USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Taunton > Quarter millinnial celebration of the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 4 and 5, 1889 > Part 8
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Very beautiful to me is the revelation which this sermon makes of the simple, reverent, confiding tone of the mind of our Pilgrim Fathers toward the Bible. In unfolding and pressing the doctrine gathered from the text, with the lessons which it carries, appeal is constantly made to the Divine Word in an artless man- ner, not as the end of all strife, for there is no strife, but as the clear and conclusive statement of truths needing only statement for belief. I have counted six and forty direct Scripture references in these three and twenty pages, besides many more which are veiled and indirect. I wish modern "improvements" had not led pulpits and pews so far away from all this !
And, finally, Sir, what touches me most here, as it touches me everywhere as I reverently study, as closely as I can, the inner- most character of the men of whom we are thinking to-day, is the
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sublime and regnant absoluteness of their confidence in God. It exhales like "the perfumes of Arabia" from every page of this sermon. These men believed that God could save their dear old England, which, with all her faults, they loved still; and that they might perhaps help move Him to do so.
Dr. Young says: "by night an Atheist half believes a God." But there was'nt agnosticism enough among all the one hundred and two passengers of the Mayflower-that wretched black sheep of a Billington, and all his, included-to get up one single respect- able doubt on board day time or night. When the terrific weather took them in mid-ocean, stove in their upper works, and cracked and displaced one of the main beams ; the sailors were scared, and the master had his doubts, and there was a serious time of con- sultation. But one of the Leyden men brought out from the pile of his belongings a great "iron screw" and they tightened up things, and repaired damages, and "committed themselves to the will of God, " and kept on. That is what they always did. And when. in those early dreadful months, the Governor died, and half their company died, they just buried them in the best manner they could, trusted in God and kept on. And when 5, (15) April 1621, the Mayflower started on her return voyage, not one of them wanted to go back in her! And when in 1623, from 3d May to 15th July, they had fierce heat, and not a drop of rain, so that their grass patches were parched like withered hay, and the spring- ing corn, which stood between them and starvation, drooped and shriveled, they appointed a Fast and humbled themselves before the God in whom they lived and moved and had their being, and lifted their hearts in the submission of hope. And, though it was clear weather, and very hot, and not a cloud anywhere to be seen in the sky, Gov. Bradford says: "toward evening it began to be overcast, and shortly after to raine with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them great cause of rejoicing and blessing God. It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, and by degrees in that abundance as that the earthe was thorowly wete and soked therewith. Which did so apparently revive and quick- en the decayed corn and other fruits as was wonderful to see, and made the Indians astonished to behold; and afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair, warme wether, as, through His blessing caused a fruitful and lib- eral harvest to their no small comfort, and rejoicing. For which mercy (in time convenient) they also set apart a day of thanksgiv- ing. " [Bradford, 142.]
Such men, Sir, were great with the truest, with an eternal greatness. God give us, their children, like largeness and purity
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of soul. Then-with the sweet singer of Olney, in these lines suggested by the sight of his mother's picture, we may each one say :
My boast is not, that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth; But higher far my proud pretensions rise- The son of parents pass'd into the skies.
The Massachusetts Historical Society :- In the settle- ment of Taunton, the Pilgrim and the Puritan joined hands ; for while the territory belonged to Plymouth Colony, a very respectable portion of the first settlers came from Boston and its vicinity. And so we may, if we will, claim kinship with those good men of Massachusetts Bay, who, it is said, some- times hastened the exit of witches and Quakers from this trying world; and with true filial devotion we may explore the archives of the Puritan colony for records of its found- ers .. Nowhere can this search be more effectively made than in the collections of that ancient and honorable institu- tion, the Massachusetts Historical Society, whose president, the eminent scholar and historian, the Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis, I am glad to introduce to you.
RESPONSE BY REV. DR. GEORGE E. ELLIS.
It is a privilege and an honor to be called upon on this oc- casion to respond to the recognition of the Massachusetts His- torical Society. I heartily wish that its venerated emeritus Presi- dent-whose name and lineage with all their great services, with his own, carry with them so much of the best of our history-was here to relieve me of this office. That society is the first and the oldest of its fellowships, now very numerous, in this country. It lacks but little more than a year for its full century, since it was initiated four years before its incorporation in 1794. Its first five associates invited five more, and so it began with a membership of ten. Originally self-limited to thirty members resident in the state, its charter restricted it to sixty members. In 1857 an amendment in the charter extended its roll to one hundred mem- bers. There it remains. Numerous kindred societies in the state engage the zeal and industry of large numbers interested in local or general history. During the term of its existence the society
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has had on its resident roll 356 members, more than two-thirds of whom I have known personally. Brilliant and honored names are on that calendar, the foremost in our history, poetry, literature, patriotism, statesmanship, diplomacy, oratory, the judiciary of bar and bench, merchant princes and men of all nobleness in public and private life.
As for nearly half a century I have sat in their company, and so many of them have vanished from sight, the thought has often been in my mind, of the opportuneness of the time, and of the special fitness of the prime movers, when and by whom the society was instituted. The Congregational ministers of all New Eng- land have from its settlement to this day, been most concerned and most laborious in tracing, recording and gathering the mate- rials of its history. Three such ministers originated the Massa- chusetts Society. As they drew in associates, lay and clerical, they called themselves "The Historical Society," and in their first appeal announced their purpose to aim for "a complete his- tory of the country." The charter attached the title Massachu- setts. The society has always made this state, its history, its towns and its institutions and its people, the main subjects of its inter- ests, but has never forgotten the whole country. The first pur- chased property of the society consisted of twelve wooden chairs with "elbows, " called "Windsor chairs, " a pine wood table, paint- ed, with drawer and lock, and an inkstand. They are faithfully preserved.
Then as to the opportuneness of the time when the society was formed. The three Boston ministers, Belknap, Eliot and Thacher, who initiated it, were men in the vigor of life, of Har- vard training, who had all passed through the scenes of the Rev- olution, with family pride and history. They had been inquirers in the beginnings of things here, and had each collected his own store of the prime materials of history. These they contributed for shelf and cabinet, not as decoys, but as magnets, as nest-eggs, for gath- ering a brood. They prompted the searching into old secretaries and garrets, just at the fitting time to rescue what might soon have perished, beginning with the very earliest records made in this wilderness. Most of those records are of a creditable and honorable tenor. But an awful loyalty to truth has forbidden the wilful destruction of any thing, whatever the moral or the warning of the record. Over some portion of these ancient papers might well be inscribed two of the lines on the monument of old Hearne, the pioneer and father of English Antiquaries,
" Devil take you, says Time to Thomas Ilearne! Whatever I forget you learn."
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The infant society sent as its first publication over all the continent and its islands, "A Circular Letter, " not begging money but urging the collecting and preserving of the materials of his- tory. The society has published seventy-eight octavo volumes, mostly of original and valuable papers-such as Hubbard's and Bradford's Histories, Judge Sewall's Diary and Letters, Corres- pondence, Journals, Annals, Statistics, Memoirs, etc., of perma- nent interest. Our Massachusetts History has been more fully, minutely, and on the whole impartially related than that of any other community on the earth. Those who wish to depreciate or censure the state or its people have need to draw their materials from these candid records. Those who seek to misrepresent and slander rely in addition upon their own ignorance or imagination. There is, however, one New England history, written also by a minister, though a Church of England missionary, the Rev. Sam- uel Peters of Connecticut, to whom we are indebted for such fables as that of the invading army of frogs, whose uproar at Windham was like the bellowing of bulls, heard at the distance of miles, and spreading dismay and panic over the country. To the same amusing satirist we owe the perennial legend of the "Blue Laws. "
It may now be affirmed that no fit student can revise, recast, or complete the history of any town or incident in Massachusetts, dated in the past, without consulting the shelves and the cabinet of the Historical Society. The rich and faithful utterances to which you have to-day been listening from your well-furnished orator illustrates that statement.
