The First Town-House in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts Bay Colony was located on the site of the Old State House and served as Boston's first purpose-built town hall and colonial government seat.

Robert Keayne Robert Keayne (1595 – March 23, 1656) was a prominent public figure in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He co-founded the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts and served as speaker of the House of the Massachusetts Gene ...

left £300 in his will for the construction of a marketplace and town-house; this was more than doubled by subscriptions from 104 "Townesmen", and on August 1, 1657, a contract was signed with Messrs. Thomas Joy and Bartholomew Bernad for the construction. The initial price was £400 but the final bill came out to £680. The contract was for "a very substantiall and comely Building...sixty six foot in Length, and thirty six foot in Breadth from outside to outside, set upon twenty one Pillers of full ten foot high ... the wholl Building to Jetty over three foot without the Pillers everie way...according to A modell or draught presented to us, by the sd. Tho. Joy & Barth. Bernad. The time w^ch Payment shall be as followeth viz: one Hund. Pound at the Bringing of the Timber to the Place, A second Hund. at the raysing, a third Hund. at the inclosure & Covering, a fourth at the finishing and Compleating..."Morrison. The wood-frame building was completed and occupied in 1658. A sketch drawn in 1930 based on the original specifications shows an open-walled public market (a traditional medieval form) on the ground floor. Three rows of seven stout posts supported the upper stories, which were walled by broad planks three inches (76 mm) thick, "well grooved into one another" and planed smooth on both sides. The roof was of the meeting-house type: hipped, with a "walke upon the top fourteen or 15 foote wide with two turrets, & turned Balasters and railes, round about the walke". The second story was ten feet high, and the third half-story rooms were lighted by three cross gables on each side. The three-foot overhang "everie way", a very rare feature in non-military architecture, was braced by diagonal struts from the posts and ornamented by corner pendants. A steep stairway, hitched to one end of the building like an inelegant afterthought, clambered to the upper rooms. These consisted of Boston's first public library, a gift of Robert Keayne; a large room "for the courts to meete in both in Winter & Sumer, & so for the Townsmen & commissioners of the Towne"; a room for an Armory (Keayne had organized the

Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world. Its charter was granted in March 1638 by the Great and Gen ...

and become its first commander); and "a gallery or some other handsome roome for the Elders to meete in". The building also housed the Colonial government, with Governors Endecott, Bellingham, Leverett and Bradstreet presiding under the old charter, then

Edmund Andros Sir Edmund Andros (6 December 1637 – 24 February 1714) was an English colonial administrator in British America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. At other times, Andros served ...

, followed by Phips, Stoughton, Bellomont and

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

under the new charter. It was the focal point of Boston's civil and political life: receptions held by governors and prominent citizens; assemblies of the Legislature; meetings of the colony and town officers; the marketplace with its stalls and stores all made it so. In his diary,

Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling ...

recorded many stirring scenes inside and near the town-house. There the revolt against Governor Andros was centered; the same year the first Episcopalian service in Boston was held in the deputies' room.

Captain Kidd William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd ( – 23 May 1701), was a Scottish sea captain who was commissioned as a privateer and had experience as a pirate. He was tried and executed in London in 1701 for murder a ...

was there examined by the governor in 1699; the captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company was elected in the large room in 1701, and the Company exercised there in June 1702. In 1704 Captain Quelch and five other pirates were tried there.Roberts. The building was destroyed in the great fire on the night of 2 October 1711.

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References

* Morrison, Hugh. ''Early American Architecture from the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period'', pp. 88–89. New York: Oxford University Press, 1952. * Roberts, Oliver Ayer. ''History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts'', p. viii. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1901. * ''Re-dedication of the Old State House, Boston, July 11, 1882'', numerous editions, pp. 29–44, 129-132 (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008650953).

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