USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old landmarks and historic personages of Boston.. > Part 5
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occasion. The undismayed proprietors had a new two-story . building erected by June, 1807, which continued until 1825, when the collection was sold to the New England Museum.
The New England Museum - formed from the New York Museum, which was opened in 1812, in Boylston Hall ; from Mix's New Haven Museum, added in 1821; and from the Columbian - was opened by Mr. E. A. Greenwood, July 4, 1818. It was situated on Court Street, and extended from Cornhill to Brattle Street, occupying the upper stories. In 1839 Moses Kimball became the proprietor, and these several ; establishments, merged in the New England, constituted the present Museum, first located on the present site of Horticul- tural Hall in 1841, and in 1846 where it now stands.
At the corner of Court and Tremont Streets was the resi- dence of John Wendell, an old Boston merchant of the time of Governor Shirley. He married a daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy, and was the nephew of Hon. Jacob Wendell, a leading Bostonian in the troublous Revolutionary times.
The Royal Custom House was located in Wendell's house in 1759, at which time George Cradock, Esq., a near neighbor of Wendell's, was collector.
The old building now standing here, then of only three sto- ries, is the one in which Washington lodged during his visit in 1789, as you may read on the small tablet placed in the Court Street front. At the time Washington occupied it, it was kept by Joseph Ingersoll as a board- ing-house. The coming of Washington to the town he had delivered in 1776 was SAMUEL S. PIERCE . SAMUEL S.PIERCE. marred by an act of official punctilio on the part of Gov- ernor Hancock, which caused the greatest mortification alike to the people and the WASHINGTON'S LODGINGS. illustrious visitor
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On the arrival of the general on the Neck, he was met by the suite of the governor, but not by the governor, whose views of State sovereignty would not admit of his acknowledging a superior personage within his official jurisdiction. The day was cold and raw, and Washington, chagrined at the absence of the governor, was about to turn his horse's head to depart, when he was prevailed upon by the authorities of the town to enter it.
A long delay had occurred at the Neck, and many people caught what was called the " Washington cold." The general wore his old continental uniform, and rode on horseback with his head uncovered, but did not salute the throngs that lined his way. On arriving at the Old State House, Washington would not ascend to the balcony prepared for him at the west end, until assured that the governor was not there ; and after the passage of the procession before him, retired to his lodgings. To add to the coldness of his reception, a cold dinner awaited him ; but his landlord procured and placed before his guest a fish of great excellence, and thus saved his credit at the last moment.
Washington himself declared the circumstance had been so disagreeable and mortifying that, notwithstanding all the marks of respect and affection he had received from the inhabitants of Boston, he would have avoided the place had he anticipated it .*
Governor Hancock, perceiving that he had made a fiasco, hastened to repair it. General Washington had declined his invitation to dinner, so the governor caused himself to be car- ried next day to the general's lodgings, where he presented himself swathed in flannels as a victim of gout. The general received the governor's excuses with due civility, whatever may have been his private convictions, and so the affair terminated.
Madam Hancock, indeed, related afterwards that the gover- nor was really laid up with gout, and that Washington shed tears when he saw the servants bringing the helpless man into his presence. Governor Brooks, and Hon. Jonathan Jackson,
* Hundred Boston Orators.
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then Marshal of the District, dined with the general on the day of his arrival, but did not hold this view, and the affair was freely discussed at table. Hancock seems to have yielded to the popular pressure which condemned his conduct. He was said to have been jealous of Washington's elevation to the Presidency. The general returned the governor's visit, was affable among friends, but stood on his dignity when strangers were present.
Harrison Gray Otis was one of the first who occupied this old corner for a law office. In his day it was considered quite on one side, though only a few paces distant from the Court House. Mr. Otis came upon the stage a little before the open- ing of the Revolutionary conflict. He remembered seeing Earl Percy's reinforcements mustering for their forced march to Lexington. A pupil of Master Lovell at the Latin School, in 1773, he was removed to Barnstable during the siege of Boston, where he quietly pursued his studies, graduating at Harvard at eighteen. He was an able lawyer, and until the advent of Mr. Webster, -about which time he relinquished practice, - was the acknowledged leader of the Boston bar. Judge Story thought him the greatest popular orator of his day. His personal appearance was elegant and attractive ; his voice, strong and melodious, often sounded in Faneuil Hall.
