The Scollay Family

 From an edition of the Harvard Memorial Biographies 

  First Sergeant 33rd Massachusetts Volunteers (Infantry), July 21, 1862; Second Lieutenant, March 3, 1863; killed by guerillas near Bristow Station, Virginia, August 24, 1863. 

 At the end of the undergraduate course at Harvard University each student is requested to write an autobiography, which is preserved as part of the Class records; and perhaps this memoir cannot be better prefaced than by a part of the brief paper which Lieutenant Parker then contributed. 

 “I was born in Boston, October 21, 1840.  My father, William Parker, is the Superintendent of the Panama Railroad, formerly Superintendent of the Boston & Worcester, Baltimore & Ohio, and Boston & Lowell roads.  He was educated at Captain Partridge’s military school.  I belong to the Parker’s of New Jersey, who came over from England in 1670.  All my paternal ancestors held numerous offices under the Provincial, State, and general governments, and seats in Congress, the New Jersey Legislature, and the Governor’s Council.  The family mansion, a large stone building, called The Castle, was fortified in the Revolutionary War.” 

 “I am descended, on my mother’s side, from the Scollay’s and Whitwell’s of Boston, the former an old Norse family (mentioned in the life of Sir Robert Strange), came over from the Orkney’s in 1640; the latter from Colnbrook, in England in 1735.  My mother’s name was Lucy Cushing Whitwell.” 

 “I lived in Boston and Newton till 1848; went to Baltimore in that year; returned to Boston in 1853; went to Chicago in March, 1859, and spending the next year at the latter.  I received at these schools four prizes for Latin and English verses and for mathematics.” 

 “I entered college in 1858.  At the end of six months I left and went to Chicago, where I stayed till December 1860.  I then returned to Cambridge, and rejoined my Class in September, 1861."

 As a child Arthur was a generous, impulsive, mischievous little fellow, very quick-tempered and fond of fun.  A friend of his mother writes: “I remember Arthur as the handsomest, gayest, bravest child I ever saw.  His entire fearlessness often astonished me.  I can see him now as if it were but yesterday, standing on one foot in the hand of his uncle’s outstretched arm, his other foot clasped in his little hand while he balanced himself with his other arm.  There he stood joyous and triumphant.”  When Arthur was nearly nine years old, his father removed to Baltimore.  Here he began his Latin Grammar, and was soon brought forward as the show scholar whenever visitors came to the school, and under its excellent training, his love for the classic languages increased.  He spent much of his leisure time in reading Horace and Lucretius and in writing Latin verses; and when in the second year of the school, gained for a Latin ode the prize which belonged to the first class. 

 It was his way to adopt one or two pursuits, and to follow them with enthusiasm, while he cared little for any others.  About this time he took a great interest in gymnastics, in which he was fitted to excel by a strong and compact frame and a fearless spirit.  He graduated at the Latin School in 1857, taking another prize; and as his father thought it best for him to defer entering college for a year, he entered the second class at the High School.  Here he wrote an English poem entitled, Mens sana in corpore sano, on his favorite subject of physical training, and contrary to custom, he was requested to recite it on the graduating day of the first class. 

 He entered college without conditions, but had been there only six months when an advantageous offer was made to him to go into a store in Chicago, which he thought it best to accept on account of his father’s circumstances at the time, and because although he enjoyed college life, he did not intend to study for a profession.  Arthur’s experience in Chicago was much the same as that of all young men who begin at the foot of the ladder and live with great economy.  His chief pleasures were, as before, reading the classics, studying languages and practicing gymnastics.  In the last he was very proficient.  He writes, “I ended up a coil of rope weighing nine hundred and four pounds a day or two ago…  I have at last learned to pull myself up with one arm, hanging perfectly taught, and starting with a little jerk.” 

 After he had remained at Chicago nearly two years he expressed to his brother a strong desire to return and finish his education; and his parents, on hearing of it, immediately recalled him.  This was December, 1860, and he could not be examined until the following summer.  He told his friends that he meant to enter as a Junior, but he had secretly resolved to rejoin his own Class, from which he had been absent two years.  He studied by himself, and on returning from the examination he surprised and pleased his mother by saying, in his playful way, “Mother, the Faculty and I have concluded that it is not worth my while to stay more than a year in College, so I entered Senior and without conditions.”  He did not study for rank, but preferred to devote himself to whatever he thought he most needed.  His faculty for learning languages was rather remarkable.  Latin was a passion with him.  He received a prize at college as at school for verses in that language.  He was continually making Latin verses in playing upon words, and in the outset of the national struggle his secedere est se coedere found its way into many of the newspapers.  One day he surprised his mother by asking for a copy of Dante, as she knew he had never studied Italian.  He said he did not altogether like the less advanced class, and intended to join one which was studying that book.  His mother expressed her doubts of his ability to learn the lessons, but found that, with very slight assistance at first, he was able to do so.  He was a very good French scholar, and had given some attention to German and Spanish, which last studies he continued while in the army. 

 In the beginning of the war Arthur had expressed a strong desire to go with his companions to the defense of his country, but Acquiesced without a murmur in the wish of his parents that he should finish his college course. Three days after graduating, finding that he could not immediately obtain a commission, he enlisted in the Thirty-third Massachusetts, and was appointed First Sergeant.  The regiment left Lynnfield in the fall of 1862, and was encamped for some time near Alexandria.  Arthur found the position of First Sergeant to be no sinecure.  He writes:  “I am not so content with my position as not to envy the leisurely lieutenant, who is not continually harassed with applications for everything that is missing, or lost in the company, and with request to be “passed out” for wood and water.  He is not like the orderly, between two millstones, the captain and the men, subject to be scolded by the one and grumbled at by the other though I have no right to complain on that account, for my position is not more uncomfortable than that of most of the orderlies, but, on the contrary, generally a pleasant one.” 

 In another letter he says: "Everyone is after the orderly.  Nothing is heard but “Orderly!”, “Sergeant!”, whenever I am near.  I have run myself into real training trim, and feel as active and light as a squirrel.  I have a good deal of fighting to do, answering complaints and composing difficulties, but I rather like it.  It is an intellectual exercise which agreeable varies the physical.  In truth, I am in the best health and spirits.” 

 Arthur’s previous gymnastic training was here of great advantage to him, and enabled him to endure fatigue and hardship.  The October weather was getting cold and stormy.  We left Alexandria and taking the cars for about eighteen miles, camped over night on a hill without shelter, and drenched through as we slept by a pouring rain.  I turned out at three a.m., with one or two others built a fire and waited to day; at whose coming we made coffee and disposed of a box of sardines and a few hard crackers, making a very comfortable breakfast…  Mother makes me laugh when she talks about hardships, for I have suffered nothing yet.  I am exceedingly tough, and in better health and less capable of being fatigued than when I was at home.  I eat with a fine appetite and enjoy my meals with Sancho Panza’s gusto.” 

 The new year found the regiment encamped opposite Fredericksburg.  It was just after our terrible repulse before that city, and the feeling throughout the army was exceedingly gloomy.  The rations were short; many of the men were sick.  The coughing at night sounded mournfully.  Arthur was off duty for a few days, but soon recovered both health and spirits.  Under date of January 25th, after returning from an expedition defeated by rain and mud, he writes “We seem to be destined not to go into a fight.  We were just too late last year for the Bull Run and the Fredericksburg fights, and this expedition has turned out a failure.” 

 In February he replies to a letter from his Aunt as follows: “It is very refreshing to listen to your sentiments in regard to the soldiers and the cause of the Union.  Nothing truer has been said than that the women sustain the war, North and South.  You perceive by this that I am not wanting in appreciation of the influence and importance of the sex.  I received __________’s letter a day or two before yours, and take this opportunity to assure you that my political views are the same as his.  I am first for supporting the government and prosecuting the war by every constitutional means, without regard to prejudices of color or race, and with the destruction of slavery in view as an aid in restoring the Union.  I look on the bright side whenever there is one, and have a good deal to do to fight the desponding views of the men, who are many of them too ready to believe evil reports and to discredit good ones.  Whether or not the direct object of Providence is by means of this war to overthrow slavery, I am convinced that this will be the result, and shall rejoice to see it accomplished.” 

