History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902, Part 29

Author: Currier, John J. (John James), 1834-1912. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Boston : Damrell & Upham
Number of Pages: 1518


USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902 > Part 29


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Determined not to submit to these disorderly proceedings, a number of persons residing in the immediate vicinity of the plains made preparations to replace the building that had been destroyed. A severe and bitter contest followed, which led to the erection of Queen Anne's Chapel in the spring of 1712.1


The meeting-house at Pipe Stave hill was probably com- pleted before December 7, 1711, when the parish voted to raise the sum of one hundred pounds " for defraying part of the charg of building ye meeting house now standing upon pipestave hill," and March 5, 1712-3, " voted to give thirty- five shillings a year to Isaac Baily, or any other man, to take care of ye meeting house and keep the key and sweep ye meeting house well & keep it cleane." #


Rev. Mr. Belcher was at this time quite old and infirm. He was unable to attend to his duties as pastor, although he remained in charge of the parish until November, 1713, when he removed to Ipswich, his native place, where he died March 10, 1714, aged seventy-four.


January 15, 1713-14 voted to give Rev. John Tufts seventy pounds a year so long as Mr Samuel Belcher lives, and the use of the whole par- sonage, and after the decease of Mr Belcher eighty pounds a year,


* "Ould Newbury," pp. 369, 370. t Ibid., pp. 368-386.


# Newbury (Second Parish) Records, p. 38.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


provided the said Mr Tufts accepts the call to the ministry in the parish and preacheth a monthly lecture .*


On the thirtieth day of June, 1714, Rev. Mr. Tufts was ordained pastor of the church; and a few months later he published a small book on church music containing twenty- eight psalm tunes, with instructions for singing by note or rule. This work, probably the first publication of the kind in New England, was by many members of the church con- sidered a daring innovation ; but it ultimately led to the intro- duction of a greater variety of tunes and more skilful and harmonious rendering of them.


March 8, 1714-5, the parish voted to build a new barn near the parsonage house, to take the place of the old barn standing there, and also "voted not to make use of any of the old timber for ye sd Barn but such as is sound and good." } The same day a committee was appointed to attend to the seating of the meeting-house, and to make such alterations in the pews and benches as might be necessary in order to ac- commodate all the parishioners.#


March 26, 1722-3, Abel Morss, Daniel Morss, John Worth, Edmund Greenleaf, Sergt. Thomas Hale, and Ensign Benjamin Smith were chosen " to look after the boys on Sab- bath dayes and to give notice of their misdemenours to their masters or parents . . and the constable and Tythingmen are desired to take their turns to look after ye boyes between meetings." §


In 1709, a stone wall was built about the burying-ground at Sawyer's hill ; || and March 17, 1723-4, the parish voted to give Deacon William Morss seven pounds and ten shillings for half an acre of land "for a burying place at the north end of his land adjoyning upon ye highway leading to Swetts ferry." [ At the same meeting it was voted "to buy one quarter of an acre of Ezekel Hales land for a burying place at the rate of fifteen pounds per acre unless the neighbours can find and procure a more convenient place for the above said use." **


· Newbury (Second Parish Church) Records, p. 41. + Ibid., p. 45. # [ bid., p. 47. § Ibid., p 53.


Il " Ould Newbury," p. 367. T Ibid., p. 59. ** Newbury (Second Parish) Records, p. 90.


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CHURCHES AND PASTORS


In 1729, a petition for liberty to divide the parish and organize a new church was presented to the General Court. After some delay this petition was granted. June I, 1731, the dividing line was established; and a few months later the inhabitants on the upper or westerly side of that line organized the Fourth church in Newbury, now the Second in West Newbury.


In 1737, Rev. Mr. Tufts was accused of immorality and unchristian behavior by some of the women of his parish ; and on the twenty-sixth day of February, 1737-8, a council, consisting of ten ministers and twenty delegates, was called to consider "the distressed state and condition of ye second church of Christ in Newbury." Mr. Tufts vehemently opposed the investigation, and declined to co-operate with the council or question the witnesses called upon to testify against him. On the second day of March, "in consequence of the unhappy differences prevailing in the parish," he asked to be released from his duties as pastor. The church voted to grant his request ; and the council, with only one dissenting voice, consented to the separation, "hoping thereby to restore harmony to the church."


November 27, 1738, the parish voted to unite with the church in calling Rev. Thomas Barnard to be their minister ; and on the thirty-first day of January, 1738-9, he was or- dained pastor.


