Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 22

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 850

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 22

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Richard 1 Estes, a son of Robert and Dorothy Estes, was born in Dover, England, in March, 1647. Leaving his native land in 1684, he arrived in Boston on November 27 of that year. A few days later he went to Great Island, now Portsmouth, N. H., where his brother Matthew had been living for two years. In 1693 he was a resident of Salem, Mass .; and in 1694 he bought a farm in Lynn, Mass. He subse- quently made a number of land purchases and sales both in Lynn and Salem. By trade he was a maker of weavers' reeds. He was a very prominent member of the Society of Friends. In December, 1772, he willed "to the people

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of God, called Quakers," in Lynn, "24 poles of land for a burial ground and the site of a meeting house." According to the Friends' records of Lynn, Richard lived in England until the eleventh day of the seventh month of 1684, and by a certificate from "ye people of God in Newington, East Kent, England," was m. at Dover, N. H., the twenty-third day of the fourth month, 1687, to Elizabeth Beck, of Great Island. Eleven children were born of the union, the seventh child being the next in the line of descent.

Benjamin 2 Estes was b. in Lynn, Mass., July 10, 1698, and he d. in 1775. In 1726 or 1727, from his father and mother, he bought one-fourth of an acre of land, a house and barn.

In 1743 he was living in Berwick, Me. and in that town, with Joshua Buffum, he pur- chased one hundred and twenty-five acres of land. In 1759 he resided in Wells, Me. Ad- ministration on the estate of Benjamin Estes, millwright, late of Berwick, Me., was granted to his son Benjamin, of Wells, February 23, 1775. His wife, Elizabeth, bore him six children, Henry being the second in the order of birth. Henry 3 Estes, b. in Berwick, Me., was a miller by trade, and an active member of the Society of Friends. He m. first, April 17, 1745, Mary Varney, of Dover, N. H., who d. leaving nine children. On October 31, 1763, he m. for his second wife Sarah (Peasley) Allen, widow of Jedediah Allen, of Berwick ; and of this union eight children were born. He d. July 28, 1792. Samuel + Estes, b. in Berwick, December 8, 1751, d. in May, 1818. He m. Eunice Cobb, who was b. in 1756, and who d. May 6, 1833. They had nine children, of whom Robert was the second child. Rob- ert 5 Estes, b. in Windham, Me., April 27, 1777, d. July 16, 1872, in Gorham, Me., where he had settled in 1835. On February 20, 1803, he m. Dorcas Chestley, of Windham, who d. November 17, 1867, having borne him ten children.

Joseph6 Estes, the second child of Robert and Dorcas Estes, was b. in Windham, Feb- ruary 3, 1805. During the "Aroostook War " he commanded a company of infantry. He m., July 10, 1834, Maria, daughter of Samuel Edwards, of Gorham. They had eight chil-

dren, as follows: Martha M., who m. William H. Jones, of Foxboro, Mass. ; Albert S., who was a member of Company A, Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War, and was killed at the battle of Manassas, August 29, 1862; Dana, who was a private in the same company, was wounded in battle on August 31, 1862, and in 1872 was at the head of the publishing firm of Estes & Lauriat, Boston; Abbie Alfreda, b. in 1842, who d. July 16, 1862; Mary H., who m. Edward P. Pennell; George H., who d. in infancy ; Ellen M., who is the wife of Edward A. Hooper; and Harriet A., who is the wife of Albion P. Ayer, of Gorham.

Mr. and Mrs. Hooper have two children : James Kimball, born in Portland, Me .; and Edward A., born in Cambridge, Mass. The family has resided in Cambridge for the past twelve years. Mr. Hooper is a regular attend- ant of St. James's Episcopal Church of that city. In politics he is a Republican. A Mason of thirty years' standing, he is affiliated with Charity Lodge, F. & A. M., of Cam- bridge, and with Cambridge Chapter, R. A., and Cambridge Commandery, K. T.

OHN HENRY NORCROSS, formerly a prosperous dry-goods merchant of Bos- ton, and now living in retirement at Medford, Mass., was born October 29, 1841, a son of John and Eleanor (Estabrook) Norcross. On the father's side he is descended from Henry Norcross of England, who in 1573 was inducted into the parsonage of Ribchester by the Bishop of Chester, and afterward dis- charged the duties of that position until he re- signed it in 1616. Henry's son Thomas, who was a London merchant, having spent his entire life in England, d. there in 1603. Thomas m. Mary, a daughter of Alice Burdell, and grand- daughter of William Burdell. The children of this marriage were born between the years 1590 and 1603.

Jeremiah Norcross, the second son of Thomas, was the founder of the Norcross family in America. Having arrived in Salem about the year 1638, he had become a land-owner in Watertown in 1639. He rendered military ser-

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vice in King Philip's War. By his marriage with Adrean Smith he became the father of three children - Nathaniel, Richard, and Sarah. Richard,2 who was b. in 1621 in England, first m. Mary Brooks, on June 24, 1650. She bore him seven children, of whom the following is a brief record : Mary, b. August 27, 1652, d. in 1661. Jeremiah, b. March 3, 1655, d. unmarried in 1717. Sarah, b. December 28, 1657, m. Jo- seph Child, Jr., on September 23, 1680. Richard, Jr., b. August 4, 1660, first m. Rose Woodward. They had three children : Richard, b. Decem- ber 30, 1687 ; Samuel, b. October 4, 1689 ; and Abagail, b. July 11, 1692. He m. second Han- nah Saunders, and she bore him eight children : John, b. December 28, 1696, d. 1740; Hannah, b. February 16, 1699 ; Joseph, b. July 1, 1701, d. 1789 ; Jeremiah, b. July 2, 1703 ; George, b. August, 1705, d. 1746; Rose, b. 1708 ; Peter, b. September 28, 1710, d. 1777; William, b. March 14, 1715, d. 1770. Mary, b. July 10, 1663, became the second wife of John Stevens on April 2, 1713. Nathaniel, b. December 18, 1665. Samuel, b. May 4, 1671, died unmarried The mother d. in 1672 ; and the death of Richard2 occurred in Watertown in 1709, he having sur- vived his second wife, Susanna Shattuck (widow of William Shattuck), who d. December II, I686.

Nathaniel3 Norcross, son of Richard2 and Mary Norcross, first m. Mehitabel Hagar on June 20, 1637 ; and, after her death, April 5, 1691, he m. second Susanna Shattuck, daughter of Dr. Philip Shattuck, on August 5, 1691. The chil- dren of his first marriage were: Mehitabel, b. in 1689, who d. young ; and Mehitabel, b. February 4, 1691, who m. Daniel Livermore. He had four children by his second marriage, as follows : Nathaniel, b. December 20, 1695, who m. Je- mima Abbott on December 12, 1717, and be- came the father of thirteen children ; Philip, b. March 6, 1698, who m, Sarah Jackson, of New- ton ; Susanna, b. February 26, 1701, who m. Jonathan Benjamin on February 1, 1720, and d. in 1735 .; and Thankful, b. at Sudbury, Janu- ary 17, 1709.

Nathaniel4 Norcross, Jr., son of Nathaniel and Susanna Norcross, represents the fourth genera- tion of the family in America. The fifth is represented by his son Josiah, who fought in

both the French and Indian War and the War of Independence, and was present at the battle of Lexington. Born at Watertown in 1734, he m. Elizabeth Child on June 6, 1767; and he d. in 1801. Josiah's wife, who had borne him nine children, d. on July 30 of the same year. His son John,6 b. May 27, 1770, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, bore the reputation of being the most athletic man in Brighton. He wedded Margaret Everett, of Cambridge, by whom he became the father of four children. His first two children died in in- fancy. The others were: John, b. September 28, 1803 ; and Anna Margaret, b. in 1805, who m. John English, of Brighton. The mother, who survived the father twenty years, d. in 1843.

