Essex County, Massachusetts - Biographical sketches (5 of 8 so headed), 1888

Biographical sketches

Israel Thorndike was bora in Beverly, Mass., in 1755. He was fifth in descent from John Thorndike, who came to this country in 1633, and returned in 1668 on a visit to his brother, Herbert Thorndike, in England, where he soon after died, and was buried on November 3d of that year in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey. The Eev. Herbert Thorndike, above referred to, was prebendary of Westminster and a profound scholar and theologian. He wrote many ecclesiastical works in English and Latin, some of which are still of so much interest that they have been recently republished. He died in 1672 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. In his will he left property to his nieces, Martha and Alice, daughters of John, who had accompanied their father on his visit to England, on condition, however, "that they should neither return to New England, their birthplace, nor yet, remaining in England, marry with any who went to mass or to the new Licensed Conventicles."

These brothers, John and Herbert, were sons of Francis Thorndike, who in 1634 signed the pedigree for the first visitation of Heralds recorded in the family, and were fifth in descent from William Thorndike, who lived at Little Carlton, County of Lincoln, in the reign of Henry VII., and died in 1539. The arms borne by the family were "Argent, six guttees, three, two and one, gules, on a chief of the last three leopards' faces, gold."

President Quincy, in his "History of Harvard University," speaks of Israel Thorndike as follows : " He had in youth no advantages of education, except those which the public schools of his native town afforded, but he possessed, in the vigor of his own mind, a never-failing spring of self-advancement. The war of the American Revolution was an event adapted to call into activity his powers and spirit of enterprise. Embracing with zeal the cause of his country, he became part-owner and captain of an armed ship, and the judgment with which he planned his cruises, and the intrepidity and diligence with which he conducted them, were rewarded with distinguished success. Having entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Moses Brown, he engaged, after the peace of 1783, in an extensive and most profitable commerce with the East Indies and China.^ Sagacity, judgment, industry, strict attention to business, and thorough acquaintance with the details of every commercial enterprise in which he engaged, were the chief causes of his success. He was also an early patron of manufactures, and in-

1 This partnership began during the War of the Kevolution, and apparently continued till the close of the century. See also the biography of Moses Brown in this work.

" Mr. Thorndike was at different periods of his life a member of the convention called for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and a Representative and Senator in the Legislature of his native State. He was a generous contributor to all patriotic and charitable objects, and often gave an active agency in their support. In 1806 he subscribed five hundred dollars for the foundation of the Natural History Professorship in the University, and also the same amount in 1818 for the library of the theological school. In the same year, being informed that the library of Professor Ebeling, of Hamburg, was for sale, and that an agent of the King of Pruss-ia was negotiating for it, Mr. Thorndike ordered it to be purchased at the cost of six thousand five hundred dollars, and presented it to Harvard University, thereby securing to his country one of the most complete and valuable collections of works extant on American history."

In 1810 Mr. Thorndike removed to Boston for the greater convenience of carrying on his now immense business in all parts of the world, and until his death resided in Summer Street, in that city. " He was eminently social in his feelings, and none more than he delighted in dispensing a princely hospitality." But he still retained his mansion in Beverly, afterwards the Town Hall, passing a considerable portion of his time there, ever manifesting a warm interest in the welfare of his native town, and the first parish of Beverly received from his estate an addition to its funds of about twenty-six hundred dollars.

Mr. Thorndike died in May, 1832. He retained to the last his great energy and activity, and left a large fortune. Mr. Quincy, in allusion to an obituary notice of Mr. Thorndike in the Boston Daily Advertiser in May, 1832, after referring to his remarkable mental powers, says that " when their influence is united, as was his, with high moral i>owers, and exerted during a long life on the side of virtue, and in promoting the best interests of society, it is enduring, and serves to give a character to the age in which they live."

Mr. Thorndike was married three times. His first wife was Mercy, daughter of Osmyn Trask, of Beverly. By her he had one son, who died in infancy, and a daughter, wife of Ebenezer Francis, an eminent merchant in Boston. Mr. Thorndike's second wife, the mother of his twelve other children, was Anna, daughter of George Dodge, of Salem. He married thirdly, in 1818, Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Dana, of Newburyport. She survived him, and died in 1845.

The accompanying engraving of the portrait of Mr. Thorndike was made from the oil painting by Gilbert Stuart, taken towards the end of his lii'e.'-^

Beverly Moses Brown

Moses Brown, of Beverly, was born in Waltham, formerly a ]>art of Watertown, Massachusetts, April 4, 1748. He was the eldest surviving sou of Isaac Brown, a very active business man, who resided on Waltham Plain, and who descended in the fifth generation from Abraham Browne, one of the original settlers of ... .......-,. u . J Watertown. Abraham

March 6, 1631-2, and soon became prominent in the place of his adoption, receiving, as is manifest from the early records of the town, "import- " ant appointments and trusts more numerous than "were conferred upon any other person." He was descended, in the fifth generation, through the Browues of Swan Hall, Hawkedon, in Suftolk, England, from Christopher Browne of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and of Tolethorpe, Rutlandshire, who, again, was descended, in the fifth generation, from John Browne, a merchant of Stamford, and Alderman, or chief magistrate, of that town in 1376, the office of Mayor not having been created till 1663. Several mortuary brasses of the family, called by Fuller, in his Worthies, "the ancient family of Brownes of Toll- Thorp," still remain on the walls of the Church of All Saints in Stamford, and on the floor of a chapel of the same " proper to the family ", and also in the church at Little Casterton, near Tolethorpe. The church of All Saints, itself, was in great part rebuilt about the year 1465 at the expense of John Browne, father of Christopher Browne, above named ; and its beautiful steeple was erected by William Browne, uncle of Christopher. This William Browne, under a charter dated 1485, also founded the "Browne Hospital or Bead House " for the support of "twelve poor men," and endowed it liberally by grants of lands. This institution still flourishes in Stamford, and, by the large increase in the value of its land, the scope of its charities has been greatly extended. The Manor of Tolethorpe, near the village of Little Casterton, in Rutlandshire, about three miles from Stamford, was purchased by Christopher Browne, above named, of the Burton family towards the end of the 15th century, and thenceforth continued to be the seat of the head of the family until into the present century, a period of nearly four hundred years. About thirty years ago it was sold, and the ancient stone manor house is now owned and occupied by Charles Orniston Eaton, Esq., a prominent banker of Stamford, who kindly entertained there the writer of this article in the summer of 1886. Mr. Eaton has added wings to the original mansion, but has otherwise carefully preserved this venerable structure, as nearly as possible, in the condition in which he found it. A wood-cut copied from a photograph of the house, before its recent alterations, is inserted; together with wood-cuts from photographs of the church of All Saints, and of the Bead House. The two large windows, at the further end of the latter building, are those of the little chapel in which the "twelve poor men" are required to attend daily services. The rest of the building is occupied by two large halls, the whole structure forming one side of an interior quadrangle on which are the residences of the beneficiaries.

The three mascles, in the coat of arms given at the beginning of this article, were granted, together with the crest and motto, to Christopher Browne, above mentioned, July 20, 1480 ; but are here combined with a still earlier grant to the family of the three mallets with a slightly different crest, which latter coat and crest are cut in stone on the walls of the Bead House. The original parchment grant to Christopher still exists, and is in the possession of Frederick Sayres Browne of Norwich, England. It is a curious bit of old French, and is printed in full in the Heraldic Journal, Vol. IV., page 146. The herald, Mr. Alfred Scott Gatty, of the Heralds' College, London, stated to the writer that he knew of but one other instance where two grants of arms had been made to the same family.

Moses Brown, the subject of this memoir, was fitted for Harvard College by his maternal uncle, the Rev. Thomas Balch of Dedham, and graduated in 1768. He taught school for three or four years in Framingham, Lexington and Lincoln, and then settled in Beverly as a merchant, in the autumn of 1772. The cause of American Independence was warmly espoused by him, and a commission, dated August 7, 1775, signed by James Warren, President of the Provincial Congress, appointed him Captain of a company enlisted by him in Beverly, under a commission dated July 11th of the same year. In January 1776 he joined the line of the American army as Captain in the fourteenth regiment. Colonel John Glover, under a commission dated January 1, 1776, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress^ This regiment, of which many of the privates were seamen, and which is accordingly called the " Amphibious Regiment" by Irving in his Life of Washington, did good service at Brooklyn in ferrying over the army to New York when it was obliged to evacuate Brooklyn Heights. It also performed similar service for the army on its crossing the Delaware, preliminary to the battle of Trenton, in which it took a prominent part. Captain Brown's Orderly Book ^

1 The following extract from this book, in commendation of Col. Glover's command for its gallant attack upon Sir William Howe Oct. 18, 1776, on his mai-ch to New Eochelle, may be of interest, as showing the beginning in January 1776, kept with his characteristic neatness and exactness, is still preserved by his descendants, together with his sword, field-glass and commissions. At the expiration of the term of enlistment of his coni^any he returned to Beverly, where he resumed his business with his partner and brother in law, Israel Thorndike, and some of the vessels of " Brown and Thorndike," transformed from their peaceful character as merchantmen into armed ships, continued the patriotic work which Captain Brown had begun in the field, and did good service to his country.

After the close of the war, Mr. Brown continued to be energetically and successfully engaged in commerce until the year 1800, when he retired from active business with what was, for those days, an ample fortune. His house on the main street of Beverly, in which, together with Mr. Thorndike, he resided for several years, and until the latter erected a separate mansion, afterwards the Town Hall, is still standing, is a good specimen of the Colonial residences of the better class. Of this also, a wood-cut, taken from a photograph, is inserted. Here, for many years, Mr. Brown dispensed a generous hospitality, and paid much attention to the cultivation of fruit and flowers in the ample garden belonging to his house. The noble elms, w'hich still adorn the main street of Beverly, were also set out by him. He was largely instrumental in the construction of Essex Bridge, between Beverly and Salem, and also of the Salem and Boston Turnpike, the latter having been constructed under his personal supervision. In both of these enterprises he Avas among the largest original proprietors. He was a Federalist of the Washington school, was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and one of the Presidential Electors in 1808. " His manners were dignified and courteous. He always took an important part in public enterprises." President Quincy, in his History of Harvard University, says of him that " He united integrity with benevolence, was exemplary in all social and domestic

'.' Orders for Gen. Lee's Division, Mile Square, Oct. 19, 1776. Gen. Lee " returns his wannest thanks to Col. Glover and the Brigade under his " Command, not only for their gallant behavior yesterday, but, for their '- prudent, cool, orderly and soldierlike conduct in all respects, he as- " sures these brave men that he shall omit no opportunity of shewing his " gratitude. All the wounded to be sent immediately to Valentine's hill "at the second Liberty Pole, where surgeons should repair to dress them. are afterwards to be forwarded to Fort Washington." And, two " days later, Washington issued general orders as follows, "Headquar- " ters 21 Oct. 177fi. The hurried situation of the General for the last two " days, having prevented him from paying that attention to Col. Glover "and the officers and soldiers who were with him in the skirmish on " Friday last that their merit and good behavior deserved, he flatters " himself that his thanks, tho' delayed, will nevertheless be acceptable " to them, as the3' are offered with great sincerity and cordiality. At "the same time he hopes that every other part of the army will do " their duty with equal bravery and zeal whenever called upon ; and " neither dangers, nor difficulties nor hardships will discourage soldiers "engaged in the cause of liberty, and while we are contending for all "that freemen hold dear and valuable."

relations, and a generous contributoi* to public and private charities and associations." [n his will he bequeathed two thousand dollars to the Theological School at Cambridge connected with the College, to be applied in any way that " will best promote the cause of Christianity, and the design and utility of this religious establishment." He deceased June 15th, 1820, and his funeral sermon was preached by his friend and pastor, the Rev. Abiel Abbott of Beverly. He married first Oct. 16, 1 774, Elizabeth, daughter of Osmyn Trask of Beverly. She died without issue, and he married secondly. May 3d, 1789, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Matthew Bridge of Framingham, Harvard College 1741, and grand-daughter of the Rev. Daniel Perkins of Bridgewater, Harvard College 1717. His children were first, Charles, born in Beverly, May 24, 1793, who graduated at Harvard College in 1812. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never practised his profession. He soon removed to Boston, where, for some years, he was engaged in business. During the latter part of his life he was much interested in genealogical jjursuits, and was largely instrumental in tracing his ancestors in this country to their origin in England. He returned to the former spelling of the name by resuming the final e. He married Dec. 14, 1825, Elizabeth Isabella Tilden, and died in Boston, July 21, 1856, leaving three children, Harriet Tilden, Francis Perkins and Edward Ingersoll Browne (Harvard College 1855) all now living. The name of the old firm has, of late years, been revived by the association of Edward Ingersoll Browne with Charles Thorndike, grandson of Israel, as partners in the law business, under the name of Browne and Thorndike of Boston, in which city they have long been established.

The second and only other child of Moses Brown, except one who died in infancy, was George, born Nov. 24, 1799. For several years he was a captain in the merchant service. In 1843 he was appointed Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands, and, with his eldest son, was lost at sea on a voyage to China in August, 1846. He married, Dec. 9, 1821, his cousin, Harriet Bridge by whom he had several children, all of whom have deceased, his two sons Samuel and Moses alone leaving issue.^

Andrew Preston Peabody, D.D., Ll.D.

Dr. Peabody is descended from Lieutenant Francis Peabody, who was born in 1614 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, and came to New England in the ship "Planter" in 1635, settling in Lynn, and later, in 1638, in Hampton, Old Norfolk County, subse-

1 See Bond's Genealogies and History ofWateitown ; Stone's " History of Beverly"; Quincy's " History of Harvard University" ; tbe Nevf England Hist, and Genealogical Register for January 18S5 ; the Heraldic Journal, Boston 1865 ; Wright's " History of Rutlandshire " ; Blore'g " History of Rutlandshire ; " and Drakard's " History of Stamford."* quently to which time he became an inhabitant of Topsfield, where, in 1657, he married Mary Foster, dying February 19, 1697-98. He is the American ancestor of a numerous and honorable posterity in Essex County and elsewhere, among whom the distinguished philanthropist, George Peabody of London, is especially to be named.

Lieutenant 'Francis Peabody's son ^Joseph, born in 1644, who lived in Boxford, was the father of ^Zerubabel, born February 26, 1707, who lived in Middleton, married Lydia Fuller February 21, 1733, and was the father of ^Andrew, born July 21, 1745, married Ruth Curtis December 13, 1769, lived in Middleton, and died October 14, 1813. His son ^Andrew, born February 29, 1772, married Mary Rantoul, sister of Hon. Robert Rantoul, Sr., of Beverly, at Salem, May 30, 1808, lived in Beverly, where he kept the grammar school and was a teacher of repute, and died December 19, 1813. The subject of this sketch was born in Beverly March 19, 1811. In a reminiscence contributed to a series of autobiographical articles by eminent men (jsublished in the Forum for July, 1887) he has himself unconsciously disclosed the dominant chord in his own character, while describing the SiDartau educational methods of the earlier years in this century : -

" I learned to read before I was three years old, and foremost among the books that have helped nie I must put Webster's 'Spelling-book.' I knew the old lexicographer. He was a good man, but hard, dry, unsentimental. I do not suppose that in his earliest reading-lessons for children he had any ulterior purpose beyond shaping sentences composed of words consisting of three letters and less. But while 1 believe in the inspii-ation of prophets and apostles, I agree with the Christian fathers of the Alexandrian school in extending the theory of inspiration far beyond the (so called) canon of Scripture, and I cannot but think that a divine afflatus breathed upon the soul of Noah Webster when he framed, as the first sentence on which the infant mind should concentrate its nascent capacity of combining letters into words, and which thus by long study and endless repetition must needs deposit itself in undying memory, ' No man can put off tlie law of God.' When I toiled daj' after day on this sentence, I probably had no idea of its meaning ; but there is nothing better for a child than to learn by rote and to fix in en(hiring remembrance words which tlius sown deep, will blossom into fruitful meaning with growing years. Since I began to think and feel on subjects within the province of ethics, this maxim has never been out of my mind. I have employed it as a text for my experience and observation. It is a fundamental truth in my theology. It underlies my moral philosophy. It has molded my ethical teaching in the pulpit and tlie classroom, in utterance and print."

