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 9
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This list of Mitchell's appears to be formal and minute, and yet there are omissions. Edward Jackson was a mem- ber, so says the records of the Boston first Church; and Richard Park was a member. He sent a petition to the General Court, in 1661, praying to retain his membership in the Cambridge Church ; the same year a petition from the inhabitants of the Village was pending, praying to be set off from Cambridge Church.
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
It is probable that John Jackson, Samuel Hyde, and James Prentice, were members of Cambridge Church.
The Rev. Mr. Eliot died October 13, 1668, about four years and two months after his ordination.
As the erection of a new Meeting-house and a new Parish, their release from supporting the Cambridge minis- try, and the ordination of Eliot, were events full of promise for the Village, so his early death, we may be sure, was considered a great calamity. More than six years elapsed before a successor was ordained; in the meantime, divis- ions sprang up among them, as appears from the County Court Records, volume three. The following letter was sent by the Court to Elder Wiswall :
" These, for Thomas Wiswall, Ruling Elder, to be com- municated to the Church of Christ, on the south side Charles river, within the bounds of Cambridge.
" Beloved Brethren : We find a law made 30th May, 1660, empowering the County Court to use the best endea- vor, for the procuring and settling a pious and faithful Minister, in every place within their respective precincts, and understanding (to our great grief) that there are divis- ions among you, about calling and settling a Minister, which thing is scandalous to our profession, and a hindrance to our edification, we, therefore, think it our duty to signify unto you our earnest desires and prayers, for your union and agreement, entreating you to put on the spirit of meek- ness, humility, and self-denial, and to submit one to another, in the fear of God, and either to agree this matter among yourselves, or attend such other means as God hath ap- pointed in such cases, for the issue thereof, and acquaint us therewith, at the adjournment of the Court at Charlestown, the 29th inst., April, otherwise we shall take ourselves in duty bound, to use such other means, according to God, as may be expedient for a farther inquiry into your case, and
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TRANSIENT PREACHERS.
for the healing the breaches in your Zion. So, with love to you, we remain your loving brethren, in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel.
" From the County Court at Cambridge, April 5, 1670."
ELDER WISWALL'S REPLY.
"Cambridge Village, 18, (4,) 1670.
"To the Honored Court now sitting at Charlestown :
" May it please you, yours of April 5th, 1670, I received, and, after serious perusal and consideration, did communi- cate it unto the Church; but with grief and shame may we say, we had no comfortable return to make; but so it came to pass, that the 19th of April we gave the former Council the trouble to come again, who, having heard both sides, did confirm your former Council, and yet it will not obtain. But may please you, the next 4th day, if the Lord will, I intend to move the Church again, and in the meantime rest,
Your humble servant,
THOMAS WISWALL."
It appears that those Ministers who had supplied the pul- pit, between the death of Eliot and the preaching of Hobart, sued the inhabitants of the Village for their pay, and a trial was had before the County Court, in 1671.
On a full hearing of both parties, "The Court ordered that payment be made to those Ministers that had labored among them, indifferently, to one as well as to another, (all animosity among themselves notwithstanding,) according as the Selectmen of the Town had formerly advised in the case."- [ County Court Records, 3. 6.]
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
On the 23d of December, 1674, the Rev. Nehemiah Ho- bart, the fifth son of Rev. Peter Hobart, of Hingham, was 44 ordained Pastor of the Church at Cambridge Village. A receipt of Mr. Hobart, dated 1689, signed by his own hand, shows that he began to supply the pulpit about two years and a half before he was settled, during which time he succeeded in healing the dissensions, and restoring harmony. Hence he was called, the "repairer of breaches." He was born at Hingham, Nov. 21, 1648, graduated at Har- vard College, 1667, married Sarah, the daughter of Edward Jackson, Sen., by his last wife, (widow Elizabeth Oliver,) March 21, 1678; same year, he built a dwelling house in the Village, (on the same spot where the Pelham house now stands,) which was occupied by his successor, Rev. John Cotton, and burnt in 1720.
Hobart's monument states that he preached in the town forty years; the Church records being lost, but few incidents can be gleaned from other sources.
The following extracts are from the Town records. Soon after the settlement of Hobart, the Meeting-house was en- larged,-so states the secession petition, dated 1678,-and "January 30, 1681, the Town voted to make a rate for repairing the glass about the Meeting-house, and to pay John Fuller, Sen. what he had laid out for the raising of the new end of the Meeting-house.
" Also, that no Barley should be brought in to Mr. Hobart for his rate, after the 16th February."
