USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 37
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
island, and was to be joined to the main fort by a plat- form and palisades. The Province Records abound in orders for the appointment of committees to visit the Castle; and on one occasion (in 1732) the governor, Jonathan Belcher, took several sachems of the Cagna- waga Indians and a number of gentlemen to see the Castle; and when the Lieutenant-Governor, Spencer Phipps, sent his bill for the entertainment provided for the company, and for several other committees, the Court refused payment of it, "for that it was not lodged within the time prescribed by law."
If Governor Pownal's picture of the Castle is cor- rect, that which stood during the provincial years must have been quadrangular in form, although some old charts exhibit a pentagonal plan. The buildings had the appearance of having been two stories in height, with large windows. In connection with these was a large chimney, which was blown down on the twenty- third of October, 1761. A later view, which exhibits the star-spangled banner floating from the building, has a beacon-pole standing on the casterly part of the hill.
It has been mentioned that the British left the town on the seventeenth of March, 1776, and commenced their devastations upon the Castle at that time; but it does not appear that they accomplished their work and left the harbor for several days, as a diarist states that on the twenty-second of March, five days later, Castle William was burnt to ashes and destroyed. After this the provincial forces took possession of the fort, and re- paired it as well as could be then done. Its name was changed to Fort Independence on the seventh of De- cember, 1797, President John Adams being present on the occasion. By an act of the General Court of the
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Commonwealth. passed on the fourteenth of March, 1785, the Castle was appointed a place of confinement for thieves and other convicts to hard labor, an act which became inoperative on the twenty-fifth of June, 1798, when the State ceded the jurisdiction of the island to the United States. By an act passed the first of No- vember, 1785, all persons under sentence to hard labor were ordered to be removed there, and a provision was made in the act ceding the island to the United States, that this class of prisoners should be allowed to be kept there with a sufficient guard; and this condition of things remained until the State Prison in Charlestown was built, in 1805. Within a few years a very conven- ient and substantial stone fort has been erected on the site of old Castle William, which, with the aid of Fort Winthrop, is supposed to completely command the approach of the inner harbor by means of the main ship channel.
Previous to the war of the Revolution, there stood at the northwesterly part of Castle Island, near what was called the West Head, a block house, which was used by the officers of the garrison; and just south of it, at the extreme westerly part of the island, was the wharf, which was approached from Dorchester Point by small vessels. The Old Block House (so called to dis- tinguish it from the one of more modern date), which had been the residence of former officers, and which in later times, on a peace establishment, had been used by the soldiers of the garrison, was situated on a point at the southern extremity. A battery of some consider- able force, called Shirley's Battery, was located on the northeastern side, directly above East Head and its two small wharves, and fronted Point Shirley, commanding
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Pulling Point Gut. The Castle, built between the years 1701 and 1703, called Castle William, stood on the top of the hill between East and West Heads, the site of the former fort, which had been called at the commencement of the provincial government, Fort William and Mary, in honor of the Prince of Orange and his royal spouse, and as nearly as possible where the present Fort Inde- pendence now stands good sentinel. The whole island may well be said to be situated on Dorchester or South Boston Flats, as at low tide the water is very shoal on all its sides except where it touches the main ship chan- nel on the northeasterly side.
Castle Island has its reminiscences, some of which are not of a very pleasant character; for in its day it has been the Bladensburg of Boston, duels having been fought there. A memorial of one of these unfortunate occasions can now be seen standing on the glacis of the fort, a short distance north of the West Battery. A small monument of white marble bears inscriptions which tell their own story. The following is on the south panel:
Near this spot on the 25th, Decr, 1817, fell Lieut. Robert F. Massie, Aged 21 years.
On the east are the following lines: -
Here honour comes, a Pilgrim gray, To deck the turf, that wraps his cluy.
On the north panel: -
Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Lieut. ROBERT F. MASSIE, of the U. S. Regt. of Light Artillery.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
On the west: -
The officers of the U. S. Regiment of Lt. Art'y erected this monument as a testimony of their respect & friendship for an amiable man & Gallant Officer.
A memorial of older date, the most ancient now to be found upon the island, may be seen on the green, a short distance west of the west face of the fort. It is a slate headstone, and bears these words:
Here lyes the Body of Mr Edward Pursley. He departed this life Aug. 31st 1767 Aged 60 years and 4 months.
It is much to be regretted that no memorials can be found of the old commanders of the fort. Roger Clap, it is well known, was buried in the Chapel Burying Ground, but the last resting-places of the others are not known. One noted provincial captain, Lieutenant-Cap- tain John Larrabe, of famous memory, died on the elev- enth of February, 1762, aged seventy-six years.
Just west of the gravestone of Edward Pursley is a modern graveyard, quite small. This contains no in- scription bearing date previous to the year 1850.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THOMPSON'S, MOON, AND HALF-MOON ISLANDS.
Upper Middle Shoal . .. Main Ship Channel ... Seven Feet Channel ... Presi- dent's Road ... Lower Middle ... Thompson's Island ... Buoys ... Glades Channel ... Dimensions and Position of Thompson's Island ... Muscle Bank . . . Lyman's Grove ... Fantastic Form of Thompson's Island ... History of the Island . . . Appropriated for School Purposes . .. Claim of John Thomp- son, in 1648 . .. Standish's Visit in 1621 . .. Indian Claim, 1654 . . . Island set- tled by David Thompson in 1626 . . . Squantum ... Boston Asylum and Farm School ... Island annexed to Boston in 1834 . .. Moon Island ... Mennens Moone . .. Form of Moon Island . . . Half-Moon Island.
TAKING departure from Fort Independence, and pro- ceeding in an easterly direction, leaving behind the Up- per Middle Shoal, with the Main Ship Channel on its north side, and on its south what used to be a channel bearing the name of Seven Feet Channel, - for the tide that left the Upper Middle only three feet below the surface of the water also left this old channel seven feet deep, - the reader will come into President's Road (or Roads), which in the olden time was called the King's Road, exactly north of which is the Lower Middle, a gravelly, rocky shoal, which is sometimes ex- posed to view. Having advanced about three-quarters of a mile, and then turning to the southwest and pursu- ing a course for about a mile and a half, he will arrive at the wharf situated on the northwest part of Thomp- son's Island.
On coming down the harbor thus far, several buoys have been noticed floating in the stream. It will be
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well to remember, that of these, the Red Buoy No. 6, and the beacon just north of it, are near the most shoal part of the remnants of the ancient Bird Island, between which and the Black Buoy No. 1 (at the northerly point of the flats of Governor's Island) lies Glades Channel; Black Buoy No. 9, which is passed at the right, bounds the Upper Middle; while the Red Buoy No. 12, at the left, warns from the flats of Governor's Island, as do Nos. 10 and 8 (both red), also on the left, from the Lower Middle; and Black Buoy No. 7 is the turning point for Thompson's Island wharf.
Thompson's Island is about one mile in length from northeast to southwest, and about one-third of a mile in width, and contains about one hundred and forty acres of land, suitable for agricultural purposes. It is not far from half a mile north of Squantum, a well-known promontory of North Quincy, which is about seven miles from Boston by the usually travelled road; but by water it is about three miles from Long wharf. North- west of the island is a large shoal, called Muscle Bank, which separates it from South Boston Point, and also from Castle Island, a little over a mile at its north; Spectacle Island lies northeast, Long Island east, Moon [sland southeast, Squantum south, and Savin Hill, in Dorchester, a mile and a half due west of it. The sur- face is gently rising, forming two eminences, which, in reference to their position, are called East and West Heads; and between these, on the southeasterly side, is a cove, and on the southwesterly a salt-water pond of several acres, into and from which once flowed a creek, that in ancient times was dignified by the name of river. Thompson's Island Bar, which projects at the southern extreme of the island about a quarter of a mile towards
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Squantum, has been long a noted locality, furnishing delicious clams, which our fathers used to cook beneath an old sycamore tree, which has shared the fate of its kindred. Not far from this bar, and upon the West Head, is a grove of trees, planted about thirty years ago by the late Hon. Theodore Lyman, and upon this island are many flourishing fruit trees, which bear an abun- dance of choice pears and other fruit.
The form of this island, as shown on the charts of the harbor, is very much like that of a young unfledged chicken looking towards the east, the northeasterly part (or East Head) representing the head and bill of the bird, and the bar, which extends from the southerly part towards Squantum, the legs and feet. The portion of the island where the wharf is situated forms the back. By keeping this fanciful form in mind, the figure of the island will be remembered. It should not be forgotten by those who visit this pleasant spot, that the deep wa- ter is on its north and westerly sides, while very shoal flats lie to its east and south.
