Ayer, Thomas Prentiss, 1818-1893

Thomas Prentiss Ayer (1818-1893), the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Fosdick Ayer, was born in Charlestown, Mass., on 24 October 1818. He married, on 31 May 1843, Lucy Adelaide ("Addy") Watson (1821-1845), by whom he had a son, Thomas Prentiss ("Soney") Ayer (1845- ). He married, second, on 12 December 1854, Lydia Maria Symmes (1831- ), by whom he had a son, Henry Whittier Prentiss ("Harry") Ayer (1859- ). Thomas Prentiss Ayer died on 12 October 1893.

Thomas Prentiss Ayer was a Boston commission merchant for T.D. Quincy and Co., Unitarian churchman, and local politician in East Cambridge and Winchester, Mass. Very active in town affairs, Ayer served as the president of the Winchester Savings Bank, from 1872 to 1873, and as a founder of the Winchester Young Men's Association. He served as a Cambridge town councilman from 1850 to 1852, as a Winchester selectman in 1861, and as Winchester town meeting moderator several times in the 1870s and 1880s.