370 



■which the Institute takes cognizance, the number of visitors 

 to the rooms is on the increase, and the general interest in 

 our welfare is encouraging. 



The present number of subscribing members is 396 — 

 Honorary in virtue of their connexion with the Essex His- 

 torical Society, 10— Corresponding, 76. Total, 482. Of 

 these five have deceased during the year. Some tribute, 

 should be paid to their memory. 



1. Thomas Downing, son of Thomas and Catherine 

 (Williams) Downing was born at Salem, Aug. 20, 1800, and 

 died suddenly on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 27, 1859. He- 

 had always resided in Salem, was a successful merchant, 

 and as the head of one of the oldest business firms in the 

 city was ever distinguished for ability, integrity and kind 

 and affable deportment. 



2. Samuel Eichakd Masuey, son of Samuel and Mary^ 

 W. (Peirce) Masury, was born at Salem 9th June 1821, 

 resident of Salem with the exception of a few years spent 

 in Zanzibar as a mercantile agent. He was lost on board 

 of the ill-fated steamer Austria, Capt. Heydtman on its pas- 

 sage from Hamburg and Southampton for New York, which 

 was burned Sept. 13, 1858, in lat. 45° 01' N. long 41o 30' W. 



3. John Gage Wood, a native of HoUis, N.H., for sev- 

 eral years a homeopathic physician in Salem — died at Phil- 

 adelphia on the 29th April 1859, at the residence of his- 

 father-in-law, (J. E. James, Esq.,) aged 30. 



4. Ichabod Nichols, D.D. He was the fourth son of 

 Capt. Ichabod and Sarah (Ropes) Nichols, of Salem, and 

 was born at Portsmouth, N.H. during a temporary residence 

 of the family in that place, on the 5th of July 1784 — gradu- 

 ated at Harvard College in the class of 1804 — Tutor in Har- 



