USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Old landmarks and historic fields of Middlesex > Part 9
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The Catholics showed remarkable forbearance. On the day following the conflagration their bishop, Fenwick, contributed by his judicious conduct to allay the exasperation of his flock ; and even Father Taylor, the old, earnest pastor of the seamen, was listened to with respectful attention by a large assemblage of Irish Catholics, who had gathered in the immediate neigh- borhood of their church, in Franklin Street, Boston, on the same occasion.
In reverting to the conduct of the firemen, it should be re- membered that Colonel Thomas C. Amory, then chief engineer of the Boston Fire Department, repaired to the convent at the first alarm, and did all in his power to bring the firemen to their duty. Finding this a hopeless task, he then visited the
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bishop, and advised him to take such precautions as the danger- ous temper of the mob seemed to demand.
Many arrests were made, and some of the rioters were con- victed and punished. Chief Justice Shaw was then on the bench, and John Davis governor of the State. Both exerted themselves to bring the offenders to justice, and to vindicate the name of the old Commonwealth from reproach.
The form of the main building of the convent, which faced southeast, was a parallelogram of about thirty-three paces long by ten in breadth ; what appear to have been two wings joined it on the west side. The buildings were partly of brick and partly of the blue stone found abundantly in the neighboring quarries ; the principal edifice being of three stories, with a pitched roof, and having entrances both in the east and west fronts. The grounds, which were very extensive, and em- braced most of the hill, were terraced down to the highway and adorned with shrubbery. A fine orchard of several acres, in the midst of which the buildings stood, extended on the west quite to the limits of the enclosure, where, until recently, were visible the remains of the convent tomb. The hill is now being levelled with a rapidity that is fast obliterating every vestige of the ruins, the orchard, and the few elms the fire had spared. Mount Benedict already belongs to the past, whatever regret we may feel at the disappearance of so beautiful an eminence.
The convent was opened on the 17th of July, 1826. It is but little known that there was a similar establishment in Boston, contiguous to the Cathedral in Franklin Street, though no incident drew the popular attention to it. The information upon which the mob acted in the sack of the Mount Benedict institution proved wholly groundless.
When we last visited the spot the scene was one of utter loneliness. Year by year the walls have been crumbling away, until the elements are fast completing what the fire spared. The snow enshrouded the heaps of débris and the jagged out- lines of the walls with a robe as spotless as that of St. Ursula herself. For nearly forty years these blackened memorials of the little community of St. Angela have been visible to thousands
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journeying to and from the neighboring city. The lesson has been sharp, but effectual. Whoever should now raise the torch against such an establishment would be deemed a madman.
Our interest is awakened at the mention of Ten Hills Farm in connection with the plantation of Governor Winthrop, who gave it the name by which it is still known, from the ten little elevations which crowned its uneven surface, and of which the greater number remain visible to this day.
The grant to Winthrop was made September 6, 1631, of six hundred acres of land " near his house at Mistick," from which it would appear that the governor already had a house built there which was probably occupied by his servants. We are now speaking of a time nearly coincident with the settlement of Boston, when no other craft than the Indian canoe had ever cleft the waters of the Mystic, and when wild beasts roamed the neighboring forests.
Governor Winthrop tells his own story of what he, the original white inhabitant of Ten Hills, experienced there in 1631 : -
" The governour, being at his farm house at Mistick, walked out after supper, and took a piece in his hand, supposing he might see a wolf, (for they came daily about the house, and killed swine and calves, etc .; ) and being about half a mile off, it grew suddenly dark, so as, in coming home, he mistook his path, and went til he came to a little house of Sagamore John, which stood empty. There he stayed, and having a piece of match in his pocket, (for he always carried about him match and a compass, and in summer time snake- weed,) he made a good fire near the house, and lay down upon some old mats which he found there, and so spent the night, sometimes walking by the fire, sometimes singing psalms, and sometimes getting wood, but could not sleep. It was (through God's mercy) a warm night; but a little before day it began to rain, and having no cloak, he made shift by a long pole to climb up into the house. In the morning there came thither an Indian squaw, but, perceiving her before she had opened the door, he barred her out; yet she stayed there a great while essaying to get in, and at last she went away, and he returned safe home, his servants having been much perplexed for him, and having walked about, and shot off pieces, and hallooed in the night, but he heard them not."
