USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 7
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The church thus constituted believed that it had committed into its hands the very keys of the kingdom of heaven, and that it had the power in the name of Christ to open and shut the doors in his name to the inhabitants of Dedham.
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The selection of a pastor was not easily made. Mr. Thomas Carter, a signer of the Covenant, was thought of, but he was called to Woburn. Mr. John Phillips, formerly rector at Wrentham, England, an eminent divine, was much desired; but he declined.
After testing the "gifts and graces" of each person in the church for nearly two years John Allin was chosen to the teaching office, but whether he should take the title of minister or pastor was not easy to determine, so the advice of the churches was sought and being informed that it was a matter of indifference to them, Mr. Allin took the title of pastor. As previously defined the teaching office was to pray, preach and instruct; the pastor's office was to administer baptism and the sacraments. The next officer to be chosen was the ruling elder whose duty it was to adminis- ter, excommunicate, absolve and ordain. Four persons were named for the office of ruling elder, Ralph Wheelock, John Hunting, Thomas Carter, and John Kingsbury. John Hunting whom some had known in England, was chosen to the great disappointment, it is believed, of Ralph Wheelock.
April 24, 1639, was set apart for the ordination of the pastor and ruling elder. It was made a day of fasting and prayer. In the forenoon after prayer by Elder Hunting, the pastor elect prayed and preached. In the afternoon he preached another ser- mon, and turning to the congregation inquired if any one knew anything which should make him desist. No objections being made he asked the church members to signify their approbation of Elder Hunting by uplifting their hands; all hands being uplifted he then exhorted the elder elect to a faithful performance of his duty. Mr. Hunting then accepted the office. Mr. Allin requested the church to name some person to ordain the elder. Whereupon the church deputed John Allin, Edward Allyne and Ralph Wheel- ock. Then the two last named went into the seat of the elected offices and they with John Allin laid hands on the head of John Hunting and after prayer repeated these words of ordination. "In ye name of ye Lord Jesus and by his power committed to his church we doe ordaine thee Jo: Hunting unto ye office of a ruling elder in this church of Xt." Elder Hunting then agreeable to the duties of his office propounded John Allin pastor. The members of the church having signified their acceptance of the pastor elect
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by upraised hands Mr. Allin accepted the office. Then John Hunt- ing with Edward Allyne and Ralph Wheelock, who had been de- puted by the church to ordain the pastor, laid their hands upon the head of Mr. Allin, accompanied with prayer, and in the name of Christ and his church, ordained him to the office of pastor of the church. The whole proceedings on the part of the Elders being marked with "gravity, comly order without hesitation and with effectual and apt prayers and exhortations to the church." The elders of other churches present then signified their love and approbation to the proceedings, by giving the right hand of fellow- ship to each officer.
With the organization of the church candidates for mem- bership were required to make a public profession-"Margaret Allin ye wife of (Rev) Jo: Allin who gave a clere and plentiful testimony of ye gracious dealings of ye lord w'th hir." (Ann) ye wife of our brother (Robert) Hinsdale being fearfull & not able to speake in publike but fainting away ther coming to ye church in private, gave good satisfaction wch being publikly testified & de- clared & she confirming ye sam relative to be so she was received ye 2d of ye 4th month, (1638). The mode of admitting members into the church was so far changed in 1742 that the candidate for admission might at his own discretion make a public confession or a private one before the minister. The method of admitting members in the First Church was again altered in 1793 requiring the candidate to be propounded to the congregation by the minis- ter; if no objection was made within fourteen days, he was admit- ted.
The Sunday following his ordination Mr. Allin gave notice to the church members to bring their unbaptised children the next Sunday for baptism and to prepare themselves for communion the Sunday following. A time was set apart during the week for examination and preparation for the ordinance what in after years was called the "preparatory lecture." Mary and Sarah Dwight, daughters of John and Hannah Dwight were the first children to be baptised in the Dedham Church.
The deacons' office was to regulate the collections for the poor and to sing psalms. The deacons held the contribution boxes and the assembled congregation passed before them and made their
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contributions. Widows who were assigned to care for the meet- ing house were also church officers. For various reasons deacons were not elected until 1650 when Henry Chickering and Nathan Aldus were chosen, the first deacons of the Dedham Church. This was the fourteenth church organized in New England.