The first mention of this island is found in the Co- lonial Records of Massachusetts, under date of the fourth of March, 1634-5, in the following words: "Tompson's Iland is graunted to the inhabitants of Dorchestr to enioy to them, their heires & successors, wch shall inhabite there, foreuer, payeing the yearely rent of xijd to the tresurer for the time being." In con- sequence of this grant by the General Court of the col- ony, the town of Dorchester voted, on the twentieth of May, 1639, that a rent of twenty pounds a year should be charged for the island, to be paid by the tenants toward the maintenance of a school in Dorchester; this rent of twenty pounds " to bee pajd to such a schoole-
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master as shall vndertake to teach English, Latine, and other tongues, and also writing." The schoolmaster was to be chosen from time to time by the freemen, but it was left to the discretion of the Elders and the Seven- men for the time being to decide "whether maydes shalbe taught wth the boyes or not." So it seems that the good people of Dorchester early provided for schools where the really solid branches should be taught, and also had an eye to the propriety of "mixed schools," as they are termed nowadays. It appears that Rev. Mr. Thomas Waterhouse had the honor of being the first person to enjoy this bountiful provision of the town, and even he had liberty to teach the writing as he could conveniently. The difficulty of col- lecting rent, however, induced the town, on the seventh of February, 1641-2, to provide that there should be but ten tenants upon the island at any one time. These halcyon days, however, did not last forever, for a Mr. John Thomson, son and heir of the David Thomson from whom the island derived its name, made claim to it in 1648, and the town lost it, as will be seen from the fol- lowing extract from the Colony Records, under date of the tenth of May, 1648: "Forasmuch as it appeares to this Corte, upon the petition of M' John Thomson, sonn & heire of David Thomson, deceased, that the said David, in or about the yeare 1626, did take actuall possession of an iland in the Massachusetts Bay, called Thomson's Iland, & then being vacuum domicilium, & before the patent granted to us of the Massachusets Bay, & did erect there the forme of an habitation, & dying soone after, leaving the petion an infant, who so soone as he came to age, did make his claime formerly, & now againe, by his said petition, this Corte, consid'ing the
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
premises, & not willing to deprive any of their lawfull right & possession, or to prmit any piudice to come to the petition in the time of his non age, do hereby graunt the said iland, called Thomson's Iland, to the said John Thomson & his heires forever, to belong to this jurisdiction, & to be und" the gov'nment & lawes thereof." The General Court, however, did not take this island from the jurisdiction of Dorchester, but allowed it to remain under it, where it had been since 1634, to- gether with the neighboring island called Moon Island. The Dorchester people bore the loss of their island with Christian fortitude, and in October, 1648, petitioned for another island instead of it; whereupon the Court ex- pressed a willingness to answer their petition "when the towne psents that wch is fit to be given." The town, not satisfied with the result of the petition, tried again to get the island restored by law, but failed in the attempt.
When Mr. John Thomson made his defence against the renewed claim of Dorchester to the island, in 1650, he brought in evidence certain affidavits of William Tre- vore, William Blaxton, Miles Standish, and the Saga- more of Agawam, all eminent persons in their way. These documents, copies of which are preserved, make it appear that early after the settlement of Plymouth, Captain Standish and others, among whom was William Trevore, a sailor, who came over in the May Flower, in 1620, visited Boston harbor in September, 1621, and at that time Trevore took possession of the island, under the name of Island of Trevor, for Mr. David Thomson, then of London; that Mr. Thomson obtained a grant of the land by patent before the arrival of the Massa- chusetts Company; that Mr. Blaxton, who is well
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known as the reputed first European resident upon the peninsular part of Boston, knew Mr. David Thomson personally, and was acquainted with the location of the island and its use; that it had what was called a harbor, and that hogs were pastured upon it; that there was at the time of the visit no evidence that Indians had ever dwelt upon it or cultivated its soil; and that it had never been claimed by any Indian except by an old Dor- chester Indian about the year 1648. The river is also alluded to by the Sagamore. Either the Sagamore was very uncertain, or his memory treacherous, or else he deposed to what he had not read; for certainly his testi- mony is in some respects very far from the truth. But he gives the reason why Mr. Thomson liked the island, - because of the small river; and it may be inferred that the true reason is given by Trevore and the Indian why Mr. Thomson so early left Piscataqua and stopped a while upon this island in the harbor, - because he liked it, and had a grant of it. On the eighteenth of Oc- tober, 1659, the inhabitants petitioned for a grant of a thousand acres in lieu of the island; and on the twelfth of November following, the Court grants their request, the said land to be laid out where they can find it, they improving it for the benefit of their free school. The land finally obtained by Dorchester was part of the present township of Lunenburg.
