Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham., Part 14

Author:
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: [Mattapoisett, Mass.] : Mattapoisett Improvement Association
Number of Pages: 516


USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Mattapoisett > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 14
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Rochester > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 14


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28


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of the Council dismiss him from the Work of the Ministry among them; but one held up his Hand for the Dismission. Mr. Hovey then signified to the people that since the Chh would not Vote his Dismission he looked upon himself obliged to tarry with them and carry on his work as usual.


"1768 - May - Kept a Day of fasting & Prayer, the Ministers that assisted were the Revd. Messrs Conant & Turner of Middleborough and West of Dartmouth. The advice of these Gentlemen was to send for another Council, in which all sides should agree. The Disturbance was at this time at a suprising height. The Chh prepared a Petition to the Society desiring them not to proced as they mention in their Warrant to shut up the Meeting House, but the Petition did not meet with acceptance and the Chh chose a Committee to complain of the Precinct to the Court for shutting up the House etc., but the House being opened prevented their going any further. July, 1768, they agree upon a mutual Council, the Revd. Messrs Williams of Sandwich, Robbins of Plymouth, Conant of Middleborough, Angew of Bridgewater. The Chhs and Ministers sent to, came and formed into a Council on Tuesday Aug. 23 and adjourned from one day to another all that week, hearing all their grievances. What was the result I know not. October 16, 1768, the last Chh Meeting that was moderated by Mr. Hovey was at that time; in which the records of the Chh were delivered to Deacon Clark. I conclude therefore that the Revd. Mr. Hovey was dismissed at this time and I suppose it was agreeable to the result of the last Council."


Mr. Hovey's farewell sermon was printed and a copy is to be found in the Congregational Library, Boston. His text was 2 Cor. xiii. 11. And in his discourse he


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said: "Lay aside all unchristian resentments toward any whom you may think have been the blameable instruments of the removal of your minister. I repeat it, do not harbor nor indulge in any unbecoming resentments or judge against one another on your own account, or for my sake whom you may think injuriously treated." He also made lengthy remarks especially addressed to "any children or youth who are rejoicing in the thoughts of their minister's Departure in hopes they shall be under less restraint on Sabbath Days and other times."


The correctness of Mr. LeBaron's supposition is also shown by the Precinct record of December 26, 1768, when "a Vote was called & Drafted in the following: - All you that are so minded as to Joyne with ye Church In Com- pliance with Ye Council's Result to Dismiss Mr. Hovey manifest it. - Voted in ye affirmative." Of the Council's recommendation, as specified in the warrant, that "ye Precinct Pay Mr. Hovey the sum of £70, as a Considera- tion for ye Damiges he may sustain by his Dismission, & £45, 4s. 6d. for his Ministerial Services from ye first Day of March Last to ye first Day of January next," they made short work; and without discussion "passed the Vote In Ye Negative." This was in full accord with their previous attitude when eighteen months before they had "Maid choice of Ebenezer Magges, Ephr'm Dexter, Zaccheus Meede a Committee to Desier Mr. Hovey to Desist Preeching in our meeting-House & if he Refuses to forbid him," and "also at sd Meeting, voted that the meeting House shall be Loct & fastened & Not be opened but by order from the Ceepers of ye meeting Howse & No other untill we have a minister. And that Enoch Hammond, Sulvenas Gibes, Wilber Southworth should


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be an assistant to ye Meeting House Keeper to act against any who secretly or by open Violence should brake open said Meeting House." It also accorded with their vote August, 1769, when, meeting under a warrant "to Consider the Broken and Distrest circumstances of ye Precinct Relating to the Minister & to Consider & Act on proper measurs for handling ye Same," they. directed that "John Clark, Ephream Dexter & Obed Barlow be a Committee to go to Mr. Ivory Hovey and in ye Name & Behalf of ye Second Precinct in Rochester to Inform him that his Preching in our Meeting Howse for a long time past has bin to our Damige and to ye Preja- duce of Good Order and the Restoration of Pece amongst us, and we do as a precinct forbid your entering into sd Howse to Prech aney more without orders from ye Pre- cinct."


But in finally turning Mr. Hovey away empty, and terminating his settlement without a penny for his damage, the precinct evidently let their feelings lead them into error; for the parson entered his case at Plymouth Court, and in spite of the efforts of Gideon Southworth, Israel, Nathaniel, and Enoch Hammond, as agents, and £38, 7s. 5d. spent for attorney's fees and going to Plymouth; £8, 16s. for horse hire 176 miles, (together with other charges), Mr. Hovey, his cause having been "Deter- mined in Cort by a Reference," recovered judgment in 1770 against the precinct for the sum of £130 lawful money.


Mr. Hovey not only took his cause to Plymouth, but he moved his family thither, being installed over the "Second Church of Plymouth," at Manomet, April 18, 1770. There he preached for twenty-three years, there he died,


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and his tombstone there standing reads, "In memory of Rev. Ivory Hovey who died Nov. 4, 1803 in the 90th year of his age. -


By faith he lived, by faith he died, Christ was his portion, theme, and guide, In precept and example shone. With love to God & love to man His daily course of action ran, Till God his Saviour, called him home."


His funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Niles of Abington, from Acts xx. 38, and among other tributes it was said, "he left behind him as great an example of meekness, patience, and Christian perseverance as ever perhaps shown in the character of a finite being," and the eulogist may have recalled not only his endurance against ill health at Manomet, but also the fact that he had been a "good stayer " at Mattapoisett.


He is described as a small man who wore the usual knee breeches and shoe buckles of the time. His short- hand diary of seven thousand pages has never been trans- lated. As did others of the educated ministry of his time, - notably the Rev. Samuel Palmer at Falmouth, John Tuck at Isles of Shoals, and Michael Wigglesworth at Malden, - he tended bodily ailments as well as spir- itual, and his memoranda which he kept while at Mano- met show accounts for peppermint drops, pills, and rhubarb, and one man is charged for "bleeding his wife and physick." When a young man of twenty he set down some rules for the conduct of life, among which are, "keep the blood & jueses in due fluidity and nothing will do this but keeping to a spare, lean, fluid sort of diet. Frequent purges conduceth much to long life and health. - I would reccommend could water. Yet I would say


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use a little wine for your stomach's sake. But by no means drink could water or anything else could when you are hot. For a frequency in the use of liquors which they call spirits be as afraid of it as you would be of a familiarity with evil spirits. Chew Myrrh. Smoak little or no tobacco - if you can help it. It is the observation of a very discrete man who said he had often got hurt by eating too much, rarely by eating too little; often got hurt by wearing too few cloathes, rarely by wearing too many, got hurt by speaking, rarely by holding his tongue."


Among Mr. Hovey's published sermons are, one on the "Duty and Privilege of Aged Saints, occasioned by the death of Lieut. John Hammond of Rochester, Boston, 1749," and a "Farewell Sermon at Mattapoisett, 1769, 2 Cor. xiii. 11, Boston 1770."


During the latter part of Mr. Hovey's pastorate, owing to variances in the church itself, and in part perhaps to the inroads of new doctrines, the collection of the rates caused much worriment in precinct meetings. It was a thankless job, and with little pay, although obligatory. In 1769, Samuel Bools and Zaccheus Meed being suc- cessively chosen Collector and in turn refusing, Wilber Southworth was chosen agent to prosecute them both at the next sessions of the Peace. Sometimes "Raite Bills" were not turned in for four or five years and suit was threatened, or often the collector besought that the re- mainder of his bill might be remitted. In 1770 was passed the very tolerant vote that "ye Assessors of this Precinct shall assess all sd Precinct excepting Ebenezer Magges, Nathaniel Cushman, Baptest; and Barzilla Ham- mond & all that Goe under ye Denomination of Quakers."


Mr. Joseph Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard was at this


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time boarding with Enoch Hammond (whose wife was Drucilla the daughter of the Rev. Thomas West of North Rochester), and "for his Preeching sixteen Saboth days, ten Dolors per Saboth" Mr. Mayhew was voted £9, 12s. Various others probably supplied the pulpit during 1770.


