Elisha Leavitt
Encyclopedia
Elisha Leavitt was a Hingham, Massachusetts
, Loyalist
landowner who owned several islands in Boston Harbor
. During the Siege of Boston
in 1775, Leavitt encouraged British forces to use one of his islands to gather hay for their horses, triggering a waterborne raid by Continental militiamen and sparking one of the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War. The largely forgotten Grape Island Alarm followed the battles at Lexington and Concord
by a month, and preceded the Battle of Bunker Hill
by less than a month.
Elisha Leavitt was a successful businessman and landowner in Hingham. In 1771 Leavitt purchased one of Hingham's landmarks, the old Thaxter Mansion built in 1652, which had tapestried walls, elaborate painted murals, decorated door panels and large tiled fireplaces.
When Leavitt bought the home, it had been occupied by five generations of the Thaxter family, including Samuel Thaxter. (After Thaxter's death, his widow remarried Rev. John Hancock of Braintree
, and was the mother of the first signer
of the Declaration of Independence
.) The last Thaxter owner, Col. Samuel Thaxter, moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts
in 1771 and sold the house to Elisha Leavitt.
By the time Leavitt bought the Thaxter Mansion, he was a confirmed Tory
, and he used a blind passage in the house, accessed by a secret door, to hide Tories from nearby Marshfield
when the local Committee of Safety
conducted a search for them. The Tories were later successfully smuggled by water to Boston.
Leavitt was an unlikely Loyalist. He began his career as a simple blacksmith, was named constable of Hingham, then launched himself on a career as a trader and entrepreneur, becoming a shareholder in the fishing company and engaging in navigation as a shipowner.
Eventually Leavitt became one of the largest landowners in the region; among his holdings were several islands in Boston Harbor
, including 62 acres (250,905.3 m²) Lovells Island
, purchased by Leavitt from the town of Charlestown
in 1767, 50 acres (202,343 m²) Grape Island, half of 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) Gallops Island
, and 39 acres (157,827.5 m²) Georges Island. The islands were largely used for pasturage for cattle and horses and for raising hay. Leavitt had purchased Georges Island from Hannah Greenleaf in April 1765. Elisha Leavitt also owned land across the region, including substantial acreage at Cohasset
, the seaside town carved from Hingham.
But it was Leavitt's ownership of Grape Island that brought him unwelcome prominence. Realizing that British officers needed pasturage for their horses during the Siege of Boston
in 1775, Leavitt offered them the use of Grape Island. But when British forces landed on the island in their sloop
s, the alarm was sounded on the mainland. Shortly afterwards hundreds of militiamen from the South Shore assembled at Weymouth
, opposite Grape Island, and began firing on the British. Eventually the militiamen landed on Grape Island in skiff
s, forcing the British to flee. The angry colonists, in retaliation for Leavitt's actions, burned the wealthy Tory's barn to the ground and confiscated his cattle. "This glorified skirmish", wrote historian Edward Rowe Snow
, "has gone down in the history as the Battle of Grape Island."
The incident was closely watched by many observers in the Boston area, including John Adams
's wife Abigail
, who noted the "widespread confusion" in her hometown the day of the encounter – the closest the American Revolutionary War
had come to the Adams family residence. Abigail wrote to her husband on May 24, 1775: "...it seems their Expidition (sic) was to Grape Island for Levets hay." Abigail Adams praised several members of her husband's family, who were among the hundreds of Continental militiamen who drove off the British soldiers. "I may say with truth, all of Weymouth, Braintree, Hingham, who were able to bear arms, and hundreds from other towns within twenty, thirty, forty miles of Weymouth."
During the so-called 'Provision War' at the outbreak of hostilities, as British officers struggled to find sympathetic citizens who would supply their army with food and drink, the Tory Elisha Leavitt stepped forward to offer British troops hay, vegetables and cattle. His actions infuriated locals passionate about the Continental cause. Following the Grape Island skirmish, enraged citizens turned up on the doorstep of Leavitt's mansion to set it alight or "for the purpose of doing violence to his person", according to the History of the Town of Hingham. But the avuncular Leavitt averted trouble and defused the mob by rolling out a barrel of rum and "dispensing its contents liberally."
"The gentlemen aforesaid", says the Hingham history, referring delicately to the assembled mob, "were received by Mrs. Leavitt in elegant dress, and urged to walk in and partake of the wine. This unexpected and politic Courtesy disarmed the fury of the Whigs, and the threatened violence was drowned in good cheer."
But whereas Leavitt was one of Hingham's most visible Tories, his son Dr. Martin Leavitt, born in 1755, had different politics. A close friend and Harvard
classmate (1773) of Bela Lincoln of Hingham, Martin Leavitt practiced medicine until he died aged thirty on November 27, 1785, when he drowned in the town's mill pond.
