Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 22

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 22

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(V) Allan, son of James Murray and Alice Francis (Bowditch) Forbes, was born in Bos- ton, November 20, 1874. He attended Noble's school, a private institution of considerable note, and after the completion of his course there tutored abroad for one year in England, Scotland, France and Italy ; and on returning to this country he matriculated at Harvard, in 1894, and was graduated artium baccalaurcus in 1897. His business career was begun as clerk in the employ of Bloget, Merritt & Company, with whom he remained for one year and then became assistant treasurer of State Street Trust Company, Boston. After four years in that capacity he was made trcas- urer, and two years later vice-president and actuary, which latter position he still holds, besides being one of the directors of the com- pany. Mr. Forbes is recognized as a man of superior business ability and the strictest integrity, with a capacity to successfully direct large business and financial operations ; and in one capacity and another he is identified in some prominent way with several of the best financial, industrial and philanthropic institu- tions of the city. He is a trustee of the Frank- lin Savings Bank, president of the board of trustees of the Bankers' Electric Protective Association, secretary, treasurer of the Bankers' Electric Protective Association of New England, a director of Cape Breton Electric Company (limited), member of the

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finance committee of the Boston Merchants' Association, director of Blue Hill Street Rail- way Company and of the Hotel Somerset Company, trustee of the Dana Lands and of the Boston Floating Hospital, director of the Boston Water Power Company, director and treasurer of the Dallas Light & Power Com- pany, vice-president and director of Dallas Ice Factory, director and treasurer of the River- bank Improvement Company, and treasurer and member of the executive committee of the Marine Historical Museum. He is a mem- ber of the Somerset Tennis and Racquet Club, Dedham Polo Club, Unitarian in his religious preference, and a Republican in politics.

(III) John Murray, son of Ralph Bennet and Margaret ( Perkins) Forbes, was born in Bordeaux, France, February 23, 1813, and spent the greater part of his life in Milton, Massachusetts, the home of his ancestors and the birthplace of his own children. His home was in a splendid mansion house built for him by his brother. He was a man of superior mental attainments, for many years one of the most influential Republicans in the region, a member of the peace congress of 1861, dele- gate at large from Massachusetts to the National Republican convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, that nominated General Hayes for the presidency, and also delegate to the National convention of 1884, although subsequently he became a warm admirer and staunch supporter of Mr. Cleveland. In 1887 one of the leading New York papers printed the following tribute to the qualities and character of Mr. Forbes : "We believe there is no man in Massachusetts who stands higher in public regard and con- fidence than John Murray Forbes. During the last thirty years nobody has been readier to serve with purse and person all good causes. To no one man in Massachusetts, except Gov- ernor Andrew, was the government more indebted during the trying days of the war. From nobody has the Republican party in the state and nation receiving more and loyal ser- vice in money and counsel .. There is no way in which he has not proved his devotion to it except by holding salaried offices. Moreover, there is probably no wiser or shrewder busi- ness head than his. He is a man of great wealth, but nobody would suspect it if it were not for the number and amount of his con- tributions to public interests, to charity, to art, to literature, and to science, and what is of more importance, he stands in Massachusetts as the very type and embodiment of commercial integrity." His firm of J. M. Forbes & Com-

pany, still in existence, stood among the fore- most commission houses of New England. Mr. Forbes married Susan Swain Hathaway, of New Bedford, and by her had six children: I. Ellen Randolph, twin, born 1838. 2. Alice Hathaway, twin, 1838. 3. William Hathaway, November 1, 1840. 4. Mary Hathaway, 1842. 5. John Malcolm, 1847. 6. Sarah, July 3, 1853.

(IV) William Hathaway, son of John Murray and Susan Swain ( Hathaway ) Forbes, was born in Milton, Massachusetts, November I, 1840, and died at Naushon Island, October II, 1897. He was educated in the public schools of Milton and in the city of Boston, and gradu- ated from Harvard College in 1857. He began his business career as a clerk in the office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, but resigned his position there in 1861 to accept the commission of lieutenant in the First Massachusetts Cavalry for service during the civil war. He was in the field with his regiment until after the battle of Antietam, in which he took part. Late in 1862, when Colonel Lowell undertook to raise the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, he asked Lieutenant Forbes to join his command with the rank of captain. This offer he accepted and soon after- ward was placed in command of a battalion and served with his regiment in Virginia, checking the activity of Mosby's guerillas in the vicinity of Washington. At Aldie, in July, 1864, he was attacked by a superior force under Mosby, and was captured. At that time his command consisted largely of recruits and untrained men from other regiments, and many of them failed to stand up to their work under the ordeal of a fierce engagement and were easily routed, but Captain Forbes and a few of his men charged the enemy with desperate courage and only surrendered after a hand-to- hand encounter in which he was pinned to the ground under his fallen horse, shot by Jack Mosby himself, it is said. For a time he was confined in the prison at Charleston, South Carolina, and afterward was sent to Columbia. He once escaped, but was recaptured, and the hardships of prison life permanently weakened his constitution. He was released on his parole in 1865, but was exchanged in time to rejoin his regiment with the rank and commission of lieutenant colonel, and to take part in the clos- ing scenes of the war at Appomattox. At that time he was with the advance cavalry force which met the flag of truce sent by General Lee, and was among the first of the Union troops to learn that the war was at an end;

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yet in the very last hour of battle he narrowly escaped being struck with a cannon ball.

Before going to the front Colonel Forbes evinced unusual ability as a soldier in his excellent drilling of troops at Readville, and afterward, in the field, in camp and in the prison pen, his courage, his patience and forti- tude, and his solicitude for others won for him the regard of all men and soldiers alike. He was not only a close friend of Colonel Lowell, but one of his most efficient officers and one on whom that gallant commander frequently leaned for advice. After the war he became a junior member of the firm of J. M. Forbes & Company, of which his father was the head. About 1876 he became interested in the' tele- phone as a commercial possibility, which then had been very recently perfected and brought to the attention of the public by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor. Colonel Forbes at once recognized the great possibilities of the instrument for commercial uses, and from that time until his death devoted his best energies to the work of building up the great system of communication which has done so much to facilitate intercourse among men and to revo- lutionize daily life and methods of work.

In Moorfield Storey's memorial of Colonel Forbes we find this estimate of the life and character of that soldier and enterprising busi- ness man: "In this great enterprise which he managed with conspicuous success, he showed the highest abilities, courage, energy, sagacity, foresight and above all and always directness of method and an unbending integrity which have not always attended the development of great financial undertakings in this country. The American Bell Telephone Company, which he founded, enjoys an honorable pre- eminence among great corporations, for no step in its career has been marred by any taint of scandal. But great as were the demands made upon his life by his great responsibilities and his large family connections, lie never failed to discharge his full duty as a citizen. He was early prominent in the movement to save the country from financial dishonor when the greenback craze for a time threatened to carry away the Republican party. To the political doctrines and methods of General Butler he was inevitable hostile and he never failed to oppose his constant attempts to con- trol the state. He was an early advocate of civil service reform and was among the first to lead the revolt when Blaine was nominated in 1884. During the whole campaign his service on the national committee of independents

was constant and ungrudging, and from that time until his death no movement for reform lacked earnest support from him. Following the fine example of his father, he had no political ambition, sought and expected no reward for what he did. His service was as silent as it was constant and effective. He acted wholly from a patriotic sense of duty and was willing after the war to give his time and his strength to the service of his country as during that struggle to venture his life in her defense. Brought up on the hills of Mil- ton and on the island of Naushon, he was a lover of out-door sport and at home alike on the back of a horse or the deck of a yacht. He rowed in two victorious crews, with Abbot, Crowninshield, Russell and others, soon like him to be serving their country at the front. He was interested in rearing good horses and to this devoted a share of his business life, but he found time also to build and sail yachts and was never happier than when he was ploughing the waves which he had learned to love as a boy. It was characteristic of him that he sailed the 'Merlin' himself even in the races, as a sailor should, and not leave to others the responsibility while he reposed below. Yet, while he found leisure for sports and made them the means of affording his friends great pleasure, they never became to him a serious end of life. Those of his fellow citizens who, deaf to the call of public duty, devote their lives to acquiring and spending money, can find no countenance in his example. The purpose of his life was serious and high and he never allowed his love of sport to make him neglect any public or private obligation. Such is the bare outline of a wonderfully full and useful life. To the world he was a vigor- ous and commanding personality, but his more intimate friends saw another side of his char- acter. The blood of Murray, Cameron and Forbes which flowed in his veins perhaps gave the strain of romance and imagination which belongs to the Highland clans. He had a singular refinement, a keen appreciation of all that is best in literature, especially in poetry, a deep sense of natural beauty, which made association with him delightful. From the Quaker ancestry of his mother's side may have come the simplicity of faith and the direct- ness of his acts. Beneath the surface lay a rare tenderness that showed itself in acts of delicate kindness to those who needed help or sympathy, which seemed to be only the natural outcome of a generous nature. Only those who knew him in all the relations of life could

