Boston Brahmins, also called the First Families of Boston and cold roast Boston, are the class of New Englanders who claim hereditary and cultural descent from the English Protestants who founded the city of Boston, Massachusetts, and settled New England. They are considered part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment.

The First Families of Boston are the most established and historically idealogical of all the Northeastern United States. Their southern counterparts are the more traditionally aristocratic, in Old World fashion, First Families of Virginia and Colonial families of Maryland. Of more purely mercantile (middle-class) origins are the oldest prominent families of New York City and Philadelphia, of Social Register fame.

Characteristics

The term Brahmin is of Indian origin, deriving from Sanskrit and referring to the highest caste in the Indian caste system. In America it has been applied (after it was coined by writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. as part of a January 1860 article in the Atlantic Monthly called "The Professor's Story") to the old, upper crust New England families of British Protestant (usually English) origin that were extremely influential in the development and leadership of arts, culture, science, politics, trade, and academia. The term was certainly applied half in jest to characterize the often erudite nature of the New England gentry to outsiders. The term has never gained currency among "Brahmin" families themselves who would simply consider themselves to be a particular breed of Yankee.

The nature of the Brahmins is summarized in the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Harvard alumnus John Collins Bossidy.

Members of these families are generally known for being fiscally conservative, socially liberal, and well educated. These families often have deeply established traditions in the Congregationalist, Unitarian, and sometimes Episcopal faiths. According to Yankee magazine, many Brahmin families intermarried and were perceived as marked by their manners and distinctive elocution, the Boston Brahmin accent, version of the New England accent.

Brahmin families

Many of the Brahmin families trace their ancestry back to the original founders of Boston while others entered New England aristocratic society during the nineteenth century with their profits from commerce and trade or by marrying into established Brahmin families like the Emersons and Winthrops. A few prominent families are listed here.

Adams

Adams family

• Samuel Adams (1722–1803)

• John Adams (1735–1826) & Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818)

• * John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

• ** Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (1807–1886)

• *** Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835–1915)

• **** Charles Francis Adams III (1866–1954)

• ***** Charles Francis Adams IV (1910–1999)

• *** John Quincy Adams II (1833–1894)

• *** Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

• *** Brooks Adams (1848–1927)

Bacon

• Robert Bacon (1860-1919)

• Robert L. Bacon (1884-1938)

• Gaspar G. Bacon (1886-1947)

• Gaspar G. Bacon, Jr. (1914-1943)

Cabot

Cabot family

• Susanna Cabot (1754–1777)

• Godfrey Lowell Cabot (1861–1962)

• * Thomas Dudley Cabot (1897–1995)

Descendant by marriage:

• Francis Cabot Lowell (1775–1817)

• Lilla Cabot Perry (1848–1933)

• Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924)

• * Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902–1985)

Chaffee/Chafee

Chaffee (Chaffee Family), originally of Hingham, Massachusetts

• Thomas Chaffee (businessman/landowner) (1610-1683)

• Joseph Chaffe (1639-1694)

• Jonathon Chaffee (businessman/landowner) (1678-1766)

• Matthew Chaffee (Boston landowner) (1657-1723)

• Adna Romanza Chaffee (U.S. General) (1842-1914)

• Adna R. Chaffee, Jr. (U.S. General) (1884-1941)

• John Chafee (U.S. Senator) (1922-1999)

• Lincoln Chafee (U.S. Senator) (b. 1953)

Choate

Choate family

• Rufus Choate

• George C.S. Choate (1827–1896), Founder of St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)

• Joseph Hodges Choate

• William Gardner Choate

• Sarah Choate Sears

Cushing

Cushing family, originally of Hingham, Massachusetts

• Caleb Cushing

• John Perkins Cushing 1787-1862 China Trade Merchant, Investor

• Thomas Cushing

• William Cushing

Descendant by marriage:

• Albert Cushing Read

Crowninshield

Crowninshield family

• Jacob Crowninshield (1770–1808)

• * Arent S. Crowninshield (1843–1908)

• Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1772–1851)

• George Crowninshield

• Frank Crowninshield (1872–1947)

Descendant by marriage:

• William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900)

• Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (b. 1921)

Dana

Dana family

• Francis Dana (1743-1811)

• Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (1787-1879)

• Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882)

Delano

Delano family

• Columbus Delano (1809-1896)

• Jane Delano (1862-1919)

• Paul Delano (1745-1842)

Descendant by marriage:

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)

Dudley

Dudley-Winthrop family

• Governor Thomas Dudley, a founder of Harvard College

• Anne Dudley Bradstreet, Poetess

• Royal Governor Joseph Dudley, President of the Dominion of New England, Chief Justice of New York, Member of Parliament, Lt. Governor of the Isle of Wight

• Chief Justice Paul Dudley, Member of the Royal Society, Founder of the Dudleian Lectures at Harvard

Eliot

Eliot family

• Charles William Eliot (1834–1926)

• * Charles Eliot (1859–1897)

Descendant by marriage:

• Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908)

Emerson

Emerson family

• Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811) & Ruth Haskins Emerson

• * Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) & Lydia Jackson Emerson

Endicott

Endicott family
Salem:

• William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900)

Dedham:

• Augustus Bradford Endicott (1818-1910)

• * Elizabeth Endicott Young (1849-1936)

• ** Philip Endicott Young (1885-1955)

• * Henry Bradford Endicott (1853–1920)

• ** Henry Wendell Endicott (1880–1954)

• ***Bradford Maxwell Endicott (1926- )

Forbes

Forbes family

• John Murray Forbes (1813-1898)

Descendant by marriage:

• John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943)

Holmes

Holmes family

• Abiel Holmes (1763–1837)

• * Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

• ** Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935)

Jackson

Jackson family

• Edward Jackson (1708–1757) & Dorothy Quincy Jackson

• * Jonathan Jackson (1743–1810) & Hannah Tracy Jackson

• ** Charles Jackson (1775–1855)

• *** Amelia Lee Jackson, who married Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. above

• ** Patrick Tracy Jackson (1780–1847)

• ** Hannah Jackson

• Greling Jackson

• Lydia Jackson

Lawrence

Lawrence family

• Samuel Lawrence (Revolutionary, d. 1839)

• * Amos Lawrence (1786–1852)

• ** Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886)

• *** William Lawrence (1850–1941)

• **** William Appleton Lawrence

• **** Frederic C. Lawrence (1899–1989)

• * Abbott Lawrence (1792–1855)

• * William Lawrence

• * Luther Lawrence (d. 1839)

Descendant by marriage:
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943)

Lodge

• Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924)

• * Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902–1985)

Lowell

Lowell family

• John Lowell II (Jun 17, 1743–May 6, 1802), aka The Old Judge, is considered to be the patriarch of the Boston Lowells; married three times, losing his first two wives during childbirth.

• Descendants of John Lowell II and Sarah Higginson (Jan 3, 1745–May 5, 1772); m. Jan 8, 1767

• *Anna Cabot Lowell (Mar 30, 1768–Dec 18, 1810)

• *John Lowell, Jr. (lawyer) (Oct 6, 1769–Mar 12, 1840) aka The Rebel; m. Jun 8, 1793 to Rebecca Amory (Jan 8, 1771–Mar 12, 1842)

• **John Amory Lowell (Nov 11, 1798–Oct 31, 1881); married twice, losing his first wife during childbirth.

• **Descendants of John Amory Lowell and his half first cousin Susan Cabot Lowell (see below); m. Feb 14, 1822

• ***Susan Cabot (Apr 15, 1823–Jun 9, 1868)

• ***Judge John Lowell (Oct 18, 1824–May 14, 1897); m. to Lucy Buckminster Emerson

• ****John Lowell (b. May 6, 1856); m. Oct 24, 1888 to Mary Emlen Hale of Philadelphia

• *****Ralph Lowell (July 23, 1890–1978); m. Sept 1, 1917 to Charlotte Loring (1897–1981)

• ****Judge James Arnold Lowell (Feb 5, 1869–Nov 30, 1933); m. Dec. 2, 1897 to Mary Wharton Churchman of Philadelphia

• **Descendants of John Amory Lowell and Elizabeth Cabot Putnam (Nov 11, 1807–Feb 12, 1881); m. Apr 9, 1829

• ***Augustus Lowell (Jan 15, 1830–1900); m. Jun 1, 1854 to Katherine Bigelow Lawrence (b. 1832)

• ****Percival Lowell (Mar 13, 1855–Nov 12, 1916); m. 1908 to Constance Savage Keith (Oct 31, 1863–Sept 24, 1954)

• ****Abbott Lawrence Lowell (Dec 13, 1856–Jan 6, 1943); m. Jun 19, 1879 to Anna Parker Lowell

• ****Katherine Lowell (b. Nov 27, 1858); m. Dec 5, 1882 to Alfred Roosevelt of New York (a first cousin of Teddy Roosevelt)

• ****Elizabeth Lowell (Feb 2, 1862–1935); m. Jun 9, 1888 to William Lowell Putnam

• ****Roger Lowell (Feb 2, 1862–Aug 31, 1863)

• ****May Lowell (b. May 1, 1870–d. at birth)

• ****Amy Lowell (Feb 9, 1874–May 12, 1925)

• **Anna Cabot Lowell (1808–1894)

• Descendants of John Lowell II and Susanna Cabot (Jan 13, 1754–Mar 30, 1777); m. May 31, 1774

• *Francis Cabot Lowell (businessman) (Apr 7, 1775–Aug 10, 1817); m. Oct 31, 1798 to Hannah Gardner Jackson (Feb 3, 1776–May 10, 1815)

• **John Lowell, Jr. (philanthropist) (May 11, 1799–Mar 4, 1836)

• **Susan Cabot Lowell (Feb 14, 1801–Aug 15, 1827); m. Feb 14, 1822 to her half first cousin John Amory Lowell (see above)

• **Francis Cabot Lowell Jr. (Jan 5, 1803–Sept 8, 1874); m. Jan 11, 1826 to Mary Lowell Gardner

• ***George Gardner Lowell (Mar 29, 1830–Feb 6, 1885); m. Apr 4, 1854 to Mary Ellen Parker (b. Aug 21, 1832)

• ****Francis Cabot Lowell (judge) (Jan 7, 1855–Mar 6, 1911)

• ****Anna Parker Lowell (Aug 21, 1856–Mar 23, 1930); m. Jun 19, 1879 to Abbott Lawrence Lowell

• ***Mary Lowell (July 26, 1833–Feb 11, 1915); m. July 15, 1856 to Algernon Sidney Coolidge (Aug 22, 1830–Jan 4, 1912)

• ***Georgina Lowell (Jan 10, 1836–1922)

• ***Edward Jackson Lowell (Oct 18, 1845–May 11, 1894); m. Jan 14, 1868 to Mary Walcott Goodrich (Jane 1, 1846–Apr 5, 1874)

• ****Guy Lowell (Aug 6, 1870–Feb 4, 1927); m. May 17, 1898 to Henrietta Sargent

• **Edward Jackson Lowell (1805–Sept 8, 1880)

• Descendants of John Lowell II and Rebecca Russell (Feb 27, 1747–Sept 15, 1816); m. Dec 25, 1778

• *Rebecca Russell Lowell (May 17, 1779–May 11, 1853); m. to Samuel Pickering Gardner (May 14, 1767–Dec 18, 1843)

• **Mary Lowell Gardner (Jan 12, 1802–Aug 3, 1854); m. Jan 11, 1826 to Francis Cabot Lowell Jr.

