USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of King's Chapel, in Boston : the first Episcopal church in New England : comprising notices of the introduction of Episcopacy into the northern colonies > Part 3
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twenty shillings a week, a piece, out of their con- tribution, towards the defraying our church charges ; that sum being less per annum than each of their ministers receive." He speaks of the necessity of having another minister sent over, to supply the place of Mr Ratcliffe, in case any ill- ness or indisposition should happen to him. He then repeats his favorite project of laying hold of the money designed for converting the Indians ; calls it a " bank of money," and doubts not that it amounts to at least two thousand pounds, but says that he does not adventure to stir in it, hav- ing already brought upon himself so many ene- mies, and to all his crimes " added this one as the greatest, in bringing in the liturgy and ceremonies of the church of England."*
Nothing could be more graphic than the strong and natural touches of this letter. We see the Bostonians angry and abusive, the ministers railing in their pulpits against the English Liturgy, in terms which few ministers would use now of the prayers of the most degraded heathen ; and on the other hand we have the usual steady and un- doubting arrogance of Randolph, who talks of making the three congregational churches support the church of England, in ways as oppressive
* Spelt in the letter " letherdge and cerimonise."
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as those which compelled the fathers of that gen- eration to fly from their native land.
In still another letter to the Archbishop, dated " Octo. 27th, '86," Randolph again exhibits the necessities of his church. "I have some time since," he begins, " humbly represented to your grace a necessity of having a church built in Bos- ton to receive those of the church of England. We have at present 400 persons who are daily frequenters of our church, and as many more would come over to us, but some being tradesmen, others of mechanic professions, are threatened by the congregational men to be arrested by their creditors, or to be turned out of their work, if they offer to come to our church ; under such discouragements we lie at present, and are forced to address your grace for relief." He once more speaks of the funds for evangelising the Indians, which he says are shamefully misapplied and even embezzled ; mentions that Mr Ratcliffe lives on a small contribution, and that they are yet forced to meet in the town house ; and finally entreats the efficient aid of the Archbishop, lest the small beginnings of the church of England, settled here with great difficulty, fall to the ground and be lost, for want of timely relief and counte- nance.
But the face of things was now to experience
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another change, the operation of which was to give more confidence to the episcopalians, and more trouble and disquietude to the great body of the people. I refer to the arrival of Sir Edmund Andros to supersede President Dudley.
Having advanced thus far in our history, it is easy to perceive that episcopalianism in New England was in a great measure indebted to the efforts, official and personal, of Edward Ran- dolph. Though he was not so bad a man as the colonists represented and believed him to be, yet he was arbitrary, selfish and grasping, and not a champion for a religious denomination to be proud of. But a cause cannot always choose its promoters, and many promoters of this cause were highly respectable members of the commu- nity, fairly entitled from the first to the liberty which they won at last.
PERIOD SECOND.
FROM THE FORMATION OF THE FIRST EPISCOPAL SOCI- ETY TO THE BUILDING OF THE FIRST CHAPEL.
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80 THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WAS PERFECTED. - 2 Chron. viii. 16.
IN the two preceding discourses I have been somewhat minute and circumstantial in relating the history of Episcopalianism previous to the erection of the first Episcopal chapel in Boston. But such particularity seemed to be required, in order that the temper of the times relating to this subject might be exhibited with some distinctness, and justice might be done to the events which led to what was in reality a great moral innovation, if not revolution in these colonies.
I have also been obliged, in order to be faithful, to record much contention and recrimination. Considering the condition of the two religious parties, together with the frailty of human nature, no less was to have been expected. One party,
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the great majority, had always been accustomed to rule here; the other were attached to the church which was established and dominant in England, and their deficiency in numbers was in a good measure supplied by the countenance of royal authority. The latter were determined to enjoy their own mode of worship ; and the former were determined to prevent them as long as they could. In this state of things it is not in the least to be wondered at, however it may be regretted, that both parties should far transgress the bounds of moderation, and the laws of Christian charity and liberty - which laws, by the way, were cer- tainly not understood at that time as well as they are now, and are not so generally understood now, as I trust they will be hereafter.
