History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 25

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 25

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Upon their arrival " Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone went presently to Newtown, where they were to be entertained." We can imagine the gladness of the coming. On the 11th of October, 1633, Winthrop makes the brief record. " A fast at Newtown, where Mr. Hocker was chosen pastor and Mr. Stone teacher in such a manner as before at Boston." The church was the eighth gathered in the Massachusetts Bay colony, but the precise date of its organization has not been preserved.

Only a few months later than this the people of the town were planning for a removal. At the General Court, in May, 1634, "Those of Newtown complained of straitness for want of land, especially meadow, and desired leave of the Court to look out either for en- largement or removal, which was granted." At the

session in September, 1634, this questiou of the re- moval of Newtown occupied nearly all the time. In the previous July, "Six of Newtown went in the 'Blessing' (being bound to the Dutch plantation) to discover Connecticut River, intending to remove their town thither." The report was favorable, and the town asked permission to move. "It was alleged by Mr. Hooker as a fundamental error, that towns were set so near each to other." Much objection was made, and enlargement was offered by Boston and Watertown, and the removal was not effected. It was but a temporary arrangement. In May, 1636, Gov- ernor Winthrop has to enter in his journal, "Mr. Hooker, pastor of the Church at Newtown, and the rest of his congregation, went to Connecticut; his wife was carried in a horse-litter, and they drove 160 cattle, and fed of their milk by the way." Trum- bull's account of the journey is worth copying. "About the beginning of June, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and about a hundred men, women and children, took their departure from Cambridge, and traveled more than a hundred miles, through hideous aud trackless wilderness, to Hartford. They had no guide but their compass, made their way over mountains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those which simple nature afforded them. They drove with them a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and by the way subsisted upon the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms and some utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their jour- ney. This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of this company were persons of figure, who had lived in England in honor, affluence and delicacy, and entire strangers to fatigue and danger." Thus did Newtown found Hartford.

Although Mr. Hooker was here but a short time, still his work, and through him the influence of the Church, were extended. His influence in ecclesias- tical affairs reached beyond the limits of his own township. There was need of wise leadership. The principles of church life were clear, but the methods were not so plain. The conditions were new and there was no definite agreement upon modes of ad- ministration, "until Mr. Cotton and Mr. Hooker came over, which was in the year 1633, who did clear up the order and method of Church government, ac- cording as they apprehended was most consonant to the Word of God." Their maturity and experience were of the highest value to the new churches and com- munities. Hooker worked with the other ministers for the common good of the colony. He was one of the preachers at the Thursday Lectures. He was a coun- selor and friend of men in public station. He was appointed by the General Court "to dispute" with Roger Williams in his controversy with the authori- Ities. When Endicott cut the cross from the English

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

flag, Mr. Hooker yielded to public and private im- portunity and wrote his opinion "Touching the Crosse in the Banners." He wrote calmly and plainly : "Not that I am a friend to the crosse as an idoll, or to any idollatry in it; or that any carnal fear takes me asyde and makes me unwilling to give way to the evidence of the truth, because of the sad consequences that may be suspected to flowe from it. I blesse the Lord, my conscience accuseth me of no such thing; but that as yet I am not able to see the sinfullness of this banner in a civil use." It is plain that the influence of this minister was much wider than his parish bonnds, and that the influence was for order and peace, and for the establishment of the stable principles of life. His influence did not end with his removal to Con- necticnt. But at this point of his removal the ecclesi- astical history of Cambridge begins again. We may, for the present, take leave of Hooker with the elegiac lines written by Cotton in his honor :-

"To see three things was holy Austin's wish,- Rome in her flower, Christ Jesus in the flesh, And Paul in the pulpit ; lately men might see Two first, and more, in Hooker's ministry.

" Zion in heauty is a fairer sight Than Rome in flower, with all her glory dight ; Yet Zion's beauty did most clearly shine In Hooker's rule and doctrine, hoth divine."

The history which we are tracing begins again with the Puritan movement in England. Again it is one man with whom, at first, we have to do.

Mention has already been incidentally made of Towcester. It is a small town in Northamptonshire. The old brick houses are, for the most part, on one street, which has a very red appearance as the visitor looks upon it. He is struck with the unusual num- ber of inns-The Talbot, Albion, Plough, Dolphin, Wheat Sheaf, Nelson's Arms-and is unable to account for their presence, or to find for them any visible means of support. They are easily accounted for by the fact that the town was once on the stage road between Chester and London. Then, doubtless, there was a stir of travel and business. This is of the past. Quiet prevails in the houses and in the bear- ing of the people. There is a fine stone church, a part of which dates from the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. The mas- sive tower goes back to Edward IV. Around the church are the graves of many generations, and near by is the pleasant vicarage, where the Rev. James Mountain resides. Across the lane is a cabinet- maker's establishment, which, in the old time, was a home for monks. In the wall around the yard are niches which once must have held sacred images. Here the good men had their daily walk and medita- tion. At a later day the house was used for the parish schools. Something of modern life is seen in the town in a fine building devoted to municipal pur- poses. A Congregational and a Baptist Church, and perhaps others, mark the presence of dissent, though they are much less impressive than the house of the

establishment. There are two or three hamlets out- side the main town, and nearly three thousand people now inhabit the pleasant quietness.

With this English town Cambridge has a natural and interesting connection. For it was in Towcester the man was born whose name was to be historic among us. The old church-book in Towcester has one brief record before which a Cambridge man panses in reverence. In the long list of baptisms reaching through centuries, he reads: "Thomas sonne to William Shepard, 9 November." He was borne on the fifth of November, 1605, 'called the Powder Treason Day,' at that very houre of the day when the Parliament should have been blown up, which occasioned my father to give me the name Thomas, because he sayed I would hardly be- lieve that ever any such wickedness should be attempted by men against so religious and good Parlament." William Shepard was a prosperous grocer, "a wise, prudent man, the peacemaker of the place." As there was in Towcester no preaching which satisfied him, he removed to Banbury that he and his household might be " under a stirring minis- try." The mother died when Thomas was four years old. His childhood had little brightness or promise in it. He was sent, when very young, to his grand- parents at Fossecut, "a most blind town and corner," where he was "put to keep geese, and other such country work," while his own interests were neglected. Then he was sent to his uncle at Apthorp, "a little blind town," where he learned "to sing and sport, as children did in those parts, and to dance at their Whitson-Ales." When he returned home he was harshly used by his stepmother, and his father sent him to a free school in Towcester, kept by a Welshman, who was very cruel to him, so that he was discouraged in his lessons, and often wished he was a keeper of hogs and beasts instead of a school- boy. He was ten years old when his father died, and his brother took the place of both father and mother to him. He had been in a hard school; but he had received strong religions impressions and had taken an earnest hold upon life. At fourteen, though " very raw and young," he was admitted a pensioner at Emmanuel College. Here he faced new perils. He became prond of his attainments, neglected his relig- ious duties, and strayed into bad company and evil ways. Shame and remorse came to him, and the searching preaching of the master of the college per- suaded him to make for himself a serious and manly life. "I 'saw the Lord gave me a hart to receive Xt., with a naked hand even a naked Xt., and so hee gave me peace." He left college with a high reputa- tion for scholarship and with the customary honors of the university, and with new purposes and desires.

Before we go further we ought more distinctly to note the influence of Emmanuel College upon our ecclesiastical life. It was the college of Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, Thomas Shepard, John Har-

CAMBRIDGE.

vard. At Cambridge the Puritan influence was especially strong, and at Emmanuel the strongest. It was the heart of the greatest movement of modern times. Emmanuel was founded in 1584. Walter Mildmay, chancellor and counselor of Elizabeth, purchased the ground, on which a university of the Black Friars, the Preaching Friars, had stood, and on this rose the college which he founded and en- dowed. He was a leader among the Puritans, and he sought in his way to advance and extend their prin- ciples. The story goes that the Queen met him soon after the college was opened, and greeted him with, "So, Sir Walter, I hear you have erected a Puritan foundation." "No, madam, far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws; but I have set an acorn, which, when it be- comes an oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof." Fifty years later, when Harvard was a student, Fuller wrote: "Sure I am at this day it hath overshadowed all the university." Even then its shadow, rather its brightness, had fallen on a land three thousand miles away. It was a stubborn, wil- ful college. The traditions required that churches and chapels should be built on a line running east and west. Mildmay set his chapel on a line running north and south. The breaking from tradition was the assertion of liberty. On the lofty pediment are the arms of the college-a lion rampant, holding a chaplet, which drew out this tribute in Greek :

