View
221
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
1/7
Thursday, August 15, 20
Search
Site Tips
Home
Activists
Dorchester Illustration of
the Day
Agriculture
Architecture
Artists
Authors
Books
Cemeteries
ChurchesDorchester Historical
Society
Entertainment
Entertainers
Industry & Commerce
Institutions
Maps
Monuments
Myths
Postcard Images
Public Figures
Notes about even more
People not listed on this page
Dorchester People A
Dorchester People B
Badlam Family
Enoch Baldwin
Joseph Ballister
Jonathan B.L. Bartlett
Bradish Billings
More on DorchesterPeople B..
People C
People D
Dorchester People E
More on Notes about even
more People not listed on this
page..
Richard Egan
Edward Everett
Henry Joseph Gardner
Header
EZRA AND STEPHEN BADLAM:
BACKGROUNDS AND LIVES
By Wendell B. Cook, Jr.
The Badlam papers at the Dorchester Historical Society represent part of the legacies of the brothers Ezra and
Stephen Badlam, craftsmen, soldiers and public figures of Dorchester, Massachusetts. The careers of both me
developed early and were marked by distinction, but success visited them in very different ways. Achievemen
came early to each, but Ezra's fortune deserted him at crucial times, and at his death in his 42nd year, his
reputation was under a cloud and his estate was insolvent. Stephen's setbacks were fewer, perhaps less severe
and occurred at times when the economy was prosperous enough that he could recoup. At his death at the age
64, Stephen had retained the fruits of his successes and prosperity, and his heirs shared in a substantial estate.
The lives of each of the Badlam brothers was amply documented in public records and in the correspondence
and papers they gathered and created during their lifetimes.
COL. EZRA BADLAM (1746 - 1788)
Ezra Badlam, the second and eldest surviving son of Deacon Stephen and Hannah (Clapp) Badlam, was born
Dedham, Massachusetts, on 19 May 1746, and was baptized at the church in Milton where his father and his
grandparents were communicants. Soon after Ezra's birth Dea. Stephen moved his family to that part of
Stoughton now Canton where eventually Ezra's brothers and sisters all were born. There Dea. Stephen Badlam
ran an inn, worked as a joiner and cabinet maker, and farmed on land he acquired largely from his father, Cap
Stephen Badlam, a part of the land the latter had bought from the estate of the father of Roger Sherman who
eventually signed the Declaration of Independence for the state of Connecticut. In Stoughton, Dea. Stephen an
Hannah's five younger children were born: Hannah on 17 Aug. 1748; Stephen on 7 May 1751; Elizabeth on 20
Dec. 1753; am William on 9 March 1756.
Dea. Stephen Badlam was active in his community. Perhaps through the example of his father-in-law, Dea.
Nehemiah Clapp of Milton, he was active in the church at Stoughton, and on 15 Feb. 1749/50, at the age of 2
he was made one of its Deacons. In this office, he served on a committee of local churchmen to adjudicate
(unsuccessfully) the bitter and persistent meeting house quarrel of the early 1750' s in the then neighboring towof Easton. Later, perhaps as a result of the location of his dwelling, or possibly, his standing in the community
Dea. Stephen was one of the witnesses called to the hearings of the General Court in response to a petition of
Punkapaug Indians against their guardians, particularly Maj. John Shepard. Dea. Stephen's role in the
proceedings we have not yet learned. Shepard's career was ruined when provincial authorities found him guilty
of abusing his office.
On 16 March. a week after the birth of her youngest child and three days before her 35th birthday, Hannah
(Clapp) Badlam died. That November Dea. Stephen took Hannah Belcher as his second wife and step-mother
for his young family. This second marriage was childless, and lasted less than a year and a half; on 20 March
1758, in his 38th year. Dea. Stephen Badlam died. His widow did not remarry for 11 years. Stephen and his fi
wife lie side by side in the Canton cemetery under stones carved by the Foster family of Dorchester. At his
death, the oldest child, Ezra, was in his 12th year, and the youngest, just two.
Dea. Stephen Badlam's estate was placed under the guardianship of his father, Capt. Stephen. Though not largthe income from the estate seems to have been adequate to bring up the children and to keep them out of
involuntary apprenticeship. But it was not generous enough to provide them with more than a basic education
is not clear where each of the children was raised. Two-year old William was "nursed" at the home of his
step-father-in-law Jeremiah Belcher for some time, and the costs were charged against the estate. From passag
in young Stephen's diary, we know that he lived for a while with Capt. John Crehore of Milton, probably a gre
uncle by way of marriage to a sister of his grandmother Badlam, who had many relatives in the area.
Except for the period Ezra was to spend at Framingham, the Badlam children seem to have spent at least the
latter years of their youth, and perhaps their entire childhoods, in the Dedham-Milton-Dorchester Lower Mills
orbit of their senior relatives. All of them show up there when they assume adult roles: Stephen at Dorchester
with his brother Ezra; their sister Hannah who married Benjamin Pierce of Dorchester; Elizabeth at Dedham a
the wife of Samuel Doggett; and William at Milton when he and his brothers responded to the Lexington Alaru
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
2/7
Henry Joseph Gardner no. 2
More on Public Figures..
Schools
Town History
Walking Tours
Precisely where and with whom Ezra Badlam learned cabinet-making and spent his teenage years is not entire
clear. He first surfaces in Framingham in the spring of 1764 just before his 18th birthday when he is one of th
youngest of two groups of young men who jointly petitioned the town for leave to build two pews in the
meetinghouse gallery. After some controversy, the town accepted the proposition, though we read further that
the young men seem not to have consistently fulfilled the conditions of their privilege. Several of the young m
with whom Ezra was associated in this petition entered trades allied to carpentry, or had descendants complete
who did. We must guess that at this time Ezra had completed or was about to complete some sort of training i
cabinet-making. Perhaps he was associated with Thomas Greenwood, the only cabinet-maker of the era in
Framingham noticed by the town's historians.
From this point forward, the outlines of Ezra's career grow clearer. In July of 1764, Ezra was a journeyman inthe employ of Timothy Stow, a cabinet-maker at Dedham. In October or early November of' 1765 he was
residing in Dorchester, for in February of 1766, after "three or four months" of living there, Ezra Badlam of
Framingham was warned. Ezra chose to work and settle at the Lower Mills village of Dorchester, across the
Neponset River from Milton. The community was a small but busy coastal port and manufacturing center bas
on power generated by the early dam there. About the time Ezra moved there, a saw mill was added to its mill
Another attraction of the neighborhood was Patience Capen, the daughter of local residents Edward and Patien
(Tolman) Capen. She and Ezra were married on 1 July 1766.
At about the time of the marriage, Ezra's father's estate in Stoughton was settled upon him, and he sold it to an
uncle. Perhaps the newlyweds dwelt for a time with her parents, and after her father's death in 1770, with her
mother. Late that year Ezra was well enough established to take into his home and employ his brother Stephen
then 19 years old, to "learn a cabinet makers trade". With his prosperity and his wife's legacy in 1771, Ezra an
Patience jointly bought from her brother John Capen Jr. the "mansion house" in which they lived at least until
Ezra's death. Ezra' s cabinet-making business flourished enough so that he could take his brother Stephen. whowas to become a truly distinguished cabinet-maker as a partner. We have so far not been able to learn how lon
the partnership lasted, but their close contacts as neighbors, war-time correspondents, and community leaders
suggests that they cooperated in business until Ezra's death.
Ezra probably became a member of the militia upon his settlement in Dorchester. On 19 April 1775 at the
Lexington Alarum he was a 4th Lt. in Capt. Daniel Vose' s train band co. which marched to Roxbury. The uni
was made up of men from the Dorchester Lower Mills area and from Milton, and included both his brother
Stephen, a sergeant, and his youngest brother William, a fifer. From the beginning of the Revolution until his
dismissal from the army in 1782, Ezra served as an officer, first in the Massachusetts Militia, and then in the
Continental Army. In the Militia, he served under Col. Lemuel Robinson and in Col. Richard Gridley's artillery
regt.
Ezra must have joined the Continental Line soon after its formation. He was a Captain in the 26th regt. under
Col. Loammi Baldwin when it was formed early in 1776. Early that year, he was detached from the forcesbesieging Boston and sent with his brother Stephen and others under Gen. Lee to prepare the defenses of New
York. Perhaps that spring he took some role in the rescue of the American forces defeated in Canada before
taking part in some of the battles in New York, and in the subsequent evacuation. That summer he was
promoted to Major--a copy of the promotion is the earliest item relating to Ezra in the Badlam Papers of the
John H. Blake collection.
In the early: winter of 1776-1777 Ezra took part in the battles at Trenton and Princeton, and he probably spen
much of the rest of that winter with the Continental Army headquartered at Morristown, New Jersey. Upon th
Army's reorganization, Ezra was assigned to the 9th Massachusetts regt. under Col. Thomas Wesson. In the
summer of 1777 he was with the 2nd Massachusetts regt. under Col. John Bailey, and was in charge of one of
the detachments sent early to the Northern Army under Gens. Schuyler and Gates. Ezra and his detachment
were dispatched to Ft. Schuyler under Col. Gansevort to reinforce the garrison there, and he took part in the
August raid on Col. St. Leger's camp, which though it came too late to draw the forces of the British and their
allies from the field at Oriskany, helped to break the siege. About this time, Ezra was promoted to Lt. Col., therank he held for the remainder of his career in the Continental Army.
Ill health kept Ezra from at least the first of the battles at Saratoga, but following the American victory there, h
returned with his unit to the lower Hudson Valley area, and thence made his way to Valley Forge. Once there,
Ezra took furlough for the rest of the winter of 1777-1778, and returned to the Boston area to help to arrange
supplies for the Army. During this leave he seems to have begun to keep for his files the drafts of his outgoing
correspondence--unless his letter for whom the addressee is not shown, dated 25 Sept. 1777, and which was
published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of Jan. 1848 was taken from a no longer
extant draft of his. Ezra' s earliest draft in the collection is dated in Feb. 1778, which is the year in which the
material in the collection begins in earnest. Ezra rejoined the Army in the spring of 1778 in time for actions in
New Jersey, including the Battle of Monmouth where he was injured by a fall from his horse, and where he
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
3/7
contracted the "fever and ague" which afflicted him the rest of his life.
The winter of 1778-1779 found Ezra stationed in the Hudson River Valley where he continued to serve with th
8th Massachusetts regt., sometimes in the lines, but more often as military commandant of the Academy hosp
at Fishkill and the nominal commander of several smaller posts in the neighborhood, including those at the
important river crossing point of Fishkill Landing, now Beacon. During this period, Ezra was reporting to Gens
Alexander McDougall and William Heath, and to Col. Alexander Scammell. The year 1779 is one of the two
richest periods in Ezra' s surviving correspondence.
Ezra was on the lines in early 1780 when he was in charge of a detachment which was unable to relieve the
American patrol captured at Young's Farm, and mention of this action survives in his papers. For the rest of th
year and the next, Ezra continued to be stationed in the lower Hudson River Valley. In 1781 he transferred to t8th Massachusetts regt. under Col. Michael Jackson, the author of three letters which have survived in the
collection, two of which are among its most outstanding.
Late in 1781 about the time of the Yorktown campaign, Ezra returned to Dorchester, only to be reactivated in
April of 1782 when Gen. Benjamin Lincoln appointed him Muster Master of the Massachusetts (including
Maine) Continental Line. This year is heavily represented in the surviving papers largely as the result of an err
in Ezra's judgment. His first act as Muster Master was to forward uncritically a class of recruits which had bee
gathered by his predecessor, several of whom fell far short of standards for recruits to the Continental Line.
