Editing Inman Square (section)

=== 18th century ===
Inman Square likely owes its name to [[Ralph Inman]] (1713–1788), described as a gentleman of fortune and a [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] merchant. The details of his life can be pieced together from articles in the New England and Genealogical Register, vols. 12, 14, 25, 26, 30, 55, 84, 112, and 136, as well as numerous other sources. He had extensive business interests along the Boston wharf and with Thomas Sodden owned {{convert|400|acre|km2}} making up "what is now the Port."

Inman also owned a "large, three-story rambling mansion" in a "{{lang|en-emodeng|little genteel Town about 4 Miles off (from Boston) calld Cambridge, where a number of Gentlemen's Families live upon their Estates.}}" This included the Brattles, after whom Brattle Square was named.

During the [[American Revolutionary War]], in 1775, American general [[Israel Putnam]] took over Inman's house as his headquarters. Inman was intent on remaining neutral in the war, but his intentions went for naught when his son joined the [[British Army]], causing authorities to begin confiscating his property. He fled, leaving his wife, [[Elizabeth Murray Campbell Smith Inman|Elizabeth Murray]], to deal with General Putnam and protect the property.

Inman's wife, his second, was a business woman in her own right. Elizabeth Murray owned the sugar warehouse in Boston that the British troops took over as a barracks when they came to settle the unrest in Boston. It was from there that they marched to the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]]. When her husband fled to Boston to seek protection from the British, Elizabeth Murray protected the Cambridge property. After the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Continental Army confiscated the property and her husband fled with the British to Halifax. She remained in America until she died in 1785.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cleary|first1=Patricia|title=A Woman's Pursuit of Independence in Eighteenth-Century America: A woman shopkeeper’s struggle to achieve economic self-sufficiency in eighteenth-century Boston|date=2003|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|location=Amherst|isbn=978-1-55849-396-4|url=http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/elizabeth-murray}}</ref>

An extensive description of the house is given in NE & GR, July 1871, vol. 25, page 232. "On the Inman street side" and "looking toward Boston road" are mentioned. It was "the first object of any interest in approaching the colleges from Boston ..." At the time of the description, {{convert|6|acre|m2}} were still attached to it. Inman died there in 1788. His wife predeceased him.