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Another old inn of assured celebrity was theCromwell’s Head, in School Street. This was a two-story wooden building of venerable appearance, conspicuously displaying over the footway a grim likeness of the Lord Protector, it is said much to the disgust of the ultra royalists, who, rather than pass underneath it, habitually took the other side of the way. Indeed, some of the hot-headed Tories were for servingCromwell’s Headas that man of might had served their martyr king’s. So, when the town came under martiallaw, mine host Brackett, whose family kept the house for half a century or more, had to take down his sign, and conceal it until such time as the “British hirelings” should have made their inglorious exit from the town.
After Braddock’s crushing defeat in the West, a young Virginian colonel, named George Washington, was sent by Governor Dinwiddie to confer with Governor Shirley, who was the great war governor of his day, as Andrew was of our own, with the difference that Shirley then had the general direction of military affairs, from the Ohio to the St. Lawrence, pretty much in his own hands. Colonel Washington took up his quarters at Brackett’s, little imagining, perhaps, that twenty years later he would enter Boston at the head of a victorious republican army, after having quartered his troops in Governor Shirley’s splendid mansion.
Major-General the Marquis Chastellux, ofRochambeau’s auxiliary army, also lodged at theCromwell’s Headwhen he was in Boston in 1782. He met there the renowned Paul Jones, whose excessive vanity led him to read to the company in the coffee-room some verses composed in his own honor, it is said, by Lady Craven.
From the tavern of the gentry we pass on to the tavern of the mechanics, and of the class which Abraham Lincoln has forever distinguished by the title of the common people.
Among such houses theSalutation, which stood at the junction of Salutation with North Street, is deserving of a conspicuous place. Its vicinity to the shipyards secured for it the custom of the sturdy North End shipwrights, caulkers, gravers, sparmakers, and the like,—a numerous body, who, while patriots to the backbone, were also quite clannish and independent in their feelings and views, and consequently had to be managed with due regard to their class prejudices, as in politics they always went in a body. Shrewd politicians, like Samuel Adams, understood this. Governor Phips owed his elevation to it. As a body, therefore, these mechanics were extremely formidable, whether at the polls or in carrying out the plans of their leaders. To their meetings the origin of the wordcaucusis usually referred, the word itself undoubtedly having come into familiar use as a short way of saying caulkers’ meetings.
TheSalutationbecame the point of fusion betweenleading Whig politicians and the shipwrights. More than sixty influential mechanics attended the first meeting, called in 1772, at which Dr. Warren drew up a code of by-laws. Some leading mechanic, however, was always chosen to be the moderator. The “caucus,” as it began to be called, continued to meet in this place until after the destruction of the tea, when, for greater secrecy, it became advisable to transfer the sittings to another place, and then the Green Dragon, in Union Street, was selected.
TheSalutationhad a sign of the sort that is said to tickle the popular fancy for what is quaint or humorous. It represented two citizens, with hands extended, bowing and scraping to each other in the most approved fashion. So the North-Enders nicknamed it “The Two Palaverers,” by which name it was most commonly known. This house, also, was a reminiscence of theSalutationin Newgate Street, London, which was the favorite haunt of Lamb and Coleridge.
TheGreen Dragonwill probably outlive all its contemporaries in the popular estimation. In the first place a mural tablet, with a dragon sculptured in relief, has been set in the wall of the building that now stands upon some part of the old tavern site. It is the only one of the old inns to be so distinguished. Its sign was the fabled dragon, in hammered metal, projecting out above the door, and was probably the counterpart of theGreen Dragonin Bishopsgate Street, London.
THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN
As a public house this one goes back to 1712, whenRichard Pullen kept it; and we also find it noticed, in 1715, as a place for entering horses to be run for a piece of plate of the value of twenty-five pounds. In passing, we may as well mention the fact that Revere Beach was the favorite race-ground of that day. The house was well situated for intercepting travel to and from the northern counties.
THE GREEN DRAGON.
To resume the historical connection between theSalutationandGreen Dragon, its worthy successor, it appears that Dr. Warren continued to be the commanding figure after the change of location; and, if he was not already the popular idol, he certainly came little short of it, for everything pointed to him as the coming leader whom the exigency should raise up. Samuel Adams was popular in a different way. He was cool, far-sighted, and persistent, but he certainly lacked the magnetic quality. Warren was much younger, far more impetuous and aggressive,—in short, he possessed all the more brilliant qualities for leadership which Adams lacked. Moreover, he was a fluent and effective speaker, ofgraceful person, handsome, affable, with frank and winning manners, all of which added no little to his popularity. Adams inspired respect, Warren confidence. As Adams himself said, he belonged to the “cabinet,” while Warren’s whole make-up as clearly marked him for the field.
In all the local events preliminary to our revolutionary struggle, thisGreen Dragonsection or junto constituted an active and positive force. It represented the muscle of the Revolution. Every member was sworn to secrecy, and of them all one only proved recreant to his oath.
These were the men who gave the alarm on the eve of the battle of Lexington, who spirited away cannon under General Gage’s nose, and who in so many instances gallantly fought in the ranks of the republican army. Wanting a man whom he could fully trust, Warren early singled out Paul Revere for the most important services. He found him as true as steel. A peculiar kind of friendship seems to have sprung up between the two, owing, perhaps, to the same daring spirit common to both. So when Warren sent word to Revere that he must instantly ride to Lexington or all would be lost, he knew that, if it lay in the power of man to do it, the thing would be done.
