History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 19

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890 > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

When the details of one's outward conduct or speech are referred to his secret sense of the pure will of Christ in his heart, the consist- ent attempt to carry out the light of truth into practice, must separ- ate the servant of Christ from many ways and modes of those whose chief guidance is the prevailing fashion and practice of the times. So looking at pure and simple truth as a guide, the Friends could not ad- dress to one individual the plural pronoun "you,"-especially when they saw that the use of it had its root in vanity, to flatter a person as amounting to more than one; but they kept to the original thou and thee in addressing an individual. This gave offense to magistrates, confirming the Friends in their conviction that it "pricked proud flesh." Regarding also the appellations Master (or Mr.), Mistress (or Mrs.), Sir, Honorable, His Grace, Excellency, or Holiness, etc., as springing from the root of pride in man, tending to feed the same, and usually not founded in real truth, their spirit shrank from these and all merely complimentary expressions and flattering titles, as incon- sistent with the Spirit of Christ. Yet in the exercise of genuine courtesy, William Penn testifies that George Fox was " civil beyond all forms of breeding." They could find no spiritual warrant in mak- ing obsequious distinctions between fellow-beings in what they termed " hat-honor," and would retain their hats on their heads before king

163

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

and peasant alike. It also seemed to them beneath a Christian to bor- row his names for days and months from heathen worship, as, to call the fourth day of the week Woden's day or Wednesday, or recogniz- ing Juno's right to be worshipped in what is now the sixth month, or Augustus to be adored in the eighth. The Puritans felt the same scruple about calling the first day of the week Sunday. Accordingly Friends have observed the numerical names of days and months, as Third-day, Fifth month, etc. Christ's command to " Swear not at all," seems to them imperative against swearing at all, whether in courts of justice or elsewhere, with any manner of oath. And their sense of his spirit as the Prince of Peace and the exponent of divine love, for- bids in their minds any participation in war or retaliation, or capital punishment. Plainness of dress, as of address, must follow from their principles; and while they prescribed no form of garb as a rule, yet, by ceasing to follow the changing fashions, they found themselves ere long left behind in a garb peculiar to themselves; which, on finding it served as a hedge against the spirit and maxims of the world, and served as a visible testimony of their principles before the public, Friends have even yet to some extent retained, in proportion to their strenuousness for the original principles.

Such was the attempt of the "Friends of Truth," as they fre- quently styled themselves, to get back out of the corruptions of the church at large to first principles in Christ : or to represent what William Penn, one of its noble converts, claimed to be "primitive Christianity revived " :- not a revelation of a new gospel, but "a new revelation of the old gospel." Theirs was certainly not a superficial doctrine, and as it insisted on a corresponding practice, it could not be expected to be popular ; or to escape that general misunderstand- ing which exposed its adherents to persecutions. And as little general openness for the understanding of it is found now, in the present day of sensations, when entertainment is as much mistaken for worship, as stated observances were formerly.

Barnstable county appears foremost in early Massachusetts history as a representative,-imperfectly so, it is true, but most creditably for the times,-of the spirit of religious toleration. In what other county could such a church thus early and numerously have gained so firm a foothold ? And what was the state of the community so preparatory for the Friends' doctrine, that, within a year from the signal being sounded by Holder and Copeland, a larger number of families in Sandwich gathered to the revived standard, than can be found pro- fessing with Friends there now?

The "ten men of Saugus" who began the settlement at Sandwich in 1637, do not appear to have been imbued, as were their Puritan neighbors whom they left behind, or the Puritanized successors of the

164

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Pilgrims whom they passed by at Plymouth, with determined zeal for a theocracy,-or establishing on the Cape a church-state. Had they felt most thoroughly at home in the intolerant sectarian atmosphere of the Salem community, why did they separate themselves unto a dis- tinct locality ? Religious, indeed, they evidently were,-but less tied down to dogma, and of a freer spirit ; adventurous enough to seek new homes again ; and a little more liberal than the stayers behind to take new scenes, new comers and new doctrines on their merits.

Dissensions were fermenting in the Sandwich church for several years before the Friends appeared. Fines and penalties were imposed on many who neglected or set at nought the stated worship. Some professed to " know no visible worship." A growing movement in favor of religious liberty and toleration, though strongly opposed by the government, could not be set back. And for three years before the arrival of Holder and Copeland, the stated pastorate of the church in Sandwich had been discontinued. The pastor, William Leverich, himself also said to be tinctured with toleration, found it expedient, in consequence of the existing unsettlement, to leave the flock at Sandwich in 1654 for Long Island. Yarmouth also was without a pastor. And in 1659 we find the court still censuring the neglect of some in Yarmouth to support the ministry. The people in both towns are said to have become "indifferent to the ministry and to exercise their own gifts." The doctrine of Friends had but to step in upon this prepared ground and say that vocal ministry, and regulation preaching at that, was not essential for worship in spirit and in truth ; and all ministry spurious except that proceeding from the immediate anointing of the Head of the church, whose messages could be de- clared, as by the fishermen-disciples of old, without the learning of the schools except the school of Christ ;- the Friends had but to sound this word, to discover they had told their eager hearers nothing, but had only clearly formulated what they had already vaguely believed. So the thoughts of many hearts being revealed, neighbor was dis- closed to neighbor in mutual recognition, resulting in open fellow- ship in a new church profession.

The more distinguishing principle of the society having once found entrance in Sandwich on the question of worship and ministry, it legitimately followed through all their other lines of faith and prac- tice. Just as in this latter day from the same society the same prin- ciples and consequently testimonies begin to go out at the same door, -namely, the practice of worship and ministry,-at which they came in. It is also but natural that the easy acquiescence in traditional principles or in no principles, which is the weakness of merely birth- right membership, should be but as a rope of sand to bind members to the original profession ; in comparison with that strong, individual

165

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

convincement of truth by which new members. experiencing the original cost, join the faith. In addition to this. and to prevailing worldliness, the emigration of younger members from the meetings of Sandwich, Yarmouth, and Falmouth, to seek livings in cities or in the West, has largely contributed to the present reduced numbers of the society in these parts.

But emigration is not a sufficient explanation, else the neighboring churches should be found similarly diminished. "Thou hast left thy first love," is the verdict which explains the thinning out of Friends' ranks, even in cities of Massachusetts to which country-Friends' chil- dren go. The movement of late years in Friends' meetings to borrow modes and principles of other denominations in a hope of holding the interest of the younger members, has served to direct the young peo- ple to the churches and systems from which these alleged improve- ments came. So that Friends' meetings thus popularized in our cities not chargeable with emigration, have not been found holding their own.

It cannot be denied that even on the Cape there was plenty of per- secution to give impetus to the progress of the revival. It raised up sympathy for the victims, zeal in the members, and inquiry concern- ing their principles among many. Details of the convictions, fines, and penalties imposed for countenancing Quakers, attending their meetings, or advocating their doctrines, belong to our more local treatment of town histories. But the Sandwich authorities were not altogether willing executors of the harsh orders of the Plymouth gov- ernment; and the neighborhood which had the best opportunity of understanding the Quakers, became the least inclined to harm them. So we read of Holder and Copeland, who frequently visited the flock here, that the Sandwich constable refusing to whip them, a Barnstable magistrate gave them each thirty-three lashes, "with a new torment- ing whip, with three cords and knots at the ends."

Though we seem to give to the Plymouth government the credit of much of the distress encountered by the Friends at the hands of Sandwich officers, yet let us make haste to clear the Pilgrim fathers from the charge of a persecuting spirit. A distinction must be made between the Pilgrims, who sailed in the Mayflower in 1620 and came to Plymouth, and the Puritans who sailed in 1629 and founded Boston. The Puritans were imbued with the principle of a state church ; the Pilgrims were Separatists, and they knew in England what it was to be persecuted by Puritans. The Puritans of Massa- chusetts bay had remained in the church of England as long as pos- sible, and they continued here to believe in a union of church and state. In coming here to live by themselves, they did not mean to have such union weakened. "The order of the churches and the

166

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

commonwealth." wrote Cotton, " is now so settled in New England that it brings to mind the new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness."

The Pilgrims came to these shores not primarily, like the Puri- tans, to secure a state of their own as a church of their own, but to enjoy religious liberty. Nevertheless they too, as Bancroft says, " de- sired no increase but from the friends of their communion. Yet their residence in Holland had made them acquainted with various forms of Christianity; a wide experience had emancipated them from big- otry, and they were never betrayed into the excesses of religious per- secution." Thus the Pilgrims at Plymouth before they were super- seded by the Puritans from Massachusetts bay, were prepared to be of the more charitable spirit which afterward appeared in those Sep- aratists from the Lynn colony who sought new homes in Sandwich. But when Friends first appeared and were maltreated in Boston in 1656, and other Friends found a foothold in Sandwich in 1657, almost the last of the Pilgrim fathers was dead. "Plymouth had ceased to be an independent colony, and was part of the New England confed- eration *. " There was enough of the apparent Pilgrim spirit left in Plymouth to make her milder towards dissenters than the Puritan church-state at Boston could bear for her to be; and there were enough of the descendants of the Pilgrims about Boston to get roughly handled by the Puritans "for assisting the Quakers and boldly oppos- ing persecution." But the great battle for religious liberty in Massa- chusetts, of which Friends took the brunt, was fought by the Separa- tists of the southward shores, against the Puritans at the north. The blood of the four Friends executed on Boston common, sealed the vic- tory for religious liberty in America.

How far the "Right arm of Massachusetts," as Cape Cod has been styled, has reaped in its own character a worthy reward for magna- nimity in shouldering the cause of religious liberty in her infancy, cannot be fully measured till the secret workings of all principles are revealed. That the so-called Quaker virtues and the characteristic Cape virtues so largely coincide, we cannot presume to say is chiefly traceable to the influence passing into the county through the Friends themselves. No real Friend would so claim. " Names are nothing," said George Fox, "Christ is all." The same well-spring of life to which he pointed men only to "leave them there," has watered the land through many a human channel of spiritual influence, under whatever name. But a standard for pure truth, when exalted, is just as effective a signal, whether held in few hands or in many. It is inevitable

* " And now the Plymouth saddle is on the Bay horse," says Ex-Judge Cudworth in 1658, alluding to the way in which the authorities at Plymouth were imitating the methods of Massachusetts bay towards the Friends.

167

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

that the principles held forth by Friends should have increased a dis- position to look at the true inwardness of all questions and subjects; to strip off all shams and be satisfied with simple truth only; to de- spise show and look for genuine substance, and to render "Quaker measure " to others; to value straightforward common sense rather than brilliancy, conscience before convenience, honesty above policy, character above creed, the spirit above the letter, motives above move- ments, the life above the living :- to respect the divine spark in every human being, regardless of color or sex; and the equality of all, as be- fore the law of God, so before the law of the land. Simplicity of man- ners, genuineness of profession, the courage of one's convictions, plain living because of "high thinking," inward retirement of mind to feel the truth of one's self, a yes that is'yes and a no that is no-and so surer than most oaths,-these are virtues of which the professed " Friends of Truth " by no means held the monopoly, and in which individuals among them as in every other flock have signally failed; yet the banner which they as a people have displayed because of the truth, is one which the life and character of our county could ill afford to spare.

The preceding view of the establishment of the Society of Friends in the county has been necessarily, to that extent, a history of the Sandwich Society. Afterward a branch of Sandwich monthly meet- ing became established in West Falmouth, and called Falmouth Preparative Meeting of Friends; and another branch at South Yar- mouth, called Yarmouth Preparative Meeting. Each preparative meeting, including one held also in Sandwich, sends representatives to each session of the monthly meeting; which is held six times a year in Sandwich, four times at Falmouth, and twice at Yarmouth. Formerly, for a period, some sessions of Sandwich monthly meeting were held also at Rochester, on the other side of the bay. A sketch of the history of each of the Cape meetings of Friends will now be given, beginning with Sandwich .*

THE SOCIETY IN SANDWICH .- It has already been pointed out how the Sandwich community was prepared for, and how responsively, in the year 1657, many rallied to the preaching of the Word by the newly arrived Friends Christopher Holder and John Copeland; so that in the very next year, 1658, no less than eighteen families in Sandwich appear as acknowledged adherents of the new Society.

They met for worship at the houses of William Allen, William Newland, Ralph Allen, and, as tradition hands it down, in Christo-

* The writer having had but few hours' opportunity to consult the original records, has availed himself of a considerable part of the notes and extracts from them made by the late Newell Hoxie, representing careful labor on his part continued from time to time for years. He has also gleaned freely from Freeman's History of Cape Cod, and other works.

168

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

pher's Hollow,-a spot believed to have been so named from the preaching of Christopher Holder in at least one meeting which assem- bled in that woodland retreat. This hollow or glen may now be ap- proached by the road which passes the alins-house into the woods. Not having visited the spot himself, the writer here presents the description of a visitor, as given in the Falmouth Local, 12th mo., 1887 :

" About a mile southeasterly of the village of Sandwich is a deep sequestered glen or hollow in the wood. There is no spot in the county of Barnstable more secluded or lonely. It is even now as primeval in appearance as it was on the day the Pilgrims first set foot on Plymouth rock. This quiet glen is surrounded by a ridge of hills, covered in part by trees, and it is some 125 feet deep. At the bottom are to be seen a few straggling red-cedar trees. In the spring and summer a small stream of water runs into this glen, which keeps up a perpetual murmur. For over two centuries this lonely spot has been called ' Christopher's Hollow,' in memory of Christopher Holder. . . In 1657, immediately after the severe penal acts of the provincial leg- islature were passed, this small and sincere band of Christian worship- pers met at William Allen's house on Spring Hill, but [afterward] ad- journed to this sequestered glen to offer up in the ' darkling woods' their devout supplications to Him who is no respecter of persons. Your correspondent visited this hollow a few days ago, and noticed, particularly on its westerly side, a row of flat stones," which are be- lieved to be the seats on which this meagre congregation sat, and list- ened to the heartfelt teachings of Christopher Holder."

William Allen's house, the first or one of the first meeting places of Friends, stood on the spot where Roland Fish's house now stands, the first house by the road leading southward from the present Friends' meeting house in Spring Hill. Near the southwest corner of the house is the first burying ground of the Society, now enclosed by an iron railing. On the early records we find a direction " that servants shall be buried on the side next the swamp." This is the half-acre given by the town in 1694. William Newland's house, an- other of the first meeting places, was opposite the old town burying ground, on the road from the village toward Stephen R. Wing's. [Of other Friends prominent in that day, William Gifford is said to have lived near the house of late years known as Russell Fish's; Edward Perry near Joseph Ewer's swamp, or opposite his house ; and Edward Dillingham, (one of the original "ten men of Saugus " to whom Sand- wich lands were granted), to have lived on the hillside east of the up- per pond, which is southeast from Stephen R. Wing's. The cellar is

* These stones are really half-buried boulders ; quite a number have been carried away.

169

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

said to be still there. and a pear tree set out by Edward Dillingham. The late Newell Hoxie, being able to designate the situation of sev- enteen of the Friends' houses of 1658, once remarked to the writer, that when by failing health he was laid aside from attending his meetings for public worship, he would often carry himself in fancy more than two hundred years back, and trace in his mind's view the goings of each of those seventeen families from their respective homes, as they took their several paths to William Allen's house, to meet for divine worship after the manner of Friends.]

In 1657 (to quote from Freeman) complaint was make to the gen- eral court against divers persons in Sandwich "for meeting on Lord's days at the house of William Allen and inveighing against ministers and magistrates, to the dishonor of God and the contempt of govern- ment." Jane, the wife of William Saunders, and Sarah, the daughter of William Kerby, complained of "for disturbance of public worship and for abusing the minister," were, on being summoned to court, sentenced to be publicly whipped. William Allen, William Kerby, and the wife of John Newland were also involved in these difficulties. John Newland was warned by the court to suffer no Friends' meeting to be kept in any house in which he had an interest. It was also ordered that " Nicholas Upsall, the instigator" of all this mischief, "be carried out of the government by Tristum Hull, who brought him." William Newland, a prominent citizen, was, "for encouraging Thomas Burges " to let Christopher Holder, a Quaker, occupy his house, sentenced to find sureties for his own good behavior. Ralph Allen, " for entertaining such men and for unworthy speeches," was also arrested and laid under bonds. Henry Saunders was arrested and committed. Edward Dillingham and Ralph Jones were also arrested ; Jones was fined and Dillingham was admonished. Burges expressed his sorrow for what he had done, and was released. This year, on ac- count of increasing sympathy with the Quakers throughout the com- munity, a marshal was provided by the general court in Plymouth to do service in Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth.

In 1658 Robert Harper, Ralph Allen, sr., John Allen, Thomas Greenfield, Edward Perry, Richard Kerby, jr., William Allen, Thomas Ewer, William Gifford, George Allen, Matthew Allen, Daniel Wing, John Jenkins, and George Webb, "none of them," says Freeman, "professed Quakers at the time, though several of them afterward became such," being summoned to court to give a reason for not tak- ing the oath of fidelity to the government, professed that they held it unlawful to take the oath, and all were fined. Friends' view of the unlawfulness of all swearing, or oaths, is founded on Christ's com- mand, "Swear not at all :" which is amplified in the epistle of James, "But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,

170

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." Their firm adherence to this command was much misunderstood by officers of the government, and even by the clergy ; and was the pretext for a long list of fines and dreary penalties. Some of these Friends, allud- ing to their sufferings for not swearing, remarked, that oath-taking was "contrary to the law of Christ." "whose law," they add, "is so strongly written in our hearts, and the keeping of it so delightsome to us; and the gloriousness of its life daily appearing, makes us to endure the cross patiently, and suffer the spoiling of our goods with joy."*

The earliest meetings of Friends in Sandwich, even in 1657, in- cluded six of the brothers and sisters of Ralph Allen. They had re- sided upwards of twenty years in Sandwich and were much respected by their neighbors. But their joining the new sect was " peculiarly annoying" to the government, and they were among the first to be tested by the oath of fidelity. William Newland and Ralph Allen, on refusing to relinquish the keeping of meetings in their houses, "were committed to the custody of the marshal, and kept close prisoners for five months. When half the period had expired, they were offered their liberty on condition of engaging not to receive or listen to a Quaker; but the request was met by an immediate and decided nega- tive."+

Under the law now prohibiting the frequenting of Friends' meet- ings, William Allen was fined forty shillings for permitting a meeting at his house. Cudworth says of another session of the court, that "the court was pleased to determine fines on Sandwich men for meetings, sometimes on First-days of the week, sometimes on other days, as they say: They meet ordinarily twice in a week, besides the Lord's day,- 150 pounds, whereof William Newland is 24 pounds for himself and his wife at Ten Shillings a Meeting, William Allen 46 pounds," etc. William Allen's other fines and distraints amount apparently to 113 pounds. "They left him but one cow," says Bishop, "which they pretend is out of Pity; but what their pity is, more than a Robbers on the Highway, that takes away all a man hath, and then gives him a penny, I leave to be judg'd. Also they took from William Allen one Brass Kettle,-which the Governor put upon him for his Hat." He also went to Boston prison. When the marshal took the goodwife's kettle he said with a sneer, " Now, Priscilla, how wilt thou cook for thy family and friends? Thee has no kettle." Her answer was, "George, that God who hears the ravens when they cry will provide for them. I trust in that God, and I verily believe the time will come

* Norton's Ensign, p. 42.

+Bowden, vol. I, p. 147.

171

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

when thy necessity will be greater than mine." This marshal, George Barlow. would boast. " That he would think what Goods were most serviceable to the Quakers, and then he would take them away, when he went to distrain for the fines." "But now," says Bishop after- ward, " being grown exceedingly poor, he presumes to say, 'He thought the Quakers would not let him want.' And truly, it is said, they relieve his Children, notwithstanding all the Villany that he hath shown unto those people." (New England Judg'd, p. 389). This drunken marshal and tool of Plymouth's blind policy is said to have lived to fulfil abundantly Priscilla Allen's prophecy.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 19

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292