The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees

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  Little Pilgrimages

  The Romance of
  Old New England
  Rooftrees

  By

  Mary C. Crawford

  Illustrated

  [Illustration]

  Boston
  L. C. Page & Company
  Mdcccciii




  _Copyright, 1902_
  _by_
  _L. C. Page & Company_
  (_Incorporated_)

  _All rights reserved_

  _Published, September, 1902_

  Colonial Press
  Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
  Boston, Mass., U.S.A.


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[Illustration: SIR HARRY FRANKLAND. (_See page 48_)]




FOREWORD


These little sketches have been written to supply what seemed to the
author a real need,--a volume which should give clearly, compactly, and
with a fair degree of readableness, the stories connected with the
surviving old houses of New England. That delightful writer, Mr. Samuel
Adams Drake, has in his many works on the historic mansions of colonial
times, provided all necessary data for the serious student, and to him
the deep indebtedness of this work is fully and frankly acknowledged.
Yet there was no volume which gave entire the tales of chief interest to
the majority of readers. It is, therefore, to such searchers after the
romantic in New England's history that the present book is offered.

It but remains to mention with gratitude the many kind friends far and
near who have helped in the preparation of the material, and especially
to thank Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers of the works of
Hawthorne, Whittier, Longfellow, and Higginson, by permission of and
special arrangement with whom the selections of the authors named, are
used; the Macmillan Co., for permission to use the extracts from Lindsay
Swift's "Brook Farm"; G. P. Putnam's Sons for their kindness in allowing
quotations from their work, "Historic Towns of New England"; Small,
Maynard & Co., for the use of the anecdote credited to their Beacon
Biography of Samuel F. B. Morse; Little, Brown & Co., for their marked
courtesy in the extension of quotation privileges, and Mr. Samuel T.
Pickard, Whittier's literary executor, for the new Whittier material
here given.

                                                         M. C. C.

                               _Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1902._


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     "All houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted houses."

                                                        _Longfellow._

     "So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth
     of anything by history."

                                                          _Plutarch._

     "... Common as light is love,
     And its familiar voice wearies not ever."

                                                           _Shelley._

                      "... I discern
     Infinite passion and the pain
     Of finite hearts that yearn."

                                                          _Browning._

    "'Tis an old tale and often told."

                                                             _Scott._


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  Contents


                                                                   _Page_

  Foreword                                                           iii

  The Heir of Swift's Vanessa                                         11

  The Maid of Marblehead                                              37

  An American-Born Baronet                                            59

  Molly Stark's Gentleman-Son                                         74

  A Soldier of Fortune                                                90

  The Message of the Lanterns                                        104

  Hancock's Dorothy Q.                                               117

  Baroness Riedesel and Her Tory Friends                             130

  Doctor Church: First Traitor to the American Cause                 147

  A Victim of Two Revolutions                                        159

  The Woman Veteran of the Continental Army                          170

  The Redeemed Captive                                               190

  New England's First "Club Woman"                                   210

  In the Reign of the Witches                                        225

  Lady Wentworth of the Hall                                         241

  An Historic Tragedy                                                251

  Inventor Morse's Unfulfilled Ambition                              264

  Where the "Brothers and Sisters" Met                               279

  The Brook Farmers                                                  293

  Margaret Fuller: Marchesa d'Ossoli                                 307