USA > Massachusetts > The story of western Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 20
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The Original Meeting House at Springfield
From data painstakingly accumulated by Harry Andrew Wright as Historian, from study of all records and from collaboration with other authorities, Wallace E. Dibble, A.I.A., made this sketch of the First Meeting House in Springfield, showing the building as it appeared when erected in 1645.
untutored German, unfamiliar with the subject may have thought the Olivet Church building representative of New England churches and so followed its lines. The kinship is most apparent.
The recorded specifications for the original First Church build- ing are ample enough to give one conversant with the period a fairly complete picture. A building forty by twenty-five, with two turrets, a seventeenth century turret being, not a tower, as imagined by Roloff, but in the nature of a cupola. To "daub the wales," is an understand- able operation and was in accordance with contemporary English con- struction. These "wales,"-probably willow rods with the bark on, were nailed to the upright timbers, exactly as laths would be today. These were "daubed" inside and out with a heavy mixture of straw and mud, producing something akin to a stucco finish.
This was the building method used at that time in both England and New England.
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Such construction withstood the mild climate of England in a fairly satisfactory way, but here it was found that this mud-stucco succumbed to the rigors of ice and snow, and for its protection, an outer coat of boarding was found to be necessary. Hence, in 1652, the church was clapboarded over the original mud side covering.
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John Pynchon's Short-Hand Record of Pastor Moxon's Sermons, 1640
Obviously the specifications of 1645 are lacking in many minor details and for years, interested students have searched for additional items, finding a bit here and a bit there. A seating plan of a later date provided information showing the location of the bell rope and so the location of the bell turret. Provision for the taking out of cer- tain seats and consequent relocating of doors gave the clue to the location of the original doors.
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THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE
By 1936 it was felt that sufficient data had been accumulated to solve all the puzzles and in view of the approaching City Tercentenary celebration, there was an urge to give the information to the public. To this end, Wallace E. Dibble, a local architect, was asked to give to these findings an architect's interpretation. He was much in sym- pathy with the idea and gave to it much time and study, consulting with authorities in other cities, who also gave freely of their knowl- edge. The result would seem to be an accurate representation of the church as it appeared when completed.
It will be noted that as originally built the church was provided with joists for a second floor, but that apparently for reasons of economy, no such floor was then laid. In 1650 John Pynchon was permitted to lay a floor at his own expense and use the resultant chamber for ten years for the storage of grain. By 1652 the popula- tion of the town had so increased that provision for additional seating capacity was imperative. The town, therefore, provided that a "gal- lery" should be created by taking up the middle row of floor boards of the chamber and placing seats around the hole thus made in the floor. It has been suggested that this was the origin of the New England galleried meeting houses.
In nostalgic moods the settlers yearned for a church bell, such as they had known in Old England, but in lieu thereof, "it was agreed with John Matthews to beat the drum for the meeting, at ten of the clock on lecture days and at nine o'clock on the Lord's days. To beat it from Mr. Moxon's to Rowland Stebbins' house and the meeting to begin within a half an hour after." Thus the drummer beat his way from Vernon to Union Streets. Five years later, the desire of the townspeople was satisfied, when the selectmen appropriated £5 to reimburse "Mr. William Pynchon for the bell" and an additional sum for "hanging the bell."
If one is curious as to the type of theology that emanated from the pulpit of this meeting house, that curiosity can be readily satisfied. In 1640, John Pynchon, then a lad of fourteen kept a shorthand rec- ord of the pastor's sermons. Being in an obsolete system, unknown to modern scholars, this remained undeciphered for some three hun- dred years, but recently it has been decoded and is most illuminating. The texts were from the New Testament; the themes were of com- fort, love and necessity for happiness. It was not until two genera- tions later that those "hell-fire-and-damnation" sermons came from New England pulpits. Two generations of arduous labor to provide subsistence; when schools were few and opportunities for education meager. When daughters of gentlemen married sons of indentured servants. Then came the dark days of bigotry and superstition. But such had no part in the early Springfield of Magistrate Pynchon and Dominie Moxon.
