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M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01067 9196
THE OLD SOUTH 1856-1896.
ORIGIN AND ANNALS
OF
"THE OLD SOUTH"
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
AND PARISH,
IN NEWBURYPORT, MASS.,
1746-1896.
EDITED BY HORACE C. HOVEY, D. D., PASTOR. PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY BY A COMMITTEE.
BOSTON : DAMRELL & UPHAM, The Old Corner Bookstore, 283 WASHINGTON STREET. 1896.
Copyright 1590, by HORACE C. HOVEY. and the First Presbyterian Church and Society of Newburyport, Mass.
NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY FRESS, NEWBURYPORT, MASS.
CHRISTO DỤC
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEWBURYPORT, MASS.
1212327
According to an Act of the Legislature, June 14, 1815. by which the First Presbyterian Church was incorporated, " the Pastor, Deacons and Elders may have and use a common Seal, and the same muy break, alter and renew at pleasure." The right has not been exercised until this historic year, when, by vote of the Session, the above emblematic device was adopted, Nov. 11, 1896. The Triangle typifies the Trinity ; the uplifted hand has for ages been the conventional sign of the Covenant; the motto, " Christo Duce," (Christ our Leader), was the watchword given by Whitefield for Revo- lutionary soldiers, and for soldiers of the Cross. The " Eagle Wing" was the name of the Presbyterian ship that set sail for the Merrimac in 1637 with a colony of Calvinistic pil- grims. . Is a whole the Seal signifies our loyalty to the Trinity, to the ancient Covenant, and to Christ as the Captain of our Salvation, and our faith that we shall be upheld by the promises of God, as by the wings of a mighty cagle ; (see Isaiah 40:31, and Revelation 12:14.)
CONTENTS.
Page- 3
INTRODUCTION
HISTORICAL SURVEY. BY REV. H. C. HOVEY, D. D.
Colonial Conditions-Scotch-Irish Presbyterians-English Puritans-Origin of this Church-Coming of Whitefield- Parsons-Murray-Dana - Williams - Proudfit -Stearns -- Facts from Old Records-Culmination of the Church under Vermilve and Richardson-The Later Pastors-Roll of Mem- bership-the Outlook 7
REMINISCENCES, BY REV. A. G. VERMILYE. D. D.
Former Anniversaries-Saints that Knew Whitefield-Early Pastors and their Flocks-Quaint Peculiarities-Changes in the Meeting-house-The Treacherous Sea-Aloft Above the Fog-The Chain of Many Links
73
ANNIVERSARY PROCEEDINGS.
The Invitation-Decorations - Program - Addresses - The John T. Brown Memorial Tablet - Greetings from the Churches-Poetical Offerings-Messages of Congratulation -The Banquet-The Evening Services 99
APPENDIX.
The Albert Plumer Memorial Clock, and Sundry Bequests 169
HISTORICAL AFTERMATH, BY REV. H. C. HOVEY, D. D.
Acts of Incorporation-()fficial Record-Items from Old Ac- counts-Church Plate-Ecclesiastical Relations-Scheme for Two Meeting-houses-The Crypt-Tower. Bell and Vane- Church Music-the Organ-Early Legends and Customs- Revolutionary Incidents-Portraits of the Pastors-Homes of the Pastors 174
GENERAL INDEX
215
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Seal of the First Presbyterian, "Old South," church.
The Old South meeting-house, 1856-1896, frontispiece.
Page.
The Old South, prior to IS56 2
Portrait of Rev. H. C. Hovey . 6
George Whitefield opposite 23
" Jonathan Parsons 66 27
" Murray, Dana and Williams 6.
.. . A. G. Vermilye 73
66
" Proudfit, Stearns and Richardson 66 S3
" Durfee. Newell. Wallace, Sinclair " 91
In the Old South, April 7 and 8, 1896, 99
Old South church, chapel, and the home of Garrison " 163
Whitefield Cenotaph, in the Old South 174
Choir of the Old South
THE OLD SOUTH PRIOR TO 1856.
INTRODUCTION.
