USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 30
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 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
In 1802 Benjamin Bussey repaired the old house and placed in front of it an addition more in keeping with the archi- tecture of the new century. The rooms were high-studded, which was then the fashion ; the stairs ran at angles, with land- ings, through an ample hall. The woodwork was ornamented, and sufficient room provided for a small family. The front door was protected by a wooden canopy with iron supports, curiously wrought. Trees were planted; side fences that came down from the corners of the house to the front fence were built; and here was laid out a "front yard," the pride of the farmers' wives, planted with bouncing Bet, London pride, peonies, and old-fashioned roses. Then, good son that he was, he gave the house to his father and his father's wife, that they might enjoy the remainder of their lives with no fear lest the wolf should come to the door. But the old-time gentleman lived only six years to enjoy his son's kindness. On the 15th of August, 1808, having lived nearly three quar- ters of a century, he was laid in the Canton Cemetery.
Colonel Benjamin's first wife, the mother of Benjamin, who died at Jamaica Plain, was Ruth, daughter of Deacon Joseph and Mary (Tolman) Hartwell, and was born Sept. 3, 1738, on what is known now as the Kollock farm. Her sister Elizabeth married Roger Sherman, Nov. 17, 1749. Ruth was married to Bussey, Nov. 26, 1755, and died Dec. 5, 1776. Colonel Bussey's second wife was Ruth, daughter of Zebediah Went- worth, who was born in 1751, and died Dec. 31, 1839. She was the last of the name that occupied the Bussey house, and many who read these lines will remember her.
The property was sold to Zachariah Tucker - the famous school-master, and in 1829 post-master at North Canton, as
23
354
HISTORY OF CANTON.
Ponkapoag was then called - during the old lady's life, but provision was made for her maintenance. From his posses- sion it passed through the hands of Elisha Mann, Sr., and Jr., into those of Josiah Broad, and has sometimes of late years been known as the Broad house.
The younger Benjamin Bussey was born near Reservoir Pond in Canton, on the Ist of March, 1757, and died at his residence in Jamaica Plain, Jan. 13, 1842. He began life in poverty. His father gave him but the rudiments of an Eng- lish education. He was fond of reading, had a retentive memory, and gathered a vast fund of information. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted as a private soldier in the War of the Revolution. He joined the company of Captain Stow, of Dedham, and went to Ticonderoga, and at nineteen be- came quartermaster of the regiment. The following year he accepted the same position in the regiment of Col. Benjamin Gill, of Stoughton, and joined the troops who marched to ar- rest the progress of General Burgoyne. He was at the battles of Saratoga and Bemis Heights, and in the successful dis- charge of his duties met the approval of his commander and officers. At the termination of the war, he learned the trade of silversmith from a Hessian soldier, and began business in a small shop at Ponkapoag, Aug. 24, 1780. Being then twenty-two, he was married to Judith Gay. He opened a lit- tle shop in Dedham, and at length acquired so much credit as to warrant him in removing to Boston in 1792, where he enlarged and extended his business. By steady gains he be- came very wealthy, and retired from business. By his will, his property, which, by accumulation, in 1861 amounted to $413,000, passed to Harvard College, to be held, one half " for instruction in practical agriculture, in useful and ornamental gardening, in botany and in such other branches of natural sci- ence as may tend to promote knowledge of practical agricul- ture, and the various arts subservient thereto and connected therewith." A portion of his vast property he devised to be used for the support of the Law and Divinity schools of the same University. The trustees erected in 1870, upon what was his farm in West Roxbury, a building containing class-
355
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
rooms and laboratories for professorships in "Farming," "Applied Zoology," " Agricultural Chemistry," "Horticul- ture," "Botany," and " Entomology." This is known as the " Bussey Institution."
There has been preserved a diary kept during the early period of the war, by Ezekiel Price, Esq., Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Sessions, and for many years chairman of the selectmen of Boston, who came to the Doty tavern . before the Ist of May, 1775, and remained during the oc- cupation of Boston by the British troops. The following extracts are especially interesting, as showing the daily ex- citements and alarms, the rumors and conversations, which took place at the old tavern during the troublous times of the Revolution: -
"June 2, 1775. A company of soldiers from Freetown, on their way to Roxbury, stopped here all night.
"June 5. Col. Gridley called, from the army at Cambridge. He confirms, in part, the account relating to the boats being taken, and the arrival of the powder.
"June 8. A company from Tiverton, R. I., passed this morning.
