USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Historical sketch and matters appertaining to the Copp's Hill Burial-Ground > Part 3
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Timothy Gay, d. in 1799, aged 36 :
He was diligent in business, faithful to his friends, and affectionate to his family. " Life's little Stage is a small Eminence,
Inch high the Grave above; that Home of Man, Where dwells the Multitude: We gaze around; We read their Monuments; We sigh; and while
We sigh, we sink; and are what we deplor'd."
A great deal of local history and tradition is connected with Copp's Hill, but so fragmentary in character that no proper sequence can be found in the narration.
It is presumed that in 1621 the Plymouth folk landed under the shadow of the hill, as told by Prince in his " Chronology":
" The Governor chuses 10 men with Squanto and two other savages, to go in the shallop, Tuesday, Sept. 18; at midnight, the tide serving, we set sail; next day got into the bottom of Massachusetts Bay, about 20 leagues north from Plymouth, and anchor next morning, we land under a cliff. The sachem of this place is Obbatinewat."
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company is associated more or less with Copp's Hill. The company once claimed ownership of part of the hill, under the terms of an old mort- gage, and tried to prevent the transfer of the Sewall purchase. The matter was adjusted, and, after the evacuation of Boston by the British, when the company again laid claim, the obliga- tion was satisfactorily discharged. While the British troops were still in Boston the company was forced to use Copp's Will as a parade ground, instead of the Common, as thus told in the company's minutes :
"In 1775, before the Artillery Company suspended its meetings, the Common was occupied by the British army, and the Artillery Company were refused admittance. Capt. Bell, therefore, marched to Copp's Hill. Soon after the bridge over Charles River was built, there was a complaint against the street at the foot of this hill. It was supposed the proprietors of that part of the hill enclosed from Snowhill street ought to repair the wharf and street at their own expense. This led to inquiry, in town meeting, to whom it belonged; some one said it be- longed to this company. Col. Jackson, their Treasurer, was sent for, and declared he considered it their property, a mortgage upon it to them having long run out, and that Capt. Bell, with his company, had taken possession of it in 1775. Capt. Bell was then interrogated by Col. Dawes, the Moderator: Why did you march your company to Copp's Hill? Answer: I was prohibited from entering the Common; conceiv- ing this hill to be the property of the company, I marched them there,
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as a place no one had a right to exclude them from. Question by Moderator: Supposing a party of British troops should have been in possession of it, and should have forbid you entrance, what would you have done? Answer: I would have charged bayonets, and forced my way as surely as I would force my way into my dwelling-house, if taken possession of by a gang of thieves. The late Col. Wm. Tudor, who was then present, said: 'Mr. Moderator, the hill clearly belongs to that company, and I wish they would execute a quit claim deed of it to me at a fair price.' The Mortgage was discharged afterwards, and the street repaired by the town."
Closely connected with the history of the hill is the famous North Battery beneath it on Hudson's point. It was built by Major-General John Leverett in 1646, twenty years earlier than the erection of its twin, the South Battery, or Sconce, at the foot of Fort Hill. It was built on the petition of the North Enders, and at their expense, they praying that they might "for the future be freed from all rats and assesments to what other fortificacions be in the towne untill such time as the other part of the towne not ioynninge with us herin shall have disbursed and layd out in equall proporcion of their estats with ours as by true Acount may apear."
A committee of inspection reported on both batteries in May, 1666, saying : " Wee also tooke survey of another worke on the north side of Boston, called Merrjes Point, raysed with stones. The foundation is defended from the violenc of the sea wth spyles & plancks; the wall of a considerable thick- nes, yet lesse safe then the other, by reason of the sharpe edges next the cannon, & widenes of the ports wthin, which beinge faced wth strong timbers, as is intended, will be much better."
Capt. Edward Johnson of Woburn, in his " Wonder Work- ing Providence of Sion s Saviour, in New England," speaks of the " very strong battery built of whole Timber, and filled with Earth, at the descent of the Hill in the extreme poynt thereof."
Daniel Neal, in his description of Boston in 1719 says : " There are two Batteries at the North and South Ends of the Town, which command the whole Bay, and make it impossible for an Enemy s Ship of Burthen to ride there in safety."
In 1706 the battery was extended 120 feet, with a breadth of 40 feet, at an expense of £1,000. It was finally sold to Jeffrey and Russell, and became JJeffrey's Wharf between 1787 and 1796. To-day it is appropriately called Battery Wharf.
The site of the North Battery was, possibly, where Win- throp's company landed, and where Anne Pollard, the first white woman to tread on Boston soil, jumped ashore. Here, too, was Francis Hudson's ferry landing. From the Battery also, the 52d, 43d, and 47th British regiments, together with detachments of grenadiers, light infantry and marines, embarked for Bunker Hill; and here, after the battle, the wounded were brought ashore. At the time of the evacuation, the Battery was armed with seven 12-pounders, two 9-pounders, and four 6-pounders, all left dismantled. In the old days of short range guns, the North Battery was regarded as of great importance,
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HERE RESTS ROBERT
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TOMB, COPP'S HILL BURIAL-GROUND. (SNOWHILL STREET SIDE.)
