USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Historical sketch and matters appertaining to the Granary burial-ground > Part 3
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In October, 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress chose Hancock its president. The next year he became president of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, serving till October, 1777, when he resigned and retired to Quincy. His bold signa- ture to the Declaration. especially since at first the only one appended, brought him into conspienous notice, and has since kept him there.
Hancock was commissioned a major-general of the Massachu- setts Militia and in Angust, 1778, commanded the Massachusetts troops in the ineffective Rhode Island expedition.
JOHN HANCOCK TOMB, GRANARY BURIAL-GROUND.
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He presided over the State Constitutional Convention in 1780 and was chosen the first governor after its adoption. He was elected five successive years, and again, after an interval of two years, filled the chair until his death. In the presidential elec- tion of 1789 he received four electoral votes.
As Hancock left no children, he bequeathed most of his fortune to benevolent purposes, generously remembering Harvard. The college conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1792. He died on October 8, 1793.
A headstone of notable patriotic significance, as that of a famous signer of the Declaration of Independence, is one bearing the simple inscription :
NO. 88. THE TOMB OF R. T. PAINE, 1810.
Paine was born in Boston on March 11, 1731, and died there on May 11, 1814. On graduating from Harvard in 1749, he studied theology and in 1755 acted as army chaplain on the northern frontier. After a business voyage to Europe, he studied law, meanwhile supporting himself by teaching school. He began practice in Taunton and was chosen a delegate to the convention held in Boston after the dissolution of the General Court by Governor Bernard for its refusal to rescind its circular letter.
In 1770 he added largely to his reputation by conducting, in the absence of the attorney-general, the case against Captain Preston and the troopers engaged in the Boston Massacre.
He represented Taunton in the House of 1773 and 1774, and in 1774 and 1775 was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was again in Congress in 1776, 1777 and 1778, meanwhile acting in 1777 as Speaker of the Massachusetts House and as attorney-general. In 1779 he was a member of the Executive Council and was one of the committee to frame the State consti- tution.
He served as the first attorney-general of the State until 1790, when he became a justice of the Supreme Court. Deafness and ill-health, however, compelled him to resign in 1804. In the same year he was chosen State councillor, but shortly retired to private life.
He was a founder of the American Academy established in 1780. As attorney-general his strictness is said to have gained him a reputation for undue severity.
Another noteworthy patriot interred in the Granary is the ingenious mechanic and ardent patriot, the messenger of the mid- night ride immortalized by Longfellow - Paul Revere. The in- scription on his headstone is as follows :
PAUL REVERE BORN IN BOSTON, JANUARY, 1734, DIED MAY 1818.
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Revere was born in Boston on January 1, 1735, and died in May, 1818. He was Huguenot descent, the family name having been Rivoire. He was brought up to his father's trade of gold- smith. Before setting up in business, he served as a lieutenant of artillery in the colonial army.
He speedily learned the art of copper-plate engraving, and was one of the four engravers in America at the time of the Revolu- tion. Many of his prints possess much historical significance and were very popular, such as that of "The Seventeen Re- scinders," at the time of Governor Bernard's effort to suppress the circular letter ; " The Boston Massacre," etc. In 1775, when the Provincial Congress authorized the issue of paper money, it was Revere who engraved the plates, made the press, and printed the bills. He was sent to Philadelphia to visit the powder mill there and to learn the method of its construction. He set up a mill in Boston on his return.
Revere's active deeds as a patriot began with his participation in the Tea Party. He was forthwith sent to New York and Philadelphia to spread the news of what had been done. He was sent on a similar errand when the decree arrived closing the port of Boston.
Then followed the famous ride to Lexington, to warn Hancock, Adams, and the rest of the coming of Gage to Concord. The story hardly needs retelling. Later Revere became a lieutenant- colonel in the defence of Massachusetts. After the Revolution, his career had still a military tinge, being devoted to the casting of cannon as well as church bells. Revere also attained consid- erable prominence as a Mason.
Of equal interest with the tombs of these patriot leaders is the unmarked grave where sleep the humbler victims of the Boston Massacre. Their remains lie about twenty feet in from the iron fence and sixty feet south of the Tremont Building. Over the spot formerly grew a rich and beautiful larch-tree.
In some lines on the Massacre in "Fleet's Post," published March 12, 1770, a local versifier sang :
" Dear to your country shall your fame extend, While to the world the lettered stone shall tell How Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell."
Sad to say, no stone fulfils this mission ; if ever there was one, it fell a victim to British spite or to the mistaken zeal of some attendant afflicted with an iconoclastic passion for repairs.
The five here buried are : Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr. The story of the historic fracas between the rope-makers and Preston's soldiers is too well known to need recounting. The first four were buried on March 8. A huge procession, four abreast, and bearing emblematic banners, followed the hearses to the Granary, while in the rear came practically all the carriages in Boston. During the funeral the bells were tolled in the town and
VITE REVERE F FA BOSTON.
PAUL REVERE TOMB, GRANARY BURIAL-GROUND.
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the suburbs. On March 14, Patrick Carr, who had meanwhile died, was buried in the same grave.
When the City tomb was being dug at the time the iron fence was erected in June, 1840, the bones of the five were discovered, as attested by a bullet-hole through one of the skulls, that of Samuel Gray. One of the sextons of King's Chapel, Martin Smith by name, replaced the bones in the earth close by the larch- tree.
The Granary also has the honor of having been the temporary resting-place of the remains of Gen. Joseph Warren. In the spring of 1776, his corpse was deposited in the Minot tomb, on the southwestern side of the yard. In 1824, Dr. J. C. Warren opened the tomb and identified the patriot's relics by the bullet wound in the skull and the decay of one of the teeth. The remains were encased in a mahogany box and deposited in a tomb under St. Paul's Church. In August, 1855, they were deposited in a stone urn and transferred to Forest Hills where they still remain.
Besides the Revolutionary heroes it contains, the Granary holds the remains of several of the old-time governors. The first of these was Governor Richard Bellingham, who, as shown by the following inscription, shares his tomb with a later governor :
The family tomb of JAMES SULLIVAN, ESQ. late Governor and Commander in chief of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who departed this life on the 10th Day of Dec'r A. D. 1808 Aged 64 Years. His Remains are Here Deposited.
During a life of remarkable industry, activity and usefulness, amidst Public and private contemporaneous avocations, uncommonly various, he was distinguished for zeal, intelligence and fidelity. Public-spirited, benevolent and social, he was eminently beloved as a man, eminently esteemed as a citizen, and eminently respected as a magistrate.
Huic versatile ingenium Sic pariter ad omnia fuit, ut, adid unum diceres quod cum que ageret.
HERE LIES RICIIARD BELLINGHAM, ESQUIRE, LATE GOVERNOR IN THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE IN THE 7TH DAY OF DECEMBER, 1672, THE EIGHTY-FIRST YEARE OF HIS AGE.
VIRTUE'S FAST FRIEND WITHIN THIS TOMB DOTH LYE, A FOE TO BRIBES, BUT RICH IN CHARITY.
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The Bellingham Family being extinet The Seleetmen of Boston in the Year 1782 Assigned this Tomb to JAMES SULLIVAN, ESQ. The remains of Governor Bellingham Are Here Preserved, And the above inscription is restored From the ancient Monument.
The second slab is raised on six stone pillars above the first, in practically the shape of a table. Each is of marble.
Bellingham was first elected in 1641 by a narrow majority ; but the General Court was not satisfied as to the validity of the election. He was again chosen in 1654, and on the death of Endicott in May, 1665, was once more elected, serving continu- ously until his death. In all he served ten years as governor and thirteen as deputy governor, besides being chosen major-general in 1664.
His second wife, married in 1641, was about to be contracted to a friend of Bellingham's, "when on a sudden the Governor treated with her and obtained her for himself." He performed the ceremony himself and to the strictures of public opinion gave as his excuse the very natural one of "the strength of his affection."
Hubbard describes him as " a very ancient gentleman having spun a very long thread of above eighty years ; he was a great justiciary, a notable hater of tribes, firm and fixed in any reso- lution he entertained, of larger comprehension than expression, like a vessel whose vent holdeth no good proportion with its capacity to contain disadvantage to a public person."
At the time of his death, Governor Bellingham was the sole surviving patentee named in the colonial charter.
Governor Sullivan's was truly " a life of remarkable industry and usefulness," and his avocations "uncommonly various." He was about equally a lawyer, author, business man, and politi- cian, and very busy at each. He was born of Irish descent at Berwick, Maine, April 22, 1744. He stood high among the legal lights that came forth in New England toward the end of the century. During his seventeen years' service as attorney- general, he conducted many of the admiralty. probate, superior and supreme courts ; in addition, he had a heavy private prac- tice. As an author, he showed marked ability in the writing of law works, political tracts, and constant contributions to the political controversies of the press. In public life, besides serv- ing on various commissions, he acted as representative, member of the council, delegate to Congress, and, after several close cam- paigns, was in 1807 and 1808 twice successful as Republican candidate for governor, dying before the end of his second term. He was one of the incorporators of the Middlesex Canal and largely instrumental in its final building. He helped found the Massachusetts Historical Society and was its first president. HIe
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was exceedingly active, high spirited, eloquent, and hospitable, and was popular even with his Federalist opponents in times when party feeling ran high.
A beautifully chiselled coat-of-arms, with the inscription "JAMES BOWDOIN, ESQ." carved boldly above it on a tab- let of slate, marks the tomb of another famous governor, one of the chief magistrates of the State. The slab has been enclosed during the spring of the present year (1901) in a durable casing of bronze, which emphasizes its striking and well-preserved appearance. It stands in the southwest corner of the yard.
Bowdoin was born August 7, 1726, and died November 6, 1790. Of him his eulogist, Judge Lowell, said: "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 accomplish- ments ?".
Bowdoin was graduated from Harvard in 1745 and at twenty- four began a life long friendship with Franklin. He was later elected a fellow of the Royal Society and was the first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He served three years in the Provincial Legislature and six- teen in the Council, wherein he was styled by Wedderburn, " the leader and manager as Mr. Adams was in the House." Illness prevented his going as one of the five Massachusetts dele- gates to the first Continental Congress. He presided over the constitutional convention in 1780, and in 1785 was elected gov- ernor. During his second term, he quelled the difficulties of Shay's Rebellion with great moderation. His last public capacity was that of a member in the state convention which in 1788 rati- fied the Constitution.
Another worthy and notable tenant of the Granary is Governor William Dummer, who was prominent in public life a half century before Bowdoin. Dummer, though born in Massachusetts, in 1679, was, when appointed lieutenant-governor, holding a com- missioner's office in Plymouth, England. He was left governor on the departure of Shute in 1723 and held that post till Burnet's arrival in 1728. He enjoyed a second shorter tenure between Burnet's death and the term of his successor, William Tailer. His administration was honest and upright and distinguished by successful campaigns against the Indians. After 1730, Dum- mer lived in retirement till his death on October 10, 1761, at the age of eighty-two. He was a man of pure character and of marked piety and charity.
Gov. Christopher Gore also lies buried in the Granary. He was born in Boston in 1758 and graduated from Harvard in 1776. After some years' service as United State attorney, he was appointed with William Pinckney a commissioner under Jay's treaty to settle our spoliation claims against England.
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After his return, he succeeded Governor Sullivan in 1809, but in the following year was replaced by Governor Gerry. From 1814 he served three years as United States Senator, then retir- ing from public life.
On the conspicuous stone over the grave of another governor, Increase Sumner, is carved the following laudatory epitaph :
Here reposes the remains of
INCREASE SUMNER, Born at Roxbury Nov. 27, 1746, Died at same place June 7, 1799.
He was for some time a practitioner at the Bar ; And for fifteen years an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court ; Was thrice elected
GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
in which office he died As a Lawyer, he was faithful and able ; As a Judge patient, impartial and decisive As a Chief Magistrate accessable, frank and independent.
In the vigour of intellectual attainments and in the midst of usefulness he was called by Divine Providence to rest with his fathers, he went down to the chambers of death, in the full belief, that the grave is the pathway to future existence. As in life he secured the suffrages of the free, And was blessed with the approbation of the wise, So in death he was honoured by the tears of the patriotic And is held in sweet remembrance by a discerning and affectionate people.
In privato life, Ile was affectionate and mild ; In public life, He was dignified and firm, Party feuds were allayed by the correctness of his conduct, Calumny was silenced by the weight of his virtues, And rancour softened by the amenity of his manners.
This compendious epitaph leaves little to be said. Sumner was graduated from Harvard with distinction in 1767, and, beginning with 1776, served three terms in the General Court, as well as two in the Senate from 1780. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1779-80, as also later of the con-
FAIREANE - PYKK.
INCREASE SUMNER TOMB, GRANARY BURIAL-GROUND.
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vention which accepted the federal constitution. In August, 1782, he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and in January, 1785, was added to the committee to revise the State laws. In 1796, though averse to being a candidate, he was elected governor, and was thrice reëlected by great majorities. He did not live to enter on his last term.
As the inscription on his tomb would indicate, no governor was more trusted and beloved. His remains were interred with military honors at the public expense, the funeral procession extending from Roxbury to the State House.
Perhaps none of the graves in the Granary contain a more interesting and notable personage than does the populous Sewall tomb, which already had at the opening of the Revolution at least forty occupants, chief among them the famous chronicler of provincial days, Judge Samuel Sewall. The tomb was built by Sewall's father-in-law, John Hull, the master of the mint, who lies buried therein, and who is noted for having bestowed as a dowry on his daughter, Hannah, at her marriage to Sewall, her weight in bright silver Pine Tree shillings from his mint.
Judge Sewall was born on March 28, 1652, at Bishop Stoke, Hampshire County, England, and was brought over to Boston in the second and final migration of his parents hither in 1661. He was graduated from Harvard in 1671, serving some time as a tutor. By his marriage in February, 1675-6, he acquired a for- tune for those days. He was treasurer of the colony in 1676, and subsequently one of the Board of Assistants, besides serving thirty-three years in the Council. He was long a probate judge for Suffolk County. He served on the bench of the Supreme Court over forty years, ten years of his tenure being in the capacity of Chief Justice. The next notable incident of his judicial career was the famous witch trials, his public remorse on account of which, together with his remarkable confession of penitence in the records, strikingly illuminates the character of the man. New England never had a judge more wise, just, pious, and humane. The fame of his charming and picturesque diary, that treasure of the antiquarians, is too universal to jus- tify recounting.
Another of the public officials who sleep in the Granary is Lieutenant-Governor Cushing. On the marble obelisk erected over his tomb in 1846 by a grandson is carved the following in scription :
THOMAS CUSHING, Lieut. Gov. of Mass. died 19th Jan. 1788 ; aged 63 years He took an active part in the Revolutionary conflict and was several years Speaker of The House of Representatives of Mass. until he became a member of the Continental Congress, in the year 1774 and 5.
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Cushing was born in Boston in 1725 and graduated from Har- vard in 1744. His life was largely spent in public office, the earlier part in the Legislature. On returning from service in the Continental Congress, he was elected to the Council, and also was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas and of Pro- bate in Suffolk County. On the adoption of the State constitu- tion, he was chosen lieutenant-governor, retaining that office till his death. He was a man of ability and learning, as well as of a kindly and amiable disposition.
As is natural, the Granary is studded with names of Boston divines. Among the many ministers buried here, one might single out Rev. Thomas Prince, the learned historical scholar ; Rev. Joseph Eckley, the distinguished pastor of the Old South congregation, at the time it retook the Old South Meeting-House after its British occupation ; Rev. Jeremy Belknap, the generous benefactor of the Massachusetts General Hospital; Doctors Lathrop, Baldwin, the evangelist, and Stillman.
An interesting ecclesiastic buried in the Granary is Rev. Pierre Daillé, the pastor of the Huguenots who found refuge in Boston in 1687, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. IIe organ- ized his little congregation in the town school-house on School street, and it was not till 1716, a year after his death, that they succeeded in building a small brick church on the same street. Though most of the Huguenots migrated from Boston in a few years succeeding, many French names can be deciphered on the stones in the Granary. The headstone over Daille's grave was found in 1860 in the cellar of an old estate on Pleasant street. The worthy French parson left instructions "that there be no wine at my funeral, and none of my wife's relations have any mourning clothes furnished them except gloves."
The founder of the "Cradle of Liberty," Peter Faneuil, is a noteworthy tenant of the Granary. It was in rather interesting fashion that he came to make his historic gift out of the fortune newly inherited from his uncle.
