USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 28
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
THE OLD ELM.
This tree has been standing here for an unknown period. It is believed to have existed before the settlement of Boston being full grown in 1722. Exhibited marks of old age in 1792, and was nearly destroyed by a storm in 1832. Protected by an Iron Enclosure in 1854. J. V. C. Smith, Mayor.
It should be mentioned, however, that a tradition has been current which assigns to Captain Daniel Henchman - the same who commanded a company of foot from Boston, in King Philip's war, and was also captain of the Ancient and Honora- ble Artillery Company in 1676 -the honor of planting the Great Elm, six years earlier. This, if true, would make the elm more than two hundred years old. But the tree could hardly have attained, in fifty-two years, to the size represented on the earliest plan of the town. It is also worthy of remark that the age of Liberty Tree, planted only sixteen years after the settlement, was definitely known and established by the Sons of Liberty, while we nowhere meet with any contempo- rary account of the planting of the Great Elm.
The shooting of Matoonas, one of King Philip's sagamores, is chronicled in 1656. He was tied to a tree, - perhaps this very elm, - and met death with the stoical indifference of his race.
There was, formerly, on the northerly side of the Great Elm, a cavity large enough to serve as a hiding-place for boys. This being filled with clay and covered with canvas, in process of time was closed up by the natural action of the tree. Known a hundred years ago as The Great Tree, and appearing full- grown a century and a half gone by, this venerable tree may, without dispute, claim to be the oldest inhabitant of Boston.
Among the events with which the history of the Common is connected is the duel fought near the Powder House, July 3,
332
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
1728, at between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. Both the combatants were young men of the first respectability ; their names, Benjamin Woodbridge and Henry Phillips. They fought with swords, the former being thrust through the body, while his adversary received some slight wounds. Phillips was hurried away on board the Sheerness man-of-war, then lying in the harbor, by his brother Gillam Phillips, Peter Faneuil, and some others. The body of the unfortunate Woodbridge was found the next morning lying near the scene of the affray. Mr. Sargent, better known as the "Sexton of the Old School," has given some interesting details of this affair. The Faneuils and Phillipses were connected by marriage, which accounts for the agency of Peter Faneuil in Henry Phillips's escape. Young Woodbridge lies in the Granary Burying-Ground.
This duel gave rise to a new law, which decreed that the offender, upon conviction, should " be carried publicly in a cart to the gallows, with a rope about his neck, and set on the gal- lows an hour, then to be imprisoned twelve months without bail." Any person killed in a duel was denied "Christian Burial," and interred "near the usual place of public execution with a stake drove through the body." Death was the penalty meted out to the survivor with the same vindictive pursuit of the senseless remains.
When the British troops were first stationed in the town, they had a hospital at the bottom of the Common ; it took fire and was nearly consumed in May, 1769. There was also, at a later period, a guard-house in the same locality.
Public executions have occurred at the bottom of the Com- mon, at or near the foot of Beacon Street, the criminals being hastily buried in the loose gravel of the beach. So carelessly was this performed that an eyewitness relates that he has seen the corpse of one victim disinterred by the sea, with the mark of the hangman's noose still visible.
The Mill-Dam, or Western Avenue, is fast losing its distinc- tive features of yore, and shaping itself into a boulevard, bor- dered in its whole extent by residences. It was the greatest undertaking in its day Boston had witnessed ; we may even
333
TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
doubt whether the far-seeing Mr. Cotting perceived it to be the first step towards converting the Back Bay into terra firma.
The work was begun in 1818 by the Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation, but Mr. Cotting did not live to see its com- pletion, Colonel Loammi Baldwin succeeding him as engineer. In our Introduction we have given a very brief account of this thoroughfare. Laborers were brought from Ireland specially to be employed on it, and it was opened with due ceremony. A cavalcade of citizens crossed from the Brookline shore, and were received by the inhabitants on the Boston side.
Many recollect the entrance into the city of the Massachu- setts Volunteers after the Mexican war. They were almost literally in rags, and it was not until the charitable hands of Boston ladies had supplied needful clothing that the regiment was able to march into town. Their appearance indicated little of the "pomp and circumstance," but much of the hard usage and bad rations, of glorious war.
