Boston’s toponymic roots
After enjoying a Duck Tour yesterday, focused largely on Boston’s history, I became interested in the origin of the city’s name. I knew it was named after a city in England, but I wanted more details.
Thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered that:
The name Boston is said to be a contraction of St Botolph’s town or of St Botolph’s stone. However, fewer people now believe the story, still current, that a settlement in Boston dates from AD 654, when a Saxon monk, named Botolph, established a monastery on the banks of the River Witham. One reason for doubting this is, that in 654, the Witham did not flow near the site of Boston. (The early medieval geography of The Fens was much more fluid than it is today). Botolph’s establishment is most likely to have been in Suffolk.
Three things intrigued me about this:
- The city’s named after something that didn’t happen.
- The original Boston has an area called “The Fens” (an old English phrase for swamps). My Boston has such an area too, which is why the baseball stadium, built in a swampy area of the city, is called Fenway.
- The actual site of the original “St Botolph’s stone ” was in Suffolk, which is the name of Boston’s county.
