USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > History of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1630-1877. With a genealogical register > Part 24
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John Jackson kept a public house near the northwesterly angle of Brattle Street and Brattle Square, probably from about 1672 until 1695, when he was succeeded by Capt. Josiah Parker, who purchased the estate in 1699, and was an inn-holder as late as 1725, and perhaps until he died in July or August, 1731.2
1 At this house the Selectmen met for their patronage of the bar. Among the the transaction of public business, and paid bills remaining on file is the follow- probably paid for the use of rooms by ing : -
" The Scicetmen of the town of Cambridge to Eben". Bradish, Dr.
March, 1769, To dinners and drink, £0. 17. 8
April, To flip and punch,
0. 2. 0
May 1, To wine and cating, 0. 6. 8
May, To dinners, drink and suppers, 0. 18. 0
To flip and cheese, 0. 1. 8
To wine and flip, 0. 4. 0
June, To punch,
0. 2. 8
July, .. To punch and eating,
0. 4. 0
August, To punch and chcese,
0. 3. 7
Oct., To punch and flip,
0. 4. 8
To dinners and drink,
0. 13. 8
Dec., Jan., 1770, & Feb., Sundries,
0. 12. 0
£4.10. 7"
2 It does not distinctly appear whether 1672 he was punished for unlawfully en- Samuel Gibson was an innholder; but in tertaining students. The following depo-
15
226
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.
Another tavern, somewhat famous for many years, stood on the southerly side of Mount Auburn Street, about midway between Brighton and Dunster Streets. It seems to have been first opened in 1726, by John Stedman, grandson of Robert Stedman, the former owner of the same estate. He was succeeded, in 1728, by his widow, Sarah Stedman, and she, in 1734, by her son Ebenezer Stedman, who died Sept. 13, 1785, aged 76.
Time would fail me should I attempt to enumerate and de- scribe all the inn-holders who have flourished in Cambridge. During the first century after the foundation of the town, licenses were granted to the following named persons (and perhaps oth- ers) besides those who have already been mentioned : -
Daniel Champney, 1691.
James Cutler, 1718-1735.
William Russell, 1696-1715.
Thomas Thompson, 1721-1724.
Samuel Phipps, 1707-1709. Elizabeth Phipps, 1710-1712. Edward Marrett, 1709.
Thomas Brown, 1721.
William Bond, 1722-1724.
Susanna Stacey, 1709, 1713-1715.
Peter Oliver, 1727-1729.
Hannah Stacey, 1712, 1716-1724. Ruth Child, 1713-1715.
Joshua Gamage, 1729-1731.
Daniel Champney, Jr., 1730-1733.
Samuel Robinson, 1714-1720.
Thomas Holt, 1730-1731.
John Smith, 1715-1717.
Thomas Dana, 1731-1735.
James Ingham, 1716-1720.
William Bowen, 1732.
Samuel Smith, 1716-1735.
Jonathan Starr, 1735.
During the early part of the present century, the Davenport Tavern, at the westerly corner of North Avenue and Beech Street, was widely celebrated for the concoction of flip; and in
sition and confessions are preserved in fesse yt about 10 dayes sence Percifall the files of the County Court : " Urian Greene came to his house and brought a turkie wrapt up in a coate and left it there, and was dressed by his wife, and baked in the oven, and in the night fol- lowing it was eaten by Mr. Pelham, John Wise, and Russell, studts." etc. "Good- wife Gibson his wife do confesse yt wt is above related is ye truth, and yt she sus- pected it not to be stoalen, but that Mr. Pelham said he came by it honestly, and was frequently at their house. 23 (7) 1672." The result appears on the Court Records, Oct. 1, 1672. " Samuel Gibson, being convicted of enterteyneing some of the studts. contrary to law, is sentenced to be admonished and to pay a fine of forty shillings in money. And he stands com- mitted until it be pd." Oakes, aged 14 yeares and upward do testifie that about 10 dayes since he and Percifall Greene being gathering up fruite in the Marshals orchard, Mr. Edw: Pel- ham came to them with a fowling peece in his hand and desired him to shoot a foule of Gm. Farlengs, and when he was disapoynted there, he brought him to ye fence between ye Marshals yard and Capt. Gookins, wherc sat a turkie, and desired him to shoot yt, wch he accordingly did, and ye fowle being killed ye sd Pelham took ye coate of ye sd Urian and wrapt up the turkie in it, and sent it by Perci- fall Greene to Samuel Gibsons and bid him, leave it at ye said Gibsons house." " Samuel Gibson being examined do con-
Elizabeth Thompson, 1725.
