The Boston Brahmins or New England Brahmin are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Congregationalism and Unitarianism and to a lesser extent Episcopalianism, and traditional British-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists who made their fortunes as merchants are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).
Contents
Etymology
The phrase "Brahmin caste of New England" was coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a physician and writer, in a January 1860 article in The Atlantic Monthly. The term is derived from brahmin, the chief priestly caste in the Hindu caste system. The appropriated term became shorthand to refer to the old, wealthy, and elite New England families of traditionally English Protestant origin that became influential in the development of American institutions and culture. The influence of the old American gentry has been reduced in modern times, but some vestiges remain, primarily in the institutions and the ideals that they championed in their heyday.
Characteristics
The nature of the Brahmins is described in the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Holy Cross alumnus John Collins Bossidy, first recited at a 1910 alumni dinner in the city:
Many 19th-century Brahmin families of large fortune were of common origin, having made their wealth as merchants and financiers; fewer were of an aristocratic origin. The new families were often the first to seek, in typically British fashion, suitable marriage alliances with those old aristocratic New England families descended from landowners in England to elevate and cement their social standing. The Winthrops, Dudleys, Saltonstalls, Winslows, and Lymans (descended from English magistrates, gentry, and aristocracy) were, by and large, happy with this arrangement. All of Boston's "Brahmin elite", therefore, maintained the received culture of the old English gentry, including cultivating the personal excellence that they imagined maintained the distinction between gentlemen and freemen, and between ladies and women. They saw it as their duty to maintain what they defined as high standards of excellence, duty, and restraint. Cultivated, urbane, and dignified, a Boston Brahmin was supposed to be the very essence of enlightened aristocracy. The ideal Brahmin was not only wealthy, but displayed what was considered suitable personal virtues and character traits.
The Brahmin were expected to maintain the customary English reserve in dress, manner, and deportment, cultivate the arts, support charities such as hospitals and colleges, and assume the role of community leaders. Although the ideal called on them to transcend commonplace business values, in practice, many found the thrill of economic success quite attractive. The Brahmins warned each other against avarice and insisted upon personal responsibility. Scandal and divorce were unacceptable. This culture was buttressed by the strong extended family ties present in Boston society. Young men attended the same prep schools, colleges, and private clubs, and heirs married heiresses. Family served both as an economic asset and a means of moral restraint.
Most belonged to the Unitarian or Episcopal churches, although some were Congregationalists or Methodists. Politically, they were successively Federalists, Whigs, and Republicans. They were marked by their manners and distinctive elocution. Their distinctive Anglo-American manner of dress has been much imitated and is the foundation of the style now informally known as preppy. Many of the Brahmin families trace their ancestry back to the original 17th- and 18th-century colonial ruling class consisting of Massachusetts governors and magistrates, Harvard presidents, distinguished clergy, and fellows of the Royal Society of London, a leading scientific body, while others entered New England aristocratic society during the 19th century with their profits from commerce and trade, often marrying into established Brahmin families.
List of Boston Brahmin families
Adams
Samuel Adams (1722–1803), Founding Father; second cousin of:
John Adams (1735–1826), Founding Father and second President of the United States; husband of Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818).
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), sixth President of the United States.
Charles Francis Adams Sr. (1807–1886), Ambassador, U.S. congressman.
Charles Francis Adams Jr. (1835–1915), Civil War general.
John Quincy Adams II (1833–1894), lawyer, politician.
Charles Francis Adams III (1866–1954), U.S. Secretary of the Navy.
Charles Francis Adams IV (1910–1999), industrialist, first president of Raytheon.
Timothy Adams, son of Charles Francis Adams IV.
Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918), author.
Brooks Adams (1848–1927), historian.
Ivers Whitney Adams (1838–1914), founder of the oldest continuously playing professional baseball team, the Boston Red Stockings.
Amory
John Amory Lowell (1798–1881), merchant.
Thomas Coffin Amory (1812–1889), lawyer, author.
Thomas Jonathan Coffin Amory (1828–1864), Civil War general.
Ernest Amory Codman (1869–1940), surgeon.
Cleveland Amory (1917–1998), author.
Appleton
Patrilineal line:
Daniel Appleton (1785–1849), publisher.
Frances Appleton (died 1861), wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
George Swett Appleton (1821–1878), publisher.
Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806–1863), wife of U.S. President Franklin Pierce, was First Lady of the United States from 1853 to 1857.
Jesse Appleton (1772–1819), second president of Bowdoin College
John Appleton (1816–1864), assistant Secretary of State, diplomat, U.S. congressman.
John Appleton (judge) (1804–1891), Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
John F. Appleton (1838–1870), lawyer and Union colonel in the American Civil War.
John James Appleton (1789–1864), ambassador.
Nathan Appleton (1771–1861), U.S. congressman and merchant.
Nathaniel Appleton (1693–1784), Congregational minister.
Samuel Appleton (1625–1696), military and government leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Samuel Appleton (1766–1853), merchant and philanthropist.
Thomas Gold Appleton (1812–1884), writer and art patron.
William Appleton (1786–1862), U.S. congressman.
Bacon
Robert Bacon (1860–1919), U.S. Secretary of State; father of
Robert L. Bacon (1884–1938), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.
