USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 38
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In a prefatory note he excuses himself for some defects in the style, on the ground that the treatise was written in French, and afterward translated very closely into English ; but it does not appear from the internal evidence that the treatise was a reproduction of his old sermons.
At the time of the sale of the meeting-house he claimed the ownership of the house and land, on the ground that he had suffered greatly by the depreciation of the currency, and that in consequence of the dissolution of the society he would be obliged to go into business for his own maintenance. He accordingly agreed to sell the estate to Edward Jackson, and then peti- tioned the Governor and General Court for the passage of an act confirming the title. The Court thereupon ordered a notice to be served on Stephen Boutineau, Jean Arnault, John Brown, Zachariah and Andrew Johonnot, and
1 Miscellaneous Papers, ii. 130, in the Cabinet. Athenæum. [There are in the Pepperrell Papers, i. 19, 50, etc., some letters of LeMercier addressed to Pepperrell, relative to the appointment of a son of LeMercier as an interpreter in the Louis- burg expedition in 1745 .- ED.]
2 Copies of this work are in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and a copy of the Trealise against Detraction is in the Prince Library. Both works are in the Boston
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THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
James Paquinet, to show cause, if any they had, why the petition should not be granted. This order elicited from the gentlemen named a very energetic remonstrance, in which they say : -
" We think it a presump- tion of his and an imposi- Ciñomene Le Marcus tion on your Excellency and Honors to bring such weak reasons in order to drive us off from our church. He Steph Boutineaud Fach Johannate [Jean Arnault farnes packnett John Brown Andrew Johannes says he had but £100 per annum when he first settled, and we have promised him no more, although we do give him considerable more, and may appear by his re- ceipts sufficient to maintain his family in a handsome manner and purchase a con- siderable estate, as he was in exceeding low circum- stances when he came to settle with us. As for de- preciating of the money, which he mentions, some have raised from forty shil- lings to ten pounds, and Andrew Faneuil, Esq., and AUTOGRAPHS OF THE PETITIONER AND REMONSTRANTS. James Bowdoin, Esq., have left him, one £170 per year, the other £20 per year. Johonnot and Sigourney have left £100 by will. We have given him, from time to time, about £100 of the poor's money. But if he had so much reason to complain, as he has, according to his bar- gain, and agreeable to our discipline and church platform, all his remedy is, if he complains, and is not relieved, he shall have liberty to go back for England, we pay- ing his passage, or provide himself somewhere else. When he came to us, there was a list of £100 subscribed, each of them for himself severally. We are not answer- able for the death of any of our people ; he has driven all our young people to other churches ; notwithstanding we wish him well, and design, if we sell our church to give him out of it about £1,650 old tenor. But for him to sell our church, that we with our own money have built and purchased, and so to turn us out of our church, will be a precedent never before heard of, and, if allowed of, will be of a dangerous consequence." 1
So far as it is known, the General Court took no further action in the matter; but as Mr. LeMercier joined in the deed of the elder and pro- prietors, a few months afterward, he was probably satisfied with the sum
1 The petition and answer and the order of notice are in the Massachusetts Archives (xii. VOL. II. - 33.
522-527), and are printed in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xiii. 319-322.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
which they proposed to give him. He outlived his church fifteen or six- teen years, and during a part at least of this time he was a resident of Dorchester, where he had purchased an estate so early as 1722, and where he was living when he made his will in 1761.1 His death occurred, after a long sickness, March 31, 1764; and three days afterward he was buried from the house of Deacon Wait, in Queen Street, Boston.
