QUINCY. A city, including within the mu nicipal limits several villages, in Norfolk County, Mass., adjoining Boston on the south; on Quincy Bay, between the Neponset River on the north and Fore River on the south; and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Map: Massachusetts, E 3). Its area is more than 16 square miles, 2,530 acres of which are- in public parks, the most prominent being Merrymonnt and Faxon. Quincy has the Thomas Crane Public Library with 20,000 volumes, Adams Academy and Woodward Institute, the latter for girls, and a city hospital. There are many points of his- , torie interest in this vicinity; and here was con structed in 1826-27 the first railroad in New England, built for carrying granite and operated by horses. Quincy is primarily a residential sub urb of Boston, but has extensive granite quarry ing and cutting interests, a large ship-building , plant, and rivet and stud The govern- ' ment, under a revised charter of 1900, is vested in a mayor annually elected, and n unicameral coun cil. The mayor controls appointments of the heads of all departments, excepting that of the school committee. Other administrative of ficers are elected by the council, or confirmed by that body upon nomination of the mayor. The school committee is chosen by popular vote. The
water supply of Quincy is furnished through the system of the metropolitan district. Popula tion, in 1890, 16,723; in 1900, 23,899.
Settled in 1625 as Mount Wollaston, Quincy is one of the oldest permanent settlements in Mas sachusetts. About 1620 Thomas Morton (q.v.) gained control and established his famous "New English Canaan," Merrymount. Becoming ob noxious to the Puritans at Boston because of his encouragement of Maypoles and other reprehen sible `ldolls,' because of "his great licentious ness of life in all profaneness," be was captured by Miles Standish and shipped off to England. Until 1792, when it was incorporated under its present name in honor of John Quincy, the settle ment formed part of Braintree. It was chartered as a city in 1888. It was the birthplace of John Hancock, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, the two last being buried here under the old `Stone Temple.' Consult: an address by Adams, The Centennial Milestone (Cambridge, 1892) ; Pattee, A Ristotsy of Old Braintree and Quincy (Quincy, 1878) ; Hurd, History of Nor folk County (Philadelphia, 1884) ; Wilson, Where American Independence Was Born (Bos ton. 1902) ; and Adams, Three Episodes of Mas sachusetts History (Boston, 1892).