USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 46
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Two surveys 1 of the streets, lanes, and highways were made during the Provincial period, - one by a committee appointed by the town March I, 1713-14; the other by a similar committee chosen at the annual March meeting in 1766. I find no report of a committee for- like service created May 13, 1754.
In 1727 Fish Street was paved; and in 1735 the town raised £100 for paving the Market-place. In 1758 the town voted to apply to the General Court to authorize a lottery by which to raise funds for paving Main Street. The petition was granted in April, 1760; and we find in the Boston News- Letter, of July 17, an advertisement of the scheme of " Charlestown Lottery No. One." Six thousand tickets were offered at two dollars each; one thousand two hundred and fifty-five prizes were offered, to return $10,800 to those purchasing tickets, and $1,200 would remain to pay for the work contemplated. -
As early as 1712 it was proposed to build a bridge to Boston " at the place where the Ferry is now kept; viz., from below Mr. Gee's and Hudson's Point to the landing place on this side." This was to be a private enterprise, encouraged and sustained by a proper toll, authorized by the General Court. The project was renewed in 1720, and again in 1738. In the last-named year it was proposed to establish a ferry, or to build a bridge, from "the Copper Works" in the westerly part of Boston to the farm of the Hon. Spencer Phips in Cambridge. This town was opposed to both plans. In March, 1725-26, the building of a bridge at Penny Ferry was suggested, but the project met with no encouragement from Charlestown.
In 1746 a committee- consisting of Richard Dana, Chambers Russell, and others - was appointed to oppose a scheme for building a bridge over the weirs between this town and Medford. Richard Dana, Esq. (H. C. 1718), was for
Dana
1 Printed in the Third Report of the Boston Record Commissioners, pp. 205-244.
325
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
several years a practitioner of law in Charlestown, before his removal to Boston, and was sometimes counsel for this town before the courts. He was the father of the Hon. Francis Dana, LL.D. (H. C. 1762), Chief-Justice of the Commonwealth, who was born here June 13, 1743.
March 1, 1724-25, Charles Chambers,1 Joseph Lemmon, Thomas Jenner, and Richard Foster, Jr., had leave to build tombs in the burial-ground.2
Pha: Chambers
Joseph Lemmon LeAn mon
In 1757 the town sold " the horse pasture," at Moulton's Point, for £70, to Captain Samuel Henley; and in 1767 (June 18) it deeded Lovell's Island to Elisha Leavitt, Jr., of Hingham, for £266 135. 4d., which amount was reserved for the use of the school.
In 1696 the old town house, built in 1656-57, was extensively repaired, the turret being strengthened and a new belfry built; and in 1712-13 it was voted that a clock, to be set up in the town house, should be bought at the public charge. May 18, 1724, it was ordered that the westerly end of the town house (i.e., the old watch-house,3) be pulled down; and a committee was appointed to confer with a county committee respecting the location of a new prison, which was "to be on or near the Town House Hill." In 1734 a new court house, which served also as a town house,4 was built at the joint, and nearly equal, expense of the Town and the County of Middlesex " in the most convenient place in the Market-place." The building was fifty feet long, thirty feet wide, and twenty-three or twenty-four feet stud, and cost £939 17s. 4d. In 1751 the town granted the request of the County
1 The Hon. Charles Chambers was a sea-cap- tain and wealthy merchant, born in Lincolnshire about 1660, - a very prominent citizen; was se- lectman and Representative, and died April 27, 1743, in his eighty-third year. His only daughter, Rebecca, married the Hon. Daniel Russell. A fine portrait of him is in possession of Colonel Charles Russell Codman, of Boston, a descendant.
2 The armorial bearings upon these and other tombs on Burial Hill have been fully described in the Heraldic Journal, i. 45, 55, 74-
Aug. 2, 1736, the Hon. Ezekiel Cheever had leave granted to him to build "a tomb on the Burial Hill, near Charles Chambers, Esq." He
Ezek : Cheever)
was a grandson of the famous schoolmaster of the same name (ante, i. 397) ; was born March 9, 1692-93; was selectman in 1732 and subsequent years, a Representative for several terms begin- ning in 1736, and in 1743 he was chosen “one
of His Majesty's Council." His son " Ezekiel Cheever, Jr., Esq.," also took an active interest in public affairs in Charlestown.
3 A watch-house was ordered to be built in 1637 ; but, as a similar vote was passed in 1639, the first watch-house probably dates from the year last named. It was sixteen feet long, twelve feet wide, and seven feet high, and had " a chim- ney in it of convenient largeness to give en- tertainment on the Lord's Days to such as live remote from the meeting-house." The second "lock-up " was built in 1675, on the Common, and was fourteen feet square. Thieves were rigorously dealt with a century and a half ago. In September, 1738, a man convicted of burglary in this town was executed. John Sales (vide ante, i. 387) was the first convicted thief. Cf. Wyman, Gen- ealogies and Estates, p. 842.
4 This building, as well as the residences of many private citizens, was brilliantly illuminated, in 1736, in honor of the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Princess of Saxe-Gotha. Cf. Boston Evening Post, June 21; 1736.
326
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Court that a space about eighteen feet in length and ten feet in width on the lower floor of the court house, at the north-east and east part, " be erected into an office for keeping the records of the courts for this county," at the expense of the county.1 In 1755 Themason the office in the town (or court) house, lately occupied by Thaddeus Mason, Esq. (H. C. 1728), long clerk of the courts in Middlesex, was fitted up for the use of the town clerk. In the same year £100 was raised for building three fish-market houses on the town's land, on Willoughby Creek, near the Great Ferry.
Jan. 16, 1699-1700, a fire occurred in Charlestown, destroying three houses.2 It was not until 1724 that the town purchased its first fire-engine. On the 18th of May £30 was appropriated for this object. In 1735 a second engine was paid for at a cost to the town of £117 25. 9d. Nov. 8, 1743, The Ancient Fire-Society was formed. In 1758 there were three engines manned by twenty-four men, who were appointed by the selectmen. In 1760 the town voted to build an engine-house " on the Green before Cape Breton Tavern," which at that time was kept by Zechariah Symmes, and stood at the junction of what are now Main and Essex streets. The site of the tavern is now occupied by Samuel D. Sawin, as a grocery. In 1773 (April 8) the Massachusetts Spy, in describing a fire in Boston, mentions the assistance rendered by " the engine from Charlestown, esteemed the best in America."
About 1690 a postal service was established, and John Knight, of Charles- town, was appointed " Post." This individual was one of three men in town who, prior to 1775, had married five wives.3 Mr. Knight survived all his consorts, and died Dec. 1, 1714.
Oct. 4, 1721, the town voted to take its proportion (£1,135) of the Province loan of £50,000, and chose Henry Phillips, Ebenezer Austin, and John Fowle Elon: Austin trustees to receive it.
Oldmixon 4 thus describes the town about 1740: -
" Charlestown, the mother of Boston, is much more populous than Cambridge, and exceeds it much in respect of trade, being situated between two rivers, Mystic River and Charles River, and parted from Boston only by the latter, over which there is a ferry so well tended that a bridge would not be much more convenient, except in winter, when the ice will neither bear nor suffer a boat to move through it. Though the river is much broader about the town, it is not wider in the ferry passage than the Thames, between London and Southwark. The profits of this ferry belong to Harvard College, in Cambridge, and are considerable. The town is so large as to take up all the space between the two rivers. 'Tis beautified with a handsome large church, a
1 In June, 1717, a strenuous effort was made to have Charlestown made the shire-town of Mid- dlesex; but it failed, the vote in the House of Representatives standing forty-one for Charles- town, against forty-six in favor of Cambridge.
2 Cf. Sewall Papers, ii. I.
8 Nathaniel Rand (1709-1785) had five wives, and Joseph Hopkins (1718-1785) had six.
4 The British Empire in America (ed. 1741), i. 192, 193.
327
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
market-place by the river side, and two long streets leading down to it. The Inferior Court is kept here the second Tuesday in March and December, and the Superior the last Tuesday in January. Capt. Uring writes that Charlestown is divided from Boston by a large navigable river, which runs several miles up the country. It is near half as big, but not so conveniently situated for trade, though capable of being made as strong, it standing also on a peninsula. 'Tis 'said one thousand vessels clear annually from these two towns only, more than from all the European colonies in America not in English hands."
In September, 1755, two negroes - Mark and Phillis - slaves of Cap- tain John Codman, were executed for poisoning their master with arsenic. A third culprit -Phoebe - be- came evidence against the other Iwasman O cod 5. 1747. two, and was transported to the West Indies. Mark was hanged in chains on the northerly side of the Cambridge road, about a quarter of a mile beyond the Neck; and Phillis was burned at a stake, about ten yards distant from the gallows. Both confessed their guilt.1 Captain Codman was a prominent citizen, and was highly respected. He was also active in military affairs. He married a sister of the Hon. Richard Foster, Jr., and was an ancestor of the Rev. Dr. John Codman (H. C. 1802), of Dorchester, and of the family of this name now prominent in Boston.
