History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 90

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 90

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E. T. Fogg, of South Seit- uate.

Cushing Otis.

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

the fact that no records are extant of town-meetings previous to 1665. The population was small, the public wants not large, and there was not much to eall the freemen together except the election of depu- ties to the court at Plymouth. It was in 1645 that the office of town elerk was created by this enact- ment : " It is enacted by the Court that there shall be in every town within this Government a Clerk or some one appoynted and ordained to keep a Register of the day and yeare of the marriage, byrth, and buriall of every man, weoman, and child within their Township." This seemed to define and limit his duties, and he was not required and would not be likely to make any record of town-meetings. It does not appear that the duties of town clerk were enlarged or further defined until 1658, when the form of oath for that officer was prescribed by law, and assumes that certain other duties were to be performed by him, some of which, perhaps, had been previously undertaken.

" The oath to bee administered to a Town Clarke is as fol- loweth :

"You shall faithfully serve in the office of a town Clarke in the town of - for this present yeare, and soe long as by mutual consent the towne and you shall agree; during which time you shall carefully and faithfully keep all such Records as you shall be intrusted withal, and shall record all town actes and orders and shall enter all towne grants and conveyanees. You shall record all birthes, marriages, and burialls that shall be brought unto you within your towne, and shall publish all contraets of marriages you shall be required to do according to order of Court bearing date the twentieth day of October, 1646. Soe healp you God, whoe is the God of truth and punisher of falsehood."

It may be therefore that previous to 1658 no duty of recording elections of town officers had been im- posed on the town elerk, and very likely for a few years later it may not have been considered within the requirements of his office to record the necessarily meagre proceedings to those early town-meetings. Six years later the record of these proceedings in elee- tion of officers begins. At the first the constable was evidently the principal man in the town, and some of the ablest and best-educated men held the office.

Anthony Annable, Humphrey Turner, and James Cudworth were successively constables until 1640. The office of constable was an important one. He was to aet as surveyor of highways (until 1640), to colleet the taxes, warn town-meetings, "looke after such as sleep or play about the meeting-house in times of the publie worship of God on the Lord's day," to appoint a deputy to serve in his place whenever absent from town (it being deemed of the utmost importance that no town should even for one day be without the presence of an aeting constable), to have a staff of

office, to apprehend Quakers, etc. In 1658 provision was made for the choice of overseers of the poor and a sealer of measures. These were apparently the next town officers created by law. By whom the affairs of the town had been previously managed is uneertain. As all political power was in the hands of the freemen, and as down to the year 1660 there was probably not more than twenty or thirty at any one time resident in the town who had taken the oath of freemen, they could transaet their limited business with almost the ease and informality of a copartnership. It was not until 1662, apparently, that any legal provision was made for the election of selectmen. Then the follow- ing law was passed, and is here given in full, in the belief that it may be interesting to some persons to see what the powers and duties of these officers were originally :

" It is enaeted hy the Court, That in every town of this Ju- risdietion there be three or five Celectmen chosen by the Towns- men out of the freemen, such as shall bee approved by the Court, for the better managing of the affairs of the respective townshipes; and that the Celectmen in every towne, or the major pte of them, are hereby empowered to heare and deter- mine all debtes and differences arising between pson and pson within their respective townshipes not exceeding forty shil- lings; as also they are hereby empowered to heare and deter- inine all differenees betwixt any Indians and the English of their respective townshipes about damage done in eorne by the cowes, swine, or any other beastes belonging to the Inhabitants of the said respective townshipes ; and the determination of the aforesaid differences not being satisfied as was agreed, the pty wronged to repair to some Magistrate for a warrant to receive sueh award by distraint. It is further enacted by the Court, That the said Celectmen in every townshipe, approved by the Court or any of them, shall have power to give forth sumons in his Majesty's name to require any psons complained of to attend the hearing of the case and to sumon witnesses to give testimony on that aeeount, and to determine of the Controversyes aeeord- ing to legal evidence; and that the psons complaining shall serve the summons themselves upon the psons complained against, and in ease of theire non-appearance to proceed as notwithstanding in the hearing and determination of such eon- troversy as comes before them, and to have twelvepence apiece for every award they agree upon."

