History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880, Part 19

Author: Smith, S. F. (Samuel Francis), 1808-1895. 4n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : American Logotype Co.
Number of Pages: 996

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In the war with the French and Indians, commonly called the old French war, some of the citizens of Newton were in hot en- gagements, and some were slain. Of these, some of the most dis- tinguished were Samuel Jenks, who served as a subaltern officer in the campaign of 1758 and 1760 ; Lieut. Timothy Jackson, whose wife carried on the farm and worked on the land, while he was gone to battle with the redskins; Col. Ephraim Jackson, who was also a lieutenant in the same war ; and especially Col. Ephraim Wil- liams, the founder of Williams College. He displayed uncommon military talents, and was appointed a captain in what was denom- inated the Canada service. He afterwards commanded the line of Massachusetts forts, on the west side of the Connecticut River, and a small fort in Williamstown, a few rods northwest of the meeting house, and under the protection of these forts the settlers in that part of the country began their improvements. When the war broke out between England and France in 1755, he had the com- mand of a regiment in the army raised in this, then, province, for the general defence. He was shot through the head in the memor- able battle fought with the French and Indians near Lake George, in September, 1755.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, NEWTON CENTRE.

CHAPTER XV.

THE FIRST CHURCH IN NEWTON .- LIST OF MEMBERS .- DEATH OF MR. ELIOT .- DIVISIONS .- SETTLEMENT OF MR. HOBART .- INDIAN WAR .- MR. HOBART'S DEATH .- BIOGRAPHY.

AMONG the early settlers the church came first and the school- house afterwards. It was sixty years after the first settlers came into Newton, before they made any united and public provision for the education of their children. Home instruction, undoubtedly, was not neglected. Perhaps more pains were taken with the chil- dren by their fathers and mothers than at a later date. But the claims of religion, as paramount to all others, and the subduing of a rugged forest that it might blossom as the rose, furnished the sturdy denizens of these now cultivated and smiling acres as much employment as they could attend to.

The first religious organization dates back to the formation of the church in Newtown (Cambridge), which was gathered October 11, 1633. The members were mainly the Braintree company, who, in August, 1632, "had begun to sit down at Mount Wollaston," so says Winthrop, and by order of the Court removed to Newtown. They had attended the ministry of Mr. Hooker in England, and upon their settlement here, they sent to him in Holland, whither he had fled from persecution, entreating him to become their pastor again. He consented, and came over in 1633, and took up his abode among them. He was one of the most celebrated and influ- ential of the emigrant Puritan clergy. Samuel Stone, also a man of eminence in his day, and Thomas Hooker, were ordained, the one as teacher, and the other as pastor of the church, in October, 1633.

The members of this first church, with its pastor and teacher, having removed to Hartford, on the first day of February, 1636, a second church was organized, and Thomas Shepard was ordained

193

194

HISTORY OF NEWTON.

its pastor. He was called "the faithful and famous Shepard, a man of fervent piety, great simplicity and earnestness, of humble and affectionate spirit, devoted to his Master and his Master's work, and eminently blessed in his ministrations, a preacher of uncommon unction and power."

He was succeeded by Jonathan Mitchell, who was born in 1624, came to New England in 1635, and graduated at Harvard College in 1647. Mr. Mitchell's class numbered seven, of whom five became ministers. During the first one hundred and thirty years of the history of the University, it was customary to arrange the names of graduates in the College Triennial, not alphabetically, as at present, but according to family rank ; and Mr. Mitchell's name stands at the head of his class. He was ordained August 21, 1650, and died July 9, 1668, aged 44 years,- being taken away at the same age as his predecessor, and in the full glory of his manhood and usefulness. He was spoken of as "the matchless Mitchell." In 1662 Mr. Mitchell and Major General Gookin were appointed by the General Court censors of the press at Cambridge, and no book was permitted to be printed without their imprimatur.

How many of the inhabitants of Cambridge Village were mem- bers of the church in Cambridge cannot be ascertained. In 1658 Mr. Mitchell prepared a list of the members of the church in Cam- bridge, which is bound up with the First Volume of the Cambridge church records, with this title: "The Church of Christ at Cam- bridge, New England ; or, the Names of all the Members thereof that are in full Communion ; together with their Children who were baptized in this Church, or, (coming from other churches), were in their minority at their parents' joining. Taken and registered in the Eleventh Month, 1658."