In August, 1695, Lieut .- Colonel Joseph Lynde, one of our most dis- tinguished citizens, was commissioned2 to pursue the Indians who had attacked Billerica in the early part of the Soniph. month, and who had killed or captured fifteen persons. But the pursuit was fruit- less, the Indians eluding the search for them. Colonel Lynde was a member of the Com- mittee of Safety, in 1689, and he was named one of the Council in the Pro- vince Charter of 1691. He had previously been a Representative; and he was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was for many years on the Board of Selectmen. He married (1) Sarah, daughter of Nicholas Davison; 3 (2) Emma, widow of John Brackenbury; and (3) Mary, widow of the Hon. Adam Winthrop. Colonel Lynde died Jan. 29, 1726-27, aged ninety-one. His granddaughter, Sarah Lynde, mar- ried the Rev. Joseph Stevens.
1 Cf. Boston Evening Post, Sept. 22, 1755.
2 Cf. Massachusetts Archives, li. 41.
8 Elizabeth Davison, believed to have been a granddaughter of Major Daniel Davison, son of Nicholas, was married here June 26, 1728, to Captain Robert Ball, a prominent and wealthy citizen. Her portrait by Blackburn, esteemed one of his best, and that of her husband by Smybert are among the very few portraits that
escaped the conflagration of June 17, 1775. They
Rob: Balle 1759
are now in the possession of their descendant, the writer of this chapter.
328
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Feb. 14, 1744-45, the town voted a bounty of twenty shillings to each man who should enlist in the company which Bartholomew Trow had orders to raise in Charlestown for the expedition against Cape Breton.
When, in 1755, about one thousand Acadians were brought to Massa- chusetts, Charlestown received twelve of them, and Nov. 24 the selectmen " ordered that they be for the present put into the work-house and supplied with necessaries till otherwise provided for." Sept. 6, 1756, the selectmen agreed to petition the General Court for the removal of these unfortunate people; but the petition, if ever presented, was unsuccessful, for on the sixth of May, 1761, it was voted to hire a house and move the " French Neutrals" into it. In 1757 the town voted to pay a bounty of £10 lawful money to such citizens as joined in the "intended expedition" of Lord Loudoun, and the following enlisted : Thomas Lord (Captain), Thomas Edes, Samuel Baker, Abraham Edes, Benjamin Peirce, Joseph Leathers, Thomas Orgain, Barret Rand,1 John Sherman, Joseph Rand, Jr., William Symmes, and Nathan Balloin. The quota of Charlestown for the Canada expedition of 1758 was forty-eight men,2 and Mr. Frothingham 3 gives a list of thirty " men that went from Charlestown upon the Expedition, 1759; sailed from the Castle 24th of April," preserved "in a diary kept in this town," which expedition was also destined for Canada.
The period between 1764 and 1776 is treated at length in other chapters of this work, and the active part taken by Charlestown has been well set forth in another history.4 In 1773 (Nov. 27) a Committee of Correspond- ence was chosen, " by written votes," con- sisting of Isaac Foster, Peter Edes, John Space Forter Jun Frothingham, Richard Devens, David Chee- ver, Nathaniel Frothingham, John Codman, Isaac Foster, Jr.,5 and William Wyer. With regard to the disuse of tea and the proceedings incident thereto this town is conspicuous. Among the persons most prominently Isaiah Edes identified with these proceedings were Isaac Foster, Richard Devens, John Codman, Isaiah Edes, Nathaniel Austin, Benjamin Hurd, and John Harris. The tea collected
1 Prior to the Revolution of 1775, the Rand family was the most numerous in the town.
2 Twenty-three of these men were under the command of Captain John Hancock, five under Captain David Wyer, and twenty under Captain Michael Brigden, in whose company - which was in Gridley's regiment -Commissary-Gene- ral Richard Devens served as Ensign.
8 History of Charlestown, p. 266.
4 Ibid., chapters xxv .- xxx. Captain Edward Sheaffe was one of the foremost men in Charles- town during the years which immediately pre- ceded the breaking out of the Revolutionary struggle. He was born Oct. 1, 1711, the son of Edward and Mary Sheaffe ; was often select-
man, moderator of town-meetings, and upon im- portant committees of the town ; and for several years he represented his native place in the Gen- eral Court. He died in May or June, 1771, much lamented.
de heafferun 2
5 Cf. New England Hist. and Geneal. Reg., xxv. 70.
329
CHARLESTOWN IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
from several persons in the town was paid for out of the public treasury, and burned at high noon. in the market-place, - Dec. 31, 1773.1 The Bos- ton Port Bill, which went into effect June 1, 1774, affected the commercial interests of Charlestown as severely as it did those of the larger town. The Town of Boston voted, Aug. 9, 1774, that seven per cent of the gifts sent
KHBURN
CHARLESTOWN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.2
in should be apportioned to this town, whose Committee of Donations con- sisted of Nathaniel Gorham, Nathaniel Frothingham, Nehemiah Rand, Peter Tufts, Jr., John Stanton, Stephen Miller, James Gardner, Edward Goodwin, Franc Forten John Larkin, second, David Wait, Thomas Wood, Isaac Codman, Isaac Foster, Peter Edes, John Frothing- ham, Richard Devens, David Cheever, John Codman, Isaac Foster, Jr., and William Wyer. Isaac Foster was chairman, and Seth Sweetser clerk of this Committee, and their weekly sessions extended from Aug. 1, 1774, to April 5, 1775. July 23, 1774, the selectmen voted to withdraw the town's stock of powder, which was stored, with the powder belonging to other towns in the Province, in the old Powder House, originally a wind-mill, still standing on Quarry Hill in
1 Cf. John Andrews' Letters in Mass. Hist. Hist. Soc. Proc. (1875-76), xiv. 53, seems to be a Soc. Proc. (1864-65), viii. 383.
2 [This view of Charlestown follows a portion of a large engraved view of Boston made by the British engineers about 1770, and given reduced in a heliotype in Mr. Bynner's chapter in this vol- ume. What is called a view of Charlestown in 1743, as given by Mr. Frothingham in the Mass. VOL. II. - 42.
translation into a direct view of the foreshortened oblique view which is found in Price's 1743 view of Boston, with an addition of the hills in the background. Another glimpse of Charlestown of about the same date is given in the view of the North Battery in Boston, in Colonel Higgin- son's chapter in this volume. - ED.]
330
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
what is now Somerville. Other towns did the same. Immediately upon - receiving intelligence of these withdrawals, General Gage transferred the remainder of "the King's Powder " to Castle William. The town-meeting which assembled July 30, 1774, was continued by successive adjournments till the annual meeting in March, 1775. Nov. 26, 1774, a committee was chosen to see that the acts and resolves of the "Grand American Con- gress" and of the Provincial Congress were duly executed, so far as they related to this town. It was composed of Nathan Adams, Benjamin Hurd,1 William Ford, Caleb Call, Samuel Con- ant, John Harris, Nathaniel Austin, Lovis Foye, Isaiah Edes, James Fosdick, and Samuel Wait.
The British troops on their retreat from Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, passed through Charlestown. In the morning, when intelligence was received that the expedition to Concord was on the march, the schools were dismissed, and great excitement prevailed. In the afternoon the Hon. James Russell received a note from General Gage, saying he had been informed that armed men had left Charlestown during the day to obstruct the return of the troops to Boston; and that if another armed man went out, the most disagreeable consequences might be expected. The British entered the town by the Cambridge road, about sunset. As soon as their approach was positively known, great numbers of the inhabitants fled over the Neck to the neighboring towns. The troops occupied Bunker Hill that night and were reinforced by a detachment sent over from Boston. Those inhabitants who remained in the town lost no time in removing their families and valuables to a place of safety at the earliest possible moment; so that on the seventeenth of June, when the Battle of Bunker Hill 2 was fought, " only one or two hundred remained out of a population of between two and three thousand."
The last town-meeting before the town was burned was held March 21, 1775, when David Cheever, an active member of the Committee on Supplies, was chosen delegate to the Provincial Congress. The last meeting of the selectmen assembled April 7, when the interest on Captain Richard Sprague's legacy for the poor was distributed.
Time has dealt severely with Charlestown, - the conflagration of 1775 sparing only about, fifteen houses at the upper end of the peninsula, just within the Neck. Her highways, her ancient records, and the gravestones upon Burial Hill are all that remain to us as memorials of the first century and a half of our existence. Nor have we any plan of the town made before its destruction.
Henry Jt. Edes /
1 Mr. Hurd was town treasurer from 1772 till 1776.
2 To be described in Vol. III.
CHAPTER XI.
ROXBURY IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
BY FRANCIS S. DRAKE.
