Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

by George Francis Dow

Memorandum it is agreed by and between John Holebrook of Weymouth in the county of Suffolk, housewright, Stephen French of the same place, housewright—and Jacob Nash of the same place housewright of the one part and Anthony Hayward Esq of the other part as followeth (that is to say) Imprimis the said John Holebrooke, Stephen French & Jacob Nash doe Covenant pmise and agree to and with the said Anthony Heywood his heires Admrs and Assins and Also in the consideracion herein after mencioned that they the said John Holebrooke Stephen French and Jacob Nash or some or one of them shall & will by or before the last day of November now next ensueing Erect sett up and build on such spott of Ground as the sd Anthony Heywood shall for that end assigne of good sound timber well & workmanlike wrought one frame of building of the Dimensions following (that is to say) in length fifty four feet in breadth thirty six feet studd twenty feet with five windows in the front five windows in the rear and two windows at each end of such dimensions as are sett downe in a platt of the same made by Mr. P. Wells Surveyor and the same frame shall clapboard fill with brick & seale with lime and hair & white washing and the roofe thereof with board & shingles make tight & stanch and shall & will on the west end of the sd frame Erect, build & sett up One Belfry of ten feet square twenty feet above ye roofe of the sd frame and of sufficient strength for a bell of five hundred weight and the said entire frame shall finish & complete with Masons and smiths worke and sufficiently glaze all the sd windows with good square glasse & iron casemts and the same building see completed and finished as above is Covenanted & locked with sufficient locks to the doors thereof shall deliver with the keys thereof in to the sd Anthony Haywood In Consideracion whereof the said Anthony Haywood doth cove't pmise & agree to pay or Cause to be paid unto the said John Holebrooke Stephen French Jacob Nash the sume of two hundred & Sixty pounds (that is to say) One hundred & thirty pounds thereof in Goods & merchandize at the price for which same shall be then sold for money Sixty five pounds in money & sixty five pounds in goods perform'd as the said frame shall be raised and remaining Sixty five pounds in money & sixty five pounds in Goods when the sd building shall be finished as above is Covenanted. In witness whereof all the sd partyes have hereunto to sett their hands and seales and Consent that the same shall remaine in the hands ye sd Anthony Haywood this one & twentieth day of June Anno Dme 1688.

John Holebrook
Steph French
Jacob Nash
Anthony Haywood

Sealed & delivered in the presence of
Benja Bullivant
Will White
Thaddeus Mackarty

—Suffolk County Judicial Court Files, No. 2598.

Note. The foundations for the first Episcopal Chapel in America were laid in Boston in October, 1688, following a long controversy between the local authorities and the representatives of the King and their followers. Little has been known as to the details of the construction of this building. Judge Sewell records in his Diary, under date of Oct. 16, 1688, "The ground-sills of ye Chh are laid ye stone-foundation being finished." The records of the Church preserve no information and any contemporaneous documents seem to have disappeared with the exception of this contract for the construction of the building which is now printed for the first time. The exact size of the building heretofore has not been known. Rev. Henry Wilder Foote in his Annals of King's Chapel, Boston, 1882, supplies no information although he states that the Chapel was built at a cost of £284.16.0, an amount that probably represents the total cost including furnishings. In the Annual Report of the Boston Cemetery Commissioners for 1902-3, an attempt is made to show by a plan, partly based upon grants of land by the town, the several enlargements of the Chapel made at various times. Here, the size of the first building is shown to have been forty-six by sixty-four feet, proportions quite at variance with the correct size—thirty-six by fifty-four feet, as shown in the contract here printed.

The windows, probably of generous proportions for the time, were to be supplied with iron casements filled with "square glasse." Iron casement sash probably were rare in Massachusetts at that time. One is mentioned in the inventory of the estate of Edward Wharton, of Salem, in 1678, valued at six shillings. Square glass is most unusual. It probably was cut to size at special order as diamond-shaped glass was in common use. In January, 1752, and probably much later, "Diamond Glass, and 6 by 4" were still sold in the shops in Boston. These glass windows were a source of constant expense to the church wardens because of the popular dislike of the townspeople and the antagonism of the Puritan small boy. The first service was held in the Chapel, June 30, 1689. Four moths later the church records show a payment of £5.10.0. "for mending church windows." On November 5, 1691, was taken "A Colecktion for mendin ye church winders" and a few days later £7.0.0. was paid out for the work. The next March, six shillings was paid for "24 Squ: glas."

OLD THREE-LIGHT CASEMENT WINDOW FRAME IN GABLE, ca. 1690 From Isham, Early American Houses, 1928. Courtesy of the Walpole Society