USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > History of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with genealogical registers > Part 19
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barre, Penn., where he left posterity ; Ichabod removed to Lebanon, Ct., was a merchant, and father of Joseph, John, and Rev. William, who was b. at Lebanon, Aug. 15th, 1754, and died Aug. 15th, 1825, æt. 71, was minister of Southington, and m. Naomi Wolcott, who died April 16th, 1782, æt. 28 ; Faith, 1718, m. Gov. Jonathan Trumbull of Ct., Dec. 9th, 1735, and died at Lebanon, 1780, æt. 62, and he died Aug. 9th, 1785, æt. 75, and had ch'd, Joseph, who died 1778, æt. 42, and Gov. Jonathan, who was b. Mar. 26th, 1740, and died Aug. 7th, 1809, æt. 69 years. Mr. Trumbull became acquainted with her while on a visit to Duxbury on business.
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REV. JOHN ROBINSON. [1723.
of the daughter were recovered and interred at Duxbury, where a stone was erected with a suitable inscription. Those of the mother were found six weeks after by the natives, at Race Point, Cape Cod, and identified by papers preserved in her stays, and a golden necklace, which the swelling of her neck had concealed, and which is now in the possession of her descendants. A gold ring which she wore, was probably plundered by the natives, who had cut off her swelled finger to obtain it. She was buried at the Cape, where a monument marks her grave with an inscription by her husband, closing with this quotation from Psalms, -" Thus he bringeth them to their desired Haven." An elegy was written on her death, and addressed to her husband, by Rev. Mr. Pitcher of Scitu- ate, and which is more precious on account of its purity of sentiment, than for any intrinsic merit of the style. She is called, -
" One of the Gowned tribe and Family,
Of bright descent and Worthy Pedegree ; A charming daughter in our Israel, In ventuous acts and Deeds seen to excell : As Mother, Mistriss, Neighbour, Wife, most rare ; Should I exceed to say beyond compare ? Call her the Phoenix, yet you cannot lye, Whether it be in prose or poetry. For Meekness, Piety, and Patience ; Rare Modesty, Unwearied Diligence ; For Gracious Temper, Prudent Conduct too, How few of the fair sex could her outdo." *
1723. This year occurred the death of Dea. Wm. Brewster, on the 3d of November, aged nearly 78 years, having served in the office of Deacon for many years. He was a son of Love Brewster, and grandson of the Elder of Plymouth, - a worthy man, who was often employed to good advantage in the civil affairs of the town.
1731. Dr. Benony Delano was appointed (March 12th) to get the meeting-house repaired. And again, (Sept. Sth, ) Dr. Delano, Wm. Brewster and Thomas Loring were appointed for the same purpose.
1736. The town chose (Ang. 9th,) Nathaniel Sampson, Thomas Phillips, George Partridge, and Isaac Simmons, Jr., " to take care and order the children in town, and restrain them from any unbecoming carriage, making disturbance in
* Deane's Scituate.
---
187
REV. JOHN ROBINSON.
1737.]
meeting-time, or between the services." Mr. Robinson's sala- ry this year was £120.
1737. The unhappy circumstances, which finally led to the dismission of Mr. Robinson, arose for the most part from disputes in regard to the sufficiency of his salary. His stated allowance in the beginning, as appears from the town records, bearing date May 19th, 1701, was £60 a year, as long as he continued in the ministry, which was to be raised by selling the common lands of the town. The same year the town voted to purchase a convenient place for a parsonage for the use of the ministry ; and a committee, consisting of Mr. Ed- ward Arnold, Mr. Edward Southworth, and Ensign Samuel Seabury, were appointed to make the purchase. He had also considerable grants of land made to him at various times, to meet his continual demand for increase of salary, in order, as he expressed it, that he might live in the body .*
The first notice we can find concerning the difficulties that ensued, is in the town's books, when, at a meeting held 14th March, 1737, " the town chose Edward Arnold, Col. John Alden, Mr. Joshua Soule, Samuel Weston, and John Wads- worth a committee to treat with Mr. Robinson concerning the making up of his salary, about which there is an action de- pending at the next Superior court." This action, we believe, was never brought on. On the 2d of June, a meeting of the church was held, and " then ye Rev. Mr. Robinson their Pastor declared, that if ye town & church would give him a dismis- sion from his pastoral office from among them, that he would accept of it." On the 3d of August the town agreed " to ac- cept of ye above sd Mr. Robinson's above sd proposals." At this meeting there was much diversity of opinion, and a num- ber of the most influential townsmen entered a protest against the controversy. Samuel Alden, Joshua Soule, Philip Delano, Philip Chandler, John Wadsworth and Samuel Chandler were the signers of this remonstrance. They finally, after much contention, appointed a committee to try to make an agree-
* Rev. Benja. Kent's Notes. On one of these occasions, when he peti- tioned the town for this purpose, he was addressed by one of his most active, if not influential parishioners, who doubtless thought that he had a sufficiency. " Well ! Parson Robinson," said he, "what do you want now ? You know we have raised your salary once, and besides that we have given you the improvement of Hammer Island, and upwards of thirty acres upland in Weechertown ! Isn't that enough ?" "Ah ! yes," re- plied Robinson, in his not unusual, and truly characteristic manner, " Ham- mer Island ! and I've mowed it too this year, and I don't want a better fence around my cornfield than one windrow of the fodder it cuts! My year- lings will come up to it, and smell of it, yes, smell of it, and run and roar ! Weechertown ! Thirty acres in Weechertown ! Why, if you were to mow it with a razor, and rake it with a fine tooth comb, you would n't get enough from it to winter a grasshopper !"
