Representative Edward Dowse

Edward Dowse (October 22, 1756 – September 3, 1828) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and a merchant engaged in the East Indian and China trade. He was born in Charlestown in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, then a part of British North America. Coming of age during the era of the American Revolution, he later pursued a maritime career and, after the Revolution, became a shipmaster. In that capacity he engaged in the lucrative carrying trade with the East Indies and China, a line of work that connected New England’s commercial interests with emerging global markets in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

By the 1790s Dowse was established in the Boston area, but in March 1798 he removed from Boston to Dedham, Massachusetts, to escape a yellow fever epidemic then affecting the city. Upon his arrival in Dedham he purchased five acres of land on both sides of the Middle Post Road, a principal thoroughfare now known as High Street. Initially he resided in an already existing house on the property. As his circumstances improved, he commissioned and completed the construction of a new home on the land in 1804, which became his principal residence and a notable dwelling in the town. Through family connections he was linked to the early United States Navy; his brother-in-law was Samuel Nicholson, the first captain of the frigate USS Constitution.

Dowse’s standing as a prosperous merchant and landowner in Dedham led naturally to involvement in public affairs. He was part of a local political milieu that included prominent Federalist and later Democratic-Republican figures. In private correspondence he commented candidly on his contemporaries. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, he described his predecessor in Congress, fellow Dedham resident Fisher Ames, as “a man of the most irritable and furious temper in the world.” This remark is notable in that it is the only known instance of someone claiming that Ames had a temper, and it offers a rare glimpse into Dowse’s personal assessments of leading political figures of his day.

Dowse entered national politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He was elected to the Sixteenth Congress as a Democratic-Republican and served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from March 4, 1819, until his resignation on May 26, 1820. His tenure in Congress placed him in the national legislature during a period marked by debates over economic policy and the expansion of the United States, although the surviving record of his specific legislative activities is limited. His service nonetheless reflected the growing participation of mercantile and professional men from smaller Massachusetts communities in federal governance in the early republic.

After leaving Congress, Dowse continued his public service at the state level. He served as a representative to the Massachusetts Great and General Court in 1821, contributing to the legislative work of the Commonwealth during a time when Massachusetts was adjusting to the post–War of 1812 economic environment and the political realignments of the so‑called “Era of Good Feelings.” His continued engagement in state politics underscored his ongoing commitment to public life beyond his brief tenure in the national legislature.

Dowse’s home in Dedham also became a site of national interest. During his 1817 tour of the country, President James Monroe visited Dedham and stayed in Dowse’s house on High Street. This visit highlighted both Dowse’s local prominence and Dedham’s place on the itinerary of national political figures in the early nineteenth century. The occasion linked Dowse’s private residence to the broader narrative of presidential tours designed to foster national unity after the War of 1812.

Edward Dowse spent the remainder of his life in Dedham, where he continued to be known as a respected former merchant, landowner, and public official. He died there on September 3, 1828. He was interred in the Old Village Cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts, where his burial place marks the final resting site of a figure who bridged the worlds of maritime commerce and early American politics in the formative decades of the United States.