USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 32
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Nearest akin in interest, to the history of the town itself, is the past history of its churches and religious institutions. For, prior to the incorporation of the town, the parish organization was in exist- enee, and was in itself, in a measure, a municipal corporation on a small scale.
The First Parish in Salem Village was made a separate parochial organization, with the conditional assent of the town of Salem, Oct. 8, 1672. The inhabitants of the village first presented a petition to this end in 1670, and the assent of the town of Salem was obtained
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
in March. 1672. The order of the General Court grantiug the divi- sion is as follows : -
" At a generall court held at Boston 8th of October 1672 - In answer to the Petition of the farmers of Salem. Richard Hutchinson Thomas Fuller &c .. the Court judgeth it meet. that all persons living within the tract of land mentioned in the town's grant of land to the Peti- tioners. together with all lands and Estates lying within the said bounds shall Contribute to all Charges referring to the maintainance of a minister and erecting a meeting house there. and that they shall have liberty to nominate and appoint persons among themselves or town of Salem not exceeding the Number of Five. who are here- by impowered from time to time for the making and gathering of all rates and levies For the ends above expressed -- and that in case of refusall or non payment of the same by any person or persons amongst them, that then the Constables of Salem shall and hereby are impowered to make distress upon the goods of any that shall so neglect or refuse to afford their help in that use. And the same to deliver to the per- sons aforesaid to be improved accordingly and that when a minister shall be settled amongst them. they shall be freed from Contributing to the ministers of Salem - That this is a true Coppy taken out of the Court records Attests Edward Rawson. Secretary."
There was a mutual understanding that no church was to be organ- ized at once. for there was an expressed unwillingness on the part of the Salem church to part with so large a number of its members at once. savoring somewhat. too. of a distrust as to what the new church might do, if allowed to become independent. As there was no church. the distinction customarily made between church members and others in voting was not strictly followed, and all householders in the parish were allowed a voice in the parish affairs. The parish in this case. therefore. instead of being an adjunct, as was customary. to a town. was given certain incideutal functions as a town.
The first meeting of the farmers was held Nov. 11. 1672. Lient. Thomas Putnam. Thomas Fuller, Sr .. Joseph Porter. Thomas Flint. and Joshua Rea, were chosen a committee. "to carry along the affairs according to the Court order." They instructed the committee to lay taxes on this basis : "All Vacant land at one half penny per acre ; all improved land at one penny per acre : all heads and other estate at country price." The latter was probably a rate established by the colonial government. It was also voted to make a rate of forty pounds in that year for Mr. Bayley. Mr. James Bayley had been in the parish but a few months. at the time of this organization. By this vote he became, not the settled pastor. but what might now be termed a " stated supply."
At a meeting on the " 26th of the 10th month." that is, December, 1672, it was voted to build a meeting-house. "of 34 foot in length. 28 foot broad. and 16 foot between joints ; " and Nathan Putnam. Henry Henny. Joseph Hutchinson, and Joseph Putnam. were joined with the general committee before chosen for a building committee. A rate or tax was made to pay for the work. A little later, in March. "at a meeting of the farmers, it was voted. that the fifth part of the rate for building the meeting-house and finishing the same shall be paid in money, or butter at five pence the pound, or wheat at the money price, and the rest of the payment iu such pay as shall carry it along. This money and butter and wheat is to provide nails and " [glass, probably, the word being partially obliterated] " for the meet- ing-house."
This meeting-house was built according to vote, though it was not wholly completed for a considerable period. In 1684. it was voted that the meeting-house " shall be filled and daubed at where it wants below the beams and plates, And that six casements shall be Hanged in the meeting-house, and that there be a canope set over the pulpit." A little later, galleries were added. This house was a two-story wooden building, with peaked roof. It stood upon the flat. north- east of the present site, upon the north side of Hobart Street. which is the old meeting-house road, and between the houses now occupied
by Harriet and Hiram Hook. Joseph Hutchinson, a neighbor hard by. owned the meadow, and gave an acre of land to the "Inhabitants of the Farms. for the meeting-house and ministry amongst them." Those who desired were allowed to build " a house for their horses. on that side of the meeting house next the swamp," that is, at the rear towards the north-east.
During the second year of his pastorate, Mr. Bayley's salary was made £47. He was to find his own firewood, or, if he preferred, to give up the extra £7. and receive his wood from the parish commit- tee. This supply of wood was reckoned at from thirty to thirty-six cords. In this second year. 1673. the parish voted to build a house for the minister. "the dimensions to be 28 foot in length. 13 foot be- tween joynts, and 20 foot in breadth. aud a leentoo of 11 foot at the end of the house." This does not appear to have been carried into effect. for, seven years later. iu February, 1680. the vote is renewed ; " the Dimensions of the House are as followeth : 42 foot long. twenty foot Broad : thirteen foot stude, fouer chimleis. no gable ends." "A Ratte " was made to meet the expense. to the amount of two hundred aud twenty-one pounds. nine shillings. and six pence. On the " 26th of Genewary," 1681, the work was well under way ; and in Febru- ary, 1683. the house is stated to stand in need of being "Repaired." This house stood some fifty rods north-west of the present parsonage. and a little less than twenty rods from the present course of Centre Street, on the north-eastern side. to the rear of the houses of John Roberts and Henry Prentiss. upon land now owned by E. and A. Mudge & Co. A lane near the house of John Roberts leads into the ancient site. It was upon the south-western border of a tract of land containing about five aeres. which Joseph Houlton had given in 1681 to the inhabitants of Salem Village. "for the use of the ministry."
Mr. Bayley's ministry was not harmonious. There were mauy dis- putes between himself and his people. some of them arising from the delay in building this house, which caused a great deal of annoyance to the minister. and some expense. He was a young man. lacking in judgment and taet. The trouble was augmented from year to year. till it reached such a height as to require the assistance and counsel of the mother church. in Salem, and subsequently the intervention of the General Court of the Colony. Neither of the latter succeeded in removing the difficulty, and Mr. Bayley's ministry probably closed near the end of the year 1679. He did not remove from the limits of the parish. for. in the year 1680. certain of his late parishioners, Thomas. Nathaniel. and John Putnam, Joseph Hutchinson. and Thomas Fuller. Sr .. gave him a tract of about forty acres of land, lying. in part. upou the hill and meadow east of the meeting-house. Here he had a house. in which he lived, apparently for several years. and which he continued to occupy occasionally. "for some years after the witchcraft transactions." After leaving the ministry. Mr. Bay- ley became a physician, and practised iu Roxbury, where he died. in 1707.
Mr. George Burroughs. also a Harvard man, came to the village to preach. in November. 1680. The farmers voted. "that Mr Bur- roughs for his mentenance amongst us Is to Have for the year ensu- ing sixty pounds In and as money one third part in mony cartain the two thirds in provision at money price as followeth : Ry and barly and walt at three shillings per bushel : indian coru at two shillings a bushel beaf at three half-pence a pound and pork at 2 peuce a pound Butter at 6 pence a pound and this to be paid at each half year's end: it is to be understood. that It shall be at the Inhabitants Liberty to discharge the wholl Sixty pounds in all mony if they se canse and his firewood." It appears that Mr. Bayley's friends still continued to. maintain his eause in the parish. and troubles continned in the church. Mr. Burroughs gave up his engagement. and left the village. in 1683. his ministry covering two years, and probably one-quarter of the third. This pastor's experi- ences here, appear to have been stormy and sad. and also his subse- queut eareer. His salary was neglected, and when his wife died, he
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
had not the means to accord her a proper burial. He was the cause of what proved a bitter and deadly enmity among his parishioners, to whose hatred he became a martyr, in the subsequent years of the terrible witchcraft delusion. In those awful days, when the gallows were made to subserve the interests of petty spite, Mr. Burroughs was the minister, who, dragged from the far-off wilds of Maine, was granted a trial with mere mockery of justice, and, when riding through the streets of Salem to his execution, exercised his divine calling by the repetition of such touching scriptural quotations, that the populace were moved to tears; and but for the intervention of Cotton Mather, might have procured for their former pastor a pardon.
