USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > History of the town of Plymouth, from its first settlement in 1620, to the present time : with a concise history of the aborigines of New England, and their wars with the English, &c. > Part 31
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The first Universalist society in Plymouth was organized March 10th, 1822, and incorporated in February, 1826. The same year, they erected a handsome meeting-house on the north side of Leyden street. The dimensions are 50 by 70 feet, con- taining 76 pews. The house is handsomely painted inside and out, and is furnished with a superior toned bell, an eight day clock, and an elegant chandelier and stove. The house was dedicated December 22d, 1826; the sermon was preached by
* Mr. Freeman is the son of Nathaniel Freeman, Esq., late of Sandwich. He repaired to North Carolina when young, where he married, and was employed as a teacher, in an institution for the in- struction of youth.
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
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the Rev. David Pickering, of Providence, and in the afternoon the Rev. James H. Bugbee was ordained the minister of the society, the ordaining sermon by Rev. John Bisbee, of Hart- ford. They have a church, which, in 1833, consisted of 33 members, and the society is composed of 172 rateable polls. * ' As a religious society, they sacredly maintain and believe that point of doctrine which affirms that there is no positive scripture proof of any punishment in a future and immortal state of exist- ence. One proof of their views may be found recorded in Prov. xi. 31.'-Communicated by Dr. R. Capen.
In May, 1833, Mr. Freeman, the pastor of the third church and society, was again involved in personal animosity and con- tention with his people. He was now obliged to ask his dis- mission from the church, and at a parish meeting the ministerial connexion was, by unanimous consent, dissolved.
The Rev. Mr. Thomas Boutelle was ordained over the third Congregational Church and society, May 21st, 1834. The officiating ministers were, Rev. Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst college; Rev. Mr. Gay, of Bridgewater; Rev. Mr. Dexter, of Plympton; Rev. Mr. Cobb, of Rochester; Rev. Mr. Winslow, of Boston; Rev. Mr. Nott, of Wareham, and Rev. Mr. Holmes, of New Bedford.
New Meeting-House of the First Parish. ' Beautiful in its elevation is Mount Zion !'
In the year 1831, the first parish in Plymouth came to the resolution to demolish their old meeting-house, which was in a state of decay, having stood eighty-seven years. A large pro- portion of the pews, from the numerous changes that had taken place for years past, were in the hands of persons not connect- ed with the parish; and those who were desirous of becoming proprietors, would not involve themselves in the expense to which a decayed house is constantly liable. A committee of disinterested persons was appointed to appraise the pews in the old house, and the building was sold at auction. In bidding adieu to this ancient temple, to which the society retained a de- voted attachment, as the house of their fathers' worship, the Rev. Dr. Kendall, on the 10th of April, 1831, preached an ap- propriate sermon in his excellent style, in which he gave a brief history of our ancient church, and a detail of the several socie- ties derived from it. During the interval of eight months, in which the new house was in building, the church and congre-
*Rev. Mr. Bugbee died May 10th, 1834.
25 *
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH. [1831
gation held their public worship in the county court-house, where they were provided with convenient accommodations.
On Wednesday, the 14th of December, 1831, the new meet- ing-house of the first parish was dedicated to the worship and service of God. A numerous and highly respectable congre- gation was assembled. Prayers and reading the scriptures were performed by Rev. Mr. Kent, of Duxbury, Rev. Mr. Goodwin, of Sandwich, and Rev. Mr. Cole, of Kingston. The Rev. pastor, Dr. Kendall, delivered an excellent catholic sermon, from Ezra vi. 16. Among the various topics, the speaker ad- verted with reverence to the venerable pastor of the pilgrims, and his puritan associates. In speaking of the sacred temple, his invocation was, ' May these consecrated walls never rever- berate with licentious opinions, the shouts of fanaticism, nor the denunciations of bigotry.' The services were closed by a fervent and impressive prayer by Rev. Mr. Brooks, of Hing- ham. During the services, four hymns were sung, three of which were composed for the occasion.
The worshippers in this house are Unitarians, believing that 'Unitarian christianity is the only system of faith and duty which can be drawn from the New Testament by a just inter- pretation of its contents.'
This noble edifice is composed of wood, and is a beautiful specimen of church architecture. It was designed by George W. Brimmer, Esq., of Boston, and executed by an ingenious artist, Mr. Richard Bond, of Boston, who completed the work in a manner highly creditable to himself, and satisfactory to the parish.
The body of this church measures 71 feet by 60, and from the floor to the spring of the ceiling is 36} feet,-is without galleries, except that for the singers, which is in the tower, over the entrance into the lower part of the house, and opens under a large gothic arch of 42 feet base. This gallery is lighted by the high gothic window in front, and thus the whole length of the building is seen from the pulpit. The floor accommodates 124 pews, the interior of which are painted light green, while the exteriors are in beautiful imitation of oak, by Mr. Whita- ker, and are capped with mahogany. The side windows, which are eighteen feet high, and seven feet wide, contain 284 dia- mond lights each ;- the glass being ground, the light is uniform and agreeable. The pulpit is of common form, the pannels and balusters gothic, and the whole painted in imitation of oak. A crimson silk curtain is suspended from a gothic cornice, and on each side of the pulpit is a candelabra supporting a handsome bronze lamp; and there is also on each side a smaller lamp, on
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
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a moveable stand. The house is warmed by two furnaces in the lower apartment, the heat ascending through a niche on each side of the door. The front is four feet wider than the body of the church, has a tower projecting 113 feet, and rising 87 feet in height, with encircled octagon pillars at the corners, sur- mounted with ornamental pinnacles, and has wings, with simi- lar pillars at their cornices and on the sides. The wings con- tain the stairs which lead to the singers' gallery and to the bel- fry. The front door is pannelled and of a low arch, over which is a quartrefoil band. Above this is the front window, 36 feet high and 123 feet wide, containing 540 diamond lights, and is divided like the side windows, into three divisions, with gothic scrolls at the bottom. The whole expense of this superb build- ing, including the cellar, does not exceed $10,000. In the afternoon on the day of the dedication, the pews were offered at auction, and 103 were sold at an advance above the apprais- al of nearly $1800. The amount of sales has been sufficient to defray the expense of building the new house, to pay the pew holders in the old house, and leave a surplus of about $2,500.
During the building of this house, the workmen refrained en- tirely from the use of ardent spirits.
The first house of worship in this town was erected in 1648; it stood lower down in the town square than the site of the pres- ent house, and was furnished with a bell. In 1683, another was built on the same spot, 45 feet by 40, and 18 feet in the walls unceiled, gothic roof, diamond glass, with a small cupola and bell. In 1744, a third church was erected on this conse- crated ground; the raising commenced on the 17th of July, and on the 29th of the same month it was opened for public wor- ship. The dimensions were about 72 by 64 feet, and the spire was 100 feet high, surmounted with a handsome brass weather -. cock. In the same year a seceding society erected a meeting- house in Middle street; this was the effect of great zeal in new light limes, and there was no other secession during the remain- der of the last century. Since the commencement of the pres- ent century, eight houses for public worship have been erected here, either by new societies or by rebuilding.
The ancient church stands at the present time on a firm basis, and is in prosperity, worshipping the God of our fathers, reject- ing some of their dogmas, but cherishing the same essential principles of christian faith and practice, and acquiescing to the fullest extent in the free enjoyment of each individual in the mode of worship which conscience may dictate.
In the year 1819, Dr. Francis Le Baron, then in public ser-
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH. [1831
vice at New York, presented an elegant set of desk bibles for the use and benefit of the first church and society in Plymouth, asa testimony of his respect and regard for the society, with which his ancestors had been connected, and the church where he received christian baptism.
In 1822, Hon. Judge Davis, having had the loan of the church records for the purpose of compiling a new edition of Morton's New England Memorial, with considerable additions, and hav- ing for that purpose extracted several pages from said records, proposed to vest the copy-right of this new edition of the Me- morial in the first church and society of Plymouth, the profits to be applied to the relief of the poor. But subsequently, he proposed that the copy-right should be transferred to the Pil- grim Society, on the condition that the said society deliver to the first church one hundred and ten copies of said work for every 3000 copies which they may publish, and in the same pro- portion for a greater or less number, being in full for a consid- eration of the transfer.
It is remarkable that the meeting-house, which was built in 1683, was, on the 3d of June, 1715, struck by lightning, and considerably shattered, and on the 22d of November, 1831, the present house, when nearly finished, suffered a similar fate; the north-east pinnacle was entirely destroyed, with some other damage, and the whole edifice narrowly escaped conflagration. Fortunately the building was insured, and the expense of re- pairs paid by the underwriters. A few years since, a large elm tree, standing within a few yards of the same place, was so much injured by lightning, that it died soon after. These in- cidents serve to show the expediency of lightning-rods and of insurance.
