USA > Massachusetts > History of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1810-1872 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
1872
1810
+ SU MAWCREWI
SU + MARK+
+
+ Sa +MARK+
+AHnI+2S +
4
+SU+DORN
+ DANT+29
this Book Belongs to alexander d. stewart
Gal
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03534 9775
GC 974.4 8459h Berry, Joseph Breed, 1905- 1957. History of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1810-1872
JOSEPH BREED BERRY
HISTORY OF The Diocese of Massachusetts 1810-1872
BY JOSEPH BREED BERRY
THE DIOCESAN LIBRARY Diocese of Massachusetts BOSTON · MCMLIX
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
PRINTED BY THE STINEHOUR PRESS
Joseph Breed Berry 1905-1957
JOSEPH BERRY was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, 10 May 1905, the son of Henry Newhall and Mabel (Breed) Berry. Prepared for college by private teachers, he entered Harvard in September 1927, but because of poor health he was unable to complete his course. Ten years later he enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University where he received the A.B. degree in 1941 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. His intense interest in history led him to continue his studies at the graduate level, and he received the A.M. degree from Boston University in 1944 and from Harvard in 1947. By nature thorough in all that he did, he took pleasure in reading little-known books and in exploring subjects suggested by the wide range of his researches. The knowledge thus gained he gave gen- erously to friends and acquaintances whose historical projects never failed to interest him. Summers he found pleasant relaxation in Hancock, New Hampshire, with his wife, the former Barbara Bartlett, whom he married 19 October 1935.
A devoted member of Trinity Church in Boston, deeply con- cerned with the place of religion in contemporary society, Mr. Berry took as his thesis subject at Harvard, when he decided to do ad- vanced work in history for the PH.D. degree, 'The History of the Diocese of Massachusetts, 1810-1872'. The work here presented is the product of many hours of research under the general direction of Professor Oscar Handlin. The manuscript had been completed
[v]
vi
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
and approved, subject to final revision, at the time of Mr. Berry's death, 28 January 1957.
In his search for material, and in writing, Mr. Berry spent much of his time in the library of the Boston Athenaeum, in which he had succeeded his great-uncle, Charles Henry Newhall, as proprietor. To its staff and particularly to its Director, Dr. Walter M. Whitehill, he would wish to express his thanks for friendly help and many cour- tesies. The Diocesan Library and its Librarian, Miss Gladys McCaf- ferty, were constantly helpful, as was the staff of the Harvard Col- lege Library. Miss Ruth Thomas at The New England Historical and Genealogical Society assisted many times with genealogical problems. Dr. Stephen T. Riley and his staff opened freely the re- sources of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Dr. Whitehill was again helpful in the matter of arranging publication, and the manu- script has been seen through the press by the author's wife and by his friend, Dr. Robert E. Moody, with the expert assistance of Messrs. Roderick Stinehour and C. Freeman Keith of The Stinehour Press of Lunenburg, Vermont. The co-operation of the Rev. John R. Dallinger, Registrar of the Diocesan Library, under whose imprint this book appears, has been helpful at every stage. The index has been provided by Mr. Arthur McComb.
Other names would doubtless have appeared in the preface to this work had Mr. Berry lived to write it, for his friends were many and he as eagerly sought information from others as he shared his own. Fortunately, the body of the work is complete, and it has been printed as he left it except for minor editorial changes. A perfec- tionist, Mr. Berry would doubtless have made extensive revision of the text. But above all he would wish that the work upon which he lavished time and devotion would be made available to all those interested. It is sent forth, therefore, as an appropriate memorial to its author-a devout churchman and a kindly and scholarly gentleman.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
1
Early church conventions-the General Convention of 1789 -the Constitution of 1789-the first state conventions- the Annual Convention of 1791-the early Church in New Hampshire-in Vermont-in Rhode Island-in Maine- the formation of the Eastern Diocese
CHAPTER II
11
The Diocese of Massachusetts-the Eastern Diocese- Bishop Griswold its first bishop-its organization and the duties of its bishop-the importance of Boston-its promi- nent men-Dudley Atkins Tyng-St. Paul's, Boston-its first rector, Rev. Samuel Jarvis-its growth, decline, and revitalization
CHAPTER III
25
Other Eastern parishes-St. Paul's, Newburyport-St. Mary's, Newton Lower Falls-the parishes of Western Massachusetts-the state of the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1816-the Church and the growth of industry-Kirk Boott and St. Anne's, Lowell-Harvard and Episcopalian- ism-Christ Church, Cambridge
CHAPTER IV
41
The founding of Christ Church, Leicester-of St. John's, Sutton-of St. James', Amesbury-the close association between parish and industry
47
CHAPTER V
The background of the Church in Pittsfield-Edward Au- gustus Newton and St. Stephen's-Newton and Dudley Atkins Tyng
CHAPTER VI
53
Massachusetts parishes by 1840-the founding of Western Massachusetts churches-the organization and growth of Grace Church, Boston
CHAPTER VII
57
The standing committee-its authority and influence- George Washington Doane and the conflict of 1832-High Church and Low-Bishop Griswold and the reconciliation
CHAPTER VIII
65
The membership of the standing committee-leading fig- ures at Trinity Church, Boston-Joseph Foster-Joseph Head-George Brinley-the Greene Foundation
CHAPTER IX
Origin and growth of the Trustees of Donations-an at- tempt to found a seminary-James Sabine and the develop- ment of Grace Church, Boston-its rapid growth under Thomas March Clark-the missionary society and the smaller parishes-Unitarianism-the death of Bishop Gris- wold
73
97
CHAPTER X
The Church in Massachusetts in 1843-the western coun- ties-the eastern counties-St. Paul's, Newburyport-the Greater Boston parishes-the southeastern counties-the Church's strength
CHAPTER XI 113
Bishop Eastburn in 1842-the profusion of sects-their threat to orthodoxy-Bishop Eastburn's 1843 address- William Appleton-Alexander Hamilton Vinton-families in the Church
CHAPTER XII
133
The support of missions-the Church of the Messiah-the 'rescue' of smaller parishes-the founding and growth of the Church of the Advent-St. Paul's, Brookline, and St. Stephen's, Lynn-the loss of St. Luke's, Lowell
CHAPTER XIII
155
The idea of a diocesan seminary-the first attempt at its establishment in 1846-Bishop Eastburn's theology-the strength of the Church in Boston-conversions to the Ro- man Church-their extent and significance
CHAPTER XIV
171
The growth of the Diocese during Bishop Eastburn's epis- copate-Grace Church, Boston-the parishes of Central Massachusetts-St. Mark's School-the growth of indus- trial parishes
197
CHAPTER XV
The Episcopal Board of Missions-the obstacles to mission- ary endeavor-its failures and successes-William Apple- ton's beneficence
CHAPTER XVI
203
The growth of the Diocese of New Hampshire-the parish of Nashua-the rise and decline of the parish of Salmon Falls-the Salmon Falls Manufacturing Company and the Roman Church
CHAPTER XVII
209
The Diocese and the Civil War-Benjamin Tyler Reed and the founding of a theological school-its independence of the Diocese-Bishop Eastburn's consecrations-Grace Church, Salem, and its 'daughter' parishes-ritualism and the Book of Common Prayer-the church at Longwood
CHAPTER XVIII
233
Bishop Eastburn and ritualism-the death of Bishop East- burn-the election of a bishop-Benjamin Haight's refusal to serve
CHAPTER XIX
237
The Church in 1872-the origin of new parishes-their growth-their membership-the problems of their support -the unifying influence of the Book of Common Prayer- the broadening outlook of the growing Diocese
The Diocese of Massachusetts
CHAPTER I
N suggesting his definition of history, Alan Richardson wrote that history is the study of all that man has been and has done in the past, of all that man is in the light of his total development until to-day ... ' . Oscar Handlin recently described history as aiming "at the total situation as the historian sees it'.1 Within such broad and inclusive concepts of history the following study was written.
The term "diocese' is used to mean 'the district under the pas- toral care of a bishop'-in this instance, a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.2 The district' under the pastoral care is the territory within the boundaries of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts during the period covered. It should be noted that the boundaries in 1810 were not the bound- aries of 1872. The term 'Diocese of Massachusetts' indicates at once that the subject falls chronologically in the post-Revolutionary period as there were neither dioceses nor bishops in the British colonies which became the United States of America.
As a number of lesser conventions, in which not all the states were represented, preceded the meeting of the Federal Constitu- tional Convention of 1787, so a number of general conventions of the Episcopal Church took place before the General Convention of 1789. This convention of 1789 sat as two Houses, a House of Bish- ops consisting of Bishops William White of Pennsylvania and Samuel Seabury of Connecticut, and a House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, composed of delegates representing the Church in eleven states.3 At a preliminary convention of clergymen and lay deputies
1. Alan Richardson, D.D., The Gospel and Modern Thought (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), 35; American Historical Review, LXI, no. 2 (Jan.
1956), p. 333.
2. OED, 'Diocese', definition 3.
3. The Church in North Carolina and Georgia was not represented. Bishop Sam-
[1]
2
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
of the Episcopal Church, held in New York on 6 and 7 October 1784, nine states were represented.4 This early meeting took place before Bishop Seabury had been consecrated. At this meeting in New York some recommendatory 'fundamental principles' were endorsed by the convention. The most important of these princi- ples was the one stating "That the said Church shall maintain the Doctrines of the Gospel as now held by the Church of England, and shall adhere to the Liturgy of the said Church, as far as shall be consistent with the American Revolution and the Constitution of the respective States'." On the basis of this statement, one of the articles in the constitution of 1789 (Article VIII) made the use of the Book of Common Prayer mandatory in those 'States which shall have adopted this constitution'. 6
The simplicity with which a church in any of the United States could become a member of General Convention appeared in Arti- cle v of the constitution of 1789. This article provided that A Protestant Episcopal Church in any of the United States not now represented, may, at any time hereafter, be admitted, on acceding to this Constitution'.7
Two other provisions of preliminary meetings of General Con- vention before 1789 may be noted in regard to the history of the Diocese of Massachusetts. One is Article III of a draft of a constitu- tion drawn up at the Philadelphia convention of September and October, 1785, which stated that 'In the said Church in every State represented in this Convention, there shall be a Convention consisting of the Clergy and Lay Deputies of the congregation'.8 The second provision appeared in a draft constitution which emerged from a general convention held at Philadelphia in June 1786. Embodied as the final article of a draft of a constitution was the statement to the effect that, when ratified by the Church 'in a
uel Provoost of New York did not attend this convention. William Stevens Perry, ed., Journals of General Conventions . . . 1785-1835 (Claremont, N. H., 1874, 3 vols.), 1, 67, 100-102 (hereinafter cited as Perry, JGC).
4. Perry, JGC, III, 3. Massachusetts and Rhode Island were represented by the Rev. Samuel Parker of Trinity Church, Boston.
5. Perry, JGC, III, 4.
6. Perry, JGC, 1, 84.
7. Ibid.
8. Perry, JGC, I, 22.
3
CHAPTER I
majority of the States assembled in General Convention', the said constitution was to be the supreme law of the Church, 'unalterable' by any state convention of the Church. 9
Concurrently with the gatherings of Episcopalians in general conventions there were also state conventions. The first printed account of a convention of the Church in Massachusetts dated the convention as held 8 September 1784. This primary meeting, of clergy only, represented six Massachusetts parishes and two par- ishes in Rhode Island.10 This record of the early Massachusetts journals, first printed in 1849, was 'carefully collated with the orig- inal Manuscript Records .. . '.11 Yet in 1848 all the original manu- scripts were not intact, and the introduction to the printed jour- nals of 1784 to 1828 stated that 'Some portions of the Journals have already been lost, and valuable papers are missing, and it is feared, irrecoverably gone.'12 After 1828 the journals of the annual conventions (and special conventions) of the Diocese of Massachu- setts were printed each year.
At the annual convention of January 1791, the clergy and lay deputies voted unanimously to ratify and confirm the ‘Ecclesiasti- cal Constitution proposed by the Convention in October last [1790]'.13 Then, in a convention of May 1791, the Church in Mas- sachusetts voted to accede to the constitution of October 1789 of General Convention.14 Finally at the annual convention in Boston on 24 May 1796 the convention chose, on the first ballot, the Rev. Edward Bass, D.D., as bishop-elect of the diocese. 15
The organization of the Church in the States of New Hampshire,
9. Perry, JGC, 1, 42.
10. Journals of the Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Massachusetts, from the Year 1784 to the Year 1828, Inclusive (printed by order of the Convention of 1848. Boston : James B. Dow, 1849, 228 pp.). In subsequent foot- note references, this work and the journals after 1828 are cited as JM, followed by the year and page number. The parishes were Boston (two), Newburyport, Salem, Scit- uate, and Marshfield in Massachusetts;
Providence and Newport were the Rhode Island parishes.
11. JM, 1784, p. iv.
12. Ibid.
13. JM, 1791, p. 27.
14. JM, 1791, p. 32.
15. JM, 1796, p. 54. From the time that Bishop Seabury of Connecticut returned from his consecration in Aberdeen, the Church in Massachusetts had the occa- sional services of a diocesan, and was pro- perly a diocese.
4
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine concerned Massachusetts, as these states (and dioceses) were to become members of the Eastern Diocese.
