USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Essex > Two centuries of church history : celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Congregational church & parish in Essex, Mass., August 19-22, 1883 > Part 4
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One is their respect for authority, their careful conformity to existing requirements in ecclesiastical as well as civil affairs, the law-loving and law-abiding spirit manifest in them, saddled though they were with the burden of helping to sup- port three ministers at once, without being permitted to have the preaching services of either of them, even in the winter, and deeply conscious that the management of their own religious affairs by themselves and for themselves was a part of their inalienable rights.
Another is the clear, logical, masterly way in which they present and maintain their cause before the General Court, in what they call "A declaration and vindication of the transac- tions of the inhabitants of Chebacco in the precincts of Ipswich, in reference to their late proceedings in obtaining the ministry of the Gospel among them." I presume you are all familiar with this remarkable document ; but I cannot refrain from quot- ing their statement of a few of the arguments and the charges Ipswich had brought against them, and the points they so aptly make in reply :
"I. They [The Ipswich selectmen] alleged that the war was not yet past, and God's judgments were yet hanging over us, and the town was at great charge; to which we replied, that when we sought to have the means of grace amongst ourselves, we looked at it as our duty ; and therefore, when the judgments of God were amongst us, that it was rather an argument to stir us up to our duty than to lie under the omission of it; neither would we put the town to charge, either to erect our meeting-house, or maintain our minister."
"3. They alleged we belonged to the town, and therefore, were obliged to help the town to bear the charges, and they could not spare our money ; to which we replied that they alleged, at the General Court, that we paid only 17 or 18 pounds to the ministers of Ipswich; and there were three ministers to whom the town paid 200 pounds per annum ; and if the town would supply us with one of them, we would pay one of them fifty pounds toward his maintenance yearly. Then they replied, that could not be ; and that our want was only in the winter, and if we could get a minister to
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preach to us in the winter, they would free us from paying to the minister in the town, in the winter season ; and we should come to the public worship in the town in the summer, and pay there. We put ourselves in a posture for the entertaining the gospel, and were willing to lay aside our self-interests, that we might build a house for the worship of God, which we were the more vigorous in, by reason that we had experienced much, in a little time, of the sweetness and good of that privilege in enjoying the means amongst ourselves, whereby the generality of our inhabitants could comfortably attend the public worship of God. The house that we have been busied about for this place of public worship, we ever intended for such an end, always with this provisal, that this Honored Court do authorise the same, or countenance our proceedings therein : if not, we shall ever own ourselves loyal subjects to authority ; and therefore, the same is erected upon a pro- priety, that if this Honored Court see not meet to favor our proceedings, we may turn our labors to our best advantage. These things we desire to leave with this Honored Court, as a declaration of our cause, and a vin- dication of our innocency, and are ready further to inform this Honored Court, in what they may please to demand, or in what may be alleged against our proceedings."
A third thing worthy of notice in these proceedings is the deliberateness with which they set themselves at work, the skilful measures they adopted and the indomitable persever- ance they exercised in overcoming the obstacles which in succession blocked their way at every step. At their first meeting, in February, 1677, the inhabitants of Chebacco unanimously drew up a petition and soon after presented it to the town, desiring liberty to call a minister to preach among themselves. This the town neither granted nor denied, but would not vote upon it. Chebacco then petitioned the General Court, only to be referred back ( June 1, 1677 ) to the town ; which by direction of the Court made answer at the next session of that body in October. But even then, the Legisla- ture, "considering what was alleged by Ipswich," would only "judge it not meet to grant the petition at present" ; but seriously commended it to the town "to contrive as soon as may be for the accomodation of the petitioners." By vote of the town, March 2, 1678, the Selectmen held several conferences with the Chebacco leaders but without any result. The latter next asked leave to invite Mr. Jeremiah Shepard to preach to them,
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to which none of the town fathers objected and some of them assented. After he had preached a few Sabbaths beginning with January 19, 1679, there was an intimation "from an honor- able brother" at the centre, that the church were dissatisfied with the proceedings here, and so he ceased preaching. Feb- ruary 4, a second petition was presented to the town, the only effect of which was that the town sent to the General Court, March 15, a petition and address with grave charges against Chebacco.
"Not long after this," as the records tell us, "the sills of the meeting-house were laid in Mr. William Cogswell's land and the timber in place ready to raise. While we were in this great conflict, that all things seemed to act against us, some women, without the knowledge of their husbands, and with · the advice of some men, went to other towns and got help and raised that house that we had intended for a meeting- house, if we could get liberty."
This was the heinous offence for which Mrs. William Goodhue, Mrs. Thomas Varney, and Mrs. Abraham Martin were arrested, tried in Ipswich, found guilty of contempt of authority and bound over to the next Court in Salem. Although this tran- saction complicated matters still more and somewhat embar- rassed the Chebacco fathers and husbands, they went on with the preparation of the "Declaration of their cause and Vin- dication of their innocency," and duly submitted the document to the General Court, which on the 28th of May ( 1679) passed an order, which together with the action of the committee appointed by it is to be considered as the act of incorporation or charter of the Parish .*
And so in April 1680 the house is dedicated, and in re- sponse to their call and by leave of the Great and General Court, Mr. Wise begins his preaching in it. It was not, how- ever, until February of the next year, 1681, that the people were released from taxation for the support of the ministry
* See Appendix A.
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at the centre; and although the church members living in Chebacco made request, September 6, 1681, for dismission from the mother church, in order to organize the new one, they were unable to obtain release from its bonds for nearly two years more.
With such steady persistence did these children of the Puritans, engrossed though they were with the work of the farm, the mill, the shop, the ship-yard and the fishery, push on this most noble and laudable project, for six long years, until their efforts were crowned with complete success.
When you look carefully over their doings and read their own plain and methodical statement of the facts in the case, entered upon their records for permanent preservation and the knowledge of their posterity, you know not which most to admire, in your survey of this protracted contest, the un- conquerable determination of Englishmen to gain full pos- session of their religious rights, for the enjoyment of which they had been brought, from a land of plenty they could see no more, into all the hardships and privations of the new world, and to leave "unstained what there they found,-free- dom to worship God" as their consciences dictated-or the shrewdness and the skill with which these, by no means "rude forefathers of the hamlet" pressed their rightful claim to a meeting-house and a minister of their own, to a triumphant conclusion on that 12th of August, 1683; when in that crowded audience-room, this church of Christ was organized, the covenant entered into and Mr. Wise formally set apart to the work of the gospel ministry and the pastoral care of Chebacco parish.
Consider, further, who the individual leaders in this matters were, -known to us, as they are in part, through their de- scendants.
The first committee of conference with the Ipswich select- men, were William Cogswell, then about sixty-four years of age, John Andrews, Senior, sixty, Thomas Low, fifty-one, and
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William Goodhue, forty-three. Two of these, Cogswell and Andrews, were also on the committee of four, who acted for the church at its organization, and are the only ones mentioned by name, of its original members. A third on that organizing committee was William Story, aged sixty-nine, and the fourth was John Burnham, sixty-seven, one of the first two deacons. John Choate, at this time a young man of twenty two, later on in the first pastorate, also held the office of deacon. These men we may then reasonably regard as the seven pillars in this new structure.
William Cogswell was a descendant of Lord Humphrey Cogswell, whose coat of arms dated from the year 1447, and was one of the three sons of the wealthy merchant, John Cogswell, a passenger in the ship Angel Gabriel, and the progenitor of all of that name in this town. One of William's great-grandsons, Jonathan Cogswell, was also a deacon from 1780 until his death in 1812, at the age of eighty-six; and another, Col. Jonathan Cogswell, who died in 1819, was an officer in the Revolution. From William's brother John have descended two of your bi-centennial committee-one of them a deacon for twenty-one years already.
John Andrews, Sen., a freeman of Ipswich in 1642, was one of the six who joined Mr. Wise in that preparatory cau- cus at the centre four years later (Aug. 22, 1687), where, according to a reliable reporter, "they discoursed and con- cluded that it was not the town's duty anyway, to assist that ill method of raising money, which Sir Edmund Andros had ordered, without a general assembly ;" and in his resistance in town meeting the next day, to this attempted illegal taxa- tion, which, as the vote of Ipswich declared, "doth infringe their liberty as free-born English subjects of His Majesty." With the others, Mr. Andrews was arrested, denied the writ of habeas corpus, imprisoned in Boston, by a packed jury- principally strangers 'and foreigners-found guilty of con- tempt and high misdemeanor, made ineligible for office, fined
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£30 and costs, and put under bonds of £500. From Mr. Andrews have descended all of that name in town, among them his grandson, John Andrews, a deacon in the church for many years until his death in 1750, and the late Col. William Andrews, a man who was said to have filled many offices of trust and honor in town with singular zeal and fidelity.
There is good reason also for believing that this John Andrews, Sen., was a son of the Captain Andrews, who com- manded the ship Angel Gabriel on the voyage when she was wrecked on the coast of Maine, and who was the uncle of the boys John and Thomas-sons of Robert and Mary (Andrews) Burnham of Norwich, Eng. - sailing to this coun- try under his charge and (with another brother ) the ancestors of all that wide-spread and numerous family. This John Burnham, who was one of the first deacons, was the grand- father of a John Burnham who was deacon from 1732, till his death in 1746, and the great grandfather of Thomas Burnham, a deacon thirty-four years from 1765 to 1799, who for many years lined the psalm and set the tune in Church, and was also a school teacher. Among others of his descendants, were Maj. John Burnham, who served in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary war, styled by his Colonel, (afterwards Gov. Brooks) "one of the best disciplinarians and most gallant officers of the Revolution," a member of the church here for many years until his removal to Derry, N.H., in 1798, where he died in 1843 aged 94; and Maj. John's brother Samuel, a man of sterling worth and a leading citizen throughout a long life in Dunbarton, N. H., to which he re- moved about 1765. Four of his sons and sixteen others of his descendants were graduates of Colleges. From the brother of Dea. John Burnham also descended the four deacons of this name in the present century.
From that same town of Norwich, England, came also in 1637, William Story, a carpenter, one of this committee of conference with the selectmen, and one of the original church
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members. His son, Seth Story, was a deacon from 1694 till his death in 1732. His grandson, Seth Story, was a deacon and 'afterwards a ruling elder, until his death in 1786 at the age of ninty-three; and his grandson, Zechariah Story, was a deacon forty-four years until his death in 1774, at the age of ninety. They were both farmers and lived at the Falls, near the spot where now stands the house of Mr. Adoniram Story. Of this Dea. Zechariah Story, a daughter, Deborah, a true mother in Israel, married Wesley Burnham, and lived to the age of ninety-eight; and the children of one of her sons (Wesley Burnham, 2d), were Molly, Nathan, Asa, Michael, Henry, Anne, Samuel, Richard, Ruth and Wesley Burnham 3d; and the wife of this Wesley was Hannah a granddaughter of that same Elder Seth Story and the mother of seven children, whom you have well known as active and useful members of this church, within a generation. '
From a brother of William Story have descended the rest of the name in this place, of whom I can only mention, be- cause of their prominence in parish affairs, or of their con- nection with the history of this Church, -William Story, a merchant in Boston, a leading man in the Separatist Society there in 1746, and a delegate from it on the Council which organized the Separate church here that year, some of whose letters, still preserved written in a clear, beautiful hand, and well expressed, indicate a degree of culture beyond the average of that time; "Master" Joseph Story, a Revolutionary soldier, a school teacher for thirty years and parish clerk for a long period; and Esq. Jonathan Story, the able and impartial magistrate, the influential and useful citizen of the present century, often holding offices in the parish.
Dea. Thomas Low, (a son of the first settler of that name in Ipswich and a grandson of Capt. John Low, commander of the ship Ambrose and acting rear-admiral of a fleet of twelve ships sailing to Salem in 1630,) was born in 1632, was a dea- con from 1683 until his death in 1712, for several years was
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parish clerk, and prominent in all the affairs of the community. It is on land which he owned, and near his homestead that we are gathered to-day. Among his descendants have been Lieut. Stephen Low, killed in battle in the French and Indian war; Major Caleb Low and Capt. David Low, soldiers of the Revolution ; and of this century Capt. Winthrop Low, the first one to rise to take the pledge, when volunteers were called for, after the first temperance address here, in 1829, " a consistent, liberal supporter of the institutions of religion" and fully and heartily identified with all the interests of the parish, as one of its most influential and wealthy members.
William Goodhue, the fourth on the conference committee, (a son of William Goodhue, freeman of Ipswich, in 1636, who was said to have been one of the most influential men in the colony of Massachusetts, conferring honor upon his name and family by his many virtues), married Hannah, an Ipswich girl, a daughter of Rev. Francis Dane, afterwards of Andover. She was one of the three wide awake, fearless and energetic women, who committed the enormous crime of procuring or abetting the raising of a meeting-house in Chebacco. Asthis affair attests, she was well matched with her husband, who, believing with his pastor that "we have a good God and a good King, and should do well to stand on our privileges," shared with Mr. Wise and Mr. Andrews the glory of impris- onment and fine by Andros, and as the historian, Pitkin says of him, and his associates, "may justly claim a dis- tinguished rank among the patriots of America." Mr. Goodhue was one of the selectmen, and a representative at several dif- ferent times, was a deacon in the church, aleading man in the parish, and was "highly respected, eminently useful and greatly beloved." Taking into consideration the fact that he was the only one of the seven who was just then in the early prime of manhood, it can hardly be doubted that he composed that able memorial, the "Declaration and Vindication of the transactions of the people of Chebacco." One of Dea.
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Goodhue's sons was Rev. Francis Goodhue who graduated at Harvard College, in 1699, and was pastor of a church in Jamaica, L. I .; and a descendant of his brother is now in the same office of deacon here.
John Choate, the last of the early deacons, the eldest son of the first settler of that name, and grandson of Goodman Choate of Groton, England, (a friend of Gov. Winthrop), was born in 1661, and was an office-bearer in the church from 1712 till his death in 1733. It was his granddaughter, the wife of Gen. Michael Farley who sent three sons into the Revolutionary Army, and when the youngest of them, a boy of sixteen, was about to start for the seat of war, "charged him to behave like a man;" and who, on a sudden call for ammunition for a company marching on short notice, with her own hands filled their powder horns from a barrel of powder in the attic of her house. John's brother Benjamin was a graduate of Harvard in 1703, and a pastor at Kingston, N. H. One of his nephews, whose name was also John, was a man of great ability and eminence in public life from 1731 until his death in 1766, as Judge of Probate and of the Court of Common Pleas, Executive councillor, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Col. of the 8th Mass. regiment and Judge Advocate General in Pepperell's successful expedition against Louisbourg in 1745. Another was Francis, a ruling elder in the church for thirty-one years until his death in 1777, and the great grandfather of Dea. David Choate and Hon. Rufus Choate. A grand-nephew of Dea. John Choate, Hon. Stephen Choate was also a deacon from 1765 to 1783.
What and where, but for these seven men, we might well ask, would be this virtuous, well-instructed and prosperous community to-day?
Not by direction of any church authorities were these re- ligious institutions planted in that early time on this ground ; but by the enlightened piety, and the resolute temper of in- dividual laymen, animated by a common spirit, and unselfishly
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seeking the highest welfare of the whole people, whose rep- resentatives and leaders were these our seven heroes, these heads of our tribes, William Cogswell, John Andrews, John Burnham, William Story, Thomas Low, William Goodhue, John Choate, the master-workmen in the rearing of the goodly walls of this our Zion, upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- stone. It was their qualities of character, the inherited in- telligence, the sense of duty, the godly zeal, and the tenacity of purpose of these Englishmen of the second generation, quickened, developed, made stalwart by their long discipline in a school of trying experiences, that created this twin organization of church and parish on this territory. And therefore let their names be held in highest honor and in ever- lasting remembrance. Aye, and they shall be. This eccle- siastical structure is of itself their ever-during monument, for they "builded better than they knew," and through the permanence of its strength and beauty, though dying, behold they live. We think of them, as "each in his narrow cell for- ever laid" in yonder ancient grave-yard, which they had, just about that time, set apart and put in order, -we say of them that they, like all the dead, "forgotten lie, alike unknowing and unknown," but in their work their name liveth evermore. It is no slight testimony to the intelligence of these men, that in their search for a minister for Chebacco, they dis- cerned the worth of such a man as Mr. Wise, and by no means the least of their services to religion that they selected and secured him for their pastor. The special address to be presently given on this occasion upon his life, pastorate and character, renders unnecessary any mention of this eminent theologian and patriot here.
It is a matter of some interest, that we have, preserved to us, at least one relic of this first pastorate, one symbol (per- haps it may be called ) of the unity of the successive genera- tions of Christian believers here.
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This sacramental cup, marked "C. C." (Chebacco Church ), "1712," was in use six years in the first meeting-house; it was taken in the hands of Mr. Wise at every communion service for thirteen years ; it was passed to the communicants by Deacons Goodhue and Story and Choate ; in remembrance of their divine Lord it was pressed many times to the lips of some of the orignal members, who on this day in August, 1683, took upon them the covenant vows of this church, and, dur- ing the two hundred years that have now terminated, has been in constant use.
May this chalice be sacredly treasured in the future and aid in ministering to the spiritual life of an ever increasing company, in this goodly fellowship from century to century, until the Kingdom of God shall fully come.
II. The second period of special interest in the religious history of Chebacco includes the division of the church near the close of the ministry of the immediate successor of Mr. Wise, Rev. Theophilus Pickering, and the formation of a new one in 1746, with the settlement of its minister, Rev. John Cleaveland in 1747; and the reunion of these two churches on the eve of the Revolution, through the influence of Mr. Cleaveland, whose pastorate over the united church continued until his death in 1799.
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To see clearly why and how this new church came into being, we need to set before us the religious situation, and to glance at Mr. Pickering's life and character, as disclosed chiefly through traditions and manuscript-papers in possession of. members of the Pickering family and his own printed letters.
The son of John and Sarah ( Burrill) Pickering, he was born Sept. 28, 1700, in the house owned by his father, which was built in the year 1651 by John Pickering from England,-the house now standing on Broad St., Salem, which has always been in the possession of the Pickering family, is in perfect preservation, and still owned by members of the same family and name.
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Theophilus was the elder of two sons; and his younger - brother Timothy, was the father of Col. Timothy Pickering of the Revolution, Secretary of War and afterwards of State in Washington's second administration.
John Pickering, their father, was by occupation a farmer. He was one of the Selectmen of Salem, and a Representative to the General Court. Dying in 1722, his "decease" is re- corded in Felt's Annals of Salem, as a "loss to the com- munity."
Theophilus Pickering was educated at Harvard College, graduating there in 1719, in a class of twenty-three members, thirteen of whom became clergymen. He was an earnest student, from his early years. In the first years of his college life the works of Derham on "Physico-Theology" and "Astro- Theology" enlisted his strong interest, and thoughout his col- lege course, he gave much care and thought to extracting and transcribing, from these and other works in his "Extracta Notabilia," whatever seemed to him most worthy of preserva- tion. A duodecimo manuscript volume of two hundred pages, with from fifty to sixty lines on a page, in clear and minute handwriting, and with diagrams, also drawn by him, -the whole copied from works that were published during his col- lege life,-is still preserved in the family, and bears witness to his patient industry, as well as to his interest in the subject.
He possessed a taste also for the classical languages, with a familiarity and readiness in the use of Latin, and skill in the . use of language in general. His scholarly tastes are well illustrated by the fact of his collecting a valuable library, many of the choicest volumes of which are still preserved .*
After graduation Mr. Pickering taught school in Bridge- water for a year and a half; and in 1721 he preached regu- larly for some months in that town. In January, 1722, a committee of the General Court engaged him to preach as a missionary at Tiverton on Narragansett Bay, and he was employed in that work for nearly a year and a half.
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