Rufus Hathaway

[4] Hathaway arrived in Duxbury in 1791, and began painting portraits of members of locally prominent families.

He took up medicine at this time, possibly at the behest of his new wife's family,[4] studying with Dr. Isaac Winslow of Marshfield.

[4] Hathaway had twelve children by Judith; at one time the only physician in Duxbury,[5] he was highly respected in the field, and was elected Honorary Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society shortly before his death.

[7] Thirty-three portraits by Hathaway are known to exist, dating almost exclusively to the years between 1790 and 1795;[1] all are of relatives and friends,[8] among them the educator and politician George Partridge.

[8] Hathaway died of a hernia incurred while lifting a patient, traditionally held to be Ezra Weston, and is buried in the Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury.