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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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QUAKERS AND THEIR MEETING HOUSE AT APPONEGANSETT BY ANN GIDLFY LOWRY
PAPER READ AT MEETING OF TIIE OLD DARTMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY AUGUST 14, 1940
CORPORA
1903
OLD DARTMOUTH
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
No. 70 In the Series of Sketches of New Bedford's Early History
APPONEGANSETT MEETING HOUSE
QUAKERS AND THEIR MEETING HOUSE AT APPONEGANSETT
BY ANN GIDLEY LOWRY
QUAKERS AND THEIR MEETING HOUSE AT APPONEGANSETT
T HE first purchasers of Old Dartmouth and the first settlers there continued to use the Indian names Cushena, Pona- gansett and Coakset to designate the three natural divisions of the territory officially named Dartmouth, when incorporated as a town in 1664.
Like other Indian names these three were spelled in many different ways by Colonial scribes who felt no inhibitions in the written use of their own language, and regarded the un- written Indian tongue as fair field for experiment. With an A prefixed, the three names survive in our local geography, but Cushena alone retains its ancient rank as the name of the town of Acushnet. Acoaxet territory became Westport and the Indian name preserves only a wraithlike existence. Ponagan- sett was the central portion of Old Dartmouth and corresponded nearly to the area of the present Dartmouth township. The name Apponagansett is applied to the river which empties into Buzzards Bay at South Dartmouth village, appears on maps as the name of the hamlet which Dartmouth people still generally call "Head of the River" or merely "the Head," and is also the name by which this oldest Dartmouth meeting house is widely known. There is something attractive about each of the ancient spellings - Ponaggansett, Poneygansit, and Ponigansit used contemporaneously. In these less venturesome days I note only two variants. On the maps the name is Apponagansett. The accepted use in referring to the meeting house is to use an e instead of an a before the g.
The name of the monthly meeting established here in 1699 by the parent meeting in Rhode Island has always been Dart- mouth Monthly Meeting. One regrets that the more frolicsome name was never lured into the sober records of the monthly meetings.
The present Apponegansett Meeting House was built during the second year of George Washington's first term as President.
It stands within a few feet of the site of an earlier meeting house which was erected by Dartmouth Quakers two hundred and forty-one years ago. When that first house was built near a bend of the Paskamansett, there were many more trees everywhere about and perhaps only one dwelling house within a mile of this spot. There was a highway as now though narrow and probably rough. It was the road traversed by Allens, Slo- cums and others riding north through Cushena and so to Sand- wich or Plymouth or Marshfield, the older settlements to the east, from which many of the Dartmouth men and women came. It was used by the Russells and Howlands, who lived east of the Apponegansett River, as they travelled west toward Portsmouth to attend monthly meetings held at Newport, if they used the ferry at what is now Hix Bridge, a ferry apparently in use as early as 1686.
Today although the clearings about the meeting house are wider, they are still small fields. There are more dwelling houses in the neighborhood, but they still remain out of sight. From the wider, smoother, much more travelled highway the house as of old quietly turns away to face the sun and what remains of the forest. The spot retains such a serene and gentle beauty, the stillness seems so tender, the peace so profound that it is as it ever was, an ideal place for the ideal Friends' meeting. One's next thought is, perforce, the melancholy one that what lacks is the human element, the followers of Fox who were called in carly times Children of Light and later Friends of Truth. I do not hold it impossible that such as they may, in large numbers, meet here again. There are many today who still believe that love is the most powerful force man has ever found and the present meeting house is good for another hundred and fifty years.
Despite persecution the number of Quakers in English set- tlements in America grew rapidly as was the case in the dales and towns in England. There George Fox, the founder, began his preaching journeys in 1647 at the age of twenty-four. "I was glad," he writes in his journal, "that I was commanded to
turn people to that inward light, Spirit and grace, by which all might know their salvation and their way to God - even that Divine Spirit which would lead them into all truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any."
Seven years after Fox began to preach, sixty Quaker min- isters, sometimes referred to as Publishers of Truth, were travel- ling up and down England. A little later they visited the Ameri- can colonies. In Barbadoes and Rhode Island they found the greatest liberty, but they found eager listeners wherever English folk had brought to the New World that tremendous interest in religion which characterized 17th century England, accompanied by the Independents' distaste for the authoritarian position of episcopacy or presbytery. George Fox from the first accomp- anied his spiritual teaching with practical suggestions for the moral, political and social welfare of his hearers. His crystal clear sincerity swept away not only religious pretense but also the acceptance of some one else's religious formula in creed or prayer or hymn. Live your religion in every word and act of your life, was his message, and if you desire to help others in spir- itual growth declare to them only those things you have ex- perienced yourself, as your spirit has realized the presence and heard the voice of a Divine teacher. We cannot be surprised that such teachings had a powerful appeal to the strongly individ- ualistic English. They had become very well acquainted with the Bible, and they heartily enjoyed religious discussions, but at this time discordant voices were rising from many small new sects, each claiming to have found its scheme of theology in the infallible Scriptures. George Fox directed them to look within their own hearts and find there the indwelling life of Christ that could "speak to their condition" and remake their lives. Fox valued the Bible, knew most of it by heart and constantly quoted from it, but he refused to call it the Word of God or to admit its authority was higher than that of the "inward light, Spirit and grace."
It was in 1656 that the first Quakers came to Massachusetts. Two women, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, arrived at Boston
in a vessel from Barbadoes. Lest their dangerous and heretical doctrines might do harm, they were immediately clapped into jail and their books were burned by the hangman. As soon as possible they were deported, but they were cruelly treated for the five weeks they were in prison. The same course was followed with eight other Quakers who arrived, to the great disgust of the Boston authorities, two days after the women had left.
It was evident that a law regarding these troublers of Bos- ton's peace must be passed, and the first ordinance directed against them was passed October 14, 1656. It provided severe penalties for the master of any vessel who knowingly brought a Quaker into the colony and any Quakers who came from any direction were to be imprisoned, severely whipped, kept at work and allowed to converse with no one. Anyone who imported or concealed Quaker books or writings was also to be severely punished.
But Quakers continued to come, so the Boston legislators passed more severe laws and Plymouth took similar action. An enactment of May 19, 1658 forbade Quakers to hold meetings. Any who attended were to be fined ten shillings, any who should speak in the meeting five pounds. There were other penalties for old offenders. These were the laws under which Henry How- land of Marshfield and William and Ralph Allen of Sandwich were heavily fined for allowing meetings in their houses. Many were the whippings administered. At one time Christopher Holder, a very early Quaker messenger from England to Amer- ica, and Samuel Shattuck, his host, received in Boston thirty lashes from a three corded knotted whip swung by the stout arm of the hangman. Later this same Christopher Holder, John Cope- land and John Rous had their right ears amputated by the hang- man and were held in jail nine weeks, being beaten twice a week with the knotted cord.
In 1658 and 1661 laws were passed which provided the death penalty for banished Quakers who should return, and under these last laws four Quakers, William Robinson, Marma- duke Stevenson, Mary Dyer and William Leddra were hanged on
Boston Common. Of Mary Dyer, a member of the General Court said, "She did hang as a flag for others to take example by." It was said in scorn but was gloriously true. The harsh measures used by the Puritans served excellently well to pro- duce new converts. The great majority of Massachusetts people did not approve the imprisonments, fines, whippings and banish- ments, 'To see men and women stripped to the waist and brut- ally whipped at the cart tail because they came into the colony to teach the Quaker faith, radical and revolutionary though that teaching might appear to a rigid Calvinist, aroused a wave of warm human sympathy for the sufferers. This human sympathy was fertile soil in which the seeds of the new teaching quickly took root. Cotton Mather might call the Quakers "dangerous villains, devil-driven creatures." Many who listened to them used the name the Quakers themselves first adopted, "Children of Light."
The execution of the Boston Martyrs stirred up much feeling against the Massachusetts officials and the fall of Purit- anism in England shook their position. An appeal was made to the King and as a result Charles II ordered the relcase of all the Quakers then held in Boston jail. Further he decreed that in the future those held liable for the death penalty should be sent to England for trial. This last the Massachusetts Puritans did not wish to do, but there were no more executions. The whipping of Quakers continued for fifteen years longer. After that fines, distraints, disfranchisement and imprisonment were continued many years as punishments for Quakers and others who refused to pay the tax for the support of a minister of- ficially approved, or who refused to perform military service.
Our sympathy goes out to the Quakers, but a certain amount of understanding is due to the Puritan leaders. By the en- durance of great hardship in holding to their own religious beliefs they had established a fair new home in the New World in which to live. Here they proposed to arrange their lives. and the lives of all who should come there, according to an orderly religious pattern which they were certain had Divine
approval. According to that pattern they set up their govern- ment. If the lines of the pattern seemed to fade, they enacted laws. An early act was to send two Episcopalians back to Eng- land. Soon they banished Roger Williams. Then rose Anne Hutchinson and her followers. Next appeared the Anabaptists. Last came the Quakers. All upset the order and blurred the pattern of the Massachusetts theocracy. So the Puritan ministers and magistrates who believed the use of force would preserve their precious pattern, used all the force they had to combat the danger. The weapon they chose bent in their hands, but knowing naught else to use, they kept on wielding it.
The men who built the first Apponegansett Meeting House had listened to Quaker teaching since they were children. Their fathers and mothers may have first heard it in Sandwich, where Christopher Holder had preached in 1657, and where gatherings in the homes of William Allen, William Newland and Ralph Allen had resulted by 1658 in the first established Monthly Meeting in America. Or they may have met with it in Marshfield, where Henry Howland from 1657 had meetings in his house or perhaps in Lynn or in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The older generation had suffered much for their Quaker beliefs. Some of their sons and daughters had attended the court trials, some had seen the public whippings. Some had seen the sheriff come into their father's home to collect a fine imposed. Some had seen cattle driven off, and wood and household gear taken away, or "distrained", when that father refused to pay a fine, or the "priest's rate", which was the Quaker term for the tax for an orthodox minister's support.
The older folk clung to their old homes but many wanted their children to settle further from the centres of Puritan influence. They were therefore greatly interested in the be- ginning of the settlement of Dartmouth. As for the young Quakers about to marry and found homes, we can pretty well understand why they would be willing to take their chances with Ponagansett Indians rather than with Boston, Marshfield or Sandwich Puritan officials.
It is difficult to say who were the first Quakers in Ponagan- sett but certainly Howlands, Allens, Slocums, Smiths and Tuckers were early arrivals. The Slocums came over from Portsmouth where Rhode Island's tolerance afforded protection, but good farming land was becoming scarce. The Howlands and Smiths came from Marshfield and the Allens from Sandwich, both towns of Plymouth Colony. The Tuckers came from Milton where the arm of the law reaching out from Boston came down even more heavily than it did from Plymouth.
Most of Dartmouth's first Quaker settlers chose home sites in the southern part of the new territory. To that section came many who did not call themselves Quakers, but who felt a close sympathy with their Quaker neighbors. Such was John Rus- sell who sold land he owned with the Acushnet group soon after 1660 and then purchased the share of Miles Standish in Pona- gansett. He next proceeded, perhaps as early as 1662, to build a house and to plant orchards on the east bank of the Appona- gansett River just north of what is now South Dartmouth village. Although he fortified his house as a garrison during the King Philip War 1675-7, he was apparently largely in sympathy with the Quakers and at least two of his sons married Quaker girls.
Henry Howland, a great uncle of these girls, was one of the original purchasers of Dartmouth in 1652 and was one of the first Quakers in all Plymouth Colony. He himself probably never lived in Dartmouth, but his son Zoeth and the latter's wife, Abigail, moved there about the same time as John Russell. Their home was near the Paskamansett River not far from the future site of Apponegansett Meeting House. Zoeth Howland was killed by Indians in 1676 at the ferry near the present Stone Bridge in Tiverton. Zoeth's son Nathaniel became a useful citizen and a well-known Friends' minister. His first home was near the present Dartmouth Town House. Another son, Ben- jamin, who married Judith Sampson, settled at Round Hill.
Ralph Allen of Sandwich bought Dartmouth lands in 1663. He had joined the Quakers with his six brothers and sisters in 1657. It is probable that he lived in Dartmouth for a few years,
though he returned to Sandwich before his death in 1698. After his first purchase he bought more Dartmouth lands as he had four sons to settle. The sons were Joseph, Increase, Eben- ezer and Zachariah. The first three lived near each other, at "Barnes-his-joy." Ralph's daughter, Patience, married Richard Evans of Newport. His grand daughter Rose, daughter of Joseph, married Nathaniel Howland.
Giles Slocum of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, bought land in Dartmouth in 1659. His son Peleg married Mary, the daughter of Christopher Holder, "the Mutilated," and Catharine Marbury Scott, a sister of Anne Hutchinson. Peleg Slocum built his home south of the present Russells Mills on the west side of the Paska- mansett. He was the first Dartmouth Quaker mentioned as a "public Friend." This meant that he was a preacher. The name may have been derived somehow from the term "Publishers of Truth".
Beside being "a public Friend," Peleg Slocum was a highly successful farmer and merchant. He and his wife were widely known for their liberal hospitality. Many travelling Friends stopped at their house and meetings were regularly held therc. Even after the meeting house was built in 1699 the monthly meetings were held at Peleg Slocum's until 1703.
Giles Slocum's youngest son Eliezer, whose romance with the Lady Elephel Fitzgerald has been colorfully told, came to Dartmouth later than his brother. There he settled on his inheritance from Giles to the south of Peleg's acreage and near to the Allens at Barnes Joy.
John Smith came from Plymouth to Dartmouth very early along with the Russells and Howlands. His first wife, Deborah, was the daughter of Arthur Howland brother of Henry; his second, Ruhamah, the daughter of Richard Kirby. John Smith settled on the eastern side of the Paskamansett in the region known for many years as Smith's Neck. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Military Company of Dartmouth in 1673, so he belongs with John Russell, perhaps, as accepting some but not all the Quaker belief. He had been fined in Plymouth because Quaker
meetings were held in his house. Several of his thirteen child- ren became prominent members of the Dartmouth meeting.
John Lapham from Newport took up land west of John Smith acros the Paskamansett River from the Slocums.
The Quaker homesteads thus far mentioned were all at the southerly end of the town. This was a natural outcome of the wish of the settlers to keep in touch with their friends in Portsmouth and Sandwich. Both of these places could easily be reached by water, though to reach Sandwich one had to travel a few miles by land across Cape Cod at the head of Buz- zards Bay. I think we tend to forget how much travel was accomplished by the use of small boats in the early days.
Henry Tucker. a Quaker from Milton, settled farther in- land when he took up his Dartmouth holdings on the Paskaman- sett south of the present village of Smith Mills. There he and George Babcock agreed with the Dartmouth authorities in 1664 to build a mill. It was the first official act of the town. In exchange Tucker and Babcock were to receive one share of the Dartmouth territory. The proprietors completed this transfer in 1684. Henry Tucker bought land also of William Allen of Sandwich, brother of Ralph, in 1670. Just when Henry first settled down in Ponagansett as a resident is uncertain. The mill was running at least as early as 1681. Ten years before that Henry was named Highway Surveyor for the town. But what would have happened to him or any other Quakers in 1675 and 1676 when King Philip's war was going on? The records say most of the houses in Dartmouth were burnt.
There are no satisfactory answers. The early accounts of the destruction appear to be very vague. They usually tell of Indian killings in Dartmouth, Middleboro. Taunton and per- haps other places in such a way that no exact account can be gained of what actually happened in each place. We know of only four Dartmouth people who were murdered by the Indians. Jacob Mitchell and his wife and John Pope, the latter's brother. were killed in Fairhaven on their way to John Cooke's garrison house and Zoeth Howland, the Quaker, was killed at the ferry
where the Stone Bridge now is. Of course there may have been others.
Does it seem toc difficult to suppose that during that troub- led two years some Quakers stayed quietly on their farms in the south portion of Ponagansett on the little necks running out into waters, by which if need arose they could escape, and that others went off to Portsmouth or Sandwich and stayed with relatives and friends for the duration of a war in which they could take no part?
After the war was over the Plymouth authorities ordered the inhabitants of Dartmouth "to live compact together to de- fend themselves from assault of an enemy and better to attend public worship of God and ministry of the word of God, care- lessness to obtain and attend unto in fear, may have been a pro- vocation of God thus to chastise their contempts of his gospel."
The Dartmouth people could not very well live in compact groups on account of the way in which their land was cut up by rivers and inlets of the sea. As to having an orthodox minis- ter as the Plymouth officials desired, that was the thing of all others they were resolved against. As to what acts might have been "a provocation of God," it is possible that those two men of integrity, John Russell and John Smith, both of whom may have heard promises of security made to Indians who surrendered at the Russell Garrison, and who later saw eighty Indians, who had trusted those promises, led off to be sold into slavery because the Plymouth powers would not sanction the promises, those two and others may have pondered very seriously this matter of God's displeasure.
During the next twenty years many more people came to Dartmouth, houses that had been burned were rebuilt, others were erected on newly laid out farms, the trails became wider paths, a ferry was put in operation at Hix Bridge, and a town house was built at a spot later called Perry's Grove.
Among the newcomers were many Quakers and the meetings they held in the homes of the more active or concerned were in-
creasing in size. It seems probable that on ordinary First-days (Sundays) there would be a little gathering at Peleg Slocum's below Russells Mills, one at John Tucker's up near Tucker and Babcock's mill, another at Nathaniel Howland's over toward Clark's Cove, perhaps others elsewhere. Once a month a general meeting would seem desirable, perhaps on the First-day following the Rhode Island monthly meeting held at Newport. After the Dartmouth meeting for worship ended, those who had been able to go to Newport would report on matters considered there. At this time Dartmouth Friends were all considered members of the older meeting. At all events we know that a monthly meeting for worship was held at Peleg Slocum's, probably be- cause he had a larger house than most. But as time went on even his house was not large enough and the project of building a meeting house began to occupy the minds of Dartmouth Friends.
From old records we take the following minutes.
At a monthly meeting held at Newport the 13th day of 12th month 1698.
"Dartmouth Friends having Determined to build a meet- ing house & Refered to this meeting wheare it shall bee Erected: Dan'l Gould: Walter Clark Ebinezer Jacob Mot are Ap- poynted to vewe the playse and determin wheare it shall Stand."
Ebenezer's last name disappeared. Was it Allen?
"At a man's meeting in the Town of Dartmouth the 6: day of the 1st month 1699 at the house of John Lapham wee un- derwritten, Peleg Slocum, Jacob Mott, Abraham Tucker, the day and year above written undertake to build a meeting House for the people of God, in Scorn called Quakers, 35 foot long 30 foot wide and 14 foot studds, To worship and serve the true and Living God in according as they are persuaded in Contience they Ought to Do, and for no other use, Interest or Purpose, but as aforesd, and when one or more of us decease, then Immediately the survivers Choose others in our room, together with the con- sent of the assembly of the said people, so to be and Remain to us and them forever as aforesaid, which sd House shall be compleatly
finished at or before the 10 day of the 10 month next Insuing the date herof.
In witness here to wee subscribe our names with our own hands. And further we of the said Society of people towards the building of said House of our free will Contribute as fol- loweth:
£ S
John Tucker 10
Peleg Slocum 15
John Lapham 05
Nathaniel Howland 05
Abraham Tucker
10
Increas Allen 3 12
Ebenezer Allen 05
Eleazer Slocum
03
Jacob Mott 03
Benjamin Howland 02
Richard Evens 01
Judah Smith 01."
Four days later at Newport -
"At A monthly mens Meeting At newport ye 10th Day off ye 1st month 1699. The ffriends Appoynted to Settell ye Lands ffor building A meetinge house at the Request of Dartmouth friends Doth Returne ffor Answare that it is don to A generall Satisfaction."
Peleg Slocum, who had made the largest contribution for the building, gave six acres of land "to set a meeting house on" from a forty acre tract he had bought of Hugh Mosher. The latter had purchased the forty acres from Stephen Treasee, one of the original purchasers of Dartmouth.
We are not surprised that the offer of this site and its acceptance were "don to a generall Satisfaction." A meeting house here was centrally located if we consider the Slocums coming up from Slocum's Neck, the Allens from Allen's Neck, the Smiths from Smith's Neck, Benjamin Howland's family
from Round Hill, the Tuckers from the northern end of Tucker Road, the Russells and Nathaniel Howland's family from their homes to the east of the Apponagansett river.
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