John Borland (1792-1876)

He was born at Boston, descended on both sides from old families and whose grandfather had lived between the Apthorp House in Cambridge and Peacefield. He began his career as an auctioneer and commissions agent in the firm of Oliver, Borland & Abbot on Kilby Street on Boston's Central Wharf. In 1831, he inherited a fortune from his maternal uncle, James Lloyd, the first President of the Boston Manufacturing Company and the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. By 1848, his fortune was reputed to be $1-million, making him one of just a handful of pre-war millionaires in Massachusetts. He was well-read in Theology and a liberal Methodist. He married a cousin through his mother's family, Rebecca, the daughter of General Melancthon Woolsey by his wife Alida, sister of Harry Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, New York. They had four children.