USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 67
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and Geneal. Reg., 1862, p. 84. See also Drake, Boston, p. 503. - ED.]
2 Palfrey, History of New England, i. 296.
8 Mather, Magnalia, p. 168.
495
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
We are informed further that " the whole place has been an island, but it is now joined to the main land by a low road to Roxbury."1 They attended church, "where, in the first place, a minister made a prayer in the pulpit of full two hours in length; after which an old minister delivered a sermon an hour long, and after that a prayer was made and some verses sung out of the Psalms." After which we should not, perhaps, be surprised to hear of the auditors that they "were very worldly and inattentive," or of the preachers that they " seemed to possess zeal, but no just knowledge of Christianity." The worthy Dutchmen visited Harvard College, of which they give an amusing, but doubtless truthful, account. They witnessed a review on the Common, which they describe as " a large plain on the side of the city; " and by the " high hill in the city, also with a light house upon it," they undoubtedly mean the Tramount and the Beacon.
Next in order of time, about 1686, comes Mr. John Dunton, the com- placent and garrulous bookseller, whose quaint, good-natured, and facetious account of the townsfolk makes us regret that he did not add a few original words about the town itself, instead of reproducing the stale descriptions of Wood and Johnson; from his silence we can only infer that he found little that was new to add to their accounts.2
Quite otherwise was it with the scurrilous Ward, whom, however, a cer- tain shrewdness of observation, and a vigorous though coarse humor save from the utter contempt he otherwise deserves. Two or three passages from his Trip to England in 1699, among many too gross for repetition, give his impressions of Boston in the last year of the century : -
" The Houses in some parts joyn, as in London, the Buildings, like their Women being Neat and Handsome; and their Streets, like the Hearts of the Male Inhabit- ants, are Paved with Pebble. In the Chief or high Street there are stately Edifices, some of which have cost the owners two or three Thousand Pounds the raising ; which I think plainly proves Two old Adages true, - viz., That a Fool and his Money is soon parted, and Set a Beggar on Horseback he'll Ride to the Devil, - for the Fathers of these men were Tinkers and Peddlers. To the Glory of Religion and the Credit of the Town there are four Churches, Built with Clapboards and Shingles after the Fashion of our Meeting-houses, which are supply'd by four Ministers, to whom some very justly have apply'd these Epithites, - one a Scholar, the Second a Gentleman, the Third a Dunce, and the Fourth a Clown. . .. Every Stranger is invariably forc'd to take this Notice, That in Boston there are more Religious zealots than Honest men, more Parsons than Churches, and more Churches than Parishes ; for the Town, unlike the People, is subject to no Division. The Inhabitants seem very Religious, showing many outward and visible Signs of an inward and Spiritual Grace ; but tho' they wear
1 [This road over the Neck was fenced in 1724 by order of the General Court, the better to guide people in the night and in bad weather. -ED.]
2 [For other accounts of Dunton see the in- dexes of the present and of the first volume of this History. Some helpful descriptions by a French Protestant refugee who was in Boston
in 1687 were printed some years ago by Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, of New York, as mentioned in a note to chapter vii. of this volume, and they are quoted in Shurtleff's Description of Boston, p. 47. It would be well, at the same time, not to forget La Mothe Cadillac's account in 1692, published in the Maine Historical Collections, vi. 284. - ED.]
496
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
in their Faces the Innocence of Doves, you will find them in their Dealings as Subtile as Serpents. Interest is Faith, Money their God, and Large Possessions the only Heaven they covet." 1
The evidence of an English traveller early in the next century, however, confirms the opinion already advanced that there were as yet few new features of general interest to describe. Captain Nathaniel Uring, who made a "Voyage to Boston in New England and the West Indies" in 1709, was an intelligent observer, and records his impressions with conscientious care. His last visit was in 1721. At that time Long Wharf had been built, and he describes the Neck as -
" So low that the spring tide sometimes washes the road, which, with little Charge might be fortified and made so strong that it would be impossible to force it.2 The town is near two miles in length, and in some places three-quarters of a mile broad, in which are reckoned 4,000 houses ; most of them are built with brick, and have about 18,000 inhabitants. The streets are broad and regular ; some of the richest merchants have very stately, well built, convenient houses. The ground on which the town stands is moder- ately high, and very good water is found all over it ; it is much the largest of any in America under the British Government. They have built several wharfs, which jut into the harbour, for the conveniency of shipping, one of which goes by the name of the Long Wharf, and may well be called so, it running about 800 feet into the harbour, where large ships with great ease may both lade and unlade ; on one side of which are warehouses almost the whole length of the wharf, where the Merchants store their goods which they unlade, and those they ship off, and where more than 50 sail of vessels may lade or unlade at the same time with great conveniency ; and the town altogether is most excellently situated for trade and navigation. It is very populous, and has in it 8 or 9 large meeting-houses, and a French Church, and but one English, and that built of wood ; but I am informed since I was in that country they have another building with brick." 3
The " one English " church referred to by Uring is of course the King's Chapel. The old chapel was built between 1687 and 1689, when Andros, having found it impossible to buy a suitable building spot from the stub- born Sewall and his brother Puritans, appropriated the corner of the burial- ground for his church. " Gleaner" calls this occupation of the land " a bare-faced squat." And the Rev. Increase Mather, speaking of the Episco- palians in 1688, says : " Thus at their own charge they built an house; but can the Townsmen of Boston tell at whose charge the land was purchased?" This, however, refers only to the parcel actually occupied by the original
1 [See other extracts in Shurtleff's Descrip- tion of Boston, p. 53. - ED.]
2 [Breaches in the walls, which were early built to keep back the sea along the Neck, were constantly being made down to a much later period. The town-lands hereabout were usually leased with a condition attached of keeping these walls in repair. The papers in the files of the City Clerk's office show frequent troubles arising
from this cause. As late as 1764 John Hill and Samuel Wentworth, who held such leases, found this expense heavy enough to petition for con- sideration. - ED.]
3 See Uring's Voyage, etc., reprinted in New Hamp. ITist. Soc. Coll., iii., communicated by Mr. S. G. Drake of Boston. Also see Hist. Mag., 1866, supplement, p. 119; Drake, Boston, p. 537 ; Shurtleff, Description of Boston, p. 434.
497
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
building; a deed having been subsequently found by the indefatigable " Gleaner," bearing date 1748, by which certain additional parcels needed for the enlargement of the church were granted by the selectmen to the wardens and vestry of King's Chapel.1
The first little building was of wood, and unpretentious enough. It was crowned by a steeple surmounted by a huge "cockerel," which, in the well-known cut2 of the old chapel, soars into the clouds to a height almost rivalling the Beacon. "Just under" this ambitious bird, according to Greenwood, there was " a large and quite observable crown."3 For several years the church was without pews, until, in 1693, some English naval officers from Sir Francis Wheeler's fleet, then in the harbor, made up a purse of £56 towards supplying the need, and the pews were soon after- ward built. To offset its humble exterior the little chapel was furnished forth far more richly within than any other church of the day ; besides " the Decalouge, viz., the tenn Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed drawne in England," it had a costly Communion service presented by the king and queen, besides " a cushion and Cloth for the Pulpit, two Cushions for the Reading Deske, a carpet for the Allter all of Crimson Damask, with silk fringe, one Large Bible, two Large Common Prayer Books, twelve Lesser Common Prayer Books, Linnin for the Allter. Also two surplises." All the gift of Queen Mary.
Fired by this royal munificence, the worthy warden of the Chapel has recorded with scrupulous care, but indifferent orthography, his own contri- bution : " To my labor for making the Wather cock and Spindel, to Duing the Commandements and allter rome and the Pulpet, to Duing the Church and Winders, mor to Duing the Gallaray and the King's Armes, fortey pounds, which I freely give. G. DYER." 4
In 1710 the chapel was rebuilt to twice its original size, to accommodate the rapidly growing congregation. In the new building the pulpit was on the. north side, directly in front of which was the state pew of the royal governors, with another near at hand for the officers of the British army and navy. In the western gallery was the " orgins," also mentioned by Warden Dyer, and the first ever used in America. High up on the pulpit stood a quaint old hour-glass richly mounted in brass, while along the walls and depending from the pillars were the escutcheons of the king, together with those of certain of the viceregal governors and other munificent donors of the church. Altogether we may well believe "it was a strange sight among the bare churches of New England."
