74 Cl 0469 TABLE OF CONTENTS THIRTIETH MEETING, January 27, 1914 LETTERS TO MRS. WILLIAM JENKS, 1806-1813 . By MRS. MARY ISABELLA GOZZALDI A LETTER FROM THOMAS HOLLIS PROCEEDINGS OF THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE THE THIRTIETH MEETING HE THIRTIETH MEETING of THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY was held on the 27th day of January, 1914, at eight o'clock in the evening, in Room J, Emerson Hall, Harvard University. The President, RICHARD HENRY DANA, presided. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Mrs. MARY ISABELLA GOZZALDI read “Some Letters from Tory Row" with introductory remarks in regard to the correspondents. LETTERS TO MRS. WILLIAM JENKS, 1806-1813 MANY members of this Society remember the old house that stood where St. John's Memorial Chapel now stands, at the eastern end of "Tory Row," just where that part of the old highway to Watertown, now Brattle Street, turned westward. More still remember the thick low wall of great whitewashed stones along the top of which ran a path, shaded by tall lilacs and always kept well worn by children's feet. The house behind the wall was painted white with green blinds; a piazza was on the west side, facing a driveway from the road to the barn. At the beginning of the nine teenth century there were "painted hangings" in the low-studded best room and quaint old Dutch tiles around the great fireplaces. At that time the house had been in the possession of the Hill family for a hundred years, for Abraham Hill bought it of Rev. Thomas Blowers of Beverly in 1711 and brought here his bride, Prudence Hancock, daughter of Nathaniel Hancock, 3d, in 1718. (She was the niece of Bishop Hancock, who was grandfather of John the Signer.) The Hills had eleven children; one daughter married Benjamin Eustis and was the mother of Governor William Eustis, who was born in this house in 1753. The following year Abraham Hill died, and his son Aaron married Susanna Tainter of Watertown and became the owner of the house. He followed his father's trade of mason and was a man greatly respected, deacon of the First Church, selectman and patriot during the troublous times of the Revolution. It was he who was chosen at the March Town Meeting in 1776 to ask General Washington what lands would be needed for the soldiers the coming year; before the month was out Boston was evacuated and the army was gone. In 1792 Deacon Hill and his wife died of the dreaded smallpox, just two weeks apart, and the house came to their son Dr. Aaron Hill, Jr. He had graduated at Harvard in 1776 and gone at once into the Continental army. He served for eighteen months and then went to Portsmouth, where he studied medicine under Dr. Brackett. went to sea as surgeon and was twice taken prisoner. He married Harriet Quincy, daughter of the refugee Solicitor-General, and at the time these letters began was living with his wife and children and his sister Susanna in the old house. He was a man of much importance — selectman twelve years, town clerk eight years, Senator nine years, Representative five years, and member of the Council four years. Susanna, the writer of the letters, was born in 1760; so she was fifteen years old when the Revolution broke out and forty-six when she began to write to her friend Mrs. Jenks. In 1808 Dr. Hill was made postmaster of Boston and the following June moved into Town. He held office about twenty years, but returned to live here, where his sister died in May, and he in November, 1830. His children Sophia and Harriet were young ladies in society in 1806; they are the girls often spoken of in the letters. Hannah Brackett, Anna, and Susanna were children. In He |