CHAPTER XX.
William Watson, the first postmaster of Plymouth, was the son of John and Priscilla (Thomas) Watson, and was born in Plymouth, May 6, 1730, and graduated at Harvard in 1751. In addition to the office of postmaster, he was appointed in 1782 naval officer for the port of Plymouth, and in 1789 he was commissioned collector by Washington. In 1803 he was removed by Jefferson from both the office of postmaster and collector, and died April 22, 1815. In 1765 he bought the lot of land in Court street, on which the Old Colony Club house stands, and there can be no doubt that he built the house now standing, and occupied it until his death. After the death of Mr. Watson, the estate was bought by my grandfather, William Davis, and occupied by my uncle, Nathaniel Morton Davis from the time of his marriage in 1817 until his death, when its occupancy passed to his son, Col. Wm. Davis.
The story of the life of the mother of Wm. Watson is full of romantic interest. She was Priscilla Thomas, a daughter of Caleb and Priscilla (Capen) Thomas of Marshfield. She became engaged to Noah Hobart, a divinity student, who was at the time teaching school in Duxbury. John Watson of Plymouth, who had married in 1715, Sarah, daughter of Daniel Rogers of Ipswich, lost his wife, and not knowing of the engagement of Miss Thomas, made through her father, an offer of marriage. As Mr. Watson was a man of high standing and abundant means, Mr. Thomas was favorably impressed by the offer, and said that he would consult his wife and daughter. A family council was held, into which Mr. Hobart was called, and it was finally decided with the assent of Mr. Hobart, who was ready to make any sacrifice to secure a happy establishment for life for one whom he sincerely loved, to accept Mr. Watson’s offer. Thus with a tearful parting two loving hearts were separated apparently forever. In 1729 John Watson and Priscilla Thomas were married, and the first act of a new romance of John and Priscilla was performed. In 1732 Mr. Watson died, and at that time his son, Elkanah, was a nursing infant. At about the same time the wife of Isaac Lothrop died, leaving also a nursing infant. As the families were intimate, Mrs. Watson offered to nurse Mrs. Lothrop’s infant with her own. The natural consequence of the family relations was an offer of marriage from Mr. Lothrop, which was unhesitatingly accepted. The alliance was an eligible one. Mr. Lothrop was one of the Justices of the Court, and was possessed of a large estate. The marriage took place in 1733, and he died April 26, 1750, having by a life illustrating the highest qualities of the human character deserved the following inscription on his gravestone:
“Had virtue’s charms the power to save
Its faithful votaries from the grave,
This stone had ne’er possessed the fame
Of being marked with Lothrop’s name.”
In the meantime it may be interesting to learn what had become of Noah Hobart, the old time lover. He in due time entered the ministry, and was settled over the church in Fairfield, Conn. Though he had never held communication with Priscilla by letter or otherwise, by the wireless ways which lovers have, he had kept himself informed of the varied scenes in her life. He knew of the death of her first husband, and her second marriage, as well as the two families of children which had grown up around her. He had heard also of the death of her second husband, while with a wife and two children of his own, a veil not wholly impenetrable obscured the remembrance of his early days. About seven years after the death of Mr. Lothrop her second husband, the wife of Mr. Hobart died, and after a becoming period of mourning, his old love, which time had not obliterated, speedily revived at the thought that both he and his early love were free. Without delay he, as was the fashion of the time, drove in his chaise to Plymouth, and presented himself as suitor at the Lothrop mansion. It is unnecessary to disclose the interview. A further sacrifice was needed before in the fullness of time God should join together whom man had put asunder. She had promised her husband on his death bed that as long as his mother lived, then eighty years of age, she would like a real daughter care for her and promote her happiness. Again there was a parting which seemed to be one forever. On his way home Mr. Hobart stopped over night with his friend, Rev. Mr. Shute of Hingham, and attended with him the next day a religious service in the church held every Thursday, which was sometimes called the Thursday lecture, and sometimes the Preparatory lecture. On their way home from church a friend passed them on horseback, who said that he had ridden from Plymouth. In answer to the inquiry for news in the old town he said that just as he left he was told that old Mrs. Lothrop was found dead in her bed that morning. It is needless to say that the continuance of the journey to Fairfield was postponed, and a return to Plymouth was made. After the funeral and a due publication of the bans, the marriage took place under date of 1758, and the seventeen years which she passed in Fairfield with her third husband, were the happiest years of her life. Mr. Hobart died in 1775, and she returned to Plymouth, where the remainder of her days was spent until her death, June 23, 1796, in the 90th year of her age.
John Sloss Hobart, son of Rev. Noah Hobart, by his first wife, became United States Senator from New York, and his daughter, Ellen, married Nathaniel Lothrop, a son of Mrs. Hobart by her second husband, Isaac Lothrop.
Returning to the old house where Davis building stands, of which in my wanderings I have almost lost sight, its later occupants whom I can remember were Capt. Woodward, the driver for many years of the Boston mail stage, his son-in-law Bradford Barnes, John R. Davis and George Churchill. All of these except Mr. Davis have been noticed in other chapters. Mr. Davis was a ropemaker by trade, but when the Robbins Cordage Company discontinued work he sought other means of livelihood, chiefly that of restaurant keeper. He was a good man, of a deeply religious spirit, who carried his religion into every day life. He not only believed in the fatherhood of God, but also in the brotherhood of man. It would have been impossible to provoke him to the utterance of an angry or unkind word, and his kindly words often appeared more kind with the touch of humor in which they were uttered. His kindness of heart and gentleness of speech, and his humor as well, were illustrated when a man after eating at his lunch counter left without paying. Instead of running out to the sidewalk and calling out to the man in the hearing of passers-by “to come back and pay his bill,” he said in the mildest tone of voice, “Mr., did I give you the right change?”
The house now occupied as a public house, and called the Plymouth Tavern, was for many years identified with the family of Joshua Thomas. He bought the house in 1786, and occupied it until his death, January 10, 1821. He married in 1786 Isabella Stevenson, of Boston, who continued to occupy it until her death. Few families displayed more earnest patriotism than the family to which he belonged. His father, Dr. William Thomas, born in Boston in 1718, practised medicine in Plymouth many years, and died September 20, 1802. He was on the medical staff in the expedition against Louisburg in 1745, and at Crown Point in 1758. He had four sons born in Plymouth, Joshua, Joseph, Nathaniel and John. Joshua was born in 1751, and graduated at Harvard in 1772. After some time spent in teaching, and in theological studies, he became especially interested in public affairs, and in 1774 was adjutant of a regiment of militia organized in Plymouth County, in view of the threatening war clouds appearing above the horizon. In 1776 he served on the staff of General John Thomas on the Canadian expedition, in which General Thomas died, and soon after returned home where he studied law, and henceforth devoted himself to his profession. Having served as a member of the committee of correspondence and as Representative and Senator, he was appointed in 1792 Judge of Probate, and continued in office until his death. He was also President of the Plymouth and Norfolk counties Bible Society, the first president of the Pilgrim Society, and Moderator of town meetings twenty-eight years. He lay on his bed of death during the celebration of December 22, 1820, when Daniel Webster delivered the oration, and John Watson was selected to preside on that occasion. Judge Thomas had three sons, John Boies, 1787, William, 1788, and Joshua Barker, 1797. John Boies graduated at Harvard in 1806, and married Mary, daughter of Isaac LeBaron. He was a member of the bar, a member of the Board of Selectmen, from 1831 to 1840, inclusive, moderator of town meetings from 1829 to 1841, inclusive, President of the Old Colony Bank and Clerk of the Plymouth County Courts from 1811 to his death, December 2, 1852. William Thomas, the second son of Joshua, graduated at Harvard in 1807, and was at the time of his death, September 20, 1882, the oldest living graduate. He practiced law in Plymouth, was in 1852 sheriff of the county, and married in 1816 Sally W., daughter of John Sever of Kingston. Joshua Barker, the youngest son of Joshua, was also a member of the bar, but never practised. Though not fitted by temperament for the labors of his profession, he was a man of culture, and a conversationalist, whom it was always agreeable to meet. Much younger than his brothers, he was always an indulged and petted son. I heard when I was young of an amusing effort to send him to a boarding school. His father and mother, with great reluctance, and only from a sense of duty, decided to send him to a school known as the Wing school in Sandwich. So they started one morning with their boy in a chaise, and a trunk strapped to the axle. After leaving him in the hands of Mr. Wing they regretfully bade him good-bye and left for home. They drove into their yard, landing at the rear door, and going into the house, found Joshua sitting by the fire, having ridden home on the axle and entered the house at the front door before them. They were overjoyed to see him, and embraced him with as much fervor as if he had returned from a long term at school. He died in Plymouth unmarried, March 7, 1873.
After the death of the widow of Judge Thomas, the house was occupied for some years by Allen and S. D. Ballard as an eating saloon, with lodging rooms to let. The Ballards were succeeded by Mr. Holbrook, and under the name of the Central House it was occupied by Charles H. Snell. Mr. Huntoon and Mr. McIntire and St. George and Manley E. Dodge followed, who were succeeded by Mr. Shaw, Mr. Minchen, and Bruce and Abbot Jones followed, and then Jones alone, who was succeeded by McCarthy and Buckman, and the recent proprietor, Mr. McCarthy. The name was changed to Plymouth Tavern by Mr. Bruce. Joseph Thomas, a brother of Judge Joshua Thomas, born in 1755, was in the early part of the revolution a Lieutenant of Artillery, and later, Captain and Major. He died in Plymouth unmarried, Aug. 19, 1838. Nathaniel, another brother, born in 1756, was a Captain in the revolution, and died in Plymouth, March 22, 1838. He married in 1781 Priscilla Shaw, and second in 1796, Jane (Downs) widow of Isaac Jackson. John, a third brother of Judge Joshua Thomas, born in 1758, was on the medical staff during the revolution, and after the war settled in Poughkeepsie. Some of his descendants are living in Cleveland, Ohio.
As long ago as I can remember the house next to the store of Moore Bros., on the north was occupied by Benjamin Marston Watson, and was built by him on a vacant lot in 1811. He was a son of John and Lucia (Marston) Watson, born in 1774, and married in 1804 Lucretia Burr, daughter of Jonathan Sturges of Fairfield, Conn. His only children remembered by me were Lucretia Ann, who married Rev. Hersey B. Goodwin, and was the mother of Professor William Watson Goodwin of Cambridge; and Benjamin Marston. His son, Benjamin Marston Watson, born January 17, 1820, graduated at Harvard in 1839, and married in 1846, Mary, daughter of Thomas Russell, and died February 19, 1896. He was a lovable man, whose companionship I prized; a man of culture, who enjoyed the friendship of Emerson and Alcott and Thoreau; a man in whose presence ordinary ambitions appeared insignificant and mean; a lover of nature with its fruits and flowers, who received in return from nature’s hand congenial occupation and support.
Mr. Watson, senior, was a merchant in Plymouth, President of the Plymouth Aqueduct Company, one of the founders of the Pilgrim Society, and for many years its recording secretary. He was also chosen treasurer of the Plymouth institution for savings at the time of its organization in 1828, but declined a re-election in 1829. As a boy I remember him well looking over into the trench of the aqueduct and cleaning perch at a South Pond picnic and putting wood on the parlor fire, in doing which he had a way inherited by his son of standing with his limbs straight from feet to hips, and his body at a sharp angle straight from hips to head without a lounge or a bend. He died while on a visit to Fairfield, November 10, 1835. In 1845 his widow sold the house to William Thomas, who has been already noticed, and it is now owned and occupied by his grandchildren, children of William H. Whitman, who married his daughter Ann.
Captain William Bartlett, whose widow occupies the next house, has been already noticed in connection with the loss of the bark, Charles Bartlett, of which he was master. The house has, however, other interesting associations. In the middle of the eighteenth century it was owned and occupied by Ansel Lothrop. Mary Lothrop, daughter of Ansel, had a son born in the house, who received the name of his father, Elkanah Cushman, and was brought up and educated by him. The son was at one time engaged in business as a member of the Boston firm of Cushman & Topliffe, and lived in various places in Charlestown, and in the north end of Boston. Among his places of residence was a wooden house on Richmond street, now called Parmenter street, between Hanover and Salem streets, and there Charlotte Cushman, his daughter, was born, July 23, 1816. It is a little singular that John Gibbs Gilbert, the distinguished actor, should have been born six years before in an adjacent house. Mr. Cushman attended with his family the Second Church on Hanover street, between Richmond and North Bennet streets, of which Henry Ware, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson and Chandler Robbins were pastors before new places of worship were found in Bedford street, and finally in Copley Square. The site of the Cushman house is now occupied by a school house erected in 1866, and named after the distinguished actress, the “Cushman School.” Miss Cushman early displayed creditable vocal talent, and was one of the choir in the Second Church. On Thursday evening, March 25, 1830, she appeared at a concert given at No. 1 Franklin avenue, by Mr. G. Farmer, her music teacher, when she sung, “Take this Rose,” “Oh, merry row the bonny bark just parting from the shore,” and “Farewell, my love.” Until 1835 she continued to sing in church, and in April of that year, while J. G. Maeder and his wife, who was Clara Fisher, were producing English opera at the Tremont Theatre, the contralto fell ill, and Miss Cushman was selected to sing the Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” in her place. The next part she sang under the Maeders was Lucy Bertram in “Guy Mannering,” and thus she was early brought into association with the dramatization, in which she became famous. Being shortly afterwards engaged to sing in English operas in New Orleans, she made a sea voyage to that city, during which, as I have always heard, she lost her voice in consequence of the change of climate. Rev. J. Henry Wiggin, whose family were acquainted with the Cushmans at the Northend, and to whom I am indebted for many of the facts in this notice, attributes the loss of voice to the overstraining to which she subjected it after her arrival in New Orleans. Further effort as a singer was of course hopeless, and returning to New York she served three years as a stock actor in the old Park Theatre, under Manager Simpson. It is unnecessary to follow her distinguished career further than to speak of one passage in it, which came under my direct notice. During the winter of 1843 and 1844, which I spent in Philadelphia, she was the lessee and manager of the Chestnut Street Theatre, where I saw her repeatedly in Macbeth, Julia in the Hunchback, Juliana in the Honeymoon, Queen Katherine, Meg Merrilies, Oberon, Bianca in Milman’s Fazio; Lady Gay Sparker, Shylock and Beatrice. In 1847 I saw her at the Haymarket Theatre in London, and I remember how my patriotism was stirred by the rapturous applause her acting elicited. During the Philadelphia winter, to which I have alluded, Miss Cushman, with her father and a brother, whom she was educating at the Pennsylvania Medical School, was a regular attendant morning and evening, at the Unitarian Church, of which Rev. Dr. Furness was pastor.
Miss Cushman had a younger sister, Susan, whose beauty presented a marked contrast to her own masculine plainness. In early life Susan married at the Northend a tailor by the name of Merriman, after whose death Charlotte introduced her to the stage, and as Romeo to Susan’s Juliet, played Romeo and Juliet in London one hundred nights. On the 9th of March, 1848, Susan married in Liverpool Dr. James S. Muspratt, Professor of Chemistry, in that city, and died there May 10, 1859. Charlotte Cushman died in Boston, February 18, 1876, and was buried from King’s Chapel on Washington’s birthday.
Until 1858 a dwelling house stood on the south corner of Court square, which in that year was removed for the purpose of widening the square. All through my youth that house was owned and occupied by Captain Joseph Bartlett. He bought the house in 1800, of Nathaniel Thomas, having up to that time, after his marriage, lived in Wellingsley on an estate which had previously belonged to his father-in-law, Joseph Churchill. Captain Bartlett, through life, kept up the Churchill farm, the entrance to which was through a gate at Jabez Corner. Warren avenue, when it was laid out, followed the cartway, which led through his farm. More than once Captain Bartlett took me in his chaise over to his farm at Poverty Point, as it was called, and I have a vivid recollection of the apples with which I filled my pockets, and the sweet corn which the old gentleman gave me to carry home to my mother. His chaise was one with an iron axle, and its loud rattle in his comings and goings always indicated his latitude and longitude. For many years he was an enterprising and successful ship owner and merchant, and in 1803 bought the lot on the north corner of Court square, and built and occupied the brick house now occupied by William Hedge. His losses were so severe during the embargoes and the war of 1812, that in 1820 he moved back to his old home, and continued to occupy it until his death. He was a son of Samuel and Betsey (Moore) Bartlett, and was born June 16, 1762, and married in 1784, Rebecca Churchill, and had William, 1786, Rebecca, Susan, 1795, Joseph, Augustus, John, Samuel, Benjamin and Eliza Ann. He married second in 1821, Lucy, daughter of Charles Dyer, and died March 4, 1835. His son, William Bartlett, married in 1814, Susan, daughter of Dr. James Thatcher, and had Susan Louisa, 1815, who married Charles O. Boutelle, Elizabeth Thatcher, 1818, John, 1820, and Eliza Ann, 1825.
John Bartlett, son of William and Susan (Thatcher) Bartlett, became distinguished in both commercial and literary life, and deserves a special notice. He was born in Plymouth, June 14, 1820. When his grandfather, Joseph Bartlett, removed in 1820 to his old home, his son, William, the father of John, who had been occupying his father’s house since his marriage in 1814, moved into the brick house and kept it as a public house under the name of the Old Colony Hotel. Exactly how long William Bartlett kept the house I have no means of knowing, but he was succeeded in a year or two, by William Spooner, who was in turn succeeded by Ezra Cushing until 1827, when the house was bought by Nathaniel Russell, and became his residence. I have a letter from Judge John Davis of Boston, dated September 23, 1820, to my grandfather, William Davis, disclosing a plan, proposed by William Sturgis and others, friends of the Pilgrim Society, in Boston, to purchase the house for a memorial edifice, dedicated to the Pilgrims. The plan was to have it kept as a hotel, where meetings of the society might be held, and dinners and balls provided for on anniversary days. Judge Davis was opposed to the scheme, and finally a committee of Boston gentlemen was appointed to aid the trustees of the society in erecting such a memorial as might be agreeable to them. The gentlemen appointed as the committee were Lemuel Shaw, Francis C. Gray, Harrison Gray Otis, Isaac P. Davis, James Savage, George Bond, Benjamin Rich, Francis Bassett, John T. Winthrop and Nathan Hale.
Returning now to John Bartlett, who was born June 14, 1820, the year in which at an unknown date his father moved into the brick house, it is impossible to determine in which house he was born. He was educated in the public schools of Plymouth, and was my schoolmate and playmate. In the autumn of 1836 he entered the bookbinding establishment connected with the University Bookstore in Cambridge, of which John Owen was the proprietor. In the next year, 1837, he became a clerk in the bookstore, and at once displayed remarkable aptitude for the business. He was an extensive reader, and possessed a wide knowledge of authors, and was soon recognized as an expert in the preparation of books for the press. In August, 1846, Mr. Owen failed, and he continued as clerk with his successor, George Nichols, until 1849, when he bought out Mr. Nichols. In 1859 he sold out his store to Sever & Francis, having published a number of books for various authors. He had also published three editions of his “Familiar Quotations,” the first of which was issued in 1856. In 1861 he prepared a few books for publication, but transferred them to Sever & Francis. In 1862 he served as volunteer paymaster nine months on board Admiral Du Pont’s despatch boat. In August, 1863, he entered the publishing house of Little, Brown & Co., as clerk, with the promise that at the expiration of eighteen months, when the existing partnership would terminate, he would be taken into the firm. In 1864 Little, Brown & Co. published the fourth edition of his “Familiar Quotations,” and an edition de luxe of “Walton’s Angler,” edited by him. In February, 1865, he became a partner in the firm, and the literary, manufacturing and advertising departments were assigned to him, all of which he retained during his connection with the firm. In 1882 Little, Brown & Co. published his Shakespeare “Phrase Book,” and in February, 1889, having been several years senior partner, he retired from the firm in order to complete his “Shakespeare Concordance.” The fifth and sixth editions of “Quotations” were published by Little, Brown & Co., the seventh and eighth by Routledge of London, and the ninth by Little, Brown & Co., and Macmillan & Co. of London, and of all these editions, more than two hundred thousand copies, have been sold.
In 1891 Macmillan & Co., of London, offered to publish his “Shakespeare Concordance” at their own risk, and it was issued by them in 1894. In recognition of his literary service, he was made in 1892 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; in 1871 was awarded by Harvard an honorary degree of Master of Arts, and in 1894, he was made an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He married, June 4, 1851, Hannah, daughter of Sydney Willard, Professor of Hebrew at Harvard from 1805 to 1831, and granddaughter of Joseph Willard, President of Harvard from 1781 to 1804, and died in Cambridge, December 3, 1905.
I have spoken of the occupants of the brick house on the north corner of Court Square, before 1827, when it came into the possession of Nathaniel Russell, who occupied it from that time until his death, October 21, 1852. He was the son of John and Mercy (Foster) Russell, and was born April 6, 1769, in the house on the west side of Main street next north of Mr. Gooding’s watchmaker’s store, where his father lived from 1759 to 1776. After reaching manhood he was engaged for a time in business in Bridgewater, removing to Plymouth not long after the year 1800, and occupying the house which until recently stood on the lower corner of Middle street and LeBaron’s alley. About 1808 he removed to the house on the north side of Summer street next to the house on the corner of Ring Lane, and made that his home until he bought the house on the corner of Court Square. He was extensively engaged many years in iron manufactures in connection with William Davis and Barnabas Hedge, and after 1837, as the head of the firm of N. Russell & Co. He was a man who always had at heart the welfare of his native town, and joined in every movement to elevate its social and moral condition. A Lyceum in 1829, of which he was President; a Temperance Society at about the same date, with which he was connected; a Peace Society in 1831, and affairs of the church, of which he was a member, always commanded his aid and support. He married, June 18, 1800, Martha, daughter of Isaac LeBaron, and had Nathaniel, Mary Howland, Andrew Leach, Mercy Ann, Francis James, LeBaron and Lucia Jane. He was always known in my day as Captain Nathaniel Russell, having been commissioned by Governor Samuel Adams, May 25, 1795, Captain in the Fourth Regiment, first brigade and fifth division of the State Militia. Nathaniel Russell, Jr., born in Bridgewater, December 18, 1801, graduated at Harvard in 1820, and became associated with his father in business. He married, June 25, 1827, Catherine Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Robert and Betsey Hayward (Thacher) Elliott of Savannah, Georgia, and died February 16, 1875. He will be further mentioned later.
Mary Howland Russell, born October 22, 1803, died January 12, 1862.
Andrew L. Russell, born May 16, 1806, graduated at Harvard in 1827, and was engaged at one time in the dry goods’ jobbing business in Central street, Boston, in partnership with William S. Russell, and later with N. Russell & Co. in Plymouth. He married, May 3, 1832, Laura Dewey, and, second, October 5, 1841, Hannah White, daughter of William Davis, Jr. He has been already noticed in connection with the rows of elms planted by him on Court street, which if not consigned to death by the concrete sidewalks, will serve as a lasting memorial of his service to his native town.
Mercy Ann, born August 16, 1809, died September 18, 1832.
Francis James graduated at Harvard in 1831, and died September 6, 1833.
LeBaron graduated at Harvard in 1832, and died August 19, 1889.
Lucia Jane, born November 22, 1821, married Rev. Dr. George W. Briggs, November 5, 1849, and died November 1, 1881.
LeBaron Russell, above mentioned, studied medicine in Boston and Paris, and established himself in Boston. Indisposed to active labor in his profession, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and by his interest in the schools and charities of the city, led a useful and beneficent life.
The house itself, so long identified with the Russell family, deserves special notice. It is a fine example of the style of domestic architecture which had its origin in the middle of the eighteenth century. It has been suggested by some that it was designed by Charles Bulfinch, but I lived from 1849 to 1853 in a block of houses on Franklin street in Boston, designed by him, and I remember nothing in their exterior or interior to suggest his handiwork. I am inclined to think that it was modelled after the designs of Peter Harrison, an English architect, examples of whose work may be found in Salem, which were followed more or less closely in later times in that city, and in Marblehead and Portsmouth. Harrison came to Newport, R. I., in 1829, in the ship with Bishop Berkley and Smibert, the distinguished portrait painter, and before his death, which occurred in Boston, designed the Redwood library in Newport, King’s chapel in Boston, and Christ’s church in Cambridge. Symmetry and proportion were the characteristics of his work, and no better illustration of these exquisite qualities can be found than in his original efforts and their faithful copies. The beautiful old porch of the house in question, rounded in shape and supported by clover leaf columns, harmonizing with the windows beneath and above it, was replaced by the present one about 1840.