History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 149

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 149

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).

This statement of Mr. Abbot is doubtless a fair one, so far as it goes, but it fails to give us the im- pression of a person of such strength and gentleness, persistency and patience, clear insight into the heart of things, and judicious adaptation to the exigencies of the hour, as we look for in a man who held un- questioned for sixty years the reins of authority in a large and intelligent parish, and gave to the world, through blood and training, a family of children of such marked abilities and virtues. Without being an eloquent preacher or a profound philosopher, he must have been an able, well-proportioned man, fill- ing his place admirably, and, in his children, perpet- uating his virile influence down the generations.

It seems hardly credible that a country pastor, on a salary of seventy pounds, or three hundred and fifty dollars, with the use of the ministerial house and lands, should have "accumulated a large estate." The wonder grows when we learn that one-tenth of

1596

IIISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

this was given to poous and charitable objects; that his was a hospitable house, with attending servants; that he brought up in comfort a family of five chil- dren, two of whom were educated at Harvard College; and that the parish was slack in paying him his dnes, being in debt to him at one time fifty-three hundred pounds. This heavy default in payment was not al- lowed to pass unnoticed. The parish was faithfully admonished of its wrong-doing, and urged to make a settlement ; then offered an abatement of seven hun- dred pounds on certain conditions; and, closing his lengthy and mathematically clear statement, the good pastor says .- " And finally, my dear brethren, if, after all y' has been said, you do rather incline to Defer y' s' Settlement, and shall choose to go on Still in Love, as you have done of late, viz., to allow me sev- enty pounds lawfull money, and my fire-wood annu- ally. I Shall Submit to your Pleasure in that matter." The parish chose " to go on Still in Love."

It is evident that the pastor and his wife (emphatically the latter) must have possessed rare gifts for the conduct of a househohl and the wise uses of money. There was, of course, rigid economy in the family, but, so far as we know, no pinching, no shabbiness, no pecuniary distress or embarrassment. We can understand how economy must have been reduced to a system in all domestic affairs, and can credit the statement that the pastor who tithed his income, " was so economical as to blow out the candle when he began his evening prayer." But there was nothing sordid in this minutice in saving. Free-giving, but no waste, must have been his motto.

Near the close of his life the parish made such a settlement of his claims as to call out from him the warmest expressions of gratitude, attended by an offer of "one hundred pounds, lawful money, to be improved for such purposes as the parish shall direct." In his will he also left to the parish one hundred pounds, the income of which was to be used for the benefit of the poor of the parish. From that day to the present the poor have yearly profited by this be- quest. Ile also bequeathed one hundred pounds for the propagation of Christian knowledge among the Indians.

Mr. Phillips was a dignified man, and realized fully the distinction belonging to his office. His manners were such as to inspire respect, veneration and, per- chan , " tear" on the part of some. The parish minister of that day was the distinguished man of the town to whom deference was paid by all. Mr. Philips received this deference as his due, and, while courteops to all, w. - reserved and mindful of his off-

We have from the per of an eye-witness a graphic . oneof his appearance and summer as he came olen 1 je yde en th Sa Mech. As he deliber- att is pad ron his h ise to the meeting-house, on the app de the street at the hour of worship,

" he was flanked on the left by his black body- servant, and on his right by madam and her colored maid and the children. His movements were precise and stately, as was becoming in a man occupying his exalted position. As he drew near the house of worship the people who were gathered about the doors hastened within to their seats, and when he entered the house of God, with head uncovered, the whole congregation, as was the hereditary custom, rose from their seats, and remained standing until he had ascended the long flight of steps to the pulpit, entered the sacred enclosure and seated himself. At the close of the service the same deference was paid the minister on retiring, the congregation rising and standing till he and his family had passed into the porch of the sanctuary. This was one of the ways in which both pastor and people deemed it fitting that the worship- pers of God should show their reverence for his con- secrated ambassador."

