USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 34
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& proffitts as shalbe yearely raysed out of the same, & soe the same lease to be renewed from time to time, vnto the heires & assignes of the said John Winthrop, with the said reservacon of the said fifth pte to the Goun' for the time being, & the name of the said ileland was changed, & is to be called the Goûn's Garden; pvided, that if the heires or assignes of the said John Winthrop shall att any time suffer the said ileland to lye wast, & not impue the same, then this psent demise to be voide." It seems that the excellent governor did not suffer the Governor's Garden to go unimproved, though perhaps some of his modern successors would do so, rather than keep a vineyard and provide fruit for the legislature. It is surmised, also, by some, that the good old Puritan an- cestors had an eye to the wine vats, when they looked out for the "fifth part" of the proceeds of the garden; and this is made more than presumptive by the follow- ing record, made on the fourth of March, 1634-5 : "Whereas the yearely rent of the Goun's Garden was the fifth pte of all the ffruict that shall growe there, it is ordered, by this present Court, (att the request of John Winthrop, Esq.,) that the rent of the said ileand shalbe a hogshead of the best wine that shall growe there, to be paide yearely, after the death of the said John Win- throp, and noething before." It is to be feared that the vineyard failed, though the orchard flourished; for it appears that Mr. Winthrop was left out of office, and another vote passed on the twelfth of May, 1640, by which the island was " granted & confirmed to the said John Winthrop & his heires in fee farme, for web they are to pay onley two bushels of apples every yeare - one bushell to the Governor, & another to the Generall Court in winter,-the same to bee of the best apples
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
there growing." It is evident that Mr. Winthrop meant to keep to his part of the agreement; for on the fourth of October, 1640, it is stated in the Massachusetts Col- ony Records, that "Mr. Winthrop, senior, paid in his bushell of apples" to the General Court; and, undoubt- edly, the ex-governor, for Mr. John Winthrop was only an Assistant that year, sent the other bushel to Gover- nor Thomas Dudley, his successor in office, who dwelt in Roxbury. It is supposed that the apples were faith- fully paid in every year, and that each of the members of the General Court carried home his pockets full; for again, in September, 1642, the following significant en- try appears upon the records: "The bushell of apples was paid in." How long this practice continued is not known; certainly it did not reach to modern times, for it would have been hard for some years past to find any apples, except perchance a few "apples of the earth," called in French, "pommes de terre," with which to have fulfilled the contract.
The island continued entirely in the possession of the Winthrop family from the time of the colonial grant until a portion of it, six acres only, was sold by James Winthrop of Cambridge for $15,000, and conveyed to the General Government on the eighteenth of May, 1808, for the purpose of erecting a fort, which, when built, was called Fort Warren, in respect to the memory of Gen. Joseph Warren. This name, however, has been transferred recently to another fort erected on George's Island; and a new fortification, in progress on the sum- mit of the high hill on the island, has been named Fort Winthrop, in remembrance of the ancient governor to whom it was first granted. When Governor's Island was used, as it frequently was, for a marine residence, it
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
was noted for its hospitality. In the days of the late Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, formerly Lieutenant-Gover- nor of the Commonwealth, and President of the Massa- chusetts Historical Society, the society several times held their meetings there. In later days, like most of the islands in the harbor, it has been noted as a place of resort for fishing parties.
The fort, which is now in process of construction, is supposed to be one of great strength, and its position is considered to be as commanding as could well be de- sired. The water battery on the southerly extremity of the island is of great advantage to the defences, con- trolling, as it does, a large extent of flats, which are very shoal except at the highest tides.
Southwest of the Governor's Island, and on the south side of the ship channel, is a shoal projecting from South Boston Point, called the Upper Middle. This is a great impediment in the harbor, and is contin- ually becoming more injurious to navigation, in conse- quence of the immense quantity of gravel carried to it from the great headlands of the islands in the outer har- bor, which are continually washing away by the violence of storms. These additions, though they do not raise the height of the shoal, nevertheless increase its extent, and diminish the width of the channel. It is hoped, however, that the dredging contemplated in the work of improving the harbor, may remove this barrier, which at low tides interferes with the passage of large vessels of unusually great depth of draught.
CHAPTER XXXV.