They were made a court of inferior jurisdiction, and the compensation fixed for their services was eer- tainly not excessive. This was in 1662. How soon afterwards Scituate elected selectmen is unknown, but probably in 1663 and 1664. But, if so, who they were is unknown. In 1665 the record of the election of selectmen begins, and it appears in that year, July 12th, Isaae Buek was elected town clerk, and that, Nov. 23, 1665, "The town did agree to choose seleetmen ; the men ehosen are Cornet Robert Stetson, Thomas King, Isaac Chittenden." The phraseology of this vote suggests a doubt whether this was not the first choice of seleetmen made in Scituate, and that very likely the town the two pre-

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HISTORY OF SCITUATE AND SOUTH SCITUATE.

vious years refused to adopt the innovation. Robert Stetson and Isaac Chittenden appear to have held the office many years, the former serving till 1674 and later. Some of the early town clerks were Richard Garrett (the first one). James Torrey, Isaac Buck, James Cushing, John Cushing, Thomas Clap, James Briggs, Charles Turner, Augustus Clap, Eben- ezer Bailey.

Ecclesiastical .- The early history of Scituate, like that of many of the early settlements in New Eng- land, is largely associated with religious enterprise and controversy. It was the religious idea that prompted to the planting of the old Plymouth Col- ony. Considering the hard conditions of their enter- prise and the strenuous struggle for very existence, it would seem as if harmony would have been a ne- cessity and a compelled condition of their religious life. This was far from being the case.

Their first religious teacher appears to have been a Mr. Saxton. There seems to be every reason for ac- cepting Mr. Deane's theory that this was Mr. Giles Saxton, referred to by Mr. Mather as a " Yorkshire man," and a learned Hebrew scholar. If it was Mr. Giles Saxton, as he was a freeman in Massachusetts Colony in 1631, his ministrations at Scituate must have occurred between 1631 and 1634, probably in 1633. There is reason to believe that he was a de- vout and fearless Christian, and a faithful preacher of the Word, but disliked Christian strife, for Mather says, "Some unhappy contention in the plantation where he lived put him upon removing from Scituate, first to Boston, and so unto England in his reduced age." Such is all the record we have of the preacli- ing and departure of the first minister in Scituate. What the "contention" was can be only matter of conjecture. It was probably some trifling matter. Religious people have a fatal facility for growing great quarrels from small provocation. They take the parable of the mustard-seed to typify their work. No church was organized until after the arrival of Rev. John Lothrop. This eminently good man had been a clergyman of the Church of England, settled in Egerton, in the county of Kent, in England, and it is not unlikely that he came to Scituate because the " men of Kent," who settled first in that plantation, were among his old friends and neighbors and, per- haps, parishioners. Having renounced his orders in the Established Church, he removed to London in 1623, and for several years preached privately to a Congregational Church in Southwark, in London. Discovered in 1632, he was arrested, with forty-two of his people, and imprisoned. He remained in prison about two years, his wife dying during that

time. Upon his release he sailed for Boston, with about thirty of his people, and came thence to Scitu- ate, where they arrived in January, 1634. At the same time Anthony Annable and several others were dismissed from the church at Plymouth, "in case they join in a body at Scituate." On Jan. 8, 1634, the church was organized, and Mr. Lothrop became its pastor. Mr. Lothrop, in describing this event, says that Jan. 8, 1634, they observed a day of hu- miliation, fasting, and prayer, and " Joined in cove- nant together, so many of us as had been in covenant before, to wit :

"2. Mr. Gibson and wife.

4. Goodman Annaball and his wife.

6. Goodman Rowly and his wife.

8. Goodman Cobb and his wife.

9. Goodman Turner.

10. Edward Foster.

11. Myself.

12. Goodman Foxwell.

13. Samuel House.

15. Mr. Hatherly and wife, Jan. 11, 1634.

17. Mr. Cudworth and wife, Jan. 18, 1634. 18. Henry Bourn, Jan. 25, 1634."

This was the First Church as organized in Scitu- ate in January, 1634, old style.

Their number was eightcen, and their names, more fully written, were William Gilson, Frances Gilson, Anthony Annable, Mrs. Annable, Henry Rowley, Mrs. Rowley, Henry Cobb, Patience Cobb, Hum- phrey Turner, Edward Foster, John Lothrop, Rich- ard Foxwell, Samuel House, Timothy Hatherly, Mrs. Hatherly, James Cudworth, Mary Cudworth, Henry Bourn.

