houses were sacked and pulled down, and the materials and contents
made into bonfires, and much valuable property destroyed. Several
of the rioters were arrested, tried and convicted. The trials of
some of them are now before me. How deeply Fleet was implicated
in these disturbances was never known, but being of the same mind
with Jack Falstaff, that "the better part of valor is discretion,"
thought it prudent to put the Ocean between himself and danger. He
made his way to this country and arrived in Boston, 1712. Being
a man of some enterprise he soon established a printing office in
Pudding Lane (now Devonshire Street), where he printed small books,
pamphlets, ballads, and such matter as offered. Being industrious
and prudent, he gradually accumulated property. It was not long
before he became acquainted with the "wealthy family of Goose,"
a branch of which he had before known in Bristol, and was shortly
married to the eldest daughter.

[*][Note from Brett: Publisher of an American volume of Mother
Goose in 1787, "Mother Goose's Melody: or Sonnets for the cradle."
This is a reprint of the collection put together by John Newbury
(known for the Newbury medal).]

By the record of marriages in the City Registrar's office, it
appears that in "1715, June 8, was married by Rev. COTTON MATHER,
THOMAS FLEET TO ELIZABETH GOOSE." The happy couple took up their
residence in the same house with the printing office in Pudding lane.
In due time their family was increased by the birth of a son and
heir. Mother Goose, like all good grandmothers, was in ecstasies
at the event; her joy was unbounded; she spent her whole time in
the nursery, and in wandering about the house, pouring forth, in
not the most melodious strains, the songs and ditties which she