We do not forget to-day the old town in the mother coun- try, whose name we bear "for the honor and love, " which we as well as our fathers "bear toward our dear and native land." In response to the invitations sent the Mayor and Corporation of Taunton, England, to be present with us on this occasion, the following has been received :-
TAUNTON, ENGLAND, May 16, 1889. DEAR MR. MAYOR :-
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter and in- vitations to the celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the found- ing of your town.
I brought the subject before our corporation at their monthly meeting, and also had invitations sent to each member, but I am afraid the long journey will prevent us from accepting your kind hospitality. But on behalf of myself, the other members of the
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corporation and the inhabitants of the old town, I beg to thank you and your committee for your kind feelings toward us, and to assure you that although we shall not be present at your celebra- tion our hearts will be with you, and we trust you will have a pleasant and enjoyable time.
Our corporation has decided to send you an address of con- gratulation which is being prepared, and I hope will reach you in good time.
I have sent you a local paper from which you will see the ac- count of our Council meeting. You will also observe that last week we had the honor of a visit from H. R. H., the Duke of Cambridge.
With kind regards and best wishes, I remain, dear Mr. Mayor,
Yours faithfully, HENRY I. SPILLER, Mayor of Taunton, England.
To His Worship, the Mayor of Taunton, Mass., U. S. A.
The First Settlers of Taunton :- Perhaps the most prominent of the first settlers of Taunton was Richard Wil- liams, whom the historian calls the father of the town. How near this statement came to being the literal truth, we may infer from the fact that there are ninety-three Williamses in our last city directory. And this number by no means indi- cates the whole family ; for a great many of them have got away, and are scattered all over the earth. One of these wandering sons, who has come back to us to-day, has carried to so fair a fruitage the good seed sown by his ancestor, that it has been publicly said of him that he is the only man in Maine who could be elected governor who would not accept the office. And that high office is so highly coveted, we know, in the Pine Tree state, that they sometimes have two governors at a time. Our friend, in his leisure moments, is something of an antiquarian and, I am told, has collected 1,000 names of the descendants of Richard Williams, and I believe he offers a reward for any new descendant that may be brought to him, dead or alive. I give you "The First
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Settlers of Taunton, " and present to you a descendant, in the seventh generation, of Richard Williams, the Hon. Josiah H. Drummond of Portland.
RESPONSE BY HON. JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND,
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
Or, if you will allow me to salute you by a title more pleasing to me, I will say Cousins of Ancient Taunton :
If I had ever lacked interest in my descent from the founders of your town, one glance up and down these tables would have revived it: and to-day I count myself fortunate in being a descend- ant from Richard Williams and that I have learned the fact before I had become any older.
Yes, many of the descendants of your "First Settlers " have wandered away; my friend King and myself, speaking for those who live in Maine, represent many more than are now found in your limits, even if you take your beautiful city and all the towns which went to make up Taunton of "ye ancient time."
In Maine, the descendants of the "First Settlers of Taunton " are found all over the State, from Kittery Point to Quoddy Head, from the Highlands to the ocean. On the shores of Casco Bay, in the valley of the Androscoggin, the roar of whose falls is lost in the hum of manufactories; in the valley of the glorious old Ken- nebec, the music of whose waters was the lullaby of my infancy and the delight of my boyhood ; in the valley of the majestic Penobscot and even in the valley of the far St. Croix, are equally found the descendants of the noble men and women, who re- deemed from the wilderness the spot where I now stand. To illustrate ;- among the first settlers of one town in Maine were seven families from Taunton ; how well they obeyed the injunction to "increase and multiply " you may know from the fact that in each one of five of these families, there were nine children; the other two, as the saying is, "broke the record, " by having eleven children in each. In the neighborhood, too, in which I was born, there were, in my boyhood, fourteen families dwelling consecu- tively within a space of two miles upon the same road, twelve of which, upon the one side or the other, were descendants of Rich- ard Williams. In fact, I believe that you could not call the roll of a single hamlet in Maine without some descendant of Ancient Taunton answering the call.
On behalf of these almost countless far-away cousins, I greet you, and most heartily congratulate you upon this auspicious day.
