Peter Ballantine


Peter Ballantine was the founder of Patterson & Ballantine Brewing Company in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey, United States.

Early life

He was born on November 16, 1791, in Dundee, Scotland. He decided to leave Scotland due to the "pressure of poverty and the call to great achievement."

Career

In 1820, Ballantine emigrated to Albany, New York where he learned brewing. By 1830, he had established his own brewery there. In 1840, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, and partnered with Erastus Patterson to form Patterson & Ballantine Brewing Company, and leased the old High Street Brewery that had been built in 1805 by John R. Cumming.
In 1845, Ballantine pulled out of the partnership, and, five years later, built his own brewery on the Passaic River, known as P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company. In 1857, he took his sons as partners, and he became the wealthiest man in Newark.

Personal life

In 1830, Ballantine married Julia Wilson, daughter of David Wilson and Abigail Gillespie, of Troy, New York. Together, Peter and Julia were the parents of the following children, all of whom were born in Albany:
His wife died in Newark on June 7, 1868 of "remittent fever". Peter Ballantine died at his home in Newark, New Jersey, aged 91 after three weeks of bronchitis, on January 23, 1883. He was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Newark.

Descendants

Through his eldest son, he was the grandfather of Sara Linen Ballantine, who married the lawyer, and eventual president of the Ballantine breweries, George Griswold Frelinghuysen, a son of U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen.
He was a great-grandfather to Peter Hood Ballantine Cumming, who held political office and was a noted business executive.