USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > The history of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. from the grant of its territory to Charlestown, in 1640, to the year 1680 > Part 11
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The second meeting-house of Woburn stood, it is well known, upon the hill on the southeast side of the common. Around it grew a number of shade trees, which the prudent care of the fathers of the town had saved from the axe in felling the sur- rounding forest, and which now served both for ornament and for use.10 Beneath the pleasant shade of these trees, or close by them, were successively erected, with the leave of the town, and under the direction of the Selectmen, some thirty or forty sheds, for the accommodation of the horses of numerous individ- uals on Sabbath days and other occasions of public assembly.10 The meeting-house itself was an edifice forty feet square, facing south, and having the pulpit on the north side.11 Its frame was of solid, massive oak, some portions of which were long pre- served in the town, and are still, or were recently, to be seen.
10 The Selectmen, Dec. 25, 1712, laid out to Robert Convers, Josiah Con- vers, Jr., William Johnson, Jr., and Thomas Reed, a spot of ground on the south side of the Meeting-House Hill, thirty-six feet in length, " for Stables to set horses in on Saboth dayes and such like occasions." By direction of the Selectmen, these stables were to be erected nine feet square, adjoining each other, and in a range with one another, about six feet " South of the most Southerly Shade Tree," and not to be extended west- ward within sixteen feet "of the now Horse Block," etc., etc. - Town Records, Vol. V., p. 242. Numerous other grants of ground for stables, for the same purpose, are upon record.
"' Zebadiah Wyman, Esq .; Mr. William Fowlc.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Its roof, like that of its venerable contemporary, taken down a few years since upon Lynn plain, was surmounted by a small cupola or turret,12 in which was hung a bell that was rung, probably, as at Lynn,13 by a rope attached to it, and descending through a hole in the roof into the centre of the broad aisle.13 And that the hour for ringing the bell and commencing divine service might be known, a sun-dial was procured shortly after the building of the meeting-house, which being set upon or near it, supplied the place of a clock in fair weather.14 The windows were casements hung like doors upon iron hinges, and otherwise well fortified with iron ; 15 and the lights were set with lead, and probably of the diamond shape, as is the case with windows still to be seen at the back of several of the most ancient dwelling- houses of the town. Galleries there were on the sides of the meeting-house, within ; yet not all built at once, but as circum- stances rendered them expedient. At a general meeting, Feb. 27, 1677-8, the town granted leave to the young men of the place, upon certain conditions, to build a gallery for their accommodation on the east side.16 The same year, (26 August,
13 "Joseph Richardson Sen." Cr. " By CllIs [Sills] for the Meeting hous territt & door cill, as money 00:10:00." - Town Records.
13 Letter of Rev. Parsons Cooke, of Lynn. 1674. The Town Dr. to John Tead for ringing the bell £1:10:00. - Town Records, Vol. II., p. 22. In a reckoning with Gershom Flagg, Oct. 2, 1676, he was allowed by the Select- men for " the belrope," etc. - Town Records, Vol. II., p. 48.
14 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 31. The Town Dr. in 1675, To Gershom Flagg, " for the dyall post." - Town Records, Vol. II., p. 23.
15 March 8, 1699-1700. The Selectmen " agreed with Simon Tompson to ring the bell, sweep the Meeting hons, see to shut the Casements and doors, as need requires," etc., etc. - Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 158.
Fch. 9, 1701-2. The Town Dr. to " Daniel Baldwin for Iron work for a Casement for ye Meeting house : £00:02 :06." - Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 196.
" To Serjt Sam Waters for a Casement for ye Meeting house, £00 :03:00." - Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 197.
" Novbr 1729. For mendin of the meetnos [meeting-house] glas : " For maken of 2 foot of new glas 00:04 :04."
"For new leden [leading] 3 foot of old glas : 00:04 :00." etc., etc., etc. - An old Account on file.
16 Town Recorda, Vol. I., pp. 73, 93.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1678,) one instruction given by the town to a committee for repairing the meeting-house was, to build what galleries might seem to them convenient.16 In 1707, " the hinde seat in the East galery next the staiers," was granted to eight young men to sit in, they to repair it at their own charge.17 And in 1694, mention is made in the Records of an " upper gallery," 18 which was doubtless built over one of the others, and designed for the negroes, who were then far more numerous in Woburn than they are now. The floor of the house was not originally covered with pews, as was recently the universal practice. For upwards of forty years, only two of these aristocratie privileges (as they were probably deemed) were to be seen in Woburn meeting- house, - one the minister's pew, the other for the deacons' wives, the deacons themselves having an appropriate seat of their own.19 In 1713, the town, by special favor, allowed Col. Jonathan Tyng, a gentleman from Boston, who had been one of Governor Sir Edmund Andros's Council, and who, more recently, had married the widow of Rev. Jabez Fox, of Woburn, and come home to reside, to erect a pew in the meeting-house, at his own cost, which was to be the town's property after his own and his lady's decease.19
Three years after, viz, March 1716, leave was given by the town to the daughters of four principal fami- lies to build a pew to sit in, with the proviso that it was to be the town's, whenever they saw fit to leave it.20 But so much disturbance did the grant of this privilege excite, that the town within six months revoked their grant.20 And in 1738, upon the petition of Nathaniel Saltonstall, Esq., Jonathan Poole, Esq., and Capt. Isaac Dupee, gentlemen of distinction in the town from abroad, that they might each of them be allowed to build pews for themselves, the town voted liberty to the former gen- tleman to sit in the pew once occupied by Col. Tyng; but denied all of them liberty to build any more.21 Only three pews, then, were ever permitted to be erected and to stand per- manently in this second meeting-house in Woburn, as the seats
17 Town Records, Vol. V., p. 43.
19 Town Records, Vol. V., p. 254.
18 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 41.
20 Town Records, Vol. V., pp. 336, 364.
21 Parish Records, Vol. I., p. 97.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
of individual families, in distinction from the rest of the congre- gation. The remainder of the lower floor, as likewise the whole of the gallery floors, was taken up by seats, which were under the control and at the disposal of the whole town. Under the windows by the wall on the cast and west ends, there ran two long benches, which at one time were the appointed seats of the boys.22 The rest of the ground on each side of the broad aisle was taken up with ranges of seats facing the pulpit, and having backs to them, like those of the old-fashioned settles, though not so high ; those on the east side being for the male, and those on the west side for the female portion of the congregation.23 And that each individual might know and take his own place without confusion in time of public worship, the town at a general meet- ing, October 8, 1672, as soon as the meeting-house was ready for occupation, chose five men of character and influence as a seating committee, to appoint to all the other inhabitants their respective seats in the house of God; and at the same time was appointed another committee of two, to seat the seating com- mittee themselves with their wives.24 To aid the seating committee in the discharge of their perplexing duty, they were on this occasion expressly instructed by the town to have respect in it to three things, viz : estate, office, and age.21 And as death and other causes were continually operating to break up the arrangements of this committee, and to make new ones necessary, the town was accustomed in after years, to choose from time to time a new seating committee, whose business it was to repeat the invidious, difficult task of their predecessors ; the doing of which was often the source of much bitterness, and. in some instances of hot contention among the inhabitants, as there may be occasion to notice hereafter.
At the head of the broad aisle, there once stood a table, designed no doubt for the communion service ; and that so large a one, that it was found necessary, in order to make room for it, to crowd the seats back towards the front of the house.25 Before the pulpit and adjoining to it, were, I presume to say,
22 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 30.
" Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 37, 38.
33 Town Records, Vol. V., pp. 219, 254.
25 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 93.
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two seats ; of which the lower and front one of the two was occupied by the deacons.26. The other and more elevated one was styled, like a corresponding seat to be seen, till within a few years, in the Congregational meeting-house in South Reading, the elders' seat, because designed originally for ruling elders of the church. For although, from some cause, neither the church in Woburn, nor that in South Reading, is known to have been ever served by officers of this denomination, yet, doubtless, both these churches formerly recognized the office as of divine institution.27 In ascending the pulpit stairs, there rose, fixed to that end of the pulpit, or of the elders' seat adjoining it, a tall, slender iron rod, with a little enclosure of iron or wooden painted balusters at the top, in which rested an hour glass ; placed there, not to show the preacher how soon he might with decency leave off, but to be a silent monitor to warn him how long without offence he might hold on.28 At the head of the pulpit stairs, against the wall, there was probably a narrow seat, where sat in service time the sexton, that he might be at hand to turn the hour-glass when its sands had run out, and also to receive any communica- tions from the minister for which there might be occasion. In the pulpit itself, there was a cushion in front, as in modern pulpits, which served as a convenient resting-place for the preacher's notes.29 But no Bible in folio was to be seen there, from which a portion might be read in the regular services of the sanctuary. For though our Puritan fathers accounted the Holy Scriptures as a complete and sufficient, as well as the sole rule, not only of faith and practice, but likewise for the worship
26 Town Dr. 1681. " To Joseph Richardson in timber and pay to Houlton for worke he did on the deacons' seate, £00:12:00."- Town Records, Vol. III., p. 19.
27 Sec "Proposals," or Declaration of the Church of Woburn, 1703; copied in Chapter V.
2 Town Dr. 1673. "To Josiah Conuers for the Iron for the liouer glasse
£00:04:00."
" At Selectmens meeting 3:12 :1678 [Feb. 3, 1678-9]
00:02:00. Due to decon Conuers ' for the bying an houer glas '" etc .. etc. Torn Records, Vol. II., pp. 4, 114.
29 1677 Town Dr. "to Matthew Johnson for a eushen - £01:9 :4."
Town Records, Vol. II., p. 75.
8
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
of the Lord's house, yet by a strange inconsistency, and it is to be feared from a measure of prejudice against the usage of the Church of England, from which they had separated, they esteemed the simple reading of the Word of God in public worship as an unedifying practice, unless it were accompanied with some expo- sition of man.30
At the time this meeting-house was finished, it was unques- tionably capacious enough to seat all the inhabitants of Woburn with ease. But so fast did the population increase, that it speedily became necessary to increase its accommodations. As early as 1678, it was found expedient to make to it certain additions.31 And subsequently to this period, much labor and cost were bestowed on repairing and enlarging this house of God. In 1694, for instance, the town voted at March meeting, that their meeting-house should be repaired withinside and without ; seats mended, and new ones erected, at the discretion of a committee then chosen for the purpose.32 And this vote appears to have been punctually executed. And again in 1709, the meeting-house was not only repaired anew, but an addition made to it of twenty feet on the East end.33 And it deserves to be mentioned, as a testimony to the zeal for God's house with which a large proportion of the inhabitants of Woburn at that day were animated, that the expense of the repairs in 1694 was defrayed chiefly, and that of the addition just spoken of in 1709, entirely, by a voluntary subscription.33 And thus, through a constant care bestowed on its preservation and keeping it in good repair, this second meeting-house in Woburn, which I have been endeavoring so much at length to describe, stood eighty
30 " In Boston, after prayer and before singing, it was the practice for several years for the minister to read and expound a chapter. Whether it was because this carried the service to too great a length, or any other reason could be given for it, in a few years it was laid aside, except when it came in place of a sermon. Exceptions, may we not say cavils, have been made by some learned, serious ministers, against reading the Scrip- tures, as part of the divine service, without an exposition." - Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, Vol. I., Chap. ic., pp. 427, 428.
11 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 93. 32 Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 19, 21, 25. a Town Records, Vol. V., p. 120.
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years. Fifty-eight years of this period, it served as the house of worship for the whole of the then town, comprehending Wilmington, Burlington and Winchester with what is now Woburn within its bounds; and then as the place of solemn assembly for the first parish, till the erection of the third meeting- house in 1752. Concerning its subsequent demolition, with a view to making a town-house of its materials, and the eventual failure of that scheme after the building was raised anew, there may be occasion of speaking hereafter.
It has often been observed, that the building of a new meeting- house is quickly followed by the settlement of a new minister. But in the present case, the remark was not verified. After the meeting-house I have so long been speaking of was completed, instead of treating their aged minister, Rev. Mr. Carter, with unkindness or neglect, or manifesting impatience to see a succes- sor in his room, the people of Woburn gave him substantial evi- dence of increased attachment. At a general meeting, Nov. 16, 1674, called expressly to confer about Mr. Carter's maintenance, it was agreed by a major vote, say the Records, " that the Towne wold yerly bringe Mr. Thomas Carter, our Reucrant Pastor, twenty Cord of wood, and delivere it at his dore, ouer and aboue his fower score pound, provided that those that will, may haue leaue to take the said wood off his own land." 34 The singular proviso annexed to this vote was doubtless added on behalf of a few, who were ready enough to do their part in this act of gen- crosity to their pastor, by giving their labor in drawing his wood to his house, but whose poverty, or distance, or both, might make it too burdensome to take it from their own lots, if they had any.
At length, however, Mr. Carter's advanced years and growing infirmities rendered it evident that aid was needed by him, and would probably be welcome. At a general meeting, Aug. 26, 1678, the town voted unanimously, that they would procure a minister to help Mr. Carter. They also granted four single rates, amounting to about £120, (one quarter part of which was to be paid in silver) for the maintenance of the ministry : viz. £50 for
" Town Records, Vol. I., p. 54.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Mr. Carter's assistant, and £70 for Mr. Carter himself, who, in view of the increased burdens of his people on his account, con- sented to be satisfied with that sum, and with his wood, as agreed upon in 1674, instead of £80, his original compensation.
At the same time, they appointed a committee to wait on Mr. Jabez Fox, a graduate of Harvard College, and then a resident licentiate at Cambridge, and to invite him to Woburn, as an assistant to Mr. Carter for one year.35 Mr. Fox accepted the invitation. And so well satisfied were the people with his ser- vices, that before the term of his engagement expired, they unanimously agreed and voted at a town meeting, July 16, 1679, that they would give him "a call to the ministry, with an intent he may be called to office, in time, if God make waye; and also agreed that for this yeare they will allow him finety pounds, one quarter of it in silver; his house rent and his firewood, and afterward inlarge, as God shall inable them." 36 This invita- tion to a temporary engagement in the work of the Ministry was soon followed by a call to the pastoral office in the church, and to a permanent settlement as a minister of the Gospel in the town. The proceedings of the church on this occasion cannot be specified, as its ancient Records have long been missing. But at a meeting of the town, Nov. 5, 1679, it was voted "that they wold giue the Renerant Mr Jabiz ffoxe a Call to be their minis- ter for his life time ": and the Town, on that consideration. agreed to give him half of several pieces of land, which they had prudently reserved for the benefit of the future officers of the church, in the general distribution of their common lands a few years before ; and the use of the whole, till the town should need the other half for another officer.36 And to crown the indubi- table tokens of esteem and affectionate regard which they had already given for this minister of their choice, the people at a meeting, called Nov. 10, 1679, agreed, it seems, to build a house for him, and to present it to him as a gift. 36 And Mr. Fox wishing for some alterations in the dimensions of this house as then determined, to gratify his wishes in this respect, another
85 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 93.
30 Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 98, 101, 102.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
meeting was called a month after, Dec. Sth, when they voted as follows :
" Whereas the Town had formerly agreed to buld the Reuerant Mr foxe a dwelling hows twenty foure feet in laneth, eaighteene feet wide, and thurteene feet stud, a stack of three brick chimnies, a cellar under it, and a leanetwo at the chimney end, and so to finish the said hows and give it him : now the Towne did agree, upon Mr Foxe's desire, to build the said lows fourty feet long, eaighteene feet wide and thurteene feet stud, a stack of three chimnys and cellar and finish it; Mr foxe being willing to allow toward the worke twenty and five pounds, and fiue pounds more, in case that be not suffistiant for what is expended for the making the said hows sixteene feet longer than was agreed of by the Towne in the first place : and decon Josiah Conuars, Ensigne James Conuars and William Johnson are appointed a Committee to oursee the worke and order the same till it be finished," etc.36
According to minutes preserved in the records, the materials of this house, and the labor in framing, erecting and completing it, cost about £133, of the then currency of Massachusetts.37
To meet this expense, the town granted in December 1679, four single rates, amounting to £122.15s.38 They also ordered, at the meeting Dec. 8, 1679, just referred to, " that the pece of land reserved for an officer near Tottingham's should be sould to carry an end the bulding of Mr. Foxes hows." 39 The sum which Mr. Fox agreed to give toward it was never actually paid into the town treasury ; but was allowed in a settlement with the Selectmen, May 9th, 1698, toward the payment of certain arrears for salary that had long been due.40 The house thus built by the town and given their minister is known to have stood where the house of Jonathan B. Winn, Esq., now stands, and was occupied by Rev. Mr. Jabez Fox, and by Rev. Mr. John Fox, his son and successor in the ministry, for about seventy-six years. The pre- cise time of the ordination of Rev. Jabez Fox, as colleague with
37 Town Records, Vol. III., pp. 167, 168, 169.
30 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 101.
38 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 104, 5.
40 Town Records, Vol. III., p. 117.
8*
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Rev. Mr. Carter, is not stated in the Town Records; but is supposed to have been not far from November 15, 1679.ª
Thus were the inhabitants of Woburn provided with a house for God's worship in the room of that wherein their fathers kept Sabbath at the first in this then wilderness; and with a man to conduct the services of the sanctuary, when their aged pastor should be taken away. And now, that I may present a more vivid display of the interesting peculiarities of their public wor- ship, for which all these means and instrumentalities were pro- cured, may I be permitted to relate the particulars of a visit which I once paid them in imagination, to keep Sabbath with them in their new meeting-house, and to hear their new minister.
