Thomas Lawlor (1746), shopkeeper, of Boston, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Lawlor, was born March 28, 1720. He married, Dec. 21, 1742, Susanna Martin. He held minor town offices in 1747 and 1750. He was approved and recommended by the selectmen as a retailer of beer and cider, Oct. 13, 1740. Ilis shop was on Ship, now North, Street. March, 1741-2, he was approbated by the selectmen, and he became a member of John Earl's engine company, located near "the New North Meeting-house, in Mr. Hutchinson's building." He was fourth sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1749, and second sergeant in 1754.

Samuel Livermore (1746), yeoman, of Watertown, son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Barns) Livermore, was born in that part of Watertown now called Waltham, March 14, 1701-2, and he died Aug. 7, 1773. He married, (1) Nov. 10, 1726, Hannah Brown, daughter of Dea. William Brown, of Cambridge; (2) Jan. 22, 1765, Hannah, widow of Daniel Harrington. She died Dec. 31, 1765. (3) May 7, 1767, Joanna Felton, of Watertown, who died Sept. 5, 1767, aged forty-six years; (4) March 5, 1770, Thankful, widow of Richard Cutting. She died Nov. 4, 1772. He had nine children by his first wife, and none by the others. Of these children, Samuel was an officer of the crown for some years; was several times delegate to the Continental Congress; chief justice of New Hampshire in 1782; representative to Congress, and was a United States senator for nine years, or until the year 1800, when he resigned.

Major Samuel Livermore (1746) inherited a considerable estate from his granduncle, Nathaniel Livermore, of Watertown, including the now so-called "Lyman" farm in Waltham. By industry and frugality he added largely to his inherited estate. For many years he was the most prominent citizen in the town. He was a selectman of Watertown twenty-two years, 1743-64; representative to the General Court from 1745 to 1765, except in 1748; assessor twelve years, 1738-56; town clerk and treasurer twenty-six years, 1738-63; noderator of town meetings twenty-two years, 1740-64, and was a deacon of the church. He was also identified with the militia, and, passing through the regular promotion, became major of the First Regiment of Massachusetts militia. He was a thorough patriot, and active in supporting the cause of the colonies.

Samuel Swift (1746), lawyer, of Boston, son of Col. Samuel (1724) and Ann (Holman) Swift, of Milton, was "born at the homestead on Milton Hill," July 9, 1715. He married (1) Sarah Tyler, and (2) Ann Foster, of Dorchester. By the first, he had one daughter; by the last, two sons and four daughters. One of his sons, Foster, became a physician in Taunton, and was the father of Gen. Joseph G. Swift, U. S. A., one of the first cadets at West Point, who presided at the banquet given in Boston in July, 1817, in honor of President Monroe; and the other, Jonathan, a merchant, who settled in Virginia. President Adams often speaks of Samuel Swift (1746) in his diary. He says, 1766: "Spent the evening at Sam. Adams very socially with brother Swift." In a letter to William Wirt, who was writing the life of Patrick Henry, he says: "Among the illustrious men who were agents in the Revolution must be remembered the name of Samuel Swift [1746]." He was fourth sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1748, and its clerk from 1749 to 1751.

Thomas Lawlor (1746). AUTHORITY: Boston Records.

Samuel Livermore (1746). AUTHORITY: Bond's Hist. of Watertown, pp. 345, 346.

Samuel Swift (1746). AUTHORITIES: Teele's Hist. of Milton; Boston Records.

When Gen. Gage offered the freedom of the town to Bostonians who would deposit their arms in the British arsenal, Mr. Swift (1746) opposed the movement. He presided at a meeting where it was covertly agreed to use their concealed arms, also pitchforks and axes, to assail the soldiers on Boston Common. This scheme was revealed to Gen. Gage, and Mr. Swift (1746) was arrested. He was permitted to visit his family, then at Newton, upon his parole to return at a given time. At the appointed time he returned, against the remonstrance of his friends, and so high an opinion of his character was entertained by Gen. Gage that he was permitted to occupy his own house under surveillance. From disease induced by confinement, he died a prisoner in his own house, a martyr to freedom's cause, Aug. 31, 1775. He was interred in his tomb, which had formerly belonged to the father of his first wife, Mr. Samuel Tyler.