Mr. LeMercier was of an enterprising character, and engaged in some business operations ; but they were not probably very lucrative. In 1738 he appears to have obtained from the Governor of Nova Scotia a grant of Sable Island, on which he had built a house for shipwrecked mariners, besides sending to the island cattle and provisions for their relief. The . cattle and goods, however, were stolen at different times; and in January, 1743-44, he inserted an advertisement in the Boston Evening Post, offering a reward of forty pounds, old tenor, for the discovery of the robbers. Three years later a similar advertisement, signed by Andrew LeMercier, Henry Atkins, and Thomas Hancock, " owners of the said island," was published in the News-Letter, setting forth that the measures hitherto taken to prevent the killing of the live stock and stealing from the island had had little or no effect, and declaring that "we will for the future cause the Eng- lish laws to be put in execution against such offenders; and that they may be prosecuted, we do hereby promise to give the sum of one hundred pounds, old tenor, to any person or persons that will discover and make known unto us any of the said mischievous persons, so that they may be brought to public justice in Old or New England." Subsequently, in Feb- ruary, 1753, he offered the island for sale, declaring in his advertisement that "The advantages which do accrue or may accrue from the improve- ment of that place are so great that I would not easily part with it if I was so skilful in navigation and shipping as it is necessary. That ignorance of mine induces me (not any defect in the island itself) to part with it. If any person desires to purchase it, and to know further about it, they may see at my house a map and plan of it." When he parted with the island has not been ascertained ; but it is not included in the inventory of his estate.2
As a separate part of the community the French Protestants left very slight traces on our annals. Many of them were so obscure that their names even have not been preserved; others were here for only a short time before they sought a permanent home elsewhere; and nearly all in a few generations intermarried with Anglo-American families, and became part of the English population. Among these the most conspicuous were Baudoin or Bowdoin, Sigourney, Johonnot, Dupuis or Dupee, and Faneuil. Gabriel Bernon, whose name is identified with the history of
1 A codicil was added at Boston a few weeks before his death. The will and codicil are recorded with Suffolk Wills, lib. 64, fol. 274.
2 The inventory is recorded immediately after his will. It includes a warehouse on the
Long Wharf in Boston and a share in the wharf, and land at Stoughton, Wrentham, and Attle- borough. The real estate was appraised at £200; the personal property consisted of house- hold effects and wearing apparel ; and the whole amount of the inventory was {232 18s. 6d.
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THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
the unfortunate settlement at Oxford, removed to Rhode Island so early as 1698. The families of Boutineau, Arnault, Breedon, Paquinet, LeMercier, and others are extinct or are represented only in the female line. One name, however, will always be held in pe- And faneuil culiar honor here, though it has been long extinct. Andrew Faneuil, the first of the name who is associ- ated with the history of Boston, escaped to Holland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and there married.1 Exactly when he came to Massachusetts is not known; but his name is in the Boston tax list for 1691.2 He was an enterprising merchant, an owner of real estate wisely located, a public- spirited citizen ; and at his death he left a large property, nearly the whole
Benjamin Des
of which he bequeathed to his nephew, Peter Faneuil, the eldest son of a brother who had settled in the Narragansett country.3
Peter Faneuil was born at New Rochelle, in New York, on the 20th of June, 1700, and was the oldest of eleven children. Of his early years nothing is known; his father died when he was eighteen; and subsequently
1 Sargent, Dealings with the Dead, ii. 506.
2 First Report of the Record Commissioners, p. 154. [The names of Benjamin, John, and Andrew Funell, are in a list headed, " Boston, Feb. 1, 1691. List of persons of the French nation admitted into the Colony by the Gover- nor and Councill," printed in Sewall Papers, i, 293. - ED.]
3 The house built by Andrew Faneuil for his own residence was afterward the residence of Peter Faneuil and of Lieut .- Governor William Phillips, whose father bought it in 1791. After the Revolution the estate, which at that time was owned by one of the Vassall family, was confiscated; and in December, 1783, it was sold by the Commonwealth to Isaiah Doane. In 1805 Mr. Phillips purchased the adjoining estate. Faneuil's house was on Tremont Street, opposite the King's Chapel Burial - ground. The lot formed the south part of Governor Bellingham's estate on the slope of the hill. "The deep court-yard," says Miss Quincy in her memoir of her mother, "ornamented by flowers and shrubs, was divided into an upper and lower platform by a high glacis, sur-
mounted by a richly wrought iron railing, decorated with gilt balls. The edifice was of brick, painted white ; and over the entrance-door was a semi-circular balcony. The hall and apart- ments were spacious, and elegantly furnished. The terraces, which rose from the paved court behind the house, were supported by massy walls of hewn granite, and were ascended by flights of steps of the same material." - Memoir of the Life of Eliza S. M. Quincy, p. 88. [There is a paper in the Mass. Archives, volume marked "Trade," i. 255, which speaks of the house on this lot as a " Stone House." It is a state- ment, sworn to by Andrew Faneuil Dec. 13, 1711, which seems to have been occasioned by some difference between Faneuil and George Cabot, the contractor ; and by it it would appear that the timber was furnished by Richard Draper and John Wentworth, the lime by Edward Richards, the cedar posts by Stephen Willis, and the window glass by James " Baudovin," or Bowdoin. Andrew Faneuil's warehouses were on Butler Square, out of State Street, and Peter Faneuil a little later had others on State Street, just below Chatham Street. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
he came to Boston, where he made himself so acceptable to his uncle, who died in February, 1737-38, that the latter appointed him his executor and
KILBURN
PETER FANEUIL.1
residuary legatee. Previously to that time he had been actively engaged in business, and had acquired some property; but the bulk of his for-
1 [This cut follows a photograph taken from 289. The large picture in Faneuil Hall is copied a portrait which came into the possession of the from this painting. - ED.] Historical Society in 1835. Proceedings, ii. 19,
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THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
tune came from his uncle. "Last Monday the Corpse of Andrew Faneuil, Esquire, whose death we mentioned in our last, was honorably interred here," says the Boston News-Letter of February 23, "above 1,100 per- sons of all Ranks, besides the Mourners, following the Corpse; also a vast number of Spectators were gathered together on the Occasion, at which time the half-minute guns from on board several vessels were discharged. And 'tis supposed that as this Gentleman's Fortune was the greatest of any among us, so his funeral was as generous and expensive as any that has been known here." The nephew did not long enjoy this ample wealth. He died in about five years, after a short illness, - Feb. 3, 1742-43, - leaving no will; so that his whole property went to his brother, who had been disinherited by Andrew Faneuil, and to his four sisters. Peter Faneuil was a shrewd, careful, and energetic business man, fond of display, and fond of good living.1 Two or three weeks after his uncle's death he wrote to one of his correspondents in London : "Send me, by the very first opportunity for this place, five pipes of your very best Madeira wine, of an amber color, of the same sort which you sent to our good friend DeLancey, of New York." And he adds: " As this wine is for the use of my house, I hope you will be careful that I have the best. I am not over fond of the strongest sort." About the same time he wrote to his New York correspondent : "Send me by the first conveyance the pipe of wine, having none good to drink." A fortnight later he renewed the order, directing his correspondent to send "by the first good opportunity the best pipe of wine that you can purchase." And a month afterward, when he had received it, he wrote: "The wine I hope will prove good; comes in very good time, there being none good in town." In another letter he wrote for " the latest, best book of the several sorts of cookery, which pray let be of the largest character, for the benefit of the maid's reading." A fortnight after his uncle's death he wrote to London: "Be so good as to send me a handsome chariot with two sets of harness, with the arms, as enclosed, on the same, in the handsomest manner that you shall judge proper, but at the same time nothing gaudy." Along with these requests are specific instructions for the management of his business, and sharp demands for the pay- ment of any debts due to him. One illustration of this characteris- tic is all that need be given. In 1738-39, about a year after Andrew Faneuil's death, he wrote to one of his correspondents, a merchant at
1 One of his letter-books is in the Library of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and copious extracts from it are printed by Sar- gent in his Dealings with the Dead. The cita- tions from Faneuil's letters in this chapter are taken from that work; but they have been veri- fied by the originals. Beside the letter-book the Library of the Genealogical Society contains also one of Faneuil's day-books and one of his ledgers. For the opportunity to consult them I am indebted to the courtesy of the librarian, Mr. John Ward Dean. In the original distribution