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Savage supposes that Ten Hills was the governor's summer residence for the first two or three years ; Boston being, after the removal of his house there, his constant home. It has also been usually considered as the place where Winthrop built his little bark, the Blessing of the Bay, the first English keel launched in the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Colony. This event occurred on the 4th of July, 1631, and in October the Blessing spread her canvas and bore away on a voyage to the eastward.
The farm of Ten Hills was owned at the time of the Revolu- tion by Robert Temple, a royalist ; and the house he occupied is now standing there on the supposed site of Governor Win- throp's. The highest of the ten eminences lies between the house and the river, warding off the bleak northwest winds.
The mansion-house has a spacious hall, and a generous provis- ion of large square rooms. As you ascend the stairs, in front of you, at the first landing, is a glass door, opening into a snug little apartment which overlooks the river. This must have been a favorite resort of the family. The wainscoting and other wood-work is in good condition, if a general filthiness be ex- cepted, inseparable from the occupancy of the house by numer- ous families of the laborers in the neighboring brickyards. The high ground on which the house stands is being digged away, and this old dwelling will probably soon disappear.
Robert Temple of Ten Hills was an elder brother of Sir John Temple, Bart., the first Consul-General from England to the United States. His eldest daughter became Lady Dufferin. Mr. Temple sailed for England as early as May, 1775 ; but, the vessel being obliged to put into Plymouth, Massachusetts, he was detained and sent to Cambridge camp. Mr. Temple's family continued to reside in the mansion at Ten Hills after his attempted departure, under the protection of General Ward. The Baronet married a daughter of Governor Bowdoin, while his brother's wife was a daughter of Governor Shirley.
Previous to his coming to Ten Hills, Robert Temple had resided on Noddle's Island, in the elegant mansion there after- wards occupied by Henry Howell Williams. Although himself
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a tenant, the Temples had in times past owned the island. Sir Thomas, who was proprietor in 1667, had been formerly Gov- ernor of Nova Scotia. It is related of him, that once, when on a visit to England, he was presented to Charles II., who com- plained to him that the colonists had usurped his prerogative of coining money. Sir Thomas replied, that they thought it no crime to coin money for their own use, and presented his Majesty some of Master Hull's pieces, on which was a tree. The king inquiring what tree that was, the courtier answered, "The royal oak which protected your Majesty's life," - a reply which charmed the king and caused him to look with more favor on the offending colony. If one of Master Hull's shillings be examined, we are not greatly surprised that his Majesty so readily believed the pine to be an oak.
Ten Hills was the landing-place of Gage's night expedition to seize the powder in the province magazine, in September, 1774. The next day the uprising in Middlesex took place. And on Saturday, the 3d, the soldiers were harnessed to four field-pieces, which they dragged to Boston Neck, and placed in battery there. The Lively frigate, of twenty guns, came to her moorings in the ferry-way between Boston and Charlestown, and the avenues to the doomed town were shut up as effectually by land as they had been by water.
The vicinity of Ten Hills was that chosen by Mike Martin for the robbery of Major Bray. It was near where the old lane leading to the Temple farm-house, and now known as Temple Street, enters the turnpike, that the robber overtook the chaise of his victim. After his condemnation, Martin related, with apparent gusto, that the pistol which he presented at the Major's head was neither loaded nor cocked, but that the latter was terribly frightened and trembled like a leaf. Mrs. Bray tried to conceal her watch, but was assured by the highwayman that he did not rob ladies. Even now the place seems lonesome, and is not the one we should select for an evening promenade.
