limits of Boston. One house & garden bounded wth the streete southeast: the cove northwest: & on the northeast Robert Hull.” He was chosen constable* 14, 1: 1652—3, and sealer of leather,t 4: 1: 1658—9. In the Journalt of Capt. John Hull, ‘ Treasurer at Warr,” and afterward Treasurer to the Colony, his name is found under date of March 21, 167.5. Whether this entry relates to military service or not, is not quite clear. He was one of the inspectors chosen, April 24, 1676, under an order of the General Court, pa8sed Oct. 13, 1674, to prevent excessive drinking in private houses$ and was one of the signers of the petition of the “Handycraftsmen, a very considerable part of the Town of Boston,” to the General Court,Ij May 29, 1677, for protection in their several callings. At
lished by the Trustees of the Public Library, Boston, 1881, does not attempt to show this lot. Mr. Winsor, in the Memorial History of Boston (II. vi.), indicates the tract on the West side of Hanover Street, between Cross and Blackstone Streets, and says, “Zaccheus Bosworth land hereabout. Also probably in this neighborhood, but not easily placed, the houses and gardens of Bartholomew Cheever, John Arnold, John Jackson and a lot of Robert Hull the blacksmith.” I have spent no little time in trying to fix the exact site of Bartholomew Cheever’s house and garden, hut the result of the search has not thus far been very satisfactory. The Index now in use to deeds recorded in the Suffolk Registry of Deeds prior to A.D. 1800, is extremely defective and cannot be relied upon. It will have to be superseded shortly by a new and better one. But this is not all. The whole system of indexing the land records Is a very imperfect one. it occasions an enormous waste of time and ruin of eyesight, and even then there are lands the titles to which cannot be examined by means of the indices now provided for the purpose. In Some Suggestions on the Proper Mole of Indexing the Public Records,” published by me in the REGISTER for January, 1880 (xxxiv. 41), the disadvantages under which the searcher now labors are set forth more at length. The conveyanccr of the future will have much better facilities afforded him than we now have, and will be able to trace the titles to estates, which can only be done imperfectly, if at all, under the present system, after much wearisome toil and drudgery.
The estate which is at what is now the southwest corner of Blackstone and Hanover Streets was the property of Bartholomew Cheever as early at least as 1653. It extended from the long Street over Mill Bridge” anover St.] to “the lane leading down upon Mill Creek” ink Alley, afterward North Federal Court, discontinued by order of the Board of Aldermen September 7, 1857, and now for the most part built over. (Sec Suffolk Deeds, Lib. 738, fol, 35—43, 128-134; Lib. 739, fol. 214; Lib. 742, fol. 68; Lih 141.5, fol. 199 )]. Here Bartholomew Cheever was living at the time of his death in 1693. In his will lie describes it as a “dwelling house, shop, cellars, yard, garden,” with “ ye conduit” near It, and after the decease of his wife Lydia he devises it to his “ cousin” Richard Cheever, until Bartholomew Checvcr, son of Richard, shall come to the age of twenty-one years. and then to said Bartholomew in fee.
By the will of Bartholomew Cheever, the second of the name, probated April 17, 1772, the estate passed to William Downes Cheever, his nephew and residuary legatee and de visee. William Downes Cheever by his will, probated Feb 12, 1788, devised to his daughtar Elizabeth. “my Estate near the Mill Bridge situated on Hanover Street now under lease to Mr. Richards” [Suffolk Deeds, Lib. 186. fol. 931. By her will (No. 29647), dated May 29, 1827, probated Sept. 19, 1831, she devised the rest and residue of her estate to “Dr George Cheyne Shattuck & Eliza his wife, and their heirs forever.” Eliza Cheever (Davis) Shattuck died June 1.5. 1828, intestate. Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck died March 18, 1854, testate, leaving a widow, Amelia H. Shattuck, who died Nov. 10, 1865, and as his only next of kin a son Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck. The latter, his residuary legatee, now owns the estate.
Thus for more than two centuries this piece of property has been in the possession of the same family, although now in the female line. In the outlying suburbs and recently annexed districts of Boston, lands may of course he found which have been in the occupation of some one family for several generations. But in the city proper, where the character of neighborhoods is undergoing constant change, where the encroachments of business are incessant, and where whole quarters but recently occupied by dwelling houses. are now covered with warehouses and shops, it is very unusual indeed for real estate to remain in the hands of members of the family of the original owner for such a length of time. If there is another instance in old Boston of an ancestral estate so held from the early days of the Colony, until now, without having been once conveyed to strangers ty deed, I should be glad informed of the fact..
* Town Records, i. 103.
+ Ibid i. 149.
++A MS. Journal in the library of the N. E. Hist. Gen. Society containing the treasurer’s accounts. Those relating to the military affairs of the colony begin June 2.5, 1675, and the general accounts of the government May 19 following.
Town Records, ii. 98
Drake's Hist. of Boston, p. 427.
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