Old Boston Taverns and Tavern ClubsDrake, Samuel Adams
History
Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs
Drake, Samuel Adams
Boston (Mass.) -- Social life and customs; Clubs -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Taverns (Inns) -- Massachusetts -- Boston
=Bull=, foot of Summer Street. In the _Book of Possessions_ Nicholas
Baxter had house and garden here. In 1668 he conveyed this to John Bull
and wife Mary, the daughter of his wife Margaret. Baxter died in 1692,
and in his will recites this deed and divides his personal property
between his daughter Mary, wife of John Swett, and John and Mary Bull. In
1694 and 1704 Mary Swett attempted to regain the estate, but Bull gained
his case each time. John Bull died in 1723, and in 1724 his son Jonathan
buys the shares of other heirs. Jonathan died while on a visit to England
in 1727 or 1728, and his will, probated in 1728-29, gives one third of his
estate to his wife, and two thirds to his children, Elizabeth, John, and
Samuel. Both sons died before coming of age, and Elizabeth inherited their
shares. She married Rev. Roger Price, and they went to England. She died
in 1780, and in 1783 her eldest son and daughter returned to Boston to
recover the property which Barret Dyer, who had married Elizabeth, widow
of John Bull, had attempted to regain. John Bull was licensed as innkeeper
from 1689 to 1713, when his widow Mary succeeded. In 1757 Mr. Bean was the
landlord, and in 1766 the house was let to Benjamin Bigelow. In 1798
William Price was the owner and Bethia Page the occupier. A wooden house
of two stories, thirty-one windows, value $2000. The site is now covered
by the South Station.
=Bunch of Grapes=, southeast corner of State and Kilby streets. The early
possession of William Davis, who sold to William Ingram in 1658. Ingram
conveyed "The Bunch of Grapes" to John Holbrook in 1680; Adm. of Holbrook
to Thomas Waite in 1731; Waite to Simon Eliot in 1760; Eliot to Leonard
Jarvis in 1769; Jarvis to Joseph Rotch, Jr., in 1772; Francis Rotch to
Elisha Doane, 1773; his heirs to Isaiah Doane, 1786. In 1798 it was a
brick store. June 7, 1709, Francis Holmes was the keeper and was to billet
five soldiers at his house of public entertainment. In 1750 kept by
Weatherhead, being noted, said Goelet, as the best punch house in Boston.
In 1757 one captain and one private soldier to be billeted at
Weatherhead's. 1764 to 1772 Joseph Ingersol licensed. In 1790 Dudley
Colman licensed. In 1790 James Bowdoin bequeathes house called "The Bunch
of Grapes" to his wife. This was on the west corner of Kilby and State
streets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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