"BISHOP'S PALACE," RESIDENCE OF REV. EAST APTHORP.
John Adams says, "It was thought to be a splendid palace and intended for the residence of the first royal bishop."
John Apthorp, the second son, went to England, and became connected in business with the house of Tomlinson & Trecothick. He married Alicia Mann of Windsor, sister of Sir Horace Mann, many years resident British minister at Florence. Mr. Apthorp embarked for Italy with his wife who was in a very hazardous state of health, and who died at Gibraltar, leaving two daughters under the care of their grandmother at Windsor. He pursued his travels in Italy, and afterwards returned to Boston, where he married Hannah Greenleaf, daughter of Stephen Greenleaf, the last Royal high sheriff of Suffolk County. He lived about four years at Brighton, when he embarked, with his wife, from New York for Charleston, S. C, to enjoy a warmer winter climate, and they were lost at sea. The children, one son and two daughters, were left under the care of their grandfather who attended most faithfully to their interests and education. One daughter married Charles Bulfinch his cousin, and the other Charles Vaughn, son of Samuel Vaughn, Esq., of London. The son, Col. John T. Apthorp, married Grace Foster, who lived only one year, leaving an infant. In another year he married her twin sister Mary by whom he had a numerous family.
Rev. East Apthorp, D. D., was born in Boston in 1733 and was educated at Cambridge, England. He took orders and returned, and became the founder and rector of Christ church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here he published a pamphlet in defence of the conduct of the society for "Propagating the gospel" which was attacked by Dr. Mayhew, who was answered by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This controversy rendered his situation irksome and after only six years ministry in this country, he left for England. It was thought by many that the establishment of the Episcopal church at Cambridge was for the purpose of converting the students who were generally dissenters and with ulterior views, which excited the most acrimonious jealousy.
While General Burgoyne's army was detained at Cambridge, Lieutenant Brown, who was out on parole according to the terms of the Convention, was riding with two ladies in a chaise when he was killed in cold blood by a sentinel, a boy scarcely fourteen years old, who levelled his gun at him and shot him through the head. "His remains were interred in Christ's church. The people, during the time the service was being performed, seized the opportunity of the church being open, which had been shut since the commencement of hostilities, to plunder, ransack, and deface everything they could lay their hands on, destroying the pulpit, reading desk, and communion table, and ascending the organ loft they destroyed the bellows and broke all the pipes of a very handsome instrument."[226] Rev. East Apthorp was afterwards successively vicar of Croydon where Governor Hutchinson resided, and rector of Bow church, London, which he exchanged for the prebendary of Finsbury; he had many friends among the dignitaries of the church and was greatly beloved and respected. By his wife, the daughter of Foster Hutchinson, and niece of Thomas Hutchinson, he had several children. His only son became a clergyman, and his daughters married Dr. Cary and Dr. Butler, heads of colleges, and a third daughter married a son of Dr. Paley.
He published two volumes of Discoveries on the Prophecies, delivered at Warburton lecture, Lincoln's Inn, and a volume in answer to Gibbon. The last twenty-six years of his life were passed at Cambridge, England, with almost total loss of sight, and he died in April, 1816, at the age of eighty-three, closing a life of great usefulness.
Thomas Apthorp, born 19 October, 1741, continued paymaster of the British forces after his father's death from 1758 to 1776, when he was proscribed, and banished. He went to England and lived several years at Ludlow, Wales. He visited Lisbon for health, where he married. He returned to Ludlow, where he died, leaving a widow and one son.
William Apthorp, born Feb. 26, 1748, married Mary Thompson. He was a merchant, and was proscribed and banished in 1778. The year after, he came from New York to Boston. He was arrested, and occupied for awhile a private room in the deputy jailer's house, but letters were received to his disadvantage, and he was committed to a close prison by order of the Council, his countrymen would show him no mercy.
Susan Apthorp the second daughter of Charles Apthorp, married Thomas the son of Dr. Bulfinch. She had several children, three only that arrived at a marriageable age. Charles Bulfinch, the only son was born in August, 1763, and graduated at Harvard College in 1781, and after living abroad for some time returned to Boston in 1786. He inherited talents from his grandfather and became a great architect. He was chairman of the board of Selectmen for twenty-one years during which official service many of the great improvements in the town were executed, including the State House, City Hall, the General Hospital and the building of Franklin Street. After the capitol of the United States was burnt, in 1814, Mr. Bulfinch was appointed by President Munroe to superintend its re-erection. His wife died in 1841, and his death followed three years later on April 15, 1844.
LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO CHARLES WARD APTHORP, IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.