Samuel Swift (1746) graduated at Harvard College in 1735, settled in Boston, and studied law in the office of the distinguished counsellor, Jeremiah Gridley. He was prominent in the town affairs of Boston. In 1759, 1761, and 1770, he visited, with others, and examined the schools of the town. In 1759, he was chosen on a committee to regulate the quantity, etc., of wood brought by carriage into town, which resulted in a legislative act that wood brought by land carriage must be four feet in length, the same as if brought by water. In 1765, he, with others, was authorized to consider the selling of the town's interest in Boston Neck. He served on other committees, but the one of greatest interest, chosen March 19, 1771, consisted of Col. Swift (1746), Hancock, Samuel Adams, Dr. Church, Joseph Warren, etc., to wait upon Mr. James Lovel and notify him that the town had chosen him to deliver an oration, April 2, at 10 A. M., "to commemorate the barbarous murder of five of our fellow-citizens," etc., on the 5th of March, 1770. In 1773, with Adams, Warren, Church, etc., he was "to consider what is best to be done to vindicate the town from the gross misrepresentations and groundless charges in his Excellency's messages to both Houses," etc. The report of the committee was unanimously accepted, recorded in the town books, printed, and sent far and near.

Mr. Swift (1746) was a Freemason, and from July 10, 1752, when he sat in Grand Lodge as senior warden of the First Lodge, until 1774, he was often present at the communications of St. John's Grand Lodge. At the installation of John Rowe as grand master, Nov. 23, 1768, Bro. Samuel Swift (1746) carried in the procession the "Golden Level."

Monday, April 3, 1775, an adjourned town meeting assembled in Faneuil Hall. The record is: "Mr. Samuel Adams, Moderator of this Meeting being at the Congress now sitting at Concord, Samuel Swift, Esq. [1746], was chosen Moderator, Pro Tempore," which concluded his public service to the town.

The record of the Artillery Company for 1746 is as follows:

"April 7th, 1746. The Company being under arms at Faneuil Hall, being rainy weather, voted, that the Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Walter be desired to preach the next Election Sermon; and that the field officers of the Regiment of the town of Boston, with the present commission officers of this Company, be a committee to wait on him and desire the same. The evening being spent at Serg't Hurds [1743], it was voted, that the following gentlemen should be a committee to take care of and manage the Company's money; Col. Jacob Wendell [1733], Lieut.-Col. William Downe [1716], Maj. Daniel Henchman [1712], Capt. John Wendell [1733], Capt. John Phillips [1725].

"May 5th. The Company being at the house of Ensign John Codman [1733] of

Charlestown, the following votes were passed, viz: 1st. That the charge of each member's dinner, on the next Election day, be defrayed by the Company, and the Treasurer to pay the same. 2d. That an allowance of forty pounds be added to the standing sum of thirty pounds to make up the sum of seventy pounds, old tenor, to be paid by the Treasurer to the commission officers towards defraying their charges next Election day. 3d. That the committee lately chosen have power to let out the five hundred pounds, received for Rutland lands, upon interest till the rest of the money be received.

"The Captain being one of the committee appointed to wait on the Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Walter to desire him to preach the next Election Sermon, made report to the Company, that he had accepted the same.

"June 2d. The Company being under arms in Faneuil Hall, being rainy weather, it was voted, that the old commission officers of this Company, and the new commission officers this day chosen, with L't Col. Downe [1716], be a committee to wait on the Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Walter & return the thanks of this Company to him for his sermon preached this day. The evening being spent at Maj. Daniel Henchmans [1712], it was there voted, that the committee lately chosen by the Company, for managing the Company's stock, have power to let the money out at interest and are to take care that there is good personal and real security given, and that the money is fixed that it may be made good as when it was lent."

Rev. Nathaniel Walter, of Roxbury, minister of the Second Parish, delivered the Artillery election sermon of 1746.1 He was the son of Rev. Nehemiah Walter, who delivered the Artillery sermon in 1711, and Sarah (Mather) Walter, daughter of Rev. Increase Mather. Rev. Nathaniel Walter was born Aug. 15, 1711, and graduated at Harvard College in 1729. He married, in 1735, Rebecca Abbott, of Brookline, who died in 1790.

