USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Billerica > History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical register > Part 18
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"the above said voat sent unto the Reverend Mr. Whiting by two of the inhabitance, to propound unto his consideration, & was Readily acepted unto the great satisfaction of the inhabitance."
In 1698, December, the arrears due Mr. Whiting were found to amount to £64, 15s., 4d., almost a year's salary. The pastor desired that if any one claimed to have paid what had not been credited to him, it should be allowed. The constables and selectinen were enjoined at length to secure the payments due ; and, in case of their failure, the town promised "to satisfie rationally the person or persons that shall bring this discharge" from Mr. Whiting.
Four years previously, when the second meeting-house was built, Mr. Whiting had made an offer to the town "either to give fivetene pound to the Town in desprat debts, such as he should point out unto them, or ten pound in the undertaker's [builder's] hand, or six pound in sillver toward the purchasing of a bell"; in return for which he was to have "'a seat for his family for his propriety." The town accepted the first offer, and in 1698 voted to " grant unto the Reverend Mr. Samuel Whiting that pue that his family now sits in. so long as he continues our minister. And in case an after
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minister should request that pue, rather than another, then the town do engadge to build another of the same demencion and workman- ship, and to confirm it unto Mr. Whiting as his propriety forever." * Whereupon Mr. Whiting " did discount fivetene pound of the debts given in to the Town this day."
With the growth of the town the primitive meeting-house became too small, and, in 1679-80, it was shingled and a gallery put in. Samuel Frost covenanted to build the gallery for 20 shillings in silver, and 6 pounds, 10 shillings "in this present town rate." He was to erect it
"upon the beames ; *
* to make one seat in front, & to floor it on the backside to the rooffe of the house. & set a bench behind it, such an one as that place will admit of. And two seats on each side, upon the beames, the foremost of each seat to come down as low as the under side of the beames, that is. the under side of the joyce to be even with the chamfering of the beames, & so all three fore seats to be even at ye bottom. The seats of the fore side seats shall be over the beames, and but a little above them. The hindmost side seats shall be behind and above the beames, cach seat to be comely closed with rails and boords, as is usiall in such work, the fore seat with ballisters. The floors made comely and close joynted, to preserve the dirt from falling downe. All the seats to be finished comely, acording to the usiall mañer of such worke, with a sufficient paire of staiers to them, and a floor to cary to the seats, the hind seat at the west end to reach from rooffe to rooffe. And to make a casement window of two foot square in the cleare. and put it up at ye east end of the house above the collarbeame. To find all the stuffe and nails and boords and carting at his owne charges; all the timber to be sound and good. and the work all well wrought. workmanlike, acording to ye nature of such worke (glass exempted), and the work to be done by ye last of March next."
With this improvement the house served the fathers for worship fourteen years longer, when the following record is found : -
"8. 10mo, 1693. In reference to a new Meeting house, the town voted their willingness, and desire that Capt. Hill. Mr. Croshey, Leift. Willson. and Sergt. Richison should undertake the same. to begin and finish. Redding Meeting house to be the pattern in most respects; also, they are willing to give three hundred pounds. one quarter of it in money and ye seats of ye old meetinghouse what may be of use, acording to discours about it. The Town Appoint Capt. Danforth, Leift. Tomson, Cornit Starns, and Joseph Walker, Sen., to draw up a bargain with the aforesaid undertakers; to order when the said house shall be finished and when the money shall be paid. and in what and at what tearmes the inhabitants shall be imployed about it. Also, they order that when ye Court shall have approved our
.
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Town orders, a list of every inan's estate shall be taken acording to former agreement, and ye charges of said house assessed and to be collected according to agreement with the undertakers."
July 9, 1694. Provision was made for staging for raising the meeting-house. Sundry inhabitants were appointed to provide posts and others to dig holes for them ; "the next second day, being the 16 of July," was appointed, and "all persons capable of labor" were "to apear by seven o'clock in 'the morning at the second beat of the drumb." The clerk, good Deacon Tompson, completes his account : - 2
"The service was atended upon the day apointed by about forty and five hands of our towne the first day, and the towne generally came together the second day, and many other out of other Towns. sum that came to inspect us and several that were helpful to us of other Towns; and the third day we concluded our worke with our own Town's help ; perticuler persons provided for them selves and friends; no considerable harm done. not à bone broken; we had the helpe of our Reverend pastour to desire god's blessing and protection. and when we had finished our work we concluded with a psalm of praise and returning thanks unto god by our Reverend pastour."
