Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828; born Ward Hallowell), a descendant of the physician
Zabdiel Boylston
Zabdiel Boylston, FRS (March 9, 1679 – March 1, 1766) was a physician in the Boston area. As the first medical school in North America was not founded until 1765, Boylston apprenticed with his father, an English-born surgeon named Thomas Boyls ...
, was an American merchant, a philanthropist, and benefactor of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. He was a brother of Admiral Sir
Benjamin Hallowell Carew
Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew (born Benjamin Hallowell; ?1 January 1761 – 2 September 1834) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. He was one of the select group of officers, referred to by Lord Nelson as his " Band of Brothers", ...
, one of
Nelson's Band of Brothers, and a nephew of Governor
Moses Gill
Moses Gill (January 18, 1733 – May 20, 1800) was an American merchant and politician who served as the acting governor of Massachusetts from 1799 to 1800, when he died in office, the only acting governor to do so. A successful businessman, he ...
. He was brother in law to
John Elmsley
John Elmsley (1762 – April 29, 1805) was Chief Justice of Upper Canada and afterwards Lower Canada. In both of the Canadas he served as President of the Executive Council and Speaker of the Legislative Council. During the Hunter administr ...
, Chief Justice of Upper and Lower Canada (via marriage to his sister Mary).
Biography
He was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and spent much of his life there. His father,
Benjamin Hallowell III, Esq., was the Commissioner of Customs, and the family lived in the
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
end of what was then the town of Roxbury, just south of Boston. His mother, Mrs. Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, was the daughter of
Thomas Boylston, and a first cousin of
Susanna Boylston, the mother of the 2nd President of the United States,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
, and grandmother of the 6th President,
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...
.
Boylston bequeathed to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
on behalf of his uncle, Nicholas Boylston, $23,200 as a foundation of a professorship in Rhetoric and Oratory, specifying that
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...
should be appointed professor. He continued to donate large sums of money to Harvard and in 1810 gave them a valuable collection of medical and anatomical works and engravings. He donated funds for Harvard's Boylston Medical Library and the Boylston Anatomical Museum, for various prizes for medical dissertations, and for the Boylston Medical Society.
He was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...
in 1819.
The Suffolk County Records state that "To the inhabitants of the town of
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
he gave $1000, one half to be paid to the deacons of the Church and congregation over which Rev'd Samuel Clarke was pastor, the net income to be applied towards the salary of the minister. The remaining five hundred dollars to be loaned to industrious young men in the town until it doubled when the income should be expended for the support of indigent and deserving widows and fermale orphan children."
According to Dr. Nathan Allen, "Mr. Boylston, while in Princeton, lived in princely style and was remarkable for his politeness to all with whom lie came in contact. He possessed an unusual amount of intelligence and liberality in his benefactions. While residing in London he became familiarly acquainted with the celebrated
Dr. John Hunter, and having had two uncles in this country distinguished members of the medical profession, he became greatly interested in all matters pertaining to medicine. For this purpose he made some handsome donations to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, so that the name Boylston is honored, being attached to a medical library, an anatomical museum, a medical society and prize medals for essays to improve medical science."
Both
Boylston Street in Boston and Boylston Street in Jamaica Plain are named after him, as is the town of
Boylston, Massachusetts
Boylston is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,849 at the 2020 census.
History
Boylston was first settled by Europeans around 1706 in the northern part of the present-day town, most notably by the Sa ...
,
[Bentinck-Smith, William]
"Nicholas Boylston and His Harvard Chair"
''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'', Third Series, Vol. 93, (1981), pp. 17-39 Boylston Hall at Harvard University,
''The Harvard University Catalogue 1905-1906''
Cf. p.695, The Chemical Laboratory. and the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard in honor of his uncle, Nicholas Boylston.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boylston, Ward Nicholas
1747 births
1828 deaths
Hallowell family
People from colonial Boston
Businesspeople from Boston
Harvard University people
American philanthropists
People from Princeton, Massachusetts
People of colonial Massachusetts
Members of the American Antiquarian Society