USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 24
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Cows with the Money he recd as above and Removed & dwelt near Providence where he liv'd till ye day of his death.
"Deposed this 10th of June, 1684. by John Odlin, Robert Walker, Francis Hudson, & William Lyther- land according to their respective Testimonye
" Before us "S. BRADSTREET, Gou'n'.
"SAM SEWALL, Assist."
The original document has upon its back the follow- ing indorsement: - "John Odlin &c their depositions abt Blackstons Sale of his Land in Boston."
The foregoing instrument is of great interest, as it contains. the evidence of the purchase of the peninsula of Boston, upon the testimony of four of the most ancient men of the town, three of whom lived to a very great age, and were among the last survivors of the first comers to the town.
Odlin was a cutler by trade, and died on the eigh- teenth of December, 1685, a little over a year after the deposition was taken. Hudson was the fisherman who gave name to Hudson's Point, and is said to have been one of the very first who landed on the peninsula from Winthrop's company; he died on the third of November, 1700, aged eighty-two years. Walker was a weaver, and died on the twenty-ninth of May, 1687, aged eighty- one years. Lytherland, being a supporter of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson in her peculiar religious dogmas, left the town and took up his abode at Newport, R. I., where he was for many years the town clerk, and where he died at an advanced age.
The deposition of these aged men proves satisfacto- rily that the peninsula, and consequently the Common,
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was bought and paid for by the townsmen; and it also shows that a portion of the town was set off as a train- ing field very soon after the purchase.
The townsmen, however, by a narrow-minded policy, which took a sudden start one public lecture day, came very near losing the training field, the loss of which would have deprived the ancient cows of many a mouth- ful of sweet grass, and the present generation of their beautiful Common. It appears that the inhabitants of the town met after lecture on the eleventh of December, 1634, for the purpose of choosing seven men, to divide among themselves the town lands, then lately fully ac- quired by purchase of Mr. Blaxton; and, in order to carry out the affair secretly, they voted by written bal- lots. They undoubtedly wanted more acres for raising potatoes and cabbages. The result was, that they left out of office several of the chief men who had before managed the town's affairs as a Board (which had ex- isted since the settlement of the town, and had probably been the origin of the Boston Board of Selectmen), Mr. Winthrop only having one or two spare votes, which saved his election. Mr. Winthrop would not accept office under the circumstance; and after the usual amount of talk, and at the solicitation of Rev. Mr. Cot- ton, the people agreed to go into another election on the next lecture day, which occurred on the eighteenth of the same month. The whole transaction is thus graph- ically related by Mr. Winthrop in his journal, under the proper date:
" This daye, after the lecture, the inh"ts of Boston mett to choose 7 men who should devide the towne lands among them. They chose by paps & in their choice lefte out M' Coddington, & other of the chvife
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
men; only they chose one of the Elders & a Deacon, and the rest of the inferior sort, & M' Winthrop had the greater number before one of them by a voice or 2. This they did as fearinge that the richer men would give the poorer sorte no great pportions of lande, but would rather leave a great pte at lib'ty for new comers and for comon, wch Mr Winthrop had oft psuaded them vnto, as best for the towne, &c. M' Cotton & divers others were offended at this choyce, because they declined the magistrates: & M' Winthrop refused to be one vpon suche an election as was carried by a voice or 2, telling them, that thoughe, for his pte, he did not apprehende any psonall injurye, nor did doubt of their good affection towards him, yet he was muche greived that Boston should be the first who should shake off their magistrates, espec Mr Coddington, who had been all- wayes so forwarde for their enlargement; adding fur- ther reason of declininge this choyce, to blott out so badd a president. Whereupon, at the motion of Mr Cotton, who showed them, that it was the Lord's order amonge the Israelites to have all such business comitted to the eldirs, & that it had been neerer the rule to have chosen some of eache sorte, &c., they all agreed to go toe a newe election, which was referred to the nexte lecture daye."
At the time of adjournment, which occurred on the eighteenth of December, 1634, o. s., only four years after the settlement of the town, the townsmen passed the following at a general meeting called upon public notice:
"Inprymis it is agreed that M' Winthrop, M' Cod- dington, M' Bellingham, M' Cotton, M' Ollyver, M' Colborne, & Will™ Balstone, shall have power to divide
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& dispose of all such lands belonging to ye towne (as are not yet in ye lawfull possession of any pticular psons) to the inhabitants of ye towne according to ye Orders of ye Court, leaving such portions in Common for ye vse of newe Comers, & ye further benefitt of ye towne, as in theire best discretions they shall thinke fitt, -the Islands hyred by ye towne to be also included in this Order."
Again on the thirtieth of March, 1640, the following appears on the record:
"Also agreed vpon yt henceforth there shalbe no land granted eyther for houseplott or garden to any pson out of ye open ground or Comon ffeild weh is left betweene ye Centry Hill & M' Colbrons end; except 3 or 4 lotts to make vp ye streete from bro. Robte Walkers to ye Round Marsh."
The estate of Mr. William Colbron was upon the street now called Boylston street, but which was an- ciently known as Frog lane; and Mr. Robert Walker's lot was upon the same street, but nearer Charles street. Mr. Thomas Oliver owned the lot on the corner of Tre- mont street (then called the High street), and the lots were in the following order from the corner in the pos- session of Thomas Oliver, Richard Carter, Jacob Leger, William Colbron (sometimes Colborne and Colburn), Edward Belcher, William Talmage, Robert Walker, William Briscoe, and Cotton Flack; the Round Marsh was west of the northerly end of Pleasant street.
The above quoted votes, for as such they are to be regarded, had a special reference to the tract of land now called the Common; and it is certain that from the adoption of the last mentioned, passed in March, 1640, to the present time, it has been strictly observed, as far
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
as the present limits of the Common are concerned; and thus this tract has been kept under the control of the townsmen themselves, who have always been so jealous of their right to it that they have never surrendered it to the caprice of either town or city officers.
Before this purchase of Mr. Blaxton, the Massachu- setts colonists had a good title to the soil through the charter of the Governor and Company of the Massachu- setts Bay in New England, which passed the seals at Westminster on the fourth of March, 1628-9; and it is made certain by an instrument executed on the nine- teenth of March, 1684-5, by the Indian Sachem "Charles Josias, alias Wampatuck, son and heir of Josias Wam- patuck, sachem of the Indians inhabiting the Massa- chusetts in New England, and grandson of Chickata- but, the former sachem," that the peninsula of Boston was fairly bought of the Indians. In this instrument Josias, the sachem, gives the following as his reasons for executing a release of the land to the inhabitants of Boston:
"Forasmuch as I am Informed, and Well Assured from Several Antient Indians, as well those of my Council as others, That upon the first Coming of the English to set down and Settle in these parts of New England, my above named grandfather, Chickatabut, the Chief Sachem, by and with the Advice of his coun- cil, for encouragement thereof, upon Divers good causes and considerations him thereunto moving, Did give, grant, sell, alienate, convey and confirm unto the Eng- lish Planters and Settlers, respectively and to their Several and respective Heirs and Assigns forever All that neck, tract or parcel of Land, scituate lying and being within the Mattachusetts Colony, in Order to
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their settling and building a Town there, now known by the name of Boston, as it is Invironed and com- passed by the Sea, or salt water, on the Northerly, Easterly, and Westerly sides, and by the Line of the Town of Roxbury on the Southerly side, with all the Rivers, harbours, Bays, Creeks, Coves, flats and ap- purt'ces thereunto belonging, As also Several other Outlands belonging to the said Town on the south- erly and easterly sides of Charles River, and the Island called Deer Island lying about two leagues Easterly from the said Town of Boston between Pudding-point Gut and the broad sound, so called, sª Island containing one hundred and sixty or two hun- dred Acres of Land, more or less, with the privilidge and appurtenances thereunto belonging, which said Neck and Lands have since been Distributed and granted out among themselves into particular Alot- ments and other Conveniences, and given, Alienated, and Transferred to and from one another, having been peaceably and quietly possessed, used, Occupied and Enjoyed, for the Space of about Fifty and five years last past by the said first Grantees, their heirs, Succes- sours and Assigns, And now stand quietly and peace- ably possessed thereof at this day."
