USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The site of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Boston, and its neighborhood > Part 3
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Other depositions, of similar tenor, are on record, from which it appears probable that Hughes had served in the capacity of legal guardian of Ann Wampas.
Joshua Hewes
J OSHUA HEWES or Hughes, the next owner of the north lot, was a son of the emigrant, Lieut. Joshua Hewes, of Royston, Herts, England, who came over in 1633 and settled at Roxbury. The Bos- ton Records of the following year mention "Sargeant Hues Corne field neere Rocksbury gate." He was the
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original owner of the estate on Washington Street, opposite Vernon Street, where stood the famous Grey- hound Tavern for more than a hundred years previ- ous to the Revolution. Joshua Hewes, Senior, was Lieutenant of the Roxbury train-band, and became a wealthy merchant and importer of dry-goods and wearing apparel.
John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians," who came over from England in 1631, lived alongside the Grey- hound Tavern, which was used as a recruiting sta- tion during the wars with the French and Indians. The following advertisement appeared in the Boston Gazette, April 20, 1741: "To be seen at the Grey- hound Tavern, a wild creature, which was caught in the woods about eighty miles to the westward of this place, called a catamount. It has a tail like a Lyon ; its legs are like bears', its claws like an eagle, its eyes like a tyger. He is exceedingly ravenous, and de- vours all sorts of creatures that he can come near. Its agility is surprising; it will leap 30 feet at one jump, notwithstanding it is but three months old. Whoever wishes to see this creature, may come to the place aforesaid, paying one shilling each, and shall be welcome for their money."
The Greyhound Tavern was demolished early in
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1775, as a measure of military necessity.1 On Au- gust 27, 1742, Sergeant Joshua Hewes was directed by the Town "to see to it that the people of Roxbury in every house or some two or more houses, joyne together for the breeding of salt peeter in some out- house used for poultry or the like, and to give them directions about the same."
Before the year 1785 the only terra firma route from the Boston peninsula to Roxbury and other neighboring towns, was over the Neck, a narrow, low- lying strip of land, which was sometimes washed by the Spring tides, the water coming up to the knees of horses. Its middle portion was paved with cobble- stones from the adjacent beaches. The route of the old Boston Neck may be traced by following Wash- ington Street from Beach Street (a suggestive name) to Roxbury, the narrowest part being near Dover Street.2
Wild fowl in abundance inhabited the marshes on either side, and sportsmen were wont to resort thither, until shooting was prohibited in 1713.
In the first years of the Colony straying animals were a source of annoyance, and the law required that every man should "make his fences sufficient for
1 Stephen Jenkins. The Old Boston Post-Road.
'S. A. Drake. Old Landmarks of Boston.
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all his planting-ground on the necke." Owners were held accountable for all damage caused by their un- ruly cattle. At a Town meeting, February 23, 1634, it was agreed by general consent that all barren cat- tle whatsoever (except draft animals), all weaned calves 20 weeks old, "weaned mayle kidds," and all swine above 10 weeks old, should be kept abroad from off the Neck.
In winter especially this was a dreary and desolate place, and travel thereover was not without risks. To exemplify this we quote from the Boston News-Let- ter, February first, 1713:
"On Friday night one Bacon, of Roxbury, going home in his slade with three horses, was bewilder'd in the dark; himself found dead with the cold; next morning one of the horses drowned in the Marsh, the other two not yet heard from."
Monday, January 4, 1720:
"On Wednesday Night last we had here a Flurry of Snow, with a Gust of Wind at South-East, wherein two Men on Horse-back going over our Neck, mist their Path; their Horses were Froze to Death. The men were also much Froze, and at last got to Mr. Miers's, and are likely to live." Samuel Mears was landlord of the George Tavern, which stood near the old boundary line between Roxbury and Boston.
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There are many instances on record of people having lost their way on Boston Neck, which was also the resort of foot-pads, especially after nightfall.
In the month of December, 1778, during a severe blizzard, William Bishop, of Cumberland, a Town in the northeastern corner of Rhode Island, was return- ing from Boston to his home with a team of two oxen and a horse, when he missed his way in the thick snow, while crossing the Neck, and floundered upon Lamb's Dam, where he and the animals perished from exposure.1
In the early years of the eighteenth century the Neck was hardly more than a narrow tract of wilder- ness. The Boston News-Letter, July, 1713, contains this item:
"On the fourth of July Captain Lamb killed a large Moose, upward of seven Foot long, at the back of his house in Roxbury."
