USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > History of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
Another son of the John Goddard who was so useful to Gen- eral Washington was Joseph, who succeeded his father as a Brookline farmer. He married Mary Aspinwall and had twelve children, one of whom, Samuel Aspinwall Goddard, became a naturalized British subject, and during the Civil War rendered singular service in helping to make known in England the rea- sons against British recognition of the Confederacy. Joseph Goddard was for many years a justice of the peace, and, like his ancestors, he served the community by performing a variety of public tasks.
Joseph's brother Benjamin, born in 1766 in the homestead on Goddard Avenue, was the author of an instructively detailed diary covering the years from 1812 to 1854. Although the en- tries are not strictly within the period of this chapter, they provide, nevertheless, so excellent a picture of the domestic
II7
GREAT FAMILIES
life of the time that it is impossible not to quote. The prepara- tions for winter in a prosperous farming community may be taken as typical of every well-ordered Brookline home of the eighteenth century. Thus, on October 24:
The autumn thus far has been remarkable favorable for the ingathering of the harvest. The ground very dry and springs low - most people are forward in their work - we finished digging potatoes 16 inst., and have now gathered nearly all the apples, - have barrelled 100 bbls, some more gathered but for want of bbls are in heaps, have already made 34 bbls cider - mostly for vinegar. - Gathered the garden vegetables excepting Turnips, Cabbages - Parsnips and Cellery, - all these will yet improve. Have concluded to let the corn stand a while longer, the stalk not being suffi- ciently dry, - the quality of the corn is extraordinary fine and the quantity more abundant than usual. On the whole the harvest is great and good in quality.
On November 8.
Took in Cabbages, Cauliflowers Cale & Celery: these finish the harvesting for this season excepting three cheeses of cider to make, - the corn all husked and housed - the Potatoes in the cellar and sold, Apples in barrels and at least half sold and delivered - so we are nearly ready for winter - Soap and apple sauce made for the season - good luck at- tended both excepting the first kettle which was drove with so much zeal as to get a little burned at the bottom, but like other misfortunes it produced good, for the next was man- aged with caution and care and it proved good.
An entry for December 12 reads:
Very good weather for business - Myself taking care of home an employment very pleasant at this season as it re- quires but little manual labor and is fraught with many delights. The Barn, the Granary and the Cellar being stored with the productions of the Farm by the labor of Man and beast, the most delightful part of the whole is dealing out daily portions as their necessities shall require, - at the same time seeing them fatten upon the proceeds of their own industry.
Such a picture of rural opulence is fairly characteristic of the
I18
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
prosperous farming community of the time. An abundance of hard manual labor performed as a matter of course, and a spectacle of overflowing cellar and barns not surpassed by Washington Irving's description in the 'Legend of Sleepy Hol- low,' to comfort the prospect of winter. And some of Benjamin Goddard's winter entries reveal a measure of his domestic re- sources.
On January 14 and 15, 1812, he
Assisted in killing a hog - a noble fellow - wg 402 lbs.
Cut up the said hog - separated the parts - for salting, for sausages, for bacon, for lard, for souce, for steaks, for roasting, etc., and for lard, besides the rind for sore feet and refining coffee.
Two days later Mr. Goddard was
At home the forenoon salting pork. In the house the sausage making going on systematically - Aunt [White?], her Jour- ney woman, and three apprentices all engaged with the axe, the large knife, chopping knives and Mortar & Pestle. - Many hands make light work and it was soon done in the neatest manner, etc.
Whether from instinctive aversion to participation in polit- ical matters, or because of his unicentric devotion to hus- bandry, Benjamin Goddard throughout his life consistently declined public office, though he possessed wide personal in- fluence in the community. His brothers, Nathaniel and Wil- liam, became prosperous Boston merchants, and Nathaniel's recollections provide an interesting contemporary view of Brookline's part in the Revolutionary War. It may be appro- priate here to elaborate our picture of the domestic economy of the time with a description by Nathaniel Goddard:
I do not recollect there being more than one female assist- ant at one time in the house, unless when there was a nurse and sometimes a washerwoman one day in the week .... In those days they baked all their bread, brewed their own beer, made their own soap, did all their sewing except making some new garments, knit their own stockings if they wore any, and often spun their own yarn, making the cloth for their shirts and sheets and even pocket handkerchiefs. The sleeved jackets and trousers were manufactured in the same
119
GREAT FAMILIES
family way; in making pocket handkerchiefs, the white linen was first made, though not very fine, and handed to the children, who tied up shot fancifully in it, and then dyed in the dye-pot in the corner of the fireplace; when done, washed and dried, we untied the shot, and behold the beautiful white rings made by the strings around the shot through which the dye did not penetrate; to make the checked and striped shirts the colored part was died in the same pot.
