| Office: | Member of the New York State Senate |
| Term Start: | July 1, 1792 |
| Term End: | June 30, 1796 |
| Constituency Mp1: | Bristol |
| Parliament1: | British |
| Term Start1: | 1784 |
| Term End1: | 1790 |
| Alongside1: | Matthew Brickdale |
| Predecessor1: | Matthew Brickdale George Daubeny |
| Successor1: | Marquess of Worcester The Lord Sheffield |
| Constituency Mp2: | Bristol |
| Parliament2: | British |
| Term Start2: | 1774 |
| Term End2: | 1780 |
| Alongside2: | Edmund Burke |
| Predecessor2: | The Earl Nugent Matthew Brickdale |
| Successor2: | Matthew Brickdale Sir Henry Lippincott, Bt |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1739 |
| Birth Place: | Province of New York, British America |
| Death Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | King's College |
| Party: | Whig Federalist |
| Parents: | Henry Cruger Sr. Elizabeth Harris |
| Spouse: | |
| Relations: | John Cruger Jr. (uncle) John Cruger (grandfather) |
Henry Cruger Jr. (November 22, 1739April 24, 1827) was an American and British merchant at the time of the American Revolution. He has a unique distinction of having been elected to both the Parliament of Great Britain (MP, 1774–1780, 1784–1790) and the New York State Senate (1792–1796).
Henry Cruger was born in New York and was a member of a wealthy merchant family. His parents were Elizabeth (née Harris) Cruger (1716–1752) and Henry Cruger Sr. (1707–1780), a member of the New York General Assembly and then the governor's council.[1] His eldest brother, John Harris Cruger, succeeded his father as a member of the governor's council of New York, served as a Loyalist during the War and later moved to England.[2] Two other brothers settled in the West Indies. His younger sister, Mary Cruger, was married to Jacob Walton, also a representative in General Assembly for New York.[3]
His paternal grandparents were Maria (née Cuyler) Cruger, an heiress (and sister of Albany Mayor Johannes Cuyler), and John Cruger, an alderman who served as the 38th mayor of New York City and was born in Bristol, England.[4] His uncle John Cruger Jr. served as the 41st mayor of New York City and was the last Speaker of the New York General Assembly.[3]
Cruger studied at King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City, but before being graduated he moved to Bristol, England, in 1757.
Upon his relocation to Bristol, he was placed in a family mercantile house and became wealthy until the Stamp Act greatly affected his livelihood and caused him much financial embarrassment. In 1765, Cruger was elected to the Bristol Common Council, a position he held until 1790. He was named sheriff of the city for 1766–1767. Cruger was elected a warden of the Society of Merchant Venturers in 1768, and Master of the Society in 1781.[5] His father, who came to England in 1775, died in Bristol in 1780.[3]
Cruger, who was known for his "ready wit and fine conversational powers," was elected as Member of Parliament for Bristol as a radical Whig in the 1774 general election in which British policy towards the colonies was an important issue.[6] The other Whig candidate, also elected, but by a smaller majority, was Edmund Burke, who was, among other things, the provincial agent for the Province of New York. In his maiden speech before Parliament, Cruger criticized it for worsening the breach between Britain and her colonies. In 1776, he faulted the ministry for abandoning British sympathizers in the colony of New York. In 1777, he supported the repeal of the Declaratory Act (1766), and by 1780, he favored American independence.[7]
Defeated for reelection in 1780, he became Bristol's mayor in 1781. In the 1784 general election, Cruger was again returned to Parliament as the member for Bristol as a supporter of William Pitt the Younger. Throughout his political career in England he urged conciliation with America. In 1789, he sought in vain for a consular appointment in the United States from Pitt.[8]
Cruger returned to New York in 1790 after an absence of 33 years and was elected as a Federalist to the New York State Senate in 1792, urging conciliation with Great Britain while serving an otherwise undistinguished single four-year term in the 16th to the 19th New York State Legislatures.[9]
Cruger was married three times, firstly in December 1765 to Ellin Hannah Peach, a daughter of Samuel Peach of Tockington a wealthy linen draper and banker.[10] She died in 1767, leaving a son:
Cruger then married Caroline Elizabeth Blair, with whom he had six children, including:[6]
Henry and Elizabeth returned to New York in 1790, where Elizabeth died shortly thereafter. He married for the third time in 1799, when he was age 60, to Caroline Smith.[10] Together, they were the parents of four more children, including:
Cruger died at home in New York City on April 24, 1827, in his 88th year, and was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery.[15]
Cruger's house in Park Street, Bristol, on the corner of Great George Street, is marked by a commemorative plaque.