USA > Massachusetts > Genealogy and history of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts > Part 45
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Dey belonged to one of the old Knickerbocker families of New York, being sixth in descent from Dirck' Janszein (or Jans Dey), who was m. December 28, 1641, in the Reformed Dutch Church, New York City, to Jannetje Theunis, and whose son, Theunis2 Deij (Dey) was bap- tized in the same church, September 24, 1656. Theunis2 Dey m. Anneken Schouten, and was the father of Derrick3 or Dirck, who in 1717 bought a farm of six hundred acres near Pater- son, N. J., and some years later bought two hundred more, the homestead being at Preak- ness, N. J. The next in the ancestral line was Dirck, 3 Dey's son, Colonel Theunis4 Dey. The house at Preakness, owned by Colonel Theunis4 Dey, was the headquarters of Wash- ington for three months in 1780. It is still standing. Colonel Theunis4 Dey m. Hester Schuyler, daughter of Philip3 Schuyler, son of Arent,2 son of Philip Pieterse' Schuyler, the first of the family in America. Major Rich- ards Dey (after the Revolutionary War a Major-general of militia), son of Colonel Theunis4 and Hester, m. Hannah Pierson, and was the father of Anthony Dey and grand- father of Mrs. Codman.
A ILLIAM MACOMBER, of Newton, Mass., was born on Hancock Street, Boston, July 3, 1821, son of Icha- bod and Abigail (West) (Brown) Macomber. He is a lineal descendant of William' Ma- comber, the line being continued, we are told, through Thomas,2 Thomas, 3 Thomas, 4 Will- iam,5 Thomas,' to Ichabod, who was of the seventh generation of the family in America. Williams Macomber m. October 16, 1734, Ruth White, said to have been a descendant of Peregrine White, of Marshfield, who was b. on board the "Mayflower " in Cape Cod Har- bor in December, 1620. Thomas6 Macomber, for many years a resident of Bridgewater, Mass., removed to Jay, Me., about 1780, and d. there.
Ichabod? Macomber, b. in Bridgewater, Mass., November 5, 1777, d. at Jamaica Plain, October 1, 1848. When a young man, in company with Cyrus Alger, he started an iron furnace at North Easton, Mass., but sold out
his interest in 1808. Removing then to Bos- ton, he engaged in the grocery business as head of the firm of Macomber, Sawin & Hunting, but afterward embarked in the same business alone, under the name of Ichabod Macomber. He erected two dwelling-houses in Boston, one on Eliot Street and the other on Summer Street. He subsequently became a resident of Jamaica Plain, where he was one of the fonders of the First Baptist Church. On Au- gust 28, 1806, he m. Sally Howard (b. May 17, 1788, who d. May 25, 1818, leaving four children. The record is: Charles Augustus, b. in Easton, June 24, 1807, d. in 1888; Ich- abod, b. at Easton, October 1, 1810, d. in 1893; Albert, b. at Easton on June 30, 1816, d. in 1874; and Sally Howard, b. in Boston, April 25, 1818, d. in 1820. He m. June 12, 1820, Mrs. Abigail West Brown, who bore him five children, as follows: William, the special subject of this sketch; James Brown, b. in Dorchester, March 28, 1823, d. in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Sally Howard, b. in Boston in 1825, d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., January 20, 1878; Henry Malcolm, b. in Boston in 1827, d. in Astoria, N. Y., in 1891 ; and Mary Jud- son, b. in Boston in 1830, m. William C. Merriam.
William& Macomber was educated in the Boston Latin School, which he entered' in 1833. He began his mercantile career as clerk in the dry-goods store of Samuel F. Morse & Co., remaining there two years. Subse- quently entering the employ of Ichabod Ma- comber, he continued with that firm until the senior member (his father) sold out. On the death of his father he succeeded him, chang- ing the name of the firm to William Macomber & Co., wholesale grocers. Twelve years later Mr. Macomber became junior partner in the firm of Stone, Bradford & Co., which was in existence until about the time of the Civil War. The following ten years he carried on a lucrative business as a manufacturer of pickles and preserves, being senior member of the firm of William Macomber & Co. He re- mained in active business until 1899, and is still a member of the firm of W. L. Macomber & Co. (wholesale paper) of 21 Pearl Street, his son, Francis E., having control of the business.
