USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 23
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
This statement was enclosed in the letter referred to, the language of which, given in the old style, as in the previous instance, was as follows: "Reverend Sir I salute you in the Lord & have according to your desire indeavoured to giue you the best information I could obtaine respecting the 2 terrible stroakes by thunder & lightning that were in our toune by enquiry of such as were eye wit- nesses of those awfull dispensatjons being as brands pluckt out of the burning. as for the first in July last day 1658. I refer you to the enclosed paper which I obtained from Capt: Nath: Thomas written with his oun hand.
Answer to General Prayers for Rain .- As for the second being on June 23, 1666. we being sorely distressed with drought had on the 4th day of the week made our address to the most high God by humble fasting & prayer, the drought con- tinued till the last day of the sayd weeke on which day it pleased God to answer us by terrible things in righteousnes who was yet the God of our salvatjon, for about the middle of the sayd day there arose in the north the most dismall black cloud I thinke that ever I saw our eyes were fixed upon it so pinching was the drought we feared least it should go beside us & so terrible was the aspect of it that we trembled least it should come ouer us, but God that steers the course of the clouds so disposed that it came directly ouer our towne & it was ex- treamly darke & thundred & lightnd dreadfully, & ther being in the hous of John Phillips (father to the foresayd John Phillips slaine by the former stroake) the number of 14 psons the woman of the hous calling earnestly to shut the dore which was done, instantly a terrible clap of thunder fell upon the hous & rent the chimney & split the doore in many places & struck most of the psons if not all.
Timothy Rogers my informer told me that when he came to himself he saw the house full of smoake & there was a terrible smell of brimstone & that fire lay scattered all about the floor whether the fire that was upon the hearth by the violence of the stroake hurled about the hous or fire from heaven he kn not, he thought at first that all the people had been dead but himself till it pleased God to reviue most of them, but 3 of them were mortally struck with Gods arrowes that they never breathed inore (viz) the wife of John Phillips & son of his about 20 years of age or upwards and one Willj: Shertly who having been a little before burnt out of his oun hous & was with his family a present sojourner there, who
Plym-14
210
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
had (as is sayd) a little child in his armes which was wonderfully preserued, there was also a dog slaine under a table behinde 2 little children sitting as is sayd upon the table ledge the wife of the sayd Shertly being big with childe neer her full time was graciously reviued & nothwithstanding both stroak & fright seasonably & marcifully delivered we may say as Elihu Job 36. 31 by them he judges the people & giues meat in abundance the Lord guide that we may sing of mercy & judgment & walk uisely in a pfect way until he comes unto us, & the Lord guide your son & croune your pjous indeavours both by tongue & you with a blessing to the promoting of his oun glory the good of the present & after generatjons which shall be the prayer of him who desires an interest in your prayers &
am Yours in what I may serve you Sam: Arnold Senj:
Marshfeild July 28. 1683.
Sir I thanke you for your booke, & present my salutations to Mrs Mather, & your good son Cotton, whome I pray God to bless & make a blessing.
it was almost a month after the date of your first letter ere I received it.
To the Reverend Mr Increas Mather Teacher to the Church in the North end of Boston thes present
These two documents are among the "Mather Papers" in the Massa- chusetts Historical Society collection. They once were the property of Rev. Thomas Prince, the annalist or historian of early colonial days. Rev. Samuel Arnold was pastor of the church in Marshfield. It is said that the proper date for the occurrence mentioned by Captain Thomas as in August was the last day of July, 1658. The manuscript was writ- ten about a quarter of a century after the occurrence, which led to the mistake. This information, or correction, appears in the margin of the manuscript, in the handwriting of Rev. Samuel Arnold in these words: "The time as I am certainly informed was the last day of July, 1658." The inquest, which was made an order of the court, also given the last day of July as the date.
Evidently these lightning strokes caused unusual consternation in the colony. Rev. Timothy Alden considered it of sufficient importance to be given in a report to the Religious Societies of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, his account of the second occurrence being as follows :
"He (William Shurtleff) lived in Marshfield and was killed with lightning, in 1666. The tradition is that he was endeavoring to com- fort his wife, who was much terrified at the severity of the tempest, and had just taken an infant from her arms and was seated, having one child between his knees and the other two in his lap; yet the flash of light- ning, which killed him, did neither of them nor his wife any injury."