 Arthur was naturally desirous of promotion; but in a letter dated March 8th, expresses himself as follows: “I am in no hurry for a commission.  I am willing to remain Orderly six months if the Colonel does not recognize me as possessing the material for an officer.  If I have to wait for my commission till after a fight, I shall be quite as well satisfied.” 

 He had been promised a lieutenancy in the New Jersey regiment, but he preferred not to leave his own; and he was at length rewarded, as appears from the following extract from a letter of Lieutenant Colonel Underwood: “I always thought your son did a noble thing when he preferred to go into the service at once in the ranks to waiting on the uncertainties of a commission which had been promised him some time.  His conduct has been uniform with this start, and the other day he showed himself quite as high-minded in preferring to stay as a Sergeant in his own regiment to going elsewhere with a commission.  I have once or twice called the Colonel’s particular attention to him and recommended him.  I am very happy to inform you that the Colonel has recommended his to the Governor as Second Lieutenant to fill the vast vacancy, and by this time he is probably commissioned.  I wish we had many more young men like him.” 

 The commission soon arrived, and Arthur writes, “I am much gratified to receive a commission in this regiment, in which I have a pride and an interest.”  He was soon after detailed for duty in the provost guard, but disliked the easy and monotonous life, and was impatient to be again with his company and on the advance; and about the 10th of May he was relieved.  The followed a campaign which is pleasantly described in his letters. 

 Beauton Station
 June 11, 1863 

 “Dear __________, we marched all night the day we left, and the weather was showery.  At about four a.m., we halted at Spotswood tavern and rested till ten; then a day’s march brought us to this point, where we camped at six, p.m., in a fine oak forest.  We carried no tents, only blankets and haversacks.  The next morning the men received six day’s rations additional, which were stowed away in their knapsacks.  We rested all that day, as we had need of doing after marching forty miles in a trifle over twenty-four hours.  At about five p.m., we received sudden orders to march, and made about four miles, when we bivouacked in a wood without fires.  I was so thoroughly rested that I hardly slept at all.  I enjoy this active life intensely.  That march of ours showed no common pluck and endurance on the part of the men.  We lost two men, who fell behind the first night, and one sent back sick.  One company lost eleven; no other over three or four.” 

 In the battle of Gettysburg the regiment was not very actively engaged, but was ordered to support a battery, and in doing so the men were forced to be inactive while exposed to the shelling of the enemy’s guns.  Arthur felt hungry, and gave an instance of his coolness by making a fire against a stone wall and cooking and eating his dinner.  His comrades, whom he invited to share it with him, preferred to wait until a quieter season.  The following letter, written on the 5th, gives a partial account of the battle. 

 “Dear _________, The Baltimore Clipper of the 4th gives a weak account of our successes.  The fight of Friday, p.m., the climax of the whole, had not been heard from.  I have just been to a part of the field where the Rebel masses were urged upon our entrenchments, and met with a terrific slaughter.  I give no newspaper account.  I saw in one place a company of fifty or sixty, with the captain and lieutenant, on one flank, laid out in their ranks nearly as thickly as they advanced in line, occupying about the space of a company and a half.  In five small fields there were, I was told, fully one thousand dead, and my eyes confirmed the estimate.  The wounded had all been removed, and a considerable part of the dead already buried.  Regiments are going out with picks and spades to finish the work.  The Rebels were advanced to within fifteen of twenty rods of the fortifications, when the batteries opened with grape and canister, and the lines rose from the ramparts and poured in their volley.  As for our part, we reached here on the 1st, after a very rapid and trying march.  We took up our position in front of the cemetery and behind a stone fence.  The batteries did all or nearly all the fighting in that quarter, and we were not engaged.  The next day we moved to the right centre, and in the afternoon were taken up to a field in front of one of our batteries.  A Rebel battery soon opened and played on us and the guns we supported for over an hour.  We lay behind the stone fence with the shells bursting all around us.  One shell instantly killed two of our company, another lost his arm, a third was severely wounded.  Other companies also suffered.  Companies I, D and A were then sent out as skirmishers.  Soon after, our battery silenced the Rebels, having exploded a caisson and done other damage.  The Rebel battery drew off.  At dusk the Rebels were evidently preparing to attack, and our skirmishers retreated.  When Companies I and D were within about twenty-five rods of our lines, a column appeared in our rear to our right, immediately behind us.  We quickened our pace, you will believe, and succeeded in getting in without loss, and forming a line with the rest of the regiment behind the stone wall to the right of the battery.  Here we maintained our position with a number of other regiments in the division, and in about fifteen minutes, after a tempest of cannonading and musketry, the Johnnies fled, leaving their dead and many of their wounded on the field.  The regiment lost here about fifteen killed and wounded.  Only the right wing was engaged in this place.  Our men behaved perfectly.” 

 Soon after this Arthur was appointed an Aid on the staff of General Meade, and came home on a short leave of absence early in August.  He rejoined the staff near Warrenton, and found the duties very pleasant.  He writes: “Tell G_____ not to feel any anxiety for my happiness, for I am far happier here than I could possibly be anywhere else.  I am more in my element and more at rest than I ever was before in my life.  I pray God I may always be as happy.” 

 On the 24th of August he visited his regiment, which was then lying about nine miles from head-quarters.  He was last seen by a picket as he was returning, and for a long time he was supposed to have been captured by guerillas: but all inquiries were unavailing.  After fifteen months his friends received certain information of his fate.  

 Captain Rennie of the Seventy-third Ohio reported that on the 11th of September, 1863, he was going with an orderly on horseback from Bristow Station, where Lieutenant Parker’s regiment was, to Catlett’s Station, to join General Howard as an Aid.  The road runs close to a railroad, here and there crossing and re-crossing till it reaches a stream called Kettle Run.  There the road is on the right of the railroad.  The crossing was bad, so that Captain Rennie took another road leading off into higher land.  This route returns the traveler soon to the main road, but takes a circuit of half a mile or more, going up a hill and through a piece of woods.  On the other side of this wood, just before the main road is regained, in a low spot, a sort of ravine, Captain Rennie was met by three men with United States army clothing, though without coats, who, pointing their pistols, called on him to halt.  He replied, “There’s some mistake, you’re of my side.”  He was again asked, “Do you surrender?”  Looking about him he saw that on one side was an impassable ravine, in front these three men, on the other side three more, and behind three others, all clothed in the same way, but armed and aiming at him and his orderly.  So he surrendered himself as a prisoner.  His captors said to him, “Well for you that you did; for we should have served you as we did young Parker, General Mead’s Aid, the other day.”  “How was that?” he asked.  They replied that they had halted him at the same spot; that he did not surrender, but put spurs to his horse to pass through them, and that therefore two of them had fired at him and he had fallen dead; that they had buried him near by in a place somewhat cleared, where there were some scrub oaks, and they pointed out the grave to Captain Rennie.  Captain Rennie’s orderly had dined with one of these men a week before, supposing him to be, as he professed, a Union man.  With one exception they declared themselves to be Mosby’s men. 

 Thus ended a short life, just on the verge of manhood.  Arthur went to the war entirely from feelings of patriotism.  He was by nature a scholar, and had little taste for a soldier’s life.  The rough experience of the army had strengthened him and developed his manliness, and he had found that rest of spirit which comes from the performance of duty.  The tenderness of his affections, his strong sense of justice, his disinterestedness and generosity, endeared him to his family.  He was fastidious in the choice of his friends, and nearly all whom he most loved have fallen with him in the same glorious struggle.  Shall we not believe that they are all rejoicing with us now in the emancipation of a race?  Religious feeling was the foundation of that patriotic ardor which made him so anxious to defend his country when the war first broke out, although his aversion to cant was so strong that he rarely spoke on religious subjects. 

 This memoir can be better ended than by an extract from the letter of a classmate: 

 “I cannot close without offering my personal tribute to the many character, activity of mind, and generosity of heart which so distinguished Arthur when with us, and with which he must have won the respect and esteem of all through life.  Our Class has not refused to send its members to do battle for our country’s right, and that they have done their duty is fully proved by the large number who have fallen in their country’s defense.  Arthur won the esteem and respect of his classmates by his studiousness, talents, and ability as a scholar, and their admiration by his courage, his manliness, and fearless devotion to duty as a soldier and a patriot.” 

 By  the recent deaths of William Scollay Whitwell and W. Scollay Whitehall, Jr., the famous Scollay family so - prominent a hundred years and more ago, but which has gradually passed away has become practically extinct.  A few descendants are still with us, however, and although the name itself has ceased to exist, yet Scollay square is the token that is left of the memory of the founder of the family. Very little has been written about the Scollays, but I have gathered together some interesting facts from newspaper clippings and various other sources, which may be acceptable to lovers of traditions of old Bostonians.

Before sketching the history of Scollay's building, I would like to mark out, as clearly as possible, the condition of the surrounding land about the latter half of the eighteenth century. South of the building, including the entire street known as Tremont Row, to the opening to Pemberton Square, west side of Tremont street to Beacon street, stood a row of fine residences, with gardens between and behind them.  For its whole length it was known as Tremont street, but that part now called Tremont row was also sometimes laid down on the maps as Pemberton hill.

The residence of William Powell was on the corner where the Hemenway building now stands. The upper covered end of what was then Cornhill was then covered with buildings, and the street itself formed part of numerous back yards. A narrow lane, then called Hillier's ladle, was all that marked the after-course of Brattle street.

In the centre of the space bounded by Court and Tremont Streets stood a long row of buildings, of which Scollay's building was the largest. At the eastern end of that structure stood a wooden building, two stories high, of irregular form, being wider at its point of contact with the brick building then at the end nearest to the present once of the United States Trust Company. It was owned by Colonel Scollay, and was regarded as a part of the block which formerly bore that name. It was occupied by one Turell for a museum.  In was in a central location, light and airy, and filled with curiosities.

Scollay's building proper was a two-storied structure of brick. It was then occupied above for offices and on the basement floor by merchants. Here was, for a long time, the greatest tea store in Boston. Beyond, to the westward, were several buildings in a row, known as the Bridge estate, and one or two others, the whole being terminated by a wedge-shaped structure, one story and stretching out to a sharp point at the in height, head of Hanover street, directly opposite Concert hall On the Tremont row side it was simply a dead wall, but on the Court street side were the entrances to little location, was light and toy shops and other small trading stands. The intermediate buildings were occupied at various times for dwellings and for stores.

The title to the property was, in 1774, in Joseph Russell, and was deeded to him in that year to William Vassall. I have not been able to discover with any degree of certainty who Joseph Russell was, but he is supposed by some to have been a near relative of Benjamin Russell, printer of the Columbian Centinel, early Boston newspaper.  The deed, still in the possession of a descendant of Colonel Scollay, with other subsequent deeds, mentions a building as standing on the lot, and the price paid for the whole property was 300 pounds.   Mr. William Vassall, to whom it was sold, was at the time a resident of Cambridge and a rich land-owner.   The house of Professor Longfellow stands upon a part of his Cambridge estate.

But Vassall was an adherent of the King, and, during the Revolutionary war, fled to England.  The Property stood in his name, nevertheless, until 1795, when he sold it to Patrick Jeffry for 160 pounds.   This second deed does not mention any house as standing on the lot conveyed, and it is not improbable that the building mentioned in Russell's deed was of wood, and had been destroyed by fire some time during the twenty-one years it had been the property of Mr. Vassall.

