The Consul’s Coat

Next month Augusta Auctions in New York will offer this fine red broadcloth cutaway coat along with tan buckskin britches, which belonged to Thomas McDonogh, Britain’s first consul in Boston. The auctioneer’s webpage shows several more images of the garments.

The most detailed profile of McDonogh that I could find appears in The Wentworth Genealogy:

He is represented as having been the private Secretary of Gov. John Wentworth [of New Hampshire]. Correspondence preserved amply proves that they bore the most intimate relations to each other, and that Mr. McDonogh adhered to the Governor’s person, as well as his cause, until he left Portsmouth, N. H.

He was born in Sligo, Co. of Sligo, Ireland. After leaving Portsmouth, N.H., he married Harriot, daughter of Roper and Rachel (Burnett) Dawson. Both her parents were born in England, but the father died on Staten Island, New York, 14 June, 1771, and it is believed that her mother lived there at the time of the marriage. . . .

Some time prior to 1800, Mr. McDonogh was appointed British Consul at Boston, which office he held until his death, in 1805, aged about sixty-five. He was buried at Milton, Mass., in the tomb of his son-in-law, the late Hon. Peter O. Thatcher [1776-1843]. When the Duke of Kent (Queen Victoria’s father), and…Charles-Mary Wentworth visited the United States, they made their headquarters at his hospitable mansion.

At the time of that writing in 1870, Thomas McDonogh’s unmarried daughter Caroline owned portraits of him and his wife.

Which makes me think that seeing the consul’s coat is all well and good, but it’s on a modern dress form without a head. That makes it hard to picture how the outfit originally appeared. If only there was a period image of this garment being worn.

Oh, hey.

This image of McDonogh’s portrait comes from the website of William Vareika Fine Arts in Newport.

Washington’s Birthday Observed in Milton

Over a century ago, Albert Matthews of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts was keeping his eye open for newsaper reports of Americans celebrating George Washington’s birthday. His earliest find appears to be in John Gill’s Continental Journal dated 18 Feb 1779:

Thursday the 11th instant [i.e., of this month], the glorious anniversary birthday of his Excellency General WASHINGTON, was celebrated at Milton, by a large number of gentlemen, with an elegant festival. After dinner the following Toasts were drank:

1. The glorious and auspicious 11th of February, 1732.*
2. May this anniversary be celebrated to the honor of our illustrious Chief, till time shall be no more.
3. May the wisdom and integrity of Congress frustrate all the arts and stratagems devised to darken and divide their counsels.
4. Perpetual union and freedom to the American States.
5. His Most Christian Majesty [i.e., the King of France].
6. American Ministers at foreign Courts.
7. The honorable Sieur Gerard [the French minister to the U.S. of A.].
8. The American Army and Navy.
9. The Army and Navy of our great Ally.
10. May the names of Warren, Montgomery, and all the heroes who have fell in our glorious cause, be immortalized in the annals of America.
11. May the United American States ever prove a happy asylum to the oppressed of all nations.
12. May the genial rays of true religion and science dispell the mist of ignorance and error from all quarters of the globe.

* General Washington was born in Virginia, in the county of Westmoreland, the 11th February, 1732.

On 18 Feb 1780, Gill printed the description of another birthday celebration, most likely at the same tavern:

FRIDAY last a large number of Gentlemen met at Mr. Robinson’s, by Milton Bridge, to celebrate the anniversary Birth Day of his Excellency General Washington—Every breast was filled with pious joy to Heaven for preserving the invaluable Life of our illustrious General.—After an elegant Dinner, the following Toasts were given out:

1. The illustrious Hero of the day.
2. Wisdom and Integrity to the Congress.
3. The American Army and Navy.
4. The combined Fleets of France and Spain.
5. Poverty to Extortioners, and Bread to the Poor.
6. Condign punishment to all Peculators.
7. The advocates for civil and religious Liberty.
8. May America flourish, ’till time shall be no more.
9. Agriculture and Navigation.
10. Our Friends in captivity.
11. Our Friends at Foreign Courts.
12. May the dictates of Reason and Conscience govern mankind.
13. Peace and good Government to all Nations. Huzza!

