USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 1
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 B732p 1227123
M, L.,
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 7624
:
William I Pite. altec
A HISTORY
OF
OLD BRAINTREE AND QUINCY, 77.200
WITH A SKETCH OF
RANDOLPH AND HOLBROOK,
BY
WILLIAM S. PATTEE, M. D.
.
QUINCY : PUBLISHED BY GREEN & PRESCOTT, No. 84 HANCOCK STREET. 1878.
Copyrighted, 1879. BY WILLIAM S. PATTEE.
Cannav -$ 15.00 .
1227123
ILLUSTRATIONS.
-
PAGE. Frontispiece.
WILLIAM S. PATTEE,
TOWN HOUSE, 109
ROBERTSON'S BLOCK, 175
OLD UNITARIAN CHURCH, 234
UNITARIAN CHURCH, 242
EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 258
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, 260
ST. JOHN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 278
ADAMS ACADEMY, 342
THAYER ACADEMY, 346
GEN. JOSEPH PALMER, 486
JOSEPH RICHARDS, 515
JOHN ADAMS GREEN, 529
BENJAMIN V. FRENCH, 578
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
TO THE
HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS,
TIIE OLDEST LIVING REPRESENTATIVE OF A DISTINGUISHED FAMILY, WHOSE DEVOTION AND PATRIOTISM TO THEIR COUNTRY HAVE BEEN TRANSMITTED TO POSTERITY IN HER ANNALS.
THEY WERE AMONG THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS AND EARLY SETTLERS OF
OLD BRAINTREE AND QUINCY.
FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME THEY HAVE BEEN ACTIVELY AND INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED WITH HER ECCLESIASTICAL, EDUCATIONAL AND CIVIL AFFAIRS.
THE AUTHOR.
1
PREFACE.
-
The compiler of this history of old Braintree and Quincy has endeavored to give a correct and faithful account of it. No one is more sensible than he of its deficiencies and shortcomings, which the reader must attribute to the want of skill in book- making. He, as Strype relates in his annals, has " chosen to set down things in the very words of the records and originals, and of the authors themselves, rather than in my own, without fram- ing and dressing them in more modern language, whereby the sense is sure to remain entire as the writers meant it; whereas, by affecting too curiously to change and model words and sen- tences, I have observed the sense itself to be often marred and disguised."
For some years a history of old Braintree and Quincy has been demanded, and efforts have been made in the town to have one published, but without success. April 4th, 1842, the town in public meeting assembled, chose an able committee to wait on the Hon. John Q. Adams, and request him to write a history of old Braintree and Quincy, which request was with regret declined, for the want of time from important public duties. In 1827-8, Rev. Geo. Whitney published his history of Quincy in pamphlet form, of sixty-four pages, which was valuable for the time, but was largely traditional. Hancock, Cutler and Lunt's century sermons, with occasional public addresses, con- tain all the written knowledge of the town. It is somewhat singular that a town so noted and distinguished as old Braintree and Quincy, should remain so long without a published record of her public events; a town that has furnished two presidents of the United States ; the first president of the Provincial and second of the Continental Congress; eminent diplomatists, who ably and faithfully served their country in foreign courts of Eu- rope, viz .: Russia, Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain
1
Y
PREFACE.
and others; profound judges, noted jurists, and many other per- sons eminent in the public walks of life ; two presidents of Har- vard University, and one tutor, Mr. Henry Flynt, who taught the youth in the earlier days of its existence longer than any other person, and longer than the corporation desired that any other person should teach, as after his death, a rule of limitation was enacted by the board of managers.1 The first governor of
1. " Tutor Flynt, son of the Rev. Josiah Flynt, of Dorchester, and grandson of the Rev. Henry Flynt, of old Braintree, was born in 1676. His early youth and most of his life were passed, either as a student or instructor, within the walls of Harvard College. He held the office of tutor fifty-five years. During sixty years he was fellow of the corporation, and through almost the whole period he also served as clerk of the Board of Overseers. He was respected by his contemporaries, and his name and character thus intimately interwoven with the history of the College, long continued favorite topics of reminiscence among its graduates. His learning and ability were sufficient for the several stations he occupied, and his zeal and fidelity in the discharge of his duty were unsurpassed. His long continuance in office evidences that he was useful and acceptable. He was mild in his notions of government, an advocate of gentle- ness in punishing offenders, and although the custom of the age required great solemnity in administering discipline, tradition represents him to have been ever ready to temper severity with a smile, often apologizing to them by re- marking that 'wild colts make good horses.' By constitutional temperament Flynt was inclined to firmness and moderation. Possessing a clear and dis- criminating intellect, he was also characterized by great steadfastness in opin- ion, but without obstinacy or obtrusiveness. In the religious controversies which divided the Province and broke the peace of the college, he oftener kept aloof than mingled, 'thanking God for their ignorance who thought him not Orthodox.' When occasion called, he preached discourses-serious, practical, and instructive, leaving doctrinal disputes to the contentious.
