Joseph Sebastian Cabot

Joseph S. Cabot was the president of the Asiatic Bank and the Salem Savings Bank. He later served as the Massachusetts State Bank Commissioner. He was also the first president of Harmony Grove Cemetery, a position he held from 1840 to 1874.

During the 1830s, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican-Democratic Party candidate four times. The Democrats claimed to be the workingman’s party, so it was unusual for a banker to run as a member of that party. Democratic candidates had a difficult time being elected in Essex County in those years.

Cabot’s avocation was horticulture, and he was president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society from 1852 to 1857, at a time when that was a highly prestigious position.

Cabot inherited and lived in the Cabot mansion at 365 Essex Street in Salem. The home was built in 1745 by another Joseph Cabot, a shipping merchant. It is a prominent yellow wooden mansion across from the Salem Public Library. Cabot’s garden extended from Essex Street across what is now Warren Street to Chestnut Street and could be viewed from the Chestnut Street side.

He is buried on Chapel Avenue, Lot #23.