USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 18
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Randolph also charged the agents with having got hold of his papers, and of having accomplices in treacherous parties in the Court. Just pre- vious to our revolt our patriots bent all their skill to ferreting out the machi- nations of their enemies and getting at their secrets. As to the artifice and trickery involved in the matter, it would not be easy to say on which side was the more of these ingenuities.
The most signal instance of these alleged breaches of confidence and damaging exposures was that of Franklin's sending here letters of a most mischievous and aggravating tenor, written by Hutchinson and other Tories, under the seal of secrecy, to public men in England. But Hutchinson had previously sent to England confidential letters from Franklin to friends here.
William Bollan, who, in 1762, had been dropped as Agent of the General Court for neglecting correspondence, was afterward employed as such by the Council; and he succeeded in getting back to favor here by sending to Massachusetts thirty-three letters of Governor Bernard; for which act he was, of course, abused in England.
The most serious and important of all the instances in which charges of dishonorable and base conduct in an Agent of Massachusetts in London are founded upon the alleged use of fraud in obtaining private papers designed for information of the home government, is that which attaches to the most eminent of our agents, at the most critical period. Dr. Franklin had been acting as Agent for Pennsylvania and Georgia, and rendering valuable service
1 Annals, 146 and 149.
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to all the colonies, when, on the death of our Provincial Agent, Dennis de Berdt, in May, 1770, he was appointed to that office by the Assembly of Massachusetts, October 24 following. His commission was for one year, and was renewed while he remained in England. He was "to appear for the House at the Court of Great Britain, before His Majesty in Council, or in either House of Parliament, or before any public Board." Of course, Governor Hutchinson did not ratify this appointment, nor was he asked to do so. When Franklin, with his credentials, waited upon Lord Hillsborough the American Secretary, his Lordship refused to read them, or to recognize him in his official capacity, insisting, and procuring from the Board of Trade a resolution, that no agent should be received from any colony unless ac- credited by its Assembly and Governor. Franklin said that the governors had no need of an agent, while the people had; and he contrived to dis- charge his mission indirectly by writing. Two years afterward he per- formed for Massachusetts a service, the method of which visited upon him in England unmeasured obloquy and the foulest charges, while at the same time it was the occasion of a well-nigh fatal duel. Franklin allowed the storm of abuse and rage to break over without any public explanation or vindication of himself at the time. But he left in writing, to be published after his death, a full statement, save in one important particular, of the whole transaction, -one of those calm, majestic, and nobly dignified expo- sitions of a clouded and misrepresented matter, which indicate at once the honest man and the true philosopher. He says that up to a certain time he had believed that all the measures of government so offensive and irri- tating to Massachusetts, -like the sending over of regiments to overawe the people, and other like tyrannical and oppressive acts, - originated in Eng- land, and were the devices of our enemies there. In conversation with an eminent man in office, he had incidentally expressed this assumption. His friend told him he was in error, and that the most odious of all these measures which had so inflamed the people of Massachusetts, so far from originating in England, were advised, urged, helped, and directed by per- sons resident and in office in Massachusetts. Franklin, amazed at the state- ment, demanded full evidence, which was promised him. This friend then brought to Franklin a large bundle of letters from Hutchinson, from his brother-in-law Lieut .- Governor Oliver, and four other prerogative men here, the contents of which proved that in writing to public officials in England they had made such statements and offered such advice as were really "the foundation of all the grievances of the Province." Franklin was astounded at the development; and, expressing a belief that an exposure would do more than anything else to allay the indignation here, he begged that he might be allowed to send the originals hither. Permission was granted on four conditions, - that the letters should not be printed; that no copies should be taken; that they should be privately shown to a few leading men, and that they should be returned to England. Franklin adds that the writers of these treacherous letters had taken exactly the same liberty with
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confidential communications which he and other friends of America had written, -copies of them, surreptitiously obtained, having been sent to Eng- land. As a matter of course, under the heat of indignation the above conditions were violated, by the buzzing and whispering in the air at the consternation over the astounding disclosure, and the letters got into print. Franklin never disclosed the secret as to the person through whom he received these papers. In this dramatic way ends our correspondence as subjects with royal officials.1