Besides the more noted of the tavern clubs there were numerous private coteries, some exclusively composed of politicians, others more resembling our modern debating societies than anything else. These clubs usuallymet at the houses of the members themselves, so exerting a silent influence on the body politic. The non-importation agreement originated at a private club in 1773. But all were not on the patriot side. The crown had equally zealous supporters, who met and talked the situation over without any of the secrecy which prudence counselled the other side to use in regard to their proceedings. Some associations endeavored to hold the balance between the factions by standing neutral. They deprecated the encroachments of the mother-country, but favored passive obedience. Dryden has described them:
“Not Whigs nor Tories they, nor this nor that,Nor birds nor beasts, but just a kind of bat,—A twilight animal, true to neither cause,With Tory wings but Whiggish teeth and claws.”
It should be mentioned that Gridley, the father of the Boston Bar, undertook, in 1765, to organize a law club, with the purpose of making head against Otis, Thatcher, and Auchmuty. John Adams and Fitch were Gridley’s best men. They met first at Ballard’s, and subsequently at each other’s chambers; their “sodality,” as they called it, being for professional study and advancement. Gridley, it appears, was a little jealous of his old pupil, Otis, who had beaten him in the famous argument on the Writs of Assistance. Mention is also made of a club of which Daniel Leonard (Massachusettensis), John Lowell, Elisha Hutchinson, Frank Dana,and Josiah Quincy were members. Similar clubs also existed in most of the principal towns in New England.
TheSons of Libertyadopted the name given by Colonel Barré to the enemies of passive obedience in America. They met in the counting-room of Chase and Speakman’s distillery, near Liberty Tree.[3]Mackintosh, the man who led the mob in the Stamp Act riots, is doubtless the same person who assisted in throwing the tea overboard. We hear no more of him after this. The “Sons” were an eminently democratic organization, as few except mechanics were members. Among them were men like Avery, Crafts, and Edes the printer. All attained more or less prominence. Edes continued to print theBoston Gazettelong after the Revolution. During Bernard’s administration he was offered the whole of the government printing, if he would stop his opposition to the measures of the crown. He refused the bribe, and his paper was the only one printed in America without a stamp, in direct violation of an Act of Parliament. The “Sons” pursued their measures with such vigor as to create much alarm among the loyalists, on whom the Stamp Act riots had made a lasting impression. Samuel Adams is thought to have influenced their proceedings more than any other of the leaders. It was by no means a league of ascetics, who had resolved to mortify the flesh, as punch and tobacco were liberally used to stimulate the deliberations.
THE LIBERTY TREE
No important political association outlived the beginning of hostilities. All the leaders were engaged in the military or civil service on one or the other side. Of the circle that met at theMerchants’three were members of the Philadelphia Congress of 1774, one was president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, the career of two was closed by death, and that of Otis by insanity.
SIGNBOARD HUMOR.
Another tavern sign, though of later date, was that of theGood Woman, at the North End. ThisGood Womanwas painted without a head.
The Good Woman
Still another board had painted on it a bird, a tree, a ship, and a foaming can, with the legend,—
“This is the bird that never flew,This is the tree which never grew,This is the ship which never sails,This is the can which never fails.”
TheDog and Pot,Turk’s Head,Tun and Bacchus, were also old and favorite emblems. Some of the houses which swung these signs were very quaint specimens of our early architecture. So, also, the signs themselves were not unfrequently the work of good artists. Smibert or Copley may have painted some of them. West once offered five hundred dollars for a red lion he had painted for a tavern sign.
DOG AND POT.
Not a few boards displayed a good deal of ingenuity and mother-wit, which was not without its effect, especially upon thirsty Jack, who could hardly be expected to resist such an appeal as this one of theShip in Distress:
“With sorrows I am compass’d round;Pray lend a hand, my ship’s aground.”
We hear of another signboard hanging out at the extreme South End of the town, on which was depicted a globe with a man breaking through the crust, like achicken from its shell. The man’s nakedness was supposed to betoken extreme poverty.
So much for the sign itself. The story goes that early one morning a continental regiment was halted in front of the tavern, after having just made a forced march from Providence. The men were broken down with fatigue, bespattered with mud, famishing from hunger. One of these veterans doubtless echoed the sentiments of all the rest when he shouted out to the man on the sign, “’List, darn ye! ’List, and you’ll get through this world fast enough!”
“HOW SHALL I GET THROUGH THIS WORLD?”
In time of war the taverns were favorite recruiting rendezvous. Those at the waterside were conveniently situated for picking up men from among the idlers who frequented the tap-rooms. Under date of 1745, when we were at war with France, bills were posted in the town giving notice to all concerned that, “All gentlemen sailors and others, who are minded to go on a cruise off ofCape Breton, on board the brigantineHawk, Captain Philip Bass commander, mounting fourteen carriage, and twenty swivel guns, going in consort with the brigantineRanger, Captain Edward Fryer commander, of the like force, to intercept the East India, South Sea, and other ships bound to Cape Breton, let them repair to the Widow Gray’s at theCrown Tavern, at the head of Clark’s Wharf, to go with Captain Bass, or to theVernon’s Head, Richard Smith’s, in King Street, to go in theRanger.” “Gentlemen sailors” is a novel sea-term that must have tickled an old salt’s fancy amazingly.
