USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > Historical sketches of Brookline, Mass. > Part 8
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The fourth Robert Sharp married Sarah Payson of Roxbury, by whom he had ten children, four of whom died in infancy. The eldest, Robert, died without chil- dren, and at this point the family name of Robert ceases.
The second son, Jacob, was married, but died at the age of twenty-nine, in the year 1775, no doubt in the ser- vice of the country.
The third son, Stephen, became a prominent man in Brookline and is still well remembered by many persons now living as Esquire Sharp.
This was the person to whom allusion has been made as the owner of the large square house which stood until recently on the left of the entrance to Harvard Avenue,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
from Harvard street, and is now standing next to Cousens' Block, on the same street, and occupied as a tenement house. On the left side of Harvard Avenue on the site of the garden of Mr. M. C. Warren, was a house which Esquire Sharp had finished off from a shed, and afterwards enlarged for a farm-house, to be occupied by whoever he hired to carry on his large farm. This house was moved to School Street, several years ago, where it still remains, opposite Mr. Matthews' residence.
Esquire Sharp was never married. He was a teacher in the little old school-house in School Street for many winters, was a justice of the peace and town clerk for many years. It will be remembered that this was the man who brought Tom Cook to grief for stealing the goose, as mentioned in a former chapter.
The 'Squire was a somewhat stern and gruff man in his ways, and not very popular with the children of the neighborhood, and was known by them by the nickname "Grumpy." He died in 1820.
From his sister Lucy, who married into the Davis fam- ily, descended Captain Robert Sharp Davis, whose son of the same name is now living in Brookline.
From another sister (Mary) descended the present Jones family of Brookline, and the Clarks of Walnut and Warren Street. The eldest daughter married Caleb Crafts of this town, and her descendants are still living, though not in Brookline.
Thus it will be seen that this ancient family, now so numerous, are all traced directly back in an unbroken line to the Robert Sharp who came from England in the Abigail in 1635, and beyond that the family is traced to Robert Sharp of Islington, England, as far back as 1534. Few New England families are probably able to trace their ancestry so far and so creditably.
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ESTATE OF CHIEF JUSTICE SEWALL.
The old unpainted house previously alluded to, on the site of J. C. Abbott's residence, was occupied after Cap- tain Sharp's death by Major Joseph Jones who had mar- ried into the family. Several years after Major Jones's death the farm was improved by his son Stephen S. C. Jones, afterwards postmaster of Brookline. In the inter- val between, it was in the hands of Moses Jones, who became unrivaled as a farmer, subsequently, in Cypress Street. The old house, black with the storms of many years, was taken down about thirty years ago.
Stephen Sharp's residence passed into possession of his nephew, the late Samuel Crafts, of this town, and was oc- cupied by him for many years, and these two estates were spoken of as "the Jones " and " the Crafts farms," until cut up into house lots and divided by many streets and avenues.
The next estate on Harvard Street, in former times was that of Chief Justice Sewall, comprising three hundred and fifty acres of land, most of it being now known as Longwood. It extended from Harvard Street to Charles River, and from the Aspinwall and Sharp Estates to Pleasant Street. This property came into the posses- sion of the Judge by inheritance. The earliest owner of this great portion of our town was John Hull, who lived in a house somewhere in the neighborhood of the Sears Church, or Gospel Church, Longwood. He was a poor boy, but his devotion to his widowed mother caused the Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of Boston, to predict for him a prosperous future. The prediction was verified. John Hull became Master of the Mint in Boston, an opu- lent merchant and a large landowner. He was highly respected throughout the colony. He married Judith, daughter of Edmund Quincy, the first of that distin- guished family in this country. It is said that he was the
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
designer of the coat of arms of Massachusetts, -an In- dian with a bow and arrow, - and also of the famous pine- tree shillings.
Chief Justice Sewall married for his first wife, Hannah, the only daughter of John Hull, and thus came in pos- session of the large estate which John Hull owned in this town.
When the marriage took place, the bride received from her father as a wedding present, her weight in pine-tree shillings ! How heavy she was we are not informed, but at all events her dowry seems to have been a substantial one.
