January 31, 1769, John Rowe’s Diary Entry Mostly About Yesterday’s Fire at the Jail 398 days before the Boston Massacre

John Rowe was a very humble citizen of Boston.  The list of civic positions and functions he supported was extensive.  Here’s a short list[i];
              Selectman
              Relief Committee as Ombudsman for the Poor
              Treasurer of the Charitable Society
              Officer of Trinity Church (a spin-off of his Kings Chapel church on Washington St.)
              Freemason, deputy then Grand Master of all of North America
              Son of Liberty
              Boston Tea Party (he was a tea drinker)
              Fire volunteer and fire warden
             Political committees to express grievances but never to suggest independence
              Merchants committee to address price fixing
              Boston representative to the General Court (State of Mass)
              Adopted parent

Yesterday, John Rowe was active as a fire warder(sic) suppressing and witnessing the Gaol (jail) fire.

Here is his diary entry logged the next day;
 
             " Last night I was awakened by the cry of Fire   it was the County Goal which was burnt down & the neighbourhood very much in Danger.  The  officers & Army behaved extremely clever on this Occasion & ought to have the Publick thanks of this town.   I can truly say they were the means of saving it---- I waited on Brigadier Pomroy and Colo. Kerr and thanked them for their Behaviour." . . .
 
Please click here, for a brief chronology of the major fires in Boston.  Combined with the several severe hurricanes, the landscape of Boston was significantly changed.  Our tours will provide additional background on nature's imprint on Boston; even on the deceased of Boston.

[i] Letters and Diary of John Rowe: Boston Merchant, 1759-1762, 1764-1779 By John Rowe, Edward Lillie Pierce,  1-20 edited by Anne Rowe Cunningham ; introduction Edward Lillie Pierce. Published W. B. Clark Co., 1903

John Rowe's fire bucket. Compliments to the Boston Fire Hisorical Society