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Gc 974.402 B65el 1825718
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 8804
Go 974.4 B65el 18257
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
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HISTORY
OF THE
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON,
1630-1880.
BY ARTHUR B. ELLIS.
Telith an Introduction, BY GEORGE E. ELLIS. .
ILLUSTRATED.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
BOSTON: HALL AND WHITING, 32 BROMFIELD STREET. 1881.
1825718
29441 .26
-
Ellis, Arthur Blake 1851.
History of the First church in Boston, 1630-1980. By Arthur B. Ellis. With an introduction, by George E. Ellis ... Boston, Hall & Whiting, 1981. Ixxxviii, 356 p. front., plates, ports., facsims. 24.
"This work ... is the extension of a lecture delivered ... at an informal parish gathering of the First church."-Fref.
CHEF CARC
1. Boston. First church.
I. Ellis, George Edward, 1814-1824.
1038
6-40430
Library of Congress
F73.62.F5F.471
.
HISTORY
OF THE .
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON, 1630-1880.
" And if any tax me for wasting paper with recording these small matters, such may consider that little mothers bring forth little children, small commonwealths matters of small moment, the reading whereof yet is not to be despised by the judicious ; because small things, in the beginning of natural or politic bodies, are as remarkable as greater in bodies full-grown."
GOV. DUDLEY'S Letter to the Countess of Lincoln.
£
NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
.
11.26
1038
Copyright, 1881, BY ARTHUR B. ELLIS.
1
UNIVERSITY PRESS : JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
Dedicated
TO THE
PRESENT MINISTER OF FIRST CHURCH,
AS A SMALL TOKEN OF LOVING REGARD, AND IN RECOGNITION OF THAT STEADY DEVOTION TO THIS ANCIENT . CHURCH, WHICH HAS DONE SO MUCH TO STRENGTHEN AND BUILD IT AFRESH ON THE OLD FOUNDATIONS, AND TO MAKE IT, IN HIS OWN WORDS, A "LARGER HOUSEHOLD."
PREFACE.
T 'HIS work, like so many others of a similar character, is the extension of a lecture. The lecture was deliv- cred in the chapel at an informal parish gathering of the First Church. The interest which seemed to be awakened at that time among members of the congregation by the approaching celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the church organization, served to advance a preconceived plan of enlarging the only history of the church which had then been published. The work of Rev. William Emerson (published posthumously in 1812), pre- pared with great care by one who was thoroughly furnished for the task, covered the ground so completely that at the outset it was proposed merely to add a few pages bearing upon recent events without attempting to revise his publi- cation. But as the present work advanced, finding how completely opinions had altered on some of the topics which he had so ably discussed, - transactions which were at one time obscure or shrouded in darkness having come into the light of knowledge and calling for a different treat- ment, - something more than an extension or enlargement of his history seemed to be necessary. The task of re- vision has been pursued with great caution ; and, as it has proved, the qualifications arising from the discovery of
-
Vili
PREFACE.
new sources of information have added so little to the earnest and laborious researches of Mr. Emerson that a large portion of his text might have been almost literally transcribed in the present work.
Dr. Frothingham was once asked why he did not write a history of the church. His reply was to the effect that he should be unable to make the dry statement of facts which it involved sufficiently interesting to induce any one to read it. It is much to be regretted that he was not persuaded to undertake the task, for it is a subject which, though dull in a common recital, would have been greatly enlivened by some of his charming and often exquisitely humorous forms of expression.
The present work attempts to arrange in concise form and chronological order the chain of events down to the present time. The authorities quoted are generally re- ferred to in the notes. My special acknowledgments are due for the kindness with which I have been allowed the free use of the Massachusetts Historical Society Library. I am indebted to Dr. Samuel A. Green, its librarian, for many valuable suggestions and references. Among the latter I would specially mention the rare pamphlet on church music referred to on page 217, which is now in the Boston Public Library.
The extent to which I have relied on my uncle, Dr. George E. Ellis, for advice and guidance, can hardly be overestimated. It is sufficient to say that he has directed and supervised it all from beginning to end.
To my father, the present minister of the church, may be attributed an equal share with my uncle, of the labor involved in preparing the volume for the press, a work which was nearly completed during my absence abroad. In the preparation of the later chapters, I was guided and governed to a great extent by his advice.
ix
PREFACE.
I tender my grateful acknowledgments to Mrs. George W. Pratt, of Boston, for valuable aid in preparing the sketch of her ancestor, Thomas Bridge.
My thanks are due to Rev. Henry W. Foote, minister of King's Chapel, and author of a new history of that church, which he is now preparing for the press, for calling my attention to some interesting sermons of Foxcroft and for other acts of kindness; and to Mr. John Ward Dean, librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Soci- ety, for kindly assisting me to fix the exact location of the first parsonage on Devonshire Street.
I am indebted to Dr. Charles Deane, of Cambridge, for the introduction of the titlepage of the rare copy of " Cot- ton's Milk for Babes," in connection with the life of Cotton; to D. Waldo Salisbury, Esq., of the Standing Committee of First Church, for the use of the ancient records of the church ; and to George O. Harris, formerly clerk of the cor- poration, for assistance in preparing a statement of the cost of the new meeting-house.
Through the courtesy of Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co., I am permitted to insert excellent woodcuts of three of the ministers, viz., Cotton, Wadsworth, and Chauncy, with autographs of Cotton and Wadsworth, all of which are taken from the "Memorial History of Boston."
Similar attention on the part of the Committee of First Church who had in charge the publication of the memo- rial volume, enables me to add views of three of the meet- ing-houses, which were specially prepared for that work.
The likeness of Wilson is taken from a negative of a photograph (by Messrs. Allen & Rowell, of Boston) of a painting in the Massachusetts Historical Society Collec- tions. (As to the authenticity of this portrait, which was at one time considered doubtful, see a satisfactory letter from Hon. Josiah Quincy to Hon. Robert C. Winthrop,
X
PREFACE.
printed in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, December, 1880, showing it to have been in the possession of the Bromfield family for a great number of years.)
The engraving of Dr. Frothingham was prepared for the memoir of him by Dr. Hedge, referred to in the text.
Mr. A. B. Davenport, of Brooklyn, N. Y., kindly placed at my disposal the steel-plate engraving of John Daven- port, which appears in his "History of the Davenport Family," as well as the fac-simile of his handwriting con- tained in the same volume.
Mr. Thomas Minns, of Boston, who has taken the most friendly interest in the work, generously gave the lithograph of the house of the Rev. John Wilson, taken from a sketch by Eliza Susan Quincy.
It was my intention at one time to unite the memorial volume already referred to, as published by a committee of the church, with this history, and bind them together. But as that work was issued some months before these pages were ready for the press, it seemed advisable to abandon this plan and make them as nearly as possible companion volumes. To the value of the memorial book as an historical treatise, the three sermons by the present minister, which it contains, forin the chief contribution. No more trustworthy source of information concerning the early history of the church has ever been published. The Bi-centennial sermon of Dr. Frothingham is another val- uable production in the same volume. It is recommended to all who desire to read an interesting chapter in the history of First Church.
