Boston Brahmin

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File:1768 BostonCommon byChristianRemick.png
A 1768 illustration of Boston Common in Colonial Boston, home to many Boston Brahmin

The Boston Brahmins are members of Boston's historic upper class.<ref name="PBS">Template:Cite web</ref> From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Harvard University,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Anglicanism,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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Etymology

File:Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr c1879.jpg
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., who coined the phrase "Boston Brahmin" in a January 1860 article he authored for The Atlantic Monthly

The phrase "Brahmin Caste of New England" was first coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a physician and writer, in a January 1860 article in The Atlantic Monthly.<ref>Template:Cite book It was part of a series of articles that eventually became his novel Elsie Venner, and the first chapter of the novel was about the Brahmin caste.</ref> The term is derived from the brahmin, the chief priestly caste in the Hindu caste system. The appropriated term became a 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Characteristics

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The typical dress of the Boston elite, Template:Circa
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Beacon Hill, a preeminent neighborhood for Boston Brahmin located near the Massachusetts State House in Boston<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The nature of the Brahmins is referenced in the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Holy Cross alumnus John Collins Bossidy:

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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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Although the ideal called on him to transcend commonplace business values, in practice, many found the thrill of economic success quite attractive. The Brahmins warned each other against avarice and insisted upon personal responsibility. Scandal and divorce were unacceptable. 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,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and heirs married heiresses. Family not only served as an economic asset, but also as a means of moral restraint.

Most belonged to the Unitarian or Episcopal churches,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> although some were Congregationalists or Methodists.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Politically, they were successively Federalists, Whigs, and Republicans. They were marked by their manners and once-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.<ref name="slate">Template:Cite news</ref>

List of Boston Brahmin families

Adams

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Samuel Adams, American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and Founding Father of the United States

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Amory

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John Amory Lowell, banking merchant

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Appleton

File:Samuel Appleton by Gilbert Stuart Newton.jpg
Samuel Appleton, American merchant

Template:Main Patrilineal line:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Other notable relatives:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Bacon

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Robert L. Bacon, U.S. Congressman and attorney

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Bates

File:Benjamin E Bates founder of Bates College.jpg
Benjamin Bates, philanthropist, business magnate, and namesake of Bates College

Template:Main Originally from Boston and Britain:

Boylston

Boylston Family

Bradlee

Bradlee Family Direct line:<ref name="Boston Tea Party Participant">Sarah Bradlee Fulton</ref><ref name="Mother of the Boston Tea Party">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="David Bradlee">Template:Cite web</ref>

  • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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

File:The history of the Civil War in America; comprising a full and impartial account of the origin and progress of the rebellion, of the various naval and military engagements, of the heroic deeds (14760322754).jpg
William Alfred Buckingham, American politician, Connecticut governor, and U.S. senator

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Cabot

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Chaffee/Chafee

Template:Further Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

  • 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

File:William Gardner Choate (Federal judge from New York).jpg
William Gardner Choate, federal judge and founder of Choate Rosemary Hall

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Coffin

Template:Main Originally of Newbury and Nantucket:

Coolidge

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John Coolidge, railroad executive and son of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge

Cooper

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Samuel Cooper, Congregational minister

Crowninshield

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Benjamin Williams Crowninshield, colonist

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Descendants by marriage:

Cushing

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Thomas Cushing, Massachusetts colonial speaker of the house

Template:Main Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Descendant by marriage:

Dana

Dana Family

Delano

Delano Family

Dudley

File:Joseph Dudley attributed to Peter Lely.jpg
Joseph Dudley, Royal Governor of Massachusetts

Dudley Family

Dwight

Dwight Family

Eliot

Eliot Family

Emerson

File:Rev. William Emerson (Polyanthos, May 1812).jpg
William Emerson, Massachusetts minister

Emerson Family

Endicott

Endicott Family Salem:

Dedham:

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:<ref name="gaperkins">Template:Cite book</ref>

  • William Fabens (1810–1883), lawyer, member of Assembly, Senate.<ref name="gaperkins" />
    • William Chandler Fabens (1843–1903), Lynn attorney,<ref>Perkins</ref> namesake of Fabens Building.
  • Samuel Augustus Fabens (1813–1899), master mariner in the East India and California trade.<ref name="gaperkins" />
  • Francis Alfred Fabens (1814–1872), mercantile businessman, San Francisco judge, attorney.<ref name="gaperkins" />
  • Joseph Warren Fabens (1821–1875), U.S. Consul at Cayenne, businessman, Envoy Extraordinary of the Dominican Republic.<ref name="gaperkins" />
  • George Wilson Fabens (1857–1939), attorney, land commissioner and superintendent of Southern Pacific Railroad, namesake of Fabens, Texas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Forbes

Forbes Family

Gardner

File:Antonio Mancini - Portrait of John Lowell Gardner.jpg
John Lowell Gardner, American businessman and art collector

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

Holmes

Holmes Family

Jackson

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Patrick Tracy Jackson, Boston manufacturer

Jackson Family

Knowles

Knowles Family

Lawrence

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Abbott Lawrence, politician and founder of Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence Family

Descendant by marriage: Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), president of Harvard University

Lodge

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Henry Cabot Lodge, American statesmen and congressman

Lodge Family

Lowell

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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

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James Otis, colonial lawyer

Otis family

Paine

Paine Family

Palfrey

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John G. Palfrey I, leader in founding Harvard Divinity School, U.S. Congressman, and Unitarian minister

Palfrey Family

Parkman

Parkman Family

Peabody

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George Peabody, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of the House of Morgan and the Peabody Institute

Peabody Family

Perkins

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Charles C. Perkins, art historian, philanthropist, and founder of the Museum of Fine Arts

Perkins Family

Phillips

File:Portrait of John Phillips.jpeg
John Phillips, educator and founder of Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Family

Other notable relatives:

Putnam

Putnam Family

Quincy

File:George P.A. Healy - John Quincy Adams - Google Art Project.jpg
John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States

Quincy Family

Rice

Rice Family Originally of Sudbury, Massachusetts:

Saltonstall

Saltonstall Family

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Sargent

Sears

File:David Sears.jpg
David Sears, businessman and philanthropist

Sears Family

Sedgwick

Sedgwick Family

Shattuck

Shaw

Storrow

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

Thayer

File:SylvanusThayer.jpg
Sylvanus Thayer, the father of West Point

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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Tommy Thayer (born 1960), lead guitarist for the rock band Kiss

Thorndike

Thorndike Family

Tudor

Tudor Family

Warren

File:JosephWarrenByCopley.jpeg
Joseph Warren, Major general and physician

Weld

Weld Family

Whitney

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Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth Family

Winthrop

Winthrop Family

Patrilineal descendants:

Other descendants:

Bibliography

  • Cleveland Amory, The Proper Bostonians, 1947

See also

References

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