USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Annals of King's Chapel from the Puritan age of New England to the present day > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
of $500 for the benefit of the poor of vested (1838) in the present Library building, Gore ITall. this Society. Among Governor Gore's bequests were $rooo to the American 1 Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proceedings for April, 1829, i. 421-423. Academy, and $2000 to the Mass. Histo- rical Society, besides the munificent sum 2 Dr. Dexter's residence was in Milk of $100,000 to Harvard University, in- Street, opposite the lower end of the
481
THE MINISTRY OF F. W. P. GREENWOOD.
The life of Hon. William Sullivan (1774-1839) is also a part of the history of King's Chapel, of which he was a Vestryman from 1810 till 1838. We gather a few facts of his eminent career chiefly from a Memoir by Thomas C. Amory, Esq.1
He was the second son of Gov. James Sullivan (1744-1808), who after his appointment to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in March, 1776, removed to Groton; and thence, in 1781, to Boston, where, re- signing his seat on the bench, he again took up the practice of his profession. The son graduated from Harvard College, with the highest honors, in 1792 ; studied law in his father's office, and was admitted to practice in 1795. "Of an ardent temperament, sound sense, and inde- fatigable industry, he easily took a respectable position at the bar of Suffolk, then comparing favorably with any other in the land for ability, eloquence, and learning." Of distinguished personal and social qualities, fond of society, with quick wit and ready sympathy, he was yet emi- nently faithful to his professional duties; "and his ability, good judg- ment, and integrity of character inspiring confidence, he gained many friends." As an advocate he was prudent, eloquent, and persuasive, - " perhaps a little too far removed from ostentation for the highest suc- cess." In the political struggles of the early years of this century, his sympathies were with the Federalists and against the Jeffersonian party, of which his father was the leader in Massachusetts, but with a temper "too well regulated to indulge in personal asperities." At one time he seemed likely to reach the highest political distinction, but was drawn back to private life in 1821, when already Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, with a prospect of being made Governor. " Obligations of a private and professional nature compelled him to resign the chair at a moment when universally popular." His social position and family connections made his life at this period one of singular charm : " certainly there never was a pleasanter home, a more accomplished host, one more ready or able to assume the whole responsibility for the happi- ness of the hour, or to put his guests at their ease, and bring out what was most agreeable in each." A ready and voluminous writer, he is per- haps best known by his " Political Class Book " (1831), " Moral Class Book " (1833), "Historical Class Book " (of the same year), and a series of "Lectures " on the public men of the Revolution, which was repub- lished eight years after his death. Another charming volume of his, too little known at the present day, is entitled " Familiar Letters on Public Characters and Public Events ; from the Peace of 1783 to the Peace of
rope-walks that were burned in the great fire of July 30, 1794. (Sargent's Deal- ings with the Dead, ii. 450.)
There is a valuable account by Dr. Ephraim Eliot of the Physicians of Bos- ton during and after the Revolution, in-
VOL. II. - 31
cluding several who were members of this Parish, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for November, 1863, vii. 177-184.
1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for April, 1840, ii. 150-160.
See ante p: 471, note.
482
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
1815.1 It was written to refute the aspersions cast upon public men, including not a few in Massachusetts, contained in the " Memoir and Writings of Thomas Jefferson." In 1837 " he published another book, entitled 'Sea Life,' for the benefit of mariners, in whose welfare he always took a lively interest, and to whose eloquent preacher, Father Taylor, - who pronounced him, when he died, the prince of gentlemen, - he was an attached friend. He himself contributed to the erection of their Bethel to the extent of his power, persuading his wealthier friends to larger donations. His published works were principally designed to inculcate sound and sensible views of religion, moral- ity, philosophy, and civil obliga- tions." He was, also, "among the most zealous in the cause of temperance," at a time when methods of persuasion were deemed of more account than legal restraints.
Mr. Sullivan received from Harvard College the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1826. He received also the honors of the American Academy of Arts and HON. WILLIAM SULLIVAN. Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, of the Historical Societies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, and of other learned bodies.
In King's Chapel, which he attended, and where he was a constant communicant, is a marble monument on the south wall, erected to his memory, " that the contemplation of his virtues may be lasting," by his constant friend, George B. Emerson, jointly with his daughter, Mrs. Oakey, with a profile likeness in high relief taken from a portrait painted by his son-in-law, Stuart Newton, and an inscription, given below, which describes him as "ingenuous, benignant, upright, well versed in affairs civil and military, an eminent lawyer and eloquent advocate, an intelli- gent and diligent observer of all that deserves to be remembered ; studious of whatever can make mankind more noble, more highly civil- ized, or truly happy ; amiable, dignified, and companionable, and never unmindful of the most humble of his friends or guests."
