HISTORICAL SKETCH OF COPP'S HILL BURYING GROUND WITH DESCRIPTIONS AND QUAINT EPITAPHS BY JOHN NORTON Tenth Edition, 1916 HISTORY OF COPP'S HILL. In early days the well-to-do of Boston dwelt largely in the North End, a very pleasant and convenient part of the peninsula. Until the time, just succeeding the Revolution, the North End retained its social prominence; then the notables and fashionables began to leave it. It was quite natural, therefore, in accordance with the custom of the time, that the town should early provide a burying-ground in this comparatively well settled section. In 1659 there was bought a lot of land on the summit of Copp's Hill, which formed the nucleus of the present ground. (Suffolk Deed, lib. 53, fol. 153.) Copp's Hill was an eminently suitable spot for the purpose. Although lower than Beacon Hill and Fort Hill, it was scarcely less commanding and seemed equally a topographical feature. The rectangular plateau on the summit easily lent itself to burial needs. Wood, among the first travellers to record his impressions of Boston, says in his "New England Prospect" (London, 1634): "On the North side is another Hill, equall in bignesse (to Fort Hill), whereon stands a Winde-mill." This was the first windmill erected in the colony. These old windmills, in the days when corn was legal tender, were useful servants to the community and were a feature of the landscape. Winthrop records a mill built on Windmill Point in 1636, and three others were put up by 1650. After Boston had become a city, the two last surviving windmills still stood on Windmill Point. On July 31, 1643, the town granted Henry Simons, John Button and others all the land between the Town Cove and the marshes beyond, on condition that they erect "one or more corne mills, and maynteyne the same forever." The "south" and "north" mills were accordingly constructed on the shore of the Mill Pond, and others gradually followed, including later a sawmill and a chocolate mill. During the first century of its existence the ground was called the North burying ground, this name giving way to that of the hill itself. On the hill, in turn, three names were successively bestowed. At first it was generally known as the Mill Hill, and the entire district about the hill was also known as the "Mylne Field" or "Mill-field," being frequently so named in grants and conveyances of land. The early settlers in Watertown had there built a windmill; and Governor Winthrop notes in his diary that on August 14, 1632, "the windmill was brought downe to Boston, because (where it stoode neere Newtown) it would not grind but with a westerly winde." It was set up on the summit of Copp's Hill, where for years it ground corn for the settlers and served as a landmark to skippers working into the harbor. The windmill also gave its name to "ye Mylne Field." As the old windmill thus lost its uniqueness, the name it had given the north hill also lost its hold, being supplanted by that of "Snow Hill." This title is now kept only in Snowhill street near by. The name may be due to the drifts that successive northeasters left piled upon the hill late into the spring, but is more probably derived from a certain Snow Hill street in London. In its turn this second name gave way to Copp's Hill, so called after William Copp, who from about the time of the settlement owned and dwelt upon a half-acre lot on the southeast corner, near Prince street. The possessions of William Copp, who was a worthy shoemaker and an elder in Dr. Mather's Church, as set forth in the Boston Book of Possessions, were "One house & lott of halfe an Acre in the Mill field bounded with Thomas Buttolph southeast: John Button northeast: the marsh on the southwest: & the River on the Northwest." The date of this change in name is not precisely known. Some of the maps made at the time of the Revolution have the name Copp's Hill attached to that part of the hill northwest of Snowhill street, where Copp dwelt. The present aspect of Copp's Hill and its surroundings differs considerably from that of the early days. Like the other two hills, Copp's Hill was quite bare, there being scarcely a tree on the peninsula. Dr. Snow, in history of Boston, gives the following description of the hill as it appeared in the early days: "The hill at the north, rising to the height of about fifty feet above the sea, presented then on its north-west brow an abrupt declivity, long after known as Copp's Hill steeps. Its summit, almost level, extended between Prince and Charter streets towards Christ Church; thence south a gentle slope led to the water, which washed the south side of Prince street below, and the north side above Thacher street as far as Salem; eastward from the church, a gradual ascent led to the North Battery, which was considered the bottom of the hill. Southeasterly the slope was still more gradual, and terminated at the foot of North Square, leaving a knoll on the right, where at present stands the meeting-house of the Second Church." "On the southerly slope of this hill," says Dr. Shurtleff in his "Topographical Description of Boston," "was Stanley's pasture, extending to Hanover street, and covering the large tract of land lying between Prince and Charter streets, the westerly end of Bennet street at its junction with Salem street being the centre of the lot." The owner, a tailor, who died in March, 1646, deserves to be remembered as the first person to bequeath the town property for the support of public schools, one of the items of his will reading, “I give to the maintenance of the free schools of Boston a parcel of land lying neere to the waterside & foure roads in length backward." In the early days, Copp's Hill and the land around its base were formed almost into an island by the two coves running up into the peninsula-Mill Cove or Pond, or North Cove, as it was first called, on the north, and Town Cove on the south. The North Cove stretched over to the point extending northwest from the Tramount, or Beacon Hill, and high tides often swept over the intervening lowlands. The Town Cove, on the other side, reached inland almost to the foot of Brattle street. At the foot of the headland was a small stretch of beach, where Commercial street (formerly Lynn street) now runs, the material for the street being taken from the summit of the hill, where Snowhill street was cut across. Three of the half-dozen points then prominent in the shore line were grouped in the Copp's Hill promontory. Where the gasometer now stands, Windmill, later Wheeler's Point, projected. At the junction of Charter and Commercial streets was "Ye Mylne Point," so called in 1635, and later known as Hudson's Point, whence Francis Hudson, the fisherman who became a ferry-man, ran his ferry to Charlestown and Chelsea. Merry's Point, whereon the famous North Battery was built, was situated between the Winnisimmet Ferry and Battery Wharf, and was so called after Walter Merry, the first Boston shipwright, who there built his wharf a few years after the settlement. Around these points gradually grew up a considerable shipwrighting industry, many grants to "wharf out" being recorded by 1660. Most notable of the shipyards was that of Joshua Gee, as prominent a ship-builder in his day as later was "Billy" Gray. In 1698 Governor Bellomont said that Boston owned 194 good ships, or more than were possessed by all Scotland and Ireland. A great change in the surroundings of Copp's Hill was inaugurated by the chartering on March 9, 1804, of the Boston Mill Corporation, successors to Simons, Button, and others, for the purpose of filling up the Mill Pond. After 25 years' work, an area of 70 acres was thus added to the town. Beacon Hill was mainly resorted to for filling, but beginning with 1806 earth was also taken during several years from Copp's Hill, lowering its height about seven feet. At the northeastern base of the hill dwelt Boston's first colored colony, then called "New Guinea." Inland, as far as the |