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GATHERED IN 1707
Gc 974.402 B732s 1951661
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 7632
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BRAINTREE, MASS.
GATHERED IN 1707
Compiled by RUTH W. SHUSTER Clerk
A History of the First Congregational Church Braintree, Massachusetts 1707 - 1957
COPYRIGHT, 1957 BY THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BRAINTREE, MASS.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or any portion thereof, in any form, except for the in- clusion of brief quotations in a review.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY
THE SMITH PRINT, WEYMOUTH, MASS.
DEDICATION
To all generations of faithful worshipers of the First Congregational Church who yesterday built this Church, and tomorrow will continue its glory.
1951661
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Grateful acknowledgment is extended to the many people who offered encouragement in the preparation of this history; to those who assisted in reading the rec- ords and prepared notes for ready reference; to the min- isters, past and present, who contributed of their time and talents to write special sections; and a special acknowledgment to the Clerks of this Church who through the 250 years have kept their records intact for a rich source of material on which to draw for the history.
R. W. S.
FOREWORD
In a book of this size, only the highlights can be written. There being more than sufficient material in the thirteen volumes of Church records, no effort was made to relate the history of this Church with the history of the Town of Braintree. "Gathered in 1707" is in- tended to arouse a spirit of pride in the struggles and accomplishments of our forefathers, and a determination that future histories of the Church will record even greater attainments in His name.
R. W. S.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
1. The Beginning 1
2. Shepherds of the Flock 4
3. Three Meeting-Houses - Two Churches
63
4. The Ladies - God Bless 'Em 75
5. The Sabbath School and Christian Education 88
6. Music at First Church 97
7. Pounds, Debts and Dollars 105
8. Sextons and Cemeteries 111
9. Gifts and Wills
118
10. List of Church Members 128
APPENDIX
Chart of all officers and chairmen since 1932
CHAPTER 1
THE BEGINNING
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God" - John 1:1
As early as 1695, the old Meeting-house at the north end of the old town of Braintree was declared to be too small to accommodate all the worshipers and it was also in great need of repairs, but it was not until September 10th that about seventy-one families gathered in 1707 to form a new Church - the First Congregational Church of Braintree.
This Church was founded in the fifth year of the reign of Queen Anne, the last member of the Stuart line to sit on the throne of England. Louis XIV was King of France; the union between England and Scotland had just been effected; the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene were winning the great victories of the war of the Spanish succession in which England, Austria and Holland were leagued against France in the days when the victories of war were more highly rated than the victories of peace; Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706; Dr. Johnson was not born until 1709, and Dudley was governor of Massa- chusetts. Deerfield had just been sacked and burned by the Indians and a similar fate was soon after to overtake Haverhill. It was in this age of the world that the First Congregational Church of Braintree began.
The town of Braintree was incorporated May 13, 1640 (by the old system of the calendar). It included within its limits the present towns of Braintree, Quincy, Randolph and Holbrook. Previous to its incorporation, Quincy was called "Mount Wollaston" and "North Precinct"; and Braintree "Monatiquot" or "South Precinct", taking its name from the river which flows through it. Quincy was set off as a separate town in 1792, and Randolph in 1793. The first church in old Braintree was organized in 1639 and was situated in the center of the street now called Hancock, with the way from Boston to Plymouth passing directly by it "leaving two rods on one end of the house and two rods on the other end, thus leaving it in the centre of the street." This was, no doubt, for protection as many of the old meeting houses were used both for worship services and a protective fort against attack.
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As soon as a settlement was located and established in early New Eng- land, the new community built a "Meeting-house", a term which Cotton Mather, for one, distinctly approved as he "found no just ground in Scripture to apply such a trope as 'church' to a house for public assembly." He was as bitterly opposed to calling this edifice a church as he was to calling the Sabbath "Sunday" - his favorite term for that day was "the Lord's Day."
"After a bitter and angry controversy," it is said, the settlers along the banks of the Monatiquot "finally succeeded in getting a vote of the town, May 7, 1707, to establish a church in the South Precinct" which is now called Braintree. The movement was resisted at the north end (now Quincy) because the burden of supporting the minister, Rev. Moses Fisk, would be greatly increased for the remaining portion of the parish, by such a withdrawal. Under date of 1704-1705, John Mar- shall's diary carries the following entry: "In this month past, we had two church meetings in Braintree, which occasioned much debate, and some misapprehension about church discipline ... and nine of the church withdrew from the Lord's table, and in many things acted so disorderly that it occasioned a council of the elders and messengers of nine churches, who met in the old Meeting-house in Braintree. The petitioners agreed to get out timber for a new church and leave the selection of its locality to a committee."
Other reasons attributed to the desire to establish a second church were: "The old Meeting-house in the said town being built many years ago when the town was small, was accommodated for both situation and measure to the circumstances of the town in that day, and is altogether inconvenient for the town, and as it is now situated in two distinct parts considerably distant one from the other and not large enough to contain with comfort above two-thirds of the inhabitants. The in- habitants of the South end of the town find it very irksome especially in the winter to come so far as most of them come to meeting and through such bad ways, whereby the Lord's Day which is a day of rest was to them a day of labor, rather."
With the two churches actually in operation and with the inhabi- tants deeply stirred over the situation, various petitions and affidavits were submitted to the General Court in October and November, 1707. The General Court decided November 22, 1707 that Rev. Fisk's salary of ninety pounds per annum was a charge on the whole town. On November 3, 1708, the town chose Col. Edmund Quincy and Mr. Nehemiah Hayden to appear before the General Court and ask that the
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southern part of the town be set off as a separate Precinct, which request was granted November 5, 1708 (old style calendar, or Novem- ber 16, new style). Thus the South Precinct was established. At the last rate assessed for the support of Rev. Moses Fisk, prior to the sepa- ration, February 5, 1708, the southern portion with seventy-one families paid four-ninths of the entire assessment, giving a fair understanding of the relative importance of the two communities in wealth and popu- lation.
Having settled all difficulties with the mother church and their wishes acceded to in regard to establishing the line between the two precincts, the new Meeting-House built and a minister ordained, the way seemed to have been opened for the people of "Monatiquot" to offer public demonstrations of joy and thanksgiving that Providence had smiled upon their efforts to organize a church where the seventy- one families would be better accommodated. But no day of thanks- giving is recorded, nor does it appear that their anticipations were fully realized respecting their first minister whose term of office was so brief.
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CHAPTER 2
SHEPHERDS OF THE FLOCK
"Let us now praise famous men . . . "- Ecclesiasticus 44:1
REV. HUGH ADAMS 1707 - 1710
Born in Boston, May 7, 1676, the son of John and Avis Adams; graduated from Harvard College in 1697, at the age of 21. Or- dained at Braintree the same day as First Congregational Church was recognized - Sept. 10, 1707; dismissed Aug. 22, 1710; later served churches in Chatham (1710-1716) and Durham, N. H. (1718-1739) where he died in 1750, at 75.
Rev. Adams' ordination sermon was preached by Rev. Cotton Mather of Boston from Eph. 2:22, "In whom ye also are builded to- gether" from which the doctrine was deduced that "Every particular church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be together built in the glorious Lord as a temple of God." In applying the subject to the members of the newly constituted church, he said: "You have eyes of the most Holy Lord upon you - eyes that strike and pierce like lightning - pure eyes that cannot look upon iniquity! The people of God and all your neighbors have their eyes upon you! O how much ought this to be your prayer - "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path!' It is equally to be desired, greatly to be advised, that you endeavor greatly to approve yourselves the children of God, without rebuke; that you may keep close to the faith and order of the gospel, and the right way of the Lord; that you may be much in supplications to the Lord, and often set apart whole days for extraordinary supplication, that the work of God may be happily carried on among you - in a word, that you may all be true citizens of Zion!" The ordination was signed by the Rev. Increase Mather and his son, Rev. Cotton Mather, and Rev. James Keith, "the hoary-headed pastor of the church of Bridgewater," who laid their hands on Rev. Adams in ordination.
Rev. Adams appears to have been a singular character, though in the language of Prof. Edward Park, "It is the common opinion that he was a pious man of quick impulse having more emotion than dis- cretion, a large parade of sail but a very small show of ballast." Wher- ever he was located in the ministry his turbulent and refractory dispo- sition led him habitually into trouble. The greatest of his differences
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seems to have been in regards to the payment of his salary from which it will be inferred that he was not the most popular preacher of his day. It was voted "that 60 pounds per annum be paid Mr. Adams - one half in money, as it commonly passes from man to man in trade and the other half in the same money, or in good provision at the market price or prices" and that "50 pounds toward Mr. Hugh Adams' settlement with us be paid to him or his heirs at or before the time of four years, if he continue with us, and perform the whole work of a minister among us." Mr. Adams refused, would not accept the above 50 pounds, and complained to the General Court. The Church records contain this vote: "that a committee of two be appointed to represent our precinct at January court next to answer to what may be alledged against us as a precinct by Mr. Hugh Adams." His three years of service were marked by continual complaint on the salary question which continued in his next pastorate at Chatham and culminated at Durham.
His petition to the General Court of New Hampshire was a most eccentric document. One sentence contained 746 words, many of them polysyllables, two of them Latin. He demanded his salary with twenty percent interest, basing his claim on some curious interpretation of Scripture. A historian says "He suffered everything but death before a kind Providence removed him from the world, and when he was gone the town gravely voted that they would not pay his funeral expenses."
After the dismission of Mr. Adams, several candidates were em- ployed on probation (at 20 shillings a day) through the nine suc- ceeding months. At the time his successor was installed, there were 56 members in full communion, 29 males and 27 females, and the list included such names as Deacon Joseph Allen, Deacon Caleb Hub- bard, Samuel Bass, Joseph Faxon, Nehemiah Hayden, Samuel Paine, Thomas Wales, William, John, Ebenezer and Ephraim Thayer and Samuel French.
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REV. SAMUEL NILES 1711 - 1762
Born May 1, 1674 at Block Island, son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Sands) Niles and grandson of John Niles, one of the first settlers of Braintree; attended school in Braintree, joined the church at Milton, 1699; graduated from Harvard College with A.B. Degree in 1699 (the first Harvard degree granted to a Rhode Islander) ; received A.M. degree from Harvard in 1701; preached several years in South Kingston, R. I., as a missionary, and was ordained at Braintree, May 23, 1711. His first wife, Elizabeth, born Mar. 7, 1683, daughter of Rev. Peter Thatcher of Milton, died Feb. 10, 1716; in accordance with her deathbed request, married Nov. 22, 1716, Ann, born 1680, daughter of Hon. Nathaniel Coddington and granddaughter of Gov. William Coddington, she died Oct. 25, 1732; married Dec. 22, 1737, third wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Whiting, born 1680, daughter of Rev. William Adams of Dedham and widow of Rev. Samuel Whiting of Windham, Conn. Rev. Niles died May 1, 1762 at exactly 88 years of age.
As was customary in that period of church history, Rev. Niles delivered his own ordination sermon from Romans 15:30 “Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Assisting in the serv- ice were Rev. Peter Thatcher of Milton (his father-in-law), Rev. Joseph Belcher of Dedham, Rev. John Danforth of Dorchester, and Rev. Thatcher of Weymouth. While in Braintree, Mr. Niles administered the ordinance of the Lord's Supper 301 times (the administration hav- ing been suspended from Sept. 1758 to 1759 owing to the pulling down of the old Meeting-house and setting up a new one); baptized about 1,200 persons and received 312 members into full communion, an average of six a year for 52 years.
Rev. Niles was a man of great vigor and tremendous will. In 1745 he was able to say that in 46 years he had lost only two Sundays by bodily indisposition. In 1723 a violent dispute arose over the music. He was an advocate of singing by rule, and a minority of his people were with him, but the majority preferred to sing by rote. As they per- sisted in disregarding his admonitions, he suspended some of them and finally on a certain Sunday in December, 1723, refused to leave his house to conduct services, unless the majority would conform to his wishes and for three months the town beheld the humiliating spectacle of the pastor and a minority of his flock worshiping at his home and the majority, led by one of the deacons, who read a sermon, using the Meeting-house.
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Before coming to Braintree, Rev. Niles was actively engaged in farming and shipbuilding, and owned a farm of one hundred acres in the south part of the town (now known as the Cranberry Pond area) where he kept slaves - how many is not known and they lie buried without headstones to mark their graves. Mr. Niles' farm was separated from Braintree and included in the town of Randolph when the line was run between the two towns in 1731. This would have resulted in his paying taxes to the town of Randolph, whereas the same farm if in Braintree, his parish, would be free, and this was so distasteful to Mr. Niles, he went to the town meeting and succeeded in having the line changed, resulting in an uneven township line to this day. He rode a horse that no member of his congregation could mount without becoming as one of his biographers said "literally a lay man."