From all that can be learned of Mr. Lothrop he was a learned man, educated at Oxford, of humble piety, great zeal, "studious of peace," and wholly devoted to his work,-an excellent type of what a Christian minister should be. It was a misfortune of this church and settlement that the demon of discord drove this godly man away. It does not appear that any hostility to him existed, but contro- versies of some kind, perhaps relating to the form of baptism, and other dissensions among them so agitated and divided his little flock that, " studious of peace," he removed, with more than half his church, to Barnstable in 1639-40. There is evidence that others would have gone with him but for the ruin it would have wrought to their investments in Scituate. Fortunate indeed it was for the interests of that place that some of the strongest and wealthiest and most influential settlers were thus detained. Anthony Annable, one of the most valuable men in the town

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

and deputy from Scituate to the Colony Court, went with them.

This departure greatly weakened the church and town, but did not promote harmony, as had been hoped by good Mr. Lothrop. Seven male church members who remained he covenanted anew and or- ganized into a church, as well as he could, on leaving them. Yet the regularity and legality of this action and organization was subsequently questioned and denied by Mr. Chauncey, the man who had accepted its call to be Mr. Lothrop's successor. Of the church left behind in Scituate, a majority appear to have been what would now be called Baptists. In 1641 they succeeded in calling Mr. Charles Chauncey, who would baptize only by immersion. He was distinguished for his learning, a graduate of Trinity College in Cam- bridge, England, by turns Professor of Hebrew and of Greek in the same college, and afterwards a popular preacher at Ware. While preaching there he incurred the displeasure of Archbishop Laud, and yielded to the demand for a public recantation. This act of moral cowardice seemed to trouble his conscience ever after- wards, and was often referred to by him with sorrow. Why his own weakness should not have taught him toleration and charity for others is surprising. But he was too decided and pronounced in his religious views to remain comfortably or even safely in England at that time, and he came to Plymouth in 1637, where he remained, assisting Mr. Rayner, until he was called to Scituate. He was ardent, arbitrary, and passionate by nature, and had the materials of which his church was composed been of a more plastic character he would have moulded the entire community to his will. But Mr. William Vassall, the leader of the church minority, was not only a learned man, but palpably the superior of Mr. Chauncey in argument. Mr. Vassall and his associates, who had been notified by Mr. Chauncey that they were not members of the church at all, retorted by claiming that they were the original church, and his body were seceders from them. Church membership was of much consequence, because it involved among other things the right to take part in the civil government. Appeals and arguments were presented by Mr. Chaun- ccy on the one side, and Mr. Vassall on the other, to the ministers, elders, and churches of the Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Colony. On the whole, Mr. Chauncey may be said to have been favored and sustained by the Plymouth Churches and pastors, and Mr. Vassall by those of Massachusetts. For obvious reasons, the ministers would have liked to sustain one of their own order, but Mr. Chauncey's absurd literalism in insisting upon celebrating the Lord's

Supper every Lord's Day, and only in the evening, did not please them, and his views upon baptism, im- mersing both adults and infants, was contrary to cur- rently-received opinions. His rash and violent accu- sations against his opponents were answered in such a masterly manner by Mr. Vassall that the latter " plucked the rose of safety from the nettle of danger."

Mr. Vassall and his party appear to have won at last a substantial victory. Though admonished to desist from their purpose by the Plymouth and other churches, they went inflexibly forward, and Sept. 2, 1645, installed Rev. William Withcrell as their pastor. Though Mr. Vassall went to England in 1648, and seems not to have returned, and though overtures for reconciliation were made by Mr. Witherell and mem- bers of his church from time to time, and though there is evidence that Mr. Chauncey's feelings had softened, no full fellowship between these two churches was secured while Mr. Chauncey remained in Scituate. The following is Mr. Deane's account in part of the reconciliation :

" In the autumnn of 1654, Mr. Chauncey retired from Scituate, and we find no further traccs of these ecclesiastical troubles until 1674, when we find on a record a formal reconciliation, as follows :

" To the Rev. Elders and brethren of our neighbor church of Christ in Scituate grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied.

"SCITUATE, April 1, 1675.

" REV. AND BELOVED IN OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR.

"We received a letter from you dated Feb, 18, 1674,-a very loving and christian expression of your minds, inclined to re- move any just grounds of offence given in a former letter, and to desire love and fellowship with us in the holy things of God, according to the will and mind of Christ,-which we have perused and considered, with thankfulness to God and due respect unto yourselves, and accepted as a pledge of future mercy from God both to yourselves and to us; and we do hereby certify you that we are thereby fully satisfied, and do willingly and gladly lay aside all former offences taken up or ancient disagreements and differences betwixt us; we desire God to forgive you and us whatsoever may have been displeas- ing to him. And in that you desire fellowship with us in the gospel, that we may have communion one with another as the churches of Christ, we do cordially embrace your motion, etc.

