The Hancock House and Its Founder

“ Every man's proper mansion-house and home, being the Theater of his hospitality, the seate of selfefruition, the comfortablest part of his own life, the noblest of his sonne’s inheritance, a kind of private princedome, nay, to the possessors thereof, an epitome of the whole world, may well deserve, by these attributes, according to the degree of the master, to be decently and delightfully adorned.”— SIR HENRY WOTTON.

IN the year of grace 1722, Captain John Bonner, Ætatis suœ 60, took it upon himself to publish a plan of “The Town of BOSTON in New - England. Engraven and printed by Fra : Dewing and Sold by Capt. Bonner and Willm. Price, against ye Town House.” From the explanation given on the margin, it appears that the town then contained “ Streets 42, Lanes 36, Alleys 22, Houses near 3000, 1000 Brick rest Timber, near 12,000 people.” The area of the Common shows the Powder-House, the Watch-House, and the Great Elm, venerable even then in its solitary grandeur, — the Rope-Walks line the distant road to Cambridge Ferry, and far to the west of houses and settlements rises the conical peak of Beacon Hill, — a lonely pasture for the cattle of the thrifty and growing settlement.

Fifteen years later, a great improvement began to be visible in this hitherto neglected suburb. The whole southerly slope of the hill had been purchased in 1735 by a citizen of renown, and soon a fair stone mansion began to show its elegant proportions on the most eligible spot near its centre. By this time, as we have it, on the authority of no less reputable a chronicler than Mr. John Oldinixon, “ the Conversation of the Town of Boston is as polite as in most of the Cities and Towns of England ; many of their merchants having traded into Europe, and those that stayed at home having the Advantage of Society with travellers ” (including, of course, Mr. Oldmixon himself). “ So that a gentleman from London would almost think himself at home at Boston,” (this is in Mr. Anthony Trollope’s own vein,) “when he observes the numbers of people, their houses, their furniture, their tables, their dress and conversation, which perhaps is as splendid and showy as that of the most considerable tradesman in London.” Primus inter pares, however, stood the builder of the house on Beacon Hill, and there seems to be little doubt that Mr. Hancock’s doings on his fine estate created a great stir of admiration, and that the new stone house was thought to be a very grand and famous affair in the infant metropolis of New England, in the year 1737.

The precise period which brought Mr. Hancock to undertake the building of the house in Beacon Street was one in which it might not have been altogether uninteresting to have lived. The affairs of the mother country had been carried on for nearly twenty years of comparative peace, under the dexterous guidance of Sir Robert Walpole, — that cleverest, if not most scrupulous, minister of the British crown, — while my Lord Bolingbroke—permitted to return from France, but living under a qualified attainder, and closely watched by the keen-sighted minister— was occupying himself in writing his bitter and uncompromising pamphlets against the government of the House of Hanover. The minister s son Horace, an elegant, indolent youth, fresh from Cambridge, was travelling on the Continent in company with a shy and sensitive man of letters, not much known at the time, — by the name of Gray. This gentleman gained no small credit, however, some ten or twelve years afterwards, by the publication of " An Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,” — a piece which, notwithstanding the remote date of its appearance, it is possible that some of our readers may have chanced to come across in the course of their literary researches. Giddiness, loss of memory, and other alarming symptoms of mental disorder had begun to attack the great intellect of Dr. Swift, and forced him to lay aside the pen which for nearly half a century had been alternately the scourge and the support of the perplexed cabinets of the time. His friend Mr. Pope, however, was living quite snug and comfortable, on the profits of his translations, at his pretty villa at Twickenham, and adding to his fame and means by the publication of his “ Correspondence ” and his “ Universal Prayer.” The learned Rector of Broughton, Dr. Warburton, encouraged by the advice of friends, had just brought out his first volume of “ The Divine Legation of Moses ”; the Bishop of Bristol had carried his great “ Analogy of Religion ” through the press the year before; Dr. Watts was getting old and infirm, but still engaged in his thirty years’ visit to his friend Sir Thomas Abney, Knight and Alderman, of Abney Park, Stoke Newington. That remarkable young Scotchman, David Hume, was paying his respects to the sensational philosophy of Locke in a series of essays which “ spread consternation through every region of existing speculation ”; Adam Smith was a promising pupil under Hutcheson, — the father of Scotch metaphysics, — at the University of Glasgow. General Fielding’s son Henry—but just married—was spending his charming young wife’s portion of fifteen hundred pounds in the careless hospitality of his Derbyshire house-keeping, — three years’ experience of which, however, reduced him to the necessity of undertaking his first novel for the booksellers, in the story of “ Joseph Andrews.” Captain Cook, at the age of thirteen, was a restless apprentice to a haberdasher near Whitby. And although “ the age of steam ” had certainly not then arrived, it must yet be allowed — in the words ot the Highland vagrant to Cameron of Lochiel, not long after —that already

since we find that there lay in his nursery, in the family of Town Councillor Watt, the Bailie of Greenock, in the spring of the year 1736, a quiet, delicate, little Scotch baby, complacently sucking the tiny fist destined in after years to grasp and imprison that fearful vapory demon whose struggle for escape from his life-long captivity now furnishes the motive-power for the most mighty undertakings of man throughout the civilized world. It would surely have been something, we think,—the opportunity to have seen all these, from Bolingbroke in his library to James Watt in his cradle.

