History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 115

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

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The next year, (May 27, 1652) "The messengers of the churches of Charlestown, Cambridge, Lynn and Reading make these returns to the Court." They report some confessiou from Mr. Mathews, but are not fully satisfied. In view of this result of council, the Court," having perused Mr. Mathews' confession," " and finding it not to be such and so full as might be expected, yet are willing so to accept it at present as to pass it by," but refuse to remit the fines imposed upon Mr. Mathews and the church, "the country be- ing put to so great trouble, charges and expenses in hearing of the cause." But at the autumnal session (October 26, 1652), the Court, in response to petitions, remitted Mr. Mathews' fine, and ten pounds of that imposed upon the church. On May 29, 1655, in answer to the petition of Joseph Hills and seven other members of the church, in which they humbly acknowledge their offence, and crave a remitment of over thirteen pounds of the fine yet un- paid, the Court accepts the humble acknowledgments but refuse to remit the fine. Finally, on the 3Ist of May, 1660, it was ordered that the whole matter of the fine imposed upon the church should be submitted to the Connty Court of Middlesex for examination and adjustment. "In 1662 the Court abated ten pounds of the fine of Edward Carrington." It cost the colonial government something to collect that fine from the Malden church. It is doubtful whether the whole of it was ever paid. But at a later date the General Court gave to Joseph Hills a considerable tract of land in recognition of his valuable public services.

Mr. Mathews appears to have left Malden of his own will, probably in 1652. lle preached for a short time in Lynu, but in two or three years returned to

Eliz. Carrington. Bridget Squire. Mary Wayte.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

his native town, Swansea, in Southern Wales, where he was known and beloved. He became at once vicar of St. John's Church in that town, where he labored with zeal and success, until the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662. This was too much for him to bear. In the interest of religious freedom he refused to submit, and was one of the two thousand Puritan ministers who were driven from their churches and silenced. Dr. Calamy says of him : " Jle left a good living when he had nothing else to subsist upon. He afterwards preached by connivance of the magistrates in a little chapel at the end of the town. He was a very pious and zealous man, who went about to instruct people from house to house. All his discourse, in a manner, was about spiritual matters. lle made no visits but such as were religious and ministerial, and received none but in a religious manner. . . . He lived above the world, and depended wholly upon Providence for the support of himself and his family. . . . He lived to a good old age, and continued useful to the last. He died abont 1683."1

After Mr. Mathews' departure from Malden, Mr. Nathaniel Upham preached for a time as stated sup- ply. He was the son of John aud Elizabeth Upham. His father has already been referred to as one of the original members of the church, and one of its deacons for twenty years. Nathaniel was born in England, and was bnt three years old when the family arrived in this country. He was admitted as free. mason in 1653, and was then probably not far from twenty-one years of age. He married, on the 5th of March, 1661, in Cambridge, Miss Elizabeth Steadman, and on the 20th of the same month he died. Dr. MeClure thinks that " he was undoubtedly one ofthe students from the college mentioned by Johnson, as assisting to supply the pulpit before the coming of Mr. Mathews." If so, he took only a partial college course, for his name is not in the catalogue of the graduates of Harvard.

REV. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH AND HIS COL- LEAGUES .- This distinguished divine, the second min- ister settled in Malden, was born October 18, 1631, probably in some part of Yorkshire, England. His father's name was Edward. The son, in his brief autobiography, says :

" I wns boru of Godly Parents, that feared the Lord greatly, even frum their youth, but in un ungodly place, . . . that was consumed with fre in a great part of it, after Gud had brought them out of it. These gally parents of mine meeting with opposition and persecution for religion, In cause they went from their own Parish Church to hear the word und re vive the Lord's Supper, etc., took up resolutions to pluck- up their stakes and rem we themselves to New England, and accord Ist ly they del mar, leaving dear relations, friendsand acquaintances, their native land, a new fullt homme, a flourishing trade, to expose themselves to the linzzard of the seu, and to the distressing difficulties of a howl- ing wilderness, that they ninght enjoy Liberty of Conscience and Christ In bis adiunnees, And the Lord brought them hither, and landed them nt Charlestown, after many difficulties nud hazzards, and me along with them, being a child newstull seven years oldl." The family arrived

1 " Non Conformist's Memorial, " vol. il. pp. 6_7, 628.

" probably in the latter part of Angust, 1638." (Memoir of Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, by Jobn Ward Dean, pp. 14, 136.)

In October they went to New Haven, and for a time were in straitened circumstances, as they " dwelt in a cellar, partly underground, covered with earth, the first winter." The next summer the father, am- bitious to give his only son a good education, placed him under the instruction of the celebrated Ezekiel Cheever, then a young man, afterwards a teacher in Ipswich, Charlestown and Boston. The boy's educa- tion was soon interrupted by the lameness and ill- health of his father. But in his fourteenth year, as he was judged " not fit for husbandry," he was again sent to school, and "in two years and three-quar- ters " was deemed fitted for Harvard College; "and thither," he says, " I was sent far from my parents and acquaintance." He speaks pathetically of the sacrifices his father made in securing the education of his son, and tells the story of his own conversion :

" It was an act of grent self-denial in my father, that, notwithstanding his own lameness and great weakness of body, which required the ser- vice and helpfulness of a evo, and baving bnt one son, to be the staff and supporter of his weakness, he would yet, for my good, be content to (leny himself of that comfort and assistance I might have lent him." " When I first came to the College I had, indeed, enjoyed the benefit of religions and strict education, and God in his mercy and pity kept me from scandalons sins before I came thither and after ) came there ; but alas! I had a naughty, vile heart, and was acted by corrupt nature, and therefore conld proponnd no right and noble ends to myself, but acted from self and for self. I was, indeed, studious, and strove to outdo my compeers, but it was for honor and applause and preferment and such poor beggarly ends. Thus I had my ends, and God had his ends far dif- fering from mine, . But when I had been there about three years and a half, God, in his love and pity to my soul, wrought a great change in me, both in heart and life, and from that time forward I learned to study with God and for God. And whereas before that I had thoughts of applying myself to the study and practice of physick, J wholly laid aside those thoughts and did choose to serve Christ in the work of the ministry, if he would please to fit me for it, and to ac- cept my service in that great work. "

He was graduated in 1651. Mr. Dean informed us that, " In the college catalogue, the name of Michael Wigglesworth stands at the head of his class ;" that "he was chosen fellow of the college not long after he was graduated, and was one of the earliest members of the corporation, chosen by the body itself; " and that, "he was a tutor as early as July, 1652." Later in his life he was considered a candidate for the pres- idency of the college, and probably was elected to that othice, but declined to accept the position." (See Mr. Dean's " Memoir of Michael Wigglesworth," pp. 88-89.)

Having prepared himself for the Christian minis- try while serving the college as a tutor, he received a call to become the minister of the church in Mal- den. The exact date of the ordination is not known. Dr. MeClure says :

" When ahout twenty-two years of age he was invited to preach in Malden. It was some five months before he concluded to accept the in- vitation. He applied the pulpit a year and a half, being much troubled to decide what his duty might lw, before he was inducted into the pas- loral office. This was in or about the year 1654."

Mr. Dean, in his " Memoir of Mr. Wigglesworth," says: " I presume that his ordination did not take

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place till after Aug. 25, 1656," as that Was the date of his dismission from the church in Cambridge and recommendation to the church in Malden.

Mr. Wigglesworth was a young man of deep piety, and sincerely devoted to the service of Christ. Cotton Mather, speaking of him as a tutor in the college, says :

" With a rare faithfulness did he adoro the Station. He used all the means imaginable to make his Pupils not only good Scholars, but also good Christians, and to instil into them those things which might render them rich Blessings unto the Churches of God. . . . He employed his Prayers aod Tears to God for them ; and had such a flaming zeal to make them worthy men, that, upon Reflection, he was afraid, lest his cares for their Good, and his affection for them, should so drink up his very Spirit as to steal away his heart from God." (Funeral sermon.)

It was a young man of such piety, and of such evangelistic fervor, as well as of rare scholarship, who came to Malden to be its second minister. He was ordained as Teacher. His predecessor, Mr. Math- ews, was ordained as Pastor. This distinction, then familiar to the churches, was not so much a dis- tinction of offices as a division of ministerial labors. According to the Cambridge Platform : "The pastor's special work is, to attend to exhortation, and therein to administer a word of wisdom; the teacher is to at- tend to doctrine, and therein to administer a word of knowledge." Either might administer the sacra- ments. The pastor was to have the watch and care of the church ; the teacher was to instruct the people in the doctrines of Christianity. The distinction im- plies that there were to be, if possible, two ministers in every church. Few young churches were able to support two ministers. But Mr. Dean suggests that, " Perhaps Mr. Wigglesworth may have thought him- self not well fitted for the active duties of parochial life, and may have chosen the office of teacher, to in- dicate the service he was best able to render to his parish."

The ardent piety and the passion for the conversion and salvation of souls, which he carried into his min- isterial labors, are disclosed in a few extracts from his private Sabbath memoranda, first published by Dr. McClure :

" March 21, 1658. Oh, how vehemently do I desire to serve God, and not myself, in the conversion of souls this day! My soul longe after thy house and work, O God?",

"January 9, 1659. My soul panteth after thee, O God ! After more of thy favors, more of thine image. O satisfy me with the fatness of thy house, make me to drink of the rivers of thy joys, so that for the outward pressures I may have inward supportings and consolations. I long to serve thee, () Christ ! help thou me !"

" February 6. My soul, be cheerful in thy work ; thou servest a good Muster."

"June 5. Now, in the strength of Christ, I desire to seek him aod the advancement of God's glory, in the salvation of souls this day. Oh, that I might see the fruit of my lahors before I dis I O my soul i per- form this us thy last."

them. He thought of resigning his office, but his people seem to have been unwilling that he should do so, though he soon ceased to receive a salary. During the time of this enforeed relinquishment of his pulpit (a period of at least twenty-one years) three ministers in succession were called to be his colleagues, and each was ordained as pustor of the church.

The first of these was Rev. Benjamin Bunker. He was born in Charlestown in 1635, and was the son of George and Judith Bunker. His father owned some of the high land in that town, and Bunker Hill received its name from him. The son was graduated at Ilarvard in 1658, and was ordained pastor of the church in Malden December 9, 1663, when he was twenty-eight years old. He died in his pastorate, February 2, 1669-70. The fact that " Mr. Wiggles- worth wrote his elegy, in which he gives him a high character for sincerity, modesty and devotion to his calling," indicates that the relations between them were fraterual and helpful.

The second colleague was Rev. Benjamin Black- man, son of Rev. Adam Blackman, first minister of Stratford, Ct. Sprague's Annals, (article on Wiggles- worth) inform us that he " was ordained in Malden in 1674, and resigned his charge in 1678." Mr. Dean re- marks : " Rev. Mr. Blackman was ordained as pastor." The town records simply state that he " supplied the desk four years, and left in the year 1678." His de- parture appears to have occurred " in consequence of some discontent." In 1679 "a committee settled with Mr. Blackman ; " but " nine years afterwards, in May 1688, he sued the town for arrears still due." (Dr. McClure.) He went from Malden to Scarboro', Me., where he seems to have been respected as a preacher and a citizen. He was the representative of that town in 1683. It is believed that he died in Boston.

Rev. Thomas Cheever, son of the celebrated school- master, Ezekiel Cheever, was the fifth minister in Malden, and the third colleague of Mr. Wigglesworth. He was born August 3, 1658, graduated at Harvard in 1677, came to Malden in his twenty-second year, "began to preach there on the 14th of February, 1679-80, but was not ordained till the 27th of July, 1681. His connection with this parish lasted about six years, including the time he acted as stated supply." (Mr. Dean, in Memoir of Mr. Wigglesworth.) In 1686 some difficulty arose between him and his people, on account of certain offensive words uttered by him. What the words were is not now known, but " they are supposed to have been of a theological nature." (Mr. Corey.) The trouble was so serious that an ecclesiastial council was called, " which met in Mal- den, April 7, 1686, and adjourned to Boston, where meetings were held May 20th and 27th, and June 10th." The council, while notapproving of the offensive words, yet advised the church to grant MIr.

Mr. Wigglesworth's physical constitution was never robust. He suffered repeatedly from attacks of severe sickness. Not many years after his settlement he was found to be afflicted with some occult disease, which seriously interrupted his public ministerial labors, and at length occasioned the entire suspension of Cheever "a loving dismission." (Mr. Dean, Memoir

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of Mr. Wigglesworth, pp. 90, 91.) After his dismis- sal he "lived in retirement nearly thirty years," but "on October 19, 1715, he was settled as pastor of the First Church in Chelsea, where he officiated over thirty-four years, and where he died, December 27, 1749, at the advanced age of ninety-one." (Mr. Dean.) The fact, that while settled at Chelsea he preached in Mallen two sermons, which were printed, indicates, that pleasant relations had been restored between him and the Malden Church.