The following notice, given at the same date in the most public manner, is now curious reading. “To be sold, a likely negro or mulatto boy, about eleven years of age.” This was in Boston.
The Revolution wrought swift and significant change in many of the old, favorite signboards. Though the idea remained the same, their symbolism was now put to a different use. Down came the king’s and up went the people’s arms. The crowns and sceptres, the lions and unicorns, furnished fuel for patriotic bonfires or were painted out forever. With them disappeared the last tokens of the monarchy. The crown was knocked into a cocked-hat, the sceptre fell at the unsheathing of the sword. The heads of Washington and Hancock, Putnam and Lee, Jones and Hopkins, now fired the martial heart instead of Vernon, Hawk, or Wolfe. Allegiance to old and cherished traditions was swept away as ruthlessly as if it were in truth but thereflection of that loyalty which the colonists had now thrown off forever. They had accepted the maxim, that, when a subject draws his sword against his king, he should throw away the scabbard.
Such acts are not to be referred to the fickleness of popular favor which Horace Walpole has moralized upon, or which the poet satirizes in the lines,—
“Vernon, the Butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke,Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppell, Howe,Evil and good have had their tithe of talk,And filled their sign-post then like Wellesly now.”
Rather should we credit it to that genuine and impassioned outburst of patriotic feeling which, having turned royalty out of doors, indignantly tossed its worthless trappings into the street after it.
Not a single specimen of the old-time hostelries now remains in Boston. All is changed. The demon demolition is everywhere. Does not this very want of permanence suggest, with much force, the need of perpetuating a noted house or site by some appropriate memorial? It is true that a beginning has been made in this direction, but much more remains to be done. In this way, a great deal of curious and valuable information may be picked up in the streets, as all who run may read. It has been noticed that very few pass by such memorials without stopping to read the inscriptions. Certainly, no more popular method of teaching history could well be devised. This being done, on a liberal scale, thecity would still hold its antique flavor through the records everywhere displayed on the walls of its buildings, and we should have a home application of the couplet:
“Oh, but a wit can study in the streets,And raise his mind above the mob he meets.”
APPENDIX.
BOSTON TAVERNS TO THE YEAR 1800.
TheAnchor, orBlue Anchor. Robert Turner, vintner, came into possession of the estate (Richard Fairbanks’s) in 1652, died in 1664, and was succeeded in the business by his son John, who continued it till his own death in 1681; Turner’s widow married George Monck, or Monk, who kept theAnchoruntil his decease in 1698; his widow carried on the business till 1703, when the estate probably ceased to be a tavern. The house was destroyed in the great fire of 1711. The old and new Globe buildings stand on the site. [See communication of William R. Bagnall inBoston Daily Globeof April 2, 1885.] Committees of the General Court used to meet here. (Hutchinson Coll., 345, 347.)
Admiral Vernon, orVernon’s Head, corner of State Street and Merchants’ Row. In 1743, Peter Faneuil’s warehouse was opposite. Richard Smith kept it in 1745, Mary Bean in 1775; its sign was a portrait of the admiral.
American Coffee-House.SeeBritish Coffee-House.
Black Horse, in Prince Street, formerly Black Horse Lane, so named from the tavern as early as 1698.
Brazen-Head.In Old Cornhill. Though not a tavern, memorable as the place where the Great Fire of 1760 originated.
Bull, lower end of Summer Street, north side; demolished 1833 to make room “for the new street from Sea toBroad,” formerly Flounder Lane, now Atlantic Avenue. It was then a very old building. Bull’s Wharf and Lane named for it.
British Coffee-House, mentioned in 1762. John Ballard kept it. Cord Cordis, in 1771.
Bunch of Grapes.Kept by Francis Holmes, 1712; William Coffin, 1731-33; Edward Lutwych, 1733; Joshua Barker, 1749; William Wetherhead, 1750; Rebecca Coffin, 1760; Joseph Ingersoll, 1764-72. [In 1768 Ingersoll also had a wine-cellar next door.] Captain John Marston was landlord 1775-78; William Foster, 1782; Colonel Dudley Colman, 1783; James Vila, 1789, in which year he removed to Concert Hall; Thomas Lobdell, 1789. Trinity Church was organized in this house. It was often described as being at the head of Long Wharf.
Castle Tavern, afterward theGeorge Tavern. Northeast by Wing’s Lane (Elm Street), front or southeast by Dock Square. For an account of Hudson’s marital troubles, see Winthrop’sNew England, II. 249. Another house of the same name is mentioned in 1675 and 1693. A still earlier name was the “Blew Bell,” 1673. It was in Mackerel Lane (Kilby Street), corner of Liberty Square.
Cole’s Inn.See the referred-to deed inProc. Am. Ant. Soc., VII. p. 51. For the episode of Lord Leigh consultOld Landmarks of Boston, p. 109.
Cromwell’s Head, by Anthony Brackett, 1760; by his widow, 1764-68; later by Joshua Brackett. A two-story wooden house advertised to be sold, 1802.
Crown Coffee-House.First house on Long Wharf. Thomas Selby kept it 1718-24; Widow Anna Swords, 1749; then the property of Governor Belcher; Belcher sold to Richard Smith, innholder, who in 1751 sold to Robert Sherlock.
Crown Tavern.Widow Day’s, head of Clark’s Wharf; rendezvous for privateersmen in 1745.
