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c 74.402 365gre 818101
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01188 6915 E
.40 gre 81C
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofkingsch00gree_0
A
HISTORY OF KING'S CHAPEL,
IN BOSTON;
THE FIRST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
-
-
IN NEW ENGLAND;
COMPRISING NOTICES OF THE INTRODUCTION OF EPISCO- PACY INTO THE NORTHERN COLONIES.
BY F. W. P. GREENWOOD, JUNIOR MINISTER OF KING'S CHAPEL.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
BOSTON: CARTER, HENDEE & CO. AND ALLEN & TICKNOR. 1833,
THE ROYAL PEW IN KING'S CHAPEL . AND ITS OCCUPANTS. "It is a great pity," says Hon. Josiah Quincy, "that the pew of the royal governors in the King's Chapel was removed, in order that two plebeian pews might be constructed upon its ample site. I. used greatly to value this interesting relic, which was just opposite the pew that I occu- pied. , It stood handsomely out, with orna- mented pillars at the corners, and lifted its occupants two feet above that herd of mis- cellaneous sinners who confessed their mis- erable estate upon the level of undiscrimi- nating democracy. I came too late into the world to see a royal governor enter this au- gust pew; though the ghosts of some of them would. occasionally seem to steal up the aisle and creep into it during the drowsier pass- ages of the afternoon sermon; but the flesh- and-blood personage who occupied the pew in my day was, so to speak, as good a govern- or as the best of them. He was the son of a Massachusetts governor, too; and, surely, there could be no better ideal of those royal qualities which should characterize the ruler of a State than was presented in the Federal leader, William Sullivan. How that pew of royal dignity used fairly to blossom with the large and lovely family of which he was the head ! There was a noble poise about them all; and then they were so handsome that it seemed quite proper that they should sit a foot or two nearer heaven than the rest of us. Governor Sullivan left four sons, who were active and leading men during my early man- hood. Several of them had large families, and there was every prospect that the name would long be perpetuated in Boston; but this once powerful family has passed away, and I think there is no Sullivan of their blood remaining upon the spot where they were so conspicuous." Ve. 1.1881
1818101
HISTORY
OF
KING'S CHAPEL.
LOCAL TOPICS.
Aug,
KING'S CHAPEL. Iff 2
Progress and Scope of the Repairs-The History of the Columns-Their Size and. Duration.
On the south side of King's Chapel, on School street, a new staging has been erected, nearly crowding people froin the sidewalk into the street. In front the work on the pillars continues. But the public need not expect to see any change in the building atter the stagings are re- moved. In fact, the purpose of the apparent change is to prevent any real change in the form. Herein is illustrated a doctrine taught at the Concord school of philosophy. Every thing is be- coming to be and ceasing to be; nothing really is. Matter changes; form alone is unchange- able. . That is, the pillars crack open in seams, rot and perish, if left alone. But new material is shaped into their form and so the form, which was originally a creation of the architect's brain and now exists immaterially as idea, endures and perdures through the changes of matter. It is the noumenon perpetuating the phenomenon. The wooden columns are of solid pine, and stand two and a half feet in diameter now, with no sap- wood. Originally as trees they were about three feet in diameter, and the length of the shaft which forms the columns is 23 feet 9 inches. These trees grew on the hill somewhere near the chapel, and could tell of many a change since they first peeped above ground. How many ages ago that must have been! Doubtless those trees looked down on the Rev. William Blaxton (or Blackstone), who lived here before ever John Winthrop saw the three-mountain peninsula. Only a few days ago the head carpenter making Pthe repairs found an antique bone-handled knife, grown green with age. The bone is supposed to have come from the shins of Blaxton's horse, for cof course he had a horse, and that horse doubt- less browsed under the pines which now, fraud- ulently seeming-on the outside to be brown- stone pillars, uphold the roof of a church portico, within which all shams and false pretence are condemned. But murder will out.
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again; The eternal years of God are hers."
