History of East Boston; with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix, Part 25

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 25
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > East Boston > History of East Boston : with biographical sketches of its early proprietors, and an appendix. > Part 25


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Mr. Hyslop was a very strong Calvinist; and when the Brattle street church, of which he was a member, proposed to


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have an organ, he strenuously opposed it as a wicked innova- tion. No organs were used at that time except by the Episco- palians, and the proposition to have one in a Congregational church so far conflicted with his ideas of devout religious wor- ship, that he said he should leave the church if they carried it into effect. The organ had been sent for, however; and in due course of time it arrived from London, in the ship Minerva, Captain Scott, which anchored off Long wharf. Dr. Thacher, the minister of Brattle street church, and Dr. Eckley, of the Old South (whose sanction and countenance Dr. Thacher desired on the occasion), both Calvinists, waited upon Mr. Hyslop at Brookline, and acquainted him with the fact of the arrival of the ship with the organ on board. " And what are you going to do with it?" said he indignantly. "Set it up," was the reply. " You remember what I told you," said Mr. Hyslop, "that I never would hear it, and I never will. But as you have been at the expense of importing it, I have a propo- sition to make, and that is, if you will tell me the cost of it, and will throw it overboard, I will pay for it!" The organ, however, was set up, and Mr. Hyslop discontinued his attendance at Brattle street, and went to the Rev. Mr. Jackson's church, at Brookline, where he resided. Even here, however, he was not free from annoyance, as a bass-viol was used in that choir, which he considered to be a base violation of church propriety, and on a certain occasion he was heard to exclaim, " If I could only get hold of that big fiddle, I'd smash it to pieces."


He resided on the farm in Brookline owned for about a cen- tury and a half by the Boylston family. One of the members of this family, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, an eminent physician of Boston, was born on it in 1680, and after a long and distin- guished life died there, in 1766, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. The parchment deed of this farm of about seventy acres is in the writer's possession. He it was who introduced the inoculation of the smallpox into Boston, in 1720. He first tried it in his own family, and meeting with success, soon ex- tended it to several hundreds, and completely demonstrated the utility and usefulness of the practice. Cotton Mather had observed a letter of Timonius from Constantinople, and a treatise of Pyllarinus, Venitian consul at Smyrna, giving a


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favorable account of the operation, and he recommended a trial to the physicians of the town; but they all declined it except Dr. Boylston, who thus made himself very obnoxious. The medical faculty in general disapproved of his conduct, sober and pious people were struck with horror, he was often insulted in the streets, and his life was often in danger from violence. This was previous to its introduction into Great Britain, which afterwards took place in consequence of its success here. On visiting England in 1725, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and received many other flattering attentions.1


Nicholas Boylston, by his will, dated Aug. 1, 1771, with pious intentions directed his executors to buy this estate of Mr. Hyslop, and convey it to the church in Brookline; but this was never accomplished. On the division of Mr. Hyslop's estate between his son and daughter, the homestead fell to his son David, who occupied it for several years. In his will he devised it to his wife for life, and, after her death, to his sister Sumner's children. Thirteen acres of it was lately sold to the city of Boston for the Water Reservoir, at $900 per acre, subject to the widow's dower, and the residue to Mr. Mortimer C. Ferris, for $1,100 an acre.


On the 25th of October, 1750, William Hyslop married Me- hetable, daughter of David and Elizabeth Stoddard. She died on the 19th of November, 1792, in the seventy-fourth year of her age. He survived his wife but about four years, dying on the 11th of August, 1796, in the eighty-third year of his age. William Hyslop and Mehetable his wife had five children, - James, William, David, Elizabeth, who was married to Gov. Increase Sumner, the writer's father, and Mehetable.2


1 See Drake's Hist. of Boston, pp. 561-563, and notes thereto, for curious information relative to the smallpox in Boston, and the violent opposition to, and progress of, inoculation. It is a noteworthy fact, that Lady Mary Wort- ley Montague introduced it into England. She began with her little daughter Mary, afterward Lady Bute, wife of the celebrated minister of George III., who rendered himself conspicuous in advocating the measures against the colo- nies which brought on the Revolution.


