History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 20

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

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The following scale of penalties which the Plymouth government required Sandwich magistrates to exact, is given by N. H. Chamber- lain in his interesting article on Sandwich and Yarmouth in the New. England Magazine, 11th mo., 1889 :- " Entertaining a Quaker, even for a quarter of an hour. cost £5, or the year's pay of a laboring man. If any one saw a Quaker and did not go six miles, if necessary, and in- form a constable, he was to be punished at discretion of the court; for allowing preaching in one's house, 40 s., the preacher 40 s., and each auditor 40 s., though no Quaker spoke a word. The Quakers were fined for every Sunday they did not go to the Pilgrim meeting, and for every Sunday they went to their own. In three years there were taken from them cattle, horses, and sheep to the value of £700, besides other punishments."

Other names and cases, equally as interesting as William Allen's, cannot here be detailed with the same fulness; but similar recitals. with more or less suffering, may be understood with each name on the following list of distraints made about this period from Friends in and near Sandwich :- The list is preserved by Besse, as follows :-

£ sh.

£ sh. £ sh.

Robert Harper 44 0 John Jenkins 19 10

Daniel Wing. 12 0

Joseph Allen. 5 12 Henry Howland 1 10 Peter Gaunt 43 1412

Edward Perry 89 18 Ralph Allen, sen. 68 0 Michael Turner 13 10

George Allen. 25 15 Thomas Greenfield. 4

0 John Newland 2 6

William Gifford. 57 19 Richard Kirby 57 12

Matthew Aller 48 16

William Newland 36 0 William Aller 86 17

Ralph Allen, jr. 18 0 Thomas Ewer. 25 8 £660 712

On the other hand we cannot say that unwise provocations were not sometimes given by individuals reckoned as Quakers. Some ex- pressions made to magistrates and others, whether the speakers had been goaded into them or not, we would not now approve as proceed- ing from the principles or spirit which they themselves professed. And some extravagances of conduct, in exceptional instances, would in this and should for that day, be attributed to derangement of mind, from which members of no denomination are found exempt.

The noted letter of James Cudworth, a Puritan and a judge (who

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

lost his place by entertaining some Friends at his house), written in 1658, says of the Friends "They have many Meetings, and many Adherents; almost the whole Town of Sandwhich is adhering towards them. Sandwich men may not go to the Bay [or Boston col- ony] lest they be taken up for Quakers. William Newland was there about his Occasions some Ten Days since, and they put him in Prison 24 hours, and sent for divers to witness against him; but they had not Proof enough to make him a Quaker, which if they had he should have been Whipped."

In 1659 an order was given by the general court to arrest Quakers repairing to Sandwich "from other places by sea, coming in at Man- nomett,"-now Monument. Also George Barlow, marshal, was or- dered to take with him a man or two and make search in the houses of William Newland and Ralph Allen of Sandwich and Nicholas Davis of Barnstable for Friends' books or writings.

In 1661 William Newland " for entertaining a strange Quaker called Wenlocke Christopherson " was fined five pounds, and said Christopherson was sent to prison and afterward sentenced "to lay neck and heels." He was then whipped and sent away." Afterward in Boston he was sentenced to death, but was released. "William Allen was again summoned to the court at Plymouth and charged with entertaining Christopher Holder, a Quaker; and Wm. Newland and Peter Gaunt were similarly charged; and Lodowick Hoxy was fined 20 shillings for not assisting marshal Barlow. The following were fined ten shillings each . for being at Quaker meetings ': Robert Har- per and wife, John Newland and wife, Jane Swift, Matthew, William, Joseph, and Benjamin Allen, William Gifford, William Newland and wife, the wife of Henry Dillingham, Peter Gaunt, John Jenkins, Richard Kerby, sr., Richard Kerby, jr., Obadiah and Dority Butler."

This year, 1661, marks the deliverance of Friends in the colonies from further danger to their lives by hanging in consequence of their profession. William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary Dyer and William Leddra having thus been executed in Boston, Charles II. was induced to send a mandamus to New England, commanding Gov- ernor Endicott to send to England all Quakers who were under con- demnation or imprisonment. This put a stop to executions, but not to persecutions. The Act of Toleration under William and Mary was not passed till 1689.

In 1674 "Priest John Smith " and others are said to have caused Friends to be recorded as non-townsmen,-probably because they could not take the oath of fidelity. It was because it was an oath, and not because it meant fidelity, that Friends felt forbidden to swear it. As faithful observers of the law of the land, where that does not con-

*Freeman I, p. 241.

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

travene the divine law, they have proved themselves exemplary citi- zens. In 1675 they were invited by the treasurer of the town to sub- stitute something for an oath. The firmness of this Society in refusing to take oathis in any form, has since been respected by legislative bod- ies both in America and in England, which have authorized a form of affirmation to be taken by Friends and others instead of an oath. By substituting passive for active resistance to oppressive laws, they have on other subjects also converted oppression into concession: as in the requirement to bear arms or otherwise to deny their testimony for the Prince of Peace, also in the matter of taxes for the support of a paid ministry. In 1686 Edward Randolph, who had some sixteen times been sent over from England in consequence of complaints made by Friends and others, wrote as follows to Governor Hinckley: " Perhaps it will be as reasonable to move that your colony be rated to pay our minister of the church of England who now preaches in Boston and you hear him not, as to make the Quakers pay in your colony." Thus the stand made by Friends on the Cape was steadily opening the way for liberty to all. In the words of Brooks Adams on the "Emancipation of Massachusetts," referring to the Friends by whose suffering he says "the battle in New England has been won ": -" At the end of 21 years the policy of cruelty had become thorough- ly discredited, and a general toleration could no longer be postponed; but the great liberal triumph was won only by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating torments."

We may leave our fragmentary specimens of the period of intoler- ance, with the acknowledgment that their townsmen in general ap- pear to have taken no pleasure in the hardships inflicted on Friends. They elected Friends to responsible offices even while the sect seemed outlawed by the Plymouth court; whose marshal. Barlow, had none of their sympathy in his unsavory doings. Freeman characterizes the Friends as regarded at heart by their Sandwich neighbors, as "ever among our best and most esteemed citizens, benevolent and kind, pure in morals, and most deservedly honored."

Sandwich has the distinction of being the first town on the conti- nent of America to establish a regular monthly meeting of the Society of Friends. That meeting, set up in the year 1658, has continued its monthly sittings in unbroken succession, so far as we know, ever since. They are still (though changes of the time have been tried for brief periods) held at the same hour of the same day of the week on which they were appointed to be held by the first minute of the first existing record book of the meeting. The said minute is as follows: "At a mans meeting kept at Will'm Allens house ye 25 day of ye 4th mo'th in ye year 1672. At w'h meetting it is concluded and ordered y't for ye future a mans meetting be kept ye first six day of ye week in every

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

mo. and for friends to come together about ye eleventh hour." A marginal note written beside this minute says: "This was ye first mans meeting that was kept by ffriends in sandwich that is re- corded."

Accordingly we may understand that no records of the monthly meetings between the years 1658 and 1672 were kept; or if the min- utes were made, they were not kept in book form. It was in the 7th month of this year that " It was ordered y't Will'm Newland buy a book for friends use and truths service." Edward Perry appears to be the clerk, and his hand-writing in these minutes very creditable.

It may be that Edward Perry was earliest in the annals of Sand- wich authorship. His published religious writings bear date between the years 1676 and 1690, and titles like the following :- " A Warning to New England "; "To the Court of Plimouth, this is the Word of the Lord ": "A Testimony concerning the Light"; "Concerning True Repentance," etc. He died in 1694. We are not aware that more than one copy of any of his writings remain in print.

The second entry for 4th mo. contains an appointment of John Stubs and Robert Harper to know and report the reasons why Peter Gaunt " absents from friends' meettings." His answer reported next month was: "That he doth not know any true publick vissible wor- ship in ye world." This was the same answer which he had given sixteen years before to the Plymouth court, before any of the Quaker name had arrived in Sandwich. For we read that Peter Gaunt being called upon by the court to answer for not frequenting the public worship of God, affirmed that he "knew no public visible worship"; and Ralph Allen, whose seven children were among the first to join Friends, took similar ground. The answer of another who had been likewise waited upon by a committee the same month, “ forasmuch as he was once convinced of the truth," was "That his ground and reason was knowne unto himselfe and he was not willing yt it should goe any further at present." Next month his answer was " much as it was before : or as a man Gon from truth." And we find this same de- linquent patiently dealt with even for two years; for his answer in 1674 was, " That he could not come amongst us till the power did make him or work it in him." In 1673 the answer of William Allen's brother was, " That he was not so convinced as they might think he was." But in process of time some of these and similar cases were restored to attendance of meetings. Even Peter Gaunt was fined more than once for attending them.

The following curious minute has been handed down as issued by Sandwich monthly meeting in one of its occasional sittings at Fal- mouth : "20th of the 9th mo., 1688. It is concluded that the Friends appointed in every particular meeting shall give notice publicly in the

In Friends Meeting

----

Gilbert

LATE RESIDENCE OF NEWELL HOXIE, Sandwich, Mass.

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

meeting that cross-pockets before men's coats, side-slopes, broad hems on cravats, and over-full skirted coats are not allowed by Friends."

In 1688 a clergyman by the name of Pierpont, of Roxbury, who on invitation preached at times in Sandwich, records in his diary :- " I had inclined to go to Sandwich, first, because I saw there was an op- portunity to do service for Christ in that place ; second, the generality of the people, except Quakers, were desirous of my coming amongst them ; third, the young men of the place were in danger of being drawn away by the Quakers, if a minister were not speedily settled among them."-During the preceding pastorate mention is found of one man, "a member of the church, proselyted to the Quakers by one John Stubbs." In 1696 the town assigned a salary of £80 to Roland Cotton as pastor of the church, "provided he shall remit yearly the proportion of all those neighbors generally called Quakers." And yet, by a monthly meeting's minute of 3d mo., 1712, it is recorded that John Wing and Daniel Allen "gave account that they had found out the proportion between Priest Rate and Town and County, and the Priest part, which Friends cannot pay, is near one half. lacking one half of one third of the whole."

Of a history of the Friends' meeting houses in Sandwich, we have materials for a concise account. In the 7th month, 1672, the monthly meeting is recorded as "held at our meeting house." In 1674, 4th mo., the meeting house is spoken of as enlarged; and five years after, a record is made of finishing the meeting house. In 1694, according to the town's record, " The town did give to those of their neighbors called . Quakers half an acre of ground for a burial place" on the hill above the Canoe swamp between the ways." In 1703-4, First mo., a quarterly meeting's committee was instructed to pitch upon a place to set the new meeting house ; and in the 3d mo. it was concluded to get a new meeting house. In 1704, 1st mo., Robert Harper was appointed to build a new meeting house for £111, "except the glass, plastering, and ground-pinning." One was to get the shells for lime, another wood, another stone, and " Lodowick Hoxie to Diet the carpenters for his share." In 1709 it was proposed to build " a small meeting house " ; and the next year £6, 12}s. were subscribed to build a stable. In 1723, £28, 5s. were subscribed " to enlarge the small meeting house, under- pin the large meeting house, and build a shed." The work was done by Joseph Show. In 1740 it was concluded to hold a preparative meeting in Sandwich ; and in 1745 the preparative meeting purchase "the remainder of the gore of land, about one and one-fourth acres, near the meeting house for a cemetery which is near the old one." In 1757 it is ordered to " add 16 feet front, width and height the same, to the great meeting-house." Apparently after this date women

# Now enclosed by an iron railing, near the southwest corner of Roland Fish's house.

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

Friends begin to hold a preparative meeting like the men Friends. In 1793, 11th mo., measures were taken to build a porch to the meet- ing house.

The third meeting house, 48 by 36 feet in size, now in use, was built in 1810 on the site of the first, costing two thousand dollars. Sandwich Friends at first gave $723 toward it, Falmouth $24, Yar- mouth $120. The old meeting house was sold for one hundred dol- lars. In 1822 the remaining amount of the cost, principal and inter- est, was paid over to the quarterly meeting's treasurer.

In 1715 Benjamin Holme, an English minister traveling in religious service, records in his journal that he "went to the yearly meeting at Sandwich, where one Samuel Osbourne, a schoolmaster, made some opposition." This resulted in a pretty extensive setting forth of Friends' views on the Scriptures and on perseverance in grace.

In 1770 a voluntary payment was made by the Friends' meeting to relieve " the charge the town had been at on account of a poor woman belonging to said Meeting." It has been the rule with the Society to maintain their own destitute members without recourse to the town's provision for the poor. Also when ministers, with the approval of their proper meeting, are traveling in religious service, to provide for their expenses from place to place, if their circumstances require it. As far baek as 1677 we find by a monthly meeting's minute that horses were to be provided for "Travelling Friends" at the meeting's ex- pense.

In the conducting of these monthly meetings which appear so promi- nently in the regulation of church affairs among Friends, the only officer known is the one who sits as clerk of the meeting. Under the profession that "Christ is head over all things to his church," and ac- cordingly the mind of Christ is devoutly to be referred to and waited for in deciding church affairs, Friends have presumed to name no other presidency than his over their monthly or other meetings for discipline ; but they simply appoint a clerk to record the sense of the meeting when that is ascertained. This " sense of the meeting," it is trusted, is the product of the judgment of truth, or witness of Christ's spirit, which individual members, when apprehending they have a sense thereof on any question, announce as his or her view of the case. And the clerk, without taking a vote or any reference to ma- jorities, is to gather and record what appears the prevailing judgment of truth as expressed by the members. The Head of the church is majority enough, though he find expression through but one voice. This conduct of Christian church government throws great spiritual responsibility on them that sit in judgment, to whom Christ is prom- ised to be "a spirit of judgment "; and will largely be admitted to be consistent with the true theory for a pure church. But for a church,

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THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

though not pure yet prevailingly sincere, this principle has been found, while helping to make it more pure, to work at least as harmoniously, peaceably and satisfactorily as the more human modes of moderator- ship elsewhere resorted to in deliberative bodies.

The clerks .of Sandwich monthly meeting who appear to have resided in Sandwich, have been, so far as can be gathered from the records: Edward Perry, serving 1672-94; another not named, 1694- 1709 ; Edward Perry, jr., 1709-12; then three unnamed clerks, serving respectively 1712-19, 1719-20, 1720-22; Humphrey Wady, 1722-42; Daniel Wing, 1743-45; Seth Hiller. -; Samuel Wing and Daniel Wing, 1755 ; Timothy Davis, 1755-65: Nicholas Davis, 1765: Ebenezer Allen, to 2d mo., 1786; Jeremiah Austin, 1787-90: Obadiah Davis, 1790-95; Stephen Wing, 1795-6; John Wing, 1801-10. The other clerks# were, at the time of their service, residents of Falmouth, ex- cept Richard Delino (1765 and 1786-7) of Rochester, and David K. Akin of Yarmouth, (1849-61).

Doubtless there were not a few ministers in the Sandwich meeting from the first. But the list of those recorded does not begin till the year 1789, when we find Anna Allen and Samuel Bowman acknowl- edged ; Benjamin Percival, 1808 ; Anna D. Wing. 1838 ; David Dudley, who moved hither from Maine in 1838: Newell Hoxie, 1846; Mercy K. Wing, 1851 ; Presbury Wing, 1852 ; Elizabeth C. Wing, 1862; Han- nah S, Wing. 1883.

"The principle was from the first recognized by George Fox and his brethren, that the true call and qualification of ministers can be received only from the great Head of the church Himself, and that the church has only to judge of the reality of the call, and to watch over, encourage, and advise those who are entrusted with such gift. Even the recognition of ministers. as such, in the Society was of an in- direct and informal character for many years after its establishment. Those who spoke frequently and acceptably were asked to occupy a raised seat, facing the body; but then, as now, this was adopted as a matter of convenience, not of ecclesiastical distinction or superiority. Before long it was found needful to give certificates of membership to those who removed from one meeting to another; and about the same time a necessity was felt for giving similar credentials to those who left their homes to travel in the service of the gospel. But more than one hundred years had elapsed before formal recognition was adopted. But from mention in various journals we find the number was large."

We found in 1658, almost in the first year of this religious Society

* The Sandwich women who have been monthly meeting clerks in recent times, were: Mary R. Wing, 1850-51; Elizabeth C. Wing. 1851-2 and 1856-69; Rebecca D. Ewer, 1876-83 and 1885-87 ; Lucy S. Hoxie, 1863-85 and 1887 to present time.

-1

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HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

in Sandwich, eighteen families professing to be its adherents. In 1769 a committee of the town report that there are sixty families of Friends or Quakers whose rates are not available for the support of the ministry. Now, in 1890, most of the younger natives of the Sand- wich membership are dispersed throughout the country to gain a livelihood, or have joined other associations: leaving fragments of about eleven families remaining, the present membership numbering 40 individuals. But the purity of a principle cannot fairly be tested by the number of its human adherents. The world will love its own; and a Society supposed to represent spirituality or self-denial, cannot easily be popular. Nor on the other hand, in the guise of an imitator, could it be respected. By divine grace to be staunch to its special message, the Society was what it was. The same grace, uncompro- misingly adhered to, alone is able to keep it from falling, and give vigor yet to shake itself from the dust of the earth.

NEWELL HOXIE, the youngest child of Joseph and Deborah (Wing) Hoxie, was born in East Sandwich in 1803. In 1842 he married Re- becca Chipman, of Sandwich. Both will be remembered. by many as successful teachers of schools in Dennis, Barnstable, and Sandwich. Both were marked by mental endowments, literary interest, and deep thoughtfulness of no common order. With the exception of eighteen years passed in West Falmouth, he was a resident of Sandwich all his life. The impress which his life has made upon the character of the western portion of the county in these two neighborhoods of his resi- dence, has been chiefly as a leading member of the Society of Friends. In intimate knowledge of its history he stood confessedly foremost. and in the maintenance of its original principles he was devoutly concerned. Perhaps no member of that Society in Sandwich monthly meeting (which includes Falmouth and Yarmouth) has for a longer period been prominent in its counsels, or more uniformly deferred to in the conservative shaping of its course. His influence was also largely respected in the counsels of New England Yearly Meeting at large. A minister in that Society for thirty eight years, he often visited during this time the Friends' meetings of New England, and twice those of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He died in 1884, aged 80 years. With him has departed an invaluable fund of infor- mation, which cannot now be replaced, relating not only to the history of his religious Society, but to that of his native county and its families.

THE SOCIETY IN YARMOUTH .- The community of Friends at Bass River has so long given character to the neat and peaceful village of South Yarmouth, that it is still familiarly known as "Quaker village." But it was over the river, in South Dennis, where their first meeting house stood.

Newell Boogie

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 179

So free from molestation were the first Friends' families in this neighborhood, that no ripple in the current of history appears to have been produced by their presence here, sufficient to leave a trace of the time of their first settlement. John Wing, from Sandwich, in 1659, was building a house in the Yarmouth jurisdiction; a John Dillingham, from Sandwich, early became a landholder in Dennis and Brewster, residing near Bound Brook. It was in his house and Henry Jones' that the first Friends' meetings of which we have record were held, as appears by the following minute,-which seems to relate to bi- monthly meetings for discipline or society business, rather than their probably much more frequent meetings for divine worship. If their Sandwich neighbors early began holding at least three meetings a week,-two on week-days besides First day,-the kind of convince- ment which produced Friends in that day must in Yarmouth also have brought them together for worship as often as once a week :-

"At our Mens Meeting at William Allens first day of the 2 mo. 1681. -At this meeting it was ordered concerning the setting of the meet- ings at Yarmouth. Whereas it was ordered to be kept upon the first day of the week in every other mo. It is now ordered at the 6th day of the week in every other month and the meeting.to be kept at Henry Jones his house. The next to be kept at John Dillingham's and so continue to be kept at those two houses, and the first meeting to be at John Dillingham's which will be the 2d Sixth-day of the week in the next 3d month."

In 1683 a "monthly meeting" at Yarmouth is spoken of in the Sandwich minutes. This may have been one of the occasional sittings of Sandwich monthly meeting there, such as were sometimes held also at Falmouth, before the present division of sessions between the three towns became settled.

In 1697 the town ordered " that the Quakers be rated for the sup- port of the ministry, but that the tax be made so much larger that Mr. Cotton may have his full salary,"-probably without drawing on the Friends for their rate. And in 1717 an appropriation was made to build a meeting house for the town, -- " the Quakers to be exempted from the charge." Also it was "voted that such of our inhabitants as are professed Quakers be freed from paying the minister's rate."

In 1703 a committee is sent to urge Yarmouth and Falmouth Friends to attend the monthly meetings more faithfully.

In 1709, 1st mo., Yarmouth Friends requested liberty of Sandwich monthly meeting to hold a preparative meeting. In 11th mo. a " Man's meeting" at John Wing's is mentioned; and 1st mo., 1710, one at John Dillingham's. As the same request to hold a preparative meeting was made one hundred years later, it would seem that the first was unsuccessful. It is the opinion of an aged Friend, judging

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 20

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