There is reason for believing that this recording of the pastor's sermons by young Pynchon was not made in church, but was in the nature of mental gymnastics, provided the minister as tutor to the young son of his patron. As in a later era, laggard pupils were
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placed in the corner with a dunce cap, and still later were obliged to write a series of irritating words on the blackboard, so the same spirit seems to have prevailed in the classroom of three centuries ago. At the bottom of one of the pages of John Pynchon's shorthand rec- ord of 1640, is a sentence that decodes to read, "John Pynchon is a disobedient and ungrateful boy." The labor of reducing that bit to code was the punishment meted out to that inattentive student.
CHAPTER XX Agawam Becomes Springfield
T HE plantation of Agawam was designed to be a pure democracy. None were entitled to special privileges. When the town allotted to Pynchon, Smith and Burr, a special grant of land that is now Hampden Park, free of all taxes forever, it was on account of extraor- dinary expenses that they had undergone, and was fully concurred in by the entire body of stockholders.
None were quizzed concerning religion. Church attendance was a matter of individual conscience, but absence from town meeting subjected the offender to a substantial fine. If he did not value his vote, he was not valued as a citizen. The courts were open to all; English or Indian. The natives were encouraged to look to the courts for redress of wrongs and the records indicate great sympathy for them by the jurors. It was Magistrate Pynchon who contended that "until the Indians have sold us their land and subjected themselves to our government, they must be considered an independent and free people".
Freedom of speech was not curtailed. Without jeopardy of life or limb, the perennial troublemaker John Woodcock, in 1639, accused the local minister of perjury. Pastor Moxon had his relief from the court,-a verdict for slander in the sum of 6€, 13s, 4d, quite a sizeable sum for those days. The town constable attempted to collect this under a distraint warrant, but without success, whereupon the magis- trate ordered him to "attach the body of John Woodcock and keep it in prison and put him out to service until his wages make satisfaction".
As the Associates selected their citizenry so also they hand-picked their minister, and it was a happy choice. George Moxon was active as a citizen, serving as one of two delegates to the General Court. He was one of a group appointed to restrain the Indians from trespassing on town lands. In the trying times, when his own daughters were witch- craft suspects, he lost neither his poise nor his judgment. It must have been in part his influence that drew hither so many desirable citizens from other towns. Pynchon related that "the Lord has added to us three or four Godly young men from the river towns, and has greatly blessed Mr. Moxon's ministry to the conversion of many souls that are lately added to our church". Moxon loyally aided and encouraged Pynchon when the latter was called before the so-called
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bar of justice in Boston, for daring to express the belief that God would not condemn him to everlasting torment for things over which he had no control.
Only after a comparison of the situation at Agawam with that at Boston does one realize the superiority of local conditions. Boston and the adjacent towns were dominated by professional Puritans, led by the clergy, many of whom were fanatical, unfrocked or silenced ministers, driven out of England. Clothed with unaccustomed author- ity and free from the restraint of English law, they lost all sense of decency and justice. Private letters were opened in search of evidence against those suspected of disloyalty to the established order. Many were men of small caliber with amazingly unclean minds who reveled in the revolting details of sordid sex affairs. They were familiar with the technique of birth control, called by them "hindering concep- tion". The death penalty was provided for any one having sexual relations with a brute beast. As the court records, both before and after the passage of that ordinance, show scant occurrence of such offense, it must be suspected that the need for such a law was but the figment of filthy minds.
To the untimely death of Lady Arbella, wife of his friend Isaac Johnson, Winthrop gave four lines in his journal, while he devoted twenty times that space to an account of a creature born to a neigh- boring woman,-a child having no face, but with ape's ears, four horns, claws, talons and covered with scales; an evil thing such as only one with a depraved mind could have even imagined. The reputed reason for all this was that the father's religious beliefs had offended a vengeful God.