"Thy emblems fair, and lion hold, Well pleased Emmanuel's House, I see ; If such a rank tby lions hold, What mighty things thy men must be !"

This was the place, this was the life, into which the boy Thomas Shepard entered, whose air he breathed, whose teachings he received, whose mas- ters he revered, whose scholars he knew, from which he came forth a man. He took his Bachelor's degree in 1623 and became Master of Arts in 1627. His life was beginning ; what should he do next? He had been used to Puritan training from his youth up ; but, not without scruple, he received deacon's orders in the Established Church. He was given an ap- pointment as a lecturer. This was a Puritan office, designed to furnish preachers where there was no proper ministry. The appointment was for three years. It was a needy place to which he was sent, but his labors were successful, and there he won to himself his steadfast friend, Roger Harlakenden, whose mortal part was afterwards laid in our old burying-ground where Shepard was to join him.

It is almost telling Hooker's story over again to relate that the young minister was not allowed to do his work in peace. He was charged with being "a non-conformable man, when for the most of that time I was not resolved either way." He finished his three years and remained a few months longer, at the request and charge of the people, when he was sum- moned before Laud, the Bishop of London-" our

great enemy," Winthrop calls him. The Bishop was more angry than was becoming to his sacred office, and his sentence was more explicit than pastoral : "I charge you that you neither preach, read, marry, bury, or exercise any ministerial functions in any part of my diocese; for if you do, and I hear of it, I'll be upon your track and follow you wherever you go, in any part of this kingdom, and so everlastingly disenable you." Laud was building better than he knew. The story need not be followed out in its details. The young man spent a few months with the Harlakendens, becoming more fixed in his Puri- tan ideas. "Then the Bishop fired me out of this place." He accepted an invitation to Yorkshire, where he was chaplain to the family of Sir Richard Darley. There he was kindly treated, very kindly, inasmuch as the knight's kinswoman, Margaret Tauteville became Margaret Shepard. But the old hostility found him out and he came to Northumberland. He removed again and was silenced again. Then he "preached up and down the country, and at last pri- vately in Mr. Fenwick's house." While he was thus being loosed from Church and country, divers friends in New England asked him to come over to them, and many in Old England desired him to go and promised to accompany him. He resolved to accede to their request. His " little booke," with his own account of his life, remains as an invaluable memorial of the man. In this he gives the reasons for his consent to leave the country. "I saw no call to any other place in Old England." "I saw the Lord departed from England when Mr. Hooker and Mr. Cotton were gone, and I saw the harts of most of the godly set and bent that way, and I did think I should feel my miseries if I stayed behind." " My dear wife did much long to see me settled there in peace and so put me on to it." "Tho' my ends were mixt and I looked much to my own quiet, yet the Lord let me see the glory of those liberties in N. England, and made me purpose, if ever I come over, to live among God's people as one come out from the dead, to his praise." "I did hope my going over might make them to fol- low me." " My liberty in private was dayly threat- ened."