"June 15, 1775. Quite a cool morning. Miss Becky and Miss Polly Gridley called here on their way to Dr. Sprague's, and went up with Mrs. Price and Mrs. Armstrong to the top of Blue Hills. Miss Becky, on her way down, killed two small snakes. Mrs. Sprague, Jr., with Miss Becky and Polly Gridley, spent the afternoon here.
"June 16th. Heard of a new choice of officers in the Continental Army. Colonel Richmond, from the Congress, says that Dr. Warren was chosen a Major General; that Heath was not chosen to any office.
"June 17. In the forenoon, the report of cannon heard. In the afternoon, sundry messengers passed, sent to alarm the country to muster to arms at Roxbury. The firing of cannon continually heard, and very loud. In the evening, saw a great light towards Boston ; the country people marching down ; the firing of cannon distinctly heard till after eleven o'clock.
"June 18. The morning and forenoon, and towards sundown, heard the report of cannon. Some of the people who went down return from Cambridge. Reported that the town of Charlestown was burned by the Regulars that had landed there, and forced the Continen-
356
HISTORY OF CANTON.
. tal Army out of their entrenchment on Bunker Hill ; that the engage- ment was hot and furious on both sides, but the ammunition of the Continental Army being spent, they were unable to oppose any longer, and the Regular Army then jumped into the entrenchments, and made considerable slaughter among the Continental Army. The loss is uncertain either side. It is supposed that great numbers are killed on both sides. Dr. Warren is said to be among the slain. Col. Gridley wounded in the leg.
"June 19. Stopped at Col. Gridley's. They had received no cer- tain account of his wounds. Further reports relating to the unfortu- nate action at Charlestown.
"June 21. It is said that a frost happened last night. Mrs. Price and Polly went to the top of Blue Mountain.
"June 27. Mrs. Gridley and Miss Becky called upon us on their way home from Col. Gridley. They say the Colonel's wounds keep him confined so that he cannot move out of his bed, but that he is in a good way to be cured of it. Heard of the appointment of Generals Washington, Lee, and Schuyler.
"June 29. It rained all of last evening and the whole night, and continued to rain very moderately all the forenoon. A soldier passed. Says he heard a number of cannons fired this afternoon since he left Roxbury.
"July 1. A pleasant morning. Assisted in cocking the hay. In the afternoon, assisted in getting the hay into the barn. No news from camps.
" July 2. Mr. E. Quincy reports that eighteen hundred barrels of powder is arrived at Philadelphia or New York.
" July 3. The plentiful rains that fell yesterday made it exceed- ingly pleasant this morning ; towards noon, very warm. In the after- noon, assisted in raking hay. Reports of the day that Gen. Washington had gone to Cambridge with Gen. Lee and others ; that some Regu- lars in a boat near Cambridge River, were killed by the Continental soldiers.
" July 5. Assisted in raking hay. Heard that Gen. Washington had visited the camps, and that the soldiers were much pleased with him ; and by the motions of the Continental Army, it is expected that something of importance will soon happen.
"July 13. The firing of cannon heard for several hours this morn- ing: Went to Milton, and there heard that the Continental Army were opening an entrenchment near George Tavern, and that the Regulars were firing on them from their lines.
357
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
"July 14. Warm in the sun, but a fresh breeze made it agreeable. Some firing this forenoon from the cannon of the Regulars' entrench- ments on Boston Neck.
"July 16. A very pleasant and agreeable day ; the weather warm ; a fine growing. season. The Regulars in Boston omit not this day in exercising and disciplining. They were firing platoons on the Common this forenoon, also exercising their artillery.
"July 17. 'Took a ride to Milton, Informed that the Regular Army were entrenching themselves at the bottom of the Common in Boston. A fine shower of rain for an hour and a half, which refreshed the earth, and made it extremely pleasant.
"July 18. An exceedingly pleasant morning. It is said that a party of the Continental Army intend to get on Spectacle Island this night.
"July 20. This day solemnized as a public fast throughout the Colonies, agreeable to a resolve of the Continental Congress. The lighthouse at the entrance of the Harbor of Boston burnt by a party of the Continental Army, who went out in whale-boats for that purpose.
"July 21. A pleasant morning. Further accounts relating to burning the lighthouse ; that the party, after burning the lighthouse, brought off four barrels of oil, some cordage and about a hundred- weight of powder ; also took seven prisoners. They also fired the barn with the hay in it on the Brewsters, brought away several thou- sand bushels of grain from Nantasket, two boats, and burnt another. Had two men wounded, and supposed they killed above twenty, as their oars dropped out of the boats.
" Aug. 6, 1775. Heard that Major Tupper had leave to go out of the American lines to converse with Mr. Thomas Boyleston upon private mercantile business.
"Aug. 11. Dined at Randall's at Stoughtonham. Drank tea at Col. Gridley's, and got to our home at Col. Doty's towards evening ..
"Aug. 13. P. M. attended worship at Mr. Dunbar's meeting house.
"Dec. I. Went to Cambridge, visited Col. Gridley.
" Dec. 8. Several soldiers passed from the American camp.
"Dec. ro. The most part of this forenoon, soldiers and minute men from Taunton and several other towns above have been passing to our army, in order to support the lines and forts there.
" Dec. 21. Col. Ephraim Leonard stopt here. The old gentleman had been below, intending to procure a pass to the lines in order to
358
HISTORY OF CANTON.
see and converse with his son Daniel now in Boston, but could not obtain the pass by reason of the small pox being in Boston.
" Jan. 7, 1776. Heard report cannon.
" Jan. 12. Mrs. Gridley and daughter Becky stopped here on their way to Cambridge to visit Scarboro Gridley, who they hear is danger- ously ill.
"Jan. 2r. Not a single traveller has stopped here to day.
" Jan. 23. Major Parks stopped and dined with us. Mr. Parks went up the hill. After dinner they set out for Col. Gridley's. A mill is about being erected in this town for the manufacturing of powder.
" Feb. 5. Mr. Royall came in at noon and says there is now, and for two hours has been, a smart cannonading somewhere or other.
" 7. Great quantities of wood and charcoal and hay going to Rox- bury for the use of our army ; a number of recruits for the new army passed to Roxbury.
" 8. Soldiers continue passing for the reinforcing of the army.
" 12. Walked abroad and met several small companies of the militia, who had enlisted for two months and going to reinforce our armies below.
" Mch. 3. An express passed by, with a letter to Col. Gill sup- posed for the militia to go down.
" Mch. 4, 1776. Yesterday afternoon Col. Gill received orders to. be with his regiment at Roxbury by this day, twelve o'clock at noon. This forenoon the soldiers of Col. Gill's regiment passed to join the American army at Roxbury. Every preparation is making, and all things necessary near ready at Roxbury, to take possession of Dor- chester Hills this night.
" 7. Fasting. I went to public worship. The militia who went down on Monday are returning home.
"8th. Pero was at Roxbury yesterday.
" roth. I went on the hill near Stephen Davenport's and could there see the flashes of their (British) guns which seemed incessant. The reports of the cannon were loud, and continued the whole night and until after daybreak. I went to public worship in the morning.
" 17. Reports of cannonade were heard. In the forenoon . went to public worship. At noon Mr. Edmund Quincy brought us the most interesting, most important, and most comforting news I have heard since I left Boston (that the British had left Boston).
" 20. In the evening, a great light appeared over the top of the Blue Hill, supposed to be the enemy burning the buildings on Castle Island (so it proved).
-
359
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
"Mar. 30. Mrs. Gridley and Scarboro stopped here on their way from Boston.
" April 1, Monday. The militia who enlisted two months ago are returning home, heard very distinctly the report of a number of cannon.
" April 22. In the forenoon visited Mr. Royall, and took leave of him as going from Stoughton. After dinner took chaise and went to Dorchester, first taking an affectionate leave of Col. Doty's family, where we have resided near twelve months, that place being the first we took rest in after leaving our habitation in Boston and flying from the oppressive hand of arbitrary power which governed then our native town.
"May 26. Col. Gridley passed to Boston."
49
Old Powder_ House .;
THE OLD POWDER-HOUSE.
360
HISTORY OF CANTON.
CHAPTER XXII.
RICHARD GRIDLEY.
A T the beginning of hostilities, Stoughton and Stough- tonham were both designated as towns wherein were to be kept the supplies of the province, and later a com- pany of matrosses was stationed in each town to protect those stores. On the 21st of April, 1775, two days after the battle of Lexington, the Provincial Congress ordered that a messenger be immediately despatched to Stoughton and request the attendance of General Gridley and his son.
