Boston Brahmin



Colonial Boston – The Boston Common in 1768
The Boston Brahmin or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class.[1] They form an integral part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment, along with other wealthy families of Philadelphia and New York City.[2] They are often associated with the distinctive Boston Brahmin accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists, such as those who came to America on the Mayflower or the Arbella, are often considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins.[3]
The term was coined by the physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in an 1860 article in the Atlantic Monthly.[4] The term Brahmin refers to the highest ranking caste of people in the traditional Hindu caste system in India. In the United States, it has been applied to the old, wealthy New England families of British Protestant origin which were influential in the development of American institutions and culture.
The term effectively underscores the strong conviction of the New England gentry that they were a people set apart by destiny to guide the American experiment as their ancestors had played a leading role in founding it. The term also illustrates the erudite and exclusive nature of the New England gentry as perceived by outsiders, and may also refer to their interest in Eastern religions, fostered perhaps by the impact in the 19th century of the transcendentalist writings of New England literary icons such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, and the enlightened appeal of Universalist Unitarian movements of the same period.
Contents
1 Characteristics
2 Brahmin families
2.1 Adams
2.2 Amory
2.3 Appleton
2.4 Bacon
2.5 Bates
2.6 Boylston
2.7 Bradlee
2.8 Cabot
2.9 Chaffee/Chafee
2.10 Choate
2.11 Coffin
2.12 Coolidge
2.13 Cooper
2.14 Crowninshield
2.15 Cushing
2.16 Dana
2.17 Delano
2.18 Dudley
2.19 Dwight
2.20 Eliot
2.21 Emerson
2.22 Endicott
2.23 Fabens
2.24 Forbes
2.25 Gardner
2.26 Gillett
2.27 Healey/Dall
2.28 Holmes
2.29 Jackson
2.30 Lawrence
2.31 Lodge
2.32 Lowell
2.33 Lyman
2.34 Minot
2.35 Norcross
2.36 Otis
2.37 Palfrey
2.38 Parkman
2.39 Peabody
2.40 Perkins
2.41 Phillips
2.42 Putnam
2.43 Quincy
2.44 Rice
2.45 Saltonstall
2.46 Sargent
2.47 Sears
2.48 Tarbox
2.49 Thayer
2.50 Thorndike
2.51 Tudor
2.52 Warren
2.53 Weld
2.54 Wigglesworth
2.55 Winthrop
3 See also
4 References
Characteristics

Typical dress of the Boston elite[when?]
The nature of the Brahmins is hinted at by the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Holy Cross alumnus John Collins Bossidy:
- And this is good old Boston,
- The home of the bean and the cod,
- Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots,
- And the Cabots talk only to God.[5][6]
While some 19th-century Brahmin families of large fortune were of bourgeois origin, still fewer were of a somewhat aristocratic origin. The new families were often the first to seek, in typically British fashion, suitable marriage alliances with those old aristocratic New England families that were descended from landowners in England to elevate and cement their social standing. The Winthrops, Dudleys, Saltonstalls, Winslows, and Lymans (descended from English magistrates, gentry, and aristocracy) were, by and large, happy with this arrangement. All of Boston's "Brahmin elite", therefore, maintained the received culture of the old English gentry, including cultivating the personal excellence that they imagined maintained the distinction between gentlemen and freemen, and between ladies and women. They saw it as their duty to maintain what they defined as high standards of excellence, duty, and restraint. Cultivated, urbane, and dignified, a Boston Brahmin was supposed to be the very essence of enlightened aristocracy.[7][8] The ideal Brahmin was not only wealthy, but displayed what was considered suitable personal virtues and character traits.
The Brahmin was expected to maintain the customary English reserve in his dress, manner, and deportment, cultivate the arts, support charities such as hospitals and colleges, and assume the role of community leader.[9]:14 Although the ideal called on him to transcend commonplace business values, in practice many found the thrill of economic success quite attractive. The Brahmins warned each other against avarice and insisted upon personal responsibility. Scandal and divorce were unacceptable. The total system was buttressed by the strong extended family ties present in Boston society. Young men attended the same prep schools, colleges, and private clubs,[10] and heirs married heiresses. Family not only served as an economic asset, but also as a means of moral restraint. Most belonged to the Unitarian or Episcopal churches, although some were Congregationalists or Methodists. Politically they were successively Federalists, Whigs, and Republicans. They were marked by their manners and once distinctive elocution, the Boston Brahmin accent, a version of the New England accent. Their distinctive Anglo-American manner of dress has been much imitated and is the foundation of the style now informally known as preppy. Many of the Brahmin families trace their ancestry back to the original 17th- and 18th-century colonial ruling class consisting of Massachusetts governors and magistrates, Harvard presidents, distinguished clergy and fellows of the Royal Society of London (a leading scientific body), while others entered New England aristocratic society during the 19th century with their profits from commerce and trade, often marrying into established Brahmin families.
