USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 64
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1 New England's Prospect, pt. i. ch. v.
2 Wonder-working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England, pp. 173, 174.
493
BOSTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
The public provision for the supply of meat and drink included, besides a market-place, licensed cook-shops and ordinaries or inns. The records of colony and town are crowded with regulations relating to these.1 Not only strong drink and tobacco came under restraint, but the apparently innocent cakes and buns. " It is ordered," Nov. 20, 1637, " that no person shall sell any cakes or buns either in the markets or victualling houses or elsewhere tipon pain of ten shillings fine; provided, that this order shall not extend to such cakes as shall be made for any burial or marriage, or such like special occasions." But the wisdom of the General Court was exhausted then, as now, in the attempt to control men's appetites. When Josselyn made his second voyage to New England in 1663, he landed at Boston, and " having gratified the men," he writes, who rowed him ashore, "we repaired to an ordinary (for so they call their Taverns there) where we were provided with a liberal cup of burnt Madeira wine, and store of plum-cake." His first voyage was undertaken in 1638, and writing of Boston thirty-five years later, when the village of his first voyage had become a flourishing town, with abundant entertainment for strangers and a less stringent super- vision, he recalled the narrowness of carlier experience when he wrote : "In 1637 there were not many houses in the town of Boston, amongst which were two houses of entertainment called ordinaries,2 into which if a
1 [The earliest record of the town on this subject, May 9, 1636, is to the effect that "only such as are allowed thereunto as Inkeepers" shall keep "any victuallers' houses." - ED.]
2 Drake points out that there was at this time - 1637 - but one inn in Boston, licensed in 1634, and that Josselyn probably included the Charlestown ordinary. History of Boston, p. 240. The first inn in Boston was Samuel Cole's
Samuel Orly
on the west side of Merchants Row, about mid- way from State Street to Faneuil Hall. Here Miantonomoh, the Narragansett chief, was enter- tained by Governor Vane in 1636; and here the next year came Lord Ley, Earl of Marlborough, who declined Governor Winthrop's hospitality, saying, " that he came not to be troublesome to any, and the house where he was, was so well governed, that he could be as private there as elsewhere." See Drake's Landmarks of Boston, p. Io8, and Winthrop's History, i. 229. [Long- fellow makes Cole say in his John Endicott, -
" But the ' Three Mariners' is an orderly house. Most orderly, quiet and respectable. And have I not
King Charles's Twelve Good Rules, all framed and glazed,
Hanging in my best parlor?"
Drake points out other inns of the colonial period. The "King's Ilead," on the corner of
Fleet and North streets, near Scarlett's wharf; the " Ship Tavern," sometimes styled " Noah's Ark," which was a brick building on the south- west corner of North and Clark streets, built probably before 1650, and standing as late as 1866; the "Red Lyon," probably kept by Nicholas Upsall, as early as 1654, on the corner of North and Richmond streets, and standing within twenty-five or thirty years. J. T. Ilas- sam, in the N. E. Ilist. and Geneal. Reg, Jan. ISSo, gives an account of the "King's Arms Tavern," 1651, and enumerates the contents of some of the rooms, from an old inventory. It stood at the head of Dock Square, and its apart- ments were given as "the Exchange," "the Chamber called London," "the Chamber over London," "Court Chamber," " Starr Chamber," &c Mr. Hassam also gave an account of the "Castle Tavern," situated at the corner of Dock Square and Elm streets, in the Register, Oct. 1879, p. 400; and of another "Castle Tavern," which stood on the present Batterymarch Street, in the Register, July, 1877, P. 329. Another noted tavern was the "States Arms," " the ordi- nary where the magistrates used to diet," which stood on the corner of State and Exchange streets. (Sumner's East Boston, 191.) The " Blue Anchor Tavern " stood on Washington Street, near the spot where the Transcript building was built, now occupied by the Globe news- paper. Dunton says, "there was no one house in all the town more noted, or where a man might meet with better accommodation; " and
494
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
stranger went, he was presently followed by one appointed to that office, who would thrust himself into his company uninvited ; and if he called for more drink than the officer thought in his judgment he could soberly bear away, he would presently countermand it, and appoint the proportion be- yond which he could not get one drop." 1
