JAMES DEETZ

Plymouth Colony Architecture: Archaeological Evidence from the Seventeenth Century

THE contribution which archaeology may make to the study of early vernacular structures in New England is of a limited but very special nature. By its very definition archaeology deals only with that part of any building which was either below ground or which would leave evidence within the ground to be recovered and studied by the archaeologist. Such a limitation immediately rules out a major portion of the data normally used by students of early buildings. On the other hand, the archaeological remains of buildings are much more durable and less subject to loss over time as long as the site on which they are located is not disturbed. Furthermore, there is some evidence in the ground for structures earlier than those which have somehow survived the passage of time, and, in the Plymouth area, for buildings quite different from any known on the basis of surviving examples.

There are no standing structures known in the area that was Plymouth Colony which can be confidently dated to the first half of the seventeenth century, and only a few which might be assigned to the third quarter of that century. As a result, study of the earlier building traditions of the Old Colony has always had to rely on documentary evidence of a variety of types, from references to buildings or parts of them in the court records to a rich body of probate data which at least gives a feeling for the number and uses of rooms in these early dwelling houses. Within the past twenty-five years, an increasing interest in the archaeological study of Plymouth Colony has resulted in the excavation of some twenty-odd sites, some of which have produced architectural data of a limited but unique nature. This paper will examine these data and demonstrate how they shed additional light on the story of architectural development in the Old Colony and raise new questions.

The precise form of archaeological evidence of an architectural nature can be thought of in terms of both its focus and its visibility. By focus is meant the degree to which archaeological features can be read clearly and unambiguously. The visibility of an archaeological feature is primarily a function of the quantity of material which is observed. Some examples will make these concepts clear. A house which was occupied briefly and had no later modifications might leave a set of footings, chimney base, and cellars to be excavated by the archaeologist. Such a feature has clear focus as well as high visibility. On the other hand, if the structure had no cellars, and footings which were set on the ground and later removed, its visibility would be much less to the archaeologist, consisting only of a chimney base as an archaeological feature. Houses which underwent successive builds, with walls cutting walls, might have a very high visibility, but the focus of the feature would be quite low, having been affected by later developments. Factors which affect both focus and visibility fall into three broad classes; duration of occupation, manner of destruction or removal, and type of construction. Generally speaking, longer occupations lead to higher visibility and poorer focus. Houses which burned in place have sharper archaeological focus than those which were moved or dismantled. Construction which intrudes below grade enhances both focus and visibility. The ideal feature for archaeological study would be a house which was built with wall trenches, deep chimney base, and cellars, was occupied for a relatively brief time, and was not added to in any way, and which burned in place. The least useful type of feature would be the remains of a house which was occupied briefly, had no cellars or other below-ground features, and was systematically dismantled in situ, with all of its building materials carted off for reuse elsewhere. Sites of both extreme types and intermediate forms have been excavated in the Plymouth Colony area.

From an architectural standpoint, the two most significant sites to have been excavated in the Old Colony are a whaler’s tavern located on Great Island, Wellfleet, Massachusetts (Ekholm and Deetz, 1971), and the Isaac Allerton dwelling house in Kingston, Massachusetts. One is of late seventeenth-century date and of specialized function, the other is the earliest single source of archaeological architectural information thus far studied from Plymouth.

The whaler’s tavern on Great Island was excavated by a Plimoth Plantation archaeological party during the summers of 1969 and 1970. In terms of both focus and visibility this site is the most productive yet to be studied. While its period of use coincides in part with a time from which we have standing structures elsewhere in the Plymouth Colony area, the date of initial erection, circa 1690, is quite early for Cape Cod, and thus provides important late seventeenth-century architectural information for that area. The building was definitely abandoned and removed by circa 1735, and there was no later construction of any type on the site. The limiting dates for this site are based on artifactual dating. The pipestem interior bore diameter curve peaks in the period 1710–1750, suggesting that the most intensive occupation of the site took place during the first half of the eighteenth century. Ceramic dates permit a refinement of this date to a considerable degree. The initial date of 1690 is based on the occurrence of both North Devonshire Sgrafitto ware, which occupies a late seventeenth-century date range where it is found elsewhere in the country (Watkins, 1960), and Frechen stoneware in the form of Bellarmine jugs, also a seventeenth-century type. Further support to a 1690 beginning date is provided by late seventeenth-century wine glass stems and seal-top spoons with fig-shaped bowls. A termination date of circa 1735 is based on somewhat less secure data, but the total absence of white Staffordshire stonewares and the prevalence of the dipped stonewares from the same region argue strongly for such a date (Mountford, 1971).

The tavern was a large structure, fifty feet in length and thirty feet in width (Fig. 9). The front entrance was central and faced south. A roughly paved walkway led to the door. Both the focus and visibility of this structure were excellent, primarily because Great Island, being a vast sand dune, has no stones occurring naturally. Thus all stone encountered archaeologically could safely be assumed to have been brought in for construction. The chimney had been of brick; only the base survived, and it was located in the traditional position in the center of the building with the door coming in just opposite the chimney breast. Large quantities of brick were found in one of the cellars and scattered over much of the site. A tentative ground plan for this building would indicate two large rooms flanking the chimney, with at least one other room to the rear beneath some type of lean-to (Fig. 10). It is impossible to determine whether the building had been of one or two stories. A two-story arrangement is suggested by the function it clearly served, that of a tavern for shore whalers working from the Great Island beaches. Each of the main front rooms had a cellar beneath its floor. That beneath the east room was small (8′ x 10′) and lined with rounded beach cobbles set with sand-and-clamshell mortar. It was entered by way of a set of stone stairs from within the house, presumably through a trapdoor in the floor. Its low height, under five feet, suggests that it functioned as a food storage cellar. A remarkable artifact found on the floor of this cellar was probably connected with food processing: a large cervical vertebra of a whale made into a chopping block, possibly for meat. The cellar beneath the west room was larger (9′ x 10′) and slightly deeper. At one time it had been entered through a bulkhead from the west exterior side of the building, but by the time of abandonment this entrance had been walled up and entrance must have been through a floor trapdoor, as in the east cellar. The west cellar was also lined with a very different kind of stone, flat rectangular pieces laid in rather even courses. This cellar was also probably primarily for food storage.

9. Exposed footings of Whaler’s Tavern, Great Island, Wellfleet, Mass.

10. Conjectural structure of Wellfleet Tavern.

Numerous architectural details were provided by artifacts recovered in and around the foundation and its cellars. Window glass fragments numbered in the thousands, and sufficient pieces of lead cames were recovered to indicate diamond-paned windows. Nails were even more numerous than glass shards.

Interior wall plaster was also abundant. This material provided some specific information on the framing and sheathing of the house. Almost every one of the thousands of pieces of wall plaster bears an impression of the wall to which it once was attached (Fig. 11). Impressions of laths are very clear, showing the grain of the wood and the placement of lathing nails. These impressions in every case demonstrate that the laths were attached to vertical planks rather than to studs. The grain of the planks shows clearly, confirming the possibility of exterior vertical plank siding rather than stud construction. Had the laths been attached to studs, the plaster would have compressed between them and encountered no surface behind them. The resulting impression in such a situation would show no form or impressions between the lath impressions such as occur on the examples in question. If the tavern was sheathed in this fashion, it would stand as a good early example of this style, which Candee (1969) has suggested to be a Plymouth Colony diagnostic, and the easternmost occurrence of the technique.

The ultimate fate of the Wellfleet tavern is unknown. Local traditions hold that it was floated across the harbor and erected somewhere in the town of Wellfleet. This possibility has not yet been proven to be true, but it is certain that the building was removed, whole or in parts, rather than burned. No evidence was found suggesting a fire. On the other hand, the large quantity of nails, bricks, and plaster fragments strongly suggests at least a partial dismantling of the structure, if not a complete razing. However it met its end on that site, there was no other construction or occupation on the location for the following two centuries. The only artifacts found which did not relate to the occupation period cited above were the casual leavings, such as whiskey bottles, of people who had dug randomly in the ruin in this century in search of coins or bottles.

11. Wall plaster samples, showing lath impressions. Wellfleet Tavern.

Archaeological remains of Plymouth Colony’s earliest dwelling houses are extremely scarce. It is now certain that the main reason for this rarity is that such buildings were of a sort which resulted in archaeological features of very low visibility. Goods were scarce in the Colony’s early years, there was little in the way of disposable refuse, cellars seem to have been rare if nonexistent, and construction techniques were of a type to leave little readable evidence for the archaeologist. Thus it was unusual when, in the summer of 1972, Plimoth Plantation archaeologists found and excavated a house which almost certainly was constructed in 1630, and which had been destroyed by the middle of the seventeenth century. Even the discovery of this site was largely a matter of luck. A Kingston, Massachusetts, man planned to build a house on a vacant parcel of land. By fortunate coincidence, his architect had some knowledge of seventeenth-century artifacts, and finding a few in a freshly plowed garden he brought them to the Plantation for identification. They proved to be of a very early date and subsequent investigation of the plowed area suggested that the remains of some kind of building might be there. An extensive excavation program which occupied most of the summer resulted in the recovery of a ground plan which had very sharp archaeological focus, although the visibility was quite low.

During the 1630’s, the parcel of land was the property of Isaac Allerton, one of the Colony’s financial agents. It is known that Allerton had moved to Kingston, and presumably built a dwelling house there as early as 1630. The artifacts recovered from the site are totally consistent with such a date. The house was a small structure, twenty by twenty-two feet square, of post-hole-type construction (Fig. 12). Each corner of the house was occupied by a massive post, possibly eighteen inches square, set four feet into the ground. These posts carried plates and girts, and probably studs which in turn supported wattle and daub walls. Any evidence of these studs was unrecoverable, since they were usually not set deeply into the ground, and years of cultivation had thoroughly disturbed the upper foot of the site. A rectangular hearth occupied one end of the house, laid directly on the ground, and made from cobbles set without mortar. This hearth measured seven feet by slightly more than three. It showed evidence of intensive use, the stones being thoroughly blackened and fire cracked.

12. Isaac Allerton site, Kingston, Mass. Palisade trench to right. Cellar in center is from post-1650 house; hearth of 1630 post-hole house cut by cellar at upper left corner.

Parallel to the house at the end opposite the hearth ran a palisade, probably of contiguous poles some eight feet high. The palisade began at the house and ran some three hundred feet to the south, at which point it simply stopped. Since the palisade did not enclose anything, it almost certainly was never finished. The reason for this is not known, nor will it ever be; one can surmise that perhaps the need for which it was being built no longer existed before it was complete, or that Allerton tired of the project before finishing it. At regular intervals along the palisade, faint evidence of other structures was found. These were presumably outbuildings. Support for this identification comes mainly from artifacts found in the palisade trench adjacent to each location. It is fairly certain that sometime around 1650, the dwelling house and outbuildings were torn down, as was the partially completed palisade. The palisade must have been dismantled first, since at regular intervals the open trench was filled with structural debris and artifacts. Only that part of the palisade trench adjacent to the dwelling house contained a full domestic assemblage, with a variety of ceramics, food refuse, smoking pipes, glass, and tools. One of the concentrations consisted almost solely of redwares and may relate to a dairy adjacent to the palisade at that point. Time and construction schedules did not permit the full investigation of all of these loci. The testing that was done on them strongly suggested special functions for the other buildings.

The dating of this earliest construction period is supported by pipestem data, preponderantly of the period 1620–1650, and ceramics, which included Cologne stonewares typical of the early years of the century, white sandy wares, also common at that time but absent in the second half of the century, and small amounts of the more elaborate blue on gray Westerwald wares of the same period. A seal-top spoon with the short seal most common from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and a coin and lead fur-bale seal from the reign of King James I also support the assigned dates.

Sometime later, probably in the third quarter of the seventeenth century but possibly at the same time as the first complex was destroyed, a second more elaborate house was constructed on the same site. This structure was represented archaeologically only by a cellar twelve feet square with dry laid stone walls and a sand floor. This low visibility probably resulted from subsequent destruction of this house and the disposition of the footing stones in the cellar. Some twenty-five tons of stone were removed from the cellar when it was excavated. No chimney base could be located; it may have been removed in the course of the construction of the modern house now occupying the site. This second house was removed from the site circa 1725, a date based on artifacts found in the cellar fill. No later occupations occurred on the site until the construction of 1972. The cellar belonging to the second house cut the corner of the hearth of the first, providing a clear sequence for the two buildings.

The earlier component of the Allerton site is very important since it is the only direct evidence for post-hole construction in Plymouth Colony. In his history of the Plantation, William Bradford suggests such a construction type in his description of the hurricane of 1635: “It took off the boarded roof of a house which belonged to this Plantation at Manomet, and floated it to another place, the posts still standing in the ground” (Morison, 1952).

If the post-hole-type house was a common form in early Plymouth and these houses were constructed, as was the Allerton house, without cellars, it is little wonder that locating such early sites is so difficult. Both the visibility and focus of sites of this type are of such a low order on the surface that they must be discovered by chance. Removal of the topsoil enhances the picture, but in view of the paucity of artifacts and refuse in this early period they are difficult to detect from the surface.

The excavations at the Allerton site formed the basis for the recreation of an early post-hole-type house at Plimoth Plantation in the summer of 1973. Using only traditional tools, techniques, and materials, Professor Henry Glassie, a folklorist at the University of Indiana, designed and directed the construction of this building. It probably bears a close resemblance to the house which Allerton built in Kingston in 1630 (Fig. 13).

13. Re-created post-hole house at Plimoth Plantation.

14. James Hall’s plan of Standish site, Duxbury, Mass. Courtesy Pilgrim Society, Plymouth.

The existence of the post-hole-type house in Plymouth Colony has been demonstrated by archaeological excavation and analysis. Yet another house type, also not represented in the surviving structures of the Old Colony and possibly as early as the post-hole type, is strongly suggested by two excavations, one done in the nineteenth century on the Miles Standish homesite in Duxbury, and the other done in 1960 on John Alden’s first Duxbury house. The Standish excavation is truly remarkable. Done by James Hall in the 1860’s, it stands as the earliest known example of controlled archaeological excavation done anywhere in the world (Fig. 14). Hall’s work stands as a model to this day; careful notes, the establishment of a control datum point, and proper cataloguing of artifacts all attest to a careful worker. The site map and the remnants of the artifact collection are today the property of the Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hall uncovered a long structure represented by both wood and stone footings, with a cellar at one end. The building measures sixty by fifteen feet, a length-breadth ratio of 4:1. On the basis of the artifacts which have survived, this house was probably built by Standish at the same time that Allerton was newly living in Kingston. Roland Robbins’ work at the Alden site, also in Duxbury, produced a remarkably similar ground plan (Fig. 15). In this instance, the house was shorter (forty feet) and narrower (ten feet) but also had an end cellar, and the length-breadth ratio is identical. Such long, narrow structures are not known from later surviving Plymouth examples. Just what English antecedents relate to them is unclear, although some of the buildings at Jamestown, from a somewhat later date, are similarly elongated. The R.M. site in Plymouth, Massachusetts, excavated by Henry Hornblower in 1940, is that of a house which was occupied for perhaps as long as forty years (1635–1675); as a result, the focus of the features excavated is of a low order. Further complications at this site resulted from intensive plowing of the site over a long period and large quantities of natural stone in the area. Yet when one examines the relationship between the cellar and a pair of hearths which were exposed, a long, narrow ground plan best accommodates these features (Fig. 16). It is not possible to make any definitive statements concerning these somewhat ambiguous examples, except to note that along with the Allerton site they suggest at least two different building traditions of early Plymouth, both different from those which a study of later examples would suggest. It is noteworthy that Abbott Cummings has suggested a date of circa 1660 as the end of the earliest phase of New England building. Such a date provides time for a single generation to have come of age in New England, and thus for the beginnings of an indigenous American cultural configuration. This same date has been suggested as marking the end of an initial English period of development of material cultural pattern and use as seen in ceramics (Deetz, 1973). It is reasonable to argue that for the first generation, newly arrived English immigrants would have built in a variety of styles which reflected their English regional origins. After circa 1660, this variation would have been sharply reduced, with one modal style of building emerging as characteristic of the new “home-grown” American Colonial tradition of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Thus it is that the later part of the “first period” of New England building shows a greater architectural homogeneity than that which may well have prevailed in the initial years of the settlement of New England. The Plymouth data, limited as they are, strongly suggest such a model of development and change.

15. Ground plan of John Alden site, Duxbury, Mass. Courtesy Pilgrim Society, Plymouth.

All of the data outlined above are reasonably firm and clear. It is important to note that there are many other sites which have been excavated which have provided little of significant architectural importance. All too often, one can locate cellar and chimney base, but evidence for footings and locations of walls is sadly lacking or so obscured by natural stone in the New England soil that a clear ground plan is impossible to determine.

16. Ground plan of R.M. site, Chiltonville, Mass.

The most frustrating site encountered by Plimoth Plantation archaeologists was that of Edward Winslow’s first house in Marshfield, Massachusetts. That it was an early site was certain. Its existence, like that of the Allerton site, was known from random artifacts coming from a vegetable garden. Six weeks of hard and careful work produced enough artifacts to hold in two hands and a red smear of decomposed brick which presumably marked the base of the chimney. Beyond these tantalizing bits of evidence, there was nothing. It is very likely that the house which once stood on the site was systematically disassembled for materials, leaving almost nothing behind. The Winslows built a much more elaborate house just adjacent to this first one, and excavation on this site produced a very rich collection dating to the second half of the seventeenth century.

Archaeology, then, is not a consistently rewarding source of architectural data on seventeenth-century vernacular building. For every Allerton dig there are ten which produce a muddled maze of disturbed stones, brickbats, and partially preserved cellars. Yet in view of the fact that it requires but one site such as that of the Allerton house to produce truly new and unique data for the Colony’s earliest houses, work will continue, and new insights are bound to come, albeit slowly.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard Candee, “A Documentary History of Plymouth Colony Architecture 1620–1700,” Old-Time New England, Vol. 60, No. 2, 1969.

James Deetz, “Ceramics from Plymouth, 1635–1835: The Archaeological Evidence,” Ceramics in America (Winterthur Conference Report 1972, University Press of Virginia for Winterthur Museum, 1973).

Erik Ekhom and James Deetz, “Wellfleet Tavern,” Natural History, Vol. 80, No. 7 (August–September 1971).

Samuel E. Morison, ed., Of Plymouth Plantation (New York, 1970).

Arnold Mountford, The Illustrated Guide to Staffordshire Salt-Glaze Stone-Ware (New York, 1971).

Malcolm Watkins, “North Devon Pottery and its Export to America in the Seventeenth Century,” Contributions from the Museum of History & Technology (U.S. National Museum Bulletin 225, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1960).

1. This paper is in large part a distillation of two research reports prepared for the Paul Revere Memorial Association which remain in manuscript form: “History of the Property of Paul Revere Memorial Association,” by William Lebovich, 1973; and “The Early History of the Paul Revere House, North Square, Boston,” by this author, 1974. Both reports are heavily documented; copies of both are available for reference at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. Material drawn from these reports will not be specifically footnoted here; footnotes will be limited to the identification of the sources of direct quotations and the documentation of material not included in either of the earlier reports. Readers interested in a structural analysis of the Revere House (as opposed to the documentary study summarized here) are referred to two reports prepared for the Paul Revere Memorial Association by Frederic C. Detwiller, Architectural Historian, Consulting Services Group, SPNEA: “Paul Revere Association Properties, 19–31 North Square, Boston, Massachusetts, Architectural-Historical Analysis,” Feb. 1976; and “Paul Revere House, Structure Report,” 2 vols., July 1976. Copies of both are available for study at SPNEA.

2. Joseph Everett Chandler, the architect who restored the house in 1907–1908, speculated on purely physical evidence that the house was built sometime between 1650 and 1680. See his “Notes on the Paul Revere House,” in the Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, 1950), p. 18. Later historians, benefiting from documentary research, have usually placed the date between 1676 and 1681. Among the most authoritative of these: Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture (New York, 1952), pp. 59–62, says c. 1676; while Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (Boston, 1942), p. 169, Harold Comer Read, “A Brief History of the Paul Revere Memorial Association and the Paul Revere House,” in the Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, 1950), p. 5, and Walter M. Whitehill, Boston: A Topographical History, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 15, all say about 1680. Another recognized authority, Fiske Kimball, does not include the Revere House in his Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and the Early Republic, reprint ed. (New York, 1966), presumably because it failed to meet his rigorous standards for documentation.

3. Forbes and Morrison both suggest John Jeffs as the original owner; Chandler, Read, and Whitehill hazard no guesses.

4. Chandler, in his “Notes,” suggests that the ell predates the main house; Morrison, in Early American Architecture, assumes the ell to have been a later addition; and the staff of SPNEA, in the two reports for the Paul Revere Memorial Association mentioned in note 1, assumed the main house and ell to have been built in one campaign. This was also the consensus reached by the approximately twenty members of the New England Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians, who examined the Revere House during a special meeting held there on Dec. 3, 1974.

5. What information was turned up on the question of original form supports the single-build theory (see note 21 and the section of text to which it pertains for a discussion of this material). A final answer to this question, however, will probably have to await either the discovery of some conclusive structural evidence in the house itself, or the development of a satisfactory dendrochronological sequence for New England, by which means the timbers in the two sections of the house can be accurately dated.

6. Suffolk County Deeds, xiii, 86, Nov. 2, 1681, Turell and Walker to Howard.

7. Increase Mather Family Records, in the John Cotton Bible, Special Collections (Massachusetts Historical Society).

8. Increase Mather Family Records.

9. Increase Mather, “Diary, 1675–6,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2nd ser., xiii (1900), 373–374.

10. Increase Mather Family Records.

11. Suffolk County Probate Records, New Series, ii, 352, Dec. 12, 1678, will of Nathaniel Blague.

12. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iii (Massachusetts Historical Society).

13. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iv.

14. “Records of the Second Church,” ms, iii.

15. Chandler Robbins, A History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston . . . (Boston, 1852), and Increase Mather, “Autobiography,” American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, lxxi, pt. ii (1962), 300–301, 310.

16. Elna Jean Mayo, Mayo Genealogy . . . (Pueblo[?], Colo., 1963), pp. 2–3.

17. The contract for a house of comparable size built for John Williams in the North End in 1678/79 (published in the “Records of the Suffolk County Court, 1671–1680,” pt. ii, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Collections, xxx [1933], 1125–1126) was taken at £130 “current mony of New England.” Assuming the construction cost of the Revere House to have been roughly similar, that leaves perhaps £150–£170 of Howard’s £300 purchase price to be accounted for by the value of the land and/or the profit of the church. It does not seem that the land alone could have been worth much more than £100–£125. Consider that the Revere House lot, as Howard purchased it in 1681, contained roughly 3000 sq. feet, with 30 feet of frontage on North Square. In comparison: in 1683, Howard purchased an adjoining interior lot containing about 4000 sq. feet with no buildings upon it, for £65 (Suffolk County Deeds, xiii, 84, July 19, 1683, Martin heirs to Howard); and, in 1689, Howard purchased the parcel next north of the Revere House, containing some 2000 sq. feet with a 20-foot frontage, and with a dwelling house with leanto standing upon it, for £110 “current money of New England” (Suffolk County Deeds, xxviii, 182, May 22, 1689, Paine and Woodbry to Howard). The inference I am drawing is that land values on the west side of North Square were not particularly high in the 1680’s; the Second Church seems to have gotten a pretty good price for its house and lot.

18. There is a very slight possibility that this man was lodging with Increase Mather; more probably, he was renting the house next north to Mather’s. See pages 29–33 of my report to the Paul Revere Memorial Association for a thorough discussion of this point.

19. Boston Record Commissioners, First Report: Boston Tax Lists etc., 1674–1694, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1881), pp. 91–133, gives the complete 1687 tax schedules for all eight Shawmut precincts and the two outlying precincts at Muddy River and Rumney Marsh (now Brookline and Chelsea, but then parts of Boston).

20. I included the figures from Muddy River and Rumney Marsh in my calculation of the town-wide average tax figure, but I purposely left out the Precinct 6 figures, as there seems to have been some confusion in those records. (The figures in the “Acres” and the “Houseing, Mills and Wharfs” columns appear to have been reversed in some sections of Precinct 6.) The deletion of the Precinct 6 figures lowered the total number of individuals taxed for buildings by perhaps 150–170, and similarly lowered the total of those taxed 20d. or more by about 20. If these dubious Precinct 6 figures had been included, they would have had a negligible effect on the 7d. average tax-assessed figure, and would have raised the percentage of individuals taxed 20d. or more by about one percentage point.

21. As a check against the possibility that Howard might have bought a rather modest house from the Second Church and then radically enlarged or improved it between 1681 and 1687, an attempt was made to determine which of the thirty-two other individuals assessed for exactly 20d. under the “Houseing, Mills and Wharfs” head in 1687 could be satisfactorily demonstrated to have owned just one dwelling house in the late seventeenth century. An attempt was then made to establish the price that each of these individuals had paid for that specific house and lot. I am reasonably confident that this procedure has succeeded in two instances—those of William Coleman in Precinct 1, and Isaac Walker in Precinct 3. Coleman purchased his house and land for £260 “current money of New England” in 1679 (Suffolk County Deeds, xii, 24, Sept. 29, 1679, Thacher heirs to Coleman), and Walker paid £300 “lawful money of New England” for his in 1675 (Suffolk County Deeds, ix, 187, May 5, 1675, Edwards to Walker). These prices are right in line with the £300 “current money of New England” paid by Howard, and suggest that, in 1687, Howard’s house remained largely as constructed by the Second Church.

22. Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York, 1922), pp. 283–284.

23. Ibid., p. 39.

24. John H. Hooper, “The Royall House and Farm,” The Medford Historical Register, iii (1900), 143.

25. Middlesex County Probate Records, 1st ser., docket no. 19545.

26. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family: A Genealogical History of William Blake of Dorchester and His Descendants . . . (Boston, 1857), pp. 15–16.

27. Thomas C. Simonds, History of South Boston (Boston, 1857), pp. 31, 264.

28. James H. Stark, The History of the Old Blake House (Boston: Dorchester Historical Society, 1907).

29. Mrs. George A. French, The Dorchester Historical Society and Its Three Houses (Boston: Dorchester Historical Society, 1960), p. 18.

30. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 2305, p. 30.

31. Ibid., vol. 2066, p. 303.

32. Suffolk County Probate Records, vol. 650, p. 210.

33. Norfolk County Probate Records, docket no. 20436, inventory dated Feb. 4, 1843.

34. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 151, p. 113.

35. Ibid., lxxxvi, 167, and lxxxvii, 235.

36. Ibid., xciii, 199.

37. Suffolk County Probate Records, vol. 127, p. 339.

38. Ibid.

39. Norfolk County Deeds, xcvii, 198.

40. Suffolk County Probate Records, lxxii, 33, and lxxiv, 16.

41. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 143, p. 53.

42. Ibid., vol. 121, p. 143.

43. Suffolk County Probate Records, xli, 451.

44. Ibid., xxi, 555.

45. Ibid., xiv, 192.

46. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family, pp. 12–13.

47. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1883), p. 162.

48. Samuel Blake, The Blake Family, pp. 15–16.

49. Minutes of the Dorchester Historical Society, ms, i, 44–45, 50–51.

50. “Dorchester’s Settlement Appropriately Celebrated,” Dorchester Beacon, undated clipping (June 1916?) in the collections of the Dorchester Historical Society.

51. Ibid.

52. “Blake House Is Restored,” Boston Herald, Boston, Mass., July 3, 1911.

53. Mr. Peabody’s paper, as presented here, was prepared for publication before his untimely death on March 22, 1977.

54. The Colonial records of Trinity Church are being published at the present time by The Colonial Society of Massachusetts in its regular series of publications. The page proofs of the records are at the printers, and it is, therefore, impossible to give page and volume references to the selections quoted from these records.

55. A summary account in the Church Records entitled “The Cost of the Building of Trinity Church” contains the following entries for 1741:

for Building the Gallery
viz. Jno. Indicott & Will More their Bill wholle Work & Stuff per agreement	[£]1057. 0.0
Will Coffin 31m^o lath nails	17.12.6.
Will Hunstable plaistering 430 yds @1/9
hair and nails 8:11/	46. 3.6.
Thos. Fillebrown 150 bush. Lime & Lath	33.15
Johnson Jackson 50 bush lime @ 2/9	6.17.6.
Cash for Carting £4.15.6 lath & timber 9:4/6	14. 0.0
Willm. Price cutting freeze for Organ loft	6.
Willm. Burbank Carving Capatols	152. 0.0
	[£]1333. 8.0

56. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xxiv, 55.

57. Charles Shaw, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston (Boston, 1817), p. 265.

58. “Boston Prints and Printmakers, 1670–1775,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, 46 (1973), 43–44.

59. Ibid., pp. 46–49.

60. Samuel G. Drake, The History and Antiquities of the City of Boston (Boston, 1854), opposite p. 654.

61. Phillips Brooks, Trinity Church in The City of Boston 1733–1933 [Historical Sermon] (Boston, 1933), p. 32.

62. Marshall Davidson, American Heritage History of Colonial Antiques (New York, 1967), p. 153. Here the information on the Hancock House is entitled “Lost Landmarks.”

63. Franklin Webster Smith, Designs, Plans and Suggestions for the Aggrandizement of Washington (Washington, 1900, Senate Document No. 209), pp. 37–39. Here Smith, in advocating retention of the White House as the executive mansion, uses the obvious earlier example of the Hancock House demolition.

64. Walter Kendall Watkins, “The Hancock House and Its Builder,” Old-Time New England, xvii (1926–1927), 3–19. Among these are the following: staircase in Greeley Curtis House, Manchester-by-the-Sea; balusters, one from stair and one from roof, two carved capitals in Essex Institute, Salem; larger carved pilaster cap from “Loer Rume” at National Museum, Independence Hall, Philadelphia; modillion from cornice at Massachusetts Historical Society; pendant from staircase, pilaster caps, and additional modillions at SPNEA; front door at the Bostonian Society; balcony at John Hancock Insurance Company, Boston; carved corbel at Martine Cottage, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, home of R. Clipston Sturgis; stone steps at Pinebank, Jamaica Plain, a house designed by John Sturgis in 1869. Many other elements survive as well.

65. For example, architectural measured drawings were the subject of a symposium on November 16, 1973, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), which was established in 1933 using measured drawings as a prime documentary tool.

66. Arthur Gilman, “The Hancock House and Its Founder,” Atlantic Monthly, xi (1863), 692–707. One of the most important architects in Boston, Gilman (1821–1882) had designed the Arlington Street Church in Boston (1859) and laid out the plan for the Back Bay. With his partner J. F. Gridley Bryant he had just designed the Boston City Hall (1862). He left Boston for New York and Washington in 1867.

