USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The history of the First Baptist church of Boston (1665-1899) > Part 8
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daughters, first cruelly whipped and then flayed him alive before his wife and children. They would not give the poor man time even to pray, but, taunting him with persecuting the Baptists, they left him to . die, which he soon did. One of his daughters also died from her frightful experience. It is a graphic and grewsome recital of a bloody deed. The author concludes :
I have penn'd and publish'd this Narrative in perpetuam rei me- moriam, that the world may see the Spirit and temper of these men, and that it may stand as an Eternal Memorial of their cruelty and hatred to all Orthodox Ministers. 1
There were many ready to believe this extraordinary story, and it had wide circulation in London and in Boston. The excitement in the former city was great. Fortunately a merchant vessel arrived soon after from Boston, and both the master and the merchant owner, who was on board, denied that any such deed had taken place. They affirmed that there had been no such minister resident in Boston within their memory, and they had lived there many years. They had heard no such news before sailing. These things they testified under oath. The officers of the London ward in which was Fen Church Street testified that no Mr. Baxter had lived there within their memory. Dr. Parker, chaplain to the archbishop of London, then confessed that he had been imposed upon in granting the license to publish. The King's Council ordered the sale of the pamphlet stopped. It is sup- posed that Doctor Parker himself was the author, and
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took this method of exhibiting his rancor toward the Baptists. The prompt exposé was all that saved the Baptists from violence from the populace. That so many people should have been ready to believe the story illustrates the intense hostility toward Baptists and also the profound ignorance concerning their true character. It also exhibits the illegal and unscrupu- lous methods of attack of which they were long the innocent victims.
Benanuel Bowers had been closely associated with the members of this church through many years. He was a constant attendant upon their meetings, and was commonly known and treated as a Baptist. He never actually united with the church, but neverthe- less remained a steadfast supporter and defender of its interests. He was a resident in Billerica and in Cam- bridge. His name often appears in company with Goold, Osborne, and the others, in the record of arrests, fines, imprisonments, and banishments. The third and last section of an appeal which he made from the Cambridge Court to the Court of Assistants in Bos- ton, June 17, 1673, gives a graphic account of what he suffered. It is not likely that he would give an exaggerated account to the Court which had the whole record before it and could easily verify the truth or falsity of his statements :
I have been formerly often sentenced at Cambridge & Charles- towne Court much after this manner of proceeding five or six times, fined imprisoned and three times whipt privately at the house of correction at Cambr. My hands being put in the irons of the whipping post for the execution which hard usidge did cause my neighbours hearing it to be so much, did desire me to
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let them see the signs of the stripes which I did, at which they were much troubled and grieved for my sore sufferings, and my Imprisonment was in ye dead & cold time of the winter and in seed time, and they kept me in prison too weekes and after that whipt me and sent me . . . and my maid servant which was hired for one year was forced away from my wife when she had five small children, one of them sucking, and against the maids own will and threatened by Capt. Gookin (the magistrate) if she would not goe away he would send her to the house of correction and also my wife have sufered much when I was in prision by coming to me in the extremity of the winter having noe maid, being desti- tute of any assistance or other help, and also my wife have bine forced to come to Court when she had lain in child bed but three weakes and condemned for contempt of authority in not coming to Court when she had laine in but three daies and my wife have bine likewise whipt upon the same account or pretense as I have bine and all this hath not satisfied the will and desires of some of my judges but do still continue their cruell proceedings against me mostly every Court still ; & magistrate. Danforth [of Cam- bridge] expressing his fury yet further in open Court against me saying unto me, if I be not hanged he would be hanged for me and many other high words and harde usage have I received from Cambridge magistrates which will be too tedious for to trouble this Court with ; this being the very truth wh before specified that hath bine my position hitherto to