Although Mr. John Thomson got possession of his island from the Dorchester people, another claimant, in the shape of an Indian, named Winnuequassam, laid claim to it in November, 1654, and had liberty of trial granted him; but he failed in proving his right, and the estate in the island remained to Mr. Thomson and his heirs.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Mr. Thomson probably settled upon the island dur- ing the year 1626, for Gov. Bradford, in his history of Plymouth Plantation, under date of 1626, speaks of "Mr. David Thomson who lived at Piscataqua," and the Colonial Records of Massachusetts mention him as a resident of the island the same year. He had been sent out by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, in 1623, and first set down at Piscataqua; but being discontented, it is presumed that he removed to Boston harbor about the time above alluded to. He is supposed to have died on this island some time during the year 1628, leaving an only son John, an infant, who inherited his estate, which also included the neck of land pertaining to Quincy, now called Squantum, - perhaps from Squanto (or Tisquan- tum), who was one of the party with Captain Standish who visited the island in September, 1621, -a place much noted during the early part of the present century for the Squantum Feasts held there, not only by the fast young men of the time, but also by the staid and re- spectable old gentlemen of Boston and the neighboring towns. Until the second of May, 1855, Squantum, though south of the Neponset River, was part of the town of Dorchester; but, at the above-mentioned date, it was set off from Dorchester, and annexed to Quincy. At extreme low tides, the water is so shallow between Squantum and Thompson's Island Bar that a person may cross from the main land at the Squaw Rock (for- merly called Chapel Rock) to the island.
This island has always been private property since the time of the Thomsons, and used for purposes con- nected with agriculture. In 1834, it was purchased for $6,000, by the proprietors of the Boston Farm School, an institution incorporated on the nineteenth of Novem-
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ber, 1833. This society immediately erected a substan- tial building, 105 by 36 feet, with a central front projec- tion of 39 by 25 feet, under the immediate supervision of the late John D. Williams, Esq., of this city, who felt a great interest in the charitable undertaking. On the fifth of March, 1835, this institution was united with the Boston Asylum for Indigent Boys, which had been in- corporated on the twenty-fourth of February, 1814, the united institutions taking the name of the Boston Asy- lum and Farm School for Indigent Boys. The island having become appropriated for uses connected with the city of Boston, an act of the legislature was passed on the twenty-fifth of March, 1834, setting it off from Dor- chester, with which it had been connected two hundred years, and annexing it to Boston so long as it should be used for the purposes of a farm school or other charita- ble purposes; and a provision was made in the same act that nothing in it should destroy or affect any lawful right that the inhabitants of Dorchester might have of digging and taking clams on the banks of said island, evidently showing that its flats had not lost their value in respect to the famous New England shell-fish.
Moon Island, or Mennen's Moon, as it was called in ancient times, together with Squantum, was placed under the jurisdiction of Dorchester by the expressive order passed at the General Court of Elections held the second of June, 1641: "Squantum's Neck & Mennens Moone are layd to Dorchester." The Moon Island, or Moon Head, as it is sometimes designated, contains about twenty acres of land, and has been used from time immemorial for pasturage; it is connected at very low water with Squantum by two bars. The associations connected with this island are such as have been men-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
tioned when speaking of some of the other islands, namely, as furnishing to excursion and pleasure parties comfortable places for cooking.
Moon Island is one of the most marked objects in the southerly part of the harbor, on account of the high bluff which it presents on its northerly side. In form on the charts, it looks very much like a leg of venison with its shank pointing westerly as a bar towards Squantum. Its proper approach is on its southerly shore.
About two miles south of Moon Island is Half-Moon Island, lying in the flats a short distance from the north- erly shore of Quincy. It resembles in form half of a ring, the convex part north; hence the derivation of its name from the moon, as presented to view in its first or last quarter.
CHAPTER XL.
THE BACK WAY AND SPECTACLE ISLAND.