The 18 Feb 1782 Independent Ledger carried a shorter report for that year:

Last Tuesday a large number of Gentlemen met at Mr. Robinson’s Tavern on Milton Hill, to celebrate the anniversary Birth Day of His Excellency General WASHINGTON.—The Company were honored with the presence of General [Benjamin] LINCOLN, and many other American officers of distinction.

You’ve no doubt noticed that all those celebrations were held on the 11th of February while we now observe Washington’s birthday on the 22nd.

TOMORROW: When did that shift happen?

“I have myself a large share of malicious Slander”

When James Warren wrote to Elbridge Gerry on 20 July 1788, the two political allies were digesting the legal ratification of the new U.S. Constitution, which they had opposed.

Warren and his wife Mercy had just moved out of the mansion in Milton where Gov. Thomas Hutchinson had lived before the war. Gerry was living on the Cambridge estate confiscated from Lt. Gov. Thomas Oliver.

That’s the context for the Massachusetts Historical Society’s newly acquired letter, which Warren started by commiserating with Gerry about the political attacks on him. Soon, however, he was complaining about his own troubles:

Neither the stationing of Centries, or the malicious wishes & Obliquy of the federals will ever prevent my visiting my friend at Cambridge when it is in my power. No Man, or at least very few, can at this day possess that invaluable Treasure Mens Conscia recti [from Virgil, “a mind aware of what is right”] as I firmly beleive you do without being marked by detraction & Ill nature.

I have myself a large share of malicious Slander which I never deserved from this Country I heartily despise it. my spirits shall never be affected by it, & among the numerous resources of Consolation it certainly is no inconsiderable one to be associated with a Man who I so much Esteem & with whom I have been associated in the most Zealous & faithful services to this Country. they now wish us to be Bankcrupt, & despondent, or they would not spread such ill founded rumours. they gratify their Malice instead of exerciscing those feelings which pity if not gratitude should Excite on such an occasion if true.

No Man was ever persecuted with such inveterate Malice as I am. it follows me in every step I take. an Instance has lately occurred in which the public certainly had no Concern, but more Noise has been made about my takeing of a few Lockes from Milton House, than would have been made if another Man had burned it[.] it is so in every thing, & I suppose will be so for the same reason it has been so. I will quit this subject after giveing you one anecdote, which I think sufficient to silence Malevolence itself. I went to his Agent & Informed him that there were a variety of Articles which would be very Convenient to Mr Lee, that he should have the preference at a moderate price if he Inclined to have them, & afterwards received this surly answer, that he would not lay out a Shillings there, & now Complains that they are taken away.—

(we are now to see the Operation of the New Constitution with all its splendid Advantages. you must prepare yourself for takeing a part in the Execution in one House or the other. Policy will prevail over Malevolence, & make your Election certain.) and your Acceptance I think must be as certain as your Election, & will be a Choice only of the least evil. I have much to say to you on this & other subjects, which I design to do ere long viva voce in the mean time give my great regards to the federal Lady & believe me to be your Friend &c &c

Warren had just sold his Milton mansion to Patrick Jeffrey, estranged husband of Mary Wilkes Hayley. I can’t identify the “Mr. Lee” whom Warren wrote about.

Trying to milk this letter for further gossip, I note Warren’s phrase “give my great regards to the federal Lady.” Did that refer to Gerry’s wife Ann, and does that mean she favored the Constitution?

In any event, as Warren counseled, Gerry did participate in the new federal government as a member of the first two Congresses, opposing George Washington’s administration; then as a diplomat under John Adams; and finally as Vice President under James Madison. He also slipped in a term as Massachusetts governor. Ann Gerry (1763-1849), nineteen years younger than her husband, was the last surviving widow of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Stories from Old Homes

This month the Boston Globe published a couple of articles in its local sections that might be of wider interest for folks interested in eighteenth-century history.

