USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 > Part 6
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In 1657, "Humphry Norton was sentenced to depart the colony." In 1658, Norton came back, (with John Rowse), and being taken before the Court for examination, Norton repeatedly used such insolent language to Gov. Prence, as " thou lyest." Christopher Winter of Scituate appeared as an accuser, and " deposed to a paper containing sundry notorious errors expressed by said Norton." The oath of fidelity to the Government being tendered to them, and they refusing to take it, they were publickly whipped ; and on refusing to pay the fee to the under marshal for whipping them, they were remanded to prison: but having satisfied the marshal, they were soon after liberated on condition of leaving the Jurisdiction. After retiring, Norton addressed letters to Gov. Prence and John Alden one of the assistants, which surpass the ravings of mad- men. They are dated Rhode Island, 16, 4th m. 1658; and filled with such railings as the following: "Thomas Prence,
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SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
thou hast perverted justice and true judgment, and has defraud- ed the poor and needy. John Alden is to thee like unto a pack horse, whereupon thou layest thy beastly bag : cursed are all they that have a hand therein. The cry of vengeance will pursue thee-the anguish and pain that will enter thy reins will be like gnawing worms lodging betwixt thy heart and liver. When these things come upon thee, in that day and hour thou shalt know to thy grief, that prophets of the Lord God we are, and the God of vengeance is our God." (see Hazard's Col- lections). (Sec Rowse in Family Sketches).
His letter to Alden was alike furious, e. g. "John Alden, if there be in thee any expectation of mercy, do thou follow the example of Timothy Hatherly, and withdraw thy body forever appearing at that beastly bench where the law of God is cast behind your backs: let the cursed purse be cast out of thy house, wherein is held the goods of other men, lest through it, a moth enter thy house, and a mildew upon thy estate, for in keeping it, thou art no other than a pack horse to Thomas Prence-thou art set in the midst of a company that's like a hedge of vipers; the best of them is not worthy to hew wood in the house of our God, &c."
These severities against the Quakers were happily checked soon after the restoration of Charles II. The government of Plymouth Colony, in June 1661, despatched a declaration of adherence, as did the other Colonies. The King's mandamus which followed, was addressed to Gov. Endicott and all the other Governors of New England. It is worthy of a place in the history of these times.
" Charles R.
"Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. Having been informed that several of our subjects amongst you called Quakers, have been, and are imprisoned by you, whereof some of them have been executed, and others (as hath been represented to us) are in danger to undergo the like: we have thought fit to signify our pleasure in that behalf, for the future ; and do hereby require that if there be any of those people called Quakers amongst you now, already condemned to suffer death, or other corporal punishment, or that are imprisoned, and obnoxious to the like condemnation, you are to forbear to proceed any farther therein : but that you forthwith send the same persons (whether condemned or imprisoned) over to this our kingdom of England, together with the respective crimes or offences laid to their charge, to the end that such course may
.
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be taken with them here, as shall be agreeable to our laws and their demerits; and for so doing, these our letters shall be sufficient warrant and discharge. Given at our Court at White Hall the 9th day of September, 1661, in the 13th year of our reign.
By his Majesty's command, WILLIAM MORRIS."
Such severities against the Quakers were both cruel and impolitic. No one is found to justify them now: and on reviewing the language of the government and that of the Quakers, we can scarcely decide which had the advantage in "railing accusations." After the government of Massachusetts had proceeded to extremities with the Quakers, they seem to have felt some anxiety, how the story would tell in history, and therefore they entered upon their journals a kind of justification of their proceedings, October 8, 1659. We will let them speak for themselves. (The following is an extract).
