USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > The first parish of Framingham : 1701-1951 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01234 4534
GENEALOGY 974.402 F843ME
The FIRST PARISH of FRAMINGHAM 1701 to 1951
JOHN MCKINSTRY MERRIAM
Alien County Public Library 900 Wobster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
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171219. 200
DATE MICROFILMED 29 Sep 1998
ITEM # 8
PROJECT and
ROLL #
G. S.
CALL #
XLIB 7-102
2055477
4350
Mansion of Rev. Matthew Bridge, built in 1747
View of Framingham (Centre) Common 1808. Originally painted by Daniel Bell, later lithographid.
The First Parish of Framingham 1701 to 1951
By JOHN MCKINSTRY MERRIAM*
Framingham incorporated as a "township" June 25, 1700, and John Swift ordained as the first pastor of the church "embodied" therein October 8, 1701 :- These are the events locally significant occurring 250 years ago, as the beginning of our town and parish history. They are of meaningful his- torical association. Framingham recognized the birth period of the civic town last June in a program very well planned and executed and now we have come together in historic King's Chapel in Boston under the auspices of the Unitarian Historical Society to review the history of the religious parish.
The area of Framingham was midway between earlier settlements. To the northwest were Sudbury and "Marlbury" and to the southeast Natick and "Sherborne." In the 1690's, a distinct settlement had developed midway increasing to some 64 dwellings with "over 300 souls." A movement for a new town was started in 1697, resulting in an order to plot the land, and John Gore, a sworn surveyor was selected for this purpose and presented a plan in October 1699 of which I have a photostatic copy. He was a great-great-uncle of Christopher Gore in whose memory we have the beautiful mansion in Waltham. The legends written in his hand on the original copy are: by way of title "This Plot represents the form and quantity of a parcel of land commonly called Framingham as it was taken and finished in October 1699 in the laying down and measuring whereof, one inch contained 200 rods. These spots in the Plott representing the several houses already built there." pr. John Gore, Surveyor. And then by way of description, in the upper right-hand corner, "From Framingham Meeting House to Sudbury Meeting House is seven miles and 84 rods and the remotest of Sudbury Farms between these places is not above two miles and a half distant from Framingham Meeting House, and is four miles and three-quarters from the Sudbury Meeting House;" and in the lower right-hand corner, "From Framingham Meeting House to the Sherborne Meeting House is five miles and one- quarter and the nearest of Framingham inhabitants is three miles and one-quarter distant therefrom and two miles from Framingham Meeting House."
*A paper read before the Unitarian Historical Society, 1951.
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And with this plan a petition was presented, " . . . To his Excellency, Richard, Earl of Bellemont, Capt. General and Governor in Chief of his Maj. Province of the Mass. Bay in N. England, etc., and the Honored Court now assembled in Boston.
"We underwritten, do humbly petition, that agreeable to our former petition to the Honored Court, (relating to a town- ship), we may now be heard in a few things .
This is a well-argued brief following through eight num- bered paragraphs, concluding, " . Finally if any of Sher- borne or any other town, shall pretend anything to the Hon- ored Court, which may lead to the hindrance of a grant of our petition . . . we humbly petition that we may have admittance to speak for ourselves."
The third paragraph is of special reference to our sub- ject and I quote it in full: "Inasmuch as that for a long time we have lain under a heavy burden, as to our attendance on the Publick Worship of God, so that for the most part our going to meeting to other places on the Sabbath, is our hard- est day's work in the week; and by reason of these difficulties that attend us therein, we are forced to leave many at home, especially our children, where to our grief, the Sabbath is too much profaned; and being desirious to sanctify the Sab- bath as to the duty of rest required, as far as we can with convenience; these motives moving us, we have unanimously built a Meeting House, and have a minister among us, and we now humbly petition to your Honours, to countenance our present proceedings." And the answer to this petition in the following June was the Charter of the Town.
It is thus a matter of record that there was a meeting house in this Township before October 1699, begun probably in 1698 and finished in the early months of 1699. The rough sketch on the Gore Plan shows the location on the crest of the hill referred to later as "Church Hill," a building two stories high with wide spreading roof facing South. The exact location is now marked by suitable marker in what is known as the Old Burial Ground.