Mr. Otis was prominently identified with public affairs. In politics he was a Federalist, and a leader of that party in Con- gress from 1797 to 1801. He was also an influential member of the celebrated Hartford Convention. In 1817, after filling a number of State offices, Mr. Otis went into the United States Senate ; and became mayor of his native city in 1829. He was the grandson of Harrison Gray, treasurer of the colony and a Royalist, and nephew of James Otis, the patriot. Gifted in oratory, with a winning manner and polished address, Harrison Gray Otis ranks high among Boston's public men. One of the public schools is named for him.
In the building we are inspecting was once the law office of the great expounder of the Constitution, Daniel Webster, who first came to Boston in 1804, and studied law with Christo-
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pher Gore, afterwards Governor of Massachusetts. He kept school a short time for his brother Ezekiel, in Short Street, since Kingston. Edward Everett, who lived with his mother in Newbury Street, was about ten years old, and went at this time to Webster's school.
It is related of Mr. Webster, that when a young man, about to begin the study of law, he was advised not to enter the legal profession, as it was already crowded. His reply was, " There is room enough at the top." Mr. Webster removed to Portsmouth, N. H., returning to Boston in 1816, and in 1820 he was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Conven- tion. His orations at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825, when Lafayette was present, and also on its completion, June 17, 1843, are familiar to every school-boy. An unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency in 1836, he entered the cabinet of General Harrison in 1840, as Secretary of State, negotiating the long-disputed question of boundary with Great Britain by the Ashburton treaty. His great reply to Hayne of South Carolina, in the Senate, in which he defended New England against the onslaughts of the Southern Senator, made him the idol of the people of Boston. This speech, which opens with the graphic simile of a ship at sea in thick weather, her position unknown and her crew filled with anxiety, was, it is said, delivered without preparation, amid the gloomy forebodings of the New England men in Washington. His wife, even, who heard the fiery harangue of Hayne, feared for the result ; but the " Northern Lion " reas- sured her with the remark that he would grind the Southern Senator " finer than the snuff in her box."
Notwithstanding the sledge-hammer force of Webster's elo- quence he was often at a loss for a word, but when it came to him it was exactly the right one. His clearness of expression is well illustrated by the following anecdote of David Crockett, who, having heard Mr. Webster speak, accosted him afterwards with the inquiry, "Is this Mr. Webster ?" "Yes, sir." " Well, sir," continued Crockett, "I had heard that you were a very great man, but I don't think so. I heard your speech and understood every word you said."
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Mr. Webster's hesitation for a suitable expression is well described by the following anecdote. At a meeting in Faneuil Hall he was arguing in favor of the "Maysville Road " bill, with his usual power, and remarked, "I am in favor, Mr. Chairman, of all roads, except, except -" Here he stuck, at fault for a word, until Harrison Gray Otis, who sat near him on the platform, said in a low voice, "Say except the road to ruin." Mr. Webster adopted the suggestion, and used it as if he had merely paused to make his remark more effective.
In Bench and Bar, it is related that, while Webster was Secretary of State, the French Minister asked him whether the United States would recognize the new government of France. The Secretary assumed a very solemn tone and attitude, saying, " Why not ? The United States has recognized the Bourbons, the French Republic, the Directory, the Council of Five Hun- dred, the First Consul, the Emperor, Louis XVIII., Charles X., Louis Philippe, the-" "Enough ! Enough !" cried the Minister, perfectly satisfied by such a formidable citation of consistent precedents.
Mr. Webster lived in Somerset Street, and also at the corner of High and Summer Streets, during the different periods of his residence in Boston. The house in Somerset Street is on the east side, is numbered thirty-seven, and is still standing. It was occupied successively by Uriah Cotting, Daniel Web- ster, Abbott Lawrence, and Rev. Ephraim Peabody of King's Chapel. Webster's residence in High Street is marked by a splendid block of stores, aptly styled "Webster Buildings." Here he resided at the time of Lafayette's visit in 1825, and received the distinguished Frenchman on the evening of the 17th of June.
