History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 12

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 12

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In civil matters, there were some changes worthy of mention. In 1694 the inhabitants of the town and the proprietors first acted as separate bodies. In 1695 the proprietors laid out the thirty-four hundred acres of their Sherborn lands which were included in the grant of 1636, and assigned them to those who could then show their rights therein. This was to aid in the formation of the new town which was incorpo- rated in 1694. In 1698 the bounty for killing a full- grown wolf was increased from twenty to thirty shillings, and a number of these bounties was soon after received. A considerable portion of the town still remained a wilderness. In raising thirty pounds to repair the meeting-house, it was voted to pay one- half in wheat at five shillings, rye at four shillings, corn at two shillings, and a day's work at two shil- lings. In 1701 it was voted that the law forbidding any person not an inhabitant to purchase land in the town is in force, and that measures be taken to get it approved by the General Court. The contentions and divisions existing in the town are well exempli- fied by the town-meeting in March, 1703. It as- sembled on the sixth, and was held all day, but did no journed meeting could do no business, but adjourned to the seventeenth day, when town-officers were chosen. A new meeting was called on the twenty-seventh day, when another board of town-officers was chosen, and on the seventeenth of April a third board of town-officers was chosen by order of the Court of Sessions. In 1700, Sir Prentiss began to keep school at twenty pounds for the year and keeping his horse with hay and grass. In 1715 the town granted fifteen pounds for the school, which was the sum granted for several years, both before and after that year. In 1718 the town imposed a penalty of twenty shillings for every month an unlicensed stranger should remain in the town. The province taxes until 1720 were called the country taxes in the assessment, as the name of province was odious to the people. In 1722 the settlement was visited with the smallpox, and the inhabitants held public worship in a private house for fear of the contagion.

The gradual extension of new settlements within the territory of the proprietors is shown by the incor- poration of new towns. In 1711 forty persons, re- siding in that part of the town now called Needham, petitioned the General Court to be set off as a sepa- rate township. Dedham at first opposed the separa- tion, but afterwards gave its consent on condition that the petitioners should have less territory than they demanded. The town of Needham was incor- I porated Nov. 5, 1711, with all the territory asked for

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

in the petition. Bellingham was incorporated Nov. 27, 1719. In 1691 the selectmen had reported that the lands near Mendon and Wrentham, which con- stituted the town of Bellingham, were not worth lay- ing out for a dividend, so that there was probably no opposition to the incorporation. It was named in honor of Governor Richard Bellingham. The town of Walpole was incorporated Dec. 10, 1724, and was carved out of the southerly part of Dedham. It was named for Sir Robert Walpole, then the prime minister of England.

Mr. Belcher died at Roxbury, April 27, 1723. Five of the principal inhabitants were directed to hire a coach to bring his body to Dedham, and forty pounds were afterwards allowed Madam Belcher for expenses upon the occasion of the funeral. He was born in Milton, May 14, 1668. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1690. His house stood upon the site occupied by the meeting-house of the Allin Evangelical Society. His portrait, which now hangs in the vestry of the First Parish, was presented by Mrs. |

The people in the westerly section, after being re- united with the old parish in 1733, were still dissatis- fied with their parochial relations, and on the 4th of June, 1735, they organized a new church indepen- dently of the First Church. On that day the Rev. Elizabeth Gay, Jan. 1, 1839. Dr. Cotton Mather ! Josiah Dwight, a son of Capt. Timothy Dwight, of preached a discourse after his death, in which he speaks of him as " an excellent preacher to walk with God, and an excellent pattern of what he preached."

The inhabitants residing in the southerly and west- erly portions of the town, on account of their remote- ness from the meeting-house, had for several years made known their desire for a new parish. In 1722 they had presented their petition to be set off into a | town or precinct. But the town did not then give its consent to the prayer of the petition. In 1728, how- ever, the town voted that if the inhabitants of the southerly part of the town will unite with some . as the Third Parish, Jan. 10, 1736. But the trials of families in the westerly part of Stoughton in a petition to be made a parish, it will give its consent. Ac- cordingly the South Parish of Dedham was incorpo- rated by the General Court, Oct. 18, 1730. The terri- tory thus incorporated included also what was after- wards the West Parish. But this union of the two sections was not of long continuance. A division arose at once between them upon the location of the meeting-house. Indeed, the frames of two meeting- houses were raised about the same time, and neither was satisfactory to all parties. Unable to settle the | After his dismission from the Third Parish he returned

question, the precinct voted to petition the General Court for a committee to come and view their situa- tion, and to set off to the old precinct as many as they shall judge to be most for the peace and harmony of both precincts, and the committee did set off to the old precinct those families living in what afterwards became the West Parish. They also recommended to the South Parish that it remove its meeting-house

farther south, which was done. In 1769 another meeting-house was erected in this parish.