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John Swift of Milton had already come as a temporary minister. He was one of 14 graduates of Harvard in the Class of 1697 and had been favorably recommended as a "person well qualified for the work of the ministry" by a committee of three ordained ministers, and on May 22, 1701, the town voted to call him "to abide and settle with us as our legal minister." He was in his twenty-third year. He had given the matter consideration and was accepted and ordained October 8. He married Sarah Tileston of Dorchester and came here for his life work as the first minister of Framing- ham, continuing until his death through forty-five years of earnest service. Grants were made to him for land as a home and towards his livelihood, with money salary of 60 lbs., and with the town to supply his firewood.
In a paper written by Walter Adams, prepared for the Centennial Exercises of the Saxonville Methodist Church, there is this description of this First Meeting House: "This Meeting House was 40 feet long, by 30 feet wide, was boarded and clapboarded without, but not painted. It was unfinished within, and for some years was furnished only with rough benches for seats. There was no cellar under it, and it was minus any heating facilities whatever. The day even of a foot stove was not yet. In truth and fact the First Meeting House in Framingham was nothing but a barn, and such a barn as would today be considered hardly fit for the housing of cattle. Yet in such a barrack through Summer's heat and Winter's cold - cold at times so intense that, as Mr. Swift records, 'Ye Communion Bread froze and rattled in ye plate,' John Swift's parishioners listened to his preaching and John Swift, an able, learned, scholarly, charitable, godly man, ex- pounded the word and strove by his teaching to guide his flock into the way of salvation, and to keep them from stray- ing therefrom."
A very significant record of the service of John Swift is contained in a diary of which Walter Adams gave a very full summary in the exercises marking the dedication of a mem- orial tablet on the site of the Swift Home on Maple Street. The original diary cannot now be placed and this description is most fortunate: "It begins with Dec. 30, 1716, and ends
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with July 14, 1728, and consists of 414 closely written pages, each 3 and 7/16 inches long by 2 and 7/16 inches wide. Superficially examined, this diary appears to be merely a record of the texts from which the writer preached from Sunday to Sunday, of baptisms and admissions to the Church, and other ecclesiastical incidents, varied occasionally by no- tices of passing events, but carefully and sympathetically studied, it is full of interest and enables us to draw many a mental picture of the writer and his surroundings, and to form an opinion of John Swift's mind and character."
From this diary we also learn that peace did not abide in the church. There were contentions and strifes; and tradi- tions preserved for us by one of the historians of Framingham inform us that these strifes and contentions were bitter and grievous and a source of great anxiety and trouble to Mr. Swift, and must have contributed to hasten his declining health. But of these the less said the better, especially in view of the fact that in a few references to them occurring in his diary, Mr. Swift mentions no names, and registers no complaints or comments. Another source of grief, care and anxiety to Mr. Swift, never mentioned, however, in his diary, was the insanity of his wife, who long before his death be- came demented, and so remained to the end of her life.
Mr. Adams continues :- "There is not in Mr. Swift's diary a single uncharitable, unkind or disrespectful word about any one. He records facts and leaves them to speak for them- selves. Of himself he records, with very few exceptions, only such things as pertain to his official work and duties. Not once does he indulge in an expression savouring of self-satis- faction, self-importance, or self-righteousness. Occasionally there is written an entry entirely in Latin, the more to em- phasize the importance of the event recorded."
In the diary of Cotton Mather we find an interesting refer- ence to these troubles against which John Swift struggled so manfully. Under date of August 14, 1718, Mather writes, "G. D." (referring to the Good Devised for the day) "Divisions and Confusions at Framlingham" (a rare instance of the cor- rect spelling of the name of the mother town in Suffolk, Eng- land) "call for my best Endeavours to bring them unto a
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Period." This would seem to indicate that Mather had come to Framingham for a conference on the spot with Swift but just what suggestion he had left we do not know.
In 1743, a Town Meeting was held to provide some method to help Mr. Swift, he being unable to preach; and in 1745 the end came. We have no account of the funeral, but the burial was where the pulpit of the first church had stood. The Town provided a "decent tombstone" on which was inscribed the following epitaph in Latin:
"Here lies the Reverend John Swift, who died in 1745, April 24th, in the 67th year of his age. Adorned with gifts both native and acquired; he was a master in the art of teaching; a model of living, conforming all his acts to the divine laws. To all those with whom he had to do, he exhibited the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of the dove. While living, he was very much beloved, and he left at death a grateful, though mournful memory to his friends. Through many scenes and trials, and even unto death, he manifested a rare discretion, modesty, patience and submission to the Divine Will. He at length rests with the Lord, looking for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body."
This tombstone unfortunately had disappeared in the lapse of time and a simple horizontal slab now marks the grave, re- ferring to it however as the spot where the pulpit stood in the First Meeting House where he preached for the period of 35 years. During the last 10 years of his service, a second Meeting House had been provided, located after considerable discussion and disagreement near the northeasterly corner of the land which soon became the Centre Common. And this house was raised, "following a vote by the town that the com- mittee procure one barrel of rum, three barrels of cider, six barrels of beer, with suitable provision of meat, bread, etc., for such and only such as labor in raising the Meeting House." There is this description in Temple's History:
"In size, this house was fifty-five by forty-two feet, and thirty feet between joints. It had three stories, with doors on the front side, and at the east and west ends. 150 pounds more were granted to build the house, making 550 pounds the cost of finishing the outside-though it was not painted till 1772. The sum of 350 lbs. was granted at different times for finishing the inside of the house. The pulpit was on the north side, and double galleries extended around the other three sides. The committee was instructed to build a pulpit, a body of long seats below, leaving an alley between the men's and women's seats, lay the floors, make seats in the lower gallery, and two pairs of stairs (men's and
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women's) to said gallery. The space next the walls under the galleries was reserved for pews. The ministerial pew was the first on the left hand side of the pulpit; and a pew in the northeast corner was reserved for the town's use."
It is fitting to close the record of Mr. Swift's service by quoting this obituary notice which appeared in the Boston Evening Post on May 13, 1745:
"On the 24th of the last month, died, at Framingham, after a long indisposition, the Rev. Mr. John Swift, the first Pastor of the church in Framingham, in the 67th year of his age, and the 45th of his ministry. As he was a gentleman of considerable natural powers, so he acquired a considerable degree of human knowledge and useful learning. He par- ticularly excelled in rhetoric and oratory, and as a critic in the Greek language. His piety was sincere and eminent. His preaching was sound and Evangelical. As a pastor, he was diligent, faithful and prudent; and in his conversation, he was sober, grave, and profitable, yet affable, courteous and pleasant. When he received injuries at any time, he bore them with singular discretion and meekness; and the various trials and sorrows with which he was exercised, especially in the latter part of his life, gave occasion for showing forth his wisdom, humility, patience and resignation to the Divine will. He was had in high esteem by the Asso- ciation to which he belonged."
The selection of a successor was a matter of some diffi- culty. Two calls were given by the Church but the Town non-concurred. On December 2nd, however, the Church and the Town concurred in calling Matthew Bridge, a graduate of Harvard, as one of a class of twenty-five in the year 1741. He accepted and was duly ordained February 19, 1745, and provision was made for the entertainment of the minister and messengers at the home of Joseph Stone, the building now known as the Abner Wheeler House on the Turnpike. There was, however, serious division resulting in the signing of a protest that the following doctrines were omitted or slightly touched upon in his sermons:
"Particularly the doctrine of Original Sin; the Imputation of it; the total loss of the Image of God in the fall of Adam; the wrath and curse of God consequent thereon; the Freeness and Sovereignty of Divine Grace in electing some to ever- lasting life, and the provision made in the way of the New Covenant for their salvation by Jesus Christ; the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration, and an Almighty Power of the Spirit of God for the production of the New Creature, and re-
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newing the Image of God upon the Soul in Sanctification; the nature of that Faith whereby the Souls of Believers were united to Christ; the way of the sinner's Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ; as also those dis- criminating doctrines which shew the difference between that Faith, that Repentance, and that Obedience, which is merely legal, superficial, and servile, and that which is evangelical. On this account, we desire that this venerable council will consider us as wholly dissenting in the settlement and ordi- nation of Mr. Bridge." This bears 33 signatures, a very con- siderable body.
The matter of acceptance must have been a difficult mat- ter for this young man of 24 years, coming to his first parish. He came from a prominent family in Cambridge and Lexing- ton, a great-grandson of John Bridge, the first Deacon in the history of New Towne, who is memorized by a statue on the Cambridge common. He had married Anna Danforth, the daughter of Nicholas, who came from Framlingham, England, with his six motherless children, and contributed outstanding lines of descendants towards the development of the Bay Colony, among them this minister, and later James Abram Garfield, President of the United States.
As a result of this division, a second church was estab- lished which later became the First Baptist Church of Fra- mingham. In spite of this division, however, Mr. Bridge proved acceptable through a long period of service. His asso- ciation with the prominent Cambridge family led to his meet- ing Washington when he came to Cambridge as Commander- in-Chief of the Continental Army, and served as a Chaplain. His death came September 2, 1775, resulting from exposure in the camp in Cambridge. While in Framingham, he built in 1747 the old Gambrel-roofed house on Kellogg Street, and occupied this house until his death. I have this picture of the house taken many years ago.
Calvin Stebbins, to whom I shall refer later, in his historic address fifty years ago, refers to Mr. Bridge as follows:
"He was a man of striking personal appearance and of mild and amiable disposition, but he was not 'a peace-at-all- price man.' At times he seems to have been inspired by the
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real spirit of the church militant, in the literal sense of the word. When the difficulties between the mother country and these colonies grew serious his patriotism rose with the dan- ger, and when the appeal to arms came he heard it and was among the first of his cloth to volunteer as chaplain. It is said that at the ever memorable scene at Cambridge, on the 3rd of July, 1775, the place assigned to him was beside Gen- eral Washington under the old elm. (Bridge, Genealogy, 16.) Whatever the emotions that moved the hearts of those brave men, they could not have realized the full import of the scene they then witnessed, or have divined its real signi- ficance."
And there is this obituary notice in the Boston Gazette of September, 1775:
"On Saturday Morning the 3d Instant departed this Life, the Rev. Mr. Matthew Bridge of Framingham, in the 55th year of his Age, and near the 30th of his Ministry. In him were found the true friend and sincere Christian. His affable Temper, and free familiar Disposition, rendered him sociable and agreeable to his Acquaintance and connections. He left a disconsolate Widow and five Children, together with the affectionate People of his Charge, to lament the insupportable Loss. His Remains were decently interred the last Monday."
Following his death, for several years the Parish was with- out a settled minister. On January 10, 1781, Rev. David Kel- logg, graduate of Dartmouth College, was ordained minister. He came to Framingham and married Sally, the daughter of Matthew Bridge, and lived in the Bridge house until his death, so the house today is known as the Kellogg house.
He was a man of ability and devotion to his ministerial duties, of outstanding personality and also a real leader in the social and religious life of the Town. His service is sum- marized by Mr. Temple as follows:
"Rev. Dr. Kellogg performed the full duties of the min- istry to his people for fifty years, lacking four months; and, after the settlement of a colleague, he continued to preach, as occasion offered or required until his 84th year; sometimes supplying vacant pulpits in neighboring parishes, and often
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assisting the junior pastor at home. And till his last sickness, he was always in his place in the pulpit on the Lord's day. He died Aug. 13, 1843, aged 87 years, 9 mos."
"In personal appearance Dr. Kellogg was more than ordin- arily prepossessing. In stature he was above the medium height; with a well-proportioned and muscular frame; a fresh yet placid countenance; strongly marked features, expressive of an even temperament, good sense, decision and benevol- ence. His general bearing combined dignity with ease; his step was firm, his presence commanding. His was, in the best sense, a Christian gentleman of the old school." See him as he stands in the gateway of this picture.
"Dr. Kellogg possessed intellectual powers of a high order. There was always a naturalness and healthy vigor, and a cheerful tone in his thoughts. And in this, his mental powers exactly correspond with his bodily powers. He was an active, cheerful man. From the time he commenced his professional studies till he left the active duties of the ministry, he rose in the morning at daybreak; and was busy and systematic in the use of time. He was always punctual. 'It is doubtful,' says a member of his family, 'whether, in the whole course of his public life, he ever met an appointment five minutes late.' "
There are two interesting anecdotes which I think I can refer to without detracting from his merit. He was a man of temperate habits, but not a teetotaler, and at the time of a temperance revival he was asked to sign a pledge. He was reluctant, however, stating that he felt that an occasion might come when he needed some alcoholic stimulant. This objec- tion was met by the statement that he could have this upon the advice of a physician. Then, his reply was, "All right, I will sign the pledge, but with this understanding: that I am to be my own physician." Another time on some wintry night before he had signed the pledge, I take it, he came into the tavern and said to the bartender, shrugging his shoulders, "Mix us up some toddy and make it good and strong," and then a few days later he remarked to the barkeeper, "That was a strong drink you gave me," adding he got home only with some difficulty. And the bartender said to him, "Do you
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know what you said the other night?" "No, what did I say," the minister replied. "You said mix us up some toddy, make it good and strong, and then you took it all !"
There is this summary of the ministry of Dr. Kellogg in Barry's History: "After a protracted ministry of about half a century, Dr. Kellogg voluntarily retired from his pastoral office, about the month of September 1830; after which he continued for many years to reside upon his estate, in the enjoyment of a vigorous and 'green old age.' Many will re- call with pleasure, his venerable form, slightly bowed, his tall and robust figure, his fresh yet placid countenance, his dignified and courteous manners, as he moved among us, al- most sole survivor of the generation who had welcomed him to the sacred office, as their Christian pastor and guide. Within a year before his decease, occurred an incident ex- pressive of the honorable estimation in which he was held by the inhabitants of the town. May, 1843, members of all the religious societies united in a tea-party, at the town hall, at which he was invited to meet them. His appearance was greeted with a warm welcome; and he improved the occasion to enforce sentiments of mutual toleration and Christian har- mony, worthy of durable remembrance."
Thus, we have reviewed the record of these three minis- ters, a service altogether from 1701 to 1843, a period of one hundred and forty-two years, young men coming to their first parish and remaining through the entire period of their lives, a most unusual record, surely not equalled by any nearby community.
In the later years of the Kellogg ministry there came the Unitarian movement, resulting in the division of the church life continued in part by the First Parish Unitarian, and by the so-called orthodox church organization through the record of the Plymouth Church to the present time. The leading Unitarian preachers were William Ellery Channing and Theo- dore Parker, but the teacher was Henry Ware, the Hollis Pro- fessor of Divinity at Harvard. He was a native of Sherborn, a nearby town which had been and continued to be the family home and must have had association with Framingham. Thomas Hollis of London in some way had become interested
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in the new college at Cambridge, and had founded the two first professorships, that of Divinity and of Mathematics. In the Ware Genealogy there is this account of Henry Ware:
In 1805, "In the forty-first year of his age, he was elected to the chair of the Hollis Professorship of Divinity in Harvard College; he was inaugurated on May 14th, and removed to Cambridge in June. This election marks an era in the history of the Congregational churches in New England. It was vehemently opposed by a portion of the clergy and other leading men, on the ground that Mr. Ware's theology was of so liberal a character that it was not right to place him in a professorship intended to inculcate and maintain Calvinistic doctrines. As a matter of fact, Thomas Hollis of London, England, had founded the professorship in 1719, was not a Calvinist but a very liberal Baptist, who had required in his deed of gift only that his professor should 'believe in the Scriptures as the only perfect rule of faith and manners,' and should promise to 'explain the Scriptures with integrity and uprightness, according to the best light that God shall give him.' Mr. Ware took no part in the controversies occa- sioned by his appointment until 1820, by the advice of friends, he published a Reply to 'Letters to Unitarians,' by Dr. Woods, and followed up for several years the discussion thus begun. Meanwhile he was devoted to the regular duties of his posi- tion, preparing elaborate lectures on religion, and conducting the instruction of classes."
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