USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume II > Part 8
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ARES
CALEB WILSTER.
SALEM-FIRST CHURCH Built 1825, from a water color by W. H. Emmerton Courtesy of The Essex Institute
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
Various attempts were made throughout the seventeenth century to establish the Episcopal or Anglican Church in New England. These attempts did not meet with success until the early part of the eighteenth century, possibly because the representatives did not seem over-zealous in their task, and partly because the "Puritans" regarded these churchmen as followers of the Stuarts in England. As so often happens neither the "Puritans" nor the Episcopalians understood each other. All the Puritan ministers were originally Episcopalians, because they had been ordained in the Church of England. They had been driven into the "Low Church" branch by what they considered to be over-emphasis on the part of Archbishop Laud and the High Churchmen on the Liturgy and the Episcopate. The Episcopalians differed from the Separatists, who were also Puritans, because they still believed in the union of the church and the state and in the rule of the King and the bishops by the will of God. Although they were affiliated with the House of Stuart, they, too, in this country con- tended for religious liberty. They opposed the Puritan uniformity here because they hoped to establish an Episcopal uniformity in reli- gion, but they disagreed as to the authority under which all men must be brought.
In 1701 there was established in England the Episcopal "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." In 1710 this society appointed a minister to take charge of a congregation in New- bury. This is now the oldest parish of the Episcopal Church (Church of England) in Massachusetts, and Queen Anne's Chapel was built in that part of Newbury which is now St. Paul's Parish, Newburyport. There had been a serious controversy among the Congregationalists there over the location of the new church. Those who objected to its being built on Pipe-Stave Hill became Episcopalians.
About 1740 there occurred the "Great Awakening" or revival movement. George Whitefield, from England, spent some time in this country visiting Salem, Marblehead, Ipswich, and Newbury. He was an ordained minister in the Anglican Church, but when it was discovered how far Whitefield was willing to go, he was disavowed by the church. Another great leader in the revival was Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton. These two men preached that no man was a Christian unless he had been through the experiences of a defi- nite emotional conversion. The effect of this preaching upon the
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Episcopal Church was to separate its members further from the Puritans. The churchmen did not go to the revival meetings, and some people were attracted to the Episcopal Church because it did not countenance such methods of revival.
The Episcopal clergymen usually were educated in England and sent out to the colonies. Therefore, when the War of American Independence came, the Episcopal clergy were connected with Eng- land by bonds of affection, religion, and patriotism. Most of them could not see the colonists' point of view, and they could not main- tain their place in the community unless they did see it. The result was that when the war was over the Episcopal Church had nearly disappeared from this country. There were only fourteen Episcopal parishes left in Massachusetts.
Another result of the war was a somewhat general indifference to religion. Religion took a place second to politics in men's minds. Everyone was interested in establishing the institutions of the new government and took every opportunity to discuss them. Ministers who did not preach politics from their pulpits found the pews of their churches deserted. Many of the conversions during the "Great Awakening" had been only skin deep, and, therefore, many of these people did not continue to be church members. This indifference was also fostered by the popular unbelief that was imported from France, the influence of that country becoming stronger here after its alli- ance with us in 1778. Even devout religionists found it hard to argue down the so-called atheists. Oftentimes the atheists won. It was the fear of many of those interested in the Episcopal Church that it would never survive.
The first Episcopal Church in Essex County was formed in New- buryport in 1710 under the circumstances that have been given.