The church connected with the Second, or South Parish of Dedham was gathered June 23, 1736, con- sisting of fifteen members. They called the Rev. Thomas Balch to be their pastor, and on June 30th he was ordained. Mr. Balch was a native of Charles- town, and was born Oct. 17, 1711, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1733. He continued to be the pastor of this church until his death, which occurred Jan. 8, 1774, at the age of sixty-two years. His ministry continued thirty-seven years and nearly six months, and he died in the full confidence and affec- tion of his people. He was an excellent preacher, and was a man of high character and attainments. A number of his sermons were printed.

Dedham, was installed as pastor. That this proceed- ing was viewed with disapproval by the First Church, is evident from the fact that, though invited, it was not represented at Mr. Dwight's installation. The number of church members was thirteen. At the time of Mr. Dwight's installation the meeting-house begun in 1731 was unfinished ; it was not plastered, and had no pews except those built by individuals for themselves. It was afterwards completed, and the house stood for seventy-eight years before the present one was built. The parish was finally incorporated

this people were by no means ended. Mr. Dwight and his people did not get on without differences and dissensions, and he requested a dismission, which was granted May 20, 1743. The terms of the dismis- sion were that he should receive fifty pounds, and that a " number of respectable individuals should on his removal accompany him as far as Thompson." He was born in Dedham, Feb. 7, 1670, and was grad- uated at Harvard College in 1687, and was the min- | ister of Woodstock, Conn., before he came to Dedham. to Woodstock, where he spent the remainder of his life.

The name by which this parish is designated in the act of incorporation, and which it has since re- tained, is that of " the Clapboard trees." This was an ancient name for this locality, and probably there were trees here at the beginning of the settlement, which were considered to be adapted to furnish a covering for the dwelling-houses.

DEDHAM.

In November, 1743, the Rev. Andrew Tyler, of Boston, was ordained as Mr. Dwight's successor. He was of good repute as a preacher, and a man of per- sonal attractions. During the first twenty years of his ministry he had the respect and confidence of his people. From 1764 to 1772 very serious disputes arose between him and the parish, and repeated but fruitless attempts were made to restore peace by parish meetings, church meetings, and ecclesiastical councils, and finally by referees, until Dec. 17, 1772, when he was dismissed. He left the ministry and re- sided in Boston until his death, in 1775. The church had no other pastor for nearly eight years after Mr. Tyler's dismission, during which its troubles and dis- sensions appear to have continued, which the trials and expenses of the Revolutionary war did not serve to mitigate.

In 1731 the Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler, rector of Christ Church, Boston, " at the desire of some church- men and dissenters willing to be informed," first began the service of the Church of England and to preach in Dedham. He was a graduate of Harvard College, a native of Charlestown, had been pastor of a Congre- gational Church at Stratford, Conn., and subsequently president or rector of Yale College. He had con- formed to the Church of England, and was at this time a missionary of the "Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," a society formed in London in 1701. The place where these services were held by Dr. Cutler, was in a house owned by house was standing until within a few years on Sum- mer Street. Here Dr. Cutler preached at intervals, and between November, 1732, and May, 1733, monthly, to congregations of forty or fifty persons, and administered the sacrament to eight or nine persons. He continued his services until Christmas, 1733, after which they were not regular. In 1734 he baptized five children. In the same year six per- sons had their ministerial taxes abated on the ground that they carried on the worship of God in the way of the established Church of England, as the law at this time permitted them. After this time, Dr. Cut- ler visited Dedham occasionally, preaching to a con- siderable congregation and administering the sacra- ments. Dr. Cutler died in 1765, and after his death, Dr. Ebenezer Miller, of Braintree, succeeded to the charge of the services here. In 1733-34 efforts were made towards the building of a church, but it was not until 1758 that the work was actually begun, and it was opened, Dr. Miller officiating, the Sunday after Easter, 1761. The location of this church was near the corner of Court and Church Streets, but be- 4