Brahmin families
Selected Boston Brahmin |
![]() American statesman, Governor of Massachusetts, and founding father, Samuel Adams |
![]() American merchant, Samuel Appleton |
![]() Banking merchant, John Amory Lowell |
![]() U.S. Congressman and lawyer, Robert L. Bacon |
![]() Philanthropist, business magnate, namesake of Bates College, Benjamin Bates. |
![]() Federal judge, founder of Choate Rosemary Hall, William Gardner Choate |
![]() Officer of the Royal British Navy, Isaac Coffin |
![]() Railroad executive and son of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, John Coolidge |
![]() Congregational minister, Samuel Cooper |
![]() Colonist, Benjamin Williams Crowninshield |
![]() Massachusetts colonial speaker of the house, Thomas Cushing |
![]() Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Joseph Dudley |
![]() American historian and president of Yale University, Timothy Dwight |
![]() Banker, Samuel Eliot |
![]() Massachusetts minister, William Emerson |
![]() American businessman and art collector, John Lowell Gardner |
![]() Boston manufacturer, Patrick Tracy Jackson |
![]() Politician and founder of Lawrence, Abbott Lawrence |
![]() American statesmen and congressman, Henry Cabot Lodge |
![]() Colonial lawyer, James Otis |
![]() Entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the House of Morgan and the Peabody Institute, George Peabody |
![]() Art historian, philanthropist, founder of the Museum of Fine Arts, Charles C. Perkins |
![]() Educator and founder of Phillips Exeter Academy, John Phillips |
![]() President of the United States, John Quincy Adams |
![]() Sylvanus Thayer, the Father of West Point |
![]() John G. Palfrey I, Played a leading role in the creation of Harvard Divinity School, U.S. Congressman, Unitarian minister |
![]() Businessman and philanthropist, David Sears |
![]() U.S Congressman, John K. Tarbox |
![]() Major general and doctor, Joseph Warren |
Adams
Adams Family
Samuel Adams (1722–1803): Founding Father; second cousin of:
John Adams (1735–1826): Founding Father and second President of the United States; husband of Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818)
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848): sixth President of the United States
Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (1807–1886): Ambassador, U.S. congressman
Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835–1915): Civil War general
John Quincy Adams II (1833–1894): lawyer, politician
Charles Francis Adams III (1866–1954): U.S. Secretary of the Navy
Charles Francis Adams IV (1910–1999): industrialist, first president of Raytheon
Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918): author
Brooks Adams (1848–1927): historian
Ivers Whitney Adams (1838–1914): founder of the oldest continuously playing professional baseball team, the Boston Red Stockings
Amory
Amory Family
John Amory Lowell (1798–1881): merchant
Thomas Coffin Amory (1812–1889): lawyer, author
Thomas Jonathan Coffin Amory (1828–1864): Civil War general
Ernest Amory Codman (1869–1940): surgeon
Cleveland Amory (1917–1998): author
Appleton
Appleton Family
Patrilineal line:[11]
Daniel Appleton (1785–1849): publisher
Frances Appleton (d. 1861): wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
George Swett Appleton (1821–1878): publisher
Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806–1863): wife of U.S. President Franklin Pierce, was First Lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857
Jesse Appleton (1772–1819): second president of Bowdoin College
John Appleton (1816–1864): assistant Secretary of State, diplomat, U.S. congressman- John Appleton: Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court
John F. Appleton (1838-1870): lawyer and Union colonel in the American Civil War
John James Appleton (1789–1864): ambassador
Nathan Appleton (1771–1861): U.S. congressman and merchant
Nathaniel Appleton (1693–1784): Congregational minister
Samuel Appleton (1625–1696): military and government leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay
Samuel Appleton (1766–1853): merchant and philanthropist
Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884): writer and art patron
William Appleton (1786–1862): U.S. congressman
William Henry Appleton (1814–1899): publisher
William Sumner Appleton (1874–1947): philanthropist
Other notable relatives:[12][13][14]
Thomas Storrow Brown (1803–1888): journalist, writer, orator, and revolutionary in Lower Canada (present-day Quebec)
Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728–1829): educator and physician
Alice Mary Longfellow (1850–1928): philanthropist and preservationist
Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow (1845–1921): artist
Alpheus Spring Packard (1839–1905): entomologist and palaeontologist
William Alfred Packard (1830–1909): classical scholar- Charles Storrow Williams (1827–?): Director of Railroad Transportation for the Confederate States of America
Edward H. Williams (1824–1899): physician and railroad executive
