USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Springfield, 1636-1886 : history of town and city, including an account of the quarter-millennial celebration at Springfield, Mass., May 25 and 26, 1886 > Part 11
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11
4
Henry Chapen
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4
Robert Ashly
13
3₺
John Lamb
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5
Tho: Mirick
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3
Henry Burt
16
3
Win Warinar
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1
Rice Bedortha
18
1
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
Tho Cooper
19
1
Jonath Taylor
20
1
Sam Chapen
21
1
Robert Ashley's section was given on condition that he keep an ordinary, but it was to be surrendered in case he failed in this respect.
The fact that John Pynchon was becoming an extensive trader and business man was probably due to the encouragement of his father, who felt that he himself was not destined to spend his closing days in Springfield. The son was pushed forward in both public and private affairs, and soon gained the confidence of the community. In the winter of 1650 we find that, " It is agreed by the Towne that if Mr. John Pynchon will make a chamber over the meeting-house and board it : he shall have the use of it entirely to himself for Ten years," when the town could secure it by paying the expense of building it. A year later a dispute arose between John Pynchon and the town over this chamber. The young man used the chamber for storing corn ; many feared that the grain would come down upon their heads, and he was limited to 400 bushels at one time, unless he " underprop ye floor." The town finally bought the chamber ontright.
There is not a line of manuscript of this period extant that can be pointed to as evidence that the course of Mr. Moxon's teachings was not in full accord with the orthodox views of the times, and yet it is more than probable that he differed with the great divines down at the Bay. One wonders what was the occasion of this action, taken Dec. 27, 1649 : " It is alsoe ordered yt ye select Townsmen wth ye Deacons shall in ye behalfe of the Towne draw up & send down to ye elders a letter desiring y" to explaine ye cleere meaninge of ye voates concerninge M'. Moxon's maintenance."
In 1652 John Pynchon headed a committee to bargain with Mr. Moxon for all of his Springfield real estate, which, after due delibera- tion and several meetings, was brought about, the agreement being that
1
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
his home-lot and buildings, and all of his meadow, wood, and plant- ing-grounds should " Remaine for ever to ye use of ye Inhabitants of Springfeild." In 1655 a formal vote was passed dedicating this property for the perpetual use of the ministry. The price paid Mr. Moxon for his property was £70. This was about what he received as a yearly stipend, but there had been some uncertainty even about this, as can be inferred from a clanse in the following treasurer's account, approved Jan. 30, 1651 : -
Mr. Moxon's maintenance
£ 70
00
Mr. Will. Pynchon for the Bell
05
00
Mr. John Pynchon for a barrell of powder for a towne stock
07
12
6
1 qr 11 lbs muskett bullets & ye caske
01
17
50 L of match &e.
01
13 4
for ye cartway to ve foot of ye falls
10
00 0
21 03 4
for charges about repayringe the meeting howse, hanging the
bell & other charges .
18
00
00
for killinge 5 wolves
05
03 04
Totall 129 03 04
It is agreed and ordered that the prices of corne for payment of all these rates shall be wheate at 3s 10d per bg. pease at 3s per bg. Indian at 2s Gd per bg. only Mr. Moxon's rate we are to agree with him.
The purchase of the Moxon property was a wise move upon general principles, but it meant also that the poor plantation was about to suffer a great loss. The May session of the Massachusetts Bay General Court of 1651, which confirmed Mary Parsons's death- sentence, was furnished forth with a matter of still greater importance in the eyes of the great men of that day. The waters of tribulation had gathered about the great, clear-visioned founder of Springfield. He had reached Boston from Springfield in company with Henry Smith, the deputy, and a number of citizens ready to swear in the
.
for Mr. Moxon wch he pd for ye Towne upon ye close last yeare. 10 00
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Parsons cases. He had not been elected assistant as in former years, because a cloud hung over his head touching his theology. Mary Parsons lay in jail awaiting her execution ; her husband had not yet had his trial. Mr. Pynchon was also oppressed by the " present troubles of his family." Some of the brightest minds of Boston were set at work to win Mr. Pynchon back to an orthodox belief. It was his hour of humiliation, and unless one can realize the terrible weight of a despotic popular sentiment, it will be useless to attempt an explanation of Mr. Pynchon's almost heroic retreat from settled theological convictions. The solemn court had just con- firmed the sentence of death upon Mary Parsons when Mr. Pynchon's retraction was presented and considered. Here it is, as set forth in the records of the Massachusetts Bay colony : -
According to the Court's advice, I have conferred with the Rev. Mr. Cotton, Mr Norrice and M' Norton about some poynts of the greatest consequence in my booke, and I hope have so explayned my meaninge to them as to take off the worst construction ; and it hath pleased God to let me see that I have not spoken in my booke so fully of the price and merrit of Christ's sufferings as I should have done, for in my booke I call them but trialls of his obedience, yet intend- inge thereby to amplyfy and exalt the mediatoriall obedyence of Christ as the only meritorious price of man's redemption; but now at present, I am much inclined to thinke that his sufferings were appoynted by God for a further end. namely. as the due punishment of our sins by way of satisfaction to divine justice for man's redemption.
This document was signed, "Yo' humble servant, in all dutyfull respects, William Pinchon." It will be out of the limits set for this history to follow the steps of this fierce theological controversy, ex- cept so far as it affected the Springfield plantation. Mr. Pynchon had found time to discuss somewhat philosophically and intuitively the doctrine of atonement, and he had gradually come to the con- clusion that Christ's mediatorial obedience was a more important element in the agency that secured man's redemption than His suf-
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ferings. He had written quite a pamphlet upon this subject, and had sent it to England for publication. It was the now famous " Meri- torious Price of our Redemption." It reached Boston during the
PYNCHON'S BOOK BURNED ON BOSTON COMMON.
session of the October court, 1650, and produced the most profound consternation. Gall was as vital as grace to the Boston divine ; without any unnecessary ceremony the book was ordered to be burned in the market-place after lecture, and the distinguished Mr. Norton, of Ipswich, was subsequently chosen to prepare and publish a reply to Mr. Pynchon's book. Mr. Norton was just the man for such a commission. He had been a brilliant student at Cambridge, was set against Arminianism, and was one of the politico-theologians who
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ruled New England. John Cotton, in his last days, when much con- cerned abont a successor to his pulpit, dreamed that he saw Mr. Norton coming into Boston on a white horse. It fell ont (so Cotton Mather claims) that Mr. Norton, when he entered Boston to take charge of John Cotton's church, did ride upon a white horse. This was the advocate appealed to by Massachusetts to give battle to William Pynchon over the doctrine of the atonement, and it will be found upon reading Norton's reply and Pynchon's second book that our honored pioneer was quite the equal of the university student as a logician, and much his superior in the reasoning that is based upon the inspiration of a catholic heart and a broad mind. We can make this claim without casting reflections upon the Boston scheme of gov- ernment, which for that age was a protest against the worldly for- malism of the English Church.
The cautiously worded retraction which Mr. Pynchon felt justified in submitting did not quite reconcile the authorities at the Bay. In a frigid manner they simply voted that he was " in a hopefull way to give good satisfaction," and allowed him to return home, but bound him over to answer still further at the next session. Henry Smith was at once substituted as magistrate at Springfield, however, - a bit of stern discipline which Mr. Pynchon deeply felt.
The merits of Mr. Pynchon's conviction as to the real nature of the atonement would take a chapter to detail. Ile claimed, in short, that Christ's obedience was set over against Adam's disobedience ; that if He had died unwillingly; the sacrifice would not have been sufficient. " His divine nature," argues Mr. Pynchon, " was the altar upon which He sacrificed His human nature. Yet His meditorial death was a miraculous death. The devil and his agents had power to bruise Him, and to nail Him to the cross. But they had no power to separate His Soul from His body. So His death was not passive but active ; and, therefore, a part of his meditorial obedience."
