ONE of the prominent and respected citizens of his time was Henry Phillips, by occupation a butcher, who came to New England in 1637. He was an early settler in Dedham, where he was made a freeman in 1638. Worthington in his History of Dedham says, "He came to Dedham from Watertown and was solicited to become a candidate for the ministry: he chose however to become a candidate in another place, but some events prevented his settlement in any town." Early in 1639, according to the church records, "Henry Phillips, who appeared to the church a tender and broken-hearted christian, was admitted to the church." March 15, 1639, he married Elizabeth Brock, who died August 1, 1640. May 1, 1641, he married Ann Harding, by whom he had four children. She died in 1652, and he soon married for his third wife Mary Dwight, daughter of John Dwight, who is reputed to have been the first female child born in Dedham of white parents. In his marriage contract, dated June 24, 1653, he makes over "to Mary, the daughter of John Dwight, his now wife," his dwelling-house in Dedham, with barns, orchards, and gardens, with ten acres of upland and six of meadow. By her he had eleven children,— eight sons and three daughters. Two of these sons, Henry and Samuel, became prominent booksellers of Boston, and the son of a third, Eleazer, became the well-known bookseller of Boston and Chr rlestown. They were the predecessors of a line of booksellers by the name of Phillips which continued more than one hundred years under the shadow of the old Town House.
Henry Phillips joined the Artillery Company in 1640, and in 1648 was an ensign in the Militia Company at Dedham. In 1655 he removed to Boston, having bought, November 2,1655, a house of Lieut. Joshua Fisher, the well-known surveyor, located on Washington Street, where stands the building now occupied by Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co. This estate he exchanged in 1656 for the house and garden of Henry Webb, who gave it by will to Harvard College. The estate of Mr. Webb for which the exchange was made is described in the deed of exchange as "One house and garden bounded with the market place on the north; the ould meeting house and the lane on the east; the highway on the south; and Mrs. Hudson on the west. Also a yard with a spring or well and a small parcel of land on the opposite side of Pudding lane." To-day the house would be described as located on the southwest corner of Devonshire and State Streets. It was a large stone house and occupied one of the most central locations in the town.
Mr. Phillips immediately took an active part in town and church affairs. He was chosen clerk of the market in 1658, and constable in 1662. He was one of the twenty-five citizens of Boston who in 1658 presented a petition to the General Court against the Quakers as "professed enemies of the Christian Magistrate and seducers of the people,'' When in 1658 it was found that the legacy of Capt. Thomas Keayne would not be sufficient to complete the Town House, he was one of the one hundred and four patriotic citizens who contributed ^367 for that purpose, his contribution being £$. He was a_ member of the First Church, and represented Hadley in the Legislature in 1672. Having received a license as victualler, and having opened the stone house on the corner of King Street and Pudding Lane as a tavern, which he called the "Rose and Crown Tavern," in 1678 he built a brick house near the pump on the opposite side of Pudding Lane, to which he removed his family.
Mr. William S. Appleton has kindly permitted the use of a very rare pamphlet, possibly unique, entitled "A Letter from New England concerning their Customs, Manners, and Religions. Written upon occasion of a Report about a Quo Warranto brought against that Government. By J. W. London printed for Randolph Taylor near Stationers Hall, 1682," in which is narrated the following anecdote: — "A Vintner in Boston put up a new Sign called The Rose and Crown, with two naked Boys as supporters: the sight disturbed one Justice S r, who commanded it down; and away were the Boys sent to the carvers; but the unlucky dog of a Carver sent them back two charming Girtes. This enraged the Justice more, and the Sign was summoned before the wise Court where they gravely determined that the Girles should be encircled with garlands of roses."
The recent criticism of two similar supporters of a shield on the richly emblazoned facade of one of the new public buildings would seem to prove again the truth of the old adage, " There is nothing new under the sun."
In 1685 Mr. Phillips removed his family to a house which he had bought on the 24th of March of Francis East, for which he paid ,£210, and which was situated on Washington Street nearly opposite Bromfield, just south of Franklin, where he died in February, 1687. His funeral was noticed by Sewall as follows: "Wednesday, Feb'y 3rd Mr. Henry Phillips is buried with arms, he having been an Ensign at Dedham, and in Boston several years of Capt. Oliver's Company. Capt. Hutchinson led the soldiers, his and Capt. Townsend's Company springing of said Oliver's. Capt. Townsend and Capt. Hill each of them trailed a pike: were about 24 files, 4 deep. Snow very deep; so in the new burial place [Copp's Hill] 3 paths, 2 for the 2 files of soldiers, middlemost for the relations. Edward Cowel and Mr. Whincomb go before the Governor. About eight of the South Company there attended. Bear:rs, Deacon Eliot, Saunderson, Allen, Bridgham, Frary and Mr. Chiever."
