USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the First church in Boston, 1630-1880 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
Supposing that corporate religious institutions in this community, like that of the First Church, continue their historical existence, it will probably be only after the lapse of considerable periods of time that their history will be reviewed. Present experiences and expected changes in the years soon to come will, doubtless, introduce wholly new conditions in the support, relations, and administration of these institutions. Regrets and censures have been freely expressed among us at the cost, the extravagant outlay, lavished upon some of our newest church edifices, built as substitutes for far less expensive ones on former sites. But it may be that a compensating benefit will, in a meas- ure, if not wholly, offset the temporary evils of this lavish outlay. There has recently been manifested a strong and healthful discontent under the burden of " church debts," and a conviction that temples dedicated to God should not be mortgaged to men. This feeling has prompted the re- moval of such indebtedness. The costliest of these new edifices are now free of such pecuniary incumbrance. As pieces of property the ownership of them is divided between the corporate body and the pew proprietors. They have thus a pledge of perpetuity. Their value, their solidity and beauty, their conveniences and adaptations, make them a legacy to posterity to be used under a sense of gratitude to the givers, and with a consequent respon- sibility for turning them to the best account.
HISTORY
OF THE
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON.
CHAPTER I.
1630-1632.
JOHN WILSON.
Origin and Foundation of First Church in Boston. - Worship, Discipline, and Government.
T 'HE history of First Church in Boston begins with the occupation of Charlestown by the English colonists under Winthrop. It was there that the founders of our church signed the covenant and became a body of worshippers. The Arbella, the vessel in which they crossed the ocean, put into Salem harbor the 12th day of June, 1630, and " went to Mattachusetts" the 17th of the month. After exploring the latter neighborhood, she returned to Salem the next day but one, and, joined by the rest of the fleet, again set sail, and came to anchor in Charlton harbor, as Winthrop calls it, early in July. They found that other Englishmen had visited the spot before them. The Sprague brothers, Ralph, Richard, and William, together with others, had previously made their way to the place, through
I
أحيــ
2
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON.
[1630-32.
the woods, from Salem, in the summer of 1629. At that time the town records describe it as " a neck of land, generally full of stately timber, and the coun- try round about an uncouth wilderness." But the Spragues found that they too had been preceded by one Thomas Walford, a smith, who with his family was the first white settler in the place. Shortly before the arrival of Winthrop, and in order to prepare for that event, one Thomas Graves, "an experienced engineer," had come from Salem, and built a house called the Great . House. This was a two-storied wooden block structure, the lower part used for storage purposes, and the upper story for civil, and if the weather was so unpleasant as to prevent worship out of doors, for religious, meetings.
Our pioneers came poorly prepared to contend with the hardships of their new situation. They had brought over small provision with them, trusting to a report that they would find plenty on their arrival in the new country ; and what they had was badly damaged by the voyage. Their means of shelter were poor, and the long confinement on shipboard had made many of them diseased. " And although the people were loving and pitiful," says the old record, "yet the sickness did so prevail, that the whole were not able to tend the sick as they should be tended, upon which many perished and died and were buried about the Town Hill." To meet the scarcity of provisions, the Governor despatched
3
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
Captain Pearce to the coast of Ireland in quest of a fresh supply. It must have been that that country was thought to be nearer than any other, otherwise there would seem to be some reason for thinking with Cotton Mather, that perhaps there were other places more overflowing with milk and honey, to which it would have been wiser to send. However, as afterwards appears, the errand proved fruitful of success.
In spite of these adversities- we might rather say because of them - the people hurried on the organization of the church. The 30th of July was set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, and after solemn religious exercises, Governor Winthrop, Deputy-Governor Dudley, Mr. Isaac Johnson, and Mr. John Wilson subscribed the following church covenant, the same which is continued with us to- day : -
" In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, & in Obedience to His holy will & Divine Ordinaunce.
"Wee whose names are hereunder written, being by Ilis most wise, & good Providence brought together into this part of America in the Bay of Masachusetts, & desirous to vnite our selves into one Congregation, or Church, vnder the Lord Jesus Christ our Head, in such sort as becometh all those whom He hath Redeemed, & Sanctifyed to Ilim- selfe, do hereby solemnly, & religiously (as in His most holy Proesence) Promisse, & bind o'selves, to walke in all our. wayes according to the Rule of the Gospell, & in all sin- cere Conformity to His holy Ordinaunces, & in mutuall love, & respect cach to other, so neere as God shall give vs grace."
£
4
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON.
[1630-32.
Of the first four signers of this covenant an ex- tended account is unnecessary. Their history is bound up with that of the Commonwealth. John Winthrop, the first Governor, and the first signer of the church covenant, was of good family, and en- joyed what was then regarded as a large income, amounting to six or seven hundred pounds a year. He was bred a lawyer, and was some forty-three years of age when he came from England. Thomas Dudley was first Deputy-Governor, and afterwards for four years Governor of the colony. In carly life, after receiving a good legal education, Dudley served for a short time as captain of English soldiers under Queen Elizabeth in the army of Henry IV. of France. Subsequently he managed with great prudence the large estates of the Earl of Lincoln. He was fifty-three years of age when he came to this country. Isaac Johnson was a gentleman by birth and of fortune, and had married a daughter of the Earl of . Lincoln. The sad death of the Lady Arbella, followed shortly after by that of her grief- stricken husband,1 was the first shadow which spread a gloom over the colony.
The Rev. John Wilson, the first pastor of the church, was born and bred in clerical atmosphere, and, had it not been for his non-conformity, would doubtless have held some high position in the Church
. 1 September 30, 1630, about one month after his wife. "He was a holy man, and wise ; and died in sweet peace, leaving some part of his substance to the colony." - WINTHROP'S Journal.
1
£
S.E. Wiefon.
NEWBERRY LIBRARY
5
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
of England, as did his immediate ancestors. But, like other strong and scrupulous characters of the period, he preferred a life in the wilderness to the enjoyment of clerical preferment at the sacrifice of his religious convictions. He shares the epithet, affixed by Cot- ton Mather to the first four ministers of our church, of "Johannes in eremo." Of his immediate ances- tors, his grandfather, " William Wilson, late of Wells- bourne in the co. of Lincoln, Gentleman, departed this life within the Castle of Windsor in the yeare of our Lord 1587, the 27 Day of August, and lyeth buried in this place." (Tombstone in the chapel of Windsor Castle.) Wellsbourne is not far from Lincoln and Boston, and this fact indicates some special tie among the early settlers who came from Lincolnshire.
His father, William Wilson, D.D., of Merton Col- lege, Oxford, Prebendary of Rochester, Rector of Cliffe, Chancellor of St. Paul's, and Canon of his King's Majesty's free chapel of St. George, within his castle of Windsor, where he lies buried, died May 15, 1615, aged seventy-three years.
John Wilson,1 our minister, was born at Windsor in 1588. His mother was Isabel Woodhal, niece of Edmund Grindal, the celebrated Puritan Archbishop of Canterbury. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Mansfield.
1 Ilis life is described in a later chapter (sce Chap. III.). This little sketch of his family and antecedents was partly furnished by Mr. Thomas Minns, a descendant of Wilson.
6
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1630-32.
Dr. Edmund Wilson, brother of Rev. John Wilson, died in England soon after the arrival in this coun- try, leaving {1000 to the infant colony.1
Mrs. Wilson, the pastor's wife, died June 6, 1660. " On the Ist of August, Increase Nowell and four others united with the church and signed the cove- nant, and soon the number amounted to sixty-four men and half as many women."
From the very start religion was uppermost in the minds of the colonists. Religion planted the colony. When the first General Court was held on the 23d of August, before any measures had been taken to provide for support or shelter, the first topic of dis- cussion was, " How shall the ministers be main- tained? " And it was ordered that houses be built for them with convenient speed at the public charge, and salaries provided at £30 for Mr. Phillips of Watertown, and {20 for Mr. Wilson of Boston till his wife come over. Sir Richard Saltonstall under- took to see the former part of this order carried out for Mr. Phillips, and the Governor for Mr. Wilson.
"On the 27th of August another fast was ob- served, and the church duly organized by the appoint- ment of the proper officers." The list of regularly appointed church officers at this date included pas- tors, teachers, ruling elders, deacons, and sometimes
1 Mr. Wilson made a second and last voyage to England in 1634, partly to secure this legacy; and returned in 1635, this time with his wife and family. His first voyage in 1631 was unsuccessful in the special object sought for. Sec infra, 9.
7
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
deaconesses or widows. The functions of the widows, as laid down by a quaint writer, were "to show mercie with chearfulnesse and to minister to the sick and poore brethren." In another place the writer adds, " No church there [meaning Boston] hath a widow as far as I know;" an observation which we must be careful not to construe too literally. The distinc- tion between pastor and teacher is somewhat nice.1 The same writer says: " It is the duty of the pastor to exhort and besides to rule ; the teacher to instruct in knowledge and likewise to rule." The elders were the Levites, or governing officers of the church, and the deacons performed the same duties as they do to-day, viz. received the contributions and accounted for the same.
The following were duly qualified : John Wilson as teacher; Increase Nowell, ruling elder ; William Gager and William Aspinwall, deacons. Gager died September 20, 1630, a few days after his appointment. In the case of Mr. Wilson it was expressly understood that the ceremony should have no effect on his previous ordination by the bishop in England.
1 Palfrey, in his chapter on " Primitive Institutions and Customs of New England," says : " A church fully furnished had a pastor and a teacher whose duty it was to preach and administer the ordinances, the distinctive function of the former being private and public exhortation, of the latter doctrinal and scriptural explanation." The reading of the Bible, or dumb reading, as it was called, was not generally approved, but thought to be too much in conformity with the Church of England practice, hence one of the functions of the teacher, viz. scriptural explanation or expounding, as it was called. - History of New England, ed. 1860, Vol. II. 37, 42. See also History of Second Church in Boston, note to 22.
8
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1630-32.
We now find the church fairly organized, the minister provided for, and nothing wanting but a place of worship. "The first meeting-place of the congregation was in the umbrage of a large tree."
In the month of August many of the colonists removed across the river to Boston ; and soon a majority of the inhabitants of Charlestown, includ- ing the Governor, had made the change. " The principal cause which led to this removal was the want of running springs of water. The notion pre- vailed that no water was good for a town but run- ning springs; and they were at that time acquainted with but one spring in Charlestown," which was on the margin of the river, in the sand, and when the tide was high could not be come at, and at other times was very brackish. Mr. William Blaxton, the first white inhabitant of Boston, first called the attention of the Governor to the existence of a pure spring of water on his side of the river. This in- formation, combined with the increasing sickness, induced the Governor to make the change. From this period up to the time of separation, the people of Charlestown were obliged to cross the river to attend meetings, - an operation, in the winter time at least, involving much hazard. Provisions had now become very scarce, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Captain Pearce with an abundant supply, they would have had hard work to keep alive.
9
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
"The people were compelled to live upon clams and muscles, ground nuts and acorns, and these were obtained with much difficulty in the winter time, and upon these accounts they became much tired and discouraged, espe- cially when they heard that the Governor had his last batch of bread in the oven. And many were the fears of the peo- ple that Mr. Pearce, who was sent to Ireland to fetch pro- visions, was cast away or taken by pirates; but God, who delights to appear in greatest straits, did work marvellously at this time, for before the very day appointed to seek the Lord by fasting and prayer, about the month of February or March, in comes Mr. Pearce, laden with provisions; upon which occasion the day of fast was changed and ordered to be kept as a day of thanksgiving."
This was on the 22d of February (O.S.).' The provisions were distributed among the people in proportion to their necessities. To show what a good face they kept under all their trials, we are told that a man, "inviting his Friends to a dish of Clams, at the Table gave thanks to Heaven, who had given them to suck the abundance of the Seas, and of the Treasures hid in the Sands."
In March, 1631, Mr. Wilson went to England to bring his wife. Before embarking, "Mr. Cod- dington [afterwards for many years Governor of Rhode Island] and Mr. Wilson, and divers of the congregation, met at the Governor's, and there Mr. Wilson, praying and exhorting the congregation to
1 In quoting from old records no attempt has been made to alter the date from Old to New Style. The simple process of adjustment is this : " To change from Old to New, add ten days to any date from 1600 to 1700, and eleven days to a date'from 1700 to September 14, 1752."
