History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 141

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 141

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JAMES, eldest son of James, married Abigail Gar- field, in 1728 ; they had seven children.

LEMUEL JONES, eldest son of James, Jr., born in 1729, married Anna Stimson in 1754. They had ten children.

AMOS JONES, son of Lemuel, born in 1755, married Azubah Russell in 1779; he had nine children.

MARSHALL JONES, the fifth child, born in 1791, died in 1864. He was captain of the Weston com- pany, town treasurer for many years and a prominent man in town affairs.

JOHN JONES, seventh child of Amos, born in 1795, died in 1864. He was, perhaps, in his day the most popular man in the town. He was captain of the Weston company, and succeeded Col. D. S. Lamson as lieutenant-colonel of the Third Middlesex Regiment. Mr. Jones was an auctioneer and executor of estates in Weston, a man in whom the community had the greatest confidence. He was killed by an iron bar while lifting a stone on his property.

CHARLES JOHNSON, of Weston, born in 1805, mar- ried Maria Wilson in 1833. He had five children. He is a direct descendant of Captain Edward John- son, who came from England in 1632, and was one of the seven who first settled at Woburn, and was sur- veyor-general of the Colony and held other offices.

BYRON B. JOHNSON, the third child of Charles, born in Weston, was the first mayor of the city of Waltham, Mr. Johnson purchased the Colonel Marshall estate of the Mackey heirs in 1838. He sold it to Philip Moyer, the Boston confectioner, in 1849. Mr. Johnson was postmaster of Weston from 1856 to 1860. This family are now all residents of the city of Waltham.

REVEREND SAMUEL KENDALL, D.D., born at Sherburn in 1753. He graduated at Harvard College in 1782, and was ordained pastor over the church in Weston in 1783. He was made Doctor of Divinity by

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Yale College in 1806. He married Abigail, the third child of the Rev. Samuel Woodward, in 1786. They had four children. He died in 1814, and she died in 1793. He married, in 1794, his first wife's sister Miranda, born in 1762. There were four children by this second marriage. Abigail, the fourth child, born in 1793, married Captain Samuel Hobbs in 1834 at the age of ninety years. Dr. Kendall's pastorate ex- tended over thirty-one years. To Dr. Kendall do we owe an interesting historical address extending from the date of the incorporation of Weston, in 1712, to the centennial year 1812, in which address we are made acquainted with town affairs without which we should be ignorant, in consequence of the loss of the town records.

SAMUEL LAMSON, OR LAMBSON, as it is spelled in England and also in Reading, and once in Weston, was changed in later records to a "p." The family came from Durham County, England, and arrived at Ipswich, moving to Charlestown and then to Reading. The earliest date so far obtained is that of Samuel, of Charlestown, in 1660; the homestead is in Reading, which he gives to his son Samuel.

JOHN LAMSON, probably the son of Samuel, moved from Reading to Weston in 1709 and purchased a large tract of land in the centre of the town. He died in 1757. Johu was born in 1686. He died at the age of seventy-one years. He had six children and married twice.

JOHN LAMSON, born in 1724, married Elizabeth Wesson in 1759.

SAMUEL LAMSON, born in 1736, married Elizabeth Ball in 1759, and for his second wife Elizabeth San- derson, of Waltham, in 1788. He commanded the Weston company at Concord in 1775, and was major of the Third Middlesex Regiment in 1776, lieutenant- colonel in 1783, and colonel in 1786. He was town treasurer and selectman of Weston for many years, and took an active part in all town affairs. He had seven children by his first wife and three by the second.

ISAAC LAMSON, his third child, married Abigail, daughter of Nathan Fiske, in 1788. He kept store in Weston from 1786 to 1806.

JOHN LAMSON, the ninth child of Samuel, born in 1791, married Elizabeth Turner Kendall, of Boston, in 1814. He established the mercantile house of Lane, Lamson & Co., which was the first French im- porting house in the United States, with houses in Boston, New York, Paris and Lyons. Mr. Lamson retired from business in 1853, and took up his resi- dence on the old homestead in Weston, where his de- scendants still reside. He died in 1855.

DANIEL S. LAMSON, born in 1793, the tenth child of Samuel Lamson, married Patience, daughter of Jolın Flagg, in 1822. He kept the dry-goods store in Weston for many years, one of the most noted in Middlesex County. He was captain of the Weston . company, and when he died, in 1824, was lieutenant-

colonel of the Third Middlesex Regiment, of which his father had been colonel.

