USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the Old South church (Third church) Boston, 1669-1884, Vol. III > Part 15
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1 Edward Alline signed the letter to ing for dismission (see ante, pp. 27, 28), the First Church, August 10, 1668, ask- but his name does not appear in the list
120
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
who was a felt-maker or hatter, died September 14, 1678. His wife, Mary, who afterward married Dr. William Avery, joined the church in 1674, with the wives of the other dissenting brethren. John Sanford, a schoolmaster, died February 10, 1676-7, and left property to the church. His wife, Sarah, became a member in 1676.
Among those who joined the church immediately after its organization, and who thus came into the fellowship of its suf- ferings, were John Mellowes, Daniel Henchman, James Hill, Jonathan Jackson, and Ambrose Dawes.1
The faithful women who had to wait more than five years before they could become members of the new church, and who for a long time had no regular church standing whatever, de- serve to be enrolled among the founders, and they should ever be remembered at the Old South with grateful respect and admiration for what they did and for what they suffered. We have mentioned most of them in connection with their hus- bands ; there were others who also deserve our notice.
Margaret Thacher was the only child of Henry Webb, a merchant, who left a very considerable property for those days,2 and widow of Jacob Sheaffe, also a prominent and wealthy mer- chant. She was born at Salisbury, in England, and was baptized there September 25, 1625. She was married to Jacob Sheaffe, by special license, in the autumn of 1642. He died in 1659, and several years later she became the second wife of the Rev. Thomas Thacher.
Sarah Mather, widow of the Rev. John Cotton, of St. Bo- tolph's, Boston, Lincolnshire,3 and afterward of the First Church, Boston, who died December 23, 1652 : On the 26th of August, 1656, she was married by Governor Endicott to the Rev. Richard Mather, minister of the First Church, Dorchester, as his third wife. He died April 22, 1669. He was, as we have seen, a leading synodist, and sympathized warmly with the dissenting
of members. Sewall speaks of him in 1677, as one of those who sustained the neighborhood prayer-meeting, in which several of the founders of the Third Church and he himself were so much interested. See Sewall Papers, vol. i. PP. 31, 32, 41.
1 These, and all others who joined be- fore the reconciliation of the First and Third churches, probably came from
churches out of town, or were admitted on confession of their faith.
2 Mr. Webb gave to Harvard College the valuable estate in Washington Street, Boston, upon which the store of Little, Brown & Co. stands.
3 Mrs. Mather, to the time of her death,. was in "receipt of profits from her own estate in England." - Thompson's His- tory of Boston, p. 424.
121
MR. AND MRS. NORTON.
brethren in their long and painful struggle ; he was moderator of the council of fifteen churches called by them, and was stricken by mortal illness before its deliberations were con- cluded, or the Result was drawn up ; it was natural, therefore, that his widow, on moving back to town, should cast in her lot with them and theirs. She joined their communion March 5, 1674-5, and although she cannot technically be included among the founders, she was certainly one of the earliest friends of the new church.
Mary Norton, widow of the Rev. John Norton, of the First Church, "a gentlewoman," according to the Magnalia, " both of good estate and of good esteem," was the third daughter and fourth child of John Ferneley, of West Creting, Suffolk, England, by his wife Temperance, daughter of Sir Miles Corbet. She was born October 2, 1602, and was baptized at West Creting nineteen days later. She came to New England with her husband in 1635.1 The house in Ipswich, which was their first American home, is still standing, and we have given a view of it at the head of our second chapter. Mr. Norton was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, but, becoming dissatisfied with the English Church, he determined to cast in his lot with the Puritan emigrants. He arrived at Plymouth in the same ship with Governor Winslow, and was urged to settle there, but declined to do so. In 1638 he was ordained teacher of the
1 Where Mrs. Norton was married is not known, " but certainly not at West Creting, nor at Hitchin, the registers of which places have been carefully searched." Her older sister, Catherine, was wife of a vicar of Hitchin, Herts, probably the Rev. Stephen Pierce, D. D. Colonel Joseph L. Chester, at the request of Mr. Joseph Ballard, of Boston, made investigations in England concerning the ancestry of Mrs. Norton, and the result is embodied in a paper in the possession of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. In this paper Colonel Chester says: " I have been thus particular in following out the history of the different branches of this once prolific family [the Ferneleys] to their entire extinction, cer- tainly in the male line, in order to show that there can be no person living at the present day whose connection with Mrs. Mary Norton must not be of the most
remote character." And further : "As for herself, it will be seen that her im- mediate connections were of the most respectable character, and, although she could boast of no 'noble blood' in her veins, she could point with some degree -of family pride to the facts that two of her great-aunts [daughters of William and Agnes (Daundy) Ferneley] were wives of two of the most eminent men of their day, - Sir Nicolas Bacon and Sir Thomas Gresham, - and that her own cousin was that famous Miles Corbet whose name was once powerful in the land, and whose memory, in spite of his execution as a 'traitor ' and a 'regicide,' is to this day precious to the descendants of the very people who once cried for his head."
See Boston Daily Advertiser, July 10, 1876, for a letter from Mr. Joseph Bal- lard about Mrs. Norton and her ancestry.
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HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
church in Ipswich. He was called to Boston on the death of Mr. Cotton, and after long delay, in consequence of the unwil- lingness of his people to give him up, he was installed teacher of the First Church in the summer of 1656. In 1662 he went to England with Simon Bradstreet, on an important mission in behalf of the colony.1 He died suddenly in April of the follow- ing year. His widow, in becoming one of the chief benefactors of the new church, knew that she was promoting a cause which would have been dear to her husband's heart if he had been alive. Speaking of Mr. Norton in connection with the Cam- bridge Platform of 1647, Cotton Mather says : -
Into that platform he would fain have had inserted, certain propo- sitions concerning the watch which our churches are to have over the children born in them, which propositions were certainly the first prin- ciples of New England ; only the fierce oppositions of one eminent person, caused him that was of a peaceable temper, to forbear urging them any further ; by which means, when those very propositions came to be advanced and embraced in another Synod [1662], more than twice seven years after, many people did ignorantly count them novelties.2
Mr. Thacher also should be included among the founders of the Third Church, and therefore referred to particularly at this time. He had been in full sympathy with the dissenting breth- ren, and their hearts had for some time been united upon him as one of the ministers of the new church. In anticipation of their call he took letters of dismission (October 9, 1669) to the Charlestown church, whose pastors undoubtedly understood his purpose in joining their communion.3 This was shrewdly managed, as was every movement made by the brethren, during the long progress of this controversy. If Mr. Thacher had waited until the day of installation drew near, and then asked for a dismission from the First Church, his request would have been denied, and he could not have been settled in the ministry of the new church. His formal call to the pastorate was not voted until after his admission to membership, upon a letter of recommendation from the church in Charlestown.
1 They sailed February 10, and re- Church in Boston, with Mr. Davenport, turned September 3, making both pas- in 1668. sages in the Society, a new vessel be- 2 Magnalia (book iii.), vol. i. p. 291. longing to John Hull, who accompanied 8 " 1669. Oct. 24. Revd. Mr. Thomas Thatcher [admitted] by a Letter of Dis- mission from the first church in Boston." - Records of the First Church in Charles- town. them. William Davis went over with them, but came back three months earlier, in the same vessel with the Rev. James Allen, who was settled over the First
123
THE REV. THOMAS THACHER.
Thomas Thacher, son of the Rev. Peter Thacher,1 was born May 1, 1620, at Milton Clevedon, Somersetshire, as is supposed, where his father was vicar, but the record of his baptism has not yet been found. In 1622 his father became rector of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, and in this venerable cathedral city Thomas spent his youth and received his early academic training. He gave evidence of decided piety, and he would have been sent to Ox- ford or Cambridge, to fit for the ministry, but he could not conscientiously make the re- ligious subscriptions required at these universities. He was now fifteen years of age, and with the consent of his par- ents he resolved to come to America. They expected to Thomay Thechive. follow him, for his father was a Puritan in spirit, but the death of his mother soon after broke up this plan.2
Thomas embarked at Southampton in the James, in company with the Rev. Anthony Thacher, his uncle, the Rev. John Avery, a cousin, and their families, and reached Boston June 4, 1635. From Boston the party went to Ipswich, where many of their fellow-passengers were intending to settle. Two months later, Mr. Avery received an invitation to preach at Marblehead, and with his wife and six children, together with Mr. and Mrs.