Mr. Webster was a genuine lover of nature and of field sports, and was a good shot. He delighted in his farm at Marshfield, and in his well-fed cattle. Gray's Elegy was his favorite poem, and he was accustomed to repeat it with great feeling and emphasis. Of his two sons, Edward died in Mexico, a Major of the Massachusetts Volunteers ; Fletcher, Colonel of the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, was killed near Bull Run in 1862.
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With two such distinguished lights of the profession as Otis and Webster before them, it is no wonder the old corner retains its magnetism for the disciples of Sir William Black- stone.
Having now passed down one side of ancient "Treamount " Street, we will repair to the corner of Howard Street, and go up the other side, following the practice of the fathers of the town, who numbered the streets consecutively down on one side and up the other. This is still the custom in London, and was doubtless imported with many other old- country usages.
Old " Treamount Street " began in 1708, at the extreme cor- ner of Court Street and Tremont Row, as they now are, and extended around the base of what was first called Cotton Hill (so called as late as 1733), from the residence of Rev. John Cotton ; subsequently Pemberton Hill, from James Pemberton, a later resident at the north end of what is now Pemberton Square. It was at first merely called a highway, like the other principal avenues, received very early the name of street, and was at the northerly part called Sudbury Lane, 1702. It ter- minated at Beacon Street. Pemberton Hill, a spur of Beacon, now marks a level of about eighty feet below the summit of the original hill, it having been cut down in 1835.
On the brow of the hill, later the residence of Gardiner Greene, was the mansion of Governor Endicott, that uncom- promising Puritan who, in 1629, sent the obnoxious Episcopa- lians home to England, and afterwards cut out the cross from the King's standard because it "savored of popery." John Endicott was sent to America by the Massachusetts Company, in England, of which Mathew Cradock was governor, as their agent, and was governor of the colony which settled at Salem in 1628. He was the successor of Winthrop, as governor, in 1644, and again in 1649, and removed to Boston in the former year. Endicott filled a number of important offices ; was ap- pointed Sergeant Major-General in 1645, and in 1652 estab- lished a mint, which, though without legal authority, continued to supply a currency for more than thirty years. Governor
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Endicott opposed the crusade of Rev. John Cotton against the wearing of veils by ladies, and had a warm personal discussion with that eminent divine. His portrait is more like a cardinal of Richelieu's time than a Puritan soldier. His head is covered by a close-fitting velvet skull-cap, from which the curling iron-gray hair is escaping down his shoulders ; a 1.1 broad linen collar, fastened at the throat with cord and tassel, falls upon his breast, while his small white right hand is grasping a gauntlet richly embroidered. En- dicott's forehead is massive, his ENDICOTT CUTTING OUT THE CROSS. nose large and prominent ; but a gray mustache which decorates his upper lip effectually con- ceals the expression of his mouth, while a long imperial of the French fashion hides a portion of the chin. His whole coun- tenance, however, indicates strength, resolution, and courage. The mutilation of the flag was not an act of bravado at a safe distance from punishment, but of conscience ; and his portrait shows us that, having once formed a conviction, he would pur- sue it regardless of consequences.
Captain Cyprian Southack had a comfortable estate of two acres, in 1702, lying on the northerly and easterly slope of the hill. Howard Street, which was first named Southack's Court for him, subsequently Howard Street, from John Howard the philanthropist, ran through his lands. Captain Southack served under the famous Colonel Benjamin Church in an expedition against the French and Indians in 1704, in which he com- manded a small vessel, called the Province Snow, of fourteen guns. When Admiral Sir H. Walker arrived in Boston in 1711, with a fleet and five thousand men destined to act against the French in Canada, he took up his residence with Southack. in Tremont Street. The captain was to lead the van of the expedition.
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In 1717 the pirate ship Whidah, commanded by the noto- rious Samuel Bellamy, was wrecked on the rocks of that part of Eastham, now Wellfleet. The council despatched Captain Southack to the scene of the disaster. His powers are indi- cated by the following original document : -
" By virtue of power to me, given by his Excellency Saml. Shute, Esq., Govt., and the Admiral, bearing date April 30th, 1717, to seize what goods, merchandise, or effects have or may be found or taken from the Pirate ship wreck at Cape Codd, and those taken up by Joseph Done, Esq., in carting and bringing in to me the sub- scriber for his Majesty's service at Mr. Wm. Brown's at Eastham.