We may now pursue our way up the ascent of Beacon Street and its neighboring mall. The expense of this mall was de- frayed from a fund raised by subscription to erect fortifications during the war of 1812, then remaining in the hands of the town officers.
" Here aged trees cathedral walks compose, And mount the hill in venerable rows."
The name of Beacon Street was applied very early to that portion north and east of the State House, and to the westerly part before the Revolution. At this time there were not more than three houses between Charles Street and the upper end of the Common, the Joy house, when built, making the fourth. The rest of the hill was covered with small cedars and native shrubbery, with here and there a cow-path, through which the herds ranged unmolested.
The home of Prescott, the eminent historian, was at 55 Beacon Street. A deeper interest attaches to the labors of the gifted author on account of his partial blindness, caused by an injury to his eye while at Harvard. All efforts both at home and abroad failed to improve his sight, and his literary work had
334
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
to be performed with the aid of an amanuensis, though he occasionally wrote with a stylus on a writing-frame prepared ex- pressly for him. No library can be called complete that does not contain " Ferdinand and Isabella," "The Conquest of Mexico," "Peru," and "Charles the Fifth." He died before completing his Philip II., which he had intended to make his greatest work. Mr. Prescott was the grandson of the old soldier of Louisburg and Bunker Hill, and by a coincidence married a granddaughter of that Captain Linzee who com- manded the Falcon at the battle just named. He was a D. C. L. of Old Oxford, and member of many of the learned societies of Europe and America.
1
The mansion of the late David Sears, now a club house, is rendered interesting as the site of the home of John S. Copley, the distinguished American painter. Copley owned the greatest estate in Boston, embracing eleven acres, in which were included the reserved six acres of Blackstone. Walnut Street was the eastern boundary, Pinckney Street its northern, and the bay its westerly limit. On the northwest corner of the tract stood the old Powder House to which we have referred. It was built in 1774, remote from the position of the former magazine near the Great Tree, where it had been exposed to accidents on days of public rejoicing. The walls were of Braintree granite, seven feet thick, with bomb-proof arch. It was surrounded by pali- sades, and was estimated to contain, when full, a thousand bar- rels of powder. Near it was a watch-house.
Copley was in a certain sense a pupil of Smibert, the works of that artist having been his first studies. He married a daughter of Richard Clarke, a rich merchant, and one of the obnoxious tea-consignees. The painter acted for the consign- ees in one of the conferences with the town committee. The Clarkes had a store in King Street, and lived in the Cooke mansion, previously described, in School Street. The house was visited by a mob, and the Clarkes with the other con- signees retired for safety to the Castle.
In the old two-story house which formerly stood here Cop- ley painted some of his best pictures, probably those of Han-
1
1
335
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
cock and Adams among the number. Here also Charles W. Peale, father of Rembrandt Peale, studied with Copley in 1768. In 1774, leaving his family in Boston, Copley went to England, where he at once gained an advanced rank among the
THE SEARS ESTATE.
British painters. His Death of Lord Chatham established his fame, and his large picture of the Siege and Relief of Gibraltar was hung in Guildhall, London. He died suddenly in 1813.
Dunlap relates that Copley's death was thought to have been hastened by the following circumstance : -
" Some American speculator who was acquainted with the superb situation of Copley's house in Boston, overlooking the beautiful green and parade called the Common, made an offer to the painter for the purchase, which, in comparison to the value of property in former days in Boston, seemed enormous. Copley eagerly closed
336
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
with him, and sold the property for a song compared with its real value. Shortly after, he, learning it was worth twenty times the money he had sold it for, tried to undo the bargain, and sent his lawyer son to Boston for the purpose, but it was too late."
The following is the history of this transaction. When Colonel William Hull was in England, he bought of Copley all his tract of land west of the Beacon Hill. About the same time Gardiner Greene, Copley's son-in-law and agent, sold the same property to Harrison Gray Otis and Jonathan Mason. The other claimants at length compromised with Colonel Hull, and the conveyance was made by the younger Copley in 1796, when he came to the United States. The society of the future Chancellor of Great Britain was much courted during his visit to Boston and New York. The elder Copley never returned to his native city.
Trumbull describes Copley as an elegant-looking man, dressed in fine maroon cloth coat with gilt buttons. Besides being a painter, Copley was an engraver, having executed a portrait of Rev. William Welsteed of Boston. This knowledge served him in good stead in London. Copley, with West, was one of Trumbull's sureties when the latter was thrown into prison in London.
Lord Lyndhurst said his father was his own master, and entirely devoted to his art to the last year of his life, and that he never saw a decent picture, except his own, until he was thirty. Sully's opinion of Copley was that he was equal "in all respects but one to West ; he had not so great despatch, but then he was more correct, and did not so often repeat him- self."
The adverse criticism upon Copley's pictures was that they were crude in coloring, and wanted ease and naturalness. His historical paintings were a collection of portraits without action, but his draperies were considered exquisite. Dr. Dibdin con- sidered his portraits admirable, but too stiff and stately. A catalogue of the existing works of this eminent native artist is now being prepared by Mr. Augustus T. Perkins of Boston.
General Knox lived in the Copley House, after the war, for
337
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
a short time. The old mansion fronted Beacon Street, and had fine grounds and a stable attached.
David Sears inherited a large fortune from his father, and, go where you will in Boston, you will find monuments of his wealth and enterprise. He commanded the Cadets previous to the war of 1812, as well as since that time. His mansion was long the admiration of the town. Some beautiful panels in the front were executed by Willard.
Harrison Gray Otis erected a handsome residence next west of the Sears estate ; Judge Cushing's adjoined it on the east, and was the second of the three houses mentioned as consti- tuting Beacon Street.
The house standing at the corner of Walnut Street was the first built of brick on Beacon Street. It was erected in 1804 by Hon. John Phillips, first Mayor of Boston, and father of Wendell Phillips, the celebrated antislavery orator of Boston. His maiden speech on this question was made in Faneuil Hall in 1837, twenty-four years before the antagonism between the North and South culminated in civil war. Unlike most re- formers, he has lived to see the triumph of the principles to which he devoted the best years of his life. Mr. Phillips pos- sesses the natural gift of eloquence, and stands hardly rivalled as a speaker by any contemporary.
This mansion, now considerably altered in its exterior ap- pearance, was next the residence of Thomas L. Winthrop, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts from 1826- 32, who died in 1841. He was father of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, who has been prominently connected with most of the societies for the advancement of science, art, and literature, and whose ser- vices in many fields of usefulness are fully acknowledged by his fellow-citizens. Mr. Winthrop's mother was a daughter of Sir John Temple, and he is, therefore, by this marriage, a great-grandson of Governor Bowdoin. The statue to Franklin, in School Street, is the product of his suggestion ; and, at its inauguration, he delivered an address on the life and character of the great Bostonian.
15
V
338
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
On the opposite corner of Walnut Street was the residence of B. P. Homer, a highly respected merchant. In the rear of Mr. Homer's, on Walnut Street, was the house in which Dr. George Parkman lived at the time of his murder by Web- ster in 1849.
Joy Street recalls the name and estate of Dr. John Joy, ex- tending between this thoroughfare and Walnut Street, and Beacon and Mt. Vernon Streets. Dr. Joy was an apothecary in Washington Street, at the corner of Spring Lane. It is related that his wife was much averse to a removal so far out of town as Beacon Street then was, and exacted a promise from the Doctor to return into the town at no distant day. In that day a residence in Williams Court was considered far more eligible. The doctor built a wooden house on the hill back from Beacon Street, which was ultimately removed to South Boston Point.
Next to the corner of Joy Street lived Samuel T. Armstrong, another of Boston's chief magistrates, of whose improvement of the Common we have recited several instances. He was the son of the Revolutionary soldier, John Armstrong. Mr. Arm- strong was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts in 1836. He had in former years been a bookseller in State Street, at the corner of Flagg Alley, - the firm being Belcher and Armstrong, - and then at No. 50 in Old Cornhill, the site of Paul Revere's shop. This vicinity took the name of Booksellers' Row, from the number of that trade there congregated.
