The Boston Brahmins, or Boston elite, are members of Boston's historic upper class. From the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, they were often associated with a cultivated New England accent, Harvard University, Anglicanism, and traditional British-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonists are typically considered to be the most representative of the Boston Brahmins. They are considered White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).

Etymology

The phrase "Brahmin Caste of New England" was first coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., a physician and writer, in a January 1860 article in The Atlantic Monthly. The term Brahmin refers to the privileged, priestly caste within the four castes in the Hindu caste system. By extension, it was applied in the United States to the old wealthy New England families of British Protestant origin that became influential in the development of American institutions and culture. The influence of the old American gentry has been reduced in modern times, but some vestiges remain, primarily in the institutions and the ideals that they championed in their heyday.

Characteristics

The nature of the Brahmins is referenced in the doggerel "Boston Toast" by Holy Cross alumnus John Collins Bossidy: Many 19th-century Brahmin families of large fortune were of common origin; fewer were of an aristocratic origin. The new families were often the first to seek, in typically British fashion, suitable marriage alliances with those old aristocratic New England families that were descended from land-owners in England to elevate and cement their social standing. The Winthrops, Dudleys, Saltonstalls, Winslows, and Lymans (descended from English magistrates, gentry, and aristocracy) were, by and large, happy with this arrangement. All of Boston's "Brahmin elite", therefore, maintained the received culture of the old English gentry, including cultivating the personal excellence that they imagined maintained the distinction between gentlemen and freemen, and between ladies and women. They saw it as their duty to maintain what they defined as high standards of excellence, duty, and restraint. Cultivated, urbane, and dignified, a Boston Brahmin was supposed to be the very essence of enlightened aristocracy. The ideal Brahmin was not only wealthy, but displayed what was considered suitable personal virtues and character traits. The Brahmin were expected to maintain the customary English reserve in dress, manner, and deportment, and cultivate the arts, support charities such as hospitals and colleges, and assume the role of community leaders. Although the ideal called on him to transcend commonplace business values, in practice many found the thrill of economic success quite attractive. The Brahmins warned each other against avarice and insisted upon personal responsibility. Scandal and divorce were unacceptable. This culture was buttressed by the strong extended family ties present in Boston society. Young men attended the same prep schools, colleges, and private clubs, and heirs married heiresses. Family not only served as an economic asset, but also as a means of moral restraint. Most belonged to the Unitarian or Episcopal churches, although some were Congregationalists or Methodists. Politically, they were successively Federalists, Whigs, and Republicans. They were marked by their manners and once distinctive elocution. Their distinctive Anglo-American manner of dress has been much imitated and is the foundation of the style now informally known as preppy. Many of the Brahmin families trace their ancestry back to the original 17th- and 18th-century colonial ruling class consisting of Massachusetts governors and magistrates, Harvard presidents, distinguished clergy, and fellows of the Royal Society of London, a leading scientific body, while others entered New England aristocratic society during the 19th century with their profits from commerce and trade, often marrying into established Brahmin families.

List of Boston Brahmin families

Adams

Amory

Appleton

Patrilineal line: Other notable relatives:

Bacon

Bates

Originally from Boston and Britain:

Boylston

Boylston Family

Bradlee

Bradlee Family Direct line:

Brinley

Brinley Family of Boston, Newport, Rhode Island, and Shelter Island, New York:

Buckingham

Originally from Boston and Britain:

Cabot

Chaffee/Chafee

Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts:

Choate

Coffin

Originally of Newbury and Nantucket:

Coolidge

Cooper

Crowninshield

Descendants by marriage:

Cushing

Originally of Hingham, Massachusetts: Descendant by marriage:

Dana

Dana Family

Delano

Delano Family

Dudley

Dudley Family

Dwight

Dwight Family

Eliot

Eliot Family

Emerson

Emerson Family

Endicott

Endicott Family Salem: Dedham:

Everett

Everett Family Descendants through the marriage of Sarah Preston Everett (1796–1866) and noted journalist Nathan Hale (1784–1863):

Fabens

Of Marblehead and Salem:

Forbes

Forbes Family

Gardner

Gardner Family Originally of Essex county:

Gillett

Hallowell

Hallowell Family

Healey/Dall

Holmes

Holmes Family

Jackson

Jackson Family

Knowles

Knowles Family

Lawrence

Lawrence Family Descendant by marriage: Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), president of Harvard University

Lodge

Lodge Family

Lowell

Lyman

Minot

Minot Family

Norcross

Norcross family Original from Watertown, Massachusetts

Oakes

Oakes family

Otis

Otis family

Paine

Paine Family

Palfrey

Palfrey Family

Parkman

Parkman Family

Peabody

Peabody Family

Perkins

Perkins Family

Phillips

Phillips Family Other notable relatives:

Putnam

Putnam Family

Quincy

Quincy Family

Rice

Rice Family Originally of Sudbury, Massachusetts:

Saltonstall

Saltonstall Family

Sargent

Sears

Sears Family

Sedgwick

Sedgwick Family

Shattuck

Shaw

Storrow

Sturgis

Thayer

Thayer Family

Thorndike

Thorndike Family

Tudor

Tudor Family

Warren

Weld

Weld Family

Whitney

Wigglesworth

Wigglesworth Family

Winthrop

Winthrop Family Patrilineal descendants: Other descendants: