History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 40

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 40

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minister. About half of the charge was repaid, the rest he had for the pains he took amongst them." It appears from this statement that during the last year of Mr. Smith's service Mr. Nortou must have been acting as an assistant, as the previous extract from Bradford shows that Mr. Smith gave up his pastorate in 1636, and was succeeded in the same year by Mr. Rayner. Mr. Norton came over in the ship " Hope- well," probably with Mr. Winslow. He was born in Starford, and educated at Peter House, in the Uni- versity of Cambridge, where he received his degree in 1624. After the death of John Cottou he was called to Boston as his sucecssor in the First Church, and died in 1663.

The pastorate of Mr. Rayner extended from 1636 to 1654. He was a graduate of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and reckoned an eminent divine. His pastorate covered the trying period when a removal to Eastham was contemplated, and his patience, for- bearance, and untiring spirit did much towards rais- ing the church from the depressed condition into which it had fallen. During the second year of his pastorate, in 1637, the first meeting-house proper devoted exclusively to religious worship was built. Its site and the evidence pointing it out have already in another chapter been indicated. Nothing is known of its dimensions or appearance except that it had a bell. Its location on the north side of Town Square, opposite to Market Street, is as completely demon- strated as anything in history ean be which has in- disputable testimony to sustain it. From 1638 to 1641, Charles Chauncey was associated with Mr. Rayner, having arrived at Plymouth from England in December, 1637. Mr. Chauncey was born in Yardly, about thirty miles from London, and bap- tized in 1592. He was cducated at Westminster school, and took his degree at Cambridge in 1613. After three years' service Mr. Chauncey removed to Scituate, from which place, in 1654, he went to Cam- bridge and became president of Harvard College. He died in Cambridge in 1672, at the age of seventy- nine. His carcer in Plymouth was cut off by a dif- ference in opinion between him and Mr. Rayner on the subject of baptism. He held that sprinkling was unlawful, and that the immersion of the whole body was essential. The church agreed that immersion was lawful, but "in this eold country not so con- venient." They would not agree, however, that sprinkling was unlawful, and expressed themselves content with the adoption by himself and Mr. Ray- ner of such method of baptism as each might prefer. On his refusal of this proposition the matter was referred to Rev. Ralph Partridge, of Duxbury, to the

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church at Boston, and to the churches of Connecticut and New Haven. Still refusing to be satisfied, his separation from the church became essential to its peace. While in Plymouth Mr. Rayner occupied the house conveyed to him by John Doane, the agent of the church, and which had been previously occu- pied by Mr. Smith.

At the time of the departure of Mr. Rayner there were three children of the mother-church at Plym- outh, those in Duxbury and Marshfield having had their birth in 1632, and that in Eastham dating from 1644. Before the formation of these churches settlements had begun to be made in these places, and the number of settlers and their distance from Plymouth soon made the establishment of the churches a necessity. Those who found early set- tlements in Duxbury continued for a time their connection with the chief seat of the colony and made it their place of winter residence. In the Old Colony Records may be found the following entry :

" Anno 1632, April 2. The names of those which promise to remove their families to live in the towne in the winter time, that they may the better repair to the worship of God.

John Alden, Capt. Standish, Jonathan Brewster, Thomas Prence."

This entry is significant, as at least a partial con- tradietion of the statement, made without any appar- ent foundation, that Miles Standish was a Roman Cath- olie. It certainly does not seem probable, if such were the case, that he would have made any such promise. It is probable that the statement had its origin in the fact that the Standish family now occupying Dux- bury Hall, of which the late Sir Francis Standish was a representative, adhere to the Catholic faith. Sir Franeis spent many years in Spain, and, whether or not to that circumstance his religion may have been due, he preferred the Catholic government of France to his own as the beneficiary of a gift of Spanish pictures, known as the Standish gallery, and forming part of the collection in the Louvre, in Paris.

In 1654 the ministry of Mr. Rayner closed, and shortly after he was settled in Dover, N. H., where he died in 1669. The church records say that " he was richly accomplished, with such gifts and qualifi- cations as were befitting his place and calling, being wise, faithful, grave, sober, and a lover of good men, not greedy of the matters of the world." During his pastorate Elder Brewster died, in 1644, and in 1649 Thomas Cushman was chosen his successor. Mr. Cushman was the son of Robert Cushman, and at the age of fourteen years was brought over by his father

in the "Fortune," in 1621, and left in the care of Governor Bradford. In 1625, Mr. Cushman, the father, who had been disappointed in his hope of joining his fortunes permanently with those of the colony, wrote to the Governor, " I must entreat you to have a care of my son as your own, and I shall rest bound unto you." The character of the son in after-life attests the faithful manner in which the Governor performed his trust. Elder Cushman mar- ried Mary, daughter of Isaac Allerton, and died in 1691, at the age of eighty-four. His gravestone on Burial Hill bears the following inscription :

" Here lyeth buried ye body of that precious servant of God, Mr. Thomas Cushman, who after he had served his generation according to the will of God, and particularly ye church of Plymouth, for many years in the office of ruling elder, fell asleep in Jesus, Dec. ye 10th, 1691, in ye 84th year of his age.' "

Mr. Cushman was succeeded in the office of elder by Thomas Faunee, who was the last elder of the church. He was the son of John Faunee, who came in the " Ann," in 1623, and was born in 1647. He married, in 1672, Jean, daughter of William Nelson, and died in February, 1745/6, at the age of ninety- nine, up to which time he held his office in the church. After the departure of Mr. Rayner, Plym- outh had no settled minister until 1667, when John Cotton was settled. During the interval the pulpit was supplied by James Williams and William Brims- mead. The latter, a native of Dorchester, and a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1654, preached in Plymouth five years, from 1660 to 1665, and re- moved to Marlboro', where he was ordained in 1666, and died in 1701.

Mr. Cotton was ordained in 1669, having supplied the pulpit eighteen months previous to that time. He was the son of John Cotton, who was the pastor of the First Church in Boston, and graduated at Har- vard in the class of 1657. Before coming to Plym- outh he had been settled in Weathersfield, where he married (1660) Joanna, daughter of Brian Rossiter. His pastorate continued until 1697, when he went to Charleston, S. C., where he gathered a church, and died in 1699, at the age of sixty-six. In 1668 it was voted in town-meeting to allow him eighty pounds a year, one-third part in wheat or butter, one-third part in rye, barley, or peas, and one-third in Indian eorn. In 1677 the same sum was allowed him, " and to continue till God in his providence shall so im- poverish the town that they shall be necessitated to abridge that sum." He lived while in Plymouth in the parsonage house, which stood on the spot of ground on the north side of Leyden Street, now oc-

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cupied by Le Baron's Alley and the house of Isaac Brewster. In 1673 the town granted this estate to Mr. Cotton conditionally, and in 1680 voted to con- vey it to him and his heirs forever. This lot of land was part of the estate occupied by Samuel Fuller, who came in the " Mayflower." and died in 1633. In 1664. Bridget Fuller. the widow of Samuel, and her son. Samuel, joined in conveying the estate as a gift to the church of Plymouth for the use of a min- ister. The whole estate was bounded south by Ley- den Street, east by a line drawn through the middle of what is now the alley, north by what is now Mid- dle Street, and west by the estate now owned by William R. Drew. That part of the estate conveyed to Mr. Cotton was a strip on the easterly side, below the homestead of Harvey W. Weston. The remain- der was held by the church, apparently unimproved, until 1760, when a parsonage house was built for Rev. Chandler Robbins, which was for several years occupied by him. It was again used as a parsonage by Dr. James Kendall during the whole of his pas- torate, and finally sold to Mr. Weston, in 1860.

During the pastorate of. Mr. Cotton the meeting- house on the north side of Town Square was taken down and a new one built. substantially on the site of the present Unitarian Church. It is believed to have stood with its front about twenty feet farther down the square than that of the present church. It measured forty-five feet by forty, and in its walls six- teen feet, was unceiled, had a Gothic roof, diamond glass windows, and a small cupola with a bell. The records indicate that it was built without pews, and that these conveniences were constructed by individ- uals by the consent of the town. In 1744 another church was built on the same site, which was taken down in 1831, when the present church occupied by the Unitarian society was erected. By an agreement between the society and the town, the present church was situated about twenty feet farther west than the old one, and the same amount of land in front was thrown out into the square. In 1696, during the last year of Mr. Cotton's ministry, a church was organized in that part of Plymouth which, in 1707, was incor- porated as the town of Plympton. Isaac Cushman, son of Elder Thomas Cushman, became the pastor of this church, which was the fourth child of the present Plymouth Church.

In 1699, Ephraim Little, after two years' proba- tion, was ordained, and continued his ministry until his death, on the 23d of November, 1723. Mr. Lit- tle was the son of Ephraim Little, of Marshfield, and married, in 1698, Sarah, daughter of William Clark. He was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1695,

and, according to the record, " was a gentleman more inclined to the active than the studious life ; but should be remembered for his useful services as a minister and for his exemplary life and conversation, being one of good memory, a quick invention, hav- ing an excellent gift in prayer, and in occasional per- formances also excelling. But what can never be suffi- ciently commended was the generosity of his spirit and his readiness to help all that were in distress." The author appreciates the truth of a portion of this de- scription of the character of Mr. Little, having found in his investigation that he was largely engaged in the purchase and sale of real estate somewhat specu- lative in its character. He occupied several houses during his residence in Plymouth, one of which stood on the site of the Burgess house, at the corner of North Green Street, and another on what is now the garden of Albert C. Chandler, on Court Street. He was buried on Burial Hill, where his gravestone may now be seen. During his pastorate the Jones River parish was set off, in 1717, in that part of Plymouth which in 1726 was incorporated as the town of Kingston, and the Rev. Joseph Stacey, a graduate of Harvard in 1719, was ordained Nov. 3, 1720, as its pastor.

On the 29th of July, 1724, Rev. Nathaniel Leon- ard, of Norton, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1719, was ordained as the successor of Mr. Little, and remained with the church until 1755, when, on account of ill health, he asked his dismission and re- turned to Norton. Mr. Leonard was the son of George Leonard, of Norton, and married, in 1724, Priscilla Rogers. While in Plymouth he built and occupied the house on the southerly side of Leyden Street, now owned and occupied by Miss Louisa S. Jackson and her sister, having previously occupied for a time a house on the lot now occupied by the house of William Hedge, at the corner of Court Square. In 1743, during the pastorate of Mr. Leonard, the church fell into dissensions in conse- quence of the preaching of an itinerant minister, Andrew Croswell, who was permitted by the pastor to exhort from his pulpit. He initiated a revival, during which protracted meetings were held, and by his extraordinary declarations involved the town in excitement and disorder. He declared at communion that three-quarters of the communicants were uncon- verted, and finally so disgusted the more sober and intelligent part of the congregation that a meeting of the church members was held, at the request of Jo- siah Cotton and others, to consider whether, " 1st, a sudden and short distress, followed by a sudden joy, amounted to true repentance ; 2d, whether the judg-

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ment and eensure of good men as unconverted was not contrary to the rule of charity contained in the Seriptures; 3d, whether disorder and confusion in religious meetings was not opposed to the Seripture rule ; and, 4th, whether, as three-fourths of the ehureh had been declared uneonverted, they were really so or not." Nothing came of the ineeting, and as Mr. Leonard continued to approve the irregu- lar proceedings of Mr. Croswell, the better part of the ehureh, including sueh men as Josiah Cotton, Thomas and John Murdoek, Isaae Lothrop, and the venerable Elder Thomas Faunce, forined a new church and society, and in 1744 built a meeting-house on the north side of Middle Street, on land presented to the society by Mr. Thomas Murdoek, one of the seeeders. The church occupied a lot which ineluded what are now the estates of Charles H. Frink and Edgar C. Raymond and the alley between. In 1707 Plympton had been ineorporated, so that the church organized at Manomet Ponds became the Second Church, and the new church in Middle Street was designated as the Third. In 1744, Thomas Frink, of Rutland, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1722, was installed as the pastor of this church, and remained four years. In 1749, Jacob Bacon, of Keene, a Harvard graduate of 1731, was installed, and continued his services until 1776, when, after preaching in that part of Plympton which is now Carver eighteen months, he went to Rowley, and there died in 1787. In 1783, the members of the church having become reduced in uumbers and the old dissensions having become healed, the meet- ing-house was abandoned, and the society with its property rejoined the old organization. With regard to a part of its possessions a legal question arose, which either involved the First Church in litigation or was settled without resort to it. In 1758, John Mur- doek, a wealthy and active member of the Third Church, died, leaving to the church one hundred pounds, providing in his will that the capital should be preserved, and the interest should be devoted to the support of the church; and further providing that, in default of an observanee of his directions, the bequest should revert to his son John and his heirs forever. In 1791, after the union of the two societies, as is deelared by the probate records, the heirs of the son John applied for the appointment of an administrator de bonis non on the estate of the testator to reeover the bequest from the First Church, into whose hands it had finally fallen.

In 1731, as has been stated above, a precinet was formed at Manomet Ponds, but not incorporated until 1810. In 1747 a church was formed, consisting of

twenty-five members, under the pastorate of Jonathan Ellis, a graduate of Harvard in 1737, and called the Second Church. A meeting-house had been built ten years before the ordination of Mr. Ellis, on what is now an old and abandoned road leading from the house of Israel Clark to the Brook neighborhood, and the aneient burying-ground may now be found near Mr. Clark's estate. The present meeting-house, built in 1826, is the third ereeted by the society, the second having stood nearly opposite, at the fork of the roads. Mr. Ellis participated in the extravagant proceedings of Andrew Croswell, and was dismissed in 1749, going from Plymouth to Little Compton, where he was in- stalled in the same year. In 1753, Elijah Paekard, of Bridgewater, was ordained, a graduate of Harvard in the elass of 1750, and continued his ministry until 1757. In 1770, after an interval of thirteen years, Ivory Hovey, a Harvard graduate of 1735, who had been previously settled in Rochester, was installed, and remained in the pastorate until his death, Nov. 4, 1803, in the ninetieth year of his age. The sue- eessor of Mr. Hovey was Seth Stetson, who was or- dained July 18, 1804. Mr. Stetson seems to have been unstable in his faith. At first a Hopkinsian, he gradually drifted into Unitarianism, and out of Uni- tarianism into Universalism, when his connection with the ehureh was dissolved. In 1821, Harvey Bush- nell became the pastor, and was succeeded in 1824 by Moses Partridge, who died in the same year at the age of thirty-six. Joshua Barret was ordained in 1826, followed by Gaius Conant. The successors of Mr. Conant, in the order of their pastorates, have been John Dwight, J. L. Arms, Charles Greenwood, Daniel H. Babeoek, John M. Lord, Sylvester Holmes, David Brigham, S. W. Cozzens, S. W. Powell, Asa Mann, and the present pastor, T. S. Robie.

After an interval of five years Chandler Robbins was, at the age of twenty-two, ordained in 1760 in the First Church as the sueeessor of Mr. Leonard. Mr. Robbins was the son of Philemon Robbins, of Bran- ford, and married, in 1761, Jane, daughter of Thomas Prinee, the annalist. He was a graduate of Yale, and, as the record states, "early impressed with the truth and importance of the Christian system and qualified by divine graee for the gospel ministry, commeneed a preacher of this holy religion before he reached the age of twenty." His pastorate extended to the time of his death, June 30, 1799. He was buried on Burial Hill, the second minister in the line who had died in the service, and whose grave may be found on that saered spot. He occupied the parsonage on the north side of Leyden Street until 1788, when he built and oceupied the house nearly opposite, now

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owned and occupied by James M. Atwood. During the pastorate of Mr. Robbins about fifty persons of high standing in his society became restless under the rigid rules and precepts adhered to by the church and pastor. and made proposals for a separation and the formation of a new society, with a new house of wor- ship. A report made by a committee of the disaf- fected said, " Upon the whole the committee are con- strained to lament the narrow policy of the church, in excluding from its communion many exemplary Christians merely on account of their different con- ceptions of some points of doctrine, about which learned and good men have entertained a great variety of opinion, and this circumstance is more especially a source of regret at this enlightened period, when the principles of civil and religious liberty are almost universally understood and practised ; for whatever stress some persons may be disposed to lay in matters of mere speculative belief, the benevolent genius of the gospel will teach its votaries, amidst all their dif- ferences of opinion, to exercise mutual candor and indulgence, that they may, if possible, preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace."