227
CIVIL HISTORY.
the easterly sections of the town the hostelries at the easterly corner of Main and Pearl streets, the westerly corner of Main and Douglass streets, near the westerly corner of Main and Moore streets, at the junction of Main Street and. Broadway (and another a few rods farther eastward), at the junction of Cambridge and Bridge streets, and at the junction of Bridge and Gore streets, besides a generous local patronage, reaped an abundant harvest from the country teams engaged in transporting merchandise to and from Boston ; which teams almost entirely disappeared immediately after the construction of railroads, and the inns did not long afterwards flourish.
Besides innkeepers, the County Court licensed others to sell intoxicating liquors by retail. Among the names of such retail- ers, in addition to those who have already been mentioned, the following appear during the first century : -
John Stedman, 1653-1686. Jonathan Remington, 1713-1735.
William Manning, 1654-1686.
Nathaniel Hancock, Jr., 1707-1709.
Edmund Angier, 1674-1686.
Mary Bordman, 1708-1714.
Samuel Andrew, 1684-1691.
John Stedman, 1717-1724.
William Andrew, 1701.
Sarah Fessenden, 1720-1735.
Mrs. Seeth Andrew, 1702-1703.
Mary Oliver, 1731-1732.
Zachariah Hicks, 1704-1717.
Edward Marrett, 1733-1735.
Martha Remington, 1705-1712.
Two of these retailers in their old age found it necessary to appeal to the County Court for relief ; their petitions are still preserved on file, to wit : -
" To the honored Court assembled at Cambridge, all pros- perity wished. Thease are to informe you that I wase brought up in an honest collinge in ould England, where we sould all sortes of goodes and strong waters, withought offence. I have bine now in this land forty-nine yeres and upwards in this towne, and have payd to the magistre and ministre, and to towne charges, and all willingly ; that I have helped to beare the bur- then and heate of the daye ; and now I am 74 yers and upward, yet I can abide in my shope and attend my collinge, though litell is to be gotten by anye thinge I can by ; that my trad will not maintayne my ffamily and other charges of towne and coun- trey and ministrye. There being so many sellers that never served for a trade, I desire that it might be no offence to aney that I continue in that collinge I was brought up to, and may have yor leave to sell rome, it being a commodity sallabell and allowed to be brought into the countrey ; and many that was
228
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.
formerly a commodity is not now. Hopeing you will grant me my request, I rest y" servant,
EDMUND ANGIER." April 7, 1686.
"To the honored County Court sitting by adjournment at Charlestown, 24, 8br., 1690. The petition of John Stedman of Cambridge, aged 88, sheweth, That your petitioner, as is well known, hath had a license to sell Rum for many years past, which never was discontinued till the Revolution, since which he would have sought for the renewal of it, had he had the least notice when or where he ought to apply himself for it, or that any others renewed theirs : That your petitioner wonders that his daughter Sharp should be summoned to this Court for selling Rum without license, she never having sold any at Cambridg on her own or her husband's account, but upon the sole and proper account and by the order of your petitioner, who is well assured that he hath never given cause to be dealt with in extremity, he having never bin behindhand in paying for his draft, or in serv- ing the country to his power. Your petitioner therefore praies that his said daughter Sharp may no further be molested or dis- couraged from her dutiful and charitable assistance of your peti- tioner for his support and comfort in his extream old age, and that a license may be granted him as formerly. So praies your humble servant, JOHN STEDMAN."
In addition to innholders and retailers, venders of beer and bread were licensed, one of whom, Andrew Belcher, has already been mentioned. Another was Mrs. Bradish, probably the wife of Robert Bradish,1 who resided on the westerly corner of Har- vard and Holyoke streets, where the Holyoke House now stands. The following appeal to the County Court, without date, is in the handwriting of President Dunster, and is preserved in the files for 1654 : -
" Honored Gentlemen, as far as it may stand with the whole- some orders and prudential laws of the country for the publick weal, I can very freely speak with and write in the behalf of sister Bradish, that shee might be encouraged and countenanced in her present calling for baking of bread and brewing and selling of penny bear, without which shee cañot continue to bake : In both which callings such is her art, way and skill, that shee doth vend such comfortable penniwortlis for the reliefe of all that send
1 The license may have been granted to her husband; but she seems to have been the active manager of the business.
229
CIVIL HISTORY.
