BOUGHTON HOUSE 

FROM THE WINDOWS OF WHICH COULD BE SEEN 
THE PRISON-SHIPS RIDING IN WALLABOUT BAY


	Near the Navy Yard on Cumberland Street is this old house, 
surrounded by a high board fence. Probably Samuel BOUGHTON, once 
its owner and from whom the house has taken its name, knew much 
more of its history than is known to-day, or he may have been 
too much engrossed in tilling the land that adjoined it, and in
raising fruit and vegetables on an extensive scale, to play the 
antiquary. Mr. BOUGHTON occupied the place after the Revolution,
but the extent of his stay is not generally known. After his death, 
in 1860, the estate passed through various hands.

	To-day the BOUGHTON house is surrounded by tenements, and the 
best view obtainable of it is from the back windows of some of the
houses on Carlton Avenue. Survey it on an idle day from a convenient 
point, and imagine how its weather beaten walls, windows, and doors 
looked when WASHINGTON rode up to it.  Fancy him, as they tell, 
passing long nights there, planning details for the American army. 
This old house was a convenient stopping-place and pragical headquarters 
for the American commanders before the battle of Long Island, as it 
lay in a direct line with the chain of fortifications and entrenchments 
that had been thrown up by the Continental troops from the Wallabout to 
the head of Gowanus Creek.

	Some years ago, in making repairs, workmen found an old 
shingle with the inscription, "Erected 1727." 

	There is a tradition that the British troops also occupied the 
BOUGHTON house during their reign in Brooklyn, and that the 
prison-ships riding in Wallabout Bay could be plainly seen from 
the windows. Of all of the prison-ships the old Jersey, 
which had as many as 1,000 men at once, was the worst. At the 
close of the war her prisoners were released. Worms demolished her 
old hulk, and she finally sank. No one has ever been able to say 
how many men were tossed from their loathsome prisons into the 
waters of the Wallabout, though some one has said that more than 
11,000 died on the ]ersey alone.

	Old residents call attention to the fact that at the rear of 
this house, the centre at the time of the Revolution of so much 
activity, a large slate powder-mill was operated for the use of 
the Continental troops; and they say further that, before the 
British troops came to live in the house, it was used as a 
storage place for the plunder of Continental freebooters.

	The old mansion is worth a visit, and the view of it from 
Carlton Avenue is well worth the trip. 

	The old mansion is deserted now; and tales of fortifications and 
entrenchments, of commanding officers and General WASHINGTON himself, 
are buried in the dim past, so much so that the fancy of the history 
lover is hardly kindled by the dilapidated structure with its scraggly
shrubs, trees, and weeds clustering about it.



HOWARD's Tavern
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