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Gc 974.402 SpBma 1851607
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 4675
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyoffirstch00morr 0
2484 HISTORY
OF THIE
First Church in
Springfield,
1st
An Address delivered June 22, 1875.
WITH AN APPENDIX.
BY
HENRY MORRIS.
With Portraits and Illustrations.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
SPRINGFIELD, MASS .: WHITNEY & ADAMS. 1875.
1851607
D Morris, Henry, 1814- 1888. 284483 History of the First church in Springfield. An address
.6 delivered June 22, 1875. With an appendix. By ilvary Morris ... Pub. by request. Springfield, Mass .. Whit- ney & Adams, 1875. 60 p. front., pl., ports. 21em.
1. Springfield, Mass. First church of Christ.
1
3-4956
3663
Library of Congress C
SHELF .- RO F74.SSMIS3
E. a. REES.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by WHITNEY & ADAMS, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
3663
CLARK W. BRYAN AND COMPANY, ELECTROTYPERS, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
SPRINGFIELD, July 1, 1875.
HON. HENRY MORRIS :
Dear Sir :- Sharing the feeling so generally expressed through our community, that the valuable historical paper, containing so many important and interesting facts concerning the history of to First Perish and the Town since 1637, prepared by you dur- ing years of investigation, and listened to with so much interest ott a recent evening at the First Church in this city, should be preserved it permanent form, we respectfully solicit a copy of it for publication.
E. A. REED, E. WIGHT,
GEORGE MERRIAMI,
ELIJAH BLAKE,
SAMUEL BOWLES, H. M. PARSONS,
F. A. BREWER, WILLIAM PYNCHON,
S. M. OsGooD,
WILLIAM RICE.
S. G. BUCKINGHAM,
SPRINGFIELD, July 9, 1875. MESSRS. E. A. REED, E. WIGHT,
SAMUEL BOWLES, and others :.
Gentlemen : - In deference to the judgment, expressed by you, that the historical address, recently delivered by me, contains facts sufficiently important and interesting to render its preserva- tion in a permanent form desirable, I yield to your request for its publication.
Respectfully yours, HENRY . MORRIS.
Historical Address.
WHEN the first settlers of Springfield, under the lead of William Pynchon, came here from Roxbury in 1636, and founded a new town, they brought with them the religious principles which had induced them, years previous, to forsake their native land and seek a home in America. Appreciating the im- portance of a Christian church and a Christian min- istry to the prosperity, both spiritual and temporal, of their new community, they early made provision for their establishment.
Accordingly they drew up and signed an agree- ment, containing fifteen articles, for the regulation of their town affairs, the first of which is in these words : " Wee intend by God's grace, as soon as we can, with all convenient speede, to procure some Godly and faithfull minister, with whom we purpose to joyne in church covenant to walk in all the ways of Christ." This agreement bears date May 14, 1636, and was signed as an original document by eight of the twelve settlers who first came here.
Precisely at what time this purpose was accom- plished by the organization of a church, no record informs us. If any separate record was kept of the transactions of the church in that early period of its
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
history, it was long since lost or destroyed. None can now be found relating to transactions earlier than January 27, 1735. There can be little doubt that the church was organized about the time when Rev. George Moxon, its first minister, settled here in 1637. In that year he came to this country from Yorkshire in England, bringing with him a wife and two daughters. He had been educated at Sidney College, in the University of Cambridge, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1623. IIe went first to Dorchester, perhaps with the intention of making that place his home. but, after a brief sojourn there, he was induced by his attachment to Mr. Pynchon, with whom he was intimate. to follow that gentleman to Springfield, and to become the minister of the church here. He had received ordi- nation in England, and, on his arrival here at the age of thirty-five years, was prepared at once to enter upon the work of the ministry with this people. He remained here the pastor of this church fifteen years, till the year 1652, when he accompanied Mr. Pyn- chon to England, from which neither of them ever returned.
Mr. Pynchon had written a book, entitled "The Meritorious Price of our Redemption," the theology of which was distasteful to the authorities at Boston, and although, under the pressure of both temporal and ecclesiastical censures, which he incurred, he re- tracted or modified some of the obnoxious sentiments of his book, the book itself was condemned to be burned by the common executioner in the market place at Boston .*
* Appendix A.
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How far the personal safety of Mr. Pynchon was imperiled by these proceedings is not clear. He was accused of heresy, and the teaching of heresy was then a grave offence against the civil law, which sub- jected the offender to trial and punishment. Thomas Dudley, one of the sternest Puritans of that age, was then governor of the colony, and not likely to relax any penalty which the law would demand.
Mr. Pynchon was peremptorily summoned to ap- pear before the next General Court, to answer whether he would own this book, printed in England under his name, to be his or not, and in case he should acknowledge it, then the court declared their " purpose (God willing) to proceed with him accord- ing to his demerits," unless he should sign a written retraction, which should be printed and dispersed in England as well as here. Mr. Norton, the minister of Ipswich, was specially appointed to answer the book, and Pynchon was enjoined to take home with him this answer and consider it. Thinking himself ill- treated in this matter, Mr. Pynchon left this town. which he had founded, and which owed its growth so much to his care and enterprise, and with his son-in- law, Henry Smith, returned to England, leaving here a son, who in the sequel succeeded to his father's of- fices and influence.
At this distance of the, and in the absence of any ecclesiastical records, it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to form any adequate conception of the character of Mr. Moxon, or of the value of his minis- terial labors in this church. From the declared pur- pose of the first settlers to procure " some godly and faithful minister," and from the fact that he had been
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
long and intimately known to Mr. Pynchon, it may fairly be inferred that Mr. Moxon was a man of that stamp. That he enjoyed the confidence and respect of the people here, is manifest from the fact that in April, 1638, they chose him a deputy to represent them in the General Court at Hartford, within which jurisdiction Springfield was then thought to fall. Another token of their regard is found in the circum- stance that they assigned him a home lot of nearly double the usual width, and in 1639, by a voluntary assessment built him a house 35 by 15 feet in size, having a porch and study, -a commendable example for the imitation of those living in more modern times. In this house, located on the westerly side of Main street, near what is now Vernon street, the min- ister lived during the last thirteen years of his resi- dence here, and in the first meeting-house, erected in 1645, about where the large elm stands, near the south-easterly corner of Court Square, he met his peo- ple, as they assembled on the Sabbath at the sound of the drum, and proclaimed to them the words of cter- nal life. This meeting-house was forty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, and faced south on the one-rod road, leading to the training-field and burial-ground. since made wider and called Elm street .* It had two large windows on each side, and one smaller one at each end; one large door on the sontherly side, and two smaller ones; it had a shingled roof -a rare thing in that day- and two turrets, one designed for a bell, the other for a watch tower. Among the peo- ple to whom Mr. Moxon ministered and whose confi- dence he enjoyed, there were some eminent not only *Appendix B.
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for their piety, but for their intelligence. William Pynchon and his son John Pynchon, his two sons-in- law, Henry Smith and Elizur Holyoke, and the two deacons of the church, Samuel Chapin and Samuel Wright, were all men of more than ordinary capacity, capable of conducting the worship of the sanctuary or the municipal concerns of the town. In those days there was accorded to the clergyman, as inci- dent to his office, a degree of respect and considera- tion, amounting almost to reverence, rarely mani- fested at present.
I find recorded in the private record, which William Pynchon kept of various matters that came under his cognizance as a magistrate, an entry in his hand un- der date of September 24, 1640, of a trial before him, and a jury of six men, which is interesting, not only as illustrating the primitive character of litigation in those days in this remote settlement, but as also showing the kind of supervision, which the minister exercised over his people. It seems that John Wood- cock, one of the early settlers, of a litigious turn. had a controversy with Henry Gregory, another early settler, about some hogs, and had brought two suits against Gregory to recover damages. The two cases were tried before Mr. Pynchon and a jury of six, comprising Deacon Samuel Wright and five other respectable inhabitants. The jury rendered a verdict against Gregory in each action for some 20 shillings and costs. The record says, "Henry Gregory, after the verdict, was much moved and said: 'I marvel with what conscience the jury can give such damages ; seeinge in the case of John Searles I had of him but twenty shillings for three slanders ; and he added, but
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
such juries - Ile was about to speake morc, but Mr. Moxon bid him ' take heed, take heed,' and so gave him a grave admonition. Presently, after the admo- nition, Henry Gregory acknowledged his fault and earnestly craved pardon, and promised more care and watchfulness for tyme to come; and so all the jury acknowledged satisfaction in hope of reformation."