On a little promontory which overlooks the Mystic the remains of a redoubt erected by Sullivan are still distinct. At
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this point the river makes a westerly bend, so that a hostile flotilla must approach for some distance in the teeth of a raking fire from this redoubt. This was fully proved when the enemy brought their floating batteries within range to attack the work- ing party on Ploughed Hill and enfilade the road. A nine- pounder mounted in this redoubt sunk one of the enemy's bat- teries and disabled the other, while an armed vessel which accompanied them had her foresail shot away, and was obliged to sheer off. The next day (Monday, September 28) the enemy sent a man-of-war into Mystic River, drew some of their forces over from Boston to Charlestown, where they formed a heavy column of attack, and seemed prepared to make a bold push, - as was fully expected in the American camp, - but Bunker Hill was too recent in their memories, and Ploughed Hill had been made much stronger than the position they had carried with so much loss of life on the 17th of June; the combat was declined.
Leaving the redoubt, a hundred yards higher up the hill we find traces of another work, with two of the angles quite clearly defined. The little battery first mentioned is as well preserved as any of the intrenchments made by the left wing of the American army. It is but a slight mound of earth, but ah, how full of glorious memories !
General Sullivan, on first coming to camp, took up his quar- ters at Medford, where Stark and his New Hampshire men were already assembled. In a letter to the Committee of Safety, the general lamented extremely that the New Hamp- shire forces were without a chaplain, and were obliged to attend prayers with the Rhode-Islanders on Prospect Hill. We are ignorant whether the men of New Hampshire required more praying for than the men of Rhode Island, but we fully recog- nize the fact that in those days an army chaplain was not a mere ornamental appendage, dangling at the queue of the staff. General Sullivan was absent from camp in November, 1775, having been sent to Portsmouth on account of the alarm occa- sioned by the burning of Falmouth. He took with him some artillery officers and a company of the rifle regiment. About
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the same time General Lee went to Rhode Island on a similar mission.
Samuel Jaques, a later resident of Ten Hills Farm, is worthy of remembrance as a distinguished agriculturist. Born in 1776, a few weeks after the declaration of formal separation from England, he died in 1859, just at the dawn of a scarcely less momentous convulsion, thus spanning with his own life the greatest epochs of our history.
Colonel Jaques was in habits and manners the type of the English country gentleman. When a resident of Charlestown, he had, like Cradock's men at Mystic Side in 1632, impaled a deer-park. He also kept his hounds, and often wakened the echoes of the neighboring hills with the note of his bugle or the cry of his pack, bringing the drowsy slumberer from his bed by sounds so unwonted. We trust no incredulous reader will be startled at the assertion that the hills of Somerville have re- sounded with the fox-hunter's " tally-ho !"
Colonel Jaques, who acquired his title by long service in the militia, was engaged for a time during the hostilities of 1812 in the defence of the shores of the bay, being stationed at Chelsea in command of a small detachment. He was twenty- eight years a resident of the old Temple Manor, and discharged the duties of hospitality in a manner that did no discredit to the ancient proprietor. The farm was also occupied at one time by Elias Hasket Derby, who stocked it with improved breeds of sheep.
The place has now been much disfigured with excavations, to procure the clay, which is excellent for brickmaking, and that branch of industry has been extensively carried on for many years by the sons of Colonel Jaques. In time a large portion of the soil has been removed, and is, or was, standing in many a noble edifice in the neighboring city, - a gradual but sure process of annexation. The vein of clay, which is traced from Watertown to Lynn, underlies Ten Hills Farm.
Brickmaking was very early pursued by the settlers, one, at least, of the houses they built in the first decade of the set- tlement being still in existence. The size of bricks was regu-
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lated by Charles I., hence the name statute-bricks. The very first vessels which arrived at Salem had bricks stowed under their hatches, which were doubtless used in the erection of some of the big chimney-stacks that still exist there, their in- destructible materials rendering them as useful to-day as when they were originally burnt. In 1745 all the bricks used in reconstructing the works at Louisburg and Annapolis Royal were shipped from Boston to General Amherst. The recent and disastrous examples of Portland, Chicago, and Boston have only confirmed the experience that bricks are more durable than stone. The sun-dried bricks of Nineveh and Babylon are still in existence, while the Roman baths of Caracalla and Titus have withstood the action of the elements far better than the stone of the Coliseum or the marble of the Forum.
