USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 24
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1 [See Mr. Goddard's chapter in the present volume. - ED.]
2 [This cut follows another given in Snow's Boston, p. 266. The tree stood at the southeast corner of Washington and Essex streets ; and a representation of it, carved in wood, now adorns a building erected on its site by the late David Sears. The tree was felled by a party led by Job Williams, and it made fourteen cords of wood. A British soldier was killed at the time, while trying to remove one of the limbs. A so- liloquy in verse, published at the time in the Massachusetts Gazette, Jan. 2, 1776, gives the Tory
view of the case. It is reprinted in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., March, 1876, p. 270. A pole was fast- ened in the tree; and the remnants of the flag used in 1775 are said to be owned by H. C. Fer- nald, and have been exhibited in the Old South Loan Collection. On the stump which remained a liberty-pole was erected after the war, and this was replaced by another, July 2, 1826. In 1833 Liberty-Tree Tavern stood upon the spot. Tu- dor's Otis, p. 221; Drake, Landmarks, p. 397 ; Evacuation Memorial, p. 160; Sargent, Dealings with the Dead, Nos. 41 and 42. - ED.]
160
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The public schools were dispersed; Master Lovell, of the Latin school, casting in his lot with the Crown, while his son James, an usher in the same Johne Lovely school, was thrown into prison under suspicion of being a spy, and carried off in chains by the army with which his father decamped as a Loyalist. One solitary school was kept gratuitously by Mr. Elias Dupee. The only other educational offer seems to have been that of Daniel McAlpine, who had been for some years established " to in- struct all lovers of the noble science of defence, commonly called the back-sword, in that art."
It was dull work for the officers and ladies and gentlemen to stay cooped up in the two little peninsulas through the dismal winter, their eyes and ears assailed by the for- James Lovce lorn condition of the in- habitants. But no doubt there was some bravery of appearances ; and the society which was light- ed and warmed by scarlet coats was driven in upon itself pretty rigorously.I For half a century and more after this time there lived in Boston two maiden ladies, daughters of Dr. Mather Byles, who stoutly maintained to the last their loyalty to the Crown of England. They had been girls during the siege, and the war passed only to find them unflinching British subjects in will. They entertained visitors, who still remember them, with talks of the gallantry shown them by General Howe and Lord Percy during the winter of 1775-76; how they promenaded with these great men on the Common; and how Lord Percy serenaded them with the regimental band.2 In the train of
1 [Among other divertisements to relieve the weary hours of the siege, was their burlesquing some intercepted letters of John Adams to James Warren : " A paraphrase upon the second epistle of John the Roundhead to James the Pro- locutor of the Rump Parliament." See Works of John Adams, i. 180; Familiar Letters, pp. 85, 101, 116. - ED.]
2 [An account of the tribulations of Dr. Byles, written by his daughter, Catharine Byles (for which we are indebted 10 Mr. George Hed- rick, of Lowell), runs thus : -
"Oct. 13, 1778.
" Upon the first opening of the town, the people, among whom my father had officiated for forty-three years, had an irregular meeting, and desired his attendance; when a charge of his attachment to government was read, of which, as he never could obtain a copy, I am unable to give an exact account. Among others were included his friendly disposition to the British troops, particularly his entertaining them at his house, indulging them with his telescope, &c .; his prayers for the King, and for the preser- vation of the town during the siege. Some time after this a few lines were sent him, informing that six weeks be-
fore (without so much as the advice of any Council) he had been dismissed from his pastoral charge. Thus they left him without any support, or so much as paying his arrears, so that from the 19th of April, 1775, to this day, he has received no assistance from them. They then repaired the church, which had been occupied as a barrack for the British army, and made choice of a new pastor. In May, 1777, at a town-meeting, he was mentioned as a person in- imical to America ; a warrant was served and bonds given for his appearance the 2d of June, for a trial, when, as they expressed it, 'after a candid and impartial examination,' he was brought in Guilty, confined to his house and land, and a guard placed to prevent the visits of his friends; and (except the removal of the guard, which was in about two months) in this confinement has he remained ever since ; and had it not been for the generous assistance of his be- nevolent friends, he must inevitably have suffered.
