USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston : the Old North Church of Paul Revere fame : historical sketches, Colonial period, 1723-1775 > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00084 1186
THE REVEREND TIMOTHY CUTLER, D.D. 1684-1765 Harvard 1701 First President of Yale College Rector of Christ Church 1723-1765
From the Mezzotint by Peter Pelham, 1750 Owned by Christ Church
CHRIST CHURCH
SALEM STREET, BOSTON
THE Old north Church OF PAUL REVERE FAME
Historical Sketches COLONIAL PERIOD 1723-1775
MARY KENT DAVEY BABCOCK
COPYRIGHT BY MARY KENT DAVEY BABCOCK
THOMAS TODD COMPANY PRINTERS BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
1425891
TO S. G. B. .
FOREWORD
C HRIST CHURCH (the Old North) is a living symbol of all that is best in our American life and tradition, for here for over two hundred years through all the vicissitudes of the American scene, men and women of many generations have gathered to worship the source of perfection and of strength. Built in the colonial period, intimately connected with the stirring events of the Revolution, filled with reminders of those great days, it is no wonder that yearly many thou- sands come to the old church as to a national shrine. I know of few places which can so give one the feel of the past. Yet Christ Church has never been only an his- torical monument. For over two centuries regular services have been held, as they are today.
Mrs. Babcock has long had an intimate connection with Christ Church as an active parishioner. She has shown herself an eager, painstaking and efficient histori- cal student of the church. In this book she gives us the fruit of her years of investigation and of study, and opens for us a vista into the times from which we are sprung.
In these days of crisis and of change, it is good to realize the character of our forbears, to read of the lives, the gifts and the spiritual interests of those who have gone on before. For as such Christian character was the foundation of the past, so it is the hope of the present and the future. We may well pray, "God give us grace to follow in their train."
Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts
April, 1947.
V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD
V
SUMMARY OUTLINE
XI
Two TREASURE CHESTS
I
DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS OF PRE-REVOLUTIONARY
ORDINATIONS 4 The Call to Timothy Cutler English Sojourn Biographical Sketches
THE
BEGINNINGS
23
The Old North End
Building Christ Church
THE OLD NORTH'S DEBT TO SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 39
THE FIRST VESTRY ·
44
THE VERSATILE MR. PRICE . 60
THE BRANCHES 66
THE BOSTON EPISCOPAL CHARITABLE SOCIETY 73
THE CHRIST CHURCH CLOCKS 78
THE SEXTON AND HIS DUTIES £ .
83
PEWS, LOGWOOD AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BAY 93
THE CLERK AND HIS DESK 99
THE KING'S GIFT . 107
THE FIRST METHODIST PREACHES AT THE OLD NORTH II5
CHRIST CHURCH ORGANS AND ORGAN BUILDERS .
123
CHRIST CHURCH ORGANISTS 150
DR. CUTLER ENTERTAINS THE CLERGY 169
THE STORY OF A STEEPLE 18I
Deacon Shem Drowne Makes the Weathervane
THE BELLS AND BELL RINGERS 191
THE CHURCH OF THE CRYSTAL CHANDELIER 197
RECTORS OF CHRIST CHURCH 1723-1775 200
The Reverend Timothy Cutler, D.D.
The Reverend James Greaton, Curate The Reverend Mather Byles, D.D.
THE OLD NORTH CHURCH OF PAUL REVERE FAME 210
APPENDIX
217
BIBLIOGRAPHY
257
263
.
INDEX . · vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE REVEREND TIMOTHY CUTLER, D.D.
Frontispiece FACING PAGE
THE REVEREND SAMUEL JOHNSON, D.D.
19
THE OLD NORTH END, BURGIS-PRICE VIEW 26 ·
SIGNATURES OF THE MASTER BUILDERS 27
FRANCIS BETEILHE'S RECORD OF THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE
CHRIST CHURCH FROM CHARTER STREET · 27
THE FIRST KING'S CHAPEL .
33
THE BRANCHES
72
SEAL OF THE BOSTON EPISCOPAL CHARITABLE SOCIETY 73
THE AVERY-BENNETT CLOCK 80
STEEPLE OF CHRIST CHURCH
81
ROBERT NEWMAN 88
FRANCIS BETEILHE'S RECEIPT FOR COPYING RECORDS 88
PAUL REVERE 89
COMMUNION SILVER
IIO
VINEGAR BIBLE
III
THE REVEREND CHARLES WESLEY
II6
PAUL REVERE'S ENGRAVING OF THE NORTH BATTERY
II7
ORGAN LOFT IN CHRIST CHURCH 124
RECEIPT OF WILLIAM CLAGGETT 125
RECEIPT OF THOMAS JOHNSTON I34
THOMAS JOHNSTON ·
I35
TITLE PAGE OF THE REVEREND ARTHUR BROWNE'S
SERMON . 174
THE REVEREND ARTHUR BROWNE, A.M. 175
AN ATTEMPT TO LAND A BISHOP IN AMERICA
DR. CUTLER'S CHAIR 178
179
BURGIS-PRICE VIEW OF CHRIST CHURCH 182
DEACON SHEM DROWNE'S BILL FOR THE WEATHERVANE 183
CHARLES HENRY JEWELL 196
THE CRYSTAL CHANDELIER 197 .
DR. CUTLER'S SIGNATURE .
200
THE REVEREND MATHER BYLES, JR., D.D.
201
ix
32
SUMMARY OUTLINE
T WO full centuries since its founding in 1723 have been rounded out by Christ Church, Boston, which is now well into the third decade of its third century. While no adequate history of Christ Church can be written until such time as the records shall be printed, the timely discovery of so many original documents affords an opportunity to tell bit by bit the story of how Christ Church came to its majority. High- lighted in these latter days as an historic monument and a national shrine, the story of its early years received but scant attention until the Guide Book and Annals from the competent hand of Charles Knowles Bolton, then senior warden, was issued for the restoration in nineteen hundred and twelve. To him I am indebted for advice and counsel in my endeavor to bring fuller light on an absorbing story.
The history of Christ Church for the first one hundred years may be divided into three periods, outwardly dissimilar but alike in continuity of purpose. I have summarized these three periods as follows :
PART I
Christ Church as a Colonial Mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from the laying of the first stone, April 15, 1723, to April 18, 1775, when the Signal Lanterns of Paul Revere effectu- ally closed the church for several years. This first period is covered by the rectorates of the Reverend Timothy Cutler and his curate, the Reverend James Greaton, and that of the Reverend Mather Byles, Jr.
:1.
PART II
The Reconstruction Period began with the rectorate of the Reverend Stephen Christopher Lewis, a British chaplain, who, having renounced allegiance to Great Britain, was elected rector in 1778. The heroic struggle of his successors, the Reverend William Montague and the Reverend William Walter, kept the parish alive until Doctor Walter's death in 1800. By this time, so great was the impoverishment of the parish that it was unable to continue the payment of even a meagre stipend to the Reverend Samuel Haskell, who served until 1803, when a young and enthusiastic theological student, Asa Eaton, carried on the services as lay reader until his ordination in 1805 when he became rector.
PART III
The peak of influence was reached when the parish, under Dr. Eaton's guidance, was lifted to a commanding position by its pioneer work in the establishment of the "first Sunday School in these parts " under the leader- ship of the rector, his able senior warden, Shubael Bell, Esq., and a prominent educator, Joseph Wentworth Ingraham, whose labors in primary education in the Boston public schools were bestowed as well upon the Christ Church Sunday School, of which he was super- intendent for twenty years. Dr. Eaton's centennial address in 1823, the first printed history of the parish (1824), fittingly closed the third period, leaving Christ Church at the end of its first century a living force in the com- munity and the Church at large.