From his sixth year until he entered college, he supplied himself " with books from a library of several hundred very good books, the proprietors of which were assessed fifty cents a year.'' His earliest teacher, to whom he owed much, was Miss Joanna Prince, who later married Ebenezer Everett, of Brunswick, Me., and was the mother of Prof. Charles Carroll Everett. He was also a pupil of Miss Hannah Hill in the first Sunday-school in the United States, which these two ladies had gathered in Beverly, and had the satisfaction later of teaching Miss Hill Greek in her old age, in fulfillment of her desire to read the New Testament in the original tongue. A child of precocious promise, he was on the point of being sent to Exeter Academy, when the wise minister, Dr. Abbot, persuaded his mother to have him prepared for college at home under the teaching of Mr. Bernard Whitman, who was then pursuing his studies for the Unitarian ministry with that distinguished clergyman, and he was fitted for college in a year, passing the examinations for the Freshman class in 1823, and returning to live in Beverly under the same teaching another twelvemonth, in which he went over the studies of the first two years of the college course, returning again to Cambridge to join the Junior class in August, 1824, and graduating in 182G, in the same class with his cousin, Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr. No less than fourteen members of this class entered the Christian ministry, among them the theologian Oliver Stearns, the eloquent preacher George Putnam, and Nehemiah Adams, the Calvinistic divine. His father had set him apart for the ministry, as far as it could be done, by a request on his death-bed, but the boy who had graduated at fifteen, finishing his academic course at an earlier age than any other graduate of Harvard College, with the possible exception of Paul Dudley and Cotton Mather, was too young to begin his theological studies, and the following three years were spent, the first in study at Beverly, teaching in the winter the same district school in Middleton where his father had first taught, the second as private tutor in the family of Mr. Huidekoper, of Meadville, Pa., where not a few eminent men have both given and received much, in a home of patriarchal simplicity and manorial beauty, and the third in teaching in the academy at Portsmouth, N. H. In 1829 he entered the Cambridge Divinity School, graduating from it in 1832. The next year was spent as college tutor of Hebrew and mathematics at Cambridge. At this time his first publication ajjpeared, "Address on Taxation," being No. 1, Vol. 1, of the " Workingmen's Library." President Quincy desired to secure Mr. Peabody for permanent academic service. He had, however, been preaching in various places during the year, being called to settle over churches in Fall River and Framingham, and accepted an invitation to become minister of the South Parish in Portsmouth, N. H., as colleague with the Rev. Nathan Parker, D.D., one of the most honored clergymen of his time in New England, whose lofty character, distinguished alike for wisdom and for goodness, has left an abiding mark upon that intelligent Christian community. Mr. Peabody took charge of that jnilpit September 1, 1833. His previous year spent in Portsmouth as a teacher had brought him into such personal relations with Dr. Parker as to make him appreciate, as a special privilege, the opportunity of laboring in such companionship, but the hope was sadly disappointed, as Dr. Parker's rapidly failing health did not even permit him to take part in the ordination of his colleague and successor in October, 1833, and his death a few days later left the young clergyman alone in charge of a most important parish.

The South Church, which was the second in Portsmouth, had its origin, as was the case in many of the older parishes in New England, in a dissension about the best locality for a new meeting-house. It early leaned to Arminianism, while the North Church, long under the ministry of the elder Buckmiuster, held fast to the more strict theology ; and at the separation of the Congregational body in the earlier years of this century, the former had become a leading parish in the " Unitarian movement." Under the serious evangelical preaching of Dr. Parker, it had been strengthened and increased in numbei's till not long before his death it had built one of the most beautiful and costly stone churches of the time in New England, which was filled with worshipers. This responsible charge was borne by the young minister, and prospered in his hands. The further increase of the congregation, to the number of two hundred and fifty families, made it necessaiy to enlarge the church ; a handsome chapel was built for the large and flourishing Sunday school, and all the signs of professional success in a high degree were evident.

On September 12, 1836, Mr. Peabody was married to Catherine Whipple, daughter of Edmund Roberts, of Portsmouth, who, as Envoy of the United States Government, negotiated the first treaty between this country and Siam and Cochin China, the journal of whose travels in remote Eastern lands, at that time almost un visited, was published after his death, which took place in 1837, while abroad on public business. Of the eight children of this marriage, two sons and two daughters died in early childhood, and four daughters are living. Mrs. Peabody died in November, 1869.

The Portsmouth pulpit, as filled by Mr. Peabody, was metropolitan to New Hampshire. While the most important part of a faithful minister's labors is silent and hidden in the endless round of pastoral duty, the calls to public services outside his parish multiplied upon him in the educational and charitable duties which fall in such a community to the minister of a prosperous and influential congregation. He early became a trustee of Exeter Academy, holding that position for forty-three years. One of the earliest of the many addres-es which he gave on academic occasions, that on "Conversation: its faults and its graces," delivered before the Newburyport Female High School, and first printed in 1846, became a classic on the subject. Meantime, in the religious discussions which were being earnestly carried on in the Unitarian Church, Mr. Peabody soon became a recognized leader, in 1846 giving the address before the Senior class in the Cambridge Divinity School on " Anti-Supernaturalism," and being widely known as a preacher of positive spiritual Christianity. In 1844 he published " Lectures on Christian Doctrine," which became a handbook of the belief of the evangelical portion of the religious body to which he belonged, while a wider congregation than his Ports- mouth parish was addressed by his " Christian Consolations: sermons designed to furnish comfort and strength to the aifiicted," of which the first of many editions was published in 1846, and by his "Sermons to Children," published in 1867. He also was an editor of the Christian Register for two years.

In 1852 he received from Harvard College the degree of Doctor of Divinity. During all this period he was a frequent contributor to the Christian Examiner and the North American Review, and in 1852 he became proprietor and editor of the latter publication, which duties hti retained till 1863, when he was succeeded by Professors Lowell and Norton.

The invitation to the Plummer professorship of the heart and of Christian morals in Harvard College found Dr. Peabody in a happy and successful ministry at Portsmouth, over a parish to whom he was bound by ties of mutual attachment, such as no other call could have been strong enough to break. He had seen the first generation of his people pass away and give place to children and grandchildren, whose feeling toward him was not lessened by his removal to the large sphere of duties which Cambridge ofl'ered. On September 1, 1860, he assumed the Plummer professorship, and when, after a generation had intervened, on September 1, 1883, the fiftieth anniversary of his settlement at Portsmouth was celebrated by his former parish, it was with a joy and sympathy not dimmed by the lapse of time.

The new work on which Dr. Peabody now entered, as successor to the Rev. Frederick Dan. Huntington, D.D., was waiting to be shaped by him into a large and unique opportunity of service and influence. The wise munificence of Miss Caroline Plummer, of Salem, had been led to endow the "Professorship of the Heart and of Christian IMorals," by the conviction that the " dry light" and unsympathetic methods of college training needed to be suftused with the warmth and glow of a personal influence, exerted by a Christian minister of wide and ready sympathy, hearty interest in young men and belief in them, not a teacher only nor a preacher only, though both of these he was to be, but one who should find what possibilities existed in Harvard College for the function of pastor to the most difficult class of persons in the world to reach. - youths of the student age. It had been the conviction of this excellent lady that such a place could be created and filled by a wise, devout scholar, in whom the weight of genuine character and the persuasiveness and charm of Christian faith should be a " living epistle, known and read of all men," but no one could have ventured to anticipate the way in which Dr. Peabody was to grow into the place and the place to grow round him, or the degree in which his influence was destined to pervade the Cambridge atmosphere like sunshine, doing more perhaps than any other single cause to soften and change the temper of mutual antagonism and mutual distrust which largely affected the relations of the faculty and the students. This condition of things was, of course, not without shining exceptions on both sides, and as a survival from the semi-medevial conditions of the college in Puritan times. The years of Dr. Peabody's incumbency of the one position which was created to be mediatorial between the two elements, witnessed a change for the better gt eater than had been wrought in the two previous centuries. This process went on side by side with the great enlargement of the college on all sides, transforming it into a veritable university, with the freedom and opportunity of the elective system ; and it is not too much to say that Dr. Peabody's presence and influence at Cambridge did more than any other thing to inspire confidence in the whole community that these changes would only give opportunity for growth in Christian manhood, and leave the college freer to become a training-school in virtue and goodness and faith. The proper official work of the Plummer profe.-sorship had included the duties of preacher to the university and some slight teaching of each class at the beginning of the Freshman and at the end of the Senior year, while the pulpit services were lightened by being assumed by the president (when he was a clergyman) on one Sunday of each month. Except during the presidency of Dr. Hill, however, the burden of the University pulpit now fell wholly upon Dr. Peabody, and for twenty-one years was so borne as to keep that distinguished place at the height of its reputation, as the voice in sacred things of the mother and chief of American colleges.

