History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix, Part 21

Author: Sumner, William H. (William Hyslop), 1780-1861. cn
Publication date: 1858
Publisher: Boston, J. E. Tilton
Number of Pages: 883


USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix > Part 21
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston : with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix. > Part 21


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" Indenture 6 May 1720. Between John Yeamans of the Island of Antigua, now resident in Boston, of the one part, Gov" Samuel Shute, Simeon Stoddard Esqr. and David Stod- dard, merchant, both of Boston of the other part, concerning a marriage now in Treaty & shortly by the Grace of God to be solemnized between said John Yeamans & Elizabeth Shrimp- ton, grand-daughter of Co1. Samuel Shrimpton.


" Said John Yeamans agrees with said parties, together with said Elizabeth, when she shall attain the age of 21 years, for the prosecution of a Common Recovery of that Brick Messuage and Tenement with Land whereon the same doth stand in Bos- ton, and all that Farm lying at Rumney Marsh, all that Island called Noddles Island, with the Mills, Houses, &c. enumerated in the Will of Elizabeth Stoddard, sometime the wife of said Co1. Samuel Shrimpton, deceased, & sole executrix of his Will. " Said Yeamans doth agree that he will take an Estate in


231


YEAMANS PEDIGREE.


1720.]


said Messuage, Farm & Island, enumerated as above to him the said John Yeamans & Elizabeth, for their natural lives, &c.


" Said Yeamans doth agree that said Elizabeth shall have power to make and publish her last Will and appoint her exec- utors & settle upon such persons as she shall see cause, to the value of £5000."


Thus it is seen that Elizabeth Yeamans, daughter of Sam- uel Shrimpton, Jr., and grand-daughter of Colonel Shrimpton, became the devisee in tail of the whole of Noddle's Island, under her grandmother Stoddard's (formerly Shrimpton) will.1


1 YEAMANS PEDIGREE.


JOHN YEAMANS= Lieut .- Gov. of Antigua.


. NICHOLS.


John. died in his father's lifetime.


Henry=Shute.


William=Mary.


Dau. m. John Sawcutt. Dau. m. John Ash.


See Shute


Rachel d. unmarried.


pedigree.


Henrietta m. Col. Martin. Dau. m. Byam. Dau. m. Freeman.


John=Elizabeth Shrimpton.


Dau. d. unm.


Elizabeth


d. 1749.


dau. of Samuel Shrimpton, Jr. See Shrimpton. b. 26 Aug., 1702,


1. Smith, of St. Thomas.


d. 4 Dec., 1721.


2. Flocke, of St. Eustatins.


Shute Shrimpton == Matilda Gunthorp.


b. 20 Aug. 1721,


d. 10 Sept. 1769.


1 Shute,


Daughter.


Daughter, m. (prob.) John Duvind,


Daniel Duvind,


John Duvind, b. in St. Thomas, as was his father, an alien, incapable of inheriting,


John = Kerr. 1


Sarah, m.


1


1. Wm. Thomas,


Two sons, d. infants. Elizabeth, m.


2. Wm. Archbold, 1


1


I. William Archbold,


Wm. Thomas, d. unm.


2. Sir James Laroch, and d. s. p.


Eliz. Thomas, m. Francis Farley, d. s. p. Sarah Archbold, m, Ernest Udney.


Charity, m. Wm. M'Kennen, Mary, m. Josiah Martin. Frances, m. Nicholas Collins. (They had a dau. Mary, who m. Nicholas Lynch and had a dau. Mary, who m. Sam. Athill, who bought out the other heirs.) Elizabeth, m. Sam. Elliot, and had son Samuel. Rachel, m. 1. James Emery. 2. Wm. Woodly Parsons. 3. Lock- hart Russell.


Two daus. d. infants. John,


d. unm. under


d. infant.


age.


m.


232


HISTORY.


[1721.