1681. Edward Jackson, Sen., died, leaving a Will, re- corded in the eleventh volume of Middlesex Wills, and bequeathing to Cambridge Village about thirty-one and a half acres of land, which he says, " shall be for the use of the Ministry in this Village forever." This land was situ- ated at the southerly part of the town, near the "Great meadows."
123
SECOND MINISTER, NEHEMIAH HOBART.
The following is copied from Judge Fuller's plan, of 1765.
Ebenezer Parker.
6
Doubtful.
2.40
0.2.34
3 240
Abraham Jackson.
20 chains.
16.24
S.
Contents, 31. 1. 34.
Joseph Bartlett.
14.50
Moses Whitney.
Aspinwall.
At a Town meeting, May 12, 1766, a committee of the Town reported an agreement with the owners of the adjoin- ing lands, relative to the fence,- that the Town was to erect thirty-eight rods new fence on the northerly side; and the adjoining owners promised for themselves, their heirs and
7.40
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
assigns, to maintain all the other fences forever, provided it be kept for a wood lot. Signed by
JOSHUA FULLER, - WILLIAM CLARK, Committee. NOAH WISWALL,
November, 1685. " Voted, that there should be added to Mr. Hobart's maintenance, yearly, five pounds, which being added to the former sixty-five pounds, makes his whole salary seventy pounds, and that one-third part of the sev- enty pounds should be paid in money, without abatement." * It is probable that Mr. Hobart was imperfectly paid what the Town voted, either in money or merchandise, as will be seen from two of his receipts, viz :
"1689. Whereas, I, Nehemiah Hobart, have for seven- teen years last past labored in the ministry, att Cambridge Village, have from time to time, by their voates, covenanted to raise for mee, yearly, such sums as might be for my main- tenance, I do by these presents, acknowlidge, and accept of all, and several the said sums, and doe hereby, for myself and hairs, acquitt all and severall the said inhabitants, and all such as have ingaged to collect the said sums, them and their heirs, from all dues, debts and demands, from the beginning of my ministry amongst them, unto the first day of June, 1689.
In witness whereof, I have sett to my hand,
NEHEMIAH HOBART."
"June 1, 1693. I doe hereby acknowledge, that I have received of the inhabitants of New Town, the sum of sixty four pounds, for my maintenance the year past, and the- remaining six pounds, due to me for the said yeare, I freely remitt, leaving the same to be collected by the Selectmen,
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SECOND MEETING HOUSE.
and by them laid out for the benefit of said town, according to a regular voate of the inhabitants, when they shall be convened in a Town meeting, orderly warned.
Witness my hand,
NEHEMIAH HOBART."
February 23, 1690. Town meeting. "Mr. Hobart sent in an account of £23, 18s. 3d. due him, by the Deacons who declared for him, that if the Town would pay him £10, he would give in the residue to help bear the public charges, which were great and heavy, and which was accepted by the Town."
1696. " Voted, that a new Meeting-house be built and placed near the old one, and Capt. Prentice, John Fuller, Sen., Capt. Williams, John Ward, Sen., Jonathan Hyde, Sen., John Spring and Nathaniel Healy, were chosen build- ing committee.
1697. "Voted, that John Brewer, of Sudbury, be em- ployed as master workman, to build the new Meeting-house. Voted £200, for carrying on the work; chose John Spring, Jeremiah Fuller, Nathaniel Healy, and John Hyde, to oversee and give directions for getting the timber, so that every quarter of the town may get a part of the timber, if they please.
" Voted, that seats for the boys be made from the west door to the north-west corner of the house. Voted, that the vacant room on the east and north side of the house, to the pulpit, is granted for the setting up of pews for women and children, but they shall not be sold to a stranger !"
This second Meeting-house was voted to be built in March, 1696; commenced in the Spring of 1697, and com- pleted in the early part of 1698. It stood on the westerly side of the Dedham road, opposite the burial place, very
11*
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
near the spot now occupied by the house of Gardner Colby, and once owned and occupied by John Spring, who, it is probable, gave the land to the Town for that purpose .* " It was voted, that the building committee should seat the Meeting-house, and that age and gifts should be the rule the committee should go by."
In a Deed, given by Abraham Jackson to his son John, in 1717,f it appears that the first Meeting-house was then standing ; for what purpose it was then used, is not known ; it may have been used for a Town house, school house, or for military purposes, as the training-field was there.
1703. " Voted, that ten pounds should be added to Mr. Hobart's salary, making it eighty pounds."
1705. . " Seven families, living near to West Roxbury and Dedham, viz: William Ward, Edward Ward, Philip White, Nathaniel Healy, Daniel Colburn, Benjamin Wilson and Elizabeth Bacon, complain of their great distance from the Meeting-house, and state that they worship, for the most part, in Roxbury, and ask to have the Meeting-house re- moved to a more central place."
1707. Thomas Oliver and Edward Jackson were or- dained Deacons, and publicly inducted into office. The one was son in law, and the other son of Edward Jackson, Senior.
August 25, 1712. Mr. Hobart died, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He commenced preaching in the town on the 1st of June, 1672, and continued to do so forty years and nearly two months.
1713. Nathaniel Healy, William Ward, Philip White, Edward Ward, Daniel Colburn and Elizabeth Bacon, peti- tioned the General Court to divide the Town into two pre-
* After the removal of the Meeting-house, the Town re-conveyed the land to John Spring.
t See conveyances, page 33.
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THIRD MINISTER, JOHN COTTON.
cincts, for the worship of God, for the reason stated by the petitioners, that they were four and a half, and some five miles from the Meeting-house.
The answer to this petition was, "that the Court saw no cause to divide the Town, or to remove the Meeting-house, and advised the Town to allow the petitioners to worship in Roxbury ; and directed the inhabitants peaceably to settle a learned Orthodox Minister, of good conversation, among them, as the law directs."
(Signed,) ISAAC ADDINGTON, Secretary.
March 22, 1714. "At a Town meeting regularly assem- bled, for the choice of a gospel Minister within the nomina- tion, viz : Edward Flint, Edward Holyoke, Jonathan Tufts, Ebenezer Williams and John Cotton."
"John Cotton was chosen, by a clear vote, to be their Minister. Voted, his salary to be eighty pounds, and one hundred pounds for his encouragement. Deacon Edward Jackson, John Staples, Ensign John Kenrick, Captain Jo- seph Fuller, and Abraham Jackson, were chosen a commit- tee to treat with Mr. Cotton, in order to a settlement." In consequence of the dissatisfaction about the standing of the Meeting-house, a committee was chosen to petition the Gen- eral Court to send a committee to hear their differences, as to the place of public worship. Also, to employ Lieutenant Joseph Burnap, or some other person, to survey and find out the centre of the town."
May 10, 1714. "Voted, to give fifty pounds more, for Mr. Cotton's encouragement to settle amongst us, as our Pastor, besides the one hundred pounds before voted. Also, voted, to add to his salary, at any time, and from time to time, such further supplies as he shall stand in need of, for his honorable support."
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
September 28, 1714. " Chose Deacon Edward Jackson, Abraham Jackson, Lieutenant Jeremiah Fuller, Captain Thomas Prentice, Samuel Hyde, Nathaniel Parker, Eleazer Ward, Samuel Truesdale, John Greenwood, John Spring, and Richard Ward, a committee to provide for the ordina- tion of Mr. Cotton. Also, a committee to find a spot for a new Meeting-house, and convenient ways to get to it."
November 3, 1714. John Cotton, who graduated at Harvard College in 1710, was ordained as the third Minis- ter of the town, and successor of the Rev. Nehemiah Hobart. He was the son of the Rev. Roland Cotton, of Sandwich, the grandson of the Rev. John Cotton, of Ply- mouth, and great-grandson of the Rev. and celebrated John Cotton, one of the first Ministers of Boston.
1714. The committee appointed to ascertain a suitable and central spot for a new Meeting-house, reported two places, one forty rods south of the Centre, and one twenty- seven rods north-east of the Centre, which report was accepted.
March, 1715. "Voted, that the Town do freely and absolutely refer themselves to the Honorable General Court, to fix upon a place to erect a Meeting-house, for the use of the whole Town; and that they will sit down satisfied with what the Honorable Court shall do and confirm, and that the Town will erect a Meeting-house on said place, within five years, and the Selectmen be a committee to peti- tion the General Court to that effect."
June 9, 1715. The Court's Committee viewed the pro- posed spot, on Nath'l Parker's land, "which, in their opinion, was the most suitable spot for accommodating the greatest number of the inhabitants. It being about twenty-eight rods south, south-east, near a quarter of a point east from the centre of the town, according to Joseph Burnap's survey.
JOHN OTIS, Chairman."
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129
THIRD MINISTER, JOHN COTTON.
This report was accepted by the Court, who further or- dered that the Meeting-house remain where it now is, for the space of five years, and then a new Meeting-house be erected, in such place, near the centre of the town, as shall be agreed upon. '
April, 1716. The committee to find a spot for a Meet- ing-house, report, " that considering the unhappy circum- stances they labor under, by reason of the overgrowing contentions there has been in the town, about the place or places for the public worship of God in said town, and there being little or no prospect of its being otherwise, with- out a spirit of condescension and self-denial, &c.
" Voted, to purchase 1. 2. 20, of Nathaniel Parker's land, to set a Meeting-house upon.
"Voted, to erect and finish a Meeting-house, for the public worship of God, in the town, within the term of four years next ensuing, at the proper cost and charge of the whole town, to be set upon the land now staked out in the field of said Parker. This vote to be laid before the General Court."
The Selectmen then reported, "that they had actually laid out and opened a highway, two rods wide, for the northerly part of the town, to the proposed spot for the Meeting house, beginning at the Mill lane, near the head of the Mill pond."
March, 1717. " Voted, to build a new Meeting-house, fifty-seven feet by forty-five. Voted £200 for the work, and chose John Spring, Samuel Truesdale, and Captain Thomas Prentice, a committee to procure boards, shingles, clapboards, and long timber, such as cannot be had in the town."
1718. Jeremiah Fuller and Ebenezer Littlefield were added to the building committee, and, "voted a rate of £200 towards the new Meeting-house."
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
March, 1719. " Chose Ebenezer Stone, Jeremiah Ful- ler, Lieutenant John Greenwood, Ensign Samuel Hyde, and Joseph Ward, building committee for the new Meeting- house."
1720. "Voted, a rate of £200 towards carrying on the work of the new Meeting-house."
March 24, 1720. "Rev. Mr. Cotton's dwelling house was burnt." *
March, 1721. "Voted, that the £200 rate, granted to build the Meeting-house, be sunk, and not collected ; and in lieu thereof, make use of the bills of credit, granted by the General Court, to the several towns in the Province." t
" Voted, to build pews in the new Meeting-house, and seats for the boys by the side of the house; to have the windows glazed with diamond glass, and to sell the old Meeting-house."
March, 1722. " Chose a committee to seat the new Meeting-house, according to the peoples' rates and age."
1722. The six families which the General Court allowed to worship and pay taxes to the south precinct, in Roxbury, sent a memorial to the Court, complaining that Newton had taxed them for the support of the ministry in Newton, and sued and imprisoned some of them for non-payment.
December, 1722. Newton petitioned the Court to have those six families come back to Newton, as a new Meeting- house was then erected much nearer to them.
Ripley's History of Waltham states, that a committee of that town were authorized to purchase Newton old Meeting- house, at not exceeding eighty pounds, and to have it in the
* Hyde's MS.
t "BILLS OF CREDIT. - Owing to the total failure of the Canada Expedition, in 1690, the Colony issued £50,000 of Bills of Credit, bearing five per cent. interest, to defray the expenses of that disastrous expedition. These were the first of that species of paper money, which was multiplied to such a ruinous extent at subse- quent periods.
THIRD MINISTER, JOHN COTTON. 131
course of the month of October, 1721; and that it was purchased and removed to Waltham about that time.
March, 1727. The Selectmen were chosen to regulate the sitting in the Meeting-house.
March, 1730. The Selectmen staked out land on the hill, near Clark's farm, for the relief of sundry inhabitants on Sabbath days, twenty-eight feet square, for a noon house.
1734. Captain Edward Durant asked leave to build a pew in the Meeting-house, and was refused! He was a very wealthy man, from Boston, and owned three slaves,- paid eighteen hundred pounds for his farm. Verily, times have altered since that day.
1738. Chose a committee to seat the Meeting-house, and instructed the committee to " give men their dignity in their sitting, in proportion to the Minister's rate they pay, allowing one poll to a rate, making such an allowance for age as they shall think proper, except where there are tenants, and in those cases, to act the best of their judgment."
1744. Chose a committee to seat the Meeting-house according to dignity and taxes.
Rev. George Whitefield preached in Newton, in Novem- ber, 1740, to a crowded audience. In September, 1740, he preached at Newbury, in the highway, where a stone was thrown at him, which nearly struck the Bible from his hands. To this assault, he replied, "I have a warrant from God to preach ; my seal (holding up the Bible) is in my hand, and I stand in the King's highway." His religious tenets divi- ded the community ; almost every man was either an ardent advocate, or a decided opponent. The consequence of this state of things was division and contention in all the Churches, and many years elapsed before the storm became a calm."*
* Coffin's History of Newbury.