Winter Hill was fortified immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, and garrisoned by the commands of Poor, Stark, Reed, Mansfield, and Doolittle. The policy of placing the sol- diers of the same colony together was at first observed, and while Greene on Prospect Hill had his Rhode-Islanders, Sulli- van on Winter Hill quartered in the midst of the men of New Hampshire. Webb's and Hutchinson's regiments were under Sullivan's orders in November, 1775.
This, being the extreme left of the American interior line of defence, was fortified with great assiduity, especially as it covered the land approach to the town of Medford, and, to some extent, the navigation of the Mystic. The principal work was thrown up directly across the road leading over the hill, now Broadway, at the point where the Medford road diverges ; and, except at the northwest angle, where it was entered by the last-named highway, was enclosed on all sides. It was in form an irregular pentagon, with bastions and deep fosse. A breast- work conforming with the present direction of Central Street joined the southwest angle. This plan of redoubt and breast- work was the almost stereotyped form of the American works. A hundred yards in advance of the fort were outworks, in which guards were nightly posted. When Central Street was being made, the remains of the intrenchment were exposed, and
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are also remembered by some of the older people in the vacant land of Mr. Byam on the north side of the road.
Let us take a view of Sullivan's camp and fortress as it was in November, 1775. At eight in the morning the drummers and fifers of all the regiments on the hill assemble in the citadel and beat the troop. The martial sounds are taken up on Prospect Hill, and passed on to Heath at Cambridge. The refrain echoes along the line until it reaches the veteran Thomas at Roxbury, where it is wafted across the waters of the bay to the ears of the king's sentinel on the ramparts of the castle.
The details for pickets and guards are now paraded and inspected by the brave Alexander Scammell, who has followed his general and friend from the law-office at Exeter to be his major of brigade in the Continental service. The camp is now fully astir, and the detachments for fatigue are in motion. Some march to the neighboring forests, where they are em- ployed in cutting wood for fuel and material for fascines. Soon the frosty air is vocal with the blows of their axes. Others are employed in mending the roads, strengthening the works, or deepening the ditches ; still others are busy erecting barracks for the approaching winter. Bustle and preparation have invaded the former solitude of the green slopes, and the beautiful verdure is furrowed with yawning trenches.
There never were such men for building earthworks as the Americans. Fort after fort rose before the astonished vision of the Britons, like the fabled palace of Aladdin. Now Breed's Hill, then Lechmere's Point, and finally Dorchester Heights, showed what workers those Yankees were. Gage was aston- ished, Howe petrified ; both were outgeneralled before Boston.
In fine weather the men off duty engage in a thousand occupations or amusements. Some read, others write, while not a few are cleaning their trusty firelocks or elaborately carv- ing their powder-horns, to be handed down as heirlooms to their children's children.
Until barracks were built, officers and men made for them- selves huts, after the manner described by Mr. Emerson, the general being accommodated in an old house on the hill. The
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officers exchanged visits, attended garrison courts-martial, - which might be held in Nixon's hut or Doolittle's barracks, - or rambled through the adjacent lines. Card-playing, the soldiers' favorite pastime, was strongly discountenanced by the commander-in-chief ; but we believe we should only have to lift the corner of the old sail that served as a door to the huts to see group after group, rebels that they were, paying court to king and queen. At night a bit of tallow candle, stuck in the socket of a bayonet, serves to illuminate the soldier's cabin and prolong his pleasures till the drums at tattoo admonish him that the day is done.
Within the lines a regiment went on duty every night. The tour came round often ; the service was hard. A company was stationed at Medford to prevent the men straggling from camp ; and not a few officers, seduced by the comforts of a clean bed or the witchery of a pair of bright eyes, were in the habit of absenting themselves from camp to sleep at Mystic, as Medford was then called.
There was in each brigade a field-officer of the day. When a colonel mounted guard he was attended by his own surgeon and adjutant. He was in the saddle from troop to retreat, catching, perhaps, a mouthful at the picket, or sharing pot-luck with some comrade while on his rounds. The advanced lines must be visited twice a day, and if there should be an alarm, the officer of the day must be at the threatened point. The post at Ten Hills, the valley redoubts, the detachments at Mystic and the Powder House, were comprised within his charge. He must not sleep or remove his arms during his tour.
