Part 5

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_.

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.

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."

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: