History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 244

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 244

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A " Vindication" of the association, with an " Ap- pendix," apparently by Mr. Bacheller himself, was published, also a dialogue by Rev. Henry Truc (minister at Hampstead), to which Haynes issued a " Reply" of eighty-eight pages, printed at Ports- mouth in 1758. The matter was finally submitted

to a council consisting of nine churches, called by the West Parish Church and pastor. The council met by adjournment September 19, 1758, when twenty charges, involving both Mr. Bacheller's con- duet and doctrines, were laid before it. The council sat four days, and decided that the charges were not sufficiently supported. Col. John Choate, of Ipswich, another strong-minded layman, who was a member of the eouneil, differed from his associates, and pub- lished his " Reasons of dissent." Little vital interest as the controversy has at the present day, it is of importance to the student of history, as showing to what the constant study of doctrinal theology had brought the keen, hard-headed people of New Eng- land. Dogma had become their intellectual food. And one cannot help thinking that, in this case, the pews were willing to show what they could do against the pulpit. April 17, 1759, the council met again by adjournment, when Mr. Haynes laid before them some " Friendly Remarks," in which he eriticised the first decision. Yet a re-examination of the charges effected no substantial change in the result.

Neither did the decision of the council quiet the parish. Between April, 1760, and July, 1761, eight meetings were held, at all of which votes were passed more or less insulting to Mr. Bacheller. And as it was evidently hopeless to expect a reconciliation, the pastoral relations were dissolved by a couneil October 9, 1761.

These disputes did not effeet the estimation in which Mr. Bacheller was held by his fellow-towns- men. They sent him to represent them in the General Court in 1769 and 1770, at the very begin- ing of the pre-Revolutionary struggle. He lived to a great age.

This controversy left its stamp upon the West Parish. Its effects have perhaps never been effaced. Joseph Willard, afterwards president of Harvard College, was invited to become the pastor and accept- ed the call, but was never ordained. Tradition says that the council refused to settle him over a people so turbulent. January 9, 1771, after an interval of ten years, Rev. Phineas Adams was ordained the second pastor. Mr. Adams was an eminently catholic, conciliatory and prudent man, whose ministry lasted thirty years,-till his death, in 1801. Yet one of his brother ministers, after attending " ministers' meeting" with him about 1786, wrote in his diary that the dis- sensions were such, it was scarcely possible " Brother Adams" eould remain with his people.

About three years after Mr. Bacheller's pastorate came to an end, Rev. Mr. Tingley was supplying the pulpit of the West Parish. Under the date of July 27, 1764, a young minister entered in his diary : " After service (at New Rowley,-now Georgetown). I went with Tingley to Haverhill, and preached for him in the afternoon in the West Parish, from Ezek. 33: 11. The Lord was with me." This was Rev. Hezekiah Smith, then twenty-seven years old, who,

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born on Long Island, had graduated at Princeton in 1762. When nineteen years old, he had heen con- verted and baptized hy Rev. John Gano, an eminent Baptist elergyman, a denomination then poor, derid- ed and despised. At college young Smith had fallen under the influence of President Samuel Davies, whose pulpit eloquence, when in Virginia, had been the model and the inspiration of Patrick Henry. Immediately after graduating he had made an ex- tensive evangelizing tour through the Southern provinces. In one year he rode four thousand two hundred and thirty-five miles on horseback and preached one hundred and seventy-three sermons, often to crowded and deeply affected congregations. September 20, 1763, he was ordained as an Evangelist at Charleston, S. C. During the spring and summer of the next year, he was preaching in Eastern New England, and thus reached the West Parish of Haverhill. Some weeks after he returned, preaching and exhorting there. He wrote in his diary : " God was with us of a truth." "Tues. 28th, went to Hampstead, and preached for the Rev. Mr. True, who behaved well. The assembly was very solemn. After service I went home with Mrs. White in Haverhill town, wife of John White." This was " Marehant" (merchant) White, a leading and wealthy citizen of Haverhill, whose house, built in 1766 and then beautiful and showy, is still standing on Water Street, next the Exchange Building, though shorn of its former pomp of portico and pillars and its terraced gardens in the rear.