Yellow pine, in imitation of brownstone, can- not endure the soaking, the warping and the con- stant exposure to sun and rain, without throwing up the sponge in its round with Father Time and acknowledging itself beaten. It did well. It was at heart good pine, if it was a sham on the out- side. It tried to be stone, but failed. Recogniz- ing its inner goodness and soundness, however, the good people of the church are going to save it and condone the fraud. The cracked portion has been cut away and new pine planking put in. Nor is this the first time that the pillars have stood by the Concord school. Rather, they have been a forerunner of it. For thirty years ago this same process of repairs was undertaken upon some of the pillars. So through mutations of mat- ter the immaterial form in the architect's brain. abides and can furnish any number of like pil- lars throughout all time. It never wears out or
decays, whereas every phenomenon of this noumenon must be transient. But the new phe- nomenon is to imitate the old. Good at heart it may be, but it will try again to be brownstone. Visitors from Salem and Beverly, Worcester and Shrewsbury, Taunton and Dighton, Springfield and Agawam, Amherst and Pelham, Cape Cod } and Cape Ann, will go by after the stagings are down and the paint and sand are well dried on and marvel at the nicely rounded, handsome brownstone columns. They will never know that that brownstone's fruit was pine-cores; they will never hear that George Washington put his hand into his breeches pocket to help in hewing , them into form; they will never suspect they are pine logs, planiked up on the weather side, daubed with paint and sprinkled with sand. . But the phenomenon perishes; only the noumenon is per- manent. . The planks will rot and crack and curl, and in another generation or less (according to the honesty of the carpenters) the fraud will be exposed again and the original pine will be laid bare.
This is the story of King's Chapel. It will not look any different from what it used to. Inside no changes are to be made. The south scaffold- ing is only for repairing the gutter. Since 1754 the stone walls have looked upon the regular en- trance of the Sunday congregation. save when the church has been shut or the congregation has gone to the country in the summer for repairs, and there has been no change. It is a famous old spot, illustrious in its history, memorable for its associations with election sermons and the Boston Cadets. It will always be kept as a land- mark, as a memorial, perhaps as an ornament. Hence these repairs.
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NORTH VIEW OF KING'S CHAPEL, TREMONT ST.
RRY
1
IN,H AGO
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D 28441 .37
Greenwood, Francis William Pitt, 1797-1843.
A history of King's chapel, in Boston, the first Episcopal church in New England; comprising notices of the introduc- tion of Episcopacy into the northern colonies. By F. W. P. Greenwood .... Boston, Carter, Hendee & co. (etc.) 1833. ( ix 211 ) xll, 215 p. front., Illus. 173 -.
Error in paging: no.210-213 omitted.
1. Boston. King's chapel.
17-30834
Library of Congress
F73.62.K5G8 [39b1)
. 1
D 2 84 41.39
9901
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, BY CARTER, HENDEE & Co. in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
PRINTED BY I. R. BUTTS.
TO
MY FRIENDS AND PARISHIONERS, THE SOCIETY WORSHIPPING AT KING'S CHAPEL, AND
TO MY VENERABLE COLLEAGUE, THE REVEREND JAMES FREEMAN, D. D., THIS HISTORY OF OUR CHURCHI,
IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
F. W. P. G.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
THE substance of the following pages was preached before my Society in a series of eight discourses, in the spring of 1832. In printing these discourses, I have given them the title of Periods, because the name of Sermons seems too formal for such a subject, and disturbs the appearance of historical continuity. I have, however, retained the style of direct address to an audience, in the belief that by so doing I should rather help than hurt or hinder the narrative.
· I have ventured to publish this History of King's Chapel, because I trusted that it would be interesting to the members of my congregation ; because I hoped that it might be interesting to readers in general, as a contribution, though small, to the ecclesiastical history of New-England ; and because I was almost sure of the favor of antiquaries, to whom facts are never un- important or dull.
viii
PREFACE.
Except in the introduction, I have confined myself almost exclusively to the path which was marked out for me by the records of the church. I might have made the narrative more complete by a more diligent search into other authorities ; but this would have in- volved much labor and correspondence, for which I had not the requisite time. Besides which, the ful- ness of the records leaves little to be desired, with respect to the immediate history of the chapel.
In the Appendix I have introduced such a selection from the mass of manuscript documents, as I judged would be most worthy of publication. More would have been printed, had it not been for the fear of swelling the book to a size which might have seemed unnecessary. The largest share of space has been given to those papers which relate to the change of doctrine which took place in the church at the time of the settlement of Dr Freeman; because this is an event which has been exceedingly misrepresented.
