USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 47
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THE POSTAL SERVICE.
aforestud, and of all Charges thereupon, and shall suffer the said Bookes to be in- spected from time to time, and Coppies thereof or Notes out of the same to be taken by such Person or Persons as the Comissioners of the Treasury or high Treasury of England for the time being shall appoint. and shall and Will Within the Twentieth veare of the said Terme of twenty one yeares hereby granted produce the said Bookes themselves or so many of them as shall be then made, to the Commissioners of the Treasury or high Treasury of England then being, To the end he or they may have certaine knowledge of the yearly value of the said Office or Offices for the future benefitt of us, our heires and Successors; And further that such Publique orders as the Governors of the said respective Plantacions, Islands and Colonies from time to time shall issue out for the Immediate Service of us, our heires and Successors, shall be clispatcht and distributed by the said respective Offices Without any Charge: Pro- vided that noe person or Persons Whatsoever shall be capable of Exercising the said Office or Offices or any of them or any Deputacion relateing thereunto, untill he or they doe first take the oathes appointed by the Act of Parliament made in the first yeare of our Reigne, Entituled An Act for the abrogateing the oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance, and appointing other oathes: Provided alsoe that if it shall at any time hereafter be made appeare to us, our heires or Successors, that this our Grant is inconvenient to our Subjects in Generall, or that the Powers hereby granted or men- tioned to be granted or any of them is or are abused, That then it shall and may be jawfull to and for us, our heires and Successors, by any order of or made in our or their Privy Councill, to Revoake, determine and make void these our letters Patents, and every Clause, Power and thing therein contained, anything to the contrary thereof in any Wise notwithstanding: Provided further that if the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Administrators or Assigns, shall not within the space of two yeares next after the date of these our letters Patents Establish the Post or Office thereby intended, Within the Colonys, Islands and Plantations aforesaid, according to the true intent and meaning of these presents, Then this our Grant and every power, matter and thing therem contained shall cease and be void, anything to the contrary thereof in any Wise notwithstanding; And the said Thomas Neale doth for himselfe, his Execu- tors, Administrators and Assignes, Covenant, promise and Grant to and With us, our heires and Successors, that all letters or Pacquetts collected or received in any of the Plantations, Iselands or Colonys aforesaid to be sent for England shall from time to time be carefully put up and dispatched away by the first Ship bound for any Port of England to be delivered by the next Deputy Postmaster in England, Without any Charge to the Post Office here, Excepting and reserveing unto us, our heires and Successors, the English Inland Postage of all such letters and Pacquetts last men- tioned to be sent for England, It being hereby intended and declared that the same shall not be accounted for to the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Adminis- trators or Assignes, but that he and they shall and is and are hereby obliged to satisfe and pay the masters of such vessells for such Conveyance and delivery of such letters and Pacquetts as shall be sent for England as aforesaid, and alsou that he, the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Administrators or Assignes, shall and Will at his and their own proper Costs and Charges Nominate and appoint a sufficient Officer in our City of London to Receive and Collect from time to time all letters and Pacquetts for any of our Colonys or Plantations aforesaid, and to take Care to send them duely away from time to time by the first vessell bound for any of those
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Parts; And further that all letters comonly called State letters, Which are usually carried Postage ffree here in England, shall pass free thorow all our Plantations and Iselands aforesaid; And further alsoe that he. the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Administrators or Assignes, shall and Will at the end of the first three years next ensueing after the date of these presents, Transmitt or cause to be Transmitted to the Comissioners of the Treasury or high Treasury of England for the time being a true and faithfull Account in Writeing upon Oath of the Whole Profitts and advantage ariseing or accrewing by and the Charge of the settling and mannageing the said Office or Offices herein before granted or mentioned to be granted and Established, and shall and Will alsoe keep true and faithfull Accounts in Writeing of all the Receipts and Charges aforesaid relateing to the said Office or Imployment, and that from and after the Expiracion of the said Three yeares next ensueing after the date of this our Grant the like Account shall be yearly transmitted as aforesaid, if thereunto required; And for the better Execu- tion of the powers and direccions herein contained Wee have given and granted, and by these presents for us, our heires and Successors, doe give and grant unto the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Administrators and Assignes, full power and Authority from time to time dureing the said Terme of Twenty one years, to sett up, make use, and have ferrys over any River or lake in our said Colonies, Iselands or Plantations, Where noe fferrys are yet made nor any grant thereof made or given to any other person or persons, by us or any of our Predecessors for the better Convey- ance of Postage and Passengers, as need shall require, and to receive and take the Profitts and advantage comeing or ariseing by such fferrys to the use and benefitt of him, the said Thomas Neale, his Executors, Administrators and Assignes: Provided always and our Will and pleasure is, and Wee do hereafter for us, our heires and Successors, Declare that in all cases Where such fferry or fferrys are to be sett up and made over other Persons land or Water, the Proprietor or Proprietors thereof shall be first agreed With, and his and their Consent gained therein, according to law and Justice: In Witnesse &c Witnesse ourselves at Westmr, the seaventeenth clay of ffebruary [1691-2].