Mr. Smith continuing to preach in the West Parish, the meeting-house was now crowded with attentive hearers. He was a powerful and impressive preacher. One who had known him from his own childhood, but had no partiality for him, wrote long afterwards : "Dr. Smith preached without notes; his voice was uncommonly strong and commanding and his man- ner solemn and impressive. He was esteemed an able expositor of the Scripture. His learning was not extensive, but he was possessed of excellent sense and a thorough knowledge of human nature." A meeting of the society was soon called, and a com- mittee was appointed to wait upon the popular preacher, with an invitation to become the pastor of the West Church. Says his biographer: "As he at first declined, they urged their request until he was compelled to tell them frankly, what no one had until then even expected, that he was a Baptist. This, of course, ended the matter, as also his further services as a stated or permanent supply in that parish." Full of discord as they were, they were at least united in devotion to the "standing order." The writer before quoted says: " It was not then known that he was a Baptist (a circumstance never forgotten by many), hut his friends formed a society for him and huilt him a meeting-house in the First Parish, after he had declared his peculiar opinions, although many of his hearers never professed to change theirs."

Evidently there were those who could not forgive Mr. Smith that he had stolen their hearts before they knew of his connection with an unpopular sect. But there were those in the village of Haverhill, or, as it was then called, " Haverhill Town," who had become deeply interested in him, and were determined to support him at every hazard. The circumstances were really somewhat difficult and the situation criti- cal. The conservative element had heretofore ruled in ecclesiastical affairs in Haverhill. There had been no favor to separatism or any disposition to schi-m. Since the quenching of Joseph Peasley there had been no tendency to what was considered disorder. Revivalism and revival preaching were discouraged. It is well known that when George Whitefield came first to New England there was great difference of opinion as to the treatment which ought to be ac- corded to him. Ilis wonderful eloquence was re- regarded by some as sensational and disorganizing. The conversions which occurred under his preaching they denounced as unreliable; they wanted nothing of the "great awakening." There were many pul- pits to which he was not admitted. Some clergymen welcomed him gladly and rejoiced in his wonderful work. Tradition tells us that Whitefield came twice to Haverhill, and was on both occasions the guest of the White house, on Mill Street. On the first occasion he did not preach in town at all, there being an indisposition to allow him to preach in the meet- ing-house. On the second visit he preached to a great congregation in the open air, on the piece of ground in the highway near the upper end of the cemetery. The authorities of the town (so the story runs) sent him a warning to depart out of town. Instead of complying with their request, he read their letter at the close of his afternoon discourse, and observing, "Poor souls! they shall have another sermon," proceeded to give notice that he should preach at the same place, at sunrise the next morn- ing. He kept his word and addressed a large audi- ence. There is a venerable lady of the town who remembers with vivid distinctness the account which her aunt, a daughter of the White homestead, used to give of the great revivalist's Haverhill meetings on that spot.

The people who had been moved by Whitefield were not afraid of being called Separatists, or New Lights, or Anabaptists. Some of them happened to be among the most respectable and wealthy people of the town. James Duncan, son of George, one of the Scotch-Irish settlers of Londonderry, long a trader in Haverhill, and who lived till 1818, dying at ninety- two years of age, furnished his house (now the site of the Currier Block on Main Street) for a meeting January 1, 1765, " where several friends met and agreed that night to begin a private society or meet- ing." So Mr. Smith wrote in his diary. "Squire " Samuel White, the three John Whites-Captain John, Merchant John and Master John-William

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Greenleaf, Deacon Whittier, Peter Carleton and Simon Ayers, of the West Parish, were either at this meeting or in sympathy with its objects. They were obliged to form what Mr. Smith calls a " Private Society," because the law did not recognize a Baptist Church as entitled to any rights of property, or as having any corporate existence. Long after, in 1793, the " First Baptist Society in Haverhill" received a special act of incorporation. The "Private Society " soon provided a temporary place of worship, and, that being overrun, built an excellent meeting-house in 1765.

The trouble was that all persons were obliged to pay the regular parish tax unless they could obtain exemption in the manner provided by law. This society was obliged to procure certificates from three other Baptist Churches acknowledging them to be one of the regular Baptist congregations before their own officers could give to individuals certificates of their frequent and usual attendance at their church upon the Lord's day, in order that they might be exempted from paying a proportionable part of the ministerial taxes raised by law in the parish. Indeed, Merchant John White, a constant worshipper with the Baptists, though not a church member, was obliged to pay his regular parish tax to the " standing order " at the end of an expensive lawsuit.

