Long years ago before our country was thickly settled, and when our forefathers extracted from the soil a scanty living, the houses were simple little ones, often built with only four rooms. It was in such a house as this that William Coddington made his early home. It was delightfully situated, close to the bank of Black Brook, and surrounded by overhanging trees.

In 1635 William Coddington and his fellow associates received a grant of five hundred acres at Braintree, now Quincy, Massachusetts, extending from the old Dorchester line at Squantum to Howe's Neck, and about a mile inland. This was a goodly tract of land, with level meadows that promised good plowing. The next year, in the heart of the grant, Mr. Coddington built a house that consisted of a large kitchen, a living-room, and two chambers. Near him was a small colony of settlers, including Reverend John Wheelwright, Anne Hutchinson, and Sir Harry Vane. They composed a congenial group of free thinkers, who met often in the Coddington kitchen to sit around the large open fireplace, while they discussed religious views much more liberal than the Puritan's way of thinking. Many of them, for holding these views, were banished to Rhode Island.

Coddington did not live long after the house-building, and was succeeded by Edmund Quincy, the first of the name to live in what is now known as the Quincy homestead. He was a man of considerable wealth and importance, coming here from Boston and bringing with him six servants, which was considered a most pretentious establishment in those days. His wife, named Judith, was a woman of great ability, and after the death of her husband, managed the estate with good judgment. Her daughter, also named Judith, married John Hull, the mint-master, and became the mother of Hannah Hull. Hannah became the wife of Judge Samuel Sewall, and as the story runs, received for her dowry her weight in pine-tree shillings.

The second of the name of Quincy to occupy this house was also named Edmund and afterwards received the title of colonel. He was a man of dignified personality and forceful character and had held at various times most of the important offices in the town. His death in 1698 was followed by that of his wife, two years later, and the reins of government fell into the hands of Edmund third, then a youth of twenty. The responsibility made the latter a very thoughtful man. He became more distinguished than either his father or his grandfather, passing nearly his whole life in public service. It was this Edmund who, in his twenty-first year, married Dorothy Flynt, the first Dorothy Q. of history, and ancestress of all the other Dorothy Q's.

In 1706, as the house had become too small for the family, Quincy built additions at the front of the old mansion, giving it its present appearance. The rooms added were the present dining-room, the parlor, and the chambers above these rooms. With the raising of the new part, little attempt was made to have the dimensions match, so that the rooms of the older building showed a different floor level from those at the front.

Later on, a two-story ell was added near the brook, consisting of a study and bedroom. These were occupied by Dorothy's brother, Henry Flynt, who was the famous Tutor Flynt of Harvard.

Of the children born to Edmund, third, and Dorothy Q., two are well known in history. Edmund, the fourth, who married Elizabeth Wendell and became the father of the Dorothy Q. who married John Hancock, and the Dorothy Q., "My Dorothy," as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes called her, who married Edward Jackson, and was the great-grandmother of the poet.

After the death of Judge Quincy, the house was not used as a permanent residence by the family, for Edmund, who inherited it, had a fine home in Boston. It was kept open, however, and used at frequent intervals as a summer place. We read of large parties coming down by coach and horseback from Boston, to be entertained at the Quincy mansion. Many a pretty bit of romance has been enacted within these walls, and many a famous traveler has found shelter in this house.

When the wedding of Dorothy Q. to John Hancock was planned, preparations suitable for the important event were made, and a wall-paper was ordered from Paris to be hung upon the walls of the parlor. This room was destined not to be used, however, for the purpose intended. The Revolution broke out and Hancock was forced to flee for safety to Lexington. Here he was joined by his aunt, Madam Hancock, and Dorothy, on the memorable "18th of April, '75." Dorothy, fearing the approach of the Redcoats, desired to return to Boston, to seek refuge in her father's house, but her lover knew only too well the hatred of the Tory for the Quincy family that had been shown when a British soldier thrust his rapier through the portrait of Dorothy Q., the niece of this Dorothy, and he forbade the attempted journey. Wishing to assert her independence and also to have her own way, Dorothy insisted, and a lovers' quarrel ensued. Hancock and Samuel Adams were forced to make their escape to Woburn, with Madam Hancock and Dorothy, who continued on to Fairfield, Connecticut, taking up their abode in the family of Thaddeus Burr. In consequence, the Quincy mansion did not see them again for a long time. The patriot troops were stationed at Fairfield, and Aaron Burr, meeting Dorothy, fell in love with her. He paid her such serious attention that Madam Hancock became alarmed for the consequences and sent to her nephew, explaining the situation.

John Hancock was a wise lover and wrote Dorothy immediately, asking her if she had made him the hair chain promised and reproaching her for her unfaithfulness, sending with the letter a box of silk stockings. Dorothy, with little liking for his interference, continued her flirtation with Lieutenant Burr; again Madam Hancock wrote to her nephew in such a peremptory manner that during a recess of Congress he came to Fairfield. Once there, he swept away all resentment, and Dorothy became his wife on August 28.

Sir Harry Frankland, previous to this, came to the Quincy Mansion bringing with him Agnes Surriage, and a merry house party spent part of the time catching trout from the little black brook and cooking them in the old kitchen fireplace.

