"[A] stirring saga...Vivid and intimate, Ms. Sankovitch's account entertains us with Puritans and preachers, Tories and rebels, abolitionists and industrialists, lecturers and poets ... Ms. Sankovitch has made a compelling contribution to Massachusetts and American History."―Roger Lowenstein, The Wall Street Journal " Sankovitch has searched out these letters to write the powerful story of one of America's most extraordinary families, a family that helped shape the course of American history in dramatic and decisive ways...By the final pages of this volume, one feels deeply attached to the individual Lowells, while also exhilarated at having experienced this grand sweep of American history." ―Charlotte Gordon, Washington Post Sankovitch's "skillful blending of context and detail makes the vicissitudes of one family emblematic of a nation's."-  The New Yorker "[R]eads like a fine novel. You might be reminded of one of those deep digs into history and storytelling that James Michener used to do in his novels "Hawaii" and "Chesapeake." - Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post "Sankovitch has searched out these letters to write the powerful story of one of America's most extraordinary families, a family that helped shape the course of American history in dramatic and decisive ways...By the final pages of this volume, one feels deeply attached to the individual Lowells, while also exhilarated at having experienced this grand sweep of American history." --Charlotte Gordon, Washington Post "...a stirring saga of a New England family...Vivid andintimate, Ms. Sankovitch's account entertains us with Puritans and preachers,Tories and rebels, abolitionists and industrialists, lecturers and poets...Ms.Sankovitch has made a compelling contribution to Massachusetts and Americanhistory." Roger Lowenstein, The Wall Street Journal Sankovitch's "skillful blending of context and detail makes the vicissitudes of one family emblematic of a nation's."- The New Yorker NINA SANKOVITCH is the author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Celebrating the Joys of Letter Writing . She was born in Evanston, Illinois and is a graduate of Evanston Township High School, Tufts University, and Harvard Law School. She currently lives in Connecticut. The Lowells of Massachusetts An American Family By Nina Sankovitch St. Martin's Press Copyright © 2017 Nina Sankovitch All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-250-06920-7 Contents Title Page, Copyright Notice, Dedication, Dramatis Personae, Epigraph, Prelude: Writing a Family's History, Part One: Migration, 1. 1638–1639, 2. 1639, 3. 1639–1665, Part Two: Religion, 4. 1724–1738, 5. 1740–1754, 6. 1755–1759, Part Three: Revolution, 7. 1765–1774, 8. 1774–1777, 9. 1778–1789, Part Four: Acquisition, 10. 1796–1802, 11. 1802–1812, 12. 1812–1817, 13. 1817–1829, 14. 1829–1840, Part Five: War, 15. 1842, 16. 1842–1850, 17. 1850–1853, 18. 1853–1861, 19. 1861–1864, Part Six: Reinvention, 20. June 9, 1888, 21. 1891–1897, 22. 1897–1900, 23. 1901–1913, 24. 1913–1917, 25. 1917–1919, 26. 1919–1922, Afterword, Photographs, Acknowledgments, Notes, Selected Bibliography, Index, Also by Nina Sankovitch, About the Author, Copyright, CHAPTER 1 1638–1639 We venture goods, and lives, ye know, and travel seas and land To bring by traffic heaps of wealth and treasure to your land. — POEM COMPOSED IN HONOR OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S 1574 VISIT TO BRISTOL, ENGLAND Percival Lowle walked down to the docks on a cool day in late November. The sky overhead was blue, the light of the sun bright and warm. But to the west, heavy gray clouds were collecting over the horizon. Percival quickened his pace. He had business to attend to. He dodged among the crowds of dockworkers, sailors, merchants, and tradesmen, intent on his goal. He walked past vessels from faraway places, rocking against their lines like animals tethered before a fight. Every form and type of rigging, flag, and frame was on display; boats from all over the world. Languages as unintelligible as the cries of birds batted among the foreign crews, mingling with the reassuring authority of the King's English and the rich, crude dialects of the dockworkers. Above the cacophony of voices: the squawks of gulls, the clanking of lines, the chiming of Bristol's famous bells at midday. Percival stopped for a moment and drew in a deep breath, taking in with pleasure all the odors that wafted about him, the smells from bales and hogsheads and packets, from barrels and boxes and billets. It was the heady perfume of the world he knew. He wished he could bottle it up, to hold on to always. Change was coming, and although he was an adapter, had always done what was necessary to keep his family secure, this change would wrench them from all that they knew. It was one thing to move from the small village of Portbury in Somersetshire to Bristol, which he had done with Rebecca when they were s