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 5
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Corney had four children recorded in Gloucester be- fore he came to Boston where he is found in Bennett Street in 1710.
GEORGE MONK
George Monk, Boston tailor, was born November 7, 1683. His father of the same name, innholder and wine seller, came from Navestock, near Rumford, County Essex, to Boston and took the oath of allegiance in 1678. He became the jovial host of the Blue Anchor Tavern. Judge Sewall occasionally had a glass of wine with him but did not like his fritters. Twice he was up in court and the jury found for him. He died September 7, 1698. Shenstone, who lived a few years later, wrote :
Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
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1
John Dunton, a traveler who visited Boston in 1686, had the same view of the Blue Anchor.
George the tailor, son of George and Lucy Monk, was an active man, constable, clerk of the market, scavenger, and a speculator in lands "at the Eastward." In 1735 George went to see his property at North Yarmouth, Maine, and ran over to Fort Frederick, Pemaquid; there he broke his leg. It would seem not to have been his fault because Captain Woodside, the commander, gave him £31-15-0. Later Woodside tried to collect this sum from the Massachusetts General Court but his request was refused.
George Monk married in Boston, September 4, 1712, Elizabeth Howard. He was a member of the first vestry of Christ Church in 1724, and continued in office1 with the exception of one year up to the time of his death. He served also as junior warden in 1729 and as senior warden the next year. He was buried from Christ Church September 30, 1740.
NORTH INGHAM
The date and place of birth of North Ingham is not known, but he married in Boston August 5, 1720, Abigail, widow of John Badely, and had three daughters recorded there, Abigail, Mehitable and Susanna. The last one was born in 1726. Abigail's sister Mehitable had married during the previous year Thomas Selby, an active member of King's Chapel.
During the first year of his marriage, Ingham was a constable, and attended King's Chapel but served as a member of the Christ Church vestry in 1724-25. He con- tributed £10 to the building fund of Christ Church and bought a pew in 1724 which was sold in 1728 for £30.
Although called an " instrument maker," he was always
1 Longest service of anyone on the first vestry.
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a speculator in real estate. In 1723 he and his brother- in-law, Thomas Selby, acquired part of the lands of Ingham's mother-in-law at Pulling Point and Snake Island. In 1727 he purchased a saw mill in Dorchester. Three years later, he and others acquired "flatts down to low water mark" at the westerly end of Boston. Ingham joined six other well-known Boston men in 1731 to mine copper at Simsbury, Connecticut. This was against the laws of Great Britain and the work had to be carried on in secret. In 1735, a group of men calling themselves "North Ingham and Company" obtained from the Province five hundred acres of land south of Oxford, divided the property into farms and sold it. He represented the interests of Adam Winthrop of Boston and others in the "Golden Parlor" mines and was living in Wallingford as late as 1740. The "Parlor" however proved to contain no gold and very little copper.
In 1734 North Ingham sold his house and land on Hull Street to Benjamin Babbidge. He was co-signer with Thomas Ives in a letter to the Bishop of London in 1729, they two being the wardens of the Church of England in Wallingford, which shows that he kept up his church affiliations even after selling his pew in Christ Church in 1728.
CAPTAIN ROBERT TEMPLE
Captain Robert Temple, colonizer in Maine, arrived from the North of Ireland with his family and servants to settle in Boston in 1717. Temple became interested in the Kennebec River region and agreed to transport settlers from Ireland. He engaged two large ships in 1718 and chartered three more the next year. These ships landed Scotch-Irish immigrants at Merry Meeting Bay and returned to Ireland with staves. The business was so successful that Thomas Lechmere, agent for John Winthrop (not the governor), said : "These confounded
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1 S r
d
a a
Irish will eat us all up." Temple was shrewd and tried to work off a rascally miller on Winthrop, who had a mill at New London in Connecticut. When Temple was criticised, Lechmere remarked philosophically : “ No man who has fish to sell will say it stinks."
Temple eventually came into possession of the famous Ten Hills Farm between Charlestown and Medford. He also had a house "at the chaps of the Bay" on the Kennebec, which was burned in 1722. He was a gallant soldier, leading the settlers in defense of the colony during Indian raids. He served on the vestry of Christ Church, Boston, from 1724 to 1743, junior warden in 1741, and senior warden in 1742. His pew was near the front on the north side of the centre aisle. The next year he and John Hammock started a subscription list for the pur- chase of the bells in the steeple, and this action is re- corded on the sixth bell.