A. B. E.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION . xvii
CHAPTER PAGE
I. 1630-1632. JOHN WILSON . 1 Origin and Foundation of First Church in Boston. - Wor- ship, Discipline, and Government.
II. 1633-1652. JOHN COTTON 24
Arrival of Cotton. - ITis Installation as Teacher. - Life of Cotton. - Boston Association of Congregational Minis- ters. - Cotton's Influence. - Salaries of the Ministers, how provided for. - Sympathy for the Indians. - Dis- cussion about Veils. - Dispute with Roger Williams. - Dismissal from First Church doubted by some of Charles- town. - Rules of Doctrine luid down by Cotton. - Un- successful Attempt to reduce the Number of Lectures. - Ministers appointed to "deal " with Eliot. - Convince him of Error. - Cotton helps to save the Common. - Council of Ministers at Boston. - Endicott admonished for defacing the Crosses. - Return of Wilson. - Arrival of Vane and Norton. - Formation of Cambridge Church. - Fast proclaimed in all the Churches. - Growth of Lib- eralism. - Sermon by Peter. - Hutchinsonian Contro- versy. - Trouble with Wheelwright. - Banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson. - Attempt to reclaim her, and to admonish her Son Francis Hutchinson. - Banishment of Underhill. - Collins and Hutchinson Fined. - Keayne dealt with for Overcharging. - Building of Second House of Worship. - Ministers called to Westminster Assembly. - La Tour. - Gorton. - Death of Winthrop. - Discontent in Hingham. - Mission to Bermuda. - Gathering of Second Church.
xii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PAGE
III. 1653-1670. JOHN WILSON, JOHN NORTON, JOHN DAVENPORT, JAMES ALLEN . 86
Prominent Position of the Early Ministers. - Death of Dud- ley. - John Norton. - Right of Baptism. - Life of Wilson. - John Davenport. - Controversy over his Settlement in First Church. - Formation of Third Church from Disaf- fected Members of the First. - James Allen.
IV. 1671-1710. JAMES ALLEN, JOHN OXENBRIDGE, JOSHUA MOODEY, JOHN BAILEY, BENJAMIN WADSWORTH, THOMAS BRIDGE
121
Condition of Religious Affairs down to the Present Period. - Trouble with the Baptists and Quakers. - John Oxen- bridge. - Contribution for Harvard College. - Psalm- singing .- Penn Legacy .- Synod of 1679 .- Other Churches invited to assist in carrying on Thursday Lecture. - Reconciliation between First and Third Churches .- Joshua Moodey. - Establishment of Episcopacy. - Arbitrary Conduct of Governor Andros. - Salaries provided for the Ministers at this Period. - Modifications under the new Charter of 1692 .- John Bailey. - Benjamin Wadsworth. - Churches in Boston in 1698. - Formation of Brattle Street. - Union between Church and College. - Thomas Bridge. - Erection of a Parsonage.
V. 1711-1785. THOMAS BRIDGE, BENJAMIN WADSWORTH, THOMAS FOXCROFT, CHARLES CHAUNCY, JOHN CLARKE
16:6
Burning of House of Worship of First Church. - Sympa- thy and Aid from Brattle Street Church. - Building of New House. - Terms of Church Communion. - Old Ac- count-Book. - Expenses of Building. - Seaters of the Congregation. - Who may occupy Pews. - Debt on the Building. - " Despair" of the Parsonage. - Admissions to Communion. - Call of Foxcroft. - His Lineage. - His Opposition to Episcopacy. - Support of the Minis- try. - Weekly Contributions. - Call of Chauncy. - His Opposition to the Revivalists. - Controversy with Epis- copalians. - His Book on Universal Salvation. -- John Clarke' appointed. - Chauncey's Mind and Character. - - Great Earthquake. - Reading of the Scriptures in the Church. - Introduction of Choirs. - War of the Revo- lution. - Thursday Lecture. - Sketch of John Clarke's Life. - Hlis Doctrine. - His Sudden Death.
xiii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
VI. 1786-1814. JOHN CLARKE, WILLIAM EMERSON, JOHN ABBOT . Organ Music in First Church. - Single Ministry. - Theologi- cal Changes. - Week-Day Lectures. - Thursday Lecture. - Communion and Baptism. - Invitation of Mr. Emerson. -Sketch of Mr. Emerson. - Ilis Theology. - Visit to his Son, Ralph Waldo Emerson. - Church Discipline. - Building of a New Meeting-House on Chauncy Place. - Description of the Old Brick. - Surviving Worshippers in that House. - John Lovejoy Abbot, his brief Ministry and early Death.