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recognize how many-sided his character was and in how many ways he touched his fellow men. Sprung from a singularly vigorous race, fortunate in his birth and in the circumstances of life, of strikingly noble and handsome pres- ence, he inherited unusual strength of body and mind, and that far more precious legacy- character. He was essentially manly and lacked no quality which belongs to the highest type of manliness. Brave, true, pure, a soldier without fear and without reproach, he showed in every action of his life the high nature which his face revealed. He was equal to every position which he was called to fill. Nothing mean or low could live in the atmos- phere which he carried with him, and he had the quality of a great nature-simplicity. Such men as he, by merely living, inspire all whom they meet, themselves unconscious of the good they do, and make an enduring impression upon their times, which does not end with their lives."

He was president of the American Bell Telephone Company until 1887, and member of the executive committee until the early part of 1897, and he also was a member of the board of trustees of Milton Academy, at one time president of the board, and at all times active in promoting the interests and efficiency of the institution itself. Mr. Forbes married, October 3, 1865, Edith Emerson, second daugh- ter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet and philosopher. Of this marriage eight children were born: I. Ralph Emerson, July 10, 1866 (see post). 2. Edith, October 28, 1867, mar- ried Kenneth G. T. Webster, of Cambridge. 3. William Cameron, May 21, 1870, graduated from Harvard College, 1892; now vice-gov- ernor in the Philippines under appointment of President Roosevelt. 4. John Murray, August 27, 1871, died August 26, 1888. 5. Edward Waldo, July 16, 1873, graduated from Har- vard College, B. A., 1895; married, January 29, 1907, Margaret Laughton ; lives in Milton. 6. Waldo Emerson, February 28, 1879, lives in Milton. 7. Ellen Randolph, October 28, 1880, died April 30, 1881. 8. Alexander, May 14, 1882, lives in Milton.

(V) Ralph Emerson Forbes, son of Will- iam Hathaway and Edith (Emerson) Forbes, was born in Milton, Massachusetts, July 10, 1866, and gained his earlier education in Nichols' school and also in Hopkinson's school, both in Boston, then entered Harvard College for the class of '89, and remained there until the end of his junior year. He was educated for the profession of law at Harvard Law

School, graduating LL. B. in 1892, and in the same year was admitted to practice in the courts of this state. Mr. Forbes is a lawyer in active general practice in Boston, but lives in Milton. He married, January 16, 1901, Elsie Cabot, born Paris, France, April 19, 1869, daughter of Walter C. and Elizabeth ( Mason) Cabot. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes have four chil- dren, all born in Milton : 1. William H., Febru- ary 21, 1902. 2. Ruth, October 4, 1903. 3. Margaret, May 19, 1905. 4. David Cabot, October 29, 1908.

(The Bowditch Line).

William Bowditch lived in Salem, Massa- chusetts, as early as 1639, and is said to have come from Dorchester, England. The bap- tismal name of his wife was Sarah, and she united with the church in Salem, May 10, 1640. She bore her husband two children: I. William (see post). 2. Nathaniel, baptized in Salem 12 12th month, 1642-43.

(II) William (2), son of William (1) and Sarah Bowditch, was born in Salem in 1640 and died there before November 12, 1681. He was a merchant and collector of customs at Salem, and a man of considerable consequence in the plantation. His wife was Sarah who joined the church in Salem, March 28, 1702-03. They had only one son, William, born 1663.