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Mr. Macomber has been twice married. He married, first, November 13, 1845, Mary S. T. Leeds, who died December 17, 1872. She was the mother of ten children. One of these - Mary -died in childhood, and nine - namely, William, Fanny Howard, Walter L. James, Francis E., Ella L., George A., Sally N., and Alice M. - lived to maturity. Will- iam Macomber, Jr., died at New Orleans of yellow fever, aged twenty years. James Ma- comber, living in Newton, married Mary Sim- mons, by whom he has two sons. Francis E., a resident of Newton, carrying on business in Boston, married Eulie Williams, who has borne him three children. George, residing in Somerville, connected with the Standard Clothing Company, has three sons. Walter L. died in New London, N. H., February 19, 1899, at the age of thirty-six. He married Mary Burpee, September 1, 1898. Fanny Howard Macomber married, first, George Emerson, who died in 1878. She is now the wife of J. W. Stover, of East Orange, N. J. By her first husband she has one son - Howard Emerson, who is in the employ of the W. L. Macomber Company in Boston. Sally N. Macomber mar- ried George H. Adams in 1898, and has two children - Caroline Mary and Fred Wildes. Alice M. married Robert Greenwood, of Prov- idence, R.I.
Mr. Macomber married, second, August 15, 1876, Josephine Helen Moore, by whom he has four children, namely : Bessie, born Septem- ber 18, 1877; Gertrude, born January II, 1879, died March 8, 1885; Leonard, born March 18, 1880; and Agnes, born September 23, 1812.
EWALL DIGGINS SAMSON, a successful business man of Wo- burn, was born in the town of Lu- nenburg, Mass., October 4, 1831, son of John and Rachel (Foster) Samson. John Samson, a chair-maker, followed that trade in Lunenburg and subsequently in New Salem, in which place he d. in 1842. His wife, surviving him a number of years, d. also in New Salem. They reared two children -
Sewall D. and John Sawyer. The latter d. in April, 1898.
Left fatherless at the age of eleven years, Sewall D. Samson went to live with Captain James Tweed, of Lunenburg, as a bound ap- prentice, working for his board and clothes and receiving about ten or twelve weeks' schooling during the winter season. He remained in the. family of Captain Tweed till he was sixteen years old. He then came to Woburn and entered the employ of Amos Shattuck, sash, door and blind manufacturer, under whom he learned that trade and with whom he continued to work for about two and a half years. From that time until 1853 he was in the employ of Theodore Collamore, and from 1853 to 1862 in that of Waterman & Litchfield, of Medford. He then entered the Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Company Factory, Boston, where he re- mained till 1893, a period of thirty-two years. During that time he invested his savings in real estate at Montvale until he had acquired a considerable amount. Since his retirement from the factory he has devoted his time to the development and care of his property, and to the real estate and insurance business.
Mr. Samson attends the Unitarian Church. In politics he is a Democrat of independent proclivities. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen of Woburn for several years, and is now Assistant Assessor of Ward Five. He has also served as an engineer in the fire de- partment. A member of Mount Horeb Lodge, F. & A. M., and Woburn R. A. Chapter, he also belongs to the Good Fellows Club, Bos- ton, and to the Baldwin Council, No. 125, Royal Arcanum. A piece of property owned by him (since November 9, 1855), and where- on he resided for many years, is the homestead at Montvale formerly occupied by Mr. Good- year, and the place where that inventor per- fected his patent process of manufacturing vul- canized India rubber, since of such wide appli- cation.