Mr. Niles vigorously opposed revivals and referred in most dis- paraging and sarcastic language to Whitefield's tours through New England. He was a theologian and wrote in 1757 a treatise of 320 pages on "The True Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin." The despond- ency of his spirit may be seen in the following extract from this work: "The people in many places are carried away with the itch of novelty, self-pleasing amusements, form and outward appearances, by which means it looks as if in a short run of time, should these things gener- ally prevail, we must bid adieu to sound religion and New England lose its glory." He was also an author of a "History of the Indian and French Wars"; "Tristitia Ecclesiarum" or a "Brief and Sorrowful Account of the Present State of the Churches in New England"; "A Brief and Plain Essay on God's Wonder Working Providence for New England in the Reduction of Louisburg and Fortresses There Belonging to Cape Breton" (a poem of thirty-four pages); "A Vindication of Divers Important Doctrines against a Discourse of Rev. Samuel Briant," all published. Through all his writings runs a vein of sincerity, con- viction and earnestness as expressed in the closing words of the treatise on "Original Sin": "And in expectation very soon to give an account to my Lord and Master, whose I am, and whom I serve (in my poor, imperfect manner) I leave this humble essay for the vindication of some of His own truths, under His benediction, to the serious perusal and impartial examination of all my sober and unprejudiced readers."
Rev. Niles was an unusual man; he was noted for his iron con- stitution, for his intellectual ability and for his tremendous will power.
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His remarkable good health continued and it is on record that he preached the Sunday before his death, which occurred May 1, 1762, his 88th birthday. He was buried across the street from the church he served so long. Nearby are the bodies of his family. One of these stones bears the following inscription: "Here lies the very pious and excellently well accomplished Mrs. Elizabeth Niles, wife of the Rev. Samuel Niles, and daughter of the Rev. Mr. Peter Thatcher of Milton, who died the 10th of February, 1716, and in the 33rd year of her age, and was the first buried in this burying ground." On a nearby stone is the inscription: "Here lies intered ye remains of Madam Ann Niles, Consort of Ye Rev. Samuel Niles who lived an example of virtue and prudence and an ornament to her family and died peculiarly lamented Oct. 25, 1732 in ye 52nd year of her age. The memory of the just is precious."
The names of the children of Mr. Niles according to the records are as follows: By his first wife: Elizabeth, born May 16, 1706; Sarah, born May 20, 1708; Samuel, born May 14, 1711; Mary, born May 27, 1713, and Nathaniel, born Feb. 2, 1716. By his second wife: Elisha and Susannah (twins) born July 30, 1719.
Prof. Edward A. Park wrote of Rev. Niles: "He was a good Latin scholar, somewhat familiar with the Greek and not ignorant of the Hebrew. He was thoroughly conversant with the old Calvinistic Treatises and was firm in the defense of a high, although not the highest type of Calvinism. He was an acute metaphysician and a pro- found divine." President John Adams visited Mr. Niles when he was past four score years of age and gave this testimony, "I then revered and still revere the honest, virtuous and pious man." Fittingly enough, his funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Smith of Weymouth from the text "And Samuel died."
Entry in the church records regarding his death:
"Here is the Sorrowfull account of our Rev. Paftors Death, Mr. Samuel Niles - May 1st, 1762. He deceased; being Eighty Eight years of Age wanting Eleven Days - He continued our Minifter about fifty one years - He preached the Last Sabbath he Lived - and his Last Day Shone the brightest - Our Lofs is great - We trust, it is his gain."
"May 31st, 1762. Put to Vote by ye Moderator whether the Princt will be at any part of ye charge of the Burial of our Rev. Paftor, Mr. Niles, and it past in the Negative."
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The remains of Rev. Niles lie buried near the northwest entrance to the old cemetery across from the Church, beneath a large, rough gravestone, on which is the following inscription:
"Sic transit gloria Mundi
Here lies intered ye remains of ye Rev. Mr. Samuel Niles. He was born May 1st, 1674, took his first degree at Harvard College, 1699, Ordained Pastor of ye Second Church of Christ in Braintree, May ye 23, 1711, took his second degree 1759, continued his public ministerial labors to ye last Sab- bath he lived, and departed this life May 1st, 1762, in ye firm belief of those great doctrines of grace which he had faithfully preached and publickly defended.
"The perfect remembrance of ye just shall fluorish when he sleeps in dust'."
REV. EZRA WELD 1762 - 1811
Born June 13, 1736 at Pomfret, Conn., a descendant of Rev. Thomas Weld, the first minister of Roxbury and translator with John Elliot and Richard Mather of the "Bay Psalm-Book"; gradu- ated in 1759 from Yale University; ordained to the ministry in Braintree, Nov. 17, 1762. His first wife, Anna, daughter of Rev. Habijah Weld of Attleborough, died 1774, aged 31; second wife, Betty, daughter of Edmund and Betty Soper of Braintree; third wife, Hannah, daughter of Daniel Farnham of Newburyport, died Mar. 31, 1778, aged 29 years; fourth wife, Abigail Greenleaf of Boston, died July 3, 1788; and fifth wife, Mrs. Mary Fuller. Rev. Weld died Jan. 16, 1816, nearly eighty years old.
Rev. Weld's ordination took place in Braintree, Nov. 17, 1762 and eleven churches were requested to assist: three in Pomfret, Conn., and the churches in Danvers, Canton, Weymouth, Bridgewater, Ab- ington, Milton, Quincy and Randolph. The ordination sermon was delivered by Rev. Josiah Whitney from Timothy 2:3, "Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Mr. Weld recorded 460 baptisims during his ministry in Braintree but no record of admissions was kept.
The records of a large part of Rev. Weld's ministry are lacking but it seems to have been a time of great religious depression as the thoughts of the people were occupied with the Revolutionary struggle and the period of exhaustion that followed. There were so many losses and so many changes that in 1809 there were only 70 members of the church. Mr. Weld was in the opinion of those who knew him "a faith- ful and useful minister," a preacher and a writer highly regarded in his
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day and generation. It seems strange, for this reason, that so little of the history of his pastorate has come down to the present generations because he was in Braintree during the Revolutionary War and wit- nessed the events which led up to it and the adjustments following.
It was during Mr. Weld's pastorate that many stirring scenes were enacted in the Middle Precinct Meeting-House. The resistance to the obnoxious Stamp Act of 1765 was much more positive in the Middle Precinct than it was in the North Precinct. On more than one occasion in this Meeting-House, John Adams addressed his fellow townsmen, admonishing them with all the fervor he was capable of to resist the Stamp Act, with the result that he was appointed as one of a com- mittee of nine representatives of the colonies to draw up a petition to the King. These representatives met in New York and a petition was sent to the home government which resulted in the repeal of the act in 1766. At the first election for a governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, held September 4, 1780, the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Braintree cast their votes in this Meeting- House which resulted in the choice of John Hancock as the first Gov- ernor of Massachusetts.
In the town meetings held in the Middle Precinct in the Meeting- House of our Church, Ezra Weld must often have listened to and fre- quently delivered stirring appeals to the people of that critical time. He must have heard the booming of the heavy guns in the engagements about Boston between Gen. George Washington and the English Commander, Lord Howe. He must, with his people, have felt a great alarm when rumors came that the British were at Weymouth Landing. In 1792, the old town of Braintree was divided, the North Precinct taking the name of Quincy, and the Middle Precinct retaining the old name of Braintree; and the South Precinct became Randolph.
The period after the Revolutionary War, during which this divi- sion took place, was one of great depression and distress. The continental currency depreciated - "not worth a continental" was a phrase used for many years afterwards describing things of little value. Prices of commodities rose to impossible heights, and towns were hopelessly in debt. Many of the homes had been bereaved by the war and by pesti- lence that followed the war. When Rev. Weld came in 1762, he was voted an annual salary of 86 pounds and a settlement of 200 pounds lawful money, and many years it was impossible to raise the full amount of 86 pounds.
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OIL PAINTINGS OF REV. AND MRS. EZRA WELD 1762 - 1811
This Morning rainures See Jour Brainkey chucho !!
uolede Thomas White Moderator Woled Thomas While Crunches Thayer De Klina
glund affellors for the year onfung- Holec Jonathan Hayward precinil Jerafazer for the - Lease Eniming
Idee
Sounds for wood for the Peace Burning.
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