USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 58
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Prior to 1643 a grammar school, of which the celebrated Elijah Corlet was master, had been established to fit pupils for the college founded by John Harvard in 1638, the year in which, in this place, the first printing- press was set up in the English American colonies. This first school-house stood on the westerly side of Holyoke Street, about midway between Harvard and Mt. Auburn streets. The earliest school-house in Brighton was erected in 1722.
The establishment of highways was among the first duties of the inhab- itants of the new town. As early as June, 1631, a canal was made from Charles River to what is now South Street. In 1635 a ferry was established across the river from the foot of Dunster Street. Opposite this point was the road to Boston, called " the highway to Roxbury." This old road, which ran through the easterly portions of Brookline and Brighton, is now known as Harvard Avenue. Another early highway was " the Roxbury Path," a portion of what is now Washington Street, by which the Roxbury people went to the grist-mill at Watertown. The path, now Market Street, laid out in 1656 through the land of Richard Dana, was known, after the first meeting-house was built in 1744, as Meeting-house Lane. The crooks and curves of these old thoroughfares sufficiently distinguish them from the straighter highways of a more recent date.
To obviate the inconveniences and perils of a ferry over which there was a large amount of travel, especially on lecture days, a bridge was built in 1662 at a cost of £200 at the foot of Brighton Street, also connecting with the highway to Roxbury, and which, as it was the largest and finest then in the colony, was called the " Great Bridge." This was swept away by a high tide in September, 1685, from which time until it was rebuilt in 1690 ferriage was resumed here by Mr. Fessenden.
443
BRIGHTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
The heads of families in Brighton in August, 1688, were: Thomas Brown, Samuel and Daniel Champney, Thomas Cheency, James Clarke, Richard Jacob, Benjamin and Daniel Dany, John Francis, Joshua Fuller, Richard and John Haven, John Mackoon, Sr., John Mackoon, Jr., Thomas Oliver, John and Samuel Oldum, James Phillips, Nathaniel Robbins, Ebenezer Ston, David Stowell, Samuel and Nathaniel Sparhawke, John and Henry Smith, John Squire, and Isaac Wilson.
Samuel Champney settled in Brighton about 1667 ; was selectman eleven years between 1681 and 1694; muster-master in 1690; and representative from 1686 to his death in 1695. Daniel Champney, appointed by the Court in 1677 to redeem Indian captives near Wachusett, was selectman in 1684-87, and died in 1691. Francis Dana, chief-justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, member of the Continental Congress, and ambas- sador to Russia, was a grandson of Daniel, son of Richard, one of the first settlers. John Francis was the grandfather of Colonel Ebenezer, a revolu- tionary officer who fell at Hubbardston July 7, 1777. Thomas Oliver, of the distinguished family from which sprung Lieutenant-Governor Andrew and Chief-Justice l'eter Oliver, was deacon of Newton Church, selectman of Cambridge in 1687, representative eighteen years between 1692 and 1713, and died Nov. 2, 1715. Deacon Nathaniel Sparhawk, selectman seven years, died in December, 1686.
A few examples of its laws and usages will serve to convey a slight idea of the condition of a society in which the civil body and ecclesiastical structure were completely blended. No man could sell or let house or land unless to a member of the congregation. If a dog was seen in the mect- ing-house on the Lord's Day in time of public worship, the owner was fined. " Entertaining any stranger or family into the town " against the desire of the congregation, after due warning, was punished by a fine. Any man whose dog is used to pull off the tails of any beasts, and who does not effectually restrain him, shall pay for every offence of that kind 20s. Three persons were appointed by the selectmen, "to have inspection into families that there be no bye drinking or any misdemeanor whereby sin is committed, and persons from their houses unseasonably."
No contemporaneous description of the town in its primitive days remains to us, but we can easily picture to ourselves a small rural settle- ment of scattered farms, with a river front of six miles or more; its prin- cipal street running diagonally through it in the direction of the Watertown mill, and one other much-travelled highway connecting the seat of govern- ment of the colony with its seat of learning. The Sparhawk homestead, in which seven generations have resided, was on the corner of Washington and Cambridge Streets. On the opposite corner stood the Winship man- sion, latterly a hotel. West of Sparhawk's house, on what is now Market Street, stood the Dana mansion. Samuel Phipps' residence was also on Washington Street, where Allston Street now is. A number of settlers were clustered together in the northwest corner of the town, near Watertown
tt
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
mill. Here was Nonantum Hill, in and around which was an Indian village, the scene of the first missionary labors of the Apostle Eliot. About on the site of the abattoir were "The Pines," a forest of pine trees, the place where the Christian Indians were embarked for Deer Island in October, 1675, as a place of refuge from the exasperated colonists, who, soon after the breaking out of Philip's war, wished to destroy them. Excepting the Champney house and the Dana house, each of which are two hundred years old, these and all other memorials of Brighton's colonial days have long ago ceased to exist.
Francia & Drake
CHAPTER XV.
WINNISIMMET, RUMNEY MARSH, AND PULLEN POINT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
BY MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN, Librarian of the Boston Public Library.
CF HELSEA, Revere, and Winthrop, the present names of towns which were formerly parts of one town called Chelsea, at the earliest period of their known history were severally called Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point; and, for some years before they were set off and organized into a town, they were embraced in the general designation of Rumney Marsh, or Number Thirteen.
It was not until 1636 that towns were legally empowered to act as corporations, with the exclusive right to dispose of lands within their limits, make by-laws, and elect their own officers; but from a very early period they were recognized as quasi corporations, with the power to hold lands, or the use of lands, for the general benefit. For in 1632 it was ordered by the General Court, "that the necke of land betwixte Powder Horne Hill and Pullen Poynte shall belonge to Boston, to be enjoyd by the inhabitants thereof foreuer; "1 and in May, 1634, "that Winetsemet, and the howses there builte and to be builte, shall joyne themselues eith' to Charlton or Boston, as members of that towne, before the nexte Genall Court, to be holden the first Wednesday in Septemb' nexte, or els to be layde then to one of those two townes by the Court."2 And this choice not having been made when September came, it was ordered " that Wynetsem' shall belonge to Boston, and to be accompted as pte of that towne;"$ and on the twenty-fifth of the same month, " that Boston shall haue inlargem' att Mount Wooliston and Rumney Marshe."
By these enactments, in which the pleasure of the parties does not appear to have been consulted, a union was formed which continued more than a hundred years, or until January 8, 1738-39, when, on the petition of the inhabitants of Rumney Marsh, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the inhabitants of Boston, a new town was erected under the name of Chelsea.
1 1 Colony Records, p. 101.
2 Ibid. p. 119. 00 Ibid. p. 125. 4 Ibid. p. 130.
146
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
During the period between the settlement of the bay and the incorpora- tion of the town, the inhabitants of this district had no separate municipal existence, and therefore no municipal history. They were a part of the town of Boston, and its history was their history. But as a community dwelling remote from the centre, accessible only by a circuitous land route, or by a difficult and tedious passage by water, they came to have a life of their own, differing in some respects from that of their fellow-citizens who dwelt on the peninsula. This life, however, was marked by no extra- ordinary events or vicissitudes of fortune.
In some respects they were peculiarly favored. Their situation was healthy; and in later times the genealogist has noticed the high average duration of human life within the town limits. The soil also was of the best, though not easy to cultivate. On all sides except the west it was washed by seas," creeks, or bays, which moderated the extremes of heat and cold, and afforded abundance of fish and kelp. And of the entire territory it may be said that it contained scarcely a rod of upland not susceptible of remunerative cultivation, while its marshes were valuable for salt grasses.
With these natural advantages, and notwithstanding its remoteness from schools and churches, and with a large proportion of its proprietors non- resident it compared favorably, at the end of fifty years from its settlement, in wealth and population, with Muddy River, the other outlying portion of Boston, now the flourishing town of Brookline.
Nor did these advantages fail to attract the attention of the early visitors. William Wood, who saw it as early as 1634, says: "The last towne in the still Bay is Winnisimet ; a very sweet place for situation, and stands very commodiously, being fit to entertaine more planters than are yet seated : it is within a mile of Charles Towne, the River onely parting them. The chiefe Ilands which keepe out the Winde and the Sea from disturbing the Harbours are first Deare Iland, which lies within a flight-shot of Pullin-point. This Iland is so called because of the Deare which often swimme thither from the Maine, when they are chased by the Woolves: Some have killed sixteene Deare in a day upon this Iland. The opposite shore is called Pullin-point, because that is the usuall Channel. Boats used to passe thorow into the Bay; and the Tyde being very strong, they are constrayned to goe ashore and hale their Boats by the sealing, or roades, whereupon it was called Pullin-point." 1
While the bold bluffs of Winnisimmet were untouched by the levelling hand of man, and the great hills of the main, towards the north, and the lesser heights to the east, south, and west stood at their original elevations, and covered with primitive forests, the situation must have been one of scarcely paralleled beauty and interest.