" The experiment of a tutor seventy-nine years of age was sufficiently incon- venient, and caused the government of the institution to guard against a simi- lar occurrence in the future. Soon after the resignation of Mr. Flynt, a vote passed both boards " that no person chosen henceforward into the office of tutor shall abide therein more than eight years."-Quincy's Hist. of Harvard College, Vol. II, pp. 82-3.
"At the time of an earthquake, when some students who had been waked up by the noise and shaking, ran to the room of their old, respected tutor, as if for shelter from nature's rage, he calmly said to them, 'Poh, boys! go back to your room; earthquakes never do any harm in these high latitud es.' In his cor- poral appearance, he was rather short and thick set. Some twenty sermons of his, and a Latin oration at the interment of President Wadsworth, were pub- lished."
The following anecdote is an extract from an entertaining narrative written by David Sewall, of a journey from Cambridge to Portsmouth, in 1754, made
1
xi
PREFACE.
the old Commonwealth was a native of the North Precinct of Braintree, and the country has been ably represented in her congressional halls by some of her citizens.
Not only has the town been distinguished for its noted individ-
by Tutor Flynt, of Harvard College, and Mr. Sewall, then an undergraduate- afterwards Judge Sewall, and friend of President John Adams, among whose papers this manuscript was found, and read by the Hon. Charles F. Adams before the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1878. This narrative was pub- lished by the society, and is now to be found among its printed proceedings :-
"After dinner, we passed through North Hampton to Greenland, and after coming to a small rise of the road, the hills on the north of Piscataqua River appearing in view, and a conversation passed between us respecting one of them which he said was Frost Hill. I said it was Agamenticus, a large hill in York. We differed in opinion, and each of us adhered to his own idea of the subject. During this conversation, while we were descending gradually at a moderate pace, and at a small distance and in full view of Clark's tavern, the ground being a little sandy but free from stones or obstructions of any kind, the horse somehow stumbled in so sudden a manner, the boot of the chair being loose on Mr. Flynt's side, threw Mr. Flynt headlong from the carriage into the road; and the stoppage being so sudden, had not the boot been fastened on my side, I might probably have been thrown out likewise. The horse sprang up quickly, and with some difficulty I so guided the chair as to prevent the wheel passing over him; when I halted and jumped out, being apprehensive from the manner in which the old gentleman was thrown out, it must have broken his neck. Several persons at the tavern noticed the occurrence, and immediately came to assist Mr. Flynt: and, after rising, found him able to walk to the house, and after washing his face and head with some water, found the skin rubbed off his forehead in two or three places, to which a young lady, a sister of William Par- ker, Jr., who had come out from Portsmouth with him and some others that afternoon, applied some court plaster. After which, we had among us two or three single bowls of lemon punch, made pretty sweet, with which we refreshed ourselves, and became very cheerful. The gentlemen were John Wendell, William Parker, Jr., and Nathaniel Treadwell, a young gentleman who was paying suit to Miss Parker. Mr. Flynt observed, he felt very well, notwith- standing his fall from the chair, and if he had not disfigured himself he did not value it. He would not say the fault was in the driver; but he rather thought he was looking too much on those hills. John Wendell was just upon the point of marrying to a Miss Wentworth, and he [Flynt] was asked if he had come at this time to attend the wedding. He replied he had not made the journey with that intent, but if it happened while he was at Portsmouth, he should have no objection of attending it.
" I was directed to pay for one bowl of the punch and the oats our horse had received, after which we proceeded on towards Portsmouth; Mr. Treadwell and Miss Parker preceded us in an open chair. William Parker was going on to Kensington, where he was employed in keeping school, and J. Wendell re- turned on horseback to Portsmouth. The punch we had partaken of was
xii
PREFACE.
uals, but for its attempt in the early history of the Colonies, to establish several important and valuable industries. The first was the establishment of an iron manufactory, in 1643; in Pro- vincial times, glass works, spermaceti, salt works and stocking weaving. The first and largest merchant ship for the East India trade was constructed within her limits. From her soil was dug the first huge boulders of syenite as a material for the construc- tion of substantial public and private buildings, which have adorned our cities and towns. In the western section of the village was built the first railroad in the United States, on which the first serious and fatal accident happened in New England. As far as the author can learn, the North Precinct of Braintree was the first town in the Colony to construct its meeting-house of stone. It was here that the first principles of liberal theology were taught by that able divine, the Rev. John
pretty well charged with good old spirit, and Father Flynt was very pleasant and sociable. About a mile distant from the town there is a road that turns off at right angles (called the Creek Road) into town, into which Mr. Tread well and Miss Parker (who afterwards married Captain Adams) entered with their chair. Upon which Mr. Flint turned his face to me and said, 'Aye, prithee, I do not understand their motions; but the Scripture says, 'The way of a man with a maid is very mysterious.'"
It was the custom in the early days of the college for students to present their tutor or professor who had heard their yearly recitations, a present of some kind. Hall, in his book of college words and customs, page 322, relates the following anecdote in relation to a present given to Tutor Flynt :-
" Many years ago, some of the students of Harvard College wishing to make a present to their tutor, Mr. Flynt, called on him, informed him of their inten- tions and requested him to select a gift which would be acceptable to him. He replied that he was a single man, that he already had a well-filled library, and in reality, wanted nothing. The students, not all satisfied with this answer, determined to present him with a silver chamber pot. One was accordingly made of the appropriate dimensions, and inscribed with these words-
' Mingere cum bombis Res est saluberrima lumbis.'
"On the morning of Commencement Day, this was borne in procession, in a morocco case, and presented to the tutor. Tradition does not say with what feelings he received it, but it remained for many years in a room in Quincy, [This room is still called Flynt's study in the house now occupied by Mr. Peter Butler, on Hancock street] where he was accustomed to spend his Saturdays and Sundays, and finally disappeared about the beginning of the Revolution- ary War. It is supposed to have been carried to England." Tradition does not relate whether it was deposited as a curiosity in the British Museum or not.
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xiii
PREFACE.
Wheelwright, in 1636, which so much annoyed the Separatists ; the germ of which was never eradicated, as it continued to grow until it burst forth in the full sunlight of its glory under the ministrations of the Rev. Mr. Briant, which society continues to exist as the First Church of the town. Calvinism did not get a foothold in the old North Precinct of Braintree until 1831. He has given these incidents in no boasting manner, but only to illustrate the many important events to be found in her history.
He regrets that he has not been able to give a more extended sketch of the first church of Randolph. At the time he was writing up the churches, he desired the clergyman of this parish to furnish the material for it, but parochial duties so absorbed his time that he was unable to comply with the re- quest. Hence the reason why so brief a history of this old church has been given.
It was his intention to have given sketches of the old land- marks of the town, but as the volume had greatly exceeded its specified limits, the publishers considered it not expedient. As he has the material it is his intention, at some future time, to have it published in a separate volume.
The town records for some twenty-five or thirty years after its incorporation, are quite irregular and imperfect. After that period they proceed in regular order. For this early period of the town's history much more information can be gleaned from the Massachusetts Colonial Records. It is to be regretted that the First Church records, covering the period of the Rev. Messrs. Tompson and Flint's pastorate, are not to be found, as they might throw some light on the building of the first stone mecting-house. They were in existence at the time of the Rev. John Hancock's pastorate, as he makes freqnent mention of them; after this they seem to have disappeared. Also, the book of possessions which contained a record of the allotments and divisions of the town's lands. The North Precinct records begin in December, 1708, immediately after the separation of the second church from the first, and Mr. John Marshall (whose manuscript journal, hereafter referred to, is still to be seen in the Massachusetts Historical Library) was the first precinct
xiv
PREFACE.
clerk. This record embraces the period from 1708 to 1792, or to the time of the separation of the North Precinct from Brain- tree, and incorporated as the town of Quincy. From its incor- poration the parochial and town matters will be found blended together in the town records, until the final dissolution of church and town, in 1824.
This volume has been compiled by topics, rather than in a chronological order. This he thinks the better method for a local town history. The matter has not been as methodically arranged as he had desired, or intended it should have been ; the delay in receiving important facts obliged him to give them somewhat out of the regular order. Ill health and business engagements is the compiler's apology for its many short com- ings. Ile would be greatly obliged to any one who will supply any valuable matter, or facts that may have been omitted or overlooked, so that in the future a more perfect history may be written.
The compiler presents the manuscript of this history of old Braintree and Quincy to the town free of all expense to them. The price asked for the work will be only sufficient to compen- sate the publishers for its publication and expense of binding.
To the various libraries, viz. : Boston Public, Massachusetts Historical, New England Historic Genealogical, State and Con- gregational, he would tend his warmest acknowledgments for their kindness in granting him the privilege of consulting valua- ble documents, original manuscripts, rare works and old news- papers. He is also under many obligations to Mr. David Pulsifer, of the State Department, for many favors, especially in deciphering old manuscripts, and to whom he always re- ferred, in verifying doubtful points, and to Dr. Edward Strong, of the State Archives. He cannot forbear mentioning the local historian, Mr. Charles P. Tirrell, from whom he received much valuable information; also, Mr. E. W. Underwood, who has made a large collection of matter connected with the history of the town, and to all others who have in any way assisted or contributed to this volume, he extends his thanks.
1
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCORPORATION
OF THE OLD TOWN OF BRAINTREE.
Captain John Smith, of Pocahontas notoriety, on his second voyage to America, his first being to the Virginia Colony sailed from the Downs, in England, on March 3d, 1614, and, as he relates,1 he landed at Monhegan, an island lying twenty miles southwest from the mouth of the Penobscot. Not meet- ing with success, in his search for whales, Smith, with eight men in a small boat, left the ships and the rest of the party to be employed in fishing, while he ranged the neighboring coast to the southwest in quest of furs. He says,2 " he availed himself of the opportunity to draw a map from point to point, isle to isle, and harbor to harbor, with the soundings, sands, rocks, and landmarks." On this map, which is annexed to his history, Quincy is given the metropolitan name of London, and the "signs of a castle and cathedral are annexed as indicative of its future prosperity and grandeur."
In 1625, Captain Wollaston, with about thirty other adven- turers, came from England, and, in September of the same year, began a plantation near where the house of John Quincy Adams, Esq., now stands.3 Things not being equal to Wol- laston's expectations, he left the Colony in the following year, and went to Virginia, leaving the plantation in the hands of Lieutenant Filcher.
1. Smith's Generall Historie.
2. Smith's Generall Historie, p. 207.
3. The particular hill which caused the name of Mount, is in the farm of John Quincy, Esq., late one of the Council for the province .- Hutchinson's Hist., Vol. I., p. 8.
2
2
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCORPORATION.
Among those who remained at Mount Wollaston was a cer- tain Thomas Morton, a lawyer of Clifford's Inn, London, through whose instigation the settlers at the Mount rebelled against Lieutenant Filcher, compelling him to leave the Colony, and Morton was chosen the leader at the Monnt. From this, dates the free and easy reign, of which so much has been said; the two leading features of which were rioting and drunken- ness. Morton, by his kind treatment to the Indians, secured their lasting friendship; they keeping him and the rest of the company, constantly supplied with game;1 thus showing how susceptible the Indians are of kind aets.
Having no cares, they gave themselves up to a gay and hilari- ous system of living, changing the name of the place from Mount Wollaston to Merry Mount, where, as it is stated in the New England Memorial,2 " they setting up a May-pole,3 adorned with bucks' horns ; drinking and dancing about it, and frisking about it like so many fairies, or furies, rather; yea, and worse practices, as if they had anew revived and celebrated the feast of the Roman's Goddess, Flora, or the beastly practices of the mad Bacchanalians."
1. "There are Geese of three sorts, vize .: brant geese, which are pide, and white geese which are bigger, and gray geese which are as bigg and bigger than the tame geese of England, with black legges, black bills, heads and necks black; the flesh farre more excellent, then the Geese of England, wild or tame, yet the purity of the aire is such, that the biggest is accompted but an indifferent meale for a couple of men. There is of them great abundance. I have had often 1000 before the mouth of my gunne, I never saw any in Eng- land for my part so fatt."-New England Canaan, Force II., V. 46. "The, turkie, who is blacker than ours, I have heard several credible persons affirm they have seen turkie cocks that have weighed forty, yea sixty pounds; but out of my personal experimental knowledge I can assure you, that I have eaten my share of a turkie cock, that when he was pull'd and garbig'd, weighed thirty-nine pounds."-New England Rarities, p. 41, "I have seene some lob- sters myselfe that have weighed 16 pounds; but others have had, divers times, so great lobsters as have weighed 25 pounds, as they assure me."-Higginson's New Eng. Plantation, 1. c., p. 120. The Indians, it seems, sometimes dried them, "as they do lampres and oysters; which are delicate breakfast-meat 80 ordered."-Josselyn's Voyages, p. 110. "The oysters be great ones, in form of a shoe-horn; some be a foot long."-New Eng. Prospect, Ch. IX.
2. New Eng. Memorial. p. 136.
3. Prince says, it was the only May-pole ever raised in New England.
3
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCORPORATION.
" The inhabitants of Pasonagessit (having translated the name of their habitation from that ancient salvage name to Ma-re- Mount, and being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages,) did devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemne manner with Revels and merri- ment after the old English custom, prepared to set up a May- pole upon the festivall day of Philip and Jacob, and therefor brewed a barrel of excellent beare, and provided a case of bot- tles to be spent, with other good cheer, for all comers of that day. And because they would have it in a complete form, they had prepared a song fitting the time and present occasion. And upon May day they brought the May-pole to the place ap- pointed, with drumes, gunnes, pistols, and other fitting instru- ments for that purpose ; and there erected it with the help of Salvages that came thither of purpose to see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of eighty foote was reared up, with a peare of buckshorns nayled one somewhere neare to the top of it; where it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find out the way to mine host of Ma-re-Mount.
" And because it should more fully appeare to what end it was placed there, they had a poem in readiness made, which was fixed to the May-pole, to shew the new name confirmed on that Plantation ; which (although it were made according to the occurrent of the time, being Enigmatically composd), puzzled the Seperatist most pitifully to expound it, which for the better information of the reader we have here inserted."
THE POEM.
" Rise Œdipeus, and if thou canst unfold What meanes Caribdis underneath the mould,
When Scilla Sollitary on the ground, (Sitting in form of Niobe, ) was found; Till Amphitrites Darling did Acquaint Grim Neptune with the tenor of her plaint, And caus'd him send forth Triton with the sound Of Trumpet loud at which the Seas were found
So full of Protean formes, that the bold shore Presented Scilla a new paramore, So strange as Sampson* and so patient, As Job himself, directed thus by fate To Comfort Scilla so unfortunate.
*The man who brought her over was named Sampson Job.
4
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND INCORPORATION.
I do professe by Cupid's beautious mother
Here's Scogan's Choice for Scilla, and none other;
Though Scilla's sick with greife, because no signe
Can there be found of Vertue Masarline.
Esculapius come, I know right well; His laboure's lost when you may ring her knell.
The fatall sister's doome none can withstand,
Nor Pitharea's powre who poynts to land,
With proclamation that the first of May At Ma-re-Mount shall be kept holly day."
" The setting up of this May-pole was a lamentable spectacle to the precise Seperatists, that lived at New Plymouth. They termed it an Idol; yea, they called it the Calfe of Horeb ; and stood at defiance with the place, naming it Mount Dagon ; threatening to make it a woeful Mount and not a Merry Mount.
" The Riddle for want of Œdipus they could not expound, only they made some explication of part of it, and say'd it was meant by Sampson Job, the Carpenter of the shipp that brought over a woman to her husband, that had bin there long before, and thrived so well that hee sent for her and her children to come to him ; where shortly after hee died; having no · reason but because of the sound of those two words; when (as the truth is,) the man they applyed it to was altogether unknown to the author.
" There was likewise a merry song made, which, (to make their Revells more fashionable,) was sung with a Corus, every man bearing his part; which they performed in a daunce, hand in hand, about the May-pole, whiles one of the company sung, and filled out the good liquor like Ganymedes and Jupiter.
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