180 History of Hingham. 



here a sharp ride over Lincoln Street will take us into the village- 

 about dusk. Until within twenty years this street only extended 

 west a short distance beyond Crow-Point Lane, and the first set- 

 tlers who laid it out called it Broad-Cove Street. It runs along 

 the northerly base of Squirrel Hill, near its junction with Crow- 

 Point Lane. The view from this hill almost equals that from 

 Otis Hill. At the foot of Squirrel Hill were formerly Clay Pits, 

 where there were brick kilns. 



The name of Broad-Cove Street was changed to Lincoln Street 

 in honor of Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, of the army of the 

 Revolution. The General Lincoln Mansion, on the corner of 

 this and North Streets, is still occupied by his descendants. A 

 portion of it is upwards of two hundred and twenty years old. 



About a dozen years since it became necessary to construct a 

 sewer on Main Street, to relieve the part of the road south of the 

 Old Meeting-House of surplus surface water. The line of this 

 sewer was laid out so as to run along in front of the hill upon 

 which stands the Derby Academy ; a part of which hill, as else- 

 where stated, was cut down, and the roadway lowered to the 

 present level. The rising ground thus removed was originally 

 part of the burial-hill, and Main Street here passes over where 

 the edge of the slope originally was. 



Upon digging to build this sewer several skeletons were un- 

 earthed, which were identified as those of the Acadian prisoners 

 who died in Hingham ; for a number of those unhappy exiles were 

 sent here after their expatriation. Some of them lived for a time 

 in a small one-story house which stood on Broad-Cove Street, on 

 land which is now the southeast corner of Lincoln Street and 

 Burditt Avenue. In this house also were quartered, early in the 

 Revolutionary War, Lieutenant Haswell and his young daughter, 

 who was afterwards the celebrated Mrs. Rowson. Mr. Hasweli 

 was a British officer, and collector of the customs at Hull, for 

 the King. He was for some time a prisoner-of-war in Hingham 

 and elsewhere. 



On Lincoln Street, at the easterly side of the road, and at the 

 summit of the hill north of Fountain Square, stands a large, old- 

 fashioned house which was, sixty years since, Wilder'* Tavern, 

 and yet earlier, The Andrews Tavern. There used to be a post 

 in front of the porch, on which was a large golden ball. 



Another crisp, bright October morning, — 



" when the quiet light 

 Succeeds the keen and frosty night; " 



and what could be finer than this for further explorations among 

 the landmarks ? Let us start, therefore, in the direction of the 

 West End. The house next west of the General Lincoln man- 

 sion was in old times Seth Cushing's Inn. Going up North 



