USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 33
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The Lion Tavern estate was called the Melodeon by the Handel and Haydn Society, in place of which we now have the splendid structure of the same name. The first Melodeon was occupied by Rev. Theodore Parker's society on Sundays. Both societies removed later to Music Hall in Winter Street.
In 1835 the Lion Tavern became the property of Mr. James Raymond, and was immediately transformed into an amphi- theatre, under the name of the Lion Theatre. It opened in January, 1836, with a comedy by Buckstone, supplemented by equestrian performances. Mr. J. B. Booth appeared at this theatre in May, 1836. It passed through varying fortunes until 1844, when, after it had been rechristened the Melodeon, Mr. Macready and Miss Cushman appeared here for a short season. Jenny Lind, Sontag, and Alboni, all gave concerts at the Melodeon.
There seems to have been a time in the history of Boston when the settlers were called upon to wage a war of extermina- tion against a domestic enemy, one which they had undoubtedly brought among themselves. Our readers have heard of a bounty for the scalps of savages, wolves' ears, and bears' claws, but never perhaps of a price being set upon rats, as the following
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extract from the town records, selected from a number of the same description, will show was once the case : -
" On the first day of January, 1743, the Selectmen gave a certifi- cate to the Province Treasurer, that they had paid out of the Town Stock to sundry persons for 9280 Rats killed in or near the Town, since the last day of August, £ 154. 138 4ª old tenor - and desired him to pay the same to Joseph Wadsworth Esqr., Town Treasurer."
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CHAPTER XIV.
LIBERTY TREE AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
Liberty Tree. - Its History. - Hanover Square. - Liberty Hall. - Hanging in Effigy. - Auchmuty's Lane. - The Old Suffolk Bench and Bar. - Boylston Market. - Charles Matthews. - James E. Murdoch. - Peggy Moore's. - Washington Bank. - Beach Street Museum. - Essex Street. - Rainsford's Lane. - Harrison Avenue. - Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin. - Gen- eral John Coffin. - Anecdote of Admiral Coffin. - Sir Thomas Aston Coffin. - Henry Bass. - Old Distill-houses. - Manufacture of Rum. - Gilbert Stuart, - Anecdotes of. - First Glass Works. - Disappearance of Trees. - Early Planting of Trees. - Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe. - South Cove. - Hollis Street. - Colonel John Crane. - General Ebenezer Stevens. - Mather Byles, - Anecdotes of. - Hollis Street Church. - Fire of 1787.
L AFAYETTE said, when in Boston, "The world should never forget the spot where once stood Liberty Tree, so famous in your annals." It has been the care of David Sears that this injunction should not fall to the ground unheeded.
In the wall of the building at the southeast corner of Essex Street, at its junction with- Washington, we see a handsome freestone bas-relief, representing a tree with wide-spreading branches. This memorial is placed directly over the spot where stood the famed Liberty Tree. An inscription informs us that it commemorates : -
Liberty 1776 Law and Order Sons of Liberty 1766 Independence of their country 1776.
The open space at the four corners of Washington, Essex, and Boylston Streets was once known as Hanover Square, from the royal house of Hanover, and sometimes as the Elm Neigh- borhood, from the magnificent elms with which it was environed. It was one of the finest of these that obtained the name of Lib- erty Tree, from its being used on the first occasion of resistance to the obnoxious Stamp Act. In 1774 this tree, with another,
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stood in the enclosure of an old-fashioned dwelling at the his- toric corner ; in 1766, when the repeal of the Stamp Act took place, a large copper plate was fastened to the tree inscribed in golden characters : -
" This tree was planted in the year 1646, and pruned by order of the Sons of Liberty, Feb. 14th, 1766."
In August, 1775, the name of Liberty having become offen- sive to the tories and their British allies, the tree was cut down by a party led by one Job Williams. " Armed with axes, they made a furious attack upon it. After a long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing, and foaming, with malice diabolical, they cut down a tree because it bore the name of Liberty." * Some idea of the size of the tree may be formed from the fact that it made fourteen cords of wood. The jesting at the expense of the Sons of Liberty had a sorry conclusion ; one of the soldiers, in at- tempting to remove a limb, fell to the pavement and was killed.