After dismissing the assembly on Sunday Mr. Allin invited the members of the church, in the name of Christ, to gather around his table; after giving an exhortation of nearly a half-hour relative to their duty concerning the ordinance, he prayed and exhorted the brethren to make a confession of sins; he then consecrated the bread with a short prayer and breaking it he took a piece from the platter and passed it to the others using the words "take and eat, this is my body &c."; after all had partaken he consecrated the cup in the same manner and drinking of it deliver- ed it to the person next to him and bade all to drink of it. Which being done he concluded with a prayer of thanksgiving; then a psalm was sung and the church dismissed with a blessing. Mr. Allin testified that the ordinance they celebrated was in accord- ance with the instructions of Christ, as near as could be and was very sweet unto all the church in general . . . and that all felt their hearts much confirmed in brotherly love one unto another. The collections in Colonial Churches were taken up at the end of the afternoon service and are thus described by Lech- ford; one of the Deacons saying, "Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for contribution, wherefore as God hath prospered you, so freely offer." Then Magistrates and chief Gentlemen first, and then the Elders, and all the congregation of men, and most of them that are not of the Church, all single persons, widows, and women in absence of their husbands, come up, one after another and bring their offerings to the Deacon at his seat and put it into a box of wood for the purpose, if it be money or paper, if it be any other chattle they sit it or lay it down before the Deacons and so pass another way to their seats again.
Mr. Allin, according to the records, received no salary during his pastorate of thirty-two years, yet there is a later record of an allowance having been made to him. His parishioners had come to Dedham with the promise of free homes, where they could worship as they chose. They had probably felt the tithe in
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England the paying of one tenth of the product of their land and labor to the church, an assessment which had its origin in the taking of the tenth sheaf. The tithe goes back to the early history of England when land was the chief property and every owner of a bit of ground was required to contribute .one-tenth of his produce to the support of the church. In the porches of some of the older and remote churches may still be seen storage shelves for such offerings as butter and eggs. Mr. Allin's parishioners probably remembered the huge barns where the parson received his tithe in grain, hay, wood, lambs and so on.
Harvard College was founded to provide a literate ministry in the churches. All Dedham town ministers (from 1638 to 1861) were connected with Harvard College. The Rev. John Allin as an overseer and his successors as graduates of the College. Con- sidering its population and the means of its inhabitants, Dedham ranks as a liberal contributor to the early maintenance of Harvard College. The Rev. John Allin gave two cows to the College, presumably to furnish milk for the President and tutors. The ministers of the Colony were leaders in theology, medicine, educa- tion, and often in politics. The early history of New England was largely that of the churches and the history of the churches was largely that of the clergy, so in tracing the life of her minis- ters we have in no small measure the early history of Dedham.
The Reverend John Allin was born at Colby, Norfolk, Eng- land. He was a son of Reginal Allin and the eighth in a family of fifteen children. His father was a man of considerable pro- perty and could be termed a rich farmer. John was the only one of the family to receive a university education. He matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge April 27, 1612, took the bachelor's degree in 1615, and the master's degree in 1619. He was a curate in the Parish Church at Wrentham, England, and of sufficient note to make it necessary for him when leaving for America to escape in disguise. He married at Wrentham, Suf- folk, Oct. 22, 1622 Margaret Morse and here his eldest son John* was born Oct. 13, 1623. From 1623 to 1637 nothing is known of John Allin. He was admitted with his family to the Dedham
* John Allin Jr. graduated at Harvard College in the second class in 1643. He afterwards returned to England where he became Vicor of Rye in 1653 and con- tinued Vicor till December 1662 when he was ejected under the Bartholomew Act.
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plantation July 18, 1637. Those who left England by permission had to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy and also an oath that they were no subsidy men. In addition to ask permission was to excite suspicion and to run the risk of the vengeance of Laud, the Star Chamber, and the High Commission persecution. Under these circumstances it is no occasion for surprise that John Allin left England in disguise.
In New England Mr. Allin was not only a moulding influence in civil affairs in the place of his residence, and a faithful and devoted pastor, but one of the active and representative ministers in the province and called upon for service in various activities. He was early made an overseer of Harvard College and served as a member of many important committees in Church and State.
