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 16
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
they also appear before the Selectmen at the same time and place, "to agree with the said Selectmen about their severall trespasses, or else some other measures will be speedily taken to redress the same."44 From the sharp threatening at the close of this warning, uttered in open town meeting, and apparently with the consent and approbation of all the people present, it might naturally be inferred that some grievous trespass npon town property had been committed. What was it, then, and who were the trespassers ? Had some covetous honseholders rendered half of Upstreet impossible to be passed with safety by making large, unauthorized enclosures ? Had certain unprin- cipled wood-dealers presumptuously invaded and fenced in some twenty acres of the town's woodland in Wood Hill ? Or had some greedy landholder inclosed, and appropriated to his own use a goodly portion of the Town Common in the plains of Goshen ? Oh, no; nothing of the kind. The sum of the encroachments complained of was this. The Rev. Jabez Fox, their minister, and two other highly respectable citizens, Thomas Peirce, Senr., and Daniel Baldwin, happened to be fond of tobacco ; and taking a notion to raise enough theinselves for their own smoking and chewing, they had cach ventured to fence in some unsightly nook or bend in the highway near their respective premises, where the soil was peculiarly favorable for the growth of the noxious weed, and had there set out plants of it, which were now thriving like so many skunk cabbages, promising them a luxuriant harvest. But, in accordance with the warning now given them, backed by such plain threats of a civil prosecution, they all three, like good citizens, came before their Honors, the Selectmen, at the time and place appointed, to make satisfaction for their wrong-doing. And there, having received some gentle reprimand for their unauthorized converting of public into pri- vate property for the time, they were let off from any further censure or punishment, and had leave to enjoy " the improvement of those severall bitts of land " for that summer, on condition of agreeing to pay the Selectmen a penny each for the use of the
# Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 72, 73.
12*
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
town, and throwing open their enclosures to the highway by the next "Michaelmas." 44 And so far at least as relates to the money they promised to pay for the town's use, there is evidence upon Record that they were as good as their word. For in the Town Accounts for that year, James Convers, Jr., the Town Clerk, is made Dr. to the town
" For money paid for quittrent for three tobacco
yards per Mr ffox, Clark Peirce & Sargt
Baldwin
£00:00 *: 03d." 45
Rev. Jabez Fox appears to have possessed the confidence and affectionate regard of the great body of the people in Woburn, and to have retained the same through life. And yet the men of the generation he served, were not all so punctual to fulfil their engagements to him as their fathers had been to his predecessor in the ministry. Through the pressure of the times (which were confessedly hard), and especially in consequence of the heavy taxes imposed during the Indian and French wars of that period, a number were constantly behind hand in paying their proportions to his salary, so that, at one time, the arrears due to him were about £70, equivalent nearly to his salary for a year. Various were the expedients resorted to by the Selcetmen and by the town to cure this evil, but long without the desired success. One method proposed was, that the Deacons for the time being should reckon with Mr. Fox at the end of every year, and warn all who were found delinquent to make up their arrears within two months after the year had expired, and report them to the Selectmen, if they persisted in their neglect; in which case, the Selectmen were to recover their dues in a legal way. But the Deacons proving but inefficient collectors and duns, the whole burden devolved upon the Selectmen, who summoned the delin- quents before them at times, when some, say the Records, " that were behind, were brought up to their proportions " (T. R. IV., p. 27). At a General Meeting, January 18, 1696-7, a com- mittee, consisting of Major William Johnson, Deacons Samuel Walker and James Convers, Jr., was appointed to andit Rev.
45 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 69.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Mr. Fox's accounts, and to make report respecting delinquents at the next General Meeting. At the same time, the Selectmen were ordered for the future to furnish Mr. Fox, in November of every year, with a List of every man's proportion to his salary, and at the end of every year to reckon with Mr. Fox, and give a list of rates unpaid to the Constables to collect them. And, moreover, it was voted at the same meeting, that Rev. Mr. Fox's salary should be paid semi-annually; that so if any persons should be about to remove from the town, the Selectmen, by taking care, might " save the one halfe of their rates, if not the whole." 46
December 6, 1697, the Selectmen met, say the Records, "to look after Mr. Jabez Fox his arrears, and sent writts to some, and messages to others. Severall came up and paid their arrears . . . others warned to appear the 21st courant " etc.46 Finally, at a General Meeting, March 3, 1698-9, the following Resolve was passed : "The freeholders and other Inhabitants of this Towne of Wobourne having considered and discoursed the difficulty of bringing up some men to their duty, as to their pay- ing their due proportions to the maintenance of the Rev. Mr. Jabez Fox, annually, according to covenant; divers methods having been taken which did not prove effectual, the said Inhabitants declared their minds in the matter, that the most likely way for the collecting the said Mr ffox his sallery, is to make fair lists thereof (as of other rates) of each and every one's due proportion to the same, and affix warrants thereto, and deliver the same to the severall Constables annually, to collect it by distress, of all such as refuse or neglect to pay their respective parts thereof : and for all those persons that pay their respective parts of the said sallery without such distress, they shall pay no part of the Constables' charge for collecting the same, but the whole charge of the said collection, distress or distresses, shall be paid by those persons only, that by their refusal or negligence occasion the same : and this was voted and passed in the affirmative." 47 Ac- cordingly, three days after the General Meeting, March 6, 1698-9, the Selectmen " mett and perfected the lists for the Reverend Mr.
46 Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 83, 101.
47 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 137.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Jabez ffox his sallery for the year 1698, beginning on the first of November last, and affixed Warrants to the same, and delivered the same to the Constables to collect, as above said" etc. 47 This method seems to have been effectual for the end intended during the remainder of Mr. Fox's life; but still there were large arrears due for the years preceding, which were not col- lected till after his death. This mournful event took place suddenly, while he was yet in the midst of his days and useful- ness. Being at Boston on a visit, he was seized with the small- pox, of which he died there, February 28, 1702-3. A friend of his in Boston thus records his death at the time: "Lord's Day Feb. 28 1702-3. Mr Jabez Fox dies of the Small Pox in the forenoon." 48
Rev. Mr. Jabez Fox, second pastor of the church of Christ in Woburn, was, according to a family tradition, a lincal descend- ant of Rev. John Fox, a nonconformist divine in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and author of the work entitled " Aets and Monuments of the Church "; or, as it is more familiarly known, Fox's Book of Martyrs: a book much read by the Puritan founders of New England, and regarded by them with a rever- ence and esteem short only of that which they paid to the Bible.
His father, Mr. Thomas Fox, resided first in Concord; and then removing to Cambridge, was one of its Selectmen in 1658, and repeatedly afterwards; and died there April 25, 1693, aged 85. His mother, Mrs. Ellen Fox, previously to her mar- riage to his father, Mr. Thomas Fox, had been the widow of Mr. Percival Green of Cambridge, a member of the church there, who died Dec. 25, 1639, and by whom she had had two children, John and Elizabeth Green, both baptized in infancy in the church at Cambridge.
Mr. Jabez Fox was born and baptized in Concord, about
" Diary of Judge Sewall.
4" At a general town meeting, April 5th, 1703, It was generously voted to pay Mrs. Judith Fox, the relict of their Inte pastor, forty pounds of the annual salary which had been proportioned for her husband the November preceding, but who had died when but about four months of his year had expired. - See Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 224.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1647,43 and wasyet in his minority when his father removed from there to Cambridge; was graduated at Harvard College, in 1665, and appears to have studied divinity there. He had commenced preaching, and had married before application was made to him, in 1678, to go to Woburn, and to preach there statedly a year, as an assistant to Rev. Mr. Carter. This invitation was accepted ; and so satisfactory were his services, that, before the term of his engagement expired, the town voted him unanimously, July 16, 1679, " a call to the ministry, with an Intent he may be called to office in time, if God make waye "; 50 and, November 5th, 1679, they invited him to settle over them for life; and made generous provision for his comfort and support.50 The church, too, it is presumed, a little previously to the last date, gave him a call to the pastoral office, as he had been encouraged to expect they would. The precise date of his ordination has not been preserved ; but may reasonably be assigned to the middle of November, 1679. His salary year was long reckoned as com- mencing with November 1st. The whole term of his constant service in the gospel ministry in this place was somewhat over twenty-four years; viz : one year as an assistant to Rev. Mr. Carter, and twenty-three years and upwards as settled minister in Woburn, and pastor of this church.
At his decease, in Boston, his remains were brought to Woburn, and there interred in the Old Burial Ground. For many years, it is understood, the stone which marked the place of his interment, was overlooked, or supposed to have been removed. But, during the past summer (1866), a descendant, Jabez Fox, Esq., of Washington, D. C., made a visit to Wo- burn; and going upon Burial Hill, found the gravestone of his
49 It has been supposed by some that Mr. Fox was born in Cambridge. But this hypothesis is disproved by the following extract from a " List of Members in the Church of Cambridge," in the handwriting of Rev. Mr. Jonathan Mitchell, its pastor, which purports to have been " taken and registred in ye 11th. month 1658." [January, 1658-9.]
" Thomas ffoxe & Ellen his wife, both in full Comm.
" His son Jabez ffoxe baptized at Concord, but in minority when his ffather joyned here." - See Cambridge Church Records.
50 Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 98, 101.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
ancestor, and took down an exact copy of the inscription upon it, as follows :
Memento Mori :
Fugit Hora
HERE LYES Y& BODY OF
YE REVEREND MR JABEZ FOX.
PASTOUR OF Y& CHURCH OF
CHRIST IN WOBOURN 23 YEARS.
& AGED 56 YEARS, DECESED FEBR Y$ 28th 1703.
Rev. Mr. Fox's widow, Mrs. Judith Fox, was daughter of the elder Rev. John Reyner, minister of Plymouth and Dover, N. H. After Mr. Fox's death, she married Col. Jonathan Tyng, of Boston, who had been of the Council of Gov. Sir Edmund Andros, and who, coming in his latter days to Woburn to reside, died there suddenly, January 19, 1723-4. The vener- able lady, his widow, survived him till June 1736; and the following touching memorial of her excellence is copied from her gravestone :
Here lyes Buried ye Body of Mrs Judith Tyng, wife to Col' Jonathan Tyng, formerly wife to ye Revd Mr. Jabez Fox : who Dy'd
June 5th, Anno Dom1 1736, in ye 99th year of her Age : A woman of Most Exemplary Vertne & Piety ; Rich in Grace, ripe for Glory.51
By this worthy lady, Rev. Jabez Fox had five children ; viz ;
1. John, born at Cambridge, May 10, 1678, shortly before his father was invited to preach in Woburn, and who afterwards succeeded his father there in the pastoral office.
2. Thomas; born at Woburn July G, and died July 10, 1680.
3. Thomas; born at Woburn November 13, 1681.
4. Jabez; born December 2, 1684.
5. Judith ; born June 19th, 1690, and died the same year.
a Jabez Fox, Esq., above mentioned. This Inscription, furnished by him, differs consld- crably from that exhibited In Aldon's Eplinphs, Vol. 1., No. 277, p. 229.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
It is not known that Rev. Mr. Fox ever published any of his writings. A skeleton of a sermon, delivered by him at Cam- bridge, July 28, 1678, from 2 Tim. ii. 19, and committed to writing by Mr. afterwards Rev. Nathaniel Gookin, pastor of the church in Cambridge, is published in Alden's Collection of American Epitaphis, vol. I., No. 236, pages 226-229, and is pre- sented (a good part of it) in Chapter III. of this work. An- other skeleton of a discourse, preached by Rev. Mr. Fox at Cambridge, May 11, 1673, from Eph. v., 16, "Redeeming the time," is found in the voluminous manuscript collections of Hon. John Hull, Esq., and of his son-in-law, Judge Sewall. It was probably taken down on paper at the time of delivery, by the latter gentleman, who was then a resident graduate or tutor at the college in Cambridge; and it is here given, not only as a sample of the instructions addressed to his hearers by the sec- ond minister of Woburn, but also as a specimen of the manner in which the ancient divines of New England constructed their discourses for the pulpit.
By Mr. Fox, May 11, 1673.
Eple. 5 :16. Redeem. ye time.
2 motives (1) because such are termed wise.
[See v. 15.] (2) because ye dayes are Evil.
[Doctrine.]
"D."! It is a duty incumbent on, & much for ye interest of all (espe- cially in evil times) to redeem ye time.
Luke 15. 17. Jonah when his soul fainted, remembered ye L. [Lord.] Hester. Ninevites.
Expli. [Explication : by 3 Questions.]
When said to be evil dayes ?
1 Q. [1Question] (1) All ye dayes of our lives are evil, both in respect of sinne & the effects of it.
Special. (1) In ye day of Jacob's trouble.
(2) When, notwithstanding our afflictions, there is noe returning to ye L. [Lord.]
(3) When those evils are found among a people which call for evil dayes : as
1. Pride.
2. Lighting [slighting ?] ye means of grace : Speak. [Speak- ing] Smooth things &c.
3. Covetousness, oppression & deceipt. Mica 2. [Micah, 2, 3.] When these things are incorrigibly persisted in, so yt ye prudent keep silence. Gray haires, & men know it not. Eccl. 12. 1. Several gray haires : as
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1. Deeay of first love.
