USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Rehoboth in the past. An historical oration delivered on the Fourth of July, 1860 > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 R26n
Gc 974.402 R26n 1149127
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 7154
mass,
REHOBOTH, IN THE PAST.
AN
HISTORICAL ORATION
DELIVERED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1860, BY
SYLVANUS CHACE NEWMAN, A. M.,
MEMBER OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE DORCHESTER HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY; AND GENEA- LOGICAL SECRETARY OF TIIE BLACKSTONE MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.
ALSO
AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN SEEKONK, [THE ANCIENT REHOBOTH,]
AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE DAY,
COMPLETING TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN YEARS OF ITS HISTORY.
"Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made."
JOSH. xxii., 28.
PAWTUCKET: PRINTED BY ROBERT SHERMAN, MAIN STREET. 1860.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by. SYLVANUS CHACE NEWMAN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for Rhode Island.
Vycom - 1.50
[CORRESPONDENCE.]
SEEKONK, July 6, 18606
DEAR SIR,-
At a meeting of the Committee of Arrangements for the celebra- tion at Seekonk on the 4th inst., holden this day, the enclosed resolve was unanimously adopted, and it affords me pleasure to be the instrument of communicating the same to you.
Permit me also to express the sense of gratitude which the Committee, in common with their fellow citizens, feel for the most acceptable service per- formed by you on that occasion, and also personally to solicit a compliance with the very general wishes of our inhabitants.
With profound respect, your obd't servant,
JOSEPH BROWN. To S. C. NEWMAN, Esq.
[COPY.]
" Resolved, That the thanks of the Committee of Arrangements be pre- sented to S. C. Newman, A. M., of Pawtucket, for the interesting and val- uable Historical Oration delivered by him at the Congregational Church, at Seekonk, on the 4th inst.
Voted, That the Chairman, Joseph Brown, Esq., be a Committee to com- municate the foregoing resolution, and request a copy for the press."
JOSEPH BROWN, Chairman. Attest : WM. ELLIS, Secretary.
PAWTUCKET, R. I., July 10, 1860.
DEAR SIR,-
Your kind note of the 6th inst., enclosing a copy of the resolution of the Committee for the late Festal Gathering in Seekonk, requesting a copy of my Oration delivered on that occasion, has been received.
I am under obligations to the Committee for their favorable estimate of my discourse, and, relying upon their judgment, cheerfully comply with their request.
Be pleased to accept my acknowledgments for the kind terms in which you have conveyed the request of the Committee, and be assured that I am, dear sir,
Respectfully your obt. servt.,
S. C. NEWMAN. To JOSEPH BROWN, Esq.,
Chairman of Committee, &c., Seekonk, Mass.
1149127
DEDICATION.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF MY NATIVE TOWN, HAVING BEEN HONORED WITH AN INVITATION FROM THEIR COMMITTEE TO DELIVER IT, THIS ORATION, WITH WARM GRATITUDE FOR THE SYMPATHIZING ATTENTION WITH WHICH IT WAS RECEIVED, IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED, BY THEIR FRIEND, S. C. NEWMAN.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
THE following Oration is here printed from the manuscript as origi- nally prepared and delivered.
In a field so broad, and covering so large a portion of time, it was found difficult to condense into the limits of a popular discourse much that might be interesting to the future, in a historic point of view. Indeed, many of the facts were obliged to be so briefly alluded to as to render them hardly intelligible to the general reader ; but an attempt has been made to, in some measure, remedy this, and also to correct some long standing historie mistakes, by a series of appendant notes, referred to in the text by reference letters. Much time and labor has been bestowed in examining the sources from which early writers drew their reported facts, and in research for other material relative to those times referred to in this discourse. And it is believed that from the care thus bestowed upon the minutic, the general aspect of this brief picture of REHOBOTH IN THE PAST will be found as substantially correct as so brief a limit could well admit of.
The author would here tender his thanks to all who may have in any way contributed to the general success of that interesting Festal Gath- ering, in favor of which, the PUBLIC, as reflected from the Pulpit and the Press, has already pronounced its verdict.
