Full text of "Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts"

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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
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PROFESSIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY

SUFFOLK COUNTY

MASSACHUSETTS

IN THREE VOLUMES

\" o u u rvi H II

IIUu^tratcD

THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY
1894

CONTENTS.

TRADE, COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION _._ 9

Hamilton Andrews Hill.

FINANCIAL HISTORY 164

Moses Williams and Oskokne H()\ves, jk.

BANKING IxNSTITUTIONS, STATE AND NATIONAL, . 217

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE 375

Dldley p. Bailey.

SAVINGS BANKS 398

TRUST COMPANIES, 436

THE POSTAL SERVICE, ___ 443

C. W. Ernst.

BIOGRAPHIES . 505

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Facing Page

Ames, Fkicuekick L 262

Bennett, Joshua 302

Bi.AKE, Francis 640

Blake, George Batv TO

Blood, Hiram A 660

Brewstek, John 334

Coiii!, Samiel C. 204

CuMMiNGs, John 484

Fay, Rk hard S. 406

Fiske, Joseph N 348

Galloupe, Charles W. 568

Harris, Horatio 144

Hart, Thomas N. 498

Haven, Franklin 84

Haynes, John C 512

Howes, Osborn 454

Hlnt, William P 674

Jackson, Henry C. 582

Jones, Frank 644

Lawrence, Abbott 24

Lee, Henry Frontispiece

Lewis, Weston 392

Little, James L. 54

Lord, George C. 220

Lothroi', Daniei 320

Macullar, Addison 438

Nickerson, Joseph 304

Facing Page

Nickerson, Thomas 234

Osborne, Francis A 526

Parker, Charles W. 554

Parker, Henry G 422

Pierce, Henry L 470

Pierce, Samuel S 188

Pope, Albert A . 540

Prince, Frederick H. ..650

Randi.e, John Witt 376

Richards, Calvin A. 656

RiNDGE, Samuel B. 290

Rotch, Benjamin S. 248

RoTCH, Arthur 648

Sears, Joshua 128

vSiMPSON, Michael H. 276

Sinclair, Charles A 646

Snow, David 174

Spencer, Aar< )N W 624

S T( >NE, Phineas J. 158

Thayer, David 668

Thayer, Naihaniel 98

Walker, Amasa 38

Walker, Theophilus W 114

Wellington, Austin C. . . 654

Whitney, Henry M 610

Worthington, Roland 596

BIOGRAPHIES.

Page

Ames, Fredkkick L. 696

Bennett, Josh la 633

Blake, Francis 640

Blake, George Baty 527

Blood, Hiram A. 659

Brewster, John 627

Cobb, Samuel C. 533

CuMMiNGs, John . 595

Fay, Richard S. 611

Fiske, JosEi'H X. 590

Galloui'E, Charles W 567

Harris, Horatio 550

Hart, Thomas N. 566

Haven, Franklin 280

Havnes, John C. 588

Howes, Osborn 541

Hi NT, William P. 675

Jackson, Henry C. 630

Jones, Frank 645

Lawrence, Abbott 505

Lee, Henry' 685

Lewis. Weston 596

Little, James L. , 516

Lord, George C. 606

LoTHROP, Daniel 555

Macullar, Addison 616

Nickerson, Joseph , 694

Page

XicKERSON, Thomas 603

Osborne, Francis A 625

Parker, Charles W. 629

Parker, Henry G 614

Pierce, Henry L 560

Pierce, Samuel S. 599

Pope, Albert A 677

Prince, Frederick H 650

Randle, John Witt 586

Richards, Calvin A. 656

RiNDGE, Samuel B . 670

Rotch, Benjamin S. 609

Rotch, Arthur 649

Sears, Joshua 523

Simpson, Michael H. 675

Sinclair, Charles A. 647

Snow, David 553

Spencer, Aaron W 624

Stone, Phineas J. 551

Thayer, David 661

Thayer, Nathaniel 512

Walker, Amasa 679

Walker, Theophilus W 524

Wellington, Austin C 651

Whitney, Henry M. 635

Worthington, Roland 617

Suffolk County

TRADE, COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

By Hamilton Andrews Hill.

Three or four years ago we chanced to see a learned and elaborate
work, " Bruxelles a Travers les Ages," in which the history of Brnssells
was traced and illustrated from the Silurian epoch, through all the
geologic periods, to the time when mammals and then man appeared
upon the scene, and so on to the present day. In writing of the trade and
commerce of Boston, or of Suffolk county, we do not propose to go back
to prehistoric times; although, for our narration to be exhaustive, it
might well include some account of the fishes of the tertiary period. For
the commerce of these shores had the fisheries as its basis, long before
the arrival of Winthrop's fleet at Salem, or of the Mayfloiocr at
Plymouth. " The settlement of Massachusetts," says Sabine, "is to be
traced directly to the fisheries." A Boston newspaper writer in 1779
gave this judgment: "The Newfoundland fishery is a source of wealth
as valuable to us, as the hills of Potosi to the Spaniards ; " another writer
in a Boston newspaper, soon after the peace of 1783, in a series of arti-
cles on American commerce, said that the mackerel fishery ' ' was of
more value to Massachusetts than would be the pearl fisheries of Cey-
lon ; ■' and a writer in the NortJi American Reviciv in 1854 expressed a
similar opinion : "The Banks of Newfoundland are, have been, and
ever will be, worth as much to the commercial world as the valley of
the Sacramento, or the auriferous quartz ridges of the .Sierra Nevada. "
"The English resorted to Iceland for the cod previous to the year 1115,
but there is no account of their fishing at Newfoundland prior to 1517."
Long after this period the foreign trade of England was limited to the
Flemish cities and the fishing grounds. In 1(502 Bartholomew Gosnold
steered the first direct voyage across the Atlantic; he made his landfall
near Salem, and, striking across to the opposite cape, he was surprised
3

18 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

at a larg'e catch of fish, and i^ave the now well-known name of Cape
Cod to the headland. He was followed, in 1(J14, by the celebrated John
Smith, who records that he took " forty thousand " fish which he dried,
and " seven thousand " which he " corned " or pickled, in the waters of
]\Iaine. Before Smith's visit, one or more French vessels are known to
have come to Massachusetts Bay to trade for furs; in his narrative, he
says of these pre-Pilgrim days: " Thirty, forty, or fifty sail went yearly
to America only to trade and fish, but nothing would be done for a
plantation till about seven himdred of your Brownists of England,
Amsterdam, and Leyden went to New Plymouth ; whose humourous
ignorances caused them for more than a year to endure a wonderful
deal of misery with an infinite patience."

When the Pilgrim company was preparing to remove from Holland,
Thomas Weston advised them to go to that part of America with which
he was acquainted, "as for other reasons, so chiefly for the hope of
present [that is, immediate] profit to be made by fishing." Edward
Winslow tells us of an interview between King James and certain
agents, who had been sent from Leyden to obtain his consent to the re-
moval to America. The monarch asked, " W^hat profit might arise?"
He was answered in a single word, " Fishing." Whereupon James re-
plied, " vSo God have my soul, 'tis an honest trade; 'twas the apostles'
own calling." The same purpose controlled the Ma j'JicnL' f ?■ yoyagers
when they had arrived at Cape Cod. wSome were disposed to settle at
Cold Harbor, between Truro and Wellfleet, because, with other con-
siderations, " it seemed to offer some advantages both for the whale and
cod fishery;" others " insisted that they should proceed about twenty
leagues further, to a place called Agawam, a harbor which was known
to fishermen who had been on the coast." We are all familiar with the
circumstances which brought them at length to Plymouth. In the
autumn of 1G21, Miles Standish and a party, with Squanto as a guide,
came into Boston harbor in a large open sail boat or shallop, and
bought furs from some Indian women. They have been called the
Argonauts of Boston Bay. On their return to Plymouth they inade
report of the pleasant places they had visited, and could not help the
expression of the wish that "they had been there seated." In l(i24
the Plymouth colonists sent a ship to England laden with fish, cured
with salt of their own manufacture, and in the year next following, two
others, with fish and furs.

Emerson wrote in 1801: " How easy it is, after the city is built, to
see where it ought to stand! In our beautiful bay, with its broad and

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. 19

deep waters covered with sails from every port; with its islands hospit-
ably shining- in the sun; with its waters bounded and marked by light-
houses, buoys, and sea-marks, every foot sounded and charted; with
its shores trending steadily from the two arms which the capes of Massa-
chusetts stretch out to sea, down to the bottom of the bay where the
city domes and spires sparkle through the haze, a good boatman can
easily find his way for the first time to the vState House, and wonder
that Governor Carver had not better eyes than to stop on Plymouth
sands. But it took ten }'ears to find this out. The colony of 1()20 had
landed at Plymouth. It was December, and the ground was covered
with snow. vSnow and moonlight make all places alike ; and the weari-
ness of the sea, the shrinking from cold weather, and pangs of hunger
must ji;stify them. But the next colony planted itself at Salem, and
the next at Weymouth, another at Medford, before these men, instead
of jumping on to the first land that offered, wisely judged that the best
point for a city was at the bottom of a deep and islanded bay, where a
copious river entered it, and where a bold shore was bounded by a
country of rich undulating woodland."

Isaac Allerton, who gave his name to one of the most prominent
points in Boston Harbor, was the prototype of many an active and in-
telligent merchant in later years, whose enterprise brought business to
these shores and prosperity to our population. He owned vessels, con-
ducted a fishery at Marblehead, made voyages to different parts of
Maine, established a trading house far within territory claimed as
Acadia, and in Connecticut received products of the sea for sale on a
share of the profits. While devoted to trade, he was employed in ar-
ranging the most diiftcult concerns of the colony both at home and in
England. To cross the ocean two and a half centuries ago was a matter
of vast moment, but Allerton vi.sited the country of his birth no less
than five times in the brief space of four years.

Of the settlement of Boston in the autumn of KiioO we shall not speak
particularly. From the first it was. a centre of life; there were no
drones in the hive; every man as mechanic, agriculturist, mariner,
tradesman or merchant, contributed to the welfare of the little com-
mimity. In 1031 corn was constituted a leg-al tender at the market
price, "except money or beaver be expressly named." In l(;o2 Bos-
ton, following in the steps of its English namesake in Lincolnshire,
became a market town; it was " ordered that there should be a market
kept at Boston upon every Thursday, the fifth day of the week." The

•>() Si'FfOLK COUNTY.

market-place was at the head of what is now State street, and is cov-
ered in part by the Old vState House. The meeting-house — we cannot
say that it overlooked the market-place, it was too lowly for that —
looked out upon it from the south side. The following restriction was
thought to be necessary: " No planter within the limits of this juris-
diction, returning for England, shall carry either money or beaver with
him, without leave from the governor, under pain of forfeiting the
property." In September, 1683, John Oldham, with three companions,
went b}^ land to the Connecticut River, which, on his return, he re-
ported to be about one hundred and sixty miles from the Bay. He and
his party had "lodged at Indian towns all the way," and brought back
some beaver, some hemp, which, they said, grew" there in great abun-
dance, and was much better than the English, and some black lead,
"whereof the Indians told them there was a whole rock." In the
mean time a vessel of thirty tons, the Blessing of tJic Bay, which Gov-
ernor Winthrop had built at Mystic, where he had a farm, Ten Hills,
"coasted Long Island, looked into the Connecticut River, and visited
the Dutch settleiuent at the mouth of the Hudson, where her people
found a courteous reception, and bartered their cominodities for soine
beaver." Thus early did the business men of the future port take pains
to establish communication with places beyond the limits of the colony.
In 1034 the freemen numbered about three hundred and fifty. The
historian says: "They were settling into such employments as their
situation dictated. They cultivated the ground, and took care of herds
and flocks. They hunted and fished for a part of their food. They
were building houses, boats, mills; enclosing land with fences, and
cutting roads through the forest to connect their towns. Their exports
of cured fish, furs and lumber bought them articles of convenience and
luxury in England, and they were soon to build ships to be sold
abroad." Ten thousand bushels of corn were imported this year from
Virginia. The price of this commodity had advanced to four shillings
and sixpence a bushel, and in the winter the currency rate was fixed at
five shillings. In the summer of 1035 Governor Vane "invited all the
masters (there were then fifteen great ships in the harbor) to dinner,"
and he arranged with them that thereafter vessels bound to Boston
should anchor behnv the castle until their friendly character could be
ascertained; that the magistrates should have the first offer of com-
modities which they brought; and that their men might not stay on
shore, except upon necessary business, after sunset.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 21

The Rev. Hugh Peter had come to New England with Harry Vane
and John Winthrop, jr., and had been settled as minister at Salem.
His keen eye was quick to see the commercial capabilities of the coun-
try, and he set himself to work to develop them. He "went from
place to place, laboring- both publicly and privately to raise up men to
a public frame of spirit, and so prevailed as he procured a good sum of
money to be raised to set on foot the fishing business, and wrote into
England to raise as much more." During his residence and ministry
Salem took the lead in maritime affairs, and claimed to become the
capital ; but, after his departure for England, Boston acquired the as-
cendency, and was made the seat of government.

In 1030 one of Mr. Cradock's vessels "came from Bermuda with thirty
thousand weight of potatoes, and store of oranges and limes." In the
spring of 1038 there were fourteen ships in the Thames loading for
New England, among them the Desire, William Pierce master,
launched at Marblehead two or three years before. In the month of
November, 1039, a post-office for foreign correspondence was set up
in Boston. It was on the site now occupied by the Boston Daily
Advertiser. Richard Fairbanks, then the only inn-keeper in the town,
was postmaster, and was authorized to collect one penny (two cents) on
ever}' letter delivered or received by him. It was "provided that no
man be compelled to bring his letters thither except he please."

By an act passed in 1039 for the encouragement of the fisheries, it
was provided that all vessels and other propert)^ employed in taking,
curing and transporting fish, according to the usual course of fishing
voyages, should be exempt from duties and public taxes for seven years ;
and that all fishermen during the season for their business, as well as
shipbuilders, should be excused from the performance of military duty.
The wisdom of this policy of promotion — not protection — for ocean
commerce soon became apparent. Lechford, in his " News from New
England" (printed in London in 10-1:2), says that the people were "set-
ting on the manufacture of linen and cotton cloth, and the fi.shing trade, "
that they were "building of ships, and had a good store of barks,
ketches, lighters, shallops and other vessels," and that "they had
builded and planted to admiration for the time." In 1041 John
Harrison, from Salisbury, England, began to make rope in Boston.
Until then nearly every kind of rigging and tackle had been brought
from England. The establishment of this industry had a very impor-
tant bearing on the future shipbuilding and shipowning interests of the

22 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

town. The business went on increasing for nearly a century, when
fourteen extensive rope- walks were in operation. In December, 10-43,
as we learn from Winthrop, five ships, three of them built in Massa-
chusetts, carried " many passengers and great store of beaver " to Lon-
don, being followed on their way by "many prayers of the churches."
This return movement to England was one result of the success of the
Puritan party there in its struggle with Charles I. At the same time
the emigration to New England was suddenly and iitterly suspended ;
" the change made all men to stay in England in expectation of a new
world." Parliament sought to promote the commercial as 'well as
political freedom of the country, and New England was included in its
legislative provisions to this end. A step still in advance was taken,
says Palfrey, in the development of the trade of Massachusetts when a
Boston vessel brought wines, pitch, sugar and ginger froin Teneriffe in
exchange for corn; and another yet, when the Trial, the first ship
built in Boston, being about a hundred and sixty tons, Mr. Thomas
Graves, " an able and a godly man, master of her," carried a freight of
fish to Bilboa, and came hoirte from Malaga in the spring of 1044 " laden
with wine, fruit, oil, iron and wool, which was of great advantage to
the country, and gave encouragement to trade." In 1045 fishing ves-
sels from Boston ventured as far as to the Banks of Newfoundland.

In 1044 Winthrop had been succeeded in the governorship by John
Endicott, partly from local considerations, a marked jealousy of the
growing town of Boston manifesting itself in Essex county, and partly
because of serious dissatisfaction outside Boston with Winthrop's course
in negotiating with and assisting La Tour, one of the governors of
Acadia, who occupied a fortified position at the mouth of the vSt. John
River, and who obtained large sums of money and supplies from the
Boston merchants, to their subsequent heavy loss. Edward Gibbons
and Thomas Hawkins furnished four ships to him, the Scabridgc, the
Philip and Mar)\ the Increase and the Greyhound. We refer to La
Tour and his negotiations with the authorities of Massachusetts Bay for
the purpose of noticing a proposal made by him for free trade between
his ports and the ports of New England, and for an arrangement by
which he might import through New England commodities from
Eui-ope. The request for free trade was complied \\ith ; the other was
refused. After the lapse of two centuries, the adjacent colonies were
allowed to transport merchandise from and to Europe through New
England ports, and for a few years, under what is known as the Rec-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 23

iprocity Treaty of 1854, there was absolute free trade between the
adjacent colonies and this country in the products of the soil, the mine
and the sea.

In the summer of H34T, Governor Peter vStuyvesant, having arrived at
New York and assumed the government there, sent his secretary to
Boston with letters to the governor, ' ' with a tender of all courtesv and
good correspondence."

A few years after this and when, as Palfrey says, England had as
much business on her hands as could easily be managed, and when, if
she should become rigorous to her distant children, they were sure of
being welcomed to the protection of another great Protestant power —
the Dutch — now preparing to contest with her the empire of the seas,
"the Massachusetts people ventured on what was liable to be inter-
preted as a pretension of independent sovereignty. They imdertook
to coin money. The brisk trade with the West Indies introduced a
quantity of vSpanish silver, and along with it there was much counter-
feit coin brought into the country, and much loss accruing in that re-
spect. " By the act of June 10, 1652, the General Court established a
mint, and appointed as mintmaster John Hull, one of the richest and
most thoroughly trusted men in the colony, an excellent man of busi-
ness, and an extensive shipowner at the time, but who had laid the
foundation of his fortune as a worker in the precious metals.

With Mr. Hull was associated Robert Sanderson, afterward a deacon
in the First Church, Boston. They were to receive "bullion, plate, or
Spanish coin," and convert it "into twelve-penny, six-penny, and three-
penn}' pieces, which should be for form flat, and square on the sides,
and stamped on the one side with N. E. and on the other side with
XI I'', VP, and 1 11*^, according to the value of each piece, together with
a privy mark, which should be appointed every three months by the
governor and known only to him and the sworn officers of the mint."
The mintmasters took an oath that all money coined by them should be
"of the just alloy of the English coin, that every shilling should be of
due weight, namely, three penny troy weight, and all other pieces pro-
portionately, so near as they could." The charge for melting, refining
and coining was fixed at fifteen pence for every twenty shillings. John
Hull made a large sum of money out of the business, but he put it to a
good use, and it was generally felt that his prosperity was well de-
served.

24 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

It would seem that no pieces " square on the sides " were ever coined.
Within a few days after the passage of the order, a committee appoint-
ed to oversee its execution "determined and declared that the officers
for the minting of money should coin all the money that they minted
in a round form." It is said that the earliest pieces were called in New
England North-Easters. By a second vote adopted in the autumn of
the same 3^ear, "for the prevention of washing or clipping, " it was
ordered "that henceforth all pieces (jf money coined as aforesaid,
should have a double ring on either side, with this inscription, Massa-
chusetts, and a tree in the centre, on the one side; and New England,
and the year of our Lord, on the other side." There were as many as
sixteen different dies of the second form of the shilling piece; the coins
are commonly known as pine-tree shillings, but there is no legal au-
thority for this, and the rude form of a tree on the obverse, taken from
the design entered on the journals of the Court, bears no special re-
semblance to a pine. A singular deviation in the legend should be
mentioned : Masathusets is the uniform spelling on the face of the
coins. We have seen this form of spelling in documents of the same
period. All the coins of the various issues preserved the date of the
year when the mint was established, 1G5"2. This money and sterling
money were declared to be the only legal tender, after three months
from the date of the original act.

Fortunately for the colonists, their nominal rulers beyond the
sea were too far away, and too much occupied with their owai more
immediate and pressing concerns, to follow them very closely in all
their proceedings, and to hold them steadily and persistently to a strict
account. As one consequence of this state of things, the coinage of
money in Massachusetts went on for many years without any serious
protest from England. Cromwell took nc^ notice of it during the
period of the Commonwealth, and iox some time after the restoration
of the monarchy no very pronounced objection was made to it. To
smooth matters over with Charles II, the General Court, in 1(577,
ordered the shipment of a present to him, consisting of " ten barrels of
cranberries, two hogsheads of samp, and three thousand codfish."
(Hume says that the usual oath of Charles was "Cod's fish.") During
the administration of vSir Edmund Andros endeavors were used to ob-
tain the sanction of the crown for the continued coinage of silver here,
in view of the undoubted advantage it had brought to colonial interests.
Finally the question was referred to the master of the mint in London,

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 25

who, on prudential considerations, and not as an encroachment upon
the royal prerogative, reported against the local mint, and its opera-
tions were brought to a close.

After the conquest of Ireland by Cromwell, the extraordinary prop-
osition was made by him to the people of Massachusetts to recross the
ocean, and to plant Protestant civilization in the sister island. Writing
to the Protector upon this proposition, in behalf of the General Court,
Endicott said that they would not "hinder any families or persons to
remove to any parts of the world where God called them," but that they
were enjoying health, plenty, peace, the liberty and ordinances of the
gospel, and an opportunity for spreading the knowledge of it among
savages, and that, content with these blessings, they had no desire to
change their abode. A few years later, in IGoo, the Protector advanced
another plan for their emigration to Jamaica, which then had only
fifteen hundred white population. He offered tempting inducements
to this end, and instructed Daniel Gookin, then in London, to return
hcjme and urge them upon the people. In an audience which he gave
to John Leverett, Cromwell manifested a ver}' strong desire for the ex-
ecution of this scheme, and said that "he did apprehend the people of
New England had as clear a call to transport themselves from thence
to Jamaica, as they had from England to New England, in order to
their bettering their outward condition, God having promised his peo-
ple should be the head, and not the tail." But the Massachusetts set-
tlers could not be persuaded or tempted to change their lot again.
As the historian says: " They might well be satisfied with their con-
dition and their prospects. Everything was prospering with them.
They had established comfortable homes, which they felt strong
enough to defend against any power but the power of the mother
country; and that was friendly. The}' had always the good will of
Cromwell. In relation to them he allowed the navigation law, which
pressed hard on the Southern colonies, to become a dead letter, and
they received the commodities of all nations free of duty, and sent their
ships at will to the ports of continental Europe." To the navigation
act, and to the extension of the principle on which it was based, we
shall have occasion to refer again and again.

The market place was the centre of the town life. Everybody resorted
to it for business and for gossip, and there the rude punishments of the
time were inflicted upon recalcitrant offenders. The whipping-post and
the stocks occupied prominent positions in the open space, and danger-

26 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Otis and heretical books had been burned there in the presence of awe-
stricken spectators. In 1077 a cage was set tip there for the confinement
and exposure of those who had violated the laws relating to the observ-
ance of the Sabbath. In 1057 it was determined to build a town house
and exchange on a part of the market place. Robert Keayne had by
his will left money for the purpose, but the amount was not sufficient,
and a subscription paper was opened, which has been preserved to the
present day. The amount raised was ^^ISS.-i, but most of the sub-
scriptions were payal)lc in merchandise. Hezekiah Usher subscribed
^20, payable in English goods, William Payne, ^'lo in goods and pro-
visions, Richard Bellingham, ^10 in country pay, Edward Tyng, ^10
in corn, John Evered, ^10 in goods and corn, Peter Oliver, ^10 in
goods and provisions, Theodore Atkinson, ^5 in hats, John Hull, jQh in
English goods, Samuel Hutchinson, ^5 in wethers. Thomas Little
showed his public spirit by putting his name down for three days'
work. Only two cash subscriptions appear on the list : William Paddy,
^12, and Henry Shrimpton, ,^10. The former had just moved from
Plymouth, where he had been a deacon of the church, and died before
the completion of the building. Under a contract with a committee of
the town, dated August 1, 1G07, Thomas Joy and Bartholomew Ber-
nard agreed to erect " a very substantial and comely building " of wood,
sixty-six feet long by thirty-six feet wide, " set upon twenty-one pillars
of full ten foot high between pedestal and capital, and well braced all
four ways, placed upon foundation of stones in the bottom. The whole
building to jetty over three foot without the pillars every way: the
height of the said house to be ten foot betwixt joints above the pillars,
and a half story above that with three gable ends over it upon each
side." John Josselyn mentions the "town-house, built upon pillars,
where the merchants may confer. In the chambers above they keep
their monthly courts." The exchange was open to the weather, but
it may have been more or less enclosed during the winter season.
Judge Sewall, in his diary, describes the funeral of a sea captain,
Thomas vSmith, which took place there, November 10, 1688, and very
appropriately, as it would seem, in the presence of the merchants and
of his seafaring friends : ' ' Where the corpse was set was the room
Avhere first my father [in hiwj Hull had me to sec the manner of the
merchants, I suppose now about twelve years ago. Bearers, Captain
Protit, Fayerweather, William Clarke, Foye, Tanner, Legg. " The first
building was burned in 1711; the second, erected in 1712, was badly

• TRADE AND COMMERCE. -27

damaged by fire in 1T47, but the outside walls survive in the building
which we know as the Old vState House, as it now stands.

During the Civil War in England a parliamentary commission had
been intrusted with the superintendence of colonial affairs. In the first
year of the Restoration, this corn.mission was succeeded b\' a Council of
Foreign Plantations, which %vas invested with similar powers. We
have here the origin of the English Board of Trade, which, for more
than two hundred years, has been one of the most influential depart-
ments of the imperial government.

In 1G(jO the Navigation Act of the Commonwealth was made the
basis of stricter and more exclusive legislation. This act had been con-
ceived in a spirit of hostility to the Dutch, particularly because of their
refusal to enter into a close alliance with England which might have
led to their political iniion with that country. It provided that all im-
ports into England from Asia, Africa and America, should be brought
in English ships, and from Europe, only in vessels of the countries re-
spectively of which the goods imported were the growth or manu-
facture. No salt fish could be imported, except such as had been
caught and cured by the people of England ; nor exported, except in
English bottoms. These provisions would have worked most in-
juriously against the commercial interests of New England, if they
had been adhered to rigidly, but, as we have said, Cromwell had
allowed the law to be a dead letter, so far as they were concerned. But
the new parliament forbade the importation of merchandise into any
English colony, except in English vessels, with English crews, and,
specifying various colonial staples, it prohibited their exportation from
the place of production. The penalty in both cases was forfeiture of
the vessel and cargo. But, as Palfrey shows, there were articles of
New England production which the demand in England, whether for
consumption or for commerce, could not exhaust; while it concerned
the English merchants that the colonists should somehow obtain money
to pay for English manufactures. Accordingly, New England vessels
were permitted to carry freights of lumber, fish, etc. , to " Spain and
other ports, " and to bring to England only the proceeds of the sales.
B}" further legislation in 1663, the import trade of the colonists was con-
fined to a direct commerce with the mother country, and they were for-
bidden to bring from any other country, or in any but English ships,
the products not only of England, biit of any European soil. There
were certain exceptions, however ; salt might be imported direct for the

28 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

fisheries, wines from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scot-
land and Ireland.

The prevalent thought in the mother country was that the colonists
should live and labor with suprerne and constant reference to its com-
mercial interests rather than to their own. New England was regarded
as a most important source of supply for shipbuilding materials, and to
some extent for ships, and, through its fisheries, as a valuable nursery
for seamen. But the people of New England — we mean, of course,
those living on the coast and at the seaports, of whom the business men
of Boston were the representatives and factors — had altogether differ-
ent ideas. They were already under the influence of the commercial in-
stinct, which was to develop so wonderfully in the eighteenth, and
during the first half of the nineteenth centuries, and they became, in-
evitably, a shipowning and commercial community. They not only
chafed against, but, in effect, they nullified, the oppressive legislation
which was intended to restrain and restrict their enterprise ; and they
refused to content themselves with the fvmction of .supplying the mer-
chants of England with the implements of ocean commerce, and to
forego, on their own part, all right or opportunity of sharing in the
profits of trading voyages. They understood perfectly, that to own
and .employ tonnage is vastly more remunerative than merely to con-
struct it, and they persisted in using for their own benefit a considerable
portion of the shipping built here. It was this that led Sir Josiah
Child, a great London merchant, to write: "New England is the
most prejudicial plantation to this kingdom." And why? Because, he
said, "of all the American plantations, his Majesty has none so apt for
building of shipping as New England, nor any comparably so qualified
for the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry
of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fish-
eries; and in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in
prospect more dangerous, to any mother kingdom, than the increase of
shipping in her colonies, plantations or provinces. '" Bacon, in one of
his Essays, had taken a more just and liberal view, but he wrote these
some time before the settlement of Boston, Salem or Plymouth. His
judginent was: " Let there be freedom from custom, till the planta-
tion be of strength; and not only freedom from custom, but freedom to
carry their commodities where they may make the best of them, except
there be some special cause of caution."

vSpeaking of the dealings of England with her North American
colonies, Adam vSmith says: "The first regulations which she made

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 29

with regard to them had always in view to secure to herself the mo-
nopoh^ of their commerce ; to confine their market, and to enlarge her
own at their expense; and consequently rather to damp and discourage
than to quicken and forward the course of their prosperity." This
policy he calls " one of the mean and malignant expedients of the ' mer-
cantile system.' "'

John Hull records in his diary that in 1004 one hundred sail of ships
came into Boston Harbor, "our own and strangers, and all loaded
home." In the same year commissioners arrived from England, with
large powers, who were instructed to inform themselves " of the true
and whole state " of the several colonies, and to bring the colonists into
more direct and dependent relations to the crown. Among other in-
formation they were to send home a report of the amount and methods
of taxation, and of the amount of the tonnage; and they were to take
care that such orders were established "that the Act of Navigation
should be punctually observed. " We need not relate at this time the
long story of the negotiations between the royal commissioners and the
authorities here, or show how the former were baffled and defeated at
every stage. After two years of ineffectual endeavor, the commis-
sioners took leave of the General Court of Massachusetts in a com-
mtmication in which they said: " Since you will needs misconstrue all
these letters and endeavors, and that you will make use of that au-
thority which he hath given you to oppose that sovereignty which he
hath over you, we shall not lose more of our labors upon 3-ou, but refer
it to his Majesty's wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself
to be obej'ed in all his dominions." The Court saw an opportunity,
however, of which it availed itself, to pacify the king, whom it was in
the habit of treating as a petted child. Palfrey well sa3's of Charles,
that '■ Massachusetts desired no favor of him but neglect, and had re-
ceived no favor from him to attach her by ties of gratitude." Hull
records the arrival, August 7, 10(;0, "of Captain Peirce with several
ships for masts for the king." There was a mast fleet, whose regular
movement back and forth across the Atlantic is mentioned by Judge
Sewall and others during a period of fifty years and more. At this
juncture, as Palfrey points out, the Court was disposed to lighten in
any proper way the difhcult task it had assumed, and it took measures
for sending to the king a present of masts for the use of the royal navy.
"It cost the colony nearly two thousand pounds, and was very grate-
fully received in England, being so seasonable that it was afterwards

30 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

thoi^g-ht to have materially contributed to the favorable issue of the
existing war with France." Pepys writes, December 3, 1666: " There
is also the very good news of four New England ships come home safe
to Falmouth with masts for the king ; which is a blessing mighty un-
expected, and without which, if for n(^thing else, we must have failed
the next year."

In 1672 arrangements were made for a mail to leave New York for
Boston on the first Monday of every month.

On the 8th of May, 16T-lr, an Order in Council cancelled the order
adopted thirteen years before, by which vessels from New England
were permitted to carry cargoes to continental ports and bring the pro-
ceeds of their sale to England. The Rev. John Collins wrote to
Governor Leverett at this time: " I hear that the king is offended that
some of your ships take in their lading from Virginia, and go to France
and defraud his customs, as also from other plantations." During the
next few years the business men of Boston suffered not only from the
restrictions which the home government sought to place upon their
foreign commerce, but from two destructive fires, and froin the severe
struggle known in our history as Philip's War. For this war Massa-
chusetts showed an outlay of ^46,292, and the assessment on property
in one year was one shilling and four pence in the pound, or nearly
seven per cent, on the valuation.

Early in the summer of Kh (i, Edward Randolph for the first time
appeared upon the scene, as an agent of the crown to inquire into and
report upon the various complaints which had been brought against
the colonists. We have to do only with those which related to their
commerce. After having been officially received at the Council Cham-
ber, Randolph called on the governor at his house and formally com-
plained of the infractions of the Act of Navigation, which, during the
few days which had passed since his arrival, had come under his notice.
He had seen "several ships that were arrived at Boston, some since
his being there, from Spain, France, vStraits, Canaries, and other parts
of Europe." He obtained little satisfaction from the authorities, and
after a stay of two months he returned to England and made a report
of what he had seen and heard. From this report we gather informa-
tion, approximately correct, no doubt, relating to the shipping and
shipbuilding enterprise of the people at the time of which he wrote.
He gave his attention almo.st entirely to the colony " commonly called
the coi-poration of Boston," which at the present time, he said, "gives

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 31

laws to a great part of this' country. " According to his statement, the
people of Massachusetts (represented largely by the people of Boston)
imported the products of other colonies, both for home consumption
and for shipment "to other parts." They had commerce with "most
parts of Europe, as England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France,
Holland, Canaries and the Hanse Towns, carrying to each place such
commodities as were vendible, either of their own growth and manu-
facture or those of the other plantations, and making their returns in
such goods as were necessary and vendible either in New England or
in any other of his Majesty's dominions in America; as brandy, Canary,
Spanish and French wines, bullion, salt, fruits, oils, silks, laces, linen
of all sorts, cloths, serges, bays, kerseys, stockings, and many other
cominodities. " Some vessels had been sent as far as "to Guinea,
Madagascar, and those coasts, and some to Scanderoon, laden with
masts and yards for ships." Boston was "the mart town of the West
Indies." There was " no notice taken of the Act of Navigation, plant-
ation, or any other laws made in England for the regulation of trade."
Of vessels "built in and belonging to that jurisdiction," there were
thirty measuring between one hundred and two hundred and fifty tons,
besides seven hundred of smaller size. There were also " several ves-
sels yearly built there and sold in England and other parts." "Good
ships were built for four pounds the ton."

The importance of the royal navy, and of New England as producing
timber and naval stores for its use, is brought out in this report : ' ' The
commodities of the production, growth and manufacture of New Eng-
land are all things necessary for shipping and naval furniture in great
abundance, as excellent oak, elm, beech, fir, pine for masts the best in
the world, pitch, tar, hemp, and iron not inferior to that of Bilboa,
clapboards, pipe-staves, planks, and deal boards, so that his Majesty
need not be beholding to other nations for naval stores."

From an account of New England, written at about the same time
by William Harris, of Rhode Island, we obtain some further informa-
tion: " They build every year, about Boston, Salem, and in that juris-
diction, twelve ships between forty and eighty tons. . . . The
merchants seem to be rich men, and their houses as handsomely fur-
nished as most in London. . . . Their wool they carry to France
and bring thence linen. Fish, pipe-staves, wool and tobacco they ex-
change in Spain and Portugal for wines and other commodities; beaver,
moose and deer skins, sugar and logwood, in England, for cloths and

33 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

manufactures of iron; horses, beef, pork, Ixitter, cheese, flour, pease,
biscuit, etc., in Barbadoes, for sugar and indigo; provisions in Jamaica
for pieces of eight, Spanish plate, and pigs of silver."

In 1G77 the first regular post-olSce in Boston was established in re-
sponse to the following petition of prominent merchants to the General
Court: " We whose names are under written hearing many complaints
made by merchants and others (and severall of us being sensible) of
the loss of letters: whereby merchants especially with their friends and
imployers in forraigne parts are greatly damnified: ]\Iany times the
letters imposted are thrown upon the Exchange so that who will may
take them up; no person (without some satisfaction) being willing to
trouble their houses therewith : so that Letters of Great moment are
frequently lost —

"Our humble request therefore to this Honored Court is: that they
will please to depute some meet person, to take in, and convey Letters
according to direction: and if this Honored Court please, we suppose
Lt. Richard Way may be a fitt person for that service." The petition
was signed by Thomas Brattle, Thomas Deane, Hezekiah Usher, John
Usher, Charles Lidget, Benjamin Davis, John Fayerweather, John
Frost, Richard Crisp, vSampson vSheafe, Edward vShippen, Richard
Knight, John Hubbtird, Edward Drinker, Henry Dering, John Clarke,
John P3mchon, jr. In granting the desire of the petitioners, the
deputies made a nomination of their own: " and in Richard Ways rome
[theyj doe make choice of Mr. John Hay ward the scrivener to be the
man, the Honored Magist:\ates consenting." The magistrates con-
curred.

The rate of postage to and from England was fixed at a shilling for a
single letter, and this rate was maintained until after the middle of the
present century. In the same year, at the same (May) session of the
Court, the " Handycraftsmen, a very considerable part of the Town of
Boston," to the number of one hundred and twenty-nine, presented a
memorial praying for protection in their several callings under the fol-
lowing circumstances: They complained that " by the frequent in-
truding of strangers from all parts, especially of such as are not
desirably qualified," they found themselves " imder great disadvantages
and prejudicial to the town; and many times the stranger draws away
much of the custom from his neighbor which hath been long settled
and in reality is much more the deserving man." The memorialists
asked for the regular and effectual execution (;f the orders relating to

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 3:3

the admission of inhabitants, and that tradesmen should fulfill a suffi-
cient apprenticeship and be proficient before they set up for themselves.
The subject was referred to a committee, but whether any subsequent
action was taken, we do not know.

At the close of the year KmO Randolph arrived in Boston for the
second time, bringing an appointment as "collector, surveyor, and
searcher" for all the colonies in New England, and a letter from the
king, enjoining, among other matters, "a strict obedience to the Acts
of Trade and Navigation." He proceeded without delay to one part of
the business committed to him, and had several vessels seized with their
lading; but to secure the condemnation of this property was altogether
another thing, for the courts and the juries, representing public opinion,
were not disposed to help him in any way. "His Majesty's authority,"
he said, "and the Acts of Trade were disowned openly in the country,
and I was cast in all the.se cases, and damages [were] given against his
Majesty. " He drew up a formal paper in which he made complaint
against "the Bostoneers " under eight heads; under the eighth he
averred: "They violate all the Acts of Trade and Navigation, by
which they have engrossed the greatest part of the West India trade,
whereby your Majesty is damnified in the customs ^100,000 yearly,
and the kingdom much more."

In his zeal for the cause of the crown as against the colonists, and in
order that he inight be armed with new powers for the conflict into
which he had thrown himself, Randolph went back to England in the
spring of 1(381, and returned again in December of the same year. He
bore a royal commission for his collectorship, and a new appointment
as " deputy auditor and surveyor-general;" he brought also a letter
from the king, much more positive and decided than any which had
preceded it, in which the threat was distinctly made that, unless the
colonists submitted themselves in all particulars to the royal authority,
proceedings would be entered upon in the courts whereby the charter,
with all the powers under it ' ' might be legally evicted and made void. "
This threat produced a certain degree of compliance with the require-
ments of the king; an address to him, loyal in tone, but general in
terms, was agreed to by the General Court, in which his longer for-
bearance was entreated ; and, what had been many times asked for but
hitherto delayed, two agents, Joseph Dudley and John Richards, were
dispatched to England, to make explanations and receive direct in-
structions. It was ordered that the Acts of Trade and Navigation

34 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

should " be forthwith published in the market-place in Boston by beat of
drum, and that all clauses in said acts relating to this plantation should
be strictly taken notice of and observed." The agents were to give
assurance to the king, "that the Acts of Trade, so far as they con-
cerned the colony, should be strictly observed, and that all due en-
couragement and assistance should be given to his Majesty's officers
and informers that inight prosecute the breaches of said Acts of Trade
and Navigation." As to the old grievance — the coinage of money, the
agents were directed to ask the king's pardon for the past, and, for the
future, his "gracious allowance therein, it being so exceedingly neces-
sary for civil commerce."

While thus respectful in terms, and, in appearance, compliant with
the royal demands, the General Court took care to reserve, in effect, to
the colony all its rights in connection with trade, and placed checks and
limitations on the appointee of the crown for the collection of the cus-
toms, which were likely to interfere seriously with the exercise by him
of the powers with which his office was endowed. The wily official,
however, was not deceived ; he understood the men with whom he was
dealing as thoroughly as they understood him. He had the royal
authority and the courtiers at his back ; they appreciated the advantages
of their position, on the hither side of the broad intervening ocean, and
they had the encouragement and moral support of many sympathizing
friends in England. "The distance of place, and hopes of troubles at
home, with the many scandalous papers sent hither for the benefit and
comfort of the ill-affected, make this party thus daringly presume."
Thus wrote Randolph, in an ofificial letter, in connection with certain
"high articles of misdemeanor exhibited against a faction in the Gen-
eral Court;" in these "articles," he charges the authorities with re-
fusing to " declare and admit of his Majesty's letters-patent," creating
the office of collector of customs in New England ; of obstructing him
by the revival of a law which constituted a colonial naval officer; of
usurping, in the General Court, judicial powers confined by the charter
to the governor and assistants; of neglecting to repeal their laws
" contrary to the laws of England ; " and of disregarding the king's let-
ters-patent, " creating an office of surveyor and auditor-general of his
Majesty's revenues arising in America."

James Russell was appointed naval officer, with the duty of watching
the proceedings of the collector. The office is perpetuated in our cus-
tom-house system, as at present administered ; it now has no political

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. 35

sig-nificance, and nothing whatever to do with the rights of the people
as against prerogative ; it is simply an agency — a somewhat cumbrous
one — for checking, by diaplicate papers and account-books, the trans-
actions in the office of the collector.

Randolph followed his "articles of high misdemeanor" to England,
April, 1G8"2, and, immediately on his arrival, was ordered to supply the
attorney-general with proofs of his charges against the Massachusetts
government. The business had been matured beforehand, and the
formal proceedings took little time. Before he had been a month in
England, says Palfrey, "he had virtually accomplished the object of
his ambition and revenge. The blow with which the colony had so
long been threatened was struck. The writ was issued, which sum-
moned it to stand, for the defense of its political existence and of the
liberty and property of its people, at the bar of a court in London."

In (3ctober, Randolph reappeared in New England with the notifica-
tion of the proceedings against the charter. He brought, also, a
"Declaration" from the king, promising that the proceedings should
not be pressed to their final stage, if " the corporation of the Massachu-
setts Bay " should make full submission, and resign itself to the royal
pleasure. This the court of assistants was ready to do ; but the deputies,
who more directly represented the people, were not so subservient, and
refused to concur. They made a noble stand for their liberty, and for
the cause of religion, which, they felt, was bound up with it. "It is
better," they said, "to suffer, than to sin and suffer too." On the
commercial question involved, we quote a paragraph from an elaborate
paper, prepared, perhaps, by Thomas Danforth, the deputy-governor,
who ably maintained the popular cause : "If his Majesty should pro-
hibit trade with other plantations, will not he have the worst of it?
The people can make a shift to live poorly without much trade ; for
here is wool, flax, hemp, iron, and many other useful things, and hands
enough to make them up for use, besides many ships and vessels which
will venture abroad, and some possibly may and will return home in
safety, and bring supply of what is absolvitely wanted." These men
were running tremendous risks ; but in a contest for liberty, on the part
of a nation, actual or potential, can the stakes ever be too high?

By a change in the legal proceedings in London, which need not be
considered here, the charter of Massachusetts Bay was vacated by a
decree in the Court of Chancery, June ^l, confirmed, October 23, 16S4.
Owing to the death of Charles, the accession of James, and other stir-

36 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ing events, a year and a half passed before Randolph, May 14, 1080,
landed in Boston from the frigate Rosc\ with an exemplification of
the judg-ment against the charter, and coinmissions for the officers of a
new government. A provisional government was constituted, with
Joseph Dudley as president, which continued until the closing month
of the year, when Sir P^dmund Andros arrived in Boston, bearing a
commission for the government of all New England.

The government of Sir Edmund Andros lasted two years and ioxxr
months, and was brought to an abrupt and violent end by the revolu-
tion in New England which synchronized with the iiprising at home,
when the second James was driven from England and William and
Mary were established on the British throne. " Again Englishmen were
free and self-governed in the settlements of New England. " During
the years known as the inter-charter period, business enterprise must
have become discouraged, and general trade, no doubt, languished, but
we have no particular knowledge on the subject. The colonial ship-
ping, however, would seeim to have found its wonted employment,
without intermission. We learn from one of Randolph's custom-house
returns, that there were cleared at the port of Boston, in the half year
between March 25 and September 20, 1088, seven vessels for England
(all bound to London); one, for Fayal ; two, for Madeira; one, for Hol-
land; eleven, for Bilboa; one, for the Canary Islands; eighty-four, for
Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the other West India Islands; thirty-two, for
other North American colonies ; one, for Portugal ; and one for Cadiz.
Almost all these vessels were owned in Boston, and were "plantation
built." The coasters and the vessels trading to the West Indies were of
thirty, twenty and ten tons' measurement. There is an instance of a
vessel of only seven tons; her cargo consisted of "provisions" — one
pipe of Madeira, two chests of Rhenish wine, some earthenware, and
"a parcel of English goods." Within the same time there were
entered at the port of Boston thirty-seven vessels from other North
American colonies; eighty-nine, from the West Indies; twenty-one,
from England; two, from Madeira; four, from Fayal; and one, from
Ireland. This last vessel was of forty tons burden, and her only cargo
was "thirty-one men and women servants, being botmd for Virginia."
We give the names of some of the vessels, with their captains, which
passed the custom-house at this period :

Ketch Amity, John Bonner; ketch Mary and Elirjabcth, of Charles-
town, Nathaniel Cary ; ship James, Job Prince; sloop Sivaii, John

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 37

Nelson; ketch Abigail, Andrew Eliot; ketch Mai-y, Jonathan Balston;
bark Lydia, Benjamin Gillam; ship Society, ninety tons, four guns, ten
men, Thomas Fayerweather ; ship Nevis Merchant, Timothy Clarke;
ship Szvallozv, John Eldridge; brig Syhajuis, oi Charlestown, Bar-
tholomew Green; ship Dolphi?i, John Foye; ketch Lark, John Walley;
ketch Saimicl, Giles Fifield; ketch FrieiidsJiip, thirty tons, six men,
Thomas Winsor; ship Si^'an, Andrew Belcher; brigantine Supply, John
Hunt; ship Rebecca, John Hobby; ketch George, Andrew Eliot; brig-
antine Blessing, of Charlestown, Bartholomew Green; -pink E/ideai'or,
Simon Eyre; bark Trial, Barachiah Arnold; ship FricndsJiip, one
hundred tons, fourteen guns, John Ware; sloop Providence, John
Rainsford.

When Edward Randolph returned to Boston with the exemplification
of the judgment against the charter, he brought with the rest of his
commissions one- by which he assumed the duties of postmaster for
New England. On the overthrow of the Andros government, Mr.
Richard Wilkins, bookseller, was appointed postmaster in Boston, "to
receive all letters and deliver them out ; to receive one penny for each
single letter." In IGOl, under William and Mary, a patent was granted
to Thomas Neale, authorizing and empowering him "to erect, settle
and establish within the chief parts of their Majesties' Colonies and
Plantations in America an office or offices for the receiving and de-
spatching letters and packets;" the grantee was to receive "such rates
and sums of money as the planters should agree to give." Under this
patent a "General Letter Office" was established in Boston in 1693,
and Duncan Campbell received the appointment of deputy. As the
receipts of the office fell short of the expenditures, the General Court
granted Campbell an annual allowance of about five and twenty
pounds.

The first governor under the new charter was Sir William Phipps, a
native of Maine, who was brought up to the ship-carpenter's trade, and
afterward followed the seas. It was said of him that he was "much
better fitted to manage the crew^ of a man-of-war than to sit at the
helm of the ship of state," but he was honest and true, and served his
country to the best of his ability. He landed at Boston in May, 1692,
and a few months later another man arrived here, whose training had
been somewhat similar to his, and who afterward made a name for
himself that will not soon be forgotten. This was Thomas Coram, the
philanthropist. He came here at the charge of Thomas Hunt and

38 SUFFOLK COUNT V.

others, London merchants, and under government permission and pro-
tection, " for the better improvement of shipbuilding- in these parts;"
and he brought with him "divers shipwrights and other proper and
necessary hands, and also a great quantity of merchandise." He built
in Boston for a few years and then moved to Taunton, where he was
not well treated, and in 1703 returned to England. On the 1st of
October, 1702, a register was issued to Captain Coram for the ship
Resignation^ of about two hundred tons, just built at Taunton, in which
he was styled master, and he and Thomas Hunt were designated as
owners.

In May, 1696, the Board of Trade and Plantations, the members of
which were to be known as "the Lords of Trade," succeeded to the
authority first exercised by the Council for Trade and Foreign Planta-
tions, and afterwards by the plantation committees of the Privy Coi^m-
cil. Let us look for a moment at the functions of this Board from the
English point of view. Says Chalmers : ' ' Of this respectable com-
mission it has ever been the praise that they have exerted themselves
as the guardians of the national interests, as the patrons of the colonies,
as the supporters of the commercial system of Britain, though their
success hath not been always equal to their intentions and their efforts,
because their powers were not proportionate to the extent of their
will." But — what was never taken into the account by this Board —
there were colonial as well as national interests, and there were enter-
prising colonists who wanted, not patronage, but the free exercise of
their rights, and who were not disposed to square all their transactions
by the artificial arrangements of a commercial system constructed
without reference to their wants or wishes. It was not long before
Massachusetts protested against the acts of the Board; and the mer-
chants of Boston expressed their indignation at the restrictions which
it would place upon their commerce, and insisted that " they were as
much Englishmen as those in England, and had a right, therefore, to
all the privileges which the people of England enjoyed." What the
inevitable consequences of all this were to be we shall see in due time.

An order passed by the General Court June 15, 1696, provided for a
market to be held in Boston every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,
and no other days. A bell was to be rung at the opening of the mar-
ket, at 7 a. m. from March to May; at 6 a. m. from May until Sep-
tember; and after that at 9 a. m. The market was to last till 6 p. m.
between March and vSeptember, and until 4 p. m. during the rest of the

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 39

year. No sales were to be made elsewhere. Fairs also were to be
held annually on the last Tuesday in May and the last Tuesday in
October, and to continue four days.

Lord Bellomont, the second governor under the new charter, an
amiable nobleman, whose commission also included New York, spent
only one year in Boston. He observed closely, however, while he was
here, and in writing home he said: " I believe one may venture to say
there are more good vessels belonging to the town of Boston than to
all Scotland and Ireland." He thus classed the ships belonging to the
town : from one hundred to three hundred tons, twenty-five ; one hun-
dred tons and under, thirty-eight ; brigantines, fifty ; ketches, thirteen ;
sloops, sixty-seven ; in all one hundred and ninety-three. This was for
the year 1698. Some merchants at Boston, he said, with whom he
discoursed about the trade of the province, "computed that Boston
had four times the trade of New York." "The staple " in Massa-
chusetts was " the fishery." " They compute at Boston that they ship
off fifty thousand quintals of dry fish every year, about three-quarters
whereof is sent to Bilboa. " There were sixty-three wharves in Boston
and fourteen in Charlestown. The governor died in New York in
1701.

To provide further for the accommodation of the commerce of the
town. Long Wharf was projected in 1707 by Oliver Noyes, Anthony
Stoddard, John George, Daniel Oliver and others. Among the pro-
prietors of this wharf in 1734, were James Allen, Samuel vSewall (son
of Judge Sewall), Thomas Fitch, Jacob Wendell, Andrew Faneuil,
John Gerri.sh, James Bowdoin, Thomas Hill, Andrew Oliver, Peter
Oliver and Stephen Boutineau.

Governor Dudley reported to the Lords of Trade in 1709: "The
^oeople here clothe themselves with their own wool. New English
goods are here sold at less than a himdred and fifty pounds per cent,
advance, most goods more." "They are proud enough to wear the
best cloth of England, if chopping, sawing, and building of ships would
pay for their clothes, and this method would double the sale of Eng-
lish woolen manufactory presently." There was an exportation of
codfish to Spain and elsewhere to the amount of thirty thousand pounds
annually, and of mackerel to the West Indies to the amount of five
thousand pounds. In a description of Boston by one Captain Uring,
which we find in the Historical Magaciiic (1866), it is said: " The in-
habitants are very industrious, and carry on a very considerable trade

40 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

to the vSouthern Plantations, viz., to all the Carribee Islands and
Jamaica, which they supply with lumber as plank, boards, Joyce and
shingles for building houses, dried fish and salted mackerel, some beef
and pork, pitch, tar and turpentine, tallow and Bay berry, wax candles,
which last is made of wax extracted from a berry that grows in plenty
in that country." The same traveller tells us that the dried codfish
was commonly called " Poor Jack, or Baccalew."

The returns of the commerce of Boston for the three years ended
June 4, 1717 — the period which saw the close of Governor Dudley's ad-
ministration, and the beginning of Governor vShute's — show as follows:
Cleared, for the West Indies, five hundred and eighteen ships, sloops,
and other vessels; for the Bay of Campeachy, twenty-five vessels; for
foreign plantations, fifty-eight vessels; for Newfoundland, forty-five
vessels; for Europe, forty-three vessels; for Madeira, the Azores, etc.,
thirty-four vessels; for Great Britain, one hundred and forty-three
vessels; for British plantations or the continent, three hundred and
ninety vessels; and for "ports unknown," eleven vessels — an aggre-
gate of twelve hundred and sixty-seven vessels (twelve hundred of
them " plantation built "), amoimting to sixty-two thousand seven hun-
dred and eighty-eight tons of .shipping, and employing between eight
and nine thousand men. This was an average of more than twenty
thousand tons for each year. During the same period the clearances
at the port of New York averaged seven thousand tons annually. Barry
quotes these figures from the New York Colonial Documents, but
Chalmers is disposed to discredit them. There is no record of the
general trade of the province at this period, apart from ocean com-
merce, but it was large and profitable, and manufacturing industries
were springing up, which will be described elsewhere in this work.
The statesmen of England did not know what to make of this progress,^
and, not unnaturally from their point of view, thought that the pros-
perity of the colonists should be made to contribute towards the relief
of the pres.sing burdens at home. "Few," says Barr}-, "had the
sagacity to perceive that the prosperity of America was the prosperity
of England, and that more benefit could be derived to the mother
country by leaving the colonies to their own way than by hampering
their commerce with burdensome restrictions, and checking their
industry by discouraging manufactures."

An act was passed by the (xeneral Court, July 33, 1715, for maintain-
ing a lighthouse upon the (Treat Brewster, or Beacon Island, as it was

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. 41

then called, at the mouth of Boston Harbor. When it came before the
Lords of Trade, the next year, for their approval. Captain Coram ap-
peared and objected to it, because " it laid a tax upon the shipping, and
made no provision for pilots, which are much wanted," he said, ''on
that coast."' Boston light was "kindled" September 14, 1710, and
was, we believe, the first light in the colonies, if not the first on the
continent. The dues were fixed at a penny a ton inwards and another
penny outwards, except for coasters, which were to pay two shillings
each at their clearing out ; all fishing vessels, wood sloops, etc. , were
taxed five shillings each by the year. Judge Sewall writes in his diary,
Jani:ary 14, lT19-"20: " Last night the light-house was burnt." There
was no system of pilotage at this port until 1783. In 1724 Joseph
Marion established an Insurance Company in Boston, the first, perhaps,
in New England.

In an elaborate report made by the Board of Trade in 1721 to the
king, he was informed that, of ' ' products proper for the consumption
of Great Britain," Massachusetts had "timber, turpentine, tar and
pitch, masts, pipes, and hogshead staves, whale fins and oil, and some
furs;" that the province had a trade to "the foreign plantations in
America, consisting chiefly in the exportation of horses to wSurinam and
and to Martinico and the other French islands;" whence came in
return sugar, molasses, and rum, which was "a very great discourage-
ment to the sugar planters in the British islands; " and that the people
had " all sorts of common manufactures," but that " the branch of trade
which was of the greatest importance to them, and which they were
best enabled to carry on, was the building of ships, sloops, etc." The
report set forth further, that about one hundred and fifty vessels were
built in a year, measuring six thousand tons, mostly for sale abroad, but,
that there were owned in the province about one hundred and ninety
sail, besides one hundred and fifty boats employed in the coast fisheries.

In the Avinter of 1724-25, the shipwrights of London complained to
the Lords of Trade, " that in eight years, ending 1720, they were in-
formed there were seven hundred sail of ships biiilt in New England,
and in the years since as many, if not more ; and that this New England
trade had drawn over so many working shipwrights that there are not
enough left here to carry on the work." When asked what proposals
they had to make to obviate this inconvenience, they were ready with
a simple, not to say heroic, remedy for breaking down the competition
complained of, and for their own protection: " If the ships built in the

42 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

plantations were confined to trade only from one plantation to another,
or to Great Britain, it would answer the end proposed ; or, if they were
allowed to trade to foreign parts, that then they should be obliged to
pay a duty of five pence per ton each voyage they should make, and
that they should also be restrained as to the bigness of such ships or
vessels as should be built in the plantations. " Even the Lords of Trade
were not prepared for so extreme an application of the protective
principle.

By the various figures we have given in the foregoing pages, it has
been shown that the trade between Boston and the West Indies was
very large and important. This trade was seriously threatened by an
Act of Parliament, passed in 173o, after a discussion which lasted
through two 3^ears, imposing duties on molasses, sugar and rum im-
ported into the colonies from any West India islands other than
British. The purpose of the act was to break up the trade with the
French, Dutch and Spanish islands, where these products of the planta-
tions were obtained in exchange for fish. It is said that before the
opening of the trade with these islands, molasses was thrown away by
the planters, and that it was first saved and put into casks to be brought
to New England to be distilled into rum. The people of the northern
colonies insisted that unless they could continue to sell fish to the
planters on the foreign islands, and to import molasses from thence to
be manufactured into spirit, they could not prosecute the fisheries
except at a ruinous loss. The duty imposed on molasses was sixpence,
sterling, a gallon, and the penalty for violating the Act was forfeiture
of the vessel and cargo. New England, however, never really paid this
tax, and the interdicted trade with the foreign islands did not cease
until a late period of the controversy which terminated in the Revo-
lution. vSo far as the codfishery was concerned, it would seem not to
have been much affected by the Act of Kol) during the thirty years
which immediately followed.

According to some authorities, the annual prcjduction of rum in
Massachusetts at this period was fifteen thousand hogsheads. It had
become the "chief manufacture" of the province, "a staple com-
modity," a "standing article in the Indian trade," and the "common
drink" of laborers, timbermen, mastmen, loggers, and fishermen, who, it
was said, " could not endure the hardships of their employments nor the
rigors of the season without it." On the coast of Guinea it was "ex-
changed for gold and slaves," Burke said of this ])roduct: "The

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 4:j

quantity of spirits which they distil in Boston from the molasses they
bring- in from all parts of the West Indies is as surprising as the cheap
rates at which they vend it, which is under two shillings a gallon ; with
this they supply almost all the consumption of our colonies in North
America, the Indian trade there, the vast demands of their own and the
Newfoundland fisheries, and in great measure, those of the African
trade ; but they are more famous for the quantity and cheapness than
for the excellence of their rum."

We have this view of commercial Boston in a narrative, never pub-
lished, of a Mr. Bennett, who visited the town in 1740; its population
at that time is variously estimated at from sixteen to eighteen thou-
sand: "At the bottom of the bay there is a fine wharf about half a
mile in length, on the north side of which are built many ware-
houses for the storing of merchants" goods; this they call the Long
Wharf, to distinguish it from others of less note. And to this wharf
ships of the greatest burthen come up so close as to unload their cargo
without the assistance of boats. From the end of the Long Wharf,
which lies east from the town, the buildings rise gradually with an easy
ascent westward about a mile. There are a great many good houses,
and several fine streets little inferior to some of our best in London,
the principal of which is King's vStreet ; it runs upon a line from the end
of the Long Wharf about a quarter of a mile, and at the upper end of it
stands the Town House or Guild Hall, where the Governor meets the
Council and House of Representatives; and the several Courts of Jus-
tice are held there also. And there are likewise walks for the mer-
chants, where they meet every day at one o'clock, in imitation of the Ex-
change at London, which they call by the name of Royal Exchange
too, round which there are several booksellers' shops ; and there are
four or five printing-houses, which have full employment in printing
and reprinting books, of one sort or other, that are brought from Eng-
land and other parts of Europe."

John Oldmixon, in the second edition of his work entitled " The Brit-
ish Empire in America," published in 1741, wrote: " Upon the whole
Boston is the most flourishing town for trade and commerce in the Eng-
lish America. Near six htnidred sail of ships have been laden here in a
year for Europe and the British Plantations." In 1741 there were
" at one and the same time " upon the stocks in Boston, forty topsail
vessels, measuring about seven thousand tons. But from this time
there was a decline in the shipbuilding industry ; the number of vessels

44 SUFJ'OLK COUNTY.

launched in 1743 was thirty; in 1746, twenty; and in 1749 only fifteen,
with an ag-g-regate tonnage of two thousand four hundred and fifty
tons. Douglas, from whom we take these figures, attributes this de-
cline " to Mr. Shirley's faiilty government," but we can easily under-
stand that other causes may have contributed to the temporary depres-
sion of this industry, such as the unfriendly and restrictive interference
of the home government, and the conflicts between England and France,
which vexed both hemispheres.

In the year 1741 the cod-fishery of the province was in a prosperous
condition, and the annual product had reached two hundred and thirty
thousand c^uintals. The vessels engaged in this industry were owned
on Cape Cod, and at Marblehead, Gloucester :md other ports on the
north shore of Massachusetts Bay, but a large part of the product was
brought to Boston for exportation. During the long years of war this
fishery suffered severely, as the fishermen were called off to man pri-
vateers, to enter the royal navy and, in other ways, to engage in the
struggle.

The carrying-trade of the province did not suffer proportionately
with the shipbuilding industry. The two interests are often classed
together as if they were really one, and, in our own day, we have seen
the former sacrificed for the sake of the latter, with most disastrous re-
sults. Burke well called the New England people the Dutch of Amer-
ica, for they were carriers for all the colonies of North America and
the West Indies, and even for some parts of Europe. From Christmas,
1747, to Christmas, 1748, five hundred and forty vessels cleared from
the port of Boston, and four hundred and thirty entered ; these figures
did not include coasting and fishing vessels, of at least an equal number.
The proportionate size of the vessels may be inferred from the accounts
of the Boston Naval Office on foreign voyages, which report from
Michaelmas, 1747, to Michaelmas, 1748, four hundred and nintey-one
clearances, of which fifty-one were ships, forty-four snows, fifty-four
brigs, two hundred and forty-nine sloops and ninety-three schooners.
In reference to the two-masted schooner, we may say that it dates back
only to the year 1714, when Edward Robinson, of Gloucester, built and
rigged a vessel according to his own fancy, and unlike anything that
had previously been seen either in America or Europe. As the strang-e
looking craft, with her masts in her, as we suppose, started from the
stocks at her launching, a by-stander exclaimed, " See, how she scoons I "
Whereupon Rol)ins()n replied, " A schooner let her be." The special

Trade axd commerce. 4o

adaptation of the new rig for the coasting- and fishing- trades became
apparent at once.

In the autumn of 1T4:"2 Faneuil Hall was completed and presented to
the town by the princely merchant whose name it bears. It was to be
both a town-hall and a market. It had been proposed more than once
to build a market-house at the public expense, but the measure had
been each time defeated ; and even the generous offer of Peter Faneuil
had met with serious opposition, fortunately, on the part of only a
minority of the citizens.

Neither the laws relating to navigation nor the " sugar and molasses
act " (as it was called) of IToo, had been unifonnly and rigidly enforced.
As Palfrey suggests, it would have been imprudent for the home gov-
ernment to cripple and offend the colonists by a strenuous interference
with the business which furnished them with a great portion of their
livelihood, while they were playing so important a part in the struggle
with the French. Then there was the practical difficulty of securing
an honest and scrupulous execution of the revenue laws by the servants
of the crown. Governor Bernard reported that on his arrival in
Massachusetts he had "entirely defeated the machinations of a for-
midable confederacy intended to annul and avoid the Laws of Trade. "
The profits of illicit trade were so large that the merchants could afford
to pay liberally for a complaisant policy in the administration of cus-
tom-house affairs. The subordinate officers seem to have been called
upon to divide their receipts under the law with their superiors, and
they evidently preferred to pocket fees which would be all their own.
Thomas Hutchinson wrote to a correspondent in England: "For my
part, I have always wished whilst I was in trade myself for some
effectual measures to put a stop to all contraband trade ; but I have
always thought it inight have been done without any further provision
by the Parliament. The real cause of the illicit trade in this province
has been the indulgence of the officers of the customs; and we are told
that the cause of this indulgence has been that they have been quar-
tered upon for more than their legal fee, and that without bribery and
corruption they must starve."

One plan devised by the merchants who maintained intercourse with
the interdicted islands in the West Indies, had been to load their vessels
with molasses at the French or vSpanish ports as usual and to purchase
clearances ' ' signed with the name, if not the handwriting, of the
governor of Auguilla, who acted also as collector." This island was

4f> SUFFOLK COUNTY.

so small as not to afford a cargo for a single vessel, as was well known
to the collectors of customs in New England, yet they allowed vessels
with their cargoes, for a considerable length of time, to be entered
without inquiry on these " Auguilla clearances." This, however, could
not go on forever.

In K<il the oflficers of the customs, under fresh instructions from
England, began to be more rigorous in enforcing the law, and as it
had always been odious, their conduct, so far as it was sincere, was
resented, their proceedings were challenged, and their authority was
called in question. Palfrey, indeed, doubts whether the new activity
of the officers was prompted by anything else than by the increased
opportunities which they conceived to be offered by the instructions of
17'iO for adding to their official emoluments. Be this as it may, it was
not long before they found themselves in open conflict with the mer-
chants, and the latter, in self-defence, petitioned the General Court for
a hearing on the questions involved ; this request was granted, and a
report in their favor was presented by the committee and accepted by
the Legislature. The officers then brought the matter before the law
courts, and at length succeeded in carrying their point. They were
now encouraged to go further, and "as they had been accustomed,
under color of the law, forcibly to enter both warehouses and dwelling-
houses, upon information that contraband goods were concealed in
them, one of their number petitioned the wSuperior Court for writs of
assistance to aid in the execution of his duty." Exceptions were taken
to this application, and the cause was argued in the council chamber
in the old building at the head of King street, before Thomas Hutch-
inson, the newly appointed chief justice, and his four associates. This
was the memorable occasion when James Otis, " a flame of fire," made
his great plea in behalf of the popular liberties, and of which John
Adams said: "American independence was then and there born."
We are told also that Adams, carried away by the occasion, felt the
spirit of resistance within him, and that from that time forward he
could never read the Acts of Trade without anger, " nor any section of
them without a curse." The chief justice was determined that the
court should not yield to the eloquence of the patriot or to the pressure
of public opinion, and he "prevailed with his brethren to continue the
cause to the next term, and in the mean time wrote to England " for
definite instructions. The answer was in favor of the government, and
after it came, although the charge of illegality had not been touched.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 47

writs of assistance were g-ranted b}' the court whenever the revenue
officers applied for them, on the ground that such writs were issued
by the Court of Exchequer in London.

" The peace of Paris was as joyously welcomed in America as in
England." But the mother-country was heavily burdened by debt, and
the statesmen there were at their wats' end in their endeavors to pro-
vide revenue. It is not strange that they looked to the North American
colonies, so prosperoixs and so progressive, for help in their emergency.
These colonies were an integral part of the empire, and, as it seemed,
their fate was bound up with that of the empire as a w^hole. Why then
shotild not they bear their proportionate share of the burdens which
had been assumed or accepted in England for the common defence,
and why should not they submit cordially to such measures of taxation
as Parliament might enact? As George Grenville insisted: "Pro-
tection and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America;
America is bound to yield obedience." A question might be raised as
to the extent and value of the protection which the colonies had en-
joyed. Colonel Barre, in the House of Commons, denied that they had
been protected by the British arms. " They protected by your arms!"
he exclaimed, "they have nobly taken up arms in your defence.
And," he added, "the same spirit of freedom which actuated that
people at first will accompany them still." But, waiving this point, the
hardship of the position consisted in this, that the colonists had not
been treated hitherto as on the same footing with their fellow-subjects
at home. Their shipping interests had been crippled, their manu-
facturing industries had been repressed, and every advance they had
made had been watched wath jealousy and suspicion. They had been
governed practically as outsiders, and now it was proposed to lay new
exactions upon them as subjects.

A further hardship w' as that the colonists had no direct representation
in the legislative body which claimed the right to tax them. As a
consequence they w^ere not understood at Westminster, their circum-
stances were not appreciated, and their wishes were not regarded. In
this respect they were at a great disadvantage as compared with the
large proprietors of the British West Indies, who resided in Britain,
many of whom had seats in Parliament, and who, therefore, could
enforce their demands by an offer of votes which a minister might feel
that he could not afford to lose. This state of things continued far
into the present century, and the battle for West India emancipation

48 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

had to be fought out in England and Scotland rather than in the pos-
sessions themselves in which slavery existed. The duties of 1733 had
been imposed at the call of the West India proprietors, who w^ere
"jealous of the success of their rivals at the north, and of the extent
and importance of their commercial adventures," and who, having no
shipping of their own, were ever ready to join hands with the British
shipowners to hamper the commerce of the northern colonies.

If the- British sugar planters could have had their way,/ New Eng-
land would have been prohibited altogether from trading with the
French, Dutch and Spanish West India islands. In the Massachusetts
Archives (volume 88) there is a full report in manuscript of a hearing
in 1750 before the Lords of Trade, which furnishes a suggestive illus-
tration of the way in which men are often deceived by considerations of
personal interest, and how selfishness may assume the plausible guise
of public spirit and patriotism. In the petition on which this hearing
was based, it was said: " The petitioners charge the northern colonies
with being the agents of France, and other foreign nations, carrying
on commerce in Europe and America for their benefit, and against the
interest of their mother country ; and suggest there is danger of their
becoming by this means, independent of it." They therefore prayed
that the northern colonies might be prohibited frcmi taking any sugar,
rum or inolasses from any of the West India islands not subject to the
British crown. The charges were elaborated in ten articles, each of
which was replied to at length by the representatives of New England,
and the danger was averted for the time.

On the accession of the Grenville ministry to power, it was deter-
mined to pass a stamp act for the colonies, and the officers of the cus-
toms were served with "new and ample instructions enforcing in the
strongest manner the strictest attention to their duty." Proclamations
against the clandestine importation of goods were issued December
20, 1763, and published in the Boston newspapers of the following
month. The "restraint and suppression of practices which had long
prevailed " could not but encounter great difficulties, and the whole force
of the royal authority was invoked in aid. The troops were ordered to
" give their assistance to the officers of the revenue for the effectual
suppression of contraband trade;" the officers of the ships of war on
the coast were also obliged to C[ualify, as Barry says, "for their new
and distinguished duties as excisemen and tidewaiters, " having the
promise of a share in the property confiscated for violation of the law,

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. 49

The whole countiy was roused, and the people were "stung nearly to
madness" bv the proceedings of the officials and of those who were
assisting- them. At the instance of the merchants of Boston and other
towns, the General Court directed the agent of the province in London
to labor for the repeal of the sugar act, and to exert himself to prevent
the passage of the stamp act, " or any other impositions or taxes upon
this or the other American colonies."

In the spring of 170-4 Mr. Grenville gave notice of his intention to bring
in a bill for imposing stamp duties in America, but, " out of tenderness
to the colonies, " he consented to postpone it for a year. He also sought
to conciliate the people of New England by tw^o measures w^hich they
gratefulh" accepted for all that they were worth, biit not as the price of
their acquiescence in what they regarded as unequal and unjust schemes
of taxation. The two measures referred to were, the revival of the
bounties on hemp and flax, first granted in the reign of Queen Anne,
and encouragement to the prosecution of the whale fishery. At the
same session of Parliament, a bill was introduced, providing that duties
be laid on various enumerated foreign commodities, as coffee, indigo,
pimento, French and East India goods, and w4nes from Madeira,
Portugal, and vSpain, imported into the British colonies and plantations
in America, and upon other articles, the produce of the colonies, ex-
ported elsewhere than to Great Britain. It was provided, further, that
a duty of threepence a gallon be laid on molasses and syrups, and an
additional duty of twenty-two shillings a hundred weight upon white
sugars, of the growth of an}' foreign American plantation, imported
into the British colonies; and that the income of this last duty should
be paid into the national treasury, to be disposed of by Parliament to-
wards " defraying the necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and
securing the British colonies and plantations in America." This tariff
bill w^as pushed rapidly through all its stages, and, within a month from
the day it was reported in the House of Commons, it received the royal
assent. Machinery for its prompt and rigid enforcement was also de-
vised and made read3\ Two months later, all this had been made
known in America, and, to quote the words of the Massachusetts Gazette,
there w^as "not a man on the continent who did not consider it a sacrifice
made of the northern colonies to the superior interests in Parliament of
the West Indies."

Few, among those responsible for this legislation, had stopped to
consider how it would be received by those whose material interests
7

50 SUFFOLK COUXTY.

were to be affected, and, perhaps, imperilled, by it; but it was generally
supposed that a rigorous administration of the new law, with the naval
and military power to support it, would compel the popular submission.
The exact truth on this point would, in due time, become apparent,
but the first words spoken in response were those of protest. The
General Court, in an address to Governor Bernard, at the autumnal ses-
sion of 1704, represented as follows: "Our pickled fish wholly, and a
great part of our codfish, are only fit for the West India market. The
British islands cannot take off one-third of the quantity caught ; the
other two-thirds must be lost, or sent to foreign plantations where mo-
lasses is given in exchange. The duty on this article will greatly
diminish the importation hither; and being the only article allowed to
be given in exchange for our fish, a less quantity of the latter will of
course be exported — the obvious effect of which must be a diminution
of the fish-trade, not only to the West Indies but to Europe, fish suita-
ble for both these markets being the produce of the same voyage. If,
therefore, one of these markets be shut, the other cannot be supplied.
The loss of one is the loss of both, as the fishery must fail with the loss
of either."

"It was apprehended that in Massachusetts the annual loss to be
sustained from the enforcement of the new act would be not less than a
hundred and sixty-four thousand pounds, while vessels worth a hundred
thousand pounds would be rendered nearly useless ; and there would be
a further loss of property amounting to scarcely less than a quarter as
much, as the worth of the various articles of equipment and forms of
industry used in the prosecution of the business. Five thousand sea-
men would be thrown out of employment."

The question will be asked: If the duty cm molasses laid by the
act of 1733 was sixpence a gallon, while that laid by the act of 1704
was threepence, was not this reduction of fifty per cent, a boon to the
province? The answer is easily found. The higher duty, as we have
intimated, had been very generally evaded ; the low^er rate was to be
collected at all hazards. Even if the methods for collection were not
to be more thorough, it would be less of an object, both for the mer-
chant and for the official, to run the risk involved in conspiracy to
defraud the government under the lower rate, than it had been under
the higher. The smuggler is a regulator in the movements of inter-
national trade, whose operations no wise finance minister will fail to
take into the account. A duty laid for revenue will invariably yield

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. ol

more to the public treasury at a moderate, rather than at the highest rate.
In the instance before us, the duty was levied largely in the hope and
expectation that it would be prohibitory, and the Boston merchants
believed that this would be the effect.

In a petition of the General Court to the House of Commons, agreed
upon at the same session as above, it was urged that " the importation
of foreign molasses into this province, in particular, is of the greatest
importance, and a prohibition will be prejudicial to many branches of
trade, and will lessen the consumption of the manufactures of Great
Britain ; that this importance does not arise merely, nor principally, from
the necessity of foreign molasses, in order to its being consumed or dis-
tilled within the province"; but, "that if the trade, for many years
carried on for foreign molasses, can be no longer continued, a vent
cannot be found for more than one-half of the fish of inferior quality,
which are caught and cured b)" the inhabitants of the province, the
French not permitting fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their
islands, unless to be bartered or exchanged for molasses ; that if there
be no sale of fish of inferior quality, it will be impossible to continue
the fishery; the fish usually sent to England will then cost so dear that
the French will be able to undersell the English in all the European
markets, and by this means one of the most valuable returns to Great
Britain will be utterly lost, and that great nursery of seamen destroyed. "
In a letter written at the same time to the provincial agent in London,
it was said : ' ' We are morally certain that the molasses trade cannot
be carried on, and the present duty paid."

The stamp act became a law, March 22, 1705. How its publication
was received on this side of the water, we need not here relate. By its
operation, the courts of the province were closed, business was sus-
pended, and an unusual stillness reigned throughout the community.
The provisions of the act were very stringent; and as the people refused
to use the stamps which had been sent over, nothing remained but to
abide the consequences. The principal merchants of Boston and other
towns, to the number of two hundred, agreed to import no more goods
from England, unless the act should be repealed, and they counter-
manded the orders already sent over. Several vessels went to sea,
however, without stamped clearances, the custom-house officers giving
the masters certificates that stamps could not be procured within their
jurisdiction. The first ship to venture under such circumstances was
the Boston Packet, Captain J^hn Marshall, owned and sent out by John

52 . SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Hancock. She was bound for London, and on her arrival in the
Thames she passed the cnstom-house without having- her papers
called in cjuestion. Another vessel, engaged regularly in the trade
between Boston and London at this time, was the London Packet,
Captain Robert Calef.

]\Ir. Hutchinson wrote at this time: " I am now convinced that the
people throughout the colonies are impressed with an opinion that they
are no longer considered by the people of England as their fellow-
subjects, and entitled to English liberties. " There were "two Eng-
lands, " however, then, as there are now; and, in one them, America
has never wanted for sympathy or support.

When the startling news reached England, of the imcompromising
opposition of the colonists to the stamp act, a change of ministry had
taken place and the Marcpiis of Rockingham had come into office.
The question of iminediate repeal was agitated throughoi:t the kingdom,
and confronted Parliament as it assembled in January, 17GG. In the
course of the debate on the first day of the session, William Pitt made
the great speech which has endeared his memory to Americans for all
time. In closing, he expressed it as his opinion that the act should be
repealed, "absolutely, totally, immediately, " and that the reason for
this repeal should be assigned — "because it [the act] was founded on
an erroneous principle." "At the saine time," he added, "let the
sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as
strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point
of legislation whatsoever — that we may bind their trade, confine their
manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of tak-
ing their money out of their pockets, without their consent." Even
this broad-minded statesman could not divest himself of the idea that
the colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country.

Petitions for the repeal of the stamp act were laid on the table of the
House of Commons from the merchants of London trading to North
America, and from Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, and
other towns. Public opinion was thoroughly aroused, in part, no
doubt, under the pressure of selfish considerations, for the commercial
interests of the country were suffering greatly; but, as Barry observes:
"The people of England were friendly to liberty; their attachment
to freedom was stronger than their love of arbitrary power ; and their
consciences and " affections appealed to thein loudly to side with those
who were struugling to resist the encroachments of absolutisin. " When

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 53

the offensive measure was repealed, one year almost to a day from the
time when it became a law, the church-bells of London were rung, the
ships on the Thames displayed their colors, and the houses were illu-
minated in all parts of the city.

" The relief and delight occasioned in America by the intelligence of
the repeal of the stamp act were increased by the further action of the
home government in relaxing the revenue regulations which had
catised offence." The reservation of its prerogative in the matter of
taxation, made by Parliament in the declaratory act which accompanied
the measure for repeal, did not give much concern at the first, but was
regarded as the " bridge of gold "' which " should always be allowed to
a retreating assailant." The London merchants entreated their Ameri-
can friends to take no offence at the declaration, although, as Hutchin-
son says in his history, they could give no assurance that the principle'
would not be enforced. "Every newspaper and pamphlet, every
public and private letter, which arrived in America from England,
seemed to breathe a spirit of benevolence, tenderness and generosity."
Thus wrote John Adams in his diary, and he added: "The utmost
delicacy was observed in all the state papers in the choice of expres-
sions, that no unkind impressions might be left upon the minds of the
people in America." In all this we trace the hand of William Pitt,
who had come into power and who had been raised to the peerage as
Earl of Chatham, but, most unfortunately, was compelled almost
immediately by severe illness to retire from public affairs, ' ' and his
withdrawal robbed his colleagues of all vigor or union." The enemies
of the colonies were ever on the alert for mischief, and, at the same
time, the course pursued by Governor Bernard and his "loyalist " sup-
porters in Massachusetts had the effect to neutralize any spirit of
conciliation which for a time prevailed in England.

In June, 17G7, Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer, as
a reply to the taunts of George Grenville that he and his colleagues
were afraid of the Americans and did not dare to tax them, secured the
passage of a bill imposing duties on paper, glass, painter's colors, tea,
and certain other articles imported into the colonies. The new ditties
were to be payable in sterling money, and were to go into effect in the
fifth month after the enactment ; just before this time arrived, three
commissioners made their appearance in Boston, clothed with what
were supposed to be adequate powers for the collection of the duties.
Townshend's act was more objectionable than Grenville's stamp act

54 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

had been, in this respect, that the receipts under the hitter were to be
covered into the imperial treasury and to be subject to the disposition
of Parliament, while those under the former were to remain in America,
and to be applied in making- provision for the charges attending- the
administration of justice and the support of the civil government here.
The officers of the crown were thus to be made independent, so far as
their support was concerned, of the colonial legislatures. The new act,
therefore, "was a menace of perpetual servitude." It was determined
to nullify it by abstaining from the importation of the articles desig-
nated in it, thus preventing a revenue from them, and to extend the
arrangement to all other commodities brought from England, thus
interesting the English merchants and manufacturers for a repeal of
the law. The patriots of Boston resolved to form a combination "to
eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing imported from Great Britain."
Many of the merchants entered into an agreement in harmony with this
resolution; the governor thought this " impracticable," and his remedy,
and that of the officials under him, for the existing difficulties, was
this: " Ships of war and a regiment are needed to ensure tranqinllity. "
A young merchant, William Palfrey, writing to his correspondent in
London; April 14, 17()8, of the proposed stoppage of importations, said:
" This salutary regulation is not to take place till the first of October
next, and to be binding till the present grievous restrictions are taken
off our trade." A few weeks later the same merchant wrote: " Where
it will end I know not, but imagine there will be blood shed before it
is over. You can't think how we are treated by those bashaws [the
commissioners of customs] ; our coasters, nay, our fishing and pleasure
boats, are disturbed, fired at, and threatened." The time for nullifica-
tion was still further postponed until January 1, 17(iO, after which date
the merchants and traders had agreed that they would not import into
the province ' ' any tea, paper, glass, or painter's colors, until the act
imposing duties on those articles shall be repealed." The agreement
provided further, that during the year 17G9 there should be no impor-
tation of goods or merchandise from Great Britain excepting- salt, coals,
fish-hooks, lines, hemp, duck, bar-lead, shot, wool-cards, and card-wire.
Indirect ii-nportations by way of any of the sister colonies were also
foi'' 'icVli-n. According to Bradford, from twelve to fifteen ships had
becix '.rriving annually at the port of Boston, laden with the products
and manufactures of Great Britain; but in iTiiT the amount of these
importations was less by ^"Ki/"), ()()() than in 111)4, and in 1708 a large
ship with English goods was sent back without unloading.

"» -<S\

^^i^i

-"S'°' ^y H-& C.Koe voets . ^'

7^C^^

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 55

Vengeance was denonnced by the more violent supporters of the
government in England against "the insolent town of Boston," but the
firmness of the attitude which had been taken by it in opposition to the
new revenue exactions produced its legitimate effect, and that without
long delay. The House of Commons had passed a series of resolves in
which the proceedings of the people in town meeting were declared
"illegal and unconstitutional, and calculated to excite seditions and
insurrections." Ainong those who had opposed these resolves was
Thomas Pownall, an enlightened and liberal man, whose experience
during three or four years as governor of Massachusetts should have
given his opinions more weight with his fellow members than they
seem to have had. ^Ir. Pownall warned Parliament in advance against
the course which it had persisted in taking, and he now (April, ITGO)
moved for the repeal of Mr. Townshend's act, and spoke at length in
support of his motion; but the session was too far advanced for its
consideration. A few weeks later the Earl of Hillsborough, as head of
the Colonial Department, which had succeeded to the functions re-
lating to the colonies of the "Lords of Trade," sent a circular to the
go.vernors announcing "the intention of his Majesty's ministers to
propose in the next session of Parliament taking off the duties upon
glass, paper, and colors, on consideration of such duties having been
laid contrary to the true principles of commerce, and assuring them
that at no time had they [the government] entertained any design to
propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes on America for the pur-
pose of raising a revenue." This letter, however, was not satisfactory
to the merchants of Boston, who argued, and reasonably, that if the
taxes on glass and paper were " contrary to the true principles of com-
merce," the tax on tea must be equally so. They declared it as their
opinion that the proposed repeal was only a pretence, and that the
duty on tea was to be retained to save the "right " of taxation; and
they renewed the mutual obligation, previously made, to import no
more goods from England, a few specified articles only excepted, unless
the revenue laws should be fully repealed. The inhabitants of the
town were invited to an agreement to purchase nothing from those
who might violate the terms of this engagement. A son of the late
governor. Sir Francis Bernard, and two sons of the acting governor,
Thomas Hutchinson, were among the merchants who refused to concur
in these measures.

What is known in our local history as the " Boston Massacre " took
place on the 5th of March, 1770. On the same day a petition from

5G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

"the merchants and traders of London tradini^ to North America "
was presented in the House of Commons setting forth " the alarming
state of suspense " into which commerce had fallen, and that this in-
terruption of trade, as the petitioners apprehended, was "principally-
owing to certain duties imposed on tea, paper, glass, and painter's
colors imported into the colonies. " " For the recovery of so important
a branch of commerce," they ]jrayed for such relief as to the House
might seem meet. Lord North, who had just become prime minister,
called for the reading of the act petitioned against, and then, after
observing that it had been "the occasion of most dangerous, violent
and illegal combinations in America, " he admitted that it had been
absurd to lay a tax upon many of the articles mentioned, and that " for
commercial reasons " it was necessary to repeal the duties upon them.
He had favored, he said, the circular which gave promise to the colonies
of a repeal of part of the act, and this he had done " as a persuasive to
bring them back to their duty, by a measi;re which would not at the
same time relax the reins of government over them; and he could
have wished to have repealed the whole if it could have been done
without giving up such absolute right." But, as the colonics " totally
denied the power of Great Britain to tax them, it became more abso-
lutely necessar}^ to compel the observance of the laws, to vindicate the
rights of Parliament." He therefore moved "that leave be given to
bring in a bill to repeal so much of the said act as lays duties upon
glass, red lead, white lead, painter's colors, paper, pasteboards, mill
boards, and scale boards, of the produce or manufacture of Great
Britain, imported into any of his Majesty's colonies in America."
When the measure was before the House of Commons, ex-Governor
Pownall moved an amendment proposing "a total repeal in every
part " of Mr. Townshend's act; and this he did, not as " an American
measure," but rather in consideration of the exigencies of British com-
merce. He insisted that the Americans had been arrogantly and
wantonly oppressed, and that it was only jiistice to them to withdraw
impositions which they " suffered and endured with a determined and
alarming silence." It was not to be expected that the amendment
would prevail, but it received one hundred and forty-two votes. Re-
peal was carried except in reference to one article. " The question of
present action for the British Parliament was now in point of fact
narrowed down to the question (jf the constitutionality of the duty on
tea; but the principle of a right to tax the colonics was affirmed by the

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 57

most emphatic and solemn legislation. " For this fatal insistence to tax
the colonies, as all historians are now agreed, the king, who was in
point of fact sole minister during- these eventful years, was personally
responsible. "Dull and petty as his temper was, " says Green, "he
was clear as to his purpose, and obstinate in the pursuit of it." " The
shame of the darkest hour in English history lies wholly at his door."

For the moment there was a seeming promise of less turbulent times
in Massachusetts, and of returning commercial prosperity. The debt
incurred by the province during the seven years of war, l?o5 to 1T02,
had been paid off, and no local taxation was necessary. The British
troops, which were the occasion if not the cause of the massacre under
the shadow of the town-house on King street, had been withdrawn at
the demand of the citizens through their spokesman, Samuel Adams ;
and the revenue exacted by the mother country was now limited to a
single article of merchandise.

A few extracts from the advertising columns of a newspaper in the
spring of ITTl will give us a glimpse at the movement of trade and
commerce at that time. The Marquis of Rockingham, Lj'dia, Boscawoi,
and other regular traders, had just arrived from London, the Aiiroi'a,
from Liverpool, and the Jenny, from Glasgow. Jonathan and John
Amory, King street, advertised Irish linens, " bought with the cash in
Ireland;" Samuel Eliot, near the head of Dock Square, Irish linens
and baizes, raven's duck and Russia duck, Testaments and snuff;
vSamuel Alleyne Otis, 1 Butler's Row, Russia goods, powder and shot,
flour, sugars, bar iron, anchors, brimstone, and hollow ware; Nathaniel
Wheatley, King street, Russia duck, Florence oil, tin plates, whale
lines, and London porter; James Perkins, King street, spices, flint-
glass wafe, Xarragansett cheese, Xew England starch, stone jugs,
a few barrels of snake root, wines. West India ruin, and Cheshire
cheese; Andrew Brimmer, who had just succeeded his mother, Susan-
nah Brimmer, " at the shop she lately improved at the South End,"
English goods, pepper, spices, soap and sugar, wholesale and retail ;
Bethiah Oliver, opposite the Old Soiith meeting-house, garden seeds;
Ziphion Thayer, at the Golden Lion, Cornhill, a large assortment of
paper-hangings; wSamuel Minot, near the draw-bridge, and Daniel
Parker, Union street, watches, jewelry and silverware; John Gore,
Queen street, paints, oils and varnishes; Frederick William Geyer,
Union street, English goods, nails, pepper by the bag, American pipes
by the box, and " the best of Lynn made shoes by the quantity. " One

58 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

of the advertisements refers to the reeent importations as having" arrived
after a long suspension of business owing to a striet adherence to the
non-importation act.

Below the surface, however, there was, on both sides of the ocean,
a settled distrust, which manifested itself from time to time as occasion
offered. In the summer of 1770 an order in council prepared the way
for the establishment of martial law in Massachusetts, and for the clos-
ing of the port of Boston. Boston harbor was made the rendezvous of
all the ships of war on the North American station, and the port was
to be garrisoned by regular troops and put into a state of defence. On
the other hand, the law which imposed a tax on tea was present in the
minds of the people, and of their representatives, as a perpetual griev-
ance. The latter resolved that, as the duty levied by Act of Parliament
on foreign tea imported into the province was laid for the express
purpose of raising revenue here, without the consent of those who were
to pay it, they would use their utmost endea^'ors to prevent the use and
consumption of the article in the several towns to which they belonged.
This was in the spring of 1770. Three 3^ears later, in replying to an
address from Hutchinson, who had been commissioned as governor of
the province, they thus protested : ' ' With all the deference due to
Parliament, we are humbly of opinion, that, as all hiiman authority is,
and ought to be, limited, it cannot constitutionally extend its power to
the levying of taxes, in any form, on the people of this province."
With these sentiments the people were in the fullest accord, and
they abstained so generally from the use of the beverage, which
had been such a favorite among them previously, that the merchants,
for the most part, forbore to pass through the custom-house the con-
signments of tea which came to their care, and piled them tip in the
warehouses. This, of course, reacted unfavorably tipon the market in
London, and it added to the embarrassment of the East India Company,
which, as is apt to be the case with monopolies, had been carelessly
managed, and its affairs had been brought into confusion. The com-
pany held seven million pounds of tea, and the non-importation agree-
ments in America, though but partially carried into effect, shut off all
])rospect of relief from that quarter. It not only could not declare
dividends ; it was unable to meet its va.st obligations in Asia and Europe,
and, also, to pay an annual subsidy for which it was under engagement
to the government. It therefore came to the government for assist-
ance, and asked for a loan. Lord North thought he saw a way to help

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 59

the company out of its difficulties, and at the same time to settle the
disputed question of taxation with the colonies. Tea brought into
Eng-land was subject to a duty of a shilling a pound; the duty, unpro-
ductive hitherto, upon that imported into the colonies was threepence.
What the minister proposed and carried was as follows: First, to
remit to the company the duty of a shilling a pound on such portion of
its teas as it should export ' ' to any of the British plantations in
America-." ^Second, to " empower the Commissioners of the Treasury
to grant licenses to the East India Company to export teas to the British
plantations in America, or to foreign parts," on their own accotmt.
The effect of the first meastire would be, as was expected, that while
the American consignees, and through them the consumers, wovild pay
the duty of threepence a pound, their tea would be cheapened to them
on the whole at the rate of a shilling a pound, the amount of the draw-
back allowed to the company on its exportation of the article from
England. Under the second provision, the tea would be brought
into the colonies, not as an importation by American merchants, but
under consignment to agents of the company here, who would be able
to clear it at the custom-house without exposing themselves to the
odium which would have attached, under the circumstances, to im-
porters paying duties upon their own property.

The historic company which had governed an empire, which had made
and unmade princes, which had its own armies and fleets, was to be-
come a vender of teas. As the Boston merchant and patriot, William
Phillips, well said: " Nothing can more evidently prove the ill con-
duct or mismanagement of the affairs of the East India company than
their becoming exporters of tea to America — -a paltrv transaction, un-
worthy of one of the greatest associated bodies in Europe." It should
be added here, that when the British government imdertook to relieve
the company from its difficulties, it adopted radical measures for reform
in the administration of its affairs and in the government of India. By
the Act of Regulation of 1773 the office of governor-general was estab-
lished, and Warren Hastings received the appointment.

The company made arrangements to ship cargoes of its tea to four
American ports, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. In
all these towns the aim of the patriotic citizens was to prevent payment
of duty at the custom-house and the introduction of the article into the
consmnption of the country, and for this purpose to secure its return to
England without breaking bulk. At Charleston the consignees were

(50 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

persuaded to resig-n their trust, and the tea sent to their care was
brought on shore under guard, and stored in quasi bonded cellars, where
in the end it w^as ruined by damp. The consignees in Philadelphia and
New York, convinced that it would be imprudent, if not useless, to
contend with the spirit which was abroad, sent back the tea-ships which
had arrived at those ports. When notice had been received in Boston
of the intended shipment thither, a town meeting" was held at which the
agreement not to purchase or use tea was revived, and the d&termina-
tion was taken that it should not be landed. The consignees w'ere re-
c^uested not to receiv^e it, or to allow it to be taken out of the vessels,
but they declined to give any assurances of compliance. A second
meeting was convened, and it was voted that the proposed shipment of
tea to the province w^as " a direct attack upon the liberties of the peo-
ple, and that whoever should receive or vend the tea w^ould prove him-
self an enemy to the country." The consignees were again requested,
by a committee, to have nothing to do with the cargoes when they
arrived, but they gave evasive and unsatisfactory answers, and the ex-
citement throughout the province became intense. Not even the stamp
act had created more indignation and alarm.

The Boston tea-ships were the Darfi/iouth, Captain Hall, the Eleanor,
Captain Bruce, and the Bcave7% Captain Coffin, and they brought about
three hundred and fifty chests. The consignees were Thomas and Elisha
Hutchinson (sons of the governor), Richard Clarke & Sons, Benjamin
Faneuil, jr., and Joshua Winslow. They petitioned the governor and
Council to take measures for the protection of the property, which, they
said, should be landed and stored but not exposed for sale, until they could
receive fm-ther instructions from England. The Council hesitated to
interfere in the business; and, at length, when one of the vessels, the
DartiHoutJi, was announced as having arrived in the lower harbor, it
advised the governor against doing or permitting what had been pro-
posed. The DartiJiouth came into port on Sunday, and early the next
morning the people crowded in such numbers to Faneuil Hall that an
adjournment to the Old South meeting-house was necessary. Here a
resolution presented by vSamuel Adams was unanimously adopted, that
" the tea should be sent back to the place from whence it came, at all
events, and that no duty should be paid on it." The consignees asked
for time for ccmsultation, and, "out of great tenderness," this was
granted. To prevent surprise, however, a guard of twenty-five citizens
Was appointed to watch the ship, which was moored at Griffin's, after-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 61

ward Liverpool, wharf. The Eleanor and Beaver arrived a few days
later, and were placed under the same watch and charge. The IGth
of December was the latest day, under the customs regulations, for the
entry of the first cargo, and, in the mean time, negotiations had been in
progress between the officers and owners of the ships and the consignees
of the tea on the one hand, and the various authorities and the citizens'
committees, on the other; but no satisfactory arrangement could be
reached. Another mass meeting crowded the old meeting-house, in
the pulpit of which patriotic orators had spoken and devout clergymen
had preached and prayed, and whose walls, not many months later,
were to be subjected to sacrilegious punishment for the uses to which
they had been put in the interest of the popular liberties. The session
lasted from ten o'clock in the morning imtil darkness had fallen upon
the town ; the last attempts had been made with the customs authorities
and with the governor, to supply the vessels with passes for the return
voyage, and had failed, and, finally, Samuel Adams closed the pro-
ceedings with the pregnant words, "We can do no more to save the
coimtry. " A momentary silence followed; and then a shout was heard
like a war-whoop, and forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, hurried
down Milk street to the wharf at which the three vessels lay. The
holds were opened, the tea chests were brought up to the decks and
split open with hatchets, and in three hours' time all their contents
were emptied into the water. No other property was injured, and the
deed having been done, every man went to his own house, and the
town was as quiet as if nothing had occurred. Few of the inhabitants
knew beforehand that the Gordian knot was thus to be cut.

Parliament was in session when the news of the destruction of the
tea reached England, and the anger and indignation of the court party
knew no bounds. All other legislation was laid aside, Boston became
the principal object of attention, and steps were at once taken for the
prompt punishment of the recalcitrant town. Lord North brought in a
bill, now known as the Boston Port Bill, which provided for the with-
drawal of the customs officers, and forbade the landing and discharg-
ing, the lading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the
town or within the harbor. It was to be unlawful to load or unload
any vessel with merchandise in quantity or any of any sort, except mil-
itary and other stores for his Majesty's service, and except also, " any
fuel or victual brought coastways from any part of the continent of
America for the necessary use and sustenance of the inhabitants of

C2 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

the said town." This simimary measure passed the House of Com-
mons without a division, and the House of Lords without a dissenting
vote.

A few days later, to "prove that coneiliation, not revenge, was pre-
dominant in Britain," an immediate repeal of the tax on tea was pro-
posed, but only forty-nine inembers of the House of Commons voted in
favor of the proposal, while nearly four times that number voted against
it. Edmund Burke was one of the minority, and in the course of a
masterlv speech, in which he reviewed the doings of the ministry dur-
ing the previous ten 3^ears, he said: "Let us act like men; let us act
like statesmen. Let us hold some sort of consistent ccmduct. Leave
the Americans as they anciently stood. Do not burden them by taxes.
When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters.
If our sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will
they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will
be argued into slavery."

The port bill was published in the colonies with a black border around
it, as though it related to a funeral. It was to be enforced relentlessly,
and a military governor for Massachusetts, General Gage, was sent over
as the successor of Mr. Hutchinson. On the day of the departure of
the latter from his native town, never to return, the punitive law went
into effect. This was the first of June, 1774. At noon the custom
house was closed, and the sessions of the courts were suspended. The
people made no opposition, but the church bells were tolled, emblems
of mourning were displayed, and the day was observed not only in Mas-
sachusetts, but in Virginia and other colonies, as one of fasting and
prayer. To the devoted town the blow was overwhelming. In one
way or another almost all its inhabitants lived by ocean commerce.
Palfrey had the impression, but he did not make the statement with ab-
solute certainty, that in 177'2, when its shipping interests were already
much crippled, five hundred and eighty-seven vessels were entered at
its custom-house, and four hundred and eleven were cleared; that
meant one thousand arrivals and departures from and to foreign ports.
To close the harbor to navigation was to strike at everybody, " from
those in easy circumstances, to those who depended for their day's liv-
ing on their day's work. Business of all kinds came to a stand-still.
Men of property received no rents. Mechanics had no employment.
Laboring men could earn no wages."

It was supposed in England that the commerce of the colonies would
be carried on at rival ports, whose merchants would lie quick to profit

TRADE AND COMMERCE. G3

by the calamity which had befallen the chief town. So far from this,
the people at these rival ports were seeking to lighten the sufferings
which Boston had incurred for their sake and for the sake of the whole
country. vSalem and Marblehead, the next most important places on
the Massachusetts coast, offered to the Boston merchants the gratuitous
use of their wharves and Avarehouses, and the services of their men in
discharging and loading their vessels. Salem, m particular, sent a
memorial to General Gage, breathing the noblest spirit, and declaring
that its citizens would be dead to every idea of justice, and lost to all
feelings of humanity, if they could for a moment think of raising
their fortunes on the ruins of their suffering neighbors. A com-
mittee at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, wrote: "We sincerely wi.sh
you resolution and prosperity in the common cause, and shall ever
view 3^our interest as our own." Two cargoes of tea arrived at
Portsmouth during the summer, but the popular feeling was so
strong, the}^ were speedily ordered to Halifax. In the mean time con-
tributions for the relief of those who were destitute in Boston came in
from the country towns of Massachusetts, from other parts of New Eng-
land, from the colonies further south, and even from Canada. Outside
Massachusetts, the largest contribution came from South Carolina, which
gave about three thousand pounds. But while money, food and fuel
were coming in for the use of the townspeople, the farmers refused to
sell supplies for the troops quartered in Boston. "The straw pur-
chased for their service was daily burned, vessels with brick intended
for the army were sunk, and carts laden with wood overturned." Lord
North had said that Boston alone was to blame for having set an ex-
ample of resistance and defiance, and, therefore, that Boston ought to
be the principal object of attention for punishment. It was soon made
apparent that Boston had not hitherto acted, and was not now suffering,
for itself alone.

On the ITth of June, iTt-t, just twelve months before the battle of
Bunker Hill, it was voted at a great meeting in Faneuil Hall, to write
to the other colonies that " we are not idle; that we are deliberating
upon the steps to be taken in the present exigencies of our public af-
fairs ; that our brethren, the landed interest of this province, with an
unexampled spirit and unanimity are entering into a non-consumption
agreement ; and that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the
result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting we impatienth^ desire,
in whose. firmness and wisdom we confide, and in whose determination

G4 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

we shall cheerfully acquiesce. " When the Congress met in Philadelphia
in September, the delegates resolved unanimously that after the first
day of the following December there should be no importation, pur-
chase, or use of commodities from Great Britain or Ireland, and that
after a year, " unless the grievances of America are redressed before
that time, exportations to those countries froin the colonies should
cease." To carry out these views, a "non-importation, non-consump-
tion, and non-exportation agreement or association was entered into,"
to which each member subscribed his name "in token of binding his
constituents as well as himself."

"Every eye, " says Barry, "was now fixed upon Boston, once the
seat of commerce and plenty, and inhabited by an enterprising and
hospitable people. The cause in which it suffered was regarded as the
common cause of the country. A hostile fleet lay in its harbor; hostile
troops paraded its streets. The tents of an army dotted its Common ;
cannon were planted in commanding positions. Its port was closed ;
its wharves were deserted ; its commerce was paralyzed ; its shops were
shut ; and many were reduced from affluence to poverty. Yet a reso-
lute spirit inspired them still." We quote from a Boston letter, dated
January 21, 1775: "The town of Boston is a spectacle worthy of
the attention of a Deity, suffering amazing distress, yet determined to
endure as much as human nature can, rather than betray America
and posterity." Nor was this spirit confined to any one class. The
mechanics, who had done so much to advance the prosperity of the
town, and who now acted as patrols, wannly supported the patriot
cause. In vain did the loyalists tempt them to compliance with the
wishes of the authorities ; and when their services were recjuired at the
barracks, "all the carpenters of the town and country" left oft" work,
and gold was powerless to change their purpose, though "hundreds
were ruined and thousands were half starved." General Gage wrote
to Lord Dartmouth: "I was premature in telling your lordship that
the Boston artificers would work for us. This refusal has thrown us
into difficulties." He had to send to New York for workmen, and did
not obtain them easily there.

We must now see how the intelligence of what was passing in New
England was received in London. In opening the new Parliament, in
which the ministry was stronger even than it had been in the old, the
king said : " It gives me much concern that I am obliged to inform
you that a most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law

TRADE AND COMMERCE. G5

still unhappily prevails in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and
has in divers parts of it broke forth in fresh violences of a very criminal
nature. These proceedings have been countenanced and encouraged
in other of my colonies, and unwarrantable attempts have been made
to obstruct the commerce of this kingdom by unlawful combinations.''
Lord North had assured the last Parliament that " by punishing Boston
all America would be struck with a panic." "The very contrary, " now
said Mr. Burke, "is the case. The cause of Boston is become the cause
of all America. By these acts of oppression you have made Boston the
Lord Mayor of America." The ministry, however, and the king,
whose blind behest they obeyed with all subserviency, had learned
nothing and could be taught nothing by experience; and, unhappily,
both ministry and king might rely implicitly on the support of a House
of Commons, whose seats had become an article of brokerage and
inerchandise. Our present narrative has to do only with those puni-
tive and repressive measures which bore directly upon the trade and
commerce of the colonies, and under which Massachusetts and Boston
suffered the more severely, because their commercial interests were so
extensive and so important. All the measures adopted at this time, as
Josiah Quincy was assured in London by ex-Governor Pownall, "were
planned and pushed forward" by his two successors in the governor-
ship of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard and Thomas Hutchinson.

The Restraining Bill, which was enacted in the spring of 1775, and
which undertook to deal with the commerce of all New England, was
' ' calculated in no slight degree to heap fresh fiiel on the flames already
burning in Aineric a. " "This measure," said Mr. Burke, "is in effect
the Boston Port Bill, but upon an infinitely larger scale. " And he said
further : ' ' Evil principles are prolific : the Boston Port Bill begot this
New England bill ; this New England bill will beget a Virginia bill :
again, a Carolina bill ; and that will beget a Pennsylvania bill, till, one
b}' one, Parliafnent will ruin all its colonies, and root up all their com-
merce, and the statute book become nothing but a black and bloody
roll of proscription, a frightful code of rigor and tyranny, a monstrous
digest of acts of penalty, incapacity and general attainder ; so that, open
it where you will, you will find a title for destroying some trade or
ruining some province." The bill in question forbade trade from New
England ports, except to the British Lslands and the British West India
Islands. An amendment providing that the colonies might carry
coastwise, and from one port to another, "fuel, corn, meal, flour, or

00 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

other victual," was rejected by a lar^-e majority. The bill also pro-
hibited the resort of the fishing vessels of New Eng-land to the Banks
of Newfoundland. "The prejudice," says Botta, in his " History of the
Revolution," "that must have resulted from this act to the inhabitants
of New England may be calculated from the single fact that they an-
nually employed in this business about forty-six thousand tons and six
thousand seamen ; and the produce realized from it in foreign markets
amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling."
"The trade arising from the cod-fishery alone at that period," says
Sabine, "furnished the northern colonies with nearly half of their re-
mittances to the mother country, in payment for articles of British
manufacture, and was thus the very life-blood of their commerce."
From some of the questions asked when the bill was in committee,
it would seem that the ministry indulged the hope that many of the
fishermen would abandon their homes in Massachusetts and emigrate
to the more loyal province of Nova vScotia, rather than remain idle and
suffer, perhaps, for the necessaries of life, under the pressure of this
restrictive legislation. But no one who really knew these liberty-loving
men could have entertained such a thought for a moment.

Let us look for a moment at what Boston was at the period of tran-
sition from what we may call moral suasion to physical force. It had
a population of about seventeen thousand, homogeneous, industrious, in-
telligent and self-respecting people. The natural features of the local-
ity had been changed but slightly during the century and a half which
had passed since it was visited for the first time by the Pljmiouth settlers.
" The original peninsula, with its one broad avenue by land to connect
it with the beautiful country by which it was surrounded, had suffi-
ciently accommodated its population without much alteration of the
land, or without much encroachment on the sea." Hutchinson said of
the province of Massachusetts Bay at this time: " In no independent
state in the world could the people have been more happy." Boston,
more than any other town, represented this prosperity. " It was not
only the metropolis of Massachusetts and the pride of New England,
but it was the commercial emporium of the colonies."

Under the provisions of the Port Bill and the Restraining Bill,
everything was changed. Not only the foreign trade, but all the
coastwise traffic of the port, including the movements of the humblest
craft, was arrested. " Did a lighter attempt to land hay from the
islands, or a boat to bring in sand from the neighboring hills, or a scow

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 67

to freight to it lumber or iron, or a float to land sheep, or a farmer to
carry marketing over in the ferry-boats, the arg-iis-eyed fleet was ready
to see it, and prompt to capture or destroy. Not a raft or a keel was
allowed to approach the town with merchandise. Many of the stores,
especially all those on Long Wharf, were closed. In a word, Boston
had entered on its season of suffering. Did its inhabitants expostulate
on the severity with which the law was carried out, the insulting reply
was that to distress them was the very object of the bill." The story
of humiliation and distress, as we read it, recalls the lamentation of the
prophet: " How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how
is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and
princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! "

During the month of vSeptember, 1774, Boston Neck was fortified by
Governor Gage, and from this time forward the inhabitants, so far as
they were able, began to leave the town. After "the battle of the
minute-men," at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775,
this migration was increased ; for the town was cut off from all inter-
course with the country, and was deprived of its usual supplies, by land
as well as by water, of provisions, fuel and other necessaries. A similaf
exodus went forward from Charlestown, which was included in the
scope of the Port Bill, and of whose population only two hundred, out
of between two and three thousand, remained when the battle of
Bunker Hill was fought. Before this battle, both parties were skir-
mishing to secure the stock on the islands in the harbor. On the 12th
of June martial law was proclaimed, and on the 17th came the battle,
after which Boston was a beleaguered town. During the following
month opportunity to leave it was given to those who desired to do so,
as the scarcity of provisions, present and prospective, made the in-
habitants a burden to General Gage, but no plate could be carried
away, or money in excess of five pounds to each person. In September
a snow arrived from Cork "laden with claret, pork and butter," and,
at or about this time, a British sympathizer wrote in the best of spirits
as follows: " Such is the abundance of fuel and provision for man and
beast daily arriving here, that instead of being a starved, deserted
town, Boston will be this winter the emporium of America for plenty
and pleasure." " Our works," said Lieutenant Carter, on the 19th of
October, ' ' are daily increasing ; we are now erecting redoubts on the
eminences on Boston Common, and a meeting-house [the Old South]
where sedition has been often preached, is clearing out, to be made a

r,8 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ri(linj4--h<mse for the light drao-oons. " But the sano-uine predictions of
the autumn were not fulfilled. The investment of the town by the
Revolutionary army was so close and complete that scarcity and
famine began to stare both soldiers and citizens in the face. This is
the state of things reported on the 14th of December: " The distress
of the troops and inhabitants in Boston is great beyond all possible de-
scription. Neither vegetables, flour, nor pulse for the inhabitants;
and the king's stores so very short, none can be spared from them ; no
fuel, and the winter set in remarkably severe. The troops and inhab-
itants absolutely and literally starving for want of provisions and fire.
Even salt provision is fifteen pence sterling per pound." The supply
of fuel being exhausted, orders were issued authorizing working par-
ties to take down the Old North meeting-house, and about one hun-
dred old wooden houses. One of these houses was the Old South
parsonage opposite vSchool street, the venerable building in which
Cxovernor Winthrop spent the last four or five years of his life, in which
the Rev. John Norton, the Rev. Samuel Willard, the Rev. Ebenezer
Pemberton, the Rev. Joseph Sewall, and the Rev. Thomas Prince had
lived successively, and in which Mr. Prince wrote his "Annals." It had
been leased a short time previously to Benjamin Pierpont for business
purposes, the tide of trade in its course southward having reached that
point. The building next to it on the north, on the corner of Spring
Lane, was occtipied as a wholesale and retail store by Gilbert Deblois.
' ' The pursuits of commerce and of the mechanic arts, the freedom
of the press, of speech and of public meetings, the courts, the churches
and the schools, were all interrupted. " Small-pox added to the horrors ;
and all who were in sympathy with the patriot cause longed to leave
the town, "and to breathe, though in poverty and exile, the free air of
the neighboring hills." General Howe, who had succeeded General
Gage in the command, was only too glad to promote their departure,
and, during the first part of the winter, hundreds were permitted to go
in boats to Point Shirley, whence they dispersed into the country. In
January the weather moderated, the harbor was freed from ice, and,
supplies having arrived, by a general order, the demolition of houses
ceased. In the mean time the besieging army under General Washing-
ton was not idle. For want of amminiition it could not attempt to
carry the town by assault, but the hope and purpose were by means of
its strategy to compel the British army to withdraw from the peninsula.
During a severe cannonade which occupied the attention of the invested

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 69

troops, General Washington, on the night of the -ith of March, took pos-
session of the Dorchester Heights. On the Tth General Howe decided to
evacuate, and, ten days later, he took his departure. A young captain,
Jedediah Huntington, whose son, early in the next century, was to be
a minister of the Old South Church, wrote to his father from the camp
on the evening of March IT: "This morning we had the agreeable
sight of a number of ships leaving the town of Boston with a large
number of boats full of soldiers, about ten of clock several lads came
to our out centries and informed us that the troops had entirely left
the town and that the selectmen were coming out to see us, soon after
we had the pleasure of seeing Messrs. Austin, Scollay, Marshall, &c.,
they had an interview with the general and gave him the best intelli-
gence they could concerning the state of the town and the intentions of
the enemy — the enemy are now all lying between the castle and light-
house in full view from the town and make a very formidable appear-
ance. "

Boston was not injured so much, either by the bombardment or by
the action of the British soldiery, as had been reported. Dr. Warren,
a brother of the hero who fell on Bunker Hill, and one of those who
entered the town as soon as the evacuation had been accomplished,
wrote in his diary : ' ' The houses I found to be considerably abused
inside, where they had been inhabited by the common soldiery, but
the external parts of the houses made a tolerable appearance. The
streets were clean, and, iipon the whole, the town looks better than I
expected." A small number of troops took formal possession, and
fortifications were erected at various points to guard against possible
attacks from the sea. The inhabitants returned more slowly than they
would have done but for the presence of the small-pox, and although,
during the spring, the selectmen reported that the disease was confined
to the hospitals in the west part of the town, it was some time before
the streets resumed their old appearance of cheerfulness and activity.
The summer was a sickly one, and business revived slowly. The
Boston Gazette, which had been printed in Watertown during the siege,
did not return to Boston until November -t, and the Provincial Congress
did not convene here until November VI.

There was a wide gulf between the Boston of the provincial days
and the Boston after the siege. With the Declaration of Independence
provincial existence had come to an end. As has been well said : ' ' Amer-
ican history is divided into two parts — the history of the colonies, and

to SUFFOLK COUNTY.

the history of the United States; and between these two portions — -
between the Declaration and the Treaty of Paris — lie six years of war."
Several hundred of the inhabitants of Boston, loyal notwithstanding
all that had happened to the British crown, accompanied General Howe
to Nova vScotia, among- them many who had been most prominent in
commerce, in public affairs, and in the churches. New men took the
places which had been made vacant in business and other circles.
Salem had threatened, since the passage of the port bill, to become the
rival of Boston ; but, now, the commerce of that town, and of the entire
north shore, began to centre here. At first much of the business was
outside strictly commercial lines, that is to say, it consisted in the
fitting out and maintenance of privateers, and it proved very profitable
to those engaged in it ; l)ut this soon gave place to the movements of
more regular and legitimate trade. According to an index prepared
by Dr. Edward Strong, three hundred and sixty-five vessels belonging
to Boston were commissioned as privateers, twenty in ITTO, thirty-one
in 1777, and a larger number annually as the war went on. The
earliest was the Lady Washington^ of thirty tons, April 22, 177G. She
was followed by the Yankee, W^irrcn, Independence, Wolfe, Speedwell,
Viper, Reprisal, A niericau Tartar, Revenge, Sturdy Beggar, True Blue,
etc., etc.

Three months before the promulgation of the Declaration of In-
dependence, April (i, 1770, a measure was carried in the Continental
Congress, by which the thirteen colonies abolished British custom-
houses, prohibited the importation of slaves, and opened all their ports
to the commerce of the world, excepting those still held by the British
troops. Samuel Adams wrote to Joseph Hawley that the "United
Colonies had torn into shivers the British acts of trade." For a short
period almost absolutely free trade prevailed.

While there was a reserve of accumulated wealth in Boston, which
was of the utmost value to the town in this period of transition, and
which enabled it to cope with many of the troubles involved in the
great disaster of war, personal suffering and individual loss were very
great. The burden of taxation bore heavily on the majority; there
was a serious depreciation of the paper currency, and a corresponding
advance in the prices of commodities, and vain endeavors were made
from time to time to check this advance in prices by legislative enact-
ment. The Rev. John Eliot, writing, June 17, 1777, to his friend the
Rev. Jeremy Belknap, then settled at Dover, New Hampshire, said,

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 71

"We are all starving- here," and he complained that as a result of a
recent "regulating bill," people would not bring provisions into the
town, and it was impossible to procure the necessaries of life. In an-
other letter, March IT, 17T0, Mr. Eliot wrote: "The miseries of famine
are now mingled with the horrors of war. The poor people in the
almshouse have been destitute of grain and other necessaries these
many days. Many respectable families are almost starving." A few
months before, the Rev. Dr. Chauncy, minister of the First Church, in
a sermon before the State authorities, made a strong representation of
the injury and hardship inflicted on the clergy by the depreciation of
the currencv, " and withal a redress of their wrongs was decently and
solemnly urged; " but nothing was done for their relief. Another cor-
respondent of Dr. Belknap, Mr. Ebenezer Hazard, afterward post-
master general, wrote in 1780: "Boston affords nothing new but
complaints upon complaints. I have been credibly informed that a
person who used to live well has been obliged to take the feathers out
of his bed and sell them to an upholsterer to get money to buy bread.
Many doubtless are exceedingly distressed, and yet, such is the infatu-
ation of the day, that the rich, regardless of the necessities of the poor,
are more luxurious and extravagant than formerly. Boston exceeds
even Tyre, for not only are her merchants princes, but even her
tavern-keepers are gentlemen. May it not be more tolerable for Tyre
than for her ! There can be no surer sign of a decay of morals than
the tavern-keepers growing rich fast. " It it said that John Hancock
issued invitations to a ball, November, 1780, printed on the backs of
plaving-cards, showing a scarcity in other things besides the necessaries
of life.

We cpiote once more from the Rev. John Eliot, under date of March
39, 1780: "The town of Boston is really poor. If some brighter
prospects do not open, it is my opinion that we cannot subsist. You
are sensible how much depends upon our trade. Let this one instance
of our going downwards convince you. An outward bound cargo can-
not be purchased for the whole amount of the vessel and cargo return-
ing safely to the wharf. Thus the balance is against us, supposing no
risk. What then can be the emoluments of trade, when the vessels are
so much exposed to every danger from the ire of Neptune equally with
the attacks of British cruisers? Many widowed families add to the
distress of the North End, who were in good circumstances before the
commencement of this tedious season. Most of the ready money which

72 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

was in the town, the country people have drained^ — snch was the neces-
sity of obtaining;- fuel at any price. One effect these things have upon
all orders of men in the sea-ports, — ^a hearty wish for peace, which
sentiment did not pervade the mobility till the present time."

With this distress — -almost side by side with it — there was an expend-
iture of money, and an ostentatious display, especially on the part of
those who had just come into the possession of wealth, such as had
never been known before in Massachusetts. We quote from an his-
torian of the period on this point, because his statement of the case ex-
plains the reverses which followed when the inevitable reaction came :
"The usual consequences of war were conspicuous upon the habits of
the people of Massachusetts. Those of the maritime towns relapsed
into the voluptuousness which arises from the precarious wealth of naval
adventures. An emulation prevailed among- men of fortune to exceed
each other in the full display of their riches. This was imitated among
the less opulent classes of citizens, and drew them off from those prin-
ciples of diligence and economy which constitute the best support of all
governments, and particularly of the republican. Besides which, what
was most to be lamented, the discipline and manners of the army had
vitiated the taste, and relaxed the industry of the yeomen. In this dis-
position of the people to indulge the i;se of luxuries, and in the ex-
hausted state of the country, the merchants saw a market for foreign
manufactures. The political character of America, standing in a re-
spectable view abroad, gave a confidence and credit to individuals here-
tofore unknown. This credit was improved, and goods were imported
to a much greater amount than could be consumed and paid for."

Peace came at last ; and although there were public debts, vState and
national, to be provided for, and heavy taxation to be endured, and an
inheritance of trouble, of one kind and another, left by the war, to be
carried for a long time to come, every one rejoiced at the daw^n of the
auspicious day which seemed to be rising upon the young nation.
In reply to an address from the Legislature of Massachusetts, General
Washington wrote, March 20, lT,So: "Happy, inexpressibly happy,
in the certain intelligence of a general peace, which was concluded on
the 20th of January last, I feel an additional pleasure in reflecting that
this glorious event will prove a sure means to dispel the fears expressed
by your Commonwealth for their northeastern boundary, that territory
being by the treaty secured to the United States in its fullest extent."
It would have been well for both countries, if the sentiments expressed

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 73

in the preamble to the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the
United States conld have been permanently adhered to as the basis
for all their future dealings with each other: "Whereas reciprocal
advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form
the only permanent foundation of peace and friendship between states,
it is agreed to form the articles of the proposed treaty on such princi-
ples of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages, those
seeds of discord, being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory
intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to
promise and secure to both, perpetual peace and harmony."

With the advent of peace, every description of merchandise arrived
from abroad in large quantities, and prices fell rapidly. Many repre-
sentatives of English houses made their appearance, and some Boston
business men returned who had been living in England during the war;
and all brought speculative ventures with them. The newspapers of
the time are filled with advertisements of goods just received from
British and other European ports. " For example : ' ' Gilbert & L.
Deblois hath imported in the last ships from London a large and
general assortment of piece goods and hardwares." " N. B. Those
who please them with their custom may depend upon great penny-
worths. " "William Foster & Co. have received by the last vessels
from Europe a beautiful assortment of picked goods." "William
De Blois most respectfully informs the merchants, captains of ships,
and the public, that he has just received from London, in the Britan-
nia, Captain Lambert; HopL\ Captain Fellows; and Minerva, Captain
Hodgson, a large and compleat assortment of ship chandlery." Na-
thaniel Ingraham, who had just arrived in the Rosamond, Captain Love,
from London, offers for sale merchandise from that and other ports,
and adds : ' ' The goods having been purchased before the peace, wall
be sold cheaper than any purchased since." " N. B. Excellent Cheshire
cheese and a few hampers best London porter." We find this an-
nouncement under date of June 5, 1783 : " This morning arrived a ship
from Cork, loaded with beef, pork and butter." The first publication
in the papers of the inward entries and the outward clearances at the
custom-house appears on the 7th of August in the same year. Most of
the English trade of Boston was carried on through London, with an
occasional vessel arriving from or sailing for Liverpool. We read under
date of November -27: "For Liverpool in Great Britain, the Brig
Juno, Peter Cunningham master, lying at Tileston's Wharf." Novem-
10

74 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ber 13: "Paul Revere, directly opposite Liberty Pole, South lind,
Boston, has imported and will sell ' hardware and cutlery ' at a very
low advance for cash."

During the years 1770 to 1775 the exports from Great Britain to all
the American colonies had averaged about three millions sterling annu-
ally. Dr. Price, an able economist, and a steadfast friend of the newly
independent States, estimated that this average wcnild be reached and
passed in 1783. Writing in that year he said: "Allowing for the
increased quantities of rum, teas, and various entered or unentered
importations from other countries than Britain, the estimate of goods
from all Europe may be now put at three millions and a half sterling,
exclusive of tea, brandy, rum and wine." He predicted that it woiild
be some time before trade could " get iiito the regular course of circu-
lation, and the exports be favorable to tally with the imports." The
exports from the United vStates were rice, indigo, flour, tobacco, tar,
beef, pork, fish, oil and lumber. The worst apprehensions of the com-
mercial world were soon realized ; supply far outran demand ; prices
declined to a ruinous point ; bankruptcies multiplied, and in the absence
of exports in adequate quantity, the country began to lose its specie at
a serious rate. In a London paper of March 9, 1784, we read : " Two
ships are arrived in our river from Boston in New England, both in
ballast, not having been able to procure cargoes of any kind, though
they had (what is most desirable in that country) specie to pay for all
they should have brought away. It appears from hence that the
northern parts of the American States are in a much worse situation
than the provinces to the southward. Boston was once the most
flourishing place in America, and employed near five hundred sail of
shipping, besides coasting and fishing vessels, which were numerous to
a degree. Besides the trade which subsisted within themselves, they
were to America what Holland has been to Europe — the carriers for all
the other colonies. At present their distillery is entirely at a stand ;
their peltry and fur trade, once so considerable, is entirely over; the
fishery is exceedingly trifling; instead of the vast exports of hemp,
flax, tar, pitch, turpentine, staves, lumber and provisions, the only
thing that offered at Boston, when the ab<n'e ships sailed, was train-oil,
which they got up at a high price."

The diversion of the able-bodied men of the country from their
wonted industries in the field and forest, and on the sea, to the pursuits
of war, was sulScient, of course, to account for the falling otf in the

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 75

siipplv of products suitable for shipment across the Atlantic, and the
evil could not be remedied immediately. The shipment of specie could
not be followed up for any length of time, and the cessation of remit-
tances at last brought disaster to those who had sold or consigned
goods from beyond the sea. London dates to August '27. 1784, re-
ported: " No less than five great American houses tumbled in the city
yesterday, one to the tune of ^140,000." Again, under date of Sep-
tember 3, it was said: " But few large fortunes have been made ship-
ping goods to iVmerican houses, even before the war. Those who got
money in that country had stores of their own, kept by their partners .
or factors, who had no separate interest, and were anxious to make
early remittances. Where the same plan has been followed (with this
difference, that no credit has been given) money was got last year, and
to these people the prospects of this summer are by no means discour-
aging. " And later (September -24:) : " Very few of the last orders from
America will be executed, as the tradesmen are coming to their senses.
Verv few dollars make their appearance now ; indeed, the new States
are almost exhausted of .specie already."'

The shipbuilding interest in New England also suffered for a time.
In a London paper of August, 1784, we read: "The merchants of Lon-
don, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow, who used to send agents to
America to contract for building ships for our foreign trade, finding
the impolicy of such a measure, have now come to a resolution of giv-
ing employment to the British subjects at home, instead of enriching
the carpenters of the United States. By excluding American compet-
itors, we shall augment the valuable race of shipwrights; and the pub-
lic as well as private interest will be promoted by introducing gradu-
ally from Scotland and Wales, competitors even into the Thames, by
means of their cheaper fabricks. The insurance from London to any
port of America is now done at five per cent."

Bradford says: " The excessive importations of 1784 and 1785, and
the drain of specie which followed, had the effect of deranging the State
finances ; for many who had been extravagant in their purchases thought
it first necessary to pay the debts they had thus incurred, so far as they
were able, and to leave the payment of their taxes to a future day.
Had the taxes from 1781 to 1784 been promptly paid, the pressure in
the years which followed would have been less severe."

It might well have been supposed by the people of the Ignited wStates
that, having achieved their political independence, their commercial

76 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

enterprise mioht now have free play upon the ocean; and that although
they could no longer lay claim to the precise privileges and immunities
which they had formerly enjoyed as subjects of the British crown, they
would be able to put in exercise on the sea, no less than on the land,
all the rights attaching to citizens of a sovereign state. But if such
was their expectation, they were soon to be disappointed. The same
mischievous disposition as of old, to prescribe and to limit the channels
in which American trade should flow, was manifested by the British
government, notwithstandmg the results of war and the dismember-
ment of the empire which this policy, persisted in, had brought to pass.
It had been found impracticable to negotiate a commercial treaty in
behalf of the United vStates with Great Britain, and another course of
restrictive legislation was now entered upon by the government of the
latter coiintry, more severe in some respects, and certainly more gall-
ing to the people of the former, than that which previously had driven
them into rebellion. But for this adherence of the mother country to
the old policy of selfishness and exclusion, the animosities on the part
of her children and cpiondam subjects, which were the natural result
of the war waged by them for separation and independence, might
speedily have been healed. But their commercial freedom was to be
assailed again, and at the very point at which they had been made to
suffer previously — their intercourse with the British West India
Islands. They were forbidden to carry their fish thither ; American
vessels were not allowed to take the products of the islands to Eng-
land; only American products might be imported direct from the
United States to the ports of Great Britain, not even British ships be-
ing permitted to bring West India products as formerly from New
England. No wonder that these gallmg restrictions aroused a new
spirit of resentment in those against whom they were put into exer-
cise, culminating at length in a second war, which was to secure for
them absolutely commercial freedom.

The prohibition relating to fish was promulgated in July, 1783. The
order in council by which it was imposed was thought to have been se-
cured by loyalist or tory influence. It was aimed, no doubt, at the
American fisheries, and was intended to encourage those of Nova
vScotia and Newfoundland. We have already spoken of the importance
of the trade with the West Indies to the merchants of Boston — the ex-
change of Hsh for sugar, rum and molasses; this trade was now
destroyed. Congress declared that retaliatory measures were neces-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 77

sary in order that American commerce should not pass into the hands
of foreigners, and it asked to be invested with powers from the States
to provide for the exigency, but no adecpiate authority was or could be
conferred upon the confederacy.

The West India merchants and planters suffered almost as much
from these trade restrictions as did the people of New England. In a
letter from Jamaica, dated February 20, 1784, to a Boston merchant, it
was said : ' ' You cannot conceive the embarrassments we labour under
from the want of produce of your country. The people here are con-
tinually cursing first the king, then the ministry, and lastly the gov-
ernor. " A letter from St. Kitts, written a few weeks earlier, said: "I
am happy to tell you that by the last ships from England we are to
have a free trade with North America with this single restriction, that
they shall not be the carriers of any of the produce of the British islands
to Great Britain."

An order in council, April 17, 1784, permitted only immanufactured
goods (except oil) and pitch, tar, turpentine, indigo, masts, yards, and
bowsprits, being the growth or production of any of the United vStates,
to be imported directly from them into any of the ports of the United
Kingdom, either in British or American ships, by British subjects or
by any of the people inhabiting in or belonging to the said United
States, or any of them. The products of the West India Islands could
be exported to the United States only in British ships, and the
products of the United vStates could be imported into the West Indies,
including the Bahamas and Bermudas, only by "British subjects in
British-built vessels, owned by His Majesty's subjects and navigated
according to law." These are specimens of the much-vaunted navi-
gation acts, which some among us, even at this late day, extol as the
highest result of national wisdom and enlightened statesmanship, and
the essential features of which they would perpetuate in the com-
mercial legislation of the United States.

It is one thing to impose limitations upon the commerce of other
nations ; it is quite another thing to accept with complacency such lim-
itations, when proposed by others upon ottrselves. Upon the enter-
prising merchants, who were the life of the American cities and towns
over one hundred years ago, the impression made by the trade regu-
lations of which we have spoken was one of intense indignation, and
they determined to do what they could for themselves and for each
other in self-defence. A meeting of merchants, traders, and others.

78 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

was held in Boston, in Faneuil Hall, on the Kith day of April, 1785, at
which resolutions were adopted which were aimed at "certain British
merchants, factors and agents from England," " now residing in this
town, who have received large quantities of English goods and are in
expectation of receiving further supplies, imported in British bottoms
or otherways, greatly to the hindrance of freight in all American
vessels." The honor of the citizens was pledged not to purchase from,
or have business connections wdth, the said British merchants, factors,
and agents, and not to sell or let to them warehouses, shops, houses,
or any other place for the sale of their goods. A committee of corres-
pondence with other seaports was chosen, and another committee,
whose duty it was "to approbate whom they pleased." This second
committee consisted of Isaac vSmith, [ohn Sweetser, Josiah Waters,
Joseph Russell, Amasa Davis, John Gardner and Thomas Dawes.
One of these gentlemen, Mr. Russell, wrote to a friend: "You may
well suppose our commission to be very disagreeable. We have as
yet approbated only one gentleman, and he was recoinmended by a
very large niimber of the most respectable characters of the town —
Governor Hancock was one of the number — and as the recommenda-
tion came from such a large proportion of the community, we gave
him a verbal permission to land and store his effects. It is a matter
of doubt whether we shall give approbation to any others."

In July of the same year the Legislature of Massachusetts passed an
act for the regulation of navigation and commerce. It prohibited the ex-
portation of any of the products of the United vStates from the ports
of the Commonwealth in British ships, until the removal of the re-
strictions imposed by Great Britain which we have enuinerated ; it laid
a heavy tonnage duty, a light inoney tax, and double duties on goods
brought into Massachusetts in British vessels. A Boston merchant,
writing to his correspondent in Halifax, said: " After August a Brit-
ish vessel arriving here will be obliged to pay five pounds a ton, and
twenty-five per cent, on all goods on board, so that you will govern
yourself accordingly." Bradford says: "The General Court pro-
hibited British vessels to carry the products of the State; they were
also forbid entering and unlading when they brought cargoes from
ports from which American vessels were excluded, and only three
places of entry were allowed within the vState. " This legislation was
made to apply at first to other countries besides Great Britain ; but it
was repealed, so far as it related to them, on the 29th of November in
the same year.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 79

It was recognized on the other side of the ocean, as it was distinctly
stated by our own public men, that the commercial restrictions and
prohibitions, in fact, the whole protective policy, to which the United
States resorted at the beginning of its history, were made use of as
weapons of defence and retaliation ; and the inference is plain, that a
more just and liberal course on the part of Great Britain and other
countries, would have been met in a corresponding spirit of liberality
here. It was said in a London newspaper: "The Americans are
form_ing a commercial system to meet that of this coimtry, and of those
nations who have restricted their carrying their own produce to the
ports of those prohibited nations. A circular letter was written from
Philadelphia to the merchants of the other great trading cities on the
subject, and so generally approved that it is thought restrictions will
soon be laid on the trade of all those nations, particularly the British,
who, it is alleged, both in their prohibitions and strictness of execution,
have manifested greater severity than others."

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying in 1791: "If particular na-
tions grasp at undue shares of our commerce, and more especially if
the}' seize on the means of the United States to convert thein into
aliment for their own strength, and withdraw them entirely from the
support of those to whom they belong, defensive and protective meas-
ures become necessary on the part of the nation whose marine sources
are thus invaded, or it will be disarmed of its defence, its productions
will be at the mercy of the nation which has possessed itself exclusively
of the means of carrying them, and its politics may be influenced by
those who command its commerce." The Act of Congress of 1817, re-
lating to the foreign trade of the country, was substantially a counter-
part of the British navigation acts then in force, and it contains the
following suggestive proviso: " Provided, nevertheless, that this regu-
lation shall not extend to the vessels of any foreign nation which has
not adopted, and which shall not adopt, a similar regulation. " Mr.
William S. Lindsay, the historian of British Shipping, expressed the
opinion that the government of the L'^nited vStates was fully justified in
all the retaliatory measures adopted at this period.

To come back to Boston, in the summer of 1785, it is said that there
was not a single British merchantman in the harbor. The selfish
policy of England was beginning in various ways to react upon its own
people. It soon became apparent, at least to the more closely observ-
ant, that to embarrass the American merchant was to embarrass his

so SUFFOLK COUNTY.

English creditor. In the month of November, London dates were re-
ceived in Boston to vSeptember 3, and, among other news, it was re-
ported : "Thursday, three capital houses in the city were obliged to
stop payment, on account of the remittances from America not arriving
according to promise for goods sent to that country."

The intelligence of what had been done by the Legislature of Massa-
chusetts made a great impression in mercantile circles in England ; but
the government was not to be turned aside from the policy and purpose
to which it had committed itself. A letter from the West Indies reached
Boston, in April, lTH(i, from which wc quote: "The ministry suppose
they have now put a finishing stroke to the building and increase of
American vessels; an act has lately been passed in England, and in-
structions arrived in February, that no American-built vessel should be
employed or owned by British subjects on any pretence whatever, ex-
cept such as were built before the year ITTli; and in case of dispute, the
carpenters of the ships of war are to determine the build. American
vessels condemned for smuggling are to be burnt hereafter, not sold."
It was further stated that three hundred sail of brigs, schooners, and
sloops, employed in the trade among the islands, would be rendered
useless by this legislation. The American shipping, heretofore em-
ployed in the f(jreign trade of Great Britain, had been a good deal more
than half as much as the British; and as ships could be built in New
England and sold in Britain for one-third less than British-built ves-
sels, there had been a constant demand there for them.

The merchants of Boston did not allow themselves to be discouraged
by the annoyances and hindrances to which they were subjected,
in the unequal struggle in which they were compelled to engage. On
the contrary, they were at this very time pushing out towards more
distant fields of eiTort and enterprise, where they were to reap larger
and richer results than they had yet reached. They not only did not
propose to abandon to their rivals the trade of the Atlantic which they,
and their fathers before them, had prosecuted so successfully ; they de-
termined to participate in the commerce of more distant seas, expect-
ing, no doubt, that they would thus avoid the vexatious interference
with which they had long contended nearer home. The Nr^c York
Gazetteer said: "Thank (iod! the intrigues of a Christian court do
not influence the wise decrees of the Eastern world."

In July, 1T.S4, we find an advertisement of "fresh teas taken out of
an Indiaman, and brought by Captain Hallet from the Cape of Good

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 81

•
Hope," to be had at Penuel Bowen's store in Dock Square. American
enterprise was now venturing- beyond the Cape, and, not unnaturally,
the European merchants who, thus far, had had it all their own way in
that part of the world, were prompt with their predictions of failure. A
London paper of March Id, 1785, made this remark: "The Americans
have given up all thought of a China trade, which never can be
carried on to advantage without some settlement in the East Indies.
The ship they fitted out for China, soon after the peace, has been
offered to sale in France for a sum less than the outfit." The judg-
ment thus expressed was rather premature, for, two months later,
almost to a day. May 18, the ship referred to, the Empress of the Seas,
Captain Greene, arrived at New York from the East Indies, after a
round voyage of fourteen months and twenty-four days. vShe had sailed
from New York in February, 1784, touched at the Cape de Verdes, and
reached Canton in August. vShe was a vessel of three hundred and sixty
tons ; and her lading consisted, for the most part, of four hundred and
forty piculs of ginseng, which she exchanged at Canton for teas and
manufactured goods. The supercargo of the EAiipress of the Seas on this
voyage was a young Bostonian, vSamuel Shaw, who had served on General
Knox's staff in the War of the Revolution, a man of far-reaching intelli-
gence and scholarly accomplishments. Mr. Shaw came home full of
enthusiasm as well as information ; and he must have imparted of both
to his friends in Boston, for we cannot but associate with his return the
following advertisement which appeared in the Independent Chronicle,
June 23, 1785: "Proposals for building and fitting out a .ship for the
East Indian trade have been approved of by a considerable number of
citizens, who met at Mr. Walter Heyer's in King street, on Thursday
evening last. Several gentlemen are named to receive subscriptions,
and this is to give notice that another meeting is appointed on Wednes-
day evening next, at the same house, when any citizen who wishes to
become interested may have an opportunity. A single share is only
$;3()0. " Mr. Shaw sailed again from New York, in the Hope, Captain
James Magee, February 4, 1786, having been commissioned as American
consul at the port of Canton, and being accompanied by Mr. Isaac Sears
and Captain Thomas Randall. We do not know whether the project,
advertised as we have cpioted, was carried out ; probably it was not, for
money was scarce, and general confidence did not prevail ; but the re-
sult of Mr. vShaw's visit was most important, as we shall see.

In 1784 the publication of the journals of the great navigator. Captain
Cook, called the attention of the commercial w^orld to the immense
11

82 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

number of sea-otter to be found on the Northwest coast of America.
"The fur of this animal, which was first introduced into commerce in
17"2o, is described as a beautiful, soft, close, jet-black." A young Ameri-
can, John Ledyard, who sailed with Captain Cook, and published his
private journal in Hartford in 1783, dedicating it to Governor Trumbull,
is believed to have been the first man in America or Europe to advo-
cate the opening of a trade in furs between the Northwest coast and
China. He sought to convince the merchants of New York of the
advantages of such an enterprise, but his proposal seems to have been
regarded as visionary. A few of the leading merchants of Boston, after
much deliberation, determined to embark in this new trade, namely,
Joseph Barrell, Samuel Brown, Charles Bulfinch, John Derby (or Darb}^),
and Crowell Hatch; and a wealthy New York merchant, John Marsden
Pintard, associated himself with them. These gentlemen formed a
company, and bought the ship Colmnhia (built in Scituate, in 1773),
two hundred and twelve tons, and the sloop ]VasIii)igto]i, ninety tons;
they put Captain John Kendrick in command of the expedition, with
Captain Robert Gray in charge of the sloop. The vessels took their
departure from Boston, September 30, 1787, and doubled Cape Horn
in the following April. They carried out with them a large number of
pewter medals, with a fair relief of the vessels upon them, and the fol-
lowing legend: ''Columbia and Was/iiiigtoii, commanded by J. Ken-
drick. Fitted at Boston, N. America, for the Pacific Ocean by J. Bar-
rell, S. Brown, C. Bulfinch, J. Darby, C. Hatch, J. M. Pintard, 1787."
As the State of Massachusetts had just established a mint in Boston for
the coining of cents and half-cents, the medals were probably struck
there. A few were struck in silver and bronze, and one of the latter is
in the possession of the Massachusetts Histc rical vSociety, the gift of
Mr. Barrell in 1791.

The old prosperity was beginning to appear again. At the session oi
the General Court in the spring of 1787, it was ordered that a portion
of the tax then in process of collection might be paid in public securities,
and this proved a great accommodation to the people, who were able
to purchase them at a price far below their nominal value. From this time
forward, we are told, the commercial interests of New England began
to improve. They had reached the lowest point of depression, and any
change, of necessity, must have been for the better. In September,
1787, the editor of the Cent iiii'l qnotcd from a correspondent in Phila-
delphia, who said that a few days before "he had the curiosity to go

TRADE AXD COMMERCE. 83

along the clocks and count the vessels loading and unloading ; and, to
his great mortification, found that there were sixteen under British
colours, discharging and taking in their cargoes, and but one solitary
American, which was loading with lumber for the West Indies." The
editor added that the case was very similar in Boston.

In the Independent CIironich\ February '28, 1T<S8, we find a paragraph
informing the public ' ' that subscriptions were filling up to build three
ships for the encouragement of our industrious mechanics." In the
same paper a plan is urged for the establishment of Chambers of Com-
merce, one in each State, " for the purpose of promoting an extensive
trade upon such principles as will lastingly cement the union of the
whole confederacy." A chamber was organized in New York in 17G8,
and an attempt had already been made to establish one in Boston. A
call was published February -23, 1785, "for a meeting of merchants this
evening at six o'clock at the American Coffee House on that important
subject, a Chamber of Commerce, and when the very great advantage
of this institution is considered, both as to commerce and the govern-
ment at large, it is presumed every merchant, who wishes well to either,
will give his punctual attendance." A committee was appointed at this
meeting to take definite action, but the following announcement under
date of June '20, would seem to indicate that the merchants were apa-
thetic on the subject: " The merchants are informed that the comrnittee
appointed to form a Chamber of Commerce, met at the American Cof-
fee House on ^^londay evening last in order to lay before them a report
— but a very thin meeting obliged them to adjourn until this evening,
then to meet at the same place at seven o'clock, where a general at-
tendance is requested, or the plan must be entirely dropt. " The sub-
sequent attempt in 1788 was no more successful; but some of the ob-
jects of the proposed chamber were met by the Association of the
Tradesmen and Manufacturers of the town of Boston, consisting of one
representative from each branch of business, which was organized in
the summer of 1785, for mutual defence against the irregular trade car-
ried on bv traders and factors from abroad. A circular letter was ad-
dressed "to their brethren in the several seaports in the Union," by a
committee of the association, consisting of John Gray, Gibbons Sharp,
Benjamin Austin, jr., Sarson Belcher, William Hawes, and Joshua
Witherlee. A Chamber of Commerce was finally established in Boston
in or about the year 17Uo, but we know little of its history. Thomas
Russell was its first president, and Stephen Higginson its first vice-
president.

84 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The constitution framed in 178T, and adopted b}' a majority of the
vStates in ITSS, was made necessary by the conditions under which the
people of the country were obliged to conduct their business affair-s.
For this statement we have the authority of Fisher Ames, who said in
the First Congress: "I conceive, sir, that the present constitution was
dictated by commercial necessity more than any other cause. The want
of an efficient government to secure the manufacturing interests and to
advance our commerce, was long seen by men of judgment, and pointed
out by patriots solicitous to promote the general welfare." Under the
influence of the same considerations, the merchants of Boston and the
neighboring towns were anxious for the prompt adoption of the consti-
tution by the vState of Massachusetts. They were favorable to a strong
federal authority, which should increase foreign confidence in the na-
tional stability, and lead to satisfactory commercial relations with
European states, such as could not be expected under a less positive
central government. On the other hand we are told that the long
hesitancy of Rhode Island, which was the last member of the confed-
eracy to adopt the constitution, was largely due to her desire that ' ' her
superior advantages of location, and the possession of what was then
supposed to be the best harbor on the Atlantic coast, should not be sub-
jected to the control of a Congress, which was by that instrument ex-
pressly authorized to regulate commerce w4th foreign nations, and
provide that no preference should be given to the ports of any
State."

The shipbuilding industry was reviving in Boston, as we have seen,
and the general condition of trade was more satisfactory in the spring
and summer of 178S than it had been previously. We get a hint of this'
by way of London, in one of the papers of which city it was said:
" Saturday some dispatches were received from Boston, which are dated
July '20. They contain an account of the builders going on very fast
on the shipping; that four large ships of three hundred tons were to be
launched the beginning of August ; that trade continued brisk, and that
everything was quiet in that quarter." In August the exports from the
port of Boston, " for the year past," were stated to have been ^145,-
140 5j>-. -^d. The principal articles were boards and staves, fish, rum,
flour and provisions, pot and pearl ashes, furs, oil, candles, leather and
shoes, tea, coffee, molasses, and naval stores. We give a few of the
values: Fish, ^ (JO, 245; New England rum, /; 50,620; oil, ^34,804
pot and pearl ashes, ^ 'JO, 485; flour, ^M;3,42(); flaxseed, ^10,:)f;0

M£ir5poliX5ILTv3]lLSilVE.§ SJLH.^Tni^ i^Dlic^rTo:

- TRADE AND COMMERCE. g5

furs, ^10,000. Under date of November 20, 1788, we find the ships
Hc7-ciilcs and OuipJialc advertised for the Isles of France and India:
"any person wishing to adventure to that part of the world may have
an opportunity of sending- goods on freight. The terms may be known
by applying to Thomas Russell at his store in Boston." On the ^oth
of December the ship .-J ^/rvv/Zz/rf was cleared for the Isles of France;
and two months later the Astrcea, belonging to Mr. Derby, of Salem,
sailed for Canton with an assorted cargo, under command of Captain
Magee, who had recently completed a China voyage in the Hope. It
required six months at that period to make up a cargo for such a voy-
age ; iron was brought from the Baltic, wine from Madeira, and ginseng
and specie from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mr. Thomas
Handasyd Perkins accompanied Captain Magee as supercargo, and for
the community in which he was to become an eminent merchant and
an honored citizen, the voyage was to have important results.

The ship Friendship arrived froin Madras April 10, 1780, and Nathan
Bond, a few days later, advertised for sale by auction at his store in
Cornhill her cargo, consisting of chintzes, calicoes, book-muslins, ging-
hams, cottons, sheetings, silks, and saltpetre. Captain Cleveland in
his "Voyages" refers to the "active and lucrative commerce with the
Isles of France and Bourbon, which was continued up to the period of
the conquest of those islands by the British (1810), since which it has
nearly ceased. " Of twenty-three sail of American vessels which ar-
rived at the islands in 1780, sixteen were from Boston and vSalem.

One of the first subjects pressed upon the attention of the Federal
Congress on its assembling in 1780, was the decline of the deep-sea
fisheries, which were suffering not onh^ from adverse legislation abroad
but from tariff duties imposed at home. Fisher Ames said : ' ' Unless
some extraordinar}' measures are taken to support our fisheries, I do
not see what is to prevent their inevitable ruin. It is a fact, that near
one-third of our fishermen are taken from their profession — not for
want of skill and abilities in the art, for here they take the rank of
every nation on earth — but from the local, chilling policy of foreign
nations, who shut us out from the avenues to market. If, instead of
protection from the government, we extend to them oppression, I
shudder for the consequences." Elbridge Gerry said in the same de-
bate: " I will not reiterate the arguments respecting the fisheries: it is
well known to be the best nursery for seamen ; the United States have
no other, and it never can be the intention of gentlemen to leave the

g6 Suffolk county.

navigation of the Union to the mercy of foreij^-n powers. It is of
necessity, then, that we lay the foundation of our maritime importance
as soon as may be, and this can be done only by encourag-ino- our fish-
eries. It is well known that we have a number of rivals in this busi-
ness desirous of excluding us from the fishing banks altogether. This
consideration, of itself, is sufficient to induce a wise legislation to
extend every encouragement to so important a concern." In response
to these representations and appeals, Congress passed an act allowing
a bounty on dried and pickled fish exported from the United States,
and imposing a duty on foreign fish imported into the country. Two
or three years later a specific allowance to vessels employed in the cod-
fishery, graduated according to the size of the vessels, was substituted
for the bounty on exported fish.

It was announced in one of the papers, Jtily 3, 1788: " Orders have
been sent from an American agent in China for building a ship of eight
hundred tons for that trade. We learn with pleasure that the vessel is
to be built in this town." Mr. Samuel Shaw was the agent referred
to, and the vessel was the Massachusetts, which, however, was not
built in Boston, but at Germantown, a promontory in the present town
of Quincy. She was the largest merchant vessel which at that time
had been built on this continent, her keel being one hundred and six-
teen feet in length. She was a frigate-built ship, of eight hundred and
twenty tons, pierced for thirty-six guns, of a remarkably fine model,
and constructed in the most thorough manner. vShe was launched, or
as the newspapers put it, she " slipt into her devoted element," in
September, 1789, in the presence of thousands of spectators. Both the
English and French naval commanders, at that time visiting Boston in
national ships, expressed their admiration of the model of the new
vessel, and it was afterward pronounced as nearly perfect as the then
state of the art would permit, by naval commanders who saw her in
the East Indies. The parties in interest were Messrs. M. M. Hays,
State street, Samuel Parkman, Merchants' Row, William wShaw,
" opposite the Golden Ball " in Dock Square, and Samuel Shaw, who
had returned from China to take charge of the venture. With Captain
Job Prince as commander, and a crew of seventy-five officers and men,
and with twenty mounted guns, the Massachusetts took her departure
at the end of March, 1790, firing a federal salute as she passed the fort.
She made the passage to Batavia in one hundred and fifty-eight days,
landed cargo there, and proceeded to Canton, where she was sold to

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 87

ag-ents of the Portuguese government for $65,000. Mr. Shaw came
back to the United vStates to procure another ship and prepare for an-
other voyage. From this fourth voyage he did not live to return.
Robert Gould Shaw, a prominent Boston merchant of the next gener-
ation, was his nephew.

A few weeks after the Massac/utsctts had started on her long voyage,
the Ecdcralist arrived at New York from Canton, bringing news of the
Columbia and the Washington. These vessels had reached Nootka
Sound in September, 17<S(S, and passed the winter in Friendly Cove, on
what is now known as Vancouver Island. Having secured a good cargo
of furs, Captain Kendrick decided to send Captain Gray home to Bos-
ton with the Columbia while he remained cruising with the sloop. Ac-
cordingly, Captain Gray sailed July 30, 1789, for Canton, calling at the
Hawaiian Islands for provisions, with his cargo consigned to Messrs.
Shaw & Randall. The furs were sold at a much lower price than had
been expected ; the ship was loaded with teas and arrived in Boston
August 10, 171)0, after an absence of nearly three years, and having
sailed about forty -nine thousand miles by her log. She was received
with the greatest enthusiavSm ; it seemed as though the whole popula-
tion of the town were assembled on the wharves to welcome her, and
her salutes were returned from the castle and from the town artillery.
General Lincoln, the collector of the port, went on board with a party
of friends, and Governor Hancock gave a reception to the owners and
officers, which was largely attended. Captain Gray walked up State
street in the procession with a young Hawaiian chief at his side, the
first of that race ever to visit the United States. It was said in one of
the newspapers of the day: " To Messrs. Barrell, Brown, Bulfinch,
Hatch, Darby, and Pintard, who planned the voyage, their country is
indebted for this experiment in a branch of commerce before unessayed
by Americans. . . . The Columbia and Washington are the first
American vessels who have circumnavigated the globe, and the Wash-
ington, which is only of ninety tons burthen, is the first sloop of any
nation ever sent on so great a voyage."

The arrivals from abroad at the port of Boston in the year 1700 were
(50 ships, 7 snows, 15!) brigs, 170 schooners, 59 sloops; total, 455. This
was exclusive of the vessels employed in the coasting trade, which were
supposed to amount to 1,200 sail. The duties on tonnage, foreign and
American, collected in Massachusetts, say on 197,308 tons, from Octo-
ber 1, 1789, to September 30, 1790, amounted to $21,027, and the net

88 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

amount of duties collected on <4"oods, wares and merchandise in the
same year was $o2(),4;iO.

The voyag-e of the Columbia round the g'lobe had broug'ht more re-
nown to its fla;4- than profit to its owners, and Mr. Derby and Mr. Pin-
tard sold out their shares; but the others were sufficiently sang-uine to
send out the ship again on the same errand as before, and she sailed on
the 28th of vSeptember, 1700, with Captain Gray in command and Rob-
ert Haswell as first officer. They reached the Northwest Coast in the
month of June next following, and established headquarters in Clayo-
C[Uot Sound. They put up a log house, and, during the winter, built a
sloop of forty-four tons which they called the Adventure. In the spring
of 1702 Captain Gray sent the Adventure to the northward, under Cap-
tain Haswell, to collect skins, while he cruised in the Colunihia to the
southward, for the same purpose. When in latitude 40° 10', he saw a
long stretch of breakers, and he was convinced that he was off the
mouth of a great river. He approached the bar several times, but
the outsetting current was so strong that he could not cross it, although
he waited several days in the hope of doing so. On the 20th of April,
near the Straits of Fuca, he fell in with the English commander,
George Vancouver, who had just arrived on the coast from England with
three naval vessels, on a voyage of exploration; he had served as a mid-
shipman under Captain Cook, and was soon to discover the island which
bears his name. Captain Gray told Captain Vancouver of his recent
experience off the breakers in latitude 4fi'^, to which the latter replied
that he had seen an opening in that latitude two days before, but sup-
posing it to be a small river, he had not thought it worthy of further
attention. Captain Gray determined to follow the exploration still
further, and headed again for the breakers. At daybreak on the 11th
of May he made out the entrance to the river, and, the wind being
favorable, he bore awav, and ran in, under full sail, through the
breakers. He soon found himself in a magnificent stream of fresh
water, four or five miles wide, up which he sailed ten miles and then
anchored in ten fathoms. Gn the 14th the ship stood up the river four-
teen miles further, and being convinced that it was navigable for an
indefinite distance, the captain decided to return. On the 10th he
landed with his crew near the mouth of the river, and formally nained
it, after his ship, the Columbia, raising the flag, and planting some coins
under a pine-tree, near a bold headland which he called Cape Hancock,
and opposite a knv spit on the other shore which he named Point

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 89

Adams. In due time Captain Gray proceeded to China; and. on the
nth of February, IT'.io, he sailed for home. He arrived in Boston on
the evening- of the '^dth of July, bringing the latest news from Captains
Magee, Kendrick and Ingraham; he reported that Mr. John Howell,
formerly editor of the Argiis, who went out as "historian " with Cap-
tain Magee, had gone with Captain Kendrick to the Northwest Coast.
" The Columbia, when passing the castle, saluted the flag of the United
States, which salute was immediately returned, and on coming t(^
anchor she gave the town a salute of thirteen guns, which was returned
by a welcome huzza. " Her second voyage had been even more brilliant
in achievement than the first ; but the owners were again disappointed
in the pecuniary results, and, a few days after her arrival, she was ad-
vertised by Lewis Hayt, of State street, to be sold at auction, with her
inventor}^ at one of the wharves in Charlestown.

Having followed the fortunes of the good ship Columbia thus far, we
must return in our narrative to 1790. Mr. Thomas H. Perkins, who
accompanied Captain Magee to China in 1789, improved his time dur-
ing his stay there in making himself acquainted with the habits of the
Chinese, and collecting information about the trade of the empire in all
its branches. In particular he ascertained the commercial value of the
sea-otter skins and other furs carried thither from the Northwest Coast,
and this knowledge "formed the basis of action for him afterward in
planning numerous voyages and directing mercantile operations of great
importance between America, Asia, and Europe." Immediately on his
return to Boston, Mr. Perkins sent the brig Hope.^ imder Capt. Joseph
Ingraham, who had sailed as first officer in the Columbia on a voyage
to the Northwest Coast and China. In April, 1791, Captain Ingraham
discovered a cluster of islands in the Pacific, a few iniles south of the
equator, to two of which he gave the names of Washington and Adams.
The islands are now known as part of the Marquesas group, but the
names then given still appear on the maps. The main objects of the
voyage of the Hope were defeated by untoward circumstances, biit before
this could have been known in Boston, Mr. Perkins and Captain Magee
had built another vessel for the same trade. A paragraph in the Inde-
pendent Chronicle^ October 27, 1791, informs the public of the departure
of this ship, and gives us a glimpse at the commercial activity then pre-
vailing in the town : " Upwards of seventy sail of vessels sailed from this
port on Monday last for all parts of the world. Among them was the ship
Margaret^ James Magee, esq., commander, bound on a voyage of ob-

90 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

servation and enterprise to the Northwest Coast of this continent. This
vessel is copper-bottomed, and is said to be the best provided of any
one that ever sailed from this port." Captain Magee carried out the
frame of a vessel with three or four carpenters, and set up the little
craft of about thirty tons under Captain vSwift, then the chief carpenter.
The schooner collected from twelve to fifteen hundred sea-otters during
the season, which added much to the profits of the voyage, as the, skins
were worth thirty or forty dollars a piece when Captain Magee reached
China.

The duties collected at the ports of Massachusetts during the year
ended September ;50, 1791, amounted to $420,707, about one-seventh of
the total collected at all the ports of the United States. The exports
from Massachusetts in the fiscal year 1792 were valued at $o,3S9,922.
Among the exports from Boston in 1792 were fifty thousand barrels of
pork and beef, of which twenty thousand barrels, at least, were packed
here. The foreign entries at the port in 1793 were o7<i, the foreign
clearances 292. The following is from a descriptive sketch written by
Mr. Thomas Pemberton in J 794 : " There are eighty wharves and quays,
chiefly on the east side of the town. Of these the niost distinguished
is Boston pier, or the Long Wharf, which extends from the bottom of
State street one thousand seven hundred and forty-three feet into the
harbor. Here the principal navigation of the town is carried on; ves-
sels of all burdens load and imload; and the London ships generally
discharge their cargoes. It is the general resort of all the inhabitants,
and is more frequented, we think, than any other part of the town."
The same writer says further: " The harbour of Boston is at this date
(November, 1794), crowded with vessels. Eighty-four sail have been
counted lying at two of the wharves only. It is reckoned that not less
than four hundred and fifty sail of ships, brigs, schooners, sloops, and
small craft are now in this port."

At the very time when Mr. Pemberton was writing his " Description
of Boston," Edmund Hart was laying the keel, and preparing to set up
the frame of the frigate Constitution at his wharf, the site of which is
now covered by Constitution Wharf. To show the capabilities of the
town for the construction and eqinpment of ships, it may be said that
Paul Revere furnished the copper, bolts and spikes, drawn from malle-
able copper by a process then new; and Ephraim Thayer, who had a
sho]) at the South End, made the gun-carriages for the frigate. Her
sails were made in the Granary building at the corner of Park and Tre-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 91

mont streets; no other buildini^- in Boston was larg-e enough for the pur-
pose. There were then fourteen rope-walks in Boston, so that there
coiild be no difficulty in obtaining cordag-e ; and there was an incorpo-
rated company for the manufacture of sail-cloth, whose factory was on
the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets, and which was encour-
aged by a bount}' on its product from the General Court ; this product
had increased to eighty or ninety thousand yards per annum, and is said
to have competed successfully with the duck brought from abroad. The
anchors came from Hanover in Plymouth county, and a portion of the
timber used in what was then looked upon as a mammoth vessel, was
taken from the woods of Allentown, on the borders of the Merrimac,
fifty miles awa}-. The Constitution w^as launched October 21, 179T, and
proceeded to sea on her first cruise August 13, 1798.

The foreign commerce of those days required not only large capital
for its successful prosecution, but general ability of a high order. Com-
prehensive and authentic information, shrewd and sound judgment,
and bold enterprise had to be brought together in combination, when
voyages were planned which were to compass the globe, and which
were to be prolonged for two or three years. All the requisite qualities
for such purposes the merchants of Boston possessed ; but as time went
on and their operations multiplied and extended, serious complications
arose, for which neither they nor their country could be held respon-
sible, and difficulties and dangers presented themselves, which no fore-
sight could have anticipated, and no prudence averted. In the long
wars between Great Britain and France, which kept the whole world in
a turmoil, the commerce of neutrals suffered almost, if not quite, as se
verely as that of the belligerents, and American merchants and ship-
owners found themselves almost hopelessly involved to their constant
annoyance, and often to their very great loss. England claimed the
right of seizing French goods from American vessels, and even of capt-
uring neutral ships laden with breadstuffs for France. Later an order
in council arithorized British cruisers to seize all vessels carrying French
goods and bound to a French colony.

On the 1st of February, 1793, a few da5^s after the execution of Louis
XVI, the French government declared war against England and Hol-
land.

The government at Washington, and the more conservative portion
of the community, desired and honestly sought to maintain a strict neu-
trality, as between the combatants. A meeting of merchants and trad-

.)•) SUFFOLK COUNFY.

ers was held in Fancuil Hall, July -^i, at which the Hon. Thomas Rus-
sell was president, and Mr. Thomas H. Perkins was secretary. A com-
mittee, consistint;- of Thomas Russell, vStephen Higginson, John Coffin
Jones,' Nathaniel Fellows, Samuel Brown, Charles Jarvis, and Eben
Parsons, reported a series of resolutions, which were adopted by an
unanimous vote, sustaining- a proclamation recently issued (April
^l-l) by President Washington in favor of neutrality, and protesting
against the fitting out of armed vessels or privateers by American citi-
zens. The sentiment of the meeting was this: The preservation of
neutrality is important to the interest and honor of the country.

Party feeling was intense, and it divided the community even in the
presence of threatened danger from abroad. The Federalists had a
bias of which they were more or less unconscious, for Great Britain,
and the Republicans, for France. Samuel Adams, in his first address
as governor of Massachusetts, quotes from Montesquieu; and his biog-
raplier says that there is scarcely a document of his, during his admin-
istration, which does not contain evidences of his decided sympathy
with the French Revolution. The merchants as a class were Federalists,
and it was charged that their meeting in Fanueil Hall was a political
demonstration, and that it had been held for party purposes. It had
been asserted at the meeting, as a fact generally known by the inhab-
itants, that, two or three days previously, privateers, fitted out and
armed, had sailed from the port, and that others were now fitting
out, some manned and to be manned partly by Frenchmen and partly
by citi/.ens of the United States. A town meeting was convened, there-
fore, July 2(), at which the Hon. Thomas Dawes presided, and it was
positively declared "that there was no just foundation for the assertion,
but that' the disposition of the citizens of Boston is entirely in favor of
observing the rules of a strict neutrality respecting the powers at war

in Europe."

France, as a reputed friend and ally, was hardly less exacting and
overbearing than Great Britain. George Cabot spoke the truth in 1707,
when he said: "History will recall the fact that France has been
willing to see us independent of Britain, but not independent of her-
self.""'' There w^as a treaty between the United States and France, by
which "free bottoms were declared to make free ships;" but this prm-
ciple was not recognized by the French men-of-war on the coast in their
interference with American commerce. The Columbian Ccntind of
September 11, I71i:3, says: "The prizes taken by the Marseilles

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 03

privateer, now in this port, are seven in number, besides the ship Presi-
dent., of Baltimore ; "' and, in reference to this vessel, it is added : " wShe
is an American bi:ilt and reg-istered vessel, owned by Americans, sail-
ing- under American colors, had American property on board, and has
been a constant trader between Maryland and Great Britain. The pre-
tence for a capture was that she had English property on board, which,
if every article had been, would not warrant the outrage." On the
other hand, the British vessels of war captured a large number of
American ships with their cargoes, for alleged violation of the paper
blockade of the French ports, and on the suspicion that French
property was covered by the American flag ; and this suspicion extended
to all vessels bound to or from a French port. The decisions of the
prize courts were often arbitrary and flagrantly unjust; and the de-
meanor of the naval officers was in many instances dictatorial and in-
sulting. ]\Iuch hardship and serious disaster ensued, and excitement
and indignation prevailed in every shipping community along the coast.
But, bad a& it was here, the state of things in England was far worse.
London dates in the Boston papers to May t>4, 1793, reported: ''The
bankruptcies in England are numerous, beyond all belief."

At a meeting of the merchants of Boston held September l->, 1T93, a
committee was appointed, consisting of Thomas Russell, Stephen Hig-
ginson, John Coffin Jones, Calet) Davis, and David vSears, to receive
and transmit to the president "authenticated evidence of injuries done
to our commerce by the armed vessels of any belligerent power."

Barry, writing of this period, and of British interference with
American commerce, says: "Instead, however, of resorting to force
for redress — though an embargo for thirty days and sequestrating reso-
kitions were advocated by some — a special embassy was instituted by
Washington; and John Jay, a man of the loftiest and most disinterested
patriotism, was dispatched to the Court of St. James, for the purpose
of negotiation." There was a temporary embargo, although we do not
find it mentioned in the histories ; for the Centinel, the organ of the
Federalists in Boston, reproduced the following paragraph from a Hali-
fax newspaper of June 19, \T.)\: "Tuesday arrived several vessels
from New York and Boston. These vessels have been for a long time
detained in the American States by the embargo. But Congress, find-
ing at length that the embargo effected no other purpose but to leave
the produce of their farmers to perish on their hands, and to starve
their mechanics in their seaports, have very prudently put an end to the

94 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

measure, to the great reg'ret of the merchants, farmers, and fishermen
of Nova Scotia, whose exertions in supplying the West India Islands
have been such as to show what this country is capable of doing in any
like emergency. "

Mr. Madison, then in Congress, was not regarded as either intelli-
gent or friendly in his views relating to American commerce. Com-
paring him with Mr. Ames and Mr. Dexter, of Massachusetts, the Ccii-
////r/ caustically asks, "Where did Mr. Madison acquire his knowledge
of coinmerce ? " and it thus answers its own question : " Not surely in
the interior of Virginia, where no other commerce is transacted than
buying and selling of negroes. "

The burning of seven rope-walks and other property on the 8()th of
June, 17114, was one of the memorable events in the history of the town
of Boston. These walks occupied the whole west side of Pearl street,
between Milk and High streets, and were owned respectively by Ed-
ward Howe, Jeffrey Richardson, vSamuel Emmons, John Codman, Will-
iam McNeill, Isaac Davis and Nathaniel Torrey. The weather had
been warm and dry, and the hemp, cordage and tar on storage made a
furious fire. A large number of stores and dwellings were burned, a
hundred families were turned out of house and home, and a hmidred
or more mechanics were deprived of daily employment. Among those
who lost their stores were Thomas Russell, Thomas Dawes, vSamuel
Dillaway and Nehemiah vSomes; and Thomas Lamb, Nathaniel Ap-
pleton, J(jb Wheelwright and Daniel Sergeant were among those who
lost their dwelling houses. To prevent future disaster of a similar nat-
ure, the townspeople granted the flats at the bottom of the Common,
— " the Old Round Marsh " — for the erection of new rope factories in
place of tho.se destroyed, on condition that no more should be built
upon the old site.

On the l?th of August the " copper-bottomed " ship Margaret., Cap-
tain Magee, arrived from Canton after a voyage of six months, "and
we doubt not," said the announcement, " has returned with I'emittances
which will reward the enterprising patriotism of the owners." vShe
brought the news of the lainented death of Mr. vSamuel vShaw, off the
Cape of Good Hope, on the 30tli of May.

Mr. Jay arrived in England June 15, 17'.i4, and, five months later,
November 1!), concluded a treaty with Lord Grenville. This negotia-
tion, which meant so much for the people of the United vStates, was
only an incident in the administration of public affairs in Great Britain,

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 95

and it is not strange, perhaps, that there is no reference whatever to it
in Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, when we remember all the difficulties
with which the great minister was contending at the time. The cam-
paign in Holland had been disastrous, and, during the next winter, that
country was completely (n'errun by the French troops. Mr. Pitt wrote
to a friend, October 1-4, 1T*.»4: "Nearer home than Holland, every-
thing looks ill." AVhile prosecuting the war, he had to deal with a
powerful opposition at home, with an impracticable sovereign, with a
populace on the verge of insurrection, and with the people of Ireland
rent asunder by religious controversy. Mr. Jay's treaty was received
by President Washington March 7, 1795, and its ratification was ad-
vised bv him June 24. It was condemned by many in the community,
even before its provisions had been made known, and, after its ratifica-
tion by the Senate, the popular feeling was largely against it. Samuel
Adams, then governor of Massachusetts, was among the patriots who
disapproved of it. In an address to the Legislature, he said: " I am
constrained, with all due respect to otir constituted authorities, to de-
clare that the treaty appears to me to be pregnant with evil. It con-
trols some of the powers specialh' vested in Congress for the security
of the people ; and I fear that it may restore to Great Britain such an
influence over the government and people of this country as may not
be consistent with the general welfare." One of his principal objec-
tions related to the clause which conceded to Great Britain the right to
search American vessels on the high seas, an assumption of maritime
power to which he thought it disgraceful for America to yield, and
which a firm front on its part would have obliged England to relinquish.
At a town meeting held in Boston July 13, 1795, resolutions were
adopted by a large majorit}- to the effect that the treaty was " injurious
to the commercial interests of the LTnited vStates, derogatory to their
national honor and independence, and might be dangerous to the peace
and happiness of their citizens." A few days later, at a meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce, more conservative counsels prevailed; and a
memorial, acquiescing in the terms of the treat}', was addressed by the
Chamber to the president, in replying to which, he expressed " his
satisfaction to learn that the commercial part of his fellow citizens,
whose interests were thought to be most deeply affected, so generally
considered the treaty as calculated npon the whole to procure important
advantages to the country." The action of the town meeting also had
been sent to the president, who, in acknowledging its receipt, says one

96 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

historian, " orave a gentle rebuke to the Bostonians on this occasion,
which they indeed justly deserved, but which they would not have re-
ceived from any other president, without a prompt expression of their
feeling's."

Early in 17'.)8 the rulers of France issued a decree prohibiting the
entrance into a French port of any vessel which at a previous part of
her v^oyage had touched at an English possession, and declaring good
prize all vessels having merchandise on board, the production or manu-
facture of England or her colonies, whoever the owners of the merchan-
dise might be. This was regarded as being little short of a declaration
of war, and authority was given to the American navy to seize vessels
under the French flag, which had committed encroachments upon
American commerce ; commercial intercourse between France and the
United vStates was suspended ; treaties were declared to be no longer
binding upon the latter; and letters of marque and reprisal were
authorized. It was at this juncture, when French ships of war were
capturing American vessels under the pretence that they were carry-
ing contraband goods, and when British ships of war were claiming
the right of search for British subjects beneath the American flag, that
the outraged patriotism of the people manifested itself in a notable
way. The ladies of Charleston, vSouth Carolina, built ihe John Adams,
and tendered her to the government ; the inhabitants of Newburyport
and its neighborhood built and presented the McTriniac; and the mer-
chants of Salem built and presented the Fsscx, the first ship of war of
the United States to double both the Capes of Good Hope and Horn.
The merchants of Boston were not to be outdone in loyal devotion to
the government, and in the CcntincI of June 27, 1708, the following
" Notice " appeared: " A subscription will be opened this day for the
raising of a fund to purchase or build one or more ships of war, to be
loaned to this government for the service of the United States. Those
who would wish to join in this testimonial of public spirit are requested
to meet in the chamber over Taylor's Insurance office [14 State street],
at 1 o'clock precisely, to affix their signatures and make the necessary
arrangements." Three days later it was stated that a number of citi-
zens had met at Taylor's Insurance office, in response to the call, and
that " last evening the amount subscribed amounted to $11 5, 250 " ; and,
further: " We will not omit mentioning that the Hon. William Phillips
added $10,000 to this free-will offering. God bless him for it! " The
subscription loan amounted to $i;}(J,500; other subscribers were David

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 97

Sears, Stephen Hig-g-inson, Eben Parsons, John Codman, Joseph
Coolidg'e & Son, Theodore Lyman, Boott & Pratt, Samuel Parkman,
Samuel Eliot, Benjamin Joy, James & Thomas H. Perkins, Thomas
Walley, Thomas C. Amory, Benjamin & Nathaniel (xoddard and Josiah
Quincy.

Only a few weeks before, the merchants and tradesmen of England
had offered their contributions for the support of their government in
its great exigency. To receive the gifts, hustings, as though for an
election, had been raised beneath one of the piazzas of the Roj^al Ex-
change in London, and the receipts on the first day were ^-i'sOOO.
Mr., afterward Sir Robert, Peel, father of the future prime-minister,
and a manufacturer of calicoes at Bury, in Lancashire, paid in,
from a loyal impulse, ^10,000. In relating the fact Mr. Macpherson,
in his ' ' Histor}' of Commerce, " asks : "Is there an}^ other country on the
globe that could produce a manufacturer who can spare such a sum? "
Certainly, according to their ability, the loyal business men of the
United States were as generous as their brethren beyond the sea.

On the 22d of August, 1708, the keel of the new frigate was laid in
the yard of Mr. Hart, the builder of the Cojistitution^ and on the 20th
of the next May, receiving the name of Boston, she was laimched, with
much rejoicing, in the presence of the president of the United States,
John Adams, the lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth, Moses
Gill, and an immense concourse of spectators. In the account given of
the launch, it w^as said: " A more excellent piece of naval architecture
cannot be produced in the United States. The dispatch used in her
construction, the neatness of her workmanship, with the superior
quality and durability of her material, do honor to Captain Hart, the
master builder. Captain Little, her commander, the superintending
committee of subscribers, and to the mechanics of the town. She is
about eight hundred tons, and has the figure of an aboriginal warrior
for her head. " The Boston was rigged and ec|uipped "with patriotic
celerit}^" and, on the 12th of June, she hauled off into the stream and
began to enlist her crew^ She sailed on her first cruise, under the
command of Captain George Little, July 25, and during the next ten
or twelve years did much effective work.

Notwithstanding the perplexities and perils to which we have re-
ferred as superadded to the ordinary risks of ocean commerce, the
merchants of Boston, Salem, and other communities went forward in
the prosecution of their plans with their accustomed energy and spirit.

98 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Captain Cleveland, in his journals, nientions four Boston ships met by
him on the Northwest Coast in the spring of IT'JO, and says that ten
others were to be dispatched thither from Boston during that season;
and while at Calcutta, in the following winter, he records: "During
the three months of my residence in Calcutta no less than twelve ships
were laden with the produce and manufactures of Hindostan for the
United States, whose cargoes would average about two hundred thou-
sand dollars each."

In 170.S the Messrs. Perkins bought and sent to Canton direct the
ship Tlioiiias Russell, and Mr. Ephraim Bumstead, then the oldest ap-
prentice in their counting-house, went out as supercargo. In 1803 they
made an arrangement with this young man to go to China and establish
himself there for the transaction of their o\\n\ business, and of such
other as might offer. Mr. Bumstead took passage in a ship from
Providence, belonging partly to merchants there and partly to the
Messrs. Perkins, and had as his clerk John P. Cushing, who had also
been in the employ of the firm in Boston. vSoon after their arrival in
China, Mr. Bumstead became very ill and embarked on a voyage for
the benefit of his health, expecting to return before long; but he died
at sea, and Mr. Cushing, at the early age of sixteen, found himself in
sole charge, with inany consignmehts to care for and important con-
cerns to manage. He had "a good head," and he conducted affairs
with so much ability that he was soon after taken into the firm, re-
maining in it until its dissolution. He visited the United vStates in
1807, but soon returned to China, and did not leave it again for twenty
years. " He was well repaid for his undertaking by the result."

Mr. Cushing was succeeded in the management of the Canton house
by Mr. Thomas T. Forbes, a nephew of the Perkinses, who was lost
soon after in the Canton River with his yacht Haidcc. Mr. Cushing
was in Europe when the news of this calamity came to hand, and he
returned immediately to China to protect the interests of his firm. He
and Mr. Forbes had been on intimate terms with the firm of Russell &
Co., of which Mr. Samuel Rus.sell was then at the head. It was now
arranged to reorganize this house, and to transfer the business of Per-
kins & Co. to it. Mr. Augustine Heard was admitted as a partner, and
Mr. Forbes's youngest brother, John, then sixteen years of age, as a
clerk. Mr. John M. Forbes subsequently became a partner, and,
later, his older brother. Captain Robert Bennet Forbes, who was at the
head of the house for several years, and of whom we shall speak

"^;^;-?^^^~^^-""^mi^

'^^Yi^-'-^-rf'^-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 99

again presently. Mr. Russell Sturgis, afterward of Baring- Brothers &
Co., was admitted to the firm in 1842.

Another youth, who was to become a very intelligent and successful
merchant, graduated from the counting-house of the Messrs. Perkins
in the early 3'ears of their business, and went to sea in one of their
ships. This was Williain vSturgis, who had been with them for a few
months only, when it became necessar}' for him, on the death of his
father (1T98), to push his fortunes for himself; and he shipped before
the mast in the E.liza., one hundred and thirty-.six tons, then fitting out
for a voyage to the Northwest Coast, San Bias on the western coast
of Mexico, and China. The vessel was under the command of Captain
James Rowan, who had made several voyages in the same trade, and had
been very successful in his intercourse with the Indians. On reaching
the Coast Captain Rowan advanced young Sturgis to be his assistant
in the trading department; and the latter displayed so much industry,
ability, and tact in his new position, and had improved hiinself so
much in the study of navigation, that he attracted the attention of
other shipmasters, and was called from the forecastle of the Eliza to
be the chief mate of the Ulysses, the officers and crew of which vessel
were in revolt against their captain. He proceeded in her to China,
where he met the Eliza, and, by consent of all parties, joined her
again as third inate. Of this voyage the Messrs. Perkins wrote to
one of their partners, then in London, November 9, 1799, as follows:
" We wrote you that the EJlza had succeeded on the Northwest, and had
proceeded to China ; that is, she was about leaving the Coast for China.
We presume from the letters, which are dated off vSt. Bias, that she
wcnild dispose of her dr}' goods for about one hundred per cent. ad.
vance. The collection of skins exceeded that of Magee in the Margaret.^
or Swift in the Hazard, although they were two years, and the Eliza
ninety days."

Reference to another of these voyages will throw further light upon
the way in which this distant trade was carried on, and indicate what
were its perils and its profits. The ship Atahualpa, Captain Dixey
Wildes, sailed from Boston, August ;31, 1800. vShe was owned by Messrs.
Theodore Lyman, Kirk Boott and William Pratt. She was of 209 tons
and mounted eight guns, and her cargo consisted of broadcloth, flannel,
blankets, powder, mu.skets, watches, tools, beads, wire, looking-glasses
and various other articles. »She remained on the Coast about eighteen
months, until the end of September, 1802, "cruising tip and down

|()(i SUFFOLK COUNTY.

throuoh the danj^crous waters of the t^Teat northwestern archipelago
from the forty-ei^^-hth to the fifty-ninth parallels of latitude, trading
with the capricious and treacherous natives, repeatedly baffled by con-
trary winds, and encountering constant perils." At length, having
collected about thirty-five hundred skins and twenty-four hundred tails
of the sea otter, with a few other furs, the Ataliualpa sailed for China,
touching for supplies at the Sandwich Islands. The skins sold for
twenty dollars each, and the tails for two dollars ; and the proceeds
were invested in teas, silks, porcelains, satins, siigars, etc., to the value
of over fifty-seven thousand dollars. The good ship arrived in Bos-
ton harbor, June 17, iSO:;, after an absence of ten hundred and twenty
days. Her supercargo on this voyage was Mr. Ralph Haskins, who
soon became a prominent merchant on his own account.

From June 11, ISOO, to January 9, ISOo, 34,357 sea otter skins were
imported into China, worth on the average from eighteen to tw^enty
dollars each. Of this quantity, saj^s Pitkin, 30,407 w^ere carried in
Boston vessels. During the same period, 1,048,750 seal skins were
imported, worth on the average from eighty to ninety cents each.
" Though the first adventures in the fur trade met with a good market
at Canton, as the number increased the profits diminished, and it was
always in the power of the Cohoang, to be regulated by its members at
their pleasure. " The Cohoang, or Co-Hong, was a trading company
consisting oi thirteen native merchants, which had a monopoly of the
foreign trade, and was held responsible for the collection of the revenue,
being the only medium of communication between the government
and foreigners. It ]xiid a considerable sum for the exclusive privileges
which it enjoyed. Houcjua was at its head earl)' in this century — a
man of high character and of great influence.

To return to William Sturgis and his fortunes: On his arrival in
Boston in the FJiut in the spring of 1800, he was engaged as first mate
and assistant trader on l)oard the Caroline.^ owned by James and Thomas
Laml) and others, then fitting out for a three years voyage to the Pacific
and China, under Captain Charles Derby, of vSalem. The ship touched
at the Sandwich Islands on the way out, and Captain Derby died there ;
whereupon, Mr. vSturgis, then nineteen years of age, became command-
er of the vessel and sole manager of her business. He came back to
Boston in 1S()3, having made the voyage "to the great satisfaction and
profit (jf his employers. " He made another voyage, terminating in June
1800. In the autumn of the same year he started on his fourth voy-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 101

age round the world in the Ataliualpa^ with supervision over two other
vessels, belonging to the same owners, already on the Coast. He spoke
the language of the Indians, studied their characteristics carefulh", and
was always successful in his dealings with them. He returned to Bos-
ton in June, 1808, and, soon after, sailed in the same ship for Canton
direct, with an outfit exceeding three hundred thousand Spanish milled
dollars. He was accompanied on his vo3"age by Mr. John Bromfield,
as supercargo, who was under engagement to remain in Canton for a
year as Mr. Lyman's factor, and who, afterward, became an influential
Boston merchant. It was on this voyage that the ship had a desperate
encounter with pirates in the mouth of the Canton River. Captain
Stiirgis reached Boston again in 1810, and joined j\Ir. John Bryant in
business under the firm name of Bryant & vSturgis. Their business was
principally with the Pacific Coast and with China, and "from the year
1810 to 1840 more than half of the trade carried on with those coun-
tries, from the United States, was under their direction. They occasion-
ally, however, had commercial intercourse with nearly every quarter
of the globe."

The Thomas Rrissr// was dispatched in May, 1800, under command
of Captain Henry Jackson, to Malaga and ports in the Mediterranean,
loaded with teas and nankeens, " the ultimate object of the voyage being
the purchase of a cargo in Calcutta, and the speedy conversion of the
present lading into dollars to be the governing object in the opera-
tions." The trade to the Mediterranean had been seriously interrupt-
ted by the Barbary corsairs.

Earlv in the year 1805 an association was formed, called the Boston
Importing Compan}', with the design of regulating the shipping trade
with Liverpool and London with special reference to the interests of
the Boston importers. vStockholders, as we suppose, were to have the
preference in the shipment of goods, and when the rates were high,
they would receive a rebate in the shape of a larger dividend on their
shares. "We judge also that the company was to import goods on its
own account. An advertisement appeared in some of the newspapers
May 8, as follows: "The associates of the Boston Importing Company
are hereb}' notified that an as.sessment of ten dollars on each share is to
be paid to the subscriber on or before the 17th inst. By order of the
Board of Trustees. T. W. Storrow, Treasurer." A few days later
Wood & Rollins announced that the ship Sa//f, Captain Seth Webber,
"intended for a regular ship between this port and Liverpool," would

10^ SUFFOLK COUNTY.

have immediate dispatcli ; she was o^)) tons, " coppered to the bends,"
and had elej^-ant accommodations for passengers. Whether this vessel,
and the others nm by the company, were purchased or chartered, we
have no means of knowint^ positively. When the Legislature met,
John Gore and others in behalf of the company applied for an act of
incorporation ; the committee to which the question was referred re-
ported favorably, but its report was not accepted, and the petitioners had
leave to withdraw. We have been unable to find Mr. Gore's petition
on the files at the vState House. The Sally returned in vSeptember,
making- the passage in twenty-eight days, and bringing several passen-
gers, among them Captain Winslow Lewis, Samuel Appleton, Daniel
Parker, jr., and Henry Gassett, jr. vShe took her departure tw(^ months
later, under the command of Captain Lewis. Ammidon & Boyle, who
seem to have been the agents of the line, advertised the copper-bottomed
ship Packet^ Captain Scott, to sail October 15 ; and again in the following
spring. They also advertised in the spring of 1800, "the Boston Im-
porting Company's ship Romeo, John Le Bosquet, for Rotterdam and
London, to sail about March 25, and return from London early in the
fall." Other regular traders to London, not controlled by the company
of which we have been speaking, were the President Adams, John
Adams, Neiv Packet, and Bosto/i, and t(j London, the iVezu Galen.
They were advertised by Haven, Williams & Co., Trott & Blake and
Wood & Rollins.

Referring to the Boston Importing Company, Mr. Sabine says:
"The War of 1812 put an end to our intercourse with England, and
the company closed their affairs. One of the ships was detained by
France, but was released to bring home Mr. Armstrong, the American
minister." We have succeeded in fully verifying this statement. Gen-
eral Armstrong arrived at New London, November, 1810, in the ship
Sally, Captain vScott, from Bordeaux. The Sally had been "seques-
tered" at St. Sebastian, June 1, and released by the emperor in Sep-
tember for General Armstrong's use.

The growth of the American mercantile marine from the adoption of
the Federal constitution to 1807 was something amazing. During this
period of eighteen years, the registered tonnage of the countr}^ was
multiplied seven fold; from 1797 to 1807 the increase was a quarter of
a million of tons, or forty-two per cent. The figures for 1807 were
848,300. Of this amount, more than one-third, 310, o09 tons, belonged to
Massachusetts. While the great powers in Europe had been intent

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 103

on the destruction of each other's commerce, the merchants of the
United vStates had seen their g-reat opportunity and had made the most
of it. The old colonial and commercial systems, to which the European
governments had clung so pertinaciously, had, under the necessities of
the case, been either entirely abandoned, or greatly relaxed ; and the
British Government had been obliged to open even the trade of the West
India Islands to the American flag, from time to time, for a limited
period. But, whether from a jealousy of the growing commercial power
of this young nation, or from a haughty and fatuous indifference to the
rights of others upon the ocean, British officials persisted in their inter-
ference with the American flag, and in grossly insulting it. American
ships were seized, and were ruthlessly condemned by the British
admiralty courts. Oppressive orders in council followed, of which we
shall speak more particularly, and the people of the seaboard towns
were thoroughly aroused and indignant. Even the Federalist leaders
in the town of Boston, which was the last stronghold of conservatism,
' ' were properly helpless before the righteous indignation which blazed
up more fiercely than ever when the English, not content with despoil-
ing our merchant vessels, fired upon the national flag, flying from a
national ship." "If Mr. Jeff'erson," says an able writer, Mr. Cabot
Lodge, " had at that supreme moment declared war and appealed to
the country, he would have had the cordial support of the mass of the
people not only in New England but in Boston itself." The president,
however, relied upon his theory of non-intercourse, and pressed the
Embargo Act through both houses of Congress ; as the consequence of
this, the support of New England in the trying times w^hich were at
hand was lost to the administration, and Federalism, in this part of the
country, had a new lease of life.

" wSo bitter," says the same writer, "was the feeling against England,
so strong the sense of wounded national pride, that even the embargo
was received in Boston at first with silent submission ; but its operation
told so severely upon both town and State that hostility to the adminis-
tration rapidly deepened and strengthened." The agricultural inter-
est suffered hardly less than the commercial; shipbuilding was sus-
pended, the ships lay idle at the wharves, and the fisheries were aban-
doned. The gloomy days of the Boston Port Bill seemed to have come
back again. "The transfer of flour and grain from the Southern vStates
to the northern and eastern ports was interdicted ; and when this was
found to be very injurious, the president proposed to grant license to

104 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

such individuals to transport flour for the necessary consumption of the
people as Governor Sullivan should select or designate. Great com-
plaints were made against this measure as partial and unjust. A petition
was preferred to Congress at this time for liberty to send hsh to foreign
markets as had formerly been done, and when there were large quan-
tities on hand exposed to decay in a short time; but the request was not
granted, nor was any sympathy expressed for the petitioners." Why
the American people should have been thus punished, and, especially,
why their domestic commerce should have been made to suffer, because
foreigners had dishonored their flag on the ocean, it is very difficult at
this day to conceive.

The Columbian Cciiti)tcF)i March ;jO, 1S08, gives a flagrant instance
of the destruction of American property by French cruisers. The ship
Pocahontas had arrived from Liverpool two days before, and reported
as follows: On the 1st of March she "was broi:ght to and boarded
from the French frigates La Hcruiionc and H or tense, of forty guns each,
which, having been to the West Indies with troops, were on the return,
and were then cruizing off the mouth of the channel. Immediately on
the French officers boarding. Captain Harris was ordered on board the
French commodore, and directions were given that the stores should
be removed from the Pocahontas, and the ship burnt. These orders
were afterwards countermanded, the stores returned, and Captain Harris
was compelled to take on board forty-seven persons belonging to the
following American ships which had been taken and burnt by these
French national frigates, viz. : William, Rockwell, from Liverpool for
Savannah, Flirja, Dunbar, from Liverpool for New York, Brntns,
of Duxbury, Smith, from Liverpool. The Pocahontas thus escaped
conflagration from the necessity the French were under of getting rid
of their American prisoners, being in want of provisions; but before
they left her, they flung into the sea all the crates of ware they could
come at, seized the letters, papers, &c. , and wantonly destroyed them,
and Captain Harris was then compelled to steer to the westward." A
statement of these facts was made in a protest befcjre a notary public,
and it was said further, "that the Frenchmen wished to fall in with
some vessel with bale goods [something more valuable than earthen-
ware and salt], and intended to look out for the Sally, Captain Lewis,
of this port, who was to sail soon after, the Ceres, Captain Webber, and
other valuable American ships belonging to this port."

The (^r//////^/ made the following comment on these outrages: "If
we complain of the decisions of the British Admiralty courts, when

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 105

without any treaty to oruide them; if we condemn the conduct of British
officers on board our vessels; if we denounce the outrag'e of the de-
graded East India Company's lieutenant at Canton ; what language may
we not use in relating the above outrages, committed by Bonaparte's
iniperial officers, acting under his orders, against the vessels and prop-
ertv of a nation between whom and France a most solemn treaty exists?
and which has been inviolably kept on our part. vSuch perfidy would
disgrace Algiers ! While treaty stipulations are performed, even the
tyrant of Algiers is a friend ; and in war, his prizes are tried, before
condemned. But Bonaparte's decrees are executed by fire, and not by
admiralty decrees: His execution outstrips his threats I What he can-
not keep, he will destro}^ ; and yet at this moment, his conduct finds
suppliant apologists; and those apologists have the impudence to call
upon the American people for their suffrages and support! "

The cargo of the Brutus, which sailed for Boston from Liverpool in
company with the Pocahoutas, consisted of 155 tons of salt, 12 tons of
coal, 100 crates of crockery ware, 2 casks and 2 cases of merchandise.
Her sails and stores, and about a thousand letters, were taken out of
the ship; and she was then burned. The ships Sally, }\ickct, and Presi-
dent Adams, with cargoes of dry goods for the spring trade, arrived in
safety a few" days later.

In 1800 there was a temporar}' relaxation of hostilities, the Embargo
Act was modified in certain particulars, and a thousand vessels sailed
from these shores for foreign ports. Even from 1807 to 1810, the reg-
istered tonnage of the United vStates increased by more than fifteen per
cent. The figures for the latter year were 081,2(V.), a total not reached
again for a third of a century, not until 18i;3, when it was 1,003,032.
The tonnage of all kinds in ISlO was 1,421,748. This total was reached
and exceeded in 1820, owing to the rapid growth of the coastwise trade
at that period. The tonnage of all kinds owned in Massachusetts in 1810
was 405,203, more than the combined tonnage, according to Pitkin, of
the vStates of New York and Pennsylvania. It should be added, how-
ever, that the tonnage owned in the city of New York at that time was
considerably in excess of that owned in Boston.

Writing of these times, Mr. Green, the impartial English historian,
says: "By a violent stretch of her rights as a combatant, England de-
clared the whole coast occupied by France and its allies, from Dantzig
to Trieste, to be in a state of blockade. It was impossible to enforce
such a ' paper blockade, ' even by the immense force at her disposal ; and

lOG SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Napoleon seized on the opportunity to retaliate by the entire exclusion
of British commerce from the Continent, an exclusion which he trusted
would end the war by the ruin it would bring on the English manu-
facturers. Decrees issued from Berlin and Milan ordered the seizure of
all British exports and of vessels which had touched at any British port.
The result of these decrees would, he hoped, prove the ruin of the
carrying trade of Britain, which would pass into the hands of neutrals
and especially of the Americans ; and it was to prevent this result that
the Grenville ministry issued orders in council in Januar}^, 1807, by
which neutral vessels voyaging to coasts subject to the blockade already
declared were compelled on pain of seizure to touch previously at some
British port. " It was this action, so far as concerned Great Britain,
that led to the Non-intercourse Act. Napoleon failed in his effort to
exclude British goods from the Continent ; an enormous contraband
trade sprang up, and it is said that the French army wore overcoats
made in Leeds and shoes from Northampton; but, indirectly, this policy
added to the already serious complications in which the relations, com-
mercial and political, between Great Britain and the United States were
involved. The emperor adroitly met the Non-intercoi;rse Act by an
offer to withdraw the restrictions he had imposed on neutral trade, if
America would compel England to show equal respect to her flag ; but
no concession could be obtained from the cabinet of Mr. vSpencer Per-
ceval, who had succeeded Lord Grenville, and whom Mr. Green de-
scribes as "an industrious mediocrity of the narrowest type. " England's
insistence on the "right of search" embittered the controversy even
more than her arbitrary seizure of American vessels ; there was too
much British blood in the veins of the people of the United States to
allow them to submit tamely to such pretensions. In 1811 Napoleon
removed the obstacles which he had placed in the way of American
trade, and the Non-intercour.se Act was repealed so far as related to
France. But, as we have said, no corresponding ccjncession could be
obtained from the Engli.sh Government, "though the closing of the
American ports inflicted a heavier blow on English commerce than any
which the orders could have aimed at preventing. During 1811 , indeed,
Engli.sh exports were reduced by one-third of their whole amount. In
America, the irritation at last brought about a cry for war which, in
.spite of the resolute opposition of the New P^ngland vStates, forced Con-
gress to raise an army of twenty-five thousand men, and to declare the
impressment of seamen sailing under an American flag to be piracy.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 10?

England at last consented to withdi^aw her orders in council, but the
concession was made too late to avert a declaration of war on the part
of the United States in June, 1812."

When Napoleon was on his way to Elba in the sprin<i; of 1814, in the
charge of Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher, he talked freely of all these
events. He spoke of what passed between himself and Lord Sidmouth,
when, after the peace of Amiens (18()2), an attempt was made to renew
the former treaty of commerce between the two countries ; this attempt
failed because the English minister was unable to accept the emperor's
explanation of ''perfect reciprocity, " nainely, "that if France took so
many millions of English goods, England should take as many millions
of French produce in return. " Napoleon claimed that, ultimately, the
Americans admitted the justness of his principles of commerce. For-
inerly, he said, they brought over some millions of tobacco and cotton,
took specie in return, and then went empty to England, where they
furnished themselves with British manufactures. He refused to admit
their tobacco and cotton, unless they took from France an eqiiivalent in
French produce ; and, he added, they finally yielded to this system as
being just. As compared with England, however, the trade of the
United vStates with France was small. Mr. George Cabot said that, of
all the surplus products of the United States, England bought annually
one-half; and, of all our foreign purchases, she supplied two-thirds.

On the 4:th of April, 1812, Congress passed an act laying an embargo
on all ships and vessels in ports and places within the limits or jiiris-
diction of the United vStates, cleared or not cleared, bound to any foreign
port or place; with a proviso permitting the departure of foreign
vessels, either in ballast, or with the merchandise on board the same,
when notified of the act. As the summer approached it became more
and more plain that war was imminent, and the general anxiety in-
creased proportionately. Early in June the Massachusetts House of Rep-
resentatives, by nearly a two-thirds vote, resolved, " that an offensive war
against Great Britain, under the present circumstances of this countr)^,
would be in the highest degree impolitic, unnecessary, and ominous;
and that the great body of the people of this Commonwealth are
decidedly opposed to this measure, which they do not believe to be
demanded by the honor or interest of the nation." The Senate con-
curred, and the Legislature sent to Congress a memorial against the
war. It was, however, without avail; and, on the Kith of June, the
president of the United States signed the bill declaring war against

108 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Great Britain. The declaration was officially notified to the Legis-
lature of Massachusetts on the 23d of the same month; and, a day or
two later, a resolve was passed, asking- the governor to appoint a fast,
"on account of the great and distressing calamity which God in his
holy Providence has permitted to be brought on the people of these
United States."

" The general sentiment in Boston seems to have settled down into a
determination to do nothing in active support of offensive war, but
resolutely to defend themselves against any foreign aggression. This
they were called upon to do before the war closed." The suffering
that followed was very great. A vast amount of capital, and a large
number of vessels and seamen were thrown out of employ; the prices
of imported articles rose enormously ; the produce of the country was
held at high rates ; and it was difficult to supply family wants. Mr.
Nathaniel Silsbee, an influential inerchant, who had been a successful
shipmaster, and was afterward a senator of the United States, says, in
his autobiography: "On the ISth of June, 1812, after an embargo of
sixty days, the government of the United States declared war against
England, which had a most depressing effect upon the commercial
interests of the country; the vessels that were at home were generally
dismantled and hauled up, except such as were suitable for privateers;
and although a much larger portion of vessels and propert}' which
happened to be abroad at the commencement of the war escaped
capture than was expected, yet a number of these vessels and a consid-
erable amount of property fell into the hands of the enemy, and caused
large losses to the coinmercial part of the community."

Colonel Perkins, reviewing this period, writes in his journals:
" Embargoes and non-intercourse, with political and other causes of
embarrassment, crossed our path ; but we kept our trade with China,
and during the war of the Peninsula embarked largely in the ship-
ment of provisions to Spain and Portugal. ()i:r general plan was to
freight vessels, load them with flour at the South for Europe, and have
the funds remitted to London. To make some necessary arrangements
respecting- them, I took passage in the brig Reaper., belonging to my
friend Henry Lee, for London, in August, 1811. The intention of Mr.
Lee was to proceed to India in the brig, taking funds from England,
and returning to Boston with Calcutta cloths, which then paid a great
advance. I sent funds in her, and she returned in the year 1812, dur-
ing the war with Great Britain, and with great profit. Long-cloths of

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 109

India then brought twenty-five cents a yard, though an inferior article
to what is no^v made at six cents, being less than one-fourth of the
price the India cloths then sold at. I remained in London during the
year, or until the summer, and returned after war had been declared.
While in London I bought, with the elder Mr. Higginson, goods
brought into England for France, which resulted in great gain."

In December, 1813, Congress passed a further restrictive measure,
which added to the suffering already existing, and increased the com-
plaints of the people. It interdicted the coasting trade between ports
of the same State, as well as the fishing business in small craft near
the coast. The fishermen of Boston and the adjacent ports, thus de-
prived of the means of obtaining their daily bread, were obliged to
petition the General Court for relief.

vShut in from the ordinary opportunities for enterprise and gain upon
the ocean, the shipowners on the northern seaboard resorted to the
adventurous and uncertain, but exciting and tempting, pursuit of
privateering. During the war Baltimore sent out fifty-eight privateers ;
New York, fifty-five; Salem, forty; and Boston, thirty-one. On the
llUh of October, lSl->, the schooner Fame, which had seen service as a
privateer during the Revolutionary War, came into Boston after a
cruise of fifteen days, having captured two schooners. Another Boston
vessel, the Hydcr AH, Captain Thorndike, was captiired in the East
Indies by the British frigate Oiccn Glcndoiccr, after having taken nine
prizes, all of which, however, were recaptured. The late Admiral
Preble has left an account of the True Blooded Yankee, one of the most
famous privateers of the war, which was commissioned from Boston
under the American flag, though fitted out and sailing from French
ports, her owner, ]\Ir. Henry Preble, being temporarily a resident
of France. This vessel cruised in the English and Irish channels,
making many rich prizes, which were generally sent into French ports,
though a few were sent to the United States. One ship, sent into
Brest, was said to be worth half a million dollars ; one laden with dry
goods and Irish linens was ordered to the United vStates ; and the ship
Iiidiistrv was sent to Bergen, in Norway, and there sold. In 1813 the
True Blooded Yankee, during a cruise of thirty-seven days, captured
twenty-seven vessels and made two hundred and seventy prisoners;
she also took possession of an island on the coast of Ireland, and held
it six days ; and she burned seven vessels lying in the harbor of a Scotch
town. In 1814 she cruised in the English channel, in company with

no SUFFOLK COUNTY.

the privateer Bunker Hill, carryino- fourteen j;-uns and one hundred and
forty men, with orders to divest her prizes of their valuable articles
and then to sink and destroy them, but not to send them into port.
.Such was the terror she inspired, that it is said a reward was offered
for her capture and that of her captain, Thomas Oxnard, dead or alive.

The following- extracts from the correspondence of the Messrs. Per-
kins will give us a glimpse at these times from the commercial point
of view :

January 1, IS 14: "You say a cargo laid in at Canton would bring
three for one in vSouth America, and your copper would give tw(j prices
back. Thus, $;50,(H)0 laid out in China would give you $!)(), 000 in South
America, one-half of which laid out in copper would give one hundred
percent., or $'.)(),()()()— making $i:}5,000 for $30,000; (i(),00(» lbs. of
indigo, even at 80 cents, $48,000; 120 tons sugar at $(iO, $7,200; and
cotton, or some other light freight, say skiss tea, $20,000 — in all $75,-
000 — would be worth here $400,000, and not employ the profits of the
voyage to South America. Manilla sugar is worth $400 to $500 per
ton, clear of duty. The ship should be flying light, her bottom in
good order, the greatest vigilance used on the passage, and make any
port north of New York."

January (5, 1814: "Teas have risen to enormous prices, but are now
declining. . . . Teas will rise with you immediatel}^ after a knowl-
edge of peace takes place. Many voyages will be undertaken after the
war, and the country will be again flooded with teas."

July 15, 1814: "A messenger has recently arrived in this country,
oft'ering in the name of the Prince Regent propositions for concluding
a peace between this country and Great Britain. ... A final
settlement, such as will enable us to navigate in safety, may be pro-
ti-acted by the diplomatic habits of our government, to the ensuing
autumn. It may be concluded sooner. All will depend upon the com-
plete prostration of Buonaparte. God grant that this obstacle may not
long intervene! How far we shall, in time of peace, be permitted to
pursue our former commerce, is a question difficult to decide. Great
Britain has neither affection nor respect for us. Her interest will
guide in relation to her future stipulations. When she can, consistently
with her own rights, restrict us, she will naturally do so."

November 17, 1814: "We hear that the Jacob Jones went safely into
Canton, and presume she may be dispatched before the river is block-
aded. In such case, she ought to be here at the time appointed, unless

TRADE AND COMMERCE. Ill

captxired. Our coast is closely invested and the hazard of getting in
very imminent. Some insurance has been done on her, owing to her
being a war-built vessel and having the reputation of being a swift
sailer, at fifty per cent., but ver}' little can be had. We have only
$8,000 written at present, and fear we shall not be able to effect more
by safe men, even at that. Vessels built before the war cannot be in-
sured at seventy-five per cent. , which premium has been given on prizes
taken near this coast and ordered in. Owing to the decline of public
credit, consequent on a continuance of the war, and the many failures
that have taken place, it is extremely difficult to effect sales of any sort
except for immediate consumption, and those are made only for cash,
no one being inclined to sell on credit at this critical juncture.
Public funds here (six per cent. ) are down to sixty-five, and growing
worse. Nothing but peace can prevent an utter downfall of govern-
mental credit and means. We have no expectation that the duties will
be reduced for several years, if at all. Keep the Levant safe in port
till you hear of peace. Then she may do well with black teas for
European markets."

The arrival of the schooner Russell at New Bedford, ninety-two days
from Canton, is reported in the newspapers, April 5, 1815, and it is
said: "Information has been received at Canton from Columbia River
of the capture of ship Charoji^ Whittemore, of Boston, with her cargo
of furs, and ship Isabella, Davis, of Boston, particulars not known. All
the American vessels on the Northwest Coast were considered as lost or
in danger of capture. "

But in the mean time, this war, perhaps the most needless that was
ever waged between two civilized, not to say Christian powers, had
been brought to a close. There had been a wide divergence of opinion
on the questions of declaring and continuing it, but there was no differ-
ence in the spirit with which the news of peace was welcomed by the
people of both parties and of all classes. Colonel Perkins was in
Washington with two other commissioners froin Massachusetts, and he
wrote from that city, February lf3, 1815, to his partner, Mr. Cushing:
"The joyful event of peace has suspended the mission on which I came.
You will hear with delight of this event. No sacrifice is made of ter-
ritory or commercial rights. It is a treaty formed on the basis of that
of 1783. ... I trust I shall never see another war."

A few extracts from the newspapers after the return of peace will
compare pleasantly with what has gone before.

112 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

February 1<S: "The lights in the light-houses off this harbor and
Cape Ann have recommenced by order of Government. The moderate
weather, which we hope is now commencing, will raise the ice blockade
of this and other harbors, and permit the numerous vessels now pre-
paring for sea to spread their white canvas to the gale."

" The first effects of peace have been seen in the rapid declension in
the price of foreign goods, West India produce, etc. In New York
sugars have fallen 100% {sic), teas from 75 to 100%."

March 11: " Many gallant vessels have left port on voyages, and
others are in stages of readiness. The beautiful ships Liverpool Packet
and Milo will unloose their sails to-morrow, if the wind will permit.
The elegant new ship Ualoi will sail for London in all the month. Ves-
sels which now sail for any European ports cannot run into danger."

Among the passengers in the Milo was Abbott Lawrence, who had
been admitted as a partner into the business of his brother, Amos, on
the 1st of January preceding. A. & A. Lawrence were large importers
for several years, and until they became identified with the rising manu-
facturing interests of New England. On his first visit to Europe, Mr.
Lawrence was able to send his purchases back by the packet which had
carried him over, so that they were disposed of in Boston within ninety
days from the time of his departure. This was regarded as a very
creditable achievement at the time. Possibly it was of this voyage that
it was stated subsequently: "In 1815 the Milo happened to be the only
ship about sailing for this port. The usual freight at the time was
seventy shillings sterling a ton. Taking advantage of the circumstance,
the captain of that ship declined taking freight imder, it is believed,
ten pounds a ton." The object of the statement was to illustrate to the
importers of Boston the desirability of their establishing a line of
regular paclcets under their own ownership and control.

The business men of Boston had maintained their credit nobly during
the war and the trying years which had preceded it, so that they were
in a very favorable position for taking advantage of the improved con-
diti(m of affairs which came with the restoration of peace. In the sum-
mer of 1X15 we find gold and silver and Boston bank-notes cjuoted in
the prices current of other cities at the same rates, while their own
notes were at a heavy discount.

The new and sui:)erior ship Canton, B. P. Tilden supercargo, was
advertised for Canton by Benjamin Rich, 75 Long Wharf, to have im-
mediate dispatch. The ship Hope, Captain Bachelder, sailed for Cal-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 113

cutta April 1. On the 4th of the same month the ship Flor dc Brazil,
Captain Silva, from Pernambnco, via Bermuda, arrived in the harbor
of Boston with a cargo of molasses and sugar, consigned to Ropes,
Pickman & Co., and a few days later the brig Nciv Hazard, Captain
Endicott, came in from Matanzas with thirty-eight thousand gallons of
molasses to the same firm. The name of this brig is suggestive of the
perils from which American commerce had just escaped; so is that <jf
the schooner Catch-inc-if-you-caii, which arrived at the saine time from
Baltimore, with a cargo of flour consigned to Hall & Thacher. The
first arrival from Liverpool after the peace was reported May 3, — the
British ship Kingston, Captain Smith, with "dry-goods, crates, hard-
ware, pig-iron and lead, to David Hinckley, Giles Lodge, Daniel
Hastings, and others." "This day," Monday, May 3, "arrived and
fired salutes the fine letter-of-marque brig Rambler, and ship Jacob
Jones, Captain Robarts [on which it had been difficult to etTect insur-
ance, covering the war risk, at fifty per cent, premium], both in one
hundred and eight days from Canton, with rich cargoes of silks, teas
and other articles, to the Messrs. Perkins, Bryant 8z Stiirgis, Mr. Ben-
jamin Rich, etc. They escaped dashingly the British blockading
squadron, consisting of the Grampus, 50, and Owen Glcndoiver, who
had long been watching for them." The cargo of the Rambler con-
sisted of Canton crapes, sewing silk, black fringed handkerchiefs,
dimities, sarcenets, ribbons, pongees, teas, cassia, and six thousand
walking-sticks.

A few days later the letter-of-marque schooner Tamaahmaah, Captain
Porter, arrived from the Northwest Coast, vSeptember, 1813, and one
hundred and fifteen days from Canton, with a full cargo of teas, nan-
keens, cassia, alum, etc. iShc had sailed frcjm Boston in the month of
February, 1813, with supplies for various vessels on the Coast and to
give them information about the war. These Canton cargoes were sold
at auction immediately on arrival, in accordance with the custom of the
trade.

On the 17th of May fifty-three vessels arrived " coastwise, " with
large quantities of flour, tobacco, hemp, molasses, whiskey, rice, oil,
tar, coal, sugar, corn, gin, candles, grindstones, turpentine, plaster,
oysters, etc. The Swedish ship Merenrius arrived May 10, forty-eight
days from Liverpool, with dry goods, hardware, tin plates, coals, crates,
etc. ; also the Russian ship Alexander, fifty-one days from Lisbon,
with salt, bar-iron, duck and corkwood. Eight days later the British
15

114 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

brig Speedy, fift3'-six days from Liverpool, came in with a cargo of dry
goods, hardware, shot, iron, and crockery-ware, for Andrew Eliot, C.
R. Codman, Trott & Bumstead, O. Everett, Lewis Tappan & Company,
J. Sewall, S. G. Perkins, H. Higginson, John Tappan, F. Cabot, Kirk
Boott & Son, Rice & Read, Thomas Cordis, etc. The ship Milo^
Captain Glover, arrived from Liverpool June 3, and the Liverpool
Packet, Captain Nichols, and Roscoe, Captain Amory, on the 5th, with
assorted cargoes to a large number of consignees. Among those who
advertised dry goods received by these vessels were Tuckerman,
Rogers & Gushing, Benjamin C. Ward & Company, John Grew, Lane
«& Lamson, Henry Gassett & Company, Isaac Osgood, Phineas Foster,
James Read. Those who advertised hardware were Jonathan and Ed-
ward 'Phillips, vSamuel May, Charles vScudder, John Bradford, Fairbanks
&' Burbeck. " The fine new ship Union., of six hundred and nineteen
tons, belonging to the Hon. Mr. Gray, sailed from the outer roads on
Monday last [June 5] for Calcutta." William Gray, one of the largest
shipowners of that day, moved from vSalem to Boston in 1800. He was
lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth from 1810 to 1812.

Among the arrivals at Boston, June 7, were the schooner Union, of
Beverly, forty-four days from Lisbon, wath lemons, salt, duck, etc.,
consigned to Ray & Gray ; and the British schooner Matchless.^ fifty-four
days from London, with a cargo of cordage, duck, porter, iron, copperas,
tin, steel, alum, crockery, paints, chalk, whiting, and thirty piano-
fortes. The ship Hannibal, Captain Burgess, fifty-five days from
Liverpool, arrived July 13; she brought about two thousand letters.
On the same day the ship Beverly., Captain Edes, was cleared for Can-
ton. The brig ALaiy arrived from Gottenburg, July 20, with iron,
steel, block-tin, hones, slates, pencils, brass and card wire, pins, cam-
phor, copperas, flats for hats, and dry-goods, to Walley 8z Foster, T.
Williams, E. «& J. Breed, and Beckford & Bates. The junior member
of this last firm was Joshua Bates, who went to Europe in 1816 as Mr.
William Gray's agent, and so continued for three years; in 1828 he be-
came a partner in the house of Baring Brothers & Company. The
Jacob Jones cleared for Canton August 21, and the Sultan for the
Northwest Coast and Cant(m on the 23d ; the latter vessel belonged to
Boardman & Pope. On the 25th the John Adams., Captain Downing,
arrived in forty-three days from Liverpool with an assorted cargo to
Walley & Foster, owners, and others; and on the 7th of September
the Nexv Packet., Captain Bacon, came into port from Canton with teas
and cassia to Ropes, Pickman 6c Company.

4^^o^^<^

^
/c^

'^A//

#.c

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 115

Colonel Perkins wrote to his Canton house under date of October 4,
1815: " Three years of war, and twice that number of restrictions upon
commerce, had made our people very rigidly economical ; and they
bought only what was necessary, not what was luxurious. In place of
a silk gown or pelisse, they purchased cotton for the first, and dis-
pensed with the last altogether. So with tea. Although they did not
wholly forego it, they were careful in the use of it ; and now, to make
up for lost time, they feel as if they may indulge in the fashions of the
city, and gratify their palates with the beverage of the East. This be-
ing the case, it will take a long time to overstock the market with silks ;
though from the quantity of teas on hand when the war began, the im-
portations since, and the economy spoken of during the war, we think
the spring ships will cause a great fall of it in the market."

The details into which we have gone, will show how vigorously the
process of recuperation set in, by which Boston recovered itself from
the effects of the war, and how comprehensive and far reaching was its
commercial activity. An era of great prosperity now lay before it.
The population, which was 33,250 in 1810, rose to 43,298 in 1820. Dur-
ing the same decade the taxable valuation of the town more than
doubled; in 1810 it was $18,500,000; in 1820 it was $38,000,000. In
the period from 1800 to 1810 it had increased only from $15,000,000 to
$18,500,000. Among the prominent business men of this period, in ad-
dition to those whose names have been mentioned, were : vSamuel Park-
man, Robert G. Shaw, John Parker & Sons, Israel Thorndike, Thomas
C. Amory & Company, Thomas Wigglesworth, Isaac Winslow, James
Ingersoll, Josiah Bradlee, and Cornelius Coolidge & Company. The
leading auctioneers were Plimpton & Marett, Whitwell & Bond, T. K.
Jones & Company, and Coolidge, Deblois & Coinpany.

Soon after the war the export trade in ice was started and carried for-
ward by Mr. Frederic Tudor. Several years previously Mr. Tudor had
taken a cargo to Martinique, and although the venture had not been a
pecuniary success, it had demonstrated that this article could be car-
ried to a warm climate. The British government now offered him the
monopoly, for a term of years, for Jamaica, upon certain conditions,
which were readily acceded to ; and it further encouraged him by re-
leasing all ships bringing ice from port charges. The first prominent
and permanent establishment of ice-houses in the West Indies was at
Kingston. Soon after the monopoly was secured for Havana, and lib-
eral concessions were made for the introduction of ice into other ports

IIG SUFFOLK COUNTY.

in Cuba. The first carg-o for Charleston was shipped in 1S17, and ice-
houses were established in Savannah in 181S, and in New Orleans in
1820. Of the ice trade to the East Indies we shall speak later on.

We have already mentioned the name of Capt. Robert Bennet Forbes.
The story of his early life furnishes another illustration of the splendid
but severe training- w^hich made so many of the successful shipmasters
and merchants of from sixty to eighty years ago. His father, Ralph
Bennet Forbes, having been unfortunate in business, and being much
broken in health, Bennet, as the boy was called, went at the age of
twelve years into the employ of his cousins, the Messrs. Perkins, jr.,
whose store was at Foster's Wharf. His duties, he says in his " Personal
Reminiscences," were "to sweep out, make the fires, close and open
the store, copy letters into a book in a very indifferent manner, collect
wharfage bills, run ei'rands extending from Winnisimmet Ferry to the
wind-mill, which stood far to the south, probably near to the new bridge
between vSouth Boston and Boston proper." His employers had con-
trol of two vessels, the brig Pedlar, and the top-sail sloop Hay maker ,
which were generally engaged in the trade betweeft Boston and Phila-
delphia, sometimes bringing oats and shorts, which it w^as his duty to
measure oi:t to the truckmen. Bennet was in the habit of visiting the
ships owned by his uncles as they lay at Central Wharf, and one day,
early in October, 1817, he met Colonel Perkins on board one of them,
the Canton Packet, who asked him abruptly, which he intended to go in.
The boy, who had received plain intimations previously that he had bet-
ter take up a seafaring life, answered promptly, " I am ready to go in
this one." He was taken at his word, and as soon as he had obtained
the assent of his parents, he was told to provide himself with a cpiadrant,
a copy of Bowditch's " Practical Navigator," a log-book, etc., also a sea-
chest with a full outfit of sailor's clothes. A few days later, on the 19th
of the same month, he sailed out of Boston, and although he had only
just completed his thirteenth 3'ear, he took his place among the motley
crew in the forecastle, stocxl his watch, and took his turn in reefing top-
sails.

A few months before, the Canton Packet, loaded with lumber for the
Isle of France and having on board a large sum in specie, was blown
up while at anchor off Long Wharf and set on fire. It is a tradition
that the explosion was the work of a colored steward, who was angry
because he had been denied the pleasures of artillery election day, or,
in the words of an old sono-. " 'Cause he couldn't o-o to 'lection. An'

TRADE AND COMMERCE. lit

shake paw-paw," this being- a favorite game on the Common on public
days, played with four sea-shells and for money. The ship was run
into the mud near T Wharf and the fire was extinguished. The specie
was landed and sent to the " long-room " on India Wharf, and the clerks
of the firms interested in the voyage were detailed to go and live there,
to impack, Avash, cot;nt, and repack the money. This was no small
matter, as it amounted to about $700,000; it had been stowed in the run
of the ship, where also was a quantity of cochineal, with which the dol-
lars had become much stained. The vessel was repaired, went to Ja-
maica and back, bringing a large amount of Cjuicksilver, and was then
fitted out for the voyage to China, upon which we have seen her
start.

During the stay of the Canton Packet in China A'oung Forbes lived
with his relative, Mr. Clashing, then at the head of the Canton house
of Perkins & Company, and made himself useful as a clerk, weighing
teas, packing silks, etc. He had the opportunity of remaining ashore in
this position, but, as he says, he had chosen the life of a sailor, and had
promised his uncles to stick by the .ship until he commanded her; he
felt, also, that the place belonged to his older brother, Thomas, who
went out soon after, and who was drowned in lH->0. When the ship
was ready for her voyage homeward, therefore, in June, 1818, he re-
sumed his place in her before the mast, although not in the close and
stifling forecastle.

The Canton Packet registered only three hundred and twelve tons;
ships of more than five hundred tons were considered too large to be
quite safe, and it was not until 184"^ that Captain Forbes owned a ves-
sel of this size, the xXarra^a/isctt, which he bought for the China trade.
The homeward cargo from Canton consisted of teas, nankeens, cassia,
crapes, silks, preserves, camphor, and certain pungent oils. Captain
Forbes tells us how the ship was loaded: " A ship of the usual model
was floored off with shingle ballast, carefully graded; the tea boxes
were stripped of the rattan bindings and stowed so closely by Chinese
stevedores that a mouse could scarcely find lodging between them,
and all spaces between beams and carlines were filled with small mats
containing cassia. The silks and crapes were generally stowed under
the main hatch in what was called ' the silk room,' a space between the
tea-chests left vacant for the purpose. The cases of camphor and oils
w^ere stowed on deck, sometimes in or under the long boat, bi:t more
generally around the after hatch, covered by a well-secured mat-

118 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

house, under which, as I can voucli from an experience of two passages,
lived the carpenter, the cook, and sometimes, two boys. The old ships
must have been good sea boats, for I do not call to mind being dis-
turbed by the shipping of anything worse than sprays."

Captain Forbes has reccjrded the several steps of his advanceinent in
these words : "At the age of sixteen I filled a man's place as third inate ;
at the age of twenty I was pronKJted to a command ; at the age of twenty-
six I commanded my own ship; at twenty-eight I abandoned the sea as
a profession ; at thirty-six I was at the head of the largest business
house in China."

In giving an account of the China trade Captain Forbes said, that as
the trade of the Northwest Coast fell off a demand sprang up in China
for American goods — sheetings and drills. Specie became the excep-
tion, and bills on London became popular in making funds for the pur-
chase of cargoes. For many years the duty on teas was very heavy,
but the government helped the merchant by giving him twelve and
eighteen months in which to make payments. This enabled him to
send back to Canton and purchase a second cargo with the proceeds of
the first. C)n the other hand, he was obliged to sell his merchandise on
long credit, say, six, eight and nine months, but usually the banks
w^ould discount the paper for him at six per cent, per annum.

Captain vSturgis, in a lecture to young men in 1S44-, gave an account
of the changes which had taken place in his day in the China trade.
Nankeen, he said, was once imported in large quantities. As late as
1820 there w^as $1,000,000 worth imported; now there was none. In
1806 Canton crape was first used; in 1810 ten cases were imported; in
1825 the importations amounted to $1,500,000, and in 1844 the article was
not imported at all. Silk was once imported in large quantities from
China ; one cargo worth nearly $1 ,000,000 was mentioned ; now the whole
yearly importation amounted to less than $100,000. In 1818 $7,000,000
were carried to China in specie. In 1844 settlements were made by
bills of exchange.

A meeting of merchants and others, "interested in the prosperity of
commerce and agriculture," was held August 17, 1820, to take into con-
sideration a communication from the Chamber of Coinmerce of Phila-
delphia, relating to a tariff" measure which had been considered by
Congress at its last session, but had not been acted upon. This was
four years after the adoption of the tariff which Mr. Calhoun, Mr.
Lowndes, and Mr. Clay had been mainly instrumental in passing. The

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 119

president of the meeting was William Gray, and the secretary William
Foster, jr. A committee of twenty-seven was appointed to adopt such
measures as it should deem expedient, and a sub-committee was in-
structed to prepare a report with resolutions. There seems to have
been but one opinion in Boston at this time among the men of the
greatest influence in the town in reference to the tariff, and it was de-
cidedly in favor of low rates of duty and in opposition to any policy that
was likely to endanger the prosperity of the shipping interest. The
sub-committee mentioned above consisted of James Perkins, Samuel
P. Gardner, Daniel Webster, Samuel A. Welles, William vShimmin,
William Sturgis and John Dorr; and at an adjourned meeting, held in
Faneuil Hall, October 'I, a carefully prepared report was presented,
written, as we suppose, by Mr. Webster, and recommending the adop-
tion of eight resolutions, four of which we quote, and all of which were
approved :

Resolved, That the supposition that until the proposed tariff or some
similar measure be adopted, we are and shall be dependent on foreigners
for the means of subsistence and defence is, in our opinion, altogether
fallacious and fanciful, and derogatory to the character of the nation.

Resolved, That high bounties on such domestic manufactures as are
principally benefited by that tariff, favor great capitalists rather than
personal industry or the owners of small capital, and, therefore, that
we do not perceive its tendency to promote national industry.

Resolved, That the imposition of duties, which are enormous and
deemed by a large portion of the people to be unequal and unjust, is
dangerous, as it encourages the practice of smuggling.

Resolved, That in our opinion, the proposed tariff and the principles
on which it is avowedly founded, would, if adopted, have a tendency,
however different may be the motives of those who recommend them,
to diminish the industry, impede the prosperity and corrupt the morals
of the people.

The last mention we can find of the Boston Importing Company,
formed in 1805, is an advertised notice to the associates, signed by
Philip Ammidon, secretary, of a meeting to be held at the Exchange
Coffee House on the evening of July 8, 1811. The company's ship
Packet had arrived two or three weeks before from Gluckstadt on the
Elbe, a few miles below Hamburg. She had been "forbidden
by the French government to take any letters or papers under
pain of confiscation, not even dispatches from our minister." On her

120 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

arrival in Boston she was advertised for sale, and was described as hav-
ing been built at Braintree in 1802, three hundred and twenty-seven
tons, constantly emplo3'ed in the Liverpool trade, and ' ' known and
acknowledged to exceed in sailing any ship ever Inult in the State."
Evidently her voyage from the Elbe was the last made by any vessel
belonging to the company, which, in consequence of the many hin-
drances to successful ocean navigation at that time, and in view of the
strong probability of war with England, was winding up its affairs. In
the winter of 1821 and 1822 the Boston and Liverpool Packet Company
was projected. In a pamphlet which lies before us it is announced as
the purpose of the company to build four ships to ply regularly between
Boston and Liverpool. " The object primarily intended to secure, by
the regular and punctual departures from both ports of these packet
ships," was "the more frequent supplies of goods and the convenience
of passengers." The capital stock of the company was fixed at $100,000,
in one thousand shares, and it was expected that the importers of the
town would subscribe and hold a major part of the stock, and maintain
the control and direction of the business. It was estimated that the
four ships would cost, exclusive of coppering, and with one chain cable
each, a sum not exceeding $78,000, the copper, another chain cable for
each vessel, and a few other articles, to be procured in Liverpool, would
be $7,000 more, making a total of $85,000 for the four ships, or
$21,250 for each. The tonnage of the ships was to be about three
hundred and twenty-five tons; they were to be excellent models and to
be "finished and furnished in excellent style." They were to have
experienced and popular commanders, w'ho were each to own some
share of the .stock; the agents were to hold a considerable amount of
the stock, and the vessels were to be consigned each to a separate house
in Liverpool, largely interested in shipping goods to Boston.

The statistics of the trade between Liverpool and Boston for the pre-
ceding two years were as follows: During 1820 there were forty-seven
arrivals at Boston from Liverpool — thirty-foi:r ships and thirteen brigs.
Of these, nine were arrivals of regular traders, namely, the Fritoii,
two; the Falcon, two; the Mercury, two; the Ilcrald, two; and the
Meteor.^ one. In 1821 the arrivals were fewer than in 1820, although
the amount of the importations was larger; there were thirty-seven —
thirty-three ships and four brigs. There were seventeen arrivals of
regular traders, namely, the Frifoii, three; the Fa/coii, two; the Ras-
selas, two; the Herald^ two; the Mercury, one; the Glide, one; the

TRADE AND COMMERCE. vi\

Siiffo/k,one\ the Mil(\ one; the Meteor, one; the Parthian^ two; and
the Mount J'rrjion, one.

The new company applied to the Legislature for an act of incorpo-
ration, as its predecessor had done seventeen years before, and with the
same negative result. A bill in favor of the petitioners was reported
by the committee to which the matter had been referred, and passed
its third reading ; its further consideration was then indefinitely post-
poned.

On the loth of October, IS'Z'i, vS. Austin, jr., and J. W. Lewis, "at
the end of India Wharf,"" advertised the immediate departure for
Liverpool, by way of Charleston, of ' ' the Boston and Liverpool Packet
Company's ship Emerald, a new vessel, Philip Fox, master;" also for
Liverpool direct, of the Herald, Hector Coffin, master. It was added:
" The above ships, with two others now building, will positively leave
on the days stated, if the weather permits." We suppose that the
Topac, built at Medford by Thatcher Magoun in 1822, was one of the
two vessels referred to, and the Aviethyst may have been the other.

The ships built on the coast of Massachusetts at the end of the last
century, and during the first third of the present, must have been re-
markable both in model and construction, or they could not have
accomplished so successfully their voyages across the Atlantic and
round the stormy capes. vSmall as they were, they rode the Avaves
well, and w^e have reason to believe that they usually delivered their
cargoes in good order. Their outfit was often meagre, and their
nautical instruments were of the simplest character. They knew
nothing of chronometers or charts, and for this reason, certainlv in
part, the most formidable perils that confronted them were not those
of the wide ocean but of the coast. This was especially true of the
vessels emploA'ed in the English trade, of which only too many met
their fate between the Scilly Isles and the Downs, or between Fastnet
and the mouth of the Mersey. Captain Silsbee, of whom we have
already spoken, records in his autobiography that as late as 1827 he
made a passage in a brig to Rotterdam, when they had no chronometer
on board and knew nothing of lunar observations, but navigated by
dead reckoning.

Only a few years ago one of the vessels mentioned above, the E.111-
erald, registering three hundred and fifty-six tons, which was built in
Boston for the Liverpool line, was reported as in good condition and
employed in the trade of the Pacific. vShe was built of the best live

122 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

oak, and was copper-fastened, and when in 1SS2, sixt}' years afterward,
she underwent repairs in vSan Francisco, her timbers and bolts were
found in a good state of preservation. She had just before encountered
a severe typhoon to the south of the Island of Formosa, in which more
than one vessel, younger and larger than herself, had perished. Pre-
viously to this she had done duty as a whaler in the vSouth Seas for
more than twenty years. There is a tradition that the Fine raid, when
a new vessel, and under the command of Captain Jabez Howes, sailed
from Boston to Liverpool and back again to Boston harbor in thirty-
two days.

How disastrous the incidence of taxation may prove to the business
interests of a community, and so, in the long run, to the prosperity of
a State, is illustrated by the action of the Legislature of Massachusetts
in 1824, laying a tax of one per cent, on all sales of merchandise at
auction. The rich cargoes from Canton, which were disposed of in this
way, seemed to superficial observation to present a valuable and per-
manent basis for the collection of revenue; and, although the mer-
chants remonstrated and predicted that the effect of the tax would
inevitably be to drive the China trade to the port of New York, where no
such tribute was exacted, their advice and warning were unheeded,
and the non-commercial members of the General Court had their own
way. vSubsequent efforts to secure the repeal of the law were alike un-
availing. One meeting to take measures to this end, of which we know,
was held at the Exchange Coffee House, October 11, 1827; the tax
was declared to be "impolitic, injuri(nis and unjust," and a committee
to memorialize the Legislature for its repeal was appointed, consisting
of William Goddard, Isaac Winslow, Charles G. Loring, Enoch Silsby,
David Henshaw, Abel Adams, John F. Priest, Parker H. Pierce,
Thomas Thacher, Joseph Ballister, Andrew Cunningham and Nathan-
iel H. Emmons. Remedial legislation came later, and it came too late.
In 1849 the obnoxious tax was reduced to one-quarter of one per cent,
on merchandise imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and in
1852 it was repealed altogether. In the mean time the diversion of
the China trade had been made, and the current could not be brought
back to the .old channel. The movement toward New York w^as grad-
ual, but steady, until in 1857 there were forty-one arrivals from China
at that port, twenty of these were ships owned in Boston, and only six
arrived here. During the last twenty-five years the course of the China
trade has been altogether changed by the completion of the transconti-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 123

ncntal railways and the opening' of the vSiiez Canal, and whatever inter-
est American merchants may now have in the cargoes, they have
none in the ships that carry them. Of the more than three thousand
vessels that passed through the Suez Canal in 1887, three vessels, with
a gross tonnage of two thousand one hundred tons, bore the American
flag.

A similar tax to that levied by the Massachusetts Legislatiire in 1824:
drove from Philadelphia the ships of that port, coming from beyond the
Cape of Good Hope. Mr. vSamuel Cunard told the writer in London in
1857, that before the steamship line, which bears his name, was started,
ships of war and those carrying the mails were exempt from port
charges at Halifax, but that after the establi.shment of the line and
when the steamers began to call regularly at Halifax, the exemption so
far as related to mail packets was removed. Mr. Cunard lived at Halifax
at this time, and it was taken for granted that the ships of his company
would continue to come there indefinitely. Soon, however, those which
were going to and from New York ceased to make it a port of call, and
it is many years since any of the Boston line were seen there. Other
considerations, no doubt, had much to do with the abandonment of
Halifax by the company, but when the Legislature of Nova wScotia
took advantage of the existing conditions to levy a tax upon it, it made
the way all the more easy for the changes that followed.

In Niles's Register of October 21, 182G, we find an accoimt of a sale
by public auction in Boston, on the 12th of September of that year, of
three thousand packages of cotton, and woolen, and mixed domestic
goods, consisting of broadcloths, cassimeres, satinets, flannels, .shirt-
ings, sheetings, prints and ginghams. On succeeding days nearly
sixty thousand pairs of boots and shoes were sold in the same way;
also eighteen hundred sides of leather, seven thousand leather and
morocco skins, many thousand poimds of w^ool, one hundred and fifty-
two casks of American olive oil, etc. The manufacturing interest in
New England had grown considerably since 1820, and public opinion
was beginning to divide on the question of tariff duties for protection.
What we may call the commercial class, however, was opposed to tak-
ing any further steps towards high protection. On the 30th of Novem-
ber, 1827, an adjourned meeting was held "to take into consideration
the proposed increase of duties, especially upon woolen goods,"
and to receive and act upon a report from a committee of fifteen, which
had been appointed to consider the subject. Among the members of

124 SUP'FOLk COUNTY.

this committee were Nathaniel Goddard, Lemuel Shaw, Isaac Winslow,
Lot Wheelwright, Henry Lee and Thomas W. Ward. The report pre-
sented by the committee was written by Mr. Henry Lee; it has been
preserved in a pamphlet of nearly two hundred pages, and is regarded
as one of the ablest papers ever written against the protective princi-
ple. The meeting accepted the report, with a memorial to Congress
which accompanied it and which was to receive individual signatures,
and the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That in the pres-
ent state of the agriculture, manufactures and commerce of the United
States, it would be unjust, impolitic and inconsistent with the best in-
terests of the community, to impose further and higher duties upon
imported articles generally, and more particiilarly on imported w^oolen
goods.

We know little about the line of Liverpool packets established in 1822,
but there is every reason to believe that the enterprise was not a suc-
cessful one. vSo important, however, did it seem to the active business
men of Boston to maintain regular communication with England,
especially in view of the circumstance that one or more lines of trans-
atlantic packets ran regularly and at short intervals from New York,
that, in 1827, another Liverpool line was projected here, the third of
which we have had occasion to speak. In the summer of this year,
Henry Hall, Joshua Blake, David Henshaw, George Bond, and James
T. Austin, "in behalf of certain citizens of this Commonwealth, w4io "
had "associated to establish a regular line of packets between Boston
and Liverpool in England," prayed "to be incorporated for the pur-
pose of better managing the said concern, with such powers and priv-
ileges, and under such limitations and restrictions as to the wisdom of
the Legislature " might " seem expedient." The petitioners asked for
no monopoly or exclusive privileges, and disclaimed all thought of hos-
tility or rivalry towards other citizens. The public spirit which moved
them to undertake the work in which they had enlisted is w^ell illus-
trated in the following sentences in their petition, and has had its re-
production in connection with many an enterprise to which the business
men of Boston have given their thought and money in the years which
have passed since then. These were their words: " The subscribers
beg leave very respectfully to state that they have engaged in this as-
sociation without any view of personal advantage or emolument peciiliar
to themselves, but only with a desire of preserving for this Common-
wealth its fair share of a great and important branch of commerce,

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 12o

which, of late years, has declined ; and which cannot be restored with-
out some hazard to individuals, and much aid from the Legislature ; and
while they are willing that the government of the State should at all
times possess a control over their proposed corporation, they earnestl}'
entreat such an exercise of its liberality, in the grant of corporate priv-
ileges, as may enable them successfully to acquire the public objects
for the securing of which the association ha? been projected."

The petition was presented by Mr. Nathaniel P. Russell, and the
Hon. Jonathan Phillips, for the committee to which it was referred, re-
ported a bill to the Senate, June S, incorporating the Liverpool Packet
Company " for the term of twenty years and no longer." The com-
pany was authorized to purchase or charter American built vessels, but
the value of said vessels with their tackle was never to exceed $"200,000.
The number of shares was fixed by the bill at four hundred, and the
assessments on each share were limited to $500. On the 0th of June
the committee on bills in the second reading, to which it had gone in
course, reported it back with a slight atnendment, and it had its second
reading; it was then laid on the table, and that seems to have been the
end of the matter, so far as the Legislature was concerned.

The company went forward with its project under articles of associa-
tion, as we suppose, and on the 3d of October, 1827, George G. Jones,
agent, 41 India Wharf, advertised a list of ships and the early depart-
ure of the first of the new line for Liverpool. " Mattresses, bedding,
wines and all other stores" were to be furnished to passengers in the
cabin, and for them the fare to Liverpool was to be $140, and from
Liverpool thirty-five guineas. The Amethyst, which had done good
service for the company of 1822, and of whose long and successful ca-
reer we have given some account, sailed November 1, under the com-
mand of Jabez Howes, "with a full freight and forty-two passengers,
viz., Messrs. Jacob Farnsworth and Robert B. Storer, and forty in the
steerage." The A\-7i' England, Captain Hunt, was anncnmced for the
1st of December, and this was to be the only departure during the win-
ter. In the spring of 1828 the company advertised the Amethyst, the
Xe7c England, the Boston, and the Liverpool, and it was added: "The
last two nained now building by Mr. Magoim, and a third to take the
place of one of the preceding, by Mr. Robinson, all to be about four
hundred and thirty tons government measure. " In addition to the Bos-
ton and the Liverpool in 1828, Mr. Magoun built at Medford for the
company a second ship called the Boston, also the Trenton and the

126 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

LoivcUxn 1832, and the Plyvioutli in 1S33. Among the captains em-
ployed by the company were Howes and Himt, already named, Nye,
Bnrsley, and Mackay. Mr. Martin in his history of the Boston Stock
Market quotes the shares of the Liverpool Packet Company in 1829 at
$245 to $270, in 1831 at $310, and in 1833 at $400, the nominal par of
the shares being- $500 each. In 1834 some of the ships belonging, or
which had belonged, to the line arrived from Liverpool, but they could
not obtain return cargoes here and were obliged to proceed coastwise to
Charleston or New Orleans, where they took in cargoes of cotton for
Europe. We do not find mention of the company in the Boston Di-
rectory of 1 834 or any later year. Business was much depressed through-
out the country in 1834, as we shall explain more fully presently. We
are told that in September of this year one hundred and fifty-two regis-
tered vessels (of which fifty-one were ships), with a total measurement
of 37,03(J tons, were in the port of Boston, ''most of them unemployed,
and many of them hauled up and dismantled," besides many large ves-
sels tmder coasting licenses.

It is very difficult for us in this day to realize the extent to which
coastwise and river navigation was made use of before the first railway
routes were opened, or the exceeding value to trade of this means of
transportation. After the opening of the Erie canal (1825) communi-
cation with it was established by lines of sloops which sailed from Bos-
ton round Cape Cod, through Long Island vSound, and up the Hudson
to Albany and Troy. The Rev. Edward Everett Hale in the reminis-
cences of his boyhood, tells us of the difficulties and delays which then
attended the occasional tran.smission of a box to Boston from a town
one hundred and ten miles to the westward: " The box would be sent,
say from Westhampton to Northampton, and carried by boat to Hartford.
There it would be put on board a sloop which was to sail out of the
Connecticut River and around Cape Cod to Boston ; and the consignee
was fortunate if the sloop was not frozen in opposite Lyme or elsewhere
in the Connecticut River and detained there until the next spring."
Shipments for the towns on or near the Mississippi and the Ohio, even
those far to the northward, were sent coastwise to New Orleans, and
there were transferred to the river craft for further transit to their des-
tination.

It is not within our purpose to trace the development of the railway
system of which Boston is the centre; but it will interest our readers,
we think, to see the newspaper advertisement, which in the spring of

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 127

1834 comprised the entire passenger business by rail westwardly from
Boston: "Boston and Worcester Railroad. Depot GIT Washington
Street. The passenger cars run daily from the Depot to Newton at
and 10 o'clock, a. m., and 3^ o'clock, p. m., and returning, leave New-
ton at 7 and a quarter past 11 a. m., and a quarter before 5 p. m."
From this small beginning the present enormous traffic of the Boston
and Albany Railroad has been evolv^ed.

It was well said early in the present century: " The hemp, iron and
duck brought from Russia have been to our fisheries and navigation
like seed to a crop." The first vessel to go to St. Petersburg from New
England was the barque Light Horse, sent out by Mr. Derby from
Salem in the summer of 1784, and occasional vessels from Salem and
Boston followed, but it was several years before the trade assumed
large proportions. Captain Swain, who arrived from St. Petersburg
at Boston in the brig Betsey, in the autumn of 1803, gave a list of
ninety American vessels which had arrived at that port between Feb-
ruary -28 and July 24, and of these fifty-four belonged to Massachusetts.
In the year 1822 Captain Wise, of the brig Essex, reported that to the
Kjth of August one hundred American vessels had passed Elsinore on
their way up the Baltic. Of this number thirty-eight were from Bos-
ton, twelve from Salem, and twelve from other Massachusetts ports, in
all sixty-two from this State ; eleven from New York, and twenty-
seven from other States. Seventy-four were bound to St. Peters-
burg ; eleven to Copenhagen and St. Petersburg; ten to vStockholm,
and five to other ports. Sixty-six had cargoes up, and thirty-four
were in ballast. In 1806, and later, this difficulty existed, that the
United ^States sold little or nothing to Russia, and bought to a
large amoimt. The ships went " dead-freighted," and their cargoes
had to be paid for in cash or in bills on London, which were better
than cash, having cost a considerable premium in Spain or some other
country where outward cargoes had been sold. After the War of 1812,
American vessels began to go to Havana and Matanzas to load with
sugar for Cronstadt, the port of St. Petersburg, and to retiim with
Russian cargoes to Boston and New York. It was common for these
cargoes to be owned in thirds, by the American shipowner, the West
India shipper, and the St. Petersburg consignee, the first getting the
advantage of the freight, the second the commission and shipping
charges on the whole, and the last taking the lion's share by a com-
mission on the amount of import duty, which was about equal to the

128 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

prime cost, and another large commission on the gross proceeds.
Among the articles imported were hemp, bolt-rope, cordage, oakum or
tarred hemp, codilla, occasionally flax and flax-tow, junk for both
oakum and paper, sail-cloth, ravensduck, diaper, crash, bar-iron, sheet-
iron, feathers, down, horse hair, hog's hair, felt of cow's hair, occasionally
red leather, cantharides, and China rhulKirb. At a later period large
quantities of rags were imported from Russia, and under the tariff of
1S4() large quantities of hemp-yarns. In 1821t Mr. William Ropes,
previously of the firms of Ropes, Pickman & Company, Ropes & Ward,
and Ropes, Reed 8z Company, made a voyage, by way of Havana, to
Cronstadt, as supercargo of the ship Courser, and he found the con-
ditions there so favorable that he repeated the experiment, and in 1832
removed to St. Petersburg and established the house of William Ropes
& Company, which still continues. Mr. Ropes was the first to import
cotton from the United vStates direct to supply the mills of Russia.
The trade continued to be large and profitable until 1S61 ; from and
after this time the development of native industry in Russia, and the
adopticm of an extreme protective policy there as well as here, nearly
destroyed it. More recently there was a large demand for American
petroleum in Russia, and as many as one hundred thousand barrels
have been imported at vSt. Petersburg in a single 3^ear; but this has be-
come almost wholly superseded by the native article brought from the
neighborhood of the Caspian Sea. Among other Boston merchants
who participated in this trade when it was at its best were Curtis &
Stevenson, Robert B. Storer and Josiah Bradlee.

We must return to the spring of 1834. The removal of the govern-
ment deposits from the United States Bank a few months before, by
order of President Jackson, and the discussion of the question of con-
tinuing the existence of the bank by a renewal of its charter, had
created the most intense excitement and very general distrust through-
out the country. Business was depressed, money was scarce, and wide-
spread disaster seemed imminent. A protest, adopted at a vast
assemblage in Faneuil Hall, which received more than six thousand
six hundred signatures, had been sent to Washington in deprecation of
what was regarded as the perilous financial policy to which the admin-
istration had committed itself. At this juncture the business men of
Boston did what perhaps has never been done in any other business
community; they associated themselves for their own protection and
"for the mutual benefit of creditor and debtor." At a meeting held at

dh^h

<AA^£^' JCdtCi f

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 129

the Exchange Coffee House, March 11, 1831, the following basis of
agreement was adopted: " Whereas, the present scarcity of money has
a tendency to produce a want of confidence between creditor and
debtor, the undersigned associate for the term of nine months from
this date for the purpose of inspiring confidence among ourselves, and
with the view of preventing alarm and failures among those indebted
to us. We hereb}" agree that in case we deem it necessary to sue for,
\sic\ compel, or take security of any one, we will do it for the mutual
benefit of all the parties hereto, in proportion to the amounts due to
each, whether the same are then payable or not ; and if, in any case,
we consider it necessary to compel or take security, we will, if possible,
confer with those of our number supposed to be interested, previous to
demanding security, and act in concert ; and if, in the prosecution of
our association, any difference of opinion shall arise between any of
the parties hereto, the same shall be referred for final adjustment to
one or more of our number, mutually selected, who have no pecuniary
interest jn the decision." It was provided, siibsequently, that the
operation of the agreement should be "limited to debts which had been
or might be contracted by persons doing business in New England at
the time of the contracting thereof;" and further, that " any member
of the association having the misfortune to fail " should be "bound to
subject his assignee, in the collection and settlement of the debts as-
signed, to the same obligation which he himself" had "come under by
becoming one of the association."

There was no national bankrupt law at this time, and the attachment
laws of the several New- England States, as the associated business
men declared, were "unequal and oppressive " in their operation both
to the debtor and the creditor. The former was liable to be pounced
upon at the caprice of any one of his creditors, and the creditor who
made the first demand for payment or security, by destroying a man's
credit, breaking up his business, and winding up his aft'airs in a sum-
mary way, would be the only one, in most instances, to collect the face
of his debt. These liabilities were always impending, but they were
greatly increased in times of panic, and they aggravated the conditions
of a panic. Hence the wisdom of the movement of which we are
speaking. Stephen Fairbanks, a large dealer in hardware, was chair-
man of the association, and Charles Seaver and George Baty Blake
were the secretaries. More than three hundred and fifty firms entered
into the association, including almost all of any prominence in the
17

130 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

town, whether wholesale or retail, and their names were printed. The
names of thcjse "who declined to become parties to the association,"
eighteen in number, were printed also. A permanent standing com-
mittee, "representing the various mercantile trades," was chosen,
namely, George W. Crockett, Levi Bartlett, Prince Hawes, James
Read, vStephen Fairbanks, William G. Lambert, Norman Seaver, Gus-
tavus Tuckerman, James Fullerton, Amasa Walker, John Henshaw,
Andrew T. Hall.

We have referred to the ice trade of. Hoston and to Mr. Frederic
Tudor. In May, 1-833!* ttt the request of English and American riier-
chants resident in Calcutta, Mr. Tudor sent a small cargo, about two
hundred tons, to that pcn't. The result, like that of the first shipment
to the West Indies, was not a pecuniary success, but it proved that ice
carried twenty thousand miles, with all the attendant waste and loss,
could be made to compete successfully with that prepared by the
natives. The establishment of a regular trade followed, and this in-
creased steadily in volume and importance, and enabled Boston to hold
for many years "the key to the rich and extensive commerce between
Calcutta and the United States." A cargo was sent to Rio Janeiro in
1S:54. In 1842 Messrs. Gage, Hittinger & Company shipped a cargo to
London in the barque Sharon, but it was not a success, and later at-
tempts to introduce the American article into that market were not
more fortunate. In 1855 twelve companies were engaged in the busi-
ness in and about Boston, and the estimated value of the plant, includ-
ing ponds, iCe-houses, wharves and tools, was $G()(),()0(). The quantity
shipped to the East Indies in 1857 was ten or eleven thousand tons,
and during the next two or three years it increased to twent}^ thousand.
In 1867 it reached tw^enty-seven thousand tons and then gradually fell
away, until the annual .shipment was only one or two thousand. The
total export of ice from Boston, foreign and coastwise, according to the
custom-house returns, was 142,403 tons in 1800, and this was the high-
est point reached. In 1805 it was 131,275, and in 1880 124,751. In
later years the total export was from fifty to sixty thousand tons per
annum.

We have referred to a Chamber of Commerce which existed in Bos-
ton in 17'.»3, and for a few years thereafter, but we know almost noth-
ing of its proceedings. On the 11th of January, 1830, a meeting of
merchants and traders was held at the " Old Common Council Room
in Court Square," to act definitely upon the formation of a Chamber of

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 131

Commerce. " The mercantile interest of this cit}' was never more fully
represented than it was at the meeting on Monday; the hall was
crowded, and it was a subject of regret that more could not be accom-
modated. Mr. Thomas B. Wales, a, gentleman whose efforts are never
withheld in the cause of improvement and public spirit, was called to
the chair, and Mr. George William Gordon was chosen secretary." A
committee appointed Ai a l^revious meeting reported in favor of form-
ing a Chamber, and presented a preamble and code of by-laws which,
at its suggestion, was recommitted to a new committee, of which Mr.
Henry Lee was chairman, to report at a future meeting. On the 18th
of January the organization of the Chamber was completed and officers
were chosen, namely, William Sturgis, president; Thomas B. Wales,
Robert G. Shaw, David Henshaw, vice-presidents; and a Board of
forty-eight directors. These officers chose George M. Thacher for
secretary, and Jaines C. Wild for treasurer. The Chamber met twice a
year, in January and July; the current business was transacted by the
Board of Government.

The Chamber held its second annual meeting January 16, 1837. The
treasurer, Mr. Wild, reported that the cash on hand amounted to $1,300,
which had been received for entrance fees and fees for arbitrating mer-
cantile cases. The number of inembers was reported as rising three
hundred, "shipowners, importers, grocers, traders." After a long dis-
cussion on the usury laws, a memorial to the Legislature was unani-
mously adopted, asking for a repeal or modification of the laws relating
to interest on money. The Chamber took an active interest in public
affairs for three or four years, and then its influence waned. The last
meeting, March 11, 1843, was called to receive a cominunication from
Canada relating to proposed railway communication between that
colony and Boston. The officers, besides those already mentioned
were Thomas B. Wales, Nathan Appleton, and Abbott Lawrence,
presidents, and Francis J. Oliver, Charles Henshaw, William Appleton,
John Bryant, Amos Lawrence, vice-presidents.

From 1820 to 1830 the trade of Boston, both foreign and domestic,
grew and advanced steadily; and from 1830 to 1840 it prospered still
more. The taxable valuation in 1820 was $38,289,200; in 1830, $50,-
580,000; in 1840, $94,581,600. While the valuation increased fifty per
cent, between 1830 and 1840, the arrivals from foreign ports increased
from 642 to 1628 during this decade. The disasters of 1837 checked
this growth onl)^ for the time. The railroads to Providence, Lowell

132 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

and Worcester were built, and the line from Worcester to the Hudson
River was almost completed. The development of railway transport-
ation, and the opening- of steam communication with Liverpool, com-
bined to make the next decade, from 1840 to 1850, one of the most
marked in the commercial history of Boston.

Before we take up the subject of ocean steam navigation, we will
make some quotations from an interesting article in the Boston Daily
Atlas of January 11, 1842, in which a comparison is drawn between the
year 1821, the last year in the history of Boston as a town, and 1841.
The population increased from 43,000 to 93,000 ; and the tonnage entered
from foreign ports from 129,002 to 280,315. In 1821, 259,030 barrels
of flour, 041,080 bushels of corn, and 17,120 bales of cotton were re-
ceived coastwise; in 1841, 574,233 barrels of flour, 2,044,129 bushels of
corn, and 131,800 bales of cotton. In the mean time the town of Lowell
had sprung into being. The imports from foreign countries for the
year ended vSeptcmber 30, 1841, were $18,911,958; the exports were
$9,424, 18(;. The only States from which the receipts of their domestic
products had fallen off in Boston during the period under review were
North Carolina and Connecticut. In explanation of this it was said
that in 1821 packets were sailing regularly to Liverpool, and that they
carried large quantities of naval stores, the great staple of North Caro-
lina; as there had been no direct export trade to Liverpool for several
5^ears, the business of that vState had naturally inclined toward New
York. As related to Connecticut, it was said that twenty years before
it sent large quantities of grain to Boston, but since it had become a
great manufacturing vState, the products of its soil were consumed
wnthin its own borders.

It will be interesting to trace the connection of Boston with some of
the earliest propositions for the establishment of transatlantic steamship
lines. A company was formed in London in 1825 to open communi-
cation between Europe and America by means of steam vessels. Sub-
scriptions to its stock arc said to have been made to the amount of
;^270,00O, of wliich ten per cent, had actually been paid down. It was
said further: " Two very fine vessels have been offered to the directors,
one of four hundred and thirty-nine tons, with two engines each of fifty
horse power, and another of five hundred tons, built at (ireenock, with
two engines of ninety horse power each. The directors, acting upon
advice offered them from this country [the United vStatesJ, have wisely
given up the idea of employing vessels of one thcnisand tons burthen.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 133

Two lines of communication have been proposed, besides inferior
branches ; one from Valentia Island, the starting point to Nova vScotia
and New York; the other from Valentia to Antigua, Carthagena,
Jamaica, and the countries at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The
latter will probably be chosen, as the transportation of biillion and
specie has been promised them. The seas are less tempestuous on this
route, and freight and passengers to and from the West Indies will be
obtained to a great extent." The boldness of this undertaking will be
the more apparent when we remeinber that at this time, although the
possibilities of steam had been pretty thoroughly tested on the rivers
and coasts both of Great Britain and the United States, only one pas-
sage had been made across the Atlantic by a steam vessel — the Savan-
nah, in 181'.), — and a considerable part of that imder canvas.

The prospectus of the London company reached Boston, and was
made the subject of extended comment by some of the papers here.
The Daily Advertiser said: " It may be assumed as an incontrovertible
fact that wherever steam navigation has been established on a proper
footing, and on a sufficient scale of vessels and machinery, it has not
only been abundantly siiccessful, but its performance has .surpassed
expectations, overcome the natural prejudices, and commanded the
confidence of even nautical men ; and it has not only drawn to it all the
most valuable communication in its line of transit, but also increased it
in a tenfold proportion." The editorial further commended to the
attention of its readers " the importance of establishing this species of
communication between Boston and Halifax, as a branch of the grand
line of communication between America and England;" and added,
" all that is necessary to be done on our part to secure to us a full share
of the benefits of the enterpri.se is to provide a single steamboat of five
hundred tons, of the most approved construction, to ply regularly be-
tween this port and Halifax." The editor of the A/ivcrtiser \n3.<. Mr.
Nathan Hale, one of the most far-seeing men of his time, and not long-
after these words were written, he did splendid service as an educator
of the public mind on the cpiestion of steam transportation- on the
land.

A meeting of the citizens of Boston was held October 10, 1825, the
Hon. Harrison Gray Otis in the chair, to consider the question of steam
communication (indirect) with Europe, and a committee was appointed
" to devise a plan for establishing a steamboat line between this port
and Halifax, in the event of the contemplated line between that port

134 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

and Valentia goino- into operation; " also, a plan for establishing a line
between Boston and Eastport, Me. The committee consisted of Thomas
H. Perkins, Georoe Bond, William Lawrence, David Henshaw, David
Low, William J. Loring, and Henry Oxnard; and at a second meeting,
December 2, it reported: " Having opened a correspondence with the
president and directors of the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company of
London, on the first branch of their commission, they recommend that
its further consideration be postponed for the present. They do this
with the more confidence as they learn from sources entitled to credit
that the enterprising citizens of St. John, N. B., have already made
arrangements for establishing a line between Eastport and Windsor,
N. S.» and they find it to be the opinion of intelligent men that this
route will be preferred by many to a direct passage from Halifax to
Boston, the distance to Windsor being but about forty-two miles, and
the road very good." The committee recommended the immediate
establishment of a permanent line to Eastport; one or more boats had
already been running on this route, and during the last season, it was
said, the number of passengers brought from Eastport by that line and
the packets had ranged froin one hundred to two hundred a week. A
large committee, of which Mr. Lewis Tappan was chairman, was
chosen to adopt such measures as might be deemed expedient for
securing subscriptions for the line recommended by the committee of
seven.

The establishment of steamship lines upon the Atlantic seems to
have engaged the thought and effort of enterprising men on both
sides of the ocean, at as early a date as the construction of steam rail-
roads; although, for reasons which we will not now try to explain, the
former object had to wait several years for its successful realization.
The Steam Navigation Company in London, of which we have spoken,
secured a large subscription to its capital stock a year before the bill
was passed for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. And at the very
hour when the prominent business men of Boston were devising plans
to make a connection at Halifax with the ocean line projected in Lon-
don, Mr. Gridley Bryant was endeavoring to obtain their cooperation
in his plan for a railway, or what we should now call a tramway, four
tniles long, for tlie conveyance of granite from the Ouincy quarries to a
])oint at which it could be shipped to Charlestown for the monument
on Pjunker Hill. "In the fall of 1825," he says, " I consulted Thomas
H. Perkins, WilHam Sullivan, Amos Lawrence, Isaac P. Davis and

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 135

David Mood)^ all of Boston, in reference to it. These gentlemen
thoug;ht the project visionary and chimerical; but, being- anxious to aid
the Bunker Hill monument, consented that I might see what could be
done. I awaited the meeting of our Legislature in the winter of 1825-
20, and after every delay and obstruction that could be thrown in the
way, I finally obtained a charter." Even then. Colonel Perkins was
the only man who was willing to pay any assessments on the subscrip-
tion to the stock, and the result was that he built the road. Four
years, or more, passed before charters could be obtained for the lines
to Lowell, Providence and Worcester.

An able and enterprising merchant in Halifax, Mr. Samuel Cunard,
was among the first to give serious thought to the problem of ocean
steam navigation. Whether he had any connection with the project in
London in 1825 (mentioned above) we do not know, but he managed
for many years a line of brigs which carried the mails between Halifax
and Falmouth, England, and he foresaw at an early day that the time
would come when such a service, in the interest of dispatch as well as
security, must be performed by steamers. In 1S30 he had in contem-
plation a steain packet service between Liverpool and Halifax, which
should include Boston, and probably he never for a moment abandoned
the idea. It was his firm belief that trans-oceanic steamers might start
and arrive from and at their terminal points, with a punctuality not
differing greatly from that of railway trains. The steamship was to be
the railway train, without the longitudinal pair of metal rails. Mr. Brunei,
the great English engineer, had a similar opinion. At a meeting of
the directors of the Great Western Railway in the aiitumn of 1835, when
some one spoke of the enormous length, as it then appeared, of the pro-
posed railway from London to Bristol, Mr. Brunei exclaimed, "Why
not make it longer, and have a steamboat to go from Bristol to New
York, and call it the Great Western?" The suggestion was treated as
a joke at first, but it bore fruit at no distant day.

That the idea of a steamship service from England or Ireland to
Halifax and Boston was never lost sight of, is evident from a statement
made by Dr. Dionysius Lardner in 1856: " Projects had been started
in 1836 by two different and opposing interests, one advocating the
establishment of a line of steamers to ply between the west coast of Ire-
land and Boston, touching at Halifax, and the other a direct line, mak-
ing an uninterrupted trip between Bristol and New York. In the year
1836, in Dublin, I advocated the former of these projects, and in 1837,

136 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

at Bristol, at the next meeting- of the British Association, I again urged
its advantages, and by comparison discouraged the project of a direct
line between Bristol and New York. When I say that I advocated one
of these projects, it is needless to add that the popular rumor that I had
pronounced the Atlantic voyage by steam impracticable, is utterly
destitute of foundation."

It does not appear that the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company ac-
complished anything, except to prepare the way for those who were to
follow. In July, 18o(3, subscription books were opened in London for
the British and American Steam Navigation Company, which was "es-
tablished under a preliminary deed of settlement " on the 21st of the
next October. Two of the dir.ectors were Americans, Mr. Junius Smith,
of New York, who had been living in London for several years, and by
whose persistent efforts the company had been started, and Col. Thomas
Aspinwall, of Boston, for many years American consul in London.
The plan of the company at the outset, as we learn from the London
Athcncvum, was as follows: " To build a line, composed of two British
and two American steamships, of great size each, as sufficient to keep
up a communication twice a month to and from New York ; the reason
for uniting the two classes being, of course, that British ships, by treaty
of commerce, are not permitted to take foreign goods to the United
vStates — the}^ must be shipped in American bottoms ; while, on the other
hand, American ships are not permitted to bring foreign goods to Eng-
land, except for exportation only. By the union of both, all descrip-
tions of goods are secured."

According" to the third prospectus, a copy of which lies before us,
the vessels of the company were to start alternately from London and
Liverpool, and it may have been the intention, ultimately, to call at an
Irish port, for one of the directors lived in Dublin and another in Cork.
The company contracted with builders at Blackwall for a large steamer,
the British Qnccn, which was to have "capacity for five hundred pas-
sengers, twenty-five days' fuel, and eighty tons of measurement goods,
exclusive of stores, provisions, etc." The Great Western was contracted
for at Bristol at about the same time, and the question was, whether
the first departure under the new order of things would be from the
Thames or the vScvcrn. The Great Wester// was the first to be ready,
and was advertised to sail April 8, 1838. The British Queen could not
be fitted for sea by that time; the London compan}", therefore, char-
tered a steamer to take her place, the Sir ins., a fine vessel of seven hun-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 137

dred tons, schooner-rigged, built for the trade between London and
Cork, and owned by the St. George Steam Packet Company, and she
was dispatched from the Thames late in the month of March. She
started from Cork harbor, now Queenstown, April 4, and arrived in
New York harbor on the evening of the 2".id. She was under com-
mand of Lieutenant Roberts, of the royal navy, who was lost three
years later in the President. On the 8th of the same month the Great
Western, commanded by Lieutenant Hosken, also of the navy, started
from Bristol, and making a distance, by her log, of three thousand
three hundred and twenty-two miles, she reached New York on the -^od.
Both passages had been successful beyond anticipation. The judgment
of one of the New York papers was strictly true: " Steam navigation
across the Atlantic is no longer an experiment, but a plain matter of
fact. The thing has been done triumphantly."

The following statement from a New York paper of February 23,
1838, will show how much it meant to the cities of the American sea-
board, to receive as the result of these passages what they were pur-
suaded was a well-grounded assurance of regular and speedy communi-
cation in the immediate future with the countries beyond sea: "It is
a fact that the latest advices we have from Europe were received first
at Halifax, thence conveyed overland to Quebec, to Montreal, to Kings-
ton, LTpper Canada, and have reached us from the latter place by an
extra dated the 15th inst." Twelve packets from England and France
were due and overdue at that date at the port of New York.

The now famous steamers returned to England with the news of their
great achievement, and they were received there with the greatest en-
thusiasm. The lords of the admiralty, who had charge of the ocean
mails, saw that the time was come for instituting radical changes in the
packet service of the empire, and their first step was to advertise for
tenders for the conveyance of the royal mails by steam from Liverpool
to Halifax, Quebec and Boston. The object of the British government
in intervening at this juncture, as it did, in the establishment of ocean
steamship lines was political more than commercial. The opportunity
was presented to it, to unite the widely separated members of the em-
pire more closely together than had ever seen^ed possible; and it
promptly took the first great step to this end, by providing for the main-
tenance of a transatlantic line to its great dependency, British North
America, with Halifax and Quebec as the objective points. The ques-
tion of regular communication with the United vStates, through the ports

138 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

of Boston and New York, in this view of the ease, would of course be a
secondary consideration.

Whether Mr. Cunard went to Enj^land on hearing of the announce-
ment of the plans of the British government, ov whether he happened
to be there at the time, we do not knovv' ; but he saw that the time for
action on his part, for which he had long been waiting, had arrived.
He made the accjuaintance of Robert Napier, already a celebrated en-
gineer on the Clyde, and by him was introduced to George Burns and
Uavid Maclver, of the hrm of Burns & Maclver, proprietors of a line
of steamers, of from five hundred to seven hundred tons, plying suc-
cessfully between Glasgow and Liverpool. All the details of the new
undertaking, the size of the ships, the power, the cost of construction,
the probable running expenses, etc., were thoroughly discussed by
these able and practical men; the aid of a few capitalists was secured,
with subscriptions by them to the amount of ;,{^270,000; and the British
and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was brcnight
into existence. In behalf of this company, Mr. Cmiard made a tender
for the conveyance (jf the mails across the Atlantic, in accordance with
the proposals oi the government, and his tender was accepted. The
only other bid came from the Great Western Steamship Company.

The important news reached Boston by way of Halifax, and was
given t(j the public April 13, 183'.), in the following statement: "A
contract has been made by the British government with the Hon. vSam-
uel Cunard for the conveyance of the mails from England to Halifax,
and from Halifax to Boston, and also from Halifax by Pictou to Oue-
l)ec, twice a month, for the sum of ^,55, ()()() sterling per annum. The
contract is for seven 3'ears. The first l)oat is to leave Liverpool May 1,
1840. The boats froin Halifax to Boston, and from Pictou to Quebec,
to run as long as the navigation continues open Ijctween the two latter
ports, to be of one hundred and fifty horse power."

Tliis information was confirmed by a letter from Mr. Cunard to his
Boston correspondents, Messrs. Dana, Fenno & Henshaw, dated Lon-
don, 22d March, 183!), in which he said: "You will be pleased to learn
that steam boats are to proceed from this country twice in each month
for Boston, calling at Halifax. The government have given the con-
tract to me for seven years certain, and it may continue much longer,
— a year's notice is to be given (ni either side. I am building powerful
boats; they will be equal to any ever l)uilt in this country. They are
1 100 tons and 420 horse power, and as the gcn'crnment have been very

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 13!)

liberal to me, I am determined to have the best boats that ean be pro-
cured. I am bound only to carry the mail on account of government,
and am to get fift)'-five thousand pounds sterling, paid quarterly, —
which is no small sum to assist me in paying the way ; and I think when
the boats are seen, that I shall have all the passengers from Boston,
and to the eastward of Boston. I hope to make the passage to Boston,
calling at Halifax, in twelve days. I have no doubt a steam packet
will leave each port before long, three times in the month. It will be
a great advantage to Boston, and I think you should all encourage me,
and I have no doubt but you will do so.

" I hope to find that you have established peace on your borders. It
is not to the interest of either country to go to war, and it is to be re-
gretted that the acts of indiscreet people should lead to results injurious
to the welfare of two great nations."

The precise relation of Boston to the proposed line, as defined in the
contract, was not what its business men were likely to be satisfied with.
They had no objection to Halifax as a place of call ; but they believed that
for the sake of the line itself, as well as for their own advantage, Boston
should be the terminal point on this side of the Atlantic. A meeting,
therefore, was convened in the hall of the Tremont Bank, April 20, "to
consider what steps .should be pursued to encourage the proposed com-
munication by steam packets between Boston and England." Mr.
Francis J. Oliver presided, and Mr. Benjamin T. Reed served as secre-
tary. Remarks were made by Mr. George Bond, and others; and a
series of resolutions was presented by Mr. Elias Hasket Derby, and re-
ceived unanimous approval. Mr. Derby was an able lawyer and public
spirited citizen, and we have had an account of this meeting from his
own lips. We give the most important of the resolutions:

Rcsoli'cd, That we regard the establishment of a hne of steam packets between
Liverpool and Boston as tending greatly to advance the prosperity of this city, by
increasing facilities for the direct importation of merchandise from England, as
making this port an extensive depot for the receipt of cotton and naval stores for
foreign shipment, and the favorite resort from the south, the west and the east, as
well for embarkation for ICurope as for the purchase of goods, and, finally, as a
measure destined to promote our rapid growth in population, in commerce, and in
wealth.

ResfllTed', That while we rely on the justice of the British nation, and the intelli-
gence of our own, for a speedy adjustment of the questions which have recently
distvirbed our frontiers, we regard the enterprise as a harbinger of futi:re peace, both
with the mother country and the provinces, being persuaded that frequent communi-
cation is the most effectual mode to wear away all jealousies and prejudices which
are not yet extinguished.

140 SUFFOLK CO UN 7' V.

Resolved, That it is of the highest importance to the success of this great enter- •
prise that the larger class of steam packets should run entirely through from Liverpool
to Boston, and 7n'ce versa, stopping sufficient time at Halifax for the reception of
fuel and to receive and discharge passengers and freight. That this arrangement
alone will inspire confidence in the safe and uninterrupted conveyance of passengers
and goods, and secure a liberal and ample patronage of the route.

Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that a suitable pier and dock should
be provided for a term of years for the reception of the Liverpool steam packets in
this port, where they may receive and discharge their lading free from expense to
the owners of the steamers, and that such other facilities be afforded as the imix)r-
tance of the subject may require.

Resohu-d, That the Hon. Samuel Cunard, of Nova Scotia, the spirited projector
and conductor of this enterprise, is entitled to the warmest acknowledgments of
the inhabitants of this city and State for the vast benefits which must accrue to them
from the measure he has originated, and that he be assured of our sincere and ardent
wishes for his success.

Resolved, That F. J. Oliver, R. G. Shaw, William Appleton, George Bond, George
Bancroft, Charles Leighton, E. Hasket Derby, James Read, Martin Brimmer, George
Darracott and Benjamin T. Reed be a committee to communicate these resolutions
to the Hon. Mr. Cunard, and to devise measures to carry the fifth [fourth] resolution
intt) effect.

To explain the allusion in Mr. Cnnard's letter and in the second reso-
lution, we would remind our readers that at this time the northeastern
boundary question was seriously threatening^ the peace of the two
nations concerned. Governor Fairfield, of Maine, had orcatly aggra-
vated the impending difficulty, by marching State troops into the dis-
]:»utcd territory; and only by the exercise of much tact on the part of
those highest in authority, was actual war averted.

The Boston resolutions, confirmed by many private letters, reached
Mr. Cunard as he was getting ready to sail for America in the Great
Western. He went with them at once to the Lords of the Admiralty,
aud offered to increase the size and power of his ships, and to extend
the main route to Boston, promising also, half jocosely, to settle the
ncn-thcastcrn boundary question, if they would add ten thousand pounds
per annum to the subsidy. His proposition was accepted, and a new
contract was signed in May. Mr. Cimard then went to Glasgow, where
the keels of four steamers had already been laid. These were broken
up, and four ships of about twelve hundred tons each were started in
four different sliipyards, Mr. Napier's firm agreeing to build the engines.
These shi])s were smaller than the Great Western^ and much smaller
than the Uritisli Oiieeii; they were, of course, of wood, with paddle
wheels, and afterward made a reputation for tliemselves as the Jh'ifaji-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 141

ma, the Acadia, the Caledonia and the Cohunbia. On the other hand
the merchants of Boston were preparing to give substantial encourage-
ment to the new Hne. On the 12th of August, the committee appoint-
ed at the meeting held four months before reported as follows: "The
East Boston Compan}^ are to build and make all the necessary provis-
ions with three docks to receive steamships of the largest size, to be
leased to Mr. Cimard for twenty years, reserving no rent except the
usual charge of wharfage of goods or freight. The wharf now erecting
is to be eleven hundred and fifty feet long."

The Unicorn, a steamer of six hundred and forty-nine tons, built in
1830 for the Glasgow and Liverpool trade, arrived in Boston harbor
June 2, 1840, as the pioneer of the Cunard line. The wharves were
thronged with enthusiastic spectators, who gave her a hearty welcome,
and amid much display of bunting and firing of salutes, she proceed-
ed to the newly-constructed Cunard dock. Three days later a dinner
was given in Faneuil Hall to her commander, Captain Douglas, and a son
of Mr. Cunard who came as a passenger; the mayor, Mr. Jonathan
Chapman, presided, and addresses were made by the special guests of
the occasion, the British consul, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop,
and several others. The excitement was even more intense when the
first of the new steamers, the Britannia, Lieutenant Woodruff, R. N.,
commander, arrived in port on the 18th of July, after a fine passage
from Liverpool, by way of Halifax, of fourteen and a half days. Mr.
Cunard, the distinguished projector of the line, came in this ship, and
a banquet in his honor was given at East Boston, July 22, at which Mr.
Josiah Quincy, jr., presided, and speeches were made by Judge Story,
President Quincy of Harvard College, Mr. Webster and Mr. Bancroft.
The subsequent success of the line, its influence in the promotion of
international trafiic, and the impulse given by it to steam navigation on
the Atlantic Ocean, have more than justified all that was predicted by
those who participated in these congratulatory proceedings.

Nor were the citizens of Boston mistaken in their anticipation of im-
mediate advantage to their own port from the successful initiation of
this new means of transatlantic communication. They certainly had
good reason to felicitate themselves on the circumstance that Boston
had been selected by the Cunard Company, and by the government
with which it was under contract, in preference to its neighbor cities,
as the American terminus of the line. The reasons for this choice were
obvious, — nearness to the lower British provinces, and convenience of

142 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

access from them, a shorter distance from Europe, and si;periority of
harbor and wharf accommodations. The railway system of New Eng-
land also, althoni^h in its infancy, had already attracted attention in
Europe. It may be interesting- to remember that the trains starting
from Boston then reached their limits respectively at Newburyport,
Exeter, Nashua, Springfield, Stonington, and New Bedford. But the
establishment of a first-class steamship line from Liverpool hastened
the work of railroad constn^ction, and gave a new impulse to every
branch of business.

The trips of the line were to be semi-monthh' during eight months
of the year, and monthly in the winter, but it took a little time to carry
out the programme. The Acadia came out as the second ship in Au-
gust, the Jh'itaitnia again in 8epteml)er, the Caledonia and the Acadia
in October, the Fritaiuiia and the Caledonia in November, and the Acadia
in December. The amount of duties paid at the custom-house on these
eight arrivals was only $2,'.t28.!)!». It soon became apparent, however,
that all the finer and more valuable fabrics could be advantageously im-
ported by steam, although the rate of freight was seven pounds sterling
for the ton of forty cubic feet. In IS-ll the duties collected on twenty-
one arrivals were $73,8()!».2:}; in 1842, on eighteen arrivals, $120, 1)74. (57 ;
in 1843, on twenty arrivals, $040,572.05; in 1844, on twenty arrivals,
$!)l(),108.;)O; in 1845, on twenty arrivals, |1, 022,092.75.

The Columbia came out f(U' the first time in January, 1841; the Hi-
bcrnia in May, 1843; and the Cau/hria in January, 1845. The average
length of the twenty-nine passages from Liverpool to Boston, includ-
ing the detention at Halifax, from July, 1840, to December, 1841, was
fourteen days, twenty-three hours. In 1S42 the February and March
l)ackets came only to Halifax, and the passengers and mails were
brought to and taken from Boston in the Unicorn.

When the Britaruiia left Boston, July, 1842, she carried with her a
silver vase for presentation to Mr. Cunard. It had been made by
Jones, Lows & Ball, and it was described as "the greatest trimnph in
the silver worker's art as yet achieved in Boston." In an address to
Mr. Cunard which accompanied it, it was said: "To the public spirit
and enterprise of yourself and your honorable associates, we are in-
debted for a frequent, rapid and thus far unfailing mode of intercourse,
unsurpassed for comfort and safety, <and for an additional bond of union
between two great commercial nations, united b}- axcxy tic of descent,
common language and mutiuil interests, never as we trust to be weaken-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 143

ed or severed." The signers of the address, in behalf of the citizens of
Boston, were Martin Brimmer, Isaac P. Davis, James Read, Thomas
Lamb, William T. Andrews and E. Hasket Derby.

The Columbia was wrecked on Seal Island, in the Bay of Fundy, July
2, 1843, but without loss of life. The people of New York had been
unable to look with entire complacency upon the superior facilities
which Boston now enjoyed for communication wnth Europe. The Lon-
don line to their port had been broken up by the loss of the President
and the sale of the BritisJi Queen; and although the Great Western was
making her trips from Bristol or Liverpool with regularity, and was
regarded as a successful competitor of the Hibernia, whose size was
about the same as her own. New York was mainly dependent upon the
Boston steamers for its passenger and mail service. The loss of the
Columbia suggested a text to the newspapers of that city, which they
were ready enough to make use of, and they preached fluently and
continuously concerning the extraordinary dangers of the Boston
route, which they described as ' ' four hundred and fifty miles of rock,
ledge, shoal, fog, and narrow intricate channels." An unexpected
event, the next winter, made it doubtful for the moment whether a fatal
mistake had not been made in bringing the transatlantic steamers to
Boston. After the arrival of the Britannia in January, 184:4, the har-
bor was frozen over, and it looked as though she would be seriously
delayed in starting on her return trip. But the merchants were equal
to the emergency. A meeting was held on the Exchange, with the
mayor, Mr. Martin Brimmer, in the chair, and it was decided that the
steamer should be cut oiit without expense to her owners, and sent to
sea as near the advertised time of her departure as possible. A com-
mittee to collect the requisite money was chosen, consisting of Benja-
min Rich, Caleb Curtis, (3zias Goodwin, Thomas C. vSmith, Samuel
Uuincy, Thomas Gray, Charles Brown, Thomas B. Curtis, and Ammi
C. Lombard. A contract was made with Gage, Hittinger & Company
and John Hill, for cutting two canals in the ice, one from the East
Boston ferry to the open sea, and the other from the ferry to India
Wharf, into which other channels could be opened as might be desired.
For this work the contractors were to receive fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. Richard Henry Dana says in his diary: "I went down to see the
work in company with hundreds, or rather thousands, of others. The
scene was peculiar and exciting in the extreme. The whole harbor
was one field of ice, frozen on a perfect level, though somewhat roughly

144 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

in parts, and stront^- cnouj^h to bear heavy loads of merehandise drawn
by cattle. Two i4ano-s of men were at work, one beginning at the
wharves and cutting down, the other beginning at the clear water and
cutting up. Each gang numbered over a hundred. Perhaps there

were four hundred workmen in all There were booths erected

for the sale of refreshments at different parts of the track, and from
the end of Long Wharf to the place where the lower gang was at work,
a distance of five miles, there was a well-marked footway, and travel-
ers upon it were as frequent as on the great highway to a city on a
festival day." It was an impressive scene when the lyritannia^ on the
afternoon of February 3, slowly steamed through the passage which
had been cut for her, cheered by thousands of spectators. This evi-
dence of the enterprise of the B(«ton merchants made a most favorable
impression in England, and if there had been any misgivings there, in
reference to sending the mail steamers to this port, they were speedily
dispelled. Only once since has it been necessary to do a similar work.
In January, 1857, a canal was cut in the ice through which the America
passed out to sea one aftei'noon, and the Arabia came up to her dock
(^n the next day.

The increasing commerce of Boston called for various public im-
provements; one of these was the new custom-house, begun in 1838
and completed in 1S45; another was the ^Icrchants' Exchange in vState
street. The Exchange was built by a company of which Robert G.
Shaw was president, and Samuel Dana secretary. Isaiah Rogers was
the architect, and the building committee consisted of Andrew E. Bel-
knap, vSamuel Henshaw, Isaac Livermore, Thaddeus Nichols, jr., and
Thomas Lamb. The corner stone was laid August 2, 1841, by the ven-
erable Colonel Perkins, who made an interesting address giving his
reminiscences of "sixty years ago. '" A leaden box was placed under
the stone, containing a silver plate, suital)ly inscribed, together with
one or more of each of the American coins then in use, a pine-tree shil-
ling contributed by Isaac P. Davis, a Boston Directory, and copies of
the newspapers of the day. When the building was taken down in
1881), this box was deposited with the Bostonian Society, and at the
monthly meeting, October 8, it was formally opened and its contents
were examined with much interest by the members of the society and
others present.

l^^arly in the summer of 1844 Mr. Enoch Train, who had been en-
<':a<>ed in the leather trade, and in connection with this in the trade

"As^JXk^S^^Gu^k^

r RADII AND COMMERCE. 145

with South America, started his celebrated line of Liverpool sail-
ing packets. It may seem strange to us now, that a sagacious mer-
chant should undertake to establish such a line from Boston, side by-
side with the Cunard steamers; but it should be remembered that the
paddlewheel vessels then in use could accommodate only a small quan-
tity of cargo, and that this was subject to a high rate of freight. In-
stead of interfering with the transportation on the ocean of ordinary
merchandise, these mail steamers stimulated the foreign trade of the
port by the facilities they offered for the transmission of orders and for
the speedy conveyance of business men to and from Europe. So far
as exports were concerned, it may be said that they took away next to
nothing, and the goods they brought from England were of the most
valuable kind. It was twelve or fifteen years after the first arrival of
the Britannia in Boston harbor before the importance of the iron screw
steamship in the Atlantic trade began to be understood.

The first ships advertised by Enoch Train & Company were the
Dorchester, 500 tons; the Cairo, 000 tons; the Governor Davis, 800
tons; and the 5^. Petersburg, SOO tons, "all first-class, Medford-built,
copper-fastened, coppered, and fast sailing ships." The DoreJiester,
Captain Caldwell, sailed for Liverpool May 27, and was followed by the
Ellen June 10, and the Cairo July 8. The first ship built expressly for
the line was the Joslnia Bates, and this was followed in rapid succession
by the Anglo-Saxon, the Anglo- Anier lean, the ]\'as/tingto)i Iri'ing, the
Ocean Monarch, the Parliament, the Daniel Webster, the Star of Em-
pire, the Chariot of Eauie, the Staffordshire, the Cathedral, and the
John Eliot Thayer. These were all fine vessels; some of them were
very large for those days and very beautiful vessels. Through Mr.
Train, Donald McKay was first brought into prominence as a ship-
builder. Among the captains in this service, all men of ability and
high character, were Caldwell, Murdock, Thayer, Brown, Howard,
Richardson and Knowles. For a few years the business of the line in
Liverpool was managed by Baring, Brothers & Company. ]\Ir. Train
then sent over his young partner, i\Ir. Frederick W. Thayer, and estab-
lished a house there, to which the present house of Warren & Company
is the successor.

The impulse given to the general trade and prosperity of Boston by
the Cunard and Train lines, and by other facilities for transportation
both by water and by land, was very great. The population of the city
increased sixty-two per cent, from 1840 to 1850, and for the second time

146 SUFF'OLK COUNTY.

in its liistory, its taxal)lc valuation doubled, udvancin;^- from $!)4,580,-
(iUO in 1840, to $180,0 00, 500 in 1850. The imports increased during- the
same period from about $14,000,000 to $2S,(i51),73;). At no time since
ha\-e there been so niany importing' and jobbini;' houses, although a few
houses now probably do a larger business than all of them did then.
The coastwise shipping trade was also very large. The supplies of cot-
ton for the mills of New England came by sea, and the products of the
Southwest, such as provisions^ lard, lead, etc. In return we shipped to
the Southern ports domestic dry gocxls, boots and vShoes, furniture and
wooden ware, in large cpumtities. There were several fine lines of ships
and barcpies to New Orleans and Mobile, lines of brigs to Savannah,
Alexandria, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and lines of schooners to New
York.

In 1851 the railways leading to the Canadas and the northern lakes
were completed, and so high an estimate was placed upon the commer-
cial value of this connection, that the vState and the City joined with the
business men of Boston in a celebration such as had never been wit-
nessed before, and perhaps such as has not been seen since. In an
official report published by the City it was said: " However extensive
and brilliant may have been the public pageants on other occasions,
not one, it is believed, has on this continent surpassed, if any have
equaled, that of September 17, 18, and 1!)." The president of the
United vStates, Millard Fillmore, with members of his cabinet, arrived
on the morning of the first day. He was followed by Lord Elgin,
governor-general of Canada, with his suite. All the large towns of
British America were represented by their mayors and other officials,
and the British army was represented by several distinguished officers
then stationed in Canada. The public festivities consisted of a military
review on the Common, an excursion down the harbor, a military ball,
and, on the third day, which was a general holiday, a procession, and a
dinner on the Commcni, at which three thousand six hundred persons
sat down, with fireworks in the evening.

Two enterprises were initiated in connection with "the railroad
jubilee " as it was called; neither, unfortunately, brought anything but
embarrassment to the public-spirited men who started them, but one of
them exists as an integral and essential part of our railroad system to-
day. The Grand Junction Railroad Company, chartered in 1847 with
a capital of $1, •200,000, formally opened its line, six and six-tenths
miles in length, which joined the Eastern, Boston and Maine, Fitch-

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 147

burg-, and Lowell Railroads, with the steamship wharves at East Bos-
ton. No such facilities then existed at any other port. The directors
of the company, whose names deserve to be perpetuated, were Samuel
S. Lewis, David Henshaw, John W. Fenno, Charles Paine, of Vermont,
and Ichabod Goodwin, of New Hampshire. Mr. Lewis was the Boston
agent of the Cunard line from 1840 to 1857. Lewis street in East Boston
and Lewis wharf were named for him.

The Ocean Steamship Company of New England was the other en-
terprise to be ushered into public notice amid the festivities of which
we have spoken. Its purpose was to build four steamships, to be called
after well-known Boston merchants, and its first and only vessel, the
^'. ^S". Lewis, Captain Cole, a propeller of 1,104 tons register, built in Phil-
adelphia, arrived in the harbor on the 17th of September, after a run
of forty-seven hours from Delaware breakwater. She had a large
party on board, including two or three members of the Vander-
bilt famil}', and resolutions were adopted speaking in terms of
praise of her accommodations and performances. wShe sailed for Liver-
pool October 4, with forty-five cabin and twenty steerage passengers,
but, we believe, she never made a second voyage in this service. The
projectors of the undertaking, Harnden & Company, the pioneers in
the express business in the United States, were brought to bankruptcy
during the autumn.

The screw propeller, as adapted to the requirements of the Atlantic
trade, had not yet passed beyond the experimental stage. Captain
Yor\)Q.^\y\xs\.t\)aQMa5sacJinsctts\\\ 1S45, a propeller of about seven hundred
and seventy tons, and, in the autumn of that year, with his relative,
Colonel Perkins, took passage in her from New York to Liverpool ; but
she was only what was called an " auxiliary " steamship, as on her out-
ward passage she sailed under canvas six or seven days out of the sev-
enteen. Her engines were designed by Ericsson. Mr. William Inman,
of Liverpool, was the first, not only to foresee the possibilities of the
iron screw steamer, but also to realize them in actual service ; and when
the S. .S". Lewis was building, he was taking the initial steps towards the
establishment of the steamship line which in a few years held such a
leading position in the transatlantic trade. A year or twf) later the
Cunard Company built the Alps^ the Andes ^ the Jura and the Etna,
iron propellers varying from eighteen hundred to twent3'-two hundred
tons, which brought large cargoes to Boston. It was not imtil 18G2 that
the compan)^ brought out its first screw steamer for the inail and pas-

us SUFFOLK CO UN FY.

senger service, — the C/nna, a fine ship of alx^iit twenty-six hundred tons
rei^ister. Her first trips were made to New York, but later she was
placed on the Boston route.

Boston participated lari^ely in the commercial activity created by the
discovery of gold in California and Australia while it lasted. The clear-
ances at this port for those countries were: In lSo2, !)S ; in 1853, 149;
in 1S5-1, 5!»; in 1855, 10; in 1850, 54; in 1857, 47. Forty-four vessels
were built in and about Boston in the year 1855, with a tonnage amount-
ing to 45,088; and twenty-two more, of 27,877 tons, were on the stocks
at the close of the year. The tonnage owned in Boston in 1855 was
larger than ever before or since — 541, ()44 tons.

In 1854 the merchants of Boston organized again for the purpose of
considering, and, by concerted action, promoting measures for the ben-
fit of the city. This time they formed a Board of Trade; its objects and
methods were similar to tho.se of the Chamber of Commerce of 1830,
but it was much more active and aggressive, and it made its influence
felt far and near. It issued a .series of annual reports which contain
much information relating to the trade and commerce both of Boston
and of the country at large. The first president was Samuel Lawrence,
and he was succeeded by James M. Beebe, George B. Upton, Edward
vS. Tobey, James C. Converse, George C. Richardson, and others. Its
secretaries from 1S54 to 1S73 were Isaac Chapman Bates, Lorenzo
Sabine, and the writer of these pages. After this the Board merged
itself in the Merchants' Exchange and a few years afterward ceased to
exist. The rooms on the corner of Bedford and Chauncy streets, occu-
pied by the Board from 18(;5 to 1873, are now occupied by the Mer-
chants" Assoeiation, which, in many of its functions, may be regarded
as having succeeded to the work of the Board.

The Boston Corn Exchange was formed in 1855 for the purpose of
regulating and promoting dealings in breadstuffs. Its first president
was Alpheus Hardy, a merchant in the Mediterranean trade, and a large
exporter of flour. In 1871, for the purpose of broadening its .sphere
aud of bringing to its member.ship other branches of business, ])articu-
larly the provision, fish, and salt interests, the organization changed its
name to the Boston Commercial Exchange. In 1885 it consolidated
with the I5()ston Produce Exchange (incorporated in ls77) under the
name of tlie Boston Chamber of Commerce, and, as such, it now repre-
sents the general- commercial interests of the city. On tlie 21st of Jan-
uary 181)2, the Chamber dedicated a beautiful building for its u.scs,
erected by the enterprise .and lil)erality of the mcmbershijx

TRADE AMD COMMERCE. U'J

In the spring of 1S55 the Legislature of Massachusetts incorporated
Donald McKay, George B. Upton, Enoch Train, Andrew T. Hall, and
James M. Beebe, under the name of the Boston and European Steam-
ship Company, with a capital of $500,000, "for the purpose of navigat-
ing the ocean by steam. " The plan was to build "a splendid line of
Atlantic steamers rivaling in every respect the Collins line of New
York," and Milford Haven was thought of as the terminal i)ort in Great
Britain. It was felt that there should be an American line of steamers
at this port, under full control here. The Cunard steamers had been
temporarily withdrawn from the New York service, the company hav-
ing chartered several of its ships to the British Government for its use
in connection with the Crimean War; and there was a rumor that the
Boston steamers were to be withdrawn also, but this was contradicted
by the agent, Mr. Lewis, in a note to the newspapers dated May 15.
A public meeting was held on the Exchange, in the interest of the pro-
posed line, July 12. Mr. George B. Upton presided, Robert B. Forbes,
James M. Beebe, Charles G. Greene and Edward S. Tobey were chosen
vice-presidents, and Vernon Brown and Henry N. Hooper, secretaries.
Stirring speeches were made by George R. vSampson, Elias H. Derby,
Enoch Train, and others. Mr. Sampson referred to the Canadian tran-
sit trade, of which we shall speak presently, which, he said, had grown
from $24,000 in 1849 to $5,424,000 in 1854, and which, at certain sea-
sons of the year, furnished half the lading of the Cunard steamers on
their passage to the westward. Mr. Train said: " It had been thought
that he would oppose the line as antagonistic to his own. He should
do no such thing. There is a vast difference between steam and sail-
ing vessels, and steam would not interfere with his regular business —
the transportation of coarse and weighty commodities and passengers
who could not afford the luxiiry of a steam passage. He would, in-
stead of opposing the proposed line, lend it the strength of his right
arm. Boston, though the principal commercial city of New England,
had never yet owned a proper, hard-weather, sea-going steamship.
Our capitalists have done much in building up manufacturing towns.
Here was another enterprise that demanded their consideration."

Mr. Derby, in addressing the meeting, predicted that steam would at
no distant day supersede canvas in the commerce of the world. Mr.
McKay exhibited a model of the pioneer steamer of the proposed line;
it was to be called the Cradle of Liberty, and was to cross the Atlantic
in six days. A series of resolutions was adopted, and, on the nomina-

150 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

tion of a committee of three, a large committee to solicit subscriptions
was chosen, consisting of the following business men : Robert B. Forbes,
George B. Upton, Enoch Train, George Baty Blake, JSamuel Hooper,
William H. Bordman, William Perkins, Isaac Rich, Andrew T. Hall,
James M. Beebe, Francis Skinner, William F. Weld, James Lawrence,
James vSturgis, J. Bowdoin Bradles, George R. vSampson, Nathaniel H.
Emmons, William B. Bacon, William Amory, G. Howland vShaw, John
H. Pearson, William T. Glidden, William B. Reynolds, Hamilton A.
Hill, Charles Bockus, Adam W. Thaxter, jr., Ammi C. Lombard, Don-
ald McKay, Frederic W. Thayer, William Bramhall, Edward S. Tobey,
Ezra H. Baker, Israel Whitney, Edward D^ Brigham, William S. Bul-
lard, Vernon Brown. The following were afterward added to the
committee, the first three being presidents of insurance companies:
Thomas C. vSmith, Joseph H. Adams, Charles W. Cartwright, David
Snow, Thomas Nickerson, Isaac Taylor. Here the matter ended,
and we can now see that it was well that it went no further. Great
changes in ocean steam navigation were imminent; and the Col-
lins line, on which the new line was to be modeled, was even then seri-
ously embarrassed, and went into bankruptcy a year later. Mr. Train
also, not long after this, became seriously involved, and a new firm,
Thayer & Warren, undertook to build upon the foundations which he
had laid with so much ability and foresight.

In connection with the tariff of lS4(i Mr. Robert J. Walker, secretary
of the treasury, established the present warehouse system, copied in
most of its details from that which had proved so beneficial to the for-
eign commerce of Great Britain and France. Under this system mer-
chandise might be carried under bond and seal /// transitu through the
territory of the United vStates between Great Britain and the Canadas;
and on the completion of the Northern New England Railroads Boston
became the most eligible port for this transit trade. In tlie year 1S51
the invoice cost of the merchandise arriving here from Europe for Can-
ada was about six hundred thousand dollars ; in 1852, two millions; and
iu the years ISo:) to 1S5(;, about fivemilHons annually. After ISoTthis
trade was largely diverted to Portland under an arrangement by which
the Allan Steam.ship Company and the Grand Trunk Railway Company
issued through bills of lading from Liveri:)0()l to all jiarts of British
North America. The commercial relations of Boston with its provin-
cial neighbors were most intimate and satisfactory at this time, under
the operation of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the ])roduct of the

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 151

labors after long years of negotiation of such statesmen as INIr. Webster
and Mr. Marcy, Sir Henry Bnlwer and Lord Elgin. The following
estimate of this treaty is from the pen of Mr. Sabine, who was one of
the best authorities of that day on all questions bearing upon our trade
with the 'Canadas and the fisheries:

"At the dismemberment of the British Empire, in 1783, it was
proposed to allow the United States to participate in the trade of the
remaining colonies in this hemisphere, on terms of equality with the
mother country ; but the English merchants, who enjoyed that trade in
monopoly, were alarmed, and defeated the measure. Two years after,
our first minister at the Court of St. James was instructed to renew
the proposition, and was curtly answered that it could not be admitted
even as a subject of negotiation. A third effort was made in 1789, with
no better success; and, from that period down to the year 1822, the
colonial ports were fast closed against our flag save under certain de-
fined restrictions. Retaliation on our part followed from time to time,
and, in the end, the legislation both of Parliament and Congress became
utterly barbarous. If wiser counsels occasionally prevailed, or were
about to prevail, the controversies which arose between the two govern-
ments as to the intent of the laws passed by the c;ne or the other, in
the spirit of concession, became so bitter, finally, as to produce re-
straints greater than ever before. Nor was it until the ' McLane Ar-
rangement,' so called, in 1830, that any change of moment occurred,
or that a direct and free intercourse was permanently allowed. In the
twenty-four years that followed the ' Arrangement, ' the increase of the
colonies in commerce, navigation, wealth, and happiness, \vas very
considerable The Reciprocity Treaty is the crowning measure of the
wise and humane policy adopted in 1830. How marked the change !
In place of alienation and hatred, of ports barred and bolted, the people
of the colonies and the United States, joined in bonds of amity deal
with one another at will; exchange without customs even, 'the wealth
of the seas,' and the principal raw staples of the soil ; mingle, as if of the
same nation, on all the sea fishing grounds ; and, as if of the same na-
tion too, use the St. Lawrence, and the canals which connect it with
the most distant of the great lakes."

To the great damage of New England, this treaty was abrogated in
18<J5 by the action of the government of the United States, for political
reasons chiefly.

The Calcutta trade of Boston reached the point of its greatest devel-
opment in the years 1850 to 1850 inclusive. We have seen that in the

152 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

year 18(H) twelve vessels were loaded at Caleiitta in one season for the
United States, with cargoes valued altogether at iibout $2, 400, 000.
These cargoes consisted chiefly of cotton and silk manufactures. In
lS-10 twenty-one vessels arrived with Calcutta cargoes, amounting in
quantity to seventeen thousand tons, and in value (first cost and freight
money,) to $1,250,000. The tonnage had increased but the value had
been reduced by one-half, owing to the change in the character of the
goods imported. The trade steadily increased imtil, in 1857, one hun-
dred and twenty-two ships were loaded at Calcutta for the United
States, carrying 180,2(37 tons, valued at $17,000,000. Of this tonnage
more than seventy-five per cent, came to Boston, and the freight money
earned on it was estimated at two million dollars. The arrivals in Bos-
ton for the four years mentioned above were: 185(j, 78 ships, 110, Ho
tons; 1857, !JG ships, 147,131 tons; 1858, 5'J ships, 8(J,013 tons; 185!),
81 ships, 141,825 tons. From and after 185!) New York began to gain
upon Boston; but it was not until 18(J7 that the tons imported at the
former city actually exceeded the importation here.

We have already spoken of the changes which take place in trade in
the course of time. We have another instance in the history of the im-
portation of gunny-bags and gunny-cloth. In 1840 the quantity was
less than five thousand bales; in 185(1 it was ninety thousand bales; in
185'.), eighty-seven thousand; in 18()0, eighty-eight thousand; and in
1807, eighty-six thousand. Since then the importation has almost en-
tirely ceased. It was estimated, before the war, that seventy-five per
cent, of the goods imported from Calcutta at Bostc^n was shipped again
coastwise, and upon this, of course, freight money was earned by our
shipowners a second time.

The most prominent and best informed, although not the largest,
merchant in the Calcutta trade, early in the century, was Mr. Henry
Lee, of whom we have already had occasion to speak. He lived in
Calcutta for several years, and established friendly relations with the
great English houses there, which were continued by correspondence
after his return to this country ; Captain Ozias Goodwin sailed in his
employ, and, afterward, became hjs partner; and, later, he took as
partners Mr. William vS. Bullard, and his son, Mr. Henry Lee, jr., who
carried on the business under the firm name of Bullard, Lee & Com-
pany, and who, happily, still survive as these pages are passing
through the press. Other memljcrs of his family and several members
of the Cabot family were also engaged in the Calcutta trade ; and we

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 153

may mention also, in this connection, Daniel C. Bacon, Thomas Wig'-
glesworth, Samuel and Edward Austin, Ingersoll Bowditch, John L.
Gardner, Israel Whitney, Nathaniel and Benjamin Goddard, Benjamin
A. Gould and Mackay & Coolidge.

Some of the principal merchants and shipowners in Boston, in the
years immediately preceding- the war of the rebellion, besides those
already mentioned, were, Robert G. vShaw & Company, William F.
Weld & Company, Bordman & Pope, vSarapson & Tappan, Glidden 6i:
Williams, Andrew Cunningham, John M. Forbes, William Perkins,
Bramhall & Howe, Alpheus Hardy, Howes & Crowell, George Hallett,
Thomas Nickerson, George C. Lord & Company, Phineas Sprague
& Company, Snow & Rich, Thomas B. Wales & Company, Reed Sc
Wade, Bates & Company and Isaac Taylor. As the shipping interest
declined, many of these merchants transferred their capital to trans-
portation enterprises on the land, and were successful as the projectors,
builders or managers of some of the great railway lines of the country.

In 1858 a steamship line was projected by Mr. John Orrell Lever
and others, of Manchester, to connect the port of Galway with New
York and Boston, by way of vSt. John's, Newfoundland. This was be-
fore the transatlantic steamers began to call regularly at Irish ports.
Partly for political considerations, and partly on the theory that much
of the Irish traffic with America would take the direct route, as a mat-
ter of course, instead of crossing the channel to Liverpool, the British
government agreed to give to the new company as liberal a subsidy,
proportionately to the service to be performed, as it was paying to Mr.
Cunard and his associates. Galway remitted all port, harbor and pilot
dues; and through-traffic arrangements were made with the principal
places in the United Kingdom and with North Sea ports. The report
of the Boston Board of Trade of 185!) contains all the correspondence
which passed during the summer of 1858 between the secretary, Mr.
Sabine, and Mr. Lever, in reference to the facilities which might be
offered here. A pioneer steamer, the Indian Empire, was dispatched
from Galway to New York in July, and a second, the Propeller, arrived
in Boston in September; but the first vessel built by the company, the
Connaiight, a large paddle-wheel steamer, did not make her appearance
in Boston until August, bSdO. She was advertised as of forty-four
hundred tons, but was probabl}' not nearly so large, and was to be fol-
lowed by the Leinster, the Munster, and the lister. These names
were changed to the Hibernia, the Coliunbia, and the A)iglia. On her

154 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

second voyaj^e to Boston, in the autumn of 1800, the CoJUiaugJit was
lost, three hundred miles from Cape Cod, most fortunately without any
sacrifice of life, althou<j;h she had nearly five hundred passengers on
board. The Ilibcniia was so completely disabled in a gale which she
encountered on her way from the Tyne to Galway, that she never en-
tered the service at all. The third ship of the line, the Columbia, made
one trip to Boston, arriving here April 27, 1801, after a passage of nine-
teen days from Galway by way of St. John's and Halifax. We doubt
whether the Anglia was ever built; biit, in 18(51, the company bought
the Collins Company's fine ship, the Adriatic, which made the run
to vSt. John's in six days, the only instance in which the contract with
the government was kept as to time. The company sent the paddle-
wheel steamer Parana to New York in 1800, and the screw-steamer
Prince Albert in 1801 ; but it did not long survive. It lacked every re-
quisite for success. Its capital consisted largely of promises on paper;
its managers had from the first shown themselves to be utterly incom-
petent; it did not keep faith with the government, whose mistaken lib-
erality had helped to bring it into existence; and it injured the purse or
the reputation of every one who had any prominent connection with it.
The commercial prosperity of Boston, under the old order of things,
reached its high water mark in 1850 and 1857. There is no doubt that
the country at large had prospered greatly under the tariff of 1840; its
foreign commerce and its domestic industries had been growing side
by side, in healthful competition ; and the marvelous gain it had made
in shipbuilding, and in the ocean carrying trade of the globe, seemed
likely to go on indefinitely. In all this, Boston had participated to its
full vshare; and, in addition, it had been greatly benefited by its system
of railroad communication, and by the operation of the Reciprocity
Treaty of 1854. vSo, too, in common with the rest of the country,
Boston suffered from the financial reverses of 1857; but there were
local influences which prokniged and aggravated the eft'ect of these
reverses here, as compared with some of the other cities on the sea-
board. The Calcutta trade, in which Boston was especially interested,
had been overdone; and a reaction in the shipbuilding industry' of New
England, having its center here, was inevitable, after the impulse it
had received from the discovery of gold in California and Avistralia,
and the demand for shipping created by the Crimean War. All this,
however, was only what might have been expected, and had it not been
for other circumstances, would not have been permanently disastrous.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 155

It was at this jiincturc that Boston began to find itself unable to hold
its own as against the strong competing force of New York, and for
reasons for which its own citizens were responsible. The establish-
ment of branch commission houses in New York for the sale of the
manufactured dry goods of this part of New England was a heavy blow
to Boston. The movement began in 1846, and a few years later there
were nineteen of these Boston houses in New York, and their aggre-
gate sales amounted to twenty-five millions of dollars a year. The
reason assigned for the change was the greater facility for shipping to
the wSouth and West which New York then offered ; but there is no
question that some of the houses who were the first in the movement
wanted the use of more money than the Boston banks were able or
willing to advance to them. The Boston Board of Trade made a vigor-
ous effort to abolish the system of branch houses, and to recall the
trade to Boston, but without success. In an able report on the subject
it said: " Unless we mistake, had some of the parent houses seen the
consequences, the step would not have been taken ; and unless, too, we
greatly err, some of them would now [December, 185S] gladly abolish
the system could all be induced to come into the measure." Reference
was made in the report to the oil trade at New Bedford, the fish trade
at Gloucester, and the Calcutta trade in Boston, as instances of the suc-
cessful maintenance of the system of home sales and the avoidance of
the "uncertainties, expenses, and losses" of sales or consignments
abroad.

But the most striking illustration on the subject was drawn from the
boot and .shoe trade, the "vigor and stability" of which, it was said,
"are attributable mainly to the adoption of the plan of sales at
home." Before 1825 this trade had only a feeble and flickering exist-
ence ; it was insignificant in amount and unremunerative in its results.
" The custom of the manufacti:rers was to send their goods after pur-
chasers, and to incur the expenses and risks incident to that practice ;
and it turned out that the majority of them failed as often as once in
every seven years. At this period the whole bu.siness in Massachusetts
could hardly have been estimated by millions of dollars, and nearly the
entire sale was made by consignments to southern and western markets.
But about the year 1830 an important change in this particular was
commenced : the plan of foreign sales through branch houses or by
consignments was verj' generally abandoned, and the policy of selling
exclusively at our own warehouses, and of limiting the manufacture to

lr,f; SUFFOLK CO UN TV.

the demand, was substituted. Durinj^- the seven years that foHowed,
and until the oreat erisis of 1837, the business was very prosperous,
and rose in amount to fourteen millions of dollars per annum ; and if
it did not entirely escape the memorable revulsion of that year, yet
most of the important shoe houses that suspended in this city finally
recovered and paid their oblio-ations in full. New York, on the other
hand, presented a striking- contrast. There were then in that city
twenty-five wholesale boot and shoe houses that received their supplies
chiefly from Massachusetts. Of these, twenty-four failed, and from
their failure came nearly all the embarrassments which the business in
this vState experienced; . . . few, if any, paid in full, and many of
them made but triflino- dividends. . . , Since IS:)? the trade has
rapidlv increased in Massachusetts, and at the present time amounts to
more than fifty millicHis of dollars per annum. Its stability may be
seen by the circumstance that during- the unparalleled revulsion of 1857
not a single honse of high standino- in Boston stopped payment."

The report from which we have quoted was approved by the Board
of Trade, and so much interest was felt in the subject of which it
treated that it was presented at a meeting of gentlemen called for
the purpose at the rooms of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance
Company, and, on motion of Mr. David vSears, it was approved, and
the Board was asked to print and circulate it. A second meeting was
held in the same place two days later, in which Messrs. William Apple-
ton,- Thomas G. Gary, William T. Andrews and Albert Fearing took
part, and it was again voted, "that the reasonings and recommendations
of the report meet the approval of this meeting." As we have already
intimated, the eff^ort to close the branch houses in New York and to
recall this errant trade to Boston was unsuccessful.

Boston suffered at the time of which we are speaking for another
reason, and for this again it had itself chiefly to blame. It was the first
seaboard city to become the key to an extended system of railway com-
munication; unfortunately, however, this system after a few years was
"arrested " in its development, to use a scientific expression, and not
only made no advance with the times, but was allowed to lapse into
retrogression. All the railroad lines starting from Boston were short,
and we had no trunk routes under our control. The Boston and Wor-
cester aud the Western Railroad Companies, which together furnished
the direct means of communication with the West, were always at cross
puri)oscs with each other. The former had no track connection with

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 15^

tidewater, and the latter, until 1865, had no brido^e aeross the Hudson
River, and was only partially double-tracked. All merchandise, whether
passino- east or west, had to be handled and transhipped at Albany, at
a serious cost of money and, .what was of more importance, of time ;
the delays there in the spring- of the year were often most disastrous.
While the New York Central Railroad, in the interest of the port of
New York, increased its rolling stock threefold during the decade, 1H55
to 18G5, the Western Railroad, supposed to be managed in the interest
of the port of Boston, added to its freight cars in the same period about
twelve and a half per cent. It appeared also, in evidence before a
legislative committee in ISGG, that the Worcester Railroad Company had
not added a single freight car to its rolling stock for through business
in twenty years, and that the through traffic from Albany to Boston
was a trifle less in 1865 than it had been in 18-17. Under these circum-
stances it was impossible for the export trade of the city to grow.
This amounted in 1857 to $28,326,918; the next year it fell off one -
third, and it was not until 1873 that the figures of 1857 were again
reached. Such legislation was enacted in 1867 as compelled the Wor-
cester Railroad Company, which had been the reluctant party, to enter
into a consolidation with its connecting line, the Western ; and after
the long-desired union had been arranged, a better state of things be-
gan at once. In 1868 the double track between Boston and Albany
was completed, and a connection was perfected with the wharves at
East Boston; and in 1870 an elevator for grain was erected on these
wharves with a capacity which was afterward increased to a million
bushels.

At the beginning of the year 18()8, the Cunard Steamship Company
withdrew its mail steamers from Boston, after an uninterrupted service
from Liverpool by way of Halifax to this port of nearly twenty-eight
years. The company was feeling the competition of other transatlantic
lines at the port of New York and thought it expedient to concentrate
its best energies there. Its subsidy from the British government, also,
was being steadily diminished, and it was necessary for it to obtain full
cargoes for its passages to the eastward, which, while it employed onl}-
or chiefly paddle-wheel steamers, and while its mail contract was large,
it had cared little or nothing for. For such vessels as the China., the
Cuba, and the Java — screw-propellers — return cargoes were indispensa-
ble, and, as we have just shown, Boston was not in a position at this
time to furnish them. Railroad connections were becoming closer and

1,18 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

more direct, and terminal conveniences on a broad scale were in pro-
cess of construction ; but these improvements for the purposes of the
Cimard Company came rather late. The company continued to send
caro'o steainers here, but they proceeded to New York to complete
their unloading- and to load for Liverpool direct.

In the same year, 1808, an effort to establish a line of steamers
between Boston and Liverpool failed disastrously, and it .seemed
as though the foreign trade of the port which, in various ways,
had been declining for several years, woiild soon cease to exist at all.
The American Steamship Company was organized under a legislative
charter in July, 1804. Its board of directors inckided many merchants
and business men of high standing, such as Edward S. Tobey, Osborn
Howes, William Perkins, James L. Little, Avery Plumer, George C.
Richardson, Chester W. Chapin and others. It raised by subscriptions
to its capital stock nearly one million dolhirs, and l)y bonds three or
four htnidred thousand dollars more. It built two fine wooden screw
steamers, of three thousand tons each, the Eric and the Ontario; but,
with all the money it had procured, the company could l)arely pay the
first cost of these ships, and had nothing left with which to meet cur-
rent expenses, or to begin the construction of two more vessels, which
were needed to form a bi-weekly line. After two or three trips, the
steamers were laid up in ordinary for a time; and when they were dis-
posed of, and the company wound up its affairs, there was a total loss.

It should be said, however, that the labors of the American Steam-
ship Company, protracted during four or five years, were not in vain ;
and what it accomplished indirectly was worth to the community, per-
haps, all the pecuniary loss to which the stockholders had been sub-
jected. It aroused the people to the general importance of ocean
steam navigation ; it stimulated the railroad companies to the exten-
sions and improvements which have been referred to; it inspired the
local press with new spirit in its utterances upon all business questions;
and it was the first to fix the attention of the West upon what Boston
might do, and was about to attempt, as an export city. At its instance,
representatives from the commercial bodies of Detroit, Chicago, Mil-
waukee, Cincinnati, and vSt. Louis, came to Boston in the month of
June, 18r),5, and to them the ca])al)iHties of the port, and the far-reach-
ing plans of our more ])rogressive Inisiness men were carefully explained.
All this effort was of no advantage to the company in whose esjiecial
beliair it was put forth; but it made it not onl\' possilile, but easy, for

^i^^^

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 151)

other steamship Hnes to establish themselves here. They have since
been reaping where others had sown.

Before passing from the review of the period from 1857-58 to 1807-
08, we would say that it was only in its foreign trade, or a portion of it,
that Boston for the time failed to advance, or even to hold its own.
The imports fell from $44,840,083, in 1857, to $2:5,1)57,021, in 1802, and
to $24,540,41)4, in 1S05. In 1807 , they exceeded the figures of 1857,
although in 1808 the}" declined somewhat. The exports of domestic
merchandise fell from $24,81)4,019, in 1857, to $12,183,040, in 1802,
and in 1808 their vakie was only $15,090,873. But during most of this
time other branches of business were doing well, and the general pros-
perity of the city was very considerable. The taxable valuation ad-
vanced from $254,714,100, in 1858, to $493,573,700, in 1808. How
much of this increase was due to the inflation of the currency, we will
not attempt to decide ; but, after making all proper allowance for this
disturbing influence, we think that there was still a substantial ad-
vance.

In 1809 Mr. James Alexander was sent froin Glasgow as the agent of
the Cunard Company in Boston. He at once put himself in communi-
cation with the officers of the Board of Trade, and with others compe-
tent to give him full and correct information, and after much corres-
pondence with his principals, he induced them to attempt the loading
of two or three of their cargo steamers at Boston for Liverpool di-
rect. This was done in 1870. The Palmyra sailed September 22, being
the first departure of a steamship to Liverpool since the Africa left the
port on the 1st of January, 1808. Other vessels followed the Palmyra
at irregular intervals, but on the 8th of April, 1871, the Siberia sailed
as the first of a regular line. The Boston and Albany Railroad Com-
pany co-operated cordially with the steamship company and joined it in
some large purchases of grain, which at the outset it was necessary to
make in order to insure full cargoes for the ships. The exports of do-
mestic merchandise which for the year ended June 30, 1871, were
$12,901,291 advanced in the next fiscal year to $21,443,154, and steadily
increased year by year. Owing to the completeness of the arrange-
ments at East Boston the foreign immigration at this port also made
a decided advance, increasing from 15,128 in 1808, to 31,042, in 1873;
and again, after a falling off^ here in common with the other seaboard
cities, to 33,02(j in 1880. In the winter of 1879-80 the Cunard Com-
pany suspended its trips to Boston for a time, and its future policy with

160 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

reference to this port seemed to be cjiiite undetermined. A year or two
later it resumed its business here on something like the old-time basis,
and placed vessels upon the route with comfortable passenger accom-
modations as well as large capacity for cargo. With these it has main-
tained weekly sailings between Liverpool and Boston as against its bi-
weekly sailings previous to 1808. The BotJinia and Scytliia^ which now
come to Boston, are four times the size of the BritiDuiia and her sister
ships; and the CcpJialonia and Pavoiiia, which, we believe, were ex-
pressly built for the Boston trade, are not only live times as large as
the Britainiia but twice as large as the Cuba ^Vidjava, the withdrawal
of which from our port was regarded as such a misfortune a quarter of a
century ago.

The successors of Enoch Train & Company — Thayer & Warren,
afterward Warren & Company — were among the earliest to appreciate
the commercial importance of iron screw steamers, and they gradually
substitvited them for sailing vessels in the Boston and Liverpool trade.
Through their English house they were in a very favorable position for
engaging all such steamers as they required, having abundant room for
freight and steerage passengers. The first steamers of this line pro-
ceeded from Boston to other ports to obtain return cargoes, but as soon
as the conditions here made it practicable they went back to Liverpool
direct. The carrying capacity of the ships has increased since 1800
from fifteen hundred to nearly five thousand tons; and this increase is
represented in its different stages by the names of the Propoutis, the
Bosphoriis, the Miniusota, the Victoria., the hnca^ the Missouri., the
Kansas, and the Ottoman. The Warren line may be regarded as in
fact a Boston line, although its ships have always borne the British
flag.

In the winter of IST^-iv) the Inman line was disposed to have a share
in the growing business of the port, and sent the City of Boston here,
as a pioneer, on her way to New York ; on her return trip to Liverpool
this steamer called at Halifax, and then proceeded on her way never to
be heard froni again. This was a sad discouragement to begin with.
Then the shipments consigned to Boston were smaller than had been
anticipated by the company ; the steamers were slow and were detained
by their call at Halifax, so that importers preferred to bring their goods
by faster v^essels coming direct. Other considerations had weight and
the service was abandoned after a few months.

The Messrs. Leyland, i)roprietors for many years of a line between
Liverpool and the Mediterranean, arranged to send some of their ships

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 101

to Boston in the spring of 187(J. The service was fortnightly at Hrst,
but was made a weekly one in January, 1878. It began with the
Bavarian, the Batavian and the Bo/uvniaii, and the Istriaii^ the Illyrian
and the Iberian. The Virginian and the Valcncian came out a few
yeai's later, and they have been followed by the Lancastrian, the Colum-
bian, the Bostonian, and the Georgian. The weight capacity of their
present steamers is fifty-five hundred tons, not including coal, and the
space for cargo under deck is estimated at eight thousand tons meas-
urement. The Bohemian was lost on the Irish Coast, on her voyage
from Boston to Liverpool, in February, 1881.

Branches of the Allan and Anchor lines have been maintained at this
port at intervals, and there are now two lines, the Johnston and the
Furness, which ply regularly between Boston and the Thames. We
doubt whether in the whole history of commerce there is to be found a
record of any such commercial development as that which Boston can
boast — an advance from ;///, no sailing of a steamship for Europe in
18(;i), to one hundred such sailings in 1877, to three hundred and twenty-
two in 1880, and to more than four hundred in 18'.)'2. Certainly the
projectors of the American Steamship Company were not too sanguine
in 18<i5-(i7, when they insisted that there was plenty of business to be
done between Boston and Liverpool if only the proper facilities were
supplied and the proper efforts put forth.

The more recent history of Boston is so fresh in the minds of most of
us, and the record of everything relating to it is so easily accessible to
all, that we have thought it preferable to use the space at our disposal
in making mention of events less near to the present day and less gen-
erally known or remembered. Of the newer development since the
period of the Civil War, of the city which has attained metropolitan pro-
portions, of the vast business here carried on in accordance with modern
methods, and of all the commercial conditions so utterly changed since
the last generation of merchants passed from the scene, we can only
give the merest intimation. It must be the duty of some later writer
to describe the material activities and resovirces of Boston in the last
third of the current century, and to compare them with those which
marked the earlier years in the history of the town and city, and, par-
ticularly, the exceptionally pro.sperous years from 1850 to 1857.

We must recall one event, however, perhaps the most momentous in
the history of Boston as a city, and of its trade — the fire of the !)th and
10th of November, 1872. The territory devastated by this fire was about

162 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

sixty-five acres, coiiiprisini;- thirty streets and containini^- between seven
and eit^ht hundred buildins^s. With the exception of a few streets near
the water, this area was wholly devoted to business purposes, and the
buildinj^s which covered it, in size and architectural effect, were unsur-
passed, and perhaps une(|ualed, by those of any other city in the
world. Here was concentrated the wholesale trade in hides, leather and
shoes, in dry j^oods, domestic and foreig'n, in wool, in ready-made
clothing-, in hardware, and in part in earthenware and china. The
value of the property destroyed was out of all proportion, therefore, to
the extent of the land burnt over as compared with the great fires of other
cities. The loss was variously estimated at fnmi sixty to seventy mill-
ion dollars, but there was a vast amount of property destroyed — papers,
portraits, anti(iuities, libraries, on storage — the value of which could
not be estimated in figures. The blow was a terrible one to the busi-
ness men of the city, but never for a moment did they lose heart. The
work of rebuilding was entered upon without delay, and st)on the terri-
tory was built over again, but with wider streets and more stately
warehouses than those which had been swept away. To many individ-
uals and firms the loss was irretrievable, but the business community,
as a whole, proved its inherent vitality and soundness by its recovery
from the disaster in a marvelously short time. The terrible eclipse
which shadowed the general prosperity soon passed off, and in a very few
years hardly a trace remained " of that dark hour of destiny."

We enriched one of our earlier pages with a quotation from Emerson.
In closing our sketch of the commercial enterprise and activity of our
city, we cannot do better than to reproduce other v/ords written by the
same shrewd observer and profound thinker in the spring of 1<SG1.
The message was addressed to another generation of Bostonians, but
it may not be altogether without meaning or value to the ear of that
upon which the responsibility rests for what the city is to become in
the twentieth century :

" And thus our little city thrives and enlarges, striking deep roots
and sending out boughs and buds, and propagating itself like a banyan
over the continent. Greater cities there are that sprang from it, full
of its blood and names and traditions. It is very willing to be out-
numbered and outgrown, so long as they carry forward its life of civil
and religious freedom, of education, of social order, and of loyalty to
law. It is very willing to be outrun in numbers and in wealth, but it
is very jealous of any superiority in these its natural instincts and

TRADE AND COMMERCE. l(i^

privileges. You cannot conquer it by numbers, or by square miles, or
by counted millions of wealth. For it owes its existence and its power
to principles not of yesterday, and the deeper principle will always
prevail over whatever material accumiilations.

"As long as she cleaves to her liberty, her education, and to her
spiritual faith as the foundation of these, she will teach the teachers
and rule the rulers of America. Her mechanics, her farmers, will toil
better ; she will repair -mischief ; she will furnish what is wanted in the
hour of need ; her sailors wnll man the Constitution., her mechanics re-
pair the broken rail, her troops will be the first in the field to vindicate
the majesty of a free nation, and remain last in the field to secure it.
Her genius will write the laws, and her historians record the fate of
nations. "

THE FINANCIAL HISTORY OF SUFFOLK

COUNTY.

Compiled nv Oshorne Howks, jr., and Moses Williams.

Two hundred and sixty-two years have i^assed away since the
foundation of Boston, and althoug"h tliis seems a long time, yet if a
human life is taken as the term of measurement, it is found that the
period since Boston was first settled is no more than five successive
human lives of fifty-two years each. Viewed in this way the chan_o-es
which have been broug'ht about during' the interval are both wonderful
and enormous.

These have been the results of human effort exerted at first under
conditions of great difficult}^ and hardship, but later under the extra-
ordinary stimulus of public education, free institutions, and admirable
opportunities for the acquisition of w^ealth.

It is proposed in this paper to briefly review the progress of our city
in its financial aspect, ]:)earing in mind that the results of human effort
for any long period of time are best measured as the fruits of successive
human lives, and that in this way it is possible to secure some guide to
the prolmble Boston of the future.

The first element in a financial system is money ; and in going back
to the early days of our city we find that this was a subject of great in-
terest and importance to its founders. These no doubt brought with
them from the mother country a few of the stamped coins of the time,
but in amounts evidently insufficient for the needs of a growing and
trading commmiity. They found on arriving here that Europeans who
had visited America, trading along the coast for fish and peltry, had
been accustomed to use in bartering with the natives, beads, knives,
hatchets, blankets, and especially tobacco, powder, shot, guns, and al-
coholic beverages. There were not only ]')hilanthroi:)ic reasons for a
discontinuance of the latter ])ractice, in conseciucnce of its demoraliz-
ing effect ui)on the Indians, but it was also evident that to su]iply their
possible enemies with ])o\vder, shot and guns, was to jeopardize the
future safetv of the settlements. In trading among themselves the set-

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 165

tiers could resort in part to barter, exchangint)" hardware for Ixjots and
shoes, or household utensils for Indian corn, oats, and potatoes; but this
method, although maintained ior a long- period of time, was unsatis-
factory, and by unconscious consent wampum seems to have been
adopted as a medium of currency with wdiich trade transactions were
carried on, not only with the Indians, but among the white people as
well.

Roger Williams in his observations on the money of the Indians said :
" This is of two sorts; one w^hite, which they make of the stem or stock
of the periwinkle when all the shell is broken off, and of this sort six of
their small beads, which they make with holes to string their bracelets,
are current for a penn}'. The second is black, inclining to blue, which
is made of the shell of a fish which some English call ' hens-poqua-
hock,' and of this sort three make an English penny. One fathom of
this string of money is worth 5 shillings."

This was a crude form of currency, but perhaps the best that could
then be obtained. It was utilized in the same way that during the early
days of the w^ar postage stamps w^ere used b}^ our people to make good
deficiency in change. Apparently the Pequots and Narragansett In-
dians, who manufactured this form of currency, prospered by it, for ac-
cording to the chronicles of the times they grew rich and potent, whereas
the rest, who were without these advantages, remained poor and beg-
garly.

Besides this wampum and the occasional use of peltry, it was deemed
desirable to make use of the products of the ground in payment for
standard services. It was a custom when a surveyor ran the lines of a
lot of land to compensate him with a peck of corn. The records of the
Massachusetts Colony give a great number of instances where grain,
salt fish, meal and other commodities were used in payment of taxes,
oihcial fees, and for other services. Thus in 1(>:50 Sir Richard Salton-
stall was fined six bushels of malt for his absence from court, while in
the following year the Indian Chief Chickatawbut was fined a skin of
beaver for shooting a swine of the same Sir Richard.

Great trouble was experienced by the early settlers of Boston in keep-
ing such coin as they had in this country. The Grcsham law, which
affirms that where several forms of currency exist, the most valuable
wall find its way into export, was apparently brought into pla}' in these
early colonial experiences. Thus on March (>, 1032, the magistrates
enacted the following: " It is ordered, that no planter within this juris-

IGG SUFFOLK COUNTY.

diction retnrnino- for Enoiand shall carry money with him without leave
from the g-overnor under pain of forfeiting the money so intended to be
transported." How far this acted as a restraint it is impossible to say,
but it is known that traders, who were not planters, within the juris-
diction of the colony, preferred to take beaver skins or silver in return
for their purchases, and that these two forms of currency were con-
stantly tending to diminish both in Boston and the surrounding coun-

It became necessary, as the use of perishable commodities in the way
of barter tended to increase, to lay down some definite basis of ex-
change ; hence the price of corn was set at a certain rate per bushel,
and the same restrictions applied to other commodities. Corn was at
that time the leading farm product, and was thought to be better adapted
than anything else as a substitute for specie. In view of its great de-
mand for these purposes no person was, by order of the magistrate, al-
lowed to feed his swine with it " except such as is surveyed by two of
his neighbors and by them judged unfit for man's meat." Knowing
that the prices for mechanical employments were likely to be disar-
ranged by an inordinate charge for imported goods and thereby the
currency depreciated, the Court of Assistance passed the following law:

"Whereas by order of Court, holden in October last, the wages of
workmen were reduced to a certainty in regard of the great extortion
used by divers persons of small conscience and the great disorder which
grew thereupon by vain and idle waste of much precious time and ex-
pense of those inordinate gains in wine, strong water, and other super-
fluities, now lest the honest and conscionablc workmen should be
wronged or discouraged by excessive prices for those commodities which
are necessary for their life and comfort, we have thought it very just
and equal to set order also therein ; we do therefore hereby order that
after public notice hereof no persons shall sell to any of the inhabitants
within this jurisdiction any provisions, clothing, tools, or other com-
modities above the rate of 4 pence in a shilling more than the same cost
or might be lx)Ught for ready money in England, on pain of forfeiting
the value of the thing sold, except cheese, which in regard to the much
hazard in bringing, and wine and oil, vinegar and strong waters, which
in regard to leaking may be sold at such rates, provided the same be
moderate, as the bii3'er and seller can agree."

As a sam])lc of what coin or its equivalent would command at that
time tlie following, taken from the colonial records in vSe]:)tember of

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 107

Kit;;;, afford a fair sample: " No person that keeps an Ordinary shall
take above pence a meal for a person, and not above 1 penny for an
ale quart for beer out of meal time, under the penalty of lU shillings
for every offence, either of diet or of beer."

In 1635 it was ordered that musket bullets of a full bore shall pass
currently for a farthing apiece, provided that no man shall be compelled
to take above \'l pence at a time of them.

The currency troubles did not lessen as time went on. In October,
IGlO, the Legislature passed the following resolve: "Whereas many
men in the plantation are in debt and here is not money sufficient to
discharge the same, though their cattle and goods should be sold for
half their worth, as experience hath showed upon some late executions,
whereby a great part of the people in the country may be undone, and
yet their debts not satisfied, though they have sufficient upon an equal
valuation to pay all and live comfortably upon the rest, it is therefore
ordered, that upon every execution for debts passed, the officer shall
take land, houses, corn, cattle, fish or other commodities and deliver
the same in full satisfaction to the creditor at such prices as the same
shall be valued at by three understanding and indiff'erent men, to be
chosen, the one by the creditor, another by the debtor, and the third
by the marshal, and the creditor is at liberty to take his choice of what
goods he will have. If he hath not sufficient goods to discharge it he is
to take his house or land as aforesaid."