• *Rev. Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. (Aug 15, 1782–Jan 20, 1861); m. Oct 2, 1806 to Harriet Brackett Traill Spence (abt. 1783–Mar 30, 1850)

• **Charles Russell Lowell Jr. (Oct 30, 1807–23 Jun 23, 1870); m. Apr 18, 1832 to Anna Cabot Jackson (Sept 29, 1811–Jan 7,1874)

• ***Gen. Charles Russell Lowell III (Jan 2, 1835–October 20, 1864); m. Oct 31, 1863 to Josephine Shaw (Dec 16, 1843–Oct 12, 1905)

• ****Carlotta Shaw Lowell (Nov 30, 1864)

• ***Lt. James Jackson Lowell (Oct 15, 1837–Jul 4, 1862)

• ***Harriet Lowell (Sept 11, 1836–Jan 20, 1920); m. Jun 9, 1860 to George Putnam Jr. (Oct 8, 1834–1912)

• ****William Lowell Putnam Sr. (Nov 22, 1861–Jun 1924); m. Jun 9, 1888 to Elizabeth Lowell

• **Rev. Robert Traill Spence Lowell (Oct 8, 1816–Feb 12, 1891); m. Oct 28, 1822 to Marianna Duane (Nov 11, 1822–Nov 2, 1890)

• ***Commander Robert Traill Spence Lowell Jr. (Mar 23, 1860–Mar 17, 1887); m. Sept 2, 1886 to Kate Bailey Mears

• ****Robert Traill Spence Lowell III (July 15, 1887–1950); m. Apr 26, 1916 to Charlotte Winslow (Feb 7, 1888–1954)

• *****Robert Lowell (Mar 1, 1917–Sept 12, 1977) aka Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV; married 1940–48 to Jean Stafford, 1949–72 to Elizabeth Hardwick, and 1972–77 to English heiress Caroline Blackwood

• **James Russell Lowell (Feb 22, 1819–Aug 12, 1891); m. Dec 26, 1844 to Maria White (Jul 8, 1821–Oct 27, 1853) and later m. Sept 20, 1857 to Frances H. Dunlap (d. Feb 19, 1885) with no issue

• ***Blanche Lowell (Dec 31, 1845–Mar 19, 1847)

• ***Mabel Lowell (Sept 9, 1847–1898); m. Apr 2, 1872 to Edward Burnett (b. Mar 16, 1848)

• ***Rose Lowell (Jul 16, 1849–Feb 2, 1850)

• ***Walter Lowell (Dec 22, 1850–Jun 9, 1852)

Descendant by marriage:

• Godfrey Lowell Cabot (Feb 26, 1861–Nov 2, 1962)

• Julian Lowell Coolidge (Sept 28, 1873–Mar 5, 1954)

• Ferris Lowell Greenslet (1875–1959)

• McGeorge Bundy (1919-1996)

• William Putnam Bundy (1917-2000)

Minot

Minot Family

• Charles Sedgwick Minot

• George Richards Minot

• Henry Davis Minot

• Susan Minot

Norcross

Norcross Family, original settlers of Watertown, MA

• Otis Norcross (1811 - 1882)

Otis

Otis family, originally of Hingham, Massachusetts

• James Otis, Jr. (1725-1783)

• Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

• Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814)

• Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848)

Parkman

Parkman family

• Francis Parkman

Peabody

Peabody family

• Nathaniel Peabody (1774–1855)

• George Peabody (1795–1897)

• Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804–1894)

• Endicott Peabody (educator) (1857–1944)

• * Endicott Peabody (1920–1997)

Perkins

Perkins family

• George H. Perkins (1836–1899), Commodore

• Elisha Perkins (1741–1799), Physician

• Frances Perkins (1882–1965), U.S. Secretary of Labor

• Isabel Weld Perkins (1877–1948), Philanthropist

• Jacob Perkins (1766–1849), Inventor

• Thomas Handasyd Perkins (1764–1854), Merchant, Philanthropist

Phillips

Phillips family

• Samuel Phillips, Jr.

