Editing Timothy Dexter (section)

== Life and works ==

Dexter was born in [[Malden, Massachusetts|Malden]]<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Dexter, Timothy |volume=8 |page=141}}</ref> in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]. He was from a poor family of Irish immigrants who had moved to the New World the century before. He had little schooling and dropped out of school to work as a [[farm laborer]] at the age of 8.<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151">Margaret Nicholas, ''The World's Greatest Cranks and Crackpots'', {{ISBN|978-0-7064-1713-5}}, pp.&nbsp;147–151.</ref>{{sfn | Mitchell | 2022}}

When he was 16, he became a [[Tanning (leather)|tanner's]] [[apprentice]].<ref name="rdstrange">{{cite book |title=The Reader's Digest Book of Strange Stories, Amazing Facts |url=https://archive.org/details/readersdigestboo00read |url-access=registration |year=1975 |publisher=[[Trusted Media Brands|Reader's Digest Association]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/readersdigestboo00read/page/501 501]|isbn=9780276000805 }}</ref> In 1769, he moved to [[Newburyport, Massachusetts]].<ref name=HNIIxxvii>[https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/19299/dvm_LocHist005905-00622-1?pid=1173 History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764–1905. Vol. II. Chapter XXVII. Eccentric characters], pp. 419–431 and following. Accessed December 2019 via ancestry.com paid subscription site.</ref> He married 32-year-old Elizabeth Frothingham, a rich widow, and he then bought a mansion with the money.<ref name="HNIIxxvii" /> Dexter set up shop in the basement, selling moosehide trousers, gloves, hides, and whale blubber. Elizabeth also opened a shop that sold [[Notions_(sewing)|notions]].{{sfn | Mitchell | 2022}}

At the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]], he purchased large amounts of depreciated [[Early American currency#Continental currency|Continental currency]] that were worthless at the time.<ref name=HNIIxxvii /> At the war's end, the U.S. government made good on its notes at one percent of face value, while Massachusetts paid its own notes at [[par value|par]].<ref name=HNIIxxvii /> His investment enabled him to amass a considerable profit. He built two ships and began an export business to the [[West Indies]] and Europe.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

Because he was largely uneducated, his business sense was considered peculiar. He was advised to send [[bed warmer]]s—used to heat beds in the cold New England winters—for resale in the West Indies, a tropical area. This advice was a deliberate ploy by rivals to bankrupt him. His ship's captain sold them as ladles to the local [[molasses]] industry and made a handsome profit.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://voices.yahoo.com/lord-timothy-dexter-newburyport-massachusetts-wealthy-111411.html?cat=38 |title=Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Massachusetts: Wealthy by Mistake? |author=Jim Stillman |agency=Yahoo! Contributor Network |date=November 15, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719092213/http://voices.yahoo.com/lord-timothy-dexter-newburyport-massachusetts-wealthy-111411.html?cat=38 |archive-date=July 19, 2012 }}</ref> Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to [[Siberia]].<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151"/>

People jokingly told him to "[[Coals to Newcastle|ship coal to Newcastle]]". Fortuitously, he did so during a Newcastle miners' strike, and his cargo was sold at a premium.<ref name="knapp">{{cite book | last = Knapp | first = Samuel L. | title = Life of Lord Timothy Dexter: Embracing sketches of the eccentric characters that composed his associates, including "Dexter's Pickle for the knowing ones" | publisher = J. E. Tilton and Company | year = 1858 | location = Boston | url = http://search.abaa.org/dbp2/book204715555.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071202095808/http://search.abaa.org/dbp2/book204715555.html | archive-date = December 2, 2007 }}</ref><ref name="nash">{{cite book | last = Nash | first = Jay Robert | title = Zanies: The World's Greatest Eccentrics | publisher = New Century Publishers | year = 1982 | isbn = 978-0-8329-0123-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/zaniesworldsgrea00nash }}</ref> On another occasion, practical jokers told him he could make money by shipping gloves to the [[Polynesia|South Sea Islands]]. His ships arrived there in time to sell the gloves to Portuguese boats on their way to China.<ref name="knapp"/>

He exported [[Bible|Bibles]] to the [[East Indies]] and stray [[cat]]s to [[Caribbean]] islands and again made a profit; Eastern missionaries needed the Bibles and the Caribbean welcomed a solution to rat infestation.<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151"/> He also hoarded [[Baleen|whalebones]] by mistake, but ended up selling them profitably as [[corset|corset stays]].<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151"/>

While subject to ridicule, Dexter's boasting makes it clear that he understood the value of cornering the market on goods that others did not see as valuable and the utility of "acting the fool".<ref name="Gencarella2018">{{cite book|author=Stephen Gencarella|title=Wicked Weird & Wily Yankees: A Celebration of New England's Eccentrics and Misfits|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uitLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR7|date=May 1, 2018|publisher=Globe Pequot|isbn=978-1-4930-3267-9|pages=1–14}}</ref>

[[New England]] high society snubbed him. Dexter bought a large house in Newburyport from Nathaniel Tracy, a local socialite, and tried to emulate [[Newburyport Public Library|Tracy's prominent mansion]].<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151" /><ref name=HNIIxxvii /> He decorated this house with [[minaret]]s, a [[Aquila (Roman)|golden eagle]] on the top of the [[cupola]], a [[mausoleum]] for himself, and a garden of 40 wooden statues of famous men, including [[George Washington]], [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|William Pitt]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and himself. The last had the inscription, "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western World".<ref name=EB1911/> Dexter also bought an estate in [[Chester, New Hampshire]]. There, Dexter recommended people to call him the Earl of Chester. He offered one quarter to children who called him Lord Chester, and dinner and drinks for adults who did so.{{sfn | Mitchell | 2022}}

Despite his good fortune, his relationship with his family suffered. He frequently told visitors that his wife (who was actually alive) had died, and that the woman frequenting the building was simply her ghost.<ref name="Nicholas p.147-151"/> In one notable episode, Dexter faked his own death to see how people would react, and about 3,000 people attended Dexter's mock [[Wake (ceremony)|wake]]. When Dexter did not see his wife cry, he revealed the hoax and promptly started beating her with his cane for not sufficiently mourning his death.<ref name=HNIIxxvii /><ref>Todd, William Cleaves. ''Timothy Dexter''. Boston, Massachusetts: David Clapp & Son, 1886: 6.</ref>