iii. William Lowell Putnam, who was commissioned 10 July, 1861, 2d lieutenant, 20th Massachusetts Volunteers, and was killed in the battle of Ball’s Bluff, 21 October, 1861. iv. Charles Lowell Putnam. 4. William Keith Spence, born 23 September, 1813; died 12 February, 1823. 5. Robert Traill Spence, born 8 October, 1816, died 12 September, 1891; he married Marianna Duane, 28 October, 1845, and their children were-- i. Harriet Brackett Spence. ii. Marianna. iii. Percival. iv. James Duane. v. Charles. vi. Rebecca Russell. vii. Robert Traill Spence, Jr. 6. JAMES RUSSELL, born 22 February, 1819; died 12 August, 1891. When the Rev. Delmar R. Lowell was collecting material for _The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America_, he had for use two letters from Lowell, which he has printed in facsimile in his volume, and kindly permits me to copy. ELMWOOD, 12 July, 1875 DEAR SIR,--Whether Coffin was right in making Ebenezer born in 1685 or no, I cannot say, but Rev. John L. of Newbury was son of _an_ Ebenezer, and I doubt if there were two contemporaneous with each other. This John--my great-grandfather, can hardly have doubted his descent from Perceval, since I have books from his library in which he spells his name Lowle; and I have always understood that a silver seal of arms (in my brother’s possession) came from him. My father (as you rightly suppose) had more knowledge on this point than any one else, but I fear he never made any written record of it. If I should find any such, I shall gladly communicate it to you. That you and I are kinsmen I have never doubted since I had the pleasure of seeing you some thirty odd years ago; when I was struck with your likeness to the portrait of my ancestor, the Rev. John of Newbury. As he graduated in 1721, his father _must_ have been born earlier than 1685, one would think, unless, indeed, the parson was as precocious as his son and grandson, both of whom graduated before they were seventeen. But this is hardly probable. Ebenezer’s father, I remember, was named John. My father had talked with men who remembered his great-grandfather, Ebenezer, as a very respectable old gentleman with a goldheaded cane. Dining once with a friend in Philadelphia, I was surprised to see a handsome tankard with _our_ arms on it. He told me it came to him by inheritance from the Shippens, one of whom had married a Lowell. I believe we have the right to quarter Levesege, one of our forbears having married an heiress of that name. Theirs is a very pretty coat, three dolphins _passant, or_.