Winthrop a substantial proof of their good-will, £500 being contributed to relieve his financial embarrassments. A "great training" was held in Boston in 1642, which lasted two days. The number of men who appeared under arms is put down at 1,200. The number of lookers-on were, of course, a great multitude; yet it is affirmed that none were drunk, none swore, and there was no fighting; and the general remark is made by another writer, that "Profane swearing, drunkenness, and beggars are but rare in the compass of this patent." The civil war, which prevailed in England in 1643, embarrassed manufacturing interests, and the supplies of the Colonies ran low. So Boston and other towns "fell to a manufacture of cotton, whereof they had store from Barbadoes, and hemp and flax." Thus was stimulated an early beginning of an essential interest.

The court, in passing a law giving a more definite form to its public schools, give as a reason for general public education, that the stronghold of Satan consisted in men's ignorance; and that, for this reason, all means possible should be adopted to spoil this specialty of "the old Deluder."

The first execution for witchcraft which took place in the Colony, occurred at Boston in June, 1648.* The unfortunate woman was hanged, and the record solemnly adds, that, "the same day and hour she was executed, there was a very great tempest at Connecticut, which blew down many trees."

Until the year 1648, there had been but one "meetinghouse." A move was now made for a second. Its foundation was laid the next year, at the head of what is now North Square. The first sermon was preached on the 5th of June, 1650. Samuel Mather, a son of Rev. Richard Mather of Dorchester, was its first pastor. It was called the "Mather Church," as its history intimately connects with that most remarkable family. This second church became known as the North Church, and, in time, as the Old North.

On the 26th of March, 1649, Boston was in mourning and the whole Colony sharing in its sorrow. Gov. Winthrop died on that day at ten o'clock, in the 62d year of his age. †

County for the commencement of the coinage of money. The paper-money question had been under discussion for some time, and the people concluded that they did not want more, but less, of it. They declared that this kind of currency 66 was very subject to be lost, rent or counterfeited, and other inconveniences." So an ingenious silversmith of Boston, John Hull, entered into a contract with the authorities to make their hard money. ‡

Another death occurred in the Colony which caused a general sorrow scarcely less than that caused by the departure of Mr. Winthrop. The Rev. John Cotton died Dec. 23, 1652. He was in his sixty-eighth year.

"He

The historian Hubbard, as quoted by Drake, eloquently, and no doubt truthfully, says of him: was a famous light in his generation, a glory to both Englands; one in whom was so much of what is desirable in a man, as the consciences of all that knew him appealed unto, is rarely to be seen in any one conversant upon earth."

In July of 1654, the thirty-first day, Mr. Dudley died, and thus another breach was made in the ranks of the founders of Boston. He was in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His prominence for a long time in the Colony as governor, deputy-governor, and in the management of all its chief interests, caused him to be greatly missed. His fidelity to the trusts committed to him, and his great capacity for business, were conceded by all. His intolerance seemed to grow out of the spirit of the times rather than the inherent spirit of the man.

The election of 1655 placed Mr. Endicott in the governor's seat, and Mr. Bellingham in that of deputy, which positions they occupied for ten successive years. The court required from this time that the governors should reside in Boston, or within five miles of the town, so Mr. Endicott took up his residence for his remaining years on what is now Tremont Street, in the neighborhood of Pemberton Square.

In the summer of this year the Quakers appeared in Boston. The authorities, in their well-meant efforts to keep away those they deemed heretics, found the bad business increasingly difficult. The new comers had been ashore but a few days when they were arrested and They had a good supply

The year 1652 was remarkable in the history of Suffolk brought before the magistrates.

"The person suffering by this commencement of the furor of later years against witches, was a female by the name of Margaret, wife of one Jones.

↑ John Winthrop was born in Groton, Eng., Jan. 12, 1588. In his personal appearance, Mr. Winthrop is supposed to have been erect; rather spare in flesh, though muscular; somewhat long-favored, or of a countenance regularly oval; blue eyes and dark hair, and about six feet in height. There are two ancient portraits of Winthrop; one is still to be seen in the Capitol of the Commonwealth, and the other in the hall of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester.

It has been thought strange that the home government should have allowed this step of the Colony towards independence to go unquestioned, it being directly in the face of statute law. But the reason plainly was, that its civil wars were quite as much as they could manage. It is a significant fact, apparent in this transaction, and appearing from the formation of organized society in this region, that the authorities did not so much as ask, when making laws, what is the English law, but what they could do safely. They needed hard money of their own coinage, and they believed the home rulers could not stop their mint, and so they set it in operation.

was followed three months later in Boston by the greatest fire which had yet befallen it. In three or four hours 46 dwelling-houses, one meeting-house and many other buildings were consumed. But for a copious rain which continued to fall while the flames were raging, a much greater loss of property would have occurred. The meeting-house referred to was that on North Square, -the "Mather Church," in which Increase Mather preached at the time, and which was rebuilt the next year. He lost about one hundred out of his library of a thousand books, by the burning of his house.*

Not long after this occurrence, the postal arrangement of the Colony was enlarged and put in a more systematic order. Thus improvements in the town went forward in spite of obstacles. Even the spirit of intolerance gradually gave way, and the Baptists, who had quietly erected a meeting-house, contrary to a law forbidding them, began to worship regularly and peaceably in it. The rulers had all they could well do to look after their rights under the charter, as they claimed them, which the king of England by his agents was constantly threatening. When, in the spring of 1686, news arrived that James the Second had been proclaimed king, and that the charter was vacated, the town felt that all their sacred rights for which they had suffered banishment to the New World were imperilled. The royal order to proclaim James king was done at the townhouse with a sorrowful and affected pomp," in the presence of eight military companies.

ing £284, being nearly paid for when dedicated. It was located on the present site of "King's Chapel,” corner of School and Tremont streets, and was built of wood. About twenty years later, it was rebuilt and made twice as large; a clock was given for it, and an organ, the first in Boston.

Though the royal rulers in Boston did, in many respects, rule as tyrants, yet there came in 1687 an edict from the throne, of universal freedom in matters of religion. Boston was jubilant at the announcement. Increase Mather, a son of one of the strictest of the Puritan fathers, caused a vote of thanks to be sent to the king for his declaration of freedom of conscience. In the spring of 1689 rumors came to Boston that the Prince of Orange had landed on the English shore, and that the hated dynasty of King James had fallen. Immediately on the arrival of this good news, armed men by thousands started up in Boston, Charlestown and all the vicinity, as if they came from the bosom of the earth. Their sudden appearance was a surprise to the patriotic leaders, as well as to Andros and his royal adherents. In less than forty-eight hours the English frigate lying in the harbor, the fort and the whole government were transferred to the hands of the former rulers of the people. Not a shot had been fired, nor a life lost. A declaration in the behalf of the people was immediately read from the balcony of the town house. It had the ring of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. It was read in the presence of a great multitude of people, among whom were twenty companies of soldiers, who had marched into town from the vicinity. A thousand more soldiers were in Charlestown who could not get over the ferry. Arrangements were completed to restore nearly all the old machinery of government, when news came, May 26, of the enthronement of William and Mary in England. The news was officially

As the difficulties with the home government gave the Boston authorities so much to do that Baptists were left to worship unmolested in their humble meeting-house, so, the same year, the restrained Episcopalians began to assert the right of religious freedom. At first their meetings were held in private houses. A society was organized in December (1686), and, being denied one of the three meeting-houses, whose use, when not inter-proclaimed with civic and military parade, and an enterfering with other services, they had requested, they occupied the town house. But Andros, a royal governor, had come to rule in the king's name, and in March of the next year the Episcopalians entered the South Church under his authority. But the Episcopal society entered at once upon the enterprise of a place of worship of their own. A house was finished in July, 1689, cost

There were no fire-engines in Boston at this time, and, of course, none in the Colony. This fire, however, prompted the procuring of one from England; it arrived early in 1679, in time to be used at the great fire which occurred in August of that year, -a fire that laid waste the commercial part of the town in the vicinity of the dock, consuming vessels, warehouses and dwellings, causing a loss of £200,000. It was believed to be the work "of some wicked and malicious wretches who half-ruined the Colony." It obliterated old landmarks and caused the

tainment was given at the town hall.

Things now returned to their former and wonted course. Suffolk County suffered in common with the people in general of that period in connection with the witchcraft delusion of 1692. † We give one case which occurred in Boston.

It is interesting, meantime, to notice how the parties

starting of the town anew in the track of its ravages. The procuring of more fire-engines and the organizing of something like a fire department were a part of the immediate results of this calamity.

Four years before the great outbreak in Salem, four children of John Goodwin, living in the north part of Boston, were generally believed to be bewitched. The party charged with bewitching them, the mother of the laundress of the family, was subsequently tried, convicted and hung.

In 1700, a new free school-house was built at the North End, in which the young people were taught "to write and cipher"; and the next step in the same direction (1704) was the erection of a new Latin school-house for Master Cheever. In the same year the "Boston News-Letter" was started, the first newspaper published Toward the close of the century (1698) Boston con- in North America. Its proprietor and publisher was John

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON. In June of 1732 the Hollis Street Church was dedicated. Its later years have been made famous by the pastorates of Rev. John Pierpont, and the Rev. Thomas Starr King.