Mr. Francis S. Drake says, in his history of Roxbury, "When Dr. Boylston introduced the practice of inoculation for small-pox into Boston, Rev. Cotton Mather, who was its powerful advocate, was violently assailed. His nephew, Mr. Walter,' says a

1 Extracts from Rev. Mr. Walter's sermon, preached before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company June 2, 1746:

"In the first place then, -Your Excellency will permit me on this joyful Day, the Monument of ancient, British Liberty, to congratulate your Excellency upon the Smiles of Heaven on your mild, your just, and your wise Government: Where's a Ruler happier in his People, where's a People happier in their Ruler, than SHIRLEY and his Province? When their Captain-General gives forth the Command, cheerfully they obey, and thus the feeble Fortress of Annapolis-Royal is saved from the Hands of her Enemies, and the now-impregnable Fortress of Louisburg is put into our Possession: SHIRLEY'S Troops know how to Pray, and SHIRLEY'S Troops know how to Fight, so as perpetually to engage the GOD of Armies on their Side, who crowns their noble Attempts with Success and Victory: . . . Let one then, whose Eyes beheld the charming Virtue and the undaunted Courage of a New-Eng land Army, raised by your EXCELLENCY'S Command and Vigilance, congratulate You on the Reduction of Cape Breton: Happy Conquest! . . . Future Ages shall bless your Memory and your gallant

"To You, Gentlemen, of the ancient and honourable Artillery-Company, let me next address myself. As you, Gentlemen, have seen fit to pitch upon me, the least of all my Brethren in the Ministry, to stand this Day in the Desk, that so you might do Honour to that Gallant Army of your countrymen, who reduced Louisbourg under the British Government; and to whom there can scarcely be too much Honour done: I assure you it is no small Motive to me to appear here this Day, that I might mention to you their manly Piety and their English Bravery, of which I myself was an Eye-witness: Piety and Bravery, which you, Gentlemen, will copy after, whenever GOD shall call you to play the Men in the Cause of Liberty and Virtue. From You there went forth the Great and the Good in the late Campaign at Louisbourg: And from Whom, Gentlemen, can we more justly expect Heroes than from You, the Flower of our Land, the Glory of our Country?... Wherefore now, Gentlemen, to your Posts, and carry this Truth along with you, He that would fight courageously, and die happily must live virtuously."

writer of the day, 'one of the ministers of Roxbury, having been privately inoculated in the doctor's house in Boston, a villain, about three o'clock in the morning, set fire to the fuse of a grenade shell filled with combustibles, and threw it into the chamber where he was lying. The fuse was fortunately displaced by the passing of the shell through the window, and the wildfire spent itself upon the floor. It was generally supposed that the bursting of the shell was by that means prevented.'"

Walter Street was named for Rev. Nathaniel Walter. Once the church, the burialground, and the parsonage were upon it, but now only the burial-place remains. His son, Rev. William Walter, in whose house in Charter Street the British Major Pitcairn, wounded at Bunker Hill, expired, was pastor of Christ Church, Boston.

Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Walter served as chaplain of Col. Richmond's regiment in the Louisburg expedition. He was ordained July 10, 1734, and, after a pastorate of fortytwo years, died March 11, 1776.

The officers of the Artillery Company elected in 1747 were: John Phillips

1747. (1725), captain; Hugh McDaniel (1729), lieutenant; Thomas Edwards

(1724), ensign. Caleb Phillips (1742) was first sergeant; John Gore (1743), second sergeant; Thomas Greenough (1744), third sergeant; Isaac Cazneau (1744), fourth sergeant, and Caleb Phillips (1742), clerk.

Dec. 9, 1747, the town-house was injured by fire. The records, books, papers, furniture, pictures of the kings and queens, etc., which were in the council chamber, the chamber of the House of Representatives and the apartments thereof, in that story (second), were consumed; and in the cellars, which were hired by several persons, a great quantity of wines and other liquors were lost. The fire was supposed to have caught from the wood-work under the hearth taking fire. The General Court, then in session, completed their meetings at the Royal Exchange tavern, kept by Luke Vardy. The town-house was immediately and thoroughly repaired.

On account of the ill-advised action of Commodore Charles Knowles, there was a riot in Boston, Nov. 17, 1747. Resulting therefrom, two letters from the governor appeared in the Boston press. Dec. 24, 1747, Thomas Hubbard (1732), Thomas Hutchinson, Edward Bromfield (1732), Andrew Oliver, and Josiah Quincy were chosen to petition his Excellency that he would endeavor to remove the disadvantageous light he had set Boston in before the world by his letters.1

The members of the Artillery Company recruited in 1747 were: Josiah Edson, Jr., John Edwards, Jr., William Homes, Jonathan Lowder, Thomas March, Thomas Raymond, Onesiphorus Tilestone, Josiah Waters.