The publications of Dr. Peabody during the period after his removal to Cambridge may be in part noted here. In 1861 he delivered and published a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, entitled " Christianity the Religion of Nature," and in 1873 a volume of sermons on "Christian Belief and Life." Besides a multitude of single sermons, lectures, orations, discussions in the influential reviews of great questions of public interest and memoirs of distinguished persons, the following volumes have also been given to the public by him: "Manual of Moral Philosophy," 1872; "Christianity and Science," a serios of lectures delivered in New York, in 1874, on the Ely foundation of the Union Theological Seminary, 1874. The Baccalaureate sermons which he preached to successive classes on the Sunday before commencement, and which were long a marked feature of the academic life, were gathered up in a volume embracing those preached in successive years, from 1861 to 1883, when the emeritus professor might well have supposed that his long service in the interesting duty was ended, but in 1885 and 1886 the graduating classes still felt that from no other could they ask the farewell word in behalf of their alma viater. A part of the fruit of his ethical instruction in the divinity school and in the college appeared in his translations of Cicero's De Officiis, De Senectute, De Amicitia, and the Tusculan Disputations, published in 1883, 1884 and 1886, and of Plutarch's De Sera Numinis Vindicta, published in 1885. In 1887 he published further fruits of his college teaching in the vahiable work on Moral Philosophy, which embodies a portion of the lectures given by him to the senior class in college and in the Divinity School at Meadville, Pa.

The Cambridge life devolved upon Dr. Peabody, beyond the duties of his professorship, not a few such obligations as seek a public-spirited citizen with heavy demand upon his time. On the school committee he gave many years of service, and in other matters which furthered the cause of good government of the city, he was never backward. Only an exceptional endowment of health and a bodily frame strong as iron which was able to bear habitual labor far into the small hours of the night, could have endured the toil.

As a teacher, the work which fell into his strong and willing hands naturally broadened more and more. The subject of ethics belonged strictly to his department as religious teacher to the university, but in addition he taught logic, political economy until the appointment of Professor Dunbar, and had the care of the senior forensics for some years, also filling gaps when they occurred in the college and in the divinity school. A portion of this labor bore fruit in several of his printed works.

Meantime, the friendly and fatherly relation in which he stood to the students had beneficent results. When the wise generosity of Mr. Nathaniel Thayer provided the means for reviving in a better form the old " Commons," furnishing good food to the great mass of the students for a moderate sum, the task of organizing this large enterprise and of its supervision for a considerable time was undertaken by Dr. Peabody until he had proved that it was a wise experiment and had established it on a permanent basis at the public tables of Memorial Hall. The thoughtful and abounding private charities which sought his aid as almoner in finding and relieving needy students who deserved such aid, a form of college benefit which escapes all public record, were very great in amount and were alone sufficient to occupy much of the time of a busy man. It would be impossible to overstate the quantity and quality of his service in personal and private relations as adviser and confidential friend to the multitude of young men who sought his help in any kind of trouble and never sought in vain. For all this the unsolicited reward of a love and veneration, such as it is the privilege of few to win, was poured forth upon him. No one can have heard without a thrill the cheers, ringing with the enthusiasm of youth and of personal affection and rising again and again as if they would never cease, which greeted the mention of his name or welcomed his presence on all public occasions of the university.

The Plummer professorship also offered an opportunity to bring the university into religious relations with the whole community by making its pulpit not the property of a single sect, but hospitable to all branches of the Protestant Church, which Dr. Peabody's large and sympathetic Christian temper fulfilled to the utmost. While himself recognized as a leader in his own denomination, he had the gift of winning the Christian fellowship and conciliating by his own reconciling spirit the friendly respect of churchmen of all names, welcoming them to the college chapel and being welcomed as a preacher in their pulpits, while he was sought to give addresses on the public days of the theological schools of Newton, Bangor and Andover, representing various Christian bodies; and the catholic system of administration of religion in Harvard University, introduced in 1885, in which a group of the ablest preachers of different churches are associated in the care of spiritual interests which are recognized to be so large and various as to demand their united care, is the legitimate outgrowth of the si^irit in which Dr. Peabody admitted this great religious opportunity.

The most important part of Dr. Peabody's public services at Cambridge still remains to be mentioned. The death of President Felton, in February, 1862, not only removed his closest personal friend in the college, but devolved upon him most laborious and responsible duties as head of the university, being appointed by the corporation acting president, and discharging the duties of that office until the installation of President Hill late in the following autumn. On the resignation of Dr. Hill, in September, 1868, he was again called to the same responsibility, and continued to preside over the university until the inauguration of President Eliot. His administration as acting president thus covered two periods, amounting in all to about two years, while he was specially associated with the counsels of his immediate predecessors in the office, and in the plans which marked their administrations and which resulted in the abolition of the old " hazing " system and the introduction of a healthier spirit of mutual regard in the instructors and students, and the first broadening out of the college curriculum beyond its narrow limit by introducing the elective system. The success of Dr. Peabody as an administrator was marked, and it seemed natural that he should have been elected to the permanent incumbency of the office which he adorned ; the strong secular tendency in college affairs had, however, predetermined that the office should not be held in any event by a clergyman.

In these very important duties Dr. Peabody remained at his post for twenty-one years, with an interval of travel in Europe from June, 1867, to March, 1868, which he accomplished by compressing the work of two terms into that of a single one after his return, and of which he published, in 1868, a record in his "Reminiscences of European Travel." A briefer visit to Russia, and the neighboring countries in which he shared the hospitalities enjoyed by General Grant, was made by him in the summer of 1876, and a longer sojourn in Europe with his family after resigning the Plummer professorship, from June, 1881, to September, 1882. His resignation had gone into effect after the commencement of 1881, but he was at once appointed professor emeritus, retiring from the burdens of his official position, but in no sense from his place in the heart of the college nor from the opportunities of service which awaited him. The key-note of Dr. Peabody's public services is given in the paper already quoted, where he mentions three biographies to which he has been specially indebted. The first is that of Niebuhr :

" If I have been able, in things secular and sacred, as to reports of current and records of past events, to steer a safe way between credulity and skepticism, I owe it in great part, not to Niebuhr's 'History of Rome,' but to the virtual autobiography that gives shape and vividness to his 'Memoir.' If I remember aright, he expressed his confidence in the wubstantial authenticity of our canonical gospels, and, however this may be, I owe largely to him my firm faith and trust in them.

" I would next name the 'Life of Thomas Arnold.' When I read it I was pastor of a largo parish, with many young persons under my charge and influence, and I was at the same time chairman of a school-board. I had no need of Arnold to awaken my sympathy with young life, but he has lielped me to understand it better, and to minister more intelligently and efficiently to its needs and cravings. His ' Kugby Sermons ' have a great charm for me, and while I have not been guilty of the absurd and vain attempt to imitate them, I have felt their inspiration both in the pulpit and in the lecture-room. I have also, in a large and diver, sifted experience in educational trusts and offices, felt myself constantly instructed, energized and encouraged by Arnold.

"My third biography is that of Dr. Chalmers, fruitful of beneficent example in more directions than could be easily specified, but to me of peculiar service in his relation to poverty in Glasgow, with its attendant evils and vices In his mode of relieving want in person and in kind, of bringing preventive measures to bear on the potential nurseries of crime, and of eTilisting the stronger in the aid and comfort of the feebler members of the community, I found many valuable suggestions for the local charities which came under my direction while I was a parish minister."

It is allotted to few men to fulfil with conspicuous ability so many and various kinds of public service as have fallen to the lot of Dr. Peabody. As a parish minister, building up his church in the prosperity of numbers and in the better welfare of a spiritual growth, never stronger in his hold on the affections of his people than when he parted from them, and always remaining the pastor of their affectionate regard ; as a preacher, devout, earnest, persuasive, a powerful expounder of the truth of the gospel, and never more effective or listened to with more interest than in the years after he had passed threescore and ten ; as a theologian, strong in his grasp and luminous in his statement of the central verities of Christianity ; as an ethical and moral teacher, lucid, eloquent and convincing ; as the incumbent of the most difiicult position in Harvard College, turning its diSiculties into unrivalled opportunities and creating an exceptional work ; as a successful administrator, numbered among the honored heads of the university ; it has been his to win the love and reverence of the successive generations among whom his work has been wrought from youth to age. 48^

The Thorndikes of America are descended from a Lincolnshire family, at one time lords of the manor of Little Carlton. The first recorded signature of pedigree was made at the visitation of Heralds, in the year 1634; but thepedigreeitself is traced at least a hundred and fifty years earlier, to the middle or end of the fifteenth century. The ancestor of the American family was John Thorndike, who was one of the twelve associates of John Winthrop, Jr., by whom the first permanent settlement at Ipswich was commenced, in 1633. John Thorndike was the brother of Herbert Thorndike, Prebendary of Westminster, a distinguished clergyman of the Church of England. It is not probable that John Thorndike's emigration proceeded from religious motives. He never joined a New England Church, he sent his only son to England, to be baptized by his uncle, the prebendary, and he himself went back to England to die, and was buried by the side of his brother, in the cloisters of Westminster. He had passed thirtyyears in America. From Ipswich he went to " Brooksby " (now Peabody), where he is mentioned in 1636 as a grantee of a hundred acres of land. This grant he relinquished the same year for one of a hundred acres in Beverly, then a part of Salem, and in the following year his holding was enlarged to a hundred and eighty-five acres, extending back from the shore at the point afterwards called " Paul's Head," from his son Paul.