Mr. Jeffry sold the estate before the beginning of the century, the building afterwards known by his name, but undoubtedly put up by Mr. Jeffry, and as he originally constructed it, was then upon it.  The title remained with Colonel Scollay and his heirs until Jan. 7, 1868, when it was transferred to Mr. Arioch Wentworth for $100,000.  Several years later he sold to the city of Boston for $200,000 and the building was torn down.

The Scollays were an old Scotch family, and came from the Orkney Islands, but it is not easy to ascertain when the first of the name emigrated to this country.  John Scollay is mentioned in Drake's History of Boston as having leased the Winnisimmet Ferry for one year, as early as 1692, and in 1695 it was again leased to him for seven years. John Scollay, the father of William Scollay, was the first of the name who attained much prominence in Boston. His portrait, painted by Copley, and that of his wife, a crayon by the same artist, are now in possession of Miss Mary Bigelow, a great grand-daughter.  He is represented as a portly and florid man in a plain, brown dress, and with a powdered wig, seated, and his hand resting on a book, near which is an inkstand and pen. He is mentioned by Drake as having signed a petition to the King in 1761 with about fifty others of the principal merchants of the town of Boston, to complain of the illegal action of the revenue officers of the Crown. In 1764 he was chosen the third of seven Selectmen, a board in which he was afterwards brought into prominence.  The records do not show, however, that he was re-elected the following year.  In 1747 he was elected one of the Fire-wards of the town, which shows him to have been a man of public spirit and coolness, in the opinion of his townsmen.  In March, 1784, the town voted “Thanks unto John Scollay, Esqr. for his good and faithful Services as a Fire Ward for thirty-five years past." At a subsequent period in his life, in 1788, he was chosen President of the Scots Charitable Society.

Among the prominent men mentioned by Frothingham in his Siege of Boston, John Scollay is spoken of as a man “of much public spirit, energetic and firm." He was again elected to the board of Selectmen in l 773, and the following year became chairman, which position he held during the whole of the Revolution and until 1790 or for a period of sixteen years, and up to the time of his death. At the beginning of the siege he, with others, sent a note to General Washington, then in Cambridge, to request some favor in the name of Colonel Howe, the British commander, but the note was returned with an unfavorable answer. 

At the evacuation, he was among the prominent men of the town in the rejoicings of the people at the deliverance of Boston, and his social correspondence with General Washington on that occasion is still preserved in the family. Colonel William Scollay, son of John, derived his title from his commission as Colonel of the famous Boston Regiment, which included most of the military companies of the town, to which position he was elected Aug. 20, 1792. His name and address are Contained in the first Directory of Boston, published in 1789. His occupation was that of an apothecary and druggist, and his place of business was at No. 6 Cornhill, now Washington street.

He was chosen one of the Clerks of the Market in 1788, Selectman 1792-95 and Fire-ward annually from 1792 to 1806 inclusive. In 1796 he received a vote of thanks from the town '' for his good services as a Selectman a number of years past," and in 1807 a similar vote was passed recognizing his service as Fire-ward.

Quite early in life, however, he abandoned trade and gradually became an extensive operator in real estate.  His home was at first on or near the spot where the Boston Museum formerly stood, north of King's Chapel burying-ground, and his garden extended back to near the line of Court square.  He afterwards removed to the Bussey house, in Summer Street, and while there was associated with Charles Bulfinch and other prominent men of the town in the improvement of Franklin street. That enterprise was was originally started on the Tontine plan, which would give to the last survivor of the owners a title to the whole property; but owing to some difficulties the temporarily popular plan was abandoned.

On the crescent of Franklin place was erected the first block of buildings built for himself a dwelling-house on this new street, and lived there up to the time of his death, which in Boston occurred in 1809.  He had been interested in the development of South Boston; was one of the advocates of the Federal-Street bridge, which was at the time successfully opposed – and owned a large tract of land in South Boston, upon and near Dorchester Heights.  He had at one time intended to build a dwelling-house for himself on that eminence, had already excavated the cellar, but he afterwards abandoned the project.  Some time after his death, however, about the year 1815, the family moved to South Boston.  Colonel Scollay was the youngest but one of eight sons of John Scollay, who also left several daughters; one of those daughters married Colonel Thomas Melville who was known as "the last of the cocked hats.”