It was not always in the character of a spectator. or to give grave admonitions to unsuccessful but irri- tated litigants, that Mr. Moxon attended these prim- itive courts. He was himself at one time an inter- ested party, seeking to vindicate his own good name from the aspersions of a slanderer. It was on this wise : The same John Woodcock had had a lawsuit at Hartford, in which Mr. Moxon was a witness against him. Probably Woodcock was defeated in this Hart- ford suit, and, being an unprincipled fellow, sought his revenge by circulating a report that the minister had taken a false oath. This produced a decided sen- sation among the good people of this plantation of Agawam, as Springfield was then called. Woodcock was summoned by warrant to appear before Mr. Pyn- chon, the magistrate, to answer for this slander. Desirous, if possible, to avoid a trial before a jury of their neighbors, to whom they were both well known, he " desyred," as the old Pynchon record states, " that this difference might be tried by a private hear- inge below in the River -," meaning at Windsor or Hartford, these being then the nearest settlements down the river. Mr. Moxon, continues the record, "referred himself to the judgment of ye plantation present whether it were fitter to be heard by a private refference below in the river, or tryed here publickly
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
by a Jury. The general voat of the plantation is that, seeing the matter is publik, it should be publikly herd and tryed here by a Jury. Liberty is granted to John Woodcocke to produce his witnesses against this day fortnight being the 26 of December. Also at the said tyme Jo. Woodcocke is warned to answer for his laughinge in sermon tyme: this day at the Lecture. Also he is then to answer for his misde- menor of idlenesse." The trial of this important suit was afterwards deferred to the 2nd of January, at which time, Mr. Moxon produced the testimony of five witnesses, and the jury rendered a verdict in his favor for ££6 13s. 4d.
In the absence of any church records, there exist no materials for a biography of the first minister of this church for the next eleven years. It may fairly be presumed that he was engaged during this period in the ordinary duties of a pastor, enjoying the respect of his people, sharing in their joys and sympathizing in their sorrows, preaching to them on the Sabbath, morning and afternoon, besides delivering the usual lecture every Thursday, at half-past ten in the fore- noon. In addition to the family which he brought with him, when he first came here, he had three chil- dren born to him here-all sons. He had certainly three older children, one a son, bearing his father's Christian name, and following his father's vocation afterwards in England. There were also two daugh- ters, Martha and Rebeckah. These two girls passed through an experience that was remarkable even in their day, and appears stranger still to us. In fact they became the early, if not the very first victims, as was supposed, of that delusion which for a time
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
created an intense excitement in the Massachusetts colony, and culminated in the most fearful tragedies, connected with the famous Salem witchcraft. One Mary Parsons, wife of Hugh Parsons, who lived quite at the south end of Main street, was suspected of having bewitched these two girls.' She had killed her own child, and was probably deranged. Her strange conduct was ascribed to her familiarity with the evil one, and some disorders, real or imaginary, with which Mr. Moxon's daughters were afflicted, were im- puted. in accordance with the prevailing superstition, to Mary Parsons, as an agent of the devil. She was accordingly committed to prison, charged with witch- craft and the murder of her own child; for both which offences she was tried before the General Court at Boston. I find this trial recorded in the Colony records under date of 13th May, 1651, in these words: " Mary Parsons, wife to Hugh Parsons of Springfield, being committed to prison for suspition of witchcraft, as also for murdering her owne child, was this day called forth and indited for witchcraft." Then fol- . lows the indictment: "By the name of Mary Parsons, you are heere before the Gennerall Court, charged, in the name of the Commonwealth, that, not having the feare of God before your eyes nor in your heart, be- ing seduced by the divill, and yeilding to his malitious motion, about the end of February last at Springfield, to have familliarity, or consulted with a familliar spirrit making a covenant with him, and have used divers divilish practises by witchcraft, to the hurt of the persons of Martha' and Rebeckah Moxon, against the worde of God, and the lawes of this jurisdiction long since made and published." "To which indict-
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
ment she pleaded not guilty : all evidences brought in against hir being heard and examined, the Court found the evidences were not sufficient to proove hir a witch, and therefore she was cleered in that respect."