ORATION.
FELLOW CITIZENS :
The partiality of the projectors of this pious gathering has placed me in a rather delicate position, on account of my relationship to the founder of this ancient town and church ; but I shall endeavor to forego all such considerations, and seek to present ungarnished truth, let its inspiring mantle fall as it may.
On the centennial milestones that mark the great highway of civilization, even back to the days of an- cient learning and artistic splendor, may be seen the graphic inscription, " We are living in an extraordi- nary age." This has been the spontaneous exclama- tion of observing men in every past age; and it has been relatively true. Nor has it lost any of its truth in this, our age; but rather returns upon us in ten- fold force. We, too, are living in a truly wonderful age. Nature has commenced revealing her sublimer mysteries. Science has commenced in earnest to open her inner temple, and is rapidly upsetting the mis- takes of the past, and is scattering the seeds of utility broadcast over the age in which we live. Time is an insatiable depredator, and by silently appearing to
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take nothing, is too often permitted to take all. But. in this age, if we go to the site of Babylon or Nine- veh, and see nothing externally but a heap of dust- if in gazing externally at the prostrate columns and shattered capitals of Palmyra, Baalbec and Thebes, we read nothing but ruin-if, in fancy, we take our stand in the dim, hushed temple of Karnak, and by the red glare of torchlight can read nothing but the dialect of eternal decay,-yet by skillfully applying the smooth and polished keys of present Science to the labyrinth- ian locks of Nature and ancient art, the accuracy of the present state of the comparative anatomy of things will cause a few apparently useless fragments to reveal all the fair proportions of the ancient structure, and reproduce it in all its dimensions. If Time has dealt harshly with the sculptured marble, it is now within the reach of reproduction ; and what is still more won- derful in this age, if the shade of Time has stealthily drawn his decomposing brush over the speaking can- vas, robbing the pictured form of its grace, and tar- nished the cheek of beauty, it is an achievement of this age that the fair and manly forms that once sat by the casels of Titian, Rubens or Raphael, though defaced by time, or earlier incompetent restorers, can now, by scientific art, be restored to all the exact original grace and tints once imparted by the pencils of those great masters. But among the many other prominent features of this age, is that of its spirit and energy in antiquarian research, and in drawing forth from the musty archives of the past, detached and faded facts, and, through the comparative anatomy of Truth, restore something of the originals, and place them in
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more durable condition, for the benefit of present and coming generations of men.
In attempting to present on this occasion something of the original settlers of this venerable town, I shall not summon them from yonder cemetery, in their skeletons of bones, and offer them to your mental view merely in shrouds and coffins, but shall endeavor to reclothe them with flesh and sinew, and to drape them in the habiliments of their once mortal exist- ence, and, in some measure, present them as they trod this consecrated platform of religious and social life two hundred years ago.
And, first, I will endeavor to present a glance at the life of the founder of this town and its first pastor. Dr. Cotton Mather, the learned author of the Magna- lia, is one of the principal colonial historians who has given us information on this matter; but he has fallen into some mistakes, thereby misleading later annal- ists, which I have corrected from earlier and authen- tic sources.
Rev. Samuel Newman was the son of Richard New- man, who was a glover, or dealer in gloves and other leathern articles of apparel, and who lived in respecta- ble standing at Banbury, Oxford county, fifteen miles from Oxford University, in England. The records of the church at Banbury show that this child was bap- tized, or christened, May 24, 1602, and as the rules of the church required this ceremony within two weeks from birth, when circumstances would permit, he was probably born about the 10th or 12th of May, 1602. The annals of the times present us with but little minutiæ in his earlier life, so that we can only form
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our estimate of the boy by surrounding circumstances and the subsequent man. The family had long been noted in the realm of England for their uniform adhe- sion to the Protestant religion, and also for their piety and general moral rectitude. Under these influences the boy exhibited studious habits and also contempla- tive propensities. His parents bestowed upon him a good early education, and then placed him at the Uni- versity of Oxford. He first entered St. Edmund's Hall for study at the age of fourteen, that department be- ing a cheaper mode of living, but was afterwards reg- istered as a member of Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated with its honors October 17, 1620, at the age of eighteen. (a) With all his early proclivities thus nourished and cultivated, and his studious intimacy with Rev. Dr. Featly, an eminent theologic Professor, and also his intimacy with Rev. William Gouge, (who, for nine years, was never once absent from morning and evening prayers, and who read fifteen chapters of the Bible every day during that nine years,) with men like these for his chosen associates, though far superior in years, it is not much of a wonder that a writer of that age remarked that " he early became a very able minister of the New Testament." (b) Dr. Mather, with his accustomed carelessness in minutia, states that the religious persecutions of the times caused him seven removes from churches in England, and finally his eighth remove to America. The last is true, but all else is a seven-fold mistake, having no better foundation than his hallucinations of withcraft.
This young and talented ornament to the christian world temporarily supplied several different pulpits
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during the absence of their pastors, and was really settled nowhere till in 1625, then aged twenty-three, when he was installed pastor of Midhope Chapel, in the West Riding of Yorkshire; and on that occasion his congregation presented their young and brilliant preacher with this ministerial cane, now two hundred and thirty-five years old, and a hale old rosewood staff yet. [Cane exhibited.] He remained at that church ten years, or until 1635. In that year the degrading religious persecutions of Archbishop Laud, who was afterwards suddenly made a head shorter, reached the climax of bitterness for non-conformity to those whim- sical outward ceremonials which, to the really intelli- gent and christian people, so much resembled the old Roman hierarchy ; and it was in that year, 1635, and not in 1636 nor 1638, as related by some of our early annalists, that this man, with his young family and a sister Elizabeth, came to America. In that year there was a large emigration, and among them a company who, in the records of Dorchester, are called the second emigration. Among them was Rev. Richard Mather, the progenitor of that race in America, and our Samuel Newman, as passengers together. In that year, owing to a large emigration from Dorchester to Connecticut, including their pastor, Rev. Mr. Warham, this new company took the place of those leaving, and purchased their lands and improvements. Mr. Mather and the new comers reorganized the church and drew up a new covenant, which afterwards served as the basis of nearly all New England, and in this organization Mr. Newman participated. He resided at Dorchester four years, instead of one or two, as has
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often been stated; and the records of Dorchester say that he was a useful citizen among them in organizing their civil and religious condition, and a useful man in a variety of ways. It does not appear that he was in the ministry while at Dorchester, any more than as a member of the church, and perhaps an occasional preacher, but was engaged in writing his Concordance to the Bible, and waiting for a suitable field of labor when called for. He was a freeman of the Massachu- setts Colony and a housekeeper while at Dorchester ; and in his will, twenty-five years later, mentions his old house-servant at Dorchester, and makes her a bequest.
In 1639 the church at Weymouth had got itself into three contending factions under three teachers, who were there at the same time, viz : Mr. Hull, Mr. Jen- ner and Mr. Lenthal. In this state of things the peo- ple of Weymouth invited Mr. Newman to become their sole pastor in 1639. He consulted his friends and his duty, and concluded to gratify their wishes. He im- mediately sold his lands to Mr. Mather, as appears by deeds, and took charge of the church at Weymouth, and in him all the people of Weymouth cordially uni- ted ; and thus permanently commenced his ministerial labors in America. In Weymouth he gave ample sat- isfaction to all his people, and besides his duties as a citizen and pastor, he was diligent in carrying forward his great work, the first full Concordance to the Bible ever attempted. He remained there till the spring of 1644. His people, joined by others of Hingham, con- cluding that a settlement at this place would afford them better lands and a pleasanter location, united in
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purchasing of Massasoit a territory ten miles square ; and pastor, church and people, leaving a small minor- ity remaining, migrated to this spot and settled as a new community ; and regarding their pastor as their Joshua, they constituted him, by common consent, the founder and namer of this new town. The original Indian name of this place, Seekonk, was a union of two Indian words, seeki, black, and onk, goose, or large bird ;- thus it meant black goose, or what we call wild goose ; and the Indians thus named it from the great numbers of that bird which in that age congregated in the neighboring Cove, on the west side of this place. Thus originated this town, to which the pastor gave the scriptural name of Rehoboth, remarking that " the Lord hath opened a way for us." He probably had in mind the twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis, verse 22d, which reads thus: "And he called the name of it Rehoboth ; and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." This Hebrew term signified a broad way or street, a broad place, a plateau, and certainly the topography of this place will justify its adoption as a proper name.
Having thus traced this pious man from the place of his birth to this his last abiding place, I will en- deavor to group together the outlines of his history, and that of his chosen people, down to the period of his death. On commencing life anew, each rendered in the amount of his property, for purposes of taxa- tion ; and Mr. Newman's amount was £530. (c) The first houses were log, thatched buildings, with large stone chimneys; and they built the town in a semi- circle, called " the ring of the town," open on the west,
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with the church in the centre, and within a few feet of this present building; and the general outlines of the town are now plainly visible. At this period they were not considered as belonging to or connected with either the Massachusetts Colony or the Plymouth Col- ony, but were, in reality, an independent plantation. And in this condition, while they could consult their general wants at the public and frequent town meet- ings, yet they felt the need of something of a court or tribunal, to whom they should submit; and to meet this, the pastor drew up an instrument which yet remains in the archives of the town, and which still bears the autograph signatures of the thirty heads of families as then existing. It provided that once a year the whole town should have a voice in choosing nine discreet men from among themselves, and that the decision of a majority of the nine should be final in all matters of dispute or disagreement. It was a very simple arrangement, but as it possessed equity powers, and was selected by the people themselves, and called " townsmen," it answered all its purposes, and has existed, with various alterations of its powers, down to your present " selectmen." This compact was signed July 3, 1643. (d) The town was afterwards annexed to the Plymouth Colony, and so remained till the union of the two colonies in 1691. The church instructed the town, and the town provided for the church; and for more than a century following seemed to provide for the church as a part of itself. The first public meetings were held under the shade of trees in suitable weather, and in private houses when the season required it, both religious and secu-
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lar. The first we hear of a meeting-house was in October, 1646, when a tax was made to build one. The meeting-house was partially made and rendered habitable in 1647, and it stood where now is the wall of the cemetery, and its south side was where the tomb now is. In 1648 there was a tax for finishing the meet- ing-house. In 1659 they enlarged the meeting-house by putting on what the vote calls a "new end," and contracted that it be shingled as well as Goodman Payne's house ; and from this period the house lasted, with some repairs, fifty-nine years, or until 1718, when they built the second house, fronting with the old one, but thirty feet east of it. That second house I have seen ; it had two sets of galleries, one above the other, and it disappeared in 1814, four years after this pres- ent house was erected, in 1810, having lasted, with various repairs, ninety-six years ; and at last became a residence for sheep and bats, and finally its lumber was used in erecting the present town-house or hall.
But from this meeting-house digression let us return to their first years. In the absence of bells, they beat the drum to give notice of tlie time for public worship ; and seating the meeting according to seniority and other orders of respectability was the delicate task of a yearly committee appointed by the town. In some parts of New England it was the custom to preach by the hour, as measured by the hour-glass, and the preacher must preach till the sand had run out, wheth- er his ideas had all run out or not ; (e) but such was not the case with this people,-they had an able min- ister, who measured his discourse by its importance and his ability in condensing it. Everything wore a
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religious aspect ; but they took no part in those super- stitious follies involved in the early laws of Connecticut nor the persecutions at the headquarters of the Bay Colony at Boston. The first settlers of this place were very generally men of good abilities, and of con- siderable more than ordinary education for those times. But they were an isolated plantation ; and it provokes a smile to read on their town records of 1649 the ap- pointment of a committee of two of their ablest men, John Brown and Stephen Payne, with power to em- ploy a surveyor; and for what ? why to accomplish the difficult task of finding the way to Dedham! a journey now traveled in about forty minutes. This vote alone is a whole chapter in the history of the difference between their times and ours. They were on good terms with their Indian friends, and having purchased and paid for their lands, the Indians fully acknowledged their peaceable possession down to the time of Philip's war. (f) There was a very faithful Indian, whose original name ought to have been pre- served, but whom the settlers called Sam, whether after their pastor or otherwise I know not, but he was the general shepherd for the town in watching their flocks and herds at the great " Ox Pasture," and driving the cows home at night and distributing them about in their appropriate yards; and such was the esteem in which he was held, that on the books of the town there is a vote admitting him to all the privi-
leges of citizenship. This is the first instance, and I think the only instance, in all our colonial history, where a native born American has been naturalized on his own soil by a community of foreigners; but
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the name of " Uncle Sam" yet remains a very popular cognomen for our common country.
Their town meetings were held in their meeting- house, and for many years "Father Bowen," as the records call Mr. Richard Bowen, was a sort of stereo- typed moderator; and he also served as clerk. And here a word on the term Mr. It was very rarely applied, and only to clergymen and citizens of much more than ordinary distinction, and more rarely than we now use the title of Honorable. The common title, as we now use Mister, was Goodman, and for Mrs. they used the term Goodwife or Goody ;- thus Goodman and Goody Paine instead of Mr. and Mrs. Paine. I mention this little fact because it will throw light on old books when being read by young persons; and this was not a peculiar trait in this people, but com- mon to that age in all the colonies. Their log houses, with clay-thatched roofs, resembled a thing two stories in front and no story in the rear, the back eaves reach- ing nearly to the ground and towards the north to ward off storms, and the front facing the south to enjoy the sun. The fire-place and oven of stone, and chimney- flue of board lined with clay, were of large dimensions, so that there were little sitting-rooms on each side of the huge fire, with oak benches for sofas, from which they could look out of the chimney and see the same stars, planets and moon which had shone on them in their native Europe, with inspiring visions of the homes of their forefathers. Fire-wood was plentiful, and their food, clothing, furniture and general habits were so plain and substantial that they knew not the want of valerian root, homoeopathic globules, or artificial bloom
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for their cheeks. In these independent castles there were religious purity, much innocent merriment and general neighborhood sociality ; and barley beer, made by the goody or mother of the family, was the common beverage when they exceeded water. In this plain, unsophisticated manner, with pitch-pine knots whit- tled into candles, they spent their winter evenings in teaching children to read, write and cipher, and in cheerful social parties, frequently attended by their smiling pastor, who, with all his puritan gravity, was often caught at play with the assembled children of the whole neighborhood as if they had been his own. (g) The young men were ambitious in the art of tilling the soil, and of being found at church on the Sabbath ; and the girls, though constant at church, were hardly considered marriageable till, in addition to their daily practice in the art of housekeeping, they could show a pillow-case full of stockings of their own knitting, and woollen, linen and tow dresses enough, spun with their own hands, to last them till their first born daugh- ter would be old enough to begin to pull flax. Every- body learned a trade, and that trade was, the art or mystery of being diligent in some real utility. How different were those girls from ours! I am not here to say which are the best; but if the Great Author of the celebrated sermon on the Mount were here, he might see fit to repeat his own words in reference to many of the young ladies of this age: "They toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Their mode of travel was generally on foot. There were but few horses for horseback, and no carriages other than the
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ox carts for farming ; and when new comers began to settle at a distance from the "ring of the town," they often took their families to meeting with ox teams. But with all this simplicity of social condition, they were a pious, intelligent, law-abiding and hospitable people, exhibiting much of genuine goodness, and left an example that entitles the soil that here they once trod to be regarded as consecrated ground,-conse- crated to religion, to sound morality and to good citi- zenship ; and, as such, their memory is entitled to our gratitude and respect.
Such was the general aspect of this community down to 1663, the period of the death of their pastor, and such were the people with whom he held daily inter- course, and to whom he weekly, and often semi-weekly, imparted his ministrations. I will now attempt a brief summary of his life and character; and in doing this shall offer no high-wrought eulogy, but simply present him in the position to which he is fairly entitled, and the position which I think he is destined to occupy in coming ages.
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