16C28 Abijah 5
BIGELOW, son of Elisha 4 (Eleazer 3 Joshua2,
John1), and Sarah (GOODRIDGE)
BIGELOW, was born 05 December 1775 at Westminster, MA. He graduated from
Dartmouth College in 1795, studied law, and was admitted to the Massachusetts
bar in 1798. He opened a law office in Leominster, and took an active part
in town affairs. He served as town clerk for some years and represented the
town in the General Court. He was elected to Congress and served two terms,
beginning 1811. In 1817 he removed to Worcester, MA, was elected Clerk of
the Courts, and remained in that position until 1833. He was a Federalist
in his views. [American Antiquarian Society at Worcester has Abijah's portrait
hanging in their headquarters, and has published his letters written from
Washington D.C. during his tenure in Congress--these include a description
of the burning of Washington in the War of 1812.]
Abijah married, on 08 April 1804, Hannah Gardner
of Leominster, daughter of Francis S. and ___ (__)Gardner. She was born____
at Leominster, and died 21 April 1857. Abijah died at Worcester 05 April
1860.
Children of Abijah and Hannah (Gardner) Bigelow:
16C28.1 Sarah, b 21 May 1805 Leominster; d ____ 1886, Providence, RI?; m 29 May 1829 Seth Adams. 10 children (see below)
16C28.2t Francis Elisha, b 14 Jan 1807 Leominster;
d 5 Sep 1880 Worcester, MA; m 6 Apr 1847 Elizabeth (Colton)
Larrabee. l child.
16C28.3 Susan, b 7 Apr l809 Leominster; d ____ 1883; m 10 Nov 1831 Dr. Charles C. Greene; res Windsor, VT.
16C28.4 daughter b and d 3l Dec 1810.
16C28.5 Hannah, b 22 Mar 1812 Leominster; d 7 July 1874, place not stated; unmarried.
16C28.6 Abijah, b 14 Feb 1814 Leominster; d 27 Apr 1817.
16C28.7 Elizabeth, b 23 May 1815 Leominster; d 22 Feb 1838 Worcester, MA; unmarried.
16C28.8 Lucinda Gardner,
b 19 Mar 1817; d 19 Dec 1875; unmarried.
16C28.9 Anne Gardner,
b 8 Dec 1818 Worcester, MA; d l7 Jan 1875; unmarried.
16C28.A Mary, b 26 Feb 1821 Worcester, MA; died 17 Mar 1872; unmarried.
Sources:
Bigelow Family Genealogy Volume. I page.182;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
1850 census MA;
Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, vol.40., Apr-Oct
1930.
Abijah Bigelow, a 1795 graduate of Dartmouth College, was a lawyer
and politician who lived in Leominster and Worcester, Massachusetts. A
Federalist representative to Congress from 1800 to 1815, he strongly opposed
the War of 1812. Letters from Bigelow while
he was serving in Washington, D.C., reveal a man with strong interest in
family and civic issues. He described the actions and debates of Congress
to his wife Hannah Gardner Bigelow (1780-1857) and his frustration by the
American political system. On one occasion he wrote, 'We have no news of
importance, the same routine of business in Congress, the same blustering
against Great Britain, the same talk of war, and at the close they will rise
with doing as little good and as much mischief as usual.'(1) Later he wrote,
'[A]s the federalists have declined taking any part whatever in the debate
about raising an army, the democrats begin to falter.... The great difficulty
is raising taxes. They dare not do it. They are too cunning to risk their
popularity by a land tax, loans &c. When they raise the taxes necessary
to carry on a war, I shall think them in earnest, not before.'(2)
After he retired from Congress, Bigelow settled in Worcester and became
involved in local government, serving as a justice of the peace and clerk
of the courts in that city. Elected a member of the American Antiquarian
Society in 1813, Bigelow was also a Councillor of the Society from 1817 to
1828. An author and poet, he submitted his work to Worcester newspapers throughout
his life. Six essays titled 'Political Reflections,' were published by
the Massachusetts Spy in January and February of 1812, and a series of
articles on slavery which he signed 'A Layman' was printed in the Worcester
Palladium in January and February of 1838.(3) In 1853, after his retirement
from law and political service, the seventy-seven-year-old Bigelow and his
ailing wife visited their daughter Sarah Bigelow Adams (1805-86) in Providence,
Rhode Island, where their portraits were painted by
the artist James Sullivan Lincoln.
Lincoln, who apprenticed as an engraver, started painting portraits
around 1837 and by the 1850s was the leading portrait painter in Providence.(4)
Although he also painted miniatures and landscapes, his most significant
commissions were his portraits of the state's governors, senators, and leading
businessmen of the city. For fifty-one years Lincoln kept a record book
of his portrait commissions, which, after 1860, also included painted photographs.(5)
Late in life, Lincoln was elected the first president of the Providence
Art Club and, at a retrospective exhibition of his work, he was titled 'the
father of art in Providence.'(6)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) December 18, 1811. Bigelow Family Papers, 1785-c. 1883,
American Antiquarian Society Manuscript Collection. Several of Bigelow's
letters are published in Clarence S. Brigham, 'Letters of Abijah Bigelow,
Member of Congress to his Wife 1810-1815,' Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society 40 (October 1930): 305-406.
2) Abijah Bigelow to Hannah
Gardner Bigelow, January 1, 1812, quoted in Brigham, 'Letters of Abijah
Bigelow, Member of Congress, to his Wife, ' 322-23.
3) Ibid, 307.
4) Franklin C. Clark, 'A Sketch of the Artist's Life,'
Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of the Works of James Sullivan Lincoln
(Providence, R.I.: Providence Art Club, 1888), 4-5.
5) "List of Portraits by J. S. Lincoln Painted Since AD
1837," James Sullivan Lincoln Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society. The
portraits of Bigelow, his wife, and an image of his daughter Sarah Adams
are all listed in the entries for October 1853. They were listed as 'for
Seth Adams,' Sarah's husband. The current location of the portraits of
Mrs. Bigelow and her daughter are unknown.
6) Clark, 'Sketch of the Artist's Life,' 13.
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