211
EARTHQUAKES, COMETS, THUNDER, LIGHTNING
"Displeasure Against New England Manifested"-It is shown in the court records that there was a coroner's jury impaneled and the finding of this jury was that John Phillips came by his death "by the Immediate hand of God manifested in Thunder and lightning."
We of the present generation are not so much interested in the fact that two or more men of Marshfield were struck by lightning in 1658 and 1666 as we are in the way in which the casualties were regarded in those days. Morton's "New England Memorial" considered the circum- stances of such sufficient importance that the following extracts relate to them:
1658. "This year, on the last day of July, it pleased God that by Thunder and Lightning one John Phillips of Marshfield, in the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth, was suddenly slain." Page 155.
1666. "This year it pleased God to go on in a manifastation of his displeasure against New England, in a very remarkable manner, by striking dead in a moment, by a blow of Thunder, three persons in the Town of Marshfield in the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth, in the moneth of June. vis. one named William Shirtliff, and a Woman and a Youth; which sad Dispensation of Gods hand, being considered with some Circumstances, gave cause to the beholders to be much astonished: the said Shirtliff having his Wife by the hand, and sitting by her to chear her, in respect that the said storm was so fierce, he was slain, and she preserved, though in some measure scorched with the Lightning; yea, he had one of his chil- dren in his arms, and himself slain, and the Childe preserved. We have likewise received intelligence of four more that about that time were slain by Thunder and Lightning about Pascataqua, and divers more hurt. At the time of this storm of Thunder and Lightning, in the which those of Marshfield died, there arose like- wise a very great Whirlwind, that where it came it tore up Trees by the Roots, though through mercy it did little other hurt.
"It was a great while, and many years spent since the English came into these parts, before any considerable hurt was done by Thunder and Lightning to either man, or beast appertaining to them, although sometimes very fierce storms of that kinde, as frequently as in these times: but now how doth the Lord go on gradually in this, as in other Judgements here in New England? first, by striking Cattel, and then one person at a time, and this year divers, to the number of seven, besides some Cattel also.
Thus God thundereth marvellously with his voice, he worketh great things which we know not: He can send the lightenings that they may walk, and say, Lo here we are. Hath any an arm like God? or can any thunder with a voice like him? By his terrible Voice he breaketh the Cedars, and divideth the flames of
fire; which he commissionates to do his pleasure, sometimes not only striking Cedars, but great Oakes in a wonderful manner, sometimes Beasts, some- times Men and Women. If Gods Judgements have thus been abroad in the Earth, how ought the Inhabi-
(Job 37.5 & 38.35 & 40.8)
(Psalm 29, 5, 7)
212
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
tants (of New England) to learn righteousness? How easily can the Lord stain the pride of our glory with a stroke of his hand? Let not the familiarness or frequency of such Providences, cause them to be neglected by us, to improve them as God would have us, to fear before him, and to turn from such in-
(Isaiah 26.9)
iquities especially as are most displeasing unto him, and to hold our lives in our hands, and to be in a readiness for his pleasure, lest knowing not our time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the
(Eccles. 8. 13.)
birds that are caught in the snare, so we shall be snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon us.
(Eccles. 9. 12.)
"This year the Lord threatned the Country with that infectious and Contagious Disease of the Small Pox, which began in Boston, whereof some few died: but through his great mercy it is stayed, and none of late have died thereof.
"This year the Lord likewise threatned, and in some measure executed his displeasure upon the Country by Drought; but through his mercy hath of late sent plenty of Rain, for the recovering of the fruits of the earth. Although it is to be observed, That soon after a day of Humiliation was observed by some Congre- gations, for the blessing of Rain in the Drought above mentioned, that sad stroke by the Thunder and Lightning at Marshfield fell out: so that we may say with the Psalmist unto the Lord, By terrible things in Righteousness thou hast an- swered us, O God of our Salvation. Pages 178-180.