June 8, 1742 voted to take down ye Turret that is on the top of ye meeting house, and also voted to build a Convenient Place on the Beams under the Roof in ye norwest corner in ye meeting house to hold our proportion of the ammunition that shall be divided to us by the Town .*


From 1743 to 1747 many members of the church habitu- ally absented themselves from public worship and from com- munion. Frequent efforts were made to induce these disaf- fected brethren to forsake the error of their ways, resume their accustomed seats on Sunday, and receive again the holy sacrament, but without success. Disheartened and discour-


* Newbury (Second Parish) Records, p. 86.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


aged by the troubles and dissensions that disturbed the church, Rev. Mr. Barnard resigned his office as pastor March 6, 1749-50; but his resignation was not accepted until January 18, 1750-I.


Meanwhile, Rev. Moses Hale, of Rowley, had been invited to supply the pulpit with a view to his settlement in the parish ; and on the twentieth day of February, 1750-1, he was ordained pastor. The fact, however, that he wore a wig was criticised and condemned with great severity by one of his parishioners.


May 1, 1752 The Church mett together to Deal with our Brother Richard Bartlet for his Known & publick offences which were exhib- ited against him in ye Church meeting as follows, viz. : -


I. That our said Brother Bartlet Refuses Communion with ye Chh for no other Reason, but because ye Pastor wears a Wigg & because ye Chh justifies him in it, herein setting up his own Opinion in opposition to ye Chh, contrary to that humility which becomes a christian.


2. And further in an unchristian manner he censures and condemns both ye pastor & Chh as antichristian on ye aforesaid account, and he sticks not from time to time to assert, with ye greatest assurance, that all who wear wiggs unless they repent of that particular sin before they die will certainly be damned, which we judge to be a piece of unchar- itable & sinfull Rashness .*


For more than fifty years the wearing of wigs was consid- ered unnatural and ungodly by some of the most worthy and devout men in New England. Judge Sewall often alludes to the subject in his diary, and frequently mentions the names of those who "abominate periwigs." Comment- ing on a sermon preached by Rev. Cotton Mather from the text, " Shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth " (Matt. xxiv: 51), he wrote, under date of March 19, 1690-1,


I expected not to hear a vindication of Periwigs in Boston Pulpit by Mr Mather; however, not from that Text. The Lord give me a good Heart and help me to know, and not only to know but also to doe his Will; that my Heart and Head may be his.t


* Newbury (Second Parish Church) Records.


t Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fifth Series, vol. v., P. 342.


CHURCHES AND PASTORS 359


In 1758, several ineffectual attempts were made to agree upon a location for a new meeting-house. A vote to pur- chase a lot of land at the end of Windmill lane was passed at one meeting and reconsidered at the next. Similar action was taken in regard to several other locations during the next six or eight months. On the third day of April, 1759, however, the parish "voted to build a meeting house at the southerly end of Hanover Street," and a month later "voted to begin to take down ye meeting house the 23rd Day of May current and to proceed Dayley if ye weather permit till it is taken down." *


A committee was appointed to supervise the erection of the new meeting-house, which was to be, according to the plans and specifications agreed upon, fifty-four feet long, forty feet wide, and twenty-four feet high. Forty pews were built on the floor of the house, and one of them by vote of the parish was given to the minister for the use of his family.


Rev. Rufus Emery, in an address delivered October 26, 1898, on the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Second church in Newbury, says the meeting-house was


. .. an almost square building, having two rows of windows. It stood facing the south, on which side a wide door gave entrance. On the outside and opposite the door and back of the pulpit was a large round- topped window. Immediately in front of the window was the pulpit, and over it a huge sounding-board. The sounding-board was shaped like an open umbrella, closed at the bottom with panel work painted white. The upper part was colored blue, and terminated, I think, with a gilt finial, acorn-shaped. The pulpit was a large construction, the centre extending out beyond the sides. The whole top of the pulpit was covered with a cushion of blue figured damask, the edge orna- mented with a fringe of ball tassels of the same color. The pulpit was reached by two flights of stairs, there being a landing between them. In front of the pulpit and entered from the landing were the elders' or deacons' seats. I do not remember seeing any of the officers oc- cupying them. The only officers I remember seeing in this pew were the moderator and town clerk on occasions of town meeting. In front of the deacons' pew was an immense table leaf extending the whole length and reaching to the floor. It was only used on communion days.


* Newbury (Second Parish) Records, p. 125. This meeting-house was on Pipe Stave hill, near the residence of Mr. Eben Moody Boynton, in West Newbury.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


In front of the table stood the large wood-stove, which warmed the house in winter. There were galleries on three sides of the house. The front gallery formed the singing seats, and was gained by stairs at each end. At the head of the flights of stairs were two square pews, which seemed of no use unless it was to balance two similar ones on the north wall of the house, at the ends of the east and west galleries. There was a row of pews all around the house against the walls, which were raised two steps higher than the others. The side galleries were furnished with two rows of long wooden seats, under which in the western gallery was stored the winter's supply of fuel.


Before the meeting-house was completed, Mr. Moses Little and many others, residing at the easterly end of the parish, applied to the General Court for liberty to organize a new church. In the month of February, 1761, a committee was chosen to prepare and present to the councillors and repre- sentatives a statement of the reasons why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted ; * but, on the seventeenth day of April following, the General Court ordered that a part of the Second and Third parishes, within certain bounds and limits, should be set off and established as the Fifth parish in Newbury.


October 8, 1765, the inhabitants of the Second parish voted to sell " the land where the old meeting house stood [on Pipe Stave hill] to Willet Peterson at the rate of thirteen pound, six shillings and eight pence the acre and give a Quit Claim Deed." +


On the ninth day of October, 1771, they voted to give Samuel Brown liberty to build at his own cost " A pew or seats in the meeting house over the Gallery Stairs at the South West Corner of the meeting house for the negros to set in." #


Rev. Moses Hale died January 15, 1779. The funeral expenses were paid by the parish, and a suitable tombstone was provided to mark his grave. For more than three years after his death the church had no settled minister. On the twentieth day of November, 1782, Rev. True Kimball was ordained pastor. He resigned on account of ill-health April


* Newbury (Second Parish) Records, p. 132. t Ibid., p. 141. # Ibid., p. 154.


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4, 1797, but was allowed the use of the parsonage until January 1, 1798.


Rev. Samuel Tomb, a Presbyterian clergyman of Salem, N. Y., was engaged to carry on the work of the ministry in the parish for one year from November 1, 1797; and on the twenty-sixth day of June following he was invited to become pastor of the church. He was evidently inclined to accept the invitation ; and probably through his influence the parish voted August 2, 1798, to adopt the Presbyterian form of church government, and again invited him to become their pastor. This invitation was renewed October fifteenth, and accepted on the twenth-seventh. He was installed on the twenty-eighth day of November following. Many of his parishioners were dissatisfied with his views of church gov- ernment ; and after a stormy pastorate of seven years he resigned, and removed to another field of labor in his native state.


March 25, 1806, a committee was appointed "to supply the vacant pulpit "; and February 17, 1807, the parish voted to return to the Congregational form of church government. An unsuccessful effort was made to induce Rev. Josiah Web- ster to accept the office of pastor, and on the eighth day of March, 1808, the parish voted to concur with the church in extending a call to Rev. Ebenezer Hubbard. He accepted the invitation, and was installed pastor of the church. October 2, 1811, the parish " Voted to agree with the Church in accepting the resignation of Rev. Mr. Hubbard."


After a vacancy of three years the church and parish in- vited Rev. Gilbert T. Williams to become their pastor. He was installed June 1, 1814, and held the office for seven years. On the twenty-sixth day of September, 1821, the church voted to release him from his pastoral duties; and on the first day of October following the parish passed a similar vote.


When the town of Parsons was incorporated, February 18, 1819, and the name changed to West Newbury, June 14, 1820, the Second church in Newbury became the First church in West Newbury, a name that it still retains.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


For nearly five years from October 1, 1821, the church was without a pastor. June 21, 1826, Rev. Henry C. Wright was installed ; and July 7, 1833, he was dismissed at his own request.


Subsequently the pulpit was supplied for several years by clergymen from neighboring towns, who were invited to take charge of the parish temporarily.


During the summer of 1841 the meeting-house, built in 1760, was taken down ; and a new house of worship, that is still standing, was erected on the site of the old one at the corner of Hanover street and the Bradford road, West New- bury, and dedicated December 22, 1841.


Rev. Henry A. Woodman was installed pastor November 30, 1842, and dismissed March 1, 1844. He was succeeded by Rev. Horatio Merrill, who was installed April 4, 1845, and dismissed in the month of August, 1847.


