USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > History of the First Religious Society in Newburyport, Massachusetts > Part 2
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There is no record of the date when this association gave up the struggle for impeccable conduct in the parish, nor any surviving computation of its accomplishments.
Education was one of the first concerns of the parish. * "The very first years, notwithstanding the expense of a new house, it duplicated the town's appropriation (for schools) and in 1731 hired John Woodbridge to teach Latin exclusively at 60 pounds a year, 'and he to have 4d or 6 cents a week for those scholars who do not belong to the parish, but wish to attend the school'."
In 1730 the parish "voted that the Comity to look out for a place for a school house be a comity to looke out for a burial place." A location near Frog pond was chosen for the school house; and the hilly land lying west of the pond was selected for the cemetery and inclosed by a board fence to keep away the cattle.
This cemetery is known as the Old Hill Burying Ground. Now it is a grass covered, sunny spot with many fallen headstones and sunken spots. Names are engraved there that once were known far and wide as leaders in intellectual, political, religious, military and mercantile affairs. Mr. Lowell and his successor rest there. On a row of head stones, at the foot of the hill, and apart from the other graves, are French names. They mark the resting place of refugees from the French West Indies who came here at the time of the
*History of Newburyport, by Mrs. E. Vale Smith.
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EARLY MATTERS IN THE PARISH
French revolution, and are Catholic aliens in this Protestant ceme- tery.
Many entries in the records of the church refer to schools. Thus, it was voted "that if any Gentleman in our Parish will appear to higher a School Master, they shall have our parishes part of the money that is to be Raised in the Generall, by the Town, provided they do keep a Gramer School a year in sum Convenient place in s'd Parish, and any person in our Parish shall have liberty to send their children, provided they do pay for their Schooling a Groat a week." A groat was a silver piece of English money, worth at the time, about eight cents.
In 1730 it was voted that the schoolmaster should have sixty pounds a year in addition to "what is raised in the town in general and that no children be sent to the schoolmaster but can read well in the psalter."
Although so much attention was given to the schools they were designed almost wholly for boys. Small provision was made for the education of girls until many years later. Then it was largely through the efforts of ministers of this parish that they were given fair educational facilities.
Tunefulness in the meetings was another concern of the parish. *"William Ilsley and Joseph Morse, junior, were appointed to tune the psalms in ye meeting house in time of publick worship and take their turn in that work that it may be done with the more ease and cheerfulness. And the said Morse is appointed to sit in the fore seat of the south body with the said William Ilsley for the managing said work."
In 1734 a clock was purchased by the parish and placed in the spire below the bell.
In the care of the sick, the aged, the infirm and the poverty- stricken, it is gathered from existing records, that the church and its minister never lagged.
Some of the early parishioners were slave owners. In 1710 Judge Samuel Sewall published a tract against slavery; but it was not until many years later that slavery was abolished in Massachu- setts. William Johnson, Moses Titcomb, Edmund Greenleaf, Esekiel
*Church Records.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
Chase and several others reckoned slaves in the sum of their not inconsiderable wealth. These men were among the most esteemed and public spirited in the parish and in the vicinity. In the meeting house, slaves were seated in the most remote and least desirable parts of the galleries where attenuated sounds of the discourse, reaching their ears, undoubtedly saved their souls. It is an interesting fact that Judge John Lowell, only son of the first minister of the parish, caused to be written into the constitution of Massachusetts the clause : "all men are born free and equal." It was this clause which, later, by a decision of the supreme court of the state, caused slavery to be abolished in Massachusetts.
The Newtown was growing. From time to time new streets or lanes were laid out. New and finer houses rose. The ship yards turned out more and larger vessels; trade was increasing. Travel was usually by horse back; but horse-drawn chaises were known. Judge Sewall records in his diary that he drove to Newbury in one. Springless farm wagons lumbered along the public ways; our beauti- ful High street was a country road, but from time to time a new industry, usually connected with ship building, was started, and there was real activity near the meeting house by the water side. Here a business center was forming.
