USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 70
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Next door to this stately dwelling, and rivalling it in splendor of ap- pointments, stood the fated house of Lieut .- Governor Thomas Hutchinson, which was well-nigh destroyed on the night of Aug. 26, 1765, during the excitement of the Stamp-Act trouble, by an infuriated mob, which not only gutted the house, carried off a large sum of money, drank or wasted an enormous amount of wine with which his Tory Excellency's binns were stored, but left the streets widely strewn with plate, jewels, clothes, papers, and other valuables, as appears from Governor Bernard's proclamation of the following day ; indeed, so clean a sweep was made of his wardrobe that the honorable Chief-Justice was forced to open court next day without his wig and gown.3 The house thus destroyed was for a long time one of the chief architectural ornaments of the North End, having been the birthplace of Hutchinson, whose father had lived there before him. From the front on Garden-Court Street there stretched back to Hanover and Fleet streets the beautiful garden through which the Governor escaped on the night of the mob. The house itself was built of brick and painted, the plainness of the façade being relieved by a representation of the British crown over every window, and by a row of Ionic pilasters, the capital of one of which, richly adorned with a sculptured crown and festoon, is preserved in the collection of the Historical Society. Mrs. Lydia Maria Child has given an eloquent description of the interior, in her novel of The Rebels : -
health. Other authorities say that he was re- moved for not attending to his duties. See his Life by Elias Nason. [The story of Frankland's connection with the poor tavern girl, Agnes Sur- raige, her accompanying him to Europe, her rescue of him from the ruins occasioned by the great earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, and his subsequent marriage with her out of gratitude, is well known from being the subject of Dr. Holmes's poem of Agnes. Lady Frankland survived her husband, and was living on his estate at Hopkinton, in this State, at the out- break of the Revolution, when she was suffered to pass the provincial lines, and join the king's friends in Boston. She went thence to England, married Mr. John Drew, of Chichester, and died April 23, 1783, aged fifty-seven. A leather-bound pocket diary of Sir Charles Henry Frankland is preserved in the Cabinet of the Historical So- ciety. It covers a good deal of his stay in Lisbon and Portugal, and in it he entered a
variety of precepts, maxims, recipes, copies of inscriptions, memoranda of expenses, together with notes of current events and experiences. The only reference to his wife is in the words shown in the annexed fac-simile.
He enters in another place : "Nov. 1, 1755. - During my residence in Portugal happened the great earthquake, on which day I was most providentially saved : I was buried in ruins. . . . I hope my providential escape will have a last- ing good effect upon my mind."-En.]
1 Benjamin Clarke, merchant, and his sister, children of William Clarke, sold this estate Jan. 6, 1746-47, to Thomas Greenough, who in turn sold to Frankland.
2 Nason's Life of Sir Charles Henry Frank- land. See also Mr. Scudder's chapter in this volume, and the Introduction, p. xi.
8 Thomas Hutchinson held at one time the various offices of Chief-Justice, Lieut .- Governor, and Judge of Probate.
527
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
"The hall of entrance displayed a spacious arch, from the roof of which a dimly- lighted lamp gave a rich twilight view. The finely carved and gilded arch, in massy magnificence, was most tastefully ornamented with busts and statues. The light streamed full on the soul-beaming countenance of Cicero, and playfully flickered on the brow of Tulliola, the tenderness of whose diminutive appellation delightfully asso- ciates the father with the orator, and blends intellectual vigor with the best affections
WILBAR
of the heart. The panelling of the parlor was of the dark, richly- shaded mahogany of St. Domingo, and ela- borately ornamented. THE FRANKLAND HOUSE.1 The busts of George III. and his queen were in front of a splendid mirror, with bronze lamps on each side, covered with transpar- ILBUYN SC encies of the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Around the room were arches surmounted with the arms of Eng- land. The library was hung with canvas-tapestry emblazoning the coronation of George II., interspersed with the royal arms. The portraits of Anne and the Georges hung in massive frames of antique splendor, and the crowded shelves of books were surmounted with busts of the house of Stuart. In the centre of the apartment stood a table of polished oak."
1 [This follows a view painted over the man- tel of its west room. Mr. Rowland Ellis, who owned the house previous to 1831, has the inlaid arms which formed the floor centre. The late
Dr. Winslow Lewis had four of the panels with landscapes and escutcheons from this room; his daughter, Mrs. Gay, retains two of them. -ED.]
528
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
At this same table may, perhaps, have been written the Lieut .- Governor's well-known History of the Colony and the Province. The whole house, it will be remarked, bristled with evidences of obsequiousness to the Crown on the part of its owner, who, be it said, was an object of public odium long before the discovery by Franklin of his treacherous letters to the home government.1
Rope-making had formed one of the principal branches of industry of the town from the early days of the colony. The rope-walks were numer- ous, and, located as they were in different parts of the town, may be counted among the minor topographical features that merit a passing attention. Part of Governor Hutchinson's estates on Pearl - formerly called Hutchin- son - Street, having been confiscated and sold by the Commonwealth, were converted into rope-walks; there were besides extensive rope-walks at the West End, others at the North End, and at the bottom of the Common. The bloody affray of 1770 has rendered John Gray's walks on Atkinson Street historical. " Gleaner " has given a careful and detailed list of the various walks, and an account of the grounds they occupied. He concludes that there were all " together 14 rope-walks in Boston, which were probably spinning all at once for a period of at least sixty years." As to their posi- tion, the following comment will be found a convenient guide to the mem- ory : "It is remarkable how extensively the initial ' P.' figures in regard to the location of these old rope-walks, - Purchase Street, Pearl Street, Pinck- ney Street, Poplar Street, and the Point on which the Poor-house was built." 2
Meantime in all these years the various burying-places of the town were enlarged as need required ; or, more properly it may be said, as need com- pelled, if we are to accept the almost incredible statement in the petition of "John Chambers and others, grave-diggers," in 1740, to the effect that the Chapel and South Burying-places " are so filled with dead bodies that they are obliged oft-times to bury them four deep."
Previous to this, in 1717, the selectmen were authorized to enlarge this burying-place, by taking in part of the highway on the easterly side, if it could be done without "too much straightening said highway; " but not- withstanding the astonishing state of affairs brought to the notice of the town by the grave-diggers above noted, it was not until sixteen years afterward, in 1756, that an additional burying-ground was provided by the purchase of "a portion of Colonel Fitch's pasture, at the bottom of the Common," - which consisted of about two acres, and then belonged to Andrew Oliver, Jr.3 As a proof, however, of the indifference of the town and the com- munity to a fact which would now be regarded with a sentiment nearly akin
1 As has been narrated in an earlier chapter. See Dr. Ellis's, on "The Royal Governors." The position of the house is shown in the In- troduction, p. xi.
2 Fifth Report of the Record Commissioners,
p. 35.
See Introduction, p. xxxvii.
529
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
to horror, it may be added that the over-crowded Chapel and Granary grounds still continued to be used for interments long after the opening of that upon Boylston Street. The Copp's Hill ground has been enlarged at various times ; the last addition to what is distinctly called the Old Burying- Place was made in 1711, when the town bought of Sewall and his wife a considerable part of the old Hull pasture.1 Besides these, the Quakers had a small ground adjoining their church in Leverett's Lane, - now Congress Street, - which was first used in 1708, and discontinued in 1826, when all the remains were exhumed and taken to Lynn.2
In all the old burying-grounds the singular disposition of the grave- stones in regular straight lines, or serried rows skirting the edges of the paths, is due to an extraordinary freak of a Superintendent of Burials early in the present century, who, in his intense desire to see things neat and tidy, took up the stones from their original position and arranged them to suit his mathematical eye, thus destroying the only trace to the last resting- place of some of the greatest and most honored names in our history. One knows not whether to join in the righteous indignation of "Gleaner," who " saw this sacrilegious official act perpetrated," 3 or in the sardonic merri- ment of the Sexton of the Old School, who says with excusable facetious- ness : -
" Of all the pranks ever perpetrated in a grave-yard, this surely is the most amus- ing. In defiance of the lex loci, which rightfully enjoins solemnity of demeanor in such a place, and of all my reverence for Isaac Johnson and those illustrious men who slumber there, I was actually seized with a fit of uncontrollable laughter, and came to the conclusion that this sacrilegious transposition must have been the work of Punch or Puck, or some Lord of Misrule. As I proceeded to read the inscrip- tions my merriment increased, for the gravestones seemed to be conferring together upon the subject of these extraordinary changes which had befallen them ; . and repeating over to one another, ' As you are now, so once was I' " 4
Thus have been rapidly passed in review the chief topographical changes of the town during the ninety years and more succeeding the loss of the first charter. By a reference to Price's edition of Bonner's map, published in 1769,5 it will be seen that the town had then reached a population of twenty thousand, which, while it is far less than the rapid progress of the early years of the period promised, must still be held a goodly number, con- sidering the threatening aspect of affairs between the Province and the Crown, the frequent ravage of pestilence and fire,6 and the grievous drain of the French and Indian wars. But the town seems to have had an air of
period, was that of 1760, of which there is an account by William Cooper, the town clerk, in the Boston Post-Boy, March 24, 1760, reprinted in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1880. Christopher Kilby sent {200 to the sufferers. See his memoir in the Register, xxvi. 43-48. A fire society had been formed in 1733. See VOL. II. - 67.
1 See Introduction, p. viii.
2 See Introduction, p. xv.
8 Fifth Report of the Record Commissioners, p. 10.
4 Dealings with the Dead, i. 224.
5 See Introduction, p. Iv.
6 [The most extensive conflagration, beside those already named marking the Provincial
Brinley Catalogue, Nos. 1634-35. - ED.]
530
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
wealth, solidity, and prosperity out of proportion to its mere numbers, as is evidenced by the account of Oldmixon thirty years and more before the Revolution. He says : -
" A gentleman from London would almost think himself at home at Boston, when he observes the number of people, their houses, their furniture, their tables, their dress and conversation, which perhaps is as splendid and showy as that of the most considerable tradesmen in London. Upon the whole, Boston is the most flourishing 'Town for trade and commerce in the English America. Near six hundred sail of ships have been laden here in a year for Europe and the British Plantations. The goodness of the pavement may compare with most in London ; to gallop a horse on it is three shillings and fourpence forfeit." 1
Much similar evidence might be adduced, if needful, to show that after the alternate storm and sunshine of a century and a half the wilderness had fairly begun " to blossom like the rose; " and that Provincial Boston, with its new churches, its fine public buildings, its stately residences, its beautiful gardens, its nicely paved streets, its Common fenced in and planted with trees, its " superb pier," its busy docks and ferries, its forest of shipping, its fine forts 2 and batteries, its spinning ropewalks and whirling windmills, had already so invaded and transformed the once grand and solitary Tramount, that sturdy William Blackstone would have gazed in bewilderment at the winding shores along which he might have ridden upon his ambling bull, and the worshipful Isaac Johnson might have hunted as vainly for his garden as modern antiquaries have for his grave.
6 Emin Lasseter Synner
1 Oldmixon, British Empire in America.
2 [There is a history of Fort Independence, and of the earlier defences on its site, in the His- torical Magazine, Oct. 1861. Uring had described the Castle as "a strong, regular, well-built fort, mounted with about one hundred pieces of can- non." See the notes to Colonel Higginson's chapter in this volume, for the care bestowed on its defences during this period. - ED.]
VIEWS OF BOSTON DURING THE PROVINCIAL. PERIOD. - The Editor has given in another place (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1880, p. 68) his reasons for believing that the earliest en- graved view of Boston was the original condition of the plate of what is now known as Price's 1743 view. But of this original condition we know no copy ; but the argument for its existence formerly, if not now, is this : Dr. Greenwood, in his History of King's Chapel, mentions an en- graved view of Boston of the date 1720, and
gives an excerpt from it in a vignette to show the original King's Chapel, - the same which is given somewhat enlarged in this History, Vol. I. p. 214. The correspondence of this little picture with a section of the 1743 view is so close, even to the bad drawing of the buildings, that the conclusion was inevitable that they followed the same original. The differences further helped the investigation. In the 1743 view the Hancock House, built in 1737, appears, together with some shrubbery, on the slope of Beacon Hill, and are not given in Greenwood's vignette. This seemed to show that Greenwood had copied from a plate dated before 1737. Further, it was found that a key-numbering of the buildings went across the plate from left to right, and from I to 49, and that all these buildings were built before 1731, while buildings built subsequently were numbered by another sequence beginning with 50. This would carry the plate back of 1731. A curious error furnished another proof. In the
531
TOPOGRAPHY, ETC., OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
margin No. 10 reads " the South Meeting-house, built 1669;" but looking to the picture we find No. 10 to show the body of the old meeting- house, topped with the present spire erected in 1729. So it would seem that after the new edifice was built, in 1729, the engraver added its spire to the old house, but neglected to alter the marginal reading. As the New Brick and Christ Church, erected in 1721 and 1723, are numbered in the earlier sequence, the plate was thought to date probably a year later than 1723, and before 1729. An examination of the files of the New England Courant has confirmed this line of argument, as the following advertisements will show :-
Oct. 8, 1722. " A View of the Great Town of Boston, taken from a Standing on Noddle's Island, and designed to be cut on Copper, will be carried on by Subscription, as such expensive Works generally are. Those Gentlemen
that would encourage such a Design may see the View at Mr. Price's, Print and Map-seller, over against the Town House, where Proposals are to be had, and Subscriptions taken in."
