USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Roxbury > History of the First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1630-1904 > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 R793t 1195040
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00826 1809
PRESENT MEETING HOUSE.
HISTORY
OF THE
First Church in Roxbury
MASSACHUSETTS
1630-1904
BY WALTER ELIOT THWING
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY REV. JAMES DE NORMANDIE, D. D.
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON W. A. BUTTERFIELD 59 BROMFIELD STREET 1908
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY WALTER ELIOT THWING
Stanhope Press F. H. GILSON COMPANY BOSTON. U.S.A.
1195040
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF My Father DEACON SUPPLY CLAP THWING
PREFACE
VARIOUS records of the church and of the town, including Eliot's book, and the lives of the ministers and prominent members, have been from time to time published, but there has hitherto been no attempt to chronicle the history of the First Church in Roxbury. My own deep interest in the church with which my father was for so many years con- nected, has led me to make a systematic study of its founda- tion, the lives of the founders, and the chain of events leading down to the present time.
In the arrangement of material each of the five meeting houses erected on or near the site of the present one has been given a chapter. The authorities will be found in the adjoin- ing list. From these, extensive quotations have been made, and as far as possible the records tell the story.
The early records of the town, school, and church are very imperfect; in Eliot's petition to the General Court, June 29, 1669, for a renewal of the school charter, he says, "Our first book and charter were burned in ye burning of John John- son's house" (1645). But from 1652 the records are in a tolerably good condition, although the events are not always recorded in sequence. Rev. Amos Adams notes in reference to the church records, "Inasmuch as some things worthy of notice are not as I find mentioned in this Book and others yt are, are mentioned in divers places scattered up and down, I have thot proper here to insert ye following articles, follow- ing ye Revd. Mr. Eliot and Danforth's annals of events."
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PREFACE
The opening words are, "The First Church in Roxbury was gathered July 1632." This is the only evidence on the church records of the gathering of the church, and as no copy of the covenant can be found, it was probably burned in John Johnson's house.
For many years the inhabitants of West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Brookline (then called Muddy River) worshipped in this church. In 1717 the town of Brookline organized an independent church. In 1712 the Congregational Parish of West Roxbury was set off from this church, and in 1770 the First Congregational Society of Jamaica Plain was organized from the West Roxbury Church. In 1821 the Dudley Street Baptist Church was organized; in 1822, the Universalist; in 1832, the St. James Episcopal; in 1834, the Eliot Congrega- tional, and in 1846 the Second Unitarian Church, Mt. Pleasant Congregational, now All Soul's. From this we see that for nearly two hundred years this was the only church within the limits of Roxbury proper.
It has been difficult to get details of the lives of many of those prominent in the church, and many who were prominent in the town and in public life are unnoticed, as there is no mention of them in the church records. This is by no means proof that they were not members. During the last century a large number hired seats, and, attending the church regu- larly, considered themselves members of the church, but as it is well nigh impossible to learn the names of all of these, they have been omitted, and I have limited myself throughout to those mentioned in the records. In the brief biographies of the early members the date of baptism has been given whenever possible, as this shows that one or both parents were church members. Prior to the year 1752 the year began March 25, therefore the double date has been used for the first three months of the year as at present computed.
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PREFACE
I beg gratefully to acknowledge the aid rendered by many friends and especially by those who have given valuable help in offering letters relating to their immediate families. It is to be regretted that it is not possible to print the whole or parts of these letters, but as this is not a genealogical record, I have been obliged to restrict myself to the mere facts of birth, death, and marriage, the occupation of members as far as can be ascertained, and to note any public offices they may have held. I shall be grateful to receive any corrections if dates or facts are found to be wrong.
My thanks are due to Mr. William C. Lane, Librarian of Harvard University, for the photograph of the Corlet "Elegy," and to Messrs. Allen A. Brown and William H. Gerrish for much information in regard to the choirs.
I am greatly indebted to our present pastor, the Rev. James De Normandie, D.D., for his introduction, and to my mother and sister for their encouragement and help in preparing this work.
Two hundred and seventy-seven years have passed since a few men and women left home and friends for conscience sake, faced the great perils of the wilderness and gathered a Church in Roxbury. The seed then sown has borne won- drous fruit. The creed has changed but the church sur- vives. The spirit of the age and the change in the character of the inhabitants of the locality have greatly influenced the church membership, but under the able and earnest minis- tration of our present Pastor the Church still flourishes. And it is the prayer and devout wish of those of us who now worship in the old Meeting House on the same site where our forefathers gathered, that here we may continue to worship for many years to come.
WALTER ELIOT THWING.
March, 1908.
INTRODUCTION
MAN has always had a strong affection for the places of his worship. Of many nations these are their only traces which remain. Everything else has passed away - theatres, museums, libraries, art-galleries, forums, halls of traffic - but we still make pilgrimages to the ruins of their altars where they brought their oblations, and sought to escape the frown, or gain the favor, of their divinities.
One cannot pause without emotion, upon a spot, where, from a period reaching back to the settlement of a land, and without any interruption, generations have gathered, in the day of small things, amidst dangers and privations, and in the day of rapid increase in wealth, power and prosperity - to bring the story of their gratitude, penitence, and prayer to the altar of God. However indifferent or neglectful persons may have grown to the observance of religious forms in their old homes, as soon as they come to a new land they set up some place of worship, and confess that need of the spiritual realities to which the whole history of man bears witness.
The First Church in Roxbury traces an eventful history to the settlement of the plantation. On the same spot, without any break in its records, or any pause in its worship, with a line of most distinguished ministers from the Apostle Eliot, to the great preacher, Dr. Putnam, with a very large number of its members eminent in every department of civic, professional, and private life (as will appear in this book), and with many events of historical significance
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INTRODUCTION
occurring within its grounds, this church is rapidly approach- ing the end of three centuries.
The writer of this church history has studied everything relating to it, with careful, faithful, and unwearied labor, wide research and diligent inquiry for several years, and as few churches have had such an eventful history, none has had a more devoted chronicler.
The word "church" is used sometimes for the house of God as, "I am going to St. Paul's to-day," sometimes for the body of communicants, and very often for the whole service of devotion as, "I am going to church this morning." It is on account of this varied use of the word that it is difficult occasionally to fix the exact date of a church's beginning. Some count from the building of the house, some from the settlement of a minister, some from the gathering of a few worshippers on a ship's deck, or under a spreading tree, or in the room of a private house - this latter is the true idea of the εκκλησία, the assembly.
The Apostle Eliot's records of the First Church begin thus, "Mr. William Pinchon, he came in the first company, 1630. He was one of the first foundation of the church at Rocks- borough." Then he goes on to name several families which he says were of the first company in 1630, certainly enough to have some kind of a gathering for the worship of God; and in days when worship was so dear to them after the persecu- tions they had suffered in England, especially with all the loneliness and privations, perils of the wilderness, and perils of the Indians, and the rigor of wintry days, in some home however humble they must have assembled and constituted a true church. When weather permitted, and weather was not a serious obstacle in those days to church going, they went for awhile through the pathway in the forests over to Dorchester, "until such time as God should give them oppor-
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INTRODUCTION
tunity to be a church among themselves." "Mr. George Alcock, he came wth the first company ano. 1630. When the people of Rocksbrough joyned to the church at Dor- chester, he was by the church chosen to be a Deakon esp'c to regard the brethren at Rocksbrough: and after he adjoyned himselfe to this church at Rocksbrough he was ordained a Deakon of this church." The early ministers of these plantations, as the first settlements were called, regarded themselves as self-constituted chroniclers of whatever took place in their sparsely inhabited parishes. They were the historians and journalists of the time. If a house was struck by lightning, or a great storm came, or any portent in the heavens, or some accident befell a settler, or an epidemic appeared, or a brother or sister lapsed into heresy, or a ship arrived or sailed, or if there was an exceptional season, as once the Apostle writes, "not any snow fell this winter," if there was an abundant harvest or a threatened famine, the minister makes a note of it in the parish book, and frequently this is all the history of the times we have.
There was a special reason in the theology of that day for the minister to make these records. According to the Puritan, the Church was a company of Christians under the Govern- ment of God. Each church was to mark the separation of the faithful from the sinners; it consisted of the "visible saints," and even if the saintship was not always visible, its object was to maintain a high standard of purity and holiness among its members. Each church was a unit to determine its own rules of faith and life. "The kingdom of God," said the Puritan Robert Browne, "was not to be begun by whole parishes, but rather of the worthiest were they never so few." When the Independent divines put forth their "Declaration," its preface says, "From the first, every, or at least the generality of our churches, have been in a manner
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INTRODUCTION
like so many ships (though holding forth the same general colours) lancht singly and sailing apart and alone in the vast ocean of these tumultuating times, and exposed to every wind of Doctrine under no other conduct than the Word and the Spirit, and their particular Elders, and principal Brethren, without association among ourselves, or so much as holding out common lights to others, whereby to know where we are."
