Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

Mr. Sampson was undoubtedly when appointed collector in 1820 a Monroe strict constructionist, or in other words a Democrat, but retained the office through the Adams administration because during that period party lines were loosely drawn. He died while in office, July 19, 1828. He was a member of the board of selectmen eight years, during five of which he was its chairman. He married in 1804, Ruth, daughter of Ebenezer Lobdell of Plympton, and had ten children, neither of whom I think has descendants living in Plymouth.

I have said that the presidential contest in 1824 was a personal one between Adams and Jackson. Then began the hostility between these two men, which was never placated. General Jackson died June 8, 1845, before the days of the telegraph, and rumors of his death drifted to the East several times before the event occurred. Rev. Dr. Wm. P. Lunt, Mr. Adams’ pastor in Quincy, told me that while in Boston one day, authentic news of Jackson’s death was received, and on his return home he thought it proper for him to call at Mr. Adams’ house and communicate to him the sad news. As he entered the library Mr. Adams was standing with his back to the door, looking over some papers on a window seat. He said, “Mr. Adams, I heard in Boston this afternoon the sad news of the death of General Jackson, your successor in the presidential chair.” Mr. Adams, without looking round or stopping in his work exclaimed, “Umph, the old rascal is dead at last, is he?”

Schuyler Sampson, brother of the above mentioned Zabdiel, was born in Plympton in March, 1787, but moved with his father to Plymouth when young. I am inclined to think that he and his brother lived for some years in the house which until recently stood on the corner of Summer street and Spring hill. All through my boyhood, however, and until his death, he owned and occupied the house on the northerly side of Summer street, next westerly of the house for many years occupied by Benjamin Hathaway. He was for several years a member of the board of selectmen, and in 1828 was appointed to succeed his brother as collector of the port. He served in the latter office during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, and in 1841 succeeded Ebenezer G. Parker as cashier of the Old Colony Bank. He married in 1823 Mary Ann, daughter of Amasa Bartlett, and had Mary Ann Bartlett, 1825, who married George Gustavus Dyer. He married second, 1827, Sarah Taylor (Bartlett) Bishop, sister of his first wife, and widow of Wm. Bishop. By his second wife he had Sarah Taylor Bartlett, 1829, George Schuyler, 1833 and Hannah Bartlett, 1835, who married Rev. Isaac C. White. The late Wm. Bishop of Boston was the son of the second wife by her first husband. Mr. Sampson died in Plymouth May 10, 1855.

During my boyhood Truman Bartlett lived on the northerly side of High street, west of Spring street. He was a tall, robust man, weighing I should judge about two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and I remember him well with his plaid Camlet cloak which he wore in the winter, reminding me of the outer cold weather garment worn by the watchmen in Boston before the police patrol was established in that city. He was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Jackson) Bartlett, and was born in Plymouth, March 10, 1776. He was a shipmaster for many years, and sailed for my grandfather, Wm. Davis and Barnabas Hedge. He married in 1798 Experience, daughter of Robert Finney, and had William, Josiah, Flavel, Charles, Stephen, Truman, Azariah, Ann, Lucia and Angeline. Of these Angeline died at the age of twenty, April 24, 1838, and Charles died in childhood in 1826; Lucia died October 3, 1841, at the age of twenty-eight, and of Ann I know nothing. The remaining six sons all became shipmasters, and formed a group of merchant captains, such as no other Plymouth family can match. Of William, who commanded the Charles Bartlett, and Truman, who commanded the Queen of the East, I have already spoken, but of the others I have no reliable record. Captain Bartlett died August 18, 1841.

Ezra Finney, called Captain, lived on the northwesterly corner of Summer and Spring streets from 1822, until his death. He was the son of Ezra and Hannah (Luce) Finney, and was born in Plymouth July 5, 1772. He may have been a shipmaster in his early days, and his connection with the Old Colony Insurance Company, of which he was at one time President, as well as his ownership and management of navigation, renders such an occupation probable. He was a member of the board of selectmen three years, and the absence of his name in connection with the whale fishery suggests a conservatism in business affairs which precluded investments over which he could have no personal supervision. In navigation he was enterprising and successful, but as far as I know never engaged in the grand bank fishery. He married in 1797 Lydia, daughter of Andrew Bartlett, and had Lydia Bartlett, 1799, who married Capt. Lemuel Clark, Ezra, 1804, who married John Bartlett. He married second 1808, Betsey, widow of John Bishop, and daughter of Eliphalet Holbrook, Eliza, and had Betsey Bishop, 1809, who married William Sampson Bartlett; Mary Coville, 1811; Caroline, 1814; Ezra, 1817; Mary Coville, 1819, who married Henry Mills; and Caroline, 1822. Abby, daughter of Captain Finney’s second wife by her first husband, John Bishop, was born in 1801, and married James E. Leonard and Henry Mills.

It was the custom under what was called the Suffolk Bank system, when banks were forbidden by law to pay out any bills but their own to send every two or three days all foreign bills received by the banks to the Suffolk bank in Boston and receive from that bank their own bills in return. As expresses were not established in Plymouth until after 1845 packages of bills to or from the Suffolk bank were entrusted to any friend of the Plymouth or Old Colony Bank, as they were to myself even when a boy. On one occasion Mr. Finney received from the Suffolk bank a package of the bills of the Old Colony Bank. Chilled by his ride from Boston in a stage sleigh, it was not until he had thawed out by the home fire that the package was brought to his mind. It was not in his pockets, nor was it to be found anywhere in the house. As a last resort he hurried to the stage stable, where his anxiety was relieved by the discovery of the package hidden by the straw with which the floor of the sleigh was covered. This incident was far from being indicative of carelessness on his part, for he was a methodical business man, and one as thoughtful of the interests of others as of his own. On another occasion he proved himself a thrifty trustee of the Savings Bank. Mr. Danforth, the treasurer, having occasion to leave town for a day or perhaps two, left Mr. Finney in charge of the bank, and among the contents of the safe was a strapped package of counterfeit bills which had been collecting for some time, and had been charged off to profit and loss. On Mr. Danforth’s return, not finding the package, he asked Mr. Finney if he had seen the bills, and Mr. Finney replied that he had, and not doubting them genuine, had paid them out. The bills were never heard from afterwards, and their amount was in due time credited back to profit and loss. Captain Finney died February 5, 1861.

Andrew Bartlett, son of Andrew and Sarah Holbrook Bartlett, was born in Plymouth, October 20, 1806, and lived in High street, near his kinsman, Truman Bartlett. He was a shipmaster, possessing those qualities which made him not only a skilful navigator, but a prudent, economical and trustworthy business man. He told me once that during his career as master, he had never lost a man or a spar. While this fact speaks well for his seamanship, it was due largely to the models of vessels in his day, and the absence of those hasty methods of doing business which characterize our times. A blunt bow and a full counter made it easy to encounter a head sea, and to leave a following one, while there was enough left of the old kettle bottom to check the shift of even a cargo of railroad iron, which, however securely braced, is always ready to start with the kick of a rolling sea. Safety to ship and cargo, not speed, was the great consideration sought. When Capt. Fox in the brig Emerald, after a thirteen days’ passage from Liverpool, rounded to off Long wharf and was hailed with the question, “When did you leave Liverpool, Capt. Fox,” his reply was, “Last week, damn you, when do you think?” He did not say how many sails he had lost, nor whether his cargo in the forehold was dry. I think Capt. Bartlett sailed for a combination of owners of whom Ezra Finney, Wm. Nelson and Benjamin Barnes were the chief.

After abandoning the sea his interests in seamen led him to devote his life to their service in connection with the sailors’ Bethel and Home in Boston. He married in 1830 Mary, daughter of William Barnes of Plymouth, and had Victor A., 1841, Mary E., 1843 and Andrew P., 1848. He married second, in 1866, Phebe J. Tenney, who had been for a number of years a school teacher in Plymouth. Captain Bartlett died February 4, 1882.

William Nelson, son of William and Bathsheba (Lothrop) Nelson, was born in Plymouth, September 29, 1796, on the old Nelson farm near Cold Spring, which had been in the Nelson family from the time of its first American ancestor, William Nelson, who married Martha, daughter of widow Ford, who came to Plymouth in the ship Fortune in 1621. I think Mr. Nelson lived on High street until 1841, when he built and occupied until his death the house on Summer street, which in 1867 was sold to Barnabas Churchill. He had a sister, Mary Lothrop Nelson, who married Jesse Harlow, and he with Mr. Harlow, under the firm name of Nelson & Harlow, was engaged some years in navigation, with a counting room on the westerly side of Water street, opposite to Nelson’s wharf. He was a director in the Old Colony Bank, and in the Old Colony Insurance Company, a prominent member of the Orthodox Congregational church, and a liberal contributor to its support. He married in 1821 Sarah, daughter of Josiah Carver, and had William Henry, 1830, who is noticed at the end of this chapter; Thomas Lothrop, 1833, who married Susan A. Warren of Exeter, N. H., and Mary Stratton of Atchison, Miss.; and Sarah Elizabeth, who married Wm. K. Churchill. Mr. Nelson died October 6, 1863.

There is one whom I omitted in my wanderings in the northerly part of Court street, of whom I shall be glad to speak. I heard much of him in my youth, though he died before my birth, and of the disappointment which his premature death caused to be felt by his friends. Isaac Eames Cobb, the son of Cornelius and Grace (Eames) Cobb, was born January 19, 1789, in the old Nehemiah Savery house, still standing south of Cherry street, a little back from Court street. He graduated at Harvard in 1814 a leading scholar in his class, and began the study of law. A disease of the lungs obliged him to abandon a profession in which there was every reason to believe that he would have a successful career. He entered into business with Messrs. Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, but died a victim of consumption January 14, 1821. He married in 1816 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bartlett, whose house occupied the site on which that of Gideon F. Holmes now stands. His daughter Elizabeth, the widow of Joseph Holmes, lives in a house standing on what was a part of her grandfather Bartlett’s estate. The following inscription is on his gravestone on Burial Hill: