Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 25.

[p. 65] nasturtiums and bright with marigolds, primroses, phlox and larkspur and with grapes on trellises at the top, which traced golden lacework against the skyline at sunset. The Royall house was the counterpart of a famous mansion in the West Indies, and the grounds and gardens were a reproduction also, and still retained traces of their old-time grandeur, and had, an unusual sight in New England, a slave quarters. A shaded path led up to its graceful portico beside which roses clambered upward towards the chamber window where Molly Stark is said to have anxiously watched the battle of Bunker Hill. From this window could be seen several miles of salt marsh, with haystacks mounted on staddles and looking like huge spiders in the distance, and the winding river which later had ten ship yards within a mile's distance, and where one to three vessels could often be seen at one time on the stocks.¹

Following Mr. Magoun the next year Calvin Turner of Pembroke and Enos Briggs of the Essex county family of that name built the ship Medford of two hundred and thirty-eight tons for John C. Jones of Boston. After them came Sprague & James, Lapham, Fuller, Rogers, Stetson, Waterman, Ewell, Curtis, Foster, Taylor, Hayden & Cudworth and others who have built vessels here.

After the Revolution the New England states in particular found themselves in desperate straits from the cutting off of their trade with the West Indies and Great Britain, through the operation of the British navigation laws. While the southern states could send their tobacco and cotton to Europe to pay for the manufactures that they required, there was nothing which could be exported from New England. In July, 1783, an order in council required that all trade between the United States and the British West Indies must be carried on in British-built vessels, owned and navigated by British subjects.