Mr. Samson was married May 8, 1853, at Medford by the Rev. John Pierpont, pastor of the Unitarian Church, to Hannah Shirley Buck- nam, a native of Stoneham, Mass., being a daughter of Asahel and Hannah (Shirley) Bucknam. Her father d. at Woburn, Febru-
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ary 21, 1872, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was a son of Ebenezer Bucknam and his wife Rachel, both of Stoneham. The records of Middlesex County show that Eben- ezer Bucknam and Rachel Lovejoy were m. at Stoneham by the Rev. John Cleveland, March 16, 1786. Mrs. Samson died March 26, 1898. She left one child - Helen Josephine, born at the homestead in Montvale, June II, .1855, who is the wife of Albert Dexter Carter, of Woburn. Mr. and Mrs. Carter have a son named Carl, born at the Montvale homestead August 13, 1882.
J OHN HARDING HOUGHTON, of Boston, sole New England agent for the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company's hoisting engines, stationery engines, and boilers, is a native of Bolton, Mass., and belongs to an old Worcester County family. He was born February 5, 1837. His father, William6 M. Houghton, was the son of Jona- than5 and Jane (Bigelow) Houghton, and grandson of Jonathan and Susannah (Moore) Houghton. Jonathan was a son of Lieutenant Jonathan, 3 grandson of Benjamin2 and great- grandson of Jonathan,' the immigrant progeni- tor of this branch of the family, who d. April 29, 1684, at Lancaster, Mass., where he was living with his wife Beatrix as early as 1665.
According to a chart prepared by Mr. Amory Houghton, of Corning, N. Y., the pedigree of the Houghton family in England has been traced back to Willus4 de Hocton, living in the reign of King Stephen, A. D. 1140, whose mother, the wife of Hans Pincerna (a direct descendant of Herocines Watter, who came to England with William the Conqueror), re- ceived from her father, Warine2 Bussell, Baron of Penwortham (son of Roger' de Busti, or Bussell, joint Lord of Blackburn, in A. D. 1066), two carnates of land in Hoton-Hocton and Elchinstone. Willus4 de Hocton m. the widow of Geoffrey de Favare. Their son, Adams de Hocton, in the time of Henry II., whose reign was from 1154 to 1189, had one carnate of land in Hocton. Sir Adam8 de Iloghton (great-grandson of Adam above named), written knight 50, Henry III., A. D.
I266, was one of the witnesses of a charter of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to the Abbey of Whalley in Lancaster. He had two sons, namely : Richard, some time sheriff of Lancas- ter, whose only son d. without issue; and Adam,9 who m. Alicia de Howicke (or Hoghewick), widow of Roger de Ashton. Sir Richard1º de Hoghton, son of Adam9 and Alicia, m. Sibyll de Lea, sister and heiress of Henry de Lea, the owner of the manor of Mol- lington in Cheshire, who descended from Iva Taylboys (Taile Bois), Count of Arjon and Baron of Kendall, whose wife, Lucia, was sis- ter and heiress of Edwin and Mocar, Earls of Northumbria in the time of William the Con- queror. Sir Adam" Hoghton, son of Sir Richard and Sibyll, was twice m., and by his second wife, Helen, was the father of Sir Henry12 de Hoghton (knighted in the reign of Henry IV.), who m. Jane Radcliffe. Rich- ard13 Hoghton held Ladram Park near Chepin, Henry VI. (1420). Henry14 Hoghton was of Pendleton in 31, Henry VI. (A.D. 1453). William, 15 by his second wife, Elizabeth, was father of John, 16 whose first wife was Elizabeth Farquharson. Henry17 was mentioned as the heir in 1569. His sons by his wife Jane were : George; Robert; and John,18 of Pendleton, who m. Agnes Asmull (or Ashmole), 1584. Their daughter, Katherine Hoghton, m. Thomas Hoghton, brother of Sir Richard19 Hoghton, of Hoghton Tower (made baronet by James I. 1611), who was father of Ralph Hoghton, the emigrant of that name. Thomas and Kathe- rine19 Hoghton were the parents of John20 Hoghton, b. in 1631 in Lancaster, England, who came to New England in early manhood, and who d. April 29, 1684, in Lancaster, Wor- cester County, Mass. Survived by his wife Beatrix, John2º Hoghton, as the first American ancestor of this branch of the Houghton family of New England, is the one earlier mentioned in this sketch and in other notices of his de- scendants in the present volume as John1 Houghton.
Benjamin2 Houghton (of the American line), son of John and Beatrix Houghton, was b. in 1668. Jonathan3 Houghton, b. in 1703, son of Benjamin by his first wife, m. Mary Houghton January 20, 1725, and d. in 1740 in
JOHN H. HOUGHTON.
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the West Indies. He was Lieutenant in Cap- tain John Prescott's company, which was sent to aid Admiral Vernon's disastrous expedition against the Spanish West Indies, whence not more than fifty out of the five hundred men from Massachusetts
returned. Jonathan4 Houghton, b. in Lancaster, November 7, 1737, d. in 1829 in the town of Bolton. His wife, Susannah Moore, was of Cambridge. The following record of his services in the Rev- olutionary War is from the State archives.
Jonathan Houghton, Bolton, Lieutenant, Captain Benjamin Hasting's company, Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment, Lexington alarm, service, eight days, reported enlisted into the army; also First Lieutenant, same company, Colonel Asa Whitcomb's regiment, roll dated August 1, 1775, engaged April 27, service, three months, twelve days; also in company return dated October 6, 1775; also Captain, Fourth Company, in Colonel Josiah Whitney's (Second Worcester County) regiment; com- missioned March 20, 1776; also Captain, Col- onel Jonathan Smith's regiment, pay abstract for mileage, New York, August 5, 1776, (two hundred and thirty-six men) ; also report, dated Watertown, September 6, 1776, of men raised to reinforce Continental Army, said Hough- ton, with his company of seventy-eight men, marched "to the northward or Canada Depart- ment," July 22, 1776, under command of Cap- tain Smith; also pay abstract for rations due from October 1, 1776, to November 30, said Houghton credited with one hundred and fifty- three rations.
Jonathan5 Houghton, son of Jonathan4 and his wife Susanna, was b. at Lancaster April 5, 1765. He m. December 31, 1795, Jane Bige- low, b. July 15, 1774, daughter of William and Hannah Bigelow. Jonathan5 Houghton resided in Boston in the early part of the nine- teenth century, and was employed on the police force. While in the performance of his duty as night watchman in December, 1825, he received the injuries which caused his death December 19, when he lacked but two days of being sixty-one years of age. The following is copied from the Columbia Sentinel, Boston, December 14, 1825 - Police Court Records : "On Monday, John Holland, an Irishman, was
bound over in the sum of $2,000 to take his trial at the Municipal Court in January for an assault on Jonathan Houghton, one of the watchmen of the city. It appeared by the testimony in the Court that one of the watch heard the cry of murder in Broad Street about one o'clock on Sunday morning, and discovered a man running by him, whom he attempted to seize. Houghton came to his assistance, and, as they were passing through Broad Street with their prisoner, Holland came up and wanted to know what they were going to do with him. They ordered Holland to go about his business, and proceeded into State Street, when another watchman came to their assistance. Houghton was then some distance behind, when the other two heard a groan, and, looking round, saw Holland strike Houghton with an axe. They then left their prisoner, who escaped, but se- cured Holland after a severe conflict. Hough- ton was shockingly wounded on the right shoul- der, on the back, and loins, but hopes are entertained of his recovery. Holland being un- able to procure bail, was committed to prison." The Boston Directory for the year 1826 omits the name of Jonathan Houghton, but gives that of Betsy Houghton, widow, whence it would seem that he had m. a second wife.
William6 M. Houghton, son of Jonathan, 5 was b. in Boston, February 8, 1805, and d. September, 1874. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah E. Harding, was a native of Truro on the Cape.
