Male

May 2, 1794

October 8, 1867

Boston, MA

Beverly, MA

Mary Ann Putnam Loring (June 4, 1840)
Cornelia Goddard Loring (July 15, 1850)
Anna Brace Loring (March 30, 1818)

Charles Greely Loring was the son of Caleb and Anne (Greely) Loring. After his admission to the bar, he worked for a time in the office of Justice Charles Jackson in Boston. He soon opened his own office and from 1816 to 1819 had a partnership with Franklin Dexter.

His first wife, Anna Pierce Brace, was the daughter of James and Susan (Pierce) Brace. Anna died on December 24, 1836 in Boston. His second wife, Mary Ann Putnam, died on July 11, 1845 in Boston just five years after their marriage. Loring's third wife, Cornelia survived him and died on May 13, 1875 in Florence, Italy.

Loring was known as an eminent scholar and philanthropist during his lifetime. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as an Actuary of Massachusetts Hospital Life ...Insurance Company from 1857 to 1868.

Loring also remained actively involved at his alma mater Harvard throughout his life. He was a Fellow of Harvard from 1838 to 1857 and gave many financial gifts to the school. Loring also acted as Judge of both the Boylston prize and the Bowdoin Prize and was a subscriber for the purchase of professor Agassiz's collection. His involvement with Harvard was not always philanthropic in nature. In the 1850's Loring was paid as a University Lecturer and he also handled the legal aspects of the separation of the Theological School from the college. Loring died in Beverly, MA.
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Before marrying Anna Pierce Brace, ca. 1815, Loring received a letter from Mary Pierce about Anna's fear for her heartbroken friend, James Johnston, a Litchfield Law School student. Johnston had been rebuffed by Litchfield Female Academy student Euphemia Blanch "after having given him by the pleasure with which she received his attentions before his declaration great encouragement to be accepted."

The rejection devastated Johnston who, according to Mary Pierce, was "a foolish unprincipled youth" who "threatened to kill himself."

Johnston's classmates sat up with him all night to prevent his suicide and he left Litchfield the next morning. He then wrote his Litchfield friends, including Anna, "frenzied letters." He asked Anna to show the letter to Euphemia, "thinking that ...if there were a spark of affection in her heart such extravagant attachment would awaken it, and move her to save him."

Mary Pierce said Anna worried so much for Johnston that "her cheeks grew pale, her appetite was entirely gone, and her nights sleepless."

Charles Loring Collection, Litchfield Historical Society, ca. 1815/1816

On November 17, 1816, Mary wrote to Charles about "Miss Amelia Peck," “the young lady Mr. Davis was engaged to,” and “Mr. Davis [had] unkindly broken their long engagement.”

Pierce said Amelia was lovely in appearance, “but there is an indelicacy in her visiting at a Gentleman’s boardinghouse.”

Pierce deemed Davis “an excellent man” since “[a good son] resolves to comply with his father’s wishes and marry a lady of fortune in Delaware. Tho’ still professing in a letter to Mrs. Lord to feel Miss Peck’s superiority to all others…”

Loring Collection, Litchfield Historical Society
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1813

He studied at Boston Latin School where he was a medal scholar. He graduated fourth in his class from Harvard College in 1812 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Lawyer

1815

Baldwin, Roger Sherman. Notes on law taken from the lectures of the Honble. Tapping Reeve and James Gould, esquire … at the Litchfield Law School, 1812-1813. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.