THE CROWN COFFEE HOUSE (Site of Fidelity Trust Building)
Cross Tavern, corner of Cross and Ann Streets, 1732; Samuel Mattocks advertises, 1729, two young bears “very tame” for sale at theSign of the Cross. Cross Street takes its name from the tavern. Perhaps the same as theRed Cross, in Ann Street, mentioned in 1746, and then kept by John Osborn. Men who had enlisted for the Canada expedition were ordered to report there.
Dog and Pot, at the head of Bartlett’s Wharf in Ann (North) Street, or, as then described, Fish Street. Bartlett’s Wharf was in 1722 next northeast of Lee’s shipyard.
Concert Hallwas not at first a public house, but was built for, and mostly used as, a place for giving musical entertainments, balls, parties, etc., though refreshments were probably served in it by the lessee. A “concert of musick” was advertised to be given there as early as 1755. (SeeLandmarks of Boston.) Thomas Turner had a dancing and fencing academy there in 1776. As has been mentioned, James Vila took charge of Concert Hall in 1789. The old hall, which formed the second story, was high enough to be divided into two stories when the building was altered by later owners. It was of brick, and had two ornamental scrolls on the front, which were removed when the alterations were made.
Great Britain Coffee-House, Ann Street, 1715. The house of Mr. Daniel Stevens, Ann Street, near the drawbridge. There was another house of the same name in Queen (Court) Street, near the Exchange, in 1713, where “superfine bohea, and green tea, chocolate, coffee-powder, etc.,” were advertised.
George, orSt. George, Tavern, on the Neck, near Roxbury line. (SeeLandmarks of Boston.) Noted as early as 1721. Simon Rogers kept it 1730-34. In 1769 Edward Bardin took it and changed the name to theKing’s Arms. Thomas Brackett was landlord in 1770.Samuel Mears, later. During the siege of 1775 the tavern was burnt by the British, as it covered our advanced line. It was known at that time by its old name of theGeorge.
Golden Ball.Loring’s Tavern, Merchants’ Row, corner of Corn Court, 1777. Kept by Mrs. Loring in 1789.
General Wolfe, Town Dock, north side of Faneuil Hall, 1768. Elizabeth Coleman offers for sale utensils of Brew-House, etc., 1773.
Green Dragon, alsoFreemason’s Arms. By Richard Pullin, 1712; by Mr. Pattoun, 1715; Joseph Kilder, 1734, who came from theThree Cranes, Charlestown. John Cary was licensed to keep it in 1769; Benjamin Burdick, 1771, when it became the place of meeting of the Revolutionary Club. St. Andrews Lodge of Freemasons bought the building before the Revolution, and continued to own it for more than a century. See p. 46.
Hancock House, Corn Court; sign has Governor Hancock’s portrait,—a wretched daub; said to have been the house in which Louis Philippe lodged during his short stay in Boston.
Hat and Helmet, by Daniel Jones; less than a quarter of a mile south of the Town-House.
Indian Queen,Blue Bell, and——stood on the site of the Parker Block, Washington Street, formerly Marlborough Street. Nathaniel Bishop kept it in 1673. After stages begun running into the country, this house, then kept by Zadock Pomeroy, was a regular starting-place for the Concord, Groton, and Leominster stages. It was succeeded by theWashington Coffee-House. TheIndian Queen, in Bromfield Street, was another noted stage-house, though not of so early date. Isaac Trask, Nabby, his widow, Simeon Boyden, and Preston Shepard kept it. TheBromfield Housesucceeded it, on the Methodist Book Concern site.
BOSTON NEWS-LETTER, FEB. 15, 1770
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COLUMBIAN CENTINEL. DEC. 11, 1799
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COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, JAN. 1, 1800
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JULIEN HOUSE.
Julien’s Restorator, corner of Congress and Milk streets. One of the most ancient buildings in Boston, when taken down in 1824, it having escaped the great fire of 1759. It stood in a grass-plot, fenced in from the street. It was a private dwelling until 1794. Then Jean Baptiste Julien opened in it the first public eating-house to be established in Boston, with the distinctive title of “Restorator,”—a crude attempt to turn the French wordrestaurantinto English. Before this time such places had always been called cook-shops. Julien was a Frenchman, who, like many of his countrymen, took refuge in America during the Reign of Terror. His soups soon became famous among the gourmands of the town, while the novelty of hiscuisineattracted custom. He was familiarly nicknamed the “Prince of Soups.” At Julien’sdeath, in 1805, his widow succeeded him in the business, she carrying it on successfully for ten years. The following lines were addressed to her successor, Frederick Rouillard:
JULIEN’S RESTORATOR.I knew by the glow that so rosily shoneUpon Frederick’s cheeks, that he lived on good cheer;And I said, “If there’s steaks to be had in the town,The man who loves venison should look for them here.”’Twas two; and the dinners were smoking around,The cits hastened home at the savory smell,And so still was the street that I heard not a soundBut the barkeeper ringing theCoffee-Housebell.“And here in the cosyOld Club,”[4]I exclaimed,“With a steak that was tender, and Frederick’s best wine,While under my platter a spirit-blaze flamed,How long could I sit, and how well could I dine!“By the side of my venison a tumbler of beerOr a bottle of sherry how pleasant to see,And to know that I dined on the best of the deer,That never wasdearerto any than me!”
