USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston : the Old North Church of Paul Revere fame : historical sketches, Colonial period, 1723-1775 > Part 13
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Ist VOTED that there shall be performed in said Church on Wednesday the 21st Inst. Vocal and Instrumen- tal Sacred Music. Tickets for admission @ 1/6 each. The amount to lessen the Expences that have arisen upon the Organ and if anything remains to be appropriated towards securing the tower.
2ª VOTED that the Wardens be Desired to conduct the business necessary for having the Sacred Music performed.
There is no record of what was performed or of how much money was raised for any of these repairs.
William Bright was followed by Dr. Josiah Leavett, who had been the inspiration to William Goodrich years before in building organs. Dr. Leavett's salary in 1792 was $6 from May to August; and from August until Easter, $20, which was raised to $30 in 1793, supple- mented by an additional $10 by a later vote. At this time $5 was voted for repairing the organ. Dr. Leavett ap- parently continued as organist until Easter, 1795.
After Easter, 1795, there is no record of payment to
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an organist, but Dr. Birkenhead began in March, 1796, at a salary of $80 per annum. The next year his salary was raised to $100, which amount he continued to re- ceive until Easter, 1799.
A vote by the proprietors to pay an organist $100 does not specify to whom the amount was paid, but the Easter vote in 1800 was that the wardens "agree with an organist for the ensuing year, on the best Terms they can," still without mentioning the name of the organist ; but the wardens voted in 1802 that any organist which they might select should not be paid more than "One Dollar for each & every Day that he performs on the Organ." This vote was repeated in 1803 and 1804, and in 1804 it was also voted, " that the thanks of the Soci- ety be presented to William Wetherly for his services as organist to the last Easter."
In 1805 and 1806 the wardens voted to procure an organist, presumably at the same salary as voted in 1804.
By 1807 the financial conditions of the church had improved, or the demands of the organist had increased, and George C. Sweeney occupied the post at a salary varying from $3.00 per Sunday to $150 a year. How- ever, in 1808, when $100 was appropriated "for the purpose of defraying the Expenses of Singers & Organ- ists Salary for the Year ensuing," this was supplemented by a later vote: "That some Sunday in May or June next shall be appropriated by voluntary Contributions for de- fraying the Expences of the musical establishment of this Church." On April 3rd, 1809, it was
VOTED: That the Salary of the Organist Geo. C. Sweeny for the Year ensuing be One hundred & Fifty Six Dollars to be assessed on the pew holders.
VOTED: That an early day be appropriated to Musical performances in this Church, that the Revd Asa Eaton be requested to prepare an address for the occasion & that a contribution be made to defray the expences of the Sing- ing Society.
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James Hooton began his career as organist in 1819, the estimated amount for expenses being for
Organist Bellows Blower IO
$100
Singing Soc. 100
To the allotment of salary for organist, Mr. Hooton made strenuous objection, saying :
I have played the Organ at the North Church about two years for 100 dollars per yr. which is (including the Evening Service) considerable less than one half the salery that some Organists have in this Town, as our Church is the only one that have Evening service the duty required of me is double that of any other therefore I do not think one hundred Dollars is sufficient.
Twenty dollars was added to his salary in reply to his request, and in 1823 he was receiving $150, but the salary was again reduced to $120 in 1824. It is reason- able to assume that he played the organ at the 100th anniversary service in December, 1823, but the time had come for a change, and in 1825 we find the first woman, Ann Ross, presiding at the organ in Christ Church, a custom followed at intervals during the next fifty years.
This brings the record of organists from 1736 to 1824, which was near the close of the first century of existence of Christ Church. Ever since the first organ had been set up, there had been unremitting efforts on the part of the wardens and vestries to maintain musical services, even through trying years of depression, infla- tion and two wars.
Christ Church had now reached the peak of its finan- cial prosperity, and in the ensuing years the musical part of the service became, especially under the Rev. William Croswell, a very notable addition to the liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Boston.
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DR. CUTLER ENTERTAINS THE CLERGY
O NCE more the treasure chests of Christ Church, Boston, have yielded an interesting document, a caterer's bill for a dinner eaten more than two hundred years ago. Here it is :
The North Society Dr. To Luke Vardy,
1738
To 31 Bottle Madera .
£ 9. . . . 6
To 5 do
I ... 5
To punch .
I . ... 15
To Tobacco
.... 5
To Beer & Cyder
. .
To Bacon .
3. ... 2 .. 6
To Beef
I . . . . 18
To 14 Chickens @ 1/8
I .... 3 .. 4
To Pidgons
I . ... IO
To 9 Ducks .
