USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The Pilgrims of Boston and their descendants: with an introduction by Hon. Edward Everett, LL. D.; also, inscriptions from the monuments in the Granary burial ground, Tremont street > Part 1
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and natural history.
Presented by The Kaw. H. C. Winthrop.
1857.
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Robert C. Winthrop.
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/pilgrimsofboston00briduoft
L.G.
i W Chandler & Pro inthe Boston
MARY FANEUIL BETHUNE.
THE
PILGRIMS OF BOSTON
AND THEIR
DESCENDANTS:
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION BY HON. EDWARD EVERETT, LL. D.
ALSO, Inscriptions from the mlonuments IN THE GRANARY BURIAL GROUND, TREMONT STREET.
BY THOMAS BRIDGMAN, AUTHOR OF "MEMORIALS OF KING'S CHAPEL," AND "COPPS' HILL."
" Time is a river deep and wide : And while along its banks we stray, We see our lov'd ones o'er its tide Sail from our sight, away, away. * Where are they sped ? Beyond the River."
NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY. LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. BOSTON : PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & COMPANY. M.DCCC.LVI.
F 73 .61 G7 B85
ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1556, by
THOMAS BRIDGMAN,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts.
LIBRARY
MAY 9 1963
UNI
Y OF T
TORONTO
839938
1
TO THE
HON. EDWARD EVERETT,
ACCOMPLISHED ALIKE AS A STATESMAN AND SCHOLAR,
AND TO THE
Sons of Hleto England throughout the Union,
. THIS VOLUME
.
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
ON THE DEATH OF LADY ARBELLA JOHNSON.
BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY.
THEIR brown log huts peered rudely forth, Mid copse and thicket gray, With fragile tents, that scarcely kept The mocking storms at bay, While through the flashing forest wheeled The savage war-dance wild; Yet, 'mid these strange and startling scenes, The Flower of Lincoln smiled.
Months sped their course; the circling year Sealed up its finished scroll; And happiness, with changeless bloom, Breathed fragrance o'er her soul ; For, though no costly board was there, Nor guest in pomp arrayed, Yet true love made an Eden home Within that greenwood shade.
But he, alas ! whose touch doth turn Warm life to icy clay, Stole on, and from the blanching lip Kissed the sweet soul away,
5
vi
LADY ARABELLA JOHNSON.
And mournful, 'mid the gnarléd roots Of the thicket's broken crown, To scoop that lady's narrow house, The grating spade went down.
For her there was no pluméd hearse, No long procession drear, No requiem from the organ's soul, Nor velvet-mantled bier, Though in her own ancestral clime, A tomb of sculptured fame, 'Neath old cathedral's lofty arch, Her noble birth might claim.
Yet still she hath a monument To strike the pensive eye,- The tender memories of the land Wherein her ashes lie; The holy love that blest his heart Who brought her o'er the tide, That beamed with sunny glance on him, When all was dark beside;
The saintly faith that bore her soul Where clouds no more are known, Save by the fruits their tear-drops helped To ripen round the throne ; Yes, that pure love, that hallowed faith, Have reared above her clay Such monument and epitaph As may not wear away ..
ISAAC JOHNSON, sometimes honored with the name of the Father of Boston, was supposed, as we have said, to have been the first person laid in the King's Chapel Burying-ground. He was one of that inter-
vii
ISAAC JOHNSON.
esting band who came with Governors Winthrop and Dudley, in the Arabella, and landed at Salem on the 12th of June, 1630. In their carly explorations, he was anxious that the region of the " beautiful Tri-mountain " should be chosen as the site of their future city, when it contained no habitation, save the lonely cottage of William Black- stone. This selection was sanctioned, and received, on September 7th 1631, the name of Boston. He was present on this occasion; but soon after became a tenant of the silent city of the dead. He bore a high character for energy, liberality, and piety. His death was supposed to have been hastened by deep grief for the loss of his wife, the Lady Ara- bella Johnson, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, who, moved by undying affection, left her native halls of ease and luxury, to follow and cheer him in a comparative wilderness.
CONTENTS.
-
INTRODUCTION,
xi
Memoir of Governor Bowdoin,
1
Memoir of Lieutenant-Governor Cushing,
13
Memoir of Governor Bellingham,
15
Memoir of Governor Dudley,
23
Memoirs of the Walley Family,
33
Memoir of Governor Leverett,
43
Memoir of Uriah Cotting,
46
Memoirs of the Ministers of the Old South Church,
54
Memoir of Dr. Eckley,
.