The First Presbyterian Church, of Newburyport, Mass., (often styled " The Old South Church,") was begun January 3rd, 1746, and was completed in its organization on the 7th of the ensuing April. Preliminary to celebrating the One Hundred and Fiftieth anniversary of that event, the Session requested the co-operation of the Parish and the Ecclesiastical Society. Accordingly a meet- ing was held to which all persons interested were invited, and after a free interchange of opinion the plan was approved by a unanimous vote. The present pastor, Rev. Horace C. Hovey, D. D., and a former pastor, Rev. Ashbel G. Vermilye, D. D., were requested to deliver historical addresses; sister churches in the vicinity, with their ministers, were invited to attend and take part in public services to be held on the 7th and Sth of April, 1896 ; a special poem for the occasion was solicited from Mrs. Elizabeth Kimball Haskell ; greetings were sought from former pastors, the survivors of deceased pastors, and from ministers and others who had at any time been connected with this congre- gation.
A General Committee of arrangements was chosen, to have all matters in charge ; of which John T. Brown, Esquire, was made the chairman, Mr. Prentiss H. Reed, secretary, and Miss Frances A. Howard, treasurer. This General Committee included, (1.)
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
From the Church, Rev. Horace C. Hovey, D. D., pastor, and the Elders and Deacons, namely, Ebenezer Rolfe, James M. Woods, Edmund Jaques, William Binley, Charles M. Pritchard, Oliver O. Jones, Alvah W. Leavitt, Ebenezer Smith, John M. Bailey and George H. Jaques. (2.) From the Parish, David Foss, M. D., Charles T. Smith, William E. Chase, John W. Winder and Lawrence B. Cushing. (3.) From the Society as a whole, a large representation, more than eighty individuals in all. (4.) All persons in the Congregation, over seventy years of age, as honorary members, some of whom, it should be said, worked as vigorously as any of the active members.
From the General Committee, special committees were form- ed : on Program, Invitation, Reception, Decoration, Collation, Finance, Printing, and an Advisory committee to act on any new questions that might arise. It was intended to print in full all the names of these various committees. But they were so nu- merous, and as the work went on, so many changes were made, names being added, transferred or dropped, and so many persons, not on any committee, laboring and giving for the cause as freely as any others, that it was found impracticable to carry out the above intention. There is room for only those names that nat- urally come into prominence in connection with special features of the occasion.
Faithful work, and a great deal of it, was done by all con- cerned, and the result was a delightful and harmonious celebra- tion. A final meeting of the General Committee heard reports from the sub-committees, passed votes of thanks to everybody to whom thanks were due, and then appointed a special committee whose duty it should be to collate, arrange and publish in a me- morial volume the historical discourses and addresses, greetings
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
from sister churches, such poetical and epistolary contributions as had been especially asked for, and at their discretion, in full, by abstract, or by title, such other material as might be available for the purpose. They might also insert such cuts as could be provided within their resources at command. Said committee was given power to act.
In issuing the completed volume thus prepared. it was deemed best to print it in two parts; the first containing the two main historical discourses, and the second presenting the other Anni- versary Proceedings in detail from first to last.
A word is here in place as to the importance of collecting and preserving the scattered materials of local history. Our Pastoral Library already contains many valuable historical books, pam- phlets, magazines, newspapers and manuscripts. An occasion like this brings to light the utility of such a collection, and sug- gests the eminent propriety of making said library the reposi- tory of documents that might otherwise be lost or destroyed. To each Church the Master has committed a great trust, and we should prize the religious, historical and literary treasures, which, if rightly interpreted, are God's message to us from a wonderful Past to make us wise for a bright Future.
JOHN W. WINDER, Committee on
PRENTISS H. REED.
JOHN T. BROWN, Publication.
5
yours sincerely
Horace C. Hlou lowery 1893.
" The Glory of the Fathers."
HISTORICAL SURVEY
OF THE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,
BY THE PASTOR,
REV. HORACE CARTER HOVEY, D. D.
PROVERBS 17:6. "The glory of children are their fathers."
ADDRESS OF REV. HORACE C. HOVEY, D. D.
No place in America excels Essex county, Massa- chusetts, in quaint, romantic and instructive history, civil, military, and ecclesiastical. We are today more particularly interested in that portion of the county known as Newburyport-said to be the only town of that name on earth. Our city now has about 15,000 inhabitants; but when the church was founded whose anniversary we celebrate, this was simply what its name indicates, the port of Newbury, the "old town." to which also belonged what is now the town of West Newbury. The local geography is further complicated by the fact that the lower portion of New- buryport has been always styled Joppa, and the upper portion Belleville, while the central portion was long known as Riverside. The terms " up along " and " down along " have peculiar fitness and have been in use here for many generations. The First Presbyte- rian, or as it is familiarly called, "the Old South
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
Church," occupies a central position with regard to this region about the estuary of the Merrimac.