Before obtaining a place of worship of their own Mr. Smith's friends had asked the use of the First Parish meeting-house at such times as would not interfere with the service of the pastor. They requested the parish committee to call a parish meeting to consider the subject. The committee declined. Application was then made to John Brown, Esq., justice of the peace, who thereupon issued a warrant for a parish meeting "to see if the parish will vote that any ordained or gospel minister shall or may preach in said meeting-house at any time when it does not interfere with the Rev. Mr. Barnard's public exercises." The parish refused to grant permission.

In 1796 the Baptist Society made an effort to se- cure for themselves a share in the parsonage lands, but without success. They continued their efforts, indeed, in this direction, up to 1818.

Nevertheless, and perhaps in great measure because of the persistent opposition to them, this Baptist So- eicty grew strong and flourished. It accomplished a great missionary work abroad, and assisted in form- ing and rearing many infant churches, especially in New Hampshire and Maine. Mr. Smith was an early, earnest and influential friend of Brown University and one of its fellows from the beginning, finally receiv- ing from it, in 1797, the honorary Degree of Doctor of Divinity. His pastorate lasted more than forty years, during which three hundred and five persons were admitted as church members. When Dr. Smith died, in 1805, after a ministry of forty years, funeral honors were paid him by all classes and denomina-

tions, in a sincere and respectful spirit. No man ever accomplished a greater work in the town of Ilaver- hill. The church and society he gathered, after fur- nishing material for several others, is still strong and flourishing. November 22, 1883, the society dedi- cated a new meeting-house on Main Street, the larg- est and most costly among the Protestant houses of worship, which has been entirely paid for. This is the fourth meeting-house, the first three having been located on "Baptist Hill," on Merrimac Street. In 1865 the centennial of the first was observed in a very successful manner, when an admirable historical ad- dress was delivered by Rev. Arthur S. Train, who had been the fourth pastor. Other ministers, well known and much respected, were Rev. William Batchelder, Rev. George Keeley (an Englishman by birth), known as " Father " Keeley, Rev. Stephen P. Hill, Rev. Augustus H. Strong, Rev. George W. Bos- worth, Rev. Henry C. Graves. Rev. W. W. Everts, Jr., is the present pastor.

"The peace of the town," says another, "was long disturbed by this event, but Mr. Smith conducted himself with great prudence, and gradually obtained general esteem and respect. He was eminent among the clergy of his denomination. As a hus- band, parent, friend and neighbor, he was highly ex- emplary. He had traveled much, was several years a chaplain in the army, was extensively known, had many warm friends, and was considered by all as an accomplished gentleman."

The reply by the parish committee to the request for a meeting about the use of their meeting-house by the Baptists, dated December 19, 1764, closes as follows :

" And considering that the request is by such persons as have of late appeared disaffected in the public concerns of the parish, and absented themselves from the instituted ordinances in said house on the Lord's day, and that they have itching ears, following after preachers of a different sect in religion, heaping one Anabaptist preacher upon another, without offering, as we can learn, to make any objection against our teacher, either that his life is irreligious or immoral, or that his preach - ing or doctrines are repugnaut to the gospel, and as they have followed after those Baptist preachers, and by word and practice endeavored to support their tenets, may we not well suppose it to be their iotention to introduce such ? which we think would be a great infringement upon the Constitution and order of the church, by law established in the parish. And we are also of the opinion, that the door eo opened, would produce very bad consequences, by the holding of evening lectures, which are oftentimes attended with a confused noise and indecent gestures, and that the house would, as we fear, be made the theatre for enthusiasts and fanatics to act all the wild and extravagant tricks in, for the propa - gating of the like in others. We therefore determine not to warn a meeting, as requested.

" HAVERHILL, December 19, 1764."

It was a complaint of the Baptists that their op- ponents indiscriminately called them Anabaptists, as above, thus identifying them with all the wild out- rages of Munster. The committee objected to "the holding of evening lectures." It is said the cele- brated Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, objected to Sunday- schools, first, that they were unnecessary by reason of his preaching and weekly catechising, but specially

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becanse, in the next place, his people would want to be "gadding about " to evening meetings.

The records of the First Church show that, March 9, 1766, Susanna White was refused a letter of dis- mission, in order to unite with the Baptist Church in this town. "If she will finally withdraw, we must leave her with our Master, according to whose un- erring judgment she must stand or fall, determining to follow her with our prayers to the God of all Grace for his enlightening spirit to rectify her mistakes and lead her in the way everlasting."

The records of the First Church contain much that is instructive and interesting.

Dr. Smith's biographer says that the organization of the Baptist Society quickened the zeal of the Con- gregational Church of the First Parisli, which had for several years been discussing the propriety of building a new meeting-house. It had, indeed, been agitated as early as 1761. It was finally erected in 1766. Its dimensions were not to exceed sixty-six feet in length and forty-eight feet in width. For the first time the whole of the ground floor was occupied with pews, which were appraised by a committee and sold at auction. The general men's seats and women's seats were thereafter in the galleries alone.

This house was set "at the northerly side of the old meeting-house, as near to it as may be convenient." It was about midway of the common, and was sur- mounted by a steeple at the easterly end. It is said to have cost more than a thousand pounds. It was finally taken down in 1837. The year before the house was built (1764) it was voted that the revision of Psalms by Tate and Brady, with the largest im- pression of Dr. Watts' hymns, " be sung in public in this parish."

In 1774 Mr. Barnard died, having been pastor thirty-one years. Eliot, in his biographical diction- ary, wrote of him,-" He was a most accomplished preacher. His popular talents were not eminent, but his discourses were correct and excellent composi- tions, and highly relished by scholars and men of taste. He was a fine classical scholar, and excelled in poetry as well as prose. It was much regretted that he did not publish more, as what he did publish was so acceptable. His sermon upon the Good man would do honor to any divine." A number of his sermons were printed, among which were the election sermon, 1766; the sermon before the convention of ministers, 1773; ordination and fast sermons. "The expectations of his friends were excited when pro- posals were issued to publish a volume of his sermons in 1774, the year of his death," and they were se- lected by Mr. Cary, of Newburyport (whose ordina- tion sermon he preached), but the Revolutionary War breaking out, they were not printed.

A distinguished native of Haverhill, whose own family was divided by the religious differences to which he alludes, wrote, -" The latter part of Mr. Barnard's life was disturbed by divisions made in his

society by New-lights and Baptists, who acensed him of not preaching the gospel and of not being converted, but the greatest and most respectable part of his flock remained faithful to their pastor to the last." This is the other side of the shield. Doubtless the Bap- tists, who deemed themselves wronged and persecuted, were bitter and acrimonious. In a sermon, preached a few months before his death, Mr. Barnard said,- " During the time which I have spent in public service it would be very strange if nothing hard and grievous had occurred, especially considering the cavilling spirit of the age, and the too general proneness to censure without bounds. Doubtless I have had my faults, for which I would ever seek remission through the blood of the everlasting covenant. But wherein I have been unreasonably aspersed, conscious of inno- cency, it may be ealmly borne. . .. This day I see an assembly whose cordial affection to me I onght not to doubt." "Their affection," writes the authority before quoted, " was not to be doubted ; their grief at his death was sincere; their children have been taught his praises." The parish chose a committee to take charge of his funeral, and afterward erected a monument over his grave. They also allowed his widow the free use of the parsonage house, with land and pasturage, until the settlement of another min- ister.

It is rather amusing at this distance of time to ob- serve that whilst the parishioners of Mr. Barnard were so much afraid of the Baptist "tenets," they had been gradually falling into heresy under the teachings of their justly beloved pastor. Mr. Barnard ranked with the Arminians, like others of the highly respectable Merrimac ministers of his day. In doe- trine he was much more nearly what at the present day is called liberal than the intruder, Mr. Smith, who was, we may suppose, entirely Calvinistie, ex- cept in the doctrine of baptism. "These clergymen and others," says a competent writer, "gradnally de- parted from the Calvinistic system, and forebore to urge or to profess its peculiar tenets, although they did not so expressly and zealously oppose them as many have done in later times. . . . They did not in- sist, as a preliminary to the ordination of a young man to the Christian ministry, on his professing a be- lief of the Trinity, or of the five points of Calvin- ism."

In the Essex Institute, at Salem, hangs a portrait of this eminent and worthy man. He wears the clerical gown and bands and the great wig, which were the fashion of his time. Ilis face is full and rather florid, his expression dignified as became his profes- sion. He looks as if he had profited by those creature comforts which his diary shows that his parishioners were so fond of showering upon him.

From Rev. Thomas Barnard, the first of Andover, 1682, by his son, John Barnard, of Andover North Parish (together seventy-five years), his grandson Thomas, pastor at Newbury and Salem, and his

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

great-grandson, Thomas (son of the last), of Salem, there was an unbroken line of ministerial succession in Essex County of one hundred and thirty-two years.

CHAPTER CLIX.

HAVERHILL-(Continued).

The Revolutionary. War -- Visit of Washington.

A FEW days before the Stamp Act was to go into effect, at a town meeting specially warned for October 14, 1765, " special instruction," to the representative, Col. Richard Saltonstall, were adopted. They de- clared the belief of his constituents that the Stamp Act was unconstitutional; " which, with the extensive power lately granted to Courts of Admiralty, are great Infringements upon our rights & liberties." They recommend the representative "to promote & procure the repeale of said act as best for the nation in general;" that damages by riotous assemblies be satisfied agreeable to the law of England by the town " where permitted to be done and not by the province in general ;" to use his influence that there be no ex- cise on coffee or tea; "that excise be taken off' from the private consumption of liquors, & that it be not more than fourpence on the gallon to licensed per- sons."

July, 1766, Gov. Wentworth, of New Hampshire was appointed surveyor-general of all His Majesty's woods in North America, under the act to protect white pine trees from fifteen to thirty-six inches in diameter for the royal navy. In February, 1772, Sam- ucl Blodget, of Goffstown, N. H., was appointed deputy surveyor for a district in which Haverhill was included, and the seizure and confiscation of lumber under this act much aggravated the prevailing dis- content.

September 1, 1768, a town-meeting was called "to see if the town approves of the proceedings of the late llouse of Representatives in not Rescinding " the famous resolution under which the circular letter to the other colonial Assemblies had been adopted ; and "the thanks of the town were voted to the Gen- tlemen of the House of Representatives for defend- ing the liberties of the people." The Haverhill rep- resentative was one of the seventeen who had voted to rescind; the town's action was therefore an im- plied censure to him, although his popularity and merit in all probability alone protected him from direct reproot. It is significant, however, that the next year the town sent a pronounced Whig as its rep- resentative. The new representative, Rev. Samuel Batcheller, was also appointed a committee to repre- sent the town in the convention of delegates from the towns to be held in Boston, September 22, 1769. He

was directed, "in every constitutional way and man- ner consistent with our loyalty to our sovereign, to oppose and prevent the levying or collecting money from us not granted by ourselves or our legal Repre- sentatives." April 9, 1770, severe resolutions were adopted as to those persons who offer for sale or pur- chase British goods imported contrary to the agree- ment of the merchants of Boston, and Thomas West, Deacon John Ayer, Capt. William Greenleaf, Nath- aniel Peaslee Sargeant, Esq., Nathaniel Walker, John Young and James Carr were appointed a Committee of Inspection to see that such agreements were kept.

July 28, 1774, it was voted not to " buy or purchase any goods or merchandise of any person which shall be imported contrary to the general agreement of the Colonies in General Congress." "Resolved, that we will not import, purchase, send or consume any East India Tea, until the Duty imposed upon importation into the Colonies shall be taken off; & the port of Boston opened." A Committee of Correspondence with Boston and other towns was also appointed.

Sept. 5, 1774, a military company, called the Artil- lery Company, was organized as an independent body, outside ot the three militia companies. The members doubtless realized that war might not be far off. Dr. James Brickett was chosen captain ; Israel Bartlett, lientenant ; Joshua B. Osgood, ensign ; Edward Bar- nard, clerk and sergeant. Bailey Bartlett, Israel Bartlett, Thos. Cogswell, Nathaniel Marsh, Doctor Brickett and Nathaniel Walker, ambitious of pro- ficiency in drill, sent to England for a copy of the " Norfolk Militia Book," which they received in due course, and for which they paid £6 15s. The com- pany engaged a drill-master, met for exereise at the " Distill Houses," adopted a smart uniform-that known afterwards as the Continental-and, May 24, 1775, " voted to meet sun an hour high for the future," which seems to have been the last of the company. Real war was now beginning, and the members either voluntarily entered the service or had enough to do in meeting the drafts upon them for actual service. Sept. 15, 1774, the townsmen " voted to buy 800 fbs. powder, with balls and flint answerable as the town's stock." At an adjourned meeting, Oct. 10th, it was voted that " the constables are to pay no more money into the Province Treasury until further orders from the town."

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 244

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