Emerson Cogswell

Emerson Cogswell, son of Emerson Cogswell and Mary Pecker, was born probably shortly before his baptism at Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, 12 April 1743.¹ He died at Concord, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts, 13 May 1808.²

Emerson married (1) Eunice Robinson, daughter of Dr. Jeremiah Robinson and Eunice Amsden, February 1772;³ he married (2) Anna Learnard, whose ancestry is unknown (or not traced here), at Concord, 3 May 1789;⁴ he married (3), as her 2nd husband, Elizabeth Bateman, whose ancestry is unknown (or not traced here), in 1794.⁵

In 1790, his household was probably the one enumerated at Concord, with 4 free white males over 16, 2 under 16, 6 free white females, and 1 other free person.⁶

Emerson, a hatter, moved from Boston to Concord in 1771-73.

He was one of the four Sergeants of the Concord Minutemen in 1775, and a second Lieutenant under Capt. George Minot in 1776. His company was engaged at Cambridge in early 1776, and went to Rhode Island for six weeks in 1778. He was a lieutenant, then under Capt Thomas Brown of Lexington.

He was always referred to as Leftenant Cogswill," wore smallclothes, and was "portly, not to say, fat; so that his wife was obliged to buckle his shoes." He was also one of the twelve founding members of the Concord Committee of Public Safety. After the war, this group continued to meet as the "Social Circle." Meetings of the club continued even after the group had dwindled to only Cogswell and a Mr. Fay, who whiled away pleasant evenings with sumptuous feasts, singing, and stories. All women were rigorously excluded from the festivities. Later, the club revived when a group of local notables joined, including Dr. Ripley. The club was still active, in 1871, with an elected membership of 25, who met weekly at different members' homes for nine months of the year.

Emerson was somewhat of a religious free thinker, falling out with Dr. Ezra Ripley, the local minister, finally refusing to even hear him preach. But he continued to read his Bible "diligently, and perhaps ostentatiously," as the people passed by on their way to meeting, and apparently he remained on good personal terms with the minister. When Cogswell died of consumption, Dr. Ripley attended the funeral and said, "Mr. Cogswell was a good man if ever there was one."

At the time of his third marriage in 1794, he was elected "hogreeve," in charge of impounding stray hogs. It was common practice to put the village's most recently married man into this office.

Sometime in the 1790's, Emerson went to Canada to learn how to make napped hats. He failed in his business, however, because he had bound (co-signed) himself for the debts of a Mr. Brown who defaulted and fled to the South. Cogswell and Capt Safford of Beverly, Massachusetts pursued Brown by horse for many months and when they finally found him they could get no money from him; all they got was title to a poor piece of land. When the pair finally returned on a Sunday in January, 1800, an attachment had been put on Cogswell's property and the doors had been closed. Cogswell threw open his doors, for which, the next day he was hauled off to jail. Capt Safford settled the debt for his friend with "buckets of specie" and took over the Cogswell property. The Cogswells continued to live on their old land, paying rent to Safford.⁷