USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The site of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Boston, and its neighborhood > Part 12
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In 1842, when Mr. Parsons was living in Winter Street, Charles Dickens made his first visit to Bos- ton, and his impressions of the city were published in American Notes, which appeared not long after. That these impressions were favorable is evident from the following quotation: "When I got into the streets upon this Sunday morning, the air was so clear; the houses were so bright and gay; the sign- boards were painted in such gaudy colors; the gilded letters were so very golden; the bricks were so very red; the stones were so very white; the blinds and area railings were so very green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors so marvelously bright and twinkling, that every thoroughfare in the city looked exactly like a scene in a pantomime. .. .
"The white wooden houses in the suburbs (so white that it makes one wink to look at them), with their green jalousie blinds, are so sprinkled and dropped about in all directions, without seeming to have any root at all in the ground; and the small churches and chapels are so prim and bright and highly var- 1 Griswold's Poets of America, page 559.
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nished; that I almost believed the whole affair could be taken up piece-meal, like a child's toy, and crammed into a little box. . . . The City is a beau- tiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to im- press all strangers favorably."
Blott's Corner
T P HE home of Robert Blott was on the south cor- ner of Winter Street (Blott's Lane) and New- bury, now Washington Street. This lot was owned successively by his son-in-law, Doctor Edward Ellis, and grandson, Robert Ellis, who was a "barber- chirurgeon." The property remained in the posses- sion of members of the Ellis family for more than fifty years. During the latter part of this period it was several times mortgaged. In 1727 there were living on the estate, as tenants, John Durant, who had a blacksmith's shop on the premises; Joseph Simpson, a "clog-maker," and Anne Stone, retailer.
In April, 1728, Mrs. Elizabeth Ellis, widow of Rob- ert Ellis and executrix of his will, conveyed the estate to Benjamin Pemberton, the younger. He was a grandson of James and Sarah Pemberton, who lived in Newbury township, Massachusetts. His father, Benjamin Pemberton, Senior, was a brewer, of Bos-
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ton, and a member of the Ancient and Honorable Ar- tillery Company. Benjamin Pemberton, Junior, was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor, of Boston. This was an important position, and those occupying it were uniformly citizens of high charac- ter and ability, who were elected by popular vote.
In 1733 King George II appointed Mr. Pemberton Naval Officer of the Port of Boston. In compliance with this order, Governor Belcher removed his own son from that office in favor of the appointee. Ben- jamin Pemberton was also Clerk of the Superior Court of Massachusetts. By his will he left a be- quest, which is known as the Pemberton Fund, whose income is expended for the benefit of the Poor.
A younger brother of Benjamin Pemberton was the Reverend Ebenezer Pemberton (1671-1717), Har- vard, 1691. He was pastor of the Old South Church, and a man of exceptional ability and learning. He was said to have lacked only vigorous health in order to have become famous. Dr. Joseph Sewall wrote of him that "few in these corners of the earth had been better acquainted with men and books."
Benjamin Pemberton divided the Blott Corner es- tate into several parcels, and sold one of them in 1728 to Edward Durant the younger, blacksmith, of whom mention has been made. This lot was 100 feet
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deep, along Winter Street, with a frontage of 20 feet on Washington Street.
In 1738 Mr. Durant conveyed the easterly half of his land, which included the original Blott's Corner, with a brick dwelling-house, and extended "so far west as to take in half the well and pump," to Samuel Brown of Worcester, a tailor. The latter trans- ferred the premises in the following year to Powers Marriott, of Boston, a shop-keeper. In 1752 Mr. Marriott sold this estate to John Spooner, a Boston merchant, in consideration of five shillings, lawful money ; to be held in trust for Sarah Weaver, a minor, and niece of Marriott's wife, Catherine. Sarah Weaver married first, in 1770, John Gooch, a mer- chant. His name appears as one of the signers of a petition to the inhabitants of Boston, in town meet- ing assembled, March 9, 1740, remonstrating against the practice of shooting pigeons from the tops of houses; a practice which was "evidently attended with many bad consequences, such as exposing the houses to fire by the lighted wads falling on the shingles in a dry season; shooting through windows, and by the noise of the guns, robbing the aged, the sick, the weak and infirm, of the best part of their repose."
