Annals and Reminiscences of Jamaica Plain | Page 7

royal cause, and, on the morning of the battle of Lexington, he left his home and everything belonging to it, and mounting his horse, "with pistol in hand, rode at full speed to Boston." He never returned, but sailing to England soon after settled in Highgate. During the siege of Boston this house was the headquarters of General Greene, and has the honor of having been visited by General George Washington. Colonel David Henley, who had charge of Burgoyne's captive army while at Cambridge, also occupied this house at one time. For a while, it was converted into a hospital fore the Roxbury Camp, and some fifty of the soldiers who died here were buried on the grounds, near where the Hillside schoolhouse now stands. The remains have since been removed to the old burial ground on Walter Street. This property also was confiscated, by order of the General Court of April 30, 1779, and was then purchased by Colonel Isaac Sears, a successful Boston merchant, who had been one of the most active and zealous of the Sons of Liberty, and a member of the Provincial Congress. Soon after ( in 1784) it became to property of the first David Stoddard Greenough, son of Thomas Greenough, who had been a member of the Committee of Correspondence in the Revolution.
It was in 1769 that the first church in our village was built, upon land given by Eliot, -- on the site of the present stone edifice, -- and names the Third Parish, from its relation to the First Parish on Dudley Street and the Second or Upper Parish on Walter Street. And it was to Mrs. Susanna, wife of Benjamin Pemberton, that it owed its origin. The distance from the other churches, and consequent inconvenience of regular attendance, led her to desire a nearer church home. She proposed to her husband, who possessed large means and had no children or near relations, that they should erect a house of worship, principally at their own expense. He heartily engaged on the project, "and in the course of a year the house was completed, with thirty-four square pews, and three long seats for the poor on each side the broad aisle nest the pulpit on the ground floor. There were five narrow long pews [for the colored people, several of them slaves] in the front gallery against the wall, and long seats for the singers below."
The Rev. William Gordon, a Scotchman by birth, entered upon his duties as first pastor, July 6, 1772. A few months later Mr. Pemberton conveyed to the parish the house which had been removed from Commodore Loring's estate to the site now occupied by Mrs. Dr. weld's house, next to the church for a parsonage. It was occupied by Mr. Gordon during the remainder of his pastorate, and by Dr. Thomas Gray, the second pastor, for sixty years. In 1851 the old house was moved to South Street, and later to Keyes Street, where it still stands. On account of a disagreement with Dr. Gordon, Mr. Pemberton altered his will, in which he had first bequeathed all of his property to this parish "for the support of his future pastors," and left it "in trust for the benefit of the poor of the town of Boston;" and the income of the fund is still used for this specific purpose. Pemberton Square, once lined with many of the fine residences in Boston, and now the site of our new court-house, honors his name.
The first bell on the old church was presented by Governor John Hancock, in 1783, then a resident here, and bore the inscription, "Thomas Lester, of London, made me, 1742." We can readily appreciate the happiness of the people when first called to their house of worship by the voice of this bell, and can weave threads of joy and of sadness around its echoes, In 1852 this old church was dismantled of its spire and removed to the site of the present Eliot Hall. It was subsequently destroyed by fire. While the stone edifice was being erected the congregation occupied the Baptist Church one half of the Sabbath.
We find Dr. William Gordon a very interesting character of the strict Puritan type. In a word-picture drawn by a friend, we see him commissioned by Congress to secure Governor Hutchinson's Letter-books, "as he ambled on his gentle bay horse, in his short breeches and buckled shoes, his reverend wig and three-cornered hat, worthy the spirit of a native-born patriot." It may not be amiss to add that will all Dr. Gordon's admirable characteristics, his faithful work as a minister, his active interest in the cause of American liberty, his unwavering adherence to his convictions as an opponent to the slave trade, and a champion of the Negro,