No church or union of churches had any right or power to interfere with the faith or discipline of any other church, so it had to be a jealous custodian of the conduct of its own members. There was no disposition to gloss over the faults of anyone, man or woman, who, having once taken hold of the covenant, had fallen from grace; so the minister was quite ready to put down in black and white his spiritual judgment of his flock. But with a keen watch for heresy or for sin, a tender love and sympathy went with it. The atmosphere of every home was known, and any lapsing brother or sister was brought to the open confessional or banished the settle- ment. On the Rockesbrough Hill fast by the first little rough meeting-house stood the stocks and the pillory, guardians of peace and terror to evil doers, where the offender had to stand in full view of the elect, and where every offence against the gospel was sure to be followed by the penalty of the law. These records make strange reading to-day, but after all the sins make a very small part of them. The records of the Apostle Eliot are of surpassing interest, because the man is the most interesting figure in the early history of New England. There is such a flavor of humanity and godliness about them because the man was so human, so godly. What tender yearnings come out in a sentence like this, about some who had humbled themselves by public confession in the meeting house, "we have cause to hope that the full proceedings of discipline," (no letting up of
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INTRODUCTION
discipline) "will doe more good than theire sin hath done harm."
The plan of the writer of this volume has not permitted him to go beyond the affairs and statistics relating to the church - but many matters of historical interest, and especially events connected with the Revolution, cluster around the site of the First Church.
Here Washington came to review the army, the right of which was at Roxbury, its main post being on Meeting-House Hill. Its first commander was General Thomas, whose headquarters were in the parsonage, still standing on the high, rocky bluff near the church, almost the last witness to the scenes of those stormy days, and with a superb view over the city. The lawn in front of the meeting house was the grand parade ground of the army. Here the guards for the advanced lines on the neck, for the main guard in Roxbury Street, and for the other posts, and the fatigue parties em- ployed on the fortifications were formed every morning, and reviewed by General Thomas, who, with his spy-glass, watched from the dormer windows of his house the move- ments of the enemy at Charlestown. The Rhode Island troops were said to be the best furnished; while the Southern riflemen, in white hunting shirts and Indian moccasins, were among the most picturesque, and also the most feared. They had been trained to think it disgraceful to shoot game any- where but in the head; and at a review a company of them fired, at a quick advance, their balls into objects of seven inches diameter, at a distance of two hundred and fifty yards. The British spoke of them as those " shirt-tail men, with their cursed twisted guns, the most fatal widow and orphan workers in the world."
When the troops started on their march to Cambridge, and went down Roxbury Street, the one road to Boston, and past
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INTRODUCTION
the school-house of the famous grammar school, founded by the Apostle Eliot after the type of the grammar schools of England, the fires of patriotism could no longer be smothered in the teacher, Robert Williams; he dismissed the boys, gave the key of the school-house to a pupil to hand to the trustees, fell in the march with the soldiers, and served throughout the war with a marked distinction which is cherished by his descendants.
Here Whitefield came in his great revival journey and preached on the lawn in front of the church on Friday, April 26, 1740, to an immense congregation coming from every part of the country, and in every kind of vehicle, to the number, it is said, of at least sixteen thousand. After his services he dined with Judge Paul Dudley, the founder of the Dudleian Lectureship at our neighboring University. White- field was graciously welcomed by the clergy of Boston, with the exception of Dr. Cutler, rector of Christ Church, who, meeting him on the street, said to him, "I am sorry to see you here," to whom Whitefield quietly replied, "So is the devil."
In the list of members of the church which stood on the site of this present one, and which may be called the church of the Revolutionary period, it is surprising to find how many were officers of the army.
