The Brigham Family. [continued from Vol. III., no. 3.]
At a meeting of the Somerville Historical Society in the spring of 1904, I read a paper entitled ‘Thomas Brigham, the Puritan—an Original Settler,’ which was published in the issue of Historic Leaves for October, 1904.
The statements therein confidently made were based on the alleged result of researches said by Morse to have been made at the instance of the late Peter Bent Brigham.
This I followed Mr. Morse in accepting in good faith.
At the meeting to which I have referred, some suggestions by that sterling investigator, Charles D. Elliot, caused me to doubt the accuracy of the Morse account; and the result of my own researches, presented herewith, proves beyond question that the Brigham Family for generations has been weeping at the wrong shrine.
As a matter of historical fact, since ascertained with substantial proof, Thomas Brigham, the emigrant, lived and died, in comfortable if not affluent circumstances, on what of late ears has been known as the ‘Greenleaf place,’ in the rear of and adjoining Radcliffe College, and recently purchased by that institution for educational purposes.
There is no doubt in my mind that Thomas Brigham lies buried in the old Cambridge Cemetery, although his grave, like the graves of some others of his time, cannot be identified.
In view of the foregoing circumstances, I feel that the indebtedness of the Brigham Family, indirectly to the Somerville Historical Society and directly to Messrs. Elliot and Thomas M. Hutchinson, is very great.
W. E. B.
