Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

[p. 122] in the days of the Revolution. His daughter's cradle was in the kitchen. A chair which stood in the square pew of Nathan Wait in the third meeting-house was in the hall. Beside it was a chair which was blown out of a house in West Medford during the tornado of 1815. A chair which belonged to Governor Brooks was exhibited, which was bought for a trifle from a woman who was using it for a wash-bench. The good governor's effects went under the hammer, hence the ignoble fate of this piece of mahogany. Four chairs had belonged to Rev. Edward Brooks, an ancestor of Phillips Brooks. On April 19, 1775, the ‘Patriot Preacher’ shouldered his musket and went, a volunteer, to Concord fight, and later was chaplain of the frigate Hancock. His warrant, signed by John Hancock, hung in a conspicuous place. Chairs which belonged to the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, to the father of Benjamin Franklin, and to Thomas Jefferson, attracted attention. A chair which came to this country in the ‘Anne,’ in 1623, was exhibited by a direct descendant of the original owner. Thus were presented good examples of typical colonial furniture.

Other household belongings were family treasures loaned by members of the Kidder, Blanchard, Polly, Symmes, Le Bosquet, Porter, and Hall families—names known and honored in Medford from colonial times. Several articles were shown which were considered genuine Mayflower relics. A china nappy which had been handed down to the eldest daughter of each generation of the owner's family and a lamp which is vouched for by the family of Rev. Charles Brooks, historian of Medford, were among the number.

Several mementos of Sarah Bradlee Fulton, the ‘Chapter Mother’ were shown; among them a punch bowl and ladle which were used when General Washington visited her to express his thanks for her services as bearer of despatches when, if discovered, her life would have been the forfeit. Two of her descendants