USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Topographical and historical description of Boston > Part 6
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AND
HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION
OF
BOSTON.
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER I.
ARRIVAL OF COLONISTS AND SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
Arrival of the Colonists of Boston at Salem, in 1630 . .. Departure from Yar- mouth, England, 8 April, 1630 ... The Humble Request . .. Arrival at Charlestown . .. William Blaxton at Shawmut ... Death of Isaac Johnson at Charlestown ... Removal of the Colonists to Trimountaine . . . Origin of the name of Boston . . . Improbable Traditions ... Scanty Fare and Meagre Accommodations ... Capt. Clap's Account of Hardships ... Boston in the Olden Time on the Peninsula . . . The early limits of the Town . . . Pulling Point, Rumney Marsh, and Winnisimmet . . . Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount, and Muddy Brook ... Chelsea incorporated as a Town in 1739, and as a City in 1857 ... North Chelsea incorporated in 1846, and Winthrop in 1852 . .. Islands, Dorchester Neck and Point, and Washington Village ... Annexation of Roxbury in 1868, and Dorchester in 1870 · · · Incorporation of Roxbury as a Town in 1630, and City in 1846, and Change of Boundary ... Incorporation of West Roxbury in 1851 ·· · Incorporation of Dorchester in 1630, and Change of Boundary in 1855 . . . Hyde Park incorporated in 1868 . . . Position of Boston . .. Area, Shape and Size of the Peninsula . . . Length and Breadth of the old Town.
ON Saturday, the twelfth day of June, according to the old style of reckoning time, and in the year 1630, came into the outer harbor of Salem the Arbella and other vessels conveying the first germ of a small town, which was destined soon to be the capital of a new colony and the metropolis of a great country.
Mr. John Winthrop, a man of extraordinary strength of mind and perseverance, together with other men of kindred spirit, as the leaders of a large company of self- exiled colonists, left the land of their birth and childhood,
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
their friends, their relatives and almost all they held dear, and set sail from Yarmouth, in England, on the eighth day of April, 1630, to be tossed for many days and nights upon the waves of the perilous ocean, to plant themselves in trans-atlantic regions on the shores of a wild, but free country, to establish a safe resting-place for the oppressed of all nations of the earth. While at Yarmouth, the principal men signed on board the Arbella that excellent address styled "the Humble Request of his Majesty's loyal subjects, the Governor and Company late gone for New England, to the rest of their brethren in and of the Church of England, for the obtaining of their prayer, and the removal of suspicions and miscon- structions of their intentions."
Not intending to remain at Salem, where Mr. John Endicott and his associates were already seated, a delega- tion was sent, on the seventeenth of June, to seek out a suitable place for the new comers to commence a settle- ment. These visited Charlestown, the Mishawum (in Indian dialect " a great spring") of the aboriginal inhabi- tants, where Mr. Thomas Walford and others dwelt, and other neighboring localities previous to their return to Salem on the nineteenth, where they reported favorably for building at Charlton, as they abbreviated the name, which the residents there called Charles Town. By the first of July the Arbella had been removed with the passengers to this place of their choice; and during the month, the greatest part of the fleet that left England with Mr. Winthrop had arrived safely into port in the present harbor of Boston.
When the first English resident of Boston, Mr. Wil- liam Blaxton (spelled sometimes Blackstone), a retired Episcopal clergyman, selected the peninsula for his place
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
of abode, it bore the name of Shawmut, given by its former inhabitants, Indians of the Massachusetts Bay, the appellation signifying in their dialect "living foun- tains."