fore 1771 nothing was done more than outside work. A contribution from some gentlemen in Newport, R. I., aided in finishing the house. Up to the time of the Revolution it had not advanced very far towards completion, as it had no pews, and was neither lathed nor plastered. After Dr. Miller's death the Rev. Edward Winslow, his successor at Braintree, con- tinued to have charge of the services.

On the 16th of August, 1767, the Rev. Wil- liam Clark began to read the service at Dedham. He was the son of Rev. Peter Clark, of Danvers, a graduate of Harvard College in 1759, and was educated to be-like his father-a Congregational clergyman, but had conformed to the Church of England. He went to London and was ordained Dec. 18, 1768, by the Bishop of London. On the 18th of June, 1769, he began his services as mis- sionary, officiating on alternate Sundays at Dedham and Stoughton. He married, Sept. 15, 1770, Miss Mary Richards, of Dedham. After 1772 he took leave of his people at Stoughton, and removed to Dedham. The troublous times immediately pre- ceding the first conflict of the Revolution interfered with the attendance upon his services and the ad- ministration of the sacraments. But he continued to hold service until after Easter, 1777, and the law was passed forbidding prayers for the king's majesty, when he closed his church. Mr. Clark was very discreet in his conduct and speech during this trying period. At the public town-meeting held May 29, church, were looked upon as inimical to the United States. On the 21st of the following May he writes : " I was surrounded by a mob when I got home, but escaped on my parole." On the 5th of June follow- ing he was taken prisoner and carried to Boston, when he gave bail, and the others were taken to jail. His arrest was not approved by the committee of the town at first, but they were urged to make the prosecution. The charge made against him, was based upon his writing a letter to a gentleman of a neighboring county, recommending one of his con- gregation who was in distress to his kindly assistance in helping him to support himself. He was adjudged guilty by the tribunal in Boston, and sentenced to banishment and confiscation of his estate, and sent on board a guard-ship in Boston harbor, where he re- mained about ten weeks, when he returned to Ded- ham. On the 10th day of June, 1778, having through the intervention of Dr. Nathaniel Ames, who sympathized with him in his distress, procured a passport, which was brought to him by Fisher Ames, he took leave of his friends in Dedham and

Joseph Smith, in the westerly part of Dedham. The | 1777, a vote was passed that he, with three of his

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

sailed from Boston to Newport, thence to New York, and thence to England. His wife accompanied him to Newport, but returned to Dedham, where she died in child-bed in the succeeding December. He remained in England during the war, when he re- turned to Nova Scotia, where he again married, and resided a few years. He finally lived at Quincy, Mass., where he died, in 1815, at the age of seventy- five years.

In 1756, Samuel Colburn, the only son of Benja- min Colburn by his second wife (Mary Hunting), a young man twenty-four years of age, whose father had died in 1747, leaving him a large landed estate, enlisted as a volunteer in the force raised during the French war by Governor Shirley, destined to reduce the fortifications of the enemy at Crown Point and vicinity. Into this force about twenty men enlisted from Dedham. It has been asserted and believed that Colburn was drafted or impressed into the ser- vice, but against his name on the original roll at the State-House is plainly written the word volunteer. His friend and neighbor, Samuel Richards, also en- listed, and there is really no ground to believe Retracing the events of the eighteenth century, the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Belcher was filled in a little more than three months by the that he was compelled to join the army. He enlisted on the 18th of March, 1756, marched with his com- pany, and on the 28th day of October he died of | Rev. Samuel Dexter. He was born in Malden, was disease at the Great Meadows, between Saratoga and Stillwater. His friend, Samuel Richards, died on the 13th day of August.