Paul Thorndike was prominent in the town affairs of Beverly, and discharged the various ofiices of selectman, captain of the military company, deputy to the General Court and the like. But he, like his father, never became a member of a New England Church, and not until ten years after his death did his oldest son, John, the first Puritan in the family, make " public profession." Paul's three sons, John, Paul and Herbert, probably lived upon the land which had come to them through their fiither from their grandfather. But they all had numerous children, and the i^arental acres gradually departed from the family under a series of petty subdivisions and alienations. Nothing now remains to indicate the original ownership but the mere name " Paul's Head."

Of the generations which followed the first two in Beverly, most of the members were sailors. As Hawthorne picturesquely says of his own ancestors, "From father to son for above a hundred years they followed the sea; a grey-headed shij)master in each generation retiring from the quarter deck to the homestead, while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting the salt S2;)ray and the gale which had blustered against his sire and grandsire. The boy also, in due time, passed from the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous manhood and returned from his world-wanderings to grow old and die and mingle his dust with his natal earth."

Nicholas Thorndike, the father of the subjects of the present sketch, was born in 1764. He began his seafaring life early enough to be captured in the Revolution by a British cruiser, and to have a short experience of the Jersey Prison Ship. He passed his youth as a sailor and shipmaster, retired in middle life with a moderate competency and spent the remainder of his days in mercantile pursuits in Beverly. Except that he commanded a volunteer company of artillery during the War of 1812, and that he occasionally represented Beverly in the General Court, he held no public office. He was a man whose strong sense and sound judgment in affairs commanded the respect of the community. He was, moreover, like many shipmasters of his day, not without a smack of literary cultivation. The deck of a ship in the trade winds gives great opportunity for general or special reading, and one is sometimes astonished at discovering the sort of books which accompanied our sailors on their voyage.

Captain Thorndike's wife was Mehetabel Eea, whom he married in 1789. She was the daughter of Captain Joseph Rea, a man of some local note in the Revolution, an efficient member of the Committee of Correspondence and the commander of a company from Beverly and Lynn, sent to the aid of Washington in New Jersey. Mrs. Thorndike passed the quiet, uneventful life of a sailor's wife, occupied at home with the care and education of her children, while her husband was employed abroad. She lived until her youngest son was nine years old, and died at the early age of forty. She was little known beyond her own family, but the remembrance of her pure religious character, her love and her many virtues, constantly appears in the affectionate allusions of her children. Of this marriage there were four children, of whom two were daughters ; Hitty, who married Thomas Stephens, Jr. (Harvard 1810), a well-known lawyer and town officer of Beverly, and Clara, the wife of Asa Rand (Dartmouth 1806), a clergyman of some prominence as a preacher and editor, and of more as an early Abolitionist and friend of Garrison and George Thompson.

William Thorndike, the oldest son of Nicholas and Mehetabel, was born in Beverly January 22, 1795. His earliest book learning was obtained in the excellent schools of his native town. In the formation of his character, kindly and manly, and at the same time of a certain strictness which sat upon him not ungracefully in after life, one may trace the precepts and example of his excellent mother. From Beverly he passed to Phillips Exeter Academy in 1807, where he spent three years under the tuition of the famous teacher. Dr. Benjamin Abbot. He entered Harvard College as a Sophomore in 1810, and was graduated in 1813. He was faithful in his studies as in all things, took an excellent rank in his cla.'s and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, whose ribbon was then, as now, a badge of scholarship. But he was also of social disposition, and his name appears on the rolls of several of the clubs devoted to good fellowship and conviviality. On leaving college he entered his name as a student in the office of the eminent jurist, Nathan Dane, and was admitted to the Essex Bar in 1816. While a law student he gave some attention to military art, and was the first captain of the Light Infantry Company, which succeeded in 1814, the Artillery Company, commanded by his father during the war. In 1816, the year of his admission to the bar, he delivered in Beverly, the Fourth of July oration. In the autumn of that year he opened an office in Bath, Me., and commenced the practice, so often discouraging, of a young lawyer. Maine was not a wealthy State, commerce was dull and there were more lawyers than business. But he persevered, and probably had a fair share of what business there was. He also applied himself to the study of politics, history and political economy, wrote articles for the newspapers, delivered, in 1818, the Fourth of July oration at Brunswick and published a series of essays upon the constitutional struggles in the Pyrensean Peninsula and Italy. The death of his father in 1821 left him in comfortable pecuniary circumstances, and in the autumn of that year he married Nancy Stephens, a sister of his brother-inlaw, Thomas Stephens.

His wife, a most lovely person, to whom he was devotedly attached, died in less than two years from their marriage. Her death was followed by a period of depression, during which he was completely unfit for active life. He abandoned his profession, never to resume it, and in the autumn of 1823 returned to his old home in Beverly.

Here his interest in affairs gradually revived. With the means inherited from his father, he pursued with success various mercantile enterprises. He was upon the board of the banking and insurance corporations of the place and active in its charities. He also gave much time to town affairs, as selectman, overseer of the poor, moderator of town-meetings and the like. In matters of education he was especially earnest, did much good work upon the School Committee and was one of the early promoters of the Debating Society and Lyceum, before which he delivered several carefully prepared lectures.

In 1826 and 1827 he represented the town in the General Court. In the House he rarely spoke, but his intelligence, clear judgment and familiarity with business, made him valuable as an adviser and as a member of committees. In 1828 he was chosen Senator for Essex, and was re-elected in the four following years. His popularity in the County, as in his own town, was very great, though he was by no means a good politician in the way of strict party allegiance. In the Senate he joined in debate ofteHcr than in the House, and always spoke and voted from his own judgment and conscience, rather than from regard to the expectations of his friends or his constituents. In short, as his distinguished contemporary, Mr. Choate, once said of him, "He was not able enough to agree with any set of men to succeed in politics." But his steadfast integrity and purity of motive certainly carried him a great way towards success. In National affairs, which got into the debates and resolutions of the Legislature more frequently than now, he probably would have called himself a Federalist, but still he was heretical upon some of the old Federalist articles of faith. His name was upon the National Republican ticket after that party was formed, but he refused to subscribe to the tenet of protection, which was its criterion of orthodoxy, and remained a free trader to the end. And upon the question of removal of the Cherokees beyond the Mississippi, he drew down upon himself a storm of indignation because he believed, as afterwards proved true, that their removal was not only for the good of the country, but for their own good. In 1830 there was talk in the County of sending him to Congress, but he was too poor a politician for this, and the contest fell between Mr. Choate and Mr. Crowningshield, the former being triumphantly elected and beginning at this time his brilliant public career. In 1832 he was elected president of the Senate, and filled the chair with great ability, dignity and imjjartiality. His public life ended here. In the same year he was made president of two Boston corporations, the Hamilton Bank and the National Insurance Company, and to the duties of these offices he devoted with his wonted faithfulness and industry the brief remainder of his life. He died of consumption on July 12, 1835, at theearlj^ age of forty.

It remains only to speak of his religious character and relations. Brought up by a mother who was a Puritan of the Puritans, he retained through life a certain spirit of that stern faith. His mind always tended towards independence in things spiritual of all human authority, implicit reliance upon Divine Revelation, constant regard for moral and religious principle and the reference of every daily action to the tribunal of conscience. Further than this he was no Puritan, or rather he carried the Puritan spirit to its logical outcome, and threw off the authority of that church in matters of dogma, as that had rejected the authority of its predecessors. On his return to Beverly he took prominent and active part in the affairs of the First Parish, and spent much time and pains in bringing those affairs into a satisfactory financial condition. His interest in the church belonging to that parish was constant and unflagging, and he heartily sympathized with its tendency towards Unitarianism under the pastorate of Dr. Abbot, and its open profession of the Unitarian faith at the settlement of Mr. Thayer. The Sunday-school of that church he found a most congenial sphere of labor and usefulness. His zealous services as teacher and superintendent are gratefully acknowledged in the appreciative memoir of his life, contributed by

Albert Thorndike, the younger brother of William, was born March 18, 1800. He, like his brother, received his early education at home, and afterwards, in 1813, went to Exeter. He had a desire to go to college, but did not wish to become afterwards either a lawyer, a doctor or a minister. His father had the old notion that college is a place to learn Latin and Greek, and that Latin and Greek are of little use except in the three so-called learned professions. The idea that a college education has less to do with earning a living than with the true life which lies beyond and apart from getting means to live, is of later growth. So Albert spent his three years under Dr. Abbot, and then returned home to commence a business life. At first he assisted his father and kept his books. In 1819 he took a clerkship in the Beverly Bank, and was promoted, in 1822, to the office of cashier, which he retained for twenty-four years. During this time he did many things beside, at first in connection with his brother William and afterwards with the late Samuel Endicott. They owned shares in coasting and fishing craft and in larger vessels -for foreign trade, sent adventures to Indiaandthe Mediterranean and engaged in the manifold enterprises open to the inhabitants of a thriving sea-port town; for Beverly, as a part of the port of Salem, had then much more to do with the world beyond the ocean than now.