Our fathers held as firmly to the Abrahamic cov- enant as did Abraham himself. They had large fami- lies and had all their children baptized, even extend- ing that privilege formerly to what was styled " the half-way covenant." It is estimated that there have been about 6,200 children baptized in this one parish, whence many of them have gone to the ends of the earth, carrying the memory of that unwritten form- ula for family prayer which always included a bless- ing invoked on " the children and children's children. and on their children, to the latest generation of time."
God has signally blessed "these children of the Covenant;" and they in turn, wherever their lot may have been cast, have held to Solomon's maxim, that "the glory of children are their fathers." Wise men do not ignore the deeds of former generations. Accordingly much has already been written about this region. Winthrop, Mather, Hutchinson and Bancroft have searched its early records. Whittier, Longfellow, George Lunt, Mrs. Spofford, and other poets, have embalmed its memories in verse. Hon. Caleb Cushing, Mr. Joshua Coffin, Mrs. E. Vale Smith, and others, have published local histories of a general nature, while the opulent mine of ecclesiasti-
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
cal research has been worked by Williams, Stearns, Vermilye, Wallace, Spalding and Fiske. We are also indebted to Dr. Withington, Mr. Moody Cook, Mr. R. N. Toppan, Miss Emery, and various mem- bers of the local Historical Society, for interesting reminiscences and sketches.
Yet history is always tinged by the medium through which it is seen, and each historian approaches his subject from his own starting point. The Apostle Paul, a native of Tarsus and a free-born Roman, truthfully told the Jews to whom he wrote, that he was "of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews." And so may the present speaker, though a native of Indiana and proud of being a Hoosier, remind his Yankee audience to-day that he is of un- mixed New England ancestry; coming, on the pa- ternal side, from one of the founders of Ipswich, Daniel Hovey, who built the first wharf in all this region : and on the maternal side from Thomas Carter, one of the original settlers of Salisbury. My father, Professor Edmund Otis Hovey, D. D., was ordained by the Presbytery of Newburyport, in a meeting held at Bradford. Sept. 26th, 1831, at which time six or more young men were set apart for missionary work at the West. He was one of the founders of Wabash College, and among his papers I find a long list of
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
generous contributors to that institution from New- buryport. He was also on intimate terms with Drs. Dana, Williams and Stearns. These personal facts may explain, in part, my peculiar zeal in delving amid the archives, legends, and other materials that have been piled up during the century and a half of your ecclesiastical life.
We occupy an eminence, on this joyous anniver- sary, of whose privileges, distinctions and responsi- bilities the fathers in whom we justly glory had only a dim and cloudy vision. They were like the pio- neers over the plains by the famous Butterfield trail, who had already made a long journey before catch- ing their first view of the natural signal towers that guard the western El Dorado. There stood Pike's Peak, like a fleecy cloud on the horizon; and although in full sight, a march of one hundred and fifty miles must be made before its snowy summit was gained. And so with the fathers in their march down the pathway of time. They had come to the founding of this church by a long pilgrimage, and stood there like exiles disowned and assailed; and none but pro- phetic souls could have foreseen this day, when ours is but one of a myriad churches of its kind, and when the original colonies have grown into a broad Re-
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
public, whose magnificent domain stretches from ocean to ocean, and expands from zone to zone.
PREVIOUS COLONIAL CONDITIONS.
In order to grasp the history of our own venerable church, we must begin by considering its antecedents and its environment. In the days of the Pilgrim Fathers, nearly the entire Protestant world was Pres- byterian, in the sense that the reformers had revolted from the hierarchy of Rome, and had gone back to the primitive idea that the Church of Christ should be governed by representatives of its own choosing. That idea was dominant among the Waldenses and Huguenots, and it made them what they were. Luther caught and spread that same idea throughout Germany, whence it went to Denmark, Sweden and Norway. John Calvin, a profound student of the Word of God, infused that idea of a representative church government into the Republic of Geneva; while John a Lasco developed it more fully in Hol- land. Thus, according to the historian Bancroft, was "established a party, of which Englishmen be- came members, and New England the asylum." And, let cavillers say what they will, fully four-fifths of all Protestants now living cling to the system bravely contended for by those men.