" A law was made and published, prohibiting all masters of ships to bring any Quakers into this Jurisdiction, and themselves from coming in, on penalty of the house of correction, till they could be sent away. Notwithstanding which, by a back door, they found entrance ; and the penalty inflicted on them (proving insufficient to restrain their impudent and insolent obtrusions) was increased : which also being too weak a defence against their impetuous and fanatic fury, necessitated us to endeavor our security ; and upon serious consideration, a law was made that such persons should be banished on pain of death, accord- ing to the example of England in their provision against Jesuits ; which sentence being regularly pronounced at the last court of Assistants against these parties, and they either returning or con- tinuing presumptuously in this Jurisdiction after the time limited, were apprehended, and owning themselves to be the persons banished, were sentenced by the Court to death, which hath been executed upon two of them. Mary Dyer, upon the intercession of a son, had liberty to depart, and accepted of it. The consideration of our gradual proceedings, will vindicate us from the clamorous accusations of severity. Our own just and necessary defence calling upon us (other means failing) to offer the point, which these persons have violently and wilfully rushed upon, and thereby become felones de se as well as the sparing of one, upon an inconsiderable intercession, will manifestly evince we wish their lives absent, rather than their deaths present." It would seem that this justification was necessary
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to be made publick at the time, in order to subdue the clam ours of the people.
This is the only apology that can have any weight, for those proceedings, viz. the fact that it was not so much for their religious principles, as for their disturbance of the peace by their disorderly conduct, that they were punished : nor can this bear out the government in their severities. Cotton Mather collects a variety of their sayings, both from their books and their preachers, such as "we deny thy Christ-we deny thy God, which thou callest Father, Son and Spirit, &c." They held that no respect was to be paid "to the outward Christ now, he having ascended to heaven, but to the Christ formed in them." They held "that the Scriptures do not tell people of a Trinity, nor three persons in God, but that those three persons are brought in by the Pope-that justification by that righteousness which Christ fulfilled in his own person without us, is a doctrine of devils-that all governments and courts of justice are a tree that must be cut down." The same historian, after naming some of their wildest and most frantic disorders, and relating for a fact that two women were " adjudged to the whipping post for coming into our assemblies," entirely divested of their clothes ; still does not venture to justify the government in capitally punishing the Quakers. He commends "the wise and prudent counsellor in Plymouth Colony who propounded ' that a law might be made for the Quakers to have their heads shaved,'" for which we thank him, and could have thanked him more, had he informed us who that facetious counsellor was. On the whole, it is now pretty well understood that the true spirit of religion, as well as the true policy of government, is, to tolerate. Nothing will soften the fury of fanaticism like this : and the government of Rhode Island fairly outwent the age, and stepped forward nearly a whole century, when they were meek and politic enough "to let them say over their revelations" without molesting them.
This sect may be said to have been established in Scituate by Edward Wanton, who, after having assisted in Boston in the execution of the Quakers in 1659, became at first won to pity, then convinced of injustice on the part of government, and then converted to their principles. He retired from Boston to Scituate, about the time that the corporal punishment was ended by king Charles, (see life of Edward Wanton in family sketches). He soon gathered a considerable audience, and may be said to have been a successful propagator of his sect. He now stood in danger of no fine for' holding meetings, for
1
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no punishments after 1661 were inflicted, save such as were proper to be inflicted on breaches of the peace in a civil sense. He had free access to many houses in Scituate, and won some respectable followers, particularly several of the family of the distinguished Cudworth. But it was not until 1678, that the society became so numerous as to require a house of publick worship.
In 1678, Henry Ewell sold a small piece of land to Edward Wanton, John Rance* and others, for the scite of a Meeting- house. This scite is now enclosed in the garden of the late judge William Cushing, at the north-east end. The house was sold to the Cushing family, many years after, as tradition tells, and converted to a stable. Another was built, which is now standing in Pembroke, a half mile south of Barstow's bridge, in 1706. This place was selected because the society in Scituate had diminished. It is a curious fact, that this sect in Scituate, which had been shielded rather than persecuted, and which was numerous in Wanton's time, had become almost extinct in one century, and that now, it is reduced to two families.+ Previous to 1700, the principal families of this sect in the Town, were Wanton, Colman, Ewell, Booth, Chamber- lain, Cudworth, Rogers, &c.
Several marriages in the Quaker form are recorded in the town records of Scituate : they are all nearly in the same form; one of which we will copy, for the purpose of showing that the name of Quaker, if it were an appellation of reproach given them by their enemies at first, as has often been suggested, it was afterward a name that they recognized in their solemn acts.
