USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
0000916543 2
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
THE
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF
BOSTON
1630 - 1880
ب
F 73,3 W76 V. 1
1
F 73,3 W76 V.1.
.
Which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children. . . . He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children ; that the generation to come might know them, - PSALM Ixxviii.
Write this for a Memorial in a book. - EXODUS xvii. 14.
T
KEY TO x-
- LETTERS & FIGURES .
un's
S
1
no
&
B
CO
N
Blackstones H
R
arborough
STREL
T
B
Gas Co Wud OnsEt
Church
Nowbus
OYLHTONT
Street
STRE
RIUNO
...
MAREA
BENTBY
...
VENT
W
Junger Rwvanke
STREET
ontr.
4
NEW
.
Cesstrel W;
Tudin
ent
ATLANTIC
7
Swamp
Water
ry.Doch
Springs
×
Hod ..
Early Streets
Summits of Hills and Knall
Dov
are left Wii :4. Gan
Point-
MI IOT ** [ PRIN'
NO BUS
R
....
7
-
-
& Market St
EXVE
TREXON
TLAXT
eve
-
Liverpools
Corus W
Wale a W
Turelle W
Korpor
Datierwn
M Washington
S.
Channel
ON THE REVERSE.
Barthe tta X NE
THE
MEMORIAL
HISTORY OF BOSTON,
INCLUDING SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
1630-1880.
EDITED BY JUSTIN WINSOR, LIBRARIAN OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I.
THE EARLY AND COLONIAL PERIODS.
Issued under the business superintendence of the projector, CLARENCE F. JEWETT.
BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 1880.
REFERENCES.
HILLS.
A.
Fox Hill in the Marsh.
B.
West Hill.
Treamount,
C.
Centry, later Beacon Hill, [180 feet].
later
D.
Cotton Hill
S
Beacon Hill.
E.
Windmill Hill, Snow Hill, later Copp's Hill, [50 feet].
F.
Corn Hill, later Fort Hill, [80 feet ].
SITES.
G.
Watering Place.
[Pond.]
H.
Green.
K.
Springgate.
L.
First Meeting-House.
M.
Open Market.
N.
Jail.
P. School.
Q.
Mill Creek, (partly excavated, 1643,) and South Mill.
R. Ship here built by Nehemiah Bourne. S. First Burial Ground.
T.
Blackstone's lot, (dotted line).
V.
North Mill.
W. Drawbridge, (gave away, 1659).
X. . North Battery, 1646. Y. Tuthill's Windmill.
Z.
Gate and Defences.
HOUSES.
I. Gov. Winthrop.
2. Rev. John Cotton.
3
Rev. John Wilson.
4- Capt. Robt. Keayne.
5.
Edward Tyng.
6. Gov. Bellingham.
7.
Samuel Cole, (first tavern.)
8. Henry Dunster.
9.
Thos. Savage.
THE
MEMORIAL
HISTORY OF BOSTON,
INCLUDING
SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
1630-1880.
EDITED BY JUSTIN WINSOR, LIBRARIAN OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
THE EARLY AND COLONIAL PERIODS.
Issued under the business superintendente of the projector, CLARENCE F. JEWETT.
BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 1880.
Copyright, 1880, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co. All Rights Reserved.
OSTIM NH
RESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS
PREFACE.
THE scheme of this History originated with Mr. CLARENCE F. JEWETT, who, towards the end of December, 1879, entrusted the further development of the plan to the Editor. On the third of January following, about thirty gentlemen met, upon invitation, to give countenance to the undertaking, and at this meeting a Committee was appointed to advise with the Editor during the progress of the work. This Committee consisted of the Rev. EDWARD E. HALE, D.D., SAMUEL A. GREEN, M.D., and CHIARLES DEANE, LL.D. The Editor desires to return thanks to them for their counsel in assigning the chapters to writers, and for other assistance; and to DR. DEANE particularly for his suggestions during the printing. Since Messrs. JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co. succeeded to the rights of Mr. JEWETT as publisher, the latter gentleman has continued to exercise a supervision over the business management.