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132
EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
" Whatever may be thought of the peculiar opinions of Whitefield, certain it is that his eloquence as a preacher was unrivalled, and his zeal for the cause he taught, of the high- est character. The fruits of his ministration were great and striking." *
" Same year, he preached in Boston. The Meeting- houses not being large enough to hold his audiences, he preached on the Common, to five thousand persons, then to eight thousand, and his farewell sermon to twenty-three thousand persons. It is almost needless to observe that opinions were various concerning the benefit achieved by his visit." t
Among his converts in Newton, was Jonathan Hyde, a great-grandson of Samuel Hyde, Sen .; and Nathan Ward, a grandson of John Ward, Sen. Both became ordained preachers and followers of Whitefield. Hyde gathered a Church in Brookline, and Ward in Newton. They were called "New Lights," a name given them by their oppo- nents, in derision. They encountered much ridicule and opposition. Hyde was warned out of town by the authori- ties of Brookline, and Ward was taxed by the authorities of Newton, although the law exempted all ordained clergy- men from taxation.
Ward remonstrated against this unlawful treatment, and sent the following memorial to the freeholders of Newton, in public Town meeting, assembled March 3d, 1755.
" Gentlemen : - It hath pleased a sovereign and all wise God, who is wont to choose the weak things of the world to confound the wise, as I humbly trust and believe, to call . me who are less than the least of all saints, to preach His Gospel, and also to take the pastoral care of a Church in
* Caleb Cushing's History of Newburyport.
t Snow's History of Boston.
133
THIRD MINISTER, JOHN COTTON.
this town, who, some few years past, embodied into a Church for the carrying on the worship of God, agreeable to His word and their own consciences, and I have been, as some of you are eye witnesses, ordained, solemnly set apart to the work of the Gospel ministry, by prayer and the laying on of hands. And now, gentlemen, you well know that it ever hath been the case, that those that have been ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry, ever have been freed from all taxes or rates, and indeed they are so, both by the Divine and civil law ; but yet, notwithstand- ing my calling as a Minister of God's word and ordinances, the Assessors of this town have been pleased, since the time of my ordination, both to rate my person and assess my estate, which I apprehend is not their duty to do, nor indeed mine to pay. And now, gentlemen, as it is in your power to grant me freedom in this matter, my humble petition and request unto you, at this time, is, that you would free me, together with my estate under my particular improvement, from being rated or assessed, so long as I shall act in this public character, that I may enjoy the like privileges of this nature, as do other ordained Ministers; and in so doing, you will oblige
Your most humble servant,
NATHAN WARD."
1749. Noah Parker and Jonathan Willard presented a certificate of their having joined the Baptist Church, in Boston.
1753. Noah Wiswall, John Hammond and Thomas Parker, having joined the Baptists, and paid ministerial taxes elsewhere, request to be excused from paying minis- terial taxes in Newton, whereupon it was voted that "they shall not be excused."
May 17, 1757. Rev. John Cotton died, in the sixty-
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134
EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
fourth year of his age, and the forty-third of his ministry, having preached in Newton forty-two years, six months, and fourteen days.
April, 1740. Deacon John Staples, by his Will, (volume twenty-two,) did "give and bequeath to the Church of Christ, in Newton, seventeen acres of land for and towards the support of the ministerial fire, from year to year, annually, &c., being part of the land he purchased of William Robinson." Also, " to the poor of Newton, £25 in public bills of credit, to be paid out of his estate, to the Selectmen, for the use of said poor." Also, "a silver tankard to the Church," still used for the communion ser- vice, with the fact of its gift engraved thereon.
1757. The Church having made choice of Jonas Meriam to be their Minister, a Town meeting was held, December 9th, to concur with the Church. The Town voted to concur, and £1000 old tenor for his settlement, and £80 yearly salary, and fire-wood from the ministerial wood lot. Mr. Meriam's reply to the call was as follows :
" Cambridge, January 21, 1758.
" Dearly beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ :
" Having received your invitation of me, to settle in the work of the Gospel ministry among you, and having had your proposals to me, for my settlement and support, laid before me, by a committee chosen and appointed by you for that purpose, I desire to testify a sense of gratitude to God, who has rendered my labors acceptable, and also to you, whom His providence has disposed to make choice of me for the business aforesaid.
" And as it is undoubtedly expected that I should return an answer to your invitation, this is, therefore, by way of reply, to inform you, that after taking the affair into the most deliberate consideration, asking the direction of Him who gives wisdom that is profitable to direct, and taking the
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