The following is the full text of the inscription on the mural Monument : -
1 Boston, 1834, pp. 4GS.
483
THE MINISTRY OF F. W. P. GREENWOOD.
GULIELMO · SULLIVAN.
JACOBI . MASSACHUSETTENSIUM . BIS . GUBERNATORIS . FILIO JOHANNIS . IN . BELLO . LIBERTATIS . VINDICE . DUCIS . NEPOTI VIRO . SOLERTI . BENIGNO . INTEGERRIMO SUMMA . DIGNITATE . ET . COMITATE . PR.EDITO
REBUS . ET . CIVILIBUS . ET . MILITARIBUS . CUM . LAUDE . VERSATO
JURISCONSULTO . PRÆSTANTI . CAUSIDICO . FACUNDO .
SCRIPTORI . JUCUNDO . SUBTILI IN . SERMONE . SUAVISSIMO OMNIUM . QUIBUS . HOMO
NOBILIOR . HUMANIOR . ATQUE . BEATIOR . FIERI . POSSIT PERSTUDIOSO
FILIA . AMANTISSIMA . ET . AMICUS . PR.ECIPUE . DEVINCTUS UT . CONTEMPI.ATIO . VIRTUTUM . PERMANEAT HOC . MARMOR . LUGENTES . POSUERUNT.
NATUS . XII . NOV . MDCC . LXX . IV EXCESSIT . 111 . SEPT . MDCCC . XXX . 1X
-
At the foot of the Monument are the arms and crest of the Sullivans above a ribbon bearing the motto, LAMII . FOISDIN . EACH . AN . UCCHTAR,' and the letters D. O. M.
Col. JOSEPH MAY (1760-1841) "was of the sixth generation from the first immigrant of the name, who was John May, of Mayfield, Sussex, England," who emigrated to Plymouth, Mass., in 1640, at the age of fifty, and re- moved to Roxbury the following year.2 The family, some years before the Revolution, had be- come connected with Hollis Street Church, but, displeased by the loyalist sentiments of Dr. Mather Byles, joined the congregation of the Old South, and so became attendants at King's Chapel, where the subject of this sketch con- tinued a member till his death, HOLLIS STREET CHURCH. taking an active part in the changes brought about in 1785 and
1 This Gaelic motto is translated by Burke, " What we gain by conquest we secure by clemency."
2 The line of his descendants is as
follows : (2) John, 1628-1671 ("blind for several of the last months of his life ") ; (3) John, 1663-1730, a deacon of the Roxbury Church ; (4) Ebenezer,
484
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
1787, and holding, for many years, the office of Warden. Upon his retirement from office the following action was taken by the Parish at the Easter meeting, April 22, 1827 : --
On motion of William Sullivan, Esq., seconded by Mr. Coolidge, it was Voted, That the thanks of the Proprietors of King's Chapel be presented to Col. Joseph May for the zeal, fidelity, and punctuality with which for a long series of years he has discharged the duties of Church Warden, for the great service he has rendered them in preserving the records of the Church and keeping them with correctness, and for the devoted interest which he has at all times manifested in its concerns ; and that the best wishes of the Proprietors attend him on the present resignation of his office.
Two years later the Wardens received from Colonel May 1 the following letter : -
19 April, 1829. To F. J. Oliver and W. Minot, Esquires :
I have placed upon the Communion Table Two plates, which I wish to present to King's Chapel Church for the Service of the Com- munion, and as a token of the affection and gratitude of your friend and Christian brother,
Los: May
We copy here from a Memorial Sermon preached by Dr. Greenwood, March 7, 1841, and from a pamphlet Memoir 2 by his nephew, Rev. Samuel May, of Leicester : --
" Mr. May was a native of Boston, where he spent his long life, and was generally known to the inhabitants of the city. He was educated as a merchant, but for more than forty years before his decease he was Secretary of a public Insurance Company, in which office it was his good fortune to be associated with the succession of men greatly distinguished for moral and intellectual endowments, by whom he was highly esteemed, and whose society excited and improved his own strong mind. Without pretensions to literary distinction, he acquired from books and exact observation a great store of knowledge on most subjects of interest and utility in the
1692-1752 ; (5) Samuel (father of Joseph), 1723-1794 ; (6) Joseph, 1760- 1841, and Samuel, 1776-1870; besides seven daughters, all of whom were mar- ried.
