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Title: Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs
Author: Watkins, Walter K., Drake, Samuel Adams, 1833-1905
Language: English
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OLD BOSTON TAVERNS AND TAVERN CLUBS
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN MARSTON, 1715-1786
Landlord of the "Golden Ball" and "Bunch of Grapes"]
OLD BOSTON TAVERNS AND TAVERN CLUBS
BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE
NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF
"COLE'S INN," "THE BAKERS' ARMS," AND "GOLDEN BALL"
BY WALTER K. WATKINS
ALSO A LIST OF TAVERNS, GIVING THE NAMES OF THE
VARIOUS OWNERS OF THE PROPERTY, FROM MISS THWING'S
WORK ON "THE INHABITANTS AND ESTATES OF THE TOWN
OF BOSTON, 1630-1800," IN THE POSSESSION OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
W. A. BUTTERFIELD
59 BROMFIELD STREET, BOSTON
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
W. A. BUTTERFIELD.
FOREWORD.
The Inns of Old Boston have played such a part in its history that an
illustrated edition of Drake may not be out of place at this late date.
"Cole's Inn" has been definitely located, and the "Hancock Tavern"
question also settled.
I wish to thank the Bostonian Society for the privilege of reprinting Mr.
Watkin's account of the "Bakers' Arms" and the "Golden Ball" and valuable
assistance given by Messrs. C. F. Read, E. W. McGlenen, and W. A. Watkins;
Henderson and Ross for the illustration of the "Crown Coffee House," and
the Walton Advertising Co. for the "Royal Exchange Tavern."
Other works consulted are Snow's History of Boston, Memorial History of
Boston, Stark's Antique Views, Porter's Rambles in Old Boston, and Miss
Thwing's very valuable work in the Massachusetts Historical Society.
THE PUBLISHER.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. UPON THE TAVERN AS AN INSTITUTION 9
II. THE EARLIER ORDINARIES 19
III. IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES 33
IV. SIGNBOARD HUMOR 52
V. APPENDIX; BOSTON TAVERNS TO THE YEAR 1800 61
VI. COLE'S INN 73
VII. THE BAKERS' ARMS 76
VIII. THE GOLDEN BALL TAVERN 80
IX. THE HANCOCK TAVERN 89
X. LIST OF TAVERNS AND TAVERN OWNERS 99
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
CAPT. JOHN MARSTON _Frontispiece_
PAGE
THE SIGN OF THE LAMB 17
THE HEART AND CROWN 18
ROYAL EXCHANGE TAVERN 24
PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH GREEN 26
PORTRAIT OF JOHN DUNTON 28
THE BUNCH OF GRAPES 34
CROMWELL HEAD BOARD BILL 44
THE CROMWELL'S HEAD 44
THE GREEN DRAGON 46
THE GREEN DRAGON SIGN 47
THE LIBERTY TREE 50
THE BRAZEN HEAD 51
THE GOOD WOMAN 52
THE DOG AND POT 53
HOW SHALL I GET THROUGH THIS WORLD? 54
THE CROWN COFFEE HOUSE 62
OLD NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT 64
JULIEN HOUSE 65
THE SUN TAVERN 68
THE THREE DOVES 70
JOLLEY ALLEN ADVERTISEMENT 70
THE BAKERS' ARMS 75
SIGN OF BUNCH OF GRAPES 80
SIGN OF GOLDEN BALL 80
MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF COLE'S INN 88
COFFEE URN 90
MAP OF BOSTON, 1645 98
BROMFIELD HOUSE 102
FIREMAN'S TICKET 104
PORTRAIT OF GOVERNOR BELCHER 106
EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE, 1808-18 108
EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE, 1848 110
HATCH TAVERN 112
LAMB TAVERN 114
SUN TAVERN (DOCK SQUARE) 122
BONNERS' MAP OF BOSTON, 1722 124
OLD BOSTON TAVERNS.
I.
UPON THE TAVERN AS AN INSTITUTION.
The famous remark of Louis XIV., "There are no longer any Pyrenees," may
perhaps be open to criticism, but there are certainly no longer any
taverns in New England. It is true that the statutes of the Commonwealth
continue to designate such houses as the Brunswick and Vendome as taverns,
and their proprietors as innkeepers; yet we must insist upon the truth of
our assertion, the letter of the law to the contrary notwithstanding.
No words need be wasted upon the present degradation which the name of
tavern implies to polite ears. In most minds it is now associated with the
slums of the city, and with that particular phase of city life only, so
all may agree that, as a prominent feature of society and manners, the
tavern has had its day. The situation is easily accounted for. The simple
truth is, that, in moving on, the world has left the venerable institution
standing in the eighteenth century; but it is equally true that, before
that time, the history of any civilized people could hardly be written
without making great mention of it. With the disappearance of the old
signboards our streets certainly have lost a most picturesque feature, at
least one avenue is closed to art, while a few very aged men mourn the
loss of something endeared to them by many pleasant recollections.
As an offset to the admission that the tavern has outlived its usefulness,
we ought in justice to establish its actual character and standing as it
was in the past. We shall then be the better able to judge how it was
looked upon both from a moral and material stand-point, and can follow it
on through successive stages of good or evil fortune, as we would the life
of an individual.
It fits our purpose admirably, and we are glad to find so eminent a
scholar and divine as Dr. Dwight particularly explicit on this point. He
tells us that, in his day, "The best old-fashioned New England inns were
superior to any of the modern ones. There was less bustle, less parade,
less appearance of doing a great deal to gratify your wishes, than at the
reputable modern inns; but much more was actually done, and there was much
more comfort and enjoyment. In a word, you found in these inns the
pleasures of an excellent private house. If you were sick you were nursed
and befriended as in your own family. To finish the story, your bills were
always equitable, calculated on what you ought to pay, and not upon the
scheme of getting the most which extortion might think proper to demand."
Now this testimonial to what the public inn was eighty odd years ago comes
with authority from one who had visited every nook and corner of New
England, was so keen and capable an observer, and is always a faithful
recorder of what he saw. Dr. Dwight has frequently said that during his
travels he often "found his warmest welcome at an inn."
In order to give the history of what may be called the Rise and Fall of
the Tavern among us, we should go back to the earliest settlements, to the
very beginning of things. In our own country the Pilgrim Fathers justly
stand for the highest type of public and private morals. No less would be
conceded them by the most unfriendly critic. Intemperance, extravagant
living, or immorality found no harborage on Plymouth Rock, no matter under
what disguise it might come. Because they were a virtuous and sober
people, they had been filled with alarm for their own youth, lest the
example set by the Hollanders should corrupt the stay and prop of their
community. Indeed, Bradford tells us fairly that this was one determining
cause of the removal into New England.
The institution of taverns among the Pilgrims followed close upon the
settlement. Not only were they a recognized need, but, as one of the
time-honored institutions of the old country, no one seems to have thought
of denouncing them as an evil, or even as a necessary evil. Travellers and
sojourners had to be provided for even in a wilderness. Therefore taverns
were licensed as fast as new villages grew up. Upward of a dozen were
licensed at one sitting of the General Court. The usual form of
concession is that So-and-So is licensed to draw wine and beer for the
public. The supervision was strict, but not more so than the spirit of a
patriarchal community, founded on morals, would seem to require; but there
were no such attempts to cover up the true character of the tavern as we
have seen practised in the cities of this Commonwealth for the purpose of
evading the strict letter of the law; and the law then made itself
respected. An innkeeper was not then looked upon as a person who was
pursuing a disgraceful or immoral calling,--a sort of outcast, as it
were,--but, while strictly held amenable to the law, he was actually taken
under its protection. For instance, he was fined for selling any one
person an immoderate quantity of liquor, and he was also liable to a fine
if he refused to sell the quantity allowed to be drank on the premises,
though no record is found of a prosecution under this singular statutory
provision; still, for some time, this regulation was continued in force as
the only logical way of dealing with the liquor question, as it then
presented itself.
When the law also prohibited a citizen from entertaining a stranger in his
own house, unless he gave bonds for his guest's good behavior, the tavern
occupied a place between the community and the outside world not wholly
unlike that of a moral quarantine. The town constable could keep a
watchful eye upon all suspicious characters with greater ease when they
were under one roof. Then it was his business to know everybody's, so
that any show of mystery about it would have settled, definitely, the
stranger's _status_, as being no better than he should be. "Mind your own
business," is a maxim hardly yet domesticated in New England, outside of
our cities, or likely to become suddenly popular in our rural communities,
where, in those good old days we are talking about, a public official was
always a public inquisitor, as well as newsbearer from house to house.
On their part, the Puritan Fathers seem to have taken the tavern under
strict guardianship from the very first. In 1634, when the price of labor
and everything else was regulated, sixpence was the legal charge for a
meal, and a penny for an ale quart of beer, at an inn, and the landlord
was liable to ten shillings fine if a greater charge was made. Josselyn,
who was in New England at a very early day, remarks, that, "At the
tap-houses of Boston I have had an ale quart of cider, spiced and
sweetened with sugar, for a groat." So the fact that the law once actually
prescribed how much should be paid for a morning dram may be set down
among the curiosities of colonial legislation.
No later than the year 1647 the number of applicants for licenses to keep
taverns had so much increased that the following act was passed by our
General Court for its own relief: "It is ordered by the authority of this
court, that henceforth all such as are to keep houses of common
entertainment, and to retail wine, beer, etc., shall be licensed at the
county courts of the shire where they live, or the Court of Assistants,
so as this court may not be thereby hindered in their more weighty
affairs."
A noticeable thing about this particular bill is, that when it went down
for concurrence the word "deputies" was erased and "house" substituted by
the speaker in its stead, thus showing that the newly born popular body
had begun to assert itself as the only true representative chamber, and
meant to show the more aristocratic branch that the sovereign people had
spoken at last.
By the time Philip's war had broken out, in 1675, taverns had become so
numerous that Cotton Mather has said that every other house in Boston was
one. Indeed, the calamity of the war itself was attributed to the number
of tippling-houses in the colony. At any rate this was one of the alleged
sins which, in the opinion of Mather, had called down upon the colony the
frown of Providence. A century later, Governor Pownall repeated Mather's
statement. So it is quite evident that the increase of taverns, both good
and bad, had kept pace with the growth of the country.
It is certain that, at the time of which we are speaking, some of the old
laws affecting the drinking habits of society were openly disregarded.
Drinking healths, for instance, though under the ban of the law, was still
practised in Cotton Mather's day by those who met at the social board. We
find him defending it as a common form of politeness, and not the
invocation of Heaven it had once been in the days of chivalry. Drinking
at funerals, weddings, church-raisings, and even at ordinations, was a
thing everywhere sanctioned by custom. The person who should have refused
to furnish liquor on such an occasion would have been the subject of
remarks not at all complimentary to his motives.
It seems curious enough to find that the use of tobacco was looked upon by
the fathers of the colony as far more sinful, hurtful, and degrading than
indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Indeed, in most of the New England
settlements, not only the use but the planting of tobacco was strictly
forbidden. Those who had a mind to solace themselves with the interdicted
weed could do so only in the most private manner. The language of the law
is, "Nor shall any take tobacco in any wine or common victual house,
except in a private room there, so as the master of said house nor any
guest there shall take offence thereat; which, if any do, then such person
shall forbear upon pain of two shillings sixpence for every such offence."
It is found on record that two innocent Dutchmen, who went on a visit to
Harvard College,--when that venerable institution was much younger than it
is to-day,--were so nearly choked with the fumes of tobacco-smoke, on
first going in, that one said to the other, "This is certainly a tavern."
It is also curious to note that, in spite of the steady growth of the
smoking habit among all classes of people, public opinion continued to
uphold the laws directed to its suppression, though, from our stand-point
of to-day, these do seem uncommonly severe. And this state of things
existed down to so late a day that men are now living who have been asked
to plead "guilty or not guilty," at the bar of a police court, for smoking
in the streets of Boston. A dawning sense of the ridiculous, it is
presumed, led at last to the discontinuance of arrests for this cause; but
for some time longer officers were in the habit of inviting detected
smokers to show respect for the memory of a defunct statute of the
Commonwealth, by throwing their cigars into the gutter.
Turning to practical considerations, we shall find the tavern holding an
important relation to its locality. In the first place, it being so nearly
coeval with the laying out of villages, the tavern quickly became the one
known landmark for its particular neighborhood. For instance, in Boston
alone, the names Seven Star Lane, Orange Tree Lane, Red Lion Lane, Black
Horse Lane, Sun Court, Cross Street, Bull Lane, not to mention others that
now have so outlandish a sound to sensitive ears, were all derived from
taverns. We risk little in saying that a Bostonian in London would think
the great metropolis strangely altered for the worse should he find such
hallowed names as Charing Cross, Bishopsgate, or Temple Bar replaced by
those of some wealthy Smith, Brown, or Robinson; yet he looks on, while
the same sort of vandalism is constantly going on at home, with hardly a
murmur of disapproval, so differently does the same thing look from
different points of view.
As further fixing the topographical character of taverns, it may be stated
that in the old almanacs distances are always computed between the inns,
instead of from town to town, as the practice now is.
Of course such topographical distinctions as we have pointed out began at
a time when there were few public buildings; but the idea almost amounts
to an instinct, because even now it is a common habit with every one to
first direct the inquiring stranger to some prominent landmark. As such,
tavern-signs were soon known and noted by all travellers.
[Illustration: SIGN OF THE LAMB.]
Then again, tavern-titles are, in most cases, traced back to the old
country. Love for the old home and its associations made the colonist like
to take his mug of ale under the same sign that he had patronized when in
England. It was a never-failing reminiscence to him. And innkeepers knew
how to appeal to this feeling. Hence the Red Lion and the Lamb, the St.
George and the Green Dragon, the Black, White, and Red Horse, the Sun,
Seven Stars, and Globe, were each and all so many reminiscences of Old
London. In their way they denote the same sort of tie that is perpetuated
by the Bostons, Portsmouths, Falmouths, and other names of English origin.
II.
THE EARLIER ORDINARIES.
As early as 1638 there were at least two ordinaries, as taverns were then
called, in Boston. That they were no ordinary taverns will at once occur
to every one who considers the means then employed to secure sobriety and
good order in them. For example, Josselyn says that when a stranger went
into one for the purpose of refreshing the inner man, he presently found a
constable at his elbow, who, it appeared, was there to see to it that the
guest called for no more liquor than seemed good for him. If he did so,
the beadle peremptorily countermanded the order, himself fixing the
quantity to be drank; and from his decision there was no appeal.