On March 1, 1771, at precinct meeting a vote was "Drafted and put that Doctor Bradford or Nathl. Hammond or either of them go to Boxford ye last of March Inst & In ye Name & Behalf of this Precinct Desire Mr. Lemuel LeBaron to Return to us & Supply ye place of a minister In our Parish this summer. Voted in the afirmitive." Mr. LeBaron's reply was likewise in the affirmative. June 12, 1771, the church voted "to give Mr. Leml. LeBaron a Call," and appointed Elder Barlow, Antipas Hammond & Deacon Clark to present him with it. On June 25 the precinct joined in the call "by a Vote in the affirmative, unanimous." Preparations for ordination and settlement were made, and Mr. LeBaron was duly installed January 29, 1772. "The Solemnity was intro- duced by prayer by Rev. Mr. Thatcher of Wareham. A sermon from 1 Tim. 2, last clause of the 4th verse, was preached by Rev. Mr. Robbins of Plymouth,1 Mr. Hovey made the ordaining Prayer, Mr. Bacon of Ply- mouth gave the charge. Mr. West of Rochester the right Hand of Fellowship, and Mr. Robbins of Norfolk in Connecticut the concluding Prayer." The Moderator. Mr. Parker of Plympton obtained the assent of the people, and thus was auspiciously begun a connection which was severed only by death and that after a period of sixty-five years.


1 This sermon of Rev. Chandler Robbins was printed, and is to be found in the Congregational Library, Boston.


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Rev. Lemuel LeBaron was the grandson of Francis, the first of the name in America, who was the surgeon of a French privateer wrecked in 1644 on a ledge of rocks on the western shore of Sandwich, who was taken to Plymouth a prisoner, and remained there upon request of the selectmen in the practice of his profession until his death in 1704. The mystery of his name and origin has never been solved. His descendants have written lengthy arguments as to whether he was a Huguenot or Catholic, but his grandson, the minister, writing on his eightieth birthday "for the benefit of his posterity," simply says, "He embraced the Protestant faith, but was fond of his crucifix which he wore suspended in his bosom to the day of his death." Lemuel LeBaron was born in Plymouth Sep- tember 1, 1747. His father was Dr. Lazarus LeBaron, who practised many years in that town, and his mother was Lydia Bradford, a great-granddaughter of the Pilgrim Governor. As he himself expressed it, he received a "Public Education," being graduated from Yale in 1768, receiving his A.M. in due course in 1771. He early united with the church in Norfolk, Connecticut, and not long after went into the study of divinity with Rev. Daniel Brinsmade of Woodbury and preached at sundry places before coming to Mattapoisett.


Although known to the later generation as the "Old Minister," and his house being commonly referred to as the " Old Mansion," it should be remembered that Lemuel LeBaron was less than twenty-four years old when the Second Church of Rochester extended to him its call. Soon thereafter he was required as an executor to settle the estate of his father from whom he received a substan- tial inheritance. November 24, 1774, he married Eliza-


-


"THE OLD MANSION" Built by Reverend Lemuel LeBaron, 1776-7


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beth Allen of Martha's Vineyard, and the following spring he began the construction of his house near the Meeting- house, - which is now owned by Nathan B. Denham. Capt. Charles Bryant used to say, and other old people still have the tradition, that the carpenters left their work of getting out frame to answer to the Lexington Call, and that the timbers lay piled together for a year or more of the war period. Certain it is that on March 1, 1775, the precinct voted him his "10 cds of wood at the place where his house is to stand," and that on March 1, 1776, when they "Vandiewd the Giting of the wood to the lowest Bidder," it was to be delivered "either at Mr. LeBaron's new seller or at Landing by the harbour side as Mr. LeBaron chuses." Also it appears that in the rolls of Revolutionary soldiers at the State House is the name, "Rev. Lemuel LeBaron, chaplain, Lexington Alarm Call -4 days." In 1812 he was also commissioned by Gov- Eldridge Gerry as Chaplain of the Third Regiment. He then chose not to qualify, doubtless on account of age, being then sixty-five years old.


The new minister appears to have early obtained the confidence of his people. Imbued with some of his youthful enthusiasm, contending factions were glad to unite in the common cause of providing a new and larger meeting-house. There were sundry propositions made to relocate either on land of Israel Hammond or "near where Ebenezer Barlow's Dwelling-house stood"; but June 23, 1772, the precinct "mett on the hill where the Old Meeting House stood," and voted "the new house should stand on the under pining whare it is began on the hill." To defray the cost, pews were sold according to plan, it being agreed that any deficit should be propor-