John Yeamans and his wife Elizabeth (Shrimpton) Yeamans had a son, Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, who was born in Bos- ton, August 20, 1721, and who married Matilda Gunthrop in Antigua. His mother, Elizabeth (Shrimpton) Yeamans, died of smallpox, about three and a half months after his birth, on the 4th of December, 1721, at the age of nineteen years. John Yeamans the father died at Richmond, Surrey, England, in 1749 (the day uncertain, but previous to the 4th of October), having a plantation in the island of Antigua (which General Sumner sold on his visit to that island in 1818), and other large estates in America. Shute Shrimpton Yeamans was so named in honor of Samuel Shute, governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Henry Yeamans, the father of John, married Miss Shute, a sister of the governor, who was unmarried.1


Samuel Shute immediately succeeded Joseph Dudley as governor of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire, which at that time were under the same jurisdiction. Upon the accession of Geo. I. in 1714, Col. Burgess was commissioned as gov- ernor of the two provinces, but for the consideration of a thousand pounds sterling he resigned, and Col. Samuel Shute was appointed. The original royal commissions of Governor Shute from George I., who began his reign Sept. 17, 1714, one for Massachusetts and the other for New Hampshire, each dated the 15th of June, "the second year of our reign " (1716), most elegantly and elaborately engraved and written on parchment of mammoth size, are in the writer's possession. They descended from the governor, through different members of the family, to his grandfather Hyslop, and from him to the writer. Attached to each commission is an impression in wax, six inches in diameter, of the great seal of the kingdom, representing Britannia on one side, and on the reverse St. George and the dragon, inclosed in a metal case. Gov. Shute arrived in Boston on the 4th of Oct., 1716. His family were generally dissenters; and his brother, afterward Lord Barrington, and then a member of parliament, was at the head of the dissenting interest. His father was an eminent citizen of London, and his mother, a daughter of Mr. Caryl, a dissenting minister of great note. He began his education under Rev. Charles Morton, who subsequently (about 1684) came to New England, and was minister at Charlestown. Macau- lay compliments Mr. Morton as being " an excellent Oxford scholar, and a man of various and large abilities." Previous to his removal to this country, he kept the " then famous academy at Newington Green." It was here that Governor Shute attended school; and here, too, the celebrated Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, was a pupil.


After his education was completed, he was sent to Leyden; subsequently he


233


SAMUEL SHRIMPTON, JR.


1702.]


Samuel Shrimpton, Jr. was a merchant in Boston, and a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1695. About the year 1702 he was in partnership with a cousin of his father, Epaphras Shrimpton, who was the son of Edward Shrimpton. On the 28th of Dec., 1702, Samuel


entered the army under King William, who made him a captain ; he served under the veteran Duke of Marlborough, was a lieutenant-colonel, and was wounded in one of the principal battles in Flanders. He was a man well esteemed at court, a friend to liberty, and of an open, generous, and humane disposition. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have been a very accept- able governor to the New England colonists, but at the time of his appoint- ment, party spirit ran very high, and prevailed over all other considerations. Devoid of art, and a man of strict integrity, he joined that party which seemed to him to be right, and thus made their opponents irreconcilable enemies. It was his misfortune to arrive when opposition had been violent, and he imme- diately became involved in a controversy with the house of representatives ; the council sustained the governor. The troubles at length reaching a point where the power vested in the governor was, in many instances, taken away, and assumed by the house, Col. Shute, becoming weary of the quarrel, made a perilous voyage to England in midwinter (1st January, 1723), and laid his difficulties before the government, which, after investigation, sustained him in every point. He did not return to the colonies however, the govern- ment providing for him in a way much more to his satisfaction, settling upon him a pension of £400 sterling per annum. William Burnet, son of the cele- brated Bishop Burnet, and formerly governor of New York and the Jersies, succeeded Shute as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The un- happy disputes still continued, and extended into the administration of Governor Belcher, when the principal cause of dissension was settled by a species of compromise, which allowed of a reconciliation without injuring the pride of either party. - Hutchinson, Vol. II. p. 378, which volume contains a full account of Gov. Shute's administration.


