The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Bowdoin

'''BOWDOIN. I. James''', governor of Massachusetts, born in Boston, Aug. 8, 1727, died Nov. 6, 1790. He was a descendant of Pierre Baudonin, a French Huguenot who fled to America on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He graduated at Harvard college in 1745, became in 1753 representative in the general court, and was subsequently senator and councillor. During the troubles which preceded the revolution, he was forward in opposition to the royal governor. In 1775 he was president of the council of government; when the convention assembled in 1778, for the formation of a constitution, he was chosen president; and in 1785 he succeeded Hancock as governor. It was during his administration that the disturbances in the western counties of Massachusetts, known as Shays's rebellion, occurred. He called out 4,000 militia, and the speedy suppression of the insurrection was due to his vigorous course; yet he lost his election the next year. He was afterward a member of the convention for the adoption of the federal constitution. He was a friend and correspondent of Franklin, and one of the founders and first president of the academy of arts and sciences, to which he bequeathed his library. He left a legacy to Harvard college, and aided in the establishment of the Massachusetts humane society. '''II. James''', son of the preceding, born Sept. 22, 1752, died on Naushon island, Mass., Oct. 11, 1811. He graduated at Harvard college in 1771, afterward spent one year at Oxford, and commenced his travels on the continent, but returned to the United States after the battle of Lexington. He was minister to Spain from 1805 to 1808, and acquired in Paris an extensive library, philosophical apparatus, and collection of paintings, all of which he left at his death to Bowdoin college, together with 6,000 acres of land, and the reversion of the island of Naushon, one of the Elizabeth islands in Buzzard's bay, which had been his favorite residence.