USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Old South church (Third church) Boston. Memorial addresses, Sunday evening, October 26, 1884 > 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
Gc 974.402 B65bos 1506632
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
m 3 1833 01095 4128
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/oldsouthchurchth00olds_0
OLD SOUTH CHURCH
BOSTON
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES
OCTOBER, 1884
PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON.
OLD SOUTH CHURCH
(THIRD CHURCH)
BOSTON
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES
SUNDAY EVENING
OCTOBER 26, 1884
BOSTON CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO 283 Washington Street 1885
"THEREFORE ARE THEY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD AND SERVE HIM DAY AND NIGHT IN HIS TEMPLE."
1506632
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES.
INTRODUCTION.
WHEN the Old South Church removed from the site on the corner of Washington and Milk Streets, where its home had been for more than two centuries, to its present abode on Boylston and Dartmouth Streets, it brought with it its records and registers; it brought, also, the memories and traditions which had descended to it from seven generations of Christian worshippers ;- in a word, its history. This history-written and unwritten-it highly values, and desires, in every way, to preserve.
Something has been attempted in the way of publica- tion, and it is proposed to do more, from time to time, in this direction. Taking advantage of the closing of its meeting-house last summer for alterations and repairs, the Society erected therein four memorial tablets, inscribed with some of the names most conspicuous in its annals. Two of these tablets have been placed on the south wall of the nave; they are of red marble, polished, enclosed
6
by moulded arches of Caen stone, carried on columns of Mexican onyx, and surmounted by gables with pinnacles ; they bear the names of the ministers who, in long suc- cession, filled the pastorate from 1670 to 1882, with the dates of installation, resignation and death. The other two are placed on the rear or west wall, on either side of the stone screen ; they are of red slate, of triangular form, with decorative frames of cast brass, and they comme- morate two distinguished laymen, Samuel Sewall and Samuel Adams, with the following inscriptions ;
SAMUEL SEWALL COUNCILLOR
· JUDGE CHIEF JUSTICE
FOR FIFTY THREE YEARS A MEMBER
OF THIS CHURCH BORN MARCH 28, 1652 DIED JANUARY 1, 1730
SAMUEL ADAMS A MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH BORN SEPTEMBER 16, 1722 DIED OCTOBER 2, 1803 "TO GIVE HIS HISTORY AT FULL LENGTH
WOULD BE TO GIVE A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION "
The Society had long had in its possession some old tombstones, probably from the Old, or King's Chapel,
1
(
C
T
t
I
is
tl
c)
th m br
to
B
0
h
:
0.
fr
th
7
Burying Ground, but under what circumstances they came to it, or when, no one knows. In the autumn of 1850, as the workmen who were engaged in repairing the old meeting-house on Washington Street, were removing some bricks in the tower, they found it necessary to take out a flat stone over the place in the wall through which passed the connecting rod of the hands on the north dial of the clock. This stone proved to be a gravestone, bearing the name of Joshua Scottow, one of the founders of the Third, or Old South Church, who died in 1698. "How the stone came to be in so singular a place," says one of the daily papers of the time, "and at such an elevation, is unknown. Only the edge of it was visible in the wall. It was in the tower, back of the north dial, some fifty feet from the ground."
Two other stones were discovered at the same time, one in memory of Anna Quincy, who died in 1676, the other, of William Middleton, who died in 1699.
The gravestone of another of the original members of the Third Church, John Alden, was recently found to be at Randolph. It had been given to Ebenezer Alden, M.D., of that town, by Dr. Shurtleff, and Dr. Alden's heirs kindly presented it to the Old South Church and Society, to be used for memorial purposes. At a parish meeting last spring, it was determined to place the stones of the two founders, Joshua Scottow and John Alden, and of Anna Quincy, many of whose near relatives were mem- bers of the Church, in the portico of the meeting-house on Boylston Street, and this has now been done. These stones are of Welsh slate, and are quaintly carved; they
8
were evidently imported ready for use, and they bear the following inscriptions :
HERE LYETH BURIED
HERE LYETH
E Y BODY OF
E Y BODY OF
R
JOSHUA SCOTTOW
JOHN ALDEN SENIO
AGED 83 YEARS
AGED 75 YEARS
D E
DEC JANUARY Y
DECEASED MARCH
20 1699 .7
1701
ANN QUINSEY
AGED 13 YEARS
D R E DEC SEP Y 3
1676
Captain Alden, when he died, had a son John who was then about forty years of age.
The stone of William Middleton, whose name cannot be traced in connection with the history of the Church, has been sent as a loan to the valuable collection of the Bostonian Society in the Old State House.
