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126 BOSTON gelioal Adventists, 1 ; Freewill Baptist, 1 ; Ger- man Lutheran, 1 ; German Evangelical Re- formed, 1 ; Swedish Lutheran, 1 ; Jewish syn- agogues, 4 ; German Methodist, 1 ; Methodist, 2 ; Methodist Episcopal, 18 ; Independent Methodist, 1 ; Presbyterian, 17 ; Roman Cath- olic, 17 ; Swedenborgian, 1 ; Universalist, 6. In the above are included several of the oldest churches in the_ United States. The oldest church edifice in the city is Christ church, Episcopal, in Salem street, founded in 1723. The Old South church was erected in 1729 in the same place where the first edifice of the society had stood since 1669. During the rev- olution it was occupied by British soldiers as a place for cavalry drill. Immediately after the great fire of 1872, it was leased for two years to the government for a post office, a new edi- fice for the use of the society being in process of construction on the corner of Dartmouth and Royalston streets. The last service was held in it on Nov. 17. King's chapel, on the corner of Tremont and School streets, has been used for divine service since 1754 ; the first edifice was erected there in 1689. Brattle Square church, in the walls of which was imbedded a cannon ball fired from Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, was taken down in 1871. When com- pleted, the cathedral of the Holy Cross on Washington and Waltham streets, begun in 1867, will be the largest and most ornamental church edifice in New England. The great tower at the S. W. corner will he 300 ft. high. There are two convents of Sisters of Notre Dame in Boston, St. Joseph's in South Boston and St. Aloysius in East Boston. There are five theatres in the city, the oldest of which is the Boston museum, which was founded in 1841 and has occupied its present location in Tremont street since 1846. The Boston theatre, in Washington street near Boylston, one of the largest theatres in the United States, was opened in 1854. It is capable of seating 3,400 persons, with standing room for 1,000 more. The Globe theatre, in the same vicinity, was opened in October, 1868. The Howard Athenaeum, in Howard street, and the St. James, in Washington street, are devoted to varieties. The principal cemeteries used by Boston are the Mount Auburn, embracing 125 acres, in Cambridge and Watertown ; Forest Hills, with a still larger area, in West Rox- bury ; Mount Hope, also in West Roxbury, 105 acres ; Cedar Grove, in Dorchester, 46 acres ; and Woodlawn, in the towns of Everett and Chelsea. There are in the heart of the city several burial grounds not now in use, but of great historical interest. The oldest of these adjoins King's chapel at the corner of Tremont and School streets. It is not known when it was first used for interments, hut certainly as early as 1658. The "old granary burying ground," in Tremont street, between Beacon and Park place, was established in 1660, and contains the tombs of John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, Samuel Sewall, and the parents of Franklin. The Old North burying ground on Copp's Hill, which was first used for interments in 1660, still re- mains, and is protected by a high stone wall. The first settlement of Boston was made Sept. 7 (O. S.), 1630, by a portion of the company which came from England that year with John Winthrop. The Plymouth pilgrims be- came acquainted with the peninsula in 1621. The only person residing there in 1630 was William Blackstone, or Blaxton, supposed to have been an Episcopal clergyman, and to have arrived about 1 623. David Thompson and Sam- uel Maverick lived on two islands in what is now Boston harbor. It was by invitation from Blackstone that Winthrop and his associates removed from Charlestown to the peninsula, the excellence of the water at the latter place, and its abundance, being the chief inducement to the change. Blackstone soon left the colo- ny, and his lands were purchased by the set- tlers. More than 50 years later, the last Indian claim to any portion of the territory was ex- tinguished by the payment of " a valuable sum of money " to the claimants. The Indian name of the peninsula, according to Mr. Drake, the highest authority, was Mushauwomuk, Shaw- mut being merely an abbreviation. Some of the most noted of the colonists were from Lin- colnshire, and it had from the first been their intention to give the name of Boston to their chief settlement, in honor of the Rev. John Cotton, vicar of St. Botolph's church, in the Lincolnshire Boston. The town records begin about 1634. The officers who subsequently were known as " selectmen " were in existence in 1634, but how the institution originated is unknown. The town meetings begin to he of importance at this date. The first grand jury of the country met at Boston, Sept. 1, 1635, and presented 100 offences. The church of Boston was much troubled about Roger Wil- liams and his heresy, and finding him resolute, handed him over to the general court, which banished him. The Antinomian controversy broke out in 1636, the occasion of it he- ing the action of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of superior understanding, whose con- duct greatly vexed the church. Free schools were established, the town paying liberally for their support, and Indians being taught gratis. Negro slaves were first brought to the town in 1645, much to the people's anger. A malig- nant disease raged in 1646. In 1651 the place is described by an eye-witness as very flourishing. Mrs. Anne Hibbins, a widow, said to have been a sister of Gov. Bellingham, was hanged in 1656 for witchcraft. When, two years later, the general court made a law for the punish- ment of Quakers, two of the Boston members dissented ; but three Quakers were executed on the Common for having returned from banish- ment in defiance of the law. When Goffe and Whalley, the regicides, came to Boston in 1660, they were openly entertained by the principal inhabitants. Boston sullenly acquiesced in the