The people of Charlestown very early renounced the Indian name of their town; and they also gave to the peninsula on the other side of the river, south of them, the name of Trimountaine, in consequence of the promi- nent hill upon it, which had three distinct heads or sum- mits. Governor Winthrop and his company of adven- turers did not long remain satisfied with their location north of the Charles River, but were soon induced to remove to Trimountaine, at the earnest entreaties of Mr. Blaxton, already seated there, who, among other induce- ments, told of excellent springs of good water, which there abounded. Authority that can be relied upon (a writer in the old volume of Charlestown records) says, "In the meantime Mr. Blackstone, dwelling on the other side of Charles River, alone, at a place by the Indians called Shawmutt, where he only had a cottage at, not far off, the place called Blackstone's Point, he came and acquainted the Governor of an excellent spring there, withal inviting him and soliciting him thither. Where- upon, after the death of Mr. Johnson and divers others, the governor, with Mr. Wilson and the greatest part of the church removed thither; whither also the frame of the governor's house, in preparation at this town, was (also to the discontent of some) carried when people began to build their houses against winter, and this place was called Boston." The exact date of removal from Charles- town to the peninsula cannot be ascertained. It is certain that Mr. Isaac Johnson died at Charlestown on the thirtieth of September, 1630, and that a Court of
4
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND, HISTORICAL
Assistants was held at the same place two days previous; and it is also known that the first General Court of the colony held in Boston was on the nineteenth day of Oc- tober, 1630. The Massachusetts Colony Records, under date of the twenty-third of August, of the same year, give the following : "It was ordered, that there should be a Court of Assistants helde att the Gou'n's howse on the 7th day of Septemb' nexte, being Tuesday, to begin att 8 of the clocke." This meeting was held at Charlestown (where it is to be inferred that the Gover- nor dwelt) on the appointed day, and then the ever memorable order was passed which gave to the penin- sula the name it now bears. The exact record which chronicles the naming of three important towns is : "It is ordered, that Trimountaine shalbe called Boston; Mattapan, Dorchester; & the towne vpon Charles Ryuer, Waterton." There is therefore good reason for be- lieving that Boston was not settled by the English colo- nists until after the month of September, 1630, although the town took its present name on the seventh day of that month according to the old style, or on the seven- teenth according to the new style now in use; and this is confirmed by the fact that the Court was held on the twenty-eighth day of September at the Governor's house in Charlestown, and by the statement already quoted that the removal was not made until after the decease of Mr. Johnson, which occurred on the thirtieth.
It has been stated by many historical writers, that the name of Boston was given to the peninsula out of respect to Rev. John Cotton, subsequently the beloved teacher of the first church established within its limits, he having served many years as vicar of St. Botolph's in the borough of Boston, in Lincolnshire in England.
27
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
This was not the case: in proof of which we have only to call to mind that it was not until the fourth of Sep- tember, 1633 (three years after the act of the General Court), that the Griffin, a noble vessel of three hundred tons burden, sailed into Boston harbor, bringing Rev. John Cotton, and with him a choice freight of about two hundred individuals, some of whom were the mag- nates of the ancient borough of Boston; for Mr. Ather- ton Hough had been Mayor of old Boston, and he and Mr. Thomas Leverett, afterwards the Ruling Elder of the church of which Rev. John Wilson was the pastor, and Mr. Cotton the teacher, had surrendered their places of aldermanship just before taking their voyage to New- England in July. The true reason for giving the name of Boston to the peninsula was undoubtedly in honor of Mr. Isaac Johnson, the great friend and supporter of the Massachusetts Colony, who came over with Winthrop in 1630, and died in Charlestown about three weeks after the naming of the town; his wife, the Lady Arbella, after whom the principal ship had been named, having died at Salem a month previous. Mr. Johnson was from Boston in England; and there he made a will in April, 1628, styling himself of Boston, making bequests to his minister and the poor of Boston, and providing that he should "be buryed in the church yard of Boston." It would be presumptuous to suppose for a moment that he meant Boston in New England, as he had not at the time of executing this instrument resolved to remove to America, nor had the name at that time been given to the peninsula; nevertheless, this last-mentioned provision has been the foundation of improbable traditions that have obtained large credence, and which will be alluded to hereafter.
.
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
The arrival of Governor Winthrop and his company is thus alluded to in the "New Englands Memorial," by Nathaniel Morton, Secretary of the Colony of New Plymouth, printed in 1669.
