n the real estate was
conveyed by commissioners, under a special Act of the Legislature, to
his wife, who had never swerved from her loyalty to the newly formed
government. After Mr. Gay's death, in 1809, Mr. Davis bought the estate
from the widow, and the property, as enlarged by several subsequent
purchases, still remains in possession of his heirs.[9]

He occupied the entire premises with his foundry, shop, and residence,
for many years; associated with himself his son, Mr. James Davis, Jr.,
as a partner, January 4, 1828, and finally merged the business into the
Revere Copper Company, as already stated.

Upon the organization of the Company he was elected Treasurer, and held
that office until January 22, 1843. He was also a Director until his
death, which took place very suddenly at his house on Tremont Street,
Boston, April 25, 1862.

He was persistently industrious, thrifty, and scrupulously upright in
every transaction,--qualities transmitted to him from his ancestor
Robert,--and generous withal to every proper claim upon him. He gloried
in his early struggles to overcome adverse conditions, and was
gratified to be numbered with those from his native town who had
achieved honorable distinction in the various activities of life.

There was a ruggedness and sharpness of vigor about him which was lost
sight of as he ripened and mellowed in a conspicuous manner under the
influences of ampler means and advancing years. The simple tastes and
quiet ways of his boyhood home were however to the end more attractive
and satisfactory to him than the demands and restraints of an
increasingly artificial life.

That he was wise and farsighted is abundantly shown by the fact that all
his real estate investments are held intact to this day by his heirs.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] From "Notes of Barnstable Families," lately published by Mr. F. B.
Goss.

[8] Sabine's "Loyalists of the American Revolution," 1864, vol. i, page
466.

Martin Gay was a son of the Rev. Ebenezer Gay, pastor of the First
Church in Hingham for the remarkably long period of sixty-eight years,
nine months, and seventeen days. See "History of the Town of Hingham,"
by Solomon Lincoln, Jr., 1827, pages 26-30.

Captain Martin Gay was one of the firewards elected at the town meeting,
March 13, 1769.--Drake's History of Boston, page 756.

[9] The foregoing is taken largely from Mr. Joseph T. Buckingham's
Letter, No. XVII, in The Saturday Evening Gazette of May 2