Of these early ordinaries the earliest known to be licensed goes as far
back as 1634, when Samuel Cole, comfit-maker, kept it. A kind of interest
naturally goes with the spot of ground on which this the first house of
public entertainment in the New England metropolis stood. On this point
all the early authorities seem to have been at fault. Misled by the
meagre record in the Book of Possessions, the zealous antiquaries of
former years had always located Cole's Inn in what is now Merchants' Row.
Since Thomas Lechford's Note Book has been printed, the copy of a deed,
dated in the year 1638, in which Cole conveys part of his dwelling, with
brew-house, etc., has been brought to light. The estate noted here is the
one situated next northerly from the well-known Old Corner Bookstore, on
Washington Street. It would, therefore, appear, beyond reasonable doubt,
that Cole's Inn stood in what was already the high street of the town,
nearly opposite Governor Winthrop's, which gives greater point to my Lord
Leigh's refusal to accept Winthrop's proffered hospitality when his
lordship was sojourning under Cole's roof-tree.
In his New England Tragedies, Mr. Longfellow introduces Cole, who is made
to say,--
"But the 'Three Mariners' is an orderly,
Most orderly, quiet, and respectable house."
Cole, certainly, could have had no other than a poet's license for calling
his house by this name, as it is never mentioned otherwise than as _Cole's
Inn_.
Another of these worthy landlords was William Hudson, who had leave to
keep an ordinary in 1640. From his occupation of baker, he easily stepped
into the congenial employment of innkeeper. Hudson was among the earliest
settlers of Boston, and for many years is found most active in town
affairs. His name is on the list of those who were admitted freemen of
the Colony, in May, 1631. As his son William also followed the same
calling, the distinction of Senior and Junior becomes necessary when
speaking of them.
Hudson's house is said to have stood on the ground now occupied by the New
England Bank, which, if true, would make this the most noted of tavern
stands in all New England, or rather in all the colonies, as the same site
afterward became known as the =Bunch of Grapes=. We shall have much
occasion to notice it under that title. In Hudson's time the appearance of
things about this locality was very different from what is seen to-day.
All the earlier topographical features have been obliterated. Then the
tide flowed nearly up to the tavern door, so making the spot a landmark of
the ancient shore line as the first settlers had found it. Even so simple
a statement as this will serve to show us how difficult is the task of
fixing, with approximate accuracy, residences or sites on the water front,
going as far back as the original occupants of the soil.
Next in order of time comes the house called the =King's Arms=. This
celebrated inn stood at the head of the dock, in what is now Dock Square.
Hugh Gunnison, victualler, kept a "cooke's shop" in his dwelling there
some time before 1642, as he was then allowed to sell beer. The next year
he humbly prayed the court for leave "to draw the wyne which was spent in
his house," in the room of having his customers get it elsewhere, and then
come into his place the worse for liquor,--a proceeding which he justly
thought unfair as well as unprofitable dealing. He asks this favor in
order that "God be not dishonored nor his people grieved."
We know that Gunnison was favored with the custom of the General Court,
because we find that body voting to defray the expenses incurred for being
entertained in his house "out of y{e} custom of wines or y{e} wampum of
y{e} Narragansetts."
Gunnison's house presently took the not always popular name of the _King's
Arms_, which it seems to have kept until the general overturning of
thrones in the Old Country moved the Puritan rulers to order the taking
down of the King's arms, and setting up of the State's in their stead;
for, until the restoration of the Stuarts, the tavern is the same, we
think, known as the =State's Arms=. It then loyally resumed its old
insignia again. Such little incidents show us how taverns frequently
denote the fluctuation of popular opinion.
As Gunnison's bill of fare has not come down to us, we are at a loss to
know just how the colonial fathers fared at his hospitable board; but so
long as the 'treat' was had at the public expense we cannot doubt that the
dinners were quite as good as the larder afforded, or that full justice
was done to the contents of mine host's cellar by those worthy legislators
and lawgivers.
When Hugh Gunnison sold out the _King's Arms_ to Henry Shrimpton and
others, in 1651, for £600 sterling, the rooms in his house all bore some
distinguishing name or title. For instance, one chamber was called the
"Exchange." We have sometimes wondered whether it was so named in
consequence of its use by merchants of the town as a regular place of
meeting. The chamber referred to was furnished with "one half-headed
bedstead with blew pillars." There was also a "Court Chamber," which,
doubtless, was the one assigned to the General Court when dining at
Gunnison's. Still other rooms went by such names as the "London" and
"Star." The hall contained three small rooms, or stalls, with a bar
convenient to it. This room was for public use, but the apartments
upstairs were for the "quality" alone, or for those who paid for the
privilege of being private. All remember how, in "She Stoops to Conquer,"
Miss Hardcastle is made to say: "Attend the Lion, there!--Pipes and
tobacco for the Angel!--The Lamb has been outrageous this half hour!"
The =Castle Tavern= was another house of public resort, kept by William
Hudson, Jr., at what is now the upper corner of Elm Street and Dock
Square. Just at what time this noted tavern came into being is a matter
extremely difficult to be determined; but, as we find a colonial order
billeting soldiers in it in 1656, we conclude it to have been a public inn
at that early day. At this time Hudson is styled lieutenant. If Whitman's
records of the Artillery Company be taken as correct, the younger Hudson
had seen service in the wars. With "divers other of our best military
men," he had crossed the ocean to take service in the Parliamentary
forces, in which he held the rank of ensign, returning home to New
England, after an absence of two years, to find his wife publicly accused
of faithlessness to her marriage vows.
The presence of these old inns at the head of the town dock naturally
points to that locality as the business centre, and it continued to hold
that relation to the commerce of Boston until, by the building of wharves
and piers, ships were enabled to come up to them for the purpose of
unloading. Before that time their cargoes were landed in boats and
lighters. Far back, in the beginning of things, when everything had to be
transported by water to and from the neighboring settlements, this was
naturally the busiest place in Boston. In time Dock Square became, as its
name indicates, a sort of delta for the confluent lanes running down to
the dock below it.
Here, for a time, was centred all the movement to and from the shipping,
and, we may add, about all the commerce of the infant settlement.
Naturally the vicinity was most convenient for exposing for sale all sorts
of merchandise as it was landed, which fact soon led to the establishment
of a corn market on one side of the dock and a fish market on the other
side.
The =Royal Exchange= stood on the site of the Merchants' Bank, in State
Street. In this high-sounding name we find a sure sign that the town had
outgrown its old traditions and was making progress toward more citified
ways. As time wore on a town-house had been built in the market-place. Its
ground floor was purposely left open for the citizens to walk about,
discuss the news, or bargain in. In the popular phrase, they were said to
meet "on 'change," and thereafter this place of meeting was known as the
Exchange, which name the tavern and lane soon took to themselves as a
natural right.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL EXCHANGE TAVERN (Merchants Bank site, State
Street)
The tall white building, mail coach just leaving]
A glance at the locality in question shows the choice to have been made
with a shrewd eye to the future. For example: the house fronted upon the
town market-place, where, on stated days, fairs or markets for the sale of
country products were held. On one side the tavern was flanked by the
well-trodden lane which led to the town dock. From daily chaffering in a
small way, those who wished to buy or sell came to meet here regularly. It
also became the place for popular gatherings,--on such occasions of
ceremony as the publishing of proclamations, mustering of troops, or
punishment of criminals,--all of which vindicates its title to be called
the heart of the little commonwealth.
Indeed, on this spot the pulse of its daily life beat with ever-increasing
vigor. Hither came the country people, with their donkeys and panniers.
Here in the open air they set up their little booths to tempt the town's
folk with the display of fresh country butter, cheese and eggs, fruits or
vegetables. Here came the citizen, with his basket on his arm, exchanging
his stock of news or opinions as he bargained for his dinner, and so
caught the drift of popular sentiment beyond his own chimney-corner.
To loiter a little longer at the sign of the _Royal Exchange_, which, by
all accounts, always drew the best custom of the town, we find that, as
long ago as Luke Vardy's time, it was a favorite resort of the Masonic
fraternity, Vardy being a brother of the order. According to a poetic
squib of the time,--
"'Twas he who oft dispelled their sadness,
And filled the breth'ren's hearts with gladness."
After the burning of the town-house, near by, in the winter of 1747, had
turned the General Court out of doors, that body finished its sessions at
Vardy's; nor do we find any record of legislation touching Luke's taproom
on that occasion.
Vardy's was the resort of the young bloods of the town, who spent their
evenings in drinking, gaming, or recounting their love affairs. One July
evening, in 1728, two young men belonging to the first families in the
province quarreled over their cards or wine. A challenge passed. At that
time the sword was the weapon of gentlemen. The parties repaired to a
secluded part of the Common, stripped for the encounter, and fought it out
by the light of the moon. After a few passes one of the combatants, named
Woodbridge, received a mortal thrust; the survivor was hurried off by his
friends on board a ship, which immediately set sail. This being the first
duel ever fought in the town, it naturally made a great stir.
[Illustration: JOSEPH GREEN
Noted Boston merchant and wit, died in England, 1780
SATIRE ON LUKE TARDY OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE TAVERN
BY JOSEPH GREEN AT A MASONIC MEETING, 1749
"Where's honest _Luke_,--that cook from London?
For without _Luke_ the _Lodge_ is undone;
'Twas he who oft dispelled their sadness.
And fill'd the _Brethren's_ heart with gladness.
For them his ample bowls o'erflow'd.
His table groan'd beneath its load;
For them he stretch'd his utmost art.--
Their honours grateful they impart.
_Luke_ in return is made a _brother_,
As _good_ and _true_ as any other;
And still, though broke with age and wine,
Preserves the _token_ and the _sign_."
--"Entertainments for a Winter's Evening."]
We cannot leave the neighborhood without at least making mention of the
Massacre of the 5th of March, 1770, which took place in front of the
tavern. It was then a three-story brick house, the successor, it is
believed, of the first building erected on the spot and destroyed in the
great fire of 1711. On the opposite corner of the lane stood the Royal
Custom House, where a sentry was walking his lonely round on that frosty
night, little dreaming of the part he was to play in the coming tragedy.
With the assault made by the mob on this sentinel, the fatal affray began
which sealed the cause of the colonists with their blood. At this time the
tavern enjoyed the patronage of the newly arrived British officers of the
army and navy as well as of citizens or placemen, of the Tory party, so
that its inmates must have witnessed, with peculiar feelings, every
incident of that night of terror. Consequently the house with its sign is
shown in Revere's well-known picture of the massacre.
One more old hostelry in this vicinity merits a word from us. Though not
going so far back or coming down to so late a date as some of the houses
already mentioned, nevertheless it has ample claim not to be passed by in
silence.
The =Anchor=, otherwise the "Blew Anchor," stood on the ground now
occupied by the Globe newspaper building. In early times it divided with
the _State's Arms_ the patronage of the magistrates, who seem to have had
a custom, perhaps not yet quite out of date, of adjourning to the ordinary
over the way after transacting the business which had brought them
together. So we find that the commissioners of the United Colonies, and
even the reverend clergy, when they were summoned to the colonial capital
to attend a synod, were usually entertained here at the _Anchor_.
This fact presupposes a house having what we should now call the latest
improvements, or at least possessing some advantages over its older rivals
in the excellence of its table or cellarage. When Robert Turner kept it,
his rooms were distinguished, after the manner of the old London inns, as
the Cross Keys, Green Dragon, Anchor and Castle Chamber, Rose and Sun, Low
Room, so making old associations bring in custom.
It was in 1686 that John Dunton, a London bookseller whom Pope lampoons in
the "Dunciad," came over to Boston to do a little business in the
bookselling line. The vicinity of the town-house was then crowded with
book-shops, all of which drove a thriving trade in printing and selling
sermons, almanacs, or fugitive essays of a sort now quite unknown outside
of a few eager collectors. The time was a critical one in New England, as
she was feeling the tremor of the coming revolt which sent King James into
exile; yet to read Dunton's account of men and things as he thought he saw
them, one would imagine him just dropped into Arcadia, rather than
breathing the threatening atmosphere of a country that was tottering on
the edge of revolution.
But it is to him, at any rate, that we are indebted for a portrait of the
typical landlord,--one whom we feel at once we should like to have
known, and, having known, to cherish in our memory. With a flourish of his
goose-quill Dunton introduces us to George Monk, landlord of the _Anchor_,
who, somehow, reminds us of Chaucer's Harry Bailly, and Ben Jonson's
Goodstock. And we more than suspect from what follows that Dunton had
tasted the "Anchor" Madeira, not only once, but again.
[Illustration: JOHN DUNTON, Bookseller, 1659-1733]
George Monk, mine host of the _Anchor_, Dunton tells us, was "a person so
remarkable that, had I not been acquainted with him, it would be a hard
matter to make any New England man believe that I had been in Boston; for
there was no one house in all the town more noted, or where a man might
meet with better accommodation. Besides he was a brisk and jolly man,
whose conversation was coveted by all his guests as the life and spirit of
the company."
In this off-hand sketch we behold the traditional publican, now, alas!
extinct. Gossip, newsmonger, banker, pawnbroker, expediter of men or
effects, the intimate association so long existing between landlord and
public under the old régime everywhere brought about a still closer one
among the guild itself, so establishing a network of communication
coextensive with all the great routes from Maine to Georgia.
Situated just "around the corner" from the council-chamber, the _Anchor_
became, as we have seen, the favorite haunt of members of the government,
and so acquired something of an official character and standing. We have
strong reason to believe that, under the mellowing influence of the
punch-bowl, those antique men of iron mould and mien could now and then
crack a grim jest or tell a story or possibly troll a love-ditty, with
grave gusto. At any rate, we find Chief Justice Sewall jotting down in his
"Diary" the familiar sentence, "The deputies treated and I treated." And,
to tell the truth, we would much prefer to think of the colonial fathers
as possessing even some human frailties rather than as the statues now
replacing their living forms and features in our streets.
But now and then we can imagine the noise of great merriment making the
very windows of some of these old hostelries rattle again. We learn that
the =Greyhound= was a respectable public house, situated in Roxbury, and
of very early date too; for the venerable and saintly Eliot lived upon one
side and his pious colleague, Samuel Danforth, on the other. Yet
notwithstanding its being, as it were, hedged in between two such eminent
pillars of the church, the godly Danforth bitterly complains of the
provocation which frequenters of the tavern sometimes tried him withal,
and naïvely informs us that, when from his study windows he saw any of the
town dwellers loitering there he would go down and "chide them away."