By 1737 the population of the village had increased so much that it was necessary to enlarge the meeting house. A committee was chosen "with full power to proceed in enlarging said meeting house thirty five foot back in the best method they can. And to agree with workmen to parfect the finishing of s'd house as soon as may be and also to dispose of the Pews to parsons belonging to the Parish in order to defray the charges."
The enlarged building was eighty feet long and sixty feet wide.
*"At that time (1746) the services of the Third Parish on the Lord's day were exceedingly simple, beginning with a long prayer, followed by the singing of a psalm, then by a sermon occupying one to two hours in the delivery, and closing with a short prayer and the benediction. An intermission of an hour was allowed for the mid-day meal. The exercises were then resumed, and the afternoon service proceeded in substantially the same order from the opening prayer to the final benediction."
*Ould Newbury, by John J. Currier.
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EARLY MATTERS IN THE PARISH
A succession of affairs occupied the attention of the efficient parish committees. Thus in 1754 the spire was rebuilt "in the same manner & the same Height it was Last year." In this year a price was set for digging graves and for tolling the bell for funerals. 'Three years later it is recorded that "such Delinquent Proprietors as Neglect to Pay the Taxes of their Respective Pews as the law in that case made & Provided Directs" shall have them sold.
Pew holders may have been lax in paying taxes, but there was a constant demand for pews. The primitive standard of bodily ( omfort in church, which had provided backless benches for wor- shipers, was passing. Holders of pews had a little social preeminance over those who sat on benches; and this was perhaps even more highly valued then than now. In 1779 it was voted "to appropriate the whole of the Seats in the front gallery into One Tier of Pews." It was also voted that "two Pews, the one behind the men's Seats, the other behind the Women's Seats, which were improved by a number of Singgres (singers ?) shall be sold." The custom of seating the men on one side of the house and the women on the other, save where families sat together in pews, seems to have continued throughout this century.
In 1760, on Sacrament day, the church "voted that the widows of the church be supplied with Psalm Books, tho' not heads of families and all other unmarried communicants." So, it appears, with the gradual introduction of the softer ways that prosperity usually brings to a people, implied by the presence of pews in the meeting house, the vital interests of religion were not neglected.
The congregations of those early years must have reminded the man who stood in the pulpit of Jacob's coat. Coats of blue, green and red partly covered long waistcoats of many colors. Gay bonnets would confront him; and here and there the scarlet cloak of a woman would still further brighten the scene. The wigs and queues that many ministers believed most ungodly, and against which many sermons were preached, were there too. So, though the meeting house walls were plain, there was brightness in the congregations that assembled within them.
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CHAPTER III TROUBLES
Upon Mr. Lowell's occasional absences from his pulpit itinerant and more or less fanatic lay preachers sometimes occupied it. They created disturbances and unrest. The Rev. Christopher Toppan of the Newbury First Parish is said to have carried a whip with him to drive such zealots from "the house of prayer."
An item in the Boston Evening Post of May 3rd, 1742, is quoted by Mr. Coffin. It charges *"the Rev. N. Rogers of Ipswich, Mr. Daniel Rogers and Mr. Buel, candidates for the ministry, with having come into Newbury, formed a party and taken possession of Mr. Lowell's meeting house without his knowledge or asking leave of the proprietors of the house, or the consent of the church or congregation and so forth and that an attempt of the like factious nature was made upon the Rev. Mr. Toppan's meeting, but Mr. Toppan being present the party was repulsed."
This charge was denied by a member of Mr. Toppan's parish, but "J. Lowell" communicated with the paper two weeks later and asserted that the charge was true. Mr. Coffin remarks that he "has not space to give even the title pages of sermons, dialogues, tracts and so forth on religious subjects with which the neighborhood was flooded."
The Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury wrote in 1742 that §"many New Lights and new doctrines and corrupt errors threatened to overrun the country. Indeed, the many trances, visions, and dreams and wild extacies and enthusiastic freaks and phrensies, which have abounded in some places, have cast a great damp on the work and much cooled the firey zealots, and we hope God will in mercy prevent the growth of these errors which seem to be creeping in apace ...... and spare his people, and not give his heritage to reproach, &c."
It is recorded that the religious hysteria of the time was more virulent in Newbury and Ipswich than elsewhere in Essex County. So numerous were the zealots that a positive order from the general court was necessary to forbid any but regularly ordained ministers from exhorting the people on Sundays.
*Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport and West Newbury, by Joshua Coffin.
§ Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
One famous zealot came to the village who was duly authorized to preach. This was the English evangelist, the Rev. George Whitefield. He was the foremost agitator in the so called "Great Awakening," and was obliged to hold many of his meetings in barns or the open air because the pulpits of the conservative clergy were not open to him. Mr. Lowell, usually most liberal, invited him to preach in the meeting house. The invitation was never repeated, although, owing to Whitefield's flaming eloquence one hundred and forty three souls were added to the parish list of communicants.
In Whitefield's diary is the following entry: "Saturday, Octob. 4-Lay at the house of Mr. Lowell, minister of the place-Preached in the morning to a very thronged Congregation, and saw the Outgoing of God in the Sanctuary; Collect, £80, 9s."
*"This astonishing fanatic," says Mr. Noyes, "in his sermon entitled 'The Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent' classed the people of the First Parish with evil spirits, and is kind enough to inform us that a council of the Trinity was called to decide upon the creation of the lovely creature Eve. .I cannot wonder that stones were thrown at him by men who could not bear his ridicule of women. He was accustomed to stigmatize them as weaker vessels, as the means whereby sin entered into the world, which seems diabolical and cowardly because women at that time were helpless, their public education unprovided for, and they needed elevation, encouragement and enlightenment. His preaching tended only to make them more dependent and craven, so that thereby he might gather them trembling and crushed in spirit into his spiritual shambles."
Thirty men and their families withdrew from the First Parish of Newbury while Mr. Lowell lost thirty-eight men with their families. These formed a Fourth church, long unrecognized, and known as the Presbyterian Schism. It is now known as the Old South Church, and its ancient meeting house, built in 1746, is one of the most interesting buildings in the city. In a vault under the floor lie the bones of Whitefield who did so much for its creation.
This desertion of so many of his people was a great trial to Mr. Lowell. He reproached them for absenting themselves from the
*Oration 150th Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish.
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TROUBLES
meeting house, and begged them to reconsider their course. In his fine, cramped handwriting he answered their letter of withdrawal: *"I have carefully read and considered your letter to me, dated Oct. 31, 1743. In it you declare that you have withdrawn from communion. I desire now to call a church meeting that you may lay before them your reasons." Later he wrote again : "I am heartily sorry that in this day of temptation you should have been so un- mindful of your solemn vows." In these letters he signed himself, "Your affectionate and aggrieved pastor, John Lowell."
In a fragment of a letter from the seceders are these words: "It does not appear to us what reasons you had for expressing yourself to us as you did, or even indeed what mighty grounds for Sorrow you have concerning the justice of Christ's Kingdom thereon among us at this time
The discussion tended to grow more acrimonious. A day of fasting and prayer was appointed to consider the difficulties and divisions; but no reconciliation was possible. The Third Parish at this time had 355 members and was prosperous notwithstanding its losses.
Another excitement soon arose. War between England and France was declared in 1744. While it involved nearly all Europe, interest in the colonies, and especially in New England, was confined to the capture of Louisburg in Cape Breton Island. Many Newbury men enlisted in the expedition which was sent out by Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts. They were led by Major Moses Titcomb, of this parish, and did valiant work in the capture of that fortress. When the news of this victory reached Newbury, excite- ment, already high from religious agitations, reached fever pitch.
There was trouble in the town and the people needed cheer.
Earthquakes, which were of frequent occurrence in the early years of Newbury, were continuing to break windows and shake down chimneys. Unseasonable weather brought frosts that destroyed unripened crops. In one year there was sleighing in October. The next year, 1746, a drought and swarms of caterpillars and "other devouring insects" caused destruction to the hay crop. Because of lack of hay many cattle had to be killed. Others were kept alive by
*Massachusetts Archives.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
hay imported from Pennsylvania and even from England. It is no wonder that there were discussions about and accusations of ungod- liness which many believed had brought these afflictions to the town.
In 1750 Mr. Lowell gave impetus to wagging tongues by reading selections from the scriptures from his pulpit on Sundays. It was an unheard of innovation and, to some, the ominous shadow of popery was falling over the town.
It will be remembered that the Treaty of Aix-la-chapelle re- stored Louisburg to the French. In 1755 hostilities were renewed for its recapture. In this second expedition sent to Louisburg, Newbury men were again led by Moses Titcomb, now a colonel. Upon his request Mr. Lowell preached a sermon on the eve of their departure. His text was: "For the Lord, your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you." In the course of the sermon were these words: "Consider whether it is not worth while to contend for liberty, not ours only, but that of all Europe and America, which is this day struck at by the French openly, or subtilely undermined.
"Would you be under a despotic prince ? Would you wear wooden shoes? Would you be dragooned and perpetually pillaged ? Would you see an end to law, and everything depend upon the will of him that holds such power over you? Is not slavery in these respects a terrible thing ? But to have the mind enslaved is infinitely worse. Papacy, a religion full of absurdities and superstitions, cruelty and blood is carried everywhere with the success of France . Shed no more blood than is absolutely necessary, use no sort of inhumanity. punish only the guilty."
Men sent to battle with such words ringing in their ears could scarcely fail, if they returned, to return victorious. Many of the Newbury men did return, but Colonel Titcomb, the parish hero, was slain in battle. Mr. Lowell preached his funeral sermon from the text : "Moses, my servant, is dead."
The Titcomb family were prominent in the parish for many generations and furnished fighting men in all the early wars.
When Quebec was captured, bringing peace to the colonies, the people held their rejoicings in the shadow of the meeting house. They killed an ox, dressed and broiled it on the huge gridiron on
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TROUBLES
vacant land on its north side, and after the feast songs were sung and speeches made.
An event of 1754, of which the parish could not have known the significance, was the shattering of the meeting house spire by a bolt of lightning. Benjamin Franklin, who was traveling in this vicinity, visited the town to study the damage. The following extract is from a letter which he wrote in regard to it. It is dated from Philadelphia and was read before the Royal Society in London.
"In my late journey I saw an instance of a very great quantity of lightning conducted by a wire no bigger than a common knitting needle. It was at Newbury, in New England, where the spire of the church steeple, being seventy feet in height above the belfry, was split all to pieces, and thrown about the streets in fragments. From the bell down to the clock, placed in the steeple, 20 feet below the bell, there was a small wire, above mentioned, which communicated the motion of the clock to the hammer striking the hour on the bell The clock wire was blown all to smoke, and smutted the church wall, which it passed in a broad, black tract, and also the ceiling under which it was carried ..
(Signed) Benjamin Franklin."
Franklin wrote other letters in regard to this incident. He observed in one: "that lightning in its passage through a building will leave wood to pass as far as it can in metal." The identity of electricity and lightning and the invention of lightning rods are attributable to the shattered spire of the Third Parish meeting house in Newbury.
25
CHAPTER IV THE REV. JOHN LOWELL
In 1764 the growing differences between Newbury old town and Newbury new town brought about the political separation of the two. The new town was named Newburyport and the old Third Parish of Newbury became the First Parish of Newburyport.
Enterprise in business, concern for education, patriotism in public affairs and a considerable development in social amenities marked life in the newly incorporated town. In mind, in character, in scholarship and in all those collective qualities that constitute personality Mr. Lowell had been equal to the demands of a growing and prosperous community. During his ministry 517 persons were received into full communion and 2229 were baptised. He had "a tender and affectionate concern for his people." They came to him with their joys and sorrows and he was cognizant of their sins. In the record book kept by him are names of persons readmitted to good standing in the church after slips from the prescribed rightness of conduct had debarred them from the enjoyment of full member- ship.
"Both Parson and Madam Lowell were assiduous in advancing the spiritual and intellectual welfare of the parish. At that period the minister's lady was preeminently the head of feminine society. Madam Lowell won eulogiums from old and young, rich and poor. She was a woman of rare culture and accomplishments for the day."