Nov. 12, 1722. " Whereas, there has been an advertise- ment lately published of a design to print a view of this Town of Boston, taken from Noddle's Island, -this is to certify that the undertaker, William Burgis, desires all gentlemen to be speedy in their subscriptions, in order to send the Drawing to England this fall, that he may conform to the proposals to that end lately published. N. B. - Sufficient security is given to conform to the conditions of the said proposals, or to return the advance money."
May 27, 1723. "The Prospect of the Great town of Boston, taken from Noddle's Island, and designed to be curiously cut on Copper plate, will be carried on by sub- scription, as such expensive works commonly are. Those gentlemen that would encourage this design may subscribe to the same at Mr. Thomas Selby's, at the Crown Coffee House, where the Proposals may be seen. The Price is set lower than it was at first. .. . Subscriptions are also taken by William Price, ... the undertaker, [who wishes] all
THE CARWITHAM VIEW OF BOSTON.
gentlemen to be speedy in their subscriptions, in order to the speedy sending of the drawing for England."
Dec. 23, 1723. "Whereas, a northeast prospect of the Great Town of Boston has been taken, which is not so mnuch to advantage as the southeast prospect, now to be seen at Mr. Price's, Print and Map-seller, over against the Town House ; also the proposals for all persons that are willing to subscribe for the same, in order to its being sent to London, to be engraven by the best hand."
July 17, 1725. "To be sold by Mr. William Price. . . . A new and correct Prospect of the Town of Boston, curi- ously engraved, and an exact plan of the town, shewing its streets, lanes, and publick buildings."
This appeared in several subsequent num- bers. of the paper. The plan must have been
Bonner's, and it may refer to the edition between 1722 and 1733, of which there is a conjecture in the Introduction (p. liv).
It is probable that we have a representation of this original Price view in the smaller engrav- ing, which was issued in London and entitled "South-East View of the City of Boston in North America. I. Carwitham, Sculp. London. Printed for Bowles and Carver, No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard." This is the inscription on a copy in the Public Library; another, owned by Miss Eliza Susan Quincy gives "Great Town " for "City," and the imprint is " Printed for Caring- ton Bowles, Map and Printseller, at No. 69 in
532
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
St. Paul's Church Yard, London." This plate measures 18 by 12 inches, and in the Quincy copy the key-numbering corresponds to the original sequence in the Price view. The Public Library copy has no numbering. Both are colored, and Miss Quincy says her copy belongs to a set of similar pictures, imported in the last century by Ebenezer Storer, treasurer of Harvard College, to be looked at in an instrument with magnifying glasses. We find James Buck, "at the Spec- tacles in Queen Street," advertising in 1750 such sets of "prints completely coloured, proper for view in Camera Obscura." An engraving of this Carwitham view is given herewith.
The Price view of Boston, dated 1743, was dedicated to Peter Faneuil. This was just after that merchant had given the hall known by his name to the town, and it was an easy compli- ment for Price to pay to revamp the old plate, and to insert the dedication. A heliotype of this plate, very much reduced, is given herewith, following the best copy known to me, that in the Antiquarian Society at Worcester. Other copies are in the Public Library and in the Massachu- setts Historical Society's Cabinet. The former had belonged to the Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., the second mayor of that name; and while in his possession a reduced lithographic fac-simile of it, omitting however some features, was pub- lished, and this lithograph is the original of the Albertype copy recently made. An examination of this 1743 view easily reveals an altered plate. Beside the secondary sequence of key-numbers, the new Faneuil Hall is clearly inserted; the south battery is extended from a condition cor- responding to the Carwitham print, so as to embay an area of the tide, and is called "The Mole," and " a new battery of 35 guns;" while the end of Long Wharf is stretched further sea- ward by a battery called " Shirley's Battery."
A fac-simile of a small copper-plate view, from the titlepage of the American Magazine, in 1743, has been given in Mr. Goddard's chapter in this volume.
The view next in date is Governor Pownall's. 1757, of which a reduction is given in Colonel Higginson's chapter in this volume. The large engraving can be found in Drake's History of Boston.
