{{short description|American politician}}
__NOTOC__ '''Redford Webster''' (June 18, 1761 – August 31, 1833) was an apothecary, town official, and state legislator in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a founding member of the American Antiquarian Society, and helped establish the Boston Library Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1761 to Hannah Wainwright and shopkeeper Grant Webster.<ref>{{citation |title=Notes in relation to the Webster family |work= The Genealogical Magazine |year= 1905 }}</ref> In Boston ca. 1787-1805 he worked as "druggist, medicine," from offices "three doors below the Drawbridge, Ann Street."<ref>{{citation |title=Boston Directory |year= 1787–1805 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heatonbrown.com/p4.htm |title=Genealogy Brick Walls}}</ref> He had trained "with Mr. Daniel Scott, a druggist or apothecary, at the sign of the Leopard, at the south part of the town, the business being subsequently removed to Union Street. On the death of Mr. Scott, young Webster formed a c-opartnership with his widow, under the firm-name of Scott & Webster, and afterward pursued the business in his own name."<ref name=notice>{{citation |title=Notice of Dr. Redford Webster |work= Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society |volume=1 |year= 1834 |page=490+ |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000681901 }}</ref>
From 1792 Webster was active in the Massachusetts Historical Society, serving as one of the founding incorporators in 1794, and Cabinet-Keeper 1810-1833.<ref>{{cite book |author=Louis Leonard Tucker |title= The Massachusetts Historical Society: a bicentennial history, 1791-1991 |location= Boston, Mass. |publisher=The Society; distributed by Northeastern University Press |year= 1995 |isbn=0934909687 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Charles Card Smith |title= A short account of the Massachusetts Historical Society |publisher= Printed for the Society |year= 1908 }}</ref> He was treasurer and trustee of the Boston Library Society 1792-1829.<ref>{{citation |title=Massachusetts Magazine |date= March 1794 |page=192}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Massachusetts register and United States calendar |year=1829 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Catalogue of the books of the Boston Library Society |year= 1844 }}</ref> In 1810 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter W|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterW.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=August 7, 2014}}</ref> He served as a Boston town official in the capacity of Overseer of the Poor ca.1810-ca.1821.<ref>{{citation |title=Boston Directory |year= 1810}}</ref> Along with 27 others, he incorporated the American Antiquarian Society in 1812.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Portraits/isaiahthomasgreenwood.htm |work=Portraits |title=Isaiah Thomas by Greenwood |publisher=American Antiquarian Society}}</ref> Webster represented Boston in the Massachusetts General Court, 1831-1832.<ref>{{citation |title=Acts and resolves passed by the General Court, 1831-1832 }}</ref>
Around 1830, Chester Harding painted a portrait of Webster, now in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1787 he married Hannah White; children included the notorious John White Webster (1793–1850).
== Legacy ==
"The town of Redford, in Clinton County, in the north-east corner of the State of New York, was named for him."<ref name=notice />
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== Works == * {{cite book |author=Committee on the Subject of Pauperism and a House of Industry |title= Report of the Committee on the Subject of Pauperism and a House of Industry in the town of Boston |url=https://archive.org/details/reportofcommitte1821comm |year=1821 }} * {{cite book |title=Selections from the Chronicle of Boston and from the Book of Retrospections & Anticipations |year=1822 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Redford}} Category:1761 births Category:1833 deaths
Category:Apothecaries Category:People from Salisbury, Massachusetts Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:Politicians from Boston Category:18th century in Boston Category:19th century in Boston Category:18th-century American pharmacists Category:19th-century American pharmacists Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court