Notwithstanding he had given seven of his children £100 each upon marriage or becoming of age, yet after his death his estate was appraised at ,£1,550, and among the items in the inventory is a set of bookbinder's tools, which would seem to indicate that as an amateur he amused himself in his leisure moments in binding books.
After the death of Henry Phillips the Rose and Crown Tavern was carried on by his widow, who later leased it to Samuel Tiley, but in 1703 resumed the management, as appears from the following extracts from the Town Records: "Sept. 6, 1703. Widow Mary Phillips petitions for license for herself to keep a Public House and to sell strong drinks by retail as an innholder at the house where Samuel Tiley lateiy dwelt nigh the Town House was approved." "Sept. 28, 1705. Upon complaint made that the chimneys of the Rose and Crown Tavern nigh the Town House are defective and dangerous, the Selectmen have warned Mrs. Mary Phillips, the owner of said house to cause the said chimneys to be repaired." In the year 1705 Widow Phillips sold the house for ^475 to her son Samuel. In the deed of sale it is described as "a tenement called the Rose and Crown now in the tenure of Stephen North bounded north on the broad street over against the Town House 41 feet: east on the narrow lane leading to Joseph Bridgham's 83 feet: south on house of Jabez Negus 39 feet: west on house and land of John Rollstone."
Henry Phillips, the son of Henry and Mary Dwight Phillips, was born in this house on the ist of October, 1656. As a child he played in and around the Town House and attended the school on School House Lane. When fourteen years of age he was probably apprenticed to Hezekiah Usher, who kept a bookshop on the opposite side of King Street, with whom he remained seven years. This would be in accord with an order passed by the town in 1660 that " no person shall henceforth open a '.hop till he hath completed twenty-one years of age, nor except he hath served seven years apprenticeship." In 1676, when twenty years of age, during King Philip's War, he was a member of the expedition against the Indians in the * central part of the State, under the command of Major Thomas Savage. In 1677, having received j£ioo from his father, he opened a bookshop under the stairs at the west end of the Town House, probably by the encouragement of Rev. Increase Mather, who two years before had encouraged John Foster to set up a printing-press in Boston. In 1661 this shop had been rented by the town to Richard Taylor, the town-crier, bellringer, and guardian of the town clock, as appears by the following extract from the Town Records:" June 24, 1661. > Itt is ordered that Richard Taylor shall enjoy the shop under the stayres att the west end of the Towne-house during his life and his wives life, paying the yearely rent of 30', the one halfe in mony, the other in goods or corne, hee fitting up the said shop att his own charge, and the said shop to bee left after their death with all the appurtenances to the Townes use withoutt any consideration from the Towne. And the reason of taking no more Rent is, because his charge of fitting the said shop amounts to £10." A few years later a change was made in the terms of the lease. "According to a vote of the towne the 23 of 6 mo. 1669 the selectmen agreed with Richard Taylor about his shop under the towne house.
That said Taylor and his assigns shall enjoy the said shop for the space of 61 yeares next ensueinge. In consideration thereof he hath now put it in good repaire and paid £7 as a fine, and is obliged and to keep the same in good repaire and to pay 20* per annum to the treasurer of the towne duringe the said terme."
On the 26th of November, 1675, John Taylor, the son and heir of Richard Taylor, assigns to James Maxfield of Boston "the small shop under the stairs at the westerly end of the Town House (the westernmost shop, under the stairs) paying to the selectmen of Boston 20 shillings a year (10 in lawful money and ten corn cr provisions) and to John Taylor five shillings."
As the first book printed by John Foster was a sermon by Rev. Increase Mather, so the first book published by Henry Phillips was one of Mather's sermons. The title reads, "Renewal of Covenant the great Duty incumbent on decaying or distressed Churches. A sermon Concerning Renewing of Covenant with God in Christ, Preached at Dorchester in New England the 21 day of the 1 month 1677, being a day of Humiliation there, on that Occasion. By Increase Mather, Teacher of a Church in Boston. Boston, Printed by J. F. for Henry Phillips, and are to be sold at his Shop in the West end of the Town-house in Boston, 1677."
The latest publication that has been found bearing his imprint is the almanac for 1680, the title of which reads, "An Almanack of Ccelestial Motions for the Year of the Christian JEpocha, 1680. Printed for and sold by Henry Phillips in the West end of the Exchange in Boston, 1680."
He died in 1680, and was probably buried in Copp's Hill Burial-ground, where his father was buried seven years bter. One of the clauses in the will made by his father, dated August 7, 1682, reads: "I have in my hands belonging to my two daughters Mehitable and Elizabeth and my son John apiece of the estate left by their brother Henry Phillips deceased, the same to be paid unto them when they attain the age of 2i years." As his brothers and sisters all shared alike, his estate must have exceeded £50.
Source: Early Boston Booksellers, 1642-1711, by George Emery Littlefield, By the Club of Odd Volumes, 1900; Pgs. 97-103
