Bad Ends · STOP 03 · North End
In 1721 someone threw a lit grenade into Cotton Mather's house over smallpox inoculation. His diary kept the note.
In 1721 someone threw a lit grenade, packed with powder and turpentine, into Cotton Mather's house because he was pushing smallpox inoculation. It hit an iron bar in the window and never went off. His diary kept the note that came with it, spelling and all. Mather, his father and his son are buried together at Copp's Hill, in a low brick tomb by the Charter Street side.
This is stop 3 of Bad Ends. Walk it - any two stops are free.
The plate
The Three A.M. Grenade
Collected on site
Inside Copp's Hill, the corner near the Charter Street entrance
Directions
1
Mather's diary that August: 'The Town is become almost an Hell upon Earth.'
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
Near Haymarket · Near North Station
Sources (7)
- Copp's Hill Burying GroundCity of Boston, Parks and Recreation / Historic Burying Grounds Initiative · accessed 2026-10-10
- Epitaphs from Copp's Hill Burial Ground, BostonThomas Bridgman (compiler) · 1851
- The Fight Over Inoculation During the 1721 Boston Smallpox EpidemicScience in the News, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences · 2014-12-31
- 1721: Two Hundred Seventy-Five Years AgoAmerican Heritage · 1996
- When Cotton Mather Fought SmallpoxAmerican Heritage · n.d.
- Diary of Cotton Mather, vol. 2 (1709-1724)Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 7th ser., vol. 8 · 1912
- Cotton Mather home, sites ofSalem Witch Museum