of the topics for this volume, the chapter on the Huguenots in Boston was assigned to Mr. Dean ; but he was compelled by an unfortunate trouble with his eyes to relinquish the undertaking be- fore he had done anything except to note down the printed sources of information. His list of authorities was readily placed at my disposal. I desire also to acknowledge the receipt of several valuable communications from Mrs. Mary de W. Freeland, of Oxford, a descendant from Andrew Sigourney, who has given much atten- tion to the genealogy of the Huguenot families.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Barbadoes: " I have been very surprised, that, ever since the death of Captain Allen, you have not advised me of the sale of a horse belonging to my deceased uncle, left in your hands by him, which I am informed you sold for a very good price; and I am now to re- quest the favor you would send me the net proceeds, with a fair and just account for the same, in sweetmeats and citron water : your compliance with which will stop me from giving some of my friends the trouble of calling you to an account there. I shall be glad to know if Captain Allen did not leave a silver watch and some fish, belonging to a servant of mine, with some person of your FANEUIL ARMS.1 island, and with who. I expect your speedy answer." This ener- getic demand for an account of sales and a payment of the proceeds pro- duced the desired effect, though the West India merchant very naturally complained of the tone of Faneuil's letter. A little more than two months afterward the latter acknowledged the receipt of the account of sales and a box of sweetmeats; and in answer to his correspondent's complaints of the " unhandsome style " of the previous letter, he added : " I must own it was not in so soft terms as I sometimes make use of; but at that juncture I really thought the state of the case required it, not having heard anything to be depended upon concerning the horse in dispute, either if he was dead, sold, or run away ; upon either of which, I presumed the common complaisance, if not honor, among merchants might have entitled either my uncle in his lifetime, or myself after his decease, to some advice at least. I had indeed transiently heard here you had kept him, which in some measure prest my writing you on that head." Only one other letter need be mentioned, as characteristic of a social condition which ceased to have a legal existence in Massachusetts one hundred years ago. In a letter written in February, 1738-39, now in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and printed in the Proceedings of that Society for August, 1864, he directs his correspondent to purchase from the proceeds of a sale of fish, " for me, for the use of my house, as likely a straight negro lad as possibly you can, about the age of from 12 to 15 years; and if to be done, one that has had the small-pox, who being for my own service, I must request the favor you would let him be one of as tractable a disposition as you can find, which I leave to your prudent care and management; desiring, after you have pur-
1 [This sketch of the arms follows a cut in the Heraldic Journal, ii. 121 .- ED.]
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THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
chased him, you would send him to me by the first good opportunity, recommending him to a particular care from the captain." 1
But Faneuil was not merely a shrewd and enterprising merchant, busy in adding to what was in those days a large fortune, and busy in spending the income for his own personal gratification : he was also, as many of the successful Boston merchants have been in every generation, a public-spirited citizen; and he recognized that the community of which he was a part had claims on him to be acknowledged in some way. He acknowledged those claims in a way which has forever identified his name with the history of Boston, of Massachusetts, and of the whole country. This was by the gift of Faneuil Hall to the town. At the time of its erection there were no market-houses in the town, -three which had been built a few years before having been abandoned, and one of them torn down. From causes which it is now difficult to understand, the inhabitants were divided into two parties very nearly equal in numbers, one in favor of public markets and the other opposed to their existence. In this state of the public mind Faneuil came forward and offered to build a market at his own cost. Accordingly, a petition was sent to the selectmen by James Allen, Thomas Palmer, Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Eliot, Isaac Gridley, Harrison Gray, Peter
Quellen
John Jollay
Peter Tohardz
Franc Gridley
Harrison Gray
JamMEdisk
Chardon, John Scollay, John Osborn, and three hundred and thirty-four others, setting forth that Peter Faneuil, Esq., " hath been generously pleased to offer, at his own cost and charge, to erect and build a noble and complete structure or edifice to be improved for a market for the sole use, benefit, and advantage of the town, provided that the town of Boston would pass a vote for that purpose, and lay the same under such proper regulations as shall be thought necessary, and constantly support it for the said use," and asking that a town-meeting should be called for the purpose of considering