" This is to certify the truth to all people whom it may con- cern, that Richard New of Newport on Rhode Island, and in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, and Sarah Colman of Scituate in the county of Plymouth, in the province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, daughter to Thomas Colman of sd Scituate, having intentions of marriage, according to the ordinance of God, and his joinings declared of in the Scriptures of truth, with their parents' consent, did lay or declare their intentions before the men and women's meeting, at the house of Robert Barker in the township of Duxbury, in the province aforesaid, the 2d day of the 7th month called September 1702: which said meeting
John Rance removed to Barbadoes, (Scituate Records).
+ The respectable families of Daniel Otis and Adam Brooks.
·
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ordered them to wait till the next men and women's meeting for answer; which sd meeting, appointed two men and two women to enquire whether the woman was clear from all other men : and so the next month the said Richard and Sarah appeared the second time before the men and women's meeting at the house of sd Robert Barker, the seventh day of the eighth month 1702, and the persons appointed to inquire made answer, they had enquired and no opposition appeared, having . also a certificate of the man's clearness, and satisfactory account of the woman from the friends of Rhode Island, the place of his outward abode, she also having sometimes inhabited there, having a publication set up in each town of Newport and Scituate, according to law; and all things in pursuance of the same being clear, the meeting acquainted sd Richard and Sarah that they were left to their freedom, to consummate their marriage in the counsel of God, and to have not less than a dozen witnesses of relations and people : and all things being clear as abovesaid, a meeting of the people called Quakers, with others was ap- pointed at the house of Thomas Colman in the aforesd Scituate, the 8th day of the 8th month called October 1702, where after some time in waiting upon the Lord, the sd Richard New and Sarah Colman did stand up together, and first the man and then the woman in a solemn manner did declare, in the face of the Lord and before that assembly and meeting, they took each other to be man and wife, then and there both promising to live faithfully together man and wife, till death should sepa- rate them, according to the law of God and the practise of holy men and women of God mentioned in the Scriptures of truth, they both then setting their hands unto it."
We also are witnesses to what you say
RICHARD NEW.
SARAH NEW."
JOHN CUSHING, JR., Jus. Peace.
THOMAS COLMAN (and 26 others)."
The marriage of Daniel Coggeshall, son of Daniel Cogges- hall, late of Portsmouth, and Mary Wanton, daughter of Michael Wanton of Scituate in 1726, is recorded at large in Scituate records : also that of Thomas Colman of Scituate and Mary New of Newport in 1702.
The most distinguished preachers of this society in Scituate have been Edward Wanton, who was its founder, and who continued his services unto old age, from 1660 to 1710, or later. Michael Wanton his son, succeeded his father as a preacher, and with nearly as much success, from 1710 to 1740, or later.
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BAPTIST SOCIETY.
It now gives us much pleasure to acknowledge, that this sect; having softened into a distinguished mildness, and having man- ifested a peculiar generosity in maintaining and assisting the poor and unfortunate of their own society, beside bearing a part in the common burden of supporting the poor, have well earned the name of Friends, by which they have lately chosen to be known.
BAPTIST SOCIETY.
A Society of Baptists was formed in 1825. Meetings had been held and religious worship performed occasionally for several years, but not until the above date, did they find them- selves sufficiently numerous to encourage their attempts to enjoy the regular services of a religious teacher. A small, but convenient house of publick worship was erected in 1825, and dedicated on the 17th day of August.
Their first minister was Rev. Mr LeFavor, who officiated during the year 1825. Rev. Mr Niles officiated something more than two years, having commenced some time in the year 1826, and retired in 1829. Rev. Edward Seagrave, a graduate of Brown University in 1822, was ordained in March 1830.
Between the terms of services of Mr LeFavor and Mr Niles, we may add, that the Rev. Mr Judson officiated about nine months, and deceased at Scituate, November 26, 1826. It is worthy of remark that Mr Judson had preached as a candidate in the first Congregational Society in 1783, and received an invitation to settle with them. He was afterward settled at Taunton over the first Congregational Society-and subse- quently over the second Congregational Society in Plymouth. He became a Baptist in 1815, and left the latter Society. It is due to his memory to record his catholic and candid temper and demeanor. He remembered the former kindness of the Congregational Society, within whose precincts he had become associated with a small society of Baptists; and it was one of his last acts, to request that his remains might be buried from the Congregational church, and that the Congregational cler- gymen in the vicinity, as well as the Baptists, should be invited to his funeral. He was the father of the Rev. Dr. Judson, a missionary to India, well known for his zeal and perseverance in that enterprise.
The Baptist Meeting-house stands on the Cohasset road, 8
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TRINITARIAN AND METHODIST SOCIETIES.
about sixty rods in a southerly direction from the Meeting-house of the first Congregational Society, and about ten rods easterly from the intersection of the road above said Meeting-house, and the road that leads westerly from the harbour. It is small and without a turret, but neat and commodious.
FIRST TRINITARIAN SOCIETY. 1
In A. D. 1824, a number of persons in the first Church and Society became desirous to introduce a church covenant, which recognised the doctrine of the Trinity : but not having a majority of the church, and having less than one fourth of the parish which were ready to favour their views at that time, they seceded, and formed a new Society. Their first meeting was held by virtue of a legal warrant from John B. Turner, Esq. April 15, 1825. The next year they proceeded to build a house of publick worship; and it was dedicated November 16, 1826. It stands on the Cohasset road about sixty rods westerly from the house of the first Society, and thirty rods northerly from that of the Baptist. It is a handsome church, furnished with a spire, with one row of windows, a gallery in front, and containing fifty-six pews.
The Rev. Paul Jewett, a graduate of Brown University in 1802, and who had previously been settled at Lebanon, Me. and Fairhaven, Mass., was installed in this Church and Society, November 16, 1826.
We may mention amongst the principal founders of this Society, Messrs. Ward Litchfield, Rowland Litchfield, Deacon Israel Litchfield, Calvin Jenkins, sen. and jr. Levi Vinal and Charles Curtis.
METHODIST SOCIETY.
Occasional meetings had been held by the Methodists in the vicinity of Scituate harbour, previously to 1820. In 1825, we believe, a Society was organized so far as to be legally exempted from the ministerial taxes of the first Congregational Society. In 1826, a small but neat Chapel was erected near the har- bour. It stands on the lane which leads from the old parsonage to the harbour, about thirty rods north-easterly from the parson- age, and on the ancient farm of Samuel Jackson. Mr Tailor, of the Methodist connexion, was one of the earliest preachers
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to this people, and instrumental in promoting the Society. Since the erection of their Chapel, Mr Avery, Mr Barker, Mr Keith and Mr Holaway, have officiated each their year, according to the practice of rotation in the government of the Methodist Church.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
A Church was regularly gathered in Scituate, January 18, 1634, O. S. On the arrival of Mr Lothrop and his company, he found a considerable settlement here, a Meeting-house already erected, where divine service had been performed several years, but we are not able to ascertain precisely how long. By the arrival of Mr Lothrop and his company in 1634, a congregation respectable for numbers, was made up, and Christian worship and ordinances established in due order. There was a ready and cheerful union between the earlier settlers and the later: it may therefore be safely concluded that they entertained nearly the same religious sentiments, and agreed in the main, in practice. For the peculiar views, senti- ments and practices of the first Church in Scituate, we refer the reader to Neal's history of the Puritans; from whence it can be learned that their sentiments in general were those of Mr Robinson of Leyden, who was properly the founder of the Independents or Congregationalists. They differed from the Brownists, (a peculiarity of which sect was, that the laity might ordain their pastors), for they held to the practice of ordaining their pastors by the laying on of the hands of the ordained elders of their own churches. Mr Lothrop was "called to office," as it was termed, in this manner by the elders of his own church, so also Mr Chauncy his successor, and Mr With- erell the first pastor of the second Church, neighboring churches being invited only as witnesses of the proceedings. The first Church at Scituate, however, was not perfectly united. The controversy respecting the mode of baptism had been agitated in Mr Lothrop's Church before they left England, and a part had separated from him and established the first Baptist Church in England in 1633 .* Those that came with him seem not all to be fully settled on this point, and they found others in Scit- uate ready to sympathise with them. Mr Lothrop with the greater part of his Church, removed to Barnstable in 1639,
See Neal.
