possessed great energy,
resolution and courage, and at critical moments was perfectly cool. In
1790, he was commissioned judge of the Court of Common Pleas, by
Governor Hancock. While at the lines on Boston Neck, Crane aimed a ball
at a house near his own, belonging to Rev. Dr. Byles, the Tory, but
succeeded only in knocking the ridge pole from his own dwelling. He
became a Freemason in 1781, joining an army lodge at West Point, and was
also a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Colonel
Crane, in 1767, married Mehitabel Wheeler, believed to have been a
sister of Captain Josiah Wheeler, a member of the tea party. His three
daughters married three sons of Colonel John Allan, who, with his Indian
allies, rendered valuable service to the patriot cause in protecting
throughout the Revolutionary war, the exposed north-eastern frontier.
William Allan, who married Alice Crane, was the grandfather of George H.
Allan, of Boston, from whom many of the above facts have been derived,
and who has made extensive collections relative to the Allan and Crane
families.

[Illustration: Signature, John Crane]

MAJOR ROBERT DAVIS,

Merchant, importer of groceries, wines and liquors, did business at No.
1 Cornhill, and resided in Orange Street. He was the son of Joshua and
Sarah (Pierpont) Davis, and was born 24th January, 1747. He was a Son of
Liberty, and as an officer in Crafts's artillery regiment, took part in
the expulsion of the British fleet from Boston harbor, ultimately
attaining the rank of major. Member of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company in 1786. His brothers, Caleb and Amasa, were also
prominent Revolutionary characters,--the latter having been forty years
quartermaster-general of Massachusetts. Robert Davis became a member of
St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons in 1777, and died in November, 1798.
His daughter, Clarissa, widow of William Ely, was living in Hartford in
1873, at the age of eighty-two.

EDWARD DOLBEAR

Was a fellow-apprentice, and afterwards a partner with Henry Purkitt, in
the business of a cooper, in South Street. His residence was near Dr.
Eliot's Meeting House, where he died, in April, 1796.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH EATON

Was an eccentric and excitable, but patriotic citizen, a hatter by
trade. He claimed to have hauled down the first British colors at the
outset of the Revolution, and to have loaded a cannon in State Street
to prevent the regulars from landing, in 1774. He wa