USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 45
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Mr. Bradstreet was again invited to the Charlestown pulpit in May, 1698; and he was ordained October 26th of the same year. He was the son of the Rev. Simon Bradstreet (H. C. 1660), of New London, Connecticut, where he was born March 7, 1671, and the grandson of Governor Simon Bradstreet. Budington calls him "a man of great learning, strong mind, and lively imagination; "4 but towards the close of his life he was a victim of hypo- chondria. He was principally distinguished for his attainments in the classics; and it is related of him that when he was presented to Governor Burnet by the Lieut .- Governor, he was introduced as " a man who can
This custom seems a fitting conclusion to the difficulties under which courtship was enjoyed in those days, when a fine of £5 was liable to be incurred by such person as presumed to make a "motion of marriage " to any maid without the previous consent of her parents, or, in their absence, of the County Court! Cf. Ante, i. 518-19 and note.
1 In March, 1718-19, a petition was extensive- ly signed asking to have the Lecture begin at eleven o'clock instead of twelve ; and in March, 1723-24, the time was changed to half-past two in winter, and three o'clock in summer.
2 Judge Sewall was frequently in Charles-
town, being drawn hither by official duties and social attractions. In 1705 he was involved in litigation here concerning his rights in the Land of Nod; and he successfully defended himself. Cf. History of Charlestown, pp. 111, 112 ; Sew- all Papers, ii. 62, 139, 164 ; History of Woburn, P. 540.
8 The weather during the winter of 1697-98 was intensely cold. Sewall records more than one visit to Charlestown, when he crossed the river on the ice. One of these visits was to Mr. Morton : " Feb. 19. I go over the ice and visit Mr. Morton, who keeps his bed."
4 Cf. Sewall Papers, i. 448-50.
317
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
whistle Greek." Mr. Bradstreet died Dec. 31, 1741. His son, the Rev. Simon Bradstreet (H. C. 1728), was the minister of Marblehead; and his son, Samuel Bradstreet, who was born Oct. 2, 1711, and married a reek mast daughter of the Hon. Richard Fos- ter, Jr., was town treasurer in 1750 and subsequent years.
Mr. Joseph Stevens (H. C. 1703) was ordained as Mr. Bradstreet's col- league, Oct. 13, 1713. He was chosen 1 by the town upon the nomination of Joseph frevery the church, receiving one hundred and four votes to forty-seven cast for Mr. John Webb, and eight for Mr. John Tufts, both of whom graduated at Cambridge in 1708. Mr. Stevens was a son of Joseph Ste- vens, of Andover, where he was born June 20, 1682. He was a tutor and Fellow of his alma mater. It was during Mr. Stevens's ministry that the last house of worship occupied by the church prior to the destruction of the town in 1775 was built. June 21, 1715, the town voted, unanimously, to build a new meeting-house; and that it should stand " as near the old one as can be, or where the old one now stands, with such additions of land as shall be needful for it." A committee was chosen to superintend the work, which was completed the following year, - public worship being first held in it Aug. 5, 1716. The committee appointed to build the meeting-house rendered their account May 20, 1717, by which it appears that the building cost £1,899 35. 10d., or £25 19s. 2d. less than the amount of the voluntary contributions of the people. The committee recommended to the town "to raile and bannister the meeting-house," which was seventy-two feet long, fifty-two feet wide, thirty-four feet high (three stories), and had two galleries and a steeple, - part of which was blown down in the winter of 1750-51. There were also battlements, about the repair of which the town had some discussion in August, 1756. Mr. Stevens died Nov. 16, 1721, aged thirty- nine, of small-pox,2 which occasioned the death of more than one hundred persons in Charlestown during the winter of 1721-22, including nearly all
1 His letter of acceptance is spread upon the noon;" but the privilege was to extend only till Town Records, vi. 99.
2 So great were the ravages of this disease at this time that at Christmas the selectmen " Ordered, that the Sexton do not on any ac- count whatsoever, without order from them, toll above three bells in one day for the burial of any persons, it being represented to them a discouragement to those persons sick of the small-pox." The following spring the town passed a stringent order prohibiting the enter- tainment in town of any person "in order to receive the small-pox by inoculation or other- wise," under penalty of a fine. In 1764, how- ever (April 4), it was voted to permit the in- habitants "to go into inoculation for themselves and families," beginning "next Saturday after-
April 25. The disease was again epidemic here in 1730, in September of which year the General Court granted {100 to the town, it having "for some months past been sorely visited with the small-pox, which has occasioned great distress." The scourge returned in 1752; but although six hundred and twenty-four persons had it, only twenty-two deaths are recorded. Great alarm prevailed ; three hundred and fifty-five of the in- habitants fled to escape the disease, which was brought here in November, 1751, by a ship. It seems not to have spread rapidly till May, 1752 ; but from that time till the following December it baffled all efforts to control it. High fences were built across the streets near the infected houses ; flags of warning were hung out ; the bells
318
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
the members of Mr. Stevens's family.1 Dr. Budington, quoting the Rev. Dr. Colman, minister of the church in Brattle Square, Boston, says that Mr. Stevens " was possessed of great personal beauty, and no less distinguished for the brilliant qualities of his mind. . . . He excelled in conversation ; and the modesty of his deportment gave a singular grace to an air of superiority and dignity that was natural to him."
Feb. 5, 1723-24, Mr. Hull Abbot (H. C. 1720) was ordained as colleague 2 to Mr. Bradstreet, whose daughter Mary he married July 27, 1731. He was Hull Abbot Charlestown . 4. April AM. 1755 the eldest son of Moses Abbot, of Boston, where he was born June 15, 1702. His pastorate extended over half a century, till his death, April 19. 1774.3 The town records men- tion that a committee was sent to Cambridge to inquire of the Corpo- ration concerning the character and attainments of Mr. Abbot before he was ordained. During his ministry (June 5, 1733) the town voted to build a ministerial house, fifty feet long, eighteen or nineteen feet wide, and eighteen feet high, with gambrel roof, three stacks of chimneys, and a small room, ten feet square, for a study, at an estimated cost of £700. In 1731 a peti- tion - which was often renewed and as Johnaeford often refused - was presented, praying for a lot of land in the upper part of the town upon which the petitioners might build for themselves and their neighbors another meeting-house. The Hon. John Alford was among the petitioners.4
were not tolled at funerals; and some burials were made in the night. Town-meetings were held in the open air, "without the Neck," for safety. Cf. Boston Gazette for Jan. 16, 1753.
I Only an infant son, Benjamin, survived. His daughter became the mother of the distinguished divine, the Rev. Joseph Stevens Buckminster.
2 At his election by the town, Sept. 9, 1723, he received ninety-nine votes, when Joshua Gee (H. C. 1717) had forty-three, and Theophilus Pickering (H. C. 1719) had nine. Samuel Dexter (H. C. 1720) was nominated with the preceding three persons by the church to the town ; but no votes are recorded as having been cast for him.
3 Mr. Abbot was buried with honor at the charge of the town, as his wife had been, on her decease in May, 1763. He "is said to have been the first student who received assistance from the Hollis Fund." - Budington.
4 The Hon. John Alford was the eldest son of Benjamin Alford, of Boston, and was baptized at the Old South Church, July 5, 1685. He was a man of large wealth; and is distinguished as the founder of the Alford Professorship of Nat-
ural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, at Harvard College. He died Sept. 30, 1761.
Since the account of John Harvard was printed in Vol. I., pp. 395, 396, the Rev. Henry F. Luard, Registrar of the University of Cam- bridge, England, has kindly furnished from his records tracings of two of Harvard's autographs,
Sogn Harward (16.31) (1635)
Fogn Har ward
written respectively on taking his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1631 and 1635. Mr. Luard says there is no signature of Harvard preserved at Emanuel. "The date of his matriculation was so late as 7 July, 1631. His rank appears as a Pensioner, or of the second Style, to distin- guish him from a Sizer, of the third, or a Gen- tleman Commoner, of the first; and he is called of Middlesex." No signature of his is known to be extant in this country. Cf. Winthrop, His- tory of N. E. (ed. 1853), ii. 105, 106.
319
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
The Rev. Thomas Prentice (H. C. 1726), who was first settled at Arundel, Maine, was installed here as associate pastor of the church, Oct. 3, 1739. He received the unanimous vote of the town, on the second of the previous July, at a Thomas Prentice meeting called to see if the town would concur with the church in inviting Mr. Prentice to a settlement.1 Whitefield Jamy Rufiel Richard Gary David wood preached here several times; and upon one occasion " with much demonstration of spirit," securing a contribution of £156 for his orphan house. In 1772,2 1773, and 1774 the town appointed a committee on the supply of the pulpit, con- sisting, in 1773, of the Hon. James Russell, Richard Cary, David Wood, David Cheever Peter & Jes David Cheever, and Peter Edes. John Codman served in the stead of Mr. Cheever in the last-named year. Mr. Prentice was born in Cambridge, Nov. 9, 1702, the son Committer of Thomas and Mary (Batson) Prentice; and died here June 17, 1782, at the age of eighty.
