The following biography is from Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Volume VI:
Royal Ralph Hinman, son of General Ephraim and Sylvania (French) Hinman, was born in Southbury, Connecticut, June 20, 1785, and died in the city of New York, October 16, 1868, aged eighty-three years. Mr. Hinman prepared for college with the Rev. Azel Backus, of Bethlehem, Connecticut. He was graduated at Yale College in the class of 1804. He taught an academy in Virginia one year after his graduation, and then entered the law office of Hon. Daniel S. Boardman, in New Milford, Connecticut. The next year he attended the celebrated law school at Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1807. Soon after he commenced the practice of law in Roxbury, Connecticut, where he continued about twenty years, when he removed to Southington, Connecticut. In 1835 he was elected Secretary of State, when he removed his residence to Hartford. He was elected to that office seven successive years, and never afterwards resumed the practice of his profession.
In 1842 Mr. Hinman published a history of the part taken by Connecticut in the War of the Revolution, a volume of 643 pages, octavo. In 1836, he published a volume of official letters between the kings and queens of England and the early governors of the Connecticut colony — a volume of 372 pages, duodecimo. He was also the author of a catalogue of the First Puritan Settlers of Connecticut, and a register of Families in Connecticut. Several volumes of the statutes of that State were published under his careful editorial supervision. He was chosen a corresponding member of this Society in 1847, and afterwards gave to the Society his manuscript genealogical collections. ROYAL RALPH HINMAN
In September, 1844, Mr. Hinman was appointed collector of customs for the port of New Haven, Connecticut, an office which he held only some seven or eight months. His residence during the later years of his life was in the city of New York.
Mr. Hinman married, September 14, 1814, Lydia, youngest daughter of General John Ashley, of Sheffield, Massachusetts. She died in New York City, August 27, 1853, leaving one son and four daughters. Mr. Hinman’s first name, ” Royal,” was singularly acquired. It was given him by way of compliment, by his friend and classmate, John Chester, afterwards the Rev. John Chester, D.D., of Albany. It was so published in the college catalogue of the freshman class, and, accepting the designation, he wore it gracefully through life.
Below is my photo of the Hinman family monument at Spring Grove Cemetery in Hartford:
The Hinman monument is missing the name of Royal Ralph Hinman where the east side has sheared off. At the base of the monument, however, is a stone with his initials:RRH, and another beside it with the initials of his wife: LAH.
Royal Ralph Hinman’s name is listed in the Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 for Spring Grove Cemetery:
The names of Royal Ashley Hinman and Mary Hinman Bond (son and daughter of Royal Ralph and Lydia Hinman) are inscribed on alternate sides of the memorial.
Royal Ralph Hinman at Find a Grave
A Catalog of the Names of the Early Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut
Hartford History Rocks 