History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 158

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 158

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).

---

" Lamentable animosityes & divisions,"1 as this fine brave soul calls them, had caused him to hesitate about accepting the "unanimous, frequent & affectionate calls" which the Milton people gave him, and towards the close of his ministry they threatened to reappear. A new and larger meeting-house was needed, and where to put it was a disputed question,- not finally settled till after many town-meetings and votings running through seven years. The town no doubt had grown both in numbers and wealth. On the admission of his son to church-membership in 1715 he says, with a delicious unconscious parental exaggeration, " He is 176 members in full communion admitted by myself,"2 among whom he had recorded " Peg my Indian servant (though now a free woman)." In 1724 he records " Hagar my negro woman." At

1 Church Record, in his own writing.

2 Milton Church Record, p. 6.

meeting of April 3, 1729, voted to place " a bel" to weigh three and one-half hundred-weight " grose" (three hundred and ninety-two pounds), the expense to be raised by " supscription." The sound of that little "church-going bell" might well be as modest and diffident as that of the gentle and beloved parson John Taylor's voice, whose tones floated up into its vibrations. The town voted him liberty to cut tim- ber in the ministerial land4-of which it had two hundred acres set apart for the support of the min- istry, etc .- to build him a house; also that he shall have first choice of a place to build a pew for the ministry in the new meeting-house, and that his pew be built by the town. It was further voted that those who " draw pus shall sit in them themselves with so many of their family as conveniently can sit with them, and the rest of their family to be seated with the rest of the town." In that meeting-house Mr. Taylor labored through the most of his ministry. Ordained Nov. 13, 1728, he died Jan. 26, 1749-50, " after above twenty-one years eminent service in ye ministerial office in ye Town of Milton." His strength seems to have lain in his gentleness and worth rather than in self-assertion. A man apparently of real-eul- ture, by his contemporaries held " remarkable for his high rank in the republick of letters," he is described by Dr. Chauncey as " an agreeable, pleasant compan- ion, and a friend that might be depended upon," but so shrinking that he would seldom preach from home, and would allow nothing of his to appear in print.

3 This is quoted from Mr. Thacher's private diary by Mr. McKean. He adds that the second celebration of the Lord's Supper took place July 24th, after five weeks, and the third September 4th, after six weeks.

+ The town records of Oct. 21, 1728, contain a vote in town- meeting " that there should be wood cut in ye land needful for fire at Mr. Taylor's ordination." For what purpose this fire does not appear, as the practice of heating churches was not

- yet.

752

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

At his death Dr. Chauncy, by his orders, committed all his papers to the flames. Dr. Chauncy describes him as "rather an agreeable than a great man, rather pretty and delicate in his sentiments and expressions than strong and nervous. His head was clear, though not the strongest. Few were more universally be- loved while they lived, and lamented when dead among those of their acquaintance."

During his ministry Deacon Manasseh Tucker, the last of the original twelve who founded the church, died, April 9, 1743. The church took the occasion, that earlier generation having passed away, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of its formation, to renew their " Covt with God & one another, which They did accordingly," says Parson Taylor, " April 24th, when the members of the Ch Male & Female manifested their Consent to their Fathers Cov by standing up while I read It over with a small Variation as the Change of Circumstances required."

About thirteen months after Mr. Taylor's death Mr. Nathaniel Robbins was ordained, Feb. 13, 1750 -51. A long and honorable service was his,-run- ning through four-and-forty years, closing with his death, May 19, 1795,-a period heaving with the agi- tations of the Revolution. Mr. Robbins was a pa- triot. At the battle of Lexington, fought when he was fifty years of age, two of his brothers were in Capt. Parker's company. He seems to have been eminently a man of affairs, and in 1788 was sent by the town to the convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. His practical wisdom showed itself in various ways. At his ordination a settle- ment of one thousand pounds old tenor-equal to five | £287 2s. being thus bid for a choice. The highest

hundred dollars-was allowed him, and a salary of five hundred pounds, or two hundred and fifty dollars, per annum, and twenty-five cords of wood. But he bought land and built him a house and gradually ac- quired a considerable farm,-now owned by Col. H. S. Russell,-which doubtless was a faithful friend to him, as well as an abode of hospitality to many others in those distressful days. Then he showed rare tact and skill in adjusting apparently unmanageable dis- putes. In his preaching, says Thomas Thacher, " He refused to call any man master on earth, or to sac- rifice truth to prevailing opinions, however conducive to popularity, to consideration, and consequence. Such candor and liberal principles were the more deserving of praise, since, in the first period of his ministry, such a spirit and temper were not common." So, in preaching, " plain and pathetick ;" in prayer, apt and easy ; in charity, so large and just that he would not allow even the good in bad men to be forgotten ; in service to the unfortunate, the sick, the sorrowing, . 1857.

and the young, tender and faithful; is it wonder that he kept his church free from fanaticism and united and rational ? How much he may have served to prepare for the changes that were to come when the Unitarian controversy broke out, we may imagine, though can never know.1

In the latter part of his ministry the question of a new meeting-house again arose. Exactly why does not appear, for the town could hardly have recovered from the exhaustion of the Seven Years' war, the Revolution, and the long depression before the adop- tion of the Constitution. Indeed, in the thirty-two years ending with 1783, Mr. James M. Robbins says, Milton added nothing to its wealth and little to its population,-" the whole increase," he says, " not exceeding one hundred persons." In 1785 its popu- lation did not exceed twelve hundred persons, with two hundred and sixty-seven ratable polls. A town-meet- ing, however, voted, Oct. 3, 1785, to build a new meet- ing-house sixty-six by fifty-two feet,-that in which we meet to-day. Take sixteen feet off its length and twelve off its breadth, and you will get an idea of the surface dimensions of that older building, in which for seven-and-fifty years-a united church, the one church of Milton-our fathers worshiped. The cost was to be raised by selling the old church at auction, selling the pews in the new one, and assessing the balance on the polls and estates throughout the town. And two years were to be devoted to the building of the church. In six weeks (Nov. 14, 1785) the pews on the lower floor, sixty-two in number, were valued and sold. Valued at £904, they sold for £1191 2s .; valuation set on a pew was £24; the lowest £11. The highest bid for a choice was £6 12s., by William Taylor ; the lowest, £3 12s., by John Crehore, Jr., and John Marshall. Ten weeks later the twenty-four gallery pews were appraised and sold. Valued at £150,-the values ranging from £10 to £4,-they sold at £209 8s., the bids running from £1 10s. to £5 2s. above the valuation. The amount raised by these sales was £1400 10s., and this before ground was broken for the new church. Those simple- minded fathers of ours apparently did not believe in spending their money before they raised it. Is not that pretty good doctrine to build a church upon ?

I During Parson Robbins' ministry Whitefield preached in Milton. His friends sought to get the meeting-house for him. But to this Mr. Robbins would not consent. Whitefield is re- ported to have said that "true religion would not flourish in Milton until they got a new minister." His preaching was held under the large tree which stood in front of the Foy house on Milton Hill, and which blew down in the memorable gale of

753

MILTON.

On May-day, 1787, they began to frame the house. June 19th they began to raise the frame. " And altho four days ware Barely sufficient," says the record, " for accomplishing that important Difficult & Dangerous part of the Bussness yet as the Quantity of the Timber was Large and also very hevey as thare was No damage sustained or the most triffling accident hapned during the whol time these singular Circumstances were generally Considered as evident Tokens of the divin favour and supernatural Protec- tion." December 31st the committee in charge of the building " ware agreeably entertained with the Exhibition of very elligant clock Presented as a do- nation to the Town by Mr. Edward H. Robbins." 1

On the first day of the year 1788 the new church building was dedicated. It had cost seventeen hun- dred pounds,-five thousand six hundred dollars. The ! old church standing on the road was pulled down. Mr. Robbins, on occasion of the dedication, was fur- nished a new horse-hair wig and black gown. "In the spring," we are told, "every man in the parish brings a young elm-tree and plants it in the yard. The three Dutch elms before the door were brought from Brush Hill."2 The building stood sideways to the road and faced southwest. It was open to the roof, had galleries around, and a pulpit high up on the west side, with sounding-board, according to the not always bad fashion of that time. Sixty years were to pass ere an organ's voice should here be heard.

