Untitled - citizen hylbom blog

552 SOUTHEASTEEN MASSACHUSETTS
setts in 1839 by the people and again in 1843
by the Legislature. On May 1, 1845, he was
made collector of the port of Boston, a relation
to the service he sustained some four
years. He was in sympathy with the Free-soil
movement in 1848, in 1853 he was delegate to
the Constitutional Convention, and in 1858 was
again in the Legislature. His period of service
on the bench covered fifteen years, and his
Congressional service four years. For several
years he was one of the overseers of Harvard
University.
Governor Morton had a tall, commanding
figure, was fine-looking, quiet and which he was a representative is among the
oldest and most prominent
self-possessed
in manner and his wife was an ; elegant woman,
a person of beauty and grace.
On Dec. 23, 1807, Governor Morton was
married to Charlotte, born Dec. 33, 1787,
in New England,
the name being identified with the annals
of southern Rhode Island and southeastern
Massachusetts from almost the very dawn
of civilization there.
Richard Church, the immigrant settler and
progenitor of the Churches of the region named,
was born in 1608. He came to New England
in 1630 in the fleet with Governor Winthrop.
He removed from Weymouth to Plymouth,
where he was made a freeman in 1632, and
where he married, in 1636, Elizabeth, daughter
of Richard Warren, of the "Mayflower," 1620.
He lived at a number of different points, died
in 1668 in Dedham, and was buried at Hingham.
He was a carpenter by trade, and
helped to build the first meetinghouse and the
first gun carriage in Plymouth. He served in
daughter of James Hodges, of Taunton, and a
direct descendant of William Hodges, of Taunton
as early as 1643. The children born to
Governor Morton and his wife Charlotte
(Hodges) were: (1) Joanna Maria married
William T. Hawes, of New Bedford, a graduate
of Brown University. (2) Lydia Mason mar-
the Pequot war. Locating at Eastham in 1653,
he was then at Charlestown and in 1657 was
at Hingham. He was the father of thirteen
children, among them Col. Benjamin Church,
who settled in Little Compton, R. L, from
ried Henry W. Lee, D.D., of Springfield, Mass.,
and Rochester, N. Y., afterward bishop in the
Protestant Episcopal Church, in Iowa. (3)
Charlotte married Samuel Watson, of Nashville,
Tenn. (4) Sarah Carey married Hon.
Willard Lovering, a manufacturer of Taunton.
(5) Marcus married Abby, daughter of Henry
Hopping, Esq., of Providence. (6) Nathaniel
married Harriet, only child of Hon. Francis
Baylies. (7) James married Elizabeth, daughter
of Hon. George Ashmun, of Springfield.
(8) Susan Tillinghast married M. Day Kimball,
of the firm of Faulkner, Page & Kimball,
Boston. (9) Frances Wood married George
Henry French, of Andover. (10) Emily
Matilda married Daniel C, son of Dr. Dawes,
of Taunton, a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y. Of
these, the three sons were graduated from
Brown University, Marcus in 1838, Nathaniel
in 1840, and James in 1843; all were distinguished
in college and became eminent
lawyers, the eldest becoming chief justice of the
Supreme court of Massachusetts.
Governor Morton died at his home on Washington
street, near Broadway, Taunton, Mass.,
Feb. 6, 1864. His wife Charlotte (Hodges)
Morton died Dec. 25, 1873 ; both are buried in
Mount Pleasant cemetery, Taunton.
NATHANIEL CHURCH (deceased) was
during his life a well-known business man and
prominent citizen of whom Nathaniel Church descended.
Col. Benjamin Church is credited with having
been the first white settler in the town of
Little Compton (1674), which was then in
Massachusetts, but is now in Rhode Island, and
with building the first house there. The name,
fame and usefulness of Col. Benjamin Church
were as broad as New England, and in the
general histories of the New World his deeds
are always recognized. It was he who beat
back the red man and opened
Fairhaven, where he was
born Nov. 16, 1798. The Church family of
the way for the
habitation of the white settler that followed—
hunting Philip to his death, Aug. 13, 1676.
He thoroughly understood the character of the
Indians and their modes of warfare, which
latter he adopted with great success. Colonel
Church was to southern New England what
Miles Standish had been to the first generation
of the Plymouth Colonists— a buckler and
shield in the hour of danger; but he had far
more experience in military affairs than fell
to the lot of the Pilgrim captain. It was
destined for him to strike the first and last
decisive blows in Philip's war, by which he is
now best known to fame. So great was the
reputation he gained that he was afterward constantly
called to the field to repel the French
and Indians at the North and East. Colonel
Church married Alice Southworth. A brother
of Colonel Church, J^iweph Church, also was
one of the first settlers of Little Compton. He
married Mary Tucker and became a prominent
public man of the town.
The descendants of Richard Church became