DANIEL S. LAMSON, grandson of Samuel and son of John, was born in 1828, was educated in France, passed one year at the Harvard Law School in 1852, and two years in the office of Sohier & Welch. He was admitted to the bar in 1854. Before the break- ing out of the war he tendered his services to Gover- nor Andrew to assist him at the State-House, there being no appropriation for extra clerk hire. He was sent by the Governor to New York, Washington and Fortress Monroe on public business. He organized the Home Guard of Weston before the war, and or- ganized and drilled the Malden company and other companies. He was appointed major of the Sixteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, early in June, 1861, without having made any application for the office. The Sixteenth Regiment was virtually the old Third Middlesex Regiment, being made of nearly the same towns as in former days. The Third Regi- ment had only eight companies; the Sixteenth had ten companies. Major Lamson was made lieutenant- colonel in 1863, and commanded the regiment after the death of Colonel P. T. Wyman, who was killed in the battle of Charles City Cross-roads, or Glendale. Colonel Lamson was discharged for disability in the fall of 1864. He has since resided on his property- the old Lamson homestead. Jolin Lamson, son of John, was born in 1760.

JOHN A. LAMSON, born in 1791, son of John Lamson and Hannah Ayers, was a merchant in Boston, deacon of the church, and filled many town offices-he was a man very highly esteemed.

JOSIAH QUINCY LORING, born in Boston in 1810, graduated at Cambridge College in 1829. He spent one year at the Law School. He settled upon a farm in Weston, where he died in 1862. Mr. Loring was the son of Josiah Loring, one of Boston's old-time merchants. He married Christiana W., daughter of Dr. Peter Renton, of Boston. Mr. Loring was a therough Latin and Greek scholar, and retained his love of classic literature throughout his life. He be- queathed valuable books to Harvard College, and as- sisted in the founding of the public library in Weston.

ALVAN LAMSON was born at Weston, Massachu- setts, November 18, 1792. He was a descendant of William Lamson (or Lambson), who came from County Durham, England, and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, before 1638. John Lamson, the grandfather, and John Lamson, the father of Alvan, were born in Weston, the former in 1724, and the latter in 1760.

John Lamson, the father of Alvan Lamson, was a farmer, and Alvan worked on the farm for some years during his boyhood. He early showed a love of read- ing and desire of learning, studying, it is said, not only in the evening, but also during his work on the farm, in the day. After availing himself of such

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Alvan Samson

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means of education as were found at Weston, attend- ing the district school and being under the tuition of Dr. Kendall, the clergyman there, he passed through the usual course at Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered Harvard College in 1810, graduating in 1814. He held a high rank in his class, being regarded as one of its best writers, and attending diligently and carefully to all the prescribed studies. In college, as at the academy, he depended largely on his own ex- ertions for his support.

After graduating at Harvard, he was two years a tutor at Bowdoin College. He studied at the Divin- ity School, at Cambridge, being a member of the class of 1817 in the school.

In 1818 he was invited to become pastor of the First Church and Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, and, after some besitation, accepted the invitation. This church and parish were among the oldest in the State, the church having been gathered in 1638. They were not free from the disagreements and con. troversies by which many churches and parishes in Massachusetts were troubled near the beginning of the present century, which were caused by gradual changes of opinion on the part of many members ol the various societies. In the Dedham church and parish a serious conflict arose, which was finally set- tled by a resort to the legal tribunals of the Common- wealth, and led to a division of the church and par- ish. The invitation to Mr. Lamson, who represented the opinions generally known as Unitarian, was given by the parish, a majority of the more active members of the church not approving it at the time, though a majority of the whole number of members finally approved, or acquiesced in the action of the parish The decision of the Supreme Court sustained this action, holding that the parish and the members of the church who remained with it continued to be the First Church and Parish. This decision was followed by the withdrawal of a number who were not satisfied with it, and the formation of another church and society, popularly known as the "Orthodox."

The pastorate thus begun, continued forty-two years, being terminated by the resignation of Dr. Lamson, October 29, 1860. During this time he at- tended faithfully to the performance of his parish duties, winning the warm respect and regard of his parishioners and fellow-citizens, and becoming known as a preacher of a high order. He also gave muchı time to literary pursuits and historical and theological investigations, and took an active part in the care of the public schools, and in such work as always falls to the share of one who has the confidence of the community, and is willing to do his part to promote its interests.

He was one of the overseers of Harvard College from 1833 to 1852, and received the degree of D.D. from the college in 1837.