The sermons of Mr. Phillips, many of which, in manuscript, have been preserved, are neatly written, methodical in construction and easy to be understood. They are earnest, often bold, in the rebuke of the pre- vailing vices and follies,-intemperance, licentious- ness, extravagence. His preaching was for the most part practical rather than doctrinal, dealing with the condition of his hearers rather than with speculations concerning future possibilities. And, withal, his ser mons show a frequent iteration of the same truth, teaching, administration and rebuke.

Mr. Phillips published a number of sermons and small treatises,-one of the most noticeable of the latter be- ing that entitled, " Seasonable Advice to a Neighbor." This treatise, published in 1761, is in the form of a dialogue, and is dedicated to the people of his parish, with the prayer that "they might always hold fast to the form of sound words, and especially that they might not settle any succeeding minister of opposite faith."

In this tract Mr. Phillips clearly manifests his con- fidence in the Calvinistic theology and the Westmin- ster Confession. He sets forth, with the earnestness born of conviction, the doctrines of "original sin," the "necessity of the new birth," "justification by faith without the works of the law," " divine decrees " and "the saints' perseverance." And, while the author " would not be understood " as intending "to confine real Christianity " strictly " to those who are fully in the scheme called Calvinistic," he is yet " fully persuaded that these truths are most conson- ant, not only to antiquity, but also to the true standard, the word of inspiration."

Shortly after his settlement, when the ministerial house had been built, January 17, 1711-12, Mr. Phillips married Hannah White, daughter of John White, Esq., of Haverhill. She was a worthy, capa- ble, pious woman, who greatly assisted her husband in his parochial duties, and, by her prudent, discreet conduct in the parish, her careful and judicious man-

1597

ANDOVER.

agement of their domestic affairs, and her wise over- sight and training of their children, contributed largely to the ministerial success of her husband, and to the developement of the noble and generous traits of her sons. She died at the home of her son Samuel, in North Andover, January 7, 1773, two years after the death of her husband, in the eighty-second year of her age.

They had five children,-three sons and two daugh- ters. Mary, born November 30, 1712, married Samuel Appleton, of Haverhill; died December 5, 1737, aged twenty-five.

Lydia, born June 10, 1717, married Dr. Parker Clark, of Andover; died November 4, 1749, aged thirty-two, leaving children. These children were tenderly referred to by Mr. Phillips in his will, made in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His sons had at this time secured for themselves social position and substantial possessions. To them he says: "My de- sire and prayer is yt my sª three sons may continue to live in love, and yt they still behave respectfully and dutifully towards their aged, tender and good mother, even unto the end ; and yt they go on to shew kind- ness to ye motherless children of their beloved sister Lydia. And, in a word, that they make it their care to be found in Christ, and to serve their generation according to ye will of God, by doing good as they shall have opportunity unto all men, and especially to ye household of faith; as knowing yt it is more blessed to give than to receive."

Samuel, born February 13, 1715, died August 21, 1790.

John, born December 17, 1719, died August 21, 1795.

William, born June 25, 1722, died January 15, 1804.

Of these three sons of Mr. Phillips there will be further mention in connection with Phillips Acad- emy.

REV. JONATHAN FRENCH, the second minister of the South Parish, was born in Braintree, January 30, 1740. He was the youngest son of Dea. Moses French and Esther Thayer French. On his mother's side he was a descendant of John Alden. His early life was spent on the farm with his father. When seventeen years of age he enlisted as a private sollier in the Continental army, and was stationed at Fort Edward. His health soon becoming impaired by small-pox and fever, he received a discharge, and re- turned to the paternal farm. On recovering his health, he re-enlisted in the army, and was stationed at Castle William, in Boston harbor. Here he was created sergeant and put in charge of the sutler's store, and not unfrequently, in the absence of the higher officers, of the garrison also. While in this position he made the acquaintance of some literary people from the neighboring city who were aecns- tomed to visit the Castle. To them he revealed his passionate desire for more knowledge and a better education, and in return received encouragement

and assistance from them to pursue his studies. The circumstances in which he was placed turned his at- tention strongly towards medicine and surgery, espec- ially the latter. In these branches of learning he made such rapid advances as to be soon entrusted by his superiors with the care of the sick in the garrison. While thus employed, his mind took a broader reach, and he resolved on a collegiate education, with the fur- ther intent of becoming a missionary, or minister. In this purpose he was further encouraged by his Bos- ton friends and the chaplains of the Castle, who furnished him with the needed preparatory books. So zealous was he in these classical studies that, in his daily trips between the Castle and city, in the boat of which he had command, he pursued his studies while the boatmen plied their oars. By such diligence he soon gained the requisite knowledge for a college matriculation, resigned his position at the Castle, and was admitted to Harvard College, to the class which graduated in 1771. He was thirty-one years old when he took his college diploma. Among his classmates and personal friends were Samuel Phillips, Jr., and David Osgood, natives of Andover. After his graduation he remained for a time in Cam- bridge, in the family of the lately deceased President Holyoke, for the purpose of taking a course of theolog- ical instruction. Hestill adhered to his original inten- tion of becoming a missionary to the Indians. But, through the persuasion of his Andover class-mates, he was induced to preach for a time in the pulpit of the South Parish, recently made vacant by the death of the venerable Mr. Phillips. ITis appearance, reputa - tion and services were so acceptable to the people that they soon, with great unanimity and cordiality, extended to him an invitation to become their min- ister. He accepted this invitation, and was ordained and installed pastor September 23, 1772, in the thirty-third year of his age.

As a pastor, Mr. French was faithful, judicious and much beloved. Ilis birth and early life among farmers gave him an experimental acquaintance with the trials, labors and aspirations of the large mass of his parishioners. And his short experience as a sol- dier prepared him to be a wise counselor to the young men of his parish who went into the Revolutionary War, and a considerate sympathizer with the friends at home. He did not possess the easy dignity of his predecessor, and did not so carry himself in his in- tercourse with the people as to inspire them with such profound reverence as to make their worship of God intermingle with their veneration for his ser- vant. Being below the medium height and inclined to corpulency, he was heavy of movement and averse to physical exertion. But, notwithstanding this bodily inertness, his pastoral duties were discharged with scrupulous fidelity and loving care. The people in their perplexities often sought his advice in other than religious matters, making him a confidant in their private and family troubles. We find this encomium

1598

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of him on record: "Seldom was a minister more beloved, esteemed and venerated by his parish- ioners."

Mr. French was valued for his practical wisdom. People and parishes beyond the limits of the town sought his advice in difficult matters. It is stated that he "attended seventy-eight ecclesiastical conn- cils," a phenomenal number for those days of few churches and far between and life-long pastorates.

Ile was fond of anecdote, and could tell a good story with such spirit as to afford pleasure to old and young. The children were delighted to gather around his knee, repeat their catechism and listen to his amusing recitals.

" As a preacher, he maintained a highly respectable rank. Ilis preaching was rather practical than doc- trinal. For though he cordially received the Calvin- istic doctrines, he very rarely went into a particular exposition of them-much less attempted anything like a formal defence." His manner in the pulpit was impressive and at times uncomfortably deliberate. llis style was plain, intelligible to the least cul- tivated and better adapted to instruct than to please the hearer.

Mr. Mooar, in his admirable " Historical Manual of the South Church," in speaking of Mr. French as a theologian, says : " It seems evident that he not only did not make very sharp discriminations, but was rather averse to having them made. IIe was, beyond all dispute, no friend to the Hopkinsian theories of his day. Yet, as between such Arminians as Dr. Symmes, of the North Parish, and Dr. Cummings, of Billerica, and the Calvinists as a class, he undoubtedly sided with the latter. Ile was nearly the only one of his Association whose sympathies were Calvinistic. Ile was reputed a Calvinist, though living in the atmosphere of Arminianism," and exchanged pulpits with ministers of each wing. " I have heard it said, that, after preaching sound and solemn doctrine, he was in the habit of adding a remark or two which mitigated very much the severity of his statements."

As a man, Mr. French was noted for his cheerful disposition, charitableness towards all classes and for his hospitality, remarkable for even those days, when the ministerial house was expected to be and was the hostelry for all traveling preachers, their families and friends. One who profited by this hospitality has said : " To every brother in the ministry and to a large circle of acquaintances his doors were always open, and every one who came met with a cordial welcome."

As a citizen, Mr. French deeply sympathized with the patriots who resisted the aggression of the mother country and thus precip itated the Revolution. And, when the hour for armed resistance came, he was found among the foremest to encourage such resist- ance. When the news of the fight at Lexington rench leon, his presence and voice stimulated the young nen of his parish to hasten to the bloody strife.

And when these parishioners of his, in the fight at Bunker Hill, were slain or wounded, he headed the company of citizens who hastened to the scene of con- flict with sympathy and aid. And, however waver- ing, uncertain, or both-sided may have been his posi- tion in the doctrinal controversies of the day, he was an unquestioned patriot, with unwavering consistency and constancy favoring the war and the independence of the colonies. The severe trials which came to his people in consequence of the war he cheerfully shared. In a long letter to the parish touching the payment of his salary, dated February 19, 1779, he says : "The true intent and design of the original contract between us, so far as it relates to the money part, was to afford me, with the other things specified in the contract, a comfortable and decent support; which was all I wanted. And, supposing the necessaries of life would continue nearly as they were then, upon an average, one year with another, l imagined this would render it unnecessary for me to encumber myself with the entanglements of the world, and enable me, according to the apostolic di- rection, to give myself wholly to the work of the ministry. A comfortable, decent support for myself and family was all I desired. Experience showed me that the provisions you made were adequate to this purpose, and yet were not too much to enable me to afford that time and care for this flock which the great duties of my calling required. I was well-con- tented, and, had things remained in that channel, you never would have heard any complaints from me. But circumstances are greatly altered. In 1775, the first year of the war, the articles necessary for cloth- ing were raised in their prices twenty-five per cent., which diminished my salary, so far as these articles were necessary, one-quarter part. With the decrease of my salary my expenses increased. Soldiers almost daily fell in upon us, and such entertainment as we could we gave them and they were welcome." While many in the parish during these years did not take this change of prices into consideration, others did, and furnished "the necessaries of life at former prices," and " others considered me in their private kindness, so that, on the whole, I was so far from complaining that I gave you a generous and public credit for the same, though I then thought, and still do think, that I sustained my full proportion or more of the public burthen. which I was willing to do." In " the spring of 1778 the necessaries of life, upon an average, had arisen five or six-fold in their de- mands. My salary decreased in value in proportion. I found the burden then increasing upon me and threatening to become insupportable; and with the best economy I could use, my salary fell far short of procuring the real necessaries of life for my family." This becoming known, he was assisted by private donations, public contribution and help on the farm, so that, while short of his nominal salary, "in pro- portion to about three for one," he says, "I was fully

1599

ANDOVER.

satisfied and felt grateful to my people for their marks of justice and generosity towards me."

Having made this review of the past, he comes to the then present price of the necessaries of life,- grain, meat, sugar, drink, "water excepted," "from fifteen to twenty-fold higher than when my contract was made." After going into minute detail and esti- mate he continues, "upon this calculation,-my salary, which is in the contract €80, is in its value to me now no more than £8." But, "as I desire nothing of you but what is perfectly right and just and perfectly reasonable, and should be unworthy the sacred char- acter I sustain among you if I were not willing to sympathize with you and participate of all your bur- thens and afflictions as well as rejoice in all your prosperity, I am willing in these public calamities and burthens to rise and fall with you ; nor could I be happy to be freed from them myself and see you burthened and groaning under them .- I am therefore willing to have a consideration made me annually or semi-annually, according to the then present circum- stances,-1 am willing to bind myself to let my salary every year, so long as it shall please God to continue me among you, be regulated in proportion to the prices of the necessaries of life and to your rates to the public, till the debt that has been, or may be, con- tracted by the present war, shall be discharged. If you will pay me my salary in due proportion, in the necessaries of life, for the past year, I will relinquish one-third part. That the poor may not be op- pressed when the rate shall be made, let it be shown me, and I will cross out of the rates of those whom the assessors shall think most needy, a sum equal to the six lowest rates in the bill; and if the parish think this not enough, I will do more."

This proposed plan was in substance adopted by the parish. This letter brings vividly before us, not only the pecuniary embarrassments of the pastor, but the straitened condition of the people. The pastor is in a strait betwixt the pinching need of his family, and the heavy burdens of his people.

The state of things at the parsonage is graphically set forth in a letter of Josiah Quincy, a member of the family at this time, published in Dr. Sprague's "An- nals of the American Pulpit ;"

" Frugality was the necessity of the time and the law of his household. The ouly bread we tasted was Indian or Rye, or a mixture of both Mr. French, on the Sabbath, had the special privilege of white or flour bread' because, as he said, the Rye or Indian gave him the heart-burn. As he took, on that day, no other dinner, he justified himself in indulging in that enviable luxury. Chocolate was the breakfast, onr dinner pork and beef, with a plentiful allowance of cabbage and all the usual vegetables farmers cultivate. In the winter frozen cod came along from the sea- coast. Bohea, a tea to modern luxury almost unknown, was our table resort, with a qualification of milk at supper time."

The pastor, it seems, took boarders from the pupils at the academy. He also had a family divinity school, from which went out men who afterwards took high rank among their brethren. He was from the first a trustee of Phillips Academy, and gave theological in-

struction to the pupils for some years. lfe was the especial confidant and adviser of Mr. Samuel Abbot, his parishioner, in his gifts for the establishment of a theological seminary. He published a number of or- dination sermons, and sermons and addresses on special occasions.

Mr. French married, August 26, 1773, Miss Abi- gail Richards, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Richards, of Weymouth. She died August, 1821.

Their children were, Sarah, born November 18, 1774, died in infancy ; Abigail, born May 29, 1776, married Rev. Samuel Stearns, Bedford ; Jonathan, born Au- gust 16, 1777, pastor at Northampton, N. H .; Mary Holyoke, born August 6, 1781, married Ebenezer P. Sperry, Wenham; Sarah, born December 13, 1784, died April 12, 1788.

JUSTIN EDWARDS, D.D. (third pastor), was born in Westhampton, Mass., April 25, 1787. He was the son of Justin and Elizabeth (Clark) Edwards. His father was a farmer, industrious, frugal, upright, " a man of few words." His early years were spent in assisting his father upon the farm. Becoming a Christian when eighteen years ofage, he began to cherish the idea of obtaining a collegiate education, that he might become a minister. He received his preparatory training at the hands of his pastor, Rev. Enoch Ilall. In 1807 he entered the sophomore class at Williams College and graduated three years later with the valedictory address. Soon after graduation he entered the Theo- logical Seminary in Andover. Here he secured the esteem and respect of his associates and teachers, for his scholarship, ability and piety. He became so prominent among his classmates, and so acceptable as a preacher, as to secure a unanimous invitation from both church and parish of the South Parish to become their pastor, before he had completed the second year of his theological course. In the seminary, as in the college, he was associated with Samuel J. Mills, Gor- don Hall and James Richards, and deeply sympa- thized with their missionary spirit and projects. After leaving Andover, he for a time was engaged as an agent for the American Temperance Society. After- wards, for more than a year and a half, he was pastor of the Salem Street Church, Boston. llis health fail- ing there, he resumed his labors with the Temperance Society and engaged actively in this work, delivering addresses, writing and distributing documents, and forming temperance societies in various parts of the country. In 1836 he was elected to the presidency of the Theological Seminary, which office he held till April 19, 1842. Again he returned for a year to the service of the Temperance Society. On the formation of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union, he became its secretary, and for seven years devoted much time and energy to the interest of Sabbath ob- servance. From 1849 to his death he was in the employment of the American Tract Society, for the most part engaged in preparing a popular commentary of the Scriptures. He had finished the New Testa-

1600

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ment and more than half of the Old, when he was laid aside by sickness, and, after lingering for some fifteen months, died suddenly at Bath Alum Springs, Va., July 24, 1853, aged sixty-six years.

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 Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 149

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672