CAPTAIN JOHN MARSTON, 1715-1786 Landlord of the “Golden Ball” and “Bunch of Grapes” OLD BOSTON TAVERNS AND TAVERN CLUBS BY SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION WITH AN ACCOUNT OF “Cole’s Inn,” “The Bakers’ Arms,” and “Golden Ball” BY WALTER K. WATKINS Also a List of Taverns, Giving the Names of the Various Owners of the Property, from Miss Thwing’s Work on “The Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800,” in the Possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society W. A. BUT

T he Inns of Old Boston have played such a part in its history that an illustrated edition of Drake may not be out of place at this late date. “Cole’s Inn” has been definitely located, and the “Hancock Tavern” question also settled. I wish to thank the Bostonian Society for the privilege of reprinting Mr. Watkin’s account of the “Bakers’ Arms” and the “Golden Ball” and valuable assistance given by Messrs. C. F. Read, E. W. McGlenen, and W. A. Watkins; Henderson and Ross for the illustration of t

UPON THE TAVERN AS AN INSTITUTION. T he famous remark of Louis XIV., “There are no longer any Pyrenees,” may perhaps be open to criticism, but there are certainly no longer any taverns in New England. It is true that the statutes of the Commonwealth continue to designate such houses as the Brunswick and Vendome as taverns, and their proprietors as innkeepers; yet we must insist upon the truth of our assertion, the letter of the law to the contrary notwithstanding. No words need be wasted upon th

THE EARLIER ORDINARIES. A s early as 1638 there were at least two ordinaries, as taverns were then called, in Boston. That they were no ordinary taverns will at once occur to every one who considers the means then employed to secure sobriety and good order in them. For example, Josselyn says that when a stranger went into one for the purpose of refreshing the inner man, he presently found a constable at his elbow, who, it appeared, was there to see to it that the guest called for no more liquor

IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES. S uch thoroughfares as King Street, just before the Revolution, were filled with horsemen, donkeys, oxen, and long-tailed trucks, with a sprinkling of one-horse chaises and coaches of the kind seen in Hogarth’s realistic pictures of London life. To these should be added the chimney-sweeps, wood-sawyers, market-women, soldiers, and sailors, who are now quite as much out of date as the vehicles themselves are. There being no sidewalks, the narrow footway was protected, here

SIGNBOARD HUMOR. A nother tavern sign, though of later date, was that of the Good Woman , at the North End. This Good Woman was painted without a head. The Good Woman Still another board had painted on it a bird, a tree, a ship, and a foaming can, with the legend,— “This is the bird that never flew, This is the tree which never grew, This is the ship which never sails, This is the can which never fails.” The Dog and Pot , Turk’s Head , Tun and Bacchus , were also old and favorite emblems. Some o

BOSTON TAVERNS TO THE YEAR 1800. T he Anchor , or Blue Anchor . Robert Turner, vintner, came into possession of the estate (Richard Fairbanks’s) in 1652, died in 1664, and was succeeded in the business by his son John, who continued it till his own death in 1681; Turner’s widow married George Monck, or Monk, who kept the Anchor until his decease in 1698; his widow carried on the business till 1703, when the estate probably ceased to be a tavern. The house was destroyed in the great fire of 1711.

SAMUEL COLE’S INN. Samuel Cole came to Boston in the fleet with Governor Winthrop, and he with his wife Ann were the fortieth and forty-first on the list of original members of the First Church. He requested to become a freeman October 19, 1630, and was sworn May 18, 1631. He was the ninth to sign the roll of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1637 and in the same year was disarmed for his religious views. In 1636 he contributed to the maintenance of a free school and in 1656 to the

THE BAKERS’ ARMS. Predecessor of the Green Dragon. Thomas Hawkins, biscuit baker, and a brother of James Hawkins, bricklayer, was born in England in 1608. He was a proprietor in Boston in 1636; his wife Hannah was admitted to the church there in 1641, and that year his son Abraham, born in 1637, was baptized. His home lot was on the west side of Washington Street, the second north of Court Street. He also had one quarter of an acre near the Mill Cove, and a house bought in 1645 from John Trotman

THE GOLDEN BALL TAVERN. In the manuscript collections of the Bostonian Society is a plan showing the earliest owners of the land bordering on the Corn Market. On the site now the south corner of Faneuil Hall Square and Merchants’ Row is noted the possession of Edward Tyng. Another manuscript of the Society, equally unique, is an apprentice indenture of Robert Orchard in 1662. In the account of Orchard, printed in the Publications of the Society , Vol. IV, is given the continued history of Tyng’s

THE HANCOCK TAVERN. “As an old landmark the Hancock Tavern is a failure. There was not an old window in the house; the nails were Bridgewater nails, the timbers were mill-sawed, and the front of it was of face brick, which were not made even in 1800. At the time of the Revolution it was merely a four-room dwelling house of twelve windows, and the first license ever given to it as an inn was in 1790. The building recently demolished was erected during the years 1807 to 1812.” With the above words

This list is taken from Miss Thwing’s work on the Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800 , in possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. There also may be found the authority for each statement and further details. It does not include many inns mentioned in advertisements in the papers of the eighteenth century, nor the names of many licensed innkeepers whose hostelry had no sign. The Colony records state that in 1682 persons annually licensed in Boston to keep taverns