The ancestral line of John Henry Norcross on the maternal side has been carried back to the year 1640. His mother, Eleanor, who re- sided in West Cambridge, now Arlington, be- fore her marriage, was a daughter of Eliakim and Hannah (Cook) Estabrook. Her par- ents were married September 7, 1793. Hannah Estabrook, in maidenhood Hannah Crosby Cook, was one of the seven children of Ephraim and Hannah Cook, of West Cambridge. Elia- kim, b. in Lexington, October 18, 1773, was a son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Winship) Esta- brook, who were married March 1, 1759. Eliza- beth was b. October 9, 1740, daughter of Sam- uel and Hannah Winship. Nehemiah served in the French War in 1755. In 1777 he removed from Lexington to Lunenburg, whence he subse- quently went to West Cambridge. His death occurred in Hopkinton, N.H., October 16, 1812. Born at Lexington on March 2, 1735, he was a son of John and Prudence (Harrington) Esta- brook, who were married October 27, 1720. After John's death, June 19, 1742, his widow married Benjamin Monroe, of Weston. He served the community in the capacity of Con- stable. Born July 28, 1694, he was a son of Joseph and Melicent (Brooks) Estabrook, who were married December 31, 1689, at Cambridge Farms. Melicent was a daugh- ter of Henry W. Brooks, of Connecticut. Joseph, who was a man of more than ordinary ability and education, commanded a military company, served in nearly all the town offices in

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Concord, and as a Representative in the Gen- eral Court. Born in Concord, May 6, 1669, he was a son of the Rev. Joseph and Mary (Mason) Estabrook, who were married in 1668. Mary was a daughter of Captain Hugh and Esther Mason. He was the pastor of the Congrega- tional church from 1696 until 1711. For the three years immediately preceding that period, he was the colleague of the Rev. Edward Bulk- ley in the pastorate of Concord, having been duly ordained for service in that capacity. In 1664 he was graduated at Harvard College, which he had been able to enter after his ar- rival in the country in 1660, because of pre- vious preparation in England. His earlier life was spent in Middlesex, England, where he was b. in 1640.

John7 Norcross, father of John Henry, was a native of Brighton, Mass. For many years he followed the occupation of farmer in Weston. Later in life, he became the railroad station agent at East Lexington. An esteemed mem- ber of the Baptist church, he was quite active in its affairs. He d. August 15, 1885. His marriage with Eleanor Estabrook took place on April 22, 1826. Besides John Henry, they had three other children, namely: Eleanor Mar- garet, b. January 13, 1827; Eliza Judson, b. July 27, 1830; and Samuel Townsend, b. September 5, 1834, who was murdered at Altoona, Penn., January 15, 1857. Eleanor Margaret's first marriage was contracted De- cember 14, 1848, with James Prentiss, who d. in Arlington in 1855. A second marriage united her, in 1866, with Warren Marsh, of Waltham, where she resided until her death, November 30, 1900. Eliza Judson on Sep- tember 15, 1856, m. Leroy Chappell, of Forestville, N.C., of which place they are now residents. Mrs. Eleanor Estabrook Norcross d. February 7, 1873.

After finishing his education in the high school of Lexington, John Henry Norcross obtained a subordinate position in the dry-goods store of J. H. A. Heald, in that town. Having spent a year there, he worked for Thomas W. Savage, of Medford, dry-goods merchant, in the capacities of salesman and book-keeper for two years. The next two years were spent in Portsmouth, N.H., in the same business, as