1 The Rev. Peter Thacher, of Milton Clevedon and Salisbury, was, perhaps, a son of the Rev. Peter Thacher who was instituted vicar of Queen Camel, Somer- set, in 1574, and continued in that cure until his death in 1624. His descendant, the Hon. Peter Thacher, of Boston, has collected and printed much valuable in-
formation about the family, and we are indebted to him for many suggestions in reference to it. We present at the head of this chapter a view of Milton Cleve- don Church, and on p. 248 one of the Rev. Peter Thacher's tomb in Salisbury.
2 Cotton Mather says that "he con- scientiously declined his father's offer, and chose rather to venture over the Atlantic ocean, and content himself with the meannesses of America, than to wound his own conscience for the aca- demical privileges of England. When his parents discerned his inclination, they permitted his removal to New England : intending themselves within a year or two, with their family, to have removed thither after him : which intention was prevented by the death of his mother, before it could be effected."
124
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
Anthony Thacher and their four children, he embarked at Ips- wich in a pinnace belonging to Isaac Allerton. On the follow- ing day (August 16), the vessel was wrecked on a ledge off Cape Ann, during a storm of almost unprecedented severity, and of the twenty-three persons on board all except Mr. and Mrs. Thacher were drowned. The two survivors were cast on a barren islet, now known as Thacher's Island.1 Providentially, Thomas Thacher had not taken passage with his relatives on this disastrous trip, preferring, for some reason, to make the journey by land, and so he escaped.
Cotton Mather says : " A day or two before that fatal voyage from Newberry to Marblehead, our young Thacher had such a strong and sad impression upon his mind, about the issue of the voyage, that he, with another, would needs go the journey by land, and so he escaped perishing with some of his pious and precious friends by sea."
For the purpose of continuing his studies, he entered the family of the Rev. Charles Chauncy, minister of Scituate, after- ward president of Harvard College.2 Under the tuition of this eminent scholar, he became proficient not only in Latin and Greek, but also in Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. He was well skilled, we are told, in the arts, especially in logic, and under- stood mechanics, both in theory and practice. As was not un- common at that time, he studied medicine as well as theology, and he gained a high reputation in both professions. He was the author of the first medical tract, or broadside, ever published in Massachusetts, " A Brief Rule to guide the Common People of New England how to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pox or Measles," printed in 1677 ; 3 and he is said to have pre- pared a Hebrew lexicon.
Mr. Thacher married, May II, 1643, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Ralph Partridge, of Duxbury, and on the 2d of Jan- uary, 1644, he was ordained minister of the church in Weymouth. He remained there for twenty years, but "by a concurrence of
1 Mr. Anthony Thacher, who, in Eng- land, had served as his brother's curate at Salisbury, preached for a time at Marblehead, and afterward at Yarmouth. The island on which he was saved was granted to him. An adjacent rock or islet received the name of Avery's Fall. The two lighthouses on Thacher's Isl- and are well known to those who are familiar with the coast. The lights there
were first exhibited December 21, 1771. See Boston Gazette.
2 Harvard College dates from 1636, but its first president, Mr. Dunster, did not take office until 1640.
3 For a fac-simile of this broadside, see Memorial History of Boston, vol. iv. p. 436. The author modestly says : "I am, though no physician, yet a well wisher to the sick."
125
THE REV. THOMAS THACHER.
many obliging circumstances " (to quote the words of Cotton Mather), he resigned his charge, and removed to Boston. "He who holds the stars in his right hand, had a purpose of ser- vice to be done for his name, in that populous town, by the talents of this his good and faithful servant." His wife died June 2, 1664 (at Weymouth),1 and soon after he married Mrs. Sheaffe. He became a member of the First Church August 4, 1667, and preached occasionally in the town and elsewhere, but for the most part he was engaged as a practising phy- sician.
The selection of Mr. Thacher as minister of the new church was a most judicious one. It not only indicated a purpose on the part of the brethren to maintain the high standard of ability and scholarship which had heretofore distinguished the pulpit of Boston, but it greatly strengthened their position and their cause with the churches throughout the colony.
We shall see that when Mr. Thacher was inducted into the pastorate he was ordained, and not simply installed. He had been practically a layman for several years, a private member of the First Church, and a physician. Many of the early New England ministers, who had taken orders in the English Church, were ordained again when they entered upon their pastoral duties here. Mr. Skelton and Mr. Higginson were ordained at Salem in 1629. Mr. Davenport was ordained in New Haven, and again when he came to Boston. The Rev. George Phillips, of Watertown, told the people there that if they would have him stand minister by that calling which he received from the prel- ates in England he would leave them. Mr. Cotton would not baptize his own child, born at sea, because, as he said, there was no settled congregation there, and " because a minister hath no power to give the seals but in his own congregation." In other words, to be a minister, a man must be a pastor. In taking this position, the early New England ministers did not reflect upon their first ordination vows, or discredit their previous ministry, when they entered upon new pastoral relations, as those clergy-
1 The Hon. Peter Thacher thinks that his ancestor must have received a good property from his first wife, who was residuary legatee under the will of her father, the Rev. Ralph Partridge. She had a life interest in his real estate in New England, and inherited absolutely his English property. "I give to my
daughter Elisabeth Thacher, all my houses and lands in Old England, to her and her heirs for ever." The library, consisting of 400 volumes, became Mr. Thacher's. The will was allowed at Plymouth, May 4, 1658. John Alden, the Plymouth pilgrim, was one of the ap- praisers.
I26
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
men must do now who seek to enter the Anglican or Roman ministry from other Christian denominations.1
The basis of union upon which the brethren came together in the fellowship of the new church was not a formal expression of doctrinal belief, but a glowing avowal of covenant obligation. They desired not so much uniformity as unity; and for the attainment of this end, not subscription to a dogmatic state- ment, but a confession of attachment and loyalty to a personal and living Christ - Mediator, Prophet, Priest, and King - was the great prerequisite. They "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." They mutually promised to endeavor to establish among themselves, and to transmit to their posterity, "all the holy truths and ordinances of the gospell committed to the churches in faith and observance;" but they did not undertake to draw out these holy truths and ordinances into precise and technical definitions and regulations, by which they were to be bound together, and to which their posterity was to be rigidly held. The natural effect of elaborately wrought creeds, as tests and bonds of fellowship, compared with the confessions which have come down to us from the early Christian centuries, is to separate one from another, not only contemporaneous sister churches, but the successive generations of Christian believers. The fathers of the Third Church could not in the seventeenth century have framed a doctrinal system to which those who suc- ceed them in the membership in the nineteenth century would be able to give an intelligent and unqualified and honest assent ; but the foundation on which they builded - the Rock of Ages, " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever "-is still the "head of the corner," and will so stand, as we pray and believe, to the end of time. The "perpetual covenant" to which they subscribed was as follows : -
The Covenant made by the third Church in Boston, Gathred at Charlestown on 12th day of 3rd moneth 1669.
1 The celebrated nonconformist clergy- man, John Howe, who lost his pulpit under the Act of Uniformity, was urged by the Bishop of Exeter to submit to episcopal ordination, so that he might receive preferment in the Church of Eng- land, but declined. " Pray, sir," said the bishop, " what hurt is there in being twice
ordained ?" " Hurt, my lord," said Mr. Howe, "it is shocking ; it hurts my understanding ; it is an absurdity : for nothing can have two beginnings. I am sure, I am a minister of Christ, and am ready to debate that matter with your lordship. I can't begin again to be a minister."
I27
THE CHURCH COVENANT.
We, whose names are underwritten,1 being called of God to joine together into a Church, in heart-sense of our unworthinesse thereof, disability thereunto, and aptnes to forsake the Lord, cast off his gov- ernment and neglect our duety one to another ; Do in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, trusting only in his grace and help, sollemnely bind ourselves together as in the presence of God,
Constantly to walk together as a Church of Christ, according to all those holy rules of Gods word given to a church body rightly estab- lished, so far as we already know them, or they shal be hereafter farther made known unto us.
And particularly, - We do first of all according to the tenor of the everlasting Covenant give up ourselves and our offspring unto God our cheif yea onely good ; unto our Lord Jesus Christ as the onely mediator our onely spirituall head and Lord, receiving and rely- ing on him not only as our high preist for satisfaction and Intercession, but also as our prophet to teach, and King to reigne over us ; and unto the holy Spirit to be a temple to him that by his dwelling and working in us, we may have, and be established in fellowship with God in Christ and one with another.
And for the furtherance of this blessed fellowship we do likwise promise to indeavour to establish among ourselves and conveigh down to our posterity, all the holy trueths and ordinances of the gospell, com- mitted to the churches in faith and observance, opposing to the utmost of our church power, whatsoever is diverse therefrom or con- trary thereunto. - Also we do give up ourselves one unto another in the Lord, and by the will of God ; hereby promising to cleave one to another as fellow members of the same body in brotherly love and holy watchfulnesse unto mutuall ædification in Christ Jesus, and to be subject in and for the Lord to all the administrations and censuers of the congregation, so far as the same shall be ordered according to the rules of God's most holy word
And finally we do hereby Covenant and promise through the help of the same grace, to hold promote and maintein sisterly fellowship and communion with all the churches of Saints in all those holy ways of order appointed between them by our Lord Jesus to the utmost- especially with those among whome the Lord hath set us, that the Lord may be one and his name one, in all these Churches throughout all generations, to his æternall glory in Christ Jesus. - And now the good Lord be mercifull unto us, Pardoning according to the greatnes of his grace, as all our past sins, so especially our church sins in . negligence and unfruitfulnesse of former injoyments ; and accept, as a sweet savour in Christ Jesus, this our offering up ourselves unto him in this work ; filling this his house with his own glory; making us faithful to himself and one unto another, according to himself, for his holy names sake, Amen.
1 [No names are subscribed to this covenant in the record book.]
I28
HISTORY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH.
At what precise date this covenant was drawn up, and by whom, we cannot say. It bears evidence of having been written by the Rev. Thomas Thacher, and as his ministry did not begin until the winter following the gathering of the church, it is prob- able that it was not adopted and subscribed to until after his installation and the completion of the new meeting-house. In view of the circumstances under which the brethren withdrew from the First Church, and of what the feelings towards them of the leading members of that church seem to have been, there is something pathetic in the reference to "church sins in negli- gence and unfruitfulnesse of former injoyments."
There was a renewal of active opposition to the Third Church when it took measures for the erection of a meeting-house. The governor, the major-general, and Mr. Edward Tyng, as magis- trates resident in the town, fearing "a sudden tumult," sought to postpone action until the next meeting of the General Court, and warned the brethren who had the work in charge to desist for the present. They also called a meeting of the council ; but as the majority of the members were on the other side, the result was not satisfactory to them. The subject now came up in town meeting. A committee, the majority of whose mem- bers were hostile to the new church,1 reported an instruction for the selectmen, the purpose of which was to delay the work of building, but this instruction was voted down by "a cloud of witnesses." The progressive men evidently were in favor with the people. At the annual town meeting in 1669, Thomas Savage was chosen moderator ; and of the seven selectmen elected, three, Hezekiah Usher, Edward Raynsford, and Peter Oliver, were members of the new church, and a fourth, John Joyliffe, was undoubtedly in sympathy with it, as he became a member soon after.2 Mr. Joyliffe was also chosen recorder, and the same year Mr. Oliver was elected to the command of the artillery company. The town had provided a site for the new meeting-house, as it had done, in the first instance, for the houses of worship of the First3 and Second churches, and as
1 This committee consisted of Thomas Savage, Thomas Clarke, Edward Hutch- inson, Anthony Stoddard, Jeremiah Houchin, and John Wiswell, all, except Mr. Savage, members of the First Church.
2 The other selectmen chosen in 1669 were Thomas Lake, James Oliver, and
John Richards. Mr. Lake and Mr. Richards belonged to the Second Church.
8 The First Church sold its first meet- ing-house, with the land on which it stood, to Robert Thompson, of London, for £300. The town united with the church in the conveyance. See Hist. and Gen. Register, vol. xiv. pp. 152, 153.
129
SITE FOR THE MEETING-HOUSE.
was the custom in all the towns. This site, "nigh the wind- mill," "was no way judged convenient " by the majority of the selectmen, and was not accepted by the brethren, because another lot had been provided by one of their own fellowship.1 One of the windmills stood on or near the Common; another, a new one, was on the South Cove. Whether it was proposed by the town that the new meeting-house should be placed upon the Common, or at or near the junction of what are now called Summer and South streets, - perhaps on the spot where the New South meeting-house was afterward built, -it is im- possible for us to say. On the Ist of April, 1669, the repre- sentatives of the new church accepted a deed for and took pos- session of a piece of ground almost central as between these two localities, and on the 26th of July they asked the formal concurrence of the selectmen in the choice they had made. The selectmen, however, as a board, declined to express an opinion in the matter. All this will appear in the Third Church Narrative, to which we shall return presently.
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