" From this venerable document in the hand-writing of Mr. Mitch- ell," Mr. William Jackson says, "it appears that there were about one hundred and sixteen members in his church in full communion, heads of families, and about five hundred and seventy women and children, nearly seven hundred in all [including unmarried persons who were members], several of whom were among the first and wealthiest men in New England. In 1636, Cambridge was assessed the largest country rate of any town in New England, and was of course the wealthiest and most influential at that time. This was before Hooker's company removed to Hartford. In 1645 Cam- bridge was rated the largest of any town in Massachusetts.

195

THE FIRST CHURCH.

This list of the members of the Cambridge church contains but two of the twenty-two families in the Village, viz., Captain Thomas Prentice, wife and five children, and Jonathan Hyde, wife and six children. Yet we know that others of them were members whose names are not upon the Roll. The Record of the First church in Boston states that Edward Jackson was a member of the Cambridge church. The Cambridge remonstrance states that he had not been wanting to the ministry or any great work among them. And again, in 1657, Edward Jackson was chairman of a committee, in conjunction with the deacons of the church, to make a levy of £240 from the members of [for] our Rev. Pastor, Mr. Mitchell. Richard Park was also a member. He sent a petition to the General Court, praying that he might retain his membership in the Cambridge church, in case the Village should be separated from Cambridge. His residence was about as near one church as the other. Yet neither is his name nor Edward Jackson's upon the catalogue. Others of them may have been members. But whether members or not, they were all taxed to support the Cam- bridge church, and for many years taxed themselves to support public worship also in the Village. The clause in the old Colony Records, under date of 1660,-" None to be freemen except such as are in full communion with the church of Christ,"- would seem to create a reason why men who were such sturdy politicians would be church-members somewhere, if their consciences would in any way allow them to regard themselves as possessed of the requisite spiritual qualifications.

"No doubt," says Mr. Jackson, "a distinct congregation was formed for public worship in 1656." In that year a movement was made towards the release of Cambridge Village from paying towards the support of the ministry in Cambridge. The inhabit- ants contemplated building a meeting-house. They had in view a location for the house, and probably would have erected it, if their petition had been granted. They were disappointed in their expectations, but were not shaken in their purpose. Opposition only quickened their zeal, and they bravely endured, uniting faith with works. They not only presented petitions, but also gave of their substance to secure the end they sought. Deacon John Jackson gave an acre of land for the meeting-house and for a burying place. The meeting-house stood nearly in the centre of

196

HISTORY OF NEWTON.

the acre, and was built about 1660 .* " John. Eliot, jr., gradu- ated at Harvard University in 1656, and began to preach about 1658. It is probable that he supplied the pulpit of the new meet- ing-house in the Village much of the time previous to his ordina- tion, which took place July 20, 1664. The elders and messengers of the churches of Dorchester and Roxbury, including Rev. Rich- ard Mather and Rev. John Eliot, sen., were present, and probably others, and the first church in Newton proper, the third in the town of Cambridge, was organized on the same day. At the same time, and agreeable to the custom of that early period, Thomas Wiswall, lately a member of the Dorchester church, was ordained Ruling Elder." This was during the ministry of Mr. Mitchell, the second pastor of the church in Cambridge. The church in Newton was properly a colony from that church, though a considerable number of the members were from other neighboring churches. The con- gregation was composed of about thirty families, and the church of about eighty members - forty males and forty females. This gives an average of a little more than two members to each family ; as, doubtless, the father and mother, in nearly every household, in Puritan simplicity and piety had made a personal profession of religion, and the older children in due course followed their steps.

The Records of this church were burned, together with the house of Rev. Mr. Meriam, the fourth minister, March 18, 1770. The Roxbury and Dorchester Church Records confirm these facts, and also that "Thomas Wiswall was dismissed from the Dorchester church, 5. 4. 1664, for the beginning of a church at Cambridge Village, where Mr. John Eliot doth preach." Also, " 11. 7. 1664, was dismissed the wife of Thomas Wiswall, the wife of Goodman

* The accuracy of this date is verified by the following entry in the Cambridge Town Records:

"At a Town Meeting, hield Jan. 13, 1661-2, the town do order and consent that the common land beyond Dedham Path, leading between Watertown mill and Lieutenant Prentice's, on the north side thereof, be sold to those of that part of the town that belong to the new meeting-house there, on condition that they give good security to the town for the payment of £20 per annum forever for the use of the other part of the town belonging to the old meeting-house on the north part of the river, (north of the river). The which condition being performed, the town do grant that all those inhabitants beyond four miles distance from the old meeting-house shall be wholly free from the town, in case the General Court shall ratify and confirm said agree- ment."