King’s Head, by Scarlet’s Wharf (northwest corner Fleet and North streets); burnt 1691, and rebuilt. Fleet Street was formerly Scarlet’s Wharf Lane. Kept by James Davenport, 1755, and probably, also, by his widow. “A maidendwarf, fifty-two years old,” and only twenty-two inches high, was “to be seen at Widow Bignall’s,” next door to theKing’s Head, in August, 1771. The oldKing’s Head, in Chancery Lane, London, was therendezvous of Titus Oates’ party. Cowley the poet was born in it.
Lamb.The sign is mentioned as early as 1746. Colonel Doty kept it in 1760. The first stage-coach to Providence put up at this house. The Adams House is on the same site, named for Laban Adams, who had kept theLamb.
Lion, formerlyGrand Turk. In Newbury, now Washington, Street. (SeeLandmarks of Boston.) Kept by Israel Hatch in 1789.
Light-House and Anchor, at the North End, in 1763. Robert Whatley then kept it. A Light-house tavern is noted in King Street, opposite the Town-House, 1718.
Orange Tree, head of Hanover Street, 1708. Jonathan Wardwell kept it in 1712; Mrs. Wardwell in 1724; still a tavern in 1785. Wardwell set up here the first hackney-coach stand in Boston.
Philadelphia, orNorth End Coffee-House, opposite the head of Hancock’s Wharf. Kept by David Porter, father of the old Commodore and grandfather of the present Admiral. “Lodges, clubs, societies, etc., may be provided with dinners and suppers,—small and retired rooms for small company,—oyster suppers in the nicest manner.” Formerly kept by Bennet. Occupied, 1789, by Robert Wyre, distiller.
Punch Bowl, Dock Square, kept by Mrs. Baker, 1789.
Queen’s Head.In 1732 Joshua Pierce, innholder, is allowed to remove his license from the sign of theLogwood Tree, in Lynn Street, to theQueen’s Head, near Scarlet’s Wharf, where Anthony Young last dwelt.
Roebuck, north side of Town Dock (North Market Street). A house of bad repute, in which Henry Phillips killed Gaspard Dennegri, and was hanged for it in 1817. Roebuck passage, the alley-way through to Ann Street,took its name from the tavern. It is now included in the extension northward of Merchants’ Row.
Rose and Crown, near the fortification at Boston Neck. To be let January 25, 1728: “enquire of Gillam Phillips.” This may be the house represented on Bonner’s map of 1722.
Red Lion, North Street, corner of Richmond. Noticed as early as 1654 and as late as 1766. John Buchanan, baker, kept near it in 1712.
Royal Exchange, State Street, corner Exchange. An antique two-story brick building. Noticed under this name, 1711, then kept by Benjamin Johns; in 1727, and also, in 1747, by Luke Vardy. Stone kept it in 1768. Mrs. Mary Clapham boarded many British officers, and had several pretty daughters, one of whom eloped with an officer. The site of the Boston Massacre has been marked by a bronze tablet placed on the wall of the Merchants’ Bank, opposite a wheel-line arrangement of the paving, denoting where the first blood of the Revolution was shed. It was the custom to exhibit transparencies on every anniversary of the Massacre from the front of this house. The first stage-coach ever run on the road from Boston to New York was started September 7, 1772, by Nicholas Brown, from this house, “to go once in every fourteen days.” Israel Hatch kept it in 1800, as a regular stopping-place for the Providence stages, of which he was proprietor; but upon the completion of the turnpike he removed to Attleborough.
Salutation, North Street, corner Salutation. See p. 45. Noticed in 1708; Samuel Green kept it in 1731; William Campbell, who died suddenly in a fit, January 18, 1773.
Seven Stars, in Summer Street, gave the name of Seven Star Lane to that street. Said to have stood on part of the old Trinity Church lot. “Near the Haymarket” 1771, then kept by Jonathan Patten.
THE SUN TAVERN (Dock Square)
Shakespeare, Water Street, second house below Devonshire; kept by Mrs. Baker.
Ship, corner Clark and North streets; kept by John Vyall, 1666-67; frequently called Noah’s Ark.
Ship in Distress, vicinity of North Square.
Star, in Hanover Street, corner Link Alley, 1704. Link Alley was the name given to that part of Union Street west of Hanover. Stephen North kept it in 1712-14. It belonged to Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton.
State’s Arms, alsoKing’s Arms. Colonel Henry Shrimpton bequeathed it to his daughter Sarah, 1666. Hugh Gunnison sold it to Shrimpton in 1651, the tavern being then theKing’s Arms.
Sun.This seems to have been a favorite emblem, as there were several houses of the name. TheSunin Batterymarch Street was the residence of Benjamin Hallowell, a loyalist, before it became a tavern. The estate was confiscated. General Henry Dearborn occupied it at one time. The sign bore a gilded sun, with rays, with this inscription:
“The best Ale and PorterUnder the Sun.”
Upon the conversion of the inn into a store the sign of the sun was transferred to a house inMoonStreet. TheSunin Dock Square, corner of Corn Court, was earlier, going back to 1724, kept by Samuel Mears, who was “lately deceased” in 1727. It was finally turned into a grocery store, kept first by George Murdock, and then by his successor, Wellington. A third house of this name was in Cornhill (Washington Street), in 1755. Captain James Day kept it. There was still anotherSun, near Boston Stone, kept by Joseph Jackson in 1785.