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ostensibly for the benefit of the "hay grounds," that is, the salt marshes, but probably with a view also to avoid the agitations which began to trouble his church and people, on two subjects, viz. that of the mode of baptism, and that of removing their Meeting-house farther to the south part of the plantation. On the settlement of Mr Chauncy in 1641, the question of the mode of baptism occasioned a separation of the Church. Mr Chauncy would baptize by immersion only, and nearly half the Church were resolute in not submitting to that mode. This was the principal cause of the division : but we must also add that Mr Vassall who was at the head of his opposers, entertained more liberal views of Church communion, and was willing to admit to that ordinance the members of the Church of England. The same may be said of his friend Thomas King, and Mr Chauncy and his adherents were jealous that they " inclined to the Bishops." Some writers on the early history of Plymouth Colony, do not hesitate to pronounce him an Episcopalian, and think they find in this assumed fact, the reason why so eminent a man was not employed in some high office in the government. Whatever he may have been after he retired from this country, he seems while in Scituate to have been as well informed in, and as zealous in supporting the principles of Congregationalism as any other man in the country, (see Vassall in Family Sketches).
The Ecclesiastical history of Scituate from 1634 to 1675, cannot be related more accurately perhaps, than it may be found in certain documents hitherto unpublished, which have been carefully preserved in the second Church, in the hand writing of Mr Vassall and Mr Witherell. They are as follows.
Renewal of Covenant by the Church of Christ in Scituate, " distinct from that of which Mr Chauncy is Pastor."
" February 2d, 1642.
" Wheras in former tyme, whilst Mr Lothrop was at Scituate Mr William Vassall, Thomas King, Thomas Lapham, Judith Vassall, Suza King, Anna Stockbridge, together with many more, were together in Covenant in one Church, and that many of them, with Mr Lothrop our Pastor, departed and went to live at Barnstable, and did leave one part of the Church at Scituate, who by consent of all the Church, became a Church, remaining at Scituate, and admitted into their fellowship John Twisden and many more, and so continued in one Church some tyme till part of this Church called Mr Chauncy to be
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their Pastor, which William Vassall, Thomas King, John Twisden, Thomas Lapham, Suza King, Judith White* and Anna Stockbridge refused to do : and that since Mr Chauncy was called to be their Pastor, the sª Mr Chauncy and that parte of the Church that called him, have renounced their Church standing whereon we stood a Church together, and will be a Church together by some other standing, and so refuse us to be parte of their Church, except we will enter into a new Covenant with them, which for diverse reasons we find we may not do, but remaining still together in a Church state, and knowing that being forsaken by them, we remain a Church, yet forasmuch as some are not clearly satisfied that we are a Church-therefore-
We do here now further Covenant, and renew that Covenant that we were formerly in together as a Church, that as a Church of Christ, we, by the gracious assistance of Christ, will walke in all the ways of God that are and shall be revealed to us out of his word, to be his ways, so farre as God shall enable us. And to this end, we will do our best to procure and maintaine all such officers as are needful, whereby we may enjoy all his ordinances, for the good of the souls of us and ours : and we shall not refuse into our society such of God's people, whose hearts God shall incline to joyne themselves unto us, for the furtherance of the worship of God amongst us, and the good of their souls."
A declaration entered on the Church Records, 1643.
" Whereas, since the Covenant above written was made, we have met with many oppositions from Mr Chauncy and the rest of the Church with him, and that at the last meeting of the Elders in the Bay, and this present, it was their judgments, that from the tyme that they denied comunion with us we were free from them, that their advice to us was, to renew our former Covenant in a publicke manner, which we are contented to do in convenient tyme : yet nevertheless we hope that all the Churches of Christ that shall take notice of our Covenant, will acknowledge us to be a true Church of Christ, and hold com- munion with us in the mean tyme: and whereas there was great desire of the Elders manifested that we should divide the Town and become two Towns, as well as two Churches, some alledging that we must give way to let the other Church have
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