Elisha Leavitt was born at Hingham on March 1, 1714, the son of Elisha Leavitt Sr. and the former Sarah Lane, daughter of Ebenezer Lane. The ardent Loyalist
was married to the former Ruth Marsh, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Burr) Marsh, with whom he had four children. Elisha Leavitt died in 1790 at his home on North Street in Hingham, not far from Leavitt Street, where Elisha's great-grandfather John Leavitt
had settled in 1636. Remarkably, unlike many Loyalists, Leavitt was never forced to flee the country, nor give up his substantial holdings. Whether his successful transition to the age of American independence was due to his personality, sheer pluck, or to a change of heart is unknown.
At his death Leavitt willed ownership of Gallops Island
to his grandson Caleb Rice, son of Col. Nathan Rice of the Continental Army
, and former aide de camp to General Benjamin Lincoln
, a Hingham native. Col. Rice had married Elisha Leavitt's daughter Meriel. Caleb Rice subsequently purchased the half of Gallops Island that his grandfather Leavitt did not own. Rice later sold the entire island to the government.
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...
, Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
landowner who owned several islands in Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeast.-History:...
. During the Siege of Boston
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
in 1775, Leavitt encouraged British forces to use one of his islands to gather hay for their horses, triggering a waterborne raid by Continental militiamen and sparking one of the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War. The largely forgotten Grape Island Alarm followed the battles at Lexington and Concord
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy , and Cambridge, near Boston...
by a month, and preceded the Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...
by less than a month.
Elisha Leavitt was a successful businessman and landowner in Hingham. In 1771 Leavitt purchased one of Hingham's landmarks, the old Thaxter Mansion built in 1652, which had tapestried walls, elaborate painted murals, decorated door panels and large tiled fireplaces.
When Leavitt bought the home, it had been occupied by five generations of the Thaxter family, including Samuel Thaxter. (After Thaxter's death, his widow remarried Rev. John Hancock of Braintree
Braintree, Massachusetts
The Town of Braintree is a suburban city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Although officially known as a town, Braintree adopted a municipal charter, effective 2008, with a mayor-council form of government and is considered a city under Massachusetts law. The population was 35,744...
, and was the mother of the first signer
John Hancock
John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...
of the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
.) The last Thaxter owner, Col. Samuel Thaxter, moved to Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Bridgewater, Massachusetts
For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Bridgewater, please see the article Bridgewater , Massachusetts.The Town of Bridgewater is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, 28 miles south of Boston. At the 2000 Census, the population was 25,185...
in 1771 and sold the house to Elisha Leavitt.
By the time Leavitt bought the Thaxter Mansion, he was a confirmed Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
, and he used a blind passage in the house, accessed by a secret door, to hide Tories from nearby Marshfield
Marshfield, Massachusetts
Marshfield is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on Massachusetts's South Shore. The population was 25,132 at the 2010 census.See also: Green Harbor, Marshfield , Rexhame, Marshfield Hills, and Ocean Bluff and Brant Rock....
when the local Committee of Safety
Committee of Safety (American Revolution)
Many Committees of Safety were established throughout Colonial America at the start of the American Revolution. These committees started to appear in the 1760s as means to discuss the concerns of the time, and often consisted of every male adult in the community...
conducted a search for them. The Tories were later successfully smuggled by water to Boston.
Leavitt was an unlikely Loyalist. He began his career as a simple blacksmith, was named constable of Hingham, then launched himself on a career as a trader and entrepreneur, becoming a shareholder in the fishing company and engaging in navigation as a shipowner.
Eventually Leavitt became one of the largest landowners in the region; among his holdings were several islands in Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeast.-History:...
, including 62 acres (250,905.3 m²) Lovells Island
Lovells Island
Lovells Island, or Lovell's Island, is a island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, in Massachusetts. The island is across The Narrows from Georges Island and some offshore of downtown Boston. It is named after Captain William Lovell, who was an early settler of nearby Dorchester...
, purchased by Leavitt from the town of Charlestown
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
in 1767, 50 acres (202,343 m²) Grape Island, half of 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) Gallops Island
Gallops Island
Gallops Island, also known as Gallups Island, is an island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, situated between Georges Island and Long Island and just over from downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , plus an intertidal zone of a further , and is composed of one...
, and 39 acres (157,827.5 m²) Georges Island. The islands were largely used for pasturage for cattle and horses and for raising hay. Leavitt had purchased Georges Island from Hannah Greenleaf in April 1765. Elisha Leavitt also owned land across the region, including substantial acreage at Cohasset
Cohasset, Massachusetts
Cohasset is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, though it is not contiguous with the main body of the county. The population was 7,542 at the 2010 census.- History :...