Owing to the residence of my highly respected col- league, the senior minister of King's Chapel, at the distance of some miles from the city, I have been al- most entirely deprived of his assistance in my work, - a circumstance which I cannot but greatly regret.
ix
PREFACE.
From several gentlemen, well acquainted with the early history of our state, I have derived valuable information ; and with regard to the antiquities of the Chapel in particular, I am so much indebted to the kindness of my friend, Col. Joseph May, that I feel desirous in this public manner to return him my thanks.
BOSTON, JAN. 1, 1833.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY.
INTRODUCTION. Love of God's House. First Epis- copal Controversies in New-England, 1
PERIOD FIRST. Formation of the First Episcopal Soci- ety. Robert Ratcliffe, the First Rector, 15
PERIOD SECOND. From the Formation of the First Epis- copal Society to the Building of the First Chapel, . 33
PERIOD THIRD. From the arrival of Mr Myles, the Se- cond Rector, to the dismission of Mr Bridge, his First Assistant, 50
PERIOD FOURTH. Arrival of Mr Harris. Chapel enlarg- ed. First Organ. Attempt to make American Bishops, 69 PERIOD FIFTH. Death of Mr Myles. Arrival of Mr Price. Increase of Episcopal Churches, . 83
PERIOD SIXTH. Resignation of Mr Price. Settlement of Dr Caner. Building of the Stone Chapel, 101
PERIOD SEVENTH. From the Erection of the Stone Chapel to the Present Time, 128
1
xii
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
I. Curious Extracts from the Old Records, . 151
II. King's Chapel Library, 161
III. Address of the Church to the Bishop of London, in favor of Governor Dudley, 164
IV. Some Papers concerning American Bishops, 167
V. Address of the Churches at Boston, Newbury and Marblehead to George I. on his Accession 1714, 170
VI. Address to George II. on his Accession, 1727, 172
VII. Bishop Gibson's License to Mr Price, 173
VIII. Inventory of Church Furniture, 1733, . · 175
IX. Letters relating to Mr Davenport's Settlement at Trinity Church, 176
X. Address to Bishop Sherlock, 178
XI. Letter to Bishop Provost, and his Answer, . 180
XII. Protest against Mr Freeman's Ordination, and the Answer of the Wardens thereto, 183
XIII. Ordination of the Rev. James Freeman, . 192
XIV. Dr Belknap's Remarks on Mr Freeman's Ordi- nation, 195
XV. Clerical Excommunication of Mr Freeman, 197
XVI. Some Notices of the Rev. Samuel Cary, . 198
XVII. Inscriptions on the three Monuments in King's Chapel, 204
XVIII. List of Ministers of King's Chapel, 209
XIX. List of the Wardens of King's Chapel,
209
INTRODUCTION.
LOVE OF GOD'S HOUSE. - FIRST EPISCOPALIAN CONTRO- VERSIES IN NEW ENGLAND.
LORD, I HAVE LOVED THE HABITATION OF THY HOUSE, AND THE PLACE WHERE THINE HONOR DWELLETH .- Ps. xxvi. 8.
THE place in which we are accustomed to meet together for the worship of God, and, as the sabbaths and the seasons roll on, to unite in praise and prayer with kindred and friends; the place in which our Saviour is commemorated, our child- ren are baptized, our sorrows find their consola- tion, and our cares their rest, is a holy place, and one which we well may love. The Jews were devotedly attached to their temple; they were deeply impressed with the idea of its holiness ; they were proud of its rich and solemn beauty. It was associated in their minds with their glory as a nation, with their existence as a favored and separate people. This attachment grew to be excessive ; it lost the spirituality of its character ; the temple was admired more for its external form than for its sacred uses; and the regard
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INTRODUCTION,
which was paid to it became in a high degree superstitious, formal and exclusive. While we would avoid these perversions of the love which they entertained for their sanctuary, we cannot help sympathizing with the sentiment itself. Nor is it desirable that we should struggle against a feeling so natural, and, if well regulated, so useful. Let us say what we will against attachment to particular places, it is one which nature and the operations of our own minds will always oblige us to formn. Let us assert as we may that one place is no holier than another, yet will holy associa- tions continue to make holy places, so long as religious feeling exists, and the worship of God endures. If we fully receive the great Christian principle, that God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, we are completely guarded against an undue attachment or reverence for the house in which he is worshipped ; and then the affec- tionate reverence which we may freely cherish for the house, will even aid the warmth and sincerity of the devotions which we offer therein to Him who is a spirit.
Such are my own feelings, such my convictions. I am not so afraid of superstition as to keep up a perpetual war with my heart. I love the place where God's honor dwelleth - the holy place where his name and praise are publicly acknow-
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1
INTRODUCTION.
ledged, and the majesty of his presence is unitedly felt. I love, more especially, this house in which we are now assembled. My associations with it are many, and early, and sacred. I love it for the beauty of its construction, for the memories with which it is filled, for its connexion with times that are gone, countenances that have been changed, and friends who have passed away.
It is this love which has prompted me to inves- tigate the history of our church. Some who hear me, have associations with it very similar to my own. Some have known it much longer than I have, and are more variously connected with it. Its history includes so many well known names, important events, and changes of opinion, that the relation of it will, I trust, be uninter- esting to none.
The materials of this narrative will be chiefly derived from the original manuscript records of the church ; but I have also, as time and oppor- tunity permitted, consulted printed histories and documents.
The first serious and organized efforts to erect an Episcopal Church in Boston were made in the year 1686. It is not to be supposed, however, that there had not been, before this time, and even from the first settlement of the Massachusetts
4
INTRODUCTION.
colony, some who disliked the religious discipline and forms of their rigid dissenting neighbors, and were in heart members of the church of England. William Vassal, who came over with Gov. Win- throp, in 1630, and was one of his assistants in that year, was perhaps of this way of thinking .* As the colony increased, and the intercourse with the mother country was enlarged, many must have resorted here, either temporarily, or for per- manent settlement, who were members of the English establishment, and retained their attach- ment to its communion.
In 1646 a " Remonstrance and Petition " was sent into the General Court by Robert Child and six others, in which, after stating some grievances of a civil nature, they complained "that they were debarred from christian privileges, viz. the Lord's Supper for themselves, and baptism for their children, unless they were members of some
* The Rev. Mr Deane, in his history of Scituate, says that President Chauncy suspected Mr Vassal of being an Episco- palian, but that there is no evidence to prove him to have been so. The truth is, no doubt, that he was a gentleman of high and honorable feelings, who looked with contempt on many of the narrow notions of the day, and entertained just ideas on the great subjects of religious toleration and liberty. Being such a one, it is but of little consequence whether he was an Episcopalian or not. He was certainly not a rigid Puritan.
5
INTRODUCTION.
of the particular churches in the country, though otherwise sober, righteous and godly, and eminent for knowledge, not scandalous in life and conver- sation, and members of churches in England. And they prayed that civil liberty and freedom might be forthwith granted to all truly English, and that all members of the church of England or Scotland, not scandalous, might be admitted to the privileges of the churches of New England ; or, if these civil and religious liberties were re- fused, that they might be freed from the heavy taxes imposed upon them, and from the impresses made of them or their children or servants into the war." In case their wishes were denied, the petitioners threatened to appeal to the honorable houses of parliament, who, they hoped, would take their sad condition into consideration, procure able ministers for them, " this place not being so well provided as to spare any," or else transport them to some other place, where they might live like Christians, and not be accounted burthens, but serviceable both to church and state. On the other hand, they hope, should their requests be granted, to see the now contemned ordinances of God highly prized, the gospel much darkened, break forth as the sun at noon day, christian charity and brotherly love, almost frozen, wax warm, jealousy of arbitrary government (the bane
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INTRODUCTION.
of all commonwealths) quite banished, and many other blessings and advantages as the consequen- ces of the reformation which they proposed.
This bold and irritating remonstrance * pro- duced a great excitement and disturbance at the time, and was answered t in the same year by the court, four months after it was presented, who condescended to enter into a long argument with the petitioners, and treated them with still less ceremony than they had themselves received. They examine, in a contemptuous manner, the characters and pretensions of the seven petition- ers.# " And these are the champions," say they, " who must represent the body of non-freemen. If this be their head, sure they have an unsavoury head, not to be seasoned with much salt." They reply, according to their own notions of church order and membership, to the application for church privileges, and then refresh the memory of the petitioners with a reference to the recent case of another company of remonstrants, mean- ing Roger Williams and his friends, who not ob- taining their desire, had removed to Rhode Island, where they presently fell at variance among them-
* Printed in Hutch. Col. Pa. p. 188.
t Also in Hutch. Col. Pa. p. 196.
# Robert Child, Thomas Burton, John Smith, Thomas Fowle, David Yale, Samuel Maverick, John Dand.
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INTRODUCTION.
selves, and instead of establishing church and civil state, had overthrown both. " Such peace, unity, prosperity, &c," say the General Court in conclusion, " is that which we may expect, if we will cast off the rules of God's word, the civil prudence of all nations, and our own observation of the fruit of other men's follies, and hearken to the counsell of these new statesmen. From which the Lord deliver us, and all the seed of Israel to the coming of Christ Jesus. Amen."
The end of this matter was, that the petitioners were fined for contemptuous and seditious expres- sions, on their refusing to acknowledge their of- fence, and their papers, among which was a peti- tion addressed to the commissioners for plantations in England, were seized.
Such was the first Episcopalian controversy, as it may be called, on these shores, and such is a specimen of our forefathers' yet imperfect notions of religious liberty.
In 1662, soon after the downfall of the Com- monwealth and the accession of Charles II. who was proclaimed in London, May 29, 1660, a letter from that monarch to the colony was re- ceived, which on the whole was cheering to the people and their governors, as it was kinder to them, and more respectful to their charter and liberties, than they had reason to expect. Some
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INTRODUCTION.
things in it, however, were less relished, as they touched the sore point of their ecclesiastical pecu- liarities and prejudices. The king required that their laws should be reviewed, that the oath of allegiance should be duly administered, that the administration of justice should be in his name, " that freedom and liberty should be duly admitted and allowed to all such as desired to use the book of Common Prayer, and perform the devotions in the manner established in England, and that they might not undergo any prejudice or disadvantage thereby, they using their liberty peaceably with- out disturbance to others ; that all persons of good and honest lives and conversations should be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the said book of Common Prayer, and their children to baptism ; that in the choice of governor and assistants the only consideration to be had should be of the wisdom, virtue and integrity of the persons to be chosen, and not of any faction with reference to opinions and outward profession ; that all freeholders of competent estates, not vicious in conversation, and orthodox in religion, though of different persuasions con- cerning church government, should have their votes in the election of all officers, both civil and military."*
* Mass. Hist. Col. 2d S. vol. viii. p. 52.
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INTRODUCTION. 2
The Boston agents, by whom this letter was brought over, were Simon Bradstreet, one of the magistrates, and John Norton, one of the minis- ters of the First Church. As soon as their con- stituents had given expression to the first emotions of joy at having been no more severely dealt with, they began to murmur at the obnoxious .parts of the letter, and charge them as faults on the poor agents. Although these gentlemen were so hailed on their return, that the court or- dered a public thanksgiving partly on account of it, as well as for the " continuance of the mercies of peace, liberties, and the gospel," they were afterward so neglected and even reviled, that the sudden death of Mr Norton by apoplexy the next year was attributed to the distressed and melancholy state of his mind which this treatment occasioned. " The agents," observes Gov. Hutchinson with truth and sagacity, " met with the fate of most agents ever since. The favors they had obtained were supposed to be no more than might well have been expected, and their merits were soon forgot; the evils which they had it not in their power to prevent were attribu- ted to their neglect or unnecessary concessions."*
The authorities of the colony here, being very
* Hutch. Hist. 1. 222.
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INTRODUCTION.
slow in complying with those requisitions of the king's letter which did not suit them, he sent four commissioners,* with powers to hear and determine all matters of complaint, and to settle the peace and security of the country, who arrived in July, 1664. One of these commissioners was Samuel Maverick, Esq. a son of the Samuel Maverick who joined in the " remonstrance and petition " of 1646 mentioned above. Like his father he was an Episcopalian, and like him probably entertained not the most kindly feelings toward his fellow colonists.t Among the instructions of these commissioners, was one directing them to inquire how far the requisitions of the king's letter of 1662 had been complied with. The third requi- sition is thus re-stated ; " that such as desire to use the book of common prayer, be permitted so to do without incurring any penalty, reproach or disadvantage, it being very scandalous that any persons should be debarred the exercise of their religion according to the laws and customs of Eng- land, by those who were indulged with the liberty of being of what profession or religion they pleas-
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