iii. William Lowell Putnam, who was commissioned 10 July, 1861, 2d

lieutenant, 20th Massachusetts Volunteers, and was killed in the battle of Ball’s Bluff, 21 October, 1861.

iv. Charles Lowell Putnam.

4. William Keith Spence, born 23 September, 1813; died 12 February, 1823.

5. Robert Traill Spence, born 8 October, 1816, died 12 September, 1891; he married Marianna Duane, 28 October, 1845, and their children were--

i. Harriet Brackett Spence.

ii. Marianna.

iii. Percival.

iv. James Duane.

v. Charles.

vi. Rebecca Russell.

vii. Robert Traill Spence, Jr.

6. JAMES RUSSELL, born 22 February, 1819; died 12 August, 1891.

When the Rev. Delmar R. Lowell was collecting material for _The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America_, he had for use two letters from Lowell, which he has printed in facsimile in his volume, and kindly permits me to copy.

ELMWOOD, 12 July, 1875

DEAR SIR,--Whether Coffin was right in making Ebenezer born in 1685 or no, I cannot say, but Rev. John L. of Newbury was son of _an_ Ebenezer, and I doubt if there were two contemporaneous with each other. This John--my great-grandfather, can hardly have doubted his descent from Perceval, since I have books from his library in which he spells his name Lowle; and I have always understood that a silver seal of arms (in my brother’s possession) came from him. My father (as you rightly suppose) had more knowledge on this point than any one else, but I fear he never made any written record of it. If I should find any such, I shall gladly communicate it to you. That you and I are kinsmen I have never doubted since I had the pleasure of seeing you some thirty odd years ago; when I was struck with your likeness to the portrait of my ancestor, the Rev. John of Newbury. As he graduated in 1721, his father _must_ have been born earlier than 1685, one would think, unless, indeed, the parson was as precocious as his son and grandson, both of whom graduated before they were seventeen. But this is hardly probable. Ebenezer’s father, I remember, was named John.

My father had talked with men who remembered his great-grandfather, Ebenezer, as a very respectable old gentleman with a goldheaded cane. Dining once with a friend in Philadelphia, I was surprised to see a handsome tankard with _our_ arms on it. He told me it came to him by inheritance from the Shippens, one of whom had married a Lowell. I believe we have the right to quarter Levesege, one of our forbears having married an heiress of that name. Theirs is a very pretty coat, three dolphins _passant, or_.

If you are making out a pedigree you must be on your guard, for I have been told that all the foundlings of the city of Lowell (and there are a good many of them) are christened with the name. And it is sometimes assumed. Some twenty years ago I received a letter from a person in New York informing me that he was about to assume the name. I paid no attention to the letter, thinking it a trick (as I am sometimes the subject of such) to get an autograph, but, sure enough, he presently sent me a newspaper in which was advertised a legal authentication of his change of name.

The family came from Yardley in Worcestershire, where, I believe, some monuments of them remain in the churchyard. They were a _visitation_ family. I hoped to visit Yardley the last time I was in England, but was prevented by being suddenly summoned to Cambridge to receive a degree. The only Lowells now left in England that I could find are the descendants of Rev. Samuel of Bristol, England, who went back from America--or, rather, whose father went. My father saw him in England seventy years ago, and the relationship between them was recognized on both sides. How near it was I have no means of knowing. I have somewhere, but cannot lay my hand on it, a deed of the first John Lowle of Newbury. It is witnessed by Somebody who came out as clerk with Perceval, and seems to be in his handwriting. _How_ we are descended from Perceval I know not, but Ebenezer must have known who his grandfather was, and his son would hardly have ventured (in those more scrupulous days) to have assumed arms that did not belong to him. Perceval wrote some verses (neither better nor worse than such usually are) on the death of the first Governor Winthrop. You will find them (with a palpable error or two of copier or printer) in the appendix to the second volume of Winthrop’s “Life and Letters.”

I remain, Very truly yours, J. R. LOWELL.

* * * * *

ELMWOOD, 23d July, 1875.

DEAR SIR,--I have no doubt you are right in putting the birth of Ebenezer L. in 1675. My father in his family Bible says he died “in 1711 _æt._ 36.” The faded ink shows that this was written many years ago, and I have no doubt he had authority for it. He goes on to say that his widow “married Philip Bougardus, Esq., and died 1761, leaving one daughter married to Eneas Mackay.”

I have searched in vain for a bundle of pedigrees (collected by my father) which seem to have gone astray during my two years’ absence in Europe. They carried the family back to the thirteenth century (I think), and were obtained from the Heralds’ Office.

I don’t wonder you think the blunted arrows unsightly. They are all wrong. The arms are a hand grasping three _crossbow bolts_, a very different thing, and with very formidable points to them, as I trust those of the family will always have. I brought home three of them from Germany in ’52. They are shaped thus [Illustration: right-facing arrow], the shaft of oak, the _feathers_ of lighter wood, and the head steel. The transverse section of the head would be a diamond ◇.

I think it plain that my father knew all about Ebenezer, wherever he got it. If I can aid you in any way, I shall be glad to do so.

I remain, Very truly yours, J. R. LOWELL.

II. _Maternal._[111]

1. ROBERT CUTT is supposed to have come from England to this country previous to 1646, going first to the Barbadoes, where he married Mary Hoel, and afterward to Portsmouth, N. H. He removed thence to Kittery, Me., and died there 18 June, 1674.

2. ROBERT, sixth child of Robert and Mary [Hoel] Cutt, was born in 1673. He married Dorcas Hammond, 18 April, 1698, and died 24 September, 1735.

3. MARY, daughter of Robert and Dorcas [Hammond] Cutt, was born 26 December, 1698. She married, 16 May, 1722, William Whipple, afterward one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and died 28 February, 1783.

3a. ELIZABETH, sister of Mary (3), was born 20 March, 1709. She married, 20 March, 1709, Rev. Joseph Whipple, brother of William Whipple, just named; and after his death she married for her second husband, 23 October, 1727, Rev. John Lowell (son of Ebenezer).

4. MARY, daughter of William and Mary [Cutt] Whipple, was born 13 January 1728/29, 1 September, 1748, Robert Traill, a merchant in Portsmouth, from the Orkney Isles, who remained a British subject, and left the country in November, 1775. Mary [Whipple] Traill died 3 October, 1791. Robert Traill, after the Revolution, was a collector of the revenues in the Bermudas.

5. MARY, only daughter of Robert and Mary [Whipple] Traill, baptized 24 May, 1753, married Keith Spence, of Kirkwall, Orkney, who had settled as a merchant in Portsmouth. Later he became purser of the frigate Philadelphia. Mrs. Spence died 18 January, 1824.

6. HARRIET BRACKETT, daughter of Keith and Mary Whipple [Traill] Spence, was born 26 July, 1783; she married the Rev. Charles Lowell, 2 October, 1806, and died 30 March, 1850.

CHILDREN OF JAMES RUSSELL AND MARIA [WHITE] LOWELL.

1. Blanche, born 31 December, 1845; died 19 March, 1847.

2. Mabel, born 9 September, 1847. She married, 2 April, 1872, Edward Burnett, of Southborough, and died at Elmwood, 30 December, 1898. Their children are: