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Go 974.402 B65lar 1788694
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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= ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 8924
The Site of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Boston and Its Reighborhood
BY ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE, M.D.
ARTI et VERITATT
BOSTON RICHARD G. BADGER, PUBLISHER The Gorham Press MCMXVI
1:88694 St. Paul's Cathedral
1008851
..
Boston Common in 1809
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/siteofsaintpauls00lawr_0
84.41 .492
Lawrence, Robert Means, 1847-
The site of Saint Paul's cathedral, Boston, and its neighborhood, by Robert Means Lawrence, M. D. Boston, R. G. Badger, 1916.
299 p. front., plates. 24cm. $3.50
."During a period of nearly two centuries, from ... 1630 to the crection of Saint Paul's church in 1820, the tract bounded by Tremont, Winter, West and Washington streets was open land ... It is our object to give some information, derived from all available sources, regarding the owners and occupants of the land in that vicinity."
SHELF CLOUD "Principal sources of information" : p. 283-284.
1. Boston-Streets-Tremont street. 2. Real property-Boston. 3. Bos- ton-Biog. 4. Boston. St. Paul's church. I. Title.
16-18626
A 941 Library of Congress
F73.67.T7L4
Copyright A 437693
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE SITE . I3
Tremont Street 22
Avery Street . 27
Hogg Alley
3I
II. THE NORTH LOT
35
Robert Wyard, Bricklayer 37
John Wampas, Indian 39
Joshua Hewes
50
John Bushell, Printer 59
Thomas Bumstead, Coachmaker 65
Captain Levi Pease, Stage-coach Owner 66
Nathan Bond, Merchant 78
Benjamin Callender, Tailor 80
John Osborn, Importer .
81
III. THE SOUTH LOT 83
James Johnson, Glover . 85
· George Burden, Shoemaker
86
Henry Webb, Merchant 87
Samuel Ballard . 92 Purchase of a Site for Saint Paul's Church 94 The Vergoose or Goose Family 95
IV. THE CENTER LOT
103
Ten-Foot Strip . 105
William Parsons, Emigrant
105
'5
1
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ' PAGE
Hezekiah Usher, Bookseller 107
John West, Secretary 113 Major-General Waitstill Winthrop 115
Francis Wainwright II8
Addington Davenport 119
Jonathan Williams . 122
The Reverend Roger Price 129
Sheriff Stephen Greenleaf I33
General Henry Jackson . I35
John Coffin Jones 136
James Swan . 137
Washington Gardens 14I
Saint Paul's Church . 144
The Masonic Temple 147
Recreation Facilities 149
V. THE LEVERETT LOT . 155
Leverett's Pasture 157
Simon Lynde . 159
John Hull, Mintmaster . 160
Captain Ephraim Savage 163
Chief Justice Paul Dudley 167 James Williams, Cooper I68
James Pitts, Patriot . 168
Edward Durant . 172
Jeremiah Smith Boies 174 Doctor Thomas Bartlett 176
VI. WINTER STREET LOTS . 18I
Doctor John Graham 183
6
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
Doctor George Hayward 183
Doctor John Homans 184
The North Corner of Tremont and Winter
Streets
185
William Hudson, Senior
I86
.
Arthur Mason, Biscuit Maker .
189
Anthony Stoddard, Linen Draper
190
Edmund White, Merchant .
191
Captain Edward Willis .
192
Colonel Samuel Vetch
193
Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Winthrop
196
·
Thomas Oxnard . 196
The Public Granary . 198
John Williams, Inspector-General . 199
Hugh Percy
200
Travelers' Impressions of Boston 207
Samuel Breck 210
John Andrews, Merchant 212
William Phillips .
215
Other Winter Street Lots adjoining the
Cathedral Site .
216
John Eyre 218
Thomas Brattle
219
James Fosdick
222
John Goodwin
224
The Reverend Samuel Willard .
225
Giles Dyer, Deputy Collector
227
The Lot on the Westerly Corner of Winter
Street and Winter Place .
.
228
7
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
Doctor Edward Ellis 229
Doctor Sylvester Gardiner 23I .
John Boies
235
Samuel Adams, Patriot . 236
Isaiah Thomas, Printer .
·
239
Colonel Samuel Swett 242
Other Winter Street Residents . ·
244
Ezekiel Price, Secretary 248
Thomas William Parsons, Poet 249
Blott's Corner
25I
VII. TREMONT STREET NEIGHBORS 257
Daniel Maud . 259
Edward Bromfield, Representative .262
Captain Adino Paddock 266
The Manufactory House 27I
The Spinning Craze . 273
Bumstead Place .
276
The Haymarket and Vicinity 280
Temple Place
276
8
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Boston Common in 1809 Frontispiece From the Collections of the Bostonian Society
FACING PAGE
The Tremont Street Mall in 1843
76
From the Collections of the Bostonian Society
The Old Masonic Temple about 1870
148
View of a Part of Boston Common in 1768
. 282
From a water-color drawing in the Possession of the
Concord Antiquarian Society
THE SITE OF SAINT PAUL'S CATHE- DRAL, BOSTON, AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
I love this old place where I was born; the heart of the world beats under the three hills of Boston. . . .
I never thought he would come to good when I heard him attempting to sneer at an unoffending city so respectable as Boston. After a man begins to at- tack the State House; when he gets bitter about the Frog Pond, you may be sure there is not much left of him. O. W. HOLMES.
-
THE SITE OF SAINT PAUL'S CATHE- DRAL, BOSTON, AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
The Site
D URING a period of nearly two centuries, from the founding of Boston in the year 1630 to the erection of Saint Paul's Church in 1820, the tract bounded by Tremont, Winter, West and Washington Streets was open land, consisting of gardens and pas- tures, dotted here and there with wooden dwelling- houses, barns, sheds, trees and orchards.
It is our object to give some information, derived from all available sources, regarding the owners and occupants of the land in that vicinity.
The streets which surround the above-mentioned tract were originally lanes, through which the early settlers drove their cows to pasture on the Common, or among "the blueberry bushes on Beacon Hill," and their location remains practically unchanged.
It was a land of divers and sundry sorts, all about Masathulets Bay, wrote the Reverend Mr. Higge- son, in his New England Plantation, 1629; and at Charles River was to be found as fat, black earth as could be seen anywhere; while in other places in the
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ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
neighborhood the chief ingredients of the soil were gravel, clay and sand.
A member of Governor Winthrop's Company wrote down some impressions of the peninsula soon after his arrival, and while the houses of the colonists were being built.
He mentioned "goodly groups of trees ; dainty, fine, round, rising hillocks; delicate, fair, large plains; sweet, crystal fountains, and clear running streams that turn in fine meanders through the meads, mak- ing so sweet a murmuring noise to hear, as would ever lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly do they glide upon the pebble-stones, jetting most jocundly when they meet."
By way of contrast it may not be amiss to quote the words of another early emigrant, who returned to England in the Autumn of 1630, and who appears to have been discouraged at the prospect of wintering on the shores of Massachusetts, which he described as a hideous wilderness, possessed with barbarous Indians, very cold, sickly, rocky, barren, unfit for cul- ture, and "like to keep the people miserable."
Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, in his Won- der-working Providence, thus describes the town of Boston, as it appeared to him during the period im- mediately following its founding: "Invironed it is
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AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
· with brinous flouds, saving one small Istmos, which gives free access to the Neighbour Townes by Land on the South side; on the North-west and North- east, two constant Faires [Ferries] are kept for daily traffique thereunto. The chiefe Edifice of this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-bankes, and wharfed out with great industry and cost, the buildings beautiful and large, some fairely set forth with Brick, Tile, Stone and Slate, and orderly placed with comly streets, whose continuall enlargement presages some sumptuous City.
"But now behold the admirable acts of Christ; at this his peoples landing, the hideous thickets in this place were such that Wolves and Beares nurst up their young from the eyes of all beholders, in those very places where the streets are full of Girles and Boys sporting up and downe, with a continued concourse of people."
In the year 1662 the Town authorities appointed eight watchmen for night service. They were in- structed "Silentlie but vigilantlie" to patrol the streets two by two, "a youth allwayes joyned with an elder and more sober person," and two to be always about the Market Place. If they saw any lights after ten o'clock at night, they were to enquire whether a warrantable cause existed therefor; and if they heard
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ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
a noise or disorderly carriage in any house, they were to ascertain the reason thereof. Should it prove to be a real disorder, as for example that men were dancing, drinking, or vainly singing, the watchmen were to admonish discreetly the offending parties; and if this did not avail, they were to call the Captain of the watch, "who shall see to the redresse of it, and take the names of the persons, to acquaint authoritie therewith."1
Edward H. Savage, in his Police Records and Recollections, stated that in the earliest days of the Colony, wolves and bears sometimes came into the Town and carried off young lambs and kids. Strag- gling Indians also paid nocturnal visits without eti- quette or scruple in regard to the ownership of per- sonal property; and there were moreover among the inhabitants, according to the above-mentioned au- thority, quite a number of rogues and thieves, a law- less element which so often thrives in new communi- ties. That hoodlums were in evidence at a much later period is apparent from the following official Notice:
"Columbian Centinel "Novr. 30, 1799. "10 DOLLARS REWARD.
"WHEREAS complaints are made by several of the Lamp-Lighters of the Town, that they are often ' Boston Town Records.
16
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
assaulted with stones and otherwise insulted by col- lections of Boys in the streets, while lighting the lamps in the several wards; by which means their lives and limbs are endangered, and many of the Lamps also broken-The Selectmen hereby invite the Inhab- itants to give their aid in preventing such dangerous outrages. And they hereby offer a reward of Ten Dollars to any person who shall inform against any, who may wantonly break any Lamp belonging to the Town, on conviction thereof.
"By order of the "Selectmen, "WILLIAM COOPER, "Town-Clerk."
The newly-arrived colonists were apprehensive lest winter should surprise them before they could build their houses. At first the branches of neighboring trees afforded their only shelter. A few of them are said to have found refuge in caves, but no vestiges of such habitations have been found. Meanwhile they were building log cabins and cottages. But for many years after the founding of Boston, their habi- tations were mostly of flimsy construction, with thatched roofs. So economical were the first settlers, that Governor Winthrop reproved his deputy for nail- ing clapboards on his house, saying that he "did not well to bestow so much cost about the wainscoting,
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ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
and adorning his house, in the beginning of a Planta- tion, in regard of the public charges and for example." Mention is made in the Town Records, April 29, 1639, of "Mr. Robert Keayne's Mud Wall house."
John Josselyn, an Englishman, at the time of his second visit to Boston in 1663, thus wrote:
The houses are for the most part raised on the sea- banks, and wharfed out with great industry and cost; many of them standing upon piles, close together on each side of the streets, as in London, and furnished with many fair shops. Their materials are brick, stone, lime, handsomely contrived, with three Meet- ing-houses or Churches, and a Town-house, built upon pillars, where the merchants may confer. In the chambers above they keep their monthly Courts. The town is rich and populous. On the south there is a small but pleasant Common, where the Gallants, a little before sunset, walk with their Marmelet-Ma- dams, as we do in Morefields, till the nine-o'clock bell rings them home to their respective habitations; when presently the Constables walk their rounds to see good order kept, and to take up loose people.
Mr. Edward Ward, of London, who visited Bos- ton in 1699, wrote as follows: "The Houses in some parts join, as in London; the Buildings, like their women, being Neat and Handsome. In the
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AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
Chief or High Street there are stately Edifices, some of which have cost the owners two or three thousand Pounds the raising. . To the glory of Re- ligion and the Credit of the Town, there are four Churches, built with Clap-boards and Shingles, after the Fashion of our Meeting-houses. Their Churches are independent, every Congregation or Assembly, in Ecclesiastical affairs, being distinctly governed by their own Elders and Deacons, who in their Turns set the psalms; and the former are as busie on Sun- days to excite the people to a Liberal Contribution, as our Church-Wardens at Easter and Christmas are with their dishes to make a Collection for the Poor."
This scurrilous writer affirmed that the site of New England's Metropolis was bought from the Indians by the first colonists for a bushel of wampum and a bottle of rum. Lobsters and codfish, he wrote, were so plentiful that they were regarded with contempt; and it was as much of a scandal for a poor man to carry such sea food through Boston's streets, as it was for a London Alderman to be seen transporting a groat's worth of herring from Billingsgate Market to his own house.
The Royal Commissioners, sent over by King Charles II, to correct whatever errors or abuses they might find in the administration of Governor Richard
19
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
Bellingham of Massachusetts, prepared in the year 1666 a description of Boston, which they described as the chief Town in the Country, and seated upon a peninsula in the bottom of a Bay, which is a good harbor and full of fish. Their houses are generally wooden, their streets crooked, with little decency and no uniformity ; and there, neither months, days, seasons of the year, Churches nor Inns are known by their English names.
Already at this time, after the lapse of a genera- tion since the arrival of Governor Winthrop and his company, Boston had made rapid progress in growth, wealth and beauty. The more pretentious houses were in the neighborhood of the market-place, where the Old State-House now is. But commodi- ous dwellings had also been built on Common Street and at the north end. The Town had a "half-rural, half-fortified and wholly prosperous appearance."1
An idea of one type of domicile in Boston two centuries or more ago, may be had from a permit issued to James Brown in 1708, to erect a timber building for a dwelling-house, 39 by 20 feet, and 32 feet stud, with a flat roof, on his land at the south corner of Winter and Washington Streets, where
' Eliza Buckminster Lee. Naomi, or Boston two hundred years ago.
20
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
Thomas Bannister had previously lived; "and for the better security thereof in case of fire, he will carry up the Northerly side of the said building with a Brick Wall extending two foot higher than the timber- work. And he will make Battlements on the roof thereto."
The lots on Tremont Street, fronting the Common, may once have served as a vantage-ground, whence the mischievous boys of the Town, in a spirit of play- fulness, could easily pelt the cows browsing on the historic training-field, with handy missiles. How else can one explain the following extract from the Town Records, April 30, 1657, wherein the Common ap- pears to have been credited with human sensibilities?
"Whereas the Common is att times much annoyed by casting stones outt of the bordering lotts, and other things that are offensive; it is therefore ordered that if any person shall hereafter anyway annoy the Common by spreading stones or other trash upon it, . every person so offending shall bee fined twenty shillings."
One. may learn some interesting particulars re- garding the Boston of 1687 from the Narrative of a French Protestant refugee, from which we quote:1 "There is not a house in Boston, however small may
' The Historical Magazine. Vol. II. Second Series. 1867.
21
8
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
be its means, that has not one or two negroes. You employ savages to work your fields, in considera- tion of one shilling and a half a day and board, which is eighteen pence. . . . Negroes cost from twenty to forty pistoles, provided they are skilful or robust; there is no danger that they will leave you; for the moment one is missing from the town, you have only to notify the savages, who, provided you promise them something and describe the man to them, he is right soon found. Pasturage abounds here. An ox costs from twelve to fifteen crowns; a cow, eight or ten; horses, from ten to fifty crowns, and in plenty. There are even wild ones in the woods, which are yours, if you can catch them. . . If our poor refugee brethren, who understand tilling land, should come thence, they could not fail of living very com- fortably and getting rich; for the English are very inefficient, and understand only their Indian corn and cattle."
Tremont Street
T HE present Trea-mount or Tremont Street was early known as "the High-way," and its south- erly portion was hardly more than a rough wagon- road across the eastern border of the Common, when
22
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
4
, the latter extended to Mason Street. One writer por- trayed it as a grassy lane, winding around the base of the cluster of three hills, which rose from the pen- insula, where the little trading town had been planted. In the latter part of the seventeenth century it was described as "the way leading from the mansion- house of the late Simon Lynde Esq. (in the neigh- borhood of Howard Street), by Captain Southack's, extending as far as Colonel Townsend's corner" (the . northwest corner of Beacon Street). This thorough- fare was named Tra-Mount Street by the Town, May 3, 1708, and its official description was "the Way lead- ing from Melyen's Corner (the site of the present Tremont Building), near Colonel Townsend's, pass- ing through the Common, along by Mr. Sheaf's, into Frog Lane." The southerly portion received the name of Common Street, which it retained until 1844. The northerly part was called Long Acre in Provincial times. In early deeds Beacon Street was described as "the Lane leading to the Alms-house," which was built in 1662 at the head of Park Street.
According to local historians, the low-lying por- tion of the Common, near Charles Street, was a marsh or swamp in the early days of the Town. It was therefore a natural habitat of those noisy batrachians, whose hoarse, guttural cries doubtless suggested the
23
.
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
name Frog Lane, which was changed to Boylston Street about the year 1809, in honor of the noted physician, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston. Frog Lane ran from the Liberty Tree on Orange Street to the marsh which bordered on the waters of the Back Bay. In 1732 it was described as leading from Welles's Cor- ner to the Sea at the bottom of the Common.
Winter Street was first called Blott's Lane, after- wards Bannister's Lane. In 1708 it received its pres- ent name and was described as "the Way from Ellise's Corner, nigh the upper end of Summer Street, lead- ing westerly into the Common." In like manner West Street led "from Cowell's Corner in Newbury (now Washington Street ) to the Common." Temple Place was known as Turnagain Alley, and its modern title was derived from the Masonic Temple, finished in 1832, which formerly adjoined Saint Paul's Church on the south.
In the Division of Wards, in the year 1713, "Turn- again Ally" was described as being in Newberry Ward or Precinct.
According to common report the streets of Boston follow the lines of the original cow paths. In a de- scription of the Boston of 1686, a writer refers to its main thoroughfare as "winding about like a huge serpent, its Head being by the Towne Hall, while its
24
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
,Tail loseth itself somewhere on the Neck, near a league distant, where standeth the gallows." New- bury Street, which formerly was a part of the "High Waye toward Roxburie," was the only avenue from the peninsula to the mainland over the lonely and barren Neck, and was described in 1701 as "The street from ye corner of the House in ye tenure of Captain Turfrey" (probably on the corner of Essex Street), "nigh Deacon Eliot's Corner" (at Boylston Street), "leading into Town by the house of Samuel Sewall, Esq., as far as Doct. Oke's Corner." Dr. Thomas Oakes was a noted practitioner, a Harvard graduate and a Representative to the General Court. John Dunton, a witty and garrulous English bookseller, who visited Boston about the year 1686, expressed the opinion that Doctor Oakes was the greatest Es- culapius in the country. More than a century later, in 1800, Newbury Street led from "Mr. Morse's Cor- ner Store, head of Essex Street, to Dr. Jarvis's Cor- ner at the turning to Trinity Church." In 1824 it be- came a part of Washington Street.
Boston became noted at an early period on account of the large number of its lanes and alley-ways; and there appears to have been a close affinity between them and the taverns and coffee-houses, where citi- zens of all classes were wont to resort. If only the
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ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
ancient names of these modest thoroughfares had been retained, how much more of historic interest would be associated with them! Can it be seriously main- tained that Kilby Street is a better name than Mack- erel Lane, or that Prince Street is an improvement over Black Horse Lane? A portion of Broad Street was formerly Flounder Alley, and the present High Street was known as Cow Lane. Samuel Gardner Drake, the historian, deprecated the prevalent cus- tom of continually changing the names of streets. Oftentimes these changes appeared to have no better foundation than mere caprice. Whoever was re- sponsible, he wrote, for abolishing Pudding Lane in favor of Devonshire Street, should never again have been allowed to taste any pudding during his natural life!
Salutation Alley, at the North End, derived its name from the Salutation Inn, whose sign represented two fashionably attired gentlemen in the act of greeting each other.
Pig Lane was the ancient title of Parsons Street in Brighton, and Tileston Street at the North End was formerly Love Lane.
26
1
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
Avery Street
TN the early years of the Colony, Avery Street was called Coleburn's Lane, after William Coleburn, who is mentioned in the Book of Possessions as hav- ing a house and garden on the northwest corner of Washington and Boylston Streets. He also owned a large tract at the South End of Boston, which was known as "Colbron's Field." Mr. Coleburn was prom- inent in town affairs, and served as a Selectman many years. Early in the eighteenth century the present Avery Street received the title of Sheafe's Lane, which it retained for about a hundred years.
In the map accompanying the first Boston Direc- tory, in 1789, it is called "Sheep Lane," and in the Directory of 1805 it is described as leading from Newbury Street to the Hay Market Tavern.
The Sheafe family was well known in New Eng- land. Henry Sheafe was a merchant, and the wharfinger of Hancock's Wharf, at the foot of Bat- tery Street. He was also the Keeper of the State Ar- senal. Early in the nineteenth century an ambitious owner of real estate in the vicinity petitioned to have Sheafe's Lane renamed a street, doubtless reasoning that the value of his property might thereby be in-
27
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL SITE
creased.1 It was given the name of Avery Street in 1826. From the earliest days it has been so nar- row that vehicles with difficulty passed each other at any point. At length, in 1914, this contracted thoroughfare was widened from an average breadth of thirteen feet to about twenty-eight feet.
John Avery, Senior (1711-1796), had a dwelling- house, shop, barn and woodhouse on the south cor- ner of Newbury Street and Sheafe's Lane, afterward known as Avery's Corner. He was a native of Truro, on Cape Cod, where his boyhood was passed. After graduating at Harvard College in 1731, he went into business and became one of Boston's well-known merchants. He also was the owner of a distillery, and in the Assessor's "Taking Book" of 1780 he is styled a distiller. Mr. Avery was a Justice of the Peace for some thirty years.
The following advertisement appeared in a Boston newspaper, May 24, 1761 : "A parcel of hearty, likely negroes, imported the last week from Africa, to be sold. Enquire of Capt. Wickham or Mr. John Avery, at his house, near the 'White Horse,' in New- bury Street." The White Horse Tavern was es- tablished as early as 1724, and its site adjoins the present Park Theater. . John Avery, the 1 The Bostonian Society's Publications. Volume V. 1910.
28
AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
younger (1739-1806), Harvard College, 1759, after serving for several years as Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, succeeded Samuel Adams as Secre- tary in 1780 and held that position for a quarter of a century. We quote again from the Town Direc- tories. In that of 1789 is to be found the name of John Avery, junior, Esq., Secretary of the State; Office in the Province House, in the room adjoining the Council House. In 1798 his office was in "the new State House, Beacon Street." . There appears to be no reason for associating, even re- motely, these good citizens of Boston with John Avery the pirate, whose depredations in the Red Sea and neighboring waters in 1695 were a source of alarm to mariners.
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