The Captain Lamb here mentioned was probably identical with Colonel Joshua Lamb, who owned the Bull Pasture, on the east side of the Neck, and not far from the George Tavern. He built "Lamb's Dam," near the present line of Northampton Street, as a protection to his marsh land. Many years aft- erward, during the Siege of Boston, this Dam was an 1 F. S. Drake. The Town of Roxbury.
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important strategic point.
Among the larger fauna in the neighborhood of Boston at the time of Queen Anne's reign, wolves were numerous and bold; catamounts, lynxes, bears and foxes abounded in the region of the out-lying plantations. Moose were not uncommon within twenty miles of the Town, especially in Essex County. Thomas Morton, an English lawyer and adventurer, in his New English Canaan, 1637, described the "Elke, which the Salvages call a Mose" "It is a very large Deare," he wrote, "with a very faire head, and a broade palme, like the palme of a fallow Deare's horn, but much bigger, and is 6 foote wide betweene the tipps. He is of the biggness of a great horse." And now, having wandered some- what from our subject in following Lieutenant Joshua Hewes to his home in Roxbury, we will retrace our steps over the Neck into Boston Town again.
Joshua Hewes, the younger (1644-1706), was a native of Roxbury. He enlisted under the command of Major Thomas Savage and served for some months during the early part of Philip's War. His name ap- pears on the Boston tax-lists from about 1674 to 1691. Besides the estate now covered by St. Paul's Cathedral, he owned lands in the Nipmuck country. In the Town Records he is described as an innkeeper,
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and in legal documents as a cordwainer.
Rev. John Eliot said of him that "he came into the land a single man about the seventh month of the year 1633." He served about three months with Major Savage, and was a member of an expedition to Brook- field early in March, 1676. Where he lived during the greater part of his residence in Boston is not known; but it is probable that his home was in the neighbor- hood of the Mill Pond, near the present North Rail- way Station. No purchase or sale of real estate is recorded in his name until he became the owner of a portion of the present Cathedral land in 1677. He was a Deputy to the General Court from Roxbury, and a Selectman of that town.1
The northerly lot remained in the possession of the Hughes family for nearly fifty years. The Will of Joshua Hughes, dated January 25, 1704, author- ized the widow to sell his "housing and land lying in ye Common or Training Field at the South end of Boston." His six children, Joshua, Samuel, Benja- min, Mary, Hannah and Sarah, were named as residu- ary legatees. The next conveyance is dated Febru- ary 15, 1725, when the several heirs sold the estate to John Bushell for £210.
1 Eben Putnam. Lieutenant Joshua Hewes. A New England Pioneer. 1913.
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John Bushell, Printer
A T that time the owners of the Winter Street cor- ner lot were James Williams, James Fosdick, William Manley and Samuel Banister. To the last named also belonged the adjoining estate on the east, toward Washington Street; and John Bushell had bought the southerly lot the year before, so that he was the owner of almost the whole Cathedral Site.
He was a housewright or builder, well-to-do but uneducated, as shown by the fact that he affixed his mark to legal papers. His son John Bushell, Jun", began business as a printer in 1734. At that time Ellis Huske, the postmaster of the town, started a newspaper, the Boston Weekly Post-Boy, which was printed by Bushell, who afterwards became a member of the firm of Green, Bushell and Allen. The firm was dissolved in 1752, and Bushell soon after went to Halifax, N. S., then newly founded, where he established a press. He was the pioneer printer in Nova Scotia, and issued the Halifax Gasette, a weekly journal, printed on a half-sheet of foolscap paper.
By the Will of John Bushell, Senior, dated April 5, 1731, he bequeathed to his wife, Rebecca, the north
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Jot, including the Dwelling-house then occupied by Joseph Shedd, with the yard and garden; also two negro servants, appraised in the inventory at £100, and all the household goods and moveables. The Suffolk Probate Court, by a warrant dated Feb- ruary 4, 1747, authorized the division of John Bush- ell Senior's estate into three portions, and John Endi- cott, Joshua Blanchard, Stephen Greenleaf, Thomas Oxnard and Rufus Green were appointed to do this. The southerly portion, being more than half of the whole estate, was apportioned to the son, John. The heirs of Rebecca Williams, a daughter, received the westerly half of the house on the north lot, fronting on Common Street, with the yard lying before it, and also the southerly half of the garden. The rear por- tion of the house, including the kitchen, was assigned to Mary Bushell, another daughter, who also re- ceived the "northerly moiety or half part" of the gar- den. The somewhat complicated apportionment is made clear by a plan of the estate, duly recorded. Probably it was a serious responsibility to determine the relative values of parlor and kitchen.