At the time Mr. Bunker was ordained, Mr. Wig- glesworth was in the West Indies. He had sailed for Bermuda, September 23, 1663, mainly for the benefit of his health, but also, as he himself says, " to help the people's modesty," in putting in his place "a better watchman " and "a more painful laborour." He re- mained in Bermuda seven months and a half, and then returned home, none the better for the stormy voyage and warm climate, and consequently much discourag- ed. But the affectionate manner in which the people received him upon his return, greatly cheered his heart.

Although for many years after this he was not able to preach, he was yet not inactive. He was faithful in conversing with his people, as he had opportunity, upon the subject of personal religion ; and these con- versations were effectual in the conversion of many, and in the instruction and comfort of Christians. He also employed his pen, and became the most cele- brated poet in New England in that early time. His purpose, however, was not to obtain fame, but to serve Christ, even when disabled by sickness, in the proclamation of His gospel. The first poem he pub- lished was "The Day of Doom." As many as ten editions have been issued. The date of the last is 1867. The first edition (1692) of eighteen hundred copies was sold within a year, which (as Mr. Dean thinks), considering the small population of the country at that time, "indicates a popularity almost, if not quite, equal to that of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' in our time."'

For a century and a half at least, it was highly es- teemed by the Christian people of New England for the religious instruction and inspiration it imparted. Judged as poetry, the work has no great merit. Some of its lines are uncouth and rough. The author was evidently more anxious about the religious teaching than about the smoothness of his verse. Ile accepted the extreme views held by some theologians of his day, respecting the future state of the non-cleet who die in infancy, and expressed this view in a few lines in his long poem. Because of these few lines, some in modern times have expressed their abhorrence of the whole poem and of its author, believing the latter to have been a man of hard and cruel, if not fiendish, temper. Yet in truth he was possessed of a most sweet and gentle spirit, his life was full of kind words and deeds, and was devoted to the good of others. Of this work it has been said :

" It breathes throughout a strain of piety. . . . True, there are some things in this composition which do not perfectly suit the moderate re- ligion of the present day ; yet, whether this be owing to the improve- ment or degeneracy of our virtue I leave to be anewered by the lives and consciences of my brethren." (Mr. Dean's "Memoirs," p. 69).

Another published poem was entitled, " Meat out of the Eater." This too, received the public favor.

Mr. Wigglesworth also, during the interruption of his public ministry, devoted himself to the study, and soon after to the practice of medicine. He seemed to have become a skillful physician, for his medical ser- vices were in demand by the people, not only of Malden, hut also of the towns beyond. By his kind offices to the sick, and his tender sympathy for the suffering, he appears to have endeared himself to many. Some, however, may still regard him as a hard, unsympathetic man, and never forgive him for a few lines of his poetry. But the Rev. Andrew P. Pea- body, D. D., a distinguished Unitarian, who is an op- ponent of many of Mr. Wigglesworth's beliefs, is yet quoted by Mr. Dean as saying of the Poet Preacher of Malden :

" He was, it is believed, notwithetanding his repulsive creed, 'a msn of the heatitudes,' a physician to the bodies no less than to the souls of his parishioners, genial and devotedly kind in the relations and duties of his social and professional life, aud distinguished-even in those days of abounding sanctity-for the singleness and purity of heart that char- acterized his whole walk and conversation." (" Memoir of Mr. Wig- glesworth," pp. 124, 125.)

During the terrible witchcraft delusion of 1692, Mr. Wigglesworth appears to have taken no active part on either side. But in the last year of his life, in a letter to Dr. Increase Mather, he interpreted the suf- ferings of the people at that day, from drought and war, as " a judgment of God for the innocent blood shed in those melancholy times."

His restoration to health was sudden and unex- pected.

Ahont the year 1686,-" It pleased God," saye Dr. Cotton Mather, " wondrously to restore his faithful servant. lle that had been tor near twenty years almost buried alive comes abroad again, and for ae many years more most, ID a public usefulness, receive the answer and harvest of the thousands of applications with which the God of bis health had heen addressed by him and for him." (Funeral Sermon.)