Gaspar G. Bacon (1886–1947), politician; father of
Gaspar G. Bacon Jr. (1914–1943), actor.
Bates
Originally from Boston and Britain:
Benjamin Bates I (c. 1651–1710), merchant banker, family patriarch.
Benjamin Bates II (1716 – c. 1820), member of the Hell Fire Club.
Frederick Bates (1777–1825), politician.
James Woodson Bates (1788–1846), judge.
Joshua Bates (financier), Barings Bank partner, managed many Brahmin family fortunes, advised Adams family on Court protocol.
Edward Bates (1793–1869), U.S. Attorney General.
Benjamin Bates IV (1808–1878), philanthropist, namesake and benefactor of Bates College.
Boylston
Boylston Family
Thomas Boylston (1644–1695), doctor, family patriarch.
Zabdiel Boylston (1679–1766), physician.
Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828), benefactor, Harvard University.
Bradlee
Bradlee Family
Direct line:
Nathan Bradley I, earliest known member born in America, in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1631.
Samuel Bradlee, constable of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Nathaniel Bradlee, Boston Tea Party participant, member of Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.
Josiah Bradlee I, Boston Tea Party participant; m. Hannah Putnam.
Josiah Bradlee III (Harvard), m. Alice Crowninshield.
Frederick Josiah Bradlee I (Harvard), Director of the Boston Bank.
Frederick Josiah Bradlee Jr. (Harvard, 1915), on the first All-American football team at Harvard; m. Josephine de Gersdorff.
Frederick Josiah Bradlee III, Broadway actor, author.
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (1921–2014) (Harvard, 1942), Chief Executive Editor of The Washington Post.
Ben Bradlee Jr. (born 1948), journalist and writer.
Joseph Putnam Bradlee (1783–1838), Commander of the New England Guards, chairman of the State Central Committee, Director and then President of the Boston City Council.
Samuel Bradlee Jr., lieutenant colonel during the American Revolutionary War.
Thomas Bradlee, Boston Tea Party participant; member of Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association; Member of the St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons.
Brinley
Brinley Family of Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and Shelter Island, New York:
Francis Brinley, Esq. (1632–1719), arrived from England in 1651 after the English Civil War, with his two sisters, children of Thomas Brinley, auditor to King Charles I&II, his original home became Newport's White Horse Tavern, Judge, book collector, land-owner (RI, MA, NJ), Governor's assistant, m: Hannah Carr (niece of RI Gov. Caleb Carr). Boston estate at Hanover and Elm, current site of Government Center.
William Brinley, Esq. (1656–1704), first son of Francis, Judge in Newport, co-founder of Trinity Church, Newport, first Anglican church in RI, disinherited by father after marriage.
William Brinley, Esq. (1677–1753), only child of Wm. Brinley, Judge in Monmouth, NJ, passed over for younger cousin Francis Brinley.
John Brinley (1713–1775), Brinley grist mill owner in Oakhurst, NJ.
William Brinley (1754–1840), Major in Revolutionary War.
Sylvester C. Brinley (1816–1905), founded Brinley, Ohio (a.k.a. Brinley Station) in 1855.
Thomas Brinley (1661–1693), second son of Francis, Boston/London merchant, co-founder of King's Chapel, Boston, first Anglican church in colonial New England.
Eliakim Hutchinson (1711–1775), Judge, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk County, and one of Boston's richest men, owner of Shirley Place (now Shirley-Eustis House) m:Elizabeth Shirley (daughter of MA Gov William Shirley).
Colonel Francis Brinley (1690–1765): Colonel in Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company, merchant, land-owner (Datchet House/Brinley Place-Roxbury, Brinley Place-Framingham), one of the richest Bostonians of the 18th century, grandfather's heir, m: Deborah Lyde, granddaughter of Judge Nathaniel Byfield.
Buckingham
Originally from Boston and Britain:
William Alfred Buckingham (1804–1875), Governor of Connecticut, U.S. senator.
Edgar Buckingham, Harvard scholar creator of the Buckingham π theorem, a key theorem in dimensional analysis.
Chaffee/Chafee
Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:
Thomas Chaffee (1610–1683), businessman and land-owner.
Jonathon Chaffee (1678–1766), businessman and land-owner.
Matthew Chaffee (1657–1723), Boston land-owner.
Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842–1914), U.S. general.
Adna R. Chaffee Jr. (1884–1941), U.S. general:
Zechariah Chafee (1885–1957), philosopher, civil libertarian.
John Chafee (1922–1999), U.S. senator.
Lincoln Chafee (born 1953), former U.S. senator, former Rhode Island governor, 2016 U.S. presidential candidate for the Democratic party.
