USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts, from its origin to the present period; with some account of the environs > Part 4
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At the second court of Assistants, which was also holden at Charlestown, an order was passed, that no person plant in any place within the limits of the patent, without leave from the Governour and Assistants, or a major part of them. At this court it was also ordered, that the town at Mattapan be call- ed Dorchester, that upon Charles River, Watertown, and that Trimountain be called BOSTON. This was on the 7th day of September, 1630, and from that day we date the founda- tion of our city.
Whence originated the two latter of these three names, Shawmut, Trimountain and Boston, is matter of historical rec- ord. In regard to the signification of Shawmut we can only state conjecture. It seems to have been a universal custom, derived from the first fathers of mankind, to denominate pla- ces, from some peculiar excellences discovered in them : and the names appropriated were generally drawn from fancied resemblances, in these peculiarities, to parts of the human body. Before the art of sinking wells was known, fountains or springs of water were of infinite value ; and the practice of giv- ing names to places from them, was prevalent among the ab- origines of Massachusetts. It was very common with the Jews
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
and other Eastern nations, to call such springs by the terms appropriated in their languages to the eye, whose piercing brilliancy sparkles in the visage, as the gurgling fountain does upon the grassy plain. Those that believe, with many who are not altogether unwise, that the native American tribes were descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, will have little difficulty to discover in Shauimut the radicals of the two eyes, that shoot forth on either side of the ridge of high land be- tween Charles and Congress streets, and the termination, ut, which is a particle of place, equivalent to at. Such will readily coincide in the ingenious conclusion lately drawn, that Shawmut signified living fountains, to which the natives were probably in the daily habit of crossing over, in their canoes, from the opposite peninsula, to procure fresh water when the great spring there was overflowed by the tide .*
The etymology of the word Trimountain leads us directly to the origin of that name. Shawmut presented to those who view- ed it from Charlestown, the appearance only of three large hills ; one on the north, one far to the east, and another form- ing the whole western extremity of the place. On the last were three lofty and majestic eminences, and on the brow of the casternmost of these, three little rising hillocks appear- ed in a contiguous range. The combination of these circum- stances doubtless gave rise to the name of Trimountain.
No reason is assigned on the records of the court for changing the name of Trimountain for that of Boston. It is however universally agreed, that the name itself had been se- lected in compliment to the Rev. John Cotton, who at that time was a preacher at Boston, in Lincolnshire, and whom they expected very soon to come over and take part in the establishment of their colony. Boston, moreover, had been a place of note in the annals of the persecuted puritans, and several of those who first settled here were born there : and
* Mass. H. C. 2. x. 174. To the examples there adduced, may be added Moshawsick the name of Providence, where is still shown a venerated spring, which induced Roger Wil- liams to stop his canoe and land at that place.
Our Shawmut is still remarkable for the great number of its productive springs of excel- lent water. A well has recently been dug for the accommodation of a house, building at the head of School street, opposite the Stone Chapel. When the workmen had reached the depth of about sixty-five feet, a spring burst into the well several feet from the bottom, and flowed with such rapidity as to fill it to the height of forty feet in twenty-five minutes. Next morning they undertook to draw out the water by means of a whip tackle. In the course of seven hours, during which time several men with two horses raised at the rate of five barrels of water in two minutes, making in all more than a thousand barrels, they suc- ceeded in exhausting the water so far as to admit of laying the wall. In a few days the water assumed the usual level of that in other wells.
5
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
it is also not improbable, that the sagacity of Winthrop and Johnson seeing . the prognosticks of its future greatness writ- ten on the face of nature, too legibly and too indelibly to be mistaken,' they may have claimed for the place of their choice, the name originally intended for their chief city.
Boston, in Lincolnshire, is a borough town, seated on both sides of the river Witham, near its mouth. It is a hundred and seventeen miles north of London. In 1811, it contained 8113 inhabitants. It is governed by a mayor and sends two members to parliament. It is famous for the tower of its Gothick church, which is two hundred and eighty-two feet high, being one of the most lofty and elegant of the kind, and a noted sea-mark. The English name, Boston, appears to have been a contraction of Botolph's town, which name the place bore in old time, in honour of Botolph, a pious Saxon, who had a monastery there. It is worthy of notice, however, that Iccan-hoe, which was a more ancient Saxon appellation, signifies Oxen-town, between which and the mean- ing of Boston there is a fancied resemblance.
CHAPTER VII.
Better to sit in Freedom's hall, With a cold damp floor and mouldering wall, Than to bend the neck, and to bow the knee In the proudest palace of slavery. German Epigram.
THE third court of Assistants sat at Charlestown, Septem- ber 28th, 1630. 'The first General Court of the colony was holden at Boston, not by representatives, but by every one that was free of the corporation, in person, on the 19th of Oc- tober following. Between these two dates, Gov. Winthrop and most of the people had removed from Charlestown, where there remained but seventeen male inhabitants. The rank which the several towns held in point of population and wealth combined, may be discovered from the apportionment of a tax of fifty pounds, levied for some military purposes.
1. Charlestown was to pay £. 7
2. Boston . 11
3. Dorchester 7
4. Roxbury 5
5. Watertown 11
6. Medford . £. 3
7. Salem 3
8. (Weymouth) 2
9. Nantasket . . 1
£. 50
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1779178
HISTORY OF BOSTON.
'The publick object of most importance which first engaged the attention of those in office, was the selection of a proper place for a fortified town, of which they supposed there would be great necessity, to secure them from the natives. Several places were proposed. At one meeting, December 6th, they resolved to build upon the neck between Roxbury and Bos- ton, and appointed a committee to attend to the business. The committee met, and growing wiser by deliberation, con- cluded that the location was not a suitable one for the purpose, and agreed to meet again at Watertown to consider farther on the subject. There, on the 21st, they made up their minds to erect their fortifications at a spot a mile below, where they thought was a fit place for a fortified town ; but at last on the 28th. they finally decided on building about three miles above Charlestown, on the northwest side of the river. They called the place Newtown (at present Cambridge) and the Governour and Deputy, with all the assistants, except Messrs. Sharp and Endicott obliged themselves to build houses there, in the fol- lowing spring. But before much was done in compliance with this obligation, Chicatabot, the chief of the Indians near Boston, came to visit the Governour, and made such high professions of friendship as to diminish the apprehensions of danger, so that the necessity of having a fortified town gradu- ally appeared less and less, until the plan was wholly laid aside. This result must have been doubly gratifying to the people of Boston, who would have regarded the formal estab- lishment of the seat of government at Newtown as fatal to their own prosperity.
About a year had now elapsed since the colony had left their native land. Many of them had there enjoyed the best of society. Their family connexions were honourable : their professions and occupations in life had been reputable and profitable, and every comfort, which the possession of ' fruitful lands, stately buildings, goodly orchards and gardens' could afford, had been at their command. Here they could expect to find nothing but a desert, without any worldly allurement to recommend it; but they calculated on the free enjoyment of religious privileges, and that sufficed to counterbalance every other consideration. On that they relied with confi- dence that it would encourage them to sustain affliction and hardship of every description, that the imagination could an- ticipate. . The tenour of every memorial which our first set- tlers have left behind them, proves this to have been their pre- dominant feeling. Questionless there were some among them whose object was merchandize, and who devoted themselves to commercial pursuits with the hope of gain : doubtless, too, says Foxcroft, in his observations on the rise and primitive state of New-England, 'They had a mixture of false profes-
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
sors among them, but let me speak it freely, without offence to any, the first beginners of this plantation, as to the body of them, were an excellent set of real and living Christians.' And their religion exhibited itself pure and undefiled in the scenes of distress which they witnessed, and the firmness of their faith was manifested by the patience with which they submitted to privation, and the perseverance with which they pursued their object.
We have mentioned the prevalence of a mortal sickness among them previous to the removal from Charlestown. Its ravages did not abate immediately in consequence of that change of residence, but continued till December, by which time two hundred at least had fallen its victims .* With char- acteristick impartiality death swept away the wealthy and the poor, the bondman and his master. Besides others of note they had to mourn over the ladies of Messrs. Codding- ton and Pincheon, two of the Assistants, and the Lady Ara- bella. The death of the last named personage excited a very general interest. She was the pride of the colony. There were several other women of distinction, who encountered the fatigue and perils of the day with laudable resolution, but the devotedness of the lady Arabella shone peculiarly conspicu- ous. She was a daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, and her union with Mr. Johnson was a very happy one. The lan- guage of her soul to him was such as is ascribed to an ancient Spanish lady-' whithersoever your fatall destinie shall dryve you, eyther by the furious waves of the great ocean, or by the many-folde and horrible dangers of the lande, I wyl sure- ly beare you company. There can no peryll chaunce to me so terrible, nor any kinde of death so cruell, that shall not be much easier for me to abyde, than to live so farre separate from you.' Pattern of fidelity ! her desire was gratified : she left the paradise of peace and plenty which she enjoyed in the family of her noble father, and came into a wilderness of wants, that proved too severe a trial for ber. The virtues of her mind could not protect her body from the tide of adversi- ties, which overwhelmed her soon after her arrival :
' O'er her soft form diseases sternly crept,
And gave the lovely victim to the tomb.'
She died and was buried at Salem in the month of August.
The tears which this event occasioned had scarcely ceased to flow, when the people of Boston were called to weep for the loss of Mr. Johnson himself. The death of such a man spread a melancholy paleness on every countenance. All
* When the fleet returned this fall, about 200 of the people either returned home or left Massachusetts for various reasons .- Dudley's Letter.
2
V
T 37
Entered according to Bit of Compress by A. Bowen.
JOHNSON HALL, COURT-SQUARE.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
considered him as their principal patron. He might be cal- led the father of Boston, as it was he that persuaded Gover- nour Winthrop and the rest of the company to cross the river. He was the richest man of all the planters, and had early bent himself with pious zeal to advance the interests of the colony. He assisted many good people with means to come over, be- queathed a portion of his property to the company, and order- ed his executors to carry on his share or part in it.
He was the son of Abraham Johnson, Esq. of Clipsham, in the county of Rutland, and his estates lay in Rutland, North- amptonshire, and Lincolnshire. The first mention made of him, in connexion with the Massachusetts company, is that he was chosen one of the Assistants on the thirteenth of May, sixteen hundred and twenty-nine. The confidence which the corporation had in him is evident, from their soon after elect- ing him as a referee, in a case of dispute which arose between Mr. Endicott and John and Samuel Brown at Salem. He was one of those that signed the agreement to remove, in case the government and patent might be transferred, and one of the argumentators appointed to discuss the expediency of that measure. After the decision in favour of that step, he was nominated at the same time with Winthrop, Saltonstall and Humphrey, as a candidate for the office of first Governour. On his arrival here, he was clothed with the powers of a Jus- tice of the peace, and in that capacity presided with Winthrop at a jury of inquest on the 18th of September. This is the last of his official acts recorded. The weight of publick cares, added to the burden of his grief for the loss of his wife, over- powered the strength of his constitution, and he yielded up his life, 'in sweet peace,' on the 30th of that month.
Mr. Johnson had chosen for his lot the square which lies between Court Street, Washington, School and Common Streets. Tradition locates his house about the centre of the Northeast side, that is, near the present site of the old Court- House. According to his particular desire expressed on his death bed, he was buried at the Southwest corner of the lot, and the people exhibited their attachment to him, by ordering their bodies to be buried near him. This was the origin of the first burying place, at present the Chapel burial ground.
There is a mournful pleasure in marking the terms of affec- tion and respect, in which the early writers uniformly speak
of. Mr. Johnson's character. Governour Winthrop says ' he was a holy man and wise.' Dudley, that ' he was a prime man among us, zealous for religion, and made a most godly cnd, dying willingly and professing his life better spent in promoting this plantation, than it could have been any other way ; he left to us a loss greater than the most conceived.' His namesake, the author of the Wonder Working Providence,
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
speaks of him as 'endued with many precious gifts, and a chief pillar to support this new erected building; so that at his departure there were not only many weeping eyes, but some fainting hearts, fearing the failure of the undertaking :' and Cotton Mather comprehends all in the report, that he was a perfect and upright man.