Bacon
Bacon Family
Robert Bacon (1860–1919): U.S. Secretary of State
Robert L. Bacon (1884–1938): U.S. congressman
Gaspar G. Bacon (1886–1947): politician
Gaspar G. Bacon, Jr. (1914–1943): actor
Bates
Bates family
Originally from Boston and Britain:
- Benjamin Bates I (c.1651–1710);[15][16] merchant banker, family patriarch
Benjamin Bates II (c.1716 – 1820);[17] member of the Hell Fire Club, revolutionary
Frederick Bates (1777–1825); politician
James Woodson Bates (1788–1846); judge
Joshua Bates (financier); Barings Bank partner, managed many Brahmin family fortunes, advised Adams family on Court protocol
Edward Bates (1793–1869); U.S. Attorney General
Benjamin Bates IV (1808–1878); philanthropist, namesake and benefactor of Bates College
Boylston
Boylston Family
Thomas Boylston (b. 1644): doctor, family patriarch
Zabdiel Boylston (1679–1766): physician
Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828): benefactor, Harvard University
Bradlee
Bradlee Family
Direct line:[18][19][20]
- Nathan Bradley I: earliest known member born in America, in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1631
- Samuel Bradlee: constable of Dorchester, Massachusetts
- Nathaniel Bradlee: Boston Tea Party participant, member of Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association
- Josiah Bradlee I: Boston Tea Party participant; m. Hannah Putnam
- Josiah Bradlee III (Harvard): m. Alice Crowninsheld
- Frederick Josiah Bradlee I (Harvard): Director of the Boston Bank
Frederick Josiah Bradlee, Jr. (Harvard-1915): on the first All-American football team at Harvard; m. Chevalier Josephine de Gersdorff- Frederick Josiah Bradlee III: Broadway actor, author
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (1921–2014) (Harvard-1942): Chief Executive Editor of The Washington Post
- Joseph Putnam Bradlee (1783-1838), Commander of the New England Guards, chairman of the State Central Committee, Director and then President of the Boston City Council
- Samuel Bradlee, Jr.: lieutenant colonel during the American Revolutionary War
- Thomas Bradlee: Boston Tea Party participant; member of Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association; Member of the St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons
- David Bradlee: Boston Tea Party participant; Captain in the Continental Army, member of the St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons
Sarah Bradlee: "Mother of the Boston Tea Party"
Cabot
Chaffee/Chafee
Chaffee Family
Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:[21]
Thomas Chaffee (1610–1683), businessman and landowner
Jonathon Chaffee (1678–1766), businessman and landowner
Matthew Chaffee (1657–1723), Boston landowner
Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842–1914): U.S. general
Adna R. Chaffee, Jr. (1884–1941): U.S. general
Zechariah Chafee (1885–1957): philosopher, civil libertarian
John Chafee (1922–1999): U.S. senator
Lincoln Chafee (b. 1953): former U.S. senator, former Rhode Island governor, 2016 U.S. presidential candidate for the Democratic party
Choate
Choate Family
Rufus Choate (1799–1859): U.S. senator
George C. S. Choate (1827–1896): founder of Choate Sanitarium, Pleasantville, New York
Joseph Hodges Choate (1832–1917): lawyer, diplomat
William Gardner Choate (1830–1920): U.S. federal judge, founder of Choate Rosemary Hall
Sarah Choate Sears (1858–1935): art patron
Robert B. Choate, Jr. (1924–2009): businessman
Elizabeth Choate Spykman (1896–1965): writer
Nathaniel Choate (1899–1965): artist, sculptor
Coffin
Coffin Family
Originally of Newbury and Nantucket:
Tristram Coffin (1604–1681): colonist, original owner of Nantucket- William Coffin (1699–1775): merchant, co-founder of Trinity Church
Sir Isaac Coffin (1759–1839): naval officer
Charles E. Coffin (1841–1912): industrialist, U.S. congressman
Charles A. Coffin (1844–1926): industrialist, co-founder of General Electric
Henry Coffin Nevins (1843–1892): industrialist
John Coffin Jones, Sr. (1750–1820): Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
John Coffin Jones, Jr. (1796–1861): U.S. Minister to Hawaii
Thomas Coffin Amory (1812–1889): lawyer, author
Thomas Jonathan Coffin Amory (1828–1864): Civil War general
Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933): 30th President of the United States
T. Jefferson Coolidge (1831–1920): Financier, industrialist, and civic leader
John Coolidge (1906–2000): businessman; son of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge
Archibald Cary Coolidge (1866–1928): educator
John Gardner Coolidge (1863–1936): U.S. ambassador
Charles A. Coolidge (1844–1926): U.S. Army general
Cooper
- John Cooper (1609–1669): colonist
Samuel Cooper (1725–1783): clergyman- Samuel D. Cooper, Jr. (1750–1824): revolutionary
- Samuel D. Cooper III (1778–1853): trade merchant
Priscilla Cooper Tyler (1816–1889): First Lady of the United States
Theodore Cooper (1839–1919): civil engineer
Frederic Taber Cooper (1864–1937): writer
Crowninshield
Crowninshield Family
