John Lowell (1743-1802) was a descendant of Percival Lowle/Lowel/ Lowell (1571-1664) who, with his wife, Rebecca, and family left London in 1639. John married Sarah Higginson (d. 1772) in 1767. In 1774, he married Susan Cabot who died in 1777; and in 1778, he married Rebecca Russell Tyng who died in 1816. He had nineteen children.

The Lowells of Massachusetts were a remarkable family. They were settlers in the New World in the 1600s, revolutionaries creating a new nation in the 1700s, merchants and manufacturers building prosperity in the 1800s, and scientists and artists flourishing in the 1900s. For the first time, Nina Sankovitch tells the story of this fascinating and powerful dynasty in The Lowells of Massachusetts. Though not without scoundrels and certainly no strangers to controversy , the family boasted some of the most astonishing individuals in America’s history: Percival Lowle, the patriarch who arrived in America in the seventeenth to plant the roots of the family tree; Reverend John Lowell, the preacher; Judge John Lowell, a member of the Continental Congress; Francis Cabot Lowell, manufacturer and, some say, founder of the Industrial Revolution in the US; James Russell Lowell, American Romantic poet; Lawrence Lowell, one of Harvard’s longest-serving and most controversial presidents; and Amy Lowell, the twentieth century poet who lived openly in a Boston Marriage with the actress Ada Dwyer Russell. The Lowells realized the promise of America as the land of opportunity by uniting Puritan values of hard work, community service, and individual responsibility with a deep-seated optimism that became a well-known family trait. Long before the Kennedys put their stamp on Massachusetts, the Lowells claimed the bedrock.

This book maps the development of a regional elite and its persistence as an economic upper class through the nineteenth century. Farrell's study traces the kinship networks and overlapping business ties of the most economically prominent Brahmin families from the beginning of industrialization in the 1820s to the early twentieth century. Archival sources such as genealogies, family papers, and business records are used to address two issues of concern to those who study social stratification and the structure of power in industrializing societies: in what ways have traditional forms of social organization, such as kinship, been responsive to the social and economic changes brought by industrialization; and how active a role did an early economic elite play in shaping the direction of social change and in preserving its own group power and privilege over time.

The Second Massachusetts Cavalry included the only organized group (5 companies totaling 504 men) from California to fight in the east during the Civil War. Led by a young Boston aristocrat, Colonel Charles R. Lowell, these men began their wartime careers in Northern Virginia in 1862, clashing with the partisan rangers of Major John S. Mosby, in a deadly world of guerrilla warfare. In August of 1864, the regiment was assigned to Major General Phil Sheridan’s Army of Shenandoah and served through all of the battles in the victorious campaign to clear the valley of Confederates, witnessing the final surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. This account tells what these men from California and Massachusetts accomplished, how they communicated, and how they viewed themselves. The book contains three appendices that list the battle casualties of the regiment during its largest engagements. Photographs and a bibliography are also included.

Detailed, scholarly study examines the ideas that developed between 1750 and 1900 regarding the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, including those of Kant, Herschel, Voltaire, Lowell, many others. 16 illustrations.

After the Revolutionary War, despite political independence, the United States still relied on other countries for manufactured goods. Francis Cabot Lowell was one of the principal investors in building the India Wharf and the shops and warehouses close to Boston harbor. His work was instrumental in establishing domestic industry for the United States and brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States. From 1810 to the start of the War of 1812, he traveled through Great Britain, where he saw the tremendous changes caused by the Industrial Revolution, starting with cotton textiles. On his return to the United States he focused on establishing a domestic textile industry to replace imported goods. With his brother-in-law, Patrick Tracy Jackson, he built the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham-America's first integrated mill. With his star mechanic, Paul Moody, he developed a power loom and other machines suitable for local conditions. The Life and Times of Francis Cabot Lowell, 1775-1817 tells the story of this amazing man and the great success of the Boston Manufacturing Company, which spurred the American industrial revolution. Francis Cabot Lowell's method-a detailed investment plan, cheap raw materials and power, a motivated labor force, a sound marketing plan, and, above all, modern technology-became the standard for the American factory of the nineteenth century. When Francis Cabot Lowell died, his associates established America's first industrial city, and named it Lowell in his honor.