Before you come to the grounds of the State House, two freestone residences attract your notice. These showy edifices have displaced one of the noblest private mansions of the Colo- nial period, built by Thomas Hancock in 1737, and given to his nephew, the governor, by his aunt, Lydia Hancock. The house long remained a unique feature of the surroundings of the Common, until it became too antiquated for modern ideas, and too valuable. The front of the estate embraced from Mt. Vernon Street, given to the town by the governor, to Joy Street, formerly Clapboard, and since Belknap Street. All of the State House and part of the Reservoir ground, including Han-
339
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
cock Avenue, Mt. Vernon Place, and a part of Hancock Street, in which was situated his nursery, belonged to the Hancocks. The site of the State House was Hancock's pasture ; and gardens and or- chards surrounded this truly princely mansion.
The building was of stone, built in the sub- stantial manner favored VANNS by the wealthier Bos- tonians. The walls were massive. A bal- K BURN-MALLDEY cony projected over the entrance - door, upon HANCOCK MANSION. which opened a large window of the second story. The cor- ners and window-openings were ornamented with Braintree stone, and the tiled roof was surmounted by a balustrade. Dor- mer windows jutted out from the roof, from which might be obtained a view as beautiful as extensive. A low stone wall protected the grounds from the street, on which was placed a light wooden fence, with gate-posts of the same material. A paved walk and a dozen stone steps conducted to the mansion, situated on rising ground at a little distance back from the street. Before the door was a wide stone slab, worn by the feet of the distinguished inhabitant and his illustrious guests. A wooden hall, designed for festive occasions, sixty feet in length, was joined to the northern wing ; it was afterwards re- moved to Allen Street.
"As you entered the governor's mansion, to the right was the drawing or reception room, with furniture of bird's-eye maple cov- ered with rich damask. Out of this opened the dining-hall referred to, in which Hancock gave the famous breakfast to Admiral D'Estaing and his officers. Opposite this was a smaller apartment, the usual dining-hall of the family ; next adjoining were the china-room and offices, with coach-house and barn behind.
340
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
" At the left of the entrance was a second saloon, or family draw- ing-room, the walls covered with crimson paper. The upper and lower halls were hung with pictures of game, hunting-scenes, and other subjects. Passing through this hall, another flight of steps led through the garden to a small summer-house close to Mt. Vernon Street. The grounds were laid out in ornamental flower-beds bor- dered with box ; box-trees of large size, with a great variety of fruit, among which were several immense mulberry-trees, dotted the garden."
Such is the description given by Miss Eliza G. Gardner, many years an inmate of the Hancock House.
This was the house pillaged by the soldiers about the time of the battle of Lexington, who also broke down and mutilated the fences, until, on complaint of the selectmen, General Gage sent Percy to occupy it. It is also stated that in the previous month of March British officers had set an example to the men by hacking the fences with their swords, breaking windows, etc. A few days afterwards Hancock was again intruded upon by his red-coated neighbors, who refused to retire from his premises at his request, and mockingly told him his possessions would soon be theirs.
At this time Gage had an order from the king for Hancock's apprehension, but he feared to meet the issue ; a second order directed him to hang the patriot. The wrath against Hancock escaped in a variety of ways more harmless. One of the effu- sions indited to the patriot reads thus : -
" As for their king, John Hancock, And Adams, if they 're taken, Their heads for signs shall hang up high Upon that Hill called Beacon."
The Hancock House became the quarters of General Clinton while he remained in Boston ; he took command at Charles- town, September, 1775. Both house and stables were in part- occupied by the wounded from Bunker Hill. The house, how- ever, received no important injury during the occupation, the furniture showing but little signs of ill-usage, and the pictures remaining untouched.
In this house Hancock had entertained D'Estaing in 1778,
1
(
8
0
P
u
341
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
Lafayette in 1781, Washington in 1789, Brissot, chief of the Girondists, and, in later times, Lords Stanley and. Wortley, and Labouchière and Bougainville.
D'Estaing rested under a cloud for his desertion of our forces in Rhode Island, but was, nevertheless, hospitably entertained by Hancock. About forty of the French officers dined every day at the governor's table, for he was a generous host. On one occasion an unusual number assembled to partake of the gov- ernor's viands, when, in the language of Madam Hancock, " the Common was bedizened with lace." The cooks were driven to despair, and the exigency was only met by milking the cows on the Common. We do not learn whether this was acceptable to the owners of the cows. The Count requited the governor's entertainments by a grand dinner on board his ship. The governor's lady, seated near her host, was requested to pull a cord, which was the signal for a discharge of all the guns of the squadron. The good dame confessed herself surprised at this coup de théâtre.