It is related in the memoirs of the celebrated Indian fighter, Captain
Benjamin Church, that he and Captain Converse once found themselves in the
neighborhood of a tavern at the South End of Boston. As old comrades they
wished to go in and take a parting glass together; but, on searching their
pockets, Church could find only sixpence and Converse not a penny to bless
himself with, so they were compelled to forego this pledge of friendship
and part with thirsty lips. Going on to Roxbury, Church luckily found an
old neighbor of his, who generously lent him money enough to get home
with. He tells the anecdote in order to show to what straits the parsimony
of the Massachusetts rulers had reduced him, their great captain, to whom
the colony owed so much.
The =Red Lion=, in North Street, was one of the oldest public houses, if
not the oldest, to be opened at the North End of the town. It stood close
to the waterside, the adjoining wharf and the lane running down to it both
belonging to the house and both taking its name. The old Red Lion Lane is
now Richmond Street, and the wharf has been filled up, so making
identification of the old sites difficult, to say the least. Nicholas
Upshall, the stout-hearted Quaker, kept the _Red Lion_ as early as 1654.
At his death the land on which tavern and brewhouse stood went to his
children. When the persecution of his sect began in earnest, Upshall was
thrown into Boston jail, for his outspoken condemnation of the authorities
and their rigorous proceedings toward this people. He was first doomed to
perpetual imprisonment. A long and grievous confinement at last broke
Upshall's health, if it did not, ultimately, prove the cause of his
death.
The =Ship Tavern= stood at the head of Clark's Wharf, or on the southwest
corner of North and Clark streets, according to present boundaries. It was
an ancient brick building, dating as far back as 1650 at least. John Vyal
kept it in 1663. When Clark's Wharf was built it was the principal one of
the town. Large ships came directly up to it, so making the tavern a most
convenient resort for masters of vessels or their passengers, and
associating it with the locality itself. King Charles's commissioners
lodged at Vyal's house, when they undertook the task of bringing down the
pride of the rulers of the colony a peg. One of them, Sir Robert Carr,
pummeled a constable who attempted to arrest him in this house. He
afterward refused to obey a summons to answer for the assault before the
magistrates, loftily alleging His Majesty's commission as superior to any
local mandate whatever. He thus retaliated Governor Leverett's affront to
the commissioners in keeping his hat on his head when their authority to
act was being read to the council. But Leverett was a man who had served
under Cromwell, and had no love for the cavaliers or they for him. The
commissioners sounded trumpets and made proclamations; but the colony kept
on the even tenor of its way, in defiance of the royal mandate, equally
regardless of the storm gathering about it, as of the magnitude of the
conflict in which it was about to plunge, all unarmed and unprepared.
III.
IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.
Such thoroughfares as King Street, just before the Revolution, were filled
with horsemen, donkeys, oxen, and long-tailed trucks, with a sprinkling of
one-horse chaises and coaches of the kind seen in Hogarth's realistic
pictures of London life. To these should be added the chimney-sweeps,
wood-sawyers, market-women, soldiers, and sailors, who are now quite as
much out of date as the vehicles themselves are. There being no sidewalks,
the narrow footway was protected, here and there, sometimes by posts,
sometimes by an old cannon set upright at the corners, so that the
traveller dismounted from his horse or alighted from coach or chaise at
the very threshold.
Next in the order of antiquity, as well as fame, to the taverns already
named, comes the =Bunch of Grapes= in King, now State Street. The plain
three-story stone building situated at the upper corner of Kilby Street
stands where the once celebrated tavern did. Three gilded clusters of
grapes dangled temptingly over the door before the eye of the passer-by.
Apart from its palate-tickling suggestions, a pleasant aroma of antiquity
surrounds this symbol, so dear to all devotees of Bacchus from immemorial
time. In _Measure for Measure_ the clown says, "'Twas in the Bunch of
Grapes, where indeed you have a delight to sit, have you not?" And Froth
answers, "I have so, because it is an open room and good for winter."
[Illustration: THE BUNCH OF GRAPES]
This house goes back to the year 1712, when Francis Holmes kept it, and
perhaps further still, though we do not meet with it under this title
before Holmes's time. From that time, until after the Revolution, it
appears to have always been open as a public inn, and, as such, is
feelingly referred to by one old traveller as the best punch-house to be
found in all Boston.
When the line came to be drawn between conditional loyalty, and loyalty at
any rate, the _Bunch of Grapes_ became the resort of the High Whigs, who
made it a sort of political headquarters, in which patriotism only passed
current, and it was known as the Whig tavern. With military occupation
and bayonet rule, still further intensifying public feeling, the line
between Whig and Tory houses was drawn at the threshold. It was then kept
by Marston. Cold welcome awaited the appearance of scarlet regimentals or
a Tory phiz there; so gentlemen of that side of politics also formed
cliques of their own at other houses, in which the talk and the toasts
were more to their liking, and where they could abuse the Yankee rebels
over their port to their heart's content.
But, apart from political considerations, one or two incidents have given
the _Bunch of Grapes_ a kind of pre-eminence over all its contemporaries,
and, therefore, ought not to be passed over when the house is mentioned.
On Monday, July 30, 1733, the first grand lodge of Masons in America was
organized here by Henry Price, a Boston tailor, who had received authority
from Lord Montague, Grand Master of England, for the purpose.
Again, upon the evacuation of Boston by the royal troops, this house
became the centre for popular demonstrations. First, His Excellency,
General Washington, was handsomely entertained there. Some months later,
after hearing the Declaration read from the balcony of the Town-house, the
populace, having thus made their appeal to the King of kings, proceeded to
pull down from the public buildings the royal arms which had distinguished
them, and, gathering them in a heap in front of the tavern, made a bonfire
of them, little imagining, we think, that the time would ever come when
the act would be looked upon as vandalism on their part.
General Stark's timely victory at Bennington was celebrated with all the
more heartiness of enthusiasm in Boston because the people had been
quaking with fear ever since the fall of Ticonderoga sent dismay
throughout New England. The affair is accurately described in the
following letter, written by a prominent actor, and going to show how such
things were done in the times that not only tried men's souls, but would
seem also to have put their stomachs to a pretty severe test. The writer
says:--
"In consequence of this news we kept it up in high taste. At sundown about
one hundred of the first gentlemen of the town, with all the strangers
then in Boston, met at the _Bunch of Grapes_, where good liquors and a
side-table were provided. In the street were two brass field-pieces with a
detachment of Colonel Craft's regiment. In the balcony of the Town-house
all the fifes and drums of my regiment were stationed. The ball opened
with a discharge of thirteen cannon, and at every toast given three rounds
were fired and a flight of rockets sent up. About nine o'clock two barrels
of grog were brought out into the street for the people that had collected
there. It was all conducted with the greatest propriety, and by ten
o'clock every man was at his home."
Shortly after this General Stark himself arrived in town and was right
royally entertained here, at that time presenting the trophies now
adorning the Senate Chamber. On his return from France in 1780 Lafayette
was also received at this house with all the honors, on account of having
brought the news that France had at last cast her puissant sword into the
trembling balance of our Revolutionary contest.
But the important event with which the _Bunch of Grapes_ is associated is,
not the reception of a long line of illustrious guests, but the
organization, by a number of continental officers, of the Ohio Company,
under which the settlement of that great State began in earnest, at
Marietta. The leading spirit in this first concerted movement of New
England toward the Great West was General Rufus Putnam, a cousin of the
more distinguished officer of Revolutionary fame.
Taking this house as a sample of the best that the town could afford at
the beginning of the century, we should probably find a company of about
twenty persons assembled at dinner, who were privileged to indulge in as
much familiar chat as they liked. No other formalities were observed than
such as good breeding required. Two o'clock was the hour at which all the
town dined. The guests were called together by the ringing of a bell in
the street. They were served with salmon in season, veal, beef, mutton,
fowl, ham, vegetables, and pudding, and each one had his pint of Madeira
set before him. The carving was done at the table in the good old English
way, each guest helping himself to what he liked best. Five shillings per
day was the usual charge, which was certainly not an exorbitant one. In
half an hour after the cloth was removed the table was usually deserted.
The =British Coffee-House= was one of the first inns to take to itself the
newly imported title. It stood on the site of the granite building
numbered 66 State Street, and was, as its name implies, as emphatically
the headquarters of the out-and-out loyalists as the _Bunch of Grapes_,
over the way, was of the unconditional Whigs. A notable thing about it was
the performance there in 1750, probably by amateurs, of Otway's "Orphan,"
an event which so outraged public sentiment as to cause the enactment of a
law prohibiting the performance of stage plays under severe penalties.
Perhaps an even more notable occurrence was the formation in this house of
the first association in Boston taking to itself the distinctive name of a
Club. The =Merchants' Club=, as it was called, met here as early as 1751.
Its membership was not restricted to merchants, as might be inferred from
its title, though they were possibly in a majority, but included crown
officers, members of the bar, military and naval officers serving on the
station, and gentlemen of high social rank of every shade of opinion. No
others were eligible to membership.
Up to a certain time this club, undoubtedly, represented the best culture,
the most brilliant wit, and most delightful companionship that could be
brought together in all the colonies; but when the political sky grew dark
the old harmony was at an end, and a division became inevitable, the
Whigs going over to the _Bunch of Grapes_, and thereafter taking to
themselves the name of the Whig Club.[1]
Under date of 1771, John Adams notes down in his Diary this item: "Spent
the evening at Cordis's, in the front room towards the Long Wharf, where
the _Merchants' Club_ has met these twenty years. It seems there is a
schism in that church, a rent in that garment." Cordis was then the
landlord.[2]
Social and business meetings of the bar were also held at the
_Coffee-House_, at one of which Josiah Quincy, Jr. was admitted. By and by
the word "American" was substituted for "British" on the _Coffee-House_
sign, and for some time it flourished under its new title of the =American
Coffee-House=.
But before the clash of opinions had brought about the secession just
mentioned, the best room in this house held almost nightly assemblages of
a group of patriotic men, who were actively consolidating all the elements
of opposition into a single force. Not inaptly they might be called the
Old Guard of the Revolution. The principals were Otis, Cushing, John
Adams, Pitts, Dr. Warren, and Molyneux. Probably no minutes of their
proceedings were kept, for the excellent reason that they verged upon, if
they did not overstep, the treasonable.
His talents, position at the bar, no less than intimate knowledge of the
questions which were then so profoundly agitating the public mind,
naturally made Otis the leader in these conferences, in which the means
for counteracting the aggressive measures then being put in force by the
ministry formed the leading topic of discussion. His acute and logical
mind, mastery of public law, intensity of purpose, together with the keen
and biting satire which he knew so well how to call to his aid, procured
for Otis the distinction of being the best-hated man on the Whig side of
politics, because he was the one most feared. Whether in the House, the
court-room, the taverns, or elsewhere, Otis led the van of resistance. In
military phrase, his policy was the offensive-defensive. He was no
respecter of ignorance in high places. Once when Governor Bernard
sneeringly interrupted Otis to ask him who the authority was whom he was
citing, the patriot coldly replied, "He is a very eminent jurist, and none
the less so for being unknown to your Excellency."
It was in the _Coffee-House_ that Otis, in attempting to pull a Tory nose,
was set upon and so brutally beaten by a place-man named Robinson, and his
friends, as to ultimately cause the loss of his reason and final
withdrawal from public life. John Adams says he was "basely assaulted by a
well-dressed banditti, with a commissioner of customs at their head." What
they had never been able to compass by fair argument, the Tories now
succeeded in accomplishing by brute force, since Otis was forever
disqualified from taking part in the struggle which he had all along
foreseen was coming,--and which, indeed, he had done more to bring about
than any single man in the colonies.
Connected with this affair is an anecdote which we think merits a place
along with it. It is related by John Adams, who was an interested
listener. William Molyneux had a petition before the legislature which did
not succeed to his wishes, and for several evenings he had wearied the
company with his complaints of services, losses, sacrifices, etc., always
winding up with saying, "That a man who has behaved as I have should be
treated as I am is intolerable," with much more to the same effect. Otis
had said nothing, but the whole club were disgusted and out of patience,
when he rose from his seat with the remark, "Come, come, Will, quit this
subject, and let us enjoy ourselves. I also have a list of grievances;
will you hear it?" The club expected some fun, so all cried out, "Ay! ay!
let us hear your list."
"Well, then, in the first place, I resigned the office of
advocate-general, which I held from the crown, which produced me--how much
do you think?"
"A great deal, no doubt," said Molyneux.
"Shall we say two hundred sterling a year?"
"Ay, more, I believe," said Molyneux.
"Well, let it be two hundred. That, for ten years, is two thousand. In the
next place, I have been obliged to relinquish the greater part of my
business at the bar. Will you set that at two hundred pounds more?"
"Oh, I believe it much more than that!" was the answer.
"Well, let it be two hundred. This, for ten years, makes two thousand. You
allow, then, I have lost four thousand pounds sterling?"
"Ay, and more too," said Molyneux. Otis went on: "In the next place, I
have lost a hundred friends, among whom were men of the first rank,
fortune, and power in the province. At what price will you estimate them?"
"D--n them!" said Molyneux, "at nothing. You are better off without them
than with them."
A loud laugh from the company greeted this sally.
"Be it so," said Otis. "In the next place, I have made a thousand enemies,
among whom are the government of the province and the nation. What do you
think of this item?"
"That is as it may happen," said Molyneux, reflectively.
"In the next place, you know I love pleasure, but I have renounced
pleasure for ten years. What is that worth?"
"No great matter: you have made politics your amusement."
A hearty laugh.
"In the next place, I have ruined as fine health as nature ever gave to
man."
"That is melancholy indeed; there is nothing to be said on that point,"
Molyneux replied.
"Once more," continued Otis, holding down his head before Molyneux, "look
upon this head!" (there was a deep, half-closed scar, in which a man might
lay his finger)--"and, what is worse my friends think I have a monstrous
crack in my skull."
This made all the company look grave, and had the desired effect of making
Molyneux who was really a good companion, heartily ashamed of his childish
complaints.
[Illustration]
Another old inn of assured celebrity was the =Cromwell'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 serving _Cromwell's Head_
as that man of might had served their martyr king's. So, when the town
came under martial law, 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.
[Illustration]
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, of Rochambeau's auxiliary army,
also lodged at the _Cromwell's Head_ when 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 the =Salutation=, 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 word
_caucus_ is usually referred, the word itself undoubtedly having come into
familiar use as a short way of saying caulkers' meetings.
The _Salutation_ became the point of fusion between leading 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.
The _Salutation_ had 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
the _Salutation_ in Newgate Street, London, which was the favorite haunt
of Lamb and Coleridge.
The =Green Dragon= will 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 the _Green Dragon_ in Bishopsgate Street, London.
[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN]
As a public house this one goes back to 1712, when Richard 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.
[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON.]
To resume the historical connection between the _Salutation_ and _Green
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, of graceful
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, this
_Green Dragon_ section 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 usually met
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.
The =Sons of Liberty= adopted 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
the _Boston Gazette_ long 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _Merchants'_ 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.
IV.
SIGNBOARD HUMOR.
Another tavern sign, though of later date, was that of the =Good Woman=,
at the North End. This _Good Woman_ was painted without a head.
[Illustration: 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."
The =Dog 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _Ship 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 a chicken 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!"
[Illustration: "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 of Cape Breton, on board the brigantine _Hawk_, Captain
Philip Bass commander, mounting fourteen carriage, and twenty swivel guns,
going in consort with the brigantine _Ranger_, 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
the =Crown Tavern=, at the head of Clark's Wharf, to go with Captain Bass,
or to the =Vernon's Head=, Richard Smith's, in King Street, to go in the
_Ranger_." "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 the reflection 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, the city 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.
The =Anchor=, or =Blue 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
the _Anchor_ until 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 in _Boston Daily
Globe_ of April 2, 1885.] Committees of the General Court used to meet
here. (Hutchinson Coll., 345, 347.)
=Admiral Vernon=, or =Vernon'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.= See _British 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 to Broad," 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 the =George Tavern=. Northeast by Wing's Lane
(Elm Street), front or southeast by Dock Square. For an account of
Hudson's marital troubles, see Winthrop's _New 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 in _Proc. Am. Ant. Soc._, VII. p.
51. For the episode of Lord Leigh consult _Old 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _Sign of the
Cross_. Cross Street takes its name from the tavern. Perhaps the same as
the =Red 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 Hall= was 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.
(See _Landmarks 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=, or =St. George, Tavern=, on the Neck, near Roxbury line. (See
_Landmarks of Boston_.) Noted as early as 1721. Simon Rogers kept it
1730-34. In 1769 Edward Bardin took it and changed the name to the =King'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 the _George_.
=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=, also _Freemason's Arms_. By Richard Pullin, 1712; by Mr.
Pattoun, 1715; Joseph Kilder, 1734, who came from the =Three 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 the =Washington
Coffee-House=. The =Indian 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. The =Bromfield House=
succeeded it, on the Methodist Book Concern site.
[Illustration:
_Daniel Jones of Boston_,
Hereby informs his Customers and others that he has
Opened a TAVERN in Newbury-Street,
at the Sign of the HAT and HELMET, which is less
than a Quarter of a Mile South of the Town-House:
Where Gentlemen Travellers and others will be kind-
ly entertained, and good Care taken of their Horses.
He hath Accommodation for private and Fire-
Clubs, and will engage to furnish with good Liquors
and Attendance: Coffee to be had when called for, &c.
The House to be supplied with the News-Papers for
the Amusement of his Customers.
N. B. Knapp'd and plain Bever and Beveret Hats,
in the newest Taste, made and sold by said JONES.
BOSTON NEWS-LETTER, FEB. 15, 1770]
[Illustration:
_STAGES._
The public are informed, that the Of-
fice of the New-York Mail, and Old Line Stages, is re-
oved from State-street, to Najor KING'S tavern near the
Market, which they will leave at 8 o'clock, A. M. every
day (Sundays excepted). Also, Albany Stage Office is kept
at the same place. The Stage will leave it every Monday
and Thursday at 8 o'clock, A M.
The apartment in State-Street, lately occupied for the
above purpose, is to be let. Apply to Major KING.
December 11
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL. DEC. 11, 1799]
[Illustration:
_New-York_ and _Providence Mail_
STAGES,
Leave Major Hatches, Royal Ex-
change Coffee House, in State-Street, every morning
at 8 o'clock, arrive at Providence at 6 the same day; leave
Providence at 4 o'clock, for New-York, Tuesdays, Thurs-
days and Saturdays. Stage Book kept at the bar for the en-
trance of the names. Expresses forwarded to any part of the
continent at the shortest notice, on reasonable terms; horses
kept ready for that purpose only. All favors gratefully ac-
knowledged by the Public's most humble servant.
_Jan 1._ STEPHEN FULLER, jun.
COLUMBIAN CENTINEL, JAN. 1, 1800]
[Illustration: 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 word _restaurant_ into 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 his _cuisine_ attracted custom. He was familiarly
nicknamed the "Prince of Soups." At Julien's death, 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 shone
Upon 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 sound
But the barkeeper ringing the _Coffee-House_ bell.
"And here in the cosy _Old 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 beer
Or a bottle of sherry how pleasant to see,
And to know that I dined on the best of the deer,
That never was _dearer_ to 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 maiden _dwarf_, fifty-two years old," and only twenty-two inches
high, was "to be seen at Widow Bignall's," next door to the =King's Head=,
in August, 1771. The old _King's Head_, in Chancery Lane, London, was the
rendezvous 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 the _Lamb_.
=Lion=, formerly =Grand Turk=. In Newbury, now Washington, Street. (See
_Landmarks 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=, or =North 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 the =Logwood Tree=, in Lynn Street, to the
_Queen'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.
[Illustration: 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=, also =King's Arms=. Colonel Henry Shrimpton bequeathed it
to his daughter Sarah, 1666. Hugh Gunnison sold it to Shrimpton in 1651,
the tavern being then the =King's Arms=.
=Sun.= This seems to have been a favorite emblem, as there were several
houses of the name. The _Sun_ in 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 Porter
Under the Sun."
Upon the conversion of the inn into a store the sign of the sun was
transferred to a house in _Moon_ Street. The =Sun= in 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 another =Sun=, 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 the _Lamb_. 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. (See _Landmarks of
Boston_, pp. 392, 393.)
[Illustration:
Jolley Allen,
Advertises all his good old Friends,
Customers and others,
That he has again opened Shop, opposite to the
Three Doves in Marlborough-Street, Boston:
And has for Sale, at the lowest Prices, the fol-
lowing Articles;
Muscovado Sugars of various Sorts
and Prices, single, middle and double refined
English Loaf Sugars, lately imported, Pepper,
Bohea Tea, Coffee, Spices of all Sorts, Indigo,
Raisins, Currants, Starch, Ginger, Copperas,
Allum, Pipes of all Sorts, best Durham Flour
of Mustard, and most other Kinds of Groceries
too many to enumerate, which he will sell from
the largest to the smallest Quantities.--Likewise
a very large and compleat Assortment of Liver-
pool and Staffordshire Ware, which he will
engage to sell by the Crate, or single Piece, as
low as any Store in Town.--Playing Cards,
Wool Cards, Seive Bottoms, a few Pieces of
Oznabrigs and Ticklenburgs, N{o}.4 and N{o}.12.
Pins, a few Pieces of Sooses, Damasks, Sterrets,
Loretto's, Burdetts, Brunswicks, Mozeens,
for Summer Waistcoats, &c. &c. &c.
Also, at said Allen's may be had, genteel
Boarding and Lodging for six or eight Persons
if should be wanted, for a longer or shorter Season,
likewise good Stabling for ten Horses and Car-
riages.
N. B. If any Person inclines to hire the above
Stable, and Place for Carriages, they may have
a Lease of the same for 19 Years or less Time
from the said Allen, and if wanted, on the same
Premises can be spared, Room for forty or fifty
Horses and Carriages: It is as good a Place for
Horse and Chaise Letting as any in Boston.
BOSTON NEWS-LETTER, MAY 27, 1773]
COLE'S INN
THE BAKERS' ARMS
THE GOLDEN BALL TAVERN
BY WALTER K. WATKINS
AND
THE HANCOCK TAVERN
BY E. W. McGLENEN
VI.
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 at _Cole'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 ship
_Hector_, 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 at _Cole'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," the _Old 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.
[Illustration: THE BAKERS' ARMS]
VII.
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 was bounded 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 married Nathaniel 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.
VIII.
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 the _Publications 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 the _Golden
Ball Tavern_ we 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 the _Star_
in 1699, the _Green Dragon_ in 1701, and later the _Salutation_ at the
North End, left this last tavern in 1711 to take Mr. Deering's house in
Merchants' Row, the _Golden Ball_.
[Illustration: SIGN OF THE BUNCH OF GRAPES
Now in the Masonic Temple]
[Illustration: SIGN OF THE GOLDEN BALL
Now 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 the _Golden 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
the _Golden Ball_.
The next landlord of whom we have knowledge was William Patten, who had
taken the _Green Dragon_ in 1714. In 1733 he was host at the _Golden
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 the
_Washington 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 the _Golden 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 of weights 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 the _Golden Ball_ as 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 the _Bunch of Grapes_ in 1775. There he
was cautioned in 1778 for allowing gaming in his house, such as playing
backgammon. He died in August, 1786, while keeping the _Bunch of Grapes_
on 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 the _Golden Ball_. He died in the
spring of 1782, 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
portrait of the elder Loring (the landlord of the _Golden Ball_) shows
him with a comely face and wearing a tie-wig.
The Columbian _Centinel_ of December 3, 1794, had the following
advertisement:
For sale, if applied for immediately, The Noted Tavern in the Street
leading from the Market to State street known by the name of the
Golden Ball. It has been improved as a tavern for a number of years,
and is an excellent stand for a store. Inquire of Ebenezer Storer, in
Sudbury Street.
Mr. Storer acted as the agent of Mary, wife of the Rev. Benjamin Gerrish
Gray, of Windsor, N. S., who was the heiress of Mary Gooch, who resided at
Marshfield, Mass., at the time of her death. Mr. Gray was a son of Joseph
Gray of Boston and Halifax, N. S., a loyalist. Mary, the heiress, was a
daughter of Nathaniel Ray Thomas, a loyalist of Marshfield, who had
married Sally Deering, a sister of Mary Gooch of Marshfield.
The property was sold by Mrs. Gray, June 9, 1795, to James Tisdale, a
merchant, who bought also adjoining lots. It was at this time that the
_Golden Ball_ disappeared from Merchants' Row, where it had hung as a
landmark for about a century. Tisdale soon sold his lots to Joseph Blake,
a merchant, who erected warehouses on the site.
There was still an attraction in the _Golden Ball_, however, and in 1799
we find it swinging in Wing's Lane, now Elm Street, for Nathan Winship. He
was the son of Jonathan, and born in Cambridge. In 1790 he was living in
Roxbury. He died in 1818, leaving a daughter Lucy. He had parted with the
_Golden Ball_ long before his death.
In 1805 there was erected in South Boston a building by one Garrett
Murphy. It stood on Fourth Street, between Dorchester Avenue and A Street,
and here he displayed the _Golden Ball_ for five years, as his hotel sign.
Just a century ago, in 1810, for want of patronage, it became a private
residence. About 1840 the hotel was reopened as the South Boston Hotel.
From South Boston the _Golden Ball_ rolled back to Elm Street, and in 1811
hung at the entrance of Joseph Bradley's Tavern. From this _Golden Ball_
started the stages for Quebec on Mondays at four in the morning. They
arrived at Concord, N. H., at seven in the evening. Leaving there at four
Tuesday morning, they reached Hanover, N. H., at two in the afternoon, and
continuing on arrived at Haverhill, N. H., near Woodsville, at nine
Wednesday evening.
The next appearance of the _Golden Ball_ was on Congress Street, where at
No. 13 was the new tavern of Thomas Murphy in 1816.
Henry Cabot, born 1812, was a painter, and first began business at 2
Scollay's Building in 1833. He removed to Blackstone Street in 1835, where
he was located at various numbers till 1858, when he went to North Street.
He resided in Chelsea from 1846 till his death in 1875. The occupation of
this owner of the _Golden Ball_ was that of an ornamental sign and
standard painter. His choice of a sign was not according to the traditions
of his trade, and did not conform with the painters' arms of the London
Guild Company, which were placed on the building in Hanover Street by an
earlier member of that craft. It was no worse choice, however, than a
sign which some of us may recall as swinging on Washington Street, near
Dock Square, fifty years ago, "The Sign of the Dying Warrior, N. M.
Phillips, Sign Painter."
The _Golden Ball_ was the sign anciently hung out in London by the silk
mercers, and was used by them to the end of the eighteenth century. Mr.
Cabot's choice of a location to start his business life was more
appropriate than his sign, as in the block of shops, owned by the town,
connecting on the west side of the Scollay's Building, had been the paint
shop of Samuel, brother of Christopher Gore.
COFFEE URN USED IN THE GREEN DRAGON.
This interesting relic was given to the Bostonian Society during 1915. It
is a coffee urn of Sheffield ware, formerly in the _Green Dragon Tavern_,
which stood on Union Street from 1697 to 1832, and was a famous meeting
place of the Patriots of the Revolution. It is globular in form and rests
on a base, and inside is still to be seen the cylindrical piece of iron
which, when heated, kept the delectable liquid contents of the urn hot
until imbibed by the frequenters of the tavern. The _Green Dragon Tavern_
site, now occupied by a business structure, is owned by the St. Andrew's
Lodge of Free Masons of Boston, and at a recent gathering of the Lodge on
St. Andrew's Day the urn was exhibited to the assembled brethren.
When the contents of the tavern were sold, the urn was bought by Mrs.
Elizabeth Harrington, who then kept a famous boarding house on Pearl
Street, in a building owned by the Quincy family. In 1847 the house was
razed and replaced by the Quincy Block, and Mrs. Harrington removed to
High Street and from there to Chauncey Place. Some of the prominent men of
Boston boarded with her for many years. At her death the urn was given to
her daughter, Mrs. John R. Bradford, and it has now been presented to the
Society by Miss Phebe C. Bradford of Boston, granddaughter of Mrs.
Elizabeth Harrington.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF COLE'S INN, WITH WHICH HANCOCK
TAVERN HAS BEEN CONFOUNDED
Dotted lines indicate the present Williams Court (Pie Alley)]
IX.
THE HANCOCK TAVERN.
"As an old landmark the _Hancock Tavern_ is a failure. There was not an
old window in the house; the nails were Bridgewater nails, the timbers
were mill-sawed, and the front of it was of face brick, which were not
made even in 1800. At the time of the Revolution it was merely a four-room
dwelling house of twelve windows, and the first license ever given to it
as an inn was in 1790. The building recently demolished was erected during
the years 1807 to 1812."
With the above words, Edward W. McGlenen, city registrar, effectually
settled the question June 3, 1903, at a meeting of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society, as to the widely credited report that it
was in the _Hancock Tavern_, which for many years stood on Corn Court, the
members of the Boston Tea Party met, disguised themselves as Indians, and
from there journeyed to Griffin's Wharf, where they threw overboard the
obnoxious tea.
