USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 24
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" The slumberer's mound grows fresh and green, Then slowly disappears ; The mosses creep, the gray stones lean, Earth hides his date and years."
Among the earlier tenants of God's Acre, as Longfellow has reverently distinguished it, are Andrew Belcher, the innkeeper, Stephen Day, the printer, and Samuel Green, his successor, Elijah Corlet, master of the " faire Grammar Schoole," Dunster, first President of the College, and Thomas Shepard, minister
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of the church in Cambridge, who succeeded Hooker when he departed to plant the Colony of Connecticut. In their various callings, these were the forefathers of the hamlet ; Old Cam- bridge is really concentrated within this narrow space.
The consideration which attached to the position of governor of the College is indicated by the long, pompous Latin inscrip- tions, to be deciphered only by the scholar. Classic lore, as dead to the world in general as is the subject of its eulogium, followed them to their tombs, -
"But for mine own part it was all Greek to me,"-
and is there stretched out at full length in many a line of sounding import. Dunster, Chauncy, Leverett, Wadsworth, Holyoke, Willard, and Webber lie here awaiting the great Commencement, where Freshman may at once attain the high- est degree, and where College parchment availeth nothing.
The disappearance of many of the leaden family-escutcheons has already been accounted for by their conversion into deadly missiles. Necessity, which knows no law, led to these acts of sacrilege, and yet we should as soon think of fashioning the bones of the dead themselves into weapons as rob their tablets of their blazonry. The cavities in which were placed the heraldic emblems are now so many little basins to catch the dews of heaven, -- our precious and only Holy Water.
The Vassall tomb, a horizontal sandstone slab resting on five upright columns, is one of the most conspicuous objects in the cemetery. On the face of the slab are sculptured the chalice and sun, which may have been borne upon the banner of some gallant French crusader ; for the Vassalls were lords and barons in ancient Guienne. Hospitality and unsullied reputation are in the heraldic conjunction reduced to knightly or kingly sub- jection in the name. Whether amid the sands of Holy Land, the soil of sunny France, or the clay of Cambridge churchyard, the slumberers calmly await the summons of the great King-of- Arms.
Near Christ Church is a handsome monument of Scotch gran- ite, erected by the city in 1870 to the memory of John Hicks,
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William Marcy, and Moses Richardson, buried here, and of Jabez Wyman and Jason Russell, of Menotomy, who fell on the day of Lexington battle.
Here is the form of an invitation to a funeral of the olden time. Rev. Mr. Nowell died in London in 1688.
" ffor the Reuerend Mr. Mather. These -
REUEREND SR, -- You are desired to accompany the Corps of M! Samuell Nowell, minister of the Gospell, of Eminent Note in New England, deceased, from M: Quicks meating place in Bartholemew Close, on Thursday next at two of the clock in the afternoon p'cisely, to the new burying place by the Artillery ground."
An epitaph has been described as giving a good character to persons on their going to a new place, who sometimes enjoyed a very bad character in the place they had just left. There is something touching about an unknown grave. Even the igno- rant crave some memento when they are gone, and the dread of being wholly forgotten on earth is depicted in Gray's incom- parable lines : -
" Yet even these bones from insult to protect, Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh."
Occasionally we see a stone splintered or wantonly defaced. Sometimes an old heraldic device is obliterated by a modern chisel, to give place to some new-comer who has thus, through the agency of a soulless grave-digger, possessed himself of the last heritage of the former proprietor.
" I think I see them at their work those sapient trouble tombs."
While we are beautifying our newer cemeteries, and making them to " blossom as the rose," our ancient burial-places remain neglected. Cambridge churchyard was long a common thor- oughfare and playground, from which the stranger augured but ill of our reverence for the ashes of our ancestors. The path across the ground is still much frequented, and we marked the absence of all attempt at beautifying the spot. There are
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neither shady walks nor blooming shrubs in a place so public as to meet the eye of every wayfarer. The older stones, half hidden in the tangled grass, threaten total disappearance at no distant day. Pray Heaven all that is left of ancient Newtown does not return to a state of nature.
