USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Sketches of Boston, past and present, and of some places in its vicinity > Part 31
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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
The first considerable accession of inhabitants appears to have been in the summer of 1632, when " the Braintree Company, which had begun to set down at Mount Wollaston, by order of Court removes to Newtown." This was " Mr. Hooker's company." Mr. Hooker not having yet arrived, they were still without a settled minister; but in anticipation of his com-
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ing, the inhabitants began to make preparations for the regular observance of religious ordinances, and accordingly, in the course of the year, they " built the first house of public worship, with a bell upon it." Their hopes were at length realized, in the autumn of 1633, by the arrival of the Rev. Messrs. Hooker and Stone, who reached Boston, in company with the famous John Cotton, John Haynes, afterwards Governor of Connecti- cut, and many other passengers of distinction, on the 4th of September. A Church was immediately gathered in this place, of which Thomas Hooker was chosen Pastor, and Samuel Stone, Teacher; and on Friday, the 11th of October, they were ordained to their respective offices.
As originally laid out, between Charlestown and Watertown, " the New Town," we are told, was " in forme like a list cut off from the broad-cloath of the two fore-named towns," and appears to have contained merely a tract of sufficient extent for a fortified town. Hence, it is not long before we find the inhabitants complaining of "straitness for want of land," and desiring " leave to look out either for enlargement or removal." Their request was granted by the Court, and temporary relief was obtained by accepting " such enlargement as had formerly been offered them by Boston and Watertown." But Mr. Hooker and his people had become dissatisfied with their situation, and were bent upon removal to Connecticut ; and not- withstanding the great reluctance of the General Court to accede to their wishes, they finally obtained permission to go where they pleased, pro- vided they remained under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. They ac. cordingly left this spot in a body, for Connecticut, in June, 1636; having previously disposed of their houses and lands to another company, which had arrived from England in the autumn of 1635, with the." faithful and famous " Thomas Shepard, their future Pastor. On the Ist of February. 1636, a new Church was organized here, with much form and solenmity. in the room of that which was about to remove; and Mr. Shepard was soon after ordained as its Pastor. The following have been his successors in the Ministry : -
Thomas Shepard, ordained -, 1636. died Aug. 25, 1619, aged 44. Jonathan Mitchel, ordained Aug. 21, 1650, died July 9, 1668, aged 43. Urian Oakes, ordained Nov. 8, 1671, died July 25, 1681, aged 50. Nathaniel Gookin, ordained Nov. 15, 1632, died Aug. 7, 1692, aged 31. William Brattle, ordained Nov. 25, 1696, died Feb. 15, 1717, aged 55. Nathaniel Appleton, ordained Oct. 9, 1717, died Feb. 9, 1784, aged 91. Timothy Hilliard, installed Oct. 27, 1783, died May 9, 1790, aged 44. Abiel Holmes, installed Jan. 25, 1792, dismissed Sept. 26, 1831.
Nehemiah Adams, ordained Dec. 17, 1829, (Shepard Society,) dismissed March 14, 1834.
William Newell, ordained May 19, 1830. (First Parish.)
John A. Albro, installed April 15, 1835, (Shepard Society.)
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The descriptive, and somewhat indefinite, appellation of "the New Town," had become recognized and adopted, under the form of NEW- TOWN; which name was retained until May, 1638, when it was exchanged for that of CAMBRIDGE, in grateful remembrance of the place in England where so many of the principal men of the Colony had received their edu- cation.
In 1639, the first Printing-press in British America was set up here, un- der the management of Stephen Day. The first article printed was the Freeman's Oath, the next an Almanac, and the next a metrical version of the Psalms ; the latter being the first production of the Anglo-American press which attains the dignity of a book.
The cause of education ever received from our Fathers that attention which it deserves, and we therefore find them at an early period making provision for the instruction of their children. Speaking of the College at Cambridge, in 1643, a writer of that day observes : - " By the side of the Colledge [is] a faire Grammar Schoole, for the training up of young schol- lars, and fitting of them for Academical learning: Master Corlet is the Mr., who hath very well approved himself for his abilities, dexterity, and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youths under him."