Although later classes of recruits seem to have been up to standard, Ezra was relieved as Muster Master and
ordered back to headquarters in early May. In late July he was court martialed and convicted of neglect of duty
and unofficerlike conduct and sentenced to be dismissed from the service. His separation took place on 1 Aug
1782. Ezra tried several avenues to have his conviction reversed or his sentence reduced, but even as he died,
had not succeeded. The sequence of events surrounding this incident generated a number of out-standing letter
to Ezra, drafts by him, and documents.
Upon his return to Dorchester, Ezra resumed cabinet-making and went into carriage-making, trades eventually
followed by one of his sons and four of his sons-in-law. Three clock cases Ezra made during the years
1783-1786 have survived, and several items of his business correspondence from this period likewise survive.
Some believe that Ezra was the linch-pin of the woodworking activities of this period centered at the Lower H
village, a role his brother Stephen clearly held after Ezra's death. Ezra also was an inn-keeper and seems to ha
kept a store during this period, and the Suffolk county Probate Court also tapped him to administer at least two
estates.
Though dismissed from the Continental Army, Ezra joined the Massachusetts militia and was a Captain in the
Suffolk co. regt. Following the outbreak of Shays Rebellion, he was elected the regiment's Colonel, in spite of
the objections of militia members from Stoughton, the town where he had spent much of his childhood. The
regiment was called up for one month's service, and Ezra led it to western Massachusetts to join the forces
assembled there by Gen. Benjamin Lincoln to suppress the insurrection. There the unit surely took part in thecelebrated night march of Feb. 3 and 4, 1787, from Amherst to Petersham which broke Shays' forces.
With the release of the Suffolk regt. upon the completion of its one-month tour, Ezra was named commander
the Hampshire co. regt. and remained in western Massachusetts until late in June of 1787. He was
head-quartered for a while at Northampton, but soon moved to Northfield. At least one of the communiques o
the Shays forces announcing that Medad Pomeroy and Jonathan Metcalf were held as hostages against the live
of the convicted Shaysites Henry McCulloch and Jason Parmeter made its way into Ezra's papers.
The surviving papers of the Shays Rebellion period, while not so numerous as those for 1779 and 1782,
represent a nice variety of letters and papers on military and civi1 matters, and letters from his family and from
his assistants in charge of running his business in his absence. It is ironical that this correspondence, especially
that from his future son- in-law Richard Trow (who had served the month with the Suffolk co. regt. and had
then returned to Dorchester), show that his business interests were suffering from the same problems of deflat
and illiquidity of the economy at large which had driven the Shaysites into rebellion.
Even after his return to Dorchester from western Massachusetts, business and health problems plagued him, a
are shown by the last letters to him in this collection. Ezra died in April, 1788, be fore his 42nd birthday. Five o
his children were younger than 13, and his youngest was only a little over two years old. Ezra's estate was
entered for administration at the Suffolk co. Probate Court on 14 April 1788, and his brother Stephen with his
brother-in-law John n Capen Jr. were named administrators. Ezra's estate was found to be insolvent, and after
his widow's dower was set off, the remainder of the estate was sold and the proceeds were distributed among
creditors, many of whom seem to have been fellow artisans, at about a quarter of the face value. Ezra's burial
site is unknown.
Ezra's widow Patience lived another 44 years in Lower Mills village. She managed to raise her family and to
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
4/7
retain a small estate, and she left a will in which she named her surviving children or the surviving children of
three of her four daughters who predeceased her. She was buried in the tomb of her brother-in-law Stephen
Badlam in the Dorchester North Burying Ground.
Patience and Ezra had 10 children, nine of whom, four sons and five daughters, survived to adulthood. All her
daughters and three of her sons married and had families. Two sons moved to Chester VT, but the rest of her
children seem to have lived their lives in the Dorchester-Boston area, where her son Ezra and all her sons-in-l
except Shubael Mansfield were chaise-makers.