The words of this report were strange words for the time, and uttered a sound to which religionists of that day had not been accustomed. They were the first utterances of a liberal spirit, which was destined within six years to control the church and to cause those who now opposed their separation to become separatists themselves. There are indications of the hand of Joshua Thomas in the report, a man of com- prehensive views, broad charity, strong intellect, and a fearless tongue. As the narration proceeds these characteristics of the man will be more fully disclosed. The separation was not effected, and no breach existed in the church during the pastorate of Mr. Robbins. The reputation of Mr. Robbins as a learned and elo- quent man was confined to no narrow limits, as a Doctorate of Divinity conferred on him at Dartmouth in 1792, and by the University of Edinburgh in 1793, ject, consider it inexpedient at this time. To comply plainly indicates. His death was widely lamented, and his funeral drew to Plymouth many of the learned men of New England.

On the second Sunday in October, 1799, James Kendall began to preach on probation as the succes- sor of Mr. Robbins, and was ordained on the 1st of January, 1800. Mr. Kendall was the son of James Kendall, of Sterling, and was born in 1769. He married two wives, Sarah Poor and Sally Kendall, the latter the daughter of Paul Kendall, of Temple- ton. He graduated at Harvard in 1796, and was a tutor in the college at the time of his invitation to settle in Plymouth. He occupied the parsonage dur-

ing his entire residence in Plymouth, and died in 1859, and was buried on Burial Hill. On his first settlement his salary was six hundred dollars a year, together with the improvement of the parsonage and several pieces of land and marsh. The latter were situated ou both sides of the mill-pond, and consisted chiefly of sedge flats granted by the town in 1702 to the precinct for the use of the ministry. Those on the north side were leased by the precinct to William Hall Jackson, in 1795, for nine hundred and ninety- nine years, at an annual rent of six bushels of corn, and those on the south side for the same term to Stephen Churchill at an annual rent of four bushels. As long as Dr. Kendall lived these rents were promptly collected, but though the precinct still retains its own- ership in the land, it is believed that since 1859 no rent has ever been paid. Dr. Kendall received a degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard in 1825, and was always recognized as one of the most worthy sons of the college. His life was a useful one, his character was without a stain, his example of pure, upright, beneficent living has been a worthy legacy to the town, whose social and moral and intellectual welfare he so earnestly sought and did so much to maintain.

Soon after the settlement of Dr. Kendall, whose theological proclivitics were strongly in the direction of the new doctrine of Unitarianism, which he after- wards warmly espoused, with the approbation of a large majority of his society, a movement was made to form a new church. A petition was presented to the town, signed by John Bishop and others, for the sale of a part of Training Green for the erection of a meeting- house for the accommodation of the seceders. The petition was referred to a committee, with Joshua Thomas as its chairman, who reported on the 5th of April as follows : " That so far as that part of their commission is concerned which relates to the sale of Training Green and purchasing a new training-field, your committee, after having fully discussed the sub- with the request of the applicants by granting a lot in Training Green for the purpose mentioned would, in the opinion of your committee, not only preclude the town, under whatever circumstances it may be, from opposing the prosecution of that object, but would sanction the separation of a small number of persons on principles that do not appear to be sub- stantial and well-founded. If religious societies are to be split up into divisions merely from a variance of sentiment in certain polemic speculations, about which the greatest and best men in all ages of the Christian church have differed, each Christian must consecrate his own dwelling as his sanctuary, for scarcely two of

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the best-informed Christians can be found precisely to agree on every controverted point. It is true that the whole extent of the town will admit of two re- spectable parishes, if due regard be had to the sit- uation of the houses of worship, and it is as true that without regard to this circumstance the rebuilding would be no better an accommodation to all the in- habitants than two. It is represented with mueh serious concern by some of the principal inhabitants of the Second Precinct, that on the removal of their present aged minister, without some considerable ac- cession of numbers and property, that society will be dissolved, and the people who compose it be in a great measure destitute of the ordinanees of the gospel ; whereas if their house of worship could be located in a more eentral plaee, or another house be built in ad- dition to that already erected, in both which a minis- ter might preach alternately, the privileges and immu- nities of the gospel would be more equally enjoyed, and the peace and harmony of the town be preserved. Your committee would only further remark, that many persons have still a painful recollection of those hostile passions so subversive of the genuine spirit of Christianity which were exeited by the existence of two parishes in the heart of the town, and while the nature of man remains unehanged, it is justly to be apprehended that the same causes will produce the same unhappy effects." This report, evidently written by Joshua Thomas, already referred to, was accepted by the town by a vote of 40 to 16.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 40

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