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AND

HISTORIC PERSONAGES

OF BOSTON.

BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE.

Profusely Ellustrated.

AND CO.

BOSTON:

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & Co.


HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
ERNEST LEWIS GAY
JUNE 15, 1927

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872,

BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co.,

CAMBRIDGE.

1593 43-203

b

PREFACE.

HE author has had a twofold object in presenting this work for the acceptance of the public.

Besides the preservation of the old landmarks, now so rapidly disappearing before the era of improvement, there is a very general desire to know where the actors lived who have given Boston such prominence in the history of our country.

The plan has been adopted, in viewing old localities, to tell for what they have been famous, and to briefly characterize or give some conspicuous traits and public services of the personages mentioned.

In view of the limits prescribed for this volume it has been found necessary to condense from the abundant material in the author's possession, but it is believed the more important features have been given.

While the numerous local publications have been carefully examined, the author has in all cases preferred original authorities in the work of compilation, and has endeavored to give credit where it is due. The beaten track has been avoided as far as possible, and preference given to such topics as have either escaped mention altogether, or received but little notice from former writers.

In a work so largely statistical it would be a surprise if errors did not exist, but unwearied pains have been taken to avoid them and to render the work as free from this objection as possible.

The author believes that antiquarian subjects need not of necessity be either dry or uninteresting, and has aimed to make these pages agreeable to the general reader,— a class he is happy to say in which a growing interest in the early history of the founders of New England is evident.

Many persons have laid the author under obligations by the loan of documents or by communicating valuable information. He would express his deep sense of the favors and assistance rendered him by that eminent and thoroughly unselfish antiquarian, JOHN WARD DEAN, and also by Miss E. S. QUINCY and JOHN H. DEXTER. Among the many persons consulted, who have kindly contributed in various ways to the success of this work, are CAPTAIN GEORGE H. PREBLE, U. S. N., ISAAC STORY, LEMUEL SHAW, GEORGE MOUNTFORT, WILLIAM H. MONTAGUE, J. WINGATE THORNTON, ROWLAND ELLIS, and TIMOTHY DODD, Esqrs., the latter of whom, at the advanced age of ninetythree, still retains a clear recollection of Boston as it existed three quarters of a century ago.

BOSTON, MASS., October 22, 1872.

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