CHADBOURN, SETH H.

Copyright © 2011-2025 John N. Lupia III

Chadbourne, Seth H., (1836-1904), his residence in 1869 : 134 ½ Washington Street, Boston Massachusetts. In 1900 : 433 Washington Street, Dorchester, Massachusetts. Numismatist and genealogist.

He was born the son of Seth Chadbourne, a blacksmith, and Lucinda Merrill Chadbourne on December 11, 1836 at Boston. On June 13, 1861 he married Annie Gurley Bradford (b. 1840), daughter of Rufus and Ann Bradford of Kingston, Massachusetts. They had a son named Howard born on July 16, 1850 and died November 16, 1850 at Boston. They had no other issue.

He lived in various boarding houses.  He worked as a bookkeeper for Draper & Morse, auctioneers. He built a collection of American gold coins sold at auction on July 12, 1865 at the auction house of David F. McGilvray, Boston, Massachusetts. He was the recording Secretary of the New England Numismatic and Archaeological Society.  He sold his coin collection of 223 + 99 lots through G. W. Beckford & Co., on December 14, 1864.

Emmanuel Joseph Attinelli writes this about him in Numisgraphics :

"Mr. Seth H. Chadbourne was born on the 11th of December, 1836, in the City of Boston, where he still resides. He is a bookkeeper by profession and has been engaged in that capacity with several of the auction-houses in the above named city. A numismatist from inclination, he commenced some twenty years ago the formation, in a modest way, of a cabinet of coins, devoting himself principally to the American series.

Although he has at times disposed of portions of his collection, he still holds on to quite an extensive cabinet of his favorite “Politicals " and “Tradesmen’s Tokens." He has long been one of the most active members of the N. E. Numismatic and Archaeological Society."

            About 1890 he became an antique dealer and bookseller in the Roxbury district of Boston running the classic type of a Curio Shop. From 1894 to early 1895 he was living in Ward 20 of the City of Boston. In 1896, the Essex Institute cites him as living in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1900 he is living in another boarding house located at 433 Washington Street, Dorchester, Massachusetts since he is cited writing from there in June. During that time he devoted himself to genealogical research. He writes telling us he devoted forty years, i.e., from 1860 to 1900 doing genealogical research and spent much of that time correcting the charts created by another genealogist Enoch Chase.

He died on Thursday, October 13, 1904 at City Hospital of heart disease. He was  survived by his wife Ann. His services were held at the Forest Hills crematory on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

Bibliography :

Gengerke, Martin, American Numismatic Auctions, 8th edition (1990) : 13;

Mason’s Coin and Stamp Collectors Magazine, Vol. I, No. 4, July (1867) : 35d; Cited by his initials S. H. C., I, No. 8, November (1867) : 76b;

Pete Smith, “American Numismatic Pioneers : An Index to Sources,” Asylum Vol. XXII, No. 3, Consecutive Issue No. 87, Summer (2004) : 287;

Emmanuel Joseph, Attinelli. Numisgraphics/A Bibliography of American Numismatic Auction Catalogues 1828-1875 (reprint 1976)

Adams, American Numismatic Literature, Vol. 1, 29

The Boston Directory. No. LXV. (Boston : Sampson, Davenport & Co., 1869) : 131

Clark’s Boston Blue Book (Boston ; Edward E. Clark, 1900) : 358

Report of the Proceedings of the City Council of Boston For The Year Commencing Monday January 1, 1894, and ending Saturday, January 5, 1895 (Boston : Rockwell and Churchill, 1895) : 818

Essex Institute Historical Collections, Volume XXXII (Salem : Essex Institute, 1896) : 188

Old Eliot : A Monthly Magazine of the History and Biography of the Upper Parish of Kittery, Now Eliot, Volumes 4-6 (1901) : 177

Boston Herald, Sunday, October 16, 1904, page 20

National Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 31 (1943) : 37