Military History. 225 



Mr. David Cushing's to the Andrews' are now built. Rev. Peter 

 Hobart's neighbors to the westward were Thomas Gill and his 

 sons, Lieut. Thomas, and Samuel, and his son-in-law, Josiah 

 Lane ; and beyond them were Thomas and Ephraim Marsh, one 

 or both of whom lived in the paternal homestead which came 

 from George Marsh, their grandfather, and which bounded west- 

 erly on Burton's Lane. On the further side of this passage-way 

 the brothers Ephraim Lane, who served in Captain Johnson's 

 company, and John Lane, the carpenter, occupied their father's 

 place, while near them was George Lane, an uncle. On Mars 

 Hill, Thomas Lincoln, the cooper, one of the old men of the vil- 

 lage, and ancestor of the Benjamin Lincoln family, occupied the 

 spot which has been the home of his descendants to the present 

 time. Jacob Beale lived near by, but the exact spot is not easily 

 located. Apparently Thomas Hobart was the sole inhabitant of 

 West Street at this period, although Caleb Lincoln's house was on 

 the corner, but probably facing Fort Hill Street. The latter's twin 

 brother Joshua, and their father, Thomas Lincoln, the husband- 

 man, were close by, as were Sergeant Daniel Lincoln and his son 

 Daniel, Thomas and Ephraim Nicolls, Moses Collier, and Thomas 

 Lincoln, the carpenter, Henry Ward, Robert Waterman, Samuel 

 Stowell and his sons John and David, Joshua Beale, who main- 

 tained the drum, and his brother Caleb, at this time a con- 

 stable ; all were located on Fort Hill Street. Here also, and 

 probably on the crown of the hill, and within a very few feet of 

 the street to which it gave its name, was erected at this time one 

 of the three forts which formed a part of the defences against 

 the Indians. The location was admirable, the eminence over- 

 looking and commanding the fertile fields on its several sides, as 

 well as the village clustered around its base, while the road to 

 Weymouth, much of the water supply, and a wide range of 

 country were within the protecting fire of its guns ; while signals 

 by day or a beacon light at night would carry an alarm to distant 

 points. Leaving this locality and proceeding along what is now 

 South Street, we should have found on the Gay estate of a later 

 day William Hersey, and near him John and James and William 

 Hersey the younger, and Widow Hewitt and her brother-in-law, 

 Timothy Hewitt. On the westerly corner of Austin's "Lane, now 

 Hersey Street, were John Beale, and John his son, while on the 

 easterly corner another garrison house formed the connecting 

 defence between the fort at West Hingham and Captain An- 

 drews' garrison house at Broad Bridge. The house belonged to 

 Steven Lincoln, and the Cazneau cottage stands nearly upon its 

 site. In the immediate vicinity were Simon Gross, Joshua Lin- 

 coln, Richard Wood, and Samuel Bate, who had a daughter 

 born April 12, 1676, "in the garrison," — not improbably the 

 garrison house of Steven Lincoln, which was undoubtedly already 

 occupied as a place of refuge in consequence of the alarm pre- 



VOL. I. 15 



