[163] Samuel Adams (Hosmer) Ch. VI.
[164] For further information concerning the Stamp Act, see pp. 40, 41, 42.
[165] Hutchinson Hist. Mass., Vol. III., p. 253.
[166] One lot of 26½ acres was purchased of John Baker et al. in 1762. Lib. 98, Fol. 113. Another lot adjoining same, of 3 acres of James Baker in 1764. Lib. 102, Fol. 39. During a raid made by the "Ministerial Troops" from the Castle on Feb. 13th, 1776, nearly all the houses on the Neck were burnt; among them was "An House and Stable and Barn belonging to Francis Bernard burnt; valued at £100.00," also damage done "by our Soldiers," £40.00. (See New Eng. Gen. Reg. Jan. 1897.) This tract of land extended from Fourth street (Way leading to Castle William) to Dorchester Bay, M street running through the center of it. The writer's father in 1858 purchased a portion of this land, and it was here he spent his boyhood days. After the war another house was erected on the site of the one burnt; its location was on Fourth street between M and N streets. The writer remembers that a boyhood companion that lived there picked up in the garden an English guinea.
[167] Life of Sir Francis Bernard, by One of his Sons.
[168] This question was decided in the case of Roger Morris of New York who married Mary, daughter of Frederick Phillips, who it is said had previously refused George Washington, the estate which belongs in right to his wife was confiscated, and that the whole interest should pass under the Act Mrs. Morris was included in the attainder. Humanity is shocked that a woman was attainted of treason, for no crime but that of clinging to the fortunes of the husband whom she had vowed on the altar never to desert. However, in the year 1809, their son, Captain Henry Gage Morris of the Royal Navy, in behalf of himself and his two sisters, sold their reversionary interest to John Jacob Astor of New York for the sum of £20,000 sterling. In 1828 Mr. Astor made a compromise with the State of New York by which he received for the rights thus purchased by him, the large sum of five hundred thousand dollars, having obtained a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States affirming the validity and perfectibility of his title.
[169] Tea Leaves 322, 323, 327, 329.
[170] Life of Copley, p 62.
[171] Life of Copley, p. 141.
[172] Gleaner Articles, p. 196.