USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Exercises in commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the gathering of the First church in Salem, Massachusetts. May 26-June 3, 1929 > Part 4
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. I have purposely given very little account of
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the theological changes in the church, partly because I have no special qualifications for such an examination and partly because, within the limits of an evening address, it is impossible to discuss fine points in theology satisfactorily. I preferred to use my time in what might be called the social history of the church and its place in the community. If I succeed in bringing before the present members of the Society some idea of the community and the position that the North Church occupied in it, and in pic- turing a few of the fine men who supported it, I shall have accomplished all that I attempted.
If I were preaching a memorial sermon, I should take my text from Isaiah LI, I: “Harken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn."
This is frankly an appeal to the past. The prophet was trying to arouse the people to higher ambitions and a nobler life. He had reasoned with them, had threatened them with God's wrath, had encouraged them with God's promises, and now in this text he strikes their sense of loyalty and honor by an appeal to the past. "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn." That is my appeal to-night, and
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I can make it with confidence, for few churches have a prouder heritage than ours and there is little in its history which we need be ashamed of or feel called upon to apologize for. Our predecessors did not always do what we in the twentieth century would do; but, judged by the standards of their own time, they were pro- gressive and liberal without being sensationally radical, and they were a calm and conservative force in the city and in the town. If three hun- dred years hence our descendants can look back over our work and say as much, we shall have reason to be content.
In order to understand our church, we must go back to its dear mother, the First Church in Salem, of which it is an offshoot. You will re- call that Roger Conant moved from Gloucester to Naumkeag in 1626, and that in 1628 Endicott came over under the direction of the Massa- chusetts Bay Colony, to organize a regular set- tlement. These men had no church, or indeed any opportunity for religious services, although they were, for the most part, earnest God-fear- ing men of the better type of Puritan. It is true that the disreputable Lyford, whom Bradford called a vile man and who had been turned out of Plymouth for gross immorality, joined Conant and conducted a few religious services,
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until he was again thrown out and fled to Vir- ginia. We need not bother with the two or three odd services he conducted, as they had no influence on the ecclesiastical history of the Bay.
In the records of the Massachusetts Bay Company preserved in London is a long list or memorandum of articles needed to be sent over to Endicott as opportunity offered, and among various items like tools, scrap iron, and salt, are listed godly ministers.
In 1629 six ships came over, and in June two of these brought the godly ministers Higginson and Skelton. The Governor, Endicott, set aside July 20, 1629, as a solemn day of humiliation for the choice of a teacher and pastor at Salem. Representatives from Plymouth were asked to attend as guests. Perhaps the best account we have of the occasion is that by Morton. It was, I think, the most important public meeting that has ever been held in New England. The vote was solemnly taken, and Higginson was chosen teacher and Skelton pastor. Thus was organized the First Congregational Church in America. We sometimes forget that the little band of refugees who settled at Plymouth had no real church organized for some years. They were members of the church in Leyden in Hol-
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land, who had come to America, and their services were directed by Elder Brewster; but they still considered themselves members of the church in Holland and constantly expected that the pastor and the rest of the congregation would come over. Just how or when the Plym- outh church really separated and organized itself, I cannot exactly say, but it was certainly much later than 1629.
The history of the First Church as thus founded we cannot stop to-night to examine in detail. Its history for a long time was practi- cally the history of the town. As more people came and settled at a distance from the original meeting-house, new congregations were set off - Beverly, Wenham, Marblehead, Salem Village (now Danvers Highlands), and the middle pre- cinct, now Peabody. Even in the old town itself the congregation divided. The Second Church, set off in 1718, was intended largely, I think, to accommodate those who lived "down town," for we must remember that up to the time of the Revolution the bulk of the population lived below, or east of, St. Peter's Street. Later, the Third Church was set off under rather stormy circumstances, in 1735, and became either the Tabernacle or the South.
Let us now look at Salem in 1772, when the
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North Church separated from the First, and see what the conditions in the town were. The period from 1760 to the Revolution was, I have always thought, the most interesting one in the whole history of Salem, and many men of considerable ability came into prominence then. In comparison with other towns in Massachu- setts, Salem and Marblehead held places of much more importance than they have ever held since. First, I want you to look at the geography for a moment, for though Salem is still here, when it looks at the map of 1760 it must feel much as one of us does when he comes across a photo- graph of himself taken thirty years ago, and the words, "Lord, how I have changed!" come to his lips. In 1770 Salem centred around the harbor geographically as well as industrially. The harbor was a very different place then from what it is now. Beginning at the mill-dam about where Mill Street crosses the railroad, there was a marginal street, called by various names, following the shore line around the bury- ing-ground. Down where Phillips Wharf now is was a wharf then still known as English's, after the first great Salem merchant. Wharves for the small vessels then in use ran up to this marginal street, and narrow lanes ran up to the town - the streets in the present Wards 3 and I,
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called High, Creek, Gedney, Norman, Grafton's Lane, Turner, Beckett, and so forth. Here lived the bulk of the population, huddled close to- gether as is often the custom in seaside towns. There are many cases in Salem of houses ante- dating the Revolution, built closer together than our modern building codes would allow. North of these crowded streets, whose main concern was with the water and not the land, ran the main street.
From the very early days of Salem there was a road following an Indian trail - probably, from what we know, it had existed for centuries - from the narrowest part of the neck at the head of Collins Cove, up along the backbone of the peninsula to the head of the estuary of the North River, and, crossing that, on to the main land beyond. Along this main street were the houses of the principal merchants and professional men, and the shops often kept in houses. At right angles to this main street ran School Street, form- ing a broad square about which were grouped the Court House, the First Church, and a few great houses. The Town House Square was then as now the meeting-place of the community.
To the west of Summer Street, the few houses stood far apart, with land about them, and were more like large farms than urban residences.
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There was no Chestnut Street, no Broad Street, no upper Federal Street; Pickering's land, for in- stance, reached from what is now Chestnut Street to the Mill Pond and from Fleet to Cambridge Street. North Salem and South Salem were open fields separated from town by broad navigable rivers. The point I am trying to bring out is that the town consisted of the houses of the great merchants and of the professional men and re- tailers dependent on them, who lived on the Main Street, and on School, and Summer Street, Prison Lane, and the rest leading from it; and of the lit- tle narrow lanes leading to the water, compactly settled by the seafaring folk. The great building development in Salem did not really start until about 1805.
So much for the town itself. Now for the peo- ple - what they did and how they lived. The churches were then the centre, not only of re- ligious but also of social life. There was the First Church over which Dr. Thomas Barnard (born 1716, settled 1755, died 1776) was set- tled. This was the wealthy conservative church, patronized by the great merchants and their followers, and the church from which, as you know, the North Church came. Its building stood where its recent home does now, and where its predecessors had stood since Higginson's day.
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The East, or Second, Church, standing opposite where the Bentley School now stands, was preëminently the church of the marine side of the population, the ship-masters, the fishermen, the shore men, and their families. The Reverend James Diman (born 1707, settled 1737, died 1788) was the pastor. The famous Bentley was not settled as his associate until after the Revo- lution. The Third Church, the ancestor of the Tabernacle and South, had seceded from the First in 1735, and its history is a most stormy one. Its parishioners were, I think, mostly from the landsmen, the shop-keepers, and so forth, of the town.
These were the three Congregational Churches, and each had a pretty clearly marked off body of supporters; but there were two others even more clearly defined. The Quakers' Meeting- House stood on Main Street well up town. This despised sect had with great persistency insisted on settling about Salem, though they had been shown in a most unmistakable manner that their presence was not wanted. They lived for the most part around the head of the North River, on the slope of Gallows Hill, and on the farms in South Danvers, and they do not seem to have concerned themselves much with the maritime side of Salem before the Revolution.
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Then there was the King's Chapel of Salem, St. Peter's Church, erected on Prison Lane in 1733 on land given by the family of Philip English, who were very active in establishing a Church of England church here. Services had been held intermittently by various people before that date. Dr. William McGilchrist (born 1703, settled 1747, died 1780) was the minister, the congregation including many of the most culti- vated persons in the community. Many of the Lynde family and their important connections were members, and the royal officers, collectors, and so forth, went there. For that very reason, when the Revolution broke out, it was regarded by the patriot party with hatred and suspicion, and McGilchrist had to suspend his services for many years.
Such was the religious life of the town in 1770, when Reverend Thomas Barnard, the be- loved pastor of the First Church, was stricken by paralysis. His son, Thomas Barnard, Jr., four years out of college, was employed to fill the pulpit until the next annual meeting. Many of the parish were anxious to settle him at once as the colleague of his aged father. A considerable number, however, while not in any way disliking the younger Barnard, were anxious to hear other candidates, and several votes on the question of
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the succession were taken. It is interesting, by the way, for those who think that formerly there was widespread participation in church affairs, to note that, when this question came up, nine voted for the younger Barnard, other seven voted againsthim, and four did not vote at all. In short, there were only about twenty members of the congregation who took any part in this impor- tant matter. Finally, the church decided to hear other candidates, and there was a strong pop- ular feeling for Mr. Asa Dunbar. On the 10th of June, 1771, the vote was taken, and thirteen voted for Mr. Dunbar and eleven against him. Now a curious thing occurred: they decided to take a property vote in the society, in which the votes were counted according to the taxes, pre- sumably pew or church taxes, that the voters paid. Mr. Dunbar won by the close vote of 4s. Id. As you see, the parish, whether counted by heads or shillings, was very closely divided. Still it seems to have been a fairly friendly division. Those who wanted the younger Mr. Barnard made no attack on Mr. Dunbar, and those who wanted Mr. Dunbar apparently al- leged nothing against Mr. Barnard either reli- giously or personally. There was no bitterness or ill feeling, but both sides were so much in ear- nest that it was evident that a friendly separa-
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tion was the best way to end the difficulty. A most harmonious arrangement was made- those who remained bought the pews of those who desired to leave. As the division was about five to seven, five twelfths of all that belonged to the church was set off to those who followed Dr. Barnard. It was an extraordinary separa- tion, very different from the often bitter rows in which many churches have originated. The crippled elder Barnard remained the senior pastor of the First Church, and his assistant Dr. Dunbar and his successor the Reverend John Prince were both for many years personal friends of the younger Barnard who was settled at the North.
The organization of the new society was rapid. It was on November 25, 1771, that the First Church finally definitely decided for Mr. Dun- bar, and on the 14th of February following, a piece of land on North Street, near where the Wesley Methodist Church now does its present excellent work, was purchased by forty-two gentlemen, of John Nutting, for the purpose of building a church. They met on the 30th of March following, at the Town Hall, and organ- ized the society known as the "Proprietors of the North Meeting-House," and voted to build a meeting-house and that William Browne,
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Edward Augustus Holyoke, Joseph Blaney, and Samuel Curwen, Esquires, and Messrs. John Felt, Richard Ward, and Clark Gayton Pick- man be a committee. And the question being put whether the Proprietors would then give any particular directions to the committee about building said house, it was decided in the nega- tive. As Mr. Willson has so well said: “An in- stance of rare and commendable abstinence from the exercise of that careful scrutiny so dear to the New England mind, which loves to see to every- thing for itself, however unfamiliar." On the IIth of May the foundation was laid, and the house, though not completed, was opened for worship Sunday, August 23, 1772. A very in- teresting model of the old church stands on a bracket in the vestry, and you should all exam- ine it at the next opportunity. While not a particularly handsome edifice, it compared very favorably with other churches in the colony at that time. The pulpit from which Dr. Barnard spoke was preserved when the old meeting- house was abandoned, and still stands in our vestry, while enough of the church carpet was saved to carpet our present pulpit, where it may be examined by the curious.
So much for the material side of our organiza- tion. Meanwhile, on the 16th of May, the First
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Church had at their own request dismissed fifty-two brethren and sisters that they might form the new church, and on the 19th of July these met at the beautiful house of Colonel Ben- jamin Pickman for organization. They adopted the covenant of the First Church, to which as members of the First Church they had already subscribed. At a second meeting, held on the 20th of August, 1772, three days before the first service was held in the church, they met again and voted to call themselves the North Church, and formally chose Thomas Barnard, Jr., as pastor. Thus we have seen both the society and the church fully organized and ser- vices begun. The meeting-house was not entirely completed until the following January, at which time Mr. Barnard was regularly ordained.
Now let us look at some of the men who were associated with the church and its foundation. The first to demand our attention is Dr. Bar- nard. Thomas Barnard, Jr., was born in New- bury, where his father was then settled, in 1748, and graduated from Harvard in 1766. He came of a distinctly clerical family. His great-grand- father Thomas was one of the early ministers of Andover. Thomas's son John, our minister's grandfather, was also a minister and succeeded his father in the Andover church. John had
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two sons, both ministers - Edward, who was long settled over the First Church in Haverhill, and Thomas, who was settled first in Newbury and afterwards, as we have seen, over the First Church in Salem. His son, our Thomas, gener- ally known at first as Thomas Barnard, Jr., was evidently a man of a strong, winning personality who made and kept friends. He is often men- tioned in Bentley's and other diaries of the time, almost always with approval. His whole active life was passed in Salem, as he was a small boy when his father moved there, and he remained pastor of our church until his death in 1814. He married one of the Gardners, and was closely connected by marriage also with the Pickmans, Ornes, and a number of other leading families. He lived in the large handsome house near the head of Essex Street, known to most of you as the Andrews house, and he is buried in the Broad Street burying-ground in the Gard- ner tomb. So many of his friends were favorable to the royal side that at the beginning of the Revolution he was more or less inclined that way; but he stayed in Salem and seems to have kept the confidence of his parish during those trying years. With his action as a peace-maker at the time of the affair of the North Bridge, you are all acquainted. The incident is impor-
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tant perhaps from our point of view, as showing the restraining influence he had on the enthu- siasts of both parties, and the reputation that he had evidently established for fairness. His father had left Newbury on account of opposition from the friends of Whitefield, who regarded him as an Arminian or Semi-Arian. Theologically the young Barnard was, I believe, regarded as a liberal, but by no means as advanced in his views as Bentley, for instance. He was evidently a great preacher rather than a great theologian, and his influence and popularity were great and persisted in memory for years after his death.
·Of the laymen connected with the separation, by all odds the most important, indeed, I think, probably the leader in the movement, was the Honorable Benjamin Pickman, the head of the "codfish aristocracy" of Massachusetts Bay. He had long been proudly identified with the First Church, and the moment that he decided to advocate a separation the movement must have assumed great importance. Colonel Pick- man was probably at that time the wealthiest man in the town and one of the wealthiest in the colony. But aside from mere money he had great influence. He was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He had been colonel of the Es- sex Regiment for several years, a position which
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in later days was held by his son and his grand- son. He and Shirley and Pepperell were the chief backers of the expedition against Louis- burg, toward the expense of which he made a very large contribution, in consideration whereof and of his services the colony presented him with a magnificent silver piece which is now at the Essex Institute. The Louisburg expedi- tion was in large part organized to defend the fisheries, in which Colonel Pickman was very largely interested. His fish-flakes, covered with odoriferous drying codfish, extended all along the south bank of the North River and gave forth a pleasanter smell than the aroma that now fills that section. A portrait painted by Smibert, probably at the same time that his friend Pepperell had his painted, shows a fine patrician type of colonial gentleman. His house, with a beautiful lawn in front and an extensive garden in the rear, reported in its day as very beautiful, still stands in mutilated form just above the Marine Hall, looking up St. Peter's Street. It was comparable in every way to the Cabot house, which it most resembles in archi- tecture, farther up Essex Street. He was so proud of the source of his fortune that each stair in the house had a gilded codfish painted on it, so that "he who ran [upstairs] might read."
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But Pickman was a good deal more than a rich merchant and able administrator of the type of Pepperell and Belcher. He was evidently fond of study and literary pursuits, and was the centre of a group of men of similar tastes. This rather informal group, sometimes spoken of as a club, met at his house or at a tavern, and apparently read papers and discussed literary subjects. From this group came a number of subscribers who formed a subscription library in 1760, the so-called Social Library, which was the predecessor of the present Athenæum.
Pickman died in 1773, just before the Rev- olution, but his place in the community had been already taken in large part by his son, gen- erally known as Benjamin Pickman, Jr. He had graduated from Harvard College in 1759, and like his father had been colonel of the Essex Regiment; and at the starting of the church he, like his father, was one of the largest subscribers. At the outbreak of the Revolution he retired to England with Curwen and a number of other Salem royalists, but he seems never to have lost the confidence of his fellow townsmen, and on his return in 1785, at the close of the Revolu- tion, he was at once restored to his former position as one of the leaders of the town. He was almost immediately chosen town treasurer,
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an office which he held for many years. He was one of the large subscribers for the frigate Essex, and continued for the rest of his life a leader in all patriotic affairs. On his retirement from the Regiment, he was presented with a handsome silver pitcher which, like his fath- er's, is now at the Essex Institute. His broth- ers, Clarke Gayton and William, prominent mer- chants of Salem, were among the subscribers who left the First Church to build the new meeting- house. Indeed, for a great many years after the church was founded, the Pickman connection was, I believe, the principal support of the So- ciety.
Another prominent merchant among those who seceded from the First Church was Colonel William Browne, an intimate friend of the elder Pickman, whom he had succeeded in command of the Regiment in 1770. He had been Re- presentative in the General Court and Judge of the Superior Court, and was one of the men most highly regarded by his fellow townsmen. At the time of the Revolution, he, with several others of his family, joined the royalist cause and retired to Boston, later going to England; but unlike Pickman and Curwen, they never returned to Salem, Colonel Browne being ap- pointed Governor of Bermuda and later dying
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in England. His home in Salem was a great house on the Main Street where now is Derby Square. I think that Salem lost a great deal when the Browne family left. They had been for nearly a century very much interested in all matters of education, and were patrons not only of our local schools but of Harvard College.
Colonel William Browne has always interested me. He was one of the principal supports of the Social Library in 1760, and personally contrib- uted many valuable books. His attitude at the outbreak of the Revolution was an interest- ing one, very easy to understand. He felt very little sympathy with any of the measures taken by the home government which so annoyed the colonists, for he and his family were thoroughly identified with the province and had labored hard for its upbuilding. He was no mere place- holder, subserviently following a tyrannic dicta- tion, but he had very definite ideas of his duty to his king, his country, and himself, and he had no intention of being intimidated by a mob. He might be driven out of the community which he had long served, his property might be taken from him, and himself and his family reduced from affluence to penury, but he would not yield an inch in what he considered his duty.
Among the younger men who left the First 66
Church was Edward Augustus Holyoke. Like the others, he belonged to a good family; his father had been a minister in Marblehead and President of Harvard College. Born in 1728, he was a student at Harvard when Sir William Pepperell took Louisburg, and he was forty-four years old, well settled in his profession as the leading doctor of Salem, at the time the North Church was founded. Yet he not only survived the Revolution and the War of 1812, but lived to read and discuss Webster's speech on the fiftieth anniversary of Bunker Hill, dying, as you will recall, at the advanced age of 101, in 1829. Dr. Holyoke was the first of that long line of friends of learning who have by diligence and care done so much to make Salem a better place. He was very active in the founding of the Social Library in 1760, and was its first secre- tary. He was an active member of the philo- sophical library, and when the two were com- bined to form the Athenæum, he was chosen president. He was the president of the South Dis- trict Medical Society, and he was the founder of the Essex Historical Society, which has devel- oped into the Essex Institute. The group of in- stitutions which have meant so much to Salem and to the group of men who formed the North Church, all, I think, trace back to Holyoke.
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