USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 > Part 18
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He was ordained in Scituate in the year 1660. He left here no memorable name for great powers or great success
" Henry J. Dunster, a descendant, performs the press work of this book.
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in his ministry, but records are not wanting to show his peaceful and godly influence. He was especially instrumental in bring- ing to pass a reconciliation of the two Churches at Scituate, which had held no communion with each other for thirty-five years. By the consent of the first Church he signed an instru- ment of reconciliation with the second Church, April 1, 1675. His Church had now returned to the practice of infant sprinkling, from which they had been led away by President Chauncy.
Cotton Mather, in his quaint style, characterizes him thus : " Honest Nicholas Baker of Scituate, who, though he had but a private education, yet being a pious and zealous man, or, (as Dr. Arrowsmith expresses it), so good a logician, that he could offer up to God a reasonable service, so good an arithmetician, that he could wisely number his days, and so good an orator, that he persuaded himself to be a good Christian; and being also one of good natural parts, was chosen Pastor of the Church there ; and in the pastoral charge of that Church he continued about eighteen years, until that horror of mankind and reproach of medicine, the stone, (under which he preached patience by a memorable example of it, never letting fall a worse word than this, which was an usual word with him, 'a mercy of God it is no worse'), put an end to his days." (Magnalia I. 542). He died August 22, 1678.
He was twice married : the first time doubtless in England, and the second time during his ministry in Scituate. We find no record of the marriage, however, in Scituate, and conclude it probable that he was married at Hull. All that we have discovered respecting it, we owe to that curious miscellany, the journal of Mr Peter Hobart of Hingham, viz. "Mr Nicholas Baker's wife died at Scituate 1661. Mr Nicholas Baker married 1662." The births of his children are not found on record at Scituate, and the baptisms in the first Church during his ministry are deficient. The births may have been recorded in Hull.
An abstract of his will, dated 1678.
"To my wife Grace, half my dwelling house at Hull, and the lands adjoining Thomas James' lot. Also a swamp at Allerton's hill- a lot on Strawberry hill- a lot at Sagamore hill-a lot upon White head-a lot on Duke's Island -half my right to commons in Hull-and all my upland and meadow in Hingham during her life : provided my son Samuel, or any of my children at Hull, have liberty of fire wood.
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To my son Samuel half my house at Hull, with lands, &c. To daughter Elizabeth 10€.
To my son Nicholas a share in Conihassett lands at Scituate, he paying to my daughter Sarah 10€.
To daughter Deborah 10£. To daughter Mary 10£.
My wife Grace to be executrix. Brother Nathaniel Baker and kinsman John Loring overseers of this my will."
We can give but little further account of this family.
Samuel, it appears, settled in Hull. Mary was married in Scituate to Stephen Vinal 1661, and has left posterity. Eliz- abeth married John Vinal of Scituate, brother of Stephen, in 1664, and has also left posterity. Sarah married Josiah Litch- field of Scituate in 1671, and her posterity is almost countless. Deborah married Israel Chittenden of Scituate in 1678, and left posterity. Nicholas inherited a share of Conihassett lands in Scituate, but we find no further trace of him here. We believe there was also a son Nathaniel, though not named in his father's will. He probably settled in Hull.
We observe in the will of Nathaniel Baker of Hingham, dated 1682, that he gives to the children of his son in law John Loring, (his grand children), large tracts of land at Ware river, Turkey hill and elsewhere-and also makes provision for his wife Sarah - and his two Indian servants-and also 10s apiece to the children of his brother Nicholas late of Scituate.
There was a Samuel Baker of Marshfield, who may have been the son of Rev. Nicholas, named in his will. He married Ellen, daughter of Kenelm Winslow 1656, and had children, Kenelm 1657, Lydia '59, Elizabeth '61, Mary '62, Alice '63, Ellen (or Eleanor) '65: and by a second wife Patience Simmons, married 1677, a son Samuel, who married Sarah Snow 1699.
MR JEREMIAH CUSHING.