In the midst of these afflictions Dr. Gager died. He was their principal, if not their only physician and sur- geon. He is represented as a man of skill in his profession, and we have seen that the soundness of his faith, and the pu- rity of his life had promoted him to the office of a deacon in the infant church. He was considered a publick servant, and the same court, which provided for the salaries of the minis- ters, ordered that a house should be built for him against the coming spring, that he should be furnished with a cow, and be paid twenty pounds for his first year, and afterwards have thirty pounds per annum at the common charge.
Several other deaths are recorded which added to the grief of the people ; among them that of Mr. Robert Welden, who had been chosen to be a military captain, but died at Charlestown, before having an opportunity to act in that ca- pacity. He was a young gentleman of high promisc, and considerable experience as a soldier. His remains were brought to Boston, and interred with military honours, 'three volleys of shot' being then, as at present, the customary trib- ute of respect.
There was yet one other distress to be endured, and that was the danger of famine. We know they arrived too late in the season to plant, and brought too small a stock of pro- visions with them, and the extreme drought of the summer had threatened a total consumption of the fruits of the earth. When the winter set in, which was on the 24th of December, the cold came on with violence. Till that day the weather had been for the most part fair, and open, with gentle frosts at night; but, by the 26th, the river was so frozen over that they of Charlestown could not come to the sermon at Boston, till afternoon at high water. From that time their chief care was to keep themselves warm, and as comfortable in other respects as their scanty means would permit. They were so short of provisions that many were obliged to live upon mus- cles, clams and other shell fish, with groundnuts and acorns instead of bread. 'Oh,' says Roger Clap, ' the hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the eye of reason to be relieved. Flesh of all kinds was a rare thing, and bread so very scarce that sometimes I thought the very crumbs of my
* Douglass, in his way, says, ' Winthrop was very charitable particularly in distributing his medicinal Van IIelmont nostrums among the poor.'
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
father's table would have been sweet to me; and when I could have meal and water and salt boiled together' (the ele- ments of a favourite New England dish) 'who could wish better !'
Being thus situated, they beheld with much joy the return of Captain William Pierce on the 5th of February 1631, in the ship Lion, laden with provisions, according to a contract which he had made previous to his sailing away in the fall.
We close this chapter of calamities with an account of the FIRST FIRE which is recorded to have happened in Boston. About noon on the 16th of March, 1631, the chimney of Mr. Thomas Sharp's house caught fire, the splinters not being clayed at the top, and taking the thatch burnt it down. The wind being Northwest drove the fire to Mr. Colburn's house* which was some rods off, and burnt that down also. Both of these gentlemen's houses were as good and as well furnished as the most in the plantation. Much of their own furniture was destroyed, together with the goods of some other families, which occupied parts of their houses.
Captain Pierce was soon ready to return, and Mr. Wilson had made arrangements to go with him. On the 29th of March he had an affectionate meeting at the Governour's, with a number of his people. He recommended to them the strict observance of religious duties during his absence, and designated Messrs. Winthrop, Dudley and Nowell, as the per- sons in his opinion best qualified to lead the devotions of the congregation. He sailed from Salem on the first of April, and the Boston church was thus left destitute of a preacher, until the arrival of Mr. John Eliot in the November following.
CHRONOLOGICAL ITEMS.
With a view to exhibit some traces of the early progress in trade, and of the customs of the times, we introduce a few miscellaneous articles, in this place.
1630. Aug. 23. Ordered that carpenters, joiners, brick- layers, sawyers and thatchers take no more than two shillings a day under pain of ten shillings to giver and taker .- Orders similar to this were frequently made, regulating and altering the prices of labour and of commodities. Six years after, it was left to towns to agree upon prices among themselves.
* Mr. Colburn was chosen deacon after the death of Dr. Gager, but is always called by his title of Mr. which in those days was used as the term Esquire is at present .. Church mem ber were invariably distinguished as 'our brother' or Your sister." Goodman and Goodwife were common appellations.
i
40
HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Oct. 25. The Governour began to discourage the practice of drinking toasts at table : so it grew by little and little to be disused.
The Ambrose was new masted at Charlestown.
Messrs. Winthrop and Dudley joined with S. Maverick in sending out a pinnace to trade for corn. She went as far as Rhode Island and procured a hundred bushels.
Nov. 9. Proposals are issued to have a ferry set up be- tween Boston and Charlestown.
