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WITHIN a few years after the founding of Boston, the Town granted to the Reverend John Wilson (1588-1663), pastor of the First Church, about an acre of land, which had previously been a part of the Common. This land was “bounded with the Burying Place on the south, and with the Towne’s Common and highway on the west, north and east,” as it was then fenced in.

The same lot was sold by Mr. Wilson to James Oliver, a merchant, October 8, 1661, “for 35 Pounds certain, and 40 shillings a year.”¹ This property appears to have included the sites of several of the upper houses on Park Street, previously mentioned, and of all those on the south side of Beacon Street between the Athenaeum Building and the Common. The lot next to the Amory-Ticknor house on the east was sold by the Town agents to Thomas Amory in March, 1801. This lot had a frontage of fifty-six feet on Beacon Street, and extended southwesterly one hundred and thirty-four feet to the Burying-Ground. Mr. Amory transferred the estate in February, 1807, to the Misses Mary and Sarah Payne, twin daughters of William Payne, Esq. Two brick houses were soon after erected on the lot. For more than thirty years this property remained in the possession of members of the Payne and allied families. Among the later occupants of these houses were James K. Mills, a dry-goods merchant, Dr. Henry G. Clark, and the Honorable Harvey Jewell (1820-81). The last-named was a graduate of Dartmouth College in 1844, and served for several years as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While holding this position, he sustained a reputation for able and impartial rulings. A man of scholarly tastes, he owned “a magnificent library, stored with the choicest and most valuable gems of literature.” His brother, the Honorable Marshall Jewell, was Governor of Connecticut in 1869-72, and afterward United States Minister to Russia. Mr. Harvey Jewell was engaged in the practice of law in Boston. He was an enthusiastic fisherman, and an expert in the capture of striped bass off the rocks at Swampscott, where he had a summer cottage.

Dr. Henry Grafton Clark, who sold this estate to Mr. Jewell in 1873, was a well-known practitioner of Boston, who devoted much time and thought to matters concerning the public health. He was the first incumbent of the office of City Physician, which he held from 1847 until 1880.

1 Suffolk Deed, Lib. 3, Fol. 489.