"Portrait of Susan Apthorp (Mrs. Thomas Bulfinch" by Joseph Blackburn 1757. MFA Boston
Susan Apthorp Bulfinch (1734 - 1815) was a lifelong member of King's Chapel, who became a prolific letter writer in her later years. As the daughter of merchant Charles Apthorp and Grizzel Eastwick, Susan had a privileged upbringing, with "every advantage that leisure, affluence, and affection could afford to improve the strong and ardent mind," as expressed in her obituary. Her family’s wealth, however, that enabled this upbringing came at a cost: her father was a major importer of enslaved people in colonial Boston and her family enslaved several people in their home.
In 1759 Susan married prominent physician Dr. Thomas Bulfinch, II at King’s Chapel, and the couple had several children, including architect Charles Bulfinch.
Within the church, Susan was one of the first women to hold a role in the lay leadership. She oversaw the handling the collection plate money, including investment and distribution to the church's charitable interests.
Growing up in a wealthy and well-educated family, Susan carried a love of reading and writing with her through life. In her later years, Susan became a prolific writer. Unable to spend as much time out of her home and visiting with family and friends, she wrote numerous letters sharing her personal stories and reflections on how Boston has changed throughout her lifetime. Her letters shed light on how she viewed the world around her, as she shared her thoughts and reflections on life in Boston at the turn of the 19th century with her brothers in England.
In letters to her brother in England, Susan shares a rare glimpse into the changing urban landscape from a woman’s perspective. She also updated her family about notable events in the city, including the Great Gale of 1804, a snow-hurricane that tore the steeple off of the Old North Church and part of the roof off of King’s Chapel, and describing her son's architectural works.
Although Susan died a little over 200 years ago, she shared many of the same passions in life that we do today, including reading and spending time with her family. She often wrote about her love of reading and shared what books she recently completed. When Susan passed away in 1815 at age 81, she was buried in her husband's tomb beneath this church.
In 1759 Susan married prominent physician Dr. Thomas Bulfinch, II at King’s Chapel, and the couple had several children, including architect Charles Bulfinch.
Within the church, Susan was one of the first women to hold a role in the lay leadership. She oversaw the handling the collection plate money, including investment and distribution to the church's charitable interests.
Growing up in a wealthy and well-educated family, Susan carried a love of reading and writing with her through life. In her later years, Susan became a prolific writer. Unable to spend as much time out of her home and visiting with family and friends, she wrote numerous letters sharing her personal stories and reflections on how Boston has changed throughout her lifetime. Her letters shed light on how she viewed the world around her, as she shared her thoughts and reflections on life in Boston at the turn of the 19th century with her brothers in England.
In letters to her brother in England, Susan shares a rare glimpse into the changing urban landscape from a woman’s perspective. She also updated her family about notable events in the city, including the Great Gale of 1804, a snow-hurricane that tore the steeple off of the Old North Church and part of the roof off of King’s Chapel, and describing her son's architectural works.
Although Susan died a little over 200 years ago, she shared many of the same passions in life that we do today, including reading and spending time with her family. She often wrote about her love of reading and shared what books she recently completed. When Susan passed away in 1815 at age 81, she was buried in her husband's tomb beneath this church.
Read Bulfinch's writing:
Of Boston's evolving urban landscape: “The Town of Boston is so grown you would scarce know it for your native place, almost every spit of land is cover’d with brick buildings & the paved streets and hackney coaches make it very noisy. The old mansion house in State Street is converted into a Bank, the outside handsomely ornamented. A large and elegant State House is built near the Common, both the building and the situation are the admiration of strangers. The old Town House neatly fitted up & divided into Ships & Stores where all the variety of manufacturers from different parts of the world are exhibited to draw the attention of the young and the gay. We have a spacious Alms House built at Nor Boston which you will recollect b the name of Barton’s Point. The old Almes House Taken down and a number of handsome houses placed upon the land. The Common still remains free & we hope always will as we really begin to be crowded. The three Churches remain as they were, several new Meeting Houses one just completed at the North end on the spot where Old Dr. ?? stood.” Of her love of family: “I am the universal Grand Mama of all my young acquaintances & delight to contribute to their pleasures, convinced that the life abounds with sources of enjoyment the season for improving them is transient and should not be ungratefully neglected.” |
Of the Great Gale of 1804: "We have melancholy accounts of storms in different parts of the Continent & just now we have a tremendous one here. It commenced yesterday morning & now at 12 o’clock it seems to be abating. Steeples of churches are blown off to a considerable distance, large trees torn up by the roots of which we have a specimen in our own garden we have at least nine-inches diameter & supposed 50 feet in length lying prostrate in one fine large weeping willow not finding room enough to spread itself on the ground has fallen against the house but done no other damage than breaking a few windows...I have reached my seventieth year and do not recollect any storm equal to the present." Of her love of reading: “The greatest pleasure I have is in reading. Mr. C[oolidge] has a pretty library and is continually adding to it. I generally get the cutting of the new books and the first reading, have lately gone through [James] Macknight upon the Apostolical Epistles with great pleasure and satisfaction. He comes the nearest to my ideas of the character and mission of our Saviour of any one whose works I have read, deny his pac-existence, some his Divinity, & his free agency, Macknight seems to be pretty clearly to write and prove them all… I have entertained myself with the old poems of Dante, tho[ugh] partly visionary I have been pleased with them, his Inferno is full of Fable and Horror. I was most delighted with the Purgatorio some lines of which I thought very beautiful.” |
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