The ground immedi- ately about Liberty Tree was popularly known as Liberty Hall. In August, 1767, a flagstaff had been erected, which went through and extended LIBERTY TREE. above its highest branches. A flag hoisted upon this staff was the signal for the assembling of the Sons of Liberty for action. Captain Mackintosh, the last captain of the Popes, was the first captain-general of Liberty Tree, and had charge of the illuminations, hanging of effigies, etc.
* Essex Gazette, 1775.
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After the old war was over a liberty-pole was erected on the stump of the tree, the latter long serving as a point of direction known as Liberty Stump. A second pole was placed in posi- tion on the 2d July, 1826. It was intended to have been raised during the visit of Lafayette in 1825, and the following lines were written by Judge Dawes : -
" Of high renown, here grew the Tree, The ELM so dear to LIBERTY ; Your sires, beneath its sacred shade, To Freedom early homage paid. This day with filial awe surround Its root, that sanctifies the ground,
And by your fathers' spirits swear, The rights they left you 'll not impair."
Governor Bernard, writing to Lord Hillsborough under date of June 18, 1768, gives the following account of Liberty Tree : -
" Your Lordship must know that Liberty tree is a large old Elm in the High Street, upon which the effigies were hung in the time of the Stamp Act, and from whence the mobs at that time made their parades. It has since been adorned with an inscription, and has obtained the name of Liberty Tree, as the ground under it has that of Liberty Hall. In August last, just before the commencement of the present troubles, they erected a flagstaff, which went through the tree, and a good deal above the top of the tree. Upon this they hoist a flag as a signal for the Sons of Liberty, as they are called. I gave my Lord Shelburne an account of this erection at the time it was made. This tree has often put me in mind of Jack Cade's Oak of Reformation."
Liberty Tree Tavern in 1833 occupied the spot where once Liberty Tree stood. It was kept by G. Cummings. In its im- mediate vicinity and opposite the Boylston Market was Lafay- ette Hotel, built in 1824, and kept by S. Haskell in the year above mentioned.
The Sons of Liberty adopted the name given them by Colonel Barré in a speech in Parliament, in which he took occasion thus to characterize those who evinced a disposition to resist the oppressive measures of the Ministry. Under the branches of Liberty Tree that resistance first showed itself by public acts.
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At daybreak on the 14th August, 1765, nearly ten years before active hostilities broke out, an effigy of Mr. Oliver, the Stamp officer, and a boot, with the Devil peeping out of it, - an allusion to Lord Bute, - were discovered hanging from Liberty Tree. The images remained hanging all day, and were visited by great numbers of people, both from the town and the neighboring country. Business was almost suspended. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson ordered the sheriff to take the figures down, but he was obliged to admit that he dared not do so.
As the day closed in the effigies were taken down, placed upon a bier, and, followed by several thousand people of every class and condition, proceeded first to the Town House, and from thence to the supposed office of the Stamp Master, as has been detailed in that connection. With materials obtained from the ruins of the building, the procession moved to Fort Hill, where a bonfire was lighted and the effigies consumed in full view of Mr. Oliver's house. Governor Bernard and council were in session in the Town House when the procession passed through it, as the lower floor of the building left open for public promenade permitted them to do. In the attacks which fol- lowed upon the houses of the secretary, lieutenant-governor, and officers of the admiralty, Mackintosh appears to have been the leader. In these proceedings the records of the court of vice-admiralty were destroyed, - an irreparable loss to the prov- ince and to history. Mackintosh was arrested, but immediately released on the demand of a number of persons of character and property.
Mr. Oliver now publicly declared his intention of resigning, and when the stamps arrived in Boston in September they were sent to Castle William. In November there was another hang- ing in effigy of two of the king's advisers. The anniversary of Pope Day was celebrated by a union of the rival factions, who met in amity and refreshed themselves under Liberty Tree before proceeding to Copp's Hill, as was customary. But the greatest act which occurred under this famous tree was the public declaration of Secretary Oliver that he would not in any
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way, by himself or by deputy, perform the duties of stamp master. The Secretary, desirous of less publicity, had requested that the ceremony might take place at the Town House, but the "Sons" had determined that the "Tree " was the proper place, and Mr. Oliver presented himself there. Besides this declaration, subscribed to before Richard Dana, justice of the peace, Mr. Oliver fully recanted his sentiments in favor of the Stamp Act, and desired the people no longer to look upon him as an enemy, but as a friend, - a piece of duplicity fully exposed by the discovery of his correspondence on the subject.
