USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 51
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For the supplying fresh provisions to the army besieging Boston in 1775, a cattle-market was established in Brighton, -the origin of the business which has since grown to such extraordinary proportions. It was situated on Market Street, near the present abattoir.
Rev. William Brattle was ordained pastor of the Cambridge Church, Nov. 25, 1696, five years after the " Farmers " were set off as a separate parish, now the town of Lexington, and four years after the death of Rev. Nathaniel Gookin. His pastorate of over twenty years, terminating with his death, Feb. 15, 1716-17, was peaceful and successful. He was also a tutor and fellow of the College, and a member of the Royal Society of London. His successor, Rev. Nathaniel Appleton, ordained Oct. 9, 1717, died Feb. 9, 1784, in the ninety-first year of his age, and sixty-seventh of his ministry. During his pastorate the parish was still further divided by setting off Menotomy as the Second Precinct in 1732, and Brighton as the Third Pre- cinct in 1779. Christ Church (Episcopal) was also organized in 1761. Another disturbing event was the coming of the celebrated evangelist Whitefield, in 1740, and again in 1744, and his exclusion from the Cam- bridge pulpit.
Several petitions - the first in May, 1747, renewed in 1748, and again in 1749 - were presented to the General Court by the inhabitants of the south side of the river for incorporation as a separate religious precinct. In the latter it is said : -
· "There is within the bounds of the proposed new parish, on the south side of the river, . . . 2,660 acres and 81 rods of land ; 42 dwelling-houses ; about 50 families ; above 50 persons in full communion with the church ; and this part of the town's proportion of the province tax in 1748 was £700 1Is. 8d., old tenor, and 67 ratable polls, about 290 souls. . .. We have supported the gospel among us some part of the year for fourteen years, during which time we set apart a house for divine worship that had been a dwelling-house ; upon finding it too small for the congregation, we erected a convenient house for the worship of God; ... and soon after we had winter preaching in this house we concluded to have summer preaching in it also, and we are now in the 5 year that we have had constant preaching."
373
BRIGHTON IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
A last appeal, in January, 1774, resulted in the passage of an act, May I, 1779, " for dividing and setting off the southerly part of the First Parish in the town of Cambridge " into a separate precinct, a few families on the south side being specially exempted from all charges to the Third Parish, and allowed to remain members of the First. This final petition states, among other urgent reasons for their request, the following : -
" About forty years past, the gospel was first preached among us, -it being im- practicable when the tides were high, and the snow and ice lodged on the causeway leading to the town of Cambridge, to pass and repass ; ... and about the year '60 we applied to the then General Assembly that they would take our unhappy situation into consideration and relieve us, . . . who ordered that £52 per annum be paid out of the parish rate for the support of preaching on the south side of the river ; . . . but we, finding that sum not sufficient to the support of an ordained minister, have, for more than thirty years, been without ; and also have been put to much difficulty to get an ordained minister to baptize our children, and have never had the ordinance of the Lord's Supper administered amongst us; and we apprehend that many of our children that are arrived at man's estate have never seen that ordinance administered ; and notwithstanding we have a most worthy minister - Dr. Appleton -on the other side of the river, yet his great age and his often indispositions prevent him from affording us that advice and instruction he otherwise willingly would, and which he is sensible that we often stand in need of, - for many times, when our friends are upon their death-beds, they have no minister either to pray with them or afford them advice or instruction in their dying moments. We are also deprived of having a discreet minister to set any example before, and instruct our children in the knowledge that is necessary to eternal salvation ; and while we remain in this unsettled state we dis- courage many sober families from settling amongst us."
The following persons contributed the sums set against their respective names for the erection of the First Church of Brighton, in 1744. One of them, - Mr. Ebenezer Smith, - a liberal benefactor to the town, died in 1776, leaving, among other bequests, the parsonage estate at the foot of Rockland Street, and a sum of money to the church; and also bequeathing six acres of woodland to the school for the benefit of poor children, in place of the tax for firewood. The tower and porch of this house, which stood on the corner of Washington and Market streets, in front of the present edifice, were not added until 1794. Labor and materials were accepted from the subscribers in place of money, and the house was built without incurring debt. All town-meetings were held in it according to the New England custom : -
Daniel Dana . £10 Abijah Learned . £,20
Thomas Dana £15
Benjamin Dana .
20
Noah Sparhawk . 20
Samuel Phipps 20
William Brown
20 Thomas Sparhawk . 25
Lydia Stratton
6
Ebenezer Smith .
40
Samuel Bridgham 40
Thomas Park 5
William Dana
20
Solomon Robbins 15
John Oldham . 15
Benjamin Cheney 15 Nathaniel Cunningham 42
John Ellis .
10
Josiah Brown
15
Francis Wells
20
Thomas Thwing
10 Joshua Fuller
5
374
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The church members on the south side of the river petitioned the church for dismissal, May 12, 1780, signifying their desire to be incorporated as a distinct church for enjoying the special ordinances of the gospel more conveniently by themselves. Their request was complied with, and they were incorporated Feb. 23, 1783. Rev. John Foster was ordained pastor, Nov. 1, 1784, the pulpit having for the previous forty years been supplied by various clergymen, chiefly from Cambridge.
In 1769 the old school-house built in 1722, a few feet to the east of the First Church, on land given for the purpose by Daniel Dana, being found insufficient to contain the scholars, and not worth repairing, was replaced by a new building. In 1772 each pupil was required to pay Is. 6d. for fire- wood on entering school. In 1779 the school-house was, for the first time, kept in use through the summer, and a female teacher employed.
We close this period of Brighton's history with a brief mention of some of its remaining old-time mansions and their occupants.
First comes the Champney House, two hundred years old, on Washington Street, just beyond Oak Square. Here, in his eighty-third year, lives Wil- liam R. Champney, of the fifth generation from Elder Richard. On this square formerly stood two immense oaks, the last of which, hewn down in 1855, was the largest and oldest white-oak tree in the State. It was twenty- five feet nine inches in circumference, and had probably passed its prime centuries before the settlement of New England. On Faneuil Street, which with Brook Street made the original Indian trail to the river, is the residence now belonging to Luther Adams, built about 1750 by Benjamin Faneuil, brother of the more famous Peter. Here also is the house built at a still earlier date by Charles Apthorp, latterly the estate of Gorham Parsons. Apthorp, a native of England, was paymaster and commissary of the British land and naval forces in Boston. His son, Rev. East Apthorp, a native of Brighton, was the founder and rector of Christ Church, Cambridge. The latter was rendered specially prominent by his controversy with Rev. Jona- than Mayhew, of Boston. On Price's view of Boston of 1743 is a magnifi- cent house of great size and height and quaint architecture, with terraces and gardens, called "Captain Cunningham's seat." It was burned down in 1770 while occupied by John Dennie, a prominent loyalist. His friends generously contributing to his relief, it was at once rebuilt, and is now the estate and residence of David Nevins. The old Dana mansion stands on Washington, near Allston Street.1
Francia & Draky
1 For many of the facts given in this and the preceding chapter of Brighton's history the writer is indebted to Paige's History of Cam-
bridge, and to Rev. F. A. Whitney's sketch of Brighton in S. A. Drake's History of Middlesex County.
CHAPTER XIV.
WINNISIMMET, RUMNEY MARSH, PULLEN POINT, AND CHELSEA IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
BY MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN, Librarian of the Boston Public Library.
T HE overthrow of the first charter by decree in Chancery, October, 1684, was consummated May 25, 1686, when the exemplified judg- ment was read in the presence of the outgoing and of the incoming Governments, under the presidency of Dudley. During this period between the threat and the blow, the inhabitants of the northerly precincts of Boston shared the prevailing apprehensions as to the malignant activity of Ran- dolph. As they possessed but little property except houses and lands, the claim that the abrogation of the charter revested the title to these in the Crown was to them of the most appalling nature. With small hope of success, doubtless, they sought to avert this calamity by acquiring from those who had been the native proprietors of the soil a title older than that of the king; and there is still extant the original unrecorded deed of release,1 dated April 9, 1685, from the widow, children, and grandchildren 2 of Sagamore George to Simon Lynde, for the use of the heirs of John Newgate, "of all that tract of land, meadows, and marshes situate and lying at or in Rumbley Marish aforesaid, containing about four or five hundred acres, be it more or less, commonly known by the name of Mr. Newgate's farme, and by him and his heirs and assigns possessed and occupied about fifty years past."
By a recorded deed from the same grantors, dated June 4, 1685, nearly all the remaining estates in the three precincts were released to their respec- tive proprietors.3 But, with the exception of the case presently to be referred to, I know of no legal proceedings affecting these proprietors, and distinctly referable to the abrogation of the charter.
1 This deed, before referred to, is in the pos- intrusion by the Crown, or its new grantees, but session of Charles P. Greenough, Esq.
2 In this deed, David, one of the grantors, is called the grandchild, and in the Boston deed, given in heliotype, in Vol. I. of this History, he is called the son and heir, of Sagamore George. 3 Drake, in his History of Boston, does not accept the theory that these Indian titles were acquired as a basis on which to resist writs of
regards them as endeavors in good faith to quiet Indian clamors. But there are some facts which tend to show that, in respect to several of the estates made the subjects of these re- leases, the Indian claims had been satisfied more than thirty years previously by the intervention of the General Court in behalf of Sagamore George. Mass. Archives, xxx. 26.
376
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The case, as gathered from Elisha Cooke's petition for a writ of review, was as follows : In 1686, after the quo warranto,1 but before the change of the government, Colonel Nicholas Paige and Anna his wife, a grand-daughter of Captain Robert Keayne, as heirs-at-law, brought actions against Elisha Cooke and others for certain real estate at Rumney Marsh and Boston, which, in 1663, they had acquired of the devisee under Keayne's will. The validity of this will was called in question by the heirs-at-law, but was sustained, "notwithstanding the plaintiffs continued the case to the last remedy of attainting the jury."
But upon the change of the government, in 1686, the Paiges brought their actions with better fortune;2 not in review of the former judgment, however, but by ejectione firmae under fictitious names, -"a way of trial which," Cooke says, " this people were altogether unacquainted with, having never been practised in New England before." The defendants appealed from this new-fangled judgment, but in vain, and the Paiges were put in possession of the estates. Cooke is not to be understood as charging his ill fortune before the Court directly to the abrogation of the charter, but rather to the hostile disposition of the tribunal, under the new order, towards the friends of the old government; and evinced in this case by allowing the Paiges, after their failure in the customary modes of procedure, to begin again in a form of action not before known in the colony.
In February, 1702, Cooke and his associates petitioned the General Court for a special act granting them a review, and assigned as a reason for the long interval between the judgment and the petition, "that upon the happy revolution of 1689 one of your petitioners [Cooke himself] was by the Government sent for England to serve them there, in whose service he continued about three years, and was thereby hindered of recovering their rights during that government;" and that upon his return they brought their writ, but were thwarted by certain legislative acts of limitation. These, however, being disallowed by the king, they found their way cleared to seek a review by special act, which, after notice to Colonel Paige and his wife, was granted.
The destitute condition of servants and poor people in respect to religious instruction at Rumney Marsh,3 as has been related, excited the commiseration of godly people in Boston as early as 1640, and some efforts were made in their behalf. Governor Bellingham, by his will dated in 1672,4 gave, after the falling in of certain life interests, his whole estate
1 Palfrey has pointed out the singular error, which had previously escaped notice, of those who laid the vacating of the charter to the result of the quo warranto rather than, as was the case, to the decree in chancery. Elisha Cooke, one of the prominent actors in these events, and after- ward Chief-Justice of the Superior Court, seems not to have been aware of the facts.
2 Sewall's Diary, under date of Aug. 5, 1686, says: "This day Capt. Paige hath a judgment
for Capt. Keyn's Farm : Mr. Cook Appeals." Sept. 18, 1695, " Mr. Cook enters the lists with Col. Paige and sues for Capt. Keyn's Farm again." Vol. I., pp. 146, 413.
8 Some time before the second charter this name came to stand for the three precincts collec- tively ; and in that sense I shall hereafter use it, unless a more specific designation is required.
