USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 22
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To sit during public prayer was then regarded as irreverent. All stood, and the movable seats of the square pews came up like the lid of a box, as the congregation rose; but at the Amen, the fall of the seats closed the sol- emn act with a noise like the rattle of running musketry.
The clergy used to appear in gowns and bands during the summer months (the clerical bag-wig was seen only in a few instances among the more conservative ministers), but in the winter in the unheated church, on "those cold winter Sabbaths in the frigid Meeting House the minister de- livered his sermon in surtout, cloak and black silk gloves."
The records show that up to the year 1768 the sum of £350 had been raised for the meeting-house, and that the first town meeting there held was that of the eighth of September, 1767. At the annual meeting in 1771 it was voted "To Pew the Meeting House with 44 Pews below" and "that Capt. Jona. Williamson, Ebenr. Whittier, Michal Sevey, Roger Smith & Thos. Rice, Esqr., be a Committe to No & Apprise the Pews," "that the Pews be sold at Vendue to the highest Bider & that no Person be admitted 7. See Centennial Celebration by Alpheus Packard, D.D.
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to bid but those that lives on the East Side of the Town & Only those that Pays Rates for Real Estate & no Person to bid for more than One Pew," and then they regulated the terms and manner of payment.
The record of the sale of pews shows that the purchasers were:
I. Ebenezer Gray
23. Abijah Dickeson
2. John Sevey
24. Solomon Hearsay
3. John Gatchel
25. Jonathan Spafford
26. John Decker
27. Benj. Jackson
6. James Stuart
28. Ebenezer Whittier
29. John Kingsbury
30. Samuel Silvester
31. Zenas Stetson
32. Joseph Groves
33. Josiah Bradbury
34. Robert Lambert, Jr.
35. Michael Sevey
36. Benj. Pumroy, Jr.
37. Pastor's pew
38. Abiel Wood
39. Hollis Hutchins
40. Samuel Williamson
41. Josiah Bradbury, Jr.
42. John McKenney
21. William Slooman
43. David Silvester
44. Zebulon Baeker ( Baker)
It will be noted that pew number thirty-seven was reserved for the min- isterial pew.
In the following year eighteen pews in the meeting-house gallery were sold, the purchasers being:
I. David Nash
IO. Amasa Delano
2. John Cuyer (Currier)
II. Frances Gray
3. Aaron Thomson
12. Robert Lambert
4. Bartholomew Fowler
13. John Gray
5. John Honewell
14. Robert Foy
6. David Nelson
15. Richard Foy
7. Samuel Kincaid
16. Isaac Savage
8. David Danford
17. Joseph Hilton
9. Gabriel Hambleton
18. John Pearse
A pewholder was a share holder in church property or properties.
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4. William Boyinton
5. Roger Smith
7. Johanna Thomson
8. Thomas Williamson
9. Joshua Young
10. Benjamin Frizell
II. Henry Slooman
12. Isaac Young
13. Joseph Taylor
14. Abraham Nason
15. Thomas Rice, Esq.
16. Capt. Jonathan Williamson
17. John Huse
18. John Backer
19. David McKenney
20. John Boyinton
22. William Sevey
Church History
We have seen that forty persons signed the petition for the erection here of a town or district in 1754. The number of inhabitants increased largely in the next dozen years. In 1766 the General Court ordered that there should be made "a return and true representation of the town of Pownal- borough with regard to the number of houses and inhabitants"; and that return, signed and sworn to by Charles Cushing, sheriff of Lincoln County, and Jonathan Williamson, Thomas Rice, and Michal Sevey, the selectmen of the town of Pownalborough, shows that in 1766, during the period of the building of the meeting-house, there were 114 families living in what may be called the Sheepscot and Montsweag districts of the town. Those I 14 families consisted of 639 persons, of whom 318 were male and 32 1 females, 330 being under the age of sixteen years and 309 above sixteen years of age. They were the inhabitants of the town and included all, from the Hiltons and McKenneys in the south or Montsweag district to the Carltons, Erskines and Plummers in the north part near the head of the tide on Sheepscot River.
In the very beginning the inhabitants of Pownalborough recognized the necessity of dividing so large a town, comprising three distinct settlements, into precincts or parishes, and on April 26, 1768, the town voted "To divide into two parishes by line running from south line of the town to the north, parallel to the Kennebec River so as to take one-third of the land on the west side of the town, and two-thirds on the east." Later, in the thirteenth year of the reign of King George III, of England, this settlement, by act of incorporation of the General Assembly and the Province of Massachusetts Bay, was erected into a parish, by order of Jonathan Bowman, one of his Majesty's justices, to Abiel Wood, one of the principal inhabitants, on April 3, 17738 in his Majesty's name the freeholders of said precinct were called to organize into a religious body by choice of parish officers, whereof Jonathan Williamson was elected parish clerk, and Thomas Rice, modera- tor; Ebenezer Whittier, treasurer; Abiel Wood, Roger Smith and Gabriel Hamilton, assessors; Christopher Erskine, collector; John Huse, John Getchell, Job Averell, Jonathan Williamson, and Abiel Wood, parish com- mittee.
Thus, by Act of March 13, 1773, was created the east precinct of Pownal- borough. There was no record of any change in the meeting-house, how- 8. Date given in the "Parrish Book" is March 13, 1773, this town divided into two parishes.
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ever, until March, 1792. The parish warrant of that date called the parish voters
To see if the Parish will sell seats on the lower floor in the meeting-house, or any part of them, and also to see if the Parish will order the money the seats sell for, to pur- chase a bell and build a steeple on said meeting-house-and open a subscription to com- plete the aforesaid purpose.
At the meeting so called, David Silvester being moderator, it was voted to sell all the seats except two front ones on each side of the middle alley, to build eight pews in the place of the seats-said pews to be long pews- and sell the same to the highest bidder. Abiel Wood, Henry Hodge, Esq., and Capt. Peter Bryson were elected a committee to sell the pews, build the steeple to the meeting-house and procure a bell to be placed in said steeple, "and all at the expense of the Parish.""
Such was the origin and progress of the civil ecclesiastical organization of the society on Wiscasset Point in its pre-Revolutionary relations. It was the parochial branch of the municipal authority of the town, to March 20, I794, when further changes occurred and the religious status had accom- modated itself to the revolutionary relations of the civil condition of the people.
Pownalborough had broken up into three municipalities or towns, Dres- den, Alna,10 and Wiscasset, at which time the east parish reappeared under a new organization, as the first parish of Wiscasset.
From 1794 to August 19, 1819, a quarter of a century, parish interests and business, by force of Massachusetts laws, were merged and transacted in town meetings, as our school matters now are.
On August 19, 1819, by warrant of David Quimby, Esq., justice of the peace-on the application of Joseph T. Wood, Wilmot Wood, Thomas McCrate, Nathaniel Coffin, David Payson, Zebediah Thayer, E. P. Theo- bald, Warren Rice, William M. Boyd, John Brooks, Seth Tinkham, Eze- kiel Cutter, Eben. Hilton, Henry Whitney, Danl. Hilton, Jas. Harriman, Wm. Stacy, John Elliot, John H. Sheppard, John Babson, Moses Hilton, Jr., Joshua Damon, Nymphas Stacy, Darius Wilder, Silas Payson, E. J. Taylor, Edmund Dana-these resident freeholders were organized, and the ancient east parish of Pownalborough became the first parish of Wiscasset,
9. The above account was taken from the History of the Old Meeting House by R. K. Sewall, and Historical Sketch by W. D. Patterson.
10. Then called New Milford.
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1
Church History
and succeeded to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the parish organization of April 3, 1773.
A tablet presented to the First Parish Church by Capt. and Mrs. John F. Wright as a memorial to their son Donald Freemont Wright was unveiled Friday, August 3, 1923, at the sesquicentennial of the founding of the First Congregational Church of Wiscasset.
The Paul Revere Bell
The bell which hung in the old meeting-house was cast in the foundry of Paul Revere,11 and its individual number was "thirty-nine." It was pur- chased before the beginning of the nineteenth century and every member of the parish was assessed to meet its cost.
Among the private papers of the late Mrs. James Monroe Knight (Emeline Eliza Sewall) appears the following note:
Grandfather Stephen Merrill, descended from Nathaniel, was born in Newbury, Mass., in 1748. He died in Edgecomb in 1828. Stephen Merrill came to Wiscasset when the church was built to bring the Paul Revere bell and place it in position. He re- mained to work upon the church here and met and married Phebe Clifford.
Cordage for the Congregational bell was made at the ropewalk of Col. Edward Wigglesworth, who was a descendant of Rev. Michael Wiggles- worth, author of the Day of Doom.
Nymphas Stacy was delegated to build a steeple and buy a bell. He came from Essex, England. Charles Cotesworth Beaman was his descendant.
The ceremony of the blessing of the bell did not take place until August 3, 1800, on which date the bell was consecrated.
