given by him to the town, was a part. At the close
of his career he was probably the largest owner of real
estate in Newburyport. During the earliest part of
his business life he lived in a house which stood on
the corner of State and Charter Streets, but in his
later days bought and occupied the house on State
Street, which had been occupied by Tristram Dalton
in his palmy days.
It affords some indication of the foreign trade car-
ried on in Newburyport, to state that Mr. Brown, only
one of its many merchants, at one time owned twenty
brigs and schooners sailing to ports in the West
Indies and Russia. A portion of the molasses re-
ceived from the West Indies was used in the distill-
ery which, in connection with other branches of
business, was carried on by him. During the em-
bargo and the War of 1812 Mr. Brown suffered
heavy losse.-', but they were nothing compared with
the deprivations of the poor mechanic and laborer,
and to those, in the midstofhis losses, he was a father
and friend. He was one of the merchants who built the
"Merrimac" in 1798, and loaned her to the govern-
NEWBURYPORT.
1767
ment, and all through the troubles which that vessel
was built to assist in removing, he was always active
and useful in his patriotic efforts to uphold and aid
the government.
The Andover Theological Seminary, of which he was
one of the associate founders, received from him a gift
of $10,000, and the town of Newburyport owes much to
his liberality. Besides the gift of Brown's Square to the
town, he made a bequest to the town, which the fol-
lowing clause in his will will explain :
" I Rive and bequeath to the inhabitants of the town of Newburyport
aforesaid, tht- sum of six thousand dollars, as a fund for the use and sup-
port of a grammar school in said town forever. And I do hereby direct
that a special committee shall be annually chosen at the meeting of the
said inhabitants holden in the month of March annually, for the pur-
pose of managing and taking care of the said fund until a Board of
Trustees may be established tor that purpose.
"And I do expressly direct that the said principal sum of six thousand
dollars shall be kept at interest, and that interest and produce thereof
shall be applied and added to the said principal sum of six thousand
dollars until the sum shall accumulate and amount to the sum of ten
thousand dollars before any pai-t of the said interest or produce shall bo
applied and appropriated towards the support of said school, and when
the said principal sum shall amount to the sum of ten thousand dollars
then the annual interest and produce of the same shall be applied for
and towards the support of a Grammar School in the said town of New-
buryport forever.'*
The will was dated October 2, 1824, but by a
codicil dated April 2, 1827, the fund was required to
accumulate until it reached fifteen thousand dollars
before its income could be used. " And if," says the
codicil, " the inhabitants of said town shall discon-
tinue or neglect to maintain a grammar school in
said town for the space of one full year, at any one
time in continuance, then the said bequests shall be-
come forfeited thereby."
Mr. Brown died February 9, 1827, leaving a large
estate. By the death, in 1880, of his granddaughter,
Sarah White Hale, widow of Dr. Ebenezer Hale and
daughter of William B. Bannister, a considerable
amount of entailed property in Newburyport was re-
leased from an entail which was a serious obstacle in
the way of public improvements. Mr. Brown was a
member of the Board of Selectmen in 1782, '88, 1801.
William Bartlett, descended from one of the
earliest settlers of Newbury, was born in Newbury-
port, January 31, 1748. He received his education
in the common schools and was apprenticed to a
trade. At the age of twenty-one he had accumulated
a small amount of money, and with this he bought a
small piece of a vessel, which made a successful
voyage and laid the foundation of his wealth. For
more than fifty years he was an active merchant, pass-
ing through the storms of the Revolution, the compli-
cations with France, the embargo and the War of 1812,
without any serious check to his career. He was
one of the selectmen in 178-1, '85, 1801, and was always
relied upon in emergencies by his fellow-citizens
for judicious advice. He was one of the associate
founders of the Theological Seminary at Andover and
gave §30,000 towards its establishment. He subse-
quently endowed a professorship and erected a dwell-
ing-house for its incumbent. His total benefactions
to this institution are said to have reached §250,000.
He died at Newburyport, February 8, 1841.
.John Barnard Swett was descended from John
Swett, one of the original settlers of Newbury. He
was born in Marblehead in 1752 and graduated at
Harvard in 17(57. He studied medicine in Edinburgh
under Dr. William Allen and afterwards attended the
hospitals in Paris, returning home in 1778. He joined
the army as surgeon and took part in the expeditions
to Rhode Island and the Penobscot. After his return
he became eminent in his profession and died in 1796
from yellow fever, on its visitation to Newburyport in
that year.