This review of the administration of Massachusetts by Crown Governors would be incomplete without a reference to the social influences wrought in Boston, the capital of the Province, by the presence of such officials. Bos- ton became the scene and centre of a miniature Court, with the state, the forms and ceremonies of a vice-royalty. Without any set purpose or intent to insure that result it was in effect realized. A knight, a baronet, and even an earl, though but an Irish one, were among the commissioned chief magistrates of the Province. Wherever such titled personages dis- charge the functions of royalty, with their subordinates and dependents, they offer the essential elements and the component materials of a Court. The consequent incidents of parade, etiquette, precedence, and observance came in to complete, after a fashion, something which imitated the original at the residence of the monarch himself. A stately edifice, assigned and furnished with reference to the public uses of royal functionaries, and a con- secrated edifice where the forms of the national religion may be observed with dignity by an authorized priest, will contribute other helps to consti- tute a real Court. The direct influence and agency of the Crown appeared and forced themselves upon the notice of the native population, who loved the old ways. Sewall, who as Judge and Councillor was high in office under the Provincial government till near the end of his long life, was a cautious but a sad participant in and observer of the changes around him. His Diary is a record of regrets and sorrows over the decay of the old piety, and the intrusion of hated reminders of what the fathers rejected and left for their wilderness home.
The middle classes of society, - and they were nearly the whole of it, - the thrifty mechanics and industrious toilers in their plain households and their inherited habits of piety were often shocked and grieved at what they saw. Scarlet had not been a favorite color with them. The royal insignia had scarce been seen by the mass of the people. The train-bands of the colony, with indigenous officers and a drill peculiar to them, marching only
1 [These letters were printed in Boston in 1773, and in London the next year, and a synop- sis of them is given in Parton's Franklin. Franklin's account of his connection with them was first given in W. T. Franklin's edition of his Works, 1817, and is reprinted in Bigelow's Franklin, ii. 206; see also Sparks's Franklin, i. 356; iv. 405; viii. 49. Hutchinson's account
is in his Massachusetts Bay, iii. 394. The best examination of the question as to the source whence Franklin obtained them is in Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proc., 1878, p. 42. See further in Walpole, Last Journals, i. 255, 289; Campbell, Chancel- lors, vi. 105; Grahame, United States, iv. 345; Massey, England, ii .; Adolphus, England, ii. 34, etc. - ED.]
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to fife and drum, were a jeer to the regulars which Randolph and Andros introduced here. With the royal Governor and the Collector of the Cus- toms - the pay and pickings of the latter far exceeding those of the former - came a retinue of subordinates who very soon made quite a distinct class among the residents. None of these new-comers were induced by anything attractive in the manners or ways of the native stock to conform to them, while fashion, novelty, and freedom had a natural tendency to draw many of the people of the town to the Court party. It was one of the fretting experiences even of many of the higher and more intelligent classes of our home population, to observe how what they regarded as corrupting and demoralizing influences wrought through the new elements upon the old. The Rose and Crown Inn, and the Royal Exchange Tavern were thought much worse places than any of the old ordinaries, probably because the king's health was so often drunk in them, and certain packs of painted cards were in such free use. The chronic warfare with the French and Indians brought into our harbor high naval officers with their squadrons and riotous crews. Our little Court, so far from attempting conformity, seemed to prefer to put itself in contrast with the country manners. Many of the private letters which have come to light, as written here at the time by for- eigners, turn the local usages and reverences to ridicule. There was often rather an ungracious compliance on their part, where policy and good feel- ing would have dictated a different way. Governor Burnet, though the son of a bishop and himself a writer on sacred themes, did not much affect places of worship even of his own church. As a good country lady said of him, " he was not fond of going to meeting." He seems to have been specially annoyed by the length of the " grace" before and after meals at . the tables where he was a guest. He complained of them to Colonel Tailer, who was sent to the borders of Rhode Island to escort him to Boston, and asked when these long graces would shorten. Tailer told him they would increase in length till he reached Boston, and then would shorten all the way till he reached his government in New Hampshire, where his Excellency would find no grace at all. There Episcopacy was in vogue. One of our grave old magistrates, who invited Burnet to dine, asked him aloud, as the guests reached the table, "whether he would prefer that grace should be said sitting, or standing." Burnet bluffly replied, "Standing or sitting; any way, or no way, just as you please."
