to 1833 was professor of mathematics and an instructor in modern languages at Phillips Academy, Exeter. He contributed numerous valuable papers to the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was an associate editor of Worcester’s Dictionary of the English Language (1860).
ABBOT, Samuel (1732-1812). An American philanthropist. He was born at Andover, Mass., and was one of the founders of the Andover Theological Seminary, to which he gave $20,000 in 1807 and $100,000 more in his will. He was a successful merchant of Boston and a large contributor to charities.
ABBOT, The. The title of one of Sir Walter Scott’s novels, published in 1820. Its incidents form a sequel to The Monastery, and are based upon the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the years 1567 and 1568, ending with the battle of Langside and her escape to England.
ABBOT, Willis John (1863—). An American author and editor, grandson of John S. C. Abbott. He was born at New Haven, Conn., and graduated at the University of Michigan in 1884. He is best known by his Blue Jackets of ’61, Blue Jackets of 1812, and Blue Jackets of ’76, a series of stories for boys relating to the naval history of the United States, and by his Battle Fields of 1861. Mr. Abbot was managing editor of the Chicago Times in 1892 and 1893, and from 1896 to 1898 was on the editorial staff of the New York Journal.
ABBOT OF JOY (Abbé de Liesse). The title bestowed upon the chief of a brotherhood founded at Lille. Accompanied by a suite of officers and servants who bore before him a standard of red silk, he presided over the games which were held at Arras and the neighboring towns during the period of the carnival, coming under the general title of “Feast of the Ass” (q.v.). See also Misrule, Lord of.
AB′BOT OF MISRULE′. See Misrule, Lord of.
AB′BOTSFORD. The estate of Sir Walter Scott, situated on the south bank of the Tweed, about three miles from Melrose Abbey. Before it became, in 1811, the property of Scott, the site of the house and grounds of Abbotsford formed a small farm known as Clarty Hole. The new name was given it by the poet, who loved thus to connect himself with the days when Melrose abbots passed over the fords of the Tweed. On this spot, a sloping bank overhanging the river, with the Selkirk Hills behind, he built at first a small villa, now the western wing of the mansion. He afterward added the remaining parts of the building, on no uniform plan, but with the desire of combining some of the features (and even actual remains) of those ancient works of Scottish architecture which he most loved. The result was a picturesque and irregular pile, which has been aptly called “a romance in stone and lime.” The property has remained in Scott’s family now to the fourth generation. Consult: Irving’s Abbotsford (London, 1850); Lockhart’s Life of Scott (Edinburgh, 1838), and Mary Scott’s Abbotsford (New York, 1893).
AB′BOTT, Austin, LL.D. (1831-96). An American lawyer, born in Boston, Mass., the son of Jacob Abbott. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1851 and was admitted to the bar in the following year. He was in partnership with his brothers, Benjamin Vaughan and Lyman (afterward editor of the Outlook). He gained a national reputation as counsel for Theodore Tilton in his suit against Henry Ward Beecher. He aided his brother Benjamin in the preparation of his well-known digests of laws, and published many legal text books. He also wrote, in collaboration with his two brothers, two novels, Matthew Caraby and Conecut Corners. He was an able lecturer on law and was Dean of the Law School of the University of the City of New York from 1891 until his death.
ABBOTT, Benjamin (1732-96). A Methodist Episcopal minister, born on Long Island, N. Y. He was apprenticed to a hatter in Philadelphia, and subsequently to a farmer in New Jersey. He was converted from a dissipated life when about 40 years old, and immediately became an itinerant Methodist preacher. After sixteen years’ service in New Jersey he was assigned to the Dutchess (N. Y.) circuit in 1789. He was transferred to the Long Island circuit in 1791, to Salem, N. J., in 1792, to the Cecil circuit, Maryland, as presiding elder, in 1793, and died at Salem, N. J., in 1796. He was famous in his day, and is still remembered as a “rousing” preacher. His vehemence was such that he frequently fainted, and generally raised a commotion among his hearers.
ABBOTT, Benjamin Vaughan (1830-90). An American lawyer, the son of Jacob Abbott. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1850, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. In legal practice his brothers Austin and Lyman were associated with him. He produced nearly 100 vohunes of reports and digests of Federal and State laws. In 1865, as secretary of the New York Code Commission, he drafted a penal code which, when adopted by the Legislature, became the basis of the present code. In 1870 President Grant appointed him one of three commissioners to revise the statutes of the United States.
ABBOTT, Charles Conrad (1843—). An American archæologist and naturalist, born at Trenton, N. J. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as a surgeon in the Federal Army during the Civil War. From 1876 to 1889 he was assistant curator of the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Mass., to which he presented a collection of 20,000 archæological specimens, and he has given freely to other archæological collections. His book Primitive Industry (1881) detailed the evidences of the presence of pre-glacial man in the Delaware Valley, and is a valuable contribution to archæology. He has also published many books on out-door observation, such as A Naturalist’s Rambles About Home (1884). His other works, besides some fiction, include: Upland and Meadow (1886); Wasteland Wanderings (1887); Outings at Odd Times (1890); Clear Skies and Cloudy (1899); and In Nature’s Realm (1900).
ABBOTT, Edward, D.D. (1841—). An American clergyman, journalist, and author, born at Farmington, Me. He graduated in 1860 at the University of New York, studied from 1860 to 1862 at the Andover Theological Seminary, and in 1863 served in the United States Sanitary Commission at Washington and with the Army of the Potomac. He was ordained in 1863 to
