Richard Palmer Waters (1807-1887) was born at Salem, Massachusetts on September 29, 1807, the youngest child of Robert and Lydia (Gellison) Waters. Because of the early death of his father, Richard assumed an adult's responsibilities at an early age. The bulk of his education was received in the counting houses of Salem, and by his twenty-fifth year, he was master of a small retail store. Throughout his life he was allied with the abolitionist cause and was a supporter of the Crombie Street Church. In the early 1830s Salem merchants such as Michael Shepard and John Bertram took an active interest in trade with Zanzibar. With their assistance, the endorsement of ex-Senator Nathaniel Silsbee and an introduction to President Jackson by Stephen C. Phillips, Waters became the first American Consul at Zanzibar. While in Zanzibar he acted as an agent for a number of Salem merchants, including David Pingree and Benjamin and George West. The fortune he made in Zanzibar enabled Waters to purchase the Cherry Hill Estate in North Beverly upon his return to American in 1845. Waters was elected to the State Legislature in 1855 and was an active member of the Essex Agricultural Society, the Essex Historical Society and the Essex County Natural History Society. He died unmarried at Cherry Hill on May 19, 1887.