too late that he had made an unfortunate change. His health became enfeebled at the same time, and, giving up business entirely, he retired to a country seat in Middletown, Conn., where he principally lived for eighteen years, and where he peacefully died August 21, 1858, regretted by all who know him. In the quietude of his rural residence, in the satisfactory retrospect of a well-spent life, the close of that life was calm and happy."

The resolutions respecting his death adopted by the Grand Lodge on September 8, 1858, spoke of him as one "who in all the relations of life, and more especially as a Master of the oldest Lodge under this jurisdiction, and as Grand Master of this Grand Lodge was most truly faithful; presiding with a mingled directness and urbanity, most honorable to himself and most useful to the fraternitywho, although in the providence of God, for a long time withdrawn from active service among us, never lost his interest in our welfare. We also recognize with gratitude the fact, that under his mastership, this Grand Lodge was allowed the happiness of laying the Corner-stone of the Massachusetts General Hospital, which has done so much to relieve bodily and mental suffering."

Our portrait is from a small picture made while he was a member of the Boston City Council.

AUGUSTUS PEABODY

GRAND MASTER DECEMBER 27, 1842 TO DECEMBER 27, 1845.

Augustus Peabody was born at Andover, Mass., in 1779, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1803, received the Hono

rary Degree of Master of Arts from Harvard College in 1809, married Miranda Goddard October 28, 1815, and died at Roxbury October 2, 1850, aged seventy-one years. Five children survived him. Of a part of his Masonic history he states in his own diary as follows:

"I was made a Freemason, as near as I can remember, in the early part of the year 1801, in Franklin Lodge No. 6, at the village of Dartmouth, N. H., William Woodward, Master. In the winter following, I left school at Bridgeton, Me., and visited Lodges at Portland and elsewhere in that state.

"In the winter of 1802-1803 I kept school at Fitchburg, and several times visited Aurora Lodge at Leominster. In the fall of 1803, when I was in Mr. Bigelow's office as a student, I became a member of St. Paul's Lodge, Groton.

"In the fall of 1804 or 5, I forget which, I went as a delegate from that Lodge to Lancaster, and attended for about a fortnight a Convention, held in the hall of Trinity Lodge, to learn the Webb Lectures of Brother Benjamin Gleason.

"In 1806, when I opened my office in Cambridgeport, I joined Amicable Lodge, and was an officer there. I thence for a number of years attended the meetings of the Grand Lodge in Boston.

"I became a member of St. Andrew's Chapter, Boston, having been exalted in 1804 or 5 in St. John's Chapter, Groton, being the first who ever passed the Arch in that Chapter.

"In 1812, Hon. Timothy Bigelow being Grand Master, I was appointed District Deputy Grand Master of the First District, and visited officially the numerous Lodges in that District for two or three years.

"In 1818, when the Lodges in Boston met in the old Exchange, just before it was burnt, and after I had been Senior Grand Warden, I retired from the meetings, and thereafter had little connection with the active duties of the Craft, except that I was for one or two years, Deputy Grand High Priest; and excepting, also, that after the Antimasonic pressure became severe, I met often with the Brethren in their meetings for consultation and advice.''

He later became active again in the affairs of the Grand Lodge, and was installed Grand Master on December 27,

1842, serving in that capacity until December 27, 1845. He was named Asa Peabody by his parents, but some years before his election as Grand Master had his name changed to Augustus Peabody by act of the Legislature (June 15, 1815). Most Worshipful Brother Nickerson said of him "He was a profound thinker, and a good man." (25 M.F.M. 101.) Of him the Grand Lodge said, in resolutions passed on December 11, 1850:

"Resolved, That in the death of our venerated Brother, this Grand Lodge has lost one of its most valuable members, and the Masonic Fraternity one of its firmest friends and ablest supporters, whose time and talents have been frequently, as they have been most cheerfully and zealously, devoted to the cause of Freemasonry.

"Resolved, That this Grand Lodge owes a lasting debt of gratitude to the memory of our late Right Worshipful Past Grand Master Peabody, for the important and permanent benefits which he has rendered to the Masonic Institution, not only by the discharge of the duties of the several offices which he has held, but by the wisdom of his counsels, and the firmness and consistency of his course, at a period when the Institution was threatened with danger from without and from within.

"Resolved, That the Grand Lodge do bear their most cheerful testimony to the rare powers of mind, and amiable qualities of heart, in connection with the Masonic zeal and fidelity of our departed Brother, which he manifested in his unabated interest for the best welfare of our Institution, up to the last days of his life."'

Prior to the fire of 1864 we had a portrait of M.W. Brother Peabody (1854 Mass. 28; 1855 Mass. 20). Fortunately a replica, made for his family, has been found in the possession of one of his descendants, Miss Lucia M. Peabody, of Belmont, Mass. By her kind permission, this has been photographed. One enlarged copy has been colored