salesman for W. B. Trask. In 1863 he came to Boston as salesman for Lewis Coleman & Co .; and five years later he became a member of the firm, which, however, retained the same name. This connection had lasted fifteen years, in which period the firm had done a large and profitable business, when on Jan- uary I, 1883, he retired. In that year he in- dulged himself with a trip abroad, during which he visited England, Scotland, Ireland, and the continent of Europe, going as far as Russia. In 1884 he entered the retail dry-goods busi- ness in Boston, as a member of the firm of Brine & Norcross. Besides a number of stores in Boston, the firm conducted stores in Springfield, Mass., and Manchester, N. H. After seven years the copartnership was dis- solved. Mr. Norcross, however, continued in the business on his own account until 1897, when he finally retired. In the same year he was appointed by President Mckinley Post- master of Medford. Previous to this appoint- ment, Mr. Norcross had served the town of Medford in the offices of Selectman, Overseer of the Poor, Assessor, for twenty-one years was on the Sinking Fund Commission, Highway Sur- veyor, and Auditor. In 1888 and 1889 he was elected without opposition to the Legislature, where he served on the Finance Committee. For many years he has been a member and a trus- tee of the Mt. Herman Lodge, F. A. M., of Med- ford, having membership in the Mystic Royal Arch Chapter, Medford Council, R. S. M., and Boston Commandery, K. T. He is a thirty- second degree Mason, having taken all the degrees of the Scottish Rite. He has been a director of the Medford Savings Bank for twenty-five years. He was one of the organ- izers and is the vice-president of the Medford Co-operative Bank, and he was one of the organ- izers and is a member of the Medford Club.

On June 6, 1866, Mr. Norcross was married to Cynthia Josephine White, daughter of Cap- tain John Thomas and Mary (Chadbourne) White, of Medford. Their children are : Charles Merrill, born March 21, 1867; Edith Gertrude, born April 7, 1870; Eleanor Josephine, born October 4, 1874; and Theodore White, born June 25, 1883. Charles Merrill, who was edu- cated in Medford and is now engaged in the

BENJAMIN CHAMPNEY.

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advertising business in Boston, married Louisa G. Markham, of Boston, on September 15, 1899. Edith Gertrude, who was education in the Med- ford schools and at the Bradford Academy, Massachusetts, is confidential secretary for J. W. Baer, the general secretary of the National Christian Endeavor Society. Eleanor Josephine, who was a pupil of the Medford schools and of a private school in Boston, married on Decem- ber 9, 1896, Philip Josiah Teel, of Medford. They have one son, Norcross Teel, born November 7, 1897. Theodore White, hav- ing passed through the high school of Med- ford, is now a student of Tufts College, class of 1904.

ENJAMIN CHAMPNEY, artist, whose paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon as early as 1844, is now, in his eighty-fourth year, still working at his easel with unabated enthusiasm, deftly using his pen, too, within the last dec- ade, to jot down for publication "Sixty Years' Memories of Art and Artists," a book that takes the reader back to Washington Allston, then a living, gracious presence, since whom, it says, has arisen in our country no one who has equalled him in all the qualities that go to make up a great painter. Mr. Champney thus stands as a connecting link between colorists of a considerably remote past and the younger generation of American artists. It is the purpose of the following sketch to notice some of his antecedents and present a brief outline of his career.

Mr. Champney is a native of New Ipswich, N. H., but almost if not all his early ancestors in New England were of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born November 20, 1817, son of Benjamin, Sr., and Rebecca (Brooks) Champ- ney, he is a descendant in the seventh genera- tion of Richard Champney, who came to New England from Lancashire in 1635, and settled at Cambridge. The following records show the Champney line of ancestry : Richard' was Ruling Elder of the Cambridge church; Dan- iel,2 b. in 1644, m. Dorcas Bridge; Daniel, Jr.,3 m. Bethiah Phipps; Solomon,4 b. in 1702, m. Elizabeth Cunningham, served as a

soldier at Castle William, Boston Harbor, and d. in 1760; Ebenezer,š b. in 1744, was gradu- ated at Harvard College in 1762, m. at Groton; Mass., in 1764, Abigail Trowbridge, and was the father of Benjamin, Sr.,6 mentioned above. Dorcas Bridge, the wife of Daniel Champney, was a grand-daughter of Deacon John1 Bridge, whose services to the Bay Colony are com- memorated by a bronze statue on the Cam- bridge Common. Bethiah, wife of Daniel Champney, Jr., was the daughter of Solo- mon and Mary (Danforth) Phipps and grand- daughter of the Hon. Thomas Danforth, of Cambridge, who was ten years Deputy Gov- ernor of the Colony and nineteen years treas- urer of Harvard College, and who held other public offices.