PAGE
216
VII. 1815-1849. NATHANIEL LANGDON FROTHINGHAM . 249
Disappointments in the Parish. - The Death of Mr. Emerson and of Mr. Abbot. - The New Building not Satisfactory, and the Removal complained of by Many. - Call of Mr. Frothingham. - Sketch of his Life and . Character. - His Return to his Pulpit, and his Last Words on several Occa- sions there and elsewhere. - Ilis Blindness. - Ilis Rare Scholarship. - His Hymns. - Many Tributes to his Gifts as a Man of Letters, and to his Constancy as a Preacher and Pastor. - Funeral Services. - Resolutions of the Church. - Memoir by Dr. Hedge. - The Ministry of Dr. Frothingham. - The Unitarian Controversy, and his Com- parative Indifference to it. - Exciting Topics. -- Real Es- tate of the Church. - The Music. - Half-Way Covenant Dispensed with. -- Sunday School. - Congregation Incor- porated. - Two Hundredth Anniversary. - Transcenden- talism. - The Minister's Relation to it. - Christian Psalter. - Meeting-House Reconstructed. - Resignation of Dr. Frothingham, and Church Action thereon. - Baptisms and Admissions to the Church.
VIII. 1850-1880. RUFUS ELLIS
Settlement of Rev. Rufus Ellis. - Establishment of a Free Sunday School. - Church Work. - Children and Families gathered for Missionary Work beyond the Limits of the Organized Congregation. - Sewing-Schools. - Employ- ment Societies. - Instruction in Dressmaking. - News- boys' School. - Past and Present Workers in the Church, and their Memorial. - Gas Introduced. - Union Services in the Summer. - A more Open Communion. - Thursday Lecture Revived for a Time. - Dr. Frothingham's " Shade of the Past." - Channcy Place becomes Channcy Street. - Public Funeral of Edward Everett. - Proposal to build a New House of Worship .-- Progress and Completion of the Work. - Laying of Corner-Stone. - Last Services in Old Church. - Dedication. - Church Described. - Its Cost. - Liberal Contributions. - Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary.
235
xiv
CONTENTS.
Officers and Beneficiaries of the Church.
PAGE
LIST OF MINISTERS OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON 327
RULING ELDERS OF FIRST CHURCH . 328
DEACONS
328
TREASURERS 329
CLERKS
330
COMMITTEES OF SEATERS
330
ANNUAL COMMITTEES 331
STANDING COMMITTEES . 332
ORGANISTS .
337
SEXTONS 337
DISPOSITION OF ELDER PENN'S LEGACY 338
INDEX 343
-
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
WINTHROP CUP (1610/1). See " Hall Mark "
Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOHN WILSON
4
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOHN COTTON
35
COTTON'S " MILK FOR BABES "
37
HOUSE OF REV. JOHN WILSON
IOI
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOHN DAVENPORT .
114
PORTRAIT OF REV. BENJAMIN WADSWORTHI
155
THE OLD BRICK MEETING-HOUSE
172
PLAN OF THE PEWS IN THE OLD BRICK MEETING-HOUSE
.
176
PORTRAIT OF REV. CHARLES CHAUNCY
193
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOHN CLARKE
213
PORTRAIT OF REV. WILLIAM EMERSON
230
CHURCH IN CHAUNCY PLACE .
237
PLAN OF THE PEWS IN CHAUNCY PLACE CHURCHI .
242
PORTRAIT OF REV. N. L. FROTHINGHAM
252
PORTRAIT OF REV. RUFUS ELLIS
287
PRESENT CHURCHI
313
17
INTRODUCTION.
"TO PRACTISE THE POSITIVE PART OF CHURCH REFORMATION AND PROPAGATE THE GOSPEL IN AMERICA;":
T 'HIS clearly defined and strongly worded statement, reiterated with variations of word and phrase in the writings of the leaders of the English Colonists in the Bay of Massachusetts, gives us from themselves the aim and purpose of their coming and their staying. The founders, ministers and members of the First Church in Boston stand as such leaders in the enterprise. They very soon had followers and associates in it. The relation of that First Church to the secular affairs of the colony, its, so to speak, metropolitan position, its establishment of a pre- cedent and example for other early churches in this wil- derness, and the pre-eminent influence and agency of its ministers in settling a form of church polity, make it proper, if not requisite, that a sketch of its history should be introduced by a brief reference to the intent and method of its constitution.
The writer of these introductory pages engages in this, not altogether attractive, effort in part through an interest in the subject, quickened by the recent celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the planting of the church, and in part at the request of his brother, the pres-
13
E
xviii
INTRODUCTION.
ent pastor, and that of his nephew, its historian. In what is to follow the writer would frankly and distinctly state that he is not assuming the advocacy, the championship, or the defence of a religious fellowship or system, but simply aiming at its truthful historical statement. He is not the culogist or the apologist of the Puritan theory. There was such a theory put on trial here. There was a pur- pose and a method in it. The founders of the First Church in Boston represent to us conspicuously the prac- tical working of that theory. And thus a fair exposition of it may appropriately introduce the history of their church.
We have to ask what these Puritan church founders meant by "the Positive Part of Church Reformation; " and then, taking their own answer to the question, to fol- low out their purpose and method in attempting to realize their object. Nothing new can be suggested on this well- wrought theme of history and controversy. It has be- come dull and wearisome even to those who by lineage and heritage might seem most interested to keep it fresh and vitalized ; while to those of uninformed or inert minds - who none the less are ready to speak judgments and opinions upon-it - it is consigned to the class of themes which are antiquated and unprofitable. One who in the course of his own historical studies has sought to acquaint himself with facts- and events necessary towards forming . an intelligent and candid judgment on subjects once kin- dled and glowing with intense religious zeal and passion, but from which all the heat and all the practical interest are extinct for the living generation, will hardly fail to put to himself the question which others, superficial or indifferent in their own views, will be ready enough to ask him, - Why attempt to review, to restate, to set right, matters into which ignorance, superstition, morbid scruples, intolerance,
xix
INTRODUCTION.
and passion entered so largely, and which are now all hap- pily passing into oblivion? This question is thought to have a special pertinency when asked by multitudes living on this old Puritan heritage, in reference to any rehearsal of the stiff, stern, and bigoted ways of the founders of Church and Commonwealth. We are glad to succeed to them and to enjoy their heritage, but we cannot be engaged by any real and genial interest in their harsh and self- inflicting style of piety.
Living under the relaxed discipline, the easy freedom, the indifference and lack of earnestness in what was to our fathers the most intensely engrossing concern of their ex- istence, even those among us who profess to retain, in substance at least, their religious standards and believings, fall far short of making real to us their old exemplars. Reproach, ridicule, contempt, scorn, are the sentiments very often felt or avowed for the crabbed, intolerant, and self-righteous spirit and deeds of those religious zealots, some pages of whose history are here revived. It would not be a less difficult, though certainly a much pleasanter, task to undertake to teach a foreign language or skill in the game of chess to a dull pupil, than it is to inform some facile triflers who wonder that any reasonable person should concern himself with telling anew, with an intent to rectify or readjust the judgment of time and common sense, the story of the stern religionists settling on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. We have repudiated their bigotry and austerity. Why plead even for their sincerity? There are those who are wholly unconscious of the fact that even the privileges of freedom, indifference, and laxity which they themselves enjoy, have come to them without cost, as an inheritance from the stern sincerity, the conflicts, the heroism, of those who thus enfranchised their posterity. There are those among us of the sturdiest Protestant lin-
XX
INTRODUCTION.
eage, whose taste, conscience, love of religious repose or rest, has drawn them into the fold of the old Roman com- munion, where they find relief and joy. They are free to make the change, which involves no penalty or sacrifice. This freedom was won for them by predecessors of sterner stuff, who, in securing the right of private judgment which they used for themselves in breaking the thraldom of the old priestcraft, left others free to use the right as they might please, even if it should be to misuse it or to re- nounce its exercise.
The founders of the First Church of Boston derived their Christian nurture and heritage from the Church in England. On leaving their native land, with yearning hearts and tearful eyes, they took a tender parting from it on the deck of their vessel, as they were to give up its wonted holy places and worship for their "poor cottages in the wilderness." They were free to renew and perpet- uate on the virgin soil of this continent the characteristic principles and usages of that mother church. They did not do so. They established quite another institution, polity, and discipline. Their own course of action, the surprise, the seeming inconsistency, and the reason of it, will appear by and by, after the way is prepared for their own explanation of it.
The English Church, as the religious nurse and mother of these Colonists, claimed to be a reformed church, purified, reconstructed, after renouncing and divesting it- self, in constitution, doctrine, and discipline, of some of the inventions, corruptions, and superstitions of the Church of Rome. The English Church had made common cause with Protestant churches on the continent of Europe in this work of reformation, but had fallen back on its own spe- cial limitations. It had been for the English monarchs and parliaments to decide the steps, stages, degree, and
xxi
INTRODUCTION.
substance of this reforming work, holding always to the assurance that no process or amount or result of their re- nunciation of Romanism impaired one whit their relation to the true Church of Christ.
The Puritans believed, thoroughly and sincerely, that the process of reformation in the English Church had been arbitrarily arrested by statecraft and priestcraft, by aims of policy and by compromising. They found it re- taining and enforcing some Roman inventions and corrup- tions - hierarchical, sacerdotal, and ceremonial -which consistency required should be renounced as of essentially the same erroneous, mischievous, and unscriptural charac- ter as others which had been thrown aside. "Rags and remnants of Popery " were as odious to the Puritans as the most elaborate inventions of its costume and ritual. They thought that at the stage which the reformation work had reached, and at the point where it was arbitrarily required to stop, it was neither thorough in its process nor secure of abiding without risk of reversion and overthrow. They had stern facts before them, and reasonable apprehensions to warrant this conviction. There was that in the temper, the treacherous State policy, the arbitrariness and incon- stancy of the four Stuart kings, - there was much in the spirit of prelacy, in the inclinations of some of the nobility, and in the lingering attachments of some of the people for the fond devices of Romanism, which kept the great issues of Protestantism in an even balance of suspense and risk for a good part of the century stirred by aggressive Puri- tanism. Not for more than half a century after the Boston Church was planted was the realm of England solemnly and safely committed, by organic parliamentary enact- ment and by a sincere royal oath, to Protestantism. To make sure of the stage which the purifying work had already reached, and to advance it in consistency with
xxii
INTRODUCTION.
its first impulse and principles, was the aim of the Puri- tans.
It certainly was a serious and by no means easy prob- lem for civil rulers and for ministers of religion, with their combined wisdom, to reconstruct a reformed church, after , repudiating and renouncing that of Rome. The Church of Christ was to be the substitute for the Church of the Papacy. It was not strange that while the process of that substitution was advancing there should have been reason and occasion for much variance of judgment as to several matters of ecclesiastical constitution and discipline, - whether they belonged to, or at least were consistent with, the true Church of Christ, or were a part of the Papal system. Here we must recognize the radical difference in the matter of controversy maintained by the Puritans in the English Church, and that of the Reformed churches in general with the Church of Rome. The Puritans held their own English Church to the obligation of reconstruct- ing itself strictly according to the rule and authority of the Scriptures. In theory this obligation had been recog- nized. But in practice there was inconstancy in purpose, and, as the Puritans believed, inconsistency, and a danger- ous trifling with some of the old Papal inventions. The Papal Church stoutly denied the sole authority of the Scriptures and the obligation to adduce written rules for its constitution and discipline.
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