This gentleman was born at Hingham, July 3, 1654. He was the son of Daniel Cushing, Esq. and Lydia his wife, the daughter of Edward Gillman. Daniel, Esq. was the son of Matthew Cush- ing, one of the early settlers of the town of Hingham. To Daniel Cushing, that town is indebted for the first accurate records of the proceedings of the town. His clerkship commences in 1669, and the method and neatness of the records for many years, does him much credit. Jeremiah his son received his degree
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at Harvard College in 1676. He was educated for the minis- try under the direction of Mr Norton of Hingham. He was not settled immediately in the ministry. He received an invi- tation to become the pastor of Haverhill in 1682, which he declined. He began to preach in Scituate in February 1691, and was ordained there on the 27th of May the same year. His salary was £60. Besides this, the Conihassett partners made him a gift of twenty acres of land. It was laid out in 1694, adjoining the lands of John Curtis and Henry Merritt. He purchased John Curtis's house in 1698, and probably re- sided in it, and rented the parsonage. It stood between Timo- thy White's and the harbour.
We have few materials for composing a life of Mr Cushing, and no data by which we may compare the success of his ministry with that of his predecessors or successors, all the Church records during his time being lost. For the want of another Cotton Mather, obscurity must rest upon many ministers of that period. Mather could swell the lives of ordinary men into very respectable dimensions.
The term of Mr Cushing's ministry was short, he having deceased March 22, 1705, in the fifty-first year of his age and the fourteenth of his ministry. There is a monument to his memory in the old burying ground near the harbour. He suffered a lingering illness, having been obliged to suspend his labours for several months.
He was married to Hannah, the daughter of Thomas Loring of Hingham, June 1, 1685. Their children were Hannah born 1687, Ignatius born 1689, Jeremiah born 1695, and Ezekiel born 1698. His widow was married to John Barker, Esq. a lawyer, in 1706, and the same year Hannah the daughter, was married to Samuel Barker, the son of John, Esq. They resided at the ancient Williams farm, one mile north of the harbour.
None of the sons of Mr Cushing settled in Scituate. Ezekiel settled at Cape Elizabeth, (Casco Bay). His daughter Lucy, born 1736, was the wife of Dr James Otis of Scituate, and the mother of Hon. Cushing Otis.
MR NATHANIEL PITCHER
was born at Dorchester, we believe, and a descendant of Andrew Pitcher, an early settler in that town. He was born in 1685, and received his degree at Harvard College in 1703.
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Under the care of Mr Danforth of Dorchester he received his theological education. He first preached in Scituate in March 1705, during the illness of Mr Cushing. Again in May 1706, the Church and Society voted to invite him to preach, which he did for a few Sabbaths ; and again in the summer of 1707, when he was invited to become their pastor. He was ordained on the 4th Wednesday of September 1707. In 1710, he married Sarah, the daughter of John Cushing, Esq. Their children were Nathaniel born 1711, Samuel born 1713, Sarah born 1715, and Mary born 1716.
This family has long since disappeared from our records. The ministry of Mr Pitcher was rather short, he having deceased September 27, 1723, and in the thirty-eighth year of his age, as we learn from his monument in the old burying ground. His children were young; and they probably removed to Dorchester, as we find no further notice of them here. Mr P. attempted to write verses, some of which may be preserved, more for the sake of antiquity than for their merits, (see Appendix).
There was a Joseph Pitcher who came into Scituate nearly at the same time with Rev. Nathaniel, and tradition (perhaps uncertain) speaks of him as a relation. He married Mercy Stetson, 1714. We find the birth of one child only on record, viz. Lydia, born 1717. His wife deceased the same year ; and from that time, further traces of the family are lost.
There was also an Ezra Pitcher,* who appears in Scituate in 1730, and who was a relative of the foregoing. He married Zeruiah Booth 1732. His children were Desire born 1733, Ezra born 1735, John born 1736, Nathaniel born 1738, Elisha born 1740. Some of this family removed to Broad Bay in Maine. Nathaniel was in Scituate in 1761, when he married Experience Jones. We believe he was a physician, and re- moved to Stonington, Connecticut.
A sister of the Rev. Nathaniel Pitcher (Abigail) came with him to Scituate, and was married to David Tilden in 1710.
These are all the notices of value respecting this family that have fallen in our way. Tradition speaks of the Rev. Mr Pitcher as a gentleman of very agreeable person and manners, a preacher of more than ordinary talents, and remarkable for promoting peace and union amongst his people. Union of religious sentiment very generally prevailed at that time. The
* Mr Ezra Pitcher was chosen deacon in 1754, at which time he is mentioned as having been a member of Brattle street Church, Boston.
