USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. I > Part 32
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274
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
kiah Usher Senr John Hull Peter Olliver Joshua Scottow Edward Rainsford Richard Treusdall and Jacob Elliot all of said Boston and more especially for their [loving ?] expences, or disbursements, for her in repayring her dwelling house: and afterwards taking downe six chimneys and building new in their place etc ; errecting a new end and Addition to the said dwelling house paying and discharging sev- erall debts and legacies which shee had resolved by her last will and testament should be paid in all to the value of five hundred pounds at least, as in the deacons bookes of Accounts do Appeare ; all which payments hath been made and donne by them and theire order as to accounts and receipts taken for the same And whereas the above mentioned persons Trustees long since built and errected on part of the above granted premisses a large spacious and faire meeting house with three large Porches every way compleately fitted and covered with sheete lead, the house and said Porches, which stood them and their Associates neere if not above two thousand pounds more ; and whereas the said Mary Norton in the yeare one thousand six hundred sixty and nine had past and given to them the said Thomas Savage Edward Rawson William Davis Hezekiah Usher Senr [John Hull's name omitted] Peter Olliver Joshua Scottow Edward Rainsford Richard Truesdale and Jacob Elliot, and to their heires and successors for ever the above named Trustees in behalfe of the third Church of Christ in Boston the first above mentioned lands etc for their Con- stant Assembling of themselves their heires successors and Posterri- ties as the said third Church of Christ in Boston for the holy publicke and solemne Dispensations and Administrations of the holy word of God and his holy sacrament from time to time; and at all times heerafter comming attending to the word of God in such manner and no otherwise as was used by the said Thomas Savage Edward Raw- son William Davis and the first above mentioned Trustees in the life time of the said Mrs. Mary Norton the Reverend Mr. Thomas Thatcher being then theire Pastor and the Reverend Mr. Samuel Willard their Teacher and is, and have been for so many yeares used by the said Church of Christ and so many of theire surviving Associates and successors, surviving, and added to them [And ?] whereas the first above mentioned Trustees God hath been pleased to take to himselfe all except the parties to this declarative deed Now Know all men by these presents That wee Edward Rawson Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot of said Boston and onely survivors and successors in the above mentioned deed of Grants Gifts and betrustments being not a little sensible of the Infirmities of age dayly growing and increasing upon us, out of our bounden duety to Almighty God - That that trust, and those holy ends and purposes in the eye and hearte of the first Donor, may not be frustrated, but preserved, observed, performed and in- tirely kept for the said holy ends and purposes and that there may
275
A DECLARATIVE DEED.
never be any Incroachment, Infringement or any kinde of Disappoint- ment creepe in, come to or befall the same in parte or in whole, wee the said Edward Rawson Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot doe for ourselves heires and successors next, and immediately after our de- partures out of this life, hereby declare and as much as in our power Authority and trust as the only survivors lie and be : Absolutely Give Grant assigne sett over and confirme unto our knowne and well be- loved friends, Mr. Samuel Seawall, Mr. William Rawson Mr. Benja- min Davis Mr. Nathaniel Olliver and Mr. Theophilus ffrary children and ffriends to the first above mentioned Grantees and to their heires and successors forever confiding hoping and no way doubting but that through the Grace of Christ when wee the said Edward Raw- son Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot shall be alike gathered to our Brethren and ffriends gon before us unto their rest ; That then the said Samuel Seawall William Rawson Benjamin Davis Nathaniel Olliver and Theophilus ffrary and such of them as shall be then liv- ing will by themselves their heires and successors for ever manifest their alike care and faithfulness and arise up in our steads and places to see to the due performing of that first above mentioned trust using their utmost endeavour and care with the help and Assistance of the said third Church of Christ in Boston to defend keepe and save ffree from all manner of Incroachments Infringements or any other Impo- sitions or Incumbrances of what nature and kinde soever on the same or any parte thereof for ever according to the lawes of God and man that have always accounted and estimated such Gifts and Grants to be sacred and no way to be altered or disposed of, for which ends wee the said Edward Rawson Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot have and as survivors and trustees as aforesaid have and hereby doe fully freely and absolutely to all Intents and purposes whatsoever in the law Invest them the said Samuel Seawall William Rawson Benjamin Davis Na- thaniel Olliver and Theophilus ffrary their heires and successors for- ever with all our full power Authority title Interest claime and demand that wee ourselves or any of the above mentioned [ffriends?] in trust were invested in, or betrusted with for those holy ends and uses as the said trust by the providence of God is Involved upon us [have?] had might or ought to have had in or for the methodizing Regulating well best and most advantagious ordering and disposing of the same for the time to come no way nor in the least contrary to the expresse mind will Intent and purpose exprest in and by the deed of the said first above mentioned donor In wittness whereof wee the said Edward Rawson Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot as trustees and survivors in the above mentioned first [recited ?] deed have hereunto put our hands and seales this twenty seventh day of June one thou- sand six hundred eighty and seven in the third yeare of the reigne of
276
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
our Soveraigne James the [now ?] seccond King of England Scotland ffrance and Ireland Defendor of the ffaith etc 1687
EDWARD (Seal) RAWSON JOSH : (Seal) SCOTTOW
JACOB (Seal) ELIOT
Signed Sealed and Delivered by the within mentioned Edward Rawson Joshua Scottow and Jacob Elliot Trustees and survivors many years since in full possession of the within mentioned premisses the twenty seventh day of June sixteen hundred Eighty and seven in the presence of us EDW : WYLLYS JOSEPH WEBB THOMAS BANISTER
Mr. Edward Rawson, Capt. Joshua Scotto, and Capt. Jacob Eliott, Trustees as within named personally appeared this twenty seventh day of June. 1687, and jointly and each for himselfe acknowledged the within written to be their Act and Deed
Before me
THOS HINCKLEY
one of his majties Council for this his Territory and Dominion of New England.
Meanwhile the church continued to prosper under the minis- trations of Mr. Willard. There were many accessions to its membership year by year, and its influence was felt far and near. Its records, however, for this period are meagre. The following brief notes, as they stand, were transcribed by Mr. Willard from some earlier book of record ; they follow the entry (October II, 1687) given by us on p. 258.
At a church meeting, April 17. 81.
Voted a Dismission for Mr. Peter Thacher to the church at Milton.1 April 24.
Voted a Dismission for James Bracket to the church at Braintree.
1 [Mr. Thacher joined the Third (tho most unworthy) Pastour of the Church, May 2, 1673, soon after leaving college. We take the following entries from his diary : -
"20 May 1681 this day the ordination beer was brewed.
" 28 May 1681 this day the Ordination beafe came into my house.
" 30 May I studyed in preparation for the Ordination. this day the gates were hung and they made an Arbour to Entertaine the Messengers of the churches.
" I June 1681 this day I was Ordained
Church in Milton my Text 2 Tim. 4. 5 Mr. Mather called the votes, Old Mr. Eliot, Mr. Mather Mr. Torry Mr. Wil- lard laid On hands Mr. Torry gave the Charge, Mr. Willard gave the right hand of fellowshipe. wee sung the 24. ps. then I gave the blessing. they dined at my house in the Arbour, then returned home this evening.
" 2 June 1681 this day the Church and most of the Towne dined with me, the rest were alsoe invited. After diner we sang 122 ps."]
277
EDWARD LILLEY'S FUNERAL.
At a church meeting. May 19, S2.
Voted a dismission for Hannah the wife of William Sumner to the North Church.1
March 6. 83.
Benjamin Warren admonished for divers morall evils, unrepented of.2
March 23. 83.
Voted a dismission for goodwife Search to the North Church.3
Octobr 7. 83.
Hannah B. - was admonished for excessive drinking and railing. Octobr 19. S.4.
Rebekah Marshall reconciled to the church.4 [Her son Benjamin was baptized October 26.]
Novr. S. 1685.
Mr. Theop Frary was ordained Deacon. [See ante, p. 254.]
July.17. SS.
Voted a dismission for Sara Thomas to the church at Marshfield.5
Mr. Isaac Walker, a member of the church, an active business man, and one of the proprietors of Lancaster, died on the 19th of October.
Monday, Oct. 22. Mr. Isaac Walker is buried : Bearers, Mr. James Taylor, Mr. Francis Burroughs, Capt. Tho. Savage, Mr. Simeon Stod- dard, Mr. George Elleston, Mr. Saml. Checkly; Deacon Eliot and I led the young widow, and had Scarfs and Gloves. The Lord fit me, that my Grave may be a Sweetening place for my Sin-polluted Body. Can't see that anything has been done towards raising the Church since Wednesday: Friday and Thorsday so much rain. Rained as went to the Grave.6 (Sewall.)
There was a painful scene at the grave of Edward Lilley, who died during the winter of 1688-89, which shows the inten- sity of the feeling in the Puritan community against the intro- duction of the rites of the English Church here. Lilley had
1 [Hannah Sumner was received into the Second Church July 15, 1683. Her name does not appear on the Third Church registers.]
2 [Benjamin Warren's name does not appear on the list of members.]
3 [Anna Search was disciplined at the First Church, April 4, 1675, for having put herself into fellowship with the Third Church.
"S. Search" was admitted to the Second Church April 15, 1683.]
4 [Rebekah, daughter of Ambrose and Mary (Bumstead) Dawes, and grand-
daughter of William and Susanna Dawes, owned the covenant in 1680, and became a communicant in 1688 or 1689, more than four years after the reconciliation recorded above. She married first Ben- jamin Marshall, and secondly - Mor- ton, of Plymouth, and she took dismis- sion to the church in that town in 1695.]
5 [The name of Sarah Thomas does not appear on the list of members.]
6 [Mr. Walker's young widow was Hannah, daughter of Deacon Frary. She afterward married Andrew Belcher, as his second wife.]
.
278
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
been more or less in sympathy with the Episcopal party, and his name appears among the subscribers for building the new house of worship, but he had left the ordering of his funeral to his executors. The Rev. Mr. Ratcliffe claimed the right to read the service over him, which Mr. Frary, in behalf of the family, protested against, and with so much vehemency that he was bound over to keep the peace.1 Increase Mather, in his Vindication of New England, says of this occurrence : --
Moreover, as they inform His Majesty that some Boyes have Assaulted their Church, so some Men they say have hindred and Obstructed their Parson in Discharging of his Duty and Office. For at the Funeral of one Mr. Lilly (who never signified to any of his Friends his Desire to have the Service Book used at his Burial) their Officer would needs (for their Edification) impose it upon them ; the Relations 'tis true, beforehand Unanimously informed him that it would be very Offensive to them to be so Imposed upon therein ; yet such was his Zeal, that he came with Gown and Book, to settle a Laudable custom in that Barbarous Country. One Mr. Frayray (a Relation of the Deceased in the name of the rest) only with fitt words desired him to for-bare, but he was bound over to the Court, where they intended to have Ruined him, had not the Unlucky Revolution subverted their designs.2
Governor Andros's treatment of the churches was only one feature of an administration which, if it had been perpetuated, would have deprived the colonists of all their dearest rights, both civil and religious. His declaration that the people had no property in their lands without patents from himself was
hitabel, married Samuel Lilley.
2 [Andros Tracts, vol. ii. p. 65. (f course Mr. Mather is to be understood as speaking ironically, when he refers to settling "a laudable custom in that barbarous country," and to "the un- lucky revolution," which was " unlucky " only for the Anglican party against which he spoke.
Mr. Moodey, writing to Mr. Mather (then in London), January 8, 1688-9, said : " I hinted to Capt. Sewall [also in London at that time] the story about Deacon Fraery covented and bound over with sureties for forbidding Ratliff to read Common-prayer at the grave of old Lilley. The relations desired Capt. Frary to speake, and had requested the
1 Mr. Frary's youngest daughter, Me- parson to forbear beforehand, when at the House. But he went on, and being hindered complained to Justice Lidget, Foxcroft and Bullivant, who so treated Mr. Fraery. Now when the deceased did not desire it, and left the buriall to the Executors and they forbade it, me- thinks it should not bee imposed ; and what a case are wee all in! King, the Attorney, saith it will cost him 100 mark, and that hee is bound to do his duty (I mean Ratliff is) and the King's Procla- mation will not relieve him. Captain Frary is bound to the good Behaviour, and wilbe so for a 12 month. (A fearful reproach and snare). What does the proclamation for liberty of Conscience doe, if such impositions are allowed !" Mather Papers, PP. 370, 371.]
279
THE REVOLUTION OF 1689.
regarded as a virtual confiscation of the wealth which had been accumulating during half a century. He took the ground that as the charter had been forfeited all the titles under the char- ter were forfeited, and he demanded exorbitant prices for new patents. We have nothing to do, however, in this history, with his arbitrary conduct apart from the South Church, nor with the retribution which speedily overtook him, except as we may trace a connection between this and his usurpation in religious affairs.
Popular indignation reached its height on the 18th and 19th of April, 1689, when Sir Edmund Andros and several of the officers of the Crown were arrested and lodged in jail, the fort and the frigate in the harbor were forced to surrender, and a provisional government was formed.
Prominent members of the South Church were among those who had planned this revo- lution and who carried it through, and were on the Committee of Public Safety ; of the latter we may name Simon Bradstreet, Peter Ser- geant, John Joyliffe, Wait Winthrop, Nathaniel Oliver, John Eyre, and Andrew Bel- cher.1 Randolph, writing to the Lords of the Committee "from the common gaol," May 29, 1689, says : " Five ministers of Boston, namely Moody, Allen, young Mather, Willard and Milburn, an Ana- baptist minister, were in the Council-Chamber on the 18th of April, when the governor and myself were brought out of the fort before them, writing orders, and were authors of some of their printed papers." The elder Mather was in England, whither he had gone to seek redress for the wrongs under which the colony was suffering ; his son is believed to have been the author of " the declaration of the gentlemen, merchants and in-
1 [The Committee was called the " Council for the Safety of the People, and Con- servation of the Peace."]
2So
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
habitants of Boston and the country adjacent," which concisely stated the oppressions of the Andros administration, and ap- pealed to the people to sustain those who had taken the respon- sibility of striking in defence of the liberties of the land. The flight of James, and the accession of William and Mary to the throne in England, the news of which reached Boston on the 26th of May, made the success of the revolution sure ; ministers and people united in giving thanks to Him "who putteth down one and setteth up another," and " again Englishmen were free and self-governed in the settlements of New England." "It is very obvious," says Quincy, " that the fate of New England was suspended on the fate of the Prince of Orange. Had he failed, our ancestors would have had to expiate the guilt of treason in exile, or confiscation, or on the scaffold." 1
The venerable Simon Bradstreet, the only survivor of the first generation of Puritan leaders, who had been governor of the colony from 1679 to 1686, was called to succeed Sir Edmund Andros, and he held office until the 14th of May, 1692, when Sir William Phips arrived in Boston, with his commission as first royal governor under the second charter.
Increase Mather, in his Vindication of New England, re- lates " that there was a crew of Pirats under the command of one Pounds, which lay robbing Vessels on the Coast ; these were pursued by a small Vessel of Brisk Bostoneers, who in Their Majesties Name and under Their Colours, maintained a Bloody Fight with the Rogues and took them : One of them was Executed." The vessel that performed this feat was the armed sloop Mary, under Captain Samuel l'ease and Lieutenant Benjamin Gallop.2 The skirmish took place in Vineyard Sound on the 4th of October, when the captain was mortally wounded, although he lived until the 12th. He and his lieutenant were members of Mr. Willard's congregation, and Mrs. Pease was a communicant.3 A general contribution for the bereaved family and the wounded men was taken on the first Sunday in the fol- lowing January, and we have before us the receipt for the amount collected at Mr. Willard's : -
Recd this 6th January 1689-90 of Mr. Jacob Eliott and Capt Frary
1 Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, Oration, July 4, 1826.
2 For Benjamin Gallop's affidavit, see N. E. Hist. and Gen. Register, vol. ii. p. 393.
3 Four daughters of Samuel and Mary Pease were baptized at the South Church between December, 1682, and January, 1686. The mother became a member November 26, 1682.
281
"THE WOEFUL DECADE."
twenty one pounds four shillings and six money gatherd by a publique Collection made att Mr. Willards Congregation for wid Pease and her Children and the care of Two wounded men.
Recd p
ADAM WINTHROP.
The period between 1690 and 1700 has been well called, for New England, "the woeful decade." Its first year witnessed the massacres of Schenectady and Salmon Falls, and these were followed a few months later by the disastrous expedition of the united colonies, under Sir William Phips, against Quebec. Mas- sachusetts had sent an expedition to Acadia which captured Port Royal (Annapolis) ; and at a congress held in New York, in May, 1690, it was determined to prevent, if possible, further raids by the French and Indians, by carrying the war vigorously into Canada. At this congress New York was represented by Jacob Leisler and Peter De Lanoy ; Massachusetts by William Stoughton, Samuel Sewall, and John Walley ; and Connecticut by Nathan Gold and William Pitkin. The plan agreed upon was that the forces of New York and Connecticut, with the aid of the Iroquois Indians, should make an attack on Montreal, while a fleet from Massachusetts should make at the same time an assault upon Quebec. The Massachusetts troops were placed under the command of John Walley as lieutenant-gen- eral. Ephraim Savage, son of the commander in Philip's War, was second in command of the militia. But the land forces never reached their destination, and the fleet was repulsed before Quebec with great loss.1
On the night of Tuesday, the 16th of September, there was a serious fire in what is now Milk Street, and the South meeting- house was in much danger. Sewall says : "About eleven at night a Fire breaks out at the House of Jno Allen, Worsted Comber, in which his Apprentice Sam. Worster was burned, with the House of Lieut. Reynolds, Mr. Bligh, Langden and a great part of Savil Simson's. The wind being Sou-west, the South- Meeting-House was preserv'd with very much difficulty, being with the discourse, and some cast blame on Major Walley; were nine weeks get- ting thither and landed not before the 7th or 8th of October." (Sewall.)
1 November 7, 1690. " Between 9. and 10. at night, Governour sends to me and enforms of the defeat at Canada ; and that Urrumbee, Hawkins and other chief Indians sued for peace. News of Canada came from Salem. Shute comes into Boston that night or next morning, hath thrown over aboard more than Sixty persons since his going hence, most In- dians of Plimouth. Town much fill'd
The expedition was most rash and ill- advised. There is no evidence that Major Walley failed to do anything that a man could have done under the cir- cumstances, and it was only for the mo- ment that he suffered in his popularity.
282
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
in a flame in diverse places of it. Capt. Cyprian Southack,1 and Lieut. David Mason did very worthily, hazarding themselves with many others on the Lead for a great while."
Mr. Peter Sergeant, a prominent merchant and citizen, and an active member of the South Church, built a handsome house for himself, which was afterward the residence of a long succes- sion of royal governors, and is known in history as the Province House.ยช It was of brick, three stories high, and it stood in
1 Captain Southack was a Boston described a visit to the old house in its pilot, and commanded a vessel in the later and more humble days : - expedition against Quebec. A year or two later, the meeting-house was threat- ened again : "Sabbath, Jan. 29, 1692-3. A very sunshiny, hot, thawing day. Note. Just as we came out of the meet- inghouse at Noon, Savil Simson's Chim- ney fell on fire, and blaz'd out much, which made many people stand gazing at it a pretty while, being so near the Meetinghouse." (Sewall.)
2 July 25 1699 " My Lord Bellomont deliver'd me my Commission for Judge of the Superiour Court. And the Chief Justice, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. Cooke and myself were sworn in Mr. Sergeants best chamber before the Governour and Council."
November 4 " This day the Governour Treats the Council and sundry other Gentlemen in Mr. Sergeants best cham- ber. Guns fired upon account of the King's Birth-day. (Sewall.)
A few days later, Judge Sewall enter- tained Lord and Lady Bellomont in the new hall which he had recently added to his house. Mr. and Mrs. Willard could not be present because it was "cate- chizing day," but the South Church was represented by Mr. and Mrs. Sergeant, Major Walley, Mr. Bromfield, Mr. Stod- dard, and Mr. John Campbell, afterward postmaster and first editor of the Boston News-Letter.
Mr. Sergeant received at the rate of Lioo per annum for the use of his house fourteen and a half months, and Judge Sewall {15 for the use of a coach-house and stable in the vicinity. See a paper on the Province House, by Mellen Cham- berlain, in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceed- ings, Second Series, vol. ii. pp. 122-131.
Hawthorne, in Twice - Told Tales, has
" Entering the arched passage, which penetrated through the middle of a brick row of shops, a few steps transported me from the busy heart of modern Boston into a small and secluded court-yard. One side of this space was occupied by the square front of the Province House, three stories high, and surmounted by a cupola, on the top of which a gilded Indian was discernible, with his bow bent and his arrow on the string, as if aiming at the weathercock on the spire of the Old South. The figure has kept this attitude for seventy years or more, ever since good Deacon Drown, a cun- ning carver of wood, first stationed him on his long sentinel's watch over the city.
" The Province House is constructed of brick, which seems recently to have been overlaid with a coat of light-colored paint. A flight of red freestone steps, fenced in by a balustrade of curiously wrought iron, ascends from the court- yard to the spacious porch, over which is a balcony, with an iron balustrade of similar pattern and workmanship to that beneath. These letters and figures - 16 P. S. 79 - are wrought into the ironwork of the balcony, and probably express the date of the edifice, with the initials of its founder's name. A wide door with double leaves admitted me into the hall or entry, on the right of which is the entrance to the bar-room.
" It was in this apartment, I presume, that the ancient governors held their levees, with vice-regal pomp, surrounded by the military men, the councillors, the judges, and other officers of the crown, while all the loyalty of the province thronged to do them honor. But the
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283
THE PROVINCE HOUSE.
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