Even the costumes and equipages which came in with the new rulers had their effect upon the staid and frugal people of the town. The gold lace, the ruffled cuffs, the scarlet uniforms, the powdered wigs, the swords, the small-clothes, the buckles, the elaborate state of the Governor, - who was escorted even to the Thursday lecture by halberds, - the robes of the judges, the chariot-and-four, with liveried black footmen, were tokens of a changed and impaired heritage to the old folks, the more so because they saw that their children were taken by them. There had been deferential manners, official stateliness, and distinguishing apparel, with stiffness and elaborate
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etiquette, in the Colonial times; and social distinctions had been formally ob- served. But these had been of a sort not indicative of assumption or arro- gance by the privileged class, nor to induce obsequiousness on the part of the common people; for the honors and places which they had themselves bestowed would be recognized with a self-respect not always felt in the deference paid to titled emptiness or pride. True worth, real service, and stations honorably filled had before received deserved regard.
The Province itself, and especially its capital, was then able to furnish from itself a few who would grace a Court in costume and manners, in fashion, civility, and display. There were persons of intelligence, wealth, and culture here, who had travelled, seen the world, and caught dignity and polish. The general tone of manners among them, called by us "the old style," was in its youth then. The mode of dress for the gentry, the ma- terial and shape of garments, were in keeping with parade and formality. Some persons here had then begun to have " ancestors; " indeed a few had begun to be ancestors themselves, so that they could have their portraits painted, when abroad or at home, by Smibert, Blackburn, and Copley, in brocade and lace, in wig and queue, in frill and wristlets, in head-dress or in powder.1 A farmer or mechanic, a sailor, a merchant, then a magistrate and gentleman, was the scale for rising. In England the accepted for- mula is that it requires a century to set a perfect grass lawn, and three cen- turies to breed a gentleman or a lady. The more rapid development here accomplished the latter result in three generations; and under favorable circumstances two or even one generation has effected it. Between the families of the Crown officers, who by no means were all gentry, and the professional and rich mercantile classes here there was constant intercourse, a round of gayeties, dinner and evening parties, assemblies and masquerades. Kings and queens acceded and died ; princes and princesses were born, and royal birthdays occurred with sufficient frequency to allow for salutes and bonfires; while on sad occasions court-mourning and services in King's Chapel reflected the observances at home. The first time the General Assembly, as a Court, listened to the Episcopal service and to a sermon by a Church-of-England clergyman was when they went to hear the rector of the chapel read prayers and preach on the death of George II. Jan. 1, 1761. But this the Court did in the afternoon, having paid the higher compliment to Dr. Cooper of attending at Brattle Street in the forenoon. Proclama- tions for Fast and Thanksgiving days had then a royal flavor in them.
There were many noble mansions, - manor houses, indeed, - in the town and suburbs, some of them still standing. At the North End, then the Court- region of the town, were many square brick houses, detached, with spacious grounds, stately trees, fine gardens and pastures. The royal Governors, though the Province House, soon to be referred to, was provided for them, had town or country residences of their own. Besides his grand mansion at the North End, Governor Hutchinson had a summer dwelling on Milton
1 [See Mr. Scudder's chapter in this volume. - ED.]