When the iconoclastic spirit of the parish which prevailed in 1840 mani- fested itself by tearing down the sanctuary which for wellnigh three quar- ters of a century had been its meeting-house, this bell so prized, was trans- ferred to the second edifice, where it played its part in the village life, until that church was destroyed by fire. At this time it was one of the three bells known to have come from the Revere foundry. Although the original bell perished in the conflagration, forty pounds of the metal were salvaged and incorporated in the present, or Meneely bell, which was installed in the third church to occupy this same site December 23, 1922. Its weight is fif-
II. A descendant of Paul Revere through his daughter Sally, Paul Revere Curtis, Jr., is today a resident of Wiscasset.
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teen hundred pounds. The present bell was dedicated August 3, 1923.
A weather-vane was placed above the bell tower in 1797. It, too, was made by Paul Revere. It is exactly five feet, one inch long, the identical height of Zebediah Thayer.12 He and the old sheet copper weather-vane came here from Boston in the same vessel. The vane which is in use at the present time is the original one, having survived the conflagration.
One of the old customs which obtained until recent years, when a town clock was placed in the tower of the Methodist Church, thereby rendering it no longer necessary, was the ringing of the church bell at seven in the morning, again at noon for the midday pause, and once more at six o'clock in the evening. The act of ringing this bell to mark stated hours, of morn- ing, noon and night was maintained for over a century. An older custom, now likewise discontinued, was the ringing of the curfew18 at nine o'clock at night, when those who were abroad went home-for the ghosts were said to walk between curfew and cockcrow!
When the annual muster was held on the training field, now the Com- mon, it was this bell which assembled the home guard. It gave the fire alarm to the bucket brigade and warned the townspeople of escaping pris- oners; it pealed for the weddings; tolled for the funerals; and summoned the parish to prayer. Many a time its welcome rang out to a ship that was overdue. It had its rôle to play on those five imposing holidays: "Fast,14 Fourth, 'lection, Thanks and Christmas." It has tolled during the funeral of every President from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge, with only one exception, Theodore Roosevelt, and then only because there was no bell in the belfry!
It was voted in 1777 that Ambros Colby be "Saxon" and that he be paid thirty shillings. Nicholas Webber was on duty as sexton in 1794, but in August, 1814, John Holmes was paid four shillings six pence for tolling the bell for Nicholas Webber. Many of the old bell-ringers are well re- membered, among whom were John Kingsbury, David Hannaford, Chris- topher Averill, the Cowleys, John and his sons, Joseph and Charles Ed- ward-better known as "Ed"-Joseph Lambert and Farley Merry.
12. "Captain" Zibe Thayer was a tailor with a bald head and a yellow wig. He was very popu- lar with the boys. (Diary of Alexander Johnston.)
13. The curfew was a Norman custom introduced into England by William the Conqueror. The origin of the word being couvre-feu (cover fire). The time for the ringing of the curfew was at sunset in summer and at eight o'clock in winter.
14. Fast Day was the eleventh of April.
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Church History
When the second edifice burned in 1907, the treasured Paul Revere bell, like its maker, sounded the alarm but this time it rang its own funeral knell.
The Covenant
The covenant, adopted in 1773 by the east parish of Pownalborough, continued in force without alteration until September 13, 1909, when Rev. Albert K. Baldwin, then pastor, was appointed by the congregation to revise its standing rules and by-laws, at which time another covenant was adopted. The original covenant read as follows:
We whose names are hereunto subscribed, that we may promote the growth of re- ligion in our own souls & enjoy the special Ordinances of the Gospel in a Church State, do hereby covenant & agree together as a Church in form & manner following, Viz:
I. We profess ourselves the disciples of Jesus Christ, whom we believe to be the true promised Messiah, & we believe that the sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, & that they open and shew the way to eternal life, & that if attended to and Accompanied with the divine Spirit, are able to make us wise to salvation.
2. We propose by divine assistance to observe the strictest purity of manners & to live together in that brotherly love and charity recommended and enjoined by the Gospel of Christ. And should any of us be left through the deceitfulness of sin, to swerve from the faith and fall into temptation and hurtful lusts, we mutually promise to admonish him or her in the spirit of Christian tenderness & charity, agreeably to the directions of Christ in his Gospel. And the offender hereby promises to receive such admonition without resentment, & with a spirit of meekness and self application. Should there be any differences, which we cannot settle among ourselves, we thereby agree to refer them to the consideration of an Ecclesiastical Council to be mutually chosen, whose result with regard to difficulties submitted we will look upon as advisory. And if not complied with in a reasonable time we farther agree to refer the matters of diffi- culty to another Ecclesiastical Council of the neighboring churches, that shall be mu- tually chosen, whose result, after a fair and impartial hearing shall be final with which we hereby promise punctually to comply.
3. We farther agree to receive no complaints against one another, unless the previous steps for reconciliation directed in Matth. 18 Chap. have been fully pursued, & to have no Church meeting respecting any complaints or disputes, unless five members shall request it.
4. It is our farther desire and intention that this covenant be lodged with our Minis- ter whom we hereby appoint our clerk, to be kept in trust for us, that copies be given by him to such members as desire the same; and that all who may in future wish to join with us, shall not be admitted unless their intention of joining be first signified to the Church at least two weeks before admission, & they sign their names to this Covenant.
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Wiscasset in Pownalborough
So, relying on the aid of divine grace to enable us to perform this Covenant & to dis- charge our duty as men and Christians, & wishing the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom among ourselves & an universal spread of it over the whole earth, we hereby subscribe our names:
But this list of names forming the original bead roll of the earliest con- gregation of the east parish of Pownalborough has been lost.
Doctor Packard notes that the number first gathered into a church cannot be ascertained, nor is the order in which persons were admitted previous to 1802 fully preserved.
The names of some of those who appear to have been members of this church at any early date are Thomas Moore, the first minister and his wife Anna, Thomas Rice and his wife Rebecca, Job Averell, John Boyinton, Hannah Boyinton, John Currier, Jonathan Colburn, Anna Colburn, Eben- ezer Whittier, Daniel McKenney, John Gatchell, Azariah Pottle, John Hues and his wife Elizabeth and their daughter, Eliza, the wife of Captain Peter Bryson, Samuel Williamson, Lydia Williamson, Joanna Decker, Sarah Decker, Anna Rundlet, Elizabeth Wood, Ann Delano, Francis Cook, Abraham Nason, and Hannah Sweetser.
Among the earliest deacons of the church were: John Boyinton, John Currier and Jonathan Colburn.
Civil Use of the Meeting-house
The Executive Council of Massachusetts, having received official notice of the proceedings in Congress, passed the following order, which, with the proceedings following it, is copied from the records of this town:
In Council, July 17th, 1776.
Ordered, That the Declaration of Independence be printed and a copy sent to the ministers of each parish of every denomination within the State, and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective congregations as soon as divine service is ended in the afternoon, on the first Lord's day after they shall have received it, and after such publication thereof to deliver the said declaration to the clerks of their several towns or districts, who are hereby required to record the same in their Town or Parish books there to remain as a perpetual memorial thereof.
In the name and by order of the Council,
R. DERBY, JUN., President.
A true copy, Attest: JOHN AVERY, Dep. Secy.
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Church History
To EDMUND BRIDGE, Town Clerk:
According to the within authority, having read the within declaration, I return it to you to be recorded as ye Law directs.
THOS. MOORE.
Pownalborough, Oct. 19th, 1776. Recorded by EDMUND BRIDGE, Town Clerk. November ye 10th 1776.
This record embraces a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and appended to it is this attestation:
Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress.
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
Attest: CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.
In the days of the Revolution, the law required the enrollment and train- ing of the able-bodied men of every town in the militia, every man of eighteen to forty-five years of age doing military service, equipped with fire-arms, knapsack, canteen and cartridges, ready for war.
The annual muster of the Lincoln County Regiment was generally held at the Point, and the several companies were marched into the village dur- ing the night and formed into line on the village green, preparatory to a march into the field, about ten A.M. and after the field exercises, the regi- ment in platoons marched back to the place of morning parade, where, in platoons or in line, their arms were discharged. Then the regiment was broken up into companies and returned to their several homes.
The line was always formed in front of the old meeting-house, and ex- tended in double file, the entire length of the ridge, from the premises later known as those of Hon. Samuel E. Smith on High Street to those of Hon. Henry Ingalls on Washington Street.
The old meeting-house was used to serve the courts, as well as for the worship of God, and by vote of the parish in 1786, its civil use was per- mitted. The first court was summoned by beat of drum.15
The large pews of the elders were used by the judges and the deacon's seat by the clerk, while the attorney-general and counsel occupied adjacent pews and the aisle.
15. It is not known whether or not the congregation was called to service by a church-shell or conch horn, but there is one in existence today in the possession of Miss Mary Amory, which was used to summon men from the hay fields at supper time. This shell, when forcefully blown, will echo from hill to hill like the yodel of the Swiss mountaineer.
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Two or more capital cases were tried in this church; the first trial took place at the June term in 178816 when John O'Neil was tried for the mur- der of Michael Clary, whose head was bruised and broken as if by stroke of an axe or bar of iron. Both of the men were Irishmen and lived together at Pemaquid Falls. The crime was committed for money, found in O'Neil's possession, which he said had been given him by the deceased. O'Neil told various and inconsistent stories, in explanation of his relation to the fact, at the coroner's inquest. William Cushing as chief justice, David Sewall and Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant, associates, presided at the trial. William Lith- gow and George Thacher of Biddeford were assigned as counsel for de- fense. It excited great public interest and called together a vast concourse of people. The jury did not at first agree, for one of the jurors stoutly main- tained that as there was no positive proof he could not conscientiously vote guilty, but on further instruction by the court a verdict of guilty was finally returned, and the prisoner executed October 1, 1788, at that part of Pow- nalborough now known as Dresden.
The second case on record was:
COMMONWEALTH US. JAMES SEVEY.
At the S. J. Court began and holden at Wiscasset, in and for the County of Lincoln, on the second Tuesday of June, being the eleventh day of said month, 1816.
COURT. Isaac Parker, Esq., Chief Justice. George Thatcher, Esq., -
Charles Jackson, Esq., Justices.
Samuel S. Wilde, Esq.,
Commonwealth vs. James Sevey of Wiscasset, who (as charged) not having the fear of God before his eyes, but moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, on the twelfth of August A. D. 1815, with force and arms, at Wiscasset, aforesaid, in said County of Lincoln, in and upon one John MacMasters, feloniously, willfuly and with malice aforethought, did make an assault, with a certain deadly weapon called an iron crane, the said MacMasters in and upon the left parietal bone, near the coronal suture, him the said MacMasters then and there did strike, penetrate, fracture and wound, giving a mortal wound of the breadth of two inches and of the depth of four inches, of which, the said MacMasters from the twelfth of August aforesaid, until the twenty-seventh day thereof, did languish, and languishing died. Sevey putting himself on God and the country plead not guilty. Prentiss Mellen and Jeremiah Bailey, Esq., were assigned to defend, at prisoner's request. John Dennet as foreman, Wyman Brad-
16. Williamson, History of Maine, and R. K. Sewall, Ancient Dominions of Maine.
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bury, Noah Brooks, Francis Crooker, Michael Curtis, Michael Chatman, Joel Ham, Eben Haggit, James Hiscock, Herman Hawes, Samuel Merry, and Aaron Moosman, being sworn to speak the truth of and concerning the premises, on their oaths say: said James Sevey is not guilty of Murder, but that he is guilty of Manslaughter; whereupon the Court gave sentence for imprisonment in the County jail for the term of two years, with sureties to keep the peace toward all citizens for three years after expiration of his sentence, in the sum of $500.
Early Pastors
The first settled minister, Rev. Thomas Moore, "agreeable to the Scrip- tures and by vote of the Parish," was called to the pastorate on May 5, 1773, at a salary of £100 per annum, and the first Wednesday in August of that year was fixed upon as the day of his ordination.
Having no other record of the transactions of the church as a body during the pastorate of its earliest minister, we are dependent upon meagre parish records for information concerning that period in the life of the church, which then existed in, and drew material sustenance from, a territorial par- ish known as the east precinct of Pownalborough, which precinct was incor- porated the year that the society was formed.
Thomas Moore was an Arminian17 and in favor of the half-way cove- nant.18 He was not a very powerful or popular preacher, and before many years had passed his parishioners were confronted with the problem of dis- missing him-a question which was under consideration for many a twelve- month; but not, however, wholly due to shortcomings on his part.
17. Jacobus Arminius was the founder of Arminianism. His real name was James Harmensen, but in accordance with the prevailing custom of scholars, he latinized it. Mr. Moore believed in this more or less anti-Calvinistic doctrine. He was not an Armenian, as has so often been stated.
18. The half-way covenant .- In 1657, the Congregational body was profoundly moved by this its first general discussion on American soil, which arose from the dual theory of entrance into church-membership then held by the settlers of New England. Congregationalism of that day maintained that only "visible saints," adult persons of Christian experience, should be admitted to covenant union. It likewise held that children shared their parents' covenanting, being born mem- bers of the church of their fathers. Thus the infant-membership was the result of birthright and not of baptism. From this arose the question of church privileges, in which they were caught between the individual responsibility of the Baptists, and the parish duty of the Puritans. Eventually a com- promise was effected by which those who made a promise to abide by the discipline of the church, called "owning the covenant" were admitted to all church privileges save the Lord's Supper. They were not in full communion. A double classification of members was thus introduced, and those whose non-regenerate character restricted their church privileges, were said to be members in what their opponents of the eighteenth century nicknamed the "Half-Way Covenant." William E. Bar- ton, D.D., Congregational Creeds and Covenants. Williston Walker, American Church History. Congregationalists.
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