By Writt of Privy Seale.
BIOGRAPHIES.
ABBOTT LAWRENCE.
ABBOTT LAWRENCE, the fifth son of Samuel and Susanna Lawrence, was born in Groton, Mass., December 16, 1792. He was a lineal de- scendant of John Lawrence, who was among the earliest of the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts, having settled in Watertown as early as 1635. but afterwards removed with his wife to Groton, where he lived to an advanced age, leaving at his death several sons and daughters. Sam- ttel Lawrence, the father of our subjeet, was one of the patriotic citizens who rallied at Concord to oppose the progress of the British troops. At the time the news of their approach reached Groton he was in the field, when, mounting his horse, he rode through the adjoining towns giving the alarm, and returning in season to join his company at the meeting-house. In the battle of Bunker Hill he received a slight wound, and his hat and coat, pierced with the balls of the enemy, were preserved for many years. He continned in the service till 1:28; was promoted to be major, and fought in many of the hardest battles of the Revolution. He was a man of exemplary character, and beloved by his townsmen. In connection with others he originated and estab- lished the institution which, in commemoration of the endowments it received from him and other members of his family, is now ealled with great propriety Lawrence Academy. He died in Groton Novem- ber 8, 1826, aged seventy-three years, and his widow May 2, 1845, aged eighty-nine years. Ile was the father of nine children, six of whom survived him, viz. : Luther, who resided in Groton and Lowell, and who died in the latter place in 1839, being the mayor of that town; William, a merchant of Boston, who died in 1850; Amos, who died in 1853; Abbott, the subject of this sketch; Eliza, who married Dr. Joshua Green, and died in 1814; and Samuel who died in 1880.
Abbott Lawrence received the family name of his paternal grand- mother, Abigail Abbott, daughter of Nehemiah Abbott of Lexington.
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llis education, begun in the district school, was completed at the acad- emy of the town of which his father had been trustee for many years. Beyond the educational advantages afforded by these local institutions young Lawrence received nothing in the way of scholastic instruction. In 1808 he was sent to Boston and placed as an apprentice in the store of his brother, Amos Lawrence, who had been for some years estab- lished here as an importer of English goods. "My brother came to me as my apprentice," says Mr. Amos Lawrence in his diary, " bring- ing his bundle under his arm, with less than three dollars in his pocket, (and this was his fortune. )" After six years' service in this subordi- nate position Amos Lawrence was so well pleased with his brother's diligence and business abilities that he admitted him as a partner. This was in 1814, a period by no means encouraging, as we were in the midst of a war with England, and after a few months the prospects seemed so unpromising that Mr. Lawrence proposed to withdraw from the business and enter the army. He had previously been an active member of the New England Guards. With his brother's consent he proposed to enter the service, and applied to the War Department at Washington to obtain a commission, but before receiving a reply the news of peace arrived, and he abandoned all thought of a military career. On the return of peace the two brothers were quick to per- ceive the new field that was opened for foreign importations, and the younger partner, commissioned to purchase goods at Manchester, em- barked in the first vessel that left Boston for England after the procla- mation of peace. "The passage," says Prescott in his memoir of Mr. Lawrence, "was a short one. With characteristic ardor he was the first to leap on shore; being thus, perhaps, the first American who touched his fatherland after the war was ended." After pur- chasing his goods and dispatching them to Boston, where they were sold at a large profit, he spent considerable time in visiting the conti- nent, where he saw the allied armies immediately after the battle of Waterloo. Several times he repeated his voyage to England, and al- ways with the same good results. Under the judicious management of the house its business became every day more widely extended, and the fortunes of the brothers rapidly increased. The firm name of A. & A. Lawrence became equally well known on both sides of the At- lantic. The sagacious minds of the Lawrences were also quick to per- ceive the effect of domestic protection, which began to be recognized as a leading feature in the policy of the government during the closing
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BIOGRAPHIES.