It thus appears that our forefathers obtained the soil by royal grant under the colony charter, and by pur- chase, first from the Indians about the year 1630, and secondly from Mr. Blaxton, in 1634; and that as late as the year 1685 they obtained a confirmatory release of the whole peninsula and the surroundings. These ought certainly to be considered as giving a good title; and the order of the thirtieth of March, 1640, surely established the Common.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
The old town records abound in votes and orders about this Common, as to keeping it clean, and pre- venting injuries to it. The following orders are im- portant as well as interesting. They were passed on the eighteenth of the third month, May, 1646:
"At a Generall townes meeting vpon the Lawful warninge of all the freemen it is graunted yt all the inhabitants shall haue equall Right of Comonage in the Towne. Thos who are admitted by the Towne men to be Inhabitants.
"It is ordered, yt all who shall after the dat herof come to be an Inhabitant in ye Towne of Boston shall not haue right of Comonage, vnless he hier it of them yt are comoners.
" It is ordered, yt ther shalbe kept on the Comon bye ye Inhabitants of ye Towne but 70 Milch Kine.
"It is ordered, yt ther shalbe no dry cattill, younge cattill or horse, shalbe free to goe on ye Comon this year; but on horse for Elder Oliuer.
"It is ordered, yt noe Inhabitant shall haue power to sell his righte of comonage, but only to let it out to hire from year to year.
"It is ordered, yt if any desire to keep sheep, hee may keepe four sheep in liew of a cow."
Perhaps there is more force in the following order, passed the same day, than has been generally noticed in it. It is undoubtedly the origin of all the votes and orders as well as clauses of city charters, preserving the power of control of the Common with the legal voters:
"It is ordered, yt noe comon marish and Pastur Ground shall hereafter bye gifte or sayle, exchange, or otherwise, be counted vnto ppriety wthout consent of ye major pt of ye inhabitants of ye towne."
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If the order of the thirtieth of March, 1640, estab- lished the Common, there can be little doubt that the foregoing perpetuated its existence. From time to time a person was appointed to "keep the cowes which goe on the Common," for which he had "two shillings and sixpence the head for every cowe that goes there"; and a few years later a shepherd was also appointed.
The following order, passed on the thirty-first of May, 1652, seems to indicate a great abuse of the Com- mon, and perhaps also the streets of the town. Our ancient Selectmen were not very choice in the use of language, but the words of the record give a much bet- ter idea of old times than any substitute for them that can be made by the writer. . The record is as follows:
"Att a meeting of all the Select men it is ordered, that noe person inhabiting wthin this town shall throw forth or lay any intralls of beast or fowles, or garbidg, or carion, or dead Dogs or Catts, or any other dead beast or stinkeing thing, in any hie way, or dich, or Common, within this neck of land of Boston, but ar inioynd to bury all such things that soe they may pre- vent all anoyanc vnto any.
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"Further it is ordered, that noe person shall throw forth dust, or dung, or shreds of cloth or lether, or any Tobacko stalks, or any such things into the streats."
These orders were evidently the commencement of internal health arrangements, and may have had a good effect for some time; but it is very apparent that they must have been forgotten or overlooked, as it became necessary on the thirtieth of March, 1657, five years later, to make the following record in the town book:
" Whereas ye Comon is att times much añoyed by casting stones outt of ye bordering lotts & other things
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
yt are offensiue, Itt is therefore ordered, yt if any person shall hereafter any way añoy ye Comon by spreading stones or other trash vpon itt, or lay any carrion vpon itt, euery person so offending, shall bee fined twenty shillings."
It is very fortunate that some of the past city officers did not live in the olden time, else we should surely find in the old records grievous notices of fines and punish- ments for covering the Common and malls with coal ashes and cinders, and for murdering the beautiful shade trees that our fathers had so carefully and providently set out for our especial benefit and comfort.
An important order was passed by the General Court of the Colony on the thirtieth of May, 1660, which put the use of the Common more directly under the charge of the Selectmen of the town. The power granted to the Selectmen is with modifications now extended to a committee of the Aldermen. The record is thus:
" Att the motion of some of Boston inhabitants, it is ordered that the selectmen of that towne from time to tjme shall & hereby are impowred to order the improve- ment & feeding of their comons wthin the necke of land by such catle as they shall judge meete, any lawe, vsage, or custome to the contrary notwithstanding."
