USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880. Vol. I > Part 69
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
Considerable change in the appearance of things at the North End about this time resulted from a grant of the town, July 31, 1643, to Henry Simonds, John Button, and others, of the whole arca of land embraced by the North Cove, together with the marshes beyond. This was upon condition that the grantees should put up on the premises " one or more corn-mills, and main- tain the same forever." Leave was also given to them " to dig one or more trenches in the highways or waste grounds, so as they may make and main- tain sufficient passable and safe ways over the same for horse and cart." The grantees went speedily to work and dug the ditch, which soon acquired and ever afterward retained the name of the Mill Creek ; bridges were thrown across it at Hanover Strect, and later, when they had filled in the marsh, at North Street, and mills were built upon the margin of the Mill Pond, and were called the South and North Mills,2 including in all a grist mill, a saw mill, and in later years a chocolate mill.
The Mill Creek thus formed separated the town into two parts, and was for a long time considered the dividing line between the North and South ends. There is reason to believe that there had formerly been a small natural watercourse across the marshy neck, thus practically making an island of the North End, which indeed has even been called the " Island of Boston." 3
1 [William Coleborn was a considerable man of the early days, and often conspicuous in mat- ters relating to the south part of the town. Coleborn's field seems to have had for its centre the hillock where Hollis-Street church now stands, and to have extended to the shore on either hand, and as far south as Castle Street. The road to Roxbury followed the easterly shore through this space. - ED.]
2 [The position of these mills is marked on the map in this volume. - En.] 8 [Johnson, Wonder-working Providence, in 1648, says, "The north-east part of the town being separated from the other with a narrow stream, cut through the neck of land by industry, whereby that part is become an island." There secins to have been a passage for the smaller craft well into the creek. Deeds of adjoining
534
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Besides these various mills, Winthrop tells of another windmill being erected in 1636, the location of which, although not given, was probably at Windmill Point, or perhaps near the spot now known as Church Green ; while before 1650 there were three others stationed respectively at Fox Hill, at Fort Hill, and upon one of the elevations ' in " the New Field." These, with that already mentioned upon Copp's Hill, sufficiently attest the growth and prosperity of the colony; and we may easily conceive that, perched thus upon their respective headlands, and all set whirling by an easterly wind, they must have given the town a curious and busy aspect to the traveller sailing tip the harbor about the year 1650.
Luckily we have a graphic description of the town at this very time in the often-quoted passage from Johnson's Wonder-working Providence : -
"Invironed it [the peninsula] is with the Brinish flouds saving one small Istmos which gives free accesse to the Neighbour Townes by Land on the South side ; on the North-west and North-east two constant Faires [ferries] are kept for daily traffique thereunto. The forme of this Towne is like a heart naturally scituated for Fortifica- tions, having two Hills on the frontice part thereof next the Sea ; the one well fortified on the superficies thereof with store of great artillery well mounted, the other hath a very strong battery built of whole Timber and filled with Earth at the descent of the Hill [Copp's] in the extreme poynt thereof; betwixt these two strong armes lies a large Cove or Bay on which the chiefest part of this Town is built, overtopped with a third Hill; all three like overtopping Towers keepe a constant watch to foresee the approach of forrein dangers, being furnished with a Beacon and lowd babling guns to give notice by their redoubled eccho to all their Sister-townes. The chief Edifice of this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-bankes and wharfed out with great industry and cost, the buildings beautifull and large ; some fairely set forth with Brick, Tile, Stone, and Slate, and orderly placed with comely streets."
.
This account must appear somewhat rose-colored when compared with that of the Royal Commissioners written fifteen years later, who say with less enthusiasm that, "Their houses are generally wooden, their streets crooked, with little decency and no uniformity." And this, al- though not very flattering, seems a very natural first impression for the transatlantic visitor of two centuries ago, notwithstanding Mr. Josselyn's testimony at about the same time that "the Buildings are handsome, joyning one to the other, as in London, with many large streets, &c .; " that there were " fair buildings,2 some of stone," together with the ac count of Mr. Gibbs's " stately edifice," 3 and the "three fair Meeting-houses
land reserve "free liberty of egresse and regress with vessells, not prejudicing the mill streame," and a toll of sixpence was exacted "for such as open the bridge." Second Report of Record Commissioners, 171, 177 £ The rapid current through it caused it to be the only place (1656) into which butchers were permitted to throw their garbage. - ED.]