years of the first quarter of the present century. At a time when the merchants of the United States generally looked with indifference, if not with distrust, upon the attempt to compete with the fabrics of Europe, Abbott Lawrence took a different view of the subject, not for selfish motives, for his interest at that time ran rather in the chan- nels of trade. He felt the importance of diversifying the pursuits of the country where the industry and ingenuity of the people so well fitted them for proficiency in the mechanical arts. With characteristic energy the brothers accordingly gave up their business as importers and soon engaged largely in the sale of cotton and woolen goods of do- mestie manufacture, and devoted all their energies to foster this great branch of the national industry.
AAs a merchant Mr. Lawrence, by general admission, stood at the head of the mercantile profession of Boston. The feeble health of his brother for many years prior to his death threw upon him the chief direction of an establishment second to few in the world for the extent of its transactions ; second to none in standing and character. Ilis in- terest in the work of railroad construction in New England was hardly less than in the establishment and extension of its manufacturing sys- tem. He was a large subscriber to the various railroads projected for the concentration of trade in Boston, investing his means in these enter- prises more from a feeling of patriotism than with the expectation of profit.
Notwithstanding the extent and variety of his business relations, and the time and attention they required, Mr. Lawrence neglected none of the duties which a good citizen owes to the community. He took at all times a lively interest in public affairs, not from ambition for polit- ical advancement, or a wish for personal power, but because he felt it incumbent upon him to exert his influence for the public good. He was chosen to represent Massachusetts at the Harrisburg convention in 1824, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. In 1831 he was elected to the Common Council of Boston, but declined a re-election. In 1834 he was elected to Congress, and on taking his place was as- signed to the Committee on Ways and Means. On the expiration of his term his constituents testified their sense of his services by inviting him to a public dinner. This he declined in a letter in which he ably touched on the great questions of the day. He declined a re-election to Congress, although the members of the opposite party gave him the remarkable assurance that if he would consent to stand no candidate
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would be placed against him. Two years later he consented to accept a second nomination, and was again elected. Shortly after taking his seat he was attacked by typhus fever, so that for some time small hopes were entertained of his recovery. He resigned the following autumn. In the presidential campaign of 1840 he took an active part in favor of the election of General Harrison, and in September, 1842, was president of the Whig convention which nominated Henry Clay for president on the part of Massachusetts.
In 1842 Mr. Lawrence was appointed by the governor one of the commissioners on the part of Massachusetts to negotiate a settlement of our northeastern boundary, which for many years had been a source of irritation between the United States and England. Of the part he bore in this important mission Mr. Prescott says: "It is not too much to say that but for the influence exerted by Mr. Lawrence on this oeca- sion, the treaty, if it had been arranged at all, would never have been brought into the shape it now wears." Mr. Nathan Appleton confirms this statement in the following words: "It is the belief of the writer, who was then in Congress, that to Mr. Lawrence more than to any other individual is due the successful accomplishment of the negotiation which resulted in the treaty of Washington."
In July, 1843, Mr. Lawrence, whose health still felt the effects of his illness in Washington, accompanied by his wife and daughter, em- barked from Boston in the ill-fated steamer Columbia, which was wrecked on Black Ledge near Seal Island. Five days the passengers remained on that dreary spot, when they were transported to Ilali- fax, whence they proceeded on the voyage. Mr. Lawrence's reputa- tion had preceded him, and on his arrival in England he was received with marked attention, and enjoyed the hospitality of many distin- guished and influential people.