One circumstance connected with the administration of Governor Shute is worthy of notice. It is well known, that a large number of Scotch emigrants from the north of Ireland settled the town of Londonderry (N. H.). Prior to leaving Ireland, and to prepare the way and secure a reception and place of residence on their arrival here, early in 1718 they sent Rev. William Boyd with an address to Governor Shute, expressing a strong desire to emigrate to New England should he afford them suitable encouragement. The address was very concise and appropriate, and had two hundred and seventeen signa- tures. The governor gave the desired encouragement, and the emigrants arrived in five ships at Boston on the 4th of August, 1718. - History of Lon- donderry, p. 35, etc. Did space permit us to give it, the history of this Scotch colony would show a band of noble men, whose names, as associated with the


20 *


234


HISTORY.


[1702.


Shrimpton, in "his humble complaint and petition" to the Hon. Isaac Addington, Esq., and other justices of the peace, relates, that he had been engaged in a partnership with the said Epaphras ; that consignments had been given them to a con- siderable amount from merchants in England, and the accounts had been entered in sundry books, which had been at all times in the possession of the said Epaphras Shrimpton ; and, that on the Saturday previous, these books were so badly burned " as to be of no manner of use " to the petitioner. He proceeds to say that he has great reason to suspect these books " were de- stroyed with the privity" of his aforenamed partner. The whole affair was examined, but we do not learn the result. The accused affirmed that he was innocent.1


Samuel Shrimpton and some others, urged by the spirit of enterprise, turned their attention to making salt, an experiment which we, in these better days, would judge to be of doubtful expediency ; and it shows that we come honestly by our love for undertaking novel things. The attempt had once before been made; as early as 1670, we find one Richard Whaton


famous siege of Derry, will always be honored. Of one of these families was Thomas Bell, subsequently a lessee of Noddle's Island.


Governor Shute died in 1742. His will is dated the 27th of June, 1740, and was probated the 24th of May, 1742.


SHUTE PEDIGREE.


SHUTE =


1


Samuel,


. Daughter=Henry Yeamans, Martha,


b. ab. 1654,


John= first Vis- count Barring- ton, M.


son of Lieut .- Gov. John Yeamans of Antigua.


m.


Daughter, m. 1,


Gov. of Mass.


1716 to 1723,


d. in England


in 1742, æ. 88.


P. for


Berwick- upon-


John, m. 6 May, 1720, Elizabeth Shrimpton. He d. 1749.


1 1 Annie.


Tweed.


Samuel,


Henry, Mary.


Viscount


Barrington.


See Yeamans Pedigree.


Bendysh. Steph. Offley. m. 2, Gervase Scroop.


(*) Elizabeth,


(*) Governor Shute mentions, in his Will, " Mrs. Mary Vlack, daughter of my late Niece Elizabeth Vlack, of the island of St. Thomas, now the wife Mr. Johannis De Windt of the said Island."


1 Massachusetts Archives, Book 119, pp. 207-210.


235


MANUFACTURE OF SALT.


1700.]


addressing the general court on the manner of making salt, and a committee, appointed to consider the matter, reported that the general court, "in granting a charter for empowering a com- pany of adventurers thereunto, may doe a publicke service for the country." 1


We do not ascertain how Richard Whaton succeeded in the manufacture of salt; but still later, we find others entering into the business. Samuel Shrimpton, Jr., Simeon Stoddard, Sam- uel Sewall, and some others engaged it, and the proprietors of the commons on the Neck, in the town of Boston, on the 10th of Sept., 1700, leased a portion of the common land to a com- pany consisting of Elisha Cooke, John Foster, Elisha Hutchin- son, and their associates, for the encouragement of such an undertaking, to be held by them so long as they endeavored to make salt there.2 So the record stands; but who were these " Proprietors " is unknown to the writer. The land was in two parcels, one on each side of the highway leading to Roxbury. In the deed it is stated Shrimpton, Stoddard, and nine others mentioned, "had heretofore paid their respective parts of ye charge expended in Encouraging and promoting of a Salt-work, and for making and casting up a bank on the several parcels of Marsh ground," etc., and they were then admitted as copartners with the said Cooke, Foster, and Hutchinson.