2 James was born 17th Sept., 1751, died 9th May, 1752; William was born 6th Nov., 1753, married Betsey Williams of Salem on the 11th of June, 1787, and died 9th July, 1792, aged 39, leaving no children; David was born 28th


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Mr. Hyslop died possessed of a large property, which he had accumulated by his own industry. He was particularly observ- ant of the forms and ordinances of the strictest order of the Scotch Presbyterian church, and scrupulous in the observance of the principles of his religion. He was a friend and corre- spondent of the learned Scotch divine, John Erskine, and the writer has in his possession many autograph letters of that dis- tinguished clergyman, and also a volume of his sermons which the reverend doctor presented to his mother, with whom he kept up an interesting correspondence. He was also a friend and correspondent of the eminent divine and patriot, the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon of Princeton College, and the letters in the writer's possession show the intimacy and good feeling existing between them.


Mrs. Hyslop was a devout and exemplary Christian, an amiable and affectionate wife, and very kind-hearted and atten- tive to all with whom she associated. A family custom comes to mind which recalls Mr. Hyslop and his wife; she was in the habit of placing at the fire every evening at 8 o'clock, a silver can of port wine and water, a wine-glass of which both she and her husband would take before going to bed after evening prayers at 9 o'clock.


Among the distinguishing traits in Mr. Hyslop's character were his generosity to the suffering poor, and his universal kindness of feeling and manner, and discreet philanthropy. He, with his patriotic friend, the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, were members of the society for propagating the gospel among the Indians, and in furtherance of this cause he left a large legacy to Samuel Kirkland, a missionary among the Indians in New York, and father of President Kirkland of Harvard University ; he also increased the value of this legacy by adding to it many books.


The fact that he once cut down a fine walnut tree, in order that the children might pick the fruit without danger to life or limb in climbing the tree, shows in a striking manner his tender


Dec. 1755, and died 16th Aug. 1822; Elizabeth, born 5th Aug. 1757, and died 28th Dec. 1810; Mehetable, born 15th Sept. 1763, and died the same day.


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regard for, and desire to please, the young. His kindness of feeling was singularly manifest in his treatment of the brute creation, and the writer recalls an anecdote which well illus- trates this point. He would not suffer any animal to be ill- treated by his servants, and even interdicted Thomas, his coach- man, the use of his whip upon the coach-horses, - so much so that they went fast or slow at their own will, and at last even, stopped to rest at the foot of the hill which led to his own house. One day when they stopped in the mud at the bottom of this long, steep, and somewhat miry hill, Thomas said he could not get them along unless he gave them a good thrash- ing. Mr. Hyslop answered him through the front window of the carriage, which was let down, " Give me the reins ; then go to the stable and get a measure of corn and hold it before the horses' noses, and let them taste it and try whether the grain will not do as well as the whip. Go before them up the hill shaking the grain in the measure, and see if they do not follow you to the front door of my house, whence, I dare say, you can get them to the stable without any severity, which I forbid under all circumstances." Thomas did as he was directed, and the horses unhesitatingly followed him up the hill.


INCREASE SUMNER, governor of Massachusetts, and husband of Elizabeth (Hyslop) Sumner, the owner of one third of Nod- dle's Island, was born in Roxbury, now in Norfolk county, then a part of Suffolk, on the 27th of November, 1746. His por- trait, painted when he was in the forty-seventh year of his age by Major John Johnson, and an engraving of which by the accomplished artist H. W. Smith faces the opening of this chapter, was taken in the robes worn by the justices of the supreme judicial court until about the year 1792, soon after the appointment of Judge Dawes to the bench. In the year 1797, after he was chosen governor, the portrait was retouched, and the hair dressed and powdered as he then wore it. The correct- ness of the likeness is simply but beautifully expressed in a note to the author from a niece of the governor, Mrs. Lucy Sheafe (formerly Miss Cushing), who passed many of her youthful days in his family. In acknowledging the receipt of the Memoir of Governor Sumner, which contained the likeness


-


KILBURN-MALLOR MORE


Church St. Edburg at Bicester, Oxford county, England.


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GOVERNOR INCREASE SUMNER.


inserted in this volume, her feelings find expression in the touching words, " On opening the book the perfect likeness of my dear uncle filled my eyes with tears, as the book fell from my hands."


