Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Tufts, Cotton

TUFTS, Cotton, physician, b. in Medford, Mass., 30 May, 1734; d. in Weymouth, Mass., 8 Dec., 1815. He was the grandson of Peter Tufts, who emigrated to this country in 1654 and died in Malden, Mass., in 1700, aged eighty-two. Cotton was graduated at Harvard in 1749, studied medicine, and settled at Weymouth, where he was highly esteemed as a physician. He was one of the original members of the Massachusetts medical society, its president in 1787-'95, and one of the founders of the Academy of arts and sciences. In 1765 he wrote spirited and patriotic instructions to the representatives of Weymouth against the stamp-act. He was a representative of the state and a councillor, for many years an active member of the state senate, and supported in the convention the adoption of the U. S. constitution. — His grandson, Quincy, b. in Weymouth, Mass., 4 July, 1791; d. there, 18 April, 1872, was a citizen of Boston, and distinguished for his liberality. He left by his will $10,000 to Harvard for the education of indigent students, $2,000 each to Amherst college and Atkinson academy, N. H., for a like purpose, $10,000 to the town of Weymouth for a free library, $10,000 to the Massachusetts general hospital for free beds; and about $40,000 to be distributed among the charitable institutions of the city.