USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 18
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The Massachusetts Archives are rich in illus- trative documents, and Force's American Ar- chives give many of the orders. References to sources of information regarding the daily life within the British lines are made in a note to Mr. Scudder's chapter in this volume.
Three well-known novels in some degree depict the events in and about Boston during these Revolutionary days : Cooper's Lionel Lin- coln, Mrs. Child's Rebels, and Hawthorne's Sep- timius Felton.
Material for determining the rank and file of this Patriot army is at the State House, in what are called the Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls. A return of the main guard at Cambridge, 1775, is in vol. xxxvi. p. 267. Rolls of the army at Cambridge, in 1775, are contained in vol. xiv. Lists of the field, staff, and company officers of the Massachusetts regiments in 1775 (sixty-six colonels, sixty-one lient .- colonels, one hundred and thirty-two majors), are in vol. xxvii. p. 197, etc. Other lists of the field and company offi- cers of Massachusetts regiments, 1775-76, and of officers of sea-coast companies, are in vol. xxviii. Full lists of the colonels of Massachu- setts regiments, from 1767 to 1775, are in vol. xxviii. p. 84. Pay-rolls of companies for sea- coast defence, 1775-80, are in vols. xxxvi. and xxxvii. Company rolls of various dates, 1776- 81, are in the vols. xvii. to xxiv. As a rule, the rolls at the State House, before 1774, are in- cluded in the series called Massachusetts Ar- chives ; but from 1775 to the end of the war they are arranged in what is called the Massa- chusetts Revolutionary Rolls. Various rosters of the regimental officers are printed in 4 Force's American Archives, ii., iii .; and in Colonel Wil- liam Henshaw's Orderly-Book.
THE NAVAL SERVICE. - The Massachusetts Archives, vols. clxiv. to clxxii., contain docu- ments relating to privateers commissioned from
1775 to 1783. They have been indexed by Dr. Strong, first chronologically and then alphabcti- cally, by the names of the vessels. The earliest Boston vessel named was the "Lady Washing- ton," of thirty tons, April 22, 1776. Then come for the same year the following : "Yankee," " Adam," "Hannah and Molly," "Warren," "In- dependence," " Boston," " Langdon," " Wolfe," "Specdwell," " Viper," " Phœnix," " Washing- ton," "Eagle," "General Mifflin," " Ilawke," " Satisfaction," " Reprisal," " American Tartar," " Hancock."
In 1777: "Buckram," "General Mercer," " Revenge," " American," " Freedom," " Mars," "Fancy," "Cleora,""Charming Sally," " Union," "Betsy,"" Sturdy Beggar," "Bunker Hill," "Har- lequin," "Friend," " Cumberland," "Starkes," "Lizard," "Active," " Resolution," "Congress," " America," " Washington," " Pallas," "Truc Blue," "General Arnold," " General Lincoln," "George," "Lydia," "Lively," " America."
After 1777 the number increases, and the in- dex shows three hundred and sixty-five vessels in all, as commissioned and belonging to Boston. In the Revolutionary Rolls, vols. v .- vii., are many of the bonds given by the owners of these vessels. There are also numerous bonds in the Massachusetts Archives, cxxxix. 93, etc. Clark's Naval History of the United States gives the names of three hundred and forty-two English vessels captured by the Continental privatcers in 1776. See also The Remembrancer and Cooper's Naval History. More or less account of the beginnings of the navy, and of naval successes, will be found in Frothingham's Siege of Boston, pp. 260, 269, 308, and in the Lives of Manly, Tucker, and the other commanders. An abridgment of Shep- pard's Life of Tucker is in the N. E Ilist. and Geneal. Reg., April, 1872. Admiral Preble (NV. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1871, P. 363; 1872, p. 21) gives a list of armed vessels built or fitted out in Massachusetts, 1776-83, which is com- piled chiefly from Emmons's Statistical History of the United States Navy. Lists of Massachusetts war vessels, 1775, are in Massachusetts Revolution- ary Rolls, xxvii. Volume xxxix. of the Revolu- tionary Rolls contains the rolls of various State vessels, namely, - Brig " Massachusetts," 1776, 1777 ; brig "Tyrannicide," 1777-1779 ; brig " Freedom," 1775-1778 ; ship " Protector," 1779- 1782 ; ship "Tartar," 1781; brig " Ilazard," 1777-1780; ship "Ranger " 1777; ship " Mars," 1780, 1781 ; sloop "Defence," 1781, 1782. Other navy rolls, largely of privateers, are in vol. xl. Officers of armed vessels, 1775, 1776, are in Mas- sachusetts Revolutionary Rolls, xxviii. 130. Massa- chusetts Archives, vol. clvii., so far as it relates to maritime affairs, consists largely of accounts of supplies and ordnance furnished armed vessels. There is much also in the Pickering Papers.
