921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

Rev. Samuel Wlzitin_.. 9
until a considerable time afterwards. The nave
and aisles, and part of the chancel, 'appear,
from the style of the architecture, to have been
built in the reign of Edward III., a period
during which a great movement in the way of
church-building seems to have taken place
throughout this district, as nearly every church
in the neighborhood appears to have been,
either wholly or in part, rebuilt at the same
time.
"This was during the period when Boston
was one of the ten shipping ports of the king-
dom, and the principal one as to the extent of
its shipments. At that time it had an immense
trade in wool, leather, hides, &c.; and many
merchants from Calais, Cologne, Ostend,
Bruges, and other Continental towns, resided
there. The merchants of the Hanseatic League
had their guild, or house, there. It is tradition-
ally said, that the foundations of Boston steeple
were laid upon woolsacks, and this is probably
figuratively correct; for it may be doubted
* Report for Repairh_g and Restoring Boston Churclr, by George
Gilbert Scott, architect, 1843.
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