Richard Gridley, the son of Richard and Rebecca Grid- ley, was born in Boston on the 3d of January, 1710. The family consisted of twelve children, of whom he was the youngest. Col. William Seward Gridley informs me that he was descended in the fourth generation from Richard Gridley, who is seen in Boston in 1630. At the usual age, Richard was apprenticed to Mr. Atkinson, a wholesale mer- chant of Boston, but Nature had made him a soldier, and art could not make him a merchant. Like Washington, he employed himself as a surveyor and civil engineer,- a pro- fession which few in his day were qualified to enter. It was at this time that he acquired that skill in drawing which his plan of the fortifications of Louisburg, still ex- tant, attests. His autograph letters reveal the skill of a ready writer, -an art he acquired with such facility in youth that one of his teachers remarked that he must have been born with a pen in his hand; and even at the age of eighty years, his handwriting was clear and elegant. While still a youth, ascertaining that many persons suf- fered in their business transactions for want of a gauger, he, without regard to private emolument, engaged in the
361
RICHARD GRIDLEY.
business, sacrificing his time for the advantage of his fellow- men. He was the first, and for a long time the only gauger in America.
He was the chief projector of Long Wharf in Boston, which was constructed according to the plan he had pro- posed, and the first pier of which was sunk by him. In early life, while residing in Boston, it was Gridley's good fortune to become the friend of John Henry Bastide, - a young English gentleman of high culture and scientific at- tainments, who was to become Director of his Majesty's Engineers and Chief Engineer of Nova Scotia. This ac- complished officer was, when Gridley made his acquaintance, engaged in drawing plans for fortifications to be erected in the harbors of Boston, Marblehead, Cape Ann, and Casco Bay. He was the author of a valuable treatise on fortifica- tion; he was also a skilled artillerist. From him Gridley acquired new zeal, and renewed the study of military science, the details of which he easily mastered.
On the southeastern part of the Island of Cape Breton, stood, a century and a quarter ago, the city of Louisburg. Loyalty to the king had given it its name; and all that military skill could devise had for twenty-five years been employed upon its fortifications. Six millions of dollars had been expended in fortifying a city two miles and a half in circumference. On all sides arose a rampart of stone thirty-six feet high, from which two hundred and six cannon frowned defiance. Within, the town was beautifully laid out. Its streets were broad, and on both sides lined with public buildings with fronts of cream-colored sandstone. The adjacent hills echoed the reveille, and over the broad bosom of the Atlantic sounded the morning and evening gun. The shrill pipe of the boatswain, calling the sailors to duty, was drowned by the deep-voiced trumpet. The busy hum of an active population filled the streets; the sol- dier in gorgeous uniform saluted the Jesuit in priestly robe. From the towers of churches, nunneries, and hospitals the sound of bells filled the air, while high above all rose the citadel from whose highest point floated a flag emblazoned with the lilies of France.
362
HISTORY OF CANTON.
Such was the city which, wonderful to relate, existed at so early a period in our history, and which, still more won- derful to relate, in 1745 the New England colonies, without the aid of the mother country, pluckily besieged. Col. William Pepperell commanded the expedition. Early in 1745 Richard Gridley received his commission as "Lieu- tenant-Colonel " and "Captain of Train and Company," and on the Ist of April joined the expedition. Thirty days after the investment of the place, on May 2, the Grand, or Royal Battery, which stood directly opposite the harbor of Louisburg, was captured by his Majesty's forces, and the command of it given to Gridley, the cap- tain of the artillery. The monotony of the siege was re- lieved by a visit from his old friend and instructor, Bastide; and in the light of subsequent events it would appear that a portion of Gridley's leisure hours was employed in cutting upon one of the stones of the fortification his name, "Grid- ley," and underneath the date, "1745." Only a few years ago the author of the "Life of Sir William Pepperell," in examining a pile of rubbish at the Grand Battery, found the stone with the deeply chiselled lines, done, in all probability, by Gridley's own hand. Capt. Abraham Rel- ler, the first bombardier of the expedition, died, and on the Ist of August Governor Shirley commissioned Richard Gridley first bombardier; and he continued in the double capacity of first captain of artillery and first bombardier until the end of the siege; and notwithstanding the General Court had ordered that no officer should receive pay in a double capacity, the money was granted him in England on both muster-rolls, and he received £100 from the province. The vigorous mind of Gridley, his quick perception, his early acquirements and pursuits, together with the instruc- tions of Bastide, enabled him to make rapid advances in the knowledge requisite for the performance of his duties. Such was the accuracy of his eye that he succeeded in ranging with his own hand the mortar, which, upon the third fire, dropped a shell directly into the citadel, and was the immediate cause of the surrender of the city. His first
363
RICHARD GRIDLEY.
fire overreached; his second fell short; his third was suc- cessful. Not only the battery on Lighthouse Cliff, from which, in all probability, this shell was thrown, but all of Pepperell's batteries, were erected under the direction of Gridley.
