Page:Sketches of representative women of New England.djvu/375

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
280
REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN OF NEW ENGLAND

scent from Matthew Loring, who in December, 1773, assisted in throwing the ten from the British ships into Boston Harbor. Matthew Loring died in 1829, and was buried in the Old Granary Graveyard on Tremont Street. His wife was a member of one of the Blake families of Boston. Their daughter, Hannah Blake Loring, married Theodore Abbot, and was the mother of nine children, one of them being Sarah K., who married David Wood Foster. Mrs. Foster and her daughters, Sarah E. and Harriet W. Foster, live in the south part of the city, in the house which has been their home for thirty years. In this abode is much to please the eye and ear, for both the father and mother were musical and loved the beautiful, as do their daughters.

Miss Foster is much interested in music, is a painter of considerable note, also an author, something of a club woman, and member of various societies, of which, perhaps, her favorite ones are the Bostonian, of which she is a life member, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which also she is a life member, and the Actors' Church Alliance. Her heart is large, and can hold a great deal, as her friends will testify. She is never happier than when doing something for others. It was through her kind solicitude, a number of years ago, that seats were provided behind store counters for the salesgirls. Though never having taken active part in the movement, she is a stanch woman suffragist, and believes in the rights of the educated woman of to-day. Of a retiring nature and always remaining somewhat in the background, she is a true-hearted American, and interested in every good cause.


HARRIET PEASLEE SIMPSON, vice-president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is the wife of Greenlief Wadleigh Simpson, of Brookline, Mass., and a woman of prominence in philanthropic and patriotic work of Boston. She claims Maine as her native State, her birthplace being the town of Jefferson, Lincoln County. Her parents were Alden Bradfoid and Emiiy (Hilton) Chancy. Her first Chaney (or Cheney) ancestor in America was John Cheney, who came from England in 1635, settled in Newbury, Mass., and died in 1666. The line of descent is through his son Peter,2 born in 1639; John,3 born May 10, 1666; John,4 born in 1705; Ralph,5 born in Georgetown, Me., October 4, 1750: and Ralph,6 born in Wiscasset, Me., in July, 1775.

Ralph Cheney served as a "private in Captain John Blunt's company: service from September 27, 1779, to November 10, 1779, one month, fifteen days, with Major William Lithgow's detachment, defending frontiers of Lincoln County" ("Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution," vol. iii.).

Alden Bradford' Chaney, son of Ralph7 and father of Mrs. Simpson, was born in Alna, Me., in August, 1816. He died August 15, 1866, in Savannah, Ga. He was a captain in the merchant marine service, a Whig in politics, and a Baptist in his religious belief. His wife, Emily Hilton, born in Jefferson, Me., February i, 1821, died in Bath, Me., September 19, 1863. She was the daughter of James and Harriet (Hilton) Hilton. Her parents were married in May, 1820. Her father, James Hilton, died in London, England, February 2, 1821; and her mother married in 1822 his half-brother, Reuel Peaslee. James Hilton and his wife were both descendants in the seventh generation of William Hilton, who came over from England in the "Fortune," arriving at Plymouth in November, 1621. The lines of descent were: William,1 2 3 Stilson,4 Samuel,5 John,6 James7; and William,1 2 3 4 Captain James,5 Deacon John,6 Harriet.7

John,6 born in Alna, Me., in 1765, son of Samuel5 and his wife, Judith Carter, and father of James,7 married Jane, daughter of Captain James5 and sister of Deacon John6 (born in 1767), who married Sally Blunt and was father of Harriet.7 From this it appears that James' and Harriet' had five Hilton ancestors in common, namely, the four Williams and Cai)tain James.7

William.1 the immigrant, died in York, Me., in 1655 or 1656. His son, William,2 a mariner at York, died about 1700. William3 Hilton,#