Samuel Eliot is elected mayor of Boston.

Eliot defeats James by a margin of 3,238 to 1,007 and others to win election to the first of three consecutive terms as mayor. Inaugurated on January 2, 1837, he presides over the city during a serious economic depression, and is credited with establishing the Boston Police Department and Boston Fire Department, completing a public market, and building several new schools and an insane asylum and an addition to the House of Correction. Eliot also promoted construction of a new “pure water” system for Boston.