The Hon. Ebenezer Champney, grandfather of the artist, prepared for the ministry, preached for two years, then studied law, was admitted to the bar at Portsmouth, and in 1768 settled at New Ipswich, N. H. Removing to Groton, Mass., in 1783, he served as Repre- sentative to the General Court in 1784, and was commissioned Justice of Peace by Gov- ernor Hancock. In 1789, he returned to New Ipswich, and in 1795 was made Judge of Pro- bate for Hillsborough County, New Hamp- shire. He d. in 1810. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Abigail Trowbridge, he had seven children, three of whom d. in infancy; and by his second wife, Abigail Parker, he had four children. His third wife was Susan Wyman.

Mr. Champney's paternal grandmother, the first of the three wives, was a daughter of the Rev. Caleb and Hannah (Walter) Trowbridge. The Rev. Caleb Trowbridge (Harvard College, 1710) d. at Groton in 1760, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the forty-sixth of his min- istry. He was the fourteenth and youngest child of Deacon James Trowbridge, of New- ton, and grandson of Thomas' Trowbridge, who came from Taunton, England, sojourned for a few years at Dorchester, Mass., and in 1641 removed to New Haven. Deacon James Trowbridge m. a daughter of Deacon John Jackson, of Newton. Hannah Walter, second wife of the Rev. Caleb Trowbridge and great- grandmother to Mr. Champney, was a daughter

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of the Rev. Nehemiah and Sarah (Mather) Walter, of Roxbury. Her father, a native of Youghall, Ireland, was graduated at Harvard College in 1684, and ordained in 1688 as a colleague with the Rev. John Eliot at Rox- bury, Mass. Mrs. Walter was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Increase Mather and his first wife, Maria, daughter of the Rev. John Cot- ton, of Boston. She was the fifth in a family of ten children, of whom the famous Cotton Mather was the eldest. Dr. Increase Mather was pastor of the Second Church, Boston, for- merly known as the North Church, from May 27, 1664, till his death in 1723, and president of Harvard College 1684-1701. His father, the Rev. Richard Mather, the founder of the Mather family in New England, was a native of Lowton, Winwick Parish, Lancashire. He landed in Boston in August, 1635, became pastor of the church at Dorchester, and d. there in 1669.

Benjamin Champney, Sr., b. in 1764, son of Ebenezer and Abigail (Trowbridge) Champ- ney, studied law in his father's office after the removal to Groton, and subsequently engaged in practice in that town, returning, however, in 1792 to New Ipswich. For twenty years he was the president of the Hillsborough County bar. He was one of the original proprietors in 1804 of the first cotton factory of New Ips- wich. Esquire Champney, as he was known, was well read in English literature and in his profession. Uniformly courteous and kindly, he was a public-spirited citizen and much re- spected. For a number of years he was post- master of New Ipswich, succeeding his father in charge of the office. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity, and was connected with the State militia. For years he led the choir of the Congregational church at New Ipswich. He d. in May, 1826, at about sixty-three years of age. His first wife, Mercy Parker, d. in 1795, leaving one son, his namesake, who d. in 1813, and one daughter, Sarah, who d. in 1864. His second wife, Rebecca Brooks, whom he m. in October, 1809, d. in Au- gust, 1849. She was the daughter of Solomon Brooks, of Lincoln, Mass. Seven children were b. to Benjamin and Rebecca B. Champ- ney, namely: Edward Walter and George

Mather, both deceased; Maria Louisa, who m. Francis K. Craigin; Ellen Douglas, who m. John Clough; Benjamin, the artist ; Mary Jane, who d. in the eighteenth year of her age; and Henry Trowbridge, of New York City.

