6 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 



settled in 1630. He was joined later by his god-daughter, 

 Alice Perkins, who although a Puritan had married, in 

 spite of family displeasure, her Roman Catholic cousin, 

 Edmund Perkins of Ufton Court, and being left at his 

 death with scant provision for her three children, came 

 with them from England to her god-father for support. 

 From her son, Edmund, the branch of the family to which 

 Mrs. Agassiz belonged was descended. In his grandson, 

 James Perkins, a highly respected merchant of Boston, the 

 great-grandfather of Mrs. Agassiz, qualities appear that ac- 

 quire a significance in her biography. Grave and courteous 

 in manner and upright in principles he found his friends 

 among such men as Samuel Adams, James Otis and Paul 

 Revere. He is associated to his own advantage with Paul 

 Revere in a flattering family tradition, according to which 

 they came home one day after a hard gallop on horseback, 

 Revere as mud-stained as he had reason to be after his fa- 

 mous ride in a better cause, and Perkins the pink of neat- 

 ness, for, the record adds, "dirt, moral or physical, could 

 not stick to him." His wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of 

 Thomas Handasyd Peck of Boston, a dealer in furs, was 

 fully his equal in strength of character and when at his 

 death she was left with the care of a large family of chil- 

 dren, she not only brought them up admirably, but as- 

 sumed the management of her husband's business and 

 conducted it with such efficiency that her sex was not sus- 

 pected by her commercial correspondents in Holland, who 

 used to address her as Mr. Elizabeth Perkins. Many tales 

 are also told of the good works that she did, not only in 

 connection with various charitable associations of Boston, 

 but independently, lodging, for instance, an insane woman 