The schools were well cared for, although in 1691 the town was pre- sented to the County Court for its neglect to provide a competent teacher ; but it " saved itself from a penalty by a quick bargain." This refers to the engagement made with Mr. John Emerson 3 (H. C. 1675), April 20, 1691, whose daughter Sarah married the Hon. Richard Foster, Jr., High Sheriff In. Emoryfor of Middlesex. Mr. Emerson con- tinued in charge of the school till Nov. 13, 1699. A committee was appointed March 8, 1699-1700, to go to Cambridge or elsewhere and procure a proper person to be schoolmaster " with all expedition." May 22, 1700, Thomas Swan (H. C. 1689) was agreed with at a salary of £40, to begin "forthwith."4 He remained about
1 The settlement of Mr. Prentice was con- templated in the winter of 1738-39; but was de- ferred for prudential reasons. Vide post, p. 322. 2 In 1772 Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, with Dr. Watts's Hymns, was adopted for the use of the church. During the provin- cial period the Scriptures were not read in the churches, except in connection with exposition.
3 In the Massachusetts Archives, xi. 56. it is recorded that the Rev. John Hale, John Wise, Grindall Rawson, and John Emerson, "ministers
of God's Word," were requested by the Gov- ernor and Magistrates, July 31, 1690, "to accom- pany the General and forces in the expedition against Canada to carry on the worship of God in that Expedition."
4 A county school appears to have been con- templated by the General Court in 1700-1701, when this town voted to contribute £40 towards providing for it, on condition it was located in Charlestown. I find no further mention in our Records of a county school.
320
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
three years, removed to Milton, and was succeeded by Thomas Tufts (H. C. 1701), whose family has always been identified with this place. He entered upon his work "the last day of June," 1703. Peleg Wiswall (H. C. 1702) appears to have been the next schoolmaster. He was agreed with for six months, from Jan. 24, 1704-1705 ; and was succeeded by Samuel Burr (H. C. 1697),1 April 24, 1706. May 21, 1712, the town voted £40 for the school- master's salary, and " £5 to be raised for the payment for some poor chil- dren at such women's schools as shall be allowed of by the selectmen ; 2 being for such children whose parents are not able to bring them to school." In 1713 the town voted to build a new school-house. The location first determined upon was " on the northard side of the meeting-house where the Cage now stands ; " but finally the house was built, under the supervision of the selectmen, " on the hill near the old school-house." It was " 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, 12 feet stud ; one floor of sleepers and one floor of joice aloft." Its cost was £104 4s. Id. On Aug. 4, 1718, Daniel Perkins (H. C. 1717) was engaged to teach the school, " from the tenth of February last past," and continued till the summer of 1719. Two years later he married a Rich Toster Junk sister of the Hon. Richard Foster, Jr., and accepted a call from the church in West Bridgewater. Robert Ward (H. C. 1719) came to service, at a salary of £60, in 1719, begin- ning his work on the 29th of August. He, too, entered the ministry, and resigned his office here Nov. 7, 1720, having received an invitation to the Wenham pulpit. Samuel Barrett, Jr. (H. C. 1721), who appears also to have been a minister later in life, was engaged to take the school from Dec. 1, 1720, to March 1, 1720-21, for £15. Mr. Joseph Stimpson (H. C. 1720) was invited to succeed Mr. Barrett, Feb. 6, 1720-21; and he asked to be relieved of his charge April 6, 1724. He was born here Feb. 7, 1699-1700, and became pastor of the Second Church in Malden soon after leaving Charlestown. In 1724 the town voted to buy a bell 3 for the school-house, and to build a belfry. The bell appears to have been bought for £2 Ios. in July of that year; and May 3, 1725, the Hon. Daniel Russell is recorded as the donor of a new one to the Free School. On June 15, 1724, a town-meeting was held, at which "Mr. Seth
1 His son of the same name had liberty granted him, Nov. 17, 1729, to improve the mid- dle chamber of the Almshouse for a writing- school "for this winter.", This building - the first almshouse - was erected in the summer of 1728, and stood in the Square, the westerly end being about "fourteen feet from the County House (lately built), and so to run easterly the above length; the front to run upon a line with the south end of said County House." It was fifty feet long, thirteen feet wide, thirteen feet stud, with eight fire rooms; and cost £251. In
1743-44 the town voted to repair it, and to en- close it "with a suitable fence to extend from the south-westerly corner of the prison fence as far as the school-house, or highway, and so on a Square ; " and to convert it into a workhouse.