Susannah, the eldest child, was born on 10 May 1767. She married Samuel Crehore in 1786, and died on 31
Jan. 1804, after bearing him six children, only two of whom lived to be named in their grandmother Badlam' s
will. They lived at Dorchester where Samuel was a chaise-maker. Two of Samuel' letters to his father-in-law,written in 1787, have survived. Rebecca was born 5 Feb. 1769. She married about 1789 Richard Trow, her
father's sometime assistant, and died in 1831 at Boston; they had at least six children. They lived in Dorcheste
Brookline and Boston where he was at various times a chaisemaker, farmer, and harness-maker. Two of
Rebecca's letters to her father, and three from Trow, all written in 1787, have survived.
Hannah, their third child, was born 11 Sept. 1770. She married in 1791 Euclid Tileston and died 26 Aug. 1801
after bearing four children, three of whom lived to be named in her mother's will. Euclid remarried and had six
more children. He and his family lived in Dorchester where he was a chaise-maker. One letter to Ezra from
Hannah and one from Euclid, both written in 1787, survive in this collection,. Daughter Patience was born 17
Aug. 1772. In 1792 she married Shubael Mansfield; she died in 1840 after bearing at least four children. Shub
was a housewright who in middle life was declared non-compos and was twice placed under guardianship. Wh
they were together Patience and Shubael lived in Dorchester, and he lived also in Brookline and Scituate when
he was under guardianship.
The first son of Ezra and Patience named Ezra was born on 11 Dec. 1773; he died before the birth of their ne
son. Their second son named Ezra was born in May, 1775. He married in 1797 Mary Lovis and died after 18
They had six children, five of whom survived childhood. They lived in Boston and Dorchester where he was a
chaise-maker. Of the young Ezra's sons married a sister of Samuel Brannan, one of the founders of California
and his family was prominent in the affairs of that state late last century.
Another son, George Washington, was born on 5 Dec. 1778; he died in 1824. He seems not to have had a
family, and his occupation is unknown. Son Edward was born 13 Nov. 1781. He moved to Chester, VT wher
he married Mary Graham in 1808 and died in 1844. They had two children. He engaged in some sort of
manufacturing, probably related to woodworking. His son Edward eventually moved to Potsdam and
Ogdensburg NY, where he was a plane-maker and inventor, and held the American patent on the third pedal o
the piano.
The last son, William, was born 5 May 1784. He, too, moved to Chester VT J where in 1812 he marriedMelinda Gould; he died in 1845. They had four children. He was styled "Captain". His occupation is not clear
he may have been a store-keeper. He was a land-owner and a supplier of mortgage money. The youngest child
Betsee J was born 5 Dec. 1785. She married in 1805 Lemuel Shepard and died in 1808 after bearing one son
who was named in her mother' s will. Lemuel remarried and had 10 more children by his second wife. He live
Dorchester where he was a carriage-maker.
GEN. STEPHEN BADLAM (1751 - 1815)
Ezra's younger brother Stephen's papers are represented by 16 letters which appear to have come from his file
and by three versions of the journal he began. The original version of the journal is we believe currently in the
hands of one of Stephen's descendants. Stephen was born in that part of Stoughton now Canton on 7 May 175
His mother died before he was five, and his father, before he was seven. His journal tells us that after his fath
death, young Stephen went to live with Capt. John Crehore, probably a great uncle by way of marriage. At the
age of 15 he moved again, this time to the home of his grandparents, Capt. Stephen and Elizabeth Badlam ofDedham. In 1770 young Stephen moved to Dorchester to live with his brother Ezra and learn "a Cabinet Make
trade". By this time, Stephen must have received at least rudimentary schooling--both his military and civilian
careers include roles which suggest that he was adept at mathematics, especially geometry--but he is known to
have complained late in life of his lack of early schooling.
