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At the head of the bay there were three promontories, each occupied by a different tribe of the Penacook Federation. The northern one of these promontories was an eminence with a Saugus outpost called Winnisimmet. The central promontory had a hill with two peaks—or two hills connected by a ridge—on the southern slope of which was an Okamakammesset town named Mishawum. On the southern promontory, there was a triple hill among whose slopes nestled the Massachuset settlement of Shawmut, the headquarters of the eastern district of the Federation, and a convenient point for the gathering of the tribes.
This region, then, both as representing the inner harbor at the head of the bay and as being the enemy's local headquarters, was the objective of the Puritan drive. In 1630 they advanced on Winnisimmet and destroying it, crossing over to the next promontory and capturing Mishawum. This was taken over and settled by the Puritans, who named it, after King Charles, Charlestown; they also gave the name Charles to the river separating this settlement from the Shawmut peninsula, which was their final objective; and Charlestown served as a temporary attacking headquarters.
Towards the end of 1630, the Massachuset forces holding the Shawmut peninsula for the Penacook Federation, retired to Nonantum, some six miles westward, leaving the ground open for the attackers to come in. A Puritan named William Blaxton (sometimes called Blackstone), who had previously been allowed to farm the council grounds, welcomed the attackers to Shawmut, but insisted that his farm was really public property, and ultimately donated it for that purpose, thus continuing the use of the old Penacook council ground for some of the Penacook spirit of liberty.
The government of the Puritans was then moved to Shawmut, which the Puritans called Tremont (actually copied from a Cornish name, but interpreted as Trimountain, referring to the triple peak on the peninsula).
The governor and directors of the colony, just come over from England, apparently objected to the Penacook names of some of the Puritan towns (the name Shawmut still being used largely instead of the newer name Tremont), and these newcomers from England preferred to use purely English names of towns, so it was ordered that the names should be changed from Shawmut to Boston, from Pequonsette to Watertown, and from Metapan to Dorchester. When the alliance was concluded with the Iroquois, it was the treaty of Boston, or of "Waston," as the Iroquois called it.
http://www.sidis.net/TSChap7.htm#The
Like Amsterdam perhaps, much of the centre of the city is reclaimed from the water, or the marshes and fens of the wild Shawmut Peninsula that loomed out of the mist to greet the 17th century sailors from the Old World. Jane Holtz Kay, writing in A Good City, provides in one excerpt all the initial influences on Boston's form:
"Transformation and expansion have always characterized this historic city. The first Europeans to arrive on the Shawmut Peninsula saw a trio of hills - Beacon, Copps, and Fort. No sooner had John Winthrop and his flock arrived in 1630 than the acts of flattening his vaunted city upon a hill to fill and build began. The same missionary zeal characterized the actions of the later settlers, who would decapitate the hills to fill wetlands, making new lands for wharves, churches, and dwellings. By wharfing out and filling marsh (as they would for centuries), Bostonians tripled our city's land mass - from 843 acres (about the size of Central Park) to 2,100 acres, according to tradition, though lately the estimate grows to 5,200 acres ... As the population grew, the waterbound soil was sponged with still more earth. In the South End, some 570 acres of the former tidal flats were filled to allow the creation of the splendid oval-centred streets, modeled on those in England. Not long thereafter, the east-west axis from downtown to the setting sun became the more prosperous site for Back Bay builders. Importing Parisian design, this time from Baron Haussmann's grand boulevard, and scooping Needham's soil for landfill of the mudflats, builders gradually created the magnificent progression of row houses for city dwellers and their ecclesiastical and educational institutions." [From 'On Location: Place and Politics in a Changing City' by Jane Holtz Kay, in A Good City]
This region, then, both as representing the inner harbor at the head of the bay and as being the enemy's local headquarters, was the objective of the Puritan drive. In 1630 they advanced on Winnisimmet and destroying it, crossing over to the next promontory and capturing Mishawum. This was taken over and settled by the Puritans, who named it, after King Charles, Charlestown; they also gave the name Charles to the river separating this settlement from the Shawmut peninsula, which was their final objective; and Charlestown served as a temporary attacking headquarters.
Towards the end of 1630, the Massachuset forces holding the Shawmut peninsula for the Penacook Federation, retired to Nonantum, some six miles westward, leaving the ground open for the attackers to come in. A Puritan named William Blaxton (sometimes called Blackstone), who had previously been allowed to farm the council grounds, welcomed the attackers to Shawmut, but insisted that his farm was really public property, and ultimately donated it for that purpose, thus continuing the use of the old Penacook council ground for some of the Penacook spirit of liberty.
The government of the Puritans was then moved to Shawmut, which the Puritans called Tremont (actually copied from a Cornish name, but interpreted as Trimountain, referring to the triple peak on the peninsula).
The governor and directors of the colony, just come over from England, apparently objected to the Penacook names of some of the Puritan towns (the name Shawmut still being used largely instead of the newer name Tremont), and these newcomers from England preferred to use purely English names of towns, so it was ordered that the names should be changed from Shawmut to Boston, from Pequonsette to Watertown, and from Metapan to Dorchester. When the alliance was concluded with the Iroquois, it was the treaty of Boston, or of "Waston," as the Iroquois called it.
http://www.sidis.net/TSChap7.htm#The
Like Amsterdam perhaps, much of the centre of the city is reclaimed from the water, or the marshes and fens of the wild Shawmut Peninsula that loomed out of the mist to greet the 17th century sailors from the Old World. Jane Holtz Kay, writing in A Good City, provides in one excerpt all the initial influences on Boston's form:
"Transformation and expansion have always characterized this historic city. The first Europeans to arrive on the Shawmut Peninsula saw a trio of hills - Beacon, Copps, and Fort. No sooner had John Winthrop and his flock arrived in 1630 than the acts of flattening his vaunted city upon a hill to fill and build began. The same missionary zeal characterized the actions of the later settlers, who would decapitate the hills to fill wetlands, making new lands for wharves, churches, and dwellings. By wharfing out and filling marsh (as they would for centuries), Bostonians tripled our city's land mass - from 843 acres (about the size of Central Park) to 2,100 acres, according to tradition, though lately the estimate grows to 5,200 acres ... As the population grew, the waterbound soil was sponged with still more earth. In the South End, some 570 acres of the former tidal flats were filled to allow the creation of the splendid oval-centred streets, modeled on those in England. Not long thereafter, the east-west axis from downtown to the setting sun became the more prosperous site for Back Bay builders. Importing Parisian design, this time from Baron Haussmann's grand boulevard, and scooping Needham's soil for landfill of the mudflats, builders gradually created the magnificent progression of row houses for city dwellers and their ecclesiastical and educational institutions." [From 'On Location: Place and Politics in a Changing City' by Jane Holtz Kay, in A Good City]