The early church of Salem Village, appears to have been rent and torn by internal quarrels and petty dissensions, and December 27, 1681, it was " agreed upon and voted for the futer by the Inhabitants of Salem Village : that the Ratte made for the Defraing of all our charges for the year 1681 : both for Houses and Lands with all other Consarnes belonging to the Ministry amongst ns shall Be entered In our Book of Records with the names and pertienlar summes : And that it shall not Bee Lawful for the Inhabitants of this Village to con- vey the Houses or Lands or any other consarnes Belonging to the Ministry to any perticular person or persons not for any cause by Voat or other ways : But this estate to stand good to the Inhabitants of this place and to their successors for ever (for them.)" These votes are significant with respect to the nature of the troubles ex- isting among the farmers, which had to do largely with pecuniary affairs. This resolve, as to the conveyance of the lands and houses belonging to " the Ministry," had evident reference to the attempted donation of land to Mr. Bayley, or, perhaps, to Mr. Burroughs. The " rate " for 1681 follows upon the record with the names of the men assessed, of which there are ninety-four, indicating a population of about five hundred. The whole tax amounted to a fraction above two hundred pounds, indicating the collection of a considerable sum, in payment for the minister's house then building.
Mr. Deodat Lawson succeeded Mr. Burroughs. It would appear, by the records handed down, that this gentleman was of a mercenary disposition, and filled with worldly greed. There was a long period of bargaining before a trade was fairly made, and then the reverend gentleman appears to have settled upon the same terms as granted to Mr. Burroughs. Mr. Daniel Eppes, the schoolmaster, supplied the pulpit during the interim. The new pastor finally came and settled, in February, 1684. As to his ministerial work, little is really known. It is certain, however, that dissensions among the people, both old and new, continued with increasing bitterness. Efforts were made to secure Mr. Lawson's permaneut settlement, but the resist- ance was too strong ; and there being no prospeet of a change, the minister left the parish in 1688. He visited the neighborhood again in 1692, however.
Mr. Samuel Parris was the third pastor. This gentleman was born in London, and was thirty-five years old at his first arrival in Salem Village, in 1688. He had been a member of Harvard College, but was not a graduate, and had also been engaged in mercantile pursuits in the West Indies and in Boston. He also drove a sharp bargain with the parish, and it was more than a year before he finally accepted its invitation. The exact terms of his settlement became a matter of dispute between pastor and people, which they were never able to scttle.
June 18, 1689, there is an entry of a vote offering Mr. Parris a settlement of sixty-six pounds, one-third in money and two-thirds in provisions at specified rates, he being required to find his own fire- wood, and to keep the ministry house in good repair. Mr. Parris, however, never admitted that he settled on the basis of this vote. After his ordination, when the entry was read in a parish meeting, at which he was present, he declared, according to the testimony of three of his parishioners, that he knew nothing of any such vote, and
would have nothing to do with it, and that " they were Knaves and Cheaters, that entered it." Upon the 10th of October, after reference to the repeal of the vote of 1681, forbidding the conveyance by sale or gift of the real estate of the parish, it is said to have been " voted and agreed by a General Concurrence, that we will give to Mr Parice our menestrye house and barn and two akers of Land next aioyneing to the house : and that Mr Parice take office amongst us and Live and dye in the worke of the menestrye amongst us." Mr. Parris, under the supposition that he had obtained the property, was now ready to take the office.
On the 19th of November (29th N. S.), 1689, he became the min- ister of the parish and pastor of the church. Mr. Parris's engagement appears, however, to have dated from the first of July preceding, his- receipts for salary being reckoned from that date.
A covenant, "agreed upon and consented unto by the Church of Christ at Salem Village, at their first Embodying, on ye 19 November, 1689," is entered on the church book of records in the handwriting of Mr. Parris. It was probably drawn up by him. The covenant gave promise of better things than subsequently followed. The witchcraft delusion began to show itself about the end of February, 1692. It originated in the house of the pastor of the First Parish, and he, more than any one else, aided and abetted its spread, and urged on to the deeds of public wrong that were wrought. The parish book contains no record of the witchcraft troubles, and it never contained any, for there are no erasions or missing leaves. In this whole affair, Mr. Parris evinced the same spirit to the end, with which he commenced. He made no attempts to conciliate those whom he had offended, or to make such amends as he might for the wrongs they had some of them suffered.
