On the 6th of July, four days after their arrival, it was by the Congress "Ordered, that the committee of safety [the real Executive of the Congress] be a committee to desire General Washington to let them know if there is any house at Cambridge that would be more agreeable to him and General Lee than that in which they now are; and in that case the said committee are directed to procure such house, and put it in proper order for their reception." On turning to the Records of the Committee of Safety, I find, under the date of July 8th, the following: "Whereas it is necessary that the house. of Mr. John Vassall, ordered by Congress for the residence of his Excellency General Washington, should be immediately put in such condition as may make it convenient for that purpose, therefore, Resolved, that Mr. Timothy Austin be and he is hereby empowered and authorized to put said house in proper order for the purposes above mentioned; and that he procure such assistance and furniture as may be necessary to put said house in proper condition for the reception of his excellency and his attendants."

This house of John Vassall is the one subsequently known as the "Craigie House" and "Washington's Head-quarters.' Sabine tells us, that "early in 1775" Vassall" was driven from his seat by mobs and took up his residence in Boston." Congress had, some time previously, appropriated the house to the use of the Committee of Safety, and as early as the 26th of May that body had directed it to be cleared immediately of "the souldiers now lodged there." Although this house, as well as others in Cambridge belonging to refugees, had been taken possession of for the use of the Government, it was not formally confiscated till some years later. I find no date to determine precisely when Washington took possession of his

that certain persons named "be a committee to wait upon General Lee, to know of him what provision he expects should be made by this Congress for the furnishing of his table." On the 8th, a committee previously appointed reported an order, which was accepted, directing a committee to make inquiry forthwith for some ingenious, active, and faithful man to be recommended to Gen! Washington as a steward; likewise, to procure and recommend to him some capable woman, suitable to act in the place of a housekeeper, and one or more good female servants." Mrs. Washington was now at Mt. Vernon. She joined her husband in Cambridge on the 11th of December following, and remained till the next spring. Ebenezer Austin was appointed Washington's steward soon after the passage of the order above given, and served as long as Washington remained in Cambridge. On the 9th of July the Congress "resolved that Deacon Cheever be a committee to bring in a resolve, empowering the committee of supplies to furnish General Washington with such articles of household furniture as he had wrote to said committee for." The Provincial Congress was dissolved on the 19th of July; and on the same day the House of Representatives, composed principally of the same persons, met at the same place. On the 22d of July the House "Resolved, That the Committee of Safety be desired to complete the furnishing General Washington's house, and in particular to provide him four or five more beds."

new quarters. It was probably during the month of July. It would require some days to put the house in order for him. I find in Washington's own account-book, under date of July 15th, a charge for having himself paid a sum of money for cleaning the house assigned for his quarters, it having been occupied, he says, by the Marblehead Regiment. In Thacher's "Military Journal," which is not a diary, but a record of events, sometimes under a particular month, and sometimes under the day of the month, I find under the date of "July," when the record is supposed to have been made, an account of the battle of Bunker Hill, and of the arrival of Washington in Cambridge, which latter event he did not witness personally. Thatcher entered upon his duties as assistant surgeon in the hospital there on the 15th of July, and in his record of that month he says that Washington had "established his headquarters in a convenient house about half a mile from Harvard College, and in the vicinity of our hospital." This is followed by an entry under the date of July 20th; and if we may suppose the entries to have been originally made as indicated in the printed volume, it would show that Washington, at this time, was already settled in his new quarters. It is probable that General Lee did not share these quarters with Washington. The Commander-in-chief was no doubt glad to be rid of a man so slovenly in his personal habits as was Lee.* In a letter from Washington's private secretary, Joseph Read, to his wife, dated July 26th, he says: "Our family is much reduced by the departure of General Lee, who has taken the command of part of the army, and has his quarters four miles from us, at General Royal's." The Royal House was in Medford.

A reorganization of the army had been proclaimed by Washington on the 22d of July. It was formed into three grand divisions. The first division or right wing was placed under the command of Brigadier-General Ward at Roxbury; two brigades, one posted on Winter Hill, and one on Prospect Hill, as the left wing or second division, were placed under the command of General Lee. The reserve was placed under the command of Putnam whose quarters were at Cambridge. He occupied the "Inman House." I find a letter from Lee dated from Cambridge as late as the 24th of July.

That the President's House," now standing on the college grounds near Harvard Square, was the first quarters of General Washington in Cambridge, has, I think, been conclu

* See Dr. Belknap's description of General Lee, whom he saw in Cambridge in October, 1775,- in the "Proceedings" for June, 1858, p. 83.

sively shown. In this venerable mansion were undoubtedly penned the first despatches of the Commander-in-chief to Congress, to Richard Henry Lee, and to General Schuyler, of date July 10th, and sent off by the first express that could be inaugurated. I cannot but hope that this ancient relic is not destined to give way to the march of improvement now making such onward strides in Cambridge, but may be preserved for many years to come.

made some inquiry in Cambridge of persons whom I thought likely to know if any tradition existed as to Washington's having occupied for a time the President's house during his residence here. But no one to whom I applied had any knowledge of such tradition. I addressed an inquiry to Miss Quincy, of Boston, then at her country residence in Quincy, and she replied that she had never heard of such tradition, and did not believe the fact. I then communicated to her the evidence contained above, and received from her the following letter, which she has kindly permitted me to introduce into this notice:

CHARLES DEANE, Esq.

