USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The site of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Boston, and its neighborhood > Part 2
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As early as 1638 Samuel Maverick is said to have kept three negro slaves on Noddle's Island, now East Boston. In 1641 a statute of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay provided that there should never be "any bond slavery, villainage or captivity amongst us, unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us; and such shall have the liberties and Christian usage which the law of God, established in Israel concerning such persons, shall morally require; provided this exempts none from servitude, who shall be judged thereto by
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authority."
Slavery, however, continued to exist in the Colony and Province until the close of the Revolution. In 1754 there were in Boston nearly one thousand negro slaves of the age of sixteen years and over.
In 1783 slavery was forbidden in Massachusetts by a decision of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the declaration in the State Constitution of 1780, that "all men are born free and equal," abolished slavery for all time. In reference to the traffic in slaves, many advertisements appeared in early Boston newspapers. For example, April 22, 1728:
"Two very likely Negro girls. Enquire two doors from the Brick Meeting-house in Middle Street; At which place is to be sold Women's stays, children's good callamanco stiffned-boddy'd coats, and chil- dren's stays of all sorts, and women's hoop-coats; all at very reasonable rates."
January 2, 1764:
"To be Sold at Store No. 12, on the South Side of the Town Dock, Boston, cheap for Cash: 6 or 7 Hogsheads of simple Refin'd Loaf Sugar; also two Negro Men and one Negro Woman, who are not sold for any known Faults, and have been some Years in the Country."
In June, 1765, a so-called White Negro was ex-
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hibited at the sign of the White Horse, at the South ' End of the Town, "for about one shilling Starling the sight."
From the Boston Evening Post, August 6, 1753:
"A Gentleman wants to buy a Negro Fellow, about twenty years old, that can be well recommended for his Honesty and good Behaviour. Any Person who has such an one to dispose of, may have the cash down for him.
"Enquire of the Printer."
Hogg Alley
I T is stated in Drake's History and Antiquities of Boston, 1856, that Avery Street was anciently called Hogg Alley, but this is doubtless incorrect.
In the official Record of the Streets, Alleys and Lanes in Boston, which was issued in 1910, "Hogg Alley" is described as formerly connecting the pres- ent Washington and Tremont Streets, between Sheafe's Lane and West Street. Keith's Theatre was built in 1894 upon a portion of its site. In the Memorial History of Boston, Vol. IV, page 68, Hogg Alley is stated to have led from the north side of the Lamb Tavern (site of the Adams House) obliquely to the stables in the rear. In Bonner's map of 1722 it is plainly shown as a continuous thorough-
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fare to the Common; and it appears in other maps of as late a date as the Revolutionary period. In a list of the names of Boston's thoroughfares, prepared under the direction of the Selectmen in the year 1701, Hogg Alley was mentioned as the "New Alley, be- tween Mr. Blyn's and Durant's, leading westerly with the Common." Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, the noted conveyancer, wrote in one of his "Gleaner" Articles in the Boston Transcript, July 20, 1855, that Hogg Alley, then long since discontinued, ran from Washington Street, and formed a part of the Adams House estate and that next adjoining. It was officially described as leading from a point just south of the Lion Tavern (the site of Keith's Thea- tre) to Tremont Street, a little north of Sheaf's Lane.
At a meeting of the Townspeople, September 6, 1763, a Committee was appointed to consider the best methods of removing the nuisance in the passageway leading from the main street to the Common, and called Hogg Alley.
This Committee gave in their opinion at an ad- journed meeting, September 21, 1763, that this Alley was not a greater nuisance than such narrow Pas- sages generally are, and that the danger arising from horses and cows passing through the same might be prevented, if the Town thought proper to fix Turn-
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pikes at each end of the Alley. This was accord- ingly done.
At a Town meeting, March 23, 1773, a Committee previously appointed made a Report that in pursuance of their trust they had visited Hogg Alley, and found that it had been for many years a great nuisance, owing to the alteration of the old natural course of the water, which used to run from Beacon Hill down to the Gate entering into the Common a little below "Sheriff Greanleaff's Garden," and that from thence there was a large water course running down and terminating in a Pond which bears near, south of the Frog Pond. The Committee further report that al- though Hogg Alley is mentioned in the Selectmen's List of the several Streets and Lanes of the Town in 1708, they do not find that it was ever claimed by the Town, or as a Town way; for in the year 1702 there was no such Alley, and one Durant then sold to Thomas Blin a parcel of land lying to the north of said . Durant's property, called the Lamb.
