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Wikipedia / Boston Brahmin

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 are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).

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; 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

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.

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.

Amory

Appleton

Patrilineal line:

Other notable relatives:

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

Bates

Originally from Boston and Britain:

Boylston

Boylston Family

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.

  • David Bradlee, Boston Tea Party participant; Captain in the Continental Army, member of the St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons.

  • Sarah Bradlee, "Mother of the Boston Tea Party".

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.

Charles Henry Brinley Esq (1825–1907), Judge in AZ, involved in early CA/AZ politics, int'l merchant, appointed Vice Consul to Mexico by Pres Theo. Roosevelt.

Anne Brinley Coddington (1628–1708), third wife of Governor William Coddington, who arrived with the Winthrop fleet in 1630 and became an early MA magistrate, the first Governor of Rhode Island/founder of Portsmouth and Newport, RI, and mother and grandmother of subsequent Governors.

Grisell Brinley Sylvester (1635–1687), wife of Nathaniel Sylvester, together they became the first white settlers and owners of all of Shelter Island, NY. She is credited with bringing boxwoods to the colonies.

Buckingham

Originally from Boston and Britain:

Cabot

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

Coffin

Originally of Newbury and Nantucket:

John Coffin Jones Sr. (1750–1820), Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Coolidge

John Calvin Coolidge Sr. (1845–1926), politician and businessman

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), 30th President of the United States

Cooper

Crowninshield

Jacob Crowninshield (1770–1808), U.S. congressman

Descendants by marriage:

Cushing

Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:

Descendant by marriage:

Dana

Dana Family

Delano

Delano Family

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

Dwight

Dwight Family

Eliot

Eliot Family

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).

Endicott

Endicott Family Salem:

Dedham:

Augustus Bradford Endicott (1818–1910), politician.

Henry Bradford Endicott (1853–1920), industrialist.

Everett

Everett Family

Descendants through the marriage of Sarah Preston Everett (1796–1866) and noted journalist Nathan Hale (1784–1863):

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

Gardner

Gardner Family Originally of Essex county:

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

Healey/Dall

Mark Healey (1791–1872), originally of New Hampshire, merchant and first president of the Merchant's Bank

Charles Henry Appleton Dall (1816–1886), first Unitarian minister to India

Holmes

Holmes Family

Abiel Holmes (1763–1837), clergyman

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), physician, author

Jackson

Jackson Family

Edward Jackson (1708–1757), colonist; m. Dorothy Quincy Jackson

Jonathan Jackson (1743–1810), merchant, revolutionary; m. Hannah Tracy Jackson

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

Amelia Lee Jackson: wife of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Knowles

Knowles Family

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

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

John Davis Lodge (1903–1985), 79th governor of Connecticut, U.S. ambassador

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

Augustus Lowell (1830–1900), industrialist, philanthropist

Elizabeth Lowell (1862–1935), m. William Lowell Putnam (see below)

Katherine Putnam (1890–1983), m. Harvey Bundy (1888–1963)

Katharine Lawrence Bundy (1923–2014), m. Hugh Auchincloss Jr. (1915–1998), 1st cousin once removed of Hugh D. Auchincloss

Hugh Auchincloss III (born 1949), m. Laurie Hollis Glimcher (born 1951), divorced; daughter of Melvin J. Glimcher

Francis Cabot Lowell (1775–1817), founder of the Industrial Revolution in the United States

Francis Cabot Lowell Jr. (1803–1874), industrialist

George Gardner Lowell (1830–1885)

Edward Jackson Lowell (1845–1894), historian

Rebecca Russell Lowell (1779–1853), m. Samuel Pickering Gardner (1767–1843)

John Lowell Gardner (1804–1884)

Charles Lowell (1782–1861), Unitarian minister

Charles Russell Lowell (1807–1870)

Harriet Lowell (1836–1920), m. George Putnam (1834–1917)

Robert Traill Spence Lowell (1816–1891)

Robert T.S. Lowell (1860–1887)

Robert T.S. Lowell (1887–1950), naval officer

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

Norcross

Norcross family Original from Watertown, Massachusetts

Oakes

Oakes family

Otis

Otis family

Paine

Paine Family

Palfrey

Palfrey Family

Parkman

Parkman Family

Samuel Parkman (1751–1824), investor; father of

Peabody

Peabody Family

Perkins

Perkins Family

Phillips

Phillips Family

Other notable relatives:

Putnam

Putnam Family

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

William Lowell Putnam (1861–1924), and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam

Quincy

Quincy Family

  • Edmund Quincy (1602–1636), settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633

Josiah Quincy II (1744–1775), lawyer, revolutionary

Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818), wife of John Adams

Rice

Rice Family Originally of Sudbury, Massachusetts:

Alexander Hamilton Rice (1818–1895), industrialist, mayor of Boston, governor of Massachusetts, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts

Saltonstall

Saltonstall Family

Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979), U.S. senator

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

John Sargent (1750–1824), Loyalist officer during the American Revolution

Daniel Sargent Sr. (1730–1806), merchant, owned Sargent's Wharf in Boston

Daniel Sargent (1764–1842), merchant, politician

Ignatius Sargent Sr. (1765–1821), merchant, military man

Ignatius Sargent (1800–1884), banker, railroad executive, horticulturalist, landscape gardener

Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867), author, antiquarian, temperance advocate

Sears

Sears Family

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

Theodore Sedgwick Jr. (1780–1839), lawyer, author; politician

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

Henry Dwight Sedgwick III (1861–1957), lawyer, author; father of

  • Henry Dwight Sedgwick IV (1896–1914)

Francis Minturn Sedgwick (1904–1967), father of

Robert Minturn Sedgwick (1899–1976), father of

Henry Dwight Sedgwick V (1928–2018), venture capitalist; husband of Helen Stern (1930–2019) and Patricia Rosenwald Sedgwick (born 1933); father of

  • Mike Stern (born Michael Sedgwick 1953), jazz guitarist

Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (born 1965), actress, producer, director; wife of Kevin Bacon; mother of

Holly Sedgwick (born ), mother of

Shattuck

Lemuel Shattuck (1793–1859), politician, historian, bookseller and publisher.

Shaw

Robert Gould Shaw (1776–1853) m. Elizabeth Willard Parkman (1785–1853)

Francis George Shaw (1809–1882) m. Sarah Blake Sturgis (1815–1902)

Quincy Adams Shaw (1825–1908) m. Pauline Agassiz (1841–1917)

Robert Gould Shaw II (1872–1930) m. Nancy Langhorne (1879–1964)

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

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

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

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

  • John R. Thayer (1845–1916), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts

  • Brevet Major General John Milton Thayer (1820–1906), U.S. senator, U.S. Civil War general (Union Army); governor of Nebraska

  • Webster Thayer (1857–1933), judge at the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti

William Greenough Thayer (1863–1934), American educator; father of

Thorndike

Thorndike Family

Tudor

Tudor Family

Warren

Weld

Weld Family

Whitney

Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth Family

Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705), colonist, clergyman; father of

Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765), clergyman, educator; father of

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

John Winthrop, husband of Anne Dudley, granddaughter of Thomas Dudley

John Winthrop (1714–1779), acting president of Harvard, pioneer of American science

Other descendants:

  • Kwame Anthony Appiah (born 1954), philosopher, author, cultural theorist and descendant in the female line of John Winthrop.

Bibliography

  • Cleveland Amory, The Proper Bostonians, 1947

See also

References