Choate
Rufus Choate (1799–1859), U.S. senator
George C. S. Choate (1827–1896), founder of Choate Sanitarium, Pleasantville, New York
Joseph Hodges Choate (1832–1917), lawyer, diplomat
William Gardner Choate (1830–1920), U.S. federal judge, founder of Choate Rosemary Hall
Sarah Choate Sears (1858–1935), art patron
Robert B. Choate Jr. (1924–2009), businessman
Elizabeth Choate Spykman (1896–1965), writer
Nathaniel Choate (1899–1965), artist, sculptor
Coffin
Originally of Newbury and Nantucket:
Tristram Coffin (1604–1681), colonist, original owner of Nantucket
William Coffin (1699–1775), merchant, co-founder of Trinity Church
Sir Isaac Coffin (1759–1839), naval officer
Charles E. Coffin (1841–1912), industrialist, U.S. congressman
Charles A. Coffin (1844–1926), industrialist, co-founder of General Electric
Henry Coffin Nevins (1843–1892), industrialist
John Coffin Jones Sr. (1750–1820), Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
John Coffin Jones Jr. (1796–1861), U.S. Minister to Hawaii
Thomas Coffin Amory (1812–1889), lawyer, author
Thomas Jonathan Coffin Amory (1828–1864), Civil War general
David Coffin (active 1980–present), folk musician
Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge Sr. (1845–1926), politician and businessman
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), 30th President of the United States
John Coolidge (1906–2000), businessman and railroad executive
T. Jefferson Coolidge (1831–1920), Financier, industrialist, and civic leader
Archibald Cary Coolidge (1866–1928), educator
John Gardner Coolidge (1863–1936), U.S. ambassador
Charles A. Coolidge (1844–1926), U.S. Army general
Cooper
John Cooper (1609–1669), colonist
Samuel Cooper (1725–1783), clergyman
Samuel D. Cooper Jr. (1750–1824), revolutionary
Samuel D. Cooper III (1778–1853), trade merchant
Priscilla Cooper Tyler (1816–1889), First Lady of the United States
Theodore Cooper (1839–1919), civil engineer
Frederic Taber Cooper (1864–1937), writer
Crowninshield
Johann Casper Richter von Kronenscheldt, colonist
Jacob Crowninshield (1770–1808), U.S. congressman
Arent S. Crowninshield (1843–1908), U.S. Navy admiral
Caspar Crowninshield (1837–1897), Union Army colonel
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1837–1892), Union Army colonel
Frederic Crowninshield (1845–1918), first president of the National Society of Mural Painters
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1772–1851), 5th U.S. Secretary of Navy
Frank Crowninshield (1872–1947), creator and editor of Vanity Fair
Bowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield (1867–1948), American naval architect
Descendants by marriage:
William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900), 5th U.S. Secretary of War
Frederick Josiah Bradlee Jr. (1892–1970), on the first All-American football team (from Harvard)
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee Sr. (1921–2014), Editor-in-chief of The Washington Post
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee Jr. (born 1948), Editor for The Boston Globe
Josiah Quinn Crowninshield Bradlee (born 1982), author, founder and CEO of IncqludedU.com
Cushing
Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:
Caleb Cushing (1800–1879), U.S. congressman and Attorney General
John Perkins Cushing (1787–1862), China trade merchant, investor
Thomas Cushing (1725–1788), statesman, revolutionary
William Cushing (1732–1810), U.S. Supreme Court justice
Harvey Cushing (1869–1939), neurosurgeon
Descendant by marriage:
Albert Cushing Read (1887–1967), naval officer
Dana
Dana Family
Richard Dana (1699–1772), colonial Boston politician.
Francis Dana (1743–1811), revolutionary.
Richard Henry Dana Sr. (1787–1879), lawyer, author.
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882), lawyer, author (Two Years Before the Mast).
Delano
Delano Family
Columbus Delano (1809–1896), U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Jane Delano (1862–1919), founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service
Paul Delano (1745–1842), naval officer
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), President of the United States
Frederic A. Delano (1863–1953), civic reformer and railroad president
Dudley
Dudley Family
Gov. Thomas Dudley (1576–1653), Governor of Massachusetts, a founder of Harvard College.
Mercy Dudley; m. John Woodbridge (1613–1695)
Martha Woodbridge; m. Samuel Ruggles (1659–1716)
Rev. Timothy Ruggles (1695–1768); m. Mary White
Timothy Ruggles
Nathaniel Ruggles (1725 - ); m. Deliverance Barrow
Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612–1672), first American poet, wife of Royal Governor Simon Bradstreet.
Joseph Dudley (1647–1720), Royal Governor of Massachusetts, President of the Dominion of New England, Chief Justice of New York, Member of Parliament, Lt. Governor of the Isle of Wight.
Paul Dudley (1675–1751), Chief Justice of Massachusetts, member of the Royal Society, founder of the Dudleian lectures at Harvard.
Paul Dudley Sargent (1745–1828), Army colonel and Revolutionary War hero.
Dudley Saltonstall (1738–1796), Naval commodore during the Revolution and successful privateer.
Dwight
Dwight Family
Timothy Dwight IV (1752–1817), president of Yale University.
Joseph Dwight (1703–1765), lawyer, French and Indian War veteran.
James Dwight Dana (1813–1895), geologist.
Eliot
Eliot Family
Samuel Eliot (banker) (1739–1820).
Samuel Atkins Eliot (politician) (1798–1862).
William Greenleaf Eliot (1811–1887), first president, third chancellor, and one of the founders of Washington University in St. Louis.
Charles William Eliot (1834–1926), president of Harvard University.
Charles Eliot (1859–1897), landscape architect.
Samuel A. Eliot II (1862–1950), president of the American Unitarian Association.
Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976), maritime author.
Theodore Lyman Eliot (1928–2019), diplomat.
Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908), author.
T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, and literary critic.
Emerson
Emerson Family
Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), clergyman; m. Ruth Haskins Emerson.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), poet; m. Lydia Jackson Emerson.
Edward Waldo Emerson, (1844–1930).
Raymond Emerson, (1886–1977).
Endicott
Endicott Family
Salem:
William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900), U.S. Secretary of War.
Dedham:
Augustus Bradford Endicott (1818–1910), politician.
Philip Endicott Young (1885–1955), industrialist.
Henry Bradford Endicott (1853–1920), industrialist.
Henry Wendell Endicott (1880–1954), philanthropist.
Everett
Everett Family
Richard Everett (1597–1682), early colonist and native of Holbrook, England. He was a founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, and progenitor of the American Everett family.
Deac. John Everett (1676–1751), early deacon at the First Church and Parish in Dedham and member of the Massachusetts General Court.
John Everett (1736–1799), numerous times elected as selectman for Norfolk County, Massachusetts (1770s–1790s) and member of the Massachusetts General Court (1780s–1790s).
David Everett (1745–1775), revolutionary and killed defending Bunker Hill.
Moses Everett (1750–1813), judge for Norfolk County, Massachusetts and member of the Massachusetts General Court.
Rev. Oliver Everett (1752–1802), prominent Congregational minister and judge for Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
Melatiah Everett (1777–1858), member of the Massachusetts Senate (1812, 1841).
Horace Everett (1779–1851), member of the Vermont House of Representatives (1819–1820, 1822, 1824, 1834) and the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's 3rd congressional district (1829–1843).
Ebenezer Everett (1788–1869), long-time Maine state official, trustee of Bowdoin College, member of the Maine Legislature (1840s).
Alexander Hill Everett (1790–1847), American Ambassador to the Netherlands (1819–1824), Ambassador to Spain (1825), and Ambassador to the Qing Empire (1845–1847).
Edward Everett (1794–1865), statesman and diplomat. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 4th congressional district (1825–1835), Governor of Massachusetts (1836–1840), Ambassador to Great Britain (1841–1845), President of Harvard University (1846–1848), the United States Secretary of State (1852–1853), and a United States Senator for Massachusetts (1853–1854).
Fabens
Of Marblehead and Salem:
William Fabens (1810–1883), lawyer, member of Assembly, Senate.
William Chandler Fabens (1843–1903), Lynn attorney, namesake of Fabens Building.
Samuel Augustus Fabens (1813–1899), master mariner in the East India and California trade.
Francis Alfred Fabens (1814–1872), mercantile businessman, San Francisco judge, attorney.
Joseph Warren Fabens (1821–1875), U.S. Consul at Cayenne, businessman, Envoy Extraordinary of the Dominican Republic.
George Wilson Fabens (1857–1939), attorney, land commissioner and superintendent of Southern Pacific Railroad, namesake of Fabens, Texas.
Forbes
Forbes Family
John Murray Forbes (1813–1898), industrialist.
Edward W. Forbes (1873–1969), Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944.
John Forbes Kerry (born 1943), United States Secretary of State (2013–2017), senator from Massachusetts (1985–2013).
Elliot Forbes (1917–2006), conductor and musicologist.
Robert Bennet Forbes (1804–1889), sea captain, China merchant, ship owner, writer.
William Howell Forbes (1837–1896), businessman.
Beatrice Forbes Manz, professor of history at Tufts University.
Gardner
Gardner Family
Originally of Essex county:
Samuel Pickering Gardner (1767–1843), merchant.
John Lowell Gardner (1808–1884), merchant.
John Lowell Gardner II (1837–1898), merchant.
Augustus P. Gardner (1865–1918), U.S. congressman.
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.
Isabella Gardner (1915–1981), poet.
Gillett
Jonathan Gillett (1609–1677), colonist
Edward Bates Gillett (1817–1899), attorney
Frederick Huntington Gillett (1851–1935), 37th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Arthur Lincoln Gillett (1859–1938), clergyman
Ezra Hall Gillett (1823–1875), clergyman and author
Charles Ripley Gillett (1855–1948), clergyman
Hallowell
Hallowell Family
Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828), merchant and philanthropist
Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839–1914), colonel in the 54th Massachusetts regiment
Norwood Penrose Hallowell Jr. (1875–1961), President of Lee, Higginson & Co.
Edward Needles Hallowell (1836–1871), An officer in the 54th Massachusetts. He and his brother were collectively portrayed by actor Cary Elwes in his role as Major Cabot Forbes in the Civil War movie Glory.
