USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Beverly > An address delivered in the First Parish, Beverly, October 2, 1867 : on the two-hundredth anniversary of its formation > Part 2
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persevering, unfaltering energy, with truc magnanimity. Says one who, from thorough investigation, could be relied on, " He was the friend of all. I know not where to find a more perfect union of the hero and the Christian; of all that is manly and chivalrous, with all that is tender, benevolent, and devout."
His house was not only the abode of a liberal hospitality, but an asylum for the orphan and the distressed. As objects of his bounty arose and multiplied, his dwelling as his heart seemed to expand ; and he who otherwise had been solitary was, in the exercise of his kindly spirit, surrounded by a numerous family. Among them who shared his fostering care was a younger sis- ter, Ellen, whom he brought with him on his return from a visit to England, who fulfilled his fondest wishes, and to whom he was ever afterward as both father and elder brother. She became the second wife of the veteran schoolmaster, Ezekiel Cheever, who taught for more than seventy years, - the first part being distributed in terms of twelve, eleven, and nine years, respectively, at New Haven, Ipswich, and Charlestown ; and the last thirty-eight passed at the head of the Boston Latin School, in which capacity he served, with harness on, when he died, and his own long account was rendered in to the Master of all, from whom -if we may venture the surmise - was heard the plaudit, " Well done, good and faithful servant." Ilis powers were wonderfully retained to the end. The cele- brated Cotton Mather, celebrated for his learning and lack of wisdom, for virtues that he had and virtues that he had not, whose entire course was eccentric, partaking more of the centri- fugal than the centripetal, says, in grateful admiration and deserved eulogy on the decease of Cheever, -
" Although he had usefully spent his life among children, yet he was not become twice a child. In the great work of bringing sons to be men, he was my master seven and thirty years ago; so long ago, that I must even mention my father's tutor for one of them. He was a Christian of the old fashion, - an old New-England Chris- tian ; and I may tell you, that was as venerable a sight as the world, since the days of primitive Christianity, has ever looked upon. He lived, as a master, the term which has been for above three thousand years assigned for the life of a man.
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" Ile lived, and to vast age no illness knew, Till Time's scythe, waiting for him, rusty grew. IIe lived and wrought ; his labors were immense, But ne'er declined to preterperfect tense."
To him, and such as he was, is it greatly owing that the school- house was here, from the first, reared by the side of the house of worship; that the teacher's profession has come to be regarded no less honorable than useful ; and that "good learning"-a phrase signifying the promotion of all that is true, great, and good - has been current with us from the beginning; been made, as it were, the motto, and its meaning and spirit infused into all of our civil and literary institutions.
Lothrop having, in early manhood, emigrated from England, settled first in what is now the city of Salem ; but, a few years after, he received a grant of land on this shore, near the Cove, where is a continuation of the most populous part of the town, and there fixed his residence for the remainder of his life. There he lived for about forty years, a model of fidelity to all his public and private relations. Nothing of the kind can ex- ceed the charming picture of his domestic life which has been handed down to us, and been of late most skilfully and appre- ciatively drawn. To his ever-ready sympathy as a man, a neigh- bor, counselor, friend, there is abundant witness. Various, almost innumerable, were the calls made on him for advice, for consolation, for attesting, drafting, and executing wills, for ap- praisal of estates, as trustee and guardian. For several years, he was deputy to the General Court; first from Salem, then from this town, and a selectman of it all the time after its incor- poration till his death. This last office was sometimes dignified with the title of "townsman ; " and comprehending, as it then did, the powers and duties of overseer of the poor, assessor of taxes, surveyor of highways, and police judge, without speci- fying others, we may conclude that it was no sinecure, and that its incumbent might have been entitled also the " man-of- all-work."