This life of conscientious devotion to duty and of study was laborious, and Dr. Lamson frequently found

that it taxed his strength severely. He never had robust health or the spontaneous energy which springs from it, yet he was not often compelled by illness to give up his usual occupations, though his want of strength made them more difficult to him. In 1840 he spent some time at the Hot Sulphur Springs in Vir- ginia, to obtain relief from a troublesome affection, which, before his return, was discovered to have been caused by the use of water drawn through lead pipes. In 1853 he travelled a few months in Europe. Pro- bably these were the longest periods of absence from his home which occurred during his ministry.

Dr. Lamson was well versed in general literature, being familiar with the standard English and Amer- ican authors, and a good classical scholar, and was recognized as a skilful and able writer and critic. He was for a number of years a member of the examining committee in Rhetoric in Harvard College during the professorship of Edward T. Channing. He was a frequent contributor to periodicals, and was one of the editors of the Unitarian Advocate in 1830, 1831, (vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, new series), of the Boston Observer in 1835, and of the Christian Examiner from January, 1844, to May, 1849. He published a volume of sermons in 1857, and various occasional discourses at different times. These occasional discourses were often valu- able for the historical information they contained. The three delivered November 29th, and December 2, 1838, on occasion of the completion, November 18, 1838, of the second century from the gathering of the First Church in Dedham, deserve particular mention, as containing an excellent history of the church and parish to the time of his settlement over them.

He was much interested in historical and antiqua- rian investigations, was careful and accurate in his researches and his statement of their results, and his conclusions were accepted as of high authority. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and one of the first members of the Dedham Histori- cal Society, and was president of the latter from its organization in 1859 until his decease.

He gave particular attention to early church his- tory and the early Christian writers, and in 1860 pub- lished a volume on these subjects. After the publica- tion of this book he continued his researches, revising the work, preparing additional matter and making such alterations as further examination and consider- ation suggested. A second and enlarged edition of the work, including the changes adopted by him, was published in 1865, after his decease, under the super- vision of Ezra Abbot, who was afterward Bussey Pro- fessor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation in Harvard College.1

1 Entitled : "The Church of the First Three Centuries : or Notices of the Lives and Opinions of the Early Fathers, with special reference to the Doctrine of the Trinity ; illustrating its late Origin and gradual Formation." 8vo. pp., xiv. 410. An edition of this work, with additional notes by Henry Ierson, was published by the British and Foreign Unita- rian Association, in 1875.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Dr. Lamson was a firm believer in the doctrines of Unitarianism, as they were held in his time, and one of their most constant and earnest advocates. He was among the most prominent clergymen of the Unitarian denomination, standing high as a scholar and theologian. He wrote the article on " Unitarian Congregationalists " in Rupp's "History of all the Religious Denominations in the United States," and was the author of several of the earlier tracts pub- lished by the American Unitarian Association.

He had much taste for country life, taking great interest in agriculture and pomology, and enjoying the cultivation of his garden, and of trees and orna- mental shrubs.

He was a member of the Norfolk County Agricul- tural Society, and delivered the annual address before it in 1857.

He was a man of strong principle and high personal character, exact in the performance of duty and con- scientious to an extent which to many would seem to be extreme; always ready to give to others all that belonged to them, and more willing to sacrifice his own rights than to encroach on those of another. But though strict in his views of right, he did not con- demn the ordinary relaxations of life or despise the usages of society, and had nothing of asceticism in his disposition. He enjoyed social intercourse, though somewhat reserved in manner and appearance.

He married Frances Fidelia Ward, one of the daughters of Artemas Ward, who was long Chief Jus- tice of the Court of Common Pleas, July 11, 1825. He died, after a short illness, July 18, 1864.

DAVID WESTON LANE, born in Weston, August 20, 1846, son of David Lane and Caroline Elizabeth Lamson ; married Fannie Bush, daughter of Frederick T. Bush, of Weston, December 5, 1878. He was of the firm of Lane, Lamson & Co .; has four children, and lives on the Bush estate in Weston.

HON. JAMES LLOYD, son of Doctor James Lloyd, of Boston, who was a physician in that city in 1752, was born in Boston in 1769, and graduated at Har- vard College in 1787. Mr. Lloyd purchased an es- tate in Weston early in 1800 and built a large colo- nial house, where he resided in summer for many years. In 1822 he sold the property to John M. Gourgas.

MARSHALL FAMILY .- We find in the history of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, under date of 1640, page 114, the following interesting account of the ancestors of the American branch of the Marshall family living in Boston and Weston.