It was a special meeting of the society called to hear the report of a
special committee appointed "to consider the question of the circumstances
attending the formation and execution of the plans for what is known as
the Boston Tea Party." This committee was made up of men who for years
had been students of that very subject, and the result of their researches
is interesting and conclusive. William C. Bates was chairman, and his
associates were Edward W. McGlenen, the Rev. Anson Titus, William T.
Eustis, and Herbert G. Briggs. The members of the society were present in
large numbers, and Marshall P. Wilder Hall was well filled.
William C. Bates, as chairman of the special committee, spoke of the
endeavors of himself and colleagues to avoid ground covered by historians.
He said that places of rendezvous for the "Mohawks" are to some extent
known, for over half a dozen of the members have left to their descendants
the story of where they met and costumed themselves. The four Bradlees met
at their sister's house, corner of Hollis and Tremont streets; Joseph
Brewer and others at the foot of Summer Street; John Crane in a carpenter
shop on Tremont Street opposite Hollis; Joseph Shedd and a small party in
his house on Milk Street, where the Equitable Building now stands; and
James Swan in his boarding house on Hanover Street. In the testimony of
the descendants, down to 1850 at least, there was no mention of the
_Hancock Tavern_. The place of origin of the Tea Party and who first
proposed it are matters of considerable discussion. Many of the party were
members of St. Andrew's Lodge of Masons, which owned the _Green Dragon
Inn_, and the lodge records state that the meeting held on the night of
the Tea Party had to be adjourned for lack of attendance, "public matters
being of greater importance."
[Illustration: SHEFFIELD PLATE URN
Used in the Green Dragon Tavern, now in possession of the Bostonian
Society]
It is not surprising that so much secrecy has been maintained, because of
the danger of lawsuits by the East Indian Company and others. The members
of the St. Andrew's Lodge were all young, many under twenty, the majority
under thirty.
Mr. McGlenen's report as to his investigations was especially interesting,
settling, as it did, three distinct questions which had been undecided for
many years--the location of the inn of Samuel Cole, the location of his
residence, and the much mooted point as to whether the "Mohawks" met at
the _Hancock Tavern_ for the preparatory steps toward the Boston Tea
Party.
All three questions were based on a statement printed in the souvenir of
the _Hancock Tavern_, reading as follows:
On the south side of Faneuil Hall is a passageway through which one
may pass into Merchants' row. It is Corn court, a name known to few of
the present day, but in the days gone by as familiar as the Corn
market, with which it was connected. In the center of this court
stands the oldest tavern in New England. It was opened March 4, 1634,
by Samuel Cole. It was surrounded by spacious grounds, which commanded
a view of the harbor and its shipping, for at that time the tide
covered the spot where Faneuil Hall now stands. It was a popular
resort from the beginning, and was frequented by many foreigners of
note.
The seeming authority for these statements and others, connecting it with
pre-revolutionary events, said Mr. McGlenen, appears in _Rambles in Old
Boston_ by the Rev. E. G. Porter, pages 67 and 68, evidently based on a
newspaper article written by William Brazier Duggan, M.D., in the Quincy
Patriot for August 28, 1852, and to a novel entitled _The Brigantine_ by
one Ingraham, referring to legendary lore. None of these statements can be
confirmed. The confusion has been caused by the statement made many years
ago and reprinted as a note in the _Book of Possessions_, Vol. II, _Boston
Town Records_, that somewhere near the water front Samuel Cole kept an
inn; but Letchford's _Note Book_, the _Town Records_, and the _Suffolk
Deeds_ prove to the contrary.
Samuel Cole's Inn was kept by him from 1634 to 1638, when he sold out by
order of the Colony Court. He purchased a residence near the town dock
seven years later. It adjoined the _Hancock Tavern_ lot, and was bounded
on the west by the lot originally in the ownership of Isaac Gross, whose
son Clement kept the _Three Mariners_, an ale house which stood west of
Pierse's Alley (Change Avenue) and east of the _Sun Tavern_.
It is impossible to connect the _Hancock Tavern_ with any
pre-Revolutionary event. It was a small house, as described in the _Direct
Tax_ of 1798, of two stories, of two rooms each, built of wood, with
twelve windows, value $1200. It was first licensed in 1790, and the
earliest reference found in print is in the advertisement for the sale of
lemons by John Duggan, in the _Columbian Centinel_ in 1794.
As to Cole's Inn, from the records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Court,
it appears that Samuel Cole kept the first inn or ordinary within the town
of Boston. In 1638 the court gave him liberty to sell his house for an
inn. This he did, disposing of it to Robert Sedgwick of Charlestown, as
shown in Letchford's _Note Book_. The town records show that in 1638
Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Cole, Robert Turner, Richard Hutchinson, William
Parker, and Richard Brackett were ordered to make a cartway near Mr.
Hutchinson's house, which definitely locates Samuel Cole on the old
highway leading to Roxbury, _i.e._ Washington Street (_Town Records_, Vol.
II, Rec. Com. Report, p. 38).
The _Book of Possessions_ shows in the same report that Valentine Hill had
one house and garden bounded with the street on the east, meeting house
and Richard Truesdale on the north, Capt. Robert Sedgwick on the south,
and the prison yard west.
Major Robert Sedgwick's house and garden bounded with Thomas Clarke,
Robert Turner and the street on the east, Mr. Hutchinson on the south,
Valentine Hill on the north, and Henry Messinger west.
Valentine Hill granted, March 20, 1645, to William Davies, his house and
garden bounded on the south with the ordinary now in the possession of
James Pen (_Suffolk Deeds_, Vol. I, p. 60). This presumably is _Cole's
Inn_, then in the possession of Robert Sedgwick, and occupied by James
Pen.
The question of Cole's residence was easily settled by Mr. McGlenen, when
he read from deeds showing that in 1645 Valentine Hill sold to Samuel Cole
a lot of land near the town dock. Samuel Cole died in 1666, and in his
will left his house and lot to his daughter Elizabeth and son John. This
property is on the corner of Change Avenue and Faneuil Hall Square, and
is now occupied by W. W. Rawson as a seed store.
The _Hancock Tavern_ is a distinct piece of property. Mr. McGlenen read
from deeds which proved that the land was first owned by John Kenerick of
Boston, yeoman, and was first sold to Robert Brecke of Dorchester,
merchant, on January 8, 1652. It was again sold to Thomas Watkins of
Boston, tobacco maker, in 1653; by him in 1679 to James Green of Boston,
cooper; by him to Samuel Green of Boston, cooper, in 1712; and by him
willed to his sons and daughter in 1750.
The eastern portion of the original lot (that situated east of the one on
which the _Hancock Tavern_, just demolished, was located) was sold by
Samuel Green's heirs to Thomas Handasyd Peck in 1759. The _Hancock Tavern_
lot itself was then sold to Thomas Bromfield, merchant, in February, 1760.
The deed says: "A certain dwelling house, with the land whereon the same
doth stand." Bromfield in 1763 sold it to Joseph Jackson of Boston, who
owned it at the time of the Revolution, and disposed of it on August 19,
1779, to Morris Keith, a Boston trader. Morris Keith, or Keefe, died in
April, 1783, aged 62, leaving a widow and two children, Thomas and Mary.
The son died in 1784, the widow in 1785, leaving the daughter Mary to
inherit the property. The inventory describes Morris Keefe as a lemon
dealer, and the house and land in Corn Court as worth £260.
Mary Keefe married John Duggan, May 24, 1789, and in 1790 John Duggan was
granted a license to retail liquor at his house in Corn Court. This is
the earliest record of a license being granted to the _Hancock Tavern_,
so called. Mary Duggan deeded the property to her husband in January,
1795, a few weeks before her death. In 1796 John Duggan married Mary
Hopkins. He died April 21, 1802, leaving three children--Michael, born
1797; William, born 1799, and John Adams, born 1802. Mary (Hopkins) Duggan
then married William Brazier in 1803. He died ten years later.
The record commissioners' reports, No. 22, page 290, show the following
inventory for 1798:
John Duggan, owner and occupier; wooden dwelling; west
on Corn Court; south on Moses Gill; north on James
Tisdale. Land 1024 square feet; house 448 square feet;
2 stories, 12 windows; value $1200
Duggan's advertisement in the _Columbian Centinel_ of October 11, 1794,
reads:
Latest imported lemons--In excellent order, for sale, by John Duggan,
at his house, at the sign of Gov. Hancock outside the market.
His address in the Boston Directory for 1796 is: "John Duggan, lemon
dealer, Corn court, S. side market."
In 1795, Duggan, who is described as an innholder, and his wife deeded
this property to Daniel English, who, on the same day, deeded it back to
John, in order that he might have a clear title.
"From these investigations," said Mr. McGlenen, "I think it is clear that
as an old landmark the _Hancock Tavern_ is a failure."
The Rev. Anson Titus then made his report of personal investigations
relating to the Tea Party itself. He said that the only sure thing is
this--that something happened in Boston on the evening of December 16,
1773. Beyond this to make statements is dangerous. Details of the affair
were not subject of public conversation, because of the danger of
prosecution and legal action. It was at the very edge of treason to the
King. It is certain that there were a great crowd of visitors in Boston
that night from the country towns who had been informed of what to expect
and had come for a purpose. Secrecy was the word and obedience was the
command.
Mr. Titus quoted from the Boston papers of that time and from Gov.
Hutchinson's letters, but declared that it was impossible to learn of the
names of the actual members of the party. He said that the "Mohawks were
men familiar with the vessels and the wharves. It is generally recognized
that they were Masons."
"In conclusion, as we began," he said, "in 1908, as in 1822, very little
is known concerning the real participants of the Boston Tea Party. The
lifelong silence on the part of those knowing most of the party is most
commendable and patriotic. It was a hazardous undertaking, even treason,
and long after American independence was gained, if proof which would have
had the least weight in court had been found, there would have been claims
for damages by the East India Company or the Crown against our young
republic, which would have been obliged to meet them. The affair was a
turning point in the history of American liberty, and glad ought we all to
be that there is no evidence existing connecting scarcely an individual,
the town of Boston, or the province with the Boston Tea Party."
[Illustration: The Town of Boston before 1645
Showing the Streets Mentioned in the Book of Possessions
Outline traced from Bonner's Map 1722 Details token from the records Annie
Haven Thwing © 1914]
LIST OF TAVERNS AND TAVERN OWNERS.
This list is taken from Miss Thwing's work on the _Inhabitants and Estates
of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800_, in possession of the Massachusetts
Historical Society. There also may be found the authority for each
statement and further details. It does not include many inns mentioned in
advertisements in the papers of the eighteenth century, nor the names of
many licensed innkeepers whose hostelry had no sign.
The Colony records state that in 1682 persons annually licensed in Boston
to keep taverns and sell beer shall not exceed six wine taverns, ten
innholders, and eight retailers for wine and strong liquors out of doors.
In 1684, as this was not enough for the accommodation of the inhabitants,
the county court licensed five or six more public houses. In 1687 all
licenses for public houses to be granted only to those persons of good
repute, and have convenient houses and at least two beds to entertain
strangers and travellers. In Boston the approbation of the Treasurer must
be secured. The regulations of inns are given in detail in the records.
=Admiral Vernon=, see _Vernon's Head_.
=American Coffee-House=, see _British Coffee-House_.
=Anchor=, also called =Blue Anchor=, east side of Washington Street,
between State and Water streets (site of the Globe Building). In the _Book
of Possessions_ Richard Fairbanks (innkeeper) had house and garden here.
In 1646 he was licensed to keep a house of entertainment, and in 1652 sold
his estate to Robert Turner, who was licensed in 1659, and his widow
Penelope in 1666. His son John Turner inherited, and was licensed in 1667.
In 1680 George Monk on his marriage with Lucy, widow of Turner, succeeded.
Monk married a second wife, Elizabeth Woodmancy, who succeeded him in
1691, and kept the inn until 1703, when she sold the estate to James
Pitts. In 1708 a neighboring estate bounded on the house "formerly the
Anchor Tavern." From James Pitts the owners were Benjamin Bagnal, in
1724-25; William Speakman, 1745; 1746 Alice Quick, who bequeathed to her
nephew Thomas Knight in 1761; and Mary Knight was the owner in 1798.
=Bair=, Washington Street, between Dock Square and Milk Street. In 1722
Elizabeth Davis was licensed at the Bair in Cornhill. As she was the owner
of the Bear at the Dock this may have been a mistake.
=Bear=, see _Three Mariners_.
=Baker's Arms=, in 1673 the house of John Gill was on the southwest corner
of Hanover and Union streets, "near the Baker's Arms." This was possibly
then the name of the Star Tavern or the Green Dragon.
=Baulston.= William Baulston had a grant of land in 1636-37 on the west
side of Washington Street, between Dock Square and Court Street. In June,
1637, he was licensed to keep a house of entertainment. In 1638 he sold to
Thomas Cornewell, who was licensed to keep an inn in room of William
Baulston. In 1639-40 the property was bought by Edward Tyng.
=Bite=, see _Three Mariners_.
=Black Horse=, Prince Street. It is commonly asserted that the early name
of Prince Street came from a tavern of that name, but thus far no such
tavern has been found on the records. Black Horse Lane was first mentioned
in 1684.
=Black and White Horse=, locality not stated. In 1767 Robert Sylvester was
licensed.
=Blue Anchor=, Washington Street, see _Anchor_.
=Blue Anchor=, in 1760, "land where the Blue Anchor was before the fire
near Oliver's Dock."
=Blue Anchor=, locality not stated. In 1767 a man lodged at the Blue
Anchor.
=Blue Bell=, west side of Union Street, between Hanover and North streets.
In 1663 John Button conveys to Edmund Jacklin his house, known as the Blue
Bell.
=Blue Bell=, southwest corner of Battery March and Water streets. The land
on which this tavern stood was originally a marsh which the town let to
Capt. James Johnson in 1656, he to pay an annual amount to the school of
Boston. Part of this land was conveyed by Johnson to Thomas Hull. This
deed is not recorded, but in 1674 in the deed of Richard Woodde to John
Dafforne the west bounds were in part on land now of Deacon Allen and Hugh
Drury, formerly of Thomas Hull, the house called the Blew Bell. In 1673
the house was let to Nathaniel Bishop. In the inventory of the estate of
Hugh Drury in 1689 his part is described as one half of that house Mr.
Wheeler lives in and cooper's shop. In the partition of his estate in 1692
there was set off to his grandson Thomas Drury one half of house and land
commonly called the Castle Tavern, the said house and land being in
partnership with Henry Allen. In the division of Allen's estate in 1703,
the house and land is set off to his widow Judith. In 1707 Judith Allen
and Thomas Drury make a division, the west half being assigned to Judith
Allen and the east half to Drury. Judith Allen died in 1722, and in 1723
her son Henry conveyed to Robert Williams the westerly part of the estate,
consisting of dwelling house, land, and cooper's shop. Williams deeds to
his son Robert Williams, and the estate was in the family many years.