unto her as elsewhere they can seldom meet with. Shee was complained of unto me for harboring students unseasonably spending there their time and parents' estate ; but upon exam- ination I found it a misinformation, and that shee was most de- sirous that I should limit or absolutely prohibit any ;that in case of sickness or want of comfortable bread or bear in the College only they should thither resort and then not to spend above a penny a man, nor above two shillings in a quarter of a year ; which order shee carefully observed in all ordinary cases. How far she had publick allowance by the townsmen hertofore I leave to Br. Goff or any of our townsmen that are with you to shew : and how good effects for the promoting of the weal publick and how christian a thing in itself godly emulation is, as your histor- ical knowledge informs you so your experience abundantly dem- onstrates, as contrarywise the undoing messures of monopolyes. The Lord to guide and prosper all your administrations shall bee the prayer of yours in what he can. H. DUNSTER."
From time to time the Court established a scale of prices for ordinaries : -
" At a meeting of the magistrates and committee to take the Treasurer's account, Dec. 30, 1679 ; For the regulating of ex- penses at the County Courts, it is ordered that henceforth, for the juries, there shall be allowed in money,
For their breakfast, one man, £0.0.4.
For their dinner,
0. 1. 3.
For their supper, 66 66
0. 1. 0.
for the magistrates,
For dinner, 0. 2. 0. «
For supper,
0. 1. 6.
for the marshall and constables, one meal, 0.1. 0.
" And wine and beer, &c., to be included in the abovesaid sums ; and if any ordinary shall exceed the abovesaid order, it shall be at their own peril."
In the Proprietors' Records, 1635, it is stated that a large lot, originally designed for Richard Saltonstall, " is now to be en- tered the Market Place." It was bounded northerly on Mount Auburn Street, easterly on Brighton Street, and southerly on Winthrop Street. This lot retained the name of Market Place more than two hundred years ; but there is no evidence that any
1 Middlesex Co. Rec.
230
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.
market house was ever erected thereon.1 It may have been used, long ago, as an open mart for the interchange of goods between producers and consumers ; but even of this, no proof remains. Again, when Davenport & Makepeace, in 1805, laid out streets in the Phips Farm, a Market Place was reserved at the junction of Market Street and Broadway ; but the time has not yet arrived for appropriating it to its intended use. In July, 1812, the first effectual movement was made for securing the long-desired ac- commodation. Premising that " a convenient market-stall, suffi- ciently capacious to admit meat and other articles to be exposed for sale, protected by a roof or covering from the rains and the sun, erected near the town pump in Cambridge, will be of gen- eral benefit," twenty-four persons subscribed an agreement for the accomplishment of that purpose. The "town pump " stood near the centre of Harvard Square ; and the Square was then much smaller than it now is, having since that period been en- larged on the northeasterly and westerly sides. On the westerly portion of this Square a building was erected, about thirty-four feet long and twenty-five feet wide, with posts, and rails around it, probably encumbering nearly the whole space granted for that use by the proprietors of common lands ; namely, " a square piece, measuring forty-six feet on each side." John Bowers engaged to erect the building for such price as should be determined by Deac. Josiah Moore, Deac. John Watson, and Mr. Thomas Ma- soll. The referees reported, Nov. 5, 1812, that Mr. Bowers was entitled to $210.55, for labor and materials, and that materials had been furnished by subscribers, amounting to $38.39. They also estimated that it would cost $81.00 additional " to complete the coving, furnish posts and railings around the house, steps to each door,2 raising the earth around it, providing benches, cleaver, block, and additional hooks, painting the building, and procur- ing Dearborn's patent Balance, with a scale attached thereto, that will weigh from half a pound to five hundred and forty weight."3
1 The Market Place is now generally ealled Winthrop Square. After remain- ing open and common for two centuries, on petition of Levi Farwell and others, April 7, 1834, the Seleetmen were author- ized " to permit Market Place, so ealled, to be enelosed as they shall judge for the ornament and benefit of the town and the petitioners ; provided that the enelosure shall be of a permanent nature and with- out expense to the town ; and provided
also that the town shall have a right to remove the enelosure, if they shall here- after see fit."
2 One door was at the south end, and one on the east side.
8 To defray the whole cost, amounting to $329.94, and to provide "a fund for repairs," a joint stock was established of forty shares, valued at ten dollars, each, which were immediately taken as follows : Oliver Wendell, three shares; Caleb Gan-
231
CIVIL HISTORY.