Winnisimmet was probably settled before the coming of Winthrop, as
1 Wood, New England's Prospect, Prince Soc. this region can be gathered from the fac-simile of ed., p. 44. [Wood's notion of the topography of his map, given in another section. - ED.]
447
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
Hutchinson says he found mention of planters as early as 1626-27. But who those first settlers were, from whence they came, or how long they con- tinued, must remain the subject of conjecture. Possibly they may have been fishermen, who, having sought shelter in the bay, concluded to remain as husbandmen; but more probably, as Hutchinson suggests, they were from some of the neighboring plantations, or were some of Gorges' party, who dispersed after his return to England.
DEANE WINTHROP HOUSE.1
But whoever these planters may have been, they found the soil occupied by Indians, -subjects of Sagamore John, who for some time lived, and in 1633, with many of his people, died, at Winnisimmet, and of Sagamore James, of Lynn. Both of these chiefs died the same year, and were succeeded by their brother, Sagamore George. There is no evidence that James ever lived within the limits of Chelsea, nor are the limits of their several jurisdic- tions well defined; but the probabilities are that the subjects of James occupied what is now Revere, and those of John, Chelsea. Nor can the 1 The age of the Deane Winthrop house is not settled. It is certain that there was a house on the farm in 1649, and probably some years earlier ; and a plan of 1690 locates the farm- house as it now stands, -near the junction of the roads leading to Revere and Point Shirley. [It is probably this house that Sewall (Papers, i. 499) speaks of visiting, July 11, 1699, when he refers to some older house that Winthrop had occupied "in his father's days, more toward Dear Island," where he " was wont to set up a bush, when he saw a ship coming in. He is now," he adds, "77 years old; " and in record- ing his death, Mar. 16, 1703-4, says, "he dies upon his birth-day, just about the breaking of it. Si years old, - the last of Gov. Winthrop's children, statione novissimus exit." - Papers, ii. 96 .- E.D.]
+48
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
precise spot where Sagamore John lived at the time of his death be deter- mined. But the fact that Mount Washington was called Sagamore Ilill as early as 1641,1 and that the valley stretching northward to Woodlawn Ceme- tery formerly abounded in Indian relics and other indications of Indian occupation, seem to point to these sites as near the dwelling-place of the Sagamore.
There is extant the original decd from the heirs of Sagamore George, dated .April 9, 1685, to Simon Lynde, for the use of the heirs of John New- gate, of the " Newgate Farm," containing about four hundred or five hundred acres ; and another is on record, dated 1685, which covers a large part of
MFRFC
THE YEAMANS HOUSE.2
Revere and some part of Winthrop, running by way of release to some of the principal proprietors. In these deeds the Indians are made to recite earlier conveyances, then lost, reaching back to the " first coming of the English ;" but I know of no foundation for these recitals, unless it may be in the order of the General Court in 1639, by which Mr. Gibbons was empowered to agree with the Indians for the purchase of their lands in Water- town, Cambridge, and Boston.3 But the Indian claims to lands gave the white proprietors so much trouble before this settlement, that in 1651 they were required to set off twenty acres for the use of Sagamore George.+
1 1 Colony Records, P 340.
2 This house, which stands on Mill Street in Revere, was the farm-house of the estate called the Newgate, Shrimpton, or Yeamans farm, from its successive owners, and is said to have been built about 16So, -and, in that case, for
Nathaniel Newgate, then owner of the estate. At one time it was occupied by Rev. Thomas Cheever, the first settled minister of Chelsea, 1715.
3 I Colony Records, p. 254.
+ 3 Ibid. p. 252.
449
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
There are many facts preserved by Winthrop and others, respecting Sagamore John, which could properly find place in a history of the town. This most interesting of the Pawtucket Indians - the native chief of Win- nisimmet - died, as has already been stated, in 1633, and was buried by "Mr. Maverick of Winnisimmet."
Who this Mr. Maverick was is by no means clear, though he has gene- rally been supposed to have been Samuel Maverick, of Noddle's Island, who, with John Blackleach, owned Winnisimmet, and sold the whole or the greater part of the same to Richard Bellingham in 1634. But there are circun- stances, not to be recited in this brief sketch, which point to Elias, rather than Samuel Maverick, as the friend of the Indians.1
When the ownership of the soil was settled in the inhabitants of Boston, the authorities, in 1637, proceeded to allot the lands on considerations not made the matter of record, unless we may be referred to the proceedings of the Company before the patent was transferred to New England.
