Biographical Sketch

Alexander Hill Everett (1790-1847), brother of statesman and orator Edward Everett, was an American diplomat, editor, and writer. After graduating from Harvard in 1806, he served as secretary to John Quincy Adams and traveled with him to Russia from 1809-1811. He married Lucretia Orne Peabody on 21 September 1816. After he returned from Russia, he served as secretary to William Eustis, Chargé d'Affaires to the United Kingdom and Netherlands, until 1824. Everett then served as the U.S. Minister of Spain from 1825-1829. Everett returned to the United States after his term as minister ended, and he remained in Boston from 1830-1840, during which he became editor of the North American Review and sat on the Massachusetts General Court. Afterward, he was appointed U.S. agent to Cuba and resided there before accepting a position as U.S. Commissioner to China 5 years later. In poor health by this point in his life, Everett died en route to his new post in China. He was survived by his wife Lucretia, who had up to that point accompanied him on all of his journeys abroad, until her death in 1862.

Enoch Huse Everett, another brother of Alexander Hill and Edward Everett, was born in 1803 and died at only 23 in Salem, New Hampshire, in 1826. There is little documentation of his life, but his diary suggests that he suffered from an unnamed chronic disease for which he received treatment in Salem until his death.