The Loyalists of Massachusetts Part 51

JOHN JOY.

The name of Joy was probably derived from Jouy in Normandy and may have reached England in the form of "de Jouy." William Joy was a Vicar in England in 1395. The name was borne with distinction in England and Ireland for at least five centuries.

Thomas Joy, of Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, was born about 1610 in the county of Norfolk, England. The first time he appears in Boston records is "on the 20th of 12th Month, called February, 1636." By trade he was a builder and probably continued that occupation in Ma.s.sachusetts. He married in 1637 Joan Gallop, the daughter of a well-known townsman, and she became mother of the American Joys. Her father's land included several of the harbor islands, one of which still bears his name.

Thomas Joy built in 1657-8, the house in the Market Place, which was at once the armory, court house, and town hall of Boston, and the first seat of government in Ma.s.sachusetts. On account of political troubles, Thomas Joy exchanged part of his possessions in Boston for property in Hingham. In 1648 he removed to that town, but his Boston connections were still maintained. He had interests in mills at Hingham, and died in that town, October 21, 1678. His widow survived him more than twelve years, dying in Hingham, March 20, 1690-1. Both are buried in the hill, back of most ancient Protestant church in the United States, where they worshipped. They had ten children.

Joseph, the fourth child, was born in Boston, April 1, 1645. He lived on Bacheler (Main Street,) Hingham, nearly opposite the meeting house, of which he is thought to have been the builder. He married August 29, 1667, Mary, daughter of John and Margaret Prince, of Hingham, and by her had fifteen children. He died in that town, May 31, 1697.

Joseph Joy, his eldest son was born in Hingham July 30, 1688. He was constable in 1697-1711. He married May 22, 1690 Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Thomas Andrews. He died in Hingham, April 29, 1716. His gravestone with inscription still legible in the Hingham churchyard is the most ancient Joy grave mark in America.[244] He had nine children.

[244] Thomas Joy and His Descendants by James R. Joy.

John, the fourth child, was born in Hingham February 7, 1695-6. He lived on Main street at Hingham Centre. December 7, 1724, he married Lydia, daughter of Samuel Lincoln, and by her had seven children. His death is not recorded.

JOHN JOY, the second child of the preceding, was born in Hingham June 4, 1727. He lived in Boston, and by trade was merchant and housewright. He married Sarah, daughter of Michael and Sarah (Kneeland) Homer, of Boston. In 1767 and 1773 he was one of the "princ.i.p.al citizens" to visit the schools with the Governor. In 1774 Mr. Joy was an addresser of Hutchinson, and in 1775 of Gage. In 1776 he went to Halifax with his family and in 1778 he was proscribed and banished. In 1779 he was in England, where he remained, though several of his sons afterwards returned to America. Hutchinson in his diary, June 7, 1776, speaks of a number of Loyalists who had recently arrived at Dover. Mr. Joy's name was among those mentioned. The Loyalist died in London, December, 1804.

His portrait by Copley, is an heirloom in the family of the late Charles Joy of Boston. Mrs. Joy died in England in 1805.

A letter of John Wendell (1806) mentions among his early friends in Boston, "Mr. John Joy, who served his time with our respected neighbor, Captain Benjamin Russell, and who afterwards married Mr. Homer's daughter." Mr. Joy had seven children.

DR. JOHN JOY, the eldest son, was an apothecary, and returned to America in 1783, and lived in Boston. His estate on Beacon Hill, once the "elm pasture" of Judge Samuel Sewell, the diarist, was bounded by Beacon, Walnut, Mt. Vernon and Joy street, and included about 100,000 sq. ft. of land. Bowditch says Dr. Joy was desirous of getting a house _in the country_, and selected this locality as "being country enough for him,"

"the barberry bushes were flourishing over this whole area." His land cost about $2000, and in 1833 his heirs sold this lot for $98,000. On the southeastern part of this estate he built a modest and graceful wooden building, which was eventually moved to South Boston Point. He married Abigail Green of Boston, and died in 1813.

MICHAEL JOY, another son, was born at Boston in 1754, went to England with his father and died at Hartham Park, England July 10, 1825.

Graduated B. A., Harvard College, 1771, and admitted to the same degree at Princeton College, N. J., 1771. He married a lady named Hall in England. His son Henry Hall Joy, of Hartham Park, was a lawyer and Queen's Counsel, was buried in the Temple Church, London.

BENJAMIN JOY, the third son of the Loyalist, was born in Boston, Dec.

27th, 1757, and died at Boston, April 14, 1829. He returned to Boston, was a merchant and was the first Consul General of the United States at Calcutta, holding his commission from President Washington. In 1808 he bought of the trustees of the First Church their property on Cornhill Square, on which he erected Joy's Building, which for three-fourths of a century was a landmark of Boston, people came from miles around to view the stately edifice, and were greatly astonished at its magnificence.

The Rogers Building, in front of Young's Hotel, now occupies its site.

He was one of the Mt. Vernon proprietors that acquired the valuable lands of John Singleton Copley on Beacon Hill, and a spring in one of his houses on the east side of Charles street, is the famous spring of water which William Blackstone, the first white settler of Boston, mentioned as one of the chief attractions of the Shawmut peninsula.

RICHARD LECHMERE.

Hon. Thomas Lechmere was for many years Surveyor General of His Majesty's Customs for the Northern District of America. His brother was Lord Lechmere of Evesham, who married the daughter of the Earl of Carlisle.

Thomas Lechmere married Ann Winthrop, a descendant of Governor Winthrop, the ceremony was performed by Rev. Eben Pemberton, Nov. 17, 1709. He died at an advanced age, June 4th, 1765, having been born in June, 1683.

His wife died in 1746.

RICHARD LECHMERE, son of the above, married Mary Phips, of Cambridge in 1753. She was the daughter of Spencer Phips, who was Lieut. Governor for many years; his farm was what is now known as East Cambridge, and the house stood near where the modern Court House, afterwards was built; General Gage landed his detachment here, which marched to Lexington.

About one hundred yards from the West Boston Bridge, a fort was erected on December 11th, 1775, during its erection several soldiers of the revolutionary army were killed at this redoubt. It was considered the strongest battery erected during the siege of Boston, and was known as "Lechmere Point Redoubt," having acquired this property from his wife.

It was known for many years as Lechmere's Point. The farm was confiscated, and during the siege of Boston was occupied by Washington's army.

Richard Lechmere was an Addresser of Hutchinson in 1774; was appointed Mandamus Councillor, but did not accept. In 1776 he went to Halifax, with his family of eleven persons, and thence to England. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and his estate confiscated; the next year he was included in the Conspiracy Act. His home was at Bristol in 1780. He died in England in 1814, aged eighty-seven.

Richard Lechmere left no male representatives, his daughters, are represented by Coores of Scrunten Hall, Yorkshire. Sir Edward Russell of Ashford Hall, Ludlow and Worralls, whose representatives now are Sir H.

Lechmere Stuart, Bart., and Eyre Coote of West Park Eyre. In Colonel Lechmere Russell's possession is Ann Winthrop's bible, with, in her son Richard Lechmere's writing, the statement it was his mother's bible. A piece of land at Hanley, in Worcestershire, the residence of the Lechmere's, is called New England, and is planted with oaks, the seed of which were sent from America by Thomas Lechmere, the settler here.

Nicholas Lechmere, son of Thomas Lechmere, and brother of Richard, was born at Boston, July 29, 1772. He was appointed an Officer of the Customs of Newport, Rhode Island. In 1765, fearing the loss of life in the tumult of that year, he fled to the Cygnet, sloop-of-war, and refused to return to his duties without a.s.surance of protection. From 1767 to the commencement of the Revolution, the disagreements between him and the revolutionists were frequent. In December, 1775, he refused to take the oath tendered by General Lee, and was conveyed under guard to Providence. He went to England, and in 1770, was with his brother at Bristol in 1780. He was banished and his estate confiscated.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO RICHARD LECHMERE IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Mungo Mackey, June 11, 1783; Lib. 139, fol. 14; Land and dwelling-house in Boston, Cambridge St. S.; Staniford St. W.; pa.s.sageway N.; Timothy Newell E. and N.; Jeremiah Allen E.----One undivided half of land, brick distill house and other buildings, Cambridge St. N.; George St. E.; heirs of John Guttridge deceased S.; Belknap St. W.

EZEKIEL LEWIS.

William Lewis belonged to the Braintree Company, which in 1632 removed from Braintree to Cambridge, thence about 1636 to Hartford, about 1659 to Hadley, which town he represented in the General Court 1662, from thence to Farmington, where he died Aug., 1683. Captain William Lewis, son of the above, married May Cheever, daughter of the famous schoolmaster. He died 18 Aug., 1690. Ezekiel Lewis, son of Captain William, was born at Farmington, Conn., Nov. 7, 1674. Graduated at Harvard College in 1695. In 1699 it was decided that the town of Boston required an a.s.sistant in the Latin School for Mr. Ezekiel Cheever. It being committed to the Selectmen, Mr. Ezekiel Lewis, his grandson, was selected to fill the position, and to have a salary of not exceeding forty pounds a year. He entered upon his duties the following August. He afterwards became a great merchant in Boston, was Representative 1723 to 1727.