To which Mrs. Lowell this description refers is uncertain. It probably fitted both. Mrs. Sarah Champney Lowell died in 1756. Two years later Mr. Lowell married Mrs. Elizabeth Whipple, widow of the Rev. Joseph Whipple of Hampton Falls. The first Mrs. Lowell was the mother of two sons. One died in infancy ; the other became the Hon. John Lowell, a most active worker for representa- tive government in Massachusetts, a member of the General Court in 1776, a framer of the Massachusetts constitution, a member of the Continental Congress in 1782-3, and the recipient of an appointment as United States circuit judge in 1789. The descendants of Judge Lowell have been, and are, among the country's most distinguished authors, educators and professional men.
*From Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian, by Sarah Ann Emery.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
One of the last acts recorded of the Rev. John Lowell was that of opening a new school with prayer. He admonished the pupils to be reverent and obedient to the master. He died May 15th, 1767, in the sixty-fourth year of his life, the foremost and finest citizen of Newburyport. There was sincere mourning for him. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. John Tucker of the First Parish of Newbury who said in part: "He was endowed with good natural powers, which he improved with study, under the advantages of a liberal education. and if in some matters of a disputable nature, he differed in religious opinions from some of his brethren, yet he was far from bigotry and censoriousness ; and as he advanced in life he evidently grew in a Catholic and charitable temper."
Nearly sixty years later the Hon. Caleb Cushing wrote that *"he was generous and hospitable in disposition, peculiarly amiable in all the social and domestic relations, and distinguished as a sound scholar and examplary divine. The tolerant and catholic spirit which he displayed on doctrinal points gave him the reputation of inclining a little more to liberality of tenets than was usual among the clergy of his time who still retained much of the rigid faith of their ancesters."
§"It was only during the controversy that divided his church that human nature, aided by the spirit and legislation of the times betrayed him into anything like illiberality. .. .. The following fact is illustrative of his disposition to maintain the individual rights of conscience. Before the middle of the last century (18th) a council was called to consider the expediency of dismissing tMr. Barnard, third minister of the second church in Newbury, now first in West Newbury. Its expediency was determined on, and the question occurred of giving him a recommendation as a minister. To this one of the council objected 'unless it should be ascertained, on inquiry, that Mr. Barnard was a believer in the doctrine of the Trinity.' Mr. Lowell rose, with much emotion, and addressing the moderator said: 'If that question is put, sir, I shall leave the room, and take no more part in this council.' The question was not put."
Decorating a panel which was over the fireplace in his study, was
*History of Newburyport, Published 1825, by Caleb Cushing.
§ History of Newburyport, Mrs. E. Vale Smith.
tThomas Barnard, accused of some unbecoming conduct.
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THE REV. JOHN LOWELL
a painting of what is believed to represent a ministers' meeting. Seven gentlemen, with huge white wigs, flowing gowns and white bands, sit about a table that is placed in an alcove. On the table are a Bible, candles, a bowl that might contain tobacco and several pipes. Over the top of the alcove is the motto *"In necessariis, unitas; in non-necessariis, libertas; in utrisque, charitas,-which may be translated thus : In essentials, unity ; in non-essentials, liber- ty; in both, charity. Who painted this picture and whether the faces are likenesses or not is more than we can tell. The work is rude enough. The artist seems to have had a sovereign contempt for the laws of perspective. The Bible stands inclined a little, with- out any support; and the most natural things about the picture are the pipes and wigs."
A later minister of the parish, the Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, secured this panel from the owners of the old house and gave it to James Russell Lowell, a descendant of the original owner.
Mr. Lowell was buried in the Old Hill Burying Ground. The following inscription is on his monument :
"Here lies buried the body of the Rev. John Lowell M. A., late pastor of the Congregational Society in Newburyport. He was born in Boston, March 14, 1703, educated at Harvard in the University of Cambridge, where he took his degree anno 1721, and was settled in the ministry of the gospel Jan. 19, 1726. He was a gentleman well skilled in the learned languages, of great reading and extensive knowledge, and of conspicuous piety and virtue, and of talents peculiarly adapted to the ministerial office. While he lived he was highly respected and beloved by his people, for whose welfare he had a tender and affectionate concern, and was honored and greatly lamented by them when he died, which was on Friday morning, May 15, 1767, in the 64th year of his age and the 42nd of his pastoral office.
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