Long Island is located in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. The island is part of the City of Boston,"Harbor Islands History", City of Boston."Facts: Long Island", National Park Service and of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is long and covers .
Prior to October 2014, access to the island was via a road over a causewayFor a description of the causeway from the Squantum peninsula through Moon Island, see the following. "LONG ISLAND VIADUCT: Boston, Massachusetts" by ASEC Corporation. from the Squantum peninsula and neighborhood of North Quincy to Moon Island, and from there, over a two-lane steel bridgeMikal, Alan, "Exploring Boston Harbor", see p.70 for a photo of the bridge to Long Island from Moon Island. – officially named the Long Island Viaduct – from Moon Island to Long Island. Access to the causeway leading to Moon Island and Long Island was controlled by the Boston Public Health Commission Campus Police at a guardhouse at its southern end in Squantum, and permission needed to be obtained in advance since it is a restricted area.
In October 2014, all access to Long Island was cut off for the indefinite future by then Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, based on the warning of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that the bridge was unsafe. All those living on Long Island and being served by recovery programs or who were guests in the homeless shelter were no longer able to get there. They were abruptly relocated elsewhere on an emergency basis.Abel, David, "On Long Island, haunting signs of a hasty departure: The pieces left behind at island’s shelters highlight uncertainty", The Boston Globe, October 28, 2014 The bridge to Long Island was demolished on March 23, 2015.Schworm, Peter, "Long Island Bridge Demolition Continues", The Boston Globe, March 23, 2015 The future uses of the island and its buildings are still under discussion.
History
Seventeenth century At the beginning of the American colonial period, Long Island was used and populated by Native American Indians. On April 1, 1634, the island was granted to the City of Boston along with Deer Island and Hogg Island (now Orient Heights in East Boston). The rent for these three islands was set at two pounds per year. This grant was confirmed on March 4, 1635, when Spectacle Island was added to the package and the annual rent was reduced to four shillings per year for all four islands.
The Town of Boston leased Long Island to thirty-seven tenant farmers for farming and for the felling of trees. Wood was a much needed commodity in this period since it was the main fuel used for cooking and heating of houses in Boston. Long Island derived its name from its length—a mile and three-quarters long and a quarter mile wide. William Wood in his New England Prospect reported that this isle abounds in wood, water, meadow ground, and fertile ground. He also noted that local farmers put their rams, goats, and swine here for safety during the corn growing season.
On February 24, 1640, the Boston Town Meeting ordered that Long Island be laid out into lots for farming starting at the eastern point on the island. On September 28, 1641, the Right-Honorable William, Earl of Stirling, filed an ownership claim for Long Island. His colonial agent, John Forest, recorded the Earl's claim against Edward Tomlin and others as intruders on Long Island. This claim was proven baseless by the Court in Boston.
On April 19, 1649, the Court in Boston levied an annual rent of 6 pence per acre on the farms on Long Island with payment due on February 1 each year. The proceeds from these rents were slated for the support of the free school in Boston. Because the Long Island tenants refused to pay these rents, in 1655, Boston officials sent a constable out to the island to make the necessary collections.
On March 11, 1667, the Town of Boston deeded the farms on Long Island to the tenants with the stipulation that they pay up their back rent. By this act, the land on Long Island first passed into private hands. In 1672, Joseph and Elizabeth Rock purchased on Long Island with a mortgage which they paid off by August 9, 1672. The deed described their property as having houses, outhouses, barns, stables, wharfs, yards, orchards, gardens, meadows, pastures, and fishing rights.
In the 1670s during King Philip's War, Christian "praying Indians" were moved from Marlborough and Natick under the auspices of John Eliot, the minister of Roxbury, mostly to Deer Island, but at least one colony was sent to Long Island.cf. Winsor and Jewett, "The Memorial History of Boston" , 1880, pp.320-1.Another colony of friendly Indians and prisoners were afterwards sent to Long Island, in the harbor.
On October 6, 1676, during the panic caused by King Philip's War, Massachusetts residents collected all of the local Native American population from the surrounding towns and herded them to a dock in Watertown on the Charles River. Here, they were loaded on barges and transported to Deer Island where they were abandoned. Through the freezing winter, the Indians' main sustenance was fish and clams taken along the shore and mud flats of the island. No barracks or other housing were provided, and only a scanty thicket on the lee side of the hills protected them from easterly winds. Thousands of Native Americans are presumed to have been marooned on Deer Island that winter; however, only the converted (praying) Indians were counted and recorded. Hundreds of Indians perished of starvation and exposure during the winter of 1676–77. Old Ahatton and other chiefs petitioned the Court in Boston for the rights to visit other islands in Boston Harbor to harvest clams and fish because his people were starving to death. In the Spring of 1677, the surviving Indians were allowed to cross over to Long Island.