Those were days of self-sufficiency in the home, and the God- dard household can scarcely have differed in any large way from the others of the community. The very character of that life goes far to explain the political expressions that arose out of it, for intimate dependence upon the land and its products gives rise to a passionate love of the land, and a determination to defend its possession.
THE DAVIS FAMILY
The first Davises of the Brookline family were immigrants from Wales, who settled in Roxbury late in the seventeenth century. Ebenezer Davis, a blacksmith by trade, bought ninety-five acres of Brookline land from Thomas Cotton for £4500 in 1746. His sister, Rachel, who had been his house- keeper at the age of thirteen when they were orphaned, married Moses White of Brookline, while Moses White's sister became the bride of Ebenezer Davis.
Deacon Davis was a more than ordinarily skillful farmer, renowned for his fruit, and especially distinguished by an ex- periment which, in a way, immortalized him. He grew the first musk-melons to appear on the Boston market, and sub- sequently had his portrait painted with a melon under his arm. The picture was displayed in England with the title, 'An American Farmer.'
A source of numerous anecdotes, some of which Miss Woods relates, was his slave, actually named Sambo. When Deacon Davis died in 1776, a codicil to his will gave Sambo his freedom, but the Negro in fact remained attached to Ebenezer Davis the son and Ebenezer Davis the grandson.
Almost from the time of his moving to Brookline, Ebenezer Davis began to take part in town affairs, and throughout the
I20
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
century may be traced the participation of the men of that name, who held at one time or another nearly every important position in the local government.
JEREMIAH GRIDLEY
The only member of his family to reside in Brookline, and that not for many years, Jeremiah Gridley left a personal record so significant that he cannot go unmentioned among the great families of the town. The descendant of Richard Gridley, who was made a freeman of Boston in 1634, he was probably a widower rather than, as reputed, a bachelor, when he moved to Brookline in 1755, or a little earlier.
There he bought the house on the Sherburne road opposite the site of the present First Parish Church, which Nathaniel Gardner had built in 1740 after his disastrous loss by fire. This dwelling had come into the hands of Deacon Benjamin White, and then into those of Mr. Gridley, passing after his death to Henry Hulton.
Jeremiah Gridley was a lawyer of distinction, sometimes called the father of the Massachusetts Bar. Preaching that the study of law was more important by far than its gain, he ren- dered able services and died insolvent. He examined Samuel Quincy and John Adams for admission to the bar, and in his office were trained such lawyers as James Otis, Oxenbridge Thatcher, William Cushing, and Benjamin Prat, later chief justice of New York.
As often, during his term of residence, as Brookline sent a representative to the General Court, it was Jeremiah Gridley. He argued, as government counsel, in favor of the legality of the offensive Writs of Assistance, and carried his point against the brilliant oratory of Oxenbridge Thatcher and James Otis. On this account there were those who charged him with Tory sympathies, but the fact seems to have been simply that, as an honest lawyer, Gridley thought the writs had a sufficient legal foundation. After the passage of the Stamp Act, he was one of a committee chosen by the people of Boston, with James Otis and John Adams, to petition the governor and council 'that the courts of law in this province be opened.' In this is evidence that he still enjoyed the confidence of the people.
.
THE BENJAMIN DAVIS HOUSE, HARVARD SQUARE, CORNER OF DAVIS AVENUE Built about 1760; taken down about 1864
I2I
GREAT FAMILIES
He was active in the formation of the Boston Marine Society to protect the interests of shipmasters and merchants. Finding time for effective work in still another direction, in 1755 he was made Grand Master of Masons for North America. In that capacity, during the next twelve years, he chartered twenty- two new lodges, from Cape Breton Island to Barbados and Dutch Guiana, the last-named apparently a little out of his geographi- cal jurisdiction.
