John Seabury Eldridge

Quick Facts

Significance:

Lawyer, Railroad Industry leader, Free Soiler, 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee Member

Place of Birth:

Yarmouth, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

September 23, 1819

Place of Death:

New York City, New York

Date of Death:

March 23, 1876

Lawyer and businessman John Seabury Eldridge participated in the Free Soil movement and served on the 1850 Boston Vigilance Committee, which assisted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.

Born in Yarmouth, Massachusetts in 1819, John Seabury Eldridge studied law at Harvard. He became a lawyer in Boston in the 1840s. In 1847, he married Abby Louisa Thompson and soon started a family. They lived in Dorchester, just south of the city.¹

In addition to his profession and family life, Eldridge also became involved in the antislavery movement. In 1843, he and others signed a petition to the United States Congress seeking just treatment of "Northern Colored Seamen" whom authorities often detained while their ships docked in Southern ports. In the late 1840s, he spoke on several occasions throughout the state championing the Free Soil Party, which sought to halt the expansion of slavery. He served as a delegate from Dorchester to the Free Soil State Convention in 1849.²

In keeping with his antislavery convictions, he joined the Boston Vigilance Committee, created in response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. This organization assisted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad who came to Boston for refuge. Eldridge's name appeared on Austin Bearse's "Doorman's List," rather than the official broadside listing members published by the Vigilance Committee. Among other things, Bearse watched the door at committee meetings and only allowed known supporters, such as Eldridge, to enter. According to Vigilance Committee records, Eldridge also made a financial contribution to the organization in 1854. Further details of his involvement remain unknown.³

In the 1850s, Eldridge and his family moved to Canton, Massachusetts. He later became involved in several railroad companies and served as president of Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railroad. He maintained his commitment to antislavery politics through his participation in the Republican party. He served twice as a representative in the state legislature, and later as state senator. In 1860, he hosted fellow Vigilance Committee member and soon-to-be governor John A. Andrew and other Republican leaders in Canton. He also served as vice-president of the Wide Awakes Club of Canton, which sought to generate excitement and ensure the election of Abraham Lincoln.⁴

Eldridge died at age 57 of kidney disease in New York City in 1876.⁵

Footnotes

1. "Death of the Hon. John S. Eldridge," Boston Globe, March 25, 1876, 5; The National Archives in Washington, DC, Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29, Series Number: M432, Residence Date: 1850, Home in 1850: Dorchester, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 329, Page: 40b, Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch; Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook), Year: 1870; Census Place: Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_634; Page: 205A, Source Information, Ancestry.com, 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch; George Adams, Boston City Directory, 1850-1851, 148, Boston Athenaeum. NPS Maps geolocate Eldridge at the approximate location of his law office at 35 Court Street. 
2. "Rights of Northern Colored Seamen," Liberator, February 24,1843, 2; "Great Rally at the Temple last Evening," Boston Weekly Republican, November 10, 1848, 2; "North Attleboro," Emancipator and Free Soil Press, October 4, 1848; The Norfolk Democrat, September 7, 1849, 2.
3. Austin Bearse, Remininscences of Fugitive Slave Law Days in Boston, (Boston: Warren Richardson, 1880), 3; Dean Grodzins, "Constitution or No Constitution, Law or No Law: The Boston Vigilance Committees, 1841-1861," in Matthew Mason, Katheryn P. Viens, and Conrad Edick Wright, eds., Massachusetts and the Civil War: The Commonwealth and National Disunion (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015), 73, n.57; Francis Jackson, Account Book of Francis Jackson, Treasurer The Vigilance Committee of Boston, Dr. Irving H. Bartlett collection, 1830-1880, W. B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, Internet Archive, Internet Archive; July 8, 1854, page 35.
4. "Death of the Hon. John S. Eldridge," Boston Globe, March 25, 1876, 5; Charles Endicott, Centennial Celebration at Canton, Mass. (Boston: William Bense, 1876), 44; "Political," Boston Evening Transcript, October 8, 1860, 4; Daily Evening Traveller, July 31, 1860, 2.
5. "Deaths," Boston Post, March 25, 1876, 2; "Death of the Hon. John S. Eldridge," Boston Globe, March 25, 1876, 5.