GASTON, William, statesman, born in South Killingly, Connecticut, 3 October, 1820. He is of Huguenot ancestry, and is descended from John Gaston, who settled in New England about 1730. He was educated at Brooklyn and Plainfield academies, and at Brown, where he was graduated in 1840. He studied law and began practice in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1846, was City solicitor from 1856 till 1860, and mayor in 1861-'2. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1853-'4 and '6, and of the state senate in 1868. He was mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1871-'2, and was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1875, being the only Democrat that has enjoyed that honor in many years. On retiring from the gubernatorial chair, he resumed his professional labors in Boston.