John Hull died in 1683. A poem written upon his death by Rev. Daniel Gookin, son of the Major-general, is entitled, " A few Shadie Meditations occasioned by the death of the deservedly honored, John Hull Esq., who was removed from his earthly tabernacle, to be an inhab- itant of the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens, 30 September, 1683."
A notice of his wife's death. supposed to be by Rev. Cotton Mather, reads as follows, -
" Mrs. Judith Hull, of Boston, N. E., late wife of John Hull Esq. deceased, a diligent, constant, fruitful reader and hearer of the word of God, rested from her labors, 22 June, 1695, being the seventh day of the week, a little before sunset, just about the time she used to begin the Sabbath, aged 69.
Chief Justice Sewall was famous in his day, as one of the judges who condemned the Salem witches to death, an error in judgment of which he lived to repent bitterly, and for which he made voluntary and humble confession in public, in the Old South Church in Boston. The Judge is represented by his biographers to have been em- inent for piety and learning. He died in 1730.
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CHIEF JUSTICE SEWALL.
An interesting sketch of Judge Sewall's life may be found in the " New England Historical Register," vol. i., page 105. It would seem from this paper, that the Judge was far in advance of his age in perceiving the evils of negro slavery, and in courage to denounce it.
In writing to Judge Davenport, just before he sat upon the trial of a white man for killing a negro, he made use of language which has the true ring of justice in it. We quote, -
" The poorest boys and girls, in this province, such as are of the lowest condition, whether they be English, or Ethiopians, or Indians ; they have the same right to religion and life, that the richest heirs have. And they who go about to deprive them of this right attempt the bombardment of Heaven ; and the shells they throw will fall down on their own heads."
. He wrote and published a tract in 1700, called " The Selling of Joseph," which was perhaps the first anti-slav- ery document published in the United States. It seems strange that a man so clear-headed in his judgment as to the rights of the weak and defenseless, could have been misled even temporarily in the witchcraft cases, but that when he saw his error he had the rare courage and the honor to confess it, does credit to his heart. The Judge left many volumes of valuable manuscript which are still carefully preserved.
Samuel Sewall, Jr., son of the Judge, lived in a house on the site of the present residence of Charles Stearns, Esq., which was built in 1703. His son Henry succeeded him in the same liouse. He was a farmer, and held the office of Justice of the Peace in this town. He was edu- cated at Harvard College, as were also his own three sons, Henry, Hull, and Samuel.
Henry and Hull both died at the age of twenty-four, and little is known of them. Samuel was a young law-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
yer practicing in Boston at the breaking out of our Revo- lutionary difficulties, and he became so odious, as a Tory, that he was obliged to leave his native land, and ended his days in England. He owned real estate in Brookline in his mother's right, which was forfeited, he being a refugee, and after the war it was sold by the Government. It was purchased by Mr. John Heath, the ancestor of the present Charles Heath of this town, and has ever since been retained by that family.
The house now occupied by Charles Stearns, Esq., was built for Henry Sewall, Jr., and after his death was oc- cupied by his daughter, who married Edward K. Wol- cott.
This Wolcott built the old house on the Francis estate, near the river, north of Pleasant Street and Brighton Avenue, established a race-course there, and kept a pub- lic house for several years, and was succeeded in that business by his son-in-law Frost. It was not very suc- cessful, however, and after a while was abandoned.
About the time the Mill-dam was projected, a great part of the Sewall estate was bought up by the five gen- tlemen who were the prime movers in that enterprise, of whom Eben Francis was one, in expectation of a rapid growth of Boston in that direction and the consequent rise of property. But though the Mill-dam was com- pleted, contrary to the predictions of the croakers of that generation who pronounced it a wild scheme, the ex- pected rise of real estate did not follow, and those who bought the Sewall property died without seeing their hopes realized. It was their misfortune to be in advance of the times.
The elder Charles Stearns, who came here from Chelsea, purchased and settled upon the estate now owned by his heirs, quite early in the present century, and the Wol- .
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JOHN DEVOTION. - EDWARD DEVOTION.
cotts left Brookline ; none of the descendants of Judge Sewall being now left in the town, so far as we can learn, though there are a few bearing the names of Ridgway and Gilbert in Boston.
Next west of the Sewall estate is situated what has been in modern times known as the Babcock farm, but in Judge Sewall's day was the property of Jolin Devotion.
The ancient house is no doubt at least two hundred years old.
John Devotion was a prominent citizen in Muddy River, holding various offices, and his name appears upon the petition for a separate township.
Ebenezer Devotion, probably a son of John, became a clergyman and removed to Connecticut, and from him descended " Grace Greenwood," Mrs. Lippincott, of liter- ary fame.
After the death of John Devotion, the house was occu- pied by his son Edward, and Mary his wife. Edward Devotion was a public spirited citizen, and reference to the old records of the town will show that he held various offices of trust for many years. In the church he was for a long period the tithingman.
The principal duty of this officer was to keep good order during divine service, among the children, who sat in rows by themselves instead of with their parents. A long rod was usually carried by the tithingman, with which to touch any delinquent who might become drowsy or mischievous. Whether this ancient Brookline tithing- man was particularly feared by the youngsters does not appear, but he was evidently not unfriendly to children, as he adopted a boy and girl, whom he brought up, as he had no children of his own.
The old house in the village, formerly known as the Brewer house, next the brick blacksmith shop, was prob-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
ably built for Edward Devotion, as he died in that house in November, 1774.
He left the old house on Harvard Street to the young couple whom he had brought up, and who were then married. To the Brookline church he left a silver tank- ard.
He also left to the town a sum of money, which at the time of its being received in 1762, amounted to " £739 4s. lawful money," for the use of schools.
This money was borrowed by the State during the Revolutionary war, and when it was paid back to the town, it was in depreciated Continental currency. It was put at interest however, and in 1845 had accumulated to the amount of $4,531.01, which was appropriated to the building of the Town Hall, which was to have two school rooms in it.
Why would it not have been well to keep in memory this worthy patron of education, by giving his name to the old Town Hall ?
Solomon Hill, the young man to whom Edward De- votion left his old house, and some money, did not prove to be very enterprising, and before many years lost his property and died, very poor, in an old house in the vil- lage. The house which Mr. Devotion left to him was sold to a man named Marshall who occupied it for a number of years, until it was purchased by one of the five gentlemen heretofore mentioned as having bought the Sewall property. It was hired for some time by the late George Babcock, who afterwards bought it, and its history since its purchase by him is well known.
The house is a curious old relic of former times, and the beautiful elms which shade it were no doubt set out by the hands of the ancient owner, whose devotion to the interests of his church and town, suggest the idea
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THE WINCHESTERS.
that a similar characteristic in his ancestry may have earned for the family its very uncommon name.
A sister of Edward Devotion married a Ruggles of Roxbury, and old papers are extant in which her son Edward Ruggles, of that place, presents claims for prop- erty left him by his uncle, which had not been settled.
In an ancient paper found between the floors of the old house once occupied by Deacon Benjamin White, which was taken down in 1809 (on the site of General Lyman's house), is found the order of the seats in the First Church, in 1719, where Mr. Edward Devotion's seat is mentioned " as on the men's fore-seat in the body- seats," and his wife's place in the "women's fore-seat," according to the unsocial and strange old practice of separating husbands from wives, and parents from chil- dren during religious service.
There are modern churches in which employment could be found for several tithingmen, notwithstanding the im- proved methods of arranging families during divine ser- vice.
THE WINCHESTERS.
The name of Winchester was a prominent one in the early history of Brookline. The family was scattered throughout the town, and Harvard Street was probably the place of the first settlement. The family was of Welsh descent and emigrated to this country at a very early date. On the site of the present residence of Wil- liam Griggs, Esq., stood until some thirty years ago an ancient, unpainted house, black with age.
This house was the residence of John Winchester, the first representative of Brookline in the General Court. All the land from Harvard Street to the top of Corey's Hill, and west as far as Brighton line on that side of the street, belonged to the Winchesters. It may have ex-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
tended over upon the south side of the hill for aught we know, as there was a house on the site of the stone house now owned by the Coreys on Washington Street, which belonged to Isaac Winchester, but we leave that side of the hill for a future chapter. Corey's Hill was spoken of in the early records of Boston and Muddy River as "the great hill," and it is certain that for many years the Win- chesters were the principal owners of it. It was prob- ably well wooded once, as was a great part of the Sewall and Sharp farms and the Babcock place.
Two tall trees which escaped the axe, probably only because they were buttonwoods, not good for timber, and vexatious for firewood, were left standing on the very summit of the hill till they died a natural death not many years ago. On one of these for a few of the last years of its existence, was conspicuous a bright tin signal, placed there by the U. S. Coast Survey, and discernible, when the sun's rays fell upon it, far up and down the coast.
John Winchester being near neighbor to Samuel Sew- all, was one of the first to sign the petition drawn up by him for a separation of this town from its parent, Boston.
After his death, his son, Capt. Jolin Winchester, occu- pied the homestead, and after him his son Isaac, probably the one alluded to above as afterwards living on the other side of the hill.
After him it came into possession of Samuel Griggs, the grandfather of Deacon Thomas Griggs now living on Washington Street, and after his death to his son Thomas. And there his widow remained, living to a great age, a much beloved and respected lady, and for her sake and during her lifetime the old house was allowed to remain.
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After her death, over thirty years ago, Deacon Thomas Griggs had the old house taken down.
The branch of the Griggs family represented in this
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. 117
JOSEPH GRIGGS.
part of the town are the descendants in a direct line from Joseph Griggs who was born in England in 1625, became a freeman, or member of the church in 1653, in Roxbury, and the same year married Mary, a daughter of Griffin Crafts. She died almost immediately after, and he mar- ried the next year Hannah Davis, likewise of Roxbury.
The children of this marriage were Hannah, Benjamin, Joseph, Ichabod, and Mary.
From Ichabod Griggs descended Thomas, grandfather of the present venerable citizen of that name. There has been a Thomas in this family ever since 1715. Joseph Griggs, the ancestor above mentioned, lived in that part of Brookline village which was then a part of Roxbury, as in the Suffolk Registry of Deeds, lib. 24, folio 279, is recorded the following Deposition : - -
" Jos. Griggs of Roxbury, aged about 85 years, testifieth and saith that about three score years since he settled at Muddy River now called Brooklyne and has lived there and at Roxbury ever since, and in all that time has been very well acquainted with that tract of land now in farms and proprietys, viz., Capt. Sewall, the late Deacon Elliot's Devotions, Clarks and others lying in Muddy River aforesaid, which was commonly called a common field butting on the salt marishes. As to the fence or enclosure of said common field this deponent very well remem- bers that those persons that owned the upland were at the whole and sole charge of the outside range of fence the marish owners refusing to pay any part of the charge and at a meeting of the upland and marish owners about forty years since the marish- men representing their design to fence the marish from the up- land desired the upland owners to be (?) their proportion but the upland owners utterly refused it for the reason above men- tioned and told the marish owners that if they would fence out the marish they must do it at their own cost, and this depon't hath never known or understood that the upland owners ever bore any proportion of the charge of fencing off the marish, but
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. HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
that they did at all times maintain the outside range of fence and the marish men were at the charge of fencing the marish from the upland. JOSEPH GRIGGS, January 21, 1709."
The dispute was about the fences along the old road- way which once skirted the upland from a' point this side of Chapel Station to what was called Sewall's Point, where the fort was afterwards built. Traces of this old road are still to be seen in the fringe of trees which still borders the edge of the upland north of Chapel Station.
Joseph Griggs died in 1715, at the age of 90.
Ichabod Griggs had nine children, and was probably a man of wealth for his times, as some old papers which are · extant, show that his son Thomas, who came of age 1726-27, received of his guardian, James Clark, the sum of one hun- dred and sixty-eight pounds nine shillings as his share of his father's estate. The names of Samuel Griggs (his elder brother) and Thomas Cotton, appear as witnesses on this old receipt. Samuel Griggs settled on Harvard Street on the estate now in the Griggs family. It was formerly Captain John Winchester's. Thomas Griggs married Margaret Williams. From this marriage came Moses Griggs, from whom descended that branch of the family in this town now represented by the heirs of the late David R. Griggs, Samuel Griggs, and Deacon Thomas Griggs. From Nathaniel, the youngest son, de- scended another branch of the family now represented in Brighton.
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An ancient letter recalls an incident perhaps long for- gotten among Nathaniel Griggs' descendants. He was born in 1778. The letter referred to was written in March, 1799, by a young lady in Brookline to another be- longing here but who was on a visit to the family of Dr. Goddard in Portsmouth. She tells her story as follows : -
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NATHANIEL GRIGGS.
"One day the week before last Mr. Nat. Griggs went to Bos- ton in the morning with his team and before he got back his House, furniture and Cloaths except what he had on his back were consumed by fire. His house was all finished but one Room. The carpenter had just begun to finish that and went over to Mr. Moses Griggs' to get some tools. It is said he was not gone more than ten minutes and when he came back the House was all in flames, - he left a window open and there was a little fire on the Hearth to smoke Bacon, and it's supposed the wind blew a train of shavings into the fire which caught the ·house. The Housekeeper was spinning in the kitchen but did not perceive the fire till the flames burst in upon her & she jumpt out at a window and lost all her cloaths but what she had on. But Mrs. Moses Griggs and Mrs. Tom Gardner have been around the town to collect Cloaths for her so I believe her loss is in part made up if not all. . . . . When Mr. Griggs got home and found his House and all that was in it burnt up (except a few things in the cellar were saved) he was ready to sink. One hun- dred dollars of money was consumed some silver, some Bank Bills, the Silver was melted into small pieces like shot. But one of his Brothers and Ebby Davis went round the next morn- ing with a subscription paper & people were very liberal, the more so because he was a very industrious young man. Judge Dana, of Cambridge gave him eighty dollars, Major Gardner forty, Mr. Mason twenty and every body according to their ability. Some gave him Timber, some boards carried to the spot, some bricks, some lime, and in short he is to liave a new house raised this week and expects to be married before long to Nancy Aspinwall. He was finishing his house for her when it was burnt."
He afterwards married accordingly.
For more than two hundred years there was a Joseph Griggs in this ancient family, but this christian name seems to have fallen into disuse within the last half cen- tury. This family in its various branches has been al-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF BROOKLINE.
ways of high standing in the town, having hardly ever been without one or more members holding some office of trust and honor either in the town or church. One of the elder members of the family in the last century was one of the founders of the Baptist Church in Newton. The present venerable senior deacon of the Baptist Church, in this place, was active.in the interests of the first church of that faith in Roxbury, and when the time came for a sim- ilar movement in Brookline, he was one of the first and most liberal in the cause. He has also repeatedly held the office of Selectman in this town to the entire accept- ance of our townspeople. During the second war with England, he was in active service as Ensign of the Brook- line Company on duty in Boston harbor.
A young lady of this family, Miss Helen Maria Griggs, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Griggs, was eminent as a foreign missionary, in the employ of the Baptist denomi- nation. Her daughter Harriet is now the wife of Rev. Mr. Stephens of the Burmah mission.
Two of the sons of the former Thomas Griggs, and who were born in the old house now occupied by David Cool- idge, removed to Sutton, Mass., in their early manhood, and there became honored and influential citizens. Their descendants are scattered among the towns in that vicinity. One or more of them are physicians by profession. Moses Griggs, who was before mentioned as one of the sons of this Thomas Griggs (father of the late D. R. Griggs), settled just within the edge of Brighton, the house being the first after crossing the town boundary on the north side of Harvard Street. It is not now standing. The house which his brother Nathaniel built on the site of the one that was burned, is the house which still stands nearly opposite the one just mentioned. In these four houses, two in Brookline and two in Brighton, but so near the
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THE WINCHESTER HOUSE.
boundary as to be all neighbors, four or five generations of Joseph Griggs' descendants have lived, and here many of them have died. Samuel Griggs, Jr., brother of the present Deacon, removed to Rutland, Vt., where he lived to a great age, one of the most earnest and faithful pion- eers in that town in all matters of local interest and church labor and prosperity. Stephen, the youngest brother, was for many years a merchant in London. He returned to his native land to enjoy the fruits of his labor, but very soon after was drowned in Salem harbor. He left a daughter, of unusual talents, and great strength and beauty of character. She wrote admirably, and would have been distinguished had she lived and chosen to make literature a profession, but she did not long survive her father, whom she mourned with a rare and touching de- votion.
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