THE

HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL

REGISTER.

OCTOBER, 1882.

MEMORIAL OF COL. JOHN TRULL HEARD.

By his son JOHN THEODORE HEARD, M.D., of Boston.

OHN TRULL HEARD was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 4, 1809, and died in that city December 1, 1880. He was the only child of Robert and Mary (Perkins) Heard; and was of the sixth generation from Luke Heard, who came from Claxton, County of Norfolk, England, took the freeman's oath at Boston, September 6, 1639, and died at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1647. His maternal grandfather was John Perkins, who when quite young came from Saxony, and died at Waldoboro', Maine, about the year

1826.

His early years were passed mostly at Ipswich, Mass., there receiving the instruction given at the village school; later he became a student at the Lexington (Mass.) Academy, the then principal being the Rev. Caleb Stetson, and there fitted for college. The school days at Lexington and the agreeable intercourse with his preceptor were ever among his pleasantest recollections. At the close of his term at the Academy, it became a question of pursuing a college course or commencing mercantile life. All his tastes and hopes pointed strongly to the former, but financial considerations induced or rather forced him to accept the latter. Upon leaving the Academy he continued his studies as best he could, and seized every opportunity for mental improvement. In 1829-30 he was a member of the "Franklin Debating Society," instituted May, 1822, its object being set forth in the following preamble: "We the undersigned, holding in high estimation the art of extemporaneous speaking, of deliberate discussion, and of elocution in general, have associated ourselves together for the purpose of furthering our advancement in these useful accomplishments; and, for our government, do hereby ordain and establish the following Constitution and By-Laws." Among the members were Joseph H. Buckingham, Francis Brin

ley, Jr., John H. Eastburn, Ammi C. Lombard, Charles McBurney, Lyman Nichols, John S. Tyler, A. W. Thaxter, Thomas C. Wales, G. W. Wyman, and others afterwards prominent in business or professional pursuits.

October 17, 1832, he married Almira, daughter of Deacon Enoch Patterson, of Boston, the ceremony being performed by the late Ralph Waldo Emerson, then pastor of the Second Church of Boston. There were three children by the marriage-two, a boy and girl, died in infancy; one, a son, survives.

Through an active business career of more than thirty-five years he never dropped the pursuits of the student; he found his chief pleasures in the retirement of his home and in the gratification of his literary tastes. Thoroughness in whatever he undertook was a salient point in his character; whatever he thought worth doing, he thought worth doing well. His leisure hours for some years were employed in the study of languages, both living and dead; he gave close attention to, and took great interest in, the leading topics of the day. He was a thorough student of political economy. In 1838-1841 and subsequently, he wrote frequently for the press articles upon the currency, banks and banking, usury laws, suffrage, insurance and the tariff. In 1840, many years before the usury laws of Massachusetts were modified, he wrote as follows:

"England has recently abrogated her usury laws, giving thereby, as we believe, evidence of the march of just views of the rights of property. Money, or capital, which money represents through its function as the circulating medium, or commodity of universal desire, is the means of conferring great benefit, as well to society as to individuals; and should not be interfered with by any other laws than the natural laws of trade. All attempts to limit its value have proved ineffectual, when the lender possesses the will to receive a rent or interest which the borrower offers to pay; as the daily experience of our 'change incontrovertibly testifies. If a usury law have any effect whatever, it is that it is injurious to the borrower. The real lender, or capitalist, is intimidated by the law from entering the market in person, and is forced to employ a broker whose business it is to let and borrow money; the operation of which is, that the number of direct lenders of money is lessened and confined to a few brokers, who, in having the capital of many individuals in their hands, monopolize the traffic of lending, and compel borrowers to take money at a higher rate of interest than it would in all probability command were the real lenders themselves the direct and only lenders. This is an undisputed effect of the usury laws, and one which should demand their repeal, if there were no other reason. When it shall appear that the price of cotton, or any other commodity, or that rent of land or houses, can be regulated by legislation, the writer of this may then become an advocate for usury laws, but not before."

The following on the tariff, written also in 1840, is certainly true, in many respects, at the present day, notwithstanding a period of over forty years has intervened: