Refer to page 4 of Lighthouses Short and Tall for Boston Lighthouse
In the book, this heading has "tower" in it after the date, which tells you that this is not the first lighthouse built
at this spot.
Are you familiar with toll roads, where you drive up to a booth and pay to use the road? To finance the first Boston light
and its keeper, the Assembly of Massachusetts levied a toll on all ships going in and out of Boston harbor. Except that ships
couldn’t pull up to a toll booth to pay their toll. So who do you think collected the toll?
In the colonies each port had a collector of customs, who in this quote is called an English title: "receiver of impost".
[If you’re uncertain as to the meaning of ‘customs’, look it up, choosing the definition that has to do
with ships bringing commercial cargo into port and unloading it.] The collector would be the logical one to collect the toll
because his office was on the wharves where a ship captain could stop on his way to or from to his ship and pay the toll.
Like the lottery at Sandy Hook Light, the toll collected in Boston was in English money—shillings and pence.
How much brighter do you think a whale oil lamp would be compared to candles?