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[1737.
ment with Mr. Robinson. Nothing more appears to have been done until December 5th, when it was voted to pay the differ- ence between Mr. Robinson and the town, and also the present year's salary, if he would leave the ministry." These pro- ceedings were sent to Mr. Robinson, who returned the follow- ing answer :-
" Duxb. Decemr. 5, 1737, in answare to ye above vote, I promise to comply therewith, if ye town will make my salary for ye currant year £170, and ye which forthwith payed & ye church will give me a dismission. JOHN ROBINSON."
The meeting then voted to pay him £412 6s. 12d., and the present year's salary. They also desired him to preach on the next Sabbath as formerly. On the 16th of Deceniber the fol- lowing protest of some of the town's people was presented, the original of which, in Mr. Kent's MS. Coll., is now before me.
" We ye subscribers, inhabitants of ye town of Duxborough, being sensible of the Troubles and Contentions in ye sd town by reason of a party that are not willing to pay our minister, viz., ye Revnd Mr. John Robinson, so much in value as our engagement was to him as to his yearly salary, when he first setled among us, nor to comply with ye judgement of Court relating thereto, nor any other ways to agree with him about ye same ; but still are going on in their Contentions, which have occasioned great charge upon ye sd town, & is likely to occasion more, if speedy care be not taken to prevent, We therefore whose names are hereunto written do hereby declare our aversness to ye maintaining ye sd Contentions & do pro- test against paying any further charge which may be brought on ye sd town by such contentions, & do declare our willing- ness to comply with ye judgement of Court relating to ye above sd salary, & to pay our parts of what yet remains due con- cerning ye same, that so our sd Minister may be well support- ed & encouraged to continue in the work of ye Ministry among us." Signed by Joseph Soule, Isaac Peterson, Ebenezer Sampson, Moses Simons, Pelatiah West, Philip Delano, Josh- ua Soule, John Simons (his mark), Amasa Turner, John Sprague, Jr., Thos. Southworth, Nathaniel Fish, and Joshua Cushman.
Either neglected payment on the part of the town or new difficulties of a similar nature renewed the contention; and at a meeting, July 5th, 1738, a communication was received from Mr. Robinson; stating " that he did not look upon him- self as ye minister of Duxborrough; but that he was dismiss- ed by a result of an-ecclesiastical council, and said that he would be no hinderance to them in procuring another min- ister." I can find no account of the council referred to. On the 7th of the next month, a committee was chosen to make
189
REV. JOHN ROBINSON.
1738.]
up accounts with Mr. Robinson, " from the beginning of the world to the present day." These few words convey better than any sentiments of mine, the feelings of the people towards their pastor. Another meeting was held on the 25th of Sept., but adjourned to the third of October, when it was " voted that they would not have any thing to do with ye Revnd Mr. Robinson as their ecclesiastical minister or pas- tor in sd town ; and further that ye sd town will not pay the sd Mr. Robinson any salary ever since he left off ye work of the ministry and preaching ye Gospel in sd town, declaring solemnly that he was not ye minister of Duxburough, and that ye sd town might proceed to get another minister to supply ye pulpit, he would be nothing against it; and then ye sd town voted that they would joyn with the church in procuring an ecclesiastical council to dismiss Mr. Robinson from his pastoral office in ye sd town." The meeting then adjourned to the 19th, when this vote was passed and record- ed, - " Voted, that ther meting hous shuld be shut up so that no parson shuld open ye samne so that Mr. John Robrson of Duxborrough may not get into sd meting hous to preach anay more, without orders from the town."
The precise date of Mr. Robinson's dismission is not given; but in the town records under date of Nov. 11th, 1738, it is stated that Mr. Robinson acquitted the town of all charges.
" Received of the town agents £412 10s. 6d. by judgement of the Court of Assize, in April, 1737.
Nov. 11th, 1738.
JOHN ROBINSON."
Mr. Robinson afterwards removed to Lebanon, Ct., the residence of the Elder Gov. Trumbull, who had married his daughter, where he died of diabetes, Nov. 14th, 1745, æt. 74 years.
As a preacher* he was sound in his discourse, and earnest and sententious in his arguments; but painful oftentimes in character. He was remarkable for his occasional sermons and texts; and the occurrence of great events or remarkable phenomena afforded him a theme to his liking, which he would treat in a manner truly as eccentric as characteristic. He seldom exchanged, and always appeared in the pulpit in a short jacket, and in consequence of this, as of his name, he went familiarly by the name of master Jack. It is said, that he never wore an outside garment.
He lived in a two story house on a rising knoll, a little northeast of the present residence of Capt. Richardson. He had for a near neighbor one Josiah Wormall, with whom he
* The remaining account of Mr. Robinson is derived chiefly from Mr. Kent's notes.
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REV. JOHN ROBINSON. [1738.
lived in perpetual turmoil and conflict, and whom he very kindly' denominated " All worm " or " Wormwood," as the circumstances of the case required. This Christian of the Old School usually went to church in a leathern apron, smok- ing his pipe until he reached the meeting-house door. On one occasion, having deposited his pipe in the pocket of his coat, before he had extinguished the fire within, he walked deliberately up the broad aisle with becoming solemnity, and leaning on a gigantic staff, and having taken a seat directly before the pastor in the "old men's long seats," he fixed through his shaggy eyebrows his searching gaze upon the preacher. It was however but for a moment, for springing suddenly from his seat with a stare of consternation, and seizing the skirt of his coat all on fire, he rushed from the house. "There," cried Mr. Robinson with imperturbable gravity, "there, brethren, neighbor Wormall comes smoking into the house, and he goes smoking out!" And at another time, as this Christian brother sat looking up from his place, mimicking in miniature his gestures, and pouting occasionally at what he deemed heretical doctrines, Mr. Robinson came to a sudden and solemn pause, looked down upon his auditor and audience, and said, -" Brethren, I've done! If you will follow me to my house I will preach. But I cannot and will not preach here, while that man sits grinning at me !" He instantly left the pulpit; but was followed by Pelatiah West, another particular friend, who gave him on the door step the anxious assurance, -"Why, Parson Robinson, I would not have left the meeting-house, if the devil had been there !" "Neither would I," was the ready response. On another occasion, Pelatiah West, a member of the society, wrote the following original lines, and handed them to one of the deacons at church, to be read and sung line by line, as was then the custom, and which was written with direct reference to some previously expressed sentiment of Mr. Robinson.
" He that does bring the fattest pig, And eke the goose most weighty, He is the independent Big, And eke the saint most mighty.
" But he that does withhold his hand, And eke shut up his purse, The Lord shall drive him from the land, And eke lay on his curse ! "
Not less peculiar are his farewell words, which he is said to have addressed to the town on his departure, savoring of that independence and eccentricity of character, which was always manifested by him. "Neighbors, I am going never to return,
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REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE.
1738.]
and I shake the dust from my feet as an everlasting testimony against ye, vipers as ye are."
An anecdote is related of him concerning an earthquake, which happened during his ministry. Being visited shortly after its occurrence by one of his society, he appeared in great distress, and upon inquiry he answered, "Neighbor A., there has just been, you know, an earthquake, and I must preach about it. But I don't know what to do. I've no book that says a word about earthquakes." He preached, however, on the next Sabbath, and two such sermons, it is said, were never delivered.
Another story is related which particularly illustrates a peculiar trait of his character. One of his church once calling upon him, he appeared in a mood of unusual medita- tion, and in answer to his interrogatories replied with an air of confidence, " This morning I got up and went without doors, and saw a hawk in the sky, a large hawk, and," said he, turning to his friend with a look of assurance, "that dog sat upon his tail." Robinson followed this story by another, equally marvellous, apparently. The individual expressed his astonishment, and even dared to state his disbelief. "Ah!" replied Robinson, "No one can believe any thing here without it is miraculously wrought before them." "Surely," returned the other, "one must be in a great delu- sion to believe a lie," and the matter after little further dispu- tation was dropped. Shortly after, Robinson was called upon before the church to explain in regard to the strange stories which he had related; when, rising, he replied with an air of extreme indifference, "Disbelieve it if you please, but I know that dog sat upon his tail." "Upon the hawk's tail ?"' asked some one. "No," replied Robinson with considerable feeling, " upon his own tail of course."
REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE* was the next settled minister of the church. We find by the Town Records that the town (Aug.
* Mr. Veazie was born Jan. 8th, 1711, and was a descendant of Robert of Braintree, William and Alice were of Braintree, and had Alice, May 4th, 1659; Samuel and Mary of the same place had Mary, June 17th, 1687, and Samuel, July 19th, 1689.
Mr. Veazie grad. at H. C. in 1736; m. Deborah Sampson, Aug. 6th, 1742, and had a son, John, born in July, and died Aug. 3d, 1745, and a second John. He lived at the Nook, and built and occupied the house, where resided the late Andrew Sampson.
Church Records. With his ministry commence the extant records of the church, and it is said that the earlier ones were burnt at a house in Pem- broke.
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REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE. [1739.
7th, 1738,) voted to give him an invitation to become their pastor, and appointed Dea. Alden to treat with him. Still later this call was renewed, (March 9th, 1739, ) and Col. Alden, Wm. Brewster, and John Chandler were then chosen and empowered to make an agreement with him about settling among them. The Town offered as an inducement, the sum of £400, and an annual salary of £50. In 1741, however, we find among the appropriations of the Town, for the min- ister £150. He was ordained Oct. 31st, 1739. The services were a prayer by the Rev. Jno. Parker of Plympton; a ser- mon by the Rev. John Shaw of Bridgewater; the charge by Rev. John Auger of the same place ; the R. H. of Fellowship by the Rev. Shearjashub Bourn of Scituate.
1739, Sept. Sth. In the midst of his usefulness in the church and society, died Dea. Jedediah Southworth, aged 37 years.
1740, May 27th. Mrs. Catharine White presented to the church a large damask table cloth. At a meeting on the 25th of June, they chose a committee "to return their grateful thanks for the generous gift."
1741, April 14th. Died Dea. Benjamin Alden, who was a carpenter by trade, and was drowned near the Gurnet. The church voted to receive none at the communion, who were not in charity with their church at home, and that it was a grievance for any church to do otherwise.
1743. This year may be considered the date of the first serious outbreak between the church and its pastor. Some of the church in the beginning were opposed to the settlement of Mr. Veazie, and continued throughout his ministry much dis- satisfied with his labors. Some even left the church, and joined themselves to others. His ministry, like his predeces- sor's, in the latter part was turbulent and inauspicious, and he was finally obliged from want of a support, to ask a dismission. During the first part of his ministry he was a moderate Calvinist. The part he afterwards took in the religious controversies of the times, however, served to height- en the animosity, which had previously exhibited itself. But it was his fortune to live at a time in the history of New England, when religion was most generally observed, the period of the Great Revival. Whitfield was then itinerating through the country, stirring the people to reform. His adhe- rents, the New Lights, rapidly increased; so that between the years 1740 and 1750, about thirty congregations of Sepa- ratists were formed. On the contrary the Old Lights considered the zeal of their opponents as mere wild fire, and very perni- cious to the well being of the community, and strove to suppress it. Of this latter class were most of the inhabitants of Duxbury. Nevertheless, Whitfield visited, converted, and
1743.]
REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE. 193
made Mr. Veazie a complete fire brand or new light; and (says Mr. Kent,) if it never so happened to any one else, he was evidently made a worse man by his conversion. He was rendered morose, dogmatic, and furious, whipping his own children with the utmost severity for the least freedom on the Sabbath, which he kept formally but strictly from sunrise to midnight. In Duxbury most of the influential men of the town adhered strongly to the old doctrines, and against these Mr. Veazie waged a fierce and bitter warfare; but he could neither persuade nor drive them to embrace his new doctrines or bear with his dogmatisms .* Among the firmest in the opposition was Capt. Samuel Alden, who sincerely believed that more evil than good must arise from these exciting addresses to the fears and passions of the common people.t Mr. Veazie at first boasted that a majority were in favor of the new doctrines. His conduct had long been objectionable to many of his parishioners, and frequent altercations occurred between them. There is extant a paper written about this period, of which the following is a copy. }
" We the Subscribers Look upon the Reverend Mr. Veazie's Doctrines many of them to be Erroneous. Sometime ago he Preached concerning Assurance and in his discourse he deliv- ered these words, that dreadful false opinion, that a man may have true grace and not know it. Yea, I say, that dreadful soul damning principle, that a man may be converted and not know it. No greater delusion or stratagem the devil hath not to delude souls into Hell than that. Another timne he was preaching from the 10th chapter of Romans at the 13th, 14th and part of the 15th verse, he said in that Sermon, the reason why God's judgment was turned away from the Ninevites was because they lived nigh a place, as it were a channel where God's blessings were wont to flow, and not because
* Rev. Benjamin Kent's notes.
t Capt. Alden was a grandson of the pilgrim, and a pious man, ever cheerful, through the christian hope he had attained ; and was remarkable for his strength of mind, soundness of judgment, and exemplary deport- ment through life. He was a friend of education, and took an interest in the intellectual improvement of the mind, as he deemed that essential for the reception of divine truth. He lived until he was impatient to depart, and enter a happier state, though he suffered but little from bodily infirmi- ties. He lived to see a new country peopled with three millions of white men, successfully opposing the ungenerous usurpation and tyranny of the parent empire, where his grandfather saw nothing but a savage wilderness. Had the pilgrims been told that their grandchildren would see this aston- ishing population, establishing national liberty and independence, they would have thought it a thing utterly improbable, if not totally impossible. - Alden's Epitaphs, Bradford's and Eliot's Biog., and Alden's Centennial Sermon.
Į Rev. B. Kent's MS. Coll. 129.
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REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE. [1743.
they humbled themselves and returned from their evil ways. He likewise declared in the pulpit, that there was not a pro- mise ir the whole word of God for a man in a state of Nature, and since has declared to the contrary.
" His conversation, we think, is also unbecoming. His say- ing a person in a state of nature is half a beast, and half a devil, and afterwards denying that he ever said so, or ever thought so. And denying that ever he acknowledged to any, that he had preached false doctrines. Further, his asserting that it was a sin for a man in a state of nature to pray.
"And sometime in July, 1742, Mr. Veazie being at Mr. Na- thaniel Samson's, he undertook to examine his wife, what she built upon for salvation, and she told him not upon his works nor her own, and he said what then ; she told him she hoped it was her desire to build upon Christ, that rock ; and he said that will not do. Then she said unto him, you are my teacher, tell me what will do ; and he said die for your brother ; and she told him if you will not teach me better I will go to my Bible, and he said unto her, The Bible, the Bible; and he told her, that all the world had been in jest with God until now, and now they were got in earnest. And we asked him what was become of our fathers, and good Christians as we had reason to call them, and he said they are gone to Hell ! And he told us that a man in a state of nature had as good sit down upon the floor, and curse and swear, as to go to prayer ;)and he told us that he would go on in this way for all the men upon Earth or devils in Hell ! About the same time Mr. Veazie said at Mr. Joshua Soul's house to his daughter Mercy and one or more of his fam- ily in the hearing of his wife, that Christ now standeth with his arms open to receive them, therefore come now this minute, this moment, for without you are cursed damned creatures or devils. The woman saith devils, the daughter she is not sure which. And sometime last March, Mr. Veazie being at Mr. Benjamin Loring's in company with several, asked Mr. Freeman the rea- son of his not coming to the sacrament; he told him he had many reasons for it, and that he intended to take a convenient opportunity and talk with him; but after other talk he told Mr. Veazie he would give him one reason why he did not come to meeting, and that was, he heard he had preached false doc- trine. Mr. Veazie said he had preached the Arminian Scheme, and did not know it, and that he had preached up justifica- tion by works, and that he was resolute in the Arminian Scheme, one point of which insisted on would sink all down to Hell.) Mr. Veazie was asked why he did not make a public recantation of those doctrines; he said he preached contrary to them now, and that was sufficient, and further said he did intend to make a Public recantation upon a certain day ; but it happened there were many Marshfield people, and so omitted
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REV. SAMUEL VEAZIE.
1746.]
it. The beginning of last August Mr. Veazie and Mr. Torrey, our school-master, were talking concerning mirth, and he told Mr. Torrey he showed himself to be just such a person as he always took him to be, and afterwards denied it.) And fur- ther he told him he wished he never had come into town. Mr. Torrey asked him what provocation he had given him for any such wish. (Mr. Veazie said, because he justified singing and dancing. Afterwards he told Torrey he took him to be a person destitute of grace, or he believed he had not one spark of saving grace.) Mr. 'Torrey told Mr. Veazie he admired very much at his talk, and asked him whether he knew that his. life was scandalous. ) The answer he gave Mr. Torrey was, he sung and danced, or justified singing and dancing.)
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