Those familiar with the long course of the discussion over the phi- losophy of the atonement. and the old Puritan tenets, will understand
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why Pynchon's book fed the flames on Boston Common, and why the General Court hastened to draw up a protest to send back to England in a vessel that was ready to weigh anchor. At that time the Pynchon book had not been read, but was condemned by its title-page alone. The death of Governor Winthrop had given the more orthodox in New England greater freedom to work out to the full their beliefs. Sir Henry Vane, like Winthrop, had been a warm personal friend of Mr. Pynchon, and he wrote the Massachusetts authorities from Eng- land, in the spring of 1652, advising them to deal with Pynchon in a brotherly way, and to encourage him to remain longer in the service of the churches. Sir Henry's letter brought this reply : -
HONOURED SIR. We received your letter bearing date the 15th of April. 1652, written in the behalf of Mr William Pincheon. who is one that we did all love and respect. But his book and the doctrine therein contained we cannot but abhor as pernicious, and dangerous : and are much grieved, that such an erroneous pamph- let was penned by any New England man. especially a Magistrate amongst us, wherein he taketh upon him to condemn the judgment of most, if not all, both ancient and modern divines, who were learned, orthodox and godly in a point of so great weight and concernment, as tend to the salvation of God's elect. and the contrary, which he maintains to the destruction of such as follow it. Neither have we ever heard of any one godly orthodox divine. that ever held what he hath written ; nor do we know any one of our ministers in all the four jurisdic- tions that doth approve of the same; but all do judge it as erroneous and hereti- cal. And to the end that we might give satisfaction to all the world of our just proceedings against him, and for the avoiding of any just offence to be taken against us, we caused Mr John Norton, teacher of the church of Ipswich, to answer his book fully. which. if it be printed, we hope it will give yourself and all indifferent men full satisfaction.
Mr. Pincheon might have kept his judgment to himself, as it seems he did above thirty years, most of which time he hath lived amongst us with honour, much respect, and love. But when God left him to himself in the publishing, and spreading of his erroneous book here amongst us, to the endangering of the faitli of such as might come to read them (as the like effects have followed the reading of other erroneons books brought over into these parts), we held it our duty, and believed we were called of God. to proceed against him accordingly. And this we
THE MERITORIOUS PRICE OF Our Redemption, luftification, &c. Cleering it from fome common Errors ;
And proving,
I. That Chrift did not fuffer for us thofe unutterable torments of Gods wrath, that commonly are called Hell-torments, to re- deem our foules from them.
Part I. 2. That Chrift did not bear our fins by Gods imputation, and therefore he did not bear the curfe of the Law forthem.
Part II.
3. That Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the Law (not by fuffering the faid curfe for us, but ) by a fatisfactory price of attonement; viz. by paying or performing unto his Father that invaluable precious thing of his Mediatoriall obedience, wherof his Mediatoriall Sacrifice of attonement was the mafter- piece.
4. A finners righteoufneffe or juftification is explained, and clec- red from fome common Errors.
By William Pinchin, Gentleman, in New England.
The Mediator faith thus to his Father in Pfal 40.8,10.
I delight to do thy will O my God, jea thy Law is within my heart : (vie.) I delight to do thy will, or Law, as a Mediator.
I bave not hid thy righteoufneffe within my beart, I have declared thy faithfulneffe , and thy faluation: Namely, I have not hid thy rightcoufneffe, or rhy way of making finners rightcous, bur have declared it by the performance of my Mediatoriall Sacrifice of at- tonement, as the procuring caufe of iby attonement, to the great Congregation for their everlafting righteoufneffe.
LONDON, Printed by . OH. for George Whittington, and James Moxon, and are to be fold at the blue. Anchor in Corn hill neer the Royall Exchange. 16.50.
TITLE-PAGE, PYNCHON BOOK.
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can further say, and that truly, that we used all lawful Christian means, with as much tenderness, respect, and love, as he could expect, which we think he him- self will acknowledge. For we desired divers of our elders such as he himself liked, to confer with him privately, lovingly and meekly, to see if they could pre- vail with him by arguments from the scriptures, which accordingly was done; and he was then thereby so far convinced that he seemed to yield for substance the case in controversy signed with his own hand. And for the better confirm- ing of him in the truth of God, Mr. Norton left with him a copy of the book he writ in answer to him ; and the Court gave him divers months to consider both of the book, and what had been spoken unto him by the elders. But in the interim (as it is reported) he received letters from England, which encouraged him in his errors, to the great grief of us all, and of divers others of the people of God amongst ns. We therefore leave the author, together with the fautors and maintainers of such opinions to the great Judge of all the earth, who judgeth righteously and is no respector of persons. Touching that which your honoured self doth advise us unto, viz. not to censure any persons for matters of a relig- ions nature or concernment, we desire to follow any good advice from you, or any of the people of God. according to the rule of God's word. Yet we conceive, with subemission still to better light, that we have not acted in Mr. Pincheon's case either for substance or circumstance, as far as we can discern, otherwise than according unto rule, and as we believe in conscience to God's command, we were bound to do. All which we hope will so far satisfy you as that we shall not need to make any further defence touching this subject. The God of peace and truth lead you into all faith, and guide your heart aright in these dangerous and apostatising times, wherein many are fallen from the faith. giving heed to errours, and make you an instrument (in the place God hath called you unto) of his praise, to stand for his truth against all opposers thereof, which will bring you peace and comfort in the saddest hours, which are the prayers of, Sir,
Your unworthy servants,
20 October, 1652.
Past by the Council.
