USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 39
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Near the end of his address, which was quite short, the orator exclaimed :
" What now remains, but my ardent wishes (in which I know you will all concur with me) that this Hall may be ever sacred to the interests of Truth, of Justice, of Loyalty, of Honor, of Liberty ! May no private views or party broils ever enter within these walls ; but may the same public spirit that glowed in the breast of the gener- ous Founder influence all your debates, that society may reap the benefits of them ! May Liberty always spread its joyful wings over this place !- Liberty, that opens men's hearts to beneficence, and gives the relish to those who enjoy the effects of it ! And may Loyalty to a king, under whom we enjoy this liberty, ever remain our character ! - a character always justly due to this land, and of which our enemies have in vain attempted to rob us."
The loyalty of the town had already been shown by hanging the portrait of George II. within the new hall. The town's love of liberty was abun- dantly exhibited before Mr. Lovell sailed away to Halifax with the British fleet thirty-three years afterward. Long before that time the hall was almost entirely destroyed by fire.
son-in-law, John Robinson, a commissioner of the customs in 1772, made the aggravated as- sault on James Otis, from the effects of which Otis never recovered. (See Sabine's American Loyalists, i. 241-243.)
1 It is printed in Snow's History of Boston, pp. 235-237. [It was also printed at the time,- A Funeral Oration Deliver'd At the opening of the Annual Meeting of the Town, March 14, 1742, in Faneuil Hall, in Boston : Occasioned by the Death of the Founder, Peter Faneuil, Esq. Green, Bushell, and Allen, 1743, pp. 14. See Brinley Catalogue, Nos. 1653-54. Lovell's autograph, VOL. II .- 34.
here given, is taken from a bill which he ren- dered the province of Massachusetts Bay, Jan. II, 1748, "To translating Governour of Canada's letter to Gov. Shirley, 13 pages in French, £1
Johne Lovelle
IOS. od. ; two other papers, 6s., total, £1 16s. od.," preserved in the Mass. Archives .- ED.]
266
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
This unfortunate event occurred on the 13th of January, 1761. About half-past nine o'clock in the evening of that day a fire broke out in one of the shops in Dock Square belonging to the town, says the News-Letter of the 15th, and after destroying that and the adjoining buildings crossed the street to " that stately edifice, Faneuil Hall Market, the whole of which was soon consumed, excepting the brick walls which are left standing." "The loss of Faneuil Hall Market must be great to this town," the paper adds, " as it was a noble building, esteemed one of the best pieces of workman- ship here, and an ornament to the town." Fortunately, however, "the records, papers, etc., with such other things as could be removed, were mostly saved." A few weeks afterward, at a town-meeting held on the 9th of March, it was voted not to repair or rebuild the hall.1 But the next day a committee was appointed to consider and report on the whole subject at an adjourned meeting.2 On the 23d of March this committee reported in favor of rebuilding the hall, covering it with a slated roof, putting in stone window-frames, and using as little wood-work as possible about the orna- ments ; and on the recommendation of the committee it was voted : "That the selectmen be and hereby are desired and empowered to prefer a petition to the General Court, at their next session, praying that the Honorable Court would by an Act empower some suitable person to raise by way of lottery such a sum of money as may be sufficient for the aforesaid pur- pose."3 The petition was granted, and the net profits arising from the lottery were applied to the rebuilding of the hall,4 which was again occupied for a town-meeting March 14, 1764. It was in this second hall that the town-meetings of our Revolutionary period were held whenever the attend- ance was not so large as to require an adjournment to the Old South. At length it was found necessary to enlarge the hall to double its original size. This was done in 1805 by putting on a third story, and rebuilding one of the side walls about forty feet back from the original line. It is this third hall which has so often re-echoed to the eloquence of Webster and Everett, of Choate and Sumner, and so many others.
Faneuil Hall is a permanent memorial of the Huguenots in Boston, and with the exception of a few crumbling grave-stones it is the only visible monument of their residence here. They were few in number, and were speedily absorbed in the community around them; but it is impossible not to recognize the services which descendants of these Huguenot refu- gees, or individuals connected with them by marriage, have rendered to
1 MS. Records of the Town of Boston, iv. 467.
2 Ibid., pp. 476, 477.
8 Ibid., p. 478.
4 [The town contracted with Onesiphorus 'Tileston and others to rebuild the hall, and they agreed to wait for their pay until the money could be raised by the lottery. The year follow- ing the completion of the hall the contractors, setting forth that the lottery yielded the money slowly, and that they had received but a part of
their dues, petitioned that some more expedi- tious mode of payment be adopted. The report of the committee, of which Royall Tyler was chairman, is on file at the City Hall ; and it does not allow that the contractors have any legal claims for prompter payment, but in the final settlement the delay might be considered .- ED.]
5 [The view of the Hall in Snow's Boston, 247, indicates the marks of enlargement of the structure at this time. - ED.]
267
THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN BOSTON.
this community. Not a few of the names most conspicuous for honorable service in our Revolutionary period or in later years are borne by families which count among their ancestors one or more of these fugitives for con-
THE SECOND FANEUIL HALL. 1
science' sake. Bowdoin, Sigourney, Brimmer, Johonnot, Revere, Char- don, - such are some of the names which at once suggest a Huguenot ancestry.2
Ch. C. Smith
1 [There are no views extant of the original building, unless the minute delineations in Price's View and in his map of Boston will pass for such. Of this second structure our cut fol- lows a picture in the Massachusetts Magazine, March, 1789, which is reproduced in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., i. 38, and in the Evacuation
Baudouin, of whom there is an account in R. C. Winthrop's Address on Governor James Bowdoin. See also Andros Tracts, iii. 79. A genealogy of the family is printed in the N. E. Hist. and Gen- eal. Reg., Jan. 1856. Mr. William H. Whitmore, the compiler of it, afterwards enlarged it in con- nection with an Account of the Temple Family,
Memorial of the City of Boston, 1876. Drake's Boston, 611, gives a cut from it. There is also a view in Harper's Monthly, 1877, p. 827 .- ED.] 2 [The Bowdoins are descended from Pierre
1856; and this also appeared in an unauthorized reprint in New York in 1871. The arms on the Bowdoin tomb in the Granary Burial-ground are figured in the Heraldic Journal, ii. 135. Durrie,
268
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Index to American Genealogies, gives various ref- erences. The eldest son of Pierre, James Bow- doin, settled in Boston, and is the ancestor of a
gives special references. Accompanying Se- journé came his nephew, Daniel Johonnot, the progenitor of a considerable stock (Zachariah
Names Bowdoin Rack" Schonnot awloin
was his son), of which an account will be found in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct. 1852, and April, 1853. Se-
well-known family. The Vir- ginia Bowdoins are sprung from John, another son of Pierre. Mass. Archives, lxiii. 210, 224. Sewall Papers, ii. 413. On the Mascarene family, of which there were formerly mem- bers in Boston, with connections in Nova
Steph Boutineaus
journé and Johonnot were of the Oxford settle- ment originally. Stephen Boutineau was one of those who came over with Bowdoin in 1687, Scotia, there are notes in the Heraldic Four- whose daughter he married in 1708. He died nal, ii. 125, and in the N. E. Hist. and in 1761. Register, July, 1854, p. 247. The Glir 20 Sigourney Huguenot circle in Boston received an important accession when Philip Duma- resq settled in Boston and married, 1716, Susan, daughter of Captain Henri Ferry. This Philip, who is styled a mariner, died in 1744; his son Edward married a
Dan Sigourney Philip Dumaresq Daniel Johannax
Geneal. Reg., ix. 239, and x. 153. Andre Sejourné, a distiller, from Rochelle, who came to Boston in 1686, was the ancestor of the Sigourneys, of which family a Genealogy, by H. H. W. Sigourney was printed in 1857. Durrie
daughter of Stephen Boutineau ; another son, Philip, became a royalist. See an account of the family in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct. 1863, p. 318. John Adams's diary ( Works, ii. 39, 43) records his impressions of the last of the Char- dons, young Peter Chardon, whom Adams looked upon in 1758 as among the young men in Boston " on the directest road to superiority," .
but who did not live long enough to fulfil his promise, and died a few years later. - ED.]
CHAPTER VIII.
FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
BY GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-the pre-eminent statesman, diplomatist, and philosopher of the Revolution -was born in Boston on the 6th of January, Old Style (the 17th of January, New Style), 1706. The exact place of his birth has long been a matter of antiquarian controversy. Franklin himself is said to have told Mrs. Hannah Crocker that he first saw the light at the "Sign of the Blue Ball," on the corner of Hanover and Union streets. It seems, nevertheless, to be fully proved that he was really born on Milk Street, nearly opposite the Old South Church, in a house on the site now occupied by the Boston Post newspaper. According to the records of the city archives, Franklin's father occupied a modest wooden house on this site from the time of his arrival from England in 1685, until 1712, when Benjamin was six years of age. In the latter year the elder Franklin bought and removed to the house on Hanover Street, called the " Blue Ball;" and Benjamin's earliest recollections were no doubt connected with this residence. The house on Milk Street remained standing until Decem- ber, 1810, when it was destroyed by fire. Its appearance at the period of Franklin's birth is thus minutely described : -
" Its front upon the street was rudely clapboarded, and the sides and rear were protected from the inclemencies of a New England climate by large rough shingles. In height the house was about three stories ; in front, the second story and attic pro- jected somewhat into the street, over the principal story on the ground floor. On the lower floor of the main house there was one room only. This, which probably served the Franklins as a parlor and sitting-room, and also for the family eating-room, was about twenty feet square, and had two windows on the street ; and it had also one on the passage way, so as to give the inmates a good view of Washington Street. In the centre of the southerly side of the room was one of those noted large fire-places, situated in a most capacious chimney ; on the left of this was a spacious closet. On the ground floor, connected with the sitting-room through the entry, was the kitchen. The second story originally contained but one chamber, and in this the windows,
-
270
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
door, fire-place, and closet were similar in number and position to those in the parlor beneath it. The attic was also, originally, one unplastered room, and had a window in front on the street, and two common attic windows, one on each side of the roof, near the back part of it." 1
It was to this rather humble abode that Josiah Franklin, the silk-dyer, brought his wife and his three children from their home in Banbury, England, in or about the year 1685. Like the Pilgrims of an earlier date, he had left his native land with a company of friends, in order to enjoy, on the new soil, the unrestricted exercise of his religion. He belonged to a family who had long been zealous Protestants, and who had, at times, suffered persecution on that account.2 Four children were born
Benjamin, of Josiah &Abiat Franklin
ENTRY OF FRANKLIN'S BAPTISM ON THE RECORDS OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
1 [Shurtleff, Desc. of Boston, p. 620 .- ED.]
2 [There is a paper on the English Franklins in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., April, 1857 ; and in the Heraldic Journal, ii. 97, the arms borne by Benjamin and other members of the family. A Franklin pedi- gree is given in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Jan. 1857. See also Bache's Genealogy of Franklin; Bridgman's Granary Burial Ground, p. 323; Savage's Geneal. Dict. ; Sparks's Life of Franklin, i. app. A table of Benjamin Franklin's descendants is given in the Register, Oct. 1854. A letter of Josiah Franklin, the father, which formerly belonged to the Brantz-Mayer Collection, and is now in the Boston Public Library, throws some light on the family history. From a memorandum with it, it is said to have been addressed to Captain Benjamin Franklin, Blenheim, England. is as follows : -
Bofcon Jan 11 17 494
"SIR, - By what intelligence I have received from my son at Philadelphia, and what intelligence. I have had by a gentleman that comes pretty often to dinner here, I am pretty much inclined to think that you are my brother's grandson that I lived with II years.
"I know of no advantage, neither do I propose any, to myself or you, by scraping acquaintance with you ; but as father's children seemed to have a more than common affection one for another, and I having the same affection as formerly, I shall rejoice to hear of the welfare of my brother's family, and I hope it will not be ungrateful to you, if we are related, to favor me with a few lines as opportunity Jan. 6. presents, which may be best performed by the way of Philadelphia, directing to Benja- min Franklin, postmaster. You was so kind as to send me a letter, but it was mislaid at my son's, so that I never had it. If you are the person, as I suppose, related to me, your grandfather's name was John, and his eldest [child] was Thomas [ named] after his grandfather Thomas. Now my father's will was for his eldest [ ]; the land was to go to the male heirs. Now my eldest brother had no son, so that of course it went to my brother John, that I lived with, and he had a son named Thomas, which I suppose was your father, which I could get no certain account of after he lost his father. My brother John lived in Banbury, in Oxfordshire, and purchased a house by the mill. My father lived at Ecton, four miles from Northampton. Now I under- stand by the gentleman above mentioned that you sold land to the value of £500 sterling, which I suppose is about the value of what my father was possessed of, which became yours by your great-grandfather's will. I understand you also practise
Benjamin Son of Josiah. Frankling & allah hisWife born 6 Jany, 1706 ENTRY OF FRANKLIN'S BIRTH ON THE TOWN RECORDS.
27 I
FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
to Josiah Franklin by his first wife after his arrival in America. After her death he married Abiah, daughter of Peter Folger,1 one of the early settlers of New England; and by her Franklin had ten more children. His entire family, then, comprised seventeen sons and daughters. Of these Benjamin
1709 8
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2
A BILL OF FRANKLIN'S FATHER.2
was the youngest son, and the fifteenth child. "I remember," he says, " thirteen children sitting at one time at his table." Quite as noteworthy is the fact that Benjamin was " the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back." On the very day of his birth Benjamin was carried,
surveying, which my eldest brother practised also, so that his instruments for art might fall to your portion also. Thus, sir, I have given you my conjecture, and if you 'll send me an answer I shall count myself obliged to you ; and with my hearty respects to you is all at present from your humble servant,
SofiaR Firan Plin
" P.S .- If you are the gentleman I suppose you to be, then it's like you can give an account of your father's sister, as well as of your father, for it's so long since I came away that I have lost the knowledge of all our relations, having been in Boston 60 years last October. Who- ever it be, I cannot expect to hold correspond- ence with you but a short time, being this New Year's day 86 years of age; but I have 3 sons which it's possible may be glad of the same friendship I desire, and I believe would be glad if they can do you any service. They are John Franklin, tallow chandler at Boston ; Peet Franklin, at Newport, master of a vessel ; and
Benja. Franklin, at Philadelphia, which you know.
" Recd. Nov. ye 15, 1744."
John Franklin, the brother of Benjamin, was postmaster of Boston at the time of his death, Feb. 5, 1756. The Franklins had originally be- longed to Ecton, in Northamptonshire. An old record-book of the small tithes of the parish, 1640 to 1700, fell into the hands of Thomas Car- lyle, who noticing the mention here and there of Franklin's ancestors (who were blacksmiths), sent it to Mr. Everett, who, in 1857, deposited it in the Historical Society's Cabinet. Everett's Speeches, iii. 482. - ED.]
John Frankling e
1 [For the Folgers see Savage's Geneal. Dict., ii. 177; Sparks's Life of Franklin, i. 452; and N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xvi. 269. - ED.]
2 [This is facsimiled from the original paper in the collection of Mellen Chamberlain. - ED.]
272
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
in the bleak January weather, across the street to the Old South Church, and there solemnly baptized. At the risk of the frail little body, his parents were resolved that at least the infant soul should be safe. Of his first seven years we have no further record than this of his baptism. Boston was then a town of some nine thousand inhabitants, and we can only imagine young Benjamin, in his early childhood, running loose in the vacant spaces near his home (now compactly covered by stone and brick blocks), going on errands, doing chores for his hard-worked father, and sleeping in the unplastered attic with the other children. Josiah
KILBURN
FRANKLIN'S BIRTHPLACE.1
Franklin, sturdy and industrious, yet had a hard struggle of it with the world ; his trade, now changed to that of a tallow chandler, scarcely kept pace with the needs of his growing family of fifteen sons and daughters. One after another, as they grew up, Benjamin's elder brothers were appren- ticed to different trades; himself the pious Josiah designed, "as the tithe of his sons," for the church. Benjamin's brief education began when he was eight years old, at the grammar school. He had early shown a decided taste and inclination for study ; and his father at first thought of sending
1 [The story of this house is told at length in Shurtleff's Desc. of Boston, ch. li. - ED.]
273
FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
him to college. The boy had not attended school a year, however, when Josiah Franklin, despairing of being able to afford him a liberal education, withdrew him from the grammar school and sent him to another school, in order that he might learn writing and arithmetic, and so become fitted for helping the father in his business. Benjamin's preceptor was Mr. George Brownell,1 who used "mild, encouraging methods," and soon taught his scholar writing, but could not teach him arithmetic. He who above all Americans of his time was afterwards noted for his mechanical genius could not, as a boy, master the simplest rudiments of mathematics. He was soon withdrawn from school to assist his father in his business ; being employed to cut wick for the candles, and to fill the dipping mold. These occupations were very repugnant to Benjamin, who, living near the sea,2 became eager to engage as a sailor; but to this his father would not consent. He continued in the paternal shop two years. Meanwhile, he had grown to be a lusty and pleasure-loving lad, and in his recreations was " generally a leader among the boys," heading boating expeditions, ex- celling in swimming, and being foremost in the many escapades in which he and his companions indulged. He was also fond of reading, and the little money which came into his hands from time to time was saved up and laid out in books. Among his earliest purchases was that of Bunyan's works; and he found in his father's scant library, and perused with delight,
1 [I judge him to be the same whose signa- ture I find attached to a petition in 1734 for
Geo Brownell
ringing the "Orange Street bell" at stated hours, - a paper on file in the City Clerk's office. Original Papers, ii. - ED.]
.
2 [Josiah Franklin, when Ben- jamin was still young, had moved his abode to what was then the southeast corner of Hanover and Union streets,-a site which, in the process of widening the thorough- fare, is now covered by the pave- ment of Union Street. Here he hung out a Blue Ball as the sign of his business, a relic which is still preserved. Drake, Land- marks, p. 146. Shurtleff has traced the history of this estate in his Desc. of Boston, ch. lii. See also Plan B, No. 87, in the Introduc- tion to the present volume. The house, which was destroyed in widening Union Street in 1858, represented but very little of the original struc- ture occupied by Josiah Franklin.
Everett, Mount Vernon Papers, ch. iii. Frank- lin, the father, still seems to have retained his connection with the Old South Church after he had removed to the North End, and Sewall records, in 1717, his opinion of him as a fit per- son to "set the tune" there on Sundays, "the return of the gallery, where Mr. Franklin sat,
1608
THE BLUE BALL.
being a place very convenient for it." Sewall Edward Papers, iii. 171 .- ED.]
VOL. II .- 35.
274
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
such authors as Plutarch, De Foe, and Cotton Mather. During the years of his boyhood he heard, with deep interest, the preaching both of Increase and of Cotton Mather; and recalled in old age, with much satisfaction, having seen and listened to those famous divines.
After a very brief service with his cousin, Samuel Franklin, in the cutler's trade, Benjamin, at twelve years of age, was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer. This occupation was not only far more in con- sonance with his tastes, but opened to him opportunities for acquaintance and study which he seized with avidity. He had access to more books; and, his day's work done, he was wont to read such as he was able to borrow until far into the small hours of the night. A friendly tradesman, Matthew Adams, who had a good library for those days, perceiving Ben- jamin's literary thirst, gave him free access to his shelves, - a privilege of which he availed himself to the fullest extent. And now the printer's apprentice was seized with a longing to deliver himself of his own thoughts and fancies. He began to imagine himself an embryo poet, and forthwith took to writing ballads, "in the Grub-Street ballad style," which, having been printed by his brother, he took under his arm and hawked about the streets. His two earliest productions of this sort were "The Lighthouse Tragedy," founded on the story of a recent accident,1 and the " Capture of Blackbeard the Pirate."
The true Yankee spirit of thrift, economy, and perseverance in making one's own way now speedily developed itself in Franklin, and was a marked trait of his character thenceforth through his long and busy life. Mean- while, he pursued his self-imposed studies with a stern energy which en- abled him to absorb various knowledge with great rapidity. He studied the Spectator in order to form his style; and the influence of Addison's essays may be observed in all Franklin's own writings. He became inter- ested in a large variety of questions; discussed with his friend Collins the propriety of educating women; adopted the practice of a vegetable diet after reading a book on that subject, thereby avoiding half the expense of his board, saving time, and deriving, as he imagined, " greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension." He taught himself arithmetic, which now he found himself able to master, read Locke on the Understanding, the Art of Right Thinking, and Xenophon's Memorabilia, and made himself familiar with the rules of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.2
It was when Benjamin Franklin was fourteen years of age that his brother James, in whose printing establishment he was employed, started the New England Courant, the fourth newspaper which was printed in
1 [George Worthylake was the first keeper of Boston Light. Coming up to town, Monday, Nov. 3, 1718, with his wife and daughter, the three were drowned, and they were buried on Copp's Hill, where a gravestone still commem- orates them. This event was the subject of Franklin's ballad. - ED.]
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