Governor Belcher, one of Harvard's best friends, and the patron of Princeton College, died at his government in New Jersey in 1757. He was much attached to Cambridge, his Alma Mater, and the friends of his youth. In his will he de- sired to be buried in the midst of those he had loved, and accordingly his remains were deposited in this burying-ground in a tomb constructed a short time previous. It appears that the governor and his bosom friend Judge Remington had ex- pressed the desire to be buried in one grave, so that when Bel- cher was laid in the tomb the body of his friend, who had preceded him, was disinterred and laid by his side. The mon- ument which the governor had directed to be raised over his resting-place was never erected, and in time the memory of the place of his interment itself passed away with the generation to which he belonged. The tomb became the family vault of the Jennisons. On the decease of Dr. Jennison, it was found to be completely filled with tenants. The old sexton, Brackett, upon being questioned, recollected to have seen at the bottom of the vault the fragments of an old-fashioned coffin, covered with velvet and studded with gilt nails. This was believed to be that of Governor Belcher, whose granddaughter was the wife of Dr. Jennison. The tomb of Belcher and that of Judge Trowbridge (since known as the Dana tomb) are near the gate- way. In the latter were placed the remains of Washington Allston.
There have been funerals in New England with some attempt at feudal pomp. When Governor Leverett died, in 1679, the pageant was rendered as imposing as possible. Though the governor had carefully concealed the fact of his knighthood by Charles II. during his lifetime, the customs of knightly burial were brought into requisition at his interment in Boston. There were bearers, carrying each a banner roll, at the four
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corners of the hearse. After these came the principal gentle- men of the town with the armor of the deceased, the first bear- ing the helmet, the last the spur. The procession closed with the led horse of the governor followed by banners.
The home of Judge Trowbridge was on the ground on which the First Church now stands. Trowbridge, who had been attorney-general, and who was, at the breaking out of the Revo- lution, judge of the Supreme Court, resigned soon after the battle of Lexington, and retired to Byfield, where he enjoyed for a time the companionship of his pupil, Theophilus Parsons, whose character he no doubt impressed with his own stamp. Judge Trowbridge presided at the trial of Captain Preston with a fairness and ability that commanded respect. He was well in years when the Revolution burst forth in full vigor, and al- though offered a safe conduct, declined to leave the country, saying, "I have nothing to fear from my countrymen." He returned to Cambridge, and died here in 1793.
A little time after the battle of Lexington Judge Trowbridge stated to Rev. John Eliot that, "it was a most unhappy thing that Hutchinson was ever chief justice of our court. What Otis said, 'that he would set the province in flames, if he perished by the fire,' has come to pass." At the last court held under the charter, Peter Oliver was chief justice, and Ed- mund Trowbridge, Foster Hutchinson, William Cushing, and William Brown were the judges. Of these, Cushing was the only one who afterwards appeared on the bench.
" The scene is changed ! No green arcade, No trees all ranged arow."
The old Brattle house, on the street of that name, is the first you meet with after passing the huge wooden hive, formerly a hotel under the familiar designation of the Brattle House, but now dedicated to the art preservative of all arts. The buildings of the University Press occupy a part of the Brattle estate, which was once the most noted in Cambridge for the elegance of its grounds and the walk laid out by the proprietor, known in its day as Brattle's Mall. Miss Ruth Stiles, afterwards the
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mother of Dr. Gannett of Boston, penned some beautiful lines to this promenade : -
" Say, noble artist, by what power inspired Thy skilful hands such varied scenes compose ? At whose command the sluggish soil retir'd, And from the marsh this beauteous mall arose ? "
The walk, which once conducted to the river's side, was the favorite promenade for the nymphs and swains of Old Cam- bridge, as on a moonlit eve they wandered forth to whisper their vows, chant a love-ditty under the shadows of the listening trees, or idly cast a pebble into the current of the shimmering 00 stream. Besides the mall, was a marble grotto in which gurgled forth a spring, where love- draughts of singular potency were quaffed, en- chaining, so 't was said, the wayward fancies of the coquette, or giving heart of grace to bashful wooer. Reader, the spring has coyly with- BRATTLE. drawn beneath the turf, though its refreshing pool is indicated by a ruined arch nigh the wall of the enclosure ; the mall, too, is gone, but still, perchance,
" Light-footed fairies guard the verdant side And watch the turf by Cynthia's lucid beam."
