physician, was one day in Bow at the house of Mr. Jonathan Towne, and expressed a wish to find a boy to take care of his horse and do errands for Mrs. McClary, with whom he boarded. Mr. Towne said he thought that his son William would suit, and arrangements were accordingly made for the doctor to take him home on his next visit. As Dr. Crosby did not visit the family the next day, the boy became impatient; and packing his bundle, he started on foot for Concord, four miles distant. The day of his leaving home he has himself recorded as the 20th of April, 1827. It is probable that he went on trial to this place; for he records, in 1834, that a supposed residence of a fortnight in Concord had then been prolonged to seven years. One motive which attracted him to this place was no doubt the opportunity which it afforded for medical advice, for he states that he was then seriously affected with a lung complaint which had preyed upon him, till at times it was with difficulty that he could sit up all day, and this continually growing upon him, it was thought he needed the care and direction of a physician. The change of situation and medical advice had a beneficial effect, for he says: Pe The germ of health soon made its appearance in the feeble constitution, and continued to spread till it pervaded the whole system." The Hon. Moses T. Willard, M.D., of Concord, whose acquaintance with Mr. Towne dates from their boyhood, furnishes me with some facts, obtained from his own lips, concerning his early days in Concord, as follows:

His work being light, he had much leisure time, and a teacher of a private school, boarding at the same house, observing that he was not inclined to play with the boys in the street, invited him to his school one afternoon. Instead of gazing around as most boys would have done, he opened a book on natural philosophy, and became so interested that he did not raise his eyes from it till the school closed. This was the stepping stone to his future usefulness. The teacher, thinking him a remarkable boy, furnished him with books and gave him tuition. The father called occasionally to see his son, well pleased that he was prospering so well. At the end of many months his wardrobe was in need of being replenished; but he persistently refused to accept assistance from home.

According to his mother's recollection, however, he did accept articles of clothing which were sent him from home while he was with Dr. Crosby. This may have been after he had made sure of being able to maintain himself; for Dr. Willard writes:

I remember that he told me that his father at one time brought him a pair of shoes, which he refused to accept. When his father said, “You will need them, and they were purposely made for you," he replied, "Well, I don't want them." His father then said, "If you will not take them, I will give them to this boy;" and he did give them to a boy standing by. When Mr. Towne told me this story, he gave as a reason why he refused them, that he wished to give his hope of getting his own living a fair trial.

He spent two years in this situation, attending school eight months the first year and ten months the second. He expresses in his diary gratitude for the friends who surrounded him "on every side," and states that he improved his time "to as good advantage as youth usually spend this precious season, but not so well as it might and should have been."

He had now arrived at a period when it became necessary to select some occupation for life. His own preference was for the printing business, but his father did not approve of this choice, and he concluded to try a mercantile life. In April, 1829, in his nineteenth year, he entered the dry-goods and grocery store of William West, as a clerk, where he continued two years or more. He was next employed, in the summer of 1832, in the store of John Leach. The ensuing autumn he took charge of a store for Nathaniel H. Osgood & Co., with which firm he remained one year. From the fall of 1833 to the spring of 1834, he was in the employ of Samuel Evans. On the first of April of the latter year, he engaged with Daniel Carr, and went immediately to Boston to purchase goods for his employer, spending eleven days in that city. During his stay there he took particular care to visit the prominent landmarks connected with the events of which he had read.

On the 14th of April, 1834, after his return from the trip to Boston, he commenced a diary, which he kept for a little over four years, the last entry being November 30, 1838. It is still preserved, and its two post-octavo volumes show the writer's characteristics, neatness and method. He prefaces this diary with an account of his ancestry and a sketch of his life to that time. Very little is afterwards recorded of his business, and nothing concerning it after he had taken up his residence in Boston. The diary is chiefly devoted to the sermons and lectures he heard, and what he saw in a few journeys which he made, some of which were visits to his parents, while others no doubt were business trips. His entries show a strong desire for self-improvement and spiritual culture, and a fear that he had failed in doing his whole duty. There are some notices of and reflections on his reading, and an early reference to his study of Mason on "Self-Knowledge.

It seems from the diary, that in 1831 he began to have decided religious impressions, and on Sunday, January 1, 1832, he joined the First Congregational Church in Concord, the pastor of which was his life-long friend, the now venerable Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D.D. Dr. Bouton writes me that he remembers Mr. Towne as "an amiable, obliging, courteous and very intelligent young man." In the summer of 1832 he began a sabbath school in a section of the town called the "Colony.' In a letter to his father dated November 1, 1832, he gives this account of the sabbath school: "There are six families and about twenty-eight children, and but one of the fathers of the children could read at the commencement

of the season, and though the school has closed for this season, I go up every sabbath morn and teach them to read, and two of the men have learned to read quite well." The sabbath school was soon reöpened at the "Colony," and was kept through the winter. He then commenced one on the "Hopkinton road." While with Mr. Evans he had "a class of boys ten years of age," probably in the sabbath school connected with Dr. Bouton's church.

His diary shows that he early took a decided stand in the temperance and anti-slavery causes, which were then beginning to agitate the community. We have proof that on one occasion he refused to accept a desirable situation till he was assured that his employers did not intend to keep ardent spirits for sale.

He remained with Mr. Carr but for a few months, and on the 24th of July, 1834, he left Concord for Boston, where he soon found employment as a clerk, and five days afterwards returned to Concord to settle his affairs. After spending about a fortnight there, on the 13th of August he bade farewell to his friends in Concord and took up his residence in Boston.

For a year or two after his arrival in Boston, he was employed as a clerk, and during this time he gained a reputation for honesty and ability. Having accumulated a few thousands of dollars, he became a partner in the house in which he had been clerk, the new firm being Bowker, Towne & Co. He was afterwards a member of the firms of Keegan, Towne & Waldo; Towne, Waldo & Co.; and Towne, Hunt & Co. His partners in these firms were severally Joel Bowker, Jr., George P. Hayward, Augustine P. Kimball, Patrick Keegan, Charles F. Waldo, Austin Sumner, Francis A. Hunt, Samuel Hathaway and Wellington L. G. Hunt. About the year 1852, he became connected with the firm of James M. Beebe & Co., where he held the position of confidential clerk and adjuster of losses till the year 1865.

On the 15th of June, 1842, he married Miss Nancy French Hill, daughter of Jeremiah Hill, a commission merchant in Boston. She was born Nov. 26, 1817, and was the seventh generation in descent from Ralph Hill, an early inhabitant of Billerica, Mass. For a short time they boarded with his wife's father at 48 Chambers Street, and then removed to 71 Temple Street, where he resided a few years. About the year 1846 he removed to Brookline, Mass. Here his wife died, May 3, 1858, at the age of forty.

He was chosen assessor of Brookline in 1863, and held the position five years. For a time he was a trial justice for that district, and conscientiously discharged the laborious and difficult duties of the office. He also held commissions as justice of the peace for Suffolk and Norfolk counties.

On the 28th of March, 1866, having a respite from business, he sailed for Europe, and after making a tour of about four months in the land of his ancestors and on the continent of Europe, he re

turned to Boston in July of that year. On the 23d of April, 1867, he was married at Washington, D. C., by the Rev. Charles B. Boynton, D.D., chaplain of the U. S. House of Representatives, to Miss Jennie S. Putnam, daughter of Daniel Putnam, of Milford, and sister of the wife of the Hon. Bainbridge Wadleigh. He then removed to the village of Milford, N. H., the estate which he purchased being about a half a mile distant from the family homestead, where his parents then resided, and where both his father and grandfather were born. He continued to reside in Milford till his death, which took place at the residence of his son, at Jamaica Plain, Boston, Mass., April 10, 1876, at the age of sixty-five. He has left a widow, who, during their nine years of wedded life, did much to lighten his cares and encourage him in his literary and other labors; and three sons, all members of the legal profession, namely, William Henry of Boston, and Charles Edward and Arthur French (a life member of the N. E. H. G. Soc.) of Chicago.

On the 15th of September, 1852, he became a member of the New England Historic, Genealogical Society. In an introduction to his genealogy of the Towne family, which he left in manuscript, he states that his researches into family history commenced in 1827, when he was a lad at school; and in 1834, he prefixes to his diary a record of his ancestors, running back four generations to his quatrayle, or great-great-grandfather, Joseph Towne, living in Topsfield, 1684. In obtaining the facts recorded, he no doubt received assistance from John Farmer, the father of American genealogy, who was then a resident of Concord, and with whom Mr. Towne, as he notes in his diary, became acquainted in 1832, two years before this record was made. In 1844 he had prepared an extensive genealogy of the name of Towne, to which he continued to add till his death. About 1852 he had printed for private distribution a large genealogical chart, giving a record of the families of all his ancestors bearing the surname Towne, and ending with that of his own family. In 1866 he commenced printing in the REGISTER (xx. 367-71; xxi. 12–22, 217–22) a full genealogy of the Townes ; but the publication was suspended before the completion of the fourth generation. The remainder of the work is preserved in manuscript, and is now deposited with the New England Historic, Genealogical Society.

From 1861 to 1871, he held the office of treasurer of this society, and was chairman of the finance committee after that date. In January, 1875, he was elected vice-president for the state of New Hampshire, as the successor of the Hon. Ira Perley, LL.D., and held the office till his death. He was a director of the society from 1861, and a member of the publishing committee from 1865. For nine years, from October, 1865, to October, 1874, he was chairman and treasurer of the Register Club, and conducted gratuitously the business affairs of the REGISTER. In 1871, when he retired

from the office of treasurer of the society, after ten years' service, during which he had discharged the duties of the office with great ability and fidelity, and without compensation, and had rendered other important services, he was invited by the society to sit for his portrait, as a testimonial of its appreciation of what he had done for it. This portrait now hangs in the society's hall.

He was an efficient aid to the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, president of the society, when he solicited and obtained donations for the purchase and refitting of the Society's House, and the endowment of a fund for the support of a librarian. The exertions of these gentlemen, with occasional assistance from the late Hon. George B. Upton and the Hon. John Cummings, were crowned with wonderful success, upwards of fifty-five thousand dollars being raised for these objects. In 1864 Mr. Towne established the Towne Memorial Fund, by his own donations, which fund now amounts to over four thousand dollars. The income derived from this fund is to be expended in the publication of memoirs of deceased members of the society.

Besides the genealogy of the Towne family, he wrote a "History of the First Church in Amherst," which was printed, in 1874, in the volume containing the proceedings at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the congregationalist meeting-house in Amherst. He made large collections for the history of Milford, N. H., which are now deposited with this society. In 1872 Dartmouth College conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

Mr. Towne was also an influential member of the New Hampshire Historical Society. He was elected a member, June 8, 1870, and was chosen on the standing committee, June 14, 1871; on the committee to solicit funds for the library, June 12, 1872; and on the publishing committee, June 9, 1875. He was also a member of other important committees. In 1869 he paid one hundred dollars for rendering the society's building fire-proof, and a short time before his death subscribed two hundred dollars for a fund to support the library. He was also an active member of the Hillsborough County Agricultural Society; and at the time of his death he held the office of vice-president for New Hampshire of the American Pomological Society.

In religion he was a trinitarian congregationalist, and, as before stated, united with the Rev. Dr. Bouton's church at Concord, on the first sabbath in the year 1832. He was dismissed July 2, 1835, to the First Free Congregrational Church in Boston, then recently organized, of which the Rev. Charles Fitch was the first pastor. This church was of anti-slavery tendencies. It had a brief existence of less than a dozen years; and it is not known that Mr. Towne united subsequently with any church, though he was a regular attendant and communicant at the churches of his denomination in Brookline,