia Ann Lewis, by way of her father, Joseph Warren Lewis, was a granddaughter of Winslow Lewis of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, a sea captain, engineer, inventor, and contractor active in the construction of many American lighthouses during the first half of the nineteenth century. Julian Ann Lewis is also a niece of Isaiah William Penn Lewis, who was also a lighthouse designer, builder, and engineer.
By way of his mother, Sarah Brown, C.F Herreshoff III was a 4th great-grandson of Rev. Chad Brown, the progenitor of the Brown family of Rhode Island.
Nowadays, tens of millions of Americans have at least one ancestor who was in Rhode Island around 1600. But, with respect to males descending from Chad Brown, according to Galton-Watson probability, only a fraction of that number have an unbroken chain of paternal lineage maintaining the Brown surname from his line.