In closing this history, our spirits are animated with the pros- . pect of amendment in our moral world, and in our day. The unrighteous spirit of intolerance and persecution binding down the human mind by bonds of religious faith, is evidently on the wane. We have a cheering hope that our moral feelings will no longer be disturbed by the.practice of aspersing the charac- ters of pious and exemplary men on the grounds of difference of opinion in mysterious points of doctrine. This uncharitable temper has too long been a scourge to society, and we can have no sympathy with proceedings so manifestly inconsistent with the christian character. By indulgence these guilty passions gain strength, harden the heart of man, and lead to licentious- ness. But we rejoice that the day has arrived when every citi- zen may think-as he pleases upon subjects of religion, and qui- etly offer his devotions in whatever temple, and whatever form his own judgment and conscience may prescribe for him.
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
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A learned and candid spirited clergyman, having perused the foregoing church history, offers the following as a closing para- graph :-
' In reading over the foregoing pages, the writer would unite with his candid readers in a grateful acknowledgment of the rich mercies of the God of Heaven to this most ancient church of the United States. The band of Pilgrims, who stepped upon this inhospitable shore 212 years ago, with no support but the Almighty arm, so often made bare for their protection, have now become a great people. And we trust they are destined by Divine Providence, as they have hitherto done, still to perform an important part in forming the character of the American church, and the American empire.'
N. B .- ' Church and Parish are two distinct bodies ; the church is a religious body, and the parish is a civil body. The civil law has no control over a church, as such. A church is a religious society altogether independent, and governed by the principles of the religion which its members profess. A con- gregational church, according to the definition given in what has been called the New England Platform, 'is by the institu - tion of Christ, a part of the militant visible church, consisting of a company united in one body by an holy covenant, for the public worship of the Lord Jesus.' Now a church is without power or authority in temporal matters, of course not amenable to any earthly tribunal. The character of a minister of the gospel, settled according to the common mode in New England, is the pastor of the church and the minister of the parish. The practice of the country has been for the church to give the min- ister a call to become their pastor, but no salary is stipulated by them. The relation between the church, as a church, and their minister, has always been considered a spiritual relation only. A church is at liberty, by a vote, to withdraw themselves from their pastor, if a part only, those who are in the minority and in his favor, will still be his church. Those who withdraw themselves are no longer of the church. Should the whole withdraw, he is still the minister of the parish and entitled to his salary, provided his misconduct do not forfeit it. By the old State laws, the church members had the sole right of electing the minister of the parish; and when a majority of those mem- bers had agreed on the man, although the parish were to a man against him; yet the advice of five neighboring churches being had, the man was settled, became the minister of the parish and the court of sessions had a right to assess the inhabitants for his support. The law which authorised this piece of reli- gious tyranny was the never failing source of dissention and di- vision, and finally compelled the government to pass sundry
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
[1831
acts of toleration for the relief of the people. If the church do not agree that the teacher chosen by the parish, in which they are inhabitants, shall be their pastor, they may choose another; but they cannot expect the parish to maintain him. The first principle in a civil corporation is, that a majority shall govern, and it is the duty of the religious body to acquiesce. A law under the old constitution, gave the church a power, (five churches advising thereto,) to settle the minister within the voice of the parish: and, by the same act, if there were 300 voters in the parish, and the church consisted of 20 members, the town could have a minister, if ten of the 20 were against it. But now the town, as a town, have the vote to themselves. When a minister is settled, the church, as a church, have no right to dispose of the money of the parish."
The following are the names of Deacons of the church in Plymouth.
John Carver,
chosen in Leyden, 1620.
Samuel Fuller,
Richard Masterson,
to about 1630.
Thomas Blossom,
John Doane,
chosen about 1630.
William Paddy,
John Cook,
John Dunham,
Robert Finney,
chosen
1667.
Ephraim Morton,
1686.
George Morton,
Nathaniel Wood,
1694.
Thomas Clark,
Thomas Foster,
1716.
John Atwood,
Haviland Torrey,
1727.
Thomas Clark,
Thomas Foster,
Joseph Bartlett,
1745.
John Torrey,
William Crombie,
1776.
Ephraim Spooner,
1784.
Jonathan Diman,
1784.
John Bishop,
1797.
Lemuel Drew,
1812.
William P. Ripley,
1818.
Rosseter Cotton,
1822.
Ichabod Morton,
1831.
