USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The site of Saint Paul's Cathedral, Boston, and its neighborhood > Part 7
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In personal appearance, he is said to have resembled Benjamin Franklin.1
The Boston Gazette, March 13, 1772, contained the prospectus of a volume entitled: "A Dissuasive to Great Britain and her Colonies from the Slave Trade to Africa," by James Swan (then a youth of eighteen ), a friend to the welfare of the Continent of America. "To be published by subscription; one pistareen for each book." In 1780 Mr. Swan bought a fine estate on Dudley Street in Dorchester, and entertained lav- ishly during his brief residence there. Many years after, in 1825, while her husband was in the debtor's prison at Paris, Madam Swan received General La Fayette at the Dorchester mansion. On this occa- sion she wore "a black silk gown, and a turban of black lace; her dress, even to the huge ruff, being Elizabethan in style." William Dana Orcutt, in Good Old Dorchester, gives a description of the Swan mansion, which was palatial in its appointments. Magnificent paintings there were, and costly family plate, said to have been stored in Colonel Swan's ships during the Reign of Terror. The tapestries and other rich furnishings were said to have formerly adorned the palace of the Tuileries, and to have been pur- chased by Mrs. Swan during her residence abroad. 1 William Dana Orcutt. Good old Dorchester.
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One apartment in the mansion was known as the "Marie Antoinette Room."
On June 13, 1810, Mrs. Hepzibah C. Swan sold the fine old estate on Common Street to Harrison Gray Otis, a distinguished citizen, lawyer and orator of Boston. And the latter conveyed it, November 24, 1813, to William Sullivan, a son of Governor James Sullivan. He too was a worthy member of the legal fraternity, a scholar and staunch Federalist.
Washington Gardens
N the year 1815 the former Swan estate was leased to John H. Shaffer, and under the name of the Washington Gardens became a popular resort for recreation and entertainment in summer. Concerts were given there twice a week. We quote from the Columbian Centinel, July 8, 1815: "The Washington Gardens, near the Mall, have been numerously and fashionably resorted to, and all the arrangements found neat, elegant and orderly. The music has been excellent; the old favorites of the Town are nightly engaged in augmenting former gratification. . . . This rural retreat in the center of a populous Town affords an easy, rational and innocent recreation these fine summer evenings; having been visited and pat-
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ronized by some of our most respectable families and characters, and the decorum highly approved."
The Washington Gardens extended about 300 feet on Tremont Street, and along West Street to the line of Mason Street. An amphitheater, afterwards known as the City Theatre, was built there in 1819. An ad- vertisement in the Boston Commercial Gazette, July 19 of that year, announced that the manager had em- bellished a part of the Circle with elegant settees, which were designed to "accommodate a proportion of respectable Ladies and Gentlemen, who may pre- fer them to the first Boxes." Seats were also parti- tioned off for "People of Colour" at 50 cents each. The performances included Various Sports of the Ring, with trained horses, acrobats, clowns, ballet and spectacular features. These entertainments seem to have been designed to afford diversion for the towns- people, without unduly taxing their intellectual fac- ulties.
The Boston Daily Advertiser, in its issue of Sep- tember 13, 1819, had this announcement :
"Washington Gardens. The Public are respect- fully informed that his Excellency the Governor and Suite intend honoring the Circus this evening; in con- sequence of which no pains will be spared on the part of the Managers to render the evening's amuse- ments particularly brilliant and splendid."
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John H. Shaffer, the lessee, first received an Inn- holder's license in July, 1814. And in February, 1820, the Selectmen gave him permission to produce Stage Plays, interludes and other theatrical enter- tainments "for profit, gain or Valuable Considera- tion" at his amphitheater near the Mall in the South End of Boston. Mr. Shaffer was a predecessor of Lorenzo Papanti as a teacher of dancing and deport- ment, and his restaurant was also a popular rendez- vous of the fashionable young men of the period.
Competition was keen at that time among rival stage-lines on the route between Boston and Provi- dence, and finally one Company announced that it would carry passengers free and give them a good dinner at the end of the journey. The other Com- pany was not to be out-done, and offered similar in- ducements, plus a bottle of wine for each patron. Shaffer decided to accept this proposition and spent a week in riding to and fro between the cities, thereby acquiring a reputation for gaiety and shrewdness.1
During the winter season of 1819-20 the old Usher mansion was used as a hostelry, and became a center of sociability and good cheer. In the meantime Saint Paul's Church was being constructed, and Mr. Shaffer
1 Alice Morse Earle. The Customs and Fashions of New Eng- land.
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built a workshop on the grounds of the Washington Gardens, and leased it to Solomon Willard, the archi- tect of the building. The Usher house, which had been built in the year 1684, was taken down in 1830.1
Saint Paul's Church
T F HE Commercial Gazette of September 9, 1819, contains an account of the laying of the corner- stone of Saint Paul's Church, which overlooked the Washington Gardens on the north.
On June 25, 1819, William Sullivan conveyed to William Shimmin and George Sullivan a piece of land, 21I feet deep and 10 feet wide, beginning at the dividing point on Common Street, between the estate formerly belonging to Stephen Greenleaf, Esq., known as the Washington Gardens, and the estate lately owned by John Osborn, Esq., "whereon an Episcopal Church is about to be erected," saving and excepting whatsoever right John H. Shaffer may have, in vir- tue of a Lease for ten years from the first day of May, 1819 .. .
The final transfer whereby the Proprietors of Saint Paul's Church acquired the present Cathedral Site, 2 Walter K. Watkins: An Historic Corner.
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was dated November 27, 1820. At that time Wil- liam Shimmin and David Sears, Esquires, sold to the said Proprietors three parcels of land which had been separately acquired by them within a few months pre- viously from the several owners thereof.
When Saint Paul's Church was erected, its neigh- borhood was wholly residential, and still somewhat rural in character. The location of those grass- grown lanes of early Colonial days, Tremont, Win- ter, Washington and West Streets, which bound the now densely built up Square, has never been changed. But how great the contrast in their use and appear- ance then and now! During business hours on fine week-days, the crowds and congested traffic in these thoroughfares present a scene of bustle and activity hardly to be paralleled elsewhere. The early settler may have had to turn aside to avoid an occasional cow on its way to or from the grazing-ground on the Common. But the modern Bostonian must be ever watchful, and exercise both physical agility and men- tal alertness in avoiding the throng of automobiles, trucks and other vehicles which are a source of dan- ger to pedestrians. The subways have indeed helped to relieve congestion somewhat, and the crossways policemen are useful as pilots, and render valuable assistance to bewildered wayfarers.
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When Saint Paul's was opened for Divine Service in 1820, Boston was still under the town form of gov- ernment, though soon to become a city. Its popu- lation was about forty-three thousand, or approxi- mately one-sixteenth of the population of 1912. Be- sides eight Selectmen and a like number of members of the School-Committee, the list of Town officials included a Board of six Hay-wards or Hog-reeves, nineteen Surveyors of Boards and Lumber, thirteen Cullers of Dry Fish, five Cullers of Hoops and Staves, one Town Crier, one Pound-keeper and twenty Con- stables. There was also a Board of Fire-wards, con- sisting of thirty-two members, and fourteen fire-en- gine Companies with a membership of three hundred and sixteen men. Railways were not yet in opera- tion, and stage-coaches were the chief means of trans- portation for travelers. There were no less than forty-one different stage-routes from Boston to vari- ous points in New England, and to Albany and New York.
Visitors from abroad oftentimes fail to appreciate the charm of Boston's winding ways; and some have shown ingenuity in attempting to account for their origin.
Conventions of cows, wrote one observer, were daily held within the now sacred precincts of the Com-
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mon, and the desultory roamings of these animals were popularly believed to have determined the swerv- ing lines of some of the town's highways.1
Why, for example, should Winter Street, after run- ning northerly, 581/2 degrees west, for 128 feet, have formerly inclined abruptly 11/4 degrees further to the west ??
"Look here!" cried the author of the One Hoss Shay, soon after the electric cars appeared in the Hub's thoroughfares; "there are crowds of people whirled through our streets. on these new-fashioned cars, with their witch broomsticks overhead-if they don't come from Salem, they ought to-and not one in a dozen of these fish-eyed bipeds thinks or cares a nickel's worth about the miracle which is being wrought for their convenience!"
The Masonic Temple
A PORTION of the Washington Gardens, name- ly, the lot on the north side of Turn-again Alley, now Temple Place, and Common or Tremont Street, was sold by William Sullivan, March 30, 1825,
1 Thomas F. Anderson. The New England Magazine. Febru- ary, 1908.
' Official Maps of the Street-lines of Boston. By John G. Hales. 1819.
