History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 14

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| Nicholas Sever. 1731-62 John Cushing 1702-28

THE PLYMOUTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.

NOTE .- The sketches in the foregoing record of Perez Sim- ons, John D. Long, John A. Andrew, Solomon Lincoln. John . Andrew, Jacob B. Harris. Jesse E. Keith. Welcome Young, shum Mitchell, B. W. Harris. William H. Osborne, Aaron obart, Williams Latham, Jared Whitman. Hosea Kingman, artholomew Brown, Jonas R. Perkins, William H. Wood, liab Ward, Zephaniah Swift, Seth Miller, Thomas Burgess, ristam Burgess, Abraham Holmes, Joseph Sampson Beal, radford Kingman. Daniel Howard, Lucius Kingman, Caleb oward, Melville Hayward. Ellis Wesley Morton, Lucius Cary, liab Whitman, Jonathan White, Austin Packard, Esq., Timu- hy Ruggles. and William Cushing, were contributed by other riters. The names of some of these writers are disclosed in ot-notes. W. T. D.

The only existing record of admissions to the bar egins in 1825, and contains the following list :

Admitted.

acoh H. Loud 1825

Frank T. Morton .. 1861

Morton D. Mitchell 1862

George L. Faxon 1862

George B. Fitts .... 1862

J. K. Hayward. 1862

Barnahas Holmes. 1864

W'm. H. Oshorne. 1864

Orin F. Gray 1864 ustavus Gilbert. 1831

harles K. Whitman 1831

Hosea Kingman 1866

Daniel G. Thompson 1868 J. C. Sullivan 1869

Charles M. Read. 1869

Henry K. Braley. 1873

Arthur Lord 1874

F. C. Sproat. 1874

John F. Simmons. 1875

Millard E. Brown 1875

Hamilton L. Gibbs 1875

Frank M. Wilkins. 1875 Henry Augustus Blake ... 1876

Lloyd E. Chamberlain ... 1877

Alfred F. Sears, Jr .. 1877

Eliab L. Packard 1877

Jesse B. Potter. 1877

James Godfrey. 1877

B. R. Curtis 1878

Edward E. Hobart. 1878

Chester M. Perry. 1878

ohn Eddy

1543 1846

Noah A. Poole .. 1878 Isaac M. Jackson. 1878

Robert O. Harris. 1879

icholas Hathaway 1850

Charles H. Edson 1880 esse E. Keith 1850

Quincy C. Bird. 1880 1880

David H. Gibbs

Joseph H. Strong. 1881 1881

Arthur P. Peterson

Lawrence J. Donavan. 1882

Charles S. Davis 1882

. E. Damon

1858

Silas A. Besse ....

1882

. Granville Pratt 1859

Charles W. Robinson. 18×3

lbert Mason.

1860

Harvey HI. Pratt. 1883

barles H. Drew. 1$60

Edgar O. Achon 1884 amee G. Sproat 1860

Hamlin E. Eastman 1884 ". E. Jewell

Some in the above list have died, some lave re- hoved into other counties, and some belonging to ther counties found it convenient to be admitted at Plymouth. There are others admitted to the bar else- here and now living in the county either in or out of practice, as follows :

William H. Whitman. Plymouth.

Perex Simmons Hanover. John J. Rumvell. l'lymouth.

William T. Davis .Plymouth. Joseph O. Burdett. Hingham.

Edward O. Cooke. Scituate.

B. W. Harris East Bridgewater.

Ezra S. Whitmarsh .. . East Bridgewater.

William Hedge ... . Plymouth.

Francis M. Vaughan Middleboro'.

W. W. Wilkins.

Brockton.

Jonathan White

Brockton.

Charles W. Sumner Ira A. Leach.

Brockton.

Otis L. Bonney

.South Abington.

George W. Kelley Rockland.

C. M. Perry

Rockland.

E. L. Packard.

Brockton.

John D. Fiske. .Brockton.

George Lunt. Scituate.

W. J. Macomber. Brockton.

Walton Bouvé .Hingham.

John D. Long. Hingham.

Henry Hooper

Hingham.

CHAPTER III.

THE PLYMOUTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.

BY H. F. BORDEN, M.D.

THE Massachusetts Medical Society was organized in the year 1781, and as time rolled on it was found necessary that district or branch societies should be formed, as the membership increased rapidly by addi- tions from all parts of the commonwealth, and a full attendance at all the meetings was rendered more dif- ficult. Each branch society was named from the lo- cation or county in which it was organized. The first meeting of the Plymouth District Medical Society was held at the King House, in the town of Abing- ton, May 27, 1851, at ten o'clock A.M.

" The meeting was organized by calling Dr. Ezekiel Thaxter to the chair, and Dr. Winslow Warren was appointed clerk. This body was organized by an in- formal vote, and the following officers were elected by ballot : Paul L. Nichols, president ; Winslow War- ren, secretary ; Alfred C. Garratt, treasurer.

" The medical gentlemen present enrolled their names in the following order : Ezekiel Thaxter, Paul L. Nichols, Hector Orr, Winslow Warren, Alfred C. Garratt, Samuel Orr, Timothy Gordon, Benjamin Hubbard, Josiah S. Hammond, Charles A. King, and Francis Collamore.

" Ezekiel Thaxter and Timothy Gordon were elected as councilors ; Timothy Gordon and Josiah S. Ham- mond as censors. After expressions of views and feel- ings in regard to organization, etc., it was resolved to * adopt, in an informal manner, the by-laws and regu- lations of the Norfolk District Medical Society, to be altered or worded by the secretary as to apply to us pro tem., and by which we mutually agree to be guided as a society.

eno Sendder 1836

liab Ward .. 1:36

unius Tilden. 1836

ames H. Wilder 1832

illiam H. Sturtevant 1831

. B. H. Fessenden.

1837

ames S. Baker 1$38

oseph S. Beal. 1838 otham Lincoln, Jr. 1539

phraim Ward, Jr. 1539

nssell L. Hathaway. 1840

oshna B. Thomas 1840

onathan F. Moore. 1840 m. H. Wood. 1842

harles G. Davis

1$43

verett Robinson

I. H. Spear 1845

m. P. Spear 1853 1854

. C. Ray

Torrill Robinson 1555

ward Selee. 1858

1860

lemon Lincoln. 1826

benezer T. Fogg 1825

oseph Sampson 1827

amuel Stetson. 1829

ames H. Whitman. 1533

llis Ames. 1833

alvin Tilden. Jr. 1828

illiams Latham. 1830

amuel Breck 1834

illiam H. Eddy 1834

Brockton.

ohn Ordronaux .. 1853

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

" After listening to some very appropriate remarks by the president-eleet, and partaking of a sumptuous dinner, and again to remarks by several gentlemen, it was resolved to adjourn, to meet again at the same time and place on Nov. 12, 1851."

The above record is the first one ever made by the secretary of the Plymouth District Medieal Society. Of the above list of original members all but four are dead. Dr. Alfred C. Garratt now resides in Boston, and has become widely known as an author of several . works on electricity as a therapeutical agent. Among his writings is a contribution to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 1860, on a case of " Electro- puncture of the Diaphragm and Heart in Drowning, with recovery." The other three now living are Drs. Benjamin Hubbard, of Plymouth ; Josiah S. Ham- mond, of Plympton ; and Franeis Collamore, of Pem- broke. The officers constituting this society consist of a president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, li- brarian, reporter, a board of councilors, a board of censors, a committee on ethics, and a committee on nominations.

"It shall be the duty of the councilors to attend to all the stated meetings of the councilors at the time and plaee specified in the by-laws of the State so- ciety, and such other special meetings as may be called by the president, and to perform such other duties as are specified in Artieles xviii. and xix. of the by-laws of the State society."

The duty of the censors is to examine all candidates for admission to the district society, according to the by-laws of the State society. Each candidate ad- mitted must be a resident of the Plymouth District, which admission makes him also a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

The duties of the other officers are self-evident and require no explanation.

The meetings differ but little in character, the gen- eral routine being as follows :

The president ealls the meeting to order, the secre- tary reads the records of the former meeting, and they are subjected to the members for inspection, correc- tion, and aeeeptance. Communications to the society are now received, and all business relating to the or- ganization is attended to, after which an essay is read and followed by a discussion. Cases are reported and discussed. The essayist, and those who report eases, 'are appointed at a previous meeting by the president in alphabetical order. A dinner follows, and after a sufficient length of time the meeting is adjourned until the next regular date, which, in the case of this society, occurs once in every three months, the clec- tion of officers being annually held in April.

It was a number of years following the organiza- tion of this society that the interest among its mem- bers became strong enough to insure enthusiastic work, for we read from the records that at the next annual meeting only one member was present, Dr. Alfred C. Garratt. It was found that by varying the places of meeting, so as to accommodate all members equally, the interest began to revive, and in 1854 the membership numbered nearly forty. As the years roll on the interest seems to still increase, and although the number of members is not as great as might be expected for the- length of time, still the ranks are full, and the rapid changes which death must always make, and the continual changes of residence, are more than balanced by yearly additions. The last meeting of this society was held at the Culver House, North Abington, April 16, 1884, when the following officers were eleeted :

President, Francis Collamore, M.D., Pembroke ; Vice-President, Henry F. Borden, M.D., Broektop ; Secretary and Treasurer, J. E. Bacon, M.D., Brock- ton ; Librarian, A. A. Mackeen, M.D., South Abing- ton ; Committee on Trials, W. Pierce, M.D., Plym- outh ; Reporter, J. E. Bacon, M.D., Brockton ; Com- mittee on Nominations, W. Peiree, M.D., Plymouth.

Councilors, H. W. Dudley, M.D., Abington ; J. C. Gleason, M.D., Roekland ; B. F. Hastings, M.D., South Abington ; W. Pieree, M.D., Plymouth ; A. E. Paine, M.D., Brockton.

Censors, H. F. Borden, M.D., Brockton ; E. A. Chase, M.D., Brockton ; E. D. Hill, M.D., Plym- outh ; C. S. Millet, M.D., Roekland ; J. W. Spooner, M.D., Hingham.

Committee on Ethics, H. F. Copeland, M.D., South Abington ; J. B. Brewster, M.D., Plymouth ; J. H. Averhill, M.D., Brockton.

The following is a full list of the members of the Plymouth District Medical Society at the date of the last meeting :

Allen, B ... Brockton.

Averhill, J. H. Campollo.

Bacon, J. E ... Brockton.

Borden, H. F Brockton.

Brewstor, J. B. Ply month.

Brownell, Nathan P

South Scituate.

Chase, E. A .. Brockton.

Chisholm, W. P .Brockton.

Copoland, II. F. South Abington.

Cornish, Ellis H. .Carver.

Collamoro, Francis Pembroke.

Dudley, Honry W Abington.

Frobos, Josoph B Bridgewator.

Fronch, John O .Ilanover.

Freoman, Goorgo E Brookton.

Gleason, Jubal C. Rockland.

Gruvor, S. J.

Brookton.

Hagar, Josoph ... East Marshfield.

Hammond, Josiah S .Plympton.

Hammond, R .. Campello.

Hastings, B. F. .South Abington.

THE PLYMOUTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Hill. E. D

Plymouth.

Robbins, J. H.

Hingham.

Howes. Woodbridge R Hanover.

Sawyer, B. A.

Duxbury.

Hubbard, Benjamin

Plymouth.

Sawyer, Edward

Bridgewater.

Jackson. Alexander

Plymouth.

Spooner, John W

Hingham.

Jones. Henry N Kingston.

