USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of Newton, Massachusetts : town and city, from its earliest settlement to the present time, 1630-1880 > Part 20
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It is probable that Mr. Hobart was not regularly paid what the town voted him, either in money or produce, as will be seen from his receipts.
1689 .- Whereas I, Nehemiah Hobart, have for seventeen years last past labored in the ministry att Cambridge Village, [and they ] have from time to time by their voates covenanted to raise for mee yearly such sums as might be for my maintenance, I do by these presents acknowlidge and accept of all and several the said sums, and doe hereby for myself and hairs, acquit all and
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
severall the said inhabitants and all such as have ingaged to collect the said sums, them and their heirs, from all dues, debts and demands, from the be- ginning of my ministry amongst them unto the first day of June, 1689.
In witness whereof I have sett to my hand,
NEHEMIAH HOBART.
It appears by the two following records, that while Mr. Hobart found difficulty in collecting his meagre stipend, he was a man of liberal and gracious spirit, willing to bear his fair share of the burdens of his parishioners.
February 23, 1690. Town Meeting .- Mr. Hobart sent in an account of £23 18s. 3d. due him by the Deacons, who declared for him that if the Town would pay him £10, he would give in the residue, to help bear the public charges, which were great and heavy :- and which was accepted by the Town.
June 1, 1693 .- I doe hereby acknowledge that I have received of the in- habitants of New Town, the sum of sixty-four pounds, for my maintenance the year past, and the remaining six pounds due to me for the said yeare, I freely remitt, leaving the same to be collected by the Selectmen, and by them laid out for the benefit of said town, according to a regular voate of the in- habitants when they shall be convened in a town meeting orderly warned.
Witness my hand,
NEHEMIAH HOBART.
Three receipts, written by Mr. Hobart, remain on record, which are a curiosity for their circumstantial minuteness and accuracy. The following is a specimen :
Newtown .- This first day of December. in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven. I doe, by these presents, acquit and discharge all and several, the inhabitants of Newtown, their Assessors and Collectors, from all payments due to me on account of salary, from the first beginning of my Labours in the Ministry amongst them to the day of the date hereof.
Witness my hand the day and year above written.
NEHEMIAH HOBART.
CHAPTER XVI.
ENGLISH OPPRESSION. - SIR EDMUND ANDROS. - EVENTS IN NEW- TON. - FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. - SEATING THE WORSHIPPERS. - NOON HOUSES. - THE STOCKS.
THE seventeenth century was a period of great interest in many respects, as touching the civilization and political progress both of Britain and America. Waking from the night of the middle ages, first came the long morning which dawned in Luther's Reformation, when the people began to think for themselves, and the world commenced its preparation for the ripening of our modern civiliza- tion. As in the fifteenth century clustered together the three great events, - the invention of printing, the discovery of the mariner's compass, and of the new continent of America, -and in the sixteenth was added the Reformation, so in the seventeenth, the waking of the instinct of colonization, and the founding of the early settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts and elsewhere, taught men the grandeur and availability of the world they pos- sessed, made them feel how great a thing it is to live, stirred in their bosoms the spirit of manhood, and gradually unfolded the germs of progress which have matured so efficiently in later times. Men of genius were no longer to be led blindly. The time had come for them to think for themselves. Thus originated the spirit which led to the English revolution of 1688, and the jealousy of the colonists in America, examining the bearings of every measure instituted by the powers beyond the sea, on their political interests and prosperity. The town meetings, the discussions on govern- ment and privilege, the difficulties of the enterprise in which their fathers had embarked, and in whose hardships and fruits they had more or less shared, had educated them. The motions of the embryo spirit of independence, which was to burst forth a century later, could not be repressed. Events and measures in England
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BRITISH OPPRESSION.
struck the keynote on one side of the waters; the American revolution, growing out of oppression, echoed the tone on the other.
Under the charter governments of New England, the people of the colonies, by the express words of their charters, were entitled to all the privileges of natural born subjects, and invested with the powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial. They chose their own governors, elected legislative assemblies, and established courts of justice, and in many points even exceeded the powers conferred by the charters. The only limitation to their legislative powers was that their laws should not be contrary to those of England. But in the time of Charles the Second, the politicians of England originated various oppressive measures, abridging the liberties of the colonists, and depriving them of rights which they had hitherto enjoyed, and which seemed to them essential to their political prosperity. These oppressive measures culminated, in the year 1684, in a sentence pronounced in the Eng- lish courts against the people of Massachusetts, cancelling their charter. Instead of electing their own governor, they were now to accept such an one as the Crown might choose to send them, and an attempt to resist would be counted as rebellion. In December, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros arrived in the country, with two companies of troops, instructed to put an end to all popular power. Unjust taxation followed, which was met by passive resistance, and this again led to fines and confiscations. Every appeal to English laws was in vain. In this extremity, Rev. Increase Mather, of Boston, escaped to England by night and in disguise, and laid the grievances of the colony before the King. Shortly after came the English revolution. As soon as the news reached Massachusetts, the people rose in arms and imprisoned Sir Edmund Andros and his adherents ; the charter was again put in force, and a governor, assistant and deputies were elected.
Soon after the removal of the tyrannical governor from his seat of power, the inhabitants of New Cambridge met, May 20, 1689, and by vote declared as follows :
That it is our desire,-
1. That the Honorable Governor and Deputy Governor and assistants, chosen and sworn in 1686, and the deputies then chosen by the freemen for that year do now resume the government of this colony according to charter privileges.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
2. That there may be an enlargement of freemen, that is to say, that those persons who are of honest conversation and a competent estate may have their votes in all civil elections.
3. That the Court, having thus reassumed the government, then endeavor to confirm our charter privileges.
4. That the Court, thus settled, do not admit of any change or alteration of government among us, until it be first signified to the several towns for their approbation.
On the same day the inhabitants made choice of Ensign John Ward as our representative or deputy in the present sessions.
The events touching the town of Newton which occurred during the latter part of this century, and while Mr. Hobart was pastor, were not numerous, but important. It was during his ministry that Newton was incorporated as a town distinct from Cambridge, and received its name from the General Court,- the long and sharp controversy between the mother and daughter having at last. reached a peaceful issue. The war between the Americans on one side, and the French and Indians on the other, was now raging, and Capt. Noah Wiswall, with his Lieutenant Flagg and. Sergeant Walker, were slain. It was during Mr. Hobart's minis- try that the first school-house was built, and John Staples began his labors as a schoolmaster ; and Deacon Edward Jackson, Mr. Hobart's father-in-law, gave thirty-three acres of woodland to the use of the ministry in Cambridge Village forever. In 1707, May 18, the last ordination of deacons of the church took place, the- candidates being Thomas Oliver, counsellor of the province, and Ephraim Jackson.
The location of the first meeting-house in Newton, near the middle of the old cemetery on Centre Street, is marked by the marble column, erected in September, 1852, to the memory of the. first settlers. This monument has inscribed on one side the names of the first settlers, the date of their settlement, the time of their decease, and their ages. On the other sides are inscriptions to the memory of the first minister, the first ruling elder, and the donors of the burying place. It was erected by forty-three of the descendants of the men whom it commemorates. In its foundation was deposited a pamphlet, containing a historical statement and notices of the first settlers. The petition for a division of the town of Cambridge in 1678 states that the meeting- house in the Village had been lately enlarged. Probably this was
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
done at the settlement of Mr. Hobart, or soon afterwards. In 1680 it was again enlarged.
The second meeting-house, voted in 1696, commenced in the spring of 1697, and completed in the early part of 1698, stood on the westerly side of Centre Street, opposite the cemetery. The land, once owned by John Spring, who, it is probable, gave it to the town for the purpose of erecting on it a house of God, after the removal of the meeting-house, as stated by Mr. Jackson in a note, was re-conveyed by the town to John Spring, who was chairman of the Building Committee. By a deed given by Abra- ham Jackson, - son of Dea. John Jackson, who was the donor of the first lot of land for the meeting-house and cemetery, -to his grandson John, in 1717, it appears that the first meeting-house was still standing at that date,- nineteen years after the second meeting-house was finished ; but for what purpose it was used during those nineteen years is not known. It may have been for a Town House, school-house, or for military purposes, as the training field was there.
These two votes complete the notices of the second meeting- house.
1700 .- VOTED, that John Staples and John Kenrick be a Committee to settle the meeting-house accounts.
1701 .- VOTED, that Lieut. John Spring be allowed twenty shillings for sweeping and cleaning the meeting-house, when he has finished the same.
The beautiful custom of families being seated together in the house of God was not among the refining influences of the stern days of the early settlers. In the house of God earthly relation- ships seem to have been ignored. The worshippers, young or old, were set in their individual responsibility before the Majesty in the heavens. A husband was there nothing to his wife ; a mother was nothing to her child. They were each individual souls, and in the house of prayer recognized none but themselves personally, on the one hand, and God, on the other. As the boys, particularly, in the exuberance of their spirits, would sometimes be disorderly, it was convenient to have them seated by themselves, that the " tything man " might keep them in check, rapping the heads of the rogues with the little ball on one end of his long rod ; and, in like manner, if the ladies fell asleep in their slips, he could tickle their noses with the feather on the other.
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
In the ancient meeting-house a range of square pews was erected completely around the house against the walls. A single row of similar pews was set in the body of the house, in front of the principal door; and the space remaining on the floor up to the pulpit was occupied by slips. The deacons' seat was raised two or three steps, and immediately in front of the pulpit. The deacons were provided with an hour-glass, which stood on the table before them, and was turned, that the sand might begin to run out when the minister began his sermon. And, if it was not necessary to turn the hour-glass once at least during the sermon, the minister was thought to be deficient in his duty to his hearers. The members of the congregation were seated, by public authority, according to their dignity. This was called " dignifying the seats," or the pews ; or sometimes, "seating the meeting-house." The ground of preference seems to have been chiefly, property qualifi- cations ; birth, or official civil standing was also taken into con- sideration. In the slips, the oldest persons were seated nearest the pulpit, and the younger behind them in regular order, towards the door ; the women on the right hand, and the men on the left. A portion of the gallery was appropriated as the boys' seats, - sometimes, as in this second church in Newton, a corner on the lower floor. The fact that the older persons, many of whom were perhaps in circumstances too humble to admit of their aspiring to the dignity of sitting in a pew, were arranged in the slips accord- ing to age, accounts for the breaking up of families, and the seat- ing of children by themselves. The girls were provided for in the same manner as the boys, the seats on the right falling to their share. In the gallery occupied by the choir, the right side was also appointed for the female singers, and the left for the males. This custom explains some of the allusions found in the earliest Town Book. We quote the following, of later date :
May 14, 1744 .- VOTED, that the aforesaid committee shall give men their dignity in their setting in the meeting-house, in proportion to what they pay to the minister's rate.
March 4, 1754 .- VOTED, that the Selectmen be a committee to agree with workmen to erect one tier of pews in the hind seats in the body seats of the meeting-house, both in the men's side and the women's side, as soon as may be.
VOTED, to choose a committee to fill up vaquent room in the meeting-house, and to dignifie the pews proposed to be erected.
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
Sometimes persons of high standing, who aspired to the dis- tinction of having a pew, petitioned the town for permission to build one at their own expense. But this privilege was scrupu- lously guarded, and sometimes refused to persons whose position in society might seem to create a claim. Witness the following :
1734 .- Captain Edward Durant asked leave to build a pew in the meeting- house, and was refused. He was a very wealthy man from Boston, and owned three slaves,-paid eighteen hundred pounds for his farm.
1738 .- Chose a committee to seat the meeting-house, and instructed the committee to give men their dignity in their sitting in proportion to the min- ister's rate they pay, allowing one poll to a rate, making such an allowance for age as they shall think proper, except where there are tenants, and in those cases to act the best of their judgments.
1744 .- Chose a committee to seat the meeting-house according to dignity and taxes.
This absurd custom was abolished in March, 1800. Mr. Jackson remarks on this subject,-
This ancient custom of seating and reseating the worshippers in the New England churches was originally intended to be founded in equality. The first settlers meant that all should be equal before the law, and before the altar also, It was democratic in theory, but aristocratic in practice, as the rich men always got the best seats. In parishes where the population in- creased rapidly, the congregations were reseated annually ; where the in- crease was slow, this operation was performed about every third or fourth year. The instructions to the seating committee were, first, rank, or, as they expressed it, dignity,-meaning, the minister and magistrates, or, all in authority ; second, those who paid the largest parish tax,-or, the rich men ; third, the most aged persons; and, fourth, they were not to degrade any. Married women took the same rank that belonged to their husbands. The last item, " not to degrade any," was impossible, since some must occupy the lowest seats.
The office of committee-man was no sinecure; its exercise frequently brought upon him charges of partiality and injustice.
This operation of reseating was rarely, if ever accomplished, without giv- ing offence to more or less of the congregation. Such, however, was the attachment to the ancient customs in the churches, that it took about a cen- tury and a half, notwithstanding its bitter fruits, to discontinue it.
Sometimes curious controversies arose out of the jealousies attendant on this custom. Witness the following :
In August, 1712, it is recorded that a difference existed between John Mason, of Newton, and the town, in respect to a pew in the northeast corner of the meeting-house. On the 8th of August the town appointed a committee to act in their behalf and on the
14
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
12th of the same month, the parties met at the house of Mason and "made proposals to each other and then agreed as followeth " :
That in consideration of three pounds in money to him, the said John Mason, well and truly paid by s'd committee, and that the wife of s'd John Mason be alowed a place in the second seat in the body of s'd meeting-house, and that his children be treated by said town as to their places in s'd meeting- house according to their age and quality as others are, and that the s'd town doe defend the s'd Mason from all harm that may arise by that room which s'd Mason formerly sold in s'd meeting-house to Mr. Edward Jackson,-
These forementioned articles being truly fulfilled, in consideration whereof he, the s'd Mason, doth for himself, his heirs, executors and administrators remit, release and forever quitclaim all his right that he now hath or ever had in s'd pew,-hereby ratifying and confirming the s'd pew unto the s'd town, to be at their sole dispose and use forever hereafter.
In witness whereof the s'd committee and s'd Mason have all of them here- unto put their hands this 12th day of August, 1712.
"The square pew for the minister's family," on one side of the pulpit, was first in honor. Thence, by regular gradations along the tiers of " wall pews " on the three sides, and down the double range of "seats " in the middle alley, "to the sixth seat from the front, and so on," with diminishing honor, to the last. When square pews were substituted for the long seats or "slips " in the body of the house, these had to be " dignified " anew, by a committee who received instructions to consider, in their allot- ment, "the age, estate, and parentage" of the sitters.
We may imagine the solicitude of the minister and the church as the season of trial and peculiar temptation drew nigh ; and how the seating committee - striving to "render to all their dues " and " doing nothing by partiality " - were oppressed by a sense of re- sponsibility and the apprehension that, strive as they might, offen- ces would come.
In connection with the account of the first church in Newton and the arrangements for worship, it is in place to speak of the reverence for the Sabbath which prevailed among the early settlers, their scrupulous regard for the established institutions of religion, and that sincere, though mistaken zeal, which led them to adopt compulsory measures to secure for them an outward respect. Their severe conceptions stand in striking contrast to the laxity of mod- ern times. We have no desire to return to the ancient methods. But we question whether the morality, the virtue, and the integ- rity of the people was not of a higher order under their system of
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restraint than under the modern system of liberty. May we not be reaping, at the present day, precious fruit, the harvest of their scrupulosity ? But it was under the influence of such laws and institutions,- we dare not say in spite of them,- that the second, third and fourth generations of the people proved to be such "a goodly seed." Mr. Prince says of the fathers of New England, in his Election Sermon in 1730 :
They were mostly men of good estates and families, of liberal education, and of large experience. But they chiefly excelled in piety to God, in zeal for the purity of his worship, reverence for his glorious name, and strict ob- servance of his holy Sabbaths; in their respect and maintenance of an un- blemished ministry ; the spread of knowledge, learning, and good order and quiet throughout the land, a reign of righteousness, and the welfare of the people; and the making and executing wholesome laws for all these blessed ends.