Another matter which enters largely into the history of the First Church is the great interest taken by the Apostle Eliot and members of the congregation in education. In a small manuscript roll covered with dark, time-stained vellum and tied with a cord of skin is preserved one of the most valuable documents in the early history of New England. It contains the covenant for the establishment of "The Free Schoole in Roxburie," afterwards known as "The Grammar School in the Easterly part of the town of Roxbury," and still later as the Roxbury Latin School. It is dated the last
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INTRODUCTION
day of August in the year of our Lord 1645. The book is rich in signatures of Eliot, Weld, the Dudleys, Seavers, Williamses, Hemingways, Ruggleses, Mays, Dorrs, Sumners, Heaths, and many who were prominent in the plantation of Roxbury. The method and earnestness with which they entered into the matter, and their determination to sustain the school at whatever sacrifice is shown by another paper the next year wherein, "it is agreed by all those inhabitants of Roxbury as have or shall subscribe their names or marks to this book for themselves severally and for their respective heirs and executors that not only their houses but their fields, orchards, gardens, outhouses and homesteads, shall be and hereby are bound and made liable to and for the several sums and rents before and hereafter in this book mentioned to be paid by every of them."
I do not know where one can find earlier, more constant, more generous, or more consecrated efforts in the interests of education, and in the list of subscribers it is remarkable how few made their "marks," for their pledges.
It is impossible to include in this volume these old-time records of what was the heroic age of New England. They are not such records as we write to-day, but at heart the humanity of these worshippers was of the same type as our own. Here is a long and faithful list of those who for genera- tions have worshipped on the same spot, and thousands of their descendants now scattered throughout this vast land will find their names with a touch of grateful memory and emotion. For two hundred and seventy-seven years this church has been the abode of the highest and most helpful ideals to which the human heart can be consecrated, and the fire has not been suffered to die out upon the altar, nor has the altar been removed. We are not like the Fathers by wearing the Puritan dress, nor by subscribing to their doc-
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INTRODUCTION
trines, but by sacrifices for a new land; by their interest in education; by their efforts to walk together as the truth might be revealed to them; by a deeper faith in those few great spiritual verities which ever have been, and ever must be, the refuge, support, and inspiration of the human soul.
This church has had a noble past, but the real value of a church is not in its past, but in its ability to minister to the religious needs of to-day.
May many generations gather on this spot for their finest apprehension of truth, and for their deepest assurances of the living God.
45 LAMBERT AVENUE, ROXBURY. March, 1908.
JAMES DE NORMANDIE.
CONTENTS
First Meeting bouse Page
LIST OF PASTORS AND OFFICERS
1
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 3
LIFE OF THOMAS WELDE 15
LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT 17
LIFE OF SAMUEL DANFORTH . 38
LIVES OF THE RULING ELDERS 42
LIVES OF THE DEACONS 43
CHURCH MEMBERS 45
Second Meeting bouse
LIST OF PASTORS AND OFFICERS 67
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 69
LIFE OF NEHEMIAH WALTER 84
LIFE OF THOMAS WALTER
112
LIVES OF THE RULING ELDERS
116
LIVES OF THE DEACONS 118
CHURCH MEMBERS
120
Third Meeting Touse
LIST OF PASTORS AND OFFICERS 137
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 139
CHURCH MEMBERS 142
Fourth Meeting bouse
LIST OF PASTORS AND OFFICERS 145
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 149
LIFE OF OLIVER PEABODY 174
LIFE OF AMOS ADAMS 175
LIFE OF ELIPHALET PORTER 178
LIVES OF THE DEACONS 185
CHURCH MEMBERS
186
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CONTENTS
Fifth Meeting Douse
Page
LIST OF PASTORS AND OFFICERS
209
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
217
LIFE OF GEORGE PUTNAM 240
LIVES OF THE DEACONS . 245
HISTORY OF THE COMMUNION TABLE 256
CHURCH MEMBERS .
259
PEW OWNERS
271
HISTORY OF THE MUSIC
335
HISTORY OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
353
HISTORY OF THE HORSE SHEDS
356
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH CHARITIES . 358
APPENDIX - PRESENTATION OF JOHN ELIOT'S CHAIR 379
INDEX . 374
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PRESENT MEETING HOUSE Frontispiece Built in 1804, and showing Putnam Chapel, built in 1876. The large building near the church on the left is Stoddard's New Brick Building, where services were held in 1803.
THE CORLET ELEGY facing 87
Elegy on Elijah Corlet, the first schoolmaster of Cambridge, by Nehemiah Walter, 1687. The original is in possession of Har- vard University. Copied through the courtesy of Mr. William C. Lane, Librarian.
PLAN OF THE THIRD MEETING HOUSE, 1736. facing 139
THE PARSONAGE facing 174
Built by Oliver Peabody in 1751 and occupied by him and his successors. After the death of Dr. Porter by Charles K. Dillaway.
MEETING HOUSE HILL IN 1790 facing 169
Showing the Fourth Meeting House, the Parsonage on the right and Horse Sheds near the church on the left. From an oil painting by John Ritts Penniman, a painter living in Roxbury. Taken from Francis S. Drake's History of Roxbury, through the courtesy of Mr. Edward W. McGlennen.
PLATE. facing 218 This Plate, supposed to have been placed under the corner stone of the present Meeting House, was stolen in some mysterious manner, and returned anonymously in 1813.
PLAN OF THE FLOOR OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE, 1804.
This remains unchanged, with the exception of the removal of two pews near the pulpit when the present pulpit was built. facing 271
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLAN OF THE GALLERIES OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE, 1804.
Showing the square pews and the singers' seats. A change was made in 1835 facing 310 PLAN OF GALLERIES OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE. . . facing 317 Showing the long pews after the change in 1835. The only change since then was made in 1888, when four small pews attached to the organ were removed when the new organ was built.
VIEW OF ELIOT SQUARE facing 356 Showing the Meeting House and the Horse Sheds, taken from John W. Barber's Historical Collections of Massachusetts, 1844.
INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE LOOKING EAST, TAKEN IN 1857 facing 232 INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE LOOKING WEST, TAKEN IN 1857 facing 234 INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE LOOKING EAST, TAKEN IN 1900 238
INTERIOR OF THE PRESENT MEETING HOUSE LOOKING WEST, TAKEN IN 1900 facing 240
JOHN ELIOT'S CHAIR .
facing 373
Presented by the First Parish in Dorchester to the First Church in Roxbury, Sunday Evening, March 17, 1907.
AUTHORITIES.
Recordes of the First Church in Roxbury, including Eliot's Book. Town Records of Roxbury.
Town and Church Records of Dorchester.
Town and Church Records of Boston.
Town and Church Records of Brookline.
Massachusetts Archives.
Suffolk County Deeds.
Norfolk County Deeds.
History of New England, 1630-1649. John Winthrop.
Wonder Working Providence of Zion's Saviour, 1658. Capt. Edward Johnson.
Plain Dealings or News from New England, 1642. Thomas Lechford. A Briefe Description of New England, 1660. Samuel Maverick. New England's Prospects, 1634. William Wood.
Magnelia Christi Americana, 1702. Cotton Mather.
Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several American Colonies, 1679-80. Jasper Dankers.
Diary of Judge Samuel Sewall, 1673-1729.
History of New England, 1873. John Gorham Palfrey.
Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers, John Eliot and His Friends of Nazing and Waltham, 1882. William Winters.
Bibliography of the Algonquin Languages, 1891. James Constantine Pilling. Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections and Proceedings.
New England Historic and Genealogical Register. Biographical Dictionary, 1809. John Eliot.
Biographical Dictionary, 1809 and 1857. William Allen.
Harvard Graduates, 1873-85. John Langdon Sibley.
Annals of the American Pulpit, 1857. William B. Sprague.
American Quarterly Register.
Life of Nehemiah Walter, 1755. Thomas Prince and Thomas Foxcraft. Revolutionary Adventures of Ebenezer Fox, 1838.
Records of Deacon Joshua Felton, 1782-1816.
Newspapers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Genealogies of Individual Families.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN ROXBURY
The First Meeting Touse 1632-1674
PASTORS REV. MR. THOMAS WELDE REV. MR. SAMUEL DANFORTH
TEACHER REV. MR. JOHN ELIOT
RULING ELDERS
MR. JOHN MILLER MR. ISAAC HEATH
DEACONS MR. GEORGE ALCOCK MR. WILLIAM PARKE MR. PHILIP ELIOT MR. GILES PAISON
SEXTONS
JOHN CHANDLER WILLIAM CLEAVES chosen in 1669
chosen in 1659
THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
JOHN ELIOT was called to be a Teacher to the Roxbury people soon after the building of the first meeting house and his life and labours, together with those of his Nazing asso- ciates, occupy no small space in the evangelical annals of New England.
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