Stephen learned cabinet making quickly and well, and by 1773 he began a partnership with his brother Ezra. H
settlement at the Lower Mills village area must have put him in the local militia company, and his career as an
artisan was interrupted by the Lexington Alarum. On 19 April 1775 he turned out as a sergeant in Capt. Danie
Vose' s train band company with his brothers Ezra and William and marched to Roxbury. For a young man of
about 24 years, his rise in the military was rapid. In May he was made a 2nd Lt. of artillery; in mid-June, he w
promoted to 1st Lt. , and in July, to Capt. Lt.
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
5/7
1775 was an eventful year for Stephen in another respect, for on 1 June he married his first wife and the moth
of his children, Mary Adams, the daughter and youngest child of John and Sarah (Swift) Adams of Milton. W
Stephen was at war, Mary seems to have lived with her parents in Milton and to have visited a brother living
near Wilbraham MA. Several items of correspondence between Stephen and his bride have made their way in
the Badlam papers.
1776 was the highpoint of Stephen's military career during the Revolution. In January, he was made a Captain
artillery in the Continental Line, and then was detached from the siege of Boston to accompany Gen. Lee to
New York to prepare its defenses. His brother Ezra seems to have gone to New York at about the same time,
and his brother William may: have accompanied them. Once there, Stephen set about preparing positions and
helping to organize military units. Among the local militia officers he interviewed was one Capt. (later Col.)Alexander Hamilton, whom he found to be capable. Hamilton of course went on to a distinguished career in th
Continental Army, and then in the politics of the new nation. Stephen is said to have admired Hamilton for the
rest of his life.
In April, Stephen was sent to the Northern Department, and probably his brother William went with him. In
May, at the age of 25, Stephen was appointed Major in command of the artillery of the Northern Department,
and simultaneously he was sent to Canada to reinforce and then to assist in the withdrawal of the defeated
American forces. He went at least as far as Chambly. and perhaps as far as Sorel. By July he was back at Ft.
Ticonderoga where he prepared its defenses against the British advance of that summer, and Burgoyne's
expedition of the following summer. Stephen's orderly book for this period is now in the manuscript collection
of the Boston Public Library.
In August of 1776, the epidemics which had decimated the American forces in Canada during the previous
winter struck Stephen. Though he recovered from this first bout, he was not so lucky when illness swept throuthe Army again. In October, shortly after his brother William died at Skenesboro, Stephen fell ill again, and thi
time he took a furlough to recuperate at the home of his wife's family in Milton. However, he returned to the
Army before he was fully recovered, and finally, in January, 1777, he resigned from the Army and went on
home for the rest of the war. The surviving correspondence between Ezra and Stephen, one of the highlights o
the Badlam Papers, begins with his return.
One source says of Stephen's arrival at Milton that illness had so altered his appearance that, though he was
received, not even his wife recognized him until he rose to leave. Though the account is surely exagerated--we
can discern no reason why Stephen would have played out such a drama--it does emphasize how illness had
ravaged him. That April Stephen moved his family to a house in Dorchester's Lower Mills village "hired of the
widow Rachel Blake". There he recovered his health and resumed cabinet-making. He was set back in
November when he "lost his stock and tools by fire". In 1778, Stephen resumed official participation in the
Revolution when he began a three year stint as Superintendent for Suffolk County, his initiation to civil office.
One of his duties seems to have been to serve as the county muster master. Later, in 1782, he was to help hisbrother Ezra during the latter's brief tenure as Continental Muster Master. On his resignation from the
Continental Army; Stephen probably resumed participation in the Massachusetts Militia, though he apparently
did not join Ezra in the expedition to suppress Shays Rebellion. But in 1799 he was named Brigadier General
Gen. Eliot's division. Thenceforth he was referred to as "Gen. Stephen Badlam".