• Dr. John Phillips

• Wendell Phillips

Putnam

Putnam family

• James Putnam

• William Lowell Putnam (1861–1924) & Elizabeth Lowell Putnam

• * Roger Lowell Putnam (1893-1972)

Quincy

Quincy family

• Edmund Quincy (settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633)

• Josiah Quincy I (1709–1784)

• *Josiah Quincy II (1744–1775)

• ** Josiah Quincy III (1772–1864)

• Colonel John Quincy

Descendant by marriage:

• Dorothy Quincy Jackson (wife of Edward Jackson, above)

• Dorothy Quincy Hancock (wife of John Hancock)

• Abigail Smith Adams (1744–1818)

• * John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)

Rice

• Deacon Edmund Rice (settled Sudbury, MA 1638)

• Alexander Hamilton Rice (1818-1895) industrialist, Boston mayor, Massachusetts governor, and U.S. Congressman

• * Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr. (1875-1956) physician, geographer and explorer

• Americus Vespucius Rice (1835-1904) general, U.S. Congressman from Ohio

• Edmund Rice (1842-1906) general and Congressional Medal of Honor awardee

• Edmund Rice (1819-1889) Congressman

• Henry Mower Rice (1816-1894) Senator

• Luther Rice (1783-1836) Baptist clergyman, missionary to India

• Thomas Rice (1768-1854) Congressman

• William North Rice (1845-1928) geologist, university administrator

• William Whitney Rice (1826-1896) Congressman

Saltonstall

Saltonstall family

• Leverett Saltonstall I (1783–1845)

• * Leverett Saltonstall (1892–1979)

• Philip Saltonstall Weld (-1984)

Thorndike

Thorndike family

• Israel Thorndike (1775-1832)

• Augustus Thorndike (1896-1986)

• George Thorndike Angell (1823-1909)

Tudor

Tudor family

• William Tudor (1750-1819), an Attorney-at-Law who served as Representative of Boston in the Massachusetts General Court, State Senator, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and was a founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society

• William Tudor (1779-1830), a leading literary figure in Boston and cofounder of the North American Review and the Boston Athenaeum

• Frederic Tudor (1783-1864), Boston's "Ice King" and founder of the Tudor Ice Company

• Marie Tudor, an American poet

Weld

Weld family

• Thomas Weld (born c. 1600), Minister

• William Gordon Weld (1775–1825), Merchant

• William Fletcher Weld (1800–1881), Merchant, Philanthropist

• Stephen Minot Weld (1806–1867), Politician, Educator

• George Walker Weld (1840–1905), Philanthropist

• Isabel Weld Perkins (1877–1948), Philanthropist

• Charles Goddard Weld (1857–1911), Philanthropist

• Stephen Minot Weld Jr. (1842–1920), Civil War hero

• William Weld, (1945–) former Governor of Massachusetts

• Tuesday Weld, (1943–) actress

• Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895), Abolitionist

• Ezra Greenleaf Weld (1801–1874), Daguerreotypist

• Philip Saltonstall Weld (-1984)

Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth Family

• Edward Wigglesworth

• Michael Wigglesworth

• Richard B. Wigglesworth

Winthrop

Winthrop family

• John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (1587/8–1649)

• Lucy Winthrop Downing, mother of diplomatist Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet

• * John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (1606–1676)

• ** Fitz-John Winthrop (1637/8–1711)

• ** Wait Still Winthrop (1642–1717)

• *** John Winthrop, who married Anne Dudley, granddaughter of Thomas Dudley

• **** John Winthrop, Educator (1714–1779)

• **** John Still Winthrop

• ***** Thomas Lindall Winthrop (1760–1841)

• ***** Robert Charles Winthrop (1809–1894)

See also

• Charles Winchester

• List of U.S. political families