1 [This was near the spot where the West Church (Cambridge and Lynde streets) stands. -ED.]
2 Cf. John Dunton's Letters from New Eng- land, p. 67.
8 Robert Gibbs's house stood on Fort Hill, and Josselyn adds, it "will stand him in little less than £3,000 before it is fully finished," - a princely edifice for the young town, if we take into consideration the difference in the value of money. Cf. John Dunton's Letters, p. 69, for a similar description of the Gibbs House. [Of Gibbs's family connections, see Mr. Whitmore's chapter. - ED.]
535
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
or Churches which hardly stiffice to receive the Inhabitants and Stran- gers that come in from all parts."
The tone of this as well as of the previous extract from Johnson is mis- leading, and can only be accounted for by a traveller's incorrigible habit of exaggerating. It is evident enough from facts in our possession, and from early views of the town, that " stone houses " and "stately edifices " were only too rare; that the buildings were chiefly of wood; 1 that they were generally small, unpainted, and unimposing, if not mean-looking; and that, placed hither and thither in the crooked streets, they must have very dimly recalled London or any other continental city.
In twenty years, however, the town had no doubt grown greatly, and many and striking changes had taken place in its outward aspect. It was beginning to have a settled, thriving, and prosperous look; its principal streets had been laid out and "paved with pebble," docks and wharfs built,2 ferries established, and prominent public buildings added. Some of these deserve particular mention. The strong battery mentioned in Johnson's description above was that known for many years as the North Battery ; it was built about the year 1646,3 on the petition of the North-enders, and at their own expense, they praying that they might "for the future bee freed from all rates and assessments to what other fortifications bec in the towne until such time as the other part of the towne, not joyning with us hercin, shall have disbursed and layed out in equall proporcion of their cstates with ours as by trew account may appear." Although made only of strong timber filled with earth it was admirably located at Merry's Point above described, and with its "lowd babling guns" commanded not only the harbor, but the entrance to the river. Twenty years later, in 1666, there was built at the southern end of the cove upon the site of the present Rowe's Wharf, and under the shadow of Fort Hill, a similar defensive work, - the famous Sconce or South Battery.+ It is quaintly and sufficiently de- scribed in the Report of the Commissioners sent by the General Court to inspect it in 1666 : -
" Wee ent'ed a well contriued fort, called Boston Sconce ; the artillery therein is of good force and well mounted, the gunner attending the same ; the former thereof suite- able to the place, so as to scower the harbour, to the full length of their shot euery
1 See in corroboration of this the Journal of Jasper Dankers, who came to Boston in 16So. He says: " All the houses are made of thin small cedar shingles nailed against frames and then filled in with brick and other stuff ; and so are their churches."
2 [The Town Records previous to 1650 show numerous permits given to "wharf out " before shore lands, particularly from the lown dock to Merry's Point. - ED ]
3 [ The town had had a warning of the neces- sity of such protection a few years earlier, 1644, when the project was first mooted. Snow, Bos-
ton, 126. The Town Records, under date of "Sth of 11th mo. 1643," show that a committee (Captain Keayne, Captain Hawkins, Ensign Savage, Sergeant Hutchinson, Sergeant Johnson, and Sergeant Oliver) were named "for the order- ing of which." Second Rept. of Record Commis- sioners, 77. - ED.]
4 [It was erccted by Major-General John Leverett, afterwards Governor, and the report of the committee appointed to view it upon completion is printed in Shurtleff's Desc. of Boston, 116. See also Snow, Boston, p. 127, 155. -ED.]
536
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
way ; it is spacious within, that the trauerse of one gunne will not hinder the other's course ; and for defence, the foundation is of stone and well banked with earth for dull- ing the shott and hindering execution ; ffinally, wee app'hend it to be the compleatest worke of that kind which hitherto hath been erected in this country."