Before his departure, Samuel Colburn made his will, dated May 7, 1756, by which he devised his estate to trustees, subject to the life-estate of his mother, for her maintenance and comfortable sub- sistence, first, for the payment of £26 14s. 4d. towards the building of an Episcopal Church in Dedham, whenever the same should be undertaken ; and when such church should be undertaken to be erected, one acre of his land on the south side of the way opposite his dwelling-house, next to Samuel Richard's house, should be set apart for that purpose in the most con- venient place, and this notwithstanding the devise to his mother. In case the church should be built at the time of his mother's decease, the said estate should be to the use of said church; and in case it should not then be built, then the income should be applied to hire and pay for preaching and carrying on public worship in the Episcopal way in Dedham until said church should be built, and then the whole to be to the said church forever. By this will, at the de- cease of his mother, in addition to the church acre, about one hundred and thirty-four acres of land, in- cluding the Colburn homestead, which was in Ded- | general respect and confidence of his people."

ham village, was given for the use of the Episcopal

Church in Dedham. Owing to mismanagement of the estate by those intrusted with it, some of it was alienated and lost, and the devise of the church acre wholly ignored. After the Revolution, and the de- cease of Mrs. Colburn in 1792, what remained was appropriated for the support of preaching "in the Episcopal way." How and by what inducements Samuel Colburn was led to make this liberal devise to the church of England, then so obnoxious to the Puritan establishment, has been a matter of con- jecture and of vague tradition. That Samuel Colburn was well acquainted with the service of the Episcopal Church and the Book of Common Prayer, there is some evidence. He had lived in the family, or was the neighbor, of Samuel Richards, who was a zealous [ churchman, and as clergyman of the Church of Eng- land had held services in Dedham during twenty-five years, and ever since the time of his birth, he must have known something of the church which he made the object of his bounty. Besides, it is said that he disapproved of the conduct of some of his relatives and neighbors in religious matters. 1

graduated at Harvard College in 1720, and was or- dained May 6, 1724. The first meeting of the parish as a separate precinct, consequent upon the incorpo- ration of the Second Parish, was Jan. 4, 1730-31. The meeting-house required frequent repairs, and owing to a depreciation of the currency there were frequent adjustments made in the minister's salary ; pews first began to be erected ; two new bells were provided in two years; the deacons' wives had sepa- rate seats assigned them ; and the ever-recurring dis- turbance by the boys,-such were the more important events in the history of the parish during Mr. Dex- ter's ministry. On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23, 1738, being at the conclusion of the first century since the church was gathered, he preached a 'dis- course, of which two editions have been printed, and is the first sermon containing historical references which has been printed. He also left a diary or journal. In the earlier portion of his ministry there were dissensions in the parish, and these gave the sensitive pastor much distress. After the incorpora- tion of the West Parish, affairs moved more smoothly. He died, after a short illness, Jan. 29, 1755, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and the thirtieth of his ministry. " He died as he had lived, enjoying the

In 1748 a fourth parish was incorporated called

DEDHAM.

Springfield, now the town of Dover. The Rev. Ben- jamin Caryl was ordained as pastor of the church Nov. 10, 1762, and he died Nov. 13, 1811. The parish was incorporated as a district by the General Court, July 7, 1784, when the name of Dover was given to it.

This was the period in the history of Massachu- setts when her people were involved in the wars and military expeditions of the mother-country. In an expedition against the Spanish West India settle- ments the province furnished five hundred men, and six men from the South Parish of Dedham were among those who perished. In the famous expedi- tion against Louisburg, 1745, there were a number of men probably from the South Parish, and among them the Rev. Mr. Balch, who served as one of the chaplains, and was absent from his people sixteen months. In the last French war more than fifty Dedham men served at Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, Lake George, and in Canada, at the Bay of Fundy and Louisburg. Among the names of those who served in this war will be found those of the oldest families, and it is said that at this period one-third of all the effective men of the prov- ince were in some way engaged in the war. Mr. Haven quotes from Dr. Nathaniel Ames' Almanac of 1756 the following lines :

" Behold our camp ! from fear from vice refined, Not of the filth but flower of human kind ! Mothers their sons, wives lend their husbands there ! Brethren ye have our hearts, our purse, our prayer."

These wars were the schools in which Massachu- setts men were trained in the duties of the soldier, and which fitted them for the great conflict with the mother-country in the war of the Revolution twenty years later.