4 Printed in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1860, p. 237.
377
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
in Winnisimmet to be an annual encouragement to some godly ministers and preachers, as should by his trustees be judged faithful to those principles in church discipline owned and practised in the First Church in Boston, whereof he declared himself to be a member. And he desired his trustees, first, that in convenient time a minister should be maintained, and a meeting-house built at Winnisimmet when sufficient should be received out of the rents; second, that lots for dwellers and inhabitants be given out, and conveniency of land to the minister's house; third, that four or six, more or less, young students should be brought up for the ministry, as the estate would bear; fourth, that something should be allowed yearly to any godly Congregational minister who should be willing to settle in that place.1 But these benevolent intentions were frustrated by the setting aside of the governor's will in 1676. The matter was not allowed to rest, however; for in 1705 James Allen, surviving trustee and executor of Governor Bellingham's will, notwithstanding the former judgment of the General Court thirty years previously, petitioned the same body to reopen the case on the ground that the former judgment was erroneous : First, because the Court at that time had no jurisdiction of wills, but the County Court only; and, second, that the will was really and bona fide the last will and testament of Richard Bellingham, and was so proved to be, " and not all the English laws could set aside or control such a will. The maxim in law is, that the will of the giver must be observed; that faith and truth must be obeyed, and what the last will does say ; and every man's a law to himself as to the disposition of his own estate and property." Equally cogent reasons on the other side were urged by the heirs-at-law, and they continued in possession of the Bellingham estate; and so religion continued to languish at Winnisimmet. The claim to the Bellingham estate at Winnisimmet, however, was not allowed to rest; for the people of Chelsea, with a few dissentients, seem to have believed their title to it good, and so they were advised by "three skilful lawyers," who, upon the papers submitted, were " unanimously of the opinion 'that the said town of Chelsea hath a good title to said estate for the purposes mentioned in said will, notwithstanding what has been done to nullify the same."
This was in 1757, more than fifty years after the adverse decision of the General Court referred to above. A committee was appointed to prosecute the claim of the town, but apparently without effect.
But the time was at hand when the people began to move in respect to a house of public worship. In 1706, at the March meeting of the town, Elisha Cooke, Elisha Hutchinson, Samuel Sewall, Penn Townsend, and Elder Joseph Bredham, or Bredon, were appointed a committee to consider, and make report at the next town-meeting, what they should think proper to lay before the town relating to the petitions of sundry of the inhabitants of Rumney Marsh about the building of a meeting-
1 The foregoing is the petitioners' abstract of Governor Bellingham's will. VOL. II. - 48.
378
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
house there.1 This subject was postponed from year to year, until Aug. 29, 1709, when it was " voted a grant of one hundred pounds, to be raised and laid out in building a meeting-house at Rumney Marsh ;" and the committee of 1706, with the substitution of the name of Edward Bromfield for that of Joseph Bredham, were empowered to direct both as to the place and manner of erecting said meeting-house.2
The following entries are found in Sewall's Diary : -
" 1710, July 10. Mr. Jno. Marion and I went to Rumney Marsh to the Raising of the Meeting House. I drove a Pin, gave a 5" Bill, had a very good treat at Mr. Chiever's : went and came by Winnisim- met." "July 16. Extream hot wether. Mr. Cook, Bromfield, and I goe to Rumney - Marsh to finish the Meeting
THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE.
House. Stowers is to make the windows. Got home well. Laus Deo. Several died of the heat at Salem." 3
" Mr. Chiever," who gave a treat to Sewall and his friends, was the Rev. Thomas Cheever, son of the famous school-master. He was born in 1658,
1 Town Records, ii. 278.
2 Ibid., 305.
3 Sewall's Diary, ii. 283. It is supposed that this meeting-house, somewhat changed, is still standing ; and if so, it is the oldest in the County of Suffolk. The view represents it as it ap- peared some years since, before its face was
changed from the north to the west. The right and left entrances were to the galleries ; one for colored men, and the other for colored women. There was another and probably older meeting- house, which stood a few rods westerly of the present edifice, and was standing as late as 1776.
379
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
graduated at Harvard College in 1677, began to preach in 1680, and was ordained at Malden, July 27, 1681. He continued to preach there until 1686, when he was dismissed, on the advice of an ecclesiastical council con- vened to consider certain scandalous words which he is said to have uttered. On leaving Malden, he took up his residence at Rumney Marsh, occupying, as is supposed, the Newgate House. There he probably preached occasionally, and certainly he taught school many years, until Oct. 17, 1715, when on the formation of the church he was chosen pastor, and continued in that relation until Dec. 21, 1748. He died at the age of nearly ninety-two years, Dec. 27, 1749.1
With considerable opposition, the Rev. William McClenachan was in- stalled as colleague pastor of Mr. Cheever. This event was followed by the withdrawal, or dismission to other churches, of several prominent members. Notwithstanding this disaffection, the new pastor remained with his charge until Dec. 25, 1754, when, although the church voted unanimously not to dismiss him, he left them, and "was received, confirmed, and partook of the Lord's Supper, under the establishment of the Church of England, by the Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler," of Boston, and soon went to England.