But though it must be acknowledged, and ac- knowledged to be deplored, that much acrimony accompanied the beginnings of our church, and that much pride and unholy warmth was mingled with the just zeal of its founders, it must not be supposed that all were equally liable to such a charge and equally reprehensible. John Dunton, from whose journal I have already quoted, says expressly of one of the chief promoters of the undertaking, Dr Bullivant, the first senior warden of the Episcopal church, that " he was so far from pushing things to that extremity as some hot
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spirits would have had him, that he was for ac- commodating things, and making peace."* No
* As Dr Bullivant was a conspicuous Episcopalian in those days, and stands at the head of the list of Wardens of the Chapel, I shall make no apology for here inserting the whole of his character, as given in the quaint manner of Dunton. 1818101
" From Dr Oakes I pass to my good friend Dr Bullivant, formerly my fellow citizen in London. I must consider him both as a gentleman and a physitian. As a gentleman, he came of a noble family, but his good qualities exceeded his birth. He is a great master of the English tongue, and the Northampton people find him a universal scholar. His knowledge of the laws fitted him for the office of attorney general, which was conferred upon him on the revolution in Boston ; it is true he sought it not, but New England knew his worth, and even forced him to accept of it. While he held this place of attorney general, he was so far from push- ing things to that extremity as some hot spirits would have had him, that he was for accommodating things, and making peace. Ilis eloquence is admirable ; he never speaks but 'tis a sentence, and no man ever clothed his thoughts in bet- ter words.
" I shall next consider him as a physitian. His skill in pharmacy was such as had no equal in Boston, nor perhaps Northampton. - He is so conversant with the great variety of nature, that not a drug or simple escapes his knowledge, so that he never practises new experiments upon his patients, except it be in desperate cases, where death must be expel- led by death. This also is praiseworthy in him, that to the poor he always prescribes cheap, but wholesome medicines, not curing them of a consumption in their bodies, and sending it into their purses, nor yet directing them to the East Indies to look for drugs, when they may have far better out of their gardens."
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doubt the same might have been said of many others, both on the episcopal and congregational sides. Neither must it be supposed that the reli- gious services of the Episcopalians were not soberly and devoutly performed, because they had so much trouble in obtaining a place wherein to perform them. In the most contentious and stormy periods, I doubt not that a holy calm was shed upon the heart of many a worshipper as he offered up his prayers in the way which to him was best and most affecting, and perhaps the way in which, long years ago, he had offered them up in some ivy-clad village church of green England, with many dear friends about him, now absent or dead. And when, according to the agreement before mentioned, they celebrated their first com- munion, on the second Sabbath in August, 1686, I am fully persuaded that it was celebrated in that small room which they held by reluctant sufferance, and round that " table" which was their cheap and lately constructed altar, with as much reverence and humility and edification as it was in any church or meeting-house in Old Eng- land or New.
Let us now return to the narrative of events. My last discourse concluded with an intimation of the expected arrival of the royal governor, in whose favor Mr Dudley was to resign his tempo-
PERIOD SECOND.
rary presidency over the New England colonies. Randolph was anxious for his coming, as a cool- ness had for some time subsisted between himself and Dudley ; the latter gentleman not having. proved so favorably disposed to his views, when surrounded by his own people, as he had given Randolph reason to suppose he would have been, by his former apparently interested and almost servile conduct. Nor was Randolph obliged to wait long. Sir Edmund Andros arrived at Nan- tasket on Sunday the 19th of December, in the Kingfisher, a 50 gun ship, landed at Boston on the 20th, and published his commission on the same day, about seven months only after Dudley had come over with his commission as president.
The new governor was not long in showing his arbitrary dispositions, and the strong hand with which he intended to rule. One of the first acts of his despotism is connected with the history of our church, and indeed comes in regular con- tinuation of it. The very day of his landing and the publication of his commission, he had a con- ference in the library of the town-house with the ministers of the three congregational churches, concerning the accommodation of the Episcopal society, and suggested that it might be so con- trived that one house might serve two assemblies. The ministers, with four lay members of each
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congregation, held a meeting the next day, to consider what answer to give to the governor, and it was agreed, as Judge Sewall says in his diary,* that they could not with a good conscience consent that their meeting-houses should be made use of for the common prayer worship. On the evening of the following day, December 22, Mr Mather and Mr Willard waited on the governor at his lodgings, and "thoroughly discoursed his Excellency about the meeting-houses, in great plainness, showing they could not consent." The governor, either from an unwillingness to hurt their feelings too rudely, or from a fear of displaying his power too suddenly, seemed to say that he would not impose upon them what was manifestly so disagreeable. And so the matter was suffered to rest, but only for a short time. On the 23d of March, 1687, the governor sent Mr Randolph for the keys of the South meeting- house, now called the Old South,t that the Episcopalians might have prayers there. A committee of six, of whom Judge Sewall was one, thereupon waited on his Excellency, to show that the house was their own property, and to
* A manuscript yet unpublished, and in possession of the Sewall family.
t It was called the Old South, after the New South in Summer Street was built, which was in the year 1717.
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repeat that they could not consent to part with it to such use. This was on Wednesday. The following Friday, which was Good Friday, Sir Edmund Andros sent to command the sexton of the South church to open the door, and ring the bell for those of the Church of England. The sexton, though he had resolved not to do so, was persuaded or intimidated into compliance, and the Governor and his party took possession of the house, and the church service was performed there.
In looking back on this event, we are obliged to consider it, though not of itself of great political importance, as one of the most arbitrary acts ever perpetrated in this country, while it remained under the English government. No excuse is to be rendered for it. It was such a deliberate outrage on the common rights of property, to say nothing of conscience and liberty, that we may only wonder that Andros and his abettors, of whom Randolph was doubtless one, suffered no personal violence from the people. But none seems to have been offered ; and the proprietors of the South meeting-house, finding that they could not resist the imposition, submitted to it as well as they could. Both parties, indeed, after the intrusion was effected, and regarded as a settled thing, evinced some desire to accommodate each
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other with regard to the hours of their several meetings, though Andros was still the dictator. On Easter day, March 27,* the governor and his retinue again met in the South Church, at eleven o'clock, word having been sent to the proprietors that they might come at half past one; but it was not till after two that the church service was over, owing, as it is stated by Judge Sewall, to " the sacrament, and Mr Clarke's long sermon ; so 'twas a sad sight," he continues, " to see how full the street was with people gazing and moving to and fro, because they had not entrance into the house."
From this time the South meeting-house was occupied by the governor and the Episcopalians for divine worship, if not constantly, yet whenever they pleased to order it. On Friday, Feb. 10, 1688, it was used for the funeral service over Lady Andros, who was buried with all the state attendant on such occasions in England. There is something quite striking in the few words of Judge Sewall's description of what he witnessed of this ceremony. "Between 4 and 5 I went to the funeral of the Lady Andros, having been invited by the clark of the South Company. Between 7 and 8 (lychnst illuminating the cloudy
* Entry in the old book, under the date of March 27, 1687.
" Paid for wine one gallon 12s. - Paid for bread 6d." t Torches. Link has the same Greek derivation.
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air) the corpse was carried into the herse drawn by six horses, the soldiers making a guard from the governor's house down the Prison Lane to the South meeting-house ; there taken out and carried in at the western door, and set in the alley before the pulpit, with six mourning women by it. House made light with candles and torches. There was a great noise and clamor to keep peo- ple out of the house, that they might not rush in too soon. I went home."
On the 14th of April Mr West was sent by the governor to the Rev. Mr Willard, to request him to begin at 8 in the morning, and said that this should be the last time, for they would build a house. However, it was not the last time, and the governor probably continued to use the house, till he was deposed by a popular insurrection the next year. The Episcopalians were nevertheless sincere and earnest in their intentions to build a church for themselves forthwith. Judge Sewall was applied to at different times, and once parti- cularly by Mr Ratcliffe, for land at " Cotton Hill,"* on which they might set their church. But his constant reply was, that he could not ; first, because he would not set up that which the people of England came over to avoid, and sec- ondly, because the land was entailed.
* Cotton Hill is the elevated ground on which Mr Phillip's house now stands, opposite the Chapel burying ground.
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It appears from the above account, as well as from other anthorities, that Mr Ratcliffe had an assistant by the name of Clark, or Clarke. His christian name was Robert .* It is probable that he was sent over by the Bishop of London, at the instance of Randolph ; but I have not been able to learn anything of his history.
As illustrative of the times, it may not be amiss to mention in this its proper place, that a person by the name of Lilly having died, and left the ordering of his funeral to his executors, t Mr Rat- cliffe undertook to perform the funeral service at his grave, the deceased having probably belonged to his society.# The executors forbade his read- ing it, and when he begun, Deacon Frairey, of the South Church, interrupted him and stopped his proceeding ; for which the deacon was bound to his good behaviour for twelve months.
* Christian name Robert. So says the list of the ministers of King's Chapel in Hist. Col. 1 S. vol. iii. p. 250. But the following memorandum from the old book makes me doubt it, and think that his name was Josiah. After a receipt of Mr Ratcliffe for twenty pounds and fourteen shillings from the wardens Bullivant and Maccartie, comes the " memo- randum, that Mr Ratcliffe gave of the above sum, and at the same time, unto Mr Josiah Clarke minister for his afternoon Lecture, Tenn pounds. As attests Benjamin Bullivant." The date of Mr Ratcliffe's receipt is Decemb. 31. 1686.
t Hutch. Hist. 1. 356. note.
# I find the name of Edward Lilley among the subscribers to the church.
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We now approach the close of Andros's tyran- nical government, which was brought about through the influence of one of the most auspi- cious changes in the government of the mother country, the glorious revolution, as it is called, of 1688. The spring succeeding the landing of William of Orange at Torbay, news was brought to Boston of the event, by way of Virginia, by a Mr Winslow. He was immediately imprisoned by Justice Foxcroft and others, " for bringing a traitorous and treasonable libel into the country," and though he offered two thousand pounds bail, it was not accepted. The old magistrates, and other principal colonists, secretly hoped and prayed for the success of the Prince's enterprise, but thought it best to wait for the consummation. But the people could not wait. The wrath which had long been pent up within them, broke out into open revolt on the 18th of April, 1689; the governor, Randolph, Bullivant, Dudley, and many others were seized and confined, the fort and the Rose frigate were taken, and the old magistrates were restored as a sort of provisional committee of safety. Sunday, the 26th of May, the joyful news arrived of the proclaiming of William and Mary, and on the 29th, the pro- clamation was published in Boston with great ceremony. Late in the year, an order from the
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king * was received, requiring that Sir Edmund Andros, Edward Randolph, John Trefry, and others that had been seized by the people of Boston, should be sent to England in the first ship bound thither, and in February, 1690, they embarked, and Boston was rid of them and their tyranny.+
Mr Ratcliffe and his assistant, Mr Clark, must have also gone back to England about this time, as I find no notice of either of them, after the deposition of Andros.t
But in the meantime the Episcopal church had been built. How the land was procured, or of whom, when the building was dedicated, or by whom, there is no record, or if there be one, I have not met with it.§ The entry which im-
* Dated July 30, 1689. Hutch. Hist. 1. p. 391.
t Andros " obtained, some time after, the government of Virginia. Dudley was appointed chief justice of New York, and, the latter end of the year 1690, was at Boston, in his way to his post. Nicholson endeavored for the government of New York, but had not interest to carry it, and was ap- pointed Lieut. governor of Virginia." Hutch. Hist. 1. p. 395.
# Mr Ratcliffe must have gone to England before Andros, and very soon after his deposition, as is evident from the fol- lowing entry on the records. " July 27, 1689. By disburse- ments for the accommodation of Mr Ratcliffe for his voy- age home, as appears by several bills on file, £11 4s. 8d."