St. Michael's Church in Marblehead was erected in 1714, the first rector being William Shaw. According to Dolores Bacon, in "Old New England Churches," this church "remains the only enduring monument to the Episcopal faith from Colonial times in New Eng- land." The members of the parish objected strenuously to being taxed to support the Congregational preachers, and finally an appeal was made to the Governor, but his attempt to restrain the selectmen and the assessors met with no success. Eventually the poor rector was forced to flee to England and his successor, David Masson, was
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more fortunate. To quote from Dolores Bacon: "This second Rector, finding his people still serfs to the Puritan meeting house, made a successful appeal to the Governor. By this time the parish had undertaken to meet all charges resulting from the resistance on the part of the churchmen to the undesired tax levied upon them. The selectmen and assessors of Marblehead were rendered power- less and St. Michael's became an unhampered fact." During the Revolution, Mr. Weeks, the rector, openly declared himself a royal- ist, and he read prayers for the preservation of the royal family and continued to do so until a year after the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Provincial Congress closed St. Michael's, but the rector held services in private houses. Eventually he had to flee for his life to Nova Scotia. The church was again opened and chanting was introduced there in 1786, probably for the first time in America. Several prominent men now came to the support of St. Michael's, among whom was Captain Blackler, who commanded the boat on which George Washington crossed the Delaware to fight the battle of Trenton. St. Michael's was closed soon after 1818, and an attempt was made to turn it into a "Congregational Meeting House." Upon appeal of the Bishop of the Diocese to the Legislature and with the help of the Reverend Mr. Carlisle, St. Michael's status was restored, and it was on its feet again in 1833.
To Salem John Lyford came as an associate of Roger Conant and maintained for a while the services of the Church of England. This was before Endicott and his company arrived. Among Endi- cott's company were some members who held services according to the Book of Common Prayer. Governor Endicott summoned these men and asked them why they did not conform to the practices of the First Church of Salem, and when they persisted in following their form of worship Endicott sent them back to England. To quote from Palfrey in the 1888 "History of Essex County": "This proceeding had first raised, and for the present issue had decided, a question of vast magnitude. The right of the Governor and Company of Mas- sachusetts Bay to exclude at their pleasure dangerous or disagree- able persons from their domain they never regarded as questionable, any more than a householder doubts his right to determine who shall be the inmates of his house."
In the eighteenth century there were other Episcopal churches organized in Amesbury and Haverhill.
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The First Protestant Episcopal Church of Methuen was formed about 1833 and lasted some four of five years; during this time the first Christmas service in this locality was conducted in this church.
A chime of ten bells of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, which first rang out on Easter morning, 1886, was the first chime in Lynn. Other towns or cities in which Episcopal churches have been organ- ized, in the order of their founding, are: Andover, Lawrence, Dan- vers, Ipswich, Gloucester, Beverly, Rockport, Beverly Farms, Pea- body, Saugus, Georgetown, and Manchester.
It has been noticed that most of the Episcopal churches were founded in the nineteenth century. This may be explained by the fact that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries most of those interested in establishing churches were attempting to break away from the forms and practices of the Church of England. During the American Revolution most of the Episcopal churches were closed, as was St. Michael's in Marblehead, because they were looked upon as supporters of the royal family in England. During the nineteenth century members of the Episcopal Church were not regarded as unpa- triotic, but only as wanting to establish a particular form of worship which held an appeal for them. This may indicate that Americans were becoming more tolerant and that perhaps they realized that no matter to what denomination they belonged they were all seeking to find in some established form of religion an expression of their beliefs.
The Presbyterian Church did not thrive in the Congregational stronghold of Essex County. A church was formed in Newburyport out of the First Newbury Church (Congregational) in 1746. The church building was erected in 1756, and it is here that George White- field lies buried in a vault beneath the pulpit.
Due to the immigration of Presbyterians from the Canadian Provinces in search of work in the mills, a Presbyterian Church was founded in Lawrence in 1854.
The German Presbyterian Church in Lawrence, which was organ- ized in 1879, had its origin in 1872.
According to our plan of dealing with the three English political- religious groups whose representatives came to this country, we come now to the Separatists. In this county the chief divisions of this group were the Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, Universalists, Uni- tarians, and Congregationalists. They will be treated in that order,
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except that the Roman Catholics will be treated before the Con- gregationalists.
