History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 82

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 82

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Rev. Mr. Hamilton's installation took place in No- vember, 1834. Hlis connection with the parish ceased in about a year, on account of offense given to a ma- jority of the parishioners, who were Whigs in politics, by his accepting a nomination as Representative to the Legislature from the Democrats, who seenred his election In 1836 the parish made choice of Rev. Josiah K Waite to be their minister. He was in- stalled in July 1537, and resigned in 1849. Itis Alle wor wax Rev. William Mountford, who began

to preach in the parish in 1850, although his installa- tion was deferred till August, 1852. He resigned his office May, 1853, but continued to supply the pulpit till the following fall. Subsequent pastors have been Rev. Robert P. Rogers, August, 1854, to February 10, 1869 ; Rev. Minot G. Gage, January 9, 1870, to Feb- ruary 1, 1878; Rev. John S. Thomson, November 21, 1879, to October 1, 1884; Rev. John B. Green, the present incumbent, began his pastorate July 27, 1885. Sunday-school first started in 1816, but suspended in 1819. Reorganized in 1823.

The parish took immediate steps for the settlement of Mr. Tompson's succes-or, and agreed on a unani- mous call to Rev. Richard Jaques, to whom they offered "One hundred pounds settlement, and one hundred pounds yearly salary, so long as he should perform and carry on the whole work of the minis- try." He accepted and was ordained the 3d of No- vember, 1725. In the spring of 1764, Mr. Jaques

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having been rendered unable to perform his minis- terial duties, by an attack of paralysis, his salary ceased, according to the terms of his settlement. Ile considered himself ill-used, and couneil was sought from abroad to adjust the differences between himself and his people. At length, at a meeting in March, 1769, the parish voted their pastor an allowance of twenty shillings per month, and called Rev. Daniel Fuller to settle with them as Mr. Jaques' colleague, on a salary of £70 per annum, and the use of the par- sonage wood-lot so long as he continued to be the minister of the parish. Mr. Jaques died on the 12th of April, 1777, having been confined to his house, and most of the time to his bed, for thirteen years. Mr. Fuller was ordained on the 10th of Jannary, 1770. His ministry with them lasted a half a century, when, feeling the infirmities of age, he voluntarily with- drew, and made his home with his son, at Dorches- ter. He died on the 23d of May, 1829. He was a man greatly beloved, and was a pastor true, pure and generous. During the Revolutionary War, as also in the second war with Great Britain, when, by reason of distress and poverty, the people were unable to meet their pecuniary obligations to him, he gener- ously remitted what was due him, and encouraged his flock to bear the hardships incident to the strug- gle for liberty and their just rights.

In the warrant for the parish meeting in the spring of 1830 the following article was inserted : "To know of what denomination the parish will be most united." The vote on this item was just three to one in favor of the Universalist denomination. Rev. Cal- vin Gardner was the first minister under this vote, and his support was provided for by voluntary sub- scriptions. The following year the parish voted to assess a tax, and to grant to each person assessed, "the privilege of having his own money appropriated to support a minister of his own Denomination." Similar arrangements were made for a few years, but in 1838 the orthodox portion of the parish withdrew, and after this till 1843, when the parish organization was dissolved, meetings were held a portion of each year by the Universalists. In 1846 the ancient meeting- house having become greatly ont of repair, was taken down, the last service being held in it on the 7th of September of that year. Its frame was found to be in good condition, and the timbers were sold and worked into a building on the road from Gloucester to Essex, known as "Liberty Hall," which was occupied for re- ligious meetings until the erection of the Universalist Chapel near by, in 1876.

THE THIRD PARISH .- "For fifty years after the incorporation of the town," says Mr. Babson, the territory on the northerly part of the Cape " does not seem to have attracted more than two or three fami- lies." The first permanent settlement at Annisquam was probably made in 1656. Not until 1726 did the people there deem themselves sufficiently numerous to seek a parish organization and a minister of their

own. In November of that year about forty of them petitioned the town for liberty to set up a meeting- house in a convenient place upon some of the unap- propriated land. Their petition was debated, but not granted till Jannary, 1728, when the town voted, "That the inhabitants of Annisquam, and those that live on the northerly side of the Cape, so far southerly as the southerly side of Pigeon Hill pasture, and from thence westerly on a line to the bridge that is over the brook on the southwesterly side of John Tucker, jun.'s house, and thence by said brook as it leadeth into the cove called Goose Cove, and thenee by said Cove to Annisquam River, should be set off as a pre- cinct to themselves, to maintain a gospel minister among them." The General Court confirmed the doings of the town, and the parish was incorporated the 11th of June, 1728. They located their meeting- house at the head of Lobster Cove. In a little more than a month from the date of their incorporation the parish voted to settle the Rev. Benjamin Bradstreet as their minister, and he was ordained on the 18th of September. A church was soon organized, the coven- ant being signed by the following male members :

Benjamin Bradstreet. Samuel Lane. James Lane.

Edward Haraden, Sr. Joseph Thurston. Jethro Wheeler.

Anthony Bennett. John Lane.

Dauiel Collins.

Benjamin Davis.

Samuel Gutt.

Ten years after the settlement of Mr. Bradstreet, whose salary was to be £125 the first year, £130 the second, and £135 yearly thereafter, the parish found it difficult to meet their obligations, and petitioned the First Parish to set off to them additional territory, so as to include the settlement at Sandy Bay, agreeing to make and maintain a convenient way through the woods to Mr. John Pool's, at that place, if the people at Sandy Bay would thus unite with them. The petition was probably not granted. Mr. Bradstreet's ministry continned nearly thirty-four years, termi- nating with his death the 3Ist of May, 1762.

His successor was not settled until 1766, but the pulpit was occasionally supplied by Rev. Mr. Cleave- land, of the Fifth Parish, and by others. Late in 1765 Rev. John Wyeth was called. Ile accepted and was ordained the 5th of February, 1766. The call was not unanimous, and the opposition soon developed intense and active hostility, which was frequently manifest in violent and disgraceful acts, even to the firing of musket-balls into his house. He was dis- missed the 17th of May, 1768, and on his arrival at Cambridge commenced an action against the parish for his pay, which they settled on the best terms they could make. Ile left the ministry and went into the practice of law.

The next minister was Rev. Obadiah Parsons, the terms of whose settlement were a yearly salary of £86, 13s. 4d .; but in case of his inability to preach, one-half that sum was to be retained by the parish. He also had the free use of the parsonage. Mr. Par- sons was ordained the 11th of November, 1772.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Charges affecting ins character were brought before a council in 1779; and although the council voted that the charges were not sustained, they als , recom- mended that, considering the great alienation of affec- tion on the part of the people, and the small prospect which remained of the pastor's further usefulness among them, that the pastoral relation be dissolved. This unhappy termination of affairs, and the impover- ished and distracted condition of the people during the then imminent war for independence, and for a long time after its close, discouraged for many years an attempt to settle another minister, although the pulpit was often supplied.

In 1802 the parish resolved to secure the services of a pastor at the earliest moment. In 1804, Rev. Ezra Leonard, who had for some months supplied the pulpit, accepted an invitation to become their minis- ter. lle was ordained on the 5th of December of that year, and continued in the pastorate until his death, in April, 1832. In the summer of 1811, Mr. Leonard announced to his people that, having be- come a l'niversalist in belief, he could no longer preach the doctrines of the Calvinistic creed. The only action taken by the parish on this avowal was a vote that he should continue in his place till the next March meeting. The majority of his people were in ' of them are sea-faring men and have no conveniences accord with him in his new sentiments, only a few of the members of the church adhering to the okdl be- lief. These latter quietly withdrew, and the affairs of the parish moved on in great harmony. Mr. Leonard was a man of great usefulness in the parish, and was greatly respected wherever he was known. He rep- resented the town, one year, at the General Court, and while in Boston attended a course of medical lectures, which, with his previous study of medicine, qualified him for the practice of the healing art. Gratuitously dispensing his services as a physician, he bonnd his people still more closely to him in the ties of strongest affection. During his ministry the meet- ing-house, erected in 1728, was removed, and a new one immediately built was dedicated the 5th of Jan- uary, 1831. for going to meeting but on foot; which is very un- comfortable for elderly people, women and children), near about ninety families must go by the old meet- ing-house to go to the new one. Most of your peti- tioners could go home at noon from the old meeting- house ; but if obliged to go to the new one, cannot : which renders your petitioners' case to be very diffi- cult. Also the bigger part of the body of the new meeting-honse is built into pews, to the number of eighty or ninety ; and the major part of your petition- ers are unable to purchase them. These, with many other reasons, moved us to desire the church to con- sent that we might have preaching in the old meet- ing-house, at our own cost, the winter following ; but could have no favor shown ns there. Then we applied to the parish to set off all who live nearer the old meeting-house than the new, in order to call and settle an orthodox minister; but were still denied. The second and third parish have taken this oppor- tunity to enlarge their own district, the southerly part of the first parish joining with them, in order to hin- der us from a settlement. Therefore, we humbly pray the court would take our difficult circumstances under their wise consideration, and set off to the old meet- ing-house all those parishioners that are nearer that than to the new meeting-house, with their estates, into a distinct precinct."

