USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > History of the First Religious Society in Newburyport, Massachusetts > Part 3
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"This monument, erected to his memory by the unanimous voice of the people of his charge, testifies to the world their grateful remembrance of his faithful services."
The grateful remembrance of the parish also found expression by voting an annuity of thirty pounds a year to Mrs. Lowell,
*From Currier's History of Newburyport.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
granting her permission to sit in the minister's pew tax free, and the right of pasturage for her cow in the common lands.
After his father's death John Lowell sold the parsonage to Patrick Tracy, one of the merchant princes of the town. John Lowell bought an estate on High street and for many years was one of Newburyport's most distinguished and public spirited citizens. Mr. Tracy removed the Lowell house to Temple street where it is still standing. On the lot it had occupied he built a large brick mansion which, in later years, had the honor of sheltering George Washington and also at other times Jefferson and Lafayette. This house is now the Public Library of Newburyport. Thus, from the town's earliest days this site has been one of social distinction and learning.
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CHAPTER V MR. CARY AND MR. ANDREWS
Mr. Lowell had led the parish through its formation years. He had imbued it with toleration, but after his death some members began to fear that the church "was slowly moving along the way of doctrinal defection." Finding themselves on this strange way, without their leader, they began to doubt that its end was salvation, and retreated to the well known ground of strict Calvinism. It was two years before an agreement could be reached between the ever more widely dividing factions. Then they agreed to disagree.
*"It should be mentioned as a gratifying circumstance, that the separation of the third from the first society was made in the most amiable manner. Messrs. Cary and Marsh had both been candidates for settlement in the first parish. About one third of the parish preferred §Mr. Marsh. The majority then observed to the minority : 'You prefer Mr. Marsh, we Mr. Cary. If you wish to settle Mr. Marsh and build a meeting house we will assist you and give you half of the church plate'."
So the matter was settled. For the next few years the members of these churches were called, in good humored jests, Cary chickens and Marsh birds. According to the record book of the parish one half the church plate was given to the new church. Nor was the generosity wholly on the part of the First Parish. Despite the expense of building a new meeting house, members of the new church levied a tax upon themselves to help raise the thirty pounds the First Parish had voted to pay to the widow of their late and beloved pastor, the Rev. John Lowell.
This was the one instance in the early history of Newbury and Newburyport when the separation of a church from an older one was effected without acrimonious discussion. The new society, the Third Church of Newburyport, was usually called the North Church, and it became one of the important churches of the town. The membership of the First Parish, under Mr. Cary, gradually increased for twenty years or more. Its largest membership was about 2,000.
*Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport and West Newbury, by Joshua Coffin.
§The Rev. Christopher Marsh, first pastor of the North Church, 1768-1773.
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Thomas Cary was born in Charlestown, October 18th, 1745. He was educated at Harvard and was ordained minister of the First Parish on May 11th, 1768.
*"The sermon at the ordination of Mr. Cary was preached by Edward Barnard of Haverhill, Mass., who had much previous intimacy with him, and much care over his education. Mr. Barnard's sermon was not doctrinal, indeed it is almost to be wished that the Congregational ministers had more clearly defined their position. It would seem as if they studiously avoided this. Perhaps they did not feel deep enough conviction on certain points, about which now, at least, there is no difficulty in forming or expressing an opinion, or perhaps they did not realize the immense width of the gulf between the doctrine of atonement by purchase, and salvation by precept and example. The sermon must be called Arian; it certainly was not Trinitarian. It is rather a remarkable coincidence that the text was in part from the same passages as the text of the ordination of Mr. Lowell, viz., II Corinthians, v. 15-18."
Mr. Cary's salary was fixed at 100 pounds a year and the use of a parsonage. Twenty-five pounds a year were added to it very soon. It reached extravagant heights in the depreciated currency of revo- lutionary times and some years later was settled at 300 pounds in specie. In 1775 Mr. Cary married Miss Esther Carter, a daughter of Nathaniel Carter, one of the leading residents of the town.
Soon after he took up his duties in the parish the new minister became known as a rational, or moderate Calvinist, §"although in so styling him more emphasis should be laid upon the moderate and less upon the Calvinist." From this same source comes the informa- tion that such moderate Calvinism was named, in this vicinity, Merrimack Divinity, or Merrimack Theology.
From the earliest days of this ministry the troubles that led to the Revolutionary war were thickening. The town chose a committee of safety, in which many prominent members of the parish served, t"to consult and advise with each other & if need be to communicate to the Town any measure that may appear conducive to the public
*Oration of Amos Noyes, 150th Anniversary of Founding of the Parish. § Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County.
tFrom the town records, copied from the History of Newburyport, by John J. Currier.
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THE REV. THOMAS CARY
Benefit, more especially to be watchful that no Encroachments are made on our Constitutional Rights and Liberties, that we may enjoy the blessings that we have left, in Peace, and not be deprived of them from any Quarter but may devise & prosecute the most vigorous and reasonable measures, as far as lies in our sphere, to retrieve our former Privileges."
Mr. Cary opened some of the public meetings, held to consider such matters, with prayer. In the ship yards, near the meeting house, many frigates and hundreds of privateers were built. Many of these latter were owned by members of the parish. Thus Patrick Tracy and his son, Nathaniel, owned 110 vessels at the beginning of the war and 23 letters of marque. These captured 120 enemy vessels from which the government received $167,219 for army supplies. Many of the officers and men in such vessels were of the parish, heroes of gallant sea fights. The drilling of troops and the arrival and departure of companies, the burning of tea in the shadow of the meeting house, instigated by a member of the parish, and the unrecorded incidents and preparations of the time all involved the members, and often the minister, of the first and largest congrega- tion in the growing and patriotic town.
*"In almost no part of the country did the people enter more zealously into the Great War of Independence than in the towns around the mouth of the Merrimack river. Nor, with a single exception, did the ministers fail to encourage them in their noble and patriotic work." This exception was a minister of East Haverhill.
While patriotism waxed, political excitements multiplied ; disasters and occasional triumphs threw the people into alarms and rejoicings, but religious controversies languished. With the coming of peace they began to emerge from their temporary eclipse. The theological doctrines taught by Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of which, perhaps, election and eternity of punishment were the picturesque tenets which caught the popular imagination, caused some members to lose confidence in milder doctrines of the parish and withdraw; but the parish gained new members, nevertheless, and still retained the largest congregation in town.
In 1779 Mrs. Esther Carter Cary died, leaving a two years old son, Thomas. In 1783 Mr. Cary married Miss Deborah Prince of
*Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
Exeter, New Hampshire. In the diary of the Rev. William Bentley, D. D., of Salem, who traveled and wrote much of his travels, is this entry : "Mr. Cary, the congregational minister (of Newburyport) preached on Thursday at his own home. A pious and rational dis- course. He is a man of wealth and kind manners, as a better acquaintance shows." About two years later Dr. Bentley came to Newburyport again. He writes : "On Sunday Mr. J (ackman) very politely waited upon me to the Meeting House in which the preachers are the Messrs. Cary and Andrews. The assembly is the best in Newburyport, including the best families. The weather was very bad & therefore did not admit a general attendance. The building has nothing to recommend it."
More and more frequently entries are found in the church books that refer to pews and seats. It is obvious that the demand for pews was steadily increasing. In 1765 the cellar under the house was cleared, and a committee appointed to let it "for the benefit of the Proprietory." There is no further entry regarding this matter until 1787 when a committee was desired to collect rents due, and "see that no more tarr or pickled fish be allowed to be put in the cellar in the future and that the cellar be cleared of the Tarr now in it." So the evidence accumulates that the slow rout of Calvinism was accompanied in this parish by a loss of the hardy endurance of uncomfortable seats and objectional odors.
Theophilus Parsons was a member of the parish in these closing years of the 18th century. He was a lawyer of wide and distin- guished reputation, a member of the famous Essex Junto and later became chief justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts. Several young men of unusual abilities came to Newburyport to study law in his office. Among them was John Quincy Adams. Mr. Adams kept a diary of his experiences here which has been published un- der the title "Annals of a Country Town." In this book he wrote of Mr. Cary : "This gentleman is a good preacher; appears extremely indolent. His manner is also far from graceful."
This young man visited all of the churches in the vicinity; and his piquant comments upon the preachers and sermons are most entertaining. A week after first listening to Mr. Cary he wrote: "Attended upon Mr. Cary the whole day. His manner is not very
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THE REV. THOMAS CARY
agreeable; but his stile is much better than common." On a later Sunday he "attended Mr. Cary's meeting all day. In the forenoon he was quite severe upon all persons who either did not attend divine services so steadily as they might, or who, being in the house of the Lord, do not behave with proper respect. No person, said Mr. Cary, who is going into the presence of an earthly prince, will appear in a loose, neglected attire, as it would be considered as a mark of contempt, and as an insult to the dignity of the sovereign. Hence, he deduced the necessity of a serious, devout, attentive mind, at times when we go intimately into the presence of God. His conclusion, were it placed as a distinct proposition, no one, I presume, would deny ; but his perfectly stale and hackney'd allusion is, in my opinion, not only false but impious. I would ask Mr. Cary, why it is necessary to appear with such accurate precision of dress at the court of an earthly prince ? What other cause can be assigned for a thing so very different in itself, but the ridiculous vanity and fantastic foppery of the great? It is impossible to deduce an argu- ment from similarity of effect, unless a like similarity of causes exists, and in this case the supposition is not to be made. In short, if our preachers in general would not take so much pains as they do to prove facts which no man in his senses can deny, they would save themselves much exertion of thought, without injuring their reputations."
The Rev. Samuel Spring was considered the most brilliant preacher in town. He had succeeded Mr. Marsh at the North Church. He was a man of great energy, and eloquence and had been chaplain in the army of Benedict Arnold in the campaign against Quebec. The diary has this to say of him: "This afternoon I went with Townsend, and attended Mr. Spring's lecture. I was much better pleased than I expected to be with this gentleman's preaching. His sentiments are extremely contracted and illiberal, and he maintains them with the zeal and enthusiasm of a bigot, but his delivery is very agreeable, and I believe his devotion sincere. Although I shall never be a convert to his principles, I will not condemn them as impious or heretical.
"Jan. 27th, 1788, Heard Parson Cary the whole day. In the forenoon he was intolerably long, as the weather was very cold."
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
The indolence of Mr. Cary, noted when Mr. Adams heard him first, may have been due to ill health. On Sunday morning, March 9th, 1788, directly after the morning service, he was stricken with palsy. On the next Sunday the young diarist tells us that there were no services in the meeting house because of the illness of Parson Cary. Again on the 3rd of April there was no service; but on the next Sunday "Parson Cary got out to meeting this forenoon; but he was still so weak that the effort was too great. He was scarcely able to get through the morning exercises; and in the afternoon the church was again destitute. I went to hear *Parson Murrey rattle away upon disinterested benevolence, and pass'd the evening at home."
Mr. Cary never wholly recovered from this attack, although he was able to preach occasionally. It was necessary to procure a colleague. §"His conduct upon the settlement of a colleague was generous and under the circumstances heroic. He insisted upon relinquishing a portion of the gratuity which the church had voted him, and acquiesed cheerfully in having a colleague."
Before such a helper could be selected the pulpit was empty occasionally on a Sunday ; although it was usually supplied by some preacher from out of town. Among these was John Andrews, a friend and Harvard classmate of John Quincy Adams. In the diary is the following entry regarding him: "I attended meeting all day, and heard Mr. Andrews. He speaks very well, and his composition was, I believe, generally pleasing. I sometimes think that he mistakes his genius and imagines that his fancy is lively and his first thoughts best; while in truth his conception is naturally slow, and he ought to study greatly his writings. He was this day very brilliant in his expressions and flowery in his periods; but his thoughts were rather too much in the common run, and this fault I have frequently observed in his pieces."
On May fourth, a week later is the following entry : "I heard Mr. Andrews preach, his sermons were both very short; but better, I think, than those he delivered last Sunday. His text was 'If they believe not Moses and the prophets neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' Pickman observed that there
*The Rev. John Murrey of the First Presbyterian Church.
§ Amos Noyes, Oration 150th Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish.
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THE REV. JOHN ANDREWS
was a sermon of Archbishop Tilloton from the same text, and the similarity is such as proves that Mr. Andrews had read it; though not so great as to charge him with plagiarism. However the people in this town are so bigoted that a man of Mr. Andrews' liberal religious sentiments will not be half so popular a preacher as one who would rant and rave and talk nonsense for an hour together in his Sermon."
Nevertheless the people of the First Parish did choose John Andrews to assist Mr. Cary; and the third notable pastorate of the parish was begun. Mr. Andrews was born in Hingham and, like his predecessors, was educated at Harvard. He was ordained as associate pastor on December 10th, 1788. The sermon on this occasion was by the Rev. Timothy Hillard, minister of the First Church at Cambridge. * "His discourse condemns doctrinal sermons. It professed to believe in the miracles and prophecies as stated in the Old and New Testaments, but neither this sermon nor the charge of Rev. Mr. Shute of Hingham were Calvinistic. These discourses and the eighteen churches participating in the council were Arian Congregational, among them being the first three churches of Newbury. Rev. Dr. Tucker, the Arian minister of the First Church of Newbury, made the allusion to Mr. Cary in giving the right hand of fellowship to Mr. Andrews and said :
"We rejoice with you in his excellent accomplishments for that important station and employment, and from the apparent strength and firmness of his constitution we hoped with you for a long con- tinuance as a rich blessing to his people. But what a melancholy alteration in his state and yours! How is the gold become dim and the fine gold changed."
Following in the steps of his predecessors, Mr. Andrews soon brought a bride to his parsonage. He was married in Cambridge, September 9, 1789, to Miss Margaret Wigglesworth, only daughter of Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, professor of divinity at Harvard.
Although the churches in the vicinity participated in this ordination the clergy were becoming sharply divided on some doctrinal points. There was a reaction against liberal tendencies. §"When a pulpit is vacated by the removal of an Arian, or a semi-
* Amos Noyes, Oration 150th Anniversary of founding of Parish.
§ Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
Arian it is somehow pretty sure to be filled by a man of a more orthodox stamp. There begins to be more of what is called 'meta- physical preaching,'-which means, more discriminating and logical and pungent preaching. The fruits of the change will in due time appear." This was written of the decade 1791 to 1801.
In the first year of this decade the Rev. William Bentley of Salem again visited Newburyport and records in his diary : "I visited the Rev'd Cary, & had familiar conversation on the unhappy disunion among the clergy of the Town. They utterly refuse each other civilities, at least a Mr. Spring will not support a pall, or attend a funeral at which *Mr. Murrey joins or officiates."
In February, 1794, the parish was incorporated by the name of the First Religious Society in Newburyport, for the purpose of holding real estate and other property. It was the largest, most influential and wealthiest church in the town. Among the parishion- ers were such men as Theophilus Parsons, Theophilus Bradbury, lawyer and a justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, Nathaniel Tracy, merchant prince, Col. Edward Wigglesworth, a redoubtable soldier of the Revolution, Jonathan Jackson, owner of privateers during the war and patriot, Judge Joseph Greenleaf, the Carters, grandees of the town, the Marquands, ship masters and owners of vessels that had brought in many prizes during the war, and Dr. Micajah Sawyer, an accomplished scholar and leading physician. The parish list is too long to be repeated. Many of the names are forgotten now; but there are many that will never be forgotten as long as Newburyport remains, and several whose reputations still live far beyond the bounds of the town. A Newburyport man, believed to have been a member of this parish, was the first to show the new American flag on the Thames river.
Inhibitions that held many to old ways were not greatly regarded by leading members of this parish. The Morning Star, a Newburyport paper of that time, carried on a November morning in 1794 the following item: §"Tomorrow the elegant organ now erecting in the Meeting House of the First Society in this town will be completed; on which occasion a discourse will be delivered and
*The Rev. John Murrey, Second Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. §Copied from the History of Newburyport by John J. Currier.
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THE REV. JOHN ANDREWS
several pieces of sacred music performed by one of the first organists in these parts. This organ, which is certainly the most elegant in New England, is about fifteen feet high, ten feet in breadth, and seven feet from front to rear, was built by Dr. Josiah Leavitt, an ingenious organ builder of Boston, for whose benefit there will be a contribution after service is over, which is to begin at precisely half past two in the afternoon."
*"The organ was for those days a large and handsome instru- ment. Round the top of the pipes were festoons of crimson silk, above them, in large letters, was the motto-'Praise Him with an Organ.' This remarkable innovation greatly shocked the more rigid, and the new instrument became the chief topic of conversation in town and country, in the commercial mart, and by the domestic hearth. It was denominated a 'popist fiddle.' Much was said about the 'tooting tub' and 'sarving the Devil' on an organ, while the Rev. Samuel Spring of the North Church, discoursed most disdainfully respecting 'our neighbor's box of whistles'."
Two years before the organ was purchased it was voted to devote a sumnotexceeding thirty-six pounds "to be used to procure a Singing Master for a term not Exceeding Six months to instruct such of the parish as are inclined & in the opinion of such Master are Capable of learning to sing, and to hire a room & procure Such Books as they judge necessary for the purpose."
So singers of some training were ready to add their voices to the organ notes and produce better music than could be heard elsewhere in the town. Still, the organ was looked upon by some as an unholy instrument. This, and the growing liberalism of Mr. Andrews, and perhaps the slowly forming determination to build a new meeting house, a great expense, turned some away from the society. Brief notices of intentions to leave it are recorded for the years 1798, 1799 and 1800. However, partly to offset these notices others are occasionally received from persons who desire to be numbered and taxed as members of the parish.
In these closing years of the 18th century, when church going was still almost universal, Newburyport reached its zenith in wealth, culture, social and commercial importance. The congregation that assembled in the old meeting house was a distinguished one indeed.
*Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian by Sarah Ann Emery.
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HISTORY OF THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY
In the parish records of this period there are several entries similar to the following: "April 1st, 1798, Voted that Mr. Ebenezer Cutting be desired to sett up in the Gallery to keep the Boys in order and he be excused for taxes for his services."
In the same year that the organ was purchased the parish raised thirty-three pounds and fourteen shillings to send to sufferers from a disastrous fire in Boston.
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CHAPTER VI THE NEW MEETING HOUSE TEARING DOWN THE OLD
As early as 1785 a committee had been appointed to examine the condition of the now old meeting house. It was showing signs of much use and decay. Three years earlier the spire had been blown down in a gale, bringing to the ground the copper weathercock that surmounted it, so worn on its high perch that the maker's name could not be deciphered. The committee reported that repairs were needed; but none seem to have been made until 1794 when the organ was installed. The building was growing more and more dilapi- dated. In 1798 a petition, headed by the name of Theophilus Parsons, was presented to the proprietors to see if they "will conclude to build a new house of worship for said society," and also "to determine upon such measures as they shall think necessary for the building of said new house, for purchasing land, whereon to erect the same, and for all other purposes relating thereto, and also to choose such committees to make such estimates and reports relating to the premises as such committees may be empowered to make and to receive and act upon such estimates and reports."
One of these committees was to examine the proprietors' title to the land under and adjoining the meeting house. Another committee was to see "what place or places can be obtained whereon to build a meeting house and on what terms, and what sum may be obtained for the old Meeting House and land under and adjoining same, provided a Title with warranty, be given by the Proprietors."
The first committee reported in December that "they find no vote or grant respecting the land covered by the meeting house, but the Proprietors, having been in quiet and peaceable possession of the same for more than sixty years, they have acquired a good, lawful and complete title thereof. The triangular piece of land adjoining the northwesterly side of said house was purchased by the Pro- prietors of Jeremiah Pearson and others on the 21st day of August 1765, as by their deed of warranty appears."
The second committee selected a site on the newly laid out Pleasant street, which was called the "Rock Lot" because its surface was nearly covered by a ledge. That the new building should rise
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