Here the last eight years of Mr. Robbins' ministry centred. On his decease, in 1795, the church called Rev. John Pierce3 (June 19, 1796), afterwards the

1 The record adds : " This Butifnll Machine Justly Esteemed very ornimantal is really much more valuable on account of its use and Conveniency ; for while it serves to distinguish those artificial Periods of Time that measure and Constitute the ag- gregate Term of univarsall Mortal Duration at the same time reminds us of the Constant and unintrupted Succession of those moments that will infailably & shortly reduce that Portion of time alloted to mortals to one single point."

2 They were brought by Governor E. H. Robbins. There were originally four. The one nearest the southwest drive-way was blown down in the September gale of 1815. Like many other | trees which shared its fate at that time, it was replaced, and it flourished for about twenty years. In 1835, however, when the meeting-house was turned round, as it showed signs of decay and obstructed one of the approaches to the church, it was cut down.

Of the other elms, more being offered than were required for the yard of the church, Mr. William Taylor took the remainder and planted them on the opposite side of the road in front of his land, where they remain " unto this present."

famous Dr. Pierce, of Brookline. But the town would not concur, and not till two and a half years after Mr. Robbins' death was a new minister, Rev. Joseph McKean, ordained here. Young, bright, eloquent, and from childhood of uncommon promise,-a promise which his young manhood's labors here did not disap- point,-he raised hopes for a long and excellent career. But a sharp attack of lung disease brought his min- istry to an end, after seven years of service, in 1804. After his recovery, Harvard College welcomed him to the Professorship of Oratory that John Quincy Adams had held, which for ten years he filled acceptably, and whence he went to Havana, in 1818, to die, at the early age of forty-two.

In his theology Mr. McKean was not Calvinist but Arminian, preparing thus the way for the great change that was to come. But before naming his successor let us pause a moment to glance at the people whom this goodly succession of ministers served. Their story is largely

" The short and simple annals of the poor."

We know little of them beyond their names. But those names are a revelation. They are history of the best kind. They tell, if not of attainment, of, better yet, aspiration. How quaint and how relig- iously suggestive !- Mindwell Tucker, Preserved Lion, Silence Lion, Waitstill Williston, Charity Liscum, Experience Tolman, Deliverance Trot, Recompence Wadsworth, Freegift Cogshell, Comfort Foster, Sub- mit Badcock, Hopestill Feild, Bethel Blair, Content Marah, Reform Knowlton, Supply+ Vose. Surely the people that of themselves run to names like these are such as will have " Religion in Common Life," if that be possible. They will not be empty and idle men or frivolous women. Indeed, " tramps" and idlers stood small chance of immunity at their hands. They builded ships and mills, and bridges and roads. In 1785, already seven mills kept the Neponset-at work,-one chocolate, one saw, one grist, one slit- ting, and three paper,-and orchards abounded, yield-

the vote of the church in favor of inviting Mr. Pierce. And the weighty ground of Mr. Swift's opposition was that he did not like Mr. Pierce's stepmother.

+ I cannot forbear adding to this list of names that of " Role on God," which was given to a son of John Cotton. Its owner, I am informed, became minister of Sandwich, Mass. This, however, is not given as one of the Milton names.

A curious glance into the history of this class of names is afforded by an extract from the ancient record of the First daughter of Roger Clap, was baptized 24 1 mo 50,-i.e., March 24, 1650,-the record says : "Louetenant Clap declared ye Reason why he called his child Wait was because he did

3 They who call the old times better than the new may find a | Church of Dorchester. After mentioning that Wait Clap, grain of comfort in the following "little story." Dr. Pierce used to say, in his jovial fashion, that Mr. John Swift was the cause of his not coming to Milton. Being a man of influence, he made such a fuss in the town that the town refused to ratify | suppose the Fall of antichrist was not Farre off."

754

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ing ample supply of cider. But agriculture was the chief occupation, although even then the town began to develop the character which marks it to-day. Milton furnished her full quota to the Revolutionary war, and more. When Boston, in the severe winter of 1780, was so blocked by snow as to suffer for fuel, Milton farmers came to its relief with heavy supplies from the woods of Milton and Quincy, carried " by way of the river on the ice to Boston." And so they were " not slothful in business," because " fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Honorable names in the pulpit, on the bench, in council, at the bar, in business, and in war arose among them, and of noble women not a few. Seventeen young men graduated from this town at Harvard College in the last half of the eighteenth century, all of whom proved " respectable," and "some of them distinguished." | Thomas Thatcher, in his sermon on Mr. Nathaniel Robbins, 1795, says, " This town hath been cele- brated for a pacifick temper and liberal sentiments, even from its first incorporation ; so that in the course of one hundred and fifteen years I never heard of one ecclesiastical council being called, on account of any religious grievance."