58
Memoir of the Rev. John Bacon,
60
Memoirs of the Amory Family,
67
Memoir of Governor Sumner,
81
Names of those deposited in Governor Sumner's Tomb,
94
Some account of the Hyslop Family,
95
Death-bed of Governor Sumner,
96
Memoir of Dr. Jeremy Belknap,
103
Letter from Dr. Thaddeus William Harriss,
107
Memoir of Edmond Mountfort,
112
Memoir of Captain Barnabas Pinney,
119
Memoirs of the Bass Family,
126
Letter from Rev. Dr. Samuel Sewall,
128
Memoirs of the Sewall Family,
128 136
Memoirs of the Parker Family,
148
Memoir of Abraham Perkins,
150
Edward Bumstead,
156
Memoir of Elizabeth Poole,
157
Memoir of Rev. Thomas Baldwin,
161
Memoir of Elisha Brown,
163
Memoir of Edward Pierce,
. 164
.
.
Memoir of Arthur Mason,
PAGE
X
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Memoir of Judge Wadsworth,
166
Victims of the Boston Massacre, 170
Memoir of Andrew Johonot, 181
Memoir of Abraham Lee, 182
Memoirs of the Hunt Family, 187
Memoirs of the Cabbot Family, .
193
Memoirs of the Child Family,
200
Memoirs of the Pemberton Family, 203
205
Memoir of Peter Fanueil,
212
Memoir of General Joseph Warren,
223
Memoirs of the Russell Family,
244
Lines by Mrs. D. Ellen Goodman,
253 260
Mem oirs of the Cutler Family, .
275
Memoirs of the Minot Family, 284
Memoirs of the Lowell Family,
304 307
Memoir of Deacon Luther Clark,
311
Memoirs of the Brattle Family,
317
Memoir of Dr. Franklin,
323
Memoirs of the Holmes Family,
339
Memoir of Lieutenant James Torrey,
341
Memoirs of the Hale Family,
343
Memoir of Lieutenant-Governor Gray,
346
Memoirs of the Loring Family,
350
Memorials of the Cushing Family,
353
Memorials of the Spear Family,
354
Memorials of the Gray Family,
356
Memorials of the Codman Family,
358 359
Memorial of Rev. John Baily,
360
Memorial of Governor Dummer,
363
Memoir of Governor Haynes,
364
Memoir of George Blake,
364
Descendants of Captain William Greenough, .
366
Memoirs of the Tappan Family, .
371
Memoirs of the Shaw Family,
380
Memoirs of the Thorndike Family,
381
Memoirs of the Palfrey Family,
382
Memoir of Humphrey Barrett,
383
Memoir of Edmond Greenleaf,
383
Memoir of Governor Hancock,
384
Monument at Bloody Brook,
393
Memoirs of the Lathrop Family,
391
Grave of Captain Lathrop,
391
Index,
.
399
Memoir of William Trask,
Memoirs of the Phillips Family,
Memoirs of the Clark Family,
Memorial of George Felt, .
INTRODUCTION.
IN the former publication by the Author of the present volume, the King's Chapel and Copp's Hill Burial Grounds, with their ancient monuments and gravestones, have been fully described. Encouraged by the approbation bestowed upon these works, Mr. Bridgman has extended his researches to the Granary Burial Ground,-the third in the list of the ancient cemeteries of Boston. The present volume is the result of his labors, and will, we believe, be found not less valuable and curious than its predecessors.
In the introduction to the former volumes, the general topics pertinent to a work of this kind have been treated in an interesting manner. It would be unbecoming on this occasion to attempt a repetition in different words of what has been so well said before. Our object in these few preliminary remarks, is to invite the favorable attention of the public to Mr. Bridg- man's labors.
For the information of persons not acquainted with the early history of Boston, it may be stated, that this place of burial, now in the centre of its population, was formerly on the outskirts of its inhabited portion. It lies on Tre-
xii
INTRODUCTION.
mont Street, between the Tremont House, the Park Street Church, the Boston Athenæum, and some of the most valuable private houses of Boston, on Park and Beacon Streets. The space occupied by the burial ground was originally open on the south-west to the Common, from which it was afterwards sepa- rated by the erection of the Granary and other public buildings. The Granary was a long wooden building capable of containing twelve thousand bushels of grain, which was annually laid in, by a committee chosen for that purpose, to be sold to the poor at a small advance on the wholesale price. Above the Granary on what is now called Park Street, were the Bridewell and Alms-House. The names of these buildings sufficiently il- lustrate the change which time has made in the geography of Boston. At that early period, Copp's Hill was the court end of the town.
