USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westborough > The history of Westborough, Massachusetts. Part I. The early history. By Heman Packard De Forest. Part II. The later history. By Edward Craig Bates > Part 5
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It is not unlikely that the " dissensions" to which Mr. Parkman refers had led to the appointment of this fast; but even that did not prove of sovereign virtue, for the minister was not settled. The farm on which he built ceased to be the "ministerial farm," as he sold it, March 5, 1725, to Benjamin Woods, of Marlborough, for £300. Mr. Parkman seems to have had only the fifty acres as- signed by the Marlborough proprietors in 1710, together with such land as he subsequently bought for himself.
On the 3d of March, 1718, was held the first in the series of "March meetings," which has come down un- broken to us to-day. At that meeting John Fay was chosen town-clerk, which office he held for eleven years. John Fay, James Bradish, Thomas Ward, Thomas Forbush, and Thomas Newton were chosen selectmen ; Edmund Rice, constable; Samuel Fay and Gershom Fay, surveyors of highways; David Brigham, tithing-man; Samuel For- bush and Daniel Warrin, fence-viewers; Thomas Ward, sealer of leather; Thomas Rice, town-treasurer; and Isaac Tomblin and John Maynard, field-drivers.
Four months of wintry weather passed, after the vote "to build a meeting-house forthwith," before anything whatever was done. At length, in April, they " agreed to put a place to vote to set ye meeting-House upon; " and
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BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE.
it was decided to set it "upon the northeast corner of John Maynard's lot." In May, John Maynard and Edmund Rice formally gave the town the desired land, - three quarters of an acre belonging to Maynard, and one quarter of an acre to Rice. This land was a few rods northwest of the farm-house on the grounds of the Lyman School, near the spring.
The site obtained, the town at once voted to go on with the building. In the following October -
"it was a Greed and uoted to Raise the meetting house uppon the 21ª of the Instant October.
"uoted to procuer Six Gallons Rhum and a Barrall and half of Syder for the raising the meetting house in sd Town."
Doubtless the drink tasted just as good as if it had been spelled in better form; at any rate, there was plenty of it. The good Puritans of that day were a thirsty folk, and they had no Sandra pond water. At every raising, ordi- nation, town-meeting, ministers' association, wedding, and funeral something enlivening was on tap, and had ample justice done it. No minister called at the houses of his parishioners without being offered the cup of courtesy, nor did he decline with thanks. The settlers brought the custom over with them when they came, and thought no more harm of it than a temperance advocate of this day does of a cup of tea. Nor was there any great riot of drunkenness. There had as yet been no immigration of the disreputable classes from all the States of Europe to show what drinking comes to when it thrives unchecked among the lawless. So no thunder struck the meeting- house when its frame was raised to the chorus of well- moistened throats, and the work of building went on.
Let us not imagine, however, that it went on with any
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
rapidity. The citizens had to do the work, in addition to their own labors. Moreover, there is no evidence that they felt in a great hurry about it. It was the law that they must build a meeting-house forthwith, and they passed the vote accordingly; but then they rested. Time never was when, to the average man, public interests were more dear than his own affairs. And these men, who put off having schools as long as they could without being "pre- sented" at Court, were not going to be driven in the matter of a meeting-house. We must distinguish, un- doubtedly, between the leaders of the movement that brought our fathers to these shores, and the rank and file that followed them. Among these were good, bad, and indifferent. Efforts were made to get rid of the bad as fast as possible; but not all who were so eager to take up the lands in these pioneer towns were equally anxious to set up the institutions of religion for their own sake. They would do it, for it was the law; but they would not hurry, nor seriously neglect their own affairs for the sake of it.
So it was two years and a half before they were ready to lay the floors, put in seats, hang the doors, and build a pulpit. On the 4th of November, 1720, the first town- meeting was held in the building, which was thenceforth the place for all town-meetings until the division of the town ; but it was not yet finished. A year later we read of an effort to stir up those who were delinquent in their subscriptions to provide boards, plank, and "raials " for making seats, and a workman to do the work. In 1722, £40 were granted to finish the meeting-house and to pay those men who had contributed more than their share in work or materials; and not till Sept. 9, 1723, - five years from its commencement,-did the town reach the important vote "to compleate finishing the meeting-house."