John Harding Houghton received his early education in Fall River, and at the age of fif- teen began to learn the machinists' trade, at which he continued to work for a number of years. At length he purchased his employer's business, and founded the firm of Gifford & Houghton, engineers and machinists. After- ward he bought Mr. Gifford's interest, and for some time continued in business alone. In 1874 he moved from Fall River to Cambridge, Mass., and took charge of the machine depart- ment of Kendall & Roberts, with whom he continued up to 1883. In that year he took the New England Agency of the Lidgerwood Manufacturing Company's hoisting engines and boilers, also of the Atlas Engine Works, and later he became New England agent for
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the Ball Engine Company. Mr. Houghton mar- ried March, 1860, Ruth Alice Warren, daugh- ter of Benjamin J. Warren, of Fall River, Mass. He has three children, namely : Ellen Warren, wife of William H. Wilson, of Watertown, Mass., and mother of three chil- dren - Raymond H., Ruth W., and Philip; Alice C., wife of William S. Phillips, of Cambridge, and mother of two children - Wendell H. and Lawrence J. ; and Charles W. Mrs. Ruth A. Warren Houghton died in 1897, aged fifty-nine years. Mr. Houghton married, in 1898, Mrs. Phœbe A. Gillespie (born Duke- son), a native of London, England. She had by her former husband two children - Walter and Marion. In 1899 Mr. Houghton changed his residence from Cambridge to Auburndale, and later to Boston.
While Mr. Houghton was in Fall River, in his early manhood, he served as a member of the City Council. He has always been inde- pendent in politics. He is a prominent mem- ber of the Masonic order, belonging to Mizpah Lodge, of Cambridge; Cambridge Royal Arch Chapter, Boston Council, R. & S. M .; Boston Commandery of K. T. ; and the Scottish Rite, being a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Massachusetts Consistory.
ON. CHARLES JOHN McINTIRE, First Judge of Probate and Insolvency for Middlesex County, is a native resident of Cambridge. Born March 26, 1842, son of Ebenezer and Amelia Augus- tine (Landais) McIntire, he is of mingled Scottish, English, French, and Welsh ances- try. On the paternal side he is a descendant in the seventh generation of Philip Mackintire, the line being : Philip,1 b. about 1630; Dan- iel,2 b. 1669; Ebenezer, 3 1700; Ezra, 4 1730; Ebenezer, 5 1765; Ebenezer,6 1802; Charles John7.
Philip Mackintire came to New England from Argyllshire, Scotland, being probably one of the prisoners of war sent over by Crom- well, and settled about 1650 within a few miles of Salem Village, in the north-east part of the old town of Reading, Mass. His son Daniel m. Judith Putney, and lived in Salem, Their
son Ebenezer m. May 23, 1728, Amy Har- wood, and in 1733 removed to that part of Oxford, Worcester County, which a few years later was incorporated as Charlton. Ebenezer McIntire (or Mackintier, as he spelled his name) secured the best farm in the town, and on the hill-top where now is "Charlton Centre" he built a large and substantial dwelling and maintained it as the village tavern. Here on March 12, 1755, was held the first town meeting in Charlton. Public- spirited, liberal, and patriotic, he was a natural leader of men, and held various public offices. In 1766 he deeded to the town as a free gift a tract of land for a common and training-field, including the site of the meeting-house. He had previously given the town a site for a burial-ground, and he also gave land for a pound.
His son Ezra during the period of the Revo- lution was a minute-man, one of the town's "Committee of Correspondence and Safety," and in 1788 a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Ezra4 McIntire m. Elizabeth March, or Marsh. Ebenezer5 . m. Elizabeth Holman, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Cooper) Holman. Thomas Holman, who was b. in Bermuda, was captured with his father, Solomon, by a press-gang, and brought to Newbury, Mass. He was a Deacon of the church at Sutton. He m. Sarah, daughter of Deacon Samuel and Sarah (Kidder) Cooper and grand-daughter of Deacon Samuel Cooper, Sr., of Cambridge, and his wife, Hannah Hastings. Deacon Samuel, Sr., was the son of Deacon John Cooper, who was b. 1618, came from England to Cambridge before May, 1636, and m. Ann Sparhawk, daughter of Dea- con Nathaniel and Mary (Angier) Sparhawk, also early inhabitants of Cambridge. Deacon Sparhawk, born in 1598, was son of Samuel Sparhawk and probably grandson of Lewis Sparhawk, of Dedham, England, who m. in 1560 Elizabeth Bayning. Hannah Hastings, wife of Deacon Samuel Cooper, Sr., was a daughter of Deacon Walter and Sarah (Meane) Hastings and on the paternal side grand- daughter of John Hastings, who settled at Cambridge about 1654. Sarah Kidder, b. in 1690, was a daughter of Deacon Samuel and
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Sarah (Griggs) Kidder and grand-daughter of Ensign James Kidder, b. in 1626 at East Grinstead, Sussex, England, who m. about 1650, at Cambridge, Anna, daughter of Fran- cis Moore, a grantee of land at Cambridge in 1638.