The printed record of the first convention of the Church in New Hampshire was dated 1802.16 This convention was held at Concord in that state. The convention 'unanimously agreed' upon a consti- tution, which in its second article stated that . . . the Constitution or Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in these United States ... are hereby most solemnly binding, ... upon the mem- bers of the Convention and upon every congregation represented by them'.17 The convention of August 1803 'Resolved unanimously, That the Right Reverend Bishop Bass be invited to take the Churches in this State under his pastoral care and perform such Episcopal acts as his convenience may permit and the good of the Church require'.18 Shortly after the standing committee had writ- ten to Bishop Bass according to the Convention's resolution, the Bishop died, 10 September 1803, 'after an illness of but two days'.19 It thus happened that Bishop Griswold was the first diocesan of New Hampshire.20 The Rev. Carlton Chase, rector of Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls, Vermont, was 'unanimously and canoni- cally elected Bishop of the Diocese of New-Hampshire', at a special convention held at Concord, October 1843, nearly nine months after Bishop Griswold's death.21 Chase was second in the line of New Hampshire bishops.
In Vermont, the Church dated its organization and its conven-
16. Journals of the First Twenty-Eight Conventions of the Diocese of New Hamp- shire, 1802-1828, Hitherto Unpublished, Together With a Re-Print of the Journals of Later Conventions (1829-1844) to the Con- secration of the First Bishop (Tilton, N.H., 1883). Cited as JNH and date of year.
17. JNH, 1802, p. 4.
18. JNH, 1803, p. 10.
19. JNH, 1804, p. 13.
20. The Church in New Hampshire never elected, in any convention, Bishop Gris- wold, but the standing committee on 5 March 1810 wrote the standing committee
of Massachusetts that the New Hampshire convention was virtually 'under the super- intendence of the Bishop of Massachu- setts'. New Hampshire's standing commit- tee went on to say that the convention at its next meeting would 'acquiesce in the choice you shall make and consider your Bishop as also the Bishop of Newhamp- shire'. JNH, 1810, p. 27.
21. JNH, 1844, p. 276-277. Chase's consecration took place 20 October 1844. Bishop Eastburn performed episcopal acts in New Hampshire, pro tem. Ibid., p. 278.
5
CHAPTER I
tions from 1790. As printed, the journals of the annual conventions are incomplete and 'meagre'.22 The unchristian and factional as- pect of the early years of the Diocese of Vermont was a phenome- non of a past era by 1870, even if not by 1811. By interlarding the journals from 1790 to 1832 with biographical material and copies of letters and copies of town and parish records, the compilers produced in 1870 a work which contained 'material for a future history [of the diocese] and ... contributed something for the benefit of the Church of the living God'. 23
From a special convention of the Church in Vermont held at Middlebury 29 August 1810 came some creative measures in the history of the diocese. After naming the presiding officer and a secretary, the journal record stated that, 'It appearing to the Con- vention that the old Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this State was lost, so as not to be found among the pa- pers of the Convention, a new one was formed and adopted'.24 When or where the old one was drawn up does not appear. Arti- cle I of the 'new one' stated that the diocese acceded to the General Convention.25 The convention then listened to a reading of the previously drafted constitution of the Eastern Diocese in the United States. To this document, along with the member Churches in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, the convention gave its assent.26 By this action of declaring itself a member of the
22. The Documentary History of The Prot- estant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Vermont, Including the Journals of the Con- ventions From the Year 1790 to 1832 Inclu- sive (New York and Claremont, N. H., 1870, 418 pp.), cited as JVT with year and page number.
23. JVT, 1790, p. 3. The future history which followed the publication of the Jour- nals in 1870 was a hundred-page article by the Rev. A. H. Bailey, D.D., 'A Historical Review of the First Century of the Church in Vermont, After its Partial Organization as a Diocese in Arlington, September 25, 1790', in Journal of the Centennial, Being the One Hundredth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Dio-
cese of Vermont, Being the Fifty-Eighth An- nual Convention Since the Full Organiza- tion of the Diocese (Montpelier, Vt., 1890). No 'authentic' records of the conventions of 1791 and 1794, for example, appear. In- ferential evidence supplies the place of the lack of records and journals for these two years. JVT, 1791, p. 12; 1794, p. 20.
24. JVT, 1810, p. 111.
25. Article 1 reads: "The various Churches in the State of Vermont shall be considered as united under one Conven- tion, in subordination to the General Con- vention of the United States.' JVT, 1810, p. 111.
26. JVT, 1810, pp. 112-113.
6
THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS
Eastern Diocese, Vermont secured the benefits of a diocesan in the person of Alexander V. Griswold. He stands first in the line of Vermont's bishops.
Two presbyters already had been chosen for the episcopal office by Vermont's convention, one in the convention of 1793, the other in a special convention in February 1794, of which 'no connected and authentic record ... was made and preserved'.27 Bishop Bass of Massachusetts received the election to the episcopal office in 1793, and accepted the office with the condition that his duties did not require his constant residence in Vermont. 28 The special con- vention of February 1794 opposed the conditional acceptance of Bass, and elected in his stead the Rev. Samuel Peters. Peters could not obtain consecration by either Anglican, French, or American bishops.29 Vermont remained without a diocesan, therefore, until 1810.
Essential source material for a study of any phase of Vermont's history, diocesan history of course included, is a knowledge of the geography of the state gained from actually traveling north along the Connecticut River valley from Brattleboro to St. Johns- bury, then crossing the Green Mountains to Burlington on Lake Champlain, and then traveling south to Bennington. At Middle- bury, some thirty miles south of Burlington, in May 1832, a con- vention of the Church elected the Rev. John Henry Hopkins as bishop of the diocese.30 Vermont had withdrawn, in 1832, from the Eastern Diocese with the consent of the other member components and with the blessing of Bishop Griswold.31 Bishop Hopkins, as Vermont's second bishop, served until his death on 9 January 1868.
Rhode Island's annual conventions, like Vermont's, dated from
27. JVT, 1794, p. 20. There is no jour- nal as such for the year 1794, but from Fascertained facts, and documents of vari- ous kinds .. . ', the record survives in part. 28. JVT, 1793, pp. 16, 18.
29. JVT, 1794-1795, pp. 20-60. The difficult question of glebe lands was inex- tricably tied in with every convention, as income from glebe lands represented prac- tically the entire support of the Church. A
further complicating factor was the short- lived existence of the self-styled 'Conven- tion of the Churches of the Western part of New-Hampshire and the Eastern part of Vermont [i.e., the Connecticut valley towns]'. JVT, 1801, p. 75; 1890, pp. 310- 311, 315.
30. JVT, 1832, pp. 400-401.
31. JVT, 1832, pp. 385-390.
7
CHAPTER I
1790. This 1790 convention, held at Newport, voted to adhere to and obey .. . ' the constitution and canons of General Convention of 29 September-26 October 1789.32 The convention also declared that Bishop Seabury of Connecticut was 'Bishop of the Church in this State .. . '.33 Five years later at Bristol, with Bishop Seabury presiding, the convention of 1795 adopted a constitution for the Church in Rhode Island.34 The convention of 1798 amended the constitution; at the same time its members also chose Bishop Bass of Massachusetts for their diocesan. Ten days later Bass agreed to include Rhode Island within his episcopal charge.35 Bishop Bass stands, therefore, as second in the line of Rhode Island's bishops. After the death of Bishop Bass in 1803 Benjamin Moore, bishop- coadjutor of New York, received the unanimous votes of the dele- gates to the convention of 1806.36 Apparently he performed no episcopal functions in Rhode Island, for in 1809, at an adjourned session of the convention of that year, a committee voted to go along with the Church in Massachusetts in obtaining a bishop by means of a 'united Convention whenever it shall be held'.37 As Griswold was elected in 1810 as bishop of the Eastern Diocese, he is Rhode Island's third diocesan. In Providence, in April 1843 following Griswold's death in the preceding February, a special convention elected the Rev. John Prentiss Kewley Henshaw, D.D., bishop of the diocese. 38 Henshaw was then rector of St. Peter's Church, Baltimore. He accepted the offer, thus becoming fourth in line of Rhode Island's bishops, but the first bishop which the Church in that state did not share with another diocese. Just prior
32. Journals of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Rhode Island, from the Year A.D. 1790 to the Year A.D. 1832 Inclusive (Providence, printed by order of the convention of 1858, 126 pp.), p. 6 (cited as JRI and year). As in the case of the printing of the early manuscript records of the Church in Massachusetts and Vermont, the commit- tee which saw the Rhode Island journals through the press was faced with difficul- ties (hence uncertainties), with hand writing', 'syntax', 'orthography', and 'in-
consistencies', in making a 'correct tran- script of the originals'. JRI, 1790, p. 3.
33. JRI, 1790, p. 6.
34. JRI, 1795, pp. 18-21.
35. JRI, 1795, pp. 24-26, 27-28.
36. JRI, 1809, p. 43. The committee numbered three: the Revs. Alexander V. Griswold (the future bishop) of Bristol, Theodore Dehon of Newport, and Nathan B. Crocker of Providence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.