On the 25th of June, 1716, Elisha Hutchinson, the surviving lessee, granted to the executors or assigns of Samuel Shrimp- ton (Jr.), deceased, one sixteenth of the two parcels, to Simeon Stoddard one sixteenth, etc. To have and to hold, etc.


How extensively this manufacture was carried on we have no means of ascertaining. But in the inventory of the estate of Col. Shrimpton's widow (who married Simeon Stoddard),


1 Massachusetts Records, Vol. IV. Part 2, pp. 467, 505.


2 This grant is altogether distinct from the grant of Neck lands in 1708, as related in Gleaner's article, in the Boston Transcript, July 25, 1855. The grant of 1708 was of about fifty acres, its north line at the present Castle street, and the south line near the old " Fortification Gates," a little short of Dover street. This grant is also distinct from the land conveyed to Stephen Gove and others, in 1785, which was a tract of land and flats, 1,400 feet from north to south, extending two hundred feet west of Washington street, and embracing all east of that street to low-water mark.


236


HISTORY.


[1703.


taken four years after the above grant to the executors of Sam- uel Shrimpton (Jr.) was made, namely, in 1720, there is an item of " 79 bushels of New England salt, received from Salt-works." It was valued at £9 17s. 6d., or 2s. 6d. a bushel. This shows that the salt-works went into actual operation; but it is not known how long the business was continued.


The writer recently had in his possession, but has unfortu- nately lost, a parchment containing subscriptions for shares to aid Joseph Palmer in the manufacture of salt on Boston Neck, about the year 1789; it was signed by some of the principal men of Boston, including Thomas Russell, Jonathan Win- ship, Patrick Jeffrey, Joseph Barrell, who took shares therein. Whether Palmer was the immediate successor of the company, of which the writer's ancestor, Samuel Shrimpton, Jr., was a member, is uncertain. As it comes within the personal knowl- edge of the writer, it may be interesting to state that he remem- bers the buildings on the Neck in which the business was car- ried on, and he recollects that once, when a boy, as he was going into Boston, he saw a large frame with sails and rigging attached, which had been made in the buildings formerly used for the salt-works, and which were then used by Mr. Sampson in manufacturing soap and candles. Mr. Blanchard, the in- ventor, intended this for a car or carriage, to be propelled over a common road by wind ; but the resistance to be overcome, caused by the roughness of the road on the Neck, was too great for the power used, and he could neither "raise the wind," nor was the wind able to raise him, and his attempt failed. The buildings have long since been demolished; the salt has lost its savor, the soap has been washed away, the candles are extin- guished, and we are left in total darkness in this part of our history. It is interesting to pick up and save these little items in the early history of our city, which the stream of time had carried almost beyond our reach, and to give them a " name and an abiding place " for the use and instruction of those in- terested in such matters.


Samuel Shrimpton, Jr. died on the 25th of May, 1703. His widow, on the 23d of December, 1713, married David Stoddard, son of Simeon Stoddard, who married the widow of Colonel Shrimpton, as before related.


-----


JH.Bufford's Lith Boston.


DAVIE STODDARD. from an original Portrait in the Possession of D. S. Greenough Esq.


237


DAVID STODDARD.


1713.]


David Stoddard, whose lithographic likeness, from an original portrait, is on the opposite page, was born on the 5th of Decem- ber, 1685, and died on the 8th of March, 1723, in the thirty- seventh year of his age. So highly was he esteemed for his virtuous and exemplary character, that a sermon was preached, on the Sabbath after the funeral, by the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, with the title of " A blameless and inoffensive life." A printed copy of this discourse is among the writer's family papers, and the following extract from it will present Mr. Stod- dard's character, as portrayed by that eminent divine : -


" It is the death of a very amiable and exemplary person lately belonging to us, the virtuous and blameless Mr. David Stoddard, that has led me into the present meditation. His silent and inoffensive (and yet diligent and active) life is a loud and earnest sermon upon my text. Who has there been among us (in a judgment of charity) more sincere and without offence, and that all his days? Who more approving the things that excel ? whose love more abounding in knowledge and good judgment ? (His discretion and his good-nature equally emi- nent! ) Who among us has been more harmless and without rebuke ; doing all things without murmurings and disputings ; in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom he shone a light ?