The elder Winthrop in referring to the condition of affairs at this
time said: "The scarcity of money made a great difference in all com-
merce. Men could not pay their debts though they had enough. Prices
of land and cattle fell soon to one-half and less, yea, to a third, and
after to one-fourth part."

In I'jll, to enlarge the funds of exchange and aid in canceling the
public debt, the civil authorities let out the wampum trade as well as
that of fur to a company. For this privilege the stockholders were to
reserve one-twentieth of all their peltry for the colonial treasury, and
also to purchase whatever wampum the college (Harvard College) might
have paid to it, if not exceeding at one time the sum of 25 pounds ster-
ling. The company was authorized to collect wampum due the govern-
ment as a tribute from the Indians.

The additions to the currency made in this way seem to have forced
the authorities later on to make a new regulation as to its value, for it
was ordered that wampum should henceforth be entire without breaches,

108 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

both tlic white and the l)kick, without defonninu- spots, and shoidd be
suitably strung- in eight known parcels, !<■/, 'id, 12<:/, and bs in white,
and 2//, (J^/, "iy2S and lOs in black. In lOi!) the wampum came more
into use than was considered expedient, and it was therefore enacted,
"that it shall ncjt be in the liberty of any town or person to pay wam-
pum in their country rate nor shall the treasurer accept thereof." This
example set by the government was quickly imitated by the people, who
refused to take this form of money, and to prevent untoward conse-
quences that w'ould ensue, an order of the court was issued to the effect
that wampumpeage shall pass current in payment of debts to the value
of U)s, the white at 8 a penny, the black at 4, "so as they shall be en-
tire and without breaches and deforming spots except in payment of
country rates to the treasurer."

The only silver that found its way in any quantity to Boston seems
to have been derived from commerce carried on with the West Indies,
the bullion received in exchange for our exports being that taken by
numerous buccaneers from the Spaniards. This, however, was in a
form well calculated to encourage its exportation, and as a means of
retaining it here it was thought advisable to establish some system of
minting. The occasion was peculiarly fitting to imdertake this work,
as the English people had thrown off the yoke of royalty and were on
the eve of establishing a commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell.

In 1(>52 the (icneral Court voted, that "it is ordered, and by the
authority of this court enacted, that from and after the first of Sept-
ember next, and no longer, the money hereafter appointed and expressed
shall be current money of this commonwealth and no other, unless
English, in ])ursuance of the intent of this court herein. Be it further
ordered and enacted by the authority of this court, that all persons what-
soever have liberty to bring in unto the mint house at Bcjston all bullion,
plate or vSpanish coin, there to be melted and brought to the allay of
sterling silver, by John Hull, master of the said mint, and his swtjrn
officers, and by him to be coined into 12 penny, (> penny, o penny pieces,
which shall be for form flat and sc[uare on the sides, and stamped on
the one side with N. E. and on the other side with the figure XII, VI,
and III, according to the value of each piece, together with a privy
mark, wdiich shall be appointed every three months by the governor,
and known only to him and the sworn oflicers of the mint."

The master of the mint was therefore required to coin all the money
of good silver of the alloy of new sterling English silver, but to have

FINANCIAL HISTORY. KiO

the shilling pieces of "2 pence less value than the then English coin and
the lesser pieces in the same proportion. For his services the mint
master was to receive one shilling out of every 20 shillings which he
should stamp. It will thus be seen that our forefathers hit upon the
plan of keeping the money that they coined at home by making it of a
less value than equivalent English money, although they attempted to
give to it a purchasing power in the colony, the same as that possessed
by sterling silver. The English financiers, when the coin was brought
to their attention, through exchange, valued it at a discount of 25 per
cent. , this growing out in part of the somewhat crude way in which
the bullion was alloyed at the Boston mint. This was the first attempt
made in the English colonies to coin money, and, curiously enough, al-
though it was continued for a number of years the coinage all bore the
date of the first mintage, that is, 1052. The act was looked upon with
not the least favor by the English authorities.

Shortly after the accession of Charles II, royal commissioners were
sent here on the ground that the right to coin money was a royal pre-
rogative, and that the people at Boston had no right to usurp this ftmc-
tion. To pacify the home authorities the General Court ordered that
two very large masts be transported to London for His Majesty's navy,
something which in his war with the Dutch he was likely to need, and
they furthermore sent a petition to the king stating that they did not
believe that those who had been sent as royal commissioners to Boston
properly represented his views. They still continued to coin the money
in spite of objections, one of which, made by the officers of the London
mint to the commissioners of the Royal Exchequer, was that if the king
should continue the Boston mint he should order its emissions to be of
equal value with his own specie so as to have unanimity throughout
the empire. vShortly after, however, the charter of the colony was
suspended, greatly to the regret of the colonists, an event growing
largely out of this attempt on their part to better supply their financial
needs.

With the closing of the mint the project was started of organizing a
bank. President Dudley and his council stated in a memoir: "Upon
the consideration of the great decay of trade, obstructions to manu-
facture and commerce in this country, and multiplicity of debts and
suits thereupon, principally occasioned by the present scarcity of coin,
and for that it is not visible how the same may be remedied unless
some other secure medium be approved than the species of silver

170 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

which very iniuriously have been transported into other parts hence.
And for as much as it hath been suggested and may appear to us that
the defects aforesaid may be suppHed with bank bills c^r credit given by
persons of estate and known integrity and repute, which may pass with
greater ease and security in all payments twenty shillings or above
than moneys coined, and that other countries have found their banks
useful to their great flourishing in trade and wealth. And bank credit
or bills are of greater value than ready money there. Also that His
Majesty's revenues in this country cannot be so well answered by the
present species of silver without a great straining, impairing and
damage to the merchandising trade and dealings of His Majesty's good
subjects in these his territories and domains, and having perused and
considered a propcxsal made to us by ](A\\\ Black well, of Boston,
Esquire, on behalf of his own and divers other his participants, as well
in England as in this country, liberty is granted for the directors or
conservatives of the bank to commence the issuing of bills on security
of real and personal estate and imperishable merchandise."

This is the charter under which the first bank of Boston was started.
It was in form and regulations like one established in Lond(m in Ki.So,
and like that w^as a short lived institution. The notes were chiefly
founded on land security; but at the time of the revolution of IGSO,
which appears to have occasioned more or less of a panic in the colo-
nies, the bank proved unequal to the strain imposed upon it and passed
out of existence. With its failure passed away, also, the hope of our
ancestors to (jbtain a larger circulating medium than they possessed.
That the effect of the stoppage of the mint and the failure of the
bank was a severe blow is found in the fact that at about this time the
royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros, permitted the people of Hingham
to pay their taxes in milk pails, the only commodity they had which
seemed to possess any exchangeable value; while the report of the
colonial treasury was given in this way: "Value of corn remaining in
the treasury unsold, ^038 11.S- \d. Money, £\M^) 10-v ;)^/. "

In the year KiUO matters reached a crisis which made decisive action
of some kind imperative. vSir William Phips returned unexpectedly
from an unsuccessful expedition against Canada. There w^as absolutely
no money in the treasury with which to pay the scjldiers, who became
mutinous in c()nse([uence of this failure on the part of the authorities.
The (icneral Court saw no other course open to it but to issue paper
currency cm its own account, and on the lOth of December, Ki'JO, the

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 171

following was adopted: "Whereas, for the inaintaining and defending-
of their Majesty's interests against the hostile invasions of their French
and Indian enemies, who have begun and are combined in the prose-
cution of a bloody war upon the English of their Majesty's colonies and
plantations of New England, this colony hath necessarily contracted
sundry considerable debts, which this court, taking into consideration
and being desirous to prove themselves just and honest in the dis-
charge of the same, and that every person who hath credit with the
country for the use of his estate, disbursements or services done for the
the public, may in convenient time receive due and equal satisfaction ;
withal considering the present poverty and calamities of the country,
and, through scarcity of money, the want of an adequate measure of
commerce, whereby they are disadvantaged in making present pay-
ments as desired, yet being willing to settle and adjust the accounts of
said debts, and to make pa3"ment thereof with what speed they can, a
committee are empowered to made an immediate issue of ^7,000 in
bills from 5^ to ^5." The form of these notes was as follows:

No. (4980) oi-

This indented bill of 5.9, due from the Massachusetts colony to the possessor, shall
l)e in vakie equal to money, and shall be accordingly accepted by the treasurer and
receivers subordinate to him in all public payments, and for any stock at any time
in the treasury.

Boston in New England, Dec. 10th, 1(590.

By order of the General Court

Penn. Townsend
Adam Winthrop
Tim. TffORNTON,

Committee.

With this issue began the SN'stem of paper currency on government
credit, which continued for sixty years with all of the evils incident to
an irredeemable circulation of this class. Although the government
had expressed its desire to deal justly, and although the people were in
great need of a medium of circulation, the notes that it issued were re-
ceived with great suspicion. To aid in preventing a panic, vSir Will-
iam Phips exchanged at par value a large amount of silver that he
had obtained from successful ventures in the Spanish Main for this
provincial paper mone}'. Bitt the soldiers who came back from the
expedition to Canada, and the widows and orphans of those who perished
in that disastrous enterprise, were compelled to part with the money
they had obtained at a discount of about one-third.

172 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

It was ordered by the General Court, that the bills out and to be
emitted should not at any time exceed ^4-0,000, but this was on the
assumption that the war was not to continue, and it was also assumed
that such bills as were redeemed would be destroyed. That this was
not the case is made evident by the fact that by a report made to the
House of Representatives in 1702 it was shown that there had been
etnissions and re-emissions of paper money to the amount of
,^110,000.

In (uxler to create greater confidence in its money the General Court
decreed in 1002 that the notes issued by the colony should be equiva-
lent to money in making- all payments within the province, and that in
all public payments there should be a credit of five per cent, accorded
to them. This means of restoring paper to a par with specie was
efficacious for the time being. The bonus of five per cent, was allowed
as often as the l)ills were brought to the exchequer, although several
times in a year, which frequently occurred, because they were repeat-
edly issued.

To show the financial conditions under which business was carried on
at that time the following extract is given from a diary of the period:
' ' They give the title of a merchant to every trader who rates his goods
according to the time and specie they pay in, namely, pay, money, pay
in money, and trusting. Pay means grain, pork, beef, or any other
commodity exchanged at the prices set by the General Court. Money
is pieces of 8 reals, Boston or Bay shillings or good hard money, as some-
times silver coin is called, also wampum, namely, Indian beads, which
serves as change. Pay as money, means the commodities such as grain,
pork, beef, etc., only at a rate one-third cheaper than that set by the
General Court ; and trust is the purchase for payment at the end of an
agreed upon period. When the buyer comes to ask for a commodity,
before the merchant answers that he has it he says ' Is your pay ready?'
Perhaps the buyer replies, ' Yes. ' ' What do you pay in? ' says the mer-
chant. The buyer having answered, then the price is set. If he wants
a penny knife, in pay it is 12 pence; if in pay as money, 8 pence; if
in hard money its price is its own value, pence."

But besides these complications growing out of these different meas-
ures of value, to which paper money added a fre.sh uncertainty, there
was the difficulty of determining the true value even of hard money,
for the foreign coins which came into circulation, together with the
Pine Tree money, as tlie Boston mintage was called, were washed.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 173

clipped, filed, and in various other ways inade to lose a considerable
part of their value by unscrupnlotis holders of them. The General
Court enacted stringent laws to prevent these frauds. It was ordered
that any one found guilty of the crime of debasing the coins in use
should stand in the pillory and have one of his ears cut off; and at
another period the crime was made one warranting a capital pimish-
ment. But in every store and in every family it was custom ar}- in the
early years of the last century to keep a pair of scales to ascertain the
value of all gold and silver coin before it was taken or passed.

Although the emissions of paper money were tolerably extensive from
1700 onward, bringing about such a debasement of the currency as to
increase the price of labor to quite double its ordinary proportions, there
was still a belief on the part of the people that their condition would be
a great deal better if they had more money. As a writer speaking of
the time (1714) says: " At this period there were three different views
as to finance held by different sections of the people. One adopted the
rule in regard to money, that nothing is useful but what is honest, ex-
pressing in their views of paper currency the conclusion that this should
be abolished and no currency allowed except that of the precious metals ;
a second, both numerous and respectable, was made up of those who
believed that it was desirable to form a bank and issue money based on
real estate; a third favored a system of loaning by the province to the
people on interest, payable annually, and applicable when applied to
the liquidation of the public charges."

The hard money advocates, while having a great deal in current ex-
perience to sustain their contention, seem never to have had a popular
following. The}^ were looked upon as theorists, whose opinions were
entitled to very little weight in the every day affairs of life. The ad-
vocates of a bank were decidedly influential, and for a time seemed to
have a fair chance of carrying their project to a successful ending. But
they were opposed in this by Governor Dudley, who, while advocating
the banking method some years previous, had at the time we refer to
(1714-15) come to the conclusion that notes of this kind should be issued
by the government rather than by corporations.

vShortly after the arrival of Governor Shute, in the fall of 1710, the
General Court passed an order: "That there be an additional loan of
^100,000." The reasons assigned for this enactment was the heavy
debt incurred in the French War, that most of the silver money had
been sent to pay debts contracted in England, and that there was then

174 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

a scarcity of province bills. The new loan was to be committed to the
care of county treasurers, and was to be proportioned to each comity
according to its taxes, to be loaned out in mortgages on real estate of
double the value of the sum borrowed, each loan not to exceed ;iQbOQ,
nor be under ^25, to be at ten years at five per cent, interest per annum.
The profits upon this were to pay the expenses of the government, and
the bills issued were to be returned at the end of the period and burned.

It will be seen from the above that the action of the provincial gov-
ernment on this occasion was closely analogous to that which the Farm-
ers' Alliance has repeatedly petitioned Congress to take. There was a
scarcity of money ; debts could not well be paid, and on this account
the government advanced money to the fanners upon their land at what
was then a low rate of interest, giving them ten years in which to make
good the advances made. This might seem to be a highly desirable
arrangement, but as a matter of fact its effect upon the currency system
of Boston and colony was exceedingly pernicious. There was a sudden
depreciation in the value of paper currency, so that on the basis of sil-
ver it sold for not much more than half its value.

That one bad act of this kind is productive of a long train of sad con-
sequences is made evident by the address which was sent to the gov-
ernor of the province by the House of Representatives in March of
1721. " Yoiir Excellency," it said, " was pleased to acquaint us that
you lately assembled some of the principal gentlemen and merchants
of Boston with a view to public good, that they might propose or re-
ceive schemes for the relief of this people inider their grievance for
want of a good medium of trade. If these gentleinen when assembled
did agree upon any method and had laid the same before the House, it
had l)een very readily received and due consideration had thereon, but
none such as yet hath been shown forth. Last session a bill for emit-
ting _{,"! ()(),()()() to help the inhabitants to pay their public debts passed
the House, but stopped in the Council. We feel it our duty to do all
we can this session to promote such an object. We agree with Your
Ii^xcellency that if a new emission should depreciate the bills out it
would be pernicious. To prevent this a bill was passed the present and
last session to hinder buying and selling, bartering or exchanging silver
money or bullion at higher rates or prices than hitherto stated by act of
Parliament. Our judgment is that had such an act been made by Mas-
sachusetts when they fh-st issued paper l)ills, they had to this day been
equal in value and credit to silver money. We, therefore, think that

f /

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 175

passing it now would prevent depreeiation of bills and bring them np
to what they once were."

It will thus be seen that our forefathers entertained ideas closely an-
alogous to those that have been held by representatives of the farming
classes in the West, that it is possible by simple legal enactments to
create value where value does not exist under the ordinary laws of trade.
In other words, they seemed to suppose that it was possible to issue as
much paper money as the printing presses could turn out, and if by
statute it was enacted that the buying and selling of silver money or
bullion was prohibited, then this paper money would have the same
value as silver and would in no way depreciate as the result of its ex-
cessive quantity.

In 1T22 it was found that the small coin, as well as the large, was e^i-
ceedingly scarce, and for this reason the General Court ordered that
there should be an emission of ;^500 in bills of one, two and three pen-
nies each. The form of the first of these bills was round, the second
square, and the third rectangular.

For some time past the authorities of England had insisted through
the representative of the home government. Governor Shute, that there
should be a redemption made of as many as possible of the outstanding
bills of credit. This brought the governor into constant conflict with
the representatives of the people, and on this account great opposition
was raised to the payment of his salary, so much so that the governor
in despair decided to leave the colony for England.

The amount of paper outstanding as given in the report of James
Taylor, treasurer, in :\Iay, 1T25, was ^202,088 IS5. 'Id. The value of
this paper money and the steady decrease that took place in it can best
be judged by giving its estimated worth in silver at various periods,
these being the several figures by which it was required that all debts
contracted in bills of credit should be settled. In ITIO bills were worth
at the rate of 8^. for an ounce of silver; in 1T14, \\s. ; in 1717, l()s. ; in
1718, 11^-. ; in 172U, 12.s-. ; in 1721, V^s. ; in 1722, l^s. ; in 1723, lbs. ; in
1727, 17^-. ; in 1728, l^s. ; in 1720, 'I'ls. ; in 1730, 20.s-. ; in 17:51, V.)s. ; in
1732, 20.?. ; in 1733, 23^-. ; in 1734, 27^". ; in 1739, 29,?. ; in 1743, 28^-. ; in
1745, 37.y. ; in 1747, 40.s-. ; in 1751, 60^.

During this period the people of Massachusetts had to contend not
only with depreciation, due to their own excessive paper currency, but
the colony was flooded with paper money coming from Connecticut,
Rhode Island and New Hampshire, the issues of these provinces find-

17(i SUFFOLK COUNTY.

iris^- their way in ku\!4c anunnits across the border line, and, as it was
said, having for their reason for existence the opportunity that was
afforded by them of purchasing goods at Boston, which was the chief
town, at lower rates than would otherwise be possible.

The distressful state of financial affairs in Boston was made an object
lesson and warning to other American communities. James Logan,
writing on the subject from Pennsylvania to the Proprietors in 1739, in
referring to the bills that were issued there, said : "I dare not speak
one word against it. The popular frenzy will never stop till their
credits will be as bad as they ai'e in New England."

But as if this superabundance of currency were not sufficient, a
number of merchants and others of Boston, in order, as they said, to
supply the deficiency t)f a medium for trade, engaged in 173;5 in a pro-
ject of issuing paper money to the value of ^110,000. This was known
as the Private Bank, and the bills that it issued were redeemable in
ten years in silver at the rate of nineteen shillings an ounce. There is
this to be said in favor of these Private Bank bills, that while they were
in circulation they were a better medium of exchange than the govern-
ment l)ills of credit. They depreciated in value during the interval
between their issue and redemption, but almost invariably commanded
a premium equivalent to about thirty-three and one-third per cent, over
the government issue.

In 1734 Governor Belcher, who had been appointed chief magistrate
of the colony of Massachusetts, said in his address tt) the General Court :
" I must observe to you to what a low ebb our bills of credit are re-
duced, which carry in the face of them these words, ' in value equal to
money.' And yet 10^. in these bills will not at this day purchase 6s.
lawful money. It will then become the wisdom of the Legislature to
search into this matter, and to apply a speedy remedy, for next to the
defence of the province I take this to be an affair of the greatest con-
sequence. I should also think it prudent to look carefully into the
several loans of the province, and after so many years' indulgence to
the borrowers, to order them to be paid in without more delay. For a
sacred observation of the terms of the several acts by w^hich the bills
have been issued, must have a natural tendency to support their credit.
I think it would be an instance of the wisdom and justice of this gov-
ernment not t(j suiTer an emission of any sort of notes or bills for the
future but such as will instantly and at all times honestly and truly
command the value expressed in them. I look upon the land and

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 177

commerce of the country to be but one joint interest, and shcnild be
always equally encourao-ed. And it is \yith much concern I mention
to you the decaying state of the trade of the province. While our im-
portations are so exceeding as constantly to leave us a large balance in
arrear to our friends abroad, it is impossible we should carry on a
gainful trade or have among us gold and silver, the only valuable
medium of commerce. Happy would it then be for the province if the
Legislature would establish some large premiums to encourage the
cultivation of the lands, as on hemp and other naval stores, and our
English grain. Something of this kind may gradually bring the balance
of trade in our favor, which will, of course, fix the standard of money
among us."

In spite of these valuable suggestions, the General Court could not
make up its mind to adopt an heroic course; but in 17:57 it decided
upon a half-wa}- measure. Perceiving that with all of its vigilance and
exertions it could not restore the credit of their notes, the General
Court res,olved to have others made, differently expressed. Thus on
February 4 of that year it was voted to make an emission of ^18,000
in bills of the current form, and _^'.),U0() in a different form. The first
sum was to be recalled in a year, and the last in 1742. As a sinking
fund for bills of these amounts, the people were allowed to pay their
taxes in hemp at four pence a pound, and flax at six pence, to the
treasurer, or in money, both hard and paper, if they could. As the
conditions of the ^9,000 differed from these preceding bills of credit,
it caused them to be denominated new tenor, and the others old tenor.
The new tenor notes stated ;

" This bill of 20^-. , due from the Province of Mas.sachusetts Bay, in
New England, to the possessor thereof, shall be in value equal to 3
ounces of coined silver, Troy weight, of sterling alloy, or gold coin at
the rate of 4 pounds ] 85. per ounce ; and shall be accordingly accepted
by the Treasurer and receivers subordinate to him in all payments (the
duties of import and tonnage of shipping and incomes of the Light
House only excepted) and for any stock at any time in the treasury."

A reason why these notes were not to be received for the excepted
duties was because such duties were ordered to be paid in hard money,
with which the notes were to be redeemed. As the act authorizing the
issue of these bills limited the preceding ones in the payment of like
taxes, the merchants complained bitterly that this was a breach of
public faith, and the dissatisfaction thus engendered tended to injure

178 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

both classes of bills. Thus, thoii<;h the o-overnnient set the new tenor
bills at one for three of the old, the people passed them at one for
four.

In 1TT4 Mr. Thomas Hutchinson, afterwards governor, and then a
leading" member of the General Court, brought forward a proposition
which he believed would have the effect of setting the currency ques-
tion upon a satisfactory basis. This was to hire 220, 000 ounces of
silver, or gold equivalent, for ten years at four per cent., in England
on the credit of the province. This was to be used for the redemption
of the outstanding bills of credit and to provide a guarantee for the
colony. Although this ])lan was urged with great force and with much
clearness of reasoning, it did not at the time receive the support needed
to secure its adoption.

Instead of thus turning toward hard money, the minds of the people
seem to have been infected by the mania for a larger emission of paper
m<mey, and the powers of the General Court falling under parliament-
ary restraints and the unwillingness of the chief executive, instructed
from England, to sanction large issues of bills, a petition was presented
in the spring of 1740 to the Legislature, signed by John Colman and
three hundred and ninety-five others, for authority to issue ^150,000,
to be loaned in notes on land security and payable in twent}" years by
various articles of merchandise. Another petition presented to the
Legislature l)y Edward Hutchinson and one himdred and six partners,
was for the issue of ^120,000, by them redeemable in fifteen years with
silver at 20^. an ounce, or gold, pro rata. The latter plan was similar
to the Private Bank referred to above, and its bills were denominated
merchants' notes. It was promoted chiefly to oppose the Colman
Bank, which was called the Land Bank, while the Hutchinson combina-
tion went popularh' under the name of the Specie Bank.

The authorization for the establishment of these two banks was never
definitely given, but both began operation. The Land Bank aroused
the strenuoiis opposition of (Tovernor Belcher, who, in July, 1710, issued
a proclamation warning all his Majesty's good subjects of the danger
the}^ were in and cautioning them against receiving or passing the
notes of the Land Bank " as tending to defraud men of their substance
and disturb the j^eace and good order of the people, and give great
interrupti(jn and bring much confusion into their trade and business."
In spite of this strenuous a])peal of the governor, the Land Bank propo-
sition was taken up with great ccjrdiality by the people in all classes of
society.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 179

Governor Belcher, being- assured that part of the military of the
colony encouraged the circulation of Land Bank paper, issued, Novem-
ber, 1740, a proclamation, in which he said: "I hereby warn all com-
missioned officers of the militia from signing or giving an}^ coiintenance
in passing of said notes of hand, directly or indirectly, and as I appre-
hend, that if these should obtain a currency, it will reflect great dis-
honor on his Majest3''s government here, and be very detrimental to
the public interests of this province and people, I do hereb}" declare my
firm resolution that, if after this public notice is given, any of the mili-
tary officers of this province persist in being in any way concerned in or
giving any encouragement whatsoever to the passing of the said notes
of hand, and full proof be made thereof to my satisfaction, I will
immediately dismiss them from their said offices. "

This pledge was kept on a number of notable occasions, and aroused
a strong spirit of resistance. Samuel Adams, the father of the patriot
of that name, sent in his resignation of the commission he held under
the government, and his course was adopted by a number of the jus-
tices of the peace and other prominent officials. In order to obtain a
clear idea of the character of the banking institution that was at that
time receiving great popular encouragement, and that was calling forth
the denunciation of the representative of the English government, the
following agreement of association of the Land Bank is of value, espe-
cially as it has an important bearing on not a few projects that have been
brought forward in this country within the last two or three years:

Provinxe of Massachusetts Bay in New Exgland.

In order to redress the distressing circumstances which the trade of this province
labors under for the want of a medium, other methods having failed, it is proposed
to set up a bank on land security, no person to be admitted but such as dwell in this
province, and hath a real estate therein.

I. The stock to be one hundred and fifty thousand pounds lawful money; no man
to subscribe more than two thousand pounds, and none less than one hundred pounds;
the subscriptions not to be binding, luiless one hundred thousand pounds be sub-
scribed, each subscriber for one hundred pounds to have one vote, five hundred
pounds two votes, one thousand pounds three votes, two thousand pounds four votes,
and no person to have more than four votes.

II. Each subscriber shall pay into the hands of. the committee forty shillings law-
ful money for one thousand pounds, and so in proportion for a greater or less sum,
toward the charge of bringing forward the affair.

III. Each subscriber shall make over an estate in lands to the satisfaction of the
directors, and shall jiay in three per cent, per annum interest for the same in any of
the following manufactures, being the produce of this province, viz. : Hemp, flax.

LSO SUFFOLK COUNTY.

cordage, bar iron, cast iron, linens, sheep's wools, copper, tanned leather, flax seed,
bees-wax, bayberry-wax, sail cloth or canvas, nails, tallow, lumber or cord wood,
or logwood brought from New Spain ; whoever pays in any of them shall deliver them
to the directors or such as they shall appoint, at such prices as the directors shall
from time to time regulate, or pay in the same in the company's bills.

IV. Every subscriber shall pay annually five per cent, as part of the principal un-
til the whole is j)aid, under the same regulations, and in the same manner, as in the
foregoing Article expressed.

V. There shall be twelve directors and a treasurer chosen on such allowances as
shall be thought proper, who shall appoint clerks and other attendants as they shall
find necessary, and agree with them for their salaries, and as there vaa.y be occasion,
may dismiss them and choose others; they shall also appoint persons to value the
lands taken for securities, who shall be paid by the mortgager. All the said officers
to be under oaths, and give securit)^ for the faithful discharge of their trust. The
appraisers to be under oath.

VI. No person shall be capable of being a director or treasurer who signs less than
five hundred pounds, and if any director or treasurer 'die, or is removed, the vacancy
shall be filled at the next meeting of the company by a major vote of the partners
present; and if any of them be found guilty of fraud in tlie execution of his office,
a major part of the directors, concurring with a major part of the partners, shall put
his bond in suit, and he shall be declared no longer a partner.

VII. All mortgages and bonds shall be made to the directors for the use of the
company, except what is given by any director, which shall be made to the rest of
the directors ; and all mortgages shall be put upon public record, to prevent clandes-
tine conveyances, the charge of recording to be paid by the mortgager; and every
partner shall be obliged on demand of the directors, or the major part of them, to
give such better security as they shall think needful, in case their security already
given be by them esteemed insufficient, and if any of them refuse so to do, his mort-
gage shall be sued out, and he shall no longer be partner.

VIII. To oblige all partners to pay their interest and dividend of the principal
pimctually, whoever neglects paying above three months after it is due, his mortgage
shall be put in suit, and he shall be no longer a partner.

IX. The directors shall from time to time put out upon lawful interest on good
security all such sums as shall be in the treasurer's hands for the use and benefit of
the company ; the annual contingent charge first deducted ; the borrowers to pay
principal and interest in the company's bills, or in the aforesaid manufactures.

X. There shall be a meeting of the partners on the second Tuesday in June an-
nually, and at the end of five years at that meeting there shall be a dividend made
of so much f)f the profits as shall l)e agreed on by a major part of the directors, con-
curring with a major part of the partners then present, and from that time there shall
be a dividend at every annual meeting; provided always that in such dividends care
shall be taken that there still remain in the stock double the principal paid in from
time to time as aforesaid.

XI. It shall be in the power of any partner to redeem the estate he hath mort-
gaged at the end of five years, or afterwards, he having the consent of the major
part of the directors, with the major part of the partners, by paying in the mcmey he
received out thereon, witli the interest then due, either in the company's bills, or in
the manufactures before mentioned.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. ISl

XII. Whereas it is principally designed that all the subscribers shall give land
security, as before mentioned in the third Article, yet as there are many artificers
and traders m this town of Boston, in good credit, who have not real estate to mort-
gage, but can give good personal .security to the satisfaction of the directors ; Now
that such persons and they only be encouraged in their respective occupations, it
shall be in the power of the directors to admit such persons to be subscribers, but
none for more than one hundred pounds, they giving bonds with two sufficient sure-
ties in double that sum.

XIII. As the signers of the bills oblige themselves to the possessors in behalf of the
partners, so the partners must oblige themselves by an instrument to indemnifv the
signers.

XIV. At the annual meetmg in June all accounts relating to the companj- shall be
laid before them by the directors and treasurer, and a major part of the directors,
concurring with a major part of the company then present, may agree upon anj^
other rules or methods for the better observing and fulfilling the Articles aforesaid.

The bill to be as follows, viz. : Twenty Shillings.

We promise for our.selves and partners to receive this Twenty Shilling Bill of
Credit as so much lawful money, in all pa3nTients, trade and business, and after the
expiration of twenty years to pay the possessor the value thereof in manufactures of
this Province. Boston, etc.

It i.s worthy of remark that the anticipations of Governor Belcher
were signally verified as time went on. The bank, no donbt, labored
nnder the disadvantage of having opposed to it the highest colonial
authorities ; but it is easy to see that the basis upon which it was formed
was not one which could be fairly sustained under varying conditions,
and- with the tendency of human nature to throw disagreeable burdens
upon others rather than to assume an equitable share of the load. The
bank issued notes to a large amount, but when it became necessary to
recall and redeem them it was found that quite a number of the asso-
ciates were not in a condition to make good their pledges, and the more
responsible of their number had to bear a disproportionate share in the
work. Thus as late as 17G0 the stockholders of the Land Bank peti-
tioned the Legislature for authority to start a lottery for the purpose of
raising money to meet their indebtedness, and as late as 17GS there were
petitioners to the General Court asking that they might be relieved from
obligations that had been assumed twenty-eight years before. The set-
tlement led to a vast amount of litigation, the holders of the notes hav-
ing to content themselves, after expenses had been paid, with a rela-
tively small return upon the face value of the bills, while, as we have
just said, the burden of redemption fell upon a relatively small nutnber
of the original incorporators.

182 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

And yet, this bank, so crudely org'anized, and bearing- upon its face
the marks of speedy dissolution, was for a time so popular as to almost
occasion a local revolution. In Ma}" of 1741 the governor had assur-
ance that a thousand men were to rise in Boston and to be joined by a
number of thousands from the country, for the purpose of demanding-
his reasons for opposing the Land Bank, and to mob the traders who re-
fused to sell coin for its bills. The insurrection did not materialize,
partly for the reason that Governor Belcher took the initiative and ar-
rested a number of those who were thought to be the leaders in the con-
templated disturbance.

To show the mixed state of the currency of Boston at that period, it
is well to quote from a letter written by a resident of Boston to a mer-
chant in London. " We have in Massachusetts," he says, "public bills
of four provinces at 'l^^s for an ounce of silver. New tenor of Massa-
chusetts at (ij- S,'/ of silver. Connecticut new tenor at S.s-, and Rhode
Island new tenor at (Lv \)d. Of Private Bank bills there are ^110,000,
issued in 1*73:), to prevent an enormous Rhode Island emission from de-
preciating our currency. They are punctually paid in gold and silver,
and are '.V.\ y>q\' cent, better than Province bills. There is another sum
of ^120, ()()(» in merchants' notes emitted in 1740, on a silver bottom to
stifle the Land Bank, which are equivalent to cash. They wht) are re-
sponsible for them are eminent and wealthy merchants. The bills of
the Land Bank are payable in 20 years, and then only in goods at an
arbitrary price."

It will thus be seen that the little town of Boston at that time was not
only overloaded with depreciated currency, but had a vast and curious
assortment of different kinds of notes in circulation, so that the ordinary
tradesman, as well as the ordinary citizen, needed to possess an intimate
knowledge of the varieties of paper bills and their respective values,
which would now be found only among those trained in the oflice of an
exchange broker.

Matters seem to have gone for the next few years from bad to worse,
for while the paper issues of the Province of Massachusetts were not
materially extended, the emissions of bills of credit by the adjoining
colonies were extremely frecpient. In 1744 the governor in a message
to the Legislature stated that there were at that time ^A:U),0{)0 of
Rhode Island bills in circulation, of which ^:)r)0,00(» were passing in
Massachu. setts, and that otlicr adjoining colonies seemed to consider
that Boston was the best place in which they could di.spose of their
paper money.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 183

On May 31, 1744, in the annual election sermon, Rev. James Allen
said, referring- to these troubles: "And you (the governor) will be the
means of delivering us from the perplexing difficulties we are involved
in, particularly by an unhappy medium, uncertain as the wind, and
fluctuating- like the waves of the sea, which lies at the mercy of every
one to rise or sink at his pleasure. Through the imrighteonsness
whereof the land mourneth, and the cries of many are going up into the
ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. "

A changed condition, when it came, was brought about by circum-
stances that could not have been foreseen, and yet thrcnigh a line of
action sug-gested several years before by Mr. Thomas Hutchinson. In
174? a report was made by the English Lords of the Treasury on the
expense of the North American colonies in the expedition against Cape
Breton. They stated the proportion of Massachusetts to be ^261,700
in the new tenor bills. This computed at 143 per cent, for exchang-e
made about ^LS3,000, which was said to be the credit of this colon3\
On the receipt of this estimate, Mr. Hutchinson moved in the Legis-
lature that the public notes be redeemed by specie to be received from
the Royal Exchecpier for charges in the capture of Louisburg.

In the meanwhile the merchants of London who traded in Boston
petitioned the Parliament to the same effect. The project of Mr. Hutch-
inson did not at first receive much encouragement, at least from the
House of Representatives, and it seems to have required all of his per-
suasion, eloquence and influence to secure its adoption. Biit in time he
succeeded, and a committee was designated to meet similar bodies from
other New England governments on the same subject. These other
colonies did not, however, seem to be favorably impressed with the
plan, hence it was necessary for the Province of Massachusetts to un-
dertake the work of redemption on its own account.

The redemption law passed the Legislature on the 3l)th of January,
174S. It required all of its bills of credit to be exchanged at the treas-
ury by March 31, 1750, at the following rates: For A:bs in bills of the
old tenor, one piece of eight or a dollar; for IIjt and 3^/ of the middle
and new tenor, the same coin ; and so in proportion for greater or less
sums. If any of such bills were kept back for a year after the time
designated, they were to be irredeemable. The enactment further pro-
vided that as the paper system was to be dispensed with, all public and
private demands contracted after the date fixed for recalling the treasury
notes should be accounted as payable in silver coin estimated at (js 8d

184 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

fur an ounce. It was further provided that what the specie, to be re-
ceived from Eno-kmd, should hick of paying these notes, should be can-
celled by a tax.

In addition the following penalty was enacted for taking or passing
any of the New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island notes, the
oath in question to be taken at the renewal of licenses of all innholders
and all officers of towns and states: " You, A. B., do in the presence
of God solemnly declare that you have not, since the last day of
March, 1750, wittingly and willingly, directly or indirectly, either for
yourself or any for or under you, been concerned in receiving or paying
within this government any bill or bills of credit of either of the gov-
ernments of Connecticut, New Hampshire or Rhode Island. So help
you God."

It is probable that this oath was more formidable in its reading
than in its execution, for it is a matter of rec(;rd that bills of these ad-
joining colonies circulated to some extent in Boston after the period
designated.

On September IS, 174'.), the public were informed that the specie
paid by the crown had arrived in Boston under the charge of Mr.
William Bollan, then the provincial agent of Massachusetts in London.
This money consisted of (;5;3,0(H) ounces of silver and ten tons of copper.
There is reason to believe that this was more coin than there had ever
before been in Massachusetts at the same time. The remittance and
other subsequent ones, in connection with the prohibition of bills of
credit here, gave to Massachusetts the name of the "hard money
colony."

In the following winter, in order to prevent the farthings and coined
silver and gold from passing at a proportionately higher rate than a
milled dollar at (l.v. , it was thought desirable by the Legislature to issue
a paper bill of small denominations, and for this reason it was voted
that ^':), ()()(» of bills be struck off, to be denominated \d., 'Id., ?uL,
iyid., Vu/. and IS^/.

While it is probable that among the business men the change in the
system of currency was received with tmqualified satisfaction, there
appears to have been serious doubts in the minds of the agricultural
classes who traded in Boston. This is brought out in the following-
poetical dialogue, printed in the Boston l/Vr/Vr Ncti's Letter of 1750,
Honestus representing a country trader and I'oliticus a merchant:

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 185

HONESTUS.

Why, Sir, to tell the truth, I'm come
To bring some paper trash to Town
To pay my debts ; for I do fear
I shan't be able 'nother year.

i-OLrncus.
When once the dollars shall come out,
Ther '1 be no want of money then ;
Eager you '1 catch the glittering Coin,
And bless the golden era when
This paper trash is no more seen.

IIONESTUS.

Ah, Sir, we hear the Province bills
Do lie recluse within the tills
Of some great men, to wait the time
The dollars shall the same redeem.
And what is worse than all, 'tis said
To foreign lands they '1 be conveyed.
, Then what 's our fate — the silver gone —

The paper burnt — and we undone.

This feeling- of distrust was further increased by artful agitation on
the part of those who had previously benefited through the paper issues
of neighboring- colonies, and the House of Representatives took into
consideration the case of two individuals who were suspected of pub-
lishing and dispensing a printed paper containing sundry expressions
tending to bring into contempt and subvert the constitution of this
government. These persons appear to have beeii concerned in having
verses printed in Rhode Island containing a lamentation for the death
of old tenor currency and having very hard reflections on the General
Court. In April of 1751 a large number of people from Abington and
other towns came to Boston with riotous intentions to force the Legis-
lature to condemn a system which was threatening to cut down the
wages of those dependent on labor for their support, while granting to
the wealthy an opportunity to hoard rip silver and gold. The rioters,
however, when they arrived in Boston w^ere not met by the large party
of co-operators that they had expected, and their cotirage consequently
evaporated.

The commi-ssioners appointed to exchange the puV)lic notes for specie
closed their labors June o, 1751, and reported at the time that they had
redeemed ^"l,7'.»2,2;3<i 5.s\ \d. of the different credit bills of the colony,

180 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

at the rate in the total of about one in speeie for ten in paper. This
was nearly all of the paper eurreney that was out. For years following
petitions eame in from time to time to the Legislature asking that the
paper money found might be redeemed, some having been discovered
in old desks, bottoms of leather chairs, and other private places of de-
posit. The government of the time seems to have been exceedingly
lenient and to have allowed the claims of these subsequent petitioners
for losses sustained in bringing about this wholesome and healthy
change.

It is only fair to point out that the one chiefly responsible for the
reform was Mr. Thomas Hutchinson. As he remarked afterward to a
correspondent in England: " I think that I may be allowed to call my-
self the father of the present fixed medium, and perhaps have a natural
bias in favor of it." It is well to have this fact kept clearly in view,
for Governor Hutchinson, as he afterwards became, was later one of
the most tmpopular men in Boston, and the historical accounts that
have come down to us concerning him have referred almost entirely to
his opposition to the patriotic wishes of the colonists, and have made
little reference to the very able part he took in rescuing the colony
from this quagmire of depreciated currency.

On June 25, 1751, a law was enacted by Parliament that the Massa-
chusetts Bay colony should not thereafter issue bills of credit, and
should emit only such paper money as was needed for the expenses of
the government each year, or in case of invasion by an enemy, but
never as a legal tender for debt. That this requisition might be com-
plied with, any governor who should consent to a rule of different
signification on this subject was to be dismissed from office and ever
after be ineligible to public employment.

In spite of the large volume of specie that had l)een received in 1741),
in 1755 the contraction of the currency, due to the necessity of paying
l)ills abroad, was so great that the General Court voted to negotiate a
loan of ;^23,000 in London for six years at lawful interest. This course
was adopted several times as a means of obtaining the silver needed for
the conduct of business.

In 1700 the Lords of the Treasury in London, in settling the account
of expenses due to carrying on the war with Canada, allowed to Massa-
chusetts the sum of ^200,000 as its proportion. It was thought desir-
able by some that this .should be remitted to the colony in silver, in the
same manner that the former remittances had l)een made; but the chief

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 187

magistrate for the time being, Governor Bernard, considered it desir-
able to give to the General Court a simple lesson in finance, as had
some of his predecessors. He said: "If we look for the advantages
which are to balance the great cost of importing the reimbursement in
hard money, we shall find them all imaginary. They are not of the
real value of one shilling. If there is any want of specie for circulation,
it would be but a temporary convenience, and not a lasting gain to
introduce specie, and the want must be gi"eat to justify so large a
premiuiu as ten per cent. It is the nature of trade, like water, to bring
itself to a level. It is just the same thing, whether you bring a certain
quantity of specie into the province, or prevent the like quantity from
going out of it. As, therefore, the advantages of negotiating your
money by bills are very plain and certain, the only cpiestion will be
whether it is practicable."

In accordance with the advice of the governor it was ordered by the
Legislature that the treasurer draw bills of exchange on London for
the proportion of money granted by Parliament to Massachusetts for
military charges.

At this time a new question arose in the colony in relation to our local
currency, which is curiously the antithesis of the controversies that
have been going on for some time past in relation to the currency
system of the L^nited States. Silver was found to be most profitable
by the merchants for the payment of debts due in England, and for this
reason silver was the metal oftenest exported. At the same time gold
not being of so ready an exchange there for mercantile obligations, and
not being a legal tender for debt here, although it was current as in-
dividuals might agree, was exceptionally plentiful. To prevent the
inconvenience arising from this unsettled relationship between the two
metals, a majority of the House of Representatives, as well as the
business community, were desirous of having gold made a legal
tender.

This led to the introduction of a bill into the General Court in No-
vember, 1761. This said: "Whereas, divers species of foreign gold
coin are current in this province, and are received into and paid out of
the public treasury, but are not lawful money in public or private pay-
ments, b}^ which it is apparent many inconveniences have arisen to the
prejudice of trade and commerce, and consequently very detrimental
to the public, therefore such luoney is to be placed on the same footing
of legality as silver." Curiously enough, in this effort to give a legal

188 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

tender value to ookl Mr. Thomas Hutchinson was found in the opposi-
tion. vSo far as one can judge, he was profoundly convinced of the
desirability of having a single standard of value, and was of the opin-
ion that silver best performed that function. He said, writing to a
correspondent in December, 17<>1 : " The last session of the Court was
spent in a controversy about our money. The House passed a vote for
making gold a lawful tender at the rate it passes. This would have
driven away our silver and eventually depreciated the currency. I
stood in front of the opposition, and it was with diiificulty the Council
was kept from concurring. I am afraid the next session, as the gov-
ernor at present is not sensible of the ill consequences of the proposal,
it will pass. If it succeed I look upon it to be the first step of our
return to P^gypt. "

A part of his premonitions were correct. In January, 1702, in again
writing to his correspondent he says: " The House has passed a bill
for issuing notes payable in dollars at (J.s', or in gold at the rate now set,
which sinks our currency four or five per cent. It will pass the Board
with little opposition. The secretary, Irving, Bowdoin, and two or
three more are with me, and a great clamor is raised against my
papers. Pray tell me if I am wrong and let me know what people say
on your side of the water. If the party see them ccmdcmned I shall
have no chance. Our debts will be paid in a twelvemonth."

Apparentl}^ the evils that Mr. Hutchinson anticipated did not come
to pass. The people of Boston were severely straitened in their re-
sources by depreciations in trade, and by their inability to export in
commodities values to the amount that they imported. But the driv-
ing out of silver by gold, and the necessary adoption of a single
standard of gold, did not seem to follow.

The financial affliction which was next felt, and which aroused the
quickest opposition, was the imposition of taxes by the English Parlia-
ment, which necessitated the payment of coin into the British treasur}^
It may be well to point out at this time that the indignation that was
aroused in Boston and its vicinity by the vStamp Act and other similar
imperial enactments, was due (juite as much and perhaps more to the
belief that they would deplete the colony of its currency than to any
theoretical feeling concerning the injustice of imposing a tax without
according representation. We are disposed to believe that this basis
for resistance was an afterthought. Thus in ITHSa majorit}' of the
Massachusetts Council petitioned the House of Commons to aid in the

jdMyio^i^ y .^^^^^^^

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 189

removal of grievances it endured. The petition says: " This province
is still in debt on account of the charge incurred by the late war. The
yearly taxes upon the people for lessening the debt, though not so
great as during the war, are nevertheless with more difficulty paid by
reason of the great scarcity of inoney. The scarcity of money in the
colonies is owing to the balance of their trade with Great Britain being
against them, which balance drains them of their money to the great
embarrassment of their trade, and the only source of it. This em-
barrassment is much increased by the regulations of trade and by the
tax acts, which draw immediately from trade the money necessary to
support it, on the support whereof the payment of the balance afore-
said depends. The exports of the colonies, all their gold and silver,
and their whole power of remittance falls short of the charged value of
what the}' import from Great Britain."

In other words, the imposition of taxes which drew the money
directly from the colony without hope of its return, tended, in the
opinion of the Boston merchants, to bring their currency system again
into the demoralized condition in which it had been prior to its estab-
lishment upon a specie basis. In spite of these protests the tax still
continued, and, curiously enough, the industrial and financial condition
of the province seemed to improve.

Thus in January of 1774 Governor Hutchinson said: ''There never
has been a time since the first settlement of the country when the
treasury has been in so good a state as it is now. I may congratulate
the province upon its being entirely free from debt, the tax of last year
with a stock in the treasury being ecpial to all the securities due from
the government and to the charges of the current year." The people
of Boston were not in the least disposed to receive these flattering-
statements in good part, and maintained that the governor's descrip-
tion was due to his desire to pacify the political animosities of the
people, and that they were not justified by facts, though so far as evi-
dence shows they were incorrect in this supposition, for the statements
of Governor Hutchinson appear to have been strictlv true.

In May of 1775 the Committee of Safety appointed by the Provincial
Council, passed the resolve that, "Whereas, many of our brethren of
the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island are now with us to assist
us in this day of public and general distress, in which we are deeply
concerned, and whereas our brethren of said colonies have brought
with them some of the paper currencies of their respective colonies.

190 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

which have not of late had a currency with lis, and for want of which
our common interests may greatly suffer, Resolved, that said paper
currencies shall, and after the date hereof, be paid and received within
this colony in all payments to all intents and purposes in the same pro-
portion to silver as the same are paid and received within the respective
colonies by which the same have been issued."

This was the first act of financial independence, setting, as it did, at
defiance the severe restrictions and penalties that the English Parlia-
ment had imposed. To sustain the defences of the colony money was
needed, and the Provincial Congress empowered the treasury to borrow
;^100,000 lawful money secured by notes of the province at six per
cent., and the General Congress was asked to promote the circulation
of this currency throughout the Union. The form of note was substan-
tially the same as had been previously issued, bearing the heading of
the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and stating that the notes "will be
received in all payments in the colony, and no discount or abatement
shall be made thereon in any payment, trade or exchange whatsoever."

This was a revival of paper money as a legal tender, after a lapse of
more than a quarter of a century, during which time the people had
become accustomed to and had realized the advantages of a specie cur-
rency or of a currency founded distinctly upon specie. These provin-
cial ImUs of credit with the notes to the amount of $2,0t)(),000 issued by
the Continental Congress, soon had their effect in bringing about their
own depreciation, although the congressional bills were issued under
the order that "whoso refuses to take these notes without some dis-
count shall be deemed an enemy to his country;" while the Com-
mittee of Public Safety of Massachusetts voted on their second issue of
paper money in July of 1775 that they were a legal tender in all pecun-
iary transactions as equivalent to specie at the usual rates, under penalty
of treble damages to both the payer and receiver.

The General Court of the colony under the new order of things,
which assembled in August, 1775, authorized a fresh emission of ^100,-
000 in paper, and at this time decreed that on the back of it should be
stamped the figure of an American citizen, with a sword in his right
hand, and with an inscription which is still our State motto. This
money received the appellation of " sword in hand money" because of
the armed image on its l)ack.

While the discounts at which the colonial and continental paper money
circulated were at first ccmiparatively slight, during the year 1775 loss

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 191

•^f credit became apparent. In the early part of 1776, as a sign of the
scarcity of specie, as well as of a distrust in the security of paper money,
strenuous efforts were made to raise ^30,000 of hard money in Massa-
chusetts on exchange for bills, this to promote the expedition of our
forces to Canada; but the effort met with a disheartening degree of
success.

In order to meet this growing trouble the New England colonies sent
delegates to a convention which was held in Providence, R. I. , to see
if something could not be done by general action to strengthen their
credit. The result was a passage of resolves that "whoever pays, or
receives the colonial or continental currency at a less rate than origi-
nally prescribed, besides being accounted a foe to the liberties of his
country, shall forfeit the sum so exchanged. " They also advise several
States to make this paper a legal tender for debts as previously re-
cjuired, and to provide that a refusal of it in such a mode should be
the extinguishment of all claims.

In accordance with agreements made at this convention the State of
Massachusetts in January, 1777, adopted a statute in which it set forth
the value in money of practically all the commodities sold in the colony
and the value as well of services paid for by the day. These were to
be the prices at which goods were to be sold and services given, the
same to be paid in the legal tender of the country, and any discount
therefrom or other charge would constitute a serious offence.

In spite of these strenuous efforts depreciation still continued, and it
was asserted that to intensify this the British put in circulation a large
amount of counterfeit bills in imitation of those that had been emitted
by Congress. In June of 177!) Congress felt constrained to take into
account the serious question of currency depreciation. It therefore is-
sued a proclamation which the Legislature of Massachusetts had print-
ed and read by all of the ministers in its jurisdiction on the first vSun-
day after it reached them.

This document said : ' ' The present situation of public affairs de-
mands your serious attention, and particularly the great and increasing
depreciation of your currency requires the immediate, strenuotis and
united efforts of all true friends to their country for preventing an ex-
tension of the mischiefs that have already flowed from that source. For
defraying the expenses of this uncommon war, our representatives to
Congress were obliged to emit paper money. They were very sensible
of the inconveniences with which too frequent emissions would be at-

192 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

tended and endeavored to avoid them. For this purpose they establish-
ed loan offices as early as in October, 177ii, and have from that time to
this repeatedly and earnestly solicited you to lend them money on the
faith of the United States. The sums received on loan have neverthe-
less proved inadequate to public exig-encies. Our enemies prosecuting
the Avar by sea and land with implacable fury, and with some success,
taxation at home and borrowing abroad in the midst of difficulties and
dangers were alike impracticable, hence the continued necessity of new
emissions. Your government being now established and your ability
to contend with your invaders ascertained, we have on the most mature
deliberation judged it indispensably necessary to call upon you for
$45,000,000, in addition to the fifteen millions required by resolution of
Congress on the 3d of June last."

At that time the paper issues of the national government were about
$1()0,()<)0,(I()(»; but the proclamation, we are sorry to say, although ap-
pealing to patriotism, did not produce the desired result in strengthen-
ing the credit. In vSeptember of the same year (1770) the conditions of
the currency were such that the Legislature of this State passed the re-
solve that, ' ' Whereas, this vState are using their utmost endeavors to
appreciate the currency of the United States, there is great danger
that their laudable exertions will be entirely defeated if measures are
not speedily taken to prevent the inhabitants of this and the other
United vStates from conveying articles out of this vState, therefore be it
enacted," etc., "there shall be no exportation of them either by land or
water. "

The articles included were wines, spirits, coffee, molasses, sugar, co-
coa, cotton wool, sheep's wool, fiax, salt, linen and cotton and woolen
goods, etc. In certain respects this law seemed necessary, for in con-
sequence of the fluctuations in different localities in the value of conti-
nental and vState bills advantages were taken in trade somewhat disas-
trous to our people. For example, while in the latter part of 177'.) forty
dollars in continental money was worth one dollar in specie in Boston,
the value elsewhere might be sixty dollars in continental money to one
in specie ; and it is related that a merchant in Boston received a large
amount of this paper from a friend of his in Philadelphia with instruc-
tions to buy whatever salable articles he conveniently could. Accord-
ingly he went to the principal stores which were filled with dry goods,
pointed to the shelves of cotton or linen and so on, inquired the price,
and when told said that he would take the whole k^t, paying for this in

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 193

continental bills that at the time were worth fully fifty per cent, more
here than in Philadelphia.

The representatives in Congress, although they continued issuing
paper money, allowed themselves to believe, or tried to make the peo-
ple think that they believed, that the depreciation in it was due to arti-
ficial rather than other reasons. In the proclamation which they sent
out they said that " the depreciation of this money is always either nat-
ural or artificial. The latter is our case. The artificial depreciation is
a most serious subject, a distrust, however occasioned, entertained by
the mass of the people either in the ability or inclination of the United
States to redeem their bills is the cause of it. The ability of the United
States must depend on two things, first, the success of the present rev-
olution, secondly, on the sufficiency of the natural wealth, value and
resources of the country. That the time has been when honest men
might, without being chargeable w'ith timidity, have doubted the suc-
cess of the present revolution, we admit ; but that period is past. The
redemption of these bills and the settlement of the accounts of the sev-
eral States for expenditures or services for the common benefi-t are
among the objects of this confederation, and consequently it cannot, so
far as it may respect siich objects, be dissolved consistent with the laws
of God or man. In order to prevent further natural depreciation of our
bills we have resolved to stop the presses and to call upon yoii for sup-
plies by loans and taxes. Leave us not, therefore, without supplies,
nor let in that flood of evils which would follow froin such neglect. Let
it never be said that America had no sooner become independent, than
she became insolvent, or that her infant glories and growing fame were
obscured and tarnished by broken contracts and violated faith in the
very hour when all the nations on the earth were admiring and almost
iidoring the splendor of her rising."

In spite of these protestations and this almost burning eloquence the
credit of the country did not improve. In fact the depreciation of cur-
rency went on at a more rapid rate during the three or four months
after the issuance of this proclamation than it had at any previous time.
This became so obvious that in the following year Congress decided to
abandon the hopeless task of restoring credit to its currency and raise
its existing condition, by agreeing to consider forty dollars of national
paper to be equal to one of specie, to call in its notes upon this basis,
and to redeem them by a new emission of bills equal to and payable in
silver and gold within six years at five per cent, interest.

194 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

It was a sini^-ular fact that in 1780 hard money had become quite
plentiful here and in other parts of the country. "Large quantities of it
came from the French and British forces, from Havana and other for-
eign parts, and from prizes captured in the West Indies. But, while it
passed freely among the people, not a dollar of it could be found in the
State treasury, because a thousand claims stood there unsatisfied and
ready to seize upon it as soon as it made its appearance.

To show the steady decline that had taken place in the continental
bills, it may be said that they circulated in 1781 — if they could be said
to have any circulation at all^ — at ;^50() for $1 of specie. That is, that
was the value of the early issues, while the later issue, which had been
put out partly to redeem the former one, circulated on the basis of three
paper dollars to one of specie.

It was at about this time that the Bank of North America received
its charter, although the representatives from Massachusetts have to be
put down as voting against the proposition. No doul)t the bank did a
great deal to solve the financial problem by giving stability to our cur-
rency system. In 1782 an act passed by the Legislature incorporated
a branch of it in Boston, in compliance with the wish of the general
government. The condition of this act w^as that no other similar asso-
ciatio*! should be allowed in this jurisdiction while the war lasted with
Great Britain. Penalty of death was affixed to the ofi^ence of embez-
zling the funds of this branch by any of its officers, and a resolve was
passed that the paper of this institution and the securities of others, as
signed by Robert INIorris, shall be received toward a tax of ^o()(),()0()
assessed on the pe()]:)le of the United States.

The close of the war left the people of Boston and its vicinity in an
exceedingly trying C(mditi(m. This State had contributed much more
than her fair proportion in money to the national cause, and it was with
feelings of indignation that it was realized that the obligations thus as-
sumed were hardly likely to be liquidated. The soldiers who had been
paid ofl: in depreciated currency could hardly consider that their serv-
ices had been justly requited, and it was long before the evils incident
to a deranged ciirrency system could be corrected.

It was at this time that the .State, with its old fondness for specie cur-
rency, concluded to undertake the work of minting its own money.
Congress had already decided that the coins of the country should be
cents and half cents of copper, dollars, half dollars, double dimes and
dimes of silver, and eagles and half eagles of gold, and had decided

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 195

upon the Troy weight of these. But the money was not sent out with
the readiness that was desired. On this account mints were established
with the needed machiner}^ part of the works on Boston Neck, and the
rest at Dedham.

It is interesting to note that the copper coins sent out from this mint,
encircled with the letters of the word Massacl^usetts, were the first to
have upon them the American eagle that has since been found on so
many of our other coins, having in its right talon a bunch of arrows,
and in its left an olive branch, the semblance of defence and peace.
This effort on the part of the local authorities to enter into the coinage
of money was arrested by the adoption of the Federal constitution,
which provided that "no vState shall coin money, emit bills of credit,
or make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of
debts."

This was a drastic law; but when one takes into account the painful
experiences through which the people of this and other American com-
munities had passed, how they had witnessed from time to time the
depletion of their specie and the depreciation of their paper currency in
consequence of excessive issues of bills of credit, one can well under-
stand why, as a safeguard for the future, it was thought desirable to
place this salutary check upon their action.

The next step in the financial history of Boston was the formation of
what has has been .since that time the banking system of Massachusetts.
In 17S4 a charter was obtained for the first officially recognized local
bank, and one which from that time to this has been in constant and
regular existence.

The establishment of the Massachusetts Bank was recognized in its
charter as a species of experiment. In this it was said that it would
probably be of great public utility and particularly beneficial to the
trading part of the communit}^ if such an institution was established
within the borders of this State. The grant of authority from the Gen-
eral Court was that the corporation should have the right to hold
^50,000 and no more, in lands, rents and tenements, and ^500,000 and
no more, in moneys, goods, chattels and effects. These it was per-
mitted to sell, grant and devise, alien or dispose of; but except that it
was liable to be sued, and that it could not inake, establish and put in
execution regulations that were repugnant to the laws and constitution
of the State, the charter granted was a broad one, giving to its holders
permis.sion, without interference on the part of the authorities, to carry

19G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

on any form of bankino-, and in fact almost any form of mercantile
business that mig-ht seem desirable.

It is probable that partly through want of experience and partly from
a tolerably fair knowledg-e of the purposes of the incorporators, the re-
strictions that now apply, both in general and special laws, to the pro-
ceedings of corporations were then thought unnecessary. But two
months after the act of incorporation, and doubtless at the instigation
of the bank ofhcials, the Legislature passed, March 10, 1784, an act en-
titled " An Act to Prevent Frauds on the ]\Iassachusetts Bank." This
is so far charactetistic of the spirit of the times that it warrants repro-
diiction :

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any president, director,
officer or servant of the Massachusetts Bank shall secrete, embezzle or convert to his
own use any note, bill, obligatif)n, security, money or effect belongintj to tlie said
bank, or deposited tliere by any other persons, every person so offending and being
thereof convicted before the Supreme Judicial Court, shall be set in and upon the
gallows with a rope about his neck, or be set in and upon the pillory for the space of
two hours, shall forfeit all his personal estate and the issues and profits of his real
estate during life to the use of the Commonwealth (after deducting such sum as shall
indemnify the bank for the loss they may have sustained by means of the said fraud)
and shall ever after be rendered infamous and incapable of sustaining any office,
either civil or military.

Section 3. And be it enacted by the autliority aforesaid, that if any person shall
forge, counterfeit or alter any bill, note, or obligation made, signed or given for or
in the name of the president, directors, cashier, or other person in behalf of the said
bank, or sliall forge, alter, or counterfeit any endorsement on such bill, note or obli-
gation, or shall forge, alter or counterfeit any order or check drawn by any person
on the said president, directors or cashier, every person so offending and being therof
convicted before the Supreme Judicial Court, shall suffer the pains, penalties, for-
feitures, and disabilities as aforesaid, and shall be subjected to hard labor within
this Commonwealth during the term of seven years, to be disposed of by the directors
of the said bank in such manner and under such confinement as they shall direct for
the use and benefit of the said bank.

Section 3. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person shall
utter, pass, tender in payment, or offer to pass any forged, altered or counterfeited
bill, note or obligation made, signed or given m the name of said president, directors,
cashier, or other person in behalf of the said bank, or any order or check drawn b}-
any person on the said president, directors, or cashier, knowing such bill, note, obli-
gation or check to be so forged, altered or counterfeited, every person so offend-
ing and being convicted as aforesaid, sliall suffer the pains, penalties, forfeitures
and disabilities as aforesaid, and shall be subjected to hard labor in such manner
and for tlie purpose as aforesaid.

vSection 4. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person shall
forge, alter or counterfeit any letter of attorney, order or other instrument to transfer

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 197

or convey any share or shares of stock in the said bank, or to receive the same or any
dividend or part thereof, or shall knowingly and fraudulently demand to have the
share or shares, dividend, or anj' part thereof transferred, conveyed or received b\'
virtue of such forged, altered or counterfeited letter of attorne}^ order or other in-
strument, or shall falsely and deceitfully personate any true and lav/ful proprietor
or proprietors of any share or shares of stock or dividend or money, or other prop-
erty deposited in the said bank, therebj^ transferring, or endeavoring to transfer,
the said stock, dividend, money or other property, in every such case the person so
offending, and being thereof convicted as aforesaid, shall suffer the pains, penalties,
forfeiture and disabilities as aforesaid, and shall be subjected to hard labor in such
manner and for the purpose as aforesaid.

It hardly needs to be pointed out that an act of this kind is a peculiar
species of special legislation which would find little countenance in any
of our present vState Legislatures. While it was considered necessary
to protect the stockholders of the bank against malfeasance on the
part of its officers and employees, and while these if they committed
wrong' doing were to be exposed to public scorn and contempt, and
were to have whatever property they possessed either taken, or made
use of, for the benefit of the defrauded corporation, there seems to have
been a singular leniency shown respecting punishment by imprisonment.
The defaulting cashier or teller having sat for two hours upon the gal-
lows with a rope about his neck, or having passed the same period of
time in the uncomfortable confinement of the public pillory, had his
liberty granted to him and might go wherever he pleased, the seizure
of his property, if he had not previously disposed of it, being the only
serious drawback.

On the other hand, those who forged or counterfeited notes, or those
who endeavored to obtain stock and dividends that did not belong to
them — offences which would now be considered perhaps less heinous
than the betrayal of trust on the part of a bank official — had to endure
under this law all of the public disgrace brought about by infamous
exposure which fell to the share of the defaulting bank official, had
to lose such property as might be possessed, and had, moreover, to
suffer a restraint or confinement for seven years, which we take to
have been an intention on the part of the law to reduce the offender
during that period to a state of slavery, in which his labor was at the
disposal of the bank officials, and apparently without the least interfer-
ence on the part of the State authorities, except that they were to see
that his time and services inured to the benefit of the bank. It would
seem from this rather one-sided means of punisliment that the law in

ms SUFFOLK COUNTY.

question was drawn up by the officers of the bank, havinj^ in so doing
a wish, if not to shelter themselves, at least to clear themselves from
too severe a punishment if the weaknesses of human nature prevailed
over the dictates of common honesty.

At the same time, March 10, 1784, it was considered advisable to en-
act a law restricting' the taking- of excessive usury. By this it was
declared that six per cent, per annum interest was a sufficient return
for money or merchandise loaned, and that any contract arranging for
a higher rate of interest should be considered utterly void, and that all
and every person who made such a contract or entered into any corrupt
bargain as a means of evading the law, should forfeit and lose for every
such offence the full value of the goods and moneys or other things
loaned, and that a moiety of the same should go to the use of the Com-
monwealth, the other half to him or them who prosecuted or com-
plained by suit for the same, any custom, usage or law to the contrary
notwithstanding.

It was under these conditions that the Massachusetts Bank began its
business, and there is abundant reason, from the returns that it made
to its stockholders, to believe that it had a satisfactory experience. Its
charter, as we have pointed out, was a broad and comprehensive one,
and although it was brought into competition, in certain classes of its
business, with the branch of the Bank of North America that had been
established here, yet this did not prevent it from accumulating to itself
the larger part of the local business and of establishing, in spite of the
usury laws, its own rate of discount.

While at that time Boston was a small town, considered from a
numerical standpoint — for it was no larger than Taunton, Haverhill,
and some of our minor Massachusetts cities — it had an importance in
the world wholly independent of its vsize. It was the center of trade
for this part of the American continent, and the same energy that its
people had displayed in insisting upon their rights in opposition to the
dictation of the British crown, was shown in the activit)^ they dis-
played in prosecuting their business. To provide the financial support
for carrying on this business, to give to our merchants of that day, who
had begun sending their ships not only to China and the East Indies
but to the West Coast of North America, the temporary credit they
needed, was a work of finance so obviou.sly necessary that the wonder
is that banks such as the Massachusetts Bank were not estalilished in
Boston years before they were.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 199

It is probable that if the directors and manaoers of this first institu-
tion had exhibited in the conduct of their business a greater regard for
the prolonged maintenance of their interests, not only would it have
been of material advantage to them and to their bank, but that the
entire svstem of banking in Boston as we now know it would have been
quite different. The Massachusetts Bank made through these early
years of its existence a very large profit, this averaging in 1701 and
17i)2 quite sixteen per cent, per annum on the par value of its stock.

It was obvious that this was altogether too large a source of revenue
to be continued without competition, and hence in IT'.V^ the second Bos-
ton bank, the Union Bank, as it was called, was incorporated, having
its capital fixed at $1,2()0,(»00, this being nearly five times greater than
the original paid in capital of the Massachusetts Bank when it started
eight years before.

It is sufficiently evident that the money needed for banking purposes
could then be obtained in this city, particularly when the returns held
out to investors were as large as we have shown them to have been.
The large returns received through discounts indicate that the financial
facilities that the Massachusetts Bank had at its disposal were not suf-
ficient to meet the demands of its customers, and hence the proper
course would have been to have expanded these facilities so that a fair
and even large return might be obtained upon the capital invested, but
not one so great as to encourage outside competition.

If the directors of the Massachusetts Bank, realizing the sitiuition
and knowing that if the business was made tmduly profitable, competi-
tion would surely set in, had expanded their capital and put their rates
of discount upon a reasonable basis, there is reason to doubt whether
the second bank, the Union Bank, would have been started, and cer-
tainly within the next few years it would not have been found neces-
sary to establish the large number of additional banking institu-
tions that were brought into existence. No doubt some of these
were formed for the purpose of providing official and salaried posi-
tions for the friends of certain wealthy gentlemen, but this im-
plied that the business of discounting paper must bear the tax which
these salaries imposed. If the financiers who held the key to the
position at the outset had realized the value of the situation they could
undoubtedly have broadened out their field of operation, increased their
capital stock to the needs of the times and, by showing less solicitude in
the matter of dividends, could have built up a great banking institution

200 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

which would have had far more mfluence than a number of smaller
banks combined, and would also have established a btmking method
by means of great institutions. It is frequently the first step that de-
termines action, and the first step in bankintif in Massachusetts dis-
tinctly favored the organization of relatively small brinks having
their business restricted to local needs, in place of the formation of a
few great monetary institutions having their headquarters in Boston,
but having branches or agencies established in those parts of the State
where banking capital was needed. This has been the form of develop-
ment in England and France, and it is not unlikely that with more
progressiveness and enterprise on the part of the original directors of
the Massachusetts Bank something of the same kind might have been
attempted here.

It is clear that there was a desire on the part of the people in other
parts of the State to avail themselves of banking facilities, for the
charter of the Union Bank provided that one-fifth of the bank's funds
should be appropriated to loans outside of Boston for the benefit of
agriculture, in sums of not less than one hundred or more than one
thousand dollars, secured by mortgages on real estate and having not
less than one year to run. In fact the influence of the State govern-
ment was specially turned to secure fcjr the country people opportuni-
ties in the way of credits that they did not possess, and if the Boston
banks of that day had shown themselves willing to undertake the work
they could unquestionably have absorbed through branch establish-
ments the larger ])art of the banking business of all of the New Eng-
land States.

Another feature in the bank charters of that time was the subscrip-
tion by the State to a certain part of the stock. As new banks were
fc^rmed the Commonwealth became one of the stockholders, until at the
time of the War of 1S12 it was said to be the owner of nearly one-eighth
of all the banking ca])ital of Massachusetts. The reason that led to
the adoption of this policy is not clear at the present time. There had
been, as the foregoing history will show, a belief on the part of the
agricultural classes in Massachusetts that they were in some way ex-
cluded from the benefits of a sound banking currency system, and that
these inured to the benefit of the capitalists, merchants and dwellers in
Boston. We can, perhaps, undei'stand this feeling by taking into ac-
count the present hostility shown in some of the agricultural States of the
West, not only against the national banking system, but against any-
thing that appertains to corporate banking.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 201

At that time it is evident that the feelings which express themselves
in resolutions of Farmers' Alliances and granger lodges in the West
were pronounced factors in the minds of the country dwellers of Mas-
sachusetts, and that bank charters could not be obtained from our Leg-
islature in the absence of a provision which would accord to the farm-
ing inhabitants of the wState special opportunities of obtaining such
credit as they desired. It is a possibly happy omen that with in-
creased experience and with growth of knowledge this suspicion and
distrust in Massachusetts has very largely evaporated. The people of
the country districts of Massachusetts have realized that the banks are
not their enemies, that credit can be obtained whenever reasonable
ground for giving it exists, and that there is no special advantage, except
that of holding available securities upon which loans can be effected,
that the capitalist has over the other members of society. The disposi-
tion on the part of the State to interest itself in banking ventures may
have been due to this same distrust of moneyed institutions. If the
State w'as a large shareholder it was assumed that it would give to it
the right to regulate in some degree the conduct of the banking business,
and in this way see that the favors were evenly bestowed. It was dis-
covered later on that the connection was not one which could be wisely
maintained ; that to the ordinary shareholders in the bank a partner-
ship with the government was liable to bring about interference detri-
mental to the proper conduct of business, while on the part of the State
it was discovered that the money of the people was in this way placed
at risk in a manner detrimental to the public policy.

In 1812 the Commonwealth owned about a million dollars in the stock
of these banking corporations, being at the time nearly one-eighth of
the banking capital of the State. But when clearer views prevailed it
was found expedient to dispose of all of this, and since that time, bank-
ing, like any other business, has been permitted to develop itself upon
its own lines without direct State participation.

The conditions under which banking business was carried on in its
earlier days were in many respects different from those of the present
time. The Massachusetts Bank when it was started laid down certain
stringent rules regulating the loaning of money which are interesting
now rather as specimens of restriction. The Massachusetts Bank started
with a paid in capital of $253,500, but the maximum loan to one person
at one time was $3,000, and no person was allowed to owe the bank

202 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

more than $5,000 at any one time, or be liable for more than $7,500
as a promisor or endorser. The renewal of notes was absolutely forbid-
den, and those who failed to meet their notes were not only obliged to
submit to the immediate sale of their security, but were denied the
privilege of having any further notes discounted for a period of eight
months thereafter, unless the penalty was remitted by the unanimous
vote of the directors. The rules of the bank also required that the
names of delinciuents should be posted in a conspicuous place in the
bank office.

With the establishment of our national independence the ship mer-
chants of Boston began those ventures into the fields of foreign commerce
which for many years made our city the leading commercial port of the
American continent. The flag of the United States, as well as the house
flags of Boston merchants were to be found in the seaports of India and
China as well as on the almost unknown waters of the Pacific Ocean. No
doubt the facilities that were provided by the early banks gave to the
Russells, Phillipses, Perkinses, Grays, and others, the credits they re-
c^uired for obtaining the large amounts of specie which w^ere needed to
carry on what proved to be their highly profitable trade ventures.

In the early years of the century the government of the United States
afforded credit opportunities which were quickly taken advantage of by
our Boston merchants. For many years the rule prevailed of taking at
the custom house the endorsed note of an importer for a very consider-
able part of the duty levied upon imported goods. For some time the
method was on importations from Europe or Asia to have one-third of
the duty paid down, the other two-thirds remaining upcni credit, one of
these thirds for three months and the other iox six months. This led
to the formation in Boston of quite a number of associations where
business was dcmc upon individual account, though to all intents and
purposes the two (;r three merchants who were associated together
were partners; that is, certain importations w^ere made in the name of
Smith for the purpose of having Brown endorse the note given in pay-
ment of duties, while Brown's note for duties was endorsed by Smith.
To prevent loss the government was a preferred creditor, and in cases
of insolvency its claim had to be settled in full before any other creditor
could share in the division of the bankrupt's assets. The effect of this
s}'stem was to materially stimulate the lousiness of importing, quite a
number of merchants engaged in it having very little capital beyond
that which this credit of the government accorded to them.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 2();i

The disturbances that o-rcw out of the Napoleonic wars were severe!}'
felt in Boston, causing such a demoralization in trade that real estate
values declined very g-reatly, arid for a time commerce was carried on
under exceedingl}' precarious and profitless conditions. Non-inter-
course and the embargo were followed by war, to the great discontent
of all of the business interests of this city. Evasions of all kinds were
attempted because they were looked upon as legitimate, and not a few
of the prominent ship owners engaged in smuggling and other devices,
which received at the time a local sanction, even though they were in
direct violation of the national statutes.

The condition of our local currency was in the main satisfactory, but
the notes of New York and Vermont banks of very doubtful solvency
were spread broadcast over the country, and found a readier acceptance
in Boston, because it seemed to be the policy of our banks at that time
to keep themselves strong by refraining from the issue of bank bills.
Thus, in 1813, according to the returns made to the vState, the four banks
of Boston had more than four and one-half millions dollars of specie in
their vaults, while their aggregate circulation did not reach a million
and a half dollars. It was at this time that the New England Bank
was chartered, having for one of its purposes of business the collection
of the notes of foreign or non-State banks on behalf of those who did
business with it. The discount at which these foreign notes had pre-
viously circulated was very considerable, because the question of their
redemption was always an open one. But when the New England
Bank undertook to charge only the actual cost of sending foreign money
home to the issuing bank and obtaining specie for it, the rates of dis-
count both on bills of Massachusetts banks out of Boston and those on
reasonably sound banks out of the State, were very materially reduced.

This action on the part of the New England Bank, which in 1818
was also adopted by the vSuffolk Bank, created a great deal of indig-
nation on the part of the officers of the banks whcxsc notes were thus
sent in for redemption. In 1814 three wagon loads of specie, amount-
ing to more than if;io8,(i00, which had been collected by the New Eng-
land Bank through the redemption of the bills of a number of the New
York banks, was seized at Chester, by the collector of New York, while
on its way to Boston. The reason given for this seizure was the
alleged intention of the New England Bank to send the money to Can-
ada ; but representations made by the Legislature of Massachusetts to
the president of the United States led to a restoration of the specie.

^04 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

But the l)usincss of the New England Rank and of its rival, the vSuf-
folk Bank, in deahnjj- with foreign money, as it was termed, was not
carried on without great friction. The plan of the Suffolk Bank, which
was chartered in ISIS, was that if any bank deposited with it five
thousand dollars as a permanent deposit, with such further sums as would
be sufficient from time to time to redeem its bills taken by the vSuffolk
Bank, such depositing bank should have the privilege of receiving its
own bills at the same discount at which they were purchased. The
competition between the New England Bank and the vSuffolk Bank was
a lively one, and the discount on foreign money was so far reduced as
to decidedly impair the profits of both institutions. The country and
non-vState banks, whose notes were promptly sent back to them for re-
demption, considered the act to be outrageous and unwarrantable, and
endeavored as far as possible to arouse public opinicm against such
proceedings. This had little effect, for in 1834 all of the banks in
Boston, with the exception of the New England, agreed to make the
vSuffolk Bank their agent for the redemption of bills of outside banks,
and a fund of $;30(),()00 was subscribed by these banks, in proportion
to their respective capitals, to be used for carrying on the business.
The need of this action was apparent when one takes into account, that
while Boston had more than one-half of the banking capital of New
England, the currency that it put out represented only about one-
twenty-fifth of that which was in circulation. The system of redemp-
tion as estal)lishcd by the Suffolk Bank was continued until the
organization of the Bank of Mutual Redem]:)tion, which was established
in 1S5S for the purpose of serving as agent of all of the New England
l)anks for the redemption of their bills. •

The period between the close of the War of 1812 and lSo7 was one
highly favorable to the establishment of new banking institutions. In
the last named year there were thirty-four banks in Boston, and in the
State outside there were ninety-five. The Boston l)anks had a capital
of $21,;)5(),()(K), deposits of $0,5(10,0(10, and circulation of $4,:i8(;,414.
The ninety-five country banks had a capital of ,f;i C, !):!(), 00(1, deposits of
i|;i,i)07,123, and circulation of $5,886,704.

It will thus be seen that the relative amount of l)ills in circulation
was very much larger in the country banks than in the city.

In is;)7 a crisis came. On May 1(1 of tliat year the banks of New
York suspended specie payments, and in ol)edience to the desires of a
large number of Inisiness men who attended a meeting at Faneuil Hall,
the banks of Boston also sns])cnded payment on May 12, 1S;)7. With

/^^k^.J^

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 205

quite a number of these banks this action was unnecessary, as they had
carried on their affairs in such a conservative manner that there was no
reason to suppose that they would have suffered if they had continued
their regular business. But others — and these the newly formed banks
— were not strong- enough to resist the strain put upon them even after
suspending specie payments. In July the Franklin and La Fayette
Banks failed: in January following, the Commonwealth Bank; and
before that year was out ten more of the banks of Boston had either
failed or had had their charters revoked by the Legislature.

It was in this year that the Legislature decided to create a Board of
Bank Commissioners, giving to its members ample powers in the direc-
tion of examining and controlling the banks as a means of protecting
their depositors and the holders of bank bills and preventing reckless
management on the part of bank officials.

From that time up to 1857. the banking business of Boston seems
to have been carried on in a safe and yet progressive manner. The
banks did apparently a good biisinessand supplied their customers with
the financial means required to carry on their growing and prosperous
enterprises. The part which Boston merchants took in the immense
increase in ocean commerce which characterized that period was per-
haps greater than that taken by the ship merchants of anv other city
of the United vStates. Boston maritime ventures were found all over
the world, and these obviously were supported by the aid granted by
Boston banks. More than this, the period was one of great progress
in cotton manufactures, in which Boston capital also played a promi-
nent and possibly controlling part, so that the period between 1840 and
1857 may be looked iipon as one of the most satisfactory in the entire
financial history of this city.

The financial crisis of 1857 found the banks of Boston in a better
condition than they had been in twenty years before. The law of
1854: had required them to make public weekly a statement of their
condition, so that there w^as no secrecy observed, and false suspi-
cions of weakness — which are sometimes quite as bad as weakness itself
— could not be entertained. The suspension of specie payments which
took place in the fall of 1857 lasted for about two months, and in that
crisis not a single bank failed. The suspension was said to be uncalled
for, and during the time the best borrowers had no difficulty in obtain-
ing whatever funds they needed. The panic was, however, outside of
the banks an exceedingly severe one. There were in Boston alone 253
failures, with liabilities amounting to $4-1,000,000 — a collapse due

200 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

laro-cly to the fact that too much of the flo-atino- capital had been sunk
in permanent improvements, such as manufacturins;- pkmt and raih'oad
enterprises, and that too Larti;-e an amount of business was carried on
upcm long- credits.

With the outbreak of the Civil War the extraordinary demand for
supplies produced abnormal trade conditions in Boston and led to an
equally active trade with the banks. The national banking law, which
was passed in lS(i3, w^as very quickly taken advantage of by our local
banking institutions, and by the end of lS(i5 every bank in Boston had
l)een transformed into a national bank.

The condition of these institutions since that time is brought out
more fully by their own statements than it can be in any general ab-
stract.

The progress we have made in the material conditions upon which
financial prosperity depends can be bast brought out in the line of
comparison.

Few people have any clear idea of the rapid growth that the city of
Boston has made within a relatively few years. In 107:} the population
was about 5,000; in 1735, 10, 000; in J 71)1, 1S,(I3S; in 1810, 33,250.
Macaulay has estimated the population of London to have been in 1085
about half a million, so that Boston has grown in the last two hundred
years, that is, since 10S5, from a population of about 5,()()0 to about the
same size that London was two hundred years ago, or at a period when
London was larger than any city of the world, cxce]3t possibly some of
the great cities of China.

Moreover, while London has in the interval increased about tenfold,
Boston has grown quite one hundredff)ld, assuming, as is probably
fair, that the effect of annexation of territory has been proportionate in
both cities. Massachusetts of to-day, with its population of over two
millions, has about two-fifths of the population of p;^ngland in 1085.
It is of course difficult to make just comparisons of the public expendi-
tures of different periods on account of the variation in the ])urchasing
power of money, but after due allowance for this fact, some curious
and interesting facts may be noted.

Macaulay's estimate of the annual cost of the British navy in the year
1 085 was /:400,000, or $2,000,000. The city of Boston spent more than
one-half of this sum, $1,13(),102, on its police in the year 18!I(», and also
spent in the same year $1,'.)40,()84 for its public schools. Surely this
shows a wonderful growth of resources in the little town of Boston
which two hundred vears ago had l)ut five thousand souls, that it can

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 207

now anniuilly spend for free education nearly the same sum which
England annually spent upon her navy at the time referred to.

The Earl of Stanhope, in his history of Queen Anne, states the entire
annual revenue of the kingdom of vScotland, at the time of the union
with England in 1714, to have been ^100,000, or about $8()(),000 — a
sum almost exactly equal to the receipts of the city of Boston from
liquor licenses alone for the nine months ending January 31, 1892.

The auditor's report for the nine months ending- January 31, 1892,
shows the annual income of the city for that period to have been more
than $13,000,000, while the amount of money passing through the treas-
urer's books for the same period was more than $19,000,000, the latter
sum including receipts from loans and other items not strictly income.

The total income of England at the time of the union with Scotland
in 1714, is stated by Earl Stanhope to have been _^5, 091,803, that is
$28,000,000, or only about twice as much as the present income of the
city of Boston. Probably no citizen of the town of Boston in 1714
imagmed that within one hundred and eighty years the little place of
his residence would have a revenue half as large as that of Queen Anne.

But the present financial importance and mnjniitude of Boston can
be even more forcibly illustrated b}^ comparisons drawn from the
present time. The entire revenue of the kingdom of Greece for the
year 1885 was about $17,000,000, from which was supported among
other things an army -of 32,000 men and a small navy. The rev-
enue of Denmark in the year 1887 was about $15,000,000, which sup-
ported a considerable navy and an army of 35,000 men. The rev-
enue of Switzerland for the year 1887 was about $10,000,000, a sum
considerably less than the revenue of Boston. The annual cost of the
army of Great Britain in 1887 was almost $90,000,000; that of France
in the same year was about $120,000,000; that of Germany about $90,-
000,000; so that our annual financial expenses are a considerable
fraction of the annual expense of the great armies of Europe.

The assessed valuation of Boston during the last seventy years has
been as follows :

1823 . $ 44,896,800

1832 67,514,400

1842 106,722,800

1852 187,680,000

1862 276,217,000

1872 682, 724,300

1882 672,497,361

1892 893,975,704

208 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

But, as it is well known, the assessed valuation does not exhibit the
entire amount of personal property of the city, and it has been lately
estimated, by very eompetent authority, that there are now in Boston
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty persons the wealth of each
of whom is a million dollars or more — surely a great change from the
early days.

There are undoubtedly one hundred families in Boston to-day wdiose
annual expenses are more than the total cost of maintaining the entire
town government in 17i»7, when $40,061.5'.) was spent. The aggre-
gate personal property of the citizens of Boston probably amounts to
quite $1,000, 000, ()()().

The following table shows the annual expenditures of the tcnvn and
city governments of Boston at intervals from 171)7 to the present time:

1 7'.H) $ 49,061.54

1801 61,489.25

1802 59,601.99

1804 71,491.00

1820 94,988.55

1823 178,505.18

1832 254,151.85

1842 649, 700. 60

1852 2,11 2,562.73

1862 3,268,426.70

1872 12,144,976.34

1882 13,230,151.16

1892 16, 195, 028. 07

No IE. — In the column of annual, actual total expenditures the figures previous to
1863 are the best that can be obtained, although not absolutely correct, on ac-
count of the manner in which the accounts were kept at that time.

The following table shows the gross debt and surplus funds and net
dcl)t of Boston at different periods:

Year. Time of Year. Gros.s Debt. Sinking Fund, etc. Net Debt.

1822. $ 100,000.00 $ $ 100,000.00

1823. April 30. 103;550.00 3,267.27 100,282.73
1832. " 817,123.93 175,734.75 641,389.18
1842. " 1,594,700.00 88,930.79 1,505,769.21
1852. " 7,110,679.70 489,065.22 6,621,614.48
1862. " 9,031,207.77 851,659.08 8,179,548.69
1872. " 28,628,535.82 12,849,159.31 15,779,376.51
1882. " 40,079,312.04 15,901,650.44 24,177,661.60
18!)2. 56,003,997.35 25,569,706.32 30,434,291.03

*1893. Dec. 3. 57,083,563.19 26,544,273.22 30,539,289.97

' Coninienconient of financial year changed from from May i to February i.

FINANCIAL HISTORY.

209

Roxbury Debt, included after annexation in 1867.
Dorchester, " " " 1869.

West Roxbury, )

Brighton, V " " " 1873.

Charlestown, )

The following table, prepared by Messrs. Carroll D. Wright and
Horace G. Wadlin, in their article on the industries of the last hundred
years, published in the Memorial History of Boston in 1881, shows the
actual and estimated value of the annual products of the industries of
Suffolk county, present territory, for the first year of each decade from
1780 to 1880:

1780 $ 3,000,000 to $4,000,000 Estimated.

1790 4,500,000

1800 6,500,000

1810.. . 9,000,000

1830 16,000,000

1830 25,000,000

1840 30,000,000

1850 45,000,000

1855 58,301,028 Actual.

1860 64,000,000 Estimated.

1865 110,000,000 Actual.

1870 .' 120,000,000

1875 140,809,856

1880 150,000,000 Estimated.

The same writers elsewhere in their article say : ' ' The Boston of
1780, producing between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 worth of goods,
has grown to the Boston of 1880, producing, according to the best
estimates, $150,000,000 worth of goods within her own territorial
limits, while in fact the manufactures dependent upon Boston cap-
ital, if their value could be ascertained, would reach $300,000,000 per
annum." The national census of 1880 stated the product of the in-
dustries of Boston in that year to be $130,531,993, or somewhat less
than the estimate of Messrs. Wright and Wadlin for the same year,
though many persons would prefer to accept the intelligent estimate of
the last named gentlemen rather than the general census enumeration.

The Massachusetts State census of 1885 placed the industrial product
of Boston at $149, -281, 727, while the national census of 1890 fixed it at
$208,104,083, showing a gain of $70,000,000 for the decade as compared
wath the census of 1880.

210 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

If, as seems just, we can now estimate the annual product of the
manufactures dependent upon Boston capital as at least ec^ual to $400,-
000,000 a year, it is about one hundred times as large as was the pro-
duction of Boston in 1780. But taking merely the increase in the pro-
duct within the territorial limits of Boston, the present product is about
sixty times more than it was in 1780, though the population is only a
little more than thirty times as much as it was then.

The growth of the water-borne commerce of Boston has also been
very great. The progress of the early years after the settlement of
Boston is thus stated in the historical description of Boston by Charles
vShaw, published in 1816:

"(l(i42) The following memorable order was passed in favor of the
Massachusetts colony by the Commons : ' That for the better advance-
ment of the planters, to proceed in this undertaking of merchandising
goods that by any person or persons whatsoever shall be exported out
of this kingdom into New England, to be spent or by the growth of
that kingdom shall be from thence imported thither, shall be free from
paying any custom or duty for the same.' "

"(1030) We hear but little of trade for the first seven years except a
small traffic with the natives by bartering toys and utensils for furs and
skins. The middle and lower classes had but sufficient to provide sub-
sistence and construct comfortable dwellings, and the wealthy were
chiefly country gentlemen unacquainted with commerce. In a few
years, however, the land produced more than was necessary for home
consumption and the overplus was sent to the West Indies and the
Wine Islands. Those who could be spared from husbandry were em-
ployed in fisheries, sorting boards, splitting staves, shingles and hoops,
and as many as were capable in building vessels."

From loss to 1000 trade was in a very flourishing state, free admis-
sion being allowed to all nations, and the importation of no commodity
whatever being under any clog or restraint. From 1000 to 107O trade
was greatly extended. No custom house was established, and the Acts
12 and 15 of Charles II were little observed. In 1005 the number of
vessels was about eighty, from twenty to forty tons, about forty from
forty to oue hundred tons, and a dozen ships about one hundred tons,
according to the report delivered to the commissioners of Charles II.

Hutchinson, who was well qualified to judge upon the subject, said
ot the trade of this colony (Massachusetts, which in a commercial view
respected Boston only) from 10'J2 to 1749, that the other governments

FIN A NCI A L HIS TOR Y.

311

of New England imported no Eng-Hsh goods, or next to none, directly
from England. They were supplied by the IMassachiisetts traders.
Again, in another page of the same work, it is said: "The increase of
trade was so great that from Christmas, 174T, to Christmas, 1748, five
hundred vessels cleared from the port of Boston to foreign ports, and
four hundred and thirty were entered inward, besides coasting and
fishing vessels, both of which were very numerous."

Till a few years before the Revolution the business of shipbuilding
was carried on here to a great extent. Vessels were sometimes built
on commission, but more commonly constructed by the merchants of
the town on their own account, these loading them with the produce
of the country, naval stores, fish, fish oil, lumber, etc., and sending
them on trading voyages to Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean,
where, having disposed of their cargoes, they made what they could
by freight imtil they could sell the vessels to advantage. The proceeds
they generall}- received in c(jmmercial bills on London.

Mr. Shaw gives the following table showing the state of Boston com-
merce at different periods:

Entries.
1749.

From West Indies 60

Great Britain 7

Other Ports 382

1773.

From West Indies 192

Great Britain 71

Other Ports 324

1784. For six months.

From West Indies 90

England and Scotland 21

Other Ports 261

1793. Twelve months.

From West Indies 167

Great Britain 28

Other Ports 161

549

Clearances.
1749.

For West Indies 115

Great Britain 18

Other Ports 371

1773.

For West Indies .134

Great Britain 2^

Other Ports 251

1784. For six months.

For West Indies 111

England and Scotland 13

( )ther Ports 326

1793. Twelve months.

For West Indies 119

Great Britain ' 11

Other Ports 162

356

504

411

450

392

Amount of exports in certain years :

1809. FJomestic products $4,009,031. 11

Foreign " 3,979,854.04

87,988,885.15

^12 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

1510. Domestic products $3,589,680.86

Foreign " 4,525,420.73

1511. Domestic products $3,047,641.77

Foreign " 2,804,379.17

1812. Domestic productions $1,765,745,91

Foreign " 1,218,782.32

1813. Domestic productions $1,458,374.02

Foreign " 201,902.66

1814. Domestic productions $ 106,976.27

Foreign " _. 11,308.62

1815. Domestic productions.. $3,276,466.52

Foreign " 1,967,931.15

1816. Domestic productions $3,186,830.99

Foreign " 4,857,146.15

$8,115,101.09
$5,852,020.94
$2,984,528.23
$1,660,276.68
$ 118,284.89
$5,244,397.67
$8,043,977.14

These statistics are interesting as showing the considerable com-
merce of the town just before the war of 1812, its prostration during the
war. and its rapid recovery after the close of the war. They also illus-
trate the truth that trade flows in channels like a river, which may be
diverted or diminished by artificial obstacles of miwise legislation or
war, but promptly seeks its wonted course as soon as the obstacles are
removed.

If fostering legislation should in 1S1)3 nurture again the shipping
interests of the United States, so that our immense commerce might be
conducted, in part at least, under otir own flag, is it not certain that
these interests would again spring into vigorous life as did our com-
merce of 181G? And how can any Ainerican read of the enterprise of
the early merchants of Boston without indignation at the narrow-
minded policy which has driven our flag from the seas?

The work of Mr. Shaw also shows that the early prosperity of Bos-
ton sprung from its commerce and the trading instincts of its people,
and that this writer of ISIG was fully in accord with the tariff views of
1H92 as affecting commerce.

It is not proposed to dwell at length in this article upon the com-
merce of Boston, because the article of Mr. Hamilton A. Hill in this
history deals exhaustively with that subject ; but the writers wish to
quote from the report of the Massachusetts Harbor and Land Commis-

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 213

sions for the year 1801, to show in a concise way the present amount
of Boston commerce as compared with that of 18 IG. The Board was
directed by the Legislature to report upon the feasibility of a bridge to
East Boston over the upper part of Boston harbor, and whether such a
structure could be tolerated with due regard to the commerce of the
port. It was claimed by the advocates of. the bridge that the growth
of the population of East Boston since 1868, when a similar project had
been defeated, was such as to warrant a reversal of the decision and the
building of the bridge. The commissioners answered this claim on
page 32 ct scq. of their report, as follows:

This argtiment has no force unless it is further shown that population has grown
faster than commerce. FaciHties for suburban travel are not, to say the least, a
greater public necessity' than facilities for commerce. The fact that Boston is the
business and commercial center, is what makes suburban travel.

We propose to show, on the other hand, that commerce has grown faster than
population, and that the demands of suburban travel, instead of being greater, are
relatively less than they were in 1868.

We shall also prove that the commerce of Boston has grown faster than its valu-
ation, and is therefore a more important factor relatively to capital and wealth than
it was in 1868.

The growth in population and valuation as a whole, and of the district of East
Boston, from 1870 to 1890— the census years nearest the beginning and end of the
period under comparison — is shown in the following table:

Increase in Population and Valuation of Boston and East Boston
FROM 1870 to 1890.

1870. i8go. Percentag-e of Increase.

Population of Boston 250,526 448,477 79.0

Population of East Boston 23,816 36,930 55.1

^Valuation of Boston $630, 355, 762 $822, 041 , 800 30. 4

Valuation of East Boston 13,296,900 20,458,675 53.9

The largest percentage of increase shown in the table is 79 per cent., and the
smallest 30.4 per cent. ; and the average increase of population and valuation, for
both Boston and East Boston, is about 55 per cent.

We are indebted to the courtesy of the present collector of the port of Boston for
the following statistics of the foreign commerce of the port for two periods of five
years each, ending respectively with the j-ears 1868 and 1891, the years in which the
former and the present bridge projects have been under discussion.

The number and tonnage of vessels entered and cleared during each of these
periods are shown for convenience in this table.

' Including annexations.

214 <>IJFF0LK COUNTY. ■

FORF.ICN COMMKKCE OF rilF. PoRT OF BoSTON — COMPARISON OF TWO PERIODS
OF FIVE YEARS EACH, ENDING 1868 AND 1891.

Fiscal Years. Percentage

1864-1868. 1887-1891. of Increase.

Value of imports $17!), 783, 754 $325,742,962 81.2

Value of exports . . . . 88, 066, 062 330, 559, 61 3 275. 4

Total $267,849,816 $656,302,575 145.0

Number of vessels entered 14,S82 11,996 *19.4

Number of vessels cleared 15,000 11,914 *20.6

Total --- 29,882 23,910 20.0

Total tonnage of vessels entered. ._ 3,398,979 6,894,260 102.8

Total tonnage of vessels cleared. _. 3,251,175 5,839,878 79.6

Total 6,650,154 12,734,138 91.5

Average tonnage of vessels entered 22S tons 575 tons 151.6

Average tonnage of vessels cleared. 217 " 490 " 126.2

Total 445 tons 1,065 tons 139.2

The import trade of Boston, then, has increased 81 per cent, in the last twenty-
three years, and the export trade (a mf)st gratifying exhibit) 275 per cent., and both
together 145 per cent. Population and valuation have grown meantime, as before
shown, about 55 ])er cent. In other words, the ff)reign commerce has grown nearly
three tmies as fast as its population and valuation.

The domestic trade and navigation of the port of Boston have increased in a still
larger ratio. There is no corresponding official record to show this, but it is proved
by established or admitted facts.

While the tonnage of both foreign and domestic vessels is from two to threefold
greater than twenty-three years ago, the number of vessels engaged in both kinds of
commerce has largely increased. This must be due to the greater expansion of
domestic trade and shipping.

It will be seen that our bankin«- system represents the growth of one
hundred and eig-ht years, or a period equal to two consecutive lives of
fifty-four years each, and that a man now living- at ninety years of age
has witnessed most of its expansion. The capital of the Massachusetts
Bank when it was issued in 1?S4 was $'253,500, and represented the
entire banking capital of the town. To-day there are in the Boston
Clearing House Association, fifty-two national banks, with an aggregate
capital of $5:2, 700, 000, with a surplus of $14,04!),f;oo, with loans of
$100,000,000. In addition there are national banks, not members of

" Decrease.

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 215

the Clearing House Association, with an aggregate capital and surplus
of $2, 897, 500, and ten trust companies or State banks with an ag-
gregate capital and surplus of $10,126,005.71. The total capital in-
vested in the banking business of Boston is therefore about $87,000,000.
Moreover these figures do not in any sense show the magnitude of the
business done daily by the banks of Boston. The aggregate amount
of the transactions of the clearing house daily represent the sum of
$1(;,000,000, and if we add to this sum the daily business of these asso-
ciated banks which does not pass through the clearing house, and which
is at least $0,300,000, we shall see that the aggregate yearly transac-
tions of the clearing house banks are not less than $4,000,000,000.
In addition to this are the daily transactions of the trust companies
and banks and members of the clearing house, $(),000,000,000. Several
of the large banks carry on a business which represents daily transac-
tions of more than a million and a half of dollars. The following table
exhibits the increase in business in the Boston Clearing House Associ-
ation :

Exchanges. Balances.

1856 $1,051,678,544 $ 77,990,324

1866 2,262,939,930 262,159,773

1876 2,283,729,198 319,629,049

1886 4,095,215,231 496,051,964

1892 5,005,389, 685 566, 147,604

Smallest exchanges. May 27, 1862 $ 1,377,917.00

Largest " July 2, 1889 31,321,877.00

Smallest amount paid by any one bank in one day's settlement 1.45

Largest amount paid by any one bank in one day's settlement 2,200,122.20

.Smallest gain by any one bank in one day's settlement 28

Largest gain by any one bank in one day's settlement 1,871,855.87

The financial growth of Boston, which is found in railroads, has a
twofold aspect. First, its relation to railroads having their termin-
als in Boston, and as such a part of itself; second, its relation to rail-
road enterprises in other communities which simply represent invest-
ments of Boston capital. The inarvelous growth of all of these enter-
prises has taken place wnthin the period of sixty years, so that many men
who are still in active life have seen the entire development of the rail-
road systems of this coimtry. Whether any of the gloomy prophets of
1833 wdio then seriously opposed railroads, for the reason that they did
not believe they would succeed, or if they did, that horses w^ould cease
to have any value after railroads should be built, still exist, it is impos-

21G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

sible to say; but if they are living they must recall their prophecies with
satisfaction when they view the elevated railroad built through the air
over the streets of New York, or read of the sale of a single stallion for
more than $100,000.

The most instructive fact for our guidance in considering the effect
of railroads is, that nobody who projected these enterprises could
realize in the faintest degree their importance for the future of Bos-
ton. We, however, who look back to this beginning after only six
decades have passed, can see that the financial history of Boston since
1834 is largely the history of its railroad system. To the projectors in
1834 of the Boston system of railroads, the ends had in view were to
extend their lines to Lowell, Worcester, Providence, and possibly to
Albany. Extensions much beyond these points hardly seemed possi-
ble. To us the present railroad systems, which have their terminals
here, appears as part of 170,000 miles of railroad running over every
part of the United States and connecting us with Canada, Mexico, and
the Pacific Ocean.

HISTORY OF BANKING INSTITUTIONS.

As early as 168(5 a bank was established in Boston. No account of
its operations, however, has survived. It had an ephemeral existence,
not probably extending- beyond 1689. In 1714 a project for the estab-
lishment of a bank was presented to the Legislature, but a charter was
refused. Notwithstanding this official negative, a meeting was held
and notice was given that ' ' there will be attendance at the Sun Tavern
of Boston weekly to complete the subscriptions for entering into part-
nership. " Within two months from the publication of this notice,
directors of the bank were chosen and circulating bills issued to the
amount of ^100,000. Almost as little is known of this bank as of its
predecessor, but during its brief existence it was the source of consider-
able embarrassment and trouble to the colony. ^

In 1733 sundry merchants and others of Boston, in order to supply
the deficiency of a circulating medium, and to counteract the circulation
of a large issue of Rhode Island colonial bills in Boston, formed a pri-

' In the library of the Essex Institute is a pamphlet with the title :

" A Vindication of the Bank of Credit Projected in Boston from the Aspersions of Paul Dudley,
Esqr. In a letter directed to John Burril, Esqr., Late Speaker of the House of Representatives
for the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England. Printed in the year 1714."

" Sir," the letter begins, " Mr. Attorney General, by his letter of the Twenty Second of October
last past to your Self as Speaker of the House of Representatives for this Province, having most
unaccountably, with an uncommon Freedom, taken upon him to Insult and Arraign a Consider-
able Company of Gentlemen Merchants &c. (as he is pleased to entitle them) Projectors of the
Bank of Credit and call them to the Bar of that Honorable House, charging them with the many
High. C'tnies and Misdemeanors following : " One was that the project would " invalidate and break
in upon the Prerogative of the Crown ; " another that it would " be in effect the setting up of an
Absolute Independent Government." It seems "that two or three Gentlemen in the Town of
Boston discoursing of the Difficulties that Trade labored under for want of a Medium of Exchange,
the Silver being sent home for England, and the Bills of Credits on the several Provinces daily
called in by the Funds on which they are emitted, thought it proper to consult some other Friends
and to meet together and consider of a Suitable Remedy for the Present and growing Inconven-
iences and Difficulties."

The letter is dated at Boston and signed on behalf of the partnership by Samuel Lynde, E. Lynde,
John Colraan. Elisha Cooke, jr., J. Oulton, Timothy Thornton, Oliver Noyes, William Pain and
Nath. Oliver.

The Boston merchants of 1714 were not behind those of the present in generous plans for the
public welfare. The projectors of the Bank of Credit proposed to give out of the " neet profits " of

218 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

vate bank and issued pa])ei- to the nominal value of ^110, GOO, redeem-
able in ten years with silver at nineteen shillings an ounce. A com-
mittee of the Legislature reported that " the merchants' notes emitted
by Boston gentlemen should be backed with greater security." The
notes, however, continued to circulate, and were rated at thirty-three
and one-third per cent, higher than the currency issued by the Province.
Still another attempt at banking was made in 1730-40. There were then
outstanding bills of credit to the amount of over ^200,000, which were
imder royal instructions to be redeemed during the year 1741. The
treasury being empty, there was no way of effecting the redemption of
the notes except by a direct tax, which was not expected to yield more
than ;^40,000 annually at the utmost. Specie was extremely scarce,
and as a ineasure of relief it was proposed to establish ' ' The Land
Bank." This was carried into effect in 1740 by the association of be-
tween four hundred and eight hundred persons. The stock was paid
by mortgages of real estate at three per cent, per annum, or, in case of
a mechanic, in notes for not over ^100 with two sureties. The bank
was to issue ^150,000 in bills to be circulated as lawful money, and
every note of ^1 was to be equal to three ounces of silver. Loans were
to be seciired by mortgages of real estate and to be payable in provin-
cial produce or manufactures at such prices as the directors might from
time to time determine. The scheme was violently opposed by Gov-
ernor Belcher, and the Land Bank was soon compelled by an act of
Parliament to wind up its affairs, and a right of action was given to
each holder of its bills against any individual partner for the amount of
the bills held and interest. Many years elapsed before the affairs of
the Land Bank were finally wound up, and its stockholders suffered
severely in their estates on account of their liability. Another bank,
called the Specie Bank, which went into operation about the same time,
shared the same fate. It was to issue ^120,000 of notes redeemable in
fifteen years in silver at twenty shillings per ounce.

The first regularly established bank in Boston, however, was a branch
of the Bank of North America, which was incorporated by the Legis-

the bank " Four Hundred Pounds per Annum to the Use of an Hospital or Charity School for the
Support and Education of the Poor Children in the Town of Boston."

" Two Hundred Pounds per Annum for a Mathematical Professor at Harvard College."

" Forty Pounds per Annum " for three scholarships at Harvard College.

" One Hundred Pounds per Annum " for the support of six ministers' sons at the college.

" Forty Pounds per Annum " to a " Professor of Physick and Anatomy " at the college.

" Twenty Pounds per Annum toward the further support of a Publick Grammar School in each
county now in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."

BANKIXG IXSriTrriONS. 210

latiire of Massachusetts in compliance with an act of the general gov-
ernment, March 8, 1?82, or only about two weeks after the parent in-
stitution was projected and founded in Philadelphia by Robert Morris,
at that time superintendent of finance, an office corresponding to that of
secretary of the treasury. By its charter no other bank was to be in-
corporated during the war with Great Britain, and its notes were to be
received for taxes or dues for or on account of the United States. For-
gery, counterfeiting and embezzlement committed against this bank
were made punishable by death without benefit of clergy, but this pen-
alty was subsequently modified. Unfortunately little record remains
of the operations of the Bank of North America at Boston. But it
proved so beneficial that two years later, in 1784, the Massachusetts
Bank was founded, being the first purely local bank established in the
vState and the second in the United States. " It was the first institu-
tion of its kind," says Felt in his History of Massachusetts Currency,
"promoted solely by the inhabitants of our commonwealth, since
that of the silver scheme and still more unfortunate Land Bank.
While these were pressed into operation under the burden of legislative
displeasure and were doomed to resistance in almost every direction,
this was received with public and private favor and extensively encour-
aged as the instrument of promoting the interests of trade and com-
merce. "

MASSACHUSETTS NATIONAL BANK.

The project of the establishment of a bank of deposit and issiie had
Ijeen much discussed by leading merchants of Boston during the winter
of 1783-81. On December 18, 1783, the following advertisement ap-
peared in the Lidcpendent Chronicle: "The utility of a bank, estab-
lished on right principles, being generally known and acknowledged, a
plan has been projected and is now ready for the patronage of those
gentlemen who wish to derive the many public and private advantages
which have resulted from such institutions in other countries. Copies
of the plans are lodged with, and subscriptions received by William
Phillips, Isaac Smith, Jonathan Mason, Thomas Russell, John Lowell,
and Stephen Higginson, and at the offices of Edward Payne, John Hurd
and M. ]\I. Ha3-s. " Like all the banks established in the State for the
next seventy years, it was incorporated by special act of the Legisla-
ture. Its charter was granted Februar}- 7, 1781, with an authorized

no SUFFOLK COUNTY.

capital of $300, 000. A copy of the original subscription list is still pre-
served. 1

When the Massachusetts Bank was chartered in Boston, gold and sil-
ver were the only true standard of value in conformity with the usage
in all civilized countries, and this was the first effort in the United States
subsequent to the Revolution to introduce a paper currency equivalent
to specie. At that period the trade of our country was limited in its
extent. Manufactures were carried on by individul exertions only; the
markets for them were circumscribed within the narrow precincts of
this immediate neighborhood, and the products of agriculture were ex-
changed for articles of domestic use. Our commerce was then in its
infancy and was principally employed in the conveyance of our agri-
cultural products, and the proceeds of our fi.sheries, to the West Indies,
vSouth America and Europe, returning home with such productions of
those countries as were required for immediate consumption or use; and
bank facilities were hardly needed in these operations.

I The following- were the conditions subscribed to by the original stockholders of the Massachu-
setts Bank :

PROPOSALS FOR A BANK.

Taught by the Experience of many Nations that well regulated Banks are highly useful to Society,
as they promote Punctuality in the Performance of Contracts, increase the Medium of Trade,
facilitate the Payment of Taxes, prevent the Exportation of. and furnish a safe Deposit for Cash,
and in the way of Discount, renders easy and expeditious the anticipation of Funds at the
Expence only of common Interest, while by the same Means they advance the Interest of the Pro-
prietors, we the Subscribers, desirous of promoting such an Institution, do hereby engage to take
the Number of Shares set against our respective Names in a Bank to be established upon the fol-
lowing Plan, viz.

I. That a Subscription be opened for Three Hundred Thousand Dollars, in Shares of|Five Hun-
dred Dollars each, to be paid in Gold or Silver.

II. That the Subscription be paid into the Hands of William Fhiilips, Isaac Smith, and Jonathan
Mason, Esq'rs, or their Agents.

III. That every Subscriber of these Shares shall pay two-thirds Af the Sum on the first day of
February next, or within fourteen Days afterwards, and the other third in two Months from that
Day. — Every Subscriber of more than three Shares shall pay half on the first Day of February
next, or within fourteen Days afterwards, and the other half in two Months from that time, and
every Subscriber of less than three Shares shall on the first Day of February aforesaid, or within
fourteen Days afterwards, pay the Amount thereof, and any Person who shall fail of making Pay-
ment in manner aforsaid shall be intitled under his Subscription to no more Shares than he shall
have then actually paid for.

IV. That every Holder of a Share shall be intitled to vote by himself, his Agent, or Proxy prop-
erly appointed, at all Elections of Directors, and shall have as many Votes as he holds Shares, and
that every such .Stockholder may sell or transfer his Share or Shares at his pleasure, the Transfer
being made in the Bank Books, in presence and with the Approbation of the Proprietor, or his law-
ful Attorney, the Purchaser then to become intitled to the Right of voting and every Advan-
tage which the Stockholder enjoyed.

v. That there be twelve Directors chosen by a Majority of Voters, present in Person or by
Proxy, from among those who are intitled to vote, who shall after the first Choice be annually
elected, and as often as any Vacancy shall happen by Death or otherwi.se, if in the opinion of the

L> oC/$rj^^

BAXKING INSTITUTIONS. m

The charter of the Massachusetts Bank provided that the bank might
hold real estate to the amount of ;^50,000, and " monies, goods, chat-
tels and effects to the amount of five hundred pounds and no more."
Neither the bank nor any person for it, was to employ its funds in trade
or commerce, and the Legislature might employ a person to examine
its affairs. By an act passed March Ki, of the same year, heavy penal-
ties were provided for the crime of counterfeiting, embezzlement and
other frauds committed against the bank. By virtue of the authority
vested in them by the act, William Phillips, Isaac Smith, and Jonathan
Mason called a meeting for organization, to be held March 18, 1784-, at
which time the stockholders elected the following officers: James Bow-
doin, president; Samuel Breck, George Cabot, vStephen Higginson,

remaining Directors it shall be necessary to fill tip such Vacancies before the Period for a general
Election, they shall call a general Meeting of the Stockholders for that purpose. The Directors
shall at their first Meeting after every general Election choose one from among them for Presi-
dent.

VI. That there be a Meeting of the Directors quarterly, for the Purpose of regulating the Affairs
of the Bank, any five of the Directors to make a Board, and that the Board have Power to adjourn
from time to time and to meet at any other time, when they may think it necessary.

VII. That the Board of Directors determine the Manner of doing Business, and the Rules and
Forms to be pursued ; appoint and pay the various Officers, which they may find necessary, and
dispose of the Money and Credit of the Bank for the Interest and Benefit of the Proprietors ; and
make from Time to Time such Dividends out of the Profits as they may think proper, provided
they shall in no Instance do any Act contrary to the Regulations made by the Stockholders.

VIII. That the Board shall be empowered from Time to Time to open new Siibscriptions for
the purpose of encreasing the Capital of the Bank, on such Terms and Conditions as they shall
think proper.

IX. That the Board shall at every Quarterly Meeting choose three Directors to inspect the
Business of the Bank for the ensuing three Months.

X. That the Inspectors so chosen shall on the Evening of every Day, Sundays excepted, exam-
ine into the State of the Cash Account, and of the Notes issued and received, and shall see that
those Accounts are regularlj' balanced, and the Balances transferred.

XI. That any Person especially appointed by the Legislature of this State for that Purpose,
shall have a right to examine into the Affairs of the Bank, and shall at all times have access to
the Bank Books.

XII. That Application be made to the Legislature to incorporate the Subscribers under the
Name of the President. Directors and Company of the Bank of and to pass Laws to se-
cure the Bank Notes from being counterfeited, and also to prevent any President, Director, In-
spector, Officer or Servant of the Bank from converting any Property, Money or Credit of said
Bank to his own use.

XIII. That any Director or Officer of the Bank who shall commit any Fraud or Embezzlement,
touching the Money or Property of the Bank, shall forfeit all his Share or Stock to the Company.

XIV. That none of the Directors shall be intitled to any pecuniary Advantage for his Attend-
ance on the Duties of his Office as Director, or as President or Inspector, unless the Profits arising
from the Bank Stock shall exceed 6 per Cent, per Annum, and an Alteration in this respect shall
hereafter be made by the Consent of a Majority of Stockholders.

XV. That as soon as Two Hundred Shares shall be subscribed, and the Subscriptions /a?V/, the
said U'illiajn Phillips, Isaac Stinth and Jonaihan Mason. Esq'rs, shall appoint a Daj' for the Choice of
Directors, and notify the Stockholders in two of the Boston, a.n^ such other Papers as they may
think necessarj', to meet for the Purpose, to whom, when chosen, they shall deliver over the
Monej- b}- them received.

222 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

John Lowell, Jonathan Mason, vSamuel A. Otis, Edward Payne, Will-
iam Phillips, Thomas Russell, Isaae Smith, and Oliver Wendell, di-
rectors. Subsequently the directors elected Edward Payne cashier.
The bank commenced business with a paid in capital of $253,500, on
July 5, 1784, and on that day its discounts amounted to $10,045.

The bank first occupied the building known in colonial days as the
Manufactory House, with 125 feet of land fronting on Common (now
Tremont) street, and 225 feet on the east side of what is now Hamilton
Place. On a map of Tremont street published about that time is a
picture of the building, which somewhat resembled the "Old Feather
Store," once at the junction of Ann and Union s-treets, with its quaint
roof with gable or triangular ends. This property, to-day valued at up-
wards of $5,000,000, the bank purchased for $4,000.

The rules adopted for the management of the bank were of the most
stringent character, and were " not to be deviated from in the smallest
instance, nor on any pretense whatever." Offerings for discount were
required to be sealed up and left at the bank, directed to the cashier, be-
tween the hours of ten and one o'clock on Mondays. The rate of dis-
count was one-half of one per cent, per month, and no discounts were to
be made for a longer period than sixty days upon merchandise, bullion or
other securities as collateral, nor for more than thirty days on personal
obligations with two sureties. No loan was to be made for a smaller
sum than $100, nor for a larger sum than $3,000 to any person at the
same time, nor beyond $5,000 to any one borrower in the aggregate,
nor beyond $7,500 to any one person as promisor and indorser. No per-
son was allowed to renew his note on any terms, and in case of non-
payment the security was to be sold, and the borrower was not to be
allowed any discount for eight months thereafter, unless restored to
credit by a unanimous vote of the directors, and the names of delin-
quents were to be posted in a conspicuous place in the bank. This
would be called hard treatment in these days and otlier of the condi-
tions named would be found impracticable, but under these stringent,
prudential regulations the bank became very successful, its dividends
increasing from nine per cent, in 17S5, two ])er cent, in 17S<i, and six
and one-half per cent, in 1787, to fifteen and one-half per cent, in 1791,
and sixteen and one-half per cent, in 1792. Subsequent dividends were,
however, reduced, owing to competition of other banks.

During the earlier years of its existence, before the United States be-
gan its coinage, fractional silver of any kind was very scarce and the

BA NKING IXS TIT I 'TIOXS. 223

Massachusetts Bank issued notes of the denomination of $1.50, $2.50,
$3.50, $4.50, and also of $0, $7, $8, $9, $15, $25, $:30, $35, and $40
each, specimens of which are still preserved. In 1792, to check the is-
sue of small bills, which threatened to drive specie out of circulaticjn, the
Legislature passed an act prohibiting- the Massachusetts Bank from
issuing any notes of a less denomination than $5, and the total amount
of all its promissory notes, together with the money loaned by it, by a
credit on its books, or otherwise, was limited to twice the amotint of its
paid up capital, and in case of any excess, the directors, imder whose
administration it occurred, were made personally liable for any demand
against the bank, unless, in case of their absence or dissent from the
act creating such excess, they forthwith gave notice of the fact to the
supreme executive of the Ccnrimonwealth. This was the commence-
ment of that war upon small bills which was kept up by the vState gov-
ernment of Massachusetts until 1805.

It is generally believed that the fibre paper used by the government
for its notes and bills, to prevent cotmterf citing, is patented. This,
however, is erroneous. The principle has long been in use. The Mas-
sachusetts Bank more than fifty years ago printed its notes on paper
through which fibres of silk were liberally distributed, paper similar
to that now used by the printers of the United States currency at
Washington.

The Massachusetts Bank being for some years the only institution of
its kind in New England, its president was naturally a personage of
considerable importance in such a place as Boston. At the reception
given to Lafayette in 1784, among the list of dignitaries who dined with
him were the governor, lieutenant-governor and Council, the president
of the Senate, the speaker of the House, and the president of the bank.
On all public occasions he was one of the central figures.

It was formerly the custom of the Boston banks to celebrate com-
mencement Day at Harvard College. The custom came about in this
way. When William Phillips was president of the Massachusetts Bank,
the meetings of the faculty were held in a hall of the bank building,
Mr. Phillips being a member of that body. It was the only bank in
Boston, and being thus doubl}' connected, Mr. Phillips observed the day,
which was likewise honored by the other attaches of the bank. Subse-
quent banks emulated the example of their venerated predecessor, and
the custom was continued until 18(;5. In that year Decoration Day be-
came a legal holiday, and as the annual day of c<^mmencement was

224 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

chang-cd from September to July, the two holidays so elose were con-
sidered more than the banks could afford. So they relinquished the
observance of Commencement Day, and have substituted that of Deco-
ration Day.

The original building in which the Massachusetts Bank began busi-
ness was sold in 180(), when the bank, having purchased the old Ameri-
can Coffee House on State street, erected on its site a building for its
use, where it remained for more than sixty years. After the great fire
of 1872 the bank removed to Post-Office Square, where it continued un-
til 1S!I2, when it removed to the more spacious quarters now occupied
in the Exchange Building. The original capital of the bank was re-
duced in 178G to $100,000; increased to $200,000 in June, 1792; to $400,-
000 in July, 1792; to $800,000 in June, 1807, and to $1,600,000 in June,
1810. In April, 1821, its capital was reduced to $800,000, at which
figure it still remains.

The stable character of the Massachusetts Bank was exemplified by
the amounts of specie in its vaults in the six years from 1809 to 1814
inclusive. These amounts were marvelously large for those days, and
no other bank in this country before or since had held so large a pro-
portion of the specie of its people. The sums are as follows: 1809,
January 1, $124,700; July 1, $184,000; 1810, January 1, $230,500; July
1, $217,800; 1811, January 1, $109,800; July 1, $397,800; 1812, Janu-
ary 1, $904,900; July 1, $379,350; 1813, January 1, $1,852,744; July 1,
$1,900,300; 1814, January 1, $2,114,104; July 1, $1,890,700.

For the first fifty years of its existence this bank never suspended its
specie payments. During the one hundred and eight years which have
elapsed since its establishment, it has omitted to pay dividends biit
twice, first at the close of the War of 1812, and second during the
financial crisis of 1830. But after it was converted into a national
association it compensated for these omissions by declaring an extra
dividend of ten per cent. In the eighty-one years of its existence as a
State bank, from 1784 to 1805, the whole amount of circulating notes
issued by it was $4,074,177, of which the amount lost or not presented
for redemption was $22,111, or not quite one-half of one per cent.

Following is a list of the presidents of this bank from 1784 to the
present time in order of service: James Bowdoin, William Phillips,
Jonathan Mason, Samuel Eliot, William Phillips, jr., William Parsons,
Jonathan Phillips, J. L. Gardner, J. J. Dixwell, H. A. Rice, A. O.
Bigelow and William A. P'rench. The present board of directors,

BAXKIXG IXSTITUTIONS. 225

elected in January, 1892, is composed of William A. French, Edward
Whitney, Arthur T. Lyman, Nathaniel G. Chapin, Alexander H. Rice,
Edward T. Russell, George Munroe Endicott, Robert D. Evans, Charles
A. wSinclair and James T. Furber.

James Bowdoin, the first president of the bank, a descendant of
Pierre Bowdoin, who came to New England in 1G87, was born in Bos-
ton, August 7, 1T20, and in 17-40 graduated from Harvard College.
He entered into political life in 1753 as one of the four representatives
of Boston in the Provincial Legislature of Massachusetts, and remained
a member of the House for three years. In 1757 he was elected a
member of the Council, to which he was annually elected to the year
1774. During this long period of service he was among the foremost
spirits on the part of the colonies in the memorable fights between the
legislative and the executive authorities, which grew in their intensity
until the last British governor was driven from our shores. He strongly
urged retaliation for the arbitrary taxes imposed by Great Britain, and
was styled by the English in authority at the time as the "principal
supporter of the opposition to the government." In 1775 he was
elected a member of the Provincial Congress to organize the first regu-
lar government, and was made president of the Council. He was re-
elected to the Council in 177<i and 1777, and continued to serve as its
presiding officer whenever his health permitted until the summer of
1777, when he resigned. In 177G, on the receipt of the news of the
Declaration of Independence, he was made chairman of the committee
to direct and personally superintend its proclamation from the balcony
of the Old State House in Boston. In 1779 he was elected a delegate
from Boston to the convention which framed the Constitution of Massa-
chusetts, of which convention he was the" president. In 1785, there
being no choice by the people, the Legislature elected Bowdoin gov-
ernor, and he was re-elected by a large majority of the popular vote
in 1787. He was long connected with the government of Harvard
College, and always manifested deep interest in educational projects.
The "Bowdoin Prizes" were established by his will. He was one of
the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was
its president from its first organization to his death, which occurred
November (i, 1790. His eulogist. Judge Lowell, has said of him: "It
may be said that our country has produced many men of as much
genius; many men of as much learning and knowledge; many (jf as
much zeal for the liberties of their country; and many of as great piety

226 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

and virtue ; but it is rare indeed to find those in whom they are all
combined, and been adorned with his other accomplishments."

Some of the officers of the Massachusetts Bank have served for very
long periods. Mr. James Dodd served the longest, having been ac-
countant and cashier for fifty-four years. J. J. Dixwell was a director
for thirty-six years, during twenty-seven of which he was president.
Henry K. Frothingham was also connected with the bank in an official
capacity for many 3'ears. The Phillips family has been long and ably
represented in the bank. William Phillips, one of the faculty of Har-
vard College, was president from 178G to 1797. His son, William
Phillips, jr., was president from 1S04 to 1829. His grandson, Jonathan
Phillips, was president from 1830 to 18-40.

The record of the Massachusetts Bank is remarkable in many re-
'spects. Co-extensive with the administraticni of Washington, it has
oiitlived all that followed to the present day. It has withstood the
shocks of wars and financial fevers for more than one hundred years.
It has marked the rise, decline and fall of hundreds of similar institu-
tions in our vStates and the widespread distress which their mismanage-
ment or misfortune occasioned among all classes. Shaken but not
shattered, it has breasted the waves of each recurring national or
financial calamity, and has been among New England banks like the
Constitution among our navy, the oldest and most glorious survivor on
the list. The hopes it raised were never disappointed. No crimes or
blunders sully its long record. Those eminent men who in turn
presided over its destinies, while the}^ conferred distinction on its name,
received by the association more honor than they conferred. It has been
a boon to the public and a model for the brotherhood of banks. By its
steady adherence to a plan founded in prudence and pursued with skill,
it has proved alike an example and defence of the banking system, a
standard and confidence at home, and an assurance of American honor
abroad.

The condition of the Massachusetts National Bank as reported to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business March (J, 189o, was
as follows:

KKSUUKCES.

Loans and discounts $2,064,521.75

Overdrafts, unsecured 15. 61

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation 50, ()()(). 00

Stocks, securities, etc 0,300.00

Due from approved reserve agents _ 108,231.07

Due from other National Banks _ _ 222,867.49

BAXKIXG IXSTITi'T/ONS. 227

Due from State Banks and bankers 8,938.65

Banking-house furniture and fixtures 4,517.55

Other real estate and mortgages owned 20,244. 30

Current expenses and taxes paid 17,138.86

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 6,000.00

Checks and other cash items 6,097.22

Exchanges for clearing-house 150,803.24

Bills of other banks 11,716.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 400.000

Specie 126,078.50

Legal tender notes 64,555.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Due from U. S. Treasurer other than 5 percent, redemption fund 2,000.00

Total S2, 965, 665. 24

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 800,000.00

Surplus fund 100,000.00

Undivided profits 44,981.55

State Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 191.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,235,143.07

Demand certificates of deposit 13,840.62

Certified checks 88,453.60

Cashier's checks outstanding 117,300.00

Due to other National Banks 113,825.81

Due to State Banks and bankers 216,928.50

Bills payable 190,000.00

Total S2, 965, 665. 24

UNITED STATES BANK.

The idea of a United States Bank, which should be somewhat simi-
kir in character to the Bank of England, originated with Alexander
Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury. It was established in
Philadelphia in 1791, and its charter expired in 1<S12, but was revived
in 1810 and finally dissolved in 1830. In 1792 a branch of the United
vStates Bank was established in Boston. William Gray was the first
president, and Peter Roe Dalton the first cashier. The directors, who
were appointed by the parent bank at Philadelphia, were Joseph Bar-
rett, John Codman, Caleb Davis, Christopher Gore, John Coffin Jones,
John Lowell, Theodore Lyman, Jonathan Mason, jr., Joseph Russell,
jr., David Sears, Israel Thorndike and William Wetmore. Business
was commenced in an old two-sttuy wooden house which stood upon

i^28 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

the site of Brazer's Iniildino-. In IT'.IS a bank buildino- was erected on
the site of the present Exchang-c Buildin-^-, which bore on its front an
American eagle with its wings outstretched, as if in the act of swoop-
ing down npon the bulls and bears of the street. The next location of
the bank was in Congress street, on the west side, and not far from
vState street. Here the bank erected a building, the corner stone of
which was laid July 4, 1824, the parent bank appropriating- one hun-
dred thousand dollars for the building.'' At this time the capital of
the Boston branch was $1,500,000, and the officers of the bank were :
Gardiner Greene, president; vSamuel Frothingham, cashier; Gardiner
Greene, Thomas H. Perkins, John Welles, Jf^hn Parker, Daniel Pinck-
ney Parker, Nathaniel Silsbee, David Sears, Daniel Webster, George
Blake, Resin Davis Shepard, Harry Gardner Rice and Horace Gray,
directors. In IS 10 George Cabot was serving as president of this
bank. He was a prominent leader of the Massachusetts Federal-
ists. He was a very successful merchant, and had a great reputation
as a financier. While in the United States vSenate in 1701-90, Hamil-
ton, the founder of our financial system, often conferred with him.
He incurred great odium by his connection with the Hartford Conven-
tion in 1S14, of which body he was president. Aaron Burr once said
of him, that "he never spoke but light followed him."

The attempt to permanently establish a bank under government con-
trol, like the Bank of England, proved a failure, as is well known. The
removal of the deposits by General Jackson affected the Boston branch
but little. In 1830 Congress revived the charter, but Jackson vetoed it.

NATIONAL UNION BANK.

From 1784 to 1702 the Massachusetts Bank continued the only insti-
tution of its kind in the State, with the exception of the brief period

I The building committee, " for the information of futurity," gave the following facts in relation
to the erection of this edifice : " The appropriation for the building of this bank by the parent in-
stitution was one hundred thousand dollars, of which sum fifty-four thousand, eight hundred and
fifty dollars was paid for the land, and it is the hope of the building committee that the whole sum
disbursed w^ill not exceed the appropriation. The pillars, under one of which this document is
placed, were quarried in Chelmsford in this State, being the fiirst granite shafts of these dimensions
ever erected in this country. Their dimensions are twenty-four feet in length, four feet in diame-
ter at the base, and three feet at the head. The cost of them, delivered at the spot where they
were quarried, was nine hundred dollars each, and the expense of bringing them here about five
hundred dollars each. They were brought separately, by land, and drawn by thirty-four yoke of
oxen. The stone of the walls ot the bank was worked principally at the State Prisons at Charles-
town, Massachusetts and Concord, New Hampshire." This document was signed by Solomon
Williard, architect; Gridley Bryant, master workman ; James McAllaster, master carpenter ; Gar-
diner (ireene, John Welles. Thomas H. Perkins, Daniel P. Parker and J Parker, building commit-
tee, and attested November 30, 1824, by Samuel Frothingham, cashier.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. ooo

when the Branch Bank of North America was in operation. The
success of the Massachusetts Bank led in the latter year to the
establishment of a rival, the Union Bank. The act incorporating- this
institution was passed by the Legislature June 22, 1T02, and was to con-
tinue to 1802. David Cobb was the speaker of the House, and Sainuel
Phillips, president of the vSenate. The act was approved and signed by
Governor John Hancock on June 25, 1702. The incorporators named
in the act were Stephen Higginson, Caleb Davis, William Tudor, Oli-
ver Wendell, Nathaniel Fellows, Joseph Coolidge, Williain Smith,
Joseph Blake, Frederick William Geyer, Daniel Hubbard and David
Green. The capital stock of the corporation was to consist of not less
than $400,000, nor more than $800,000 in specie, and should be divided
into 100,000 shares. The vState was to have the right to be interested
in the bank to the amount of one-third of its whole capital.

The Union Bank was the first of a series of banks organized under
peculiar charter provisions. It was not to issue bills of less denomina-
tion than $5.00, nor to owe more than twice its capital in addition to
its deposits; the directors to be personally liable in case of any excess.
One-fifth of its funds was to be always appropriated to loans out of
Boston, made exclusively for the benefit of the agricultural interest, in
sums of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, secured by mortgage
of real estate, and to run for a term of not less than one year. This
questionable provision does not appear in any other bank charter
granted previous to 1802. But from that time to 181G nearly every
bank charter contained a requirement to appropriate a certain propor-
tion of the bank's funds to such loans. In common with the Massachu-
setts, the Union Bank was not to vest, use or improve its funds in
trade or commerce. No one but a citizen of Massachusetts, and no
director of any other bank could be a director, and any director accept-
ing an office in any other bank, thereby vacated his office of director in
the Union Bank. No stockholder was allowed to have more than ten
votes, those owning over $100 of stock having only one vote for each
additional $200. The directors were to make half yearly dividends of
all the profits of the bank, while a loan not exceeding $100,000 w^as to
be inade to the State at five per cent, interest. Provision was made
for attaching the shares of its stockholders, and for the examination by
a legislative committee, and, if on the report of such committee and a
hearing theron, it should appear that the corporation had exceeded the
powers granted in the charter, or failed to comply with its provisions,

230 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

its corporation was thereupon to be declared forfeited and void The
bank was also made the depository of the Commonwealth.

Annexed are given the names of some of the original stockholders of
the Union Bank, and the number of shares held by each:

OliverWendell 30 Benjamin Bussey 27

Timothy Bigelow 1 JosiahQuincy 26

vStephen Codman 8 William Phillips 20

Henderson biehes 1 Samuel Eliot 277

Benjamin Joy 5 George Cabot 200

Samuel Cobb 1 Samuel Parkman 320

John Davis 10 Stephen Salisbury 109

Samuel Brown 12 Andrew Brimmer 128

Thomas L. Winthrop 45 Jonathan Amory, jr. , 117

John Welles 10 (xardiner Greene 240

The few names above given are selected at random from a host of
suggestive names, some of which have been familiar in Boston's history
for more than a century, and many of which arc prominent in the rec-
ords of other public institutions, from that day to this, and in the no-
menclature of our streets, wharves, shipping, etc. ; as for instance Moses
Gill, the first president of the bank, and afterwards governor of the
vState; Benjamin Bussey, the munificent donor of the Bussey Farm;
Josiah Ouincy, a director in 1800, president of Harvard College, and
grandfather of the present Josiah Ouincy; John Welles, a director in
1803, resident in vSummer street, and one of the wealthiest citizens of
Boston at that day ; Peter C. Brooks, at whose residence, corner of
High and Summer streets, Daniel Webster dwelt for years ; and Gardi-
ner Greene, whose grand estate on Pemberton Hill covered more than
the scjuare now occupied by Pemberton vSquare, and was the largest and
most beautiful private domain in the city, as he was its most opulent
citizen; while the names of Wendell, Winthrop, Bigelow, Codman, Joy,
Davis, Parkman, Eliot, Brimmer, Amory, Peter O. Thacher, Thomas H.
Perkins, Lynde, Walter, AVainwright, Coolidge, and numerous others,
who were at various early periods directors or stockholders in the bank,
are identified with the political, financial and commercial history of the
city and vState, and as Webster said of Lafayette, " Have come down to
us from a former generation," illustrious for public spirit and noble ac-
tions which created and founded for all time the aims and character of
Massachusetts.

The preliminary meetings of the original stockholders of the Union
Bank were held in Concert Hall, corner of Court and Hanover streets,

BAXK/XG /xswrrr/oxs.

i:n

then and for many years afterward the leading- fashionable resort for
festive and other assemblages. The original officers and directors
chosen in lTi)2 were as follows: President, Moses Gill; cashier, Alex-
ander Hodgden ; directors, Benjamin Greene, Moses Gill, vSamiiel Brown,
Nathaniel Fellows, WilHam wSmith. Joseph Blake, Samuel Blodgett, jr.,
Perez Morton, David Greene, Samuel Sewell, Samuel Phillips, and
Samuel Salisbury. The bank began operations at its rooms on State
street near its present location, 40 State street, on the first day of Oc-
tober, 1792, one hundred years ago. In ^^larch, IT'.lS, the Common-
wealth subscribed $->00,0U0 to the capital stock of the bank, and subse-
quently $-20(),000 more, making the capital $1,200,000. In 1813 the
stock owned by the vState was assigned to the bank, thus leavino- the
capital as before, $800,000. This amount was on October 1, 1850, in-
creased ;$200, 000, making the capital $1,000,000, at which amount it has
since remained.

Following is a list of those who have served as president of the Uni(jn
Bank with dates of service :

Moses Gill,
Oliver Wendell,
Samuel Brown,
Thos. L. Winthrop,
Samuel Fales,
Chester Adams,
Thaddeus Nichols,

October, 1792, to October, 1800, 8 years.
October, 1800, to October, 1812, 12
October, 1813, to October, 1810, v
October, 1819, to October, 1834, 15
October, 1834, to October, 184(1, 12
October, 1846, to May, 1855, 9

October, 1855, to October, 1803, 8
George C. Richardson, October, 1803, to Januarv, 1878, 15
Charles L. Young, January, 1878, to January, 1882, 4

George Whitney, January, 1882, to present time.

The cashiers have been as follows:

Alexander Hodgden, October, 1792, to July,

George Burroughs, July, 1795, to Dec,

Chester Adams, Dec, 1819, to October,

Lemuel Gulliver, October, 1840, to October, 1873, 27 "

Almarin Trowbridge, October, 1873, to June, 1890, 17

Charles W. Gulliver, August, 1890, to Feb., 1892, 1>{^ "

George H. Perkins, Feb., 18'.i2, to present time.

Lemuel Gulliver was connected with the bank as discount clerk and
cashier for thirty-five years, at the end of which time he resigned, when
he was succeeded by Almarin Trowbridge, whose total period of serv-

1795, 3 years.
1819, 24 "
1840,

2,7

232 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ice in the bank as assistant clerk, bookkeeper and cashier ct)vered the
long- term of fifty-four years. Charles W. Gulliver, who died February
15, 18!»2, was connected with the bank for twenty-five years, and George
H. Perkins has served as teller and cashier for the same period. There
have been only these bookkeepers in this bank during its century of
existence. Nathaniel Nevins, who is still living, served in this capacity
for fifty-six years.

The Union Bank was changed from a State bank by the adoption of
the national bank system in 1805, since which it has been known as the
National Union Bank. During the whole one hundred years of its ex-
istence, including several wars and various financial panics, its total
losses have been quite an insignificant sum, when we consider the large
amount of its transactions and the crises through which it has passed.
But few forgeries have been committed against it, and these were only
for moderate amounts. It has never suspended specie payments ex-
cept on those few occasions when all other American banks were com-
pelled temporarily to suspend The most remarkable thing, lunvever,
during its existence is the fact that it has never passed a semi-annual
dividend, having regularl}' paid two dividends each year for the whole
period, a very rare if not an unequaled record in the history of bank-
ing institutions. For the first fifty years it averaged about 5>^ per cent. ;
up to 1(S70 a fraction over G^ per cent., and since lS(i5 as a national
bank its dividends have averaged a little over 8 per cent, on the par
value of its stock.

The directors of the Union Bank for 1892 in order of length of serv-
ice are as follows: Charles L. Young, George Dexter, Charles L. Peir-
son, George Whitney, president, Samuel B. Dana, Joseph S. Kendall,
Amory A. Lawrence, Nathaniel H. Emmons, and Edward W. Hooper.

The condition of the Union National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency, at the close of business, March (i, 181)3, was as
follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,285,1 19.81

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured /- . . 109. 79

United States Bonds to secure circulation 1 50,000. 00

Stocks, securities, etc 65, 100.00

Due from approved reserve agents 188,500.59

Due from other National Banks 211,778.34

Current expenses and taxes paid 11,831.75

Checks and other cash items 673.50

Exchanges for clearing-house _ . 87,898.86

BANKING INSriTUTIONS. 233

Bills of other banks 20,870.00

Specie 131 , 814. 77

Legal tender notes 38,500,00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent of circulation) 6,750.00

Total $3,192,436.81

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 400,000.00

Undivided profits 236,943.89

National Bank notes outstanding 135,000.00

Dividends unpaid 5,541.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,332,619.63

Due to other National Banks 310.69

Due to State Banks and bankers 82,022.60

. Total $3,192,436.81

OLD BOSTON NATIONAL BANK.

The Old Boston National Bank was incorporated as the The Boston
Bank, March 5, L803, the charter being- signed by Governor Caleb
vStrong. The incorporators named in the act were John Codman,
Theodore Lyman, James Lloyd, jr., Thomas H. Perkins, Thomas C.
Amory and their associates. When the subscription books were closed
upwards of $3,000,000 had been subscribed, and the stock was at once
quoted at 110. The capital was $1,800,000, the Commonwealth of Mas-
sachusetts being a stockholder for $G00,000. It was stipulated that
one-eighth part be appropriated to loans to be made to citizens of this
Commonwealth, not residents of Boston, and that the directors should
loan this sum wholly upon farms, which loans should be made in sums
not less than $100, nor more than $500, upon the personal bond of the
borrowers with collateral security by a mortgage of real estate. The
treasurer of the Commonwealth was to be an cx-officio director of the
bank. During the organization of the bank the following were the
officers: Jonathan Jackson, president; Peleg Coffin, cashier; Thomas
C. Amory, Samuel P. Gardner, Joseph Hall, Peter C. Brooks, John
Codman, Thomas K. Jones, James Lloyd, jr., James Perkins, Daniel
vSargent, jr., Jonathan Mason, Adam Babcock, Jonathan Jackson,
directors. These men ranked among the most prominent in the com-
munity at the time for respectability and business capacity ; and the
bank, conservative from the first in its character, has continued in its

234 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

lono- line of successive directors always to number citizens of like
standing and attributes.

The bank was authorized to commence business June 1, 180:), the
charter to continue until the first Monda}- in October, 1812. The board
of directors chosen June 1, 1803, were: Thomas C. Amory, Peter C.
Brooks, Isaac P. Davis, Thomas K. Jones, Nathaniel O. Lee, James
Lloyd, jr., Daniel Sargent, jr., William vSullivan, wStephen Higginson,
jr., James Perkins, Jonathan Jackson, Adam Babcock. In February,
1817, the bank purchased the State's interest ($600,000), and reduced
the capital to $1,200,000. The par value of the shares was originally
$100, but in April, 1817, twenty-five per cent, was paid to the stock-
holders, reducing the capital to $900,000, in shares of $75 each. April
1, 1830, one-third more w^as returned to the stockholders, making the
capital $000,000, par $50. June 15, 1857, $300,000 was added to the
capital, making it again $1)00,000, the present amount. In 1888 the
par value of the shares was fixed at $100. The bank was re-chartered
in October. 1812, and converted into a national bank in May, 18(15. At
that time the National Bank of Boston becoming a national banking
institution, had taken the name of the Boston National Bank. The
Boston Bank of 1803, to which the above name (Boston National) right-
fully belonged, was under the circumstances obliged to take its present
name, The Old Boston National Bank. The presidents of the bank,
with their term of service, have been as follows: Jonathan Jackson,
1803 to 1810; John I. Apthorp, 1810 to 1829; Phineas Upham, 1829 to
1830; Robert T. Shaw, 18:50 to 1811; Robert Hooper, 18-tl to 1800;
James C. Wild, 1800 to 1870; H. W. Pickering, 1870 to 1891; Horatio
(t. Curtis, 1891 to present time. The cashiers have been Peleg Cofifin,
1803, who during the same }■ ear was succeeded by Joseph Chapman,
who served until 1831. Succeeding Chapman have been the following,
with term of service: James C. Wild, 1831 to 1800; Joseph G. Gunder-
son, 18(;o to 1809; Frederick L. Church, 1809 to 1887; Chester L. Stod-
dard, 1887 to present time. Robert Lash was the oldest officer of the
bank at the time of his death, October 7, 1803, at the age of eight}'-
four. He had served the bank for over sixty years, commencing as
messenger in 1803. He was chosen cashier in 1831, but declined the
office. Joseph Chapman was officially connected with the bank for
twenty-eight years, and James C. Wild was in service for fifty-six years,
having been chosen bookkeeper in 1820, cashier 1831, and president in
1800. Among the directors at different times, besides the original

L r? ^ CcZ>/^/'-^^-^^^^

HANKING INSTITUTIONS. 235

board, were: William Pratt, AVilliam Pickerino-^ David Tilden, Tona-
than Amory, jr., Ebenezer Francis, Benjamin Austin, CHar rison G ray
cOtis, jNathan Appleton, Timothy Williams, Robert G. vShaw, Josiah
Bradlee, David Sears, Thomas Wigglesworth, vSamuel Cabot, William
J. Loring;-, Jonathan Prince, jr., David Bradlee, Joseph Lee, Epes Sar-
gent, Russell Sturgis, Thomas Melville, Israel Thorndike, Gardiner
Greene, Joseph Coolidge, Thomas B. Curtis, George W. Lvman. Rich-
ard D. Tucker, Daniel C. Bacon, Henry Upham, F. H. Bradlee, J. I.
Bowditch, J. C. Howe, Charles Horner, Daniel S. Curtis, William T.
Ballard, George R. Minot, J. Thomas Stevenson and G. Howland Shaw.
The board of directors for 1802 is composed of Arthur Amory, Fran-
cis Cabot, Edward N. Fenno, H. W. Pickering, M. R. Wendell, Thomas
T. Bouve, Louis Curtis, George vS. Hale, John O. Poor and Horatio G.
Curtis.

AYhen the Boston Bank went into operation in 1803 it was located in
the building then held by the old United States Branch Bank in State
street, now occupied by the Exchange Building. In July, 1803, the
Boston Bank purchased the estate of Christopher Marshall, in State
street, now numbered o<) vState street, and there erected its first build-
ing, and moved into it in September, 1804. Here it has, with short
intervals for rebuilding, been located ever since.

The condition of the Old Boston National Bank, as made to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business, March (i, 18'.t3, was
as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,766,451 10

U. S. Bonds to secure circ»ilation 310, 000 00

Stocks, certificates, etc 76,162 08

Due from approved reserve agents 302,887 18

Due from other National Banks 103,897 18

Current expenses and taxes paid 17,502 61

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 47,522 39

Cliecks and other cash items 2, 1 12 43

Exchanges for clearing-house 1 55. 324 30

Bills of other banks 5,329 00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 165 00

Specie 117,527 00

Legal tender notes 27, 395 00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, circulation) 12,825 00

Total $2, 945, 100 27

^30 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

I.IAllII.lTIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 900,000 00

Surplus fund .-.. 250,000 00

Undivided profits 70,400 02

National Bank notes outstanding 27G,.")yo 00

Dividends unpaid 542 00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,142,674 67

Demand certificates of deposit 15,081 50

Due to approved reserve agents 167,760 40

Due to State Bank and bankers 121,976 08

Total $2,945, 100 27

STATE NATIONAL BANK.

The State Bank had its origin in partisan predilections, to a consid-
able degree. We have already seen that the first bank of the United
States founded in 1701 under the auspices of Alexander Hamilton, Fed-
eralist, had been sustained by his adherents and opposed by followers
of Jefferson, whose Democratic influence prevented its re-charter.
During the three years of 1810, 1811 and 181'2, after the winding up of
the United States Bank, forty-one new State banks were chartered, and
of these the State Bank of Boston was one. Its anti-Federalist sup-
porters claimed its existence w-as necessary as Democrats could not get
proper accommodations at the older banks of Boston.

The charter of the State Bank was granted by the Massachusetts
General Court and approved by the governor June 27, 1811. The first
section of the charter provided that William Gray, Henry Dearborn,
David Tilden, Russell Sturgis, John Brazer, David Townsend and their
associates, should be created a corporation by the name of the Presi-
dent, Directors and Company of the vState Bank, to so continue for
twenty years from October 1, 1811. The provisions of its charter were
very rigid, and especially so in regard to specie payments. It was on
the eve of that trying period when specie payments were almost univer-
sally suspended throughout the country and when even the most
tempting offers from the general government proved no match for the
political predjudices of many eastern capitalists. ■ Party animosity
])roved stronger than motives of pecuniary interest, a fact which re-
calls a sauc}' political distich in vogue in those days:

"The Democrats are wicked rats, that run about the town;
The Federalists take up their fists and knock the codgers down 1 "

BAXKixG ixsrirrrroxs. m

The original capital of the vState Bank was $3,000,000 divided into
30,000 shares of $100 each. Among the original subscribers to this
stock, with nnmber of shares taken, were:

Nathaniel Ames, 30 Amos Binney 83

Solomon Allen, Sofi Curtis Barnes, 35

Samuel Adams, 8 William Bridge, 40

John Adams, 15 Clementine Beach, 40

Ebenezer T. Andrews, 32 Jacob W. Brewster, 24

Ebenezer Appleton, 20 Daniel Baxter, ... 69

William Adams, 34 William Basson, 1 40

Josiah Bryant, 23 Samuel Billings, 63

Jotham Barnes, 44 John Brazer, 273

James Barker, 22 Joseph Baxter, 33

Benjamin Bangs, 55 David W. Child, 155

William M. Boyd, 50 John S. Craft, 100

Samuel H. Babcock, 40 Daniel Coney,... 100

Ezra A. Bourne, 179 Charles Cleveland, 97

George Bates, 72 Henry Cabot, 51

Richard Briggs, 45 Allen Crocker, 234

Benjamin Bussey, 50 Thomas Cushing, 55

John & Joseph Ballard & Co 130 Charles De Wolfe, 204

Dominicus Cutts, 120 John Pitman Clarke, 341

Richard Cutts, 100 Samuel Dana, 215

Joshua Coffin, 62 Elizabeth Dorr, 61

Samuel Dexter, 65 Nathaniel Frothingham, 45

Thomas Eaton, 27 James G. Dana, 50

On Thursday August 29, 1811, the stockholders of the vState Bank
met in the United States Court Rooms (in the Old Court House), when
the following committee was chosen to establish regulations, by-laws,
etc., for the bank: William .Gray, Henry Dearborn, David Tilden,
Russell Sturgis, John Brazer, David Townsend, Perez Morton, Samuel
Dana, James Prince, Aaron Hill, Jesse Putnian, George Blake, Benja-
min Austin, Capt. Amos Binney, ^lajor Amasa Stetson, Nathan Willis,
Merrill Rice, Thomas Shepherd and Moses Carleton. At a subsequent
meeting, held September 23, the following officers were elected: Presi-
dent, William Gray; cashier, John P. Clarke; directors: William Gray,
Henry Dearborn, Jesse Putman, ]\lathew Bridge, James Prince, David
Tilden, William Ward, George Blake, David Townsend, wSamuel Dana,
Amasa vStetson and Williani Munroe.

The vState Bank began operations November 11, ISll, in the building
owned by the Branch Bank of the United States. In September, 1812,
the bank bought this property for $40,500. The original building

2:js .S^ UFFOL K CO UN TV.

erected, for the vState Bank stood on this estate. It is the site now
occupied hf the present Exchange Building between Congress and
Kilby streets, on the south side of State street. A small and well
executed cut of the old structure is in existence and shows a pretty two
story edifice, a clapboarded frame building. It had seven front
windows and three central entrances from vState street. It had two one-
story wings, each of which had a broad gateway for carriages, and lead-
ing to a spacious courtyard in the rear. The building was surrounded
by a balustrade around the roof and had a mammoth Atiieriean eagle
and shield at the center of the front roof. The vacant land after the
building was taken down about fifty years ago was used for a test trial
of fire proof safes, then beginning to come into use.

The history of the State Bank has l)een fraught with features of
peculiar interest, not the least of which was the great and timely sup-
port it gave, with its unusually large capital of $3, 0( >(»,<)<)(>, to the Fed-
eral government during the troubled times and great distress through-
out, and for some years after, the War of 1S12. The following inter-
esting letter bearing upon this subject, during the early period of the
war, was written by William Gray, president of the State Bank, and
then the prince of Boston merchants and ship owners, to Albert
Gallatin, secretary of the treasury at Washington :

Boston, May 19, 1812.
Sir,— I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 4th instant, and laid the
same before the board of directors of this institution for advisement. They instruct
me to reply that they are willing to advance the amount of $500,000, which they had
assented to loan to the United States directly, and pass the same to the credit of the
treasurer, and to his depositure at this hank ; to be reimbursed on half of the amount
loaned at the expiration of one, and the residue at the expiration of two years, from
the time this property may be accepted and the money advanced. The interest to be
paid quarterly. Although tlic ])eriod of reimbursements are fixed, yet the board of
directors wish it may be understood that, should the government desire, and the
funds of the institution permit, an extension of credit shall be afforded at either of
the periods of reimbursement.

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect,

Yom- verv humble servant,

(Signed) William Gkav.
To lion. Albert Oallalin, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington.

vSubsec|uent to this first loan mentioned in Mr. Cxray's letter, frec|uent
loans were made to the government within the next two or three years.
ViV the 12th of i\ugust, 1S14, from a report made by a committee to
consider the affairs of the bank relative to its connection with the

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 239

United States treasurer, it appears that the total amount the bank had
loaned the government reached the large sum of $4,000,000. These
loans were made when the government was in much distress for money.
The collection of these liberal grants on the part of the bank, how^-
ever, was a source of much trouble, and covered a period of several
years, during which the bank was unjustly made to suffer. Its liberal
and patriotic purpose at a critical period (jf our national history was
treated with undeserved ingratitude.

The first president of the vState Bank, the eminent merchant and
well beloved citizen, William Gray, ^ served from wSeptember 2o, 1811,
to October 2, 1815. His successors have been as follows: William
Ward, from October 2, 1815, to October (i, 182:); George Hallett, pres-
ident /n^ tci/i., October 8 to October :}(), 182;j; Ezra A. Bourne, October
30, 1823, to June 25, 1841 ; Thomas P. Cushmg, president /n^ Av//., June
25, 1841, to August 2, 1841; vSamucl Frothingham, August 2, 1841, to
August 23, 1852; George Howe, /re; tci/i., August 23, 1852, to July 7,
1853; Samuel Frothingham, July 7, 1853, to November 8, 1858; George
Howe, November 8, 1858, to November 7, 1850; James McGregor,
November 7, 1850, to January '8, 1807 ; Amos W. wStetson, January 8,
18(i7, to December 1, 1800; Samuel N. Aldrich, December 15, 1800, to
the present time. Mr. Aldrich was appointed by President Cleveland,
United States assistant treasurer early in 1887, wdiich position he re-
signed to accept the presidency of the bank. He is a lawyer by pro-
fession, and previous to his appointment by President Cleveland was
engaged in practice in Boston.

The cashiers have been: John Pitman Clarke, September 23, 1811, to
January 20, 1814; Thomas Harris, January 20, 1814, to June 17, 1814;
Samuel Frothingham, June 17, 1814, to December, 181(i; George
Haner, December !», 1810, to March 13, 1837; Jonathan Call, March
21, 1837, to February 27, 1851; George Atkinson, March 4, 1851, to

' Mr. Gray was born at Lynn, June 27, 1750, and died at Boston, November 25, 1825. At the time
of his death he had the reputation of being the largest ship owner in America. He was the owner
at one time of sixty square rigged vessels, and had attained the highest mercantile eminence.
After serving in the State Legislature he was elected lieutenant-governor on the ticket with El-
bridge Gerry in 1810. He was a Democrat in politics, sustaining the embargo, notwithstanding it
inflicted heavy loss upon him. He lived in Summer street in a house afterwards occupied by Gover-
nor Sullivan. He was a man of practical benevolence. He aided the government largely in 1812, and
it is said but for him the Constitution would not have got to sea and electrified the nation by her ex-
ploits. Mr. Gray was also the first president of the State Bank, the first Democratic institution
that obtained a charter in Mas.sachusetts. After the Treaty of Ghent, Mr. Grav presided over a
public dinner given to John Quincy Adams, at which the venerable patriarch, John Adams, was
president. — Drake's Landmarks, of hvston.

240 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

September 17, ISoo; James vSivret, September 17, 1853, to July, ISCl;
C. H. Smith, Aug-ust 1, 18G1, to Mareh 2, 1807; C. B. Patten, Mareh
11, 18(17, to May 22, 188(1, and Georg-e B. Warren, May 27, 188G, to the
present time.

Amos W. Stetson, previous to his eleetion as president of the bank,
had been a director and a member of the well-known house of Ather-
ton, vStetson & Co. He is a son of Caleb Stetson, for a long time pres-
ident of the Shoe and Leather Bank. He is an able writer upon finan-
cial subjects, and in 18(U published a volume entitled " Our National
Debt and Currency, or the Age of Greenbacks," a treatise which at-
tracted much attention at the time.

C. B. Patten, cashier for twenty-one years, had been for eighteen
years before connected with the Suffolk Bank, and was with it when
its largest scale of business was in operation, and when it employed one
hundred clerks in connection with the arduous duties of the Suffolk
Bank system.

The original capital of the State Bank was reduced to $1,800, 000 on
March 1, 1817, and increased to $2,000,000 in 18(3,5, in which year the
bank was reorganized under the National Bank act, under its present
title of the vState National Bank. Its board of directors for 1892 is as
follows: Amos W. vStetson, Henry C. Weston, Henry R. Reed, John L.
Brewer, William H. Allen, Frederic Amory, Charles U. Cotting, Henry
A. Gowing and Samuel N. Aldrich.

This bank has been eminently a conservative institution, and its div-
idends reflect credit upon the wisdom of its management. Its history
is fraught with incidents that savor of the romantic, and with matters
of high financial importance.

The condition of the vState National Bank, as made to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business, March (>, 18'Jo, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $8,9;U,87(). 37

Overdrafts 802. (iO

U. S. Bonds to .secure circulation no.OOO.OO

Due from approved reserve agents 296,2()B.57

Due from other National Banks 139,318.cSl

Current expenses and taxes paid 12,824.(30

Checks and other cash items G20.()7

E.x changes for clearing-house 126,125.91

Bills of other banks _ / 11,718.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 48. 00

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 241

Specie 176,;«0.00

Legal tender notes 19,012.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 18,700.00

Total $4, 788, 405. 03

LIAlULniES.

Capital stock paid in $2,000,000. 00

Surplus fund 400, 000. 00

Undivided profits 194, 197. 77

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 5,294. 50

Individual deposits subject to check 1,827,452.05

Demand certificates of deposit 24,113.41

Certified checks 29,000.00

Due to other National Banks 173,335.37

Due to State Banks and bankers 89,961.93

Total $4, 788,405. 03

NEW ENGLAND NATIONAL BANK.

The New England Bank was the fifth establi.shed in Boston and was
chartered June IT, 1813. The bill to incorporate it passed the House
(Timothy Bigelow, speaker) and the Senate (John Phillips, president)
June 15, 1813; was approved by Governor Caleb vStrong, June 10, 1813,
and four days later was attested by Alden Bradford, secretary of
state. The following prominent citizens were created a corporation
by the name of the President, Directors and Company of the New Eng-
land Bank: John Gore, Samuel May, Robert G. Shaw, Edward Blake,
jr., Samuel Dorr, Nathaniel R. Sturgis, George Lyman, David
Greenough, Samuel Cabot, jr., Francis Lee, Allan Melville, Edward
Motley, Ebenezer Appleton, David Hinckley, John Wood, Samuel
G. Williams, Daniel P. Parker, James S. Colburn, Israel Munson,
Thomas K. Thomas, John Bumstead, William Gill, Henry Bassett, jr.,
Benjamin Rich, John Bryant, Henry G. Rice, Enoch Bartlett, William
S. Shaw, Thomas Cushing, Richard D. Tucker, William Sturgis, Pat-
rick T. Jackson, Francis C. Lowell, William Ropes, Francis Welch,
Asaph Stone, Thomas Cordis, Phineas Upham, Charles Barrett, Ben-
jamin Watson, and their associates.

This bank was to continue from the first Monday in October, 1813,
to the first Monday in October, 1831, and was to be subject to the same
rules, etc., as those of the vState Bank chartered in 1811, with the ex-

242 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ccption of certain specified modifications. The capital stock was not
to exceed $],()()(), 000, in shares of $100 each, one-fourth of each share
to be paid in before October 1, one-fourth before January 1, 1814,
and the residue when directed by the stockholders. Certain other
features of the charter are worthy of mention. The bank was to " have,
liold, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy and retain " lands, rents, tene-
ments and hereditaments to the amount of $50,000, and no more, at
any one time, but was not restrained from holding real estate in mort-
gage or on execution, as security for, or in payment of, any debts due
the bank. It was not to loan moneys, make discounts, nor issue any
bills or promissory notes, till the capital in gold or silver in its vaults
amounted to $250,000 — one-fourth of its whole capital. And this fact
was to be ascertained by three commissioners appointed by the govern-
or. Moreover, the bank must loan to the State any required sum, not
exceeding ten per cent, of the capital stock, reimbursable by five annual
installments, or any shorter period, with interest not exceeding five
per cent. The State also had the right to subscribe an amount, not
more than $500,000, in addition to the capital stock, and subject to the
usual bank rules and regulations.

The following were among the most prominent of the original share-
holders in the New England Bank at the time of its organization,
with the number of shares subscribed :

Samuel Appleton 100 French & Everett 70

Nathan Appleton 100 John Gore 100

Ebenezer Appleton 100 David Greenough 100

Phineas Adams 20 David Hinckley 100

Joseph Allen 100 Isaac Hull 50

Edward Blake, jr 100 Benjamin Humphrey 40

John Bumstead, jr 100 George Lyman 100

Thomas & John Bradlee 40 Samuel May 100

Joseph P. Bradlee 15 Edward Motley 100

David W. Bradlee 15 Allan Melville 100

Josiah Bradlee 100 Israel Munson 100

Samuel & David Bradlee 20 Josiah Marshall 100

Samuels. Bradlee 15 George Odiorne 50

Enoch Bartlett 100 Daniel P. Parker 100

Charles Barrett 100 William Perkms 25

vSamuel Cabot, jr 100 Thomas Parsons 40

James S. Colburn 100 Benjamin Rich 100

Cornelius Coolidge 70 Henry G. Rice 100

Samuel Dorr 100 William Ropes . 100

Benjamin Dune ,- 30 Jeffrey Richardson ., . , 15

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 243

Nathaniel P. Russell 100 Patrick T. Jackson 100

Paul Revere & Son 50 Francis Lee 100

Nathaniel R. Sturgis 100 Francis C. Lowell 100

William Sturgis 50 Giles Lodge 50

Russell Sturgis 40 William Lawrence 20

William S. Shaw 100 Amos Lawrence 20

Robert G. Shaw 100 Samuel Train ■ 20

Lemuel Shaw 100 John D. Williams & Co 100

Asaph Stone 100 Samuel G. Williams 100

William H. Sumner 20 Phineas Upham 100

Richard D. Tucker 100 Benjamin M. Watson 100

Israel Thorndike, jr 100 John Wood 100

Harvard College. 200 Francis Welch 100

Joseph Goddard 30 Josiah Whitney 25

Nathaniel Goddard 50 Whitwell & Bond 60

Wilham Goddard 80 Isaac Win slow 30

Benjamin Goddard 30 John Warren 75

It will be seen that the seventy-four of the original stockholders sub-
scribed for 5, 480 shares, amounting to $548,000, on an average of seventy-
three shares each. Harvard College took the largest number, 200 shares,
while the families of the Appletons, Bradlees, Lawrences, Sturgises,
Shaws and Goddards were well represented. All of the names in the
list have been long identified with the history of Boston. Many of the
descendants, but none of the original stockholders, are now living.

The first directors of the New England Bank were twelve in number,
and were chosen at a meeting of the stockholders " at the rooms of said
bank," in the Old Exchange Coffee House, October 4, 1813. They
consisted of Edward Blake, jr., vSamuel Dorr, Nathaniel Goddard, John
Gore, David Greenough, Francis C. Lowell, Daniel P. Parker, Ben-
jamin Rich, William Ropes, Lemuel Shaw, William Sturgis and John
D. Williams. Nathaniel Goddard was chosen president, and Ebenezer
Goddard cashier. As the powers and duties of the directors specified
in the original "By-Laws, Ordinances and Regulations" were similar
to those of other then existing banks, we give the following as a speci-
men of all. They were certainly sufficiently numerous, varied and
comprehensive : They were to have full power to procure a suitable
place for transacting the bank business, by purchase or lease, and to
sell, dispose of and exchange the same; they must erect or prepare
suitable buildings, with safe and convenient vaults and with suitable
furniture and apparatus; they were to appoint and fix the times at
which the first and second installment of $25 on each share must be
paid in, and to give notice thereof; to appoint a cashier, tellers, clerks

244 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

and other suital)le officers; to prescribe and define their respective
duties ; to order suitable bonds to be given and oaths to be taken by
them for securing- the faithful discharge of their respective duties; to
fix, determine and pay their respective salaries and compensations ; to
procure all necessary plates, stationery and other articles for the use of
the bank; to fix discount days; to make rules and regulations concern-
ing discoimts ; to prescribe forms for bonds and mortgages; to make
rules and regulations concerning loans on bonds and mortgages; to
appoint a suitable person "of the profession of the law," as solicitor;
to prescribe his duties and fix his compensation; to prescribe all neces-
sary forms for powers of attorney to be used at the bank; to make all
necessary rules and regulations for their own government and for the
management of the interests of the institution, "not repugnant to the
rules and regulations established by the stockholders, the act of incor-
poration, or the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth ;" and
finally they were to ' ' generally enjoy, possess and exercise all the
powers granted to this corporation in cases not otherwise specially pro-
vided for." The thoroughness of these manifold directions for the
directors is worthy of all praise, except that in the last clause. Those
responsible and weary gentlemen might possibly possess and exercise
all these powers, but to be able to "enjoy" them must have been be-
yond the possibilities.

One of the original ordinances of the New England Bank may have
suggested the present " Safe Deposit " system for the security of valu-
ables. It was enjoined that the bank should take charge of the cash of
all those who might choose to place it there, free of expense; and
should keep it subject to the owner's order, payable at sight. Deposits
of ingots of gold, bars of silver, plate, or other valuable articles
of small bulk, were received in the same manner and returned
on demand of the respective depositors. This practice was long ago
abolished. It assumed a responsibility heavy and troublesome. The
services it rendered are now performed by safe deposit companies,
which make it a highly systematic and remunerative business.

The New England Bank was for a period of seventy years located at
(i? vState street, corner of Kilby, a location of historic interest. It was
at this spot that the famous B(xston Massacre took place, and on the
site of the old building at that time stood a popular tavern known as
the " Bunch of (irapes. " In 1880 it sold its building to the Washington
Insurance Company and removed to its jiresent location in the Equit-
able Buildino- corner of Milk and Devonsliire streets.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 245

The New England Bank was once largely engaged in receiving and
paying what were called country bank bills, and also in negotiating bills
of exchange on England, and this business it continued until the Suf-
folk Bank introduced its system of redeeming bills of country banks.
In January, 18G5, its charter was changed to the New England National
Bank, at which time it paid to its stockholders an extra dividend of
twent)"-five per cent, on its capital of $1,000,000. Forgeries upon this
bank have been trifling, and its record with regard to runs and suspen-
sions is the same as that of other leading Boston banks. As a State
and National bank, since its incorporation in 1813, it has never passed
but one dividend — in 1820 — a period of eighty years, covering practi-
cally the financial history of the country.

The presidents of the New England Bank have been as follows:
Nathaniel Goddard, 1813 to 1823; Samuel Dorr, 1823 to 1833; Philip
Marrett, 1833 to 1840; Thomas Lamb, 1840 to 1884; Samuel Atherton,
1884 to 1890; Charles W. Jones, 1800 to the present time. The cashiers
have been Ebenezer Frothingham, jr., 1813 to 1824; Philip Marrett,
1824 to 1833; Seth Pettee, 1833 to 1874; Charles F. Swan, 1874 to the
present time. The present officers and directors are: Charles W.
Jones, president; Charles F. Swan, cashier; Arthur C. Kellock, paying
teller; Jacob C. Hartshorne, receiving teller; Amos L. vSwindlehurst,
bookkeeper; Henry C. Grant, collection clerk. Directors: Samuel
Atherton, John T. Bradlee, Charles W. Jones, John D. W. Joy, Will-
iam G. Means and J. Herbet Sawyer.

The condition of the New England National Bank, as made to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business March 0, 1803, was
as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,993,948.29

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

vStocks, certificates, claims, etc 28,400. 00

Due from approved reserve agents 298,0(59.91

Due from other National Banks 156,631. 58

Current expenses and taxes paid 24,155.18

Checks and other cash items 676.30

Exchanges for clearing-house. 59,209.95

Bills of other banks 881.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents _ . 56. 66

Specie 177,028. 00

Legal tender notes 47,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $3,8:58,3(16.87

24G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

LIABILITIES.

Capital Stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 600,000.00

Undivided profits 151 ,480.98

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 3,249.50

Individual deposits subject to check 1,531,402.95

Demand certificates of deposit 4, 707. 00

Due to other National Banks KUi, 296.52

Due to State banks and bankers 366,089. 92

Total $3,838,306. 87

TREMONT NATIONAL BANK.

The Tremont National Rank was orio-inally incorporated nnder the
name of the Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Bank, February 14, 1814,
with a capital of $1,500,000, of which the Commonwealth mig-ht sub-
scribe $500,000, one-third of the stock to be reserved for manufacturers
and mechanics. The incorporators named in the act were; George
vSuUivan, John Bebows, William Appleton, Winslow Lewis, William
Cochran, Thomas B. Wales, Seth Knowles and Ezra A. Bourne.
Among the original stockholders of this bank, with the number of
shares taken by each, were:

William Appleton 130 Seth Knowles 130

Nathaniel W. Appleton 130 Charles F. Kupper 100

Jonathan Amory 120 Edmund Monroe 120

Ezra A. Bourne - - 130 John McLean 130

Stephen Brigham 130 John Peters 120

Charles R. Codman 120 Edward D. Peters 100

William Cochran 120 James Richardson 130

Pliny Cutler 120 Ephraim Robbins 100

Jonathan Dorr 130 Benjamin Russell 150

Samuel Downer 130 David Sears, jr 120

Jonathan Davis 130 Jeremiah Thayer 100

SamuelDexter 100 Nathan Tufts 100

Aaron & Charles Davis 100 Dr. Aaron Tufts 120

Samuel Pales 12<) Oliver C. Wyman 130

Samuel Torrey 1 00 Edward Whltwcll 100

Andrew Homer 100 Benjamin Weld _ 130

Jonathan Hunnewell 130 Timothy Wiggins 1 00

John Hancock 120

The above familiar names summon up suggestive memories. They
were the foremost men of the city at that day, merchant iM-inces, kings

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 247

of commerce and fathers of manufactures. Many of them were also
pioneers in that banking system violently, because ignorantly, opposed
in this country at first, but soon so triumphantly vindicated by their
foresight, honor and sagacious management, that then and to this day
the banks of Boston have been proverbial for soundness, and have be-
come features in her character, which justify no small degree of local
pride.

The first board of directors was chosen at a meeting of the stock-
holders held March 1, 1814, and w^as composed of the following mem-
bers: Benjamin Russell, John Bellows, George Sullivan, Thomas B.
Wales, Isaac vStevens, E. T. Andrews, Jonathan Dorr, Winslow Lewis,
Joseph H. Dorr, wSamuel Fales, Seth Knowlesand Jonathan Hunnewell.
At the same meeting John Bellows was chosen president and Chester
Adams cashier. With these officers, and Daniel Woods, first teller;
Andrew Oliver, second teller ; William Coffin, first bookkeeper; George
Wheeler, second bookkeeper, and John Wheelwright, discount clerk,
the bank commenced operations in a room under the Massachusetts
Bank. The land on which the Tremont National Bank building stands
was purchased in April, 1814, for $17,000, a very high price in those
days. The building which now occupies this site was erected in 1852.

The name of the Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Bank was changed
to Tremont Bank by act of the Legislature passed March 8, 1830, at
which time the capital was reduced to $500,000, having previously been
reduced from original amount, $1,500,000 to $750,000, February 11,
1810. At the time the name of this institution was changed to Tre-
mont Bank, Henr}^ Jacques was president and James Dalton cashier.
The directors were: Henry Jacques, S. T. Armstrong, Joseph Eveleth,
David R. Grigg, Levi Merriam, Isaac Stevens, E. T. Andrews, Caleb
Curtis, Henry H. Fuller, John F. Loring, Benjamin T. Reed, and
George Wheelock. In 1850 the capital was increased to $1,000,000, in
1800 to $1,500,000, and in 18G5 a stock dividend of 3o>^ per cent, was
made, making the capital $2,000,000. December 14, 1804, the bank
was reorganized as a national bank, under its present title of The
Tremont National Bank; its officers and directors at this time were
Andrew T. Hall, president; Amos T. Frothingham, cashier; Andrew T.
Hall, Nathan B. Gibbs, Charles B. Sha\v, W. Endicott, jr., I.saac
Thacher, William Perkins, Ezra H. Baker, Thomas M. Devens, direc-
tors. The presidents of the bank from its organization to the present
in order of service have been as follows: 1814 to 1818, John Bellows;

248

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

1810 to 1S23, John Phillips; 1824 to 18->!), Isaac Stevens; 1830 to 1832,
Henry Jacques; 1832 to 1843, Samuel T. Armstrong; 1843 to 1875,
Andrew T. Hall; 187G to 1887, William Perkins; 1887 to the present
time, Aaron Hobart. The cashiers have been: 1814 to 1811), Chester
Adams; 1819 to 1847, James Dalton ; 1847 to 18<)1, Amos T. Frothing-
ham; 1801 to the present time, D. E. Snow. In 1857 Enoch Train
retired after a service of twenty-seven years as a director. In 18G4
Caleb Smith died after serving thirty-five years as a director. In 1809
Charles B. Shaw died, having served as a director for twenty-six years.
In 1875 Andrew T. Hall died, having served as president and director
for forty-four years. In 1870 Ezra H. Baker died after a service of
thirty years. In 1880 Nathan B. Gibbs died after a service of forty
years as a director. In 1883 Isaac Thacher died after servmg for forty-
three years as a director. In 1887 William Perkins died after a service
of forty-four years as president and director. James Dalton retired
after serving for twenty-eight years as cashier, while Amos T. Froth-
ingham, at the time of his^leath in 1801, had been continuously con-
nected with the bank as teller or cashier for fifty-six years. Aaron
Hobart, the present president of the bank, has been a director for thirty-
two years; William Endicott, jr., for thirty years, and Thomas H.
Devens for twenty-eight years. D. E. Snow, cashier, has been con-
nected with the bank^or forty-two years; John K. Hinckley, receiving
teller, for forty-one years; J. J. Underbill, paying teller, and Charles
O. Tufts, book-keeper, each for thirty-nine years. The board of direc-
tors for 1802 is composed of the following members: Aaron Hobart,
Thomas M. Devens, William Endicott, jr., Francis A. Osborn, George
Thacher, Henry Endicott and Francis H. Manning.

The condition of the Tremont National Bank at the close of busi-
ness, March 0, 1803, as reported to the comptroller of the currency,
was as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2.981.1!H.21^

Overdrafts, unsecured "^•^'''^

U S bonds to secure circulation 50, ()()(). 00

Stocks, certificates, etc 436, ()()(). 00

Due from approved reserve agents l;j*,160.45

Due from other National Banks 165,410.15

Due from State Banks and bankers 1,168.66

Current expenses and taxes paid 11,405.32

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds. , 5,000.00

Checks and other cash items 11,544.31

///:( i\n( ix

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 240

Exchanges for clearing-house 225,213.49

BiUs of other banks 4,974.00

Fractional pajaer currency, nickels and cents 203.28

Specie ' 142,300.00

Legal tender notes 76,889.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,270,712.49

LI.-VBILITIES.

Capital stock paid in ,. .$2,000,000.00

Surplus fund 375,000.00

Undivided profits 99,981.64

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 2,399.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,318,017.16

Certified checks 100,206.77

Cashier's checks outstanding. _ 2,957.54

Due to other National Banks .. 155,177.58

Due to State Banks and bankers 61,972.80

Bills payable 110,000.00

Total $4,270,712.49

SUFFOLK NATIONAL BANK.

On the lOth of February, 1818, a charter was granted by the Legis-
lature of Massachusetts to a banking institution known as the Suffolk
Bank, which was destined to exert upon the currency of New England
an infltience little dreamed of by its projectors, but so wholesome that
it gave uniformity and stability to its currency, reduced the discount
on it to a minimum and by holding it in check tended to keep it in a
sound and healthy condition. Among the subscribers to the stock of
this bank were many of the most infltiential men of the day, such as
William and Nathan Lawrence, John W. Boott, Eben and John Breed,
Otis Everett, Ebenezer Francis, William, Abbott and Amos Lawrence,
William Payne, Patrick T. Jackson, Charles Lowell, Daniel P. Parker,
George Bond, Samuel R. Miller, William Prescott, Caleb Loring, Na-
thaniel P. Russell, S. G. Williams, Alfred Willis, John Wood, Edmund
Munroe and Garditier Greene. The first directors were : Ebenezer
Breed, Andrew Ritchie, Thomas Motley, Samuel Hubbard, John W.
Boott, George Bond, Daniel P. Parker, William Lawrence, Eliphalet
Williams, Edmund ]\Iunroe, Patrick T. Jackson and Ebenezer Francis.

250 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The bank was opened for business on the first day of April, 1818, on
the seeond floor of the building- on State street owned by Barney
Smith, Ebenezer Francis having- been previously elected president, and
Matthew Parker cashier. In April, 1810, the bank was moved to the
second floor of the building on the corner of State and Kilby streets,
then and f(;r many years occiipied in part by the New England Bank.
The directors at once, in addition to the regular business of the bank,
turned their attention to foreign exchange. To the business of buying
and selling exchange was added that of buying in London United
States stocks and dollars. The foreign exchange business was con-
tinued until April, 182(», when a final settlement was made with its
London agents, and the bank turned its attention almost exclusively to
receiving and redeeming the bills issued by the New England banks.

The redemption of country bank notes by the Suffolk Bank began in
February, 181!), at which time a committee composed of the president,
Ebenezer Breed, and Nathan Appleton reported as follows: " That it
is expedient to receive at the vSuffolk Bank the several kinds of foreign
moneys which .are now received at the New England Bank, and at the
same rates. That if any bank will deposit with the vSuffolk Bank
$5,000 as a permanent fund, with such further sums as shall be suffi-
cient from time to time to redeem its bills taken by this bank, such
bank will have the privilege of receiving its own bills at the same dis-
count at which they were purchased."

With the New England Bank, which for some time had been re-
deeming foreign bills, the vSuffolk at once entered into a lively com-
petition, and as a natural result the discount on country notes was
materially lessened. Previous to this time the discount on Massachu-
setts bills had been one per cent., and on bills of other States much
greater. Competition at once reduced the rate on the former to one-
half of one per cent., and even lower.

At this time the city was flooded with country monc}*. The circula-
tion consisted almost entirely of the notes of banks outside of Boston.
With more than one-half of the banking capital of New England, the
Boston banks supplied only one twenty-fifth of the bills in use. Two
of the directors of the vSuffolk Bank, John A. Lowell and William
Lawrence, had become deeply impressed with the evils attending this

1 By the term " foreign money " was meant, not the nionty of foreign coimtries, but the notes
issued by banks outside of Boston. This distinction it will be necessary to bear in mind for a clear
understanding of what follows.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 251

undue issue of country money. In view of this fact, they were ap-
pointed a committee to confer with the other banking institutions of
Boston concerning measures which might check the enormous issue of
country, and especially Eastern, mone}', and of securing to the bills of
the Boston banks a just proportion of the circulation. They addressed
a letter to each of the Boston banks clearly stating the evils existing,

and proposing ' ' that a fund of hundred thousand dollars, to be

assessed in proportion to their respective capitals, be raised by the
several banking institutions who may agree to the arrangement, to be
placed at the disposal of one or more banks for the purpose of sending
home the bills of the New England banks in such way as may be ex-
pedient. That this capital shall be paid in the bills of the several
banks, which shall be indiscriminately paid out for the purchase of
Eastern money. That the profit or loss shall be in common, after
charging a reasonable compensation for any extra service rendered by
the officers of the bank receiving them. That this fund shall be with-
drawn at an}' time by a vote of a majority of the banks concerned, and
that the president and directors of the receiving bank shall be at liberty
to decline continuing the agency when they see fit, expecting no re-
muneration for the services which they may render in this business for
the common good."

This letter led to a meeting of representatives of the Massachusetts
Bank, Union Bank, State Bank, Manufacturers' and Merchants' Bank,
Eagle Bank and Suffolk Bank, which was held April 24, lS-24, when it
was voted that the sum of $300,000 was necessary to carry the scheme
into effect, divided in the following proportion among the respective
banks: State, $50,000; Massachusetts, $50,000; Union, $40,000; Man-
ufacturers' and Merchants', $40,000; Columbian, $30,000; Eagle, $30,-
000; Suffolk, $(;o,000. These sums were subsequently ratified by the
banks interested, and the Suffolk Bank was chosen as the agent of the
associated banks. It was agreed that the Suffolk Bank should receive
from the associated banks all this foreign money at the same or less
discount than the New England Bank or other banks in Boston received
it, and should send it home for redemption ; that any bank might with-
draw by giving thirty days' notice, and that the Suffolk Bank might
give up the business at an}- time b}" giving the same notice.

Under this arrangement the Suffolk Bank began the receiving of
foreign money on the 24th of May, 1824. The country banks were
naturally very much excited and loud in their opposition. They felt

252 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

that the result would be the ci;rtailment of their circulation and the
necessity of keeping' a larg'er specie reserve. In derision they called
the associated banks the " Holy Alliance," and some dio^nified the Suf-
folk Bank with the title of the "Six Tailed Bashaw." But they soon
found that a promise to pay, printed on the face of a bank note, meant
a promise to pay in specie on demand, and that the Suffolk Bank was
not to be frightened or turned out of its course by sarcastic words.
The charge of the foreign money affairs was placed by the directors in
the hands of a committee composed of Ebenezer Breed, William Law-
rence, John A. Lowell and Jeffrey Richardson. Two of this original
committee, John A. Lowell and Jeffrc}^ Richardson, served during the
whole continuance of the system, forty-two years, and William Law-
rence until his death in 1848, a period of twenty-three years.

On the 25th of April, 1825, Ebenezer Francis resigned the presidency
of the bank and Samuel Hubbard was elected in his place. Mr. Hub-
bard resigned in the following November, and Henry B. Stone was
chosen as his successor. Mr. Stone was the first teller of the vSuffolk
Bank when it opened for Inisiness in 1818. vSubsequently, and at the
time of his election as president, he was cashier of the Eagle Bank.

Although hostility to the vSuffolk Bank system gradually abated as it
became inore widely extended, still many of the country banks felt that
it was arbitary and oppressive. In 1834 the redemption business had
increased from $80,000 to $400,000 daily. In 1838 the Suffolk Bank
had practically a monopoly of the foreign money business. During the
preceding five years it had paid to its stockholders an average annual
dividend of eight and eighth-tenths per cent., and in September, 1830,
it was voted to increase the capital to one million dollars. At the same
time an extra dividend was paid out of its surplus profits. In 1847 re-
demption had increased to such an extent that it became almost impos-
sible to count the foreign money received daily. The average daily
redemption in 1850 was about $750, 000, and the business was very
remunerative. Since the extra dividend of thirty-three and one-third
per cent, in 1830 the bank had paid dividends to its stockholders of
eight per cent, annually to 1847, and from 1847 to 1852 ten per cent,
annually, besides which a surplus of $330,000 was accumulated. Dur-
ing the year 1857, $400,000,000 were redeemed. This amount for New
England alone was nearly double the sum redeemed for the whole
United vStates for the fiscal year 1876-77 by the Redemption Bureau at
Washington under the United States Bank act. For the years following

BANKING INSrirUTIONS. 253

1857, up to the time of the discontinuance of the system, was a period
of bitter competition and hostility, which finally led the directors to
abandon this feature of their banking business. This occurred in
April, 1866, at which time the directors, in giving up the business,
placed the following upon the records of the bank:

"The Suffolk Bank has had for many years no motive beyond that
of securing to the community a continuance of the acknowledged bene-
fits of the system. The labor, expense and risks of the business have
been equal to any remuneration received from the use of the deposits.
We can not consent any longer to have the bank placed in the position,
as is charged against us, of carrying on the business merely for its profits,
nor can we be expected to stand out against public opinion, prejudiced
and excited, in sustaining a system, however beneficial to the public,
after it has become unremunerative and hazardous to the stockholders
of the bank. If public sentiment is now against it, and if it is less ap-
preciated by the trading community and the city banks than hereto-
fore, the cause is not to be found in the mode of pursuing it. The time
has arrived for surrendering our agency in the system as heretofore
conducted. Our responsibility in it must cease, because its main feat-
ure, the right to send home bills for specie, can not be given up with-
out destroying its efficiency, because our exercise of this right is
effectually made use of by those hostile to the Suffolk Bank system to
place the bank in a false position before the public, and because under
existing circumstances the bank does not wish to stand in the way of a
trial of the attempted experiment of a foreign money system to be
conducted on less stringent principles."

For more than forty years the Suffolk system had exerted a most
wholesome influence on banking in New England, keeping a salutar)^
check upon the issues of the banks and giving this section a nearly uni-
form bank note currency. " It was the underlying principle of the
vSuffolk Bank system," says Mr. Whitney in his history of this bank,
already so largely drawn upon for facts and figures, " that any bank
issuing circulation should keep itself at all times in a condition to be
able to redeem it ; that it should measure the amount by its ability to
do so ; and that the exercise at any time of the right to demand specie
of a bank for its bills was something of which the issuing bank had no
right to complain. The directors enunciated this principle when they
first entered into the foreign mone}- business in their controversv with
the agent of the Springfield Bank in 1824, and they acted upon it dur-

254 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ing the whole existence of the S3\stem, and they gave up the business
because the exercise of the right was made use of effectually, by banks
hostile to the system, to place the bank in a false position before the
public. Yet the bank had not labored in vain ; it found the currency
of New England in a chaotic condition ; but by piitting this principle in
practice it had brought order out of confusion, and had compelled the
banks to keep themselves stronger than they otherwise would, and to
live up to a principle, the justice of which they could not deny, although
the practice of it might cause them to forego some seeming immediate
profits, and to this latter class must be attributed much of the hostility
it provoked."

On the loth of June, IH-tl), Mr. Henry B. Stone died, having served
as president of the Suffolk Bank for twenty-three years, and to him,
under the careful guidance and wise counsel of the foreign money com-
mittee, was due the great measui"e of success which the bank attained.
He was succeeded as president by Jeffrey Richardson, who had been a
director since 1823. In 1837 Matthew S. Parker, after having served
for nineteen years as cashier, resigned, and was succeeded by Isaac C.
Brewer. Mr. Brewer continued in the service of the bank for sixteen
years, when he resigned, and Edward T3der was elected in his stead.

Mr. Richardson continued as president until April, 1854, when fail-
ing health compelled him to resign. Mr. J. Amory Davis was elected
as his successor. In May, 18(;'->, Mr. William Grubb died, after having
served in the bank as principal officer of the foreign money depart-
ment for nearly forty years. He was a most faithful, able and judi-
cious officer. He was succeeded by Mr. Eli E. Russell, who had been
in the employ oi the bank for twenty-nine years. Mr. Russell remained
in charge of this department of the business until it was discontinued.

After the passage of the present National Bank act in 18(:i4, the Suf-
folk Bank reorganized under tliat act as the vSuffolk National Bank.
At this time its capital was increased from $1, ()()(», (»()0 to $l,5nO,0(){).
The redemption of foreign mone}^ now being at an end, the bank
turned its attention to the regular 1:)usiness of discounting commercial
pajicr. Its success was marked till the panic of 1ST3, having paid an
average dividend of nine and three-eighths per cent, per annuin, and
accumulated a surplus of $200, (H)(). It was in a strong condition when
the panic came, and was able to meet all of its oliligations without
being obliged to resort to clearing house certificates by the pledge of
its securities.

BANKING INSTirUTIONS. 255

On the 5th of May, 1805, Mr. Davis, the president, died. For a
short time thereafter Mr. Nathaniel Davis temporarily served as presi-
dent. He was followed by Mr. Samuel W. vSwett, who resigned in
in 1ST4:, and Mr. Henry Austin Whitney was ehosen as his successor.
Two years later Mr. Whitney resigned to take the presidency of the
Boston and Providence Railroad Company. Mr. Swett temporarily
held the position until April 1, 1870, when Mr. Whitney was again
elected president, in which position he still continues to serve.

The condition of the Suffolk National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business, March (i, ISOo, was as
follows ;

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,581 ,508.07

Overdrafts, secured 2.47

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

vStocks, certificates, etc 12,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 246,636. 71

Due from other National Banks 258,162.02

Banking house, furniture and fixtures 850,000. 00

Current expenses and taxes paid 12,878.51

Checks and other cash items 846.00

Exchanges for clearing-house 79,895.00

Bills of other banks 18,600.00

Specie 167,756.81

Legal tender notes 26,000.00

Redemption fund with \J. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $8, 7i)5, 585. 59

Li.\i!n,rriES.

Capital stock paid in $1 ,500,000.00

Surplus fund , 800,000.00

Undivided profits 152,179.45

National Bank notes outstanding -. 44,250.00

Dividends unpaid 814. 50

Individual deposits subject to check 671,960.27

Demand certificates of deposit 4,798.08

Certified checks 28,717.47

Cashier's checks outstanding 15,000.00

Due to other National Banks 722,788.57

Due to State Banks and bankers 860,082.25

Total $8,795,585. 59

256 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

NATIONAL CITY BANK.

In 1822, one year before the Bank of Enoland resumed speeie pay-
ment, and three years after the finaneial erash of 181t) in this eountry,
the City Bank of Boston was chartered. The charter, which was
granted February 21, 1822, was to continue from April, 1822, to Oc-
tober, 1832. The capital was to be $500, ()()() in gold and silver in addi-
tion to such part as the Commonwealth should subscribe, divided into
shares of $100 each. Among- the original stockholders, with number
of shares purchased, were :

William Appleton 25 Jacob W. Knapp 30

William Appleton, trustee ___.!()() Edmund Mun roe 27

Benjamin B. Appleton... 10 John McLean 100

George Brinley 70 Josiah Stedman 80

Abraham Babcock 60 Barney Smith .... 50

Amos Binney 180 Samuel Train 30

Thomas Brewer 50 Winslow Wright 30

Thomas Cordis 122 Theodore Wright 138

Pliny Cutler 355 Seth Wright 100

Richard Cobb 100 Samuel K. Williams 221

John Hopkins 200 Eliphalet Williams 50

The first meeting of the stockholders was held on Friday, March 8,
1822, at the Old Exchange Coffee House, at which meeting two hun-
dred and forty votes were cast and the following directors were chosen :
Barney vSmith, Thomas Cordis, George Brinley, Eliphalet Williams,
Samuel K. Williams, Luther Faulkner, Pliny Cutler, Jesse Putnam and
Joseph H. Adams. On February 10, 1827, the capital was increased to
$1,000,000, and has since remained at this amount.

The City Bank was reorganized under the National Bank act, No-
vember 10, 1804, when its present name, the National City Bank, was
received. Its directors at the time the change was effected were:
William T. Andrews, Charles W. Cartwright, Christopher C. Chadwick,
Arthur L. Devens, Joseph B. Glove, Patrick Grant, vSamuel R. Payson,
S. Endicott Peabody and Charles L. Thayer.

The following is a list of all the presidents of the City Bank, with
term of service, from 1822 to the present time:

Barney vSmith, from Mar

George Brinley, " Oct.

Francis J. Oliver, " "

Daniel P. Parker,
Charles W. Cartwright, " "

11,

1822,

to Oct.

'^,

1827,

( ( ( (

'i,

1830.

1830,

(1 ( i

«,

1831),

183!l,

a a

20,

1840,

20,

1840,

" Mar.

30,

1852,

BA NKING INS TITUTIONS.

257

William T. xVndrews, from Mar. 30, 1852, to Mar. 25, 185(i.

25, 185G,

Aug". 20, 1856,
Oct. 13, 1857,
Aug". 13, 1858,
Jan. 11, 1870,
Aug. 28, 1883,
" 19, 188G,
Oct. 22, 1880,
Jan. 8, 1889,
Mar. 28, 1890,

Aug-. 20, 1850.
Oct. 13, 1857.
Aug-. 13, 1858.
Jan. 11, 1870.
Aug. 28, 1883.
" 19, 1880.
Oct. 22, 1880.
Jan. 8, 1889.
Mar. 28, 1890.
present ti-me.

ice-president April 22, 18S!), and served

Charles W. Cartwrig-ht,
William T. Andrews,
Charles W. Cartwrig-ht,
William T. Andrews,
Charles L. Thayer,
Samuel R. Payson,
Wm. R. Dupee, pro tan.
Arthur Burnham,
Wm. R. Dupee,
Leverett S. Tuckerman,
]\Ir. Tuckerman was elected v
until his election as president.

The singular alternations in terms of service between ^^lessrs. Cart-
wright and Andrews were occasioned by their mutual absences in
Europe and elsewhere.

The cashiers of the City Bank have been as follows:
Samuel K. Williams, 1822 to

John Pickens, 1823 "

Eliphalet Williams, 1826 "*

J. E. Williams, 1842 "

Charles C. Barry, 1851 "

George W. Grant. May 23, 1887, "
Charles C. Barry's connection with the bank began in June, 1837, as
bookkeeper, and continued as such until 1851, when he was elected as
cashier. He resigned the latter office on May 23, 1887, after a contin-
uous service in the bank for fifty years.

The present oflficers of the bank are: President, Leverett S. Tuck-
erman; cashier, George W. Grant; directors, Royal P. Barry, Richard
Briggs, Edmund W. Converse, William R. Dupee, George Mixture,
Edward L. Pickard, Samuel P. Colt, Henry B. Sprague, Alfred Winsor
and Leverett S. Tuckerman.

The condition of the National City Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business, March 0, .1893, was as
follows :

1823.

1820.

18-t2.

185L
May 23, 1887.
present time.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts

U. S. bonds to secure circulation.

vStocks, certificates, etc

_ $2,085, 897. 94
50,()(J0.0()
96,58:3.75

2o8 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Due from approved reserve agents _ 185,673.01

Due from other National Banks 113,525.39

Current expenses and taxes paid 19,966.39

Checks and other cash items 1,350.40

Exchanges for clearing-house 303,039.99

Bills of other banks 11,825.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 734.35

Specie 95,120.00

Legal tender notes 50,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $2, 865, 966. 22

iJ.\i!iLrriES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 108,000.00

Undivided profits 50,858.30

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 40.00

Individual deposits subject to check *. 1,188,258.41

Demand certificates of deposit 12,798.27

Certified checks 24,594.05

Due to other National Banks 30,124.33

Due to State Banks and J^ankers 374,292.86

Bills payable 32,000.00

Total $2,865,966.22

NATIONAL EAGLE BANK.

The banking- in.stitution, now known as the National Eagle Bank,
was ehartered the same day as the City Bank, under the name of the
Merchants' Bank, with a capital of $500, ( )()(). The name was after-
wards chang-ed by the committee on banks to Eagie Bank. The petition
for its incorporation was sig-ned by the following- merchants and
capitalists: Henry Gray, Joseph Balch, William Goddard, Abbot Law-
rence, William B. Swett, John A. Lowell, Jositdi Marshall, Samuel
Dorr, Elisha Bing-ham, Nathaniel Curtis, PIcnr_v Hall, Enoch Silsby,
Titus Welles, Samuel May, Benjamin Thompson, Joshua Blake, Will-
iam Lawrence and Robert Waterston.

The Merchants' Instirance Company was largely interested in the
establishment of this bank, and at its outset in 1822 took 2,400 of the
,"),()()() shares of the corporation. Many of the original stockholders
afterwards became of great business eminence, and some attained
national and world-wide celebrity. The following are some of the most
prominent of the original list ;

BA XKIXG IXS TirUTIONS.

259

John Brooks. Geo. Hallett. Enoch Silsby.

Enoch Bartlett. A. & A. Lawrence. Xath. Silsbee.

Wm. Boardman. John A. Lowell. Joshua Sears.

Xath. Curtis. Elijah Loring. Benj. Thompson.

John Col ton. John Lowell, jr. Thomas Tarbell.

Samuel Dorr. Josiah Marshall. John Tyler.

Benj. V. French. Samuel May. Wm. Tucker.

William Goddard. James Means. Francis Watts.

Nath. Goddard. Jeremiah Nelson. Titus Welles.

Henry Gray. Oliver Putnam. Thomas West.

Henry Hall. Augfustus Peabody. Ezra Weston, jr.

John Hooper. Wm. B. Reynolds. Aaron D. Wild.

Benj. P. Haner. Robert Roberts. Benj. AVillis.
Wm. B. Swett.

The original officers chosen by the stockholders were as follows :
President, Titus Welles; cashier, H. B. Stone; directors, Titus Welles,
Elsha Bingham, Henry Hall, Enoch Silsby, William Goddard, Thomas
West, Augustus Peabody, John Williams, Robert Waterston, Benjamin
Thompson, George Hallett and William B. Swett.

In 1853 the capital of the Eagle Bank was increased to $700,000, and
in 1860 to $1,000,000. In April, 1865, it was reorganized under the
National Bank act, under its present name of the National Eagle
Bank.

This institution has had but three presidents: Titus Welles, who
served from 1822 to 1851; Waldo Flint, from 1851 to 186T; and Robert
S. Covell, who was elected in 186T and still continues as president.
He has been connected with the bank for forty-three years.

The cashiers have been as follows: Henry B. Stone, from 1822 to
1825; John J. Fiske, 1825 to 1839; Waldo Flint, 1839 to 1851; Robert
S. Covell, 1851 to 1867; Charles W. Melcher, 18(;r to 1868; and Will-
iam G. Brook, from 1868 to the present time.

The condition of the National Eagle Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business, March 6, 1893, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts §2,089,644.09

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured , 142. 80

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 24, 905. 88

Due from approved reserve agents 156,053.06

2(^0 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Due from other National Banks 187,036.74

Current expenses and taxes paid 20,274.50

Premiums on U. S. bonds 7,000.00

Checks and other cash items - 917.04

Exchanges for clearing-house 41,495.89

Bills of other banks 8,668.00

Specie 1 41 ,091. 47

Legal tender notes 61,575.00

Due from U. S. Treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 2,250.00

Total $2, 791,053. 97

LL-XKILITIES.

Capital Stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 112,200.00

Undivided profits 112,904.76

National Bank notes outstanding 43,500.00

Dividends unpaid 20.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,254,278.00

Demand certificates of deposit 1,092.02

Certified checks 4,401.68

Due to other National Banks 212,584.93

Due to State Banks and bankers 50,122.63

Total $2, 79 1 , 053. 97

COLUMBIAN NATIONAL BANK.

The Columbian Bank was incorporated by an act of the Legislature
passed February 20, 1822. By that act Phineas Upham, Edmund
Dwight, vSamucl Appleton, William Appleton, Thomas Motley and
Daniel Parker, their associates, successors and assigns, were incorpo-
rated to continue from the third Wednesday in April, 1822, to the first
Monday in October, 1831, the bank always to be subject to the same
rights, privileges and immunities contained in the charter which incor-
porated the vState Bank, excepting certain specified modifications and
additions. The amount of bills to be issued by the bank was not to
exceed fifty per cent, of its actual capital in specie. Its capital was to
consist of $500,000 in gold and silver, to be besides such part as the
State might subscribe, and divided into shares of $100 each. The first
stockholders' meeting was held at the Exchange Coffee House on
Tuesda}', April li, 1<S22. at which tiine the following citizens were
chosen as the first board of directors: William Appleton, Warren
Button, Edmund Dwight, William H. Eliot, Henry Lincoln, Amos
Lawrence, Dudley L. Pickman, Thomas Motley, William Sturgis,

BA XKL\ 'G L\S TIT I 'TIOXS.

^fil

Augustus Thorndike, Samuel Whitmire, jr., and Ebenezer Appleton.
At the same time William Sturgis was chosen president, and William
Coffin, jr., cashier.

The following is a complete list of the original shareholders of the
Columbian Bank and the number of shares for which they subscribed :

William Appleton 100

William Appleton, trustee 300

Samuel Appleton 100

Nathan Appleton 210

Eliza Appleton 20

Boston Athenaeum 40

Eliza Buckminster 15

Kirk Boott 150

John Bromfield 40

John Lowell, jr 50

Giles Lodge 100

Amos Lawrence, trustee 6

A. & A. Lawrence 180

W. & P. Lawrence 222

Thos. & Edward Motley 255

Munson & Barnard 100

Robt. Means 20

Robt. Means, jr 10

Bryant & Sturgis 190

Andrew Bigelow 50

Joseph Chapman 5

John Davis 10

Edmund Dwight 50

Jonathan Dwight, jr 250

W. & L Dwight 70

Warren Dutton 100

William Davis 50

Franklin Dexter 20

Peter R. Dalton 20

S. A. Eliot and S. Henshaw, trustees. .200

William H. Eliot 50

John French 60

Samuel Henshaw 50

Samuel F. Jarvis . . 25

James Jackson 50

WiUiam Prescott 30

William U. Prescott 40

Ebenezer Rollins 50

Jeffrey Richardson 20

Springfield Bank . 100

Ignatius Sargent 30

Francis Stanton 100

Joseph Story 10

Mary Woodbury 10

Patrick T. Jackson 150

Benj. Seaver 10

Edward Sharp 10

Estate of Isaac Storj- 30

Tappan & Mansfield 50

C. & A. Thorndike 50

Phineas L^pham 270

George B. L'pham 100

Charles Jackson 50

Jackson & Lincoln 50

Charles Lowell 20

William H. Ward & Co 100

Henry Upham 35

Lucy Upham 32

John C. Warren 20

Whitwell & Bond... 120

The following is a list of all the presidents of the Columbian Bank
and the dates of their terms of service :

William Sturgis,

Joseph Tilden,

John G. Torrey,

John T. Coolicige,

Frank E. Sweetser, />;'<?. tcm., Dec.

Horatio Xewhall, Feb.

Apr. 9, 1S2-2, to Apr. -^8, 18-24.

" -28, 1824, " Aug. 1, 183T.

Aug. 1, 1837, " " 1, 1853.

1, 1853, " decease Dec, 1889.

1889, " Feb. G, 1890.

(!, 1890, "' the present time.

202 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Subjoined arc the names of all who have served as cashier, with
periods of service:

William Coffin, jr., April 10, 182->, to Nov. 12, 1850.

James M. Gordon, Nov. 12, 1850, " June, 1854.

Albert Drake, Ji:ne, 1854, "vSept., 1804.

James M. Gordon, Dec. 1, 1804, " Oct. 1, 1887.

Lorenzo W. Burlen, Oct. 1, 1887, " present time.

Long' terms of service seem to have characterized the officers of the
Columbian Bank, a fact which speaks equally well for the institution
and themselves. The lon^-cst term of service was that of Georg-e
Cushman, who died at an advanced a^^e at his home in Hingham sev-
eral years ag^o. He came to the bank at its commencement in 1822, as
its bookkeeper, and after forty-three years he retired on the 15th of
May, 1805, the bank making him a present of $2,000 as a parting
souvenir. Among the deceased directors who served for conspicuously
long periods were John Gardner, formerly treasurer of the Hamilton
Woollen Company; George M. Barnard, George W. Lyman, William
R. Robeson and Lsaac Sweetser, formerly president of the Washington
Insurance Company.

The original locality of the Columbian Bank was at the southwest
corner of State and Devonshire streets (formerly Wilson's Lane).
From 1871 until its removal to its present elegant quarters in the Ames
Building, it was for about sixteen years located at 05 vState street and
for about five years at 00 Devonshire street.

In October, 1854, the capital of the bank was increased to $750,000,
and on April 10, 1801, to its present amount, $1,000,000. It became a
national bank in April, 180*5. The board of directors for 1802 is as
follows: Charles Henry Parker, Joseph S. Lovering, George B. Chase,
Gamaliel Bradford, C. A. Coleman, Charles W. Chamberlin, Frank E.
Sweetser, Horatio Newhall, J. T. Coolidge, Herbert Lyman and Nel-
son S. Bartlett.

The condition of the Columbian National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of currency at the close of business, March (!, 1803, was as
follows:

RESOURCKS.

Loans and discounts $1 ,439,282.71

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 72. 69

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 250,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 320,927.26

(^yT~>^'2.^^

BANKING INSTirUTlONS. 263

Due from other National Banks 128,311.98

Current expenses and taxes paid 29,177.88

Premiums on U. S. bonds 31,500.00

Checks and other cash items 9.55. 22

Exchanges for clearing-house '. 86,349.87

Bills of other banks 4,522.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 209.20

Specie 185,745.00

Legal tender notes 1 30,820.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 20,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 11,250.00

Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 0,000.00

Total $3,545,123.81

LI.ABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 155,000.00

Undivided profits 90,308.99

National Bank notes outstanding 82,250.00

Individual deposits subject to check, 1,349,346.51

Demand certificates of deposit 12, 603. 58

Certified checks 4,314.68

Due to approved reserve agents, . 58,847.53

Due to other National Banks 342,275.46

Due to State Banks and bankers 275,177.06

Bills payable 175,000.00

Total $3,545, 123. 81

GLOBE NATIONAL BANK.

The eleventh bank which was chartered by the Legislature of Massa-
chusetts was the Globe Bank, now known as the Globe National Bank.
It was incorporated in June, 1S24, with a capital of $750,000, which
was increased to $1,000,000 in 1827. The first board of directors was
composed of Abel Adams, Levi Bartlett, Stephen Fairbanks, vSamitel
Henshaw, David Low, James Read, Benjamin Seaver, Enoch vSilsby,
Lewis Tappen, Isaac C. Pray, Francis Watts and Daniel Weld. Isaac
C' Pray was elected the first president of the bank, and served until
December, 1829, and on January 11, 1830, James Read was elected as
his successor. Mr. Read continued in office till March 17, 1842, when
he resigned, and was followed as president by Ignatius Sargent, who
served till December 21, 18G4, when he resigned.

In March the Globe Bank was reorganized tinder the National Bank
act and became the Globe National Bank. From the time the bank

264 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

was organized until the ehange was effected under the National Bank
system, Charles vSprague, the "banker poet," had served as cashier, and
his connection with the bank served not a little to give the institution
popularity and fame. After th& reorganization as a national bank, the
following were elected as directors: William B. Stevens, Ignatius Sar-
gent, Stephen Fairbanks, F. H. Story, S. H. Pearce, N. Thayer, F. A.
Gray, P. C. Brooks, E. R. Mudge. WiUiam B. Stevens was elected
president and Charles James Sprague cashier. These two officers con-
tinued to serve in their respective positions until I88I; when C. O.
Billings was chosen president and Charles Cole cashier, and have since
served as such officers. Mr. Billings has had a varied experience in
banking and for some time very acce])tably filled the responsible posi-
tion of bank examiner.

For many years the Globe Bank was located in the rather quaint
looking granite structure, with portico and pillared front in the Doric
style of architecture, which stood at the corner of State street and
Wilson's Lane. The latter thoroughfare has of late years been widened
and is now known as the extension of Devonshire street. From its
original location the Globe Bank removed to 40 vState street, where it
remained until the latter part of 1802, when it removed to its present
charters in the building erected by the bank, corner of State street and
Merchants' Row. The directors of the bank for 1892 are: Charles E.
Stevens, C. O. Billings, Charles G. White, James L. Wesson, George H.
Ball, Charles H. Cole, Horace H. Stevens, Henry Brooks and A. S.
Bigelow.

Charles Sprague, the well-remembered poet, was so long connected
with the Globe Bank that mention of either calls up memories of both.
That gifted and exemplary citizen was born in Boston, October 2(j, 1701,
and died here Jan. 22, 1875. At an early age he left the schools of this
city to accjuire a knowledge of trade, and in 1812, at the age of twenty-
one, he commenced the business of merchant on his own account, and
continued in it till the year 1824, when he was elected cashier of the
Globe Bank. He now divided his attention between the notes of Par-
nassus and those of the financier. While fingering the notes of the
bank he found leisure to twang the lyre, and proved himself, like Fitz
(jreene Halleck, an expert at both. His banking duties did not pre-
vent him from studying the works of masters of English poetry, nor
from writing the admirable poems on which was based the reputation
by which mainly he will be made known to posterity. His first pro-

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 265

ductions that attracted attention were a series of brilliant prologues,
the first of which was written for the Park Theatre in New York in
IS-n. His "Shakespeare Ode" was delivered in the Old Boston
Theatre, in Federal street, in 18-23, at an exhibition in honor of wShake-
speare. It is one of the most vigorous and exquisite lyrics in the Eng-
lish language. " Curiosity " is the longest and best of his poems. It was
delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa vSociety at Cambridge, in August,
1829. Several of his shorter poems evince great skill in the use of lan-
guage, and show him to have been a master of the poetic art. When
he wrote poetic addresses, he so invariably won from all competitors
the offered prize, that finally he refused to write for a prize, declaring
with great magnanimity that henceforth he would leave the field open
to younger artists. He was an ardent admirer of painting, and his
residence at the South End, where he dwelt for so many years, was a
museum of pictures. Everywhere he was respected for his integrity
and beloved for his kindness of heart. He was a man of ready wit, of
which the following gives a good example : A stranger, it is said, once
applied to him at the counter of the Globe Bank for his autograph, and
asked him how much he would charge. "One dollar," replied the
cashier. The man tendered the dollar, and vSprague, who was fond of
a quiet joke, handed him a one dollar note of the Globe Bank with his
name on it as cashier! Mr. Sprague's son, Charles James Sprague, who
succeeded his father as ca.shier of the bank, also paid court to the
muses, but only to a limited extent.

The condition of the Globe National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller at the close of business, March 6, 1893, was as follows:

rp:sol"rces.

Loans and discounts 83,113,522.23

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 3,899. 19

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 238,9(30.00

Due from approved reserve agents 306,225. 18

Due from other National Banks 283,654.15

Due from State Banks and bankers 45,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 26,518.81

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 5,500.00

Checks and other cash items . _ . 2,538. 18

Exchanges for clearing-house 300,941.59

Bills of other banks 23,550.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 205.05

Specie 246,000.00

2G0 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Legal tender notes 134,00(1. 00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,772,764.38

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000;00

Surplus fund (>5,500.()0

Undivided profits 1)2,714.47

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 180.00

Individual deposits subject to check 2,147,072.69

Demand certificates of deposit 64,490.48

Certified checks 122,402.37

Cashier's checks outstanding 27,068.42

Due to other National Banks 969,758.38

Due to vState Banks and bankers 34, 627. 57

Bills payable 204,000.00

Total $4, 772, 764. 38

WASHINGTON NATIONAL BANK.

The Washino'ton Bank was the twelfth Boston bank ehartered by the
Massachusetts Legislature, and obtained its charter February 25, 1825.
The original incorporators were : Daniel Baxter, William Doll, Thomas
Hunting, Joseph P. Cooke, Jonathan P. Stearns, John Thompson,
Thomas Brewer, Josiah Knapp, French & Weld, Aaron Baldwin, Benj.
V. French, Charles Thacher and Windsor Fay. The bank was to con-
tinue, according to its original charter, from the third Monday in
March, 1825, to the first Monday in October, 1831. The capital was
to be $500,000 in gold and silver, in addition to such amount as the
State might elect to subscribe. The first meeting of the stockholders
of the bank was held at the Lafayette Hotel March 23, 1825, when the
following officers and directors were chosen : Aaron Baldwin, presi-
dent; Henry Jacques, cashier; Aaron Baldwin, Thomas Brewer, Samuel
Bradlcc, Joseph P. Cooke, Charles Davis, Windsor Fay, Oliver Fisher,
Josiah Stedman, John Thompson, Daniel Weld, Closes Williams and
Barnabas T. Loring, directors.

The Washington Bank was eminently a South End institution at the
beginning, subscribers to its stock including such well known residents
of that cjuarter of the city as were then represented by the names of
John Parker, Justin Aiulrews, I->enj. Atkins, Lemuel Brackett, Edward
Bugbee, John I. Brown, Lewis Jvallard, Hosea Ballou, Thomas Brewer,

BANKIXG IXSTITrTIONS. 20t

Thomas Carter, Stephen Child, O. W. Champney, David Dudley, Elias
H. Derby, Luther Felton, Windsor Fay, Benjamin V. French, Jonathan
Goddard, Benjamin J. Gilbert, George Hayward, William Hayden,
James Hendlev, Thomas Huntings, Barnabas T. Loring and John
Lowell. The bank was first located in a building nearly opposite
Beach street and near the spot where previously grew the famous
" Liberty Tree." A short time thereafter it was removed to the com-
paratively small but substantial structure built expressly for the bank
at the corner of Beach and Washington streets. Many of our readers
will remember that its granite front, with long steps, vestibule and
cvlindrical pillars, was fashioned in the simple "manly Doric " style of
architecture. Here the bank was located for some twenty years, when
experience proved it far better for the expanded interest of the bank
that it should be located in vState street, then and always the centre of
Boston's banking aiTairs. It now has handsome quarters in the Ex-
change Building.

The Washington h^is had only three presidents since its origin. Mr.
Baldwin served till 1850, a period of twenty-five years, and was suc-
ceeded in November of that year by Almon D. Hodges, who was fol-
lowed by Eben Bacon, the present head of the bank.

There have been four cashiers, in the order named : Henry Jacques,
Daniel A. Sigourney, Charles A. Putnam and W. Henry Brackett.

Some of the directors served for unusually long periods. Among
them, Moses Williams, who was one of the original directors and re-
mained so until 18G(J, a period of forty-one years. Josiah Stedman,
also an original director, served until 18G8. a period of forty-three
vears. Josiah P. Cooke, still another member of the first board, retired
in 18<)(), after a term of forty-one years. Alanson Tucker was a direc-
tor for thirty-two years. James H. Champney was an officer in the
bank for many years, having entered its service in L8o4.

The Washington became a national bank on January 1, 18()5. Its
capital is $750,000.

The board of directors for 18i)-2 is as follows: Eben Bacon, Edward
I. Brown, Caleb A. Curtis, John C. Inches, J. M. Pendergast, C.
Minot Weld, James R. Hooper, William B. Lambert and Henry B.
Chapin.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business March (J, 18'.»o, was as
follows :

208 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts . 81,436,498.46

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 44. 13

U. S. bonds to secure circulation .iO,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 121,496.67

Due from approved reserve agents 111,428.69

Due from other National Banks 24,454.21

Current expenses and taxes paid 22,538.50

Checks and other cash items 2,718.08

Exchanges for clearing-house 15,815.68

Bills of other banks 5,373.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 17.83

Specie 57,015.00

Legal tender notes 26,000.00

Redemption fund with L". S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total 31,875,650.25

LI.A.BILITIES.

Capital stock paid in S 750,000.00

Surplus fund 300,000.00

Undivided profits 54,679.55

National Bank notes outstanding _ . 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 162.50

Individual deposits subject to check 622,225.84

Demand certificates of deposit 12,114.26

Certified checks 6,196.75

Due to other National Bank 2,105.89

Due to State Banks and bankers 83, 1 65. 96

Total SI ,875,650.25

NORTH NATIONAL BANK.

The Xorth, now the North National, wa.s the thirteenth Boston
bank, and was chartered June 18, 1825, with a capital of $500,000.
William Little, William B. Bradford, Ebenezer Cloiigh, Henry J.
Oliver, Ezra Eaton, Theodore Dexter, Henry D. Gray, P. P. F. De-
grand, *' their associates and assigns," were the original cor]3orators ;
the bank to continue till Monday, October 1, 1831. At a ineeting of
the stockholders, embracing such inen as Atnos and John Binney,
Andrew Blanchard. jr., Joseph Ballister, Edward H. Adams, Frederick
Gould, David Henshaw, John D. Howard, William Little, Robert
Lyon, Henry Orne, Thomas Power, William S. Rogers, David
Thacher, and many others of the leading merchants and financiers of
Boston of that day, held at the Hancock school-house on July 1, 1825,

BAXKING INSTITCTIONS. 269

the following- board of directors was elected : George Hallett, Henry
Orne, Amos Farnsworth, J. B. Brown, John Gray, jr. , Isaac Danforth,
Robert Lyon, George Darracutt, E. H. Adams, and Thomas Thacher.
At the same time John Binney was elected president and Gordon Steele
cashier.

As an evidence of the judicious management of the North Bank dur-
ing the earlier years of its existence, its history during the memorable
panic of 1837 furnishes a striking incident. In common with other
Boston banks it was compelled to suspend specie payment on the 12th
of May of that year, but the bank stood stronger at that moment than
at any previous period. During the whole of that crisis in financial
affairs the North Bank did not lose a single dollar by any loan, nor did
it have a single piece of paper which had been dishonored during that
period; in fact, though its business was moderate, the profits even
enabled it to pay a dividend in October, 183T. A report of the direc-
tors at this time declared that the bank was in a condition to join with
any other banks to bring about a return to specie payment, and that it
was in great degree owing to the skill and judgment of the cashier,
Gordon Steele, and his associates, that "amid the wrecks around
them " they were able to make so favorable a statement of the bank's
affairs. The honorable exhibit then made was in pleasing contrast
with that of the banks which went under never to rise again, and
whose alleged mismanagements were subjected to the caustic reviews
and censure of the Boston journals of that day.

The original location of the North Bank was at 20 North Market
street. In 1843 it was moved to the Merchants' Exchange Building in
State street; in 1864 to 18 Kilby street; subsequently to 53 Devonshire
street, and since June, 1874, its location has been, as at present, at the
southeast corner of Franklin and Devonshire streets. Its capital was
increased to $750,000 in April, 1850, and has since been increased to
$1,000,000. It became the North National Bank on October 6, 1864,
and at the first meeting of the stockholders held thereafter, on January
10, 1865, the following men were chosen directors, each receiving- the
whole number of votes cast, 1504: Charles G. Nazro, Elijah Williams,
Henry T. Duhmd, James O. Safford, George Whitney, Leonard S.
Jones, John Worcester, and Rufus S. Frost.

Annexed is a list of the presidents of the North Bank and dates of
their terms of service :

2tO SUFFOLK COUNTY.

John Binney, from Auo". 1^>, 1825, to Apr. 20, IS:}:}.

Isaac Danforth, " Apr. 2'), is;}:i, " Jan. 13, 18:34:.

John W. Totill, " Jan. i:5, 18:U, " Oct. 11, 1844.

James Harris, " Oct. IS, 1841, " Mar. 11), 1850.

Oliver Eldridge, " Mar. l!i, 1850, " Oct. :K), 1855.

Charles G. Nazro, " Oct. ;50, 1855, " " 20, 1871.

Elijah Williams, " " 20, 1871, " Nov. 7, 1871.

Chandler R. Ran.soin, " Nov. 7, 1871, " Jan. 12,1875.

George Whitney, " Jan. 12,1875," " 10,1882.

John B. Witherbee, " " 10, 1882, " Oct. 4, 1801.

Rufns vS. Frost, " Oct. 8, 18'.»1, " present time.

Mr. Frost has been connected with the bank as a director ever since
180;i.

The cashiers in order of service have been as follows:

Gordon vSteele, from Aug. 15, 1825, to Nov. 2, 1843.

John J. Loring, " Nov. 2, 1843, " July 1, 1850.

John B. Witherbee, " July 1, 1850, " Jan. 10, 1882.

Edward A. Burbank, " Jan. 12, 18S2, " present time.

Mr. Burbank entered the employ of the bank in 18(54, and enjoys a
well-earned reputation as a careful and conscientious oi^ficer. The
administration of President Ransom was characterized by an increase
of business unprecedented in the history of the bank. President
Witherbee died October 4, 18(il, and " in the harness," as it were, after
having faithfully served the bank for a period of fifty-four years. Will-
iam H. Learned, the present vice-president of the bank, a well-known
and active business men, has served in the board of directors since
1874.

The board of directors for 181»2 is as follows: Rufus S. Frost, Will-
H. Learned, Jeremiah Williams, Samuel N. Brown, Leander Beal,
George Hutchinson, John Hopewell, jr. , Edgar Harding, Horace W.
Wadleigh, Joseph A. Brown.

The condition of the North National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency, at the close business, March 0, 1803, was as
follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,869, 1 12.29

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 100,0(10.00

Other stocks, bonds, etc 13l,;^18.3()

Due from ai)pn)ved reserve agents 417,082.09

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 271

Due from other National Banks 241,269.33

Current expenses and taxes paid 19,207.98

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 14,002. oO

Checks and other cash items 403. s?

Exchanges for clearing-house 124,005.70

Bills of other National Banks 757.00

Fractional currency (including nickels) 23.88

Specie (including gold treasury notes) 245. 438. 25

Legal tender notes 29,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasury, 5 per cent, of circulation. 4,.")00.00

Total $4,196,901.25

LI.A.BIL1T1ES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 350,000. 00

Other undivided profits 95,372.27

National Bank notes outstanding 90,000.00

Dividends unpaid 045. 00

Individual deposits subject to check $1,417,954.45

Demand certificates of deposit 44,900.00

Certified checks 9,408.80

Cashier's checks outstanding 47,124.72

1,519,447.97

Due to other National Banks 505,024. 15

Due to State Banks and bankers 395,871.86

Bills payable 240,000.00

Total $4, 190, 961. 25

BUNKER HILL NATIONAL BANK.

Previous to 1S:>5 the merchants of Charlestown made use of the Boston
banks, which up to that time afforded quite sufficient facilities for the
local business interest of the place. In the year named, however,
many of the leadin,^- inerchants of the town thought the trade and
commercial interest of the town had grown to such pr(jportions as to
require a purely local institution. This led to the incorporation of the
Bimker Hill Bank, which was chartered by the Legislature of Massa-
chusetts in lS-2o, with a capital of $150,000. The first board of directors
was elected July 27, 1825, and was composed of Timothy Walker, Na-
than Tufts, Isaac Mead, David Devens, Isaac Warren, Seth Knowles,
Thomas J. Goodwin, Jotham Johnson arid Elias Phinney. Jtdy 30,
three days later, the board organized with choice of Timothy Walker
as president, and August 29 of the same year Henry Jacques was

272 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

chosen cashier. The bankins^ room at this time was in the old Wash-
ington Hall building on Main street, now occupied by Kidd's drug-
store, and here it remained about five years, or until 1830, when it
took possession of its banking rooms in a building on the present site
occupied by the bank in City Scpiare, at the corner of what is now
called Park street. In the great fire of I800 this building was dam-
aged, and while it was being rebuilt the bank occupied a portion of the
brick building numbered 18 on Main street. A granite building was
erected on the old site, which is remembered by many old residents.
In 1855 the present brick building occupied by the bank was
erected.

There have been but five presidents of the Bunker Hill Bank. Tim-
othy Walker served from 1825 to 1835; Daniel Devens from 1835 until
his death in August, 1855; Edward Lawrence from 1855 until his death
in 1885; Timothy T. vSawyer from 1885 to 1890; and Charles R. Law-
rence from the latter date until the present time. Edward Lawrence
was elected a director of the bank in October, 1842, and served in this
capacity for forty-three years, and as president for thirty years, a term
of service exceeded by few in the banking histor}' c^f Boston.

Henry Jacques, after serving as cashier for three years, was suc-
ceeded by Thomas Marshall, who filled this important position for
thirty-one years, from 1828 to 1850, during which time he was associ-
ated with three presidents of the l)ank, Timothy Walker, Daniel
Devens and Edward Lawrence. On the death of Cashier Marshall, in
1859, George Lincoln was chosen casliier, and held the position until
1804, and was succeeded by James Adams, jr., who served from May
27, 1804, to February 2, 1875. Mr. Adams was succeeded by Charles
R. Lawrence, son (jf Edward Lawrence, who held the office until 1890,
when he was elected president of the bank. Mr. Lawrence was suc-
ceeded as cashier by Fred. K. Brown, who has held the position until
the present time.

The capital of the Ijank was first increased vSeptember 7, 1847, when
it was made $200,000. In January, 1854, it was increased to $300,000,
and in 18(;5, when it became a national bank, it was increased to $500,-
000, of which increase the sum of $100,000 was an extra dividend from
the surplus of the bank. The bank has never had but one vice-presi-
dent, (leorge A. Kettell being elected to that ofifiice April 14, 1805,
when the president, Mr. Lawrence, was about to start for Europe, and
held the position until his death in April, 1809.

BA NKIXG INS TITUTIONS.

273

Fcjllowing' will be found a complete list of the past and present direc-
tors of the Bunker Hill Bank :

ELECTED. RETIRED

Timothy Walker July 27, 1825. Oct. , 1835.

NathanTufts " 27,1825. " 1830.

Isaac Mead " 27,1825. " 1834.

David Devens " 27,1825. " 1855.

Isaac Warren ,, 27,1825. " 1834.

Seth Knowles " 27,1825. " 1826.

Thomas J. Goodwin " 27, 1825. ' ' 1884.

Jotham Johnson " 27,1825. " 1845.

EliasPhinney " 27,1825. " 1831.

Jonathan Brooks Oct. 2. 1826. ' ' 1829.

Thatcher Magoun " 6,1829. " 1830.

James Bird, jr " 4,1830. " 1838.

Oilman Stanley " 4,1830. " 1842.

GilbertTufts " 3,1831. " 1848.

ReubenHunt " 6,1834. " 1848.

LarkinTiirner " 6,1834. " 1845.

Andrew Blanchard, jr " 6, 1834. ' ' 1853.

Eben F. Cutter " 7,1835. " 1851.

Richard Devens " 1.1838. " 1842.

Edward Lawrence " 3,1842. " 1885.

William Arnold " 2,1843. " 1860.

JamesAdams " 6,1845. Nov., 1880.

Daniel White " 6,1845. Oct., 1859.

Geo. A. Kettell - " 2,1848. Apr., 1869.

Joseph Souther " 2,1848. Oct., 1858.

Timothy T. Saw^-er " 6, 1851.

Thos. M. Cutter " 3,1855. Apr., 1871.

Geo. S. Adams " 1,1855. Jan., ISTO.

Jos. Souther, jr. " 4,1858. " 1870.

Edwin F. Adams " 3,1859. Aug., 1871.

C.C.Sampson " 1,1860. Oct., 1862.

Nathan Tufts, jr " 6,1862. " 1887.

Geo. D. Edwards Nov. 12, 1869. Apr. , 1870.

F. M. Holmes Apr. 22, 1870. Sep. , 1884.

Charles O. Gage May 19, 1871. Feb. , 1892.

Nelson Bartlett Jan. 7, 1875.

I. P. T. Edmonds Jan. 1878.

Rhodes Lockwood Jan. 1878.

M. Beebe Mar. 1881.

C. R. Lawrence Dec. 1884.

Nahum Chapin Jan. 1886.

E. B. Hosmer Jan. 1888.

John Turner 1892.

274 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The ccjndition of the Bunker Hill National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business March G, 1803, was
as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,047,144.11

Overdrafts, unsecured 28. 76

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 374, 623. 08

Due from other National Banks 17,338.87

Banking house, furniture and fixtures 25,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 14,421 . 13

Checks and other cash items 21 , 129. 77

Bills of other banks 8,950.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 285.02

Specie 138,901.09

Legal tender notes 31,548.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $2, 331 , 618. 83

I.IABIUTIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 500,000.00

Surplus fund 350,000. 00

Undivided profits 110,023.77

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 935. 50

Individual deposits subject to check 1,318,074.82

Due to other National Banks_ 924.74

Total $2,331,618.83

The personal efforts of no one was more thorouo-hly identified with the
growth and development of the Bunker Hill Bank than those of Hon.
Edward Lawrence, for so many years its president. He was a son of
Stephen Lawrence and a descendant of the Lawrence family so closely
identified with the history of Groton and Littleton. He was born in
Harvard, June 21, 1810, and from April, 1825, until his death in 1885, a
])eriod oi sixty years, was a resident of Charlestown. He was for many
years largely interested in the manufacture of furniture as a member of
the firm of Forster, Lawrence & Co. In 185rt the firm was dissolved, and
from that time Mr. Lawrence carried on the business alone until 18G3,
when he retired, and from that time until his death principally devoted
his time to the manifold duties incumbent upon him as president of the
Bunker Hill Bank.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 275

He earl}" took an active interest in public affairs and under the old
town g-overnment was for many years one of the selectmen of the town.
After Charlestown became a city, he served six years as a member of
the board of aldermen. He was also a inember of the House of Rep-
resentatives from Charlestown in 1858 and 1850, and a member of the
Senate in 1873. He was one of the prime movers in securing' the in-
troduction of the Mystic water into Charlestown, and was for twelve
years chairman of the Mystic Water Commissioners and the Mystic
Water Board. He was a man of excellent business judoment, a care-
ful financier, and a well recogiiized power in the community.

ATLANTIC NATIONAL BANK.

The fourteenth bank, chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature,
was the Atlantic Bank, now the Atlantic National Bank. The act was
passed February 11, 1828, the persons named in the act being James
Reed, Thomas Searle, and John Pickens. • Organization was perfected
and operations begam in j\Iarch, 1828, with a capital of $500,000, and
what was unusual, if not unprecedented among the banks then existing
here, it paid a dividend of two per cent, within six months of the day
it began business.

Following is a list of some of the most prominent of the original
stockholders with number of shares taken :

Benjamin Atkins 10 James Longley 10

John R. Adams 30 John Lemist 30

Abel Adams 30 Edward D. Peters 100

Amos Binnej' .100 John Pickens 20

Jonathan Batchelder 40 James Savage 20

Pliny Cutler 60 Samuel D. Torrey 20

Lorenzo Draper 50 Wm. J. Walker 30

Oliver Eldridge 10 Aaron D. Weld 20

Wm. H. Eliot 50 Thomas Cordis 25

Samuel Fales 50 John Dodd 10

Wm. Freeman 10 George Hallett 25

Benjamin French 100 Mercantile Insurance Company 250

Jonathan French 20 Manufacturers' Insurance Company. .320

Thomas Gaffield 20 Franklin Insurance Company 580

George G. Jones 40 Provident Institution for Savings 420

Josiah Loring 20

The original officers of the bank were: President, John Pickens;
cashier, Benjamin Dodd; directors, John Pickens, Edward D. Peters,
George G. Jones, Hercules M. Hayes, Thomas Searle, James Pickens,

^7G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Jeremiah Hill, Henry F. Baker, Isaac Livermore, Lorenzo Draper,
James K. Mills and William Rollins.

The presidents of the bank with period of service have been as fol-
lows: John Pickens, March o, 1S2S, to May 25, 1830; Pliny Cutler,
May 25, is:50, to October 2, 1854; Nathaniel Harris, October 2, 1854,
to January 12, 18G!), and Isaac Pratt, jr., January 12, 1809, to the pres-
ent time. Benjamin Dodd served as cashier from date of organization
of the bank until April, 1875— a period of forty-seven years— when he
was succeeded by the present cashier, James T. Drown. On the board
of directors of this bank, at different periods from its incorporation,
the following have served: Edward D. Peters, George G. Jones, James
Pickens, Jeremiah Hill, Henry F. Baker, Isaac Livermore, Lorenzo
Draper,' William Rollins, William G. Lambert, Samuel Philbrick, Will-
iam F.' Otis, Benjamin Loring, WiUiam W. Stone, James Johnson,
Charles Stoddard, Oilman Prichard, Francis Fisher, Benjamin D.
Whitney, Montgomery Newell, Amasa Walker, George Hallett, James
Allison, George W. Crockett, Abraham T. Lowe, S. S. Littlebrook, S.
S. Arnold, Ezra C. Hutchins, W. R. P. Washburn, John S. Jenness,
Abel G. Peck, James H. Kelsey, Henry Claflin, Cyrus Dupee, vShad-
rach Robinson, John A. Dodd, Edwin A. Robinson, Edward G. Nicker-
son, John E. Lyon, Edward E. Rice, George W. A. Williams, John
Pea'rce and J. Thomas Vose. The present directors are Isaac Pratt,
jr., T. Quincy Browne, S. T. vSnow, Edward A. Abbott, Edmund T.
Pratt, jlimes T. Drown, William Read, N. Willis Bumstead and Oscar

F. Howe.

The Atlantic Bank was reorganized under the National Bank act in
December, 18(54, at which time its present name was adopted and the
capital increased to $750,000. For the first three years of its existence
this bank was located on State street, above Kilby, but since 1831 it
has been located on its present site, corner of Kilby and Doane streets.

The condition of the Atlantic National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency, at the close of business, March <;, 181)3,
was as follows:

RESOUKCKS.

Loans and discotmts $1,211,644.88

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 561,800.00

Due from approved reserve agents 17;), 764. 18

TXie from other National Banks 5^707.57

Banking house, furniture and fixtures. _ -- 26<,311.50

?^^l^^^2^^

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 277

Current expenses and taxes paid 12,041.53

Premiums on U, S. bonds 7,()()0.()0

Checks and other cash items 125.83

Exchanges for clearing-house 8,203.97

Bills of other banks 1,420.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 45. 60

Specie 150,081.00

Legal tender notes 15,500.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $2, 514,896. 06

LIAIUI.ITIES.

Capital stock paid in S 750,000.00

Surplus fund . 300,000,00

Undivided profits 72,092,51

National Bank notes outstanding 44,500.00

Dividends unpaid 320.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,094,099.19

Demand certificates of deposit 9,166.91

Certified checks . 400.00

Due to other National Banks 74, 559. 39

Di:e to State Banks and bankers 109,665.68

LiabiHties other than those above stated 86. 38

Total $2,516,896.06

MERCHANTS' NATIONAL BANK.

The Merchants' National Bank beg"an business in July, iSol, with a
capital of $500,000. Edward Eldredge was its first president. After
two or three years he resig"ned, and Mark Healy was elected. Mr.
Healy resigned in 1830, and Franklin Haven became president of the
bank and continued to January, 18<S4, when he was succeeded by
Franklin Haven, jr., who now holds the office. Mr. Haven, from 1808
to 1870, was assistant treasurer of the United vStates at Boston.

Among the earl)' friends and stockholders of the bank were James
Savage, vSamixel May, John C. Proctor, William Tuckerman, Henry G.
Chapman, William vSturgis, William Appleton, John Bryant, Nathan
Appleton, Francis G. Gray, Peter C. Brooks. The first board of
directors was coinposed of William Eager, N. F. Cunningham, John
B. Jones, dishing ]\Iitchell, John C. Proctor, Luke Fay, William
Tuckerman, Mark Healy and Horace Gray. Edward Brooks was
a director seventeen years. vSamuel Hooper, who died in 1875,
was a director thirty-six 3'ears. Israel Whitney, who died in 1871,

278 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

was a director thirty-four years. James K. Mills entered the board
in 1S;37, and left it in 1857. Colonel William P. Winchester was
elected a director in 1837, and continued thirteen years till his death.
David Henshaw (who was collector of the port and secretary of war)
was a director sixteen years. Francis C. Gray, "learned in the
science of bankings as he was in the science of «-overnment and of
international law," was a director fifteen years. John P. Bayley,
who died in 1880, was a director for twenty years. J. Huntingtpn
Wolcott was a director twenty-nine years. William Amory held the
office of director twenty-six years, his first election being- in 1855.

The present board consists of T. Jefferson Coolidge, John F. Ander-
son, Franklin Haven, jr., George A. Gardner, Howard Stockton, Na-
thaniel Thayer and Abbott Lawrence.

In 183G the bank purchased of the Bank of the United States its
biiilding on State street and reconstructed the interior, leaving un-
changed its classic fagade and colossal stone columns. vSubsequently
the bank purchased the adjoining estates and greatly changed the ap-
pearance of the building; but the directors' room remains essentially
the same as when used by the Bank of the United States for that pur-
pose.

The bank was selected as a fiscal agent of the government and de-
pository of public moneys in October, 18;)o, and in that capacity it has
always acted whenever a bank was so employed. It early established
collection and exchange accounts in all the principal cities of the
Union. At the instance of the government an arrangement was made
in 1833 by which the notes of this bank were redeemed in coin at cer-
tain designated banks in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wash-
ington. This arrangement was carried through by a committee con-
sisting of Franklin Haven, David Henshaw, and vSamuel D. Bradford.

The capital of the bank was rapidly increased, until about 1852 it
became four millions with right under its charter to increase to five
millions. But it was not considered expedient to exercise that right,
one of the reasons being the inauspicious condition of the country dur-
ing the years which preceded the civil war.

In 18r)3 the national banking and currenc}' law was passed, audit
was deemed expedient to place the bank under its jurisdiction. But a
considerable portion of its stock was held in Europe and the measure
was opposed by the foreign stockholders who had no confidence in the
perpetuity of the I'^ederal government. An act of the vState Legisla-

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 279

tiire was passed authorizing- the bank to reduce its capital to three mill-
ions by purchase and cancellation of one thousand of its shares, and
shares abroad and at home were purchased at a moderate premium, and
the bank in 1S(J4 was duly placed under the jurisdiction of the United
States as a national bank.

The bank took a leading part in furnishing funds to the government
during the war, and in its rooms the committee was wont to meet for
the purpose of aiding the secretary of the treasury in placing the
national loans.

It has been a principle of this bank, never departed from, to afford
to the business community all the facilities within its power for carry-
ing on industrial pursuits and the internal trade and commerce of the
country. The bank has never passed a dividend. It paid dividends as
a State Bank, $0,206,250; as a National Bank, $6,553,44(i.lo ; total,
$12,759,600.15.

The condition of the Merchants' National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency, at the close of business, March 6, 1893,
w^as as follows :

RESOTRCES.

Loans and discounts $7,274,494.59

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured .01

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 135, 000. 00

U. S. bonds to secure deposits 65,000.00

Stocks and bonds 306,799.95

Due from approved reserve agents 775,286. 67

Due from other National Banks 831,193.66

Due from State Banks and bankers 3,369.44

Banking-house 600,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 62,034.04

Checks and other cash items 17,455.06

Exchanges for clearing-house 818,403. 98

Bills of other banks 20,826.00

Nickels and pennies 613.31

Specie 461,044.85

Legal tender notes 93,050.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 70,000.00

Redemption fund with L^. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 6,075.00

Total $11,540,646.56

LI.A.Bn.ITIES.

Capital stock paid in $3,000,000.00

Surplus fund 1,500,000.00

Undivided profits 244,343.12

280 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

National Bank notes outstanding 121,r)0().0()

Dividends unpaid 3,952.00

Individual deposits subject to check 5,839,990.88

Demand certificates of deposit 945.58

Certified checks 148,062.25

Deposits of U. S. disbursing officers 45,258.96

Due to other National Banks 385,798.61

1 )uc to State Banks and bankers 851,800.21

Total $11,540,646.56

Franklin Haven is the only one of the orig'inal officers of the Mer-
chants' Bank still surviving". He was born in Cambridge in 1804. At
the age of twenty he was appointed receiving and paying teller of the
(xlobe Bank, at the same time Charles vSpragne, the "poet banker,"
became cashier. At the organization of the Merchants' Bank he was
appointed cashier, and in 1830 was chosen president, the Merchant's
Bank at that time being the bank of largest capital in New England.
In 1837 he was appointed pension agent for Massachusetts, and retained
the office until 1854. After the suspension of specie payment in May,
1837, Mr. Haven was among the earliest advocates of its resumption.
Dtiring the early part of President Tyler's administration the exigencies
of the government were so urgent that to meet the want of the
treasury Congress authorized a loan of twelve millions. Mr. Haven
was called to Washington and invited by Secretary Forward to accept
the agency of disposing of the loan in Europe, President Tyler and
several members of his cabinet joining in the solicitation. Mr. Haven,
however, doubting the expediency of endeavoring to negotiate a loan
abroad until a portion of it had been obtained at home, declined the
mission, but was afterwards instrumental in placing it among our
capitalists. In 1849, during the administration of General Taylor, Mr.
Haven was appointed assistant United States treasurer. He resigned
the office in 1853, but at the request of President Pierce continued in
the discharge of its duties for nearly a year after tendering his resigna-
tion. In 1850 Mr. Haven was appointed one of the original board of
directors of the Illinois Central Railroad by the Legislature of that
State. He held this post for thirteen years, and upon retiring from it,
the stockholders recognized his services by the presentation to him of
a service of silver plate. In 1858 he was appointed by Governor Banks
chairman of the State Board of Commissioners for the Public Lands, and
rendered valuable serviees in bringing this enterprise to a sviccessful

BANKIXG INSTirC'TIONS. 281

result, ihc State realizin^^, exclusive of expenses, something over three
millions of dollars from the sales of these Back Bay lands. For many-
years he was a director of the Eastern Railroad, and was an early advo-
cate of the Boston Clearing--house and its first president. During the
Civil War Mr. Haven rendered valuable services to the government.
In 18G1-1862 he was chairman of the committee of Boston banks for
collecting assessments and subscriptions on account of the government
loans, and for distributing the bonds and treasury notes received in
exchange. He attended in the capacity of delegate various bank
conventions held in New York, called at the request of Secretary
Chase, for consultation in regard to the means of replenishing the
treasury. He was summoned several times to Washington to confer
with the secretary and committee of ways and means upon cjuestions
of public finance, and his judgment and suggestions were not infre-
quently the basis of official and legislative actions.

TRADERS' NATIONAL BANK.

The Traders' Bank was chartered May 31, 1831, with a capital of
$500,000. The applicants for a charter were: Samuel May, John
Brazer Davis, Thomas Thatcher, Francis Watts, Levi Bartlett, John
Stearns, Joshua Sears, Robert Farley and Charles Brown. The con-
ditions of the charter were in the main identical with those of the
charters granted b}' the vState Legislature during the preceding twenty
years.

Annexed is a list of the most widely known stockholders of the
Traders' Bank in 1831, and the number of shares, at $100 each, for
which they subscribed:

Crockett, Seaver & Co 50 Edward D. Peters 20

Daniel Hammond 25 Robert C. Hooper 32

George W. Thayer 10 Daniel Denny . 25

Samuel Goddard 10 Jonathan Phillips 25

Thomas Gray 20 George P. Jones 25

William Little 10 Jonas Read 25

Samuel D. Bradford 50 Pliny Cutler 20

Samuel C. Gray 32 Henry Lee 30

Otis Everett 20 Provident Institution for Savings 225

S. G. Williams 24 Atlantic Insurance Co 639

Simon Stearns 25

The first board of directors chosen consisted of the following citizens,
long prominent and esteemed in the mercantile and financial history of

282 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Boston: Jeffrey Richardson, George Howe, George Seaver, David
Dudley, Henry Lee, Prince Howes, William B. Reynolds, Deniing
Jarvis, B. F. Copeland, Jabez Fisher, Josiah Stickney and Thomas
Lord. Of this board there are now no survivors ; the last two, Jeffrey
Richardson and Jabez Fisher, died a few 3^ears ago, both having lived
to an advanced age. After election, as Messrs. Richardson and Howe
declined to serve, Messrs. Jonas Craiie and Jabez C. Howe were chosen
in their stead.

The original officers of the Traders' Bank were as follows: President,
David Dudley; cashier, E. L. Frothingham; first teller, Charles P.
Blaney; first bookkeeper, Jeremiah Gore.

There have been eight presidents of the Traders' Bank, and the fol-
lowing shows when they were elected and the length of their terms of
service :

David Dudley, from 1831 to 1841, 10 years.

Lsaac Parker, " 1841 " 1858, 17 "

Adam W. Thaxter, " 1858 " 1801, 3 "

Benj. B. Williams, " ]8(;i "1871, 10 "

Edward Sands, " 1S71 " lS8(i, nearly Ki "

F. vS. Davis, " 1880 " 188'), 3 "

A. L. Fennesy, " 1889, served for only a brief period.

W. L. Faulkner, July 17, 1890, to present time.

The first cashier, E. L. Frothingham, served from 1831 to 1837;
Jeremiah Gore from 1837 to 1800; Frederick S. Davis from 1800 to 1881,
when he was succeeded by A. N. Cooke, who filled the position for more
than three years. Following Mr. Cooke, J. E. Toulmier, C. T. Linley
and T. W. Andrew served as cashiers for brief periods in the order
named. C. C. Domett, the present cashier, was chosen in February,
1892.

The original location of the bank was on India street, bat in 1840 the
location was changed to 91 State street, where it remained for many
years and until its removal to its present quarters, corner of Congress
and Water streets.

The Traders' Bank was reorganized under the National Banking act
July 15, 18(i5, as the Traders' National Bank, with a capital of $000,-
000, which was reduced to its present limit, $500,000, in February,
1884. The first board of directors elected, after organization was per-
fected as a national bank, consisted of B. B. Williams, Deming Jarvis,

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 283

Franklin Snow, Jabez Fisher, Francis J. Parker and Edward Sands.
The directors of the bank for 189-> are: B. F. Diitton, A. D. McClellan,
W. A. Faulkner, Andrew W. Preston, Denman Blanchard, Frank R.
Hadley, George W. Armstrong, Joseph W. Work, H. J. Jaquith, D.
N. Skillings and S. P. Colt.

The condition of the Traders' National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currenc}-, at the close of business Alarch G, 1803, was
as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,416,853.09

Overdrafts, secured 7,603.88

Overdrafts, unsecured 7. 60

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 350,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 64,872.50

Due from approved reserve agents 159,320.50

Due from other National Banks 106,849.53

Banking-house, furniture and fixtures 3,571.28

Current expenses and taxes paid 22,607. 13

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 47,500.00

Checks and other cash items 12,205.00

Exchanges for clearing-house 40, 605. G7

Bills of other banks 4,715.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 82. 04

Specie 28, 088. 90

Legal tender notes 76,650.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 11,250.90

Total $2,353,782.92

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in ..$ 500,000.00

Surplus fund 50,000.00

Undivided profits 44,240. 15

National Bank notes outstanding 315,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check $878,107.44

Demand certificates of deposit 39,574.82

Certified checks 17,748.33

935,430.59

Due to other National Banks 466,610.30

Due to State Banks and bankers 42,501.88

Total $2,353,782. 92

SECOND NATIONAL BANK.

The Second National Bank of Boston was originally the Mercantile
and subsequently the Granite Bank. The act of incorporation was

284

S C TFOL A' CO UNTY.

passed March 5, \9^'-\'l, and approved March (J, 1S82. The orit^inal in-
corporators named in the act were: Isaac McLelhm, Robert Ci. Shaw,
vSamuel S. Lewis, John Kettell and Charles Henshaw; the charter to
continue till October 1, 1851. The capital was fixed at $oO(),000, in
shares of |;100 each. It was prescribed by the charter that the Mer-
cantile Bank must be located on Commercial street, as near as possible
to the head of what was then known as Exchange Wharf, afterward
called Commercial or Granite Wharf, on which a number of the orig-
inal directors and stockholders transacted their business.

Among the first stockholders of the Mercantile Bank, and the number
of shares for which thev subscribed, were:

Charles Cazenove & Co 50

Robinson, Tyson & Co. _ 50

E. Weston 50

Marshall P. Wilder 100

E. Hathaway & Co 100

McLellan, Palliston & Co 150

Joseph V. Bacon 50

L. Jellison 60

B. C. Clark 50

Thaddeus Nichols, jr 50

Samuel May 60

Samuel May & Co 50

Humphrey & Pierce 100

Joseph Lord, jr. . 50

Robert Farly 100

George W. Heard 100

F. Watts 100

Daniel Denny & Co. 100

John H. Bradford & Co 60

E. & W. B. Reynolds 50

John H. Pearson & Co 50

William B. Reynolds 50

Bixby, Valentine & Co. 100

Charles Hood 100

Daniel C. Bacon 100

Nathaniel Faxon 100

Daniel D. Brodhead . 350

John Kettell 350

P. & C. Flint & Co. 100

S. Train & Co _. 50

John Henshaw 100

P. & S. Sprague 100

William Savage 50

C. Bradbury 100

John D. Bates 20

Benjamin T. Reed 20

John Brown 1 00

David Henshaw 100

John K. Simpson 100

Robt. G. Shaw 100

Francis G. -Shaw - 1 00

John R. Adam 100

Henry Oxnard 100

Charles Henshaw 350

The name of the Mercantile Bank was changed by an act of the
Legislature to the Granite Bank on the 11th of March, Is:}:), and on
April 8th of same year the following directors were elected: John Bin-
ney, John Brown, Charles Henshaw, A. C. Lombard, Samuel S. Lewis,
Francis G. Shaw, James McGregor, Sherman G. Hill, Enoch Train,
John Kettell, B. Lincoln, jr., and Joseph V. Bacon.

In 1S.-)1 the capital of the Granite Bank was increased from $500,000
to $(;0(), ()()(); in 1852 to $750,000 ; in 1S5:5 to $!)00,()00; in 18(J4 to $1,000,-
000, and in ISC',) to $1,(;00,0()().

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 285

The Granite Bank became the Second National Bank on the od of
February, 18G-4. From the date of its incorporation under the National
Bank act this bank has enjoyed deserved success, despite the serious
drawbacks of war, panics, and exceptionally severe financial crises.

The following" is a list of the presidents of the Granite or Second
National Bank, with dates of their terms of service :

John Binney, Apr. VI, 1833, to Apr. K). 1838,

John Kettell,/;'^? /rw., " 10,' 1838, " Oct. 'I'l, 1838.

Joseph V. Bacon, Oct. •>2, 1838, " Dec. 1'.), 184:2.

George Denny, Dec. 10, 1842, " Jan. U, 1852.

Henry M. Holbrook, Jan. 20, 1852, " July 17, 1854.

Alpheus Hardy, July IT, 1854, " Oct. 23, 1857.

James H. Beal, Oct. 23, 1857, " Jan. 1, 1888.

Thomas P. Beal, Jan. 1, 1888, " present time.

The cashiers have been as follows :

Archibald Foster, July 10, 1833, to Feb., 1848.
Andrew J. Loud, Mar. 8, 1848, " Apr. 1, 1878.
Edward C. Brooks, Apr. 1, 1878, " present time.

wSince its first organization, February 3, 1832, the bank has occupied
four locations, viz. : first on Commercial street, at the head of Exchange
Wharf; then from October 10, 1840, to December, 1843, at Gl vState
street; from 1800 to 1800 in the building built for the bank at the cor-
ner of State and Merchants' Row, and since 1800 in the Sears building.
The directors of this bank for 1802 are: James H. Beal, Jacob W.
Seaver, Alexander vS. Wheeler, 0.sborn Howes, George C. Lord, John
W. Wheelwright, William G. Weld, Charles F. Fairbanks, Edward W.
Hutchins, Wallace L. Pierce and Thomas P. Beal.

This institution took a prominent part in connection with govern-
ment loans during the late civil war, its directors liberally and patri-
otically doing their full share to sustain the financial credit of both the
State and nation.

The condition of the Second National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business ]\Iarch 0, 1803, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $4,612,057.36

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 811,880. 68

Due from other National Banks 981,415.40

286 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Current expenses and taxes paid 40,830.02

Checks and other cash items 7,880.72

Exchanges for clearing-house _ 186, 700. 68

Bills of other banks 12,290.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 45.25

Specie 338,889.00

Legal tender notes 38,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $7,082,249.11

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,600,000.00

Surplus fund 900,000. 00

Undivided profits 270,918.08

National Bank notes outstanding _ . . 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 1 ,188.00

Individual dejDosits subject to check 2,080,271.54

Demand certificates of deposit 9G, 1 87. 39

Certified checks 21,500.00

Due to other National Bank 1,771,193.48

Due to State Banks and bankers 295,990.62

Total $7,082,249. 11

HAMILTON NATIONAL BANK.

The Hamilton Bank, the predecessor of the present Hamilton National
Bank, was one of three Boston 1)anks chartered in 1832, viz. : The Ham-
ilton, Market, and Granite. The Hamilton Bank charter was accepted
by the stockholders of the bank February 14, 18o2. It was to continue
till October 1, 1851, with a capital fixed at $500,000. Among- the most
prominent of the incorporators named in the act were William Thorn-
dike, William Appleton, Abbott Lawrence, Henry Cabot, Ebenezer
Francis and John Bryant. The first board of directors was elected
February 14, 1832, and consisted of William Thorndike, J. Wiley Ed-
mands, Thomas G. Gary, Thomas Wigglesworth, Edward Francis,
George H. Kuhn, Daniel Denny, Willard vSayles, William Phipps,
Marshall P. Wilder, James Gushing and Henr}'' Gabot. On February
15, 18;)2, Hon. William Thorndike was elected president, and a few
days later the following additional officers were selected: Joseph Hall,
jr., cashier; John W. Rand, teller; Otis Turner, bookkeeper, and
Joseph L. Hammand, assistant clerk.

President Thorndike died July 12, is;)5, and was succeeded by Daniel
Denn}", who served from July, 1835, till his death in February, 1872.

BANKING INSTITirriONS. 287

S. S. Blanchard was elected as Mr. Denny's successor and continued as
president until February 18, 1883, when A. H. Bean was chosen presi-
dent, and has continued as such to the present time.

Joseph Hall, jr., the first cashier, served in that capacity until Janu-
ary 13, 1844; from that time until his decease, July 13, 1855, Otis Tur-
ner was cashier. The latter was succeeded by S. S. Blanchard, who
continued from that time until he was chosen president in February,
1872, when George W. Newhall was made cashier, and has since held
the position.

The Hamilton Bank was originally located in a two-story stone build-
ing once occupied by the State Bank on the site of the present Exchange
building. It afterwards occupied the premises 60 State street. In 18G9
it removed to 40 State street, where it remained until the completion
of its present premises, 60 Devonshire street, in 1870.

The condition of the Hamilton National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currenc}" at the close of business, March 0, 1893,
was as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,840,878.17

Overdrafts, unsecured 235. 79

U.S. bonds to secure circulation 50, 000. 00

Stocks, certificates, etc 1,265.00

Due from approved reserve agents 143,825. 99

Due from other National Banks 320,809.55

Current expenses and taxes paid 15,170.78

Checks and other cash items 334. 25

Exchanges for clearing-house 196,750.83

Bills of other banks 6,340.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 99.46

Specie 32,054.00

Legal tender notes 91,618.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 2,250.00

Due from L^. S. Treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 10, 000. 00

Total $2,711,631.82

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 750,000.00

Surplus fund 200,000.00

Undivided profits 129,313.45

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 15.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,251,141.04

Demand certificates of deposit 1,100.00

288 SUFFOLK CO FN 7' V.

Certiiicd checks _ 74,774.07

Cashier's checks outstanding 10,071. 18

Due to State Banks and bankers 250,217.08

Total $2, 71 1 , 631. 83

MARKET NATIONAL BANK.

The act to incorporate the President, Directors and Company of the
Market Bank in Boston was dated February 2'.), 1832. Levi Lincoln
was then governor; Edward D. Bangs, secretary of state; William
Thorndike, president of the wSenate ; and William B. Calhoun, speaker
of the House. The act was approved by the governor, March 1, 1832.
The capital was fixed at $500,000—5,000 shares of $100 each, and the
whole to be paid in within one year from the passage of the act ; the
charter to be in force till October 1, 1851. The incorporators named
in the act were: Josiah Marshall, David R. Griggs, John Kendrick,
William F. Otis, Amos Binney, James FuUerton, and John A. McGaw.
The charter of the Market Bank contained a special provision that the
stock should be only transferable at the banking-house and on its books ;
and that no part of it should be transferred by way of security for the
performance of any obligations until two years from the payment of
the first installment.

The following list has been selected from the records of the original
stockholders of the Market Bank. Most of those mentioned were
prominent citizens of Boston sixty years ago, and all are dead. The
number of shares is mentioned for which each subscribed:

Jacob Adams 10 Jacob Bacon 10

Isaac Adams 20 Bridge & Stevens 10

Matthias Amesbury 5 Seth Baker 5

James T. Austin 30 Bigelow & Bangs 49

Benjamin Abrams 10 R. W. Bailey 20

Emery Alexander 5 Barnard & Trull 20

Adams & Bullard 5 Martin Bates _ _ . 20

Joseph P. Blanchard 5 Joseph Bassett, jr 10

Thomas G. Bradlee 25 Abner H. Bowman 50

J. Vincent Brown ... 5 John A. Bates 20

Newell Brown 10 Amos Binney, jr 5

Jonathan Brooks 5 John Bmney 200

Benjamin D. Baldwin . 10 Amos Binney 220

Robert Bacon 10 Scotto Clark 5

Francis Baker 7 vSeth Chadbourn 10

George Bass 10 Chandler & Howard 5

BANKING INSTirUTlONS.

•280

Blanchard Clark 20

R. B. Callender 10

William H. Crane 10

Matthew Cobb 10

Larra Crane — 20

Aaron Corey 20

Jonas Coolidge 20

Samuel B. Dyer 5

Samuel B. Doane 10

Dexter & Smith 20

Delano & Whitney 50

Moses Everett 10

Ellis & Mayo . 20

J. W. Edmands 20

Charles S. Evans 10

Luke Fay 20

Benjamin French & Co 50

Freeman Cobb & Co 51

John Fenno 30

Jonathan French, jr 20

John J. Fiske 50

William Graves 49

John Goodenough 10

Griggs & Wild 50

John Hancock (trustee) 100

B.C. Harris 10

William Hayden, jr 10

Benjamin P. Haner 25

George Hancock 10

Whiting Hewins 20

Eleazer James 20

Ezekiel Kendall 20

Samuel Kendall 20

George H. Kuhn 20

Jesse Kingsbury 30

Aaron Kingsbury 10

Sewell Kendall 20

Nathaniel Storrs 20

Amasa Stetson . 20

Benjamin Sewall 55

Aaron D. Wild 50

Solomon Wild 10

Benjamin Levy 20

Thomas Livermore 15

H. & W. Lincoln 25

Evans & Danforth 100

George Loring 25

William Lawrence 25

John Miller 20

John A. McGaw 1

Samuel Paine 10

A. H. Pierce 10

Leonard M. Parker 15

Edward Reynolds, jr 20

William S. Rogers 20

Isaac Rich 5

Josiah Stickney 15

Nathaniel Smith 20

Sears & Davis 20

Jacob Sleeper 10

Abijah White 50

Alfred A. Wellington 5

Eliphalet Williams 62

A host of pleasant memories is summoned up at sight of these
names in this record of transaction of more than half a century ago, as
for instance, that of James T. Austin, the distinguished attorney-gen-
eral ; Barnard & Trull, the leading distillers of the West End — ]\Ir.
Barnard being afterwards for a time proprietor of the Boston Herald,
and of its temporary rival, the Boston Ledger; John Binney, first presi-
dent of the North Bank in 1825; Chandler c^ Howard, long eminent
merchants on Central Wharf; Delano 8c Whitney, wholesale druggists
for many years in Chatham street ; Charles vS. Evans, for a time mes-
senger of the Market Bank; Benjamin Loring & Company, the lead-
ing stationers; William Hayden, jr., editor of the old Boston At las,

•200 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Whij^- daily, on vState street — ''the lying AtlasU as Daniel Webster
once affeetionately termed it ; William Lawrence, formerly of the old
house of A. & A. Lawrence, on Federal street ; Isaac Rich, largely
engaged in the fishing interest; Amasa vStetson, the father of Amos W.
Stetson, the president of State Bank; and Jacob Sleeper, senior partner
in the clothing house of Carney & vSleeper.

Following a notice pubHshed in the Boston Daily Courier, the first
meeting of the stockholders of the Market Bank was held in the Frank-
lin Hotel, March 10, 1832, when a committee of eleven was chosen to
distribute the stock. At a second meeting. May 7, 1832, a board of
directors was chosen, but they never served, as the bank did not really
go into full operation until October 1, 1832, when the following officers
and directors were chosen: President, Amos Binney; cashier, Samuel
O. Mead; directors, Amos Binney, William B. Reynolds, D. R. Griggs,
D. P. Brodhead, Abijah White, Josiah vStickney, William H. Delano,
Matthias Amesbury, C. O. Whitmore, Benjamin vSewall, Abner H. Bow-
man and John A. McGaw.

The presidents of the Market Bank, five in number, have been as
follows: Amos Binney, from October 1, 1832, till his death in January,
1833; William B. Reynolds, who served from that time till October 10,
1830; Josiah vStickney, who served till October 27, 1800, a period of
more than twenty-one years; Charles O. Whitmore, who continued as
president from October 27, 1800, until November 15, 1885, when he
was followed by his son, Charles J. Whitmore, who has since served
in this capacity with conspicuous ability and fidelity.

There have been three cashiers : Samuel O. Mead, the first cashier,
chosen October 1, 1832, served till September 20, 1840. He was suc-
ceeded by Jonathan Brown, who was appointed bookkeeper of the bank
October ;}(», 1833, and served as such until September 24, 1840, when
he was appointed ca.shier pro tciii. , and was chosen cashier April 24,
1841. Then and for several years Mr. Brown was the youngest bank
cashier in Boston, and after the death of Benjamin Dodd he became the
oldest cashier of any Boston bank. He resigned the office on July 1,
1870. In recognition of his long service the directors caused to be re-
corded upon the records of the bank, among other tributes to his per-
sonal and official character and worth, the following testimony:

I'or more than fort}' years Mr. Brown has been cashier of the Market Bank, and
in all tile changes and vicissitudes of the institution during this period he has proved
himself a valuable and failliful officer, and bv his al)ilitv, integritv and devotion to

cyi c^^ <

BA XKING INS TITUTIONS. 29 1

the dirties of his office he has secured the respect and confidence of the directors of
the bank, and has richly earned the gratitude of the stockholders whose interests
have so largely been committed to his keeping.

As a further expression of their kind feelings, the directors, on the
part of the stockholders, presented Mr. Brown with an elegant service
of silver, costing $500, which is treasured by the recipient with justifi-
able pride and satisfaction. Mr. Brown was succeeded as cashier by
Josiah Q. Bennett, who has since served in this capacity.

All of the original directors of the Market Bank are now dead.
Charles O. Whitmore and Benjamin Sewall were the last of the original
board; the former died in 1885, after a continuous service as director
for fifty-three years, and the latter in October, 18T0, having been con-
nected with the bank as director for forty-seven years. Charles S.
Evans, an original stockholder in 1832, and afterward messenger, was
connected with the institution for many years. Samuel H. Walley be-
came a director in 18o5 and continued as such for a number of years.

The Market Bank became the ^Market National Bank July 19, 1864.
The original capital was increased from $500,000 to $800,000 Octo-
ber 7, 1839, at which sum it has ever since remained. Its original
location was at No. 1 City Wharf, opposite the east end of Quincy
Market, and received its name on that account. In July, 18-12, it was
removed to the ]\[erchants' Exchange in State street, and in 1870 to 86
State street, corner of Merchants' Row. Here it remained until 1889,
when it was removed to its present location in the Fiske Building, 89
State street. It has never had a suspension of specie payment, nor any
run upon it, save when they were common to all other well regulated
banking institutions. The onl}- forgery which it has suffered to any
considerable extent occurred in the third year of its existence, in 1835.
An individual at that time forged the names of different parties on
paper to the amount of $8,000; and the Market, Massachusetts, and
other banks, were the losers by the operations. The forger was found,
arrested, and released on $16,000 bail, which he forfeited by flight.
The $16,000 was paid into the State treasury, and there it has remained
ever since, the State refusing to refitnd the $8,000 which were stolen.

The officers of the Market National Bank for 1892 are as follows :
President, Charles J. Whitmore; vice-president, Richard H. Weld;
cashier, Josiah O. Bennett; assistant cashier, H. F. vSmith; directors,
Herbert Nash, F. H. Raymond, George Hyde, Charles W. Hubbard,
B. P. Cheney, B. P. Cheney, jr., C. J. Whitmore, Richard H. Weld
and H. L. Millis.

'202 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The condition of the Market National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business March (), lSi):i, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,476,547.93

Overdrafts, unsecured _ . 372. 85

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 112,105.25

Due from approved reserve agents 222,169.65

Due from other National Banks .S9,888. 13

Other real estate and mortgages owned 1,500.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 19,161.94

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 8,000.00

Checks and other cash items 3,025.98

Exchanges for clearing-house 131,977.47

Bills of other banks 4,926.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents. . 463.61

Specie 214,808. 25

Legal tender notes 58,000.00

Redemption fund witli U. vS. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $3, 395, 197. 06

LiAiin.rruis.

Capital stock paid in $ 800,000.00

Surplus fund i 105,000.00

Undivided profits 80,958.92

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 320.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1 ,675,063.85

Demand certificates of deposit 46,077.79

Certified checks 102,506.31

Due to other National Banks, subject to check 316,530.59

Due to State Banks and bankers, subject to check 223,739.60

Total $3,395, 197.06

ATLAS NATIONAL BANK.

The Atlas Bank, the predecessor of the Atlas National Bank, was
incorporated March 28, 1833, with a capital of $500, ()()(), and to continue
ty October 1, 1851. The incorporators named in the act were: Robert
Edes, James Harris, Benjamin A. Ciould, Richard Fletcher and Brad-
ford Lincoln.

The following- is a complete list of the orii^nnal stockholders of the
Alhis P)ank, with numl)cr of shares purchased by each:

BANKING INSTITUTIONS.

293

vS. A. AVells, pres. Atlas Ins. Co 500

Wm. Hales, pres. Globe Ins. Co. 500

F. Watts, pres. Atlantic Ins. Co. 500

Francis Welch 300

Geo. C. Shattuck 60

Nehemiah Parsons, pres. Hope Ins Co. 500

Edward Crafts 100

Samuel Hubbard 180

John Borland 100

S. A. Wells 70

James Harris 50

Edward Eldredge 100

Phineas Sprague 300

Thos. Denny & Son 500

Wm. Hales 500

H. C. Mackay 10

Geo. W. Pratt 100

Thaddeus Nichols, jr 50

Wm. Davis, jr. 50

N. Parsons 50

Richard Devens 50

Phineas Foster 5

B. A. Gould 50

James A. Dickson 50

Robert Edes 50

Thos. D. Bradlee 50

S. C. Gray 50

P. R. Dalton 5

Caroline Thacher _ . 50

Samuel Train 50

John W. Trull 50

Luther Faulkner 50

Tucker Williams 100

Ozias Goodwin 100

Andrew T. Hall 100

B. Lincoln & Co. 100

Wm. Goddard 130

Wm. Eager 20

Aaron Perkins 20

Lucy Goddard : 13

Chas. H. Brown 25

Mary Harris '. 80

H. G. Hutchings 35

Joseph W. Bradlee 60

Henry Lunt 10

Sylvanus Thayer 10

Lucy C. Shattuck 10

James Savage 250

The foregoing- list contain.s fifty siib.scribers in all, or an average of
$10,000 to each subscriber, an amount never before, and it is doubtless
if ever since, averaged by the stibscribers to any bank stock in Boston.

The first board of directors, chosen October 28, 1833, was composed
of the following members : Edward Eldredge, Edward Crafts, Samuel
Hubbard, John Borland, William Hales, vSamtiel C. Gray and Henry
Lee. The first president of the bank was Edward Eldredge, who
served till June 13, 1837, when Samuel C. Gray was elected and con-
tintied in the office imtil his death in December, 1840. The latter was
followed by Charles H. Brown, who held the position from December
21, 1840, to his death in 1871. John H. Foster served from that time
till his death in 1872, when M. D. Spaulding was elected as his suc-
cessor, and served till he resigned in October, 1877. From the latter
date to 1882 William P. Hunt filled the office of president. Mr. Hunt
was succeeded b)^ John G. Wetherell, who has since served as president
of the bank.

The first cashier of the Atlas Bank was Joseph White, who continued
in this capacity from the organization of the bank tmtil his death in
1807. He was succeeded by Charles L. Lane, who had been connected

294 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

witli the bank from 1850, first as messenger, in 1851 as bookkeeper,
and subsequently as discount clerk and assistant clerk. Charles L.
Lane was succeeded by the present cashier, Benjamin P. Lane, who
has been an attache of the bank since 1851.

Henry W. Richard has been bookkeeper of the Atlas Bank since
1804, and Joseph L. Foster, the present assistant cashier, has been
connected with the bank in an official capacity since 1872. John G.
Wetherell has been a director of the bank since 1858; Frederick L.
Richardson since 18(;(i, and William P. Hunt since 1872.

The orio-inal location of the Atlas Bank was in Congress street. It
was afterwards reinoved to the Suffolk Bank building on State street,
and subsequently occupied the old Atlantic building, corner of Kilby
and Doane streets, for twenty-three years, but since 1875 has been
located in the Sears building, corner of Washington and Court streets.

The Atlas Bank was operated as a vState bank imtil 1864, when a re-
organization was perfected under the National Banking act, when the
present style. Atlas National Bank, was received. Its original capital
of $500,000 has since been increased to $1,500,000. The present direc-
tors are John G. Wetherell, Frederick L. Richardson, Charles M.
Clapp, Henry Woods, David Nevins, Jeremiah Abbott, John W. Far-
rell, John P. Spaulding and Matthew Luce.

In the opening years of its career the Atlas Bank had more than a
common share of losses and arduous struggles for existence, but it has
been happily free from forgeries and defalcations, and has now long
maintained rank among the most successful of Boston banks.

The condition of the Atlas National Bank, at the close of business
March 0, 1803, as reported to the comptroller of the currency, was as
follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $3,658,838.10

Overdrafts, unsecured 3. 70

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 308,295.03

Due'from other National Banks 278,776.77

Due from vState Banks and bankers 16,257.05

Current expenses and taxes paid 15,268.72

Checks and other cash items 1,392.91

Exchanges for clearing-house 186,317.06

l^ills of other banks 13,213.00

I'-ractional paper currency, nickels and cents 291.00

BANKING INSTITUrfONS. 205

Specie - 2^50, 634. 00

Legal tender notes 68,469.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,939,996.34

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,500,000.00

Surplus fund 300, 000. 00

Undivided profits 278,526.99

National Bank notes outstanding 44,000.00

Dividends unpaid 95.00

Individual deposits svibject to check 2,569,267.68

Demand certificates of deposit 293.75

Certified checks 15,000.00

Due to other National Banks 26,304.21

Due to State Banks and bankers 206,508.71

Total $4,939,996.34

PEOPLE'S NATIONAL BANK.

The People's Bank, now the People's National Bank, was incorpo-
rated April 15, 183:5, with a capital of $200,000, subsequently reduced
to $100,000. Its original directors were : Samuel J. Gardner, Samuel
Guild, Aaron Kingsbury, Elijah Lewis, Richard L. Munroe, Charles
Davis, jr., Elisha Wheeler, Eben Crafts, Gardner Brewer, Chester
Guild, James Cheever and John Webber. It was changed to a national
bank November 19, 18(i4, at which time Henry Guild was president,
who with B. F. Campbell, George Lewis, William S. Leland, A. P.
Richardson, George G. Kennedy and F. O. White composed the board
of directors. At this time its capital was increased to its present
amount, $300,000. The officers of the bank for 1S92 are: Samuel B.
Hopkins, president ; A. P. Richardson, cashier, and Frederick Guild,
Ivory Harmon, Timothy Smith, vSamuel B. Hopkins, Wm. S. Leland,
A. P. Richardson, Geo. G. Kennedy, F. O. White, directors.

The condition of the People's National Bank at the close of business
i\Iarch 1), 1893, as reported to the comptroller of the citrrency, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $ 931,823.85

Overdrafts 280.83

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc. 4,400.00

Due from approved reserve agents 42, 274. 28

396 .S7 'FFOL K CO i 'N T Y.

Due from other National Banks 7,383.37

Current expenses and taxes paid 10, 802. 1 3

Exchanges for clearing-house 5, 554. 99

Bills of other banks 10,010.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 400. 12

Specie 3G, 782. 00

Legal tender notes 9,100.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $1,111,061.57

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 300,000. 00

Surplus fund 175,000.00

Undivided profits 31,649.70

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 496.00

Individual deposits subject to check 541,261.16

Demand certificates of deposit 12,258.40

Due to other National Banks 5,396.31

Total . $1,111,061.57

SHOE AND LEATHER NATIONAL BANK.

The Shoe and Leather Dealers' Bank, now known as the Shoe
and Leather National Bank of Boston, was incorporated by an
act of the Leoislatnre on April !», 18:K). By this act Cheever Newhall,
James Cheever and Josiah M. Jones, their associates and assigns, were
made a corporation entitled; "The President, Directors and Company
of the Shoe and Leather Dealers' Bank of Boston," to contintie until
October 1, 1851 ; the capital to consist of $500,000. The first meeting
of the stockholders was held at the old Exchange Coffee House on the
25th of April, 183(3, and in choice of directors 1)20 votes were cast, the
following being elected as members of the first board : Cheever New-
hall, Joseph Whitney, Jonathan Forbush, James Cheever, Josiah M.
Jones, George W. Thayer, Joseph Southwick, Samuel Guild, John Al-
bree, Elijah C. .Emerson and Luke Brooks. Enoch Plummer was at
this meeting elected cashier. On the 2d of May following-, Enoch
Ijaldwin was chosen president, and as John Albree and Samuel (niild
had declined to serve as directors, Enoch Baldwin, Isaac Williams and
B. C. Harris were elected in their stead, so that the first board con-
sisted of twelve directors.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. Sn?

Subjoined is a list of some of the most prominent of the original
stockholders of the Shoe and Leather Dealers' Bank in 1830 and 1837,
Avith the number of shares they held at $100 each :

Araasa Stetson ..•_ 50 James Cheever 100

Aaron Baldwin 20 William B. Spoon er 25

Enoch Baldwin 20 Joseph Whitney & Co 100

W. R. P. Washburn 20 James Tirrell & Co 50

Luke Brooks 50 Benjamin C. Harris 50

Gihnan S. Low 20 Amasa Walker & Co 100

Geoi-ge W. Thayer 25 James K. Frothingham 10

Luther Thayer, jr 25 New England Marine Insurance Co, _ 50

Elisha N. Holbrook 20 John H. Rogers 13

Cheever Newhall & Co 100 Mitchell & Brj-ant 50

Stanley Nay 100 James P. Thorndike 20

Abijah White 40 Neptune Insurance Co 100

Boston Savings Bank 250 Manufacturers' Insurance Co 100

Pacific Insurance Co 600 Benjamin Loring & Co 30

Joseph Southwick . . 100 Josiah M. Jones 100

Enoch Baldwin continued as president of the bank until Novem-
ber 2, 1857, when he resigned "in consequence of advancing years."
Caleb Stetson, one of the earliest directors, was elected in his stead.
Mr. Stetson was succeeded in 1868 by John C. Potter, who served
as president until his death, April 25, 1870. In May following
vSeth Turner was elected as Mr. Potter's successor. Prior to his elec-
tion Mr. Turner was president of the Randolph Bank of Randolph,
Mass. Mr. Turner was succeeded by Benjamin E. Cole in 1883, who
resigned in January, 1887, and Avas followed by John I. Henry. The
latter served until December 20, 1888. On January 8, 1889, James C.
Elms was elected Mr. Henry's successor, and has served until the pres-
ent time.

There have been four cashiers of the Shoe and Leather Bank: Enoch
Plummer, from its origin to November 6, 1843 ; George W. Thayer,
from that time till May 11, 1847; Samuel Carr, from that date until his
death, August 21, 1880; and James E. Patch, from August 23, 1889,
to present time. Mr. Carr was connected with this bank from its com-
mencement in 183ij. His two sons inherited his exemplary qualifica-
tions as a bank officer : George E. Carr, formerly of the Bunker Hill
and Tremont Banks, and later cashier of the Everett National ; wSamuel
Carr, jr. , after several years' experience in the bank his father had been

298 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

so lon^4' and honorably connected with, became, on ]\larch 1, IST8,
cashier of the National Hide and Leather Bank.

The capital of the bank was increased to $750,000 in May, 1S4-0, and
has since been increased to $1,000,000. On November 30, 1804, the
bank was converted into a National Bank imder its present title of the
Shoe and Leather National Bank. The locations of this institution
have been as follows: First, in the old State Bank Building-^ whose site
is now occupied by the P^xchange Building- on vState street; second, in
vState street, opposite Merchants' Row; third, at the corner of State
and Kilby streets, over the New England Bank; fourth, at lo and 15
Kilby street, where the bank bought the estate and erected a building
in 1852; and fifth, ever since November, 1875, in the Equitable Build-
ing, corner of Milk and Devonshire streets.

Among the most prominent directors of the Shoe and Leather Bank
was Wm. B. vSpooner, who served in that capacity for thirty-eight years.
For fully half a century he was one of the leading men in the hide and
leather business of Boston. He was born in Petersham, Mass., April
20, 1800. He came to Boston when quite a young man and obtained
employment in the store of Josiah M. Jones. At the age of twenty-
four he commenced business on his own account, and from that time
until his retirement from business, January 1, 1874, he was actively en-
gaged in mercantile pursuits. He was prominent in the hide and
leather trade of Boston, was highly successful and a much respected
member of the community. With the exception of two years' service in
the Legislature, he never held political office, but was always one of the
most active and zealous workers in behalf of philanthropic and benev-
olent institutions. He was United States commissioner for vState of
Massachusetts to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in which
he took deep interest and to which he devoted much time and service.

The directors of the vShoe and Leather National Bank for 18!)2 are as
follows; E. H. Dunn, James C. Elms, lidward \l. Floyd, Charles C.
Poor, Frank C. Potter, George I). Collmrn, William H. Moody, Grifhn
Place and j. E. Toulmin.

The condition of the Shoe and Leather National l^ank at the close of
business, March 0, IS'.i:), as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, was as follows :

KESt)UKCES.

Loans and discounts $:iMO,S,7(lJ5.(18

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured ij7.19

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 200,000.00

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 200

U. S. bondsonhand . 800.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 8, 877. 75

Due from approved reserve agents 298,087. 18

Due from other National Banks 227,002.(16

Due from State Banks and bankers 755. 78

Other real estate and mortgages owned . 1,500.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 19,826.55

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 23,844.25

Checks and other cash items 201. 30

Exchanges for clearing-house 92,627.99

Bills of other banks 1 ,377. 00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 21. 68

Specie 132,459. 55

Legal tender notes 24,591.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 30,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 9,000.00

Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 3,000.00

Total $3,243, 332. 27

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 85,000.00

Undivided profits 103,335.21

National Bank notes outstanding 180,000.00

Dividends unpaid 116.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,224,228.23

Demand certificates of deposit 11,613.90

Certified checks : 13,873.68

Due to other National Banks 470,138.75

Due to State Banks and bankers >. 40,026.50

Liabilities other than those above stated 115,000.00

Total $3,243,332.27

THE FREEMANS NATIONAL BANK.

The Fi-eemans Bank of Boston wa.s chartered in 183n, the same year
in which the Shawmut Bank and the Shoe and Leather Bank were
org-anized.

Its charter was substantially the same as theirs, but its original cap-
ital was only $150,000. This capital was increased in 1845 to $200,000;
in 1840 to $250,000; in 1851 to $:)00,0()0; in 1853 to $350,000; in 1854
to $400,000; in 1800 to $000,000; and in 1871 to $800,000, the present
amount.

It is impossible to give the history of this bank in its earlier days, as
we should like to do. from its records, owine to the fact that in the

300 .S UFFOL K CO UN T V.

i^Tcat fire of November !), 1872, all the books and papers of the bank
were destroyed. It is, however, within the memory of some that the
Freemans Bank was originally located at the corner of vSuminer street
and Sea street, and afterwards on Piper's Wharf, on vSea street, and
still later on the opposite side of Sea street (afterwards Federal street),
and from there it removed to the Church Green Building, at the junc-
tion of Bedford street and Summer street, where it occupied a floor in
the second story of the building facing Church Green.

Many will recall the spire and porch of the church that stood on that
spot for many years before and after the encroachment of trade had
begun on Summer street and the adjoining neighborhood, and not a
few will remember the Rev. Alexander Young and the Rev. Orville
Dewey, and other great divines of the Unitarian faith who held forth
in the high pulpit of the sacred edifice.

The Freemans Bank came into the National Bank system in ISOo,
and in October of that year it paid a dividend regular and extra of
twenty-five per cent.

xVs we have indicated, all the records of the bank prior to the
great fire of 1872 are matters largely of metnory and tradition. On
the night of Saturday, the !)th of November of that year the whole of
vSummer street, as well as all the adjoining business sections of the city,
were enveloped in the great conflagration that has passed into history.
Among the buildings destroyed was the one in which the Freeman's Bank
was located. The vault which contained the books and records of this
bank, embracing its wdiole history, together with the bills, notes and
evidences of debt, fell from the second stcry and striking on a granite
post was perforated, and the contents, charred and blackened and par-
tially or wholly destroyed, were all that remained with which to begin
business on Monday following the fire. The only book that was saved
that threw any light iipon the dealings of the bank was one that a clerk
had asked to take home on Saturday night to discover a slight error
in a column of figures.

The bank resumed business in the second story of the furniture ware-
house then occupied by Haley, Morse & Boyden, on Washington street,
opposite the Globe Theatre. Notice was at once given of the condition
of the bank and of the necessity for every one interested to assist the bank
in reaching a conclusion whether it could continue business as a bank or
not. The amount of discounted notes that the bank had on the night
of the fire; in its vaults, according to a statement made subsecpiently by

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. :501

Jeremy Drake, the venerable cashier of the bank, was about $1,400,000.
Packages of discounted notes to the amount of $850,000 were from time
to time examined and deciphered by experts in the Treasury Depart-
ment at Washington. Depositors were requested to bring in their
deposit books and to show by their cash books, check books, checks or
otherwise, what they had drawn and how their accounts stood, and
duplicate notes were taken from merchants who showed that paper had
been discotmted for them at the bank, and by this and such other
means as were at the bank's disposal the condition of the bank was
reached. It certainly is one of the highest proofs of the integrity of
the merchants of Boston in the hour of their dread calamity that when
the statements were finally concluded and the bank was able to deter-
mine what the loss probably had been, the amount was figured at the
nominal sum of $0,000, and even this was attributed not to the suppres-
sion of known facts but to the inability of merchants, because of the
destruction of their own books and papers, to know accurately about
their notes. All of the bank's customers loyally came to its assistance,
and many a one, as he gave duplicates of notes that he had discounted,
said, " I have no idea whether I shall ever be able to pay these notes,
for my property is in a.shes, but here is the evidence of them for the
bank, whatever may be in store for me."

On Decoration Day, Friday, the 30th day of May, 1873, a fire again
destroyed the building in which the Freemans Bank was located. A
conspicuous sight to a pas.ser down Washington street after that fire
was the vault of the bank standing upright on its own foundation and
unharmed either by falling walls or by fire. When the safe was cooled
the contents were found uninjured. After this fire the bank moved
into the vSears Building, corner of Court and Wa.shington streets, where
the first meeting of the directors was held on the 1st day of June, 1873.
In January following the Freemans Bank moved to -^'U Devonshire
street, where it remained until 1877, when it removed again to the
Church Green Building, which had been erected on the site of the old
building.

The first president of the Freemans Bank was Andrew Drake, who
served until his death in 1843, a term of seven years. The .second
president was Solomon Piper, who served from that time till his death
in the autumn of 1800, a period of twenty-three years. The third
president was John H. Rogers, who served from 1800 till 1887, when
he resigned after a period of twenty-one years as president and after

302 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

havin<4- served faithfully and well as director and president for over
fifty years. The fourth president, William A. Rnst, has served from
1887 to the present time.

]\Ir. Jeremy Drake was the first cashier of the bank. He was chosen
in hs;]!) and served without intermission till his death in October, 18TS,
a period of about forty-two years. He was succeeded by Edward S.
Hayward, who served as cashier till 1884, when he resigned. INTr.
George P. Tenney was then elected and has served up to the present
time, a period of about eight years.

The present officers and directors are as follows: President, William
A. Rust; cashier, George P. Tenney; directors: Henry M. Rogers,
Edmund S. Clark, John W. Kennan, Kilby Page, James Pierce, vSol-
omon Piper Stratton, Albert E. Harding.

The condition of the Freemans National Bank at the close of business
March 6, 189o, as reported to the comptroller of the currency, was as
follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,202,005.63

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 4,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 204, 641 . 99

Due from other National Banks 126,275.48

Due from State Banks and bankers 884. 93

Other real estate and mortgages owned 4,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 15,488.45

Checks and other cash items _ 3. 008. 1 6

Exchanges for clearing-house 25,403.61

Bills of other banks 13,855.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 687.06

Specie 150,674.15

Legal tender notes 36,353.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $2, 909,527. 46

UAIULITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 800,000.00

Surplus fund 135, 100.00

Undivided profits 90,761.18

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 300.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,271,007.18

Demand certificates of deposit 48,254.81

Certified checks 17,365.58

BAXKIXG IXSTITrriOXS. 303

Cashier's checks outstanding 70,807.72

Due to other National Banks 281,78;).33

Due to State Banks and bankers 109,195.66

Bills payable 40,000.00

Total §3, 909, 527. 46

MECHANICS' NATIONAL BANK.

The ^lechanics" National Bank was originally incorporated as a State
Bank in lS3(i, with a capital of $150,000, which has since been increased
to $'2oO,000. The original directors were: Noah Brooks, Charles Cole,
jr., Timothy Abbott, Thotnas R. Dascomb, David Nickerson, John B.
Russell, James W. Converse, John Leach, Solon Jenkins, Cranston
Howe and Charles Lane. Samuel Goodridge was its first president
and Alvan Simonds the first cashier. In 1805 the bank was organized
under the National Banking act. C. O. L. Dilloway, the present presi-
dent, has been connected with the bank for nearly thirty years. Francis
James is vice-president and Samuel A. Merrill cashier. Since its organi-
zation this bank has never failed to pay to its stockholders a semi-
annual dividend; has always pursued a careful and conservative policy,
and endeavored to help maintain the splendid reputation alwa}-s held by
Boston banks. The board of directors for 189'2 is as follows: C. O. L.
Dilloway, W. M. Bush, M. M. Cunniff, W. E. L. Dilloway, Zenas
Sears, L. G. Burnham, Francis James and George B. Clapp.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller
of the currency at the close of business, March G, 1803, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,189,345.88

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 9,324.03

U, S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

vStocks, securities, etc 1,206.25

Due from approved reserve agents 161,391.41

Due from other National Banks 83,174.78

Banking-house furniture and fixtures .6,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 18,643.03

Checks and other cash items 10,768.44

Exchanges for clearing-house 84, 795. 36

Bills of other banks 8,311.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 63. 15

Specie 56,647.00

Legal tender notes 18,000.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 50,000.00

Redemption fund with L^. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total 81,749,920.33

Mn S[W'FOLK CO UN TV.

LIAISILII'IKS.

Capital stock paid in $ SoO.OOO.OO

vSurplus fund 100, 000. 00

Undivided profits 42,787.88

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.(10

Individual deposits subject to check 1, 194,690.31

Demand certificates of dejDosit 10,611.45

Certified checks 15,074.65

Due to other National Banks __ 1,055.54

Due to State Banks and bankers 90,700.50

Total $1,749,920.33

vSHAWMUT NATIONAL BANK.

In May, is:)!), tlie Warren Bank was organized. Its name was
changed l:)y legislative act to the Shawmnt Bank in April, 18)57, at
whicli time the capital was increased from the original sum of $'-ioO,-
(»()() to $750, ()()(). It remained a vState bank until April, 1S04, when it
was reorganized under its present title of the Shawmut National Bank.
Five years later, in ISti'.t, its capital was increased to its present sum of
$1,000,000. The original board of directors wascomposed of Benjamin
T. Reed, Albert Fearing, John L. Dimmock, Josiah Reed, Gardner
Brewer, John Gardner, Jairus B. Lincoln, Horace vScudder, Nathaniel
Dana, Aaron Rice and William Bramhall. No one of this original board
is now living; the last survivor, John Gardner, died a few years ago.

Benjamin T. Reed, the first president of the bank, a well known and
highly esteemed gentleman, resigned the (office in 1S48, having served
twelve years. He was succeeded by John Gardner, who served till
1S53, when Albert Fearing was chosen president. The latter held the
office for one year, and was then succeeded by William Bramhall,
senior member of the highly successful firm of Bramhall & Howe,
.shipping merchants. Mr. Bramhall continued in office for fourteen
years, resigning in ISdS on account of failing health. His successor,
Hon. John Cummings, has served as president from that time to the
present. Mr. Cummings has been prominently identified with the
^lassachusetts Institute of Technology, having been its treasurer for
many years, and has done much for the education of youth. He has
been a large manufacturer of leather, and is an expert in that line. He
was one of the judges at the Centennial ]^^xi)ositi()n as wx^ll as one of the
board of finance. For several years he was president of the Commer-
cial Club. Some twenty years ago he served as State senator and is

BA NKIXG IXS 77 Ti 'T/ONS. 305

well known as a gentleman of broad ideas and of sound and conserva-
tiv^e judgment.

Thomas Brown, the first cashier of the Shawmut Bank, served from
I80G to 184C, and was succeeded by Stephen G. Davis, who remained
cashier until 1870, a period of thirty years. James P. Stearns, who
succeeded Mr. Davis, is still serving in this capacity. J. G. Taft, the
assistant cashier, has been connected with the bank for thirty-seven
years. The second assistant cashier is Frank H. Barbour.

The directors of the bank, besides Mr. Cummings, are at present :
Prentiss W. Scudder, formerly of the firm of Danforth Scudder & Com-
pany, wholesale grocers, and now the oldest director in point of service,
having been elected in 1800; Hon. Edward D. Hayden, recently mem-
ber of Congress; William Basset, of the banking house of Basset,
Whitney & Company; Moses X. Arnold, extensive shoe manufacturer
at North Abington; George M. Coburn and Micajah P. Clough, in the
boot and shoe business; William P. Spaulding, member of the well
known firm of Noah Spaulding & Company, sugar refiners ; and James
P. Stearns, the cashier.

The location of the bank has been changed several times. It was
originally at 16 State street; in 1837 removed to 02 State street, and in
1844 to No. 43 State street. In 1874 it was removed to No. 60 Con-
gress street, corner of Water, where it has since remained with the ex-
ception of a temporary change to 41 State street during the rebuilding
after the great Boston fire.

The Shawmut Bank is a designated repository for the public moneys,
and the postal notes and money orders are redeemed by it through the
Clearing-hou.se. It has the largest circulation of any bank in Baston,
and is known as one of the active and progressive banks of the city.'
Since its organization as a national bank in 1864, it has paid in divi-
dends $1,890,000.

The condition of this bank at the close of business, March 6, 1893,
as reported to the comptroller of the currency, was as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts gg ^39 qqj j^

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 005 7 j

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 1,000,000.00

U. S. bonds to secure deposits 200,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 920041.95

Due from approved reserve agents 865! 458. 95

Due from other National Banks 447^700.88

306

SUFFOLK COUNFY.

Due from State Banks and bankers "''l'^*^^''^"^

Other real estate and mortgages owned ^ "' J'^'D'*^^

Current expenses and taxes paid '6i,iU. 10

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 192,()(J0.(]()

Checks and other cash items ^^^'^J'^IJ

Exchanges for clearing-house < -v J, . o J. 1 7

Bills of other banks ^^'S'o! ^

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 1 ,.:534.^4

Specie, viz. :

Gold coin P60,8=32.50

Gold certificates 142,050.00

Silverdollars 4,000.00

Silver certificates 15,100.00

o 001 on:

Fractional silver o,ooi.^o ^^^_ ^^j^^.

, , 1 f - 192,100.00

Legal tender notes

Redcmpti(..n fund with U. S. Treasury, 5 per cent, of circulati.m 45,000.00

,p , 1 $8,207,809.15

r(_)tal ^

LIAlilLITIES.

. , . , • 1 • $1,000,000.00

Capital stock paid in _. _ -- -""'^ '

\^ , . / 200,000.00'

Surplus fund mn Vr-i ia

TT T 1 J at-c^ - 100,561.10

Undivided profits . '

National Bank notes outstanding 900,000.00

Dividends unpaid - - -

Individual deposits subject to check $2,914,888.43

Demand certificates of deposit 809,806.57

Certified checks ^^'f^'^

Cashier's checks outstanding '~imSii ^ ^^^^ 947^ go

1 7:? 1 44 29
United States deposits ii on -^

Deposits of U. S. disbursing oflicers 01 ^900 1 o

Due to other National Banks 1,4' 850 05

Due to State Banks and bankers l,d< J , «oo.u.)

Total $8,207,809.15

BOYLSTON NATIONAL BANK.

The Boylston Bank was incorporated under an act of the Leo-i.slature,
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Chapter l->5, passed to be en-
acted March i;5 and 14, 1S45. The original corporators were Joseph
H. Hayward, John Redman and Josiah Vose, their associates and suc-
cessors.

The finst meetino- of the stockholders was held in room No. 1, Boyl-
ston Hall, on Tuesday, June :3, 1845, for the purpose of determining on

BA^Kl^G INSTITUTION'^. 307

the acceptance of the charter, also for the choice of directors and such
other business as might leg-ally come before them. The meeting was
called to order by Col. Thomas Hunting; Warren White was chosen
chairman, and Amos Cummings clerk. It was voted unanimously to
accept the charter. It was also voted that the number of directors
should be twelve. The canvassers nominated by the chair, Artemas
Simonds, Ephraim Harrington and Henry K. Hancock, were chosen by
the meeting.

After receiving and counting the votes, the canvassers declared that
the following gentlemen were elected:

William Parker.

Warren White, served to Oct. 0, ISo-t.

William Pope, resigned Oct. 11, isni, died Nov. (», 1S(;4, in his

seventv-eighth vear.
Timothy Gilbert, served to Oct.
John M. Mayo,
Jonathan Ellis,
Ruel Baker,
Amos Cummings.
William C. Fay,
Abner E. Fisher,
Thomas Hunting,
Isaac Emery,

On motion of William Parker, a committee of five, consisting of
William Parker, William Brigham, Matthew S. Parker, Jonathan Ellis
and William Pope, was appointed to draft by-laws and report at the
adjourned meeting, June 24, at which meeting the by-laws were re-
ported and unanimously adopted.

At a meeting of the directors held June o, l.siS, William Parker was
elected president. The following gentlemen were chosen a committee
to inquire and report as to the most eligible place for a banking house :
Warren White, Ruel Baker, Timothy Gilbert and William Parker.

At a meeting held November 3, a committee on bills, appointed June
3, made their report, and it was voted that the committee be authorized
to procure the plates for bills of the following denominations: ones,
twos, fives and tens. Twenties, fifties, hundreds and five hundreds
were also issued, and a plate for threes was voted May 14, 1852. At a
meeting held November 8, it was voted that the committee on location

Oct.

1848.

Nov.

1-,

1845.

Oct.

1855.

Oct.

1848.

Nov.

1845.

Oct.

1852.

Oct.

•',

1S54.

Oct.

1854.

30B SC'FFOLK COUNTY.

be aiithorized to contract for a banking- room in one of the three fol-
lowing- named buildings: D. C. Mosele3^'s, corner of Washington and
Boylston streets; John Redman's, corner of Essex and Washington
streets; and J. M. Dexter's new granite block, Washington street,
nearly opposite Essex street. Mr. Jonathan Ellis was added to the
committee. At a meeting held November 11, on motion of Mr. Ellis
it was voted that Mr. Warren White and Col. Ruel Baker be authorized
to make a contract with Mr. John Redman for the room for a location
of the bank at the corner of Essex street. The president was added to
the committee. At a meeting held November 13 this vote was recon-
sidered, and on motion of Mr. Emery it was voted unanimously that
the committee be instructed to make a bargain with Mr. David C.
Moseley. On the 11th of November Warren White and Thomas Hunt-
ing were appointed a committee to purchase furniture for the bank,
and Cof Ruel Baker was authorized to procure and paint the signs.

At a meeting held November 20, Duncan McB. Thaxter, of Fair-
haven, was elected cashier, and Luther Blodgett was elected mes-
senger.

On December 23 the commissioners appointed by Governor George
N. Brigg-s to examine the specie in the vaults — Samuel H. Walley,
John G. Palfrey and Henry Jacques — after weighing and examining
the specie, administered the prescribed oath to the directors. Subse-
quently a committee which had been authorized to make a contract
with the Suffolk Bank, recommended that the Boylston Bank should
join in the arrangement with other banks of Boston for the redemption
of country bank bills by making the usual deposit of $5,000 in the Suf-
folk Bank, and they stated that in consideration of an additional deposit
of $1,000 the Suffolk Bank had agreed to receive all bills and checks on
other banks in this city which might be received by the Boylston Bank
on deposit and in exchange for its own bills. This report was approved
and accepted.

The bank commenced business on Wednesday, December 24, 1845,
in its rooms leased of David C. Moseley, at the north corner of Boyls-
ton and Washington streets. The economy of the directors is shown
by the passag-e of a vote December 29, 184(J — more than a year after
the bank started — appointing Messrs. Baker and Parker a committee
to procure cushions for the chairs in the directors' room. The directors
probably concluded that the bank had attained so firm a standing that
thev were entitled to more comfortable sittings.

ELECTEE

Nov.

17,

1845,

Nov.

17,

1845,

Oct.

1854,

Oct.

1854,

Oct.

1854,

Oct.

1855,

Oct.

11,

1861,

Oct.

11,

1861,

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 300

OTHER DIRECTORS. SERVED TO.

Albert Clark, Oct. 4, 1840.

Nathaniel Jewett, Oct. 5, 1848.

Timothy Gilbert, Oct. 11, 1861.

Thomas Upham.
Luther Blodg-ett.
William Brown.
Joseph T. Bailey.
Edwin Pope.

William Parker, the first president, was elected June 3, 1845. He
was born November 7, 1703, and was the son of Rt. Rev. Samuel
Parker, Bishop of Massachusetts (Episcopal). He was a lawyer by
profession and was an alderman of the city of Boston in the years 1842,
'43, '45, '46 and '47. He held the office of president until January 6, 1855,
wdien he resigned, as he was to take a trip to Europe the last of March
to be absent about six months. He continued to serve as a director.
Col. William Pope, of the firm of William Pope & Sons, lumber dealers,
No. 280 Harrison avenue, and an alderman of the city of Boston in the
years 1845, '46, '48 and '40, was elected president January 0, 1855. He
declined to serve, it being his intention to be absent much during the
winter and spring. Timothy Gilbert, who was then elected president,
was a piano manufacturer at No. 658 Washington street, as now num-
bered, being part of the premises now occupied by John H. Pray, Sons
& Co. He was one of the chief promoters of the Tremont Temple
enterprise, and an early and firm friend of the anti-slavery cause. He
served to October 11, 1861. He died July 12, 1865, in the sixty-ninth
year of his age. Amos Cummings was elected president October 11,
1861. He was a grocer and at different times occupied stores at north
corner of Essex and Washington streets, north corner of Chickering
Place and Washington street, and at No. 20 Summer street.

Duncan McB. Thaxter, of Fairhaven, was elected cashier November
20, 1845, and served to May 1, 1848. He died in vSomerville, August
28, 1888, in the ninety-second year of his age. His successor was John
J. Soren, previously teller of the Washington Bank for about twenty-
three years. Luther Blodgett was elected messenger November 20,
1845, and served imtil he resigned, April 1, 1854. January 13, 1846,
Mr. vSkilton was employed as a clerk, serving about two months. Fred-
erick L. Church was elected bookkeeper from July 1, 184(!, and served
until his resignation, November 1, 1848. Daniel E. Snow was book-

310 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

keeper from November 1, 184S, until he resigned, July 1, 1850. De-
pendence S. Waterman, who entered the bank as assistant to the cashier
January 24, 18-ti), was elected bookkeeper July 1, 1850. Charles W.
Snow was elected clerk March 10, 1804, and was elected messenger
[une 11, 18(;4. l^^dward A. Church was elected clerk and general
assistant June 11, 18(i4.

The capital stock of $150,000 was increased October 16, 1848, to
$200,000; on June 0, 1851, to $250,000; on June 2, 1853, to $300,000;
and on May 5, 1854, to $400,000.

The Boylston Rank under its vStatc charter paid thirty-eight dividends
amounting to $541,250, including an extra dividend May 1, 1853, of six
per cent., amounting to $15,000.

The Boylston National Bank of Boston, successor to the Boylston
Bank, was organized under act of Congress, approved June 3, 18(14, by
certificate of authority of the comptroller of the currency, October 24,
18(;4, organization No. 545. Attention is directed to the coincidence
that the act was passed just nineteen years after the first meeting of
the stockholders of the Boylston Bank. The bank commenced busi-
ness on Thursday, December 1, 18()4, in the rooms formerly occupied
by the Boylston Bank, and remained there until its temporary removal
at close of business, Saturday, February 28, 1874, to rooms on the
north corner of Beach and Washington streets. On this site formerl}^
stood a one-story stone bxiilding of Grecian style of architecture, which
was occupied by the Washington Bank when it commenced business in
1825, Mr. Soren being its teller. The bank removed from its tempo-
rary quarters about July 1, 18T4, to its present location, the north cor-
ner of Essex and Washington streets.

Of the original directors, after organization imder the National Bank-
ing act, William Parker served until his decease, October 2!), 1873,
nearly eighty years of age; Amos Cummings till his death, April 24,
18(i8, in his seventieth year; Thomas Upham till January 11, 1870;
Luther Blodgett till his decease, August 18, 1874, nearly eighty years
of age; William Brown till his death, February 10, 1875, in his seven-
tieth year.

Of the present directors Joseph T. Bailey and Edwin Pope have
served since 18ri5; Charles Cummings was elected January 12, 18(;0;
Athcrton Tr Brown, March 24, 1875; Charles Torrey, March 24, 1875;
George H. Green, May 11), 1877; P>ank J. Coburn, April 15, I8!)l ;
(Tcorge W. Coburn served as director from December 28, 1877, till his
death, April 2, 18!)0, in his sixtieth year.

BANKING INSriTUrfONS. 311

Amos Cumming-s was the first president and served until his decease,
April 24, 18(iS, in the seventieth year of his age. Joseph T. Bailey-
was elected president May 13, 1868. He was successively a member
of the firms of Bailey & Jenkins; Bailey, Jenkins & Garrison; and Will-
iams & Coburn, wool merchants. No. 105 Federal street ; served as a
trustee of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association for the
years 185!>, 1800 and ISCl, and was its president for the years 180-1,
1805, and 1800. It was during his administration that the tenth exhibi-
tion of the association took place. He was an alderman of the city of
Boston for the years 1859, 1860 and 1801. William Parker, esq., acted
as president p?-o tcin. during the illness of President Bailey from Decem-
ber, 1808, to April, 18(j0, and during his absence abroad from July to
the latter part of October, 1870. Charles Torrey, of the firms of
Bowker, Torrey & Company, No. 118 Portland street, and Torreys &
Company, No. 00 Beverly street, marble and granite dealers, was
elected vice-president May 0, 18!)1.

John J. Soren was the first cashier. He served to October 18, 1875,
making his time of service in the Washington, Boylston and Boylston
National Banks a little more than fifty years. He died Februar}^ 20,
]88tt, aged eighty-five years and four months. Dependence S. Water-
man was the bookkeeper until (^)ctober 18, 1875, when he was elected
cashier. He has been connected with the Boylston and Boylston
National Banks forty-four years. Edward A. Church, clerk and
general assistant, was elected messenger and assistant discount clerk
November 7, 1808. He was elected bookkeeper October 18, 1875, and
was appointed assistant cashier from April 2, 1888. Charles W. vSnow,
then messenger, was elected receiving teller November 7, 1808. He
performed the duties of the paying teller for about five months during
the illness of that officer, until May 24, 1884, when he was elected pay-
ing teller. Joseph T. Bailey 2d entered the bank as messenger in Feb-
ruary, 1879, and became second bookkeeper June 1, 1881. He was
elected receiving teller May 24, 1884, having served in that office about
five months previous to his election. Herbert B. Bailey entered the
bank as second bookkeeper December 12, 1883. Allen B. Davenport
was elected assistant to the receiving" teller from July 27, 1885, and
was elected third bookkeeper from Janiiary 1, 1889. John W. Bailey
came to the bank as messenger June 1, 1881, and became collection
clerk August 1, 1885. Walter B. Ellis came to the bank as clerk De-
cember 1, 1882, and became the messenger August 1, 1885. George

312 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

W. Wright was elected clerk January 1, 1880, and became assistant to
the receiving teller June 24, 1889. Charles W. Bailey entered the bank
as clerk June 24, 188!).

The capital stock of the bank when it commenced business Decem-
ber 1, 18G4, was $400,000. This was increased April 1, 1SG5, by a
stock dividend of twenty-five per cent. $100,000 to $500,000; Decem-
ber 1, 1872, to $000,000; and March D, 1875, to $700,000, the present
amount.

The bank has been happily free from the evils resulting from for-
geries and defalcations, nor has it refused specie payments except in
those few periods when they were refused by the other Boston banks.

However, in the autumn of 1800 a robbery was perpetrated which
was remarkable in many respects. A month previous a person calling
himself William A. Judson hired a room in the next building to the
bank in the rear of its safe for the pretended business of selling Cali-
fornia wine bitters. On vSaturday, November 20, 1809, the safe was
closed with everything in its usual condition of supposed security.
But on the next Monday morning on opening the safe a robbery was
discovered. From the room in the adjoining building the brick wall
next to the safe had been removed. A series of holes two inches in
diameter had been drilled, making an opening nearh^ in the form of a
circle through the iron wall of the outer safe, large enough to admit a
boy or a very slender man. Upon shelves in the outer safe were some
thirty .small trunks left for safe keeping at the risk of the owners.
These were taken through the opening and their contents, consisting
of money and coupon bonds, largely United States bonds, of the value
of about $300,000, were removed. The robbers escaped with their
plunder. It is quite certain that the burglars were Charles Bullard,
"Ike" Marsh, Adam Worth and "Billy" Cochrane. In May, 1871,
William A. Glover was arraigned for being accessory before the fact
to the breaking and entering. But on his trial the jury disagreed. On
his second trial, January, 1872, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty.
Exceptions were filed and were admitted and sent to the Supreme
Court, where they were overruled. His sentence was further delayed
by amotion for anew trial, which was also overruled, and he was sen-
tenced March 30, 1874, to twelve years' imprisonment and one day soli-
tary in the State Prison at Charlestown. After being in prison some
two and a half years. Glover was thought to be in consumption, and
on that account, and having been kept in jail nearly three years

BANK/XC INSTITUTIONS.- 313

before his sentence, combined with the fact that he was adjiicls^'ed ^^-nilty
mostly upon the evidence of one witness, he was pardoned November
■23, IS^O. Ballard, who with his companions in crime fled to Europe
so(ni after the robbery, married an English woman, and went to Paris,
where he started an American gambling- hoiise. He afterwards returned
to this country, was arrested, and arraigned as Charles Bullard, alias
James P. Wells, alias AVilliam A. Judson, September IT, ISTl. He
pleaded not gi:ilty and was held in $100,000, and for default in furnish-
ing sureties was committed to jail. On November 18 following he
pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment and
four days' solitary imprisonment in the State Prison at Charlestown.
He was transferred to the State Prison at Concord in May, 1878, but
escaped in vSeptember following. One $1,000 bond dropped in the room
hired by the robbers, and one other $1,000 bond, obtained after some
litigation, was all that was recovered of the stolen property. The loss
to the bank was only a few hundred dollars, but to some of the depo.sitors
the loss was heavy and severe.

During its existence as a national bank, the Boylston Bank has paid
fifty-seven dividends, amounting to $1,404,500, and a stock dividend of
twenty-five per cent. April 1, 1865, amounting to $100,000.

The condition of the Boylston National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business March (i, 1803, was
as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,180,320. 12

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 286. 90

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 44, 100. 00

Due from approved reserve agents 189,973.17

Due from other National Banks 64,081.00

Due from State Banks and bankers 4,522.37

Current expenses and taxes paid 17,349.56

Checks and other cash items 494. 61

Exchanges for clearing-house 70,840.86

Bills of other banks 19,862.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 622.45

Specie 143,110.50

Legal tender notes 55,184.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $2,843,007.54

314 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 700,()(K).00

Surplus fund 31o,()()0.00

Undivided profits 137,059.48

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 758.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,454,285.85

Demand certificates of deposit 2,771.48

Certified checks. ^ 1,500.00

Due to other National Banks 50,996.47

Due to State Bank and bankers 135,641.26

Total $2,843,007.54

NATIONAL EXCHANGE BANK.

The Exchanoe Bank, now known as the National Exchang-e Bank,
was chartered April 12, 1847. The incorporators named in the act
were Solomon R. Spaulding-, J. B. Kimball and Alexander Strong.
The capital was fixed at $oO(),00(), and the charter to continue until
October 1, 1851. Its capital was increased to ^1,000, ()()() in 1851, and
has since remained unchanged.

The folhnving is a list of some of the most prominent of the original
stockholders: Oliver Ames & Sons, John P. Bigelow, James M. Beebe,
vSylvester Bowman, Benjamin Bangs, Edward C. Bates, Lewis Cole-
man, Francis Carruth, Lee Claflin, Charles Choate, P. P. F. Degrand,
William H. Dunbar, Francis Dane, John L. Dimmock, Ezra Forristall,
George Foster, Peter Frothinghara, Benjamin French, John Felton,
Seth W. Fowle, David (ioddard, John Hooper, Thomas Hunting, John
T. Heard, Earl W. Johnson, Stephen jcnney, Abraham T. Lowe,
George H. Loring, Frederick W. Lincoln, jr., Benjamin B. Musse}',
William J. Niles, Lyman Perry, Thomas P. Pingree, Thomas I).
Quincy, Sampson Reed, Nathan Rcjbbins, jr., Samuel R. vSpinney, B.
P. vSpaulding, William D. Ticknor, INIinot Tirrell, Samuel A. Way,
Jonathan Whiting, Henry Wilson, Nathaniel Whitney, Winslow Wright
and William D. Sewall.

The first meeting of the stockholders was held May 4, 1847, at the
old Exchange Coffee House, when l,li):3 votes were cast for the follow-
ing first board of directors: George W. Thayer, S. R. vSpaulding, John
B. Kimball, Alexander Strong, John G. Davis, Israel C. Rice, Samuel
Bates, jr., John Foster, Peter Frothingham, William H. Dtmbar, Dan-
iel C. Baker and Sampson Reed. At the meeting of the directors held

BAXKIXG INSTITUTIONS. 315

the same day, George W. Thayer was elected president. The following
additional officers were subsequently chosen: J. M. March, cashier;
J. M. Pettengill, teller; J. Mitchell, bookkeeper; John T. Bouve, dis-
count clerk; Benjamin V. French, jr., assistant bookkeeper, and Fred-
erick S. Davis, general clerk.

This institution became the National Exchange Bank September 11),
1S(;4, with a capital of $1,000,000. The first board of directors after it
became a national bank was composed of John G. Davis, Francis Dane,
William H. Dunbar, John Foster, J. B. Kimball, Alexander Strong,
Sampson Reed, Solomon R. vSpaulding and George W. Hayes.

The presidents of the lixchange Bank have been as follows : George
W. Thayer, from May 4, 1847, till his decease February 1, 18(50; Abner
I. Benyon, from February 8, 1800, to February 17, 187'), and Edward
L. Tead from that date to the present time.

The cashiers have been: J. M. March, from May 10, 1847, till ^larch
14, 181)4; Abner I. Benyon, from then till February 8, 1800, when he
became president; and J. M. Pettengill from that date to 1884, when
he was succeeded by the present cashier, John J. Eddy.

The board of directors for 1803 is composed of Edward L. Tead,
Freeman J. Doe, Edward J. Brown, Elisha wS. Converse, Edward
Hutchinson, Walter S. Swan, H. G. Nichols and L. P. Bartlett. jr.

Throughout its entire history the Exchange Bank has been located
at 38 .State street. It has largely been identified with the boot, shoe
and leather interest, and has always readily responded to the public
need when called upon, and during the war of the Rebellion loaned
large sums of money to the national and State Governments. Its
board of directors has notably contained broad-minded and successful
business men who were leaders in their various trades and callings.

The condition of the bank as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency at the close of business March 0, 1803, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $5,773,994.81

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 223. 92

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50, 000.00

Stocks, securities, etc. 103, 158. 17

Due from approved reserve agents 807,247.79

Due from othertXational Banks 386,413.49

Banking-house, furniture and fixtures 7,673.13

Other real estate and mortgages OAvned 18,420.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 28,128.27

31G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Checks and other cash items 46,448.58

Exchanges for clearing-house 279,298.22

Bills of other banks 29,514.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 186. 28

Specie 520,579.00

Legal tender notes . 2(12,750.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $8,256,285.65

LiAiiiLrriES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 250,000.00

Undivided profits 246,996.77

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 230.00

Individual deposits subject to check 3,424,245.75

Demand certificates of deposit 166,408.67

Due to other National Banks . 2,549,525.59

Due to State Banks and bankers 443,878.87

Bills payable 130,000.00

Total --- _. $8,256,285.65

NATIONAL BANK OF COMAIERCIv

Tlic National Rank of Commerce was incorporated tinder the State
laws as the Bank of Commerce April 0, ISoO, the incorporators be-
in;^' Edward C. Bates, (reorge A. Fiske, E. C. Emerson and their
associates. At the time of the oro-anization of this bank there were
doini^' business in IJoston twenty-seven banks with an aj^'t^'reo-ate capital
of |>1 '.»,2:)(), ()()(». Quite a number of banks which had sprim^- into exist-
ence in the period of inflation wliich citlminated in the panic of 1<S;}7,
not only in Boston but in other parts of New ]i^ni2,'hi.nd, had failed and
o-one out of existence, and but little addition to the banking- capital of
the city had been made for the previous ten years, so that the petition
to the Let>"islature for an act of incorporation on the o-round that the
public o-()()d rc([uire(l an increase of banking- capital, was not wholly
without reascMi. The original capital stock of the bank was $7o(),0()0,
a large portion of which was sid:)scribed by merchants and capitalists,
and al^oiit one-third was taken by insurance companies, savings banks
and trustees. Among the subscribers were Nathan Appleton and
Robert O. Shaw, whose vignettes ornamented the notes of the bank.
Meeting for organization was held at the Merchants' lixchange May 20,

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 317

1850, when the charter was accepted and the following- directors
were chosen: Edward C. Bates, James W. Baldwin, Charles J. Hendee,
Thomas W. Pierce, Jarvis Slade, John Worster, Benjamin E. Bates,
Abel G. Farwell, Patrick T. Jackson, Jacob vSleeper and Reuben S.
Wade. At a subsequent meeting of the directors, Edward C. Bates was
chosen president and William H. Foster cashier. To the last named
gentleman belongs the credit of originating the plan of the bank and of
bringing the enterprise to a successful issue. He had had long experi-
ence as a bank officer, and had written much on financial subjects
which had been extensively copied.

The bank commenced business on August 1, 1S50, at 83 and 85 State
street, in the four story freestone front building now standing, which
was erected for the use of the bank. Business was begun under favor-
able circuinstances. The president, Mr. Bates, was a merchant of re-
pute and wealth, of pleasing address and manners, and exceedingly pop-
ular in commercial circles. The depositors rapidly increased in number,
and the bank soon became one of the most active in Boston. In May,

1851, the capital stock of the bank was increased to $1,500,000, and in
May, 1853, to $2,000,000. William H. Foster resigned the office of
cashier, and the board of directors passed a vote of thanks for the faith-
fulness with which he had conducted his trust, and voted him a gratuity
of eight thousand dollars for his services rendei^ed in the establishment
of the bank. Caleb H. Warner was elected cashier to succeed Mr.
Foster. In February, 1855, Mr. Edward C. Bates resigned the office
of president. He was succeeded by Benjamin E. Bates.

During the progress of the war of the Rebellion the Bank of Com-
merce was prompt to respond to the call of the secretary of the treasury
for funds. In April, 1801, it voted to the State government a loan of
ten per cent, of its capital stock. In August, 18(;i, it voted to take its
p7'0 rata share of the ten million government loan apportioned to the
Boston banks. vSimilar action was taken in November, 1861, and in
September, 18(!3.

The subject of reorganizing as a national bank was discussed at the
annual meeting of the stockholders in October, 18r)3, but was not final-
ly acted upon till the annual meeting of the following year, when it
was voted to make the change. This was perfected November 10, 18(>5,
under the present title of the National Bank of Commerce. The offi-
cers at this time were Benjamin E. Bates, Thomas W. Pierce, Edward
C. Bates, Jacob Sleeper, Cakes Ames, Reuben vS. Wade, E. T. Farinng-

318 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

ton, Henry ]. Gardner and Henry P. Kidder, direetors; Benjamin E.
Bates, president, and Caleb H. Warner, cashier. July 1, 18G9, the bank
removed its place of business from 85 wState street to the Sears Building,
where it is still located.

In May, 1875, Caleb H. Warner was chosen a director and elected
vice-president. At the same time Georg-e W. Harris was appointed
cashier, and still serves in this capacity, and has been connected with
the bank ever since its organization. Benjamin E. Bates, who was one
of the original directors of the bank and had held the office of president
since 1855, died on January 14, 1878. He was succeeded as president
by Caleb H. AVarner. In N()veml)er, 1884, Richard P. Hallowell was
elected vice-president to fill the vacanc)^ caused by the death of William
B. Storer. In June, 1874, A. vS. Lincoln, who had been paying teller
since the organization of the bank, resigned his position on account of
failing health, and in recognition of his long and faithful service the
board of directors voted to pay him a gratuity of one hundred dollars
per month, which continued until his death on Septem])er U, 1887, at
the age of seventy-five years. In May, 188(;, Richard P. Hallowell re-
signed his position as vice-president and director, and Norwood P.
Hallowell was elected in his stead. Caleb H. Warner, who had been
connected with the bank since its organization, declined a re-election
as president at the annual meeting of the directors in 181)0, and Nor-
wood P. Hallowell was elected as his successor, a position he still holds.
The capital stock was reduced in 1879 to $1,500,000. During its forty-
one 3^ears' existence this bank has passed but three semi-annual divi-
dends, and the average rate of annual dividends for this period has
been seven and sixteen-hundredths per cent.

The board of directors for 1892 is composed of Norwood P. Hal-
lowell, Charles Henry Parker, William O. Grover, T. Jefferson Cool-
idge, jr., Caleb H. Warner, George von L. Meyer, Lucius M. Sargent,
William J. Ladd, William R. Driver.

The condition of the National Bank of Commerce as reported at close
of business March (i, 1893, w^as as follows:

rb:sources.
Loans and discounts ' $3,898,805.03

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation _ 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 86,358.00

Due from approved i-eserve agents, subject to check 447,373.61

Due from other National Banks, subject to check 1,085,069.59

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. ?a\)

Due from State Banks and bankers, subject to check 29,()G8,()(5

Current expenses and taxes paid 3:;}, 205. 70

Checks and other cash items 8,349. 11

Exchanges for clearing-house 252,295.50

Bills of other banks 10,880.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 245. 92

Specie 204,570. 40

Legal tender notes 75,200.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $0, 237, 527.04

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,500,000.00

Surplus fund 300,000.00

Undivided profits 309,078.34

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid _ 996.90

Individual deposits subject to check ..$3,134,400.29

Demand certificates of deposit 01,400.41

Certified checks 15,878.22

Cashier's checks outstanding 45,058.00

8,250,791.92

Due to approved reserve agents, subject to check 55,048.05

Due to other National Batiks, subject to check 740,851.80

Due to State Banks and bankers, subject to check j... 29,609.87

Total ^ . . . : $0,237,527.04

NATIONAL BANK OF NORTH AMERICA.

The act creating- the Bank of North America pas.sed both Hou.ses of
the Mas.sachusetts Legislature and wa.s approved by Governor George
N. Brig-gs April 8, 1850. The original incorporators named in the act
were Newell vStnrtevant, David vSnow and Charles Rice. The charter
was to continue till October 1, 1872; the capital stock to consist of
ISO! ), 000, in shares of $100 each, to be paid in by May 1, 1851.

The first meeting of the stockholders was held at the Exchange Cof-
fee House on September 11, 1850, when the following directors were
unanimor:sly chosen : George W. Crockett, Charles Rice, Charles Lane,
Isaac Rich, J. W. Pottle, Charles W. vScudder, William S. Eaton, J. C.
Bates, Clement Willis, and Thomas Nickerson. One week later George
W. Crockett was elected president and John K. Hall cashier. A few
days later the directors appointed the following additional officers : J.
W. Bumstead, teller; Joseph Richardson, bookkeeper, and James M.
Bur£'ess, messeneer.

320 SUFFOLK COUXTY.

Within three years after the org-anization of the bank its prosperity
was sueh that an increase of capital became desirable, and after petition
in dne form, on April 2S, 1853, the bank was authorized to increase its
capital by the addition thereto of $200,000. In ISfiT the capital was
ai>-ain increased to the amount of $300,000, making the capital then
$1,000,000.

At a meeting of the stockholders on the Sth of December, 1804, the
directors were authorized to organize the institution as a national bank
under the provisions of the National Banking act, and on February 15,
18()5, the first annual meeting of the National Bank of North Amer-
ica was held, at its banking-house, (!5 State street, when the follow-
ing directors were unanimously chosen, the whole number of votes
cast being 720: Clement Willis, William S. Eaton, Charles Lane, Cas-
sander Gilmore, Josiah S. Robinson, Charles A. Whiting, Samuel O.
Cochran, R. W. Shapleigh and Edwin R. Sawyer.

There have been six presidents of the Bank of North America,
nainely: George W. Crockett, from October, 1850, to August 15, 1851);
David vSnow, from August 24, 185!), to November 2, 1850 ; Charles
Rice, from November 5, 1850, to his resignation in May, 1801 ; William
W. Kendrick, from May 15, 1801, till his death, July 23, 1803; Richard
W. vShapleigh, from November 4, 1803, to January 13, 1874; and Isaac
T. Burr from that date to the present time.

John K. Hall was the first cashier of the bank. He served from
the beginning until June, 1881, his connection with the bank being
longer than any other of its officers. He was siicceeded by Arthur F.
Luke, who continued as cashier until April 1, 1800, when Wallace S.
Draper, the present cashier, was elected.

The locations of the Bank of North America have been as follows:
From 1850 to 1850 it was at 00 State street, opposite Merchants" Row;
from 1850 to July 1, 1871, at 05 State street, corner of Kilby, over the
New England Bank ; from that date till the great fire of November 9,
1872, it was at the southwest corner of Franklin and Devonshire streets
— the site of the present semi-circular store of Abram French & Com-
pany — where the building was destroyed by fire ; from that date the
bank was located at 40 State street, w^here the State Bank now is, until
in 1873 it was removed to its present location in Brewer's Building, at
the northeast corner of Franklin and Devonshire streets, the apart-
ments having been completely constructed for the purpose of the bank.
The Brewer building occupies apart of the site of the old Federal Street

BANKIXG INSTirUTIONS. 321

Theatre. That portion of the southern extension of Devonshire street,
on which it now stands, was formerly known, first as "Broad Alley,"
and afterwards as " Theatre Alley." A part of the site was for a long
time occupied by a large old-fashioned tavern kept by William Fenno,
adjoining- the rear of the theatre. The stage, greenroom, and some of
the dressing-rooms were situated where the bank is located, and w^hen
within these premises the minds of any old resident of Boston is
thronged with agreeable dramatic memories. There in the far time
Cooper, the Elder Wallack, Edmund Kean, Bernard, Dickson, Finn,
Kilncr, Jane Henry (afterwards Mrs. Drummond and Mrs. George H.
Barrett), Edwin Forrest, Charles Kean, Madame Bishop, and others
tiourished and won the applause of applauding multitudes.

From the list of original stockholders of the Bank of North America
has been gleaned some of the names of those citizens and firms who
were then widely knowm, and they are here presented with the number
of shares first held by them :

William H. Adams 20 Thomas J. Lobdell 20

Ruf us Adams ... 41 Charles Rice 30

J. M. Beebe & Co 20 Nathaniel Benjamin Shurtleff 20

John W. Blodgett 30 Jared Sparks 24

Samuel B. Cochran & Co 20 Joshua Sears 40

George W. Crockett 200 Willis & Co 100

Dane, Dana & Co 50 Charles Lane & Co 85

Dunbar & Brothers 25 E. Lock & Co 50

Eaton & McClellan 41 Newton Eaton & Co 25

John Earle, jr 20 Silas Pierce & Co 45

Sumner Flagg 30 John Phelps Putnam 125

Seth W. Fowle 20 J. W. Pottle 40

B. A. Gould 50 Josiah Ouincy. jr 40

Gilmore, Blake & Ward 30 John Savory 10

N. Goddard 20 B.W.Thayer 20

R. Goddard 20 Otis Tufts 20

Greenough, Jameson & Co 50 Joseph A. Veazie 30

Harndon & Co 50 B. F. Tenney 10

Earl W. Johnson 35

The directors of the bank for 1892 are as follows: Daniel Dewey, W.
S. Eaton, A. F. Luke, Joseph H. Gray, Daniel W. Wilcox, George F.
Putnam, and William Whitman.

The condition of the bank as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency at the close of business, March G, 1893, was as follow's:
41

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $3,159,772.81

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 23.81

United States Bonds to secure circulation 50,000. 00

Stocks, securities, etc. _ . 167,437.50

Due from approved reserve agents 181,683.77

Due from other National Banks _ . 197,485.22

Current expenses and ta.xes paid 12,766.05

Checks and other cash items 1,808.72

Exchanges for clearing-house 148,270.23

Bills of other banks 5,440.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 71 . 94

vSpecie 154,232.30

Legal tender notes 2,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $3,074,242.35

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 200,000.00

Undivided profits 21 5,326.49

National Bank notes outstanding 44,500.00

Dividends unpaid 192. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,173,623.70

Demand certificates of deposit 1,750.00

Certified checks 60,363.00

Cashier's checks outstanding 62.036.75

Due to other National Banks 111,687.37

Due to State Banks and bankers 204,763.04

Total $3,074,242. 35

FANEUIL HALL NATIONAL BANK.

Faneuil Hall Bank commenced biusincss in Atij^ust, 1851, with a
capital of $500,000. Amonjj" its original stockholdcr.s, with number of
shares subscribed, were the following prominent merchants and
capitalists of the city at that day :

David Austin 5 Lester M. Clark 30

George E. Adams 15 George S. Adams 20

James W. Baldwin 120 Nathaniel Brackett 10

Baker & Morrill 100 Joseph Bailey 70

Edward C. Bates & Co 100 Stephen H. Bennett ' 50

Joseph B. Brigham 20 Jonas Bennett 1

Peter C. Brooks 20 C. C. Chamberlin 50

Joseph Tinker Buckingham _■. 10 George S. Curtis , 40

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 32:5

Henry Dean 35 Moses Pond 15

Luke Fay 50 David Pulsifer 10

J. V. Fletcher 130 Nathan Robbins, jr. 200

Dexter Follett 100 George R. Russell 20

Israel Lombard 50 George Shattuck 20

Thomas Hunt 20 John P. Squire 25

David Lombard 10 John Tillson 25

John S. Lodge 15 J. O. Wellington 20

Joseph Manning 10 J . B. Winn 25

Lambert Maynard 50 John Davis 10

Francis Melli ken.. 10 Edward Sparhawk 20

B. B. Mussey 10 Paran Stevens 50

Harvey D. Parker 10 Enoch Train 20

Lemuel Pitts ■ 25 Edward Walker 25

Abner Pierce 20 Obadiah Woodbury 20

The first board of directors was composed of J. V. Fletcher, J. W.
Baldwin, Lambert Maynard, Reuben Rice, C. G. Chambcrlin, Abijah
Thompson, Nathan Robbins, Lemuel Pitts, Charles J. Morrill, Joseph
H. Curtis, Joseph C. Bailey and Dexter Follett.

This institution was reorg-anized under the national banking laws in
18()5 with a capital of $1,000,000, at which time an extra dividend of
fifty per cent, was paid and a regular dividend of five per cent.

J. W. Baldwin, the first president of the bank, served until May 11,
1S54, when he was succeeded by Joseph H. Curtis, who a few months
later was followed by Nathan Robbins, who continued as president
until his death, September 5, 1885. J. Varnum Fletcher was chosen
as Mr. Robbins's successor, and has since served as president. Mr.
Fletcher has served four years as a representative in the State Legisla-
ture, and two years as a Republican senator from the Second Middlesex
District, and was chairman of the committee on banks and banking in
that body. He is also president of the Belmont vSavings Bank, and a
successful merchant in Faneuil Hall Market. The first cashier of the
bank was Jonas Bennett, who held the office until September 1, 18G2,
Avhen Edward L. Tead was chosen and continued to act in that capacity
until his resignation in February, 1870, when the present cashier, T.
G. Hiler, was chosen. Mr. Hiler has been connected with the bank
since its organization, and is a financier of large experience. The
board of directors for 1892 is as follows: J. Varnum Fletcher, Charles
E. Morrison, Samuel S. Learned, A. J. Adams, George W. Fiske,
L. M. Haskins, S. F. Woodbridge, Stillman F. Kelley, Henry D.
Yerxa.

;}24 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The Faneuil Hall Bank was first located in Edward Brinley's build-
ing- in Market Square, opposite the south side of Faneuil Hall. In 1858
it was removed to 43 South Market street, and in 1S(J4 to its present
location, 3 vSouth Market street, corner of Merchants' Row.

The condition of this bank as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, at the close of business March (i, ISDo, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,332,790.95

Drafts, secured and unsecured 618.33

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 17,800.00

Due from approved reserve agents. _.__ 145,274.10

Due from other National Banks 185,198.69

Banking house, furniture and fixtures 122,500.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 19,476.25

Checks and other cash items 4, 645. 86

E.\ changes for clearing-house 76,014.99

Bills of other l)anks 9,604.00

Fractional paper currenc\% nickels and cents 1,367.39

Specie ' - - - - 241 ,444. 00

Legal tender notes 1 1,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total -. $3,219,984.56

LI.VKILITIES.