After a long interval, during which the church was again without a settled pastor, Rev. Charles D. Herbert was in- stalled March 5, 1857, and dismissed by a council of churches April 17, 1865. Since that date the church has been under the pastoral care of clergymen employed from month to month or year to year to carry on the work of the ministry there. The names of those who occupied the pulpit for six months or more are as follows : -


Rev. James W. Ward, jr., from July, 1865, to June 24, 1866.


Rev. Horace Dutton. from October 21, 1866, to June 2, 1867. Rev. Luther H. Angier, from November 10, 1867, to March, 1868. Rev. Nathaniel Laselle, from August, 1869, to September, 1873. Rev. James Tarlton, from December, 1874, to July, 1875 .* Rev. Charles Dame, from January, 1877, to April, 1881.


Rev. Charles D. Herbert, from June, 1881, to May, 1886.


Rev. Ezra B. Pike, from June, 1886, to March, 1890.t


Rev. Samuel Evans, from April, 1890, to March, 1891.


Rev. William W. Parker, from June, 1891, to May, 1892.


* Rev. George Dole officiated from September, 1875, to December, 1875. In 18;6, the vestry in the rear of the church was built; and Rev. Daniel P. Noyes, of Byfield, was engaged to supply the pulpit from October, 1876, to January, 1877.


t During the spring and summer of 1886 the meeting-house was repaired and repainted. The old-fashioned mahogany pulpit was removed and replaced by a modern one, The morning ser- vice at half-past ten o'clock was discontinued in 1887. The afternoon service is still held at two o'clock, as usual, preceded by a Sunday-school beginning an hour earlier.


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SECOND PARISH MEETING-HOUSE. BUILT IN 1841.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


Rev. Vincent Moses, from July, 1892, to June, 1896 .*


Rev. William B. T. Smith, from January, 1897, to the day of his death, January 18, 1898.


Rev. Charles H. Coolidge, from September, 1898, to April, 1901. Rev. John Graham, from October, 1901.


CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AT BYFIELD.


In 1702, the farmers of Newbury, near Newbury Falls, and the inhabitants of Rowley "living on the northwest side of Rye Plain Bridge " erected a meeting-house at or near the dividing line between the two towns, and soon after invited Rev. Moses Hale to carry on the work of the ministry there. The church probably was not organized until three or four years later ; but the exact date cannot be given, as the church records previous to 1744 have been lost or destroyed.


Rev. Mr. Hale was ordained November 17, 1706; and the parish was incorporated by the General Court October 28, 1710. Subsequently, Hon. Nathaniel Byfield, of Boston, for whom the parish was named, gave a bell, weighing two hun- dred and twenty-six pounds, that for more than a century called the inhabitants together on Sundays and lecture days. Rev. Mr. Hale retained his office as minister until his death, January 12, 1743.1


On the twentieth day of June, 1744, Rev. Moses Parsons was ordained pastor of the church. The old meeting-house was taken down; and during the summer of 1746 a new one was erected on the same site, "fifty six feet long, forty five feet wide, with a steeple surmounted by a gilded weather cock."


Eben and Theophilus, sons of Rev. Moses Parsons, were born at Byfield during his ministry there. The first became a wealthy merchant of Boston, with a stately summer resi- dence at Newbury Falls that he named " Fatherland Farm," and the latter an eminent lawyer, for seven years chief- justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.


* Rev. Mr. Moses was the first occupant of the new parsonage, at the corner of Chase street and the Bradford road, after its purchase by the society in the spring of 1892.


t "Ould Newbury," pp. 291-300.


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CHURCHES AND PASTORS


In 1761, Lieutenant-Governor William Dummer, who had for many years been a firm and generous supporter of the church at Byfield, died, and by his will bequeathed the income of his estate in Newbury for the support of a grammar school. During the following year a school-house was erected on the Dummer farm at Byfield, and dedicated February 28, 1763, Rev. Mr. Parsons preaching a sermon appropriate to the occasion from the text, " But the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand." The school is still in successful operation, and is known as Dummer Academy .*


At the close of the Revolutionary war, a fierce controversy between Rev. Mr. Parsons and Deacon Benjamin Colman led to the suspension of the devout anti-slavery deacon " from the fellowship and communion of the church till he does by repentance and confession give christian satisfaction for the offence he has committed." At that time Rev. Mr. Parsons was the owner of three slaves, and Deacon Colman asserted that his pastor "was guilty of the wicked practise of man stealing," "that he could justly be called a thief," and "that he had offered to sell his slave ' Violet ' for a large sum of money."