The officious interference with Mr. Josselyn's liberty to get drunk was a legal expression of the conscience of the community. A house of enter- tainment was a necessity, but it was hedged about with a great many regulations. None could keep an inn except they were licensed, and this was made more stringent by the order finally that the license must be renewed every year. The price of meat and drink was fixed by the Court. Sept. 3, 1634, it was " ordered that no person that keeps an ordinary shall take above 6d. a meal for a person and not above Id. for an ale quart of beer, out of meal time." In 1637, " in regard of the great abuse in ordi- naries, it is ordered that no ordinary keeper shall sell either sack or strong water," and at the same time the price of any drink was fixed at a penny a quart, as if to make the business unprofitable. In 1639, as a further check upon immorality, the drinking of healths is forbidden, and the custom stigmatized as " that abominable practice . .. also an occasion of much waste of the good creatures and of many other sins as drunkenness, quarrel- ings, bloodshed, uncleanness, mispense of precious time." Winthrop, more wisely, had endeavored to meet the difficulty by his own example as early as Oct. 25, 1630. As Mr. R. C. Winthrop in his chapter has cited from the Governor's Journal, the law against the sale of strong drink had probably become a dead letter ; for in 1648 a new law against harboring a drunkard, giving also authority to search the premises, was passed with the preamble :
"Whereas it is found by experience that a great quantity of wine is spent and much" thereof abnsed to excess of drinking and unto drunkenness itself, notwithstanding all the wholesome laws provided and published for the preventing thereof, which tendeth much to the dishonor of God, the discredit of the gospel, to the shame of the coun- try, and much offensive to all godly people amongst ourselves and such as are in confed- eration with us, and much to be feared if not speedily prevented it will bring some stroke of God's heavy hand upon us, - therefore ordered, &c."
The next year, on the 17th of October, the Court endeavored to fight wine with beer, by ordering that good beer shall be " kept by every innkeeper,
of its landlord, George Monck, he says, "it was almost impossible not to be merry in his com-
Goorge month
pany." Mr. Whitmore has a long note on this famous resort. Dunton's Letters, p 85, and note, P. 311. The early town records make mention of various persons licensed to keep inns and cook shops, to draw beer and retail strong water,
-such as William Hudson the elder, Hugh Gunnyson, James Davis, Mathew Ians, Robert Turner, William Courser, William blantan, Evan Thomas, Robert Feeld, William Whitwell, Clement Gross, Thomas Ruck, and Goody Upsall. Occasional revocations occur. Isaac Groose "is not to sell any bear by the quart within dors any more," in 1647. Martin Stebins, whose license is for a long while yearly re- newed, was in 1647 forbidden "to brewe any more."- ED.]
1 Two Voyages to New England, pp. 172, 173.
495
BOSTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
as strangers for want of it are put to the expense of wine," and a forfeit is laid upon every innkeeper who fails to keep good beer. Alas, for the human nature of innkeepers! They kept beer cheerfully, but in 1667 it became necessary to legislate upon the wretched condition of the beer, which was " brewed of or mingled with molasses, coarse sugars, or other materials." In 1654 another effort was made to moderate the amount of drinking. " Forasmuch as notwithstanding the great care this Court hath had and the laws made to suppress that swinish sin of drunkenness, and yet persons addicted to that vice find out ways to deceive the laws provided in that case, for the better preventing thereof, it is ordered ... that none licensed to sell strong waters, nor any private housekeeper, shall permit any person to sit drinking or tippling; " and the Court proceeded gravely to determine how much a man might drink and not be regarded as drunk.1 As Boston grew in importance the General Court found it necessary to give the town special power to regulate offences at inns.
With drinking at inns went other misdemeanors. In 1647, " upon com- plaint of great disorder that hath been observed and is like further to increase by the use of the game called shovel-board in houses of common entertainment, whereby much precious time is spent unfruitfully and much waste of wine and beer occasioned thereby," the use of it is forbidden at inns. So too, four years later, dancing at inns was prohibited, "whether at marriages or not; " and in 1664 a penalty was imposed for rude singing at taverns, " this Court being sensible of the great increase of profaneness amongst us, especially in the younger sort, taking their opportunity by meeting together in places of public entertainment to corrupt one another by their uncivil and wanton carriage, rudely singing and making a noise, to the disturbance of the family and other guests."