CAPTAIN THOMAS MARSHALL lived in Lynn in 1635. He was made a freeman in 1641; represented Lynn in the General Court in the years 1659-60, '63- '64 and 1668. He acquired the title of captain from Oliver Cromwell, in whose wars he was a soldier. In 1658 he was authorized by the court to " perform the ceremony of marriage, and to take testimony in civil

canses." He died December 23, 1689, leaving several children.

CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL, son of Captain Thomas, was a captain in the expedition to Cape Bre- ton in 1745.

COLONEL THOMAS MARSHALL, son of Captain Christopher, born in 1717 ; baptized in the old South Church in 1719; was major of the Boston Regiment in 1765; lieutenant-colonel in 1767 to 1771; captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1762 and 1767. He commanded the Tenth Massa- chusetts Regiment in the War of the Revolution. He was a selectman of the town of Boston when it was occupied by the British troops, and was considered too dangerous a person to be allowed to leave tlie town and had a guard placed over him. It is related, that in a dispute with a British officer, the latter drew his sword on Marshall, who, seizing a hoe near at hand, leveled the officer with it. He commanded Castle William, now Fort Independence, when the Continental troops were being recruited for the war. In 1776 he was made colonel of a new regiment by order of the Assembly at Watertown, and Moses Gill directed him to proceed at once to Watertown to re- ceive his commission.

Colonel Thomas Marshall moved to Weston after the war and purchased the confiscated Jones estate in 1782. He married for his third wife the widow of the Rev. Samuel Woodward, December 6, 1795.

Colonel Marshall made the address of welcome when President Washington was in Weston in October, 1789, and he presented the inhabitants of the town to the President. He died in Weston in 1800, aged eighty-three years. The Columbian Centinel of that year mentions his death "as a man long known and highly respected, as the sincere friend of his country, the zealous asserter and defender of its rights, liberty and laws, the upright man and the sober Christian."

CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL, brother of Colonel Thomas, born March 20, 1743; commanded a company in his brother's regiment. He was a minute-man at the battle of Bunker Hill. His sister, who had died from the effects of the excite- ment of that period, was to be buried the day before the battle, and Captain Marshall applied to his su- perior officer for leave to attend the funeral; this was refused him, with the remark, " that if his own father was to be buried, he would not leave his post to attend his funeral." Captain Marshall was present at the execution of Major André, and said that there was not a dry eye in the throng of brave men who gath- ered around the fatal tree. He was also present at the surrender of General Burgoyne and Lord Corn- wallis. Although never wounded in the many battles which he was engaged in, his coat and hat bore marks of bullets.

When Captain Marshall joined the army, in which he served seven years, he removed his family to Con - necticut. After the war he returned to the city of

Thomas Marshall foto

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Boston, and resided on State Street. Through his terni of service he would send to his wife large sums of money; the depreciation of the currency was such that $100 would barely suffice for a single day's food. Mrs. Marshall at one time paid forty dollars for a quarter of lamb, through which she could see day- light. Captain Marshall married Rachel Harris in September, 1766.

THOMAS MARSHALL, son of Christopher and Rachel Marshall; born January 18, 1781; married Sophia, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Kendall (born in 1788), on September 14, 1813; he died in 1863, aged eighty- three years. She died in Weston September 17, 1882, aged ninety-five years. Mr. Marshall was connected with the Bunker Hill Bank over thirty, years and first president of the Warren Institution, holding that office for twelve years. He was highly respected by all during the many years he lived in Charlestown. It was truly said of him, "His was a beautiful life, so upright and noble, in many trials and sorrows so pleasant always." He was buried on the fiftieth anniversary of his wed- ding day.

JAMES F. BALDWIN MARSHALL, fourth child of Thomas and Rachel Harris; born August 8, 1818; baptized in Brattle Street Church by the Rev. John G. Palfrey. He was paymaster-general of Massachusetts in the War of 1861, and, with General Armstrong, es- tablished the Hampton School at Hampton, Va., until 1884.

CHARLES MERRIAM, born in Concord in 1803; became a resident of Weston in his youth. In 1821 he entered the dry-goods store of Colonel D. S. Lamson, and succeeded Mr. Lamson in the business in 1824. In 1828 he married Caroline Ware, of Newton. In 1833 Mr. Merriam formed the co-part- nership of Sales & Merriam in Boston, the house later of the firm of Sales, Merriam & Brewer. In 1859 Mr. Merriam donated $1000 to the Library Fund of Weston, the interest of which was for the purchase of books. In 1865 he established one of the most laudable charities ever established in a town : he gave $1000 for the "Silent Poor of Weston." He had seven children: Charles Merriam, the second child (born in Weston October 6, 1832), is now a prominent merchant in Boston ; Waldo Merriam, the fourth child, upon graduating from Harvard, became adjutant of the Sixteenth Massachusetts Regiment in 1861, and was killed at Spottsylvania May, 1864; at the time of his death he was lieutenant-colonel com- manding.