1 [A heliotype of this letter is given herewith. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
the offer.1 The meeting was held on the 14th of July, 1740; and so large was the attendance that it was found necessary to adjourn from the town house to the Brattle Street Meeting-house. Very little progress was made in the forenoon, beyond thanking Mr. Faneuil for his offer; and the meeting was then adjourned to the afternoon. At that time much discussion took place; and a motion that each man should write his name on the back of his vote was rejected. Special precautions, however, were adopted to prevent any persons from voting who were not legally qualified. The vot- ing was to be by papers, on which yea or nay was to be written. The result was that 367 votes were cast in favor of accepting the gift, and 360 against its acceptance.2
Subsequently Faneuil altered his plans and erected a much larger and more costly structure than he intended at first to build; and it was not finished for upward of two years. It was of brick, two stories in height, and measured one hundred feet in length by forty feet in width. Besides the market there were several rooms for the town officers and a hall which would contain one thousand persons. Early in September the building was completed and delivered to the selectmen; and at a town-meeting held in the town house on the 13th of September a vote was unanimously passed, accepting " this most generous and noble benefaction for the uses and inten- tions they are designed for," and appointing a committee, consisting of the moderator of the meeting, the selectmen, the representatives to the General Court, and six other gentlemen, " to wait upon Peter Faneuil, Esq., and in the name of the town to render him their most hearty thanks for so bountiful a gift, with their prayers that this and other expressions of his bounty and charity may be abundantly recompensed with the Divine blessing." It was further voted on motion of Thomas Hutchinson, afterward the governor and refugee, "That in testimony of the town's gratitude to the said Peter Faneuil, Esq., and to perpetuate his memory, the hall over the market-place be named Faneuil Hall, and at all time's hereafter be called and known by that name." After the transaction of some other business the meeting was adjourned to meet on the following Friday in Faneuil Hall.3
Faneuil did not live many months after the completion of his hall; and it was remarked at the time that the first annual town-meeting held within its walls-March 14, 1742-43 -was the occasion for the delivery of a eulogy on him. This was given by John Lovell, master of the Latin School, who was afterward, like Hutchinson and like more than one of Faneuil's nephews and near relatives, a refugee.4 It was the first of the long series of funeral
1 The warrant issued by the selectmen of Boston directing the constables to notify this meeting is printed in the New England Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xxx. 368. [The petition is pre- served in the City Clerk's office, Original Papers, ii. 63, and is signed July 2, 1740. Some of the signatures are given in the text. - ED.]
2 MS. Records of the Town of Boston, iii. 422-426.
8 Ibid., iii. 499-501.
4 In the appendix to the Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen (Fourth Edition, pp. 544-546) is a letter, dated London, March 9, 1777, from Benjamin Faneuil, Jr., to his aunt, Mrs. Ann Jones, Peter Faneuil's sister, - who was then at Halifax, having missed her passage to England. Another of Peter Faneuil's sisters married James Boutineau, who was also a refugee. Boutineau's
las Peter Buckling. Droston February. S. 1738 e
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PS I think kunde nothern to purchase the boy defined be pleased to a80% Auf aring over plus , to buyich outgoing mybest advantage : in any thing your think
2
A LETTER BY PETER FANEUIL.
265
THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
orations delivered in Faneuil Hall, and gave so much satisfaction to the hearers that it was spread at length on the town records.1 One or two extracts may be read even now with interest. After referring to Faneuil's acts of private charity, which were said to be " so secret and unbounded, that none but they who were the objects of it can compute the sums which he annually dis- tributed among them," Mr. Lovell added : -
"But these private charities were not the only effects of his public spirit, which, not contented with distributing his benefactions to private families, extended them to the whole community. Let this stately edifice which bears his name witness for him what sums he expended in public munificence. This building, erected by him at an immense charge, for the convenience and ornament of the town, is incomparably the greatest benefaction ever yet known to our Western shore. Yet this effect of his bounty, however great, is but the first fruits of his generosity, a pledge of what his heart, always devising liberal things, would have done for us had his life been spared. It is an unspeakable loss to the town that he was taken away in the midst of his days, and in so sudden a manner as to prevent his making provision for what his generous heart might design. For I am well assured, from those who were acquainted with his purposes, that he had many more blessings in store for us, had Heaven prolonged his days."
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