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 27
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no known memorial has been preserved. The Town Records however have transmitted some account of the splendid and costly entertainment made by the town at the ordination, in a bill of Jonathan Poole, Esq., who was employed to provide it. The following is a copy :
" To Mr Jonathan Poole Esq' for subsisting the Ministers and Messengers and Gentlemen in the time of Mr. Jackson's Ordination :
" To 433 Dinners a 28: 6ª a Dinner £54: 2:6ª
" To Suppers & Breakfasts, 178: OS: 18:0
" To keeping 32 horses 4 days : 3: 0:0
" To Six Barrils & } of Cyder 4:11:0
" To 25 Gallons of wine 9:10:0
" To 2 Gallons of Brandy & 4 Gallons Rhum 1:16:0
" To Loaf Suger, Lime Juice & Pipes 1:12:0
"£83: 9 :6." 41
Here is a bill, amounting to more than two-thirds of a year's salary pledged to Mr. Jackson, for articles consumed at his ordination entertainment. Our fathers were, generally speak- ing, very prudent men in their use of money; and more apt to be parsimonious than profuse in their expenses for public pur- poses. But here is an instance, that, in a comparative view, seems to be well entitled to the charge of extravagance. And such was the general character of ordination expenses during the last century. How came it to be so ? Ordinations in the times of the Apostles, were solemnized with prayer and fast- ing.42 Such, too, was the custom in the Church of England, from which, for greater purity's sake, our ancestors separated. In that Church, all ordinations are appointed to be held, exelu- sively, upon the Sundays immediately following the Ember
41 Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 42. Esquire Poole's bill against the town for expenses at Mr. Jackson's ordination was not the only one. Another follows : " To Mr Noah Richardson for keeping the Ministers' & Messen- gers' horses, in the time of Mr Jackson's ordination ... £2.0.0." - Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 43.
42 Acts xvi. 3.
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weeks, (as certain stated quarterly solemnities were called,) that were set apart for this purpose among others, to implore, with fasting and prayer, the divine blessing upon the candidates, then to be brought to the bishop to be ordained.43 Such, also, was the custom of the Presbyterians, who rose upon the ruins of Episco- pacy in the time of the Westminster Assembly. Through their influence, an ordinance was made by Parliament, directing that all ordinations should be performed with prayer and fasting.44 And such, too, was the custom of our Puritan ancestors them- selves, at their first settlement in this country. Their earliest ordinations were wont to be celebrated on days of solemn fasting and prayer.45 Whence then the change ? This can be accounted for, it seems, only in this way. The earliest ordina- tions here were performed by the churches themselves, over which candidates were to be ordained, without the aid of the elders of other churches. But when it became common for churches, over which pastors were to be ordained, to ask sister churches abroad to aid by their elders and messengers in the solemnity, then it became necessary to provide for their hospi- table entertainment. And entertainments on such occasions, at first probably plain and simple, and by no means to be censured, came at length to be sumptuous : and hence ordinations, from being solemn religious services, degenerated in too many in- stances, into occasions of excessive feasting and noisy dissipa- tion. An aged minister in this county once said in my hearing, that at his ordination, about half a century previous, such was the noise and confusion on the common before the meeting-house, that the exercises within it could scarcely be heard. And ordi- nations and commencements, where it might be reasonably expected that good order and decorum would prevail, became too often scenes of noisy mirth and excess.
4 Whently on the Book of Common Prayer, Appendix to Chapter IV., Section 2; and Chapter V., Section 2.
" Neal's History of the Puritans, Vol. III., Chap. vi., pp. 281, 252.
45 Winthrop's History, by Savage, Vol. I., pp. 36, 114, 135, 239.
CHAPTER IX
Variance between Rev. Messrs. Fox and Jackson. - Lawsuits of Rev. Mr. Fox, and of Rev. Mr. Jackson, against the Town, 1732, 1740. - Sale of the 2,000 Acres in 1734. - Management of the Committee of Trust till 1772.
THE preceding chapter of this history of Woburn gives an account of the settlement of Rev. Edward Jackson, as colleague pastor with Rev. John Fox, in 1729; and of the incorporation of the northerly quarter of the town, or Goshen, as a distinct town, by the name of Wilmington, and of its northwesterly quarter, or Shawshin, as its Second Precinct, in 1730. These measures had been rendered in a degree necessary, by the fail- ure of Mr. Fox's health, and by the remoteness of the districts just named from the place of public worship. Still, their immediate consequences to Woburn were embarrassing or disastrous, and gave an apparent check to its previous pros- perity, from which it did not fully recover for many years.