=Brazen Head=, east side of Washington Street, between State and Water
streets. Jan. 2, 1757, a soldier was taken with the smallpox at widow
Jackson's at the Brazen Head. March 20, 1760, the great fire broke out
here. Mrs. Jackson was not a property owner, but leased the premises.
=Brewers' Arms=, east side of Washington Street, between Bedford and Essex
streets. In 1696 Sarah, widow of Samuel Walker, mortgages the house called
the Brewers' Arms in tenure of Daniel Elton (innholder).
=British Coffee-House=, north side of State Street, between Change Avenue
and Merchants' Row. In the _Book of Possessions_ James Oliver was the
owner of this estate. Elisha Cooke recovers judgment against Oliver, and
sells to Nicholas Moorcock in 1699. Moorcock conveys to Charles Burnham in
1717, whose heirs convey to Jonathan Badger in 1773. Badger deeds to
Hannah Cordis in 1775 "The British Coffee-House." In 1780 the heirs of
Badger confirm to Joseph Cordis "The American Coffee-House," and Cordis
sells to the Massachusetts Bank in 1792. Cord Cordis was the innkeeper in
1771 and John Bryant was licensed in 1790. In 1798 this was a brick
building, three stories, twenty-six windows, value $12,000.
=Bromfield House=, Bromfield Street, see _Indian Queen_.
[Illustration: BROMFIELD HOUSE ON THE SITE OF THE "INDIAN QUEEN"
36-38 Bromfield Street]
=Bull=, foot of Summer Street. In the _Book of Possessions_ Nicholas
Baxter had house and garden here. In 1668 he conveyed this to John Bull
and wife Mary, the daughter of his wife Margaret. Baxter died in 1692,
and in his will recites this deed and divides his personal property
between his daughter Mary, wife of John Swett, and John and Mary Bull. In
1694 and 1704 Mary Swett attempted to regain the estate, but Bull gained
his case each time. John Bull died in 1723, and in 1724 his son Jonathan
buys the shares of other heirs. Jonathan died while on a visit to England
in 1727 or 1728, and his will, probated in 1728-29, gives one third of his
estate to his wife, and two thirds to his children, Elizabeth, John, and
Samuel. Both sons died before coming of age, and Elizabeth inherited their
shares. She married Rev. Roger Price, and they went to England. She died
in 1780, and in 1783 her eldest son and daughter returned to Boston to
recover the property which Barret Dyer, who had married Elizabeth, widow
of John Bull, had attempted to regain. John Bull was licensed as innkeeper
from 1689 to 1713, when his widow Mary succeeded. In 1757 Mr. Bean was the
landlord, and in 1766 the house was let to Benjamin Bigelow. In 1798
William Price was the owner and Bethia Page the occupier. A wooden house
of two stories, thirty-one windows, value $2000. The site is now covered
by the South Station.
=Bunch of Grapes=, southeast corner of State and Kilby streets. The early
possession of William Davis, who sold to William Ingram in 1658. Ingram
conveyed "The Bunch of Grapes" to John Holbrook in 1680; Adm. of Holbrook
to Thomas Waite in 1731; Waite to Simon Eliot in 1760; Eliot to Leonard
Jarvis in 1769; Jarvis to Joseph Rotch, Jr., in 1772; Francis Rotch to
Elisha Doane, 1773; his heirs to Isaiah Doane, 1786. In 1798 it was a
brick store. June 7, 1709, Francis Holmes was the keeper and was to billet
five soldiers at his house of public entertainment. In 1750 kept by
Weatherhead, being noted, said Goelet, as the best punch house in Boston.
In 1757 one captain and one private soldier to be billeted at
Weatherhead's. 1764 to 1772 Joseph Ingersol licensed. In 1790 Dudley
Colman licensed. In 1790 James Bowdoin bequeathes house called "The Bunch
of Grapes" to his wife. This was on the west corner of Kilby and State
streets.
=Castle=, west corner of Dock Square and Elm Street. In the _Book of
Possessions_ William Hudson, Jr., had house and garden here. May 20, 1654,
a street leading from the Castle Tavern is mentioned (Elm Street). Hudson
sold off parts of his estate and in 1674 he conveyed to John Wing house,
buildings, etc., commonly called Castle Tavern. In 1677 Wing mortgages to
William Brown of Salem "all his new built dwelling house, being part of
that building formerly known as the Castle Tavern." The estate was
forfeited, and in 1694 Brown conveys to Benjamin Pemberton mansion
heretofore called the Castle Tavern, since the George Tavern, subject to
Wing's right of redemption. In his will of 1701-02 John Wing devises to
his son John Wing the housing and land lying near the head of the town
dock which he purchased of Capt. William Hudson, together with the brick
messuage, formerly known by the name of the George Tavern, which has an
encumbrance of 1000 pounds, due William Browne, now in possession of
Benjamin Pemberton. In 1708 Wing releases the estate to Pemberton. In 1710
the heirs of Pemberton convey to Jonathan Waldo, and the succeeding owners
were: Thomas Flucker, 1760; in the same year it passes to Isaac Winslow
and Moses Gill; Gill to Caleb Loring, 1768; Nathaniel Frazier, 1771; David
Sears, 1787; William Burgess, 1790; Nathaniel Frazier, 1792; John and
Jonathan Amory, 1793. In 1798 Colonel Brewer was the occupier. A brick
house, two stories, twelve windows, value $4000.
=Castle=, Battery March and Water streets, see _Blue Bell_.
[Illustration: FIREMAN'S TICKET NOTIFYING OF MEETING AT COLEMAN'S (Bunch
of Grapes)]
=Castle=, northeast corner of North and Fleet streets. The early
possession of Thomas Savage, John Crabtree acquires, and in 1654 conveys
to Bartholomew Barnard. Barnard sells to Edward Cock in 1672-73; Cock to
Margaret Thatcher, who conveys to William Colman in 1679. Colman to
William Everden in 1694-95, who mortgages to Francis Holmes. Holmes
conveys to John Wentworth in 1708. In 1717 John Wentworth conveys to
Thomas Lee house known as the "Castle Tavern, occupied by Sarah Hunt." In
1768 Thomas Love and wife Deborah (Lee) deed to Andrew Newell, the "Castle
Tavern," and the same year Newell to Joseph Lee. In 1785 Joseph Lee
conveys to Joseph Austin the "King's Head Tavern." In 1798 owned and
occupied by Austin. House of three and two stories, twenty-five windows,
value $3000.
=Castle=, locality not stated. In 1721 Adrian, widow of John Cunningham,
was licensed at the Castle, and in 1722 Mary English.
=Cole=, Samuel Cole's inn, west side of Washington Street, corner of
Williams Court, site of Thompson's Spa. In 1633-34 Samuel Cole set up the
first house of common entertainment. In 1635 he was licensed to keep an
ordinary, and in 1637-38 had leave to sell his house for an inn to Robert
Sedgwick. In 1646 James Penn was licensed here. Lt. William Phillips
acquired the property, and in 1656-57 mortgages "The Ship Tavern." He
conveys it to Capt. Thomas Savage in 1660. The later owners were Ephraim
Savage, 1677-78; Zachariah Trescott, 1712; Nicholas Bouve, 1715; John
Comrin, 1742; Jonathan Mason, 1742; James Lloyd, 1763, in whose family it
remained many years.
=Concert Hall=, south corner of Hanover and Court streets. In the _Book of
Possessions_ Jeremiah Houchin had house and garden here. His widow sold to
Thomas Snawsell in 1670, and Snawsell to John Russell in 1671; Eleazar
Russell to John Gardner and Priscilla Hunt in 1689-90; the heirs of
Gardner to Gilbert and Lewis Deblois in 1749; Deblois to Stephen Deblois
in 1754, and he to William Turner in 1769; Turner conveyed to John and
Jonathan Amory in 1789. In 1798 John Amory was the owner and James Villa
the occupier. A brick house, three stories, thirty windows, value $3000.
Villa had been a tenant, and was licensed as an innkeeper for some years.
Before it became a tavern the hall was used for various purposes--for
meetings, musical concerts, and by the Grand Masons.
=Cromwell's Head= or =Sign of Oliver Cromwell=, north side of School
Street. In the _Book of Possessions_ Richard Hutchinson was the owner of
land here. Abraham Brown acquired before 1658; Sarah (Brown) Rogers
inherits in 1689-90, and in 1692 Gamaliel Rogers conveyed to Duncan
McFarland; Mary (McFarland) Perkins inherits, and John Perkins deeds to
Joseph Maylem in 1714; John Maylem inherits in 1733, and the next owner is
Elizabeth (Maylem) Bracket, wife of Anthony Bracket. In 1764 Elizabeth
Bracket was licensed at her house in School Street, and Joshua Bracket was
licensed in 1768. In 1796 Abigail Bracket conveyed to John Warren, who was
the owner in 1798, and Henry Vose the occupier. A wooden house, three
stories, thirty windows, value $6000.
=Crown Coffee-House=, north side of State Street, the first house on Long
wharf (site of the Fidelity Trust Co. building). Jonathan Belcher was a
proprietor of Long Wharf, which was extended from State Street in 1710. In
1749 his son Andrew Belcher conveyed to Richard Smith "The Crown
Coffee-House," Smith to Robert Shellcock in 1751, and the administrator of
Shellcock to Benjamin Brown in 1788. In 1798 stores covered the site. In
1714 Thomas Selby was licensed as an innholder at the Crown
Coffee-House, and he died here in 1727. In 1729 William Burgess was
licensed, and in 1730 and 1733 Edward Lutwych; 1762 Rebecca Coffin; 1766
Richard Bradford; and in 1772 Rebecca Coffin.
[Illustration]
=Dolphin=, east side of North Street, at the foot of Richmond Street.
Nicholas Upshall was the owner of the land in 1644. He deeds to his
son-in-law William Greenough in 1660. Henry Gibbs and wife Mercy
(Greenough) inherit in 1694-95. In 1726-27 Henry Gibbs conveys to Noah
Champney "The Dolphin Tavern." John Lowell and wife Sarah (Champney)
inherit, and deed to Neil McIntire in 1753, McIntire to Neil McIntire of
Portsmouth in 1784, and he to William Welsh in 1785, Welsh to Prince Snow
in 1798. In 1798 it was a wooden house of two stories and eleven windows,
value $600. The Dolphin Tavern is mentioned by Sewall in 1718. In 1726-27
Mercy Gibbs was licensed; in 1736 Alice Norwood, and 1740 James Stevens.
=Dove, Sign of the=, northeast corner of Boylston and Tremont streets. In
the _Book of Possessions_ Thomas Snow was the owner, and in 1667 he
mortgages his old house to which the Sign of the Dove is fastened. William
Wright and wife Milcha (Snow) inherit and in 1683 convey to Samuel
Shrimpton, the heirs of Shrimpton to Adam Colson in 1781, Colson to
William Cunningham in 1787, Cunningham to Francis Amory in 1793, Amory to
Joseph Head in 1795.
=Drum, Sign of the=, locality not stated. In 1761 and 1776 mentioned in
the _Town Records_.
=Exchange=, northwest corner of State and Exchange streets. In 1646
Anthony Stoddard and John Leverett deed to Henry Shrimpton house and land.
His son Samuel inherits in 1666, and in 1697-98 Samuel Shrimpton, Jr.,
inherits "the Exchange Tavern." He mortgages to Nicholas Roberts in 1703,
and the administrators of Roberts convey to Robert Stone in 1754 "the
Royal Exchange Tavern." In 1784 Daniel Parker and wife Sally (Stone)
convey to Benjamin Hitchbone. In 1798 Israel Hatch was the occupier. A
brick house, four stories, thirty windows, value $12,000. In 1690-91 the
Exchange Tavern is mentioned by Judge Sewall. In 1714 Rowland Dike
petitioned for a license. In 1764 Seth Blodgett was licensed, 1770 Mr.
Stone, 1772 Daniel Jones, 1776 Benjamin Loring, 1788 John Bowers, 1798
Israel Hatch.
=Exchange Coffee-House=, southeast corner of State and Devonshire streets.
In the _Book of Possessions_ the land was owned by Robert Scott. The house
was built in 1804 and burnt in 1818; rebuilt in 1822 and closed as a
tavern in 1854.
=Flower de Luce=, west side of North Street, between Union and Cross
streets. In 1675 Elizabeth, widow of Edmund Jackson, mortgages her house,
known by the name of Flower de Luce, in tenure of Christopher Crow.
=George=, west side of Washington Street, near the Roxbury line. The land
was a grant of the town to James Penn in 1644. In 1652 he deeds, as a
gift, five acres to Margery, widow of Jacob Eliot, for the use of her
children. In 1701 Eliezer Holyoke and wife Mary (Eliot) convey to Stephen
Minot. In 1701-02 Minot petitions for a license to keep an inn or tavern
at his house, nigh Roxbury gate. This is disapproved. In 1707 the George
Tavern is mentioned. In 1708-09 Samuel Meeres petitions to sell strong
drink as an innholder at the house of Stephen Minot, in the room of John
Gibbs, who is about to quit his license, and in 1722-23 he was still an
innholder there. In 1726 Simon Rogers was licensed. In 1733 Stephen Minot,
Jr., inherits the George Tavern, now in occupation of Simon Rogers. In
1734-35 occupied by Andrew Haliburton. In 1768 Gideon Gardner was
licensed. Stephen Minot, Jr., conveys to Samuel and William Brown in
1738; William Brown to Aaron Willard in 1792. In 1770 Thomas Bracket was
approved as a taverner in the house on the Neck called the King's Arms,
formerly the George Tavern, lately kept by Mrs. Bowdine. Aug. 1, 1775, the
George Tavern was burnt by the Regulars, writes Timothy Newell in his
diary.
[Illustration: THE EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE, 1803-1818 (Congress Square)]
=George=, corner Dock Square and Elm Street, see _Castle_.
=Globe=, northeast corner of Commercial and Hanover streets. In the _Book
of Possessions_ the estate of William Douglass. Eliphalet Hett and wife
Ann (Douglass) inherit; Nathaniel Parkman and wife Hannah (Hett) inherit.
In 1702 Hannah Parkman conveys to Edward Budd; Budd to James Barnard in
1708. Barnard to John Greenough in 1711. In the division of the Greenough
estate this was set off to William and Newman Greenough. Greenough to
Joseph Oliver in 1779. Oliver to Henry H. Williams in 1788. In 1741 and
1787 the Globe Tavern is mentioned in the _Town Records_.
=Goat=, locality not stated; in 1737 mentioned in the inventory of Elisha
Cooke.
=Golden Ball=, northwest corner of Merchants' Row and Corn Court. Edward
Tyng was the first owner of the land, Theodore Atkinson acquired before
1662, and conveys to Henry Deering in 1690. In 1731 part of Deering's
estate was the house known as the "Golden Ball," now occupied by Samuel
Tyley. Mary (Deering) Wilson inherits and bequeathes to her niece Mary
(Deering), wife of John Gooch. In 1795 Benjamin Gerrish Gray and wife Mary
(Gooch) convey to James Tisdale house known by the name of the Golden Ball
Tavern. In 1798 stores covered the site. In 1711 Samuel Tyley petitions
for renewal of his license upon his removal from the Salutation to Mr.
Deering's house in Merchants' Row. In 1757 it was kept by John Marston.
=Grand Turk, Sign of=, Washington Street, between Winter and Boylston. In
1789 Israel Hatch (innholder).
=Green Dragon=, west side of Union Street, north of Hanover. In the _Book
of Possessions_ James Johnson owned three fourths of an acre on the mill
pond. The next estate that separated him from Hanover Street was owned by
John Davis. In 1646 Johnson deeds to Thomas Marshall, and Marshall to
Thomas Hawkins. In 1645 John Davis deeds to John Trotman, whose wife
Katherine on the same day conveys to Thomas Hawkins. In 1671 Hawkins
mortgages to Samson Sheafe, and January, 1671-02, the property is
delivered to Sheafe. In 1672-03 Sheafe deeds part to John Howlett (see
_Star Tavern_), bounded northwest by William Stoughton. No deed is
recorded to Stoughton. Stoughton died in 1701, and this estate fell to his
granddaughter Mehitable, wife of Capt. Thomas Cooper. She later married
Peter Sargent and Simeon Stoddard. In 1743 her son Rev. William Cooper
conveys the brick dwelling called the Green Dragon Tavern to Dr. William
Douglass. On the division of the estate of Douglass this fell to his
sister Catherine Kerr, who in 1765 deeds to St. Andrews Lodge of Free
Masons. In 1798 it is described as a brick dwelling, three stories,
thirty-nine windows, with stable, value $3000. In 1714 William Patten,
late of Charlestown, petitions to sell strong drink as an innholder at the
Green Dragon in the room of Richard Pullen, who hath quitted his license
there.
=Gutteridge Coffee-House=, north side of State Street, between Washington
and Exchange streets. Robert Gutteridge was a tenant of Hezekiah Usher in
1688, and was licensed in 1691. In 1718 Mary Gutteridge petitions for the
renewal of her late husband's license to keep a public coffee-house.
[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE-HOUSE, 1848
From State Street, looking south down Congress Square]
=Half Moon=, southwest side of Portland Street. Henry Pease was the owner
of the land in the _Book of Possessions_. He conveys to Thomas Matson in
1648, and Joshua Matson to Edward Cricke in 1685. In 1705 his widow
Deborah Cricke conveys to Thomas Gwin house commonly called "The Half
Moon." In 1713 Gwin sells to William Clarke. The children of Sarah
(Clarke) Kilby inherit and deed to John Bradford in 1760. His heirs were
owners in 1798. A brick house, two stories, thirty-nine windows, value
$4000.
=Hancock=, Corn Court. This property was acquired by John Kendric, who
sells to Robert Breck in 1652-53. Later owners, Thomas Watkins 1653, James
Green 1659, Samuel Green 1712, Thomas Bromfield 1760, Joseph Jackson 1763.
Jackson deeds to Morris Keefe in 1779, whose daughter Mary, wife of John
Duggan, inherits in 1795. In 1798 it was a wooden house, two stories,
twelve windows, value $1200.
=Hatch=, east side Tremont Street, between West and Boylston streets. The
land was a grant of the town to Richard Bellingham in 1665. Martin Sanders
acquires and deeds to Æneas Salter, and Salter to Sampson Sheaf in 1677.
Jacob Sheaf to Abiah Holbrook in 1753. Adm. of Rebecca Holbrook to Israel
Hatch in 1794. 1796 Israel Hatch (innkeeper).
=Hawk=, Summer Street. In 1740 mentioned in the _Town Records_.
=Horse Shoe=, east side of Tremont Street, between School and Bromfield
streets. In the _Book of Possessions_ this was part of the land of
Zaccheus Bosworth. His daughter Elizabeth and her husband John Morse
convey to John Evered, _alias_ Webb, in 1660; Webb to William Pollard in
1663. John Pollard deeds to Jonathan Pollard in 1722 the "Horse Shoe
Tavern." In 1782 the heirs of Pollard convey to George Hamblin, who
occupied it in 1798. A wooden house, two stories, eleven windows, value
$1500. In 1738 Alex Cochran was licensed here.
=Indian Queen=, later =Bromfield House=, south side of Bromfield Street.
The possession of William Aspinwall, who deeds the land to John Angier in
1652, and in the same year it passes to Sampson Shore and Theodore
Atkinson; Atkinson to Edward Rawson in 1653-54; Rawson to Robert Noaxe,
1672; Noaxe to Joseph Whitney, 1675; Whitney to Edward Bromfield, 1684;
Edward Bromfield, Jr., to Benjamin Kent, 1748; Ex. of Kent to Henry
Newman, 1760; Newman to John Ballard, 1782. In 1798 it was occupied by
Abel Wheelock, Trask, and Brown. A brick and wooden house, two stories,
thirty-four windows, value $4500, with a stable.
=Julien Restorator=, northwest corner of Milk and Congress streets. In the
_Book of Possessions_ John Spoor had a house and one acre here, which he
mortgaged to Nicholas Willis in 1648. In 1648-49 Henry Bridgham sold a
house on Washington Street to John Spoore, so it may be possible that they
exchanged lots. In 1655 Bridgham was the owner. He died in 1681, and his
widow in 1672. In 1680 his estate was divided among his three sons. John,
the eldest, settled in Ipswich, inherited the new house, and that included
the west portion. In 1719 he deeds his share to his nephew Joseph
Bridgham, who in 1734-35 conveys to Francis Borland, then measuring 106
ft. on Milk Street. Borland also bought a strip of James Dalton in 1763,
which addition reached the whole length of the lot, which has been
abridged by the laying out of Dalton's Lane (Congress Street). Francis
Borland died in 1763, and left the Milk Street estate to his son Francis
Lindall Borland, who was absent and feared to be dead. Jane Borland
married John Still Winthrop, and in 1765 the estate was divided among
the Winthrop children. These heirs conveyed the Congress Street corner
to Thomas Clement in 1787, and in 1794 he sold it to Jean Baptiste Gilbert
Payplat dis Julien (restorator). Julien died in 1806, and his heirs
conveyed it in 1823 to the Commercial Co. The house was taken down in
1824. In 1798 it was a wooden dwelling, three stories, eighteen windows,
value $6000.
[Illustration: VIEW OF TREMONT STREET, SHOWING THE "HATCH TAVERN" IN FRONT
OF THE "HAYMARKET THEATRE"
From an original painting by Robertson, now in the Boston Public Library]
=King's Arms=, west side of Washington Street, between Brattle and Court
streets. Nearly all of the original lot was taken for the extension of
Washington Street, and the exact location obliterated. It was one of the
estates at the head of the Dock. In the _Book of Possessions_, owned by
Hugh Gunnison, who in 1646 was licensed to keep a house of entertainment.
Oct. 28, 1650, he mortgages the estate called the King's Arms, and in 1651
conveys it to John Samson, Henry Shrimpton, and William Brenton (see
_Suff. Deeds_, Lib. 1, fol. 135, where there is an interesting and
complete inventory). Henry Shrimpton gets possession of the whole, and in
his will, 1666, bequeathes to his daughter Sarah Shrimpton "the house
formerly called the States Arms." In 1668-69 Eliakim Hutchinson, on his
marriage with Sarah Shrimpton, puts the estate in trust for his wife,
"heretofore called the King's Arms." He also enlarged the estate by buying
adjoining land of the William Tyng and Thomas Brattle estates. By the will
of Eliakim Hutchinson in 1718, and that of his wife in 1720, the whole
estate went to their son William Hutchinson, who in 1721 devised to his
son Eliakim Hutchinson. Eliakim still further enlarged the estate. He was
a Loyalist, and his estate was confiscated. In 1782 the government
conveyed part of it to Thomas Green and the remainder to John Lucas and
Edward Tuckerman.
=King's Arms=, west side of North Street, between Sun Court and Fleet
Street. The lot of Thomas Clarke in the _Book of Possessions_, which he
sold to Launcelot Baker in 1648, and Baker to George Halsey in 1648, the
trustees of Halsey to Evan Thomas in 1656, "The King's Arms." In 1680 his
widow Alice Thomas mortgages the house formerly known as King's Arms, and
she sells it in 1698 to Joseph Bill.
=King's Arms=, on the Neck, see _George_.
=King's Head=, northeast corner of North and Fleet streets, see _Castle_.
=Lamb= and =White Lamb=, west side of Washington Street, between West and
Boylston streets, on the site of the Adams House, the original lot of
Richard Brocket, which he deeds to Jacob Leger in 1638; and Ann Leger,
widow, to John Blake in 1664; Blake to Edward Durant in 1694; Durant to
Jonathan Waldo the southern part in 1713-14; Jonathan Waldo, Jr., to
Samuel Cookson in 1780; Cookson to Joel Crosby in 1795. In 1798 Joel
Crosby was the owner and occupier of the Lamb Tavern. A wooden building of
two stories, twenty-four windows, value $4200. In 1738 it was mentioned in
the _Town Records_, and in 1782 Augustus Moor was licensed there.
=Lighthouse=, 1766, mentioned in the _Town Records_. It was not far from
the Old North Meeting House.
=Lion, Sign of=, Washington Street, between Winter and Boylston streets.
1796 Henry Vose (innholder).
=Logwood Tree, Sign of=, south side of Commercial Street, between Hanover
and North streets. The lot of John Seabury in the _Book of Possessions_,
which he deeds to Alex Adams in 1645, Adams to Nathaniel Fryer in 1653-54,
and Fryer to John Scarlet in 1671. Scarlet to Joseph Parminter in 1671-72.
In 1734-35 Hannah Emmes, sister of Parminter, conveys to John Read the
house known as the "Sign of the Logwood Tree"; Read to Thomas Bently in
1744, and Bently to Joshua Bently 1756. In 1798 it was occupied by
Captain Caswell. A wooden house, two stories, fourteen windows, value
$1000. In 1732 mentioned in the _Town Records_. See also _Queen's Head_.
[Illustration: THE LAMB TAVERN (The Adams House Site)]
=Marlborough Arms= and =Marlborough Head=, south side of State Street,
east of Kilby Street. In 1640 William Hudson was allowed to keep an
ordinary. His son conveys this in 1648 to Francis Smith, and Smith to John
Holland. Judith Holland conveys to Thomas Peck in 1656; Thomas Peck, Jr.,
to James Gibson, 1711. In 1722 Mary Gibson deeds to her children "house
named Marlborough next the Grapes." James Gibson to Roger Passmore, 1741;
Passmore to Simon Eliot, 1759; Eliot to Leonard, 1760; Jarvis to Benjamin
Parker, 1766; John Erving acquires and deeds to William Stackpole, 1784.
In 1798 it had been converted into a brick store. Elisha Odling was
licensed in 1720, Sarah Wormal in 1721, and Elizabeth Smith 1722.
=Mitre=, east side of North Street, at the head of Hancock Wharf (Lewis
Wharf), between Sun Court and Fleet Street. The lot of Samuel Cole in the
_Book of Possessions_, which he conveys to George Halsey in 1645; Halsey
to Nathaniel Patten, 1654; Patten to Robert Cox, 1681; Cox to John Kind,
1683-84; Jane Kind to Thomas Clarke (pewterer), 1705-06; Clarke to John
Jeffries, 1730. His nephew David Jeffries inherits in 1778, from whom it
went to Joseph Eckley and wife Sarah (Jeffries). In 1782 heirs of John
Jeffries owned house "formerly the Mitre Tavern." In 1798 the house had
been taken down.
=Noah's Ark=, southwest corner North and Clarke streets. The early
possession of Capt. Thomas Hawkins. He was lost at sea, and his widow
married (2) John Fenn and (3) Henry Shrimpton. In 1657 William Phillips
conveys to Mary Fenn the house called Noah's Ark, the property of her
first husband Thomas Hawkins, and which her son-in-law John Aylett had
mortgaged to William Hudson, by whom it was sold to William Phillips. In
1657 Mary Fenn conveys to George Mountjoy, and in 1663 Mountjoy to John
Vial. In 1695 Vial deeds to Thomas Hutchinson. In 1713 the house was known
as Ship Tavern, heretofore Noah's Ark, in part above and in part below the
street called Ship Street.
=North Coffee-House=, North Street. Dec. 12, 1702, Edward Morrell was
licensed.
=North End Coffee-House=, northwest side of North Street, between Sun
Court and Fleet Street. The land of Capt. Thomas Clarke in the _Book of
Possessions_. Elisha Hutchinson and wife Elizabeth (Clarke) inherit.
Edward Hutchinson conveys to Thomas Savage in 1758. John Savage inherits,
and deeds to Joseph Tahon in 1781, Tahon to Robert Wier in 1786, Wier to
John May in 1795 the "North End Coffee-House." In 1782 Capt. David Porter
was licensed to keep a tavern at the North End Coffee-House. In 1798 John
May was owner and occupier. A brick house, three stories, forty-five
windows, value $4500.
=Orange Tree=, northeast corner of Hanover and Court streets. Land first
granted to Edmund Jackson, Thomas Leader acquires before 1651, and his
heirs deed to Bozoon Allen in 1678. Allen conveys in 1700 to Francis Cook
"the Orange Tree Inn." Benjamin Morse and wife Frances (Cook) inherit.
John Tyng and wife Mary (Morse), daughter of Benjamin, inherit. John
Marshall and other heirs of Tyng owners in 1785 and 1798, when it was
unoccupied. A wooden house, three stories, fifty-three windows, value
$4000. In 1712 Jonathan Wardell, who had married Frances (Cook), widow of
Benjamin Morse, was licensed, and from 1724 to 1746 Mrs. Wardell was
licensed.