Thomas Faunce,
APPENDIX .
THE foregoing pages will be found to contain a just display of the character sustained by our puritan fathers, and show that their sacrifices, their disinterested patriotism, their exemplary integrity, and their reverence for a pure religion were without a parallel in the records of history. It was, with them, a pri- mary object to avoid all cause of war with the natives, but they were compelled in their own defence to a cruel warfare with Philip and his allies, and were in imminent danger of a total extermination, within the first half century of their settlement. The natives, from a jealousy of encroachments, became the ag- gressors by acts of enormities and crimes. The colonists never possessed themselves of the Indian's land, without paying a fair and full price for what they bought. (See page 133.) After the war, the English, it is true, availed themselves of the right of conquest; but lands were allotted to the surviving Indians, who remained in the country, amply sufficient for their support. Should it be inquired, what is the character and prosperity of the descendants of the puritans; it may be replied, that every community having religion and justice for its basis will be pros- perous and happy. The state of society in the ancient town is, in common with the whole of the old colony of Plymouth, re- markably peaceable, orderly, and happy. The names of our ancestors are embalmed in our bosoms, and are objects of con- secrated memory. Their religious and school institutions are deemed by all good men sufficiently important to be appreciated a's their worth and character deserve.
We venerate the memory of the pilgrim fathers for their re- ligion, their patriotism and their institutions. They were, it is true, deeply imbued with the principles of Calvin, and were, in some measure, tinctured with the spirit of bigotry. Liberal christians of the present day have abandoned many tenets, which our fathers conscientiously maintained, and are zealous advocates for the exercise of mutual charity and brotherly love, that heavenly grace that beams from the breast of the father of mercies, and which gives joy to good men and to angels.
Few crimes or aggravated violations of law have been known
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
in our limits. No native white inhabitant of this town has ever suffered death by the hand of the law, nor any one, it is be- lieved, in the Old Colony. Nor has there been any instance of duelling in our territories, since that in 1621, noticed in page thirty-eight. We conjure every citizen to hold to his integrity, and resolve sternly to resist the influence of the emissaries from the old world, who would gladly subvert our free institu- tions and enthral the minds of the rising generation in the dark clouds of corruption and ignorance.
It has been the anxious desire of all nations in all ages of the world, that genealogies from their original foundations should be correctly recorded, and transmitted to future genera- tions. Posterity love to trace back their progenitors in an un- interrupted line to the earliest periods. In no instance do we recognize a people who have a more peculiar interest in the transactions of their ancestors than the descendants of the puri- tan fathers of New England; nor are the descendants of any people furnished with more abundant data for the purpose of tracing the founders of a nation. When the Saxons came over and settled in England, the British sirnames were emerged, and all record of the original inhabitants by their sirnames vanished from the page of history. But in our country the reverse of this is our happy destiny. By far the largest proportion of our sirnames are those which were precious to our puritan fathers, and ever will be to their posterity. The spreading branches of the genealogical tree from the stock of the pilgrims will ever command admiration and respect, and it would be exceedingly gratifying could we be able to delineate the descendants through their generations by family genealogies; but although so early as 1646, the court ordered that in each town a clerk should be appointed whose duty it should be to record all marriages, births and deaths, yet no one was appointed in this town till 1679, and the records prior to that time were very imperfect.
· The following are the names found among the first comers and early settlers in this town. Those with this * mark died the first winter.
Adams, Alden, *Allerton, Atherton, Atwood, Bangs, Bassett, Beale,
Blossom, Bompasse, (Bumpus) Carver, Chauncey,
len
*Chilton,
Lat
*Clarke,
Conor,
Cooke,
F
G G
H
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APPENDIX.
Masterson,
*Marton, Morgan, Morton, *Mullins,
Deane,
Nelson,
Nicolas, (Nicholas)
Paddy,
Cushman,
Palmer,
Pitts,
Paddock,
Doane,
Prence, (Prince)
Dotey, (Doten) Dunham,
Rayner,
Caton,
*Rogers,
English,
Robinson,
aunce,
Standish,
'allowell,
Starie, (Stacy)
'lavell,
Sparrow,
Fletcher,
Smalley,
Noord,
Snow,
Finney, Fuller,
Samson,
Gardener,
Simonson, (Simmons)
Goodman,
Steward, (Stewart) Smith,
¥ray, Hanbury,
Sprague,
Soul,
*Tilley,
Hicks,
Tench,
*Turner,
Hilton, Hinkley,
*Tinker,
Hopkins, Lowland,
Thomas,
Warren,
Winslow,
Watson,
*White,
Wright, Willet,
*Williams.
26
Beames, Billington, Bradford, Brewster, Briggs, Brown, Cooper, Cotton,
Cudworth,
Crackston, De La Noye, (Delano,)
*Priest,
Southworth,
foram, (Gorham,)
Shurtleff,
e Harlow, fatherly,
Higgins, ackson, enney, Lempton, [nowles, atham, Margeson,
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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.
Free Schools .- Our ancestors were well apprised of the great importance of school establishments for the education of the rising generation. So early as February 11th, 1635, we find among the court orders the following: 'Benjamin Eaton, with his mother's consent, is put to Bridget Fuller, being to keep him at school two years, and employ him after in such service as she saw good, and he shall be fit for.' We find no further notice of this subject till June, 1662, when the court recommended to the consideration of the several towns, some preparations for schools; and in 1663, it was enacted by the court, 'That the several townships in the jurisdiction, ought to take into their serious consideration, that there may be a school-master in each town to teach the children in reading and writing.' In 1668, John Morton, who was a nephew of the Secretary, offered to teach children and youth of the town to read and write and cast accounts, on reasonable considerations. In 1670, a grant was made by the government of the colony, ' of all such profits as might or should annually accrue to the colony, from time to time, for fishing with nets or seines at Cape Cod, for mackerel, bass, or herrings, to be improved for and towards a free school in some town of this jurisdiction, provided a beginning were made within one year of the grant.' And in August, 1671, John Morton appeared at town-meeting, and renewed his proposal to erect and keep a town school, which was accepted. In the following year, the court declared the school in Plymouth enti- tled to the profits of the Cape Cod fishery, and appointed Thomas Hinckley, steward of said school, to take charge of its funds. In the same year, 1672, the profits and benefits of the Agawam and Sippican lands were appropriated by the town to the main- tenance of the Free School, then began in town, and not to be estranged from that end.' This was the first Free School or- dained by law in New England. We are not, however, un- mindful of a prior law in the neighboring colony of Massachu- setts, in 1647, for a similar purpose .. But that law did not in re- ality ordain Free Schools, but a reasonable tax on the scholars was left to the direction of the towns. Nearly all the schools in that colony in 1671, and much later, were supported in part by such a tax; but there can be no doubt that in Boston a free school actually existed before this period, or perhaps one or two elsewhere in the jurisdiction. Though Mr. Morton's school in Plymouth was strictly entitled by the terms of the colony grant to its benefits, yet, as he only taught ' to read and write, and cast accounts,' it failed, perhaps, under his instruction, to meet the expectations of the country. In the year last mentioned, 1672, a Mr. Corlet, a graduate of Cambridge, was the instruc-
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APPENDIX.
tor. It would seem that the higher standard of school learning, under Mr. Corlet, did not please the town much better than the plain education by Mr. Morton, had satisfied the government. Two years after, viz., in 1674, the town, as if apprehensive that the Latin and Greek were encroaching on the more useful de- partments after limiting the grant, which it had made of the Aga- wam and Sippican lands, to such only as had purchased of the In- dians previous thereto, entered these directions, ' that their chil- dren be instructed in reading, when they are entered, in the Bible: and also that they be taught to write and cypher, beside that which the country, (that is, the colonial government) ex- pects from said school.' Notice is again taken of the Free School, by the general court in 1675, and the Cape Fishery money appropriated to it. The profits of this fishery amounted to from 30 to 40 pounds per ann. In 1677, notwithstanding the distressing war with King Philip, the court ordered that, 'In whatever township in this government, consisting of 50 families or upwards, any meet man shall be obtained to teach a gram- mar school, such township shall allow at least twelve pounds, to be raised by rate on all the inhabitants of said town: and those that have the more immediate benefit thereof, with what others shall voluntarily give, shall make up the residue necessary to maintain the same, and that the profits arising from the Cape Fishery, heretofore ordered to maintain a grammar school in this colony, be distributed to such towns as have such grammar schools, not exceeding five pounds per ann. to any town. And further this court orders, that every such town as consists of seventy families and upwards, and hath not a grammar school therein, shall allow and pay unto the next town that hath a grammar school, the sum of five pounds to be levied on the in- habitants by rate, and gathered by the constables of such towns, by warrant from any magistrate of this jurisdiction.'
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