I . ... 10 .. 6
To 2 Apple pyes
I ....
To 13 doz. Costards
... 15
To 16 Tarts .
I ... .
To Greens
I. ... 18
To Butter
I .... 10
To the House
IO ....
£ 38 .... 8 .. 4
To short charge custds
& Tarts
12 ..
£ 39 .... 0 .. 4
Boston 27th Octor.
What was the occasion for this lavish display of viands, these quarts of wine and beer, these tarts, these apple "pyes"? Who was the host, who the guests? Each time I scanned this scrap of paper I seemed to see a story in it. One day, on quite a different quest, I chanced
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upon an item in the Boston News-Letter, that rich the- saurus of the antiquarian. It read as follows :
Boston, May 15, 1729. Deacons of United Churches in this Town intend to provide the Entertainment after the Sermon for the Convention of Ministers as usual.
"United Churches" would not of course include the Church of England, but might not Episcopalians also hold conventions? And if conventions, why not a ser- mon and a dinner? Might not Christ Church be the host and thus account for the bill? Then followed a series of interesting reading in contemporary documents. To September, 1738, in the Boston News-Letter I turn. Nothing. In the Boston Gazette, its contemporary, I fare better, for under date of September 25, 1738, this para- graph appears:
On Wednesday last, being the Anniversary Convention of the Episcopal Ministers of the Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire Government, was preached by the Rev. Mr. Arthur Brown of Portsmouth, a most excellent Sermon from the 3d. Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians and 8th. verse; which gave a general Satisfaction to a numerous Auditory.
Next a visit to the Boston Athenaeum, where the Christ Church record books are kept. There I find the missing link in the vestry record for September 5, 1738 :
Whereas the Reverd Gentlemen of the Clergy are to Meet at Boston in Convention to be held at Christ Church on Wednesday the 20th. Instant it is
VOTED that a Handsome Dinner be provided for the sd Reverd Gent" of the Clergy and that the Wardens of each Church and the Treasurer of the Charitable Society be invited and the Church Wardens do acquaint the Rev Mr Commissary Price therewith.
After naming a committee, the vote is supplemented by the following :
The Revd Dr Cutler having made his application to the Church Wardens & Vestry for Assistance towards defray- ing the Expences He will be at upon this Extraordinary
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Occasion of Entertaining at his house the Revd Gentn of the Clergy,
It is now
VOTED That the Church Wardens do pay the Sum of Ten Pounds to the Revd Dr Cutler for ye Use above mentioned.
With time, place and circumstance complete we may now arrange our dramatis personae. An easy task today with our voluminous convention journals, but for pre- Revolutionary churches, few of which have printed his- tories, it means either visiting these old churches and asking to see the records or writing to the parish his- torians for data. I have done both.
In 1738 New England comprised Massachusetts (which included Maine), New Hampshire, at that time under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. There was yet no Vermont. The Mas- sachusetts churches numbered nine. In Boston, there were three. I name them in order of age: King's Chapel, the Rev. Roger Price, rector and commissary for New Eng- land, the Rev. Addington Davenport, assistant rector; Christ Church, the Rev. Timothy Cutler, D.D., rector; Trinity Church, -there was no rector until 1740, the church being served by the commissary and other clergy- men. Elsewhere in Massachusetts the churches were- a mission at Dedham, of which the Rev. Timothy Cutler was rector, now St. Paul's; a mission at Salem, St. Peter's, served by the Rev. George Pigot, rector of St. Michael's, Marblehead; the Queen's Chapel at Newbury, now St. Paul's, Newburyport, the Rev. Matthias Plant, rector; Christ Church at Braintree, now Quincy, the Rev. Ebenezer Miller, rector; St. Andrew's, Scituate, now Hanover, the Rev. Charles Brockwell, rector.
There were four Rhode Island churches in 1738: Trinity Church, Newport, the Rev. James Honeyman, rector; Narragansett, the Rev. James McSparran, rec- tor; King's Church, Providence, now St. John's, George
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Taylor,1 a schoolmaster, officiated between the departure of the Rev. Arthur Browne and the arrival of the Rev. John Checkley,2 at a salary of ten pounds per year from the S. P. G .; St. Michael's Church, Bristol, the Rev. John Usher, rector. The only New Hampshire church was Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth, now St. John's, the Rev. Arthur Browne, A.M., rector.