In 1823 he married Joanna Batchelder Lovett, daughter of John and Hannah (Batchelder) Lovett. Her parents had died in her infancy, and she had grown to womanhood in the home and under the paternal care of her uncle, the late Robert Rantoul. Of this marriage there were born nine children, of whom two are still living, Samuel Lothrop Thorndike, of Cambridge, and Charles Francis Thorndike, of Beverly. There are also living three sons of another child, the late Dr. William Thorndike, of Milwaukee. Mrs. Thorndike survived her husband sixteen years, and died in 1874.

In 1846 Mr. Thorndike took the presidency of the Bank, which he kept until 1853. In addition to its local transactions, the Bank did a considerable business with Boston, of which, during his cashiership and presidency, he had entire charge. This carried him often to the city, and after the Railroad made communication easy, he spent much of his time there.

For the routine of the affairs of the town Mr. Thorndike was too busy a man, but he always found time for its charities and for its higher interests. He was an early officer of the Lyceum, and always an active member of the Fisher Charitable Society.

From 1845 to 1847 he represented Beverly in the General Court, and in 1850 was a member of the Senate. He seldom took the floor, except to make a report or a motion. Oratory was not one of his gifts. But his familiarity with commerce and with financial

During this period he was a director of the Eastern Railroad, and spent much time upon its affairs; and in 1852 he was elected to the presidency. In the duties of this oiBce, which he held until 1855, and that of auditor, to which he was afterwards appointed, he passed the rest of his vigorous business life. Into these duties he put, as was his wont, his whole energy, not content to be simply the head of a board, but fomiliarizing himself with, and actively directing, all the operations of the road. More than one important reform in railway management was either originated by him or received early adoj^tion upon his line. He was esteemed and beloved by those under him, and with his associates he formed warm and lasting friendships. But a shadow fell upon his term of office from the crime of a trusted subordinate. Honest himself, as a matter of course, and beyond the conception of being otherwise, he had little suspicion of the possibility of dishonesty in another; and the blow which he received saddened the whole remainder of his life.

Mr. Thorndike's religious feelings were strong, his faith liberal, his charity universal. He succeeded his brother William as superintendent of the Parish Sunday-school in 1833, and for several years carried on the good work his brother had begun. From 1842 until his death he was one of the deacons of the church.

His favorite recreation was music. He was a singer from boyhood, and kept his fine bass voice to the end. A pupil of Keller, one of the first German instructors who came to this country, he was no mean proficient upon the organ and piano. He attended all the concerts far and wide, Avas a member of the various musical societies of the neighborhood and led the parish choir for thirty years.

If space permitted, it would be pleasant to speak at length upon Mr. Thorndike's disposition and tastes, as they showed themselves at home, - his fondness for children, his love of books and pictures, his admiration of the beauties of nature, his skill in horticulture, his deft handiness as an amateur mechanic. But with all this a brief public record has little concern.

He died after a half year's illness, which he bore with patience and fortitude, June 14, 1858, mourned by all who knew him, and affectionately remembered by those who knew him best.

Captain John E, Giddings

John Endicott Giddings was born in Danvers, Mass., October 6, 1794. His father was Solomon Giddings, born in Ipswich in 1767, a descendant of George Giddings, who settled in Ipswich in 1635; and his mother was Anna Endicott, born in Danvers in 1769, and a descendant of Gov. John Endicott. His family removed to Beverly when he was about eleven years of age, and he soon after commenced sea life, accompanying his father to the West Indies. During the War of 1812 he enlisted in a privateer, and was captured by an English sloop of war, off Halifax, and he was taken to Dartmoor Prison, in England, where he was confined for nearly two years. After his release he entered the employ of the Hon. Wm. Gray, of Salem, and soon rose to the position of captain. Entering the employ of Joseph Peabody, of Salem, he had command of the noted ships, "Carthage" and "Augustus," making voyages to China and Bombay. After the death of Mr. Peabody he commanded the ship "Duxbury," owned by Mr. John L. Gardner, of Boston, in the Cuba and Eussia business until he retired from active sea service.

As a shipmaster he was prudent and skilful, never meeting in his long sea life with any disaster entailing loss upon the Insurance Companies; and he was a worthy representative of that remarkable class of men justly termed "merchant captains."

He married, in April, 1824, Martha Thorndike Leach, descended from Lawrence Leach, one of the first settlers of Beverly. He had five sons, - two of whom died in infancy. His oldest son, Charles Stephens, died February 9, 1856.

Dr. Ingalls Kitteedge, Sb

Ingalls Kittredge, who w«s born at Amherst, N. H., on the 10th of December, 1769, and died at Beverly June 17, 1856, was one of the sixth generation in descent from John Kittredge, of Billerica, who received grants of land in 1660, and in 1663 in Billerica, and in 1661 in Tewksbury, where his descendants were located.

He was the son of Solomon and Tabitha (Ingulls, of Andover), who removed about 1766, to Amherst, N. H. (now called Mount Vernon), and was one of twelve children. He married Sarah Conant, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Conant, who was in direct descent (of the sixth generation), from Roger Conant, the first settler and founder of Salem, which at that period (.1626) was called Naumkeag, and included the territory between Portsmouth and Salem.

Their children were Ingalls, who was born at Townsend May 30, 1798, and Sarah, born at Townsend October 1, 1800. Ingalls, Jr., who followed the profession of his father, was a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1820, and studied medicine (in company with Dr. D. Humphreys Storer), with the celebrated Dr. John C. Warren. His children were seven in number (all daushters), the eldest of whom, Sarah, married Charles W. Galloupe, Esq., of Boston (a native of Beverly), and another, Susan, married Captain Edward L. Giddings, of Beverly.

the practice of medicine seems to have existed in the Kittredges for generations, and the tendency is still a remarkiible one in the family, the name of Kittredge being almost synonymous with doctor.

Dr. Benjamin Kittredge, of Tewksbury, had eight sons who were doctors, and Ingalls had four brothers who practiced the healing art, the eldest of whom, Dr. Zephaniah, who lived in Mount Vernon, was a man of famous skill, and with him, no doubt, Ingalls studied.

The name of Ingalls Kittredge first appears in the tax list of 1803, but as no poll lax was included, he probably did not become a resident until August 6, 1804, when his first poll tax was asse^'sed, indicating him at that date a citizen of Beverly. It is said that he occupied the so-called "Asa Woodbury" house, lately demolished, which stood upon the site of the house since built, and now owned and occupied by Mr. Mark B. Avery.

In April, 1803, in consideration of the sum of fourteen hundred and fifty dollars, he purchased of " Simeon Brown, Gent," a tract of land consisting of nine acres, bounded by the county road, a portion of the grant of two hundred acres, made by the Colonial Government to the " Old planter," Roger Conant (Mrs. Kittredge's paternal ancestor), upon which he erected a large mansion house, with suitable outbuildings for agricultural purposes. It is a portion of the well-known " Kittredge Farm," and through the present proprietor, Mr. Charles W. Galloupe, still remains in the fiimily.

In the deed of purchase of the nine acres, he is mentioned as "a physician of Townsend, Middlesex Co.," and his superior intelligence and ability soon gained for him in his new home a large and successful practice, particularly in surgery, which extended widely to the surrounding towns, where he was well known, as the most skilful surgeon of the vicinity. His early visits were made on horseback, but a largely increasing jiractice, soon compelled a more convenient means of communication, and he adopted the socalled " Sulky," a narrow, high-hung, old-fashioned " Chaise," barely two feet in width and only capable of holding one person, furnishing scanty enough accommodation for even a single person of ordinary size. The quaint old vehicle was known as the " Doctor's Sulky," and was soon as familiar to the people of the surrounding towns as was the face of the sturdy doctor himself. After his death the vehicle speedily fell iutodisuse, and but few of the present day are aware that it ever had an existence.

In his practice Dr. Kittredge did not hesitate to depart from the established regulations of the " Faculty," whenever, in his judgment, the condition of his patients could be improved by such treatment. This course subjected him to the unfavorable, and often unkind criticism of his contemporaries, but his remarkable successes sustained and secured to him the public confidence, which during his whole lifetime, he never forfeited. He was often urged to accept membership in the " Medical Faculty," but his independent nature could brook no rules inconsistent with his own conclusions, and during the length of his active professional life, he declined associating himself with any society. Later in life, however, after repeated solicitations, he consented to permit his name to be presented for membership.

The death of his esteemed wife, which occurred October 7, 1833, and his marriage in April, 1836, induced him to change his residence from the upper part of the town to a more central location, and he purchased the "Chapman Estate," one of the finest and most elegant of the old Colonial mansions, which was situated at the corner of Federal and Cabot Streets. Here, with a constantly increasing practice, he lived until the month of June, 1844, when a most disastrous fire occurred, which reduced the beautiful building to ashes, entailing a heavy and discouraging loss upon its proprietor ; but under his indomitable will and perseverance, the ashes were hardly cold before he commenced the erection of the sightly and elegant mansion which still stands upon the same site, one of the finest and best residences within the limits of the town, and a fitting monument to his energy and enterpri-e.

Dr. Kittredge was a man of ideas greatly in advance of the times in which he lived. A man of deep and penetrating thought, with clear convictions ba-ed upon reasonable deductions, upon which he acted so frequently without consulting the opinion of others, that, as a natural consequence, he was often upon the unpopular side of the public issues.

As a temperance man he advocated total abstinence from the first, and devoted his best energies to recover society from the abuses of unlimited liquor selling, which in that day required no small amount of moral courage.

In politics he was an outspoken adherent of the " Anti -Slavery " party, a companion of Sumner, Garrison, Phillips, Whittier and other notable men, and, though not an active public advocate, he was always ready with his purse, and an ever generous contributor to its treasury. He was an indefatigable manager in the so-called " under-ground railroad," and his house as well as his purse, were always open to the unfortunate refugees, in their attempts to escape from the servitude of the South to the freedom of the North.

The well-known escaped slaves, George Latimer and the since famous Fred. Douglas, were both aided by him, and by him introduced to a public audience in Beverly very soon after their escape from slavery. George Thompson, the noted English philanthropist, Member of Parliament and Abolitionist, found in him a friend, who, without fear or favor, espoused his then unpopular cause and gave him substantial support and efficient aid. Actuated by a desire that the citizens of Beverly should hear the distinguished man speak, the doctor applied to a religious society of which he was a prominent member, for the use of their edifice for a public lecture. The favor was refused. Later on the society had a meeting, and, anticipating some trouble from the doctor, in order to propitiate him, chose him moderator of the meeting. He never failed to improve his opportunities, and before the adjournment he had secured the adoption of a series of Anti-Slavery resolutions, which, much to the chagrin of the officers, but greatly to the satisfaction of the members of the audience, committed the society to the support of the unpopular "Anti-Slavery party."

A descendant of two eminent families, he was a vigorous representative of New England character. Quick in his decisions and as quick to act, fearless in the discharge of all his duties, prompt and punctual in all his professional engagements, exact in his dealings, somewhat imperious in his manner, he quickly decided between the good and the evil, always extending a hearty encouragement to the right, and administering to the wrong a deserving rebuke. He was a man of activity in the pursuits of human life, and reverent in his relations to the Deity. The citizens of the town heartily accord to him an eminent place in their history.

John I. Baker

John I. Baker was born in Beverly August 16, 1812. He left school at twelve years of age, and after store-keeping in Salem and Beverly for two years, served a fourteen months' apprenticeship at the trade of shoemaking, and worked thereat for several years thereafter, with a large shop's crew, and did more or less manufacturing on his own account. He was afterwards engaged in rubber manufacturing, and in store trade, and did much as land surveyor, scrivener and in the settlement of estates. His business of late years has been in real estate. He has, during all these years, been much in public life. Chosen town clerk in 1836, he continued in that position for nearly twenty years, serving also nearly half of that time as selectman. He was Representative in 1840, and in seventeen other years between that and 1884; Senator in 18G3 and '64; councillor with Governor Banks and Governor Andrew ; County Commissioner from 1847 to 1855. He has also held several appointments from different Governors of the commonwealth, serving now as a harbor and land commissioner, to which he was appointed by Governor Butler in 1883, and reappointed in 1886, by Governor Robinson. When, in 1868, the town entered upon the project of building its water-works, in connection with Salem, he was again chosen on the Board of Selectmen, and its chairman for seven years continuously, and when, at the abolition of the school district system, it was found necessary to provide new school-house accommodations throughout the town, he was chosen chairman of the committee to carry out this purpose, and was also chosen on the school committee (a service he had repeatedly declined), and has been chairman of that board to this time. In 1884 he was again chosen on the Board of Selectmen, and made its chairman, and co-operated with others in securing the Legislative right to secure an independent water supply, and is chairman of the large committee that has now those works substantially and successfully completed He has also co-operated in carrying forward other of the important public works in town, and has done something himself to demonstrate the capacity of the town for growth and improvement. He is president of Liberty Masonic Association, which built Masonic Block ; was president during its active existence, of Bass River Association, which built Odd Fellows' Block. He is likewise president of the Beverly Gas Light Company, and of Beverly Co-operative Store ; vice-president of the Beverly Savings Bank, whose charter he obtained in 1867, and which now has deposits amounting to one million dollars. He was an early Abolitionist and teetotaller, and reported the platform of the first preliminary Republican State Convention in favor of " equal rights" and of "the right and duty of the people to prohibit by law the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage." He was an active worker in the Republican party till 1870, when, dissatisfied with the uncertain course of that party on the liquor question, he united in an Independent Temperance Convention, which nominated a full State ticket, on which he was a candidate for State Treasurer, receiving about eight thousand votes. He again united in conventions in 1875 and '76, which put his name at the head of the ticket for Governor, receiving the first year over nine thousand votes, and the second year over twelve thousand votes. In 1877 Hon. Robert C. Pitman, whom Mr. Baker supported, received over sixteen thousand votes. The election of Governor Talbot that year divided the Temperance forces, and this movement was retarded thereby. Since then Mr. Baker has occupied somewhat of an independent position in politics, but has frequently been elected Representative during that time by very flattering votes.

In the Legislature he has served on some of the most important committees, often as chairman, and has always given faithful attention to the work of the sessions. It has been his fortune for eight different years, as the oldest member who had served there before, to call the House to order, and to preside until an organization was effected. He is connected with the First Baptist Society, and was chairman of the committee that had charge of building the spacious and elegant house of worship of that society, and was also actively instrumental in building the former neat chapel of said society now occupied by the Beverly Light Infantry, one of the neatest and best proportioned buildings in town. He was many years connected with the Beverly Light Infantry and with the Beverly Fire Department, and has actively co-op- erated with the latter in securing its modern advanced equipment throughout the town, and retains his interest in the military, continuing a member of the Veteran Associates. During the war of the rebellion he was not only in active work with Governor Andrew at the State House, but also did much of home work in co-operation with the Union Committee and all other loyal helpers in the service of their country. And he constantly insists upon the public duty of fulfilling the promises then made, "that as those who went into the perilous service of that war were loyal to the country in their service, so would we be faithful to them and those dependent upon them for all time to come."

Eev. Avilliam E. Abbot

He was prepaied for college at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H., under Benjamin Abbot, brother of Dr. Abiel Abbot. He entered the sophomore class of Bowdoin College in 1827, and graduated in 1830. In September of the latter year he entered the Cambridge Theological School, where he graduated in 1833.

Mr. Abbot was settled as pastor over the First Church in Billerica, Mass., in 1837, where he remained until 1839, when he resigned and went to Dorchester, Mass.