CHAPTER III.
THE PULPIT, PRESS, AND LITERATURE OF THE REVOLUTION.
BY DELANO A. GODDARD, Editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser.
T `HE famous discourse of Jonathan Mayhew, in the West Church, in 1750, on the Sunday following the anniversary of Charles the Martyr, has been fitly called the "morning gun of the Revolution."1 Since the restoration of the monarchy this anniversary had been observed in Eng- land as a national fast, when the clergy were required to read the service, or preach a sermon against disobedience to authority. Many intelligent persons were at this time apprehensive lest the prelacy should be in- troduced into New England; and they suspected that even the missions of the church were a cover under which religious liberty was to be sac- rificed. Mr. Mayhew, then in his thirtieth year, and in the full vigor of his ripe and manly powers, took this occasion to preach three discourses against the pretension of unlimited submission and non-resistance to au- thority ; in which, with ingenious audacity, he " unriddled " the mysterious doctrine of the prince's saintship and martyrdom, and set forth with singu- lar boldness and eloquence the principles of free civil government. The last of these discourses,2 with portions of the two preceding it, were at once printed in England and America, and excited profound emotion in both countries.
There were at this time eighteen churches and religious societies in Boston.3 The intolerance of opinion and the severity of pulpit manners prevailing during the greater part of the first century had in a measure passed away. Prince, Colman, Mayhew, Chauncy, Sewall, Eliot, and less conspicuous ministers introduced more generous views of faith and life, and at the same time set the example of a style in preaching comparatively simple and pure, formed upon good models, and tempered by good sense and unaffected sincerity. The higher departments of learning were pur- sued by the clergy with steadily increasing spirit. The classics, philosophy,
1 J. Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers; with American Revolution, p. 43. [The West Church is shown in the frontispiece of this volume. -- ED.]
2 A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission
some Reflections on the Resistance made to King Charles I., and on the Anniversary of his Death. Boston, 1750.
8 Mass. Hist. Col., iii. 256-266.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
dialectics, science, and the best literature were studied next to the Bible, as aids to the presentation of its precepts and doctrines. The " five points of Calvinism," long insisted upon with strenuous energy, were yielding before original and independent study of the sources of all truth. Faithful and devout ministers, while holding fast to the essentials of the Orthodox faith, questioned the extreme interpretations thereof till then prevailing, or re- jected them altogether. They were at the same time devoted lovers of civil liberty. The general and artillery Election sermons, -the first given the last Wednesday in May, at the meeting of the General Court, when coun- sellors were chosen; 1 the second at the annual election of officers of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery,-greatly contributed to the Revolutionary spirit. Copies of the sermons were given to the members of the General Court for distribution ; and during the year the country pulpits resounded with the sentiments of these state discourses. The whole church-going people were thus enlightened in speculative and practical politics to a de- gree unknown anywhere else in the world.2
Mr. Mayhew was one of the most outspoken of these preachers, and came to be recognized as a prophet of the new dispensation. He began his career with an cager thirst for learning, united with a deep religious spirit. He formed for himself habits of methodical reading and systematic reflec- tion, thus early laying upon a rock3 the foundations of his faith. His ministry was a prolonged conflict. The clergy of the town for a time stood aloof from him; and when he was at last admitted to ministerial fellowship, the Episcopal controversy renewed the strife in another form. His first printed discourses on the right of private judgment, and of freedom of in- quiry for moral and religious truth, gained for him the degree of Doctor of
1 [The earliest of these election sermons is that for 1634, and from that time to the present the roll of the preachers' names is complete, ex- cept for fifteen years. The latest list of such is that prepared by H. H. Edes, and appended to the Rev. C. E. Grinnell's sermon, printed in 1871. The earliest of the sermons preserved is that of Thomas Shepard, delivered in 1638, and printed, from the original MS., in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., October, 1870, p. 361. It is not known that any was ordered to be printed before Richard Mather's, in 1644; and it is not known that this was printed (Records of Massa- chusetts Bay, May 29, 1644) ; and the same state- ment can be made regarding Thomas Cobbett's, in 1649. The earliest known to have been print- ed was John Norton's, in 1661 ; but this was not issued from the press till 1664. In the mean while John Higginson's had been delivered and printed in 1663. The Boston Public Library Bulletin, January, 1881, contains a list of those known to have been printed. During the period covered by this chapter, sermons were delivered every year except 1764, when the small-pox pre- vailed in Boston. In 1775 there were two, -
one by Samuel Langdon, before the Provincial Congress, at Watertown, May 21; the other by William Gordon, before the House of Repre- sentatives, July 19. In 1780, Simeon Howard delivered the usual one; and Samuel Cooper another, at the beginning of the State Consti- tution, October, 25 .- Ed.]
