Edward Dowse

Dowse's leather fire bucket

Edward Dowse
Member of the U.S. House of Representativesfrom Massachusetts's 13th district
In officeMarch 4, 1819 – May 26, 1820
Preceded by	Nathaniel Ruggles
Succeeded by	William Eustis
Personal details
Born	(1756-10-22)October 22, 1756 Charlestown, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America
Died	September 3, 1828(1828-09-03) (aged 71) Dedham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Party	Democratic-Republican

Edward Dowse (October 22, 1756 – September 3, 1828) was a U.S. representative from Massachusetts. Born in Charlestown in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Dowse moved to Dedham in March 1798 to escape the yellow fever epidemic in Boston.^[1][2] He purchased five acres of land on both sides of the Middle Post Road, today known as High Street.^[1][2] He lived in an already existing house at first, and then built a home on the land in 1804.^[a] His brother-in-law was Samuel Nicholson, the first captain of USS Constitution.^[1]

Dowse once wrote to Thomas Jefferson that his predecessor in Congress, fellow Dedhamite Fisher Ames, "is a man of the most irritable and furious temper in the world." This is the only known instance of someone claiming Ames had a temper.^[3]

During his 1817 tour of the country, President James Monroe visited Dedham and stayed in Dowse's home.^[2]

After the Revolution, he became a shipmaster and engaged in the East Indian and China carrying trade. Dowse was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Sixteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1819, until May 26, 1820, when he resigned. He also served as a representative to the Great and General Court in 1821.^[4] He died in Dedham on September 3, 1828. He is interred in the Old Village Cemetery.^[5]

Notes

1. The house he built was "the large, yellow house adjoining the Dedham Medical Associates Building" in 1976.^[2]

References

1. Worthington, Erastus (January 1898). "The Frigate Constitution and the Avery Oak". The Dedham Historical Register. IX (1): 1–5.
2. Hanson 1976, p. 201.
3. Knudsen 2025, p. 426.
4. Worthington, Erastus (1827). The History of Dedham: From the Beginning of Its Settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. pp. 106–107. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
5. Smith 1936, p. 146.

Works cited

• Hanson, Robert Brand (1976). Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1890. Dedham Historical Society.

• Knudsen, Harold M. (2025). Fisher Ames, Christian Founding Father & Federalist. Liberty Hill Publishing.

• Smith, Frank (1936). A History of Dedham, Massachusetts. Transcript Press, Incorporated. Retrieved July 18, 2019.

• United States Congress. "Edward Dowse (id: D000477)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

 This article incorporates public domain material from Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Federal government of the United States.