Connecticut, by 1738, had seven organized churches. The Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., who had accompanied Timothy Cutler to England for ordination at the expense of the Christ Church parish, had opened the church at Stratford on Christmas Day, 1724, the year after their arrival from England, and had laid the foundations of the following churches in the succeeding fifteen years : Fairfield, New London, Newtown, Redding, Hebron, and Norwalk. The rectors of these churches and their wardens were included in those invited to partici- pate in the 1738 convention. The rectors were, at Fair- field, the Rev. Henry Caner 3; at New London, the Rev. Samuel Seabury4; at Newtown and Redding, the Rev. John Beach ; at Hebron, the Rev. John Bliss ; the Norwalk parish was organized in 1737 but no rector was chosen.5
The Boston Episcopal Charitable Society,6 whose treasurer in 1738 was Francis Brinley, Esq., one of the laymen invited to the convention, was founded April 6, 1724, and has continued its useful service for over two
1 C. R. Batchelder, History of the Eastern Diocese, Vol. II, p. 275.
2 Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, D.D., John Checkley, 2 vols., Boston, 1897.
3 Rev. Henry Caner, D.D., rector of King's Chapel, Boston, 1747-76. " Father of Bishop Samuel Seabury.
& Johnson at Stratford; Caner at Fairfield; the elder Seabury at New London; Beach at Newtown and Redding.
Four missionaries with five houses of worship constituted the work- ing clerical force of the Church in Connecticut down to the end of 1734. Vide, E. E. Beardsley, History of the Episcopal Church in Con- necticut, Vol. I.
6 The Boston Episcopal Charitable Society is the second oldest in New England. The beneficiaries are mostly persons who have seen better days and who cannot be helped by ordinary charitable organiza- tions. Its work is quiet and unostentatious.
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hundred years to those designated in its preamble of that date. Its first treasurer was John Jekyll, Esq., collector of His Majesty's customs for the Port of Boston.
In one of the inimitable historical papers delivered during his rectorate in Christ Church, Dr. Dewart 1 re- ferred to this convention, enlarging upon its delegates covering all New England, and then, pointing to the pew reserved for the gentlemen2 of the Bay of Hon- duras, those generous donators of logwood for Christ Church, he whimsically added: "and they all could have sat in that pew."
However, we may assume that by states they may have been scattered over the body of the church, and with the wardens and other laymen, sufficed to make up the "nu- merous auditory " of the Gazette report. We know that in the clerk's desk sat Francis Beteilhe3 and that the wardens, Edward Lutwyche and Hugh McDaniel, seated in the wardens' pews on each side of the "Great Door " and not, as now, in the body of the church, were part of the congregation.
All eyes must have been bent upon the Rev. Arthur Browne who was to preach the convention sermon. He does not seem to us today such a shadowy personage, for Longfellow has put him into one of his "Tales of the Wayside Inn" where, in the governor's mansion, he made the little waiting maid, Martha, Lady Went-
1 The Rev. William H. Dewart, L.H.D., rector of Christ Church, 1914-1926; rector emeritus, 1927-1941.
2 The Bay Pew: June 9, 1727, it was voted by the vestry: "That a Pew be expeditiously built next to the Pulpit and lin'd handsomely For the use of the Gentlemen of ye Bay of Honduras who have been or Shall be Benefactors to this Church." They were mostly sea captains who had promised to bring cargoes of logwood, a basis for black dye, from Central America to be sold for the benefit of Christ Church which was raising money to build a spire.
3 Francis Beteilhe (pronounced "Betterly ") was the first duly elected clerk of Christ Church, serving from 1733 until his death in 1739 (cir.). " It appears that Francis Beteilhe was a mason of First Lodge [St. John's] as early as July, 1734; that he was its secretary as well as that of Masters Lodge and that he is responsible for some of the finest and earli- est records of Masonry in this country." Letter from Herbert P. Holl- nagel.
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et
worth of the Hall. Readers of contemporary fiction 1 will not recognize, in the stern father uttering his dia- tribes on artists, the man who set forth in this conven- tion sermon, "The End for which God created us, was undoubtedly to make us Happy."
"The Excellency of the Christian Religion" (Philip- pians III: 8) was his subject and in the course of the sermon we find a note which was creeping into public discourse. Such phrases as, "The End for which God created Man was to make him happy - A State of Hap- piness, therefore, there must have been appointed for him, in the Decree and Fore-knowledge of God" - fore- shadow a similar phrase in a document much in our minds today, -" the pursuit of happiness" to which all men are entitled, and portray the character of the preacher. Another sermon, preached by Arthur Browne many years later at Trinity Church in Boston on "Universal Love," from the text "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light," enlarges on this concept of the Christian re- ligion, far ahead of the time in its thought.
From Dr. Cutler's house, only a stone's throw away, what delightful odors must have floated into the church to whet the appetites and keep heads unconsciously turned to gaze at the passing hour as Richard Avery's clock 2 ticked off the minutes.
1 " As secretary to the Dean, I made the acquaintance of all sorts of folk: actors, even: authors: artists. Almost the worst of the lot were the artists: a rude and clownish crew, unsavory and irreligious! They had no standing whatever! Painters, actors, mountebanks -they were all in the same boat: a wicked and adulterous generation! Even the family solicitor was preferable to an artist. I've seen artists left kicking their heels for hours in gentlemen's ante-chambers. They were poor men, too. All their lives they lived miserably in dire poverty. ... For the most part they were drunkards . .. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And for every Lely and Kneller, there were thousands of unsuccessful paint- daubers who thought they were artists. They rolled in gutters: starved and froze in garrets: filled their bellies with the husks that the swine did eat."
Quoted by Kenneth Roberts in " Northwest Passage."
2 Richard Avery's clock has been in Christ Church since 1726 and is still a good timepiece.
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THE EXCELLENCY OF THE
Chriftian Religion ;
Exhibited in a SER MON, BEFORE THE
Epifcopal CLERGY OF
NEW ENGLAND,
Convened at BOSTON :
And Preached at CHRIST Church, Sept. 20. 1738.
By ARTHUR BROWNE,
RECTOR of Portfmouth in New-Hampshire, and Miffionary to the SOCIETY for the Propa- gation of the Gofpel in Foreign Parts.
Publifh:d at the Requeft of fundry of the Audience.
BOSTON, N. E. Printed by S. KNEELAND and T. GREEN, for N. GREEN. MDCCXXXVIII.
1
TITLE PAGE OF SERMON Courtesy of the Congregational Library, Boston
THE REVEREND ARTHUR BROWNE, A.M. 1699-1773
Trinity College, Dublin, 1729; ordained deacon and priest, 1729, by the Bishop of London; S. P. G. Missionary, Providence, Rhode Island : 1730-1736; Queen's Chapel (St. John's), Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1736-1773
From the Portrait by John Singleton Copley, owned by the General Theological Library, Boston. Courtesy of Carl J. Wennerblad, State Supervisor, Historical Records Survey.
Before the days of parish houses with kitchens equipped to cater to anything from a vestry meeting to a parish supper, it was customary in the 18th century for the vestries of the three Episcopal churches in Boston to meet at some one of the famous taverns for which Boston was noted. Here over a good dinner or purely liquid refreshment, rector, wardens and vestrymen could think out their problems in the leisurely manner then in vogue. Trinity Church, Boston, was organized at the famous Bunch of Grapes Tavern.
On King Street (now State Street), which led to the market and docks, there stood for many years the Royal Exchange Tavern, rendezvous of gay youths, merchants and sea captains, and characterized by Sewall as a place of "debaucheries." Close by the Town House and op- posite the Royal Custom House, its appearance as late as 1770 has been preserved for us in Paul Revere's etching of the Boston Massacre, which occurred in front of it. In 1738 it was presided over by "honest Luke [Vardy], that cook from London," and was a favorite resort of the Freemasons, for Luke it was
" who oft dispelled their sadness
And filled the breth'rens' hearts with gladness."
The Royal Exchange might be called the Copley- Plaza of its day and its prices were often the subject of controversy. An Easter Monday dinner arranged for by the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society in 1731 was held at the Orange Tree Inn when one of the members objected to Vardy's exorbitant charges.1
1 Rev. Isaac Boyle, D.D., An Historical Memoir of the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society. 1840. The Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, then bishop of Massachusetts, said in an address made in 1924 on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the society :
" On Easter Monday, 1731, began, true to the habit of Englishmen accustomed to the dinners of charitable and other guilds in London, the series of annual dinners, which was broken only in the year of the Great Fire and during the War of the Revolution. Their first dinner, which was doubtless attended by the members in full dress of periwigs, blue coats, brass buttons, white stockings and buckled shoes, was held in the ' Orange Tree Inn near the head of Hanover Street.' "
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Luke Vardy, the London publican, had some difficulty when he arrived in Boston in 1716 in being allowed to sell "Strong Drink as an Innholder at ye Exchange Tav- ern" but he finally got permission from the authorities.