In 1780, Stephen bought from his brother Ezra a three-quarter acre plot with a small house and barn at the
corner of the Dedham and Plymouth roads, now Washington and River streets, in the Lower Mills village. Th
next year, he built a large house for his growing family "in addition to and covering" the old one. There he and
his family, and after him, his widow lived. Before his house stood the "Badlam Pump", the local landmark and
gathering place which was the staging point for such events as Dorchester's bicentennial walk to the beach at
Nantasket where the town's first European settlers had landed.
During the 1790's, Stephen showed his interest in education by letting part of his house for the annual school a
the Lower Mills village. He expressed this interest again when, in 1803, he served on the Dorchester towncommittee to build four school houses. For his own intellectual and moral development, Stephen acquired a sm
library during his lifetime, many of the books of which are now in the possession of the Dorchester Historical
Society.
In 1791 Stephen was appointed a Justice of the Peace, first for Suffolk County, and then, upon its organizatio
in 1793, for Norfolk County. He was one of a committee of five charged with building the first county
courthouse for Norfolk County in Dedham. In 1805, his commission was enlarged to include membership in th
Quorum. In Stephen's time, the county Justices of the Peace performed as the administrative and regulatory
agency of county government in Massachusetts, in addition to their judicial duties. Stephen was tapped to
administer several estates in both Suffolk and Norfolk counties, including that of his brother, and that of his
father- in-law, John Adams of Milton. In 1798, Stephen was appointed principal assessor of the first division f
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
6/7
the US direct tax census of 1798, and late in 1799, he was commissioned by the federal government as survey
of the revenue for the third district, fourth division. The district comprised the towns of Dorchester, Milton an
Quincy. In this capacity, Stephen served as the census enumerator for the second US census of 1800. Many o
the papers he generated as a Justice of the Peace and as a federal official are now at the New England Historic
Genealogical Society.
In the field of cabinet-making, Stephen became one of the animating forces of the industry centered at
Dorchester Lower Mills and Milton villages. He was able to overcome such setbacks as a second fire in
February, 1802, in which he lost a barn with $2,500 worth of goods. He probably, like his brother, ran a store.
During this period. he gradually accumulated land in the neighborhood much of which remained in the hands o
his descendants for many years. There survives from his cabinet work the Graven chest, so-called, a chest on
chest at the Yale University Art Gallery, as well as a mirror and a number of chairs and tables, most of whichwere in 1954 in private collections in the greater Boston area. Stephen's work has been the subject of two
articles in Antiques, and he is listed in Cabinet Makers of America. His diary is said to include entries on
apprentices who trained under him, and perhaps, contains more information on his work than the copies in the
Badlam Papers show. Stephen also drafted the map of Philip Withington's survey of Dorchester Neck which
eventually became the street plan for South Boston.
One of the most dramatic events in Stephen's life came late, and was connected with his church activities.
Stephen probably had been a member of either or both the churches in Milton and Dorchester before 1804 wh
he joined in the organization of Dorchester's second Parish and church. In 1808, he was elected its first senior
deacon. Having grown to distrust the liberal Unitarian tendencies of the early 19th century which were reflecte
in the program of Dorchester's First Church, Stephen was a leading supporter of the conservative Rev. John
Codman in his quarrel with his parish over pulpit exchange policies. Codman preferred more conservative gue
ministers than the parishioners had become accustomed to at the First Church and the Milton church, the
churches from which the new parish drew its membership. The quarrel came to a head in 1812 when the liberaparish party staged a "sit-in" in an attempt to gain control of the church's affairs. At this incident, Stephen was
the "friend", "senior deacon and Magistrate" who stood with the Rev. Codman when he tried to persuade the
occupying parishioners to leave the church building. Though the "sit-in" was successful, the victory was Pyrrh
for the Rev. Codman's party eventually won the contest. The triumph was not cheap, however; the church los
large part of its membership, including, it appears, several of Stephen's relatives, and, judging from Codman's
remarks at his funeral, Stephen lost some longtime friends.