His interest and activity in ecclesiastical, were no less than in secular affairs. Soon after his arrival, when quite a young man,
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he became a member of the Salem Church, with which he con- tinued for a long time to worship and commune. When, in consequence of the increased population on this side, and the inconveniences of distance and crossing the intervening ferry, it was felt that new accommodations must be provided for the wor- shippers resident here, he took an active part in all the measures which resulted first in temporary arrangements for religious ser- vices, and ultimately - though not till about twenty years after their inception - in the complete organization of this society. Toward its establishment and primitive prosperity, his character, so high, pure, trusted, efficient, and altogether worthy, greatly contributed, especially connected as it was in the general es- teem with that of Conant, his elder companion in the under- taking. The characters of the two, taken together, constituted a tower of strength, and an indubitable pledge for the success, the stability, and spiritual growth of the embryo parish. That when absent on distant expeditions, and even amid the din and stress of war, he was not unmindful of his parochial rela- tions, and of the ties, religious as well as social, which bound him to his home, is evinced by the fact, that on his return from the attack of St. Johns and Port Royal, where he held an im- portant command, and the capture of which he materially aided, he brought with him from the latter place, now Annapolis, and presented to the parish, a bell, which had been in use on a friary there ; which was the first of five successive ones that here, by their vibrations, have summoned to united devotion, have tolled the knell of departed spirits vastly outnumbering you who sur- vive, and, in tones scarcely less solemn, marked from day to day the departing hours ; have sounded out triumphs of peace and war ; have intoned, as it were, great events, joyful or sad, which have occurred within the last two centuries.
But the end of all this life of activity, energy, and usefulness was drawing on. A fearful tragedy was at hand, in which he was to act the most conspicuous part, to suffer, and fall a sacri- fice. King Philip, foremost of Indian chiefs in this quarter, subtle as powerful, had roused his own and neighboring tribes to the determination of desperate warfare, - of nothing less than
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a life or death struggle between them and the colonists. Con- sternation, wide-spread and terrible, prevailed. No sense of security, but, rather, awful dread of overhanging peril, pervaded every dwelling and hamlet. Tomahawk and scalping-knife; fire-arms borrowed by savages from their civilized neighbors, and plied with a deadly precision ; hopeless captivity, or deliverance from it solely by a cruel death ; the torch of conflagration and the devouring flame ; tortures indescribable, and hardly to be conceived, worse than death, and making it welcome, -these all, and more than these, were elements of the cup of horrors, of which our ancestors of those trying times were called to drink. Of that cup, the people of my native place, then amounting to between two and three hundred, drank to the very dregs. " Within the borders of New England," says her historian, " there is no more attractive spot than the site of the town of Lancaster," Mass. It was a favorite resort and abode of the Indians of its vicinity. Their principal village, the centre around which their wigwams were gathered, was on a gentle, southerly, sunny slope, at the fork of the two branches of the Nashua River, most favorable for fishing and hunting, while the surrounding rich alluvions afforded ample fields for the cul- tivation of Indian corn. That village was within the bounds of my paternal estate; and there, down to a recent period, have been discovered relics of the aboriginal inhabitants. So, near by, and now included in the acres standing under the same name, is the site of the garrison, whose inmates, on the tenth of February, 1676, were either ruthlessly killed, or borne away miserable captives. Among the latter was Mrs. Rowlandson, wife of the first minister of the town, who, wounded and bleed- ing, was carried off, with a sick and dying child, but, after three months of horrid experience, restored to her husband and friends. Her narrative of that experience - so graphic, so cir- cumstantial, so descriptive of the modes of savage life - was among my earliest readings, and left an impression vivid and never to be effaced. I remember well how that, together with local traditions and associations, fired my youthful imagination, haunted my thoughts and fancies by day and my dreams by
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night. A village sacked, fired, destroyed, all but annihilated ; men, women, and children murdered, captives, tormented, or dispersed to wander houseless and homeless, - such was the terrible result of savage hostilities in my birthplace, and such the image they had left behind.
When, the summer previous to the scenes I have thus faintly sketched, a cry came from the remoter settlements of Brookfield and on the Connecticut River, that similar perils and calamities were impending over them, there were not wanting, in these the more populated portions, the men to lend a helping hand, who, instead of shrinking from the emergency, were, and showed themselves to be, fully up to the crisis. There was Major Simon Willard, of highly honorable descent and family, most honored in his own deserts, the first of the name in our annals, - settler of Concord, and afterwards resident of Lancaster and Groton, - the legislator, magistrate, judge, referee, universally confided in ; next to the commander-in-chief commanding the militia of the province ; with a line of descendants that would do honor to any name, among whom were two presidents of Harvard College, one of whom was among the most worthy and honored ministers of your own parish. He at seventy years of age, and Lothrop a chief captain under him at sixty-five, - such was the stern stuff of which the fathers of that day were composed, and such their real calibre, - buckled on their armor, girded themselves for the fight, and went forth to the battle, in which the fates of not the frontier alone, but the entire New-England people, seemed involved. Willard, by a forced march, and by his bravery and military skill, raised the siege, and relieved the beleaguered garrison of Brookfield. Meantime, Lothrop-who had raised a company of a hundred men in his county, that, from their being of the young and most promising, might well be styled its "flower," and who, from his varied experience and tried courage and valor, was of course to take command - pressed on, and joined the forces under Willard at Hadley. Being charged by the latter with the transport of supplies of provisions from Deerfield, he with his company was on the route thence, and, feeling no apprehension of immediate danger,
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they had laid aside their arms, and paused to regale themselves from the clusters of grapes which hung by the wayside, when the coveted fruit turned to ashes in their grasp, and its sweet- ness was changed to the gall and bitterness of death. Volleys from hundreds of savages in ambush were poured upon them, like lightning from a clear sky ; their gallant and beloved com- mander fell at the outset ; they fought bravely, as best they could with that pall of death over them ; but few survived to tell the tale, which, from that time, gave to the little stream they were crossing, which proved to so many "the narrow stream of death," the sad name of Bloody Brook.
This catastrophe sent a thrill of terror and dismay through all the New-England colonies. Especially did the news of it come with appalling force to this county, from which its choicest flowers, " all culled out of its towns," and blooming so lately in manly beauty and strength, had been thus suddenly cut down and withered, as by an untimely, killing frost. Throughout its length and breadth, scarcely was there a village or hamlet left unscathed by this great calamity, -
" No flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb was there."
More particularly, and with stunning effect, did the blow fall here, where, beside several that were deeply lamented, the fallen chief was best known, and for that reason most respected, trusted, and loved. Writers at or near the time do but express the feel- ing generally prevalent, whether in wider or more restricted circles ; while they accumulate, almost without limit, the phrases descriptive of sorrow, agony, and horror, such as " a sad and awful providence," " a dismal and fatal blow," " a sadder rebuke of Providence than any thing that hitherto had been," " a black and fatal day," " the saddest that ever befell New England."
We know full well, after the experience of the past few years of dread civil conflict, what it is to have the young, the brave, and excellent, the highly educated and refined, the flower of our chivalry, - and no more real chivalry has the world witnessed, - go forth with the holiest inspirations of freedom, of love of
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country, of allegiance to duty and to God, leaving to the loving heart behind a heavy burden of anxieties and harrowing appre- hensions, - many of them, alas ! falling like the beauty of Israel on her high places, many of them numbered among the " unre- turning brave," buried where they fell, or returning, if at all, only on their shields. More than thirty of your number, includ- ing your minister, in that crisis thus went forth on land or sea : and, blessed be God ! the most of them returned in safety ; but some there are who are mourned, and will continue long to be deeply lamented, yet bequeathing the rich solace of their hav- ing beautifully and gloriously died for their country. Well, therefore, may we somewhat comprehend the sacrifices made by the early fathers, when, out of all proportion to any other drafts made on our population for service in war, they met the awful demands made upon them, and appreciate both the pain and the magnanimity with which they gave up their dearest and best to what they regarded their country's cause. Edward Everett, the Cicero of our country and age, whom the Head of the nation (our proto-martyr President, and Heaven grant he may be the last !) announced at his decease as our " first citizen," said, in conclusion of his eloquent address at the laying of the corner- stone of the Bloody-Brook monument, with his own peculiar felicity, "The 'Flower of Essex' shall bloom in undying re- membrance, as the lapse of time shall continually develop, in richer abundance, the fruits of what was done and suffered by our fathers."
I have dwelt thus long - longer perhaps than my space of time and your patience might properly allow -on the lives of the two men most prominent in the formation of this parish. Others there were well worthy of mention, and on whose quali- ties and worth I would gladly enlarge, that were instrumental in establishing it on a firm and durable basis. But, while omitting particular notice of them, let me for a few moments call your attention to the larger view, in which they also will be included, of the high privileges we enjoy, and the great obligations we owe, through the ancestors from whom we are descended, and the excellent of the earth by whom the founda-
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tions of Church and State among us were securely laid. Not to name or enumerate the Plymouth worthies, but to limit our view to those who arrived within these waters, what a gathering of the true and faithful do we behold ! First came Conant and his company, of whom I need not further speak. Then fol- lowed the company of Endicott, the wise, upright, magnanimous, yet not devoid of human passions, as was shown when, fined forty shillings for a personal assault, he said, that, if the subject of it had been a better foe, he would have preferred to settle the difficulty on the spot by bodily conflict. Soon afterward came John Winthrop, the great and good, a master-builder in our edifice of state. Accompanying him were choice spirits, actuated by the highest motives, inspired by a sublime enthusiasm, not counting their lives dear, but encountering all perils, and ready to endure all sufferings, for conscience' sake. Among them was Lady Arabella Johnson, whose coming and fate fur- nish one of the most pathetic stories in all history or romance. High-born, accomplished, leaving a home of refinement and luxury, of high and wide privilege, " a paradise of plenty for a wilderness of wants," pining in health on the dreary and trying voyage, but never faltering in self-devotion and holy purpose, revived by the sweet-scented gales from these shores, but only « stepping on them to find a grave, which, though marked by neither brass nor marble, is known to be almost within sight of the spot where we are assembled, and which, within a few weeks after her mortal part was consigned to it, was shared by her noble, devoted, and grief-stricken husband They, and those that were with them, afford some of the grandest examples of Christian heroism, self-devotion, and pious trust. Baptized they were as by fire ; yet they were baptized, I fully believe, into a purer faith and a higher life than the world had before known. Their very names are redolent with the odor of sanctity ; though dead, they speak ; and, ever since they lived, an elevating and hallowing influence has, in this community at least, been exerted by their lives and characters.
Much has been said and thought of the errors and defects of our forefathers. Doubtless they are chargeable with such, both
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light and grave. Among the lighter we may reckon the contro- versy, conducted at the time with great and serious earnestness, concerning the wearing of veils by women at public worship. Roger Williams had taken the ground that they should always in divine service be worn. But John Cotton, one Sunday morn- ing, when this theory was apparently in the full tide of success, and practically adopted by the good women of Salem, preached against it with such cogency of argument and convincing power, that they all, with one accord, came out in the afternoon with unveiled faces and charms. It must be remembered, however, that every age has its peculiarities and trivialities, when viewed by succeeding ages; and that our wisest and most charitable course is to judge the past as we would be judged by the future. Illiberality and exclusiveness have also been charged on our ancestors, and surely not without reason. They banished here- tics, hung Quakers, and permitted none but those of their own religious faith and fellowship to enjoy the right of suffrage, or be called freemen. As appears by the records of Essex County, Henry Herrick and his wife Edith were fined ten and eleven shillings, respectively (why the difference does not appear, un- less on the presumption that the man, as of old, was tempted by the woman), " for aiding and comforting," in this very town, " an excommunicated person, contrary to order." Yet it is to be considered, that the fathers regarded the society they founded here as a separate one, entitled to its own peculiar rights and privileges, and planted themselves especially on their favorite idea of a Christian Commonwealth.
Great misapprehension, too, prevails regarding the laws they enacted. Some of them, clearly, were barbarous in their spirit and execution. Thus Phillip Ratcliffe was sentenced to be whipped, have his ears cut off, fined forty shillings, and be ban- ished from the colony, for uttering malignant and scandalous speeches against the government and church of Salem. Sentence passed on one William Andrews, a niere youth, was, that for conspiracy against his master's life he be whipped, - probably in no slight degree, - and then committed to the not usually tender mercies of slavery. Nevertheless, the " Body of Liber-
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ties," the first code of laws adopted in New England, whose enactment dates back to the year 1641, was in some respects far in advance of its time. It was drafted by Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, author of "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam," who, before entering the ministry, had studied and practised law in England ; and a most honorable monument it is of his ability, learning, humaneness, and far-sighted sagacity. To man-stealing it affixed the foulest stigma, by subjecting it to the penalty of death. Whipping of wives by their husbands - which the English common law has allowed and justified almost, if not quite, to this day, the only trial under it being that of the occasion and degree of infliction - Ward's code absolutely for- bade, with the single exception, that such correction should be resorted to only in self-defence; and it made a near approach to the separation of Church and State, as now existing among us, by ordaining that no church censure should degrade or depose any man from civil dignity, office, or authority. Though bearing traces of the times in which it was framed, and marked by peculiarities of the people for whom it was intended and to whom it was adapted, "it shows " (says one who had mastered it thoroughly in all its provisions and bearings) " that our an- cestors, instead of deducing all their laws from the books of Moses, established at the outset a code of fundamental prin- ciples, which, taken as a whole, for wisdom, equity, adaptation to the wants of their community, and a liberality of sentiment superior to the age in which it was written, may fearlessly chal- lenge comparison with any similar production, from Magna Charta itself to the latest Bill of Rights that has been put forth in Europe or America."
Then, and above all, the fathers and founders of our churches and social state were inspired and actuated by a true, living, fer- vent, whole-souled devotion, - devotion to the heavenly Father's will, and the work given them to do. The very spirit of Christ, that consists in such devotion, and dwelt in him without measure, was with them, - shaded, it might be, by false theories and hu- man imperfections, yet was with them and in them abundantly. Faith in God, in his felt presence, in his benignant and superin-
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tending providence, that he would guide them to higher light and broader and better ends than had previously been attained, - this was their continual strong fortress. As a wall of fire it was around them, amid the trials, hardships, and perils to which they were exposed. Sustained and animated by that, they built better than they knew, achieved more than they pur- posed, rose to heights of usefulness and influence exceeding their loftiest aspirations. Their works do indeed follow them, and shall follow them, attended by the benedictions of count- less multitudes, in all coming ages.
But I must hasten to the mention of particulars more directly connected with our parish history. Owing to the inconvenience of crossing by boat or of travel by land, and the increase of population being felt to justify the movement, initiatory steps were taken in 1649 for establishing separate worship on this side the river, - the people here still retaining, as a branch of the same vine, their connection with the Salem parish, and those of them that were communicants joining in the communion service with their brethren across the water. A proposition to this effect was at first refused, for what reason it does not precisely appear. Evidently there was no desire of either party to be rid of the other, since the union implied in the proposal was kept up with mutual interest and harmony for near a score of years after it was renewed and granted. The arrangement proposed was entered into the next year after its inception. No house of wor- ship was erected for the new congregation, till six years after- ward when one was built on or near the site of your vestry. What its materials, dimensions, and style were, cannot now be ascertained. Probably it exhibited some improvement in mate- rial at least, if not in other respects, on the first Boston meeting- house, that stood on the east corner of State and Devonshire Streets; which was built a quarter century before, with mud walls and thatched roof, - though soon after, in consequence of a serious conflagration, it was ordered by the town that none should build there with thatched roofs or wooden chimneys. Modest, humble, and primitive in its construction and arrange- ments we may surely infer it was, when we read the records of
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