"This Year [1630] it pleased God of his rich grace to Transport over into the Bay of the Massachusets divers honourable Personages, and many worthy Chris- tians, whereby the Lord began in a manifest manner and way to make known the great thoughts which he had of Planting the Gospel in this remote and barbarous Wilder- ness, and honouring his own Way of Instituted Wor- ship, causing such and so many to adhere thereunto, and fall upon the practice thereof: Among the rest, a chief one amongst them was that famous Patern of Piety and Justice Mr. John Winthrop, the first Governour of that Jurisdiction, accompanied with divers other precious Sons of Sion, which might be compared to the most fine gold. Amongst whom also I might name that Reverend and Worthy man, Mr. John Wilson, eminent for Love and Zeal; he likewise came over this year, and bare a great share of the difficulties of these new beginnings with great cheerfulness and alacrity of spirit: They came over with a Fleet of ten Ships, three of them arriv- ing first at Salem, in which several of the chiefest of them came, who repaired sundry of them in some short time into the Bay of the Massachusets; the other seven Ships arrived at Charlestown, when it pleased the Lord to exercise them with much sickness, and being destitute of housing and shelter, and lying up and down in Booths, some of them languished and died: yea, it pleased God to take away amongst the rest, that blessed Servant of Christ Mr. Isaac Johnson with his Lady, soon after their arrival, with sundry other precious Saints. This sick-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
ness being heavy upon them, caused the principal of them to propose to the rest to set a day apart to seek the Lord for the aswaging of his displeasure therein, as also for direction and guidance in the solemn enterprize of entering into Church-fellowship; which solemn day of Humiliation was observed by all, not onely of themselves, but also by their Brethren at Plimouth in their behalf: and the Lord was intreated not onely to asswage the sickness, but also encouraged their hearts to a begin- ing, and in some short time after to a further progress in the great Work of Erecting a way of Worshipping Christ in Church-fellowship, according to Primitive In- stitution.
"The first that began in the work of the Lord above- mentioned, were their honoured Governour Mr. John Winthrop, Mr. Johnson fore-named, that much honoured Gentleman Mr. Thomas Dudley, and Mr. John Wilson aforesaid; These four were the first that began that honourable Church of Boston, unto whom there joyned many others. The same year also Mr. George Philips (who was a worthy Servant of Christ, and Dispenser of his Word) began a Church-fellowship at Watertown; as did also Mr. Maverick and Mr. Wareham at Dorches- ter the same year.
"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by his hand that made all things of noth- ing: and as one small Candle may light a thousand; so the Light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole Nation. Let the glorious Name of Jehovah have all the praise in all Ages."
To give the reader somewhat of an idea of the scanty fare and meagre accommodations of the first settlers of Boston, the brief recital of an account written by an
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
early colonist will suffice. Captain Roger Clap, who so vividly describes the trials and sufferings of the early comers, was of the company that settled at Dorchester with those excellent ministers John Warham and John Maverick. He set sail with others from Plymouth, in England, in the ship Mary and John, on the twentieth of March, 1629-30, and after a passage of ten weeks, arrived at Hull the thirtieth of May, 1630, about a fort- night before Governor Winthrop and his fleet reached Salem. In this writing, addressed to his children a short time before his death, which occurred on the second of February, 1690-1, he described the forlorn condition of himself and company in the following words, which will clearly illustrate the condition of our Boston colonists who so soon afterwards went through the same trials:
" When we came to Nantasket, Capt. Squeb, who was Captain of that great Ship of Four Hundred Tons, would not bring us into Charles River, as he was bound to do; but, put us ashore and our Goods on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for our selves in a forlorn Place in this Wilderness. But as it pleased God, we got a Boat of some old Planters, and laded her with Goods; and some able Men well Armed went in her unto Charlestown: where we found some Wigwams and one House, and in the House there was a Man which had a boiled Bass, but no Bread that we see: but we did eat of his Bass, and then went up Charles River, until the River grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our Goods with much Labour and Toil, the Bank being steep. And Night coming on, we were informed that there were hard by us Three Hundred Indians: One English. Man that could speak the Indian Language (an old Planter) went to them and advised them not to come.
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
near us in the Night; and they hearkened to his Coun- sel, and came not. I my self was one of the Centinals that first Night: Our Captain was a Low Country Soul- dier, one Mr. Southcot, a brave Souldier. In the Morning some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us, but came not near us: but when they had been a while in view, some of them came and held out a great Bass towards us; so we sent a Man with a Bisket, and changed the Cake for the Bass. Afterwards they supplied us with Bass, exchanging a Bass for a Bisket- Cake, and were very friendly unto us.