"The Committee are of the opinion that the only proper way to carry the water from against Winter Street to the said Gate or near it, is to continue the paved gutter next the Mall, opposite Winter Street down to or near the Gate aforesaid, and there to con- duct the water under a Stone Bridge three feet wide across the Mall."
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Robert Wyard, Bricklayer
G OVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP and his as- sociates secured the peninsula by a grant from King Charles I under the Colonial charter, and also by purchase from the Indians, and from William Blackstone, the pioneer white settler, in 1634. The latter held his title by the right of possession. Early transfers of land were not recorded.
The so-called Book of Possessions, dating from about 1645, contains a list of the land owners in Bos- ton at that period, and this is the Foundation of all titles to real estate within the town limits.
Governor John Leverett, whose residence was on the site of- the Sears Building, owned the lot on the south corner of Winter and Tremont Streets, measur- ing about 210 feet on the former by 130 feet along the Common, and then known as "Leverett's Pasture."
One Robert Wyard of Hartford, Conn., a brick- layer, of good Scottish ancestry, bought the south- erly portion of this lot about the year 1664. This is the northern part of the Cathedral land. Wyard con-
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veyed the property by warranty deed, duly recorded and witnessed by Gov. Winthrop, September 28, 1666, to John Wampas, an Indian, of Boston, for £78 sterling. It was thus described: "A certaine mes- suage or tennement, abutting westward on the Com- mon, north on land now or late of Hudson Leverett [son of the Governor], east on Alexander Baker, rope-maker, and south on John Cross; to- gether with the dwelling-house that standeth thereon; as also all ffences, trees, gardens, wayes, waters and easements to the same anywayes belonging."
From the Hartford Land Records, it appears that as early as the year 1639 Robert Wyard was the owner of 31/2 acres bordering on the Connecticut River, and abutting upon a thoroughfare known as "the road to the Ox Pasture."
Wyard occupied a small frame house on his lot. He was a maker of bricks and tiles, digging his clay before the first of November, and turning it over in February or March, or about a month before he made it into bricks, which were 9 inches long by 21/4 and 41/2 inches in thickness and breadth respectively.1
These are approximately the dimensions of the standard-sized bricks of the present day, which were regulated by an English statute of the year 1625.
1 Walter K. Watkins: The Boston Budget and Beacon. Febru- ary 10, 1906.
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John Wampas, Indian
T HE fact that a portion of the Cathedral land de- rives its title from an aboriginal American, is of historic interest. His neighbors were all of Brit- ish birth and ancestry; and while this Indian was still in possession of the estate, King Philip's War had begun, and members of his tribe, as allies of the Nar- ragansetts, were in arms against the colonists. Wam- pas claimed to be a Sagamore or petty Chief of the Hassanamesit Indians, a small tribe or subdivision of the Nipmucks. He also maintained that he was the rightful owner of a large tract of land in the so- called Nipmuck country. This region was mostly within the original limits of the Township of Mendon, Massachusetts, and here the Indians held reserved rights to hunt and fish.
At a Court-held at Natick in September, 1681, and presided over by Daniel Gookin, Senior, General Magistrate of all the Indian towns, several of the Nipmuck elders testified that they had known John Wampas from a child; that he was a son of their former associate "old Woampas," and had no more right to land in their country than any other common Indian. They admitted, however, that on account
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of his acquaintance with English colonists, they had asked Wampas to "enquire after and endeavor to get settled and recorded the Indian title and right" to certain lands in the Nipmuck Reservation. But they denied having given him any authority to dispose of those lands.1 However, Wampas and members of his tribe did convey to Joshua Hewes and other resi- dents of Boston, a tract eight miles square, compris- ing the present township of Sutton. And in May, 1704, the General Court confirmed to the purchasers their title to this land purchased from the Indians.
Within the boundaries of the Nipmuck country, which stretched eastward from the Connecticut River to the border Settlements of the colonists, were some of the most fertile lands in Massachusetts. With the exception of a few families at Brookfield, no English people were living in that region when Philip's War began.