CATASTROPHE IN THE HARBOR. APPLE AND SNAKE ISLANDS.
A Remarkable Catastrophe in the Harbor in 1817, the Destruction of the Can- ton Packet . . . Slate Ledge . . . Bird Island Passage .. . Apple Island . . . For- merly the Property of the Town ... A Marine Residence ... Owned by the Hutchinsons and Mortimers . . . Condition of Apple Island in 1773 .. . Occu- pied by William Marsh in 1814 . . . Purchased by him in 1830 . . . House burnt in 1835 . . . Snake Island.
PERHAPS it will be well, before getting down the harbor so far as to be out of sight of the starting point, to re- call the incidents of a well remembered catastrophe that occurred "off stream," just a short distance from the end of Long Wharf. Scarcely any one who was a boy between forty-five and fifty years ago will ever forget the great consternation the town was thrown into on Artillery Election Day, in the year 1817. It appears that the once princely merchants, James and Thomas Handyside Perkins, - whose excellences are not yet forgotten, though the former died on the first of August, 1822, at the age of sixty-one years, and the latter on the tenth of January, 1854, having just entered his ninetieth year,-were owners of a fine ship, called the Canton Packet, whereof Thomas Proctor was master, and which was of between three and four hundred tons burden, and was employed in the India trade. As was custom- ary in the days that are gone, as well as in the present times, an ebony-colored personage, who should officiate in the necessary position of cook, and also in the respon-
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sible character of ship's steward, was procured for the contemplated voyage to the Isle of France and Canton ; and for this purpose a young negro, nineteen years of age, born in Philadelphia, and named William Read, was found and engaged. Although business was press- ing, and the ship fast getting ready for sea, this individ- ual, according to a custom that had become a rule as strictly observed as the laws of the Medes and Persians, was permitted to go ashore to enjoy the festivities of General Election Day, which in those days had a sobri- quet that need not be mentioned here, it not having passed from memory, the day being one on which per- sons of every kindred and tongue, size, color, sex, and avocation, had a perfect and full right to the liberties of Boston Common. The indulgences on this occasion were so great, and the taste of liberty was such, that, although the ship was cleared next day, on the twenty- ninth of May, the fellow was determined to have another taste of the same pleasures on the next Election day, when the Common was usually appropriated to the use of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and the pale-faced nabobs and gentry of the town. Unfor- tunately for the steward, the master of the stanch and beautiful Chinaman and his crew had also resolved that they would have that day for a good time, as they surely had good right to do. This made the young man dis- contented, sour, and ugly; and he came, consequently, to a rash conclusion,-to blow up the ship. All the freight had been taken in, consisting of a valuable cargo, upwards of four hundred thousand dollars in specie, and among other things two casks of gunpowder. The ship was consequently left in charge of the exasperated steward; who, not having the fear of the law before
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him,-for he had probably never read the New Eng- land Primer, and more especially John Cotton's Milk for Babes, - in a moment of desperation and madness discharged a pistol into the powder, blew off the stern of the ship, and himself up into the skies, distributing his disjointed frame throughout the harbor; and as there is no record of his burial, although some of the papers of the day chronicle his death, his remains were prob- ably never collected for interment. This rash act was committed at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when fortu- nately the seamen of the United States Ship Independ- ence were on board their vessel; and the cable of the mangled packet was cut, and the vessel allowed to run ashore on the flats, then lying north of Long Wharf, and the remainder of the hull was saved. A ballad, written in doggerel, issued by Coverly, was circulated at the time. This affair was the origin of the famous bywords of bygone days, "Who blew up the ship?" which question was answered by the colored gentry, in true Yankee style, " Who put out the moon?" allud- ing to a famous exploit of the fire department, who once dragged their engines to the end of the same wharf to extinguish what appeared to be a large fire, but turned out to be only the rising of an extraordinarily bright full moon on a somewhat hazy summer evening. The usual dialogue used on old election days, in refer- ence to these events, is too well known to require repe- tition. Scarcely any of the surviving frequenters of the Common on the holidays, in the times of the town, but has a story in relation to the blowing up of the Canton Packet.