The thirty-ninth section of the city charter contains the following :
" The City Council shall have the care and superin- tendence of the public buildings, and the care, custody and management of all property of the city, with power to lease or sell the same, except the Common and Fan- euil Hall."
This prudent provision, founded in the foresight of the wise men who projected the charter, has not been 39
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
entirely useless, for it has undoubtedly more than once saved the sale of land which justly belonged to Boston Common.
The early volumes of records teem with such entries as the above quoted; but the few specimens which have been given are sufficient to convey an idea of what was done in days long past in reference to the town's great breathing place.
CHAPTER XXII.
BOUNDARY, EXTENT AND FENCES OF THE COMMON.
Boundaries of the Common . . . Colonnade Row, the Old Haymarket, School House, Washington Gardens, and Long Acre .. . Centry Street, and the Old Town Institutions, the Granary, the Almshouse, the Workhouse, and the Bridewell . . . Hancock House, Copley House, etc. .. . Sea Fencibles .. . Fox Hill and Ropewalks . . . Hayscales and Pound . . . Frog Lane, Deer Park, and Foster's Corner . . . Fences, First Erected in 1635 . . . Styles and Gates . . . Fence Built in 1734, Burnt by British Soldiers for Fuel . .. New Wooden Fence ... Size of the Common ... Iron Fence Put Up in 1836 . . . Burial Ground Fence, 1839 . . . Deer Park, 1863.
BOSTON COMMON has been slightly curtailed of its original size. When first set apart as a training field, it extended easterly a short distance from the present line of Tremont street, covering the site of the houses in Colonnade row, and was bounded by Mason street. Its westerly boundary was the water of the Back Bay, for Charles street was not laid out until the year 1803. On the north it was bounded by Beacon street; the Gran- ary Burying-Ground, and the land on Park street (an- ciently known as Sentry, or Centry street), having been taken from it,-the burial-ground in 1660, and the land on Centry street for the eleemosynary institutions of the town a short time later. The southerly boundary was by the estates on the north side of Frog lane (now Boylston street), which have since been purchased by the town, that part on which the Deer Park is situated
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having been bought of William Foster on the sixth of October, 1787, and the burial-ground of Andrew Oliver, Jr., on the ninth of June, 1757. On the southwest the boundary ran by the westerly side of the burial-ground, and nearly in the course of Carver street to the water.
There are persons now living who remember when the land on which Colonnade row stands was a vacant space, except at the corner of West street, where the old grammar school-house stood,-the empty land being used chiefly for a haystand, and known as the hay- market. Further north, between West and Winter streets, was the mansion-house and estate of James Swan, subsequently known as the Washington Gardens, where was a noted amphitheatre or circus, opened for the purpose in July, 1815; and still further north, oppo- site the present site of Park street meeting-house, was Long-acre (where formerly stood the old manu- factory house, and near which was the building of the Massachusetts Bank), and which was so named because a noted coachmaker, Major Adino Paddock, from Lon- don (he who planted the elms in front of the Granary Burying-Ground), had, just before the revolutionary war, his workshop there.
Beacon street, easterly end, from School street to the State House, was laid out on the thirtieth of March, 1640, by the following vote: "Also it is ordered, yt ye streete from M' Atherton Haulghes to ye Centry Hill be layd out & soe kept open for ever." Mr. Hough resided at the south corner of School and Washington streets, con- sequently the foregoing order established the whole of School street as well as a part of Beacon street. The Granary Burying-Ground having been taken from the Common in 1660, and the land for the town buildings
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
soon after, and Centry street (now Park street) having been laid out, the Common lost a considerable portion of land. At the commencement of the present century, the old buildings alluded to were standing; and it may not be out of place to copy the following description of them and their location, which was written a few years ago for another purpose.
In the earlier days of the town, the lot was part of the now contiguous burial-ground, and was nearly at the extreme limits of the settlements, joining upon the Common. As time wore on, a street was laid out on the south side of the lot, extending to the Beacon or Sentry Hill, which took the name of Centry (or Sentry) street. Then, when the need came, a building eighty feet by thirty feet, for a public granary, was erected on the lot, and subsequently, in 1737, removed to the cor- ner, its end fronting on the principal street. This was constructed of wood, with oaken timbers, and was in- tended to hold about twelve thousand bushels of grain, annually purchased, and stored by the agents of the town, and sold at a small advance to those whose exigencies required such a consideration. The old and gloomy looking building, used in its latter days as an inspection office for pot and pearl ashes, and also for nails, and finally as a mart for second-hand furniture, has not en- tirely passed from remembrance. It stood in its lot un- til the year 1809, when it was taken down to give place to Park street meeting-house.