The results of that war were disastrous to the Nipmucks, who deserved their fate according to the rules of war, "because they had treacherously risen up against those with whom they had been living in peace and amity.
"Without giving warning, they came out of the " For additional details, see Lieutenant Joshua Hewes and Some of His Descendants, by Eben Putnam; 1913; a volume issued since this sketch was first prepared.
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forests and fell upon houses and settlements from which no provocation had proceeded. The power of the Nipmucks was broken in Philip's War, and the whole region was opened to the colonists."1 And among the latter there prevailed a feeling of deep-seated indignation, on account of the faithless- ness of the members of an Indian tribe, which had been previously friendly.
John Wampas acquired a good knowledge of the English language, having in his youth attended the so-called Indian College at Cambridge, which was founded in 1664 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England; a philanthropic though unsuccessful enterprise, designed for the education of Indians. A small brick building on the grounds of Harvard College accommodated about twenty schol- ars. Owing to the small attendance, this building was soon given over to other uses, and a printing- press was established therein. It was taken down in 1695. Of the Indian youths who received instruc- tion there, some returned to their former mode of liv- ing, and others entered upon different callings. Wam- pas followed the sea for a time, being termed a mari- ner in legal papers.
A few Indian scholars received instruction at a 1 Abijah P. Marvin. History of Worcester County, Massachu- setts. I. 15.
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small Grammar School which was started in Cam- bridge about the year 1642, and was maintained for nearly half a century by the eminent teacher, Elijah Corlett. We quote from a contemporary tract en- titled "New England's First Fruits":
"And by the side of the Colledge a faire Grammar Schoole for the training up of young scholars and fit- ting them for Academical learning. Master Corlet is the Mr. who hath very well approved him- self for his abilities, dexterity and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youths under him."
The site of this school was on the west side of the present Holyoke Street, about midway between Har- vard Square and Mount Auburn Street.
The Indian race has had but one representative among the graduates of Harvard College, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, of the Class of 1665; the son of a petty chief, who lived at Holmes' Hole, Martha's Vineyard. He died of tuberculosis in the following year, at the age of twenty.
John Wampas married the daughter of an Aspe- tuck chief, named Romanock, who was reputed to be a great warrior, and the "hero of many a fight with strange Indians." His home was at a place called Pawchéquage, near the Hudson River, and a three days' journey from the waters of Massachusetts Bay
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, over the old trails .. The maiden name of his daugh- ter, the dusky helpmate of John Wampas, was Praske, but she was called Ann after her marriage. In 1660 Romanock made over to her a parcel of land in the Township of Fairfield, Connecticut. Wampas as- serted his right to the possession of this land in 1678, and applied to the General Assembly of Connecticut, and also to the Lords of the King's Council at Lon- don, for confirmation of his title thereto, but without . success.
In November, 1671, John Wampas, "Indian and Seaman," sold to Thomas Stedman of New London, Connecticut, Mariner, one hundred acres of upland and meadow, being a portion of a tract fourteen miles square appertaining to the said Wampas as his proper right and inheritance. This large tract lay between the townships of Marlborough and Mendon, in the Nipmuck country.
It is a singular fact that although Wampas was said to have attended the Indian College in his youth, he appears to have been unable even to write his own name, and in its stead affixed his mark to legal docu- ments. His lands were said to have been an inheri- tance from his mother, a Nipmuck squaw and the wife of "Old Wampas," of whom mention has been made. His conveyance of various parcels of real es- 1
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tate, duly recorded, shows that he had a proper right and title thereto, despite the assertions to the con- trary of some of his Indian acquaintances. Yet the validity of a title derived from a Red-skin was some- times questioned; and Sir Edmund Andros has been quoted as saying that the signature of an Indian was of no more value than the scratch of a bear's claw.
According to the Boston Town Records, John Wamponi (alias Wampas), an Indian, and Ann Praske, daughter of the Chief Romanock, were mar- ried on the twenty-first day of May, 1661, by "Major" Humphrey Atherton. He was a son of Edmund, of Atherton Manor, in Lancashire, and was born at Preston in that County in the year 1609.
