Josiah Quincy Jr.

Josiah Quincy IV (/ˈkwɪnzi/; January 17, 1802 – November 2, 1882)[1] was an American politician. He was mayor of Boston (December 11, 1845 – January 1, 1849), as was his father Josiah Quincy III (mayor in 1823–1828) and grandson Josiah Quincy VI (mayor in 1895–1899).

For other people named Josiah Quincy, see Josiah Quincy (disambiguation).
Josiah Quincy IV
Mayor of Boston
In office
December 11, 1845 – January 1, 1849
(acting: December 11, 1845 – January 5, 1846)
Preceded byThomas Aspinwall Davis
Benson Leavitt (acting)
Succeeded byJohn P. Bigelow
President of the Boston Common Council
In office
1934–1936
Preceded byJohn P. Bigelow
Succeeded byPhilip Marett
Personal details
BornJanuary 17, 1802
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedNovember 2, 1882(1882-11-02) (aged 80)
Boston, Massachusetts
Political partyWhig
OccupationPolitician
Mayor Davis died on November 22, 1845. Benson Leavitt, Chairman of the Board of Aldermen served as Acting Mayor from November 22, 1845 to December 11, 1845. After Quincy was elected Mayor on December 8, 1845 for the term beginning January 5, 1846, Quincy was appointed by the city council as acting mayor on December 11, 1845 to serve out Mayor Davis' term.

Career

He attended Philips' Academy, Andover and graduated from Harvard College in 1821.

He was elected a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1823 and became its captain in 1829 at the age of 27.

He was the author of Figures of the Past (1883).[2]

As a member of the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1837, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He built the Josiah Quincy Mansion in 1848.[3]

He was elected to the Boston Common Council in 1833 and served as its president from 1834 to 1857.

He served as mayor of Boston from 1845 to 1849. He served as treasurer of the Boston Athenaeum from 1837 to 1852.

Travels

In 1844, while traveling with Charles Francis Adams met Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Nauvoo, Illinois, where Adams received a copy of the Book of Mormon which had previously belonged to Smith's wife, Emma Smith. The book is now in the archive collections of Adams National Historical Park. [4]At the visit, Smith showed Adams and Quincy four Egyptian mummies and ancient papyri. Adams was not impressed by Smith, and wrote in his diary entry that day, "Such a man is a study not for himself, but as serving to show what turns the human mind will sometimes take. And herafter if I should live, I may compare the results of this delusion with the condition in which I saw it and its mountebank apostle."[5]

Family
Boston Skyline Circa 1847

His brother Edmund (1808–1877) was a prominent abolitionist, and author of the biography of his father and of a romance, Wensley (1854). A sister, Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston, was a writer; and another sister, Eliza Susan (1798–1884) was her father's secretary and the biographer of her mother.[2]

Quincy had two sons — Josiah Phillips (1829–1910), a lawyer, who wrote, besides some verse, The Protection of Majorities (1876) and Double Taxation in Massachusetts (1889); and Samuel Miller (1833–1887), who practised law, wrote on legal subjects, served in the Union army during the Civil War, and was breveted brigadier-general of volunteers in 1865. [2]

A descendant of his, through her mother, was Helen Howe, novelist.

See also

Sources
  • William Guild, Description of the Boston and Worcester and Western Railroads: In which is Noted the Towns, Villages, Station, Bridges, Viaducts, Tunnels, Cuttings, Embankments, Gradients, &c., the Scenery and Its Natural History, and Other Objects Passed by this Line of Railway. With Numerous Illustrations, Boston?: Bradbury & Guild, 1847, p. 13.

References
  1. "Josiah Quincy Jr. - Boston Mayor from 1846 to 1848". Celebrateboston.com. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  2. Chisholm 1911.
  3. Pepe, William J.; Elaine A. Pepe (2008). Postcard History Series: Quincy. Arcadia Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 9780738555393.
  4. Quincy, Mailing Address: 135 Adams Street; Peak, MA 02169 Phone: 617-773-1177 Marianne. "Book of Mormon - Adams National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
  5. "Charles Francis Adams Diary". boap.org. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Quincy, Josiah". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.


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