Cabot family

Family origin

The Boston Brahmin Cabot family descended from John Cabot (b. 1680 in English Channel Isle of Jersey), who emigrated from his birthplace to Salem, Massachusetts in 1700. Claims that the Cabot family of Massachusetts descend from the English explorers John Cabot (c.1450 - c.1500) and his son Sebastian Cabot (c.1474 - 1557)are mistaken. John and Sebastian were both born in Italy, where their surname 'Caboto' meant 'Coastal Sailor'. They joined a community of Italian sailors based in the important Engish port of Bristol. John was the first explorer sent by the English to explore the North American coast, and Sebastian captained later voyages of exploration, but neither of them immigrated to America. The Cabot family who immigrated from Jersey where the family name can be traced back to at least 1274. In Jersey Historian the Rev George Balleine records that the Cabot is a small fish that seems all head (It gets its name from the Latin, caput, a head).<http://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Cabot>

Rise to prominence

John Cabot (b. 1680 in British Channel Isle of Jersey) and his son, Joseph Cabot (b. 1720 in Salem), became highly successful merchants, operating a fleet of privateers carrying opium, rum, and slaves. Shipping during the eighteenth century was the lifeblood of most of Boston’s first families. Joseph’s sons, Joseph Cabot Jr. (b. 1746 in Salem), George Cabot (b. 1752 in Salem), and Samuel Cabot (b. 1758 in Salem), left Harvard to work their way through shipping, furthering the family fortune and becoming extraordinarily wealthy. Two of the earliest U.S. Supreme Court cases, Bingham v. Cabot (1795) and Bingham v. Cabot (1798) involved family shipping disputes. In 1784, Samuel Cabot relocated to Boston.

George Cabot

George Cabot and his descendants went into politics. George Cabot became a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and was appointed but declined to be first Secretary of the Navy. His great-grandson, Henry Cabot Lodge (b. 1850 in Boston) was also a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1893 until his death in 1924. In the 1916 election, Henry Cabot Lodge defeated John F. Fitzgerald, former mayor of Boston and the maternal grandfather of John, Robert and Edward Kennedy. George's great-great-great grandson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (b. 1902 in Nahant) was also U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1937 to 1943 and from 1946 to 1953, when he lost to John F. Kennedy in the 1952 Senate election. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. went on to be the U.S. Ambassador to United Nations under President Eisenhower and ambassador to South Vietnam under President Kennedy. He was 1960 vice presidential candidate for Richard Nixon against Kennedy-Lyndon B. Johnson. George's other great-great-great grandson, John Davis Lodge (b. 1903 in Washington, DC) was the 64th Governor of Connecticut. George's great-great-great-great grandson, George Cabot Lodge II (b. 1927, son of Henry Cabot Lodge) ran against the successful Edward M. Kennedy in the United States Senate special election in Massachusetts, 1962.

Samuel Cabot

From John Cabot's grandson, Samuel Cabot's side, Samuel Cabot Jr. (b. 1784 in Boston) furthered the family fortune by combining the first family staples of working in shipping and marrying money. In 1812, he married Eliza Perkins, daughter of merchant king Colonel Thomas Perkins. Dr. Samuel Cabot III (b. 1815 in Boston) was an eminent surgeon, whose daughter, Lilla Cabot Perry, was a noted Impressionist artist, and son, Godfrey Lowell Cabot (b. 1861 in Boston) founded Cabot Corporation, the largest carbon black producer in the country, used for inks and paints. Godfrey's son, John Moors Cabot (b. 1901 in Cambridge), a great-great-grandson of Samuel, was a U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, and Poland during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration. Another great-great grandson, Paul Codman Cabot (b. 1898 in Brookline), was cofounder of America's first mutual fund and "Harvard's [Endowment] Midas."

Boston Toast

The widely known "Boston Toast" by Holy Cross alumnus John Collins Bossidy features the Cabot family:

"And this is good old Boston, The home of the bean and the cod, Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots, And the Cabots talk only to God."

Notable members

John Cabot (b. 1680 in British Channel Isle of Jersey) - successful ship merchant

Francis Cabot (b. 1717 in Salem) - ship merchant

Susanna Cabot (b. 1754)

Francis Cabot Lowell (b. 1775 in Newburyport) - cofounded Harvard's Porcellian Club, helped introduce power loom in U.S.

Joseph Cabot (b. 1720 in Salem) - successful ship merchant

Capt. John Cabot (b. 1745 in Salem) - cofounded America’s first cotton mill, John Cabot House namesake

Joseph Cabot Jr. (b. 1746 in Salem) - ship merchant

George Cabot (b. 1752 in Salem) - successful ship merchant, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, appointed but declined to be first Secretary of the Navy

Henry Cabot (b. 1783)

Anna Cabot (b. 1821)

Henry Cabot Lodge (b. 1850 in Boston) - U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and ardent opponent of Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations

George Cabot Lodge (b. 1873 in Boston) - poet

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (b. 1902 in Nahant, MA) - U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, incumbent 1952 U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts against John F. Kennedy, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations and South Vietnam, and 1960 vice presidential candidate for Richard Nixon against Kennedy-Lyndon B. Johnson

George Cabot Lodge II (b. 1927) - Harvard Business School professor, 1962 U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts against Edward M. Kennedy

John Davis Lodge (b. 1903 in Washington, DC) - 64th Governor of Connecticut

Francis Cabot (b. 1757 in Salem)

Frederick Cabot (b. 1786 in Salem)

Francis Cabot (b. 1825 in Newton, Massachusetts)

Francis Higginson Cabot (b. 1859 in Boston)

Francis Higginson Cabot (b. 1896) — vice president, Stone & Webster

Francis Higginson Cabot (b. 1925 in New York City) — noted gardener and horticulturist

Samuel Cabot (b. 1758 in Salem) — successful ship merchant

Samuel Cabot Jr. (b. 1784 in Boston) — shipping businessman

Dr. Samuel Cabot III (b. 1815 in Boston) - eminent surgeon

Lilla Cabot (b. 1848 in Boston) - among first American impressionist artists, contributor to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Samuel Cabot IV (b. 1850) - chemist, founder of Valspar's Cabot Stains

Dr. Arthur Tracy Cabot (b. 1852 in Boston) - progressive surgeon

Godfrey Lowell Cabot (b. 1861 in Boston) - founder of Cabot Corporation, philanthropist

James Jackson Cabot (b. 1891 in Cambridge) - businessman and philanthropist, Cabot House namesake

Louis Wellington Cabot - businessman, philanthropist, former Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, married Mabel Hobart

Linda Cabot Black - cofounder of Opera Company of Boston and Opera New England

Sophie Cabot Black (b. 1958) - poet

John Moors Cabot (b. 1901 in Cambridge) - U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, and Poland during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration

Lewis Cabot

Eleanor Cabot - Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate namesake

Edward Clarke Cabot (b. 1818) — architect and artist

Elizabeth Cabot Lee (b. 1819 in Boston) — philanthropist and co-sponsor of the Harvard Museum of Natural History's famous Glass Flowers exhibit. Widely known as Elizabeth C. Ware (her married name).

Mary Lee Ware (b. 1858 in Rindge, New Hampshire) — philanthropist, farmer of West Rindge, NH, and co-sponsor of the HMNH's famous Glass Flowers exhibit; played a pivotal role in the creation of the New Hampshire Rhododendron State Park.

James Elliot Cabot (b. 1821 in Boston) — philosopher and author

Richard Clarke Cabot (b. 1868 in Brookline, Massachusetts) — clinical physician, social work pioneer

Hugh Cabot (b. 1872 in Beverly Farms)

Hugh Cabot (b. 1905 in Boston)

Hugh Cabot III (b. 1930 in Boston) — painter

Walter Channing Cabot (b. 1829)

Henry Bromfield Cabot (b. 1861 in Boston) - lawyer

Paul Codman Cabot (b. 1898 in Brookline), — cofounder of America's first mutual fund, "Harvard's [Endowment] Midas"

Charles Codman Cabot (b. 1900 in Brookline) — associate judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, Boston Bar Association president

Elise Cabot Forbes (b. 1869) — maternal grandmother of Michael Paine