On April 19, 1689, John Nelson, a resident of Long Island, led Bostonians in a revolt against Governor Sir Edmund Andros, culminating in the Battle of Fort HillDownst, Henry P., "Random Notes of Boston", Humphrey Publishing, ca. 1916, Chapter 5, "Waterfront and Harbor". It is said that the battle of Fort Hill, between the soldiers and the townsmen, was precipitated by the term "lobster," applied to a red-coat, by one of the mechanics. Since that day the lobster has become a creature of fashion, contributing largely to the high cost of livers, but his name finds no greater favor as an epithet than when used for the patriotic purpose of starting a pre-Revolutionary rumpus. The lobster fleet, consisting of many small craft, mostly power driven, should interest the gourmet who likes to know the origin of his delicacies; to the gourmand, we recommend the satisfying qualities of Boston baked beans and the New England boiled dinner. in Boston. Governor Andros had rescinded the Massachusetts Charter and all previous laws and contracts that had been negotiated or enacted in the Massachusetts Colony.
During 1690, John Nelson bought all of the property from the tenants on Long Island with the exception of owned by Thomas Stanberg, a shopkeeper from Boston. Stanberg was one of the original tenants on Long Island. Nelson was well connected politically being a close relative of Sir Thomas Temple, and the husband of Elizabeth Stoughton, the niece of Governor William Stoughton. On June 4, Nelson mortgaged his Long Island property to William and Benjamin Browne from Salem, Massachusetts, for 1,200 pounds. Henry Mare managed the Brownes' house and land on Long Island.
In 1692, John Nelson was captured by the French while on a privateering voyage. He was imprisoned in Quebec. It was common for local privateers to receive commissions in Boston but be considered pirates by the other nations of the world—especially the French and Spanish who were the superpowers at the time. While in prison, Nelson learned about secret French plans for attacks against the Massachusetts colonies. Nelson secretly informed the Massachusetts authorities from his prison cell. For this act, Nelson was punished by being transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Bastille Prison in France. In 1702, after ten years of imprisonment, Sir Purbeck Temple obtained John Nelson's release. Nelson immediately returned home to Nelson's Island (Long Island) as a local hero."The Islands of Boston Harbor", in "Some Events of Boston and Its Neighbors", Chapter 4, printed for the State Street Trust Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1917. Long Island was so called because it is the longest island in the harbour. In 1847 a company bought all of it except the east end upon which was the lighthouse, and then built a wharf and a hotel and laid out streets. The speculation ended in failure. The island is chiefly noted as the residence of John Nelson, who is looked upon as a hero by the American people. He was captured by the French in a voyage to the eastward and imprisoned in Quebec. While there he informed Massachusetts that the French were forming plans against the New England Colonies, and for this he was sent to the Bastille. He was finally released, and on his return to Long Island the Nelson family gave him a great feast of welcome, and part of the table-cloth is believed still to be preserved by his descendants. The British pastured cattle here at one time, and a detachment of five hundred Continental soldiers, in sixty-five whale-boats, landed and stole them all, escaping safely to Squantum. Not many years ago a large assemblage of prize-fighters and their "heelers" went over to the island with the intention of conducting a fight, but were prevented from doing so by some police officers who arrived in a police boat at just the right time. The island is owned partly by the Government and partly by the City.
Eighteenth century On December 7, 1708, Benjamin Browne, one of the mortgagers of Nelson's Island, died, passing control of the island to his brother, William Browne, who died on February 23, 1716. John Nelson died on December 5, 1721. On September 24, 1724, the land-deed given from John Nelson to the Brownes was declared a mortgage and was annulled by a legal instrument executed by Colonel Samuel Brown, who acted as executor for the Brownes. The ownership of Nelson's Island had reverted to Nelson's heirs in seven parts. Two parts went to John and Mary Nelson, heirs of the oldest son, Temple Nelson. One share went to Nathaniel Hubbard by his wife, Elizabeth Nelson. One part went to Henry Lloyd by his wife, Rebecca Nelson. Another part went to John Steed by his wife, Margaret Nelson, and one part went to Robert Temple by his wife, Mehitable Nelson. Robert Nelson bought up an additional four shares.
Robert Temple and the other owners sold the whole of Nelson's island to Charles Apthorp, a merchant from Boston. The deed described the island as containing of land, single houses, buildings, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, pastures, fences, trees, woods, underwoods, swamps, marshes, meadows, arable land, ways, water courses, easements, commons, common pasture, passages, stones, beach, flats, immunites, commodies, heriditaments, emoulants, and appurtenances. The name used for the island changed to Apthorp's Island at this time, although both names are found in various records. Charles Apthorp died on November 18, 1758, at 60 years of age. His heirs sold the island to Barlow Trecothick, later an alderman and Lord Mayor of London. Trecothick had married Grizzell Apthorp, the oldest daughter of Charles Apthorp and Grizzell Eastwicke Apthorp.
American Revolutionary War During the Revolutionary times in 1768, the occupying British forces used Long Island for grazing their sheep, cattle, and swine. The British also harvested the hay from this island's meadows as feed for their horses in Boston.