Fayerweather Family Papers 1718-1976 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed from the Collection

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Thomas Fayerweather (b. 1661) was the son of Capt. John Fayerweather (1634-1712), who surveyed Boston Harbor, and Sarah Turner (d. 1673). He twice sailed from Boston to the Muscongus and St. George rivers in Maine representing the Lincolnshire Company of Boston in land negotiations with Sagamore Indians.

Thomas Fayerweather (1724-1804) was the son of John Fayerweather (1685-1760) and Jerusha Grose and the nephew of Thomas Fayerweather (b. 1661). In 1756, Thomas married Sarah Hubbard, with whom he had four children. A successful merchant, Fayerweather and his partner James Burd had interests in Boston, Maryland, Philadelphia and New York. He owned a warehouse east of Faneuil Hall Market in Boston and his ships were known to evade British revenue officers when possible.

George Thomas Fayerweather (1840-1893), grandson of Thomas Fayerweather (1725-1804), was born in Westborough, Mass. to Thomas Hubbard Fayerweather and Emily Parker. He married Ellen Brown on October 12, 1865 with whom he had two sons.

A salesman by trade, George Fayerweather enlisted in the 51st Regiment, Co. "E", Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in August 1862. He remained with the unit until July 1863. Reenlisting in the Sixth Unattached Company, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in April 1864, George Fayerweather was discharged from this unit in August 1864, until he received his commission as a captain in the 4th Regiment, Co. "F", Massachusetts Volunteer Heavy Artillery where he remained in command until his discharge in June 1865. After the war, he was a military instructor at Lyman School in Westborough.

In 1857, he became a member of the Fire Department in Westborough, where he served as chief engineer, 1875-1877, and again, 1884-1886. In the interim he served as First Assistant. He was a member of the State Firemen's Association. Between 1880-1886 he was in charge of the fire department supplies of Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Company, for whom he was spokesperson at the Convention of Fire Engineers (1891).

Eleanor Appleton Fayerweather (b. 1904) was born in Westborough to Frank Raymond Fayerweather and Ethel Maud Hinchcliffe. She was the granddaughter of George Thomas Fayerweather. She graduated from the Massachusetts School of Art in 1927. A specialist in costume research, she worked as a curator in the Costume Center of the Rhode Island School of Design.

A merchant by trade, Samuel Harrison Brown (1813-1875) owned the Samuel Harrison Brown & Co. Shoe Manufacturers of Boston. His wife Elizabeth Anne Ladd ran the "Westboro Hotel," also called the "Brown's Hotel," in Westborough. He was a member of the Boston Light Infantry, a military association of citizens organized, "that it may be prepared at all times to resist sudden invasion or press internal commotion," between 1853-1873. He had two daughters: Harriet Augusta Brown (b. 1848), and Ellen Elizabeth Brown (1841-1908), who married George Thomas Fayerweather.

Collection Description

The Fayerweather family papers consist of five boxes and one oversize box, encompassing the years 1718-1976. The collection is divided into three series: Fayerweather family papers, Brown family papers, and Biographical and Genealogical materials.

Fayerweather family papers include the papers of Thomas Fayerweather (b. 1661), Thomas Fayerweather (1724-1804), George Thomas Fayerweather, Eleanor Appleton Fayerweather, and an unidentified diary. Of particular interest is a transcript of a diary kept by Thomas Fayerweather (b. 1661) of his trips to Maine for the Lincolnshire Company in the summer of 1720.

Thomas Fayerweather's (1724-1804) papers include correspondence, business papers, and a memory book. Fayerweather's business interests in Boston, Maryland, Philadelphia and New York are the primary subjects of his papers. There are gaps in the correspondence and business papers, between 1769-1778 and 1769-1778, respectively, possibly due to Fayerweather's residence in Oxford during the American Revolution.

George Thomas Fayerweather's papers consist of a company roll, miscellaneous forms, correspondence, ordnance forms, muster rolls, quartermaster forms, discharge papers, and commissions from Fayerweather's tenure as an army officer during the Civil War. The membership, munitions, equipment, and activities of the 4th Regiment, Co. "F", Massachusetts Volunteer Heavy Artillery are well documented.

Eleanor Appleton Fayerweather's papers include correspondence to her parents from trips to Europe in 1928 and 1930, lectures notes, a paper, and brochures relating to art and design, newsclippings, a scrapbook of clippings relating to her civic and theatrical activities, and an anatomical sketchbook.

Brown family papers consist primarily of correspondence and diaries. The papers of Samuel Harrison Brown include a few family letters, Boston Light Infantry records, 1853-1855, and an autograph book. Ellen Brown (wife of George Thomas Fayerweather) papers include correspondence, a volume containing a small library catalog and diary entires, and a diary/memo book. Of particular interest are letters to Ellen Brown from her cousin James Peck, a soldier in New Orleans during the Civil War. The series also includes an autograph book by Harriet Augusta Brown.

Biographical and genealogical materials concerning the Brown, Fayerweather, Hinchcliffe and Wheelock families include property deeds, newsclippings, genealogies, notes, Bible records, correspondence and marriage certificates.

Related Materials

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) holds the following collections related to the Fayerweather family papers:

Fayerweather family photographs, ca. 1858-1978. Photo. Coll. 47. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fap011.

Acquisition Information

The Fayerweather family papers were a gift of the estate of Eleanor Fayerweather, June 1993.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Fayerweather family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Photographs

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Fayerweather family photographs, ca. 1858-1978. Photo. Coll. 47.

Printed Materials

The following printed items have been removed for placement and cataloging with the Massachusetts Historical Society printed materials:

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, adapted by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler from the Oxford Dictionary, Eighth Impression. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.

Coppee, Capt. Henry. The Field Manual for Battalion Drill. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1864.

Duties of Guards and Sentinels. Published for the use of the Troops comprising the 3rd Brigade. By order of Gen. R. H. Chamberlain.

This Harbour of Boston...laid down as taken by Capt. John Fayerweather. By Philip Wells

The Holy Bible. New York: Elam Bliss, Broadway, 1828.

Instructions for Officers of the Adjutant General's Department and Others of Kindred Duties. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864.

Kautz, August V. The Company Clerk: What to Do and How to Do It. 12 edition. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. , 1865.

Manual of Loading and Firing the Peabody Breech-Loading Rifle. Boston: Wright & Potter, State Printers, 1873.

Militia Laws: 1874-75. Published by the Adjutant General. Boston: Wright & Potter, State Printers, 1875.

The Pastor's Gift to the Pupil's of the Bulfinch Street Sunday School. Boston: Benjamin H. Greene, 1846.

Patten, George. Artillery Drill: Containing the School of the Piece and Battery Manoeuvers. New York: J. W. Fortune, 1864.

Prince, Thomas, M.A. Mr. Prince's Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Fayerweather. Boston: Printed by Edes & Gill, in King Street for D. Henchman, in Cornhill, 1755.

Rules for the Management and Cleaning of the Rifle Musket, Model 1863. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1863.

Tablet of Memory: A Chart of the United States, Historical, Statistical and Political. Compiled by Richard S. Fisher, New York 1846. New York: Published by J. H. Colton, 1846.

The Unique: or Biography of Many Distinguished Characters; with fine portraits. Fourth Edition Improved. Hingham: C. & E. B. Gill, 1834.

Artifacts

A Civil War Chest with the words "Co. F. 4th, Regt. Mass. Heavy Artillery" was removed to the Museum Collection