On August 11, 1721, Captain Temple married Mehitable, daughter of John Nelson, a prominent merchant of Boston, who had served on the vestry of King's Chapel from 1700 to 1719. Nelson went to Christ Church, where his death and that of his wife are re- corded. Captain Robert's son, Robert Temple, who in 1755 was "an inhabitant of Kennebec River," was on the vestry from 1759 to 1775, when as a Loyalist he left New England. A son, Sir John, was also well known.
Captain Temple died in April 1754, and was buried in his tomb under Christ Church on April 17th. In his long will, he leaves to his wife Mehitable the famous Ten Hills Farm and the use of his three Negroes, Barndon, Kerry and Mallow, the rents from his mills in Charles- town and his farm in Chelsea. To his son John he left the farm in Worcester, and either the one on Damaris- cotta River or the one on Pemaquid River, as well as his Negroes, Dutcher, Jumbo and Limerick. To his son William he gave his farm at Woburn, his Negro Jack,
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and lands on Kennebec River. He mentions his son Thomas in Jamaica, and his five daughters. The next two "items " read :
"I give to the Rev. D. D. Cutler my Beloved Minister £10 as a token of my great value and esteem for him."
"I give to the Poor of Christ Church in Boston £20 to be paid to the minister and church wardens of sd church on the Easter next following my funeral for the use of sd Poor."
Temple gave a like sum to the "ten poorest widows in Charlestown." The will shows Temple to have been an enterprising business man, a loyal churchman and a humane citizen.
These glimpses by Mr. Bolton into the lives of ten early Bostonians reveal a cross section of life in Boston in the early years of the 18th century. Whether chance or premeditation governed the selection of this first vestry, a glance at the various trades and occupations of its members and their social background throws a spotlight on the budding democracy which, a half century later, was to burst into full flower in this very corner of Boston.
What a world apparently separated the two wardens - Thomas Greaves, college graduate, physician and judge, and Anthony Blount, soap and candle maker, scavenger and hogreeve. The levelling which followed in the next one hundred years can be traced to the melt- ing pot'of 1724.
Annual elections of wardens and vestrymen were held on Easter Monday, when the junior warden usually advanced to the post of senior warden, the vestrymen usually coming up for re-election or, in case of death or other reasons, new names were added to fill vacancies. Thomas Greaves, to give the new vestry a start, served two years as senior warden, but remained on the vestry
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at various intervals until his death. Anthony Blount became senior warden in 1726, dying in the autumn, and until Easter Monday, 1727, there was but one warden, Edward Watts. Not until 1732 was there any change in the regular procedure, then William Price held the office of senior warden for three successive years and one of the first vestrymen, George Monk, served in one capacity or another, with the exception of one year, from 1724 until his death in 1740, a record of sixteen years of almost continuous service.
Following the custom of the day, vestry meetings were usually held at one of the numerous inns or taverns in which the town abounded, especially in the North End. Sometimes the proprietor was a vestryman or parishioner and just to read the names of these social resorts brings a flavor of good living into this story, for here congre- gated sea captains and merchants, gay blades, young men about town, or sober business men not averse to a little good cheer while discussing weighty affairs. Mr. William Patten, who was vestryman in 1726, was host at Ye Sign of the Golden Ball near the Dock and here many vestry meetings were held in the first ten years.
At the Bunch of Grapes, where in 1733 Trinity Church was organized, Edward Lutwych, a vestryman and pro- prietor of Christ Church, entertained the vestry in 1738; and the jovial Luke Vardy of King's Chapel parish was often the host at the Royal Exchange.
In 1728 interest in attendance on meetings seems to have lagged, for on June 4, 1728, it was
VOTED That by unanimous Consent Whenever the business of Christ Church Shall require the meeting of the Church Wardens & Vestry and they be reasonably warn'd That each Church Warden that doth not appear at the place appointed within two hours after the time limitted for meeting Shall pay thirty Shillings for each Default And Each Vestry Man so absent for each Default Shall pay Twenty Shillings; which Fines Shall be for the imediate benefitt of ye Said Company: Unless detain'd
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by Sickness or being out of Town the Day before or any other Extraordinary reason to be allow'd by every Member of the said Company.
This was modified the next November to a five shilling fine if they were over an hour late. Vestryman George Monk had his fine remitted in that year because he was absent "by reason he was a bearer at a Funeral."
Then, perhaps when prices were soaring or the punch was not to their taste, the vestry voted April 20, 1748 :
That for ye Future the Vestry Meet In ye Church Vestry Rooms & yt there be a Dozen of Chears provided for ye Seats to be paid out of the Church Stock.
But the lure of good cheer again caught up with the vestry and they returned to the Bunch of Grapes now run by Samuel Wetherhead and extolled "as the best punch house in Boston."
The story of the first vestry of Christ Church would not be complete without reference to the organization on the same day, April 6, 1724, of the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society, formed to provide assistance to the poor and needy of the Church of England parishioners in the town of Boston. All sorts and conditions of men joined the Society, among them fifteen of those who had bought pews in Christ Church in 1723, including every member of the first vestry except North Ingham.
The full story of the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society has been told elsewhere in this volume.
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THE VERSATILE MR. PRICE
A MONG the gallant band of Churchmen who as- sisted at the ceremony of laying the first stone . of Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston, on April 15, 1723, one William Price was destined to play a unique role.
In his sympathetic study1 Mr. William Vail Kellen calls him a "Colonial Philanthropist," a title borne out by the records of Christ Church. From his first sub- scription to its building fund in 1722, down to 1744 when the bells were hung in the tower, nothing which concerned the building or adornment of the new church was undertaken without his advice and supervision. His purse was as open as his labors were varied, for he gave not only of his substance but of his time and talents. In the ranks of the great army of Episcopal laymen who have made the Church the supreme concern of their life, he towers high in his generation.
William Price and Timothy Cutler, both born in the same year, 1684, began their long association in Christ Church in 1723, Dr. Cutler as rector and William Price, successively, as vestryman, and junior and senior warden. Dr. Cutler's sojourn in England at the time of his ordi- nation and Price's recurring visits to the land of his birth, served to cement their bond of common interests for twenty-one years until, Christ Church having grown up, William Price transferred to Trinity Church, though retaining to the end of his life a pew in all three Episcopal churches in Boston.
At the King's Head and Looking-Glass over against the Town House, William Price, often referred to as
1 Trinity Life, Trinity, 1937.
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a " pictermaker," kept a book shop where he sold maps, prints and other articles of domestic use, many of them purchased in London. In conjunction with William Burgis, a view of the Town of Boston was published in 1723 which was a notable contribution to the history of the early topography of Boston. Curiously enough, the view of Christ Church, evidently contributed by William Price from one of his many " draughts," shows a steeple sur- mounted by a cross. The cross was replaced, when the steeple was built in 1740, by Shem Drowne's weather vane.
In addition to other accomplishments, Price was fre- quently engaged in work for the town, as we learn from the bill in the files of the Bostonian Society. An example of versatility on his part is shown in the quaint wording of the bill which follows :
1740 The Province of ye Massachusetts Bay to Wm Price Dr
December 10, to unpacking ye pictures of King William and Queen Mary & fixing them up in ye Council Chamber & hooks and Nails £ 2-10
18, to taking down & fixing up ye 4 large pictures in ye Council Chamber &c at 20/ 4-00 to mending ye frame & Gilding & Cleans- ing ye picture of Princess Sophia 2-00
1741 June
20, to Cleansing ye frames & 4 Royall pictures &c in the Council Chamber at 60/ 12-00
to Ditto ye Kings Arms 1-00
July 15, to Cleansing ye pictures of ye King & Queen in ye House of Representatives & new Lacquiring ye frames &c 3-00
30, to painting a large map of ye Boundary lines on Cloth
1-10
[6] ]
.
St
August
25, to a large looking Glass for ye Lobby delivered Mr. Cotton 1-00
Boston March 12: 1741/2 Errors Excepted
£27-00
William Price May 20, 1742 Sworn Exam & Allowed N Tenor £6-5 J J
Unfortunately the destruction by fire of the interior of the old Town House in 1747 deprived following generations of the sight of the restored pictures of King William, Queen Mary and Princess Sophia.
To the student of Christ Church history, Price's two outstanding contributions, - the installation of the first organ and his services as organist and the building of the first spire, which he designed, -stand as signal examples of the versatility of an eighteenth century Churchman.
The story of the first organ and the building of the spire will be found in other chapters.
William Price's work in Christ Church was drawing to a close. He died May 30th, 1771, and by the terms of his will desired to be buried in his tomb in Trinity Church.
Remembered largely in the Diocese as founder of the Price Lectures, this story will best be told in Mr. Kellen's summary of this controversial affair.
FROM THE NOTES OF WILLIAM VAIL KELLEN INCLUDING EXCERPTS FROM THE WILL OF WILLIAM PRICE
First, he took ample care of his family. He made his wife, executrix, urging her to care for his nieces, as they together had done in his lifetime. He gave his wife all his personal property outright, subject only to trifling payments. Further, he gave his wife and nieces life tenancies successively in the brick mansion and its appurtenances; he gave them also sittings in the pew in
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Trinity Church, as long as they should choose to occupy it and pay the assessments. Upon the death of the last surviving life tenant, the estate was to go to the Rector and Wardens of King's Chapel and their successors as such, to be formally accepted by them in terms precisely set forth, and to be held "in trust forever," failing which acceptance, the estate was to go to Trinity Church on a like trust. The rental value of the estate was £20 a year.
The will of William Price contained a provision for setting up an Annual Course of Lenten Sermons in King's Chapel by the Minister and his assistant and the ministers of Christ Church and Trinity Church and their assistants. The first Sermon was to be preached in King's Chapel on the first Ash Wednesday after the testator's nieces' life tenancies in the estate had ceased, and the last sermon was to be preached on the Good Friday following. The sermons, eight in all on definite subjects, the services so arranged that each minister would preach on the eight different subjects so listed in such rotation " as that each of them should preach on the eight different subjects within four years." Each preacher was to be paid forty shillings for each sermon out of an appropriation of £16 to be made by King's Chapel out of the funds of the estate. If any preacher refused to officiate or was prevented from preaching " some other member of the Church of England was to officiate."
To show the minute care taken by the testator as regards these sermons, it will be necessary only to set out the programme of the testator for the first one in King's Chapel :
" First sermon on Ash Wednesday ( the service to begin about three o'clock in the afternoon) upon the duty, usefulness and propriety of fasting and abstinence or upon Repentance or Faith or Hope or Charity or Christian Morality."
This programme as well as those for the remaining sermons was to remain invariable in all the years to come. But William Price failed to allow for the prejudice of the early settlers against religious meetings on week-days and would not turn out on those days. The clergy not enjoying preaching to empty pews shared this feeling with the laity. As the time approached for the first Price Lecture another obstacle barred initiating this famous course of sermons. King's Chapel was now an independent church with a liturgy of its own. Dr. Freeman, its minister, due to preach the first sermon, let it be known that he would not, and could not,
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conscientiously, take part in a service conducted according to the form of worship of another church, nor could he even listen to prayers countenancing doctrines which he did not believe in.
The terms including dates and attendance of clergy of the three churches concerned were according to the terms of the will "unalterable and perpetual." Owing to the defection of King's Chapel, which had become an independent church, the first lectures were not held until 1814. There followed the controversy regarding the ownership of the real estate left by William Price. After long litigation and dispute, the matter was amicably adjusted, with Trinity Church practically the gainer. The Price Lectures and the income from the Price Fund have continued to the present time.
One of the lessons to be learned from this will is the objection to making hard and fast rules which in later years produce almost insurmountable obstacles to fulfill- ment; but the work of William Price, the philanthropist, nevertheless will always remain as a symbol of church- manship in those churches to which he gave so much.
The organ is gone, replaced by a better one. The spire, by an Act of God, fell to earth, but the marvelously preserved records of Christ Church will forever keep green the memory of William Price and serve as the monument of a true lover of the Church. A simple tablet to his memory may be found in King's Chapel. The one in Trinity Church, recently erected and portraying so well the character of this Churchman, may well take the place of an eulogy :
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IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM PRICE
Born in England in 1684 Came to Massachusetts in Young Manhood Book and Print Seller on Cornhill Business Associate of Paul Revere Anglican Churchman in Puritan Boston Benefactor and Member of King's Chapel and of Christ Church Contributor to the First Trinity Building Fund Vestryman - Trinity Church - 1744-1751 Junior Warden 1745-1750
Founder of the Price Lectures and Creator of the Price Fund Died in 1771
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1
THE BRANCHES
O VER the broad center aisle of Christ Church hang two graceful brass chandeliers of ancient make and pattern. When and whence they came has been a matter of much speculation and many mis- statements, beginning with Dr. Eaton's reference in his Historical Account of Christ Church published in 1824, in which he states that in 1758 they came on "a French prize ship brought here by Captain Grushea (Gruchy) of Jersey. In this ship were two brass and two glass chandeliers which Captain Grushea generously presented to the church. The two brass ones only remain." Coming from such an authority, this statement was long unques- tioned, being the first published record concerning them.
That they were a gift of some parishioner or friend of the parish seemed obvious as in the carefully kept in- voices and parish expenses there is no mention of pay- ment, but there are early references to their use. Another pair of almost identical size and form hang in Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, on one of which is en- graved Thomas Drew Exon. 1728. So far as we know, those in Christ Church bear no name or date. As these chandeliers antedate all other possessions of the church now extant and represent the largest individual lay gift on the list of benefactors, it seemed worth while to make a determined effort to find the name of the generous donor of two centuries ago.
Fortunately there was an ancient custom in Christ Church which required retiring wardens to hand over to their successors a list of all "utencils," that is possessions, which they as wardens held in trust for the parish. The wardens' list of April 7, 1735, contains the first of these records of the "branches"; but that they were in use
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almost from the beginning, certain entries with precise dates enable us to fix the time of their installation more than a decade earlier.
The specific entries to which I refer are as follows :
June 15, 1724 To porteridge to £ carry Candlesticks - - I sh
October 1724 For the Fret work round ye Branches Robert Kenton was paid 2 - -
Nov. 21, 1724 For putting in Collers and preparation for the Branches Tippin & Bennett were paid 3 - 6
Jany 6, 1724-5 For hanging the Sconces Tippin & Bennett were paid I - -
They were in place probably for Epiphany 1725. Whether they were put up temporarily or whether William Ivers did not render his bill at the time, on May I, 1725, Anthony Blount, the warden, paid him "For rope for hanging the Branches at Christ Church, the sum of fourty shillings in full £2." Had I not seen the Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island, chandeliers which still hang by ropes, this item might have puzzled me. In Christ Church, a gay note of color was added by John Gibbs the painter, when the ropes were painted four times over, "Prussian blew."
Then begins in the records the almost ritualistic ob- servance of the annual " cleaning the branches." The first bill is dated December 24, 1725, a charge of two pounds paid to Stephen Pearkes (pronounced and sometimes spelled Perks) ; that is, one pound each, showing that the candle grease accumulations were removed for the Christ- mas of 1725. Each chandelier has twelve candlesticks in two rows, six in each circle around two globes or balls of different size, the upper ball surmounted by a dove with outstretched wings. The dove, a charming finish, is absent from the Newport fixtures; but there the mellow
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tone of old brass is kept, making it possible to read the engraving while preserving the original appearance. Unfortunately, those in Christ Church received a heavy coating of bronze paint when extended repairs were made in 1884; and if there is any engraving, it is covered by the ugly bronze coat. That the branches were considered of sufficient importance to receive regular and proper attention to keep them beautiful, is evidenced by pay- ments for cleaning which continued for more than a century and a half until the unfortunate "improvement " of bronzing spoiled them in the eyes of both antiquarian and artist.
The use of ropes for hanging the branches was con- tinued for some years, as frequent bills for repairing and painting them denote, which may mean that they served the utilitarian purpose of raising or lowering the fixtures for lighting. In November 1730, John Gibbs painted them for the last time "three times over " at a cost of £2:10 and £1 :10 for gilding 4 balls. A bill of two pounds ren- dered November 2, 1732, by John Brocas, Jr., for "work Done at Christ Church towards finishing the Irons for the Branches," fixes the date of the new method of suspension. The rods are extremely graceful in design and we wonder how much John Gibbs added to their beauty when, just before Christmas 1732, he rendered his bill for two pounds, fifteen shillings, " for painting ye Irons prussian Blew and picking in Vermilion." Twenty- one books of gold are included in this bill, use not speci- fied. In March 1735, Edward Lack, at a cost of three pounds, ten shillings, was paid "for altrin and fitting the Branch Irons."
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