Claim · the gray record
Boston was formerly named Shawmut
Boston was formerly named Shawmut
This is an attestation. The archive records who asserts it, since when, and on what evidence. It does not rule on whether it is true.
- Subject
- Boston
- Predicate
former_name- Attested by
- Macullar, Parker Company, How to see Boston : a trustworthy guidebook...
- Attestor kind
- scholar
- Attested since, as stated
- 1895
- Attestation strength
- attested — a count of independent attestations, never a truth value
- Variant note
- The name the peninsula carried before the English settlement.
Evidence
Macullar, Parker Company, How to see Boston : a trustworthy guidebook... (1895)
" Boston was called Shawmut, meaning "The Place Where Boats Go," by the Indians ; TriMontaine, by the early English settlers at Charles- town, from the three bold peaks of Beacon Hill ; and, finally, Boston, WASHINGTON STREET IN HORSE-CAR DAYS OF 1885.
Other attestations of the same assertion
These are variants, not corrections. They are listed unranked and unresolved; the archive does not choose between them.
Boston was formerly named Shawmut
Attested by Gilman, Arthur, 1837-1909, The story of Boston, a study of independency (scholar) since 1889 · attested
Boston was formerly named Trimountain
Attested by Samuel Adams Drake, Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston (scholar) since 1873 · attested
Boston was formerly named Trimountain
Attested by Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915, Three episodes of Massachusetts history. The settlement of Boston Bay. The Antinomian controversy. A study of church and town government; (scholar) since 1892 · attested
Questions this record answers
Each answer is composed only from fields this record carries, and names the attestation for what it says. A question the record cannot answer from its own attested content is not asked here. Where a boundary is described as official it was promulgated by an authority with the power to draw it and is not amended by anything on the vernacular layer; where it is described as vernacular it is held by attestation alone and amends no official boundary.
Who attests that Boston was formerly named Shawmut?
Macullar, Parker Company, How to see Boston : a trustworthy guidebook... attests it, as scholar, since 1895. The archive records the attestation strength as attested — a count of independent attestations, never a truth value.
Attested by: Internet Archive — Boston texts, retrieved 5 September 2026, under Public domain — published before 1929.
What evidence does the archive hold for this claim?
1 evidence row supports the claim. The passage carrying the attestation reads: “" Boston was called Shawmut, meaning "The Place Where Boats Go," by the Indians ; TriMontaine, by the early English settlers at Charles- town, from the three bold peaks of Beacon Hill ; and, finally, Boston, WASHINGTON STREET IN HORSE-CAR DAYS OF 1885.” A claim with no evidence row is served with that fact stated rather than served bare.
Attested by: Macullar, Parker Company, How to see Boston : a trustworthy guidebook... (1895)
Does the archive say this claim is true?
No. This archive does not adjudicate. It records who attests an assertion, since when, and on what evidence, and it assigns no truth value and no rating. Sibling attestations of this same assertion share the group boston-former_name and are served beside it. Variants of one assertion are served together, unranked and unresolved.
Attested by: Internet Archive — Boston texts, retrieved 5 September 2026, under Public domain — published before 1929.
What does the archive hold for Boston was formerly named Shawmut, and under what license?
The Boston Archive holds this record of Boston was formerly named Shawmut from Internet Archive — Boston texts, retrieved 5 September 2026, under Public domain — published before 1929 (public domain). 3 recorded transforms stand between the retrieved bytes and this record. Attribution is due to Macullar, Parker Company.
Attested by: Internet Archive — Boston texts, retrieved 5 September 2026, under Public domain — published before 1929.
Related records
- about — Boston
- derived from — How to see Boston : a trustworthy guidebook...
Identity
- Identifier
- urn:lemay:boston:claim:boston-former-name-shawmut-how-to-see-boston-a-trustwor
- Canonical URL
- https://boston.fyi/claim/boston-former-name-shawmut-how-to-see-boston-a-trustwor
- As JSON
- https://boston.fyi/claim/boston-former-name-shawmut-how-to-see-boston-a-trustwor.json
- Version
- 1 · last changed 5 September 2026
Provenance
- Source
- Internet Archive — Boston texts — source of record
- License
- Public domain — published before 1929 (public_domain)
- Retrieved
- 5 September 2026
- Source identifier
- how-to-see-boston-a-trustworthy-guidebook#shawmut
- Attribution
- Macullar, Parker Company
- Rights as stated
- NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT (Internet Archive item rights review), corroborated by the item's own publication date of 1895 — before 1929, and therefore in the public domain in the United States
Transform ladder
| # | Operation | Description | Tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | read | searched a text the archive itself holds, not a source it merely knows of | archive-ingest 0.1.0 |
| 2 | test | required ONE sentence to carry the name at a word boundary, a naming verb, and the subject — all three, or nothing | archive-ingest 0.1.0 |
| 3 | quote | took that sentence unaltered as the evidence for this claim | archive-ingest 0.1.0 |