1 Colonel May's military title came
with the command of the Independent Corps of Cadets, with which he was connected for several years.
2 Reprinted from the New-Eng. Hist. and Gen. Register for April, 1873, xxvii. 113-121.
Ersichay
485
THE MINISTRY OF F. W. P. GREENWOOD.
conduct of life. A retentive memory made him an instructive and amusing chronicler of the events of the last seventy years (for he. rarely lost a fact which had been once impressed on his mind), and his extensive acquaintance with contemporary society afforded innumerable illustrations of the character of the eminent men of that period, as well as of domestic occurrences. . . .
"To the interests of this Church, from that time [1787] to the day of his death, Mr. May was always a steady and efficient friend. Its rec- ords, since the Revolution, bear witness to his services on almost every page. He served as Junior Warden with Dr. Bulfinch, in 1793 and 1794; in 1795 with Mr. Charles Miller, and from 1798 to 1826, a term of twenty-eight years, with Mr. Ebenezer Oliver. It was mainly through his persevering applications that the ancient Records and Registers of the Chapel were obtained from the heirs of Dr. Caner, in England, in the year 1805;1 and his high estimation of the value of such docu- ments, and particular attention to their preservation and regular continu- ance, - which are too often reckoned as trivial matters, and unworthy the regard of a liberal mind, - are abundantly justified by the fact, that, since the recovery of these Records and Registers, property to a large amount has been secured, through their means and evidence, to the rightful possessors. . .
" His ideas and feelings respecting riches, though not perhaps peculiar, were certainly not common. He regarded the gift of property to one's children a questionable good. He has often said that he knew many promising youth who were stinted in their intellectual and moral growth by the expectation of an inheritance that would relieve them from the necessity of labor. Every man, he would add, should stand upon his own feet, rely upon his own resources, know how to take care of himself, supply his own wants; and that parent does his child no good who takes from him the inducement, nay, the necessity to do so.2
" When about thirty-eight years of age he was stopped in the midst of a very profitable business, in which he had already acquired a consider- able fortune, by the result of an ill-advised speculation [of his partner]. He foresaw that he must fail, and at once gave up all his property, 'even to the ring on his finger, for the benefit of his creditors.' The suffering
1 Colonel May noted in the Registers that they were received by him Oct. 25, 1805, from Mr. John Gore, merchant, who procured them from the heirs of Dr. Caner.
2 His son, the late Rev. Samuel J. May, of Syracuse, N. Y., wrote of him : -
" When I brought to him my last Col- lege bill receipted, he folded it with an emphatic pressure of his hand, saying as he did it : ' My son, I am rejoiced that you have gotten through, and that I have been able to afford you the advantages
you have enjoyed. If you have been faithful, you must now be possessed of an education that will enable you to go anywhere, stand up among your fellow- men, and, by serving them in one de- partment of usefulness or another, make yourself worthy of a comfortable liveli- hood, if no more. If you have not im- proved your advantages, or should be hereafter slothful, I thank God that I have not property to leave you that will hold you up in a place among men where you will not deserve to stand.'"
486
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
which this disaster caused revealed to him that he had become more eager for property, and had allowed himself to regard its possession more highly, than was creditable to his understanding or good for his heart. After some days of deep depression, he formed the resolution never to be a rich man, but to withstand all temptations to engage again in the pursuit of wealth. He adhered to this determination, and resolutely refused several very advantageous offers of partnership in lucrative concerns."
" He was," says Rev. Samuel May, " the first and only Secretary of the Boston Marine Insurance Company, which was chartered Feb. 13, 1799. 'The salary never exceeded fifteen hundred dollars, and at times was less ; but the position and income alike comported with the new resolutions he had formed, and with his now fixed ideas concerning the uses of life ; and he held the office, busily and contentedly, until January, 1838, at which time age compelled him to leave it, and the Company was dissolved. [See ante, p. 383, note.] Undoubtedly one reason for his seeking this office was that it would usually give him the afternoon of the day for those other objects in which he was interested, and which came to absorb more and more of his attention. He aided to establish the Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital and the Asylum for the insane, and was one of the Trustees from 1813 to 1826. But he gave more time to cases of private need, to families overtaken by misfortune or suffering from improvidence."