Many times moderator of the Brookline town meeting, he is last mentioned there in the summer of 1767. His death in Sep- tember of that year was recorded in the Boston Gazette, and with his passing, the family name vanished from the town.
THE COREY FAMILY
From Weston, just before the Revolution, came Captain Timothy Corey, son of Isaac Corey. He married Elizabeth Griggs, and bought land of the Isaac Winchester estate and Major Edward White's estate, on Washington Street. He campaigned vigorously in the war for independence, and ex- perienced the severest hardships, but surmounted them to die at the age of sixty-nine in 1811. He was considered an old man when he became a Mason, having followed his son Elijah into the order on the theory that no son of his should know more than he did.
Like the Winchesters, the Coreys were attracted to the preach- ing of the 'New Lights' and associated themselves with that group. Timothy's sons, Elijah and Timothy, both eventually became Baptist deacons.
This second Timothy also had military inclinations as a young man, and was a captain of militia in the War of 1812. The family were primarily devoted to farming, however, in which they were notably successful even in a community of good farmers, and the estate which finally covered Corey Hill was testimony to their competence.
THE HYSLOP FAMILY
William Hyslop was a Scotch peddler who made good, be- came a wealthy merchant, and purchased the old home of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston on the latter's death, not long before the Revo-
122
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
lution. He had sons William and David, and a daughter Elizabeth, in addition to which he adopted Mehitable Aber- crombie, the daughter of a widowed Scotch clergyman.
Although he was a merchant, and engaged in importing, Mr. Hyslop was made a member, in 1767, of the 'Committee to prepare a form for Subscription against Receiving of those European Superfluities,' and after the war a meeting of Janu- ary 4, 1793 voted that the town, 'Sensibly imprest with the great obligations they are under to William Hyslop Esquire, for his generous Donation for the purpose of Building a School House in said Town for the Incouragement and promotion of Learning among the Youth of the Rising Generation, Sincerely Return him their thanks.' In the interim, however, Mr. Hyslop had been under suspicion.
He had gone abroad on business shortly before hostilities commenced, and was unable to return until 1779, and it was rumored that his conduct had not been all that the conduct of a patriot should be. However, everything seems to have been discussed in detail and explained satisfactorily, for on the last day of the year mentioned, it was voted 'that the Town ap- prove & Justifie their Committee Respecting their Proceedings with William Hyslop Esq'r' and, about two weeks later, 'that this Town is Satisfied Respecting Mr. Hyslops Residence in great Briton & with the manner of his return,' but 'that the Town is Dissatisfied with Mr. Hyslops Conduct Towards the Committee Scince his return.' Of what that objectionable conduct consisted, there seems to be no record. Possibly Mr. Hyslop thought the committee asked too many questions, and grew impatient.
His son, David, somewhat warped in body and mind, was long a town character, noted for his aversion to all forms of music, particularly the anthems, which he called 'tantrums,' sung in church. Miss Woods records several anecdotes relating to him, and describes particularly his passion for collecting odd bits of iron and hiding them in what he called his 'iron 'tudy.' According to her account, John Adams, as an old man, was desirous of seeing once more his mother's childhood home, the old Boylston place, and Mr. Hyslop accordingly arranged a dinner party. The aged ex-president gave a slightly different
123
GREAT FAMILIES
version when he wrote, in 1820, to 'My dear cousin Boylston' that 'Mr. David Hyslop has been importuning me for seven years to dine with him in Brookline.'
Anyhow the affair came off, and seems to have marked the social climax of the Hyslop family, of which the last male mem- ber, David, died two years later.
THE HEATH FAMILY
The Heaths did not become permanently identified with Brookline until after the Revolution, when John Heath, of Roxbury, purchased the confiscated Sewall property, although he had already lived there as a tenant for some years, and was a Brookline fence-viewer as early as 1762. He had married, in 1758, Susannah Craft, granddaughter of Samuel White, whose home this had formerly been. By 1786 he was the owner of some ten patches of real estate in Brookline.
John Heath was the cousin of General William Heath, and had enlisted in the regiment which the latter commanded as colonel, at the beginning of the war. He played a busy part in the campaign, and, like the general, brought credit to the family name.
Three of John's children grew to maturity, Susannah, Ebene- zer, and Elizabeth, called Betsey. The last-named, like the general and some other members of the family in subsequent generations, had a habit of diary-keeping which has resulted in the preservation of some vivid, first-hand accounts of the social life of the times. When sister Susannah married Dr. John Goddard, of Portsmouth, Betsey described the whole affair. This was in 1783.