Sarah (Weaver) Gooch married (2) in 1784, Eze- kiel Cheever, a namesake and great-grandson of the
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celebrated master of the Boston Latin School, of whom Cotton Mather wrote that he had been "a skil- full, Painful, Faithful Schoolmaster for seventy years; and had the Singular Favour of Heaven, that tho' he had spent his life among Children, yet he was not become Twice a Child, but held his Abilities, with his Usefulness, in an unusual degree, to the very last. . And it was noted that when Scholars came to be Admitted into the Colledge, they who came from the Cheeverian Education, were generally the most unexceptionable."
Of Master Cheever it was said that he left office at last without being tired, but simply because he was obliged to.
And Chief Justice Sewall wrote of him that he taught school "skilfully, diligently, constantly and religiously. A rare instance of Piety, Health, Strength and Serviceableness. The Wellfare of the Province was much upon his spirit. He abominated Periwigs."
At a meeting of the Magistrates and Selectmen (Governor Richard Bellingham and Major-General John Leverett being present), December 22, 1670, it was ordered that "Mr. Ezachiell Chevers" should be at the Governor's house that day seven-night to treat with them concerning the Free School. And at the
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adjourned meeting, December 29, it was ordered that Mr. Cheever be installed as head-master of the said school. And he, being present, accepted the position.
Ezekiel Cheever, third of the name, was a Select- man of Charlestown from 1752 to 1755, and after- ward removed to Boston. He was an active partici- pant in the great mass meetings held in Faneuil Hall and the Old South Church, November 29 and 30, 1773, to remonstrate against the landing of the tea; and was appointed Captain of the Watch set to ob- serve the tea-ships.1 In August, 1775, he was made Commissary of Artillery in the Continental Army. He was also Commissary in charge of Ordnance stores, and served nearly five years during the Revo- lution.
In 1793 Sarah (Weaver) Gooch Cheever, widow of Ezekiel Cheever, conveyed the estate to her unmar- ried step-daughters, Sarah, Elizabeth and Abigail Cheever.
After retaining the property for nearly ten years, they sold it, January Ist, 1803, to John Parker Whit- well, a druggist, of Boston. He transferred, De- cember 16, 1814, to Mehitable Homans of Boston,
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 38, 183, 1884.
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widow, and guardian of John Thomas Philip Dumont, a minor, "the same premises now improved by me as an Apothecary Store."
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Daniel Maud
D ANIEL MAUD was the owner of a lot front- ing on the roadway, now Tremont Street, and nearly opposite the site of the public granary, which was built a century later on the lot now occupied by Park Street Church. Mr. Maud was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England (M.A., 1610). He was a dissenting minister, who was obliged to give up his English charge on account of non-conformity. He came to this country in the ship James in 1635, being then about fifty years old, and was admitted to membership in the First Church in Boston during October of the same year. On August 2nd, 1635, Mr. Maud was appointed a teacher in the Boston Latin School, and on the twelfth day of the same month, "at a general meeting of the richer inhabitants, there was given towards the main- tenance of a free school-master for the youth with us, Mr. Daniel Maud being now also chosen there- unto;
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The Governor, Mr. Henry Vane, Esq., £X.
The Deputy Governor, Mr. John Winthrop, £X.
Mr. Richard Bellingham, XL shillings.
Mr. William Coddington, XXX shillings.
Mr. Winthrop, Jr., XX shillings.
and many others."
On the 17th of the second month, (April) 1637, it was voted that "Mr. Daniel Maud, schoole-master, shall have a garden-plott next unto Stephen Kinsley's house-plott, upon like Condition of building thereon, if neede bee."
It does not appear, however, that Mr. Maud was the first school-master in the town; for at a meeting of citizens, in April, 1635, it was voted that "our brother Philemon Pormont be intreated to become a Schole-master for the teaching and nourtering of chil- dren with us."
Mr. Pormont, or Pormort, accepted the office, and received the support of some of the prominent towns- people. He and his wife, Susan, had been admitted as members of the First Church in August of the preceding year.
"Philemon Pormort," said Phillips Brooks in an anniversary address, "is hardly more than the shadow of a name. It is not even clear that he ever actually taught the school at all. A few years later, after the
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Hutchinson excitement, he disappeared into the north- ern woods, and became one of the founders of Exeter, New Hampshire. Dim, half-discerned Philemon Por- mort, with the very spelling of his name disputed, with his face looking out upon us from the mist, merely serves to give a sort of human reality to that which would otherwise be wholly vague."
It is not known whether Mr. Pormont retired when Daniel Maud began teaching; or whether the latter was his assistant for a time, and then his successor. But these appointments marked the origin of Boston's educational system, and the founding of its Public Latin School, the oldest and one of the most famous in the country. Harvard College, at first a "wilder- ness Seminary," had its beginning at about the same time. Mr. Maud was called a good man, of a serious spirit, and of a quiet and peaceable disposition. At the request of the citizens of Dover, New Hampshire, he became their minister in 1642. In the records of that town, August Ist of the same year, is the fol- lowing: "It is ordered that Mr. Dan11 Maud, and Mary his wife, shall enjoy the house they now dwell in, during their lives, provided hee continue amongst us as Teacher or Pastor, if please God to call him to it."
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Edward Bromfield, Representative
I
N June, 1684, Edward Bromfield of Boston, "in ye Mattachusetts Colony in New England," became the owner of a piece of land, with a dwelling-house, "neer unto the Common or Trayning Field, and bounded northerly with the New Lane or way lead- ing from the Broad Street into the Common." This was called Rawson's Lane in 1708, Bromfield's Lane in 1751, and Bromfield Street in 1828.
The dwelling-house stood upon the spot afterward occupied by the Indian Queen Tavern, a popular stage-house. This was also the site of the Bromfield House in recent times. Rawson's Lane was described as "leading from Briscow's Corner, in Malbrough Street, passing by Justice Bromfeeld's in to ye Comon."
Edward Bromfield ( 1649-1734), who came to Bos- ton from England in 1675, was born at Haywood House, the ancestral estate, in the parish of Boldre, and within the borders of the New Forest, not far from Lymington in Hampshire. He soon became an active member of the Old South Church in Boston; and to secure freedom from worldly noise and dis- tractions, he transformed the pasture behind his house
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into a shady grove, and built therein a small Chapel or Oratory, where he was wont often to retire.
Mr. Bromfield was a Selectman, Overseer of the Poor, Representative, and a member of the Council for many years. In 1706 he was one of a Committee to "examine and consider the state of the Almes and Worke House, and to make report to the next Town meeting of what they shall think proper for the man- agement thereof for the year ensuing."
Mr. Bromfield was of a cheerful disposition, open- hearted and liberal in his views. His conversation was pleasant and instructive, without the least sign of pride or roughness.1
By his Will he bequeathed to his wife, Mary Dan- forth Bromfield, his negro man named Thomas. To his son Edward he gave his best sword, and to his son-in-law, Thomas Cushing, his "second sword." His daughter Sarah received a table which came from Surinam, and a "bed and wrought curtains in the Chamber of my Brick House."
During the period of Mr. Bromfield's activities in Town affairs, he was zealous in promoting the pub- lic welfare and safety. It seems appropriate there- fore to mention certain matters of interest to the cit- izens at that time. At a Town meeting, September 1 New England Weekly Journal, June 10, 1734.
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22, 1701, it was ordered that "whosoever shall at any time hereafter use the Exercise of Playing or kicking of football within any of the Streets or Land within the body of this Town, shall forfeit and pay the Sum of one Shilling for every Transgression of this order. Nor shall any person hereafter fire or throw any Squibb, Rocket, Serpent or other fireworkes. .. . Nor shall any person throw or heave any Snowballs or Stones at any person in the Streets, Lanes or Allyes of this Town."
At the same meeting it was ordered that no negro, mulatto or Indian should carry any stick or cane "that may be fit for quarreling or fighting," within the Town limits, on penalty of a fine of five shillings. If found carrying a stick or cane having on the end thereof an iron ring, ferule, spear or nail, the penalty was ten shillings.
At a somewhat later period Boston appears to have been overrun with dogs. At a general Town meet- ing, July Ist, 1728, it was voted that whereas the "Great Number of Doggs keep in Boston is found to be very Detremental Thro' their Worrying, Chase- ing and Wounding the Cattle, Sheep and Fowles; and Occasioning the Butchers to keep their Sheep Housed in the night, which is much to the Damage of this Town in General. Ordered that no person shall keep
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any Dogg to go at Large within this Town of Bos- ton, above Ten Inches High."
Edward Bromfield, Junior (1695-1756), a son of the preceding, filled many important offices. He was an eminent merchant, who stood high in the regard of his fellow-townsmen. His house, which was on Beacon Street, nearly opposite to the Boston Athe- neum, was "a little Church, where everything that had the appearance of vice was resolutely banished." In 1746 Mr. Bromfield served on a Committee whose members were instructed to wait upon his Excellency the Governor, and the Honorable Council, and to in- form them that the Town apprehended danger from the presence of large numbers of subjects of the French King, who were allowed freedom in the streets. About one hundred of these people were arrested by the Constables and taken to his Majesty's Gaol in Boston, but the High Sheriff of the County refused to receive them.
Mr. Bromfield had a son, Edward the third (1723- 1745), who was a graduate of Harvard, Class of 1742.
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Captain Adino Paddock
A DINO PADDOCK (1728-1804), chaise-maker, owned a large portion of the land on the east side of Tremont Street, between the historic Winter Street corner lot and Rawson's Lane (now Bromfield Street), which was named after Edward Rawson, who was Secretary of the Colony for many years. Mr. Paddock bought the northerly part, which abutted on the Lane, from Thomas Cushing, merchant, in May, 1760; and within a few years thereafter, he purchased other lots, including a part of the estate of Edward Bromfield, which had been conveyed to the latter by Abigail Gillam in March, 1739. His home-lot was bought of William Lewis, merchant, in 1772. Here were a large dwelling-house, garden, yard, out-houses, a work-shop, barn, chaise-house, blacksmith's shop and sheds.
Captain Adino Paddock (a lineal descendant of Zachariah Paddock, who came over in the May- flower while yet a minor) was the pioneer coach- builder in Boston. He also built "chairs," as the light one-horse chaises were called in those days. He served the town as a sealer of leather, and as a fire- ward.
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Captain Paddock was a prominent military man. He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany in 1762, and became Commander of the Boston Train of Artillery in 1768. He it was who gave to this part of Tremont Street the name of Long Acre, which, although never accepted officially, was long in popular use. The London Long Acre, a continuation of Great Queen Street, in the neighborhood of Covent Garden Theatre, is still a coach-building center. Cap- tain Paddock planted a row of fine English elms along the west side of Tremont Street, opposite his home. The Paddock elms stood there for about a century, when they had to yield to the march of progress. He was a radical Tory, and left Boston with the British soldiers and a large party of Royalists, in March, 1776. In the following June he sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, for England, and later became a resident of the Isle of Jersey, where he held the office of In- spector of Artillery Stores.
Captain Paddock was one of the large number of ioyalist absentees, who were proscribed as enemies of the State in 1778. His land and buildings were con- fiscated, and were conveyed, July 12, 1780, to Thomas Bumstead, coach-maker, of Boston, by a committee authorized to sell the estates of "Royalist Refugees." This committee consisted of the following persons:
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Caleb Davis, Thomas Dawes, Ebenezer Wales and Thomas Henshaw.1
Paddock's Train of Artillery was noted for the excellence of its personnel; in its rank and file were many skilled mechanics, and a high degree of disci- pline was maintained. Its commander had received instruction in the autumn of 1766 from members of a company of Artillerymen, who were bound for Que- bec. Owing to the lateness of the season, they were obliged to spend the winter in Boston, making their headquarters at Castle William. Paddock enlisted the services of a number of German emigrants, who manned the drag-ropes. Their uniform included white frocks and hair caps, and they carried broad- swords.2 The Company's gun-house was on the south corner of Tremont and West Streets.
The nineteenth of May, 1766, was a day of gen- eral rejoicing in Boston, on account of the Repeal of the Stamp Act by Parliament. The patriot, John Hancock, entertained the "Genteel Part of the Town" at his mansion on Beacon Hill; and in front of the house he provided a pipe of Madeira wine for the re- . galement of the populace. On the Common the Sons of Liberty had placed an obelisk, which was illumi-
1 Massachusetts Archives: "Revolution Royalists;" 1778-1784.
' F. S. Drake. Life of General Henry Knox.
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nated at night with 280 lamps. The guns of the Cas- · tle boomed, drums were beaten, and Captain Pad- dock's Artillery Company fired a salute.
The Massachusetts Gazette, May 22, 1766, con- tained the following Notice:
"The Row of Trees opposite Mr. Paddock's Shop have of late received Damage by persons inadvert- ently breaking off the limbs of the most flourishing. The youth of both sexes are requested, as they pass that way, not to molest them; those trees being planted at a considerable expense for an Ornament and Serv- ice to the Town. Not one of the trees was injured the Night of General Rejoicing, but last Night sev- eral limbs were broke off."
And in the Boston Evening Post, August 26, 1771, this advertisement appeared :
"A GUINEA REWARD will be given by the sub- scriber to any one who shall inform him of the Per- son or Persons that on Thursday night last cut and hacked one of the Trees opposite his House in Long Acre. . .. It is hoped that all persons will do their Endeavour to discountenance such Practices.
"Adino Paddock."
The old trees of Paddock's Mall (wrote Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, in his Topographical Description of Bos- ton), with their thickly-set leaves, produced a most
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grateful shade in front of the Old Granary Burying- Ground. They were a picturesque feature of Long Acre, and afforded protection in summer to the way- farers, who oftentimes were wont to pause a while in order to survey the quaint old tomb-stones, and the more pretentious sculptured tablets.
These trees were imported from England by Cap- tain Paddock, and were planted about the year 1762. The largest of them stood next to the old Tremont House, and measured sixteen feet in circumference at its base, in 1860. At that time only eleven of the trees remained. They were removed in 1873.
The Tremont Street Mall, always a favorite Prom- enade, appears to have been the scene of fashionable Sunday parades after the Revolution. The Massa- chusetts Centinel, May, 1785, had the following: "In the evening very few were in the Mall, though we fear that some were disappointed of their customary · tour to that frequented place, upon account of a se- vere gust of wind.
That many of the fair were detained from prin- ciple, and not the weather, we are inclined to believe is the cause; and that the happiness of our females is built upon a foundation more permanent than wind. We, however, commiserate the disappointment of
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some, and wish the next Sunday may afford some gentler relaxation from divine service."
The Manufactory House
T HE so-called Manufactory House was built by the Province about the middle of the eighteenth century on Long Acre Street, and with its grounds occupied the greater part of the present Hamilton Place. Its establishment was due to a remarkable popular demonstration known as the Spinning-Craze, which was traceable to the arrival in Boston of a Company of Irish Spinners and Weavers in the year 1718. Under the influence of this novel excitement, the women, young and old, rich and poor, high and low, flocked to the Spinning School, which was set up on the Common in the open air. Here the whirr of their wheels was heard from morning till night. Pre- miums were offered for the best work, and the en- thusiasts went about proudly clothed in the home- spun products of their own hands. The fashion was as short-lived as it was furious.1 However, the growing interest in weaving and spinning, and the importance of the linen industry, led to the establishment of the Manufactory House; and to de-
1 The Memorial History of Boston, IV, 511.
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. fray the cost of its construction a tax was levied on carriages and other articles of luxury. A spinning- school was established therein, where any person who so desired was given free instruction.
In 1768 the Manufactory House was rented by the Province, and was occupied by private families. It acquired prominence at that time, owing to an attempt by Colonel William Dalrymple, of the Fourteenth reg- iment of Regulars, to secure quarters therein for his soldiers. The tenants refused to vacate; whereupon Governor Bernard issued a mandate, which was served by Sheriff Greenleaf, ordering the surrender of the premises. This procedure was also without avail. Finally the Sheriff and some of his deputies gained entrance to the cellar, where they found them- selves prisoners. They were soon released by a squad of soldiers; and the Manufactory House remained in possession of the tenants. '
This was largely due to the energy and persistence of Elisha Brown, who caused the windows and doors of the building to be barred. His epitaph in the Granary Burying Ground is as follows:
"Elisha Brown, of Boston, who in October, 1769, during 17 days inspired with a generous zeal for the Laws, bravely and successfully opposed a whole Brit- ish Regiment in their violent attempt to Force him
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from his legal habitation. Happy Citizen, when called singly to be a Barrier to the Liberties of a Con- tinent."
The building was used by the British during the Siege, and received its quota of wounded from Bunker Hill. The Massachusetts Bank, which was incor- porated in 1784, had offices here for several years. On a corner of the west end of the edifice, fronting on Long Acre, was portrayed in relief the figure of a woman, holding in her hand a distaff, emblematic of Industry. The building was taken down in 1806.
This fine structure appears to have been a con- venient meeting-place for the members of various organizations. The Independent Ledger and Ameri- can Advertiser, Boston, October 6, 1783, contained this announcement: "The Fellows of the Massachu- setts Medical Society are hereby notified that a Meet- ing of the said Society will be holden at the Hall of the Manufactory House in Boston on Wednesday the fifteenth of October next at X o'clock A. M."
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