Colonel Melville was one of the Boston Tea Party, and Mrs. Melville suspected that her husband had some important business on hand, and as he lay sleeping the morning after the Party, she discovered tea in the shoes he had worn. This she carefully kept without asking as she was wise enough to know that secrecy was imperative, and when she heard of what had happened, she naturally realized that her husband had been one of the “Mohawks."  These tea-leaves were preserved in a bottle, which was in the possession for a long time of the family, but later on, it is said, found its way to the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. Colonel Scollay and Thomas Melville were both members of The Lodge ; the former was its presiding officer 1788-91 , and also held prominent offices in the Grand Lodge.

William Scollay was the only one of the eight brothers who left sons to arrive at manhood, and both of the two who survived him died without leaving children.  It therefore happens that there is no family now living who bears the name of Scollay.  One of Colonel Scollay's daughters was the wife of the late Dr. Jacob Bigelow. Sir Robert the celebrated engraver, and Malcolm Laing, who made himself famous in Scottish literary circles in the eighteenth century, were connections of the Scollay family in the old country. The corner-stone of the State House was laid with Masonic rites on the 4th of July, 1795, and among the names inscribed on the silver plate was:

Right Worshipful Wm. Scollay
Deputy Grand Master.

Colonel William Scollay had a sister named Mercy Scollay, who lived in Medfield.  She was a close friend of Benedict Arnold. Arnold was very much interested in the three younger children of General Warren, and they were placed in the care of Mercy Scollay. On July 15, 1778, he wrote a letter from Philadelphia, informing her that he was trying to have an order passed by the Government providing that the three children should be cared for and educated at public expense, and when of age the sum of 1000 pounds should be given as a portion to each.  Furthermore, he said in his letter that if the order was not passed he desired that the children should remain in her care, that he alone would bear the whole expense of their support and education.

The first of the row of buildings between Tremont row and Court street to yield to the demand for more room was Turell 's Museum, which was sold to the town and pulled down about the year 1814.  This was probably done in consequence of the proposition to cut through the street now known as Cornhill.  That thoroughfare was laid out about the year 1816 or 1817, and was at first called Market street.  In I 828, when North and South Market streets had been laid out, the name of Market street was changed to Cornhill.

Tremont street originally reached only to Winter street; the continuation as far as Boylston street, then Frog lane, was Common street, and beyond Frog lane it was Nassau street. Common street is now nowhere near the Common, and Nassau street is the name applied to a small street off Harrison avenue.  Marlboro and Newbury streets, in the Back Bay, are names recalling those once given to parts of what now constitute Washington street.  Brattle street was opened a few years after Cornhill, the old line of Hillier's lane being adhered to. The opening of this street was the original cause of the removal of the long line of buildings from the Bridge estate to Hanover street.

There was, about the year 1841, an agitation in favor of the demolition of the whole row, and an earnest effort was made to secure an appropriation of $10,000 for that purpose. The scheme was, however, strenuously opposed. The pretext for the removal was that the heavy omnibuses and stage coaches, some- times four and six-horse teams, entering and coming Brattle nest of hotels and street, then boarding-houses, did not have room to turn, and the city was asked to afford relief in the interests of the traveling public. The movement failed, and the buildings stood for a long time thereafter.

The wall at the pointed end of the row was low, and a person standing on the sidewalk, just east of where Copeland's store was - the upper side of the street was higher then - could look over the wall and see the people on the opposite sidewalk, near the Oriental Tea Store. When the colored population of the city used to celebrate West Indies Emancipation, by a procession on "Bobolition Day," as it was called, the line, led by Peter Gus, always passed through Court street at a fixed hour. The boys regularly collected on the Tremont row sidewalk in swarms, and testified their gratification at the abolition of slavery by souvenirs in the shape of potatoes, rotten lemons, eggs and other missiles of the kind. All this abusive treatment ceased with the demolition of the buildings, about the year 1848. At the same time, the Bridge estate was purchased by the city.