We have seen that members of the Bushell family acquired nearly all the land of the present Cathedral Site. Soon after the apportionment just described, John Bushell, Junior, sold to Timothy Green, Junior,
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of Boston, for £800 sterling, that portion of the estate which had been allotted to his sister Mary, including the kitchen, yard, garden, well and pump. Rebecca Williams' share of the property came next into the possession of Richard Collier, a brazier, who sold it, February 15, 1757, to Timothy Green, Junior, above mentioned.
He was a great-grandson of Samuel Green, who arrived, a boy of sixteen years, with his parents and other relatives, about the year 1632. Samuel Green used to tell his children (of whom there were nine- teen) that for some time after landing on the pic- turesque wooded shore in the neighborhood of Cape Ann, in the early summer, he and several others were obliged to lodge in empty casks, which for a time were their only shelter. The family settled in Cam- bridge, where in after years he held the office of town clerk, and became the official printer for Harvard College. Still later he was regarded as the foremost of American printers, and many of his descendants were prominent as editors, publishers and book-mak- ers. He served as sergeant, ensign and lieutenant of the Cambridge military company, and was commis- sioned captain in 1689, when seventy-five years of age. We quote from an Article in the Boston News- Letter, January 4, 1733: "Samuel Green took such
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great delight in the military exercise, that the arrival of Training-Day would always raise his joy and spirit; and when he was grown so aged that he could not walk, he would be carried out in his chair into the field, to view and order the Company." From the Records of the Massachusetts Colony, in 1667, it ap- pears that Ensign Samuel Green, of Cambridge, printer, was allotted three hundred acres of land in the wilderness, north of the Merrimac River, on the west side of Haverhill. He attained the age of eighty-six years.
Timothy Green, grandson of the emigrant, and son of Samuel, Junior, began business in Boston as a . printer in the year 1700, and conducted a press there for thirteen years. His place of business was on Middle Street, now Hanover Street, in the north part of the town. In 1714 he removed to New London, having received an invitation from the Council and Assembly of Connecticut to become printer to the Governor and Company, at a salary of £50 yearly. This position he held for nearly forty years, and be- came the most eminent of contemporary American printers. He was noted, moreover, for his discretion in avoiding the publication of whatever might give offense, and for his tact in abstaining from contro- versy. He was by nature benevolent, and somewhat
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facetious, having a keen sense of humor, which was 'said to be characteristic of the Green family.
Timothy Green, Junior, of Boston, also a printer, formed a partnership in 1727 with Samuel Knee- land, under the firm name of Kneeland & Green. The firm published for many years the New England Weekly Journal. The object of this paper, as stated in its first number, was in part to "entertain the Pub- lick every Monday with the most Remarkable Occur- rences of Europe; and to settle a correspondence with the most knowing and ingenious .Gentlemen in the several Towns in this and the Neighbour Provinces, who may take Particular Care seasonably to Collect and send what may be Remarkable in their Town or Towns adjacent, worthy of Public."
The first Bible printed in Boston was issued from the press of Kneeland & Green in 1749. Their part- nership was dissolved three years later, and Timothy Green, Junior, removed to New London, where he succeeded his father in business.
After retaining the ownership of the north lot ex- actly five years, Timothy Green, Junior, of New Lon- don, Conn., sold it, February 15, 1762, to John Gill, a printer, who had served an apprenticeship with Sam- uel Kneeland, one of whose daughters he married. Gill was a Charlestown boy, and a brother of Hon.
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Moses Gill, afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Mas- sachusetts. He started business in 1755 with Benja- min Edes under the firm name Edes & Gill. Their office at first was near the Town House in King Street, and afterwards on Queen Street. They origi- nated the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, which later became famous for the sturdy patriotism main- tained in its columns. Its spirited political essays ar- rested public attention. For a long period it was the chief organ of the popular party, and through its me- dium James Otis, Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph War- ren and other leading patriots addressed the people. John Gill was a thorough-going Whig, and had no sym- pathy with his Tory neighbors. He remained in town during the siege, and was imprisoned for a month in the Summer of 1775, "for printing treason, sedition and rebellion." He was taken to Boston Jail, which was then on Queen Street, formerly Prison Lane, the Court Street of to-day. His partner's son, Peter Edes, was a fellow-prisoner, accused of having fire- arms concealed in his house. They endured many hardships during their sojourn in this gloomy build- ing, behind whose portal the famed sea-rover, Captain William Kidd, was said to have been held captive in 1699. At a meeting of the Selectmen, May 16, 1776, Gill was drawn as a "Jury Man for the Court erected
.
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for the tryal of Vessels that shall be found infesting the Sea Coast of America." This was afterward known as the Maritime Court. After the Evacua- tion of the town by the redcoats, Gill issued another newspaper, the Continental Journal, for several years. His death occurred August 25, 1785.
Thomas Bumstead, Coachmaker
T HE succeeding owner of the north lot was Thomas Bumstead, who acquired the property November 30, 1769. His name appears as a mem- ber of Captain William Angier's Company, in Colo- nel Joseph Frye's Massachusetts Regiment, on duty at Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, in 1760, the year when Canada and her dependencies passed from the control of France to the British Crown. He was one of those who remained loyal at a time when "the in- subordination of the Garrison soldiers assumed a mu- tinous character." In the Autumn of 1760 all the French subjects and Indians in the surrounding ter- ritory sent deputations to Colonel Frye, acknowledg- ing their submission.
Thomas Bumstead was at that time twenty years of age. He served during the Revolution as Captain of Ward Eleven Company of Colonel Henry Brom-
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field's Regiment, and as Captain of the Matross Com- pany of the Boston Regiment, Suffolk County Bri- gade, in 1776. He was also Major of the "Brigade Train of Artillery," a militia organization. After the Evacuation of Boston, it was desired to clean the town, and a committee was appointed, of whom Ma- jor Bumstead was one, to go through the several wards, and have such houses cleansed and smoked, as were in need of it. He joined the Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery Company in 1764, and became Fourth Sergeant. Fifty-five years afterward, in September, 1819, the members of this organization, desiring to show their respect for Major Bumstead and other veteran members, paid him a standing and marching salute, after which all were invited into his house, to partake of refreshments. The famous "Burgoyne Bowl," which held ten gallons, was full to the brim, presumably with punch, and awaiting their arrival. After varied evolutions on the Common, the Company escorted Major Bumstead to Faneuil Hall, where the day was finished in "reciprocating good wishes for health, prosperity and happiness."
His residence was on the corner of Bromfield Lane and Common Street. In 1782 he acquired the estate of another coachmaker, Adino Paddock, when the latter, who was a pronounced loyalist, left Boston
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nine months after the Battle of Bunker Hill. This estate was in Bumstead Place (opposite the Granary Burying Ground), which was named after the sub- ject of this sketch, who died May 8, 1828, at the age of eighty-eight years.
Thomas Bumstead held the north lot for thirteen years, and transferred it, November 7, 1782, to James Foster, of Cambridge, card-maker, for f1000 in "law- ful silver money."
At this time, the Winter Street lot, adjoining the corner, was owned by James Fosdick and others. The land of Dr. John Sprague abutted on the east and that of John Bushell's heirs on the south.
James Foster was the owner of several farms in Cambridge and neighboring towns at the time of the Revolution.
Captain Levi Pease, Stage-coach Owner
L EVI PEASE (1739-1824) was the next owner of the north lot, having bought the estate from Foster, August 18, 1784. The Boston records give little information about him, but from other sources we have gleaned some interesting particulars.1
1 Old Boston Days and Ways, Mary Caroline Crawford; Stage Coach and Tavern Days, Alice M. Earle; The Old Boston Post- Road, Stephen Jenkins.
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He was a native of Enfield, Connecticut, where his youth was spent. After his marriage he removed to the neighboring village of Somers, and at the begin- ning of the Revolution he was settled at Blandford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a blacksmith.
He was commissioned adjutant of the Third Hamp- shire County Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia, April 23, 1776, and served 28 days in the autumn of that year with a detachment from his regiment, which marched to Ticonderoga, to reenforce the army at that point.
Levi Pease was employed as a courier throughout the latter part of the war, carrying important letters and dispatches for General Lafayette and other offi- cers, by whom he was much esteemed on account of his faithfulness and honesty. He was intrusted with large sums of money, wherewith he bought horses, forage and supplies for the American army.