He sailed with his wife and child late in the year 1634. They encountered a violent storm and were nearly lost. They reached the land, where his child soon died aud was privately buried. He began to question if he had gone too far in separating from the " Assemblies in England." He spent the winter in Norfolk, busy with his pen now that his lips were closed. In the spring he went up to London, where with difficulty he evaded the officers of the law, and in August, 1635, he sailed the second time, with his wife and another son, his brother, Harlakenden, and other precious friends. It was in the ship "Defence," " very rotten and unfit for such a voyage." Through many storms and many fears they were brought in safety ; and on the 3d of October, 1635, they

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

reached Boston, where they were welcomed by many friends. On the second day after their arrival Shep- ard and his family came to Newtown, where he found Hooker and Stone, whom he had known in England. Hooker had been his teacher and counselor. Stone had succeeded to his lectureship, and had taken it to Towcester, where he had done much for his towns- people. It must have been helpful to Shepard to find these men ready to receive him and introduce him to his new work. The new-comers enjoyed for a few months the society of the veterans of 1632 and 1633, who were about to seek the wilds of Connecticut. Very serious and interesting their intercourse must have been. The arrival was well timed, for Shepard could take up the work of Hooker, the new settlers could purchase the houses which were to be deserted, and the new church could stand in the place of the old. The account of the transfer is given in the " lit- tle booke:" "Myself and those that came with me found many houses empty and many persons willing to sell, and here our company bought off their houses to dwell in until we should see another place fit to remove into, but having been here some time diverse of our brethren did desire to sit stille and not to re- move farther, partly because of the fellowship of the churches, partly because they thought their lives were short and removals to near plantations full of troubles, partly because they found sufficient for them- selves and their company. Hereupon there was a purpose to enter into church fellowship, which we did the yeare after, about the end of the winter."

The minister's house was in what is now the college yard, on the site now occupied by Boylston Hall. There Hooker lived and Shepard after him. The place of the meeting-house has been already mentioned. A few of the old families remained when their neighbors had gone, and became a part of the new community ; for the affairs of the town passed into new hands and there was a new church. On the 1st day of February, 1636, the church was organized. The record of that day must be copied from the journal of Governor Winthrop, who was undoubtedly more than an eye witness :

"Mr. Shepard, a godly minister, came lately out of England, and divers other good christians, intending to raise a church body, came and acquainted the magistrates therewith, who gave their approbation. They also sent to all the neighboring churches for their elders to give their assistance at a certain day at Newtown, when they should constitute their body. Accordingly at this day there met a great assembly, where the proceeding was as followeth :

" Mr. Shepard and two others, who were after to be chosen to office, sat together in the elder's seat ; then the elder of them began with prayer; after this Mr. Shepard prayed with deep confession of sin, etc., and exercised out of Eph. v., that he might make it to himself a holy, etc., and also opened the cause of their meeting; then the elder desired to know of

the churches assembled what number were needful to make a church, and how they ought to proceed in this action. Whereupon some of the ancient ministers conferring shortly together gave answer: That the scripture did not set down any certain rule for the number; three (they thought) were too few, because by Matt. xviii. an appeal was allowed from three, but that seven might be a fit number ; and for their pro- ceeding they advised that such as would join should make confession of their faith and declare what work of grace the Lord had wrought in them, which accordingly they did. Mr. Shepard first, then four others, then the elder and one who was to be deacon (who had also prayed) and another member ; then the covenant was read and they all gave a solemn assent to it. Then the elder desired of the churches that if they did appoint them to be a church, they would give them the right hand of fellowship. Where- upon Mr. Cotton (after a short speech with some others near him), in the name of the churches, gave his hand to the elder with a short speech of their assent, and desired the peace of the Lord's presence to he with them. Then Mr. Shepard made an ex- hortation to the rest of his body abont the nature of their covenant, and to stand firm to it, and commended them to the Lord in a most heavenly prayer. Then the elder told the assembly that they were intended to choose Mr. Shepard for their pastor (by the name of the brother who had exercised), and desired the churches that if they had anything to except against him, they would impart it to them before the day of ordination. Then he gave the churches thanks for their assistance, and so left them to the Lord."

In this simple, reverent, democratic method the church entered upon a career which has already lasted for more than two hundred and fifty years. It was the union of men and women who were of one faith and of one character and purpose, and who were living together, and in fellowship with their neigh- bors, who were of a like mind. The covenant to which they agreed has not been preserved. We can readily believe that it was essentially the same as that of the First Church in Boston, which was probably written by Governor Winthrop :

" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance.