This record fixes the time, very nearly, when the new meeting-house in the village was built.

197

THE FIRST CHURCHI.

Kinwright [Kenrick], and Margaret, the wife of James Trow- bridge, to the church gathered in Cambridge Village."

The following persons with their wives were probably the mem- bers of the church, being embodied together in its organization :

Rev John Eliot, Jr., Pastor, from the Roxbury church,

Thomas Wiswall, Ruling Elder, from Dorchester do.

John Jackson, ( Deacons.

Samuel Hyde,

Edward Jackson, Cambridge church.

Thomas Prentice,

Jonathan Hyde, 66

Richard Park, 66

Sebas Jackson, son of Edward Jack- son, jr.,

Thomas Park, son of Richard, do., do. John Ward, Sudbury do.

James Prentice, Cambridge church. John Fuller,

Thomas Prentice, 2d, « 66.

Thomas Hammond, Hingham

Vincent Druce,

John Parker, 66

William Clements, Cambridge

Isaac Williams, Roxbury

James Trowbridge, Dorchester "

Abraham Williams, Watertown do. John Kenrick, Boston

John Spring, Watertown Samuel Hyde, Į sons of Dea. Samuel Job Hyde, Hyde.

Noalı Wiswall, son of Elder Thomas Wiswall, Dorchester church,

John Jackson, son of John Jackson, senior,

John Kenrick, ) sons of John Ken- Elijah Kenrick, , rick, sr., Boston, William Clements, son of William Clements, sr.,

Thomas Hammond, ~ Hammond,

Nathaniel Hammond, S sr., Hingham.

John Druce, 1 sons of Vincent

Vincent Druce, { Druce, sr., Hingham.

Thirteen of the above were sons of the first settlers, and were past the age of twenty-one at the ordination of Mr. Eliot. Thomas Oliver, afterwards Deacon, whose mother was a member of the Boston church, lived with his father-in-law, Edward Jack- son, in 1664, and was then nineteen years old, and some other minors, may have been members ; and, as Eliot was a popular preacher, there may have been a few members from adjoining towns ; although by reason of distance from their own homes, and perhaps also from conscientious motives as good and faithful mem- bers of their own churches, they generally worshipped where they belonged. The erection of a meeting-house, the efforts to free themselves from the burden of supporting the ministry at Cambridge, and the settlement of a pastor of their own, was a great work, in the face of powerful opposition from the old church, and could have been accomplished only by untiring energy and determined perseverance. The church from which they had broken away alleged that it was difficult for them, when all together, " to maintain one church as it should." The report of the com- mittee of the General Court affirms, "that if the petitioners with- draw their help from Cambridge church and ministry, it would be overburdensome to Cambridge to provide for the support of their minister." How much more burdensome must it be for this frag- ment of the church, numbering not more than one-fourth of the original body, to undertake the work! They were comparatively

sons of Thos.

198

HISTORY OF NEWTON.

but a handful of men and women, setting about an unpopular work, frowned upon by the Legislature of the State and by their townsmen ; but in their own judgment their little community needed a meeting-house and a minister of the gospel among them. They knew it was their right and privilege to have these blessings, and a duty to themselves and their posterity to secure them. And, not- withstanding the great sacrifice required, they were fixed in their determination to enjoy them.

The joy of the little flock must have been intense on the day when, after so long waiting, they saw the desire of their hearts at length accomplished. In the transactions of that day, they laid broad foundations of blessing for their posterity. "They builded better than they knew," and sowed the seed which was to bear a richer harvest than they could comprehend.

We see them now, settled in church estate, and entered upon a career which seems destined to be one of peace and prosperity. But, alas for the vanity of human expectations ! The pastor whom they had ordained was permitted to labor among them, after that date, only four years, two months and twenty-one days, and was then taken from them by death.

The recent erection of a meeting-house, the formation of a church and the ordination of Rev. Mr. Eliot, and the fact of their release from the support of the ministry in Cambridge, were events full of promise and hope to the inhabitants of Cambridge Village. And his early death, occurring so soon afterwards, must have been for them a severe calamity. They seem to have been paralyzed with discouragement, and it was more than six years before a suc- cessor was obtained. In the meantime divisions and dissensions had sprung up. Ecclesiastical councils were summoned, but they were unable to restore harmony. The evidence that the division existed is found in documentary testimony in the Records.

The following letter was sent by the Court to Elder Wiswall :

These, for Thomas Wiswall, ruling elder, to be communicated to the church of Christ on the south side Charles River, within the bounds of Cambridge.