In 1768 Paul Revere engraved his well-known plate, of which a reduced heliotype is given here- with. It is called "View of part of the town of Boston in New England, and British ships of war
landing their troops, 1768," and has this legend on it : " On Friday, Sept. 30, 1768, the ships of war, armed schooners, transports, etc., came up the harbor and anchored round the town; their cannon loaded, a spring on their cables, as for a regular siege. At noon on Saturday, Oct. Ist, the fourteenth and twenty-ninth regiments, a de- tachment from the 59th regiment, and train of artillery with two pieces of cannon, landed on the Long Wharf; there formed and marched with insolent parade, drums beating, fifes play- ing, and colours flying, up King Street, each soldier having received sixteen rounds of powder and ball." It is also said to be "Engraved, printed, and sold by Paul Revere, Boston." The vessels delineated, as per marginal key, are " Beaver," "Senegal," "Martin," "Glasgow," "Mermaid," "Romney," "Launceston," "Bon- etta." The inscription reads : "To the Earl of Hillsborough, his Majesty's Secretary of State for America, this view of the only well-pland ex- pedition formed for supporting the dignity of Britain, and chastising ye insolence of America, is humbly inscribed." The plate is 1512 by 10 inches, and has been often reproduced in fac- simile, -in Bryant and Gay, United States, iii. 356; Evacuation Memorial of the City of Boston, p. 18; Dearborn, Boston Notions, p. 126, etc.
There is a second engraved view of Boston by Revere, 3 by 514 inches, which appeared in Edes and Gill's North American Almanac and Massachusetts Register for the year 1770, and it is reproduced in fac-simile in S. G. Drake's Boston, p. 747, and in S. A. Drake's Landmarks, p. 119. The plate is called " Prospective View of the Town of Boston, the Capital of New England ; and of the landing of troops in the year 1768, in consequence of letters from Gov. Bernard, the Commissioners, etc., to the British ministry."
A third view by Revere appeared in the Royal American Magazine, 1774, and a fac-simile of it somewhat reduced is given in Mr. God- dard's chapter. Sometime before the Revolu- tion, and probably not far from 1770, a large view of Boston from the water was taken and published in aquatint by J. F. W. Des Barres, as one of a series of coast views connected with the charts of the British Admiralty, which were issued during the war. Another of these sheets, giving views of the harbor, is likewise herewith given in heliotype. Later views belong to the Revolutionary series. - ED.
I Sinth Land line of ylpeat Form of listos in. Now' tingland in. limon
DE PART
W' THE TOWN
TOS
IN NEW
TISH SHIPS
OF WAR L
.. .... ..........
TAKEN BY THE BRITISH ENGINEERS ABOUT 1770.
...
BONTON . han first Huttime and gone hel how to the
BORTON NAT. & Splash ' & # I Need To lome
---
TAKEN BY THE BRITISH ENGINEERS ABOUT 1770.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BOSTON FAMILIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
BY WILLIAM H. WHITMORE, Chairman of the Boston Record Commissioners.
IN the last chapter of the first volume of this History a list was given of forty of the most prominent families of Boston in the seventeenth century. Their names were : -
I. Winthrop .- 2. Bellingham .- 3. Endicott. - 4. Leverett .- 5. Bradstreet .- 6. Hough. 7. Hibbens. - 8. Gibbons. - 9. Davie .- 10. Richards. - 11. Savage .- 12. Cooke .- 13. Hutchinson. - 14. Oliver. - 15. Hull. - 16. Brattle. - 17. Tyng. - 18. Alford .- 19. Scar- lett .- 20. Joyliffe .- 21. Gerrish .- 22. Payne .- 23. Middlecott .- 24. Usher .- 25. Jeffries. -26. Lidgett .- 27. Saffin .- 28. Ruck .- 29. Whittingham. - 30. Shrimpton. - 31. Stod- dard. - 32. Sergeant. - 33. Sheaffe. - 34. Gibbs. - 35. Lynde. - 36. Lyde. - 37. Clarke. -38. Cotton. - 39. Allen. - 40. Mather.
The next century, or rather the period from 1692 to 1775, was marked by the rise, and often by the decline, of many other names. In fact, with but few exceptions, the names of the Colonial period disappear early in the eighteenth century, and new leaders appear. The times changed rapidly. Trade and commerce created wealth, and social importance soon, as usual, waited upon fortune. The political questions of the day became of import- ance, and men rose to prominence on account of their ability in the political field, though not allied with the cliques which had formerly held control. The Crown officers became a class by themselves; and for the last half century prior to the Revolution officers of the British army and navy were stationed here in sufficient numbers to form a noticeable part of society. Boston gradually became the centre of social life, and as such she attracted a certain part of the population of other towns. The difficulties of travel and the lack of large fortunes prevented any great changes, however, and Boston was during that period mainly peopled by citizens born here.
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