" Miss [obscured] presents her most respectful compli- ments tn Mrs. [obscured ], and, knowing her benevolence of heart, begs leave to commit the foregoing pages to her care, wishing that the particulars mentioned in this little account may thro' Mrs. [obscured ] hands be conveyed to her humane connections."
In Massachusetts Archives, " Royalist," i. p. 124, is a warrant from the court, dated June 2, 1777, to deliver Mather Byles to the Board of
161
LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
these great acts of gallantry must have followed similar displays; and we can easily catch sight of British officers parading on the Mall with Tory ladies. A new regiment arrived from England in December, and the News- Letter chirped at mention of the excellent band it brought, with promise of a concert for the diversion of the town. When the new year set in, a series of subscription balls was announced, to be held at Concert Hall once a fort- night.1 The last ball at the Province House was the Queen's ball, given, oddly enough, on the twenty-second of February.2 The festival of St. John the Evangelist was duly celebrated by a dinner at Freemasons' Hall, a march to Brattle Street, and an appropriate sermon; but there is no mention of any public festivity at Christmas.
Faneuil Hall, by a satirical retribution, was turned into a theatre, and the officers and other amateurs declaimed tragedy where the townsmen had held meetings of equal dramatic force and more reality of meaning. A number of officers and ladies formed a Society for Promoting Theatrical Amusements, a title which seems to give a certain solemnity to the proceed- ings; and they did this, the announcement frankly stated, for their own amusement and the benevolent purpose of contributing to the relief of dis- tressed soldiers, their widows and children. The performances began at six o'clock. The entrance fee was not immoderate, -one dollar for the pit, and a quarter of a dollar for the gallery. The surplus over the expenses was to be appropriated to the relief of poor soldiers. The play must have been very popular, for the managers were obliged to announce, after a few evenings,-
" The managers will have the house strictly surveyed, and give out tickets for the number it will contain. The most positive orders are given out not to take money at the door ; and it is hoped gentlemen of the army will not use their influence over the sergeants who are door-keepers to induce them to disobey that order, as it is meant entirely to promote the ease and convenience of the public by not crowding the theatre."
The tragedy of Zara seems to have been the favorite; and the comedy of The Busybody, with the farces of The Citizen and The Apprentice, were also given. The most notable piece was the local farce of The Blockade of Boston, by General Burgoyne.8 On the evening of January 8 it was to
War for transportation "off the continent." There are in the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety's Library two plans of the estate of Dr. Mather Byles, made in t832, showing how one corner of the mansion projected into the line of the present Tremont Street, opposite Nassau (now Common) Street. See Vol. II. p. xxxix, and Mr. Goddard's chapter in the present vol- ume. - ED.]
1 [The News-Letter of Feb. 22, 1776, contained a notice of a masquerade to be given at Concert Ifall, March tt, and of "a number of different masks to be sold by almost all the milliners and mantua-makers in town." "Ten capital cooks
were already engaged," it was said, for "the most brilliant thing ever seen in America." - ED.]
2 [John Andrews records " an innovation never before known, - a Drum or Rout, given by the adiniral last Saturday evening, which did not break up till 2 or 3 o'ck on Sunday morn- ing, their chief amusement being playing cards." Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., July, 1865, P. 323. - ED.]
8 Burgoyne was proud of his literary per- formances, of which a full account is given in chapter ix. of De Fonblanque's Political and Mil- itary Episodes in the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, derived from the Life and Correspon-
VOL. 111 .- 2t.
