History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 26

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 26

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In any account of the early religious life of Cam- bridge special mention should be made of Margaret Shepard. She was evidently a woman of strong char- acter, and her influence over her husband was constant and helpful. She was unwilling to stay at Butter- crambe, where he found her, and she came with him into the difficulties which were besetting him. Her faith and hope reached out to the land beyond the sea. She longed to see him established here in peace, and urged him to yield to the persuasions of- his friends. His description of her and his manner of alluding to her are worth noting by those who imag- ine there was nothing tender in the Puritan character. "The Lord taught me much of His goodness and greatness, and when He had fitted a wife for me He then gave me her, who was a most sweet, humble woman, full of Christ, and a very discerning Xtian ;

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

a wife who was most incomparably loving to me, and every way amiable and holy and endowed with a very sweet spirit of prayer." The ocean voyage was very hard for her, with her young child. To his son he writes that his mother " did loose her life by being carefull to preserve thine, for in the ship thou wert so feeble and froward, both in the day and night, that hereby she lost her strength and at last her life. The ship, in a storm, tumbling suddenly on the one side, my wife, having the child in her arms, was almost pitched with her head and child in her armes agaynst a post in the ship ; and, being ready to fall, shee felt herself pluckt back by shee knew not what, whereby shee and the child were agayne preserved; and I cannot ascribe this to any other but the angels of God, who are ministering spirits for the heirs of life." When he has mentioned the formation of the church he adds : "A fortnight after my deare wife Margaret dyed, being first received into Church fellowship, which, as she much longed for the Lord did so sweeten it unto her, that she was hereby exceedingly cheered and comforted with the sense of God's love, which continned until her last gaspe."

The full plan of the New England fathers contem- plated five church officers-the pastor and teacher, who were called elders, the ruling elder, deacon and deaconess. It does not appear that Cambridge had a deaconess, at least under that name. These officers were to be chosen and ordained by the church in which they were to serve. The pastor's special work was to "attend to exhortation, and therein to admin- ister a word of wisdom." He was to apply the pre- cepts of the Scriptures to the conduct of men. The teacher was to "attend to doctrine, and therein to administer a word of wisdom." The one, therefore, had what we should term the practical, and the other the doctrinal part of the present clerical office. Both were to administer the sacraments of the Church. Both, also, were "to execute the censures." The earliest church here had both pastor and teacher, Hooker and Stone, but in the church which took its place the two officers seemed to have been combined from the beginning. The ruling elder was to attend to the discipline of the church and to take the lead in all matters of business. "To feed the flock of God with a word of admonition, and, as they shall be sent for, to visit and pray over their sick brethren." The of- fice was not of long continuance. In fifty years from the settlement of the country it had fallen into com- parative disuse, although it was continued here until near the close of the century. The deacon was to be a man proved and found blameless. His was " to re- ceive the offerings of the church and to keep the trea- sury of the church, and therewith to serve the tables which the church is to provide for-as the Lord's table, the table of the ministers, and of such as are in neces- sity, to whom they are to distribute in simplicity." Some churches had one deacon, some two, some three. The number of elders varied in different churches.

The ruling elders in Cambridge, so far as there is any record, were Edmund Frost, who was made a freeman in 1636, and died in 1672; Richard Champ ney, a freeman in 1636, died 1669; James Clark, a free- man in 1647, ordained ruling elder in 1682, died 1699; James Stone, a freeman in 1665, ordained 1682, died 1683.

The deacons who served in the seventeenth century were Thomas Marriot, John Bridge, Nathaniel Spar- hawk, Edward Collins, Gregory Stone, Thomas Cheese- holme, John Cooper, Walter Hasting, Nathaniel Spar- hawk.

We have seen something of the appointments of the church in men and in principles; it may be in- teresting to look at some of the methods of their eccle- siastical life. "The public worship," says an early writer, " is in as fair a meeting-honse as they can pro- vide; therein, in most cases, they have been at great charges." If we could go within the simple building which first served for a sanctuary, we should find a rough room, divided by a central passage, and fur- nished with benches. On one side of the house the males would sit, and the females on the other. Very likely some of the men would have carnal weapons, for prudential reasons. The pulpit would be a stand or desk within a railing, and, in its plainness, in keeping with its environment. On the Lord's Day the bell would call the people, although, for some rea- son, we find that a drum was used at one time. In the town records for 1646 is an entry of " fifty shil- lings, paid unto Thomas Langhorne for his service to the town in beating the drum these two years past." It was common to have an hour-glass in the church, by which to measure the time of the services. When the people became able to arrange the meeting-house according to their idea of the fitness of things, the ruling elders had a seat below the pulpit, and the deacons a seat a little lower down, where they faced the congregation. The pulpit was then an elaborate structure, under a sounding-board. The boys had a place by themselves in one of the galleries, with a tithingman for their particular benefit. In 1666 "Thomas Fox is ordered to look to the youth in time of public worship.", In 1669 there was complaint that sundry persons were spending their time unprof- itably outside the meeting-house, and the constable was ordered to see "that they do attend upon the public worship of God."

/In many cases the meeting-house was finished and furnished by degrees. At first benches were put in ; then a man would obtain a deed of a space on the floor, some six feet square, and ereet a pit, or pew, upon it. He was to keep his pew in repair and "maintain all the glass against it." When there was no such pri- vate arrangement the people had seats assigned to them according to rank or property or age. This was called "dignifying" the house. Here is an order for 1658: "That the elders, deacons and selectmen for the time being shall be a constant and settled power

CAMBRIDGE.

for regulating the sitting of persons in the meeting- house from time to time as need shall require." We have the appointment for 1662; it runs this way : "The Committee for ordering the seating of people in the meeting-house, being met at the ordinary, ap- pointed-

" Bro. R. Jackson's wife to sit there where Sister Kempster was wont to sit.

" Mrs. Upham with her mother.

"Ester Sparhawke in the place where Mrs. Up- ham is removed from. .

" Joanna Winship in the place where Ester Spar- hawke was wont to sit. .

" Ens. Samuel Greene to sit at the table. .

" Goode Gates at the end of the Deacons' seats."

The congregation usually walked to the meeting- house or rode on horseback. For the convenience of those who rode, in 1665 " the Townsmen do order the Constables to make a convenient horse-block at the meeting-house and causeway to the door."

In the New England customs the congregation met as early as nine o'clock on Sabbath morning and about two in the afternoon. The services consisted of prayer, singing, reading and expounding the Scrip- tures, for it was generally considered improper to read them without exposition-" dumb reading," they called it. There was also a sermon by the pastor or teacher. As they accounted a man a minister only to his own congregation, when one was in the pulpit of another clergyman it was common for the ruling elders of the place to give him authority to speak in some such form as this : " If this present brother hath any word of exhortation for the people at this time, in the name of God let him say on." To "say on " was to "prophesy." An hour was regarded the proper length for a sermon, although upon occasions the preacher might "take another glass." The ser- mon was usually preached without a manuscript in the early days. The prayer was, of course, extempo- raneous. Children were baptized in the meeting- house, generally on the next Sabbath after their birth. The pastor or teacher stood in the deacons' seats, as that was an " eminent place," and, with an address to the church and the parents and two prayers, adminis- tered the ordinance. "No sureties were required." The Lord's Supper was administered once in each month at the morning service. The form was very much like that which now prevails in Congregational Churches. Persons were received to membership in the church in public, but with more of examination and profession than is common now. There is now in the library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society a small manuscript volume in Mr. Shepard's writing, entitled, "The Confessions of Diverse Pro- pounded to be Received and were Entertained as Members." There are fifty confessions, some of them very brief and some quite extended. Cases of disci- pline were more openly dealt with than is common now. This was in accordance with the spirit of the

times. Every Sabbath afternoon there was a contri- bution. Que of the deacons stood up in his place and said, " Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for contribution ; wherefore as God hath prospered you, so freely offer." " On some extraordi- nary occasions," says an old writer, " as building and repairing of churches or meeting-houses or other necessities, the ministers press a liberal contribution, with effectual exhiortation out of Scripture." Then the people passed up to the deacons' seat with their offerings. "The magistrates and chief gentlemen went first, then the elders, then all the congregation of men and most of them that are not of the church, all single persons, widows, and women in absence of their husbands." Money and papers were dropped into a box. If the offering were "any other chattel," it was set down before the deacons. The writer first quoted says, " I have seen a fair gilt cup, with a cover, offered them by one, which is still used at the Com- munion." It was customary for visitors in the con- gregation to make an offering, which was called "the strangers' money," and was often stipulated for by the clergyman as a perquisite of his office. At first the minister's salary was paid from the voluntary contribution made on the Sabbath, but this soon gave way to the system of taxation. In 1657 there is a vote in the town records, appointing the deacons or other townsmen " to make a levy of two hundred and forty pounds for the maintenance this year and full payment of the debts of our reverend pastor." In 1665 the selectmen " ordered that all persons that do contribute to the ministry of this place do, upon the first second day of May next, appear before the dea- cons and selectmen, to clear the payment of their dues for time past, or send in writing a receipt thereof under the hand of our pastor or deacons, and that for the future every one do annually attend the order at the same time; the place of meeting to be at the meeting-house, and the time by eight of the clock in the morning." In the list of salaries given to different ministers during the first twenty years of the Massachusetts Colony, Mr. Shepard's sal- ary is stated at seventy pounds. This was among the largest salaries of the time. Two are given at ninety pounds, and they decrease gradually to thirty pounds.

At almost every point we can see where the fathers were swinging away from the customs of the church with which they had formerly been connected. Thus, marriage was not a sacrament, but a civil contract, entered into by the parties before a magistrate. This marrying by a magistrate was for the Pilgrims " ac- cording to the laudable example of the Low Coun- tries in which they had lived." To perform this ceremony was nowhere found in the New Testament to be laid on the ministers as a part of their office. Winthrop mentions a great marriage to be solemnized in Boston, when the bridegroom invited his minister to preach on the occasion. "The magistrates sent to him to forbear. We were not willing to bring in the

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

custom of ministers performing the solemnity of mar- riage, which sermons at such times might induce ; but if any minister were present, and would bestow a word of exhortation, etc., it was permitted."

In a similar way funerals were stripped of the cere- monies which had attended them abroad. The dead were no longer buried with imposing rites beneath the floor of the church or in consecrated ground, but were laid in some convenient enclosure without even a prayer. Lechford, writing in 1641, says : “ At bur- ials nothing is read, nor any funeral sermon made, but all the neighborhood, or a good company of them, come together by tolling of the bell, and carry the dead solemnly to his grave, and then stand by him while he is buried. The ministers are most com- monly present." No burial was allowed on the Sab- bath, except by leave obtained from a justice. It was long the custom at the burial of a woman for the wo- men to walk first in the procession ; the men when the funeral was that of a man. Funerals were some- what expensive, although not in the same way as at present. This was especially the case when a person of note had died. Wine, cider, gloves were provided. In one case, at Ipswich, at the funeral of a minister, in 1768, the bearers were furnished with gold rings, one of which was given to "a candidate who was preaching for them," and the attending ministers re- ceived eighteen pairs of white leather gloves. At length an act was passed to retrench extraordinary expenses at funerals.

They kept none of the former holy days except the Lord's Day, associating the observance of the other days with superstition and oppression. But they in- stituted days of public fasting and thanksgiving. In addition to the Sabbath services there was a weekly lecture. They gave great heed to the training of the young in religion and good learning. Cambridge was early divided into districts, which were assigned to certain persons who were to see to the catechizing and educating of the youth. In "New England's First Fruits," published in London in 1643, we read: "And by the side of the Colledge a faire Grammar School, for the training up of young schollars, and fit- ting of them for Academical Learning, that still as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the Colledge; of this schoole Master Corlet is the Mr., who has very well approved himselfe for his abilities, dexterity and painfulnesse in teaching and education of the youth under him." Mr. Corlet taught for nearly fifty years and acquired a high reputation. Cotton Mather speaks of him as "that memorable old schoolmaster in Cambridge, from whose education our colledge and country have received so many of its worthy men, that he is himself worthy to have his name celebrated."

""Tis Corlet's pains, and Cheever's, we must own,

That thou, New England, are not Scythia grown."

In 1648 is an order that a part of the Common shall

be sold "for the gratifying of Mr. Corlet for his pains in keeping a school in the town." In 1644 the Gene- ral Court granted, on the petition of Cambridge and Charlestown, one thousand acres of land to be for- ever appropriated to a grammar school, and also made a grant of two hundred acres to Mr. Corlet. In 1662 his scholars were so few that the town made him an allowance of ten pounds. The town afterwards voted him an annual grant of twenty pounds.

The instruction in the family and school was sim- ple compared with that which is now given. There were no spelling-books, no English grammars-little of what is now considered essential. Children learned to read from the Bible, taking in moral and religious instruction with the letters and words. An out-of- door life gave the youth object-lessons and teaching in practical mechanics.

Printing in this part of America began here. The first printer was Stephen Day, who brought out "The Freeman's Oath," in 1639. An Almanac by William Pierce, Mariner, came in the same year, and the next year a Psalm-book. The singing in the churches was without instrumental accompaniment. This was thought to be forbidden by the words of Amos, "I will not hear the melody of thy viols." It was compared to the idolatrous performance which Nebuchadnezzar delighted in-"the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer, and all kinds of mu- sic." Through the first century there were not more than ten different tunes, it is said, and few congrega- tions conld sing more. than five. In the singing it was customary for the ruling elder, or deacon, or some other proper person, to read the hymn line by line and give out the tune. The amount read at each time was increased in some cases, and finally the whole hymn was read at once by the minister. The version of the Psalms in use here was probably that made by Sternhold and Hopkins, which was printed at the end of the Bible. This was not satisfactory, and a number of prominent divines were appointed to make a new version. Thomas Shepard gave the com- mittee instruction in a stanza which makes us recon- ciled to the omission of his name,-

"You Roxb'ry poets, keep clear of the crime Of missing to give us very good rhyme -- And you of Dorchester, your verses lengthen, But with the text's own words you will them strengthen."

The book came ont in 1640, and was well received. It was revised by Mr. Dunster and received the addi- tion of "Spiritual Songs." It passed through seventy editions, and was used extensively in Great Britain, especially in Scotland. It was in use in some Ameri- can churches till after the Revolution. It was entitled "The Bay Psalm Book," and afterwards "The New England Version of the Psalms." One verse from the Twenty-third Psalm will give some idea of the character of the work :-

"The Lord to mee a Shepheurd is,

Want therefore shall not 1.

CAMBRIDGE.

Hee in the felds of tender-grasso, Deth cause mee downe to lie :

. To waters calme He gently leads, Restores my sonle doth Hee : He doth in paths of righteousnes For His name'e sake lead mee."

It has seemed well to glance at the customs of the fathers, that we may see something of the life which was once going on here. Many of their usages seem strange to us, but if we had been born into them they would have suited us as well as they did others. The men and their ways must be estimated with reference to their time and place and work. It should be kept in mind that the ruling spirits here were men, gentlemen, scholars. Newtown had her share of the choice wheat which came from the sifting of a nation. These men knew literature. Shakespeare died in 1616, and possibly some of these men knew him. Bacon died in 1626. Milton was born in 1608. Our fathers stood close to them. Sir Henry Vane was chosen Governor of Massachusetts in March of the same year in which the present First Church in Cam- bridge was organized.

" Vane, yonng in years but in sage connsel old, Than whom a better Senator ne'er held The helm of Rome -- * * * * On thy firm hand Religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son."

It was a goodly company which was here, in an open country. Liberty, intelligence, piety were re- vered and enjoyed. We are reclaiming some of their methods, for their principles were excellent even when their administration was at fault. There was life here. The woods and streams offered recreation to the boys when their tasks were done. The girls had quiet enjoyment in their homes. Morality was abroad. "One may live there from year to year, and not see a drunkard, hear an oath, or meet a beggar." In this practical age it should stand for much, that in their great endeavor they were successful.

But it is time that we resumed the history of events connected with the church. The early annals are not complete, but we have enough to enable us to trace the course of events from the beginning. There are no full records of the church before 1696. But there is a church book, which was opened in 1637 or 1638, in which are matters of interest, although the book was largely devoted to financial matters. Shepard's autobiography reveals some things which were per- sonal to him, but also of interest to the church. The records of the town are closely related to the history of the church. There are biographies and histories which treat of men and events with which the church here was intimately connected. There is material for a much fuller history than can be given in these pages. The reader who desires more will find much satisfac- tion in the " History of Cambridge," by Rev. Lucius R. Paige, D.D. To his work any one must make con- stant reference who attempts to write of Cambridge. A book of "Lectures on the History of the First

Church in Cambridge" was published in 1873, and some portions of the lectures are reproduced here. The list of freemen in the Colony is of great service in determining who were members of the church, so long as only church members could be full citizens. Mr. Mitchel prepared an interesting catalogue, which he entitled "The Church of Christ at Cambridge, in N. E .; or, the Names of all the members thereof that are in Full Communion; together with their children who were either baptized in this Church, or (coming from other churches) were in their minority at their present joyning; taken and registered in the 11 month, 1658." The catalogue was continued through Mitchel's ministry. Beginning with 1696, we have a full list of members. There are two subordinate lists, which also begin in 1696,-" Persons who owned the Covenant and were baptized;" "Persons who owned the Covenant in order to their children being baptized." Of the meaning of these titles there will be occasion to speak hereafter.

As a part of the ecclesiastical history of Cam- bridge, should be reckoned the founding of Harvard College. In 1636, the same year in which the present First Church in Cambridge was organized, in the autumn of the year, the General Court made an ap- propriation "equal to a year's rate of the whole colony," for the establishment of a college. "The Court agree to give Four Hundred Pounds towards a School or College, whereof Two Hundred Pounds shall be paid the next year, and Two Hundred Pounds when the work is finished, and the next Court to ap- point where and what building." In 1637 the Gen- eral Court appointed twelve prominent men "to take order for a College at Newtown." The name of the town was soon afterward changed to Cambridge, be- cause so many who were interested in the new college had been educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1638 John Harvard, a non-conforming clergyman, a minister at Charlestown, bequeathed half his prop- erty and his library, of some three hundred volumes, to the new college, upon which his name was placed. "The value of this bequest was more than double the entire sum originally voted by the Court." In that year the first college class was formed. On the new college gate is the inscription which relates the pur- pose of the men who thus established the institution, as it was written in 1642: " After God had carried us safe to New England, and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared con- venient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpet- uate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the Churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." Thomas Shepard was one of the twelve men to whom the establishment of the college was intrusted. The reasons given for erecting the college here were that this was "a place very pleasant and accommodate," and "under the ortho-

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

dox and soul-flourishing ministry of Mr. Thomas Shepheard." It has been said that that Massachu- setts Assembly was "the first body in which the peo- ple, by their representatives, ever gave their own money to found a place of education." Thus upon the shore of the unplanted sea, three thousand miles from, the schools in which they had been nurtured, on the borders of an untraversed wilderness, among perils and privations, in the greatness of their hearts these exiles, builders, prophets, founded their school of learning and religion, They gave it a worthy name. Of John Harvard, Thomas Shepard wrote, "This man was a scholar and pious in his life, and enlarged toward the country and the good of it in life and death." This was a college of the people. John Harvard was the son of a prosperous butcher. His mother was the daughter of a Stratford alderman. She was three times married, and there came into the hands of her eldest son money from the butcher, cooper and grocer, and money from his brother, a cloth-worker. It was a college for the people, and devoted to their advantage. Its method and spirit were to make men, that a nation might be made. The influence of the Colonial clergy was naturally pro- nounced in the college, as it was in the community. In 1642 the Board of Overseers was established, and the teaching elders of Cambridge, Watertown, Charles- town, Boston, Roxbury and Dorchester were made members of it. The ministers gave as they were able, and the people aided their generous design. The list of donations is as pathetic as it is creditable. 'Out of the homes came the benefactions,-a great silver salt and a small trencher salt, a silver tankard and a pew- ter flagon, a silver goblet and a silver bowl, a fruit- dish and a sugar-spoon, thirty ewe sheep and nine shillings' worth of cotton cloth. Friends abroad sent their gifts and blessing to a cause which they held in honor.

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 26

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