In 1637, at the close of the Pequot War, when captive Indians were sold into slavery in the Indies, the hypocritical Rev. Hugh Peter' wrote to the Governor,-"I salute you in the Lord Jesus. We have heard there is to be a division of the women and children and would be glad of a share; a young woman or a boy and a girl if you think good". Servants were scarce and expensive and Peter loved the flesh-pots. But events caught up with him, for eventually he returned to England where the public executioner was pleased to deprive him of his head.
Philip Ratcliffe was sentenced to be "whipped, have his ears cut off and banished for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches against the government and the church".
Such excesses finally became so notorious as to cause uneasiness and disquietude amongst friends of the colonists remaining in Eng- land. They were cautioned that they were in danger of having their charter revoked. From London, Edward Howes wrote to Winthrop,- "I have heard complaint against the severity of your Government, cutting off ears and other grievances. There are here a thousand eyes watching you".
John Norton, Richard Mather, John Cotton, Cotton Mather. Some had left England because they objected to the ritual of the established
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church, yet here, those who objected to the Congregational way were persecuted as Quakers. There were many lovable characters amongst them, but those were not of the aggressive type. The Rev. George Burrows was hanged for maintaining that "there neither are nor never were witches".
Thinking men, men of broad vision, sensed the inevitable result of unrestricted indulgence in such excesses. Sir Richard Saltonstall, and Sir Harry Vane came to New England only to return disillusioned after a short experience. Sir Matthew Boynton sent over cattle and servants to prepare for his own coming, but after consultation with others, he altered his plans. Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, Lord Say and Sele, and Lord Brooke contemplated a life in New England, but refused to have their lives ordered by such libertines and sought other climes. In 1652 William Pynchon visited England for business reasons and found life so much more free there that he never returned to America.
The climax came at Salem in the closing decade of the century, when, under the exhortations of the rabble-rousing Mathers, two- hundred persons were accused of being in league with the devil and twenty-nine put to death. One, after being tortured for several days, was pressed to death under heavy weights. Less than a year after the last execution at Salem, the Mathers attempted another orgy, but public opinion rebelled and they were thoroughly discredited. Years after, Cotton Mather offered a rather weak apology, saying that there had been "a going too far in that matter". His words were then of little moment. Another day had dawned.
For sixteen years William Pynchon continued at Agawam, and they were strenuous and tumultuous years, due in a great measure to the unchristian persecutions of Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Hartford. What initiated the ill feeling is not apparent, but it grew with the years as did also the venom of Hooker's tongue and pen. It must be conceded that in the end the dignity of Pynchon shone brightly as compared with that of his opponent, for he was the great liberal of the group with which he was identified.
As an adjunct to the exodus to the Connecticut, the Massachu- setts General Court, on March 3, 1636, granted a commission which in effect organized a separate colony, on which commission William Pynchon and Henry Smith represented Agawam, with two men each for Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor. The first session of the commission was held at Hartford on April 26, 1638; neither Pynchon nor Smith being present as both were then occupied at Roxbury. The first General Court at which Agawam was represented was on Novem- ber 1, 1636.
In all the Valley towns the hurried preparations for the spring planting of 1636 resulted in light harvests, and the following year new arrivals made heavy inroads on the stock of grain. The winter of 1637-38 was severe and the spring so late and cold that it was neces- sary to plant corn two or three times, as the seed rotted in the ground.
W. Mass .- I-13
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In this emergency, the Indians were called on to supply corn to make up the shortage, but those at Woronoco were unable or unwilling to comply. Pynchon was delegated to negotiate with them but, as no results were forthcoming, the court ordered that six men be sent to Woronoco with the demand that a deputation be sent to Hartford to explain their unwillingness to trade, and, if necessary, to use force to compel them to send such a delegation, leaving two of the English as hostages. The hostages were instructed, that while thus detained, to use their best endeavors to induce the natives to part with some of their surplus. However, little corn was secured and it was charged that the Indians were encouraged in their refusal by Pynchon who was credited with "unfaithful dealing and breach of his oath as magistrate".