Johann Casper Richter von Kronenscheldt: colonist
Jacob Crowninshield (1770–1808): U.S. congressman
Arent S. Crowninshield (1843–1908): U.S. Navy admiral
Caspar Crowninshield (1837–1897): Union Army colonel
Benjamin William Crowninshield (1837–1892): Union Army colonel
Frederic Crowninshield (1845–1918): first president of the National Society of Mural Painters
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1772–1851): 5th U.S. Secretary of Navy
Frank Crowninshield (1872–1947): creator and editor of Vanity Fair
Bowdin Bradlee Crowninshield (1867–1948): American naval architect
Descendants by marriage:
William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900): 5th U.S. Secretary of War
Frederick Josiah Bradlee, Jr. (1892–1970): on the first All-American football team (from Harvard)
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (1921–2014): Editor-in-chief of The Washington Post
Quinn Crowninshield Bradlee (b. 1982): founder and CEO of FriendsOfQuinn.com
Cushing
Cushing Family
Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:[22]
Caleb Cushing (1800–1879): U.S. congressman and Attorney General
John Perkins Cushing (1787–1862): China trade merchant, investor
Thomas Cushing (1725–1788): statesman, revolutionary
William Cushing (1732–1810): U.S. Supreme Court justice
Harvey Cushing (1869–1939): neurosurgeon
Descendant by marriage:
Albert Cushing Read (1887–1967): naval officer
Dana
Dana Family
Richard Dana (1699–1772): colonial Boston politician
Francis Dana (1743–1811): revolutionary
Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (1787–1879): lawyer, author
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815–1882): lawyer, author (Two Years Before the Mast)
Delano
Delano Family
Columbus Delano (1809–1896): U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Jane Delano (1862–1919): founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service
Paul Delano (1745–1842): naval officer
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945): President of the United States
Frederic A. Delano (1863-1953): civic reformer and railroad president
Dudley
Dudley Family
Thomas Dudley (1576–1653): Governor of Massachusetts, a founder of Harvard College
Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612–1672): first American poet, wife of Royal Governor Simon Bradstreet
Joseph Dudley (1647–1720): Royal Governor of Massachusetts, President of the Dominion of New England, Chief Justice of New York, Member of Parliament, Lt. Governor of the Isle of Wight
Paul Dudley (1675–1751): Chief Justice of Massachusetts, member of the Royal Society, founder of the Dudleian lectures at Harvard
Paul Dudley Sargent (1745–1828): Army colonel and Revolutionary War hero
Dudley Saltonstall (1738–1796): Naval commodore during the Revolution and successful privateer
Dwight
Dwight Family
Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817): president of Yale University
Joseph Dwight (1703–1765): lawyer, French and Indian War veteran
James Dwight Dana (1813–1895): geologist
Eliot
Eliot Family
Samuel Eliot (banker) (1739-1820)
Samuel Atkins Eliot (politician) (1798-1862)
Charles William Eliot (1834–1926): president of Harvard University
Charles Eliot (1859–1897): landscape architect
Samuel A. Eliot II (1862–1950): president of the American Unitarian Association
Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976): maritime author
Theodore Lyman Eliot (1928-...), diplomat
Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908): author
Emerson
Emerson Family
Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811): clergyman; m. Ruth Haskins Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882): poet; m. Lydia Jackson Emerson
Edward Waldo Emerson, (1844-1930)
Raymond Emerson, (1886-1977)
Endicott
Endicott Family
Salem:
William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900): U.S. Secretary of War
Dedham:
Augustus Bradford Endicott (1818–1910): politician
Philip Endicott Young (1885–1955): industrialist
Henry Bradford Endicott (1853–1920): industrialist
Henry Wendell Endicott (1880–1954)
Bradford Maxwell Endicott: philanthropist (1926-
Fabens
- Fabens Family
Of Marblehead and Salem:[23]
- William Fabens (1810–1883): lawyer, member of Assembly, Senate[24]
- William Chandler Fabens (1843–1903): Lynn attorney,[25][26] namesake of Fabens Building
- William Chandler Fabens (1843–1903): Lynn attorney,[25][26] namesake of Fabens Building
- Samuel Augustus Fabens (1813–1899): master mariner in the East India and California trade[27][28]
- Francis Alfred Fabens (1814–1872): mercantile businessman, San Francisco judge, attorney[29]
- Joseph Warren Fabens (1821–1875): U.S. Consul at Cayenne, businessman, Envoy Extraordinary of the Dominican Republic[30]
- George Wilson Fabens (1857–1939): attorney, land commissioner and superintendent of Southern Pacific Railroad, namesake of Fabens, Texas[31][32]
Forbes
Forbes Family
John Murray Forbes (1813–1898): industrialist
Edward W. Forbes (1873-1969): Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944.