162
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
be given for the first time. The comedy of The Busybody had been acted, and the curtain was about to be drawn for the farce, when the actors behind the scenes heard an exaggerated report of a raid made upon Charlestown by a small party of Americans. One of the actors, dressed for his part (that of a Yankee sergeant), came forward upon the stage, called silence, and informed the audience that the alarm guns had been fired, and that a battle was going on in Charlestown. The audience, taking this for the first scene in the new farce, applauded obstreperously, being determined to get all the fun there was to be had out of the piece, when the order was suddenly given in dead earnest for the officers to return to their posts. The audience at this was thrown into dire confusion, the officers jumping over the orchestra, breaking the fiddles on the way; the actors rushing about to get rid of their paint and disguises ; the ladies alternately fainting and screaming; and the play brought to great grief and summary conclusion. Whether it was ever given again or not does not appear; but the News-Letter, in reporting the incident, announced that " as soon as those parts in The Boston Blockade, which are vacant by some gentlemen being ordered to Charlestown, can be filled up, that farce will be performed, with the tragedy of Tamerlane." 1
There was no demonstration of patriotism within the town. The News- Letter, a complete file of which during the siege is scarcely known, copies in its issue for July 13, from one of the outside papers, a notice by William Cooper the town clerk, calling upon the dispersed freemen of Boston to meet at Concord, in order to choose a representative to the General Court, and adds, mockingly: " Some have been wondering of late at the peace- ableness of this town: It is to be hoped that their surprise will now cease, when they find that Mr. Cooper and the rest of our town-meeting folks have adjourned to Concord." 2
dence of the Right Honorable John Burgoyne ; but of his jeux d'esprits at this time only a few lines of a prologue and epilogue to Zara have been saved. His farce was probably never printed, and efforts to recover it have never, so far as I know, succeeded. After the siege, a literary revenge was taken by an anonymous writer in the farce of The Blockheads ; or the Affrighted Officers, a not over nice production, which jeers al the situation of officers and ref- ugees when forced to evacuate the town. The characters are -
Captain Bashard Ad-1.
Puff .
G-1.
L-d Dapper
d P -- y.
Shallow
Officers
G-t.
Dupe Who you please.
Meagre G-y.
Surly
Refugees and R-S.
Brigadier Paunch
Friends to B-e.
Bowny
Government M-y. Simple
E-n.
Jemima, wife to Simple.
Tabitha, her daughter.
Dorsa, her maid.
Soldiers, women, etc.
It is not difficult to supply the hiatus to the names, and read Lord Percy, Gilbert (Burgoyne perhaps is " Dupe "), Gray, Ruggles, Brattle, Murray, and Edson. Lord Percy is represented as a libertine, and there is some attempt at characterizing the several Loyalists. Brattle had the reputation of being a good liver, and Ruggles of being a rough-spoken man; but the hits in the piece were more telling to those closer to the characters in time. In the pro- logue are the lines -
" By Yankees frighted, too! Oh, dire to say ! Why, Yankees sure at Red-coats faint away! Oh, yes! they thought so too, for lackaday,
Their general turned the blockade to a play. Poor vain poltroons, with justice we'll retort, And call them blockheads for their idle sport."
[See Colonel Clapp's chapter on the " Drama in Boston," in Vol. IV. - ED.]
1 [See Dr. Hale's chapter in this volume. ED.]
2 [Of the News-Letter, see the account in Mr. Goddard's chapter in this volume ; and regarding Cooper, see a note by the editor in Mr. Porter's chapter, also in the present volume. - ED.]
163
LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Before the town had been finally purged, however, some of the bolder kept up a communication with their friends outside, by means of signals from the church steeples. " About three weeks ago," a letter-writer of July 25 says, " three fellows were taken out of one of the latter [steeples], who confess they had been so employed for seven days." The altercations between townsmen and soldiers had ceased; the town was under strict military discipline; and though the selectmen were not allowed to leave, it does not appear that there was any government except that administered by the General of the army. With his immediate command of fourteen thousand or so, inclusive of women and children attached to the soldiery, General Howe treated the place as a garrison, and gave great attention to the health of the troops; but the records show that he had a somewhat tur- bulent and unruly set of men to manage.1 The large number of deserted houses, the destruction of others for fuel, the defenceless condition of the families of Patriots who had left the town, -all conspired to tempt plun- dering and depredation. In one case the wife of one of the privates, con- victed of receiving stolen goods, was sentenced "to receive one hundred lashes on her bare back with a cat-o'-nine-tails, at the cart's tail, in different portions of the most conspicuous parts of the town, and to be imprisoned three months." The small-pox broke out both in the army and among the inhabitants, and was still ravaging the town when it was taken possession of by Washington, after the evacuation.
The evacuation itself was so suddenly determined on that for a few days the town was in a distracted condition, and the lawlessness which had been suppressed by the military arm broke out again almost unchecked. For ten days there was sleepless anxiety. The army was embarking and carry- ing away such stores as it could, destroying much that it must leave ; plun- der was going on on all sides, both with and without authority; and as the day drew nearer for the departure of the troops the excesses increased,2 in spite of the following order from General Howe: -
" The commander-in-chief finding, notwithstanding former orders that have been given to forbid plundering, houses have been forced open and robbed. he is therefore · under a necessity of declaring to the troops that the first soldier who is caught plun- dering will be hanged on the spot."
John Andrews, who was a very interested witness, gives a vivid account of his personal anxiety during the last hours of the British possession : 3-
" By the earnest persuasion of your uncle's friends, and with the advice of the selectmen, I moved into his house at the time the troops, etc., were preparing for embarkation, under every difficulty you can conceive at such a time, as every day presented us with new scenes of the wantonness and destruction made by the soldiers.
1 [This is apparent from the orders, and from the reiteration of them, with the constant threats of corporal punishment. See Waller's Orderly- book. - ED.]
2 [The British soldiers cut down several of the finest trees on the Mall, on the day of their evacuating the town. - ED.]
3 | Mass. Hist Soc. Proc., 1865, p. 409. - ED.]
.
164
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
I had the care of six houses with their furniture, and as many stores filled with effects, for eleven months past ; and, at a time like this, I underwent more fatigue and per- plexity than I did through the whole siege ; for I was obliged to take my rounds all day, without any cessation, and scarce ever failed of finding depredations made upon some one or other of them, that I was finally necessitated to procure men, at the ex- travagant rate of two dollars a day, to sleep in the several houses and stores for a fort- night before the military plunderers went off; for as sure as they were left alone one night, so sure they were plundered. Poor Ben, in addition to his other misfortunes, suffered in this : the fellow who took charge of his house neglected to sleep there the third night, being affrighted ; the consequence was, a party of soldiers got in, went into his cellar, took liquors from thence, and had a revelling frolic in his parlor ; car- ried off and destroyed his furniture, etc., to the value of two hundred pounds sterling, - which was not to be named with what fifty other houses suffered, or I may say a hundred. I was obliged to pay at the rate of a dollar an hour for hands to assist me in moving. Such was the demand for laborers that they were taken from me even at that, by the Tories, who bid over me, for the sake of carrying away other people's effects, wherever they could come at them, which so retarded my moving that I was obliged to leave my kitchen furniture in the house I left ; consequently it was broken open and rummaged, and, with all my crockery, were carried off. Wat has stripped your uncle's house of everything he could conveniently carry off, which, had I known that had been his intention, I would by no means have consented to go into it ; but as I had moved most of my heavy things while he was preparing to go, it was too late for me to get off when I discovered it. Your Uncle Jerry was almost frantic about it, and said he should write his brother, and acquaint him that I was knowing to it, and yet permitted him to do it ; little thinking that it was not in my power to prevent his carrying off everything if he was disposed to do it, as I only took charge of the house as his (Wat's) substitute. He has left all the looking-glasses and window-curtains, with some tables and most of the chairs ; only two bedsteads and one bed, without any bedding or sheets, or even a rag of linen of any kind. Some of the china, and principal part of the pewter, is the sum of what he has left, save the library, which was packed up corded to ship; but your Uncle Jerry and Mr. Austin went to him, and absolutely forbid it on his peril. He treated them in a very rough, cavalier way ; told them they had no right to interfere with his business, - he should do as he pleased, and would not hear what they had to say. Upon the whole, I don't know but what it would have been as well if he had taken them, seeing matters are going to be carried with so high a hand."
Through all this family business and the confusion of narrative one may get a glimpse of the distractions and bitterness of the Tory hegira. "Noth- ing can be more diverting," says an amateur dramatist, " than to sce the town in its present situation. All is uproar and confusion; carts, trucks, wheelbarrows, handbarrows, coaches, chaises, arc driving as if the very devil was after them."1 The return, piecemeal, of the clocks, chests of drawers, tables, and chairs, which then emigrated to the Provinces, continues to this day.
It is interesting to observe, as one of the first signs of the return of Boston to its independent life, that the Thursday Lecture was revived ; and Dr. Eliot
1 " The Blockheads," Act iii. Scene 3.