Borne then aloft on the wings of fancy over the current of time, and retracing its stream with an indescribable velocity, I suddenly alighted one fine Sabbath morning, about the 20th of June, Old Style, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hun- dred and eighty, at New Bridge in Woburn; and taking by instinct, as it were, the road which led to the centre of the town, I began at once slowly to wend my way thither. The sky was serene, the air warm, and the surface of the meadows and grass-g ounds was clad in the richest green. But a solemn still- ness presided over the bright scene which nature had spread around me. Neither man nor beast was to be seen at work in the field. No sound of the hammer, or of the woodman's axe saluted my ear; no rumbling carriage of travellers on business or pleasure met my eye. Almost the only tokens of animal life abroad, that I perceived in my walk, were the motions and notes of hundreds of birds, whose songs, together with the fragrant odors diffused by the blossoms and a rich variety of flowers in the gardens and orchards I passed, seemed like a morning offering of praise and sweet incense to the great Lord of the Sabbath, by whose decree summer and winter, seed-time and harvest never cease. Nor, amidst the homage paid by the inanimate
a In Town Records, Vol. I., p. 105, Major Johnson, the then Town Clerk, makes the following remark in the margin : " The mldle of the 10th. mo. 1680, apcered a very great blazing starr, to the wonder of the world."
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
and by the irrational portions of the creation, was man their lord insensible to the claims of the Creator. As I went by the low and thinly scattered dwelling-houses of this then humble village, whose doors and windows the warmth of the morning had caused to be opened, I heard, before some, the voice of prayer from within ; and at the windows of others, I observed flocks of little boys and girls reading to their pious mothers in the Testament or Psalter, or answering the questions of that far- famed compend of Christian truth and duty, the Assembly's Cate- chism. While I thus proceeded along, endeavoring to compose my mind into a suitable frame for the exercises of a day, to whose sacredness all that I saw and heard, as well as all that I did not, seemed to bear witness, I was suddenly overtaken on the common by a man, who afterwards made himself known to me as goodman Jonathan Thompson, the sexton for that year,41 who had just been at the minister's to receive from him certain directions before the hour of prayer arrived, and was now on his way to open the meeting-house. Perceiving me to be a stranger, he civilly accosted me; and learning that I wished to worship with them that day, he kindly offered to conduct me to the house, and find me a scat. We went by the way of Military Lane : 42 and as we walked up the hill, several honest couples passed us on horseback, who severally eyed me with a keen look of yankee-like inquisitiveness, but said nothing; and, nod- ding respectfully, jogged on. These, my guide told me, were the Jaquiths, and the Butters's from Goshen, and the Reeds, and the Walkers and the Wilsons from Shawshin ; who, he shrewdly re- marked, though farthest from the Sanctuary, were always first to be there.
Having reached the meeting-house, as I stood in front of it a few minutes, admiring the beauty of the lofty trees with which it was surrounded, numerous other couples arrived on horse- back, a large proportion of whom, I observed, drove up to a stone horse-block, about a rod from the southernmost shade,43
11 The Town Dr., In the year 1680, "To Jonathan Tompson for ringing the Bell, and sweeping the meeting hows, £01 : 10: 00."- Town Records, Vol. I., p. 107. 42 See Chapter I., note 31.
43 See note 10. This horse-block is still preserved.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
and there successively alighting, tied their horses to a long row of stakes set in the ground, and then leisurely advanced toward the meeting-house. As they overtook one another in their approach to where I stood, they saluted each other with a friendly smile and a cordial shake of the hand. But I overheard in their conversation not a word dropped upon politics or the prospect of crops ; scarcely anything, in fact, but certain obser- vations and questions which seemed to be dictated by pious gladness, or by a spirit of benevolence and affectionate sym- pathy for their neighbors or one another. " What a beautiful Sabbath 'tis!" exclaimed one to another; " and how thankful ought we to be for such a lovely morning as this, to come to meeting !" " What," inquired another, " does the doctor say to Brush's child, poor thing; does he think he'll ever get well of his fall ?" "Are the neighbors," asked a third, with an anxious pitiful look, - " Are the neighbors attentive to visit poor goody Gilson in her trials, and to carry her in supplies ?" " How," questioned a fourth, with much solemnity of counte- nance, -" How did goodman Farrar appear in his last moments ? Did his faith and patience hold out to the end ? Did he give evidence to the minister of a good hope ?" and, " When, good man, will he be buried ?"
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