USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 46
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suage, or tenement and tenements abutting on the Great Street called Mill Bridge Street, over against the Starr Tavern, with the land, members, and appurtenances thereof, in the occupation of James Fowles, &c., being;" and also rights in Dorchester and one-quarter of the land in Oxford. The last portion of the estate men- tioned -that " abutting on the Great Street"-was the Franklin corner.
Mr. Cooper did not long survive the acquisition of his large landed property, but died at sea in 1705; and in the inventory of his estate, taken on the first day of January, 1705-6, five days before the birth and bap- tism of Franklin, the corner estate was still in the pos- session of "James Fowles, &c." On the nineteenth of December, 1706, not long after the death of Captain Cooper, his widow Mehitable became the wife of Peter Sargeant, Esq., of Boston,- who so magnificently built the large brick house in Marlborough street, which was sold to the State for a Province House; and with. her went the old corner estate, and its wooden tenements.
At this point of time the great interest in the history of the estate commences; for on the twenty-fifth of Jan- uary, 1711-12, when the renowned Franklin was only six years of age, Peter Sargeant, Esq., of Boston, and his wife Mehitable, formerly wife of Thomas Cooper, merchant, of Boston, and one of the heirs, devisees and executors of Hon. William Stoughton, of Dorchester, for £320, in good current bills of credit paid by Josiah Franklin, of Boston, tallow chandler, "as also for divers other good causes and considerations," sell to said Frank- lin "all those their houses and tenements with the apurces, and all the land whereon they stand, and is there- unto belonging and adjoining, situate, lying, and being
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
In Boston aforesaid, butted, bounded, and measuring as followeth, vizt :- at the front or Eastward end by Union street so called, measuring there in breadth thirty-eight feet or thereabout; on the Northward side by Hanover street so called, measuring there in length ninety-three feet or thereabout; on the rear or Westward end by land formerly of Josiah Cobham, decd, in the present tenure & occupation of Joseph Smith, saddler, where it measureth in breadth twenty-three feet five inches or thereabout; and on the Southward side by land formerly the said Cobham's, and the house of and land formerly appertaining to John Cotta, now wholly on this side the inheritance of the heirs of Thomas Bridge, late of Bos- ton aforesaid, marriner, deceª, where it measureth in length about eighty-seven feet or thereabout."
Such was the description of the estate on Union and Hanover streets sold to the father of Franklin, and which for a period of forty-one years remained in the possession of the Franklin family. At the time of the purchase, Mr. Franklin mortgaged the estate for £250, and again in 1722 for £220, to Simeon Stoddard, the first mortgage being paid before the second was made, and the last cancelled in due time.
How long Mr. James Fowle, the tailor, was a tenant of a portion of the estate is not exactly known; but it is certainly true that he dwelt somewhere in Boston eight years after Josiah Franklin bought the property, for he died on the thirteenth of August, 1720, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, his wife having died three years previous. Who the other tenants of the estate were have not been ascertained, although it is sure there were as many as four in all, as there were originally four tenements upon the estate.
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Josiah Franklin made his will on the twentieth of October, 1744. In this instrument he styles himself "tallow chandler." The paragraph that relates to his dwelling-house is as follows: "I give to my loving wife Abiah Franklin all the income or rents of my whole estate and goods, and the use of the two rooms we now live in, allowing the lodgers to be in as it is used, she allowing out of it the interest that will be due to my creditors while she lives." The will was not proved in court until the seventh of August, 1750, more than five years after his decease. The inventory of his estate was not taken until after the decease of his widow, two years later. In this last-named document his house and land in Union street are appraised at £253 6s. 8d. His library contained two large Bibles, Mr. Willard's Body of Divinity, one Concordance, and a parcel of small books, valued in all at £3 0s. 8d.
After the decease of Mrs. Franklin, which occurred in May, 1752, the heirs concluded to sell the real estate, and advertised the estate in November, 1752, and, subsequently, not finding a purchaser, published the following advertisement in July, 1753 :-
" To be sold by public Vendue, on Tuesday the 21st of August next, Four Lots of Ground, with the Buildings thereon, fronting on Hanover and Union Streets, at the Blue Ball, viz. one Lot (No. 1) of Seventeen Feet Four Inches Front on Hanover Street, and twenty-five Feet deep. One ditto (No. 2.) Twenty-one and a half Feet Front on said Street, and Twenty-five and a half Feet deep. (No. 3.) Twenty- seven Feet Front on said Street, and Thirty Feet deep. (No. 4.) a Corner Lot, Twenty-eight Feet Front on Hanover Street, and Thirty-eight Feet Front on Union
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
Street, very well situated for Tradesmen or Shopkeepers, being in the Heart of the Town, and the Buildings conveniently divided as above, having originally been different Tenements. The Title is indisputable; the sale to begin at four o'clock in the Afternoon, on the Premises, one quarter Part of the Money to be paid at the signing of the Deeds. Twelve Months Credit will be given, if required, on Security and paying Interest for the Remainder. By John Franklin and William Homes."
This advertisement bears date on the twenty-third of July, 1753; but the estate was not sold until the fifteenth of April, 1754, when John Franklin, as surviving executor, conveyed it to William Homes for £188 13s. 4d., a much smaller sum than Mr. Franklin paid for it in 1712; it then having "dwelling-houses, edifices and buildings," upon it.
Mr. Homes sold the estate to Jonathan Dakin on the second of June, 1757, for £266 13s. 4d. Mr. Dakin died in 1761, and his house was valued at £300. Jo- seph Dakin, son of the above, died in 1780, when the valuation reached £9,000, the depreciation of currency being such that it took from £40 to £75 in bills of credit to pay a debt of £1 in gold. In 1789, Thomas Dakin, son of Joseph, occupied the house. These Dakins were very industrious and prosperous black- smiths, and undoubtedly did much for the benefit of the estate.
From the Dakins the estate passed into the possession of the heirs of Thomas Dakin, who sold it to Anthony Dumesnil, who conveyed it to Joseph Bradley in 1809, and he to Tilly Whitcomb in 1811. After remaining abo it forty-seven years in other hands,
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it was bought by the city, and the building on the corner demolished on the tenth of November, 1858, and the portion on Union street taken for widening the street. Nearly all of the remaining portion of the original estate was taken by the city for widening Hanover street, by an order approved by the mayor on the thirty- first of December, 1868.
From the will of Josiah Franklin, made in 1744, the advertisement published in 1753, and the small consider- ation for which Mr. Dakin purchased it in 1757, there can be very little doubt that the house in which the great philosopher dwelt during his youth was built of wood, and that it was taken down by one of the Dakins, and that the brick building recently demolished was erected long after the decease of the parents of Franklin. There was nothing remarkable in the appear- ance of the old brick house that bore the name of the Blue Ball, except that Mr. Dakin saw fit to preserve the old Franklin sign, although he subsequently gilded the ball, leaving for more recent occupants to paint upon it the original name and date, "Josias Franklin, 1698."
Questions are frequently asked about the paternity of the great Bostonian, little else being generally known of the elder Franklin than that he was an industrious soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, and that he resided in Boston at the commencement of the last century. It is too often the case, that those who make such a figure in the world as our celebrated townsman, have an obscure origin; and not unfrequently a dark cloud completely envelopes their humble birth.
The Franklin family is traceable back at least four generations in England, the earliest direct ancestor
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
bearing the name Thomas, and residing in the parish of Ecton, in Hamfordshoe hundred, Northamptonshire, where the immediate relations of the emigrant dwelt at the time of his removal to America. There is good reason for believing that the family may have had a still more ancient origin in France, where the name is found in records as far back as the fifteenth century, spelt according to the orthography of the country.
Thomas and Margery were the great-great-grand- parents ; Henry and Agnes, the great-grandparents; and Thomas and Jane the grandparents. These, with the single exception of the last-named Thomas, spent their humble but industrious lives in the very small parish of Ecton. Thomas died at Banbury, in Ox- fordshire, where his youngest son Josiah (father of Benjamin) resided after the birth of his first child.
Josiah Franklin, or, as his name was more frequently spelt, Josias, soon after the birth of his daughter Eliza- beth, his first born, removed from Ecton to Banbury,- a name familiarized to many of us by its frequent mention in the nursery rhymes of our early days. There he dwelt with his first wife Anne, until he came to Boston, not far from the early part of the year 1685. When Mr. Franklin came to New England, he brought with him his daughter born in Ecton, and two children born in Banbury. Four other children were born to him in Boston, by his wife Anne, before she died in 1689.
On the twenty - ninth of November, 1689, Mr. Franklin married, for his second wife, Abiah Folger, daughter of Mr. Peter Folger, of Nantucket. She bore him ten children, the youngest of whom, excepting two daughters, was Benjamin.
The elder Franklin resided until about the year 1712
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in Milk street, in the small tenement described in a previous chapter. About this time he removed to the house at the corner of Union and Hanover streets. In both of these houses he carried on his trade, and in the latter he died, on the sixteenth of January, 1744-5.
Mrs. Abiah Franklin died in 1752, aged eighty-five years. At the time of her decease she undoubtedly dwelt in the Union-street house; for we find, under date of the sixth of November, 1752, the following adver- tisement: "To be sold, a house and Land known by the name of the Blue Ball, very commodious for trade, measuring on Union Street 38 Feet, on Hanover Street 93 Feet; any one intending to purchase may apply to Wm. Holmes, Goldsmith in Boston. It will be sold either the Whole or in Part, as will best suit the Purchaser."
Franklin's parents were interred in the Granary Burial Ground, next to Park-street Church, in Boston. A description of the monument which marks their last earthly resting-place will be found on page 218.
In the old wooden house, then, that a hundred years ago stood at the corner of Union street, and whose site is now hourly trod over by man and beast, and over which roll many times a day the unromantic horse-cars of modern enterprise, dwelt the youthful Franklin with his aged parents, and thirteen brothers and sisters. Per- haps the old cellar, which was exposed to view in 1856,
with its rough and solid walls, and its huge oven, may have been a relic of the old mansion; and as a letter- writer once said, it was here that Franklin "shocked the worthy member of the Old South Church, his father, by proposing, in his infant economy of time, to say grace over the whole barrel of beef they were putting down,
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
in the lump, instead of over each piece in detail as it came to the table." Certainly it was from this old place, that he ventured, when he made his first investment, in buying the whistle; and from here that he essayed his first attempt at mechanical work, when he built the cobblestone wharf on the shore of the old mill cove, from the yard of the Green Dragon; and certainly from here he wound his weary way to the old Latin School in School street, then under Master Nathaniel Williams, who could preach sermons, administer medi- cines, or flog knowledge into boys, as the nature of the case might require.
But the Great Man is dead, and his ashes repose qui- etly in the noisiest part of the city of steady habits. In the corner of the cemetery of Christ Church in Phila- delphia, at the corner of Arch and Fifth streets, may be read, by looking through the railing, the well-known inscriptions side by side :-
Benjamin and Deborah
Franklin
Richard and Sarah
Bache
1790
1811
A pilgrimage to this sacred spot will also disclose the grave of his son Francis, who was baptized on the six- teenth of September, 1733. The inscription on the stone is as follows :-
FRANCIS F. Son of Benjamin & Deborah FRANKLIN Deceas'd Nov. 21, 1736, Aged 4 Years, 4 Months & 1 Day.
He was consequently born on the twentieth of July, 1732. Another stone, which stands in the same part
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
of the yard, may have some interest connected with it. It bears the following :--
In Memory of JOHN READ Who Departed This life September ye 2, 1724, Aged 47 years.
This unpretending memorial marks the grave of the father of Mrs. Deborah Franklin, as the first mentioned did that of herself and husband, and its twin that of her daughter and husband.
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CHAPTER LIII.
THE OLD FEATHER STORE.
The Old Feather Store demolished in 1860 . . . The Great Fire of 1679 . . . Fire Engine of 1654 . . . Old contrivance for Extinguishing Fires . . . Old Wells and Conduit ... Building Ordinance of 1679 . .. Building erected by Mr. Stanbury in 1680 . . . Description of the Building . . . Originally Two Tene- ments . .. Title to the Estate . . . In Possession of Henry Symons in 1643 . . . Owned by Susanna Walker in 1662 . .. Susanna married Thomas Stanbury in 1668 · · · Quitclaimed to William Antram in 1711 . . . Conveyed to Elizabeth Cushing in 1764 . . . Sold to John Greenleaf in 1766 . . . The Estate fell to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Daniel Greenleaf, in 1778, then to Thomas Greenleaf in 1853, and to his heirs in 1854 . . . Occupants of the Old Building New Building erected in 1860.
ENTERPRISE and thrift sometimes make sad havoc with the ancient landmarks. Such was the case on the tenth of July, 1860, when the old building that formerly stood on the corner of North street and Market square was taken down; and sad, indeed, was many an old Bostonian on learning that another of the well-known landmarks of the ancient town had to be removed, as so many of its neighbors of the olden time had been served before, -even though it was to give place, in the onward march of improvement, to one of the solid and substantial structures for which the metropolis of New England is so much noted, and of which its citizens are so justly proud, as they display the good taste of Boston capitalists in the chief essentials of architectural science, while at the same time they exhibit conclusive marks of general and individual prosperity.
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As each of these reminders of the olden time, when many of the first-comers were hale and hearty, and active on the stage of life, are doomed to destruction, it is not unnatural that the sentiment of regret should be awakened within the breasts of those who have been accustomed to regard them with a feeling almost bordering upon veneration. Among the most notable of these ancient vestiges which time and the hand of man had spared for so many years, was the old building, of late years familiarly known as the "Old Feather Store," that stood fronting upon Dock Square, at the southerly side of the entrance to the present North street, - the Ann street of by-gone days. The irrevo- cable word, however, was at last uttered, and the old relic of good old colonial times had to bow its hoary head and be known no longer to man as of the things that are.
It may not be generally known that the year 1679 was rendered particularly remarkable by the many attempts made by incendiaries to destroy the town of Boston. The accounts of these efforts that have been transmitted by diarists would lead to the supposition that no measures which ingenuity could contrive or an evil desire suggest, were left untried for the accomplish- ment of such a wicked purpose. At midnight, on the eighth of August of the above-mentioned year, commenced at an ale-house, near the great drawbridge (as it was called), in that part of North street, then known as Drawbridge street, the Conduit street of the first settlers, one of the most destructive fires that ever occurred in the town. Nearly all the trading part of Boston was consumed by the flames, extending from the Mill Creek, which occupied the same place where
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Blackstone street now is, westwardly to Dock square, and southerly to Oliver's Dock, which was situated near the open place now called Liberty square. Not one house nor shop upon this space was spared; and even the vessels that were at the time lying in the Town Dock, which was situated in the centre of the burnt district, were with their lading entirely destroyed. The fire lasted about twelve hours; and, as the town had at that time only one fire-engine, - that procured of Mr. Joseph Jencks in March, 1654, - and, moreover, as the buildings were chiefly constructed of wood, the loss was very great. In the olden time the main dependence, in such emergencies, was upon the long handled hooks and the ladders, which had been in use about twenty-five years, and with which every householder was obliged to be provided, and also upon the large swabs which were attached to poles twelve feet long, with which water was splashed upon the burning walls and roofs. As it happened, about eighty dwellings and seventy shops and warehouses, together with several vessels, were consumed by the fire. Had it not been for the conduit in the neighboring square, and the dock also near by (which during part of the time was dry, being dependent upon the tides for a supply of water), the destruction of property must have been much greater; for the nearest public wells were then, one at the States Arms Tavern in State street, then known as Water street (for the Water street of the present day was the Springate of our forefathers), another where the Town Pump formerly stood, in that portion of Washington street nearly opposite the hat store of Messrs. Bent & Bush (then known as the High street leading to Roxbury, and more recently as Cornhill), a third at Mr. Thomas
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Venner's pump near the conduit in Union street (then the way leading from the conduit to the mill), and situated very near to the Town Dock (or Bendall's Cove, as it was formerly called).
At the time of the fire, Mr. Thomas Stanbury had a wooden building standing upon the corner of Draw- bridge street, facing the conduit square; and although two of its sides faced upon the way called Fishmarket street which separated it from the dock, it was doomed to share the fate of those in its immediate vicinity, and therefore fell a sacrifice to the devouring flames.
In consequence of the severe loss to the town, the General Court of the Colony at its next session, commencing on the fifteenth of October immediately succeeding the great calamity, passed the following act: -
" This Court, hauing a sence of the great ruines in Boston by fire, and hazard still of the same, by reason of the joyning and neereness of their buildings, for prevention of damage & losse thereby for future, doe order & enact, that henceforth no dwelling house in Boston shallbe errected & sett vp except of stone or bricke, & couered with slate or tyle, on penalty of forfeiting double the value of such buildings, vnless by allowance & liberty obteyned otheruise from the magistrates, comissioners, & selectmen of Boston or major parte of them. And, further, the selectmen of Boston are hereby impowred to heare and determine all controversies about propertjes and rights of any person to build on the land wherein now lately the housing haue been burnt doune, allowing liberty of appeale for any person grieved to the County Court."
Of course Mr. Stanbury in rebuilding had to follow
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the order of the General Court as nearly as he could; yet at the same time he was bound, in duty to himself, to erect a building with as square rooms as possible on his irregularly shaped lot, and as large also as his indulgent townsmen would allow him to do. This he could not do with stones nor with brick, as he wished to adopt the then new and fashionable style of building with jetties, or, in other words, with projecting stories. He therefore resolved to erect a roughcast building; for this would not only answer his purpose, but likewise that of the law. The lot of land was irregular shaped, measuring thirty-two feet northerly on Drawbridge street, about thirty-nine and a half feet easterly on the contiguous estate formerly belonging to the widow of Rowland Storey, about sixteen feet southerly on the Fish Market facing the Town Dock, and about forty feet westerly also on the Fish Market. He built the basement story strictly upon the lines of his boundaries; but, as will be seen by looking at the many views of the building which have been published, he projected the second story over the basement into the street, in such a manner as to give ample and well formed rooms to the main part of the building. Indeed, in one place (in front) he made the projection of this story about six feet, although he confined the general extent of the jetty to about two feet only. He surmounted the whole with a story of gables, which also projected over the story beneath, - three of the gables appertaining to the main building (two fronting North street, and one the square), and two belonging to the smaller portion of the building, one gable facing west, and the other Faneuil Hall to the south. At all the corners of the jetties he left square pendills, as they were anciently called, being
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parts of the corner timbers of the building. The different stories of all parts of the building - were not very high studded, the lowermost being about eight feet in height, in order to prevent the infringement of a town order, passed in July, 1663, for the regulation of jetties and pendills.
The old warehouse, as it stood at the time of its demolition, presented very nearly the appearance which it may reasonably be supposed to have exhibited in its early days. Its framework was of a very hard kind of oak, roughly hewn, and had never been remodelled or altered in form, except by the construction of a slanting roof in connection with the most southerly gable. A small addition, only, having recently been made on the Market square side, in consequence of an enlargement of the lot by a small piece of land surrendered to the estate by the city, the form of the whole structure externally was about the same as when the building was erected in 1680, one hundred and eighty years before. The outside of the building was covered with a strong, and, as time has proved, durable cement, in which was observable coarse gravel and broken glass, the latter consisting of fragments of dark-colored junk bottles. At the upper part of the principal gable on the Dock square front the date of the time of erecting the build- ing, 1680, was distinctly impressed into the rough-cast cement in Arabic figures, together with various ornamental devices. The building was originally constructed so as to admit of its being used as two tenements, which seems to have been the actual case as far as can be ascertained. Both parts fronted upon the public square, where each had separate entrances; and each had a smaller door respectively on the side next to
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their contiguous street. Each had, also, a staircase of its own, but the chimney was in common for both parts of the building. Internally the finish of the building was in the style peculiar to the time of its erection. All the timbers and beams projected into the rooms, and were neatly finished with mouldings, and the walls were plastered upon split cedar laths secured immediately to pine casings. Each of the stories of the main part was divided into two rooms, so that in the days of its glory there probably were three rooms on each story, and nine in the whole structure.
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