In 1844 Mr. Lawrence was a delegate to the Whig convention, and one of the electors at large for the State of Massachusetts. He was an carnest and ardent supporter of Henry Clay for the Presidency, and was deeply disappointed on his defeat. During the following year, 1845, he was largely instrumental in the organization of the Essex Company, of which he was the first president and the first and largest subscriber to its stock. This company founded the city of Lawrence, which was incorporated in 1844 and named for him. Most justly has it been said by one writer: "The broad, comprehensive and unswerv- ing faith and large capacity of Abbott Lawrence should never be for- gotton by dwellers in the city that bears his name."
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BIOGRAPHIES.
Mr. Lawrence's views on questions of political economy were broad and expansive. He was one of the strongest and ablest of the earlier advocates of domestic manufactures. These views he forcibly ex- pressed in his private correspondence and public addresses. He un- folded them more at length in a series of letters addressed to Hon. William C. Rives of Virginia. They constitute a masterful handling of the tariff questions of the period, concerning which Mr. Webster wrote to Mr. Lawrence from Washington: "Your letters to Mr. Rives have a very great circulation, as you are aware, and are highly praised by intelligent men. The second of them will form the substratum of what I propose to say (if I say anything) on the tariff subject." " These letters," says another writer, "attracted much attention in all parts of the country. and especially in Virginia, where they were reprinted and commented on in the leading newspapers. So deep was the spirit of enterprise made in that State by them that some of the leading citi- zens invited him to come and establish a manufacturing town at the Great Falls of the Potomac." " This appeal on the part of a sister State for co-operation and leadership in the development of its industry and capital was a remarkable recognition and tribute to the ability and character of Mr. Lawrence. But vast interests were at stake nearer home, and he could not allow himself to be diverted from this work by the projected enterprise on the shores of the Potomac, no mat- ter how alluring the promise of results both to himself and to others."
In the presidential canvass of 1848 the name of Mr. Lawrence was prominently associated for the office of vice-president with that of Gen- cral Taylor for president, and at the convention in Philadelphia he wanted but six votes of being nominated for that office. This result was owing to the peculiar and unexpected course of some of the dele- gates from his own State. Whatever may have been his disappoint- ment over the result, Mr. Lawrence did not betray it by a word, and heartily sustained the nomination of Taylor and Fillmore. Immedi- ately after the inauguration of General Taylor, Mr. Lawrence was of- fered a seat in his Cabinet. The place of secretary of the navy was at first offered him, and afterwards that of secretary of the interior. Both offices were declined. Soon after he was nominated by the presi- dent to take the highest diplomatic post in the gift of the government, the mission to England, which he accepted. After serving for three years, his private affairs obliged him to return, and in October, 1852. he resigned. Mr. Lawrence's mission to the Court of St. James was
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the most brilliant part of his political career. Entering upon the office without any experience of its duties or acquaintance with diplomatic functions, he filled that important office with distinguished credit, and to the entire satisfaction of his government, while his popularity in England was fully equal to that of the most able and distinguished of his predecessors. Rev John Cumming in dedicating the American edition of his Apocalyptic sketches to Mr. Lawrence, says: " 1 regard this as an opportunity of expressing a conviction shared and felt by the good and great of this country how much they appreciated your presence in London, as the representative of your nation, and how deeply-I may add universally-they regretted your departure. We never had so popular a minister from America, or one who has done so much to leave lasting and elevated impressions of his countrymen."