In 1647, the town " bargained with Waban, the Indian, for to keepe about six score heade of dry cattle on the south side of Charles River." The lands in that part of Cambridge, as well as those at Shawshin, Menot- omy, and " the Farms," were chiefly used for pasturage; which, as it could not be found in the settled portion of the town, the inhabitants,- " most of them very rich, and well stored with Cattle of all sorts," - were obliged to seek on the outskirts of the settlement, where extensive tracts were granted them, at different times, until their territory included the whole of the present township of Lexington, and the principal part of Bil- lerica. Here, we are told, they had "many hundred Acres of ground paled in with one general fence, about a mile and half long, which secures all their weaker Cattle from the wilde beasts."
In 1648, it was ordered "that there shall be an eight penny ordinary provided for the Townsmen [i. e. Selectmen] every second Munday of the month upon there meeteing day ; and that whosoever of the Townsmen faile to be present within half an houre of the ringing of the bell (which shall be half an houre after eleven of the clocke) he shall both lose his din. ner, and pay a pint of sacke, or the value, to the present Townsmen." The first license for an inn appears to have been given in 1652, when "the Townsmen granted liberty to Andrew Belcher to sell beare and bread, for entertainment of strangers, and the good of the towne."
The people of Cambridge had hitherto confined themselves to the origi- nal settlement, which was of small extent, and "compact closely within itselfe" ; but they now began to venture off to a greater distance, and " of late yeares some few straggling houses " were built on the outskirts of the
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town. On the 29th of May, 1655, those who lived at Shawshin, or Shaw- shinock, (which had been granted to Cambridge, on certain conditions, in June, 1642, and had begun to be settled about ten years after, by a number of respectable families, some from Cambridge, but the greater part origi- nally from England,) were incorporated as a distinct plantation ; and in May, 1656, the Court " granted the name of the place to be called BILLERI. CA." As early as 1658 nineteen of its inhabitants entered into engagements with the Rev. Samuel Whiting, Jr., in reference to his settlement in the Ministry among them, and a Meeting-house, erected by vote of the town, was finished in 1660; but a Church was not gathered, and a Pastor settled, until November 11, 1663, on which day Mr. Whiting was duly ordained to the Pastoral office. The inhabitants of Cambridge Village, too, as that part of the town was called which embraced the Nonantum of the Indians, had become so numerous, by the year 1656, as to form a distinct congre- gation for public worship; and an annual abatement was made of " the one halfe of their proportion to the Ministryes allowance, during the time they were provided of an able Minister according to law." The first Church was gathered there July 20, 1664, and the Rev. John Eliot, Jr., son of the Apostle, was ordained Pastor the same day. The settlement was subsequently called New Cambridge, but in 1691, (December 8,) was in- corporated by the name of NEWTON.
In 1656, the inhabitants of Cambridge consented to pay each his propor- tion of a rate to the sum of £ 200, " towards the building a bridge over Charles River." The bridge was erected about the year 1660, and for many years was called " The Great Bridge." Previous to this time the commu- nication with the south side of the river had been by means of a ferry, from the wharf at the foot of Water (now Dunster) street, - the principal street of the original settlement, - to the opposite shore; from which point "a highway " conducted to the road leading to Roxbury. The bridge was rebuilt in 1690, at the expense of Cambridge and Newton, with some aid from the public treasury ; and in 1734 the town received £ 300 from the General Court towards defraying the expense of repairing it, in addition to a " very bountiful " contribution from individuals, for the same purpose. In 1700, the highway on the south side of the river was given " for the use of the Ministry in this town and place."
About this time a House of Correction was built ; and in.1675, certain persons were appointed "to have inspection into familyes, that theare be noe by-drinking or any misdemenor wheareby sine is committed, and persons from theare houses unseasonably." The Jail (an ancient wooden building, not much used after the erection of a stone one at Concord, in 1789.) stood at the southwest corner of Market (now Winthrop) Square, as late as the beginning of the present century. The County Court-house, which many people will remember as occupying the site of the present Lyceum Hall. on Harvard Square. was erected in 1756. In 1656, certain
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persons were appointed by the Townsmen to execute the order of the Gen- eral Court, " for the improvement of all the families within the limitts of this towne in spinning and cloathing"; and the year following, James Hubbard has " liberty granted him to fell some small timber on the Com- mon, for the making him a loome." In 1668, some of the most respecta. ble inhabitants were chosen " for katechiseing the youth of this towne."
Whalley and Goffe, two of the Regicides, on their arrival in New Eng- land, in July, 1660, immediately repaired to Cambridge, where they resided until February following, experiencing the greatest kindness and hospi- tality from the inhabitants, and enjoying the friendship of the Rev. Mr. Mitchel, by whom they were permitted to attend upon the religious ordi- nances of the Church, and were even allowed to participate in the Sacra. ment.
In September, 1665, the town was thrown into consternation by a visit from five Mohawk Indians, "all stout and lusty young men," who sud. denly issued from a swamp, one afternoon, and walked into the house of Mr. John Taylor. Although well armed, they suffered themselves to be arrested by the authorities, without resistance, and committed to prison. They were subsequently released, with an injunction not to coine armed into any of the English settlements again. The English had often heard of these Indians from the Massachusetts tribes, (who lived in constant fear of them,) but had never seen any of them before. Hence the great alarm which their unexpected visit occasioned.
At a town-meeting in 1676, called " to consider about fortifieing of the towne against the Indians," it was judged necessary "that something bee done for the fencing in the towne with a stockade, or sume thing equivalent," and the requisite materials were accordingly prepared ; but King Philip being killed, the "great Indian War " was soon after termi- nated, and the Townsmen were ordered to " improve the timber, that was brought for the fortification, for the repairing of the Great Bridge."
The extent of the town at this period may be inferred from a vote of Jan- uary 8, 1682, " that 500 acres of the remote lands, lying between Woburn, Concord, and our head line, shall be laid out for the use and benefit of the Ministry of this town and place forever." It is whispered in our ear, that of late years the town has not been quite so liberal toward its Ministers.
On the 15th of December, 1691, "Cambridge North-farms " were incor. porated as a Parish, by the name of "North Cambridge." October 21, 1696, a Church was gathered, composed of " ten brethren dismissed from) the Churches of Cambridge, Watertown, Woburn, and Concord, for this work "; and Mr. Benjamin Estabrook (who had been employed to preach in this Parish since 1692) was chosen and ordained their Pastor. Some six- teen years after, on the petition of "the farmers," that they might " be dismissed from the town, and be a township by themselves," their request was granted, on certain conditions ; and " Cambridge Farms" were incor-
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porated, by the name of LEXINGTON, March 20, 1712-13. In 1732, the inhabitants of the northwesterly part of Cambridge were, by an Act of the Legislature, formed into a separate Precinct. A Church was gathered by the Rev. John Hancock, of Lexington, on the 9th of September, 1739, and the Rev. Samuel Cooke ordained its Pastor, on the 12th of the same month. On this occasion, the First Church voted. that f 25 be given out of the Church stock to the Second Church in Cambridge, "to furnish their Communion Table in a decent manner." The Indian name of this dis- trict was Menotomy, which it now exchanged for that of the Northwest, or Second Precinct, or West Parish, of Cambridge; and it was finally in- corporated, February 27, 1807, as WEST CAMBRIDGE. It does not appear how early permanent settlements were made in that part of Cambridge on the south side of the river; but a house of worship was built there in 1774, and a Parish incorporated May 11, 1779. In 1780, the Church-mem- bers on that side presented a petition, " signifying their desire to be dis- missed, and incorporated into a distinct Church, for enjoying the special ordinances of the Gospel more conveniently by themselves." The First Church voted a compliance with their request, and a Church was accord- ingly gathered, February 26, 1783; the Records of which are entitled, "The Records of the Third Church of Christ in Cambridge." The Rev. John Foster was ordained its first Pastor, November 1, 1784. This village bore the name of " Little Cambridge," or the South, or Second Parish, of Cambridge, until its incorporation as a town, February 24, 1807, by the name of BRIGHTON.
About the year 1759, several gentlemen, each of whose income was deemed adequate to the support of a domestic Chaplain, manifested a de- sire for the establishment of an Episcopal Mission at Cambridge. Their wishes meeting with a ready response, those adherents of the Church of England residing in Cambridge and its vicinity united, in the year 1760, in the foundation of a Church, under the patronage of the English "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and laid the corner- stone of the beautiful structure here represented.
The edifice was first opened for Divine Service, on Thursday, October 15, 1761, by the Rev. East Apthorp, D. D., who had been deputed as the Society's first Missionary to this place. It is considered, by connoisseurs in architecture, as one of the best constructed Churches in New England. The model is said to have been brought from Italy ; and the plan was fur nished by Mr. Harrison, of Newport, R. I., the architect of King's Chapel, Boston, and of the Redwood Library.