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to the Master, Wardens and members of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Massachusetts. After sev- eral years the latter began the erection of a Masonic Temple on this site; the corner-stone being laid Octo- ber 14, 1830. More than two thousand members of the Fraternity, carrying banners and other emblems of their Order, marched from Faneuil Hall to the site of the new building, where the ceremony took place amid the rejoicing of the friends of Masonry, and the satire and ridicule of its enemies. Some of the latter were stationed at street corners, to give expression to their disapproval. But, in the words of an eloquent orator, "the exalted character of the men who formed that procession, together with a just public sentiment, restrained and overawed the revilers, and they re- treated before the indignant gaze of outraged pro- priety."1 The editor of the Boston Evening Tran- script, then newly founded, wrote in reference to this event, that almost impenetrable crowds of delighted citizens hovered around the members of the Frater- nity, in silence and stillness, as if determined to cheer and uphold them. And "the croaking raven of po- litical discord was hushed." At that time the Ma- sonic organizations were viewed with prejudice by
' Address of the Rev. Albert Case, Grand Chaplain of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts, November 11, 1846.
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The Old. Masonic Temple .About the year 18 10
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many, and the Fraternity was enduring the violent and unmerited attacks of public opinion. The new edifice was dedicated May 30, 1832; and after the formal exercises the members of the Boston Encamp- ment of Knights Templars assembled in Concert Hall, where a sumptuous banquet was provided. The tables groaned beneath the rarities of the season. Toasts, songs and jests passed merrily around, and harmony and good fellowship prevailed.
The Masonic Temple was regarded as one of the chief architectural ornaments of the City. It had two lofty Gothic towers, of granite, 16 feet square, with battlements, surmounted by pinnacles.
On September 25, 1857, the Temple was sold for $105,000 to the Federal Government, and became the United States Court House. Its site is now occupied by the new building of the well-known firm of R. H. Stearns and Company, which was founded in 1847.1
Recreation Facilities
B ESIDES the Washington Gardens, the citizens of Boston appear to have been fairly well pro- vided with means of recreation at this period. In ' This account of the Washington Gardens estate was written before the publication of Mr. W. K. Watkin's Chapter entitled "An Historic Corner," in Days and Ways in Old Boston, 1915.
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1813 John Roulstone, who had been a stablekeeper in Essex Street, became the proprietor of a circus or riding-school in Haymarket Place, and this estab- lishment was maintained by him for several years. The Columbian Centinel of April twelfth, 1820, an- nounced that Mr. Roulstone was balancing between remaining in Boston and migrating to the South. "Let us detain him," pleaded the writer, "by sufficient pat- ronage; there is hardly a physician in town, whom we could not better spare than Doctor Roulstone. For if one physician goes, others remain; but we have but one master of the circus. The former may conduct us through disease to health; but the latter, by forti- fying the system, prevents or counteracts the causes of disease. The satisfaction, the advantage and the security of riding on horseback, a noble exercise, are all greatly improved and increased by a few lessons in the circus."
About a month after the appearance of the above notice, there arrived in town a Grand Caravan of liv- ing animals, which were exhibited in a building adja- cent to the Hancock house on Beacon Hill. As an additional attraction the proprietor announced that there would be "a first-rate performance on the sym- phonia, or ancient Jewish Cymbal."
In July, 1797, public notice was given that a trained
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. elephant would shortly be exhibited in the neighbor- hood of Boston. According to the opinion of the cel- ebrated French naturalist, Count de Buffon, the ele- phant was declared to be the most respectable animal in the world. "In size," the notice read, "he sur- passes all other terrestrial creatures, and by his intel- ligence he makes as near approach to man, as matter can approach to spirit. . . . This most curious and surprising animal is on his way to this town, and will be exhibited at Cambridge on the day of Commence- ment. He eats thirty pounds' weight a day, and drinks all kinds of spirituous liquors. Some days he has drunk thirty bottles of porter, drawing the corks with his trunk."
The Columbian Centinel, September 21, 1799, un- der the heading, "CURIOUS DISCOVERY," had the following Notice :
"Numerous applications have been made by re- spectable Ladies and Gentlemen, to see a phenomenon, which in the opinion of naturalists, and from their account, is one of the most extraordinary which has yet been exhibited to gratify the curiosity of the pub- lic. A BIRD is living with a RATTLESNAKE on the most amicable terms, and they appear to have for each other a kind of friendship, though the Snake will swallow or destroy every other bird which is pre- sented to him. Its length is about four and a half
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feet, and about five inches in circumference; is of a beautiful yellow, dark green, brown and black color. . Children may view it with safety, being con- fined in a strong wire cage.
"It may be seen at Mr. Delisle's, opposite the Mall, near the Haymarket Theatre.
"Admission, 1/6."
There were several bathing establishments in Bos- ton in 1820. Two of these were alongside the Canal Bridge, now known as Craigie's Bridge, which dates from 1807. Erastus Farnum, the proprietor of one of them, advertised that ladies and gentlemen could be accommodated with cold or warm baths at their option, from an hour before sunrise until eleven o'clock at night. For those who could not swim, an opportunity was afforded to indulge in the healthy and pleasant recreation of the sea-water bath with perfect safety. Patrons were assured that no es- tablishment of a similar nature in the United States afforded advantages comparable with that of Mr. Farnum. Another bathhouse, very near the preced- ing, was kept by Jonas Tyler, who solicited the pat- ronage of all respectable, orderly and well-behaved persons. And inasmuch as other institutions of like nature had been visited by inconsiderate and disor- derly characters, he ventured to "tenderly admon-
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ish" any such that admission would not be granted them. . . .
Even at this time, complaints were heard about the high cost of some of the staple commodities. A correspondent of the Centinel, who wrote over the signature, a Lover of Milk, thus queries: "How comes it that the important article of milk should now hold the same price which it did when butter sold at thirty cents a pound? Conversing with my Milk- man, he owned that it ought to be put down to five cents. Who are to blame for the extravagant price now given for this necessary of life, the Milk-sellers or the Milk-buyers?" This question appears to have remained unanswered, but the price of milk was soon after reduced to five cents a quart.
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Leverett's Pasture
I N the earliest Colonial times, the lot of land on the southerly corner of Tremont and Winter Streets, adjoining the present Cathedral property, was occu- pied by Robert Walker, who was an original member of the First Church in Boston, and also one of the founders of the Old South Church in 1669. In his youth he followed the trade of a "linen-webster" or weaver, in Manchester, England. According to the Boston Town Records, March 25, 1639, it was "agreed that our brother, Robert Walker shall be the Cow- keep for this yeare; and to have for every cow going on the Necke until the first of the nynth moneth a bushell of corne at Harvest, and a pecke of corne for every calf put to his keeping." He had a house and garden on the north-west corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets, the present site of one of the sub- way buildings on the Common. In Judge Sewall's Diary (I, 179) Robert Walker is described as "a very good man, and conversant among God's New England people from the beginning."
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No deeds were recorded during the "infancy of the Plantations," the titles of real estate resting solely upon verbal or written contracts. Probably as early as the year 1650, this corner lot became the property of John Leverett (as appears from the Book of Pos- sessions) and was then known as "Leverett's Pas- ture." His residence was on the site of the Sears Building. John Leverett served in Oliver Cromwell's army in 1656, and was for ten years Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Governor from 1673 to 1678. He was said to have been created a knight by Charles II in 1676, but proof of this is lack- ing. Governor Leverett's epitaph which was in- scribed on a stone (now missing) in King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston, read as follows:
"N. E.'s Heroe; Mars His General; Vertue's Standard Bearer and Learning's Glory; Ye Faith- fully Pious and Piously Faithful; Subject to the Great Majesty of Heaven and Earth; Ye Experienced Souldier in Ye Church Militant; Lately Listed in Ye Invincible Triumphant Army of Ye Lord of Hosts; Ye Deservedly Worshipful John Leverett Esq .; Ye Just, Prudent and Impartial Governor of Ye Matta- chusetts Colony in N. E .; who surrendered to the All Conquering Command of Death, March 16, Anno Dom: 1678."