§ The following dates from the old record-book may give some light. Under the date of March 20, 1687, there is the
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mediately follows the record of the second meet- ing, mentioned in my last discourse, is a list of ninetysix contributers to the building, dated July, 1689, and headed thus ; " Laus Deo- a memo- randum of such honest and well disposed persons that contributed their assistance for, and towards erecting a Church for God's worship in Boston, according to the constitution of the Church of England, as by law established." The sum con- tributed by these ninetysix individuals, was £256 9s. The cost of the house is then stated to be £284 16s. A few lines further on, is inserted the following remarkable note : -
" Note that on 18° Aprill preseeding the date on th' other side, began a most impious and de- testable rebellion agst the King's Majety's Gov- ernment, the Govern', and all just men to the same were brought into restraint." Then fol- lows ; "S' Edmund Androse Kt left for the
last regular entry of the weekly contribution till after An- dros's deposition. On the 30th of June, 1689, these entries are again resumed. It will be remembered that on the 23d of March, 1687, Andros took possession of the South Church, and on the 18th of April 1689, was deposed. July 1, 1689, there is an entry of 20s. paid to Mr Niles, and 5s. to the " Clerke :" and July 5, of £1 15s 0 to " Mr Wm. Smith for Benching the church." Putting these dates together, I think it almost certain that worship was first performed in the wooden church on the last Sabbath and day in June, 1689.
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church service 30 - - Capt. ffrancis Nicholson left 25 - -. "
Next to the above it is recorded that in the year 1693, the officers of Sir Francis Wheeler's fleet, which put into Boston to recruit, after an unsuccessful expedition against Martinique, gave twenty four pounds, and the gentlemen land officers thirtytwo, making fifty six pounds. After these are recorded some other donations.
Still the church was without pews. In 1694 an agreement was entered into with a carpenter to build them, which he was to do for £85- and a subscription was made by fiftythree persons, which more than covered the expense. " So the house of the Lord was perfected."
This first church was built of wood. It stood on the spot covered by the present church, but did not occupy nearly so much ground. In an old engraving which I have examined, represent- ing the town of Boston as it was in 1720, this church, among others, is introduced. It stands in the same position with the present one, has a square tower at the west end, from the roof of which rises a staff supporting the vane, and just under the vane is a large and quite observable CROWN. It was the fifth house of public worship erected in Boston. The congregational houses were then three in number, and the Baptists had
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succeeded in building themselves a church, seve- ral years before the Episcopalians commenced theirs .*
Some of the circumstances connected with the origin and progress of the Episcopal society must always be regretted. And yet it is pretty certain that had there not been such an excess of oppo- sition, bigotry and contumely on the other side, there would not have been so much overbearing pride excited on theirs. There are some who undertake to defend our puritan fathers through the whole of their exclusive course. This can never be done with success. If they were pro- scribed and oppressed in the mother country, they ought to have learned that proscription and oppression are hateful everywhere. If they suc- cessfully resisted or eluded proscription and op- pression, they might have learned that wherever there is true strength in the public mind, pro- scription and oppression are as useless as they are hateful. If it is said that it was necessary for the safety of the puritans, that they should persecute all who dissented from them, and keep
* The first Baptist meeting-house in Boston was opened for worship on the 15th of February, 1679. The Baptists " proceeded with so much caution in building their house, that it was not known for what purpose it was erected until it was completed."-Snow's History of Boston, p. 151.
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any mixture of doctrine from coming among them, I must be pardoned for not believing it ; espe- cially when I see that in thirtyfive years after the planting of this city, one of the three churches then gathered in it was a dissenting church, and that in less than thirty years more, two out of the five houses of worship erected in it were not congre- gational, and yet the colony was as safe as ever. I must be pardoned for believing that the propor- tion of dissenters would not have been greater, had our puritan fathers been more liberal in their principles ; and that there would have been quite as much unity of opinion, with a great deal more of that which is a great deal better, namely, unity of spirit. There would hardly have been more dissenting houses than there were, and they would have been built up more religiously and peace- fully. If I am pointed, as the petitioners of 1646 were pointed, to the case of Rhode Island, I say I want no better case for my argument. If all who were rejected here fled there; if Gortonists and Hutchinsonians and Baptists and Quakers and Episcopalians, and freethinkers and revellers, if all of every name and character who were compelled to quit this state, settled down to- gether on that little lot of land, and still Rhode Island succeeded as she did and has, I desire no better case ; for it only shows me what a bond of
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