The separation of Wilmington from Woburn gave rise at once to numerous perplexing questions, respecting taxes for the ministry, paupers, and the undivided lands of Woburn that lay within the bounds of Wilmington. In one or two instances, these questions were settled by mutual agreement. But most of them were put to rest only by the decision of the judicial tribunals of the County, or by the positive refusal of Woburn to act upon the petitions of Wilmington in relation to them. For example, at the first town meeting held in Wilmington, October 20, 1730, a committee of three was appointed to attempt the recovery from Woburn of their proportion of Rev. Mr. Jackson's settlement money and first year's salary.1 This had been assessed upon those inhabitants of Wilmington who belonged originally to Woburn, within a month after Mr. Jackson's ordination, and but
1 Wilmington Town Records, Vol. I., p. 2.
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little more than a year before their incorporation into a separate town. But as the money was assessed and demanded of them after they had petitioned to be erected into a distinet township, and while the General Court actually had their petition under consideration, they thought themselves fairly entitled to a reim- bursement of what had been exacted of them under such circum- stances. Accordingly, a petition to this end from Wilmington was exhibited at town meeting in Woburn, March 1, 1730-1, with a request that an article, correspondent to it, might be inserted in the warrant for their meeting in May. But this unwelcome petition was at once summarily disposed of. No sooner was it read, than the inhabitants of Woburn refused by vote to notice it in the warrant referred to; and the subject does not appear to have been ever broughit before them by Wil- mington again.2
In the mean while, the inhabitants of the precinct could not rest content with their newly acquired parish privileges, but aspired at those of a town, like those of their neighbors at Wil- mington. At a precinct meeting, January 24, 1733-4 (which was less than four years after their legal separation from the First Parish), they chose a committee to apply to the Selectmen for a town meeting, to see if Woburn would consent to their being set off as a town by themselves, with their proportionate share in its lands, revenues, etc. 3 And so zealous were they for this measure, that within a little more than seven years from this time, two other committees were successively chosen by them with this end in view.3 Whether the town was harassed with applications from each of these three committees does not appear from the Records. The petition presented by the one first elected, and laid before the town at a meeting February 19, 1733-4, received so much attention, that a committee of five was then chosen to confer with the Precinct Committee, and agree upon proposals to be acted upon at an adjourned meeting. But when the town came together at the adjournment, they negatived the precinet's request. And though the scheme
Wilmington Records, Vol. 1., p. 2. Woburn Records, Vol. VI., p. M.
' Precluet Records, Vol. 1., pp. 49, 02, 119.
4 Town Records, Vol. VII., P. 165.
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of being erected into a separate township was afterwards repeatedly revived in the precinct, yet it was without success till about the elose of the last century.
All these and other like questions and petitions, arising out of the measures alluded to in the beginning of this chapter, were in themselves sufficiently annoying; and whether founded in reason and equity or not, yet being urged with zeal, and some of them with a persevering importunity, they must needs have been to the town a source of much perplexity and vexation.
But there were ill consequences to Woburn, growing out of Mr. Jackson's ordination, and the incorporation of Wilmington and the Second Parish, which were far more serious than those just mentioned.
One was, the well known unhappy dissension between the ministers of the First Parish, Rev. Messrs. Fox and Jackson, and the consequent division of their people into parties. On what precisely this dissension was founded, has not been trans- mitted for our information. Not improbably, Mr. Fox conceived carly a personal dislike to Mr. Jackson, or took offence at something advanced in his preaching; and this was afterwards, perhaps, increased by viewing him as the occasion of diverting his people's affections and kind attentions from himself, and possibly, too, by Mr. Jackson's neglecting to show him all the respect and deference to which he thought himself entitled as the senior pastor.