" We are witnesses how modestly, meekly, justly, and un- blamably he behaved himself among us. If he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man, indeed, how perfect must the deceased appear to us! How lovely and endearing was he in his domestic relations ! how just, righteous, and faithful in his dealings and in his trusts! how courteous and grateful to his friends! ready to oblige, and easily obliged! how pure from the world, its passions, frauds, and lusts! - So he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.


" Whom did the deceased ever speak evil of ? or when did he backbite with his tongue ? or do evil against his neighbor, or take up a reproach against his neighbor ? Or did he not walk uprightly, and work righteousness, and speak the truth in his heart ?


" And that all this was not from the mere goodness of his


238


HISTORY.


[1713.


natural temper, but also from the grace of God adorning, beau- tifying, sweetening, and exalting it ; as we may all of us (it may be) be induced to believe by his most grave and reverend de- portment among us in the worship of God, so I am much more constrained to think by the manner of his dying.


" His end was peace. His hope was humble, even, steady. He told me, ' that he was afraid, lest he had too much con- fidence of his future well-being.' 'I am afraid (said he) lest I should make my blameless, inoffensive life, my righteousness.' He knew well and felt his need of a better righteousness than that, wherein to appear before God. He told his brother 'that he had daily prayed to God for grace that he might do to others as he desired they should do for him.' And if he daily asked for grace to help him in this comprehensive instance of his duty, no doubt but he implored it also that he might be kept without blame before God in other instances.


" Our work is to give God the glory and to seek his grace (which is sufficient for others and for us) that we may live blameless, and die repenting, and be found in Christ. God help us to transcribe in our lives the virtues which we beheld in our deceased brother. And the peace of God keep your hearts through Jesus Christ."


To such a tribute to the character of Mr. Stoddard it is need- less to add any thing.


By her marriage to Mr. Stoddard, Elizabeth (Richardson Shrimpton) Stoddard had three daughters : Mary, who was the third wife of the Rev. Dr. Charles Chauncy, of Boston, and died in December, 1783; Sarah, who married Deacon Thomas Greenough, 24th of May, 1750, and died 2d March, 1778; and Mehetable, who married William Hyslop, Esq., 25th October, 1750, and died 19th November, 1792. There were two other daughters, who died in infancy in the year of their birth. These daughters were therefore half-sisters of Elizabeth (Shrimpton) Yeamans (wife of John Yeamans), having the same mother, but not the same father. Elizabeth (Richardson Shrimpton) Stoddard died on the 25th of June, 1757.


In order to dock the entail created by the will of Elizabeth (Shrimpton) Stoddard (wife of Simeon Stoddard), a common recovery was suffered by John Yeamans and Shute Shrimpton


.


J.H Bufford's Lith.


John laman.


239


JOHN YEAMANS.


1747.]


Yeamans his son, for the use of John Yeamans the father, and his heirs in fee-simple, in the court of common pleas, January term, 1743-4.


The will of John Yeamans was dated 23d February, 1747. In it he gave all his estate, both real and personal, to his only son and heir, Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, in fee, subject to various legacies to friends and relatives.


In case of his son's death before him, he gave all his prop- erty to George Thomas, Esq., Samuel Martin, Esq., and Sam- uel Martin, Esq. the younger, all of Antigua, in trust for the use of his son aforesaid, in fee-tail. The individuals above mentioned were appointed executors of the will of said John Yeamans, provided his son die before him, otherwise Shute Shrimpton Yeamans was to be the executor. He was living at the time of his father's decease, and was consequently the exec- utor of his father's estate, sole heir, and residuary legatee.


John Yeamans, whose lithograph from a beautiful miniature in the author's possession is upon the opposite page, was a grandson of Lieutenant-Governor John Yeamans, of Antigua,1 and a nephew of Governor Shute, as before mentioned. He was a man of great energy of character, and his mind was of the most enlarged and comprehensive stamp. His plan for a bridge from Noddle's Island to Chelsea, and his successful ex- ertions relative to the intercourse between the northern colonies and the English West India sugar colonies, furnish ample evi- dence in support of this estimate of his character.