The ancestral estate dates from the reign of King John, in the early years of the thirteenth century, when Robert of Atherton, Sheriff of Lancashire, lived there. The Atherton family held large tracts of land which were rich in stone quarries, coal mines and iron ore; they were prominent among the wealthy com- moners of England. Humphrey Atherton married Mary, daughter of John Wales, of Idle, a town of Yorkshire. He was said to have been barely fifteen years of age at the time of his marriage, his wife being about a year younger. They had twelve chil- dren, among them Rest, Increase, Thankful, Hope
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or Hopeful, Consider, Patience and Watching. The parents and their three eldest children came to Amer- ica about 1636, sailing from Bristol, England, in the ship James, and settled in Dorchester. Here he served as a Selectman thirteen years, and as a Repre- sentative nine years. In 1645 he was chosen one of the "wardens for the schoole," being thus a member of the first School Committee in America. He was much employed in negotiations with the Indians.
Edward Johnson, the historian, in his Wonder- working Providences of Sion's Savior, wrote of him that "although he was slow of speech, yet was he downright for the business; one of cheerful spirit, and intire for the Country."
Humphrey Atherton was Captain of the Dorches- ter Train-band in 1644, and Commander of the Suf- folk Regiment in 1649. He was also a Captain in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and aft- erward held the highest military position in the Col- ony, that of Major-General. In dealing with the In- dians, while keenly appreciating their ignorance and debased condition, he showed great energy and firm- ness in time of war.
One of General Atherton's sons, Hope Atherton, was a graduate of Harvard in 1665. He was a class- mate of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, of Martha's Vine-
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· yard, before mentioned as the only aboriginal gradu- ate of the College. Hope Atherton was the Chaplain of Captain William Turner's Company, which served during Philip's War. Another son, Consider Ath- erton, was a member of Captain John Withington's Company, which took part in the Expedition against Quebec, under Governor Sir William Phipps, in 1690.
On the afternoon or evening of September 16, 1661, Major-General Humphrey Atherton reviewed some of his troops on Boston Common; and while rid- ing homeward through the South End of the Town, in the darkness of the very early morn of the follow- ing day, his horse came into collision with a cow, which was lying in the road, and General Atherton was thrown to the ground and killed.
The following anecdote exemplifies his courage and firmness of character : On one occasion he was sent with twenty men to interview an Indian Sachem named Pessacus, and to demand the payment of three hundred fathom of wampum which he owed the Colony.
Pessacus was inclined to temporize and refused an audience to his would-be interviewers; whereupon General Atherton entered the chief's wigwam, pistol in hand, and dragged him out from among a large
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number of his followers, threatening to kill any In- dian who should attempt to interfere. . Fol- lowing is his epitaph:
"Here lies our Captain, and Majt of Suffolk was withall; A Godly Magestrate was he, & Major Gen- erall. Two Troops of Horses with him here came, such worth his love did crave; Ten Companies of Foot also mourning march'd to his Grave. Let all that Read be sure to keep ye faith as he hath done. With Christ he lives now Crown'd, his name was Humphrey Atherton."1
Neither by heredity, nor by early associations and environment, was Wampas fitted to become a law- abiding and exemplary citizen. He appears to have been of an irascible disposition; easily becoming in- volved in brawls and contentions. The Records of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts afford evidence of this. A son of Secretary Edward Rawson, Grindall Rawson, afterward the minister at Mendon, who preached to the Nipmucks in their own language, tes- tified "That on the twenty-seventh of September, 1677, being by Cambridge Meeting-House, by reason of an All-Arme then made, he heard John Wampass ask the people there whether they ever saw an Indian before. Whereto it being answered 'yes, twice,' then 1 William Dana Orcutt in Good Old Dorchester.
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he in a surly manner said: 'and you shall feel them too;' and further saith not. Taken upon Oath the first day of October, 1677.
Before me, Daniel Gookin, Sent."