The History is cast on a novel plan, - not so much in being a work of co-operation, but because, so far as could be, the several themes, as sections of one homogeneous whole, have been treated by those who have some particular association and, it may be, long acquaintance with the subject. In the diversity of authors there will of course be variety of opinions, and it has not been thought ill-judged, considering the different points of view assumed by the various writers, that the same events should be interpreted
vi
PREFACE.
sometimes in varying, and perhaps opposite, ways. The chapters may thus make good the poet's description, -
" Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea," ---
and may not be the worse for each offering a reflection, according to its turn to the light, without marring the unity of the general expanse. The Editor has endeavored to prevent any unnecessary repetitions, and to provide against serious omissions of what might naturally be expected in a history of its kind. He has allowed sometimes various spellings of proper names to stand, rather than abridge the writers' preferences, in cases where the practice is not uniform. Such annotations as he has furnished upon the texts of others have, perhaps, served to give coherency to the plan, and they have in all cases been made distinctly apparent. For the selection of the illustrations, which, with a very few exceptions, are from new blocks and plates, Mr. Jewett and the Editor are mainly responsible. Special acknowledgments for assistance in this and in other ways are made in foot-notes throughout the work.
JUSTIN WINSOR.
CAMBRIDGE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, September, 1880.
CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE. Boston, old and new, a topographical map Facing titlepage
PREFACE.
THE EDITOR TO THE READER
V
INTRODUCTION.
THE SOURCES OF BOSTON'S HISTORY. The Editor xiii
HISTORICAL POEM.
THE KING'S MISSIVE, 1661. John G. Whittier. XXV ILLUSTRATIONS: Boston Town-house, Endicott and Shattuck, xxvii; the Jail Delivery, xxviii ; the Quakers on the Common, xxix ; the Great Windmill on Snow Hill, xxx ; tail-piece, xxxii.
Prehistoric Period and natural History.
CHAPTER I. THE GEOLOGY OF BOSTON AND ITS ENVIRONS. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler 1
CHAPTER II.
THE FAUNA OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. Joel A. Allen 9
ILLUSTRATION : The Great Auk, 12.
CHAPTER III. THE FLORA OF BOSTON AND ITS VICINITY. Asa Gray .
17
ILLUSTRATION : The Great Elm on Boston Common, 21.
viii
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Early Distory.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY EUROPEAN VOYAGERS IN MASSACHUSETTS BAY. George Dexter 23
ILLUSTRATION : A Norse Ship, 25.
CHAPTER II.
THE EARLIEST MAPS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND BOSTON HARBOR. Justin Winsor
37
ILLUSTRATIONS : Cosa's Map (1500), 39; Stephanius's Map (1570), 39; Fernando Columbus's Map (1527), 41 ; French Map (1542-43), 43; Lok's Map (1582), 44; Hood's Map (1592), 45; Wytfliet's Map (1 597), 45; Champlain's Map (1612), 49; Lescarbot's Map (1612), heliotype, 49; John Smith's Map (1614), heliotype, 52; Portrait of Smith, heliotype, 52; Figurative Map (1614), 57; Jacobsz's Map (1621), 58; Governor Winthrop's Sketch of Coast, 61.
AUTOGRAPHS : Champlain, 48; John Smith, 50; Isaac Allerton, 60.
CHAPTER III.
THE EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON HARBOR. Charles Francis Adams, Fr.
63
ILLUSTRATIONS: Squaw Rock, or Squantum Ilead, 64; Miles Standish, 65; Standish's Sword and a Matchlock, 66; Blackstone's Lot, 84.
AUTOGRAPHS: Miles Standish, 63; Phinehas Pratt, 70; Ferdinando Gorges, 72; Samuel Maverick, 78; Thomas Morton, 82.
The Colonial Period.
CHAPTER I.
THE MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY. Samuel Foster Haven 87 ILLUSTRATION : Seal of the Council for New England, 92. AUTOGRAPH : Joshua Scottow, 97.
CHAPTER II.
BOSTON FOUNDED. Robert C. Winthrop
99
ILLUSTRATIONS : The Winthrop Cup, heliotype, 114; Plan of Ten Hills (1636), heliotype, 114; Winthrop's Fleet, 115; "Trimountaine shall be called Bos- ton," heliotype, 116; St. Botolph's Church, 117; First page of the Town Records, heliotype, 122; Sir Harry Vane, 125; John Winthrop, 137; Letter of John Hampden in fac-simile, 140.
AUTOGRAPHS : Matthew Cradock, 102; Margaret Winthrop, 104; John Winthrop, 114; John Wilson, 114; Isaac Johnson, 114; Thomas Dudley, 114; Hugh Peter, 124; John Haynes, 124; Harry Vane, 125; Sir Richard Saltonstall, 129; Richard Saltonstall, Jr., 129.
ix
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. George E. Ellis 141
ILLUSTRATIONS : John Cotton, 157; Sir Richard Saltonstall, 183; Recantation of Winlock Christison, in fac-simile, ISS.
AUTOGRAPHS : John Cotton, 157; Samuel Gorton, 170; Roger Williams, 171 ; William Coddington, 174; William Aspinwall, 175; Edward Rainsford, 175; Thomas Savage, 175; John Underhill, 175; John Wheelwright, 176; John Clarke, 178; Mary Trask, 185; Margaret Smith, 185; William Dyer, 186; Nicholas Upsall, 187; Dorothy Upsall, 187; William Greenough, 187; Elizabeth Upsall, 187 ; Experience Upsall, 187 ; Susannah Upsall, 187.
CHAPTER IV.
THE RISE OF DISSENTING FAITHS. Henry WV. Foote . IQI
ILLUSTRATIONS : Samuel Willard, heliotype, 208; Cotton Mather, heliotype, 208; Simon Bradstreet, 209 ; the first King's Chapel, 214.
AUTOGRAPHS : John Davenport, 193; Thomas Thacher, 194; James Allen, 194, 206; Increase Mather, 194, 206; John Russell, 195 ; Robert Ratcliffe, 200; John Eliot, 206; Samuel Phillips, 206; Joshua Moodey, 206; Samuel Willard, 208.
CHAPTER V.
BOSTON AND THE COLONY. Charles C. Smith
217
ILLUSTRATION : The Old Aspinwall House, 221. AUTOGRAPH : Robert Keayne, 237.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIANS OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. George E. Ellis 241 ILLUSTRATIONS : Charles Sprague's Ode (1830), in fac-simile, 246; Indian Deed of Boston, heliotype, 250; John Eliot, the Apostle, 261.
AUTOGRAPHS: John Mason, 253; Israel Stoughton, 253; Lion Gardiner, 253; Miantonomo, 253 ; John Eliot, 263.
CHAPTER VII.
BOSTON AND THE NEIGHBORING JURISDICTIONS. Charles C. Smith 275
AUTOGRAPHS : D'Aulnay, 285; Edward Gibbons, 286; La Tour, 288; William Ilathorne, 292 ; Daniel Denison, 292 ; Commissioners of the United Colonies (Theophilus Eaton, John Endicott, John Haynes, Stephen Goodyear, Her- bert Pelham, Edward Hopkins, John Brown, Timothy Hatherly), 300; another group (Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Denison, Thomas Prence, James Cudworth, John Mason, John Tallcott, Theophilus Eaton, William Leete), 301.
CHAPTER VIII.
FROM WINTHROP'S DEATH TO PHILIP'S WAR. Thomas WV. Higginson 303 ILLUSTRATION : John Endicott, 308.
AUTOGRAPHS : James Davids, 305; John Endicott, 307, 308; Richard Belling- hanı, 307 ; Daniel Gookin, 307. VOL. I. - B.
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER IX.
PHILIP'S WAR. Edward E. Hale
ILLUSTRATIONS: Secretary Rawson's Memorandum on Captain Richard, 313; John Leverett, 315; Thomas Savage, 318; a part of Ilubbard's Map of New England (1677), 328.
AUTOGRAPHS : Josiah Winslow, 311 ; Wussausman, 311 ; Richard Russell, 312; Thomas Danforth, 312 ; Daniel Denison, 313; Samuel Mosley, 313; Com- missioners of the United Colonies (Thomas Danforth, President, William Stoughton, Josiah Winslow, Thomas Hinckley, Jr., John Winthrop, Wait Winthrop), 314; John Leverett, 316 ; Thomas Clark, 316; William Hudson, 316 ; Thomas Savage, 316; John IIull, 316; Daniel IIenchman, 316, 317 ; James Oliver, 316; John Richards, 316; Isaac Johnson, 319; Thomas · Wheeler, 320; Nathaniel Davenport, 323; Samuel Appleton, 323 ; William Turner, 325; Philip's mark, 325.
311
CHAPTER X.
THE STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN THE CHARTER OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST, AND ITS FINAL LOSS IN 1684. Charles Deane .
329
ILLUSTRATIONS: The Massachusetts Charter, heliotype, 329; Oliver Cromwell, 348; Edward Rawson, 381.
AUTOGRAPHS : Charles I., 331 ; John Hull, 354; Royal Commissioners (Richard Nicolls, Robert Carr, George Cartwright, Samuel Maverick), 358; Richard Bellingham, 360; Edmund Randolph, 364; Charles II., 365; Simon Brad- street, 369; Thomas Danforth, 369; Joseph Dudley, 369; Daniel Gookin, Sen., 369; William Stoughton, 369; Elisha Hutchinson, 369; Elisha Cooke, 369; Samuel Nowell, 371 ; James II., 3So; Edward Rawson, 381.
CHAPTER XI.
CHARLESTOWN IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Henry H. Edes
383
ILLUSTRATIONS : Order, Feb, 10, 1634, establishing Board of Selectmen, heliotyte, 388; Order, Oct. 13, 1634, relating to lands, &c., heliotype, 388 ; the Training- Field, 392; John Harvard's Monument, 395.
AUTOGRAPHS: The Squaw-Sachem's mark, 383; John Greene, 384; Richard Sprague, 384; Thomas Walford's mark, 384; Thomas Graves, surveyor, 385; Walter Palmer, 386; Thomas Coitmore, 388; Thomas Lynde, 389; Samuel Adams, 3S9; Thomas Graves, the admiral, 389; Edward Burt, 389; James Cary, 390; John Newell, 390; Abraham Palmer, 391 ; John Edes, 392; Edward Converse, 393; Robert Long, 393; Increase Nowell, 394; Zechariah Symmes, 394; Thomas Goold, 396; Thomas Shepard, 396; John Greene, 396; John Morley, 397; Ezekiel Cheever, 397 ; Samuel Phipps, 397 ; Lawrence Hammond, 399; Richard Sprague, the younger, 399; Robert Sedgwick, 399; Francis Norton, 399; Francis Willoughby, 399; Richard Russell, 399-
CHAPTER XII.
ROXBURY IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Francis S. Drake .
ILLUSTRATIONS : William Pynchon, 404; the Curtis Homestead, 406; John Eliot's Chair, 415; Certificate signed by John Eliot and Samuel Danforth, 416.
AUTOGRAPHS : William Pyncheon, 404; John Eliot, 414 ; Thomas Dudley, 417.
401
xi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
DORCHESTER IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Samuel J. Barrows . 423
ILLUSTRATIONS : Pierce House, 431 ; Minot House, 432; Blake House, 433; Tolman House, 434 ; Bridgham House, 435; Richard Mather, 437. AUTOGRAPHS : Roger Clap, 428 ; Ilumphrey Atherton, 428; James Parker, 428; Richard Mather, 438; George Minot, 438 ; Henry Withington, 438.
