1828–1896 — Born Plympton, Massachusetts, 9 July 1828 (monument; Coburn 1920); died at the house 25 March 1896.
Also recorded as: Arthur P. Bonney; Hon. A. P. Bonney.
Owner from 1887 until his death; the man whose name the state inventory gives the house.[sources]
Bonney came to Lowell as a child, attended Dracut Academy and read law with Thomas Hopkinson and Seth Ames. Coburn’s History of Lowell describes him as "a very famous and successful member of the Middlesex bar during the middle period of Lowell history" whose "great residence, conspicuous on the skyline of Belvidere" was by 1920 occupied by his son-in-law. He gave up courtroom work in the 1870s for advisory practice and banking.
He bought the Atherton house in 1887. Within nine years he buried his wife (1892) and his only child (1894) and died at home in March 1896, leaving an infant granddaughter as his heir. The Supreme Judicial Court is said to have held a memorial for him; that detail comes from a secondary account.
Georgiana Atherton, with her husband’s consent, conveys the estate "with the buildings thereon" to Arthur P. Bonney, lawyer and former city solicitor. The deed is subject to four mortgages. The state inventory still calls the property the Arthur Bonney Estate.[sources]
DocumentedAbel T. AthertonArthur Perkins Bonney
What is uncertain: A later compilation says Atherton’s business failed; the mortgages are consistent with financial pressure but do not prove it.
Arthur Bonney’s wife, born Emma (or Emeline) Augusta Call in 1828, dies. Her dates are carved on the family monument at Lowell Cemetery.[sources]
DocumentedEmma Augusta (Call) Bonney
Three months after the birth of her daughter, Clara dies at her home on Sherman Street "after a long and painful illness". The funeral is held from her father’s house on Fairmount Street. The Sun called her "sympathetic and generous to a rare degree".[source]
DocumentedClara (Bonney) LilleyClara Bonney (Lilley) Dunbar
What is uncertain: The cause of death given in modern accounts (pyaemia, a form of sepsis) has not yet been checked against the certificate.
Bonney dies "at his home on Fairmount street", aged 68. His only descendant is his infant granddaughter, Clara Bonney Lilley. His son-in-law stays on; the house remains in the Bonney estate.[sources]