D.BRIGHAM
.PULPIT
THOS.RICE
THOS.FORBUSH
JOHN MAYNARD
JOHN FAY
,
W
E
JAS. EAGER .
SAML. ROBINSON
JOS. WHEELERT BRUCE JOE FAX ELIEZER RICE
-
GALLERY
NOAH RICE
PHIN. HARDY
D. MAYNARD
AARON HARDY
ABNER NEWTON
S
FLOOR-PLAN OF THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE.
GALLERY
'BERIAH RICE
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BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE.
This edifice, so long in building, was not of elaborate architecture, - a plain rectangle, forty feet by thirty, guilt- less of porch or chimney, with a door at the east end and another at the west. Unpainted and devoid of all orna- ment, it was typical of New England life in its outward aspect at that period. Within, the pulpit was midway on the north side; two rows of " seats," which were nothing more than benches, faced it, with "an Alley Betwen the men and women through ye midel of the Mett. house," in accordance with a special vote of Sept. 21, 1720. These seats were assigned to members of the congregation with careful regard to dignity, the oldest and most wealthy of those who did not have pews having the front seats. The space around the walls was granted by vote of the town, " to be improved for pews." These pews were not built by the town, but the "pew-spots" were sold; and each owner built his own pew as he would build a house on a lot he had purchased, making it, within the limits assigned, in accordance with his own ideas. They were large, square, family pews, and they held, for more than twenty years, the first families of Westborough.
Thomas Rice had the space next the pulpit on the east ; Thomas Forbush was next; John Fay was on the east side, north of the door; Samuel Robinson, south of the door; David Brigham was in the northwest corner; John Maynard, who entertained the ministers who supplied the pulpit from time to time, was north of the west door; James Eager and Joseph Wheeler, south of it.
This meeting-house was the centre of the religious and political life of the town until the latter was divided, in 1744, into north and south "Precincts." It witnessed the labors of the first settled minister, the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, for twenty years; and when finally, in 1748, it
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
was taken down, its materials were used in the structure of the new house, which still stands, and has long been familiarly known as "the Old Arcade."
Two other public institutions were finished before the meeting-house. In 1721 the town was " presented at Con- cord Corte " for not having a pound, as the law directed ; and consequently, on the 11th of August, it was voted to build one thirty feet square, on a piece of land given for it by David Maynard for ten years. The towns of those days held common lands for pasturage, as well as the meadows, and stray cattle were liable to be found fre- quently ; hence every town had a brand-mark of its own and a pound, where strays could be detained till called for ; hence also the then important office of " fence- viewer," - a relic of antiquity still retained in name, in town organizations, if not in actual practice.
The other institution was the town-stocks, for building which John Pratt was "voted and granted Eight Shilin " in 1723. There is nothing to show how much use this institution received in the years following; but in most towns it was by no means idle. The number of offences, both civil and ecclesiastical, for which this punishment was prescribed by the laws of the early colony was large, and there was usually a vigorous enforcement of the penalty.
The first recorded appropriation for highways was made March 27, 1719, amounting to £10, or, at the ex- isting rate of currency, about $25. In 1722, £20 was appropriated for roads, and weights and measures for the town's use were purchased. It was voted also to pur- chase a book for the town-records; though it was not until five years later, according to the testimony of the book itself, that it was bought and used for entries.
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BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE.
In 1721 John Fay, David Brigham, and Thomas Ward were appointed trustees "to go to the Province Treasurer and take out the proportion of bills that belong to the town." This was the beginning of sorrows from an inflated and depreciating currency, which afterward be- came so heavy a burden to the colonies. The same committee were authorized to let out the money for the town's use, "not letting a bigger sum than £4 or £5 to one man, except in the conclusion that there be a necessity for it."
This paper money, to which frequent allusions are made under the name of "the bank," " loan-money," etc., was the result of a recent plan, devised by the General Court, to relieve the financial stress of the colony. When our fathers came to this country they of course brought specie with them; and although they made use, in lack of sufficient cash, of a system of barter, they had substan- tially a coin basis till near the close of the seventeenth century. After the failure of the attack on Quebec in 1690, which cost Massachusetts £50,000, the colony, find- ing itself much embarrassed, was forced to begin the issue of bills of credit, which subsequently resulted in a ter- rible depreciation of the currency. In 1714 the matter of finance was under discussion in the General Court, and a scheme was finally adopted, by which the colony issued notes to the amount of £50,000 to the towns, who ap- pointed trustees to receive them, and to loan them in small sums to individuals at a reasonable rate of interest. This loan in the hands of the trustees was called a "bank." But these notes depreciated until they were worth only about one tenth of their face value. About 1729 a new issue of £60,000 was made, which was to be redeemable in specie; and the old notes were to be redeemed at the
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
rate of 50s. for 6s. 8d. in silver. This gave rise to the terms " old tenor " and "lawful money," frequently occur- ring in the records, - the one being about seven and one half times the other ; and in practical business nine or ten of " old tenor " passing for one of "lawful money."
So, step by step, the new town was becoming organized, and taking up its share, with the rest, of the responsi- bilities and privations of the colony. For a long time, however, the chief interest centres around the meeting- house and the minister; and we shall best understand the life of that day if we follow somewhat closely the story of the simple ecclesiastical life, of which the civil life was but one part.
CHAPTER V.
1723, 1724.
HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER.
T
N 1723, the year of the completion of the meeting-
house, the town was engaged in the effort to settle accounts with Mr. Elmer, whom, for reasons that are not apparent from existing records, the people did not wish to retain as their minister. When a man had come into possession of the ministerial farm in those days, it was his by inalienable right so long as he lived. If the town desired a new minister, as it seldom did, it could only acquire the minister's land by purchase from its occu- pant, who could, if he chose, refuse to sell, or ask an exorbitant price. In the present case it was not until after a good deal of delay that the matter was finally arranged, by giving Mr. Elmer the land he claimed. After this had been accomplished, the town was ready to comply with the second part of its agreement with the General Court at its incorporation, and procure a settled minister.
Accordingly, on the 13th of May, 1723, £40 was voted for " a Town Stock to Soporte the preaching of the Gos- pell." On the same day David Maynard was appointed sexton of the meeting-house, " to sweep, and lay up the cushions, and shut the doors." There the matter rested for eight months. On the 6th of January, 1724, a town meeting was held to take active measures for obtaining a
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
minister. Evidently there was a similar tardiness here to that which we noticed in the building of the meeting- house, and due to the same causes. We have to be careful in estimating the feelings that prompted these people, lest on the one hand we give them credit for more piety than was really theirs, or on the other fail to see how central in importance, among all the public in- stitutions, was the church and its equipment. Then, as always, those who fully appreciated the religious privi- leges they sought were the few; they had to drag the rest. Had it not been that the law compelled the peo- ple, and that their political privileges depended on the doing of it, they might have lived on for a generation without moving in the matter of a church. There were those who would have deeply regretted it, but they would have been powerless.
And yet, on the other hand, no man of average intelli- gence of that day could fail to see the great importance which attached to the institution of the pulpit. The minister of the town was chief magistrate and instructor, as well as preacher. He supplied the place of all our modern institutions for the diffusion of intelligence, saving only the school; and that for a long time was inter- mittent and rudimentary, and in Westborough was not as yet begun. These inland communities were, as we have seen, isolated and lonely. Boston was a long way off, and the only means of conveyance thither was the back of a horse. The days of these men and women were uneventful, their labor was hard, news was scarce, information almost inaccessible. Books were a rarity, the newspaper was only just born in this country, and the few already existing had small value. On the 24th of April, 1704, the "Boston News Letter" was issued as
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HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER.
a venture; but after fifteen years its circulation had not reached three hundred copies. It contained less than would fill half a column of one of our dailies, was printed on a half sheet, and its only advertisement stated that copies might be had, on reasonable terms, of the proprietor.
Others had sprung up by 1720; but they were feeble, and of very limited circulation. In 1721 James Franklin, whose younger brother, Benjamin, assisted him in his printing, began to issue an independent sheet, called the "New England Courant." But owing to his temerity in attacking pet institutions, he was soon obliged to sus- pend it; and the irrepressible boy Benjamin, after carry- ing on his brother's paper for him in Boston for a short time, started out on his memorable trip to Philadelphia and fame in this year, 1723.