, the seaside town carved from Hingham.
But it was Leavitt's ownership of Grape Island that brought him unwelcome prominence. Realizing that British officers needed pasturage for their horses during the Siege of Boston
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
in 1775, Leavitt offered them the use of Grape Island. But when British forces landed on the island in their sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
s, the alarm was sounded on the mainland. Shortly afterwards hundreds of militiamen from the South Shore assembled at Weymouth
Weymouth, Massachusetts
The Town of Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, Weymouth had a total population of 53,743. Despite its city status, it is formally known as the Town of Weymouth...
, opposite Grape Island, and began firing on the British. Eventually the militiamen landed on Grape Island in skiff
Skiff
The term skiff is used for a number of essentially unrelated styles of small boat. The word is related to ship and has a complicated etymology: "skiff" comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself of...
s, forcing the British to flee. The angry colonists, in retaliation for Leavitt's actions, burned the wealthy Tory's barn to the ground and confiscated his cattle. "This glorified skirmish", wrote historian Edward Rowe Snow
Edward Rowe Snow
Edward Rowe Snow was an American author and historian.-Life:He was the son of Edward Sumpter and Alice Snow...
, "has gone down in the history as the Battle of Grape Island."
The incident was closely watched by many observers in the Boston area, including John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
's wife Abigail
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
, who noted the "widespread confusion" in her hometown the day of the encounter – the closest the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
had come to the Adams family residence. Abigail wrote to her husband on May 24, 1775: "...it seems their Expidition (sic) was to Grape Island for Levets hay." Abigail Adams praised several members of her husband's family, who were among the hundreds of Continental militiamen who drove off the British soldiers. "I may say with truth, all of Weymouth, Braintree, Hingham, who were able to bear arms, and hundreds from other towns within twenty, thirty, forty miles of Weymouth."
During the so-called 'Provision War' at the outbreak of hostilities, as British officers struggled to find sympathetic citizens who would supply their army with food and drink, the Tory Elisha Leavitt stepped forward to offer British troops hay, vegetables and cattle. His actions infuriated locals passionate about the Continental cause. Following the Grape Island skirmish, enraged citizens turned up on the doorstep of Leavitt's mansion to set it alight or "for the purpose of doing violence to his person", according to the History of the Town of Hingham. But the avuncular Leavitt averted trouble and defused the mob by rolling out a barrel of rum and "dispensing its contents liberally."
"The gentlemen aforesaid", says the Hingham history, referring delicately to the assembled mob, "were received by Mrs. Leavitt in elegant dress, and urged to walk in and partake of the wine. This unexpected and politic Courtesy disarmed the fury of the Whigs, and the threatened violence was drowned in good cheer."
But whereas Leavitt was one of Hingham's most visible Tories, his son Dr. Martin Leavitt, born in 1755, had different politics. A close friend and Harvard
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
classmate (1773) of Bela Lincoln of Hingham, Martin Leavitt practiced medicine until he died aged thirty on November 27, 1785, when he drowned in the town's mill pond.
Elisha Leavitt was born at Hingham on March 1, 1714, the son of Elisha Leavitt Sr. and the former Sarah Lane, daughter of Ebenezer Lane. The ardent Loyalist
Loyalist
In general, a loyalist is someone who maintains loyalty to an established government, political party, or sovereign, especially during war or revolutionary change. In modern English usage, the most common application is to loyalty to the British Crown....
was married to the former Ruth Marsh, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Burr) Marsh, with whom he had four children. Elisha Leavitt died in 1790 at his home on North Street in Hingham, not far from Leavitt Street, where Elisha's great-grandfather John Leavitt
John Leavitt
Deacon John Leavitt was a tailor, public officeholder, and founding deacon of Old Ship Church in Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meeting house in America and the oldest church in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States...
had settled in 1636. Remarkably, unlike many Loyalists, Leavitt was never forced to flee the country, nor give up his substantial holdings. Whether his successful transition to the age of American independence was due to his personality, sheer pluck, or to a change of heart is unknown.
Gallops Island
Gallops Island, also known as Gallups Island, is an island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, situated between Georges Island and Long Island and just over from downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of , plus an intertidal zone of a further , and is composed of one...
to his grandson Caleb Rice, son of Col. Nathan Rice of the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
, and former aide de camp to General Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War...
, a Hingham native. Col. Rice had married Elisha Leavitt's daughter Meriel. Caleb Rice subsequently purchased the half of Gallops Island that his grandfather Leavitt did not own. Rice later sold the entire island to the government.