=Peacock=, west side of North Street, between Board Alley and Cross
Street, on the original estate of Sampson Shore, who conveyed to Edwin
Goodwin in 1648, and he to Nathaniel Adams. In 1707-08 Joseph and other
children of Nathaniel Adams deed to Thomas Harris house and land near the
Turkey or Peacock. In 1705 Elihu Warden owns a shop over against the
Peacock Tavern. Sept. 26, 1709, Thomas Lee petitions to keep a victualling
house at a hired house which formerly was the Sign of the Turkie Cock.
=Peggy Moore's Boarding House=, southwest corner of Washington and
Boylston streets. On the original estate of Jacob Eliot. His daughter
Hannah Frary inherits, Abigail (Frary) Arnold inherits, and then Hannah
(Arnold), wife of Samuel Welles. In 1798 Samuel Welles owner, and he with
Mrs. Brown and Peggy Moore occupiers. A wooden house, two stories, and
seventy-one windows, value $10,000.
=Pine Tree=, Dock Square. In 1785 Capt. Benjamin Gorham was licensed on
Dock Square, at the house known by the name of the Pine Tree Tavern.
Gorham bought a house in 1782 of John Steel Tyler and wife Mary (Whitman),
situated on northwest side of North Street, between Cross Street and Scott
Alley, which he sold in 1786 to John Hinckley.
=Punch Bowl, Sign of the=, Dock Square. 1789 Mrs. Baker (innholder).
=Queen's Head=, Fleet Street. April 19, 1728, Anthony Young petitions to
remove his license from the Salutation in Ship Street to the Sign of the
Swan in Fleet Street, and set up the Sign of the Queen's Head there. Nov.
28, 1732, Joseph Pearse petitions to remove his license from the house
where he lives, the Sign of the Logwood Tree in Lynn Street, to the house
near Scarlett's Wharf at the Sign of the Queen's Head, where Anthony Young
last dwelt.
=Red Cross=, southwest corner of North and Cross streets. In 1746 John
Osborn (innholder) bought land of Tolman Farr, to whom it had descended
from Barnabas Fawer, who bought it of Valentine Hill in 1646. The
children of Osborn sold it in 1756 to Ichabod Jones, whose son John Coffin
Jones inherited.
=Red Lyon=, northeast corner of North and Richmond streets. Nicholas
Upshall was the owner in 1644. Nov. 9, 1654, Francis Brown's house was
near the Red Lyon. Joseph Cock and wife Susannah (Upshall) inherit half in
1666, Edward Proctor and wife Elizabeth (Cock) inherit in 1693-94 half of
the Red Lyon Inn, John Proctor deeds to Edward Proctor in 1770, Proctor to
Charles Ryan in 1790, Ryan to Thomas Kast in 1791, Kast to Reuben Carver
in 1794. In 1798 William T. Clapp was occupier. A brick and wooden
dwelling, three and two stories, twenty-four windows, value $2500. In 1763
mentioned in the _Town Records_.
=Red Lyon=, Washington Street, see _Lion_. 1798 James Clark (innholder).
=Rising Sun=, Washington Street, between School and Winter streets. 1800
Luther Emes (innholder).
=Roebuck=, east side of Merchants' Row (Swing Bridge Lane) a grant of land
to Leonard Buttles in 1648-49. He sold to Richard Staines in 1655, whose
widow Joyce Hall deeds to Thomas Winsor in 1691; Winsor mortgages to Giles
Dyer in 1706, who deeds the same year to Thomas Loring; Loring to John
Barber in 1712; Barber to John Pim in 1715. Samuel Wright and wife Mary
(Pim) inherit. Jane Moncrief acquires, and conveys to William Welch in
1793, Welch to William Wittington in 1794. In 1798 William Wittington,
Jr., was the occupier. House of brick and wood, three stories, nineteen
windows, value $2500. In 1776 Elizabeth Wittington was licensed as an
innholder at the Roebuck, Dock Square. In 1790 William Wittington at the
Sign of the Roebuck was next to John Sheppard.
=Roebuck=, Battery March. July 29, 1702, house of Widow Salter at the
Sign of the Roebuck, nigh the South Battery.
=Rose and Crown=, southwest corner of State and Devonshire streets. Thomas
Matson was an early owner of the land. He deeds to Henry Webb in 1638,
Webb to Henry Phillips in 1656-57. His widow Mary deeds to her son Samuel
"the Rose and Crown" in 1705-06, Gillum Phillips to Peter Faneuil in 1738,
George Bethune and wife Mary (Faneuil) to Abiel Smith in 1787. In 1798 a
brick house, three stories, forty-four windows, value $9000. Dec. 29,
1697, a lane leading from the Rose and Crown Tavern (Devonshire Street).
=Royal Exchange=, State Street, see _Exchange_.
=Salutation=, northeast corner of North and Salutation streets. James
Smith acquired the land at an early date. He deeds to Christopher Lawson,
and Lawson to William Winburne in 1664; Winburne to John Brookins in 1662
"the Salutation Inn." Elizabeth, widow of Brookins, married (2) Edward
Grove, who died in 1686, and (3) William Green. In 1692 William Green and
wife Elizabeth convey to William Phipps house called the Salutation.
Spencer Phipps inherits in 1695, Phipps to John Langdon in 1705, the heirs
of Langdon to Thomas Bradford in 1766, Bradford to Jacob Rhodes in 1784,
house formerly "the Two Palaverers." In 1798 it was occupied by George
Singleton and Charles Shelton. A wooden house, two stories, thirty-five
windows, value $2500. In 1686 Edward Grove was licensed, Samuel Tyley in
1711, Elisha Odling 1712, John Langdon, Jr., 1714. In 1715 he lets to
Elisha Odling, Arthur Young 1722, Samuel Green 1731, Edward Drinker 1736.
In 1757 called Two Palaverers. William Campbell licensed 1764, Francis
Wright 1767, Thomas Bradford 1782, Jacob Rhodes 1784.
=Schooner in Distress= and =Sign of the Schooner=, North Street, between
Cross and Richmond streets. 1761 mentioned in the _Town Records_.
=Seven Stars=, northwest corner of Summer and Hawley streets. The
possession of John Palmer. His widow Audrey deeds to Henry Rust in 1652;
Rust to his son Nathaniel, 1684-85; Nathaniel to Robert Earle, 1685; Earle
to Thomas Banister, 1698, house being known by the name of Seven Stars;
Samuel Banister to Samuel Tilly, 1720; Tilly to William Speakman, 1727;
Speakman to Leonard Vassal, 1728; Vassal to John Barnes and others for
Trinity Church.
=Ship=, North Street, see _Noah's Ark_.
=Ship=, Washington Street, see _Cole's Inn_.
=Ship, Sign of=, west side of North Street, between Sun Court and Fleet
Street. The original possession of Thomas Joy, who sold to Henry Fane, and
Fane to Richard Way in 1659-60, Thomas Kellond 1777, Robert Bronsdon
1678-79, William Clarke 1707-08, Joseph Glidden 1728, and his heirs to
John Ballard 1781. In 1789 John Ballard was innkeeper here. The Executor
of Ballard conveys to John Page, and Page to George R. Cushing of Hingham
in 1797. In 1798 it was a wooden building, three stories, twenty-nine
windows, value $1850, and occupied by Ebenezer Knowlton, Ziba French, and
John Daniels.
=Shippen's Crane=, Dock Square. 1739 John Ballard licensed as retailer.
=Star=, northwest corner of Hanover and Union streets. The lot of John
Davis in the _Book of Possessions_. He deeds to John Trotman in 1645,
whose wife Katherine deeds on the same day to Thomas Hawkins. In 1671
Hawkins mortgages to Sampson Sheafe, and in 1671-72 the property is
delivered to Sheafe. 1672-73 Sheafe conveys to John Howlet, and in 1676
Susannah, wife of Howlet, deeds to Andrew Neale. 1709-10 the heirs of
Neale deed to John Borland house by the name of "the Star," now occupied
by Stephen North and Charles Salter. John Borland inherits 1727. Jonathan
Simpson and wife Jane (Borland) convey to William Frobisher in 1787. In
1798 it was a wooden house, two stories, twenty-eight windows, value
$3000. Frobisher and Thomas Dillaway were the occupiers. 1699 the fore
street leading to Star Inn mentioned. 1700 house near the Star Ale House.
In 1722 John Thing was licensed. 1737 house formerly the Star Tavern in
Union Street.
=State's Arms=, Washington Street. See _King's Arms_.
=Sun=, Faneuil Hall Square. In the _Book of Possessions_ Edward Bendall
had house and garden here. He mortgaged to Symon Lynde, who took
possession in 1653. His son Samuel Lynde inherits in 1687, and his heirs
make a division in 1736. Joseph Gooch and others convey to Joseph Jackson
in 1769 the Sun Tavern. Jackson's widow Mary inherits in 1796 and occupied
the house with others in 1798, when it was a brick house, three stories,
twenty-two windows, value $8000. 1694-95 street running to the dock by the
Sun Tavern. 1699-1700 now occupied by James Meeres. 1709 owned by Samuel
Lynde, now in possession of Thomas Phillips. 1757 Capt. James Day was
licensed.
=Sun=, west side of Washington Street, between Brattle and Court streets.
In 1782 Gillum Taylor deeds his estate to John Hinckley bounded south by
the land in possession of Benjamin Edes, late the Sun Tavern.
=Swan=, west side of Commercial Street, near the Ferry. In 1651 Thomas
Rucke mortgages his house called The Swan, which he bought of Christopher
Lawson in 1648, and he of Thomas Buttolph, who was the original owner.
=Swan, Sign of the=, see _Queen's Head_. In 1708 Fish Street (North
Street) extends to the Sign of the Swan by Scarlett's Wharf.
=Swann=, locality not stated. 1777 mentioned in _Town Records_.
=Three Crowns=, North Street, between Cross and Richmond streets. 1718
Thomas Coppin licensed. 1735 mentioned in the _Town Records_.
=Three Horse Shoes=, west side of Washington Street, between School and
Bromfield streets. The original possession of William Aspinwall, who deeds
land to John Angier in 1652. The heirs of Edmund Rangier to William Turner
in 1697. Turner to George Sirce in 1713. William Gatcomb and wife Mary
(Sirce) inherit. In 1744 Philip Gatcomb mortgages house known by the Sign
of the Three Horse Shoes; William Gatcomb to Gilbert Deblois, Jr., in
1784; Lewis Deblois to Christopher Gore, 1789; Gore to James Cutler and
Jonathan Amory, 1793; Cutler to Jonathan Amory, Jr., 1797.
=Three Mariners=, south side of Faneuil Hall Square. The original
possession of Isaac Grosse. Thomas Grosse conveys to Joseph Pemberton in
1679, and Joseph to Benjamin Pemberton in 1701-02 "the Three Mariners." In
1701-02 occupied by Edward Bedford. In 1712 the executor of Benjamin
Pemberton deeds to Benjamin Davis the house known by the name of the
"Three Mariners." In 1723 the house of Elizabeth, widow of Benjamin Davis,
known as "Bear Tavern," conveyed to Henry Whitten, Whitten to John Hammock
in 1734-35, Ebenezer Miller and wife Elizabeth (Hammock) to William Boyce
in 1772, Boyce to William Stackpole in 1795 the house known as the "Bear
Tavern." In 1798 it was a wooden house, three stories, fourteen windows,
value $5000, and occupied by Peter Richardson. In the nineteenth century
it was known as the "Bite."
=Three Mariners=, at the lower end of State Street. 1719 Thomas Finch
licensed.
[Illustration: THE SUN TAVERN (Dock Square) ABOUT 1900]
=Turkie Cock=, see _Peacock_.
=Two Palaverers=, see _Salutation_.
=Union Flag=, Battery March. 1731 William Hallowell's house, known by the
name of Union Flag. Possibly not a tavern.
=Vernon's Head= and =Admiral Vernon=, northeast corner of State Street and
Merchants' Row. The early possession of Edward Tyng, who sold to James
Everill 1651-52, and he to John Evered _alias_ Webb in 1657. Webb conveyed
to William Alford in 1664. Peter Butler and wife Mary (Alford) inherit,
and deed to James Gooch in 1720. In 1760 John Gooch conveys to Tuthill
Hubbard the "Vernon's Head." In 1798 it was a brick store. In 1745 Richard
Smith was licensed, Thomas Hubbard 1764. In 1766 William Taunt, who has
been at the Admiral Vernon several years, prays for a recommendation for
keeping a tavern at the large house lately occupied by Potter and Gregory
near by. Sarah Bean licensed 1774, Nicholas Lobdell 1776 and 1786, John
Bryant 1790.
=White Bear, Sign of=, location not stated. 1757 mentioned in the _Town
Records_.
=White Horse=, west side of Washington Street, between West and Boylston
streets. Land owned by Elder William Colburne in the _Book of
Possessions_. Moses Paine and wife Elizabeth (Colburne) inherit. Thomas
Powell and wife Margaret (Paine) inherit. In 1700 Powell conveys to Thomas
Brattle the inn known as the White Horse. William Brattle mortgages to
John Marshall in 1732, and Marshall deeds to Jonathan Dwight in 1740.
William Bowdoin recovers judgment from Dwight and conveys to Joseph Morton
in 1765; Morton to Perez Morton, 1791. In 1798 it was occupied by Aaron
Emmes. A wooden house, two stories, twenty-six windows, value $9000. In
1717 Thomas Chamberlain was licensed, William Cleeres in 1718, Mrs.
Moulton 1764, Israel Hatch 1787, Joseph Morton 1789, Aaron Emmes 1798.
=White Horse, Sign of the=, Cambridge Street, near Charles River Bridge.
1789 Moses Bradley (innkeeper).
[Illustration: The TOWN of BOSTON in _New England_ by Cap{t} John Bonner
1722]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cordis's bill for a dinner given by Governor Hancock to the Fusileers
at this house in 1792 is a veritable curiosity in its way:--
£ s. p.
136 Bowls of Punch 15 6
80 Dinners 8
21 Bottles of Sherry 4 14 6
Brandy 2 6
[2] A punch-bowl on which is engraved the names of seventeen members of
the old Whig Club is, or was, in the possession of R. C. Mackay of Boston.
Besides those already mentioned, Dr. Church, Dr. Young, Richard Derby of
Salem, Benjamin Kent, Nathaniel Barber, William Mackay, and Colonel
Timothy Bigelow of Worcester were also influential members. The Club
corresponded with Wilkes, Saville, Barré, and Sawbridge,--all leading
Whigs, and all opponents of the coercive measures directed against the
Americans.
[3] Liberty Tree grew where Liberty Tree Block now stands, corner of Essex
and Washington Streets.
[4] The name of a room at Julien's.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs" ***
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