After the lapse of nearly half a century this building in turn was found to be in a ruinous and dilapidated condition, and measures to rebuild were taken, which resulted in the well-known stone chapel now standing upon the spot. The erection of this building is largely due to the energetic
1 [See a note of the petition asking for this land in 1747, with fac-similes of the signatures, in Dr. Mckenzie's chapter in this volume .- ED.]
VOL. II. - 63.
2 [See Vol I., p. 214. - ED.]
8 Greenwood, King's Chapel.
4 Ibid.
498
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
efforts of Dr. Caner, the rector of the period, who lived close by in a rough- cast wooden house, on the north side of the old burying-ground, and who, on the evacuation of the town by the British, in March, 1776, went away with them, taking along the church vestments, plate, registers, and records, a part of which last only was recovered from his heirs in 1805.1
It was to make room for this building that the old Latin school formerly standing just east of the church on School Street was taken down, which furnished occasion for a shaft from Mr. Joseph Green, the noted wit and poet of the day.2
KING'S CHAPEL.
ERECTED IN THE YEAR 1749.
EF.MYRICK
A prominent place in the early history of Boston must always be ac- corded to its old-time inns, the centres of so much of its life and affairs, the resort at once of judge and jury, of the clergy and the laity, of the politician and the merchant; where the selectmen came to talk over the affairs of the town, and higher officials to discuss the larger interests of the province ; where royal governors and distinguished strangers were entertained alike with the humblest wayfarer and the meanest citizen; where were held the ca- rousals of roistering red-coat officers, and the midnight plottings of mutter-
1 Greenwood, King's Chapel.
2 [This quatrain is quoted in Mr. Goddard's chapter in this volume. - ED.]
499
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
ing, stern-lipped patriots; where, in fine, the swaggering ensign of the royal army, the frowning Puritan, the obnoxious Quaker, the Huguenot refugee, and the savage Indian chief from the neighboring forest might, perchance, jostle each other in the common tap-room. Faint echoes only of all these convivial meetings, momentous discussions, and secret plots have come down to us, where fuller records might, perhaps, throw a needed light upon many obscure points in our annals.
Of the various old inns which have acquired fame in connection with noted men and events of the province, one of the best known and most fre- quented was the old Blue Anchor Tavern, which stood on the east side of Washington Street, a little south of State Street. Previous to 1684 it had already become a popular resort for members of the General Court, officers and attendants upon the law courts, and others visiting the town on public business. It was also a favorite haunt of the convivial Dunton, who lived a little further up the street opposite the Town House. At the date of his visit in 1686 it was kept by George Monck, already described in Dunton's own language. Chief-Justice Sewall, it appears, was not unacquainted with the good cheer at the " Blue Anchor," for we read in his Diary under date of 1685 : "This day about 31 Ministers meet. Mr. Higginson Prayes excellently ; Governour gives the question ; dine all together at Monk's."1 In the inventory of one of the former landlords we find the rooms in the old inn described as " a little room, court chamber, fore-street 2 rooms, garret, and parlor." 3
Another old tavern, equally well known, was the Royal Exchange, situated on the southwest corner of State Street and Exchange Place. This, too, is spoken of by Sewall, who tells of dining there with Sir William Phips and a distinguished company, in 1690;4 while the same year there is a further entry to the effect that "Col. Shrimpton's sign, the Royal Ex- change, is blown down; the keeper of it ran away on Satterday."5 At a later day it was kept by the popular London cook and publican Luke Vardy, who is thus whimsically described by Joseph Green, in his satire on a masonic celebration in 1749: -
" Where's honest Luke, - that cook from London ? For without Luke the Lodge is undone ;
'T was he who oft dispell'd their sadness, And fill'd the Brethren's hearts with gladness. For them his ample bowls o'erflow'd, His table groan'd beneath its load ;
For them he stretch'd his utmost art, -
Their honours grateful they impart. Luke in return is made a brother, As good and true as any other ;
And still, though broke with age and wine, Preserves the token and the sign." 6
1 Sewall's Diary, i. 89.
2 Rooms fronting on Fore (now Washington) Street.
4 Sewall Papers, i. 338.
5 Ibid., 340.
6 Joseph Green, Entertainment for a Winter's
8 Whitmore's notes to Dunton's Letters. Evening.
500
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
It would seem that " honest Luke" was so much "broke with age and wine " that he had already given up the hostelry at the time the above was written, for the writer expressly says, further on: -
" From church to Stone's they go to eat, In order walking through the street." 1
Another old ordinary of the day, which was held in high estimation, was the " Bunch of Grapes ;" centrally located " near the Town House," on the corner of Kilby and State streets, it was a convenient resort for business or pleasure. Hither, in 1728, Governor Burnet, after having been received with a most extraordinary parade and ovation, was escorted to dine, - the Province House not being ready for his reception. In July, 1753, we read that the town committee appointed to see to building a new market were directed to " give their attendance at Mr. William Coffin's, the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, on Thursdays weekly, from six to eight o'clock in the evening; " and where we may be sure, if they did not sup, the worthy committee-men relieved the dry details of business with a modest dram. Other associations connected with this famous old tavern belong to a later period.2
In this brief passing notice of the chief public buildings of the period the famous Manifesto Church comes next in order. In January, 1698, the parcel of land called Brattle Close, upon which the church was afterward built, was conveyed by Thomas Brattle to Thomas Clarke and others, " for the erection of a house of worship." 3 As described by one of its pastors in a series of memorial sermons : 4 -
" The old church, originally erected by the undertakers in 1699, was built of wood. It had a tower and bell on the west end, and a door on the south side, opposite to which was the pulpit. The pews were square, and the house was constructed with two galleries ; so that, though a small building, its general plan resembled that of the Old South of the present day. Its window-frames were of iron. It had never been painted inside or outside. It had been considerably enlarged during the ministry of Mr. William Cooper ; and as late as 1766 additional pews were constructed to meet the wants of the society. It had now been built over seventy years ; and withal had nothing very pleasing in its external appearance or internal accommodations, and nothing very striking connected with it, unless it were a memorable hour-glass for the pulpit, which is said to have been a foot high, enclosed in a gilded or brass frame. The records say that at the sale of the old house this hour-glass 'was reserved for the use of the Society,' but what became of it cannot be ascertained."
In 1772, towards the close of the period, the old house being no longer adequate for the needs of the society, it was determined to rebuild; where- upon Governor Bowdoin offered his valuable estate on the corner of Tremont Row and Howard Street for the location of the new building.
1 [See Introduction, p. xix. - ED.]
2 [See Introduction, p. xiv. - ED.]
3 [See Dr. Mckenzie's ch. in this vol. - ED.]
4 [Dr. S. K. Lothrop, History of Brattle-Street Church. See other authorities mentioned in Introduction, p. xvi, of Vol. I .- ED.]
501
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
The offer, after some deliberation, was declined, it is thought mainly through the influence of Thomas Hancock; indeed, the latter's offer of a bell and a subscription of a thousand pounds if the building should be erected on the original site, may well have had something to do with the decision. The new building was begun June 23, 1772. It will be remembered by many now living, and was famed for its Revolutionary associations.1
It is to be regretted that an equally clear and authentic account cannot be given of that curious old structure, the mysterious Triangular Ware- house, which stood for many years on the north side of the town dock, opposite the swing bridge, and was taken down in 1824. We are told that its origin is "involved in a happy obscurity." What special cause
KILBURN
THE TRIANGULAR WAREHOUSE.2
for congratulation is to be found in this uncertainty of origin is not quite clear, unless it be the furnishing a guessing problem for Yankee wits. The singularity of its construction certainly provoked much conjecture as to its purpose and object.
" It was built of brick on a stone foundation, and had a slated roof. There were two principal stories in the building, with a good cellar underneath. The lower story appeared to have been arched, with very many doors and windows. On each corner and in the centre of the roof there was a tower, such as is represented in the plate, topped with a ball. The centre ball was of wood ; the others were of stone, all fixed on iron spires set in lead. Conjecture has made this edifice to have been a fort built
1 A complete and beautiful model of the build- ing is preserved in the rooms of the Massachu- setts Historical Society, in which not only the exterior, but an accurate representation of the
interior may be seen, with the pews, pulpit, choir, organ, and clock, in their respective places.