John Phillips was killed by lightning in the first instance, and one of the three killed in the second instance was Mrs. Grace Phillips, his step- mother, and the youth mentioned as the third victim of the storm June 23, 1666, was Jeremiah Phillips, brother of the victim of the storm in 1658. Lightning seemed to have followed the Phillips family, and as the family was much respected and led good lives, it was something which the early residents of Marshfield could not understand. John Phillips, the elder, father of the two men and husband of the woman killed by lightning, escaped "an immediate hand of God manifested in Thunder and Lightning" and every other cause until the fall of 1691, when he was in his ninetieth year and died, supposedly of old age. He was three times married and left numerous descendants who are now residents of Plymouth County and elsewhere. How William Shurtleff happened to be in the Phillips home and killed by the same stroke of lightning which killed Mrs. Phillips and Jeremiah Phillips is explained by a record which shows that Shurtleff's house had been destroyed by fire early in the year 1666, and that he was temporarily residing with the Phillips family.
Another sidelight on the significance of things which appealed to the earlier settlers and their modes of reasoning and adoption of circum-
213
EARTHQUAKES, COMETS, THUNDER, LIGHTNING
stances is shown in the name chosen for the son of William Shurtleff who was born shortly after Shurtleff's death. Quoting from the book "Thunder and Lightning and Deaths at Marshfield," written by Na- thaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff :
"Abiel, the third and youngest son, was born at Marshfield in June, 1666, a very short time after the decease of his father. At his birth there was a considerable debate about his name. By some it was thought that he should be called after Boanerges (Children of Thun- der), as mentioned in the New Testament; but the difficulty of convert- ing the plural name to the singular number fortunately prevailed against the infliction of an appellation which was far from being eu- phonious. This scriptural name Abiel, which, interpreted into English from the Hebrew, signifies 'God my father,' being sufficiently indica- tive of his posthumous birth, was adopted as the most satisfactory."
The circumstance of attempting to bestow upon the posthumous son of a victim of a lightning stroke something which would be indicative of that occurrence shows that, after all, the psychology of the white men was not far different from that of the Indians.
On April 29, 1695, there was an extraordinary storm of hail, follow- ing thunder and lightning. The ground was made white as by a snow- fall and large quantities of window glass were broken. Judge Samuel Sewall had as his guest in his house in Boston that day Rev. Cotton Mather. The judge's house suffered greatly by the violence of the storm. "He had just been mentioning that more ministers' houses than others, proportionately, had been smitten with lightning; enquiring what the meaning of God should be in it . . . I got Mr. Mather to pray with us after this awful Providence. He told God he had broken the brittle part of our house, and prayed that we might be ready for the time when our Clay-Tabernacles should be broken."
CHAPTER XIV IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE MEETING-HOUSE.
Sometimes It was Lacking in Architectural Beauty But It Was There With Bells On-Heated Only By Frenzied Eloquence of Vigorous Speakers-First Sunday School Organized in Halifax in Meeting- House Erected in 1732-When the Sabbath Began Saturday Night and Foot Stools Were in Vogue-Terrible Poem Which Rev. Cotton Mather Said Would Become Immortal.
If you ask the average resident of Plymouth County or any of the adjacent counties how far one point is from another, involuntarily he begins to reckon from the meeting-house. That, to the Plymouth County men for generations has been regarded as the centre of the town, regardless of its location, and the habit clings. The meeting-house is an institution of peculiar lineage and significance. When milestones were first erected on the highways they directed the way toward it, and guide boards at the cross roads told the distance and the direction.
Meeting-houses were usually erected on the highest hills and the steeple of the church in one town was often visible from the other. The meeting-house on the highlands of Truro, in Barnstable County, served as a means of identification to mariners many years before High- land Light came into existence. Old Nantucketers tell of the whaling days and how the master of a homeward-bound whaling vessel sent a man aloft to get the bearings of the meeting-house steeple of Nantucket. The first meeting-house and the first fort in Plymouth stood side by side, near where the "Faith monument" now stands, and the meeting- house was discerned far out to sea, while there was an obvious signifi- cance of the two buildings side by side.