67. Ibid., pp. 692, 694, 706. This sort of poetic approach to old architecture is not without parallel. See, for example, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Chapter I.

68. Gilman, “The Hancock House and Its Founder.” Descriptions of the house used in this article are based on Gilman unless otherwise noted.

69. Watkins, “The Hancock House and Its Builder,” p. 19. Here it is specified that the east wing, or ballroom, was removed to Allen Street in Boston’s West End by 1818. Its exact date of construction is not documented but may well have been shortly after John Hancock inherited the house from his uncle (who died in 1764) just prior to the Revolution. Figure 1 showing the house without wings is a lithograph published in 1848 after a drawing of the house by A. J. Davis, the New York architect, who may have executed it as early as 1827–1828 on his well-known sketching trip to Boston.

70. “Surely I Did Not Run Away with the Property of the College,” Harvard Bulletin, x (June 1973), 72.

71. John Sturgis was in partnership with Bryant and Gilman in Boston 1861–1866. He was also designing independently during this period.

72. Charles Brigham to John Hubbard Sturgis, Letters to England, April 5, 1869, and April 18, 1870, Sturgis Papers, The Boston Athenæum. The Hancock staircase was stored in the shop of one Poland, a Boston mason who did considerable other work for Sturgis and his partner Charles Brigham (1841–1925). One of these jobs was “Pinebank” in Jamaica Plain (1869), where the stone steps from the Hancock House are now located. This suggests Sturgis may also have purchased the steps. The Post Office building referred to here (destroyed in the fire of 1872) was designed by Arthur B. Mullett, then architect of government building. Arthur Gilman collaborated with Mullett on the design of the State War and Navy Building in Washington 1871–1875.

73. John Sturgis was visiting with his father Russell Sturgis of Boston, who had settled permanently in London as senior partner of Baring’s Bank. The enterprising Brigham was from Watertown, Massachusetts, where he continued to live all his life. Capital for the architectural partnership, which lasted 1866–1886, was provided by Sturgis.

74. For information on Van Brunt, a pupil of Richard Morris Hunt, see William A. Coles, ed., Architecture and Society, The Selected Essays of Henry Van Brunt (Cambridge, 1969).

75. Bainbridge Bunting, “The Greeley Curtis House,” in Architecture of H. H. Richardson and His Contemporaries in Boston and Vicinity (Philadelphia, 1972), pp. 46–47.

76. See Sturgis Papers. Brigham’s letters make clear that Henry Van Brunt’s academic orientation annoyed him.

77. Adolf Placzek, Librarian, Avery Architectural Library, Paper delivered at HABS Symposium on Architectural Measured Drawings (Washington, D.C., November 1973).

78. Vincent Scully, The Shingle Style (New Haven, 1955), pp. 19–33.

79. James K. Colling Sketchbooks (London, RIBA Drawings Collection). Also see James K. Colling to Russell Sturgis, London, March 6, 1867 (Sturgis Papers). Here Colling discusses making measured drawings of Russell Sturgis’ home Mount Felix in Surrey (1838) by Sir Charles Barry at John Sturgis’ request.

80. See, for example: Edmund Sharpe, The Rise and Progress of Decorated Window Tracery (London, 1849) or The Seven Periods of Gothic Architecture (London, 1851); Samuel Carter Hall, The Baronial Halls and Picturesque Edifices of England, 2 vols. (London, 1848).

81. Asa Briggs, William Morris: Selected Writings and Designs (Baltimore, 1962), pp. 13–26. Concern for architectural preservation in England was well advanced by 1877, and Morris, artist, designer, Pre-Raphaelite, poet, and novelist, first formalized the movement.

82. Margaret Henderson Floyd, “A Terra Cotta Cornerstone for Copley Square: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1870–1876, by Sturgis and Brigham,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxxii (1973), 83–103. Here is further information on Sturgis’ training and on J. K. Colling.

83. Edward W. Hooper was Treasurer of Harvard College and brother-in-law of Henry Adams. Arthur Astor Carey was a grandson of John Jacob Astor and an instructor of English at Harvard. Both men were on the Committee for the Foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Copley Square, for which Sturgis was architect. The Cambridge Historical Commission has kindly shared its research with the author on these points.

84. Scully, The Shingle Style, passim. Here the nineteenth-century evolution of the living hall with both staircase and fireplace is extensively documented and the early Colonial Revival discussed.

85. Sturgis used a terra cotta parapet in a similar design on his Charles Joy house, 86 Marlborough Street, Boston (1872), and also on Pinebank, Jamaica Plain (1869).

86. Wheaton A. Holden, “The Peabody Touch: Peabody and Stearns of Boston, 1870–1917,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxxii (1973), 114–131.

87. American Architect and Building News, ii (1877), 133–134. Scully, The Shingle Style, p. 42. Peabody’s comment was made famous within the context of Scully’s landmark volume, where it is reproduced under discussion of the Colonial Revival.

88. Report of the Massachusetts Board of World’s Fair Managers, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 (Boston, 1894), pp. 31–33.

89. Fiske Kimball, Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922), p. 35.

90. Boston Sunday Herald, July 31, 1949, p. 12.

91. George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945), p. 425.

92. Kimball, Domestic Architecture, p. 14.

93. Frank A. Demers, “Progress Report No. 1, Chronological Identification of 17th Century New England Oak Timbers through Tree-Ring Analysis” (August 21, 1968), ms, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

94. Historic Houses in Andover, Massachusetts, Compiled for the Tercentenary Celebration, 1946, house no. 23–ii.

95. Essex County Deeds (North District), Lawrence, Mass., vol. 572, p. 242.

96. Ibid., vol. 1244, p. 313.

97. Alice G. Lapham, The Old Planters of Beverly in Massachusetts . . . (Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, 1930), p. 12.

98. Essex County Registered Land, Doc. no. 4235 (Certif. of Title, no. 2070).

99. Ibid., Doc. no. 26323 (Certif. of Title, no. 9473).

100. Sidney Perley, “Beverly in 1700, No. 1,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, lv (1919), 88.

101. Ibid.

102. Beverly Town Records, ms, City Clerk, Beverly, Mass., ii (1685–1711), 68.

103. Notes on the Hale House, Beverly, 1903, by Robert Hale Bancroft and Ellen Bancroft, Archives, Hale House Committee, Beverly.

104. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3117, p. 137.

105. Suffolk County Deeds, iv, 313; M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ^c1973), i, 28.

106. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Statistics of the United States’ Direct Tax of 1798, as assessed on Boston . . . (Boston, Mass., 1890), pp. 188 (Gibbs Atkins) and 199 (Eliza Phillis).

107. Samuel Adams Drake, Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1906), opp. p. 158.

108. Boston Building Department Records, City Hall, Boston, Mass., Permit no. 127 (J. G. Carlson).

109. Suffolk County Probate Records, vii, 115.

110. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 178, p. 220.

111. Caleb H. Snow, A History of Boston . . . (Boston, 1825), p. 244. See also, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston (Boston, Mass., 1871), pp. 649–662.

112. Suffolk County Deeds, xvii, 341.

113. Ibid., xxi, 270; The Boston Globe, Oct. 28, 1931.

114. Suffolk County Deeds, xx, 544; xxiv, 109.

115. Ibid., xxxii, 46; xxviii, 102.

116. M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ^c1973), i, 28.

117. Suffolk County Deeds, xiii, 86.

118. Ibid., vol. 116, p. 128.

119. Ibid., vol. 196, p. 291.

120. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Statistics of the United States’ Direct Tax of 1798, as assessed on Boston . . . (Boston, Mass., 1890), p. 201.

121. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 3221, p. 172. See also, Handbook of the Paul Revere Memorial Association (Boston, Mass.: Printed for the Assoc., 1954), pp. 17–25.

122. Thomas Hutchinson, The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay . . . (Boston, Mass., 1764–1828), i, 349n.

123. Boston city directories.

124. Daily Evening Traveller (Boston, Mass.), July 10, 11, 1860. See also Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The Old Feather Store in Boston,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 172 (Apr.–June 1958), pp. 85–104.

125. Middlesex County Deeds, ii, 152.

126. The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the “New Towne” . . . (Cambridge Mass., 1896), p. 167.

127. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 5172.

128. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 3694, pp. 333, 335 and 338.

129. See “The Repairs on the Cooper-Austin House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 8 (Feb. 1913), pp. 12–18.

130. Middlesex County Registered Land (North District), Lowell, Mass., Land Registration Book, lxiv, 215 (Certif. of Title, no. 12308).

131. “Some Reminiscences of Elizabeth (Prince) Peabody,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, xxv (1937), 37–38.

132. Essex County Deeds, vol. 6173, p. 29.

133. Sidney Perley, “Center of Salem Village in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, vii (1919), 46.

134. Ibid., p. 47.

135. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1915, p. 180.

136. Ibid., vol. 2779, p. 410.

137. Sidney Perley, “The Plains: Part of Salem in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, vii (1919), 120.

138. Sidney Perley, “The Plains: Part of Salem in 1700,” The Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, vii (1919), 113.

139. Ibid.

140. Don Gleason Hill, ed., The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636–1659 . . . (Dedham, Mass., 1892), p. 28; A Plan of Dedham Village, Mass., 1636–1876, published by the Dedham Historical Society (Dedham, Mass., 1883), pp. 3, 4 and 13.

141. Suffolk County Probate Records, v, 112.

142. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 103, p. 8, and vol. 104, p. 73.

143. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 975, pp. 602 ff.

144. Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (Boston, Mass., ^c1894), p. 234.

145. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records, 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), p. 162.

146. Plot dated Apr. 22, 1748, ms, Collections, Dorchester Historical Society.

147. Samuel Blake, Blake Family . . . (Boston, Mass., 1857), pp. 15–16.

148. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1880, Dorchester Town Records, 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), p. 58.

149. Suffolk County Probate Records, xxxvii, 162.

150. Ibid., lxvii, 176 and 174.

151. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 8205, p. 204.

152. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3577, p. 74.

153. Ibid., vol. 4235, p. 230.

154. Ibid., vol. 5972, p. 412.

155. George Francis Dow, ed., The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1916–1920), iii, 63.

156. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5290, p. 327.

157. Ibid., vol. 6128, p. 363.

158. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 240.

159. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 596.

160. Ipswich Town Records, ms, Town Hall, Ipswich, Mass., iii (1696–1720), 221.

161. Essex County Deeds, xxxiii, 64.

162. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 350, p. 156.

163. John J. Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester . . . (Gloucester, Mass., 1860), p. 230.

164. Essex County Deeds, lxxix, 199.

165. Ibid., vol. 3714, p. 16.

166. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 3747. (See will of Nathaniel Brown; deed referred to therein not on file.)

167. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 68–69.

168. Ibid., iv (Ipswich), 373–374.

169. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Reports of the Corresponding Secretary . . .,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 18 (Nov. 1918), p. 29.

170. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Brown House, Hamilton, Mass., Sept. 25, 1916, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

171. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 533.

172. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 304, pp. 10 and 14.

173. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2150, p. 327.

174. Suffolk County Probate Records, viii, 24.

175. For correct identification of site with present house see Suffolk County Deeds, xv, 198, and vol. 148, p. 47, and Suffolk County Probate Records, xxv, 450.

176. Plymouth County Deeds, vol. 1429, p. 18.

177. Suffolk County Deeds, x, 83.

178. Suffolk County Probate Records, xiv, 294.

179. Ibid., lxxxiii, 630–632.

180. Ibid., docket no. 21875.

181. C. Edward Egan, Jr., ed., “The Hobart Journal,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 121 (1967), 18.

182. Suffolk County Deeds, ii, 161.

183. Ibid., xxi, 341.

184. The title as recorded by Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 358 (Philip Call lot), is incomplete.

185. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 4528.

186. Essex County Deeds, xxvi, 176.

187. Ibid., xlii, 79.

188. Ibid., vol. 163, p. 117.

189. Essex County Registered Land, Certif. of Title, no. 36484.

190. Essex County Deeds, ii (Ipswich), 128.

191. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, pp. 84–85 and 154.

192. [Thomas F. Waters], “Thomas Dudley and Simon and Ann Bradstreet,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, xii (1903), 15.

193. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4298, p. 52.

194. Essex County Deeds, xv, 115.

195. Ibid., vol. 137, p. 212.

196. Thomas F. Waters, “A History of the Old Argilla Road . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, ix (1900), 17.

197. Essex County Deeds, xi, 216.

198. The Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary . . . of the Town of Ipswich . . . (Boston, 1884), next to frontispiece.

199. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Thomas Burnham house, Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 17, 1914, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

200. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1678, p. 438; see also vol. 1682, p. 515.

201. Ye Olde Burnham House . . . kept by Martha Lucy Murrary (promotional pamphlet, no publisher, no date), unpaged; see also, Thomas F. Waters, “The Old Bay Road . . .,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, xv (1907), 2n.

202. Ibid.

203. Ralph Ladd to author, Feb. 27, 1954, Corr. Files, American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

204. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2466, p. 256.

205. Secretary’s Files, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

206. Essex County Deeds, xi, 92.

207. Ibid., xxiii, 76; xli, 265, and lxxix, 185.

208. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 331, p. 136.

209. Essex County Deeds, lxxxv, 229.

210. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 482.

211. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5307, p. 173.

212. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 481.

213. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 169.

214. Ibid., iv (Ipswich), 501.

215. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 14024.

216. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1682, pp. 241–242.

217. Ibid., vol. 2857, p. 369.

218. Essex County Deeds, v, 338.

219. Ibid., xliv, 218.

220. Ibid., vol. 4974, p. 196.

221. George A. Schofield, ed., The Ancient Records of the Town of Ipswich. . . (Ipswich, Mass., 1899), unpaged.

222. Ibid.

223. George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911–1975), i, 308.

224. Essex County Deeds, xi, 147.

225. Ibid., xxi, 188.

226. Ibid., vol. 5451, p. 705.

227. The title of this house is confused by Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 358 (Cartwright lot).

228. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 17017.

229. [Thomas F. Waters], “Thomas Dudley and Simon and Ann Bradstreet,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, xii (1903), 5 and 8.

230. Essex County Deeds, xxiv, 236.

231. [Waters], op. cit., p. 10.

232. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5156, p. 235.

233. Incorrectly identified by Thomas F. Waters as having been built by Job Harris before 1751; Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 355.

234. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 74.

235. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 492.

236. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 26839.

237. Essex County Deeds, v (Ipswich), 590.

238. Ibid., xvii, 21.

239. Ibid., vol. 2334, p. 585.

240. Essex County Deeds, xvii, 108.

241. Ibid., xxxv, 104–105. See also, Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 389–390.

242. Essex County Deeds, vol. 5384, p. 592.

243. Essex County Deeds, vol. 809, p. 196.

244. Thomas F. Waters, “Jeffrey’s Neck and the way leading thereto . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, xviii (1912), 4–5, 8–11.

245. See Russell H. Kettell, “The Reconstruction of the Captain Matthew Perkins House . . . ,” Scrapbook, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

246. Ibid.

247. Daniel S. Wendel, in conversation with the author.

248. Essex County Deeds, lxxi, 131.

249. Ibid., lxxii, 269.

250. Thomas F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Ipswich, Mass.: The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905–1917), i, 448.

251. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2583, p. 304.

252. Thomas F. Waters, “The John Whipple House in Ipswich, Mass . . . ,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, xx (1915), 1–2.