2 [See Gordon, History of the American Rev- olution. - ED.]
8 " Having been initiated in youth in the doctrines of civil liberty, as they were taught by such men as Plato, Demosthenes, Cicero, and other renowned persons among the ancients; and such as Sydney and Milton, Locke and Hoadley, among the moderns, -I liked them : they seemed rational. And having learnt from the Holy Scriptures that wise, brave, and virtuous men were always friends to liberty; that God gave the Israelites a king in his anger, because they had not sense and virtue enough to like a free country ; and that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, -this made me conclude that freedom was a great blessing."- Dr. May- hew's Sermon on the Repeal of the Stamp Act. 1766.
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THE PULPIT OF THE REVOLUTION.
Divinity from one of the Scotch universities, - always prompt and generous in recognizing eminent talent in the New World. These were followed by the celebrated sermons already mentioned, as well as by other discourses on the nature of government and the principles of civil liberty, through which he became identified with the able men then building, better than they knew, for the independence of the colonies.
In the Episcopal controversy, which greatly stimulated the literary activity of the colony and created the liveliest interest among the learned men of the country, Dr. Mayhew was a conspicuous figure.1 In this dis- cussion it was maintained, on the part of the advocates of Episcopacy, that the Church of England was the established and legal system here as in Great Britain, and that other forms of Christianity only existed through tolerance or permission. Dr. Mayhew, in behalf of the Congregational churches and the dissenting interest, denied this; and maintained that the charters, especially that of Massachusetts, gave absolute authority to the colonial government in matters of religion, and that there was no power in Church, Crown, or Parliament to control or interfere with it. The dispute thus begun was carried on for many months with deep feeling on both sides, and by distinguished contestants in England and America. Grave political questions, growing out of the efforts of the Crown to enforce oppressive acts of trade, at the same time commanded attention. To these Dr. May- hew gave the last expiring energies of his noble life. He died in 1766, at the age of forty-six years ; being then, in learning, courage, and cloquence, the first preacher in America. His printed discourses during the twenty years of his ministry, nearly seventy in number, display remarkable origi- nality and maturity of thought united with great earnestness and directness of expression, a lively imagination, familiarity with books, and comprehen- sive knowledge of the affairs of the world. His genius and accomplish- ments were worthy of any age. The cause of liberty in the eighteenth century had no worthier advocate.2
. Dr. Mayhew's successor, the Rev. Simeon Howard, was also an Arian in religion and a decided Whig in politics, though not of an aggressive or controversial temper. The memorable event of his ministry was the seizure of the church to be used as a barrack for the British troops during their occupancy of the town. Many of his parishioners went with him to Halifax, where he had warm friends, and where a pulpit was ready to receive him.
1 This famous controversy was begun by the fulness and distinction at the age of eighty-four Rev. East Apthorp, an Episcopal clergyman, re- years. He was a sound scholar, amd a learned and ingenious writer. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, v. 179. presenting in Cambridge the " Society for Propa- gating the Gospel in Foreign Parts." He was a son of Charles Apthorp, merchant of Boston, 2 Bradford, Memoir of the Life and Writings of Dr. Mayhew ; Dr. Charles Lowell, Historical Dis- courses ; Dr. Charles Chauncy, Funeral Sermon ; Dr. Bartol, West Church and its Ministers. [See also Dr. Mckenzie's chapter, in Vol. II., p. 244, where a portrait is given ; and Dr. Peabody's in the present volume. - ED.] and was educated at Cambridge, England. Ile returned to this country upon his admission to holy orders, filled with zeal for his calling; but the time was not favorable, and, after a checkered ministry of six years, he went again to England, where he died in 1816, closing a life of great use- VOL. Jit. - 16.
I22
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Returning to Boston the following year, Dr. Howard devoted his energies to restoring his scattered society, and succeeded, through many personal sacrifices. He was not eminent as a preacher, though his style is described as perspicuous and flowing, and his method as exact and luminous. His simplicity of character, his modest and gentle manners, and the unfailing charity of his disposition under trying circumstances won for him the love of his people and the respectful homage of the community. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh; was an overseer of Harvard College, and a zealous member of many societies for the promotion of charity, literature, and religion.1
The ministry of the Rev. Thomas Foxcroft of the First Church was closed by his death in 1769. Educated in the Episcopal church he early changed his views, and for half a century had been a consistent adherent of the New England faith and order of church government. He was a stanch Calvinist, and in his earlier ministry was a persuasive and popular preacher; but through prolonged illness his powers had lost their fresh- ness and vitality before the crisis camc.2
Next to Dr. Mayhew in the group of eminent pre-Revolutionary divines, though his senior by fifteen years, was Mr. Foxcroft's distinguished col- league and successor, Dr. Charles Chauncy. When the great debates, theo- logical and political, were coming on, he was just passing middle life, and he gave to them all the powers of his highly gifted nattirc. During this exciting period the interests of Christianity and of civil government were inseparably bound together. The Rev. John Wise's masterly plea, De- mocracy, Christ's Government in Church and State, written for the time of Andros, was reproduced in form and spirit by the clergymen and Patriots of the time of Hutchinson. From 1750 to 1776 this principle had no more watchful and determined champion than Dr. Chauncy. Side by side with Mayhew he fought the good fight for ecclesiastical freedom; and when that gallant warrior fell, he continued the fight with redoubled spirit. For ten years he pursued the Episcopal controversy with unsparing energy, as well as with great learning and strength of reasoning. The contest began with his Dudleian lecture on the " Validity of Presbyterian Ordination Asserted and Maintained," and closed with " A Complete view of Episco- pacy,"- a work of deep interest at the time, and regarded as the ablest of his controversial writings.
Dr. Chauncy was cqually confident and alert in the advocacy of his political principles.3 He knew the Colonies were right. He knew they
1 The Rev. John Pierce, D.D., in Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, viii. 65-67. [See also Dr. Peabody's chapter in the present vol- ume. - ED.]
2 He was critically skilled in the Greek lan- guage, a theologian of some excellence, and the author of many sermons in print. Emerson, Historical Sketch of the First Church. See also
Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 310, 311.
3 Mr. Thornton, in the Pulpit of the American Revolution, p. 114, prints Dr. Channcy's Thanks- giving sermon, preached July, 1766, on the oc- casion of the repeal of the Stamp Act, entitled " A Discourse on the Good News from a far Country," with the comment : "This sermon,
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THE PULPIT OF THE REVOLUTION.
would triumph. If human strength were wanting, angels would fight in their behalf. When his friends, familiar with the extreme literalness of his usual discourse, suggested the imprudence of trusting to active recruitment from that quarter, he persisted in saying that such would be the fact. In- deed his style of writing and preaching was severely, not to say defiantly, plain. He had no comprehension of poetry, and he despised rhetoric. It is said that he prayed he might never be an orator. His enemies replied, with more wit than truth, that his prayer was undoubtedly granted. Ex- pediency had no place in his view of divine or human economy. Duplicity and affectation he ranked with the basest vices. His ministry with the First Church continued sixty years, from the time of his ordination until his death in 1787. His printed works include sixty sermons and controversial tracts, and some volumes of theology.1
Of like political principles, but in every other respect a striking con- trast to Dr. Chauncy, was the accomplished minister of Brattle Street Church, the Rev. Samuel Cooper. He was an elegant rather than a pro- found scholar, and a most attractive and popular preacher. He is described as of a fine and commanding presence,2 with a voice of great sweetness and power, uniting with remarkable fluency, as well as grace and force of expression, appropriateness and energy of thought, which never failed to arrest and hold attention. In his religious opinions he was moderately liberal. From the beginning of his ministry he was deeply interested in public affairs, and every occasion for service found him ready to take his full share in them, with Mayhew and Chauncy among the clergy and with Otis and Samuel Adams among the popular leaders. He resisted the min- isterial plan of taxation, through the pulpit as well as through the news- papers, to which he was also a frequent contributor.3 His zeal won for him great influence, and his counsel was sought by all the leading Patriots
an admirable historical picture, drawn by a mas- ter, himself a leader of the hosts, abounds in facts, discusses the great principles involved with energy and power, and with the calmness and precision of the statesman."