CHAPTER XIV.
BRIGHTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Francis S. Drake. 439
CHAPTER XV.
WINNISIMMET, RUMNEY MARSH, AND PULLEN POINT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Mellen Chamberlain
445
ILLUSTRATIONS : Deane Winthrop House, 447; Yeaman House, 448; Floyd Mansion, 450. AUTOGRAPHS : Proprietors (Robert Keayne, John Cogan, John Newgate, James Penn, Samuel Cole, George Burden), 451.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE LITERATURE OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Justin Winsor 453 ILLUSTRATIONS : Title of first book printed in Boston, 457 ; Memorandum of Richard Mather, 458; Stanza signed by Benjamin Tompson, 460.
AUTOGRAPHS : Jose Glover, 455; Stephen Daye, 455; Ilenry Dunster, 456; Samuel Green, 456; Marmaduke Johnson, 456; John Foster, 456; Richard Mather, 458 ; Thomas Weld, 458; Anne Bradstreet, 461 ; Michael Wiggles- worth, 461 ; Thomas Shepard, 462; Edward Johnson, 463.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE INDIAN TONGUE AND ITS LITERATURE. J. Hammond Trumbull 465
ILLUSTRATIONS : Title to the Indian Bible, 469; the Massachusetts Psalter, 476; the Indian Primer, 47S. AUTOGRAPHS: John Cotton the younger, 470; James Printer, 477.
CHAPTER XVIII.
LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Horace E. Scudder . 481
ILLUSTRATIONS: Bill of Lading (1632), 490; Adam Winthrop's Pot, 491; the Stocks, 506; the Pillory, 507; Rebecca Rawson, 519.
AUTOGRAPHS : Samuel Cole, 493; George Monck, 494; Nehemiah Bourne, 498; Hezekiah Usher, 500; John Usher, 500; John Dunton, 500; Samuel Fuller, 501.
CHAPTER XIX.
TOPOGRAPHY AND LANDMARKS OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD. Edwin L. Bynner . 521 ILLUSTRATIONS : Wood's Map of Boston and Vicinity (1634), 524; the Tramount, 525 ; section of Bonner's Map (1722), 526; Plan of the Summit of Beacon Hill, 527 ; West Hill in 1775, 528; the Old Feather Store, 547; Old House in Salem Street, 551.
xii
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER XX.
BOSTON FAMILIES PRIOR TO 1700. William H. Whitmore . 557
ILLUSTRATIONS : Isaac Addington, 576; Mrs. Jane Addington, 577 ; Simeon Stoddard, 583; Colonel Samuel Shrimpton, 584; Mrs. Shrimpton, 585; Increase Mather, 587.
AUTOGRAPHS : Isaac Addington, 575; Penn Townsend, 575 ; Humphrey Davie, 578; Edward Hutchinson, 579; Peter Oliver, 580; Thomas Brattle, 5So ; Edward Tyng, 5SI ; Anthony Stoddard, 583; Samuel Shrimpton, 584; Peter Sergeant, 585; Increase Mather, 587 ; Crescentius Matherus, 587.
INDEX .
589
INTRODUCTION.
W HEN, in 1730, a hundred years had passed from the foundation of the town, a commemoration was proposed ; but the community was then suffering under a visitation of the small-pox, and the anniversary was not observed, except by one or two pulpit ministrations. The Rev. Mr. Foxcroft preached a century sermon 1 at the First Church, and Thomas Prince, in the previous May, made the annual election sermon 2 an admoni- tion of the event. A fit celebration, however, took place on the second centennial, in 1830, and Josiah Quincy - who, after he had left the chief magistracy of the city, had taken the presidency of the neighboring uni- versity -was selected to deliver an address in the Old South, and Charles Sprague, who had shown his powers on more than one earlier occasion, read the ode,3 which is preserved in the volume of his Writings. The address was printed, and in some sort it became the basis of The Municipal History of Boston which Mr. Quincy printed in 1852. This volume gives a full exposition of the city's history after the town obtained a charter, and during the administrations of the first and second mayors (Phillips and Quincy) ; but it contains only a cursory sketch of the earlier chronicles.4 This part of its story, however, had already been but recently told.
As early as 1794 Thomas Pemberton printed A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston.5 A limit of sixty pages, however, could afford only a glimpse of the town's history. It nevertheless formed the basis upon which Charles Shaw worked, as shown in his little duodecimo
1 Observations, Historical and Practical, on the Rise and Primitive State of New England, with a special reference to the old or first gathered Church in Boston.
2 The People of New England put in mind of the Righteous Acts of the Lord to them and their Fathers.
3 A fac-simile of a part of this ode is given on p. 246.
4 Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, PP. 444, 501.
5 Mass. Hist. Coll., iii. 241-304. There are manuscripts of Pemberton's in the Society's Cabinet.
xiv
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of 311 pages which he published in 18171 under the same title, A Topo- graphical and Historical Description of Boston. In 1821 Mr. J. G. Ilales, to whom we owe the most important map of Boston issued in his day, published a little descriptive Survey of Boston and Vicinity. Four years later, in 1825, Dr. Caleb Hopkins Snow printed his History of Boston, to which an appendix was subsequently added, and in 1828 what is called a second edition seems to have been merely a reissue of the same sheets with a new title 2 and index, to satisfy the interest, perhaps, arising from the approaching centennial. Snow's labor was creditable, and his examina- tion of the records in regard to the sites of the carly settlers' habitations and other landmarks was careful enough to make his work still useful.3 The next year, 1829, Bowen, its publisher, issued his own Picture of Bos- ton,4 which proved the precursor of numerous guide-books.5 In 1848 Nathaniel Dearborn printed his Boston Notions, a medley of statistics and historical descriptions ; and in the same year, 1852, in which Quincy's Mun- icipal History, already mentioned, appeared, Samuel G. Drake began the publication of his History and Antiquities of Boston, which was issued at intervals in parts, till the annals - for this was the form it took - were brought down to 1770, when the publication ceased, in 1856.6 No further special contribution of any importance 7 appeared till the late Dr. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff published, under sanction of the city, during his mayor- alty, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston. The volume is principally made up of papers previously published, chiefly in the Boston Saturday Evening Gasette, which had been amended and enlarged. They relate to various topographical features of the town and harbor, forming a collection of valuable monographs, but in no wise covering even that re- stricted field. Two years later, in 1873, Mr. Samuel Adams Drake, a son of the elder annalist, printed an interesting volume, The Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston, in which the reader is taken a course through the city, while the old sites are pointed out to him, and he is
1 Reprinted in 1818 and 1843.
2 A History of Boston, the Metropolis of Mas- sachusetts, from its Origin to the Present Period, with some account of the Environs. Boston: A. Bowen. 1828.
3 Dr. Snow also published, in 1830, a Geog- raphy of Boston, with Historical Notes, for the younger class of readers. He died in 1835, at less than forty years of age.
4 Other editions in 1833 and 1838.
5 Among them may be classed Boston Sights, by David Pulsifer, 1859.
6 An examination of it was made in the North
American Review, vol. Ixxxiii., by William H. Whitmore. Lucius Manlius Sargent printed a little tract, Notices of Histories of Boston, in 18 57. The City Government had taken steps to print a continuation of Drake, when his death put a stop to the project.
7 There was a small History of Boston, by J. S. Homans, published in 1856, and an anony- mous Historical Sketch in 1861, beside others of even less interest. The account of Boston in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is by the Rev. G. E. Ellis, D.D. A Boston Antiquarian Club has recently been founded.
XV
INTRODUCTION.
edificd with the story of their associations. This is the last acquisition to the illustrative literature of Boston, apart from the numerous guide- books which have filled from time to time their temporary mission.
The outlying districts of Boston have each had their historians. A large History of East Boston, with Biographical Sketches of its carly Proprictors was printed by the late General William H. Sumner in 1858, the author being a descendant of the Shrimptons and other carly occupants and pro- prietors of the island. A History of South Boston, by Thomas C. Simonds, was published in 1857. General H. A. S. Dearborn delivered a second cen- tennial address at Roxbury in 1830. Mr. C. M. Ellis issued a History of Rox- bury Town in 1847. Mr. Francis S. Drake, another son of the annalist, did for Roxbury much the same service that his brother had done for the orig- inal Boston, when The Town of Roxbury, its Memorable Persons and Places, appeared in 1878. For Dorchester, there is the History published by the Dorchester Historical and Antiquarian Society, and other publications bearing their approval, which are enumerated in another part of the present volume.1 Of Brighton there is no distinct history ; but a sketch prepared by the Rev. Frederic A. Whitney forms part of the recently published His- tory of Middlesex County, which contains also a brief sketch of Charles- town. This is based in good part, as all accounts of that town must be for the period ending with the Revolution, on the History of Charlestown, by Richard Frothingham, the publication of which was begun in numbers in 1845 and never finished, - seven numbers only being published. A very elaborate work, The Gencalogies and Estates of Charlestown by Thomas Bellows Wyman, the result of nearly forty years' application to the subject, was published in 1879, the year following the author's death, the editing of it having been completed by Mr. Henry H. Edes. Mention should also be made of the earlier Historical Sketch by Dr. Bartlett, 1814, and Mr. Everett's commemoration of the second centennial in 1830.2 Those regions, no longer within the limits of Boston but once a part of the town, have also their special records. Muddy River, now Brookline, has had its history set forth in several discourses by the late venerable Dr. Pierce, in an address by the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, and in the more formal Historical Sketches by H. F. Woods. The Records of Muddy River, extracted in part from the Boston Records, have also been printed by the town. Mount Wollaston, or " The Mount " as it was usually called when the people of Boston had their farms there, has recently given occasion to an elaborate History of Old Braintree
1 The church history of Dorchester has been
2 The church history of Charlestown has specially commemorated by Harris, Pierce, Cod- been particularly elucidated by Budington, man, Hall, Allen, Means, and Barrows.
Ellis, Hunnewell, and Edes.
xvi
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
and Quincy, by William S. Pattee, 1878, while there have been carlier con- tributions by Hancock, Lunt, Storrs, Whitney, and Adams. Of Pullen Point and Winnissimet there have been no formal records printed.
As full a list as has ever been printed of the great variety of local publications which must contribute to the completeness of the history of Boston has been given by Mr. Frederic B. Perkins, in his Check-list of Anterican Local History, 1876, many of which titles, of particular applica- tion, will be referred to in the foot-notes and editorial annotations through- out these volumes.
Chief among such are the numerous discourses and other monographs which have been given to the history of the churches of Boston.1 Their history has also been made a part of such general accounts of the progress of religious belief in New England as Felt's Ecclesiastical History. This is in the form of annals; and John Eliot's " Ecclesiastical History of Plymouth and Massachusetts," as begun in the Mass. Hist. Collections, vii., has a similar scopc. In this place it would be unpardonable to overlook one or two chap- ters of the elaborate treatises of the Rev. Dr. Henry M. Dexter on Con- gregationalism as scen in its Literature2 Boston formed so considerable a part of the colony, and the theocracy which ruled its people influenced so largely their history, that it is not easy to separate wholly the local from the general, and it certainly was not done by the carlier writers. Win- throp's Journal, which is called, however, in the printed book, a History of New England, tells us more than we get elsewhere of the course of events in Boston for nearly twenty years after the settlement.3 This can
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.