George Corwin came to Salem in 1638.  He had large tracts of land in various places.  He lived, a part of his time, on his farm in the village; is found to have taken an active part in the proceedings of the people, particularly in military affairs; and was captain of a company of cavalry.  His great mercantile transactions probably led him to have his residence mostly in the town, first on a lot on Washington Street, near the corner of Norman Street, where his grandson the sheriff lived in 1692.  In 1660, he bought of Ann, the relict of Nicholas Woodbury, a lot on Essex Street, next east of the Browne Block, with a front of about one hundred and fifty feet.  Here he built a fine mansion, in which he lived the remainder of his days.  He died Jan. 6, 1685, leaving an estate inventoried at L5,964. 10_s._ 7_d._,—­a large fortune for those times.  His portrait is preserved by his descendants, one of whom, the late George A. Ward, describes his dress as represented in the picture:  “A wrought flowing neckcloth, a sash covered with lace, a coat with short cuffs and reaching half-way between the wrist and elbow; the skirts in plaits below; an octagon ring and cane.”  The last two articles are still preserved.  His inventory mentions “a silver-laced cloth coat, a velvet ditto, a satin waistcoat embroidered with gold, a trooping scarf and silver hat-band, golden-topped and embroidered, and a silver-headed cane.”  His farms in the vicinity contained fifteen hundred acres.  His connections were distinguished, and his descendants have included many eminent persons.  The name, by male descent, disappeared for a time in this part of the country; but in the last generation it was restored in the female descent by an act of the Legislature, and is honorably borne by one of our most respectable families, who inherit his blood, and cherish the memorials which time has spared of their first American ancestor.

William Hathorne appears on the church records as early as 1636.  He died in June, 1681, seventy-four years of age.  No one in our annals fills a larger space.  As soldier commanding important and difficult expeditions, as counsel in cases before the courts, as judge on the bench, and in innumerable other positions requiring talent and intelligence, he was constantly called to serve the public.  He was distinguished as a public speaker, and is the only person, I believe, of that period, whose reputation as an orator has come down to us.  He was an Assistant, that is, in the upper branch of the Legislature, seventeen years.  He was a deputy twenty years.  When the deputies, who before sat with the assistants, were separated into a distinct body, and the House of Representatives thus came into existence, in 1644, Hathorne was their first Speaker.  He occupied the chair, with intermediate services on the floor from time to time, until raised to the other House.  He was an inhabitant of Salem Village, having his farm there, and a dwelling-house, in which he resided when his legislative, military, and other official duties permitted.  His son John, who succeeded him in all his public honors, also lived on his own farm in the village a great part of the time.  The name is indelibly stamped on the hills and meadows of the region, as it was in the civil history of that age, and has been in the elegant literature of the present.