The Early History of Boston's North End

Boston's North End, the city's oldest residential neighborhood, has had a colorful history dating back to 1630 when it was founded by English clergyman William Blackstone (Boston: History 2008; All About). Blackstone who also happened to be the first white settler in the area from across the Atlantic the Protestant religious sect, the Puritans (Boston: History 2008; All About). Boston was named for the Puritans' home in Lincolnshire, England and soon became the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston: History 2008). As it was bounded by water on three sides, Boston was the major New England seaport in the American colonies, as well as being "the largest British settlement on the continent" (Boston: History 2008). Until his arrival, what is now Boston's North End was simply a point of land extending into a natural harbor connected to the Atlantic Ocean, and it was originally occupied by Native American tribes that named the peninsula "Shawmut," meaning "land accessible by water" (Boston: History 2008). The deaths of two-thirds of the native population to a European disease for which they had no immunity left the way clear for European settlers to come in and form their community (Boston: History 2008). Blackstone led a small band of Puritans, but the band subsequently left him alone in his home on top of what was later known as Beacon Hill (Boston: History 2008). As the years passed, Blackstone and the new En