Cabot family

The Cabot family was part of the Boston Brahmin, also known as the "first families of Boston."

Family origin
The Boston Brahmin Cabot family descended from John Cabot (b. 1680 in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands), who emigrated from his birthplace to Salem, Massachusetts in 1700.

The Cabot family emigrated 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 word, caput, a head).

Claims that the Cabot family of Massachusetts descend from the Italian 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 English 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.

Rise to prominence
John Cabot (b. 1680 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. 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."

Kabotchnik v. Cabot
In 1923, Harry H. Kabotchnik and his wife Myrtle petitioned to have his family name changed to Cabot.

Some prominent Cabots of Boston (Judge Cabot of the Boston Juvenile Court; Stephen Cabot, Headmaster of St. George's School, Middletown, R. I.; Dr. Hugh Cabot, Dean of Michigan University Medical School ) along with the Pennsylvania branch of the Order of Founder and Patriots, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania counter-sued to prevent the change.

Judge Charles Young Audenried eventually ruled for the Kabotchniks, as there was "nothing in the law to prevent it."

Notable members

 * John Cabot (b. 1680 in 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)
 * Mary Ann Cabot (b. 1784) - married her first cousin, Nathaniel Cabot Lee (b. 1772), son of Joseph Lee and Elizabeth Cabot (daughter of Joseph Cabot)
 * John Clarke Lee (b. 1804 in Boston)
 * George Cabot Lee (b. 1830 in Boston)
 * Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt (b. 1861), first wife of President Theodore Roosevelt
 * 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
 * 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
 * Arthur Tracy Cabot (b. 1852 in Boston) – progressive surgeon
 * Godfrey Lowell Cabot (b. 1861 in Boston) – founder of Cabot Corporation, philanthropist who sponsored the restoration of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology's complete Kronosaurus skeleton.
 * James Jackson Cabot (b. 1891 in Cambridge)
 * Thomas Dudley Cabot (b. 1897 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
 * Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (b. 1787 in Boston) – abolitionist and writer