Brissot was astonished to find the governor in friendly con- verse with "a hatter" (Nathaniel Balch). Balch was a great favorite of the governor's. He was a "fellow of infinite jest," majestic in appearance, benevolent, and of sterling worth. His witticisms never failed "to set the table in a roar." Loring relates that when Hancock had occasion to go into the district of Maine on an official visit, he was attended by Hon. Azor Orne of his council, and his old friend Balch. Their arrival at Portsmouth, N. H., was thus humorously announced : -
"On Thursday last, arrived in this town, Nathaniel Balch, Esq., accompanied by His Excellency John Hancock, and the Hon. Azor Orne."
When Hancock was dying he called his old friend Balch to his bedside, and dictated to him the minutes of his will, in which he expressly gave his mansion-house to the Common- wealth. Death intervened before this intention could be carried out.
A strong effort was made to save this old New England mon- ument, but without avail. It was proposed by Governor Banks,
342
LANDMARKS OF BOSTON.
in 1859, that the Commonwealth should purchase it, and the heirs offered it at a low valuation. A joint committee of the Legislature reported favorably upon the measure, but it met with strong opposition from the rural districts, and was defeated. Suggestions were offered to make it the residence of the gov- ernors, or a museum for the collection of Revolutionary relics. The house was in excellent preservation, the interior wood-work being sound as when the halls echoed to the tread of the old governor. The chamber of Lafayette remained as when he slept in it ; the apartment in which Hancock died was intact ; the audience-hall was the same in which Washington, D'Estaing, Brissot, the Percy, and many more had stood ; and, finally, the entrance-hall, in which for eight days the dead patriot lay in state, opened upon the broad staircase as in the time of old Thomas and Lydia Hancock.
State action failing, some efforts were made by the city, in 1863, to secure the relics of the building itself. The heirs offered the mansion, with the pictures and some other objects of historical interest, as a free gift, with the design of preserv- ing it as a memento of Colonial and Revolutionary history. It was proposed to take it down and erect it anew on some other site. Few will regret that such an historical anachronism was not committed. The building was pulled down, and with it disappeared the only monument to the memory of John Han- cock.
Governor Hancock entered the Latin School in 1745. He went to England when quite young, where he witnessed the coronation of the monarch who afterwards set a price upon his head. President of the Provincial Congress in 1774, of the Continental Congress in 1776, he first affixed his bold auto- graph to the Declaration of Independence, and it thus circu- lated upon the floor of Congress. We find him acting as moderator at a town-meeting in 1778, the same year he was appointed major-general of the Massachusetts militia. We have seen him presiding over and directing the action of the conven- tion which ratified the Federal Constitution, and at the peace, the choice of the people of his native State as their chief
:
343
A TOUR ROUND THE COMMON.
magistrate. Hancock died sincerely regretted. If he had some conspicuous faults, they were more than counterbalanced by his many noble qualities.
Hancock was tall, nearly six feet, and thin. In later years he stooped a little, and was a martyr to the gout. In his attire he was a type of the fine gentleman of his day, - a scarlet coat, richly embroidered, with ruffles of the finest linen, being his ordinary dress.
We give herewith a fac-simile of the much-admired auto- graph of Governor Hancock appended to a ticket of the lottery authorized by law for the rebuilding of Faneuil Hall after the fire of 1761. The engraving is of the exact size of the original.
BOSTON June 1765. K
Faneuil-Hall LOTTERY, No. Five. I HE Poffeffor of this Ticket (No 3805) ) is intitled to any Prize drawo againft faid Number. in a LOTTERY granted by an Act of the General Court of the Province of the Mafachufetts- Bay, for Rebuilding FANEUIL-HALL ; subject to so Deduction. D n Hand
0 5Dollar
FANEUIL HALL LOTTERY TICKET.
We have reached the highest point of the city, and can leisurely contemplate the immense pile of the State House, with its glistening dome, which fitly crowns the view of Bos- ton as you approach by land or water. It is another monument to the genius of Charles Bulfinch, by whom it was designed. Were we to ascend to the cupola we should see a panorama spread before us which even the famed Neapolitan seaport can hardly surpass. But of Old Boston, as it stood when the first Legislature assembled in the Capitol, we should find but little remaining.
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.