William C. Jarvis

William Charles Jarvis (1782–1836), attorney and public official, was born in Boston. Having been trained in the law, he received an honorary master’s degree from Williams College in 1811 and settled in Pittsfield by the following year. Jarvis established a legal practice there, served as secretary of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, was a founder and director of the Pittsfield Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 1822. A member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1821–25, 1826–28, and 1830–31, he was its Speaker for four terms, 1823–25 and 1826–28. After moving back to the Boston area in 1825, Jarvis was a director of the state penitentiary, a state senator in 1828–29 and, briefly, a federal customs inspector before his removal from office early in Andrew Jackson’s presidency. Apparently upset at being defrauded of some property, he killed himself with a pistol in Weathersfield, Vermont. -National Archives