On the 14th February, 1766, the tree was pruned under the direction of skillful persons, and on the 20th the plate was attached. On this day the ceremony of burning stamped papers, and the effigies of Bute and Grenville, took place at the gallows on the Neck, the Sons returning to Hanover Square, where they drank his Majesty's health and other toasts expressive of their loyalty to the throne.
From this time all measures of public concern were discussed by the Sons of Liberty under the umbrageous shelter of their adored tree. The affair of Hancock's sloop, the arrival of the troops, the Non-importation Act, each received the attention they merited. On the 14th August, 1769, anniversary of the first Stamp Act proceedings, and " the day of the Union and firmly combined Association of the Sons of Liberty in this Province," there was a great assembly under Liberty Tree. Many came from great distances. Reed and Dickinson (a brother of John Dickinson) were present from Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph was expected, but did not come. The British flag was hoisted over the tree, and, after drinking fourteen toasts, the meeting adjourned to Robinson's Tavern, Dorchester, known also as the sign of the Liberty Tree, where the day was passed in festivity and mirth. John Adams was present, and has left an account of the gathering, into which we should not have to look in vain for Samuel Adams, Otis, and their com- patriots.
After the establishment of the troops in Boston the necessity
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for secrecy in their movements compelled the patriots to resort to the clubs for conference. The tree, however, had borne its part in the acts preliminary to the great conflict which ensued, and to pilgrims to the shrines of American history the spot where it once stood must ever possess an interest second to no other in this historic city.
" The tree their own hands had to liberty reared They lived to behold growing strong and revered ; With transport then cried, . Now our wishes we gain, For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain.'
In freedom we 're born, and in freedom we 'll live ;
Our purses are ready, - Steady, friends, steady ; -
Not as slaves, but as freemen, our money we 'll give."
Samuel Adams, a namesake of the Revolutionary patriot and an old resident of North End, had in his possession until his death, in 1855, a flag which was used on the liberty-pole prior to the Revolution, and which he displayed on public occasions with great satisfaction. Some services which he per- formed on the patriots' side, in which he sustained losses, pro- cured him a small appropriation from the State.
The hanging of effigies appears to have originated in England in 1763. This was at Honiton, in Devonshire, famous for its lace manufacture, two years before the exhibitions in Boston from the limbs of Liberty Tree. A tax having been levied upon cider, the effigy of the minister concerned in it was sus- pended from an apple-tree that grew over the road, with the following lines affixed to it : -
" Behold the man who made the yoke Which doth Old England's sons provoke, And now he hangs upon a tree, An emblem of our liberty."
Essex Street was the line of division between old Newbury and Orange Streets. Newbury reached to Winter Street, while Orange conducted from the fortifications on the Neck into town ; its name was no doubt given in honor of the Prince of Orange. Essex Street, which was named in 1708, was also called Auch- muty's Lane, for the family so distinguished in the history of the old Suffolk Bar.
Z
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The elder Robert Auchmuty was a barrister during the ad- ministration of Belcher and Shirley, and in his latter years judge- advocate of the Court of Admiralty.
The younger Auchmuty was judge of the same court when the Revolution began. His associates at the bar were Read, Pratt, Gridley, Trowbridge, Adams, Otis, the gifted Thacher, and the brilliant Quincy. He was born in Boston, and assisted Adams and Quincy in the defence of Captain Preston, for his participation in the massacre in King Street. His residence was in School Street, next the old Extinguisher Engine-house. A nephew, Sir Samuel Auchmuty, born in New York, fought against his countrymen in the service of King George.
Benjamin Pratt, afterwards chief justice of New York, mar- ried a daughter of the old Judge Auchmuty. He was a small, thin man, and from the loss of a limb was obliged to use crutches. It was of him that John Adams said " that he had looked with wonder to see such a little body hung upon two sticks send forth such eloquence and displays of mind." Pratt's office was in the second house north of the corner of Court Street in Old Cornhill, where Gould and Lincoln's bookstore now is ; his country-seat was on Milton Hill.
