Page 6 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2025 Some Anniversaries Remembered and Some Forgotten 250 years ago, March 27 & 28, 1775, the Battle of Chelsea Creek By John J. Henry A nniversaries are a time to look back, to celebrate milestones and achievements; it is also a time to remember the misfortunes and hardships that some of the members of our society experienced leading to the creation of our new nation and to reflect upon those events as we reconnect with our past. During the upcoming two years a constellation of past historical events will be occurring that are sigHe’s Back...and Better Than Ever! John A. Fitzpatrick (Fitzy) Sales & Lease Consultant Direct: 617.410.1030 Main: 617.381.9000 Cell: 617.279.9962 McGovern Automotive Group 100 Broadway, Rte. 99, Everett Donate Your Vehicle Call (866) 618-0011 to donate your car, truck, boat, RV, and more today! Support Veteran Nonprofi ts. Free Pickup & Towing. Top Tax Deduction. Donate Your Vehicle Today 866-618-0011 www.veterancardonations.org/dnt122 While we appreciate every donation, in some cases, we fi nd that we are unable to accept certain vehicles, watercraft, and/or recreational vehicles due to the prohibitive costs of acquisition. If you have any questions, please give us a call at (866) 618-0011. Everett Aluminum 10 Everett Ave., Everett 617-389-3839 Celebrating 66 Years in Business! Owned & Operated by the Conti Family since 1958 “Same name, phone number & address for over half a century. We must be doing something right!” f www.everettaluminum.com nifi cant to both our national and local histories as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As this year comes to a close a lesser-known local historical event will be concluding: the 400th Anniversary of the settlement of Winnisimmet (now Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop), when an adventurous 22-year-old young man from Devonshire, England, named Samuel Maverick journeyed from Weymouth, England, arriving at Wessagusset (now Weymouth), Massachusetts, in 1623 to pursue his fortune in British North America. A short time after his arrival he decided to move on from Wessagusset, traveling to the north side of the Mystic River at the junction of Massachusetts Bay and arriving at an area of land in 1624 then populated by the Rumney Marsh Indians, part of the indigenous people of the Pawtucket nation, on land that they called Winnisimmet. Maverick took possession of the lands of Winnisimmet from the Rumney Marsh Indians by occupation, in keeping with the adverse land acquisition provisions of British law, thus establishing Winnisimmet as the fourth permanent British North American settlement in Massachusetts. Maverick would quickly develop the land that he occupied, constructing a home with a palisade defensive fortification enclosure on the Winnisimmet hillside facing the Mystic River. Although in early confl ict with the Rumney Marsh Indians, Maverick subsequently established a harmonious fur trading relationship and friendship with them. During a smallpox epidemic outbreak Maverick ministered to the medical needs of the Rumney Marsh Indians and buried 30 of their dead in one day. In June of 1630, Maverick would greet the legendary John Winthrop, the Puritan leader of the Massachusetts Bay Company, at his Winnisimmet home, as Winthrop traveled from his Salem outpost to Boston Harbor in search of a suitable location for the capital of his Massachusetts Bay Company settlement, his proverbial new Jerusalem, which Winthrop referred to as his “city upon a hill,” a model for the building of a new Puritan society in North America. Maverick would render essential services to Winthrop’s Massachusetts Bay Company as Winthrop labored to establish a home for his Puritan religious community as well as his British North American economic colony. Winthrop would later establish Boston as the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1634, and he then quickly annexed all of Winnisimmet, including the lands of Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point as part of the new Puritan Town of Boston. Maverick would remain as a resident of Winnisimmet for a short time until he deeded his hillside estate and a portion of his other Winnisimmet land holdings to Richard Bellingham in 1635. By then Maverick had already moved on from Winnisimmet to his new home at Noddle’s Island (now East Boston) in Massachusetts Bay. While it is fitting and appropriate to recognize Maverick as the fi rst English settler of our area, 400 years ago in 1624, it is inappropriate to condone Maverick’s less then honorable character, stature and reputation, since Maverick shamefully became the fi rst slave trader in Massachusetts, committing New England’s original sin. It should be noted that Maverick was a product of his seventeenth century English times that condoned slavery for both cultural and economic reasons. Moreover, slavery was a major component of British economic Imperialism that relied heavily upon slavery for the establishment of British North American agricultural plantations, to acquire resources and produce agricultural products for shipment back to England. The cultivation of agricultural products required substantial HISTORY | SEE Page 10 Spring is Here!
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