USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > History and records of St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Scituate, Mass., 1725-1811, of Hanover, Mass., 1811-1903, and other items of historical interest, being Volume II of the church and cemetery records of Hanover, Mass > Part 2
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hanover > History and records of St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, of Scituate, Mass., 1725-1811, of Hanover, Mass., 1811-1903, and other items of historical interest, being Volume II of the church and cemetery records of Hanover, Mass > Part 2
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It was owing to this hard and unjust tax upon the church people that the church-edifice in 1735 remained unfinished, and that then it could not be said when it should be completed, unless an end were put to this oppression, which was the great impediment to the growth of the mission.
In 1735 Mr. Davenport stated that he had baptized fourteen persons, that the number of communicants was twenty eight
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(eighteen men and ten women) and that the congregation num- bered about seventy or eighty, most of whom belonged to Scituate and Hanover: the others being scattered through the neighboring towns of Pembroke, Marshfield, Halifax and Bridgewater, at the last of which places he had preached twice to a considerable congregation.
That Mr. Davenport, after his removal to Boston, had the people of his first charge in. his mind and heart, is pleasingly indicated by the fact that he gave to the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in trust for the use, forever, of the ministers of St. Andrew's Church, Scituate, seven acres of land, with dwelling house, barn and other build- ings thereon ; in the instrument of conveyance, adverting to his having been the first resident minister of the parish.
The frame of this dwelling house was blown down early in the present (nineteenth) century ; and the other structures dis- appeared very long since. This glebe-land is that whose apex is at the junction of River and Common Streets.
"The village preacher's modest mansion" stood near this apex, on one side of which now stands the dwelling house erected by Mr. Samuel O. Stetson, and on the other that by Mr. Thomas Waterman.
The annual income derived from the glebe-land alone amounted to about twenty five dollars.
The General Court of the Commonwealth, by a special act passed Dec. 14, 1816, authorized the sale at public auction of the glebe-land. On the 8th of February, 1817, a part of the land (five acres and sixty three rods) was sold to Benjamin Palmer for $302.05 ; and the remainder (one acre and seventeen rods) was sold to Elisha Tolman for $161.52, - in all, with interest, $466.69. The proceeds were invested in stock of the State Bank, Boston ; the income, in accordance with the design of the donor, to be for the support of the ministers of the parish in perpetuity. This investment was added to a "Fund " established in 1815 "for the Support of Religious Worship in the Episcopal Society of St. Andrew, in Hanover."
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To this Fund was also added the sum of $183.82 derived from the sale of the first church-edifice, and other sources.
The stock of this "Fund" was sold : the proceeds of which sale, together with cash on hand, amounted to $1274.20, and were invested, together with additional gifts of $1315.70, in the purchase of land, and the erection thereon of a rectory, the total cost of which was $2589.90. The rectory was first occu- pied July 13, 1849.
The thoughtful gift of Mr. Davenport to this parish, in its early days of scanty numbers and means, was the nucleus around which, a hundred years later, an amount gathered sufficient to erect a suitable dwelling house for the use of his successors here in the sacred office which he magnified and adorned.
Mr. Davenport was the son of the Hon. Addington Daven- port, of Boston, and was born May 16, 1701. He was educated for the law; and representing one of the oldest and most honored families in the Province, a brilliant future opened before him at his entrance upon his profession. In 1728 and 1732 he was chosen attorney-general, but it seems doubtful whether he ever entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office. Having satisfied himself that "it was a certain fact that Episco- pacy, in the appropriated sense, was the form of government in the Church from the time of the Apostles, and down along through all successive ages" he conformed to the Church of England, and, turning his thoughts toward the ministry of that Church, went to England for Episcopal ordination.
April 15, 1737, he became the assistant minister of the King's Chapel, Boston, (the first Episcopal Church in that city) and May 8, 1740, became the first rector of Trinity Church (the third Episcopal Church in the same City), and died Sept. 8, 1746.
March 12, 1732, he was honored by the University of Oxford with the degree of M. A.
Dec. 23, 1729, he married Jane, daughter of Grove Hurst, of Boston. She died before 1738.
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The second resident minister of the parish was the Rev. Charles Brockwell, a Missionary of the Venerable Society. The date of his entrance upon his duties here is not known.
From the communications made by both Mr. Brockwell and the mission in Scituate to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, it appears that their mutual relations were exceedingly inharmonious and unpleasant.
He left here about September, 1737, and went to Salem, Mass., where he ministered most acceptably and usefully to a large congregation. Subsequently he became assistant minister of the King's Chapel, Boston.
The Rev. Ebenezer Thompson was the third missionary for Scituate, appointed by the Honorable Society, and received from the society a stipend of forty pounds per annum.
In 1763 he stated, that in Scituate, Hanover, Marshfield and Pembroke (the towns in his mission), there were seven hundred families of various religious beliefs, - Presbyterians, Indepen- dents, Congregationalists, Anabaptists, Quakers, - and some that made no profession of any form of religion.
The number of those families professing themselves of the Church of England was fifty, who after proper instruction came into the Church from the different non-Episcopal bodies of Christians. The number of communicants was fifty, three of whom were Indians.
In 1766 he stated that, by the blessing of God, he had pre- served his people from the murmurs and disorders that had lately prevailed in some parts of the Province, and, that he could, with truth and justice, say that his people were most true and faithful subjects of their most gracious Sovereign, and honest and sincere professors and members of the Church of England.
In 1771 he stated that there had been a handsome addition made to the east end of St. Andrew's Church, in Scituate, to accommodate with pews families added to the Church.
It is said that Mr. Thompson resided for about thirty years on the glebe given to the parish by Mr. Davenport : but a few
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years before his death, which occurred Nov. 20, 1775, he pur- chased and occupied the house on Mill Street, upon the site of which now stands the dwelling-house of Mr. Israel Hatch.
In a letter dated Jan. 14, 1776, of the Rev. Henry Caner, D.D. (the rector of the King's Chapel, Boston), to the Sec- retary of the Honorable Society, is this statement: "It is said "that the death of the Society's faithful and very wor- thy Missionary, Mr. Thompson of Scituate, was owing partly to bodily disorder and partly to some uncivil treatment from the rebels in his neighborhood," to which is added "The Parish are earnestly desirous of being re-supplied; but I hardly think any Gentleman would undertake the Mission in these troublesome times." At the time of Mr. Thompson's death, George III was the reigning British sovereign. His regnal years (sixty) exceeded those of any other sovereign of that realm.
On one of the stones, marking the spot where they rest, we read
Erected in Memory of the REVD. EBENEZER. THOMPSON who died Nover the 20. A. D. 1775 in ye 64 year of his age.
"I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord: he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live."
On the other we read,
In Memory of MRS. ESTHER THOMPSON, Relict of the Rev. Ebenr. Thompson, formerly Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Scituate Died July 27 .. 1813 in the 99th year of her age.
'" She was an affectionate wife, and tender mother
" She sustained her bereavement with Christian resignation
" In her life and conversation she displayed the Christian graces
"She lived in faith and now rests from her labors."
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Mr. Thompson was the son of Ebenezer Thompson, of New Haven, Conn., and was born June 21, 1712. He married Esther Stevens (born May 17, 1715) of New Haven.
He was brought up a Congregationalist, but, conforming to the Church, went to England for holy orders, which, after passing the proper examination, he received.
At the dying request of Mr. Thompson, and, after his death, at the earnest desire of the Mission in Scituate, the Rev. Edward Winslow, the Missionary at Braintree (now Christ Church, Quincy), engaged to serve the Church here, while destitute, as frequently as he could.
In the course he had appointed, on Sunday, June 9, 1776, he officiated here to a large congregation, composed of the mem- bers of the two united churches of Scituate and Marshfield.
On the evening of this Sunday, Mr. Winslow was surprised by a citation to appear the next morning before a Committee of Safety, at a distance of two miles from this spot, to answer to a charge of sowing discord and dissension.
Taking with him one of the Church Wardens of this parish, he attended at the time and place appointed. When he was admitted to an audience with the Committee, he found a magistrate, a non-Episcopal minister, and about ten or twelve coadjutors convened.
The magistrate, having a Book of Common Prayer, recited to him the four suffrages in the Litany, and then the two prayers in both the Morning Prayer and the Evening Prayer for the King's Majesty and the Royal Family, and told him that all they had to allege against him was the using of those suffrages and prayers publicly in the Church on the preceding day, asking him whether or not he was sincere and conscientious in so doing.
Upon his answering affirmatively, the magistrate said that such a practice, at that time of open rupture with the King and Parliament of England, was inimical to his country, and that his officiating in the Church here served to promote discord and divisions only.
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The Committee finding him not inclined to submission, adjudged that the complaint should be referred to the Braintree Committee of Safety. Subsequently, the latter Committee resolved to present the name of Mr. Winslow to the General Court as that of a contumacious fomenter of alienation from the United Colonies, and an avowed enemy of his native country, and it was presented ; but what action, if any, in con- nection with this presentation, was taken by the Court, is not known.
On the Ist of January 1777, Mr. Winslow stated that at Scituate, Marshfield and Bridgewater, the Churchmen had been obliged to submit to the shutting up of their churches, which he had constantly attended until the month of June in the previous year, since which time he had not been able to visit those places more than occasionally, to administer the Sacra- ment of Baptism and to perform private religious offices.
He also stated that the people of those churches, particularly those of Scituate and Marshfield, with whom chiefly, since Mr. Thompson's death, he had been conversant, had held fast their profession without wavering, - unmoved from their adherence to the Church, and their affection for the King and the National Constitution, by all they had either suffered, or been threatened with.
In 1754, Mr. Winslow, as the Missionary at Stratford, Conn., of the Venerable Society, succeeded the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., who in 1722 was pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, Conn., but conformed to the Church about the same time that his friend the Rev. Timothy Cutler, D.D., conformed.
About 1764, Mr. Winslow became the Venerable Society's Missionary at Braintree (now Quincy ). He died in 1780.
The Records of the Parish, both as to spiritualities and to temporalities, prior to 1780, disappeared long since, and are believed to be no longer in existence.
The first entry in a book entitled "Records of St. Andrew's Church, in Scituate, in New England ; Begun in August 1780,"
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bearing the date of Aug. 11, 1780, is a copy of an invitation given to the Rev. Samuel Parker, of Boston, to be the minister of the parish, earnestly desiring him to attend upon and preach the Word, and administer the ordinances of the Gospel to its people, as often as he could, consistently with his other minis- terial duties. To this invitation the names of fifty men, mem- bers of the parish, are appended.
The invitation was accepted, the relation thus entered into continuing, probably, between two and three years.
On the 27th of November, 1780, it was voted to give Mr. Parker, in consideration of officiating four times in a year at each of the churches of St. Andrew (Scituate) and Trinity (Marshfield), which were considered as one collective body so far as related to the services of a minister, twenty-five pounds in silver money yearly.
The Right Rev. Samuel Parker, D.D., was brought up a Congregationalist. Having conformed to the Church, he went to England for Episcopal ordination, and on the 24th of Feb- ruary, 1774, was admitted to the Order of Deacon by the Right Rev. Richard Terrick, D.D., Bishop of London, who, three days after, ordained him priest.
Having returned to Boston in November of that year, he entered upon his duties as assistant minister of Trinity Church, in that city ; in June, 1779, he became its rector.
In 1789 he was honored by the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Upon the death of Bishop Bass, which occurred Sept. 10, 1803, he, on the 29th of May, 1804, was elected Bishop of Massachusetts.
He was, on the 16th of September in that year, ordained or consecrated to the work and ministry of a bishop, but was not permitted to discharge the distinctive duties of his high office, for, almost immediately after, he was prostrated by disease, which ended his earthly life on the 6th of December, 1804, at the age of fifty-nine.
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The last minister of the parish, while it worshipped in the church edifice on this spot, was the Rev. William Willard Wheeler.
On the 5th of May, 1783, he was chosen rector of St. Andrew's Church (Scituate) and Trinity Church ( Marshfield).
In the Journal of the Convention of the Diocese of Massa- chusetts, for 1785, he is recorded as rector of the united churches at Scituate, Marshfield, Braintree and Bridgewater. In that for 1790, he is designated as rector of St. Thomas's Church, Taunton, as well as of the two churches in Scituate and Marshfield.
During his ministry here of about twenty-six years, he administered the sacrament of baptism to eighty-four persons and united in holy matrimony twenty-two couples. As to the number of communicants and the number of burials at which he officiated we have no information. It was characterized by amiability, sincerity, unselfishness and conscientious fidelity in the discharge of his duties.
Mr. Wheeler was a son of William Wheeler, and was born in Concord, Mass., Dec. 24, 1734.
He was recommended to the Venerable Society by the clergy of the convention assembled in Boston, June 17, 1767. In the latter part of that year he went to England for holy orders and having accomplished his object, and been designated by the Society as the missionary for Georgetown ( which then included all the territory within the present limits of Bath, Woolwich and Phipsburg, Me.), he returned to this country in May, 1768. He remained at Georgetown till April, 1772, when he went to Newport, R. I., as assistant to the Rev. George Bissett, rector of Trinity Church in that town.
Mr. Wheeler married Jane, a daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Thompson, one of his pre-Revolutionary predecessors in the work of the ministry in this parish.
He departed this life on the 14th of January, 1810, having reached the age of seventy-five years.
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The stones marking their resting places bear the following inscriptions .: -
Consecrated to the Memory of REV. WILLIAM WHEELER, Rector of the Episcopalian Church in Scituate. Died Jan. 14, 1810, Aet. 75 years.
" What though the gloomy tyrant Death Doth God's own house invade, What though the pastor and the priest ยท Be numbered with the dead, The eternal Shepherd still survives New comfort to impart, His hand still guides us and his voice Still animates our heart."
" Erected in Memory of MRS. JANE WHEELER, Relict of the Rev. WILLIAM W. WHEELER, formerly Rector of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate. Died July 30, 1821, aged 64 years."
" No pain, no grief, no anxious fear Can reach the peaceful sleeper here."
At a meeting of the parish, held April 24, 1810, it was voted : "that the Society are willing to attend public worship in Han- over, provided individuals will build a new Church in said Hanover."
A church for the use of the parish having been erected in the adjacent town of Hanover, and been consecrated by the Right Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold, D.D., June 11, 1811, services in the original church were discontinued. Subse- quently it was sold and taken down.
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The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, now (1882) in the one hundred and eighty-second year of its existence, to which we are indebted for our foundation as a parish for a long continuance of nursing care and protection, is the oldest missionary society in the world, having been insti- tuted under a charter granted June 16, 1701, by King William the Third.
Of the eight clergymen who ministered to the church people in Scituate, (the Indian name was Satuit, from Satuit Brook, in the eastern part of the town), seven - Cutler, Miller, Daven- port, Brockwell, Thompson, Winslow and Wheeler were sent forth as missionaries by the Venerable Society.
The following statement as to the dates of their ministerial service is approximately correct : Timothy Cutler, 1725-1730; - Ebenezer Miller 1730-1735 - Addington Davenport, 1735-3 173% ; Charles Brockwell 1737- Ebenezer Thompson, 1762-1143 1775 ; Edward Winslow 1775-1776; Samuel Parker, 1780-1783 and William Willard Wheeler 1783-1810. Of these eight, four - Cutler, Davenport, Thompson and Parker - received their religious training among the Congregationalists.
In continuation of this chapter it has been considered suit- able to insert a copy of that portion of the contents of the book referred to by Dr. Brooks in his address, entitled " Records of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate in New England : Begun August, 1780," recording the minutes of church meetings and elections, and other facts of a historical nature. The records of admissions to the church, baptisms, marriages, deaths: and burials, will appear in succeeding chapters. . These entries, with, however, apparent intermissions, extend from August, 1780, to February 27, 1872, and are, doubtless, in the hand- writing of the ministers, for the time being. The order of the original text has been observed, as well as the spelling and other features.
The Church history since 1872, as contained in the Parish Registers, forms the concluding portion of the chapter.
RECORDS OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH
IN SCITUATE IN NEW ENGLAND.
BEGUN IN AUGUST 1780.
W E the subscribers professing ourselves to be of the Epis- copal Church as by the laws of England established and members of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate being by the prov- idence of God in a bereaved state and without a minister to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances of it to us Do hereby unanimously chuse the Revd Samuel Parker of Boston to be our minister and do hereby put ourselves under his min- isterial care and government earnestly desiring him to attend upon and preach the Word and administer the Ordinances of - the Gospel to us as often as he can consistently with his other ministerial duties : and do hereby engage to pay all ministerial taxes and assessments to him in consideration of his performing ministerial duties for us.
WITNESS our hands this eleventh day of August 1780.
Benjamin Stockbridge Charles Stockbridge Job Otis
Joseph Donnel, jun !. Ezekiel Palmer
Thomas Stockbridge, jun !.
David Otis
Stephen Stockbridge
Jonathan Fish
Isaac Perry
Benjamin James
Benjamin Mann
Benjamin James, Jr. Benjamin Jacob John Corlow Joseph Norris ( ?)
Seth Hall
Ebenezer Wing
Constant Church
Job Curtis
James Curtis Joseph Turner Fred'k Henderson Elijah Curtis
Mordecai Ellis
Clark Ellis
Nathanael Ellis
George Bailey
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Thomas Colman
Stephen Bailey
Samuel House .
John Stetson Lincoln Stetson
Charles Bailey
William Hasking Joshua Young
Samuel Stetson
Elisha Turner
Zaccheus Morton
Thomas Stockbridge
Samuel Brooks
Nathaniel Sylvester
Samuel Jacobs
Belcher Clark
Stephen Randal
Benjamin Clark
Thomas Joselyn, jun !.
Thomas Oldham
Joseph Donnel
Joseph Nothey of Pembroke joined this Society Nov. 4th, 1792.
At a meeting of the proprietors and parishioners of St. An- drew's church in Scituate on Monday 27th Nov! 1780.
The church being now embodied under the care of the Revd Mr. Parker met and proceeded to the choice of their officers.
Mr. Joseph Donnel
Mr. Benjamin James, Jun! unanimously chosen Wardens.
Voted : That there be seven vestrymen.
Voted : Doct". Charles Stockbridge Mr. Elijah Curtis Mr. Benjamin Jacobs
Mr. Thomas Stockbridge, Jun !. Mr. Mordecai Ellis
Vestrymen
Mr. Stephen Bailey Mr. Benjamin Mann
Voted : Mr. Benjamin James, Clerk.
Voted : Mr. Stephen Stockbridge, Sexton.
Voted : To give Mr. Parker for his ministerial services at Trinity Church in Marshfield and St. Andrew's Church in Scituate, and in consideration of his preaching at each of said churches four times a year, twenty-five pounds in silver money yearly.
1781 At a meeting of the proprietors and parishioners of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate on Easter Thursday, April 20, 1781. Present the minister and most of the parishioners.
Charles Otis
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ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH.
Mr. Joseph Donnel
Mr. Benjamin James, junt. { were unanimously chosen Wardens.
Voted to chuse seven vestrymen.
Voted: Doctr. Charles Stockbridge
Mr. Benjamin Jacobs
Capt. Elijah Curtis
Mr. Stephen Bailey
Vestrymen.
Mr. Mordecai Ellis
Mr. Thoms. Stockbridge, junr. Mr. Benjamin Mann
Voted : Mr. Benjamin James, Clerk.
Voted : Mr. Thomas Stockbridge, Jr., Sexton.
Whereas the Assessors in the towns of Scituate & Hanover have assessed the parishioners of St. Andrew's Church who are now embodied and chosen their own minister, for a rate to the dissenting or Congregational ministers of said towns: It is hereby
Voted that in case the Constable or Collectors of either of said towns or of any other town where any of the members of said (the) parish (town) do belong, shall distrain upon any of said members for their ministerial rate that an action shall commence at Common Law in the name of the person upon whom such distress shall be made agst. the Assessors or Collectors of the town where such distraint shall be made and the same tried at the Superior Court and that the expense of said action shall be a common charge upon all the parishioners and be assessed upon them in the same proportion they are assessed for other expenses of said church.
1782 At a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate and of Trinity Church in Marshfield : Jany. 21, 1782
Voted unanimously that both churches be considered as one collective body so far as relates to the choice of a minister and raising money to pay him.
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Voted unanimously that the Revd. Samel Parker be desired to officiate in the pastoral office in both churches.
Voted : That there be assessed upon the parishioners of both churches and paid to the Revd. Mr. Parker Twenty pounds law- ful money for his ministerial services in the year 1782 com- mencing at Easter next.
Voted : that said sum be assessed on the parishioners of both churches from a list of their estates as given to the town asses- sors in proportion to their real value and not as valued by the town assessors.
1782 At a meeting of the proprietors and parishioners of St. Andrew's Church in Scituate on Thursday, April 10, 1782 : Present the minister and most of the parishioners.
Mr. Joseph Donnel
Mr. Benjamin James, junr. were unanimously chosen Wardens.
Voted : to chuse seven Vestrymen.
Voted: Doctr. Charles Stockbridge
Mr. Benjamin Jacobs
Capt. Elijah Curtis
Mr. Stephen Bailey
Vestrymen.
Mr. Mordecai Ellis
Mr. Thoms. Stockbridge, jun !.. Mr. Benjamin Mann
' Voted : Mr. Benjamin James, Clerk.
Voted : Mr. Thoms. Stockbridge, Junt. Sexton.
Voted: to adopt all the votes that were passed at a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry of St. Andrew's Church and of Trinity Church in Marshfield on the 21 day of Jan'! 1782 and the same are hereby adopted and confirmed :
Voted : that in case the parishioners of Trinity Church in Marshfield shall come into a similar agreement with the par- ishioners of St. Andrew's Church as expressed in their vote of April 20, 1781 relative to the whole parish bearing the expense
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