Mr. Apthorp was a native of Boston, but received his education at the University of Cambridge, in England ; where he took orders, and received the appointment of Missionary to the newly established Church in this place. He is said to have been a very ambitious man, and to have had his eye upon a Bishoprick, which he fondly hoped would be established in
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New England, having Cambridge for its centre, and himself the Metropo- litan. It must be confessed, that the stately mansion which was erected for his use, - still jocosely styled "the Bishop's Palace," - far surpassing in pretensions the generality of houses at that day, gives some counte- nance to the traditionary report of his aristocratic predilections. But whatever may have been his expectations, they were doomed to disap- pointment. The publication of his sermon at the opening of Christ Church inflamed the Episcopal controversy to such a degree, (if it did not give rise to it,) and exposed him to such a whirlwind of denunciation from all points of the compass, that his situation became far from comfortable, and after a few years he relinquished his rectorship, and returned to England, where he subsequently obtained valuable prefermerits in the Church, and died, at an advanced age, in 1816. His house, - the same which, a few years after the departure of its original proprietor, received the haughty Burgoyne be- neath its roof, not as a master, but as a discomfited prisoner of war, - yet retains unmistakeable traces of its former elegance. It is now owned and occupied by Dr. Plympton and Mrs. Manning, and is situated in a square formed by Main, Linden, Chestnut, and Bow streets.
CHRIST CHURCH.
The successor of Mr. Apthorp was the Rev. Winwood Serjeant, who continued Rector from 1767 till the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, in 1775, when his Parish was entirely broken up, his fine Church turned into
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barracks, and its beautiful organ demolished, and himself and family obliged to fly for safety. The stormy period of the Revolution passed, men began to take breath, and look about them. Christ Church was repaired, and on the 11th of July, 1790, was reopened, with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Parker, of Trinity Church, Boston ; who also accepted the rectorship of this Parish, on condition of supplying it by a Curate, and officiating oc- casionally in person. During the first quarter of the present century, the Church was served by different clergymen and readers ; among whom may be mentioned the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Dehon, Bishop of South Carolina, the late Rev. Dr. Harris, of Dorchester, the Rev. Dr. Jenks, of Boston, and the Rev. Dr. Wainwright, of New York.
In 1826, the building was again repaired, (the Corporation of Harvard College contributing $ 300 for the purpose,) and the Rev. George Otis, Pro- fessor in the University, officiated until his death, in 1828. The succeed- ing Rectors have been the Rev. Messrs. Thomas W. Coit, D. D., from 1829 to 1835, Mark Anthony De Wolfe Howe, D. D., 1835-36, and Thomas H. Vail, from 1837 to 1839, when the present incumbent, the Rev. Nicholas Hoppin, entered upon his duties.
In 1769, " all the common lands, fronting the College, commonly called the Town Commons, not heretofore granted or allotted to any particular person, or for any special or particular use," were granted by the proprie- tors " to the town of Cambridge, to be used as a Training Field, to lie un- divided, and to remain for that use for ever." These " Commons" were in after years a fruitful source of controversy ; and it was only after a tedious suit at law that their inclosure, - authorized June 5, 1830, - was effected and submitted to. The time may yet come when the "Training Field " of their fathers will be regarded by their descendants as one of the choic- est ornaments of the " City of the Plain."
Under express instructions from His Majesty's Secretary of State, three sessions of the General Court were holden in Cambridge, in 1770, in direct violation of the Charter, and the wishes of the people. This meas- ure, excused on the plea of the political excitement at this time rife in Bos- ton, was very far from allaying that excitement ; and in fact, but added new fuel to the flame, - now smouldering in the ashes of discontent, - which was soon to burst forth with inextinguishable and overmastering fury.
In the opening scenes of that awful drama which resulted in the inde- pendence of thirteen British Colonies, the people of Cambridge exhibited that spirit which so strongly characterized the period ; and when the crisis approached, and the great question of Independence was agitated, they sol. emnly and with one accord, pledged their lives and fortunes to the cause of liberty. From the commencement of hostilities at Lexington, April 19, 1775, Cambridge shared the common fate of the towns in the vicinity of Boston, and its usual tranquillity gave place to the din and tumult of war.
