David Lee Child (1794 - 1874)

Born 8 Jul 1794 in West Boylston, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia Maria (Francis) Child — married Oct 1828 in Massachusetts

Died 18 Sep 1874 at age 80 in Wayland, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

David Child is Notable.

When David Lee Child was born on July 8, 1794, in West Boylston, Massachusetts, to Zachariah Child and Lydia Bigelow.

David graduated from Harvard College in 1817 and worked for some time as the sub-master of the Boston Latin School starting in 1819.

He was appointed by President Monroe to be the Secretary of the United States Legation at Lisbon, Portugal. He subsequently fought in Spain, “defending what he considered the cause of freedom against her French invaders.” Returning to the United States in 1824, he began in 1825 to study law with his uncle, Tyler Bigelow, in Watertown, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar. Was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts.

He married Lydia Maria Francis on October 24, 1828, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Child edited the Massachusetts Journal, about 1830, and while a member of the legislature denounced the annexation of Texas, afterward publishing a pamphlet on the subject, entitled Naboth's Vineyard.

He was an early member of the anti-slavery society, and in 1832, he addressed a series of letters on slavery and the slave trade to Edward S. Abdy, an English philanthropist. He also published ten articles on the same subject (Philadelphia, 1836).

He went to Belgium in 1836 to study the beet sugar industry, and afterward received a silver medal for the first manufacture of the sugar in the United States.

During a visit to Paris in 1837, he addressed an elaborate memoir to the Société pour l'abolition d'esclavage, and sent a paper on the same subject to the editor of the Eclectic Review in London.

In 1841, he and his wife moved to New York and became joint-editors of the National Anti-Slavery Standard. They served as an Underground Railroad station for people escaping the U.S. due to the Fugitive Slave Law.

He died on September 18, 1874, in Watertown, Massachusetts, and was buried in Wayland, Massachusetts. Upon his death, he bequeathed one hundred dollars to the town of West Boylston for the purpose of founding a public library.

Sources

• Wikipedia: David Lee Child
• "David Lee Child (1794-1874)," Beaman Public Library, West Boylston, Mass. September 26, 2017.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #59603716
• U.S. Federal Census, 1860
• U.S. Federal Census, 1870
• Massachusetts Death Records
• Massachusetts Marriage Records
• Massachusetts Will & Probate Records