The elder Thomas Brattle was an eminent merchant of Bos- ton, and a principal founder of Brattle Street Church. From him, also, that street took its name. He was the brother of William, the respected minister of Cambridge. William Brattle, the tory brigadier, went into exile in the royalist hegira, de- serting his house and all his worldly possessions. The soldiery were not long in scenting out and making spoil of the good liquors contained in the fugitive's cellars, until this house, with others, was placed under guard, and the effects of every sort taken in charge for the use of the Colonial forces.
Thomas Brattle, the son of the brigadier, was the author of the improvements which made his grounds the most celebrated in New England. He left the country in 1775 for England,
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but returned before the close of the war, and had the good for- tune to obtain the removal of his political disabilities. His character was amiable, and his pursuits prompted by an en- lightened benevolence and hospitality. One of the last acts of his life was to erect a bath at what was called Brick Wharf, for the benefit of the students of the University, many of whom had lost their lives while bathing in the river. Brattle was an enthusiastic lover of horticulture, and devoted much of his time to the embellishment of his grounds.
General Mifflin occupied the Brattle mansion while acting as quartermaster-general to our forces. Mifflin and Dr. Jonathan Potts, the distinguished army-surgeon of the Revolution, married sisters. The former was small in stature, very active and alert, - qualities which he displayed in the Lechmere's Point affair, - but withal somewhat bustling, and fond of telling the sol- diers he would get them into a scrape. His manners were popular, and he appeared every inch a soldier when on duty. Despite the cloud which gathered about Mifflin's connection with the conspiracy to depose Washington, he nobly exerted himself to reinforce the wreck of the grand army at the close of the campaign of 1776.
Mrs. John Adams paid a visit to Major Mifflin's in Decem- ber, 1775, to meet Mrs. Morgan, the wife of Dr. Church's suc- cessor as director-general of the hospital. In the company were Generals Gates and Lee. Tea was drank without restraint.
" General Lee," says Mrs. Adams, "was very urgent for me to tarry in town and dine with him and the ladies present at Hobgob- lin Hall, but I excused myself. The General was determined that I should not only be acquainted with him, but with his companions too, and therefore placed a chair before me, into which he ordered Mr. Spada to mount and present his paw to me for better acquaint- ance. I could not do otherwise than accept it. 'That, Madam,' says he, 'is the dog which Mr. - has made famous.' "
Mrs. Adams further says : -
" You hear nothing from the ladies but about Major Mifflin's easy address, politeness, complaisance, etc. "T is well he has so agreeable
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a lady at Philadelphia. They know nothing about forts, intrench- ments, etc., when they return ; or if they do, they are all forgotten and swallowed up in his accomplishments."
It is evident that the Major was a gallant cavalier, and would have been called in our day a first-rate ladies' man. Margaret Fuller was at one time a resident of this house, now the property of Samuel Batchelder, Esq.
To understand what was this old Colonial highway in which we are now sauntering, contract its breadth, expanded at the cost of the contiguous estates ; rear again the magnifi- cent trees sacrificed to the improvement, save here and there a noble specimen spared at the earnest intercession of the near proprietors, or where protected, like the " spreading chestnut- tree," by the poet's art, - would that he might dedicate his muse to every one of these mighty forest guardians ! - some relics of the dispersed sylvan host yet clings to the soil ; carry the boundaries of Thomas Brattle to those of the Vassalls ; obliterate the modern villas, with their neutral tints and chateau roofs ; restore the orchards, the garden glacis, the fra- grant lindens, and cool groves; and you have an inkling of the state of the magnificos of "forty-five " and of the most impor- tant artery of old Massachusetts Bay.
Passing underneath the horse-chestnut, by whose stem Long- fellow has located the village smithy, we ought to pause a moment before the long-time dwelling of Judge Story, - a plain, three-story brick house, with small, square upper win- dows, and veranda along its eastern front. This house was built about 1800, and in it Story died, and from it he was buried.