On the evening of Sunday, the 26th of October, special services were held at the Old South, in memory of the men for whom the tablets had been erected, and of those whose gravestones were to be placed in position for per- manent care. These stones were on the table in front of the pulpit, dressed with smilax and a few flowers. The services were conducted by the pastor, the Rev. George
9
A. Gordon, who, after the singing of an anthem by the choir, read part of the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Edmund K. Alden, D.D., and the congregation united with the choir in singing Dr. Bacon's hymn :
" O God, beneath Thy guiding hand, Our exiled fathers crossed the sea ; And when they trod the wintry strand, With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee."
Addresses were then made by Mr. Hamilton A. Hill on " Joshua Scottow and John Alden," and by the Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis on "Samuel Sewall," after which the choir and congregation sang Bishop Coxe's hymn :
" Oh, where are kings and empires now Of old that went and came ? But, Lord, Thy church is praying yet, A thousand years the same."
The Rev. Edward G. Porter, of Lexington, made an address on "Samuel Adams," and the Rev. Dr. Increase N. Tarbox, of West Newton, on "The Ministers of the Old South, from 1670 to 1882." A part of Charles Wes- ley's hymn, " Let saints below in concert sing," was sung, and the benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Tarbox.
In the following pages, the addresses are printed in full; there was not time at the memorial service for the speakers to read all that they had prepared for the occasion.
2
JOSHUA SCOTTOW AND JOHN ALDEN
BY
HAMILTON ANDREWS HILL, A.M.
"THESE ARE THEY WHOSE HEARTS WERE RIVEN, SORE WITH WOE AND ANGUISH TRIED, WHO IN PRAYER FULL OFT HAVE STRIVEN WITH THE GOD THEY GLORIFIED : NOW THEIR PAINFUL CONFLICT O'ER, GOD HAS BID THEM WEEP NO MORE."
S P S
0
a
e
m
n
t
n
S
JOSHUA SCOTTOW AND JOHN ALDEN.
WE are assembled, Christian friends, this evening, to con- secrate with appropriate services some carefully-wrought me- morials recently placed upon the walls of this house of wor- ship, which bear the names of the reverend men who, in the past, have taught and labored as the ministers of the Old South or Third Church, and of two of the most distinguished of its lay members. We are come together, also, to dedicate anew certain stones, rude and fragmentary, reared by a gen- eration itself long since passed away, which were intended to mark the last resting place of two of the founders of the Third Church, and of another who, by family ties, was closely con- nected with it. These stones, wonderfully preserved amid the mutations and decay of an hundred and eighty or two hundred years, have, by a strange concurrence of events, come into our possession, and Providence seems to have laid it upon us as a sacred duty to provide for their further preservation and to hand them safely down to those who are to come after us. Not, indeed, that they can ever again designate the graves which they once marked, for all traces of these graves have been irretrievably lost; but in their new position they may help to commemorate to this and succeeding generations, the devout character and Christian service of those whose names they bear.
It is recorded of the kindly old enthusiast who renewed with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions on the tombstones of the Scotch covenanters, that to talk of the exploits of these men
14
was the delight, as to repair their monuments was the business of his life. And we are told, also, that while he was renewing the crumbling emblems of the zeal and sufferings of the fathers, he considered that he was thereby trimming the beacon light which was to warn future generations to defend their religion even unto blood. In the same spirit, while we would piously care for the venerable stones which have descended to us from an early Puritan age, we would endeavor by means of them to recall the virtue, the constancy, the self-denial and the suffering which made the Puritan era so memorable, and to learn anew the lessons which with such solemn and tender emphasis they seem designed to teach.
The oldest of the three stones which are to be placed in posi- tion in the portico of this meeting-house, bears the name of Ann Quincy, who died September 3, 1676, at the age of thir- teen years.1 Ann or Anna Quincy was a daughter of Edmund Quincy, third of the name, and of his wife Joanna (Hoar) Quincy, of Braintree. She was a niece by marriage of John Hull, one of the founders of this Church (whose wife was Judith Quincy), and a cousin, consequently, of his daugh- ter Hannah, the wife of Samuel Sewall. Her uncle, Dr. Leonard Hoar, was called to the pastorate here in 1672, as associate with the Rev. Thomas Thacher, but the Church re- linquished any claim it might have upon him in favor of Har- vard College, of which, much to his own sorrow, he was chosen President. Her eldest brother, Daniel Quincy, joined the Third Church in 1688, and died two years later in early manhood. Through her youngest brother, Edmund, fourth of the name, born after her death, she was to be still further connected with this Church, for Elizabeth, a granddaughter of this Edmund, became the wife of Samuel Sewall, who was one of its deacons from 1763 to 1771, and his grandson, Josiah Quincy, Junior, one of the leading patriots of the early revolutionary period, married Abigail Phillips, a child of this
I Her sister, Mary Savage, died a few weeks later, October 7, 1676. She was the first wife of Ephraim Savage who
joined the Third Church in 1672, but we do not find her name on the list of members.
b
S
o 0
t! P
at
fi
H
C
I5
Church, being a daughter of the first William Phillips, deacon from 1764 to 1793.