What part Mr. Moxon took in this prosecution is not known. That he sympathized with his children in their sufferings, and believed in the reality of the demoniacal influence, to which the common super- stition of the times ascribed them, can hardly be doubted. It was a weakness that infected some of the strongest minds of that age. Probably he was a promoter, if not the originator of the prosecution of the supposed witch, and when that failed, and she was acquitted of the charge, it produced in his mind a discontent with his situation, which, concurring with the troubles, that had arisen between his friend, Mr. Pynchon, and the General Court, induced Mr. Moxon to accompany Pynchon to England in 1652. taking his family with him. Thus ended his ministry here. A poet of that day has left to us the following tribute to Mr. Moxon's character, written shortly before his departure, in which may be detected an allusion to the peculiar domestic visitation, that made the last year of the minister's residence in Springfield so un- happy :
" As thou with strong and able parts art made Thy person stout, with toyl, and labour shall With help of Christ, through difficulties wade. Then spend for him ; spare not thyself at all. When errors crowd close to thyself and friends, Take up truth's sword. trifle not time for why. Christ called his people hither for those ends To tell the world that Babel's fall is nigh, And that his churches; through the world shall spread Maugre the might of wicked men and devils, Then Moxon, thou needst not at all to dread, But be avenged on Satan for his evils. Thy Lord Christ will under thy feet him tread."
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The departure of three such men as William Pyn- chon, Henry Smith, his son-in-law, and Mr. Moxon, was a serious loss to the church and the town. There is a tradition, mentioned by Mr. Breck in his century sermon, that it came near to breaking up the settle- ment. But the shock, though severe, was not fatal. Neither the temporal nor the spiritual prosperity of this people suffered any permanent check. The wise leadership, that had been exercised by the elder Pyn- chon, was devolved upon his son John, then a young man of twenty-six, of sterling qualities, who, through all that century and down to the time of his death, main- tained an influence, not only in Springfield, but in all this region, that justly entitled him to the appellation by which he is distinguished in the record, " the wor- shipful." Nor were the religious interests of the people neglected. The deacons, Chapin and Wright, with Elizur Holyoke, son-in-law of William Pynchon, were pious and capable men, and the people gathered in their sanctuary, as they had been accustomed to do before, to hear the word of God expounded by them. In February, 1653, less than five months after Mr. Moxon's departure, Rev. William Hosford was preaching here as a supply. Precisely when his la- bors here began, and when they ended, is not known. Ilis stay did not exceed one year at the longest. Ile was succeeded by Rev. William Thompson, who grad- uated at Harvard College in 1653, and is supposed to have been the son of a minister of the same name at Braintree. He was here in November, 1655. On the 15th of that month, the town records say, "At a town meeting, it was voted and concluded yt Mr. Thompson, during his continuance a preaching min-
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
ister in Springfield, shall possess and enjoy ye Towne house lot and housing *
* * which formerly ye towne bought of Mr. Moxon." "As also they intend by ye help of God to continue Mr. Thompson's main- tenance €50 pr annum and to give him a parcel of ground by reason of the inability of ye towne to in- crease his maintenance."
This, although perhaps a liberal salary for those days, did not insure Mr. Thompson's "continuance as a preaching minister" for a very long period. He left his people under such circumstances as led the town, on the 24th March, 1656, to pass the following vote to provide for the supply of its spiritual needs: "It is agreed by joynt consideration of ye Plantation that seeing Mr. Thompson hath deserted this Planta- tion and soe we are left destitute in respect of any ministry of ye word for continuance, that therefore these persons under written shall take counsel among themselves what course may be taken for a supply in ye work, and that they shall take that course that to them shall seem good by sending abroad for advice in this matter ; and soe accordingly they shall give in- formation to the town w' they have done or think convenient to be done. The persons hereunto chosen are Mr. Pynchon, Deacon Chapin, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, Deacon Wright and Elizur Hol- yoke." "It was further voted and agreed," continues the record, " that whereas yesterday being the Lord's day Deacon Wright was chosen to dispense the word of God in this place till some other should be gott for y' worke, yt deacon Wright shall have for his labor in ye employment 50sh ye month for such tyme as he at- tends on y" said work."