" CYPRIAN SOUTHACK.
" EASTHAM, May 6, 1717."
Bellamy's ship was purposely run on shore by the captain of a small vessel he had captured the day before. The captain was to have received his vessel from the pirate in return for piloting him into Cape Cod harbor, but, distrusting the good faith of his captor, run his own vessel so near the rocks that the large ship of the pirate was wrecked in attempting to follow her. A storm arose, and the rest of the pirate fleet, thrown into confusion, shared the fate of their commander. Captain Southack buried one hundred and two bodies. A few that escaped the wreck were brought to Boston and executed. For a long time - as late as 1794 - copper coins of William and Mary, and pieces of silver, called cob money, were picked up near the scene of the wreck. The violence of the sea moved the sands upon the outer bar, so that the iron caboose of the vessel was visible at low ebb .*
Theodore Lyman, senior, father of the mayor of that name, owned and occupied a mansion on the corner of Howard and Tremont Streets in 1785. A beautiful green lawn extended in front of his residence. These charming oases in the midst of the desert of brick walls have long ceased to exist except in the public squares. This lot was also intended to have been used by the Brattle Street Church Society when they rebuilt in 1772-73 ; but Governor Hancock, by the present of a bell,
* Massachusetts Historical Collections.
3
D
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induced them to rebuild on the old site. This location was also occupied by Holland's Coffee House, afterwards the Pem- berton House, destroyed by fire in 1854.
Passing the estate of John Jekyll, Esq., one of the earliest collectors of the port of Boston, 1707, and a great friend of his neighbors the Faneuils, we come to that of Rev. John Cotton, the spiritual father of Boston. John Cotton, as stated in our introductory chapter, was vicar of St. Botolph's Church in Bos- ton, England, but inclined to the Puritan form of worship. Cited to appear before the notorious Archbishop Laud for omitting to kneel at the sacrament, he fled to America, and arrived in Boston in 1633, three years after the settlement. Here he became a colleague of the Rev. John Wilson in the pastorate of the First Church. He was a man of great learning, well acquainted with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and published many sermons and controversial works. He died from the effects of exposure in crossing the Cambridge ferry, and has a memorial erected to his memory in his old church of St. Botolph's, England, through the liberality of Edward Everett and other Bostonians.
The house of Mr. Cotton stood a little south of the entrance to Pemberton Square, near the street, and was standing about fifty years ago. It was then considered the oldest in Boston, and the back part, which remained unaltered, had the small diamond panes of glass set in lead. His ample estate extended back over the hill as far as Dr. Kirk's Church in Ashburton Place, and embraced all the central portion of what is now Pemberton Square.
This house had a still more distinguished tenant in Henry Vane the younger, who resided in it during his stay of two years in Boston, making some additions to the building for his own greater comfort. Sir Harry, whose eventful history is familiar, was received with great respect by Winthrop and the people of the town, on his arrival in 1635. His father, Sir Henry, was Secretary of State and Treasurer of the House- hold under James I. and Charles I. Alienated from the Church of England, young Harry Vane refused to take the
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oath of allegiance, and became a Republican and a Puritan. He was only twenty-four when chosen governor of Massachu- setts Colony. During his administration the religious contro- versy between the congregation and the new sect of Familists, of which Anne Hutchinson was the acknowledged exponent, broke out. Sir Harry, opposed by Winthrop, was defeated at a second election of governor, but was immediately chosen a representative from the town to the General Court. Returning to England, in 1637, he was elected to Parliament and knighted in 1640. He is said to have presented the bill of attainder against the Earl of Strafford. Disliking Cromwell's dissolution of the Long Parliament, Vane withdrew from public affairs until 1649, when he became member of the Council of State, with almost exclusive control of naval and foreign affairs of the Commonwealth. At the restoration of Charles II. he was thrown into the Tower, and executed on Tower Hill, Lon- don, June 14, 1662. His bearing at the place of execution was manly and dignified, and he has been described by Forster as one of the greatest and purest men that ever walked the earth : -
"Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old, Than whom a better senator ne'er held The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled The fierce Epirot and th' Afric bold, Whether to settle peace, or to unfold The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled ;
Then to advise how war may, best upheld, Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, In all her equipage ; besides, to know Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,
What severs each, - thou hast learned what few have done, The bounds of either sword to thee we owe ; Therefore on thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son."