Tanner, Nelson B

North Abington.

Litchfield, W. H Hull.

Thomas, Flavel S

Hanson.

Mackeen, A. A

South Abington.

Vinal, F. T.

Scituate.

Millet, Asa.

East Bridgewater.

Watson, G. H.

Bridgewater.

Millet, C. S.

Rockland.

Watson, P. C.

Marshfield.

Paine, A. Elliot

Brockton.

Weston, Hervey E

Hingham.

Peirce. W.

Plymouth.

Wheatley, F. G.

North Abington.

Pratt, Calvin

Bridgewater.

Wilde, James

Duxbury.

Ripley, F. J

Brockton.

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

CHAPTER I.

SCROOBY-HOLLAND-THE VOYAGE-THE LAND- ING.

No history of this ancient town can make any claim to thoroughness without a reference to those movements in the Old World which resulted in its settlement. Though the fruit which has grown and is ripening on these western shores bears no resemblance to any seen before, the branches through whose chan- nels it draws its life are grafts of the parent tree, for w hose roots we must search in forcign soil. The evolu- tion of principles and events, making the history of man a single chain connecting the world of to-day with the remotest past, tempts the historian into more re- mote fields than the demands of a mere historical sketch of any town, eity, or even nation would jus- tify. No clear statement, however, of the Pilgrim colonization of New England can be made without a record of the birth of those Pilgrim principles, whose conception had long before occurred, but whose grad- ual development demanded a virgin soil and a free air for their life and growth.

For the date of their birth we must go back at least as far as the Reformation. Under Henry the Eighth the seeds of the Reformation were sown. The hand which sowcd them was guided not so much by Protes- tant impulses, as by a desire to revenge itself against the Pope. Owing to the determination of Clement to oppose his divorce from Catherine, Henry shook off his allegiance to Rome and declared himself the head of the Church. Afterwards provoked into new attitudes of hostility, and finally exasperated by a re- taliatory excommunication, hc initiated a move- ment which could not fail to draw the sunlight upon the sceds of Protestantism which were ready under favorable conditions to germinate and grow. Monas- teries werc suppresscd, shrines were demolished, the worship of images was forbidden, and Wolsey, a prince of the Roman Chureli, was arrested and tried for trea-

son. In order that the minds of the people might be turned against Rome, the Bible, translated into English by Tyndale a few years before, and smuggled as a prohibited book into England from the conti- nent, was permitted to be printed at home, and thus the popular use and reading of the Scriptures became the corner-stonc on which the structure of religious freedom was destined to be built. But Henry re- mained a Catholic nevertheless. He was fighting a battle in his own camp, having raised the banner of revolt against his spiritual commander, all unconscious of the enemy of Protestantism at the gates taking advantage of the dissensions in the citadel to plant its standards on the walls.

Thus the reign of Henry the Eighth ended in 1547, and that of his son, Edward the Sixth, began. The new king, only ten years of age, under the pro- teetorate of Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertfor and eldest brother of Queen Jane, the mother ( Edward, was placed as a pupil in the hands of Jol Checke, a Greek lecturer at the University of Car bridge, and Richard Cox, who instructed him in t' Protestant faith. During his short reign the religion instruction of the people was urged, and the cause of Protestantism advanced. The statute of the six arti- cles, sometimes called the Bloody Statute, enacted under the reign of his father, was repealed, and a new liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, drawn up. The mass was changed into the communion ; con- fession to the priest was made optional ; the English Bible was placed in every church ; marriages by the clergy were permitted ; the removal of all images and pictures from the churches was ordered ; and the ceremonies of bearing palms on Palm Sunday, candles on Candlemas-day, ashes on Ash Wednesday, and some of the rites used on Good Friday and Easter were forbidden. It could hardly be expected that the reform would be a radical one. A revolution in spiritual matters was not attempted, for there was danger that it could not be sustained. It was a ref- ormation only that was sought, and thus in framing

NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE FOREFATHERS.

64A

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

the new liturgy many popish superstitions were re- tained, and the Roman manual was, to a great extent, adopted as its model. But, as in every reform the most speedy and thorough eradication of old errors is in the end the surest and safest method. so the timid or conservative policy pursued under Edward not only failed to appease the opponents of reform, but fell far short of meeting the requirements of the reformers, who were eager to destroy the faintest relics of Romanism.

The result of this policy was Puritanism ; and the first Puritan was John Hooper, an Oxford scholar. Hooper had severely denounced, under Henry, the provisions of the Bloody Statute and fled to Ger- many, where he pursued his studies in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and became a learned scholar and divine. Returning to London under the reign of Edward, he received orders from the king and Council to preach before the court once a week during Lent. In 1550 he was appointed bishop of Gloucester, but declined it on account of the oath of supremacy in the name of God and the saints and the Holy Ghost, and also on account of the habits worn by the bishops. The king respecting his scruples concerning the oath struck it out, and both the king and Cranmer were inclined to yield to his scruples concerning the habits also, but a majority of the Council said, " The thing is indifferent, and therefore the law ought to be obeyed." After a contest of nine months, in the course of which Hooper suffered a short imprison- ment for his contumacy, a compromise was effected, by which he consented to be robed in his habits at his consecration and when he preached before the king, but at all other times he should be permitted to dispense with them.

Pending the settlement of this question the Ref- ormation went on. The doctrines of the church were yet to be remodeled. Under the direction of Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley forty-two articles were framed upon the chief points of Chris- tian faith, which, after correction and approval by other bishops and divines, received the royal sanc- tion. These articles are, with some alterations, the same as those now in use, having been reduced to thirty-nine at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. The final work of reformation in the reign of Edward was a second revision of the Book of Common Prayer, by which some new features were added, and some of those to which advanced reformers had objected were struck out.

At the age of sixteen, Edward closed his reign, to be succeeded by Bloody Mary, under whose auspices Romanism was again reinstated in England, and the

reformatory laws of Edward were repealed. The persecutions which characterized her reign perhaps, however, were the means of advancing the Protestant cause more surely than would have been possible un- der Edward. The reformers, whose moderate de- mands might have been satisfied by a partial aban- donment of Romish forms, were forced into exile and subjected in other lands to new and potent influences, which only served to make their demands more ex- treme when the time should again arise for them to be pressed. The current of Protestantism, which flowed towards the continent to escape the persecu- tions of Mary, flowed back, after her five years' reign, on the accession of Elizabeth, in separate streams,- one to buoy up and sustain the English Church with all the forms with which the new queen invested it, and the other to sweep away, if possible, every ves- tige of Romanism in its ritual. The contumacy of John Hooper was but a single Puritan wave, which met a yielding barrier and disappeared. With the return of the exiles from Geneva a new tide of Puri- tanism set in, with an ocean of resolute thought be- hind it, which no barrier was firm enough to stay. It began its career, as was the case with Hooper, with a simple protest against forms of worship, a protest which, when conformity was demanded by the bishops, gradually expanded into a denial of the power which demanded it. The more urgent the demand the greater the resistance, until persecution converted objection to a ritual into a conscientious contempt of prelatical power.

Thus Separatism appearcd as the full blossom of the bud of Puritanism. Though the great body of Puritans remained within the ranks of episcopacy, desirous only of its reform, here and there werc those who claimed the right to set up churches of their own, with their own church government, their own pastors and elders, subject to no control or inter- ference either from the bishops or the crown. The first separation from the church worthy of note took place in 1567. A body of worshipers to the number of one hundred or more occupied a hall in London in Anchor Lane belonging to the company of the Plumbers, and held service in accordance with their own methods. The clergymen present were John Benson, Christopher Coleman, Thomas Roland, and Robert Hawkins, all of whom had been deprived of their livings for non-conformity. Among the prom- inent laymen was William White, who was described as " a sturdy citizen of London and a man of fortune." The inquiry naturally suggests itself whether William White the " Mayflower" Pilgrim may not have be- longed to the same family, and been perhaps his son,

64B

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Thirty-one of these worshipers were sent to prison, and, after ten and a half months' confinement, were warned of greater severity on the repetition of their objectionable conduct, and then discharged.