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Hill, which, with its magnificent view of the harbor and its extensive grounds, was an enviable residence. It still stands, though outwardly changed. The dwellings of Governor Belcher in Milton, Governor Bernard in Jamaica Plain, Judge Auchmuty in Roxbury, Governor Shirley on the edge of Dor- chester, Ralph Inman in Cambridgeport, and Isaac Royal in Medford,
KIL BURN
THE PROVINCE HOUSE.1
and a whole series of grand houses in Cambridge on the way to Mount Auburn, mostly confiscated at the Revolution, -the Apthorp, the Vassal, the Fayerweather, the Lee and Oliver mansions, - still present suggestive memorials of the past. These edifices likewise marked large land estates, with spacious barns, stables, deer-parks, farms, and gardens, with barges for the bay and rivers.
resented in engravings : Drake's Landmarks,
235; Evacuation Memorial, p. 1; Bryant and
1 [This house has been more than once rep- Gay's United States, iii. 328 ; Harper's Magazine, 1876, ii. 187. See Mr. Bynner's chapter in Vol. I .- ED.] VOL. 11. - 12.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The Province House, so-called, was the central scene of the chief pag- eantries, gayeties, and formalities of the king's vice-court in Boston. This once stately and comfortable mansion, with its fitting accompaniments, was not originally built for the occupancy of the royal Governors. It was at first a private residence, - relatively speaking, the most sumptuous at the time in Boston. Hawthorne, in his Legends of the Province House, with his free blending of fact and fiction, may well stand as the poetic chronicler of its history. Excepting always his revolting night-mare story of " Lady Elean- or's Mantle," in which his weird imagination, working together madness, pestilence, and a sacramental cup, horrifies the reader, his Legends are admirable in their substance, their narrations, and their personages. Still, in his case, as in the cases of all who poetize and romanticize with events and characters of our own or of any other history, all draughts upon the imagination and all fictitious groupings, - with their fanciful touches, their exaggerations and anachronisms, - are made at the expense of real instruc- tion and information, as well as of truth. Men may yet come to realize that in God's universe and under God's Providence there is nothing so wonderful, nothing so awing, nothing so interesting as sober and veritable facts.
The builder, owner, and first occupant of the Province House was Mr. Peter Sergeant, a rich London merchant, who came to reside here in 1667, and died here Feb. 8, 1714. He was a very prominent man in town and province, filling many offices. He was one of the Judges of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer for the Witchcraft trials. He had helped to depose Andros, and was afterward one of the Council. He was the third husband of Governor Sir William Phips's widow, and she was his third wife.
Nearly opposite the now abandoned Old South Church, on Washington Street, one may notice a narrow alley, called Province-House Court. We must obliterate the paltry buildings now standing on either side of this alley, and restore an expanse of lawn and noble trees, as we recall the past on that spot. We shall then have what was the "High Street," the sin- uous highway leading from Cornhill to Roxbury. On this, a space of nearly a hundred feet, running back nearly three hundred feet, and widen- ing as it deepened, was Mr. Sergeant's homestead, which he built just a hundred years before the last royal functionary who resided there had no further use for it. Here the owner reared a square structure of brick, spa- cious, elegant, convenient, and in tasteful style, with all proper adornments, and standing far back from the highway. It was of three stories, with a gambrel roof and a lofty cupola. This was surmounted by a gilt-bronzed figure of an Indian with a drawn bow and arrow, the handiwork of Deacon Shem Drown, who made the grasshopper on Faneuil Hall, in imitation of that on the London Exchange.1 An elaborate iron balustrade over the por- tico of the main entrance contained the initials of the owner and the date, - "16 P. S. 79." From the street a paved driveway led up to the house, and
1 [This image of the Indian is now in the Ellis's communication in the Proceedings, De- keeping of the Historical Society. See Dr. cember, 1876, p. 178. - ED.]
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THE ROYAL GOVERNORS OF MASSACHUSETTS, ETC.
a palatial doorway, reached by massive stone steps, gave access to the in- terior. Large trees shaded the dwelling, and flowering shrubs ornamented the grounds. The court-yard was surrounded by an elegant fence with ornamented posts, and bordering on the street were two small out-buildings, which in the after official days served as porters' lodges. The interior was in keeping. A spacious hall, with easy stairway, richly carved balustrades, panelled and corniced parlors, with deep-throated chimnies, furnishings, hangings, and all the paraphernalia of luxury, were there.