John Hallowell (1878–1927), Harvard Football player and assistant to Herbert Hoover in the United States Food Administration during World War I
Healey/Dall
Mark Healey (1791–1872), originally of New Hampshire, merchant and first president of the Merchant's Bank
Caroline Wells Healey (1822–1912), writer, feminist, and abolitionist
Charles Henry Appleton Dall (1816–1886), first Unitarian minister to India
William Healey Dall (1845–1912), malacologist, paleontologist, and explorer of Alaska
Holmes
Holmes Family
Abiel Holmes (1763–1837), clergyman
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), physician, author
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935), U.S. Supreme Court justice
Jackson
Jackson Family
Edward Jackson (1708–1757), colonist; m. Dorothy Quincy Jackson
Jonathan Jackson (1743–1810), merchant, revolutionary; m. Hannah Tracy Jackson
Charles Jackson (1775–1855), Massachusetts Supreme Court justice
James Jackson (1777–1867), Physician m. Elizabeth Cabot
Francis Henry Jackson (1815–1873), m. Sarah Ann Boott
James Tracy Jackson (1843–1900), m. Rebecca Nelson Borland
James Tracy Jackson Jr. (1881–1952), m. Rachel Brooks
Francis Gardner Jackson (1914–1970), m. Jane Matthews
Francis Gardner Jackson Jr. (born 1943), m. Pamela Graves Hardee
Patrick Graves Jackson (born 1969), Surgeon, husband to Ketanji Brown Jackson and related to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Amelia Lee Jackson: wife of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Patrick Tracy Jackson (1780–1847), co-founder of the Boston Manufacturing Company
Hannah Jackson, wife of Francis Cabot Lowell
Lydia Jackson, wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowles
Knowles Family
Freeman Knowles (1846–1910)
Horace G. Knowles (1863–1937)
John Knowles (1926–2001)
Malcolm Knowles (1913–1997)
Tony Knowles (politician) (born 1943)
Warren P. Knowles (1908–1993)
William Standish Knowles (1917–2012)
Lawrence
Lawrence Family
Samuel Lawrence (died 1827), revolutionary
Amos Lawrence (1786–1852), merchant
Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886), abolitionist
William Lawrence (1850–1941), Episcopal bishop
William Appleton Lawrence (1889–1963), Episcopal bishop
Frederic C. Lawrence (1899–1989), Episcopal bishop
Abbott Lawrence (1792–1855), U.S. congressman, founder of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Luther Lawrence (died 1839), politician
Descendant by marriage: Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), president of Harvard University
Lodge
Lodge Family
John Ellerton Lodge, husband of Anna Cabot
Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924), U.S. senator
George Cabot Lodge (1873–1909), poet
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902–1985), U.S. senator, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
George Cabot Lodge II (born 1927), Harvard Business School professor, 1962 U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts against Edward M. Kennedy
Henry Sears Lodge (1930–2017)
John Davis Lodge (1903–1985), 79th governor of Connecticut, U.S. ambassador
Lily Lodge (1930–2021)
Lowell
John Lowell (1743–1802), Member of the Continental Congress and Federal Judge
John Lowell (1769–1840), lawyer and Federalist
John Amory Lowell (1798–1881), industrialist, philanthropist
John Lowell (1824–1897), Federal Judge
John Lowell (1856–1922), lawyer
Mary Emlen Lowell (1884–1975), Countess of Berkeley, m. Earl of Berkeley
Ralph Lowell (1890–1978), philanthropist, founder of WGBH
Olivia Lowell (1898–1977), m. Augustus Thorndike (1896–1986)
James Lowell (1869–1933), Federal Judge
Augustus Lowell (1830–1900), industrialist, philanthropist
Percival Lowell (1855–1916), famous astronomer
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), President of Harvard University, 1909–1933
Elizabeth Lowell (1862–1935), m. William Lowell Putnam (see below)
Katherine Putnam (1890–1983), m. Harvey Bundy (1888–1963)
William Bundy (1917–2000), foreign affairs advisor to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson
McGeorge Bundy (1919–1996), U.S. National Security Advisor
Lyman
Theodore Lyman I (1753–1839), China trade merchant, commissioned Samuel McIntire to build one of New England's finest country houses, The Vale
Theodore Lyman II (1792–1849), brigadier general of militia, Massachusetts state representative, mayor of Boston
Theodore Lyman III (1833–1897), natural scientist, aide-de-camp to Major General Meade during the American Civil War, and United States congressman from Massachusetts
Theodore Lyman IV (1874–1954), director of Jefferson Physics Lab, Harvard. The Lyman series of spectral lines, the crater Lyman on the far side of the Moon, and the Lyman Physics Building at Harvard are named after him.
Minot
Minot Family
Charles Sedgwick Minot (1852–1914), anatomist
George Richards Minot (1885–1950), winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
Henry Davis Minot (1859–1890), ornithologist
Susan Minot (born 1956), author
Alexandria Minot (born 1981), lawyer, human rights activist
Norcross
Norcross family
Original from Watertown, Massachusetts
Otis Norcross (1811–1882), mayor of Boston
Amasa Norcross (1824–1898), politician
Eleanor Norcross (1854–1923), artist
Oakes
Oakes family
Urian Oakes (1631–1681), minister and educator; president of Harvard College.
Otis
Otis family
James Otis Jr. (1725–1783), revolutionary
Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), playwright, revolutionary
Samuel Allyne Otis (1740–1814), politician
Harrison Gray Otis (1765–1848), U.S. senator, mayor of Boston
Paine
Paine Family
Robert Treat Paine (1731–1814), lawyer, politician, and a Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence.
Robert Treat Paine Jr. (1773–1811), a poet and editor
Charles Jackson Paine (1833–1916), railroad executive, yachtsman, and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Robert Treat Paine (philanthropist) (1835–1910), lawyer, philanthropist, and social reformer
Sumner Paine (1868–1904), American shooter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
John Paine (sport shooter) (1870–1951), American shooter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics.