Great was the rejoicing throughout the provinces when the joyful tidings were proclaimed that the stronghold of France in the New World had fallen before the attack of the farmers, mechanics, and fishermen of New England. Our old church records mention the happy event; and the pastor writes, "Blessed be God, who heareth prayer." In London the cannon of the Tower announced the glorious news. All Europe was astonished. The commander of the expedition, General Pepperell, was made a baronet, - an honor never before conferred upon a native of America; and Gridley, the chief engineer, who had planned his batteries, returned to Boston, and was honored with a captaincy in Governor Shirley's regiment on the British establishment. So ended the greatest event of our colonial history,-an everlasting memorial of the zeal, courage, and perseverance of the troops of New England. Gridley had won his first laurels. His reputation as an able and skilful engineer was established, and the knowledge obtained in this cam- paign was to be of inestimable value to his country.
But the French were bent on the recovery of their "Dun- kirque of America;" and the following year (1746) the Duc d'Anville, in command of a large fleet, sailed toward our shores. Governor Shirley employed Gridley to draw de- signs for a battery and other fortifications on Governor's Island in Boston Harbor; and from September until cold weather, Gridley was employed night and day upon Castle William, drawing all the plans for the work, both for ma- sons and carpenters. The spring and the summer of the following year were spent in completing the fortifications about the harbor. But the famous fleet of D' Anville was, like the Spanish Armada, scattered to the four winds of heaven.
For several years Gridley saw no active service, as the
364
HISTORY OF CANTON.
regiment of General Shirley, in which he held a captaincy, was disbanded in 1749. In 1752 we find him in attendance upon the Governor in his journey to the Kennebec; and Fort Western, the site of which is now occupied by the city of Augusta, and Fort Halifax, a few miles farther up the Ken- nebec River, were erected under his supervision. In 1755 he again entered the army as chief engineer; and the House of Representatives (Sept. 9, 1755), knowing "the absolute need of persons that understood the artillery, voted that Col. Richard Gridley be desired for the necessity of the service to assist them in that part, and that his Honor the Lieutenant-Governor be desired to appoint him Colonel of one of the regiments to be raised for the Crown Point expe- dition, and that an express be immediately dispatched to him for his answer." The answer was favorable. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the provincial artillery, colonel of infantry, and was to receive in addition to the pay of the latter position the same compensation he had received at the siege of Louisburg. Accompanied by his brother, Samuel Gridley, who had been appointed commis- sary in his own regiment, Richard joined the expedition against Crown Point; and under his supervision Fort Wil- liam Henry and all the fortifications around Lake George were constructed. Having complete control of the artil- lery, the duties of the extensive command with which the Governor had honored him rendered it probable that he would be absent from his regiment, giving directions to the train. In the spring of 1756, therefore, two lieutenant- colonels were, at his suggestion, attached to his regiment. In June of the same year we find him, under General Winslow, at Albany, forming a camp at Half Moon, and drilling his men. He was not supplied with provisions or tools; his ammunition was unfit for use; his gun-carriages were constantly breaking. But in these adverse circum- stances, he writes, "You may depend upon it the army will push forward, let the consequences be what they will; and if we are not provided with those things which are of consequence to us, and may be provided, it's entangling us
-
365
RICHARD GRIDLEY.
more than we ought to be." And the army did push for- ward; but before it reached Crown Point, the sad news of the fall of Forts Oswego and Ontario caused it to return to a place of safety, and the campaign against Canada was ended for that year.
Gridley was not only the trusted officer, but the valued friend of Winslow, and was selected by that general to accompany him when, on the 4th of August, 1756, he went "with our Chief Engineer, Colonel Gridley," to meet his Excellency, the Earl of Loudoun, then commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces in America. On the muster-roll of Gridley's regiment this year appears, as second lieutenant, the name of Paul Revere, who had just attained his ma- jority. In 1757 Governor Pownall ordered Gridley to pre- pare and form a train of artillery. This he did, and sailed for Halifax, intending to visit Louisburg; but the expedi- tion was turned from its purpose by the proximity of the French fleet.
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.