The meeting-house, as in all New England, was guiltless of warmth on the bleakest days in winter. The delicacy of a stove had not yet invaded the stern hardness and capacity of endurance of the people. As a substitute, however, for this comfort, associ- ations of citizens were formed who erected in the neighborhood of the meeting-house what were denominated noon-houses, for the ben- efit of themselves and their families ; or the buildings were erected at the public expense. The noon-houses were buildings of one story, put up in the plainest manner, ceiled with boards, and hav- ing a fireplace in the middle, open on every side, the chimney being supported beneath by pillars. The seats were arranged around the room, being fixed against the walls. There were three or four of these houses at Newton Centre. One of them stood on the site of the Centre school-house ; a second on the southwest corner of the present meeting-house lot; and a third near the west end of Lyman Street. After these structures were abandoned for their original use, they were tenanted for some years by different fami- lies in humble circumstances.
In the noon-houses the people gathered at noon, " between meet- ings," to warm their stiffened limbs, to eat their frugal lunch and to indulge their friendly gossip, and from the generous fire the women replenished the foot-stoves which they carried back with them to the meeting-house.
We cannot state precisely the dimension of these noon-houses. Provision, however, was made for one of them in 1730, to be built, probably at the expense of the town, as follows: "The Select-
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HISTORY OF NEWTON.
men staked out land on the hill, near Clark's fence, for the relief of sundry inhabitants on the Sabbath days, for a house twenty- eight feet square " ( a noon-house). Clark's fence was probably not very far from the meeting-house of 1730 ; for the land of John Clark and his descendants was near the western slope of the Insti- tution Hill, and stretched away to the southwest.
There was another institution connected with the meeting- house, which it is curious, at this distance of time, to contem- plate. We refer to the stocks. How early the stocks were erected in Newton, we do not know. We are sure, however, that the fathers of the town were not without this necessary appendage to the place of public worship. Not only was it a law of the colony that all towns should be provided with stocks, but we find in the Town Records as late as 1773, that "a committee was chosen to examine the church stocks. "
They rested upon the solid earth, about ten rods from the church, and were made of two pieces of white-oak timber, about eight feet long, clamped to- gether with bar-iron at each end, through which holes were made of various sizes, to fit human legs, for misbehavior during divine service. Disorderly persons were liable to have their legs made fast between that oak and iron, by way of punishment. Mr. J. adds, " We have often eyed that remnant of the inquisition, when a boy, with a shudder."
These church stocks, like all human contrivances, often needed repairs, and this committee, no doubt, was appointed to oversee the work. The stocks were in use in England as early as the year 1472, under the mayoralty of Sir William Hampton in Lon- don ; for it is recorded that in that year he caused stocks to be erected in every ward in London, for the more effectual punish- ment of strollers. The author of a History of the Town of Shrewsbury, Mass., says, that persons who were "disorderly on Sabbath or town meetings were wont to be confined in them dur- ing meeting, as a punishment for misbehavior. " He also remarks that it is a curious tradition that " the person who made the stocks for that town was the first one required to occupy them, and received payment for them in the remittance of a fine that accrued to the town for his offence."
CHAPTER XVII.
NEW DIFFICULTIES. - CANDIDATES .- JOHN COTTON CHOSEN PASTOR .-- DEATH OF MR. COTTON .- WHITEFIELD'S VISITS TO NEWTON. - THE NEW LIGHTS.
HAVING accomplished their purpose to secure for Newton incor- poration as an independent town, the citizens began to turn their attention to the matter of securing the highest conveniences within their own borders. And, as the Sabbath worship and town meet- ings were their central social points, and the meeting-house, which embraced these, was their central geographical point, their efforts were directed in these things to secure the greatest convenience to the largest number. Measures for these intents were therefore the next important objects of action.
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