Motley (John Lothrop) is born in Dorchester.

John Lothrop Motley graduates from Harvard College, studies in Germany, then traveled throughout Europe before returning to Boston. He marries Mary Benjamin in 1837, writes two novels about the early settlement of Quincy, becomes a diplomat and begins to write history. Motley serves as U.S. minister to Austria (1861-1867) and to Great Britain (1869-1870). He dies in Dorchester (Dorset, England), on May 29, 1877.