The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

636 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
which he had formerly worked, of the agent of the
trustees of Trecothic, who had just died in London,
and commenced manufacturing for himself, taking
Nathaniel Blake as a boy to learn the business.
Hannan married Elizabeth Gore, of Boston, in 1773,
and removed to Dorchester when he commenced
manufacturing for himself. His marriage proved so
unfortunate that he determined to leave his wife.
He therefore closed up his business in 1779, as well
as the times and circumstances would permit, and
gave out word that he was going to the West Indies
for a supply of cocoa; but, unknown to his wife,
started for his native country, never to return. Nothing was ever heard from him again, and it was
supposed that he was lost overboard or died on his
passage out under an assumed name. The widow
undertook to continue the business. She hired the
mill, and engaged Blake to make the chocolate. But
the disposition that drove the husband from his home,
found a victim in the boy, and he dissolved the connection and let himself to Mr. Daniel Vose, who
hired the mill of Trecothic's heirs, and started the
business in 1780.
Dr. James Baker, not satisfied with the business
he was then pursuing, determined to.go into the
chocolate business, and arranged with Mr. Edward
Preston to fit up a chocolate-mill in the fulling-mill
built where the former one was burned, and manufacture chocolate for him. Here Dr. Baker commenced the manufacture of this article in 1780. Preston's business was that of a clothier, never making
chocolate on his own account. The division of Han