1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world
3.
American Revolution
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The British responded by imposing punitive laws on Massachusetts in 1774 known as the Coercive Acts, following which Patriots in the other colonies rallied behind Massachusetts. Tensions escalated to the outbreak of fighting between Patriot militia and British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the conflict then developed into a global war, during which the Patriots fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress determined King George IIIs rule to be tyrannical and infringing the rights as Englishmen. The Patriot leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, Congress rejected British proposals requiring allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of independence. The British were forced out of Boston in 1776, but then captured and they blockaded the ports and captured other cities for brief periods, but failed to defeat Washingtons forces. After a failed Patriot invasion of Canada, a British army was captured at the Battle of Saratoga in late 1777, a combined American–French force captured a second British army at Yorktown in 1781, effectively ending the war in the United States. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the conflict, confirming the new nations complete separation from the British Empire. The United States took possession of all the territory east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes, with the British retaining control of Canada. Among the significant results of the revolution was the creation of a new Constitution of the United States. Historians typically begin their histories of the American Revolution with the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, the lands west of Quebec and west of a line running along the crest of the Allegheny mountains became Indian territory, temporarily barred to settlement. For the prior history, see Thirteen Colonies, in 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act to restrain the use of paper money which British merchants saw as a means to evade debt payments. Parliament also passed the Sugar Act, imposing customs duties on a number of articles, none did and Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765 which imposed direct taxes on the colonies for the first time. All official documents, newspapers, almanacs, and pamphlets—even decks of playing cards—were required to have the stamps, the colonists did not object that the taxes were high, but because they had no representation in the Parliament. Benjamin Franklin testified in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire, stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime was politically unacceptable. London had to deal with 1,500 politically well-connected British officers who became redundant, in 1765, the Sons of Liberty formed. They used public demonstrations, boycott, violence, and threats of violence to ensure that the British tax laws were unenforceable, in Boston, the Sons of Liberty burned the records of the vice admiralty court and looted the home of chief justice Thomas Hutchinson. Several legislatures called for united action, and nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City in October 1765, moderates led by John Dickinson drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances stating that taxes passed without representation violated their rights as Englishmen. Colonists emphasized their determination by boycotting imports of British merchandise, the Parliament at Westminster saw itself as the supreme lawmaking authority throughout all British possessions and thus entitled to levy any tax without colonial approval
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John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing
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John Hancock
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John Hancock was an American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first, before the American Revolution, Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. Hancock began his career in Boston as a protégé of Samuel Adams. As tensions between colonists and Great Britain increased in the 1760s, Hancock used his wealth to support the colonial cause and he became very popular in Massachusetts, especially after British officials seized his sloop Liberty in 1768 and charged him with smuggling. Although the charges against Hancock were eventually dropped, he has often described as a smuggler in historical accounts. Hancock was one of Bostons leaders during the crisis led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. He served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and as president of Congress, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, Hancock returned to Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Commonwealth, serving in that role for most of his remaining years. He used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788, according to the Gregorian calendar, John Hancock was born on January 23,1737, according to the Julian calendar then in use, the date was January 12,1736. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town eventually became the separate city of Quincy. He was the son of the Reverend John Hancock of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter, as a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1735. The Hancocks lived a life, and owned one slave to help with household work. After Hancocks father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock, Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish. Thomas Hancocks highly successful business made him one of Bostons richest and he and Lydia, along with several servants and slaves, lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, after graduating from the Boston Latin School in 1750, Hancock enrolled in Harvard College and received a bachelors degree in 1754. Upon graduation, he began to work for his uncle, just as the French, Thomas Hancock had close relations with the royal governors of Massachusetts and secured profitable government contracts during the war. John Hancock learned much about his uncles business during these years and was trained for eventual partnership in the firm, Hancock worked hard, but he also enjoyed playing the role of a wealthy aristocrat and developed a fondness for expensive clothes. From 1760 to 1761, Hancock lived in England while building relationships with customers and suppliers, upon returning to Boston, Hancock gradually took over the House of Hancock as his uncles health failed, becoming a full partner in January 1763. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762, which connected him with many of Bostons most influential citizens
6.
James Bowdoin
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James Bowdoin II was an American political and intellectual leader from Boston, Massachusetts, during the American Revolution and the following decade. He initially gained fame and influence as a wealthy merchant and he served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court from the 1750s to the 1770s. Although he was supportive of the royal governors, he opposed British colonial policy. From 1775 to 1777 he served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress executive council and he was elected president of the constitutional convention that drafted the states constitution in 1779, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1780, losing to John Hancock. In 1785, following Hancocks resignation, he was elected governor, due to the large debts of Massachusetts, incurred from the Revolutionary War, Bowdoin ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. During his two years in office the combination of economic conditions and his harsh fiscal policy laid down by his government led to the uprising known as Shays Rebellion. Bowdoin personally funded militia forces that were instrumental in putting down the uprising and his high-handed treatment of the rebels may have contributed to his loss of the 1787 election, in which the populist Hancock was returned to office. In addition to his activities, Bowdoin was active in scientific pursuits. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, Bowdoin College in Maine was named in his honor after a bequest by his son James III. James Bowdoin II was born in Boston to Hannah Portage Bowdoin and James Bowdoin and his grandfather, Pierre Baudouin, was a Huguenot refugee from France. Pierre took his family first to Ireland, then to eastern Massachusetts, James Bowdoin I had a modest inheritance from his parents, but greatly expanded his fathers merchant business and land holdings to become one of the wealthiest men in the province. Young James attended the South Grammar School, then graduated from Harvard College in 1745, when his father died in 1747, he inherited a considerable fortune. He married Elizabeth Erving, daughter of his Harvard roommate, in 1748 and that same year, he went back to Harvard to receive his masters degree. Bowdoin may have met Benjamin Franklin as early as 1743, during his Harvard years, he was educated in the sciences by John Winthrop, and developed an interest in electricity and astronomy. In 1750 Bowdoin traveled to Philadelphia to meet with Franklin, Bowdoin was interested in Franklins experiments on electricity, and Franklin solicited his advice on papers he prepared for submission to the Royal Society. Through the offices of Franklin, some of Bowdoins letters were read to the Society, in 1785 he published a series of memoirs arguing against Isaac Newtons theory that light was transmitted by corpuscles, citing both natural observations and Scripture. Bowdoin maintained a lifelong interest in the sciences, in 1780 he was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as its first president until his death and left the society his library, Bowdoin published not only scientific papers, but poetry in both English and Latin
7.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
8.
Daedalus (journal)
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Dædalus is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1955 as a replacement for the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the volume and numbering system of which it continues. In 1958 it began publication as The Journal of the American Academy of Arts. The journal is published by MIT Press on behalf of the American Academy of Arts, each issue addresses a theme with essays on the arts, sciences, and humanities. Special features include fiction, poetry, and a notes section, the journal is indexed in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index, among others. Official website American Academy of Arts and Sciences
9.
Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman. As a scientist, he was a figure in the American Enlightenment. As an inventor, he is known for the rod, bifocals. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphias fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin earned the title of The First American for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation, in the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat. To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin the most accomplished American of his age, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richards Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, after 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He pioneered and was first president of The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and he organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France, during the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, from 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery from an economic perspective, Franklins father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23,1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15,1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, Mary Morrill, Josiah Franklin had seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683, after her death, Josiah was married to Abiah Folger on July 9,1689 in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their child, was Josiah Franklins fifteenth child and tenth
10.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
11.
Benjamin Thompson
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He served as lieutenant-colonel of the Kings American Dragoons, part of the British Loyalist forces, during the American Revolutionary War. After the end of the war he moved to London, where his talents were recognized when he was appointed a full colonel. A prolific designer, Thompson also drew designs for warships and he later moved to Bavaria and entered government service there, being appointed Bavarian Army Minister and re-organizing the army, and, in 1791, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Thompson was born in rural Woburn, Massachusetts, on March 26,1753, at the age of 13 he was apprenticed to John Appleton, a merchant of nearby Salem. Thompson excelled at his trade, and coming in contact with refined and well educated people for the first time, while recuperating in Woburn in 1769 from an injury, Thompson conducted experiments concerning the nature of heat and began to correspond with Loammi Baldwin and others about them. Later that year he worked for a few months for a Boston shopkeeper and then apprenticed himself briefly, Thompsons prospects were dim in 1772 but in that year they changed abruptly. He met, charmed and married a rich and well-connected heiress named Sarah Rolfe and her father was a minister, and her late husband left her property at Concord, New Hampshire, then called Rumford. They moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and through his wifes influence with the governor, when the American Revolutionary War began Thompson was a man of property and standing in New England and was opposed to the uprising. He was active in recruiting loyalists to fight the rebels and this earned him the enmity of the popular party, and a mob attacked Thompsons house. He fled to the British lines, abandoning his wife, as it turned out, Thompson was welcomed by the British to whom he gave valuable information about the American forces, and became an advisor to both General Gage and Lord George Germain. On the strength of this he arrived in London at the end of the war with a reputation as a scientist, in 1785, he moved to Bavaria where he became an aide-de-camp to the Prince-elector Charles Theodore. He spent eleven years in Bavaria, reorganizing the army and establishing workhouses for the poor and he also invented Rumfords Soup, a soup for the poor, and established the cultivation of the potato in Bavaria. He studied methods of cooking, heating, and lighting, including the costs and efficiencies of wax candles, tallow candles. On Prince Charles behalf he created the Englischer Garten in Munich in 1789 and he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1789. His experiments on gunnery and explosives led to an interest in heat and he devised a method for measuring the specific heat of a solid substance but was disappointed when Johan Wilcke published his parallel discovery first. Thompson next investigated the properties of various materials, including fur, wool. He correctly appreciated that the properties of these natural materials arise from the fact that they inhibit the convection of air. He then made the somewhat reckless, and incorrect, inference that air and, in fact and he further saw this as evidence of the argument from design, contending that divine providence had arranged for fur on animals in such a way as to guarantee their comfort
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Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
13.
Samuel Adams
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Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a cousin to fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious, a graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, at which time Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia which was convened to coordinate a colonial response, Adams returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, where he served in the state senate and was eventually elected governor. Samuel Adams later became a figure in American history. Accounts written in the 19th century praised him as someone who had been steering his fellow colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This view gave way to negative assessments of Adams in the first half of the 20th century, both of these interpretations have been challenged by some modern scholars, who argue that these traditional depictions of Adams are myths contradicted by the historical record. Samuel Adams was born in Boston in the British colony of Massachusetts on September 16,1722, an Old Style date that is sometimes converted to the New Style date of September 27. Adams was one of children born to Samuel Adams, Sr. and Mary Adams in an age of high infant mortality. Adamss parents were devout Puritans and members of the Old South Congregational Church, the family lived on Purchase Street in Boston. Adams was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values in his political career, Samuel Adams, Sr. was a prosperous merchant and church deacon. Deacon Adams became a figure in Boston politics through an organization that became known as the Boston Caucus. The Boston Caucus helped shape the agenda of the Boston Town Meeting, Deacon Adams rose through the political ranks, becoming a justice of the peace, a selectman, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In the coming years, members of the party became known as Whigs or Patriots. The younger Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin School and then entered Harvard College in 1736 and his parents hoped that his schooling would prepare him for the ministry, but Adams gradually shifted his interest to politics. After graduating in 1740, Adams continued his studies, earning a degree in 1743. Adamss life was affected by his fathers involvement in a banking controversy
14.
John Bacon (Massachusetts)
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John Bacon was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. John Bacon was born in Canterbury, Connecticut on April 5,1738, upon graduating from Princeton College he spent some time preaching in Somerset County, Maryland. On 25 September 1771 he and Mr. John Hunt were appointed as colleague pastors over the Old South Church in Boston, Bacon ran into difficulties with his congregation over doctrinal issues and his preaching style, which was described as argumentative. He was dismissed from the Old South Church on 8 February 1775, after leaving the church Bacon moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. He served as a Magistrate, Representative, Associate and Presiding Judge of the Common Please, Member and President of the State Senate, and Member of Congress. Bacon married Elizabeth, the widow of Alexander Cumming and daughter of Ezekiel Goldthwait, Register of the Deeds for Suffolk County, Bacon is interred in the Stockbridge Cemetery. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, John Bacon at Find a Grave
15.
John Clarke (Congregationalist minister)
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John Clarke was a minister of the First Church in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on April 13,1755, to John Clarke and he was educated at the Boston Public Latin School and Harvard University. He joined the ministry of Bostons First Church in January 1778 and he was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. He was associated with the Boston Library Society, the Humane Society of Massachusetts, Clarke married Esther Orne, they had four children. He died in Boston on April 2,1798, occasioned by his disingenuous reflexions upon a certain pamphlet, entitled, Salvation for all men. A sermon delivered at the church in Brattle-Street, January 2,1784, at the interment of the Rev. Samuel Cooper, D. D. who expired, a discourse, delivered at the First Church in Boston, February 15,1787. At the interment of the Rev. Charles Chauncy, D. D and its Senior Pastor, who expired, Feb.10,1787. A discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the semi-annual meeting, an answer to the question, why are you a Christian. A discourse, delivered at the First Church in Boston, April 19,1795, letters to a student in the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Sermons by the late Reverend John Clarke, D. D. Minister of the First Church in Boston, Massachusetts, history of the First Church in Boston, 1630–1880
16.
David Cobb (Massachusetts)
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David Cobb was a Massachusetts physician, military officer, jurist, and politician who served as a U. S. Congressman for Massachusettss at-large congressional seat, born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on September 14,1748, Cobb graduated from Harvard College in 1766. He studied medicine in Boston and afterward practiced in Taunton, Massachusetts and he was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. He was elected to the Third United States Congress and his remains were interred in Plain Cemetery. Cobb was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814, in 1976, David Cobb was honored by being on a postage stamp for the United States Postal Service. Porter, Joseph Whitcomb, Memoir of Gen. David Cobb and family of Gouldsborough, Maine, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
17.
Samuel Cooper (clergyman)
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Samuel Cooper was a Congregational minister in Boston, Massachusetts, affiliated with the Brattle Street Church. He was born in Boston to William Cooper and Judith Sewall, attended the Boston Latin School and he was ordained as a minister on May 21,1746, and served as pastor of the Brattle Street Church, 1747-1783. Members of his parish at the Brattle St, Church included some of the most influential people of the American Revolution, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, John Adams, and others. He corresponded with Benjamin Franklin, Charles Hector dEstaing, Gideon Hawley, Charles Gravier de Vergennes, in 1780, he co-founded the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as chaplain to the General Court 1758-1770 and 1777-1783, around 1783 Harvard College offered Cooper the position of college president, but Cooper declined. In September 1746 he married Judith Bulfinch, they had two daughters, a portrait of Cooper by John Singleton Copley now resides in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A sermon preached to the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company in Boston, New-England, June 3,1751, Boston, Printed by J. Draper for J. Edwards. A sermon preached in Boston, New-England before the Society for Encouraging Industry, Boston, Printed by J. Draper, for D. Henchman, in Cornhill,1753. 1756 Being the anniversary for the election of His Majestys of the Council for the said province, Boston, New-England, Printed by Green and Russell, by order of the Honourable House of Representatives. Boston massacucetts New-England, Printed by Green & Russell, and Edes & Gill, by order of His Excellency the governour, a sermon preachd April 9,1760, at the ordination of the Reverend Mr. Joseph Jackson, to the pastoral care of the church of Brooklin. Boston, New-England, Printed by John Draper,1760, Boston, Printed by John Draper, printer to His Excellency the governor and the Honorable His Majestys Council,1761. A discourse on the man of sin, delivered in the chapel of Harvard College, in Cambridge, New-England, Boston, Printed and sold at Greenleafs printing-office, in Hanover-Street,1774. Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Printed by T. and J. Fleet, Cooper was a direct ancestor on my mothers side - her father was named after him - Marvin Cooper Taylor. He made his corrections and suggested changes in the margins of the rough draft - many of which were adopted in the final version and they are now in major university collections and at Williamsburg. An Elegy, sacred to the memory of the divine, the Reverend and learned Dr. Samuel Cooper. Boston, Printed and sold by E. Russell, in Essex-Street, the Justice of Americas Cause, Revolutionary Rhetoric in the Sermons of Samuel Cooper. The New England Quarterly, Vol.50, No, the New England Quarterly, Vol.50, No. Religion and the American Revolution, Samuel Cooper and the Brattle Street Church, the William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol.35, No
18.
Thomas Cushing
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Thomas Cushing III was an American lawyer, merchant, and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in Boston politics, he represented the city in the assembly from 1761 to its dissolution in 1774. Because of his role as speaker, his signature was affixed to many documents protesting British policies, Cushing represented Massachusetts in the First and Second Continental Congresses, but was voted out when he opposed independence. Despite this, he remained active after independence, continuing to serve in the state government. During the war he was a responsible for provisioning the military. He was elected the states first Lieutenant Governor in 1780, Thomas was born in Boston, the capital of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, on March 24,1725, the second of at least seven children. The Cushing family, with roots in the province, descends from Deacon Matthew Cushing who emigrated from Norfolk, England. Thomas father, also named Thomas, was one of the citys wealthiest merchants, a member of the Old South Church. Thomas Sr. was a frequent moderator of town meetings, and he served in the General Court of Massachusetts from 1731 to 1747, and as its speaker after 1742. His mother, Mary Cushing was also from a prominent Boston family, Thomas got his early education at the Boston Latin School, and then attended Harvard, where he graduated in 1744. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, after which he entered the merchant business. On October 1,1747, he married Deborah Fletcher, with whom he had five children, in 1753 Cushing entered politics, winning election as a Boston selectman. He continued in office until 1763, and was also elected to the General Court in 1761. He became politically associated with Samuel Adams and John Hancock, in part through his attendance at political discussions in Bostons taverns, with Hancock in particular he eventually formed a lifelong relationship in which the charismatic Hancock was always seen to be the dominant political personality. He contributed financially to some of Hancocks political spending, although he preferred to stand in the background, because of this his political opponents in later years often characterized him as little more than Hancocks henchman or proxy. When the French and Indian War came to an end in 1763 the British government sought to recover the costs of posting troops in the colonies by imposing taxes on the colonies. Cushing was an opponent of these taxes, couching his opposition in economic terms. John Adams wrote of Cushing that is steady and constant and busy in the interest of liberty and the opposition, in May 1766 Cushing was chosen to be speaker of the assembly
19.
William Cushing
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William Cushing was one of the original six associate justices of the United States Supreme Court, from September 27,1789, until his death. He was the longest-serving of the Courts original members, sitting on the bench for 20 years,351 days, in 1796 he was nominated by George Washington to become the third Chief Justice, but declined. He was also the last judge in the United States to wear a full wig, Cushing was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, on March 1,1732. The Cushing family had a history in the area, settling Hingham in 1638. Cushings father John Cushing was a magistrate who in 1747 became an associate justice of the Superior Court of Judicature. William Cushings grandfather John Cushing was also a court judge. Cushings mother, Mary Cotton Cushing, was a daughter of Josiah Cotton and they were descended from Rev. John Cotton, the great 17th century Puritan theologian. Josiah Cotton and Richard Fitzgerald, a teacher at a local Latin school, were responsible for young Cushings early education, Cushing graduated from Harvard College in 1751 and became a member of the bar of Boston in 1755. After briefly practicing law in Scituate, he moved to Pownalborough, in 1762 he was called to become a barrister, again the first in Maine. He practiced law until 1772, when he was appointed by Governor Thomas Hutchinson to replace his father on the Superior Court bench, Cushing did not express any opinion on the matter, but declined the crown payment in preference to a provincial appropriation. After the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, consequently, it essentially dissolved the Superior Court and reformed it in November 1775. Of all its justices, Cushing was the one retained. The congress offered the seat of Chief Justice first to John Adams, but he never sat, the provincial congress appointed Cushing to be the courts first sitting Chief Justice in 1777. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. He would sit as Massachusetts Chief Justice until 1789, during which period the court ruled in 1783 that slavery was irreconcilable with the new state constitution, and it was ended in the state. In 1783, Cushing presided over a series of cases involving Quock Walker and this was taken to mean that slavery was incompatible with the state constitution ratified in 1779, and that slavery was therefore ended in the state. The case relied on a 1781 freedom suit brought by slave Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mum Bett, on the same grounds, during Shays Rebellion, Cushing ensured that court sessions continued, despite the aggressive protests of the armed rebels, and later presided over their trials. A year later, in 1788, he served as president of the Massachusetts convention
20.
Tristram Dalton
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Tristram Dalton was an American politician and merchant from Massachusetts. He served a term as one of the first United States Senators. He was for years one of the leading citizens of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Tristram Dalton was born in a part of Newbury, Massachusetts that is now Newburyport and he attended Dummer Academy in Byfield, and graduated from Harvard College in 1755, in a class that also included John Adams. Afterwards, he studied law and was admitted to the bar, daltons father was a ships captain turned merchant, involved in trade with Europe and the West Indies, and was instrumental in securing the separation of Newburyport from Newbury. Upon his fathers death in 1770, Tristram inherited an estate, Dalton was not significantly involved in politics until 1774, when the tensions of the American Revolution were rising but the American Revolutionary War had not yet started. He was elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the Newburyport board of selectmen in 1774 and his contributions included provisioning of ships from his merchant fleet to the Penobscot Expedition of 1780. Dalton served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1782 to 1785 and he served as a Massachusetts state senator from 1786 to 1788. Dalton was elected to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784 and he was elected as a delegate to the state convention on the adoption of the United States Constitution, in which he advocated for its adoption. In 1788 he was elected as one of the states first United States Senators, Strong won the draw for the longer of the two terms, leaving Dalton with a short two-year term. He served from March 4,1789 to March 4,1791, in the 1791 election, Dalton ran a distant fourth against George Cabot, the eventual victor, and others. Dalton had married Ruth Hooper, the daughter of a wealthy Marblehead merchant and they had grown fond of the city life in New York City, and moved there, and then Philadelphia. When the site of the capital was selected, Dalton sold off most of his property in Massachusetts. Many of the personal items were lost when the ship carrying them to Washington foundered. Daltons investment was also a failure, as Washington real estate did not appreciate, in order to make ends meet, Dalton was given a patronage appointment as surveyor of the port of Boston, serving from November 1814 until his death on May 30,1817. He is interred in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport, of their ten children, only three girls survived to adulthood. Dalton was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tristram Dalton is the namesake of Dalton, Massachusetts, Dalton, New Hampshire and Dalton, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
21.
Francis Dana
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Francis Dana was an American lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777–1778 and 1784 and he signed the Articles of Confederation. His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Ann Remington and William Ellery and he was also the father-in-law of Washington Allston, a noted painter and poet. Francis was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of lawyer Richard Dana and he was educated at Harvard where he graduated in 1762, then read law and was admitted to the bar, after which he built a successful legal practice in Boston. Being an opponent of the British colonial policy, he became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, in 1775 the Continental Congress dispatched him to England in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the differences leading to the Revolutionary War. This committee spent about three months in camp, and assisted Washington in preparing the plan of reorganization which Congress in the main adopted, in this year, he was also a member of a committee to consider Lord Norths offer of conciliation, which he vigorously opposed. Dana left the Congress to accompany John Adams to Paris as a secretary to the diplomatic delegation, in 1780 he was named as American minister to the Russian Empire, and while he never gained official recognition from Catherine the Great, he remained in St. Petersburg until 1783. After his return, he was elected to the national congress in 1784. In 1785 Dana was appointed to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in 1792, a company was formed to build a bridge to Cambridgeport over the Charles River. This became the West Boston Bridge, later the site of the Longfellow Bridge that exists today, the bridge was opened in November 1793. Dana generally retired from life in 1806. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. His son, Richard Henry Dana, Sr. was an important poet and his grandson, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was a noted lawyer and author who served as U. S. Attorney for Massachusetts and wrote the classic Two Years Before the Mast. Dana died in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is buried in Cambridges Old Burying Ground, Francis Dana, a Puritan diplomat at the court of Catherine the Great. New York, L. MacVeagh, The Dial Press, toronto, Longmans, Green & co,1930 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Dana, Francis. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
22.
Benjamin Guild
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Benjamin Guild was a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century. He ran the Boston Book Store and a subscription library in the 1780s and 1790s at no.59 Cornhill. Born in 1749 to Benjamin Guild and Abigail Graves, Benjamin attended Harvard College, classmates included Theophilus Parsons, Alexander Scammel, Peter Thacher, William Tudor and he later tutored at Harvard, 1776-1780, and travelled abroad. In 1784 he married Betsey Quincy and he served as a charter member and an officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and on the editorial committee of the Boston Magazine. Guild sold books from his shop at no.8 State Street from around 1785 until 1786, in addition to the bookshop, he ran a circulating library, one of the first in post-war Boston. Whether solitary or social -- political or professional -- serious or gay, Guild stipulated that any book lost, abused, leaves folded down, writ upon or torn, must be paid for. After his death in 1792, Guilds bookshop and library were taken over by William P. Blake, among the titles in Guilds circulating library in 1789, Diaries of Benjamin Guild,1776,1778 – via Harvard University, Colonial North American Project
23.
Edward Augustus Holyoke
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Edward Augustus Holyoke was an American educator and physician. Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, son of the Reverend Edward Holyoke and he opened a medical practice in 1748 and practiced for 73 more years, until retiring in 1821. He died in 1829 at the age of 100, surpassing the life expectancy of the time by fifty years. Holyoke was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a founder and president of the Massachusetts Medical Society as well, from 1782 to 1784, the length of his service to the medical practice and his pioneering work in the advancement of smallpox vaccinations have been acknowledged. He died in Salem, Massachusetts at age 100, memoir of Edward A. Holyoke, M. D. From the Digital Collections of the National Library of Medicine
24.
Jonathan Jackson (politician)
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Jonathan Jackson was an American merchant from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was a delegate for Massachusetts in the Continental Congress, Jonathan Jackson was born in 1743 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Edward Jackson and Dorothy Quincy Jackson and he graduated from Harvard in 1761 and then moved to Newburyport to take up a mercantile career. Jackson first served as an apprentice to another merchant, Patrick Tracy, by 1765 he had entered business on his own as a shipper and importer. He became prosperous and in 1772 he married his mentors daughter, shortly after he went into a partnership with his wifes brothers, John and Nathaniel Tracy. The firm of Jackson, Tracy, & Tracy failed during the revolution, so, after 1782, Jonathan took a series of salaried jobs. In 1780 Jackson joined John Hancock and other community leaders in the founding of the American Academy of Arts, despite his dependence on foreign trade, Jackson became a supporter of the American Revolution. He converted some of his merchant ships to privateers, in 1775 he was elected to the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. He became a member of the states Committee of Correspondence and headed the Essex County Committee of Safety, Jackson was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1777. He attended the states Constitutional Convention in 1779, then in 1782, Massachusetts sent him as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress. But, by time his financial reverses made him take a job. Eventually Jackson was able to combine his need for employment with his desire for public service, in this period, elected positions generally had no pay. He served as the first U. S, marshal for the district of Massachusetts, then as a federal Supervisor of Revenue from 1792 until 1801. Jackson served as Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1802 to 1806 and he was president of the Boston Bank, which later became the First National Bank of Boston. When he died in Boston in 1810, he was buried in the Old Granary Burying Ground there, Jonathan Jackson and Hannah Tracy had nine children. Their daughter, Hannah, married the manufacturer Francis Cabot Lowell and their son Charles Jackson went on to serve on the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Their son James Jackson became a physician and co-founded Massachusetts General Hospital, Jonathan Jacksons great-grandsons included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who served on the U. S. Supreme Court. In the 2004 elections, both George W. Bush and John Kerry published a genealogy in which they claimed Jackson as an ancestor, biographic sketch at U. S. Congress website Biography at U. S. Marshalls website Jonathan Jackson at Find a Grave
25.
Levi Lincoln Sr.
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Levi Lincoln Sr. was an American revolutionary, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A Democratic-Republican, he most notably served as Thomas Jeffersons first Attorney General and he served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, acting as Governor for the remainder of Governor James Sullivans term after his death in December 1808. Lincoln was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected governor in his own right in 1809, born in Hingham, Massachusetts, Lincoln was educated at Harvard, and studied law with Joseph Hawley before establishing a law practice in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was active in politics, and participated in the convention that drafted the Massachusetts Constitution in 1779. He supported Quock Walker, a former slave seeking confirmation of his freedom under that constitution in 1783 and he entered national politics with his election to the United States House of Representatives in 1800, but was immediately tapped by Jefferson to become Attorney General. Lincoln served Jefferson as a consultant on the politics of New England and he served on a commission that resolved claims emanating from the Yazoo land scandal in Georgia, and advised Jefferson on matters related to the Louisiana Purchase. He returned to Massachusetts, where he remained active in the state. He established Republican dominance in Worcester, even though the state was dominated by Federalists and he was elected lieutenant governor under James Sullivan in 1807, but failed to win election in his own right in 1809 in a highly partisan election. He retired from politics in 1811, declining nomination to the Supreme Court because of his health and his descendants were a major influence in Worcester for much of the 19th century. Lincoln was born in Hingham, on May 15,1749, to Enoch and his father first apprenticed him to a local blacksmith, but the boys lack of interest in that business and clear interest in reading led to his eventual enrollment in Harvard College. He graduated in 1772, and studied law under Joseph Hawley in Northampton, Lincoln did not stay long, and soon returned to Northampton, where he passed the bar. He established a practice in Worcester in 1775, where his business flourished because most of the Worcester lawyers had been Loyalist and had fled to Boston. From 1775 to 1781, he served as clerk of the court and probate judge of Worcester County and he was elected in 1779 to the state convention that drafted the state constitution. During these years, Lincoln rose in prominence to one of the largest landowners in Worcester. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. In 1781, Lincoln was one of the lawyers who worked on a series of legal cases surrounding Quock Walker, one of the cases, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison, firmly established that slavery was incompatible with the new state constitution. He was also elected to the Continental Congress in 1781, Lincoln was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1796, and to both the House and State Senate in 1797, he chose to sit in the Senate. At first a weak Federalist, Lincoln became more associated with the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party
26.
John Lowell
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John Lowell was an American lawyer, selectman, jurist, delegate to the Congress of the Confederation and federal judge. Known within his family as “The Old Judge, ” distinguishing him from the proliferation of Johns, John Lowell, his descendants, and many other well established New England families defined American life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. John Lowells ancestor, Percival, a merchant, came from Bristol, England, to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1639, and his father, John, was the first minister of Newburyport, where he officiated 1726-67. The minister married Sarah Champney, and “The Old Judge” was their second son and he was the only child to survive infancy. John was among the generation in the Lowell family to be born in the New World. Like his father before him, Lowell graduated at the age of 17, John was admitted to the bar in 1763 and soon established his law practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Lowell married his first wife, Sarah, sister of Stephen Higginson and sister-in-law of Elizabeth Cabot, John and Sarah had three children, Anna Cabot, John Lowell, Jr. and Sarah Champney Lowell. Lowells wife Sarah died on May 5,1772, Lowell married his second wife, Susanna, daughter of Francis Cabot and Mary Fitch, on May 31,1774. Together they had two children, Francis Cabot and Susanna Cabot, Francis Cabot became a leader and innovator in American industry, the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, is named in his honor. Descendants of Francis Cabot include businessman and philanthropist John Lowell, Jr. federal judge Francis Cabot Lowell, Susanna died on March 30,1777. On December 25,1778, John married his wife, Rebecca, widow of James Tyng and daughter of Judge James Russell. John and Rebecca had four children, Rebecca Russell, Charles Russell, Mary and his great-great-grandson was the poet Robert Lowell. and U. S. Supreme Court Justice and Civil War hero Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Other notable children of the daughters and granddaughters of John Lowell include mathematician Julian Lowell Coolidge, after establishing his law practice in Newburyport in 1763, Lowell served as a town Selectman in 1771–1772,1774 and 1776. In the spring of 1774 he signed addresses complimenting royal governors Thomas Hutchinson and Thomas Gage, thereafter, Lowell was an enthusiastic patriot and served for a time as a lieutenant of the Massachusetts militia. In 1776, he was elected Representative to the General Court from Newburyport and, in 1778, Lowell elected to the same post from Boston. Lowell was chosen to be a member of the convention that was tasked with framing the Massachusetts Constitution in 1779. ”Lowells son, the Rev. Charles Lowell, D. D. wrote in a personal letter eight decades later, “My father introduced into the Bill of Rights the clause by which Slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. In 1782–83, Lowell was elected to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Delegate to the Third Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ”Lowell returned to Boston with after being elected to serve as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture. In 1784, he was appointed commissioner to settle the dispute between Massachusetts and the State of New York
27.
George Partridge
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George Partridge was an American teacher and politician. He represented Massachusetts as a delegate to the Continental Congress and as a Representative in the U. S. House, Partridge was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts and attended Harvard College, graduating in 1762 and obtaining a masters degree in 1765. He studied theology but never entered the active ministry, instead, he became a school teacher in Kingston, Massachusetts. Of the first meeting of the Provincial Congress, Partridge wrote, Gen. Gage said he had come over with his troops and we soon had his mandate, dissolving the General Court. And in a time we began to ask one another. The worst must come to the worst. Shall we submit to Great Britain, or shall we resist her encroachments to the point of the sword. We will have a Congress at Concord and we will send letters to all the colonies and urge them to send delegates to meet at Philadelphia. We will go to our homes and wake everyone that sleeps, Partridge then served with the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1775 to 1779. In 1779 the legislature named him a delegate to the Continental Congress and he was reappointed continuously until 1785, although he missed the session held in Princeton, New Jersey in 1783. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. When the new government of the United States was installed Partridge was elected to the First United States Congress as a representative of Massachusettss 5th congressional district and he served from March 4,1789 until he resigned on August 14,1790. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814, Partridge died at home in Duxbury in 1828 and is buried in the Mayflower Cemetery there. Upon his death, Partridge bequeathed $10,000 to form a secondary school in Duxbury. This led to the establishment of Patridge Academy which was built on Tremont Street in Duxbury in 1844, the Academy served as the towns only secondary school until the construction of the first Duxbury High School in 1927. Partridge Academy burned in 1933 and its location is now occupied by the Duxbury Town Offices, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
28.
Robert Treat Paine
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Robert Treat Paine was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, best known as a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. He served as the states first attorney general, and served as a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Robert Treat Paine was born in Boston, Massachusetts, British America on March 11,1731 and he was one of five children of the Rev. Thomas Paine and Eunice Paine. His father was pastor of Franklin Road Baptist Church in Weymouth but moved his family to Boston in 1730 and his mother was the daughter of Rev. Samuel Treat, whose father Maj. Robert Treat was one of the principal founders of Newark, New Jersey. The Treat family in particular had a history in the British colonies dating back to the Mayflower. Paine attended the Boston Latin School and at the age of fourteen entered Harvard College and he then was engaged in teaching school for several years back at the Boston Latin and at Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He also attempted a merchant career with journeys to the Carolinas, the Azores and he began the study of law in 1755 with his mothers cousin in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Paine was unsuccessful in gaining a commission in that regiment. When he returned from a military campaign to Lake George, he did some occasional preaching. In 1756 he returned to Boston to continue his legal preparations with Samuel Prat and he first considered establishing his law practice at Portland, but instead in 1761 moved to Taunton, Massachusetts, then back to Boston in 1780. John Adams was opposing counsel, and his arguments won the jurys sway, Paine served in the Massachusetts General Court from 1773 to 1774, in the Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1775, and represented Massachusetts at the Continental Congress from 1774 through 1776. He was Massachusetts Attorney General from 1777 to 1790 and prosecuted the treason trials following Shays Rebellion, in 1780, He was a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He later served as a justice of the supreme court from 1790 to 1804 when he retired. When he died at the age of 83 in 1814 he was buried in Bostons Granary Burying Ground, Robert Treat Paine was a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. When his church, the First Church of Boston, moved into Unitarianism, Paine married Sally Cobb, the daughter of Thomas and Lydia Cobb and a sister of General David Cobb, on March 15,1770. She was born May 15,1744 and died June 6,1816 and they were the parents of eight children, Robert Paine, b. December 9,1773, name changed by law in 1801 to Robert Treat Paine, June 8,1814, m. Olive Lyman, daughter of Theodore Lyman. Robert Bob Treat Paine III, Zoologist A statue of Paine by Richard E. Brooks was erected at Tauntons Church Green in 1904, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
29.
Samuel Phillips Jr.
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Samuel Phillips Jr. Merchant, manufacturer and patriot, Phillips is considered a pioneer in American education. Samuel Phillips Jr. was born in Andover, Massachusetts, a graduate of Governor Dummer Academy in 1767, and Harvard College in 1771, Phillips was a very active and able member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1780. For a short period before his death, Phillips also served as the fifth Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, in November 1789 he escorted newly elected President George Washington on his progress through Massachusetts to Concord. Beginning in 1775, Phillips aided the cause by producing gunpowder for Washingtons troops at a mill on the Shawsheen River in Andover. Though plagued by difficulties, the mill remained active into the 1790s. During this period, Phillips also ran a mill in Andover. In the midst of the Revolution, and with backing from his father and his uncle, Dr. John Phillips. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. Like the rest of his family and many Massachusetts patriots, Samuel Phillips Jr. was a strict Calvinist, but he was also a practical visionary concerned about the improvement of society. From the first, financial aid scholarships were part of the program of Phillips Academy, This Seminary shall be equally open to Youth, with requisit qualification. The Governors Academy Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Academy Andover Allis, Frederick S. Jr, Youth from Every Quarter, A Bicentennial History of Phillips Academy, Andover
30.
Theodore Sedgwick
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He served as the fourth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1802, born in West Hartford, Connecticut, Sedgwick was the son of Benjaman Sedgwick. His paternal immigrant ancestor Major General Robert Sedgwick arrived in 1636 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sedgwick attended Yale College, where he studied theology and law. He did not graduate, but went on to law under the attorney Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington Sedgwick was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army as a major, and took part in the expedition to Canada and the Battle of White Plains in 1776. As a relatively young lawyer, Sedgwick and Tapping Reeve pleaded the case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley, Bett was a black slave who had fled from her master, Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, because of cruel treatment by his wife. Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys, the attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780, which held that all men are born free and equal. The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free, the decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court. Bett marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman, and she chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household and she worked there for much of the rest of her life, buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown. After Freemans death, the Sedgwicks buried her at Stockbridge Cemetery in the Sedgwick Pie, the family marked Freemans grave with an inscribed monument, and it is beside that of their fourth child, writer Catharine Maria. A Federalist, Sedgwick began his career in 1780 as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was elected as representative to the house, and then as state senator. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. In 1789 Sedgwick was elected as Representative to Congress from Massachusetts first congressional district and that year he was elected to the United States Senate, and served until 1799. In 1799 he was re-elected as a Representative, this time from the fourth district, in 1802, Sedgwick was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He held this position until his death, around 1767, Sedgwick married Elizabeth Eliza Mason, the daughter of a deacon from Franklin, Connecticut. In 1771, Sedgwick contracted smallpox which he passed on to his wife who was pregnant with the couples first child. She died of the disease on April 12,1771 while eight months pregnant, Sedgwick married a second time on April 17,1774 to Pamela Dwight of the New England Dwight family
31.