James Russell Lowell said in one of his letters: "New England was all meeting-house when I was growing up." It was there that the town meetings were held and mass meetings for every purpose. Two New England institutions will always hold the fort in the affections of New England people-the little red schoolhouse and the meeting-house. In many instances the meeting-houses were erected by the combined labor of the people of the town. The whole town took part in the "raising," with appropriate festivities. Such an event took place in Carver in 1793, and in preparation for the "raising" the selectmen bought two barrels of rum which they said, was "Licker sufficient for the spectators." Whether their judgment as to quantity was correct is one of those historical omissions which the present day can not seem to supply.
216
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
It was necessary to have a meeting-house and a minister before any new community could be incorporated as a separate town. There was no waiting until the people of the community could afford to erect a building which would be an ornament as well as a necessity. Con- sequently some of the meeting-houses were crude affairs and far from comfortable but, the General Court of Massachusetts in 1715 enacted a law which caused the meeting-houses to be well filled on Sunday. This was nothing more nor less than an act which required all able-bodied persons, "not otherwise necessarily prevented" 'to attend divine wor- ship. The penalty appears in the words whoever "shall for the space of one month together absent themselves from the public worship shall be fined twenty shillings; and, if unable to pay the fine, to be set in the cage or stocks not exceeding three hours according to the discretion of the justices."
Thanked God For Pirates, Rum and Stoves-From our point of view there were some strange prayers of thanksgiving offered in these old- time meeting-houses, both in the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies. In the former Governor Winthrop relates how, in 1646, "one Captain Cromwell, a privateer with three ships and eighty men, who had cap- tured richly laden Spanish vessels in the West Indian seas, had been forced by adverse winds into Plymouth Harbor, divine Providence so directing for the help of that town which was now almost deserted." In these days newcomers of that sort might come under the head of what President Roosevelt used to set down as "undesirable citizens," but it was a matter of thanksgiving, according to Governor Winthrop, in his day and generation.
There is a story that a deacon in one of the churches esteemed the slave trade with its rum side-lines as home missionary work, and, on the first Sunday after the arrival of his slaver was accustomed to offer thanks "that an over-ruling Providence had been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen to enjoy the blessings of a Gospel dispensation."
Perhaps it was some of the same people for the coming of whom Gov- ernor Winthrop offered thanks, who were in the mind of Bradford, the historian, when he wrote "and by this mean the cuntrie became pestered with many unworthy persons."
Many of the meeting-houses had bells in the steeples, as is the case today, and one use to which the meeting-house bells were put in some towns was to summon laborers from the field, in harvest time, to drink their allowance of rum at eleven in the morning and at four in the after- noon.
It was not only considered unnecessary but absolutely sinful to have a meeting-house heated against the wintry blasts, which were harder
217
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE MEETING-HOUSE
to bear in New England in the early days than now. An entry was made by Rev. Roland Thacher, minister of the church at Wareham, in February, 1773, in which he said: "A remarkably cold Sabbath reach- ing as far as New York. Some by their glasses found it to be many degrees colder than ever was known in New England. Many were froze. I myself coming home from Meeting had my face touched with the frost." Almost fifty years later, in 1825, Perez Briggs and Eben- ezer Bourne, selectmen of Wareham, called a town meeting, "To see if the Town will furnish sufficient money belonging to the meeting-house to Purchase a Stove and pipes and furnish wood and attendance for said Stove."
The town voted: "Not to purchase a Stove and pipes. Not to fur- nish wood and attendance. What money belongs to the Town to re- main in the Treasurer's hands until otherwise ordered."
From a diary record of a Sunday in January, 1716: "An extraordin- ary Cold Storm of Wind and Snow. Blows much worse on coming home at Noon, and so holds on. Bread was frozen at the Lord's Table."