The Quakers first appeared in this country in 1657. They had come to Boston in 1656 and spread to Salem from there. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, started in England during the English Com- monwealth, largely as a result of the itinerant lay-preaching of George Fox. After 1652 the movement gained momentum and attracted a goodly number of adherents. These Quakers-so-called in derision of their emotional and religious enthusiasm-soon were persecuted because of their unorthodox ideas toward religion and soci- ety, but the persecution only made them grow stronger and become more tenacious of their views. To quote from Rufus Jones, in his chapter in the "Religious History of New England" :
"The movement was, from its earliest beginning, outreach- ing and missionary in spirit. Its exponents were possessed with a faith that they had rediscovered 'primitive Christianity' and they leaped to the conclusion that they had found a fresh and living way which could spread and become a world- Christianity. In this faith they undertook 'the hazards and hardships' of propagating it, not only at home but 'overseas' as well."
These Quakers believed that each human soul might make its own communication with God, that it might discover its own revela- tion of truth, and make its own interpretation of Christ. This indi- vidual interpretation of God, Christ, and truth obviously could not be subject to any external authority.
The early founders of Massachusetts were not interested in this kind of thing, and took steps to prevent its inception and its spread. To quote from J. Duncan Phillips, in his "Salem in the Seventeenth Century :"
"In due time the General Court forbade Quakers to enter and forbade anyone to entertain them, and, after trying sim- pler measures, in due time further promised that if they did come, it would put them out, and if they came again, it would cut their ears off, and if they returned a third time, it would hang them and then that would end it-but it did not, for others came. Rhode Island, Barbados, and the Dutch settle-
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ment at New Amsterdam seem to have been the advance basis for the invasion, but why couldn't the Quakers leave Massa- chusetts alone ? At any rate, they didn't, and some of them came to Salem and stayed with Lawrence Southwick, the glass- maker, and his wife on Boston Street. The Southwicks got into trouble for sheltering the Quakers and their two friends each lost an ear. But Quakers kept coming and making trou- ble, and the authorities, not with any bloodthirstiness which I can discover, but because they wanted these people to keep away and stop bothering, flogged them, cut off their ears and finally hanged half a dozen."
According to Rufus Jones four were hanged. Continuing from Phillips :
"The chief thing they demonstrated was that that was the way to make friends for the Quakers, whereas if they had given them a soap-box on Boston Common and gone out and laughed at them it would have ended sooner."
In Salem, in 1658, a trial of the Quakers was held and several persons were fined or imprisoned. Whipping usually accompanied the fines and imprisonment. The persecution gradually quieted down, especially after the accession of Charles II, who disapproved of it.
We must not be too severe in our judgment against the magis- trates and the people of Salem for their actions against the Quakers, for little did they know the outcome of the problem with which they had to deal any more than would we in similar circumstances today. Many of our actions undoubtedly will be viewed as somewhat unwise when studied from the advantage of the history of nearly three centuries.
In 1677 a Quaker meetinghouse was erected on Wolf Hill in Lynn. In 1688 the first meetinghouse was built in Salem, while in Amesbury the earliest record starts from 1701, when a meeting- house was decided upon and members from Amesbury, Salisbury, and Hampton met there for four years. In Amesbury the Quakers were taxed for the support of the Congregational preaching, and in 1702 the constable took two calves-valued at thirty shillings-from Ezekiel Wathen to pay his rate. John G. Whittier, the poet, belonged
Essex -- 41
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to the Friends Society in Amesbury. In Newbury a meetinghouse was built in 1744, but it was afterwards used by the Congregational Church in the West Parish; then the Friends built another house of worship on Turkey Hill. In 1822 there arose two factions in the church at Lynn, and it was common to hear the boys of the town shout, "Let's go and see the Quakers fight." This is interesting when it is remembered that the Quakers did not countenance physical force even in cases of self-protection. In 1832 a brick meetinghouse was erected by the Friends in Salem and when it was destroyed by the fire of 1914, a new structure was built. In Lawrence a meetinghouse was erected in 1886.