It is noticeable that no part of Winnisimmet, then owned by Belling- ham, was allotted; nor was there at that time any recognition of his title or interest in the Maverick and Blackleach estate. But, in 1640, the title which he had received from them in 1634-35 was recognized by the town, so far as its entry in the Town Records as his was a recognition, - though there is no evidence of any grant to the first recorded grantors. Were they some of the old planters of Winnisimmet, or owners under Gorges' patent, whose claim in this particular case was allowed to stand undisputed?
Before any recorded grant of any portion of the soil, the General Court passed an order creating a preserve for game, in the following terms: "That noe pson w'soeuer shall shoote att fowle vpon Pullen Poynte or Noddles Island, but the sd places shalbe reserved for John Perkins to take fowle wth netts.2" The consideration for this unique grant does not appear. John Perkins is said to have come over with Roger Williams in 1631, re- moved with John Winthrop, Jr., to Ipswich in 1633, and represented that town in the General Court in 1636.
A few years later, a portion of this same territory was a common for pasturage ; for in February, 1635, at a general meeting upon public notice, it was agreed that certain barren and young cattle should be kept abroad from the Neck, under penalty, and that there should be a little house built, and a sufficiently paled yard to lodge the cattle in of nights at Pullen Point Neck before the 14th day of the next second month.3
Nov. 30, 1635, the town made regulations respecting allotments to new comers, restricting them to such as were likely to be received members of the congregation.4
Dec. 14. 1635. " Item: that Mr William Hutchinson, Mr Edmund Quinsey, Mr. Samuell Wilbore, Mr William Cheeseborowe and John Olly-
1 [Sumner, East Boston, p. 162, gives the
Maverick genealogy, and avers that Elias was a brother, probably, of Samuel. - EB.]
VOL. I .- 57.
2 1 Colony Records, p. 94.
Town Records, p. 2. -
4 1bid. p. 3.
450
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ver, or four of them, shall, by the assignments of the Allotters, lay out their proportion of allotments for farmes att Rumley Marsh, whoe there are to have the same." 1
It was not, however, before Dec. 18, 1637, that the great allotments at Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point were assigned, with specifications of quantity and bounds. In some cases, apparently, these assignments are in pursuance of earlier special grants by the General Court, but not recorded.
The first name on the list is that of " Mr. Henry Vanc" (better known as Sir Harry), who, though not then in the country, was set down for two hundred acres, - since well known as the Fenno Farm. How long he held this estate I have not ascertained, but in 1639 it was the property of Nicholas Parker.
THE FLOYD MANSION.2
The next in order, northerly, was an allotment of one hundred and fifty acres to " Mr. Winthrop, the elder,"-which in 1639, by an unrecorded deed, he sold to John Newgate. This, with other land, constituted what has been successively known as the Newgate, Shrimpton, or Yeamans farm, of about four hundred acres; and it includes the hill east of Woodlawn Cemetery.
The tenth allotment on the list is that of three hundred and fourteen acres to " Mr. Robte Keine,"-which, with some additions, constituted the two great farms of Captain Robert Keayne, which have a history.
1 Town Records, P. 4. not far from the railroad bridge, was built about 2 [This house, which stands in Revere on the 1670, and may have been the residence of Cap- tain John Floyd in 1685. - ED.]
most northerly road leading to Revere Beach,
45
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD).
Among the principal grantees of lands at Rumney Marsh or Pullen Point were William Stitson, Major Edward Gibbons, Richard Tuttle, William Aspinwall, William Dyer (husband of the unfortunate Mary Dyer), John Coggeshall, John Oliver, John Cogan, Samuel Cole, William Brenton, and Elias Maverick. Two of these were afterwards Governors of Rhode Island. Many of them were the friends of Mrs. Hutchinson, and shared the fortunes of Robert REayn/ Jo En Organ Join many ara Jamas por. Samuel Dota Georges Wwwom the Antinomians. For the most part they were non-resident proprietors, and as such added little to the wealth or prosperity of that section of the town; and their farms were in the occupation of tenants or ser- vants, and perhaps served occasionally as summer residences, - as may be inferred from an incident recorded by Winthrop in 1643, of La Tour's meeting Captain Gib- bons's wife and children as they were going down the harbor in supposed sc- SIGNATURES OF PROPRIETORS. curity on their way to their farm at Pullen Point. For particulars of this
alarm see the chapter on " Boston and the Neighboring Jurisdictions."