Lyman Paine (1901–1978), architect and far-left activist.
Robert Treat Paine Storer (1893–1962), All-American football player for Harvard University and decorated veteran of World War I.
Robert T. Paine (zoologist) (1933–2016), the ecologist who coined the term "keystone species".
Michael Paine (1928–2018), an acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald, unknown to Paine and his wife Oswald had been hiding his Carcano Model 38 infantry carbine rifle in the garage of their Irving, Texas home, that was used to kill President John F. Kennedy, and wound Texas Governor John Connally on November 22, 1963, and used beforehand in a failed attempt on the life of far-right activist, resigned Army General, Edwin Walker, in April of that year.
Ruth Paine (1932–2025) friend of Marina Oswald, who was living with her at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy.
Palfrey
Palfrey Family
Peter Palfrey (1611–1663), one of the founders of Salem, Salem representative to the first General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony
William Palfrey (1741–1780), American patriot, Aide-de-camp to George Washington, chief clerk to John Hancock, successful merchant
John G. Palfrey I (1796–1881), played a leading role in the creation of Harvard Divinity School, first Dean of Harvard Divinity School, U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, Unitarian minister, historian
Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831–1889), historian, decorated Union officer
Sarah Palfrey Danzig (1912–1996), won 18 national tennis championship titles (singles, doubles, mixed doubles)
John G. Palfrey V (1919–1979), member of President Kennedy's Atomic Energy Commission, Dean of Columbia University
John G. "Sean" Palfrey VI (born 1945), pediatrician and advocate, Harvard Faculty Dean of Adams House with Judy Palfrey
John G. Palfrey VII (born 1972), educator and author, historian, Headmaster of Phillips Academy
Parkman
Parkman Family
Samuel Parkman (1751–1824), investor; father of
George Parkman, physician, investor, philanthropist; victim in the Parkman–Webster murder case
Francis Parkman Jr., historian; grandson of Samuel Parkman; nephew of George Parkman
Peabody
Peabody Family
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804–1894), American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States
Endicott Peabody (1857–1944), Episcopal priest, founder of the Groton School for Boys
Endicott "Chubb" Peabody (1920–1997), governor of Massachusetts
George Peabody (1795–1869), entrepreneur, philanthropist who founded the House of Morgan and the Peabody Institute
Joseph Peabody (1757–1844), merchant, shipowner, philanthropist whose company sailed clipper ships in the Old China Trade from its base in Salem, Massachusetts
Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (1806–1887), American author, wife of education reformer Horace Mann
Nathaniel Peabody (1774–1855)
Richard R. Peabody (1892–1936), author of The Common Sense of Drinking, a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (1809–1871), painter, illustrator, wife of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Perkins
Perkins Family
Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764–1854), merchant, pioneer of the China trade, philanthropist
Charles Perkins (1823–1886), art historian, philanthropist, founder of the Museum of Fine Arts
Edward Perkins (1856–1905), constitutional lawyer
Maxwell Perkins (1884–1947), literary editor of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald
Phillips
Phillips Family
Rev. George Phillips (1593–1644), gateway ancestor to the Phillips New England family, one of the founders of Watertown, Massachusetts
Christopher H. Phillips (1920–2008), politician, diplomat
Samuel Phillips Jr. (1752–1802), politician, founder of Phillips Academy
John Phillips (1719–1795), educator, founder of Phillips Exeter Academy
John Sanborn Phillips (1861–1949), publisher of McClure's Magazine
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), abolitionist
William Phillips (1878–1968), diplomat
Samuel Phillips (1690–1771), first pastor of the South Church of Andover
Other notable relatives:
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), American Episcopal clergyman and author
Samuel Phillips Huntington (1927–2008), Harvard University political science professor and author; grandson of John Sanborn Phillips
Charles F. Brush (1849–1929), inventor, philanthropist
Bill Gates (born 1955), billionaire software pioneer, philanthropist, investor, entrepreneur
Putnam
Putnam Family
James Putnam (1725–1789), last attorney general in Massachusetts before American Revolution; judge and politician in New Brunswick
James Putnam (1756–1838), Canadian politician
Major General Israel Putnam (1718–1790), U.S. general during the Revolutionary War
Colonel Daniel Putnam (1759–1831), colonel in U.S. Continental Army; his home is Putnam Elms
John Day Putnam (1837–1904), Wisconsin politician
William Lowell Putnam (1861–1924), and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam
George P. Putnam (1887–1950), publisher, explorer, husband of Amelia Earhart
Katherine L. Putnam (1890–1983), wife of Harvey Hollister Bundy
Roger Lowell Putnam (1893–1972), politician, businessman
Quincy
Quincy Family
Edmund Quincy (1602–1636), settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633
Josiah Quincy II (1744–1775), lawyer, revolutionary
Josiah Quincy III (1772–1864), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, mayor of Boston, president of Harvard University
Dorothy Quincy Hancock, wife of John Hancock
Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818), wife of John Adams
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), President of the United States
Fanny Howe (1940–2025), poet and novelist, granddaughter of Fanny Huntington Quincy
Rice
Rice Family
Originally of Sudbury, Massachusetts:
Deacon Edmund Rice (1594–1663), colonist
Alexander Hamilton Rice (1818–1895), industrialist, mayor of Boston, governor of Massachusetts, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
Alexander Hamilton Rice Jr. (1875–1956), physician, geographer, explorer
Alexander Rice Esty (1826-1881), American architect
Brigadier General Americus Vespucius Rice (1835–1904), U.S. general, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, banker
Brigadier General Edmund Rice (1842–1906), U.S. general, Medal of Honor recipient
Edmund Rice (1819–1889), U.S. senator, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota
Henry Mower Rice (1816–1894), U.S. senator
Luther Rice (1783–1836), Baptist clergyman, missionary to India
Thomas Rice (1768–1854), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
William Marsh Rice (1816–1900), businessman, founder of Rice University
William North Rice (1845–1928), geologist, educator
William Whitney Rice (1826–1896), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
Saltonstall
Saltonstall Family
Leverett Saltonstall I (1783–1845), politician, educator
Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979), U.S. senator
William L. Saltonstall (1927–2009), politician
Elizabeth Saltonstall (1900–1990), lithographer, painter
Philip Saltonstall Weld (1915–1984), World War II commando, environmentalist
William G. Saltonstall (1905–1989), 8th Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy
Sargent
Colonel Epes Sargent (1690–1762), colonel of militia before the Revolution and a justice of the general session court for more than 30 years
Paul Dudley Sargent (1745–1828), Revolutionary officer, one of the founding overseers of Bowdoin College
Harrison Tweed (1885–1969), lawyer, civic leader
Tweed Roosevelt (born 1942), great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt
John Sargent (1750–1824), Loyalist officer during the American Revolution
Winthrop Sargent (1753–1820), patriot, governor, politician, writer; member of the Federalist Party
Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820), feminist, essayist, playwright, poet; her home is the Sargent House Museum
Daniel Sargent Sr. (1730–1806), merchant, owned Sargent's Wharf in Boston
Daniel Sargent (1764–1842), merchant, politician
Daniel Sargent Curtis (1825–1908), lawyer, banker, trustee of the BPL, owner of Palazzo Barbaro
Henry Sargent (1770–1845), painter, military man
Henry Winthrop Sargent (1810–1882), horticulturist, landscape gardener
Ignatius Sargent Sr. (1765–1821), merchant, military man
Ignatius Sargent (1800–1884), banker, railroad executive, horticulturalist, landscape gardener
Sears
Sears Family
Richard Sears (1610–1676), colonist
David Sears II (1787–1871), philanthropist, merchant, land-owner
Clara Endicott Sears (1863–1960), author, philanthropist
Mason Sears (1899–1973), politician, ambassador
Emily Sears, wife of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
John W. Sears (1930–2014), politician
Harry Edward Sears (1870-1920), Physician, Military Officer
Sedgwick
Sedgwick Family
Major General Robert Sedgwick (1611–1656), immigrant, Commander of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forces
Hon. Theodore Sedgwick (1746–1813), 4th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; major in U.S. Continental Army
Major General John Sedgwick (1813–1864), U.S. Civil War general (Union Army)
Theodore Sedgwick Jr. (1780–1839), lawyer, author; politician
Theodore Sedgwick III (1811–1859), attorney, legal author, U.S. Minister to France
Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789–1876), one of the first noted female writers in the United States
Henry Dwight Sedgwick (1785–1831), father of
Henry Dwight Sedgwick II (1824–1903), father of
Ellery Sedgwick (1872–1960), magazine editor; father of
Ellery Sedgwick Jr. (1908–1991), father of
Theodore “Tod” Sedgwick, diplomat, publisher
Henry Dwight Sedgwick III (1861–1957), lawyer, author; father of
Henry Dwight Sedgwick IV (1896–1914)
Francis Minturn Sedgwick (1904–1967), father of
Edith Minturn Sedgwick (1943–1971), American socialite, actress, fashion model who worked with Andy Warhol
Shattuck
Lemuel Shattuck (1793–1859), politician, historian, bookseller and publisher.
Henry Lee Shattuck (1879–1971), attorney, philanthropist, and politician
Shaw
Robert Gould Shaw (1776–1853) m. Elizabeth Willard Parkman (1785–1853)
Francis George Shaw (1809–1882) m. Sarah Blake Sturgis (1815–1902)
Robert Gould Shaw (1837–1863)
Josephine Shaw (1843–1905) m. Charles Russell Lowell (1835–1864)
Quincy Adams Shaw (1825–1908) m. Pauline Agassiz (1841–1917)
Robert Gould Shaw II (1872–1930) m. Nancy Langhorne (1879–1964)
Robert Gould Shaw III (1898–1970)
Louis Agassiz Shaw II (1906–1987)
Storrow
Charles Storer Storrow (1809–1904), civil engineer and industrialist
James Jackson Storrow (1837–1897), lawyer
James J. Storrow II (1864–1926), investment banker, automotive executive, politician, and Boy Scouts of America president. Husband of Helen Storrow.