253. Essex County Deeds, i (Ipswich), 89.

254. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 304, p. 10.

255. Ibid., vol. 313, p. 458.

256. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1549, p. 6, and vol. 1561, p. 534.

257. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 285.

258. Ibid., v (Ipswich), 182.

259. Ibid., ix, 287.

260. Ibid., xv, 109.

261. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 315, p. 307.

262. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2793, p. 246.

263. Harriette M. Forbes, “Some Seventeenth-Century Houses of Middlesex County, Massachusetts,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 95 (Jan. 1939), pp. 97–99.

264. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 12800, p. 721.

265. Essex County Deeds, ii, 92.

266. Essex County Deeds, ix, 3.

267. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 319, p. 31.

268. Sidney Perley, “Marblehead in the Year 1700, No. 5,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, xlvii (1911), 68.

269. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2461, p. 585.

270. “Re: House 15 Glover Street, Marblehead,” undated notes by William Sumner Appleton, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

271. Essex County Deeds, xxii, 210.

272. Norfolk County Deeds, vol. 1604, p. 301.

273. John H. Hooper, “Some Old Medford Houses . . . ,” Medford Historical Register, vii (1904), 49.

274. Joshua Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury [Massachusetts] . . . (Boston, Mass., 1845), p. 391.

275. See James W. Spring, “The Coffin House in Newbury, Massachusetts . . . ,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 57 (July 1929), pp. 16–18.

276. Ms Collections, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

277. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2798, p. 446.

278. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4094, p. 504.

279. Joshua Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury [Massachusetts] . . . (Boston, Mass., 1845), p. 375.

280. Essex County Deeds, iii (Ipswich), 215, and x, 17.

281. See ibid., xviii, 48; xxxi, 61; and xxxviii, 18; and Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 19766 (inventory).

282. Essex County Deeds, xcv, 192.

283. Ibid., vol. 104, p. 10.

284. William Sumner Appleton, “The Ilsley House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 4 (Aug. 1911), p. 10.

285. John J. Currier, “OuId Newbury” . . . (Boston, Mass., 1896), pp. 196–197.

286. Essex County Deeds vol. 194, p. 233.

287. Ibid., vol. 2088, pp. 301 and 306.

288. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 14 (May 1916), pp. 5–9.

289. John J. Currier, History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764–1909 (Newburyport, Mass.: Printed for the Author, 1909), ii, 54.

290. Essex County Deeds, xiv, 108.

291. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 316, p. 289.

292. Essex County Deeds, xiv, 107. See also, John J. Currier, “Ould Newbury” . . . (Boston, Mass., 1896), pp. 119 and 142.

293. Essex County Deeds, vol. 167, p. 306.

294. “The Benaiah Titcomb House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 4 (Aug. 1911), pp. 15–18; William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 7 (July 1912), p. 16, and “Annual Reports of the Corresponding Secretary . . . ,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 18 (Nov. 1918), p. 29.

295. Essex County Deeds, xxix, 94.

296. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 1788.

297. Essex County Deeds (North District), Lawrence, Mass., vol. 742, p. 359.

298. See Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The Parson Barnard House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 166 (Oct.–Dec. 1956), pp. 29–40.

299. See Quincy Patriot Ledger, Oct. 22, 1959, p. 14.

300. M. Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674–1729 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ^c1973), i, 101.

301. John Marshall, Diary, ms, The Massachusetts Historical Society.

302. Middlesex County Deeds, xii, 162.

303. The Parker Tavern . . . , pamphlet, printed by the Reading Antiquarian Society, 1930, pp. 9–10.

304. Middlesex County Deeds, xxiii, 259.

305. See the Reading Chronicle, June 27, 1930.

306. Allen Chamberlain and Thomas Williams, The Old Castle . . . (Pigeon Cove, Mass.: Village Improvement Soc., 1939), p. 8.

307. Ibid., p. 9.

308. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2663, p. 125.

309. Essex County Deeds, ii, 83.

310. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 16,” The Essex Antiquarian, vii (1904), 114–116.

311. Essex County Deeds, iv, 103.

312. Corwin Family mss, American Antiquarian Society.

313. See Sidney Perley, “Where Roger Williams lived in Salem,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, lii (1916), 97–111.

314. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 6946.

315. William P. Upham, “An Account of the Dwelling-Houses of Francis Higginson, Samuel Skelton, Roger Williams, and Hugh Peters,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, viii (1866), 258.

316. Collections, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

317. Essex County Deeds, vol. 537, p. 45.

318. Ibid., vol. 3400, p. 437.

319. Ibid., vol. 3585, p. 340.

320. Suffolk County Deeds, i, 56.

321. Essex County Deeds, i, 31.

322. Ibid., xxxi, 95.

323. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 24147.

324. Essex County Deeds, vol. 104, p. 164, and vol. 105, pp. 36 and 57.

325. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 21,” The Essex Antiquarian, ix (1905), 168.

326. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D. . . . (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), i, 248.

327. Ibid.

328. Ibid., ii, 25–26.

329. Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 21,” The Essex Antiquarian, ix (1905), 169.

330. Essex County Deeds, ii, 96–97.

331. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 302, pp. 125–126.

332. Ibid., vol. 312, p. 9.

333. Essex County Deeds, vol. 4943, p. 46.

334. Ibid., vol. 5431, p. 291.

335. Essex County Deeds, xxxiii, 245.

336. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 357, p. 366.

337. Essex County Deeds, xiii, 54. See also, The Essex Antiquarian, ii (1898), 173.

338. Essex County Deeds, iii, 55.

339. Ibid., iv, 152.

340. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 14656.

341. Essex County Deeds, xciv, 248; xcvi, 22; and vol. 103, p. 236.

342. Ibid., vol. 137, p. 177.

343. Ibid., vol. 5221, p. 117.

344. Essex County Deeds, vi, 76.

345. Ibid., p. 82.

346. Sidney Perley, The History of Salem, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: Sidney Perley, 1924–1928), iii, 65–66.

347. Sidney Perley, “Part of Salem in 1700, No. 5,” The Essex Antiquarian, iv (1900), 169.

348. Essex County Deeds, ii, 75.

349. Pickering Family papers, Pickering House, Salem.

350. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, p. 208.

351. Pickering Family papers.

352. Ibid.

353. Essex County Deeds, i, 35.

354. Ibid., ii, 55.

355. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 22069.

356. Ibid., vol. 302, p. 27.

357. Essex County Deeds, xviii, 162.

358. Ibid., vol. 5215, p. 421.

359. Ibid., vol. 5649, p. 629.

360. Sidney Perley, “Part of Salem in 1700, No. 3,” The Essex Antiquarian, iv (1900), 22 (Capt. Manasseh Marston House).

361. Essex County Deeds, iii, 49. See also, Sidney Perley, “Salem in 1700, No. 23,” The Essex Antiquarian, x (1906), 62–65.

362. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 303, pp. 98–99.

363. Ibid., docket no. 28367.

364. Ibid., vol. 328, pp. 326–339.

365. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D. . . . (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), ii, 463.

366. Essex County Deeds, vol. 1109, p. 288.

367. Ibid., vol. 1927, p. 225. See also, Caroline O. Emmerton, The Chronicles of Three Old Houses (Boston, Mass.: Thomas Todd Co., Printers, 1935), pp. 7–39.

368. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3098, p. 361.

369. Essex County Deeds, vii, 14. See also, Barbara M. and Gerald W. R. Ward, “The John Ward House . . . ,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, 110 (1974), 3–32.

370. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 319, pp. 489–490.

371. Suffolk County Deeds, i, 69–71.

372. Essex County Deeds, xi, 240–241; George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911–1975), ii, 89, and viii, 201.

373. Massachusetts State Archives, 59/188.

374. Essex County Deeds, iv (Ipswich), 452.

375. Ibid., vi, 98.

376. Ibid., ix, 5.

377. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 27301.

