Francis Skinner
Boston, 1840 - 1905, Boston
[https://www.actonhistoricalsociety.org/blog/three-generations-of-francis-skinners]
The only surviving child of Francis Skinner of Acton was Francis (2). He prepared for college at Dixwell’s School, graduated from Harvard University in 1862, and went into his father’s business. For a while, he was in charge of his father’s mills in Lewiston, Maine. When Francis Sr. died in 1865, his will provided for his wife and son and for the continuation of the firm that bore his name. It also contained a recommendation that son Francis 2 be made a partner of the firm. It appears that Francis 2 was less interested in business than his father had been. In 1870, Francis Skinner & Co. was dissolved, and a new association was formed between Josiah Bardwell, senior member of Skinner and Co., and Messrs Jordan, Marsh & Co. (Boston Post, Jan. 24, 1870, p.1) Francis 2 gave up being actively involved in business.
In October 1868, Francis 2 had married Eliza Blanchard Gardner, daughter of well-known merchant John L. Gardner and descendant of rich and powerful Massachusetts families. Francis 2 and his wife were noted members of Boston society. In the early years of their marriage, they lived in Eliza’s family’s houses in Boston’s growing Back Bay. Francis 2 and his mother sold off their Newton property in the early 1870s. (Francis 2’s mother apparently spent much of her later life traveling in Europe. Some of her letters to Francis 2 and travel diary entries still exist in the Fuller-Higginson Collection.) By 1874, Francis 2 and his wife were living at a property owned by Eliza’s father at 200 Beacon Street.
Skinner House, 266 Beacon St.
266 Beacon St.
Francis 2 and Eliza had two sons, Francis 3, born Nov. 17, 1869 at 140 Beacon Street in Boston, and Gardner, born Aug. 26, 1871 in Newton. An 1873 passport application shows that the family traveled together; Francis 2 was planning a trip to Europe with his wife, two minor children, and a female servant. Sadly, Gardner died of diphtheria on Apr. 24, 1876 at 200 Beacon Street.
Eliza inherited the 200 Beacon Street property from her father in 1884. In 1886, she and Francis 2 built a home at 266 Beacon Street. The new house was described as standing out on that “famous thoroughfare” for its unusual width and its conspicuously light façade, (Boston Journal, July 21, 1900 p. 5), limestone decorated with carved columns, swags, and lions’ heads. Historic New England has interior photographs of both properties that allow us glimpses of their lifestyle. The pictures of 200 Beacon were taken in the 1884-1885 period, just before the building of their next home. The pictures of 266 Beacon obviously were taken sometime after they moved in.
Francis 2 and Eliza appeared frequently in the society news, noted for their entertaining and their attendance at social events in Boston and elsewhere. They spent summers in the "exclusive haunts of the 400” (Boston Globe, Mar. 30, 1890, p. 13) on Massachusetts’ North Shore and Newport. (In 1894, for example, they occupied the Barthold Schlesinger villa, known as one of the most outstanding estates on the Nahant peninsula, according to the Globe, July 22, 1894, p. 21) They traveled a great deal, sometimes together and sometimes making ocean crossings separately. Though most travels were to Europe, according to a Harvard Class Report, Francis at some point made a circuit around the world. During those travels, it seems clear that they collected. Francis became "well known as a patron of art” (Boston Herald, Nov. 28, 1905, p. 9) Someone in the family painted; watercolors from a grand tour were passed down through son Francis’s estate and are held by the Dedham (MA) Historical Society.
Eliza (Gardner) Skinner died unexpectedly in 1898. Francis 2 seems to have slowed down after that. He died on November 24, 1905, having suffered with kidney disease and heart issues for at least three years. At the end of his life, he was mostly confined to his home at 266 Beacon Street, living alone with his servants. Francis 2 left almost all of his money to his son Francis 3, with some in a separate trust so that if Francis 3 had no descendants, it would go to charities such as the Boston Public Library, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Medical School, and the Free Home for Women in Brookline. Francis 2 also left two paintings to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. He was buried in the Gardner family lot in Cambridge, MA along with his wife and younger son.
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