USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the First church in Boston, 1630-1880 > Part 13
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
der the direction of the ministers in New Zealand. The questions were intended for the Congregational ministers in London ; but for some reason were sent over to this country, and by request of the min- isters here, Mr. Norton undertook to answer them. This task was gracefully performed " in the first Latin book ever written in this country." There is a preface to the work by " Tho. Goodwin, Phil. Nye, Sidr. Simpson, dated Lond., Feb. 16, 1647;" and a long epistle to the author, by " Johannes Cotton, in Ecclesia Bostoniensi Presbyter docens."
While he was engaged in writing this book com- plaints were made that his sermons were not up to their former standard ; and Mr. Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, was appointed to confer with him on the sub -. ject. He accordingly gave Norton a kindly word of caution, which was received without a murmur, and turned to good account. 'In 1660 he again showed his skill in Latin composition by a letter, signed by himself and forty-three other ministers, addressed to a " visionary. Scotchman named John Dury." In 1645 and 1661 he preached the Election Sermon. He took an active part in the synod of 1646, and during the session delivered a lecture in Boston which caused the church to renounce their scruples about sending messengers to the council. In 1646 Winthrop and Norton were chosen by the colony to be agents in affairs with the mother country. But the danger of imprisonment was thought to be so great that they were not allowed to pursue the
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JOHN NORTON.
1653-70.]
errand. In 1650 he was appointed to write a reply to William Pynchon, by order of the court .!
His removal to Boston, on the death of Cotton, stirred up a decided opposition on the part of Ips- wich Church. They were willing that Mr. Norton should return to England, as he had previously asked permission to do, in case nothing occurred to change his mind; but they were not disposed to allow him to go to Boston to settle. One member of his old church suggested that the matter be left for Mr. Norton's decision alone, but the latter de- clined the responsibility ; and it was finally agreed, as a compromise, that he should be allowed to go to Boston, but not in view of a permanent settlement. On May 18, 1653, the General Court congratulated Norton on the acceptance of his call from Boston Church, and ordered a letter of thanks to Ipswich Church for their magnanimous consent to his dis- missal.
But Norton had not been in Boston more than two years, when the death of Rogers was the occasion for a renewal of dissatisfaction on the part of his former church. After long and serious debate, and the advice of several councils in favor of a dismissal from his former connection, Norton himself, becom- ing a little tired of the controversy, threatened to settle the question by carrying out his former plan of a return to England. To prevent this from tak- ing place, the Governor and magistrates summoned
1 N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. (1859), 293.
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
a council of twelve churches. This body finally disposed of the matter, and the long and bitter strife was ended. In 1658 he published a life of Cotton ; and in 1659, "The Heart of New England Rent," etc.
Mr. Norton exercised large influence in the new position which he was called to fill. His advice was of great service, both in civil and religious concerns. In 1653 he helped to keep the peace with the Dutch at Manhados; and in 1656 was sent with Elder James Penn to Salisbury to settle a religious con- troversy, - an errand of frequent occurrence at that time. In the following year he went to Hartford on business of a like nature.
In 1662 he was sent with Simon Bradstreet, as colonial agent, on an important mission to England. This agency, which had in view an address to Charles II. on his restoration in 1660, was accepted by both with great reluctance, and delayed for some time by the illness of Mr. Norton. They finally sailed on Feb. 11, 1662, and did what was possible with an affair so delicate; but on their return were received with frowns and charges of unfaithfulness on the part of those who had hoped for larger con- cessions from the king than a ratification of their charter. The issue of this mission was fraught with so much annoyance and loss of esteem to Mr. Norton that it is said to have shortened his life.1
1 Cotton Mather is authority for this statement, but sce Felt's History of Ipswich, 224.
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JOHN NORTON.
1653-70.]
On Sunday, April 5, 1663, he had conducted the morning service, and fully intended to preach in the afternoon, but meantime was seized with a sud- den fit of apoplexy, and died the same day. The name of his first wife is not recorded. He married his second wife, Mary Mason, of Boston, on the day of his installation in the First Church. He left no children. But one brother, William, of Ipswich, and another, Thomas, who lived with his mother and three sisters in London, all survived him.
Norton was regarded as second in ability only to Cotton. He was rigid in doctrine and discipline, and favored the extremest measures against the Quakers. His sermon on " The Heart of New Eng- land Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Gen- eration " shows how bitterly he felt towards that turbulent sect.
For this service he was rewarded by the court with a grant of land.1 On the other hand, the Quakers reviled him while living, and at his death are reported to have said, " that the Lord had smit- ten John Norton, chief priest of Boston, as he was sinking down by the fireside ; being under just judg- ment, he confessed the hand of the Lord was upon him, and so he died." 2
1 Records of Massachusetts, Vol. IV. Part I. 397. In 1659 the General Court grant each town copies of Mr. Norton's work, in the press, against the Quakers, in proportion to its rates. Felt's History of Ipswich, 61.
2 Hutchinson, Vol. I. 233, note. Memorial History of Boston, Vol. I. 184. Notice of his sudden death from Roxbury Church records is given in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. (1880), 89; and from ibid., July (1859), an early pedigree, owned by Professor C. E. Norton of Cambridge.
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
For those people who had no cause to dread his anathemas his preaching seems to have had great attractions. One of his former church at Ipswich would frequently walk to Boston, then a distance of thirty miles, to hear him preach at Thursday lecture, observing, "that it was worth a great journey to be a partaker in one of Mr. Norton's prayers."
By his will, dated Jan. 14, 1661, he left fro to the poor of the church in Boston.
The church record gives the following enumera- tion for the period from 1653 to 1656 inclusive: "Two hundred and ten children baptized, one hundred and twenty-three of whom were males; twenty-four per- sons admitted to communion, seventeen of whom were. women ; three men and as many women had been dismissed, at their own desire, to other churches ; one male admonished for keeping evil company ; three males excommunicated for the sins of drunk- enness and adultery ; and one male acknowledging the sin of drunkenness, for which he had been sus- pended, restored to the bosom of the church." 1
In January, 1657, the following question was de- cided in the affirmative, namely: " Whether the rela- tion of immediate children of church members be such as giveth the church a church power over them; and, consequently, whether it is the duty of the church to exercise that power regularly upon them, that their life and knowledge may be answerable to the engagement of their relation ; and whether it be the
1 Emerson's History of First Church, 89.
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JOHN NORTON.
1653-70.]
church's mind, that solemn notice be given to them seasonably."
As a result of the vote, the church used to ad- monish and even excommunicate children of church members. In the same year, at a synod of twenty- six ministers, it was agreed that children of church members should be baptized. And again, in 1662, another synod was held at Boston to consider in part the same matter; and it was decided that " church members who were admitted in minority, understanding the doctrine of faith, and publicly professing their assent thereunto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly owning the covenant before the church, wherein they give up themselves and chil. dren to the Lord, and subject themselves to the government of Christ in his church, their chil- dren are to be baptized."1 It was further decided that " it was expedient to have a consociation of churches."
The statistics from 1657 to 1663 give seventy-one new members, forty-nine of whom were females, - together with one hundred and fifty-four female and forty-nine male baptisms.2
By the death of Norton, Wilson was again left
1 The reason for adopting this measure was because some of the second generation of settlers had not become avowed church members, so that their children, constituting, of course, the third generation, would be debarred from baptism, unless some change was made, or the requirements were mod- ified. For a discussion of the " Half Way Covenant," and the opposition which it called forth from Davenport and Chauncy, see Dexter's Congrega- tionalism, etc., 469 et seq.
2 Emerson's History of First Church, 99.
7
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
without a colleague." He was now seventy-six years of age, and could hardly expect to bear'the burden long. From 1664 to 1667 inclusive," the church received large accessions, both by admissions and baptisms, and at the date of Wilson's death was particularly flourishing. On Aug. 7, 1667, the church lost their venerable and beloved pastor, who had been with them, as the record says, since "the first beginning of the plantation." To the account of his ancestors, which has already been given, it should be added, that his grand-uncle, Sir Thomas Wilson, was secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, and his father-in-law, Sir John Mansfield, "a rela- tive of Dr. John Dod, the Decalogist," was her Maj- esty's surveyor and master of the Minories.
LIFE OF WILSON.
At ten years of age Wilson was sent to school at Eton. He soon showed superior scholarship ; and when the Duke of Biron, French ambassador, vis- ited the school, was chosen to deliver a Latin ora- tion. After four years at Eton, he was admitted to Kings College, Cambridge, in 1602, and there re-
1 A letter, dated Oct. 20, 1663, and signed by the Governor in the name of the General Court, was sent to Dr. John Owen, desiring him to come over and accept the call of First Church to become teacher in place of Norton ; but he declined. Hutchinson, Vol. I. 226.
2 During this period " eighty-three persons, forty-nine of whom were females, adjoined themselves to the church. In the same space of time two hundred and twenty-four children were baptized, one hundred and fourteen of whom were females."- EMERSON's History of First Church, 101.
1653-70.]
JOHN WILSON. 99
ceived a fellowship. His early views were opposed . to Puritanism ; but on becoming intimate with Dr. William Ames and Richard Rogers of Wethersfield, and comparing their writings and teachings with those of "Greenham, Dod, and Dent, especially Dent's Pathway to Heaven, he saw that they who were nicknamed Puritans were likely to be the de- sirablest companions for one that intended his own everlasting happiness." And finally objecting to the ceremonious observances required by the Estab- lished Church, he was threatened with . expulsion by the bishop of the diocese. His father did all he could to suppress these rebellious tendencies, but his remonstrance availed only to strengthen them into convictions. By the paternal advice the young man then went to one of the inns of court to study law; but after devoting three years to this pursuit, the desire to preach still held mastery, and he finally took orders in the Church of England. On account of his refusal to subscribe, he experienced some trouble about obtaining a degree of M. A. ; but finally, through the intercession of the Earl of Northampton, chancellor of the university, the title was conferred.
He continued a while at Emmanuel, and then left to resume the ministry.
The first half of his life was spent in England, preaching the last ten or twelve years in various places, - at Mortlake, Henley, Bumsted, Stoke, Clare, Candish, and Sudbury, - besides serving as
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON.
[1653-70.
chaplain in various noble families, among others, that of Lady Scudamore. Early in life he had ' formed a resolution, " that if the Lord would grant him liberty of conscience, with purity of worship, he would be content, - yea, thankful, though it were at the furthermost end of the world." This resolve was at length tested, as the record shows, in 1630, when the storm of persecution drove him to seek refuge in this country.
His ministry in First Church covered thirty-seven years. Wilson was more remarkable for his strength of faith and love than for his talents as a preacher, though the last were of no mean order. He resem. bled Norton and others in his zeal for ordinances, but at the same time showed himself to be a most devoted friend and helper to those who needed his love and care.
The story of his climbing a tree at an election in Cambridge, to make a speech in behalf of Winthrop, shows that his heart would warm to friendly offices, even on secular occasions. His hospitality and be- nevolence were proverbial. Wilson was very fond of anagrams, which caused the witty author of the "Simple Cobbler of Agawam " to say that his should be, " I pray you come in; you are heartily welcome."
He aided the apostle Eliot in his labors among the Indians, and was employed as chaplain in the Pequot war.' For the latter service the court al-
1 On account of the side which he took in the Hutchinsonian contro- versy, the soldiers declined to serve in his company.
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House of the Rev John'Wilson From a sketch by Miss E.S.Quincy, taken in 1846
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JOHN WILSON.
1653-70.]
lotted him a thousand acres of land in the present town of Quincy, Mass.1
In 1638 he preached the first Artillery Election Sermon .?
In the death of Wilson the church lost a connect- ing link with the past. He was the last of the four original signers of that solemn church covenant
1 The General Court, on April 1, 1634, granted to the Rev. John Wilson two hundred acres of land at the North River "nexte Meadford on the north." On December 10, of the same year, this land was ordered to be exchanged for the same quantity "at Mount Wooleston at his election," Mr. Wilson to " pass ouer to the towne of Boston " the two hundred acre farm at Med- ford. The land "at Mount Wooleston" to be'as near his other land there "as may be for his most conveniency." - N. E. Ilist. and Geneal. Reg. (1867), 33.
The Wilson estate of one thousand acres lay in parts of Milton and of Quincy, and probably included the site occupied subsequently by the res- idence of John Adams. See Pattee's History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 22, for a notice of Wilson's honse ; Ibid. 11, 21, 23, 24, 33, 55, as to the grant in general. - Letter from Hon. Josiah Quincy, March 25, 1881.
The grant to John Wilson appears to have bounded on the southwesterly part of the grant of upwards of one thousand acres to William Coddington and Edmund Quincy by the town of Boston in 1635, and probably comprised the Wollaston heights of the present day. A few years since a house of one story was standing close to a brook which falls into the bay north of Mount Wollaston, and about half a mile from Edmund Quincy's. It would have been on the way from E. Quincy's to Penny Ferry, about where the so-called granite bridge passes over the Neponset River. This house was probably Mr. Wilson's, the son or grandson of the Rev. John Wilson. The house of E. Quincy is yet standing, and the cellar of Mr. Coddington's has but recently disappeared. - Letter from Miss E. S. Quincy, March 25, 1881.
" In the inventory of Rev. John Wilson, - ' Richard Bracket & Edmond Quinsey, Braintry, 19th Augt., 1667, appraise the farm wherein Mr. Thomas Faxon doe now dwell, appertaining to the estate of the Reverend Mr. John Wilson lately deceased, containing one dwelling house and barne, with about seaven hundred acres of land, more or less of swamp, meadow, arable or woodland, &c., as also tenn cowes & a mare at 1300 pounds.'" - Letter from Mr. Thos. Minns, April 26, 1881.
2 From that year down to the time of the removal from Chauncy Street to the present location in 1868, a period of two hundred and thirty years, the Artillery Election Sermon was preached, with scarcely a break, in First Church meeting-house.
THE NEWBERRY FIRDADV
£
IO2
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
entered into before Boston was settled. . Naturally then, as life began to fail him, his people gathered around to learn lessons of faith, love, and wisdom from the lips of the dying prophet. To them he said, "that he should soon go to be with his de- parted friends in heaven. Yet," he added, " I have been an unprofitable servant. The Lord be merci- ful to me a sinner ! " 1
For more than a year after the death of Wilson " no one was called to supply the vacant place. John Davenport, of New Haven, a man of great report, but advanced in years, and James Allen, a victim of the Bartholomew Act, which deprived him of his living in England, were both "called to be teaching offi- cers" Sept. 24, 1667, but were not set in office until Dec. 9, 1668.
LIFE OF DAVENPORT.
John Davenport was born in Coventry in War- wickshire. In the list of baptisms in Holy Trinity Church for the year 1597 it is entered, "Apr. 9, John Dampard [colloquial for Davenport], [fifth] son of Henrie [by Winifred Barnabet, his wife].">
At an early age Davenport was sent to the Free Grammar School of Coventry, then about fifty years old, and of established reputation. The original
'' During the year 1668 "six men and four women were admitted to the church, and three male and two female children baptized." - EMERSON'S History of First Church, 109.
2 The stone font then in use is still preserved. Life of Davenport by F. B. Dexter in New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers, Vol. II. 200.
103
1653-70.] JOHN DAVENPORT.
building was still standing in 1877, " and used for the purpose of the endowment." 1
The usher at the carlier period, but afterwards head master, was Dr. Holland, the well-known trans- lator of classical works. In 1611 Coventry was greatly excited over a letter from King James, se- . verely rebuking the city authorities for not enforcing the ceremony of kneeling at the sacrament. Daven- port, then a boy of fourteen, was thus carly made familiar with the ruling of his spiritual master on a subject which, at a later period, brought about his separation from the Church of England. He went to Oxford in 1613, - Wood says to Merton College,2 - at the age of sixteen. It is doubtful, however, to what college he belonged. The President of St. John's College at that time was William Laud, bet- ter known in history by a different title, but just as well to men like Davenport without any prefix at all. According to Wood, John Davenport and his kinsman, Christopher, entered college as " bat- tlers " (" or beneficiaries for their food and tuition "), until, deprived of this aid, the former was left to work his way.
Forced to find some means of support, at the age of eighteen he became a preacher. The ser- mons which he wrote the first winter after his re- moval from Oxford -spent, as the headings show, at Hilton Castle, near the city of Durham - are
1 Life of Davenport by F. B. Dexter in New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers, Vol. II 206.
" Athena Oxonienses, Vol. III. Col. SSo
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1653-70.
still preserved in the library of Yale College.1 In March, 1616, he removed to London, and preached for a year or two, without any apparent " living," until June, 1619, when, as the records of St. Law- rence Jewry show, he was chosen by the vestry lec- turer and curate, under Rev. William Boswell, vicar. He stayed there for five years, acquiring reputation as a preacher, and intimacy with several noble and eminent supporters of the rising Puritan party. He was next promoted to the office of vicar. On Oct. 5, 1624, the adjoining parish of St. Stephens, Cole- man Street, - in the exercise of a peculiar privilege, which then as now gives them the right to choose their own minister, - extended an almost unanimous call to Davenport. Of seventy-three parishioners present, all but three or four voted for him.
The appointment did not give satisfaction to the party in power, on account of his suspected Puritan proclivities. Documents preserved in England and in this country show the drift of their opinion, as well as the anxiety of Davenport at this period to meet the charges brought against him. Ten years after his removal from Oxford he returned to take the degree of B. D., of which straitened circum- stances had thus far deprived him. The date of this application was May 18, 1625. On his return to London, the same year, in the season of a great plague, when thousands died in that place alone, he devoted himself to the visitation of the sick.
1 Dexter's Life of Davenport, 208.
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JOHN DAVENPORT.
1653-70.]
For this service the parish of St. Stephens, in 1626, voted " that Mr. Davenport shall have of the parish funds, as a gratuity, the sum of {20."
About the same time he engaged in a correspond- ence with Dr. Alexander Leighton, father of the Archbishop, on the subject of kneeling at the sacra- ment, in which he strongly urges the exercise of moderation in preference to hasty action ; and fur- ther cautions the fiery Scotchman not to mistake a shadow for substance, but rather "to unite o' forces against those who' oppose us in Fundamentalls, than to be divided amongst o'selves about Ceremo- nialls." 1
In March, 1627, he was one of four "evangelical ministers in London " who signed an appeal for aid in behalf of abused Protestants, "subjects of the Queen of Bohemia, sister of Charles I."
As the objects of this charity were not in favor with the king and Council, of which Laud was now a member, the result of the movement in their be- half produced a censure from the Star Chamber. In 1628 he wrote a series of nine letters to Lady Mary Vere, a strong Puritan, "who had charge of the three children of the king who were in the Par- liament's control." In one of the first two letters, dated June 30, he mentions some " High Commis-
1 Dexter's Life of Davenport, 215. "The true Copye of a Dispute be- twixt Dr. Leighton, Dr. of Physicke, sometimes a preacher, and John Dav- enporte, Bachelor of Divinity, and pastor of St. Stephen's in Coleman Streete, about kneeling at the Sacram'," is in the possession of Mr. W. A. Saunders of Cambridge.
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FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON.
[1653-70.
sion troubles," and fears that "former quarrels " with Bishop Laud may " deprive him of his pastoral charge." . The High Commission troubles grew out of an attempt to establish what Dr. Bacon calls " a sort of Home Missionary Society." This body was informally gathered in London by several preachers and laymen of advanced views, who were anxious to engage men of their own pattern to preach at large. They bought all the church livings and rights of presentation which they could secure, and in places where these were not to be had, established lecture- ships. The prime motive, of course, was to advance the growth of Puritanism ; and their chief opponent was not long in finding it out and summoning them before the court. The case finally went against them, and the association was dissolved in Feb- ruary, 1633.
In 1629 Davenport furthered the undertaking for the colonization of Massachusetts, under Endicott, with a liberal subscription of 450. His name does not appear in the list of patentees, for the reason, according to Mather, " that he feared its insertion might provoke the opposition of Laud in the Privy Council." But he was first on the list of a com- mittee to draw up instructions for Endicott.
His first printed sermon, so far as known, enti- tled " A Royal Edict for Military Exercises, pub- lished in a Sermon preached to the Captains and Gentlemen that exercise Armes in the Artillery Garden at their general Meeting, June 23," appears
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1653-70.] JOHN DAVENPORT.
in 1629. The text was divided after the fashion of the time, as follows: "Also | he bade them | teach | the children of Judah | the use of the bow. | Be- hold it is written in the book of Jasher."1
In the same year he was joint editor with Dr. Sibbes of the Sermons of Dr. John Preston, who, at the time of his death the year before, was re- garded as the leader of the Puritans.
The State Paper office contains his reply, in 1631, " to certain objections devised against him by Timothy Hood, sometime his curate." Hood, it seems, was dismissed for good cause, but took offence, and complained of Davenport for various alleged acts of non-conformity. The latter wrote a specific denial of the whole charge, at the same time admitting that there were occasions when, through no fault of his own, but simply on ac- count of the great number of his parishioners, it became impossible for all of them to come to the chancel, or kneel to receive the sacrament ; "but," he concludes, " where they can kneel as well as sit he hath advised it, and in case of refusal hath refused to administer." 2
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