But however the difference between them originated, it cer- tainly commenced with Mr. Jackson's ministry at Woburn : 5 and, instead of diminishing as time progressed, and acquaintance with one another increased, it grew into a settled, thorough aversion ; so that, as tradition says, they would not speak to each other in the pulpit. And this mutual alienation of these two professed servants of the Prince of peace, had a most baleful effect upon his cause in this place. Particularly, it became an occasion of division and bitter animosity among the people of their charge. Every man in the parish had his
' First Parish Recorda, Vol. I., p. 238. l'etition.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
preference for one minister or the other. And these partialities set the friends of cach in hostile array against the friends of the other, and long made the town a scene of frequent strife and contention. An aged and very intelligent citizen of Woburn, now deceased,6 once observed to me, that his parents used to tell him in his youth, that these parties far exceeded those which arose more recently in Rev. Mr. Sargeant's day, in their bitter- ness towards one another; so that when two opponents met in the street, both would often be ready to fight, before one would give the other the wall. With such feelings towards one another in the week time, it is not surprising, that they could not always worship comfortably together on the Sabbath; nor that the lamentable alienation of these two ministers, and its consequen- ces upon their people, should furnish, as it eventually did, a successful plea for a further division of the First Parish into the First and Third.
Another most serious evil to Woburn, resulting from Mr. Jackson's ordination. and from the separation of Wilmington. and of the Second Parish from the First, was the increased difficulty of sustaining the ministry in the First Parish, and the consequent repeated and unsuccessful lawsuits with Mr. Fox. From 1716 to 1728, when the town was rapidly advancing. both in numbers and wealth, and Mr. Fox was its only minister. the burden of his salary was comparatively light; and, repeat- edly during that period, the town, of its own accord, voted a handsome and continually increasing addition to his stated compensation, corresponding to the increasing depreciation of the currency in which it was paid. But as soon as the infirm health of Mr. Fox had made it evident that a new minister must be settled, and the prospect opened of the success of Goshen and Shawshin in their attempts at separation, the accustomed gene- rosity of this people towards their aged minister ceased, and was soon followed by a seeming reluctance even to do him justice. For each of the years, 1729 and 1730, they granted him only £80, his nominal salary, paid in depreciated bills of credit ;
" Mr. Bartholomew Richardson.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
and in 1731 and 1732, when the incorporation of Wilmington and the Second Parish had left them with two ministers to main- tain, and diminished means for doing it, they wholly neglected to raise any sum whatever for his support.
This ungenerous (not to say unjust) treatment of their senior pastor, was not, however, without plausible pretexts to palliate or excuse it, and perhaps, in the eye of some, to justify it. In 1704, when the town covenanted to give Mr. Fox an annual salary of £40 in money, and £40 in corn and other provisions at market price, paper money (then but recently introduced into the country) had fallen but little below its nominal value; and hence no clause was inserted in their contract with him, as there was afterwards in that with Mr. Jackson, providing against depreciation in the currency, and engaging to make his salary always as good as it was when first granted. Moreover, in regard to the continuance of that contract, it was expressly stipulated in it, that it was " to remaine so long as the said Mr John Fox shall continue and carry on the whole work of the Ministry in Woobourne:"7 and, therefore, when blindness and sickness rendered him unable, for the time, to labor in his voca- tion, and Mr. Jackson was ordained as a colleague pastor to assist him, or supply his place, this contract became in law, strictly speaking, null and void. Hence, when the town voted him, in 1729 and 1730, £80 per annum in bills of credit, which had then sunk more than one-half below their nominal value,8 the people still did as much as the letter of their contract required ; and when they failed the two following years to grant him any salary whatever, they might still plead in their defence, with some color of reason, that they had broken no engagement : that their original contract with Mr. Fox had expired, and there was no other to fulfil.
This difficulty, arising from the failure of his contract, Mr. Fox seems to have anticipated with uneasiness, and to have
7 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 270.
8 Felt on Massachusetts Currency, pp. 83, 135. " In 1710, Bills were worth at the rate of 8 / for an ounce of silver." " In 1730, Bills were in proportion of 21/, 20/, and 19 / for one ounce of silver."
23*
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objected, in view of it, to the ordination of Mr. Jackson as his colleague, unless the town would come into some new engage- ment with himself respecting his future support. For, at a town meeting, October 14, 1728, shortly after the inhabitants had given to Mr. Jackson a call to the ministry, and while they were treating with him about his settlement, they chose a large and highly respectable committee of nine, which was subsequently enlarged to thirteen, " to goe to the Revd. Mr Fox to see if they can make things easy with him; and if there be need, they shall goe to some of the neighbouring ministers." 9 What the uneasi- ness of Mr. Fox was, which this committee was to attempt allay- ing, is no where explained in the Records. Possibly, it arose from the disaffection he had felt, from the beginning, towards Mr. Jackson, and the dreary prospect of being connected in the ministry for life with one whom he could not cordially approve. It is more likely, however, that his uneasiness was occasioned by anxiety respecting his support after Mr. Jackson should be set- tled, and his own contract should cease. But if this were so, this committee had no authority from the town to enter into any new engagement on their behalf with Mr. Fox respecting his compensation. All they were expected to do was, by fair words, to persuade him to waive his objections to Mr. Jackson's ordination for the present : and when that solemnity was over, the town would be left at liberty to act on this subjeet as it pleased.