The old Judge was wont, they say, when weighty matters occupied him, to take his hat into his study, where he remained secure from intrusion ; while the servant, not seeing his head- covering in its accustomed place in the hall, would say to comers of every degree that he was not at home.
"In the summer afternoons he left his library towards twilight, and might always be seen by the passer-by sitting with his family
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under the portico, talking, or reading some light pamphlet or news- paper ; oftener surrounded by friends, and making the air ring with his gay laugh. This, with the interval occupied by tea, would last until nine o'clock. Generally, also, the summer afternoon was varied, three or four times a week in fine weather, by a drive with my mother of about an hour through the surrounding country in an open chaise. At about ten or half past ten he retired for the night, never varying a half-hour from this time." *
William W. Story, the son of Judge Story, passed his college life in this house, was married in it, and here also made his first essays in art. The beautiful statue of the jurist in the chapel of Mount Auburn is the work of his son's hands. Judge Story's widow remained but a little time in the house after her husband's decease. Edward Tuckerman, professor of botany at Amherst, lived here some time, a bachelor ; and Judge William Kent, son of the celebrated chancellor, resided here while pro- fessor in the Law School. In his time gayety prevailed in the old halls, often filled with the élite of the town, and sometimes distinguished by the presence of the eminent commentator him- self. In this house, could we but make its walls voluble, we might write the annals of bench and bar. It stands amid the frailer structures stanch as the Constitution, while its old-time, learned inhabitant has long since obeyed the summons of the Supreme Court of last resort, where there is no more conflict of laws.
Ash Street is the name now given to the old highway lead- ing to the river's side, where formerly existed an eminence known as Windmill Hill, later the site of Brattle's bathing- house, from which the way was known as Bath Lane. The mill is mentioned as standing in 1719, and, in all probability, occupied the same ground as the earlier mill of the first plant- ers, removed in 1632 to Boston, " because it would not grind but with a westerly wind." The firm ground extends here quite to the river, so that boats freighted with corn could unload at the mill. Down this lane of yore trudged many a weary rustic with his grist for the mill.
* Judge Story's Memoir, by his son.
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The house, now the residence of Samuel Batchelder, Esq., was built about 1700, and may claim the respect due to a hale, hearty old age. It was originally of rough-cast, filled in with brick. The east front, unfortunately injured by fire, was re- stored to its ancient aspect, except that the dormer windows of that part have not been replaced. The brown old mansion incloses three sides of a square, and offers a much more picturesque view from the gardens than from the street. On the west is the court- yard and carriage entrance, paved with beach pebbles, while the east front opens upon the spacious grounds, now somewhat shrunken on the side of the highway by its enlargement. During this improve- ment the low brick wall on Brattle YA AU Street, as it now appears on Ash ORT. Street, was taken down, and replaced BELCHER. by one more elegant. The recessed area at the back has a cool, monastic look, with shade and climbing vines, - a place for
KILBURN-MALLORY
meditative fancies. The garden is thickly studded with trees, shrubbery, and flowers, as was the dreary waste once Thomas Brattle's, during the time of that right worthy horticulturist. At the extremity of Mr. Batchelder's garden remains of what were be- lieved to have belonged to the early fortifications were discovered. The situation coincides with the location as fixed by Rev. Dr. Holmes.
The estate came, in 1717, into GOVERNOR BELCHER. the possession of Jonathan Belcher while he was yet a merchant and had not donned the cares of
·
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office. He was one of the most elegant gentlemen of his time in manners and appearance, - a fact for which his portrait will vouch. While governor he once made a state entry into Hampton Falls, where the Assemblies of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire were in session on the vexatious question of the dividing line between the governments. We append a contemporary pasquinade on the event :-
" Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight As yesterday morning was seen before night. You in all your born days saw, nor I did n't neither, So many fine horses and men ride together. At the head the lower house trotted two in a row, Then all the higher house pranc'd after the low; Then the Governor's coach gallop'd on like the wind, And the last that came foremost were troopers behind ; But I fear it means no good to your neck nor mine, For they say 't is to fix a right place for the line."