Governor Sumner descended from a long line of worthy ancestry, as will be seen by the pedigree facing page 291.1 He united in a most happy manner all those qualities which char- acterize the man, the citizen, the jurist, and statesman, and secured for himself the esteem and confidence of all those with whom he associated. The rudiments of learning he acquired under the instruction of the late Judge William Cushing, pre- ceptor of the public grammar-school in Roxbury, and he was also the pupil of Joseph Warren, the first martyr in the cause of American liberty, who for a time was teacher of the same school.2 His father having with reluctance yielded to the per- suasion of his instructors to give him a classical education, he entered Harvard College in 1763. During the course of study his reputation justified the predictions of his friends, and he graduated with high honors in 1767. Having studied law for two years in the office of Samuel Quincy, an eminent barrister and the solicitor-general of the province, he was admitted to


1 William Sumner, the first of the family in this country, with his wife Mary, settled in Dorchester, Mass., about the year 1635; he was born about the year 1605, and came from Burcester in Oxfordshire. His father, Roger, was buried, and he himself was baptized, in the Church St. Edburg, Bicester, which was erected about the year 1400 on the site and with the materials of a more an- cient structure built by St. Birinus. Accompanying the text is an engraving of this church, from a drawing taken on the spot, by Mr. H. G. Somerby, in 1854.


" The records of the school (page 54 of " Abstraet of Ancient Records and other Papers of the Free Schoole in Roxburie ") state, under the date of the 11th of April, 1760, that " Then the feofees agreed with Mr. Joseph Warren to take the school for one quarter of a year." And among the files of old papers pertaining to school matters is an autograph letter of Joseph Warren, dated " Boston, December, 1761," stating a balance of his salary to be due him, " by payment of which to my mother, or order, you will greatly oblige, Gentlemen, Your H. Servant


" JOSEPH WARREN."


Following this is the receipt of his mother, dated "Roxbury, Dec. 18th, 1761," and signed " Mary Warren."


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HISTORY.


the bar in 1770, and opened his office in Roxbury in the house in which his mother resided until her death. The people found him intelligent and worthy of confidence, and his business in the profession soon became important and lucrative. He was early called by his friends into public life, and filled various positions of honor and trust with eminent success.


In 1775, in order to escape the danger from the firing of the enemy from his advance lines on Roxbury Neck, he moved, with his mother's family, to his Morgan farm in Dorchester. Here he grafted many trees, which are still in bearing.


In 1776 (May 22d), a period of great difficulties and fearful apprehensions, he was chosen a member of the " Great and General Court to be Convened, held and kept, for the Govern- ment Service at the Meeting House in Watertown," etc.1 He was reelected to the same office the following year (May 14th, 1777), and by a vote passed on the same day held a seat in the convention which met that year for agreeing on a form of gov- ernment. As no report of the proceedings was ever made, it is impossible to tell the part which any one took in the delibera- tions. The vote by which he held his seat in this convention is thus recorded : " Voted to Instruct their Representative to joyn in the House of Representatives in One Body with the Council to form such a Constitution of Government as they shall judge Best Calculated to Promote the Happiness of this State and to be under Such Restrictions as are mentioned in a Resolve of the General Court pad the 5th Day of May, 1777."2


In 1778 (May 20th), Mr. Sumner was again chosen to repre- sent the town at the general court. On the 10th of the follow-


1 Roxbury Town Records, Vol. II. p. 263. Upon the same page, and as a part of the record of the same town meeting, is an entry which is very interest- ing as anticipating the Declaration of Independence, and highly complimentary to the patriotism of the inhabitants. " Also To Know the Minds of the In- habitants of This Town Whither they will Instruct and Advise the Persons chosen to Represent them in the Great and General Court, if the Honorable Congress should for the Safety of the said Colonys Declare them Independant of the King of Great Brittan, they the Said Inhabitants, will Solemnly En- gage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the Measures.


" Voted and Pasd in the Affirmative."


2 Ibid. 273.


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ing June, a town meeting was held (Mr. Sumner, moderator), " To take into consideration and determine upon a certain form or constitution of civil government agreed on and sent out to the several towns and plantations in this state for their appro- bation or rejection." The "form of civil government" was unanimously rejected, and the town passed a vote instructing Mr. Sumner, their representative, " to use his influence in the General Court that the proposed form of government be re- jected on account of its being introduced and acted upon at a very improper time, the circumstances of the country requiring greater attention to the means of defence than any forms of civil government." 1


Mr. Sumner was again chosen representative in 1779 (May 19th), but at his own request was excused from serving, and the town passed a vote of thanks to him for his past services. In the following July he was appointed chairman of a com- mittee for "appreciating the currency, and reducing the exor- bitant prices of the necessaries of life ; " and in August he was unanimously chosen a delegate to the convention to be held at Cambridge "for the sole purpose of forming a Constitution." At a town meeting held on the 17th of May, 1780, "to take into consideration the Constitution and form of civil govern- ment lately transmitted to them by the Convention," Mr. Sum- ner was appointed on a committee for that purpose, and a report was made to the same meeting. A vote of the town is also recorded to the effect that the sum of twelve pounds per day be allowed him for his services in the convention. After having served his town in the house of representatives for three years, and being honored with a fourth election to the same office, which he declined, he was, in 1780, elected a senator for the county of Suffolk, which office he filled the two succeeding years by the almost unanimous choice of his constituents.


In 1782, Mr. Sumner was elected a member of congress by the legislature, but never took his seat in that body. In August of the same year he was made an associate judge of the su-


1 Roxbury Town Records, Vol. II. p. 284. See Barry's Hist. Mass. Vol. III. Chap. V., for a succinct account of the constitutional conventions, and the state of public opinion at the time.


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preme judicial court. This distinction was thought by all to be merited. He was then only thirty-six years of age, but the public had confidence in his learning, integrity, and ability, and the court considered him an acquisition to the bench. His preference in 1782 for a judicial to a political office, was the turning-point in his pursuits in life. For the judicial office he proved himself to be eminently qualified, and for fourteen years showed himself to the public, in the words of a biographer, as " a dispassionate, impartial, discerning, able, and accomplished judge."


In the reference to the portrait of Governor Sumner, allusion was made to the costume in which it was taken. The dress of the judges before the Revolution, and which was continued by them afterward, was a black silk gown worn over a full black suit, white bands, and a silk bag for the hair. This was worn by the judges in civil causes, and criminal trials, excepting those for capital offences. In these they wore scarlet robes with black velvet collars, and cuffs to their large sleeves, and black velvet facings to their robes. The dignified appearance of the judges, in either dress, made an impression upon the public mind of reverence for the authority of the law. The use of the robes was discontinued soon after the appointment of Judge Dawes to the bench. The judge was a man of small stature, of a most amiable and excellent disposition, somewhat of a poet, but had a slight impediment in his speech, which made him lisp. Dana, the chief justice, was also of small stature, but had a very impressive and authoritative manner. The chief justice took umbrage at this appointment, on account of what he considered the undignified appearance and utter- ance of Judge Dawes, and alleged that it was not for his quali- fications, but by the influence of his father, who was a member of Governor Hancock's council, that he was appointed. Soon after Judge Dawes took his seat upon the bench, the chief jus- tice came into court without his robes, while the side judges had theirs on. Upon their retiring to the lobby after the adjournment of the court, Judge Sumner remonstrated with the chief justice against his undignified appearance without his robes, and said, " If you leave yours off, Chief Justice, we shall ours also ; but remember what I say, if the people get accus-


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tomed to seeing the judges in a common dress, without their robes, the court will never be able to resume them." The chief justice, with a remark of great asperity, persisted in his deter- mination, and from that period the robes, which gave such dig- nity to the bench, were discontinued.


In 1785, Judge Sumner was chosen by the legislature one of a committee to revise the laws of the commonwealth. This appointment was highly complimentary, inasmuch as the com- mittee originally consisted of the most eminent jurists in the State, the Hon. Francis Dana, the Hon. Samuel Dexter, and Theophilus Parsons, Esq. By a separate resolve of the legis- lature, Judge Sumner was added to that committee, which had been appointed the previous year. Thus was shown, in the most emphatic manner, the estimation in which he was held, and the confidence of the community in his talents and judg- ment. He was also a member of the Massachusetts con- vention which was called in 1789 for the purpose of discussing the federal constitution, which had been sent to the several States for their adoption - a question of the highest moment, requiring for its discussion those qualities of mind with which he was eminently endowed, and which fitted him to take a lead- ing position among the able men who sat in that body. The result of that convention it is needless to repeat.


He was in favor of a restriction upon the electors in our State constitution, so that no person could vote unless, besides a year's residence in the town in which he claimed to vote, " he had a freehold estate in the same town of the annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the value of sixty pounds." Judge Sumner thought that if a man had some property at stake, he would feel its influence upon every vote he gave ; that the specified pecuniary qualification was low, and that the pro- vision was a happy medium between the restraints of aristocracy and the licentiousness of democracy. The decision of the ques- tion of the pecuniary qualification of the voters was what gave the government the hope of stability at its starting, and yet only seven years after it went into operation, Fisher Ames, among many others, predicted its speedy downfall.


The writer well remembers a conversation which he heard between Judge Sumner, at his own gate in Roxbury, where


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HISTORY.


he was dealing with a marketer, and Mr. Ames, who, on his way from Dedham to Boston, frequently stopped to give the judge a passing word. " What's the news this morning, Judge ?" said he. Just then Mr. Mears, a neighbor, and at- tached to the tory party, as he walked by the market cart, inquired of the judge what he gave a pound for butter; who answered, " ninepence." " Ninepence a pound for butter! nine- pence a pound for butter !" repeating the words. " It did not use to be so in King George's day ; ninepence for sixpence! This is your new government, is it? Ninepence a pound for butter! it won't last ;" and repeating the words " ninepence a pound," jogged on, and left the judge and Mr. Ames together, when the latter observed, " I am somewhat of that man's mind. It won't last. What do you think of it, Judge ? I say it won't last ; at least, I fear it won't." The judge, who always took the bright side of things, answered, "I do not fear it. The machinery is complex, but it is new. Let us see how it works. Let us give it a fair trial, Mr. Ames."


Some time afterward Mr. Ames stopped again, and the fol- lowing conversation occurred : "Well, Judge, what do you think of your constitution now ?" " Why, has any thing taken place ? " " Have you not heard of the doings of the Roxbury town meeting yesterday? it is in the morning paper." "I have not seen the paper," said the judge, " what did they do ?" " It is your own town, and surely you do not want a Dedham man to tell you what was done in a Roxbury town meeting. You will be sorry to hear, Judge, that your constitution has given way in the point of your greatest security. After a long debate, not unpremeditately, the town decided that a man has an estate of the value of sixty pounds, if he is able to earn that sum within the year." " What!" answered the judge, " with- out having a freehold estate, or having in possession any per- sonal property of that value ?" " No property at all, as I un- derstand it, Judge. A carpenter who owned his tools, but noth- ing else, and who was able to work for his living, they admit- ted to vote for a representative to the general court, and Gen- eral Heath led the majority. You see how it works. What do you think of it now, Judge ?" " Why," said the judge, " that construction never entered into any man's mind. It amounts


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almost to universal suffrage ; that construction of it will never prevail; but if it does, brother Ames, I must say that my con- fidence in it is very much diminished."


There was a great intimacy between the families of Judge Sumner and Judge William Cushing, whose brother married Judge Sumner's sister, and a pleasant and interesting corre- spondence was always kept up between them, and their letters abounded in wisdom, wit, and kind feelings. In a letter from Judge Sumner to Judge Cushing, dated 14th February, 1794, is an anecdote which will interest the reader. It is as follows :


" I forgot to mention that Prince Edward, fourth son of George, the British king, is now in Boston, from Quebec, wait- ing a ship from Halifax to convey him to the West Indies to take the command of the British forces there. I have not seen him yet, but expect to dine in company with him to-morrow. Cousin Mary Cushing is now with us, on a visit, and says she saw him last evening at a very crowded assembly, where he behaved with great ease and politeness, and that he danced gracefully, to the entire approbation of all the ladies.1 A small incident he met with on the journey from Canada, he thus re- lates : At a tavern, an honest New England man thus ac- costed him : ' Well, how do you do, sir ? and are you really the son of King George ?' He answered that he was. 'Amazing!' said the man ; ' and how does your daddy do ?' ' He was well,' said the prince, 'when I heard last from him.' 'Well, now,' said the honest man, ' don't you think he was wrong in quar- relling with America as he did ?' ' I don't know but he was,' said the other, 'but there's no foreseeing, at all times, how mat- ters will turn out.' 'True,' said the man, 'but if it had n't been for that plaguy quarrel, I suppose he might have been king here yet.' Although our honest citizen came to the point rather abruptly, he seemed to understand it, and, I suppose, was will-




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