John Pickett

Mr. John Pickett was born on Central Street, in Beverly, November 9, 1807. His father, Thomas, was born in Beverly December 10, 1775, and died at St. Pierre in the West Indies, when master of the brig "Alice" of Beverly, January 4, 1817. He was son of Thomas of Marblehead, born 1720, and lost at sea 1750; and he a son of John, born in Marblehead about 1680, who died in May, 1763, a fisherman and shoreman. The father of John was Nicholas who was of Marblehead, and forty-three years old in 1692. The mother of the subject of this sketch, was Annis, daughter of Benjamin and Thankful (Larcom) Preston : said Benjamin, a son of Nehemiah and Annis (Bradford) Preston; said Nehemiah, a son of Nehemiah and Abigail (Allen) Preston ; this Nehemiah, a early home was at Preston Place at Beverly Farms, where some of their descendants still live. One son of theirs was Randall Preston, who married a Stone, and was the ancestor of the Rantouls a)id other honored posterity. Thankful Larcom was daughter of David and Lucy (Downing) Larcom ; he, a son of Cornelius and Abigail (Balch) Larcom; said Cornelius, a son of Mordecai Larcom, who came from Ipswich with John West, when the latter bought his great farm extending from near the present Pride's crossing into Manchester; a jjortion of which was bought by said Cornelius, who built a home, where F. Gordon Dexter's summer place now is. Annis Bradford was daughter of John and Annis (Lovett) Bradford, whose home w.is by Essex Street, at the present site of the Hardie School-House. He was a son of William and Rachel (Raymond) Bradford, whose home was at North Beverly, where her parents, John and Rachel (Scruggs) Raymond, resided on the original grant to her father Thomas Scruggs, a leading citizen who had the courage of his theological opinions, and was among those disarmed, therefor, in 1637. This last named Annis was daughter of Simon and Agnes (Swetland) Lovett, whose homestead was on Cabot Street, extending northerly from Franklin Place. He was son of John and Bethiah (Rootes) Lovett, whose home was on Cabot Street, next northerly of Simon's, extending to about opposite Milton Street, and a part of the great estate of her father Josiah Rootes, who owned from the sea, on both sides of Cabot Street, nearly down to Bartlett Street. His wife, Susanna, was one of those accused of witchcraft and lodged in Boston gaol in 1692, where as her grandson, John Lovett testifies, he visited her. After some months her innocence was acknowledged by her discharge from prison. She was manifestly a person of independent character, who would not conform her opinions to those of some of her more illiberal neighbors, and hence came the false accusations against her; but her excellent and numerous posterity may well honor her memory. Her husband, John whose early home was near where now is General Pierson's farm on Boyles Street, and where their son Joseph succeeded to that homestead, which continued to his posterity for many years. Of other ancestry named it is believed that Abigail Allen was of Manchester stock ; Lucy Downing, of Ipswich ; Abigail Balch, a daughter of Deacon Benjamin, who was son of John Balch, the ancient planter whose home was at the southerly corner of Cabot and Balch Streets. Agnes Swetland may have been of the Swetland family who owned the estate at the corner of Cabot and Hele Streets, now the home of Peter E. Clark.

After the death of his father, John Pickett lived with his uncle Richard Pickett, and betbi'e he was thirteen years old began his apprenticeship at sail making, in the sail-loft of the old Bartlett-Haskett store, where his grandfather, Thomas, first established the business, and where, at twenty-one years of age, John joined in partnership wath his uncle, who became also largely interested in the coasting and fishing trade, and their partnership ultimately extended so as to include this, as well as the grocery and fuel trade. More or less of anthracite coal was consumed here experimentally, down to 1834, when the first cargo brought to Beverly of about forty-eight tons was landed on the Whittredge wharf, and distributed to forty-three different persons, of whom there now survive, only Edward Burley, Augustus N. Clark, William Lord and Calvin Tuck. The price was eight dollars a ton on the wharf, and all of it had to be carted to the public hay-scales, by the old South Church, to be weighed. At the death of his uncle^ Capt. Richard Pickett, in 1865, Mr. John Pickett succeeded to the large business of the firm, and while the coasting and fishing trade, in which he has been owner in twenty-eight different vessels, has been reduced to a pretty small factor, the coal trade has been steadily growing, and the facilities, therefor, have been largely increased. The Whittredge wharf and the old sail-loft wharf have been consolidated into one, and large buildings erected there for the storage of Cumberland coal, the demand for which, for steam, purposes constantly increases. In 1855, the present coal wharf, by the junction of Water, Front and Cabot Streets, was built, and enlarged to its present proportions in 1875.

During all these years, the confidence and respect of his business contemporaries and fellow-townsmen, has been manifested in his election as assessor in 1838 and '39, as Representative in 1842 and '44, selectman in 1845 and '46, and in the war period of 1861 and '62, director of Beverly Bank since 1851, and its president since 1872, and vice-president of the Beverly Savings Bank from its start in 1867, to the present time. He has always been interested in matters det^igned to promote the public welfare, serving as a fireman with Engine No. 2, when eighteen years old, and many years thereafter, and afterwards of the board of firewards. He was early a member of the Beverly Light Infantry, and in its ranks, in its escort service at the independence celebration in 1835, when Edward Everett delivered the oration in the Dane Street Church. He was a member of the Beverly Young Men's Temperance Society in 1835, and always on the side of good morals and good conduct. Early a member of the First Baptist Society, he took an active interest in its progress, especially in the enlargement of its meeting-house in 1830, and serving upon the committee who purchased the present site of the Catholic Church, and took down the old church, and rebuilding it somewhat enlarged in 1837, and still farther interested in its enlargement. After this, Mr. Pickett connected himself with the Dane Street Society, where he has continued his interest in good works. His memory of the waning days of the ancient commerce of Beverly, is quite interesting, and gives glimpses of what was once a great business. Among the historic events of his day, which he recalls with interest, are his presence when Robert Rantoul, Sr., welcomed Lafayette to Beverly on his journey through the town in 1824 ; and also being at Bunker Hill when Daniel Webster delivered the oration at the laying of the corner-stone of the monument.

December 13, 1832, he married Martha, daughter of John and Rachel Fornis, who died in 1834, leaving an infant daughter, Martha Preston, who survived her mother only about a month. Mr. Fornis was a builder, whose father was David Fornis, also from Marblehead, who built by himself and his sons a large number of the noted Fornis houses, with their three rooms to a floor, which have made so many of the pleasant homes of Beverly. In 1838 Mr. Pickett married Susan, daughter of Seth Clark, a leading citizen of Salisbury, whose record may be found in that portion of the county history relating to that town. After nearly half a century of happy married life, she passed away in 1882. Mr. Pickett, despite his four-score years, gives his constant attention to his many responsibilities, with the same courtesy, diligence and intelligence which has characterized all of his career.

Seth Norwood

Seth Norwood was born in Rockport, Mass., June 23, 1815, a son of Major Francis Norwood, a deacon of the Congregational Church, and a man of good standing in the community, and of his wife Lucy (daughter of Caleb Pool), whose services in the cause of religion and morality entitle her to remembrance as a " Mother in Israel." She was a descendant of John Pool, a carpenter, who, before 1690, worked near Corning Street at Beverly Cove, with Richard Woodbury, who died that year in returning from the Canada military expedition, and whose widow, Sarah (Haskell) Woodbury married said Pool, and emigrated to Sandy Bay (now Rockport). Major Francis, husband of said Lucy, was descended in part from Edmund Grover, whose early home was in Beverly, near the junction of Cabot and Beckford Streets. When Seth Norwood was five years old, his father died, and two years later he went to live with the family of J. O. Drown, a shoe manufacturer at Rockport, learning of him a shoemaker's trade, and attending school at intervals. At the age of twenty, having mastered the trade, he opened a shoe-shop at Rockport on his own account and secured a moderate success. Here he continued till 1839, when he sold out his interest there, and removed to the wider field of Beverly, where he obtained employment as a journeyman shoemaker, and continued therein for about five years. About 1844, with the small capital thus far acquired, he began the manufacture of American Isinglass, at Warner's Mills, in Ipswich, which business he carried on there until 1855, when he sold it out to the Rockport Isinglass Company. In 1856 he bought out the factory and business of Friend & Lord, shoe manufacturers in Beverly, at the corner of Rantoul Street and Railroad Avenue, where the Norwood family now have their large factory ; and here he continued the shoe business, taking in as partner, in 1857, Joshua W. Carrier, who retired from the firm after about two years connection therewith, and Mr. Norwood con- tinned the business in his own name until 1865, when his eldest son Francis became a partner, and the firm name became Seth Norwood & Co. This name is still retained by his sons, who have continued and much increased the business, the factory having been quadrupled in size to supply the necessary room for their trade. A portion of the factory was burned in 1873, but soon restored and enlarged.

Soon after he came to Beverly, Mr. Norwood became interested in real estate, and many marked improvements grew out of his operations therein. He became a prominent citizen of Beverly ; was on the board of selectmen for three years when the water- Avorks were built and other important public improvements were made. He was also a director in Beverly National Bank, a trustee of Beverly Savings Bank, a leading member of the Dane Street Congregational Society, and interested in other good works. Having just about completed sixty years of an honored and useful life, he died of consumption, June 20, 1875, at his home on Cabot Street in Beverly, the former historic homestead of Hon. George Cabot ; a mansion hallowed by the belief that George Washington had there sought and obtained rest and refreshment from his trusted friend, Mr. Cabot.