(III) Captain William (3), son of William (2) and Sarah Bowditch, was born in Salem in August, 1663, and died there May 28, 1728. He was a master mariner and merchant, the original treasurer of the Union Wharf pro- prietors, and devised his homestead to his son Joseph. He fulfilled various important public offices and was selectman and representative to the general court, a man of large influence and goodly estate, the latter of which inven- toried at more than four thousand four hun- dred and fifty-two pounds. He married, August 30, 1688, Mary, daughter of Lieuten- ant Thomas and Mary ( Porter ) Gardner, and granddaughter of Thomas Gardner who was overseer of the planting at Cape Ann in 1624-25. Captain William and Mary (Gard- ner ) Bowditch had eleven children, all born in Salem: I. Mary, August 2, 1689, died Octo- ber 2, 1689. 2. William, October 31, 1690, died October 12, 1706. 3. Mary, December 18, 1693, died February, 1723-24; married (first) James Butler, of Boston, (second) Captain Samuel Barton, of Salem. 4. Sarah. January 10, 1695-96, married Joseph Hathorne, of Salem. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famous

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novelist, was his descendant). 5. Thomas, June 5, 1698, died November 30, 1702. 6. Joseph, August 21, 1700, died October 6, 1780 ; was a captain and was called esquire; clerk of courts for many years, and a man of great humor ; married Elizabeth Hunt. 7. Ebenezer, April 26, 1702 (see post). 8. Eunice, June 8, 1705, died July 2, 1705. 9. Eunice, March 22, 1707, married William Hunt, of Salem. 10. Daniel, June 19, 1709, died about 1730; mari- ner and lived in Salem. II. William, January 18, 1712-13, died November 1, 1715.

(IV) Captain Ebenezer, son of Captain William (3) and Mary (Gardner) Bowditch, was born in Salem, April 26, 1702, and died there February 2, 1768. He was a master mariner and merchant and lived in Essex strcet in Salem. His estate inventoried at six hundred and sixteen pounds fifteen shillings. He married, August 15, 1728, Mary Turner, of Salem, who survived him. They had six children, all born in Salem: I. Captain Ebe- nezcr, September 28, 1729, died August 3, 1771 ; married Elizabeth Gilman, of Ipswich. 2. Captain John, April 3, 1732, died before November 14, 1793; master mariner ; marricd, July 12, 1759, Mary Carlton, of Salem. 3. Captain Thomas, about 1733, died July 29, 1808; master mariner; married Sarah Ban- croft, of Lynn. 4. William, 1735, dicd Deccm- ber 29, 1752. 5. Habakkuk, baptized March 5, 1737-38 ( see post). 6. Mary, baptized 1741, died 1757.

(V) Captain Habakkuk, son of Captain Ebenezer and Mary (Turner) Bowditch, was born in Salem and baptized there March 5, 1737-38. He lived in Salem and was a master mariner ; died July 28, 1798. Hc married, July 23, 1765. Mary Ingersoll, daughter of Nathaniel and Bcthia (Gardner) Ingersoll, of Salem, and a descendant of the sixth genera- tion of Richard Ingersoll, one of the prominent characters in early Salem history. Captain Habakkuk and Mary ( Ingersoll) Bowditch had seven children, all born in Salem : I. Mary, baptized March 30, 1766, marricd probably David Martin, of Salem. 2. Habakkuk, bap- tized May 15, 1768. 3. Elizabeth, baptized May 19, 1771. 4. Nathaniel, born March 26, 1773 (see post ). 5. Samuel Ingersoll, baptized September 12, 1779. 6. William, baptized September 12, 1779. 7. Lois, baptized April 1, 1781.

(VI) Nathaniel Bowditch, LL. D., F. R. S., son of Captain Habakkuk and Mary (Inger- soll ) Bowditch, was born in Salem, Massachu- setts, March 26, 1773, died in Boston, March