At a General Court held at Hartford April 5, 1638, Pynchon, Smith and Moxon were all present, and the following resolution was adopted :
"Whereas, there was some complaint made against Mr. William Pynchon of Agawam, for that as was conceived and upon proof appeared, he was not so careful as to promote the public good in the trade of corn as he was bound to do. It is ordered that the said Mr. Pynchon shall, with all convenient speed, pay as a fine for his so failing, forty bushels of Indian corn for the public".
Before arriving at its decision the Court called on Pastor Hooker for an opinion on the ethics and morals of the case. The answer was one of most biting denunciation. Though subsequent events offer a complete justification for Pynchon's policy, Hooker's castigations continued in a petty and persecuting manner, including a plea to the church at Roxbury that Pynchon be excommunicated. For three years the abuse continued, subjecting him to much anxiety and trouble.
The General Court of April 5, 1638, was the last at which Agawam was represented, for shortly after, the plantation took advantage of an opportunity to secede from the Connecticut colony and continue under the Massachusetts jurisdiction. Again Hooker proceeded to roil the troubled waters. To Governor Winthrop he wrote an angry letter, saying that :
"If Mr. Pynchon can devise ways to make his oath bind him when he will and loosen him when he list; if he can tell how, in faithfulness to engage himself in a civil covenant, yet can cast it away at his pleasure before he give in sufficient warrant, more than his own word and will, he must find a law in Agaam for it, for it is written in no law nor gospel that I ever read. The want of his help troubles me not, nor any man else I can hear of. I do assure you we know him from the bottom to the brim and follow him in all his proceedings, and trace him in his privy footsteps; only we would have him and all the world to understand, he doth not walk in the dark to us".
First Church of Christ, Springfield
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Both the Massachusetts Court and the plantation held their ground and on February 14, 1639 it was provided that,-
"We the inhabitants of Agaam upon Quinnettecot, taking into consideration the manifold inconveniences that may fall upon us for want of some fit magistracy among us, being now by God's providence fallen into the line of the Massachusete jurisdiction, and it being far off to repair thither in such cases of justice as may often fall out among us, do therefore think it meet by a general consent and vote to ordain, till we receive further directions from the General Court in Massachuset Bay, Mr. William Pynchon to execute the office of a magistrate in this our plantation of Agaam".
On April 16, 1640, it was "ordered that the plantation be called Springfield", in remembrance of Pynchon's English home.
In 1644 the disillusioned promoters of the Saybrook plantation sold out to the Connecticut Colony and, to provide means for financing the transaction, a duty was proposed on all exports passing out of the river. Such an impost would have been extremely costly to Pynchon, who was the largest single shipper on the river. On June 17, 1645, the Massachusetts General Court served notice of its refusal to abide by such an arrangement and proposed to retaliate by exact- ing an import duty on all Connecticut merchandise reaching Boston. The dispute waxed loud and long and was eventually referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, who in 1650 begged that it "be spared all further agitation concerning Sprinkfield". Thomas Hooker had then been dead for three years and the issue dropped out of sight from mere lack of fuel to feed the flames.
More than forty years prior to the well-known outbreak of witch- craft excitement at Salem, Springfield had a similar experience.
On September 15, 1745, Pynchon sought advice from his friend, John Winthrop the elder, regarding the marital affairs of two of his flock, telling of Mary Lewis, wife of "one Lewis, a papist".
"She has been above seven years separated from her husband, and is persuaded by others that she may marry by the laws of England. She is easily persuaded to that because she lives under temptations of desire of marriage and lately she has fallen into a league of amity with a brickmaker of our town. I gave you what light I could in the case and desired you to take advice at the Court what I may do in this case if she desires to be married. She hopes that you will give her liberty to marry in some short time and therefore your answer to my letter requires more haste".