Landward, a defensive work was very early established not far from the present Dover Street. Shurtleff1 thus describes it : -
"It was chiefly of brick with embrasures in front and places for cannon on its flanks, and a deep ditch on its south side ; and had two gates, one for carriages and teams, and another for persons on foot. Regular watches and wards were kept near it. A little to the south of this had been placed in earlier times a row of palisades. After the disappearance of the hostile Indians, the whole fortification fell into decay, and was not renewed till into the next century."
In the harbor there was a fortification erected on Castle Island, and Johnson describes it as built on the north-east end of the island, " upon a rising hill." Views of the island taken in the next century show that in its present state it has been considerably cut down from its original height; indeed, its name seems to imply a commanding altitude, for it was called Castle Island before a fortification was begun there, and while it was the intention of the colonists to make their seaward defence at Nantasket, - a scheme soon however abandoned. In the summer of 1634 Deputy Roger Ludlow was chosen to oversee the erection of "two platformes and one small fortification to secure them bothe." In October the General Court confirmed the action of the town, and directed a house to be " built on the topp of the hill to defend the said plattforme." In the following March, 1634-35, the Court ordered it to be "fully perfected, the ordnance mounted." A later commander, in speaking of its early days, says this primitive struc- ture was made " with mud walls, which stood divers years; " but Johnson assigns as a reason of the decay into which it soon fell, that the lime used in its construction was " what is burnt of oyster shels." The carliest captains of it were Nicholas Simpkins (to 1635), Edward Gibbons (to 1636), Rich- ard Morris (to 1637) ; then, after an interval when private parties undertook to manage it, Robert Sedgwick in June, 1641. Fitful attempts were made to keep it in repair; it was finally rebuilt "with pine trees and earth," and in 1654 Johnson speaks of it as under the command of Captain Daven- port, " a man approved for his faithfulness, courage, and skill." The fort had then cost about four thousand pounds, and the barricade construction had given place to one of brick, with " three rooms in it, a dwelling-room below, a lodging-room over it, the gun-room over that, wherein stood six very good Saker guns, and over it on the top three lesser guns." In July, 1665, "God was pleased to send a grievous storm of thunder and light- ening, which did some hurt in Boston, and struck dead here that worthy renowned Captain Richard Davenport; upon which the General Court in Aug. 10th following appointed another Captain." This was the narrator
1 Description of Boston, p. 140.
537
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
we quote, Roger Clap, who held the office till 1686; and he adds that "when danger grew on us by reason of the late wars with Holland, God permitted our castle to be burnt down, which was on the twenty-first day of March, 1672-73." 1
The first town-house built in the market place at the head of State Street was undoubtedly an imposing edifice for its day, and gave character to the street. It was a wooden house "built upon pillars," and there seems to have been a sort of exchange for the merchants in the lower story with cham- bers above, where the monthly court held its sessions.2 It was built largely with money left for the purpose by Captain Robert Keayne, which was supplemented by later subscriptions from prominent and wealthy citizens.
The fact that Josselyn speaks of " three fair mecting-houses" shows that his account must have been written in 1671-72, after his return to Eng- land and not on his arrival here in 1663; for the "Old South," or the South meeting-house as it was then called, the third church in order built in the town, was only just completed at that date, having settled its first minister in 1670.
The other churches included in the account were the " Old North," the church of the Mathers, and the second in order of time, -a wooden building erected in Clark's Square (North Square) at the North End, about the year 1650, and the First Church before mentioned, - the rude little thatched building on State Street having been long since taken down, when a larger structure was built in 1640, on the site now occupied by Joy's Building on Washington Street.3
The opinion which Shaw advanced, that most of the first settlers soon removed to the North End, or beyond the Mill Creek, was questioned by Dr. Snow, who found the names of only about thirty residents in that part of the town. He very properly says, however, that about 1650, some twenty years after the settlement of the town, " An increase of business began to be perceived at the North End, and that removals began to be made into it which resulted in its becoming 'for many years the most populous and elegant part of the town.' " Snow's view is borne out by later study of the Book of Possessions. The maps which have been made from its descrip- tions do not show, however, that there were many, if any, house-lots farther west in the " New Field " than the line of Sudbury Street and the corner of Howard Street and Tremont Row. The allotments beyond were for tillage and mowing.
