Description:

Quincy Josiah

Josiah Quincy III, Massachusetts Congressman & Harvard University President, 2 ALSs Discussing Son's Inheritance & Mother's Family

 

2 1p ALSs inscribed overall and signed by Massachusetts notable Josiah Quincy III (1772-1864) as "Josiah Quincy." Both are docketed by Quincy's correspondent, "William D. Pohier, Esq." of Boston, Massachusetts. Letters are in very good to near fine condition, with expected light paper folds.

 

The first letter, dated June 8, 1852 from Quincy's farm in Quincy, Massachusetts, was written on cream unlined bifold stationery with remnants of a red wax seal verso. It concerned the aging father's settlement for his eldest son Josiah Quincy, Jr. (IV) (1802-1882).

 

"I entirely accede to [to the principles you propose as the basis of the proposed settlement of my son's affairs, so far as I am connected with them. I will pay Ten Thousand dollars and cancel the mortgage on the 'Quincy House' and 'take the buildings on my land at Quincy, with their contents and equipments and the furniture, library, plate, pictures, and other family household chattels, belonging to the House in Park Street.' It being understood that as the effect of this + other arrangements, the bond signed by me for my son as Treasurer of the Vermont Central Rail Road is of course to be cancelled…"

 

The Quincy ancestral home, a 3-storey Georgian clapboarded structure complete with side portico and balustraded widow's walk, was built for Josiah Quincy III's grandfather, Colonel Josiah Quincy (1710-1784), in 1770 in then Braintree, Massachusetts. A Historic New England property, the house can still be visited today.

 

The second letter, written on June 4, 1859 from the family manse, was written on pale blue lined bifold stationery. Each page measures 7.5" x 9.5". In it, Quincy pledges two "inscriptions" or charitable contributions, to the Phillips family, his relatives on his mother's side. He wrote in part: "I owe too much to the Phillips family not readily to give such aid as I can offer, to commemorate + give perpetuity to the memory of the virtues of any of its members, particularly of that of one, with whom I am so intimately connected." This last comment is probably directed to Quincy III's mother, Abigail Phillips (1745-1798).

 

Josiah Quincy III came from a long line of Massachusetts patriarchs who fought during the American Revolution and served in colonial politics. Quincy III was a Federalist Congressman from Massachusetts between 1805-1813, and later Mayor of Boston. Between 1829-1845, Quincy III served as President of Harvard University.

 

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