Capital Stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 200,000.00

Undivided profits 237,537.02

National Bank nt^tes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 672.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1 ,460, 500. 59

Demand certificates of deposit 141,558.81

Certified checks 15,028. 11

Cashier's checks outstanding. _ 8.75

Due to other National Banks 78,180.50

Due to State Banks and bankers 41,498.78

Total $3,219,984. 56

BLACKSTONE NATIONAL BANK.

The Blackstone Bank, now the Blackstone National Bank, was char-
tered as a vState institution May 24, 1851, and commenced business
September 10 following". The number of subscribers to the stock was

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 325

two hundred and thirty-four. The original officers of the bank were
as follows: President, Frederick Gould; cashier, Joshua Loring; direc-
tors: Frederick Gould, Dexter Roby, Benjamin L. Allen, Loyal Love-
joy, George W. Chipman, Isaac H. Hazleton, William Adams, Gardner
Chilson, A. L. Chamberlain, Henry Cutter, J. M. Holden, N, P. Mann.
Of the first board of directors only one, George W. Chipman, sur-
vives.

The original capital of the bank, $250,000, was increased by the
addition of $100,000 in 1853, and $400,000 in 1854-. On vSeptember 1!),
18(i4, the bank was reorganized under the National Banking act as the
Blackstone National Bank, and in October following $250,000 was
added to its capital, besides paying to the stockholders a dividend of
twenty per cent, in addition to the seini-anniial dividend of five per
cent. In October, 18(19, $500,000 was added to the capital, and in Oc-
tober, 1874, the same amount, making the capital at that time $2,000,-
000. In vSeptember, 1878, the capital was reduced by the payment of
$500,000 to the stockholder, at which time the October dividend was
omitted, the only omission of a semi-annual dividend since the bank was
organized.

Mr. (xould resigned the presidency January 17, 1871, and was suc-
ceeded by Joshua Loring, who up to that time had served as cashier.
Mr. Loring continued to serve as president until Eustace C. Fitz was
elected his successor. Mr. Fitz is the senior member of the firm of
Fitz, Dana & Co., metal dealers. He has had an extensive business
and financial experience, and has been a director in this bank for more
than twenty years. He has served both in the House of Representa-
tives and vSenate of Massachusetts, and during his legislative career
rendered valuable service in shaping financial legislation.

Joshua Loring, the present vice-president, has been connected
with the bank ever since organization either as cashier, president or
vice-president. He is the only one of the original officers of the bank
still connected with the institution.

James Adams, the cashier of the bank, was chosen February ;>, 1875.
He previously served for ten 3^ears as cashier of the Bunker Hill Na-
tional Bank, and has had an extended and varied experience in banking-
affairs.

The Blackstone National Bank has been an ably managed institution
and is recognized as one of the most substantial of Boston banks. The
substantial building owned and occupied by the bank, corner of Han-

'.\n SUFFOLK COUNTY.

over and Union streets, was erected on a site bought of the kite James
M. Beebee, at one time a prominent merchant on Hanover street. The
directors of the bank for 1892 are as follows: Enstace C. Fitz, George
W. Chipman, Eleazar Boynton, William A. Rust, Joshua Loring-, J. S.
Paine, |. O. Wethcrbee, John Edmunds, (jeorgc F. Blake and (). M.
Wentworth.

The condition of this bank at the close of business Marcli (i, ISO:], as
reported to the com]:)tr(»lk'r of the currency, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts _ $8,1^7,269. ]S

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 5,1 50. 24

U. S. bonds to secure circulatif)n 50, 000. 00

Stocks, securities, etc. 53,343.75

Due from approved reserve agents 329,424. 03

Due from <^ther National Banks 248, 709. 35

Due from State Banks and bankers 3,018.49

Banking house, furniture and fixtures 313,000.00

Other real estate and mortgages owned 843. 49

Current expenses and taxes paid -._ 30,(I24.73

Premiums on U. S. bonds 7,000.00

Checks and other cash items 1,174.36

Exchanges for clearing house 127,099.42

Bills of other banks 71,579.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 369.51

Specie .' 226,987. 75

Legal tender notes 68,000.00

U. ,S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer, (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,735,238.80

LI.MiH.ITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,500,000.00

Surplus fund 230, 000. 00

Undivided profits 120,217.55

National Bank notes oixtstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 790.50

Individual deposits subject to check 2,177,841.57

Demand certificates of deposit 229,247.07

Certified checks 11,606.72

Due to other National Banks 237, 102.22

Due to State Banks and bankers 183,433.17

Total 14, 735, 238. 80

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 327

NATIONAL WEBSTER BANK.

The Webster Bank received its charter June IG, 1853, the original
incorporators being William Thomas, George B. Upton and Albert
Fearing, and "their associates and assigns." It came into existence
eight months after the death of the statesman whose great name it
honorably bears. The capital was fixed at $1,500,000. At the first
meeting of its stockholders the following directors were chosen : Will-
iam B. Bacon, James M. Beebee, William A. Crocker, John M. Forbes,
H. H. Hunnewell, George H. Kuhn, L. W. Tappan, William Thomas,
George B. Upton, William F. Weld. By a unanimous vote of this
board, William Thomas was chosen president, and wSol onion Lincoln
cashier. At a subsec^uent meeting, held July 13, 1853, the following
additional officers were elected: Edward W. Brown, paying teller;
Charles L. Riddle, receiving teller; Merrill N. Boyden, bookkeeper,
and Charles E. Currier, discount clerk. On August 9 following, Ellery
Canning Daniell was elected discount clerk in lieu of jSIr. Currier, who
had declined to serve, and William C. Durant was chosen collection
clerk.

On the Kith of August, 1853, the Webster Bank made its first dis-
count. The first semi-annual report was made by the directors on the
25th of March, and by this report it appeared that the net profits to
April 1, 1854, was $(50,352.86. The second semi-annual report, made
September 2(i, 1854, showed that the net profits of the bank for the six
months ending October, 1854, were $73,643.23. The surplus at that
time proved to be $21,143, and the semi-annual dividends of the first
year of the institution were ?»% per cent, each, on the capital stock of
$1,500,000. The highest and lowest market prices of the Webster
Bank shares in 1853 were $105 and $101, and $107 and $99 in 1854.

On the 21st of April, 1865, the stockholders decided by vote that the
bank should become a national bank, and the change was effected on
the 2d of June, 1865, when the title of the National Webster Bank of
Boston was adopted.

There have been five presidents of this institution. William Thomas
was president from June 16, 1853, till January 12, 1869, when he re-
resigned after a successful presidency of more than fifteen years. He
was succeeded by Solomon Lincoln, previously ca.shier, who resigned
on the 1st of February, 1876, when he was succeeded by Francis
Jacques, who served from 1876 to 1884. Francis A. Peters was elected
to succeed Mr. Jacques, and held the position until 1890, when, decliu-

328 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

iwg a re-election, John P. Lyman, the present president, was elected
his successor.

The bank has had four cashiers. Solomon Lincoln served from June
111, 1S5;}, till January 1-2, L*^01). He was then succeeded by Ellery C.
Daniell, who served till February 21, 1871, when he was succeeded by
Edward Reynolds Hall, who continued in otifice till December 1, 187G,
when he was succeeded by Charles L. Riddle, the present cashier. Mr.
Riddle has been connected with the bank ever since its origin in 1853,
lirst as receiving teller and then as cashier. H. H. Hunnewell is the
only tnember of the first board who has ever since been a director.
The directors for 1892 are Joseph S. Kendall, S. W. Marston, John C.
Palfrey, H. H. Hunnewell, vSamuel Johnson, Joseph A. Laforme,
Henry Whitman, John P. Lyman, Thomas Motley, jr., Francis A. Peters.

By report to the comptroller of the currency, the condition of the
National Webster Bank, at close of business March (">, 1893, was as fol-
low\s :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $3, (il 7,27(1. 14

U. vS. bonds to secure circulation 50, 000. (K)

Stocks, securities, etc 19,425.(10

Due from approved reserve agents 155, 149,0(5

Due from other National Banks _ _ 73, 950. ;5(>

Current expenses and taxes paid 21,934.87

Checks and other cash items 66.01

Exchanges for clearing-house 6(), 729. S8

Bills of other banks 21,2(10.00

Fractional paper ciUTency, nickels and cents 1 05. 1 1

Specie _ 1 1 9,308. 20

Legal tender notes 27,900.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total _ ^3,175,348.63

LI.VinLITIES.

Capital stock paid in $l,50O,0(J0.(H)

Surplus fund 242,000.00

Undivided profits 98,740.48

National Bank notes outstanding '. 44,000.00

Dividends unpaid... 140.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,062,412.83

Demand certificates of deposit 2,967.50

Certified checks 30,000.00

Due to other National Banks 25,358.69

Due to State Banks and bankers 169,729. 13

T< >tal ,.,,.,_.-,._,__._.._.-_,.__.._,.„,..,,..,._ §3, 1 75, 248. 63

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 329

HOWARD NATIONAL BANK,

The Howard National Bank was organized with a capital of $500,000
in June, 1853, under the name of the Howard Banking Company. The
features of its charter were substantially the same as those of several
other Boston banks organized in that year. The first board of directors
was composed of Daniel C. Baker, Charles Ellis, Elisha Atkins, E. G.
Nickerson, Adolphus Davis, George W. Robinson, A. W. Farrar, Reu-
ben E. Demmon and Abram French. The first meeting of this board
was held June 27, 1S53, when Daniel C. Baker was chosen president
and Stephen Bartlett cashier. The following additional officers were
elected July 7 following: George E. Hersey, teller; Jonathan Nichols,
bookkeeper, and Noah Robinson, collection clerk.

Among the original stockholders v^'ere the following citizens and
corporations :

John C. Abbott 50 Jonathan Whitney 4(t

Adams & Powers 50 C. H. Warner 78

Amoskeag Savings Bank 50 Ti mothy Willis 25

Elisha Atkins 110 W^ashington Warner 58

Edward H. Ashcroft 50 Cyrus Wakefield 52

O. D. Ashley 227 Sheldon Webster 18

Blake, Howe & Co 81 CM. Ellis 35

Brewster, Sweet & Co 6'J Amos Coolidge 20

Joseph Brown, jr 47 Reuben E. Demmon 8

Boston Five Cent Savings Bank 270 Isaac Spaulding 30

C. Doherty 80 Ira Stratton 30

Eliot Fire Ins. Co 80 George A. Curtis 20

Shoe & Leather Dealers' Fire Ins. Co. 110 William Claflin 17

Stratton & Ayres 134 J. M. Currier 22

Suffolk Savings Bank 105 Samuel Cobb 35

John L. Sheriff 44 Henry L. Daggett 10

Edward Sweet 52 John L. Eddy 25

George W. Torrey 35 William Estabrook 23

Warren Ins. Co. 125 Newell A. Thompson 20

The name of the Howard Banking Company was changed to the
Howard Bank by legislative act in 1S5S. It was changed to a national
bank, under its present name of Howard National Bank, in ISOo, at
which time the capital was increased to $750,000, and in October, 18(i!»,
to its present limit, $!,()( »(),()()().

The presidents of the Howard Bank have served as follows: Daniel
C. Baker, from June 27, 1835, to September, 1855; Charles Ellis, from

330 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

that date till January 12, l.SOO; and Reuben E. Demmun from that
time to the present.

The cashiers have been as follows: Stephen Bartlett, from July, 1853,
to June 18, 1855; George E. Hersey from that time till January, 1870;
and S. F. Wilkins from that date to 181)1, when he was succeeded by
the present cashier, Chandler Robbins. Mr. Wilkins, before his con-
nection with the Howard, had been assistant cashier of the Revere
Bank, under the presidency of vSamuel H. Walley.

From 1853 to April, 1870, the Howard was located at i)7 vState street,
and after the latter date for several years occupied the premises, 85
State street, previously occupied by the Bank of Commerce. It is now
located at 19 Congress street. The board of directors for 181)2 is com-
posed of Reuben E. Demmon, Francis Flint, A. B. Butterfield, Samuel
B. Capen, A. P. Martin, N. W. Rice, J. W. Candler, James M. W.
Hall and S. F. Wilkins. Mr. Wilkins has been connected with the
bank since 1870, and since 181)1 has been vice-president. Reuben E.
Demmcjn and A. B. Butterfield have been directors ever since the bank
was organized.

According to the report made to the comptroller of the currency,
March (I, 181)3, the condition of the Howard National Bank was as fol-
lows :

KESOUKCES.

Loans and discounts ... $2,(jl0,090.85

Overdrafts 4,030.99

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation ."iO.ooo.oo

Stocks, securities, etc. . . . 2:5, 11)4. (>(>

Due from approved reserve agents . 179, SOI ..")<(

Due from other National Banks 830,241.51

Due from State Banks and bankers 888.28

Banking house 29,991.27

Other real estate and mortgages owned .■35,148.81

Current expenses and ta.^es paid 27,574.24

Premiums paid 7,000.00

Checks and other cash items 10,589.24

E.xchanges for clearing-house 127,689.21

Bills of other National Banks 6,204.00

Fractional currency (including nickels) . 60.47

Specie (including gold treasury notes) 282,221 . 10

Legal tender notes 16,306.00

Redemption fund with V . S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Totals, .88,752,291.72

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 33i

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,00(),()00.00

Surplus fund 200,000.00

Other undi\'ided profits 118,626.80

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 131.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,514,198.71

Demand certificates of deposit 222,115.07

Certified checks 57,837.20

Cashier's checks outstanding 13,500.00

Due to other National Banks 835,989.86

Due to State Banks and bankers 245.393.08

Total 83,752,291.72

ELIOT NATIONAL BANK.

The President, Directors and Company of the Eliot Bank received
their charter in 1853, the original incorporators being Jeffrey R. Bracket!,
William C. Codman, William A. Howe, and their associates. The
capital was limited to $300,000, and its charter was siibstantially the
same in its provisions as the charters of other Boston banks incorporated
in the same year, viz. : The Howard, Webster, Boston, and Broadway.
The first board of directors consisted of Jeffrey R. Brackett, William
C. Codman, John Demeritt, Walter Hastings, Thomas Hopkinson,
William A. Howe, William H. Jameson, William P. Pierce, John P.
Robinson, and John N. Ttirner. At the first meeting of this board,
held on the 11th of June, 1853, William A. Howe was elected president,
and at a subsequent meeting Robert L. Day was chosen cashier. Mr.
Howe continued as president tmtil October 13, 1859, when, owing to a
protracted illness, the directors elected John N. Turner in his stead.
In December, 18Q3, President Turner resigned on account of ill health,
and John Demeritt was elected as his successor. Mr. Turner subse-
quently went to Europe, where he died May 10, 1864. He had been a
director of the bank ever since its origin, and for more than four years
its president. He was for many years widely known among the mer-
cantile community as a wholesale dealer in dry goods in Boston. Mr.
Demeritt continued as president till January, 1873, when he was suc-
ceeded by William H. Goodwin, who has since served in that capacity.
Mr. Goodwin, prior to his connection with the bank, was engaged in
the East Indies import business.

Robert L. Day remained as cashier of the Eliot Bank till September
30, 1805, when he resigned, and was succeeded by R. B. Conant, and

332 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

the last named b}^ the present cashier, Francis Harrington, who has
been for thirty-six years in the bank, fourteen of which as cashier.

The Eliot Bank became the EHot National Bank on October 20, 1804.
Since its origin in 1858 it has had five locations, viz. : In July, 1853, it
occupied rooms at 2(j Kilby street, leased from the Eliot Insurance
Company, and since then it has been successively located at 13 Kilby
street. Brazier's Building; 17 vState, corner of Devonshire, in the build-
ing where the First National is now located, and finally its present loca-
tion in the Rialto Building at the northwest corner of Milk and
Devonshire streets.

In January, 18(35, two months after it became a national bank, its
capital was increased to $1,000, ()()(). The board of directors of the Eliot
Bank for 1802 are: William H. Goodwin, who has served m this
capacity since 18(i:5; Joseph H. White, since 18GT; Thomas E. Proctor,
since 18(18; George O. Carpenter, since 1870; the comparatively new
members of the board being: Constantine F. Hutchins, Francis W. Breed
and Henry Morse.

The condition of the Eliot National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business, March (i, IS!):), was
as follows:

RKSOl'RCKS.

Loans and discounts _ !:!2,2T1, 1 :!."). i)7

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 587. !) 1

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation 50, 000. (10

Stocks, securities, etc 6r),r)00.00

Due from approved reserve agents . 75,;543.{M

Due from other National Banks . . 1()1J, 147.07

Current expenses and taxes paid ___.,. 14,512.41

Checks and other cash items 4,8:50.96

Exchanges for clearing-house 36,643.87

Bills of other banks 7,578.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 40. 35

Specie 14!), 363.00

Legal tender notes . 3,800.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 3,250.00

Total §2,851 ,733.48

LIABHJTIES.

Capital stock paid m $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund oOO.OOO.OO

Undivided profits 121, ()!)(). 71

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 561.00

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 33:5

individual deposits subject to check 763,254. 15

Certified checks 30,001.03

Cashier's checks outstanding 12.00

Due to other National Banks 103,072.50

Due to State Banks and bankers 88,133.09

Bills paj-able 200,000.00

Total 82,851,733.48

BROADWAY NATIONAL BANK.

The Broadway National Bank was organized as a State bank in 1853,
with a capital of $50,000. The first board of directors was composed
of J. P. Monks, H. O. Briggs, C. Gill, vS. Adams, W. Eaton, S. Leeds,
(t. C. Thacher, J. Tillson, Osborne Howes, Joseph Smith, C. J. F. Allen
and Isaac Adams. Isaac Adams was elected first president and H. H.
White cashier. The presidents of this bank after Mr. Adams, who
served until November, 1853, with periods of service, have been as
follows: John Tillson, from November, 1853, to July, 1855; Seth
Adams, from July, 1855, to November, 18(il ; Henry vSouther, from
November, 18<11, to January, 18T<i; Axel Dearborn, from January, 18Tr»,
to January, 1884; Aquila Adams, from January, 1884, to vSeptember,
1884; and Roswell C. Downer, from September, 1884, to present time.
The present cashier is J. B. Kellock. The directors for 1802 are: J.
R. Graham, Roswell C. Downer, Frank O. Sqiiire, H. L. Millis, and
F. W. Downer. In 1854 the capital of the bank was increased to $l(l((,-
000, in 1855 to $150,000, and in 18(54, at which time it was changed to
a national bank, to $200,000. This bank has ahvays retained the
respect and confidence of the financial community. The present man-
agement assumed control of its affairs in 1884, since which time new
life and energy has been imparted to the institution. Its management
has been progressive, but at the same titne conservative.

According to the report of the officers of the Broadway National
Bank, made to the comptroller of the currency March (i, 181)3, the con-
dition of the bank was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts iSl,703,4(t3.35

Overdrafts, secured 7,253.40

Overdrafts, unsecured •523. 20

U. vS. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 8,981.73

Due from approved reserve agents 281,803.31

334 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Due from other National Banks 10,786.91

Due from State Banks and bankers 1,279.75

Current expenses and taxes paid 22, 734. 65

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 7,250.00

Checks and other cash items 1,791.87

Exchanges for clearing-house . 156,096. 99

Bills of other banks 12,686.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 9.29

Specie 89,162.50

Legal tender notes 185,688.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer, 5 per cent of circulaticm^ 2,250.00

Total $2,501,500.85

LIAHII.ITIES.

Capital stock paid in !? 2(10,000.00

Surplus fund 150,000.00

Undivided profits '. - - 77,7B8.50

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1 ,714,924.94

Demand certificates of deposit . 81,562.64

Certified checks _., 7,524.50

Due to other National Hanks 95,000.00

Due to State Banks and bankers 79,750.27

Billspayable 100,000.00

Total $2,501,500.85

NATIONAL R(^CKLAND BANK.

The National Rockland Bank of Roxbury was incori:)oratcd b}" the
vStatc in lSo3 as the Rockkmd Rank, with a capital of $1()(»,(»()0, which
was increased to $lo(),()0() in 1S54. In April, LSfio, it was reorganized
as a national bank, under its present name, at which time its capital was
still further increa.sed to $:5(H),(I()(). The first directors, elected June 20,
jSo;), were: Samuel Walker, Thomas Adams, F. M. Weld, Joseph
Dorr, Nahum Ward, vStephen P. Fuller, Georoe Packer, W. A. Hum-
phrey and Calvin B. Faunce. Hon. Samuel Walker was the first presi-
dent of the bank, and Samuel Little the first cashier. Mr. Little
succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Mr. Walker, in ISdO, and
|. M. Swain was appointed cashier. The latter was succeeded at the
end of a year l)y C. E. Richardson, who was followed by Robert G.
Molineaux, and for the last twenty-two years Robert B. Fairbairn has
been cashier.

77//'^/ ^

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 335

Hon. wSamuel Walker, the first president of the bank, was a noted
hortieulturist, and mayor of Roxbury. Hon. Samuel Little, identified
with the bank from the beginning, has always been active in the affairs
of Rcjxbury, and, since annexation, in the affairs of the city of Boston.
He represented Roxbury in the Legislature, and for several years
served in the board of aldermen of the city of Boston. He is president
of the Boston Lead Manufacturing Company, the E. Howard Watch
and Clock Company, and director of the West End Street Railway
Company and Bay State Gas Company.

The directors of the National Rockland Bank for 18'J2 are: vSamuel
Little, Solomon -S. Rowe, John F. Newton, Phineas B. vSmith, James
Bennett Forsyth, Augustus Richardson, George Curtis, B. Rodman
Weld. As one of the two local banks, the National Rockland Bank
has had a prosperous career, and has steadily increased in business and
in the confidence of the business communit3^

According to the report made by the officers of this bank at the close
of business, March (i, 1S!)3, to the comptroller of the currency, its co^-'-
dition was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,34(5,590.82

Overdrafts, unsecured 7. 80

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50, ()()(). 00

Stocks, certificates, etc 20,432.00

iJue from approved reserve agents 1 18, 120. 57

Due from other National Banks. _■ 5,281.24

Current expenses and taxes paid 8,400.54

Checks and other cash items 18.354.14

Bills of other banks 17,655.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 750. 10

Specie 109,084.50

Legal tender notes 38,9(55.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $1, 745,897. 73

LIAKILn lES.

Capital stock paid in $ 300,000.00

Surplus fund 150,000.00

Undivided profits 42,364. 17

National Bank notes outstanding '_ 44,200.00

Dividends unpaid 1 , 366. 00

Individiial deposits subject to check . 1,170,666.16

Demand certificates of deposit 37,331.40

Total $1,745,897.73

336 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

BOSTON NATIONAL BANK.

The Boston National Bank was organized under a State charter,
June 4, 1,S53, with a capital of $300, 000, which in April, 1854, was
increased to $750,000. The original directors were John H. Wil-
khis, Otis Daniell, J. E. Hazelton, William H. Hill, David Kim-
ball, A. K. P. Cooper, J. M. S. Williams, Abraham T. Lowe, and
Jonathan Preston. John H. Wilkins was elected its first president
and Charles B. Hull cashier. March 24, 18ii4, a reorganization
was perfected under the National Bank act, when the name of the
institution was changed to its present title of the Boston National
Bank. In ISOS the capital stock was increased to $1,000,000. Charles
B. Hull, the first cashier of the bank, and later president, was at one
time treasurer of the Commonwealth. The present officers of the bank
arc vSilas Pierce, president, who has been a director since 1879; D. B.
Hallett, cashier, who has been in the service of the bank since 1855,
and David Bates, assistant cashier, whose connection with the bank
dates from 1860. The directors for 181)2 are David L. Webster, Charles
vS. Kendall, William A. Russell, Lyman Nichols, Silas Pierce, J. E.
Hall, John C. Howe, and W. W. Blackmar.

The report of the officers of this bank to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, made at the close of business, March 6, 18',)3, shows the condi-
tion of the bank to have been as follows:

KE.SOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2,551,98L76

Overdrafts, secured , 248.45

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 210, 1()2.50

Due from approved reserve agents 209, 31 8. 32

Due from other National Banks 786,298.23

Due from State Banks and bankers 2,()9<S.7()

Other real estate and mortgages owned 10,900.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 18,3(55.44

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 8,000.00

Checks and other cash items 8,428.67

Exchanges for clearing-house 120,024.07

Bills of other banks 6, 134.00

Specie 230,475. 00

Legal tender notes 57,000.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 20,000.00

Redemption fund with \] . S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,352,279. 14

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 337

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid, in $1,()()0,UU0.U0

Surplus fund 157,000. UO

Undivided profits 120,091. 63

National Bank notes outstanding ,. 45,000. 00

Dividends unpaid 63. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 2,308,855.30

Demand certificates of deposit 50,206.23

Certified checks 1,800.00

Due to other National Bank 542,488.90

Due to State Banks and bankers 101,774.08

Bills payable 25,000.00

Total $4,352,279.14

MONUMENT NATIONAL BANK.

The Monument Bank of Charlestown, now the Monument National
Bank, was granted a eharter on March 28, lSo4, with a capital of $150,-
000. The meeting of the petitioners for organization was held at the
vSavings Bank, 15 City Square, on May 10 following, at which a code
of by-laws was adopted and the following named gentlemen elected to
constitute a board of directors, viz. ; Peter Hubbell, jr., James Dana,
James Lee, jr., George W. White, James H. Conant, James O. Curtis,
and Alexander Beal. At subsequent meetings of the directors, Peter
Hubbell was chosen president and George L. Foote, of Cambridge,
cashier.

At the first annual meeting of the subscribers to the capital stock,
held October 3, 1854, the same directors were re-elected with one ex-
ception, Andrew Sawtell being substituted for Mr. Beal. With this
board of directors, president and cashier before named, the Monument
Bank opened for business on March 14, 1855, and entered at once upon
a prosperous career, paying its first dividend of three per cent, on the
1st of October following.

During the first decade, which covered the history of the bank as a
State corporation, the banking institutions of the country were com-
pelled to encounter the memorable panic of 1857, and later, the fail-
ures, depression and general derangement of business occasioned by
the civil war. It was not to be expected that the Monument Bank,
however well handled, would pass through unscathed. During this ten
years its total loans amounted to $1), 328, 000, and it losses to $10,040,
or -^yJ-_ of one per cent, of the amount loaned, under the circumstances
13

338 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

a very creditable showing-. Notwithstanding these losses the ban
continued its regular dividends in April and October of each year,
dividing among its stockholders for this entire period an average
annual dividend of seven and fifteen-hundredths per cent.

At the date of its annual meeting in October, 1864, a large majority
of the banks throughout the country having reorganized under the
National Banking act, the directors were authorized to take such
action as would enable the bank to become a national banking associa-
tion under this act. This change was subsequently made by the direct-
ors with(^ut any interruption of business, the Monument Bank assum-
ing its new title of the Monument National Bank of Charlestown, May
1, 1805. The board of directors at this time consisted of Peter Hub-
bell, James O. Curtis, Andrew Sawtell, Bradley M. Clark, Josiah F.
Guild and Amos Stone, Clark and Guild having been elected at the
annual meeting in October, 1858, and Mr. Stone in October, 18()3.

Mr. Hubbell held the office of president until his death, which
occurred January 1), ISTl ; James O. Curtis was elected his successor
and served imtil his death, March 3, 18!)0, when he was succeeded by
the present president of the bank, Amos Stone. Mr. Stone has been
a director since 18ti3. He is also president of the Charlestown Five
Cents Savings Bank and of the Mutual Protection Fire Insurance Com-
pany.

Mr. Foote resigned his position as cashier in December following the
reorganization of the bank for the purpose of entering the private
banking business in Boston, but his valuable experience was retained
in the interest of the bank by his immediate election as a member of
the board of directors. He was succeeded as cashier January 1, 1806,
by the present incumbent of the office, Warren Sanger, who has abh'
and most efficiently discharged the duties of the position.

Of the members of the board of directors for 18'.t'-2, consisting of
Amos wStone, Henry C. Rand, (ieorge B. Neal, Warren Sanger and
Mark F. Burns, "Mr. vStone is the oldest in point of service, having been
elected in 1803. Mr. Rand was elected in 18ri), Mr. Neal in 1880, Mr.
Sanger in 1888, and Mr. Burns in 18'Jl.

The Moniuiicnt Bank bequeathed to its successor, the Monument
National Bank, a good reputation, a good business and a reserve of
undivided profits equal to twenty-five per cent, of its capital. Com-
mencing under these favorable auspices just after the close of the civil
war, the bank, under the national system, has continued its career of

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 3^9

prosperity and success. Conservative management, as applied to the
payment of dividends, as well as to the general affairs of the bank, has
placed this institution in the front rank of the national banking associa-
tions of Boston.

According to the report of the officers of this bank to the comptroller
of the currency at the close of business, March (», 1S03, its condition
was a follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $613,436.02

Overdrafts, secured and tnisecured 30. 97

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 77,500.00

Due from approved reserve agents 111,015.22

Current expenses and taxes paid .. 4,341.61

Checks and other cash items 5,345.95

Bills of other banks 2,736.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 11.34

Specie 25,365.80

Legal tender notes 11,200.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $903,232.91

LI.AlBILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $150,000.00

Surplus fund 160,000.00

Undivided profits 70, 610. 42

National Bank notes outstanding 42,900.00

Dividends unpaid 150- 00

Individual deposits subject to check . 473,236.96

Demand certificates of deposit 6,177.11

Due from other National Banks 158.42

Total : . ■- $903,232.91

NATIONAL MARKET BANK OF BRIGHTON.

The National Market Bank of Brighton was incorporated as a State
institution, under the name of the Market Bank of Brighton, March 28,
1854. Among the incorporators named in the act were: Life Baldwin,
Charles Heard and Granville Fuller. Its original capital was $100,000,
which has since been increased to $250,000. It was reorganized under
its present name in 18(i5. The present officers of the bank are as fol-
lows : President, Granville Fuller; cashier, Frank G. Newhall ; direct-
ors, B. M. Fiske, G. A. Fuller, Hiram Barker, Granville Fuller,
Albert A. Taylor, Homer Rogers and Henry F. Coe.

340 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The following is the report of the officers of this bank to the. comp-
troller of the currency, at the close of business, March G, 1893:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $ 57B,975.r)l

Overdrafts, unsecured 1,146.21

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc. 47,500.00

Due from approved reserve agents •_ 2,471.70

Ctn-rent expenses and taxes paid 2,282.50

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds . - - 7,875.00

Checks and other cash items S,Sl().Of)

Bills of other banks 5,(;iS.OO

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents _ . 187.77

Specie 1 1 , (i08. 00

Legal tender notes 15,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $ 738,224.75

LIAHILrriES.

Capital stock paid in $ 250,000.00

Surplus fund 50,000.00

Undivided proHts 1 9,024. %\

National Bank notes outstanding 40,500.00

Dividends unpaid 1,170.00

Individual deposits subject to check $818,23(5.01

Cashier's checks outstanding 57,425.38

375,(i(Jl.;{4

Due to other National Banks 968.48

Total $ 738.224.75

NATIONAL HIDE AND LEATHER BANK.

The National Hide and Leather Uank was incorporated in May, 1857,
as a State institution, und(jr the name of the Hide and Leather Bank,
with a capital of |;i, ()()(), ()()(). The original board of directors consisted of
John Field, Albert Thompson, Lee Clatlin, John I>aury, Henry Poor,
William Clatlin, Daniel Harwood, N. W. Keen, Samuel Atherton, T.
Batcheller, James S. Stone and Frederick Jones.

The original stockholders of this bank included the following promi-
nent citizens and firms:

John B. Alley 150 Alderman & Gore 50

P. Ames & Sons 100 George M. Barnard 25

Samuel Atherton Ill T. <.V E. Batcheller ..100

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 341

O. Bennett 5U John P. Ober _ . _ 50

Henry Boggs 50 Charles H. Parker . 50

Campbell, Harwood & Co. 50 Charles C. Poor 50

William Claflin 200 Henry Poor 74

Lee Claflin 350 Charles Rice 50

D. M. Christie _ 50 Nathan Robbins 100

Field, Converse & Co 100 James S. Stone 82

John Field .■ 54 Albert Thompson 50

Fay & Stone ,.__ 50 James Tucker, jr ■ ....__ 20

Joseph Holmes 50 James P. Thorndike 50

Daniel Harwood 104 Mace Tisdell 50

C. C. Plarvey 50 E. W. Upton . . .100

William H. Hill 50 Robt. Upton 50

Frederick Jones 67 Foster Waterman 50

Keen, Reed & Bryant 140 Pierce, Brothers & Flanders 50

N. M. Keen 100 Rising, Lester. Child & Co. 50

At a meeting- of the directors, held at the American House June 25,

1857, Lee Claflin was chosen president.

On the loth of March, 1804, the directors were empowered, when
they should deem it expedient, after having obtained the consent of
the owners of two-thirds of the capital stock, to take the usual steps to
transform the institution into a national bank. On March 2(i, 18''»4, it
was voted to become a national bank, and on the 27th of June follow-
ing it commenced operations as the National Hide and Leather Bank.
Since then the capital has been increased to its present amount,
$1,500, 000.

This bank was located in 1857 at 77 Pearl street, and from April 1,

1858, to January, 1803, in the Suffolk Bank building. At the latter date
it moved into the vSimmons Block, corner of Congress and Water streets,
where it remained until the building was destroyed in the great fire of
1872. Since April, 187-4, it for a time was located at 70 Federal street,
corner of Franklin, but now occupies fine quarters corner of Congress
and Milk streets.

The Hide and Leather Bank has had four presidents: Lee Claflin
from June 25, 1857, to October li», 1800; Daniel Harwood from that
date till succeeded by ex-Governor William Claflin, who remained till
January, 1875, when he resigned and was succeeded by the present
president, George Ripley. Mr. Ripley was cashier (jf the Hartford
Bank, Hartford, Conn., in 18(;o. From that year until 1870 he was
engaged in the manufacture of paper in Lowell, Mass. From 1872 to
1875 he was national bank examiner.

342 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

This bank has had five cashiers: John S. March, from its orig-in initil
he was made vice-president; James D. Martin from that time nntil he
resig'ned, April '28, 1808, when he was succeeded by William Bassett;
George N. Jones, who resigned February 28, 1878, when he was suc-
ceeded by the present cashier, vSamuel Carr, jr.

The National Hide and Leather Bank has suffered by no forgeries,
but in the early part of 1808 a defalcation of over |!500,(»00 was dis-
covered in the accounts of the cavshier, who had for years permitted
certain outside parties to overdraw to that amount, although it is not
supposed that he received or expected to receive any pecuniary benefits
from the collusion.

The directors of this bank for 1S<)2 are: William Claflin, Alfred L.
Ripley, George Ripley, R. H. Stearns, Gilman B. Dubois, Jacob Rog-
ers and George G. Davis. Of this board, William Claflin has served
ever since the origin of the Ijank.

The condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency at the close of business March (J, 18",):), was as follows:

KESUUKCEb.

Loans and discounts . . _ $3,023,089.45

Overdrafts, unsecured . _ 2. 48

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 5(1,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc •_ 218,7!)0.24

Due from approved reserve agents ., 271 . !)!)! . 1)5

Due from other National Banks 339, 63;}. 04

Current expenses and taxes paid . 27,407.60

Checks and other cash items 3,073.77

Exchanges for clearing-house 163,748.72

Bills of other banks 1,908.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 1,191.43

Specie 199,574.15

Legal tender notes 32,871.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $4,335,531.84

I.I.\l!lLniES.

Capital stock paid in $1,500,000.00

Surplus fund 300,000.00

Undivided profits 1.52,416.63

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 72.00

Individual deposits subject to check 901,461.77

Demand certificates of deposit 30,328.48

Certified checks 10,450.00

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 343

Due to other National Banks 1,111,365.39

Due to State Banks and bankers. . 284,437.57

Total _• $4, 335,531 . 84

NATIONAL BANK OF REDEMPTION.

The year 1858 was marked by the disturbance of the Suffolk Bank
system. For several years previously the banks of New England had
contemplated the establishment of a bank to perform the work of assort-
ing country money, the profits on which were supposed to be large,
to be divided among them. With this view the Bank of Mutual Re-
demption was incorporated in 1855, with an authorized capital not
exceeding $3, 000, 000, to which the banks of Massachusetts were to
subscribe one-half and the other New England banks the other half;
no bank to subscribe over five per cent, of its capital. The new bank
was subjected to special restrictions in regard to -its issues and loans.
It was not until 1858 that the Bank of Mutual Redemption commenced
operations with a capital of $5(51, 700 and the following directors:
James G. Carney, of Lowell, Mass. ; Franklin Nichols, Norwich, Conn. ;
Almon D. Hodge, Boston; Stephen N. Mason, Woonsocket, R. T. ;
Charles Francis Adams, Quincy, Mass. ; Ezra Farnsworth, Boston ;
Francis H. Dewey, Worcester, Mass. ; Jacob H. Loud, Plymouth, Mass. ;
Geo. W. Thayer, Boston; Chester W. Chapin, Springfield, Mass., and
Adam W. Thaxter, Boston. James G. Carney was chosen president
and Henry P. Shed cashier. The vSuffolk Bank system had produced
results so excellent, and assumed a position of so much importance that
the majority of the Boston banks were opposed to the attempt to sup-
plant it, and refused the Bank of Mutual Redemption admission to the
Clearing-house Association. The division of the business of redemp-
tion caused considerable bitterness; the friction arising finally led the
Suffolk Bank directors to give notice that they would discontinue the
business of assorting country money after November, 1858. The Bank
of Redemption having subsecjuently signified its readiness to receive
country money at the rate of twenty-five cents per $1,000, several of the
Boston banks made a permanent arrangement with the Suffolk Bank
on this basis. Others transferred their business to the Bank of Miitual
Redemption, which in April, 1858, had one htmdred and. forty-three
banks, or about half the banks of New England, as its stockholders. At
this early date the bank employed a clerical force of fifty in its re-
demption department alon-e. The system of redemption of country

344 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

money was successfuly conducted nntil the establishment of the
national bank system which rendered it no lono^er useful or practicable.

In October, 1S(;4, this bank was organized as the National Bank of
Redemption, vmder the National Banking act, making at the time a stock
dividend of twenty per cent, and increasing its capital stock to $1,000,-
000, since which time it has always paid from six per cent, to ten per
cent, in annual dividends, and now shows surplus and profits of over
half a million dollars. The general and special character of its organ-
ization as a bank of redemption gave it a most fortunate relationship
as a reserve agent for many New England banks, a feature which
has been preserved to the present day, and which is now so prominently
manifest in its bank deposits of over $5,000,000, besides individual de-
posits of over $2,()()0,()00. Chas. A. Presbrey is the oldest officer of
the bank, having been cashier since February, bSi;;). James B. Case
has been president since November, 1S(SS. The directors for 1892 are:
James B. Case, Jacob Edwards, Charles A. Grinnell, Dexter N.
Richards, Theophilus King, (). H. Alford, J. Albert Walker, Henry
M. Knowles and Spencer W. Richardson.

The condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency at the close of business, March (i, 1S'.):5, was as follows:

KKSOl'KCE.S.

Loans and discounts $5, 1M9/J()y.24

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 8,07S.2!)

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation... 4(»0,()(K).()()

Stocks, securities, etc 31,281.78

Due from approved reserve agents . . 681,983.05

Due from other National Banks. 1,083,530.97

Due from State Banks and bankers 37,205.35

Interest and exchange 33, 648. 57

Current expenses and taxes paid 44,205. 19

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds . . 55,000.00

Checks and other cash items 7,412.23

Exchanges for clearing-house 891.721.46

Bills of other banks 16,045.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 13.46

Specie 557,402.85

Legal tender notes. 52,006.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, circulation) 18,000.00
Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption

fund 8,000.00

Total $9, 120,453. 44

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 345

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in . $1,UUU, 000.00

Surplus fund 400,000.00

Undivided profits 158,548.;^)

National Bank notes outstanding :M7, 100. 00

Dividends unpaid 252. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,954,621.38

Demand certificates of deposit 97,402.58

Certified checks 150, 152. 16

Due to other National Banks ' 3,4:^4,290.62

Due to State Banks and bankers 968,086.45

Bills payable 610,000.00

Total $9, 120,453.44

NATIONAL BANK OF THE REPUBLIC.

At the office of the China Mutual In.surance Company, on the 14th
of December, 185!), the first meetino- of the subscribers to tlie stock of
the Bank of the Republic was held for the purpose of organizing",
choosing directors, etc. The capital stock was fixed at $0(H»,(i(»(), in
shares of $100 each. The whole number of shares already subscribed
was found to be 1,(S27, representing oo4 votes, all of which were cast for
the following ten gentlemen, who were accordingly elected the first
board of directors: David Snow, Aaron Kimball, Horatio Chickering,
Thomas Nickerson, S. G. Palmer, Asa Jacob, Charles W. Pierce,
Joseph J. AVhiting, Franklin L. Fay and Joseph F. Dane. The articles
of association were then accepted and signed by the following twenty-
seven subscribers, who tocjk the nuinber of shares affixed to their
names, and who were the real founders of the bank ;

David Snow, 700 John J. Newcomb,- 25

Gen. John S. Tyler, 10 Charles S. Kendall, 10

Joseph Nickerson, 100 Pierce Brothers & Flanders, 100

Charles B. F. Adams, 100 S. G. Palmer,. _ .. 50

J. Baker & Co., 20 S. G. Palmer ,S: Co., 50

Horace Scudder & Co. , 100 F. L. Fay, 50

Daniel Harwood, 10 Fa}^ & Stone, 50

Frederick Jones, 10 John Borrowscale, 10

F. Nickerson & Son, 100 Aaron Kimball, 100

Horatio Chickering, 50 Joseph J. Whiting, 50

A. & A. Jacobs, 100 Thomas Nickerson 50

Horatio Otis Briggs, . . 25 Nickerson & Co. , 50

Joseph T. Dane, 100 Plumer & Co. , ,.._.____._. 10

Edwin Briggs, 25

346 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Thus the shares subscribed for on that day, December 14, 1850, were
2,055, representin,!^- $205,500. On the same day, by unanimous vote,
David Snow was elected president of the bank. On the 31st of the
same month, T. C. Severance was chosen cashier; Charles A. Vialle
paying teller, and Lloyd Briggs messenger. On the !)th of January,
18G0, Nathan P. Lamson was chosen bookkeeper.

The bank was opened for business in February, 1860, in the Wiggles-
worth Building on State street. On the 17th of May following it was
voted to increase the capital to $1,000,000. At the fourth annual
meeting of the stockholders held in November, 1863, a formal ballot
was taken relative to changing to the National Bank system, and of the
whole number of votes cast, 157, all but ten were in favor of the meas-
ure. Pursuant to this result on the Kith of March, 1864, at a special
meeting of the stockholders, the pfeliminary steps were taken to
become a national bank. On the 13th of April, 1864, Hugh McCulloch,
comptroller of the currency, sent a certificate authorizing the bank to com-
mence operations as a national bank, and on the 2d of May it did so
under its present name, National Bank of the Republic. It was the
third bank in Boston organized as a national bank, the Safety Fund
having been the first and the Granite second.

David Snow continued as president of the institution from its origin
until his death January 12, 1876. On the 24th of the same month he
was succeeded by Harrison Otis Briggs. Mr. Briggs had been a
director of the bank almost from the beginning, and from 1853 to 1858
had been a director of the Broadway Bank, South Boston. Mr. Briggs
was succeeded by Charles A. Vialle, who has since ably filled the
position.

T. C. Severance, the first cashier of the bank, resigned on the 13th
of February, 1862, on account of seriously impaired health. The office
was then tendered to Charles A. Vialle, but he declined, and William
Bassett, jr., was elected. Mr. Bassett resigned on Jime 4, 1863, when
Charles A. Vialle was selected and held the positicni until elected presi-
dent. He was succeeded by Henry D. Forbes, who has been in the
service of the bank for twenty-eight years. Mr. Vialle is the only one
of the original officers still connected with the bank. He commenced his
banking career as messenger in the Suffolk Bank, was afterwards teller
in the Bank of the Metropolis, and has served the Bank of the Repub-
lic (vState and national) throughout its whole existence with conspicu-
ous abilitv and fidelitv.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 347

On the 1st of April, 18G0, the capital stock of this institution was in-
creased from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000, one-half of the assessment,
$500,000, was a stock dividend of twenty-five per cent, and amounting
to $250,000. This institution was a fiscal agent of the United States
Treasury Department from ISfU to 1872, and during this time negotiated
very large amounts of treasury notes, 7-30's; and of 10-40 bonds. The
largest amount it subscribed for, in one day, was $1,500,000. At one
time it had a deposit of over $5,000,000 of government money.

The board of directors of the National Bank of the Republic for 1892
is composed of Frederick D. Allen, George W. Merrett, Albert Stone,
Charles W. Field, C. A. Vialle, Jacob P. Bates, William G. Benedict
and Costello C. Converse.

The condition of the bank at the close of business March <;, 181(3,
as reported to the cotnptroller of the currency, was as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts § 7,439,440.28

Overdrafts, unsecured 510.27

U. S. Bonds to secure circulation .")(),()()(). 00

Stocks, certificates, etc.. ' 47,800.00

Due from approved reserve agents 1,165,000.30

Due from other National Banks 521,1(54.39

Due from State Banks and bankers 14, 432. 85

Current expenses and taxes paid 39,245.49

Exchanges for clearing-house 355,925.06

Bills of other banks 10,000.00

Specie 485,000.00

Legal tender notes 319,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $1 0,449, 804. 59

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in S 1,500,000.00

Surplus fund . _ 1,000,000.00

Undivided profits 292,839.84

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 59. 50

Individual deposits subject to check $4,887,916.55

Demand certificates of deposit 120,778.35

Certified checks 40, 833. 18

Due to other National Banks 1,422,755.40

Due to State Banks and bankers 514,621.77

6.986,905.25

Bills paj-able 625, 000. 00

Total §10,449,80459

848 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

NATIONAL REVERE BANK.

The Revere Bank of Boston was incorporated in March, 185!). The
provisions of the charter were in accordance with the bankincj act passed
in 1851, and the additional act passed in 1852. Tlie authorized capital
was $000,000 in 0,000 shares of $100 each. The bank commenced oper-
ations on the ;kl of May, 1850. The first board of directors was com.-
posed of George Blackburn, Osmyn Brewster, W. L. Beal, Charles S.
Cutter, John Cowdin, W. F. Goodwin, E. R. Hoar, George Linder, Ed-
win Parker, T. P. Rich, and vSamuel H. Walley. At the first meeting
of the directors held March 14-, 1859, vSamuel H. Walley was elected
president, and John W. Lefavour cashier. The subscriptions to its en-
tire capital stock was completed and paid in within six weeks after its
subscription books were opened, and it is a significant fact that they
embrace a larger number of incorporated institutions than the original
lists of any of the older banks of Boston, and the best commentary upon
the soundness and success of the Revere Bank is the further fact that
most, if not all, of these institutions still remain stockholders in it.
The bank commenced business on the corner of Franklin and Devon-
shire streets. In July, 1S5!», the capital stock was increased to $1,000,-
000, and at the end of the first year's business the condition of the
beank was reported upon by a special ccjinmittee, from which report
the following facts are taken: Individual deposits $403, 62!). 90, bank
deposits $184,877.48, circulation $155,745.00, notes discounted $1,589,-
777.53. There was at that date but one debt overdue to the bank, a
sum of $041.01, and that was believed to be fully secured. At the com-
mencement of and throughout the civil war the officers of the Revere
Bank were foremost in illustrating the patriotic spirit which has alwa3^s
been signally manifested by the Boston banks, and in a most practical,
serviceable, and ready manner. John W. Lefavour, on account of ill
health, resigned his position as cashier in June, 18(;4, and was succeeded
by the present cashier Henry Blasdale.

On the 5th of June, 1805, the Revere Bank was reorganized under the
National Bank act, and assumed its present title of National Revere
Bank. In that year the market value of its shares ranged from 113_^
to 130, and its dividends, regular, and extra amounted to a total of six-
teen per cent, on its capital stock of $1,000,000. The capital stock of
the Revere Bank remained from October 7, 185!), to May 28, 1809, at
$1,000,000. On the latter date it was increased to $2,000,000, on which
basis the bank was carried on until January 8, 187s, when the capital
was reduced to $1,500,000.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 349

Durin^^ the great fire of 1S72 the bank building was destroyed, and
the bank's safe, which had been built on a stone foundation, was thrown
into the middle of the street. Its contents were found substantially
uninjured. Business was quickly resumed after the fire in rooms in
the Sears Building, where the bank remained for about two years. On
August 1, 1ST4, rebuilding having been completed, it was returned to
its original site, but occup5'ing the lower floor instead of the second
floor as before the fire.

The National Revere Bank has had but three presidents since its or-
ganization. Hon. vSamuel H. Walley, its first president, was long a
prominent citizen of Boston and Roxbury, at one time representing the
latter district in Congress. He was ever active and interested in mat-
ters connected with his business, with the city where he lived, and with
the old South Church, of which he was treasurer for many years. He
held the office of president of the Revere Bank from March 14, 1859,
till the time of his death August 27, 1877. Hon. Samuel C. Cobb had
been elected a director in January, 187(5, and after the death of Mr.
Walley was chosen president. Mr. Cobb came to Boston from Taun-
ton in 18-l:-2, and pursued a mercantile career, finally becoming a part-
ner of the house of Cunningham & Cobb, and later Wheelwright & Cobb.
For three years he served as mayor of Boston, an office he filled with
most honorable fidelity. Mr. Cobb had served as president of the Re-
vere Bank scarcely seven months, when he accepted, much to the re-
gret of his fellow directors of the bank, the position of actuary of the
Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. He accordingly re-
signed as president and director of the bank March 30, 1878. Mr.
George S. Bullens was thereupon chosen as Mr. Cobb's successor, and
has since served most acceptably as president. Mr. Bullens came to
Boston from Chicopee in 1848, and soon entered the counting-room of
J. C. Howe & Co., a leading dry goods house in this city. He rapidly
advanced, and long before the dissolution of the house was a partner
and financial manager of the firm.

James A. Woolson is the oldest director of the Revere Bank, having
been elected in November, 1859, only six months after its organization.
The present board is composed of George S. Bullens, Joseph Sawyer,
James A. Woolson, Gorham Rogers, John C. Potter, Franklin E. Greg-
ory, George A. Alden, Henry A. Rice, jr., and Henry O. Houghton.

The condition of the National Revere Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the clo.se of business, March (i, 1 893, was as
follows:

360 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts |4, 17P>,94r).64

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 105. 8S

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 46,384.00

Due from approved reserve agents 784,464. 58

Due from other National Banks 625,184. 66

Due from State Banks and bankers 639. 22

Current expenses and taxes paid 38,058.96

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds. _. 5,000.00

Checks and other cash items 3,210.34

Exchanges for clearing-house : 95,071.85

Bills of other banks 17,334.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 257.07

Specie : : 313,652.75

Legal tender notes 122,500.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasury (5 percent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $6,27S,05S. 90

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1 ,500,000.00

Surplus fund 140,000.00

Undivided profits H6,677.68

National Bank notes outstanding 42,140.00

Dividends unpaid 60. 00

Individual deposits subject to check $2,362,998.32

Demand certificates of deposit 20, 1 51. 39

Certified checks 2,875.00

Due to approved reserve agents . _ 229, 631 . 25

Due to other National Banks 1,504,744. 80

Due to State Banks and bankers 273,780.46

Bills payable 115,000.00

4,509,181.22

Total $6,278,058.90

FIRST NATIONAL BANK.

The First National Bank of Boston was orij^inally org-anized as a State
institution, nnclcr the name of the vSafety Fund Bank, on January 3,
ISoO, with a capital of $r.()0, ()()(), which in October of the same year was
increased to $1,0()(),(»()(). The original directors were: Abraham T.
Lowe, F. S. Carruth, William H. Hill, Wm. J. Reynolds, S. H. Howe,
Nol)le H. Hill, Isaac Fenno, Isaac vSweetser, Charles W. Bryant, Otis
Daniell, and Artemas Stone, of whom but one, Isaac Fenno, is still con-
nected with the bank.

BANKING INSriTUTIONS. 351

Tlie orig-inal articles of association were signed by the followino-
stockholders who subscribed for the number of shares affixed to their
names :

Abraham T. Lowe 200 Woodman, Horsewell & Co 10

William Hill 200 Baldwin & Curry 20

William J. Reynolds _ 200 Anderson, Sargent & Co 50

S. H. Howe 100 Austin, Sumner & Co 25

Isaac Fenno 100 Milton, Cushman & Co 50

Artemas Stone... 100 M. & N. Crocker 10

Francis S. Carruth 100 William J. Cutler ,10

Isaac Sweetser 100 Joseph A. Hyde 10

Charles W. Bryant 100 Cashing Mitchell 10

Otis Daniell 100 Rust & Copeland 10

Noble H. Hill 100 A. B.Wheeler 5

Charles C. Henshaw 10 William H. Hill, jr 2

C. R. Ransom 100 Seth Turner 15

These 1,737 shares, or $173,700 of the capital stock, formed the nu-
cleus of the original capital of $(;00,OOO.

The first meeting of the directors of the Safety Fund Bank, all of
whom were men of wealth and character, widely known in the com-
mercial world, was held on the 3d of January, 1850, the day of their
election, when Abraham T. Lowe was unanimously elected president,
and C. R. Ransom cashier.

The Safety Fiind Bank went into actual operations on the -tth of Feb-
ruary, 1S5U, and was prosperous from the start. On the 2d of July,
1850, six months after the organization of the bank, the directors voted
to increase its capital stock to an amount not exceeding $1,000,000. At
the annual meeting of the stockholders on the 21st of November, 18r)3,
the directors were given power to close up the affairs of the vSafety Fund
Bank, and to organize under the National Bank act. Under this author-
ity the directors, after having obtained the legal consent of the owners
of two-thirds of the stock, made application to the comptroller of the
currency that the bank be changed to a national institution. A certifi-
cate was received on the 22d of January, ISG-l, authorizing the directors
to organize the institution as a national bank, and it was accordingly
voted on February 1, 1804, that the Safety Fund Bank, which was the
first bank in Boston to reorganize under the national law, should be
transformed into a national bank under the name of the First National
Bank.

The first annual meeting of the stockholders after reorganization was
held January 10, 18G5, at which meeting 1,028 votes were cast for the

352 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

following directors : Abraham T. Lowe, F. S. Carruth, Otis Daniell,
William H. Hill, William J. Reynolds, Artemas Stone, Noble H. Hill,
Isaac Fenno, Isaac vSweetser, William J. Cutler, and William Atherton.

The predecessor of the First National Bank, the Safety Fund Bank,
began business in the Tremont building, 41 State street. Since 1870
the bank has been located at IT State street, corner of Devonshire and
opposite the south side of the old State House. Abraham T. Lowe,
the first president of the bank, served until January, 1881. For several
months thereafter Samuel D. Warren served as president. He was
succeeded in August, 1881, by John Carr, who still fills this position.
From the organization of the bank until March, 18G4, Chandler R. Ran-
som served as cashier, being then succeeded by John Carr, who held
this office until his election as president in 1881, and since that date
Chas. H. Draper has been cashier. The present board of directors is
composed of Isaac Fenno, William J. Cutler, John Carr, Mortimer B.
Mason, William H. Hill and Charles H. Draper.

The condition of the First National Bank, as reported to the comp-
troller of the currency at the close of business, March 0, 18!to, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $4,009,962.36

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 113,300.00

Due from approved reserve agents 330,581.24

Due from other National Banks 489,385.66

Bankmg house, furniture, and fixtures 250,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 34,886.65

Checks and other cash items 66,306.89

Exchanges for clearing-house 393,863.46

Bills of other banks 13,566.00

Fractional paper currencv, nickels and cents 431.00

Specie ' 137,089.50

Legal tender notes 153,337.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer, (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 7,000.00

Total $6,051,859.76

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 1,000,000.00

Undivided profits 327,944.06

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unjniid_ . 210.00

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 353

Individnal deposits subject to check 2, 014, 60:3. SO

Certified checks 33 307.(H)

Cashier's checks outstanding 22 788.58

Due to other National Banks 1,288,841.23

Due to State Banks and bankers 00, 159. 32

Notes and bills re-discounted 160,010.71

Bills payable 100,000.00

Total $6,051,859.76

CONTINENTAL NATIONAL BANK.

The Continental Bank, now the Continental National Bank, began
operations on October 1, 1860, with a capital of $200,000. The original
board of directors was composed of Edward R. Seccomb, Oliver Dit-
son, William T. Hart, F. W. Lincoln, Jonas Fitch, George C. Lord,
Frank W. Andrews, William R. Clark and E. C. Drew. Each of these
received 143 votes, representing 1,555 shares. On the same day of
their election, they met at the banking rooms, 239 Washington street,
and chose the following officers: President, Edward R. Seccomb;
cashier, James Swan; teller, Charles F. Smith; bookkeeper, Joseph J.
Howe ; collection clerk and messenger, Albert D. wSwan.

On November 2G. ISGl, President Seccomb declining a re-election,
Oliver Ditson was elected in his place, and for twenty- one years very
efficiently served in this capacity. William T. Hart was his successor
and has since most acceptably filled the position. James Swan, the
first cashier, served for twelve years, being succeeded by the present
cashier, Charles F. Smith, who was chosen teller at the organization of
the bank and has been in its service ever .since. Joseph J. Howe has
been bookkeeper from the origin of the bank.

On October 1, 1804, the capital was increased to $500,000 and on No-
vember 4, 18(58, to $1,000,000. The reorganization of this bank under
the National Banking act was effected in October, 18G4. Its board of
directors for 1892 is as follows: Frederick W. Lincoln, C. F. Smith,
William T. Hart, J. H. Lee, Phineas Pierce, D. R. Emerson, William
B. Rice and Henry P. Stanwood. Two of this board, Frederick W.
Lincoln, and William T. Hart, have been directors ever since the bank
was organized.

The condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, at the close of business March G, 1893, was as follows:

354 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $2, 133, 248. 58

Overdrafts, secured _ _ . _ 332.532

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50, 000. 00

Stocks, certificates, etc 4,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 301,742.71

Due from other National Banks. _ 71,177.28

Banking house, furniture, and fixtures 190,000.00

Other real estate and mortgages owned 27,905.20

Current expenses and taxes paid 13,067.74

Checks and other cash items 1,432.35

Exchanges for clearing-house 64,910. 69

Bills of other banks 4,571.00

Fractional paper currei:cy, nickels and cents . . 469. 35

Specie 121,300.00

Legal tender notes 25,000.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 40,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $3,050,467.23

LiAiiii.rriEs.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surpkis fund 200,000.00

Undivided profits 192,358.40

National Bank notes outstanding 43,650.00

Dividends unpaid 1,031.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1 ,288,054.75

Demand certificates of deposit 67,698.55

Certified checks 7,289.55

Due to other National Banks 23,980.74

1 )ue to State Banks and bankers 151,404.23

Bills payable 75,000.00

Total $3,050,467. 22

MOUNT VERNON NATIONAL BANK.

The Mount Vernon Bank, now the ^lotmt \"ernon National Bank,
received its charter in ISdU. In the o-reat fire of 1872, the btiilding' in
wliieh the banlc wa.s located, at 13 Franklin street, corner of Washing-
ton, was destroyed, and in the general destruction were destroyed all
the records of the bank prior to 1S(;4. Its charter fixed the capital
stock at $200, 00(1. The following persons and partnerships were
among the more prominent of the original stockholders of the bank,
and a majority of them continued to hold stock in it after it had been
enrolled in the larger family of national banks:

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 355

Charles B. F. Adams, Samuel O. Aborn, F. O. Prince,

William P. Sargent & Co., Rev. Henry B. Hooker, David Snow,

William B. May, John Bigelow, William J. Reynolds,

John H. Goddard, John J. Clarke, G. W. Tuxbury,

Beals, Greene & Co., John CoUamore, Edward Wyman,

Edward Everett, John M. Call, S. G. Rogers,

Mrs. Ehza H. Otis, John Vose, jr., Ralph Huntington,

William Whiting, Isaac H. Cary, George W. Simmons,

William G. Russell, S. H. Gregory, Julius A. Palmer.

Albert Hobart,

At the first meeting of the orig-inal board of directors, j. P. Robinson
was elected president, and H. W. Perkins cashier, both of whom had
been leading spirits in the formation of the bank. On December 28,
1S()4, the bank was reorganized as a national bank under its present
title, Mount Vernon National Bank. Carnie E. King was chosen presi-
dent of the reorganized bank, and at the first annual meeting of the
stockholders after reorganization the following directors were elected:
Carnie E. King, Julius A. Palmer, Albert Hobart, William B. Ma}-,
Samuel H. Gregory, Wm. G. Russell and John M. Call. Mr. King
was succeeded as president in ISl^Ii by Thomas N. Hart, ex-post-
master of Boston, who still serves in this position. Mr. Hart has
been director of the bank since 1S71. H. W. Perkins continued
in the office of cashier imtil his death in 1884, when F. E. Barnes, the
present cashier, was chosen in his stead. Mr. Perkins had, previous to
his connection with the Mount Vernon Bank, been connected with the
banking interest of Boston, and enjoyed a well deserved reputation in
financial circles. The board of directors of this bank for 1802 is as
follwvs: Thomas N. Hart, John B. Babcock, Benjamin F. Dyer, Fred.
L. Felton, Frederick O. Prince, Oscar H. Sampson and Walter H.
Tenny.

The Mount Vernon Bank commenced business at l(j() W^ashington
street. In vSeptember, 1800, it moved to !'?> Franklin street. After the
great fire of 18t2 it temporarily occupied quarters at 13o Tremont
street until its old quarters on Franklin street were rebuilt, whither it
removed in October, 1873.

The condition of this bank at close of business March G, ISO)), as re-
ported to the comptroller of the currency, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,028,890.49

(J)verdrafts. unsecured 1 4(i. 1 :;}

35G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

U. S. bonds to secure circulation . r)(),()()0.()()

Due from approved reserve agents 115,848. 38

Due from other National Banks 58,579.55

Current expenses and taxes paid 10,434.71

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 5,000.00

Checks and other cash items 409. 26

Exchanges for clearing-house 50,557.00

Bills of other banks 7,125.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 482.38

Specie '. 82,713.40

Legal tender notes 36,470.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulaticni) 2,250.00

Due from U. vS. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 4,000.00

Total $1,462,912.30

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 200,000.00

Surplus fund 50,000.00

Undivided profits 54,622.64

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 147.00

Individual deposits subject to check 941,153.01

Demand certificates of deposit . 67,700.00

Certified checks 9,217.84

Cashier's checks outstanding • . 545.00

Due to State Banks and bankers 29,526.81

Bills payable 65,000.00

Total $1,462,912.30

THIRD NATIONAL BANK.

The Third National Bank was the first Boston bank which was a
national bank at the bet^innino- of its career. It was organized under
the National Banking- act of February 25, ISC):), and beg-an operations
on the 1st of April, lS(i4, with a capital of |;;50(),(I(I0 and with liberty to
increase it to $!,{)( )(),()(»().

Amono- the prominent Boston merchants and capitalists who were its
orit^'inal stockholders were : Charles B. Adams, Nathaniel J. Bradlce,
Francis Dane, Percival L. Everett, Jonathan Ellis, Joseph L. Hen-
shaw, vSanniel Hall, jr., H. P. Kidder, Frederick W. Lincoln, S. D.
Nickerson, Thomas W. Nickerson, Charles H. Parker, Isaac Rich,
Royal E. Robbins, James vSturg'is, James E. Root, Jacob Sleeper, M.
vS. vScuddcr, John vS. Tyler, J. M. Wiohtman, Jacob Stan wood, S. S.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 357

Pierce, Thomas H. Perkins, Joseph Nickerson, James L. Little, Harvey
Jewell, John wS. Keyes, Benjamin E. Bates, A. O. Bigelow and Alvin
Adams.

The first board of directors was composed of Percival L. Everett,
vSamiiel Hall, jr., J. Willard Rice, Joseph L. Henshaw, Marshall S.
Scudder, James Sturg-is, J. H. Stephenson, vSereno D. Nickerson and
Royal E. Robbins. At a meetin^g of this board held February 10, 1S04,
Percival L. Everett was elected president, and at a subsequent mectino^
Jonas Bennett was chosen cashier. Mr. Everett was president till
November 21, 1885, when he resigned and was succeeded by Moses
Williams, who has ever since served in this capacity. Jonas Bennett
continued as cashier till May, 1873, when he was succeeded by Francis
B. Sears, who held the position until January, 1800, when he was
elected vice-president of the institution, and Frederick wS. Davis was
chosen cashier. Of the officers of the bank, Mr. vSears is the oldest in
point of service. He entered the bank at its organization as junior
clerk. Two years later he accepted another business position and was
out of the bank for five years. He returned in 1871 as assistant cashier,
and as before stated, was made cashier in 1873, and later vice-president,
promoting- the interest of the bank with fidelity and acceptability in
each capacity. The cashier, Mr. Davis, has been eng-aged in the bank-
ing business for more than forty years. He was cashier of the Traders'
National Bank for thirty years and its president two years before ac-
cepting his present position.

The Third National Bank was originally located at 18 vState street,
where it remained about eighteen months. It was then moved to 28
vState street, there remaining till 1870, when it was removed to 06 State
street, and in 1881 to 8 Congress. At the latter place it remained until
May, 1892, when it took possession of its present quarters in the Ex-
change Building. May 3, 1881, the capital was increased to $(;()0,000;
May 2, 1889, to $1,000,000, and October 1, 1891, to $2,000,000. A safe
deposit department was added to the facilities of this bank upon its
removal to its present Cjuarters, and this branch of the business is under
the inanageinent of Andrew Robeson. The safe deposit vaults are
the largest in New England. There are six compartments, with a capa-
city of 15,000 boxes.

The board of directors for 1893 is composed of Royal E. Robbins,
Benjamin F. Brown, Thomas O. Richardson, Moses Williams, Otis E.
Weld. Benjamin F. Stevens, Francis B. vSears, Charles A. Welch, Henry

358 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

B. Endicott, Jerome Jone.s, William L. Chase, Edward Atkinson,
George E. Keith, Charles E. Sampson, Joseph B. Rnssell, William
Minot, jr., Edward vSherwin and Edwin H. Abbott. Of the pre.sent
board. Royal E. Robbins is the only director who was a member of the
original board. He has been a director ever since the organization of
the bank.

The condition of the Third National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller of the currency at close of business March 6, 1893, was as
follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $ 5,847,084.70

Overdrafts 25,662.87

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 1,000,000.00

vStocks, securities, etc 50,190.18

Due from apjjroved reserve agents 885, 148. 14

Due from other National Banks 1,055,2!):}.46

Due from vState Banks and bankers 58,878.06

Other real estate and mortgages owned 1 7,869. 12

Current expenses and taxes paid 48,709.74

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 90,000.00

Checks and other cash items 9,237.76

Exchanges for clearing-house 716,202.52

Bills of other banks 20,898.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 1 ,742.84

Specie 566,969.75

Legal tender notes 110,500.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders . _ 50,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 45,000.00

Due from U.S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption fund 17,000.00

Total §10,610,876.64

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in % 2,000,000.00

Surplus fund 95,000.00

Undivided profits _ . _ 102,157.59

National Bank notes outstanding 899,990. 00

Dividends unpaid 849. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 4,286,449. 58

Demand certificates of deposit 181,434.75

Acceptances 173,197.95

Due to other National Banks 1,440,081.81

Due to State Banks and bankers 1,582,216.01

Total §10,610,876. 64

BANKING INSTITUrWNS. 359

EVERETT NATIONAL BANK.

The Everett National Bank received its charter under the provisions of
the National Banking acton the 8th of March, 1805. It was originally
proposed by its corporators to style it the Fourth National Bank of
Boston, but they concluded to adopt in its stead the propitious name of
Everett, in honor of the great orator and statesman. The corporators
consisted of the following eminent citizens, most, if not all, of whom
were residents of the vSouth End : William Fox Richardson, Charles A.
Babcock, Nathan Crowell, Richard A. Robertson, Nathaniel Adams,
George W. Messinger, Warren Sawyer, Jarvis Williams, Alden Speare,
Amos B. Merrill, Pliny Nickerson, Josiah H. Jones, Frederick Jones,
Daniel Harwood, Osborn Howes, William Cumston, Uriah Ritchie,
Job A. Turner, George H. .Davis, and S. Harris Austin.

The above gentlemen took one himdred shares each, at $100 a share,
making up the capital stock of $200,000, as fixed by the charter. On the
od day of May, 18')5, the following gentlemen were elected the first
board of directors : Charles A. Babcock, Nathan Crowell, Richard A.
Robertson, Nathaniel Adams, George W. Messinger, Warren Sawyer,
Jarvis Williams, Alden Speare, x\mos B. Merrill, and William Fox
Richardson. The last named gentleman was perhaps the most active
of all who had exerted themselves to establish the bank. He was
therefore very appropriately elected the first president of the bank, and
Nathan P. Lawson as its cashier. Mr. Richardson, late president of
the Boston Penny Savings Bank, has for many years been one of Bos-
ton's most useful and influential citizens. He was succeeded as presi-
dent of the Everett National, January 12, 18(iG, by Warren vSawyer,
who has ever since most ably filled the position. Nathan P. Lawson
was cashier until January 15, 18(J7, when he resigned, and was suc-
ceeded by George E. Carr. The present cashier, John Reynolds, has
been serving in this capacity since January ID, 1883.

The capital of the bank was increased to its present limit, $400,000,
on March 31, 187-1. The locations of the bank have been various.
It remained at its original location, corner of Newton and Washington
streets, vSouth End, till the expiration of tliQ lease of its banking rooms
there. On the 1st of November, 18G7, having obtained permission from
the comptroller of the currency to remove to a better location down
town, it moved into Parker's Building, on Congress street, between
Milk and Water streets. On May 28, 1872, it moved to premises in
Congress street, near Lindall street, now Exchange Place, where it

360 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

remained till the great fire of November and 10, when the building
was destroyed. This was the last building burned in that section of
the city. On the Monday following the fire the Everett recommenced
business at 00 State street, continuing there until December 1, 1875,
when it moved into the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company's
building, corner of Milk and Congress streets, where it has since
remained

Of the ten original directors the only one still a member of the board
is Warren vSawyer, who has been one of the directors of the bank ever
since its origin. The board of directors for 1892 is as follows: Warren
Sawyer, Francis O. Winslow, Lucius G. Pratt, William H. Sands,
Joac[uin K. vSouther, Charles F. Johnson and R. B. Converse.

The condition of the Everett National Bank, as reported to the
comptroller at the close of business, March 0, 1 S'.i:), was as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,069,830.38

Overdrafts, unsecured 48.44

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 100,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 44,822.34

Due from approved reserve agents 107,667. 12

Due from other National Banks 53,842. 15

Current expenses and taxes paid 12,734.32

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 15,400.00

Checks and other cash items^ . _ 70.75

Exchanges for clearing-house 41 , 140. 64

Bills of other banks 6,309.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 61.17

Specie 75,916.95

Legal tender notes 37,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 4,500.00

Total $1,569,343.26

LIABILrriES.

Capital stock paid in $ 400,000.00

Surplus fund 39,457. 74

Undivided profits 34,647.55

National Bank notes outstanding 90,000. 00

Individual deposits subiect to check 947. 887. 09

Demand certificates of deposit 3,019.50

Certified checks 6,773.38

Due to other National Banks .. 709.04

Due to State Banks and bankers 1,848.96

Bills payable t 45,000.00

Total .$1,569,343.26

BANKING INSTITUriONS. 3(;i

NATIONAL SECURITY BANK.

The National Security Bank of Boston commenced operations No-
vember 22, 1807, with a capital of $250,000, and with libert}^ to increase
it to |1, 000,000. Its original location was 8!) Court street, but it is
now 70 Court, corner of Brattle. The officers of the bank are as fol-
lows: President, vSamuel A. Carlton; cashier, Charles R. Batt ; directors,
Samuel A. Carlton, E. G. Byam, D. Webster King-, Charles R. Batt,
vStillman K. Roberts and Henry F. vSpencer.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller
of the currenc}^ at the close of business, March (i, 181(3, was as fol-
lows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,428,707.86

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 6.009.27

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 250,000.00

U. S. bondsonhand . 100,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc _ 196, 250. 00

Due from approved reserve agents 247,512.19

Due from other National Banks 42,547.86

Banking-house furniture and fixtures 75,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 5,960.94

Premiums on U. S. bonds 25,0(M),00

Checks and other cash items 6,759.9:^)

Exchanges for clearing-house 03, 642. 49

Bills of other banks 10,46().00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 1,0:57. 51

Specie 106,525.00

Legal tender notes 94,889.00

Redemption fund with U. vS. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 11,250.00

Total $2,641,508.05

i.i.\BiLrriEs.

Capital stock paid in . . . $ 250,000.00

Surplus fund 200,000.00

Undivided profits 190,:505.80

National Bank notes outstanding 225,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,455,516. 12

Demand certificates of deposit 31,451.60

Certified checks 2,656.25

Due to other National Banks 39,309.97

Due to State Banks and bankers 197.268.31

Liabilities other than those above stated 50,000.00

Total ---- - $2,641,508.05

363 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

NATIONAL BANK OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

The National Bank of the Commonwealth was organized April 12,
1871, with a cash capital of $500, 000, which has since been increased
to $1,000,000. The first president of the bank was E. C. Sherman,
who served until his death in February, 1881. He was succeeded by
Williani A. Tower, who continued in office until April 4, 1882, when
A. L. Newman was elected. The latter served until May 13, 1892,
when he was succeeded by William A. Tower, the present president.
John J. Eddy was the first cashier. He served until July 9, 1879, when
A. T. Collier was chosen and has since served in this capacity. There
have been three vice-presidents, who have served in the order named :
E. B. Pratt, A. L. Newman and J. J. Eddy, the last named having
been elected in July, 1892. The cashier, A. T. Collier is in point of
service the oldest official in the bank. He was discount clerk from
1872 to 1879, when he was promoted to his present position. The
directors for 1892 are: William A. Tower, R. Worthington, E. B. Pratt,
A. L. Newman, J. F. Harris, Oliver Ames, A, O. Smith, Solomon Lin-
coln, Harrison Gardner, Francis A. Foster, and A. T. Collier.

The CfMidition of this bank, according to report to the comptroller of
the currency at the close of business, March (i, 1893, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discimnts $4,()()7,0S2.I51

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured . 109.(10

U. vS. bond.s to secure circulation (4s) r)(),()(M).00

Stocks, certificates, etc 70,740.00

Due frf)m approved reserve agents, . 729,702.49

Due from other National Banks _ 782,241.08

Due from State Banks and bankers 196,458.45

Banking-house :500,00().00

Other real estate owned 24,0(i2.44

Current expenses and taxes paid 2;?, 509. 02

Checks and other cash items 18,508. 97

Exchanges for clearing-house. 201,200.28

Bills of other banks 8,008.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 15. 65

Specie 458,049.00

Legal tender notes 119,000.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 80,000.00

Redemption fund with U. vS. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,500.00

87,088,138.29

my/^Z'^f^mi^:^Si»Myi--

1^ AN KING INSTITUTIONS. 3(;3

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $1,000,000.00

Surplus fund 300,000.00

Undivided profits 174,254.45

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 15. 00

Individual deposits subject to check §2,800,499.92

Demand certificates of deposit 508,223. 62

Certified checks 76,331.20

Due to other National Banks 1,953,148.62

Due to State Banks and bankers 830, 665. 42

6,168,868.84

Total 87,688, 138.29

FIRST WARD NATIONAL BANK.

The First Ward National Bank of East Boston was orj>-anized in 187o,
with a capital of $200, (>()(». The first board of directors consisted of W.
L. Sturtevant, vS. H. Whidden, E. M. McPherson, J. H. Pote, W. Wool-
ley, H. B. Hill, vSamiiel Hall, Silvanus Smith, and James Smith. W.
L. vSturtevant, the first president of the bank, served from its organiza-
tion iintil 1880. He was succeeded by Christopher R. McLean, who
had been a member of the Governor's Council and prominent in city and
State affairs. Mr. McLean held the position for four years, being fol-
lowed in 1884 by S. H. Whidden, who served until 180-2, when the
present president, George W. Moses, was elected his successor. Mr.
Moses had previously been connected with the bank from 1881 as
cashier. The present board of directors (18'.»->) is composed of George
W. Moses, Charles A. Morss, jr., Silvanus Smith, vStephen H. Whid-
den, E. H. Atwood, Samuel N. Mayo, Wesley A. Gove, and Jabez K.
Montgomery. Silvanus wSmith and Stephen H. Whidden have served
as directors since the organization of the bank.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported by its officers to the
comptroller of the currency at the close of business, March (3, 1803, was
as follows :

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $ 782,178.28

Overdi'afts, secured 259. 12

Overdrafts, unsecured 4.00

U. S. bonds to secure circulaticm 50,000.0(1

Stocks, certificates, etc. 15,800.00

Due from approved reserve agents 58,803.86

3G4 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Due from other National Banks 43, 186.05

Current expenses and taxes paid 9,r)4().05

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 6,500.00

Checks and other cash items 893.87

Exchanges for clearing-house ' 19,582.46

Bills of other banks 6,563.00

Fractional paper currency^, nickels and cents 636.43

Specie 92,632.00

Legal tender notes 32,329.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 15,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00
1 )i;e from U. S. treastn-er, other than 5 per cent rcdcmi)tion

fund _--- . -- 450.00

Total. $1,136,564.12

LIABILniES.

Capital stock paid in - -$ 200,000.00

Surplus fund 100,000.00

Undivided profits ..^ 24,518.36

National Bank notes outstanding. 45,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check. _ 748,017.15

Demand certificates of deposit . 17,950.94

Due to other National Banks 1,077.67

Total ^.. $1,136,564.12

CENTRAL NATIONAL BANK.

The Central National l>ank commenced operations on May 2, 187:5.
with Hcnr\- Smith a.s ])resident, and for about two years was located in
the Masonic Temple, but since 1875 has occupied its present more cen-
tral and convenient premises at 121 Devonshire street. On January 11,
18T''>, Charles J. Bisho}!, of the well known house of Charles J. Bishop
(*v Co., wholesale leather dealers, was elected president, and under his
administration the bank became successfitl and popular among the busi-
ness community. During the panic of 18To the Central National was
(me of the few banks which did not avail itself of the Clearing-house cer-
tificates. L. W. Young was cashier for several years. For three 5'ears
(1S(;1 -(;:)) he was connected with the foreign money department of the
old Bank of Redemption; in May, 18(;;5, he became attached to the Na-
tional Exchange Bank; in 1874 he became cashier of the Central Na-
tional. The present officers of the bank are as follows: President,
Charles H. Allen; cashier, Otis H. Luke; directors, Charles H. Allen,
Henry D. Hyde, Charles J. Bishop, Moses W. Richardson, Edward P.

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 3G5

Mason, John W. Leighton, Samuel Carr, jr., A. L. Fessenden, Edward
P. Wilbur, Otis H. Luke. The capital of the bank is $1,000,000.

The condition of the bank, as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, March (i, 18!):), was as follows:

RESO URGES.

Loans and discounts $1,842,617.45

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 146. (io

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 236,069. 78

Due from approved reserve agents 243, 638. 05

Due from other National Banks 141,306.89

Current expenses and taxes paid 17,456.76

Checks and other cash items 13,307.24

Exchanges for clearing-house 87,348.54

Bills of other banks 5,718.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 96.50

Specie 126,192.25

Legal tender notes 54,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total S2,820. 148. 09

I.IAHILITIES.

Capital stock paid in § 500,OO(l.(H)

Surplus fund 100,000.00

Undivided profits 338,282. 73

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 165. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,419,738.13

Deinand certificates of deposit _, 1,934.54

Certified checks 6, 385. 72

Due to other National Banks 158,571.69

Due to State Banks and bankers 125,070.28

Bills payable 125,000.00

Total $2,820,148.09

MANUFACTURERS' NATIONAL BANK.

The Manufacturers' National Bank was incorporated in ISTo, and has
a capital of $500,000. Its president, Weston Lewis,' was for years at
the head of the great dr}' goods house of Lewis, Brown ik Co., and for
two and one-half years chairman of the State Board of Arbitration.

• Since the above was written Mr. Lewis died, April 6, 1893, and at present writing his successor
has not been chosen.

3G.G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The cashier, Francis E. vSeaver, has held this position ever since the or-
ganization of the bank, and has had an experience in banking- dating
from 1X57. The vice-president is George B. Nichols; directors: Nathan
P. Coburn, Benj. W. Munroe, H. H. Proctor, Geo. B. Nichols, A. vShu-
man, Otis vShepard, H. Staples Potter, John Wales, and William A.
Easton.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of
the currency at close of business, March (1, 1853, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,753,170.05

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured . 135.88

U. S. bonds to secure circulation _ 190,000.00

Stocks, certificates, etc 5,700.00

Due from approved reserve agents 232,367.23

Due from other National Banks 146,736.59

Banking-house, furniture and fixtures 203,770. 19

Interest and exchange 8,611.76

Current expenses and taxes paid 17,202.75

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds. . 28,249.00

Checks and other cash items 1 , 265. 92

Exchanges for clearing-house 34,604.33

Bills of other banks 8,242.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents _ . 296.02

Specie 134, 032. 30

Legal tender notes - 57,000.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders. 70,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 percent, of circulation) 8,550.00
Due from U. vS. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption

fund 6,000.0(1

Total $2,905,934.02

LIABIUTIES.

Capital stock paid in $ 500,000.00

Surplus fund 41,300.00

Undivided profits 102,996. 01

National Bank notes outstanding 171, 000. (iO

Dividends unpaid . _ 72.00

Individual deposits subject to check 1,724,427.00

Demand certificates of deposit 30,300.77

Certified checks 10,534.41

Due to other National Banks 169,704.93

Due to vState Banks and bankers 105,598.30

Liabilities other than those above stated 50,000.00

Total -- ....!?2,905,934.02

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 367

METROPOLITAN NATIONAL BANK.

The Metropolitan National Bank was organized in 1875, with a capi-
tal of $5()(),00(). The original officers and directors were as follows:
President, Spencer W. Richardson ; cashier, S. D. Loring ; directors :
Clinton Viles, James S. Cumston, James W. Roberts, Edward D. Adams,
William Fosdick, Henry G. Crowell, J. M. Roberts, S. D. Loring,
Francis Child, and Spencer W. Richardson. Increase E. Noyes, the
present president of the bank, was elected in November, 1801, and
George Howe Davis has served since October 1, 1870. The board of
directors for 1892 is composed of the following members: Clinton Viles,
Peter S. Roberts, Alfred D. Hoitt, C. H. B. Breck, D. M. Anthony,
Luther Adams, Increase E. Noyes, Charles Weil, and Richard F. Bolles.
Clinton Viles is the only member of the board of directors who has
served since the organization of the bank.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of
the currency at close of business, March (>, 1803, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1, 144.268.07

Overdrafts, secured 8,280.00

Overdrafts, unsect:red 219.89

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents . 182,714.57

Due fn^m other National Banks 46, 110. 50

Current expenses and taxes paid 10,270.54

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 7,725.00

Checks and other cash items -. 2,943.85

Exchanges for clearing-house 72,445.92

Bills of other banks 5,769.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 40. 02

Specie 47,829. 65

Legal tender notes 44,110.(10

Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total $1,574,972.01

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in % 500,000. 00

Surplus fund 67,000.00

Undivided profits 32,724.08

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check 756,347.57

Demand certificates of deposit 52, 965. 93

Certified checks 3,589.92

Due to other National Banks . 47,318. 18

308 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Dut to State Banks and bankers 20,036.33

Bills payable 50,000.00

Total $1,574,972.01

WINTHROP NATIONAL BANK.

The Winthrop National Bank is the successor of the Merchandise Na-
tional Bahk, chartered in 1875, with an authorized capital of $5()(>,0()0.
I. G. Whitney was president, and E. O. Rockwood, cashier. It was in-
tended as an institution to loati money on merchandise, and for a time
was conducted upon this line. This feature, however, has been done
away with. The bank was reoro-anized as the Winthrop National Bank
in 18'.)(). Wilmot R. Evans, who has since been president, was for
eiiihteen years connected with the National Bank of the Commonwealth.
Chai-les H. Ramsey, the cashier, also served in the National Bank of
the Commonwealth for eighteen years. The original capital of the
bank was at one time increased to $1,()0(),()00, then reduced to $500,000,
and is now $300,000. The directors for 18112 are: Albert H. Daven-
port, William E. Russell, Alonzo H. Evans, Albert A. Pope, James H.
Eaton, Arthur Hobart, Wilmot R. Evans, A. Pierce Green, Thomas
Appleton, and P. W. Sprague.

The condition of the bank, as re]X)rted to the comptroller of the cur-
rency, March (i, 181);), was as follows:

RESUl'KCES.

Loans and discounts , $1,351,038.82

Overdrafts, secured 128. 10

Overdrafts, unsecured ■ 81.90

U.S. bonds to secure circulation 5(t,O(K).0O

Stocks, certificates, etc 3l»,060.00

Due from approved reserve agents . 195,791.72

Due from other National Banks 279,616.23

Current expenses and taxes paid, 9,686.20

Checks and other cash items 2,658.85

Exchanges for clearing-house 63,888.25

Bills of other banks 9,017.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 293.27

Specie ' 1 05,470. 00

Legal tender notes 34,95.0.00

U. S. certificates of deposit for legal tenders 10,000.00

Redemption fund with V . S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00"

Total $2,144,930.34

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 3G9

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in $ ;j()0,(»()0.00

Surplus fund 1 70,000.00

Undivided profits 65,311.97

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Dividends unpaid 74.00

Individual deposits subject to check §1,059,155.25

Demand certificates of deposit 155,071.63

Certified checks 28,111.52

Due to other National Banks 99,604.29

Due to State Banks and bankers 322,601.68

1,664,544.37

Total $2, 144,930. 34

FOURTH NATIONAL BANK.

The Fourth National Bank was organized in 1875, and has a capital
of $500,000. The officers are as follows: President, W. W. Kimball;
cashier, A. W. Newell ; directors : W. W. Kimball, F. O. Squire, N. B.
Plummer, J. C. Melvin, E. R. McPherson, S. E. Hyde, C. Wright, A.
vS. Eiistis, W. H. Conant, H. L. Lawrence, Edwin Chapman, and R. H.
Sturtevant.

The condition of the bank on March G, 18!)3, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts $1,536,495.70

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 573. 07

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents ' 105,446.53

Due from other National Banks " 188,942.22

Other real estate and mortgages owned 20,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid. 20,902.32

Checks and other cash items 2,136.10

Exchanges for clearing-house 93,068.87

Bills of other banks 5,365.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 426.04

Specie 92,553.75

Legal tender notes 62,000.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250,00

Total $2, 180, 159.60

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in § 500,000.00

Surplus fund 100,000.00

370 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Undivided profits 77,540.77

National Bank notes outstanding 43,840.00

Individual deposits subject to check .; 1,130.398.16

Demand certificates of deposit 38,236.64

Certified checks 13,774.40

Due to other National Banks 72,283.97

Due to State Banks and bankers 39,085.66

Bills payable 100,000.00

Liabilities other than those above stated 65,000.00

Total 12,180,159.60

LINCOLN NATIONAL BANK.

The Lincoln National Bank was organized in December, 1882, with
a capital of $300,000. The first officers of the bank were as follows:
President, Joseph Davis; cashier, Edward C. Whitney; directors, Joseph
Davis, Elisha Atkins, Oliver Ames, William T. Parker, John Shepard,
Benjamin F. Spinney, Nathaniel J. Rust, Asa P. Morse, Isaac P. T.
Edmands, Irving O. Whiting, Samuel N. Brown, and Frank M. Ames.

The capital of the bank was increased to $500,000 on May 3, 1892.
Nathaniel J. Rust succeeded Mr. Davis as president in 1884, and is still
serving in this capacity. Mr. Rust is one of Boston's prominent busi-
ness men, and has held many positions of trust in city affairs. Mr.
Whitney has continued as cashier since the organization of the bank.
The direct(n-s for 1892 are as follows: Nathaniel J. Rust, William T.
Parker, John Shepard, Isaac P. T. Edmands, Irving O. Whiting, Frank
M. Ames, Owen J. Lewis, Edward K. Butler, B. AV. Currier, G. W.
Williams, Oakes A. Ames, and George A. Litchfield.

The Lincoln National Bank began operations in the Equitable Build-
ing, but in January, 1892, a removal was made to the Hancock Build-
ing where convenient and attractive banking apartments have been se-
cured.

The condition of the bank, as reported to the comptroller of the cur-
rency at the close of business, !March (!, 1893, was as follows.

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts _ . . „ . $1,368,628.78

Overdrafts, secured and unsecured 582. 37

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks, securities, etc 2,500.00

Due from approved reserve agents 228,310.60

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. sn

Due from other National Banks 173,859.61

Current expenses and taxes paid 15,781.16

Premiums on U. S. bonds 7.000.00

Checks and other cash items 5,676.42

Exchanges for clearing-house 88,020.81

Bills of other banks 2,507.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 60-4. 80

Specie 116,000.00

Legal tender notes 21 ,000,00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00
Due from U. S. treasurer, other than 5 per cent, redemption

fund 4,000.00

Total 82,086,221.05

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in 8 500,000.00

Surplus fund 48,500. 00

Undivided profits 34,999. 76

National Bank notes outstanding 45,000.00

Individual deposits subject to check 81,224,539.07

Demand certificates of deposit 7,227.46

Certified checks 51,378.06

Cashier's checks outstanding 8,194.80

Due to other National Banks 166,882.24

Due to State Banks and bankers 4,499.66

1,462,721.29

Total -82,086,221.05

COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK.

The Commercial National Bank was organized in 1888, and has a
capital of $250,000. The officers of the bank are as follows: President,
Otis Hinman ; cashier, Geo. B. Ford ; directors : Otis Hinman, Wm. O.
Blaney, Frank B. Dole, Kilby Page, Edmund Reardon, I. W. Adams,
Charles A. Baldwin, R. H. Chamberlin, D. S. Emery, Israel E. Dec-
row, and Sidney R. Baxter.

The condition of the bank ]\Iarch O, 1893, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts 8 893,886.90

Overdrafts, secured 133.28

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Stocks 15,489. 00

Due from approved reserve agents 111,474.02

372 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Due from other National Banks 121,536.62

Furniture and fixtures 5.655.40

Current expenses and taxes paid 8,643.88

Premiums paid on U. S. bonds 7,000.00

Checks and other cash items 7,329.90

Exchanges for clearing house 82, 736. 68

Bills of other banks 3,921.00

Fractional paper currency, nickels and cents 117.85

Specie [ 68,764.50

Legal tender notes 12,688.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) 2,250.00

Total §1,391,627.03

LIABILITIES.

Capital Stock paid in % 250,000.00

Surplus fund 5,000.00

Undivided profits : 23,990.43

National Bank notes outstanding 45.000.00

Individual deposits subject to check S803,581.54

Demand certificates of deposit 3,541.21

Certified checks 47,700.94

854,823.69

Due to approved reserve agents 27,458.85

Due to other National Banks 1,905.88

Due to State Banks and bankers 43,448. 18

Bills payable 140,000. 00

Total $1 , 391, 627. 03

SOUTH END NATIONAL BANK.

The South End National Bank was oro^anized in ISSO, with a capital
of $200,000, and the following officers : President, John A. Pray; vice-
president, Henry E. Cobb ; cashier, F. N. Robbins ; directors : John A.
Pray, H. E. Cobb, Oliver L. Briggs, Nathan B. Goodnow, J. G. Blake,
Joshua C. Dana, and J. J. McNutt. There has been but one change
among the officers of the bank from the time^t commenced operations
until the present time, that of Henry E. Cobb, vice-president, who died
in LSOl, and was succeeded by Joshua C. Dana.

The financial condition of this bank, as reported to the comptroller of
the currency at close of business, March (j, 181)3, was as follows:

RESOURCES.

Loans and discounts §430,457.40

Overdrafts 1, 053. 95

BANKING INSTITUTIONS. 373

U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000.00

Due from approved reserve agents 32,863.69

Due from other National Banks 14,092.38

Check-books 308.28

Real estate, furniture and fixtures 8,000.00

Current expenses and taxes paid 4,073.23

Premiums paid 7,000.00

Checks and other cash items 2, 722. 39

Exchanges for clearing-house 9,371.68

Bills of other national banks 4,923.00

Fractional currency (inluding nickels) 93. 68

Specie (including gold treasury notes) 39,714.00

Legal tender notes 14,869.00

Redemption fund with U. S. treasurer (5 per cent, of circulation) _ 2,250.00

Total 3621,792.68

LIABILITIES.

Capital stock paid in S200,000.00

Surplus fund 10,500,00

Other undivided profits 13,242.72

National Bank notes outstanding 45, 000. 00

Individual deposits subject to check 327,988.29

Demand certificates of deposit 4,075.00

Certified checks 2,857,7

Due to State Banks and bankers 18,128.95

Total 8621, 792. 68

As an interesting- summary of the condition of the banks of Boston,
and also as a more convenient form for reference, the following' table is
g-iven, made up from the reports of March (5, 1893, showing- the capital,
the surplus and undivided profits of each bank, with other items which
directly bear upon their condition. As will be seen, the sixty national
banks of Boston represent a capital stock paid in of $54,(;00,000. The
banks also show a surplus of $14,881,558, and undivided profits of
$7,488,9(38. Expenses and taxes paid amount to $1,212,981. The un-
divided profits, less expenses and taxes paid, were $0,275,987. A com-
parison with the returns for December 9, 1892, shows the following-
changes: The surplus has increased $400,100, the undivided profits
have increased $1,828,945. The undivided profits, less expenses and
taxes paid, have increased since the last statement $1,285,382. The
amount of United States deposits held by the various depository
banks of the cit}" at the date of this statement was $249,405, divided
among two banks as follows: Shawmut, $204,200; Merchants, $45,259.

BANKS.

Atlantic National . _ _

Atlas National

Blackstone National

Boston National

Boylston National '

Broadway National

Bunker Hill National

Central National

Columbian National

Commercial National

Continental National

Eliot National

Everett National

Faneuil Hall National

First National

First Ward National

Fourth National

Freemans National

Globe National

Hamilton National

Howard National

Lincoln National

Manufacturers' National

Market National

Massachusetts National

Mechanics' National

Merchants' National

Metropolitan National

Monument National

Mount Vernon National

National Commerce

National Commonwealth..
National North America. . .

National Redemption

National Republic

National City

National Eagle

National Exchange

National Hide & Leather. .
National Market, Brighton

National Revere

National Rockland

National vSecurity

National Union

National Webster

New England National

North National

Old Boston National

People's National

Second National

Shawmut National

Shoe & Leather

South End

State National

Suffolk National

Third National

Traders' National

Tremont National

Washington National

Winthrop National

Capital
Stock.

§750,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

700,000

200,000

500,000

1,000,000

250,000

1,000,000

400,000

1,000.000

1,000,000

200,000

500,000

800,000

1,000,000

750,000

1,000,000

500,000

800,000

250,000

3,000,000

500,000

150.000

200,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

250,000

1,500,000

300,000

250,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

900,000

300,000

1,600,000

1,000,000

200,000

2,000,000

1,500.000

2,000,000

500,000

2,000,000

750,000

300,000

Surplu.s.

§300,000
200,000
230,000
157,000
315,000
150,000
350,000
100,000
155,000
5,000
200,000
500,000

39,458
200,000
1,000,000
100,000
100,000
135,100

65,500
200,000
200,000

43,500

41,300

105,000

100,000

1,500,000

67,000
160,000

50,000
300,000
300,000
200,00(1
'400,000
1,000,000
108,000
112,200
250,000
300,000

50,000
140,000
150,000
200,000
400,000
242,000
600,000
350,000
250,000
175.000
900,000
200,000

85,000

10,500

400,000

300,000

95,000,

50, 000 i

375,000

300,000

70,000

Undiv'd
Profits

§72,093

278,527

120,218

120,092

137,059

77,738

116,024

338,283

90,309

23,990

192,358

121,700

34,648

237,537

327,944

24,518

77,541

90,761

92,714

129,313

118,627

35,000

102,996

80,359

44,981

42,788

244,343

32,724

70,610

54,623

309,073

174,254

215,326

15,s,54.s

292,840

50,858

112,905

246,997

152,417

19,925

88,678

42,364

190,306

236,943

98,740

151,481

95,372

70,467

31,650

270,918

100,561

103,335

13,243

194,198

152,179

102,158

44,240

99,982

54,680

65,312

Exp. and
taxes pd

§12,042
15,269
30,025
18,365
17,350
22,735
14,421
17,457
29,178

8,644
13,068
14,512
12,735
19,476
34,88'

9,546
20,902
15,488
26,519
15,1
27,574
15,781
17,203
19,162
17,139
18,643
62,034
10,2

4,342
10,435
33,206
23,510
12,766
44,265
39,245
19,966
20,374
28,128
27,408

2,282
38,059

8,401

5,961
11,322
21,933
24,155
19,268
17,503
10,802
40,830
33,313
19,826|

4,073
12,275
12,825!
48,710
22,607
11,405
22,538

9,686

Prem's
paid.

$7,000

7,000
8,000

7,250

31,500
7,000

15.400

6,500

5,500

7,000
7,000
28,249
8,000
6,000

7,725
5,000

55,000
7,000

7,375

5,000

25,000

14,060
47,522

192,000

23,844

7,000

90,000

47,500

5,000

Note.— The writer of the foregoing chapter on the history of the financial institutions of Boston
.was greatly indebted to gleanings from the files of the t«;w;«iv(7rt/i>';///r//V, which contained valu-
able material on this subject.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

By Dudley P. Bailey.

There are now in the city of Boston and vicinity about one hundred
banks, of which the sixty national banks of Boston represent a capital
of $54,600,000. Of these sixty banks, fifty-three with a capital of
$52,700,000 are associated together to form the Boston Clearing-house,
which, though an entirely voluntary association without any corporate
privileges, wields a mighty power.

Each of these banks in its daily dealings receives large amounts of
checks and drafts on other banks, so that at the close of the day's
business every bank has in its drawers a large number of checks
and drafts thus due it by other banks. It is also the debtor of other
banks which have during the day received its bills and checks drawn
upon it.

Before the establishment of the Clearing-house, on March 20,
1850, it was necessary for each bank every morning to make up
its account with every other bank, and to send its porter to pre-
sent the bills and checks so received to the debtor banks for pay-
ment. The balances of their indebtedness were adjusted by pay-
ments in gold. This course, which became laborious, complicated,
and even dangerous, was obviated by means of the clearing-house
system, through which the settlements are so quickly effected that
the exchanges adjusted through it, amounting in one day to $31,321,-
877, were settled within an hour and the balances within a short time
afterwards.

The exchanges are prepared at the bank by sorting the checks re-
ceived according to the banks on which they are drawn, the totals held
against each bank being entered upon a blank called the "Settling
Clerk's Statement," of which a sample is given below, the "first debit"
representing the checks received the day prior to the clearing, and the
second or "total debit," the total including those received in the
morning mail. The column "Bank's Credit" is left vacant and is
filled up at the Clearing-house.

(iLOBE NATIONAL BANK.

Settling Clerk's Statement, April 22, i8gj.

No.

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
31
32
33
34
36
37
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

Banks.

Massachusetts National

National Union

Old Boston National

State National

New England National

Tremont National

Columbian National

National Eagle

National City

Washington National

North National

Atlantic National

Merchants' National

Traders' National

Hamilton National - —

Market National

Second National

Atlas National

Shoe apd Leather National

Shawmut National

National Exchange

National Bank of Commerce...
National Bank of N. America. .

Faneuil Hall National

National Webster . . . . .

Eliot National

Howard National

Suffolk National

Globe National

Freemans National

Boj'lston National

Blackstone National

Boston National

National Hide & Leather

National Bank Redemption

First National

National Revere

National Bank of Republic

Continental National

Mt. Vernon National

Third National

Everett National

National Security

Broadway National

National Bank Commonwealth,

Central National

Manufacturers' National

Fourth National .

Metropolitan National

Merchandise National

Lincoln National

Mechanics' National

Commercial National

First Debit.

Total Debit.

118.28

75.96
3,982.02
2,009.42

Footings.
Balance. .

159.74

14.70

1,310.88

5.70

9.00

69.91

28.00

10,054.68

164.14

603.49

869.01

11.70

99.26

46.33

7.00

430.83

36.93

63.36

1,147.82

223.55

11.59

5,399.99
49.9(1
40.25

162.69

610.83

70,00

110.70

228.04'
13,374.40
7.374.07

51,128.80

6,118.28
75.76
3,982.02
2,122.58
599.25
1,401.00

1,268.57

2,971.82

14.70

8,356.05

5.70

9.00

69.91

1,156.73

10,054.68

164.14

2,884.05

3,251.14

311.12

2,099.26

46,33

15,376.50

430.83

36,93

68.36

1,397.82

223.55

294.04

105,686.79

241.41

21,173.11

15,950.00

162.69

610.83

70.00

110.70

355.08

505.97

7.00

17,647.81

292.26

228.04
25,200.15
18,200.20

(1,232.36

Bank's Credit.

50.00
1,287.50

4,500.00

38.95

405.20

1,000.00

195.56

320.69

16.50

5,410.55

93.15

664.57

34.42

3,518.56
648.13
112.64

1,284.63
764.10

9,175.33

164.00

22.16

306.00

332.87

1,142.49

203.05

1,264.50

145.33

334.64

294.77

32,307.33

2,950.36

1,222.90

1,053.80

20,100.00

20.75

706.32

12.19

1,887.86

213.45

1,775.97

30.00
54,141.20
65.30
50.00
243.95
93.49
50.40

150,655.56

120,576.80

271,232.36

-^^^■^

^ ^^r^'^^

'"% ^^^^~^"^"'^^"~^^'^^^?^^.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

377

The mode of doing- business at the Clearing-house is as follows;
Each bank is represented at the Clearing-house by a settling clerk and
a messenger. These representatives assemble at the Clearing-house
at or before 10 o'clock every morning. Each settling clerk brings
with him first, his settling clerk's statement made up at his bank
before leaving, which he retains; secondly, a credit ticket, which
he hands to the manager on entering, which is filled up on a blank
in the following form:

No. 1.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

i8g..

Credit Globe National Bank $271,232.36.

A. B., Sett liner Clerk.

The figures from the credit tickets are rapidly entered by the
manager or clerk in a blank called the "Clearing-house Proof" in
the column headed "Banks Cr. ," representing the amount of the
checks brought by the different banks to the Clearing-house. When
these entries are made they are footed while the exchanges are in
progress.

Each bank has a number in the Clearing-house and a desk num-
bered to correspond with the number of the bank. At precisely 10 a.
-M. every settling clerk must be in his place inside the desk appropriated
to his bank, with his settling clerk's statement. On the outside is each
messenger having the actual checks or other matter to be exchanged
with the other banks. The manager calls the Clearing-house to order
and !5ounds the gong at precisely 10 a. m. At the sound of the gong
each messenger moves one desk forward or to the left and deposits the
checks and other Clearing-house matter drawn on that bank with its
settling clerk, and at the same time drops in a small aperture in the
desk an exchange slip, so called, as follows, showing the totals drawn
upon that bank :

378

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

No. 33,

BLACKSTONE MTIONAL BANK,

FROM

No. 13, Merchants' Nat'l Bank,
38,965 Dolls. 39 Cts.

In this manner the messensrers advance from desk to desk, depositing
with each the checks drawn upon the bank there represented and the
exchange slip, until each has passed entirely around to all the desks and
comes back again to the point from which he started in front of the
desk of his own bank. This occupies usually five minutes.

The messenger then receives from the settling clerk of his bank the
checks and other matter left at the desk by the other messengers, and
returns with them to his own bank.

The taking up of the exchanges usually occupies three minutes
more, so that within about eight or ten minutes from the time the ex-
changes begin at the sounding of the gong they have been full}^ com-
pleted, and the messengers have left for their respective banks with
the checks they have received. When received at the bank they are
delivered to the Clearing-house clerk, by whom they are examined and
entered, or returned, as the case may be. All checks not good must
be returned by one o'clock.

As fast as the exchange slips and checks are received they are
entered in the settling clerk's statement in the last column headed
" Banks Cr. " and rapidly footed.

Each settling clerk, as soon as he has footed the credit column
of his statement and carefully revised the work, strikes a balance be-
tween the total debit and the total credit exchange, which shows how
much his bank is to receive or pay.

He then copies these footings into what is called a "balance ticket"
as follow:

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

379

No. 29.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

April 22, 1893.

i^r. Globe National Bank, Amt. Reed. $150,6^5.56.

LLl

Cr. " " " Amt. Brot. $271,252.56.

Balance, $ due Clearing-house.

Balance due Globe National Bank, $120,576.80.

A. B., Settling Clerk.

These balance sheets as fast as they are filled out are passed to the
manager. vSome of them are handed up almost immediately after the
close of the exchanges, perhaps by ten minutes past ten, and they con-
tinue to come in until nearly half-past ten, by which time the proof
must be made under a penalty of a fine upon the delinquent bank ac-
cording to a scale fixed in the Clearing-house regulations.

The total of the amotmt received, as shown by the balance ticket, is
entered on the Clearing-house proof in the column headed "Banks Dr."
and the balance in the proper column. The amounts received and the
balances are then footed. If the totals on both sides agree, the work is
correct, the proof is made and the clerks are at liberty to go. If they
fail to agree, it is evident that an error must have been made, as the
amount of checks brought and the amount of checks carried away must
be exactly the same. For instance, on a certain morning there is a
discrepancy of $199.90. The manager immediateh^ announces, "The
error is $109.90." The clerks immediately proceed to examine their
figures for the error. In a few minutes one of the clerks reports that
he has discovered an error of ten cents, which makes the error $200,
which is announced by the manager. The clerks continue to examine
their figures and in five minutes more, at 10.40, the error of two hun-
dred dollars is discovered and corrected, the proof is completed and
the clerks are allowed to withdraw. The two banks whose clerks have
thus detained the whole force for ten minutes are subjected to a fine of
$2.00 each.

The following is a sample of the Clearing-house Proof:

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE PROOF, 189..

No.

8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
31
32
33
34
36
37
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

BANKS.

Massachusetts National _

National Union

Old Boston National

State National - _ .

New England NationaL.

Tremont National

Columbian National

National Eagle

National City

Washington National

North National

Atlantic National

Merchants National

Traders National

Hamilton National

Market National

Second National

Atlas National

vShoe and Leather Nat'L

Shawmut National

National Exchange

Nat'l B'k of Commerce..
Nat'l B'k of N. America.
Faneuil Hall National,. .

National Webster

Eliot National

Howard National

Suffolk National

Globe National

Freemans National

Boylston National

Blackstone National

Boston National

National Hide & Leather
Nat'l Bank Redemption.

First National

National Revere

Nat'l Bank of Republic. .

Continental National

Mt. Vernon National

Third National

Everett National

National Security

Broadway National

Nat'l B'k Commonwealth

Central National

Manufacturers National.

Fotu-th National

Metropolitan National ..

Winthrop National

Lmcoln National

Mechanics National

Commercial National _ . _

Balances
due to Clear-
ing House.

9,179.07
518,473.37

77,865.67

34,411.99

124,738.93

53,271.72

349,615.59

27,413.09
19,101.81
12,944.70

208,244.57
437,884.70
482,195.14

23,840.08

6,122.42
113,072.23
161,560.32

110,707.75
30,427.86

140,090.0
15,749.83

36,096.26

56,566.91

8,318,92

21,380.21
26,576.54

EXCHANGES.

Banks, Dr.

199.

151.

142,

242,

638,

192.

137,

199,

172,

154

332,

1,466

124,

325

126

451

145

301,

1,821

2,145,

1,211,

161

117

192

151

454

439

80,

340

400

316

1,282

436

743

849

236

998

145

1,021

136

139

141

109

182

103

548.47
066.67
518.65
888.87
318.06
102.02
937.73
190.67
539.88
298.36
684.84
200.99
163.41
371.54
423.74
475.07
089.14
449.47
686.63
982.82
645.51
963.46
520.53
665.83
382.78
443.35
880.93
237.49
229 25
2m 61
280.86
645.10
694.25
154.89
811.03
174.65
836.77
818.27
752.68
321.02
125.04
,332.66
,626.25
547.69
303.44
,900.28
,496.59
,117. .57
40.66
30.00
,641.34
220.22
,314.88

AGGREG.vrES 3,105,849.75 20,400,711.91 20,400,711.91 3,105,849.75

Banks, Cr.

288
141
174
346
119
216
219
121
138

29
279

66
1,116

96
306
113
677
179
337
1,613
1,707
729
346
119
274

73
370
478,
746
161

87
227
239
503
1,866
518
946
1,132
126

33
858

190

109

1,043

80,
131
183

83,
187,
113

909.29

887.60

804.41

905.19

844.69

2H8.60

323.40

325.00

127.89

559.43

413.12

927.21

547.82

958.45

321.93

530.37

623.13

493.52

630.28

738.25

760.81

768.32

106.74

504.87

850.26

603.27

335.92

340.59

028.9

497.0

158.44

572.8*

133.93

101.39

653.80

773,78

435.62

012.

044.93

893.16

034.9

582.83

769.18

451.43

538.69

333,37

177.67

990.64

360.45

153.46

667.09

315.26

599,83

Balances

Due to
the Banks.

89,360.82

32,285.76
104,016.32

24,186.58
81,385.67

42,726.22

226,533.
34,044.
35,943.

184,586.

1,839,

82,467.

218,454.

24,103.

306,799.

81,277.

186,946.
583,842.
82,599.
202,598.
282,194.

102,142.
22,235.

No.

42,873.07

5,025.
10,095.
15,284.

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
31
32
33
34
36
37
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE. 381

After the completion of the exchanges the next step is the payment
of the balances. The debtor banks are required to pay their balances
at the Clearing-house on or before 1-2: 15 p. m., and the creditor banks
to receive them on or before 1 : 30 p. m. The manager gives a receipt
to each of the debtor banks paying balances and receives one from the
creditor banks. Balances must be paid either in coin or in such other
currency as the laws of the United States require, or in such certifi-
cates as shall be authorized by the Clearing-house Association, except
that sums less than $1,000 may be paid in bills of the debtor bank.
vShould any bank fail to pay the balance due from it at the proper hour,
the amount of such balance must be immediately furnished to the
Clearing-house by the several banks in proportion to their respective
balances against the defaulting bank resulting from the exchanges of
that day, and the manager makes requisition accordingly. The
amotmts so furnished to the Clearing-house constitute claims on the
part of the responding banks respectively against the defaulting bank.
Any such responding bank may cancel its exchanges of the day with
the defaulting bank by tendering repayment to the debtor bank of the
amount, if any, of the checks and other items received by it (the
creditor bank) through the exchanges of the day at the Clearing-
house, from or on account of such defaulting bank, and receiving in
return all the checks and other items delivered to the defaulting bank.
If the defaulting bank shall fail to return such checks, the creditor
bank may notify its depositors and customers from whom said checks
and items were received of the non-payment and detention of such
checks, which notification shall be equivalent to the return of such
checks and items to depositors of the same, and the amounts thereof
may be charged to their respective accounts, it being understood that
the banks receive such checks and items payable by other banks for
collection and as agents only. Errors in the exchanges and claims
arising from the return of checks or otherwise must be adjusted be-
tween the banks directly and not through the Clearing-house, and
checks not good must be returned at or before 1 o'clock.

The New York Clearing-house, — the first in this country — had been
in operation nearly two years, and its usefulness had been fully demon-
strated before steps were taken to establish a siinilar institution in Bos-
ton. x\ meeting of the representatives of the Boston banks to consider
the expediency of establishing a clearing-house, was held at the rooms
of the Merchants' Bank on Thursday, September 27, 1855. Franklin

382 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Haven, president of the Merchants' Bank, was chosen president of this
meeting and William Thomas, of the Webster Bank, secretary. The
president read a paper prepared by Waldo Flint, president of the Eagle
Bank, in favor of the establishment of the clearing-house, which docu-
ment had been approved by twenty of the Boston banks, representing
more than two-thirds of the banking capital of the city. A committee
of eight was thereupon appointed to carry out the objects named in
this paper. This committee was compo.sed of the following gentlemen :
Andrew T. Hall of the Tremont Bank, Waldo Flint of the Eagle Bank,
Benjamin E. Bates of the Bank of Commerce, Thomas Lamb of the
New England Bank, Almon D. Hodges of the Washington Bank,
George W. Thayer of the Exchange Bank, Franklin Haven of the Mer-
chants' Bank, and Daniel Denney of the Hamilton Bank.

As one of the obvious effects of establishing a system of daily settle-
ments between the banks w^ould be to compel the less conservative in-
stituti<ms to curtail their operations, some opposition was developed to
the change. It was urged that the money market was already strin-
gent and the rates of interest high and that the clearing-house, by
bringing bank transactions to a strict daily specie test, would restrict
loans and increase the stringency. To this it was answered that the
tightness of the market was due to the encouragement given to specu-
lation by some of the banks and that the conservative influence of the
clearing-house settlements was just the thing needed to remedy the
evil. The opposition proved of no avail. The committee appointed
September 27 proceeded with their work and prepared a constitution
and rules for the Clearing-house, which were presented, adopted and
signed at a meeting of bank ofificers held at the Merchants' Bank on
January, 15, 185M. At this meeting Franklin Haven was chosen chair-
man of the association and William Thomas secretary. A Clearing-
house Committee was also chosen as follows: Andrew^ T. Hall, Tre-
mont Bank ; Waldo Flint, Eagle Bank ; Thomas Lamb, New England
Bank; Altnon D. Hodges, Washington Bank; Benjamin E. Bates, Bank
of Commerce. Henry B. Graves was chosen manager.

Rooms were engaged on the third floor of the Granite Building, forin-
erly owned by the New England Bank, at the corner of vState and
Kilby streets. The site with other adjoining land is now covered by
the " Exchange Building," so called. The clearings were made in this
room until the association removed to its present more cominodious
and convenient quarters at (W; State street on October 22, 1883. Of
the oritrinal officers Franklin Haven is the sole survivor.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

383

The Clearino--house commenced operations March 20, 1850. The
following banks, twenty-nine in number, — the constituent members of
the association — participated in the first day's clearings :

Massachusetts Bank,

Union

Boston

State

New England

Tremont

Columbian

Eagle

City

Washington

North

Atlantic

Merchants'

Traders'

Hamilton

Market Bank,
Granite

(now Second National)
Atlas Bank,

Shoe and Leather Bank,
Shawmut ' '

Exchange ' '

Bank of Commerce,
Bank of North America,
Faneuil Hall Bank,
Webster
Eliot
Howard
Suffolk
Blackstone

The exchanges on the first day amounted to $2,780,000, and the bal-
ances to $384,000. The heaviest exchanges ever made in any day were
$31,321,877 on July 2, 1880. The lightest exchanges were $1,377,017
on May 27, 1862. The largest balances resulting from any one dav's
transactions were $4,077,438 on July 2, 1889. The smallest balances
in any one day were $150,877 on August 15, 1850.

In June, ISoO, the Globe, National and Maverick Banks joined the
association. The Freemans and Boylston became members June 1,
1857; the Hide and Leather in May, 1858; the Bank of Mutual Re-
demption in October, 1858; the Bank of the Metropolis in November,
1858; the Safety Fund (now First National) in February, 1850; the Re-
vere May 10, 1859; the Bank of the Republic February 5, 1860; the
Continental and Mount Vernon November 14, 1860; the Third National
June 1, 1864; the Everett National and National Security April 1, 1868;
the Broadway National in February, 1870 ; the National Bank of the
Commonwealth in June, 1871; the Central National in May, 1873; the
Manufacturers' National in July, 1873; the Fourth National in July,
1875; the Metropolitan in August, 1875; the Merchandise in November,
1875; the Lincoln in 1883; the Mechanics' and Commercial in 1888.
The Globe National and Maverick Banks were represented in the
original organization, but did not perfect their membership until later.
The Mechanics' Bank was expected to join as number thirty, but did
not actually enter until 1888, when it came as in number fifty-five, the

384 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

original number thirty reserved by it never having been used. The
Bank of the Metropolis, number thirty-eight, ceased to be a member
and discontinued business as a corporation in 1863, the proprietor, S.
A. Way, contintiing as a private bank under the old name. The Mav-
erick Bank, number thirty-five, failed and was expelled from the asso-
ciation November 2, 1891. This is the first and only failure that has
ever occurred among the banks associated in the Boston Clearing-
house. Great care has generally been exercised in admitting banks to
the privileges of the association.

In 1876 A. I. Benyon, who had been cashier and then president of
the Exchange Bank, was removed from the presidency of this bank be-
cause of alleged irregularities if not criminal practices. Public (mer-
cantile and business) opinion at the time was considerably divided as to
the degree of his moral culpability ; at any rate, there were enough who
had confidence in Mr. Benyon, to enable him and others within about a
year, on November 12, 1877, to establish the Pacific National Bank, of
which he was president. The Clearing-house Association refused first
in 1877 and again in 1878 to admit this bank into its membership, and
the Pacific was obliged to clear through another bank. Although this
action was said by many to be because of ill-advised personal feeling
against Mr. Benyon, it was fully justified by the result, as the bank
suspended in November, 1881. The bank (its affairs having been partial-
ly adjusted) resumed business March 18, 1882, but was for the third
time refused admission to the Clearing-house and continued only initil
May 20, 1882, about three months, when its complete failure brought
ruin to a number of well known persons. The examinations that fol-
lowed developed the rascality of Benyon, who was thenceforth a fugi-
tive from justice; but the effect of the failure upon the business com-
munity in general was said to have been by no means as serious as it
would have been, had not the action of the Clearing-house kept this
bank from ever obtaining the status of the other banks, by allowing it
to come into the association.

The names and numbers of the present members of the Clearing-
house (June, 181»;>) are as follows:

When Established.

1. Massachusetts National Bank 1T84

2. National Union " 1792

3. Old Boston National " 1803

4. State National " 1811

5. New England National " 1813

C. Tremont " " 1814

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

385

Columbian

When Established.
National Bank 1822

y. National Eagle
9. National City

10. Washington National

11. North

12. Atlantic

13. Merchants

14. Traders'

15. Hamilton

16. Market

17. Second

18. Atlas

19. Shoe and LeatherNational

20. Shawmut ' '

21. National Exchange
22
23

24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
31.
32.
33.
34.
36.
37.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.

1822

1825

1831

1832

(Granite) 1833

1834

1836

1847

National Bank of Commerce 1850

National Bank of North America 1850

Faneuil Hall National Bank 1851

National AVebster Bank 1853

Eliot National " 1853

Howard " " 1853

Suffolk " " 1818

Globe " " 1824

Freeman's National Bank 1836

Boylston " " 1845

Blackstone " " 1851

Boston " " 1853

National Hide and Leather Bank 1858

National Bank of Redemption 1858

First National Bank (Safety Fund) 1858

National Revere Bank 1859

National Bank of the Republic 1860

Continental National Bank 1860

Mount Vernon ' '

Third

Everett "

46. National Security

47. Broadway National
48.
49.
50.

51. Fourth

52. Metropolitan

53. Winthrop

54. Lincoln

55. Mechanics'

56. Commercial
49

1860

1864

1865

1868

1853

National Bank of the Common-wealth 1871

Central National Bank 1873

Manufacturers' National Bank 1873

" 1875

" (Merchandise) 1875

" 1883

" 1836

" 1888

386

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The whole number of different banks that have belonged to the
Clearing-house since its organization has been fifty-five, and the pres-
ent number is fifty-three, with a capital of $52,700,000.

Besides the banks belonging to the Clearing-house forty-two other
banks and trust companies effect their exchanges through members of
the Clearing-house, so that its transactions now (April, 180;3) include
the exchanges of ninety-three banks with a capital of about $045,000. 00.
The banks outside thus availing themselves of the Clearing-house, their
location and clearing agents are as follows:

Charles River National Bank, _ . .Cambridge, "]

Clearing Agent.

Monument
Cambridgeport
Bunker Hill
Randolph
First Ward

National Exchange Bank.

.Charlestown, V
. _ . Cambridge, j
. .Charlestown,. .Second National Bank.

^ ' '- National Hide and Leather Bank.
.East Boston, )

Shoe and I^eather National Bank.

Bay State Trust Co. , Boston, i^ , .. . at ^- i t> i

^^ -^ ^ , , ^ /^ ,, ■ jNIerchants National Bank.

New England Trust Co. , . i

Mt. Wollaston National Bank, Quincy, ^

Massachusetts Loan and Trust Co., .Boston, ! ^ . , r, , r <-i /-- in

^., . , _ , T^ 1 ^ V National Bank of the CommonAvealth.

Home National Bank, Brockton , (

Dedham " " Dedham. J

International Trust Co. , Boston,.. Shawm ut National Bank.

Rockland National Bank, Roxbury, ^

First " " West Newton, i

BlueHill " " Milton,^

Natick " " Natick,j

First National Bank, Chelsea, ]

First " " Cambridge,

Cambridge National Bank, " [

Lechmere " " "

First " " Maiden,

People's " " Roxbury,

First " " SouthWeymouth,

National Granite " Quincy,

Union Market National Bank, ..Watei'town,

Waltham " " Waltham,

Brockton " " Brockton , 1

Winnisimmet " " Chelsea, |

National City " ._ Cambridge,

American Loan and Trust Co., Boston, |

State Street Safe Dep. and Trust Co., " J

Brookline National Bank, Brookline, /

Newton " " Newton, i

Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co.,. Boston,

3toneham National Bank, Stoneham,

First " " Woburn,

J- National Bank of Redemption.

.Fourth National Bank.
. Boston " "

Third National Bank.

First National Bank.

National Bank of the Republic.

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE.

387

Union Safe Deposit Vaults, Boston, .

South End National Bank, "

Old Colony Trust Co,,

Mattapan Deposit and Trust Co., _ South "
Melrose National Bank, Melrose, .

.National Union Bank.
_ Globe National "
.National Bank of Commerce.
.Tremont National Bank.
.National City "

Private banks were not formerly admitted to the privileges of the
association, either directly or indirectly, these privileges being restrict-
ed to incorporated banks. The only exception ever made until recent-
ly was in the case of Way, Warren & Co. , doing business under the
name of the Bank of the Metropolis, which, having formerly been a
member, was allowed in 1800 to clear through the Hide and Leather
National Bank.

The Clearing-house had been established only about a year and a
half when the financial crisis of 1857 furnished an additional demon-
stration of its necessity and usefulness. Many of the banks of New
York city suspended specie payments October 13, 1857, and the residue
with those of Boston suspended October 14. On this latter date the
Clearing-house Committee met and resolved to recommend to the as-
sociated banks as an aid in effecting their daily settleiuents that the
bills of any of the associated banks be received in liquidation of their
daily balances, instead of specie, within the following limits :

For banks having capital of S 300,000 or under, not exceeding § 20,000

500,000

560,000

600,000

700,000

750,000

900,000

1,000,000

1,250,000

1,500,000

1,800,000

2,000,000

4,000,000

Suffolk.

25,000
28,000
30,000
32,000
34,000
36,000
40,000
45,000
50,000
60,000
60,000
100,000
100,000

Any excess of balances above these figures was to be paid in specie
as usual. The notes so received in settlement of balances were to be
sent to the Clearing-house with the exchanges of the next day, and the
committee was to have the right lo call upon any bank for satisfactory
collateral security to secure the payment of its bills so received, these
bills being so received and held at the joint risk of the associated banks

388 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

in proportion to the amount of their respective capitals. The interest
on the notes so paid in was to be settled daily in the payment of bal-
ances. An agreement enibodying these recommendations was drawn
up and signed by the banks. This measure produced at once a favor-
able effect in enabling the banks to extend a degree of aid and accom-
modation to their customers which they could not otherwise have done.
The moral effect of such a step in checking the panic was also impor-
tant. The results were most satisfactory and fully met the expecta-
tions of its projectors. The Clearing-house report of 1858 says: " By
no other form or association among the banks could such a spirit of
harmony and concert of action have been inspired and kept in being as
that which grew out and resulted from our present clearing-house sys-
tem, and under which we feel confident much evil has been averted
that otherwise must have been felt in our business circles."

For the purpose of avoiding the inconvenience and risk of handling
coin in paying balances, the Clearing-house early in its history adopted
the policy of making one of its members a depository to receive coin
from the other inembers and issue clearing-house certificates against it
to be used in settling the daily balances. The Merchants' Bank was
selected as this depository of coin, and it had at the time of the annual
meeting, March21, 1800, issued certificates to the amount of $14,590,500,
of which $11,750,000 had been redeemed, leaving $3,840,000 in circula-
tion, as compared with $3,100,000, March 31, 1859, and $3,425,000,
March 31, 1858. The great financial changes wrought by the war, in-
cluding the disappearance of coin from circulation and the establish-
ment of a legal tender paper currency, made the further use of coin
certificates needless and impracticable, and they ceased to be issued.
Their place was subsequently supplied by United States certificates of
deposit issued pursuant to Act of Congress, approved June 8, 1872, in
denominations of not less than $10,000, and expressly made available
for the payment of Clearing-house balances, and also as a part of the
reserve of national banking associations.

In 1879, after the resumption of specie payments, the Merchants'
National Bank was again selected as a depository of coin, and issued
Clearing-house certificates for paying balances, first in denominations of
$5,000 and later of $1,000. October 19, 1881, it declined to act longer
as a depository.

Soon after the breaking out of the war the value of our clearing-
house machinery became specially manifest, as it enabled the banks to

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE. m%

combine their resources for the purpose of assisting- the government, to
which the associated banks of the three cities of New York, Boston and
Philadelphia in 1861 advanced $150,000,000 in three amounts of
$50,000,000 each, taking in return obligations which they distributed
among the people. This was done during the early months of the
war and before the government had succeeded in getting- its financial
arrangements adjusted to the tremendous efforts it was compelled to
make. But for this timely relief the government would have been
well nigh paralyzed for want of funds on the very threshold of the
war. Throughout the great struggle the clearing-house machinery
gave strength and regularity to the nation's financial operations, which
were strikingly in contrast with the conditions prevailing during the
war of 1812, when no such bulwark to our financial system existed.

The value of union and organization among the banks in the Clear-
ing-house was strikingly illustrated during the financial crisis of 1873.
The storm, which culminated at New York on September 18, 1873, in
the failure of J. Cooke & Company and other large banking-houses,
did not begin to produce serious disturbances in the mone}^ market of
Boston until the latter part of September, when a steady drain of
greenbacks, in payment of checks from New York and other cities, set
in, which threatened speedily to exhaust the bank reserves. With a view
to the highest utilization of their resources, a meeting of the presidents
of the banks of Boston was held at the Clearing--house on vSaturday
afternoon, September 27, 1873, at which every bank in the city was
represented. After some discussion the following resolutions were
unanimously adopted :

Whereas, the banks in all the large cities in the United States have deemed it
prudent and expedient to suspend currency payment for large amounts, therefore,

Resolved, That the Boston banks, as a precautionary measure for themselves and
the mercantile community, and to prevent the consequent drain of currency from
them, do, from this date and until further notice, adopt the same measure.

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the chair who shall have the
power to issue loan certificates to the amount of §10,000,000 upon substantially the
same basis as they are issued by the banks of New York city.

In accordance with the last resolution, the chair appointed Messrs.
Franklin Haven, George C. Richardson, Benjamin E. Bates, Thomas
Lamb, A. I. Benyon, and James H. Beal as a committee to issue these
certificates. By Tuesday, September 30, the certificates, which were in
denominations of $5,000 and $10,000, began to be issued. Each bank

390 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

desiring them was required to deliver to the committee acceptable
securities, for which it received in certificates 75 per cent, of the face
value of the securities less the interest, which was paid for sixty days in
advance at the rate of 7yV per cent, per annum. The banks had the
privilege of taking up these certificates previous to December 1, if they
desired. Each bank that received the certificates was obliged to guar-
antee the committee jointly and'severally against any loss that might
arise from a change in the market value of the securities held by them
as collateral for the loan certificate issued to such bank, and in case of
depreciation in the value of the securities, to furnish additional or other
securities satisfactory to the committee. For the further protection of
their reserves the banks also adopted the practice, which continued to
a greater or less degree for nearly two months, of paying all checks
through the Clearing-house, and one individual from the country notic-
ing the inscription on his check " Payable only through the Clearing-
house," actually went to the Clearing-house to get his check cashed.
The total number of certificates issued to October 20 had reached
$4,800,000, by which time currency which had been previously hoarded
had begun to return to the ordinary channels of circulation. The
measures adopted by the associated banks proved highly successful in
protecting their reserves and in enabling them to extend the necessary
assistance to the mercantile community. Their reserve of legal tenders,
which was $0,010,300 for the week ending vSeptember 15, and $8,182,-
700 the week following, reached its minimun in the week ending Oc-
tober 20, when it was $7,850,900, showing a loss as compared with
September 15 of $1,105,400. The recovery was rapid, and by the week
ending, November 3, the reserve had more than recovered its former
figures and stood at $0,045,400.

The carrying out of these arrangements involved much labor in the
calculation of so much interest and the adjustment of it as between the
different banks. At the end of the term for which the certificates were
issued, an extension of those outstanding (then about $5,000,000), was
authorized for the further period of sixty days, but it was not found
necessary to use this privilege to the full extent, and before the end of
December the banks had begun to take up and cancel their certificates.
Notice was issued that interest would cease on the certificates after
Monday, December 29. The legal tender reserve of the banks for the
week ending December 15, was $10,780,000, and on the 18th of Decem-

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE. 391

ber, for the first time after the issue of the certificates commenced, the
banks made their settlements wholly in greenbacks.

During a portion of this period a remarkable condition of things ex-
isted. The banks had suspended currency payments, and loans of cur-
rency often commanded two per cent, interest per month. Yet bank
notes resting upon the credit of the government were everywhere re-
ceived on a par with the legal tender currency, thus affording an illus-
tration of one of the great benefits of the national banking system.
During this period legal tenders and national bank notes were alike
hard to obtain, and frequently commanded a premium of two or three
per cent. The currency of the mercantile community for all large
amounts consisted for a considerable time almost wholl}' of certified
checks, payable only through the Clearing-house. Without the strength
and confidence inspired by the union of the banks in the Clearing-
house, such a circulating medium could never have obtained the credit
which enabled it to perform for so long a period the functions of
money.

During the severe stringency prevailing in the autumn of 1890, simi-
lar loan certificates were again issued. On the 17th day of November,
1890, at a meeting of the Clearing-house Association the following reso-
lution was unanimously adopted.

Resolved^ That a committee of five be appointed by the chair, of which committee
the chairman shall also be a member, to receive froin banks, members of the associa-
tion, bills receivable and other securities, to he approved by said committee, who
.shall be authorized to issue therefor to such depositing banks, loan certificates, bear-
ing interest at seven and three-tenths per cent, per annum, and such loan certificates
shall not be in excess of seventy-five per cent, of the market valtie of the securities or
bills receivable so dei^osited, and such certificates shall be received and jsaid in set-
tlement of balances at the Clearing-house.

Resolved, That anj- loss arising from the issue of loan certificates shall be borne by
the banks comprising the Clearing-house Association jjro rata, according to the aver-
age daily amount which each bank shall have sent to the Clearing-house during the
preceding year.

It was also voted that this resolution shall be ratified by the board of
directors of the respective banks belonging to the association, and a
certified copy of such consent delivered to the chairman of the loan
committee.

The form of the loan certificates issued under the resolution alluded
to was as follows:

39'^

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

O
Q

xn
O

$5,000.

LOAN GOIflMIITEE OF THE BOSTON GLEflRING-HOUSE flWIHTION.

Boston, i8g- .

This certifies that the National Bank has deposited

with this committee securities in accordance with the proceedings
of a meeting of the association held November 17, 1890, upon
which this certificate is issued.

This certificate will be received in payment of balances at the
Clearing-house for the sum of five thousand dollars from any mem-
ber of the Clearing-house Association.

On surrender of this certificate by the depositing bank above
named, the committee will indorse the amount as a payment on
the obligation of said bank held by them, and surrender a propor-
tionate share of the collateral securities held.

$5,000.

Conwiittee.

Any bank desiring- these loan eertificatcs was reqiirred to deposit the
necessary security and also to execiUe and deliver an oblig-ation in the
following form :

The National Bank has this day received of loan committee

of the Boston Clearing-house Association loan certificates issued by said committee
in pursuance of a vote of said association, passed November 17, 1890, to the amount

of thousand dollars, and has deposited with said committee the securities, a

statement whereof is hereto annexed, and the said bank received said

loan certificates on the terms set forth in said vote, and agrees to pay the amount of
said certificate with interest thereon as provided in said vote.

The loan certificates authorized by the foregoing- resolution were first
issued (m No\^ember 1!), 1890, and the last were issued on December 6,
181)0, at which latter date the issue had reached its maximum of $5,-
0(55,000. The last of the issue was withdrawn from circulation on Jan-
uary G, 1891.

In the latter part of October, 1891, it coming to the knowledge of the
Clearing-house Committee that the Maverick Bank, belonging to the
association, was not transacting business in accordance with sound bu.si-
ness principles, they called a ineeting of the association, held Novem-
ber 2, 1891, at which the bank was expelled from membership in the

£..^2^ucn^i^

Bu-i

BOSTON CLEARIXG-HOUSE. 393

association. The comptroller of the currency, being informed of the
condition of affairs, sent to the bank examiner to close the bank, which
was done Monday morning, November 2.

The Clearing-house Committee made the following statement :

Boston, Nov. 3, 1891.
The National Bank examiner, acting under the instructions of the comptroller of
the currency, has closed the Maverick Bank.

The Clearing-house Committee of the Boston banks has called a meeting of the
members of the Clearing-house at 9.30 .\. m. this morning to take action on a proposi-
tion recommended b}' the committee, that all the banks composing the association
unite in making advances in cash to the depositors of the Maverick Bank.

The object of making these advances is to relieve the temporary embarrassment of
the depositors.

Thos. p. Beal.
Frederic Haver, jr.
Albert S. Newman.
Franklin Pierce.
Moses Williaas.

Clearing-house Cominiitee.

Chairman Beal of the committee was appointed receiver.

The Clearing-house Association voted to allow each Maverick Bank
depositor a certain per cent, of the money he had on deposit in that
bank, on condition that he would leave his book as security that he
had the amount of money in the bank, after it had been certified by the
bank.

The moral effect of the action of the association was to greatly di-
minish and allay popular excitement and mental distixrbance.

The importance of the Clearing-house Association in sustaining both
public and private credit was again demonstrated in a meeting of the
associated banks held on Monday, April 24, 1893, to consider what
action the Clearing-house would take in reference to sustaining the
United vStates government in its policy of maintaining gold payments
for treasury notes. At this meeting George Ripley of the Hide and
Leather National Bank presided, and every bank was represented. The
following resolution was presented and upon a roll-call unanimously
adopted :

The associated banks of Boston, relying upon the ability and determination of
the government to maintain gold payments, hereby tender the secretary of the
treasury one-half of the gold reserve now held by them in exchange for legal tender
notes, and the Clearing-house Committee is hereby directed to carry out the terms of
this resolution.
50

394 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

This action, the first of its kind taken by any clearing--house associa-
tion in this country, is a matter of no small importance, and must be
reckoned as one of the most patriotic and praiseworthy steps ever
taken by the association.

For about three months past, from June to September, ISDo, the
country has been passing- through a financial ordeal more nearly re-
sembling- that of 1873 than anything that has been witnessed for twenty
years. Indeed the conditions have been in many respects similar to
those then prevailing. Currency payments, owing to general distrust
and consequent hoarding- of currency, have been partially suspended,
and currency has been at a premium of two to three per cent.

The banks of Boston have successfully met this crisis by resorting to
the expedients employed in 1873 and 1890. Loan certificates have
been issued on a pledge of securities to the amount of $11,445,000, thus
enabling the banks to extend accommodations to their customers to a
much larger extent than would otherwise have been possible, — another
illustration of the very great value and utility of our clearing-house
machinery.

The issue of certificates began about July 1, and the amounts out-
standing, as shown by successive statements of the associated banks of
Boston, have been as follows :

July 1 $3,680,000 Aug. 1!) 10,940,000

8 4,555,000 " 20 11,445,000

15 5,575,000 Sept. 2 11,435,000

22 5,575,000 " 9 11,305,000

29 8,565,000 " 16 11,260,000

Aug. 5 10,090,000 " 23 8,055,000

12 10,350,000

The issue reached its maximum August "iO. The acute stage of the
crisis is now apparently past, and the banks are rapidly surrendering
their certificates, over $3,000,000 having been withdrawn within the
last week covered by the above statement.

The Clearing-house Association has had four presidents, as follows:
Franklin Haven, 1850-5!), three years; Daniel Denny, 1859-71, twelve
years; James H. Beal, 1871-88, eighteen years; George Ripley, 1888 to
date, five years.

Its first secretary was William Thomas, who held th'e office three
^rears to March 31, 1859, when he was succeeded by Charles G. Nazro,
who held the position eleven years until March 31, 1870. He was sue-

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE. 395

ceeded by Henry B. Grove, then manager, since which time the offices
of secretary and manager have been combined in the same person. Air.
Snelling succeeded Mr. Grove on the death of the latter in 1877. The
following named bankers have served as members of the Clearing-house
Committee:

Andrew T. Hall, 18o6-7-2, sixteen j^ears; Waldo Flint, 1856-57;
Thomas Lamb, 1856-83, twentj'-seven years; A. D. Hodges, 1856-79,
twentj^-three years; Benjamin E. Bates, 1856-78, twenty-two years; J.
Amory Davis, 1857-66, nine years; S. H. Walley, 1866-78, twelve
3'ears; John Cummings, 1872-86, fourteen years; H. A. Rice, 1878-81,
three years; A. W. Stetson, 1878-83, five years; Wm. Perkins, 1879-83,
four years; Geo. Whitney, 1881-84, three years; R. E. Demmon, 1883-
88, five years; C. O. Billings, 1883-88, five years; C. A. Vialle, 1883-86,
three years; S. A. Carlton, 1884-85; Geo. Ripley, 1886-88; G. vS. Bull-
ens, 1886-90, four years; W. S. Blanchard, 1887-91, four years ; T. N.
Hart, 1888-90; T. P. Beal, 1888-92, four years; A. L. Newman, 1889-
93, four years; Moses Williams, 1890-93; Phineas Pierce, 1891-93;
Franklin Haven, jr., 1891-93; John Carr, 1892-93; vS. N. Aldrich, 1893.
The Clearing-house has but two managers, Henry B. Grove, whose
term of service extended from the organization of the Clearing-house
in 1856 to his death in April, 1877, a period of twenty-one years. He
was succeeded by Nathaniel G. Snelling, who had been assistant
manager from 1861 to 1877, and who still continues in service as man-
ager, having been officiall}' connected with the Clearing-house for about
thirty-two years. The assistant managers have been Nathaniel G.
Snelling, 1861-77 ; Fred S. Hodges, 1877-79 ; C. W. Esterbrook, 1879-
85; Charles A. Ruggles, 1885-93. Eben vStaniford has served as clerk
from the organization of the Clearing-house in 1856 to the present time
— a period of thirty-seven years, being the longest term of service of
any person ever connected with the association.

The present officers of the association, elected March 31, 1893, are
as follows: President, George Ripley of the National Hide and Leather
Bank ; secretary and manager, Nathaniel G. Snelling; assistant manager,
Charles A. Ruggles ; clerk, Eben vStaniford ; Clearing-house committee :
Phineas Pierce, Moses Williams, Franklin Haven, jr., John Carr, S. N.
Aldrich.

The expenses of the Clearing-house amount to about $18,000 annually,
as compared with about $10,000 in 1877-78, and $13,000 in 1867-68,
when the exchanges were less than two billions, as compared with up-
wards of five billions during the last year. In either case the expenses

896

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

constitute an almost infinitesimal fraction of one per cent, of the tran-
sactions effected.

The regular clearing--house year ends March 31, but the following-
table shows the number and capital of the banks associated, and the
clearings and balances by calender years, which for some purposes is
more convenient :

Calendar
Year.

1856 (9mos.).

1857

1858

1859

1860

1861

1862

1863

1864

1865

1866

1867

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

1873

1874

1875

1876

1877

1878

1879

1880

1881

1882

• 1883

1884

1885

1886

1887

1889 _
1890.
1891.
1892.

o c o

1S93 (5 mos.).

32
34
37
39
42
42
42
41
42
42
42
42
44
44
45
46
46
48
48
51
51
51
51
51
51
51
52
52
52

54
54
54
53
53

Capital at
End of Year.

$30,760,000
31,560,000
33,303,000
35,931,700
38,231,700
88,231,700
38,231,700
38,031,700
38,812,100
41,900,000
41,900,000
41,900,000
42,300,000
47,350,000
47,350,000
48,050.000
48,350,000
49,350,000
50,050,000
51,350,000
51,350,000
51,850,000
50,300,000
49,550,000
49,550,000
50,000,000
50,000,000
50,600,000
50,500,000
50,500,000
50,500,000
50,500,000
51,200,000
51,600,000
51.400,000
52,700,000
52,700,000

Exchanges

1,057,
1,395,
1,175,
1,443,
1,52S,
1.213,
91 '2,
1,120,
2,3(i5,
2,341,
2,262,
l,S()(i,
2,007,
2,124,
2,147,
2,392,
2,622,
2,667,
2,501,
2,502,
2,283,
2,336,
2,215,
2,674,
3,320,
4,233,
3,636,
3,515,
3,243,
3,483,
4,095,
4,387
4,427
4,772
5,139
4,753
5,005

358,154

344 685
832,000
750,000
424.000
91S,0()0
i(9H,000
,S39,000

:is4,(i(iO

,SS<.),0(10
939,930
200,S,S(i
(i.SS,940
213,630
492,884
345,566
319,417
477,740
094,148
594,359
729,198
197,949
655,502
429,602
:',43,106
260,201
373,805
747,083
327,658
134,891
215,231
,754,275
,357,070
,597,843
,878,745
,340,087
,389,685

$101,779,836,690
2,100,965,128

77,576,284
121,160,094
111,198,000
128,594,0(10
133,190,000
119,002,298
134,331,295
202,624,396
253,980,682
279,284,873
262,159,773
229,903,997
244,512,213
235,189,430
244,164,149
285,251,990
300,380,161
302,604,053
303,066,619
326,579,927
319,629,049
317.550,446
312,375,482
365,821,134
424,429,921
522,899,724
461,540,425
433,651,493
431,268,183
456,232,458
496,051,964
504.510,550
520,648,556
547,888,963
552,867,294
521,249,322
566,147,604

12,049,506,802

226,508,300

,5 "3 "K

7.3
8.7
9.5
8.9
8.7
9.8
14.7
11.8
10.7
11.9
11.6
12.3
12.1
11.1
11.4
12.4
11.5
11.3
12.1
13.0
14.0
13.6
14.1
13.7
12.8
12.1
12.6
12.3
13,2
13.1
12.1
11.4
11.7
11.4
10.7
10.9
11.3

11.8

BOSTON CLEARING-HOUSE. 397

When it is stated that the annual exchanges of the Boston Clearing--
house amount to nearly three times the total annual foreign commerce
of the United wStates, and that the total exchanges to date represent
about fifty-five times the annual aggregate of the nation's imports and
exports, some idea may be formed of the important place which this in-
stitution occupies in the commercial world.

SAVINGS BANKS.

The saving's bank system of Massachusetts really commenced in
1816, when the Legislature chartered the Provident Institution for
Saving's in the town of Boston. Since then, vmder the fostering care
of the State government, the idea has grown and spread, so that at the
present time there are in the State one hixndred and eighty-four sav-
ings banks and institutions for savings, with combined assets of $415,-
898,159.44, which if divided among the people of the Commonwealth,
on the basis of the United States census of 1890, would give to each
person a sum exceeding $185. This accumulation is a vast sum and
enters largely into the construction and basis of the financial interests
of the State. It is the result of the good management of these institu-
tions under the guidance and control of the vState government, a con-
trol which has sought to keep the investments as near to absolute
safety as is within its power. Such has been the fidelity shown in
their management that of the hundreds of millions of dollars de-
posited in these banks since 181(3, but one-seventh of one per cent, has
been lost from failure and discontinuance of banks. The increase in
the deposits of all the banks of the Commonwealth in 189-2 over 1891
was $23,493,470.54, the largest for any year in the history of the banks
except 1870 and 1871. The increase in number of deposits was 20G,-
545, and in the amount deposited $9,130,099.07. This result is very
gratifying, for there is no institution that can care for the savings of
the poor man with greater safety, with more intelligence, and so little
expense, and at the same time earn a greater return on the deposit con-
sistent with safety. It is worthy of note, in this connection, that
though the assets of the savings banks are $415,898,159. 14, the expense
of investing and caring for this vast sum is only $930,829.59, or less
than one-quarter of one per cent.

The following account of the Provident Institution for Savings, as
well as the deductions from a valuable experience and close observa-
tion of the savings bank system, both in the United States and abroad,
was written bv Col. Henrv Lee:

SAVINGS BANKS. 309

PROVIDENT INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS.

' ' The first savings bank in this country to do business was the Phila-
delphia vSavings Fund Association, in November, 1810; it started before
it was incorporated.

" On the 13th of December, 1816, the Provident Institution for vSav-
ings was incorjDorated. The forty-eight persons i named in the act of
incorporation included the lieutenant-governor, the United States
marshal, two judges, four lawyers, three clergymen, thirty-two mer-
chants and tradesmen and five mechanics, some of them eminent, all
of them respectable citizens.

"The first officers were William Phillips (lieutenant-governor), presi-
dent; James Prince (United States marshal), treasurer; and James
Savage (lawyer), secretar^^

" There is a tradition that the bank was founded partly at the urgent
request of good Bishop (afterwards Cardinal) Cheverus, ^ that his
people (as he called his flock) might have a place of deposit and so not
spend or lose their little savings, and that a few years later, also at his
request, the partial withholding of earnings and five years' surplus
dividends were adopted to induce these same people to keep, as well as
to put their money into the bank.

"Founded as a charity by thoughtful, conscientious, disinterested
men, it has steadily developed for seventy-seven years from 901 ac-
counts at the end of 1810, with a deposit of $70,000, to 00,000 accounts
at the end of 1802, with a deposit of $35,500,000, and during this period
not the loss of a dollar by dishonesty. The average deposit at present
is $388. The range is from the minimum received, $1, to the maximum

1 The names of these incorporators were as follows: Hon. William Phillips, John Phillips,
Samuel Parkman, James Perkins, Thomas Daws, John Lowell, Russell Sturgis, Jonathan Hunne-
well, Josiah Quincy, John D. Williams, Thomas K. Jones, Richard Sullivan, Redford Webster,
William Little, Samuel Snelling, Jesse Putman. Rev. Thomas Baldwin, D.D., Rev. William E.
Channing, Rev. Charles Lowell, William MacKay, EUsha Tichnor, Jonathan Amory, jr., Samuel
H. Walley, John L. Sullivan, John Bellows, Joseph Coolidge, jr., John Richards, Ozias Goodwin,
John Dorr, vSamuel May, Gedney King, William Ropes, Andrew Ritchie, Edward Tuckerman, jr.,
William Harris, David Greenough, Thomas Motley, Benjamin Smith, David W. Child, Gideon
Snow, Edward Craft, Jacob Hiler, Johnathan Phillips, William Cochran, Nathaniel G. Snelling,
Lewis Tappan and James Savage.

- Bishop John de Cheverus arrived in Boston in October, 1796, at which time there was but one
Catholic priest in the city, and but few adherents of the Catholic faith. A inan of scholarly attain-
ments, of kind and lovable ways, he drew around him men of all shades of religious beliefs, and
exerted a wide influence for good. In 1808 he was appointed Bishop of Boston, and after more than
a quarter of a century of earnest and effective work he was recalled to France in 1823 and made
Bishop of Montauban. He died in 1836, a short time after having been created a cardinal arch-
bishop.

400 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

received, $1,000, and from the minimum drawing interest, $3, to the
maximum, $1,G00.

"The bank, in starting-, paid five per cent, per annum on its deposits;
later the rate was reduced to four per cent., and in addition to this
regular dividend an extra one paid every five years, as mentioned
above, often amounting to an additional four per cen|;., making an
average per annum of from seven to eight per cent, to the depositors
of that date, if their money had lain there the whole five years, and
proportionately to those whose money had lain a fraction of that period.
As these dividends, tmless called for, were added to the principal, the
depositors received coinpound interest. More than half of the de-
positors are either foreigners or children of foreigners, the Irish the
earliest and most numerous, and after them the Germans and repre-
sentatives of all nations. Of late years dividends and interest on funds
have declined, and the rate has been reduced to four per cent. Of the
amount now on deposit in this bank, say $35,590,000, there are invested
in city and town bonds, $7,358,000; bank stock, $1,287,000; railroad
bonds, $3,785,000; loans on mortgages (sixty per cent, loaned on asses-
sors' value), $10,601,000; personal, with legal collateral, or three names
and collateral (not over one year to run), $10,568,000; loans on public
funds, bonds, stocks, $1,004,000; real estate and cash, $987,000.

" The paid officers are the treasurer, assistant treasurer, and four-
teen clerks, and the annual expenses, including taxes, average one-
half per cent, on the deposits. There are twelve vice-presidents and
twenty-four trustees (in all thirty-six trustees) chosen annually by the
corporation. There are about 120 members of the corporation living
out of about 500 members elected from the commencement to the
present time.

" The uninterrupted success of this institution is due to the quality
of men chosen into the corporation, and from that into the board of
trustees, but more especially to the board of investment elected yearly
by the trustees. This board, composed of nine, including the secre-
tary, meet the treasurer once a week, receive and dispose of all appli-
cations for loans, and decide upon investments, and the seventy-seven
years' prudent, skillful management of these vast funds by unpaid
trustees, taken from the busiest, most high priced lawyers, merchants
and manufacturers, is one of the most creditable chapters in Boston's
history. The directors of a manufacturing company, of an insurance
company, of a bank, have a personal interest as stockholders in the

SAJ7XGS BANKS. 401

wise conduct of the business, bi:t the board of investment of a savings
bank are absolutely disinterested in performing their tedious task.

■ " The average service of the members of this responsible body has
been ten 3-ears, of three of them thirty years; men whose services as
trustees, etc., are in demand for all their working hours, but it would
be invidious to single out any one of them for mention save Mr. James
Savage^, who may be considered the founder of this great charity, and
who, as secretar}^ treasurer, and president, and above all as president
of the board of investment, rendered invaluable service for over forty
3^ears. In the face of ridicule and distrust, which deterred many of the
leading men from co-operation, and turned back some of the original
undertakers, the project might have been abandoned had it not been for
his courage and resolution. He made the first deposit of $10 ; he paid the

' James Savage was born in Boston, July 13, 1784, and was a descendant of Major Savage, who, in
1663, undertook to erect a barricade in the harbor for the security of the inhabitants against a fleet
then expected from Holland. This barricade grew in less than forty years to Long Wharf.
Major Savage is buried in King's Chapel burying ground. Major Savage's first wife was Faith,
daughter of Anne Hutchinson. His grandfather, Habijah Savage, was a graduate of Harvard
College in 1695. He held many civil and military positions. His father was Habijah Savage, a
merchant, who married Miss Tudor. In 1795 James Savage received a Franklin medal, and sub-
sequently continued his education at the Derby Academy, in Hingham, and the Washington
Academy, at Machias, Me. He entered Harvard College, and was graduated in 1803. He
received the degree of A.M. in 1S06, delivered the Phi Beta Kappa oration in 1812, and
the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him in 1841. After the completion of his
collegiate course he studied law with Chief Justice Parker, Samuel Dexter and William
Sullivan, and became a member of the Suffolk bar in 1807. After the organization of the
Provident Institution for Savings, in w^hich he was a foremost spirit, he w^as connected with it in
an official capacity, until the infirmities of old age had impaired his faculties. July 4, 1811, he de-
livered the oration before the city authorities. In 1820 he was a delegate to the Constitutional
Convention ; iBz^ and 1825, a member of the Common Council ; 1826, a State senator; 1827-28, an
alderman. He was one of the founders of the Boston Athenaeum, and one of the editors of The
Month'y Antliology, and for many years one of the contributors to The North. American Review, and to
the .Vc7t' England Magazitie. He was for more than sixty years a member, and for fourteen years
the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and honorary membership of many literary
and historical societies at home and abroad was conferred upon him. Winthrop's " History of
New England, with notes," and a " Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England,"
are his literary monuments. He traveled extensively in Europe and the West Indies. During the
War of the Rebellion he proved a generous, high-minded and patriotic citizen ; but the death of
his only son, Col. James Savage (October 22, 1862), who was wounded and taken prisoner at the
battle of Cedar Mountain, proved a severe blow^. One of the last occasions on which he spoke in
public was in 1864, when the death of Jared Sparks was announced to the Massachusetts Histor-
ical Society. He died March 8, 1873. Hon. George S. Hillard has said of him : " Mr Savage's
literary labors were given to the early history of New England, wherein in accuracy and extent of
knowledge he had no rival. And in his own person he was an illustration of the saying, ^ abeunt
stadia in mores, ^ for his character seemed to have been moulded, in a measure, on his studies. He
was eminently a New England product and the flavor of the soil was recognized in all his life and
acts. He took from the Puritan fathers of New England all that made them admirable, and re-
jected all that made them unlovable. He had their religious faith, their inflexible sense of duty,
their heroic spirit, their purity of life ; but he had not their narrowness, their austerity, or their
bigotry."

402

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

first extra dividend for five years out of his own pocket, to be refunded
when it could be without disturbing the investments. His faith, his
g'ood sense, his aggressive honesty, his independence, combined to es-
tablish and maintain the bank upon its proper basis, so that thrcnigh
all these years it has been conducted strictly as a charity to tlie poor
and helpless; security, rather than profits, aimed at.

" I insert here the names of all who have served as members of the
Board of Investment, with period of service :

Years.

Thomas L. Winthrop, lieut. gov., 15

John Dorr, 18

Samuel Snelling, 11

Thomas W. Ward, G

James Prince, 1

James Savage, 37

Benjamin Guild, 14

John C. Gray, 11

Charles C. Parsons, 5

John A. Lowell, 16

Edward Brooks, 11

Samuel Dorr, 4

Peter Wainwright, 35

Thomas B. Wales, 11

Ozias Goodwin, 12

William Parsons, 1

John Lamson, 11

Nathan Rice, 4

George Howe, 16

Peter R. Dalton, 7

Nathaniel H. Emmons, 27

William Perkins, 29

Benjamin Thaxter, 12

George H. Kuhn, 20

" vSome banks having allowed, and even courted deposits of many
thousands, either to swell their assets, or to oblige influential custom-
ers, a law was passed in 187G, limiting deposits to $1,000 each, a limit
self-imposed by the Provident Institution from the beginning.

"The withholding of a portion of the income not only served to
check withdrawals in hope of an extra dividend every five years,
but it also furnished a reserve fund to meet losses. But as most banks
did not adopt this practice, and as those which did were periodically
left destitute, the Legislature recognizing this normal condition, and
the need of a permanent reserve to guard against insolvency in the

Years.

H. H. Hunnewell 6

Edward Wigglesworth, 16

Francis B. Crowninshield, 16

James M. Beebe, .14

Joseph Whitney, 5

J. Huntington Wolcott, 4

William W. Tucker, 7

James S. Amory, 3

William S. Dexter, (still serving) 18

Augustus Lowell, (still serving) 18

George P. Upham, 8

George Higginson, 13

David R. Whitney, 6

Arthur T. Lyman, 2

Israel G. Whitney, (still serving) 14

Charles U. Cotting, (still serving) 14

George A. Gardner, 6

Edward I. Browne, 8

Charles W. Amory, (still seiwing). 10

Channing Clapp, .. 4

Louis Curtis, (still serving) 3

Robert H. Stevenson, (still serving) 2

Henry Whitman, (still serving) 2

SAVINGS BANKS. 403

event of a run i;pon the banks, decreed that from one-eighth per cent, to
one-fonrth per cent, on the deposit should be set aside annually for a
reserve fund. Since 1S7G, when this law was passed and from one-
eighth per cent, to one-fourth per cent, of the earnings per annum added
each year to the reserve, no five years' extra dividends have been de-
clared by the bank.

"Unscrupulous persons have imposed upon the bank by opening
several accounts as trustees and subsequently withdrawing the deposits
without the concurrence of the persons interested. The doubt as to the
existence of these beneficiaries has led to a law requiring the trvistees
to give their names, but it would be safer to insist upon the presence
of both beneficiary and trustee when the money is deposited and when
withdrawn.

"The accolmts are balanced every six months, and are audited and
the assets examined every twelve months for the board of investment
by a sworn and accomplished auditor, who is changed every two years,
and also by the bank examiners and by a committee of the corporation.

"The enormous amount of $393,000,000 deposited in the savings
banks in this State December 31, 1892, might lead one to suspect that
the law limiting the individual deposit had been to some extent evaded.
But the increase in the aggregate deposits, while irregular, ranging
from one-half per cent. 1870-77, to twenty per cent. 1852-53, has been
uninterrupted, averaging from 1834 to 1894 (I assume the rate of prog-
ress from 1892 to 1894, a period of sixty years), fourteen per cent, per
annum.

"The very small addition to the deposits from December, 187G, to
December, 1877, of only one-half per cent., may perhaps be ascribed to
the law enacted in 187G fixing the maximum at $1,000 each, and the
consequent withdrawal of the large sums dropped by persons who
shamefully misused these charitable institutions. The ratio of increase
of deposits from 1864 to 1874 was two hundred and forty-seven per
cent. ; from 1874 to 1884, twenty-one per cent. This reduction is due
to a diversion of savings from the banks to the endowment orders, so
called.

"What limit, if any, shall be fixed upon the total in any one bank
has never yet been determined. The views of the trustees of the Prov-
ident Institution have been expanding since Mr. Savage said ' that if
ever the bank should have $10,000,000 on deposit it would be time to
close the doors,' until now they have over $35,000,000, and stand ready
to receive more.

404 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

"If the banks go on receiving deposits, two questions arise: first,
whether the business of considering and making investments and regu-
lating the policy of the bank will not occupy the whole time of the
board of investment and involve their being compensated; second,
whether the increased assets can be satisfactorily invested without ex-
tending the list of possible investments.

" Up to this time the board adheres to the present circumscription
of investments, and anticipates no diffici:lty in investing what moneys
they receive.

" x\ll legislation should be based uj^on the understanding of the
original intention of the founders of this great charity. As savings
banks have been long established in Great Britain, and as the whole
subject has been very frequently discussed and very thoroughly investi-
gated from 1817 to 1<SU;3, it may be worth while to recount briefly their
experience and their conclusions derived from that experience.

"Security rather than a high Kate of interest is chiefly regarded
by the class for whom savings banks were instituted, and interest
rather than security by those for whom they were not instituted, has
been constantly urged by those entitled to know, and abundantly
proved by the increase of deposits of the former and the withdrawal of
the deposits of the latter class under the gradual reduction of the rate
of interest from foin- and one-half per cent, in 1S17 to three per cent,
in 18G1, when the complete security provided by the post-oihce savings
banks, then established by Mr. Gladstone, but allowing only two and
one-half per cent, interest, rapidly depleted the old savings banks with
their higher dividends but imperfect security.

"In December, 1874, there were 5,008 post-office banks with 3,045,-
000 depositors and ^23,158,000 deposits.

" The experience in England, as well as in France, Germany, Hol-
land and Switzerland, has further demonstrated that the millions de-
posited in savings banks prudently invested will not, year by year,
yield a higher income than the best government securities, and that as
the deposits, and consequently the investment, increases, the difficulty
increases, and that the security of the principal is in inverse ratio to
the interest.

"An investigation into the workings of savings banks in Great
Britain for forty years revealed a loss to the government, who received
the deposits of the savings banks, of $22,000,000 on a payment of
$192,000,000, or about twelve per cent. — about one-third per cent, per

SAVINGS BANKS. 405

annum — a portion of which was incurred by loss of interest on a neces-
sary cash balance, on funds not at once invested, but principally by an
invariable loss on the sales and purchases of consols ; and an analysis
of the records of our savings banks would confirm this experience, for,
as by their fundamental conditions savings banks are bound to receive
and repa}- deposits at the will of the depositors, it is obvious that the
immediate or almost immediate investment of deposits as they are re-
ceived entail the frequent purchase of stock at high prices in prosperous
times, when deposits are pouring in, and that immediate repayments
of deposits on demand must, conversely, involve the frequent sale of
stock at low prices in times of depression, when deposits fall off and
withdrawals are numerous. The expense of conducting the banks —
rent and salaries, etc. — which in England is defrayed by the one-quarter
per cent, difference in rate of interest allowed by the government to
the banks and that allowed by the banks to the depositors, would here
have to be taken from the interest earned, and reduce still further the
amount credited to the depositors.

" This loss incident to the average transactions of savings banks is
especially and wantonly aggravated, not by those who from time to
time deposit their surplus earnings only to be withdrawn in case of
absolute necessity, but by those who abuse this charity by temporarily
depositing lai'ge sums in several banks when interest is low and stocks
high, and withdrawing as soon as the rise of inoney and the decline in
stocks allow of a more profitable investment.

' ' To prevent this abuse of savings banks, imposing extra work and
responsibility upon unpaid benevolent trustees, and entailing certain
loss of assets, no person is allowed to deposit in more than one bank in
Great Britain, under pain of forfeiting his deposit, and to prevent
fraudulent trusts, no person making a deposit as trustee can withdraw
such deposit except in the presence of and with the receipt of the other
party. To lessen the loss consequent upon immediate withdrawals and
immediate conversion of stocks into cash in times of depression, notice ,
is demanded proportionate to the amount to be withdrawn.

"These are wise precautions, tending to limit the privileges of sav-
ings banks to those who need them, and tending to secure to those who
withdraw and to those who leave their deposits, repayment of principal
and interest; but there still remains the fact that savings banks are
peculiarly exposed to losses without compensating gains.

"The tariff of an insurance company — fire, life or marine — is ad-
justed so as to leave a profit on an average of gains and losses, founded

40G SUFFOLK COUNTY.

upon the statistics of many years; the vaUie of their investments is not
affected by fire or death or disasters by sea, and yet the fire companies
with all their accumulated profits could not withstand a conflagration,
nor could the life companies endure a prolong-ed visitation of the
cholera. Much less could any savings bank, without any accumulated
profits, and whose range of investments, necessarily limited, and forced
upon the market when money is tight, declining rapidly with every
sale, cash any considerable portion of its deposits, principal and interest,
and at the same time guarantee principal and interest to the remaining
depositors, unless a considerable reserve fund be accumulated out of
the interest received.

" A surplus or reserve fund is needed to guard against insolvency
from the fluctuations of values and the normal conditions of a savings
banks, without anticipating any prolonged panic which might exhaust
any reserve the banks would deem reasonable, and drive the savings
banks to suspend, as did some of those in Holland a few years ago,
owing to the great decline in government stocks; or to demand an ex-
tension, as in France in 1848.

" We must legislate for the good of the whole, not for individuals,
and a large reserve is essential for the safety of the whole body of.de-
positors.

" The maximtfm deposit upon which interest is allowed abroad ranges
from $200 in the French to $750 in the English banks. Here it has
gradually run up from $500 to $1,000, and while the latter limit seems
unnecessarily large, if a low rate of annual dividends is insisted upon
and fraudulent trusts prevented, the prowlers who prey upon this
charity mav be driven away and this advanced limit only availed of by
persons who deserve the privilege. In New York one rate of interest
is allowed on all sums not exceeding $500, one per cent, less on surplus
over $500 and up to $1,000, and one per cent, less on the excess over
$1,000.

"The defalcations in the savings banks in Great Britain from 1844
to 1857 amounted to $1,330,000, of which the depositors lost about one-
half, the balance was made up by government and the trustees, but the
distrust and recklessness caused by these frequent and wide-spread
frauds was out of all proportion to the pecuniary loss. As the most
eft'ectual safeguard against malversation, it was enacted that not less
than two persons, being trustees, managers, or paid officers employed
for this specific purpose, shall be present on all occasions of public

SAVINGS BANKS. 407

business and be parties to every transaction of deposit and repayment
so as to form a double check on eveiy cash payment, and this pre-
caution, practiced in many of our savings banks, should be enforced in
all of them.

" The responsibility of trustees has been the subject of much discus-
sion and legislation in England, where their function is limited to
superintendence and to the faithful transfer of the ftmds to and from
the Government Commission, and not extended, as here, to their
judicious investment. At one time trustees were made pecuniarily
liable to a limited extent, but at present, as in 1828, they are only
accountable for wilful neglect or default.

"The savings banks in Great Britain are subject to frequent unap-
prized audits and inspections, a process more simple and practicable
there than here, because limited to the accounts and cash, the funds
being, as I have stated, in the cvistody of a government commission,
but all the more important here as including the value of investments,
and perhaps practicable if a board of at least three upright and com-
petent commissioners are selected and adequately compensated for the
service.

"An inspection and comparison of the books of depositors with the
bank ledgers has been urged as the only thorough inode of testing the
accuracy and verity of the entries, but although most desirable it was
found to be impracticable except in very small banks. A uniform
system of bookkeeping is insisted upon in England, and should be
prescribed here, in the interest of the banks, the inspectors and de-
positors."

William Phillips, the first president of the Provident Institution for
Savings, was succeeded by Gardiner Greene. The presidents succeed-
ing the latter in order of service have been as follows : Jonathan Phil-
lips, Peter C. Brooks, William Appleton, James Savage, Francis C.
Lowell, John A. Lowell, James S. Amory, William Perkins and Col.
Henry Lee, the last named having served since 1887. James Prince
continued as treasurer until his death, February 14, 1821. His suc-
cessors, with time of service, have been Elisha Tichnor, four months ;
Gardiner Greene, three years; James Savage, fourteen years and six
months; P. Wainwright, thirty-five years, and C. J. Morrill, the present
treasurer, with nineteen years of service. The secretaries to the board
of investment who followed ^Ir. Savage, the first official in that capa-
city, have been James Bowdoin, Benjamin Guild, Robert C. Winthrop,

408

SUFFOLK COUNTY.

William Parsons, Edward Wig'glesworth, Amos A. Lawrence, Charles
Brown, William T. Andrews, Henry Lee, Francis E. Parker, William
S. Dexter, Edward I. Browne and Henry Parkman, the last named
having- served since 1882.

The following- figures, compiled from the records of the bank, will
show the growth of the Provident Institution for Savings from July,
1817, to the same month of 1893:

Open

Amount

Open

Amount

Accounts.

Due Depositors.

Accounts.

Due Depositors.

1817, July- .

..% 20,038.00

1856, July.

... 28,384 -

...$ 5,454,413.74

1818.

...

106,080.19

1857,

... 29,177 .

... 5,913,399.18

181!>,

187,315.92

1858,

.... 28,239 .

... 5,793,758.50

1820,

304,956.19

1859,

... 30,039 -

... 6,812,819.09

1821,

481,839.57

1860,

.... 31,594 _

... 6,805,848.08

1822,

610,459.48

1861,

.... 30,803 -

... 6,809,061.14

1828,

...

503,540.15

1862,

.... 30,468 .

.- 6,861,466.94

1824,

...

570,675.88

1863,

.... 82,678 .

... 7,605,720.55

1825,

...

(578,854.08

1864,

.... 32,998 .

... 8,076,809.35

182(5,

715,485.67

1865,

.... 31,883 .

... 7,922,731.34

1827,

...

792,817.28

18(56,

.... 81,524 .

... 7,986,417.24

1828,

879,365.07

1867,

.... 32,443 .

... 8,615,562.41

1829,

... 7,032 .

947,594.53

18(58,

.... 31,758 .

... 9,251,278.51

1880,

... 7,744 ..

-. 1,055.489.84

1S(59,

.... 32,406 .

... 10,236,844.91

1831,

... 8,(578 _.

.. 1,227,267.47

1870,

.... 82,996 .

... 11,165,988.21

1832,

... 9,742 ..

.. 1,441,932.92

1871,

.... 83.394 .

... 12,019,434.40

1838,

... 10,790 ..

.- 1,618,492.18

1872,

84 222

... 13,222,257.81

1834,

... 11,495 ._

.. 1,686,202.17

1873,

.... 32,830 .

... 12,887,157.15

1885,

... 12,425 ..

.. 1,860,075.25

1874,

81,863 .

... 12,881,540.41

188(5,

... 18,303 -.

.. 2,036,287.08

1875,

.... 82,948 .

... 13,780,509.16

1887,

... 12,874 .-

.. 2,010,876.81

1876,

.... 88,789 -

... 16,561,819.56

1888,

... 12,960 .-

_- 1,966,307.91

1877,

.... 42,631 .

... 18,619,916.04

188$),

... 13,751 ..

.. 2,101,981.77

1878,

.... 44,808 -

... 18,428,911.44

1840,

... 13,7(50 ..

.- 2,148,823.91

1879.

.... 49,261 -

... 19,682,488.28

1841,

... 14,9(51 ..

.. 2,387,918.61

1880,

56,519 .

... 22,488,946.14

1842,

... 15,025 ..

_. 2,8(50,212.41

1881,

61,051 _

... 28,9(32,55(J.56

1848,

... 15,328 ..

.. 2,887,356.61

1882,

.... 63,480 .

... 24,416,963.87

1844,

... 17,71(5 ..

.. 2,735,598.09

1883,

.... 65,327 .

... 24,880,037.45

1845,

. _. 19,007 _.

.. 8,023,742.08

1884,

.... 67.542 .

... 25,410,954.50

184(5,

... 19,295 ._

. . 8,098,295.70

1885,

.... 69,228 _

... 26,027,344.88

1847,

... 20,245 ..

_. 8,802,510.85

1886,

.... 70,777 .

... 26,548,208.29

1848,

... 21,339 -.

.. 8,886.3(n.30

1887,

.... 72,938 .

... 27,120,8(5(5.35

1849,

... 20,393»._

.. 8,2(59,927.77

1888,

... 74,151 _

... 27,848,444.87

1850,

... 21,347 ..

_. 8,466,747.92

1889,

... 76,580 .

... 28,470,738.94

1851,

... 28,812 ._

__ 8,916,026.50

1890.

.... 80,059 .

... 29,834,768.29

1852,

... 24,552 ._

.. 4,279,619.48

1891,

.... 82,701 .

... 30,895,566.47

1853,

... 27,252 ..

.. 5,032,579.55

1892,

.... 86,952 _

... 32,733,864.53

1854,

... 28,867 ..

.. 5,388,864.78

1898,

.... 89,401 .

... 34,160,482.39

1855,

... 27,441 ..

.. 5,140,673.63

SAVINGS BANKS. 409

INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS IN ROXBURY.

The Institution for vSavings in Roxbury and Its Vicinit}^ was incor-
porated February 22, 1825. The persons named in the act of incorpo-
ration were Nathaniel Dorr, Charles Davis, Jonathan Dorr, Isaac Dorr,
John Lemist, Enoch Bartlett, Eliphalet Potter, John Bartlett, wSamuel
J. Gardner, Joseph Curtis, Ralph Haskins, vSamuel Guild, Samuel
Dog-g-ett, John Prince, David S. Greenough, Ebenezer Crafts, vStedman
Williams, Benjamin Weld, William H. Spooner, Benjamin Billings and
Jonathan Richards. David S. Greenough was chosen the first presi-
dent of the bank and John Bartlett treasurer. The first board of
trustees was composed of A. A. S. Dearborn, Nathaniel Dorr, John
Lemist, Edward Bartlett, Samuel G. Gardner, Ralph Haskins, Benja-
min Billings. Ebenezer Seaver, Joseph Harrington, Samuel Guild,
Samuel Doggett, Ebenezer Crafts, Benjamin Weld, William N.
Spooner, Henry Gardner, Jonathan Richards, David A. vSimmons,
Sherman Leland and Jonathan Richards.

Following will be found the names of all wIkj have served as presi-
dents of this institution from the beginning to the present time with
period of service:

David S. Greenough 1825 to 1820.

John Lowell, 1826 " 1834.

Nathaniel Curtis 1834 " 1838.

John B. Jones 1838 " 1854.

Samuel Guild 1854 " 1862.

Almon D. Hodges 1862 " 1877.

Moses H. Day 1877 " 1880.

Arthur W. Tufts 1880 " 1892.

John D. Williams 1892 to present time.

The treasurers have been as follows:

John Bartlett 1825 to 1829.

P. G. Robbins 1829 " 1833.

Charles Hukling 1833 " 1834.

D. A. Sigourney 1834 " 1843.

William Whiting 1843 " 1867.

Edward Richards 1867 to present time.

The present officers of the bank not already named are Jonathr.n
French, Walter H. Cowing, and Augustus Richardson, vice-prcsi-

410 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

dents; Robert G. Molineaux, assistant treasurer; and Jonathan French,
John T. Ellis, William H. Brockett, Augustus Richardson, Phineas B.
Smith, Alonzo W. Folsom, Louis Arnold, John D. Williams, Samuel
Little, Danforth C. Hodges, W. F. Day, Solomon A. Bolster, Walter
H. Cowing, Atherton T. Brown, and John G. Stetson, trustees.

The condition of this bank, as reported October 31, 1802, was as
follows :

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule % 91,076.48

Loans on public funds 55, TOO. 00

Bank stock as per schedule 210,067.09

Loan on bank stock 3,000.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 1 640, 500. 00

Loan on railroad stocks 50,000.00

Railroad notes 475,000.00

Real estate by foreclosure 2(i7. 26

Loans on real estate 1,790,890.51

Loans on personal security. l,9]0,:5O().0O

Loans to counties, cities or towns (notes) 282,000.00

Deposits in banks, on interest 219,076.62

Cash on hand 37,483 24

Total §5,766,021. 15

UAHILIIIKS.

Deposits $5,528,889.20

Guaranty fund 207,500.00

Interest account 29, 631. 95

Total $5, 760,021 . 1 5

The number of open accounts at date of foregoing report was 14,317.
The amount of deposits for the year ending at that time was $l,o()(),-
829,00, representing 17,029 deposits. During this same period,
$1,109,869,22 was paid out to depositors.

WARREN INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS.

The Warren Institution for vSavings stands twelfth among the 184
savings banks of the wState in years, it having been chartered in 1829. It
is the eighth as regards the total amount of its deposits, and it can also
be said of the Warren Institution for vSavings that it has never closed
its doors to depositors, and never, since it was incorporated, passed a
semi-annual dividend or called in a loan, except for breach of its condi-
tions on the part of the borrower. Its management from the beginning

SAVINGS BANKS. 411

has been conservative, so much so, that at times it has been termed
"old fogy, "but the history of the institution shows the wisdom of this
careful management of its finances, and among the savings banks of the
State none is considered more safe or substantial than the Warren In-
stitution for Savings, of Charlestown. Many of our prominent citizens
have been connected with it since it was chartered, and are to-day, their
counsel so shaping its affairs as to promise a long continuance of the
able management of the past and present.

Warren Institution for vSavings was organized in 1829, and was the
first savings bank established in Charlestown. There are in existence
to-day in the State but eleven savings banks whose charters antedate
that of the Warren, and they are the Provident of Boston, established
ISIO; vSalem vSavings Bank, established 1818; Newburyport Savings
Bank, established 1820; Roxbury Savings Bank, established 1825; New
Bedford Savings Bank, established 1825; Lynn Institution for Savings,
established 1826; Springfield Institution for vSavings, established 1827;
Worcester Counts Institution for Savings, established 1828; Provident
Institution for vSalisbury and Amesbury, established 1828 ; Fall River
Savings Bank, established 1828 ; and Plymouth vSavings Bank, estab-
lished 1828.

The act incorporating the Warren Institution for vSavings was passed
by the House of Representatives February 20, 1829, and received the
signature of Governor Levi Lincoln the following day. In the act
the names of the incorporators are given as follows: David vStetson,
John vSweetser, Loammi Kendall, Elisha L. Phelps, Joseph Hunnewell,
John M. Robertson, Lot Pool, James K. Frothingham, Henry Jacques,
vSimeon Flint, Edward Adams, Joseph Carter, Thomas Pike, Reuben
Hunt, John Gregory, Benjamin Brintnall, and Benjamin Whipple.

April 28, 1829, the first election of officers was held, which resulted
as follows: President, Timothy Walker; vice-presidents, Isaac Warren,
Chester Adams, Abraham R. Thompson, Thomas Kettell, David Dev-
ens, James K. Frothingham; trustees, David Stetson, Reuben Hunt,
David Fosdick, Geo. Bartlett, John vSoley, Oliver Holden, John Harris,
Benjamin Whipple, Thomas J. Goodwin, Henry Jacques, Isaac Mead,
Leonard M. Parker; treasurer, Thomas Marshall; secretary, John J.
Fisk.

In the sixty-three years that have elapsed since the first board of of-
ficers assumed the direction of the affairs of this institution, many
changes have taken place. Of the first board not one is alive to-day,

412 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

neither is there a single survivor of the incorporators, or of any of the
members of the institution admitted prior to 183!). In 1830 there were
admitted to membership James Dana, James Adams, Charles Thomp-
son, William Tufts, Edward Lawrence, Richard Frothingham, Henry
K. Frothingham ; the last named is the only one of these now living.

Timothy Walker, the first president, held office until 1835, and was
succeeded by John Skinner, who held the office until IS-tO. He was
succeeded by Benjamin Thompson, who held the office until 1813.
Chester Adams held the office from 1813 to 1850, and Nathan A. Tufts
from 1850 to 1855. In 1855 James Adams was elected president, and
he held the office a quarter of a century, until his death in 1880. Tim-
othy T. Sawyer, the present incumbent of the office of president, was
elected Mr. Adams's successor in 1880, he having been a member of the
institution since 184(!.

The first treasurer of the institution, Thomas Marshall, held the of-
fice imtil 1813, and was succeeded by Henry Jacc|ues, who was treas-
urer four years — until 1847. vSamuel P. vSkilton next held the office
three years, 1847, '48 and '49, and Henry L. Jacques in 1849. '50 and '5L
He was succeeded by Joseph F. Tufts, who held the office in 1851, '52,
'53 and '54, and next came John Skilton, who held the office eleven
years, from 1854 to 1805. In 1805 (icorge F. Tufts was elected treas-
urer, and he still occupies that position.

The first secretary of the institution, John J. Fisk, held the office ten
years, from 1829 to 1839, and he was succeeded by Thomas Browne, jr.,
who held the office in 1839, '40, '41 and '12. Henry Jacques then held
the office one year, and he was succeeded by James K. Frothingham,
who held the office from 1813 to 1804. Geo. F. Tufts then held the of-
fice one year, 1804 to '05, and then being elected treasurer to succeed
John vSkilton, Geo. wS. Poole was elected secretary, and he now holds the
office, to which he was elected in 1805.

The following table, giving the number of depositors and the total
amoimt of deposits at intervals of five years since the institution was
incorporated, goes to show the gradual increase of the business since
the first year of its existence :

Full Amount
Depositors. of Deposits.

1830 133 % 6,19(5.29

1835 711 83,101.41

1840 999 142,170.62

1845 1,275 188,160.94

1850 1,040 285,780.91

SAVINGS BANKS. 413

Full Amount
Depositors. of Deposits.

1855 3,028 610,948.57

1860 4,261 1,210,412.43

1865 5,749 1,601,525.85

1870 ■ 7,975 2,726,978.27

1875 10,803 3,959,616.76

1880 11,279 4,232,927.15

1885 14,172 5,776,491.49

1890 16,288 6,908,853.52

1892 17, 660 7, 933. 086. 68

The following- statement, .submitted to the board of trii.stees, Octo-
ber 1, 1892, shows the present condition of the institution:

DR.

Mortgages . §3,686.500.00

Bank stocks 204,700.00

Cities and towns 1,109,830.00

U. S. bonds 250,000.00

Railroad bonds 550,000.00

Individual loans with collateral 1,825,450.00

Real estate 50,000.00

Cash 247,773.24

Expense account 8,833.44

Total 87,933.086.68

CR.

Deposits 87,345.942.02

Guaranty fund 379,000.00

Interest account 97,558.04

Profit and loss 109,380.06

Rents 1,206.56

Total 87,933,086.68

The present membership of the Warren Institution for Saving's is
106, and its officers are as follows, the date against each name denot-
ing the year he became a member of the institution : President, Tim-
othy T. Sawyer, 1846 ; vice-presidents, Henry K. Frothingham, 1839 ;
George Hyde, 1846; Henry Lyon, 1846; John Stowell, 1861; Isaac P.
T. Edmands, 1868; Nahum Chapin, 1866; trustees, Thomas R. B. Ed-
mands, 1868; John vS. Whiting, 1871; Charles E. Daniels, 1866; Nel-
son Bartlett, 1875; John Turner, 1880; Charles F. Fairbanks, 1868;
Thomas G. Frothingham, 1870; Everett Torrey, 1868; Charles R.
Lawrence, 1875; William R. Austin, 1886; Nathan F. Tufts, 1875;

414 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Henry H. Chandler, 1870; treasurer, George F. Tufts; secretary,
George S. Poole.

The present board of investment, which has, subject to the approval
of the board of trustees, the entire charge of the finances of the institu-
tion, consists of Timothy T. Sawyer, John vStowell, Nahum Chapin,
Thoinas R. B. Edmands, Nelson Bartlett, John Turner, Charles F.
Fairbanks.

The membership of the institution is not restricted to depositors,
section 2 of article I of the by-laws reading as follows: " Any citizen
of this State may be elected b}" ballot a member of the corporation at
the annual meeting, the name of such person having been proposed in
writing to the secretary by a member of the corporation one month
previous to such meeting; and any person may cease to be a member
by filing a written notice of his intention so to do with the treasurer
three months at least before such meeting. No person shall continue
to be a member after removing from the vState, or becoming an officer
in another such corporation."

The following incident goes to illustrate the benefit of savings banks
and the rapidity with which deposits will increase if allowed to remain
undisturbed. December 15, 1830, there was deposited in the Warren
Institution for Savings by a person the sum of $12. Since that time
it has remained undisturbed, the depositor neither adding to it or with-
drawing any portion of the deposit. The interest has been compounded
semi-annually, and to-day there stands to the credit of this depositor
the handsome sum of $383.70.

Hon. Timothy T. Sawyer, the president of the Warren Institution
for Savings, is a native of Charlestown, where he has always lived since
his birth, January 7, 1817. He was educated in its public schools, after
leaving which he entered the employ of an uncle who carried on the
hardware and ship chandlery business in Boston, and afterwards car-
ried on the business himself for a number of years. In 1842 he em-
barked in the ice business as a member of the firm of Gage, Hittenger
& Company, afterwards Gage, Sawyer & Company. He remained in
this business until 1800, and then withdrew from active mercantile
pursuits. Mr. Sawyer has always taken an active interest in matters
calculated to promote the welfare and prosperity of his native place,
and has been called by his fellow-citizens to fill many places of public
trust. When Charlestown w^as a town he was a member of the Board
of Assessors, of the Committee on Finance, and for several years a mem-

SAVnVGS BANKS. 415

ber of the School Committee. After Charlestown became a city he
served several terms in the Common Council and was elected president
of that body in 1854, but declined the honor. In December, 1854, he
he was elected mayor of the city, and served in 1855, '56 and '57. He
has also represented the city in both branches of the Legislature. He
was chairman of the School Committee' nine years, commencing in 1855.
He was president of the Mystic Water Board for several ^^-ears previous
to annexation, and after the cities of Charlestown and Boston were
joined he held the office until the M^^stic and Cochituate Water Boards
were joined and made the Boston Water Board, when he was appointed
chairman of that board and held the office three years. He was pre-
viously appointed a member of the Boston Fire Commission and held
the office three years, and in 1882 he was again appointed a member of
the Boston Water Board by Mayor Green, and held the office one year.

Mr. vSawyer was largely instrumental in establishing the Charlestown
Public Library, which was opened in January, 1SG2, in the upper story
of the building now occupied by the Warren Institution for Savings.
He was president of the board of trustees of the librar}' from the date
of its organization until 1873, when it passed into the hands of the city
of Boston. Mr. Sawyer retains a lively interest in the library and visits
it frequently. He was the first president of the Charlestown Training-
field School Association, in which organization he still takes much
interest. His connection with the Warren Institution for wSavings dates
from 184G. He has been a member of the board of trustees for thirty-
seven years and of the board of investment thirty-four years, of which
board he is now chairman, by virtue of his office of president, to which
he was chosen in 1880, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James
Adams, who devoted twenty-five years of his life to promoting the
prosperity of the institution.

The late ]vlr. Nathan A. Tufts was a member of the board of trustees
twenty-nine years ; Mr. James Adams forty years ; Mr. Edward Law-
rence forty-two years.

George F. Tufts, the treasurer of the institution, is also a native of
Charlestown. In early life he was for some 3"ears in the employ of
Lane, Lamson & Company of Boston, French goods importers, and
afterwards with Jaines Hunnewell in the Sandwich Island trade. In
1855 Mr. Tufts visited the islands and made a trip round the world
with the son of Captain Charles Brewer (Charles Brewer & Company).
He has occupied his present position of treasurer for twenty-seven
years.

416 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

George 8. Poole, the secretary, is a brother of William F. Poole, the
disting-uished librarian, formerly of the Boston Athenaeum, now the
Newbur}^ Library of Chicago. George vS. Poole came to Charlestown
from Peabody, Mass., in lS(il, and was the first librarian of the Charles-
town Public Library. While holding this position he was appointed
an assistant in the Congressional Libraiy, Washington, and served
there two years until his election to the office he now fills in the bank,
and which he has held for twenty-seven years.

THE SUFFOLK SAVINGS BANK FOR SEAMEN AND OTHERS.

The original title of this bank was The vSaving Banks for Seamen in
Boston, under which it was granted a charter by the Legislature March
7, 18;)o. It was the last bank incorporated prior to the passage of a
general law relating to savings banks, and it is a peculiar fact that the
word "bank " appears for the first time in connection with corporations
of this character in its title, all previous charters having been granted
to savings institutions. The first officers of the bank were: Pliny Cut-
ler, president ; Daniel C. Bacon, vice-president ; Thomas K. Davis,
secretary; wSamuel H. Walley, jr., treasurer; George Hallet, William
W. Stone, George W. Crockett, James Means, Josiah W. Blake, Charles
Scudder, Peleg Churchill, Charles H. Brown, William B. Reynolds,
Benjamin Seaver, William Worthington, Benjamin Rich, Thomas Vose,
William Goddard, Alfred Richardson, Enoch Train, William Sturgis,
Thomas Motley^ Newton Willey, Lot Wheelwright, Nathaniel Dana,
William W. Motley, Phincas Sprague, and Henry K. May, managers.

The original object of this bank was " to afford greater facilities and
inducements for a safe and profitable investment of the earnings of sea-
men and others connected with a sea-faring life," and its first books is-
sued to depositors bore upon the outside a device in which the words
"Sailors' Rights" were prominent, and stated that the office was in
"Commercial street adjoining the Market Bank opposite the east end
of Market House," a location evidently .selected for this class of depos-
itors. ' But it was soon seen that the restriction of receiving deposits
only from such persons, and which was actually a part of its charter,
was to materially limit the scope of its usefulness, and as arly as May,
1833, a committee was appointed to petition the Legislature for such
an amendment as would allow it "to receive money from all persons."
The difficulty was removed, hov^'ever, without special legislation, for in
1834 a general law was passed regulating all the savings banks in the

SAVINGS BANKS. 417

Commonwealth, and for the first time placing them under public super-
vision. It has from that time to the present received a large propor-
tion of the deposits made by sea-faring persons, but with the gradual
decline of shipping the amounts have been materially reduced, until
now these sums form but a small per centage of the total accumula-
lations. The present title of the bank was secured by a legislative act
approved March 1, 1842.

The following includes the names of the principal officers of this bank
from its incorporation to the present time, and gives the date of elec-
tions and period of service of each : President, Pliny Cutler, April 8,
1833, to April 9, 1839; Daniel C. Bacon, April 9, 1839, to April 8, 1844;
Thomas Lamb, April 8, 1844, to April 7, 1885; William Endicott, jr.,
April 8,. 1885, to the present. Vice-presidents: Daniel C. Bacon, April
8, 1833, to April 9, 1839; William H. Boardman, April 9, 1839, to April
10, 1843; Henry Edwards, April 10, 1843, to April 12, 1847; Benjamin
Seaver, April 12, 1847, to April 8, 1856 ; Samuel H. Walley, April 8,
1856, to April 9, 1878; Isaac Thacher, April 9, 1878, to April 10, 1883;
William Endicott, jr., April 10, 1883, to April 7, 1885; Edward W.
Hooper, April 7, 1885, to the present. vSecretaries : Thomas K. Davis,
April 8, 1833, to April 9, 1839; Charles Henry Parker, April 9, 1839, to
April 10, 1866; George N. Macy, April 10, 1866, to April 13, 1875;
Herbert Magoun, April 13, 1875, to the present. Treasurers: Samuel
H. Walley, April 8, 1833, to April 8, 1853; Charles Henry Parker,
April 5, 1853, to the present. Herbert Magoun has served as vice-
treasurer since November 19, 1875.

While the foregoing gives the term of office of each individual in the-
several capacities named, it does not in many cases show the length of
time that such persons were or have been connected with the bank.
Pliny Cutler, its first president, was connected with the bank in an of-
ficial capacity for nineteen years. Thomas Lamb, for forty-one years
its president, served altogether for fifty-one years as an officer. vSam-
uel H. Walley served for forty-four years. Charles Henry Parker, its
present treasurer, has been connected with the bank for fifty-three
3"ears, while among the trustees or managers George Wm. Bond served
for fifty years, and William Perkins for thirty-eight years. Charles G.
Nazro, the oldest trustee in point of service, has served for forty-five
years, while there are many whose terms of office as trustee range from
twenty-five to forty years.

418 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The Suffolk vSavings Bank has been one of the conspicuously success-
ful institutions of its kind in Massachusetts. The total amounts stand-
ing to the credit of its depositors, divided into periods of ten years com-
mencing with the 30th day of October, 1841, are as follows: 1841,
$261,677.39; 1851, $1,108,262.67; 1861, $2,812,942.93; 1871, $6,167,-
723.17; 1881, $15,009,648 25; 1891, 24,835,468.74. These figures indi-
cate a surprisingly rapid growth, which is still more made plain from
the fact that while the growth of all the savings banks throughout the
State, taken collectively during the past fifty-years, has been about
5,500 per cent., that of the Suffolk vSavings Bank has been about 9,500
per cent., an indisputable evidence that it has received its full measure
of public appreciation.

The following report made October 31, 1892, shows the condition of
this bank at that time to have been as follows:

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule §3, 628, 638. 09

Loan on public funds : 10,000.00

Bank stock as per schedule 620,225.00

Loans on bank stock 46,000.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 4,396,852. 96

Railroad notes 475,000. 00

Real estate (for banking purposes) 180,000.00

Real estate by foreclosure >. 26, 689. 13

Loans on real estate 8,747,000.53

Loans on personal security 7,042,475.03

Loans to counties, cities or towns (notes) 566,600.00

Deposits in banks, on interest 1,519,489,88

Deposits in banks, not on interest 5.866.98

Expense account 3, 132. 08

Cash on hand 200,890.05

Total §27,468,859. 73

LIABILrriES.

Deposits §26,517,023.38

Guaranty fund ' 715,230.08

Profit and loss account 209, 163.57

Suspense account 27,442.70

Total $27,468,859. 73

The total number of open accounts at date of foregoing report was
59,703. The deposits for the year ending at that time amounted to
$5,556,253.00, and the sum paid out to depositors during the same
period amounted to $4,843,192.75.

SAIYNGS BANKS. 419

EAST BOSTON SAVINGS BANK,

The East Boston Savings Bank was organized on October 4, 184.S.
The first board of trustees was composed of Samuel W. Hall, Benjamin
Lawson, James Cunningham, Eb.enezer Atkins, Henry Brevoort, George
W. Brown, Phineas M. Crane, Thomas D. Dermond, William C. Ford,
Samuel Hall, Richard Humphrey, Daniel D. Kelly, Donald McKay,
Mark Geogins, Stephen Locke, John Pierce, William R. Lovejoy,
Joseph Robbins, Noah Sturtevant, George Sturtevant, Richard Soule,
jr., William Fittyplace, and O. M. Tufts. James Cunningham was the
first president of the bank. Succeeding him was Ebenezer Atkins, then
Samuel Hall, next Phineas M. Crane, the latter being elected in 1868!
Mr. Crane was followed by the present president, George T. wSampson.
Mr. Sampson has been a trustee of the bank since 1865, and his counsel
and earnest efforts have always been directed toward promoting the
success of the institution. Albert Bowker served as treasurer and sec-
retary from the organization of the bank until April, 1880, when he was
succeeded by the present incumbent, William B. Pigeon. Mr. Pigeon
has been with the bank since 1870, beginning as clerk and earning his
promotion by efficient service. He is a son of Henry Pigeon, the well
known sparmaker, and one of the oldest residents of East Boston. The
board of investment for 1802 is composed of John Thompson (also vice-
president), Nathaniel M. Jewett, William B. Pigeon, Ebenezer M. Mc-
Pherson, George L. Thorndike, Rufus Cushman, and Robert Crosbie.
The trustees for 189"2 are as follows: George T. Sampson, Henry
Pigeon, Frederick Pease, xVlbert Bowker, Henry B. Hill, John Thomp-
son, Nathaniel M. Jewett, Rufus Cushman, William B. Pigeon, Will-
iam H. Grainger, Ebenezer M. McPherson, James Smith, George L.
Thorndike, Robert Crosbie, Emery D. Leighton, Randall J. Elder,
James L. Walsh, Wesley A. Gove, William Waters, jr., Joseph W. Rob-
bins, James Frame, F. A. Woodbury, Peter Morrison, T. B. Grimes,
and G. H. Libby.

The bank has remained at the same location in Maverick Square,
East Boston, ever since its organization.

The following statement shows the condition of the bank on October
12, 1892.

ASSETS,

Public funds as per schedule § 236,000.00

Bank stock as per schedule 266,480.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 134,500.00

Real estate (for banking purposes). 19,953. 74

420 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Real estate by foreclosure 6,515. 53

Loans on real estate 1,365,904.00

Loans on personal security 504,600.00

Deposit in bank, on interest 57,581.28

Expense account 2,484.26

Cash on hand 2,307.09

Total §2, 596, 325. 90

I.IAIIIIJTIES.

Deposits $2,415,246.98

Guaranty fund 105,744.83

Interest account 24,356.37

Profit and loss accotmt 50, 977. 72

Total $2,596,325.90

BOSTON FIVE CENTS SAVlNCrS BANK.

The Boston Five Cents vSaving's Bank was incorporated April 7,
1854, the persons named in the act of incorporation being- Edward Ed-
munds, Rollin H. Neale, B. T. Lorino-, John E. Thayer, George W.
Crockett, Benjamin Bangs, James Lawrence, William Beals, Nathaniel
Thayer, Tolman Willey, George W. Chipman, Charles Hndson, Henry
Andrews, Charles C. Barry, George W. Warren, (jcorge Allen Otis,
William P. Mason, Anson Burlingame and Phineas Stowe. The pres-
ent officers of the bank are as follows: Alonzo H. Evans, president;
William Claflin, Edward Edmunds, Roland Worthington, William O.
Grover, James A. Woolson and vS. R. Payson, vice-presidents; Curtis
C. Nichols, treasurer; J. C. Holmes, assistant treasurer; Edward Ed-
munds, clerk of the corporation. The trustees are: Roland Worthing-
ton, William O. Grover, J. H. Cannell, James A. Woolson, E. C. Fitz,
Rufus S. Frost, Alonzo H. Evans, Samuel R. Payson, William Claflin,
Nathaniel N. Thayer, Henry F. Coe, William A. Tower, Oliver Ames,
S. A. Carlton, William R. Dupee, W. P. Tilton, Leander Beal, Edward
Edmunds, E. S. Converse, C. C. Nichols, A. H. Davenport, George
Hutchinson, Wilmot R. Evans, Albert A. Pope, and D. Webster King.
The president of the bank, Alonzo H. Evans, was treasurer from the
organization of the bank to 1874, when, upon the retirement of Paul
Adams, he became president. He is one of the best known financiers
and bankers of Boston, and is a director of the Winthrop National
Bank.

SAVmOS BANICS. 421

The following- report made to the saving bank commissioners, Oc-
tober ;)1, 1(S92, shows the condition of the bank at that time:

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule $2,888,151.50

Loans on public funds 160,498.2;:?

Bank stock as per schedule 688,400.00

Loans on bank stock 92,200.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 389. 685. 00

Loan on railroad bonds 1,500.00

Loan on railroad stocks 100,000.00

Railroad notes 100,000.00

Real estate (for banking purposes) 195,000.00

Real estate by foreclosure 1,300.00

Loans on real estate 8,863,358.35

Loans on personal security 5,981 , 100.00

Loans to counties, cities and towns (notes) 149,925. 00

Deposits in banks, on interest 1,283,139.33

Expense account .. 729. 78

Cash on hand 23,883.55

Total $20,918,870.74

LIABILITIES.

Deposits $19,520,989.74

Guaranty fund 847,377.30

Interest account 39,875.52

Profit and loss account 470,584. 72

Premium account 35,502.85

Suspense account 1.527.13

Rent accoimt 3, 013.48

Total 820,918,870.74

The number of open accounts at date of foregoing report was 130,-
548. There was deposited during the year preceding the report,

$5,809,882,86.

CHARLESTOWN FIVE CENTS SAVINGS BANK.

The Charlestown Five Cents Savings Bank was incorporated April 7,
1854. The present president of the bank, Amos Stone, took an active
and leading- part in its organization, and was elected one of its trustees
and its first treasurer, holding the latter position until 1887, when he
was elected to his present position, succeeding his brother, P. J. Stone,
who had been president from the incorporation of the bank. Mr. vStone
has been a prominent factor in the political and financial history of

432 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Charlestown. When Charlestown was incorporated as a city in 1847)
he was elected its first city treasurer and collector of taxes, which office
he held for eight years. In the fall of 1855 he was elected treasurer of
the county of Middlesex, and held that office for thirty years, until
January 1, 1S8G, when he declined a re-election. For more than ten
years he, as treasurer, with the assistance of the president, performed
all the labor of the bank without any compensation. The bank
has proved one of the most prosperous and successful in the Com-
monwealth, the result largely of Mr. Stone's efforts in its behalf.
A. M. Andrews is treasurer of the bank and Benjamin F. vStacey clerk
of the corporation. The committee charged with the investment of its
funds is composed of George S. Pendergast, Francis Hall, Emrie B.
Stetson, Augustus W. wStover, and Amos Stone.

The present condition of the bank is shown by the following report
made October 31, 1892:

ASSETS.

Loan on public funds % 8,000.00

Bank stock as per schedule 740,200.00

Loans on bank stock 16,300.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 447,500.00

Loans on railroad bonds 32,000.00

Loan on railroad stocks 79,500.00

Real estate (for banking purposes) 70,000.00

Real estate by foreclosure 40,900.00

Loans on real estate 2,074,775.00

Loans on personal security 1,482,650.00

Deposits in banks, on interest 105,013.42

Cash on hand 3,424.98

Total $5,101,263.40

I.IABIIJTIES.

Deposits §4,779,546.09

Guaranty fund 230, 000. 00

Profit and loss account 91,717.31

Total §5,101,263.40

FRANKLIN SAVINGS BANK.

The Franklin vSavings Bank of the city of Boston was incorporated
March 15, 18G1, with thirty-six directors, of whom but two are now
connected with the bank, one being the present president of the bank,
Frederick W. Lincoln. The first president of this institution was

"'5' "-v^- a rutol'.^

SAlVAraS BANKS. 423

Osym Brewster, who remained at its head for twent3'-six vears. Henry
Whittemore served as treasurer for twenty-five years. Frederick W.
Lincoln, the present president, elected in January, 1889, has served for
seven years as ma3^or of Boston, including the years from 1858 to 1861,
and from 1863 to 1867. He is manager of the Boston Storage Ware-
house Company; a director of the Continental National Bank, and the
Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, while many of the other
officials of the bank are closely connected with the management of
national banks in Boston. Ebenezer Alexander has been treasurer
since July, 1886, and George A. Fisher has been clerk since January,
1887. The board of trustees for 1892 is composed of the following
gentlemen: Alexander Wadsworth, Thomas Gaffield, William H. Bald-
win, James B. Richardson, Thomas J. Whidden, Stephen M. Crosby,
M. P. Kennard, John C. Haynes, John J. Haley, Charles M. Seaver,
S. B. Stebbins, James Longley, Otis Norcross, D. R. Emerson, George
H. Eager, Curtis Guild, Abraham Avery, O. H. Davenport, Joseph
vSawyer, Albert E. Pillsbury, William H. Learnard, Francis H. Has-
tings, James P. Tolman, William B. Rice, George C. Appleton, William
H. Emery, J. E. Whitney, Arthur Hobart, Joseph A. Brown, Jacob A.
Dresser, F. W. Lincoln, jr., George V. Leverett, John Avery, Warren
vS. Dame, Wm. H. Leatherbee, Samuel N. Brown, George H. Phelps,
Charles B. Cumings, James Arthur Jacobs, Charles F. Curtis, Henry
S. Shaw, S. H. Williams, jr.

This bank for seventeen years was located at 52 Boylston street, but
in April, 1893, was removed to the new building erected by the bank
at 6 Park Square. This is a six-story office structure, which, in addi-
tion to the counting room and offices of the bank on the ground floor,
contains thirty-five offices, and is one of the best arranged bank and
office buildings in Boston.

The following report shows the condition of this bank October 31,
1892 :

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule S 658,000.00

Bank stock as per schedule 364, 578. 62

Loans on bank stock 7, 200. 00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 347,000. 00

Loans on railroad stocks 75,000.00

Real estate (for banking purposes) 157,539. 60

Real estate by foreclosure 19,75L55

Loans on real estate 4,180,817.36

Loans on personal security 1,850,475.00

424 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Loans to counties, cities or towns (notes) 70,000.00

Deposits in banks, on interest 442,738,18

Expense account - - 6, 103. 69

Real estate income account 013.84

Suspense account 256.49

Cash on hand 13,380. 86

Total 18, 193,450. 19

LIABILITIES.

Deposits 17,861,089.61

Guaranty fund 220, 000. 00

Interest account 77, 505. 78

Profit and loss account 34,854.80

Total $8,193,450.19

For the year ending at date of foregoing- report there were received
in deposits |1, 855, 345. 53, representing 14,900 deposits; $1,407,610.13
were paid to 11,440 depositors during the same ]:)eriod. The number
of open accounts at date of report was 10,183.

BRIGHTON FIVE CENTS SAVINGS BANK.

The Brighton Five Cents vSavings Bank was incorporated March 2(),
18G1, the incorporators named in the act being Charles Noyes, R. H.
(ircen, H. H. Larnard, David Collins, J. F. Taylor, James vStetson,
vSamucl Bigelow, H. W. Jordan, W. W. Warren, James Dana, William
Warren, George H. Brooks, Jolm Ruggles and Theodore Matchctt.
The officers for 1892 are as follows: N. Warren Sanborn, president;
Benjamin M. Fiske, vice-president ; George E. Brock, clerk and treas-
urer. The trustees are N. Warren vSanborn, Benjamin M. Fiske, vSeth
J. Thomas, W. F. Warreu, G. A. Fuller, J. A. Hathaway, J. S. Dunck-
lee, P. Molcy, S. N. Davenport, F. G. Newhall, G. F. Parker aud
George E. Brock. The condition of the l)ank is shown by the following
report made October 31, 1892:

ASSETS.

Public funds as per .schedule % 28,562.50

Bank stock as per schedule 36,735.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 88, 658. 75

Real estate by foreclosure 7, 373. 46

Loans on real estate 266,038.09

Loans on personal security 15,000.00

Deposits in banks, on intei'est 7,077.89

Expense account 785. 92

SAJYIVGS BANKS. 425

Furniture and fixtures 940.00

Cash on hand 1,509.61

Total §453_ 081. 22

LIABILITIES.

Deposits $433,325.71

Guaranty fund 10,500.00

Interest account 6,582.81

Profit and loss account 1,988.29

Rent account 284,41

Total 1452,681.23

SOUTH BOSTON SAVINGS BANK.

The South Boston Savings Bank was incorporated on March 3, 1863,
and organized July 28, of the same year, with the following officers :
Henry Souther, president; D. M. B. Thaxter, treasurer; Benjamin
Dean, Benjamin F. Bayley, Henry A. Drake, Hiram Emery, Eben
Jackson, Samuel Leeds, Harrison Loring, Zibeon Southard, Samuel S.
R. Spinney, Alpheus M. Stetson, D. McB. Thaxter, M.D., Lewis C.
Whiton, Joseph Whiton, Joseph Winsor, Thomas Leavitt, and Albert
J. Wright, trustees. Henry vSouther served as president from 1863 to
1800; Frederick McKerson, 1869 to 1877; George E. Alden, 1877 to
1881; Thomas Hills, 1884 to present time. The treasurers have been:
D. McB. Thaxter, from 1863 to 1874; George W. Ellis, 1874 to 1884;
and Edward H. Barton, 1884 to present time. Benjamin Dean, who
has served as vice-president since 1870, was at the time of the incorpo-
ration of this bank a member of the city government and of the lower
house of the Legislature, and since that date has been a member of the
State Senate and of Congress. Mr. Drake served for many years on
the School Committee. The Drake School-house was named for him.
Messrs. Emery, Jackson, Leeds, Spinney, and Whiton have served as
aldermen of Boston, and Messrs. Southard and Leavitt as representa-
tives in the Legislature. Mr. Nickerson was one of the early directors
of the Lhiion Pacific Railroad, and has been upon boards of manage-
ment of vSouth Boston banks. Mr. Alden served as president during
the panic era, and by his careful and wise management safely carried
the bank through this rough financial period. Mr. Hills was a member
of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1860, 1861 and 1805,
and was elected an assessor of Boston in April, 18G5, and since 1807 has
been chairman of the board.

426 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

The South Boston Savings Bank is located in the midst of a popula-
tion of wage earners, and has been of great service to the community.
At the annual meeting in Januar}', ISO'i, the deposits amounted to
$2,500,01!), and assets $2,695,490. It had at this time 18,992 open ac-
counts. During the preceding years it had 18,879 deposits, amounting
to $759,141, and payments were made to 11,471 depositors, amounting
to $661,392. vSemi-annual dividends of two per cent, have been reg-
ularly declared for many years past.

The assets of this bank, October 31, 18'.»2, were $2,943,868.12, amount
of deposits $2,756,866.83, total number of accounts 14,842, amount of
deposits for year ending at date named $832,940.22, number of deposits
for same period 20,669. Payments were made during the year to 11,-
952 depositors, representing a sum of $709,557.75.

THE ELIOT FIVE CENTS SAVINGS BANK.

The Eliot Five Cents Savings Bank was incorporated February 4,
1864. It commenced operation imder the following officers : President:
W. S. Leland; vice-presidents, Ira Allen, Henr}^ Bartlett, Rev. John
O. Means, Theodore Otis, Rev. George Putnam, and Joseph vS. Ropes;
.secretary, George H. Monroe; treasurer, Charles R. Washburn; trus-
tees, James E. Adams, Calvin Allen, Thomas Bagnall, Joseph N.
Brewer, Gottlieb F. Burkhardt, John Backup, Nelson Curtis, George
Curtis, Joseph W. Dudley, Henry Guild, Ivory Harmon, Charles Hick-
ling, Alonzo Josselyn, John B. Kettell, Alvah Kittredge, George Lewis,
John F. Newton, William Newsomc, James Ritchie, vShubaeUT. Rogers,
William Seaver, Charles Stearns, Joseph W. Tucker, and Charles Whit-
tier.

William S. Leland was president until his death in ISC.l). He was
succeeded by Henry Bartlett, who died in 1872, and was followed by
William C. Appleton, who continued to hold the position until his resig-
nation, x\pril i;}, 188(5. John Carr, the president of the First National
Bank, was chosen Mr. Appleton 's successor, and has since served in
this capacity. He is also president of the First National Bank of Bos-
ton.

Charles R. Washburn, the first treasurer of this institution, served
until his resignation, July 6, 1868. He was succeeded by George C.
Leach, who held the position until his death on July 30, 1889, after
which the present treasurer, Frank E. Granger, was chosen. Mr.
Granger has been in the service of the bank for twenty-one years.

SAVINGS BANKS. 437

George H. Monroe, the first secretary, resigned April 13, 1800, and
was succeeded by John F. Newton, who has continued to serve in this
capacity up to the present time.

The other officers of the bank, serving at the present time, are:
Vice-presidents, Ivory Harmon, and Charles Whittier; trustees: John
Backiip, Judson Baldwin, L. W. Morse, Gorham Rogers, F. O White,
George S. Curtis, Isaac Y. Chubback, Ivory Harmon, John Carr, wS. B.
Hopkins, Charles Whittier, William O. Curtis, Joseph Houghton, Tim-
othy Smith, William wS. Leland, Francis A. White, Edward G. Morse,
Henry ^I. Harmon, G. C. George, John F. Newton, Frederick Guild,
and Walter R. Means.

The following report, made October 31, 18'.)2, shows the present con-
dition of this bank:

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule § 276,000.00

Loans on public funds 23,000.00

Bank stock as per schedule 57,200.00

Loans, on bank stock 1,500.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 334,500.00

Loans on railroad bonds 27,000.00

Loans on real estate 1,326,511,45

Loans on personal security 930,000.00

Loans to counties, cities or towns (notes) 30,000.00

Deposit in bank, on interest 99,985.64

Deposit in bank, not on interest 5,000.00

Expense account 572. 59

Short on surplus account 183. 79

Cash on hand 7,220.63

Total §3,118,674.10

LIABILITIES.

Deposits 83,009,546.09

Guaranty fund --- 75,596.16

Interest account 1,057.20

Profit and loss account 27, 174. 74

Tax account . 4,000.00

Suspense account 1,299.91

Total 83,118,674.10

The number of open accounts at date of the above report was 9, 042,
the deposits for the year ending at time named were $803,583.43.

428 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

BOSTON PENNY SAVINGS BANK.

The Boston Penny Savings Bank was incorporated April 6, 1864.
The incorporators named in the act were Amos B. Merrill, Edward A.
Raymond, Pliny Nickerson, Alden Speare, Moses Kimball, Albert J.
Wright, R. K. Potter, Zibeon Southard, John P. Robinson, George H.
Davis, Job A. Turner, Joseph F. Paul, Jesse Holbrook, A. A. Ranney,
C. A. Richards, Judah Sears, Hiram Emery, Benjamin Smith, Charles
G. Greene, Francis J. Parker, William Brigham, Stephen Smith, Will-
iam Fox Richardson, George Eaton and Joseph T. Bailey. The officers
of the bank for 1892 are as follows: George W. Pope, president; Pliny
Nickerson. Nathan Crowell, J. A. Paige, John vSweetser, Asa H. Caton,
W. A. Rust, J. Q. A. Brackett, Frederick Allen, Richard Leeds, J. H.
Hathorne, John J. McNutt and Dexter N. Richards, vice-presidents;
Henry R. Reynolds, treasurer and clerk of the corporation. The
trustees are John Goldthwait, Frank B. Thayer, J. A. Pray, T. N.
Hart, J. D. Morton, E. P. Wilbur, Charles L. Damrcll, B. F. Rollins,
H. S. Potter, Henry R. Beal, George Nowell, Francis H. Williams, F.
K. Piper, Silas W. Loomis, A. H. Higgins, James D. McLellan, Charles
H. Crump, Franklin Crosby, M. Everett Ware, J. L. Whiting, Charles
C. Harvey, Joseph H. Goodspeed, George B. Woodward and James L.
Pope.

The condition of the bank is shown b}- the following report made
October ;51, 18!)2:

AS.SETS.

Bank stock as per schedule % 82,580.50

Loans on bank stock 5, 500. 00

Real estate (for banking purposes) 115,000.00

Loans on real estate 800,070.55

Loans on personal securitj^ 471,000.00

Deposit in bank, on interest. 08,080.82

Expense account 4(5;}. 75

Cash on hand 13,349.96

Total $1 ,562,001.58

U.A.BnjTIES.

Deposits $1,508,616.57

Guaranty fund 41,141.56

Interest account 12,243.45

Total $1 .562,001.58

SAVINGS BANKS. 429

UNIOX INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS.

A charter for the Union Institution for Savings was granted to Moses
B. Williams, Patrick Donahoe, John C. Crowley and their associates
February 8, 1805. The bank commenced business on May 1, 1865, at
No. 328 Washington street, and in August, 1870, removed to the stone
structure erected for its use on the corner of Chauncey and Bedford
streets. Later on it removed to corner of Washington street and Hay-
ward Place, remaining in this location until a few months ago, when it
removed to its present location, comer of Tremont and La Grange
streets. This savings institution was largely the outgrowth of the
Catholic element in Boston, being strongly advocated by Right Rev.
John B. Fitzpatrick, Very Rev. J. J. Williams, the present archbishop
of Boston, and Rev. John AIcElroy. At the time of its inception it was
difficult to obtain loans on Catholic church property from the savings
banks of the city, whose depositors were to a large extent Irish
Roinan Catholics. This institution broke down the existing prejudice
against such loans, and at the present time they are eagerly taken and
considered among the safest investments. The Union Savings Bank
has been managed with care and ability, and during the great run on
savings banks which occurred some years ago it proved to be one of the
strongest institutions of its kind in the State. The original vice-presi-
dents of the bank were Patrick Donahoe, Wm. H. Thorndike, Rev.
James Fittore, Daniel vS. Lamdon, Michael Doherty, Joshua D. Ball,
William I. Bowditch, Rev. George F. Harkins, John Conlon and R.
Geo. A. Hamilton; trustees, R. R. S. Andros, J. G. Blake, T. Camp-
bell, Hugh Carey, James Collins, M. H. Gleason, Ambrose Kohler,
Joseph A. Lafrome, Francis McLaughlin, Theo. Metcalf, William
Murray, Hugh O'Brien, William S. Pelletier, John H. Fallon, Samuel
Tuckerman, Thomas J. Lee, Moses B. Williams and Robert H. Waters.
John C. Crowley, the first president of the bank, continued in that
office until 1880, when he was succeeded by Hon. Hugh O'Brien, who
has since served in this capacity. ]\Ir. Hugh O'Brien was mayor of
Boston for four years, and is now chairman of the Board of ^Survey of
the city. George C. Emery at the time of his death in 1880 had been
connected with the bank as treasurer from its organization. He was
succeeded by William S. Pelletier, one of the original organizers of the
bank, who still holds the position. Joseph D. Fallon has been vice-
president since since 18TT. The present trustees are John G. Blake,
Henry Canning, Michael M. Cunniff, John Curtin, James G. Davis, C.

430 SUFFOLK COUNTY.

F. Driscoll, William A. Dunn, Joseph D. Fallon, John E. Fitzj^erald,
M. F. Gavin, C. P. Harkins, Thomas B. Fitz, Edmund Readon, P. H.
Kendricken, John ]\I. Maguire, John J. Mundo, Owen Nawn, Hugh
O'Brien, William S. Pclletier, W. J. Porter, P. F. vSullivan, Joseph
Walker, Michael J. Ward and N. M. Williams.

The condition of this bank for the year closing- October 31, 1892, was
as follows :

ASSK'IS.

Public funds as per schedule % 3ir),()()().00

Bank stock as per schedule 188,549.50

Loans on bank stock 43,000.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 228,800.00

Loan on railroad bonds 50,000.00

Real estate (for banking purposes) _ 175,000.00

Real estate by foreclosure 42,888.48

Loans on real estate 2,101,110.00

Loans on personal security 1 ,292,000.00

Loans on depositors' books 250. 00

Deposits in banks, on interest 190,666.61

Cashon.hand 12,510.29

Total -. §54,629,224.83

I.IAUII.niES.

Deposits $4,330,759.85

Guaranty fund - - 138,600. 00

Interest account 85,799.24

Profit and loss account 78,537.35

Suspense accoi:nt 112.00

Mortgage and interest suspense 416.39

Total $4,629,224.88

The total number of open accounts at the date of the foregoing report
was 10,0(i3. The amount of deposits for the year was $1,060,292.21,
and during the same period $041,342.29 was paid out to depositors.

HOME SAVINGS BANK.

The Home Savings Bank was incorporated March 17, 18G9, and
opened for business February 1, 18T0, with Henry Smith as president
and E. O. Rockwood as treasurer. The present president of the bank,
Charles H. Allen, has filled that position since 1880, and is also presi-
dent of the Central National Bank, a trustee of the Boston Sinking
Fund, and prominent as a financier and executor of important trusts.

SAVINGS BANKS. 431

W. E. Hooper, treasurer, was chosen in 1882. He has been connected
with the bank since August, 1870. The trustees of the bank, repre-
senting some of the most prominent financiers and capitalists of Boston,
are as follows: Charles V. Whitten, Louis Weissbein, Thomas F.
Temple, "William P. Hunt, Joel Goldthwait, Charles W. Bradstreet,
Henry D. Hyde, Alonzo S. Weed, Albert T. Whiting, Charles M.
Clapp, Henry Baldwin, Newton Talbot, Weston Lewis, William H.
Thomes, Charles J. Hayden, David W. Farquhar, George L. Damon,
Freeman M. Josselyn, James H. Freeland, Henry Frost, George K.
Guild, James G. Haynes, A. L. Fessenden, Rufus G. F. Candage,
Henry C. Morse, Ira G. Hersey, Edward P. Mason, Homer Rogers,
Stephen W. Reynolds, Edwin Robinson, George A. Fernald, William
G. Benedict, Charles B. Perkins, Frederick A. Turner, Henry C. Jack-
son, Levi L. Willcutt; investing committee, Charles H. Allen, Newton
Talbot, John W. Leighton, Thomas F. Temple, Albert T. Whiting,
Henry C. Jackson.

In October, 1891, this bank had open accounts with 10,000 depositors,
and the amount standing to their credit was $4,097,248.48, or an aver-
age amount of $224.07 to each depositor, while its guarantee fund and
imdivided earnings amounted to $205,"013.98, with total assets of
$4,376,438.08.

The condition of this bank on October 31, 1892, is shown by the fol-
lowing report :

ASSETS.

Public funds as per schedule $ 147,500.00

Loan on public funds 4,000.00

Bank stock as per schedvile . 398,500.00

Loans on bank stock 26. 100.00

Railroad bonds as per schedule 192,300.00

Loans on railroad bonds 35,000.00

Loans on railroad stocks 106,800.00

Railroad not