"We, whose names are hereunder written, being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts; and desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation, or church under the Lord Jesus Christ, our head, in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed and sanctified to himself, do here solemnly and religiously (as in his most holy presence) promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual love and respect each to other, so near as God shall give us grace."

CAMBRIDGE.

Concerning this covenant and its adoption on the other side of the river, the present distinguished re- presentative of the name of the first Governor has said : "That old covenant is one under which any man might well be willing to live and to die. . . . Beyond all doubt, that day, that service, that coven- ant, settle the question that Congregationalism was to be the prevailing order, and for a long time the only order in early New England. Nor, let me add, have I ever doubted for a moment that Congregation- alism was the best and the only mode of planting and propagating Christianity in this part of the country in those old Puritan times."

This ancient covenant, with the necessary change in the opening sentence of the covenant proper, is still in use in the First Church in Cambridge.

The fathers did not think it necessary to make a statement of doctrine which should be original and peculiarly their own. They agreed substantially with other reformed churches. They had separated from the Church of England chiefly upon matters of wor- ship, discipline and government, and found it desir- able to make a certain confession for their churches. Accordingly in 1648 they formed and published " The Cambridge Platform of Church Discipline, gathered out of the Word of God, and agreed upon by the elders and messengers of the churches assembled in Synod." The name of this platform indicates the place of its formation. The Westminster Assembly had just made its historic statement of faith, and to this the Cambridge Synod unanimously expressed its assent. In the Preface it is said, "This Synod, having perused and considered, with much gladness of heart, and thankfulness to God, the Confession of Faith published of late by the reverend assembly in Eng- land, do judge it to be very holy, orthodox and judicious in all matters of faith; and do therefore freely and fully consent thereunto, for the substance thereof. Only in those things which have respect to church government and discipline, we refer ourselves to the platform of church discipline agreed upon by this present assembly; and do therefore think it meet, that this Confession of Faith should be commended to the churches of Christ amongst us, and to the honored Court, as worthy of their due consideration and acceptance."

We have, therefore, the constitution under which the church here began its work. The documents are of the highest interest, not only for their use here, but as a part of the history of the times, and a me- morial of the thought and life of carnest men who were working out a great purpose.

The date of Mr. Shepard's ordination is not known. At the organization of the church notice was given that it was proposed to make him their pastor, and his ordination must have soon followed. The Shepard company numbered some sixty persons, as nearly as can now be determined, and with them were some who had remained when the Hooper com-

pany went away. The new church included among its members men of influence, whose names were prominent in other relations. There was Roger Har- lakenden, of that house which protected and sup- ported the young Shepard and his family iu the days of their persecution, who came with them to this country. "He was a very godly man, and of good use both in commonwealth and in church ;" and Richard Champney, ruling elder, descended from Sir Henry Champney, one of the thirty brave warriors who fought in 1066 under William the Conqueror; and Samuel Green, who came in 1632, for fifty years a printer, whose greatest work was the Indian Bible; and Matthew Day, the first known steward of the college ; and Thomas Cheeseholme, the second stew- ard of the college; and Edward Winship, for many years honored by election to public office; and Nathaniel Eaton, of whom we do not boast, though he was the first head of the embryo college; and the first of the Sparhawks, the house which in different generations gave the church four deacons, and served the community in other offices of trust ; and Edward Collins, the deacon, father of famous sons ; and Henry Dunster, the first president of the college, "as true a friend," says Mr. Quincy, " and as faithful a ser- vant as this college ever possessed;" and Thomas Danforth, Daniel Gookin, Herbert Pelham, Elijah Corlet. These selected names suggest a goodly list for the day of beginnings. We should add John Bridge, who owned land here in 1632, who was early made a deacon in the church, and was select- man and representative, whom Thomas Shepard named when he was giving his reasons for coming hither. "Diverse people in Old England of my dear friends desired me to goe to N. E., there to live together, and some went before and writ to me of providing a place for a company of us, one of which was John Bridge, and I saw diverse families of Xtian freends, who were resolved thither to goe with me." The statue of this stout-hearted Puri- tan stands on Cambridge common, in front of the church which bears the name of Shepard.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 25

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034