In September, 1687, an information was filed by one Philip Nelson against the Rev. Samuel Phillips, for calling Randolph “a wicked man;” and for this “crime” (redounding to his honor) he was committed to prison.

He was married in October, 1651, to Sarah Appleton, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Everhard) Appleton of Ipswich.  He died April 22, 1696, greatly beloved and lamented.  His inventory amounted to nine hundred and eighty-nine pounds sterling.  In November, 1839, a chaste and handsome marble monument was placed over the remains of Mr. Phillips and his wife, in the burial-ground at Rowley, by the Hon. Jonathan Phillips of Boston, their great-great-great-grandson.

He left two sons, the younger of whom, George (1664-1739, Harvard 1686), became an eminent clergyman, the Rev. George Phillips, first of Jamaica, L.I., and afterwards of Brookhaven.  The elder son, Samuel, chose the occupation of a goldsmith, and settled in Salem.  It is from this Samuel of Salem that the two Boston branches of the Phillips family have descended.

A younger son of Samuel, the Hon. John Phillips, was born June 22, 1701.  He became a successful merchant of Boston, was a deacon of Brattle-street Church, a colonel of the Boston Regiment, a justice of the peace and of the quorum, and a representative of Boston for several years in the General Court.  He married, in 1723, Mary Buttolph, a daughter of Nicholas Buttolph of Boston.  She died in 1742; and he next married, Abigail Webb, a daughter of Rev. Mr. Webb of Fairfield, Conn.  He died April 19, 1768, and was buried with military honors.  According to the records, he was “a man much devoted to works of benevolence.”

His son, William Phillips of Boston, was born Aug. 29, 1737, and died June 4, 1772.  In 1761 he married Margaret Wendell, the eleventh and youngest child of the Hon. Jacob Wendell, a merchant, and one of the Governor’s Council.  His widow died in 1823.

JOHN PHILLIPS, the only son of William and Margaret, was born in Boston on the ancient Phillips place, on the 26th of November, 1770.  His mother was a woman of uncommon energy of mind as well as of ardent piety, and early instilled into the heart of her son the principles of religion and a love of learning and of his native land.  She placed him, at the early age of seven years, in the family of his kinsman, Lieut.-Gov.  Samuel Phillips of Andover, where he remained until he entered Harvard College in 1784.  In this excellent and pious family, and in the academy under the charge of the learned Dr. Eliphalet Pearson, young Phillips acquired the rudiments of a sound scholarship as well as that urbane and conciliating manner which was so conducive to his success in subsequent life.