He was a good churchman, owning a pew at King's Chapel and married there to Jane Carson in 1744 by the Rev. Mr. Commissary Price. He was a liberal con- tributor to improvements at King's Chapel and the Royal Exchange was the frequent rendezvous for vestry meet- ings of the Episcopal churches. Sometimes the united vestries of King's Chapel and Christ Church met at the Royal Exchange. At one of these meetings, on August 20, 1734, the Rev. Arthur Browne, the preacher at the 1738 convention, was present. Trinity Church vestry met there in April 1739 to discuss the calling of the Rev. Addington Davenport.
The prices at the Royal Exchange continually rose owing to its popularity, and it may be noted that two years after this convention when Christ Church spire was erected Vardy did not provide the sumptuous "raising dinner."
Vardy was also a Mason in good standing and the sub- ject of many a satire by Joseph Green, a brother Mason.
"Honest Luke, much broken with wine and age," died September 13, 1753, age 67 years. The record in the King's Chapel register reads "Luke Vardy, formerly innholder." His wife did not long survive him as the record shows she was buried on September 26th of the same year.
An eminent church historian has called the convention of 1738 the first convention of New England clergy, a statement later amended, as there had been sporadic conventions for at least a quarter of a century, - one especially in 1726 at which Mr. Honeyman of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, was the preacher at King's Chapel, Boston.
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The burning question at many of these meetings was the need of a bishop for the colonies.1 The long sojourn in England for the ordination of Dr. Cutler and Dr. Johnson was financed by those desirous of establishing a second Episcopal church in Boston; but many candi- dates could not find financial backing for the long and dangerous voyage to England. Petitions for a bishop to the S. P. G., the Bishop of London, and even to the King, never got any further than sympathetic considera- tion; and the fear of establishing what the colonists most desired to avoid, the temporal power of the Church, kept a goodly proportion of the population firmly against it.
An amusing cartoon, entitled "An Attempt to Land a Bishop in America," has come down to us which por- trays the general attitude and doubtless did much to encourage the opponents. It is thus described by Bishop William Stevens Perry 2:
The scene depicted in this print is on a wharf. A crowd of excited colonists, with open mouths and violent gesticulations, are brandishing staves and clubs. One, in Quaker garb, stands with an open copy of Barclay's "Apology" in his hand. Others, with cropped hair and Puritan faces, are shouting, "No Lords, spiritual or temporal, in New England "; and are hurling copies of "Sydney on Government," " Calvin's Works," and " Locke," at a retreating figure who is climbing the shrouds of the "Hills- borough" ship, which is being thrust off from shore. The Episco- pal carriage is dismounted and packed on deck; the crosier and mitre are placed by its side, and the affrighted prelate, whose rochet and chimere are streaming behind him as he mounts the ropes in haste, is crying, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." The legend in front is, " Shall they be obliged to maintain bishops, who cannot maintain themselves?" while a grinning ape, in the foreground, poises a missile to hurl at the bishop. All this bravery of a mob in pursuit of a single, unarmed,
1 By 1763 the controversy had become so heated that various Episcopal clergymen were printing replies to the caustic pamphlets of Rev. Jona- than Mayhew, among them the rector of King's Chapel and the Rev. Arthur Browne.
2 History of the American Episcopal Church, Vol. I, p. 413.
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unresisting man is under the banner of "Liberty and Freedom of Conscience."
However, the Bishop of London, who had a very lim- ited jurisdiction over the North American missions rapidly increasing after the defection of the Yale Col- lege lights, sent out commissaries who acted for him in settling grievances and giving advice. For New England the Rev. Roger Price was the first and only Bishop's Commissary. He arrived in 1729, and was inducted as rector of King's Chapel, Boston. After the building of Trinity Church, which at first was merely a chapel of ease, he supplied that pulpit also, until his assistant, the Rev. Addington Davenport, became rector of Trinity Church in 1740.
The conventions called after his arrival in Boston were always with his consent and approval. The story of his life is tied up with all three Episcopal churches in Boston and with a rural mission and might well be told here.
Fond of the country life of the English parson, he acquired an estate in Hopkinton where he established a country church which became an absorbing interest in his life. So much so that the wardens and vestry of King's Chapel made it rather uncomfortable for his peace of mind. He resigned his rectorship and set sail for Eng- land. The ship was becalmed in the lower harbor and when Sunday came he went ashore and, avoiding King's Chapel, went to Trinity Church to worship. There he saw the beautiful Elizabeth Bull and found he didn't want to go back to England; and in the parish register of Christ Church you may read under date of April 14, 1735, the marriage of Mrs [Mistress] Elizabeth Bull to the Rev. Roger Price by Dr. Cutler. So back to King's Chapel he went and submitted to the wardens and vestry his acceptance of their legitimate demands. To hear the story properly, you should have been in Christ
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