In 1576 John Copping, Elias Thacker, and Robert Brown, all clergymen of the established church who had been deprived of their livings by the bishops, became conspicuous in the Separatist movement. Brown was a man of high family, related to Lord Treasurer Burleigh, and chaplain to the Duke of Nor- folk. He fled to Holland, where, while pastor of a Separatist congregation of English exiles, he wrote several books expounding Separatist doctrines, which were surreptitiously distributed in England. At the time of their publication Copping and Thacker were in prison, and in some way managed to aid in their distribution. For this offense they were transferred from the hands of the bishops, whose prisoners they were, to the secular power, and tried on the charge of sedition. In June, 1593, both died on the gallows. Brown returned to England, and after a sentence of excommunication finally recanted, and became the recipient of a living at the hands of those whose power he had so long denied and resisted. He had, however, been identified with the new movement sufficiently long to stamp his followers with the name Brownists, a name which was for a long period applied without regard to minor differences of opinion in matters of doctrine and church government to all who had separated themselves from the established church. At a later day John Robinson warned his congregation to throw off and reject the name, but it is a reasonable conjecture that he was influeneed more by a disgust at the recantation of Brown than by any opposition to the views he had promulgated.

But the fate of Copping and Thaeker had little effect in checking the onward movement of Separatism. The martyrdom of Barrow and Greenwood and Ap- Henry followed soon after, and added only fuel to the flame, which was burning too fiercely for any prelati- cal tyranny to extinguish. Henry Barrow was a graduate of Cambridge, a member of the legal pro- fession in London, and a frequenter of the court of Elizabeth. John Greenwood, also a graduate of Cam- bridge, had been ordained in the church, and had served as chaplain in the family of Lord Rich, a Puritan nobleman of Rochford in Essex. John Ap- Henry, or Penry, as he is generally called in history, was a Welshman, who took his first degree in Cam- bridge, and the degree of Master of Arts at Oxford. They had all passed rapidly through the mild stage of Puritanism, which they found no fit resting-plaee, and entered with enthusiasm into the eause of Separatism.

As Separatism grew Puritanism grew also, and as naturally as fruit follows the flower, Puritanism was constantly and inevitably swelling into Separatism. While denouncing Separatism as a schism and hating schism as a sin, the Puritan, while thinking himself merely a non-conformist in methods, found himself drifting as unconscious of motion as the aeronaut into a positive repudiation of doctrine. Francis Johnson, a noted convert to Separatism, illustrated in his career the attitude and experience of a large number of Puri- tans. A bitter enemy of Separatism, though a de- termined Puritan, he lent himself with such earnest- ness to the suppression of a book published by Bar- row and Greenwood that only two copies were pre- served, one for himself and one for a friend. When he had done his work, as he said himself, " He went home, and being set down in his study he began to turn over some pages of this book and superficially to read some things here and there as his fancy led him. At length he met with something that began to work upon his spirit, which so wrought with him as drew him to this resolution seriously to read over the whole book, the which he did once and again. In the end he was so taken, and his conscience was troubled so as he could have no rest in himself until he crossed the sea and came to London to confer with the au- thors, then in prison." The result of his conversion was the organization, in 1592, of a Separatist congre- gation in Southwark, which was the original start- ing-point of a society still flourishing. In 1616, Henry Jacob became pastor of this church, followed by John Lothrop, who came to America in 1634, and was settled over the church in Scituate. Johnson, soon after the organization of his church, was banished from England and became pastor of a banished church in Amsterdam, where he " caused the same book which he had been the instrument to burn to be new printed and set out at his own eharge."

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706