In expectation of the coming of Colonel Burgess as Governor, the au- thorities of the Province -up to that time without an official dwelling, and then in quest of one - were advised by a committee to purchase Mr. Ser- geant's, then on sale, after his death. The deeds were passed to the Prov- ince in April, 1716, for £2,300, additional sums being then and afterward appropriated for repairs and adornments. The Royal Arms, elaborately carved in deal and gilt, were set up over the doorway. This emblem, res- cued when, on the reading of the Declaration of Independence, there was a general sack and burning of all royal insignia in the town, is now pre- served in the Cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society.1
Probably the first official occupant of the Province House was Governor Samuel Shute, in 1716. The wide court-yard offered a fine space for mili- tary evolutions, at the reception of a dignitary standing upon the steps of the mansion. It would seem as if the edifice was occupied rather as an occasional lodging-place of the Governors, and as an office for the trans- action of public business, than as a home for their families: as it has been seen, most of the Governors, if not all of them, had houses of their own. They would keep furnished apartments and trained servants in the official mansion, where, on occasions, they might pass the night, and also entertain transient guests. Officers of the Royal Navy, when coming into the harbor, and Collectors of the Customs would go there to transact their business, to pay their respects to the Chief Magistrate, and to share in festivities and banquets, for which there were abundant resources in larder and cellar. The Governor was escorted in state to the council-chamber near by.
After the evacuation of Boston by the British, in 1776, the house was used for our own public business, till the building of the present State House in 1796. In February, 1811, the estate was deeded as a gift by the Commonwealth to the Massachusetts General Hospital, to which it will revert on the expiration of a lease, made in 1817 for ninety-nine years. After the estate had been crowded and built upon on all sides, what was left of the original came to strange uses, - for " Orphic Minstrels," drinking saloons, and what not. A fire, Oct. 25, 1864, left only a portion of the walls, now hardly recognizable.
King's Chapel finds its historic recognition on other pages of this work. Reference is made to it here only as the edifice, its records, and the wor- shippers in it are illustrative of the Court-epoch of life in Boston under the
1 [It is shown in the frontispiece of this volume. - ED.]
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royal Governors. A state pew, with canopy and drapery, was fitted up in the chapel for the Earl of Bellomont, and the royal Governor and his Deputy were always to be of the vestry. When Joseph Dudley came home as Gover- nor, he seems at least in part to have turned his back upon his own place for worship and communion. His own armorial bearings and escutcheon were hung on one of the pillars of the Chapel, as were those of other gentry. Governor Hutchinson after him did the same. The edifice, in fact, and all that was done within its walls, and its objects and purposes, was a type and obtrusion of the royal interference with the usages, the traditions, and the dearest attachments of the people. Men of note sat and worshipped in that first royal chapel. Among its worshippers were true Episcopalians by birth and conviction, and others who, without any special convictions, might reasonably seek there a substitute for that espionage and unwelcome form of religious dispensation found in the meeting-houses. Suspended from the pillars were the escutcheons of Sir Edmund Andros, Francis Nichol- son, Captain Hamilton, and Governors Dudley, Shute, Burnet, Belcher, and Shirley. The altar-piece, with the gilded Gloria, the Creed, the Command- ments, the Lord's Prayer, the organ, the surpliced priest, and above all the green boughs of Christmas, composed altogether a sight which some young Puritan eyes longed, and some older ones were shocked, to see.
The scenes and doings, the actors and the parties in the ceremonials of that little royal Court with its Church are to be viewed by us in the retro- spect of our imaginations, as they stand in vivid contrast with the manners, the habits, and surroundings of the native population here. Of course, those of lighter principles and less grave spirits would be pleased with the novelty, and caught by the glitter of such unwonted and often exciting dis- plays. But those of sterner views would see and know much that would grieve them. There were freedoms and scandals which came in with these Court personages that caused serious forebodings over a declining simplicity and morality. And on the other hand there was an enlargement of view, a relaxing of an unwholesome rigidness, and an expansion of interests which on the whole were of an improving and liberalizing influence, as they brought an isolated community on the edge of a wilderness into larger relations with the world.
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