Tobacco was battered at persistently and desperately, but at each encoun- ter the weed seemed to be flourishing more greenly. In 1632 the public tak- ing of tobacco was prohibited ; in 1634 the injunction was extended to inns. In the same year an effort was made to stop the sale altogether; but the thrifty settlement added afterward the commentary that this was not to be construed as forbidding the exportation. Other countries might smoke if they would pay Massachusetts. The law was repealed altogether shortly afterward, and in 1637 all former laws against tobacco were repealed. A new law, indeed, was passed in 1638, forbidding the use of tobacco in the fields except on a journey or in meal-time ; but this appeared to be directed chiefly against the danger of fire. The sentiment of the law-makers, how- ever, was one of distrust and dislike. Idlers and tobacco-takers were con- temptuously classed together. It seemed quite impossible to them that persons should work and smoke at the same time, and the statute-book showed conclusively that the community was expected to work and not to
1 [Our neighbors of Plymouth thus exactly define the vice: "And by Drunkennesse is understood a person that either lisps or faulters in his speech by reason of overmuch drink, or
that staggers in his going, or that vomitts by reason of excessive drinking, or cannot follow his calling." Plymouth Laws, edited by Brig- ham, p. 84. - ED.]
496
THIE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
idle. Before the town was formed or the colony fairly organized, the Eng- lish company bade them take heed to industry. "We may not omit, out of zeal for the general good, once more to put you in mind to be very circum- spect, in the infancy of the plantation, to settle some good orders whereby all persons resident upon our plantation may apply themselves to one call- ing or other, and no idle drone be permitted to live amongst us, which, if you take care now at the first to establish, will be an undoubted means through God's assistance, to prevent a world of disorder."1 And to secure with all the rigor of the law a conformity to the principle of industry, it is ordered, Oct. 1, 1633, " that no person, householder or other, shall spend his time idly or unprofitably, under pain of such punishment as the Court shall think meet to inflict." At the same session it was " ordered that all workmen shall work the whole day, allowing convenient time for food and rest; " but this grim, unreformed labor-law was repealed in 1635.
Winthrop, who is so often found to have expressed in his own character and conduct the best intentions of the General Court, is described affec- tionately by a letter-writer of the time, Thomas Wiggin, as setting the example of industry and manual labor. " And for the Governor himself, I have observed him to be a discreet and sober man, giving good example to all the planters, wearing plain apparel, such as may well beseem a mean man, drinking ordinarily water, and when he is not conversant about matters of justice, putting his hand to any ordinary labor with his servants." 2 A similar testimony is in another contemporaneous narrative, which recites : "Now so soone as Mr. Winthrop was landed, perceiving what misery was like to ensewe through theire Idlenes, he presently fell to worke with his owne hands, and thereby soe encouradged the rest that there was not an Idle person then to be found in the whole Plantation." 3
The Company, in settling the plantation, was at pains to send out men of all useful trades and occupations, and the Colony was ready at once to foster its industries. Indeed it may be said to have taken too particular an interest in the business of its citizens, for it began carly to fix by law the wages of tradesmen. Carpenters, joiners, bricklayers, sawyers, thatchers, were all provided with a tariff of prices. This was in 1630. The next year the restraints were removed, and the trades " left free and at liberty as men shall reasonably agree." But in 1633 wages were again limited, and to the above classes were added clapboard ryvers, tilers, wheelwrights, mowers, and mer- chant tailors. In 1636 the General Court, finding the problem too compli- cated, turned over the power of fixing wages to the towns. The pressure for labor led to higher prices, and another effort at legislation was made in 1637-38, when a committee was appointed to consult on the state of things, not, be it observed, in the interests of labor, but because labor was getting
1 Mass. Coll. Record, i. 405. 3 2 Coll. Mass. ITist. Soc., iii. p. 129. See 2 Savage's "Gleanings for N. E. Ilistory," also Mr. Robert C. Winthrop's Life and Letters 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. P. 323. of John Winthrop, ii.
497
BOSTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
to be tyrannical. "Whereas," the resolution reads, " there hath been divers complaints made concerning oppression in wages, in prices of com- modities, in smith's work, in excessive prices for the work of draught and teams and the like, to the great dishonor of God, the scandal of the gospel, and the grief of divers of God's people both here in this land and in the land of our nativity, - thereforc," &c. There appears to have been no re- port of the committee, but in 1641 the Court demanded an abatement in wages to conform to the fall in the price of commodities.
But not wages alone: the price of goods also was fixed by law. At the same time - in 1633 - that a tariff of wages was laid, it was ordered that no person should sell to any of the inhabitants any provision, clothing, tools, or other commodities above the rate of fourpence in the shilling more than the same cost, or might be bought for ready money, in England. An excep- tion was made in the case of cheese, which might be spoiled in transport ; wine, oil, vinegar, and strong waters, which might suffer from leakage. These articles were to be sold at such rates as buyer and seller could agree upon.1
This special legislation appears only to have given trouble, and it is not certain that attempts at subvention were wholly successful. In 1640, for the encouragement of the manufacture of linen, woollen, and cotton cloth, it was ordered that whosoever should make any sort of the said cloths fit for use, and should show the same to the proper authorities, should have an allowance of three pence in the shilling of the worth of such cloth, according to its valuation. But it was essential that the work should all be done, including the spinning of the yarn, within the jurisdiction of the General Court. Eight months afterward five men, one of them at least a Bostonian, appeared and received the allowance; but the next day the law was repealed, with the grave statement that it tended to lay burdens upon the people. Fishermen, ship-carpenters, and millers were exempt from training, and the importance of the fishing trade was carly recognized in the appointment of a committee of six, with power to consult, advise, and take orders for the "setting forward and after managing of a fishing trade." The business of ship-building, too, was becoming, in 1641, an important industry, and an interesting provision was made for the appointment of a specially trained overscer. " Whercas," says the resolve, "the country is now in hand with the building of ships, which is a business of great import- ance for the common good, and therefore suitable care is to be taken that it be well performed, according to the commendable course of England and other places: it is therefore ordered that when any ship is to be built within this jurisdiction it shall be lawful for the owner to appoint and put in some able man to survey the work and workmen from time to time, as is usual in
1 [John Coggan set up the earliest shop in Boston, on the north corner of State and Wash- ington streets, opposite what was then the mar- ket ground, where the Old State House now
stands. Sewall, Papers, i. 170, in recording the death of Anthony Stoddard, the linen-draper, March 16, 1686-87, speaks of him at that time as "the ancientest shopkeeper in town." - ED ] VOL. 1 .- 63.
198
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
England, and the same so appointed shall have such liberty and power as belongs to his office."
In its further watch over the trades the Court forbade tanners to carry on the shoemaker's trade, or shoemakers that of tanners, to prevent deceit in the tanning of leather. The business in leather was a flourishing one, owing in part to the trade with the Indians, who brought in the spoils of the forest to the town. Bakers were required to place a distinctive mark upon their bread.
The prosperity of trade when Boston was well established appears from the great diversity of occupations followed, and the increase of shops and trading-houses. Johnson notes that there was even an export of boots and shoes to England, and then gives an cnumeration of the trades. "Carpen- ters," he says, "joiners, glaziers, painters, follow their trades only ; gun- smiths, locksmiths, blacksmiths, nailers, cutlers, have left the husbandmen to follow the plow and cart, and they their trades ; weavers, brewers, bakers, costermongers, feltmakers, braziers, pewterers and tinkers, rope makers, masons, lime, brick, and tile makers, cardmakers to work and not to play, turners, pump makers, and wheelers, glovers, fellmungers, and furriers are orderly turned to their trades, besides divers sorts of shopkeepers, and some who have a mystery beyond others, as have the vintners."1 The town records of Boston give evidence of the great number of shops in it. The town kept a strict surveillance of them, and forbade any one to set up a shop or to manufacture goods unless he were first made an inhabitant of the town.
One of the most important industries of the day was ship-building and its connected enterprises. The year after Winthrop's arrival he built on the Mystic a bark of thirty tons' burden, to which he gave the pretty name of the " Blessing of the Bay." Between 1631 and 1640 other vessels were built on the Mystic, at Marblehead, and at Salem. The building of a ship of three hundred tons' burden at Salem in 1640, by Mr. Peter, stirred up the inhabi- tants of Boston, we are told, to the same business, and they built one of a hundred and sixty tons in the ship-yard of Mr. Bourne.2 "The work was hard to accomplish," says Winthrop, "for want of money, &c., but our shipwrights were content to take such pay as the country could make." 3
