USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. I > Part 22
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 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
1 " They did not embody into a new church-state, looking upon it as un- necessary, as being a branch of the Eng- lish church at Leyden." - Account of the Church of Christ in Plymouth, by John Cotton, Esq., 1760.
2 John Winslow was a younger brother
of Governor Edward Winslow. He was born at Droitwich, Worcestershire, April 17, 1597, and came to Plymouth in the Fortune (November, 1621), with Robert Cushman and Thomas Prince ; the latter was afterward governor of Plymouth colony.
IS2
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
grace and blessing wee commend them and you in all your holy ad- ministrations, beseeching God even our father to adde to you daily such as shall be saved, and that you may stand compleat in all the will of God, craving also your prayers for us, wee take leave and sub- scribe ourselves,
Your truly loving Bretheren in the order and fellowship of the Gospel J : C : T : C : with the consent of the church. PLYMOUTH June 26: 1671 :
Such of their children also, as live with you whether adult or in- adult wee commend to your care and watch in the Lord, to be received by you according to their capacity desiring of the Lord to accompany the dispensation of his holy word to them for their effectuall Regener- ation that in the Lords good time, they may become living stones in his holy Temple.
For the Reverend Elders of the 3d gatherd church of Christ in Boston, these.1
John Hull was chosen captain of the artillery company at its anniversary, June 5, 1671, and Mr. Thacher preached the annual sermon from the text Rev. xvii. 14: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings : and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." 2
On the 8th of July, 1672, the Rev. Leonard Hoar, M. D., arrived in Boston from London, partly in response to a call to become Mr. Thacher's associate, but probably with reference also to other preferment. He was related by marriage to Mr. Hull, and the call may have been the result of the efforts of that honored member in England in behalf and by request of the church two years before. Mr. Hoar was born in the city of Gloucester, in 1630, as is supposed. He was the youngest child of Charles Hoar, sheriff of the county, a man of large estate and earnest piety, who died in 1638, and who directed in his will that his "sonne Leonard shalbe carefullie kept at Schoole and when hee is fitt for itt to be carefullie placed at Oxford, and if the Lord shall see fitt, to make him a Minister
1 [The Rev. John Cotton was pastor of the Plymouth church at this time, and Thomas Cushman, son of Robert Cush- man, ruling elder. The original of their letter is in the Prince Library.]
2 Mr. Thacher preached before the artillery company of Charlestown and
Cambridge, at Charlestown, September 13, 1669, from Ps. Ix. 4, " Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth." For some particulars about this artillery company in 1686, see Sewall Papers, vol. i. p. 151.
183
DR. LEONARD HOAR.
unto his people and that all the charge thereof shalbe discharged out of the proffitt which it shall please god to send out of the stocke." Soon after the death of the father the family came to New England, and Leonard was sent to Harvard College, where he graduated in the class of 1650, with William Stoughton, Joshua and Jeremiah Hobart, Edmund Weld, Samuel Phillips, and others. He returned to England in 1653, and after preach- ing the gospel " in divers places " was presented to the living of Wanstead, in Essex, by Sir Henry Mildmay, as Oldmixon sup- poses, then lord of that manor, which he held in right of his wife, a daughter of Sir Leonard Holyday, "perhaps a relative as well as namesake." Deprived of his living under the Act of Uniformity, he devoted himself to science and medicine, and in 1671 received the degree of M. D. from the University of Cam- bridge. Before he had been in Boston a week he was chosen to be the successor at Harvard College of President Chauncy, who had died five months previously. He did not accept the appointment until it had received the sanction of the General Court, and was not installed until the 10th of December.1 In the mean time he preached frequently at the Third Church, and notes of his sermons have been preserved. With what high hopes and purposes he entered upon his new office, and with what broad and far-seeing appreciation of the wants of the col- lege, appears from a letter written by him, just after his instal- lation, December 13, 1672, to the Hon. Robert Boyle, in which he said : -
It hath pleased even all to assign the college for my Sparta. I de- sire I may adorn it ; and thereby encourage the country in its utmost throws for its resuscitation from its ruins. And we still hope some helpers from our native land ; of which your honoured self, Mr. Ashurst and some others have given a pledge.
1 Mr. Hull records in his diary : - " 1672. July S. Dr. Leonard Hoar arrived at Boston from London, being sent for by the third Church in Boston : but the President of the College, being dead, it was the earnest desire of the min- isters and magistrates that they would spare him for that work ; and, upon Nov. 15 they did yield him up to that service."
Thomas Danforth wrote to Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, in a letter dated " Cambridge, 1. 6. 72,"
" As for Dr. Hoare, He came over under some (though not severe) obli-
gations to the new church. Himselfe seems to referr the matter to their De- termination : yet do not in the least de- cline the motion made in behalf of the colledge. but as his disposition of mind is thought to be that way, so also it is apprehended that he will be a better president, than a pulpitt man (at least) as to vulgar acceptation. Yet I perceive the church do not freely come of in the matter. nor do I apprehend that any- thing will be fully concluded on before the Generall court meet." - Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proceedings, January, 1874.
IS4
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
A large well-sheltered garden and orchard for students addicted to planting ; an ergasterium for mechanick fancies ; and a laboratory chemical for those philosophers, that by their senses would culture their understandings, are in our design, for the students to spend their times of recreation in them ; for readings or notions only are but husky provender.
And. sir, if you will please of your mature judgment and great ex- perience to deign us any other advice or device, by which we may become not only nominal, but real scholars, it shall, I hope, be as precious seed, of which both you and me and many by us shall have uberous provent at the great day of reckoning, which I know you do respect above all.
If I durst, I would beg one of a sort of all your printed monu- ments, to enrich our library and encourage our attempts this way.
I know nothing so stunting our hopes and labours in this way, as that we want one of a sort of the books of the learned, that come forth daily in Europe, of whose very names we are therefore ignorant.
The story of President Hoar's short administration is a very sad one, and we will give it as told by President Quincy in his History of Harvard University : -
There is a studied obscurity thrown over the defects, if there were really any, of Dr. Hoar. That he was a scholar and a Christian, a man of talent and of great moral worth, is asserted. Yet, for some reason, the young men of the College took a prejudice against him, and, says Cotton Mather, " did all they could to ruin his reputation." The cause of this prejudice is unexplained to this day. "I can scarce tell how," says Cotton Mather, " but he fell under the displeasure of some that made a figure in that neighbourhood." " In a day of temp- tation, which was now upon them, several good men did unhappily countenance the ungoverned youth in their ungovernableness." It is not difficult from the records of the College, to gather to whom Cotton Mather here alludes ; and it is due to the memory of Dr. Hoar to say that the conduct of " those good men who made a figure in that neigh- bourhood," and thus encouraged the discontented youth, greatly ex- ceeded, in dereliction of incumbent duty, anything that appears, or was ever suggested, against him.
Dr. Hoar was, in a manner, a stranger in the country. He had come, strongly recommended, seeking the presidency. The General Court had thrown their whole weight into the scale in favor of his election. His success, it was asserted at the time, had occasioned a disappointment to "the emulation of some expecting the preferment." This, probably, is the clue to all the difficulties which assailed and overcame President Hoar. He was chosen in July, 1672. A year
- = Bien qu'. 12 I did prospekt to come to the DayEs meE. 1
cala nezsalad and the more than to forme Lara not defire That for me. you will plage Io acquaint the Rom chargers that the Bir M' Makes Some Shephard Kennorologing. GRE WEEE FREruEd Gren By by ya choice Ho BE fals Dor vet quity refuse to accept of in) Red the offices. ill' Huthere will & prax- Ehems the rij own angroen ..
..
finde & take with your mouth a have under THE carpenters hand that he Path 2st of 30" 14"" "1" PREzofi the Runs RE. RarR. largo mit about da If humbly defire
Brat some body might be appointed to ardit& passe it and the acco of my own Experts about the house: that I might i that's matter vering difettiare as is right. -
I am For to give Youkathy no Esstation. Because I cannot come this day. Este none to freely as you felt did freak of it, and 0= Efter GRings Hut might alleviate & Expedite, my resignation. 4 DEnie Go PE mention & DEterminEd wherein Sime all you would like countries that Do monte dieser you is the kraju of 2 Camp: Anity 7 310 tu tarinul 85 murile Clear 7: PUTA-
-
2
1
185
DR. HOAR AT CAMBRIDGE.
had not elapsed before the students began "to strive to make him odious." In the midst of these difficulties, Urian Oakes, Thomas Shepard, Joseph Brown, and John Richardson, members of the cor- poration, all resigned their seats at that Board, leaving it without a constitutional majority, and with no quorum to act, and the president without support. They all fall within the description of " good men, who made a figure in that neighbourhood, and who, in a day of temp- tation, encouraged " the contumacious. Whether emulation or hope of preferment had any influence in this course of conduct, must be a matter of inference. It is certain, that no conduct of Dr. Hoar could justify, or even apologize for, such a resignation of a majority of the corporation in the actual state of disorderly combination in the Col- lege. . . . The corporation reelect Oakes and Shepard, and they persist in not accepting the trust until the 15th of March, 1675. On this day, Dr. Hoar sent in his resignation of the presidency. On the same day, Oakes and Shepard took their seats as members of the cor- poration, and the seat Dr. Hoar had quitted was given to the Rev. Mr. Oakes.1 . .
There was a singular parallelism in the fortunes of Mr. Oakes and Dr. Hoar, of a nature not unlikely to excite an "emulation " between them in respect to the presidency of the College ; an office which, at that time, placed the incumbent at the head of the clergy, who then possessed almost a predominating influence in the colony. Neither of them was a native ; both were brought into the country in their childhood by their parents. They had been contemporaneously mem- bers of the College ; the former having graduated in 1649, the latter in 1650. Both had returned to England soon after taking their de- grees. Both had been settled in the ministry there, had been ejected for non-conformity ; and again emigrated to this country within a year of each other : Oakes, in 1671, on an invitation from the church at Cambridge to become its pastor ; Hoar, in 1672, on a like invitation to become its pastor, from the Old South Church in Boston.
The former, being settled in Cambridge, and a fellow of the cor- poration, before the arrival of Dr. Hoar, and possessing qualities suited to the appointment, had probably ingratiated himself with the students and with persons of influence in the immediate vicinity of the College, and had been regarded by them as the natural successor of President Chauncy ; an expectation which it is not unlikely his own heart fostered. The strong recommendations brought by Dr. Hoar, and the efficient declaration in his favor by the General Court in a manner compelled his election. The event disappointed both the students and Mr. Oakes, and led the former, in the language of Cotton
1 [ Hist. of Harvard University, vol. i. PP- 33-35.
Mr. Oakes at this time agreed only to
act as superintendent of the college, but in 1679 he accepted the presidency. He died in 1681.]
IS6
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Mather, to "turn cudweeds and travestie whatever he did and said, with a design to make him odious," and the latter to countenance these proceedings, by relinquishing his seat in the corporation until Dr. Hoar had resigned.1
In anticipation of Dr. Hoar's departure for New England, Dr. Owen and twelve other non-conformist ministers addressed a letter to "the magistrates and ministers in Massachusetts Bay," under date of February 5, 1671-2, in which they said :-
As we desire to bless God with and for you, that so reverend and judicious a person as your president hath for so long a time been continued with you, and that so usefully, so it is a grief of heart to us that there appeares none amongst yourselves to succeed him in that employment, and more that we cannot find persons whose hearts God hath touched to goe over to you, in order to a supply of that expected losse which you mention ; yet, if our advice herein be worth attending to, we would suggest that it having pleased God to stirre up the heart of our beloved friend, Dr. Hoar to intend a voyage towards you by this shipping, we do suppose a speaking providence in it, and doe judge that God hath so farr furnished him with the gifts of learning and the grace of his spirit, as that if your judgments concurre with ours and his inclinations (if God shall bring him to you) he may in some meas- ure supply that want and help to make up this breach, and we shall hope and pray that it may be to some good fruit to you and yours.
One of the signers of this letter was the Rev. John Collins, a classmate of Mr. Oakes at Harvard College, who, on returning to England, became a chaplain of General Monk, and, after the passage of the Act of Uniformity, was minister of an Independ- ent church in Lime Street, near Leadenhall Street, London.2 Of this church Dr. Hoar had been a member, and one of the complaints alleged against him was that, without waiting for a letter of dismission and recommendation from it, he had (just before entering upon the presidency) joined the Third Church in Boston. There must have been some good reason for his taking this step, as Mr. Thacher, we may be sure, would not have been a party to any serious irregularity in church order. Mr. Collins had not only joined with his clerical brethren in warm commendation of Dr. Hoar, but a few months later, May
1 [Hist. of Harv. Univ., vol. i. pp. 36, 37.] 2 Wilson, in his Dissenting Churches of London, etc., says : " This congregation was for many years very considerable for numbers and opulence, and made the largest collection for the fund of any
church in London." The Rev. Nathaniel Mather ( Harv. Coll., 1647) was the im- mediate successor of Mr. Collins in the pastorate. The site of the meeting- house was afterward occupied by a wing of the East India House.
IS7
ONE COMPLAINT AGAINST DR. HOAR.
10, 1672, he thus wrote to Mr. Leverett : "Dr. Hoar, who is in fellowship with us, and yet more yours than ours, through his ardent desire to serve God in what worke he will allot to him in your parts, where he hath had his education, which in the judg- ment of wiser men than myselfe is thought to bee in your col- ledge employment, to which hee is very well qualifyed in many things." This letter seems to relieve Mr. Collins from any sus- picion of partisanship in favor of Mr. Oakes ; but his tone was greatly changed, when, two years afterward, April 10, 1674, he again wrote to Mr. Leverett, who had succeeded to the gov- ernorship, to this effect : -
Your concussions you have at the colledge doe greatly grieve mee, and soe much the more that noe friend hath binn pleased to give me a true state of it, but all I gather, from them that I see, are wholly of one syde ; it causeth a great rumour here, and is greatly aggravated to the president's reproach. in whom I am concerned, for hee was a member with us, but it seems hath joined himselfe with the 3d of Boston, which surprizeth me, although I doe judge that his relation thereby to us is erazed, all that I would say is, that it hath by our New England friends here binn layd as a reproach upon all the elders, yet I think without cause ; for if our letter be viewed you will not find that wee did recommend him to bee your president, wee judged that too much for us to undertake, nor did we excite him to come or urge him upon such hopes; it was his own eagre desire after it and his thinking that hee might be serviceable there ; all wee sayd was, that since hee was prepared to come wee thought him one that might be helpfull in your colledge worke and left it with you to judge how.
Governor Leverett, who was disposed to be friendly to the president, in his reply to this letter, August 24, 1674, did not attempt to justify Dr. Hoar in his neglect to inform Mr. Collins of the change he had made in his church relations. "Who is," said he, "I doubt, not so cautious in his comeing off from former engagements as he ought before he enters upon new ; his not concerneing you in his relateing himself in church fellowship here. I cannot look at as independently congre- gational, I mean in a good sence." 1
1 Mr. Hull writes in 1673: "Some troubles this summer arose in the Col- lege, so that Dr. Leonard Hoar, their new President, who was last year highly courted to accept the place, was now by some wished out of it again. I cannot say there was any apparent cause for it,
more than that God seems to threaten to make divisions in all orders our punish- ment, as we too readily do make them our sin."
And again, October, 1674: " At this General Court, the President of the College was charged as formerly, but
ISS
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Dr. Belknap mentions as "a supposed rival" of President Hoar, Thomas Graves, of Charlestown, who was out of sympa- thy with his contemporaries in many particulars, both political and religious, and who seems to have been a very uncomfortable man to be associated with. Mr. Sibley, the historiographer of Harvard College, does not altogether agree with President Quincy in his criticisms on Mr. Oakes, and thus sums up the case : -
It is obvious from the letter to Flint,1 which has been cited, that Hoar's standard of scholarship was very high, and that the spirit with which he administered censures would be far from conciliatory. Flat- tered by an invitation to a settlement in Boston, and by his reception on arriving there from London, elated by his speedy and enthusiastic election to the presidency, with self-assurance increased by prompt concessions to his constant demands, fortified by additional privileges and powers conferred by a new charter, the community apparently ready to cooperate in every measure proposed by him, he undoubtedly entered upon his duties with the conscientious determination to bring the college up to his very high idea of what it ought to be. Urging his views with pertinacity, and thoroughly convinced he was right, he would naturally with the students be very strict and exacting, while he would not be likely to yield graciously to his comparatively young associates in office when they differed from him, and might be over- bearing and rough when they opposed him. Herein, perhaps, lay the cause of his failure .?
Dr. Hoar resigned his office in March, 1675; "his grief threw him into a consumption," and he died in Boston eight months later, November 28. His widow, Bridget, who was a daughter of John Lisle, a very distinguished man under the Common- wealth, and of his wife, the unfortunate Lady Alice,3 afterward married Hezekiah Usher, Jr. His only child, Bridget, married the Rev. Thomas Cotton, of London.
Among the Old South papers there is a declaration of which with more vehemency, as the only hin- 1 [In 1661 Mr. Hoar wrote a letter to his nephew, Josiah Flynt, a member. of the Freshman Class in Harvard College, afterward minister of Dorchester, in which, at great length and with much detail, he marked out the course he should take as a student.] derer of the college welfare; when, as by most indifferent hearers of the case, it was thought, that, would those that accused him had but countenanced and encouraged him in his work, he would have proved the best president that ever yet the college had."
Samuel Sewall, in a speech at Cam- bridge at this time, October 16, insisted that "the causes of the lowness of the college were external as well as internal."
2 [See Sibley's Graduates of Harvard College, vol. i. pp. 228-252, 587~590.]
3 The victim of Judge Jeffreys' bru- tality at the memorable assizes in Win- chester, after the Monmouth rebellion.
!
whereas in difesato aletter of this Church Inquiring about the Oralings of Cambridge church with fronted Hoak HALford churchof Cambridge Did in thrix fatter referee us to Mik Danforth she to befully fatisfish the church of Cambridge as achurch husk having had G ognifs mag
any ofonte ofthis faid Scomodo Hook This church Doth Diclare that His fard -sonored Hook at a church mussting dir Isfire afull having and that unk Danforth Ste might befant for But Fris church Ofund for krafon or rule to find for him on fuck does this for that link. Hiske was not faktisk Scoreduck in that matter.
& This way bolling have Of a filent vole dig med: 1675
189
CONDITION OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
we present a fac-simile on the opposite page, and which must speak for itself, as the records of the First Church in Cambridge throw no light upon it : -
Whereas in Answer to a letter of this Church Enquiring about the dealings of Cambridge church with Leonard Hoar the said Church of Cambridge did in their letter referr us to Mr. Danforth &c. to be fully satisfied the church of Cambridge as a church never having had cog- nissence of any offense of the said Leonard Hoar This church doth declare that the said Leonard Hoar at a church meeting did de- sire a full hearing and that Mr. Danforth &c might be sent for But this church did not see reason or rule to send for him on such Ac- count And for that Cause there was noe further Procedure in that matter.
This was voted in the Church By a Silent Vote the 21 : 9mo 1675 1
In the latter days of President Chauncy's administration the condition of Harvard College was, as we are told, critical and apparently hopeless. Its buildings were "ruinous and almost irreparable," the president was aged, and the number of scholars was below what it had been in former days. Without a new building its situation was considered desperate, and to enable it to erect one an appeal was made to individuals and to churches. Boston contributed fSoo, of which more than one half seems to have been subscribed by the Third Church. It was ten years before the full sum required had been collected, and the build- ing, Harvard Hall, completed.2
1 [Nothing can be found in the records of the First Church in Cambridge to show that Dr. Hoar was one of its mem- bers, or that it ever took action of any kind in reference to him.]
2 See Quincy's History of Harvard University, vol. i. pp. 29-31, 508.
Mr. Walter Lloyd Jeffries, in his valu- able collection of historical papers, has a memorandum in the handwriting of Hezekiah Usher, as follows : -
"Contributions Given by the Third Church for the Erectinge Harvard Col- lidge
1674
March the 3d To Cash Received £59: 7: 10 £326: 18: -
To l'ills Received
the 10th To Mony Received
£19: 10: 2
To Bills Received
£21: -:
426: 16:
" The Wholl of the 3d Church Contri- butions."
Mr. Benjamin Gibbs, a member of the Third Church, gave £50, which may or may not have been in addition to the amount credited to the church in this statement.
President Quincy calls John Hull the earliest of the benefactors of the college, in the second generation, who encouraged or aided the progress of the institution by their bounty. The only contribution made by him of which we have positive knowledge was {100 in 1681. See Ifis- tory, vol. i. p. 406.
" 10 Dec. At a meetinge of the Select- men by virtue of an order receaved from the Generall Court dated the 2d of Oc- tober 1678 to apoynt and impowre meete persons to inquire into the defects of
190
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Governor Bellingham died December 7, 1672, a day or two before Dr. Hoar's installation at Cambridge. Before coming to this country he had been recorder of Boston in Lincolnshire, and he held many prominent positions here, including the gov- ernorship for ten years. One of the early New England chron- iclers, Edward Johnson, records of him that he was "slow of speech," and had a " stern look." Mr. James Savage says : "The unbroken reign of dismal bigotry from 1649 to 1672 inclusive, under Dudley, Endicott, and Bellingham, hard, harder, hardest, between the mild wisdom of Winthrop and the tolerant dignity of Leverett, came to its end with that last of the triumvirs of Massachusetts." Mr. Savage also quotes, but does not com- mend, the remark of Governor Coddington, of Rhode Island, in connection with Governor Bellingham's death : "The hand of the Lord cuts him off, not giving him repentance to life, that other sons of Belial of his persecuting spirit might be warned, not to put the evil day far from them."
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.