Ebenezer6 McIntire m. in Boston, October 4, 1830, Amelia Augustine Landais, daughter of Lieutenant Louis and Mary Elizabeth (Peters) Landais. She was b. at Fort Moul- trie, Sullivan's Island, Charleston Harbor, S. C., March 1, 1803. Her father, a native of the French West Indies, son of Judge François Landais, was educated in a military school in France, and came to the United States in 1798, upon the invitation of his cousin, Colonel Tousard, who had been one of the personal aides of Lafayette through the Revolutionary War, and had organized the artillery service under Washington. Louis Landais was com- missioned Lieutenant in the United States army February 16, 1801, after having served as a cadet from January 1, 1799. His wife was the daughter of Dr. Alexander Abercrom- bie Peters, who for some years was a promi- nent physician in Boston and later a surgeon in the United States army. Dr. Peters m. in 1788 Sarah, daughter of the Hon. Charles and Mary (Read) Morris. She was b. at Boston in 1757. Her father, who was b. in Boston in 17II, was the son of Charles Morris, Sr., and grandson of the Rev. Charles Morris, a Welsh- man by birth, who lived in Bristol, England. In 1745 young Morris went with Pepperell from Boston, and commanded a company under him at the siege of Louisburg. After the surrender of the fortress he made a survey of Nova Scotia, and in 1749 he laid out the town of Halifax. At the time of his death, in 1781, while holding court at Windsor, Nova Scotia, he was serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as Privy Councillor, and as Surveyor- General, having held both the last-named offices more than thirty years.
Mary Read, whom he wedded in 1732, was the daughter of the Hon. John Read, a man of brilliant talents and one of the most eminent lawyers of his time in this country. Born in Connecticut in 1680, a Harvard graduate at the age of seventeen, at eighteen a preacher of
the gospel, Mr. Read in 1708 was admitted to the bar in Connecticut, and in 1712 was made Queen's Attorney for that colony. In 1721 he removed to Boston, where he shortly had a large and lucrative practice. A scholar, a wit, an orator, and a jurist, possessed of broad views, extensive acquirements, and vigor of intellect, he was styled by John Adams "that great Gamaliel." The succeeding generation indulged a pride in quoting his legal opinions and sayings in common conversation, and in relating anecdotes bearing testimony to his learning and sagacity, his witticisms and eccentricities. Knapp says that "as a legis- lator he was conspicuous, but so unambitious a man could not have been a regular leader. He was too independent and enlightened for. a lover of prerogative and too honest for a leader of faction. He spoke with frankness, regardless of political consequences. A great man who condescends to enter into the politics of the day, and bear the heat and burden of it, owes nothing to the public for his honors; but the public are much indebted to him for his exertions. " Both Mr. Quincy and James Otis contribute to his fame, the one by desig- nating him, in his history of Harvard College, as "one of the most eminent lawyers of that period in New England"; and the other by stating that "he was the greatest common law- yer this country ever saw."
For some years in the twenties he was Attor- ney-General of Massachusetts. In 1738 he was elected to the General Court, the first law- yer ever chosen a member of that body. The town of Boston secured his services in many matters wherein its inhabitants were interested, and the province likewise retained him in its controversies with New Hampshire and Rhode Island as to the proper boundaries. Connecti- cut, moreover, continued to employ him to represent her in her differences with Rhode Island and New York. In 1741 and 1742 he was one of the Governor's Council, and was recognized as the ablest member of that board.
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