1 Wonder-working Providence, bk. iii. ch. vi.
" {See Boston Town Records, pp. 58, 59. This was most likely Captain Nehemiah Bourne,
whose house, according to the Book of Posses- sions, stood not far from the spot now occupied by Union Wharf. N. E. IFist. and Gencal. Reg., Jan. 1873, p. 28. " 25th of 11th moneth, 1640. Mr. Winthropp, Mr. Tinge, and Captaine Gib- ones are appoynted to vue the land adjoyning
Mr. Bworne's howse for a place for building the shipp." Bourne, as a ship-builder, lived first in Charlestown (1638), and then in Dorchester. Admiral Preble has given some notes on "Early Ship-building in Massachusetts," in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Jan. 1869, and Jan. 1871. S. A. Drake recites " a visit to the old ship-yards," in his Landmarks, p. 178. Walter Merry is ac- counted one of the earliest Boston shipwrights. Ile had his house and wharf at " Merry's Point," near North Battery Wharf. He was drowned in the harbor in 1657. Shurtleff's Description of Boston, 107 .- ED.]
3 Ilistory, ii. 24.
499
BOSTON IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
In 1642 three more ships were built in Boston, and in the same year the author of New England's First Fruits writes: "Besides many boats, shallops, hoys, lighters, pinnaces, we are in a way of building ships of a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred tons. Five of them are already at sea; many more in hand at this present; we being much encouraged herein by reason of the plenty and excellence of our timber for that purpose, and seeing all the materials will be had there in short time."1 But this account must take in the whole Bay. The ships thus built were engaged both in the coasting trade and in the Transatlantic. The "Blessing of the Bay " made its first trip to Long Island. From Ber- muda came potatoes, oranges, and limes; cotton from the West Indies; and "' the Trial,' the first ship built in Boston, being about a hundred and sixty tons, Mr. Thomas Graves,2 an able and a godly man, master of her, was sent to Bilboa in the fourth month last, with fish which she sold there at a good rate, and from thence she freighted to Malaga and arrived here this day (23 Jan. 1643), laden with wine, fruit, oil, linen, and wool, which was a great advantage to the country, and gave encouragement to trade." 3 In the October previous a ship set sail from Boston for Lon- don "with many passengers, men of chief rank in the country, and great store of beaver. Their adventure was very great, considering the doubtful estate of the affairs of England, but many prayers of the churches went with them and followed after them." 4
In the train of ship-building came the making of rope. In 1641, prob- ably in connection with the building of the "Trial," John Harrison was invited to Boston from Salisbury, and set up his rope-walk in the field pre- sumably adjoining his house, which stood on Purchase Street, at the foot of Summer. He seems to have had the monopoly of the business in Boston, and to have been undisturbed in possession until 1663, when Mr. John Hey- man, of Charlestown, had permission to set up his posts in Boston, but only for making fishing-lines. This was found to interfere with Mr. Harri- son's business, and the selectmen withdrew his permit from Heyman; but Harrison was then old, and it is certain that after his death rope-walks mul- tiplied in number.5
The business of the men of Boston was not then, as it is not now, con- fined within the town limits. Besides the occupation of farming which the open fields of the town permitted, they had then large farms outside of the town, at Brookline (Muddy Brook), on the Mystic, and on the islands in the harbor.6 The beginning of those enterprises for which Boston men have been famous, in developing the material resources of the country, dates from this period,7 when the town of Boston granted at a general town-meet- ing three thousand acres of the common land at Braintree to Join Win-
1 New England's First Fruits, 22.
2 [See Mr. H. H. Edes's chapter in this volume. - ED.]
3 Winthrop, ii. 154.
4 Ibid. ii. 1 50.
5 [Cf. Drake's Landmarks, 273, 352. Drake's Boston, 381. - ED.]
6 [Sce Mr. C. (. Smith's chapter on " Boston and the Colony."- ED.]
7 Nov. 19, 1643.
500
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
throp, Jr., and his partners, " for the encouragement of an iron work." Winthrop's father, in his History,1 gives a brief account of the venture. " Mr. John Winthrop, the younger, coming from England two years since, brought with him 1,000 pounds stock and divers workmen to begin an iron work, and had moved the Court for some encouragement to be given the undertakers, and for the Court to join in carrying on the work, &c. The business was well approved by the Court, as a thing much conducing to the good of the country; but we had no stock in the treasury to give fur- therance to it,2 only some two or three private persons joined in it, and the Court granted the adventurers nearly all their demands, as a monopoly of it for twenty-one years, liberty to make use of any six places not already granted, and to have three miles square in every place to them and their heirs, and freedom from public charges, trainings, &c." 3
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