" NICHOLAS BAKER, ) in the name and with " THOMAS CLAP, the consent of the Church."

" JOHN DAMON,

" Thus happily terminated an ecclesiastical contro- versy of thirty-three years."

Mr. Chauncey became dissatisfied with his position in Scituate, and having received a call to return to his former people in Ware, went with his family to Boston to take passage for England. Here he was providentially intercepted by the overseers of Harvard College, who offered him the presidency of that insti- tution, a position for which his great learning, studi-

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HISTORY OF SCITUATE AND SOUTH SCITUATE.

ous character, love of hard work, and former experi- ence as professor in an English college admirably fitted him. He accepted, and entered upon a course of distinguished usefulness. Hedied Feb. 19, 1671, at the age of eighty-one. The preacher of his funeral sermon, in alluding to his hasty temper, said, " The mention thereof is to be wrapped up in Elijah's mantle." Much trouble as it may cause the owners thereof, the men of hasty tempers have always been the most largely useful in the world. They are in earnest. Mr. Chauncey was as dogmatic and per- sistent while in Scituate in insisting upon immersion in baptism, as if he had discovered the Tischendorf manuscript, with its statement that converts were plunged in the water, and yet when he accepted the presidency of Harvard College he promised to say no more about immersion, and faithfully kept his word during his seventeen years there, and after he left it the church at Scituate also and forever gave up the practice of immersion. Such fierce controversy over matters which the parties thereto finally confess by word and act to be immaterial, tends to inspire doubt in the whole system of revealed religion. The mind involuntarily asks what is essential truth, and denials and doubts are largely chargeable to the church. Dogmatist or doubter, which is right, after all ? No one knows or can know till " coldness wraps this suffering clay," and then the knowledge is useless.

Mr. Timothy Hatherly was a very liberal member of this church, and its great benefactor. He gave it large grants of land, the sales of which subsequently established a handsome fund for the society. Mr. Deane thinks the first meeting-house was built before 1633, and before Mr. Lothrop arrived. Into this error he was evidently led by the way in which the meeting-house was mentioned in laying out of lots in 1633. It was meant probably a lot on which to erect one. It is not reasonable to suppose they would erect such a building almost before their own houses were built, and when any one of their houses would hold the few worshipers who assembled together on the Sabbath. But the proof is positive that the meeting-house was built in 1636. Rev. John Lo- throp seems to have left behind him a manuscript in which he gives an account of the houses erected during the first years of his ministry, and says, under the heading of 1636, that the meeting-house was erected " Aug. ye 2d & 3d days," and again " Exer- cised in November 10 & 11, 1636," from which it might reasonably be claimed that the " erected" means began to be built in August, and that in November it was occupied for preaching, " exercised in." This

house seems to have afforded accommodation for the church for nearly fifty years. In it the Rev. Messrs. Lothrop, Chauncey, Dunster, and Baker officiated.

Rev. Henry Dunster, who came to America in 1640, was a ripe scholar and an amiable and devout man. He was the first president of Harvard College, serving in that capacity from Aug. 27, 1640, to Oc- tober, 1654, when he resigned, exchanging places with Mr. Chauncey. Mr. Dunster has been unjustly represented as perscouting the Quakers. This is a mistake, and what Gen. James Cudworth has left on record is sufficient to disprove the statement. The Scituate churches and their pastors were conspicuous, in fact, as standing alone in their opposition to the persecution of this troublesome sect. Mr. Dunster preached to the church at Scituate from 1654 to some time in 1659, when he died. It is remarkable that the first two presidents of Harvard College, Mr. Dunster and Mr. Chauncey, should both be ministers at Scituate.