Nathaniel Bradstreet was born in Topsfield Oct. 4,
1771. He graduated at Harvard in 1795 and taught
school in Plymouth immediately after leaving college.
While teaching he was a student in medicine with
James Thacher, of Plymouth, and a fellow-student
was Benjamin Shurtlifi", a graduate of Brown in 1796,
and the recipient of an honorary degree from Har-
vard in 1802. Both married Plymouth ladies,— Dr.
Bradstreet, Anna, daughter of William Crombie, and
Dr. Shurtliff, Sally, daughter of Ichabod Shaw. The
late Dr. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtlifi', at one time
mayor of Boston, wa-s the son of Dr. Benjamin Shurt-
liff and was named after his fellow-student and friend.
Dr. Bradstreet was the son of Henry and Abigail
(Porter) Bradstreet, of Topsfield, and was the fifth in
descent from Gov. Simon Bradstreet, through his son
John, grandson Simon, great-grandson Simon and the
last Simon's son Henry. He died in Newburyport
October 6, 1828.
Jeremiah Nelson was born in Rowley, Mass., Sep-
tember 14, 1769, and graduated at Dartmouth College
in 1790. He afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits
in Newburyport and became a prominent man there
during the troubles with France and the last war with
England. He was an active and uncompromising
Federalist, and as such was chosen a member of the
Ninth Congress and served from December 2, 1805, to
March 3, 1807. He was again chosen a member of
the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth
and Eighteenth Congresses, and served from December
4, 1815, to March 3, 1825, and again a member of the
Twenty-Second Congress, serving from December 6,
1832, to March 2, 1833. He was conspicuous in town
aflairs, having been a member of the Board of Select-
men in 1809, '10, '11, and died at Newburyport Octo-
ber 2, 1838.
Of Oliver Putnam there is little to record concern-
ing his career. He was born of humble origin in
1778 and thrown on his own resources in early life.
By good fortune in business he acquired a fortune at
an early age and then devoted himself to the culturft
of his mind and tastes. He died in 1827, leaving a
will, with Aaron Baldwin, of Boston, and Edward S.
Rand and Caleb Gushing its executors. He be-
queathed a sum of money for the support of a free
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
school, ivhich is explained by the following clause in
his will: "The residue of my property I give and
bequeath for the establishment of a free English
school in Newburyport, for the instruction of youth,
wherever they may belong, and the executors will, if
at the final payment of the foregoing legacies it
should amount to fifty thousand dollars, pay it over
as hereafter provided; but if at that time it should
not amount to that sum the executors will retain it
to accumulate till it does, and then pay it over to
trustees for that purpose, to be elected by the select-
meu of Newburyport. After the appointment of
the first trustees, vacancies in their board to be
filled by nomination from them, subject to the
approval of said selectmen, who, besides, are al-
ways and at all times to have and exercise the
rightof visitation, for the purpose of looking to the
security of the funds, and that the interest or income
of them is applied according to the bequest.
"In theselection of trustees no reference is to be had
to their places of residence, but only to their qualifica-
tions for the trust. The trustees are to invest the
principal in good and sufficient securities, bearing
interest or producing income to the satisfaction of the
said selectmen, to be and remain a permanent fund, the
interest or income only of which to be applied to the
establishment and support of the school. The youth
to be instiucted in reading, writing and arithmetic,
and particularly in the English language and in
those branches of knowledge necessary to the correct
management of the ordinary affairs of life, whether
public or private, but not in the dead languages. The
monitorial system of instruction to be introduced and
used so far as it may be found on experience that it
can be done with advantage.''
A further allusion to this bequest and the school
established under it will be made in the chapter relat-
ing to the schools ol t.he town.