On the 5th day of February, 1756, about seven months after the decease of Mr. Dexter, Mr. Jason Haven, of Framingham, was ordained as his successor. One hundred and thirty-three pounds, six shillings, and eightpence had been voted him " as an encour- agement to settle here," with an annual salary of sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and eightpence, and twenty cords of wood, during the time of his ministry here. Owing to the depreciation of the currency, the salary of Mr. Haven was increased in 1770, and again in 1779.

The old meeting-house built in 1673 had now stood for more than eighty years, and in March, 1761, it was voted by the parish, with unanimity, to build a new one. The structure was to be sixty feet long and forty-six feet wide, with a steeple and two porches. A committee was appointed to apply to the church

" for liberty to get materials or timber" from its lands. Mr. Haven furnished the plan of pews and seats on the floor of the house. On the 7th of June, 1762, the inhabitants assembled to take down the old house. The new house was finished Sept. 21, 1763. The timber was of solid oak and the floor had oak underneath. It had fifty pews on the floor. The person paying the highest parish rate had the first choice, and so on to the end of the list. The deacons' seat immediately under the pulpit, and above it, entered from the pulpit-stairs half-way up, the elders' seat, were both retained in the new as in the old house. But the velvet cushion given by the young women for the pulpit, the curtain for the window, the clock given by Samuel Dexter, and the Bible afterwards presented by Mrs. Barnard, formerly the widow of Rev. Mr. Dexter, on condition that the reading of a portion of it should have a place in the public services on the Lord's Day,-all these things show some ad- vancement in the ideas of the people respecting pub- lic worship. The old New England version of the Psalms was exchanged for Tate and Brady, and a chorister was appointed, with power to nominate a number who should assist in singing. Before this, one of the deacons had read the Psalm line by line as it was sung. No instrument of music was intro- duced until 1790, when the bass viol was admitted to strengthen the bass.

The church and parish were now entering upon a period of respite from disputes and dissensions. The serious questions which were beginning to arise be- tween England and the province perhaps served to withdraw the minds of the people. Perhaps the in- fluence of a man like Samuel Dexter, who had re- moved to Dedham, may have been exerted for peace.

Samuel Dexter was the son of the Rev. Mr. Dexter, and was born in Dedham, and became a merchant in Boston. In 1763 he came to Dedham, and built-a fine residence for that day, which now stands in ex- cellent preservation. He was a man of wealth, of public spirit, and no man since the days of Lusher had done so much to promote the interests of the town and church by his services, his advice, and his donations. He was many times a deputy to the General Court; he sat five years in the Provincial Congress, and was negatived several times as a coun- cilor by the royal governor. At the beginning of the Revolution he was a member of the Supreme Ex- ecutive Council of State, which assisted and supported the military operations in the vicinity of Boston. He differed from the majority of his associates as to the policy of bringing undisciplined troops so near the British army in Boston, and in consequence retired

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

from public service, and never entered it again. In 1784 he sold his estate to Dr. John Sprague and re- moved to Mendon, where he died June 10, 1810, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He bequeathed five thousand dollars to Harvard College to found a pro- fessorship for promoting the study of Biblical Criti- cism. He was the father of the Hon. Samuel Dexter, the eminent lawyer, and afterwards Secretary of War and of the Treasury in the administration of John Adams.

In 1732, Dr. Nathaniel Ames removed from Bridge- water to Dedham. He was a man of an acute mind, a ready wit, and of amiable temper. He is best known as the author of the Ames Almanacs, which were published for forty years, although it has been said some of the first of these must have been published by his father. He became a prominent citizen, and was much employed in town and parish affairs. He married, for his second wife, Deborah, the daughter of Jeremiah Fisher, and granddaughter of Daniel Fisher, the second of that name. By this union he had several children, among whom were Fisher Ames and Nathaniel Ames, who both lived and died in Dedham. The Ames almanacs are rare and curious and contain predictions of wars and direful events, founded upon the conjunctions of planets, with some quaint verses. He lived in a house which was a tavern for many years, and which stood on the loca- tion of Ames Street, near High Street, opposite the court-house in Dedham. It was known prior to the Revolution as Woodward's tavern, but at some time previous it had been kept by Dr. Ames. He died in 1764. His widow survived until 1817, and died in the ninety-fifth year of her age. The house was taken down after her death.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 12

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534