Twenty-eight months passed after Mr. McKean's retirement before his successor was settled,-the Rev. Samuel Gile, ordained Feb. 18, 1807. He came to a very different Milton from that of one hundred and twenty-nine years before. The seething activities of those years of war at home and abroad,-religious controversy, political agitation, the free breathing of the free air of this new continent, the independent life and self-governed movement of society in New Eng- land,-all had made their impress on this town. A liberal spirit had grown up, which could no longer be subdued. The death of Cromwell and the restora- tion of the monarchy in England, compelling the tol- eration of the Church of England in this colony, had paved the way for it. The Quaker agitation, cul- minating in 1658, had helped to it. Roger Wil- liams' great brave call for freedom of conscience and the separation of State from Church, furthered it. The English Acts of Uniformity certainly could not repress it. The question of the witches; the revival under George Whitefield; the protest of Methodist and Presbyterian, with Baptist, Quaker, and Episco- palian, against being taxed " to support the ministry and repair the meeting-house," which they did not

towns,-all did their share towards it. And cer- tainly the war for independence and the upheavings of the French revolution could not fail of influence. Thus the very atmosphere of New England thought and life had changed. A town situated like Milton could not fail to show the change. Hence, although excellence of character and loyalty to conviction might insure to the new minister a hearty welcome to his post of duty here, and the cordial respect and good- will of all classes of the people of the town,-yet that very excellence of character and loyalty to conviction might, when questions arose, and a "parting of the ways" was reached, make separation inevitable and decided. And so it proved here.

In 1809, within three years after Mr. Gile's settle- ment, the rigid and the liberal tendencies in the churches of Boston and vicinity came to an issue in the Second Church in Dorchester, where. Mr. John Codman had been settled the year before, Mr. W. E. Channing preaching the sermon. Mr. Codman would not exchange with the ministers of the Boston Asso- ciation, although, as I understand, he had been, if he was not at that very time, a member of it. He was Calvinist ; they Unitarian. His disappointed people tried to move him, but in vain. They wrote to the ministers with whom he did exchange, requesting them not to come; but come they would. Twice they dismissed him, but he would not go. At last they put a guard on the pulpit-stairs to prevent his entrance; but for all that he preached. So the con- troversy waxed, to be settled at last by those opposed agreeing to sell their pews and leave the parish.

Eleven years later, in 1820, the controversy reap- peared in the First Church in Dedham, but with a dif- ferent issue. There Mr. Lamson was settled, against the remonstrance of two-thirds of the church, as a Unitarian. The protesting two-thirds of the church members seceded, claimed to be the true church of Dedham, and carried their case before the Supreme Court. There it was decided against them.

" It was laid down, that a church separating from a parish, for any cause, lost its existence; that never in Massachusetts had a church a legal existence apart from a parish. The law knew of parishes as corporations, and deacons as corporations, and ministers as corporations ; but the church proper was no corporation or quasi-corporation, and could not, therefore, hold property apart from the parish, whatever its faith."

Not the seceding church members, but the parish, agree to; and, finally, of Murray, the preacher of the | had the legal right to the title, property, records, and furniture of the First Church of Dedham.

This momentous decision, a decision opening its own opportunity of self-denial and martyrdom, bore fruit

new gospel of Universalism, added to their own theo- logical controversies and the Boston influence, which did not allow the inhabitants generally to be taxed to support the ministry, as they were in the country | in the history of this first church of Milton.

755

MILTON.

