USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of the early settlement of Newton, county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, from 1639-1800. With a genealogical register of its inhabitants, prior to 1800 > Part 39
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"I ought to state that when the Indians were on their way from Canada to Bethel, they passed through Newry, and entered the house of Capt. Benjamin Barker; Miss Mary Russell and Miss Betsy Mason were at Capt. Barker's, on a visit; the Indians plundered the house of many articles, some of which belonged to these young ladies. On our return to Bethel, we found these young ladies there, and married them ; I married Mary Russell, and Mr. Clark married Betsy Mason; both of us have had and reared up large families by them.
" I have undergone all the hardships and denials incident to those engaged in settling a new country, and have lived to see the town rise from a howling wilderness to fruitful fields and a flourishing condition."
Benjamin Clark, who was the fellow prisoner and towns- man of Seger, was the son of Norman Clark and Hannah
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Bird, the grandson of William Clark and Hannah Kee, and the great-grandson of John Clark and Elizabeth Nor- man, who were among the early settlers of Newton.
Lieut. Jonathan Clark, of Bethel, was made prisoner by the Indians, with Seger, but released in three days ; he was from Newton also. His father was William Clark, Jr .; he was born in March, 1747, and was twelve years older than Benjamin Clark. Probably the Indians thought he was too old to carry their packs through the forests to Canada, and so released him, after a three days' march.
Jonathan, Thaddeus, Enoch, Moses, Stephen, and Pere- grine Bartlett, brothers, and sons of Ebenezer Bartlett, of Newton, grandsons of Joseph, Jr., and great-grandsons of Joseph, Sen., an early settler in Newton, all went to Bethel ; Jonathan and Thaddeus went with Seger, and the others soon after.
TIMOTHY JACKSON, ESQ.
[See Page 346.]
TIMOTHY JACKSON, EsQ. was born in Newton, August 3, 1756. He was the son of Timothy and Sarah (Smith) Jackson, grandson of Joseph and Patience (Hyde) Jack- son, great-grandson of Sebas and Sarah (Baker) Jackson, and great-great-grandson of Edward Jackson, Sen., of Lon- don, England, one of the first settlers of Newton. He owned part of the same estate, and dwelt under the same roof, that successively covered all his forefathers, in this country. This ancient house was demolished in the Spring of 1809. It stood on the same spot now covered by the
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mansion house of his eldest son, William Jackson, Esq., who draws up his cold water from the same well that has slaked the thirst and washed the faces of eight generations.
He was an only son. Of his early years, nothing of note is known to have occurred. He was athletic and robust in person, and possessed an active and vigorous intellect. His opportunities for school education, like most others of his time and rank, were exceedingly limited, yet his attain- ments in after life were quite respectable, and sufficient for all the practical purposes of private life, and of most public stations. Of books, his knowledge was very limited ; but of men and things, it was sufficiently accurate for all the prac- tical purposes of his time. His sound judgment, sterling integrity, and superior address, caused him to be perpetu- ally employed in public life, and enabled him to take a leading part in every situation in which he was placed ; in fact, among his townsmen, and more immediate acquaint- ance, his influence was very great, and the confidence reposed in him may truly be said to have been unsurpassed, in regard to sagacity, judgment and integrity. The leading incidents only of his life, we purpose briefly to note.
At the age of fifteen, (one year before the requirements of the law of that day,) he voluntarily joined one of the Newton companies of Militia. At the age of eighteen, he joined an independent company of "Minute Men," in New- ton, raised in January, 1775, in accordance with the military spirit of the time, and in view of the expected struggle with the Mother Country. This company of Minute Men verified their claim to the name they assumed, on the morn- ing of the Lexington fight, to the letter. He was a Cor- poral in the company ; on the morning of that ever memorable day, he heard the signal guns, which announced that the British troops were in motion. He went to the Captain's house at the break of day, and received orders to
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warn the company to meet upon their parade ground forth- with, which order he promptly executed on horseback, and before eight o'clock, the company were on the march to join their regiment at Watertown Meeting-house; and from thence took their march for Lexington and Concord. They encountered Lord Percy's reserve at Concord, and con- tinued to hang upon the flank and rear of the British troops until night-fall, when they took boat for Boston, at Lechmere Point, where, after they had rowed beyond the reach of musket shot, and that bloody day's work was ended, this company of Minute Men publicly received the thanks of Gen. Warren, for their zeal and bravery through- out the day.
Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, a company was raised to serve eight months, mostly of Newton men, com- manded by Capt. Nathan Fuller, of Newton, and joined the Continental army under Gen. Washington, at Camb- ridge. During the last four months of this term, he joined the company and was appointed orderly Sergeant, by Capt. Fuller.
In Sept. 1776, he entered on board a privateer fitted out at Salem, which sailed on a cruise, on the 19th of that month. Ten days after, the privateer was captured by the British Frigate Perseus, after a running fight, (in which he was wounded in the neck by a musket ball,) and carried into New York, then in possession of the British, and con- fined in one of those floating hells, called prison ships. After six months' torture in that loathsome place, he was impressed into the English Naval service, and placed on board a large Indiaman, pierced for thirty-six guns, as a convoy to a fleet of transports to England. Of the thirty six men composing the crew of this ship, ten were im- pressed Americans. After a rough and boisterous passage of eighty days, they arrived in London, when he was put
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on board a Spanish built guard ship of one hundred and twenty guns, in the Thames; from this ship he was trans- ferred to the Frigate Experiment, bound for Lisbon. On his return from Lisbon, he was put on board Lord Howe's flag ship, and sailed with the fleet to the West Indies. While on that station he was transferred to the Frigate Grasshopper. From the cruel treatment he had uniformly received in all those ships, he determined to make his escape at all hazards. While the Grasshopper lay at anchor in the harbor of Antigua, about half a mile from the shore, he took advantage of a severe shower of rain, which drove the sentinel below, passed over the stern of the ship at midnight, unobserved, and sat upon the bow chains until the storm had abated, when he let himself down into the water, and swam for the land, which he reached in about half an hour, landing upon a rocky shore, quite ex- hausted, and much bruised among the rocks and surf; from thence he travelled to St. Johns, where he shipped on board an English sloop, Capt. Clark, who traded among the Eng- lish islands, but was ultimately bound to New York. Capt. Clark afterwards changed his voyage from New York to Cork, Ireland. In consequence of this change of voyage, he left the sloop at St. Vincent; from thence he went to St. Kitts, where he succeeded in engaging a passage to North Carolina, in a pilot boat, which arrived safe, and from thence he shipped in a vessel bound to Boston. On this voyage he was again captured by the British, and car- ried into New York. While the vessel was furling sails, and hauling alongside the wharf, he made his escape unob- served, and travelled by land two days and nights, and had nearly reached the American lines, when he was captured by an advance guard of Hessian troops, and carried back to New York, and cast into prison with hundreds of his countrymen, in January, 1778. He was kept in this loath-
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some prison about six months. His sufferings in this hor- rid place were truly appalling; the small pox was among them, and scarcely a day passed that he did not witness some poor prisoner writhing in the agonies of death. Soon after the battle of Monmouth, he was exchanged with many others, and passed over to the American army in July, 1778, in a state of perfect destitution, upwards of two hundred miles from home, and without a penny to sustain himself through so long a journey; fortunately he met with a townsman, Daniel Jackson, (then a Sergeant in Capt. Bryant's company of Artillery,) a kind hearted man, who loaned him money enough to pay his expenses home, where he arrived in the Autumn of 1778, after having been absent one year and ten months. After a few months' visit to the army at Rhode Island, he returned home again, in the Spring of 1779, took the homestead at the age of 23, and settled as a farmer.
At the annual Town meeting in March, 1780, he was chosen a member of the school committee, and also of a committee to raise men for the army.
From that time until his last sickness, in 1811, he was continually serving in various Town and State offices. He was Adjutant and Brigade Major in the Militia; kept the Town school in the north district two Winters; was Deputy Sheriff ten years, from 1791; Selectman many years ; Mod- erator of nearly all the Town meetings, from 1795 to 1810, inclusive, and Representative to the General Court fifteen years in succession, from 1797; the duties of all which he most ably and faithfully discharged.
He was disabled by a stroke of the palsy, in 1811, from which he never recovered, and died in Nov. 1814, at the age of 58.
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REV. ELHANAN WINCHESTER.
REV. ELHANAN WINCHESTER.
[See Page 450.]
REV. ELHANAN WINCHESTER was the oldest son of Dea. Elhanan and Sarah Winchester, grandson of Dea. Elhanan and Mary Winchester, great-grandson of Josiah and Mary Winchester, and great-great-grandson of John Winchester, who came from England in ship Elizabeth, William Stagg, Master, in 1635, then nineteen years old ; settled in Hingham, and removed to Muddy river [Brook- line ] about 1650.
Rev. Elhanan was a remarkably eloquent and success- ful preacher of the Gospel, and is said to have been the father of the Baptist Church in Newton; nearly all of its first members having been baptised by him. He was born in Brookline, very near the line of Newton, Sept. 19, 1751. At the age of five years he was called a good reader ; his taste for study was soon observed, and he often astonished his instructors by the suddenness of his acquirements. His opportunity for education was small; only a Winter's schooling each year, till he arrived at the age of sixteen years ; yet with this slight advantage, he added some ac- quaintance with the Latin, to the branches taught in com- mon schools. Books, of all kinds, that fell in his way, were read with avidity. His memory was prodigious. The sect called " New Lights," among whom he was brought up, naturally cherished and increased the enthusiasm to which his temperament was predisposed. He began preaching in the Autumn of 1770, in his 19th year. He visited Canter- bury, Conn., 1771, and was baptised and admitted to the Baptist Church there, on the plan of open communion.
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His youth, extraordinary memory, eloquence and zeal, drew multitudes to his meeting. He gathered a Church of about seventy members, in Rehoboth, and was ordained over it. In less than a year, he adopted the plan of close commu- nion, which change of sentiment produced commotion, and divided his Church, and he was excluded for breach of cov- enant. He took a journey into New Hampshire and Ver- mont, and on his return stopped at Grafton, Mass., where he preached. On returning to Rehoboth, and finding that the difficulty had not subsided, he called a council to medi- ate between him and his Church. The result was, the council decided that "he had left an error to embrace the truth ; " and the people declared the contrary.
Mr. Winchester left the church in Rehoboth, and joined the Baptist Church in Bellingham. About this time he re- nounced his Armenian sentiments, and avowed the system of the celebrated Dr. Gill, and became a thorough Calvin- istic preacher. He went to Grafton early in the year 1772, and preached there through the Summer; his hearers were gathered from Grafton, Upton, and Northbridge; many of whom made a profession of religion. From this town he soon removed to Hull, a peninsula about nine miles east of Boston, and spent the year 1773, and part of 1774, preach- ing there, and in sundry other places.
From the beginning of his ministerial career, he had often preached in Brookline and Newton, with much success. His father, who was Deacon of the "New Light " congre- gation, in Brookline, became a Baptist, and was one of the founders of the first Baptist Church in Newton.
In the Autumn of 1774, he set out for the Southern States, and there accepted an invitation to preach, at a Baptist society at Welch Neck, on the great Pee Dee river, in South Carolina. In four months he returned to New England, for his wife. In Oct. 1775, he set out with his
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wife, for South Carolina. On reaching Virginia, she was unable to proceed any farther ; and leaving her in Virginia, he proceeded on, and spent the Winter at Welch Neck.
In April, 1776, he went to Virginia, to conduct his wife to Carolina ; but she was in her grave. Instead of going back to Carolina, he continued his journey to New England, and supplied the pulpit of the first Baptist Church in Bos- ton, for the Rev. Dr. Stillman, who was in Philadelphia.
In the Fall of 1776, he returned to his people at Welch Neck, where he was seized with a fever, that brought him to the verge of the grave.
Early in 1778, a friend on whom he called, showed him "The Everlasting Gospel," a small book by Paul Seigvolk, and requested to be informed what the author meant. Mr. Winchester, by looking into it, soon perceived that its de- sign was to prove what was entirely new to him, "the final salvation of all men." But though struck with some argu- ments that he glanced over, he readily decided that the scheme could not be true; laid the book aside, and deter- mined to think no more of the subject ; still, however, it would at times court his attention.
He spent the following Summer travelling and preaching in Virginia, and in the Fall, returned to his people at Welch Neck. Here a bitter cup of sorrow that he had twice drained, awaited him; his third wife sickened and died. Amid the consuming pain of ten days, her mind rose to a high state of devotional joy ; her example and conver- sation served to abstract her husband from the common ob- jects of life, and to concentrate all his powers on the work of the ministry. He preached and exhorted with a zeal and singleness of motive that could not fail of effect. A revival commenced, and in a few months, about one hun- dred and forty whites were added to the Church. He also addressed himself to the poor slaves ; his known opposition
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to slavery recommended him to their favorable attention, and before the next June, (1779,) one hundred of the slaves were baptised. This (says he) was a Summer of great success, and I shall remember it with pleasure, while I live.
In September, 1779, he left Welch Neck for New Eng- land, journeying slowly, and preaching as he went. He arrived in New England in the latter part of Autumn, where he travelled extensively, and preached with much applause and success about nine months. Early in the Autumn of 1780, he set off with the intention of returning to South Carolina. On his way he tarried awhile at Paw- ling's Precinct, near the east boundary of the State of New York, and arrived at Philadelphia on the 7th of October. The Baptist Church in that City being destitute of a Min- ister, requested him to stop and preach to them, and he consented. Much excitement was produced by his labors, and great additions were made to the church. His congre- gation grew too large for the Meeting-house, and St. Paul's (the Episcopal Church, and largest in the City) was pro- cured, and was filled to overflowing; and most of the Clergy of all denominations embraced every opportunity to hear him. It was here, and when he was about thirty years of age, that Mr. Winchester changed his religious views, and openly embraced the doctrine of Universal Restoration ; and during the rest of his life, was an avowed and devoted advocate of that doctrine. A majority of his Church was opposed to him, and he was dismissed. As he and his ad- herents were destitute of a house for public worship, the Trustees of Pennsylvania University magnanimously al- lowed them the use of their hall. It was here that Mr. Winchester preached openly his first sermon, from Genesis, iii, 15, the doctrine of Universa 1Restoration. The opposi- tion to his meeting was general and bitter. He found him-
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self, however, attended by a respectable congregation. Nearly half of his late Church followed him, and with him sustained the indignity of excommunication. Accessions were made from other quarters, and a new Church was soon formed. Unpopular as he was, there were some men of eminence in Philadelphia who were not afraid to coun- tenance him, among whom were Dr. Redman, and the cele- brated Dr. Rush. After meeting in University Hall about four years, Masonic Hall was fitted up for a place of meet- ing, on the spot now occupied by the Pennsylvania Bank. Afterwards a new Meeting-house was built, in Lombard street, which is still improved by the first Universalist so- ciety of that City. He spent most of his time in the City, preaching occasionally in Germantown, and sometimes in- dulging his favorite gratification of travelling.
It was a strange fatality that attended his matrimonial connexions, making him, at the age of 32, four times a wid- ower. He visited South Carolina in the latter part of 1784, and there, it is believed, married his fifth wife. He had no stated salary, but derived his support chiefly from contributions taken at the close of his meetings. These were often sufficient not only to meet his necessities, but also to supply him with means to bestow charities. Simple in his dress and appearance, his wants were few and his expenses small, though no great economist.
His society in Philadelphia prospered under his ministry for about six years, when he determined to visit England. He engaged his brother Moses to supply his pulpit in Phil- adelphia. He embarked for England, arriving in London in Sept. 1787, and commenced preaching, as opportunity offered. Soon, however, he preached Sunday mornings at the Meeting-house in Worship Street, and in the evening at Glass House Yard. His hearers continued to increase, and his friends engaged the Chapel in Parliament Court, where
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REV. ELHANAN WINCHESTER.
he held meetings till his departure for America. He re- tained his itinerant habit during the six and a half years he spent in England. He often made excursions to a consid- erable distance from London; frequently visited Chatham, Birmingham, Wisebeach, Fleet, and preached in nearly all the Meeting-houses of the general Baptists in the County of Kent. Several Dissenting preachers openly professed the doctrine of Universal Restoration, and some who discoun- tenanced it, patronized him, as he retained many of the notions and considerable of the language of the lower sects. Among those who embraced Universalism, the most distin- guished was the Rev. William Vidler, a Calvinistic Baptist Minister, who assisted Winchester in his labors, and after- wards supplied his place in London.
He left England May 19, 1794, and arrived at Boston July 12, following, and immediately repaired to his native town. During the remainder of the Summer, and succeed- ing Autumn, he preached almost constantly in the vicinity of Boston, and other parts of New England. In Septem- ber, he attended the General Convention of Universalists, at Oxford, Mass., in which he presided as Moderator.
Writing to London, he says, "I have the greatest door open that I ever saw, insomuch that I am surprised at the alteration since I was last here. I have preached in a great many Meeting-houses of different denominations, and to great numbers of people, as often as eight or nine times a week, with greater acceptance than I ever did." Mean- while, he was writing his answer to Paine's " Age of Rea- son," which was published in Boston, in December.
The next year (1795) he travelled extensively, in almost all parts of the country, especially to the southward, though his constitution was broken, and an increasing asthma fore- told a fatal termination. He visited his old Society, in
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Philadelphia, to which he ministered for awhile, probably in the latter part of 1795 and the beginning of 1796.
It was about this time that the celebrated Dr. Priestly delivered a course of lectures in the Universalist Meeting- house there, at the conclusion of which, he informed the Society that he agreed with their Minister in the doctrine of Universal Restoration.
Mr. Winchester went to Hartford, Conn., where he made his first appearance before the public, on the 11th of Octo- ber, 1796, at the funeral of a young man. The people were assembled around the grave, when they were surprised at the voice of a stranger, who, unasked, had taken the freedom to address them on the occasion. His language and manner were very affecting, and excited a general wish to hear him again. Accordingly, he gave one or two lec- tures during the week, and preached the next Sunday in the Theatre. A respectable congregation was soon gath- ered, among whom were some gentlemen of influence. He continued to preach in the Theatre on Sundays, and in one of the Meeting-houses on Wednesday evenings, till the beginning of December, when the inclemency of the weather induced them to assemble in a large hall, which they occu- pied till Mr. Winchester's death.
About the 1st of April, 1797, he delivered a sermon, under a strong impression that it was his last, from St. Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian Church. He never entered his desk again. His death was fast approaching, and he contemplated it with serenity and joy, and died on the 18th of April, 1797, aged forty-six years and five months.
His funeral was attended by a numerous concourse of afflicted friends and sympathizing spectators. The Rev. Dr. Strong, a Hopkinsian Minister of a Congregational Church, in Hartford, an opponent of Universal Salvation,
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preached the sermon at his funeral; gave Winchester an excellent character, and bore a frank testimony to his final constancy in the doctrine which he had preached.
Of Mr. Winchester it may be said what can be asserted of few men so much exposed to obloquy, that his moral character was never impeached, and his piety universally admitted. His practical confidence in God, his uniform cheerful serenity, and his unconquerable benevolence and charity, form a halo of glory around him, which will pre- serve his very imperfections from willing censure.
[The foregoing facts from the life of Winchester, have been extracted from the Universalist Magazine, of May, 1825.]
COL. JOSEPH WARD.
[ See Page 435.]
COL. WARD was born in Newton, on the 2d of July, 1737. He was the son of Dea. Joseph and Experience (Stone) Ward, grandson of Joseph and Esther (Kenrick) Ward, great-grandson of John and Hannah (Jackson) Ward, all of Newton ; and great-great-grandson of William Ward, who came from England and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, as early as 1639.
He received the usual education of that day, and worked on his father's farm, (who was a blacksmith as well as a farmer,) until he was twenty years old. He then became an assistant teacher in a private grammar school, kept by his neighbor, Abraham Fuller, (afterward Judge Fuller,) where he studied the higher branches of education; and
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COL. JOSEPH WARD.
continued in the occupation of a schoolmaster until the battles of Lexington and Concord, teaching in Newton, Newcastle, Needham, Arundel, Wells, Chelsea, Marble- head, Portsmouth, N. H., and Boston .*
For ten years or more, prior to the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he was in the constant practice of writing for the newspapers, on Education and other sub- jects ; but the course the mother country was pursuing towards her colonies in America, was, above all others, the subject which aroused his mind to its highest efforts, to in- fluence his fellow countrymen to throw off their allegiance to the Crown of England. He was an early, able, and ardent son of liberty ; to this end he commenced his essays in the public newspapers, many years before the war, and followed them up without intermission, until the breaking out of the Revolution, and occasionally during the war, and long after. They were addressed to the King -the Min- istry - Parliament - the people of England - the patriots of Great Britain and Ireland, &c., but mostly to his own countrymen. A few short extracts from his volumnious essays, will be hereinafter inserted, as a specimen of his touching appeals to rouse his countrymen to do their duty.
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