The most striking feature of the Granary Burial Ground, is the fine row of trees which fronts it on Tremont Street, eleven in number. These trees are European elms ; less graceful than the American species, but a most noble and stately tree, with the advantage of being in leaf five or six weeks longer than the native variety. These beautiful trees are said to have been planted by Major Adino Paddock and Mr. John Ballard in 1762.# Several of them measure at least ten feet in circumference, at a distance of four feet from the ground, though their growth has probably been checked by the pave- ment of the street and the sidewalk, which has deprived them of a part of their natural nourishment. This evil has of late years been remedied as far as practicable. Till a few years since the walk under these trees was frequently called "Pad- dock's Mall."
* Report of the Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, by Mr. George B. Emerson, page 301.
xiii
INTRODUCTION.
But though admirably shaded in front by these fine trees, the ancient burial ground itself was, till about thirty years since, destitute of any similar ornament. It has within that period been greatly embellished by a dense plantation of trees and shrubbery, made at private expense, under the superin- tendence of Mr. Andrew Belknap. All the most pleasing varieties of our forest trees, the maple, the larch, the moun- tain-ash, the bass-wood, and the willow, are tastefully inter- mingled with each other. They are grown up to such a size as to afford a delightful shelter to those who come to explore the moss-covered memorials of the past. Their branches fur- nish the birds an undisturbed retreat not often found in a populous city ; and give to the neighboring houses the luxury of a rural prospect.
" In living green, Cypress and stately cedar spread their shade O'er unforgotten graves, scattering in air Their grateful odors."
It would be an anticipation of the contents of the following pages to enumerate the ancient monuments which are contained in the Granary Burial Ground. Their inscriptions, with the similar records of the other burial grounds, form no insignificant portion of the early annals of Boston. Pious and venerable men, who served the infant colony with fidelity and zeal, are there rescued from forgetfulness.
" Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse, The place of fame and elegy supply."
There is one of the monuments in this ancient burial ground which ought not to pass unnoticed on this occasion, viz., that which was erected to the memory of Josiah Franklin
xiv
INTRODUCTION.
and Abiah, his wife, by their son Benjamin Franklin. Josiah Franklin was a native of the village of Ecton, in Northampton- shire, in England, and in consequence of the persecutions to which the Nonconformists were exposed, emigrated to this country in 1685. Abiah, whose maiden name was Folger, was from Nan- tucket, and became the second wife of Josiah, after his settle- ment in Boston. Four sons and four daughters were born of this marriage,-Benjamin being the youngest son. The father died in 1744, at the age of 89 ; the mother in 1752, at the age of 85. On his visit to his native city of Boston, shortly afterwards, a marble monument was placed upon their grave by their illustrious son, with the beautiful inscription which will be found in its place in the present volume. This simple monument having fallen into decay, was replaced in 1827 by a substantial granite obelisk, which will henceforward form one of the greatest objects of interest in the Granary Burial Ground. The fragments of the original marble were collected and placed under the obelisk. By the side of the obelisk stands the gravestone of Benjamin Franklin, the uncle of the patriot and statesman.
Beneath a beautiful and luxuriant larch tree, twenty-one feet within the front wall, and sixty feet south of the Tremont House, repose the ashes of the citizens of Boston who fell in State Street, on the ever memorable 5th of March, 1770, the first victims of the oppressive and tyrannical measures of the British ministry, which resulted in the American Revolution. No stone marks the spot."
In the tomb of the Minot family, on the southwestern side of the burial ground, and immediately in the rear of the estate
" It is proposed to erect a neat monument to their memory by the compiler of this volume, should the profits from its sale warrant it, on which will be inscribed their names, and a suitable epitaph, written by a Boston Antiquarian of the Old School.
[T. B.]
: XV
INTRODUCTION.
of Dr. John C. Warren, the remains of General Joseph Warren, the illustrious martyr of Bunker Hill, were deposited in the spring of 1776. A particular account of their discovery and of the measures taken for their preservation, will be found in the following memorandum, kindly communicated for the present work : -
" BOSTON, Sept., 1855.
" The remains of General Warren were buried on Bunker Hill the morning after 17th June ; the body was stripped of its clothes and thrown into a pit with that of a butcher,- the latter was not stripped, his frock and trowsers being of little value. After the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, a funeral oration was delivered by Perez Morton, Esq., in the Stone Chapel ;- the remains of General Warren were exhumed for the occasion in the presence of two of his brothers, Dr. John Warren, and Judge Warren, of Foxboro, and was by them distinguished, by two facts :- one was, the fixture of the left- eye tooth by a gold wire,-the other was, a perforation of the right side of the head by a bullet ; the place of the wound had been noticed at the time of the interment by General Winslow, who, being then a young boy, was permitted by the British officers to attend for the purpose of distinguishing the body. Mr. Winslow remarked that three fingers of the right hand were bloody, as if he had clapped them to the wound.