2 In August, 1718, it was "ordered that no person, man or woman, shall keep any school at the upper end of the town near Reading at the town charge, without the approbation of the selectmen."
8 A new bell for the school-house was bought in 1697-98 to replace one then in use.
321
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
Sweetser, Jr., was chosen Schoolmaster." His salary was fixed, July 6 of the same year, at £75, " to begin the seventh instant." It was gradually increased, but not sufficiently, he thought ; and after repeated applications for a proper stipend, which were not granted, he gave Jeti fefer notice, Feb. 13, 1749-50, that he should retire from his position on the sixth of the ensuing March. John Rand (H. C. 1748) was chosen to serve from March 6 till the May meeting of the town, at twenty shillings, lawful money, per week. At the May meeting in 1750 it was voted to have two schools within the Neck in future, - one for instruction in Latin, and one where writing and arithmetic should be taught. Matthew Cushing (H. C. 1739)1 was engaged to keep the former, and Abijah Hart the latter, - each at a salary of £60. They served a year, - until the summer of 1751. The Latin School was at this time kept in the old town house, which the town voted, Aug. 6, 1750, to fit up for the purpose. But the experiment of supporting two schools failed; and at the May meeting in 175 1 the town was eager to return to the old order, and to re-engage its former faithful and accomplished servant. The meeting voted to have but one school within the Neck, and that it would make no appropriation for the master's salary until a master should be chosen. Mr. Sweetser was then re-elected schoolmaster " by hand vote," and £500, old tenor, appro- priated to pay him. In the afternoon Mr. Sweetser accepted the office, upon the duties of which he entered July 20, 1751. From that time until his death, on Jan. 15, 1778, Mr. Sweetser was in the service of the town as its schoolmaster, and from 1755 as its town clerk. To his watchful care we doubtless owe the preservation of the town archives from destruction in June, 1775. He was born here Feb. 5, 1703-4; graduated at Harvard College in 1722, with Judge Richard Saltonstall, Lieut .- Governor Ellery, and President Clap, of Yale College. He was universally respected for his exalted character, his great learning, and his varied and unremitting public services.2 From Aug. 20, 1764, William Harris, the father of the Rev. Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris, taught writing and cyphering in the old town house, which was again refitted for the use of the school. As early as Robert Calley 1736, £25 was voted to establish a school without the Neck, for which teachers were from time to time appointed; and others were chosen to instruct the children on Mystic side and at Wood-End (Stoneham). Among these was Robert Calley,3 who served in 1758 and subsequent years.
1 Sept. 25, 1749, Mr. Cushing had permission granted to him to keep a private school for teaching "the three R's."
2 Cf. Wyman, Charlestown Genealogies and Estates, p. X. VOL. II. - 41.
8 His valuable Diary of Events in Charles- town - 1699-1765- has been printed in part in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xvi. 34, 129. This abstract was made by the late Mr. Thomas Bellows Wyman.
322
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Although, during the Colonial period, dancing was frowned upon and discountenanced by the clergy as "tending to immorality," the practice of it became well established during the early years of the eighteenth century. "In 1723 a dancing-master was patronized, and even allowed to advertise an exhibition, -the ' public dancing to begin at five o'clock.'"
In 1754, at the annual March meeting, the town voted "that the old Dans Le ag town house be improved for a spinning - school," and appropri- ated £50, old tenor, with which to put the building in proper repair. In May of the same year the Hon. Daniel Russell,1 who was chairman of the committee to oversee the school, reported that the undertaking had proved so successful that there was much encouragement to proceed with it.
In 1753 one chariot, thirteen chaises, and seventy-one chairs were as- sessed in Charlestown for the support of a linen mill in Boston, which, for several years, was sustained by a Province Tax levied upon carriages. In 1700 (Nov. 12) Captain Nathaniel Byfield, Captain Andrew Belcher, and others had liberty granted them "to set up a furnace or kiddle [sic] for melting tallow in order to make candles." In 1708 (May 17) Edward Sheath had leave to set up some posts in the training-field, before his door and those of his neighbors, "to make ropes on."
April 2, 1716, Dr. Thomas Greaves 2 had leave to set up a still- house 3 on his wharf. In 1754 the town in- The Greaves structed its representative to use his utmost endeavor to defeat the excise bill on spirituous liquors which was then pending. The bill aimed not at a restriction upon the sale of liquors, but to collect from consumers a tax upon the quantity used, which was to be ascertained by requiring every householder to return, under oath, a statement of "the quantity used in his family that had been purchased of a licensed dealer." The same year the selectmen voted not to tax any fishermen who should come to live in the town and follow their calling, " in order to encourage so advantageous a trade." In March, 1738- 39, it is mentioned in a report upon the proposed settlement of the Rev. Mr. Prentice, "that the town has been for many years declining in busi-
1 The Hon. Chambers Russell (H. C. 1731) was son of the Hon. Daniel Russell. He was born July 4, 1713; was Representative, Executive
Chambers Rufelle
Councillor, Judge of the Superior Court and of the Admiralty ; married Mary Wainwright, and died at Guildford, County of Surrey, England,
Nov. 24, 1767. Cf. N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., vi. 274.
2 The Hon. Thomas Greaves (H. C. 1703) was son of Judge Thomas Greaves (H. C. 1656). He was born Sept. 28, 1683, and like his father was a physician, and Judge of the Superior Court. His third wife was Phoebe Vassal, and he died June 19, 1747. 8 In 1715 permission had been granted to William Cutlove to build a still-house; at the same time he was admitted an inhabitant.
323
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
ness," and that many "valuable men " had been lost at sea or had died, leaving widows.1
Nathaniel Dowse (or Dows), son of Lawrence Dowse the emigrant, was born Nov. 24, 1658; . was chosen town clerk March 2, 1695-96; and also served as town treasurer. He was a brother of the Hon. Jonathan Dowse,
nath jours Son Douse Ben Dows
who, among other political preferments, was a member of the Governor's . Council; and died Aug. 23, 1719. He was succeeded Sept. 4, 1719, by his son Benjamin Dowse (called Junior to distinguish him from his uncle of the same name), who was born Oct. 22, 1695, Who'sJenner, and died, single, Aug. 24, 1720.2 Thomas Jenner was the next clerk, and was elected Sept. 12, 1720. He was a wealthy merchant, selectman, town treasurer, justice of the peace, and captain in the militia ; was born Dec. 21, 1693, - the son of David and Mabel (Russell) Jenner, - Jose Phips.1726 - and died June 23, 1765. Samuel Phipps, a nephew of the former clerk of this name, succeeded Jenner as Re- corder March 7, 1725-26. He was son of Joseph Phipps; was born Oct. 27, 1696, and died Feb. 11, 1730-31. His successor was Joseph Phillips, son of Captain Eleazer Phillips, and brother of Eleazer Phillips, Jr.,3 the first re- corded bookbinder and bookseller in Charles- Joseph Phillips town. He was born July 17, 1690; was elected town clerk March 4, 1727-28, and served till his death, Jan. 16, 1755. Mr. Phillips was also one of the selectmen. On Jan. 20, 1755, Mr. Seth Sweetser, the schoolmaster, of whom we have already spoken, began his long term of service as Recorder of the town.
On the fourth of March, 1699-1700, the town voted, " That all the waste land belonging to the town, on the north side of Mystic River, should be divided, and be laid out equally, to every [person] an equal share that hath been an inhabitant of this town six years and is twenty-one years old, and the like share to all widows, householders, that have been six years inhabitants."
1 In 1753 there were one hundred and thirty- one widows within the Neck.
2 The Rev. Dr. Chandler 'Robbins and his brother, the Rev. Samuel Dowse Robbins, are descendants of the Charlestown Dowses; and another was the late Mr. Thomas Dowse, of Cambridge, whose library is now in the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society's rooms. Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. (1855-58), vol. iii.
3 In 1750 this gentleman attempted success- fully the cultivation of silk in this town from cocoons secured in Philadelphia, from which he procured "two crops in a summer." Cf. Boston Evening Post, Dec. 24, 1750.
324
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
In 1725 Captain Benjamin Geary, and fifty-three others, petitioned suc- cessfully for a division of this town into two townships; and they and their estates were set off, Dec. 17, forming the town of Stoneham. June 7, 1726, the General Court, on petition of Joses Bucknam and others, set off that part of Charlestown lying on the north side of Mystic River, and the inhabitants of the said territory, to the town of Malden, reserving to Charlestown the ownership and profits of Penny Ferry. In 1754 a large tract of land was set off to the town of Medford. These losses of territory and the frequent appeals of Cambridge for other lands still remaining to the town alarmed the people. In answering the General Court on the third petition of Cam- bridge, in 1759, the town's committee said: "Your respondents are not conscious that we or our ancestors have ever done anything to offend the Government, or to induce this honorable Court to reduce this town in such a manner, that from its being the second town settled in the old colony of the Massachusetts Bay, and one of the largest in this county, to be one of the smallest in the whole province."
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