Leaving on the right Slate Ledge, marked by a black buoy (numbered 11), situated near the northerly edge of
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South Boston Flats, and then pursuing a due easterly course from Bird Island Shoal about one and a quarter miles through Bird Island Passage, passing (on the left) another buoy (No. 6, red) and a permanent beacon standing on the easterly edge of the shoal, and on the right a black buoy (numbered 1) near the northwesterly termination of the flats of Governor's Island, and Apple Island, a noted locality in the harbor, is reached. This contains about ten acres of land, and is two and three- quarters miles directly east of the end of Long Wharf, and nearly a mile northeast of Governor's Island. The island is round, gently rising from its shores to its centre, and has a considerable show of trees upon it, two of which have been the most prominent objects in the harbor for many years, attracting the eye in the daytime much more readily than the lighthouse on Long Island Head. The flats which encompass it are very extensive, and make its approach at low tide some- what difficult. This small green spot in the harbor very early fell under the jurisdiction of Boston, and in the early days of the town was used, as most of the other islands were, for pasturage of sheep and cattle; but in later times, having a richer soil, and being less exposed to the violence of the storms than the other islands, it became desirable for a marine residence, and as such was improved previous to the war of the Revo- lution.
From being the property of the town, Apple Island passed into private hands, and on the fifth of March, 1723-4, was sold by Hon. Thomas Hutchinson and his wife Sarah (daughter of Hon. John Foster and Lydia Turell, his wife), the parents of Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the author of the History of Massachu-
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setts, to Mr. Estes Hatch, sometime of Boston and Rox- bury, together with the "housing, edifices and buildings thereon," for the sum of £200. The executor of Mr. Hatch sold it on the fifth of April, 1760, to Mr. James Mortimer, of Boston, tallow-chandler, for the sum of £133 6s. 8d., describing it as "an island, situate, lying, and being in the township of Boston, called and known by the name of Apple Island, containing about nine acres, with the flats thereto belonging." James Morti- mer, above named, a native of Waterford, Ireland, died on the eighteenth of August, 1773, at the age of sixty- nine years, devising the island by will, dated the twenty- seventh of May, 1765, one-half of the income of it to his widow, Hannah, during her life, and the other half to his brother Peter Mortimer, of Boston, mariner, with the reversion of the whole at the decease of the above- named widow. To give something of an idea of the condition of the island at the time of Mr. James Mor- timer's decease, the following extract is taken from his will: "And I will that. the lumber that is on Apple Island with the boats and farm tools remain on said island for the benefit of the same." In Mr. Morti- mer's inventory, taken on the fourteenth of September succeeding his death, are the following items: -
"Apple Island, so called in Boston Harbor,
with the buildings thereon, £200
About ten ton of hay, 15
An old mare, £6; mare colt 2 years old, £10, 16
A horse colt 10 weeks old, 3
A dray cart, 10s; a hand cart 10s, 1
A large boat and apparatus, with
cordage, £6; a small do., 12s, 6 12."
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A provision was made in the will, that, in case of the death of Capt. Peter Mortimer before the widow of James, the property should go to another brother, Philip Mortimer, who was residing in Middletown, Con- necticut. Mrs. Hannah Mortimer survived her husband only three days, dying on the twenty-first of August, 1773, at the age of eighty-one years; so the estate fell to Peter, and not to Philip. Strange to say, Peter out- lived his sister-in-law only one day, dying on the twenty-second of August, being fifty-nine years of age; but he lived sufficiently long to alienate the island from the male line of the Mortimers. What caused the death of the three Mortimers just in the proper order to make a good title for Peter's heir-at-law is not known to the writer, but the three old gravestones, now to be seen standing in Copp's Hill Burial-Ground, attest to the fact, undoubtedly to the great pleasure of the then Mrs. Mary Mortimer, Peter's widow, who probably erected them as proofs of her title to Apple Island, as well as grateful memorials to the memory of her benefi- cent relatives. Peter Mortimer, it appears, left a widow Mary; for, before leaving his native country, he took to wife Mary Wilcox; and on the day his sister-in-law Hannah died, and he was sure that he was the legiti- mate owner of the island, he made a will giving her all his worldly substance, except two houses in Fish street, which he gave to his niece, Ann Carnall, daughter of his sister Katharine Carnall, of Waterford, Ireland. After the death of Peter, in due time his widow married Daniel Waters, securing the descent of the property in the island to her brother Joseph Wilcox, of Waterford, Ireland, and his heirs-at-law. Her husband dying, Mrs. Waters executed a will on the fifth of April, 1794,
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
devising her real estate, including the island, to her brother, the above-named Joseph Wilcox, and died on the seventh of June, 1802, at the age of seventy-eight years, and was buried with her first husband and his kindred on Copp's Hill. This Mr. Wilcox, it appears, married on the twenty-eighth of March, 1761, and had an only child, Robert, baptized at Waterford on the thirteenth of September, 1788, who, on arriving at ma- turity, became a mariner, as his father had done before him, choosing North Shields, in Northumberland, Eng- land, as his place of residence when ashore. Thus the real ownership of the island became vested in an Eng- lishman, who knew very little about it, and probably placed no great value to it, and consequently suffered the house to decay, and the trees to waste.
In this state of things, this romantic spot was se- lected by an English gentleman by the name of Wil- liam Marsh, as a place of residence; and in the fall of the year 1814, at the close of the war, he placed his family there. After making the fields smile and the gardens rejoice, the first object of Mr. Marsh was to find the legal owner of the territory which he occupied, that he might become the lawful possessor of what he deemed a modern Eden. In his search he was not suc- cessful until he had striven many years. About the year 1822, however, he obtained possession of the knowl- edge of the person who appeared to be the owner, and he made with him, on the eighth of October of the next year, an agreement, by which he was to pay five hun- dred and fifty dollars for the island, and become the rightful owner of his much desired residence. Șo careful, and yet so scrupulously honest was he in this transac- tion, that he required the legal proofs of the identity of
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Robert Wilcox, the reputed owner. This evidence he did not obtain until the fifteenth of January, 1830, a few years before his decease, when the purchase money was paid, and the deeds passed and recorded.
Mr. Marsh seems to have passed a happy and con- tented life upon his island, secure from intrusion on ac- count of its difficulty of approach, and enjoying the position on account of the fertility of the soil and its neighborhood to good fishing grounds, and fields for sporting life. He died on the twenty-second of Novem- ber, 1833, at the good old age of sixty-six years, and was buried, according to his own request, on the western slope of the hill upon his own island home, a large num- ber of his Boston friends being present on the mournful occasion. Many persons will undoubtedly remember his faithful negro servant, Black Jack, who was so infa- mously treated by one of the army officers stationed in the harbor; and the successful endeavors of the late Samuel F. McCleary, Esq., father of the present excel- lent city clerk, who took charge of his case, and re- covered for him damages for the abuse.
Since the decease of Mr. Marsh, and the burning of the house, which last event occurred on the evening of the eleventh of November, 1835, the island has passed into other hands, and has for the most part been out of use. After a neglect of many years, the city purchased the island on the twenty-first of May, 1867, paying to Mr. Edward T. Marliave the sum of $3,750. It is not now put to any useful or remunerative purpose, but is held solely for the prevention of the removal of the gravel and ballast stones which are found upon it. Oc- casionally an old hulk is broken up and burned on its flats for the purpose of saving the iron and copper used
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
in its construction. There is no spot, however, in the harbor, which, at the present day, offers so strong an invitation as this does to the romantic for a delightful place as a marine rural residence, during the oftentimes very sultry summer seasons.
About three-quarters of a mile northeast of Apple Island, in the flats projecting from Pulling Point south- erly into the harbor, and very nearly half a mile from the mainland of the town of Winthrop, is a small island, consisting chiefly of marshy ground, and containing not more than three or four acres, having the name of Snake Island. This is very irregular in shape, and comparatively of little value. It is seldom visited, and is very rarely mentioned; and were it not that it is designated upon the charts of the harbor, it would not be worth the mention that has been given to it in this connection.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
DEER ISLAND.
Deer Island and its Shape and Boundaries .. . New Quarantine Ground .. . Size of Deer Island . .. Its Hills, Bluffs, and Ponds ... Origin of its Name . .. Island Granted to Boston in 1634 . . . The Island in 1635 . . . Freezing of the Harbor . . . Deer Island Supplying Firewood for the Inhabitants . . . A Prison for Swine and Goats ... Deer Island Improved for the Maintenance of a Free School ... Occupied by John Ruggle .. . Leased to Captain Edward Gibbens, and subsequently to Elder Penn and John Oliver, and also to Ed- ward Bendall . .. Leased to John Shaw and Sir Thomas Temple . . . Indian Claim settled in 1685 · · · Samuel Shrimpton's Lease . . . Intolerant Act of Sir Edmund Andros in 1689 . . . Town Offered Deer Island for the Erection of Hospital or Pest House . . . The Origin of Quarantine in Boston Harbor . .. City Institutions .. . Sea-Wall.
ABOUT one mile and a quarter southeast of Apple Island, and four and a half miles due east of Long wharf, lies Deer Island, being in form very much like a whale, with its head to the north, and its back to the northeast. It is separated from Point Shirley, the southerly promontory of the town of Winthrop, by Shirley Gut, a passage, the narrowest part of which, nearest the harbor, measures about three hundred and twenty-five feet. On its northeast is the Bay, and on its southeast the Broad Sound, which separates it from Lovell's Island and the cluster of rocks and islands at the mouth of the harbor. The main ship channel sepa- rates it from Long Island Head and Nix's Mate, both of which are slightly less than a mile distant from it; and on its southwest is the New Quarantine Ground, which
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
was established at the time the island was selected by John P. Ober and Billings Briggs, Esquires, of the City Government, for hospital accommodations, and placed under the special charge of Dr. Joseph Moriarty in the summer of 1847, when the ship fever raged so malig- nantly, and subsequently under Dr. Henry G. Clark, tem- porarily, he having declined a permanent appointment.
Deer Island is nearly a mile in breadth. By an ac- tual measurement, taken by James Slade, Esq., while City Engineer, it appears that.the island contains one hundred and thirty-four acres of upland and fifty acres of marsh, being one hundred and eighty-four acres in all, besides a large amount of flats, more than equal in extent to the upland and marsh. It has two hills and four bluffs, which are known by the following names: North Head, East Head, and South Head (or Money Head), situated as the names indicate, Graveyard Bluff, a small projection on the southwesterly part of the island, and Signal Hill in the central part. The small eleva- tion at the northerly part of the island, where the old house of Major Ebenezer Thayer used to stand, has nev- er been dignified by any special appellative. The South Head took the name of Money Head in consequence of the money-digging affair that occurred there some years ago. North and south of Signal Hill are two small fresh-water ponds, the northerly known as Ice Pond, and the southerly as Cow Pond, - the former generally supplying the occupants of the island with ice for sum- mer use, and the latter affording refreshing water for the cattle.
Deer Island is very frequently mentioned in the old records, both of the town of Boston and the Colony of Massachusetts Bay; and occasionally the old historical
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writers and journalists speak of it in connection with other matters. It undoubtedly took its name from the fact that deer formerly visited, and perhaps occupied, its ancient groves, which have long since been cut down for fuel or lumber. Mr. William Wood, in his New Eng- land's Prospect, printed in 1634, says that, "The chiefe Ilands which keepe out the Winde and the Sea from disturbing the Harbours, are first Deare Iland, which lies within a flight-shot of Pullin-point. This Iland is so called, because of the Deare which often swimme thither from the Maine, when they are chased by the Woolves: Some have killed sixteen Deare in a day upon this Iland. The opposite shore is called Pullin- point, because that is the usuall Channel Boats use to passe thorow into the Bay; and the Tyde being very strong, they are constrayned to goe a-shore, and hale their Boats by the seasing, or roades, whereupon, it was called Pullin-point." Mr. John Josselyn, in his account of two voyages to New England, printed forty years later, alludes briefly to the same facts.
On the first of April, 1634, this island, together with Long Island and Hog Island, were granted in perpetu- ity to Boston for the nominal rent of two pounds; and this amount was reduced to four shillings, and Spectacle Island thrown in besides, on the fourth of the subse- quent March, when the original grant was confirmed by the Colonial Legislature. Then terminated all the right of the Colony to the island, and the Province and Commonwealth have never set up any claim since to its territory, but the ownership has remained vested suc- cessively in the town and city of Boston.
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