USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 > Part 17
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for a time in Scituate. It has been repeated by Farmer and Baylies. But as we ourselves were the author of that mistake, we take this opportunity to correct it. It was not Blackman, but Christopher Blackwood. He officiated a short time in 1640; but soon disappears, having deceased or perhaps removed from the country.
MR CHARLES CHAUNCY
was born in Hertfordshire, England, A. D. 1589, and baptized at Yardley, November 1592. He was the fifth son of George Chauncy, who died in 1627. He was prepared for the Uni- versity at the celebrated Westminster school. While he was a student there, the gun powder plot was discovered, which, had it taken effect, must have destroyed the seminary with the pupils, if it had blown up the Parliament house, as was intended, the buildings being contiguous.
He was matriculated of Trinity College, Cambridge, from which, he proceeded B. D. after a distinguished course. He was afterward Hebrew professor, and subsequently Greek pro- fessor of the same College. Cotton Mather asserts that "he was incomparably well skilled in all the learned languages, especially in the oriental, and eminently in the Hebrew." In a few years he became a very popular preacher, first at Marston and then at Ware. While he was at Ware, Archbishop Laud issued his famous Licences for Sports on the Lord's day, and prohibiting preaching in the afternoon, that the people might engage in amusements. Mr Chauncy endeavored to evade these pitiful laws, by catechising in the afternoon. But this, said the bishop, "was as bad as preaching." Shortly certain spies upon his words, reported to the bishop certain objectionable expressions in his sermons, relating to the errors of the times, and he was called before the High Commission Court; the Court referred his cause to the bishop of London, and the bishop adjudged him to make a publick recantation in Latin. The worthy Mr Chauncy was seized with terror and complied. But this weakness of his, afterward filled him with poignant regret, to which he was wont to allude on all publick occasions. But he soon found that there was no rest for him in England, and he joined some of those who were flying to this wilderness. He arrived at Plymouth on the latter end of December 1637, a few days (says Mather) before the great earthquake, which happened January 1, 1638. He remained in Plymouth nearly
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three years, as an assistant in the ministry to Mr Rayner. We observe that the Colony Court assigned him certain grants of land, and particularly ten acres of meadow at Jones's River in 1640, (now in Kingston). In 1641, he was elected pastor of the Church at Scituate. At the "renewing of his ordination," as Mather terms it, he preached from Prov. ix. 10. " Wisdom hath sent forth her maidens,"-and in alluding to that regretted recantation which he had made in England, he said, " Alas ! Christians, I am no maiden; my soul hath been defiled with false worship : how wondrous is the free grace of Christ, that I should still be employed amongst the maidens of wisdom." Mather intimates that Mr Chauncy alludes in his expression, " false worship," to the English Prayer book, the ordination of Priests, &c. Neal, in his account of his recantation, (Vol. II. Ch. 5.), represents his crime and his recantation to relate principally to his opposing the custom of enclosing the commu- nion table with a rail, and of kneeling at the communion service.
His ministry in Scituate was a scene of constant agitation. (See Ecclesiastical History in the former part of this work). These vexations were owing in a great measure to his own ardent temper and impatience of opposition. He met with an opponent in Mr Vassall, who was at least his equal in argument, and who early entered into a controversy with him on the subject of the seals, and particularly on the mode of baptism : and as they could come to no terms of concord, Mr Vassall and nearly half the Church and Society withdrew and formed another Church. There seemed to be three parties in Scituate at this time : one of which held to infant sprinkling - another to adult immersion exclusively -and a third (of which was Mr Chauncy) to immersion of infants as well as adults.
Winthrop remarks, (Vol. II. p. 72), " Mr Chauncy persevered in his opinion of dipping in baptism, and practised accordingly, first upon two of his own, which being in very cold weather, one of them swooned away. Another having a child about three years old, feared it would be frightened (as others had been; and one caught hold on Mr Chauncy, and had nearly pulled him into the water). She brought her child to Boston, with letters testimonial from Mr Chauncy, and had it baptized there." Several children were afterward carried to Boston for baptism.
Winthrop also names another error of Mr Chauncy which gave offence at Scituate, " That the Lord's supper ought to be ad- ministered in the evening, and every Lord's day." Vol. I. p. 331.