the best of my knowledge hav- ing bine very curcomspect in speaking nothing but the truth, and to conclude I have judged it my duty in conscience to make now this my appeale to this Court that this matter may be known to you & the world . . . whether this be charity according to the rules of Christ and according to the lawes of this jurisdiction, ac- cording to ye king of England's lawes of liberty for all persons concerned in his dominions in matter of worshipping their God the wh have bine obsarved and is now practised continually to all his subjects to this time as well as are made known of by the late information we have received that they doe injoy their liberty and have that I am here denied but contrary am brought into bond and suffering very sore for worshipping of my God according to a good conscience, so committing myselfe to God and my judges in
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this matter for my deliverance from bond and which hitherto have bine my portion and shall pray to God to direct you in your pro- ceedings and subscribe myselfe your loving friend,
BENANUEL BOWERS. 1
This appeal is in a rarely beautiful handwriting, and its contents are such as to touch the hardest heart. It is not an overdrawn picture of the minute and petty persecutions, as well as the severer suffer- ings, which the Baptists were compelled to endure. Courts knew no mercy in their case, and if at any time they grew weary in the pursuit there were ecclesiastical foes ready to arouse their lagging zeal. The annual election sermon offered a favorite occa- sion for exhorting the magistrates to do their duty in suppressing the Baptists. These ministerial pro- ductions were usually exceedingly militant in their tone, and with fiery phrase and denunciatory epithet urged that the enemies of the elect orthodox people should be driven from the community by the civil powers.2 One might infer from their exaggerated rhetoric that Baptists were a species of ravening wild beasts, which lay in hiding among them and were ready to spring forth at any moment to tear and to devour, rather than their own neighbors and fellow- citizens. The Cambridge judges at their next session, October, 1673, promptly answered the charges which Bowers had preferred against them to the Court of Assistants by fining him five pounds or to be sent to prison.3 They thought thus to exonerate themselves
1 " Middlesex Court, Original Papers."
2 Vide, " Election Sermons," Prince Collection, Boston Public Library. 3 " Middlesex Court Record," Vol. III., p. 79.
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and to dismiss these charges of their injustice, but, unhappily for their fame, the narrative of Bowers' sufferings has many tell-tale corroborations in the hidden archives of the Court, which the modern in- vestigator constantly unearths. No man can write the full story of what these early Baptists suffered in wintry prisons, in petty judicial persecution, in social ostracismn, in incessant harassment, in unjust sus- picion, and in the danger which always hung over their households. The historian wearies in the re- cital of that sad story which the quaint and dingy old papers, letters, and manuscripts of that dreadful time now bring to the light of day. The foundations of this First Baptist Church were laid amid tears, an- guish, hope deferred, families broken asunder, homes compulsorily forsaken, property taken, good names aspersed, and a future which seemed to be arched with 110 bow of the promise of quiet and peace. Wives, with an unyielding courage, gave their husbands to the prison, and carried food to them through the drear New England winters, and ministered to them in patience and faith. Men were ready to suffer the loss of all things, but they were not ready to carry a fettered conscience. Such men and women as laid the foundations of this church might die, but they would never surrender their right to religious liberty. It is a picture of heroic endurance, which not even the annals of Plymouth Colony in 1620 can surpass. It was a struggle for freedom, the story of which can- not be told too often. Puritan severity was pitted against Baptist pluck. Puritan intolerance was con- tending against the English and Christian love of
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liberty. Puritan exclusiveness was vainly building walls against the freedom of the gospel. The Puri- tan was sturdy and honest and conscientious, but he was unenlightened in the truth and law of liberty. Hence all his efforts in behalf of compulsory beliefs within his theocratic State were foredoomed to failure. He struggled all in vain against men who were as sturdy as himself, and who withal were the embodi- ment of a principle in religion which cannot be con- quered.
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CHAPTER VII
DEATH OF GOOLD AND RUSSELL. REV. JOHN MYLES. THE INDIAN WAR. TURNER'S FALLS. A CASE OF DISCIPLINE. A MEETING-HOUSE BUILT. NAILED
UP BY AUTHORITY. THE LAST PERSECUTION.
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ON January 9, 1674, William Hamlit wrote to Samuel Hubbard, of Newport : " Brother Drinker hath been very sick near unto death, but the Lord hath re- stored him to health again. The Church of the bap- tized do peaceably enjoy their liberty. Brother Russell, the elder and the younger, have good re- membrance of you."1 In the Diary of Capt. Hull occurs this entry : "This summer (1674) the Anabap- tists that were wont to meet at Noddle's Island, met at Boston, on the Lord's Day. One Mr. Symon Lind (Lynde) letteth one of them a house." They had met in Charlestown and on Noddle's Island only be- cause of stress of circumstances. At last they are per- initted to meet in Boston in their own hired house and to feel themselves at home. This church, which had so taxed the powers of the colony to suppress it, and which had arrested the attention of the king and of many in high authority in England, had enrolled but eighteen members in the first five years, and but fifty members in the first ten years of its history. It had comparatively little wealth and social prestige. It was debarred by law from political influence, and its own principles effectually prevented it from seek- ing political activity. It was fighting in New Eng- land the battle of religious liberty for all time. It was contending for a principle which is deathless, and
1 Backus, " Hist.," Vol. I., p. 327.
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hence the power of Church and State could not crush this band of disciples. During this first period of quiet which the church had enjoyed since its organization it was called upon to part with its be- loved first pastor, Thomas Goold. He passed away October 27, 1675. He died a martyr. He had been despoiled of home, property, and health ; but he never faltered. Elder Russell says that "he was in some good measure fitted and qualified for such a work, and proved an eminent instrument in the hand of the Lord for the carrying on the good work of God in its low and weak beginnings," and, speaking of those who were associated with him, he says:
Their trouble and temptations followed one upon the neck of another, like the waves of the sea ; but these precious servants of the Lord, having in some good measure counted the cost before- hand, were not moved from any of these things, but were cheer- fully carried on by the hand of the Lord upon them, through all the afflictions and reproaches they met with ; and are the most of them now at rest with the Lord, having served the will of God in their generation. 1
For ten stormy years, in prison and out of prison, Thomas Goold had led his little flock, and himself had borne the brunt of sufferings. He had fought a good fight. He had kept the faith. He is worthy of imperishable honor. He was a steady, serene, divinely prepared and guided leader. It was a pathetic ending of a true life, that it must pass away within sight of its promised land. The church had now so many members and so large a constituency of sympathizers that the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of the colony
1 Russell, "Narrative," pp. 1, 2, 6.
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began to realize the hopelessness of efforts to crush the Baptists. They had entrenched themselves in numerous towns, and the leaven had penetrated every part of the commonwealth. The Court, how- ever, showed some signs of a renewal of persecution :
June 25, 1675, John Russell, Sent, appearing before the Court to answr the prsentmt of the Grand Jury for not attending the Publ : worship of God on Lords Dayes &. etc., and by his owne confession in open Court, being convicted of constant & ordinary frequenting the meeting of the Anabaptists on the Lords Dayes & etc., is sentenced to pay a fine of five pounds & costs eight shillings & six pence. 1
At the same Court, John Russell, Jr., for the same offense "is fined 40 shillings & six shillings costs."2 In the next year, "Oct. 3, 1676, Thomas Osbourne & wife were fined 40 shillings."2 In December, 1677, "John Russell John Wilson Sent & Caleb Farlow were sentenced to pay twenty shillings a.p.s & costs."2 The Court thus continued its harassing tactics, but in a desultory way and with an evident hopelessness of accomplishing the desired results.
The sentences were no longer imprisonment or banishment. They consisted in fines in money, and whatever social reproach might accrue from frequent summons to and appearances in Court. They were intended to deter any others from becoming Baptists because of the annoyances which would follow. John Russell, Sr., a teaching elder of the church, and one who had oversight of the group of members living in Woburn and Billerica, survived his pastor,
1 " Middlesex Court," Vol. III., p. 128.
2 " Middlesex Court Record," Vol. III., pp. 151-205.
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Goold, but a few months. He died June 1, 1676. These two men had been pillars in the church. They were greatly revered and trusted, and their loss was keenly felt. The church was now left without pastor or teaching elder. In November, 1676, Rev. John Myles was invited to become their pastor, and came to visit them. He had emigrated from Wales, from which he had been driven by the intolerant Act of Uniformity in 1662, and settled in company with members of his expatriated church in Swansea. Plymouth Colony had made a grant of a township to them. They found many persons in that region who were already Baptists, and in 1663 a Baptist church was organized, of which Mr. Myles became the pastor. This church has always remained a rural church, but still maintains a vigorous life.
In 1676, Mr. Myles again found himself homeless, but this time through hostile Indians, and not through Englishmen, and an invitation to settle in Boston seemed particularly opportune. The Indian War, in which King Philip led the Narragansetts against the colonists, had temporarily broken up the Baptist church and settlement at Swansea. Elder Myles was glad to find a shelter and home in Boston, especially among his Baptist brethren. He did not accept their invitation to become pastor, nor did he unite with the church, but he remained among them as their acting pastor from November, 1676, until February, 1678. The country around Swansea was laid waste by the Indians, and he was content to abide in Boston until the settlement which he had planted could be re -. established. He had been but a few months in Bos-
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ton ministering to the shepherdless flock when the watchful eyes of the Governor's Council fell upon him.
Mr. Miles being called before ye councill to give an acc't of his preaching to the assembly of Anabaptists, whereof Gold and Far- num, and sundry others excommunicate persons were of the num- ber, the said Miles confessed yt he being driven from his own place and people at Swanzy by the rage of ye Indians, and com- ing to Boston had accepted the call of sd society to preach among ym, but declared the purpose to return to his owne place as soon as he could be provided of a habitation . . . the councill desired him to take notice yt they did now declare their owne dis- satisfaction with him, he being by his owne confession convicted of being an offender against the said lawes. 1
These were the laws against Baptists. But, in spite of this plain warning, he remained to comfort the church, and seriously considered making Boston his permanent residence. The wish and plan of the church that Mr. Myles should remain as its pastor was never consummated. Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton wrote to Dr. Increase Mather, Noven- ber 29, 1677 :
I hear M' Miles still preaches in Boston ; I fear it will be a meanes to fill that town which is already full of unstable persons with error ; I look upon it a great judgment . . . let all due meanes be used for prevention. 2
In 1678, "Mr. John Allen and John Brown (of Swanzey) were chosen to draw up a letter in behalf of the church and town, to be sent to Mr. John Myles, pastor of the church and minister of the town, mani-
1 " Mass. Archives," Vol. X., p. 233.
2 " Mass. His. Coll.," Vol. VIII., "The Mather Papers," p. 587.
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festing our desire of his return to us." 1 He acceded to their wishes and settled again in Swansea. It was a good providence which led him to decline the pastor- ate of this church, for, although he was an able and godly man, he had not reached clear ideas in regard to separation of Church and State. In the life and death struggle in which the church was now engaged with the Puritan authorities it was imperative that the pastor should see the issue clearly, and adhere uncompromisingly to the principle of absolute religious liberty. He ministered to his flock in Swansea until his death, February 3, 1683. He was a man of power, and was an encouragement to the Baptists in Boston during all these early struggles. He often visited them, and they frequently sought his counsel. His second son, Samuel Myles, graduated from Harvard College in 1684, and became the rector and virtual founder of King's Chapel (then Episco- palian). He was rector from 1689 to 1724, a period of thirty-nine years. He and his flock had also to endure the hostility of the Standing Order, but they had the support of many of the officials of the Eng- lish Crown, who were stationed in Boston. Many army and navy officers, and frequently the royal governors, attended King's Chapel.
Doubtless the Baptist ancestry of Rector Myles, as well as the similarity of situation with reference to the Congregational churches, was a reason for the pronounced sympathy between Baptists and Episco- palians in those early days. They were close allies against a common persecutor. Episcopalians were
1 Ford, "New England Struggles, " p. 109.
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but little more welcome than Baptists in Boston, but they suffered comparatively little, because the Puritan leaders did not dare to treat them with the same rigor as they did Baptists, lest they should excite the wrath of the king against themselves.
In 1675-76 King Philip and his Indians ravaged many parts of New England, and the whole country was in a state of aların and danger.