Anna Quincy was staying at the house of her uncle, John Hull, on Cotton Hill, in Boston, and on the evening of Wednesday, August 30, 1676, she was present at a prayer meeting there convened. Samuel Sewall was living with his father-in-law, having been married a few months previously. This prayer and conference meeting was the first he had ever attended, and he has left us an account of it. Emaus Smith was the principal speaker, and the passage of scripture com- mented upon was the ninth verse of the 119th Psalm, " Where- withal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word." The room seems to have been crowded, and, says Sewall, Anna Quincy stood " against the closet door next the entry." The next day, Thursday, she was attacked by fever, and her symptoms were so alarming that some of her friends at once began to fear the worst. Providentially, her mother was with her. On the morning of Sunday the physician said that she was not dangerously ill, but at ten o'clock she died. Her funeral was on Monday, and, according to the custom of the time, four youths, some if not all of whom were members of this congregation, served as bearers. Their names were Henry Phillips, Tim- othy Dwight, Joseph Tappan and John Alcock. Where she was buried is not quite clear. The South, afterward called the Granary Burying Ground, had been laid out, and her brother, Daniel Quincy, was buried there, in John Hull's tomb, in 1690. We are inclined to think that she was buried in the Old or King's Chapel Burying Ground.
We have told all there is to tell of this dear child. We get one glimpse of her, as she stands against the wall in that neighborhood prayer meeting ; and, five days later, we see a mournful procession moving towards one of the graveyards in what we now know as Tremont Street. May not our faith follow her within the veil, and see her there,
-" a fair maiden in her Father's mansion, Clothed with celestial grace,
And beautiful with all the soul's expansion " ?
16
The next tombstone which claims our interest to-night is that of a man who was prominent in the commercial, social and religious life of the town of Boston for more than half a century. Judge Sewall records in his diary, January 21, 1697-98 : "It seems Capt. Scottow died the last night. Thus the New England men drop away."
Joshua Scottow was born in England, probably in the county of Norfolk, in 1614 or 1615. Scothowe signifies "the lot or portion on the hill," and this describes the little Norfolk vil- lage which, six or seven hundred years ago, gave its name to the family of de Scothowes, who were the lords of the manor there and the patrons of the living.1 At the beginning of the seven- teenth century we find the name in English records spelt Scottowe.2 Thomasine Scottow, a widow, arrived in Boston soon after the settlement of the town, bringing with her two sons, Thomas and Joshua. She joined the First Church, September 21, 1634, and her sons, May 19, 1639. Joshua is supposed to have been the younger of the two. He must have received a good education in England ; he became a mer- chant, and was very soon a man of influence in the town and colony. In 1639, he was one of the signers of a paper, strongly recommending the First Church to place the new meeting- house which it was then proposing to build, upon Governor Winthrop's property on Washington Street, the site chosen for the Third Church thirty years later. He married, prob- ably, in 1640.3 He joined the Artillery Company in 1645, and
I Scothowe, as the Register of Holm Abbey informs us, before the Confessor's time, belonged to Ulfwin or Alfwin, a Saxon nobleman, who gave it to that abbey, where it remained at the Confes- sor's survey, and was one of the manors appropriated for the monks' mainte- nance.
In 1120 there was a Jeffry de Scot- howe, who had two brothers, Peter, who died without issue, and Richard, who was lord of the manor and joint patron of the living; his eldest son, Ralf de Scothowe, died issueless, and Peter his brother had the presentation, whose son John de Scothowe, sold his share of the advowson to Bartholomew de Redham.
History of the County of Norfolk, Vol. VI. pp. 340-34I.
2 John Brewster, son of Francis Brew- ster, "an active parliamentarian during the rebellion as a magistrate and deputy lieutenant," married Mary, daughter of Alderman Scottowe of Norwich, and died in 1677. An English scholar of the present day spells his name Skottowc.