Judge Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of the colony, in whose family the estates of Cotton and Bellingham became united, lived here in 1689. He was repeatedly applied to to sell a piece of his land to the Episcopalians to build a church upon, but refused. He married a daughter of John Hull, the cele- brated mint-master, with whom he got, at different times, a
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snug portion of Master Hull's estate. He was one of the judges during the witchcraft trials of 1692, but afterwards expressed contrition for his share in that wretched business. Stoughton, on the contrary, on one occasion, indignant at the governor's. reprieve of some of the victims, left the court exclaiming, " We were in a way to have cleared the land of these. Who is it obstructs the course of justice I know not. The Lord be mer- ciful to the country !"
Judge Sewall was a considerable proprietor, owning a large estate on Beacon Hill, known in his time as Sewall's Elm Pasture. Through this were laid out anciently Coventry, Sewall, and Bishop-Stoke Street, the latter named from his English birthplace. The judge left a diary, now in posses- sion of the Historical Society, containing much contemporary history. He attended the Old South, and related to Rev. Dr. Prince the story of Johnson's settlement and burial in Boston.
Patrick Jeffrey, who married Madam Haley, sister of the celebrated John Wilkes of the North Briton, became a subse- quent possessor of the Cotton estate. Somerset Street, named from John Bowers of Somerset, Mass., crosses the Jeffrey or Cotton estate, and the former conveyed to the town, in 1801, so much of that street as passed through his property.
Another proprietor of the Cotton estate was Gardiner Greene, well remembered as one of the wealthiest citizens of Boston. By purchase of his neighbors, Mr. Greene became possessed of the larger portion of Pemberton Hill, which he greatly beauti- fied and improved. The hill was terraced, and Mr. Greene's mansion - which, though substantial, had no special marks of elegance - was reached by long flights of steps. Mr. Greene is said to have owned the only greenhouse then existing in Boston, and his grounds, adorned by nature and art, made alto- gether the finest private residence in the town.
Mr. Greene's third wife was a sister of Lord Lyndhurst, son of the celebrated painter, Copley, and a Bostonian, who be- came a peer of the realm and Lord Chancellor of Great Brit- ain. He was called the "Nestor of the House of Lords,"
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and was noted for his dry caustic humor. Once, when Lord Brougham, speaking of the salary attached to a certain appoint- ment, said it was all moonshine, Lyndhurst, in his waggish way remarked, "Maybe so, my Lord Harry ; but I have a con- founded strong notion that, moonshine though it be, you would like to see the first quarter of it."
Gardiner Greene's residence was occupied in 1775 by a noble tenant, Percy, afterwards Earl of Northumberland, gallant, chivalrous, and brave, -
" Who, when a younger son, Fought for King George at Lexington, A major of dragoons."
Percy it was who saved the royal troops from destruction at Lexington, on the ever memorable 19th of April, 1775. He seems to have changed his quarters quite often, for, about the time of the affair at Lexington, he was ordered by General Gage to take possession of the Hancock house on Beacon Street. He also resided some time with Mrs. Sheaffe, widow of the collector, in Essex Street. We shall call on him at his several habitations.
Richard Bellingham, Esq., Governor of Massachusetts in 1635, in 1641, and again in 1654, and from 1666, after the death of Endicott, until his own decease in 1672, was the next neighbor of Cotton. Anne Hibbins, who married William Hib- bins, an early settler of Boston, for many years in the service of the Colony, was a relative of Governor Bellingham. This unfortunate woman, denounced for witchcraft, was executed in 1656, when an accusation was equivalent to condemnation, and forfeited her life to the superstitious bigotry of the period. Governor Bellingham served the colony as governor and dep- uty for twenty-three years ; was ordered by Charles II. to England with other obnoxious persons, but prudently declined going, by advice of the General Court. Bellingham, whose intellect was said to have been impaired, was an unrelenting persecutor of the Quakers. His house stood on the spot after- wards occupied by the residence of Lieutenant-Governor Phil- lips, opposite the north end of the Chapel Burying-Ground,
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