It is not surprising that so much secrecy has been maintained, because of the danger of lawsuits by the East Indian Company and others. The members of the St. Andrew's Lodge were all young, many under twenty, the majority under thirty. Mr. McGlenen's report as to his investigations was especially interesting, settling, as it did, three distinct questions which had been undecided for many years--the location of the inn of Samuel Cole, the location of his residence, and the much mooted point as to whether the "Mohawks" met at the _Hancock Tavern_ for the preparatory steps toward the Boston Tea Party. All three questions were based on a statement printed in the souvenir of the _Hancock Tavern_, reading as follows: On the south side of Faneuil Hall is a passageway through which one may pass into Merchants' row. It is Corn court, a name known to few of the present day, but in the days gone by as familiar as the Corn market, with which it was connected. In the center of this court stands the oldest tavern in New England. It was opened March 4, 1634, by Samuel Cole. It was surrounded by spacious grounds, which commanded a view of the harbor and its shipping, for at that time the tide covered the spot where Faneuil Hall now stands. It was a popular resort from the beginning, and was frequented by many foreigners of note. The seeming authority for these statements and others, connecting it with pre-revolutionary events, said Mr. McGlenen, appears in _Rambles in Old Boston_ by the Rev. E. G. Porter, pages 67 and 68, evidently based on a newspaper article written by William Brazier Duggan, M.D., in the Quincy Patriot for August 28, 1852, and to a novel entitled _The Brigantine_ by one Ingraham, referring to legendary lore. None of these statements can be confirmed. The confusion has been caused by the statement made many years ago and reprinted as a note in the _Book of Possessions_, Vol. II, _Boston Town Records_, that somewhere near the water front Samuel Cole kept an inn; but Letchford's _Note Book_, the _Town Records_, and the _Suffolk Deeds_ prove to the contrary. Samuel Cole's Inn was kept by him from 1634 to 1638, when he sold out by order of the Colony Court. He purchased a residence near the town dock seven years later. It adjoined the _Hancock Tavern_ lot, and was bounded on the west by the lot originally in the ownership of Isaac Gross, whose son Clement kept the _Three Mariners_, an ale house which stood west of Pierse's Alley (Change Avenue) and east of the _Sun Tavern_. It is impossible to connect the _Hancock Tavern_ with any pre-Revolutionary event. It was a small house, as described in the _Direct Tax_ of 1798, of two stories, of two rooms each, built of wood, with twelve windows, value $1200. It was first licensed in 1790, and the earliest reference found in print is in the advertisement for the sale of lemons by John Duggan, in the _Columbian Centinel_ in 1794.