Born: March 23, 1717 Boston Suffolk, Massachusetts
Died: February 18, 1756 Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Baptized: February 24, 1914 Manti Temple
Endowed: February 25, 1914 Manti Temple
Son of: Robert Cox and Agnes Oakerman Kent (Sealed to Parents: April 30, 1993 Seattle Temple)
Married: Elizabeth Russell March 30, 1739 (Sealed: February 25, 1914 Manti Temple)
Matthew Cox was fourteen years old when his father died and sixteen when his mother died. Left early to make a life for himself, he learned the tanning trade. Boston was one of the tanning centers of the world. One of the bridges that spanned the Charles River, connected Massachusetts Avenue in Boston with Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Matthew lived in a cottage on what is now Massachusetts Avenue, a little north of the railroad station at North Cambridge. He was twenty-two years old when he married Elizabeth Russell. They were married March 30, 1739. They both joined the First Church of Cambridge. He joined December 30, 1741. The Boston News Letter issue of February 19, 1756 contained the following account:
“Yesterday towards the setting of the sun, Mr. Matthew Cox of Cambridge, fell from an apple tree that he was pruning and breaking his neck died instantly, whos sudden death is very much lamented having left a sorrowful widow and eight young children and she in daily expectation of increasing the fatherless.” As indicated, the expected post-humous child arrived seventeen days later. He was named Benjamin Cox.
Submitted by Ginger D. Vandenburg, 2010