George Williams Lyman (1786-1880)
of Boston & "The Vale" Waltham, Massachusetts
He was born at the Lyman House in Kennebunk, Maine, but grew up in Boston. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, graduated from Harvard in 1806, and was a Captain in the New England Guards. As his father's eldest son, he continued the family shipping business that traded principally between China and Europe. He was President of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company and a director of the Boston & Lowell Railroad and the Columbian Bank. He was regarded as one of the founders of the cotton industry in New England, investing in textile mills in Waltham, Lowell, Lawrence and Holyoke, and serving as President of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. In 1810, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Senator Harrison Gray Otis. In 1827, three years after her death, he married his mother's niece, Anne Pratt. He was the father of seven children (listed), six of whom survived to adulthood. He lived at Boston during the winter and summered at the Lyman Estate at Waltham.