The pastors of this church up to this period of time had been remarkable for their learning. Their successor, Rev. Nicholas Baker, being spoken of by Cotton Mather as a man who " had but a private edu- cation," or we may infer, perhaps, he was not so learned as his predecessors, yet his piety, prudence, good sense, and zeal were so conspicuous that his ministry of cighteen years-from 1660 to 1678-was a most creditable one to himself and a deeided blessing to the church. During that period the sore trials of the Indian war occurred. During his ministry, also, re- turn to the practice of infant baptism by sprinkling occurred, and he also aided to bring about the recon- ciliation with the South Church in Scituate. After Mr. Baker's death an attempt was made and repeated to unite the two churches and erect a new ineeting- house on Woodworth Hill, but the project failed ; and shortly after his death, probably as early as 1682, a new meeting-house was erected on the old site. For several years subsequent to the death of Mr. Baker this church would seem to have been without a settled minister.

In 1691, Rev. Jeremiah Cushing was installed as pastor, on a salary of sixty pounds per annum. His predecessors in this ministry had all been natives of England. He was born in Hingham. Little is re- corded of his ministry, though it lasted fourteen years, and until he died, March 22, 1705.

Rev. Nathaniel Pitcher, a native of Dorchester, succeeded Mr. Cushing in 1707, and continued there until he died, Sept. 27, 1723, only thirty-eight years of age. He appears to have been a popular and tal- ented preacher, loving peace,-and " blessed are the

426

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

peacemakers." His relations with the other church and its pastor, Mr. Eells, were particularly cordial and friendly. During his ministry, and about the year 1709, after much controversy, a new meeting- house was erected on the old site.

In December, 1724, Rev. Sheerjashub Bourn was installed pastor. His ministry was a most acceptable one, but he was compelled by impaired health to re- sign in August, 1761, and died in Roxbury, Aug. 14, 1768. During his ministry, in the year 1737, a new meeting-house was erected near where the present one stands, the people at the west end having grown strong enough to accomplish this long-sought result.

The successor of Mr. Bourn was the Rev. Eben- ezer Grosvenor, a native of Pomfret, Conn., and was ordained April, 1763. His ministry, which lasted seventeen years, could scarcely be called a happy one, but it was from no fault of his. He was a good, even eloquent, preacher and a benevolent, large-hearted gentleman. But religious controversy was bitter, and beat about him, and the hardships and poverty of the Revolutionary war increased his misfortunes. He died in 1788, eight years after his removal from Scit- uate, aged only forty-nine.

For seven years after Mr. Grosvenor's resignation the church was unable to settle a pastor. In Novem- ber, 1787, Rev. Ebenezer Dawes was installed. His ministry was a short and trying but successful one. He died Sept. 29, 1791.

The Rev. Nehemiah Thomas was the next in this succession, being ordained November, 1792. During his ministry grew up that controversy in the churches which resulted in the division of the Congregational Churches into two branches,-the Unitarian and the Trinitarian. Mr. Thomas is supposed to have taken the Unitarian view, and the majority of his parish and a minority of his church, which was, however, nearly equally divided, held to the same. Mr. Thomas was a very able man, and sustained himself under cir- cumstances of peculiar difficulty through a long pas- torate of thirty-nine years.

It is a remarkable fact that of all the ministers of this parish not one has left any descendants bearing the name in that town. The names and valuable services of the ministers who have succeeded Mr. Thomas are known to people now living, and it will be sufficient here to give their names and period of servicc.

Rev. Edmund Q. Scwall, who succeeded Mr. Thomas, was installed Dcc. 21, 1831, and continued in the ministry there until March 20, 1848. Those living who knew him eherish his memory with great affection. Rev. Ephraim Nute, Jr., was minister of

this parish from June, 1848, to September, 1851. Rev. Fisk Barrett accepted a call Oct. 21, 1852, and remained until March 12, 1859. Rev. William G. Babcock accepted a call to become minister of this parish Aug. 23, 1860, and resigned March 15, 1865. Rev. William S. Hayward was their minister from Oct. 3, 1865, to Sept. 23, 1867. Rev. H. L. Cargill, from April 19, 1869, to March 4, 1870. Rev. N. P. Gilman accepted a call Aug. 19, 1872, and eon- tinued in the line of this ancient pastorate till May 31, 1875. Rev. S. L. Clark was the minister during parts of the years 1875 and 1876. Rev. A. J. Jen- nings was next pastor, closing his work about 1879. Rev. Nathaniel Seaver became pastor in 1882, and is still discharging its duties with great success and popularity. The old meeting-house, which was an interesting specimen of the architecture of its day, and dearly cherished because of its sacred associations, was unfortunately burned in 1879. A new, elegant, and commodious church has been since erected on or near the old site, and was dedicated in May, 1881.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 90

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