CHARLESTOWN, formerly a separate city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., but since 1874 a part of the city of Boston, with which it had long before been in many respects practically one. It is situated on a small peninsula on Boston harbour, between the mouths of the Mystic and Charles rivers; the first bridge across the Charles, built in 1786, connected Charlestown and Boston. A United States navy yard (1800), occupying about 87ac., and the Massachusetts state prison (18o5) are here; the old burying-ground contains the grave of John Harvard and that of Thomas Beecher, the first American member of the famous Beecher family; and there is a soldiers' and sailors' monument (1872), designed by Martin Milmore. Charlestown was founded in 1628 or 1629, being the oldest part of Boston, and soon rose into importance; it was organized as a township in 1630, and was chartered as a city in 1847. Within its limits was fought, on June the battle of Bunker Hill (q.v.), when Charlestown was almost completely destroyed by the British. The Bunker Hill monument commemorates the battle. The original territory of the township was very large, and from parts of it were formed Woburn (1642), Malden (1649), Stoneham (1725), and Somerville (1842) ; other parts were annexed to Cambridge, to Medford and to Arlington. S. F. B. Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, was born here; and Charlestown was the home of Samuel Dexter (1761 '816), an eminent lawyer, secretary of war in the cabinet of President John Adams, and of Oliver Holden (1765-1831), a composer of hymn-tunes, including "Coronation." See R. Frothingham, History of Charlestown (1845), covering J. F. Hunnewell, A Century of Town Life ... 177s 1887 (1888) ; Timothy T. Sawyer, Old Charlestown (1902) ; and H. H. Sprague, The Founding of Charlestown by the Spragues (191o).