John Rowe

 
   Benjamin Church's neighbor and fellow mason, John Rowe (1715 - 1787), was born in England but emigrated to Boston with two of his younger brothers some time before 1736. He apparently came with a substantial inheritance since he purchased, at the age of 21 in 1736, a warehouse on Long Wharf. Rowe, a very active Anglican, married a twin sister who was the fist wife of a Cambridge Loyalist and remained close to that family for the rest of his life. Rowe purchased land on Pond Street and proceeded to tear down the house that came with it and built a new one, into which he moved in October 1766. That house was sold after Rowe's widow's death and subsequently torn down in 1845. Rowe's new home sat on nearly three acres of land which was referred to as "Rowe's pasture," on which Rowe raised hay and vegetables as well pasturing sheep and cattle. In addition to his wharf, Rowe had extensive property holdings in Boston as well as thirteen other towns as far away as Connecticut.

   Rowe was a vary industrious merchant, one of the wealthiest men in Boston, whose ships plied up and down the coast and into the Caribbean. Primarily he was a purveyor for the British naval ships that were in and out of Boston harbor; that is, until the conflict between the Bostonians and the Crown made that trade very problematic. One of Rowe's ships, the Eleanor, was one of the ships carrying the tea involved in the Boston Tea Party. According to some accounts, Rowe uttered the words "perhaps salt water and tea will mix tonight" at a meeting called to discuss what action should be taken in reference to the tea. Rowe's diary indicates that he was unwell that night and did not take part in the meeting; however, several  sources placed him at that meeting. It's rather inexplicable that he would lie about himself in his own diary.

   Rowe was not a "Patriot" but rather a "moderate businessman", primarily interested in maintaining his own position and trying to steer a path that would preserve his own interests in a conflict that was becoming more and more incendiary. He belonged to no political clubs but was a member of something called the "Possee", something of  a social club. Rowe attended a social club almost every evening and visited one of Boston's many taverns almost every evening. Although he considered the Crown's position to be harsh, unreasonable, and intolerant of any dissent or opposition, he certainly did not favor any forcible resistance or, indeed, independence. Some historians have related the story that, in 1766 when Rowe was suggested as a representative for Boston, Samuel Adams rather artfully suggested that John Hancock be nominated instead with the utterance of the words: " Is there not another John that may do better?" I, however, would characterize it as one of those pieces of apocryphal gossip that cannot be substantiated and that permeate so much of the history of this period. That Samuel Adams, that master tactician, would choose to alienate the extremely wealthy John Rowe in 1766 is rather hard to swallow. On May 12, 1768 Rowe became the Masonic Provincial Grand Master of North America.
 
   Rowe remained in Boston during the siege, allegedly to safeguard his property, and this did not sit well with many of the Patriots. It seems, however, that he did apply for a pass to remove himself and his effects on April 28, 1775, but, for some reason, it was refused. In any event the British forces upon evacuation from Boston stole goods valued at 2260 pounds sterling from him. Resentment against him was so great that, after the evacuation, when his proposal that he be allowed to join in the ceremonies for the internment of Dr Joseph Warren, a fellow mason (both were very prominent masons), was met with such hostility that he thought it prudent to withdraw. John Rowe was a very active mason and had been named Grandmaster of the "Grand Lodge"  (St John's) in 1768. Joseph Warren was the grandmaster of the "Ancient Lodge" (St Andrew's). Benjamin Church was also an active mason and, in fact, petitioned and received permission to start his own lodge in 1772. The role of the masons in pre-revolutionary Boston is quite more complex than historians, especially masonic historians, would have us believe and Church's activities as a mason will be covered in a separate page.

  After the war, Rowe continued to live a prosperous life and, although he died childless, his home was full of relatives' children.

Dr Church's Boston Home

   Robert Calef,* a prominent Boston merchant, bought a house and land in the south-side of Boston located on the north side of Marlborough Street and Pond Street in 1707-8. In 1771, Benjamin Church, Jr. bought the estate from Calef's heirs. This is presumed to be the house that was later ransacked by a Boston mob and for which Sarah Church claimed compensation from the British Crown. In the 1770s, this part of Boston was like a large village with gardens, residences, and the elegant houses of the rich and fashionable. John Rowe, as previously mentioned, was Church's neighbor and, one could assume from the surviving sketch of his house, that the Calef estate was of the same nature. Since Church's "shop" was located on Newbury Street it was a logical place to live since Marlborough Street south of Winter and Summer Streets changed to Newbury Street directly near this location.

     To give further flavor to the environs, Pond Street was so named because the town watering hole for livestock was located on its north side not far from the corner of Marlborough Street. In 1753 the town sold the pond and land to a Daniel Wheeler so that, at the time of the Revolution, the pond was called Wheeler's Pond.

  It's impossible to locate the site of this house today since this whole area underwent a massive redevelopment in the mid 1970s and 80s.

  Although not shown on the maps below, Samuel Adams lived on Purchase Street where the map indicates "Cow Lane." John Hancock lived on Beacon Hill, and Dr Joseph Warren, along with Paul Revere, lived in the North End.

http://www.mapsorama.com/map-of-boston-in-18th-century/

William Price's 1769 Boston Map - Precisely which is Church's home can not be determined.

John Rowe's Pond (Bedford) St Home

* This was probably Robert Calef, Jr as opposed to his father. In 1707, Robert Sr would have been 59 years old and his son 33. Robert Sr was a Baptist cloth merchant who is best known for the book "More Wonders of the Invisible World," a treatise he wrote in 1707 against the Massachusetts clergy, specifically Rev Cotton Mather, for their role in the Salem Witch trials. Because no Boston printer would publish it, it was printed in England. Rev Increase Mather, father of Cotton, had the book burned in Harvard Yard.  Robert Sr had retired to Roxbury in 1707 where he was a selectman and died in 1719. I  assume that his son kept up the business in Boston.

 Ironically, the home of Samuel Sewall, the only judge who regretted his role in the Salem Witch trials, was just up the street.

Dr Church's Alleged Portrait

   The official records of the Surgeon General of the United States Army list Doctor Benjamin Church Jr as the first surgeon General of the US Army and contain what is purported to be a portrait of him. It's not a particularly flattering portrait of a somewhat foppish man with amazingly bright red lips.
 
    But is it Doctor Church and, if not, who is it? The answer is contained in an official US Army history written in 1905 -  "The Surgeon Generals of the United States Army", by James Even Pilcher, M.D., Ph.d., L.H.D, Major and Brigade Surgeon, Carlisle Press, The Association of Military Surgeons. Dr Pilcher concludes his article on Church with the following:

    and any portrait of him which existed was doubtless destroyed, for an extensive search reveals no trace of the survival of anything of the kind, the portrait accompanying this article being an ideal drawn from contemporary design.

    Undoubtedly the "contemporary design" was of early twentieth century since Dr Church was described by a contemporary as "tall and skinny" and his enemies satirized him as "the cadaver."