John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943): United States Secretary of State, senator from Massachusetts (1985–2013)
Elliot Forbes (1917–2006): conductor and musicologist
Robert Bennet Forbes (1804–1889): sea captain, China merchant, ship owner, writer
Gardner
Gardner Family
Originally of Essex county:
- Samuel Pickering Gardner (1767–1843):[33] merchant
- John Lowell Gardner (1808–1884): merchant
John Lowell Gardner II (1837–1898): merchant
Augustus P. Gardner (1865–1918): U.S. congressman
Gillett
- Jonathan Gillett (1609–1677): colonist
- Edward Bates Gillett (1817–1899): Attorney
Frederick Huntington Gillett (1851–1935): 37th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives- Arthur Lincoln Gillett (1859–1938): clergyman
Healey/Dall
- Mark Healey (1791–1872): originally of New Hampshire, merchant and first president of the Merchant's Bank[34]
Caroline Wells Healey (1822–1912), writer, feminist, and abolitionist- Charles Henry Appleton Dall (1816–1886), first Unitarian minister to India
William Healey Dall (1845–1912), malacologist, paleontologist, and explorer of Alaska
Holmes
Holmes Family
Abiel Holmes (1763–1837): clergyman
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894): doctor, author
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935): U.S. Supreme Court justice
Jackson
Jackson Family
Edward Jackson (1708–1757): colonist; m. Dorothy Quincy Jackson
Jonathan Jackson (1743–1810): merchant, revolutionary; m. Hannah Tracy Jackson
Charles Jackson (1775–1855): Massachusetts Supreme Court justice- Amelia Lee Jackson, who married Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. above
Patrick Tracy Jackson (1780–1847): co-founder of the Boston Manufacturing Company
Hannah Jackson: wife of Francis Cabot Lowell
Lydia Jackson: wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Lawrence
Lawrence Family
Samuel Lawrence (d. 1827): revolutionary
Amos Lawrence (1786–1852): merchant
Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886): abolitionist
William Lawrence (1850–1941): Episcopal bishop
William Appleton Lawrence (1889–1963): Episcopal bishop
Frederic C. Lawrence (1899–1989): Episcopal bishop
Abbott Lawrence (1792–1855): U.S. congressman, founder of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Luther Lawrence (d. 1839): politician
Descendant by marriage: Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943): president of Harvard University
Lodge
Lodge Family
- John Ellerton Lodge, married Anna Cabot
Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924): U.S. senator
George Cabot Lodge (1873–1909): poet
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902–1985): U.S. senator, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
George Cabot Lodge II (b. 1927): Harvard Business School professor, 1962 U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts against Edward M. Kennedy- Henry Sears Lodge (b. 1930)
John Davis Lodge (1903–1985): 79th governor of Connecticut, U.S. ambassador
Lowell
Lyman
Richard Lyman (1580–1640): a founder of Hartford, Connecticut; cousin of Lord Mayor of London Sir John Lyman of the Lyman Baronets of England
Roswell Lyman: China trade merchant, had an interest in The Ann & Hope
Theodore Lyman (1753–1839): China trade merchant, commissioned Samuel McIntire to build one of New England's finest country houses, The Vale
Theodore Lyman II (1792–1849): brigadier general of militia, Massachusetts state representative, mayor of Boston
Theodore Lyman III (1833–1897): natural scientist, aide-de-camp to Major General Meade during the American Civil War, and United States congressman from Massachusetts
Theodore Lyman IV (1874–1954): director of Jefferson Physics Lab, Harvard; eponym of the Lyman series of spectral lines. The crater Lyman on the far side of the Moon is named after him, as is the Lyman Physics Building at Harvard.
George Williams Lyman (1786–1880): developed textile mills, director of the Boston and Lowell Railroad and the Columbian Bank, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. His first wife was Elizabeth Gray Otis, the daughter of Harrison Gray Otis (U.S. senator and mayor of Boston) and Sally Foster Otis, prominent Bostonians who built a noted Federal-style mansion still standing.
Arthur T. Lyman (1832–1915), and his sisters Sarah (Mrs. Philip H. Sears) and Lydia (Mrs. Robert Treat Paine)
Arthur T. Lyman, Jr. (1861–1933): married Susan Cabot. Director and officer of textile manufacturing companies and the Massachusetts Life Insurance Company. Board member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Waltham Hospital. He was active in politics as president of the Democratic Club of Massachusetts, chairman of the State Democratic Committee.
Minot
Minot Family
Charles Sedgwick Minot (1852–1914): anatomist
George Richards Minot (1885–1950): winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
Henry Davis Minot (1859–1890): ornithologist
Susan Minot (b. 1956): author
Norcross
Norcross Family
Original from Watertown, Massachusetts
Otis Norcross (1811–1882): mayor of Boston
Amasa Norcross (1824-1898): politician
Eleanor Norcross (1854–1923): artist
Otis
Otis Family
James Otis, Jr. (1725–1783): revolutionary[35]
Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814): playwright, revolutionary
Samuel Allyne Otis (1740–1814): politician
Harrison Gray Otis (1765–1848): U.S. senator, mayor of Boston
Palfrey
Palfrey Family
- Peter Palfrey (1611-1663): one of the founders of Salem, Salem representative to the first General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony[36][37][38]
William Palfrey (1741-1780): American patriot, Aide-de-camp to George Washington, chief clerk to John Hancock, successful merchant[39]
John G. Palfrey I (1796- 1881): played a leading role in the creation of Harvard Divinity School, first Dean of Harvard Divinity School, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, Unitarian minister, historian[40]
Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831-1889): historian, decorated Union officer
Sarah Palfrey Danzig (1912-1996): won 18 national tennis championship titles (singles, doubles, mixed doubles)
John G. Palfrey V (1919-1979): member of President Kennedy's Atomic Energy Commission, Dean of Columbia University[41][42]