Turning to affairs somewhat nearer home, perhaps a slight glance at “ ye conversation and way of living ” of the good people of Boston, during the years that Mr. Hancock was carrying on his building and getting himself gradually settled in its comforts, may help us to conceive a better idea of the form and pressure of the age. Well,—Mr. Peter Faneuil was just then laboring to persuade the town that it might not be the worst thing they could do to accept the gift of a handsome new Town-Hall which he was very desirous to build for them,—an opinion so furiously combated and opposed by the conservatives and practical men of that day, that Mr. Faneuil succeeded in carrying his revolutionary measure, at last, in the open town-meeting, by a majority of only seven votes (a much larger majority, however, it is but fair to observe, than that which adopted a decent City-Hall for the same municipality only last year). Whitefield was preaching on the Common, in front of Mr. Hancock’s premises, to audiences of twenty thousand people, “as some compute,” “poor deluded souls,” says the unemotional Dr. Douglass, writing at the period, “ whose time is their only Estate ; called off to these exhortations, to the private detriment of their families, and great Damage to the Public : thus perhaps every such exhortation of his was about £1000 damage to BostonGovernor Belcher, who came home from England with the same instructions as Governor which he was sent out to oppose as envoy, had been superseded in his high office by “ William Shirley, Esquire,—esteemed for his gentlemanly deportment.” Watehmen were required “ in a moderate tone to cry the time o’ night, and give an Account of the Weather as they walk’t their rounds after twelve o’clock.” The men that had been raised in town for the ill-starred expedition to Carthagena were being drilled on the Common, — and Hancock, writing to a friend, tells him, “ We have the pleasure of Seeing ’em Disciplin'd every Day from 5 in morning to 8, & from 5 afternoon ’till night, before our house, — many Gentlen & others Daily fill ye Common, — & wee have not ye Less Company for it, but a quicker draft for Wine & Cider.” Annually, on the Fifth of November, Guy Fawkes, the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender were burned on the Common, amidst much noise and rioting, often degenerating into the tapping of claret and solid cracking of crowns between the North End and South End champions, — who made this always their field-day, par excellence, — to the great worriment of the Town Constables, and the infinite wrath and disgust of the Select Men. And, finally, we remark, “ the goodness of the pavement in Boston might compare with most in London, for to gallop a Horse on it is three Shillings and fourpence Forfrit ! ”

Such were the curious and simple, but, withal, rather cozy and jolly old years in which the Hancock House was planned and built and first occupied. Always a really fine residence, it is now the sole relic of the family mansions of the old Town of Boston, as in many respects it has long been the most noted and interesting of them all. One hundred and twenty-seven years have passed away since its erection, and old Captain Bonner’s map now requires a pretty close study to enable our modern eyes to recognize any clue to its present locality. It stands, in fact, a solitary monumental pillar in the stream of time, — a link to connect the present with the eventful past; and the prospect of its expected removal — though not, we trust, of its demolition — may render the present a fitting opportunity to call up some few of the quaint old reminiscences with which it is connected.

We have now before us, as we write, the original Contract or Indenture for the freestone work of the venerable structure. It is a document certainly not without a curious interest to those of us who have passed and repassed so often in our daily walks the gray old relic of New England’s antiquity, to the very inception of which this faded paper reverts. It is an agreement made between Mr. Thomas Hancock and one “Thomas Johnson of Middleton in the County of Hartford and Colony of Connecticut In New-England, Stone-Cutter.” By this instrument the Connecticut brown-stone man of that day binds himself to “ Supply and Furnish the said Thomas Hancock with as much Connecticut Stone as Shall be Sufficient to Beatify and build Four Corners, One Large Front Door, Nine Front Windows and a Facie for the Front and back Part Over the Lower Story Windows of a certain Stone House which the Said Thomas Hancock is about to Erect on a Certain Piece of Land Situate near Beacon Hill in Boston aforesaid ; as also So much of said Connecticut Stone as shall be Sufficient to make a water Table round the Said House, which Said Stone the Said Johnson Covenants and Agrees shall, be well Cut, fitted and polished, workmanlike and According to the Rules of Art every way Agreeable, & to the Liking and Satisfaction of Mr. Hancock.” The stone is to be delivered to Mr. Hancock’s order at Boston, all “In Good Order and Condition, not Touched with the Salt Water, and at the proper Cost, Charge and Risque of the sd Johnson.” The consideration paid to Johnson is fixed at “the Sum of three hundred Pounds in Goods as the Said Stone Cutter’s work is Carryed on.” The latter stipulation as to the payment would be curious enough at the present day, though it appears to have been not uncommon at the time this contract was executed. The perusal of Mr. Thomas Hancock’s letter-book, however, now also lying before us, will not leave one in any need of this additional proof of the old Boston merchant’s keen eye always to a business profit.

The Indenture is written in a clear, round, mercantile hand, — evidently Mr. Hancock’s own, but his best, by comparison with the letter-book, — the leading words of the principal paragraphs being garnished with masterly flourishes, and the top of the paper “ indented ” by cutting with a knife so as to fit or “ tally,” after the fashion of those days, with the corresponding copy delivered to Johnson. It has been indorsed and filed away with evident care, and is consequently now in a state of absolute and perfect preservation. With the exception, however, of that little matter of the store-pay, and of the wording of the date of its execution, which is given as the “ Tenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.,” the document differs but little in its phraseology — so conservative is the letter of the law of real estate — from those in use for precisely such contracts in the year 1863.

“ Thomas Hancock, of Boston in the County of Suffolk and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Merchant,” as he is named and described in the paper before us, was the founder of the fortunes of the family, and a man of the most considerable note and importance in his day. He was the son of the Reverend Mr. John Hancock, of Lexington, in which town he was born on the 13th of July, 1703. He was sent to Boston early in life to learn the business of a stationer, — with which calling those of bookseller and bookbinder were then combined, — and served his time accordingly with the leading provincial bibliopole of the day, “ the enterprising Bookseller Henchman,” who died in 1761. Quick, active, thrifty, young Hancock soon made his way in the world, — his famous bookstore in Ann Street was known as the "Stationers’ Arms” as early as 1729 ; the industrious apprentice in due course married his master’s fair daughter Lydia ; and so our Thomas Hancock went on his way to credit and fortune, and last and best of all to housebuilding after his own mind, “ the comfortablest part of his own life,” with strides quite as easy and certain as did his contemporary, the Worshipful Francis Goodchild, Esq., of London, — whose career was, at that very time, so impressing itself upon tiro notice of that eminent hand, Mr. William Hogarth, of Leicester Fields in the Parish of St. Martin’s, as to lead him to depict its events in the remarkable series of prints, “ Industry and Idleness,” in which they are now handed down for the admiration of posterity. And what the great painter tells us of his hero is equally true of ours, — that, “ by taking good courses, and pursuing those points for which he was put apprentice, he became a valuable man, and an ornament to his country.”

The pursuits connected with bookmaking were not, however, without their trials and troubles, even at. that early day. From some of Hancock’s letters for the year 1736, we find that one Cox was a sad thorn in his side, a grievous lion in his daily path. His chief correspondent among the booksellers in London at this period was Mr. Thomas Longman, — the founder of the renowned house of Longmans of our own time, — and to him Hancock often pours out his trials and grievances in the quaint and pointed style of the business letters of “ The Spectator’s ” own day. Under date of April 10, 1736, for instance, he writes,—“ I cannot Think of Doing much more in the Book way at present, unless Cox Recalls his Agent, which I am Certain He never will if you give up this point,” (i. e. of making larger consignments to Hancock on his own account,) “ as I can Improve my Money In other Goods from Great Brittan to so much better Advantage.” Yet, he continues, “ I am unwilling Quite to Quit The Book branch of Trade, and you Can’t but be Senceable that it was my Regard to you has Occasioned it’s being forced from me in this way.”

About the month of May, 1738, Cox appears to have become wellnigh intolerable. On the 24th of that month our bookseller writes to Longman,—“ Cox has Sent some more Books here this Spring, & I Cannot Learn that he’s Called his man home Yet. I am a Great Sufferer by him, as well as you, having above £250 Sterling in Books by me, before what Came from you now.” Sometimes, however, Cox makes a slight mistake, and then our bookseller again takes heart of courage. Thus, under date of October 29, 1739, he again writes to Longman,— “ Cox’s man Came in Hall’s ship about a month Agoe, brought Eight Trunks and a Box or two of Books, has opened his Shop, but makes no Great Figure & is but little taken Notice off, which is a Good Symtom of a bad Sortment, — his Return here was Surprising to me; truly I did not Expect it. At present I don’t know how to Govern myself as to the Book Trade, but am willing to do the Needful to Discountenance him, and will write, you again in little Time.” But, alas! by the 10th of December following, Cox had rallied bravely, and, accordingly, Hancock again writes in despair, — “ I know not how to Conduct my Affairs as to the Book Trade. Cox’s Shop is opened, & he has a pretty Good Collection of Books. He brought with him 8 Trunks, & 4 Came in ye next Ship. His Coming is A Great Damage to me, having many Books by me unsold for Years past, & most all which I had of you this Year. I am Ready Sometimes to Give up that part of my Business, & I think I should have done it ere now, were I not in hopes of Serving you in that Branch of Trade. Could you propose any Scheem to discountenance our Common Enemy I will Gladly Joyn you. I fear he will have more Goods in the Next Ship. I have Nothing to Add at. this time only that I am with Great Esteem Your Assurd Frd &c. T. H.”

We may remark, that, if Longman were not by this time brought to be fully Senceable of the sacrifices which had been made here for his interest, it was assuredly through no fault of his Boston customer. In a letter dated April 30, 1736, Hancock had felt emboldened to inform him, —

“I have Occasion for Tillotson’s Works, Rapine’s History of England, Chamber’s Dictionary & Burkitt on N. Testament for my own use, and as the Burthen of ye two Last years Sale of Books & Returns for them has mostly Laine on my Self, & as I have rec’d no Commitions, Some Debts yet outstanding, and many books by me now on Sold, which shall be glad to Sell for what I allowed you & now have paid for,—I say if you 'l please make a Present to me of ye above named, or any part of ’em They will be very Acceptable to me. My Last to you was of ye 10th & 14th Instent, which hope you have Rec’d ere This & I am “Your obliged Humb, Serv,

“ T. H.”

Once only, in the whole correspondence, are we able to find that this interloping caitiff of Cox’s was fairly circumvented. With what an inward glow of satisfaction must our Boston bookseller have found himself sufficiently master of the situation to be able to write to Longman (under date of May 10th, 1739),—

“ Pr. this Conveyance Messrs. Joseph Paine & Son of London have Orders from this place to buy £50. Sterling worth of Books ; I have Engaged Mr. Cushing, who writes to Paine to Order him to buy them of you, & that you would Use them well, which I Desire you to Doe; it will be ready money & I was Loth you should miss of it, (this is the Case,— Cox's man had Engaged to Send for them & let the Gentleman have ’em at the Sterling Cost,) but the Gentleman being my friend, I interposed, & So Strongly Sollicited on your behalf that I fix’t it right at last & you may Certainly depend on the Comition, tho' it may be needful you See Mr. Paine as Soon as this Comes to hand. Pray procure me such a Bible as you think may suit me & Send when Oppertunity oilers.

“I am Sr. &c. &c. T. H.”

Longman’s next trunk brings a copy of Chambers’s Dictionary, then just published, as a present to Mr. Hancock, and we might almost fancy it an acknowledgment of this letter about the Comition in more ways than one. We ought in justice to observe, however, that in those days, in the absence of any generally recognized and accepted standard of authority, gentlemen of the best condition in life appear to have felt at liberty to spell pretty much as they pleased, in New England. So far, at least, as Mr. Hancock’s credit for orthography is concerned, it must be allowed, from his repeatedly spelling the same word in two or three different ways on the same page, that he probably gave the matter very little thought at any time,—taking as small pains as did Mr. Pepys, and really caring as little as Sir Thomas Browne for “ the βapaxoμvoμaxía and hot skirmish betwixt S and T in Lucian, or how grammarians hack and slash for the genitive case of Jupiter.”¹ That such spelling would hardly be admissible on India Wharf to-day, we freely admit, — nay, would even rush, were it necessary, to maintain, — but we must still claim for our favorite, that a century and a quarter agone he seems to have spelt about as well, on the whole, as the generality of his neighbors.

There is one most extraordinary escapade of his, however, in this line of performance, which we do not know how we can undertake wholly to defend. To Mr. John Rowe, a little doubtful about New - England Bills of Exchange, he writes, — “ As to the £100 Draft of Mr. Faneuil’s above mentioned, I doubt not but any merchant in London will take that Gentleman’s Bill, when accepted, as Soon as a Bank Note,— he being the Topinest merchant in this Country, & I Gave 20 per Cent Extray for it.” If there be really a proper superlative of the adjective topping, our letter-writer, it must be confessed, has made a wide miss here of the mark he aimed at. “ Priscian’s a little scratch’d here,”— rather too much, indeed, even for 1739.

That the reader may not suspect Mr. Hancock of monopolizing all the oncography of his time, we give verbatim the following letter from Christopher Kilby,² a letter among many of the same sort found with Mr. Hancock’s papers.

“ London, 15 February 1727.

“ HONEST Fr’D. This not only advises you of my arrival but acknowledges the rec’t of your favour. By your desire I waited upon Mr. Cox, & have told him and every body else, where it was necessary, as much as you desired, & account it part of my Felicity that I have so worthy a friend as Mr. Hancock. When you arrive here you’l find things vastly beyond your imagination, — I shall give you no other Character of England than this, that it is beyond expression, greater and finer than any thing I could ever form an Idea of. I wish you may arrive before I leave it, that you may with me, gaze and Wonder at a place that wee can neither of us give a good Discrrpsion of. Pray present my Services to Mr. Wood, Mr. Cunnington, and if Mr. Leverett be not so engaged at the Annual meeting in Choosing Hogg Constables &c. that to mention it to him might be an interruption in so important affairs, my Service to him also,—but rather than he shou’d loose any part of his Pleasure while you take up his Time in doing it, I begg you 'l wait till a more leisure opportunity, when you may assure him that I am at his Service in anything but being Bread Weigher, Hogg Constable or any of those honourable posts of pleasure & profit. I have nothing more to add but Service to all friends, & assurance of my being

“ Your sincere friend & very “ humble Servant,

“ CHRISR. KILBY.”

There is a letter in another book — Mr. Hancock’s letter-book from 1740 to 1744 — in which poetical justice to the arch - disturber of his peace is feelingly recorded. Cox ³ comes to grief at last, — surely, though late. Observe with what placid resignation Hancock regards his rival’s mishap. The letter is to Longman, and bears date April 21st, 1742.

“-Thomas Cox has sent Orders to

a Gentle" here to Receive from his man all his Effects,— the Shop is Accordingly Shutt up, & I am told his man is absconded & has Carried of all the money, I hear to the value of £500 Sterling; of Consequence a very bad Accott must be rendered to his Master & no doubt ’t will put a final Stop to his unjust proceedings & Trade to New-Engd. I pray God it may have this tony wished for Effect, the Good fruits of which, I hope you & we shall soon partake of.”

The correspondence with Longman is kept up with great activity through the whole of the first third of the volume before us. Gradually, however, Hancock had been growing into a larger way of business, and his Bills of Exchange for £500 and £600, drawn generally by Mr. Peter Faneuil,⁴ begin to be of more frequent occurrence,—bills which he writes his London correspondents “ are Certainly very Good, & will meet with Due Honour.” We read here and there of ventures to Medara and to Surranam, and of certain consignments of “ Geese and Hogges to ye New Found Land.” “Be so Good,” he says, in a letter of May 17th, 1740, to a friend then staying in London, “as to Interist me in ye half of 8 or 10 Ticketts when any Lottery’s going on, you think may doe, and am oblidged to you for mentioning your Kind intention herein. Please God ye Young Eagle, Philip Dumerisque Comr comes well home, and I believe I shall make no bad voyage.” It is easy to see that the snug little business of the " Stationers’ Arms” is soon to be given up, for what Drake⁵ describes as “the more extensive field of mercantile enterprise.” ⁶ By this time, too, the signs of the French War began to loom alarmingly upon the horizon of the little colony, and Hancock rose with the occasion to the character of a man of large and grave affairs. Cox’s man, and his Trunks and Sortments of Books, appear, after this, to have but little of his attention. There was need of raising troops, and of fitting out vessels; and when the famous expedition against Louisburg was determined on, Hancock had a large share in the matter of providing its munitions and equipment. His correspondence with Sir William Pepperell in these great affairs still lies preserved in good order in boxes in the attic of the old mansion.

⁷ The following letter from Mr. Faneuil's own hand, found among Mr. Hancock’s papers, is sufficiently curious to warrant its insertion here: —

“Boston, February 3d. 1738.

“ CAPT. PETER BUCKLEY,

“ Sr,—Herewith you have Invoice of Six hhs. fish, & 8 Barrells of Alewifes, amounting to .£75. 9. 2 — which when you arrive at Antiguas be pleased to Sell for my best advantage, & with the net produce of the Same purchase for me, for the use of my house, as likely a Strait limbed Negro lad as possible you can, about the Age of from 12 to fiveteen years, & if to be done, one that has had the Small pox, who being for my Own service, I must request the favr. you would let him be one of as tractable a disposition as you can find, wch. I leave to your prudent care & management, desireing after you have purchased him you would send him to me by the first good Opportunity, recommending him to a Particular care from the Captain by whom you send him. Your care in this will be an Obligation, — I wish you a good Voyage, & am

“ Sr. your humble Servant

“PETER FANEUIL.

Meanwhile, as he rose in the world, he had been laying out his grounds, and building and furnishing his house; his first letter from which is addressed to his “ Dear Friend,” Christopher Kilby, then in London, and is dated, rather grandly, “ At my house in Beacon Street, Boston ye 22d Mar. 1739-40.” Let us look back, then, a little over the yellow, timestained record of the letter-book before us, and see what were the experiences of a gentleman, in building and planting in Beacon Street, so long before our grandfathers were born.

Under date of the 5th of July, 1736, Hancock writes to his friend and constant correspondent in London, “ Mr. Francis Wilks Esqr,”⁸ inclosing a letter to one James Glin at Stepney, with orders for some trees, concerning which he tells Wilks, “ I am advised to have ’em bought,—but if you Can find any man Will Serve us Better I Leave it to your Pleasure.” He must have thought it a great pity, from the sequel of this affair, that Mr. Wilks’s Pleasure did not happen to lie in another direction. “ I am Recommended by Mr. Thos. Hubbard of This Town,” runs the letter inclosed to Glin, “to you for A number of Fruit Trees, — be pleased to waite on Mr. Wilks for the Inv° of them & Let me have ye best Fruit, & pack’t in ye best manner, & All numbered, with an Acoo1 of ye Same. I pray you be very Carefull That ye Trees be Took up in ye Right, Season, and if these Answer my Expectations I shall want more, & 't will Ly in my way to Recommend Some Friends to you. I Intreat the Fruit may be the best of their Kind, the Trees handsome Stock, well Pack’t, All No'd & Tally’d, & particular Inv° of ’em. I am Sr. &c. &c. T. H.”

This careful order was evidently duly executed by the nurseryman, and at first all appears to have gone smoothly enough, since, on the 20th of December following, (1736,) we find another letter to Glin, as follows: —

“SIR,—My Trees and Seeds pr. Cape Bennett Came Safe to hand and I Like them very well. I Return you my hearty Thanks for the Plumb Tree & Tulip Roots you were pleased to make a Present off, which are very Acceptable to me. I have Sent my friend Mr. Wilks a mem° to procure for me 2 or 3 Doz. Yew Trees Some Hollys & Jessamin Vines & if you have any Particular Curious Things not of a high price will Beautifie a flower Garden, Send a Sample with the price or a Catalogue of ’em; pray Send me a Catalogue also of what Fruit you have that are Dwarf Trees and Espaliers. I shall want Some next Fall for a Garden I am Going to lay out next Spring. My Gardens all Lye on the South Side of a hill, with the most Beautifull Assent to the Top & it’s Allowed on all hands the Kingdom of England don’t afford So Fine a Prospect as I have both of Land and water. Neither do I intend to Spare any Cost or Pains in making my Gardens Beautifull or Profitable. If you have any Knowlidge of Sr John James he has been on the Spott. & is perfectly acquainted with its Situation & I believe has as high an Opinion of it as myself & will give it as Great a Carrictor. Let me know also what you ’I Take for 100 Small Yew Trees in the Rough, which I 'd Frame up here to my own Fancy. If I can Do you any Service here I shall be Glad & be Assured I ’ll not forgett your Favour, — which being ye needful Concludes,

“ Sr. “ Your most Obedt. Servant, “ THOs. HANCOCK.”

But neither Esquire Hancock nor Mr. Glin at Stepney could control the force of Nature, or persuade the delicate fruittrees of Old England to blossom and flourish here, even on the south side of Beacon Hill. The maxim, “L’homme propose, et le bon Dieu dispose,” was found to be as inevitable in 1736 as it is in our later day and generation. It is true that no ancestral Downing was then at hand, with wise counsels of arboriculture, nor had any accidental progenitor of Sir Henry Stuart of Allanton as yet taught the Edinboro’ public of the Pretender’s time the grand secrets of transplanting and induration. Esquire Hancock, therefore, was left to work out by himself his own wotul, but natural disappointment. On the 24th of June, 1737, he writes to the unfortunate nurseryman in a strain of severe, and, as he doubtless thought, of most righteous indignation.

“ SIR, — I Reed. your Letter & your Baskctt of flowers per. Capt. Morris, & have Desired Francis Wilks Esqr to pay you £26 for them Though they are Every one Dead. The Trees I Recd Last Year are above half Dead too, — the Hollys all Dead but one, & worse than all is, the Garden Seeds and Flower Seeds which you Sold Mr. Wilks for me Charged at £6. 8s. 2d. Sterling were not worth one farthing. Not one of all the Seeds Came up Except the Asparrow Grass, So that my Garden is. Lost to me for this Year. I Tryed the Seeds both in Town and Country & all proved alike bad. I Spared Mr. Hubbard part of them and they All Serv'd him the Same.” (Rather an unlucky blow this for poor Glin, as Mr. Hubbard had been his first sponsor and perhaps his only friend in New England.) “I think Sir, you have not done well by me in this thing, for me to send a 1000 Leagues and Lay out my money & be so used & Disapointed is very hard to Bare, & so I doubt not but you will Consider the matter & Send me over Some more of the Same Sort of Seeds that are Good & Charge me nothing for them, — if you don’t I shall think you have imposed upon me very much, & ’t will Discourage me from ever Sending again for Trees or Seeds from you. I Conclude,

“ Your Humble Servt.

“ T. H.

“ P. S. The Tulip Roots you were pleased to make a present off to me are all Dead as well.”

The last, paragraph is truly delicious, — a real Parthian arrow, of the keenest, most penetrating kind. The ill-used gentleman is determined that poor Glin shall find no crumb of credit left, — not in the matter of the purchased wares alone, but even for the very presents that he had had the effrontery to send him.

After learning the opinion entertained by Mr. Hancock of his estate, its situation, prospect, and capacities, and understanding his intentions in regard to its improvement, as expressed in his first letter to Glin, —it may naturally be expected that we shall come upon some further allusions to the works he had thus taken in hand, in the antiquated volume before us. In tins respect, as we turn over its remaining pages, we shall find that we are not to be disappointed. His letters on the subject, addressed to persons on the other side of the water, and particularly to the trusty Wilks, are, in fact, for the space of the next three or four years, most refreshingly abundant. Some of these are so minute, characteristic, and interesting, that we shall need no apology for transcribing them, most literally, here. On June 24th, 1737, he had written to Wilks,—

“ This waites on you per Mr Francis Pelthro who has Taken this Voyage to Land°, in order to be Cutt for ye Stone by Dr Cheselden ; ⁹ he Is my Friend & a Very honest Gentleman. In ease he needs your advise in any of his affairs & Calls on you for it, I beg ye favr of you to do him what Service falls in your way, which Shall Take as done to my Self, and as he 's a Stranger, Should he have occasion for Ten Guineas please to Let him have it & Charge to my Aecot. I suppose he's sofficeint with him—Except Some Extrordinary accident happen.

“ I beg your particular Care about my Glass, that it be the best, and Every Square Cutt Exactly to the Size, & not to worp or wind in the Least, & Pack’t up So that it may take no Damage on the passage,—it’s for my Own Use & would have it Extrordinary. I am Sr “ Your most oblid'gd obed. Sevt.

“ T. H.”

By one of those stupid accidents, — not, as we are sorry to record, altogether unknown to the business of house-building in our own day, —the memorandum previously sent for the glass turned out to be entirely incorrect. In less than a fortnight after, Mr. Hancock accordingly hastens to countermand his order, as follows : —

“ Boston, N. E. July 5th. 1737.

“ FRANCIS WILKS, ESQR.

“ SR, — Sheperdson’s Stay being Longer than Expected Brings me to the 5th of July, and if you have not bought my Glass According to the Demention per Capt. Morris I Pray you to have no regard to those, but the following viz.

“ 380 Squares of best London Crown Glass all Cutt Exactly 18 Inches Long & 11 1/2 Inches wide of a Suitable Thickness to the Largness of the Glass free from Blisters and by all means be Carefull it don’t wind or worp. —

“ 100 Squares Ditto 12 Inches Long 8 1/2 wide of the Same Goodness as above.

“ Our Friend Tylers Son William Comes per This Conveyance, I only add what Service’s you doe him will Assuredly be Retaliated By his Father, & will Oblidge Sr

“ Your most Obedient Hume Servt

“ T. H.”

The window-glass being fairly off his mind, Mr. Hancock next turns his attention to the subject; of wall-papers, on which head he comes out in the most strong and even amazing manner. We doubt if the documentary relics of the last century can show anything more truly genre than the following letter “ To Mr. John Rowe, Stationer, London,” dated

“Boston, N. E. Jan. 23d. 1737-8.

“ SIR,—Inclosed you have the Dimentions of a Room for a Shaded Hanging to be Done after the Same Pattorn I have Sent per Capt. Tanner, who will Deliver it to you. It’s for my own House, & Intreat the favour of you to Get it Done for me, to Come Early in the Spring, or as Soon as the nature of the Thing will admitt. The pattorn is all was Left of a Room Lately Come over here, & it takes much in ye Town & will be the only paper-hanging for Sale here wh. am of Opinion may Answer well. Therefore desire you by all means to Get mine well Done & as Cheap as Possible, & if they can make it more Beautifull by adding more Birds flying here & there, with Some Landskip at the Bottom should Like it well. Let the Ground be the Same Colour of the Pattorn. At the Top & Bottom was a narrow Border of about 2 Inches wide wh. would have to mine. About 3 or 4 Years ago my friend Francis Wilks Esqr. had a hanging Done in the Same manner but much handsomeor Sent over here for Mr Sam1 Waldon of this place, made by one Dunbar in AMermanburv, where no doubt he or Some of his Successors may be found. In the other parts of those Hangings are Great Variety of Different Sorts of Birds, Peacocks, Macoys, Squirril, Monkys, Fruit & Flowers &c, But a Greater Variety in the above mentioned of Mr. Waldon’s & Should be fond of having mine done by the Same hand if to be mett with. I design if this pleases me to have two Booms more done for myself. I Think they are handsomer & Better than Painted hangings Done in Oyle, so I Beg your particular Care in procuring this for me, & that the pattorns may be Taken Care off & Return’d with my Goods. Henry Atkins has Ordered Mr. Thos. Pike of Pool¹⁰ to pay you £l0 in Liew of the Bill you Returned Protested Drawn by Samll Pike, which hope you ’l Receive. Inclosed you have also Crist° Kilby’s Draft on King Gould Esqr. for £10 wh. will meet with Due Honour. Design to make you Some other Remittence in a Little Time. Interim Remain Sr. Your Assured Frd & Hume. Servt.

“ T. H.”

There are certain other adornments about the Hancock House, besides the glass and the wall-papers, which were somewhat beyond the skill of New-England artificers of that time. Another of these exotic features is fully accounted for in the following extract from a letter to “ Dear Kilby,” dated

“ 221 Mar. 1739-40.

“ I Pray the favour of you to Enquire what a pr. of Capitolls will Cost me to be Carved in London, of the Corinthian Order, 16 1/2 I Inches One Way and 9 ye Other, — to be well Done. Please to make my Compliments Acceptable to Mr. Wilks, & believe me to be “ Sr.

“ Your assuh Friend & very

“ Hume. Sevt

“ T. H.”

One more commission for the trusty Wilks remained. It was said of Mr. Hancock, long afterward, in one of the obituary notices called forth by his sudden demise, that “ his house was the seat of hospitality, where all his numerous acquaintances and strangers of distinction met with an elegant reception.” With a wise prevision, therefore, of the properties necessary to support the character and carry on the business of so bountiful a cuisine, we find him, under cover of a letter of May 24th, 1738, inclosing an order in these terms : —

“ 1 Middle Size Jack of 3 Guineas price, — Good works, with Iron Barrell, a wheel-fly & Spitt Chain to it.”

Several other passages, scattered here and there in these letters, certainly go far to justify a reputation for the love of good cheer on the part of their writer. Throughout all of them, indeed, we are not without frequent indications of “ a careful attention to and a laudable admiration of good, sound, hearty eating and drinking.” Thus, in a postscript to one of his favors to Wilks, he adds, — “I Desire you also to send me a Chest of Lisbon Lemons for my own use.” And again, in a letter to Captain Partington, master of one of his vessels, then in Europe, he writes, — “ When you come, to any Fruit Country, Send or bring me 2 or 4 Chests of Lemmons, for myself & the Officers of this Port, & Take the Pay out of the Cargo.” Alas, that the Plantation Rum Punch of those days should now perforce be included among Mr. Phillips’s Lost Arts! He sends a consignment with an order “ To Messers Walter & Robt. Scott,” as follows: — “I have the favour to ask of you, when please God the Merch’dse Comes to your hands, that I may have in return the best Sterling Medara Wines for my own use, — I don’t Stand for any Price, provided the Quality of the wine Answers to it. My view in Shipping now is only for an Opportunity to procure the best wine for my own use, in which you will much oblidge me.” And about the same time he orders from London “ 1 Box Double flint Glass ware. 6 Quart Decanters. 6 Pint do. 2 doz. handsome, new fashd wine Glasses, 6 pair Beakers, Sorted, all plain, 2 pr. pint Cans, 2 pr. 1/2 pint do. 6 Beer Glasses, 12 Water Glasses & 2 Doz. Jelly Glasses.” Well might he write to Kilby, not long after, “ We live Pretty comfortable here now, on Beacon Hill.”

There is a graphic minuteness about all these trivial directions, which takes us more readily behind the curtain of Time than the most elaborate and dignified chronicles could possibly do. The Muse of History is no doubt a most stately and learned lady, — she looks very splendid in her royal attitudes on the ceilings of Blenheim and in the galleries of Windsor; but can her pompous old stylus bring back for us the every-day work and pleasure of these bygone days, — paint for us the things that come home so nearly “ to men’s business and bosoms,”— or show us the inner life and the real action of these hearty, jolly old times, one-half so well as the simple homeliness of these careless letters ? We seem to see in them the countenances of the people of those long buried years, and to catch the very echo of their voices, in the daily walk of their pleasant and hearty lives. “ The dialect and costume,” said Mr. Hazlitt, “ the wars, the religion, and the politics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ” (and we may now venture to add for him, of the earlier half of the eighteenth) “ give a charming and wholesome relief to the fastidious refinement and over-labored lassitude of modern readers. Antiquity, after a time, has the grace of novelty, as old fashions revived are mistaken for new ones.” In the present instance this seems to us to be, more than usually, the effect of Hancock’s quaint and downright style. All these letters of his, in fact, are remarkable for one thing, even beyond the general tenor of the epistolary writing of his time, and that is their directness. He is the very antipode to Don Adriano in “ Love’s Labor ’s Lost ” ; never could it be said of him that “ he draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.” He does not leave his correspondents to grope their way to Bis meaning by inferences, — he comes to the point. If he likes more “Macoys, Squirril & Monkys” in his wallpaper than his neighbors, — if he thinks Cox’s man ought to be abated, or Glin to do the handsome thing by him, he says so, point-blank, and there’s an end.

—“ He pours out all, as plain As downright Shipped, or as old Montaigne.”

Perhaps the particular phase of change which the language itself was going through at the time may assist in giving these letters, to us, something of their air of genuine force and originality. But after making due allowance for the freshness of a vocabulary as yet unimpeded by any cumbrous burden of euphemism, we are still convinced that we must recognize the source of much of the quality we have noted only in the naïve and outspoken nature of the writer. For, if ever there was a man who knew just what he wanted and just how he wanted it, it was the T. H. of the amusing correspondence before us.

Thus lived, for some quarter of a century more, this cheery and prosperous gentleman, growing into a manly opulence, and enjoying to the full the pleasant “ seate of self-fruition ” which he had so carefully set up for himself on Beacon Hill. Not much addressing himself, indeed, to “ looking abroad into universality,” as Bacon calls it, but rather honestly and heartily “ doing his duty in that state of life unto which it had pleased God to call him.” He filled various posts of honor and dignity meanwhile, — always prominent, and even conspicuous, in the public eye,—and was “one of His Majesty’s Council ” at the commencement of the troubles which led to the War of the Revolution. The full development of this mighty drama, however, Thomas Hancock did not live to see. He died of an apoplexy, on the first day of August, 1764, about three of the clock in the afternoon, having been seized about noon of the same day, just as he was entering the Council Chamber. He was then in the sixty-second year of his age. By his will he gave one thousand pounds sterling for the founding of a professorship of the Oriental languages in Harvard College, one thousand pounds lawful money to the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians, six hundred pounds to the town of Boston, towards an Insane Hospital, and two hundred pounds to the Society for carrying on the Linen Manufactory, — an enterprise from which much appears, just then, to have been expected. His property was valued, after his decease, at about eighty thousand pounds sterling, — a very much larger sum for that time than its precise money equivalent would represent at the present day. Having no issue of his own, he left the bulk of his estate to his nephew John, — a gentleman who, without a tithe of the nerve and pith and vigor of this our Thomas, has yet happened, from the circumstances of the time in which he bore up the family - fortunes, to have acquired a much more distinguished name and filled a much larger space in the tablets of History than has ever fallen to the share of his stout old uncle.

The Hancock estate, as we have been accustomed to see it of late years, is greatly reduced from its original dimensions, and shorn of much of its ancient glory.¹¹ The property, in Mr. Thomas Hancock’s time, extended on the east to the bend in Mount Vernon Street, including, of course, the whole of the grounds now occupied by the State House, ¹² — on the west to Joy Street, called Hancock Street on the ancient plan of the estate now before us, — and in the rear about to what is now Derne Street, on the north side of Beacon Hill, and comprising on that side all the land through which Mount Vernon Street now runs, for the whole distance from Joy Street to Beacon-Hill Place. Thus was included a large part, too, of the site of the present reservoir on Derne Street, a portion of which, being the last of the estate sold up to the present year, was purchased by the city from the late John Hancock, Esq., some ten or twelve years ago. The two large wings of the house — the one on the east side containing an elegant ball-room, and that on the west side comprising the kitchen and other domestic offices — have long ago disappeared. The centre of the mansion, however, remains nearly intact, and with its antique furniture, stately old pictures, and the quaint, but comfortable appointments of the past century, still suffices to bring up to the mind of the visitor the most vivid and interesting reminiscences both of our Colonial and Revolutionary history.

The central and principal portion of the house, which remains entire, is a very perfect and interesting specimen of the stateliest kind of our provincial domestic architecture of the last century. There are several other houses of a similar design still standing in the more important sea-port towns of New England. The West House, on Essex Street, in Salem, has but lately disappeared; but another in that neighborhood, the Collins House in Danvers, (now the property of Mr. F. Peabody, of Salem,) the Dalton House, on State Street, Newburyport, the Langdon House, (now the residence of the Reverend Dr. Charles Burroughs,) in Portsmouth, N. H., and the Gilman Plouse, in Exeter, N. H., removed, not long since, to make way for the new Town Hall, were all almost identical with this in the leading features of their design. A broad front-door opening from a handsome flight of stone steps, and garnished with pillars and a highly ornamental door-head, a central window, also somewhat ornamented, over it, and four other windows in each story, two being on either side of the centre, a main roof-cornice enriched with carved modillions, a high and double-pitched or “ gambrel ” roof with bold projecting dormerwindows rising out of it, and a carved balcony-railing inclosing the upper or flatter portion of the roof, are. features common to them all. The details of the Hancock House are all classical and correct ; they were doubtless executed by the master-builder of the day with a scrupulous fidelity of adherence to the plates of some such work as “ Ware’s Compleat Body of Architecture,” or “ Swan’s Architect,” — books of high repute and rare value at the time, and contemporary copies of which are still sometimes to be found in ancient garrets. There is a very perfect specimen of the former in the Athenaeum Library, and another at Cambridge, while of the latter an excellent copy is in the possession of the writer, — and it is not difficult to trace, in the soiled and well-thumbed condition of some of the plates, evidences of the bygone popularity of some peculiarly apposite or useful design.

The material of the walls is of squared and well-hammered granite ashlar,— probably obtained by splitting up boulders lying on the surface of the ground only, above the now extensive quarries in the town of Quincy. We incline to this conjecture, because it bears an exact resemblance to the stone of the King’s Chapel, built in 1753, and which is known to have been obtained in that way. In fact, the wardens and vestry of the Chapel, in their report on the completion of the building, congratulated themselves that they had had such good success in getting all the stone they needed for that building, as it was exceedingly doubtful, they remarked, whether the whole country could be made to furnish stone for another structure of equal extent.

The interior of the house is quite in keeping with the promise of its exterior. The dimensions of the plan are fifty-six feet front by thirty-eight feet in depth. A nobly panelled hall, containing a broad staircase with carved and twisted balusters, divides the house in the centre, and extends completely through on both stories from front to rear. On the landing, somewhat more than half-way up the staircase, is a circular headed window looking into the garden, and fitted with deep-panelled shutters, and with a broad and capacious window-seat, on which the active merchant of 1740 doubtless often sat down to cool himself in the draught, after some particularly vexatious morning’s work with poor Glin’s “ Plumb Trees and Hollys.” On this landing, too, stood formerly a famous eight-day clock, which has now disappeared, no one knows whither. But the order for its purchase is before us in the old letter-book, and will serve to give a Very graphic idea of its unusual attractions. The order is addressed, as usual, to Mr. Wilks, and bears date December 20th, 1738. As the safe reception of the time-piece is acknowledged in a subsequent letter, there can be little doubt as to its identity.

“ I Desire the favour of you to procure for me & Send with my Spring Goods, a Handsome Chiming Clock of the newest fashion,—the work neat & Good, with a Good black Walnutt Tree Case, Veneer’d work, with Dark, lively branches, — on the Top insteed of Balls let be three handsome Carv’d figures, Gilt with burnished Gold. I 'd have the Case without the figures to be 10 foot Long, the price 15 not to Exceed 20 Guineas, and as it's for my own Use I beg your particular Care in buying of it at the Cheapest Rate. I ’m advised to apply to one Mr. Marmaduke Storr at the foot of Londn Bridge, but as you are best Judge I leave it to you to purchase it where you think proper, — wh. being the needfull, Concludes

“ Sir Your &c. T. H.”

On the right of the hall, as you enter, is the fine old drawing-room, seventeen by twenty-five feet, also elaborately finished in moulded panels from floor to ceiling. In this room the founder of the Hancock name, as a man of note, and a merchant of established consequence, must often have received the Shirleys, the Olivers, the Pownalls, and the Hutchinsons of King George’s colonial court; and here, too, some years later, his stately nephew John dispensed his elegant hospitalities to that serene Virginian, Mr. Washington, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Revolution, and to the ardent young French Marquis who accompanied him. The room itself, hung with portraits from the honest, if not flattering hand of Smibert, and the more courtly and elegant pencil of Copley, still seems to bear witness in its very walls to the reality of such bygone scenes. We enter the close front-gate from the sunny and bustling promenade of Beacon Street, pass up the worn and gray terrace of the steps, and in a moment more closes behind us the door that seems to shut us out from the whirl and turmoil and strife of the present, and, almost mysteriously, to transport us to the grave shadows and the dignified silence of the past of American history.

Over the chimney-piece, in this room, hangs the portrait of John Hancock, by Copley, — masterly in drawing, and most characteristic in its expression. It was painted apparently about ten or twelve years earlier than the larger portrait in Faneuil Hall, — an excellent copy of which latter picture, but by another hand, occupies the centre of the wall at the end of the room opposite the windows. But by far the most interesting works of this great artist are the two pictures on the long side of the room opposite the chimney, — the portraits of Thomas Hancock and his handsome wife Lydia Henchman, done in colored crayons or pastel, and which still retain every whit of their original freshness. These two pictures are believed to be unique specimens of their kind from the hand of Copley, — and equally curious are the miniature copies of them by himself, done in oil-color, and which hang in little oval frames over the mantel. That of the lady, in particular, is exquisitely lifelike and easy. On the same long side of the room with the pastel drawings are the portraits of Thomas Hancock’s father and mother, — the minister of Lexington and his dignified-looking wife, — by Smibert. In one of the letters to “ Dear Kilby,” of which we have already made mention in this article, there is an allusion to this portrait of his father which shows in what high estimation it was always held by Mr. Hancock. “ My Wife & I are Drinking your health this morning, 8 o’ the Clock, in a Dish of Coffee and under the Shade of your Picture which I Rec’d not long Since of Mr. Smibert, in which am much Delighted, & have Suited it with a Frame of the fashion of my other Pictures, & fix’d it at the Right hand of all, in the Keeping-room. Every body that Sees it thinks'it to be Exceedingly Like you, as it really is. I am of Opinion it’s as Good a Piece as Mr. Smibert has done, and full as Like you as my Father’s is Like him, which all mankind allows to be a Comploat Picture.” It is to be regretted that the picture of Kilby has now disappeared from this collection. We have called the pastel portraits of Thomas Hancock and his wife unique specimens; we should add this qualification, however, that there is a copy of the former in this room, — also by Copley, but differing in the costume, and perhaps even more carefully finished than the one already mentioned.

The chamber overhead, too, has echoed, in days long gone by, to the footstep of many an illustrious guest. Washington never slept here, though it is believed that he has several times been a temporary occupant of the room; but Lafayette often lodged in this apartment, while a visitor to John Hancock, during his earlier stay in America. Here Lord Percy — the same

“who, when a younger son, Fought for King George at Lexington, A Major of Dragoons ” —

made himself as comfortable as he might, while “ cooped up in Boston and panting for an airing,” through all the memorable siege of the town. It was from the windows of this chamber, on the morning of the 5th of March, 1776, that the officers ¹³ on the staff of Sir William Howe first beheld, through Thomas Hancock’s old telescope, the intrenchments which had been thrown up the night before on the frozen ground of Dorchester Heights, — works of such a character and location as to satisfy them that thenceforth “ neither Hell, Hull, nor Halifax could afford them worse shelter than Boston.” And here, too, years after the advent of more peaceful times, the stately old Governor, racked with gout, and “swathed in flannel from head to foot,” departed this life on the night of the 8th of October, 1793. As President of the Continental Congress of 1776, he left a name everywhere recognized as a household word among us; while his noble sign-manual to the document of gravest import in all our annals — that wonderful signature, so bold, defiant, and decided in its every line and curve—has become, almost of itself, his passport to the remembrance and his warrant to the admiration of posterity.