" After this solemn ceremony had been accomplished, the remains were deposited in the Minot tomb of the Granary burying ground. In the year 1824, when the attention of the public was excited about the Bunker Hill Monument, the remains were sought for, and, as stated above, discovered. It was recollected that there had been a great intimacy between General Warren and the family, of which Judge Minot (the
xvi
INTRODUCTION.
Author of the History of the Rebellion) was a prominent mem- ber, and that, in consequence of this friendship, permission was given to deposit the remains in their tomb. Dr. J. C. Warren obtained permission to open the tomb, and succeeded in dis- tinguishing the remains of General Warren by the bullet-hole in the side of the head, and the decay of the socket of the left-eye tooth. This tomb is now surrounded by a massive iron fence bounding on the wall which separates the estate of Dr. J. C. Warren from the burying ground.
" The relics were then placed in a strong square mahogany box, with a silver plate containing the name of the departed patriot, and placed in a very dry tomb under St. Paul's Church, in 1824. In August, 1855, it being thought expedient to place these and some other relics in durable stone urns, they were removed from the wooden to the stone receptacle, with a hope of preserving them for ages .- On opening the wooden boxes, the bones were found damp, beginning to decay; requiring means to arrest the decomposition, and put them in a state which may preserve them for the veneration of posterity."
BOSTON, January 1st, 1856.
.
Below is an engraving of a Monument about to be erected in Roxbury, in memory of JOHN ELIOT, the Apostle to the Indians.
ELIOT
CHANDLER St.
John Eliot
THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS, Died at Roxbury, May 20th, 1690, in the 86th year of his age.
WEN
ER
D
AND
O
WENDELL AND OLIVER.
ROGER CLAP.
1
THE GRANARY BURIAL GROUND.
JAMES BOWDOIN, ESQ.
THIS cut is an exact copy of the Arms inscribed on the tablet which designates the BOWDOIN TOMB. When it was originally placed there is not known. The crest, however, as here given, does not accurately re- present the crest of the Bowdoin family, which is an Eagle, their motto being " Ut aquila colum versus." This may have been, and probably was, a mere mistake of the stone-cutter ; or, possibly, some branch of the Bowdoins, in other days and other lands, may have had the Pelican for their crest.
2
THE GRANARY BURIAL GROUND.
c/
The Bowdoin family has sometimes been traced back to BALDWIN, Count of Flanders, in 862, and sometimes to BALDWIN, King of Jeru- salem, in 1143, both of whom are said to have spelled their names pre- cisely as the first emigrant to America spelled his. This first emigrant was PIERRE BADOUIN, who arrived in Casco Bay, in the then Province of Maine, in the summer of 1687. He was of an old Huguenot family, which had long resided in the neighborhood of Rochelle, so well known to history as the stronghold of Protestantism in France. He had been driven out from his native land by the fury of that religious persecution for which Louis XIV. gave the signal, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantz. Having first sought refuge in Ireland, and having failed to find perma- nent employment there, he resolved to seek his fortune in the New World. A physician by education, and having enjoyed at home a handsome estate, he landed upon the shores of Maine, with a wife and four children, in a condition of absolute penury. Sir Edmund Andros, then Governor-in- Chief of New England, granted him, upon his petition, a hundred acres of land in Casco Bay, within or near the limits of the present city of Portland, and here he established himself, and commenced his efforts to obtain bread for his family. In 1690 he removed to Boston, having departed from Casco just in time to escape the terrible massacre which was perpetrated there by the Indians on the 17th of May of that year. Pierre Bowdoin lived sixteen years after his arrival in Boston. He died in September, 1706; and his widow, Elizabeth, died 18th of August, 1720, aged seventy-seven years. They left two daughters and two sons, of whom the younger removed to Virginia, where his descend- ants are still living.
2. JAMES BOWDOIN, the eldest son of the foregoing (the first of that name in America), must have been born at Rochelle, France, about the year 1676-7, and was a person of great energy, perseverance, and success. He commenced life as a mariner, but soon entered upon mercantile busi- ness, and, by economy and industry, elevated himself to the very first rank among the merchants of Boston. He was several times elected a member of the Executive Council of the Colony of Massachusetts, and at his death, on the eighth of September, 1747 (aged seventy-one years),
.
3
GOVERNOR BOWDOIN.
he left to his children an estate estimated at from fifty to a hundred thousand pounds sterling.
3. JAMES BOWDOIN, the second son of the foregoing by his second wife, was born in Boston on the 7th of August, 1726, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1745. He was engaged for a few years after his father's death in commercial pursuits, but, being left with an indepen- dent estate, he soon devoted himself to literature, science, and politics. During a visit to Philadelphia, when only twenty-four years old, he became acquainted with Dr. Franklin, then in the maturity of his powers, and a friendship between them was formed, which was only terminated by death. Franklin sent Bowdoin, soon afterwards, a copy of all his Electrical papers, and invited his observations on them. A correspon- dence was thus opened, which continued during their lives. Some of Bowdoin's letters on philosophical subjects were sent by Franklin to London, where they were read at the Royal Society, and published in a volume with his own. Bowdoin was, at a later day, chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was, also, among the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the first President of that Associa- tion. To this Association he bequeathed his large and valuable Library.
Bowdoin entered political life in 1753, as one of the four Represen- tatives of his native town in the Provincial Legislature of Massachusetts, and he was re-elected by the people of Boston in 1754 and 1755. During this service, he was particularly prominent in advocating that union of the Colonies which was proposed by Franklin at the Albany Convention.
In 1757, Bowdoin was elected by the House of Representatives a member of the Provincial Council, in which Hutchinson says he was " without a rival " in point of influence and importance. He was styled by Wedderburn, before the Privy Council in England, " the leader and manager of the Council in Massachusetts as Mr. Adams was in the House." He served the people of Massachusetts in this capacity six- teen years, and was finally negatived by Governor Gage, by "the express orders of his Majesty." Hutchinson had forborne to negative him before upon the ground that " it would be to no purpose, for he
4
THE GRANARY BURIAL GROUND.
would be chosen, into the House, and do more mischief there than at the Council."
In 1774, Bowdoin was elected one of the five Massachusetts Delegates to the first Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, and nothing but severe and serious illness prevented him from going; but he accepted the post of councillor from the Provincial Congress, assembled at Watertown the same year, and as soon as his health was restored, took his place as President of that body. In this capacity he continued to preside over the now independent Commonwealth, from time to time, as his health permitted, until the summer of 1777. During this period the National Independence had been declared, and Bowdoin was made chairman of the committee to superintend its proclamation from the balcony of the Old State House in Boston.
In 1779, Bowdoin was chosen a Delegate to the Convention which framed the constitution of Massachusetts, and, on the assembling of that body, he was elected its President. His position as presiding officer, however, did not exempt him from the active duties of membership, and, during the long recess of the convention, he served as chairman of the select committee by which the original draft of the constitution was prepared.
In 1785, Bowdoin was elected Governor of Massachusetts by the Legislature, there having been no choice by the people. In 1786, he was re-elected to the chief magistracy by a large majority of the popu- lar votes. This was the period of " Shay's Rebellion," when a formidable body of insurgents systematically interrupted the sessions of the courts of justice, and arrayed themselves in arms against the constituted author- ities of the State. Bowdoin administered the government, during this memorable crisis, with the greatest discretion and firmness, and, by a vigorous exercise of the whole civil and military power of the common- wealth, succeeded in suppressing the insurrection, and in restoring peace. His name will ever be honorably associated with this first great vindica- tion of law and order within the limits of our American republic.
Governor Bowdoin's last public service to his country was as a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Convention in 1788, by which the Federal Con- stitution was ratified, and in the following year he had the happiness of
5
GOVERNOR BOWDOIN.
welcoming beneath his own roof his illustrious friend, General Washing- ton, on his visit to Boston, as the first President of the United States.
The little remnant of his life was devoted to literary and philoso- phical pursuits. He died on the 6th of November, 1790, at the age of sixty-four. His eulogy was pronounced by his friend, Judge Lowell, by whom his character was thus admirably summed up :
" It may be said that our country has produced many men of as much genius; many men of as much learning and knowledge; many of as much zeal for the liberties of their country ; and many of as great piety and virtue; but is it not rare, indeed, to find those in whom they have all combined, and been adorned with his other accomplishments ?"
Governor Bowdoin's wife was Elizabeth Ewing, a lady of most ~~ ~~ respectable family, and most estimable qualities. By her he left two children, James, of whom we shall presently speak, and Elizabeth, who married Sir John Temple, Bart., the first diplomatic agent from Great Britain to the United States after the Revolution. Sir John died in New York, November 17, 1798, aged sixty-seven, and there is a monu- ment to his memory in St. Paul's church, in that city. Lady Temple died in Boston in 1809.
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