John Endicott, Gov'r Tho Dudley Dep'ty Rich. Bellingham Inereas Nowell Simon Bradstreet Wm Hibbins Sam. Simonds Robt Bridges John Glover
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
After Mr. Pynchon had signed his retraction, and the General Court had not considered it full enough to warrant their continuing him in his position as magistrate at Springfield, Pynchon returned home with his son-in-law, Henry Smith. No one can say why Smith should accept a mark of favor which was a rebuke to his father-in- law, and no one can really say that he did. For two years after the burning of Mr. Pynchon's book the magistracy book is blank. If Mr. Smith acted as local judge, he left no record of it. As Pynchon rode for three or more days westward, what must have been his thought? - loss of public confidence, an object of hatred by the General Court, relieved of office, disgraced, and set upon by busy tongues !
The whole Commonwealth was shaken with an uneasy, unsettled feeling. Witchcraft and heresy seemed, in the eyes of the Boston divines, to be walking hand in hand. Springfield rested under a cloud, and the names of William Pynchon and Hugh and Mary Parsons were in the minds of the stern soldiers of the gospel when they recorded the following solemn decree : "This Conrt, takeinge into consid- eracon how farre Sathan pvayles amongst us in respect of witchcraft, as also by drawing away some from the truth to the pfession & prac- tise of straung opinions, & also consideringe the state & condition of England, Ireland & Scotland, & the great thinges now in hand there, conceive it necessary that there be a day of humiliation throughout o' jurisdiction in all the churches."
Mr. Pynchon's feelings can best be inferred from his acts. He did not appear at the October term, according to the direction of the court. Mr. Smith attended the court, but after remaining a few days he was granted special leave to return. When it became known that Mr. Pynchon was not to be present during the session, the court voted that it " is willinge, that all patience be exercised tow- ards M' Wm Pinchon, that, if it be possible, he may be reduced into the way of truth, & that he might renounce the erronrs & haeresies published in his booke; & for that end doe give him time to the
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next General Courte in May more thoroughly to consider of the sd errors & haeresies in his sd booke, & well to weigh the judicious answer of Mr. John Norton thereto." The penalty of non-appear- ance was £100.
The distress at Springfield over the strange things was great. Mr. Pynchon had determined to go back to England and stay there. If his retraction was not sufficient, then he could never meet the demands of the Bay authorities.
But who in Springfield were to go with him, and who to stay? Young John Pynchon decided to remain, as his wife naturally ob- jected leaving her family in Connecticut. But Elizur Holyoke and his wife Mary had no such ties. Would they go with her father? And Henry Smith and his wife, - what would they do? Ilere was the parting of the ways, and on the decision hung the fate of the western Massachusetts of that generation. The young men saved Springfield. John Pynchon and Elizur Holyoke stood by the planta- tion, but Henry Smith accompanied the retiring party. Rev. Mr. Moxon. too, gave up his parsonage, his new church, and the hopes that had gathered around them, and joined Mr. Pynchon's party.
William Pynchon suffered the usual fate of men who are ahead of their age, and if he had elected to remain in Massachusetts he would have been banished, without doubt, as Roger Williams had been a short time before. His career in New England was personally a trying one, most of the time antagonizing the tendencies of govern- ment here. We in our day can recognize the broad spirit that moved him, and, at the same time, we can understand the motives of State that dominated the earnest men of the Bay. They had fled from a corrupt civilization to the forest, and their loss of physical comfort and the continued association with pioneer perils was the price they were willing to pay for the privilege of reading and preaching the word of God. The Roger Williamses and the William Pynchons are sure to get entangled in the meshes of such a scheme. Roger Williams had watched the Pynchon controversy, and had written to an
VOS ESTIS DEI
AGRIGYLTVRI
MESSORD
NO3
T FOVIT
L1.1413
CONCOLGARV
THE PYNCHON TABLET AT WRITTLE, ENGLAND.