" He never," observes his son, " seemed to feel displeased when asked to relieve the necessities of his fellow-beings, and therefore never hastily dismissed their claims, but carefully considered them, that he might give substantial and permanent aid. I cannot remember the time when he was not planning for the benefit of several poor or afflicted persons. The last few years of his life were peculiarly blessed by visits from numerous persons, or the children of persons, whom he had befriended. . . .
"There was a time when, as he afterwards thought, he was not dis- criminating enough in his charities. The reading of Malthus on Popu- lation, and the discussions which arose upon the publication of that work, modified considerably his views of true benevolence. Prevention of poverty seemed to him both more merciful and practicable than the relief of it; and he was therefore continually suggesting to those who were on the verge of poverty principles of economy and kinds of labor by which they were enabled to put themselves into a comfortable estate."
" In active benevolence and works of charity," continues Dr. Green- wood, " he seems to have been indefatigable and unsurpassed. He was not able to bestow large donations on public institutions, but he was a valuable friend, promoter, and director of some of the most important of them. His private charities are not to be numbered. I believe that without much trouble he might be traced through every quarter of the city by the footprints of his benefactions. Pensioners came to the door of his house as they do in some countries to the gate of a convent. The worthy poor found in him a friend, and the unworthy he endeavored to reform. His aid to those in distress and need was in many cases not
487
THE MINISTRY OF F. W. P. GREENWOOD.
merely temporary and limited to single applications, but as extensive and permanent as the life and future course of its object. I think I may be allowed to mention, as one instance of this effectual species of charity, that one whole family of fatherless and motherless and destitute children, bound to him by no tie but that of human brotherhood, found a father in him, and owe to him, under Heaven, the respectability and comfort of their earthly condition."
"Some," wrote Mr. George B. Emerson, " benefit by munificent gifts, by noteworthy contributions to great public needs. Colonel May could do nothing of this ; but by the sunshine of his nature, by the uprightness of his life, by the vigor of his thought, by the winning tones of his musi- cal voice, by the protecting strength of his friendship, he succored many needy and bereaved, saved many young and tempted, wiped away the tears of orphans and found or gave them a home, and diffused hope, light, and cheerfulness wherever he went. 'Content with life and happy at its end ' (as it was written of him), he passed onward gladly and trustingly, giving to all who ever knew him a new sense of the dignity and value of a human life." 1
A mural Monument on the north wall bears this inscription :
JOSEPH MAY.
BORN IN BOSTON, MARCH 25 1760, DIED FEB. 27 1841.
A MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH DURING NEARLY SIXTY YEARS, AND ONE OF ITS WARDENS FOR MORE THAN THIRTY,
HE WAS ONE OF THOSE WHO VOTED IN 1785 TO REVISE THE LITURGY AND SUBSEQUENTLY TO ORDAIN AS RECTOR THE REVEREND JAMES FREEMAN, WHEREBY THIS BECAME AN INDEPENDENT CHURCH.
HIS LOVE FOR THIS CHURCH WAS CONSTANT AND PECULIAR,
HIS ATTACHMENT TO ITS WORSHIP INTELLIGENT AND LIFE-LONG,
AND HIS DEVOTION TO ITS INTERESTS WAS UNWAVERING.
OF INFLEXIBLE INTEGRITY, EXACT, UNTIRING, UNSELFISH, FIRM IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, SUSTAINED BY AN ANIMATING HOPE,
AND IN CHARITY GENEROUS, PATIENT AND JUDICIOUS, 'HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRACED
THROUGH EVERY QUARTER OF THE CITY BY THE FOOTPRINTS OF HIS BENEFACTIONS.'
1 See a note on Colonel May on p. 383, ante.
48S
ANNALS OF KING'S CHAPEL.
Of two other eminent persons who had been members of his Parish, Dr. KIRKLAND and Dr. TUCKERMAN, it was Dr. Green- wood's lot to speak,1 after his return from an absence for health, in June, 1840. Of the former he says : -
" First, let me speak of him who first claimed my respect and love as the venerated head of the University at which I was educated, and who, after resigning [the Presidency of Harvard College ], worshipped with us for a period in this church, and communed with us at this table of the Lord. How shall I do justice to that various learning which made him equal to all occasions, and to that easy felicity of manner which threw a careless grace over offices which prove to so many others cumbrous and unbecoming ; to that wisdom which probed into the heart of affairs and the bosoms of men, and that simplicity which won confidence, disarmed suspicion, and reassured the ignorant and timid ; to that reasonable dignity which he wore like a robe, but without sternness and without formality, and that gayety of spirit and demeanor which was the delight of his intimate friends, but never degenerated into irreverence or levity ; to that justice which dealt its awards with an equal hand, and that kindness which flowed out from the kindest of hearts, and could hardly be checked even by the unworthiness of its object? The benefits which as a clergyman, as President of our University, as a favorer of all good institutions, he conferred on the community, the com- munity showed that they had not forgotten, when, though a long period of retirement and comparative inactivity had intervened, they lately flocked round his coffin with as fresh an interest, and with as ardent an offering of tears and honors, as if he had died in the prime of his powers and usefulness, and perhaps with a tenderer remembrance.
