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Merrymount, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Quincy City. It lies in ZIP code area 02169. It lies near Mount Wollaston. The Survey maps it on the Hull quadrangle.

Merrymount within Norfolk County

Then and now

1892 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Merrymount, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Merrymount, surveyed 1892

On record in Merrymount

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 12 of 39 shown

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Every listing in Norfolk County

Topographic sheets covering this place

17 surveys from 41 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

94,488 words on this township

History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Quincy City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

They reckoned without their host. To the whole coast from Plymouth up to Portsmouth, Merrymount became not only a nuisance, but a dangerous nuisance. Upon that coast there were not then many inhabited places; but there were a few. Plymouth was the most populous, and at Plymouth there may have been some two hundred souls in all, dwelling in two score houses encircled by a stockade half a mile in circumference. There was a smaller settlement at Weymouth, only a mile or so away from Merrymount, and scattered families lived at Thompson's Island, Shawmut, as the peninsula of Boston was ealled, and Charlestown and South Boston. There were a few more, traders chiefly, at Hull and upon Cape Ann, These people They were living And now Indians with guns in their hands were prowling through the woods. game only ; but it could not be long before they real- Behind the little settlements, ness, in regard to which the settlers knew nothing. The Massachusetts Indians were a weak, broken remnant ; but who knew what other tribes occupied the interior; nor could any one divine the conspiracies which might there be forming, ready to burst when least expected. The situation was alarming enough at best; the sense of the vast unknown doubtless made it more so, and Morton's proceedings were fast ren- The instinct of self-preservation whispered that something must be done, and that

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

The place was not wholly de- Among the worst who went elsewhere was, probably, Walter Bagnall, who about this time took up his permanent abode on Richmond Island. He was commonly known as 'Great Walt," and seems to have been a rude frontier trader of the most worthless sort. He carried the Merrymount methods with him to his new home, where he prospered greatly, getting together what was for those days considerable possessions in money and goods; until at last, in October, 1631, the Indians set upon him and killed him.' The only other follower of Morton of whom there is any record was Edward Gibbons, apparently one of the more modest who kept the house. Ata later day Gibbons was a prominent member of the Massachusetts community, rising to the high rank of majorgeneral ; and in 1649 he succeeded Governor Endicott - in command of the military forces of the colony. But Gibbons' later career was not particularly associated with the town of Braintree. Shortly after the hewing down of the maypole he went over to Salem, where, listening to the preaching of the Rev. Francis Higginson, he underwent a change of heart and became a member of the church. But still the original Merrymount spirit from time to time showed itself

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

Tuus in November, 1637, the little settlement at the Mount, as it was still called, was once more thor- The place seemed to be under a sort of blight. First the magistrates had rooted out Morton and the Merrymount company, obliterating in so far as they could every trace of the earliest settlement; and now they had also sent into exile a pastor and his parishioners, who had not a thing in any one of note or substance, except Wheelwright, had yet actually made his home in this region. Quiney and Hough, like Coddington and Wilson, lived in Boston ; and in Boston the Mount was looked upon as a remote, outlying dependency, to be reached

Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Quincy City - it names this place 5 more 5 times.

Fires near this place

270 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 270 fires within 5 miles of Merrymount between 2015 and 2020, burning about 121 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony174
Smoking39
Missing data/not specified/undetermined26
Debris and open burning25
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Fireworks2
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWEYMOUTH
7 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBRAINTREE
7 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBRAINTREE
5 September 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
5 September 2015Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWEYMOUTH
29 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWEYMOUTH
28 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBRAINTREE
23 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 11,796 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 11,796 specimens collected within 10 miles of Merrymount between 1810 and 1975: 5,771 Plantae, 2,746 Animalia, 2,595 Fungi, 411 Chromista, 182 Protozoa, 59 Unrecorded, 32 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, A C Gibson and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Thalictrum L., not of this specimenThalictrum L.1810Boott, J.W.Near Boston.
A photograph of the species Anemone L., not of this specimenAnemone L.1815Boott, J.Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Corylus L., not of this specimenCorylus L.1815not recordedCambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
Ericaceae1815BoottBoston, U.S.A.
A photograph of the species Limonium vulgare, not of this specimenLimonium vulgare Mill.1815not recordedOn Cragies Road [=near Cragies Bridge], 1 1/2 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Mollugo verticillata, not of this specimenMollugo verticillata L.1815Boott, F.M.B.Boston.
A photograph of the species Persicaria Mill., not of this specimenPersicaria (L.) Mill.1815Boott, J.W.Craigie's Road, 2 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Populus L., not of this specimenPopulus L.1815not recordedCambridgeport, 1 mile from Boston.
A photograph of the species Ranunculus L., not of this specimenRanunculus L.1815not recordedThicket at South Boston.
A photograph of the species Salix L., not of this specimenSalix L.1815not recordedCambridge, 3 1/2 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Alnus Mill., not of this specimenAlnus Mill.1816not recordedBrighton, 4 miles from Boston.

All 11,796 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Merrymount: 3 producers, 2 past producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Old Colony Crushed StoneGranitePast ProducerGranite
Old Colony QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Braintree PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Liberty PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Town of WeymouthSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Adams Shore0.6 miles41
Quincy0.8 miles46
Post Island1.1 miles41
Quincy Point1.3 miles38
Quincy Center1.3 miles42
Wollaston1.4 miles46
Norfolk Downs1.5 miles46
North Commons1.5 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 619324. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.