USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Bellingham > History of the town of Bellingham, Massachusetts, 1719-1919 > Part 7
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TOWN AFFAIRS 1719-1747
care of the youth in this town to prevent them from pro- phaning the Sabbath."
This year forty-eight families were taxed, and just half of the men named were signers of the petition seven years before:
Signers
Others
Richard Blood
Eliphalet Holbrook Jacob Bartlett
Francis Inman
Thomas Burch John
Banfield Capron Nathaniel Jillson
Nicholas Cook Joseph
Josiah Cook
Eleazer Partridge
Nicholas Cook jr
Peter
66 Daniel Corbett
John Rockwood
John Corbett
John Marsh
Jonathan Cutler
Joseph Scott
Cornelius Darling Pelatiah Smith
David Daniels
Silvanus "
Capt John Darling Ebenezer Thayer
Cornelius Darling
Robert Staples
Samuel Darling
Isaac Thayer Ebenezer Thompson Ebenezer
David
Samuel
Zuriel Hall
Thomas
Jonathan Hayward John
Richard 66
Benjamin Thompson
Oliver Hayward John jr
66
Henry Hill
Ebenezer
William Hayward Joseph
Edward Hunt
Jonathan
In 1727 the town of Wrentham proposed to run its western boundary line a little northwest instead of north, taking away three hundred acres from our town. The line had been fixed in 1661 and had caused many disputes. In 1730 Bellingham voted to petition the General Court for aid if it lost so many inhabitants. The line was finally left running north. A part of Mendon east of Mill River proposed to join this town at this time, but for some un- known reason it was not wanted.
In 1737 is this entertaining vote: "to see what ye town will do about hogs whether they will let them run at larg or shet them up and also to see what the town will do about the rats which are in the hand of Joseph Thomp- son constable which he cant get. Voted that they be sunk." The clerk disposed of the "rats" but forgot the hogs.
February 6, 1739 three of the five selectmen issued the warrant for the annual town meeting, "on Wed Mar 7 at 9 A M to choose Town officers to serve the King & the
92
HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
Town, and to see if the said Town will shut up their Hogs or Let them run at Large being Yoaked & Ringed as the law Directs, and make return" etc. John Metcalf, town clerk, certified that this meeting was held, and that John Corbet was chosen moderator, and John Holbrook, Samuel Darling, Daniel Corbet, Joseph Corbet and John Corbet, selectmen.
The next April a petition against this meeting went to the General Court, which declared that the said three selectmen signed the warrant without the other two, and "with 8 or 9 others entered on the business of the annual meeting without regulating it according to the good laws of this Province, as was there and then urged on them." About twenty men remonstrated and requested the select- men to annul the elections made "through Just Resent- ment of the Imposition on them, the like to which we have too often borne with too much Patience on such occa- sions .- We do now petition you for the redress of our insufferable Grieviance aforementioned, the like to which we have suffered from Time to Time by our former fre- quent disordered Town Meetings."
Richard Aldrich
Jonathan Draper
Silvanus Scott Q
Jacob Bartlet
Q Ebenezer Hayward B Jonathan Scott James Smith
Joseph Bartlet
Q Elczer Hayward
Ichabod Bozworth
Oliver Hayward Samuel Hayward Thomas Higgins
Robert Smith
Banfield Capron
John Chilson
Walsingham Chilson
Eliphalet Holbrook Francis Inman
B John Thomson B
Caleb Collum
Jonathan Thomson
B
David Cook
B Uriah Jillson
Q Peter Thomson
B
Josiah Cook
B Joseph Partridge Q Elnathan Wight B
Nicholas Cook
B Joseph Scott
B Joseph Wightjr
B
Richard Darling
B Daniel Thayer Isaac Thayer
The letters B and Q designate those known to be Baptists and Quakers.
"Deposition of Robert Smith, Ebenezer Hayward and Samuel Hayward, June 4, 1739.
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TOWN AFFAIRS 1719-1747
Being att our Meeting House in Bellingham on ye first Wednesday in March last att ye usual time of day for our Annuall Meeting and when we came thereupon or aboute, ten or eleven of the town had chosen the Chiefe Officers and we with about 18 more desired the Moderator to Resede from what they had done and begin their meet- ing anew or appoint another, for their assembling them- selves aboute three hours sooner than ever we knew them to do on Said Day. And a grate number of the town was never warned to attend, as they then declared to the Moderator and Selectmen, which they made Lighte of and with a seeming Laftuer told us we might Do as we pleased whereupon we tolde them that we shoulde make our application whare we Doubted not but yt we shoulde be heerde and so withdrew from them."
Answer of the three selectmen and the town clerk to the petition of Oliver Hayward, Joseph Scott and others complaining of the manner of calling the town meeting and its proceedings. The three selectmen called the meeting because the other two live far remote and take no manner of care whether a warrant issues or not, so that three are accustomed to do it. "This warrant was Red in a public Town Meeting by a constable a month before March 7." It was voted in 1720 to meet the first Wednesday in March, and it has always been done since then. This meeting began an hour and a half later than the set time.
Of the petitioners only twenty-four are voters, and most of them claim exemption from ministerial taxes. "Scarce three of them have been three times to meeting in our Public Meeting house for a Twelve months Past on lords daies, Oliver Hayward in particular. That these Malecontents Will & do Invade the Rights & Privilidges of those that are qualified to vote in ministerial affairs,
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HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
witness the last year when they sunk many Pounds min- isterial money regularly Granted & leveyed Taking advan- tage of one of themselves moderator of Town meeting and another of them Town clerk (Eliphalet Holbrook) from whom a copy of such proceedure can not be obtained tho requested with the Tender of Reasonable Fees. So that their complaints are only taking the advantage of their own Rong."
We therefore pray you to dismiss the Petition.
"Notes. Joseph Scott one of the Two Selectmen who neglected Issuing the warrant for the March meeting & one of the above petitioners (as the other three Select- men are credably informed) having obtained the Procla- mation for the last General Fast of this Province kept & concealed it from those that meet at the usual place of Public Meeting in sd Town & from ye minister that their preached, & made games or mock at it, That he and many others of the sd Petitioners, as usual followed their Servile Labours, as before on such Daies in Derison & comtempt of Athority.
John Holbrook, Samuel Darling, John Corbet, Selectmen, and John Corbet, Moderator."
This answer was successful, for the General Court dismissed the petition in June, 1739.
The Assessors' list of qualified voters March 5, 1739, contained just fifty names.
Richard Aldrich
Cornelius Darling jr
John Holbrook
Joshua Andrews
John Darling
Joseph Holbrook
Jacob Bartlet
Richard Darling
Peter Holbrook
Jacob Bartlet jr
Samuel Darling
Thomas Higgins
Daniel Corbit
Jonathan Draper
Francis Inman
Eleazer Hayward
Nathl Jilson
John Corbet David Cook
Oliver Hayward
Nathl Jilson jr
Josiah Cook
Samuel Hayward
Uriah Jilson
Nicholas Cook
Seth Hall
Caleb Mackallum
Banfield Capron
Zuriel Hall
John Metcalf
Ebenezer Darling
Eliphalet Holbrook
Joseph Partridge
ยท
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TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747
Caleb Phillips
Ebenr Thomson
Caleb Phillips jr
John Thomson jr Jonathan Thomson
Joseph Scott Salvenus Scott
Joseph Thomson
James Smith
Peter Thomson
Robert Smith
Daniel Thayer
Ebenr Thayer Isaac Thayer jr Jonathan Thayer jr
Joseph Wight
Elnathan Wight
The object for which the town uses the most money in these days did not appear at all in the records of the first eighteen years. In 1737 it was first voted to have a free school, to be kept for six months in all at five different houses: two months with Ebenezer Hayward at North Bellingham, one with Jonathan Thompson, near Crimp- ville, three weeks with Joseph Scott on Scott Hill, one month with Samuel Darling near Bald Hill and the Wrentham line, and five weeks with Nathaniel Jillson in what is now Woonsocket, near Border Grange Hall. Eighty pounds was voted for the town church and forty pounds for all other expenses this year. The first school seems to have been no great success, for it was voted down the next two years, renewed in 1740, and omitted the next three years, but supported after that.
In 1739 it was voted to move the meeting house fur- ther north to some spot near Charles River within three years, provided the General Court added to Bellingham apparently that part of Mendon which had been refused in 1730.
In 1742 on May 8, thirteen Mendon men agreed to join in a petition to the General Court to be set off to Bellingham if the people of that town would move their meeting house "to the north side of Second Bridge River (Charles) upon the Knowl by the Road which Leeds from the said meeting house to the Country Road (Hartford Turnpike) by the house of John Marsh." As Bellingham had already voted to do this in 1739, and repeated the vote this year, this rather clumsy petition was drawn up
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HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
May 26 and signed by John Holbrook, Joseph Holbrook and John Corbet of Bellingham for that town, and by nine men of Mendon:
"Humbly Sheweth That since the first Incorporating of the Town of Bellingham into a Township whereby they became Liable & Obliged by the Laws of the Province to Settle & Support a Gospel Ministry as by law prescribed, A very great number of the Inhabitants being of Opinion (in matters relating to the Settlement & Support of Ministers different from the Methods prescribed in the Law & fixed by the Acts of this Hon Ble Court, from all Rates or Taxes relating to such Settlement & Support) there are now very little more than Thirty families in Said Town, on whom the charge of the Settling & main- tenance of a Minister can by Law be fixed, which most be An heavy charge on So Small a Number, may it please Your Excellency & Honrs they are willing as far as Able to forward the Settlemt of the Gospel & Ordinances but Labour under great discouragements through their Weak- ness and Inability to go through the necessary charge thereof . .. And May It please this Honble Court Some Inhabitants of the Town of Mendon hereunto Subscrib- ers . . , who are situated partly on a Gore of Land lying between the northerly end of Bellingham & the easterly Precinct of Mendon and part on the westerly side of Belling- ham . . . are Desirous to be Incorporated with Said Town of Bellingham, and to join with them in Settling & supporting a Learned & Orthodox Ministry."
This petition reached the Court June 8, and the answer of Mendon came in September. First, there is no Gore, for the east precinct of Mendon, which became Milford in 1780, bounds on Bellingham, Hopkinton and Holliston. Second, "The Town of Mendon was clipd many years agoe to favour the Town of Bellingham."
97
TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747
when just incorporated. Then Uxbridge was set off, then Upton, and last year the east precinct was incor- porated, which has already called a minister, though no church is yet built, and no part of its strength can be spared. Third, the west precinct is the First Church of Mendon, now weakened by losing the new east precinct and by the Anabaptists and Quakers, exempt from min- isterial support, who own a quarter of the property there. Fourth, the land asked for is near three thousand acres, and has about twenty-four families, many of whom are unwilling. Fifth, the change would be likely to require the removal of our meeting house, lately built. This answer was approved, and the petition was denied.
In this same year of discouragement the town voted to support no minister and no school. Next year the school was to be kept in four places and cost thirty pounds, and preaching was to receive only voluntary contribu- tions.
About 1740 the town lost the south part of its terri- tory, as much as paid a third of all its taxes, John Metcalf wrote forty-five years later. This was the result that had been feared for a long time. As long ago as in 1707 armed men in Mendon seized two citizens of Providence and took them to Boston as intruders who claimed "half of Mendon's land." They were released, and after much negotiation and many postponements two committees of the two colonies met at Wrentham in 1719 and spent two days in running the south line of Massachusetts. The matter seemed to be settled in the same year that our town was formed, but it was not. John Metcalf wrote that the people in the south part of our town found that their Rhode Island neighbors paid only half as much in taxes as they, and sent a petition to the Rhode Island legislature to join them to that colony. Massachusetts
98
HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
declined the Rhode Island offer to accomplish this change, and so the Rhode Island men ran a line of their own. The Massachusetts authorities refused to reduce the tax levied on this town in proportion to this loss for ten years, hoping to have it finally annulled, but they did accept a propor- tional part of the tax each year and excused the rest. Rhode Island declared that the corner stake set up by Massachusetts in 1642 and agreed to by Connecticut and Rhode Island was over four miles too far south, and deprived Rhode Island of a strip of land of that width and twenty-two miles long The oldest charters made Massachusetts reach three miles south of Charles River, a distance which the Rhode Island men seemed to measure from Populatic Pond instead of the southern point of the river in Bellingham. A Rhode Island map of 1750 shows the south line of Bellingham about four miles north of where it is now, and such a change as that, from its pre- vious extent to the Blackstone River, including what is now East Woonsocket, might easily take away a third of the Bellingham taxes. This loss on the south of that line was in part only temporary, but there was another smaller loss on the east about the same time, in the town of Cumberland.
The east line of Rhode Island was run exactly north from Pawtucket Falls to the Massachusetts line in 1747 by the order of the King of England, taking away from Massachusetts, Cumberland and other towns with forty- eight hundred people. Our town had to suffer a long time from this confusion and uncertainty of boundary lines, besides its own internal weakness from the unlucky division in religious matters. Although the town is now eight miles long, a proposed petition to the General Court as late as 1773, called its length only five or six miles.
In 1744 it was voted to form seven school districts to
99
TOWN AFFAIRS, 1719-1747
include the fifty families, eight to send to Samuel Hay- ward's house, eight to John Holbrook's, five to Isaac Thayer's, seven to Joseph Wight's, six to Jonathan Thayer's, nine to Widow Scott's, and seven to Samuel Darling's. The assessors divided the money appropri- ated among the districts, and this plan was followed for more than twenty-five years, though not every district had a school every year. In 1772 the fourth and fifth districts were united "for the furter." The first school house was not built till 1790.
This first chapter of the town's history ends with 1747, when the West Parish of Medway was incorporated to include the families of North Bellingham and Caryville, and there was no longer an established town church. The Baptist Church took its place so completely in men's minds that seventy-seven years later the Supreme Court of the State had to decide after a long trial that it did not actually own the town house.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BAPTIST CHURCH 1736-1819
SOME of the citizens of Rehoboth refused to support their town church as early as 1649, and in 1663 John Myles, a travelling preacher, commissioned by Cromwell and named for punishment at the Restoration of the King, came from Wales and started there the fourth Baptist Church in America. They were fined five pounds each and warned away; these men formed the new town of Swansea and the nearest Baptist Church to our town, where eight Bellingham men were baptized by 1736.
In 1737, they with seven others, not all of Belling- ham, subscribed a church covenant at Mendon, and the next February, "at the house of one of them in Belling- ham," they chose Nicholas Cook a deacon and "a man to keep the church book and enter church notes." These fifteen men were:
Nicholas Cook
Eliphalet Holbrook
Jonathan Thompson
Benjamin Force
Joseph Partridge
Peter Thompson
Ebenezer Hayward
Edward Pickering
Samuel Thompson
Eleazer Hayward
Eleazer Taft
Elnathan Wight
Samuel Hayward
John Thompson
Joseph Wight
They formed the fourth Baptist Church in Massa- chusetts. For several years they had no meeting house and only occasional preaching, but their ideas were spreading all the time. In 1740 there were twenty-one Baptist Churches in New England, eleven of them in Rhode Island. The first record in the Bellingham church
100
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THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819
book appears in 1742: "The Anabaptist Church pro- ceeded in order to chooes a man amongst us to call a church meeting and to order and to Rule as a head among us." Some one like a ruling elder would be needed where there was no settled pastor. They also chose "two Princibel men" to certify to the assessors the list of their members who would be exempt from taxes for the town church. In the same year the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston was present here and baptized five persons, and seven more the next year.
In 1744 one of their members, Elnathan Wight, gave the land for a church by the following deed:
"I Elnathan Wight of Bellingham in his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England Yeoman for Divers good Causes & Valuable Considerations, and for five Shillings paid by Jonathan Thompson, Eliphalet Holbrook and Joseph Wight all of Bellingham Yeomen, have granted unto them as Feoffees in Trust, land . . . near the road to the Second Bridge River, to the Public use, benefit and behoof of that Church or Society of Baptized Believers whereunto the said Elnathan Wight and the others do now stand related as members, for and so long a time as the said church shall hold to and walk in the faith which they now possess . . but in case they Apos- tatize and decline from the said Faith and Practice or in case of Annihilation, then the said land hereby Granted to Revert and Remain to the only proper use, benefit and behoof of the next & right heir of the said Elnathan Wight . Feb 22 1744."
The church was built thirty by thirty-five feet, with nineteen foot posts, and the raising took place March 20, 1744. Pews were built, but the building was never fully completed as planned. It was used for fifty years by the church, and often by the town for its meetings, during
102
HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
the last years of its existence. The site of this meeting house, at Crimpville, the second one built in this town, was marked with a boulder with an inscription in November, 1912, on the one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the signing of the covenant by the fifteen first members.
The little company still had years to wait for a settled minister, even after their house was built. One of their own number, Elnathan Wight, who had given the land for it, finally became their first pastor. At twenty- three years of age he had joined the new Baptist Church with his father. In 1745 he began to keep a diary, which he continued nearly ten years. This record shows that he had had thoughts of becoming a preacher long before. It was so common for uneducated men to preach in the small and poor Baptist churches of that time, that only two of their ministers were college graduates in 1755. Even with so many examples to the contrary, Mr. Wight considered a thorough education necessary, and with modest self-distrust and some discouragements, he studied more than three years with the minister of Southboro, Massachusetts. In 1749 when he wished to be licensed to preach, he was refused by the Congregational ministers who knew him, as he was a Baptist. They advised him to go to New Jersey to find ministers of his sect there, and he began that journey, but for some reason gave it up, and soon received his license from Congregational min- isters after all. They gave it finally because he did not consider that his views of baptism required him not to commune with them. In this view he differed from almost all the Baptists of his time. He was a liberal man, and the idea of close communion was distasteful to him.