The Winthrop farm is well known, as including allotments to father and son. This son was Deane Winthrop; and his name stands first among the entries on the Book of Possessions as owning " one farm at Pulling Point, containing about one hundred and twenty acres,"-which in recent years has again become the property of Boston.
During the Colonial period, and even as late as 1710, the inhabitants of the three precincts sought the privileges of religious worship in the neigh- boring towns where they had formed church connections; and, as this was a condition to citizenship, this class embraced all the leading inhabitants. But, since many of the large estates were cultivated by the tenants or ser- vants of the proprietors, as early as 1640, in the church of Boston, "a motion was made by such as have farms at Rumney Marsh, that our brother Oliver may be sent to instruct their servants, and be a help to them, because they cannot many times come hither, nor sometimes to Lynn, and sometime nowhere at all."
For the same period, the town, so far as I can discover, made no special provision for the education of youth, though, doubtless, they had the right to repair to the schools set up in the peninsula. But of even such as could afford the expense, few could avail themselves of this right, as the schools were remote, and the only practicable mode of access to them by ferry was uncertain, difficult, and costly.
The first authorized ferry in New England - perhaps on the continent - seems to have been that between Boston, Charlestown, and Winnisimmet. As early as November, 1630, the General Court ordered, "that whoever shall first give in his name to Mr. Governor that he will undertake to set up a
452
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ferry between Boston and Charlestown, and shall begin the same at such time as Mr Governor shall appoint, shall have 1" for every person, and Id for every 100 weight of goods he shall so transport."1 Apparently, this offer was not accepted until June 14, 1631, under which date is the following entry : " Edw. Converse hath undertaken to set up a ferry between Charlestown and Boston, for which he is to have ijd for every single person, and Id a piece if there be 2 or more."2 But, on the 18th May previously, it is recorded that " Thomas Williams hath undertaken to set up a ferry between Winnisim- mett and Charlestown, for which he is to have after 3ª a person, and from Winnisimmet to Boston 4ª a person."3 These dates seem to settle the question of priority in favor of Winnisimmet.
In September, 1634, the General Court granted the ferry to Samuel Maverick, in fee, reserving the right to determine the rates of transporta- tion ; and the next year Maverick granted his interest to Richard Belling- ham, in whom it remained until his death.
Such were the circumstances in which the inhabitants of this territory found themselves for sixty years after the settlement of the Bay. As agri- culturalists, they were undoubtedly prosperous; but in all other respects less fortunate than those whose access to the peninsula was more rapid and less costly. Their relative wealth to Muddy River (Brookline) may be approximately determined by the following tax-rates: In 1674, Muddy River, £8 15s .; Rumney Marsh, £12 Is. In 1687, £10 18s. 334d., as against £15 10s. 4d., for the other section; while the male inhabitants of sixteen years and upwards were forty-eight in Muddy River, and only thirty-five in Rumney Marsh.
Mellen Chamberlain
1 I Colony Records, p. S1.
2 Ibid. p. S8.
3 Ibid. p. 87.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE LITERATURE OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
BY JUSTIN WINSOR. Librarian of Harvard University.
A CCORDING to the best information to be obtained,1 it appears that during the fifty years which passed from the setting up of the first press in New England to the close of the Colonial Period, there were is- sued in Boston and in Cambridge something over three hundred separate publications. Of these nearly two thirds were expositions of religious be- lief, or writings in defence of dogmas, or aids to worship, - and all in the English tongue. If we add a score or more of tracts, or books of similar import, but printed in the Indian language, we materially strengthen the proportion of theology and religion. It cannot be unnoticed that of the remainder much the larger part was a growth of the same soil. Thus the fifty-two almanacs, the thirty and more publications of laws and official documents, and the expositions of college activity, all indicated how much dogma and exhortation ruled the day. During these same years there were perhaps a score of issues that may be classed as history, or materials · for the history, of the Colony; and these were not without something of the same flavor. Of all this rather surprising fecundity for an infant settle- ment, there is perhaps not a single native production that can be held to be a memorable addition to the world's store of literature; and of such as were borrowed, an edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, printed in 1681, is the only one of those books usually accounted famous.2 The censors suppressed another when they denied their imprimatur, in 1667, to a reprint of Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ. The same predominating spirit characterized most of the works of New England origin which for many
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