John G. "Sean" Palfrey VI (b. 1945): pediatrician and advocate, Harvard Faculty Dean of Adams House with Judy Palfrey
John G. Palfrey VII (b. 1972): educator and author, historian, Headmaster of Phillips Andover[43]
Parkman
Parkman Family
Samuel Parkman: (1751–1824): investor; father of
George Parkman: physician; investor; philanthropist; victim in the Parkman–Webster murder case
Francis Parkman, Jr.: historian; grandson of Samuel Parkman; nephew of George Parkman
Peabody
Peabody Family
- Catherine Endicott Peabody (1808–1833)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804–1894): American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States
Endicott Peabody (1857–1944): Episcopal priest and founder of the Groton School for Boys
Endicott "Chubb" Peabody (1920–1997): governor of Massachusetts
George Peabody (1795–1869): entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the House of Morgan[44] and the Peabody Institute
Joseph Peabody (1757–1844): merchant, shipowner, and philanthropist whose company sailed clipper ships in the Old China Trade from its base in Salem, Massachusetts
Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (1806–1887): American author
Nathaniel Peabody (1774–1855)
Richard R. Peabody (1892–1936): author of The Common Sense of Drinking, a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (1809–1871): painter, illustrator, and wife of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Perkins
Perkins Family
James Perkins (1761–1822): founder of the Boston Athenaeum, pioneer of the China trade, merchant, philanthropist
Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764–1854): merchant, philanthropist
Charles Perkins (1823–1886): art historian, philanthropist, founder of the Museum of Fine Arts- Edward Perkins (1856–1905): constitutional lawyer
Maxwell Perkins (1884–1947): literary editor of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald
Phillips
Phillips Family
Christopher H. Phillips (1920–2008): politician and diplomat
Samuel Phillips, Jr. (1752–1802): politician, founder of Phillips Academy
John Phillips (1719–1795): educator, founder of Phillips Exeter Academy
John Sanborn Phillips (1861-1949): publisher of McClure's Magazine
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884): abolitionist
William Phillips (1878-1968): diplomat
Other notable relatives:
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893): American Episcopal clergyman and author
Samuel Phillips Huntington (1927-2008): Harvard Political Science Professor and Author; grandson of John Sanborn Phillips
Charles F. Brush (1849-1929): inventor and philanthropist
Bill Gates (1955-): billionaire software pioneer and philanthropist
Putnam
Putnam Family
James Putnam (1725–1789): last attorney general in Massachusetts before American Revolution; judge and politician in New Brunswick
James Putnam (1756–1838): Canadian politician
Israel Putnam (1718–1790): American army general during the Revolutionary War
William Lowell Putnam (1861–1924) and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam
George P. Putnam (1887–1950): publisher, explorer, husband of Amelia Earhart- Katherine L. Putnam (1890–1983): wife of Harvey Hollister Bundy
Roger Lowell Putnam (1893–1972): politician, businessman
Quincy
Quincy Family
Edmund Quincy (1602–1636): settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633
Josiah Quincy II (1744–1775): lawyer, revolutionary
Josiah Quincy III (1772–1864): U.S. congressman, mayor of Boston, president of Harvard
Dorothy Quincy Hancock: wife of John Hancock
Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818): wife of John Adams
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848): President of the United States
Rice
Rice Family
Originally of Sudbury, Massachusetts:
- Deacon Edmund Rice (1594–1663): colonist
Alexander Hamilton Rice (1818–1895): industrialist, mayor of Boston, governor of Massachusetts, U.S. congressman
Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr. (1875–1956): physician, geographer and explorer
Americus Vespucius Rice (1835–1904): general, U.S. congressman
Edmund Rice (1842–1906): U.S. Army general, Medal of Honor recipient
Edmund Rice (1819–1889): U.S. congressman
Henry Mower Rice (1816–1894): U.S. senator
Luther Rice (1783–1836): Baptist clergyman, missionary to India
Thomas Rice (1768–1854): U.S. congressman
William Marsh Rice (1816–1900): businessman, founder of Rice University
William North Rice (1845–1928): geologist, educator
William Whitney Rice (1826–1896): U.S. congressman
William B. Rice (1840–1909): industrialist, philanthropist
Saltonstall
Saltonstall Family
Leverett Saltonstall I (1783–1845): politician, educator[45]
Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979): U.S. senator
William L. Saltonstall (1927–2009): politician
Philip Saltonstall Weld (1915–1984): World War II commando, environmentalist
William G. Saltonstall (1905–1989): 8th Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy
Sargent
Colonel Epes Sargent (1690–1762): colonel of militia before the Revolution and a justice of the general session court for more than 30 years
Paul Dudley Sargent (1745–1828): Revolutionary officer, one of the founding overseers of Bowdoin College
Harrison Tweed (1885–1969): lawyer and civic leader
Tweed Roosevelt (1942–): great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt
John Sargent (1750–1824): Loyalist officer during the American Revolution
Winthrop Sargent (1753–1820): patriot, governor, politician, and writer; member of the Federalist Party
Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820): feminist, essayist, playwright, and poet; her home is the Sargent House Museum
Daniel Sargent, Sr. (1730–1806): merchant, owned Sargent's Wharf in Boston
Daniel Sargent (1764–1842): merchant, politician
Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825–1908): lawyer, banker, trustee of the BPL, owner of Palazzo Barbaro
Henry Sargent (1770–1845): painter and military man
Henry Winthrop Sargent (1810–1882): horticulturist and landscape gardener
Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867): author, antiquarian, and temperance advocate
Horace Binney Sargent (1821–1908): Civil War general, politician
John Singer Sargent (1856–1925): artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation"
Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927): botanist, first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum
Winthrop Sargent Gilman (1808–1884): head of the banking house of Gilman, Son & Co. in New York City
Epes Sargent (1813–1880): editor, poet and playwright
Francis W. Sargent (1915–1998): 64th governor of Massachusetts
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (1921–2014) (Harvard-1942): editor of The Washington Post
Frances Sargent Osgood (1811–1850): poet, one of the most popular women writers during her time
Anna Maria Wells (née Foster; ca. 1794–1868): early American poet and writer for children
Sears
Sears Family
Richard Sears (1610–1676): colonist
David Sears II (1787–1871): philanthropist, merchant, landowner
Clara Endicott Sears (1863–1960): author, philanthropist
Mason Sears (1899–1973): politician and ambassador- Emily Sears: wife of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
John W. Sears (1930–2014): politician
Tarbox
Tarbox Family
- John Tarbox (1645–1674): colonist
John K. Tarbox (1838–1887): U.S. congressman
Increase N. Tarbox (1815–1888): author
Thayer
Thayer Family
Sylvanus Thayer (1785–1872), United States general and Father of West Point
Nathaniel Thayer, Jr. (1808-1883): Financier, philanthropist. Partner in John E. Thayer and brother firm which he left to clerks Kidder and Peabody after his retirement. One of the most generous citizens of Boston donating Thayer hall to Harvard University. . He was an overseer of Harvard, 1866-1868, and a fellow, 1868-1875- Nathaniel Thayer, III (1851-1911): Capitalist and pioneer railroad promoter
- Bayard Thayer (1862-1916): Millionaire sportsman, horticulturist.
- Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer (1855-1907): Financier and Capitalist
- Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer, Jr. (1881-1937)Harvard class 1904. President of Merchants and Chase National Banks. Chairman of Stutz motorcars.
James Bradley Thayer (1831–1902), American legal writer and educationist
Ernest Thayer (1863–1940), American poet, author of "Casey at the Bat", and uncle of Scofield Thayer
Scofield Thayer (1889–1982), American poet and publisher
Eli Thayer (1819–1899), member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
John A. Thayer (1857–1917), member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
John R. Thayer (1845–1916), member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
John Milton Thayer (1820–1906), United States Senator and Civil War general
Webster Thayer (1857–1933), the judge at the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti
William Greenough Thayer (1863–1934), American educator
Sigourney Thayer (1896–1944), theatrical producer, aviator, and poet
Thorndike
Thorndike Family
Israel Thorndike (1755–1832): merchant, politician
Augustus Thorndike (1896–1986): physician
George Thorndike Angell (1823–1909): lawyer, philanthropist
Tudor
Tudor Family
William Tudor (1750–1819): lawyer, politician, founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society
William Tudor (1779–1830): cofounder of the North American Review and the Boston Athenaeum
Frederic Tudor (1783–1864): Boston's "Ice King", founder of the Tudor Ice Company
Tasha Tudor (1915–2008): illustrator and author of children's books
Warren
Richard Warren (1578–1628): London merchant, Mayflower passenger
James Warren (1726–1808): Army general, paymaster of American Army, president of Massachusetts Congress
Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814): playwright, historian, revolutionary
Joseph Warren (1741–1775): major-general, hero/martyr of Bunker Hill, president of Massachusetts Congress, sent Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride- John Warren (1753–1815): founder of Harvard Medical School, surgeon at Bunker Hill, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medical Society
John Collins Warren (1778–1856): surgeon, gave first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia, a founder of The New England Journal of Medicine, president of the American Medical Association, founding dean of Harvard Medical School, and a founder of Massachusetts General Hospital
Winslow Warren (1838–1930): American attorney who served as Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston during the second administration of Grover Cleveland
John Collins Warren Jr. (1842–1927): surgeon and president of the American Surgical Association
Charles Warren (1868–1954): lawyer and legal scholar who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Supreme Court in United States History
Weld
Weld Family
Thomas Weld (born c. 1600): colonist, Puritan minister
William Gordon Weld (1775–1825): merchant
William Fletcher Weld (1800–1881): merchant, philanthropist
Ezra Greenleaf Weld (1801–1874): daguerreotypist
Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895): abolitionist
Stephen Minot Weld (1806–1867): politician, educator
George Walker Weld (1840–1905): philanthropist
Stephen Minot Weld, Jr. (1842–1920): Civil War general
Charles Goddard Weld (1857–1911): philanthropist
Isabel Weld Perkins (1877–1948): philanthropist
Philip Saltonstall Weld (1915–1984): World War II commando, environmentalist
Tuesday Weld (b. 1943): actress
William Weld (b. 1945): governor of Massachusetts, 2016 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate
Wigglesworth
Wigglesworth Family
Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705): colonist, clergyman
Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765): clergyman, educator
Edward Wigglesworth (1732-1794): academician
Richard B. Wigglesworth (1891–1960): U.S. congressman
Winthrop
Winthrop Family
John Winthrop (1588–1649): governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony[46]- Lucy Winthrop Downing, mother of diplomat Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, founder of New York, of Downing Street, London, and ultimately of Downing College, Cambridge UK. Lucy's letter to her brother Governor Winthrop provided the impetus for the founding of Harvard College.
John Winthrop the Younger (1606–1676): governor of Connecticut
Fitz-John Winthrop (1637–1711): governor of Connecticut
- John Winthrop: married Anne Dudley, granddaughter of Thomas Dudley
John Winthrop (1714–1779): acting president of Harvard, pioneer of American science
James Winthrop (1752-1821), Librarian and jurist.
Thomas Lindall Winthrop (1760–1841): lieutenant governor of Massachusetts
Robert Charles Winthrop (1809–1894): lawyer, politician, philanthropist
See also
- Philadelphia Main Line
- Old Philadelphians
- First Families of Virginia
- Colonial families of Maryland
- American gentry
- Dominant minority
- Golden Square Mile
- Socialite
- Upper class
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
References
^ "People & Events: Boston Brahmins". PBS. PBS Online. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
^ See generally, Burt.
^ Greenwood, Andrew (11 August 2011). An Introduction to the Unitarian and Universalist Traditions. Cambridge University Press. p. LX. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
^ Oliver Wendell Holmes, "The Brahmin Caste of New England", The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, Issue 27, Chapter 1 (1860). The series of articles that this article was part of eventually became his novel Elsie Venner, and the first chapter of that novel was about the Brahmin caste.
^ Andrews, Robert (ed.) (1996). Famous Lines: A Columbia Dictionary of Familiar Quotations. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10218-6. External link in|title=
(help)CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
^ McPhee, John. Giving Good Weight. p. 163.
^ Ronald Story, Harvard and the Boston Upper Class: The Forging of an Aristocracy, 1800–1870 (1985).
^ Paul Goodman, "Ethics and Enterprise: The Values of a Boston Elite, 1800–1860", American Quarterly, Sept 1966, Vol. 18 Issue 3, pp 437–451.
^ Peter S. Field Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. ISBN 0847688429. ISBN 978-0847688425
^ Ronald Story, "Harvard Students, the Boston Elite, and the New England Preparatory System, 1800–1870", History of Education Quarterly, Fall 1975, Vol. 15 Issue 3, pp 281–298.
^ Farrell, Betty (1993). Elite Families: Class and Power in Nineteenth-Century Boston. SUNY Press. ISBN 1438402325.
^ Muskett, Joseph James, ed. (1900). "Appleton of New England". Suffolk Manorial Families. Exeter: William Pollard & Co. 1: 330–334. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
^ Jewett, Issac Appleton (1801). Memorial of Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Massachusetts: With Genealogical Notices of Some of His Descendants. Boston.
^ Ipswich Historical Society (1906). "A Genealogy of the Ipswich Descendants of Samuel Appleton.*". Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
^ There is some speculation on the actual date of birth of the patriarch of the Bates family, with many agreeing on the
^ "Benjamin Bates, Sr". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
^ "Benjamin Bates, Jr". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
^ Sarah Bradlee Fulton
^ Quinn, Bradleeq. "Sarah Bradlee". Boston Tea Party Museum. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
^ Quinn, Bradlee. "David Bradlee". Internet Archive. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
^ History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Solomon Lincoln Jr., Caleb Gill, Jr. and Farmer and Brown, Hingham, 1827
^ History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Solomon Lincoln, Jr., Caleb Gill, Jr. and Farmer and Brown, Hingham, Mass., 1827
^ Perkins, Geo. A. (George Augustus), "Some of the descendants of Jonathan Fabens of Marblehead", 1881. Online at https://archive.org/details/someofdescendant1881perk
^ Perkins
^ Perkins
^ William Chandler Fabens https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118960395
^ Perkins
^ Capt Samuel Augustus Fabens http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fabens&GSiman=1&GSst=21&GRid=118950243&&
^ Perkins
^ Perkins
^ "History of Fabens, Texas". Fabens Independent School District http://www.fabensisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=337295&type=d&pREC_ID=744789
^ George Wilson Fabens http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fabens&GSiman=1&GSst=21&GRid=118950132&
^ Hall, Alexandra [2009]. The New Brahmins. Boston Magazine Archived August 31, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
^ http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0057
^ John J. Waters, The Otis Family in Provincial and Revolutionary Massachusetts (U. of North Carolina Press, 1968)
^ https://www.geni.com/people/Peter-Palfrey/6000000001784716766
^ https://www.geni.com/projects/Early-Families-of-Salem-Massachuetts/7146
^ https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/mmm.html
^ https://guides.library.harvard.edu/hds/john-gorham-palfrey/hds/john-gorham-pafrey/home
^ https://guides.library.harvard.edu/hds/john-gorham-palfrey/hds
^ https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-1962-08-31-C.aspx
^ http://www.wikicu.com/John_Gorham_Palfrey
^ https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/news/a3371/class-rebel/
^ https://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorgan/about/history/month/apr
^ Robert Moody, The Saltonstall Papers, 1607–1815: Selected and Edited and with Biographies of Ten Members of the Saltonstall Family in Six Generations. Vol. 1, 1607–1789 vol 2 1791–1815 (1975).
^ Malcolm Freiberg, "The Winthrops and Their Papers", Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, 1968, Vol. 80, pp 55–70
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