.
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
acquaintance deploring the lack of liberality on the part of the province toward the Springfield man.
William Pynchon, Henry Smith, and Rev. Mr. Moxon were at Hartford in July. 1652, on their way to England ; and in May. 1653, Pynchon met, at London, his brother from Bedfordshire, who had gone up to greet him. Mr. Pynchon settled at Wraisbury, on the Thames. He might have gone to Writtle, where now exists an elegant marble memorial of the Pynchon family ; but he preferred to settle where he could see from his window Magna Charta island and Windsor castle. There is a tradition in the Pynchon family that Mr. Moxon was silenced upon his return to England, and was reduced to the position of servant to a tradesman. It is not likely, however, that Mr. Pynchon would have permitted his old friend to suffer in this way. It has been understood by the American branch of the Pynchons that William Pynchon bought of the government, upon his return to England, some lands, valued at £1,100 sterling, which he lost at the Restoration. He certainly lived at Wraisbury, upon an estate of the Pynchons.
Bulstrode Whitelocke, the great Parliamentary lawyer of Crom- well's time, was a relative of Pynchon through the Empsons ; and when the returning Puritan reached Wraisbury he was near his Bul- strode relatives.
Mr. Pynchon's second wife died October 10, 1657. People from many towns about Wraisbury attended the funeral. Pynchon's daughter, Mary Holyoke, had died that year, and he writes feelingly : " I am the more solitary as Son Smith is of a reserved melancholy disposition, and my daughter is crazy."
William Pynchon founded Roxbury, the mother of fourteen New England towns ; he founded Springfield, the mother of thirteen New England towns and god-mother of quite as many more. Roxbury has named a street after him : so has Springfield. Beyond this, William Pynchon has no public memorial in this country.
CHAPTER VIII.
1653-1675.
Springfield in the Hands of Young Men. - The Discipline more rigid. - Apportionments of Land. - Power of the Seleetmen. - Quabang. - The Vacant Pulpit. - Various Candidates. - Rev. Mr. Glover settled. - How the Meeting-House was " dignified." - Hampshire County. - Business of the County Courts. - Numerous Offences against Private Morals. - The Cause. - Tything-Men. - Death of Mary Holyoke. - Death of William Pynchon in England. - The Pynchon Fort on Main Street.
THE town of Springfield had touched its low-water mark with the departure of its founder, its minister, and its scribe. One needs no evidence of tradition to be convinced that the young men left to take up the burdens and responsibilities of the plantation thought seri- ously of abandoning the work and going down the river. Nothing but the most heroie courage and faith could have induced the depleted community to hold fast to the lands already cleared. They were poor, unprotected from the dangers of the great wilderness west and north, and separated from the jurisdiction of the Bay by a 100-mile forest, and were unable for a long time to secure a minister.
The man of the hour was John Pynchon. He was methodical, naturally given to the details of business and government, and was a wiser man than his father in avoiding annoying complications. He had a technical mind, and was more of an executive officer, but less of a thinker. He wrote a better hand. and was a natural student ; but he could not take in with his eye, as could William Pynchon, the sweep of a new government, and determine the principles that make for permanence in the State. John Pynchon was not the man to found a town, and William Pynchon was not the man to build one up.
John Pynchon and his young associates. Elizur Holyoke and Sam-
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SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
uel Chapin, took the oath as magistrates, Nov. 22, 1652. It was the turning-point in everything that makes Springfield a stronghold of regular government in local affairs. John Pynchon was only thirty-one years of age. The business of administration was more closely attended to ; the "presenter," or grand juryman, was in- structed to seek out offences against the laws of the colony. The regular court days came in March and September, and while private in- terests continued to figure in court as before, public eanses multiplied. Richard Sikes is fined for smoking on a hay-cock ; Goody Griffith is punished for carrying fire uncovered in the streets, and in a multi- tude of ways it became evident that a strong governing hand had taken hold of the helm.
When Mr. Smith sailed for England late in the autumn of 1652 he left his wife here, probably on account of sickness and death in his family ; the General Court did not think best to confirm his elec- tion as captain of the Springfield trainband, " untill he shall return from England." But the elections of John Pynchon as lieutenant and of Elizur Holyoke as ensign were at once approved. And it might be here remarked that every officer, from hog-reeve to magis- trate, was first elected by the people, the General Court only using its prerogative of ratification.
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