"Oh Dear Children! Forget not what Care God had over his dear Servants, to watch over us, and protect us in our weak beginnings. Capt. Squeb turned ashore Us and our Goods, like a mercyless Man; but God, even our merciful God, took pity on us; so that we were sup- plied, first with a Boat, and then caused many Indians, (some Hundreds) to be ruled by the Advice of one Man, not to come near us: Alas had they come upon us, how soon might they have destroyed us! I think We were not above Ten in Number. But God caused the Indi- ans to help us with Fish at very cheap Rates. We had not been there many Days, (although by our Diligence we had got up a kind of Shelter, to save our Goods in) but we had Order to come away from that Place, (which was about Watertown) unto a Place called Mattapan (now Dorchester) because there was a Neck of Land fit to keep our Cattle on: So we removed and came to Mat- tapan: The Indians there also were kind unto us.
" Not long after, came our renowned & blessed Govern- our, and divers of his Assistants with him. Their Ships came into Charles River, and many Passengers landed at Charlestown, many of whom died the Winter follow-
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
ing. Governour Winthrop purposed to set down his Station about Cambridge, or somewhere on the River: but viewing the Place, liked that plain Neck that was called then Black-stones-Neck, now Boston. But in the mean time, before they could build at Boston, they lived many of them in Tents and Wigwams at Charlestown; their Meeting-Place being abroad under a Tree; where I have heard Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips Preach many a good Sermon.
"In those Days God did cause his People to trust in him, and to be contented with mean things. It was not accounted a strange thing in those Days to drink Water, and to eat Samp or Homine without Butter or Milk. Indeed it would have been a strange thing to see a piece of Roast Beef, Mutton or Veal; though it was not long before there was Roast Goat. After the first Winter, we were very Healthy; though some of us had no great Store of Corn. The Indians did sometimes bring Corn, and Truck with us for Cloathing and Knives; and once I had a Peck of Corn or thereabouts, for a little Puppy- Dog. Frost-fish, Muscles and Clams were a Relief to many."
In speaking of Boston in the olden time the penin- sula alone is intended to constitute the town; and this extended from Winnisimmet Ferryways to the Roxbury Line. It should not be forgotten, however, that the town had land out of the peninsula. The old records of the colony inform us that, on the seventh of November, 1632, it was ordered, "that the necke of land betwixte Powder Horne Hill & Pullen Poynte shall belonge to Boston, to be enioyed by the inhabitants thereof for ever." On the fourteenth of May, 1634, "the Court hath ordered, that Boston shall have convenient inlarge-
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
m' att Mount Wooliston, to be sett out by foure indif- ferent men." On the same day, "it was ffurther ordered, that Winetsemet, & the houses there builte & to be builte, shall ioyne themselves eith" to Charlton or Bos- ton, as members of that towne, before the nexte Gen"all Court." Muddy River, now part of the town of Brook- line, was also very early a part of Boston. Portions of these appendages to the town were granted to the early inhabitants of the town, a minute of which was kept with great exactness upon the town records.
It may be interesting for some to know that the town of Braintree was established on the thirteenth of May, 1640, and that it included "Mount Wollaston," the Merry Mount of Thomas Morton's wild days, or "the Mount," as it was generally called in the Boston records; and that Muddy River (or Muddy Brook) was placed within the jurisdiction of " Newe Towne" on the twenty- fifth of September, 1634. Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pulling Point, were set off from Boston, and incor- porated as the town of Chelsea on the ninth of January, 1738-9, and the territory has since been divided into three separate municipalities :- Chelsea, incorporated as a city on the thirteenth of March, 1857, North Chelsea as a town on the nineteenth of March, 1846, and Winthrop also as a town on the twenty-seventh of March, 1852.
Many of the islands of the harbor were very early placed under the jurisdiction of the town, and remain so to the present day. Dorchester Neck and Point were annexed to Boston on the sixth of March, 1804, and Washington Village, formerly a part of Dorchester, on the twenty-first of May, 1855.
By an act of the legislature of the Commonwealth, approved by the governor on the first of June, 1867, the
3
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
question of annexation of the city of Roxbury to Boston was submitted to the legal voters of Boston and Rox- bury. The act was accepted by the decisive action of the voters on the ninth of September, 1867, the vote in Boston standing 4,633 yeas against 1,059 nays, and in Roxbury, 1,832 yeas against 592 nays; and the union of the two municipalities was consummated on the sixth day of January, 1868. On the fourth of June, 1869, the governor approved an act to unite the city of Boston and the town of Dorchester, and the same was submitted for acceptance to the voters on the twenty-second day of June following, the result being in Boston, 3,420 votes in favor of annexation, and 565 against; and in Dorchester, 928 votes in favor, and 726 against; and so the union was established, to take place on the third of January, 1870.
