John Trecothick Apthorp (1769-1849)

Lt.-Col. John T. Apthorp, Treasurer & Receiver-General of Massachusetts

He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, to one of its wealthiest families. After his parents were lost at sea when he was four years old, he was raised by his maternal grandfather, Stephen Greenleaf, the last Colonial High Sheriff of Suffolk County. He graduated from Harvard University (1792), Harvard Law School (1796) and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Corps of Cadets, Massachusetts. He went into banking and became President of the Boston Bank and President of the Suffolk Insurance Company before his appointment as Treasurer and Receiver-General for Massachusetts between 1812 and 1817. In 1795, he married Grace Foster, sister of Mrs Harrison Gray Otis, "Queen of Boston Society". She died that same year in childbirth and afterwards he married her twin sister, Mary. He had one child by his first wife and nine by his second. In 1848, his estate was valued at $100,000. 

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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 13/01/2021 and last updated on 14/08/2023.