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In the year 1664 Governor Leverett sold the south- . ern part of his pasture to Robert Wyard, as previ- ously stated; this being the northerly portion of the Cathedral land. The corner lot had a frontage of 210 feet on Banister's Lane, the present Winter Street, and about 100 feet on Tremont Street.1
This lot next became by inheritance the property of the Governor's son, Hudson Leverett (1640- 1694). He was Clerk of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1663, and Crier of the Court at Quarter-sessions in June, 1687: But his name does not appear in the Colonial Records in connection with any notable achievement, "a fact which appears al- most invariably to characterize the sons of very cele- brated men."2
His son, John, became the eighth President of Har- vard College. In 1664 Hudson Leverett and Sarah his wife mortgaged the property to Simon Lynde, of Boston, merchant.
Simon Lynde
QIMON LYNDE (1624-1687), a native of Lon- don, England, was apprenticed to a merchant there at an early age, and afterwards engaged in mercan- 1 See the Fifth Report of the Record Commissioners of Boston, 1880.
' The Leverett Memorial.
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tile pursuits in Holland. Coming to New England in 1659, he first lived near the Town Dock, and later became a resident of the West End of Boston, where a street now bears his name. He married, February 22, 1652, Hannah, a daughter of John Newgate, mer- chant, of Boston. Simon Lynde was appointed Con- stable in 1659, and was first sergeant in the Artillery Company. He also served as a member of Captain James Oliver's Company in Philip's War. In 1686 he received a commission as one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace. Returning to England, he en- gaged in land speculation there.
For about thirty years he was a prominent citizen of Massachusetts.
The mortgage to Simon Lynde was discharged in 1669, and on October 7 of that year, Hudson Leverett mortgaged the property to John Hull, of Boston.
John Hull, Mintmaster
OHN HULL (1624-1683) was a prominent gold- J smith and silversmith, a native of Leicestershire, England, who came to America in 1635. He mar- ried Judith, a daughter of Edmund Quincy, Junior, whose father, the emigrant, was the ancestor of a dis- tinguished family. As a compliment to this Boston
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lady, a head-land on the west side of the entrance to Narragansett Bay, R. I., was named Point Judith. This picturesque cape, with its lighthouse, is a con- spicuous landmark from afar. To the patrons of the palatial steamboats of the Fall River Line, its name brings up visions of boisterous seas oftentimes en- countered in rounding it.
John Hull was Captain of one of the Boston mili- tary companies in Philip's War, and attained the same rank in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- pany. He was also a Selectman of Boston for sev- eral years, and one of the founders of the Old South Church. Probably on account of his skill as an ar- tisan, Captain Hull was appointed mintmaster of the Colony by the General Court in 1652. The mint was set up in his own house in Sheafe Street. He it was who coined the first silver money in New England, the famous pine-tree shillings. He made a very advan- tageous contract with the authorities, being entitled to one shilling out of every twenty coined. When his daughter Hannah married Judge Samuel Sewall, she was said to have received from her father, as a dowry, a quantity of these silver pieces, whose weight was equal to her own; and the amount must have been considerable, if we may believe Hawthorne's imagina- tive account of the wedding, in his "Grandfather's
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Chair." Judith Hull is there represented as a buxom and robust damsel, who had always fed heartily on pumpkin pies, doughnuts, Indian puddings and other Puritan dainties, and who was herself as round and plump as a pudding. On the wedding day, says the same writer, we may suppose that John Hull dressed himself in a plum-colored suit, whereof all the but- tons were pine-tree shillings. The buttons of his waistcoat were sixpences, and the knees of his small- clothes were buttoned with silver threepences.
Before the establishment of a mint, the gold and silver pieces of foreign nations were current. But the colonists were often obliged to traffic by exchanging one commodity for another. Also in place of far- things they sometimes used small bullets, and instead of specie they employed wampum after the manner of the Indians. Four small beads, made of clam- shells, and strung together, were equivalent to a penny. Therefore, the colonists must have welcomed a coin- age of their own, and John Hull became a rich man.
Apropos of the Indian money current in New Eng- land during this period, the name wampum was given to strings of beads made from the stems or inner whorls of certain sea-snail shells or whelks, which are still abundant along the coast. Wampum became a universal medium of exchange and judgments of the
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courts were made payable in shell money. The In- dians strung the beads on fibers of hemp, or on ten- dons taken from the flesh of their "forest meat." More than ten thousand beads were sometimes wrought into a single wampum-belt. Wampum was the Indian word for white, and the beads were com- monly of that color. Black beads were also current, however, and were made from portions of the shell of the quahog or cohog.
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