But though the town's contract with Mr. Fox at settlement was now expired, and could avail him nothing to compel his people to pay him annually the salary stipulated therein, yet they were not released hereby in equity from all obligations to him. He was still their ordained, settled minister. No dismis. sion from office had ever been asked on his part, or granted on theirs. No charge of immorality, no complaint of incompetency or unfaithfulness in the discharge of his ministerial duties had been alleged against him. He had labored for their good nearly thirty of the best years of his life, without complaint on their
" Town Records, Vol. VI., pp. 330, 331.
.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
part, and apparently to their general acceptance : and now that the hand of God was upon him, afflicting him with weakness of body, and blindness of eyes, this surely was no valid reason for casting him off in his declining days, and turning him adrift on the world, to get his living as he could. Under the circum- stances of his case, both the law of equity held them bound to make some competent provision for his support, and the then law of the land obliged them to do it.
Of these, his claims both in law and equity upon his people, Mr. Fox was well aware. And, therefore, having repeatedly remonstrated with them for their neglect, and waited patiently for the desired result without success, he was at length com- pelled, by his necessities, to commence a legal prosecution. In the spring of 1732, he entered a formal complaint with the Court of Sessions for this County, praying for their interference on his behalf. This received a hearing at Cambridge in July : and hereupon an Order of Court was duly issued for serving the Town Clerk of Woburn with a copy of Mr. Fox's complaint or petition, and for citing the town to appear and answer to it at their next session. At a town meeting in Woburn, November 2, 1732, called, apparently, on purpose to consider what should be done in the case, a motion was made by some for the choice of a committee to settle the difficulty with Mr. Fox, before any further proceedings of the Court were had: but the majority were for standing a trial. And, accordingly, Messrs. Josiah Johnson, Samuel Richardson and Jacob Wyman were chosen a committee on behalf of the town, "to answer the Revd Mr Fox's Complaint, [then] depending in Court, and to appeal, if they saw cause, from Court to Court," unto a final issue.10 Both parties had a hearing before the Court of Sessions at Charles- town in December; and the case was decided in favor of Mr. Fox. The subjoined extract from the records of that Court, to which are added the names of the places where the Judges belonged) exhibits a concise view of Mr. Fox's complaint, of Woburn's defence by its committee, and of the judgment of the Court, with the grounds upon which it was based.
10 l'own Records, Vol. VII., p. 123.
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" Middlesex ss. At his Majesty's Court of General Sessions of the Peace, begun & held for & within the County of Middlesex at Charlestown on the Second Tuesday in December, being the twelfth day of said Month Anno Domini One thousand seven hun- dred and thirty two, In the sixth year of His Majesty's Reign, By His Majesty's Justices of said Court :
" JONATHAN REMINGTON [Cambridge]
JONATHAN DOWSE [Charlestown]
CHARLES CHAMBERS FRANCIS FULLAM [Weston] JOSEPH BUCKMINSTER [Framingham ] THOMAS GREAVES [Charlestown] FRANCIS BOWMAN [Cambridge] ELEAZAR TYNG [Dunstable]
Esq".
"Justices of Said Court."