Beginning of Sunday Schools-Before the days of the Sunday school, an institution, introduced to the colonies by Rev. John Cotton of Bos- ton, was called "the fifth day lecture." This took place in the meeting- houses on Thursday. Schools were dismissed, after there were schools, and labor ceased, so that there might be no absentees when the lecture began. Rev. John Cotton, the elder, had maintained his ordinary lec- ture every Thursday in St. Botolph's, Boston, England, under direction of the Bishop of Lincoln. How it became so popular on these shores, when most of the institutions of the Old World were so carefully obliterated, no one seems to know. "Lecture day" began in Boston in 1634 and continued many years. There is a record bearing the date 1679 of "an order and advice of ye magistrates yt all the elders of this towne might jointly carry on the 5th day Lecture." Perhaps some of its popularity was occasioned by the fact that it was the great day for some offender to be confined in the stocks or set upon the pillory, flogged at the whipping post or made to sit on the wooden horse, and the populace dearly loved to witness a fellow-mortal in distress.
It was on these lecture occasions that the names of those who in- tended to be married were read in the meeting-house. If no one could show just cause why this should not be a matter of self-determination, the intentions were usually carried out. A couple, after being made one by the magistrate-ministers were not allowed to perform mar- riages in colonial days-were expected to "come out bride" at divine service in the meeting-house the following Sunday. Everyone would be there to see the bride and groom, and it would add much to the day.
218
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
The colonial dame was without doubt criticized as severely as everyone else was dealt with in the most trivial and personal matters. The men of Abington voted in 1775 "that it is an indecent way that the female sex do sit with their hats and bonnets on to worship God in this house."
It is said that the first Sunday school in America was organized in Halifax in the meeting-house erected in that town in 1733. The first pastor of the church was Rev. John Cotton, a son of the Rev. John Cot- ton of Boston who introduced the "fifth day lecture" already referred to. The younger Cotton shared his father's enthusiasm concerning the "fifth day lecture" but deemed the idea open to innovations, so far as instructing the children was concerned. Accordingly, he set apart a sort of catechism especially designed for the children and they had their own part to become familiar with and on which to be examined. This effort on the part of Mr. Cotton was decidedly successful and spread into several other churches in Plymouth County, although handicapped considerably by the prejudice against any innovations in religious con- victions or practice, which was rampant in those days and by no means lacking in this generation of ours.
The Sunday school in Halifax was nearly half a century in advance of what is usually recognized as the first Sunday school, that established by Robert Raikes, the English publisher and philanthropist, at Glou- cester, England, in 1780.
The Sunday school has reached its fullest development in America, in which Sunday was such a cheerless day for the children of Colonial days, until the Halifax idea gave them something to do, to at least help them forget the cold in winter. The meeting-houses were not warmed but elderly people and those in delicate health were allowed to carry foot stools, in which hot coals and ashes were placed, so that their feet might not be frozen. The practice was to place the feet upon these foot stools and children got as much warmth from them as they could from the "overflow" of heat.
In most meeting-houses the children were not allowed to sit with their parents, the boys going into one pew and the girls into another, with no foot stools in either. The officers, commissioned to preserve order in the "pue of ye wretched boys to see that they behave comlie, and use such raps and blows as shall be meet" would tolerate no pound- ing of feet or other method of getting them warm after the long walk from home to the meeting-house.
In the Plymouth Colony early Colonists observed "divided time." The Sabbath began at Sunset on Saturday night, when the children's play was stopped to prepare their minds for the coming of the Sabbath. Early the next morning, they were tumbled out of bed in unheated rooms and started for the meeting-house, perhaps miles away, to sit through a sermon two or three hours long which, in most cases, even their parents
219
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE MEETING-HOUSE
did not understand. If they fell asleep they were vigorously tapped on the head with a knobby pole.
There is a record of one town which had a law against children "rid- ing down the hills with small and great sleds" on Sundays and, if any offenders were caught, the tithing men were empowered to "break any sled or sleds in pieces, and to seize the coat or upper garment of the boy or girl and present it to the parents, to be redeemed on the payment of a fine of five shillings."
The Sunday school was, perhaps, the most enjoyable feature of the long, sad day for a child. In later years the Raikes plan was generally adopted in connection with American churches. The Methodists or- ganized their first school on that plan in 1786, the Universalists in 1790, and the Friends and Baptists in 1791.
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.