Swan, in Fish, now North Street, “by Scarlett’s Wharf,” 1708. There was another at the South End, “nearly opposite Arnold Welles’,” in 1784.
Three Horse-Shoes, “in the street leading up to the Common,” probably Tremont Street. Kept by Mrs. Glover, who died about 1744. William Clears kept it in 1775.
White Horse, a few rods south of theLamb. It had a white horse painted on the signboard. Kept by Joseph Morton, 1760, who was still landlord in 1772. Israel Hatch, the ubiquitous, took it in 1787, on his arrival from Attleborough. His announcement is unique. (SeeLandmarks of Boston, pp. 392, 393.)
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BOSTON NEWS-LETTER, MAY 27, 1773
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COLE’S INN
THE BAKERS’ ARMS
THE GOLDEN BALL TAVERN
BY
WALTER K. WATKINS
AND
THE HANCOCK TAVERN
BY
E. W. McGLENEN
SAMUEL COLE’S INN.
Samuel Cole came to Boston in the fleet with Governor Winthrop, and he with his wife Ann were the fortieth and forty-first on the list of original members of the First Church. He requested to become a freeman October 19, 1630, and was sworn May 18, 1631. He was the ninth to sign the roll of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1637 and in the same year was disarmed for his religious views. In 1636 he contributed to the maintenance of a free school and in 1656 to the building of the town house. In 1652 he was one of those chosen to receive monies for Harvard College. In 1634 he opened the first ordinary, or inn. It was situated on Washington Street, nearly opposite the head of Water Street. Here, in 1636, Sir Henry Vane, the governor, entertained Miantonomo and two of Canonicus’s sons, with other chiefs. While the four sachems dined at the Governor’s house, which stood near the entrance to Pemberton Square, the chiefs, some twenty in all, dined atCole’s Inn. At this time a treaty of peace was concluded here between the English and the Narragansetts.
In 1637, in the month of June, there sailed into Boston Harbor the shipHector, from London, with the Rev. John Davenport and two London merchants, Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, his son-in-law, two future governors of Connecticut. On the same vessel was a young man, a ward of King Charles I., James, Lord Ley, a son of the Earl of Marlborough (who had just died). He was also to hold high positions in the future and attain fame as a mathematician and navigator.
The Earl of Marlborough, while in Boston, was atCole’s Inn, and while he was here was of sober carriage and observant of the country which he came to view. He consorted frequently with Sir Henry Vane, visiting with him Maverick, at Noddle’s Island, and returning to England with Vane in August, 1637.
His estate in England was a small one in Teffont Evias, or Ewyas, Wilts, near Hinton Station, and in the church there may still be seen the tombs of the Leys. He also had a reversion to lands in Heywood, Wilts.
In 1649 he compounded with Parliament for his lands and giving bond was allowed to depart from England to the plantations in America.
On the restoration of Charles II. in 1661, the Earl returned to England and in the next year was assisted by the King to fit out an expedition to the West Indies. In 1665 he commanded “that huge ship,” theOld James, and in the great victorious sea fight of June 3 with the Dutch was slain, with Rear Admiral Sansum, Lords Portland, Muskerry, and others.
He died without issue and the title went to his uncle, in whom the title became extinct, to be revived later in the more celebrated Duke, of the Churchill family.
It was shortly after the Earl’s departure that Cole was disarmed for his sympathy for his neighbor on the south, Mrs. Ann Hutchinson, and he was also fined at the same time for disorders at his house. In the following spring he was given permission to sell his house, to which he had just built an addition, and he disposed of it to Capt. Robert Sedgwick in February, 1638.
Cole then removed to a house erroneously noted by some as the first inn, situated next his son-in-law, Edmund Grosse, near the shore on North Street. This he sold in 1645 to George Halsall and bought other land of Valentine Hill.
THE BAKERS’ ARMS
THE BAKERS’ ARMS.
Predecessor of the Green Dragon.
Thomas Hawkins, biscuit baker, and a brother of James Hawkins, bricklayer, was born in England in 1608. He was a proprietor in Boston in 1636; his wife Hannah was admitted to the church there in 1641, and that year his son Abraham, born in 1637, was baptized. His home lot was on the west side of Washington Street, the second north of Court Street. He also had one quarter of an acre near the Mill Cove, and a house bought in 1645 from John Trotman.
In 1662 James Johnson, glover, sold three quarters of an acre of marsh and upland, bounded on the north and east by the Mill Cove, to Hawkins. The latter was living by the Mill Cove by this time in a house built in 1649, and beside keeping his bake house he kept a cook shop, and also entertained with refreshments his customers by serving beer. A mortgage of the property, in 1663, to Simon Lynde discloses, besides the dwelling and bake house, a stable, brew house, outhouses, and three garden plots on the upland. In 1667 Hawkins was furnished £200 by the Rev. Thomas Thacher to cancel this mortgage. The property extended from the Mill Pond to Hanover Street, and wasbounded north by Union Street, and was 280 feet by 104 feet—about two thirds of an acre in area.
Thacher had married Margaret, widow of Jacob Sheafe and daughter of Henry Webb, a wealthy merchant. Mrs. Sheafe had a daughter, Mehitabel, who married her cousin, Sampson Sheafe. Mr. Thacher assigned the mortgage to Sampson Sheafe, and on 31 October, 1670, the time of payment having expired, Sheafe obtained judgment for possession of the property, which had become known as the “Bakers’ Arms,” which Hawkins had kept since 1665 as a house of entertainment.
Hawkins had married a second wife, and in January, 1671, Rebecca Hawkins deeded her rights in the property to Sheafe. 15 May, 1672, Hawkins petitioned the General Court, and complained that he had been turned out of doors and his household property seized by Sheafe; that his houses and land were worth £800, and that Sheafe had only advanced £175. He asked for an appraisement, and the prayer of the petitioner was allowed.
In 1673 Hawkins sued Sheafe in the County Court for selling some brewing utensils, a pump, sign, ladder, cooler and mash fat (wooden vessel containing eight bushels) taken from the brew house. He also objected to items in Sheafe’s account against him, such as “Goodman Drury’s shingling the house and Goodman Cooper whitening it.” At this time we find two dwelling houses on the lot. The easterly house Sheafe sold in May, 1673, to John Howlet, and this became known as the Star Tavern.
On 10 April, 1673, Sampson Sheafe sold to William Stoughton the west portion of the Hawkins property.
In 1678 Mrs. Hawkins petitioned the General Court in the matter, and also the town to sell wine and strong water, on account of the weak condition of her husband and his necessity. 11 June, 1680, the General Court allowed her eleven pounds in clear of all claims and incumbrances. Hawkins having died, she had married, 4 June, 1680, John Stebbins, a baker. Stebbins died 4 December, 1681, aged 70, and the widow Rebecca Stebbins was licensed as an innkeeper in 1690.
In 1699 the widow Stebbins, then 77 years old, testified as to her husband Thomas Hawkins having the south-east corner or sea end of half a warehouse at the Draw Bridge foot, which he purchased from Joshua Scotto and which Hawkins sold in 1657 to Edward Tyng. That Hawkins had used it for the landing and housing of corn for his trade as a baker. That he had bought the sea end for the convenience of vessels to land. It is probable the portion sold to Stoughton had but a frontage of two hundred and four feet on Union Street. Sheafe had torn down part of the building and made repairs, and had as tenant of the “Bakers’ Arms” Nicholas Wilmot. Wilmot came to Boston about 1650. In 1674 he was allowed by the town to sell beer and give entertainment, and in 1682 he was licensed as an innholder.
By his wife Mary he had Elizabeth, who married (1) Caleb Rawlins, an innkeeper, who died in 1693, and (2) Richard Newland; Abigail, who married Abraham Adams, an innkeeper; Hannah, who marriedNathaniel Adams of Charlestown, blockmaker; Mary, who married John Alger; and Ann, the youngest, who married Joseph Allen. There were also two sons, Samuel and John Wilmot. Nicholas Wilmot died in 1684, and his widow in a very short time married Abraham Smith, to assist in carrying on the tavern.
The tavern, even at this time, was of some size, and additions had perhaps been built by Stoughton. The rooms were designated by names, as in the taverns of Old England. In the chamber called the “Cross Keys” met the Scots Charitable Society, a benefit society for the residents of Scottish birth and sojourners from Scotland, two of the officers keeping each a key of the money box. The most noted of the chambers was that of the “Green Dragon,” which at about this time gave the name of “Green Dragon” to the tavern. There were also the “Anchor,” the “Castle,” the “Sun,” and the “Rose” chambers, which were also the names of other taverns in the town at that period. One cold December night in 1690, just after midnight, a fire occurred in the “Green Dragon,” and it was burnt to the ground and very little of its contents saved. Snow on the houses in the vicinity was the means of preventing the spread of the flames, with the fact that there was no wind at the time. Within a year or two the tavern was rebuilt by Stoughton and again occupied by Abraham Smith, who died in 1696, leaving an estate of £273: 19: 5. His widow, Mary Smith, died shortly after her husband. In her will she freed her negro women Sue and Maria, and the deeds of manumission are recorded in the Suffolk Deeds.
THE GOLDEN BALL TAVERN.
In the manuscript collections of the Bostonian Society is a plan showing the earliest owners of the land bordering on the Corn Market. On the site now the south corner of Faneuil Hall Square and Merchants’ Row is noted the possession of Edward Tyng. Another manuscript of the Society, equally unique, is an apprentice indenture of Robert Orchard in 1662. In the account of Orchard, printed in thePublications of the Society, Vol. IV, is given the continued history of Tyng’s land after it came into the possession of Theodore Atkinson. In the history of the sign of theGolden Ball Tavernwe continue the story of the same plot of land.
Originally owned by Edward Tyng, and later by Theodore Atkinson, and then by the purchase of the property by Henry Deering, who married the widow of Atkinson’s son Theodore. All this was told in the Orchard article.
It was about 1700 that Henry Deering erected on his land on the north side of a passage leading from Merchants’ Row, on its west side, a building which was soon occupied as a tavern. Samuel Tyley, who had kept theStarin 1699, theGreen Dragonin 1701, andlater theSalutationat the North End, left this last tavern in 1711 to take Mr. Deering’s house in Merchants’ Row, theGolden Ball.
SIGN OF THE BUNCH OF GRAPESNow in the Masonic Temple
SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALLNow in the possession of the Bostonian Society
Henry Deering died in 1717, and was buried with his wife on the same day. He had been a man greatly interested in public affairs. In 1707 he had proposed the erection of a building for the custody of the town’s records; at the same time he proposed a wharf at the foot of the street, now State Street, then extending only as far as Merchants’ Row. This was soon built as “Boston Pier” or “Long Wharf.” He also presented a memorial for the “Preventing Disolation by Fire” in the town.