The most noticeable event of his pastorate, set down in the records, was a vote, finally reached, "to relinquish the use of the present version of the Psalms in Divine Service, and for the future sing Doctor Watts' version." He is said to have equalled Whitefield for eloquence.
After several unsuccessful attempts to settle a pastor, on Oct. 26, 1757, Rev. Phillips Payson was ordained to that relation, and so continued until his death, Jan. 11, 1801, in the sixty-fifth year of his life and the forty-fourth of his ministry.
Phillips Payson - born at Walpole, Mass., Jan. 18, 1736, and graduated at Harvard College, 1754 - was a scholar and teacher, and as such was resorted to by many young men of Boston and other towns. He had among his pupils the sons of Dr. Joseph Warren, General William Heath, Governor James Sullivan, and Samuel Breck. During the stirring times of the Revolution he was active and influential. He participated in the events of April 19, 1775, by leading a party of his parishioners to West Cambridge, against Percy's relief party, and was soon after named in a commission to raise a company of minute men.2 Dr. Tuckerman, his successor in the pastoral office at Chelsea, has written the following couplet on Payson's church records :
" Peace to the memory of a man of worth, - A man of letters and of virtue too."
1 At the formation of the church, Cheever preached the sermon, and Rev. Cotton Mather, D.D., was chosen moderator. Eight male mem- bers, including the pastor, constituted the church. The records of the church, which were kept by Mr. Cheever during the whole of his ministry, are still preserved, and are said to be among the
most interesting and valuable of that class of works anywhere to be found.
2 Aside from marriages, births, and deaths, there is only a single entry in Payson's church records between July 8, 1775, and April 25, 1782. He preached the election sermon for the year 1778, which was printed.
380
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The history of schools in Rumney Marsh after its incorporation as a town, in 1739, is in no way remarkable; but the following incident, which
An account of 4ª Scholars gives at of School in Runny marish for reading writing & cyphering for the two last ", quarters, enring february; on: 17 +3
M - - 3 1
Of the Hugh fluss. Joseph Belcher Thomas Wait
3
Nathaniel Richardson
1 Ermars Tuttle jun:
John Chamberlane sen
Elisha Juttte.
2. Daniel Blog.
1 John Bloyo jun!
2 William Stafsy,
John Chamberlone jun2
3 Jack Stafy
1
3 Ysure Levi's. mission Cole
february 19 . 714 Thomas Cheever.
FACSIMILE OF CHEEVER'S RETURN OF SCHOLARS.1
is found in the Town Records of Boston, under date of March 11, 1701, is worth relating : -
" Some of the inhabitants of the north end of the town stood up and requested that they might have the liberty of a free school for the teaching to write and
1 [The original of this return is in the manuscript collection of the writer of this chapter .- ED.]
- N-N-NM-M.
381
WINNISIMMET, ETC., IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
cypher. It was voted in the affirmative, that the selectmen shall agree with a school- master for them, and order him his pay out of the treasury.
" The inhabitants of Rumney Marsh standing by, and seeing the town in so good a frame, also put in their request that a free school might be granted them to teach to read, write, and cypher. It being put to the town to know their minds, it was voted in the affirmative, with the proviso that did it appear to the selectmen that there were a reasonable number of children to come to the school, then the selectmen should agree with a school-master to teach the children to read, write, and cypher, for which service he should be paid out of the town treasury." 1
This vote, however, led to no practical results until after eight years of patient waiting, when the citizens reminded the selectmen of the vote of the town in March, 1701. Whereupon they voted, Jan. 24, 1709, -
"That in case Mr. Thomas Cheever do undertake and attend the keeping such school at his house four days in a week weekly for the space of one year ensuing, and render an account with the selectmen once every quarter of the number of children or scholars belonging unto the said district which shall duly attend the said school, he shall be paid out of the town treasury after the rate of twenty pounds per annum for this service." 2
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