Amid great dissension, three market houses, one of them in Dock square, had been built to supplement the old system of itinerant peddling. One night in 1737, the advocates of the old Régimé, "disguised like clergymen," destroyed the central market house mentioned. At a town-meeting in July, 1740, Faneuil offered to rebuild and maintain the demolished market house.
The key of the finished structure was delivered to the select- men on Sept. 10, 1742. During the construction. it was sug- gested to Faneuil that a town hall might readily be built over the market. He accepted the suggestion, although he is said to have grumbled a little when informed of the additional cost.
At a meeting held forthwith in the new hall, it was voted that, whereas Peter Faneuil " has, at a very great expense, erected a noble structure, far exceeding his first proposal, inasmuch as it contains not only a large and sufficient accommodation for a market place, but a spacious and most beautiful town hall over it, and several other convenient rooms which may prove very beneficial to the town for offices or otherwise ; as the said build- ing being now finished, he has delivered possession thereof to the
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selectmen for the use of the town; it is therefore voted that the town do, with the utmost gratitude, receive and accept this most generous and noble benefaction." It was also voted that the hall be called Faneuil Hall forever.
This building of Faneuil's, of which only the walls were left standing after the fire of January 13, 1761, was but half the width of the present structure, and but two stories high. It could contain but one thousand persons.
John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston, also sleeps in the Granary. He was born in Boston, Nov. 26, 1770, and graduated from Harvard in 1788. His public career before election to the new office of mayor comprised many years' service as town advocate and public prosecutor, beside twenty years spent in the Senate, ten of them as its president.
He was chosen mayor as a compromise candidate. Josiah Quincy agreed to run for the office, not knowing that Harrison Gray Otis, then the leading local figure in the party, was also a candidate. The Democrats seized the opportunity and after nominating Thomas L. Winthrop on the night before election, · threw enough votes to prevent any candidate getting a majority. Otis and Quincy then withdrew, and Phillips, an acceptable third choice, was readily elected. He proved an upright official, of tact and good judgment, as well as discreet and pliant enough to smoothen the transition to the new form of local government. Apart from the organization of departments, little of positive importance was done during his administration.
On the refusal of Phillips, because of ill-health, to accept a second term, Josiah Quincy said of his predecessor : "It is im- possible for me to refrain from expressing the sense I entertain of the services of that high and honorable individual who has filled the chair of this city."
Probably the most remarkable epitaph in the Granary is the following :
ELISHA BROWN (of ) BOSTON Who in Octr J769, during J7 days infpired with a generous Zeal for the LAWS, bravely & fuccefsfully oppofed a whole Britifh Regt. in their violent attempt to FORCE him from his (legal Habitation) Happy Citizen when Call'd fingley to be a Barrier to the Liberties (of a Continent)
The incident narrated in the inscription occurred in the south end of the town. Brown was ordered to surrender his roomy mansion for use as a barracks. On his refusal, he was sur- rounded and besieged by the troops. With all the doors and windows barred, he held out "bravely and successfully" for the seventeen days mentioned, subsisting on the household stores and on what provisions his friends could smuggle in from without.
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At length, the British gave up the unpleasant task in disgust. Brown died in August, 1785, at the age of sixty-five.
The following inscription tells a long story of heroism, and needs no comment :
Tomb No. 192 In Memory of COLONEL JOHN ARMSTRONG, The Patriot-Hero, and his wife MRS. Christian Bass Armstrong, and their six children, He and his two sons John & Samuel marched to Long Island, N. Y. and were there engaged in various battles with the British Army, August 27, 1776. Capt. John Armstrong was Father of Governor Samuel Terell Armstrong, The Col. was killed on the battle field, Maj. Samuel Armstrong had a providen- tial escape from the enemy's bullets while re- treating, He was wounded, but continuing in the army until the Peace of 1783. He served as Adjutant and Paymaster in the Eighth Regt. Mass. Inf'y. also as Aid-de-Camp to Gen. Jackson, He was anoriginal member of the society of Cincinnati, He married Nancy, only daughter of Maj. Josiah Allen, who served under Col. Ethan Allen, at the conquest of Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
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