The following have been the ministers of this par- ish since Mr. Leonard's death : Abraham Norwood, settled in 1832; Elbridge Trull, 1833 ; John Harri- man, 1831 : George (. Leach, 1837 ; M. B. Newell, 1×12 ; J. A. Bartlett, 1845; B. II. Clark, 1847; E. W. Ciflin, IsIs; N. Gunnison, 1854; E. Partridge, 1857; Lewis L. Record, 1859; J. H. Tuller, 1863 ; J. Il. Willis, 1865 . F. A. Benton, 1868 ; William Hooper, 1-71; Henry C. Leonard, 1875 to 18, 9. Since 1880 the parish has been supplied by neighboring pastors, by ministers sent by the State Convention and by undents from Tutt's Divinity School. Sunday-school estaldishel about 1830.

THI. FOURTH PARISH. The erection of the meet- ing-house at the Harbor, and its occupation by a portion of the First Parish, in 1738, caused great dis- sutimi tion of that portion of the parish whose resi-

dences were north of the old place of worship on the Green. They accordingly called a parish meeting and endeavored to be set off as a separate precinct ; but their proposition was defeated by one hundred and seven votes against seventy-seven in its favor. The minority then applied to the General Court for relief. Eighty-five members of the parish united in a petition, in which they said :

" Whereas, eight inhabitants of said parish have lately built a new meeting-house, in the Harbor, about a mile southward of the old one, without any leave or vote of said parish, although the parish, by vote, laid out a convenient place to set one on when wanted (that place is between the old meeting-honse and the new one); and since the proprietors of the new meeting-house have made an offer of it to the parish, on these terms (reserving all the pews and considerable part of the room in the gallery to pro- cure the cost of building it), and the parish, by vote, accepted said house for the public worship of God; by reason of which, the northerly part of the parish, who are your humble petitioners, labor under great discouragements and inconveniences in attend- ing public worship, by reason that many of them live two or three miles from the new meeting-house (many

In concluding, they requested, that if the court should not grant their petition, they would send a committee to view the parish, and consider the case at the cost of the petitioners. The parish chose a committee to draw up a remonstrance to the petition, and appointed one of their number to appear for the

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parish before the Governor and court in defense of their remonstrance. No definite action was taken till the session in August, 1741, when the court ordered, " That if the non-petitioners in the pari-h do not, within twelve month from the end of that session, remove the new meeting-house to the place agreed upon by the precinct, or the precinct erect there another house convenient for public worship ; that, in such case, the petitioners be erected into a sepa- rate precinct, agreeably to their petition, unless the inhabitants of the first precinct shall, within the term aforesaid, agree to have the public worship of God carried on in both houses at the same time, and so settle another learned and orthodox minister there to assist the Rev. Mr. White in the ministry ; the two ministers to preach in the old and new meeting- houses by turns, or otherwise as they shall agree."

In September, 1742, the petitioners memorialized the General Court, showing that the legislative order of the previous year had not been complied with : that no agreement between the two parties had been made, and praying to be set off into a separate pre- cinct. At a parish meeting held soon after, a separa- tion was agreed to by a vote of fifty yeas to thirty-five nays. Onthe 15th of December the General Court ordered : "That the first precinct in Gloucester be divided into two precincts, as follows: the divid- ing line to begin at the northeasterly end of Squam precinct line, by Sandy Bay, and to run as the said line does to Squam River to Goose Cove, and land which has Capt. Allen's warehouse on the northeasterly side, and land late Mr. Nathaniel Sawyer's on the southerly side ; and so to run on the northerly side of said Sawyer's land to the highway, and in the said highway to Mr. Nymphas Stacy's corner, and then northerly on said way to Mr. James Wallis's house and land, including the same to the northward, and in the highway that leads to Sandy Bay to the Parting Path so called, and in that way to another Parting Path, near Witham's house, and thence on the beach to the sea- shore, and by same, round the Cape, Pigeor Cove, and Sandy Bay, into Squam line aforesaid : all the land estates, houses, and inhabitants included in the northerly and westerly side of said lines, way, and sea, or so many of the inhabitants that have not peti- tioned, that are thus included, as shall manifest their willingness herefor by a subscription and present it to this court at the next session, to be incorporated into one distinct precinct; and that the southerly part, whereof the Rev. Mr. John White is the pres- ent pastor, be accounted the first precinct in said town of Gloucester." The occupants of the old meet- ing-house became the Fourth Parish.

A church was organized in October, 1743, the cov- enant being signed by seventeen men, and in March and April following it was increased by receiving seventy-six women by dismission from the First Church. Rev. John Rogers, of Kittery, Maine, was

the choice of the church for its pastor, in which the parish concurred hy a vote of thirty-nine to eleven, agreeing to give £250, old tenor, per annum salary, and £400 in the same currency for settlement, the latter to be paid in four annual installments. He was ordained on the 1st of February, 1744. His ministry continued till his death, in October, 1782. Long be- fore his death the parish was weakened and impover- ished by the war for independence. Business in the fisheries, in which nearly all the men in the parish were engaged, was utterly ruined, and many engaged in privatering or enlisted in the army. But few of the number survived the war, and their families were reduced to utter poverty. The parish never re- covered from the blow, and Mr. Rogers had no suc- cessor. The old meeting-house gave place to a new one in 1752, which remained standing still 1840, when it was taken down, only occasional services having been held iu it for many years.

THE FIFTH PARISH .- As early as 1695 a grant of land was made to John Babson, at Straitsmouth, "to set up fishing upon." "The indentation of the coast between Andrews' Point and Straitmouth Point be- gan to be called Sandy Bay " about that time. The growth of this part of the town was slow for many years. Prior to 1740 they had occasional preaching in their own village, and had been refused the privi- lege of a remission of a portion of their tax imposed by the First Parish, on condition of their supporting religious worship among themselves four months in the year. But in the year mentioned the General Court compelled the First Parish to grant the privi- lege. In 1754, when the whole number of tax-payers at Sandy Bay was thirty-seven, the General Court in- corporated them as the Fifth Parish. "The westerly line of the new precinct extended from Cape Hedge to the highway near Beaver Dam, and thence in a northerly direction to the Squam-Parish line." A meeting-house was soon erected near the head of Long Cove ; and the church was organized on the 13th of February, 1755, consisting of the following- named members, who had been dismissed from the First Church for this purpose :

Edmond Grover.

Jabez Baker.

Nehemiah Grover. Henry Witham.

Jonathan Pool. Samuel Davis.

John Row. James Parsons, Jr.

Samuel Clark, Jr.

Eliezer Lurvey.

They made choice of Rev. Ebenezer Cleaveland as their minister, at a salary of sixty pounds per annum. He was ordained in December, 1755. Mr. Babson records concerning this people, that, "In forming themselves into a parish, the people of Sandy Bay assumed a pecuniary burthen of no inconsiderable amount ; and it is a fact in their history, which their descendants may remember with pleasure as an evi- dence of their religious character, that the salary paid to their minister in 1755 was more than four times the amount of their town tax the same year

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and more than twice that of their town and province | Gloucester. lle came on the 3d of November, and tax the year preceding."

Daring a portion of the Revolutionary War Mr. Cleaveland served as chaplain in the American army. On his return to his parish, before the close of the war, he found his people in a distressed condition. Some of hi- supporters had fallen in battle ; " some had died in prison-ships; many had perished at sea ; and nearly all the rest fit for service were absent, fighting for their country's rights. They were deeply in debt to him for past labors; and the best they could do for his future support was to give him ninety quinta's of hake-fish per annum." Ile became for a while engaged as superintendent of Dartmouth Col- lege lands at Llandaff, N. IL. ; but returned to Sandy Bay about 175 and preached to his former flock, when not otherwise engaged, for such contributions a- they were able to make. Before long he again left the Cape and preached in Amesbury, but returned to his old home at Sandy Bay in 1797, and continued his residence there till his death, on the 4th of July,

I XIVERSALISTS. - The first break from the stand- ing order, as it was called,-the Orthodox Congrega- tionalists, who were the original founders of the parishes,- was begun in 1774, by the preaching of Rev. John Murray, Universalist. A book advocating l'niversilism, written by Rev. James Relly, of Lon- don, England, had been brought to Gloucester, in 1769 or 1770, by an English sailor, probably em- pbyrd on a vessel belonging to Winthrop Sargent, then and long after a ship-owner, merchant and lead- ing man of Gloucester. It was read by Mr. Sargent and las family, and then by several others, by some of whom ils doctrines, at first exciting wonder, were revive lat last as the true exposition of the teachings W the Papel. These believers only needed the im- IBar ot the more publie proclimatica of their faith L'nig them forward : s a distinct body of Christians. 'Ho ere tion for this presented itself in September, 1771 whely of the second visit of Mr. Murray to Beton he was attacked in the papers by Rev. Mr. Pro well, of that city, and accused of being "a prescher of HE Is's doctrine " The readers of Relly's bock h Ld n ester, seeing this, at once "ent Mr. Sar- gent in Boston to solicit Mr. Murray's presence in

remained nine days. At once he was waited upon by the deacons and elders of the First Parish, who cou- ducted him to the house of their minister, Rev. Mr. Chandler, who was then ill, by whose permission he occupied the pulpit that evening, and on several sub- sequent occasions. Meetings were also held daily in the parlor of Mr. Sargent's residence on Main and Duncan Streets. On the 15th of December, Mr. Mur- ray was again in (Houcester, and finding his labors greatly blessed, concluded to make the town his per- manent home, although intending to itinerate more or less through a large portion of the country. The meeting-house of the First Parish was again open to him, but only for a brief period, as sometime during the following month the doors were closed against him. Meanwhile adherents to h's views increased, and a congregation was collected, which met fre- quently during the week in various residences, and held public service on Sunday at Mr. Sargent's. The following May, Mr. Murray, yielding to the solicita- tions of Colonels Greene, Varnum and Hitchcock, to take the chaplaincy of the Rhode Island Brigade,

In Is04 the parish erected a new meeting-house ; and in the fall of 1505 ordained as their pastor Rev. | then in camp at Jamaica Plain, entered the army. Jacob Jewett, of llollis, N. II. His mini-try ex- tended to 1:36, when he was compelled by ill health to resign. The parish enjoyed a high degree of relig- ious prosperity during his ministry, the church mem- bership increasing from ten to two hundred and fifty. Ilis successor was the Rev. Wakefield Gale, of East- port, Maine, who was installed in May, 1836. He was pastor when, in ISto, the parish, with a portion of the Third Parish, became incorporated as the town of Rockport, and for many years after that change was effected. After a few months' service he was stricken with severe sickness, and was returned to Gloucester. On his recovery, he was so shocked by the distress and poverty of the inhabitants on account of the destruc- tion of their fishing business, that he returned to camp, and procured liberal donations from his ae- quaintances there: "General Washington led the subscription with £10, each of the Major-Generals £5, each of the brigadiers £3, besides generous dona- tions from many other respectable characters, in and out of the army." This he distributed to parties re- commended by the selectmen of the town, thereby re- lieving, as he stated in a broadside subsequently pub- lished in reply to a pamphlet issued against him by the First Parish, upwards of a thousand individuals, who, in consequence of this very providential and sea- sonable support, were enabled to get through the worst winter they ever experienced during the war. The town, in April, 1776, " Voted unanimously their sincere thanks to the donors and to Mr. Murray."

On the coming of Mr. Forbes to minister to the First Parish, in the summer of 1776, the members of the church who had become Universalists quietly ab- sented themselves from its public religious services. The bigotry of the people found vent in attempting to perpetrate mob violence on Mr. Murray by driving him from town. Being dissuaded from this when they had already assembled in front of the house of Mr. Sargent, they loudly warned him to go, and threatened violence if he should refuse. The follow- ing February he was summoned before the Commit- tee of Safety, all the members of which, then present, were his openly-avowed enemies, and was served by them with a notice that he must "depart in five days from the first of March." Having paid no heed to

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 82

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