row, left and right, Britannia serving pots; center, Britannia table
urn; bottom row, left end, tin coffee making pot; center, Britannia
serving pots; right end, tin French drip pot]

Another popular inn of the day was the Red Lyon, which was opened in
1637 by Nicholas Upshall, the Quaker, who later was hanged for trying to
bribe a jailer to pass some food into the jail to two Quakeresses who
were starving within.

Ship tavern, erected in 1650, at the corner of North and Clark Streets,
then on the waterfront, was a haunt of British government officials. The
father of Governor Hutchinson was the first landlord, to be succeeded in
1663 by John Vyal. Here lived the four commissioners who were sent to
these shores by King Charles II to settle the disputes then beginning
between the colonies and England.

Another lodging and eating place for the gentlemen of quality in the
first days of Boston was the Blue Anchor, in Cornhill, which was
conducted in 1664 by Robert Turner. Here gathered members of the
government, visiting officials, jurists, and the clergy, summoned into
synod by the Massachusetts General Court. It is assumed that the clergy
confined their drinking to coffee and other moderate beverages, leaving
the wines and liquors to their confreres.

_Some Notable Boston Coffee Houses_

In the last quarter of the seventeenth century quite a number of taverns
and inns sprang up. Among the most notable that have obtained
recognition in Boston's historical records were the King's Head, at the
corner of Fleet and North Streets; the Indian Queen, on a passageway
leading from Washington Street to Hawley Street; the Sun, in Faneuil
Hall Square, and the Green Dragon, which became one of the most
celebrated coffee-house taverns.

The King's Head, opened in 1691, early became a rendezvous of crown
officers and the citizens in the higher strata of colonial society.

The Indian Queen also became a favorite resort of the crown officers
from Province House. Started by Nathaniel Bishop about 1673, it stood
for more than 145 years as the Indian Queen, and then was replaced by
the Washington coffee house, which became noted throughout New England
as the starting place for the Roxbury "hourlies," the stage coaches that
ran every hour from Boston to nearby Roxbury.

[Illustration: COFFEE DEVICES THAT FIGURED IN THE PIONEERING OF THE
GREAT WEST

Photographed for this work in the Museum of the State Historical Society
of Wisconsi