BELOVED BRETHREN,-We find a law, made 30th May, 1660, empowering the County Court to use the best endeavor for the procuring and settling a pious and faithful minister in every place within their respective precincts ; and, un- derstanding, to our great grief, that there are divisions among you about call- ing and settling a minister, which thing is scandalous to our profession and a hinderanceto our edification, we therefore think it our duty to signify unto you our earnest desires and prayers for your union and agreement, entreating

199

THE FIRST CHURCH.

you to put on the spirit of meekness, humility and self-denial, and to sub- mit one to another in the fear of God; and either to agree this matter among yourselves, or attend such other means as God hath appointed in such cases for the issue thereof; and acquaint us therewith at the adjournment of the Court at Charlestown, the 29th inst., April. Otherwise we shall take ourselves in duty bound to use such other means, according to God, as may be expe- dient for a farther inquiry into your case and for the healing the breaches in your Zion.

So, with love to you, we remain your loving brethren in the faith and fel- lowship of the gospel.

From the County Court at Cambridge, April 5, 1670.

ELDER WISWALL'S REPLY.

Cambridge Village, 18. 4. 1670.

To the Honored Court now sitting at Charlestown :- May it please you,- yours of April 5, 1670, I received, and after serious perusal and consideration did communicate it unto the church. But with grief and shame may we say, we had no comfortable return to make. But so it came to pass that the 19th of April we gave the former Council the trouble to come again, who, having heard both sides, did confirm your former council; and yet it will not obtain. But may it please you, the next 4th day, if the Lord will, I intend to move the church again, and in the meantime rest.

Your humble servant,

THOMAS WISWALL.

From the Records of the County Court it appears that the minis- ters who had supplied the pulpit between the death of Mr. Eliot and the settlement of his successor, sued the inhabitants of the Village for their pay. [Sec p. 49.]

Dr. Homer states that Mr. Hobart supplied the pulpit for two years before he was settled, from 1672 to 1674. This left an inter- val of four years for the labors of other candidates and casual sup- plies. Mr. William Jackson observes that it was doubtful whether public worship had been kept up during all those four years. In the two years while Mr. Hobart preached before his ordination, he succeeded in healing divisions and restoring harmony, so that he received the name of "the repairer of breaches" (Isaiah 58 : 12), and the record says, "He gave the bereaved flock a rich blessing."

Rev. Nehemiah Hobart was the fifth son of the Rev. Peter Ho- bart, the first minister of Hingham. His grandfather, Edmund Hobart, came from Hingham, England, with his wife and son and two daughters, and arrived in Charlestown in 1633, or, according to another authority, in 1629. Peter, the father of Nehemiah, was

200

HISTORY OF NEWTON.

born in 1604, and educated at the University of Cambridge, Eng- land. Afterwards he taught a grammar school and preached at Hingham, England, nine years. . On account of the impositions of the prelatical party, he came to this country, and in June, 1635, arrived in Charlestown, with his family. Afterwards Mr. Hobart and several of his friends removed to Bear Cove, to which the General Court, in September, 1635, gave the name of Hingham, because not only the pastor, but also most of his flock came from Hingham, in the mother country. Rev. Peter had five sons, all educated at Harvard College, and four of whom became minis- ters of the gospel. Two of them graduated in 1650, and three in 1667. Nehemiah settled at Cambridge Village ; Joshua in South- old, Long Island ; Jeremiah in Topsfield, Mass., afterwards in Had- dam, Conn. ; Gershom at Groton, Mass. ; Japhet was surgeon of a ship bound to England, and was lost at sea. Nehemiah was born in Hingham, November 21, 1648, and graduated at Harvard College in 1667. He was ordained pastor of the church at Cam- bridge Village, December 23, 1674, where he continued to labor till his death, which occurred August 25, 1712, in the sixty- fourth year of his age.

Dr. Homer says, "Soon after the settlement of Mr. Hobart be- gan the terrible war with Philip, king of the Wampanoags, a nation bordering on the colony of Plymouth, the seat of whose chief was at Mount Hope (now Bristol, R. I.). Mr. Eliot had in vain attempted the conversion of him and his tribe. The success- ful missionary work among the Nonantum Indians had an impor- tant bearing on the salvation of the New England colonies from destruction. Their conversion produced in them an affectionate attachment towards the English, to whom they ever remained faithful. Such were the dangers to which the colonies of Massachu- setts and Plymouth were exposed by the war, which began twenty- nine years after the settlement at Nonantum, that there is reason to believe that if all the Indians within their boundaries had con- tinued uncivilized and unchristianized, and had united against the English with the spirit which afterwards animated Philip and the warriors of his period and party, our fathers would have been com- pelled to abandon the country." So New England was saved by Christian missions.