At their meeting, Jan. 11, 1813, the proprietors established several Regulations, the first three of which were as follows : - " 1. No person occupying said market house shall be permitted to use or vend spirituous liquors therein, except on such public occasions, and under such restrictions, as the committee may hereafter agree to and direct. 2. That no fire be carried into or kept in the market house, and that no cigars or pipes be allowed to be smoked therein. 3. That no shell or other fish be per- mitted to be kept in said market house, at any season of the year." 1
The first occupant of the market house seems to have been Joel Wellington, who paid rent for the quarter ending March 31, 1813; he also occupied it several years after April 1, 1814. The second occupant was Henry Greenwood, under a lease dated March 31, 1813, in which lease the committee of the proprietors reserved " one quarter part of said house, - viz., next to the bal- ance and scale, for the purpose of accommodating those who may bring into the market, butter, eggs, or fowls, or any kinds of sauce ; but no person shall be admitted to vend therein such articles of provision as are usually supplied by butchers." The committee also reserved " the right of letting said market house on Wednesday and Thursday of Commencement week, without any deduction from the rent thereof." And it is worthy of note, that, according to the Treasurer's account current, Israel Porter paid for the use of the market house on those two days and the intervening night, the sum of twenty dollars, while the whole rent of the house for the year, exclusive of those days, was only forty dollars. Afterwards, this reservation of two days was dis- continued, and the rent was gradually increased to eighty dollars per annum, and taxes.
A lease of the ground under and around the market house had been granted by the Proprietors of Common Lands, extending to nett, two; John Mellen, two; Josiah self and William Warland; one; Samuel Child, one ; Samuel Child, Jr., one ; Jonas Wyeth, 3d. one; Thomas Austin, one; Joseph Holmes, one; Royal Morse, one ; John Walton, for himself and Ebenezer Stedman, Jr., one ; Jacob H. Bates, one ; William Gamage, one. Moore, two; Samuel Bartlett, two; Israel Porter, two; Sidney Willard, one; Henry Ware, one ; William Hilliard, two ; Thomas Warland, one ; Artenatus Moore, one ; Richard Bordman, two; Eliab W. Metcalf, one ; John Farrar, one ; John T. Kirkland, two; Levi Hedge, ineluding 1 A eellar was constructed in 1816, and was rented for fifteen dollars per annum to Zenas C. Atwood, “ to keep for sale oys- ters ; no kind of gambling, tippling, or ri- otous beliaviour, to be suffered in said eel- lar." Joseph Mckean's subseription, one ; James Read, Jr., two; Joseph S. Read, for himself and William Brown, one ; James Munroe, for himself and Torrey Hancock, one; John Warland, for him-
232
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.
April 1, 1833. But at a town meeting, April 3, 1826, a Com- mittee, of which Abraham Hilliard was chairman, submitted an elaborate Report concerning the respective rights of the Town and the Proprietors of Common Lands in and to several lots therein described, and concerning sundry encroachments on the public highways. The report recited the history of the lot on which the Market House stood, showing that, after it had been occupied about fifty years by a court house, it had remained open for public travel during a still longer period, from about 1760 to 1812, and that the town had thus acquired the right of passage over it as a public highway; which report was accepted, and arrangements were made to secure the immediate or future re- moval of all encroachments on any of the public highways in the town. At a meeting of the Proprietors of the Market House, March 5, 1827, "a deed was presented by a committee of the town of Cambridge, for the Proprietors to sign, thereby acknowl- edging that they have no right or title to the land whereon the market house now stands; the proprietors refused to sign said deed, and voted, that William Hilliard, Levi Farwell, and Joseph Holmes be a committee for the purpose of ascertaining whether a suitable lot of land can be procured upon which to remove the market house, and upon what terms. After an in- effectual negotiation, lasting more than two years, resort was had to legal process. At the September term of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, 1829, an indictment was presented by the Grand Jury against the Proprietors of the Market House, for keeping up and maintaining "a certain wooden building, extending in length thirty-four feet and in breadth twenty-five feet, with a cellar under the same, and with posts and railing on the sides thereof extending in length forty feet, standing upon the common and public highway in the town of Cambridge." The case was con- tinued from term to term until June, 1830, when the result is thus recorded : " And now, Asahel Stearns, Esq., Attorney for the Commonwealth in this behalf, says, the within named defend- ants having paid the costs of prosecution, and given satisfactory security for the removal of the nuisance within forty days from this seventeenth of June, 1830, he will no further prosecute this indictment." In due time the building was removed, and the Square has since remained open and unobstructed.