These charges were presented at a meeting of the church held December 21, 1780. After a prolonged hearing the pastor was acquitted of either wilfully or wickedly violating the divine law ; but Deacon Colman was suspended from his office, and censured for his intemperate zeal. Rev. Moses Parsons died December 14, 1783 ; and nearly two years later the worthy deacon, having confessed that he had been imprudent and unnecessarily severe in his treatment of the late pastor, was restored to fellowship and communion with the church, and reinvested with the powers and privileges that he formerly enjoyed.t


Rev. Elijah Parish, D.D., was ordained pastor of the church December 20, 1787. He was a strong and earnest advocate of the new theology called "Hopkinsianism "; and some of the inhabitants of the parish, dissatisfied with his theological


* "Ould Newbury," pp. 313-325.


t Coffin's History of Newbury, pp. 342-350.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


views and opinions, withdrew from the church in 1794 and formed a Presbyterian society. After a precarious existence of nearly ten years the society was dissolved; and the meet- ing-house in which services were held was, by permission of the General Court, sold to Deacon Benjamin Colman, who removed it to a more convenient location near the old parson- age, and subsequently converted it into a young ladies' seminary. Miss Harriet Newell, Miss Mary Lyon, and other women of note were among the pupils educated there.


Rev. Dr. Parish was an able and interesting preacher. In 1810, he delivered a sermon before the governor, councillors, and members of the General Court that created considerable excitement at that time. Quotations from the sermon will be found in a speech made by Hon. Robert T. Hayne, of South Carolina, in the United States Senate, on nullification, to which Hon. Daniel Webster replied.


Several sermons in pamphlet form were published by Rev. Dr. Parish during his lifetime. He also, in connection with Rev. Jedidiah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass., published a gazetteer of the Eastern and Western continents, a sacred geography and gazetteer of the Bible, and a history of New England designed for schools and private families .*


In 1817 the bell presented to the parish by Judge Byfield was removed, and a larger one, the gift of Eben Parsons, Esq., of Fatherland Farm, was put in its place.


During his ministry Rev. Dr. Parish won the confidence and esteem of his parishioners. At his death, October 15, 1825, his friends asserted that " there was not a more united parish in the State."


Rev. Isaac R. Barbour was installed pastor of the church . December 20, 1827. He was deeply interested in the ques- tions of the day, and alienated many of his friends by the vigorous measures that he favored for the suppression of the sale of liquor and the use of it as a beverage. His sympa-


* The first edition of the History of New England was published in 1804, and the second edition in 1809 by Thomas & Whipple, booksellers, No. 2 State street, Newburyport. Some of the friends of Miss Hannah Adams contended that this book was an infringement of the copy- right granted her in 1799 for a similar work. A long and bitter controversy followed ; but it is evident, from a careful examination of the general design, style of treatment, and subdivision of subjects in the two histories, that the charge cannot be sustained.


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thies were enlisted in the cause of temperance, and he some- times expressed his views and opinions in language that was imprudent and indiscreet. He became involved in a con- troversy with some of his parishioners in regard to a letter of dismission that, after a long struggle, was granted by a vote of the church to a member who had been guilty of " trafficing in distilled spirits." Although his efforts to revolutionize and reform the habits and customs of the people were not re-


BYFIELD CONGREGATIONAL MEETING-HOUSE.


BUILT IN 1833.


warded with success, he still continued to advocate and sup- port the doctrines and principles of total abstinence.


On the evening of the last day in February, 1833, a meet- ing of the friends and supporters of the temperance cause was held in the meeting-house. Early the next morning, March I, 1833, the building was destroyed by fire. It is supposed that hot ashes, taken from the stove at the close of the even- ing services, placed in a wooden barrel or some other unsafe receptacle, became overheated during the night, and set fire to the building.


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HISTORY OF NEWBURY


A few weeks later the parish accepted the resignation of Rev. Mr. Barbour, to take effect May 1, 1833.


Plans for a new meeting-house were prepared and adopted without delay. The corner-stone was laid in the month of May; and November 7, 1833, the new house of worship was dedicated. A new bell, weighing over one thousand pounds, was purchased by the parish, and hung on the framework provided for it in the steeple. In September, 1886, through the personal efforts of Mrs. A. B. Forbes, of Fatherland Farm, and other inhabitants of the parish, another and larger bell was purchased and hung in the belfry, to take the place of the old one, which was badly worn and cracked.




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