The Baptists, or Anabaptists, as they were called in early New England, did not believe in the authority of the state in religious matters. In this respect they were like the other Independents or Separatists, but they differed from the others in the degree to which they advanced certain doctrinal changes. The Baptists were, per- haps, the first to bring out in its full meaning the theory of religious liberty or freedom of conscience in one's relationship to God. They also held that baptism could be administered only to one who had confessed his personal faith in Christ, this conception excluding infant baptism. The third point in their doctrine was that baptism by immersion was the only mode prescribed in the New Testament. These tenets of the Baptists explain the hostility of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony to them. The Second Charter of Massachusetts (1691) had granted equal liberty of conscience to all but Roman Catholics, but it also required each town to raise taxes to support a minister. In 1718 the General Court authorized a tax for building and repairing meetinghouses. Quoting from Horr, in his chapter on the Baptists in the "Religious History of New England":
"In 1728, however, Baptists and Quakers were exempted from poll taxes for the support of ministers and it became illegal to take their bodies in execution to satisfy any such material rate or tax assessed upon their estates or faculty, 'provided that such persons do usually attend the meetings of their respective Societies assembling upon the Lord's Day for the worship of God, and that they live within five miles of the place of such meeting.' The names of the Baptists and Quak- ers who might thus escape the poll tax were ascertained by
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the County Court, which through its clerk sent lists of the names to the assessors of each town or precinct."
There was a Baptist Church organized in Newbury in 1682, but prejudice against the new sect was so strong that the church evi- dently ceased to exist, as nothing more was heard of it for over a century. The society was re-formed in 1804.
In the eighteenth century there were Baptist churches formed in Georgetown, Methuen, Haverhill, and Danvers. The history of the Haverhill Church gives an insight into the legal procedure of the time regarding the founding of churches. In 1793 the "First Bap- tist Society in Haverhill" was incorporated. To quote from the 1888 "History of Essex County":
"The trouble was that all persons were obliged to pay the regular parish tax unless they could obtain exemption in the manner provided by law. This society was obliged to procure certificates from three other Baptist Churches acknowledging them to be one of the regular Baptist con- gregations before their own officers could give to individuals certificates of their frequent and usual attendance at their church upon the Lord's Day, in order that they might be exempted from paying a proportionable part of the minis- terial taxes raised by law in the parish. Indeed, Merchant John White, a constant worshipper with the Baptists, though not a church member, was obliged to pay his regular parish tax to the standing order at the end of an expensive lawsuit."
In spite of-or perhaps because of-great opposition, the Bap- tist Society became very strong and contributed much to missionary work and to the founding of new churches, specially in Maine and New Hampshire. It is said of Dr. Smith, the first pastor, that no man ever accomplished more in Haverhill. There are now five Bap- tist churches in Haverhill, one of which is colored.
In the nineteenth century Baptist churches were formed in the following order in Beverly, Newburyport, Salem, Sandy Bay (Glouces- ter), Essex, Rockport, Lynn, Wenham, Salisbury, Rowley, Gloucester Harbor, Andover, Manchester, Merrimacport (West Amesbury), Lawrence, and West Newbury.
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
By the latter part of the eighteenth century the percecutions of the Baptists had ceased. and that may explain the growth of Baptist churches in the next century. These persecutions of the Baptists as well as of the Quakers were due to their interference in political mat- ters as well as their peculiar religious beliefs. They were regarded as a troublesome minority and. therefore, it was thought that they ought to be suppressed. but it was soon learned that suppression only made them become stronger.
Methodism had its origin in England in 1729, its name deriving from the fact that its followers led methodical lives. The two chief proponents of Methodism were John Wesley and George White- field, each of whom became the head of a separate party of Metho- dists in 1741. Methodism was brought to this country by Whitefield in 1739, when he made a preaching tour and visited Ipswich, Essex, Newbury, Lynn, Marblehead, Haverhill, and Salem in this county. As he was not allowed to preach in the churches in most places, he expounded the gospel of individuality and freedom to great crowds on the Common. in some nearby field, or in some great hall. When the authorities in Haverhill sent Whitefield a letter asking him to leave their town, he read the letter and remarked, "Poor souls, they need another sermon," and straightway announced that he would preach at sunrise the next morning in the same place, when many came to hear him. As has been remarked before in this chapter, the first part of the eighteenth century was one of outward religious lethargy and indifference in this country, and it was Whitefield who kindled the spark that made the people "want" religion again. White- field was convinced of the worth of religion in every man's life, and it was his mission to make every man realize that fact. The members of the established church in this county, as elsewhere, did not dis- agree so much with the doctrines of Whitefield as they did with the methods he used in expressing those doctrines. They were suspcious of the fervor and enthusiasm that he instilled in his hearers in the open meetings. That this enthusiasm was more than skin deep with many who heard Whitefield is shown by the number of Methodist churches that were established.
Benjamin Franklin, in his "Autobiography," bears witness to the power of Whitefield :
"The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous and it was a matter of
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speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admir'd and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them that they were naturally half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious."
Gains in attendance and membership were noted by all the denominations.
Methodism as it is now taught was introduced in Ipswich in 1790 by the itinerant preacher Jesse Lee, but it was not till 1822 that the Methodist Episcopal Society was formed with twenty-two mem- bers, eight of whom were from the Baptists.
In 1790 the Methodist Church was organized in Marblehead, and in 1791 Reverend Jesse Lee founded the society in Lynn. From that society branches were established in the nineteenth century through- out the town and some of the surrounding territory.
The other two Methodist churches founded in the eighteenth cen- tury were in Marblehead and in Lynn. In the nineteenth century Methodist churches were formed in Saugus, Newburyport, Salem, Gloucester, East Gloucester, Byfield, Andover, Rockville (Peabody), Topsfield, Rockport, East Bradford (Groveland), Newbury, Law- rence, Beverly, Danvers, Essex, Middleton, and Methuen.
In Byfield, in 1827, the establishment of a Methodist Episcopal Church was inspired by the preaching of Reverend William French, and in 1830 a small chapel was built near the Great Rock. There were no seats in the chapel, so the women sat on stones which had been brought in from the outside, and the men stood outside and looked in through the open windows. In 1831 the chapel was finished. During the next year the society tried to raise money for the support of a min- ister, but $92.15 was all they could get, though further efforts must have been more successful, because the church continued and pros- pered. Further evidence of the bareness of the first Methodist churches is given by Dr. Daniel Dorchester :
"The first Methodist Church buildings were simple struc- tures made of unplaned boards, entirely without paint ; often, for several years unfinished. For seats they had rough planks.
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laid on blocks, and no backs. The pulpit was the carpenter's bench used in the erection of the building, pushed to one end of the room and a single board nailed upright upon the front and another short board flat on its top, made a resting place for Bible and hymnbook. Even such plain meeting houses were often embarrassed with debts."
In 1800 the General Conference had agreed that $80 should be the yearly allowance of a minister and that a similar amount should be allowed his wife. For each child under seven the allowance should be $16, and for each child over seven and under fourteen it should be $24.
In 1860 several clergymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church and ten laymen of the Lynn and Boston districts joined together and established the Asbury Camp-meeting Association in Hamilton for the purpose of holding camp and other meetings under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first camp-meeting had been held in 1859, and the venture proved so successful that meetings have been held yearly in the month of August. The district is now known as Asbury Grove.
The Universalist system of theology was introduced in this coun- try by John Murray in 1774 at Gloucester. Universalism was mili- tantly against the accepted Calvinistic system as held and interpreted by the orthodox Congregationalists; in fact, it was the first organized attack on this system. The main points of the Calvinistic dogma : the trinity, the fall of man, the total depravity of the race, and gov- ernmental theory of atonement, salvation by faith alone, and end- less punishment, were all denied by the Universalists. The Glouces- ter Church has had its "trials and tribulations," but it exists today as the "Independent Christian Society of Gloucester."
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