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Biographies |
Baylies,
Francis
Caswell,
Alexis
BAYLIES,
Francis
(1783—1852)
(brother of William Baylies), a
Representative from Massachusetts; born in
Taunton, Mass., October 16, 1783; studied law;
was admitted to the bar in 1810 and commenced
practice in Taunton, Mass.; register of probate
for Bristol County 1812-1820; unsuccessful
candidate for election in 1818 to the Sixteenth
Congress; elected as a Federalist to the
Seventeenth Congress, a Jackson Federalist to
the Eighteenth Congress, and a Jacksonian to the
Nineteenth Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3,
1827); unsuccessful candidate in 1827 for
reelection to the Twentieth Congress; member of
the State house of representatives 1827-1832;
United States Chargé d’Affaires to Argentina,
1832; again elected to the State house of
representatives in 1835; engaged in literary
pursuits; died in Taunton, Bristol County,
Mass., October 28, 1852; interment in the Old
Plain Cemetery.
(Submitted by©Anna Newell
) | |
CASWELL, Alexis
(1799-1872+)
twin
son of Samuel and Polly (Seaver) Caswell, and
was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, January 29,
1799. His twin brother Alvaris lived to a
vigorous old age in Norton. They were
descendants in the sixth generation from Thomas
Caswell, who was in Taunton in 1639. Like
the original settlers he probably came from
Taunton, in Somersetshire,
England.
Alexis Caswell passed his early
years i agricultural labors on his father's
estate. His college life at Brown
University was distinguished for industry, and
on his graduation in 1822 he bore the highest
honors of his class. During this period,
also, he experienced that moral change which
made him a genuine and earnest Christian man,
and which, more than any other event, shaped his
entire subsequent life. In July, 1820, he
became a member of the First Baptist church in
Providence.
He spent the five years
following his graduation as tutor in what is now
Columbian University at Washington. In
1827 he was ordained as minister of a Baptist
church in Halifax Nova Scotia. A year
later he returned to Providence and soon after
was chosen professor of mathematics and natural
philosophy in Brown University. In 1850
the style of his professorship was changed to
that of mathematics and astronomy.
In
1860 he went abroad with Mrs. Caswell, and spent
a year in traveling in Europe. During his
absence he made the acquaintance of many eminent
men of science, visited several of the great
observatories, and attended the meetings of some
of the leading scientific associations, both of
Great Britain and the continent. Returning
in 1861, he resumed his duties and continued
them till the autumn of 1863, when he resigned
the professorship, after a service of
thirty-five years. He now became active in
the management of certain financial corporations
with which his interests were connected, and was
made the president of the National Exchange
Bank, and also of the American Screw Company
both in Providence.
In January 1868, Dr.
Caswell was chosen president of the university
and held the office until September 1872.
He was one of the early members of the American
Association for the Promotion of Science, and
was its president in 1859. He was also one
of those named in the act of Congress in 1863,
which created the National Academy of
Science. The published writings of Dr.
Caswell are comparatively few, and for the most
part are scattered among the transactions of
learned societies, or in scientific and literary
periodicals.
He was interested in every
enterprise that was designed to relieve the
miseries or to elevate the character of the
human race, or to bring them under the influence
of true religion. In him the poor always
found a friend and benefactor.
Dr.
Caswell was twice married; first on May 7, 1830,
to Esther Lois, daughter of Ebenezer K.
Thompson, of Providence, who died June 25, 1850;
second on January 31, 1855, to Elizabeth Brown,
daughter of Thomas Edmands, of Newton,
Massachusetts, who survived her husband.
Of the first marriage six children were born, of
whom three survived their father, viz.: Sarah
Swoope, wife of James B. Angell, LL.D.,
president of the University of Michigan; Dr.
Edward Thompson Caswell physician of Providence
RI and Thomas Thompson Caswell, paymaster in the
Navy of the US.
Dr. Caswell was a
resident member, admitted in 1870.
"a
fuller memoir of Dr. Caswell may be found in the
Register, vol XXXI
pp253-262"
(Nancy Washell,
transcribed from NEHGR,
pp227-229) |
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