Elisha S. Converse

Elisha Slade Converse (July 28, 1820 – June 5, 1904) was the first mayor of Malden, Massachusetts, a businessman, founder and president of Boston Rubber Shoe Company, a representative and senator in the state legislature and a philanthropist.

Family history

Elisha Slade Converse is a direct descendant of Deacon Edward Convers (Edward Convers) who migrated from Essex (England) to the New World colonies together with future governor John Winthrop in 1630.

The Convers families were yeoman farmers based in and around Navestock (Essex), with church records dating back to the early 1500s. But earlier history is harder to establish. Some sources claim that the family name Convers(e) derives from an aristocratic line of “Conyers”, stretching back as far as Roger de Coignieres, purportedly one of the chieftains of William the Conqueror. However, this lacks any documentary support and is probably just wishful thinking. Supposed links to early medieval nobility have been discounted by authoritative genealogical studies.

More recent studies using DNA analysis suggest that, in reality, the Essex Converses were descendants of medieval Jews who were required to convert to Christianity. The Y-DNA of living males with direct paternal lineage to Deacon Edward Converse shows that they share the J2 haplogroup, rare in the UK and Europe, but commonly found in Jews and other men of Middle Eastern origin.

Early years Elisha Slade Converse, the third son of Elisha and Betsey (Wheaton) Converse, was born in Needham, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1820. There, in 1851, he became one of the founders and directors of Malden Bank, which was reorganized as the First National Bank of Malden in 1864, and he served as its president for over 30 years, beginning in 1856.