USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1 > Part 4
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The recognition of these historical papers as of permanent value was immediate, and gave him great satisfaction. Espe- cially agreeable to him was the appreciation of his . views shown by a French historian, M. Charles Borgeaud, in his "Établissement et Révision des Constitutions en Amérique et en Europe," who quotes at some length from his " Revolu- tion Impending," and adds, "it would be difficult to indicate more clearly the real character of the American Revolution."
In 1890 Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. published a selec- tion of the more important of Judge Chamberlain's writings in a volume of 476 pages, 8vo, under the editorial supervision of Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. The book had a most cordial reception from scholars and the lit- erary journals, and immediately passed into a second edition. The title was "John Adams the Statesman of the American Revolution, with other Essays and Addresses, Historical and Literary." The contents comprised, besides the titular address, the one before the American Historical Association, and three articles selected from the Proceedings of this Society. There were also added a review of McMaster's " History of the People of the United States," reprinted from " The Andover Review," June, 1886, and one of Palfrey's " History of New England," taken from " The Nation " of July 10, 1890. Besides these there were also included various occasional addresses and a few literary articles from periodicals. The titles of these will be given here in order that the list of his published writings may be complete ; they comprise " Remarks on Daniel Webster as an Orator," made at the dinner of the Alumni of Dart- mouth College, June 28, 1882, and an address at a later diner on the occasion of the Dedication of a Statue of Daniel Web- ster. At the dedication of Wilson Hall, Dartmouth College Library, June 25, 1885, he made the principal address on " The Scope of a College Library." To the "Dartmouth Monthly," October, 1886, he contributed an article on " Land- scape in Life and in Poetry "; and at the dedication of the Brooks Library Building at Brattleborough, Vermont, January 25, 1887, he delivered the principal address on " The Old and the New Order in New England Life and
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MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN
Letters." On December 30 of the same year he performed the same service at the dedication of the Woods Memorial Library Building, at Barre, Massachusetts; the subject of his address was " Imaginative Literature in Public Libraries." Before the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Good Citi- zeuship he delivered an address, at Boston, on February 25, 1889, on " Josialı Quincy, the Great Mayor." To the " Cen- tury Magazine," September, 1893, he contributed an article entitled " A Glance at Daniel Webster," and he read a paper before the Bostonian Society, on December 12 of the same year, on " Political Maxims." The latest of these occasional addresses was made at a dinner of the Sons of the American Revolution at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1894.
The literary quality which marks the style of these addresses and essays is uncommon. No one can read the volume through without recognizing their charm, and feeling regret that their amount is so limited. The present writer has previously re- marked that, in his opinion, for sound scholarship, critical sagacity, sober judgment, and catholicity of taste the volume ranks as equal to any that our generation has produced, and he expressed the belief that it would long hold a cherished place upon the shelves of the lovers of refined literature. The literary critic of the " New York Times " goes still farther in his commendation of Judge Chamberlain's style. In "a reply to correspondents," January 7, 1899, he says : "Letters come to the editor now and then asking for his advice as to the for- mation of a good style, as to learning how to write, or as to what is good style. They are the most difficult questions to answer. But in answer to all such appeals we would say, read Judge Chamberlain's volume. Spend some days and nights with Addison, if you will, but keep others for the Judge."
Judge Chamberlain's interest in historical studies, so early manifested, received an equally early recognition. He was elected a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, when he was only nineteen years old, the youngest member ever chosen. Shortly afterwards he was made a Correspond- ing Member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen, Denmark. Besides his membership in our own Society he was elected a Corresponding Member of the New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania Historical
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MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN
Societies, and a Resident Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in the Class of Political Economy and History.
His professional and public duties would seem to have left him little time for other work; but after he came to the Public Library we have seen that he was frequently called upon to deliver addresses, and his stores of knowledge were always at the service of those who sought him; his help was often asked by writers whose researches had led them to the literary treasures under his keeping ; this was freely and gladly rendered, and has often been gratefully acknowledged.
Judge Chamberlain was of a very social disposition, a most agreeable companion, delightful in conversation, -a truly " clubable man," as Dr. Johnson called Boswell ; and his membership in the St. Botolph and Tavern Clubs was a source of great happiness to him in his later years.
For several years his health had been precarious, and finally disease of the heart, accompanied by an acute attack of Bright's disease, developed, and he died on the 25th of June, 1900, having just completed his seventy-ninth year. His funeral took place from the little Congregational Trinitarian Church near his home, with which he had been connected more than twenty years, having been a member of the com- mittee which erected it. The services were very largely attended by members of the city government of Chelsea, representatives of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library, and members of this Society, besides many relatives and friends. His body was laid to rest in Danvers Cemetery by the side of his wife, in accordance with his own request.
Twenty years before his death he had printed in a local newspaper " The History of Winnisinimet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point"; and several years subsequently the city of Chelsea appropriated a few hundred dollars to be expended by him in gathering materials and expanding his work. He continued at this task steadily for years, but it grew rapidly under his hands, and after the unexpected discovery of new material, it became apparent to him that he would not live to complete it. He accordingly made provision by his last will that the unfinished material should be placed in the pos- session of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the sum of $5,000 be paid over to it by his executors to complete and
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MEMOIR OF MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN
print the work, with an additional two-ninths of the residue of his estate, after the payment of certain legacies.
At first certain of the heirs-at-law threatened to oppose the probating the will, on account of their objection to some bequests contained in it, - not, however, to those given to this Society. These objections were ultimately withdrawn, and the will allowed, and at the Annual Meeting of this Society in April, 1901, the President announced the receipt from the executors of the incomplete manuscript of The History of Chelsea, with ten bound folio volumes of manuscripts, plans, engravings, photographs, etc., used in its preparation. Two years later, at the Annual Meeting in 1903, the Treasurer reported that some questions had arisen under the will, and the instructions of the Supreme Judicial Court had been re- quested ; it was expected that these would soon be handed down, when it could be ascertained just what sum would be available for the purposes intended by Judge Chamberlain, but that it would be much less than had been anticipated by him. At the December meeting of the same year the Treas- urer informed the Society that a part of the bequest had been paid over, and thereupon a committee, consisting of the President, the Treasurer, and the present writer, was ap- pointed to publish The History of Chelsea. At the following Annual Meeting in April, 1904, the Treasurer reported that he had received from the executors the sum of $5,520 on account of the bequest, and that a further sum of about all equal amount was expected on the final settlement of the estate.
The Committee of Publication has intrusted the prepara- tion for the press of the manuscript and illustrative ma- terial to Miss Jeuny Chamberlain Watts, a relative of Judge Chamberlain, who had proved her capacity for such work by her valuable notes contributed to " The Diary of John Quincy Adams," published in the Proceedings of this Society, and other literary work ; and to Mr. William R. Cutter, Librarian of the Woburn Public Library, the author of the History of Arlington ; and it is expected that the printing of the history will be begun in the immediate future.
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HISTORY OF CHELSEA
CHAPTER I
F ROM 1739 to 1846, Chelsea included the present city of the same name, with the towns of Revere and Winthrop, all of which, from 1634 to January 10, 1738/9, were parts of Boston, and severally known as Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point. In 1739 1 this territory, on the petition of its inhabitants, but with the strenuous opposition of Boston, was set off and incorporated as the town of Chelsea; from that date its municipal history begins. But for a hundred years these outlying communities, though parts of Boston and subject to its municipal control, had lives and interests not quite the same as those of the principal settlement, from which they were separated by more than a mile of water, the confluence of the Mystic and Charles rivers.
I shall, therefore, give some account of this region, and of its inhabitants, when first settled by Englishmen; and of the life these settlers and their descendants.led, so far as I may from the scanty facts that have been preserved; and, this period passed over, give the municipal history of the town from its civil and ecclesiastical records.
It is no longer possible to trace in their original complete-
1 Non-observance of the difference between old style and new, led to a mistake in the date of the City Seal. Chelsea was set off from Boston and incorporated as a town January 10, 1739. It then included the towns since known as North Chelsea and Winthrop. North Chelsea, including Winthrop, was set off and incorporated as the town of North Chelsea March 19, 1846. Winthrop was set off from North Chelsea and incor- porated March 27, 1852. The name of North Chelsea was changed to Revere March 24, 1871. Chelsea was incorporated as a city March 13, 1857.
VOL. I .- 1
1
2
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. I
ness the features of Winnisimmet, where English planters, as early as 1625, made the first known settlement in the upper bay of Boston. The planters' names, save. Samuel Maverick and John Blackstone, and all evidence of what particular fields they cultivated, and of their pursuits, have passed away. Apart from eneroaclnnents made by the sea on the easterly borders of the town, - wearing away headlands and islands and turn- ing marshes into solid land, - man has wrought changes in both.2
An account of some later changes is still possible. There are those now living who remember, not without regret, the transformation of the bold outline of the Chelsea shore from the slope of the United States Hospital grounds casterly to the foot of Highland Street; and especially of the central elevation, near the present ferry landing, on which, until thirty years ago, stood Judge Samuel Watts' mansion.3 The northerly side of the Government Hill has been reduced to form the plateau for the Marine Hospital. The valley east- erly was partially filled in constructing the approach to Chel- sea Bridge. Judge Watts' mansion site, cast into the sea, now forms Medford and Front streets. Winnisimmet Street, from the Ferry to Broadway Square, has been reduced eight or ten fect, - indicated by the elevation of some houses still standing on its easterly side. The construction of Marginal Street changed the outline of that shore; and the cutting down of Powderhorn Hill, now going on, disfigures the most
2 In 1633 Noddle's Island was estimated at 1000 acres, and the flats about it at 1200 or more; but by survey made about 1800 it contained only . 666 acres of upland and marsh, though great pains had been taken to protect the headlands. A similar change has been long going on among other islands in the harbor, and along the castern shorc. Sumner, East Boston, 9.
3 Position shown on Pelham's Map of Boston and vicinity, 1775. A view is given on the vignette of the Tradesman's Bank bills about 1850. In " Chelsea as It Was," a series of papers by Simcon Butterfield, Esq., an old and respected citizen of Chelsea, printed in the "Chelsea Record," beginning January 14, 1882, it is stated that the house of the Williams' farm, that is the Watts mansion, stood on the spot where the hotel was afterwards built. He gives no authority for the erection of a hotel, and I have always supposed that the' Watts mansion and the hotel were identical buildings. The architecture of the hotel, like that of the Han- cock house, was that of the first half of the eighteenth century. [ See Suff. Deeds, L. 351, f. 153; L. 354 f. 248; L. 410, f. 304.]
3
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
CHAP. I]
conspicuous objeet seen northerly from the great eity. A marked ehange was made in the aspect of Chelsea by the construction of Island End Dam, in 1789, on its southwesterly side and of Eastern Avenue on its easterly side.4 At high- tide the sea once covered these marshes and made the upland peninsula picturesque, and the interseeting ereeks were used for the transportation of farm produce to ships in the har- bor or to the adjacent eity.5
Winnisimmet must have been very attractive to its first visitors, for, looking southward from its shore aeross the ehan- nel, they saw Eagle Hill, the northwesterly and the highest point on Noddle's Island, sloping from an elevation of one hundred and twenty feet to mean low tide; 6 and farther south the Boston Hills and Dorchester Heights, the latter untouched as when their possession by Washington's troops forced the evacuation of Boston by the British army, March 17, 1776. Southwesterly they saw across the Mystic, in Charlestown, Moulton's Point, thirty-five feet high, now razed. Chosen, in 1631, as the site of a fortification to command the river in ease of invasion, it was abandoned, it is said, when the channel was found to hug the Winnisimmet shore beyond the reach of the ordnanee of that day. It was on this point, in full view from the Chelsea shore, that Howe's forees made their first landing at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. The first Eng- lishmen saw other natural seenery now vaguely imagined - when the rivers, unvexed by bridges, ran seaward past shores and around islands, the beauty of which was heightened by primitive forests. No marvel, therefore, that the first settlers
4 See Sumner, East Boston, 555, 572-575.
5 The late George A. Gerrish told me that he had often sailed his pleasure boat from his father's house on Everett Avenue over the marsh at hightide to the Mystic River.
" The original height in feet above mean low tide, of some of the hills in and about Chelsea, was as follows: Fort Hill, about 80; Copp's Hill, 58; Beacon Hill, 138; Breed's Island, 165; Point Shirley, about 60; Winthrop Head, about 90; Beachmont, about 119; Beach View Hill, about 134; Sir Harry Vane Hill, or Mt. Revere, 192; Newgate Hill, or Mountain Avenue, 173; Shurtleff Hill, about 100; Maverick, or Govern- ment Hill, about 100; Mt. Bellingham, 110; Powderhorn Hill, about 230; Sagamore Hill, or Mt. Washington, about 200; Woodlawn Hill, about 160; and Belmont Hill, Everett, about 140. Proc. Boston Nat. Hist. Soc., xx. 226.
4
IIISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. I
in the upper bay, of all places, chose as their home Win- nisimmet with its strong soil, warm southern slopes, and un- equalled prospects.
William Wood, in the colony from 1629 to 1633, saw this and wrote: " The last Towne in the still Bay is Winnisimet; a very sweet place for situation, and stands very commo- diously, being fit to entertaine more planters than are yet seated: it is within a mile of Charles Towne, the River oncly parting them. The chiefc Ilands which keepe out the Winde and the Sea from disturbing the Harbours, are first Deare Iland, which lies within a flight-shot of Pullin-point. This Iland is so called, because of the Deare which often swimme thither from the Maine, when they are chased by the Woolves : Some have killed sixteene Deere in a day upon this Iland. The opposite shore is called Pullin-point, because that is the usuall Channel. Boats used to passe thorow into the Bay; and the Tyde being very strong, they are constrayned to goe ashore, and hale their Boats by the sealing, or roades, where- upon it was called Pullin-point." 7
Whatever abatement the first settlers about Boston Bay, after a year's trial of its stubborn soil under the scorching heats of summer and the no less severe frosts of winter, found necessary to make from the glowing account of the country by Captain John Smith,8 or by Thomas Graves,9 the engineer sent over to discover mines, erect fortifications, and make sur- veys, or by the Rev. Franeis Higginson,10 - aware, as he says, of the proverb that "Travellers may lie by authority," - or even from the more rational account in the letter of Thomas Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln,11 the planters at Winnisim- met had special reasons for contentment. Their land fairly
7 New Englands Prospect (Prince Soc. ed.), 44, 45. The name " Pullen Poynte " is in Mass. Col. Rec., i. 78, September 18, 1630; " Winnett- semett," ibid., 82, November 30, 1630; and "Rumney Marshe," ibid., 130, September 25, 1634, but later than Wood, 47; and "Powder Horne Hill " is in Mass. Col. Rec., i. 101, November 7, 1632.
8 Description of New England in Force's Tracts, ii. 6.
9 Young, Chronicles of Mass., 264.
10 Ibid., 242.
11 Ibid., 301-341. For the disillusionment alluded to see the remark- able letter of Pond, from Watertown, March 15, 1631, to his father, in England. 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., viii. 471.
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HISTORY OF CHELSEA
CHAP. I]
repaid the labor it required. The surrounding seas and rivers tempered the severity of the climate, and furnished fish both for food and for enriching the soil. Natural marsh grasses, later of much commercial value, were substitutes until the uplands grew English grasses.
6
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. II
CHAPTER II
THE PLANTERS AT WINNISIMMET
H UTCHINSON, writing of 1626, says, " I find mention made of planters at Winisimet about the same time, who probably removed there from some of the other planta- tions." 1 But who these planters were, when or whence they came, or of their manner of life we know nothing.
In 1614 Captain John Smith explored the coast of New England, looked into Boston harbor, and named the Charles. Probably for more than a century before this, fishermen from Europe had found their way hither, repaired their vessels,
1 Hist. of Mass. (ed. 1795), i. 15. J. G. Palfrey (Hist. of New Eng., i. 233) says that William Jeffrey and John Burslem probably had cottages there in 1628. When Morton, in June, 1628, was sent to England, for conduct at Mount Wollaston dangerous to the plantations, Governor Bradford says that "those that joyned in this acction (and after con- tributed to ye charge of sending him for England) were from Pascataway, Namkeake, Winisimett, Weesagascusett, Natasco, and other places wher any English were seated." (Hist. of Plymouthi, Charles Deane, ed., 240.) His " Letter Book " gives the contributions :
£
s.
£ S.
Plymouth 2 10 Natascot 1 10
Naumkeak 1 10 Mrs. Thomson
15
Pascataquack 2 10 Mr. Blackston
Mr. Jeffrey and Mr.
Edward Hilton 1 0
12 Burslem 2 0
Were Jeffrey and Burslem of Wessagusset, where Charles Francis Adams places them with the remnant of Gorges' company ( Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xvi. 198), or of Winnisimmet? Samuel Maverick resided there as carly as 1625; but he may not have joined the movement against Morton. (See A Briefe Discription of New England in 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., i. 238.) If so, who represented Winnisimmet, unless Jeffrey and Burslem ? If they resided there, they left no mark. [Jeffrey and Burslem dwelt at Wessagusset; Prince Society edition of New English Canaan, 24. As the widow of David Thompson married Samuel Maverick, possibly the con- iribution of Winnisimmet was included under her name. See appendix to this chapter.]
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THE PLANTERS AT WINNISIMMET
CHAP. II]
and traded with the natives. But the first permanent settle- ment in Boston harbor was at Winnisimmet, perhaps in 1624, certainly not later than 1625, when and where was " forti- fied " the oldest permanent house within the Massachusetts Bay Colony.2
This was Samuel Maveriek's Palisade house. The date of its fortification is given by himself. In A Briefe Discrip- tion of New England,3 about 1660, he says, "Two miles Sowth from Rumney Marsh on the North side of Mistiek River is Winnisime which though but a few houses on it, yet deserves to be meneond One house yet standing there which is the Antientest house in the Massachusetts Government . a house which in the yeare 1625 I fortified with a Pillizado and fflankers and gunnes both belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a mind to Cutt off the English, They onee faced it but receiveing a repulse never attempted it more although (as now they confesse) they repented it when about 2 yeares after they saw so many Eng- lish come over."
But whence or with whom Maverick came, or of his parent- age, we know nothing. Those of his name lived in Devonshire, about forty miles from Exeter, and of these was the Rev. John Maverick, who came over in 1630, and settled in Dorehester, where he died in 1636. It has been said, but with little reason, that he was the father of Samuel Maveriek.4 At
2 Charles Francis Adams claims that Gorges' settlement at Weymouth, in 1623, was permanent. If so, houses older than that of Maverick's, at Winnisimmet, must have been built there; but they were doubtless log huts, which soon disappeared. Three Episodes of Mass. Hist., i. 144, 342. 3 Found in the British Museum by Henry F. Waters, and printed in 1884 in 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., i. 231; also in New Eng. Hist. and Gen. Reg., January, 1885; also in a pamphlet.
4 Sumner, Hist. of East Boston, 71; but see Savage, Gen. Dict., iii. 181. Josselyn, who was entertained by Samuel Maverick in 1638, and may have learned his personal history, says of the arrival of Winthrop, in 1630, that in his party was " Mr. Maverich (the Father of Mr. Samuel Maverich, one of his Majesties Commissioners) ." 3 Coll. Mass Hist. Soc., iii. 377. Josselyn is not reliable. The filiation is, however, in the His- tory of Dorchester (p. 404), which is supposed to be based on the manu- scripts of James Blake, who died in 1750. But if Samuel Maverick was the son of the Rev. John Maverick, who with his party were set ashore at Nantasket and left to shift for themselves without shelter in 1630, it is remarkable that the son was not the first to assist his father and
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HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. II
one time it seemed probable that Maverick, Blackstone, and Walford were of Gorges' company, which settled on Weston's deserted plantation at Weymouth; 5 but Maverick came a year later."
Samuel Maverick, born about 1602, was twenty-two years old when he came to America in 1624.7 Neither the family name of his wife Amias,5 nor the time or place of their mar- riage is known.8 Their children were Nathaniel, Mary, and Samuel. There was an Elias Maverick here in 1630, who became the owner of that part of Winnisimmet not included in Samuel Maverick's deed to Richard Bellingham in 1634/5; and a Moses Maverick at Marblehead, 1635, who paid rent for Noddle's Island in 1636, having charge of it during
open his hospitable house to him, as a few days later he did to Winthrop and his party; or, if he did, that Roger Clap, who came over with the father, made no' mention of it in his minute account of the landing. [Roger Clap wrote over forty years after the event.] Rev. John Mave- rick, the non-conformist, and Samuel Maverick, the Church-of-England man, may have been father and son, and have come from Devonshire; but searches of the parish registers in that county thus far afford no evidence of it.
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