From Plymouth came word of an archeological dig that might include evidence about the lives of enslaved people of African descent:

An excavation this summer in a small shed and nearby grounds on North Street has yielded more than 30,000 artifacts dating back 1,000 years. But the prized finds have been the bits and pieces that “might point to an African origin and [dwellers’] desire to maintain a physical, spiritual, and [m]ental connection with their origins,” said archeologist Craig Chartier. . . .

The project began in April, with a $15,000 Community Preservation Fund grant spurred by historian Rose T. Briggs’s typewritten reference to Colonel George Watson’s slave house in a 1967 Massachusetts Historical Inventory Form that she submitted on behalf of the Pilgrim Society. . . .

In addition to slaves named Cuffee and Esack, the household had Quassia, said to be “full of fun and drollery.” His owner, Judge Peter Oliver of Middleborough, had been driven out of town by residents for his Tory sympathies, according to a passage in Thomas Weston’s “History of the Town of Middleborough,” written in 1906.

From the western suburbs came a story about people living in historic houses as caretakers, to maintain them and their furnishings.

It is an arrangement played out in historic houses across the state, one that can benefit both caretakers, who pay little or no rent, and the groups that own the properties but have little money to pay for upkeep.

In Milton’s Suffolk Resolves House, Steve Kluskens walks past a letter from Thomas Hutchinson, a Colonial-era governor of Massachusetts, on his way to the kitchen every morning. When he types on his Macintosh laptop, it sits on a 200-year-old table, near an 1823 Springfield musket propped up against a wall.

As caretakers, Kluskens and his wife, Sheila Frazier, eat at a table beside a display of delicate dishes that were ordered from China in 1775. The house also holds a 1641 Bible written in classical Greek, a Jacobean oak chest more than 300 years old, and assorted dour portraits of prominent, but deceased, Milton residents.

Kluskens and Frazier, like other caretakers in historic houses, cannot change the house to fit their lives. They don’t remodel or paint or add media rooms. They must adapt themselves to fit in the house.

“It gives you a unique perspective on how short a life span is,” said Kluskens, who is also curator. “We’re just passing through this house.”

The Suffolk Resolves House, owned by Daniel Vose in 1774, is shown above.

“For Paper truly, every one’s a Lover”

This advertisement appeared in the 30 Mar 1767 edition of the Boston Post-Boy:

The Bell Cart will go through Boston before the End of next Month, to collect Rags for the Paper Mill at Milton, when all People that will encourage the Paper Manufactory, may dispose of them; the best Price will be given. They are taken in at Mr. Caleb Davis’s Shop at the Fortification; Mr. Andrew Gillespie’s near Dr. Clark’s; Mr. Andrass Randale’s near Phillips’s Wharf; and Mr. John Boies’s in Long Lane; Mr. Frothingham’s in Charlestown; Mr. Williams’s in Marblehead; Ellson’s in Salem; Mr. John Harris’s in Newbury; Mr. Daniel Fowle’s in Portsmouth; and at the Paper Mill at Milton.

Rags are as Beauties, which concealed lie,
But when in Paper, how it charms the Eye;
Pray save Rags, new Beauties to discover,
For Paper truly, every one’s a Lover:
By th’ Pen and Press such Knowledge is display’d,
As wou’dn’t exist if Paper was not made.
Wisdom of Things, mysterious, divine,
Illustriously doth on Paper shine.

The same ad, minus the one word “truly” in the verse, had appeared in the 9 March Boston Gazette.

At this time the paper mill in Milton was being operated by James Boies (1702-1798), who had come to Boston from Ireland as a mariner, and his partners. According to one John Boies writing in 1834, those partners restarted an abandoned mill with the help of a furloughed soldier named Hazelton in 1760. That was an especially impressive feat because, the same letter said, Hazelton died in the Battle of Québec—which occurred in 1759.

I can’t pin down how that John Boies of 1834 connects to the James Boies in Milton, or to the John Boies who collected rags on Long Lane in Boston. But one John Boies started a paper mill in Waltham sometime in the 1780s.