3 It is not known whom he married, and the date of his marriage is not re- corded. In the town record of births, we read : 1641. " Joshua, of Joshua and Lydia Scotto, born 30th-7th month and soon after buried." This was their first child. 'Thomas Scottow had wife Joan, and later, wife Sarah.
ka
h
Se
di
B
t
S
gi ar
17
was chosen its ensign in 1657 ; we do not understand why he was never made its captain, but he was a captain in the mili- tia. He served as selectman, or townsman, as the records sometimes call it, for several years, he with John Hull being elected for the first time, March 9, 1657. After Philip's war he became a great proprietor at Scarborough, where he was captain of the garrison and a magistrate.1 Here, says Sibley, his son Thomas (who graduated at Harvard College in 1677) lived for some years and held positions of responsibility, but we do not feel sure of this.2
Mr. Scottow had a house and garden of about half an acre on the north side of Prison Lane, now Court Street, fronting on the Scollay estate. He also owned a pasture on the north- west side of Beacon Hill, containing about four acres, thus described by Mr. Bowditch : "from Hancock Street easterly two hundred and eighty feet on Cambridge Street, or to a point fifty-two and a half feet east of Temple Street, and is in depth back, towards summit of Beacon Hill, six hundred and sixty feet, or just below the line of Derne Street."3 In 1650, he bought a piece of land, a portion of what was known as Bellingham's Marsh, not far from Dock Square, and on one angle of this a warehouse was erected, which stood until a
1 He took an active part in the strug- gles with the Indians at the eastward, and left a journal of his experiences.
2 Mr. Sibley says that he died before 1715. Mr. Henry F. Waters has recently discovered his will in London, from which the date of his death can be de- termined proximately. "Thomas Scot- tow of Boston in New England, chirur- geon, now bound forth on a voyage to sea in the ship Gerrard of London, Cap- tain William Dennis commander, 14 November 1698." This will, proved September 4, 1699, provides : "To my loving sister, Elizabeth Savage, of New England aforesaid, all my real and per- sonal estate in New England, of what kind soever." Evidently he had neither wife nor child.
In 1649, Mr. Scottow gave to the Li- brary of Harvard College "Henry Ste- phens, his Thesaurus, in four volumes, in folio," on the condition that when- 3
ever he might have occasion to use the work, he should have access to it; and on the further condition, that if he should be blessed "with any child or children, that shall be stu- dents of the Greek tongue," the said books should be given to them upon their making demand for them. They were returned to Mr. Scottow on the demand of his son Thomas, during the presidency of Mr. Oakes, 1679-1681. The receipt for them bears date August 30, with no year specified. See Quin- cy's History of Harvard University, Vol. I. p. 512.
3 William Dawes, another of the foun- ders of the Third Church, when he moved from Braintree to Boston, bought an es- tate on the east side of Sudbury Street, then known as the lane from Prison Lane to the Mill Pond. Part of this cstate, Joshua Scottow afterward bought for his son-in-law, Thomas Savage.
18
few years ago as one of the ancient landmarks of Boston,- the old triangular warehouse, so called. In the same neigh- borhood, near the junction of Elm and Union Streets, James Everill, Joshua Scottow and others had been authorized to build a conduit, which, says Dr. Shurtleff, if the early con- structed wells are excepted, may be justly said to have been the first attempt toward introducing water works in the town.
Mr. Scottow was evidently a man of energy and public spirit ; his name appears constantly in the early records, and yet we have very scant material out of which to weave a nar- rative of his life.1 He was intelligent, and had positive con- victions on the various questions and events of the time ; and we judge that he was independent and uncompromising in saying what he thought. In one instance he found himself in somewhat perilous circumstances, in consequence of his outspoken indignation against what he conceived to be a pub- lic wrong, and he felt obliged to make a retractation in terms which seem altogether inconsistent with his general character, and which in reviewing his life we cannot but regret. In 1656, the third execution in Boston for witchcraft took place, the victim being Mrs. Anne Hibbins. This was nearly forty years before the terrible panic which had its centre at Salem
1 In the year 1642, La Tour, one of the Governors of Acadia, made a proposi- tion for free trade between his ports and those of New England, and for an ar- rangement by which he might receive commodities from Europe through New England. The first request, for free trade, was complied with, but the other was refused. La Tour made two or three visits to Boston, and was treated with much consideration. Scottow was one of the merchants who were inter- estcd in opening this trade, and he actcd as confidential agent of La Tour in his negotiations with the colonial authori- ties.
But there was a wide difference of opinion in the colony, on the question of unrestricted intercourse with the French. "Governor Winthrop was on the liberal sidc, and subjected himself to no little censure by his friendly recep- tion of the distinguished Roman Catho-
lic stranger." See Life and Letters of John Winthrop, Vol. II. pp. 311-318.
In the winter of 1661-62, when Mr. Bradstreet and the Rev. John Norton were sailing for England as commis- sioners for the colony, it was necessary to raise four or five hundred pounds, and among those who advanced the money, were, Hezekiah Usher, {100., John Hull, £50., William Davis, {25., Joshua Scottow, {20., Sampson Sheaffe, £20.
When the Royal Commissioners came to Boston in 1665, to inquirc, among other things, about certain breachcs of the Navigation Laws charged against the merchants and authorities, one of the causes which they proposed to hear and determinc, was that of Thomas Dcane and others, plaintiffs, against the Gover- nor and Company, and Joshua Scottow, merchant, defendants. But the case never came to trial.
i
1
h
0
C
P
I
19
Village, and of which we shall have occasion to speak pre- sently. Mrs. Hibbins was the widow of a man who had been a leading merchant in Boston, and one of the most honored citizens of the colony. He had been deputy, assistant, and the agent of the colony in England. Of this poor woman it was afterward said by the Rev. John Norton, that she had been " hanged for a witch, only for having more wit than her neighbors." On the other hand, Savage writes that she was hanged for a witch when she was only a scold. According to Hutchinson, she had a bad temper, which made her turbu- lent and quarrelsome ; this had brought her under church censure, and at length rendered her so odious to her neigh- bors as to cause some of them to accuse her of witchcraft. She was tried and condemned by a jury, but the verdict was set aside by the magistrates, and the case came before the General Court. She was called to appear there and to an- swer for her life. She defended herself to the best of her ability, but the popular clamor was more than she could re- sist or the court withstand1 ; she was found guilty, and sentence of death was pronounced upon her by John Endicott, Gover- nor. It was during this second trial that Mr. Scottow inter- posed in contradiction to some testimony which had been given against her by one Philip Wharton,2 and in so doing, he seems to have laid himself open to censure for contempt of court. We know nothing of the circumstances, and, in- deed, little of the details of the trial, beyond what we find in the letter of apology which he thought it necessary to write on the following day, and which is still preserved among the public archives at our State House. This letter reads as fol- lows :-
" To the Honoured Court now assembled.
" Whereas there was yesterday by myselfe presented in court a writ- ing which as it is or may be by any resented that thereby I intended
1 Hubbard, in his History of New England, says: " Vox populi went sore against her, and was the chiefest part of the evidence against her, as some thought. It fared with her in some sense
as it did with Joan of Arc, ..... the which some counted a saint, and some a witch."
2 A Philip Wharton died in the alms- house in Boston, December 10, 1698.
20
to obstruct the course of justice against Mrs. Hibbins and allso that my purpose was to cast slurr and to weaken the testimony of any which were to testify in her case, I did desire in my short speech before the presenting of the said writing to take of [off ] any such apprehen- sions, and had I not been prevented by Phillip Wharton's testimony being called in the first place (which I expected not) I had apologized for myselfe in the said writing on that behalf. I doe humbly crave favour from this Honoured Court and assembly not soe to be under- stood, as far as I am privy to mine owne heart, no such thought ever being in my bosome; as for the manner of my unseasonable present- ing of the said writing, I was sorry that thereby I should give occasion to any to judge of mee as above expressed, and crave it may be imputed to my ignorance in the formalities of court proceedings, but conceiving what I had to say related to Phillip Wharton's testimony did then at the end of the reading of his testimony crave favour from the court to produce what I had to say concerning his evidence, hav- ing acquainted himselfe with the buysiness formerly: As for the apprehension of any that it might be a plotted buysiness between some and myselfe, that it should be soe ordered that Phillip Wharton's testimony should bee first produced and my writing soe to follow to the attayning of the evill ends above mentioned, I should humbly beg further favour, and doe hereby solemnly and seriously professe and protest, that I never communicated with any person whatsoever about the said writing, nor that I did ever discourse with Mrs. Hibbins or any other about the premises except the Secretary after the lecture yesterday was ended, immediately upon the sitting of the court and my writing being ended, only telling him I had something to say about Phillip Wharton's testimony. I am cordially sorry that any- thing from mee eyther by word or writing should any way tend to the hardening of Mrs. Hibbins in her sinfull and abominable courses, or that I should give offence to the Honoured Court, my deare brethren in the church, or any others, thus craving a candide interpretation of these my present or former words, and begging of God that the sword of justice may be drawne forth against all wickedness, which is the request of Your ever obliged,
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.