He remained hard and unyielding. He was sharp in all his dealings with his people, standing for trifles, and tenacious of the ground he held. He opposed the calling of a council to consider the troubles and difficulties of the parish, and delayed it upon the most trifling pretences, even when to directly oppose it, had become hazardous. He did not finally consent to its assembling, until he found it would go strongly against him if he longer opposed it. His confession, which he styles "My Meditations for Peace," in which he in some sort admits his error, is not satisfactory. He appears in it to be humiliated, on account of the breaking out of the delusion in his own family ; but his expressions and language are still consistent with the maintenance of the ground that the punishment meted out to the unfortunate victims of the delusion was justifiable. He admits that he may have made mistakes with others, but denies that he was actu- ated by any wrong spirit. The council met on April 3, 1695. It was constituted favorably to Mr. Parris, but it was not unfair in its award of censure and advice on either side. The council did all that was to be expected in its attempts to restore peace and harmony, with the continuance of Mr. Parris in the ministry. The large minority opposed to him did not rest, and they continued to evince such enmity to their pastor that the Mathers and members of the council urged him to resign. This he was not ready to do, and neither were the larger part of the church prepared to have him. The next year, how- ever, with the last Sabbath in June, Mr. Parris closed his ministry. Mr. Parris refused to give up the ministry-house and land, which he held, and there ensucd a bitter struggle for possession. The matter went to court, and thence before a board of arbitration, consisting of the " Hon. Wait Winthrop, Elisha Cook, and Samuel Sewall, Esqs." The latter awarded Mr. Parris £79 98. 6d. in addition to the arrcar- ages of his salary due him from the inhabitants, and required him to give a quitclaim of the ministry-house and land. This litigation was not finally settled until September, 1697. In the meantime, the min- ister's wife had died, just after his resignation. Her remaius lie in the Wadsworth Cemetery, and over the grave is a stone with this inscription :
" Elizabeth Parris aged about 48 years, Dec. July ye 14 1696
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
" Sleep precious Dust, no stranger now to Rest. Thou hast thy longed wish in Abraham's Brest. Farewell Best Wife, Choice Mother, Neighbur, Friend. We'll wail thee less for hopes of thee i' th' end. S. P."
This is all which is left to bind the name of Parris with the history of the town. It is a singular coincidence, that each of the four first ministers buried a wife during his residence in the village.
Mr. Parris. after removing from Salem Village, was settled in Stow in the same year, 1697 ; and subsequently he preached in Dunstable and Sudbury, dying in the latter place in the midst of poverty, crushed and broken. on the 20th of February, 1720.
The parish was at some trouble. after the departure of Mr. Parris, to supply itself with a minister. and " by a unanimous consent " it is recorded, "that we will keep Tuesday the 12th of this instant Octo- ber (1697) as a day of fasting and prayer to seek direction of the Wonderful Counsellor about providing us a minister." On the 19th of November, following. the people agreed "by a unanimous con- sent " in the choice of a committee "to treate with the Rev. Mr. Joseph Green ; to see if they can prevaile with him to come and preach with us awhile in order to a further settlement."
The next week, the church had a special day of fasting and prayer, and a meeting at the house of Dea. Edward Putnam. Prayer was offered, "that God would provide a pastor for this his church accord- ing to his promise made to his people, that he would give them pas- tors after his own heart, who should feed his people with knowledge and understanding, that his church may not be as sheep without a shepherd." "After prayer being ended, the church having before this day had some experience of the ministerial preaching and teach- ing of Mr. Joseph Green amongst us, it was then consented to and voted by the church that we desire him to continue in the same work still amongst us, and that in order to take office upon him : if it shall please the grate Shepherd of the Sheep to besto such a blessing upon us."