When it became necessary, in 1646, to defend the colonists against the attempt to bring them into subjection to the British Parliament, the magistrates having first delivered their opinion, the elders were requested to disclose their sentiments, and Mr. Allin was selected as their representative. He presented the opinion of the elders in a paper worthy of the time and occasion. In 1637 appeared "a letter of many ministers in Old England requesting the judgement of their brethren in New England concerning Nine Positions." In respect to which the New England clergy were represented as having embraced opinion at variance with those professed by them before their embarkation. An answer was returned in which, to some extent, a change of senti- ment was acknowledged: Churches it said, had still need to grow from defects to purity and from reformations to reformations, age after age. A reply was made to this answer by the "minis- ters of Old England." To this second letter of the English Clergy the Rev. John Allin of Dedham, with the assistance of the Rev- erend Thomas Shepard of Cambridge, was appointed to prepare an answer. The work was long regarded as an authority. In 1648 he was chosen to preach before the Synod of Cambridge which met for the purpose of forming a system of church govern- ment. Mr. Allin was more liberal than many ministers of his time taking the stand that all children should have the privilege of baptism, rather than those only of church members.
On October 17, 1643 the General Court granted him two hundred acres of land, located on Charles River in the present
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town of Medfield, in recognition of his service to the state. He was much interested in Eliot's work among the Indians and fre- quently conferred with him in reference to the undertaking.
The Reverend John Allin was one of the largest landowners in the town and on the list of "County rates" his name, for several years, stood at the head. As pastor of the Dedham Church he received large grants of land from the town as illustrated by the vote taken July 19, 1639. Whereas Mr. John Allin, now pastor of our congregation "hath for much tyme past taken greate paynes both in exercising his gifts among us & carefull in attending his sayd office since it pleased the Lord to call him therunto." Also being at much expense in his diligent and faithful promotion of good, both in church and commonwealth during the whole time he has been with us, which we acknowledge and are bound to show ourselves thankful, by taking care that convenient means of employment and improvement of his stock for more comfortable subsistance in "the afore sayd office wherunto he is so called." In which respect we do now grant unto the said Mr. John Allin and his assignes forever thirty acres of meadow, also one hundred and twenty acres of upland adjoining the said meadow, "for a farm" all of which was granted free of all charge as long as he remained pastor of the church.
While the laws of the Colony required a parsonage for the minister we do not find that this obligation was fulfilled in Dedham. During the later part of his ministry it was voted at a general meeting of the town "to build a convenient dwelling house on the lot called the Church lot, and to plant and enclose an orchard." This vote was not carried out. An attempt was after- wards made to purchase Mr. Allin's house and lands but difficul- ties arose and the project was given up. Like many ministers of his day Mr. Allin was a well-to-do farmer, with which work he was probably familiar in his English home. The inventory of his estate at the time of his death shows that he had of live stock, one horse, one yoke of oxen, two milch cows, two fatted cows, one steer, twenty eight sheep and seven swine. The value of his estate was £1,079 . 8s . 8d. The Rev. John Allin's house, is believed to have stood on the south side of High Street on the original Nicholas Phillips lot now occupied by the Country Day
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School. His house consisted of a parlor, kitchen and buttery on the first floor and sleeping rooms above.
Brook's, "Lives of the Puritans" says of Mr. Allin. He was a hard student, a good scholar, an excellent preacher, a grave and pious divine, and a man of a most humble, heavenly and courteous behavior; full of sweet Christian love to all, earnestly, and with much meekness of spirit contending for the faith and peace of Christ.
In 1653 Mr. Allin married for his second wife the widow of Governor Thomas Dudley and the mother of Governor Joseph Dudley. Joseph was brought up in Mr. Allin's family, carefully educated and graduated from Harvard College in 1665. Mr. Allin died August 26, 1671 at the age of seventy-five years, and was buried at the town expense on August 29th, the Reverend Thomas Thacher of Boston preached the funeral sermon. His wife died three days later and both are buried in the same grave. For many years this grave was unknown but through the persis- tent efforts of the Rev. Dr. Lamson it was finally located. In 1854 residents of the old territorial parish erected on the grave a marble monument which bears on its face the following inscription :
Rev. John Allin First Pastor of Dedham. Born in England. Entered the Ministry in England Came over in 1637. The same year joined the Company at Dedham. Ordained Pastor April 24, 1639. Died August 26, 1671. A man of signal worth Of unaffected piety And great sweetness of disposition. Prudent, meek, patient, and serene. He faithfully fed his flock. And by his writings, and counsels Obtained a wide spread reputation. And rendered eminent service To the N. E. Colonies.
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All of Mr. Allin's successors previous to 1854, including Rev. Dr. Lamson, are inscribed on the memorial.
Elder John Hunting landed in the New World in 1638 with his wife and five children, he was a deeply religious man and his wife, a cousin of John Rogers the Martyr, shared his devotion. Under the rule of Charles I, among the descendants of Norfolk and Suffolk Counties none were more prominent than John Hunting. He was made ruling Elder of that district. He spent most of his time in the saddle, visiting the people of like faith and holding meetings where ever a few could be assembled, in house or barn, or under the trees. John Hunting came to Dedham immediately on landing as he knew some members of the Ded- ham plantation. He had not only the duties of his office as established by the church, but other duties as well. In accord- ance with an order of the General Court respecting the catechis- ing of children, "being sensible of the great use of this waye of instructing youth." Arrangements were made in 1666 with Elder Hunting to meet at his house, immediately after "Lecture Day" the youth of the town and attend to the duty of catechising them. Parents and masters were especially counciled to see that all youth of suitable age were in attendance.
REVEREND WILLIAM ADAMS-The Reverend William Adams was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, May 27, 1650. He graduated from Harvard College in 1671. After the death of Mr. Allin he seems to have been by common consent fixed upon as his successor. After urgent solicitations he consented to preach in Dedham on Sunday February 18, 1672 and in less than three weeks he received a call from the Dedham Church, "to come to them in order to future settlement." But Mr. Adams "did not find his mind inclined to take upon himself, at present that work." In August however he preached again in Dedham and in September received a second call. In the following month, he received a third call, which he so far accepted as to move from Cambridge to Dedham, to the solemn undertaking of the ministry there on trial. In October he received and accepted an actual call to the office and was ordained December 3, 1673, pastor of the Church of Christ in Dedham. The Reverend Mr. Wilson of Medfield gave the charge; Elder Hunting and Deacon Aldis joined in laying of hands: The Reverend Mr. Danforth of Roxbury gave the right
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hand of fellowship. In the absence of a minister's house he hired the house of his predecessor the Reverend John Allin. Mr. Adams occupied the second meeting house which was built on the site of the meeting house first erected in Dedham. The envelope system so generally used in church today was inaugurated in the Dedham Church in 1685 when it was agreed by vote of the town, that the money for the minister's salary should be propor- tioned and put into a collection box every Lord's Day in papers, bearing the giver's name, and what ever money was put in loose, without papers, was looked upon and accounted as freely given.
Mr. Adams published two sermons: one delivered in his own pulpit November 21, 1678, on a day of General Fasting, and the other as election sermon delivered, to the audience of the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Colony, at Boston. Dr. Lamson said of him "there is reason to think that the town possessed in Mr. Adams a worthy pastor, who only wanted a longer ministry in order to hold an eminent rank among his contemporaries and brethren, according to the standard of the age." Mr. Adams died August 17, 1685 in the thirty-sixth year of his age. At that time in accordance with Puritan usage, prayer at funerals was avoided, but one was offered at Mr. Adam's funeral, which was among the earliest, if not the earliest of which we have any authentic record in New England history.
REVEREND JOSEPH BELCHER. The Reverend Joseph Belcher was ordained as the successor of the Reverend Mr. Adams November 29, 1693, after a vacancy in the Dedham pulpit of eight years. Mr. Belcher was born in Milton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1669. He graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1690 at the age of twenty-one years. After three years spent perhaps in professional preparation he settled in Dedham. He occupied the Dedham pulpit for the first time on April 17, 1692 and again on May 15th. In the minutes of the town meeting held on May 23, it is recorded that, "ye Ch and Town have given a Call" to Mr. Belcher "to come and live and laboure amongst us." The call of the Church was given on December 4th. He filled the pulpit on June 12th and on October 30th he began to preach regularly. On December 23rd it was voted at a town meeting to give Mr. Belcher sixty pounds a year, and the select- men are instructed to notify him of the action of the town and
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to express their desire to live under his ministry and that "he wold Except of ye call given to him and not delay his coming to live in the Town."
As a pastor he lived much admired and died greatly lamented in his fifty third year and in the thirtieth year of his ministry.
During the year 1696 a free contribution was taken up for him in place of a salary which however was later resumed. During the latter years of his ministry his salary was a hundred pounds and his wood was supplied by members of the parish. Soon after coming to Dedham he married Abigail, daughter of Benjamin and Susanna Thompson of Roxbury. They had six children of whom Joseph Belcher Jr., was a Dedham teacher. He graduated from Harvard College in 1717 and commenced to teach the Dedham school in November of the same year. He began his work in the school house near the meeting house but the town having adapted the moving school his labors were trans- ferred, by the selectmen, on January 20, 1717 to the house of James Fisher in the Clapboard Trees parish. He continued to teach this migratory school, in different parts of the town, until the spring of 1721. As a preacher the Reverend Joseph Belcher was greatly admired. Five of his sermons have come down to us. One delivered in Boston in 1698 before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company; another in Boston before the Great and General Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1701; two sermons preached, in Dedham for "Young persons" and the "Rising Generation"; and an ordination sermon preached at Bristol at the settlement of Nathaniel Cotton in 1721. He was taken sick with a "dangerous paralysis" in 1721 and went to stay with his son-in-law the Rev. Thomas Walter at Roxbury where he was under the care of his wife's brother, Dr. Philip Sampson. He died in Roxbury April 27, 1723. Five of the principal men of Dedham were appointed a committee to endea- vor to hire a coach to bring his body to Dedham for burial. The town appropriated forty pounds to defray the expense of the funeral and on May 1st his body was "Decently inter'd." While his predecessors occupied the house of the Reverend John Allin, Mr. Belcher built a parsonage, to which the town contributed sixty pounds, on the land now occupied by the Allin Congrega- tional Church. A well executed portrait of Mr. Belcher hangs at
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the left of the pulpit in the Dedham First Church. This portrait was presented in 1839 on the condition that it be put in order and preserved in some suitable place under the care and direction of the said First Church in Dedham.
REVEREND SAMUEL DEXTER. The Reverend Samuel Dexter was born in Malden October 23, 1700 and graduated at Harvard College in 1720. After leaving college he taught school for a time. He preached his first sermon October 15, 1722 and in the fall of 1723 received a call from Dedham which after due deliberation was accepted. He was ordained as the fourth min- ister in Dedham May 6, 1724 and continued in the pastorate until his death January 29, 1755. In the years preceding his settlement the Dedham parish included not only the Dedham of today but Norwood, Westwood and Dover as well. As population increased the residents in the out-lying districts were anxious to establish churches of their own and by 1748 this separation had been effected. The mother church which had previously been known as the "Church of Christ" now became the First Church in Dedham. Mr. Dexter was a man of delicate health, of extreme modesty, with a disposition which inclined to despon- dency which often made his "life very weary." Previous to the founding of the several parishes, church meetings were fre- quently called for the correction of disorderly members which resulted in the calling of an ecclesiastical council in July 1725. He was often beset by those who dared to "insult and revile" him to his face, as he records and whom he designated as "certain sons of ignorance and pride." With these dissensions Mr. Dexter was painfully affected, but the latter part of his ministry was calm and quiet. Mr. Dexter published two sermons one in 1727 upon the death by accident of Timothy Metcalf and the other in 1738 upon the first centennial of the church. He voluntarily relinquished the parochial taxes of several persons on the ground that they worshipped God after the way of the established church of England. Mr. Dexter married October 23, 1724 Cather- ine Mears of Roxbury. Five months after his settlement he wrote "I have been ordained pastor of a church and I Have married a wife. The lines have fallen to me in a pleasant place for situation, though the people are not so easy and agreeable as might be wished for, but they are better than I deserve and 1
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