He made Noddle's Island his home, and took a great interest


1 Mention is made in history of a " Sir John Yeamans of the Northern Col- onies," whose jurisdiction was extended over the settlements on the coast of South Carolina in 1670, and of which he was appointed governor in 1671. Whether he was identical with the lieutenant-governor of Antigua, or is of the same family, is impossible to determine, and still there is a probability that one of these suppositions is correct. He caused a number of slaves to be brought from Barbadoes, and in 1672 the slave system was introduced into South Car- olina. This connection with " the Barbadoes" strengthens the idea that he was of the Antigua family. During his administration, he suppressed a seri- ous insurrectionary movement in his colony, and drove the Spanish ships of war and land troops, which had been menacing the English, back to St. Au- gustine. He left the colony in 1674, and was succeeded by Joseph West. - Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. II. p. 537, etc.


240


HISTORY. [1727.


in its prosperity. Apparently foreseeing what its future desti- nies might be, he petitioned the town of Boston, in 1727, for leave to build a bridge from the Island to the main land at Chelsea. Mr. Yeamans owned a farm, called Newdigate's farm, of five hundred acres, near the meeting-house in North Chelsea, and this bridge would facilitate his intercouse between these two estates. The petition was granted on certain condi- tions, as expressed in a report made on the subject, which reads as follows : -


" May 8, 1727. The Committee, having considered the sub- ject-matter of the petition, and the objections of some of the inhabitants at Rumney Marsh, apprehend that the erecting a good substantial. bridge from the main at Winnisimet side to Nodle's Island, will not be disadvantageous to the town of Boston provided the petitioner, John Yeamans Esqr. be obliged at his own cost and charge to make and keep in repair the afore- said bridge forever, with convenient high-ways to the same, fit for man & horse to pass and repass as well to the bridge on Winnisimet side where the road may be altered for the accom- modating the bridge, and so from thence thro' Nodle's Island to the place that may be assigned for transporting passengers and goods from the Island to Boston.


" Provided also the town enjoy the sole privilege of the Ferry from Boston to the Island, & that the several persons, whose estates or interests on Rumney Marsh may anyways be prejudiced by erecting the aforesaid bridge, be made good to them in such proportion as a Committee for that purpose by the Great & General Court shall adjudge. But we conceive the suffering a Ferry from Winnisimet to Nodle's Island till such time as the bridge can conveniently be perfected will be very inconvenient & of disservice not only to Boston, but to all travellers in general.


" May 4, 1727.


" The Report was made and voted an acceptance.


Ezekiel Lewis, John Colman, Elisha Cooke, Edward Hutchinson, Thomas Cushing." 1


1 Town Records, Vol. II. p. 467.


241


1727, 1796.] PROJECTED BRIDGE AND FERRY.


So far as it appears from the records, he was the sole mover in this enterprise, and, having ample means, it cannot be doubt- ed that he would have carried the plan into successful execu- tion had he remained in the country. But soon after he ob- tained this grant, he engaged in an undertaking of a more public nature, and the successful issue of which gained him the gratitude of the Massachusetts colony. If Mr. Yeamans had re- mained here, and joined the Island to the main land in Chelsea by a bridge, and established a ferry to Boston, which he had obtained leave to do a century before the same thing was done by his descendants, no one can tell on which side of the chan- nel the most populous part of the city would have been ; and East Boston, instead of being called the Island Ward, might have been denominated the Island City. Many reasons justify such a supposition : the deep water in the channel, sufficiently deep to float the largest vessels that traverse the ocean; the southerly aspect, the good fresh water, the clay, the richness of its soil, the healthfulness, and beautiful prospect from the hills, and, indeed, very many other circumstances, which conduce to make the Island a desirable city locality. This is one of those frequent instances where accident, rather than design, deter- mines the site of town and city.




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