The town of Roxbury may be said to have been incorporated on the twenty-eighth day of September, 1630, O. S., when it was first taxed for the support of military teachers. It was incorporated as a city by an act approved by the governor on the twelfth of March, 1846, and accepted by the legal voters of the town on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, there being 836 votes for and 192 against the charter. At various times its boundary line with Boston was altered and established by acts of the legislature; the most im- portant of which were approved on the sixteenth of March, 1836, the third of May, 1850, and the sixth of April, 1859. The town of West Roxbury was set off from the City of Roxbury and incorporated on the twenty-fourth of May, 1851.
Dorchester has the same date of incorporation as Boston. By an act of the legislature approved on the
35
DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
second of May, 1855, so much of this town as was situ- ated on the southeasterly side of Neponset River, near to and at the place called Squantum, was set off and annexed to the town of Quincy. By another act of the legislature, approved on the twenty-second day of April, 1868, a portion of the town was set off to form part of the town of Hyde Park, leaving the southerly boundary of the town as at present.
The old geographers tell us that Boston was the shire town of Suffolk County and the capital of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts; still older ones called it the capital of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England; and our forefathers designated it as the place where the governor and company of the colony, and subsequently, instead of company, the assistants and deputies, held their courts. An old writer, who seems to have had much reverence for the neighboring college at Cambridge, tells us that the town lies in longitude 0° 04' east from the meridian of Cambridge, a place where astronomical observations can most easily be made, -- a fact which has now become patent, - and in latitude 42° 23' north. In using these figures in the present instance, our astronomical readers must allow a little indulgence, for careful observations had not then been made so accurately as to give the nice figures re- duced to decimals of seconds, which can be found in the books of the observatory of the university at Cambridge. The true latitude of Boston is 42° 21' 27.6" north, and the longitude 5° 59' 18" east from Washington, and 71º 3' 30" west from Greenwich. When it is noon at Bos- ton, it is 44 14" past four o'clock P.M. at Greenwich Observatory, and 36 minutes past eleven o'clock A.M. at Washington.
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TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
The peninsula selected for the settlement of the party that came over in 1630 was small, containing an area of less than one thousand acres, and was very irregular in shape. On its north was the Mill Cove, part of the Charles River; on its west was an expansion of the same river, forming what was known as the Back Bay, and which might with propriety have been called the West Cove; on the south was the township of Roxbury; and on the east the Great Cove and the South Cove, east of which was a most convenient harbor that opened by nar- row and deep channels into an extensive bay, both of which were bounded with excellent highlands fit for the sites of innumerable towns, that in time were to be tribu- tary to the capital of the colony.
The length of the town, running north-northeast from the Roxbury line to the place early selected for the forti- fication on the neck, which was really in the early days of the town its entrance,-for the neck land was consid- ered only as an appendage to the town, -was about one mile and thirty-nine yards, and the distance thence to the Winnisimmet ferry was one mile and three-quarters and one hundred and ninety-nine yards, making the whole length of the town about two miles, three-quarters and two hundred and thirty-eight yards.
The breadth of the peninsula, owing to its irregular shape, varied much at different places. Near the fortifi- cation it was very narrow; but proceeding north it widened, measuring on the present line of Essex and Boylston streets to the water on the west side about eleven hundred and twenty-seven yards. From the present situation of Foster's wharf, southeast of Fort Hill to the northwesterly end of Leverett street, the breadth was one mile and one hundred and thirty-nine
F 1
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DESCRIPTION OF BOSTON.
yards. Advancing farther to the northward, and taking the measurement from the Old Mill Pond, a few yards east of where the church of St. Mary now stands in Endicott street, through Cross street to the water on the east, it was two hundred and seventy-five yards only in breadth. From Charlestown ferry (now Charles River Bridge) through Prince street, North square and Sun Court street to the water, the breadth measured seven hundred and twenty-six yards.
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