No clear notion of the early aspect of the town can well be obtained without an understanding of the number, direction, and condition of its
1 Shurtleff traces the history of the Castle in his Desc. of Boston, ch. xxxvii. Drake says that the burning was a year later, 1673-74, Hist. of Boston, 396.
2 Cf. Neal's New England, ii. 225. [The Town Records under date, "9: 1: 56-57," show that a committee (Captain Savage, Mr. Stodard, Mr. Howchin, and Mr. Edward Hutch- VOL. 1 .- 68.
inson) was named "to consider the modell of the towne house to bee built, as concerning the charge thereof and the most convenient place," &c. Mr. Whitmore has traced the subject thoroughly in the Sewall Papers, i. 160. - En.] 8 The first sermon was preached in it Aug. 23, 1640. No sketch of it, nor particular descrip- tion, has been preserved.
538
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
highways. Unfortunately, no list of the streets as they existed during the colonial period is on record; indeed, save in a few instances, they had not then been named, and we are therefore left for our information to such chance mention as can be gleaned from the Town Records, the Book of Possessions, and the written accounts of travellers. It must always be re- membered, however, that previous to 1684 only a very few of the principal thoroughfares descrved the name of streets; the rest were, for the most part, rather lanes and by-paths more or less worn and frequented according to their locality.
In May, 1708, there appears for the first time in the Town Records a list of the existing streets, lanes, and alleys, with their names and boundaries ; and of these it may be safe to assume that certain of the chief routes and thor- oughfarcs, connecting old landmarks and important points of the town, were identical with those laid out and in use from the carlicst days of the colony. A careful collation of the different entries in the town and county records bearing upon the point will help us in the study.1
Washington and Hanover streets were then as now the chief thorough- fares of their respective quarters of the town, - the former, laid out along the narrow stretch of level ground between the foot of Beacon Hill and the shore, wound away towards the south and was gradually extended across the Neck to Roxbury; the latter starting from the declivity of Cotton [Pemberton] Hill crossed the Mill Creek by a bridge and traverscd the centre of the northern peninsula to the sea.
One may easily conceive that in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- tury Washington - then called simply the high or main street, and later by a multiplicity of names2- may have justly deserved Johnson's cpithet " comely," bordered as it was on both sides, from the market place to Milk Street, and cven farther south to Boylston and Essex, with substantial frame-houses, many of them large and handsome, surrounded by fine gardens, where dwelt some of the most solid men of the colony. Here lived John Winthrop, the doughty first governor; here uprose the steeple of the first " South Meeting-House; " here upon the site of the " old corner book- storc " dwelt Mistress Anne Hutchinson, whose kecn wit and sharp tongue set the town at loggerheads; here, later in the period, stood the famous Province House, soon to be described; here farther north was built the sec- ond house of the First Church, as before mentioned; herc at the junction with State Street stood the Town House before noticed and undoubtedly the finest public building of its day, while across the way appeared the res- idence of Governor John Leverett, who, in a varicd experience, directed the war against King Philip, and served under Cromwell; here, in fine, thronged,
1 See the collation of extracts showing the course of Washington Street, printed in the preface to the Report of the Committee on Nomenclature of Streets. (City Documents, 119, IS79.)
2 Starting from the fortifications on the Neck,
it was known, as far back as 1708, by four dis- tinct names - Orange, Newbury, Marlborough, and Cornhill - along the successive sections of the way, until all were at length united under the present name, after the visit of General Wash- ington to the city in 1789.
539
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
as occasion served, the cream of colonial social life, and for want of side- walks, "except when driven on one side by carts and carriages, every one walked in the middle of the street where the pavement was the smoothest." 1
State Street carly rivalled Washington Street in interest, and surpassed it in importance. In one of the early views of the next century the street appears paved with pebbles and without sidewalks ; and so we may assume it to have been for some time previous to 1684. The buildings too, doubtless, more nearly answered Josselyn's description as standing " close together on each side of the street as in London, and are furnished with many fair shops." This was the busy bustling part of the town, the centre of commerce and trade ; here at its head was the first market; 2 here, in the market place, was subsequently built the Town House with the Merchants Exchange as above mentioned; and not far from here was the first post-office, estab- lished in 1639 by the following order of the General Court: -
"For the preventing the miscarriage of letters, it is ordered, that notice bee given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond seas or to be sent thither, are to be brought unto him, and he is to take care that they bee delivered or sent according to their directions ; pro- vided that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please." 3
Here, too, for nearly ten years succeeding the settlement, was the First Church where Wilson preached, and had for a colleague the Rev. John Cotton, sometime rector of St. Botolph's church in England, out of com- pliment to whom Boston is said to have been named, 4 - a man of excellent ability and unusual learning. And here, at last, before the very door of the sanctuary, perhaps to show that the Church and State went hand-in-hand in precept and penalty, stood the first whipping-post, - no unimportant adjunct of Puritan life.
The early street as thus described must not be judged by the present. Much less in extent, not having yet been fully quadrupled in length by the building of Long Wharf, it was but a short way and by no means entirely given over to trade and public affairs, Many of the merchants lived over their shops, and it numbered among its residents several names well known in the history of the town. At the head of the street on the south-east cor- ner lived Captain Robert Keayne, a rich merchant and public-minded cit- izen, and the first captain of the " Ancient and Honorable Artillery," - all of which dignity however did not save him from being tricd, convicted, and punished for making what was then thought an exorbitant profit upon his wares. The magnanimous Captain took an unusual but most worthy re- venge upon his busy-body townsmen, by leaving them a handsome legacy wherewith to build their town house, in a will of nearly two hundred pages, -
I Quincy Memoir, - pertaining to a later, but in this respect not a different, period.
2 [The open space was at first, we may judge, somewhat encumbered with stationary shops ; for the Town Records, 1645, show that the widow Howin had a shop here which the au-
thorities removed, granting her compensation therefor. - ED.]
8 Fairbanks lived on Washington Street.
4 [This has often been the reason assigned ; but see Dr. Haven's chapter on the " Massa- chusetts Company."- ED.]
540
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
a large part of which was devoted to an elaborate defence of his mercantile honor, whereby he may be said to have had the last word in the dispute. In which respect, we may add, he came better off than in his famous con- troversy with the fair widow Shearman about the pig, which quarrel for a while set the whole town by the cars, and curiously enough is said to have resulted in the division of the General Court and the establishment of the Board of Deputics as a distinct body from the Magistrates, - the founda- tion of our present double legislative body.1
On the opposite corner of the street lived John Cogan, who has the distinction of being the father of Boston merchants; and below him on the same side the Rev. John Wilson, the first pastor of the colony. Crooked Lane, which ran through his land from State Street to Dock Square, was afterwards called Wilson's Lane in his honor, and preserved its name until the street itself was lost in the extension of Devonshire Street.
Tremont Street, which along the southern part of its course was little more than a straggling cart-road across the Common,2 early became, north of its junction with School Street, a favorite place of residence.
On the slope of the hill which for a time was called in his honor, and near the easterly entrance to Pemberton Square, lived the Rev. John Cot- ton in the house previously occupied by that remarkable young man Harry Vane, and later by Hull the mint-master, who spoke of it " as greatly disadvantageous for trade," but being desirous of "a quiet life and not too much business, it was always best for me." After him it became the home of his son-in-law, who spoke of it as "considerably distant from other buildings and very bleake."3 This was the famous Samuel Sew- all, the first chief-justice of the colony; the same who sat in judgment upon the witches, and afterwards repented it; who refused to sell an inch of his broad acres to the hated Episcopalians to build a church upon; who was one of the richest, most astute, sagacious, scholarly, bigoted, and influential men of his day ; who has left us in his Diary, recently published,4 a transcript almost vivid in its conscientious faithfulness of that old-time life, where he tells us of the courts he held, the drams he drank, the sermons he heard, with the text of each, the funerals he attended, at some of which they had scarfs and gloves, at some of which they had none, the squabbles of the council-board, the petty affairs of his own household and neighborhood,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.