With such scanty means of information the young towns depended, to a degree seldom equalled, upon the minister for whatever they might have that linked them with the life of the great world beyond them. These ministers of early New England were educated men. The era of the apotheosis of ignorance as a qualifica- tion for spiritual leadership had not yet arrived. They lacked the opportunities of the older English universi- ties, but Harvard already stood for all that was possible in education with the advantages available, and her gradu- ates were well drilled in the dead languages and in such philosophy and theology as were then current. Litera- ture, indeed, was scarce. The ministers of that day knew nothing of well-filled library shelves, or of reviews and periodicals. They, as well as their people, were out of the sweep of life as we know it to-day; but they were nevertheless the best cultured men of these com-
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
munities, and were correspondingly revered and looked to for a sound opinion on all things, terrestrial and spiritual. Their sermons were the plainest utterances of the current views of religious truth, straying but little into the broader fields of life and thought; but they stood in place of newspaper, convention, lyceum, and school to the people to whom they ministered.
However slow, therefore, the people might be in moving toward their goal, we must nevertheless understand that when they finally planted the institution of a church and a minister, they had taken the most important step in their history, and that they knew it, and were, in their slow way, greatly interested in it. It was not, then, with- out a definite purpose and some deep convictions that they at last took steps to obtain a minister who might settle with them and become connected with the life of the town. The quaint record of that town meeting of Jan. 6, 1724, is worthy of transcription : -
"Pursuant to an order from the Select men, the Town meete : first uote, Capt. John Fay was chose moderator of the meeting.
" 2ly it was tried whether the Town was Ready to nomaneate a Gentelman or two jn order to Setell with us in the work of the Gospel ministry amongst us in sd Town, and the uote apeared in the afirmetive.
" 3ly It was agread and uoted that Mr. Parkman and Mr. Eliot be in nomanation in order for Electtion of a Gospel minister to setel in sª Town.
" 4ly uoted that Jeames Braddish, Daniel Warrin, and Jacob Amsden be a Commeette Chosen to aquant the above noma- nated Gentelmen with the Town's acts and to wait upon them as ocation shal Be.
"5ly The Town made choice of John Maynard to Entertain the ministers at the Town's coust. Then uoted that this meet-
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HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER.
ting Be a journed to the 20th currant, att 12 o'clock at noon, and then mett and uoted to a journ this meetting to the : 24 Currant at noon at the meett : house in said Town ; and then mett agane and agread and uoted that Edward Baker and William Holloway Be a Commeete to Go to Sum Revª ordained Eld- ers that are a quanted with Mr. Ebenezer Parkman and Mr. Jacob Eliot, Both of Boston, and Candideats for the ministry, for their advice and Recommendation in order for Election as the Law Directs."
In February the town granted £80 for a yearly salary, and £150 for a "settlement;" the latter to be paid in money in three years, fifty pounds a year. Ebenezer Parkman was chosen as the minister of the town, and James Eager and Edward Baker were appointed a com- mittee to wait on him with the town's call.
Preliminary to his reply, he sent them, some time during the spring, a letter asking for a trifling improvement in the terms of settlement; namely (as copied in the bad spell- ing of the town clerk), "That the mony propofed for my fetelment be in fum fhorter and more Convenient time ; that the town would Procuer my Wood; and that they would Take into Consideration ye finking of our money." To this the town responded, -
REUERND SIR, - As to your propofels, on the other fide the town has Confidered them, and Do not Comply with them. But what we have all ready propofed we ftand Ready to per- forme ; and we Hope as we Grow and Jncreas that we Shall be able to Do more.
This Agreed to and uoted in the Affirmative.
JOSIAH NEWTON, Moderator.
But that his chief anxiety was not concerning the tem- poralities of his office, the following memorandum, now in possession of one of his descendants, abundantly shows :
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
WESTBOROUGH, Wednesday, May 13, 1724.
This day I solemnly consecrated [by ye grace of God] a Day of Fasting and Earnest Address to Heaven for Neccessary Direc- tion in ye Momentous Concern of returning an Answer to ye Call of this Town to me to ye Evangelical Ministry. In it I proposed these Petitions especially : -
I. For remission of all my multiplied and heinous Iniquities, & particularly unprofitableness under ye Means of Grace, and Negligence & Sloth in ye Great Business God has been pleased to Employ me in.
2. For success in my Ministrations ; and that I my Self may be thereby continually and Eternally advanced and Saved.
3. For Singular Wisdom and Prudence rightly to Determine in ye Weighty Case before me relating to this People : That I may have right Aims in all I do or Design ; That ye Glory of God and ye eternal Salvation of Precious Souls may be ye Fun- damental and Moving Principles ; and that no secular Prospects may bear sway any otherwise than in Subordination and Agree- ment to ye Sovereign Will of God. Finally, yt Peace and Love may be Established in all my Management ; yt Christian charity may abound ; And that ye work of God may be exceedingly prospered.
4. That God would provide for my Comfortable Subsistence, and Grant me a Contented Heart wth ye Portion he shall Carve me out.
Lastly, That He would more and more qualify me for His work, And improve me in it, & Grant me Grace to be faithful, And at last bestow on me a Crown of Eternal glory. E. P.
Meantime the town was impatiently waiting for his reply. The call had been extended in February, and it was now the middle of May; and although it was not the habit of the people of those days to hurry anything, they had begun to feel as though it would be gratifying to know whether they were to have a minister. The town meeting had already adjourned five times, and the following Mon- day adjourned again; but the candidate would have time
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HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER.
for full deliberation, and it was the 5th of July before the town clerk was at last able to conclude his meagre record of adjournments with the statement: "and then met, and received Mr. Parkman's answer to ye town's call,"- an answer which proved to be an acceptance.
Ebenezer Parkman, who from this time for more than half a century was so intimately connected with the life of Westborough, was born in Boston Sept. 5, 1703, and was therefore at the time of his call twenty-one years of age. His father, William Parkman, was one of the ori- ginal members, and afterward a ruling elder, of the New North Church in Boston, which was organized in 1712 at the North End; and his brother Elias was a mast-maker in the same section of the city. His grandfather, Elias, lived in Dorchester as early as 1633. In 1717, the year of the incorporation of Westborough, Ebenezer was admitted to Harvard College, being then only fourteen years of age; he graduated in course July 5, 1721. During the ensuing winter he taught school in Newton, and in April, 1722, went to reside with his brother Elias, where he remained nearly a year and a half, studying part of the time in Cam- bridge, and part of the time in Boston, until he began to preach in the neighboring country.
Boston at this time was a thriving seaport town of nearly twelve thousand inhabitants, having, according to an old chronicle, "3000 houses, 1000 of them being of brick, the rest of timber; 42 streets, 36 lanes, and 22 alleys,"- which lanes and alleys have been a grief of mind to hapless strangers to this day. George I. was king of the colonies, and Samuel Shute gover- nor ; the latter, being immensely unpopular, had just left for England to lay his grievances before the king, leaving William Dummer, the lieutenant-governor, to act
5
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
in his stead for some six years. Slavery was not yet in disrepute either North or South, and it is a little startling to those of us who have learned to revere the Parkman name, to find it in an advertisement of this sort in a paper of 1728: -
" April 1. Mr. Henry Richards wants to sell a parcel of likely negro boys and one negro girl, arrived from Nevis, and were brought from Guinea. To be seen at the house of Mr. Elias Parkman, mast-maker, at the North End."
Following this is another advertisement, evidently of a "variety store : " -
" April 22ª. Two very likely negro girls. Enquire two doors from the Brick Meeting house on Middle St. At which place is to be sold women's stays, children's good callamanco stiff'ned boddy'd coats, and children's stays of all sorts, and women's hoop coats, all [of course including the negro girls] at very reasonable rates.
It was early in 1723 that Mr. Parkman began to preach, and we hear of him at Wrentham, Hopkinton, and Wor- cester. On the 21st of August he was waited upon in Boston by a Mr. Shattuck and invited to preach in Westborough. He accepted the invitation, and came up a day or two later on horseback, leaving Watertown at half-past twelve, and reaching Westborough about dark. He preached the two following Sundays, - August 25 and September I.
Journeys in those days were not only tedious, but some- times hazardous. The woods were stocked with something more fierce than the rabbits and partridges of these degen- erate days. In 1721 Westborough "granted John Fay £I Ios. for defraying the charge he was at [as the town's representative] in answering complaint, or agreeing with
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