Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/386

 308 THE HISTORY OF BARMNGTON. rington, was near the meeting-house, and from each was a well trodden path to the door of the other. In the old town of Boston the record has it that "John Vyall in 165 1 was granted Libertie to keep a house of Common Entertainment, if the County Court Consent, provided he keep it neare the new meeting house." This John Vyall was the ancestor of the Vialls of Barrington and kept " The Ship Tavern." the principal one of the town of Boston, in 1663, just before his removal to his newly purchased estate in Swansea. As John Viall was once a resident and large land owner on what was Barrington soil, it will be of interest to say a word as to his noted Boston tavern. " The Ship Tavern " stood at the head of Clark's wharf, in Boston, or on the southwest corner of North and Clark Streets, according to present boundaries. It was an ancient brick building, dating as far back as 1650 at least. John Vyall kept it in 1663. When Clark's wharf was built it was the principal one of the town. Large ships came directly up to it, so making the tavern a most convenient resort for masters of vessels or their passengers, — and associating it with the locality itself. King Charles's commissioners lodged at Vyall's house, when they undertook the task of bringing down the pride of the rulers of the colony a peg. The first public house in Barrington of record was " The Green Bush Tavern " which stood on the west side of the main road, north of the residence of Mr. R. D. Horton, on land now owned by him. The house was a large, roomy buildins:, two stories in front with a lean-to roof on the back side. A large elm tree stood in front of the tavern near the road — the ancestor possibly of the elm now standing on the lot. A huge wooden sign was suspended from a post near the tavern, on which was painted a picture of a tree or Lush, and the name "Green Bush Tavern," suggests the lines of Longfellow's poem on " Catawba Wine. " : " For Catawba wine Has need of no sign, No tavern-bush to proclaim it,"