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Now this latter practice truly, so far as we can discern, is of as much importance as is the particular mode of applying the water in baptism. No one can doubt that the Lord's supper was instituted in the evening, and few, if any, will deny that baptism may have sometimes been administered by immersion, in the times of the Apostles. But that these modes should be adhered to in all climates and all seasons, seemsto us to put a yoke upon Christians which they are not able or bound to bear. The discretion of Christians may very properly lead to such modes of administering these ordinances, as may seem to them to be most decorous and most useful.
Though Mr Chauncy persevered in these practices so long as he remained in Scituate, he suffered only from individual opposition. The government of the Colony never took up the controversy, as was done in Massachusetts. In 1644, that government began to enact penal laws against "Anabaptistry," and a few years later, under Endicott and Dudley, the Baptists were whipped, imprisoned and banished. An order of Court in Massachusetts in 1651, enacts " banishment to such as obsti- nately oppose the baptism of infants." Mr Chauncy, on his election to the Presidency of the College, made a compact with the Overseers, to be quiet on the subject of the mode of baptism. It would seem, therefore, that his opinions were much relaxed from their former rigour.
There are many evidences on record, that Mr Chauncy was unhappy at Scituate. The circumstances by which he was surrounded, together with his ardent temperament, make apology in part, for his uneasiness. He was a studious man, beyond what is often known, and was subject to all the nervous sensi- bilities peculiar to hard students. He was consciously endowed with great talents and eminent learning. He was devoted to his profession, and he was too much inclined to accept it as an indignity, that his powers should not keep down all opposition, and his labours bring him at least the comforts of life in tem- poral things. There lay his weakness-in not being able to make allowance for the poverty and hardships of his people in the new settlement; and in imagining that his opponents in religious principles and usages, were his personal enemies. He was constantly chafed by the opposition : his Society had become divided and weakened, and his apprehensions in regard to a livelihood were of a most melancholy kind. In 1649, Mr Chauncy made known the poverty of his circumstances to the Governor and assistants, probably with the expectation of some grant for his relief, though we do not find that any grant
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was made with reference to this application. It is a well known historical fact, that about that time there was a question started, whether it were right to pay taxes for the support of religious teachers ; and many withdrew their assistance in their support. From this circumstance Mr Chauncy may have met with embarrassment, as did his successor. The list of his property above named, is a curious document, which we have here extracted from the Colony records.
"I. The house of Mr Hatherly, bought of Mr Vassall, with the enlargements. A new building and barn and other out houses.
II. All the ground about it, being six acres.
III. An enclosed stony field, near the marsh.
IV. An orchard behind the house.
V. The barn close, compassing the barn.
VI. Twenty acres upland-ten of it enclosed called the New field.
VII. Twelve acres of Conihassett marsh.
VIII. Twenty acres at Hooppole island, with undivided lands among Conihassett purchasers.
CHARLES CHAUNCY, 1649."
Now it is obvious, that in those times, this could not have been a very productive estate, and yet, while his people were suffering all the hardships of new colonists, it is doubtful whether many of them were better provided for than their minister. It is certain that he had warm friends. The people of Plymouth (at least a part) would have made great sacrifices to have enjoyed his services there, and those people of Scituate who tolerated or who embraced his sentiments on the subject of baptism, were strongly attached to him. In 1654, Mr Hatherly, the untiring patron of the plantation, offered to make a deed of gift to Mr Chauncy, of a house and land on "Satuit brook,". (see notes on the first Parish), on condition that Mr Chauncy agree to spend his life in Scituate, which offer he declined. Mr Hatherly then makes the deed to the Church, and submits the farm to their disposal. The same year the Church conveys it to Mr Chauncy, by deed of gift, signed probably by most of the male members, viz. Timothy Hatherly, Thomas Chittenden, Richard Sealis, John Williams, Humphry Turner, John Allen, Edward Jenkins, Rhodolphus Ellmes, Thomas Clap, William Wills, Isaac Chittenden, Henry Ewell, Walter Woodworth, John Hewes, George Pidcoke, Samuel Jackson, Thomas Ensign, Joseph Colman, Samuel House, John Daman.