1 Dr. John Eliot writes : " Dr. Chauncey was one of the greatest divines in New England. No one, except President Edwards and the late Dr. Mayhew, had been so much known among the literati of Europe, or printed more works on theological subjects." See also W. C. Fowler, Chauncy Memorials ; Tudor, Life of James Otis, p. 147; and Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit. [A portrait of Dr Channcy is given in Vol. Il. p. 226, with a characterization of him by Dr. Mckenzie in the same chapter. See also Dr. Peabody's chapter in the present volume. - ED.]
2 [See his likeness in Vol. II. p. 242. The Bos- ton Magazine, 1784, p. 191, has a portrait of him engraved by J. Norman. Sec William Sullivan's account of Cooper in his Public Men. - ED.]
8 "Of the writings which alternately stimula- ted and checked the public mind in that season of stormy excitement, there were perhaps none of greater efficiency than those of Dr. Cooper. If other hands launched the lightning, his guided the cloud." - Palfrey, Sermon preached to the Church in Brattle Square, July, 1824, pp. 16, 17. Dr. Allen (Am. Biog. Dict.) says : " His ser- mons were unequalled in America for elegance and taste." [The somewhat famous verses on the " Boston Ministers," written in 1774, thus characterize him :-
" There's Cooper, too, a doctor true, Is sterling in his way ; To Jerry Seed, all are agreed, He well be likened may. In politics, he all the tricks Doth wonderously ken ;
In 's country's cause and for her laws, Above most mortal men."
These verses, by "a lover of jingle," are printed in the N. E. Hlist. and Gencal. Reg- April, 1859 .- ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
of the time. He was the confidential friend and correspondent of Dr. Franklin and of many men of eminent learning in the colony and in Eu- rope; while his personal attractions and knowledge of the world won the intimate regard and friendship of all cultivated persons, except of the officers and supporters of the Crown, by whom he was cordially hated, and for whom he showed no mercy. He was careless about his perma- nent reputation, was publicly identified with no great historical incidents, and left little printed material to explain his undoubted influence and popularity. He was always a good friend to literature, and a useful patron to Harvard College, of which he was once elected president; and was one of the founders of the American Academy.1
The largest congregation in Boston, during the few years preceding the Revolution, was that of the New North Church, under the ministry of the Rev. Andrew Eliot. He was in his religious views a moderate Calvinist, a direct, forcible, and practical preacher, rarely indulging in controversy. He opposed the establishment of Episcopacy by law, and the introduction of bishops; but it was the principle only, and not the practice, to which his conscience objected. When at the close of the siege the troops and the Loyalist inhabitants thought proper to leave the town, it was through his persuasion that Mr. Parker of Trinity was induced to remain, in order that Episcopalians might not be left wholly without a shepherd. During the siege, when his family and many of his friends had departed, he was himself induced to stay and continue the services of his church.2 His only com- panions of the same faith were Samuel Mather and Mather Byles, with whom, it may well be supposed, his relations were not intimate. He con- tinued to preach regularly, but with the circumspection which had always distinguished him, and which his present situation especially required. Even in times of the highest excitement Dr. Eliot had resolutely closed his pulpit against political discussions, to the serious displeasure of many persons who never thought of doubting his fidelity. Though sometimes taunted for his scruples, he was a warm friend of America, and was early and constant in his advocacy of the claims of the Colonies; but he never allowed political feeling to interfere with his literary zeal any more than with what he regarded as his religious duty. When Hutchinson's house was mobbed, many valuable books and manuscripts, including that of the second volume of the History of Massachusetts Bay, were rescued from de- struction through the efforts of Dr. Eliot. He was frequently urged to accept the presidency of the college, and, upon the death of Dr. Hol- yoke, was chosen to that office, which he declined. His unusual natural gifts were cultivated in many directions. "He sought and intermeddled with all knowledge." Some of his occasional discourses were printed as they were delivered; but, like Dr. Cooper, he was careless of his own
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