Form and Position of Spectacle Island . . . Sculpin Ledge . . . The Back Way, or Western Passage ... Size of the Island . . . First mentioned in 1635 . . . Granted to Boston for the Benefit of the Free School . . . Formerly covered with Wood . .. Laid out for the Planters in 1649 . . . Relinquished to the Plant- ers in 1667 . .. Purchased by Thomas Bill . . . Sold to Samuel Bill in 1681 . . . Indian Claim and Release in 1684 . . . In Possession of Samuel Bill, Jr. .. . Sold to Richard Bill in 1730 . . . First Quarantine Establishment in Boston Harbor . .. First Attempt at Squantum Neck . .. Deer Island offered by the Town . .. Part of Spectacle Island purchased, 1717 . .. Quarantine Act in 1716. . . Rainsford Island purchased by the Province in 1736, and Quarantine on Spectacle Island given up in 1739. . . Island sold to Edward Bromfield in 1742 . .. Condition of the Island in 1742 . . . Use of the Island in late Years.
RETURNING from Thompson's Island about a mile in a northeasterly direction towards President Roads, and passing one half a mile in an easterly course, the reader will come to a peculiarly shaped island, called Spectacle Island, from its remarkable resemblance to a pair of spectacles, it being formed of two peninsular portions connected together by a short bar, which is covered with water at high tides. It lies between Thompson's Island west, and Long Island east, being distant about three- quarters of a mile from the former, and about one mile from the latter. Between it and the southeasterly point of Long Island lies Sculpin Ledge, the easterly part of which has a Red Buoy, No. 2, to warn the boatman of its dangerous hidden rocks. Between this island and ledge on the northeast, and Thompson's and Moon
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Islands on the southwest, is the Back Way, or Western Passage, through which the course from Boston is south- southeast. The bluff on the northerly part of Spectacle Island, and the high land upon its southerly portion, are designated generally as its North and South Heads. Each of these parts can be approached on their west- erly side, where small wharves have been built by the owners of the island for their own use, and for the ac- commodation of the numerous visitors to its hospitable shores. By the old deeds of conveyance and by estima- tion, it is supposed to contain about sixty acres of land, equally divided into two parts for the two peninsulas.
The first mention of this noted location in the rec- ords is on the fourth of March, 1634-5, when, together with Deer Island, Hog Island, and Long Island, it was granted to the town of Boston, for the yearly rent of four shillings for the four islands, which may be called one shilling a piece for each of them. Very soon after it came into the possession of the town, it was allotted to the different inhabitants, who paid a small annual rent, to inure to the benefit of the free school. At this time the island was well covered with wood; for Gov- ernor Winthrop relates, that on the thirteenth of Jan- uary, 1637-8, about thirty persons of Boston went out on a fair day to Spectacle Island to cut wood, the town being in great want thereof. The next night the wind rose very high at the northeast, with snow, and after- wards at the northwest for two days, and it was so cold that the harbor was frozen over, except a small channel. These thirty adventurers met with hard luck, for of their number, twelve could get no farther home than the Gov- ernor's Island, seven were carried in the ice in a small skiff, through Broad Sound to the Brewsters, where
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they had to stay two days without food and fire, and get home by the way of Pulling Point, and many of the others, after detention, had their limbs frozen, and one of them died.
In 1649, the town began to take measures for grant- ing the land at the island to planters for perpetuity, reserving the exaction of a small annual rent of about sixpence an acre for the benefit of the free school; and on the nineteenth of April of that year, ten persons " bind themselves and their successors to pay sixpence an acre p yeare for their land at Spectacle Iland, for- euer to ye use of the schole, yt soe it maye be proprietye to them for euer, and they are to bring in their pay to the townes treasurer the first day of February for eu or else there land is forfeit into the townes dispossing." These persons did not pay their rent as promptly as they should, and some of them conveyed their rights to others, insomuch that there were large arrearages due; there- fore an order was passed in town meeting, in 1655, of a compulsory character, and the treasurer was authorized to levy and collect by help of the constable. It was not, however, until the eleventh of March, 1666-7, that the town relinquished all its right in the island to the plant- ers. This it did at that time, and made void the agree- ment about the annual rent of sixpence an acre for the benefit of the school, on condition that the back rent should be paid up in full to that date. This was un- doubtedly done; for just previous to this last date, Mr. Thomas Bill, a lighterman, began to purchase up the rights of the several owners; and when he had nearly acquired the whole island he sold his thirty-five acres of it, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1680-1, to his son Samuel Bill, a butcher, who had previously purchased
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