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Though this was given, without any condition to be performed on Mr Chauncy's part, at least, specified in the deed, yet, on his retiring at the close of the same year, the farm seems to have been relinquished to the Church.
The time of Mr Chauncy, while at Scituate, must have been spent with his accustomed diligence in business. Besides performing his ministerial labours, he practised to a considerable extent as a physician, for which, Mather informs us, he was eminently qualified : and moreover was engaged in instructing his own sons, and preparing young men for the ministry. We can state for a certainty, that the celebrated Mr Thomas Thatcher, who had come out of England before his Theological education was completed, was under the care of Mr Chauncy at Scituate. This was the ancestor of the eminent ministers of that name. He was settled in Weymouth in 1644, and in Boston 1669.
In the autumn of 1654, Mr Chauncy received an invitation from his former people at Ware in England, to return to them ; he had concluded to comply with their request, and had pro- ceeded to Boston with his family in order to embark for Eng- land, when the overseers of Harvard College offered him the Presidency of that institution, and he accepted. His inaugu- ration took place November 27, 1654. He entered upon this office with his wonted energy. Having softened in his opinions concerning the mode of baptism, he became also pastor to the Church in Cambridge. Mather gives us an account of his labours in words that astonish us, " He rose at 4 o'clock, both winter and summer-he spent his first hour in secret prayer - then visiting the College Hall, he expounded a chapter, with a short prayer before, and a long prayer after-he then did the like, with a prayer before and after in his family - and when the bell rang for nine at night, he retired for another hour of secret prayer. On the Lord's day morning, he preached a sermon in the College Hall. Beside all this, he often set aside whole days for prayer with fasting, alone by himself, and some- times spent whole nights in prayer. Many days of prayer with fasting, he also spent with his religious consort : and many such days he kept with his family, calling in the assistance of three or four godly neighbors. Moreover, every day, morning and evening, after he had expounded a chapter, he used to examine his children and servants, with some fit questions thereon."
In terms equally high, this singular historian commends his ability and diligence in teaching the liberal arts, and in con- ducting the government of the Institution. He acknowledges that he suffered the disadvantages of a hasty temper ; but adds,
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that these were presently corrected by his holy temper. Though his life was thus spent in labours, which sooner than all others are wont to impair the human constitution, yet the elasticity or vigour of his mind was not relaxed until extreme age. "After age had enfeebled him, (says Mather), the fellows of the Col- lege, once leading him to preach a sermon in a winter day, they, out of affection to him, to discourage him from so diffi- cult an undertaking, told him, Sir, you'll certainly die in the pulpit-but he laying hold on what they had said, as if they had offered him the greatest encouragement in the world, pressed more vigorously through the snow drift, and said, how glad should I be, if what you have said might prove true." When his friends used to press him to abate his vast labours, he used to reply, " oportet imperatorem stantem mori." His labours were scarcely remitted to the last. At the Commence- ment in 1671, he took leave of his literary friends and his public labours, in a farewell oration, and "illness growing upon him," he did not live to see another of those anniversaries. He died February 19, 1671, in the eighty-second year of his age. He was buried February 21st, with appropriate honors. The Rev. Urian Oakes, his successor as pastor to the Church of Cambridge, and (after Dr. Hoar) his successor as President of the College, preached his funeral sermon, one passage of which is noted by Mather as being singularly beautiful. The preacher having made some allusion to his hasty temper, turned from the subject, saying, "The mention therof is to be wrapped up in Elijah's mantle." He was thirteen years minister of the first Church in Scituate, (not sixteen, as Mather and Elliot and others state), and seventeen years the President of the College. We believe he was provided for to his satisfaction, after he had been elected President of the College, and learned not to oppose the overseers in the matter of baptism. We observe that the Massachusetts Colony Court in 1659, ordered five hundred acres of land to be laid out for him, near Charles river.
We add a short notice of his family.
His wife was Catharine, the daughter of Robert Eyre, Esq. of Wiltshire : Mather commends her as a person of extraordi- nary piety. She died January 4th, 1668.
Their children were eight, Isaac, Ichabod, Barnabas, Sarah, Nathaniel and Elnathan, twins, Israel and Hannah.