Mr. Lawrence took an especial interest in the cause of education. He looked to substantial training in the various departments of useful knowledge as the great safe-gnards-humanly speaking-of society. Besides liberal donations to schools and academies throughout the country, as cheerfully accorded as they were constantly solicited, he made provision by a handsome endowment for the annual distribution of medals in the High and Latin Schools of Boston. In a like spirit he aided in the endowment of the Franklin Library at Lawrence, which also received a bequest of $5,000 at his death. His views on the sub- ject of education took a wide and high range. In the year 1847 he founded the Scientific School which bears his name, as a separate de- partment of Harvard University. The spacious edifice appropriated to it was built by him, and successive liberal endowments were made by him for the support of its professors. This institution, the first of its kind in the United States, was the embodiment of long and mature re- flection on the importance of systematic education for those engaged in conducting the great industrial pursuits of the community as engineers, chemists, geologists, architects, machinists and manufacturers, as well as those who are disposed to aim at the increase of useful knowledge by original researches. The great success of the school has evinced the soundness of Mr. Lawrence's views as to the desirability of such an institution, as one of the wants of the country and the age. In this connection it may be said, that it was largely through Mr. Lawrence's agency that Professor Agassiz was induced to establish his residence in America. This eminent naturalist arrived in this country as a lecturer before the Lowell Institute, precisely at the time when Mr. Lawrence
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was maturing the project of the Scientific School. The peculiar fitness of Professor Agassiz for a chair in such an institution did not escape his penetration, and the liberal appropriation, originally intended by him as the endowment of the school, was enlarged, with a view to a more adequate provision for the celebrated foreigner just then coming among us, and as a consequence Professor Agassiz was induced to accept the chair of zoology and geology. From that time until his death, a few years ago, this eminent naturalist was a professor in the school, and by his connection with it gave the institution world wide fame.
In the movement to supply the city of Boston with water Mr. Law- renee took a leading part. He attended several public meetings held to promote that object and made speeches in support of it. The pro- ject met with the strongest opposition. The first act of the Legislature (passed March, 1845), authorizing the city to take water from either Long Pond or Charles River, was rejected at the polls by a large majority, but a second act, such had been the change in public opinion, was accepted by a still larger majority. Water was brought into the city from Long Pond in October, 1848, and Mr. Lawrence lived to see all his predictions more than verified.
After his return from England Mr. Lawrence held no public posi- tion, though he still maintained a warm interest in public affairs. He vigorously opposed the new State Constitution of 1853 and made numerous speeches against it; but with this exception and his efforts in the canvass for General Scott as president, he took no active part in politics. llis interest in the cause of education, however, remained unabated, and the fortunes of the Scientific School he had founded at Cambridge were especially dear to him and the source of constant solicitude. As a recognition of his generous and hearty interest in the cause of education, as well as his valuable public services, Williams Col- lege in 1852, and Harvard College in 1854, conferred on him the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Mr. Lawrence was married June 28, 1819, to Katharine, the ellest daughter of the Hon. Timothy Bigelow, the distinguished lawyer. Hle died in Boston, August 18, 1855, and was buried with civil and military honors.
The life work of no man was more closely or more helpfully associ- ated with what was best in the history of Boston from the opening years of the present century until his death than that of Mr. Lawrence. In many ways he was a positive factor for good. In political, financial,
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commercial and industrial affairs of his time the influence of no one was more potent in New England than his. Of every public body to which he belonged he was a leading member, exercising a command- ing influence on all financial and other practical questions. He was a forcible, eloquent and persuasive, though not a frequent speaker; a legislator of the class unfortunately now too rare, who owe their ad- vancement neither to party management, sectional agitation nor seeret machinery ; but to merit felt and acknowledged by the commu- nity. Though not professedly a man of letters, he had found time in the intervals of business for the acquisition of a great amount of mis- cellaneous knowledge by a judicious course of reading. His house was filled with books, paintings and works of art; his conversation was at all times intelligent and instructive; his appreciation of liberal pursuits prompt and cordial. In manner he was eminently courteous and affable. His kindly disposition found constant expression in a beam- ing smile, in tones, and words, and acts of cheerfulness; in unaffected sympathy with those around him. His purse, his advice, his encour- aging voice were ever at the command of modest worth. Unostenta- tious hospitality was the presiding genius within his home. He lived in an atmosphere of good will; not a languid sentiment, still less an empty profession ; but a substantial, effective good will, manifested in deeds of beneficence. It might be said of him as was said of his brother Amos, that "every day of his life was a blessing to some one." lle was a religious man in principle and feeling. in heart and in life ; a believer whose Christian profession was exemplified in all his conduct. lle was a member of the Brattle Street Church and a regular and devout attendant on the ministration of the Gospel. The reality of his faith and hope in the promises of the Gospel shone brightly in the un- swerving resignation with which he supported the weariness and suffer- ing of the last trying week of his life. "He was ready," says one writer, "for the great summons, and at the critical moment when the chances in favor and against his recovery seemed to be equally bal- anced, he rejoiced that a higher wisdom than his own was to decide the question."
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