Stephen's first wife Mary died in 1794 after bearing eight children, six of, whom reached adulthood and had
families. Two further children were born dead. Stephen remarried in 1797, to Elizabeth Turner. She survived
him and was for over 25 years the executrix of his estate, until she in turn died. They had no children. Stephen
himself died at Dorchester at the age of 64 on 15 Aug. 1815, a little over 15 months after a stroke. He was
buried in the older or North Dorchester burying ground in a tomb he had acquired for the use of his family.
Stephen's death closed a distinguished career in the civil, economic and military affairs of his time and
community, and his friend, the Rev. John Codman, preached an oration at his funeral which was subsequentlypublished.
The first child of Stephen and Mary Badlam was Sarah Adams, born 31 May 1776 at Milton. She married in
1787 James Blake Howe and died in 1819, probably in Boston, after bearing him six children. One of their
daughters, Sarah Ann, became the wife of John H. Blake, the principal collector of the material in the Badlam
Papers. Howe took as his second wife Mary White, by whom he had three more children. He was a teacher a
an Episcopal churchman, and lived in Dorchester, Boston and Claremont NH. The second child, Polly, also
known as Mary, was born 8 Dec. 1777 at Dorchester. She married in 1802 Edward Sharp, and died in 1841
after bearing eight children. Edward was a resident of Dorcheser, and worked as a banker. He, and then
eventually one of his sons, succeeded his father-in-law to the deaconate of the Second Parish Church. Stephen
and Mary's first son, Stephen, was born 2 Dec. 1779 at Dorchester; he died in Boston in 1847. He married
Nancy Clark in 1820; she bore him nine children. From 1811 to 1816 Stephen the younger lived in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, whither his brother John had gone in 1809. He returned to Dorchester only after the death of
his father. He lived his married life in Boston where he was city jailer for many years. Miriam B. Miller, whoprovided some of the material in the Badlam Papers, was a great granddaughter.
Daughters Abigail, born 4 Nov. 1781, and Nancy, born 30 Aug. 1784, died within a week of each other in 179
following inoculation for the small pox. Daughter Lucretia was born 1 July 1787. She married Eliphalet Smith
1811 and died at her home in Quincy in 1865 after bearing him two children. Eliphalet was a shipmaster and
merchant.
Stephen's youngest son, John, was born 31 March 1789 in Dorchester. He went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in
1809. There in 1812 he married Maria de las Nieves Moreno de Valle, a sister of the Argentine patriot Marian
Moreno. John died in 1824. Their only child, son Esteban (Stephen) was assassinated in 1814 at the age of 21
by the Mazorca terrorists, supporters of the then ascendant dictator Gen. Rosas. John may have been a
7/29/2019 Dorchester Atheneum
7/7
merchant. Stephen's and Mary's youngest child, Clarissa, was born at Dorchester on 10 May 1791. She marrie
in 1815 Ebenezer Dorr as his second wife, and died in 1857 after bearing four children. Ebenezer's first wife h
born at least four children. Ebenezer lived in Roxbury and Boston, and after his death, his widow lived in
Dorchester. He appears to have been a gentleman farmer.
Constraints of time have prevented us from listing and acknowledging the many sources we have tapped in ord
to prepare the sketches above. The practiced reader will, we trust, discern that, aside from the Badlam Papers
themselves, we have drawn most of our information from standard published and manuscript records, such as
vital, probate, land, census and military records, and published local histories and genealogies. The practiced
reader will doubtless notice, too, that some promising sources, such as military records in the National Archive
remain unexamined. Some time we hope to have the opportunity to broaden the sources we have examined in
connection with research on the Badlam family, and to complete a number of other projects in connection withour studies of them.
Related Images: showing 2 of 2 (more results)
Here are some images from the Atheneum archive related to this topic. Click on any of these images to open
slideshow of all 2 images.
Feedback
Do you know something about this topic? Do you have other pictures or items or knowledge to share? Whatabout a personal story? Are you a collector? Do you have questions? Contact us here.
Created:February 16, 2004 Modified: February 16, 2004
Recommended