Scollay's building was originally only two stories high on the upper or south side. Some time after it was erected the idea was conceived of digging a cellar, the building having been at first without one.  This was dug smaller than the building, and walls were built up to protect the foundations from caving.  When the grade of Tremont row was changed, at the time of the Pemberton square improvement, the land about the south side of the building was dug away and thus for the first time the basement floor became available and desirable for business purposes.

Among the occupants of the building about this time, and before, were the Hon. James Savage, who had his law office there; Mr. John H. Rogers, who removed to the opposite corner after the improvement of Pemberton square, and in the basement was the famous barber shop of Bob New.  New's sign was an immense painted caricature of the hair-dresser's profession, and New himself, was the Boston Joe Miller of the period.  In the same building, or in one of those in the row, was the largest thread store in the town. Mr. Joseph Bridge kept a grocery store in which he also sold plants and seeds.  For some time before the portion opposite Concert hall was demolished, one of the engines of the Boston Fire the basement was the famous Department was stationed there.

Still later the whole of Scollay's building was leased to a Mr. Dimmock for a term of years.  The lessee proposed to add two stories to the building. The heirs of Colonel Scollay employed two practical mechanics, one of them Mr. William Washburn, examine the structure to see whether it would be safe to more weight to the foundations.  They reported that it was “fully able to carry two more stories,'' and pronounced the foundations entirely safe, notwithstanding the excavation of the cellar. Mr. Dimmock then proceeded with the work.

In spite of its central location and its light and airy situation, Scollay’s building was never a favorite with tenants of any kind.  The rooms were small and uncomfortable, and owing to the isolated position of the building, access to it was difficult across the crowded streets that surrounded it. It does not appear, from examination of the records, that any men very famous in the history of Boston or in national affairs, excepting Mr. Savage and Mr. Rogers, have ever occupied offices in it. The historical associations were altogether with the building itself.
 

William Scollay was born Nov. 24 1756 and married Catherine Whitwell Oct. 5, 1780.  She was born in 1760.  They had: Catherine, born July, 1781; died August, 1781.  Catherine, born Feb. 27, 1783 ;  died 1863. William, born February, 1885 ; died September, 1813.  Lucy Cushing, born I 788 ; died September, I 883. (She married Benjamin Whitwell in 1808, and the mother of William S. Whitwell, Sr.)  John, born 1789 died 1790.  Mary, born January 1793, died 1882. (She married Dr. Jacob Bigelow in 18 I 7, whose daughter, Bigelow, is now living in Boston and is in perfect health at the age of 82, and whose grandson, William Sturgis Bigelow, is living in Boston.) Anne Wroe born November, I 794 ; died 1845 . (She married Charles P. Curtis.) Elizabeth Hamilton, died aged 11 years.

William S. Whitwell, Sr., was born May 23, I 809, and died Oct. 31, 1899. He had a sister, now Mrs. William Parker, who is still living and is enjoying perfect health and activity at the ripe age of 95 years. She lives in Brookline and seems to be in the fullness of life.  William Scollay Whitwell died a few months ago, leaving a widow (Blanche Bonestelle) and three sons, William Scollay Whitwell, Jr., Cutler Bonestelle Whitwell and Sturgis Bigelow Whitwell. His sisters, Miss Mary H. Whitwell and Mrs. William Tudor and reside in Boston.

For much of this information I am indebted to Mrs. William Parker, Miss Mary Bigelow, Mrs. William Tudor, and Mr. Charles P. Greenough. It is to be about the regretted that so little has been written about the Scollays, and that the information which can be obtained, treating directly of this fine old family, is so meagre. But, if the students of history will trace out its different collateral branches, their work will be one of absorbing interest, and it will be found that John Scollay's descendants have been title their ancestry. By their loyalty and conservatism they have always been honored citizens, and have taken the first place in every movement that would promote the welfare of the community in which they have been so beloved.