Vassall House

Henry Vassall HouseThe Vassall family was a prominent and wealthy family of Cambridge throughout the 18th century. The Henry Vassall House was built in 1746 and was a lavish house for Puritan New England. Henry and Penelope were know for their extravagant tastes and spent most of their inheritance. The Vassall family only spent part of the year here and earned their wealth through their plantations in the West Indies. When Henry Vassall died in 1769 the house was left to his wife Penelope who lived there until she was forced out in 1775.

By 1774 tensions were rising in the Massachusetts colonies between the Patriots and the Tories as Parliament had placed taxes on the colony, closed the port of Boston and had abolished Massachusetts’ elected governments and replaced it with the Mandamus Council. These tensions were particularly high in Cambridge which resulted in an enormous protest on Cambridge Common and in Harvard Square on September 2, 1774.  The thousands protested the seizure of gun powder in Somerville, which had taken place the previous night, and the creation of the Mandamus Council that replaced elected officials. The protestors demanded that the three Cambridge appointees to the Mandamus Council resign from their positions. Judge Danforth and Judge Lee resigned on the steps of the courthouse while Lietenant Governor Oliver required a little more persuasion. Thousands of protestors marched down Tory Row and surrounded his house, which made it clear that they Tories were outnumbered. The loyalists considered themselves in danger and left their grand estates. Like the other Loyalist families on Tory Row Penelope Vassall left in 1775, a few months after the protest, in order to find a safer place to live..

Within months the Revolutionary War had begun and Cambridge became the headquarters for the American Army.  The abandoned mansions on Tory Row were used as headquarters, barracks and hospitals for the American Army. The Henry Vassall House was used specifically for the headquarters of the American medical corps throughout the Siege of Boston from 1775 to the evacuation of Boston by the British in 1776.

 

Vassall House Today

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