QUINCY, Mass., Aug. 10, 1872.

DEAR SIR,- Having never heard of the residence of Washington for a time in the President's house, from either Mr. Sparks, Mr. Greenleaf, or Dr. Holbrook, I doubted the fact; but the interesting extracts you give from the Provincial Records prove it conclusively. On reflection, the change of abode seems very natural. First, the Congress, wishing to offer the General the most honorable location in their control, appropriated the President's house to his accommodation. The arrangement certainly sounded well. But Washington, coming from Mount Vernon, wished for a wider horizon than that house could, even then, command, and asked for the "Vassall House," from whence he had an extensive view of the winding of the Charles, and of the location of many of the forts which afterwards were thrown up around Boston. Perhaps even High-Fort, Roxbury, now the site of the stand-pipe of the Cochituate water-works, can be seen from its windows. I took a sketch of that fort in December, 1823, for a Mr. Finch, a relative of Dr. Priestley, a mineralogist, who took a great interest in the forts arranged by Washington around Boston, and was very indignant at the indifference manifested by Bostonians to these monuments of the Revolution, and at the manner in which they were allowed to be destroyed. He wrote a minute account of these forts, which was published, I believe, in "Silliman's Journal" of 1823 or 1824. I think I have a copy myself somewhere, given me by Mr. Finch, in return for my sketch. I wish the ancient President's house, with all its associations, had been taken down when Everett resigned the Presidency. It is sad to see it in its present dilapidated

condition. I am often asked the question, "Is it possible, Miss Quincy, that you resided sixteen years in that house? You could not have kept a carriage, for there is no stable!" Yes, we did," I reply: "we had not only a stable and coach-house, but also a large garden and an extensive court-yard, filled with trees and flowering shrubs, which are now cut down, or turned into the street." Mr. and Mrs. Everett, our successors, who had just come from the British Court, were so well satisfied with the old mansion, that they remained in it for some time as tenants after Mr. Everett had ceased to be President.

Sincerely yours,

ELIZA SUSAN QUINCY.

I subsequently received from Miss Quincy a note, from which I am at liberty to make the following interesting extracts concerning this venerable mansion; while, at the same place, I introduce an engraving of the house from a sketch made by her for President Quincy's History of the College: *

"I send you an illustration for your private copy of 'The Proceedings,'-a proof-print of the President's house, from the block, before stereotyping for the History. My sketch represents the house as Washington saw it, except that then there were only two windows on each side the porch in the lowest story. The enlargement of the dining and drawing rooms, which added a third, was subsequently made under the direction of Treasurer Storer, as his daughter informed me. The room in the rear of the drawing-room, on the right hand as you

The Society is indebted to President Eliot, of Harvard College, for liberty to use the block from which this vignette is struck, -the plates of Mr. Quincy's History having been given by the author to the College.

enter, was the President's study, until the Presidency of Webber, when the end of the house was added, with a kitchen and chamber and dressing-room, very commodiously arranged, I was told, under the direction of Mrs. Webber. The brick building was built at the same time for the President's study and Freshman's room beneath it, and for the preservation of the college manuscripts.* I went over the house with my father and mother and President Kirkland, soon after his accession. As there were no regular records kept during his Presidency of eighteen years, he did not add much to the manuscripts. We then little imagined that we should be the next occupants of the mansion, should repair and arrange the house under Mrs. Quincy's direction, and reside in it sixteen very happy years. I regret its present dilapidated state, and rejoice, in view of the new departure,' as it is termed, that I sketched the antiquities and old mansions of Old Cambridge."

"Dr. Holbrook's anecdote of the shell which reached Harvard Square (see Memoir of Mrs. Quincy, p. 223) leads me to think there were cogent objections to the Commander-in-chief residing in the President's house. The shell Dr. H. described must have flown over its roof! Possibly the British might have heard that it had been offered to Washington, and directed their artillery toward it, and with a pretty sure aim! The old mansion had a narrow escape that time! It was well Washington's final headquarters were beyond the reach of such unpleasant visitors." "E. S. Q."

Mr. APPLETON, recently returned from Europe, presented a manuscript, procured by him in London, labelled "Mr White - Mem of plan of a War with Spain, Pisa 9 Decem1 1776."

The author of this paper, of thirty-three pages, is unknown, neither do we know any thing of its history. It is addressed to Lord George Germain, and embraces an elaborate plan for overthrowing the Spanish power in America by the aid of the natives, and for keeping possession of the whole sea-coast! thus hopelessly excluding the natives from all intercourse with the rest of the world. It proposes a diversion of the troops from the British Colonies in case the Rebellion there is speedily crushed. The paper begins thus:

"Memorandum for the Right Hon'ble Lord George Germain, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for America.

"In case of war with Spain the Mosquito Shore affords a large

The brick building stood on the left hand side of the mansion as the spectator faces it, and communicated with it. I learn from Mrs. Dana, the daughter of President Webber, now living in Cambridge, that the brick building was erected during her father's administration, and under his supervision; but that he died before it was finally completed, or, at least, occupied. In 1871 it was moved back, turned round at right angles, and joined to the extreme rear part of the house. The steward's office has for a few years been kept in it. C. D.