Shurtleff (Nathaniel B.) is born in Boston.

The son of Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, Nathaniel Shurtleff graduates from Harvard College and Medical School, and subsequently assumes his father’s practice. After running unsuccessfully three times (first as the candidate of the Know-Nothing Party), he serves as mayor of Boston (1868-1870). Shurtleff lives at 2 Beacon Street. He writes the first topographical history of the city in 1872,* and goes on to edit records from the Massachusetts Bay and New Plymouth colonies. Shurtleff dies on October 17, 1874.