Chapter III: The Boston Cornfields

It will hardly be realized at the present time that Boston, or the peninsula which originally comprised the town, was ever occupied by cornfields, or, as one may almost say, was a cornfield. If there were cornfields, as we assume there were, the curious thing about them is, that we know so little of them; for it can scarcely be said that they hold a place in history. There are, in fact, no definite statements about them; and a mystery seems to hang over them as to where they were, who owned them, who cultivated them, and what was done with the harvest. Were they private property or public property? We have not been able to find in contemporary or subsequent history any account of the Boston cornfields that will enable us with certainty to answer this question. The fair inference from statements made, however, is, that they were to some extent both public and private property. Perhaps the first allusion to them to be found in any record is that in 1632,--and there could have been no corn planted in Boston earlier than 1631, unless by Blackstone,--and this allusion is in the name of "Corne Hill." In 1632, May 24, "it was agreed to build a fort in that part of Boston called Corne Hill," meaning what thereafter was called Fort Hill; and one historical writer, quoting the record, says a fortification was begun on "_the_ corn hill;" and that was probably the only Corn Hill at that time. The question naturally arises, Why was it called Corn Hill? and the almost necessary answer to the question is, Because it was where corn was grown.

There can be no doubt that it became necessary, as early as possible, for the settlers to seek means for their future subsistence. The stock and supply of provisions brought over were, no doubt, for a time and under certain regulations, a common stock; and possibly some of Gov. Winthrop's party had supplies of their own in addition thereto. But, at all events, prudence and self-preservation required immediate attention to the cultivation of the soil and the raising of corn and other grains.

In 1628 (1629), before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop and his company at Charlestown, the place had been occupied by the Spragues, from Salem, under the direction of Mr. Graves, an agent of the company; and one of the first things they did was "to model and lay out the form of the town, with streets about the hill," which was approved by Gov. Endicott. They next "jointly agreed and concluded that each inhabitant have a two acre lot to plant upon and all to fence in common." The same year Mr. Graves wrote to England, "The increase of corne is here farre beyond expectation," showing that it had been grown, and most probably in the common cornfield; for it is afterwards said that Thomas Walford "lived on the south end of the westermost hill of the East Field." Another vote was passed the next year, 1630,--probably before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop,--that each person "dwelling within the neck, shall have two acres of land for a house plot, and two acres for every male that is able to plant."

In the months of June and July, 1630, Gov. Winthrop and his party arrived at Charlestown, after a passage by some of the ships of seventeen or eighteen weeks, many of them sick of the scurvy. "The multitude set up cottages, booths and tents about the Town Hill;" and it is said "provisions were exceedingly wasted, and no supplies could now be expected by planting; besides, there was miserable damage and spoil of provisions at sea." Many of the party died,--some two hundred before December,--and others started out for other locations; and finally in September, 1630, by the invitation of Mr. Blackstone, the larger part of Gov. Winthrop's party crossed the river to Boston. This year there was a scarcity of corn, as will be seen by the following extract from Hutchinson's history:--

"In August, 1724, John Quttamug, a Nipmug Indian, came to Boston,
above 112 years of age. He affirmed that in 1630, upon a message that
the English were in want of corn, soon after their arrival, he went to
Boston with his father, and carried a bushel and a half of corn all
the way on his back; that there was only one cellar began in town, and
that somewhere near the _Common_."

Wood, in speaking of Boston in 1639, says, "This place hath very good land, affording rich cornfields and fruitful gardens," which, no doubt, were in existence years before he wrote his book. In 1635, it was voted, "Each able man is allowed two acres, and each able youth one acre to plant." Provision of some sort on the subject was no doubt made before this time, and gradually reached the regulation here recorded. In 1633, great scarcity of corn is mentioned by Winthrop, as he says, "By reason of the spoil of our hogs, there being no acorns, yet the people lived well with fish and the fruit of their gardens."

Almost as a natural consequence of what has now been said, in March, 1636, we find that provision was made "for having sufficient fences to the Cornfielde before the 14th of the next second month (April); that for every defective rod then found, five shillings penalty;" and it was further provided, "The field toward Rocksberry to be looked into by Jacob Elyott and Jonathan Negoose; the Fort Hill, by James Penn and Richard Gridley; the Mylne field, by John Button and Edward Bendall, and the New Field by John Audley and Thomas Faireweather."

Thus it will be seen, if the rule adopted was carried out, that there were four or more large cornfields in Boston, and that the principal work of the people for a time was the raising of corn. At a later period parcels of corn were occasionally presented or sent to the governor by the Indians, who had their cornfields before the English people arrived. In fact, it is recorded in the next month after the arrival of Winthrop, that so much provision had been sold to the Indians for beaver, that food became scarce; and in October, 1630, a vessel was sent to the Narragansetts to trade, and brought home one hundred bushels of corn. In May, 1631, corn in Boston was ten shillings a bushel, as probably much was required for planting at this time. In August, 1633, a great scarcity of corn was reported; and in November, the next year, a vessel arrived from Narragansett with five hundred bushels of Indian corn. It is very clear that corn was very early, and for some time, the great dependence of the settlers.

In Plymouth Colony, in 1630, the salary of the messenger of the General Court was thirty bushels of corn. In 1685, the secretary's wages was fifteen pounds a year, payable in corn at two shillings per bushel. In 1690, "one third the Governor's salary ordered to be paid in money, the rest in corne."

In 1637, April 16, "all the fences and gates to be made up. Sargeant Hutchinson and Richard Gridley to look after the Fort Field; John Button, James Everett and Isaac Grosse, in the Mill Field; Wm Colburn and Jacob Elyott on the Field next Roxburie." Again, in 1640, March 30, "To look to the fences: Richard Fairbanks and William Salter the field towards Roxbury; Benj. Gillam and Edmd. Jacklyn, the Fort Field; Wm. Hudson and Edward Bendall the New Field; Mr. Valentine Hill and John Button, the Mill Field."

Dr. Shurtleff, in his "Topographical and Historical Description of Boston," enumerates five fields as follows, and speaks of them as ungranted lands: "The land around Copps' Hill, was known as the Mylne Field, or Mill Field; that around Fort Hill, the Fort Field; that at the Neck, the Neck Field, or the Field towards Roxbury; that where Beacon Hill Place now is, Centry Hill Field, and that west of Lynde Street, and north of Cambridge, the New Mill Field, or the New Field." And to show that these were not waste lands or pastures, the writer enumerates the various pastures for cattle, besides the privileges at Muddy Brook and Winnisimmet, as follows: "Besides the fields there were many pastures, so called: Christopher Stanley's was at the North End, covering the region of North Bennet Street, between Hanover and Salem Streets; Buttolph's was south of Cambridge Street; Tucker's, in the neighborhood of Lyman Street; Rowe's, east of Rowe Street; Wheeler's, where the southerly end of Chauncy Street is; Atkinson's, where Atkinson Street was a few years ago, and where Congress Street now is." And besides these he names Leverett's on Leverett Street; Middlecott's on Bowdoin Street; another on Winter and Tremont Streets, and, as he says, "a very large number of other great lots."

And strange to say, in all this history, contemporary or modern, in only a single instance, so far as we know, are these fields or any one of them spoken of as a "cornfielde," and that is in the order of 1636, above quoted. There is, however, one other reference to them made, in 1657, in the body of instructions prepared for the selectmen to guide them in the discharge of their duties: "Relying on your wisdom and care in seeking the good of the town, we recommend that you cause to be executed all the orders of the town which you have on the records," &c., "as found in the printed laws under the titles Townships, Freeman, Highways, Small Causes, Indians, Cornfields," &c., which would assuredly show that there were cornfields in the town, distinct from pastures or waste lands, undoubtedly laid out and divided among the people, as already indicated, for their special cultivation.

If, as we believe, the "fields" enumerated were cornfields, and cultivated in the manner suggested,--at first one field, and year by year, as necessity should require, a new field added,--there would naturally become, among a people situated as they were, a necessity for a granary for the storing and preservation of their crops. Consequently, in the enumeration of public buildings in Boston at a later period, we find mentioned "a public granary." The burying-ground on Tremont Street, known as the Granary Burying-Ground, was laid out on land taken from the Common in 1660, and, of course, took its name from the granary, which was built soon after on what was afterwards Centry Street, and now Park Street. Shurtleff says the land was first taken for the purpose, and "then, when the need came, a building, eighty feet by thirty feet, for a public granary, was erected, and subsequently, in 1737, removed to the corner, its end fronting on the principal street (Tremont). It stood until 1809, when it gave place to Park Street Church." So that, though latterly for some years used for another purpose, the granary stood in Boston for more than one hundred and forty years. It is described as a long wooden building, and was calculated to hold twelve thousand bushels of corn.

In 1733, it would seem that corn or other grain continued to be grown in Boston, as in October of that year it was determined to erect a granary at the North End, "not to exceed L100" in cost. In the records of the selectmen, it is called a meal-house, and John Jeffries, Esq., and Mr. David Colson, two of the selectmen, were to contract for the work on a piece of land near the North Mill, belonging to the town.

So that at what time the cultivation of corn ceased in Boston, it is impossible to tell; but it would seem, from the necessity for a new granary in 1733, that it must have continued for considerably more than a hundred years after the settlement of the town.