A doc.u.ment dated March 8th, 1707-8 contains the signatures of the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Boston at that period. Ezekiel Lewis' name appears among the seven mentioned. The men who held the position of Overseers were of high standing in the community, and were usually distinguished for their business talents, wealth and charities.[245]

[245] Memorial Hist. of Boston. Vol. IV. P. 646-647.

In 1742, when Faneuil Hall was opened, Ezekiel Lewis was among the Selectmen and representatives of the town of those who were "to wait upon Peter Faneuil, Esq., and in the name of the town to render him their most hearty thanks for so beautiful a gift," etc.

EZEKIEL LEWIS, the Loyalist, was born at Boston, 15 April, 1717, and graduated at Harvard College, 1735. Under the Act of 1777-8, by which the Judge of Probate was authorized to appoint agents for the estates of absentees in each county, the name of Ezekiel Lewis appears in Suffolk County Probate Records, 1779. Docket 16800.

BENJAMIN CLARK.

Dr. John Clark was the first of a prominent Boston family of that name.

He was a gentleman of college education, and a leading physician of that day. He died in 1680, aged 85. Their only son, Hon. Dr. John Clark, of Boston, died in 1690, leaving three sons, John, born 1667, William 1670, Samuel 1677.

HON. WILLIAM CLARK, ESQ. became a wealthy merchant and member of the Governor's Council. His residence was situated in North Square, on the corner of Garden Court and Prince street. This mansion was a monument of human pride, in all colonial Boston there was not its peer, and it was without doubt built to outvie that of Hutchinson's, Clark's wealthy next-door neighbor, whose home was demolished by the mob. The princ.i.p.al feature which distinguished this house, was the rich, elaborate and peculiar decoration of the north parlor, on the right of the entrance hall, which was a rich example of the prevalent style, found in the mansions of wealthy citizens of the colonial period, in and around Boston.

The peculiar decoration consisted of a series of raised panels filling these compartments, reaching from the surbase to the frieze, eleven in all, each embellished with a romantic landscape painted in oil colors, the four panels opposite the windows being further enriched by the emblazoned escutcheons of the Clarks, the Saltonstalls, and other allied families. Beneath the surbase, the panels, as also those of the door, were covered with arabesques. The twelfth painting was a view of the house upon a horizontal panel over the mantel, from which this engraving was made, and beneath this panel inscribed in an oval, was the monogram of the builder, W. C. At the base of the gilded and fluted vault of the buffet was a painted dove. The floor was inlaid with divers woods in multiform patterns. In the center, surrounded by a border, emblazoned in proper colors, was the escutcheon of the Clarks, with its three white swans.

The mere enumeration of the details fails to give an idea of the impression made by this painted and gilded parlor, not an inch of whose surface but had been elaborated by painter, gilder, carver or artist, to which the blazoner had added heraldic emblems; so that, as you looked round these walls, the romantic ruins and castles seemed placed there to suggest, if not to portray, the old homes of a long line of ancestors, and the escutcheons above to confirm the suggestion, thereby enhancing the splendor of the present by the feudal dignity of an august past.

The house is supposed to have been built about 1712-1715, for the land was purchased of Ann Hobby, widow, and several other heirs, December 10, 1711, for 725 current money. If so, Councillor Clark lived many years to enjoy the sumptuousness of his new house and the envy of his neighbors. His death, in 1742, was attributed by some to the loss of forty sail of vessels in the French war. After his death the estate was conveyed to his son-in-law, Deacon Thomas Greenough, for 1,400, old tenor, and was by him sold to Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Bart., for 1,200 sterling. The mansion, afterwards was known as the Frankland House.

There were numerous places in Boston named after Clark. There was Clark's Wharf, afterwards changed to Hanc.o.c.k's, and now known as Lewis; Clark street from Hanover to Commercial, still named, in 1788; Clark Square, now North Square, where the Clark mansion was built, was named in 1708, "The Square living on ye Southly side of the North Meeting House including ye wayes on each side of ye watch-house"; Clark's Corner, 1708, corner of Middle, now Hanover street and Bennet street, Dr. Clark's Corner, 1732; corner of Fish, now North street, and Gallops alley, now Board alley and Clark's Shipyard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CLARK-FRANKLAND HOUSE.]