Jacob Little was a native of Newburyport, and
born in 1797. At the age of twenty years he went to
New York to seek his fortune. He there secured a
clerkship in the counting-room of Jacob Barker, one
of the earliest of the large merchants of that city-
He remained with Mr. Barker about five years, when
he began business on his own account as an exchange
and specie broker. It was his habit to attend closely
to his office business during the day and to visit the
retad houses in the evening for the purchase of un-
current money. In 1834 he was well known in Wall
Street as an energetic, industrious, honest business
man. He gave his whole time to his business until
his annual income amounted to one hundred thou-
sand dollars. On the introduction of railroads he
identified himself with their construction and thus
added to his accumulations until his wealth was
measured by millions. But disasters finally fell upon
him. After his first failure he paid finally his
debts in full, anM had a large fortune left. He con-
tinued in business with varying fortunes until his
death, March 28, 1865. He was a bachelor until
1844, when he married Miss Augusta McCarty, sister
of Madame de Dion, and at his death left one son.
Robert Treat Paine, though not a native of
Newburyport, was a resident during a part of this
period and may, therefore, properly be mentioned.
He was a son of Robert Treat Paine, the signer of the
Declaration of Independence, and was born in Taun-
ton, Mass., December 9, 177S. He graduated at Har-
vard in 1792, and entered soon after upon a mercantile
life. Finding this uncongenial to his tastes, he turned
to literature and politics, and established a paper
called the Federal Orreiy. In 1795 he published
a poem entitled "Invention of Letters," which at-
tracted widespread notice, and soon after another,
entitled " Ruling Passion " which added to his repu-
tation. In 1798 he wrote the national song of "Adams
aud Liberty," and in 1799 delivered an oration on the
first anniversary of the dissolution of the French
alliance. At this time, inclining to the study of law,
he entered the office of Tneophilus Parsons and was
admitted to the bar in 1802. He remained in New-
buryport several years, gaining, however, more
reputation as an orator and poet than as a lawyer.
While there he delivered a eulogy on Washington, in
January, 1800, and in 1801, by permission of the Legis-
lature, changed his baptismal name of Thomas to
that by which he has since been known. He gave
as a justification for the change his reluctance to be
confounded with the author of the "Age of Reason,"
and his consequent desire to bear a " Christian" name.
Nor must John Andrews be omitted, who, though
a native of another town, was long a resident in New-
buryport, and an example before its people of the
highest virtues of a Christian life. He was born in
Hingham, Massachusetts, in March, 1764, and gradu-
ated at Harvard in 1786, receiving a degree of Doctor
of Theology from his alma mater in 1824. Two years
afterwards, on the 10th of December, 1788, when only
twenty-four years of age, he went to Newburyport,
and was settled as colleague pastor with Rev. Thomas
Gary over the First Church in that town. Mr. Cary
died November 24, 1808, and from that time until his
resignation. May 1, 1830, Dr. Andrews remained the
sole pastor of the parish. He was succeeded in the
ministry by Rev. Thomas B. Fox, and the Chrin-
tian Register in a notice of his death said : "One trial
which Dr. Andrews was called upon to meet, which
none but his brethren in the ministry, and perhaps
only the elders among them, can fully understand, was
the voluntary dissolution of his connection with the
society of which he had been so long the pastor — a
trial which he met without jealousy or repining,
giving with a truly Christian spirit a kind welcome to
his successor, becoming his friend, extending to him
an affection almost parental and thus showing that its
he had been a faithful minister, so he could see
another occupy the pulpit in which he had himself
stood for years, and he was one of the most charitable
NEWBUEYPORT.
1769
of hearers and one of the best of parishioners.'' He
died in Newburyport, August 17, 1845, at the age
of eiehty-one years.
Edward Sprague Rand was the oldest son of Ed-
ward Rand, and Ruth Sprague, daughter of Dr. John
Sprague. Edward Rand, the father, was the brother
of Dr. Isaac Rand, of Boston, and both were sons of
Dr. Isaac Rand, who, before the battle of Bunker
Hill, lived in Charlestown, and afterwards in Cam-
bridge. Edward, the father, removed in early life to
Newburyport, and was largely engaged in business
as an importer of English goods and hardware. Ed-
ward Sprague Rand, the son. was born in Newbury-
jiort, June 23, 1782, and at the age of seven years be-
came a pupil at Dummer Academy, under Master
Moody. After leaving the academy he entered his
father's store, and remained there until he was
eighteen years of age, when he was sent to Europe as
supercargo. After two or three voyages, in 1801,
before he was twenty-one years of age, he established
himself as a commission merchant in Amsterdam, and
continued in business there several years. After his
return home he made a voyage to Russia, and on his
passage home, in 1810, was wrecked on the coast of
Norway, and finding no opportunity of leaving, was
obliged to remain in Norway during the winter, thus
causing the belief among his friends that he had
been lost at sea.
After this voyage, previous to which he had been
married to Hannah, daughter of John Pettingel, he
remained at home until the peace of 1815, when he
resumed business and for many years was engaged in
the East India trade and a general freighting business.
In 1821 he bought a woolen-mill in Salisbury, in
company with George Jenkins, John Wells and
James Horton, which, afterwards enlarged, became
first the Salisbury Manufacturing Company and
later the Salisbury Mills, of which he was for many
years the president. From 1825 to 1827 he was presi-
dentof the Mechanics' Bank, and was for several years
Senator and Representative in the State Legislature.
Mr. Rand died in Newburyport, October 22,1863, leav-
ing two children, — the late Edward S. Rand,of Boston,
who was lost at Martha's Vineyard, on board the
"City of Columbus," and the wife of Dr. E. G.
Kelley, of Newburyport. Another daughter, not
living at the time of his death, married Dr. S. A.
Arnold, of Providence, Rhode Island.
Francis Todd was born in Newburyport, February
6, 1779, and began business in the dry-goods line at
the age of twenty years. He early engaged in the
West India and Southern carrying trade, and gradu-
ally extended his business, and enlarged his fleet of
vessels to carry it on. The tobacco, cotton and sugar
trade with the South and the West Indies, and trade
with Russia, South America and the Northern
Pacific came within his grasp and brought him into
intimate relations with the leading bankers of the
world. He made the first consignment of merchan-
lllj
dise to George Peabody when he began business in
Baltimore, and always retained his warm friendship.
An obituary in the Boston Daily Advertiser of De-
cember 2, 1861, from which this sketch is chiefly
drawn, says : " Mr. Todd was over half a century in
active commercial business without interruption,
enjoying perfect health, from his uniform regular
and temperate habits of life. He was punctilious in
the fulfillment of all his engagements and expected
others to be the same with him, liberal to all who
were unable from misfortune to fulfill their contracts,
and ever ready to aid and assist the young merchant
commencing life. His charities were freely be-
stowed upon the poor and worthy, without display,
and known only to himself and the recipients. Mod-
est and retiring in his habits, having no tastes for
public life, he ever refused to allow his name to be used
for public office, considering his sphere was especially
intended for mercantile pursuits." He died in New-
buryport, on Thursday, November 28, 1861, in the
eighty-third year of his age.
Nathaniel Horton was born and entered upon
active life within the period now under consideration.
He was born in 1786 and early in life engaged with
his brother, Capt. James Horton, in the satinet man-
ufacture, in which industry he was among the earliest
in the country to embark. He was afterwards in the
shoe trade. In the exciting political years of the ad-
ministration of Jefferson and Madison he was an
ardent Democrat, and with all his energies sustained
the measures which the government thought it neces-
sary to adopt. He was a member of the Board of
Selectmen in 1831, '32, '37, '46, '48, '49, '50, '51, and as
its chairman introduced President Polk to the people
on his visit to Newburyport in 1847. Upon the organ-
ization of the city government in 1851, he was chosen
alderman for Ward 4 and continued in office three
years. He died Saturday, December 28, 1861,
and on the following Monday the Newburyport Herald,
in noticing his death, said : " He was a faithful officer
as he was a true man ; he was a good oflicer as he was
a good citizen. Strong-willed and sometimes hasty, he
was manly, high-minded and strictly honest. He did
business for the city as he did it for himself, and his
integrity was so indisputable that no one thought of
obtaining from the town or city through him what
they would not have expected for doing the same ser-
vices for himself as a private man. This stern integ-
rity of the olden time, and this iron conscientiousness
that was as unbending as his own firm will, were the
distinguishing traits of his character, and are worthy
of the more notice as they are less common now than
they were in the generation to which he belonged.
It is grand to see a man so] stand up intellectually
and morally in his own sphere and strength ; to go
bravely through the world without shrinking from
duty, and at last lie down at the end of so many days
and fall asleep."
Before closing this list of sketches it will not be
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
out of place to make a brief mention of George Pea-
bofly, of London, who began liis biisine-s career in
Newburyport. He was born February 18, 1795, in
that part of Danvers which in 1855 was incorporated
as South Danvers and in 1868 named Peabody. He
there received his early education, and in 1811, at the
age of sixteen, left s-cliool and entered as clerk the
store of his uncle, David Peabody, in Newburyport.
His companions there in social life were Charles
Storey, Abner Caldwell and Francis B. Somerby, and
it was on the evening of the last of May, 1811, that
these young men started for home from Hart's tavern,
where they had been bowling, and young Peabody,
leaving Storey and Caldwell near the foot of Kent
Street and Somerby at Market Street, proceeded on
alone. On reaching Inn Street he saw flames burst-
ing out from Lawrence's stable and gave the alarm.
This was the beginning of the great fire, as it is
always called, which swept over sixteen and a half
acres of the most cornpactly built and the busiest part
of the town. More than two hundred buildings were
consumed between half-past nine o'clock in the even-
ing and sunrise the next morning. Nearly all the
shops for the sale of dry-goods, four printing-offices,
the custom-house, the post-office, two insurance
ofiices, four book-stores, one meetiug-house and a hun-
dred dwellings were consumed, and suffering and pri-
vation ensued which the warm-hearted liberality of
Boston and other towns only partially alleviated.
Mr. Peabody remained with his uncle until some
time after the fire, when he made arrangements to go
into business in Baltimore. So well had he performed
his duties as clerk, that he obtained from his uncle
and Prescott Spalding and others a joint letter to
James Reed, a large wholesale dry-goods dealer in
Boston, offering to be security for Peabody in the
aggregate sum of $2500 for goods which Mr. Reed
might furnish to establish his store. The signers of
the letter were all customers of Mr. Reed, who believ-
ing that he could trust the person in whom they put
their faith, told him that $2500 would be rather a
small amount to start a dry-goods store in Baltimore,
and offered him goods to the amount of $2500 more
to sell on commission for him, so that not only did
Mr. Peabody learn his first business lessons in New-
buryport, but to the merchants of that town he owed
also that timely aid without which that career of
prosperity and wealth upon which he afterwards
entered may never have been begun.
Not long after he became a partner of Elisha Riggs
in the dry-goods trade in New York, and afterwards
again in Baltimore. During all this period he made
occasional visits to Newburyport, and always remem-
bered with pleasure his old friends in that town. A
writer in the Newburyport Herald remembers hearing
Frank Somerby on amorning'in the summer of 1826 or
'27 shout to Spalding,-" Here comes George Peabody."
" 1 looked," says the writer, " and saw coming down
the street a tall, fresh-looking, well-dressed man of
about thirty years of age. He was swinging his right
arm and shouting, ' Hello ! Frank.'. In a few moments
there were a dozen old friends gathered about him,
and the warmth of the greeting gave ample evidence
of the estimation in which he was held." This was
his first visit to Newburyport since he lelt it twelve or
thirteen years before.
In 1843, or thereabouts, Riggs and Peabody sepa-
rated, and their business, which had expanded and
largely changed its character, was divided. Riggs
took the Baltimore business, Peabody the London and
Mr. Corcoran, who had been some time also a partner,
took the Washington. His career in London is too
well known to be restated. Out of his abundant
wealth, without waiting for that separation from his
riches which death must eventually cause, he preferred
the bestowment of benefactions during his life. In
1852 he gave to his native town §20,000 for the founda-
tion of an institute, and afterwards increased the
amount to S200,000. He contributed 810,000 to the
first Grinnell Arctic Expedition, and in 1857 gave
$300,000 to found an institute of science, literature
and the fine arts in Baltimore, afterwards increasing
it to $1,400,000. For the benefit of the poor of
London he gave in 1862 £500,000, in recognition of
which the Queen presented him with her portrait, and
the city of London presented him with the freedom
of the city in a gold box, and after his death the
citizens erected a statue to his memory. In 1866 he
gaveto Harvard College $150,000 to establish a museum
and professorship of American archceology and eth-
nology, and afterwards $150,000 to found a geological
professorship in Y'ale College, and $2,000,000 to the
Southern Educational Fund.
On the 20th of February, 1867, two years before his
death, he gave to " Edward S. Mosely, Caleb Cushing,
Henry C. Perkins, Eben F. Stone and Joshua Hale,
and their successors, the sum of $15,000 to be held
by them in trust and kept permanently invested, and