2 [See Shurtleff, Desc. of Boston, pp. 404, 684 ; and the Introduction to this vol., p. xiii. - ED.]
502
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
for the protection of the town, or a custom-house for the accommodation of govern- ment ; there is, however, good reason to believe that it was not erected for any publick purpose, but that it was built about the year 1700 by London merchants for a com- mercial warehouse. It had been a place of considerable business, and for some time the public scales for weighing large draughts were kept there. . . It was con- structed with great strength, the bricks were of a larger size than those now used, and the foundation stood upon a sandy marsh, beneath which there is found a solid blue clay at about thirteen feet below the level of Ann Street." 1
But more important than any building, public or private, and, indeed, of greater effect on the advancement of the town than any enterprise thus far undertaken, was undoubtedly the construction of Long Wharf, in 1710. This was due to the efforts of one Oliver Noyes and his associates, who in that year were granted leave "to build a wharf with a sufficient common sewer from Andrew Faneuil's corner to low-water mark, to be of the width of King Street." There was to be also a public thoroughfare thirty feet wide, upon one side, and a space in the middle sixteen feet in width for the accommodation of boats lading and unlading; while the outer, or seaward, end was to be reserved to the town for a battery, if they should choose so to use it. This was simply an extension of King or State Street a thousand feet or more into the sea; for one side of the wharf was very soon afterward lined with shops and warehouses, thus giving the effect of a continuous street. It is early described as " a noble Pier 1,800 or 2,000 feet long, with a Row of Warehouses on the North Side for the use of Merchants. The Pier runs so far into the Bay that Ships of the greatest Burthen may unlade without the Help of Boats or Lighters. From the head of the Pier you go up the chief Street of the Town." 2
On Bonner's map of 1722 we see the whole north side of the wharf occu- pied by an unbroken line of buildings.3 There is reason to believe that the stores and shops upon Long Wharf were designated by numbers before the system became general in the town. In some old advertisements letters were used instead of numbers.4 The maps of the provincial period show that a portion of what has been known in our day as T Wharf was the only part of the old out-wharf, or barricado of 1672, which remained in any ser- viceable condition.5
1 Snow, History of Boston, p. 107.
2 Neal, History of New England, p. 226.
3 [These are better seen in Bonner's sketch of the water-front, as reproduced in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., September, 1864. They also appear in Revere's and other views of Boston of the last century. See Introduction to this volume, pp. xx, lii, for other items about the construc- tion of the wharf. - ED.]
4 See Drake, History of Boston, p. 537, note.
5 [The story of the construction of this out- wharf has been given in Vol. I., p. 226, and further details will be found in Gleaner Articles, No. 5; Drake's Boston, p. 395; Snow's Boston,
160. In 1728, March 29, a committee was ap- pointed to inspect its ruinous condition, and they reported that the conditions on which it was built had been neglected in not keeping the structure in repair, and that the rights of the proprietors would be forfeited if it was not re- built in three years; and June 25, this report was accepted by the town. Delays, however, occurred, and in 1733 a committee reported that nothing had been done. Henry Gibbs, in 1734, petitioned to be allowed to build a new wharf to take its place ; but his petition was dismissed. Various papers relating thereto are preserved in the files of the City Clerk's office. - ED.]
503
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
The erection of Long Wharf in 1710 marks the close of the first quarter of a century since the loss of the charter.
Besides the more important public buildings above described, various minor structures and improvements added each its little mite to the growth and embellishment of the town. Among those deserving mention Samuel Sewall Ben ja Timp Son Jamb Ramy were the Free Writing School on the present Tremont Street, built in 1683-84,- the autograph of whose first master, John Cole, with its elaborate and clumsy flourish, may be seen in the Introduction to this volume, - the powder-house 1 on the Common, the Mill-bridge, the windmill on Fort Hill, the fortifica- tions on the Neck,2 and the paving of the streets (a most important measure), besides divers elegant private residences, the exact date Dan Henchman of whose construction is uncertain. The effect of the Building Acts, moreover, must by this time have SOUTH-END PETITIONERS FOR ANOTHER SCHOOL, 1715-16. been perceptible ; the town of course taking on, with every new structure of brick or stone, an aspect more and more solid and substantial.
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