165
LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
delivered the first as a thanksgiving discourse in the presence of His Excel- lency, General Washington. Shortly after, a town-meeting was held in the Old Brick Meeting-house, and officers for the year were chosen as usual. The town-meeting and the church were the spiritual Boston which asserted itself before commercial and trading Boston had revived. The town felt its insecurity. No one knew how soon the enemy might return with increased force and more strenuous measures, and it was only by degrees that the people returned and resumed their occupations. On April 19 the shops remained generally closed. "The town yet looks melancholy," writes Ezekiel Price in his diary, under that day; " but few of the inhabitants being removed back into it, occasioned by its not being sufficiently fortified and garrisoned against any further attempt of the enemy, to which it now lies much exposed." It is significant of the growing consciousness of the historic conflict, that he adds : "This day is the anniversary of the famous battle of Lexington." 1
The Revolutionary War did not again make Boston a theatre of action ; but the town was subjected to at least one panic.2 It was not till the close of the period that the people saw anything of military pageant. Then they welcomed the entry of Rochambeau's forces after the battle of Yorktown, and the harbor was bright with the flags of the French fleet. The visit of these famous allies was the occasion of a general rejoicing. The war was over, and the people asked for no better opportunity for an outburst of hospitality. Sam Adams called a town-meeting, and with James Sullivan prepared an address from Boston to Baron Vioménil, the chief officer ; Rochambeau himself having embarked elsewhere.8 But during the period
1 Diary of Ezekiel Price in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., November, 1863.
2 Mrs. John Adams, writing to her husband under date of Aug. 5, 1777, says : " If alarming half-a-dozen places at the same time is an act of generalship, Howe may boast of his late con- duct. We have never, since the evacuation of Boston, been under apprehensions of an invasion equal to what we suffered last week. All Boston was in confusion, packing up and carting out of town household furniture, military stores, goods, etc. Not less than a thousand teams were em- ployed on Friday and Saturday; and, to their shame be it told, not a small trunk would they carry under eight dollars, and many of them, I am told, asked a hundred dollars a load; for carting a hogshead of molasses eight miles, thirty dollars. O human nature l or, rather, O inhuman nature l what art thou ? The report of The fleet's being seen off Cape Ann, Friday night, gave me the alarm, and, though pretty weak, I set about packing up my things, and on Satur- day removed a load."- Familiar Letters of John Adams, and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution, p. 287.
[Three years later there was another period of suspense. In 17So, Arthur Lee writes from
Paris to the committee of foreign correspondence : " February 3. An expedition, with len thousand of the enemy's best troops, will take place in about two months, from Ireland. Altho' from the profound secrecy observed I have nol yel been able to discover its destination with cer- tainty, yet I have sufficient reason to think that Boston is the object of it."- ED.]
$ ĮThe artillery were the earliest to reach Boston, arriving on November IS. Rocham- beau, who had accompanied the army to Provi- dence, here transferred the command of it to the Baron de Vioménil, and returned to the Chesa- peake and embarked. The main body of the army reached Boston on December 3, 4, and 5, being favored with fair weather. On the twenty- third Vioménil went on board the " Triomphant," and on the twenty-fourth the whole squadron, ten sail in all, mounting seven hundred and fifty- eight guns and carrying four thousand men, put to sea. (Mag. of Amer. Hist., July, [SSt.) The address of the citizens of Boston to Vioménil, adopted at a meeting held December 7, and his reply, are reprinted in Mag. of Amer. Hist., July, ISSI, P. 32, from the Pennsylvania Packet, Jan. 8, 1783. See also an account of these proceed- ings in Drake's Landmarks of Boston, 433 .- E.D.Į
166
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
from 1776 to 1783 there were occasional visits from French vessels, and the reports made by Frenchmen who received the hospitality of the town give a hint of the social life of the period. The Frenchmen themselves were objects of great curiosity. Mr. Breck says in his entertaining Recol- lections : -
" Before the Revolution the colonists had little or no communication with France, so that Frenchmen were known to them only through the prejudiced medium of England. Every vulgar story told by John Bull about Frenchmen living on salad and frogs was implicitly believed by Brother Jonathan, even by men of education and the first standing in society. When, therefore, the first French squadron arrived at Boston [in 1778], the whole town, most of whoin had never seen a Frenchman, ran to the wharves to catch a peep at the gaunt, half-starved, soup-maigre crews.
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