T HE abrogation of its charter in 1684 by James II., and the arbitrary rule of the royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros, which followed, stirred Massachusetts to its profoundest depths. To half a century of self-gov- ernment under peculiarly favorable circumstances had succeeded a tyranny which must in any event have been shortlived. Happily for her the rev- olution which placed William of Orange upon the English throne afforded an opportunity of which she was not slow to take advantage. Of the origi- nal settlers of Roxbury nearly all had passed from the stage before the new order of things had been imposed; but to Eliot, Bowles, Williams, Crafts, and the few of that noble band who still remained, the loss of those liberties for which they had striven so long and suffered so much must indeed have seemed intolerably grievous. One of Roxbury's distinguished sons, Rev. John Wise, minister of Ipswich, was in 1688 fined and imprisoned by Andros for his vigorous opposition to the tax levied in that year by the governor, without authority from the Assembly. The men of Roxbury, under Captain Samuel Ruggles, Sr., Lieutenant Samuel Gore, and Ensign Timothy Stevens, assisted their brethren of Boston in overthrowing their oppressors, April 18, 1689, taking an active part in the capture of Fort Hill and the Castle. The action taken by the town at this time for the establish- ment of a provisional government is thus recorded : -
" May 6, 1689. At a general meeting of the inhabitants of Roxbury, orderly called, Lieutenant Samuel Ruggles and Nathaniel Holmes were chosen and authorized to meet the representatives of the several towns assembled at Boston, 9th inst., and there to concur and joyne with them in their endeavors to settle and establish a govern- ment in the country (for the present), in such a way as shall be thought best for the present good and safety of the country.
" At a meeting of the inhabitants upon the 20th of this instant May, the com- mittee having reported the instructions of the several towns as being too general, it was therefore signified unto them that it was their desire that the governor, deputy-
332
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
governor, and such assistants as were chosen and sworn in, in 1686, should resume the government of this colony according to charter.
" June 3. John Bowles and Lieutenant Samuel Ruggles were chosen representa- tives to meet at Boston, June 5, then and there to consult the present emergencies (relating to the public affairs of the country)."
Among those who at this time were made to feel the popular vengeance was Joseph Dudley, who, as President of the Council, and all the more as a native citizen upon whom they had heaped their honors, had incurred their extreme resentment. He had been sent in 1682 to England, as one of the agents to save the charter of the colony; but finding the attempt ineffectual had advised its surrender. This counsel, while it cost him his popularity at home, helped him to obtain the appointment to the presi- dency of New England, with which he returned in 1685. When the out- break occurred he was at Providence, presiding as chief-justice upon the Narragansett circuit. He was seized and brought to Boston, where he was thrust into jail and treated with great severity, but was released in the follow- ing January, and sailed for England in February 1690. An unpleasant episode occurred to vary the monotony of his imprisonment. After having on the plea of ill-health, and by giving heavy bonds, procured from the court the indulgence of being confined under guard in his own house in Roxbury, he was after a brief respite compelled to re-enter his prison walls. The people were less lenient than the court, and promptly reversed its decision. A contemporary account says : -
" About twelve o'clock at night, being Saturday night, about 200 or 300 of the rabble, Dearing and Soule heading of them, went and broke open his house and brought him to town. The keeper of the jail would not receive him, and they took him to Mr. Paige's (whose wife was a sister of Dudley's). Monday night the 15th they broke into Mr. Paige's house, smashing his windows, in the search for Dudley, who promised to go to prison again and remain until the fury of the people should be allayed. The 16th instant Mr. Dudley walked to the prison accompanied with several gentlemen, there being no stilling the people otherwise."
Joseph, son of Governor Thomas Dudley, was born in Roxbury, July 23, 1647, after his father had attained the age of seventy. He was educated for the ministry but soon turned his attention to civil affairs, for which he was admirably qualified by habits of diligence and by the possession of abilities of a high order. He was present at the battle with the Narragansetts in Decem- ber 1675, and as one of the commissioners dictated the terms of a treaty with that once powerful tribe. He was a member of the General Court from 1673 to 1675; one of the Commissioners for the United Colonies from 1677 to 1681 ; an Assistant from 1676 to 1685; President of New England by a commission from James II. from Sept. 27, 1685, to Decem- ber 1686; President of the Council and Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court in 1687-89; Chief-Justice of New York in 1691-92; Deputy-Gov- ernor of the Isle of Wight, England, from 1694 to 1702; and was a
ROXBURY IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
333
member of the British Parliament for Newton, England, in 1701. He closed his long official career as Governor of Massachusetts from 1702 to 1715, and died in Roxbury, April 2, 1720.
While residing in England from 1693 to 1702, he labored assiduously for a reconciliation with his countrymen, and by his superior sense and polished
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