" Has he not returned to his rest? Was not the long rest needful mercifully appointed? He had been a wanderer, a pilgrim, in body and mind. His feet had trodden on far distant lands, even on the land where his Saviour had walked before ; but now to those tired feet there is ordered a rest. His mind had struggled with masking clouds, - yet showing by many a bright glimpse that the same sun was there, - but now it has found rest in a cloudless world. That wise and gentle soul, after much ' weariness and painfulness,' has returned unto its rest."
Of the latter he writes : -
" And another has returned, - one who for many years and to the last was counted among our number, worshipping with us and communing with us whenever he was able to leave his own house. To him, also,
titled " Rest of the Soul." It was de- livered June 14, IS40, from the text, " Return unto thy rest, O my soul." Psalms, cxvi. 7.
Of numerous pulpit discourses occa-
1 This unpublished sermon was en- sioned by Dr. Kirkland's death, at least three were given to the press ; namely, those by the Rev. Dr. Francis Parkman, Rev. Alexander Young, and the Rev. Dr. John Gorham Palfrey Dr. Young gives a full sketch of the President's life.
489
THE MINISTRY OF F. W. P. GREENWOOD.
society is under no common debt. To him may be ascribed the origin of a charity which among the latest forms of doing good may take the first place. The Ministry at Large, through which so great an amount of religious instruction, comfort, and guidance is dispensed to the needy, calls our lately deceased friend its founder. Coming from a small parish in the neighborhood to the metropolis, he very soon devoted himself with a true missionary zeal to the moral elevation, which necessarily includes and supposes the physical well-being, of the neglected poor, - neglected by others, neglected by themselves, - always a numerous class in cities. With what a holy warmth he pursued this work is known to all who knew him ; with what important results, the three full churches in this city which have sprung from the first small chapel in Friend Street, and the grateful echo of his name from various parts of our country and from abroad, will bear ample testimony. Benevolence was, in him, genius supplying the impulses and performing the offices of genius. He felt that his duty was one which was not to be comprehended nor discharged in a day ; and he gave to it his days, his thoughts, his affections, and his strength, and performed in it that which mere genius cannot perform. Every successive year found him more acquainted with its multiplied bearings, more practised in its crowded details ; and a body of practical knowledge relating to it is to be obtained from his periodical Reports, and from the volume which he published on the Ministry at Large, which is not to be met with elsewhere. His labors in the cause which he had espoused with his whole soul were unremitting, frequently exhausting, and they no doubt contributed to break down a naturally slender consti- tution. But in this service he was willing to be spent ; and no service, surely, could be worthier of a costly sacrifice. So long as the poor are with us will his memory be cherished."
The names here recorded illustrate the part contributed by King's Chapel to that elder form of liberal piety sometimes known as " Channing Unitarianism." Dr. Greenwood's death followed that of Channing at an interval of just ten months; and it was the great felicity of this congregation, that the purest and noblest spirit of the earlier period was so fully exemplified in the ministry of his successor, which we have now to trace.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE MINISTRY OF EPHRAIM PEABODY.
HE death of Dr. Greenwood, although long foreseen, had come with sorrow to the Parish that had so long cherished him with loving pride. His destined suc- cessor was to be one already well known in Bos- ton; but there was first a considerable delay. Six months before Dr. Greenwood's death, in February, 1843, a circular letter had been addressed by the Vestry to the members of the Parish, saying that there was reason to believe it possible to secure the services of Rev. Ephraim Peabody of New Bedford, as Colleague Pastor, "if proper measures were adopted in relation both to him and the Parish with which he is now connected." At the Pro- prietors' meeting to consider the subject, March 12, Mr. Curtis reported for the Wardens and Vestry that " they had hoped to make this arrangement, but a letter since received from Mr. Peabody pre- cluded all hope of such a result." There may well have been a lingering hope, however, that this might come to pass later; and it is probable that this interfered later with a different arrangement that was had in mind.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.