And again: "Information against John Wampas, Indian, that since he came out of England, about 4 months past, he takes to no employment, but travils up and downe in a vagrant, idle way, among English and Indians, vapouring of the great quantity of land he has; offering to sell that which is other mens' pos- session and improvement, both English and Indians. The said Wompas is a very disorderly person. About the beginning of September he came to Natick, where he bought a barrel of cider, and got about 15 or 16 men and women, and drank it all out presently, whereby himself and all the rest were made drunk. He has upon a very small occasion used threatening speeches to some English, particularly to Mrs. Grace Oliver (the wife of Thomas Oliver, of Cambridge), at her own house. He hath escaped from prison, and is runne away upon October 1, 1677." At a County Court held at Cambridge on the following day, being convicted of the above-named misdemeanors, and also of endeavoring to work discontent among the In- dians, "giving out expressions rendering him justly
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to be suspected of conspiring with ye enemy against ' us," Wampas was ordered to stand committed until the next Court of Assistants, there to make answer for the same, and meantime he was sent to the Prison in Boston.
Yet, in spite of his failings Wampas attained a certain distinction, both among the members of his tribe and in Boston, where he was well known. By nature intelligent and shrewd, having executive abil- ity, and being familiar with the language and usages of the colonists, among whom he lived in his home on the Cathedral Site, and with whom he had fre- quent business relations, Wampas appears to have conceived an exaggerated idea of his own importance, and to have partially yielded to his primitive savage instincts.
At that time opportunities for conviviality seem to have been numerous in Boston, and Cotton Mather is reported to have said that almost every other house was a tavern. Drinking and smoking in houses of entertainment were carried to excess; and a statute provided that no one should take tobacco in any com- mon victualing-house, except in a private room; the object being to avoid giving offense to the inn-keeper or any guest. And every infraction of this statute involved the payment of half a crown in English
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money.1
Ann Wampas died in 1676. At that time her hus- band was imprisoned for a small debt, at London, England, as appears from a letter dated August 22, 1676, written by command of King George III, and signed by "Mr. Secretary Williamson." This letter was addressed to "our trusty and well-beloved Sir John Leveritt, Knt; Governour of Massachusetts Bay in New England," and represented that the said John Wampas owned lands in the Colony, which he had held for many years, having taken the oath of al- legiance as a British Subject. And the Secretary asks that Wampas be restored to his lands, or have liberty to sell them for his present relief. This petition was doubtless granted, for on June second, 1677, John Wampas, alias White, Seaman, sold his home lot, "Scituate near the trayning feild in Boston," to Joshua Hughes, cordwainer, and others of Boston, for £20, thus confirming a previous conveyance by his wife Ann to the same grantees.
In the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, London, 1896 (Volume 10, Document 928), ap- pears the following: "March 14, 1679. Petition of John Wampas, alias White, an Indian and inhabitant of Boston. Became by marriage of Anne, daughter 1 The Bostonian. Vol. II., p. 19.
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.of Romanock, late Sachem of Aspaluck and Susqua- nagh, on death of the said Sachem sole proprietor of the land on which Sutton in Connecticut is built. About 19 years since his father-in-law having deliv- ered up the possession of the lands to him, he sold part to Capt. Dennison and Amos Richardson of Ston- ington in Connecticut for the sum of about £530 sterling.
"Is by the evil practice of Major Nathan Gold and others of Fairfield, kept out of his rights, and having gone to demand possession, was imprisoned in May last, whence he made his escape to New York, and is forced to come to England to seek relief."
John Wampas, after being liberated from prison, returned to Boston in 1677. He appears to have been a rover by nature, and fond of adventure and excitement. And without doubt he had plenty of both. Yet he has received scant notice from his- torians. Again visiting England, his death occurred in the Parish of Stepney, a metropolitan borough of the East End of London, in September, 1679.
The Will of John Wampas, alias White, was proved on October first of that year. By it he divided his lands among certain of his Indian Friends; be- queathing portions also to George Owen of London,
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chirurgeon; Edward Pratt, victualler, of Shadwell, a suburb of London, and John Blake of Plymouth, New England, husbandman.
From Records of the Suffolk Probate Court, it ap- pears that Joshua Hughes was administrator of the estate of Ann Wampas. We quote from these Rec- ords (Vol. 12, page 10): "The Deposition of Pru- dence Delany, aged eighteen years, testifieth that about halfe an hour before Anne Wampus was scalded, I heard her say that Joshua Hughes should have all the Estate she had when she dyed, and that shee wished shee had a thousand pounds for his sake, hee should have it, every farthing."
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