David Sears

David Sears Jr. (October 8, 1787 – January 14, 1871) was a prominent 19th-century Boston philanthropist, merchant, real estate developer, and landowner.

Early life David Sears Jr. was born on October 8, 1787, in Boston, Massachusetts to David Sears Sr. and Ann Winthrop, a descendant of the first governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop. Through his father, he was a descendant of Richard Sears, who settled in the Plymouth Colony in 1630.

He graduated from Harvard College in 1807,

Career

Upon the death of his father David Sr. in 1816, he inherited a large fortune, the result of a career in the China trade.

About 1820, Sears purchased some in Brookline, Massachusetts, which he developed into the village of Longwood, now a historic district. He also built Christ's Church Longwood there, in the crypt of which he and many of his family members are buried. He established it as an ecumenical house of worship to promote Christian unity, in accordance with his personal beliefs, which have been termed "outspoken and peculiar".

David Sears died at his Beacon Street home on January 14, 1871.

In 1844 his gift of $10,000 rescued Amherst College during a difficult time and marks the beginning of the Sears Foundation of Literature and Benevolence.

Sears spent summers at a vacation home in Maine where local residents, in the hope of attracting his patronage, named a new municipality Searsport in his honor. He donated $1000 for the construction of a town hall, denounced the design of the one they built, and made no further donations.

In 1819, he had a house designed by Alexander Parris and built on Beacon Hill at 42–43 Beacon Street that is believed to be the first granite structure in Boston and the finest residence of his day. Sears was enamored of Napoleon Bonaparte, naming several of his properties "Longwood" for the French emperor's last home on St. Helena, and his Beacon Street home paid tribute in adopting the empire style for its decor with a liberal use of golden eagles and the initial "N". It was purchased by the Somerset Club in 1871.

Sears Island and Searsport, Maine, are named for him.

Descendants His great-great-grandson was John W. Sears, a Republican politician active in the 1960s and 1970s. He was not related to Richard Warren Sears, who along with Alvah Curtis Roebuck founded the well-known department store chain and catalog Sears, Roebuck, & Co.