HERBERT MERRIAM, the fifth child, born in 1841, purchased the Roberts farm, in Weston, in 1873, and is still a resident. Mr. Merriam died in Boston in 1865, aged sixty-two years.

BENJAMIN RAND, born in 1785, graduated at Har- vard in 1808 in the class with Richard H. Dana ; he was a distinguished member of the Suffolk bar, gen- erally considered the best-read lawyer in Masschu- setts, but was not considered an advocate. Charles

Sumner studied law in his office in 1834. Mr. Au- . gustus H. Fiske became his partner and succeeded to the large and lucrative practice upon the death of Mr. Rand in 1852. He can be classed as one of Weston's greatest sons.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS SAVAGE was the son of Arthur Savage, who married Faith Phillips, in 1710, daughter of Samuel Phillips, a distinguished bookseller in Bos- ton. The grandfather of Samuel Phillips Savage, born in 1640, was the second child of Samuel Savage, who emigrated to America from England, and mar- ried the daughter of the famous Ann Hutchinson. She had two children, and died in Weston, June 6, 1775, aged eighty-four years. The brother of Faith Phillips, who married Arthur Savage Henry Phillips, was killed in a duel on Boston Common in 1728, and lies buried in the cemetery on Boston Common. Samuel Phillips Savage was born in Weston, and was a leading man of the town for many years ; he repre- sented the town in the Provincial Congress held at Concord in 1774. He was made judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Middlesex County in 1775, president of the Massachusetts Board of War, mod- erator of the meetings held in the Old South Church previous to and on the night the tea was steeped in the salt water of Boston Harbor. Judge Savage's first wife was a Russell, and, second, Mary Meserve, of Weston, in 1794. He died in Weston in 1797, and lies buried in the old cemetery. The portrait of Judge Savage, by Copley, is now in possession of Mr. John R. Savage, of Philadelphia.

REV. EDMUND HAMILTON SEARS, D.D., was born at Sandisfield, a town in the mountainous country of Western Massachusetts, on the 6th of April, 1810. He was the youngest son of Joseph and Lucy (Smith) Sears, and, with his two brothers, passed his youth in hard work upon his father's farm. As a boy he was serious minded, fond of study and given to writing poetry and sermons. He found it difficult to gratify his desire for a student's life, although his parents did all in their power to help his plans, but finally when he was twenty-one years of age he entered the sophomore class at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., where he showed marked ability, both as a writer and as a student, and was graduated in 1834. He was drawn to Cambridge, Mass., by the writings of Channing and the Wares, and there he entered the Harvard Divinity School. His class was that of 1837, which numbered also the Reverend Henry W. Bellows, D.D., and the Reverend Rufus P. Stebbins, D.D. For nearly a year Mr. Sears preached as a missionary at Toledo, O. In 1839 he was ordained as minister of the First Church in Wayland, Mass., and it was in the same year that he married Ellen, daugh- ter of the Hon. Ebenezer Bacon, of Barnstable, Mass. In 1840 he accepted a call to the Unitarian Church at Lancaster, Mass., where his health gave way after a most happy but laborious ministry of seven years. He returned to Wayland and gradually regained his

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powers of usefulness, but it had become apparent to him that his strength was not equal to the care of a large parish, and though he received numerous calls from large societies he was never able to accept them. He was settled at Wayland in 1848, and here, as at Lancaster, he was happy and successful in his work ; but it was here, too, that he met with the deepest grief of his life, a griet from which he never wholly recovered. In 1853 his only daughter, Kath- arine, died of scarlet fever at the age of ten. She was. a thoughtful, serious, yet merry and most affectionate child, and so deeply did he feel her loss that it was months before he could bring himself to record the story of her suffering and death. That story, pre- served among his manuscripts, is one of rare and deeply-moving pathos. He had three younger child- ren, all of them sons,-Francis Bacon, born in 1849; Edmund Hamilton, born in 1852, and Horace Seud- der, born in 1855. 'His married life was exceptionally complete and happy.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 141

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034