Mrs. John Adams, in her letters, has left some admirable portraits of the distinguished characters of the Revolutionary army. Speaking of General Sullivan, she says : -
" I drank coffee one day with General Sullivan upon Winter Hill. He appears to be a man of sense and spirit. His countenance de- notes him of a warm constitution, not to be very suddenly moved, but, when once roused, not very easily lulled; easy and social; well calculated for a military station, as he seems to be possessed of those popular qualities necessary to attach men to him."
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A London paper said, in 1777 : " General Sullivan, taken prisoner by the king's troops, was an attorney, and only laid down the pen for the sword about eight months ago, though now a general." He was found by the Hessians after the disastrous battle of Long Island, secreted in a cornfield ; was searched, and General Washington's orders taken from him. Among the ridiculous stories with which the foreign officers regaled their home correspondents, the Hessian, Heeringen, in de- scribing this affair, says : "John Sullivan is a lawyer, but before has been a footman; he is, however, a man of genius, whom the rebels will very much miss." In the same letter Lord Stirling, who was also made prisoner, is spoken of as an "échappé de famille, who is as much like Lord Granby as one egg is like another." General Putnam, says the same authority, is a butcher by trade. This battle of Long Island was where the Hessians became so terrible to their adversaries. They re- peatedly halted under a heavy fire to dress their lines and advance with Old-World precision. Their officers took care to tell them the rebels would give no quarter, consequently they put to death all who fell into their hands. Some of the Americans were found after the action pinned to trees with bayonets. At Trenton these bugbears were stripped of their lions' skins.
General Sullivan was rather short in stature, but well-made and active. His complexion was dark, his nose prominent, his eye black and piercing. His countenance, as a whole, was har- monious and agreeable.
Scammell had been a schoolmaster and a surveyor before he became Sullivan's confidential clerk. In 1770 he was a mem- ber of the Old Colony Club, the first society in New England to commemorate publicly the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He stood six feet two inches, -just the height of the con- mander-in-chief, - and fought on the hardest fields of the Revolution. Just as final victory was about to crown the efforts of the Americans, Scammell fell at Yorktown, a victim to the ignorance or brutality of a Hessian vidette. When this unlucky event occurred he was in command of a picked corps of light infantry.
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There are two actors in the same great drama of which we are endeavoring to rearrange the scenes, whose acquaintance prob- ably begun here, and whose fates long after became interwoven. These two were James Wilkinson and Aaron Burr. Both joined the army at Cambridge as volunteers in 1775. Washington gave the former, who first united himself with Thompson's rifle- corps, a captaincy in Reed's regiment. At the time of this appointment he was a member of General Greene's military family on Prospect Hill, and did not, therefore, join his regi- ment until he reached New York. Wilkinson took part in the possession of Cobble Hill, Lechmere's Point, and Dorchester Heights, and has recorded his opinion that Howe might have forced Washington's lines at almost any time prior to January, 1776.
As is well known, Wilkinson became Gates's adjutant-gen- eral in the campaign against Burgoyne, and was the bearer of the official despatches of the surrender to Congress. He was implicated in the Conway cabal, but became estranged from Gates, and a challenge passed between them. Wilkinson says that Gates came to him at the last moment with an apology, and that the duel did not take place, but it was currently re- ported in the army to the contrary. A general officer, writing from White Plains, September, 1778, says : "General Gates fought a duel with Mr. Wilkinson. General Gates's pistols would not give fire, but flashed twice. Wilkinson's gave fire, but the balls did not take effect." "Wilky," as he was called in the army, was elegant in person and manners.
Burr and Matthias Ogden were recommended to Sullivan by Gates in November, 1775, for positions, in reward for past ser- vices. Both accompanied Arnold to Quebec. Colonel Burr's eventful career is familiar. His eye was remarkably piercing and brilliant. With talents equal to any position, he seems to have been formed by nature for a conspirator. The courtliness of his manner and address gave him a fatal ascendency over both sexes, of which he did not scruple to avail himself. The death of Hamilton and the ruin of Blennerhassett painfully illustrate the career of Aaron Burr.
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