Doct. Goddard set out from Portsmouth Monday June 2nd, got to boston the next morning, bought his wedding Cloaths, left them to be made, got here to dinner ....
June 4, Mrs. Cheany of Roxbury was sent for by Sunrise in the morning. came here, made two sorts of Cake, loaf Cake and pound Cake very good indeed ....
June 5, Thursday, Doct. John Goddard and Sukey Heath entered the matrimonial state. The Company that was present was Mr. Jackson and family, Doct. Goddard's Father and Mother, Brothers, and Sisters, my two Uncle
124
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
Crafts and their wives were here and Miss betsey Shed. Luck was here with his Violin in the evening. The Bride was drest in a Lilock colored Lute string gownd and coat ....
Sunday June 8, went to meeting Bride drest in strip'd Lute string Negligee, three white waving plooms on her hat, &c., wore her new short Polanee's flounced and trimmed with Blue. Monday a very respectable Company was here to drink tea. Judge Sumner's Lady and Mrs. Ruggles, General Heath's Children &c., about Forty in the whole, two Violins here in the evening, danced till two o'clock. They had punce, and wine, cake and chees.
There was, of course, a formal side to this wedding business, too. When John Heath's son, Ebenezer, married in 1790, the notice of intentions, still preserved, was posted on the door of the bride's church:
A MATRIMONIAL CONJOINT
Mr. Ebenezer Heath of Brookline, and Miss Hannah Williams of Roxbury: proposes to quit there present state of celibacy, and pursue the journey through the vale of affection to that extensive tract of troden path of land called matri- mony - Whoever hath aught, or impediment against this overture: are requested to exhibit their objections to
Thomas Clarke, Town Clerk.
Nobody seems to have objected, and Betsey Heath recorded in detail the festivities attending this marriage, too.
John Heath died in the spring of 1804, about two years before the completion of the new meeting-house, to which Ebenezer devoted nearly fifteen months of his time and en- ergy. At the close of the century, this numerous and influen- tial family had scarcely more than taken its place in Brook- line, where its representatives have continued to live down to the present day.
SUMMARY
What has been written here of family history is not intended as a genealogical account. The purpose has been rather an identification of the names that were prominent in the town
HOUSE ON CORNER OF WALNUT AND CHESTNUT STREETS OCCUPIED BY SIX GENERATIONS OF CLARKS Built about 1715; taken down in 1902
HOUSE BUILT BY EBENEZER HEATH IN 1791 Heath Street near Boylston Street
125
GREAT FAMILIES
during the century in which the Revolution culminated, and a fragmentary picture, at least, of the social life of those times.
If something has been conveyed of the matrimonial inter- weaving of these first families, of their faithful devotion to community affairs, and sometimes to those of wider scope; if the reader is able to derive a kind of composite picture of the town and its leading citizens, then this chapter will have accomplished all that can be expected of it. Much of it will lack interest except for those whose ancestors were personally concerned, and even such readers will, in most instances, be obliged to consult more specialized works for adequate family histories.
The purpose has been to give enough of such data for orien- tation, without including enough to become too involved.
CHAPTER VII THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
FIRST RUMBLES
THE distant, preliminary thunders of the Revolution might have been heard in the Brookline town meeting as early as 1772. British officials in America caught their reverberations several years before. That, of course, was not unnatural, for by the time such matters have found their way into the public records, a long period of general discussion has been simmered down to the formal resolutions of a deliberative assembly.
Perhaps the gradual elimination of the 'redcoats' from our school histories may be taken as a symbol of the growing in- clination to take our history as it is, rather than to insist on having it written as we would like it to be. After a hundred and fifty years, at any rate, it is not so difficult to admit that some of the patriots were a very trying lot, and that many of the British administrators were sincere and able men attempt- ing to do the undoable - or, as a colored philosopher has put it, 'to onscrew de onscrutable.' Certainly it is worth while to endeavor to get both viewpoints as they found expression in Brookline.
