USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Historical discourse commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Belleville Congregational Church, Newburyport, Mass., delivered on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 1858 by D.T. Fiske > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01849 6973
GC 974.402 N435FI
AN
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 1
COMMEMORATIVE OF THE
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
BELLEVILLE . CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,
NEWBURYPORT, MASS.
DELIVERED ON THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV. 25, 1858.
BY D. T. FISKE, PASTOR. 1
...
BOSTON: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY. M DOCC LIX.
e
AN
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE
COMMEMORATIVE OF THE
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
BELLEVILLE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,
NEWBURYPORT, MASS.
DELIVERED ON THANKSGIVING DAY, NOV. 25, 1858.
BY D. T. FISKE, PASTOR.
WITHDRAWN From the Family History Library
BOSTON: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY. M DCCC LIX.
US/CAM
FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY 35 NORTH WEST TEMPLE SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 8415017414 A1 my. 164
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
bebpls
DISCOURSE.
Deut. viii. 2. " And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee."
GOD leads his chosen people now, not less truly than of old, though by no visible pillar of fire and of cloud. The world is but a wilderness through which they are journeying toward a better country. And the same divine hand, that guided the Israel of other days, guides the Israel of to-day, and " leads them all their journey through."
God is indeed in all history. Human events are divine purposes executed. Beneath all the schemes, struggles, failures, and victories of man, there are ever working the vast thoughts of Jehovah. And no history can be rightly interpreted without a clear recognition of the divine element in it. This is most manifestly true of the history of the church at large, and also of each par- ticular local church. Every little band of covenanting believers, walking together in the order and fellowship of the gospel, is under the special leadership of Him who was the shepherd of Israel and who did lead Joseph like a flock. Of such a church, the record of names, and dates, and events, and statistics, only serves to indicate the way in which the Lord her God hath led her ; and
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that record should be carefully arranged and preserved, because it does serve this high and useful end.
As you are well aware, this church has recently com- pleted the fiftieth year of its existence. The semi-centen- nial anniversary of its organization occurred in the spring. I had purposed in commemoration of the event, to sketch and present to you at that time, an outline of its history for the half century. But the multiplicity and pressure of other duties in connection with the revival then in progress among us, prevented me from giving to the sub- ject the requisite time and thought. And surely the pen- tecostal scenes we were then witnessing, were the best commemoration of that interesting anniversary.
It has, however, seemed desirable to others as well as to myself, that some attempt should be made towards gathering up the materials for a history of this church, before time should further scatter and destroy them. And it is hoped that what has now been done, may at least facilitate the more thorough performance of the work when hereafter it shall fall into abler hands.
Nor does the theme seem wholly inappropriate to the occasion of our annual public Thanksgiving. In our history as a church during these fifty years, there is cer- tainly not a little which is fitted to awaken in us those devout and grateful sentiments and emotions which belong to this day .. Let us then amid the religious services and the social festivities of the day, "remember all the way in which the Lord our God hath led us."
In modern times a Christian church almost always exists in connection with some other body or bodies of men, whose history is necessarily more or less interwoven
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with her own. One of these is a religious society com- posed of members of the church and others. The general expenses attending the maintenance of preaching and public worship, are met by this society. It also usually builds and owns the meeting-house and other property connected with it. Sometimes, however, this is done by another corporate body called " The Proprietors of the Meeting- House." Such is the case with us. Here are the three organically distinct, yet closely related bodies, viz : The Society or Parish, the Proprietors of the House, and the Church itself. The two former exist for, and are sub- sidiary to the latter. They are the human institutions springing up with and tributary to the divine. Their history, therefore, to a considerable extent, is needful to a true and complete history of the church. Accordingly in the present discourse, I shall make a threefold division, and present separately and successively an historical sketch of
" The Belleville Congregational Society in Newbury- port." "
" The Proprietors of the Belleville Meeting-House," and
" The Belleville Congregational Church."
I. THE SOCIETY.
The almost universal impression, in this community, I find to be, that this society and church are nearly coeval, both dating from the spring of 1808. But my recent investigations have conducted me to a very different con- clusion, viz : that this society lacks less than two years and a half of being a hundred years old, and that we are
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thus near its centennial, rather than its semi-centennial anniversary. This conclusion identifies it with, and makes it a continuation of, what was originally incorporated as the Fifth Parish in Newbury,-afterwards, for reasons to be named, called the " Fourth Parish in Newbury ; " and still later, the "Second Parish in Newbury ; " and finally, the " Belleville Congregational Society " in New- buryport. The principal facts which have led me to this conclusion, and which seem clearly to justify it, are the following :-
1st., All the records and documents relating to the meetings in 1808, when it has been supposed this society originated, clearly indicate that what was then done, was understood by those engaged in it, to be, not the organi- zation of a new body but the resuscitation of an old one.
Nearly eight years had elapsed since any legal meeting of the Old Fourth Parish had been held. But it had not therefore necessarily lost its legal rights and become de- funct. It was not dead, but sleeping. After the new house of worship had been erected on this spot, and the way had thus been prepared for a settled ministry, the proper steps were taken to bring the old existing parish into working order again. A petition, signed by seven- teen persons, and dated February 22, 1808, for the issu- ing of a warrant for a parish meeting, reads thus : " We the subscribers, inhabitants of the Fourth Parish in New- bury, qualified, as the law directs, to vote in parish affairs, request that you warn a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of said parish, qualified as aforesaid, to meet at the new meeting-house on High Street, in said
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parish, on Monday the 7th day of March next, at two o'clock P.M., for the following purposes, viz :-
1. To choose a moderator of said meeting.
2. To choose a clerk for said parish.
3. To see if the parish will invite the Rev. James Miltimore to settle with us in the work of the ministry," &c. &c. A warrant was accordingly issued, and a meet- ing held, and the specified business was transacted. Surely this does not look like organizing a parish or so- ciety de novo. Everything is manifestly done on the legal basis of the old Fourth Parish. The method of procedure and the terms of the petition and warrant, are precisely such as might have been adopted in calling a parish meeting in 1798.
2d. No act of incorporation was obtained by the so- ciety in 1808, nor subsequently. The proprietors were then incorporated, but not the society or parish. The only act of incorporation by which it can now have a legal existence and legal rights, is the one granted in 1761, to the Fifth Parish in Newbury. Either we stand on that act, or we stand on nothing, as a corporate society.
3d. Certain lands belonging to the old Fifth Parish were held and used by this society, no one disputing its right to the same, from 1808 till 1836, when the said lands were sold and the avails appropriated by this so- ciety. But unless this society is identical with the Fifth Parish in Newbury, to which that property originally belonged, it had no more title to it than had any other society in town.
4th. The records of this society from 1808 onward, are found in the same book with the records of the old
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parish ; only a single blank leaf separating the minutes of the last meeting in 1800, from the minutes of the first meeting in 1808 ; a circumstance clearly indicating that both were regarded as the records of one and the same ·body.
Considering, then, the point established beyond all rea- sonable doubt, that what is now called the Belleville Con- gregational Society in Newburyport, began its existence in 1761, under the name of the Fifth Parish in Newbury, let us take a hasty review of its history, extending as it does over nearly a century.
On the 21st of May, 1760, thirty-two persons, members of the old Episcopal Church, located on " the plains," and called Queen Ann's Chapel, and of other societies in New- bury, entered into a written agreement in which they say, we " do hereby agree to embody ourselves into a society and to improve the said old church (Queen Ann's Chapel) for the public worship of God, (in the dissenting way as is commonly called,) if we should obtain the parish pro- posed ; and, if we should not like the church for the pur- poses above said, we do hereby covenant and agree to build a meeting-house," &c .* This movement was fol- lowed up by a petition to the general court for a new parish, which, notwithstanding strenuous opposition offered by the then Second and Third Parishes, (now First in West Newbury, and First in Newburyport,) was success- ful ; and by an act of incorporation passed April 17, 1761, the Fifth Parish in Newbury was established. +
The first legal meeting of the parish was held June 2,
* Appendix, A.
+ Appendix, B.
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1761, " at the dwelling-house of Mrs. Elizabeth Whit- more, innholder in said parish." After choosing Capt. Stephen Ordway moderator, the meeting adjourned to the old church, where the full organization was effected and other business transacted. In the fall of the same year, measures were taken for the erection of a house of worship. In the mean time, the new parish worshipped in Queen Ann's Chapel, having obtained formal permis- sion to do so from the old proprietors, although they say " The right of said church, we apprehend, wholly (or the major part of it) belongs to us."
The new meeting-house was located at or near the present junction of the two roads at the westerly point of the cemetery on " the plains." The precise date of its dedication and first occupancy I am unable to fix. It must, however, have been some time in the spring of 1762.
A church was organized in connection with the parish on the 22d of July following. Both church and parish voted unanimously to extend a call to Rev. Oliver Noble to settle with them in the ministry, he having for some time previously preached to them in Queen Ann's Chapel. Mr. Noble accepted the call, and was installed Sept. 1, 1762. For some time the affairs of the parish seem to have gone on prosperously and the ministry of Mr. Noble was generally satisfactory, for aught that appears to the contrary.
Nothing worthy of note occurred until 1770, when action was taken by the parish which is of interest, as indicating the progress of religious liberty during the last century. It was by a very gradual process that our
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Puritan fathers learned to give, as well as claim full re- ligious toleration. There was with them a union of church and state, which in its practical working was often almost as oppressive to some of the colonists, as that of England had been to them all. The support of public worship was compulsory. Local parish lines were fixed by law ; and all the inhabitants within the limits of any particular parish were obliged to aid in sustaining the preaching there established, and in defraying other parish expenses. If any chose to attend meeting else- where, or on the voluntary principle built another house of worship and supported a preacher of their own choice, they were still taxed the same as before by the parish in which they resided. Many were thus subject to a double taxation. In time, however, an inroad was made on this unjust and intolerant system. By special legislative en- actments different sects, as Quakers, Episcopalians, Bap- tists, and Presbyterians, were exempted from this parish taxation, and were left to support merely their own forms of worship. But all who adhered to the Congregational order, which was the " establishment " of those days, were still obliged by law to pay whatever was assessed upon them by their respective parishes, wherever they might attend worship. The operation of this law drove many Congregationalists into other denominations. It led to the formation of the first Episcopal Church in this town,* from which this society as we have seen, ulti- mately sprung, the children returning to the order which the fathers forsook to escape an unjust taxation.
* Coffin's Hist. Newbury, p. 181.
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In May 1770, the town voted to grant the petition of one hundred citizens who asked liberty to attend worship in any part of Newbury or Newburyport, where they might choose, and be taxed only where they should attend. At the same meeting the town also chose a committee " to petition the general court to confirm the above vote by a law." This action of the town called forth the fol- lowing action of the Fifth Parish. At a meeting held four days after the town meeting, viz : on the 28th of May, it was " Voted, That this parish disapprove of a vote passed in the town of Newbury at their meeting on the 24th day of May, in answer to a petition of Samuel Sawyer and others, praying that the inhabitants of this town might attend public worship in any religious society within the limits of the ancient town of Newbury, (now Newbury and Newburyport,) where they shall choose, and their estates [go] to the support of the minister where they attend ; and the aforesaid town vote, in the opinion of this parish, is unwarrantable and illegal, and if put in practice has a direct tendency to bring this parish and all other parishes in this town of Newbury, into the utmost confusion and disorder ; and tends to the subversion and overthrow of the settled gospel ministry in said parishes." Capt. Moses Little was at the same time appointed a committee " to join with such other committees as may be chosen for the First and other parishes," to appear be- fore " the great and general court of this province " and oppose the vote of the town, " and if possible prevent the same being confirmed." And yet some of these very men or their fathers, had suffered under the intolerant parish law, and had been obliged to adopt another denom-
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inational name and form of worship, in order to find relief from it. But now, fearing that its abrogation will operate to their temporary disadvantage, they are earnest for its continuance. And moreover, this was done the very year in which such active and almost violent meas- ures were adopted in this town, in which nearly all the citizens joined, to teach the mother country that her tea- drinking colonists loved liberty too well to submit to what they deemed an unjust tax on their favorite beverage.
In 1795, the town again voted, " that the inhabitants of Newbury have liberty to attend public worship where they choose, and be exempt from taxation elsewhere," and " to petition the general court to confirm the above vote." And again the Fifth Parish remonstrated, and chose a committee " to show cause at the general court, at their next term, in behalf of this parish, why the prayer of said petition should not be granted."
We regret to find our parishional ancestors so persist- ently on the wrong side of the great question of relig- ious toleration, and so far behind the general sentiment of the town, as expressed by its action on the subject. This much, however, should be said by way of apology for them. The pulpit attractions in the centre of the town were at that time very powerful, while the attrac- tions of their own pulpit, never of the highest order, were constantly diminishing, and the danger was, that if all legal barriers were removed, the smaller and outer par- ishes would be greatly enfeebled, if not wholly swallowed up by the large central societies. Nevertheless, they failed of their object. A good end could not be secured by wrong means. There was still one way which had already
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been tried and could be again, in which men could avoid being compelled to attend upon and help support a minis- try, which was not satisfactory to them. They could cease to be Congregationalists and join some other sect. This many members of the Fifth Parish now did. Mr. Noble's ministry, although it commenced auspiciously, does not seem to have long given general satisfaction. As early as December 1774, we find in the parish rec- ords the following entry : "Voted, That whereas the state of this parish is much altered since the settlement of our reverend pastor, viz : it appears to us that near one third part of the polls and estates are gone over to the Church of England since the settlement of the Rev. Mr. Noble among us, therefore, we think it advisable to choose a committee to consider the state of this parish and to con- fer with the Rev. Mr. Noble, and to acquaint him of the true state thereof."
A committee of nine was chosen for this purpose, who reported at an adjourned meeting, in January following, when it was " Voted, That the former committee further acquaint the Rev. Mr. Noble with the state of the parish and that his proposals were not like to answer any good end." What these proposals were, it does not appear. Three more were added to the committee, but there is no record of any further action on the subject at that time. Mr. Noble continued minister of the parish nearly ten years longer, when, at the expressed wish of his parish- ioners, and as it should seem somewhat reluctantly, he resigned April 7, 1784. Whether or not he was for- mally dismissed by a council, the records do not show, and I have no means of determining.
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It may be proper here, to say a few words respecting the first minister of this parish. Rev. Oliver Noble was born at Hebron, Ct., March 3, 1734 ; graduated at Yale College in 1757 ; was ordained and settled in Coventry, Ct., January 10, 1759; was dismissed June 10, 1761, and was installed over this parish September 1, 1762. After removing from this place, he was settled in New Castle, N. H., where he died December 15, 1793. Of his character and his ministry in this place, but little can or need now be said. None it is believed who sat under his preaching, survive, and but a few of the most aged in this community remember him. He is represented as a man of fine commanding person, tall and well-propor- tioned, noble in figure as well as in name, although neg- ligent and even slovenly in his attire. Mounted upon a skeleton of a horse called " Mr. Noble's frame," and wrapped in a long dressing-gown, he attracted no little attention as he rode from house to house in the over- sight of his flock. As a preacher, he is said to have possessed more than ordinary gifts. Three of his pub- lished sermons are extant. But his preaching does not seem to have been seconded by a wholly unexceptionable character and life. The remark made of another divine was applied to him, viz : " that when you saw him in the pulpit you would think he never ought to be out of it, and when you saw him out of it, you would think he never ought to be in it." When asked what was the general impression of Mr. Noble as a minister, one who remembers him, gave the characteristic reply, " I think it was an impression which might well be lost." Still I cannot learn that he was ever charged with anything
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strictly disreputable or unchristian. And his ministry of nearly twenty-two years' continuance was not wholly bar- ren. The records of the church have recently been brought to light, but are, I regret to say, in a sadly muti- lated state, only a few torn leaves remaining. Hence we have not that index of the state of religion furnished by the list of admissions to the church from year to year. But from one leaf of the record it appears that fifteen united with the church in the year 1771. Although the parish and probably the church also, seem greatly to have dwindled away during the latter part of Mr. Noble's min- istry, still there may have been causes, now unknown, which contributed to that result, and sufficient to account for it, without supposing him to have been seriously defi- cient in ministerial qualifications. A charitable judgment certainly is due him from the descendants of his flock.
After Mr. Noble's dismission, different persons were employed to preach temporarily, but no serious attempt seems to have been made, owing doubtless to the en- feebled state of the parish, to settle another minister ;- and at a meeting held March 5, 1793, a motion to raise money to supply the pulpit was lost. For three years there seems to have been no preaching. In April, 1796, it was voted " to hire preaching six months," and at the same meeting it was voted that " the assessors repair the meeting-house so far as to make it comfortable in warm weather." The repair was probably not made, and nothing was afterwards done to have preaching. Annual meetings of the parish were held until 1800, and were then discontinued for eight years.
By the incorporation of Newburyport as a distinct
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township, in 1764, this parish became the Fourth, instead of the Fifth, although the change of name does not ap- pear in the parish records till ten years later.
The old house on the plains continued standing until 1808, when it was blown down during a severe gale.
In the manner already stated the proper measures were taken in the spring of 1808, to revive the parish and bring it again into a working condition. At the first meeting held March 7, by a unanimous vote a call was given the Rev. James Miltimore, with the offer of a sal- ary of $800 per year, " with the use of the parsonage lands belonging to the parish." This call was accepted, the church subsequently formed, having concurred in it, and Mr. Miltimore was installed April 27, Rev. Dr. Buckminster of Portsmouth preaching the sermon. Thus the old Fourth Parish awoke from its eight years' sleep, and being newly equipped, and with a new centre of ope- rations, resumed its appropriate work.
.It is a somewhat singular circumstance, that in settling its first two ministers, the parish instead of the church took the initiatory steps, giving a call in each instance, even before there was any church actually formed to con- cur with it.
The old question of liberty, in regard to public wor- ship, came before the parish again soon after its revivifica- tion. At a meeting held May 23, 1808, the parish receded from its long-maintained ground, and, by a ma- jority of one, voted to join the other societies in town, in a petition to the general court to allow the inhabitants of Newbury " to pay all their taxes in that religious society where they worship, agreeable to the vote of the town
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passed May 9," the same year. That matter was thus at length set right, and finally disposed of. And now, after the lapse of fifty years, probably not one vote could be obtained in this or any other society in town to have the old parish law of compulsory taxation restored.
It may here be remarked, that the mode of raising money to defray parish expenses, after the revival of the society in 1808, was by a tax assessed upon the polls and estates of all who chose to belong to the society ; and pews in the meeting-house were taxed as any other prop- erty, according to valuation. This method was continued until 1829, when it was exchanged for that of voluntary subscriptions, which continued till 1857, when a plan was adopted by which a part of the whole sum voted to be raised is assessed upon the pews, and the remainder raised by subscription. Much may be said in favor of each of these methods, and in the opinion of some, each is open to objections ; and perhaps the best method yet remains to be discovered. If so, until that discovery be made, it is only needful that the considerate and conciliatory spirit of the fathers, be cherished by the children, to insure all concerned against any great hardship or injustice in the matter.
At the commencement of 1831, Mr. Miltimore being indisposed, and somewhat enfeebled by age, Mr. John C. March was invited to assist him in his ministerial labors ; and a formal engagement was soon made with him to continue this assistance for one year ; before the expira- tion of which, the church having already taken action, the society voted to concur with the church in extending a call to Mr. March, to settle in the ministry as colleague
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