The Observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Congregational Church, in Berkley, Mass., November 2, 1887 : containing the historical sermon; an abstract of addresses and other proceedings, Part 1

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Publication date: [1888]
Publisher: Press of Charles H. Buffington
Number of Pages: 56


USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Berkley > The Observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Congregational Church, in Berkley, Mass., November 2, 1887 : containing the historical sermon; an abstract of addresses and other proceedings > Part 1


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THE OBSERVANCE


- OF THE


One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary


OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE


Congregational Church, IN BERKLEY, MASS.,


NOVEMBER 2, 1887.


CONTAINING THE HISTORICAL SERMON BY


REV. S. HOPKINS EMERY, OF TAUNTON, MASS., AN ABSTRACT OF ADDRESSES AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS.


"THE GLORY OF CHILDREN ARE THEIR FATHERS."-Proverbs 17:6.


TAUNTON, MASS .: PRESS OF CHARLES H. BUFFINGTON, 10 WEIR STREET. JANUARY, 1888.


1


THE OBSERVANCE


- OF THE -


One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary


OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE


Congregational Church, - IN -


BERKLEY, MASS.,


NOVEMBER 2, 1887.


CONTAINING THE HISTORICAL SERMON BY REV. S. HOPKINS EMERY, OF TAUNTON, MASS., AN ABSTRACT OF ADDRESSES AND OTHER PROCEEDINGS.


"THE GLORY OF CHILDREN ARE THEIR FATHERS."-Proverbs 17:6.


TAUNTON, MASS .: PRESS OF CHARLES H. BUFFINGTON, 10 WEIR STREET. JANUARY, 1888.


The following correspondence explains the occasion of this publication :


BERKLEY, MASS., Nov. 5th, 1887.


REV. S. HOPKINS EMERY :


Dear Sir :- At a meeting of the Congregational Church in Berkley, held this day, it was unanimously voted that the thanks of the church be extended to you for your Historical Sermon on the observance of the 150th anniversary of our organization as a church, and that a copy of the same be requested for publication.


Yours very truly,


J. E. M. WRIGHT, PASTOR, ISAAC BABBITT, R. H. BABBITT,


DEACONS.


PASTOR AND DEACONS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN BERKLEY :


Dear Brethren :- I thank you for expressing to me the interest which your church felt in my attempt to revive the memory of the good men and women who have gone before in your town, and who laid so well the foundations on which you build.


In connection with my sermon, may I ask you to publish also, the reminiscences of the afternoon, from pastors and others, who con- tributed so largely to the interest and profit of the happy occasion.


Yours very sincerely in Christian love,


SAMUEL HOPKINS EMERY.


Taunton, Mass., Nov. 7th, 1887.


-


HISTORICAL SERMON


- BY -


REV. S. HOPKINS EMERY.


Y text, or rather, the passage of Scripture, which properly introduces my work, undertaken by re- quest of this church, may be found in the 44th Psalm, 1st verse : " We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days,. in the times of old."


In the rush and whirl of the activities of the present, it is wisdom to halt for an hour as we do to-day, and ask if what we sometimes call the " dead past," has no useful lessons to teach us-if we may not sit as learners at the feet of the fathers, and hear them speak of the wondrous work of God "in their days, in the times of old." Nor let the "past " of which we are about to speak seem to us " dead " -rather alive again-crowded with living characters, such as lived and moved and had their being on these farms, in these houses, tilled the soil, taught the schools, trained up families, worshiped God-did their life-work right here a century-yes, a century and a half ago. Berkley was no exception to the towns of the old Plymouth Colony. It had its minister and its school master, its meeting-house and its school-house. These were the essentials of every such settlement. For a hundred years, Taunton's one


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


meeting-house at the junction of what are now Spring, Summer, Dean and Main Streets, on what might well bear the name of Church Green, was the center of attraction to the settlers for many miles round, the rallying point on the Lord's Day. I see them coming from every direction, in farm wagons-on horseback-on foot-men, women and children, whole families not for an hour merely in the morning, but for a whole day many of them, both morning and afternoon service, conducted by those leading min- isters of their time, Messrs. Hook, Street, Shove, Danforth, Clap, the five ministers, who for just a hundred years were the representatives of the Gospel ministry in Taunton and the accredited pastors of the people. I do not forget Norton was set off as a distinct parish in the "North Purchase " in 1711, although a church was not "gathered" till 1714, under the pastoral care of its first minister, Rev. Joseph Avery. Soon after, Dighton, in the "South Purchase" was recognized as a town, and Rev. Nathaniel Fisher, its first minister had been preaching there since June, 1710. This was twenty-five years before Berkley was a separate township, and there was no Berkley bridge in those days, so most likely the settlers on the easterly side of the river, made their "Sabbath day's journey" for weekly worship to "Taunton Green," especially as the Rev. Samuel Dan- forth, "distinguished for his piety and learning," was both pastor and preacher.


But the time came at length when even such a "jour- ney" seemed too much, especially for the little children. And then too the long-time pastor, Rev. Mr. Danforth died in 1727, and the new minister, Rev. Thomas Clap may not have attracted them so strongly towards him. The petition for a separate town was granted on condition they build a meeting-house and settle a minister, which was precisely what they wanted to do. They wanted beyond all else, church privileges. It does not belong to


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


this day's duty, as I understand it, to go outside of church history or church life. The limits of a single discourse forbid it. I am very fortunate in finding church records quite fully and faithfully kept, whence I may draw with considerable completeness material for my work. I re- member to have examined these records in 1852-53, more than thirty years ago, when I was preparing my " Ministry of Taunton," and I now return to them as to an old friend.


Rev. Samuel Tobey, the first pastor of this church, whose. 150th anniversary is observed to-day, gives us in his own hand-writing, the earliest and doubtless an alto- gether reliable account of the origin of the church, and his connection with it. I quote from his manuscript, written in a fair hand and still quite legible :


"January ye 1st, 1736, I was invited to preach at Berkley and accordingly came. August ye 3d, 1736, the people of Berkley gave me a call to settle among them in ye work of ye ministry, offering me two hundred pounds for my settlement and one hundred for my salary. Sept. ye 1st ensuing, I met with ye town, and by yr adding to yr first offers, yr contribution money, whh should be contributed every Sab- - bath and stating my salary at silver 26 shillings per oz., I accepted yr call."


This action of the town, which was the parish, and which transacted eclesiastical business as a regular part of town affairs, was in accordance with an express condition of their settlement as a town. The Act signed by His Excellency, the Governor, J. Belcher, April 18, 1735, declares :


" It is to be understood, and the inhabitants of the town of Berkley are hereby required, within the space of two years from the publica- tion of this Act, to procure and settle a learned and orthodox minister of good conversation, and make provision for his comfortable and honorable support and also erect and furnish a suitable and con- venient house for the public worship of God in said town."


The Act, as I have stated, was signed and became a


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


law, April 18, 1735. The first town meeting was held at Elkanah Babbit's house, the 13th of May, when town clerk, selectmen and tithing men were chosen. At the second town meeting, held Oct. 6, of the same year, pre- sumably at the same place, it was voted: "To hire a scholar to preach in the town a quarter of a year," and fifty pounds were voted for his support and other purposes, dispensing for the present with a school master, hoping very likely the "scholar " to be engaged might not only "preach " but teach school as sometimes the ministers did.


At the same meeting, provision was made for "a meeting-house," which for a while, might answer for a school house, "forty feet long and thirty-four feet wide and eighteen feet stud, the work of getting timber and building to be divided among the inhabitants equally, each man to be allowed four shillings a day and boys propor- tionally."


As is not uncommon when a meeting-house is to be built, there were many minds as to the best location and it was once voted to ask the General Court to locate, but this was reconsidered and the location south of the com- mon was agreed upon, which has suited the town so well that the third church edifice stands on the spot first selected.


It was not till the first of January following the October meeting, 1735, according to Mr. Tobey's record already read, that the town found the " scholar " to preach. Young Tobey, born in Sandwich, in 1715, the eighth child of Samuel, the son of Thomas Tobey, was a graduate of Cambridge in 1733. He was a "scholar," a student in theology with some older minister, as the habit of the times was before Theological Seminaries were founded, and a habit which has its advantages even now above and beyond any seminary.


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


The Berkley people hear of the young man, send for him, give him a trial of seven months, from "January ye 1st, 1736, to August ye 3d" of the same year, and the minister receiving his call, was no more in haste in answer- ing it than were the people in giving it, (both parties knew it was for life), and after one month's prayerful consideration, it was accepted, more than a year prior to the organizing of the church. Meanwhile, the young man was not idle. He is still a "scholar" as well as teacher. He has much to learn. He is busy not only with books but with men. He is studying human nature, becoming acquainted with the people, visiting them at their homes, gaining the confidence of the little children, and getting the meeting-house and the settlers ready for the gathering of the church, which at length was consummated, November the second, 1737-just one hundred and fifty years ago to-day. It was a great day for Berkley-a fine autumnal day, we will hope, as now. It is a harvest, thanksgiving festival. The fruits of the earth have been gathered and stored away in barn and crib and cellar. All are glad of heart-they are a happy company-men, women and children. who crowd the place of meeting that day. They have sent out to all their neighbors to come and enjoy the holy, happy day with them. There are no steam boats- no railroad trains to bring them, but they come in wagons, on foot, on horseback, from Taunton and Dighton, the mother towns, and even from Rochester, far down towards the Cape. We are told Rev. Benjamin Ruggles bore a part in the proceedings of the day, and Rev. Enoch Sanford, now in his 92nd year, in his admirable historical notice of his native town, supposes Mr. Ruggles to have been of Rochester. The other ministers who were present and either preached or gave the right hand of fellowship to the newly organized church were Rev. Nathaniel Fisher of Dighton and Rev. Thomes Clap of Taunton. Each min-


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


ister was accompanied by a delegate. But who were the members of the church ? We must take time on this anniversary day, to repeat their names and dwell rever- ently, gratefully upon them. They were your honored ancestors, ye present inhabitants of Berkley. They laid the foundation, on which these many years, you have been building your financial prosperity, your farms, your merchandise, your schools, your churches, your happy, christian homes. These are the names. I give them as found in the hand-writing of Rev. Samuel Tobey :


"Samuel Tobey, Elkanah Babbitt, Ebenezer Hathaway, Gershom Crane, John French, Ebenezer Phillips, John Briggs, Ephraim Allen, Benjamin Leonard, John Hudson, Josialı Babbitt, Benjamin Babbitt, George Babbitt, Daniel Axtell, of males, number fourteeen.


Abigail Burt, Mary Phillips, Mary Jones, Hopestill Harvey, Hannah French, Experience Myrick, Hopestill Woods, Elizabeth Holloway, Mary Babbitt, Sarah Briggs, Abigail Babbitt, Dorcas Jones, Hopestill Phillips, Zipporalı Allen, Elizabeth Paul, Dorcas Babbitt, Witstill Axtell, Phebe Reed, Jemima Hathaway, Abigail Burt 2d, of females, number, twenty, in all thirty-four, and all these belonging before to ye churches of Digliton and Taunton."'


But the young preacher was permitted to see the fruit of his labor during the few preceding months. The record thus reads :


" Received into ye church ye same day and gathered with ye before mentioned ones, ye following persons: Edward Paull, Adam Jones, Benjamin Paull, Joseph Burt, Samuel Myrick, John Paull, James Phillips, Seth Briggs, Benjamin Babbitt, Samuel Jones, Isaac Babbitt, being in number eleven males. Ann Briggs, Mary Phillips, Mehetable Babbitt, Saralı Darling, being in number four females-in all fifteen-which added to the thirty-four from adjoining churches, make forty-nine foundation members of the Berkley church. The Lord bless them all."


Thus wrote Mr. Tobey in making the record in 1737, and verily they were blest. The children of this day and this generation rise up and " call them blessed."


We are not informed why the pastor elect of the church was not ordained on the day his church was orga-


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


nized. Doubtless there was a good reason for the delay of twenty-one days. The next record is as follows:


"November ye 23d, 1737, I was ordained pastor over ye church and congregation in Berkley. The Reverend Elders assisting were Mr. Billings, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Wales. Mr. Wales having prayed, Mr. Fessenden preached an excellent sermon from these words in the Ep. to Colossians 2, 5, Joying and beholding your order, after which, Mr. Billings gave me the charge, Mr. Fisher ye Right hand. All performed to good acceptance."


As I read the date of ordination, "Nov. 23, 1737," I was reminded of my own ordination in Taunton, "Nov. 23, 1837,"-having been born likewise in 1815, as was Mr. Tobey in 1715-precisely a century apart.


The settlement of Mr. Tobey was for life, and this life extended to the 13th of February, 1781, a period from his ordination of not quite forty-four years, but if we reckon from the time of his first coming to Berkley in 1736, a period of rather more than forty-five years. This long ministry was from beginning to end a most useful one. The good report thereof has come down even to us. " The older he grew, the more he was valued," wrote one, who, although he had never seen him, had often conversed with such as "long sat under his preaching." "He was of a full countenance," writes Dr. Sanford, " and uncom- monly engaging in his person and manners. All revered him as a man of eminent abilities and of great common sense and unaffected appearance. The children not only revered but loved him, especially when he came into the schools and talked to them as a father. He seemed to regard all the people not only as his flock, but as his children."


I have recently seen what I have long desired to see, a manuscript sermon of Mr. Tobey, kindly sent me from Berkley by the hand of its present minister, Rev. Mr. Wright. The writing is plain, and it was doubtless preached in Berkley, for it is marked, " March 26, 1737."


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


Its text is the 1st Epistle of John, 3: 8th, 9th and 10th verses, beginning, "He that committeth sin is of the devil." The preacher divides the discourse, founded on this text, into five parts :


"1st, He, who allows himself to live in the known praetiee of sin is a ehild of Satan.


2nd, Satan has sinned from ye beginning and was ye eause of ye introduction of sin into ye world.


3rd, The Lord Jesus Christ eame into ye world, yt He might de- stroy ye works of Satan and put an end to Sin.


4th, He yt is incorporated into Christ by faith does not eommit sin.


5th, Children of God and ye children of ye Devil may be distin- guished by their regard to righteousness, towards God and their brethren."


After discussing these five points at length, there is an "Improvement " of six pages, which is a close application of the subject to the hearts and lives of the hearers.


An examination of this sermon confirms the statement of Rev. Mr. Sanford, that Mr. Tobey's " style was so plain the unlearned could understand and remember the truths uttered."


The wife of Rev. Mr. Tobey was Bathsheba, daughter of Timothy Crocker of Barnstable. Married Sept. 6, 1738, they moved into their house east of the " common," Oct. 31-and the recorded sentiment of the young hus- band and housekeeper promises much good for the future: " Will God speak well of ye house of his servants for a great while to come and as for me and my household, we will serve ye Lord."


Mr. Tobey himself was one of eleven children and God blest him and his wife with twelve, the two youngest being twins, and bearing the names of Paul and Silas. Nine of these children, six sons and three daughters, reached adult age and married for the most part in this region, and their descendants are still among us. I may


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


speak particularly of the oldest son, Samuel. The father thus records his birth :


" June ye 5th, 1743, our third child born on ye first day of ye week, early in ye morning. Baptised ye same day by ye name of Samuel."


In due time, his father married Samuel, the baptized child, to Experience Paull of Berkley, "Sept. ye 6th, 1768." This son for many years was a leading citizen of the town, of wide reputation, prominent in church and state affairs. He was chosen deacon of the church in 1789, and to the day of his death, December 17, 1823, was the trusted friend, counsellor and helper of his pastor, Rev. Mr. Andros, who preached a discourse suggested by his death, from the text, Prov. 10:7, " The memory of the just is blessed." His grandson, Hon. Edward S. Tobey of Boston, in sending me the sermon, expressed the wish I would embody in my notice of the church to-day, the testimony this pastor gave to the probity and pure life of Judge Tobey. "In these days of too frequent degeneracy in political and commercial life," writes the above-named descendant, "it is refreshing to recall the evidence of honesty in our progenitors., I trust the description of one honest man may prove to be the means of stimulating young men to emulate such an example."


Mr. Andros says : " After an intimate acquaintance for a period no less than six and thirty years, it would be strange if I had never discovered anything of the princi- ples, views and motives by which my friend was actuated in the various departments and situations of life in which he was placed. Could all his virtues be enumerated and set in a just light, his example might long serve to put vice and meanness to the blush and to guide and encour- age those who aim to do well. I should be wanting in gratitude, did I not honor him as one of my most gener- ous, faithful and persevering friends. That he was a man


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


eminent for a disinterested public spirit, all must testify. who knew him. He took a deep interest in the welfare of his native town. Nor this alone, the general prosperity of the nation and the honor of the government under which he lived deeply engaged his benevolent wishes and exertions. He was truly a patriot. He never was an office seeker. He knew not how meanly to stoop to court the suffrages of the people. He sustained the offices of a Judge of the Common Pleas and a Senator of the Commonwealth, but his promotions arose entirely from the reputation he had acquired as a man of a strong mind, sound judgment and inflexible integrity."


Yes, my hearers, it is "refreshing" to hear of one, who walked these streets, a century ago, "who sought not the office, but the office sought him "-an honored Judge, a wise Senator, a consistent Christian, an honest man. Such appears to have been the record of the third son of the first minister of Berkley, Samuel Tobey.


I would love to dwell on this and other branches of the Tobey family, were there time, but I must hasten on.


After the decease of Rev. Mr. Tobey in 1781, there was a vacancy in the pastoral office of six years. There was preaching by different ministers, and at least two attempts were made to settle a minister, Rev. Daniel Tomlinson and Rev. Amos Chase. Both declined. But the Lord of the harvest, who raises up laborers, had one preparing for this field. He was born in Norwich, Conn., on the 1st of May, 1759. When still young, his mother left a widow, removed with her four children to Plainfield, Conn. When the war of the Revolution broke out, Thomas Andros, the boy of sixteen, was among the first to enlist in the service and to join the army of the Colonies at Cambridge. From Boston he went to New York, and was engaged in the battles of Long Island and White


-


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


Plains. In 1781 he was captured by an English frigate and found himself a prisoner of war on board the old Jersey prison ship in New York harbor. His sufferings and marvellous escape are graphically described in a little book, now out of print, called the "Old Jersey Captive."


The war ended and his army life over, Andros still young, began to give serious thought to his life work. His prison life was to him a sanctified sorrow-a means of grace. Consecrating himself to Christ, he longed to be- come one of His ministers to his fellow men. He devoted himself night and day to study. With no college training, he devoured such books as fell in his way-was a self- taught, and as we sometimes say, self-made man. Not satisfied with the English, he acquired the knowledge of the Latin and Greek, and put himself under the careful tuition of his pastor, Rev. Dr. Benedict of Plainfield, Conn., that he might be prepared for his much-coveted work. The people of Berkley heard of this earnest Christian student and sought his services. Beginning to preach in April, 1787, and receiving a call to settle, he did not venture to give an affirmative answer till Feb., 1788. His ordination was March 19th of that year. His pastor and teacher, Dr. Joel Benedict of Plainfield preached the sermon from 1st Cor. 4:9. The other ministers who bore a part were Rev. Levi Hart of Preston, Conn., Rev. Solomon Morgan of Canterbury, Conn., Rev. John Smith of Dighton and Rev. Ephraim Judson of Taunton.


This pastorate commencing some months sooner and recognized, ratified that day continued until 1834, the date of resignation, a period of forty-seven years, which added to the pastorate of his predecessor, would cover a period of a full century, lacking only eight years, and if we should call Mr. Andros from the time of resignation to the day of his death, Dec. 30, 1845, pastor emeritus, as the rightful designation of a retired pastor is, this double ministry


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


would cover one hundred years exactly of the history of the church, a noble record of permanency in the pastoral office, which in these last days it were wisdom to remem- ber.


The town of Berkley owes a large debt of gratitude to the long pastorate of its second minister. What Nathaniel Emmons was to Franklin, Thomas Andros was to Berkley. His reputation as a thinker, a theologian, a preacher and teacher extended far and wide. His published sermons and treatises made his name known in all parts of the land, and favorably known. Coming to Taunton in 1837, it was my privilege to enjoy the acquaintance of my neighbor, "Father Andros," as we used to call him, eight years. He was the father and founder of the Taun- ton Association of Congregational ministers. The whole body of ministers recognized him as a leader and prince in this Israel. He always spoke with authority and a con- trolling influence, as suggested not only by his long ministry and many years, but by the inherent force and good sense of his words. There still remains on the records of the Association, this tribute of affection to his memory, when he came to die :


" It is with most unaffected grief that the Association place upon the records a note of that solemn providence, by which our venerable father in the ministry, Rev. Thomas Andros, of Berkley has been removed from earth to his final account. He departed this life, Dee. 30th, 1845, aged 86 years and 8 months. His funeral obsequies were attended by a large number of his townsmen and several clergymen from the vicinity, and a sermon was preached on the oeeasion by Rev. E. Gay of Bridgewater, then supplying the pulpit in Berkley.


We enter the name of Thomas Andros on our records as one of precious memory, in testimony of the high veneration with which we regard the man, whose heart was warm, whose hands were pure and whose life exemplified the doetrines which he delighted to eommend to others.


Mr. Andros was an eminent example of self-taught men, a warm patron of education and a deeply interested friend of the rising gen- eration, As a preacher, he held a high rank; as a pastor lie was


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HISTORICAL SERMON.


affectionate, laborious and untiring in interest both for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his people, to whom he ministered more than forty years. As an author, his merit will not suffer in comparison with many, whose works are much more voluminous. His sermon entitled, 'Trial of the Spirits' and his tract entitled, 'Letter to a Friend,' should be mentioned with particular consideration.




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