In the beginning of the war, William Turner gathered a com- pany of volunteers, but was denied a commission and discour- aged, because the chief of the company were Anabaptists. After- wards when the war grew more general and destructive, and the country in very great distress, having divers towns burnt, and many men slain, then he was desired to accept a commission. He complained it was too late, his men on whom he could confide being scattered ; however was moved to accept.1
Anabaptists had been persistently branded as enemies of the State, destroyers of government, and hostile to the welfare of the commonwealth. They had indig- nantly denied these charges, but their enemies had never ceased to insist upon them. When the distress of the war grew urgent and volunteers did not come forward to the defense, the Baptists raised a company and offered their services on the frontier. This offer was refused. The authorities saw clearly enough that an acceptance of volunteered service would be an open acknowledgment of the falsity of the oft- repeated charges, that Baptists were enemies of the State. This was the cause of their reluctance to accept the service. The company was disbanded ; but, when the situation grew critical, their offer was
1 Backus, " Hist.," Vol. I., p. 335.
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somewhat ungraciously accepted. The company was officered by Baptists who were members of the First Church, Boston. William Turner was captain, Ed- ward Drinker was lieutenant, Thomas Skinner was clerk, Philip Squire was corporal. They marched to relieve the towns in the Connecticut Valley, which were threatened with instant destruction. They drove off the Indians from Northampton and gave its in- habitants a sense of security. May 18, 1676, Captain Turner and Captain Holioke, of Springfield, with about one hundred and fifty men, surprised and attacked the main body of Indians, seven or eight hundred in number, in the gray of the morning, near Deerfield, and gave them so decisive a defeat that the Indian power was completely . broken. The Indians were never again able to rally in strength. Captain Turner was slain in the battle. The name, Turner's Falls, given to the town near by, commemorates liis noble service. This brave man, who had been in prison again and again for religion's sake, thus adventured and gave up liis life for those who had ruthlessly persecuted him. His heroic conduct won a somewhat reluctant applause, but the victory gave immediate relief to the distressed Colony. Baptists had vindi- cated themselves and their loyalty to the State in an unmistakable way against the aspersions of the General Council, and of ecclesiastical leaders. The Election Sermon preachers and the hostile pamphlet- eers could never again charge thiem with disloyalty to the government and expect to be believed. Turner's Falls will always have a peculiar historic interest for Baptists.
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In 1677, the church had increased in numbers so greatly that there was serious talk of dividing it into two bodies and planting a new church in Woburn.
Feb. the 11th 1677. Itt was Agreed upon att A Church Meet- ing that the Oborne (Woburn) Brethren and Bilerricae Brethren namely Brother Thomas Foster Thomas Osborne John Wilson John Russell Timothy Brooks Caleb Farlow John Jeffs should have the libertye to gather themselves into Church order in A body by themselves for theire more convenyent carrying one the work of god Among them. 1
Baptist sentiment had for a long time been espe- cially prevalent in the neighborhood of Woburn and Billerica. There were Baptists there certainly as early as 1669, and in 1671 "Isaac Cole, Francis Wi- man, Francis Kendall, Robert Pierce, Matthew Smith, Joseph Wright, John Johnson, Hopestill Foster, John Pierce, John Russell, Matthew Jolinson," were brought before the Court, "for absence from Church and oppo- sition to infant Baptism1." 2 The greater part of these brethren became members of the church in Boston. It is not surprising that they should have thought it more convenient to be in a church by themselves and have their own worship and their own pastor. The church now numbered more than sixty members, and these, with their friends and members of their house- holds, who might desire to attend public worship with them, would find it impossible to get into any private house. They found themselves straitened for room, and a division of their number seemed advan- tageous. They were not allowed to build a meeting- house, and the establishment of two or more churches,
1 "Church Record."
2 Sewall, " Hist. Woburn."
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each small enough to meet in a private house, seemed inevitable. But reflection and consultation led them to a wiser step.
Att A Church meeting January 13 1678. itt was Agreed by the Church Assembled in Charlestowne that there should be noe de- vidding of the Church into two or more Churches untill ye said Church att Boston be supplyed with A sufficient Able ministry settled with them in Boston.1 . .
Att the Same Church meeting ye 13th of January 1678 itt was agreed by the Church by a vote of all that Brother John Russell should be in nomination for A teaching Elder in the Church. 1
It is easy to see that the church was reluctant to give up John Russell to settle with the Woburn brethren, and also that they were already devising ways of building a meeting-house. Under such cir- cumstances, they deemed it wiser to concentrate rather than scatter their forces. It was a sagacious policy to make the church in Boston as strong as possible, and was the means of hastening their victory.
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