During these last twenty years of his life he was the only minister in Malden, and his faithful minis- trations appear to have been abundant and, with the exception of one time of sickness, continuous.

" It was a surprise to us," remarks Dr. Mather, "to see a little, feeble shadow of a man, beyond seventy, preaching usually twice or thrice in a week-visiting and comforting the afflicted, encouraging the private meetings, catechising the children of the flock, managing the government of the church and attending the sick, not only as a pastor, but as a physician too, and this not only in his own town, but also in all those of the vicinity. Thus he did unto the last, and he was only one Lord'e duy taken off before bis last."

Attacked by a fever, after a sickness of ten days he entered into rest. His death occurred at nine o'clock on Sabbath morning, June 10, 1705. He was nearly seventy- four years old. As already intimated, the famous Dr. Cotton Mather, of Boston, preached the funeral sermon. Mr. Wigglesworth had been in

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Malden, the Lord's " faithful one for about a jubilee of years together." His frail form was laid away amidst the graves of many of his parishioners, "and his sepulchre is with ns unto this day."

Not far from the time when Mr. Wigglesworth received his call to become the minister of Malden, or in 1654, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Reyner, of Rowley. After some five years of happy married life, she died Dec. 21, 1659, leaving one child, Mercy, hardly four years of age. The bereaved hus- band's grief was sincere and deep. He lived a widower about twenty years, or until 1679, when he married Miss Martha Mudge, probably the daughter of Thomas Mudge, of Malden. She was then about eighteen years of age, and six years younger than his only daughter. This great disparity in age occa- sioned much opposition to the marriage. His kin- dred disapproved of it. His people frowned upon it. His brethren in the ministry remonstrated. His intimate friend, Dr. Increase Mather, addressed to him a letter of expostulation, in which he said, among other things : " The like never was in New England. Nay, I question whether the like hath been known in the Christian world." His letter in reply to Dr. Mather, though not preserved, doubtless contained a full and frank explanation. It was shown to several other ministers; and while they were not satisfied, they seem to have made no further opposition. It is believed that he never regretted the marriage, for after her death he spoke of her with great affection and gratitude. One son and five daughters were born to them. She died Sept. 4, 1690, after a mar- ried life of about eleven years, aged twenty-eight.

His last wife was Mrs. Sybil Avery, widow of Dr. Jonathan Avery, a physician of Dedham, Massachu- setts. She was a daughter of Nathaniel Sparhawk, of Cambridge. The exact date of their marriage is not known, but the year was probably 1691. "She was born about the year 1655, and consequently was about seven years older than his previous wife, though more than twenty years younger than he. She be- longed to a family of some distinction in the colony." "She survived her husband a little over three years," and "died August 6, 1708, in the 54th year of her age, leaving one child, Edward." (Dean's " Memoir," pp. 105, 121.) This youngest son, Edward Wigglesworth, D.D., was the first Professor of Divin- ity at Harvard College on the Hollis foundation, and held the office for forty-three years. His immediate successor was his own son, Edward Wigglesworth, Jr. D.D., who continued in office twenty-six years. His immediate successor on the Hollis foundation was the Rev. David Tappan, the grandson of Abigail, the first daughter of the Malden preacher by his second wife. This daughter was married to Samuel Tappan, of Newbury. Dr. McClure properly speaks of it as "a very remarkable circumstance," that the first three Hollis professors " who held the chair for eighty suc- cessive years, with high reputation, should have been

respectively, the son, grandson and great-grandson of that good man." Michael Wigglesworth. (" Bi-Cen- tennial Book," pp. 155-156.)

REV. DAVID PARSONS, THE SIXTH MINISTER IN MALDEN .- The church now proceeded to the difficult task of finding a minister who could fill the large vacancy made in the town of Malden by the lamented death of Mr. Wigglesworth. But soon a sad division appeared in the church, and a still more serious con- flict began between the church and the town-the lat- ter at that time standing, in its relation to the church, as a parish. Within two years five ministers in suc- cession were approved by the church and nominated to the town. In four of these cases the town con- curred with the church, but usually with divided vote. All these calls were declined, probably on account of the contentions and the small salary offered by the town. The civil authorities then inter- fered. The following summary account of this inter- ference in given by Dr. McClure :

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 115

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278