The advertisement above has a similarly murky history. In Journalism in the United States, from 1690-1872, Frederic Hudson quoted one very much like it from the 6 Mar 1769 Boston News-Letter. But the News-Letter wasn’t published that day.

In 1889, William J. Taylor’s The Story of the Irish in Boston quoted a similar advertisement, crediting the 23 Mar 1769 News-Letter. That issue actually existed, but I couldn’t find the ad in the copy reproduced by Readex. It’s possible that the ad appeared in some copies but not others. The printers may have run this notice whenever they needed to fill a certain amount of space. They always needed a good supply of paper, after all.

The Boston Paper Collective in Charlestown still makes paper by hand. I did some of that work myself a few weeks back. The collective periodically announces papermaking workshops for anyone who wants to get their hands wet the old-fashioned way.

Getting to Know Thomas Hutchinson in July

The Forbes House Museum in Milton sits on part of the estate that once belonged to Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. This summer the site will partner with the Massachusetts Historical Society to present “The Worlds of Thomas Hutchinson,” a three-day investigation of the Loyalist politician. This workshop is open to the public, and comes with additional P.D.P. sessions for educators.

The event description says:

The year 2011 marks the 300th birthday of the last civilian colonial governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson—a man whose actions and uncompromising stance played a central role in the Stamp Act crisis and ensuing events throughout the decade preceding the Revolution. . . .

AT THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Discover the issues Hutchinson confronted by viewing and working with rare 18th century documents that chronicle the conflicts

IN DOWNTOWN BOSTON: See what Hutchinson was up against as we take to the streets with historian Bill Fowler, who shows us the sites and scenes of mounting resistance.

AT THE FORBES HOUSE: Gain insight into the life of Hutchinson as husband, father, landscape designer and gardener and statesman through study of his country retreat on Milton Hill.

The event takes place 12-14 July, 9:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. each day. The cost is $125, or $100 for members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Forbes House Museum, and all teachers. That fee includes all activities, coffee and lunch on two days, and a reading packet.

For more information, contact Kathleen Barker, Massachusetts Historical Society Education Coordinator, or call the Forbes House Museum at (617) 696-1815.

Did Washington Stable His Horse in Milton?

Yesterday Ben Edwards at Teach History alerted me to a “Washington slept here” statement that didn’t seem right. I dug to find confirmation, and couldn’t. So I dug a bit more to satisfy myself about how that belief might have arisen.

In a Wall Street Journal profile of Dr. Mark Vonnegut, Nancy Keates described his house in Milton as:

a 1740 beet-red former carriage house that locals believe housed George Washington’s horse; the building was once used as the stables for an inn across the street where the first president met with John Adams.

That story was even headlined “Washington’s Horse Slept Here.” But Washington’s diaries don’t mention Milton. Albert Kendall Teele’s The History of Milton, Mass., 1640-1887 doesn’t describe such a visit—and there’s nothing local historians liked more than filling out the details of George Washington’s visit to town.

George Washington did visit Massachusetts in 1789, during a progress through all thirteen states after he had been elected President. The roots of the Milton tradition may lie in his 1789 diary:

Sunday 25th [October]. Attended Divine Service at the Episcopal Church whereof Doctor [Samuel] Parker is the Incumbent in the forenoon, and the Congregational Church of Mr. [Peter] Thatcher in the Afternoon. Dined at my Lodgings with the Vice President.

That gives us Washington, Adams, and an inn, all in close proximity to the Rev. Peter Thacher. That minister was a native of Milton, where his grandfather of the same name was the town minister for a long, long time.

But Washington’s diary entry actually describes part of his visit to Boston, where the younger Thacher had become pastor of the Brattle Street Congregational Church. The “Episcopal Church” that morning was Trinity.

Maybe there’s a closer connection I’ve overlooked. If anyone knows more about this tradition and the evidence behind it, please share.

Fichter to Speak on So Great a Proffit

Prof. James R. Fichter of Lingnan University in Hong Kong is speaking at three New England historic sites this month on his book So Great a Proffit: How the East Indies Trade Transformed Anglo-American Capitalism. Here’s a review in The New Republic.

Britain started trading with east Asia through the East India Company in the 1600s, and that economic and political link eventually led to major battles on the subcontinent in the Seven Years’ War and War of American Independence, and to the Boston Tea Party.

After independence, American merchants found themselves shut out of the British Empire’s trading system. (Some of them had apparently not thought through what “independence” would mean.) Among the risky new business ventures they tried was the China Trade.

Fichter’s first venue is the Salem Maritime National Historic Site’s visitor center on Sunday, 13 June, at 2:00 P.M., which makes sense since Salem was a center of America’s China Trade. Among the pioneering merchants was Elias Hasket Derby, who had marched with the Essex County militia on 19 Apr 1775, arguing the whole way with his colonel, Timothy Pickering, about whether they should march faster.

On Wednesday, 16 June, at 7:00 P.M., Fichter will speak at the Forbes House Museum in Milton, in an event co-sponsored by the Shirley-Eustis House Association. That Milton mansion was built by Robert Bennet Forbes, who started work for his opium-trading uncle Thomas Handysyd Perkins in 1816 at the age of twelve. The lecture is free, but seating is limited, so the organizers request an R.S.V.P. There will be refreshments supplied by Prof. Fichter’s publisher, Harvard University Press.

Finally, Fichter will cross state lines on Thursday, 17 June, at 5:00 P.M. and talk at the Rhode Island Historical Society’s John Brown House Museum at 52 Power Street in Providence. In 1787 Brown sent the General Washington to Canton with a cargo of “anchors, cannon shot, bar iron, sheet copper, ginseng…, tar, spermaceti candles,” and several types of alcohol, thus launching Rhode Island’s direct trade with east Asia.

Mrs. Russell: paper customer

[This posting was updated to reflect newer research on Ezekiel Russell and his wife.]

Last week I posted a couple of entries about Sarah Russell, wife of Boston printer Ezekiel Russell. Boston 1775 reader Peter Hopkins, unofficial chronicler of the Crane Paper Company, sent me additional information:

The Crane & Co. founder’s father—Stephen Crane—was a partner in The Liberty Paper Mill in Milton with Daniel Vose and (we believe) John Lewis. The Liberty Paper Mill operated from 1770 to 1793, and the Crane Museum of Papermaking holds the mill’s ledger book. . . .

In addition to Paul Revere, Isaiah Thomas, Henry Knox, etc., there is an entry on April 26, 1771, that shows that Mrs. Russell purchased 2 double reams of crown printing paper for 15 pounds.

On another page is the account for Ezekiel Russell, who bought paper from time to time from that date to March 3, 1779.

The “Mrs. Russell” noted in April 1771 was probably not Ezekiel Russell’s wife and successor Sarah since they didn’t marry until 1773. But it could have been the wife of his older brother John, who had trained Ezekiel in printing. Such a large purchase of paper strongly suggests that this Mrs. Russell was conducting business, not just buying a personal supply.

Hopkins offers a look at the signatures of Revere, Thomas, and Knox from that ledger. Each of those men needed paper for a different reason. Knox was a young bookseller, Thomas a young printer, and Revere printer of engraved banknotes for Massachusetts.

When Vose, Crane, and Lewis named their business the Liberty Paper Mill, they were acknowledging their product’s political side. Manufacturing paper within the colony meant people could import less, and the Whigs were trying to get people to boycott goods from Britain until Parliament repealed the Townshend duties.

The Liberty Mill’s senior partner, Daniel Vose, hosted the final session of the Suffolk County Convention on 9 Sept 1774, at which town delegates adopted the Suffolk Resolves. He was also a captain in the Milton militia on 19 Apr 1775, though as best I can tell his company was too far south to see any fighting. Instead, their big accomplishment was to deliver bread and chocolate (milled in a subleased part of the paper manufactory) to the troops who camped around Boston.