USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Charlestown > The history of the First church, Charlestown, in nine lectures, with notes > Part 3
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Such were the Puritans of Massachusetts. They not only owned themselves Englishimen, but the church of England also as their dear mother. And the letter which Winthrop and his companions addressed to their brethren of the church of England, on taking farewell of them, is a beautiful exhibition of the mild spirit and rational principles, with which they began their enterprise : the sweetness of its humanity as well as its simple and heart-touching eloquence has made it and will always make it, one of the dearest monuments to their praise. It is entitled " The humble request of his Majesty's loyal subjects, the Governor and Company late gone for New England ; for the obtaining of their prayers, and the
1 Southey's Book of the Church.
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removal of suspicions and misconstructions of their intentions." [London, printed for John Bellamie, 1630. 4to.] 1
" REVEREND FATHERS AND BRETHREN :
" The general rumor of this solemn enterprise, wherein our- selves with others, through the providence of the Almighty are engaged, as it may spare us the labor of imparting our occasion unto you, so it gives us the more encouragement to strengthen ourselves by the procurement of the prayers and blessings of the Lord's faithful servants. For which end we are bold to have recourse unto you, as those whom God hath placed nearest his throne of mercy ; which as it affords you the more opportunity, so it imposeth the greater bond upon you to intercede for his people in all their straits.
" We beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of the Lord Jesus, to consider us as your brethren, standing in very great need of your help, and earnestly imploring it. And howsoever your charity may have met with some occasion of discourage- ment through the misreport of our intentions, or through the disaffection or indiscretion of some of us, or rather amongst us, for we are not of those that dream of perfection in this world ; yet we desire you would be pleased to take notice of the prin- cipals and body of our company, as those who estcem it our honor to call the Church of England, from whence we rise, our dear mother ; and cannot part from our native country, where she specially resideth, without much sadness of heart, and many tears in our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have obtained in the common salvation, we have received in her bosom, and sucked it from her breasts. We leave it not, therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith we were nourished there ; but blessing God for the parentage and education ; as members of the same body shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow . shall ever betide her, and while we have breath sincerely desire and en- deavor the continuance and abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her bounds in the kingdom of Christ Jesus.
" Be pleased, therefore, reverend fathers and brethren, to help forward this work now in hand; which, if it prosper, you
1 Hubbard, ch. xxiii.
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shall be the more glorious ; howsoever, your judgment is with the Lord, and your reward with your God. It is an usual and laudable exercise of your charity to commend to the prayers of your congregations the necessities and straits of your private neighbors. Do the like for a church springing out of your own bowels. We conceive much hope that this remembrance of us, if it be frequent and fervent, will be a most prosperous gale in our sails, and provide such a passage and welcome for us, from the God of the whole earth, as both we which shall find it, and yourselves, with the rest of our friends who shall hear of it, shall be much enlarged to bring in such daily returns of thanksgivings, as the specialties of his providence and goodness may justly challenge at all our hands. You are not ignorant, that the Spirit of God stirred up the Apostle Paul to make continual mention of the church of Philippi, (which was a colony from Rome); let the same spirit, we beseech you, put you in mind, that are the Lord's remembrancers, to pray for us without ceasing, (who are a weak colony from yourselves, ) making continual request for us to God in all your prayers. What we entreat of you that are the ministers of God, that we also crave at the hands of all the rest of our brethren, that they would at no time forget us in their private solicitations at the throne of grace. If any there be, who through want of clear intelligence of our course, or tenderness of affection towards us, cannot conceive so much of our way as we could desire, we would entreat such not to despise us, nor to desert us in their prayers and affections ; but to consider rather, that they are so much the more bound to express the bowels of their com- passion towards us, remembering always, that both nature and grace doth ever bind us to relieve and rescue, with our utmost and speediest power, such as are dear unto us, when we con- ceive them to be running uncomfortable hazards.
" What goodness you shall extend to us, in this or any other Christian kindness, we, your brethren in Christ Jesus, shall labor to repay, in what duty we are or shall be able to perform ; promising, so far as God shall enable us, to give him no rest on your behalfs, wishing our heads and hearts may be fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of supplication, through the manifold necessities and tribula-
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tions which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably befal us.
" And so commending you to the grace of God in Christ, we shall ever rest your assured friends and brethren.
JOHN WINTHROP, GOV.
RICH : SALTONSTALL,
CHARLES FINES,
ISAAC JOHNSON,
GEORGE PHILLIPS,
THO: DUDLEY,
&c.
WILLIAM CODDINGTON, &c.
"From Yarmouth, aboard the Arbella, April 7, 1630."
So likewise when Mr. Higginson, the first minister of Salem, had embarked, and was about to leave England, he called up his children and other passengers, unto the stern of the ship to take their last sight of England, saying, "We will not say as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving of England, Farewell Babylon ! farewell Rome ! But we will say, Farewell dear England ! farewell the church of God in England, and the Christian friends there ! We do not go to New England as separatists from the Church of England ; though we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it : but we go to practice the positive part of church reformation, and propagate the gos- pel in America." 1
In this spirit of Christian charity did the fathers of the Mas- sachusetts Colony leave their brethren in England, and begin to establish civil and religious institutions in this wilderness. They were not separatists, nor were they enthusiastic theorists. Such there might have been, and no doubt were among them, for they themselves intimate, that there were some " amongst them, who were not of them." But " the principals and body of their company " were of a far different spirit ; they went forth as a colony, " esteeming it their honor to call the Church of England their dear mother."
In this they breathed the very spirit of catholicity, and evinced their freedom from the sin of schism and sectarianism. And if any among them, or of their children after them, have evinced a contrary spirit, it is shown to be manifestly a depar- ture from the " Spirit of the Pilgrims." 2
1 Mather's Mag. I. S28.
2 Note 16.
LECTURE II.
PSALM Ixxx. 8-11.
THOU HAST BROUGHT A VINE OUT OF EGYPT : THOU HAST CAST OUT THE HEATHER, AND PLANTED IT. THOU PREPAREDST ROOM BEFORE IT, AND DIDST CAUSE IT TO TAKE DEEP ROOT, AND IT FILLED THE LAND. THE HILLS WERE COVERED WITH THE SHADOW OF IT, AND THE BOUGHS THEREOF WERE LIKE THE GOODLY CEDARS. SHE SENT OUT HIER BOUGHS UNTO THE SEA, AND HER BRANCHES UNTO THE RIVER.
IN the first Lecture, I gave some account of the First church gathered upon this soil, the removal of its pastor and majority of its members to Boston, and the causes which led to the organization of the present First church of Charlestown, No- vember 2, 1632, two years after the formation of the original church.
I shall now proceed to give some account of the founders or original members, and the first pastor of the church, together with a few of the more prominent facts in our ecclesiastical history.
'The first name subscribed to the church covenant is that of Increase Parnel Nowell.1
Mr. Nowell was the only one of the assistants or magistrates who remained in this town, when the governor and others re- moved to Boston. He was also appointed ruling elder of the church; an office which he held until a few months before this church was formed, when the question was agitated whether a person might be a civil magistrate and a ruling elder of the church at the same time. This inquiry was proposed in writing to the sister churches of Plymouth and Salem, and being answered by them in the negative, Mr. Nowell laid down his office in the church, and devoted himself exclusively, to the end of life, to the duties of a civil magistrate, for which he
I See note 14. The method of signing this covenant is remarkable. Instead of Increase Nowell and Parnel his wife, it is Increase Parnel Nowell, a single name, affording a pleasing conformity to the declaration of Scripture, " They twain shall be one."
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was well qualified. His father or grandfather, was brother to the famous Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and prolocutor of her first convocation. He is mentioned in the charter of Massachusetts granted by King Charles I. as an associate to the six original patentees, and was for a number of years secretary of the colony.1 Johnson, who resided in this town, and must have known him well, pronounces a high eulogium upon him, as an honor- able and upright hearted man, who, though brought up tenderly and in the midst of abundance, was yet contented with the poverty and self-denial of his wilderness home. As a magis- trate he was just both to poor and rich, and the people expres- sed their sense of his faithfulness, and the constancy of their regard, by choosing him secretary many successive years.2 He was one of the owners of the ship Jewel, and probably possessed a very considerable estate, but with nearly all the first and most active planters, he became poor. He died Nov. 1, 1655. His will, bearing date June 23, 1655, has been pre- served in the probate office. Two of his sons, Samuel and Alexander, graduated at Harvard college, the first of whom entered the ministry, and subsequently occupied important .stations in the service of the colony. The services of Mr. Nowell appear to have been held in grateful memory. Shortly .after his death, the town released his widow from paying the down rates thenceforward. The General Court had, in 1650, made him a grant of 3,200 acres of land.
I have been thus particular in regard to Mr. Nowell, because he, more than any other man, may be considered the father of the church and the town. He was a zealous Puritan, an active and devout Christian, and deserves to be held in grateful esteem
1 Winthrop's Jour. Emerson's Hist First Ch. Prince's Chron.
2 Johnson bestows the following lines upon Mr. Increase Nowell.
" Increase shalt thou, with honor now, in this thy undertaking, Thou hast remained, as yet unstained, all errors foul forsaking ; To poor and rich thy justice much hath manifested been, Like Samuel, Nathanael, Christ hath thee framed within ; Thy faithfulness people express, and Secretary they Chose thee each year, by which appear, their love with thee doth stay. Now Nowell see, Christ called hath thee, and work thou must for him, In beating down the triple crown, and all that his foes been. Thus doest thou stand by Christ, frail man, to tell his might can make Dust do his will, with graces fill, till dust to him he take."
W. W. Prov. ch. xxvi.
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by the citizens of this Commonwealth, and especially by the inhabitants of this town.1
The second name among the founders of this church, is that of Thomas Beecher. He was the master of the ship Talbot, which was the Vice Admiral of the fleet that brought Winthrop and his company to our shores ; he had also brought to Salem the year before in the same vessel, the venerable Higginson, the first minister of Salem, and the father of the Massachusetts clergy. IIc early united with the Boston church, and was a representative from this town the first time that deputies were sent to the General Court.2
The third subscriber was Abraham Palmer, one of the first settlers of the town, having come hither with the Spragues in 162S. He was one of a committee appointed to administer the oath of office to Gov. Endicott; an associate with Thomas Beecher in representing the town for the first time in the Gen- eral Court, and is also mentioned as a " sergeant having about twelve men under his command, in Mason's History of the Pequod War." 3
Ralph Sprague was the fourth, and his brother Richard the fourteenth, in the list of subscribers to the church covenant. They have already been spoken of as the first occupants of the soil. They came to this country at their own charge, and were men of enterprise, property, and character. The descend- ants of Richard have laid the church and the town under great obligations.
Capt. Richard Sprague died on the 25th of November, 1668, at the age of sixty-three, and bequeathed to the church pro- perty to the amount of about £30. His son, who bore the same title, died on the 7th of October, 1703, at the age of seventy-eight, and was the most munificent benefactor of this church, having bequeathed to it a valuable parsonage-house and lands.4
Edward Converse, the fifth named, was the individual who first established a ferry between Charlestown and Boston. By order of the Court, (June 14, 1631,) he was permitted to charge 2d. for ferrying a single person, and ld. if there be two or
1 Note 17.
? Savage's Winth. I. 2.
3 Hubb. 122. 2 Ilist. Coll. viii. 146.
4 Note 18.
5
i
4 F
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more. He subsequently became one of the seven founders of the church in Woburn, where his descendants still live.
Ezekiel Richardson, the next in order, became also one of the founders of the Woburn church.
Henry Harwood, the eighth, was a companion of the unfor- tunate Richard Garrett, who attempted, in the month of De- cember, the first winter after the arrival of the planters, to go from Boston to Plymouth in an open shallop, against the advice of his friends. Gov. Winthrop has left us a particular account of this distressing occurrence.1 They were driven to sea by a storm, and after suffering so much by cold that they gave themselves up for lost, they made the shore of Cape Cod. Here they spent the night without shelter or fire, and in the morning started for Plymouth, supposing it to be within seven or eight miles, whereas it was at the distance of fifty. By a kind Providence, they fell in with an Indian, whose assistance was timely enough to rescue all from death, except Richard Garrett, who died shortly after being landed, the first victim of the storm, where thousands have perished since. Harwood, after great suffering, partially recovered, and probably in con- sequence of his disability from this calamity, he was appointed (1632) to keep the milch cattle of the town in a herd on the main without the neck until harvest, " driving them forth every morning and bringing them into town every evening." He was one of the earliest members of the Boston church, and is spoken of by Governor Winthrop as a godly man. He lived but a short time after the organization of the church.
Robert Hale, the ninth in the list, and Ralph Mousall, the thirteenth, were the first deacons of the church.2
William Frothingham, the twelfth, is the ancestor of the large and respectable family that bear his name, and is the only one of the original founders of the church, whose lineal de- scendants are still in the midst of us; three of his posterity have successively borne the office of deacon among us, and the name has been on the list of members from that time to this.
I conclude these sketches, with the name of the Rev. Thomas James, the pastor of the church, whose name occurs the eleventh in order. He was born and educated in England,
1 Winthrop's Jour. I. 39.
2 Note 19.
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and previously to his removal to this country, he had been a minister in Lincolnshire, his native county, where Johnson says he was commended for his courteous speech and work of Christian love. His subsequent history will be given here- after. 1820240
Before proceeding further in the history of the church, it may be proper and interesting to give some account of the general aspect of the town and the external conveniences of the people, as they may be gathered from the hints afforded us in the town records.
That part of the peninsula, east of Main street, was the great corn field, commonly called the East field ; each inhabitant was entitled to two acres to plant ; and the field was enclosed by a fence which extended from Thomas Walford's on the south side of the town hill over to the east creek of the town, and at the other end by a fence from Ralph Mousall's, (whose house was probably built highest up on Main street, ) carried along by the high-way to the neck, where it met the Mystic. The town was laid out around this hill, and most of the houses were built here, and along the road to the country, which run in the general direction of Main street.
The first place for Sabbath assembly was under the shade of a great oak, which grew on this hill, or in the square, and which stood for many years afterwards and was celebrated as the Charlestown oak. After the organization of the church, the great house, which was now no longer used as a govern- ment house, was purchased of Governor Winthrop and the other proprietors for the sum of £10, and fitted up for the meeting-house of the town. It stood at the foot of this hill in the square, and was occupied by the church, until 1639, when it was sold, and a new meeting-house erected on the same spot.1 Four individuals were admitted to the church before the close of the year; and in January the first baptism took place, which was that of the pastor's son, John, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth James.
" At this time," say our town records, " began a most griev- ous and terrible sickness amongst the Indians, who were ex- ceedingly numerous about us, called the Aberginians. Their
1 Note 20.
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disease was generally the small pox, which raged not only amongst these, but amongst the eastern Indians also, and in a few months swept away multitudes of them, both young and old. They could not bury their dead, the English were con- strained to help, and that which is very remarkable is, that though the English did frequently visit them in their sickness notwithstanding the infection, it was observed that not one Englishman was touched with the disease ; but it was extra- ordinarily infectious among themselves, and mortal where it took any of them, insomuch that there was searce any of them left." The account which Johnson has left us of the ravages of this pestilence, is painful in the extreme. "The poor creatures, being very timorous of death, would have fled from it, but could not tell how, unless they could have gone from themselves." " Relations were little regarded among them at this time, so that many who were smitten with disease died helpless, unless they were near and known to the English : their powwows, wizards, and charmers, were possessed with the greatest fear of any. The winter's piercing cold stayed not the strength of this hot disease, yet the English endeavoring to visit their sick wigwams, helped them all they could, but as they entered one of their matted houses, they behold a most sad spectacle, death having smitten all but one poor infant, which lay on the ground sucking the breast of its dead mother, seeking to draw living nourishment from her dead breast." 1
And here it is a pleasing duty to stop awhile and contemplate this exhibition of humanity and Christian love. We look around us and imagine that we see "the matted houses " of the Aberginians still standing within the forest, and the pilgrims regardless of infection approaching the sick and dying, (from whom their own kindred had fled with savage amaze- ment, ) alleviating their sufferings, if not rescuing them from death, and endeavoring to enlighten and comfort their benight- ed souls with Christian instruction and hope. Governor Win- throp says, it made a deep impression upon their hearts, " that when their own people forsook them, yet the English came frequently and ministered unto them."
In the month of December 1633, this disease attacked John
1 Won. Work. Prov. ch. xxv.
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Sagamore,1 the Aberginian chief, " whose gentle and good dis- position, gave the earliest planters a free consent to settle here." At his own request he was carried among the English, by whom he was kindly received, and in his last hours was attended by the best and most honored of the pilgrims. He requested that his two sons might be taken and taught " to know God; and accordingly the governor took one, and Mr. Wilson the other" to their respective homes.2 The dying chief gave the governor a good quantity of wampompeague, or In- dian money, and besides making gifts to many others, provided for the payment of all his own debts and those of his men. He promised, if he recovered, to live with the English, and serve their God ; and when he died, it was in the persuasion that he should go to the Englishman's God. And in the same manner, we are told, that many of them, in their sickness, con- fessed that the God of the pilgrims was " a good God, and that if they recovered, they would serve him."
Thus passed away the race, whose lands we inherit, and upon whose graves we have built the sepulchres of our fathers; and thus died in the bosom of Christian benevolence, and in the indulgence too of Christian hope, the last of the Abergini- ans. What inhabitant of Charlestown does not involuntarily drop a tear over the death of the gentle John Sagamore, whose boyhood was spent in the oak forests of Mishawum, and who welcomed, with such unsuspecting friendship, the pale stranger to share with him his home and his dominion. Alas! how hard has been their fate. The very light of civilization and Christianity, seems to have dissipated them ; they have passed away like mist over the western hills, when pierced by the rising sun. But we have a bright page to read, in the history of the pilgrims' dealings with the sons of the forest. They came to this country not merely to find freedom and a home for themselves, but also to bring to the Indian a knowledge of his God and Saviour. And in this connection it is a pleasing duty, to state that our fathers obtained the lands upon which they settled, by fair purchase. They did not deny to the In- dian his rights, nor forget justice in dealing with him.
There is on record a written agreement, under date of April
His Indian name was Wonohaquaham. See Dudley's I.etter, p. 6, Force's Hist. Tracts, 11. ? Compare Won. Work. Prov. ch. xxv. with Winthrop's Jour. I. 120.
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15, 1639, by which Web Cowit and Squaw Sachem, after making certain reservations to themselves, sell to the inhabi- tants of this town, the land within the lines granted to them by the court, and in full satisfaction they acknowledge to " have received from Charlestown, 21 coats, 19 fathom of wampum, and 3 bushels of corn."
When it is remembered that the providence of God had swept away the great majority of the race, and that these lands could therefore have been of little intrinsic value to them, it will be seen that the compensation paid by our fathers was not only fair but even generous, and must have been so regarded by the Indians themselves.
To return now to the history of the church. The settlement of Mr. James appears not to have been a happy one. After a little more than a year, we learn from Governor Winthrop, " a spirit of jealousy arose between Mr. James and many of his people, so as Mr. Nowell and some others who had been dis- missed from Boston, began to question their fact of breaking from Boston, and it grew to such a principle of conscience among them, as the advice of the other ministers was taken in it, who after two meetings, could not agree about their con- tinuance or return." 1
It is difficult to understand how Mr. Nowell or any one else could have questioned the fact of their having been regularly dismissed from the Boston church; and it would seem probable, therefore, that they desired a return to the mother church in consequence of dissatisfaction with the ministrations or temper of their pastor.
It is obvious that a want of harmony existed between pastor and people, and this dissatisfaction, no doubt, led them to seek the settlement of a teacher among them, who should supply the deficiencies of their pastor. This they were enabled to accomplish the following year by the arrival of the Rev. Zechariah Symmes. He was admitted to the fellowship of the church, with Sarah his wife, on the 6th of December, 1634, and on the 22d of the month, which was kept as a solemn day of humiliation, he was elected and ordained teacher. Soon after he came over, he was invited to assist in planting another
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