December 20, 1697, the parish took corresponding action "by a universal consent." A salary of seventy pounds, with the use of the ministry house and land, and his firewood, which last was commuted after some years for eight pounds, was offered the new pastor. The minister came and remained with the church many months prior to his formal settlement, which was deferred to see if the people would hold to the same mind concerning him. In June, the church and parish gave him another call, and on Thursday, November 10, 1698, the new pastor was formally ordained. He then lacked two weeks of being 23 years old. His marriage with Elizabeth Gerrish, a dangh- ter of the Wenham minister, occurred the next spring. Mr. Green labored assiduously with his people to restore harmony and peace, and attained so much success that, soon after his coming, the church voted to drop the action that had been pending for years against the offending, or aggrieved, brethren, declaring that they "looked upon it as nothing," and that it "should be buried forever." Mr. Green has a minute in the church-book for Feb. 5, 1699, of "a matter of thankfulness " in the presence of these brethren and sisters at the com- munion with the church on that Sabbath for the first time since 1692.
The meeting-house was now in need of extensive repairing, and in the year 1700 it was voted to build a new house. It was placed on " Watch-House Hill," on the site of the present church edifice, but fronting towards the north, upon the " Old Meeting-house Road." It is described as being "before Dea. Ingersoll's door." The latter's house stood about on the site of the present parsonage, but probably a little further to the rear, or toward the north-west. Dea. Ingersoll gave the land; but with the added condition that "Deacon Putnam and John Buxton and John Putnam and Benj. Putnam becom bound in a bond of a hundred pounds apeece to defend the title of said land to the peple as long as they make use of it to that end." This pro- vision was made on account of some question, afterwards adjusted, with respect to the validity of the title, by which Dea. Ingersoll held his real estate. The house was raised in the spring of 1701, and the
work of building occupied rather more than a year. so that the people did not meet for the first time in the new house until July 26, 1702.
Its dimensions were forty-eight feet by forty-two ; and twenty feet between the joints. It had a tower, or " turret," and a hip roof, or " gable ends." There were galleries in the interior, and the walls were plastered up to the plates, but left unfinished above. The esti- mated cost of its construction was £330, which fell short of the sum required. About £36 more were subsequently raised by subscription among the "neighbor's "; that is. persons who attended the meeting at the village, but who lived outside of the parish bounds. Of this sum, Mr. Green gave as his own contribution, he not being regularly taxed, £10, and some help was received from Salem.
The building committee were Capt. Thomas Flint, Mr. Joseph Pope, Lieut. Jonathan Putnam, Mr. Joseph Herrick, and Benjamin Putnam. It was voted, that those that had their road shortened to the meeting- house by the change of location, should do the work of levelling the new ground ; and, further, this work was required to be done satis- factorily before the house was raised. This house stood until 1785 .- It played a very important part in town affairs, being used as one of the places of assembly, or town-houses, after the incorporation of the district and organization of the town.
It was during Mr. Green's beneficent administration that the first schools were established, in a building erected for that purpose, as we have before mentioned. The first notice of the thanksgiving collee- tion for charitable distribution occurs in his diary in 1707. Whether the custom existed before that period is not known. The use of the " Halfway Covenant " was introduced by Mr. Green. This was an arrangement by which persons, who had themselves been baptized in infaney, but who did not feel prepared to unite with the church, were yet brought so far into connection with it as to be allowed the privilege of having their children baptized. From this time forward there were many that thus " owned the covenant " who did not thereby become members of the church, and who did not regard themselves as having become, experimentally, Christians. The custom was not set aside for more than a hundred years, and until after the settlement of Dr. Braman. Mr. Green, though not a man of unusual ability, was an acceptable preacher. He was sometimes called upon to preach on public occasions in other towns. He has left no sermons, but his journal remains, which contains a valuable record of his daily life and duties.
His tastes were rural, and he was fond of farming and a great lover of nature. He liked hunting, and it is related of him that he killed, on one occasion, eighteen pigeons at a single shot. He was the owner of a considerable estate, of which there is an inventory which describes his landed property as follows : -
"About 110 acres of land near ye ministry house-400 pounds. Five acres of orchard lot west ward of ye house-120 pounds. Twenty- four acres of meadow and upland at Will's Hill-80 pounds. Three hundred acres on ye north side of ye Merrimack-150 pounds. With the personal property, the whole estate amounted in round numbers to 1,050 pounds. The farm north of the Merrimack near Haverhill was bought by Mr. Green the spring before his death."
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