Isaac was born in England, August 23, 1632, and graduated at Harvard College in 1651. He went to England, was settled in the ministry, and ejected from office at the restoration, and afterward settled in Berry street in London, where he died
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February 28, 1712. The celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts was his colleague in 1698, and his successor at his death. His children were Isaac, Uzziel, Charles and Elizabeth.
Ichabod was born in England in 1635, and received his degree at Harvard College also in 1651. He went to England, and was appointed chaplain of Sir Edward Harley's regiment at Dunkirk, 1684. He afterward practised as a physician in Bristol, England, where he died in 1691, July 25th.
Barnabas was born in England in 1637; he graduated at Harvard College in 1657. He was admitted a member of the Church in Cambridge, (Farmer), December 10, 1656. He was a preacher, according to Mather, and died in rather early life, not settled. Sarah was admitted a member of the Church in Cambridge, December 10, 1656. She was afterward the wife of Rev. Gershom Bulkley, of New London, 1659. Na- thaniel and Elnathan, twins, were probably born at Plymouth, though baptized at Scituate, December 1641. We believe it was the baptism of these children to which Winthrop alludes. Nathaniel was a fellow of the College, and afterward minister of Hatfield, Connecticut, where he died November 4, 1686. Elnathan, with his twin brother, received his degree at Har- vard in 1661; was a preacher, but not settled in the ministry, and afterward a physician in Boston.
Israel was born at Scituate in 1644, and graduated at Harvard in 1661. He was ordained minister of Stratford, Connecticut, 1665, where he deceased March 14, 1703. He left two sons, Charles and Isaac, whose posterity are in England. Dr. Elliot informs us, that at his ordination at Stratford, the laity insisted on their right of "laying on hands," and that one of the lay brothers forgot to take off his mitten, and hence the Episcopalians endeavored to turn it to ridicule, by styling it " the leather mitten ordination." It is a well known historical fact, that at this time, a sharp controversy was agitated respect- ing the validity of Congregational ordination, and also respecting the right of laymen to bear a part in ordaining ministers. It was gradually yielded up by the laymen, but it may still be made a question, whether they ought not to have retained it, as an original right, both by the early practice of the Congre- gational churches, and the practice of Apostolic times.
Of Hannah, the youngest daughter of President Chauncy, we have met with few notices.
Of the descendants of President Chauncy, the most distin- guished has been the late Dr. Charles Chauncy of Boston. He was the great grandson of President Chauncy, was born
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1705, January 1st, -received his degree at Harvard in 1721, was ordained as colleague with Mr Foxcroft 1727, of the first Church in Boston, whom he survived many years, and in 1778, received the Rev. Dr. Clark as his colleague. He died Feb. 10, 1787. As an author and a divine, not another perhaps in this country, has been more extensively known, both here and in Europe. His mother was Sarah Walley probably, as we notice in the records of Boston, "Charles Chauncy married to Sarah Walley 1699." His father was Charles, a merchant in Boston, who was son of Rev. Isaac, of Berry street, London.
MR HENRY DUNSTER
arrived in Boston A. D. 1640, and took the freeman's oath in 1641. Mather records him amongst the ministers of his "First Class," i. e. those who had been ministers in England before coming to this country. But neither Mather nor Morton nor any other historian has informed us where he exercised his ministry in England. He was acknowledged to be an eminent scholar, and a place seemed to have awaited him on his arrival. Dr. Eaton had been removed from his preceptorship of the Grammar school at Cambridge, (then Newtown), and the school, by means of a legacy from John Harvard, the minister of Charlestown, had been erected into a College, and a President was wanting. At this conjuncture Mr Dunster arrived, and was chosen President August 27, 1640.
A cotemporary historian remarks, " over the College is Master Henry Dunster placed as President, a learned, considerable, and industrious man, who has so trained up his pupils in the tongues and arts, and so seasoned them with the principles of Divinity and Christianity, that we have, to our great comfort, and in truth beyond our hopes, beheld their progress in learning and godliness also," (see New England's First Fruits).
He was particularly eminent for his Hebrew learning. He had the happy endowment of personal manners and of temper which peculiarly qualified him for governing ; and he continued in the Presidency about fourteen years, with great acceptance to the pupils, and likewise to the Overseers, save in one point. In the controversy of that day, he sided in opinion with those who opposed infant baptism; and though he was confessedly mild and tolerant, allowing others to hold a different opinion and practice, yet (as Mather observes) " he filled the Overseers with uneasy fears, lest the students, by his means, should come
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to be ensnared." They honored him for "his learning and excellent spirit, and laboured with extreme agony, to rescue the good man from his mistakes ;" but finding it impracticable, " they did quietly procure his removal." In short, his friends advised him to retire, and he accordingly tendered his resigna- tion to the Overseers October 24, 1654. He immediately repaired to Scituate, where we find notices of him the same autumn, employed in the ministry, and in which he continued nearly five years ; we have not been able to ascertain, however, that he was regularly inducted into office. Morton in his New England's Memorial remarks, that while in Scituate " he opposed the abominable opinions of the Quakers," (p. 283. Judge Davis's Edition), and Mr Baylies in his history of Plymouth Colony, (Vol. II. p. 50), adopts the same idea, and more, even that "he was vindictive " in his persecution of the Quakers. We know not from what authority these remarks are derived. Morton's remark could have scarcely been sufficient to author- ize the severity of that of Mr Baylies, and that Morton, though a cotemporary, may not have been an impartial historian in this case, we fully believe. In the first place, it was entirely foreign from the character of President Dunster to be bigoted and persecuting : and in the next place, we can quote as good authority as any other, that if he opposed their opinions, it was only by argument and persuasion, and that he equally opposed the persecution of the Quakers, (see General Cudworth's letter, in the Family Sketch of Cudworth).
Elliot is in an error respecting the date of Mr Dunster's death ; it is on record in Scituate February 27, 1659. "He was embalmed and removed to Cambridge, and honorably buried," (New England's Memorial). "He died in such har- mony of affection with the good men who had been the authors of his removal from Cambridge, that he, by his will, ordered his body to be carried to Cambridge for its burial, and bequeathed legacies to those very persons." (Mather).
He left but few printed works. There is a monument of his literary labours in the New England Psalms, which were sung for nearly a century in some of the Churches. This translation of the Psalms was first printed at Cambridge in 1640, and was the united labour of the Rev. Thomas Weld and John Elliot, ministers of Roxbury, and of Richard Mather of Dorchester : " but afterwards it was thought that a little more art was to be employed upon them, and they were committed unto Mr Dun- ster, who revised and refined this translation," (Mather's Mag.) We cannot but wonder what the work could have been at first,
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since that which was used in the churches until 1700, and indeed subsequently, is called a refined translation. But this was before Milton's works were much read, and before Dryden and Pope had exemplified how capable was the English lan- guage of the rythm and melody of verse.
Mr Dunster's wife was Elizabeth, the widow of the Rev. Jesse Glover, who died on his passage to New England in 1639.
His children were David, born May 16, 1645, Henry, born 1650, Jonathan, born 1653. Some of his descendants are in Boston .*
MR NICHOLAS BAKER.
This gentleman was one of the first settlers of Hingham, from which circumstance we presume that he came from Hingham in Norfolk, England, as did most of the early inhabitants of that town. He received a share in the first division of house lots in Hingham in 1635, as did also Nathaniel Baker. He after- ward became an extensive landholder in Hull, and resided there. He seems to have been employed chiefly in agriculture for several years, though a man of more than ordinary qualifi- cations, and often employed in publick affairs. He was a deputy to the Massachusetts Colony Court (the May session) in 1636, it being the sixth Court that had been holden, but the first in which Hingham was represented. Again, he was a deputy at the May Court in 1638. The practice then, was to choose a deputy for each session. In 1642, he seems to have entertained a purpose of removing: for we observe in the Plymouth Colony records of that year, the following entry : " Nicholas Baker and three others of Hingham, made applica- tion to the Court for lands at Seekhonk." But the grant, we believe, was not made : at least, Mr Baker did not remove.
After the death of President Dunster, he was invited to preach at Scituate, first Church. Where and when he had qualified himself for the ministry we have not learned : but the probability is, that without a regular education, by the force of his own talents, he had acquired a respectable degree of theo- logical knowledge, and by the virtues of his life he had recom- mended himself to the publick.
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