Prescott (William Hickling) is born in Salem.

The son of judge William and Catherine (Greene) Prescott, William Hickling Prescott graduates from Harvard College, and soon begins to suffer serious health problems. After a temporary recovery in the Azores, he tours Europe, returns to Boston, and marries Susan Amory in 1820. Prescott suffers an eye injury that prevents him from reading ore than a few minutes a day, but aided by a “noctograph” machine, he becomes one of the most noted historians and authors of his time, and is called “the American Thucydides.” He moves to 55 Beacon Street in 1845, and dies here on January 28, 1859.