In the division of Deering’s estate in 1720 the dwelling house in the occupation of Samuel Tyley, known by the name of theGolden Ball, with privilege in the passage on the south and in the well, was given his daughter Mary, the wife of William Wilson. Mrs. Wilson, in her will drawn up in 1729, then a widow, devised the house to her namesake and niece, Mary, daughter of her brother, Capt. Henry Deering. At the time of Mrs. Wilson’s death in 1753 her niece was the wife of John Gooch, whom she married in 1736. Samuel Tyley died in 1722, while still the landlord of theGolden Ball.
The next landlord of whom we have knowledge was William Patten, who had taken theGreen Dragonin 1714. In 1733 he was host at theGolden Ball, where he stayed till 1736, when he took the inn on West Street, opposite the schoolhouse, and next to the estate later known as theWashington Gardens.
He was succeeded by Humphrey Scarlett, who died January 4, 1739-40, aged forty-six, and is buried on Copp’s Hill with his first wife Mehitable (Pierce) Scarlett. He married as a second wife Mary Wentworth. By the first wife he had a daughter Mary (b. 1719), who married Jedediah Lincoln, Jr., and by the second wife a son named Humphrey. When the son was a year old, in 1735, two negro servants of Scarlett, by name Yaw and Caesar, were indicted for attempting to poison the family one morning at breakfast, by putting ratsbane or arsenic in the chocolate. Four months after Scarlett’s death his widow married William Ireland.
Richard Gridley, born in Boston in 1710, was apprenticed to Theodore Atkinson, merchant, and later became a gauger. In 1735 he kept a tavern on Common Street, now Tremont Street. Here by order of the General Court he entertained four Indians, chiefs of the Pigwacket tribe, at an expense of £40 “for drinks, tobacco, victuals, and dressing.” Five pounds of this was for extra trouble. The Committee thought the charges extravagant and cut him down to £33 for their entertainment from June 28 to July 9. In 1738 he took theGolden Ball. His fame in later years, at Louisburg and elsewhere, as an engineer and artillery officer is well known.
Gridley was followed as landlord in 1740 by Increase Blake. He was born in Dorchester in 1699 and married Anne, daughter of Edward and Susanna (Harrison) Gray. Her parents are noted in Boston history for their ownership of the rope-walks at Fort Hill. Blake, a tinplate worker, held the office of sealer ofweights and measures, and in 1737 leased a shop of the town at the head of the Town Dock. He later lived near Battery March, and was burned out in the fire of 1760.
In 1715 there was born in Salem John Marston. He married in 1740 Hannah Welland, and by her had three daughters. In 1745, at the first siege of Louisburg, he was a first lieutenant in the fifth company, commanded by Capt. Charles King, in Colonel Jeremiah Moulton’s regiment. His wife having died, he married her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth (Welland) Blake. His second wife died, and he married in 1755 Elizabeth Greenwood. He was landlord at theGolden Ballas early as 1757. In 1760 he purchased a house on the southwest corner of Hanover and Cross streets, and later other property on Copp’s Hill. He is said to have been a member of the “Boston Tea Party.” During the Revolution he was known as “Captain” Marston, and attended to military matters in Boston, supplying muskets to the townspeople as a committeeman of the town. He continued to keep a house of entertainment and went to theBunch of Grapesin 1775. There he was cautioned in 1778 for allowing gaming in his house, such as playing backgammon. He died in August, 1786, while keeping theBunch of Grapeson King, now State Street, and there he was succeeded by his widow in retailing liquors. He left an estate valued at £2000.
Benjamin Loring, born in Hingham in 1736, married Sarah Smith in Boston in 1771. During the Revolution he kept theGolden Ball. He died in the spring of1782, and his widow succeeded him and kept the tavern till her death in 1790.
From the inventory of her estate it appears that the house consisted, on the ground floor, of a large front room and small front room, the bar and kitchen, and closets in the entry. A front and a back chamber, front upper chamber, and another upper chamber and garret completed the list of rooms. On the shelves of the bar rested large and small china bowls for punch, decanters for wine, tumblers, wine glasses, and case bottles. There also was found a small sieve and lemon squeezer, with a Bible, Psalm, and Prayer Books. On the wall of the front chamber hung an old Highland sword.
The cash on hand at the widow’s death consisted of 4 English shillings, 20 New England shillings, 10 English sixpences, a French crown, a piece of Spanish money, half a guinea, and bank notes to the value of £4: 10. In one of the chambers was 8483 Continental paper money, of no appraised value.
Benjamin Loring, at his death, left his share of one half a house in Hingham to be improved for his wife during her life, then to his sisters, Abigail and Elizabeth, and ultimately to go to Benjamin, the son of his brother Joseph Loring of Hingham. The younger Benjamin became a citizen of Boston, a captain of the “Ancients,” and a colonel in the militia. He started in business as a bookbinder and later was a stationer and a manufacturer of blank books, leaving quite a fortune at his death in 1859. His portrait is displayed in the Armory of the Artillery Company. A portraitof the elder Loring (the landlord of theGolden Ball) shows him with a comely face and wearing a tie-wig.
The ColumbianCentinelof December 3, 1794, had the following advertisement: