Historic Shrines of America: Being the Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and the Pioneers Who Made Them Notable — John Shaqi
Historic Shrines of America: Being the Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and the Pioneers Who Made Them NotableFaris, John T. (John Thomson)
History
Historic Shrines of America: Being the Story of One Hundred and Twenty Historic Buildings and the Pioneers Who Made Them Notable
Faris, John T. (John Thomson)
Historic buildings -- United States; United States -- Biography
The Royall family regained possession of the property in 1805. To-day
it is owned by the Royall House Association, which keeps it open to
the visitors. These come in large numbers to see relics of former
days, including what is said to be the only chest that survived the
Boston Tea Party, the sign of the Royall Oak Tavern in Medford, which
bears the marks of the bullets of the soldiers who were on their way
to the Battle of Bunker Hill, the old furniture, the first fork used
in the Colony, and the furnishings of the quaint kitchen fireplace,
which dates from 1732.
[Illustration: BROADHEARTH, SAUGUS, MASS.
_Photo by Wallace Nutting, Inc., Framingham Center, Mass_
See page 69]
XIII
BROADHEARTH AND THE BENNET-BOARDMAN HOUSE, SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS
TWO REMARKABLE SPECIMENS OF THE OVERHANG HOUSE
"Thomas Dexter of Lyn, yeoman," was the first owner of much of the
land on which Lynn, Massachusetts, is built. Evidently he was land
poor, for on October 22, 1639, he "mortgaged his fearme in Lyn ... for
two oxen & 2 bulls upon condition of payment to Simon Broadstreet of
Ipswich L90 the first day of August, the next following with a
reservation upon the sale of the said fearme to give the said Dexter
the overflow above the debt and damages of the said L90."
Six years later the Registry of Deeds at Salem told of the sale, to
Richard Leader, Gent, of England, of a bit of the farm on which
Governor Broadstreet held a mortgage. Mr. Leader was the agent of "ye
Company of undertakers of ye Iron Works," and he thought that Dexter
had the best location for the purposes of the company that proposed to
start what proved to be the first successful iron works in the
Colonies. The quaint story of the transaction was entered thus:
"Thomas Dexter of Lyn in the County of Essex ye[oman] for the
sum of 40 L st[erling] hath sowld unto Richard Leder for ye
use of ye Iron works all that land, wch by reason of [a]
damme now agreed to be made, shall overflow and all
sufficient ground for a water course from the damme, to the
works to be erected, and alsoe all [the] land betwene the
an[cient] water course and the new extended flume or water
course togeather with five acres and an halfe of land lying
in the corn field most convenient for the Iron Works and also
tooe convenient cartwayes that is to one on each side of the
premises as by a deed indented bearing date the twentie
seaventh of January, 1645, more at lardge apth."
On the ground thus bought a sturdy house, Broadhearth, was built in
1646. The second story overhung the first story, after the manner of
many English houses of the period. The overhang is still in evidence,
though a veranda has hidden it except to the careful observer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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