Pease has been called the "Father of the Stage- coach" in this country. He was a promoter of trans- portation facilities, before the days of railroads, teleg- raphy, telephones and wireless messages, electric cars, automobiles and aeroplanes. At the end of the War he established a line of primitive stage-wagons be- tween Boston, Hartford and New York. He him- self drove one of these conveyances, starting in the
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autumn of 1783 from the Lamb Tavern, which stood on the site of the present Adams House. In the fol- lowing year the point of departure was the Lion Tav- ern, on the site of Keith's Theatre. And soon after- ward he bought a portion of the Cathedral land, and had there his own public-house, the "Boston Inn," so- called, and headquarters for his stage-coaches. The fare from Boston to New York was ten dollars, and the trip occupied about a week. The stage-wagons were roofed "boxes mounted on springs, usually con- taining four seats, which accommodated eleven pas- sengers and the driver. There were no side en- trances to the vehicle, so that any one getting in late had to climb over the passengers who had pre-empted the front seats. The roads were poor, the stage uncomfortable, and the whole journey was tir- ing and distressing. In the summer the traveller was oppressed by the heat, and half choked with the dust; in cold weather he nearly froze."1
A well-known citizen of Boston, who made the journey to New York by one of Pease's conveyances in 1784, wrote that the carriages were ramshackly affairs, and the harnesses were made largely of ropes. "If no accident intervened," he said, "we generally reached our destination at ten o'clock, and after a 1 Stephen Jenkins. The Old Boston Post-Road.
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frugal supper went to bed, with a notice that we should be called at three in the morning, which gen- erally proved to be half-past two. Then whether it snowed or rained, the traveller must rise and make ready by the help of a horn-lantern and a farthing candle, and proceed on his way over bad roads, some- times being obliged to get out and help the coachman lift the coach out of a quagmire or rut. We arrived at New York after a week's hard travelling, wonder- ing at the ease, as well as the expedition of our jour- ney."
The following advertisement appeared in the Massachusetts Spy, January 5, 1786:
"The Stages from Boston to Hartford in Connec- ticut, set out during the winter Season, from the house of Levi Pease, at the sign of the New York Stage, opposite the Mall, in Boston, every Monday and Thursday morning, precisely at five o'clock. These stages afford the most convenient and expedi- tious way of travelling that can possibly be had in America. Said Pease keeps good lodging for gen- tlemen travellers, and stabling for horses. .. . " When the coach was stranded in snow-drifts, Pease followed the custom of the time, shouldered the mail- bag, and toiled forward on snow-shoes to the next stopping-place.
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In 1794 Levi Pease removed to Shrewsbury, where he became proprietor of the hostelry previously known as "Farrar's Tavern," which had acquired distinc- tion as one of the numerous inns which afforded overnight shelter to George Washington during his official visit to New England in 1789, the year of his first inauguration as President.
In an original poem entitled "The Stage-Coach," and inscribed to Mira, which appeared in the Massa- chusetts Magasine, October, 1796, some experiences of a traveller in those days are graphically described.
""T'was now that hour when darkness deep Buried the world in silent sleep. Supine I lay, and blissful dreams Had finished all my hopes and schemes. Just had I sworn my life should be Sacred to friendship, love and thee; That is to say, 'twas three o'clock, When at my chamber door a knock That mock'd a clap of rattling thunder, Burst Morpheus' grateful bands asunder, And with the rapid lightning's rage Hurl'd me, half craz'd, into the stage. There, squeez'd amid a silent throng Of rich and poor, and old and young, We soon drove off that peaceful plain Where Mira and the virtues reign."
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When one reflects upon the discomforts of stage- coach travel in former times, as described in the fore- going lines, the superior conveniences of the modern railway afford a pleasing contrast. In the words of a recent writer: The development of what is known as the "brass-bed" train between the Metropolis and Boston "is evidence of an almost exacerbated anxiety to make the night transit endurable to overwrought, quivering creatures returning from New York to the shores of Massachusetts Bay." 1
The old Indian trails became well-trodden paths under the pressure of the white settlers' stout boots. Along these rugged ways lay the route of the post- riders. Next came rough cart-roads, which were afterward widened, and made available for light two- wheeled vehicles, such as chaises, sulkies, gigs and calashes. Madam Sarah Knight, who journeyed on horseback from Boston to New York in the year 1704, following quite closely the route of the present "Shore Line" railroad, described the roads as gen- erally poor, and unsuited for vehicles. There was little improvement until after the Revolution. Gen- eral Washington, on his visit to Massachusetts in 1789, commented on the roughness of the primitive thoroughfares.
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