The material for this volume has been drawn from the books, records and manuscripts of Christ Church, supplemented by contemporary newspapers, diaries and unpublished church documents.
xii .
They builded better than they knew, those artisans of the eighteenth century. No other building in Boston has withstood the ravages of time and the elements as has Christ Church. None has kept the faith with more stead- fastness. The light of a candle which shone from its lofty spire, bursting into Pentecostal flame, loosened the tongues of men everywhere to demand their God-given right to be free in thought, speech and action.
A church, a landmark and a shrine, but first of all a church. Now and for over two centuries, Christ Church still stands,
A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE.
xiii
C
0
TWO TREASURE CHESTS
O NE day out of a clear sky, or to be quite exact out of the attic shadows of the sexton's house, there arrived at my home two battered wooden chests. The smaller one bore, roughly carved in its cover hanging by a single screw,-
C £ C
1724
Both were crammed to overflowing with papers relating to Christ Church, papers covering two centuries.
Like one of those pseudo-miracles of the screen by which the progress of a plant from seed to fruit has been so quickened to the eye that it appears as the growth of a few moments, the years of building activity at Christ Church are compressed into the comparatively few hours it takes to read these scraps of paper. And they are so human !
Something of the personality of the artisans of two centuries gone seems to hover around the chests and inject itself into the handwriting as I take out the papers one by one. Here the brass finisher has smudged his paper with a staining acid, the quill pen of another has sputtered or a misspelled word has been scratched out by an impatient stroke. No curt "Paid" acknowledges the cancelling of a debt, but an emphatic "I say, received." After toiling in the service of the church with brawn and muscle all the week, many of them sat with their families on Sundays in the pews they had bought and, surrounded by their own handiwork, listened to the sonorous English of the Bible and Prayer Book.
Beginning with Captain Samuel Came's trip to York in 1722 to select lumber for " the new Church of England
to be built in the North End the following spring," the subscription papers to supply building funds, the voyage to England for ordination of Timothy Cutler lately " excused" as rector (or president as we now say) of Yale College, down to the restoration under Bishop Lawrence, -the history of the ancient church unrolled its course to my fascinated eyes. In neat folders of writing paper are contained the original bills and specifications which served as vouchers for the entries copied by succeed- ing parish clerks in the proper ledgers and account books now on deposit in the Boston Athenæum. I could write pages about the tantalizing glimpses into other days, - the penmanship and spelling, the outmoded expressions and usages, but not here and now.
The following entry fixes the story of the 1724 chest which appears first as a cedar box at fifteen shillings on Tippin and Bennett's bill, and a later entry calling for the addition of a drawer to hold the church money.
At a Vestry Meeting on the 17th December, 1733
Whereas there is a box with two locks and keys in order to keep the Church Cash therein It is now
VOTED That the said box be left under the care of the Eldest Church Warden, and each of them keep a key, And, that the Church Wardens do meet on ye Second Monday in every Month and settle their Accompts. And whatever Cash remains over plus, or undisposed of, to be lockt up in said box.
By order of the Vestry F. Beteilhe, Ck.
The expert repairer of the chests, Joseph Lopes, in 1935 verified the original construction in two distinct parts which had become unglued. Except for damaged locks nothing was missing but a small handle on the drawer.
While no complete history of Christ Church has been published, it has been many times first-page news in the public press as anniversaries have come and gone. Be- ginning with the centennial address by the rector, the
[2]
F
Reverend Asa Eaton, printed in 1824, the Communion silver, the bells and the library have been subjects of exhaustive studies by such authorities as the late Dr. Ralph Adams Cram, the late Dr. Arthur H. Nichols and the late Percival Merritt, librarian. The supple- mentary issue of the Guide Book for the bicentenary in 1923 occupies a unique place, being both guide book and annals.
But all of these scholarly works, while stressing the names of rich or titled donors, pass lightly over the part played by humbler citizens in the building and mainte- nance of Christ Church. In these yellowing papers we come at first hand with the bricklayers and masons, the carpenters, painters and plasterers, the brass and iron workers, even the maltsters who furnished that sine qua non of the 18th century workman, the copious draughts of cooling beer. It took twenty-one years to bring to- completion the work undertaken in 1723, nearly a generation of persistent labor. And now cleared of the time bloom of more than two hundred years, both chests have been returned to their first home where they may be seen in the church vestry. For better display they have been placed on stands given by the late C. William French, organizer of The Lantern League.
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DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS OF PRE-REVOLUTIONARY ORDINATIONS
THE CALL TO TIMOTHY CUTLER
S EPTEMBER 12th, 1722, was commencement at Yale College. The class numbered eight; the presi- dent or, as he was then called, rector, the Rev. Timothy Cutler and one tutor, Daniel Brown, made up the entire faculty. It was indeed the day of small be- ginnings, yet no commencement at Yale has ever pre- cipitated such a war of words as did this now historic event.
The exercises had passed in an atmosphere tense with repressed curiosity and suspicion. For many months rumors had been flying thick and fast all over the New Haven Colony - rumors of covert meetings of ministers in the college library, of a second Episcopal church about to be built in Boston, to which Rector Cutler was to be called, of renewed efforts to foist the Book of Common Prayer, even a bishop, on the people of New England. These low rumblings were soon to reverberate in loud thunder claps, for now Rector Cutler finished his com- mencement sermon with an unaccustomed phrase, "And let all the people say, Amen!" 1
Immediately from the trustees came a request to the rector and his friends to meet them in the college library the next day and in writing make a definite statement of their views and opinions. Besides Timothy Cutler and
' Psalm 106, v. 46. Called by many writers a "Prayer Book formula," not however in any prayer in the American Prayer Book.
[4]
of the 1 Bro Sa ro
ve fa tra
a th
C th th
Daniel Brown, this involved five Congregational ministers in the New Haven Colony.1
On September 13, 1722, before the "Rev. Fathers and Brethren present in the Library," Rector Cutler read to the first astonished and then indignant trustees, a formal statement, in which Cutler, speaking for the seven signers of the paper, stated that " some of them doubted the validity and the rest were persuaded of the inva- lidity of Presbyterian ordination in opposition to the Episcopal."
In his historical discourse at the 150th anniversary of Yale College, President Woolsey said,
I suppose that greater alarm would scarcely be awakened now, if the Theological Faculty of the College were to declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in transubstantiation and pray to the Virgin Mary.
Today such an event would pass almost without com- ment by the greater part of the population of New England; but in 1722 there had been nothing comparable to stir up religious rancor since the days of Anne Hutchinson and nothing was to equal it until Whitefield and the Wesleys turned the world upside down before the century was three-quarters gone.
Timothy Cutler, having been chosen pastor of the Congregational church in Stratford, in an effort to stem the tide which was sweeping that town into the arms of the Church of England, through the efforts of the con- verted Congregational minister John Read, had now to face the anger of those whom he had apparently be- trayed by going over to the camp of the enemy.
In an endeavor to clarify the situation, the governor of the colony, Gurdon Saltonstall, suggested a debate in the college library which took place the day after the
1 Signers of the letter to the trustees were Timothy Cutler, Daniel Brown, Samuel Johnson, James Wetmore, Jared Eliot, John Hart and Samuel Whittelsey. Except Cutler, all were Yale graduates.
[5]
opening session of the General Assembly, before whom the matter had been laid. But the "gentlemen on the Dissenting side" ›were ill prepared to cope with men who had spent years in sifting and weighing evidence to confirm their contention. When speeches became acrimonious the debate was closed by the governor, who explained he had only meant it for a friendly conference. The trustees, finding that four of the seven signers had no intention of changing their minds, immediately " excused " Rector Cutler from any further service to the college. The three clergymen who had only doubted the validity of their Presbyterian ordination returned to their respective meeting houses and never were heard from in protest again.
On October 2 the following letter was dispatched to Mr. Cutler by a trusty hand :
Boston, Ye 2ª Octo", 1722.
Mr Timothy Cutler, - We, the Subscribers, congratulate you and the Gentlemen your Friends on Account of your late Decla- ration, and we pray to God it may have that happy Influence on this Country which some Men so much dread and deprecate; while others Expect some Benefit from it.
Sir, - We being appointed a Committee for taking in Sub- scriptions to build a New House for the Worship of God at ye North end of Boston (our present building not being capable to contain the People of the Church), and having the hearty Con- currence and prayers of the Reverend Mr Sam1 Myles in our undertaking, We have thought proper to acquaint you that we would have you come to Boston; and (by what we have learnt from the Gentlemen of the Church) We take upon us to Assure You that a Passage shall be provided for You, and all things proper to support the Character of a Gentleman during your Stay in London, wither (wth the Approbation of the Reverd Mr Sam1 Myles) We Shall Send our humble Petition to Our Right Reverd Diocesan, My lord Bishop of London, that after the Church which is now design'd to be erected, He would be graciously pleased to grant his license to You to preach in, the People here being willing to Maintain You.
[6]
Chu
to
P 0 I
th T Pr
We desire that Mr Brown and Mr Johnson may come down with You in Order to accompany you to London (wch Gentlemen shall likewise be our Care as to procuring them a Passage and doeing them all the Services in our power). We make no Question, but that you will all be very kindly received by the Rt Revd the Bishops, both the Universities and the Honble Society; and altho your Sincerity (Mr Cutler) is called in Question by the Reverend Mr Henry Harris,1 Yet we hope Your future behaviour will fully Demonstrate Your Integrity. And if that Worthy Gentleman should by some wicked Men be unhappily persuaded to persist in his Opinion, Yet notwithstands We assure You Sr that your coming to Boston by the Month of November will be very gratefull to the Church here, and you all may depend upon a hearty well- come from the Reverd Mr Sam11 Myles, the whole body of the Church, and in a particular Manner from, Gentlemen,
Your Friends and very humble Servants,
John Barnes. John Gibbins.
Thos Greaves.
Thos Selby.
Geo: Cradock.
Geo: Monk.
Anth : Blount.
P.S. We assure you that Care shall be take of yor Spouse and Children (either here or where else you please till Your Return from Britain). We expect a possitive Answer by the bearer of this Letter.
The speedy answer requested was forthcoming and with the jubilant George Pigot, S.P.G. missionary newly arrived in Stratford, wishing them Godspeed and pre- dicting to the Venerable Society a general debacle of Presbyterianism, the three travelers set forth for Boston on October 23. It took five days to reach Bristol, Rhode Island, where on Sunday, October 28th, 1722, Johnson records in his diary, "I first went to church." From town to town, from village to village, across New England the news of the Connecticut defection had preceded them. To the wailing and lamentation from every pulpit the press added its voice, bewailing that the Connecticut
1 The Rev. Henry Harris, assistant minister of King's Chapel, Boston, - a contentious priest who continued his opposition to Dr. Cutler. For more about him, see Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Volume XI, pp. 163, 164, 165, 167-168, 174, 175, 176-178.
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1
"Fountain and Nursery of Truth and Learning is now become corrupt, groaning out Ichabod under its second rector, Timothy Cutler." Judge Sewall, commenting on a sermon in the Old South,1 declared that the " Connecti- cut apostacie " would bring dire vengeance on New Eng- land. They certainly took their religion hard in those days.
