Quincy, Edmund (1703-1788)

Boston merchant.

Traded in partnership with his brother Josiah and brother-in-law Edward Jackson (c. 1725-50), then with his sons Edmund and Henry (1750-58). Moved to ancestral home in Braintree (1753); both father and sons lacked mercantile talent and the firm went bankrupt (1758). Later tried farming, merchandizing, and retail liquor business, but gained most of his income for the rest of his life from fees earned as a justice of the peace and of the quorum. Mason (1749); senior warden of St. John’s Lodge (1760). Whig; noted correspondent. Intermittently active in Boston and Braintree town affairs.

Son of Judge Edmund and Dorothy (Flynt) Quincy of Braintree, Mass; brother of Franklin’s friend Josiah Quincy. Probably attended Boston Latin School with Franklin. Educated at Harvard (A.B. 1722). Married (1) Elizabeth Wendell (1725); several children, including Edmund, Jr. and Dorothy, who married John Hancock. Married (2) Anna Gerrish (1785).