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
With those continental names. however, must be associated that of John Knox, the greatest man of Scotland, who, after being educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood, joined the revolt against the Pa- pacy, was exiled to foreign lands, and returned to de- liver his native land from spiritual despotism. He began by gathering a covenanted body styled "The Lords of the Congregation," into whose hands. in 1560. the whole government was placed by the treaty of Edinburgh. In the same year six ministers and thirty-four laymen formed the first modern "Gen- eral Assembly," that has since given shape to all the many branches of the Presbyterian order, numbering nearly as many adherents as then spoke the English tongue. Their "Confession of Faith and Book of Discipline" was an attempt to reconstruct society. The rights of individuals were guarded so "that every man may gyf his vote freelie" for minister and elders; the former being elected for life and the latter an- nually. Knox, Melville, and their party, meant to make Presbyterianism the established religion of all the British Isles. They were aggressive; but per- haps rough measures were needed by the rough times. Romanists, Episcopalians and Puritans each sought control to the exclusion of all others. The term "Puritan" was applied in ridicule to all who desired
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
to purify the Church of Christ, and who were agreed, however they differed as to doctrine and polity, in their efforts to gain freedom of conscience. The Puritans asked Queen Elizabeth, and pledged King James to make the Church of England Presbyterian. Through the Long Parliament, in 1643, they bound the nation by the "Solemn League and Covenant," and summoned the Westminster Assembly to estab- lish "one form of church government, one confession of faith, one catechism, and one directory of the worship of God." The result, as stated in Neal's History of the Puritans, (Vol. IV., p. 269,) was that "the Pres- byterians came in possession of the whole power of England; the council of state, the chief officers of the army and navy, and the governors of the chief forts and garrisons were theirs; their clergy were in possession of both universities ; and the whole govern- ment was with the Presbyterians." But he adds that they "were shy of the Independents;" and their sys- tem unexpectedly found an implacable foe in Oliver Cromwell. We need not follow the long strife through the Protectorate and the Restoration until the Act of Security was finally passed in the reign of Queen Anne.
Butnow let us look at Ireland, that busy hive whence so many swarms of emigrants have come to America.
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
The estates of Tyrone and Tyrconnel were forfeited to the crown during the reign of James the First, including with other lands what is known as the Prov- ince of Ulster, which the King farmed out to a set of emigrants from Scotland. It was here, at a later day, that the siege of Londonderry, and the battle of the Boyne gained so conspicuous a place in the annals of freedom. But previous to that memorable siege and battle,
THE SCOTCH-IRISH HAD HEARD OF AMERICA,
and obtained permission to plant a commonwealth to suit themselves in the New World. Accordingly, in 1637, only two years after the founding of Newbury. they chartered a ship named "The Eagle Wing," and sailed from Carrickfergus, near Belfast, directly for the Merrimac, with Rev. Robert Blair and Rev. John Livingstone on board, ready to establish on these very shores a full-rigged system of session, pres- bytery and synod. The record is that "the sea wrought and was tempestuous, and the storms of heaven compelled them to return."
It cannot be denied that Presbyterianism had a stormy infancy in these colonies. Seventy members of the Westminster Assembly formed a plan for plant- ing settlements in America; but they were foiled by
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
civil war. The story of the Pilochie pilgrims is
touching. They were gathered by Mr. George Scott, at his own expense, and were double the number of those who came in the Mayflower. They were of high standing and social worth; all Presbyterians, with ministers, elders and deacons; with a cargo of Bibles, psalm-books and copies of The Confession of Faith. They set sail for America, but were overtaken by disaster, and found their last resting-place in the ocean's depths. The colony brought over in 1630, by Rev. Richard Denton, was an organized body of En- glish Presbyterians, from Yorkshire. That was ten years after the landing at Plymouth. Denton's col- ony settled first at Watertown, Mass .; and then at Weathersfield; and Stamford, Conn. In each of those places the local opposition was too strong for them. But they held together, and finally, in 1644, founded a successful colony at Hempstead, Long Island, that still flourishes as the oldest Presbyterian Church in America: in which capacity they send us a greet- ing, today, being just 102 years older than our church, having celebrated their 250th anniversary two years ago.
Rev. Francis McKemie has been styled the father of American Presbyterianism. He brought a multi- tude over, beginning in 1682 who formed prosper-
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
ous churches in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylva- nia, that were afterwards grouped into the "mother Presbytery " of Philadelphia.
A notable fleet of five ships landed 750 passengers in Boston, in 1718, under the leadership of Rev. James MacGregor. A few of them tarried in Boston, join- ing with other Presbyterians who had been sent over by Cromwell and Charles II., to be sold as slaves till they had worked out the cost of their transportation. These formed the old Federal Street Church, which afterwards became Congregational, and finally, under Dr. Channing, Unitarian, and the precursor of what is now the Arlington Street Church. About 200 others attempted to settle at Worcester; where they also in- troduced "the Irish Potato"-for which they de- serve a national monument. But they had such in- hospitable treatment there, and at Andover, Haver- hill, and elsewhere, as actually drove them out of the region .* They joined their comrades who had fol- lowed the Rev. James MacGregor to New Hampshire, where, in memory of the famous citadel of Ulster, they founded the town of Londonderry. This was a highly successful undertaking. Their church
*It is stated in Lincoln's History of Worcester, that the Scotch-Irish built a church in that city in 1718; but the people "gathered by night, hewed down and demolished the struct- ure," and "persons of consideration and respectability aided in the riotous work."
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
grew to number 700 members, and ten distinct settle- ments were made by them; each of which became a town of importance. It is estimated that the living descendents from that one colony, rejected by Massa- chusetts now exceed 50,000 souls.
The Scotch-Irish of today are a peculiar people. They are strong-bodied, strong-minded, and strong- willed; and therefore self-reliant, industrious, intelli- gent, courageous to desperation, and faithful unto death. Their rugged energy is tempered by native humor and domestic affection. They formed one third of the population of Pennsylvania at the time of the Revolutionary War; and they gave direction to the South-Atlantic states, where their patriotism found expression in the immortal burst of Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death." The Scotch-Irish of New Hampshire, seventeen days be- fore the Declaration of Independence was made, getting impatient with the delay, signed a compact themselves to take up arms against British usurpation. Even after that Declaration itself had been adopted by Congress, it would not have been signed but for the determined action of Rev. John Witherspoon, a descendent of sturdy John Knox. That same Decla- ration, as it now exists, is in the hand-writing of a Scotch-Irishman, Charles Thompson, secretary of
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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
Congress; it was first printed by another Scotch- Irishman, Captain Thomas Dunlap, (who also started the first daily newspaper in America; ) and a third Scotch-Irishman, Captain John Nixon, of Philadel- phia, first read it to the people.
What especially interests us now is the fact that these tyranny-hating, liberty-loving people, who have led the van as stalwart champions of orthodoxy; who have always stood for the Bible, the Sabbath and the Church, against every foe; are nearly all of them Pres- byterians, and form the warp and woof of most of the churches now in the Presbytery of Boston .*
But it would be an error to say that the early Pres- byterians of New England were all of Scotch or Scotch-Irish ancestry.
THE ENGLISH PURITANS
were largely Presbyterian, and we are told in Mather's Magnalia, that, of the 22,000 emigrants who came over to New England before the year 1640, and to whom the term "forefathers" belongs, no less than 4,000 had previously been Presbyterians in England. The first churches formed in Newbury, Salem, Boston, and many other places, elected Ruling Elders, just as
*For more full particulars as to the Scotch-Irish in America, see the reports made on the subject by Prof. S. S. Green, before the American Antiquarian Society, April 24, IS95.
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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
we do now. The famous platforms of Cambridge and Saybrook were strongly tinged by the ideas of doctrine and polity that govern us to-day. In many parishes the terms Congregational and Presbyterian were used indiscriminately. The Hartford Associa- tion, in 1799, affirmed that the churches of Connec- ticut "were never managed after the Congregational manner, but contained the essentials of the Presbyte- rian Church." And the late Dr. H. M. Dexter, the Nestor of Congregationalism, used to style the early religion of Massachusetts, a "Congregationalized Presbyterianism." By this he meant that the fathers held to the doctrines and rules of the Westminster Assembly for the local church.
The fact was slowly grasped by our sires that America is not a congenial soil for any hierarchy or aristocracy. Not even the inspired Hebrew theoc- racy could be transplanted to these shores, although the costly experiment was faithfully tried. Knox's plan of Presbyterianism made the General Assembly the fountain of power, whence it flowed graciously down through the Synod, the Presbytery and the Session; and if any drops finally trickled down to the private members of the local church, they ought to be grateful. I say this advisedly. And yet, even in the old "Form of Church-Government, approved by
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