Now on to the Honorable Seth Sprague, grandfather of Frederick Winsor (through his daughter, Welthea Sprague).
Seth was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts on July 4, 1760, the only son of farmer, constable and surveyor Phineas Sprague (ca. 1714-1776) and Mercy Chandler (1726-1815). At the age of 15, his father died, and Seth inherited the Sprague farm. Although young, Seth would end up being one of the most notable of a well-known Duxbury family. He enlisted as a private in the Continental Army in 1775 at age 16, and by 1778 served in the artillery, guarding the arsenal at Springfield against the British. After the war, he returned to Duxbury and worked as a fisherman offshore and as far away as the Grand Banks, a dangerous job due to English ships and privateers cruising the coast as much as the weather.
Only 19, Seth married Deborah Sampson, daughter of Abner Sampson and Deborah Bisbee, on March 30, 1779, in Duxbury. Over the next 65 years, they raised 15 children on the family farm (four sons and 11 daughters, all of whom lived to adulthood and married). Over time, Seth expanded his business into trading, then building, owning, and selling ships and their cargoes.
An ardent abolitionist, Seth was Justice of the Peace for 40 years, State Legislator for 27 years, and twice a member of the Electoral College. But he didn't always see eye to eye with the First Parish Church, resigning over its support of slavery to become a benefactor of the Methodist church, and later provided property for St. John’s Episcopal Church. When he died on July 8, 1847, Seth was buried in Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury.
Today his old barn still stands as the Duxbury Yacht Club clubhouse, while a house his son Seth Jr. built on the property still stands as a condo (at one point called the Winsor Hotel, owned by John T. Winsor) at the corner of Harrison St. and Washington St.
Cousin Polly responds: “Aha, Welthea Sprague, who married Thomas Winsor. She is my several-greats grandmother (my father Paul Jr was grandson of her last child, Frederick). I inherited her portrait, a large drawing in charcoal and chalk on dark paper by artist William Henry Furness Jr, done in 1851 (when she was 67). I intend to take a photo of it soon, and will send that if anyone is interested. I intend to leave this portrait to a suitable museum (Harvard has two other drawings by Furness in same style) or the New England Historical and Genealogical Society in Boston.”
