[p. 8] farm land and began the erection of the Royall House —which appears today on the exterior identically the same as it did when completed after five years of faithful labor, neither time nor money being spared to make the house one of beauty and grandeur.
The hospitality of the Royall House was known far and wide, and we may be sure that the cellaret would be amply supplied and the hearty old-time greeting dealt out with no niggardly hand.
Isaac Royall, at the age of sixty-seven, died in his beautiful home in Medford, June 7, 1739, and was buried in the family tomb in Dorchester cemetery at Upham's Corner. Isaac Royall, Jr., then fell heir to his father's estate, at the age of twenty years. A few years later he married Elizabeth McIntosh of Surinam, South America. For many years the mansion was the rallying place of social life, and no one of importance thought of passing by without stopping to pay their respects to Colonel Royall and family. He was actively interested in the Colonies, a member of the Provincial Militia, and in 1761 was made Brigadier General, the first of that title among Americans.
From 1743 to 1752 he served as Deputy to the General Court and regularly returned his salary to the town for the poor. For twenty-two years he was a member of the Governor's Council. Sixteen years he served as Chairman of the Selectmen of Charlestown, and when his estate was set off to Medford he held the same offices. In 1763 he was appointed on a committee of three to purchase by subscription the first fire engine in Medford, named ‘The Grasshopper,’ which was sold in 1848 for $20.00.
Although many of his friends were Loyalists, he was a member of the People's Church, King's Chapel, in Boston, and a pew owner of our own First Parish Church in Medford, to which he gave a number of pieces of communion silver. It is now in custody of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, the whole valued at $10,000.
