THE HISTORIC TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS 



appeal to General Washington for relief. 

 But as the historians of Hingham grimly 

 point out, "the general seems to have had 

 better use for his troops, both then and 

 later. For on Sunday, March 17, General 

 Howe evacuated Boston and General Put- 

 nam and General Ward entered the town. 

 The next day General Heath with five regi- 

 ments was ordered to New York, and with 

 him went our townsmen under the two 

 Captain Cushings." 1 



The name of Gushing has been justly 

 bestowed upon the "ancestral elm." The 

 family came from Hingham in old England 

 and settled in Hingham in New England 

 as early as 1638. Opposite this elm tree, 

 on the other side of the street, stands a fine 

 old colonial house owned by Mr. Samuel 

 Gushing whose ancestor, Stephen Gushing, 

 planted the tree in 1729, three years before 

 the birth of Washington. Stephen Gushing 

 was the son of Peter Gushing, who built 

 the house in 1678. The tree originally stood 



1 Capts. Peter and Pyam Gushing, " History of Hingham/* 

 Vol. i, p. 294. 



283 