Even after receiving his license, for a time he feared to begin to preach, but the ordeal was passed on March 4, 1750, "with his composure and satisfaction."
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THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819
"The Baptist Church Leagully Assembled together at the House of Peter Thomson in Bellingham and Put to Votes whether the Church will chooes two men to go and Discours with Mr Elnathan Wight for one month's preach- ing upon Liking or Approbation. Voted that Eliphalet Holbrook and Eliezer Hayward bee the two men and the said Holbrook and Hayward went to Mr Wight and Dis- courst with Mr Wight and Mr Wight Consented thereto."
The desired approbation was obtained, the church called him to be its pastor, and he accepted the call in August.
They adopted a very lengthy covenant in October, in part as follows. Some of the names signed were written long after 1750; twelve men and one woman signed then. "The Articles of Faith and Church Discipline, which we . . . do profess, . . . are contained in a Printed Declaration put forth by the Baptist Churches in Eng- land . .. and we do agree to be Governed by the Sacred Scriptures Principally, & by said Confession Subordin- ately. .
Moreover we have concluded . . to record the fol- lowing Church Covenant:
THE CHURCH COVENANT, as foloweth,
We whose names are hereafter written, Vizt some that it hath pleased GOD through the riches of his grace to call out of Darkness into his Marvellous Light, & to Reveal his Son in us, and having shewn unto us our Duty & privilege as believers, not only to Seperate from the World but also to Congregate & Embody ourselves into a Church State, . . . & being brought in some blessed measure into Oneness of Spirit, being baptized by One Spirit into One Body, and being agreed in the Great and Sublime Truths of the Gospel, We do therefore in the
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HISTORY OF BELLINGHAM
Name and fear of the Lord, Give up Ourselves unto the LORD, and to One Another by the Will of GOD, to Walk together as a Church of Christ in the fellowship of the Gospel, . . & as the Lord shall please to help us We will frequently Assemble Ourselves together as a Church of Christ, to attend upon Our Lord in the Service of his house, especially every LORD'S Day, ... And as We shall be under the conduct of JEHOVAH, We will keep the doors of GOD'S house or church open always to Believers in Christ, . . . And as Our God will help us, We will keep them always shut against visible Unbelievers and profli- gate persons, . . And now as a testimony of our belief and of Our holy resolution in the strength of Grace, to stand and Walk together in the fellowship of the Gospel,
We call not only Heaven and Earth to Witness, but . We also subscribe the same with Our hands
Names of the Brethren
Names of the Sisters Martha Wheelock
Elnathan Wight
Eliphelet Holbrook
Abigail Blood
Joseph Wight
Joanna Alden
Eleazar Taft
Martha Wight
Jonathan Thomson
Catherine Clark
Peter Thomson*
Elezer Hayward
Samuel Hayward*
Abigail Partridge
John Thomson* Aaron Thayer
Hanna Wheelock
Silas Wheelock
Aaron Perry
Jonathan Wheelock
Nathan Man
Josiah Partridge
Noah Alden Elder
Isaiah Blood
Elhanan Winchester junr
Lucy Alden Hannah Haven Betty Bixby
Ebenezer Hayward Samuel Darling: juner
Abigail Holbrook
Jemima Thomson
Ruth Alden
There were so few Baptist Churches in Massachu- setts that Mr. Wight tried to get a council of Congrega- tional churches to ordain him. Three different dates were set, and one of them was adjourned twice, but in vain. He would be glad to practice fellowship with them, but
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THE BAPTIST CHURCH, 1736-1819
they were unwilling. Adin Ballou says of his letter to the Milford church: "This invitation from an intelligent and exemplary Christian man, liberal for his times, was a puzzle to the church, but the ruling elders declined it." Finally he applied to his own denomination, and the Bap- tist Church of Brimfield and the Second of Boston sent delegates to a council at Bellingham in 1755. A memento of this memorable occasion is a printed sermon, entitled, "Ministers ambassadors for Christ. A Sermon preached at Bellingham Jan 15 1755 by Elnathan Wight, then ordained pastor of a church of Christ there. To which is added a summary confession of faith, agreed to by the church under his watch and care. Boston New England 1755." The introduction is: "In speaking to this doc- trine I shall observe the following method, I. I shall endeavour to shew that the true ministers of the gospel are ambassadors for Christ. II To shew some of the necessary qualifications of these ambassadors. III That they are sent forth by Christ to perswade sinners to be reconciled to God. IV To shew what means they should use to obtain the end for which they are sent, which is to gain souls to Christ, or to perswade sinners to be recon- ciled to God. V and lastly endeavour some suitable improvement (application) upon the whole."
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