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But my friend, the toastmaster, has called upon me to respond for the "First Settlers of Taunton" instead of for their descend- ants, of whom, I infer, that he and the other young men propose to take care, without help from me. Indeed, he has warned you that I am "offering a reward for a descendant of Richard Wil- liams, dead or alive;" he has slightly exaggerated; my work ends with the fifth generation, and those now living are in no danger.
Recent investigations, set on foot, I think, by the influence of your Old Colony Historical Society and its indefatigable officers, have somewhat changed the formerly prevailing opinion in rela- tion to the ancestry and place of birth of Richard Williams. The discovery of wills made by his immediate relatives, and the infor- mation gained by Ex-Gov. Joseph H. Williams of my state, first made public to-day through his letter to you, render it quite cer- tain in my mind, that Richard Williams was not born in Wales, or if he was, that he left there in very early childhood.
Referring to the letter of Gov. Williams (the information in which he has kindly communicated to me,) we find that "Richard Williams of the parish of St. Johns in Gloucester and Frances Dighton of the parish of St. Nicholas in Gloucester were married in the parish of Whitcomb Magna, February 11, 1632 (O. S.")
In passing, we note that Gov. Williams has discovered the parentage and family of the fair bride, whose memory has been worthily honored by giving her name to one of the towns that made part of "Ancient Taunton, " and of her sister Katherine, the wife of Gov. Dudley-a problem that has heretofore baffled all the efforts of genealogists and antiquarians. They were the daughters of John Dighton, an eminent surgeon, and his wife, Jane, daughter of Edward Bassett of Uley. The Bassetts were descendants of the Berkeleys of Gloucestershire, so that in the old limits of Taunton we have two towns bearing the name of the wife of Richard Williams and of the famous family from which she was descended. We have not yet the precise date of her birth, but she was baptized in the church of St. Nicholas, Gloucester, March 1, 16II (O. S.) She survived her husband and all but two of her nine children, dying early in 1706, at the great age of ninety- five years. She was universally honored and beloved during her long life, and as a testimonial of the regard in which she was held, six years after her death, and in the centennial anniversary year of her birth, a part of the town of her adoption and in which she had dwelt more than the three score and ten years usually allotted as the limit of human life, was created a new town and named "Dighton" in her honor. I speak of her "in passing:" but when we consider the influences that must have gone out from
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the life of so good. a woman, who is entitled to more honorable mention, when "the First Settlers of Taunton " are eulogized, than Frances Dighton Williams ?
Richard and Frances had two children born to them while living in the City of Gloucester; John, bap. March 27, 1634; Elizabeth, bap. Feb'y 27, 1635 (O. S.); both of whom died young.
These dates, with others already known, establish with great certainty that Richard Williams came to this country in 1636. His daughter was baptized in February of that year in Gloucester and he purchased land in Dorchester in 1637 and the same year became one of the original purchasers of Taunton. Question has been raised whether the Richard Williams, who bought land in Dorchester, was Richard Williams, later of Taunton ; but there is no room for doubt, because Richard Williams of Taunton on October 20, 1646, sold one of the lots in Dorchester, and another lot "which fell to Richard Williams " in Dorchester, descended to, and was sold by, the great grandson of Richard Williams of Taun- ton.
Richard Williams and family must have been in Taunton in 1637, as he was one of the first purchasers at that date. The settle- ment of the place must have been made long enough before the incorporation of the town, to give assurance that it was to be per- manent. John Richmond and John Hathway say in depositions (which I have not seen in print) that they came to Taunton in 1639, and that then John Gilbert, one of the original purchasers, " had a house down on the meadow, on the westerly side of Great River." It would seem that the settlement must have com- menced immediately after the purchase, and the prominence of Richard Williams indicates that he was one of the first of the "First Settlers." I have not examined the grounds upon which the tradition, that he came to Taunton from Scituate, rests, but from the facts established by records, I am inclined to doubt its truth. But wherever he passed the time between his arrival in this country and 1639, it is certain that from that date till his death in 1692, more than half a century, he lived in Taunton an honorable and useful life, being almost continually entrusted with the management of public affairs, both religious and civil, and in all relations, commanding the respect, confidence and esteem of the community. He represented Taunton in the Colonial Court twelve years from 1645 to 1665, and was also one of the board of selectmen twelve years.
But whence did he originate ? I have already stated that in my opinion he was not born in Wales, or, if he was, that he came to Gloucester when quite young.
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The discovery, by Mr. Waters, of two wills, an abstract of which is given in the thirty-seventh volume of the Genealogical Register, gives us important and quite decisive information. One of the wills was made in 1650 by an unmarried sister of Richard Williams, and the other in 1695, by his nephew, the son of a de- ceased brother.
The sister, Jane Williams, mentions in her will, her brother, Samuel Williams, her brother Richard Williams and her sister Elizabeth Williams, "that are in New England "; Benjamin Wil- liams and Nathaniel Williams, the sons of her brother Samuel ; her sister, the wife of John Hall, and her children John, Samuel, Daniel and Susanna. The testatrix describes herself as of Whiten- hurst, Gloucester-the place where Richard Williams lived before he went to America.
The nephew, who made the other will, was the Benjamin, son of Samuel, mentioned in the first will. He was a school master and lived in Surrey County. He mentions his cousins, the Hall children, named in Jane's will as "now or late of Whitenhurst in Co. Gloucester :" other cousins apparently on his mother's side; then his cousins, Samuel, Thomas and Benjamin Williams of New England; the eldest child of his cousin, Nathaniel Williams of New England, deceased; the eldest child of his cousin Joseph Wil- liams, deceased; his cousin Elizabeth Bird of Dorchester, New England; the eldest child of his cousin, Hannah Parmater. He thus not only names all the children of Richard Williams, but he calls the daughters by their married names, and also mentions as " deceased" the two sons and one daughter of Richard Wil- liams, who had then died. This will identifies the families beyond peradventure.
From both, we learn that Richard Williams had a brother Samuel, a sister Jane, who died unmarried, a sister who married John Hall, and a sister Elizabeth Williams, who, in 1650, was in New England. We learn, too, that they all lived in Gloucester and that the married ones had families there ; and the presump- tion is very strong that they were all born there, or came there in childhood as one family. Moreover the clause in the nephew's will, in which he leaves a legacy to the poor of Whitenhurst in Gloucester, "any poor people of my father's kindred principally re- commended" shows clearly that there were in that parish collateral kindred beyond those descended from his father's father, as he already made specific legacies to all of them. In the absence of other evidence, I hold with much confidence that the Williams family had lived in Gloucester several generations, when Richard Williams left his old home to seek a new one in New England.
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It has been suggested that Roger Williams was the brother of Richard, or, at any rate, that Richard had a brother Robert, who married a sister of Roger Williams. The enumeration of the family in these two wills pretty fully demolishes both of these theories. In my researches I have found no evidence of their truth. As yet, however, no trace has been found of this "sister, Elizabeth Williams, " who was in New England in 1650; it does not appear whether she was then married or single; all the tradi- tion about Richard's having a brother may have arisen from the marriage of this sister, Elizabeth, with a husband by the name of Williams; but this is mere conjecture.
For fifty years after the incorporation of Taunton, there is in its records and history frequent mention of the name of Wil- liams; but they were always Richard and his sons. But in 1688, Elias Williams witnessed a deed executed by William Makepeace, whose daughter Emmanuel Williams married, not many years la- ter; and in 1796, the marriage of Charles Williams and Mary Gladding is recorded. These are in a contemporaneous group ; and apparently Elias and Emmanuel either lived with William Makepeace or in his vicinity; still whether they, or any of them, were of one family is yet left almost wholly to conjecture. Beyond the record of the birth of a child, Charles made no further sign, and I have met with no further mention of Elias. But Emmanuel married, and in 1709 was included in the list of "Heads of Fami- lies" in Taunton ; he died about 1719, leaving six children whose descendants still live in Dighton and New Bedford. But these Williames were nearly of the same generation as Richard's grand- children, and could scarcely have been the children of Elizabeth ; in a word, her history is still a blank.
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