If this chapter seems to abound with quotations from the records of the times with which we are dealing, it is only be- cause those accounts are so pertinent and so alive that they cannot be overlooked, and it seems unfair to sap their vitality by paraphrasing. Thus, there are the delightful letters of Miss Anne Hulton, sister of Henry Hulton, who was Commissioner of Customs in Boston, and a resident of Brookline during the troublous years before the Revolution burst into flame.I
THE UNWELCOME CUSTOMS COMMISSIONERS
Miss Hulton had followed her brother over, and in writing to an ever-helpful friend in England, explains that he had a
I Letters of a Loyalist Lady: Being the Letters of Anne Hulton, sister of Henry Hul- ton, Commissioner of Customs at Boston, 1767-1776; Cambridge, Harvard Uni- versity Press, 1927.
I27
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
good voyage (only five weeks), and arrived in Boston on June 5, 1768. But there was trouble from the very beginning. In the same letter Anne Hulton writes:
You will be surprized to hear how we were obliged to fly from the Place [Boston] in six Days after & take Refuge on board the Romney Man of War lying in Boston Harbour. Mrs Burch at whose house I was, had frequently been alarmd with the Sons of Liberty surrounds her house with most hid- eous howlings as the Indians, when they attack an Enemy, to many insults & outrages She had been exposed since her arrival, & threatend with greater voilences. She had had removed her most valuable Effects & held herself in readi- ness to depart at an hours notice. The Occasion soon hap- pend, when my Sister & I accompanyd her at 10 oClock at night to a Nieghbours house, not apprehend& much danger, but we soon found that the Mobs here are very different from those in O' England where a few lights put into the Windows will pacify, or the interposition of a Magistrate restrain them, but here they act from principle & under Coun- tenance, no person daring or willing to suppress their Out- rages, or to punish the most notorious Offenders for any Crimes whatever, These Sons of Voilence after attacking Houses, break& Window, beating, Stoning & bruizing sev- eral Gentlemen belongs to the Customs, the Collector mor- tally, & burning his boat, They consultd what was to be done next, & it was agreed to retire for the night, All was ended wth a Speech from one of the Leaders, concluds thus, 'We will defend our Liberties & property, by the Strength of our Arm & the help of our God, to your Tents O Israel.' This is a Specimen of the Sons of Liberty, of whom no doubt you have heard, & will hear more.
The next Day the Commiss's had sufficient notice of their danger & the Plots against them, All their friends Advised em to retire to a more secure place, the Governor particu- larly telling em it was not in his power to protect em.
With things in such a state, Hulton and his household with- drew to the man-of-war Romney, lying in Boston harbor, and shortly thereafter the entire company of some fifty British government servants found quarters in Castle William, a forti- fication on one of the glacial drumlin islands of the harbor.
I Abbreviation for Old as distinguished from New England.
128
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
The terror had begun early for them. There was, of course, a certain measure of imposition on the colonists, real or fan- cied. At any rate, they were incensed against any and all officers sent as tax collectors. There was also propaganda, and it is deplorable to record that it appears to have been much more elaborately conceived on the part of the patriots than on the part of British government sympathizers.
AMERICAN SOCIETY CRITICIZED
If one considers the situation in a dramatic light, and en- deavors to substitute for some of the familiar actors, his own neighbors, it will be easier to see just how minds worked. Anne Hulton, taking the aristocratic point of view, was of course excessively critical. She did see the good in the new world, and she liked it in a generous-hearted way, but she felt that in its social set-up it was deplorably wrong.
From the inherent Republican, & levelling principles [she wrote], heres no subordination in the Society. Govern- ment is extirpated, & it is quite a State of Anarchy. There are some sensible & good people that are greatly alarmed at their impend& fate ....
It is easy to say that Miss Hulton was prejudiced. But as one reads her letters, it is even easier to perceive that she wrote from entire sincerity, for the edification of her correspondent in England, and that she reported what might be called the 'official' point of view.
The Credulity of the Common people here [she wrote] is imposed on by a number of Lies raised to irritate & inflame them. The believe that the Commiss's have an unlimited power given to tax even their Lands, & that its in order to raise a Revenue, for supports a Number of Bishops that are coming over &c they are inspired with an enthusiastic Rage for defends their Religion & liberties. every Officer of the Crown that does his duty is become obnoxious, & they must either fly or be sacrificed, the Attacks were always in the dark, several hundreds against one Man, & theres great Reason to believe that the Lives of some in particular was aimd at, ...
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.