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Good Deacon Wright, who had settled here in 1639, and had been one of the deacons of this church through all the subsequent years of Mr. Moxon's ministry, did not continue long to " dispense the word " in Springfield. Soon after the passage of this vote, he emigrated with his family to Northampton, where, on the 17th of October, 1665, he died, as the ' record says, " when asleep in his chair." Deprived of the ministrations of Deacon Wright by his removal to another field of usefulness, the town voted in Febru- ary, 1657, " that Mr. Hollyock and Henry Burt should carry on the work of the Sabbath in this place, but in case that through any providence of God either of them should be disenabled that decon Chapin should supply that present vacancy." A little later, in No- vember, 1657, the record says, " Mr. Holyoke is made choise of to carry on ye work of ye Sabbath once every Sabbath day which he accepts of. Mr. Pyn- chon is made choise of for one part of ye day once a fortnight wh he will endeavor to in tyme by reading notes and somewhat of his owne meditations till March next. Deacon Chapin and Henry Burt are made choise of to carry on ye other pt of ye day once a fortnight."
However profitable, in a spiritual point of view, the labors of these intelligent laymen may have been, the church still aimed at securing the services of some " Godly and faithful minister," who should be- come its permanent pastor. Nor was it long before a young man was found whose ministrations were so acceptable, that the people with great unanimity ex- tended to him a call. This was Mr. Samuel Hooker, a son of Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford, whom
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Cotton Mather styles "the Light of the Western Churches and Pillar of Connecticut Colony." . Mr. Hooker was first employed to supply the pulpit for a period of three months, with especial reference to his settlement. The record is very complimentary to the candidate. It reads as follows: "At a Towne meet- ing Feb. 7, 1658" (or 1659 according to the present division of the year) "There was a full and unani- mous acceptance of Mr. Hooker to dispense ye word of God to us and whereas he at present will not cer- tainly ingage to us longer than 3 months. The Towne doe agree and ingage to give or allow him 201 pr ye sd. Three months & with all manifest theire desires & hopes of his further continuance among us & being willing to continue ye like further allowance upon his further continuance wth us. And Mr. Pyn- chon, Mr. Holyoke & Deacon. Chapin were appointed to signifie ye Towne's mind & desires to Mr. Hooker. who accordingly did it & Mr. Hooker manifested his willingness to help us three months as aforesaid & for Je present could resolve noe further, but his coming to a resolution should take rise from this tyme." It is said of Mr. Hooker that he was " an animated and pious divine, an excellent preacher, his composition good, his address pathetic, warm, and engaging." In preparing his sermons, as he told a friend, he made it a rule to do three things, "write them, commit them unto his memory, and get them into his heart." But in the providence of God, Mr. Hooker was not to be the pastor of this church. For reasons which do not appear, he preferred another field of labor, and went to Farmington, Conn., where he was installed pastor of that church, in July, 1661.
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IHISTORICAL ADDRESS.
The summer of 1659 found this church still with- out a pastor. Seven years had elapsed since the de- parture of Mr. Moxon, and all the efforts of the peo- ple to secure a settled ministry had proved abortive. It cannot be doubted, however, that with every new failure, they recurred to their well-qualified laymen, and that the word of God was " dispensed" and the work of the Sabbath . carried on" as before. Ac- cording to Mr. Breck. Mr. Pelatiah Glover was here early in July, 1659, and preached his first sermon, July 3, from Jer. 4: 14. He was at first engaged for one year, but afterwards accepted a more permanent relation. According to that learned antiquary, James Savage, Mr. Glover was ordained as the second min- ister of Springfield. June IS. 1661. But as the town, as early as December 12, 1660, made provision for his maintenance here, as for its settled minister, as- signing to hiin the use of the ministry house and land, and stipulating for his support the payment of a yearly salary of 480, to commence from the 29th of September, 1660, to this last date perhaps his settle- ment should be referred. Mr. Glover was the son of John Glover, an early and prominent settler of Dorchester. He received his education at Harvard College, but did not take his degree there. He was not far from twenty-four years of age, when he com- menced his labors as the minister of this town. He was settled, as all ministers then and for many years afterwards were settled, for life, and for more than thirty years he performed here the duties of the pas- toral office. There now exist' no materials for a per- sonal biography of Mr. Glover or a detailed history of the church, while he was its minister.
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