Further up on the street were large brick buildings, called the Almshouse and Workhouse, and a smaller one of the same material, called the Bridewell, for disorderly and insane persons. The Almshouse, which stood on the corner of Beacon street, was erected in the year
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1686, and was two-storied, with a gambrel roof and pro- jecting gable; to this, in a subsequent year, was added a wing. Its use was confined to the aged and infirm poor. The Workhouse, a somewhat larger structure, about one hundred and twelve feet in length, with gables, and also two-storied, was built in the year 1738, and was ex- clusively appropriated to the vagrant, idle and dissolute of the town. The Almshouse and Bridewell were both standing when Bonner published his plan of the town, in 1722, and together with the Workhouse were in use until the completion of the Almshouse, since erected at Barton's Point, on Leverett street, and which was opened for occupancy at the close of the year 1800. Of course the buildings for the poor and dissolute were not on the site selected for the meeting-house, but on the adjoining lot of land, which extended to the corner of Beacon street, near the New State House, as the capitol was then generally styled.
At the close of the last century, the Sentry street of our fathers did not present so inviting an appearance as does the Park street of our own day. The old dingy buildings and the broken fences have disappeared, and stately houses have succeeded in their places. No more will the staid townsman nor the jocund youth, proceed- ing to the Common in wonted manner on election and Independence days, be interrupted by the diminutive hands thrust through the holes in the Almshouse fences, or stretched from beneath the decaying gates, and by the small and forlorn voices of the children of the destitute inmates entreating for money; nor will the cries of the wretched poor in those miserable habi- tations be heard calling for bread, which oftentimes the town had not to give. Those days are past, and
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
one would almost desire, when reading the record of those times, that the remembrance of them were gone also. But a great lesson of charity has gone with them; for how many of the benefactors of the town made their first essay in alms-giving when they un- consciously dropped their little coin into those out- stretched hands!
Where the State House stands, and previous to the building of this edifice, the corner-stone of which was laid on the fourth of July, 1795, was once the cow pas- ture; and further west the stone mansion house and stable of Thomas Hancock, the uncle of the patriot; and further west were a few dwelling-houses, in one of which formerly dwelt John Singleton Copley, the dis- tinguished artist; and subsequently the street was honored as the residence of General Knox and Judge Vinal, the former a good soldier and bookseller, and the latter a noted politician and schoolmaster who lived next to the governor. Until the year 1803, when Charles street was laid out, Beacon street run west as far as the water, where it terminated; and from this point, which was the northwest corner of the Common, was a row of large rocks (bowlders taken from the high land in the immediate vicinity), that extended westward to low water mark, undoubtedly as an indication of the bound- ary line of the Common. Just south of this point, not a great many years ago, -for persons who are not very old can well remember it,-stood the gunhouse of that indomitable nautico-military company, technically desig- nated as the Sea-Fencibles, but known to the boys as the Sea-Dogs; for this gallant band, first organized during the Madison war, purported to consist of ship- masters, who had roughed it in their early days, and
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buffeted for many a year the most boisterous billows of the briny deep.
On the west side of the Common was the low marshy land bordering upon the water, on part of which was Fox Hill, and on the flats of which in later days stood the five rope-walks, which the elder Quincy, in the first years of his mayoralty, removed with such marked improvement to the neighborhood.
The southwest corner was used not many years ago (commencing about the year 1803) by the town, and afterwards by the city, as a position for the south hayscales, which about the year 1811 had been moved there from their old position where Colonnade row now is. The pound and stables also stood in the same neighborhood, although in very early times the pound was kept near the Granary Burying-Ground. These incumbrances were banished from the Common not very long after the cows were deprived of their pasturage, which they and their predecessors had enjoyed since the days of their old benefactor, Gov- ernor John Winthrop. A short distance south of this corner was Ridge Hill, a lofty bluff, the last portion of which disappeared when the improvements were made in the vicinity of the Providence Railroad Sta- tion House.
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