Portrait of Ebenezer Punderson (1762-1847), circa 1821

Born in Preston, CT in 1762, Ebenezer Punderson had his early adulthood disrupted by the events and social climate preceding and surrounding the American Revolution. He was the grandson of Ebenezer Punderson, a well-known Church of England missionary whose sons, Ebenezer, Jr. and Cyrus Punderson of Long Island, were ardent Tories during America's conflict with the crown. Stripped of their fortune and threatened by rebels, Ebenezer Jr. and his family, including his wife Prudence (Geer) and eight children, Prudence, Hannah, Ebenezer (the subject of this portrait), Clarina, Martha, Sylvia, Cyrus and Ephraim, fled Norwich, Connecticut in 1775 for Long Island and then England. Although their ship sank in the Irish Sea, the Pundersons survived, and it is believed that Ebenezer then attended Baliol College, Oxford. Several members of the Punderson Family returned to Preston after the Revolution ended, including Ebenezer, who went into business with his younger brother, Cyrus II, and their father, running a store and wharf in Poquotanoc, a village south of Preston. At about 1797, Ebenezer married Mary Capron and with her moved to Red Hook, New York, where he opened his own retail business. Ebenezer Punderson died there in 1847 and is buried with his wife Mary (d. 1832) in the Dutch Church Graveyard, Upper Red Hook.

Phillips painted at least one other copy of his portrait of Ebenezer Punderson. This portrait was sold Sotheby's New York, Fine Americana, 30 January - 2 February 1980, lot 198.