Oxenbridge Thacher's office was opposite the south door of the Old State House. Sampson Salter Blowers, eminent at the same bar, lived in Southack's Court (Howard Street). Gridley, with whom James Otis studied, lived in a house next north of Cornhill Square. John Adams's office was in a house next above William Minot's, which was on Court Street, opposite
the Court House, where now stands Minot's Building. Read built and lived in the house described as Mr. Minot's. Cazneau lived in a house next east of the Court House. Chief Justice Dana's father lived at the corner of Wilson's Lane. John Quincy Adams's office was in Court Street.
Before the Revolution eight dollars was the fee in an impor- tant cause, five dollars was the limit for a jury argument, two dollars for a continuance. Then the lawyers went the circuits with the judges. The courtesy and dignity which distinguished the intercourse between bench and bar did not continue under
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the new order of things, if we may credit Fisher Ames, who, in allusion to the austerity of the court, supposed to be Judge Paine, and the manners of the attorneys, remarked, that a lawyer should go into court with a club in one hand and a speaking-trumpet in the other. Chief Justice Parsons and Judge Sedgwick were the last barristers who sat upon the bench. Perez Morton and Judge Wetmore were the last sur- vivors who had attained the degree.
Boylston Market, when opened to the public in 1810, was considered far out of town. It was named to honor the benev- olent and philanthropic Ward Nicholas Boylston, a descend- ant of that Dr. Zabdiel Boylston so famous in the history of inoculation. The parties interested in the movement met at the Exchange Coffee House on the 17th of January, 1899, when their arrangements were perfected. John Quincy Adams, who then lived in Boylston Street, was much interested in the new market, and made a brief address at the laying of the corner-stone. The building was designed by Bulfinch, and Mr. Boylston presented the clock. In 1870 the solid brick struc- ture was moved back from the street eleven feet without disturb- ing the occupants. Before the erection of this market-house, Faneuil Hall Market was the principal source of supply for the inhabitants of this remote quarter.
Boylston Hall, over the market - which has also been known as Pantheon Hall and Adams Hall-is associated with a variety of musical, theatrical, and miscellaneous entertainments. It was occupied by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1817, the year after their incorporation, and used by them for their mu- sical exhibitions. In 1818 Incledon and Phillips, the cele- brated vocalists, assisted at their performances. The celebrated Charles Matthews gave his "Trip to Paris " here in 1822, after the close of his engagement at the old theatre, as Mr. Clapp says, "to meet the wants of those holy puritans who would not visit the theatre to see an entertainment which they patro- nized in a hall." Mr. Buckingham, editor of the Galaxy, char- acterized the performance as low and vulgar, for which and other strong expressions Matthews commenced an action for
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damages ; the suit never came to trial. A theatre was also established here by Wyzeman Marshall, and the since much- admired and successful actor Murdoch conducted at one time a gymnasium and school of elocution in Boylston Hall. Added to these, it was used by several religious societies prior to its present occupation as an armory.
Upon this spot once stood the tavern of "Peggy " Moore. The vicinity was the usual halting-place for the country people coming into town with their garden produce. Then ox-teams were the rule, few farmers having horses, and the neighbor- hood of Peggy Moore's was usually a scene of plenty and of jollity. From the shrewdness with which barter was carried on, the place was dubbed "shaving corner," and among the keen blades who trafficked on this exchange, none, it was said, excelled William Foster of the neighboring lane. Even the future President may have cheapened his joint here, or turned the scale in his favor by a call at Peggy Moore's.
The Washington Bank was long located at the corner of Washington and Beach Streets, where its imposing granite front remained until the recent erection of the present build- ings. The bank was incorporated in 1825, with a capital of half a million. For a long time previous to its demolition the building was occupied as a furniture warehouse. In Beach Street was established the short-lived Dramatic Museum in 1848, in the building now known as the Beach Street Market.
We will enter upon Essex Street. A short walk brings us. to Harrison Avenue, one of the new streets risen from the sea-shore. The beginning of this now handsome street, shaded for a considerable distance by trees, was in the portion from Essex Street to Beach, where it was arrested by the water. This was called Rainsford's Lane, until included in Front Street (Harrison Avenue) in 1825. The name was from Deacon Edward Rainsford, who took the oath of freeman in 1637, and was one of those disarmed in the Anne Hutchinson controversy. His tract was on the westerly side of Essex Street extending to the sea, and separated from Garrett Bourne on the west by his lane.