In December it was voted that there should be two pairs of stairs, not four, to the gallery ; and a proposition was rejected to have the pulpit set forward far enough to have one seat behind it.
The matter of seating persons in the meeting-house cost the fathers no little anxiety. As early as 1661 this appears in the record, already given :3 "25, 11m, 1665," it was ordered, "That the Towns men in being shall order the seating of persons in ye meetinghouse which are not seated at the p'sent, and to remove. alter, and change prsons already seated, acording to their best discre- tion." After this a special committee is appointed occasionally, once in two or three years. to discharge this duty, until in 1679 it was again committed to the selectmen. Rank, wealth, and social standing were the factors in determining the place where persons should sit, and there was ample room for jealousy and trouble, even among the plain yeomanry of Billerica, on this subject. "Mr. Richard Daniel. Gentleman," whose wife was a daughter of a knight in England. had, it is safe to say, one of the best seats.
On the completion of the new meeting-house the question of "seats" gained fresh importance and a larger committee was
2 Records. Vol. II, p. 51.
3 See p. 155 above.
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appointed. "Namely, Capt. John Lane, Corp" Jonathan Hill, Mr. Simon Crosbey, Serjt. Jacob French, Serjt. Samuel Manning, Mr. Edward Farmer, Mr. Joseph Walker, John Shead." * "At the same meetng the Town apointed Capt. Jonathan Danforth & Lt. John Sternes and Joseph Tomson, to apoint such persons where they should have their places in ye meeting house and their wives, who were appointed to place the other inhabitants." Which of these committees was first to assign the other their seats is not clear ; but it is to be hoped that they knew and had no heart-burnings about it. The result of their labors gave so little satisfaction that it was voted a nullity the next year, and a new committee of five was to be appointed. But no record was made of the appointment or action of a second committee, and probably the effort to improve the previous arrangement did not succeed.
The material for the spiritual history of the town is very meagre. For the first century we have almost nothing, except hints of the town record relating to the pastor and the successive meeting-houses. Of Mr. Whiting's personality we have no glimpse, nor of the quality of his preaching. The collection of his uss. sermons, once in possession of the late Rev. C. B. Thomas, of Concord, New Hampshire, which was taken by him to Missouri, would give light on this point, but has probably gone the way of the Alexandrian Library. That he was a faithful minister, worthy of the respect and love accorded to him by two generations here, can not be questioned. He brought the earnestness of a Puritan and the culture of Harvard to his long and self-denying labors ; and the absence of any hint of doubt or disaffection in all the years of his ministry bears testimony to the wisdom with which he filled his high office. His house was the "main garrison" of all the dark war days; and he was the trusted counsellor of Danforth. Tompson, and others, in all their important and trying secular matters, as well as spiritual. The wisdom of this world was combined with that from above to a degree rarely equalled in the early New England ministers, and Mr. Whiting held an honorable place among them.
That he had opinions and convictions far in advance of his century is pleasantly shown in this record, 30 October, 1693 :4 "At this meeting our Reverend Paster, Mr. Sam1. Whiting, did set at liberty and free from his service, Simon Negro, who hath been his
* Records. Vol. II, p. 35.
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servant about thirty and one years, being now about forty years old. The which said Simon Negro the town of Billerica doth accept as an Inhabitant amongst themselves." Does the country afford an earlier prophecy of the great Emancipation Proclamation ! This . faithful servant, it may be added, received, in 1709, a grant of seventeen _acres of land ; and, in his will, which bears date a few days after Mr. Whiting's death, "in consideration of the respect which I have and do bear to my Master's family," he gives them his homestead and the land west of Concord River, granted as above. In the recital of Mr. Whiting's children he names .. Samuel, of Dunstable, now in captivity."
But the labors and hardships of his ministry began to show their effect, after more than forty years. A hint of this has been given from Judge Sewall's Diary ; 5 and the coincidence, even of language, is curious, that Mr. Tompson makes this record two months earlier than Judge Sewall's call. A town meeting was to be held " August 10, 1702, to agree about providing of help to supply the Reverend Mr. Samuell Whiting's place, being in a weak & languishing condi- tion." The action taken was as follows : "They do agree to make a free Contribution to gratify persons imployed by us, to the vallue of ten or twelve shillings pr. day, to be given unto him by the Deacon out of such contribution ; who, with the Asistance of Mr. Simon Crosby, are desired both to receive the Contribution & to take speciall care that we be suplied with a minister from Day to day, untill further order, or that our Reverend pastor is sum what able to suply as formerly."
Another meeting was held, October 12, and committee sent to consult with Mr. Whiting "whether we should call one at present, in order to a settlement among us, or to desire some help onely for this winter season." The result was that a temporary supply was deemed expedient. Mr. Whiting proposed, if his salary were made up in full, to "diet the minister that might come to help." There was much discourse about the matter, but on account of his weak- ness, naturally several were "averse unto it." " After much debate it seemed no help that could be procured to suply in the ministry at present, except that it was done out of that which we had usuly & annually granted unto the Reverend Mr. Samuell Whiteing. A matter very grievous unto severall amongst us."
5 See above, p. 155.
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A committee was appointed to seek help until spring. " Mr. John Fox was desired and Mr. John Whiting next to him." Mr. Fox proposed to supply until May, for fifteen shillings per Sabbath, in silver, and his expenses. The town proposed that he should " find himself," and he, it seems, consented, as he was paid for eighteen Sabbaths, £13, 10s. Mr. Fox was the son of the pastor at Woburn. His father died while he was preaching in Billerica, and in November he was himself settled in Woburn, remaining pastor until his death, in 1756. Mr. John Whiting, above named, was the son of Rev. Joseph Whiting, brother of the pastor here. He was settled at Concord, in 1712, and for many years was pastor there. We may infer that Mr. Whiting was able to resume his labors in May, and we know that "he did not see his way clear at present to abate of his salary for the encouragement of another."6 IIe continued to discharge his ministry five years longer, when his disability, by reason of age or infirmity, became such that the town proceeded to employ a colleague.
"At a general Town meeting, July 7, 1707, the inhabitants of the Town made choyce of Mr. Samuel Ruggles, of Roxbury, to help Mr. Whiting in the work of the ministry, for one year next ensuing, in case the Town & Mr. Ruggels can agree upon terms." Captain Tompson and Captain Lane were appointed to treat with Mr. Ruggles. Mr. Whiting proposed to abate £20 of his salary if the remaining £50 were paid him, and the town voted to pay Mr. Ruggles £40 per year while Mr. Whiting was able to assist him, and £80 for a settlement. The latter was increased to £100. They also voted that "four or five acres, or as much as can be conveniently spared, of the comon land, westward of the meeting house and Rubish meadow, shall be sold to help pay the hundred pounds to Mr. Ruggles, he to have the refusal of said land." And it was finally stipulated that "after Mr. Whiting's decease the Town will make Mr. Ruggles his sallery as good as ever Mr. Whiting's sallery was befour Mr. Ruggles came to Town."
September 8, 1707, the town granted him "eight acres of land, for four pounds an acre, on the common westward of the meeting house, bounded by Enoch Kidder west, by Rogers south, by a highway north, and east by a streight line from the southeast corner of Capt. Danforth his paster to the northeast corner of Rogers his orchard, by the pound." This was the familiar corner on which now
G Records. Vol. II, p. 228.
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stand Mrs. Osborn's house, the Bennett Library, and the First Church. It may have included the site of Mr. Morey's store and the Post Office. Here Mr. Ruggles built his home and lived for forty years.
The formal agreement embodying these stipulations is recorded, (Vol. II, p. 267). It was also agreed that he should receive ten · pounds annually and provide his own firewood; and that, if he removed without the consent of the major part of the town, he should return the hundred pounds "settlement." The fact is note- worthy, that we have no hint of the church being consulted or having any voice, as distinct from the town, in all these negotiations. In fact the town and the church were felt to be one, and no distinction occurred to these good men. Sixty years later, when Dr. Cumings was settled, they had reached the stage of a separate consciousness. The employment of Mr. Ruggles for a year was evidently at first as a candidate only ; but the result being favorable, he was ordained, 1708, May 19.
The venerable senior pastor was spared for five years longer, rounding out, in serene age, one of those pastorates which constitute. an epoch in the history of any community. His parish was wide, extending with the town from Concord and the modern Acton to the Merrimack and Andover. For fifty-six years he preached the gospel to hearers who came five and six miles to listen. They heard two sermons, and we may be sure they were not short ones. The modern demand for a sermon not over half-an-hour long would have surprised these fathers as much as would the railroad, the telegraph, or a daily newspaper. They sought at church not merely spiritual food, but much of the intellectual and social stimulus which their children draw from other sources, and hence would listen without weariness and eagerly, and go home to discuss sermons which a modern audience would not tolerate. The demands of such a ministry Mr. Whiting satisfied with honor to himself, " holding forth the word of life," and winning souls to his divine Master. He baptized the children and buried the dead ; but he did not always, probably not often, perform the marriage service .. The fathers thought that it smacked of popery for the minister to marry them, and went to the magistrate instead.
Casting in his lot with the young town, and meeting patiently and bravely the hardships it involved, he reaped his reward in the respect and affection which surrounded his old age. His influence was stamped upon the character and history of the town. At last
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
his work was done. Jonathan Danforth, companion and friend of many years, died in September, 1712. Then, on February 15, the dearer companion of all his joys and sorrows was taken away. Without her the good man could not live, and death separated them but thirteen days. On the last day of February, 1712-3, the faithful shepherd went to his rest. Cotton Mather tells us, and we may thank him for the item, that he died "an hour before Sunset." And, not for their poetry but their truth, we may repeat the lines : "Whiting, we here behold, a starry light,
Burning in Christ's right hand, and shining bright; Years seven times seven sent forth his precious rays, Unto the Gospel's profit and Jehovah's praise."
The pastorate of Mr. Ruggles continued a few months more than forty years, and was terminated by his death, 1748-9, March 1. Little is known of his ministry and character, and the family history given elsewhere includes nearly all that can be said of him. The rapidity with which oblivion covers the lives and deeds of men has a striking illustration in the scantiness of our knowledge of Billerica's second pastor. For more than a generation this gentleman lived and labored, a foremost figure in the life of the town, preaching the gospel from week to week in the pulpit and by the way, satisfying so well the lofty Puritan ideal of a pastor that no whisper of dissatis- faction is preserved. Yet what manner of man he was, or what were the characteristics of his ministry, we have no hint. But lives happy and useful are often quiet, sounding no trumpets, and this is the just account of many a rural pastor whose record is on high.
A negative inference is suggested by the absence of Mr. Ruggles' name from all the narratives and testimonies which, in his later years, grew out of the presence of Whitefield in New England, and the controversies which accompanied him. Jonathan Edwards was settled at Northampton in 1727. With the insight of a master mind he detected currents in the life of the churches of perilous tendency. The old Half-Way Covenant was filling them with members who gave "no credible evidence of regeneration," and even opening the pulpits to men of the same class, while the duty of communion as a " means of grace" was urged upon unconverted men. Edwards, and after him Whitefield, brought all their great powers to bear against these errors, and no small stir was the natural consequence. If the churches accepted the revolutionary doctrines, many feared the loss of civil privileges along with those of communion. Edwards was driven from Northampton to the wilds of Stockbridge, and Whitefield
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was assailed with bitter opposition. He was not the first or last reformer not always temperate or wise, and good men were divided in opinion. Testimonies and counter-testimonies multiplied and the lines were tightly drawn on every hand. There were few of the ministers whose names do not appear and whose position was not recorded on one side or the other .: Mr. Ruggles was one of the few. This may be partially explained by the fact that the infirmity of age began to tell upon him early. Yet the suspicion is natural that he sympathized with the position of his son-in-law, Mr. Morrill, of Wilmington, of whom tradition relates, that when Mr. Whitefield had an appointment to preach there, he rode all over town and warned his people not to attend the service. The result was natural; a first-rate notice and a great congregation.
The building of the third meeting-house occurred during Mr. Ruggles' pastorate. The vote to build was passed, 1737, Septem- ber 15th, and a building committee was appointed in November, consisting of Dea. Samuel Hill, Benjamin Tompson, Esq., Joshua Abbott, Ens. Benjamin Shed, and Sergt. Benjamin Frost. Timber was to be made ready for building the next summer. The size of the house was to be 60×40, and 26 feet "between joynts." It was to be thirty feet north of the former house, and must have stood near the present Soldiers' Monument. The raising took place, 1738, May 24th, and March Gth following, the town voted, "after large debate," to "sell the pue ground in our new meeting house, under such Restrictions and Regulations as the town shall hereafter see best, which money coming by the sale of the pues shall be improved towards the finishing our new meeting house." In May, it was voted, "that when any pue is granted to any man, in our new meeting house, that the man and his family shall sit in said pue, if there be conveniency of room in said pue." In the earlier meeting-houses pews had been few. The first mention of one is in 1670, December, when Mr. Daniel had "liberty to make a pue in the east end of ye meeting house, where he did desire it"; and Mr. Whiting had a pew in the new house in 1694. If there were any other pews before 1712, they are not alluded to. But, 1711, November 16, the town granted "liberty to build pues in the vacant places in ye meeting house, and to cut of two or three feet of the deacon's seat." March 17, it was "voted, that those persons that had the grant of pues in the meeting house shall be at the whol charge of building them, and that those two persons that shall Joyne
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upon that place that is granted for Mr. Whiting's pue shall be at the charge to finish that pue. Also, that every man that shall have the grant of a pue shall be oblidged himself and his wife to sit there, and to keep it filled with such a convenient number as shall be judged fit by the committee that shall be appointed to Regulate that affair. Also, it was voted, that there should be liberty to build pues behind the body of seats below, taking away the hind seat, and so taking as much of the Alley as is convenient, and not to streighten the passages." Simon Crosby was granted a place "on the North
side, between Mr. Whiting's pue and the old pue at the east end of the pulpit"; Captain Tompson, "between Mr. Whiting's pue and the East door"; Lieut. Samuel Hill, "between Mr. Ruggles' pue and the West door, Mr. Ruggles his pue to be taken in to the middle of the window"; Enoch Kidder and Simon Crosby "ters, that place between the west door and the stay"; Quarter. Nathaniel Page and Job Lane, Junt., ". that place behind the body of seats, at the upper end of the men's seats"; Joseph Crosby, "behind the women's seats, joining to Mr. Page and Job Lane"; Dea. Samuel Hunt, "behind the men's body of seats, joining to Mr. Page." It was also voted, that the west door should be cut and hung to open at the middle ; and the three deacons, with Major Lane and Oliver Whiting, were appointed a committee to regulate the matter of the pews. The deacons were Joseph Tompson and, probably, Joseph Foster and John Sheldon.
From this record it seems that ten pews were-built in the old church before and behind the two rows of long seats or benches on which the men and women sat, separated by the central passage. In the new church, the committee chosen to "order who shall have the pues" were instructed, "so far as they have respect to pay, to govern themselves only by real and personal estate." But the town was not pleased with the result and appointed another committee "to assess the value of the pue ground." Their report assesses twenty- two chioices at sums from £15, 18s., to £5, 12s., reaching a total of £254. It was then voted, 1739-40, March 4, that "the highest payers of the two Rates that was granted for the building our new meeting house shall have the offer successively of the pue ground at . the price set on them," and the next Monday a meeting was held, at
. which "the heirs of the pue ground" were to declare their "accept- ance or refusal of their right." The twenty-two tax-payers who would be entitled, on this condition, to the pues, if all accepted
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their right, were in order as follows : John Stearns, Simon Crosby, William Stickney, Jonathan Bowers, Elizabeth Osgood, Benjamin Tompson, Andrew Richardson, William French, Seth Ross, Joseph Farley, John Shed, Joseph Davis, Samuel Sheldon, John Needham, Oliver Farmer, Joshua Abbott, Benjamin Shed, William Crosby, John Hill, Nathaniel Richardson, Thomas Ross, and Jacob Walker. These pews were placed doubtless around by the walls, leaving the centre to be filled with long seats, where those not provided for in the pews would find a place.
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