Josiah Edson, Jr. (1747), yeoman, resided in Bridgewater. He was appointed a justice of the peace June 27, 1747, and was reappointed Jan. 28, 1762, and coroner for Plymouth County March 6, 1773. He was also a selectman in his native town, and a representative to the General Court for many years.

He commanded the Bridgewater regiment in 1772, and was one of the king's

Josiah Edson, Jr. (1747). AUTHORITIES: Whitman's Hist. A. and II. A. Company, Ed. 1842; Sabine's Loyalists.

I See Boston Weekly News-Letter, Dec. 10, 1747, and Boston Evening Post, Dec. 14, 1747.

mandamus council at the Revolution. Doubting the propriety and ability of resisting the mother country, he was stigmatized as a Tory. The people of Bridgewater, being nearly all Whigs, assembled to tar and feather the old man, and the mob collected in the evening and began their tumultuous march. The veneration they had always borne him served to curb their passions as they approached, and it was found, when within half a mile of his house, that the mob had imperceptibly dwindled to ten persons, who stopped to consider what was to be done, and, awed by his amiable character and dignity, concluded to quietly return to their homes, leaving the old gentleman to enjoy his opinions without molestation. He was judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Plymouth County. Jan. 6, 1746, Capt. Josiah Edson, Jr. (1747), was elected by the General Court one of the guardians of the Plymouth and Middleboro Indians, and was re-elected to that office in 1758.

Somewhat different from the foregoing is the account given of him in "Biographical Sketches of American Loyalists," by Lorenzo Sabine, who says of Col. Edson (1747): "He was a noted politician of the time, and was known by the two most odious appellations which prevailed; namely, as a 'rescinder' and a 'mandamus councillor.' Hutchinson speaks of him in 1771, when he was a member of the House of Representatives, as one of the several gentlemen of that body who, in common times, would have had great weight, but who, then discouraged by the great superiority of numbers against them, were inactive. In 1774, Col. Edson [1747] was driven from his home by a mob, and was compelled to reside in Boston under protection of the British troops, and, at the evacuation in 1776, he accompanied the army to Halifax. He went from Halifax to New York, and died in that city, or on Long Island, not long after his arrival [in 1778]. He was a graduate of Harvard University [Class of 1730], a colonel in the militia, a deacon in the church, and a respectable, virtuous man. He is alluded to in McFingal as that old simplicity of Edson.'"

John Edwards, Jr. (1747), bookseller, of Boston, son of John, grandson of John (1699), nephew of Thomas (1724) and of Capt. Joseph Edwards (1738), was born in Boston, June 15, 1725. He was a member of the Lodge of St. Andrew, of Boston.

He held town office in 1747 and 1748, and was elected a constable in 1752, 1753, and 1754, but was excused from serving each year by the town. He visited the public schools, with the justices and selectmen, July 1, 1767, and July 6, 1768. He was second sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1751, and its clerk from 1758 to 1764 inclusive.

William Homes (1747), silversmith, of Boston, son of Capt. Robert and Mary (Franklin) Homes, was born March 9, 1717, and died in 1783. His mother, Mary Franklin, born in Boston, Sept. 26, 1694, was a sister of Benjamin Franklin, and of John (1739). Capt. William (1747) married, April 24, 1740, Rebecca Dawes, sister of William (1760). She was born March 9, 1718, and died in 1788. He united with the Old South Church, Jan. 29, 1748, his wife Rebecca having joined the same church Feb. 8, 1735. He was first sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1752, fourth sergeant in 1754, lieutenant in 1761, and captain in 1765. He served as clerk of the market in 1753 and 1754, and, when elected to that office in 1763, he is called "William Homes, Esq."

John Edwards, Jr. (1747).

Boston Records.

AUTHORITY:

May 22, 1763, the selectmen directed the town clerk to give in to the Court of Sessions the name of

John Edwards as "a proper person to be appointed a measurer of wheat for this port."

William Homes (1747). AUTHORITIES: Boston Records; Glover Memorial.