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controversy on baptism and the opposition to the Quakers had ceased, and Whitefield's excitement had not been spread. It was a mild form of Calvinism into which the general sentiment had settled. Mr Eells of the second Church, was a cotemporary with Mr Pitcher, and they are said to have maintained a very remarkable friendship. At the ordination of Mr Pitcher, the Rev. Peter Thatcher of Milton gave the charge-Rev. Mr Norton of Hingham, the right hand of fellowship-The Rev. John Danforth of Dorchester preached, (Phil. ii. 20), and Mr Little and Mr Eells joined in laying on of hands.
REV. SHEARJASHUB BOURN.
After the decease of Mr Pitcher, Mr Nathaniel Leonard, afterward of Plymouth, was invited to become the pastor of the first Church in Scituate, but declined. Mr Bourn, who was eventually the successor of Mr Pitcher, was the son of Bourn, of Sandwich, and a lineal descendant of Mr Richard Bourn, a preacher to the Cape Indians in early times. He received his degree at Harvard 1720: and was ordained in Scituate December 3, 1724. In 1725, he married Abigail, the daughter of the Rev. Roland Cotton of Sandwich. Their children were Elizabeth born 1726, Abigail 1727, Desire 1728, Bathsheba 1730, Shearjashub 1732, (died early). His wife deceased 1732. In 1738, Mr Bourn married Sarah Brooks of Medford. By her he had one son, Shearjashub, born 1739. His second wife deceased in 1742. He married Deborah, the daughter of Mr Samuel Barker, in 1750, by whom he had one son, Roland, born 1750. His third wife deceased the same year. He married again in 1757, Joanna Stevens of Roxbury.
His health had become impaired in 1755, by paralytic affec- tions. Through life he had been struggling against the infir- mities of an unfortunately feeble constitution, and depressed and melancholy spirits, by which his usefulness was in some measure impaired. Especially after 1755, he proceeded in his labours with such painful efforts, that he was soon induced altogether to withdraw from his publick services. Accordingly he tendered his resignation and was dismissed August 6, 1761. He retired to Roxbury, the native place of his wife, where he deceased August 14, 1768, aged sixty-eight.
The Society testified their great regard for Mr Bourn, and their regret at foregoing his very acceptable services, and
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generously voted to give him £100 and the use of the parsonage for a year and an half.
We can give very little account of his family. Shearjashub, his son, married Sarah Woodworth, the daughter of James Woodworth of Scituate in 1769. He spent the greater part of his life in Boston, but returned and died at Scituate in Sep- tember 1819. His children were Sarah born 1770, Lydia 1772, Abigail 1775, Elizabeth 1777, and Bethia 1781. Two of these daughters are living in Scituate, Sarah the wife of William Corlew, and Bethia the wife of Charles Corlew.
At the ordination of Mr Bourn, Mr Eells of Scituate gave the charge-Mr Daniel Lewis of Pembroke gave the right hand of fellowship and preached, (2. Cor. xii. 15). Mr Brown of Abington and Allen of Bridgewater joined in laying on hands.
REV. EBENEZER GROSVENOR
was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1739. His father was the master of a well known tavern in that place, for a long series of years. Ebenezer received his degree at Yale College in 1759. He preached first at Scituate near the close of 1762, and was ordained April 1763. He married Elizabeth, the daugh- ter of Rev. Mr Clark of Danvers in 1764. Their children were Deborah born 1765, Lucy born 1766, Ebenezer born 1768, Eliz- abeth born 1769, (died early), Peter Clarke born 1771, and Nan- cy born 1773. His ministry was not very quiet. His religious tenets were the moderate Calvinism of that day, and a straiter sect in his Society were disposed to give him some trouble. It is certain that he was not a zealot of Whitefield's school, and hence they suspected him of Arminian heresy, but probably without foundation. He was undoubtedly too mild and catholic in his faith and practice, to give universal satisfac- tion at that time .* It is said that his wife was much more vexed with the contradictions and oppositions which he met with, than Mr Grosvenor himself, and was finally instrumental in deciding his determination to retire. It may be added that his poverty and embarrassments during the American war were so great, that it was difficult for him to procure even subsistence for his family. Those who remember the hardships of those times, the scarcity of the necessaries of life, and the wretched
* A remonstrance signed by seven, was handed to the council that ordained him.
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condition of the paper currency, can give full credit to this account.
He offered his resignation in April 1780, and was honorably dismissed, having officiated as pastor seventeen years. He is now remembered by some of the aged people with great affec- tion and very tender regret. His person is described as rather remarkable for beauty, of middling stature but of noble and commanding presence, and of singular benignity of countenance. As a preacher, he is not said to have risen above mediocrity in power and eloquence, but as a man and a Christian to have excelled in the finest and gentlest traits.
After retiring from Scituate he was invited to preach at Harvard, where he was installed in 1782, and where he de- ceased May 28, 1788, aged forty-nine.
His son Ebenezer was matriculated of Harvard College in 1784, and is remembered as a youth of great dignity and un- common promise. Unfortunately he was attacked with a severe fever, while in the last year of his college course, was carried to his father's house for attendance, and there died. The same disease attacked others of the family, of which Mr Grosvenor himself died, and also a daughter.
After Mr Grosvenor retired from Scituate, a wider distinction began to appear between the religious parties, and for several years defeated every attempt to settle another pastor. Many candidates were employed, who either were unable to give general satisfaction, or were discouraged with the prevailing disunion. We can name Mr Daniels of Medfield, who preached in 1780. Mr Fuller, who received a call to settle in 1781. Mr Paul Litchfield, (afterward of Carlisle), who supplied for a term of time in 1781. Mr Merrill also in 1782 .* Mr Judson (afterward of Taunton and Plymouth), who received a call in 1783. Mr Hazlett, an Englishman, who preached in 1784, and Mr Zechariah Howard of Bridgewater, who received a call in 1786. This unhappy state of the Society continued seven years, the liberal party gradually gaining strength, until they found themselves able to settle a minister without offending a large minority.
* Afterward of North Haverhill.
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REV. EBENEZER DAWES
was a native of Bridgewater, the son of Samuel Dawes, jr. of the East Parish. He was born in 1756. He received his degree at Harvard College in 1785, and was educated for the ministry under the direction of Dr. Wigglesworth of the Uni- versity. He began to preach very early after receiving his degree, and was ordained at Scituate in November 1787. In 1789, he married Elizabeth Bailey, daughter of Col. Bailey of Hanover, a lady of very pleasing personal accomplish- ments. Their children were William born 1790, and Ebenezer born 1791.
This situation was laborious and perplexing to Mr Dawes beyond measure, and his office truly a crown of thorns, owing to the violence of the opposition. His constitution was never firm, and his health sensibly declined after the second year of his ministry. He deceased September 29, 1791. His per- son was pleasing, his complexion fair, his manners such as might disarm enmity, and in all the gentleness and meekness that adorn the Christian character, he was nobly accomplished. Perhaps there has rarely occurred a separation of a pastor and people by death, which has occasioned more poignant grief, to a majority at least. He had been called into the ministry through great and anxious efforts of his religious friends : he had been their pastor long enough to give them a surety that they had not overrated his talents and virtues : and now, in the blooming of life, at the age of twenty-six, and in the ascendancy of his reputation, he was suddenly withdrawn from them. The day of his death became almost an anniversary of sorrow, and for a long time no company of mourners followed the remains of a friend to the tomb, without paying honours to the lamented Dawes, sighing as they passed his grave, and pausing to read again, what they had often read before, the inscription on his monument.
We believe that his family are all surviving at the time of our writing, (1831). His widow has been twice married since the loss of the husband of her youth, and is now a widow for the third time. Her second husband was Mr Lucas of Boston, and her third husband was the late venerable Dr. Williams of Deerfield. William, the eldest son, married the daughter of the late William Torrey, Esq. of Pembroke, and has resided in Taunton. Ebenezer, the younger son, is a physician of good reputation at Taunton.
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REV. NEHEMIAH THOMAS.
The present pastor of the first Church and Society, is the son of the late Nathaniel Thomas, Esq. of Marshfield. He was born A. D. 1765, and received his degree at Harvard College 1789, and was educated for the ministry at the Uni- versity. He was ordained at Scituate November 1792. We shall not write his history while living, and long may it be, before his decease shall permit it to be written. We may, however, venture to add, that in 1794, he married Hannah the daughter of Dr. James Otis of Scituate .* Their children- Henry born 1796, Harriet 1798, Lucy Otis 1800, Francis 1804. Henry was matriculated of Harvard University in 1813, and unfortunately deceased in College the next year. He was a youth of uncommon acquirements and of great promise. His classmates erected a beautiful monument, as a testimony of their respect to his memory, in the church yard at Cambridge; and his College friend, the Rev. Ira Henry Thomas Blanchard of Harvard, paid the respect to his lost friend, of procuring legal permission to assume his name.
Francis received his degree at Harvard University in 1829, and is, at present, a student and assistant attendant with Dr. Wyman at the Insane Hospital.
MINISTERS OF THE SECOND CHURCH AND SOCIETY.
MR WILLIAM WITHERELL +
was born in the year 1600, but we have not been able to trace this worthy man into England, or to learn any thing of him before his arrival in this country, except, on the authority of Cotton Mather, who places him in the list of ministers who had been in that office in England. But we suspect this to have been an error, (see Mr Vassall's letter to Mr John Elliot, in our Chapter on Ecclesiastical history). There is a tradition here which has been handed down for truth, that his mother was the daughter of John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr. He arrived before 1634. The first notice which we find of him is, that he was employed in a grammar school at Charlestown
* It is our melancholy office to record her death, while we are in the act of writing the above brief notes. She deceased March 28, 1831.
+ A.13 ar Cambridge Eng. 1622 A.M 16,26.
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master- Mary his wife- three children will only Surant. 1
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in 1635, and also in Cambridge the two years following. In 1638, he removed to Duxbury, where he purchased a house and land of Edward Hall; it is described in the deed as lying "between the farms of Mr Ralph Partridge and Nicholas Robinson." As the town of Duxbury was provided with a pastor (Mr Partridge) at this time, it is probable that Mr With- erell was employed in agriculture, and perhaps school teaching : he however was but poorly provided for, as we presume, in the latter calling at that day. In 1640, he (with Thomas Wey- borne) received a grant from the Colony Court, of a consider- able tract of land in Duxbury, "on the north-west side of North hill."
In 1644, affairs at Scituate had become ripened for the settlement of a minister in the second Church ; and Mr With- erell, being of the moderate party, as it regarded the refusal to commune with members of the Church of England, and also an advocate for infant sprinkling, and withal an educated and a worthy man, was invited to preach, and made himself so ac- ceptable to Mr Vassall and the rest of Mr Chauncy's opponents, that he was ordained pastor September 2, 1645. His ordi- nation had been delayed for some time by the influence of Mr Chauncy and the elders of Plymouth Colony who sided with him, and also by the Church at Duxbury which refused to dismiss him; but at length, by advice of the elders of Massa- chusetts Bay, the Church proceeded to ordain him in the face of all opposition, (see Ecclesiastical History).
Mr Witherell probably built or purchased a house on his removing to Scituate. It stood a few rods south-east of the second Society's Meeting-house at that time, on what is called in modern times Wilson hill, where he continued to reside during his life. A record of the baptisms in the second Church commences September 7, 1645, and is kept in Mr Witherell's hand until 1674, when it appears that some paralytic affection compelled him to borrow the assistance of another hand. From 1674, the records appear in the hand writing of Mr Mighill, though he was not in Scituate until 1680: he probably copied them. Mr Mighill had been procured to assist Mr Witherell in 1680; but the baptisms were administered by Mr Witherell until March 16, 1684. He died April 9, 1684, as we find in Hobart's journal. He had been in the ministry nearly thirty- nine years, and had administered six hundred and eight bap- tisms. Several persons from neighboring towns had brought their children hither for baptism, probably because their own ministers were opposed to infant sprinkling. Amongst whom
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were the families of Rogers of Marshfield and Nathaniel and Josiah Winslow, (the Governor) and Kenelm Winslow, (brother of Gov. Edward Winslow), from Yarmouth.
Mr Witherell had lived to see the two churches in this town brought to a happy reconciliation, after a long variance ; to see the long disputed lines between his parish and the first parish amicably settled; to see a new and more commodious house of worship erected by his Society, and the wasting and sanguinary Indian wars at an end. It was a peculiar season of calm when he closed his useful life.
We have heard of but few printed works of this venerable man. Cotton Mather commends a certain little book of Mr With- erell's, (in which he was assisted by Mr Baker), viz. "the life of John Clap of Scituate." This was a son of Mr Thomas Clap, remarkable for his understanding and his piety, and who died on his approach to manhood. We presume it is not now to be found in print.
Mr Witherell wrote verses, some of which are extant, and we can say of those which we have seen, that they were vastly superior to those of Dunster who wrote a little earlier, particu- larly in point of versification. An elegy on Mrs. Sarah, the wife of John Cushing, Esq. is extant : as also an elegy on the death of Gov. Josiah Winslow, written in 1680, when Mr Witherell was eighty years of age. For the gratification of the curious, we have inserted it in Appendix.
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