Esquire Champney having been unfortunate in business, Mrs. Rebecca Champney at his death was left with but slender means for the support of her family. Brave and diligent, she brought up her children, giving them a fair education and training them to be useful. When Benjamin was ten years old, he went to Lebanon, eighty miles away, to live with an aunt, Mrs. Bugbee, and her husband, who had already adopted his younger sister, Mary Jane. At Lebanon he was soon set to work in a cot- ton-mill owned by his uncle. For twelve weeks in the winter season he attended the district school, whose methods of teaching, as he recollects, were conducive to independence of thought and character. His sister Mary Jane, like himself, had a natural taste for drawing, and together they passed many happy hours with "stubs of pencils and scraps of paper," in this form of art giving expression to their ideas. Two of his boy friends at Leb- anon, older than himself, became cadets at West Point, and for two or three years it was his great ambition to follow their example. Returning to New Ispwich when he was four- teen, he fitted himself by attending the acad- emy there, but failed to receive the desired appointment.

About this time, 1834, H. L. Daggett, shoe dealer of Boston, was in need of a shop boy ; and Benjamin Champney, coming to the city by stage-coach, went to work for him in that capacity. Attracted to a neighboring litho- graphic establishment, he made friends with a superior draughtsman, Robert Cooke, who encouraged him to draw and gave him helpful instruction ; and after a while he left the shoe store and was admitted an apprentice to Moore in the lithographic business. To this he de- voted a year after the close of his apprentice- ship, and then began his real life work, taking a studio with Cooke, who became a successful portrait painter. Among the few artists at that time in Boston were Alvan Fisher,

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George L. Brown, Joseph Ames, and Henry Willard, "all struggling young men, experi- menting as they could in colors and looking up to Washington Allston as the great master, as indeed he was."

Saving their earnings, Mr. Champney and his friend Cooke were enabled to carry out in 1841 their long-cherished plan, approved by Allston, of going to Paris. Received with kindness by the prosperous Healey, they began their studies in the Boudin atelier, working there mornings from six o'clock till eleven, and then going to the Louvre. Here Mr. Champney made copies from Claude Lorraine, Joseph Vernet, and Ruysdael; and these, together with an original painting, he sent to his brothers to be disposed of in Boston. The acceptance of three pictures, Normandy studies, that he sent to the Salon in 1844, was a great joy to the young artist. Another year he "sent two pictures, and was very well placed." In company with an artist friend, John F. Kensett, in 1845 he visited Switzer- land and Italy, spending six weeks in Rome and its vicinity, sketching and painting. In the fall of 1846 he returned to Boston and took a studio in Tremont Temple. A year or two later he again went abroad to make sketches for a panorama of the Rhine, which, with the help of Charles Hugo and others, he painted in Paris. This picture was ex- hibited in Boston in the winter of 1848-49, and was admired by the best judges, but was not a success here or afterward in New York from a money point of view. It was finally burned in the Crystal Palace, New York, in 1853.

In 1850, in company with Kensett, Mr. Champney made his first visit to North Con- way, N. H., then almost unknown, but shortly to become a favorite resort of landscape artists. Delighted with the scenery and returning thither again and again, in 1853, the year of his marriage, he bought a house, which he first occupied with his wife in the summer of 1854. In the autumn of 1855 the spacious studio, a transformed carpenter's shop belonging to the place, was dedicated to its new use by a re- union of friends and a speech by Deacon Greeley, of Boston. With the exception of the

period of his third visit to Europe, 1865-66, Mr. Champney has spent a large part of every year (usually May to November) in the North Conway summer home, rendered picturesque and charming by the stately growth of trees of his own planting and a rich profusion of flowers and vines. As for the surrounding country, as he fondly says, every sketch of view is dear to him. Few, if any, know it more familiarly or have given more earnest, loving diligence, with pencil or brush in hand, as attested by many glowing canvases, both landscapes and flower paintings, to what he calls the "struggle of solving Nature's mys- teries of life and color." With one of his early paintings of that region, a sunset view, Starr King was so much pleased that his pa- rishioners purchased it for him.

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Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Part 22

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company Number of Pages: 850

Author: Hurd, Charles Edwin, 1833-1910
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Boston, New England historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 850