" Upon reading the Petition and Complaint of the Rev. Mr John Fox of Woburn in the County of Middlesex, Clerk, Showing that whereas the Petitioner has been settled in the work of the Ministry in said Town for more than twenty eight years past, Which work and duty your Petitioner chearfully discharged in said Town for many Years, but God having in his Providence so ordered it that for more than four Years past the Petitioner has been labouring under great bodily pains and weakness, insomuch that he hath thereby been almost wholly taken off the duties of his function : And whereas there has been a neglect of the Inhabitants of said Town in makcing sufficient provision for the support of the Petitioner for some years past, Viz. Seventeen hundred twenty nine & Seventeen hundred thirty, At or before which time the Con- tract between the Petitioner & said Town was expired, Allowing him but Eighty Pounds per Annum in Province Bills, as may be made to appear by Town Records : And whereas there has been a total neglect of makeing any Provision at all for the support and maintenance of the Petitioner for almost this year and half last past, Viz'. from the year Seventeen hundred thirty, Notwithstand- ing his repeated Applications for relief; the Petitioner with the greatest Concern and Sorrow is obliged from the most pressing Necessities as a Gospel Minister now to address the Court that they would consider his condition so far as to order him a Competent Allowance for his relief and maintenance as the Law has made pro- vision for remedy & redress where such neglects have been, As by the Petition or Complaint on file : Which Petition was preferred at
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the Court of the General Sessions of the Peace holden by Adjourn- ment at Cambridge on the first Tuesday of July last, When it was ordered that the Seleetmen of Woburn be served with a Copy of the Petition by the Petitioner that they appear at the then next Court to shew Cause (if any they have) why the Prayer of the Petition should not be granted, When the Consideration of the Peti- tion was continued to this Term :
" The Parties by their Attorneys now appearing, and after a full hearing of the Pleas and Allegations of the Petitioner together with the Answer of the Committee of the Town of Woburn, who Insist upon an Agreement made by the said Town with the Peti- tioner some time after his settlement amongst them, it appearing by the Confession of the said Committee that no Allowance has been made for the Support of the Petitioner since the fourth day of March seventeen hundred thirty thirty one, And that the Petitioner is & continues to be a Settled Minister in said Town, and was never as yet discharged therefrom, And that by the Providence of God, and for no other reason the Petitioner is disabled from dis- chargeing his Office as a Minister of the Gospel amongst them, And no Contract appearing (now in force) whereby any Support or Maintenance is provided for the Petitioner during such his Inability as aforesaid, or that can Enervate the force of the Law of this Province, enabling the Court of General Sessions of the Peace effectually to provide for the Support of Ministers not otherwise provided for : It's therefore Considered by the Court that the Sum of Eighty Pounds in Money or good Bills of Credit on this Prov- ince for the Year Seventeen hundred thirty one, As also the Sum of Eighty pounds in like money for the Year Current, Vizt. Seven- teen hundred thirty two be allowed to the Petitioner for his Support and Maintenance. And Ordered that a Warrant from this Court Issue out to the Selectmen of said Town requireing them forthwith to Assess the Several Sums before mentioned on the Inhabitants of said Town in manner & proportion as the Law in that Case provided doth direct, And Cause the same to be Levyed by the Constables of said Town by a warrant under the hands of the said Selectmen or of the Town Clerk by their Order, And that they pay the same unto the Petitioner on or before the first day of May next. Also that the Petitioner shall Recover and have of the said Town of Woburn his Costs of prose- cution taxed at two pounds sixteen shillings & six pence." 11
11 Records of Court of Sessions for Middlesex, Vol. from 1723 to 1735, p. 291.
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From this judgment of the Court of Sessions, the Committee for Woburn saw fit to appeal to the Superior Court of the Province. But their appeal was to no purpose. At the next session of the Superior Court, holden at Charlestown, January 30, 1732-3, both parties appearing, and being fully heard, the Court decided as follows: " It's Considered & Ordered by the Court, that the former Order or Judgment of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace be and hereby is confirmed with additional Costs of this Court." 12 Accordingly, the next month, £164 15%. 6d., the whole amount recovered by Mr. Fox in this suit, including costs, was assessed upon all the inhabitants of Woburn in both Parishes, and then paid over to Mr. Fox, agreeably to Order of Court of Sessions.13
But now arose a new difficulty in relation to this subject. The inhabitants of the precinet felt aggrieved by the decision of the Court of Sessions, ordering them virtually (being inhabi- tants of Woburn) to be taxed for the years 1731, 1732, for the support of a minister of the First Parish, from which they had been set off upwards of two years.14 And when they found that decision was confirmed by the Superior Court, and was actually being carried into execution, they resolved to apply to the Legislature for redress of this conceived violation of their corporate privileges. At a precinct meeting, March 7, 1732-3, it was voted, " that Lieut. Edward Johnson, and Ensign James Proctor be a Committee to address the Great and General Court in the name and behalf of the Inhabitants of said Precinet, that they may be dismissed from paying any part of the eight score pounds of money that the Court of General Sessions of the Peace ordered the town of Woburn to pay to the Reverend Mr Fox, one of the Ministers of the first parish in said Woburn."15 This committee preferred a petition to the Legislature in June, 1733, which was read a second time, " together with the Answer of the first Parish in Woburn," August 16, of the same year. And both parties being heard
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