The Hangman’s Gallows, strange to say, was a permanent structure on the Neck, on the east side and somewhat in the rear of the burying-ground: the pirates were hung there as late as 1815. The following peculiar historical names, although well known, may be mentioned: Liberty Pole was in Liberty Square, at the point of meeting of Water and Kilby Streets. It was not restored after the Revolutionary War. Liberty Tree, corner of Newbury (now Washington) and Essex Streets, nearly opposite Boylston Market. It was cut down by the British in August, 1775. Green Dragon was the sign of a noted tavern in Union Street, licensed in 1697, and disappeared 1854. The building which now occupies the spot in Union Street, displays the Green Dragon on its front. The “Orange Tree” spoken of in the history of Boston, was on Hanover Street. A private school is spoken of as being in Hanover Street, “three doors below the Orange Tree,” and an earlier writer speaks of it as on Queen (Court) Street. It was a tavern on or near the corner of these streets, probably on the site afterwards occupied by Concert Hall.
Boston, at the present time, includes South Boston (formerly Dorchester), East Boston (formerly Noddle’s Island), Dorchester, Roxbury, West Roxbury, and Charlestown, and within this territory there are now over 2,650 streets, squares, avenues, places, courts, &c., and 225 wharves, twenty-nine of which are in Charlestown District. Public halls in Boston, 119, and the number of these is increasing. In 1735, there were twelve wards in the town; revised in 1805, and now, including the annexations above named, there are twenty-five wards.
VII.
PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS.
Notwithstanding the strange judgments, fines, and punishments, made under the civil law or without law in the colony of Massachusetts, there seems to have been another sort of government, or perhaps one of the same kind, in relation to spiritual or religious things, the administration of which shows such a spirit and system of persecution, and such a degree of fanaticism, as can hardly be paralleled in history. And it would seem also that the two kinds of government, both in the hands of the same parties, might occasionally be found in conflict. In 1655, Hutchinson says, “However inconsistent it may seem with the professed ecclesiastical constitution and the freedom of every church, the general court, in several instances, interposed its authority. They laid a large fine upon the church at Malden for choosing a minister without the consent and approbation of the neighboring churches and allowance of the magistrates, and there were other similar interferences, which, we suppose, were acceded to, and that the church was, in fact, under the control of the state.” And the state, it may be added, was to some extent, subordinate to the church.
The Episcopalians, Anabaptists, Baptists, and Quakers, were all treated, or maltreated, with the same spirit, though not proceeded against with the same degree of persistency and malice. The Episcopalians were mulcted in heavy fines “for contemptuous and seditious language,” but finally overcame all difficulties, and became permanently established in 1686, and built a church in 1688. The Baptists were persecuted in a similar way, but finally got a meeting-house built in 1679, before the Episcopalians. The Quakers were persecuted from the first landing of some of their number in 1656 to 1667, and even later; and four of them were hanged on Boston Common.
In July, 1656, two Quakers, both women, arrived at the settlement from Barbadoes, and soon after eight more came from England. In a few days they were ordered before the Court of Assistants. Some books were found about them or in their possession, amounting to a hundred volumes; and these were burned in the market-place, and their owners sent to prison. They were condemned as Quakers, kept in confinement several weeks, and then sent away; and yet it is said there was no law at this time against Quakers. After this, stringent laws were made to keep them out of the colony. Masters of vessels were subjected to one hundred pounds fine if they brought a Quaker into the colony, and required to give security to take him away; and, if a Quaker came into the jurisdiction, he was sent to the house of correction, and whipped twenty stripes. And the next year, further laws were made against the Quakers, and against all who befriended or entertained them: who were to be fined forty shillings an hour; and, “if he persisted, the offender was to have one of his ears cut off,” and, if repeated, he was to lose his other ear. If this did not answer, whipping and boring the tongue with a hot iron, were to be the consequences.
Notwithstanding these severe proceedings against the Quakers, others came into the colony, and some who had been banished returned to suffer more severe punishments. One Myra Clark, wife of a merchant tailor of London, came to Boston in 1657, to comply with what she conceived to be a spiritual command, and was whipped in a cruel manner. About the same time, two men, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, were seized in Salem, and, after being roughly handled, were “had to Boston.” Holder, it is said, when he attempted to speak, had his head hauled back by the hair, and his mouth stuffed with handkerchief and gloves. At Boston they were whipped with a knotted whip, with all the strength of the hangman. A man named Shattock was imprisoned and whipped for interfering when Holder was gagged, and was afterwards banished.