Caleb Strong
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Caleb Strong was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician who served as the sixth and tenth Governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. A leading member of the Massachusetts Federalist Party, his political success delayed the decline of the Federalists in Massachusetts, a successful Northampton lawyer prior to 1774, Strong was politically active in the rebel cause during the American Revolutionary War. He played a role in the development of the United States Constitution at the 1788 Philadelphia Convention. He also played a role in the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Although he sought to retire from politics after losing the 1807 governors race and he refused United States Army requests that state militia be placed under army command, and in 1814 sought to engage Nova Scotia Governor John Coape Sherbrooke in peace talks. The state and federal governments weak defense of Massachusetts northern frontier during Strongs tenure contributed to the drive for Maines statehood. Caleb Strong was born on January 9,1745, in Northampton and he received his early education from Rev. Samuel Moody, and entered Harvard College in 1760, graduating four years later with high honors. He was shortly thereafter afflicted with smallpox, which blinded him. He studied law with Joseph Hawley, was admitted to the bar in 1772, Hawley was also a political mentor, shaping Strongs views on relations between the colonies and Great Britain. Strong and Hawley were both elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1774, when the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Strong was unable to serve in the military because of his damaged sight, but he was otherwise active in the Patriot cause. He served on the Northampton Committee of Safety and in local offices. He was a delegate to the 1779 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, and was elected to the committee drafted the state constitution. He then served on the first governors council and in the senate from 1780 to 1789. Strongs legal practice thrived during the war years, and was one of the most successful in Hampshire County. He became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1775, and was appointed county attorney of Hampshire County the following year, on more than one occasion he was offered a seat on the states supreme court, but rejected the position on account of its inadequate salary. Strong was described by a contemporary as meticulously detailed in his preparation of legal paperwork, in 1781 Strong was one of the lawyers who worked on a series of legal cases surrounding Quock Walker, a former slave seeking to claim his freedom. One of the cases, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison, Strong was elected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the U. S. A committed Federalist, Strong opposed the idea of the Electoral College as a means of electing the president, although he initially opposed proposals that the number of senators should be equal for all states, he eventually changed his mind, enabling passage of the Connecticut Compromise
32.
James Sullivan (governor)
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James Sullivan was a lawyer and politician in Massachusetts. He was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, served as the states attorney general for many years. Sullivan was born and raised in Berwick, Maine, and studied law with his brother John and he was involved in drafting the state constitution and the states ratifying convention for the United States Constitution. After resigning from the bench in 1782 he returned to private practice, during his years as judge and attorney general he was responsible for drafting and revising much of the states legislation as part of the transition from British rule to independence. While attorney general he worked with the commission established the border between Maine and New Brunswick, and prosecuted several high-profile murder cases. Sullivan was a partisan, supporting the Democratic-Republican Party and subscribing to Jeffersonian republican ideals. He supported John Hancock and Samuel Adams in their political careers and he ran unsuccessfully for governor several times before finally winning the office in 1807. He died in office during his second term, in addition to his political pursuits Sullivan engaged in charitable and business endeavors. He was a proponent of the Middlesex Canal and the first bridge between Boston and Cambridge, and was instrumental in the development of Bostons first public water supply. He was the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He wrote one of the first histories of his native Maine, Legal historian Charles Warren calls him one of the most important legal figures of the time in Massachusetts. James Sullivan was born on April 22,1744, the son of John Sullivan and Margery Brown Sullivan, in Berwick. Sullivans father was from County Limerick, and his mother was a child aboard the ship on which they came over, when she was older he wooed and wed her. The elder Sullivan was a schoolteacher and farmer in Berwick, Sullivan was educated at home, and any prospects for military service were dashed when his foot was crushed in a childhood accident. He was also afflicted with epilepsy while relatively young, and suffered generally mild seizures for the rest of his life, while convalescing from his foot injury he read a great deal, learning Latin and the classics. His elder brother John, who was studying law, was instructed to supply his brother with law books, Sullivan studied law in his brothers law practice in Durham, New Hampshire, and was eventually admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. He established a practice first in Georgetown, then afterward in Biddeford. In 1768 he married Hetty Odiorne, the daughter of a successful Portsmouth, Sullivans law practice flourished, and by the time he was 30, he was one of York Countys leading citizens
33.
Cotton Tufts
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Cotton Tufts was a Massachusetts physician. He was a cousin of John Adams and he was the grandson of Peter Tufts, who emigrated to the United States in 1654. Cotton graduated from Harvard in 1749, studied medicine, and settled at Weymouth and he was one of the original members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, its president 1787-1795, and one of the founders of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780. In 1765 he wrote spirited and patriotic instructions to the representatives of Weymouth against the Stamp Act. He was a representative of the state and a councillor, for years an active member of the state senate. On April 19,1775, British forces were returning to Boston from the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on their march they were continually shot at by colonial militiamen. Dr. Cotton Tufts did nothing to save the life of Samuel Whittemore who at the time was 78 years old and fought against the British in what is now Arlington, Massachusetts on April 19,1775. Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols and killed a grenadier and mortally wounded a second, by the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment reached his position, Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was shot in the face, bayoneted thirteen times, and he was found alive, trying to load his musket to fight again. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival, however, Whittemore lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 96. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John
34.
James Warren (politician)
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James Warren was the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and a Paymaster General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, among other positions. He is also famous as the husband of Mercy Otis Warren, James Warren was born, raised and died in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was descended from Mayflower passengers Richard Warren and Edward Doty, Warren graduated from Harvard in 1745, and in 1747 succeeded his father as sheriff of Plymouth County, Massachusetts. In 1754 Warren married his second cousin Mercy Otis Warren, who like him was also descended from Edward Doty, the couple had five sons, James, Winslow, Charles, Henry, and George. Mercy Warren was the daughter of James Otis and sister of Warrens firebrand lawyer friend James Otis, Jr. as well as a historian, poet and playwright. She hosted political meetings in their home, and also known for her correspondence, including with Abigail Adams, John Adams. With her husbands support Mercy Warren, published at least two plays, The Adulateur and The after the war, a volume of poetry and History of the American Revolution. A farmer and merchant as well as trained as a lawyer and he began a twelve-year term in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court in 1766, and was elected its speaker in 1775. Following the colonys break from Britain, in 1776 Warren was elected a member of the Provincial Congress, a member of the Sons of Liberty, Warren worked closely with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, and with Samuel and John Adams. Warren was more prominent in the days of the Revolution than in the war itself. He fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and after Dr. Joseph Warren died in that engagement, Warren also served as Paymaster General of the Continental Army from 1776, and on the Naval Board. He thus worked closely with George Washington throughout the conflict, claiming illness, he refused to accept command in Rhode Island, then resigned his state commission in 1777. His duties within mostly British-occupied Massachusetts meant Warren took no part in battles after military action moved away from Boston, however, his son U. S. Navy Lieutenant James Warren Jr. lost a leg in a naval engagement. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts. After the Revolutionary War, Warren became controversial as an Anti-Federalist, both he and Mercy submitted essays to the local newspaper as Helvitius Priscus. Mercy Warren also wrote a pamphlet under the pen-name A Columbian Patriot, however, their political stance put them at odds with some of Bostons mercantile elite, including Governor John Hancock, and his former ally Samuel Adams. James Warren is buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts and their son Lieutenant Winslow Warren, is buried in Ohio. Other sons became distinguished doctors, lawyers and merchants in Boston and their great-great grandson, Charles Warren became a distinguished lawyer and historian
35.
Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, Jefferson was primarily of English ancestry, born and educated in colonial Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law and he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nations first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System, as President, Jefferson pursued the nations shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the countrys territory, as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. Jeffersons second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory. Jefferson mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and he was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jeffersons keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society and he shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages and he founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that, after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Various modern scholars are more critical of Jeffersons private life, pointing out the discrepancy between his ownership of slaves and his political principles, for example. Presidential scholars, however, consistently rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13,1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject and his father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children, the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757, his estate was divided between his sons Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello and he assumed full authority over his property at age 21
36.
John James Audubon
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John James Audubon was an American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his extensive studies documenting all types of American birds and his major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America, is considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Audubon was born in Les Cayes in the French colony of Saint-Domingue on his fathers sugarcane plantation and he was the son of Lieutenant Jean Audubon, a French naval officer from the south of Brittany, and his mistress Jeanne Rabine, a 27-year-old chambermaid from Les Touches, Brittany. They named the boy Jean Rabin and his mother died when the boy was a few months old, as she had suffered from tropical disease since arriving on the island. His father already had an number of mixed-race children, some by his mulatto housekeeper. Following Jeanne Rabins death, Jean Audubon renewed his relationship with Sanitte Bouffard and had a daughter by her, Bouffard also took care of the infant boy Jean. The senior Audubon had commanded ships, during the American Revolution, he had been imprisoned by Britain. After his release, he helped the American cause and he had long worked to save money and secure his familys future with real estate. In 1791 he arranged for his natural children Jean and Muguet, the children were raised in Couëron, near Nantes, France, by Audubon and his French wife Anne Moynet Audubon, whom he had married years before his time in Saint-Domingue. In 1794 they formally adopted both his children to regularize their legal status in France. They renamed the boy Jean-Jacques Fougère Audubon and the girl Rose, when Audubon, at age 18, boarded ship in 1803 to immigrate to the United States, he changed his name to an anglicized form, John James Audubon. From his earliest days, Audubon had an affinity for birds, I felt an intimacy with them. bordering on frenzy must accompany my steps through life. His father encouraged his interest in nature, He would point out the elegant movement of the birds, and he called my attention to their show of pleasure or sense of danger, their perfect forms and splendid attire. He would speak of their departure and return with the seasons, in France during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and its aftermath, the younger Audubon grew up to be a handsome and gregarious man. He played flute and violin, and learned to ride, fence, a great walker, he loved roaming in the woods, often returning with natural curiosities, including birds eggs and nests, of which he made crude drawings. His father planned to make a seaman of his son, at twelve, Audubon went to military school and became a cabin boy. He quickly found out that he was susceptible to seasickness and not fond of mathematics or navigation, after failing the officers qualification test, Audubon ended his incipient naval career. He was cheerfully back on solid ground and exploring the fields again, in 1803, his father obtained a false passport so that Audubon could go to the United States to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Wars
37.
Joseph Henry
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Joseph Henry was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the secretary for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and he was highly regarded during his lifetime. While building electromagnets, Henry discovered the phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance independently of Michael Faraday, though Faraday was the first to make the discovery, Henry developed the electromagnet into a practical device. He invented a precursor to the doorbell and electric relay. The SI unit of inductance, the henry, is named in his honor, Henrys work on the electromagnetic relay was the basis of the practical electrical telegraph, invented by Samuel F. B. Morse and Sir Charles Wheatstone, separately. Henry was born in Albany, New York, to Scottish immigrants Ann Alexander Henry and his parents were poor, and Henrys father died while he was still young. For the rest of his childhood, Henry lived with his grandmother in Galway and he attended a school which would later be named the Joseph Henry Elementary School in his honor. After school, he worked at a store, and at the age of thirteen became an apprentice watchmaker. Josephs first love was theater and he came close to becoming a professional actor and his interest in science was sparked at the age of sixteen by a book of lectures on scientific topics titled Popular Lectures on Experimental Philosophy. In 1819 he entered The Albany Academy, where he was free tuition. Even with free tuition he was so poor that he had to himself with teaching. He intended to go into medicine, but in 1824 he was appointed an assistant engineer for the survey of the State road being constructed between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, from then on, he was inspired to a career in either civil or mechanical engineering. Henry excelled at his studies and in 1826 was appointed Professor of Mathematics, some of his most important research was conducted in this new position. His curiosity about terrestrial magnetism led him to experiment with magnetism in general, using this technique, he built the strongest electromagnet at the time for Yale. The latter made the telegraph feasible, because of his early experiments in electromagnetism some historians credit Henry with discoveries pre-dating Faraday and Hertz, however, Henry is not credited due to not publishing his work. Using his newly developed electromagnetic principle, Henry in 1831 created one of the first machines to use electromagnetism for motion and this was the earliest ancestor of modern DC motor. It did not make use of rotating motion, but was merely an electromagnet perched on a pole, rocking back and this apparatus allowed Henry to recognize the property of self inductance
38.
Washington Irving
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Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving served as the U. S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He made his debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle. After moving to England for the business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and just eight months before his death, Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Francis Jeffrey, and Charles Dickens. Washington Irvings parents were William Irving, Sr. originally of Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney and they married in 1761 while William was serving as a petty officer in the British Navy. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood and their first two sons, each named William, died in infancy, as did their fourth child, John. Their surviving children were, William, Jr. Ann, Peter, Catherine, Ebenezer, John Treat, Sarah, and Washington. At age six, with the help of a nanny, Irving met his namesake, the president blessed young Irving, an encounter Irving later commemorated in a small watercolor painting, which still hangs in his home today. The Irvings lived at 131 William Street at the time of Washington Irvings birth, the family later moved across the street to 128 William St. An uninterested student, Irving preferred adventure stories and drama and and it was in Tarrytown that Irving became familiar with the nearby town of Sleepy Hollow, with its quaint Dutch customs and local ghost stories. Irving made several trips up the Hudson as a teenager, including an extended visit to Johnstown, New York, where he passed through the Catskill mountain region. F all the scenery of the Hudson, Irving wrote later, the 19-year-old Irving began writing letters to the New York Morning Chronicle in 1802, submitting commentaries on the citys social and theater scene under the name of Jonathan Oldstyle. The name, which evoked the writers Federalist leanings, was the first of many pseudonyms Irving would employ throughout his career. The letters brought Irving some early fame and moderate notoriety, concerned for his health, Irvings brothers financed an extended tour of Europe from 1804 to 1806. Irving bypassed most of the sites and locations considered essential for the development of an upwardly mobile young man, William wrote that, though he was pleased his brothers health was improving, he did not like the choice to gallop through Italy. Leaving Florence on your left and Venice on your right, instead, Irving honed the social and conversational skills that would later make him one of the worlds most in-demand guests. I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, Irving wrote, while visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with the American painter Washington Allston, and nearly allowed himself to be persuaded into following Allston into a career as a painter