James J. Storrow III (1892–1977), trustee
James J. Storrow IV (1917–1984), film producer and magazine publisher
Sturgis
James Perkins Sturgis (1791 - 1851), wealthy merchant
Nathaniel Russell Sturgis (1779 - 1856), merchant and socialite m. Susannah Thomsen Parkman, daughter of Samuel Parkman, an influential merchant
Sarah Blake Sturgis (1815–1902), abolitionist, women's rights supporter, anti-imperialist and philanthropist
Ann Cushing Sturgis Paine, married into the Paine family
Russell Sturgis (1805–1887), merchant active in the China trade
Henry Parkman Sturgis, United States Consul to the Philippines
Thayer
Thayer Family
Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer (1785–1872), U.S. general (Army), Father of West Point
Nathaniel Thayer (1769–1840), Unitarian minister; father of
Nathaniel Thayer Jr. (1808–1883), financier, philanthropist; partner in John E. Thayer and brother firm which he left to clerks Kidder and Peabody after his retirement. One of the most generous citizens of Boston donating Thayer Hall to Harvard University; an overseer of Harvard, 1866–1868, and a fellow, 1868–1875; father of
Nathaniel Thayer, III (1851–1911), capitalist, pioneer railroad promoter
Bayard Thayer (1862–1916), millionaire sportsman, horticulturist
Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer (1855–1907), financier, capitalist; father of
Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer Jr. (1881–1937), Harvard class of 1904; President of Merchants and Chase National Banks; Chairman of Stutz motorcars
James Bradley Thayer (1831–1902), American legal writer, educationist
Ernest Thayer (1863–1940), American poet, author of "Casey at the Bat", and uncle of Scofield Thayer
Scofield Thayer (1889–1982), American poet, publisher
Eli Thayer (1819–1899), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
John A. Thayer (1857–1917), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
Thorndike
Thorndike Family
Israel Thorndike (1755–1832), merchant, politician
Augustus Thorndike (1896–1986), physician
George Thorndike Angell (1823–1909), lawyer, philanthropist
Tudor
Tudor Family
William Tudor (1750–1819), lawyer, politician, founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society
William Tudor (1779–1830), cofounder of the North American Review and the Boston Athenaeum
Frederic Tudor (1783–1864), Boston's "Ice King", founder of the Tudor Ice Company
Tasha Tudor (1915–2008), illustrator and author of children's books
Warren
Richard Warren (1578–1628), London merchant, Mayflower passenger
James Warren (1726–1808), paymaster general of Continental Army, major general in Massachusetts colony militia, president of Massachusetts Congress
Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), playwright, historian, revolutionary
Joseph Warren (1741–1775), major general in Massachusetts colony militia, hero/martyr of Bunker Hill, president of Massachusetts Congress; sent Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride
John Warren (1753–1815), founder of Harvard Medical School, surgeon at Bunker Hill, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medical Society
John Collins Warren (1778–1856), surgeon, president of the American Medical Association, founding dean of Harvard Medical School, a founder of Massachusetts General Hospital; gave first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia, a founder of The New England Journal of Medicine
Winslow Warren (1838–1930), American attorney who served as Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston during the second administration of Grover Cleveland
John Collins Warren Jr. (1842–1927), surgeon, president of the American Surgical Association
Charles Warren (1868–1954), lawyer, author, legal scholar who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Supreme Court in United States History
Weld
Weld Family
Thomas Weld (born c. 1600), colonist, Puritan minister
William Gordon Weld (1775–1825), merchant
William Fletcher Weld (1800–1881), merchant, philanthropist
Ezra Greenleaf Weld (1801–1874), daguerreotypist
Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895), abolitionist
Stephen Minot Weld (1806–1867), politician, educator
George Walker Weld (1840–1905), philanthropist
Brevet Brigadier General Stephen Minot Weld Jr. (1842–1920), U.S. Civil War general (Union Army)
Charles Goddard Weld (1857–1911), philanthropist
Isabel Weld Perkins (1877–1948), philanthropist
Philip Saltonstall Weld (1915–1984), World War II commando, environmentalist
Tuesday Weld (born 1943), actress
William Weld (born 1945), governor of Massachusetts, 2016 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate
Whitney
Eli Whitney (1765–1825)
William Collins Whitney (1841–1904)
Wigglesworth
Wigglesworth Family
Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705), colonist, clergyman; father of
Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765), clergyman, educator; father of
Edward Wigglesworth (1732–1794), academician
Richard B. Wigglesworth (1891–1960), ambassador to Canada, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
Winthrop
Winthrop Family
Patrilineal descendants:
Lucy Winthrop Downing: mother of diplomat Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, founder of New York, of Downing Street, London, and ultimately of Downing College, Cambridge, UK; Lucy's letter to her brother Governor Winthrop provided the impetus for the founding of Harvard College; sister of
John Winthrop (1588–1649), founding governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony; father of
John Winthrop (1606–1676), governor of Connecticut
Fitz-John Winthrop (1637–1711), governor of Connecticut
John Winthrop, husband of Anne Dudley, granddaughter of Thomas Dudley
John Winthrop (1714–1779), acting president of Harvard, pioneer of American science
James Winthrop (1752–1821), librarian, jurist
Thomas Lindall Winthrop (1760–1841), lieutenant governor of Massachusetts
Robert Charles Winthrop (1809–1894), lawyer, politician, philanthropist
Other descendants:
Kwame Anthony Appiah (born 1954), philosopher, author, cultural theorist and descendant in the female line of John Winthrop.