Phillips (Wendell) is born on Beacon Hill.

The son of future mayor John and Sarah (Walley) Phillips, Wendell Phillips is born at today’s 1 Walnut Street (then 38 Beacon Street) and later writes, “Boston boys had reason to be thankful for their birth right. . . (T)he noble deeds and sacred places of the old town are the poetry of history and the keenest ripeners of character.” He graduates from Boston Latin School, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School, marries Ann Terry Greene, moves to today’s 47 Essex Street, and joins the abolition movement in 1837.* One of the great orators of his time, Phillips dies in Boston on February 2, 1884.* He is buried in Milton Cemetery.