However, Mr. Cutler and his friends had little time to nurse any bitterness caused by the almost universal condemnation of their course. They were buoyed up by the fact that they were obeying the dictates of conscience and reason, and doubtless the rector-elect of Christ Church had a busy three days preparing for what proved to be, to state it mildly, a " boisterous and uncomfortable voyage." Captain Lithered in the Mary was eager to be off. On their last day in Boston Johnson enters in his diary-
Nov. 4, 1722. Tomorrow we venture upon the ocean for Great Britain God Almighty preserve us.
ENGLISH SOJOURN
Nothing has so dissipated the mists of two hundred years and put into focus the towering hgure of Timothy Cutler as have the terse but vivid pages of Samuel Johnson's diary. The pen is the pen of Johnson, but the spirit is the spirit of Cutler; for Johnson and Brown, twelve years Cutler's junior, everything revolved about the man whom they looked upon as guide, philosopher and friend. Through its pages pass and repass bishops and archbishops, deans and college dons, disputatious Arians, preachers in flowing gowns dispensing the word of God from ancient pulpits, zealous proponents of colonial missions in an ever-shifting kaleidoscope against the background of 18th century London, its churches and theatres, its inns and coffee houses, museums, book shops and noble historic monuments.
1 " Old South," the First Church, Congregational.
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In the nourishing soil of the England from which he had sprung, Timothy Cutler moved, a man among men, a scholar among scholars, a Churchman among Churchmen. If it be true that we are a part of all that we have met, then this experience, unique in the annals of the Colonial Church, deserves more than the usual cursory notice in church histories. It is an integral part of the records of Christ Church, Boston.
Crossing the Atlantic in the cockle shells of the 18th century was no pleasure trip. "Wind and weather per- mitting," a phrase we associate today with sailboats and aircraft, meant just that to the captain of a sailing vessel two centuries ago. If the elements were favorable, the captain would deposit his passengers at the haven where they would be; if not, then at the nearest port, as did Captain Lithered in 1722.
A scrap of paper in the Christ Church archives shows that thirty-four subscribers had enabled the committee arranging for the passage to London for the three travelers to provide generously for their comfort; and we get a glimpse into the necessities of an ocean voyage in the 18th century, even to the luxury of fresh meat on the hoof from another yellowing paper :
A subscription for expenses to London
of Cutler, Johnson & Brown -
Payd Captn Lithered for Mr
Cutler &c
1
Passages 30 0 0
Pd for 3 beds to Col. Fitch 8 8 -
" Mr. Cutler
19 moydeors att £3-10 each)
one Guinnea 2-13
69 3 -
66 for 2 Shotes
209
109-11-9
It was Samuel Johnson, methodical and painstaking,
[9]
-
who has left in a handwriting so small it takes good eyes to read it today, a "Journal of the voyage to, abode at, and return from England." Thanks to this journal we know what the three passengers did through five weeks and four days of their voyage, what books they pored over, what days they read prayers (Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays), how the Mary tossed and rolled through many a "grievous" storm-"three last week," say the notes on one day, how at last "by God's goodness" they landed at Margate on the Isle of Thanet,1 how they were entertained there at Captain Lithered's home and, pilgrims of another day, on December 15, 1722, took horse and came to Canterbury.
The contrary winds which landed them on the Kentish coast proved, nevertheless, to be favoring breezes for the travelers. It was Saturday and there being no stage coach for London for three days, they gladly seized the unexpected opportunity to worship on Sunday for the first time on English soil at England's most historic shrine. Their introductory letters being confined to the business in hand, i.e., getting ordination at the hand of the Bishop of London, they had none to any one in Canter- bury. After spending most of Sunday at services in the cathedral, they ventured on Monday, having like any 20th century globe-trotters, "ascended the 275 steps of the tower where they inscribed their names," to present their respects to the dean of the cathedral. It appeared that the chapter was in session. When the servant at the deanery announced them simply as "some gentlemen from America come over for Holy Orders, who are desirous of paying their duty to the Dean," they were met with outstretched hands by Dean Stanhope saying, " Come in Gentlemen, you are very welcome. I know you
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