16, 1838. At the age of ten years he left school to work for his father, who was a cooper by trade, but soon afterward became clerk in the store of a ship chandler. He early began to manifest those remarkable faculties which afterward distinguished him above every other man of his profession, and although he had been compelled to forego school privileges when quite young, yet he seems only to have begun to learn. He acquired the Latin and French languages for the purpose of translating Newton's "Prin- cipia" and LaPlace's "Mecanique Céleste," and soon attained a height of mathematical greatness far above all of his contemporaries. His work on practical navigation was the very best ever published up to that time and after- ward sustained its high standard for many years, being used almost universally among sailors and mariners both in this country and in Europe. Difficult problems and the abstruse windings of mathematics were his pastime and those calculations which were inscrutable to others were as play to him. But while particularly devoted to mathematics he did not neglect other subjects and was a constant student of the Bible, of Shakespeare, and became proficient in Spanish, Italian and Ger- man, as well as in Latin and French; and although a constant student he always made it a rule never to permit his studies to interfere with his business occupations. In 1795 he sailed from Salem as clerk for Captain Prince in the ship "Henry" and before 1804 he had made five long voyages to the East Indies, Portugal and also to various Mediterranean ports, serving first as supercargo and after- ward as master of a vessel. It is related of him that while out on his third voyage the ship was chased by a French privateer, and when young Bowditch had been dirccted to assist in passing amunition up to the deck he was seen quietly sitting on a powder keg work- ing out some problem with slatc and pencil. So proficient was he in navigation that on his last voyage he distinguished himself by bring- ing his ship into Salem harbor during a heavy blinding snow storm with no other guide than his own reckoning and a single glimpse of Baker's island light. In attempting to make corrections to a certain standard work on navi- gation he encountered so many errors from the beginning that he determined to publish a work of his own on that subject, and in 1802 brought out his "New American Practical Navigator." After quitting the sea he became president of the Essex Fire and Marine Insur-

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ance Company. of Salem. He declined several offers of professorships in Harvard in 1808, the University of Virginia in 1818, and a like tempting offer of a desirable position in the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1820. While at Salem he made an excellent chart of the harbor there and also of the harbors at Beverly, Marblehead and Manchester. He contributed twenty-three papers, chiefly on astronomy, to transactions of the American Academy of Sciences and also wrote many articles for the American edition of Rhees' "Cyclopedia." He undertook the translation of LaPlace's "Mecanique Celeste" in 1814 and finished the greater part of that arduous task in 1817. In 1823 he was appointed actuary of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, with a liberal salary, which provided him with the means to publish his very valuable work of the translation to which allusion has been made. The first volume appeared in 1829, the second in 1832, the third in 1834, and the fourth volume soon after his death; the fifth volume was added many years after he had passed from life's stage. During the later years of his life Dr. Bowditch was a member of the board of trustees of Boston Athenaeum, member and at one time president of the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences, and also member of the corporation of Harvard College, whose honorary degree of Doctor of Laws he had received in 1816. At the time of his death and for several years previously he was a member of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Academy of Palermo, the Royal Academy of Berlin, the Royal Irish Society, the Royal Astronomical Society of London and of the British Association.

He married twice, his second wife, whom he married October 28, 1800, being his cousin, Mary Ingersoll, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Hodges) Ingersoll, of Salem, and a descendant of the seventh generation of Rich- ard Ingersoll, of Salem. Among Dr. Bow- ditch's children were sons Nathaniel Inger- soll, author, of whom mention is made in the succeeding paragraph ; Henry Ingersoll, M. D., born Salem, August 9, 1808, graduated from Harvard College in 1828, Harvard Medical School in 1832, and afterward became pro- fessor of clinical medicine in his alma mater ; and Jonathan Ingersoll, LL. D., capitalist, trustee of large estates and patron of the sciences.

( VII) Nathaniel Ingersoll, son of Nathaniel and Mary ( Ingersoll) Bowditch, was born in

Salem, Massachusetts, January 17, 1805, and died in Brookline, Massachusetts, April 16, 1861. He graduated from Harvard College in 1822, studied law and was admitted to prac- tice in 1825, but soon afterward left the pro- fession and devoted his principal to business as a conveyancer. "He became noted for his accuracy and industry, and it is said that scarcely a transfer of real estate was made in Boston without his examination and approval of the title." He wrote altogether fifty-five volumes of land titles, besides making many plans and maps. He also gave much attention to public institutions in Boston, particularly the Massachusetts General Hospital, of which he published at his own expense a comprehen- sive history, in 1857. He had previously issued a memoir of his father, in 1839. In 1857 he published his "Suffolk Surnames," (enlarged editions, 1858 and 1861). This work contains curious surnames met with by the author in his business as conveyancer, and its chief peculiarity is in his system of classifi- cation by the derivation of the names. Mr. Bowditch bestowed much of his large fortune upon charitable objects, including a gift of $70,000 to Harvard for founding scholarships, and a bequest of $2,000 for the purchase of books." He married Elizabeth Brown, and by her had children: Elizabeth Francis, Mary Ingersoll, Ebenezer Francis and Alice Francis, wife of James Murray Forbes (see Forbes).

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume III, Part 22

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 986

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 986