Ethnicity British | Current region United States | |
 | ||
Connected families LowellLodgeForbesCalderbank Estate John Cabot HouseEleanor Cabot Bradley EstateLewis Cabot Estate | ||
The Cabot family was part of the Boston Brahmin, also known as the "first families of Boston."
Contents
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).
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."