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because covering the harbor, the mouth of the Charles, and the entrance to the Town Cove.
In May, 1644, while the civil war was raging in England, a parliamentary man-of-war of 24 guns, Capt. Thomas Stagg, sailed into the harbor and demanded the surrender of a Bristol ship of 100 tons then in port. All the townspeople assembled on Windmill Hill to watch the expected hostilities. The Bristol craft, however, prudently surrendered,
In June, two years before, the windmill was struck by light- ning, shattering the sail, breaking the standard and riving off the boards of the sides, beside setting on fire the sacks in the mill. "The miller, being under the mill upon the ground chopping a piece of board, was struck dead; but company coming in found him to breathe, and within an hour or two he began to stir, and strove with such force, as six men could scarce hold him down. The next day he came to his senses, but knew nothing of what had befallen him."
The surrender of Quebec was celebrated by a great bonfire on Copp's Hill. "45 Tar Barrels, 2 Cords of Wood, a mast, spars, and boards, with 50 lbs of powder were set in a blaze ; this, with a similar illumination on Fort Ilill, was paid for by the province, together with 32 Gallons of Rum and much Beer."
In 1765, the year of the repeal of the Stamp Act, Copp's Hill was the scene of the part of the celebration of the anniver- sary of the powder plot on Nov. 5, as thus told in the Massachu- setts Gazette : " About noon the Pageantry, representing the Pope, Devil and several other Effigies were brought in stages and met at King-street, where the Union (between the factions from the north and south ends) previously entered into by the leaders, was established in a very ceremonial manner, and having given. three huzzas, they interchanged ground." After parading, they " proceeded to the Tree of Liberty, under the shadow of which they refreshed themselves for awhile, and then retreated northward, agreeably to the plan. They reached Copp's Hill before six o'clock, where they halted, and having enkindled a fire, the whole Pageantry was committed to the flames and consumed. This being finished, every person was requested to their respective houses." This was the customary observance of the day.
On January 24, 1793, a barbecue was held on Copp's Hill in honor of the French Revolution. After the feast the horns of the ox were fixed to a pole sixty feet high and triumphantly raised in Liberty square.
Copp's ITill figured quite conspicuously in the Revolution. Works were erected by the British on the summit, near the south-western corner of the cemetery. They were hastily thrown up and never completed, comprising but a few barrels of carth arranged as parapets. There was a small earthwork to the rear designed as a shelter for infantry. The battery consisted of three 28-pounders, on carriages, which were left spiked after
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the evacuation. Here Clinton and Burgoyne witnessed the battle of Bunker Hill and directed the fire of the little battery. One of the shells from Copp's Hill, aiding the fire of the ships in the harbor, is said to have started the conflagration in Charlestown. Traces of the works remained on the hill until the summit was lowered in 1807. It was from the North Battery below, that Clinton rushing down the hill when he saw his veterans quailing, took boat and crossed over to the Charles- town shore to aid Howe.
On the south corner of the New Burying-Ground added in 1809 and fronting on Hull street, stood the old gun-house of the Columbian artillery, afterwards removed to make room for tombs built in 1827. At the celebration of the completion of the bridge from the old ferry landing to Charlestown in 1786, salutes were fired from Copp's Hill, as well as from the Castle and Breed's Hill.
The gas-works at the foot of Copp's Hill, the most prominent feature of the neighborhood, were erected in 1828, and gas first made in December of that year. It was not used to illuminate the City in general until 1834.
All this time the change in the character of the surroundings of Copp's Hill which we described in the beginning has been slowly going on, the old houses decaying or being replaced and all but a few of the old families removing far from the vicinity. There still dwell on Copp's Hill a number of the Dodds, Goddards, Pitmans and Adamses of the early days, but the place generally has acquired a new and changing appearance.
Perhaps the earliest example of the term "Copp's Hill," in our printed records, is found in the Selectmen's minutes of January 21, 1725-26.
Henry, Harang grace 10
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Carlos Martins 2%
Carson, Care. John 17
Clarks, inclino 1 4
Cl. Drie, Stephan K. 2.1
copy, -) 10
20 mama a 9
Darling, 1and 1?
Euch, gram 21
If any, Lucasana 2. 1
Hartt, ? flamand/gun
Huntley, Maray 1 8
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Lyman, cafe Conlode 1)
Pro a Clara , Bananaal 12, 16
Wannentfernt, John 14
Patrocina, lety 18 Pulling, cafe of time ? Keres, Elija Mr. 19
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Steel, com 20 Sweet, grading 2: Singh, Certain 19
worth, Calce Jeunes 15
This rough unday made of Pound Hice Place, Shirley This blustery Jag 2 8 Feb. 1938 C. I.V3 80Em
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