USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 34
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In the year 1708 the Baptist Church in Boston called to its pastorate Mr. Ellis Callender, who had been a member of this church since 1699.
In 1709 a meeting-house for the Quakers was built in Boston on the front part of their land in Leverett's Lane, now Congress Street, opposite the present Exchange Place. The house was of brick, and measured about thirty by thirty-five feet. It had in front a high wooden fence, with a large gate, which was seldom opened except for the small monthly meetings of the society. The rear part of their land seems to have been set apart for a burying-ground. Most of the bodies placed there were in 1826 removed to Lynn.1
In 1710 the First Church in Boston built " a convenient, suitable house for the use of the ministry." In 1711 the meeting-house of the First Church was burned, as has already been narrated ; and in 1712 " was founded the fabrick of a new church, which was occupied in May, 1713. It stood on the site of the former house, and was built of brick. It was of three stories, with a clock and belfry. It was afterwards known as the ' Old Brick.'"
In 1713 Mr. Joseph Sewall was settled at the South Church as colleague with Mr. Pemberton. He was the son of Judge Samuel Sewall, and graduated at Cambridge in 1707, and studied theology there. At his ordination he preached the sermon from 1 Corinthians, iii. 7. There was a large assem- bly. Nine churches were represented and twelve ministers sat at the table by the pulpit.
" Church sat in the gallery ; Mr. Pemberton made an August Speech," writes the proud father, "Shewing the Validity and Antiquity of New-English Ordinations." The Mathers, Mr. Wadsworth, Mr. Pemberton, and Mr. Colman, joined in laying on hands. "Then Mr. Pemberton Pray'd, Ordain'd, and gave the Charge Excellently. Then Dr. Increase Mather made a notable Speech, gave the Right Hand of Fellow- ship, and pray'd. ... The chief Entertainment was at Mr. Pemberton's ; but was con- siderable elsewhere.' "
In 1714 the New North Church in Boston was formed. "Seventeen substantial mechanics 2 formed the nucleus " of this society. They set up a
1 [See the Introduction to this volume. - ED.] Sears, Ebenezer Clough, John Goldthwait, Sam- 2 [Solomon Townsend, Erasmus Stevens, Moses uel Gardner, William Parkman, John Barrett, Pierce, Caleb Lyman, John Pecker, Alexander Isaac Pierce, Joshua Cheever, Matthew Butler,
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small building of wood, "unassisted by the more wealthy part of the com- munity except by their prayers and good wishes." Rev. John Webb, of Harvard, 1708, was ordained pastor of the new church Oct. 20, 1714. The congregation increased so much that in 1730 the house was enlarged, and in 1802 a more substantial structure took its place.
In 1715 Rev. Mr. Bridge, of the First Church, died, in the eleventh year of his ministry in this church. "He made a sudden exit from the scene of his labors, leaving behind him a name which is better than precious ointment, and four publications evincing his concern for the cause of righteousness and the welfare of mankind."1 In 1717 Mr. Thomas Foxcroft was chosen as the colleague pastor of the First Church, and was ordained November 20. He graduated at Harvard in 1714. Thomas Foxcroft His father was a member of the English Church, but the son joined the Congregational- ists, and became a very popular preacher. In 1718 Mr. Elisha Callender, H. C. 1710, was ordained as pastor of the Baptist Church. The two Mathers and Mr. Webb joined in the service of ordination. Cotton Mather preached the sermon, which was entitled " Good men united." Mr. Callen- der was the son of his predecessor in this church. The father is supposed to have died about 1726.
Later in 1718 Mr. Thomas Prince was ordained as colleague with Mr. Sewall at the South Church. Mr. Prince graduated at Harvard in 1707, and after studying theology at Cambridge went abroad and spent several years in travel. He preached for a few years in Thomas Prince? England, but declined to remain there. He was well received in Boston,3 and after supplying the pulpit of the South Church for a portion of the time, he was called to the pastoral office. He preached at his ordination from Hebrews xiii. 17.
Elias Townsend, John Goff, and James Barnard. John Dixwell, son of Col. Dixwell (James Davids) the regicide, was a deacon. Mr. Samuel Holden, who was chosen deacon in 1752, was the oldest man in Boston when he died, about 1793 - ED.] 1 [Rev. William Cooper's diary (N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1876, p 435) says : " 1715, Sept. 26. Dyed here the Revd Mr. Thomas Bridge, in the 59th. year of his age, and ye II of his pastoral office to ye I" Ch. of X in this place. His birth and education were in England. He was a man of much piety, devotion, love, humility, meek- ness, etc., and of great fidelity in the discharge of his office. He dyed of lethargical or apoplec- tick disease." A sermon on his death by Cotton Mather was printed in Boston, 1715. See N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1865, p. 161 .- ED.]
2 [A heliotype reproduction of an engraving of Prince is given in the present chapter. There are portraits of him in the galleries of the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society, and of the American Antiquarian Society ; an engraving is in Drake's Boston, p. 646. For memoirs of him by Samuel G. Drake, see N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1851, P. 375; and by William H. Whitmore, see the edition of the Catalogue of the Prince Library, which Messrs. Wiggin and Lunt were allowed to print from the type used in printing the Bos- ton Public Library edition of the Catalogue, which has an introduction on Prince and his library by Justin Winsor. See also Tyler's American Lit- erature, ii. 144; and North American Review, Oct. 1860, by Whitmore. A letter from Prince, giv- ing an account of his family, published in the N. E Weekly Journal, July 15, 1728, is reprinted in the Register, 1851, p. 378, where will also be found a tabular pedigree. - ED.]
3 [He had arrived in the harbor on Sunday, July 21 ; and he speaks in his diary of the cap- tain in his pinnace taking him to Long Wharf
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In 1719 the New South Church was formed. In 1715 the town had made a grant to sundry petitioners, among whom was Samuel Adams, of " a Piece of Land comonly called Church Green, nigh Summer Street in Boston, of sixty-five feet in Length and forty-five feet in Breadth (with con- venient High Wayes Round the same), for the Erecting thereon an Edifice for a Meeting House for the Publick Worship of God." It is not known why this piece of land was so early decorated with the ecclesiastical name which it has borne till within a few years.1 On this lot was erected " a con- venient wooden building, with a handsome steeple, finished after the Ionick order, in which is a bell." On Nov. 22, 1719, Mr. Samuel Checkley, H. C. 1715, was ordained as the minister of the new church.
In 1720 Rev. Peter Thacher was installed pastor of the New North Church. It was an event of great local interest and importance. Mr. Thacher was the grandson of the first minister of the South Church. He graduated at Cambridge in 1696. He was ordained pastor of the Weymouth Church in 1707, and remained there until he was called to Boston. He was eminently qualified for the position to which he was invited, but he was already the pastor of a church. Standing among the customs of our time, we smile at the controversy over the propriety of calling a minister from one church to another. Mr. Thacher was called by a majority of only one vote, and that one was the casting vote of the pastor. It was not right, said the objectors, for a wealthier society to draw away the minister of one that was poorer :
" Weymouth, in God's sight, is as precious as Boston, and the souls there of as great worth as the souls here. And to the common objection, that it is a pity that Mr. Thacher, being so bright a light, should smoke out his days in so much obscurity, we answer, first, bright lights shine brightest in the darkest places ; and, secondly, bright lights are the obscurer for burning in a room where there are more, and as bright."
To the other excuses of the majority, - that ministers had moved in this way before; that Mr. Thacher was not equal to the work in Weymouth, especially the pastoral visitation ; that he had not done much good by his preaching there; and that he wished the delight and profit of the conversa- tion he would find in Boston, - they made forcible replies. The other ministers sought to reconcile the conflicting parties. They advised the majority not to insist on the settlement of Mr. Thacher, and the minority
about a quarter of an hour after service had begun, whereby he escaped "the crowds of people that came down the wharf at noon-time " to see him ; for "they tell me," he adds, " there were about 500 came down inquiring after me. But now, the streets being clear, I silently went up to the Old South meeting, and none there knew me." Judge Sewall says : " He was at our meeting ; but not thinking of him, and he having a wig on and russet coat, I saw him not at all." Prince says again : " After the exercises ended I made haste into the porch on purpose to avoid Mr. Sewall's taking notice of me in public."-
Sewall's Diary, iii. 135. The diary of the Rev. Jacob Eliot records, under date of July 28, 1717, the first sermon that ever Mr. Prince " preached in New England," at the Old North; and later (Sept. 5) he mentions his first Thursday lecture. Sewall says : " Mr. Prince preached in my son's turn." He also chronicles a fast kept at the Old South, Sept. 25, "to chuse a minister," when Mr. Sewall preached in the morning, and Cotton Mather in the afternoon. See also Sewall's Diary, iii. 140. - ED.]
1 [See Introduction to this volume for the early history of this lot. - ED.]
THOMAS PRINCE .A.M
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
not to build another meeting-house. A conflict of pamphlets followed with titles which indicated the deep feeling on both sides. The majority wrote with the more moderation, but the dissentients, though they showed the most temper, seem to have been in the right. When Mr. Thacher came in accordance with the invitation given to him, the Boston ministers refused to sit on the council which was to install him. Only one church was fairly represented on the council; one other minister, a relative of the candidate, came, though his church had refused to send him. There was danger of disorder at the public service. The council went out of the back gate of Mr. Webb's garden, and through an alley which opened in front of the meeting-house, and thus gained possession of the pulpit. An uproar ensued. In the midst of the tumult the minister of the church at Rumney Marsh, the only one on the council, asked the necessary questions concerning the call and its acceptance, and declared Mr. Thacher regularly inducted into his office as minister of the church. The dissenting part of the society withdrew, and prepared to build another meeting-house and to organize a new church. The needs of the neighborhood did not require another place of worship, but the convictions of these persons demanded it. Twenty-four persons associated themselves for this purpose, and this number was soon increased to forty. They built a brick house which was long regarded as a structure of remarkable elegance. It fronted upon Hanover Street, with entrances on three sides. It was dedicated on May 10, 1721. Mr. Cotton Mather preached the morning sermon from Psalm xxiv. 10. Dr. In- crease Mather, Dr. Cooper, and Dr. Colman, took part in the services, with Mr. Wadsworth, who preached the afternoon sermon from Revelation ii. I. In May, 1722, a church was gathered,1 and on the same day Mr. William Waldron was ordained as the first pastor. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1717. His ministry was brief, as he died in 1727. But he greatly en- deared himself to those who knew him. He was possessed of a deeply religious spirit, and of warm affections. A zealous adherent to the New England polity, he was devoted to the liberties of the people. His preaching was sound in argument and direct and plain in method. He was heartily commemorated in the discourses of his associates as a man of unusual worth.
It was the custom at this time for the Congregational ministers of the province to come to Boston at the session of the General Court for the election of magistrates. They generally dined together at the house of one of the ministers, and frequently had the company of the Governor and other persons connected with the government. The connection between the ministers and the government was an intimate one. The judgment and advice of the ministers had, at an earlier time, been more sought by the rulers; but their influence continued to be evident and efficient. At length it was thought advisable that this gathering of the clergy should have a
[1 A list of persons connected with the new man, is printed in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. brick church, 1722-75, compiled by T. B. Wy- Reg., July, 1864 -ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
more formal character, and the "Convention of Congregational Ministers " was organized. In 1720 they "Voted, that a sermon should be preached annually to the ministers on the day following election." Dr. Increase Mather was chosen the preacher for the next year, with the Rev. Solomon Stoddard and the Rev. Cotton Mather as substitutes. Dr. Increase Mather accordingly preached the sermon in 1721. In 1722 Mr. Cotton Mather preached. During the first eight years the sermon was delivered in a private dwelling-house. In 1731 there is the first notice of a collection of money for missionary purposes, and this was repeated in subsequent years. At a later date, 1786, the "Congregational Charitable Society of Massa- chusetts " was incorporated by the Legislature, that the benevolent work begun by the Convention might be more efficiently carried on. The result of this movement has been the accumulation of a large fund, the income of which is used for the benefit of the families of deceased ministers. A collection for a similar object is taken after the sermon which is still preached before the "Convention of Congregational Ministers."
In 1723 Dr. Increase Mather closed his long life. Its story is inseparable from the history of the times in which he lived. From his graduation in 1656 he was actively engaged in the duties of the profession he had both inherited and chosen, and in the affairs of the town, the college, and the colony. After his death, Mr. Joshua Gee was chosen as colleague with Mr. Cotton Mather in the pastoral work of the Second Church, and was ordained in December, 1723. Mr. Gee was a Harvard graduate of 1717, and gave promise of large usefulness. His early preaching attracted much attention, and his talents gave him a wide influence. He was an instructive and convincing preacher, full of zeal, and moved by strong convictions. Though said to have been of an indolent habit, he bore an active part in the controversies of his time. He bound his parishioners to him and devised wise things for them and for his successors in founding a library for the use of the church and its ministers.
In May, 1724, President Leverett suddenly died.1 The great question immediately arose, who should succeed to his high station? It was an im- portant and difficult question at any time, but was rendered more so by the divisions in the religious views of the friends of the college, and by the jealousies which this state of things would naturally engender. It is not strange that Cotton Mather desired and expected the office. It is not strange that he was passed over in the choice. Rev. Joseph Sewall was elected ; chosen for his piety, Mr. Mather wrote. It was not a just reflection upon him or the electors; yet the gifts of Mr. Sewall seem to have been better suited to the work of a pastor than to that of president. The Old South Church was unwilling to give him up, and he declined the office. The Rev. Benjamin Colman, of the Brattle Street Church, was chosen. In connection with this election, the friends of the college sought to secure from the Gene- ral Court a fitting salary for the president, and one which could be depended
1 [Quincy depicts his character. History of Harvard University, i. ch. xv. and xvi - ED.]
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upon. The effort failed, and Mr. Colman declined the office. Several months passed before another election was made, when the Rev. Benja- min Wadsworth, of the First Church, was chosen. He declared his reluct- ance to accept the office, and his preference to remain with his church. His church finally consented that he should accept the call to the new posi- tion, if he judged it to be his duty. He consented to be made the presi- dent of the college, and the General Court granted him one hundred and fifty pounds " to enable him to enter upon and manage the great affair of that presidency, and a committee was appointed to look out a suitable house for the reception of the President," and to inquire into the financial condition of the college. He was inaugurated on Commencement Day, 1725. He retired from the pastoral office, but continued for a time to preach in his turn for the First Church, whose friendship he possessed to the end of his life.
In 1723 the Second Episcopal Church in Boston was built for the new Society, which bore the name of Christ Church, and was to be under the care of the Rev. Timothy Cutler. That house of worship is still standing on Salem Street. It was in its day much admired for its archi- tectural beauty.1 In 1744 a chime of bells procured in England by Dr. Cutler, and consecrated there, was placed in the tall steeple, which has been twice rebuilt, where it still remains.
After Mr. Wadsworth had assumed the presidency of the college, the First Church took measures to procure another minister; and in 1727, on October 25, Mr. Charles Chauncy was ordained as the colleague of Mr. Foxcroft. Mr. Chauncy was the great-grandson of President Chauncy, and graduated in 1721. He filled out a long life with industry and piety, and died in 1787, after a ministry of nearly sixty years in this church. He was called to defend the faith and practice of the churches, and to oppose those who would subvert them; and he proved a valiant champion. He left in print a large number of works, chiefly sermons, to witness to the earnestness of his life.
In 1727 a colony of Irish Presbyterians formed a church and began wor- ship in a plain wooden building, which had been used as a barn, in Long Lane, now Federal Street. Rev. John Moorhead was their minister for a very long period.2 In 1744 they were strong enough to put up a neat church edifice, which was afterwards enlarged to meet the wants of the flourishing society. The bell and vane of the old Brattle Street Meeting-house were presented to the new house, by Governor Hancock. At the New Brick Church, in 1728, Mr. William Welsteed took the place of Mr. Waldron as pastor. He was a Boston boy, a graduate of the college in 1716, and a
1 [A list of the original pew owners is given in Drake and Snow. Two hundred and fourteen persons contributed £737 18s. towards the cost of erection. The bells weigh 7,272 pounds. One is inscribed, " We are the first ring of bells cast for the British Empire in North America." VOL. II .- 29.
Another says, " Abel Rudhall, of Gloucester, cast us all. Anno, 1744."- ED.]
2 [A heliotype after Pelham's engraving of Moorhead is given in the present chapter. It was both painted and engraved by this artist in 1751 .- ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
tutor there from 1720 to 1728. He remained for twenty-five years the min- ister of the church.1 After the first ten years Mr. Ellis Gray was associated with him. He also was a Boston boy, and graduated at Harvard in 1734.
REV. CHARLES CHAUNCY, D.D.2
Both of these ministers died in 1753, on the communion Sabbath, at the . same time of the day, of the same disease, and after each had preached his last sermon, to his own people, from the same text with the other,
1 [A heliotype after an engraving of Wel- steed is given in the present chapter .- ED.]
2 [There are portraits of Chauncy in the collections of the Historical Society, and in Memorial Hall at Cambridge. The present engraving follows that in the Historical Society.
See W. C. Fowler's Memorial of the Chauncys, 1858, pp. 304, and a memoir in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct. 1856, p. 325. There is a good characterization of Chauncy in Tyler's American Literature, ii. 200. - ED.]
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-" Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." They were not especially distinguished men, but were accomplished and exemplary, diligent and useful. In this year, 1728, died the Rev. Cotton Mather, sixty-five years old, Co. mather. -busy and disturbed years, whose story and spirit will be told in another place.
In the same year William Burnet arrived in Boston as governor of the province. The position of the son of the renowned Bishop of Salisbury in the ecclesiastical affairs of the province can be readily conjectured. He had a generous reception, but his brief period of administration was chiefly occupied in the effort to procure the settlement of a stated salary upon the governor. In September, 1729, he died, from a fever contracted by the overturning of his carriage as he was coming to Boston from Cambridge, where the General Court was holding its session. Jonathan Belcher was appointed to his place, -a grandson of Andrew Belcher, the ancient inn- holder of Cambridge, and a graduate of Harvard in 1699. After an admin- istration which had been of advantage to the province, he was transferred to New Jersey in 1741. He adhered to the religion of his fathers, and with fond recollections of his early home desired that his burial should be at Cambridge.
A law was passed in 1729 which relieved Baptists and Quakers from parish taxes. In 1730 the Old South Church entered its new house of worship, which was to become famous before the century closed.
In this year (1732) another church was established, in Hollis Street. Governor Belcher was very prominent in the organization of this church, and gave the land on which the meeting-house was built. This was a small wooden building, and had a bell weighing eight hundred pounds, the gift of a nephew of the Thomas Hollis from whom the church and the street took their name. The first minister was Rev. Mather Byles, who was born in Boston in 1706, who graduated at Cambridge in 1725, and after careful preparation began to preach. He was ordained over the Hollis-Street Church, Dec. 20, 1733. Mr. Byles came to be well-known for his literary and poetical accomplishments, and for his lively wit. He had a considerable reputation as a preacher. When the conflict between the province and the royal government was hastening towards the Revolution, he took sides with the Tory party, and boldly expressed his opinions. In consequence of this course he was compelled to retire from the office which he had so long filled, which he did in 1776. He was denounced in town-meeting, in 1777, as an enemy to his country, and was tried, and for a short time confined to his own house under a guard.
Mr. Samuel Mather was the son of Mr. Cotton Mather, born in 1706, graduated in 1723, and in 1732 called to be colleague with Mr. Gee at the Second Church. After he had held this place for nine years, serious difficulties arose between Mr. Gee and Mr. Mather, and between Mr. Mather and a majority of the church. It was charged that the junior pastor was
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
not entirely sound in doctrine, and not entirely proper in his conduct. He asked to be dismissed; the church refused, and proceeded to an investiga- tion. A council was called which tried to heal the breach. For a little time it seemed that the endeavor might be successful. The council finally
Mather Byles
1 [This cut follows a well-known mezzotint likeness of Mather Byles, which has also been reproduced in heliotype in Rev. George L. Cha- ney's Historical Discourses on the history of the Hollis-Street Church. A portrait of Dr. Byles is owned by Miss Kate O. Stone. Dr. Byles lived
on Tremont Street, nearly where that street parts from Shawmut Avenue, and in the process of widening the thoroughfares the site of his house is brought partly upon the pavement. Drake's Landmarks, 412. Tyler, History of American Literature, ii. 192, draws his character sharply.
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RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
advised that Mr. Mather should be dismissed and his salary continued for one year. He was accordingly dismissed, and ninety-three of the church withdrew with him. Two hun- dred and sixty-three remained. The withdrawing parties made Samuel Mather overtures looking to a return, but these could not be accepted if Mr. Mather was to be rein- stated. The separatists therefore went forward and erected a meeting- house on Hanover Street, and became the Tenth Congregational Church in Boston. Mr. Mather continued to minister to this church until his death, in 1785, when, in accordance with his request, most of his people returned to the Second Church. The meeting-house was afterward sold to the Universalists. In spite of the opposition which Mr. Mather encountered, there is no good reason to doubt his uprightness. He seems to have been in good standing outside of the Second Church. His family position, both on the side of his father, grandfather, and of his wife, who was a sister of Governor Hutchinson, exposed him to jealousy and ill-will more than if he had been differently connected. He is accounted a man of learning, though not a powerful preacher.
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