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Harrison Avenue, which was built in 1806 - 07, and first named Front Street, extended from Beach Street to South Bos- ton bridge. Up to 1830 the docks and flats on the west side of this street were not all filled up. Its present name was given, in 1841, in honor of General Harrison. A straight avenue, three fourths of a mile in length and seventy feet wide, was something unknown in Boston before this street was laid out.
On the east side of Rainsford's Lane was the house in which were born Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin and his brother John, a major-general in the British army. Both were sons of Nathan- iel Coffin, Collector of his Majesty's Customs, and a firm loyalist. Sir Isaac was educated in the Boston schools, and entered the royal navy in 1773, just before the Revolution.
John Coffin volunteered to accompany the royal army in the battle of Bunker Hill, and soon after obtained a commis- sion. He rose to the rank of captain, and went with the New York Volunteers to Georgia, in 1778. At the battle of Savan- nah, at Hobkirk's Hill, and at Cross Creek near Charleston, his conduct won the admiration of his superiors. At the battle of Eutaw his gallantry attracted the notice of General Greene. He was made colonel, 1797 ; major-general, 1803 ; general 1819.
The old mansion of the Coffins was afterwards removed farther up Harrison Avenue. It was of wood, three stories high, with gambrel roof, and may still be seen by the curious on the east side of the street, standing at a little distance back with the end towards it.
The following anecdote of Sir Isaac is authentic. While in Boston once, the admiral stopped at the Tremont House, and, being very gouty, was confined to his room. At King's Chapel prayers were offered for his recovery, and after service was over a gentleman paid his respects to the distinguished visitor at his room, where he found him with his leg swathed in bandages, and in no conciliatory mood. His footman having accidentally run against his gouty foot, the admiral dis- charged a volley of oaths at his devoted head, following them with his crutch. The efficacy of the prayers may be doubted.
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Still another of this famous royalist family was destined to acquire rank and distinction in the British service. Sir Thomas Aston Coffin, Bart., was a son of William Coffin of Boston, and cousin of Admiral Sir Isaac. All three of the distinguished Coffins were born in Boston, and bred in her public schools. Thomas was at one period private secretary to Sir Guy Carle- ton, and attained the rank of commissary-general in the Brit- ish army. He was a graduate of Harvard.
The admiral ever retained an affectionate regard for his na- tive country. His family were descended from that tight little isle of Nantucket, where the name of the Coffins has been made famous in story for their exploits in the whale fishery. He gave evidence of his attachment by investing a large sum in the English funds for the benefit of the Coffin school on the island, of which fund the mayor and aldermen of Boston were made trustees for the distribution of the annual interest among five of the most deserving boys and as many girls of that school.
Next south of the little alley that divides Rainsford's Lane lived Henry Bass, one of the Tea Party, at whose house Sam- uel Adams and Major Melvill often passed a convivial evening and ate a Sunday dinner.
Prior to 1793 the neighborhood of Essex and South Streets was largely occupied by distilleries. The oldest one is that now and for some time in possession of the French family, which appears to have been improved for that purpose as early as 1714 by Henry Hill, distiller, and by Thomas Hill after him. Besides this, there were Avery's and Haskins's distilleries, be- tween Essex and Beach Streets ; their vicinity marks the prox- imity of the shore.
We have spoken elsewhere of the manufacture of rum in Boston. In 1794, when the town contained a little more than 18,000 inhabitants, there were no less than thirty distill-houses. Twenty-seven were in operation in 1792, but the disturbances in the French West India Islands and the excise laid by Con- gress had diminished the number working to eighteen in the year first mentioned. Rum was only fourpence, and that from the West Indies but sixpence, a quart.
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Gilbert Stuart lived and painted in 1828 in a modern three- story brick house, standing alone in Essex Street, numbered 59, near the opening of Edinboro. The latter is a modern thor- oughfare. Before removing to Essex Street, Stuart resided in Washington Place, Fort Hill, where he had a painting-room. He took up his permanent residence in Boston in 1806, and died here July 9, 1828. His two daughters, Mrs. Stebbins and Miss Jane Stuart, pursued their father's profession in Boston ; the latter still follows her art at Newport, R. I. Stuart, it is said, did not instruct his daughters as he might have done.
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