Oliver Prescott was an American lawyer and public official in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He practiced law in the city from 1892, served on its city council in the mid-1890s, and later held the presidency of a local gas and electric utility and of a savings bank. He was also a director of several New Bedford manufacturing and banking companies.
Background
Oliver Prescott was born in July 1868 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the son of Oliver and Helen Augusta (Howland) Prescott. He grew up in a city that was among the leading whaling ports of the United States in the nineteenth century, when whaling voyages, shipping, banking, and maritime law shaped much of its economic life.
The Prescott name was already connected with New Bedford's legal profession before his birth. According to the history of the First Unitarian Church, a member of the family came to the city in 1828 to practice law, and the family later joined that congregation.
Education
Prescott graduated from Friends Academy in New Bedford in 1885. The school was founded in 1810 by members of the Religious Society of Friends, and its first campus stood on County Street in New Bedford. Friends Academy was incorporated by act of the Massachusetts General Court in 1812. The Friends kept exclusive control of its trusteeship until 1855, when the school became nondenominational.
He then studied at Harvard University, founded in 1636 and the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. He received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1889 and a Master of Arts in 1892.
He also received a Bachelor of Laws cum laude in 1892, the year he was admitted to the bar. Harvard's legal education in that period prepared students for the bar through the study of common law and its practice, which provided the training for the New Bedford practice he later entered.
Career
Prescott was admitted to the bar in 1892 and practiced law in New Bedford from that year. In 1894 he was admitted to the partnership of Crapo, Clifford & Clifford, and the firm's name changed to Crapo, Clifford & Prescott. The firm descended from earlier New Bedford partnerships, and its practice included admiralty law and cases involving New Bedford whaling vessels. The firm was later known as Crapo, Clifford, Prescott and Bullard.
Prescott was elected to the New Bedford City Council, serving from 1894 to 1895 and acting as its president in 1895. The council was the municipal legislature of a port city whose economy rested on whaling, shipping, textile manufacturing, and metalworking.
From 1912 to 1932 he served as president of the New Bedford Gas & Edison Light Company. The utility traced its origins to the New Bedford Gas Company, incorporated in 1850, which absorbed the New Bedford Electric Light Company in 1890. The consolidated company adopted the name New Bedford Gas & Edison Light Company in 1891.
From 1924 to 1932 he was president of the New Bedford Institution for Savings, a local savings bank. He also served as a director of the First National Bank, Wamsutta Mills, and the Morse Twist Drill & Machine Company. Wamsutta Mills was one of New Bedford's large cotton textile manufacturers, and the Morse Twist Drill & Machine Company produced drilling tools for metalworking.
Religion
Prescott's recorded religious affiliation is Unitarian. American Unitarianism grew out of the liberal wing of New England Congregationalism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its congregations emphasized the unity of God, rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, and gave weight to reason, moral character, and individual judgment in religious life.
The Prescott family had a documented connection with the First Unitarian Church in New Bedford. According to the church's history, a member of the family arrived in New Bedford in 1828 to practice law, and the family joined the congregation after its building was completed. A later Prescott held the office of deacon there, reflecting the family's long participation in the congregation's leadership. In 1961 the Unitarian and Universalist denominations merged, but during Prescott's lifetime the two traditions remained separate.
Politics
Prescott was a Republican. His documented political career was in municipal office in New Bedford, where he served on the city council from 1894 to 1895 and presided over it in 1895.
The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery. By the 1890s it had become the dominant party in Massachusetts and a leading force in national politics, emphasizing protective tariffs, sound money, and industrial growth. The party's emphasis on business expansion matched the commercial character of New Bedford, a port city whose economy depended on whaling, shipping, textiles, and metalworking.
Membership
Prescott's membership included the board of trustees of the James Arnold Fund, the body that governed the fund's affairs. He served as the board's president.
President of the board of trustees
James Arnold Fund
,
United States
Connections
On December 31, 1895, Prescott married Helen Maria Bryant. The couple had five children: Oliver, Bryant, William Crapo, Helen Luce, and Lydia Coffin Prescott. His parents were Oliver and Helen Augusta (Howland) Prescott.
Father:
Oliver Prescott
Mother:
Helen Augusta (Howland) Prescott
child:
Oliver Prescott
child:
Bryant Prescott
child:
William Crapo Prescott
child:
Helen Luce Prescott
child:
Lydia Coffin Prescott
Wife:
Helen Maria Bryant
References
Find a Grave
Memorial record giving Prescott's birth and death dates, his death in New Bedford, and his burial at Rural Cemetery in New Bedford.