The enclosure at the corner of North Avenue and Garden Street is generally supposed to be the most ancient burial-place
233
CIVIL HISTORY.
in Cambridge. It was used for that purpose as early as January, 4, 1635-6, when it was " ordered, that the burying-place shall be paled in ; whereof John Taylcot is to do 2 rod, Georg Steele 3 rod and a gate, Thomas Hosmer 3 rod, Mathew Allen 1 rod, and Andrew Warner appointed to get the remainder done at a public charge ; and he is to have iiis. a rod." But at an earlier date, April 7, 1634, we find this record : "Granted John Pratt two acres by the old burying-place, without the common pales." This evidently refers to some spot devoted to the burial of the dead, earlier than the one then in use. Its location is not cer- tainly known, yet it is indicated with some degree of probability by two circumstances : (1.) The lot owned by John Pratt in 1635, was situated on the southerly side of Brattle Street, and on both sides of Hilliard Street. (2.) The "common pales " are supposed to denote the stockade which was erected in 1632, nearly, if not precisely in the line of the present Ash Street, and of which Dr. Holmnes says traces existed when he wrote his His- tory in 1800. It is not unreasonable then to suppose that "the old burying-place without the common pales " may have been at or near the westerly corner of Brattle and Ash streets, in the grounds now owned by Samuel Batchelder, Esq.
A hundred years after the second burial-place was ordered to be " paled in," the town enclosed it by a substantial stone wall, instead of the old wooden fence, or pales. The corporation of Harvard College contributed one sixtli part of the expense, as appears by their Records under date of Oct. 20, 1735: " Whereas there is a good stone wall erected and erecting round the burying-place in Cambridge, which will come to about £150, and whereas there has been a considerable regard had to the College in building so good and handsome a wall in the front ; and the College has used, and expects to make use of the bury- ing-place as Providence gives occasion for it ; therefore, Voted, that as soon as the said stone wall shall be completed, the Treas- urer pay the sum of twenty-five pounds to Samuel Danforth, William Brattle and Andrew Bordman, Esq .. , a committee for the town to take care of the said fence." After another hundred years, in his Preface to " Epitaphs from the old Burying-ground in Cambridge," 1845, Mr. William Thaddeus Harris says, " It is rather surprising, that, in this age of improvement, Cambridge should fall behind her neighbors, and suffer her ancient grave- yard to lie neglected. Interesting as it is from containing within its limits the ' tombs of the prophets,' the spot is often visited by
·
234
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE.
the curious stranger ; but it is to be feared that he as often leaves it with feelings of regret at its desolate appearance." It should be added, that this " desolate appearance " has been almost entirely removed within the last thirty years, and, though not pro- fusely ornamented, an air of quiet neatness now marks the spot.
This ground, however, was of such limited dimensions, that in the course of nearly two hundred years the mouldering remains of some must have been disturbed, to give place to others. The increasing population of the two new villages in the easterly part of the town made the necessity urgent for additional room. Ac- cordingly, at a Town-meeting, May 27, 1811, a committee was appointed " to contract for a piece of land in the most eligible situation, for a new burial-ground in Cambridgeport." The Committee reported, August 5, that they had selected a spot, and they were empowered to purchase it. On the first day of January, 1812, Jonathan L. and Benjamin Austin, for $791.67, conveyed to the town two acres one quarter and twenty rods of land, bounded north by Broadway and east by Norfolk Street, with a right of way to Harvard Street by a passage forty feet wide. For more than half a century this ground was used as a public burying-place, chiefly by the inliabitants of Cambridge- port and East Cambridge. Meantime the beautiful cemetery at Mount Auburn was consecrated by solemn religious services, Sept. 24, 1831, and the less extensive but scarcely less beautiful and attractive Cambridge Cemetery was in like manner con- secrated, Nov. 1, 1854. In one or the other of these cemeteries many of the inhabitants purchased lots, and reverently removed to a more quiet and secluded resting place the remains of their deceased friends. The ground, being comparatively disused for new burials, and divested of many treasures formerly deposited therein, gradually assumed a desolate and forlorn appearance, until a general desire was expressed to discontinue entirely its former use and to convert it into a public park. Application was accordingly made to the General Court for permission to effect the desired change; and on the 29th of April, 1865, it was " Resolved, that the city council of the city of Cambridge is hereby authorized, at the expense of said city, to remove the re- mains of the dead from the burial ground between Broadway and Harvard Street in Ward Number Two, in said Cambridge, to the Cambridge Cemetery, or such other burial place in the vicin- .
ity of Cambridge as the relatives and friends of the deceased may designate and provide. . . . . Said ground shall be surrounded by
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