Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/304

 278

��Hon. Josiali Gardner Abbott, LL.D.

��mination and strength of the Confed- erate force at Charleston. Mr. White thought it would require a force of ten thousand men to relieve Fort Sumter, and said so. General Scott laughed hear- tily, and told him that two thousand men would be ample for the purpose. In common with most of the leading men at the capital, General Scott underestimat- ed the pluck and strength of the rebels. In 1846, the year after coming to Nashua, Mr. White was united in mar-

��riage with Miss Caroline G. Merrill, of his native town. Of their two chil- dren, the eldest, Caroline Wilson, died in infancy. The son, James Wilson White, born June 10, 1849, died in Florida, January 27, 1876. Mrs. White, having survived her children, died sud- denly of apoplexy in 1880.

In April, i88t, Mr. White was mar- ried the second time to Mrs. Ann M. Prichard, of Bradford, Vermont.

��Hon. JOSIAH GARDNER ABBOTT, LL.D.

By Colonel John Hatch George.

��The Honorable Josiah Gardner Abbott, the subject of this biographic sketch, traces his lineage back to the first settlers of this Commonwealth. The Puritan George Abbott, who came from Yorkshire, England, in 1630, and settled in Andover, was his ancestor on his father's side ; while on his mother's side his English ancestor was William Fletcher, who came from Devonshire in 1640, and settled, first, in Concord, and, finally, in 1651, in Chelmsford. It may be noted in passing that Devon- shire, particularly in the first part of the seventeenth century, was not an obscure part of England to hail from, for it was the native shire of England's first great naval heroes and circumnavigators of the globe, such as Drake md Caven- dish.

George Abbott married Hannah, the daughter of William and Annis Chandler, whose descendants have been both numerous and influential. The young couple setded in Andover. As has been said, ten years after the advent on these shores of George Abbott came William Fletcher, who, after living for a short time in Concord,

Vol. I.— No. III.— A.

��settled finally in Chelmsford. In direct descent from these two original settlers of New England were Caleb Abbott and Mercy Fletcher, the parents of the subject of this sketch. Judge Abbott is, therefore, of good yeomanly pedi- gree. His ancestors have always lived in Massachusetts since the settlement of the country, and have always been patriotic citizens, prompt to respond to every call of duty in the emergencies of their country, whether in peace or war. Both his grandfathers served honorably in the war of the Revolution, as their fathers and grandfathers before them served in the, French and Indian wars of the colonial period of our history. In his genealogy there is no trace of Norman blood or high rank : but

"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, The man 's the gowd for a' that."

In this country, while it is not nec- essary to success to be able to lay claim to an aristocratic descent, it is certainly a satisfaction, however demo- cratic the community may be, for any person to know that his grandfather was an honest man and a public-spirited citizen.

�� �