The new minister proved to be Calvinistic rather than liberal, while the parish was preponderatingly liberal. Had Mr. Gile been left to himself, a rup- ture might have been avoided. Perhaps the wonder is that it did not come earlier. Not till twenty-one years after his settlement does the First Unitarian Society appear in the records of this parish (July 4, 1828). It was composed chiefly of members of the parish whom Mr. Gile's ministrations failed to satisfy. It met in the present high-school building, under the preaching of Rev. Charles Chauncy Sewall. It appears as making overtures to this parish for an equitable division of the ministerial lands belonging to the parish. As negotiations proved fruitless, and as danger appeared of the alienation and loss of the · ministerial lands, the First Unitarian Society dis- solved, and its members resumed their place in the parish, and asserted their rights in open parish meet- ing. The question of exchanges was the point on which discussion turned. At his settlement, Mr. Gile had agreed to exchange with ministers of the Boston Association. As division lines were more sharply drawn, it became increasingly difficult for him to do so ; and yet the more urgently his people re- quired it. Nearly eleven years the question was agi- tated, terminating then in arrangements for a sepa- ration between him and his people. A " mutual council"-i.e., a council composed of representatives of both parties-proving impracticable, an ex parte council, representing the majority of the parish, was convened to consider and pass on the matter. It met at Mrs. Atherton's tavern, Jan. 6, 1834, the house now occupied by Mr. D. G. Hicks, on the corner of Canton Avenue and Atherton Street. Horace Mann presented the case for the parish. Mr. Gile did not appear. The council, composed of Revs. Peter Whit- ney, of Quincy ; John White, of West Dedham ; Al- van Lamson, of Dedham ; James Walker, of Charles- town ; Lemuel Capen, of South Boston ; and Samuel Barrett, of Boston, each of them accompanied by one deacon of his church, voted unanimously that Mr. Gile had lived in habitual violation of the under- | Babcock, Lydia Davenport, Dana Tucker, Rebecca Tucker, Nathaniel T. Davenport, Sarah Davenport, Elmira Thayer, Elizabeth Simpson.

standing between him and his parish regarding minis- terial exchanges, and recommended that his connec- tion with the parish be dissolved. On Jan. 20, 1834, it was dissolved. He retired with his friends, and they formed the neighboring society, under the name of the " First Evangelical Church, Milton," in whose : was voted to take down this building, better counsels ministry he continued till his death, in 1836.

Thus the old order of things came to an end, and a new order began. The time had come when the one must become two,-the one trunk dividing into two branches. The division came as it comes in the grow-

ing tree, because it must. The tree must enter on a more varied and richer life. The two branches were in it from the first, though bound up in the one trunk. Which of them is the true First Milton Church ? Both claim so to be: which is correct ? Could numbers settle the question, they would settle it in this one's favor. Could Massachusetts law settle it, the decision would be the same, for it awards to this parish the title, records, property, and furniture of the ancient First Church of Milton. Could adherence to the theologic letter of the old covenant settle it, the verdict must go the other way.

Thus, four-and-forty years ago, this ancient church became distinctly Unitarian. So it has continued until this day.

One of its first acts, after the induction of a new minister,-Rev. B. Huntoon, installed Oct. 15, 1834, -was to adopt the New Testament "as the only Divinely authorized Creed for Christians, and an all- sufficient rule of faith and practice." Forty-eight persons signed their names to this acknowledgment, " beseeching Almighty God so to assist and direct" them "in discharging all the duties of this present life, that" they " may obtain life Eternal through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Of these forty- eight some are still present with us, though most have " fallen asleep."

The following is the list: Benjamin Huntoon, Susan Huntoon, John Ruggles, Betsy Ruggles, Betsy Ruggles, Jr., Esther Soper, Lemuel Babcock, Jr., Lucretia Babcock, Moses Gragg, Rebekah N. Gragg, Edward Capen, Mary Capen, Nathaniel Davenport, Nancy Davenport, Jeremiah Crehore, Joann Crehore, Catharine Dunbar, Mary B. Clarke, Matilda Vose, | Walter Cornell, Mary Cornell, Amy Batty, Stephen Babcock, Rufus P. Sumner, Susan Sumner, Samuel Adams, Margaret L. Babcock, Charles R. Kennedy, Ephraim Hunt, Jr., Simon Ferry, Rhoda Ferry, John J. Low, Francis M. Clark, Eliza A. Clark, Lydia S. Ford, Mary A. Clark, J. S. Foord, James Tucker, Thomas Snow, Lewis Davenport, Lucretia

Soon arose agitation about a new meeting-house. The "new wine," perhaps, suggested "new bottles." But surely new bottles were not needed. Although it prevailed, and contented themselves with turning it round and remodeling it, and setting off a portion of it for a Sunday-school room. A new clock was given by John J. Low, a chandelier and pulpit-lamp by Francis Low, and by Mrs. Low a damask curtain for the

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 Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 158

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