IO
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1630-32.
love, etc., commended to them the exercise of proph- ecy in his absence, and designed those whom he thought most fit to it, viz. the Governor, Mr. Dud- ley, and Mr. Nowell the elder. Then he desired the Governor to commend himself and the rest to God by prayer; which being done, they accompanied him to the boat; and so they went over to Charles- town, to go by land to the ship. This ship set sail from Salem April 1, and arrived at London (all safe), April 29." The apostle Eliot filled the va- cancy caused by the absence of Mr. Wilson. The famous Roger Williams lays claim to the first invi- tation to fill this post. The statement, however, rests on his own assertion, and we find no corrob- oration of it on the church records or elsewhere. The reason he gives for declining the honor is per- haps worth noticing, as coming from a man so noted for his liberality in religion; he says it was be- cause they (members of First Church) would not humble themselves for having held communion with the Church of England.
Mr. Wilson took with him to England a letter from Deputy-Governor Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln,-one of the most authentic documents touching upon this early period.' The date of it is March 12, 1630. It contains a very minute account of the condition of the colony. It begins : -
" For the satisfaction of your Honor and some friends, and for the use of such as shall hereafter intend to increase
1 Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 304.
II
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
our Plantation in New-England, I have, in the throng of domestic, and not altogether free from public, business, thought fit to commit to memory our present condition, and what hath befallen us since our arrival here; which I will do shortly, after my usual manner, and must do rudely, having yet no table, nor other room to write in than by the fireside, upon my knee, in this sharp winter; to which my family must have leave to resort, though they break good manners and make me many times forget what I would say, and say what I would not."
He then proceeds to give an account of the hard- ships they endure :-
"The ships being gone, victuals wasting, and mortality increasing, we held divers fasts in our several congrega- tions. But the Lord would not yet be deprecated; for about the beginning of September died Mr. Gager, a right godly man, a skilful chirurgeon, and one of the deacons of our congregation, Mr. Johnson, one of the five undertakers (the Lady Arbella, his wife, being dead a month before). This gentleman was a prime man amongst us, having the best estate of any, zealous for religion, and the greatest furtherer of this plantation."
And then, towards the close, he says : -
" But now, having some leisure to discourse of the mo- tives for other men's coming to this place, or their abstain- ing from it, after my brief manner, I say this, that if any come hither to plant for worldly ends, that can live well at home, he commits an error, of which he will soon repent him; but if for spiritual, and that no particular obstacles hinder his removal, he may find here what may well con- tent lim, viz. materials to build, fuel to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to fish in, a pure air to breathe in, good water to drink, till wine or beer can be made, which,
I 2
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1630-32. 1
together with ,the cows, hogs, and goats brought hither already, may suffice for food; for as for fowl and venison, they are dainties here as well as in England. For clothes and bedding they must bring them with them, till time and industry produce them here. In a word, we yet enjoy little to be envied, but endure much to be pitied, in the sickness and mortality of our people. .. . If any godly men, out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the good work we are about, I think they cannot dispose of themselves nor of their estates more to God's glory and the furtherance of their own reckoning. But they must not be of the poorer sort yet, for divers years; for we have found by experience that they have hindered, not fur- thered the work. And for profane and debauched persons, their oversight in coming hither is wondered at, where they shall find nothing to content them. If there be any endued with grace, and furnished with means to feed them- selves and theirs for eighteen months, and to build and plant, let them come over into our Macedonia and help us, and not spend themselves and their estates in a less profit- able employment. For others, I conceive, they are not yet fitted for this business." 1
Soon after Mr. Wilson's return from England, which took place on'the 26th of May, some time in
1 " 1631, July 21. The governor, deputy-governor, and Mr. Nowell, the elder of the congregation at Boston, go to Watertown, to confer with Mr. Phillips the pastor and Mr. Brown the elder of the congregation there about an opinion they had published, that the churches of Rome were true churches; the matter is debated before many of both congregations, and by the approbation of all the assembly, except three, is concluded an error."- PRINCE'S Annals of New England, 358.
" 1632, July 3. The congregation (i. e. the church) at Boston, wrote to the elders and brethren of the churches of Plymouth, Salem, etc., for their advice in three questions : First, whether one person might be a civil mag- istrate and a ruling elder at the same time? Second, if not, then which should he lay down ? Third, whether there might be divers pastors in the same church ? The first was agreed by all negatively, the second and third doubtful." - Ibid. 393.
13
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
the month of August, 1632, the congregation of Bos- ton and Charlestown began to build the first meet- ing-house. The situation chosen was on the south side of State Street, in Boston, where Brazer's Build- ing now stands." The walls were of stone, plastered with clay, and the roof thatched. This building, together with a parsonage2 erected at the same time on what was formerly known as Wilson's Lane, in the immediate neighborhood of the church, was provided for by contributions amounting in all to £120. The winter, which was now setting in, proved so severe that passage over the river was often impracticable. This, no doubt, hastened the inevitable separation. The church in Charlestown became a distinct body on the 2d of November, 1632, withdrawing from the parent church about one fourth of the congregation. " Those of the church who stayed behind still retained their relation to the [old church] until October, 1632 ; when those mem- bers desiring a dismission from the congregation, to enter into a new church-body at Charlestown, and having first sought solemnly unto God, with the rest of the church, for direction herein, they were accordingly dismissed upon the 14th day of the said month." 3
1 " A plan of the church lot as existing at this time, but as made out by Francis Jackson of late years, is in the library of the New England Histor- ical and Genealogical Society. See the Register, April, 1860, 152." - Memo- rial History of Boston (1880), Vol. I. 119, note.
2 Wilson lived on the corner opposite where the Merchants' Bank stands, before the land on which his house stood was taken to widen the street.
3 " 1632, November 2 (Friday). Mr. Increase Nowell, Mr. Thomas James, and other Church members at Charlestown, who had been dismissed from the
14 .
FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. [1630-32.
" And now upon this separation," says Foxcroft, in his centennial sermon in 1730, " I find the num- ber of males in the church of Boston (after nigh two years' continuance here, in which time, doubt- less, additions were made to it) amounted but to about seventy or eighty, the body of the inhabitants." Endeavors were at this time made to obtain the apostle Eliot for teacher, and there is very good rea- son to suppose that he would have accepted, had he not felt bound by an agreement made on the pas- sage over from England to settle in Roxbury.1
" The 22d of November was solemnized as a fast, on which Mr. Wilson, hitherto the teacher, was or- dained the pastor of the church. At the same time Mr. Oliver was chosen ruling elder, and two dea- cons were elected; on all of whom hands were imposed as a token of designation.
" On Aug. 6, 1633," about a month before the arrival of Cotton, the colleague of Wilson, " one hundred and thirty men and ninety women had be- come members of the church. But, besides the loss of the Charlestown members, several had died, sev- eral others had removed to Salem, and a few had
church at Boston, now embody into a (new) distinct Congregational Church, enter into covenant ; and (the said) Mr. James is elected .and ordained their pastor." - PRINCE's Annals of New England, 407.
1 " Mr. John Eliot, a member of Boston congregation, and one whom the congregation intended presently to call to the office of teacher, was called to be a teacher to the church at Roxbury ; and though Boston laboured all they could, both with the congregation of Roxbury, and with Mr. Eliot himself, alleging their want of him, and the covenant between them, &c., yet he could not be diverted from accepting the call of Roxbury, November 5 .. So he was dismissed."- WINTHROP'S Journal, Vol. I. 93.
15
JOHN WILSON.
1630-32.]
returned to Salem. Probably the church did not now number more than a hundred communicants. Four children were baptized in the first year, eleven in the second, three in the third, and four in that part of the fourth which elapsed before Mr. Cotton's ordination. Of these twenty-two there were eleven of cach sex."
We have now witnessed the transplanting of the church from Charlestown to Boston, - the little seed out of which grew up such an abundant harvest. We find the congregation somewhat diminished, it is true, but from no internal causes. That harmony of thought and purpose of which Foxcroft speaks so glowingly in 1730 was to remain unbroken for nearly two centuries. It was not till after the dawn of the nineteenth century that the ties were to be severed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.