30. One man is to be whipped for stealing a loaf of bread ' and another for shooting a fowl on the sabbath day.
1631. March 4. Nicholas Knopp was fined five pounds for taking upon him to cure the scurvy by a water of no value, which he sold at a very dear rate ; to be imprisoned till he pay his fine, or give security for it, or else be whipped, and be liable to any man's action, of whom he had received money for the said water.
22. All who have cards, dice or gaming tables in their houses shall make way with them before the next court
May 18. Election day at Boston ; Winthrop and Dudley are rechosen by general consent.
William Cheeseborough's house burnt at Boston, all the people being present.
Thomas Williams undertakes to set up the first ferry : has four pence a person from Winnesimet to Boston.
June 14. Edward Convers sets up another ferry.
July 4. The Governour built a bark at Mystick, which was launched this day, and called the Blessing of the Bay. In the course of the season this vessel made several coasting trips.
26. A night watch of six persons is established at Boston. Charlestown and Roxbury were to furnish two men each, and Boston the other two.
Monthly trainings are ordered.
Aug. 16. Four men fined for drinking too much.
Sept. 27. Mr. Josias is fined for stealing from the In- dians and condemned to forfeit his title and henceforth to be called Josias.
Oct. 25. Gov. Winthrop notes 'a plentiful crop.'
30. A stone house which the Governour was erecting at Mystick was washed down to the ground, in a violent storm, the walls being laid in clay instead of lime.
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER VIII.
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest.
Pope-
Ov the second of November, 1631, the Lion arrived again from England, and brought the Governour's wife and some of his children, together with the Rev. John Eliot and about sixty others. This event afforded the Bostonians an oppor- tunity to exhibit their attachment to Mr. Winthrop by one of those public demonstrations, in which they have always delighted. The vessel was detained below the town two days, and in that time preparation was made for the recep- tion of the honourable passengers. When the Governour and his family left the ship, the Captain gave them a salute of six or seven guns, and at the landing, the military officers re- ceived them with a guard, and welcomed them with divers volleys of shot and three artillery pieces. Several of the as- sistants and most of the people of the neighbourhood assem- bled to witness the scene, and to enhance the joyfulness of the occasion, a marvellous store of kids, venison, poultry, geese, and partridges, and other luxuries were brought and sent as presents. The like manifestation of love had never been seen in New England. It is hardly necessary to add that on the 11th of November they kept a day of thanksgiving at Boston.
The succeeding winter passed away without any material occurrences. At the General Court, in Boston, on the 8th of May, 1632, the same Governour and Deputy were elected, and it was then thought expedient to pass an order that two men should be chosen from each town, to confer with the Court of Assistants about raising a public stock. This order was the . first step towards a house of representatives .*
* More of form was given to this branch of the government in April 1634, when it was determined that the freeinen of each plantation should choose two or three before every general court, and that such persons so deputed should have full power to deal in all the affairs of the commonwealth, wherein the freemen have to do, excepting only the election of magistrates, at which every man wa: still to give his own voice. In 1630 the number of representatives was apportioned according to the number of inhabitants, no town to have more than three, and persons might send their written voies. einlorsod by the name of the voters, instead of attending ina pe. son at the Court on Election day. 6
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HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The delegates were at that time called deputies or committees ; and Messrs. William Colburn and William Cheeseborough had the honour to be the first from Boston.
Mr. Wilson returned from London, perhaps his wife with him, on the 26th of May, and the congregation began in Au- gust to build a house for public worship, and one for the residence of their pastor. Towards these purposes they made a voluntary contribution of a hundred and twenty pounds. The meeting-house was erected on the south side of State-street, opposite the new building now erected at the head of Wilson's lane, for the accommodation of the United States' Branch Bank. Its roof was thatched and its walls were of mud. It would be pleasant to be able to point to the very ground whereon this first temple stood. Mr. Emerson, in his historical sketch of the church, fixed it not far from the spot on which the Exchange Coffee House had been newly reared. But our search for that edifice is equally unavailing ; literally, not one stone of that enormous structure is left upon another. A writer in seventeen hundred ninety-five said it was on the ground on which the Branch Bank then stood : we trust it will never be so difficult to direct the future inquirer to the new office of the present Branch .*
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