2. When there is a want of life & vigour.
3. A lukewarm spirit; a spirit of neutrality, when men know not whether to be for God, or Mam- mon : such a Laodiecan strain speakes evil times.
4. When God seems to be withholding his convert- ing spirit.
2 Q. What to redeeme time ?
[2Question] Nega. [Negatively ] time cannot be called back.
It presupps. [presupposes]
I. A sence of ye loss & worth of time.
2. A sence of ye disadvantage acerueing by ye loss of it. [It implies (1) Knowing ye seasons & opp. [opportunities ] Rom. 13. 11.
(2) A dew [due] improving ye time : catching at all opportunityes & parcels of time. Ecele. 9. 7. do it with all thy might.
R. 1. 1. From ye absolute necessity of it, in respect of what we have lost. [Reason 1.].) With respect unto ye shortness of time.
3. With reference to ye means of redeeming time, which are hastening away.
4. With respect to ye work & buisinesse we have to doe.
R. 2. From ye comand [command] of God.
3. Because ye dayes are evil from ye sinne acted by each of us.
Q.3. [Question3]
Why especially at such a time ?
(1) God expeets it then.
(2) Evil dayes ent men short of their time.
(3) It is ye only means to prevent ye badnesse of ye times.
(4) Because evil dayes take awaye ye means for redeeming time.
(5) Satan is then most busy.
(6) Else we shall be fools.
(7) At such a time, we do most honour God, If so he then we redeem ye time.
IT. Exam. [Use for lex- amination. ]
1. Whether ye evil of ye times have been any motive to us to redeem it.
2. Hath It wronght In ns a greater circumspection ? hath It stirred up n spirit of prayer In us?
U. 2. Wt. [What] thankfulnesse, y' God gives us a season & oppor- tunity to redeem time? God suines [sums ] up a great deal of love in ya [this ; ] I gave her space to repent : ye more
I. Because we have neglected ye time.
2. How many cut short of time !
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
U. Exort. [Use for Ex- Redeem ye time. If we have all lost time, yn [then] it is time hortation.] for us to redeem time.
(1) Our time is limited to a certain time.
(2) There is notice & account taken of all ye opportunityes we enjoy. 3 years I come &c.
(3) This is ye very end of all ye space we have afforded us.
Direet. [Directions]
1. Bethink yourselves what ye worth of time is. .
2. Take heed of resting in dutyes.
3. Do not procrastinate : this, a daring of God. Matt. 24, latter end.
13
CHAPTER V.
Settlement of Rev. John Fox, November 1703. - Declaration of the Church, 1703. - Occasion of Baptists in Woburn, 1671. - Proceedings in the Law against Them, etc., etc. - Brief Notices of the Six Subscribers to the Church's Declaration, viz : William Johnson, Esq., Dea. Saml. Walker, Joseph Wright, Senr., James Convers, Senr., W. Locke, Senr., James Convers, Jr.
THE last chapter, it will be remembered, brought down the history of Woburn to the death of Rev. Jabez Fox, its second minister, February 28, 1702-3. In April following, agreeably to ancient Puritan custom, a Fast was held by the town, the public services of which were conducted by several of the neighboring ministers, to implore the divine direction in the choice of a suc- cessor.1 At a town meeting, April 5th, 1703, Mr. John Fox, eldest son of Rev. Jabez Fox, who was then keeping the Gram- mar School in the town, was invited to preach three months on probation; and this invitation was afterwards renewed for three months more. Before this latter engagement expired, the church held several meetings with reference to his permanent continuance among them ; at one of which, they chose Mr. Fox, as the Town Records express it, "for their Minister, in order to his full settlement in the worke of the Ministry ":2 by which choice seems to be meant, that they voted him a call to the pastoral office. The town, at a meeting October 4, 1703, con- firmed these proceedings of the church ; choosing by a major vote, " Mr. John Fox to be the Minister of the town of Woobourne." 2 They also voted to give him £SO, one fourth in money, as his salary for the first year ; which was the same compensation that his father had been wont to receive; and promised, in case
' Pald " to James Fowle . . . . for the Elders Entertainment, for them- selves and horses, on the Town Fast in Aprill last [1703] - - £1 :8:0." Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 219.
" Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 238.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
" of his settling in the Worke of the Ministry in Woobourne upon his own Lands,"3 that they would use their influence with the proprietors of the town4 to grant him at their next meeting a piece of land lying between his own land and that of Mr. Timothy Carter, son of the first minister. These proposals were accepted by Mr. Fox, and he was accordingly ordained the following month, November 17, 1703, as the pastor of the church, and minister of the town of Woburn. The exercises of this solemnity are preserved in remembrance, in the following brief notice from the diary of Rev. Joseph Green of Salem Vil- lage, now Danvers, who was present on the occasion. " 17 Nov. 1703. I went with Mr Fitch and Lld. [landlord] to Mr Fox's ordination at Oburn. Mr. Peirpoint [of Reading] began with a prayer. Mr Fox preach'd. Mr. Willard [of Old South Church, Boston] gave the charge. Mr Peirpoint the right hand. I came home at 7 o'clock." 5
But though Mr. Fox was now considered as permanently set- tled in Woburn, yet nothing had been determined hitherto respecting his salary beyond the first year. At a meeting called to act on this subject, November 13, 1704, the town voted :
1. To " maintaine their minister, the Reverand Mr John Fox, by a rate or assessment proportioned upon them for that end, according to former custom in Woobourne."
2. To allow him for his encouragement in his work the sum of eighty pounds annually, " forty pounds in money, and forty pounds in corne and other provisions at money price, at the ordinary rate they are sold for between man and man in Woobourne."
3. That this agreement should stand as long " as the said Mr. John Fox shall continue and carry on the whole work of the Ministry in Woobourne." 6
3 Upon the homestead inherited from his father.
4 The old distinction between the proprietors and the inhabitants of the town is here, as it is in other passages of the records, properly observed.
At a meeting of the proprietors, March 6th, 1703-4, they voted unani- mously to give Mr. Fox the piece of land referred to, "to be his own proper estate forever." - Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 253.
5 Manuscripts of the late William Gibbs, Esq., of Lexington. Vol. C., No. 10, p. 30.
6 Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 269, 270.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
But these votes were not passed by the town with unanimity. Twenty-six persons, several of whom were men of great respeet- ability, entered a protest against them; which, with their names, is recorded in the Town Book.6 Their dissent, however, was not owing apparently to any dissatisfaction they felt with Mr. Fox, but founded expressly upon the alleged poverty of this town in particular, and of the country in general, by reason of the growing charge of the then present war, which rendered them averse to " stating any certain sallery at [that] time," etc.6
Mr. Fox being present at this meeting declared his acceptance of what the town then voted, as his permanant annual allowance, and in view of the public burdens then pressing upon his people, he agreed, for the present year, to be satisfied with Seventy pounds, and to make due consideration afterward, "So long as the charge of the present war lay so heavy upon this town." 6
While the question of Mr. Fox's settlement was pending, a communication was made to him by the church, subscribed by six of its leading members, in behalf, apparently, of themselves and their brethren, which shows decisively what were the senti- ments of the great majority of Woburn Church at that day, respecting the doctrines of religion, and ecclesiastieal order and government. A copy of this interesting communication was found many years ago in a box of time-worn papers, belonging to the Dean family, in which, probably, it had been quietly resting for upwards of a century. It is seemingly in the hand- writing of Major William Johnson, and reads as follows :
" A COPY OF THE PROPOSALS OF WOOBURN CHURCH
offered to Mr John Fox, when on his probation among them June y 3d. 1703."
" It is now about three score years since this Church of Wooburn entered into Covenant as a Church of Christ, and hane continued ever since in that ffaith and Order which we were instructed in by our Honourable and Reverend fathers spirituall, political and nat- urall, and above all, the Word of God, the which we have perused, and finde it to warrant the same, and wee hope wee shall not depart from it now wee are old.
" Wee do therefore declare the Confession of Faith drawn up by
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
the Rerd Synod held at Cambridge in (48) and approued of by the Honoured Gen" Court, and perused again by the Synod held at Boston in the year (79), and that Platform of Discipline agreed upon at the same Synod in (48) and approved of by the Synod in (79) held at Boston, for the Substance of it wee agree with it ; and wee do fully comply with that Chapter in the Confession of Faith concerning Baptism, Paragraph (4), that not only those who do actually proffess Faith [in] and Obedience unto Christ are to bee baptized, but allso the Infants of one or both Belieueing Parents are to bee Baptized, and they only. Wee allso comply with and hold that a Congregational Church ought to be furnished with Pas- tours and Teachers, Ruling Elders and Deacons, as in the (7) Chapt. of Discipline. Wee agree allso with the (8) Chapt. con- cerning the Election of Church Officers, and with the (9) Chapt. concerning Ordination and Impositions of hands, and with the (10) Chapt. concerning Church Power, and with the (12) Chapt. concerning the Admissions of Members : all which wee pray God to keep us stedfast in, that wee may hold out to the End.
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