Johann Kasper Richter von Kronenscheldt was born around 1661 in Leipzig, Germany. He immigrated to Massachusetts from Germany in the 1680s, and changed his name to John Caspar Crowninshield. He married Elizabeth Allen (born around 1672) in 1694. ("Crowninsheild Family").

Francis Boardman Crowninshield (1809-1877) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1773-1851) and Mary Boardman Crowninshield (1778-1840). He graduated from Harvard University in 1829. He married Sarah Gool Putnam (1810-1880) in 1832, and they had seven children: Mary, Sarah, Benjamin Williams, Alice, Louisa, Francis, and Emily. He was admitted to the Middlesex Bar in 1832, and was a partner of Rufus Choate. He also served as Speaker of the House of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1848 and 1849. During the Civil War, he purchased arms in London on behalf of Union army companies from Ohio and Massachusetts. He also served as president of the Old Colony Railroad, and was president of the Boston, Lowell, and Nashua Railroad from 1855 until his death. He died May 8, 1877 in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1837-1892) was the son of Francis Boardman Crowninshield and Sarah Putnam Crowninshield. Graduating from Harvard College in 1858, he fought in the Civil War, rising to the rank of Captain in the First Massachusetts Cavalry. He eventually rose to the rank of Brevet Colonel. After marrying Katherine May Bradlee in 1866, Crowninshield entered the dry-goods business, becoming a member of the firm Sprague and Colburn in New York City, then later Wheelwright, Anderson and Co of Boston. He retired in 1876. He died in Rome, Italy, and was buried there in 1892.

Katherine May (Bradlee) Crowninshield (1844-1902) was born to James Bowdoin Bradlee and Mary Perrin May. She married Benjamin Williams Crowninshield on December 15, 1866, and they had five children together: Bowdoin Bradlee, Francis Boardman, Benjamin Williams, Katherine May, and Emily.

Bowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield was born on October 13, 1867, in New York City, to Benjamin W. (1837-1892) and Katherine M. Crowninshield. He received his A. B. from Harvard in 1890. Crowninshield formed three real estate brokerage partnerships in Great Falls, Montana, from 1890 to 1891, and then moved to Boston, starting a real estate business there in 1893. In 1898, he established his practice in naval architecture in Boston, originally in partnership with Frank Tandy. He was involved in many marine-related activities throughout his career, including design, construction, brokerage, insurance, and personnel management. He designed the America's Cup contender Independence in 1902, and also the seven-mast steel-hulled schooner, Thomas W. Lawson. Crowninshield served with the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps in northwestern France in 1916 and was present at the battle of Verdun.

From 1917 to 1926 he was President and General Manager of the Crowninshield Shipbuilding Company of Fall River, Massachusetts. Crowninshield resumed his work in naval architecture in 1926 and was appointed Inspector of Hull Building for the United States Navy in 1943. His inspections on behalf of the navy were conducted at shipyards in Manchester, Ipswich, and Amesbury, Massachusetts, until 1945. In 1940 his book, Fore ‘n Afters was published.

Crowninshield married Priscilla MacPhail in 1901. Priscilla died in 1915, and he married Laura Widlar one year later. He died on August 12, 1948.

Francis Boardman Crowninshield (1869-1950) was born in New York to Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1837-1892) and Katherine May Crowninshield (1844-1902). He attended the St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University. He joined Troop K of the Rough Riders in 1898 and saw the Cuban campaign of the Spanish-American War. Francis married Louise Evelina DuPont Crowninshield (1877-1958), the daughter of Col. Henry Algernon du Pont and Mary Pauline Foster, 1900. She was a founding member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and in 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her to the Boston National Historic Sites Commission. Francis and his wife owned houses in Boston, Boca Grande, and outside of Wilmington, Delaware.

Louisa Crowninshield Bacon (1842-1927) was the daughter of Francis Boardman Crowninshield and Sarah Putnam Crowninshield. She married Francis Edward Bacon (b. 1835) in King's Chapel, Boston, on October 8, 1860. Their children were Mary Louisa, Alice Crowninshield, Francis Edward, Susan Gorham, Alice Putnam, and Louis.