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It was here that General Washington fixed his first encampment, and as- sumed the command of the first American army ; and here were the head- quarters of that army, till the evacuation of Boston by the British troops, in 1776. It was here, in the venerable old Meeting-house, (which stood between the Presidential mansion and the Law School, ) that the Provincial Congress assembled, in 1774 and 1775, - two sessions out of four in the formier year, and one in the latter. Many of the inhabitants left the town, and retired into the interior. The College was deserted, and its buildings were occupied by troops; the Episcopal Church was dismantled for the same purpose, and its organ-pipes (if we may credit tradition) melted into bullets ; while the elegant houses of its members were assigned as quarters to the American officers.
Poor Ralph Inman ! How could he expect that his well-stocked farm and ample larder would escape notice ? It was altogether too rich a prize to be passed by, - so thought "OLD PUT," - and it would have been the height of impropriety not to have made good use of the bounties thus 'placed within his reach. What cared he that the former proprietor groaned in spirit, as he saw his fat beeves diminishing, at a fearful rate, before the rapacious appetites of the Yankee soldiery ? "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof" ; and they were the Lord's soldiers. Bit- terly did the good man complain, that he, " a gentleman of fortune and figure," should now be obliged "to purchase things from his own farm "; the sturdy " rebels " having " taken every thing from him except his wear- ing apparel, only because he had been one of the King's Council " ! A hard case, this, to be sure; but no harder than that of the Olivers, the Vas- salls, the Ervings, and hundreds of others, who saw themselves suddenly stripped of honors, wealth, and estate, and driven from their homes, -to expiate, in some measure, by their personal sufferings and mortification, the crying sins of the wicked ministry whose servants they were.
Let the stranger stroll along the old road to Watertown, - the Brattle Street of the moderns. Leaving the venerable Brattle mansion on the left, - now cast into the shade by the " Brattle House," recently erected on a portion of its once elegant domain, - and passing beyond the more thickly settled part of the village, he will find, on each side of the way, spacious edifices, belonging to some former day and generation ; extensive gardens, farms, and orchards, evidently of no modern date; and trees, whose giant forms were the growth of years gone by .. Who built these stately man. sions, - so unlike the usual New England dwellings of ancient days. - with their spacious lawns, shaded by noble elms, and adorned with shrub- hery ? Who were the proprietors of these elegant seats, which arrest the attention and charm the eye of the passing traveller ? Who were the orig. inal occupants of these abodes of aristocratic pride and wealth, - for such they must have been, - and whose voices waked the echoes in these lofty halls ? - A race of men which has passed away for ever ! Men of lofty
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ideas, ample fortunes, large hearts, and unbounded hospitality, - the an- cient nobility of New England's capital, - the grave Magistrates and sage Councillors of the Province, - old English country-gentlemen, - proud scions of a noble stock, who sought, at this distance from the metropolis, a retreat from the cares of state and the pursuits of business, and here erected dwellings which should remind them, in some faint degree, of their ancestral halls in Old England. Here, upon their extensive estates, in the midst of affluence, nay, in the very lap of luxury, rivalling in splendor the nobility of other lands, they dwelt in sumptuous ease, each under his own vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid. To their families, - al- lied by blood, or by the ties of friendship, - life was but as a summer holi- day. Without care, without anxiety, their days were spent in pleasure, and their nights in merriment. Amid the delights of social intercourse, the song and the dance, music and feasting, the moments passed uncount- ed, and time was but as a flitting shadow, which left no trace behind. With no thought but for the present, with no dream of the morrow, they heard not the mutterings of the distant thunder, they saw not the black cloud on the verge of the horizon, they heeded not the gathering storm, till it burst in awful fury above their heads; - and lo ! they are scattered as dust, their homes are desolate, and the places that knew them now know them no more. - Where are they ? Ask of the winds which sigh forth their requiem through the tops of those venerable trees, whose branches were once outstretched to shield them from the blazing glories of a noon- day sun. Inquire of the breeze which mournfully whispers the dirge of the dead in yonder graveyard, or sweeps by the Church where they wor- shipped. They are gone. Their tombs are in a distant land, - even their names have passed from remembrance, - and nought remains to tell of their sojourn here save these stately piles, whose walls once echoed to the sound of pipe and harp, and whose courts reverberated with the notes of their national anthem.
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