Part of the Massachusetts Biographies Project
Dr. Francis LeBaron
Among the early physicians was Dr. Francis LeBaron, a skillful surgeon and medical practitioner, whose coming to Plymouth was occasioned by the wreck of a French privateer in Buzzards Bay. The crew were made prisoners and taken to Boston, charged with cruising on the American coast with piratical intent. The inhabitants of Plymouth asked for the release of Dr. LeBaron that he might practice as physician in that town. The request was granted and he and his descendants performed exceedingly good service in the colony. Rev. Samuel LeBaron, who settled in Mattapoisett in 1772, when it was a part of Rochester, was one of his greatly beloved descendants.
Dr. Francis LeBaron came to Plymouth in 1694. He married the following year Mary, daughter of Edward Wilder of Hingham. Their oldest son was Dr. Lazarus LeBaron, who was one of the selectmen of the town of Plymouth from 1735 to 1756, inclusive, and from 1766 to 1769, inclusive. During those years he presided at many of the town meetings. It appears from the records of Plymouth that Dr. Francis LeBaron bequeathed to the town of Plymouth in his last will about ninety acres of woodland in Carver, not far from the Middleborough line, and, at a town meeting held in the courthouse at Plymouth November 3, 1773, a committee was chosen to make a demand upon the executors of the will of Dr. Lazarus LeBaron of the donation.
Dr Lazarus LeBaron was born in Plymouth, December 26, 1698, and died in 1773, aged seventy-five years. Two sons, Joseph and Lazarus, became physicians.
There is on Burial Hill in Plymouth a dark slate tombstone, about eighteen inches above the ground on which appears "Here lyes ye body of Francis Le Bararran phititian who departed this life Aug ye 8the 1704 in ye 36 year of his age" His name has been immortalized by Mrs. Jane G. Austin in her book, " A Nameless Nobleman."
Opposite is a large thick stone, four feet tall and about the same width, of gray slate on which appears the dates of his birth and death and the following epitaph:
My flesh shall slumber in the ground
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise
And in my Saviour's image rise.
Source: "History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable Counties Massachusetts; Volume I" by Elroy S. Thompson. Pub. 1928. Page 119