Benjamin Franklin was also a visitor at this house, accepting the hospitality shown him by Mr. Quincy, and sending in return a stove, still shown in one of the chambers. A Flemish grape-vine was also sent by him to the family; this took root and until a few years ago was in thriving condition. Many other men of note came as visitors to this noted mansion, including Lafayette, who was entertained here when he returned to America after the Revolution.

During the Revolutionary period, the house passed out of the hands of the Quincy family. It has been recently restored by the Colonial Dames of Massachusetts, who have brought back as far as possible its old-time dignity. In the restoration, great care has been taken with the furnishing. The central hall is entered through the colonial porch. It is long and wide, wainscotted and showing above this an odd, colonial paper, representing an English hunting scene. The baluster and newel-post are hand carved and fine examples of the early work of that period.

At the right of the hall is the dining-room, hung with a quaint Chinese paper. This room shows high wainscot, wooden shutters, and the original beams cased in. The furniture is all of that period, including simple Dutch chairs, about 1770, with rush bottoms. The sideboard, too, is of the seventeenth century, and on this is a knife box of the latter quarter of this century. The corner buffet is about 1740, and unlike the majority of these cupboards, is movable, instead of being fastened to the walls. The table is a beautiful old Empire piece and a china closet at one side containing several rare pieces, shows the shell pattern at the top. The fireplace is tiled in blue and white Delft, dating back to about 1750.

On the opposite side of the house is the parlor, which still shows the old wall-paper intended to grace the wedding of John Hancock to Dorothy Quincy. Here are Venuses and Cupids in vivid blue, with garlands of red flowers, all as fresh as when first hung. The panel front of the chimney-piece was recently removed, and the original fireplace, fifteen feet wide, discovered. The back of this chimney is curiously bricked in herring-bone pattern. Many interesting relics are kept in one of the cupboards. There is a parasol which once belonged to Mrs. Hancock, a shoe of a little son who died in childhood, a pipe filler which belonged to John Hancock, Edmund Quincy third's baptismal robe and cap, and a piece of the dress worn by Abigail Adams when she was presented at the Court of St. James. On the wall hangs her portrait showing the same gown.

The chairs in this room are rare examples of Chippendale, 1791, and Sheraton, the latter being one of the best examples of the master's make, and showing the fan back design, which is more usually found in the South, rather than in the North. Here, as in the dining-room, are narrow shutters with hinged panels, which could be bolted and barred against attacks of the Indians.

Back of the dining-room, and one step lower, is the old kitchen, built in 1636, the most interesting room in the house, containing a great many household articles of early colonial days. The broad, hand-hewn beams bear the marks of the axe, and the great fireplace is flanked on one side by larger brick ovens and on the other by a secret passage. Back of the chimney is a ladder which leads to the secret closet above, also a little dumbwaiter shaft, through which food and water could be sent to the people in hiding.

In previous years, an underground passage led out of the kitchen to the brook. Through this contraband goods were smuggled. The entrance to this passage has now disappeared, so that the exact locality is not definitely known.

The window glass was made at the first glass factory in America. This was erected by a guild of Hollanders who had established themselves in Quincy. The worthies of Quincy objected to the large families of the emigrants, and they were driven out and moved to Maine. The first iron foundry in this country was built beside this brook, which was sometimes known as Furnace Brook.

Above the kitchen is the Coddington Chamber, named for the original builder of the house and fittingly furnished with rare pieces of the colonial period. Above this is a very low attic, lighted from the upper panes of the chamber windows and reached by the secret passage behind the chimney. At the further end of this attic is a trap-door connecting with a second attic, through which one could escape by galleries below the dormer windows, and thence reach the ground.

Across the hall is a smaller room known as the nursery. Tradition has it that John Hancock concealed himself from the British in this apartment, making use of the secret passageway. On one of the window-panes is scratched with a diamond the initials, "J.H." and again in handwriting similar to his: "You I love and you alone." In this room are preserved the breakfast-table of John Hancock; a linen chest which belonged to the wife of William Penn; various articles of clothing that at one time were used by the Quincy family; a bed spread hand-embroidered on homespun linen quilted by Madam Burr and used in her guest chamber when Dorothy Quincy was staying at her house.

Over the dining-room is the Quincy room, so named from the fact that many of the Quincy children, including the two Dorothys, were born here. By a curious trick of fate, there still remains here a nail-studded chest which once belonged to George III of England, bearing the date 1790. One wonders, if the old chest could speak, whether it would pour vituperations upon the heads of those who brought the possessions of the tyrant to the colonies, to be stored in the Quincy mansion.

Across the hall is the guest chamber with its canopied Field bed, and the little trundle-bed underneath, used in the olden times for the children of the family. The Franklin stove, presented by the inventor, is also in this room. Opening from it, and approached by a second staircase, we find the chamber of Tutor Flynt, here the recessed bed is an interesting feature. The room is furnished with fine pieces of the olden times.

Every room in this house contains mementoes of the days of long ago. The house was one of the first to be built on American soil, and has sheltered some of our most important citizens. To-day it reminds us of the past, carrying us back to the earliest days of our country's history.