The mansion afterwards became the property of Colonel John Vassall, the elder, whose sculptured tombstone we have seen in the old churchyard. This gentleman conveys the estate (of seven acres) to his brother, Major Henry, an officer in the militia, who died in this house in 1769. The wife of Major Vassall, née Penelope Royall, left her home, at the breaking out of hostilities, in such haste, it is said, that she carried along with her a young companion, whom she had not time to re- store to her friends. Such of her property as was serviceable to the Colony forces was given in charge of Colonel Stark, while the rest was allowed to pass into Boston. The barns and outbuildings were used for the storage of the Colony forage, cut with whig scythes in tory pastures.
It is every way likely that the Widow Vassall's house at once became the American hospital, as Thacher tells us it was near headquarters, and no other house was so near as this. There is little doubt that it was the residence, as it certainly was the prison, of that inexplicable character, Dr. Benjamin Church, whose defection was the first that the cause of America had experienced. Suspicion fell upon Church before the middle of September. He was summoned to headquarters on the evening
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of September 13, before a council of the generals, where he probably learned, for the first time, that he was the object of distrust. When questioned by Washington he appeared utterly confounded, and made no attempt to vindicate himself.
A treasonable letter, written in cipher, which he was attempt- ing to send to his brother in Boston, by the hands of his mis- tress, was intercepted, and disclosed Church's perfidy. The letter itself, when deciphered, did not contain any intelligence of importance, but the discovery that one until then so high in the esteem of his countrymen was engaged in a clandestine cor- respondence with the enemy was deemed sufficient evidence of guilt. He was arrested and confined in a chamber looking upon Brattle Street. The middle window in the second story. will indicate the apartment of his detention, in which he em- ployed some of his leisure in cutting on the door of a closet,
" B Church jr"
There the marks now remain, their significance awaiting a recent interpretation by Mrs. James, to whom they were long familiar, without suspicion of their origin. The chamber has two windows in the north front, and two overlooking the area on the south.
The doctor was called before a council of war, consisting of all the major-generals and brigadiers of the army, besides the adjutant-general, General Washington presiding. This tribunal decided his acts to have been criminal, but remanded him for the decision of the General Court, of which he was a member. He was taken in a chaise, escorted by General Gates and a guard of twenty men, to the music of a fife and drum, to Watertown meeting-house, where the court sat. It would be difficult to produce a more remarkable instance of special plead- ing than Church's defence. The galleries were thronged with people of all ranks. The bar was placed in the middle of the broad aisle, and the Doctor arraigned. He was adjudged guilty and expelled. His subsequent confinement by order of the Continental Congress, his permission to depart the country, and his mysterious fate are matters of history.
A letter from Dr. Church's brother, to which the treasonable
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document was a reply, contains the following among other re- markable passages, - it refers to Bunker Hill :-
" What says the psalm-singer and Johnny Dupe to fighting British troops now ? They are at Philadelphia, I suppose plotting more mischief, where I hear your High Mightiness has been Ambas- sador extraordinary : take care of your nob, Mr. Doctor ; remember your old friend, the orator ; * he will preach no more sedition."
What Paul Revere says, together with other corroborative evidence, leaves but little doubt that Dr. Church was in the pay of General Gage. Revere's account is, in part, as fol- lows : -
" The same day I met Dr. Warren. He was president of the Committee of Safety. He engaged me as a messenger to do the out of doors business for that committee ; which gave ine an opportunity of being frequently with them. The Friday evening after, about sunset, I was sitting with some, or near all that committee in their room, which was at Mr. Hastings's house in Cambridge. Dr. Church all at once started up. 'Dr. Warren,' said he, ' I am deter- mined to go into Boston to-morrow.' (It set them all a staring.) Dr. Warren replied, ' Are you serious, Dr. Church ? They will hang you if they catch you in Boston.' He replied, ' I am serious, and am determined to go at all adventures.' After a considerable con- versation Dr. Warren said, 'If you are determined, let us make some business for you.' They agreed that he should go to get medi- cine for their and our wounded officers."
* Warren.
1
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CHAPTER XIII.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY.
" Somewhat back from the village street Stands the old-fashioned country-seat."
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