On November 4, 1645, Pynchon reported to Winthrop that "Mary Lewis is now newly married to a brickmaker".
Hugh Parsons, the brickmaker and Mary Lewis were married at Springfield on October 27, 1645, and to them a daughter was born August 7, 1646. On June 8, 1648, they had a son Samuel, and October 26, 1650. a son Joshua: both sons dying in infancy.
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The birth and death of her two sons were reflected in the mental state of the mother, whose condition was aggravated by the attitude of her contentious, ill-natured husband, who quarreled with his neighbors and associates, and threatened with dire consequences all who crossed him. Eventually his wife accused him of witchcraft, and the death of their son by devilish arts.
A number of hearings were held before Magistrate Pynchon at which the testimony related to nonsensical and trivial happenings. Lights had been seen on the marsh; milk had turned yellow; knives had disappeared; flashes of light came from a red cotton waistcoat. Jonathan Taylor told of a dream in which three snakes appeared upon the floor, one of them with black and yellow stripes. Martha and Rebecca Moxon, daughters of the minister, were taken with fits. There were tales of people who prowled about the town "sometimes like cats and sometimes in their own shape".
In March, 1651, the husband was sent to Boston for trial, but the Court refused to convict him and, though he was wholly cleared, he never returned to Springfield.
Mrs. Parsons finally declared herself under the influence of Satan and confessed to the murder of her youngest child. The Gen- eral Court refused to believe her a witch, but accepted her confession of murder and sentenced her to be hanged.
By the irony of fate, at the session of the General Court that confirmed the death sentence of Mary Parsons, William Pynchon himself appeared to answer to grave charges. He had long been at variance with the established order on certain theological points and had embodied his conclusions in a book published in England in 1650, under the title of The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption.
The book was received in Boston in October of that year and was promptly brought before the General Court, where the entire edition was ordered to be burned in the market-place the following day. The author was summoned to appear before the next General Court to answer to a charge of heresy. He did appear at that Court, held at Boston in May, 1651, where he was concerned with the trial of Mary Parsons who was sentenced to death on May 17th. Immediately thereafter the Court took up consideration of Pynchon's case, and he offered a half-hearted retraction, acknowledging that his statements were not as explicit as might be wished. The Court considered that he was in a "hopeful way to give good satisfaction" and, out of consideration for "the present troubles of his family", permitted him to return home to ponder the matter, with the hope that further consideration would lead to a complete recantation.
His son's daughter, Mary Pynchon, born the previous autumn, had become a victim of infantile paralysis, and both mother and child were in grievous condition. Even a Massachusetts General Court, as then constituted, balked at kicking a man when he was down.
He was to reappear at the next General Court, which met on October 14, 1651, but that Court graciously allowed him another six
Home of Margaret Bliss at Main and Loring Streets, Springfield Erected 1645. Demolished 1891. Front and side views.
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AGAWAM BECOMES SPRINGFIELD
months in which to renounce his heresy. Before that time elapsed he avoided the issue by returning to England, accompanied by his wife. Despite assertions to the contrary, the records offer ample evidence that Moxon did not depart for another year. In anticipa- tion of such a move, on September 22, 1652, while still at Springfield, he executed a deed conveying all of his realty holdings to the inhabi- tants of the town. Thereupon he also proceeded to England, where he died September 15, 1687, at the age of eighty-five. He seems to have had no contact with Pynchon after leaving Springfield.
Pynchon's exit was so quietly made that it possibly was with the connivance of the authorities, who may have feared the outcome of the controversy they had initiated with one of his influence and resources. It has repeatedly been said that he slipped out in the dark of the night, sailing from Hartford on one of his own ships, manned by a crew of trusted servants. But such was not the Pynchon way. It was not as an idle gesture that William Pynchon appended the title "gentleman" to his name. In his mind, Pynchons were ever gentlemen and it did not become such to sneak out of a back door; they went by the front way and in the open daylight. By mere chance, the facts in this instance are available.
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