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tioned, or any surplus distributed. At first it was voted that "sd House be Built Fifty two feete frunt and forty two feete Back," but this was amended to have it "44 Feet & 40 Feet on the Ground & Pew it all round the Wals except two Dors & Eight Pews in the Bodey seets belo, and pew all round the frunt in the Galery and seete all the Remaining room above & below that is proper for seeting." The committee consisting of Moses Barlow, Zaccheus Mead and Enoch Hammond were instructed "to have the House Completed Workman Like, Lathed, Plastered the walls over head and under the Galerys & Handsomly to paint sd house Out sid and Number the Pews on there Dores." In 1795 a few more pews were added on the floor, the next year four more "adjoining the back alley." In 1799 David Dexter was given a spot to build a pew "on the East side of the Broad Alley, adjacent to that Sold to Sherman Lincoln to be the same Bigness of said Lincoln's. He giving the precinct his Pew in the front Galery and two Dollers." In 1805 John A. LeBaron and William Moore purchased at an auction by the moderator, Capt. Moors Rogers, two more lower floor pews for $20 and $24, respectively. After 1772 the spare time of three or four years was spent in "lying the door stones and leveling the Meetinghouse hill," for this was done by the men of the parish, the precinct being divided into four sections each with a direc- tor, - of which " Insign Jabez Norton " was one to " oversee and give direction to those persons assessed in his district."


This house stood until it went down before the great "September Gale" of 1815. Wilson Barstow, Esq., in the Plymouth County Enterprise (Silas W. Snow's local


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publication), November 15, 1879, wrote over the initial "W"-


"I remember well how the old church looked; galleries on two sides, a small pulpit with a door to shut in the minister, and as high or higher than the galleries with a sounding board above it. In front of the pulpit were two or three plank seats without any backs for old men to sit on. The pews were square, with banisters, and seats on three sides, a chair in the middle for the old lady to sit in. No cushions and no fire ever built in that church, and it was about as open and bleak as an old fashioned barn. Very airy. The program of the service was to begin at 10.30 A.M. and out at 12, and at 1 and out at 2.30, P.M. The service always occupied the time. Mr. LeBaron would preach a sermon forty minutes' long from a piece of paper no larger than the fly leaf of a primer with a few hieroglyphics on it. Most of the people carried a lunch and staid for the after- noon. We boys prospected in the orchards during recess."


A few weeks later, Mr. Joseph W. Church, of Rochester, wrote to the same paper:


"In your edition of Nov. 15, over the signature of 'W,' I notice a description of the Mattapoisett meeting-house which stood on the hill. In passing it on a cold, windy day I always seemed to feel an additional chill, it looked so cold and dreary. I read the reference to that house with a very deep interest, for it brought to mind the olden time memories that had receded almost beyond my reach.


"The meeting-house of Mattapoisett was a perfect pattern of the old house at Rochester Center; the pews on the lower floor, the galleries and the sounding board, how well I remem- ber how it looked the first time I ever saw it. All was new to me then, and all was interesting; and singular as it may seem, Mr LeBaron, that 'W' mentioned so particularly, occupied the pulpit for that day, and preached that first sermon that I ever heard, though if Henry Ward Beecher had preached the sermon, I should have given but little attention to it, as the sounding-board took all my thought. What can it be, and what is it there for ? At last I enquired of someone, and was told that it was to put the bad boys in, and if you are not a good boy you will have to


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go there; and possibly the fear of being sentenced to go up there had much to do in making me the good boy that I was."


Mr. LeBaron's long pastorate might well be termed the "era of good feeling." The attention of the precinct was largely occupied in arrangements for the minister's wood; the management of rate bills, the improvement of the salt meadow, the securing the precinct's right in ministry lands (by joining in 1773 with Wareham to defend the action brought by the First Precinct), and preventing trespass upon them, till their final sale and exchange about 1789. At that date the precinct thus obtained the acre called "the Barlow Cemetery" 1 from Capt. Elihu Sheaman; and the "Hammond cemetery" of eighty rods, near the meeting-house, from Israel and Noah Hammond, - the latter tract still being subject to- day, by the deed, to the right of the heirs of said Ham- monds to pasture calves thereon. In 1791, with funds derived from land sales, the precinct purchased from Governor John Hancock "what he took by execution from Elnathan Eldredge," about eighty acres on the Neck, " for a perpetual parsonage," a portion of which tract the precinct still holds.


While these were some of the principal concerns in prudential affairs, there was always, however, the matter of Mr. LeBaron's salary. This was fixed in 1771 at £70 annually, with ten cords of wood to be delivered at his dwelling-house; and for a settlement £133, 6s. 8d. to be given in three equal payments. In accepting this offer


1 This burial-ground in the rear of the late Col. G. M. Barnard, Jr.'s, house was conveyed to the town in 1886, see vote of the Precinct: Rec- ords, Vol. 1, page 555. There had been interments at this location earlier than 1740.


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Mr. LeBaron, in his letter, said: "As to my maintenance I am persuaded that you will be willing to minister unto me in carnal things while I am spending my life in minis- iering unto you in spiritual. I shall always endeavor to be as Tender with you in this point as possible." In this he kept his word. When in 1785 some shrewd members of the precinct "thought it reasonable he should abate something in his yearly salary on account of his owning the land in part on which his salary and settlement was levied when first he became minister," "the Rev. Mr. LeBaron came in person to sd meeting, and declared sd precinct might abate five pounds from his stated salary; which was accepted by sd Precinct as a favor, being a greater sum than sd Precinct supposed he ought to abate for the land afore sd," - and his rate so continued for two years. In 1781 he "Generously gave said Precinct £20 of his salary this year." At times of difficulty he accepted notes as cash, consented to "gather his own rates," and agreed to take his wood standing or remit it altogether. In 1779, in the hard times of the Revolution, he "manifested to the precinct that he would be satisfied with one hundred bushels of Indian Corn Delivered him next December in Lu of his sd sallary," and those who furnished corn were allowed £5, 12s. per bushel therefor on their rate. That winter perhaps Mrs. LeBaron, as was said of the wife of another minister who had been partly paid in rye, was obliged "to fire the oven to bake the salary." His only complaint was made in 1780, when being voted a salary of '£2100 (currency) the "Gradual as well as the Suding Deprecation of Paper Money is such that it is difficult if not Imposable to assertain its value for one month yet to come," upon his


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request the Precinct met and voted him, "in Lue of the 2100, seventy pounds in Silver Money."


In 1879, "W" in the Enterprise wrote:


"Mr. LeBaron preached sixty years in that old church and the one built after that blew down, without any member of his society ever thinking that the minister could be ousted and a new one put in his place. His salary was $233, and never was increased nor asked to be. One year in the Revolutionary war he received only twenty cents in cash for his salary. He was not only a faithful minister, but equally full of patriotism. He lived a long life without a stain on his moral or Christian char- acter. Would we had more like him. Now, the more a minister knows the more likely he is to be switched off the track."


Mr. LeBaron's catalogue of the eighty-five members 1 at his ordination, in 1772, shows thirty-five men including "Tom, Toby, & Jack, Blacks," and forty-six women of which two were "Negroes." January 1, 1835, he recorded, "the members of the church now living are as follows, viz Males 60, Females 101, total 161." "Scarcely a year passed," wrote Dr. Robbins, "without additions to the church. In 1807, and the year following, there was the greatest revival that has been in this place, about eighty were added to the church. There was also a good work of divine grace in 1820, again in 1824, in 1829 and in 1834." It was at this last-named date that Mrs. Eliza- beth Hubbard said she best remembered her grandfather. The "Old Minister" seldom attended the evening ser- vices but, being brought out to one, although much affected he took no part until near the close, when, rising, he stretched forth his hands and recited, the tears freely flowing, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace


1 See Extracts from the Records, V, in this book.


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according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy sal- vation." A writer in the American Quarterly Register of November, 1835, said of Mr. LeBaron: "He is now in the 89th year of his age, yet retaining his mental powers in an uncommon degree. His head bleached with the storms of life, his heavenly mien, his soft and mild voice, and his impressive manner all conspired to speak his worth and give weight and effect to the solemn instruc- tions that fell from the lips of the patriarch."


On the 26th of February, 1836, the "Old Minister " had a paralytic shock, not severe, but rendering him mostly helpless. In November following he was taken with the prevailing influenza, attended with some fever. He died on the 26th of that month. Dr. Robbins chose for the text of his "Uncle LeBaron's" funeral sermon (written, as he says, laboriously and seven hours by candle light the night before), 2 Kings xi. 12, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." This was especially fitting from the fact that nearly all of the five of his children who attained maturity had settled and reared their families in the immediate neighborhood, and Dr. Robbins at the funeral said, "He looked upon all his people as his children. He felt that he had lived long seeing one generation after another pass away. No one survives that acted on the subject of his ordination, or that was then a member of the church."


Dr. Robbins further said: "As a preacher Mr. LeBaron was eminently practical and experimental. The great peculiarity of his preaching in which he was dis- tinguished from most others was the Gospel of Love. He possessed a happy talent for addressing children. I think I have not known any person who appeared to have




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