378. Essex County Deeds, vol. 118, p. 258.

379. Ibid., vol. 157, p. 117.

380. Ibid., vol. 2287, p. 364.

381. Ibid., vol. 3394, p. 535, and vol. 3382, p. 583.

382. Ibid., vol. 5693, p. 519.

383. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Boston Records from 1660 to 1701 (Boston, Mass., 1881), p. 120. See also, Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The ‘Scotch’-Boardman House . . . Part I,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 151 (Jan.–Mar. 1953), pp. 57–73.

384. Suffolk County Deeds, xxiv, 21.

385. Suffolk County Probate Records, xi, 190.

386. Suffolk County Deeds, xxiv, 142–143.

387. Essex County Probate Records, vol. 368, p. 110; Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 218, p. 72.

388. Essex County Deeds, vol. 2258, p. 37.

389. See Abbott Lowell Cummings, “The ‘Scotch’-Boardman House . . . Part II,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 152 (Apr.–June 1953), pp. 91–102.

390. Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 9868, p. 367.

391. Essex County Deeds, xix, 148.

392. Ibid., xix, 18.

393. Notes by William Sumner Appleton on the Blaney House, Swampscott, Apr. 21, 1914, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

394. George Francis Dow, ed., Town Records of Topsfield, Massachusetts (Topsfield, Mass.: The Topsfield Historical Society, 1917–1920), i, 44.

395. Donald Macdonald-Millar to Bertram K. Little, Dec. 6, 1958, Corr. Files, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

396. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D. . . . .(Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962), iv, 287.

397. Essex County Registered Land, Doc. no. 2266 (Certif. of Title, no. 1203).

398. John H. Towne, “Topsfield Houses and Buildings,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, viii (1902), 22.

399. Essex County Deeds, xv, 257.

400. Essex County Probate Records, docket no. 10156.

401. Essex County Deeds, xxxii, 289.

402. Ibid., vol. 2375, p. 370.

403. William Sumner Appleton, “Annual Report of the Corresponding Secretary,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 21 (July 1920), 21–22.

404. Essex County Deeds, liv, 13, and lxi, 269.

405. Ibid., xxxiii, 139.

406. Ibid., lxiii, 262.

407. Ibid., vol. 122, p. 13.

408. Ibid., vol. 2609, p. 133.

409. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 2941.

410. Watertown Records . . . , Prepared for publication by the Historical Society (Watertown, Mass., 1894–1900), ii, 141. See also, Catharine W. Pierce, “The Brownes of Watertown and the date of the Abraham Browne House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 98 (Oct. 1939), pp. 67–72.

411. Middlesex County Deeds, xxix, 194.

412. Ibid., vol. 4259, p. 594.

413. Wenham Town Records (Published by the Wenham [Mass.] Historical Society, 1930–1940), i, 39.

414. Essex County Deeds, xli, 184.

415. Wenham Town Records, i, 157.

416. Essex County Deeds, vol. 125, p. 202.

417. Ibid., vol. 2501, p. 501.

418. See William Sumner Appleton, “A Description of Robert McClaflin’s House,” Old-Time New England, ser. no. 44 (Apr. 1926), pp. 157–167.

419. Essex County Deeds, xi, 205.

420. Wenham Town Records (Published by the Wenham [Mass.] Historical Society, 1930–1940), i, 178.

421. Essex County Deeds, liv, 102.

422. Ibid., vol. 178, p. 242.

423. Frank Chouteau Brown, “The Interior Details and Furnishings of the William Haskell Dwelling . . . ,” Pencil Points, xx (1939), 113–128.

424. Essex County Deeds, vol. 3098, pp. 389–391.

425. Second Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1877 (Boston, Mass., 1877), p. 30.

426. Ibid., p. 168.

427. Suffolk County Deeds, xxxiv, 245.

428. Mellen Chamberlain, A Documentary History of Chelsea . . . (Boston, Mass.: Printed for the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1908), i, 193, and plan opposite.

429. Suffolk County Deeds, vol. 841, p. 87.

430. Ibid., vol. 3182, p. 590.

431. Essex County Deeds, ii, 75.

432. Harrison Ellery and Charles P. Bowditch, The Pickering Genealogy . . . (Cambridge, Mass., 1897), i, 22.

433. Essex County Deeds, vol. 144, p. 149.

434. George Francis Dow, ed., “Salem Commoners Records, 1713–1739,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, xxxvi, 176.

435. Collections, The Essex Institute.

436. Pickering Family papers, Pickering House, Salem.

437. George R. Curwen to Henry FitzGilbert Waters, Oct. 26–Nov. 19, 1885, Waters Family papers: Henry FitzGilbert Waters (1833–1913), Corr. Box 2, Folder 3, The Essex Institute.

438. Gloucester Commoners’ Books, ms, City Clerk, Gloucester, Mass., Bk. ii.

439. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., v, 51.

440. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., ed., Note-Book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641 (Cambridge, Mass., 1885), pp. 302–303.

441. Minutes of the Council of Massachusetts Bay reveal that license was granted to Thomas Banister on Mar. 20, 1701, “to erect a building of timber and brick” at the south end of Boston. Cecil Headlam, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1701 (London: Published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1910), p. 138.

442. Charles F. Montgomery, “Thomas Banister on the New Sash Windows, Boston, 1701,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, xxiv (1965), 170.

443. Suffolk County Court Records, Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, Boston, Mass., docket no. 1916.

444. Edward Everett Hale, Jr., ed., Note-Book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641 (Cambridge, Mass., 1885), pp. 51–57.

445. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing the Records of Boston Selectmen, 1701 to 1715 (Boston, Mass., 1884), pp. 11–12, 17, 23, 28 and 79.

446. Lane Family papers, privately owned.

447. Suffolk County Court Records, Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, Boston, Mass., docket no. 1833.

448. Unrecorded deeds, etc., 1721–1840, Peabody-Osgood Family papers, The Essex Institute.

449. Sidney Perley, ed., “Boxford Town Records, 1685–1706,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, v (1899), 101.

450. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., xxiv, 115.

451. A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Charlestown Land Records, 1638–1802, 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), pp. 171–172.

452. Ibid., pp. 174–175.

453. A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Charlestown Land Records, 1638–1802, 2nd ed. (Boston, Mass., 1883), pp. 172–173.

454. Charles B. Rice, Proceedings at the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Parish at Salem Village, now Danvers, October 8, 1872 . . . (Boston, Mass., 1874), p. 21.

455. Don Gleason Hill, ed., The Early Records of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1659–1673 . . . (Dedham, Mass., 1894), pp. 165–166.

456. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., xli, 10.

457. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., vi, 70–71.

458. Winthrop Papers (Boston, Mass.: The Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929–1947), iv, 11–12. See also Thomas F. Waters, “A History of the Old Argilla Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts,” Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society, ix (1900), 23–29.

459. Franklin P. Rice, ed., First Records of Marlborough, Massachusetts (Worcester, Mass.: Published by Franklin P. Rice, 1909), pp. 12–13.

460. Middlesex County Probate Records, first ser., docket no. 7724.

461. Corwin Family mss, American Antiquarian Society.

462. Jonathan Corwin, Account Book, ms, vol. for 1656–1679, American Antiquarian Society.

463. Jonathan Corwin, Account Book, ms, vol. for 1656–1679, American Antiquarian Society.

464. Essex Quarterly Court Files, Office of the Clerk of the Superior Court for Essex County, Salem, Mass., vi, 85–87.

465. Henry W. Belknap, Trades and Tradesmen of Essex County, Massachusetts . . . (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1929), p. 56.

466. Robert W. Lovett, ed., Documents from the Harvard University Archives, 1638–1750 (Boston, Mass.: Published by The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1975), p. 22.

467. “Towne Family Papers,” The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society, xviii (1913), 4–5.