Gershom Bradford Weston

{{short description|American politician}}

File:1868 Gershom Bradford Weston senator Massachusetts.png

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Gershom Bradford Weston

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1799|8|27|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Duxbury, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1869|8|14|1799|8|27}}

| death_place = Duxbury, Massachusetts, U.S.

| occupation = Shipbuilder, politician and justice

| spouse = Judith Sprague, Deborarh Brownell

| parents = Ezra Weston II, Jerusha Bradford

| children =

| title = Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Duxbury

| term_start = 1828

| term_end = 1840

| title2 = Member of the Judiciary of Massachusetts

| term_start2 = 1840

| term_end2 = 1857

}}

Gershom Bradford Weston, (27 Aug 1799 - 14 Sep 1869) son of shipbuilding tycoon Ezra Weston II (1772-1842) (AKA: King Caesar II) and his wife Jerusha Bradford (1770-1833), who were both direct descendants of six Mayflower pilgrims. Gershom was a large man with reddish hair, weighing about 250 pounds.[http://www.maintour.com/massachusetts/ply_museum_kingcaesar_house.htm MainTour Duxbury]

At an age 17 he began sailing on his father's ships to Denmark, England and India, before taking on a managerial role in the family business. From 1842 to 1857 he and his brothers ran the family firm until it closed down.[http://duxburyhistory.org/historic-houses/king-caesar-house/ Duxbury Historical Society]

At age 28 he entered politics as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and served there for 12 years before becoming a state justice. In 1848 Gershom joined the newly formed Free-Soil Political Party and strongly advocated it's Temperance and Abolitionist platform - "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men".Bradford, In With the Sea Wind, 30.

He stood as the Free-Soil candidate for the U.S. Congress and lost by fewer than 150 votes.

Gershom was married twice and had 14 children, several of whom served with honor in the US Civil War.[http://www.maintour.com/massachusetts/ply_museum_kingcaesar_house.htm MainTour Duxbury]

Late in life, Gershom experienced a series significant financial reverses. In 1850 his 30-acre mansion burned to the ground. By 1857 his shipping business had folded. In 1868, friends from the Massachusetts Senate purchased for him the small house he was then renting.[https://drewarchives.org/tag/gershom-bradford-weston/ Fire that burned the Weston Library]