The church records which cover the period of Mr. Hobart's ministry having been burned, we are left without any detailed

201

THE FIRST CHURCH.

account of the occurrences of his long, acceptable and faithful ministry, which covered the important and stormy period when the town passed through the controversies and heart-burnings inci- dent to its transition to a state of independence from Cambridge. Such a crisis eminently needed a wise and prudent man in the in- fluential position of a pastor and adviser, a judicious public man, and a friend of all parties alike. And, as a man of sound common sense, a peacemaker, impartial in forming his decisions and firm in maintaining them, he led his brethren through their difficulties into the broad fields of prosperity and peace. He is said to have been free from superstition and bigotry, yet seriously and faithfully engaged in the discharge of his ministerial duties. An unshaken harmony subsisted between him and his people through life. An aged father who died in 1787, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, and who was about eighteen years of age at the date of Mr. Ho- bart's death, repeatedly mentioned his serious and winning manner of address, which caused his congregation to hang upon his lips. He published a Sermon, entitled, "The Absence of the Comforter, Described and Lamented." It is a proof of the estimation in which he was held, that he was elected a member of the Corporation of Harvard College in 1707, and continued in office till his death. His associate Fellows were William Brattle, Ebenezer Pemberton, Henry Flynt and Jonathan Remington. A letter written by the Rev. John Barnard and dated, Marblehead, October 16, 1767, says, " The Rev. Nehemiah Hobart, sometime Vice President of the Col- lege, was an excellent scholar in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and a most pious, humble, prudent and benevolent man." His father-in- law, Edward Jackson, gave him thirty acres of land, on the north- west side of the Dedham highway [Centre St. ], adjoining the twenty acres which he also gave to Rev. John Eliot, jr., his predecessor. He built his house on the lot just north of the Shannon house, where the dwelling of Mr. John Cabot, the father-in-law of Mrs. Theo- dore Parker, formerly stood. The house was afterwards occupied by Hobart's successor, the Rev. John Cotton. It was burned in 1720, and rebuilt the same year.

Mr. Hobart married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Jackson, and had six children,- all daughters. He conveyed to four of his daughters, in 1711, his then dwelling-house and one hundred acres of land adjoining, reserving to himself the right to enjoy the same while he lived. Two of them conveyed their rights in the

202

HISTORY OF NEWTON.

homestead in 1715 to their father's successor, Rev. John Cotton. His daughter Abigail deeded the pew "built by her honored father " to the town by warranty deed, against her fellow heirs.

On his tombstone is this Latin epitaph :

HOC TUMULO DEPOSITÆ SUNT RELIQUIE REVERENDI ET PERDOCTI NEHEMIAE HOBART, D. D., COLLEGII HARVARDINI SOCII LECTISSIMI, ECCLESIAE NEOTONIENSIS

PER ANNOS QUADRAGINTA PASTORIS FIDELISSIMI ET VIGILANTISSIMI, SINGULARI GRAVITATE, HUMILITATE AEQUE AC PIETATE ET DOCTRINA ET PIIS EXIMIA VENERATIONE ET AMORE RECOLENDI. NATUS ERAT NOV. 21, 1648. DENATUS AUG. 25, 1712. ANNO AETATIS 64.

The following is a translation : "In this tomb are deposited the remains of the Reverend and very learned teacher of divinity, Ne- hemiah Hobart, an estimable Fellow of Harvard College, a highly faithful and watchful pastor of the church of Newtown for forty years. His singular gravity, humility, piety and learning rendered him the object of deep veneration and ardent esteem to men of science and religion. He was born November 21, 1648, and died August 25, 1712, in the sixty-fourth year of his age."

The simplicity of the times is indicated by the votes occasion- ally appearing in the Town Records, showing the amounts which ministers of the gospel anciently received as salary, and the incon- venience which they must sometimes have suffered, when, produce being brought them instead of money, they must occasionally have suffered a surfeit of some articles of utility, and a corres- ponding deficiency of the means to procure others which were a necessity. [See the votes on page 51.]

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880, Part 19

Author: Smith, S. F. (Samuel Francis), 1808-1895. 4n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Boston : American Logotype Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author: Smith, S. F. (Samuel Francis), 1808-1895. 4n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Boston : American Logotype Co.
Number of Pages: 996