USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Dover > The first parish in Dover, New Hampshire : two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, October 28, 1883 > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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The First Parish in Dober,
New Hampshire.
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TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY,
OCTOBER 28, 1883.
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DOVER : PRINTED FOR THE PARISH. 1884.
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DOVER, N.H. FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST. The first parish in Dover, New Hampshire. Two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, October 28, 1884. Dover, Printed for the parish, 1884. 148p.
Contents .- Preliminary note .- The memorial occasion .- The memorial address, by Rev. Alonzo H. Quint. - Addresses by present or late ministers of Dover .- Extracts from letters read upon the occasion .- Appendix.
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COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY ALONZO H. QUINT.
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ALFRED MUDGE & SON. PRINTERS, BOSTON, MASS.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preliminary Note .
1
THE MEMORIAL OCCASION .
5
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS, by Rev. Alonzo II. Quint, D. D. : Introduction . . II
The Emigration of 1633-1640
12
The First Parish territorially 22
The Successive Meeting-Houses . 55
The Ministers of the First Parish . 91
Descendants of the Old Stock
106
Conclusion
III
ADDRESSES BY PRESENT OR LATE MINISTERS OF DOVER :
By Asa Tuttle, of the Society of Friends . II3
Rev. Jesse M. Durrell, of the Methodist Episcopal Church . 11.4
Rev. Sullivan II. McCollester, D. D., of the Universalist Church 116
Rev. Henry F. Wood, of the Free Baptist Church .
Rev. William R. G. Mellen, of the Unitarian Church 120
Rev. Ithamar W. Beard, of the Protestant Episcopal Church 123
Rev. Frank K. Chase, of the Free Baptist Church 125
Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D., recent pastor
126
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS READ UPON THE OCCASION :
From Rev. Benjamin F. Parsons, former pastor . Rev. Avery S. Walker, D. D., former pastor
131
Rev. Charles Dame 134
132
Rev. John Colby . 135
Rev. George W. Sargent
137
Hon. Edward Ashton Rollins 138 APPENDIX :
I. Protest from Dover, 4 March 1641 141
II. Tax List of Dover in 1659 . 142 0
III. Conveyance of the present Meeting-House Lot . 144
IV. List of Wardens of the Parish 145
.
PRELIMINARY NOTE.
BY vote of the Committee of Arrangements for the observance of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Parish in Dover, the preparation of this publication was placed entirely in the care of Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Dover, with authority freely to add historical matter to the comparatively small account read on the anniversary.
Acknowledgments for assistance are due to Asa A. Tufts, John R. Ham, M. D., and Benjamin T. Whitehouse, all of Dover ; and especially to the Massachusetts Historical Society, for the generous use of its manuscripts and books.
A misstatement in the note upon page 28, making Joseph Austin an ancestor of the poet John G. Whittier, was due to wrong information. Correct statements as to this revered and beloved poet's descent from early families in this parish is given on page III. A. H. Q.
THE MEMORIAL OCCASION.
As the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the First Parish in Dover, N. H., approached, the wardens of the parish and the deacons 1 of the First Church of Christ in Dover (connected with the parish) held a meeting July 2, 1883, and
Toted, That the First Parish celebrate its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary by memorial services in the church on the last Sunday in October 1883.
Voted, That the Rev. Alonzo HI. Quint, D. D., be requested to deliver a memorial discourse on that occasion.
Voted, That Deacon James II. Wheeler, M. D., Deacon Oliver Wyatt, Andrew II. Young, Samuel C. Fisher, Rev. Alonzo H, Quint, D. D., and Deacon John R. Ham, M. D., be a committee to carry out the wishes of the parish in making arrangements.
The committee made suitable arrangements, and particularly invited all former pastors now living, all ministers of Congregational churches existing upon any part of the territory of the original parish, all living ministers who have gone out from this parish, and all ministers of churches (regardless of denomination) now resident in the city of Dover, to participate in the memorial service. The letters of some of these persons (including the two former pastors not' present at the service), and the addresses of others, will be given in this publication.
The committee also issued the following circular letter : -
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER, N. HI.
Will commemorate its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary upon its appropriate date, viz., the last Sunday in October 1883, recognizing thereby the commencement of the public pastorate of Rev. Wuraava LEVERien, in Dover, upon the same Sun- day in the year 1633.
1 The wardens of the parish at this date were : Andrew H. Young, Samuel C. Fisher, and Benjamin F. Nealley. The deacons of the church were ; Edmund J. Lane, James H. Wheeler, Alvah Moulton, Oliver Wyatt, and John R. Ham.
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
Public services will be held in the meeting-house of the First Parish upon Sunday afternoon and evening, Oct. 28.
In the afternoon, a memorial discourse will be given by Rev. Alonzo II. Quint, D. D., and other services will be rendered by churches. formerly embraced in the territory of that parish.
In the evening, addresses are expected from former pastors, and from ministers of the several churches in the present city of Dover.
The service of song will embrace hymns and music familiar to the fathers.
The parish will welcome at its services, on this occasion, the presence of all per- sons interested, and especially of such as have a hereditary interest in the parish of their ancestry.
JAMES H. WHEELER, chairman, OLIVER WYATT, ANDREW H. YOUNG, SAMUEL C. FISHER, ALONZO II. QUINT, JOIN R. HAM, secretary,
Committee of the Parish.
Upon the memorial day, Oct. 28, the church edifice was beauti- fully decorated in evergreens, autumn leaves, choice flowers, and ap- propriate legends and dates, by the ladies of the parish.
The service of song was confided to the care of Dr. William W. Hayes, and the music was happily rendered by the choir of the church, or by the choir leading the congregation. The choir consisted of
Mrs. T. J. W. PRAY, Organist ; Mrs. ELLA F. CHUBBUCK, Soprano ; Miss HANNAH E. WYATT, Alto ; Mr. JOHN B. WHITEHEAD, Tenor ; and Dr. WILLIAM W. HAYES, Bass and Director.
In the morning service the recent pastor, Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D., now of Manchester, N. H., officiated; the church and parish being without a pastor at this date.
The memorial services, in the afternoon and evening, were con- pleted according to the following programme distributed on the occasion ; in the afternoon, the scriptures being read by Rev. Samuel H. Barnum, pastor of the church in Durham, and prayer being offered by Rev. Lewis D. Evans, pastor of the church in Lee ; and the evening service being conducted by Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D. :
7
THE MEMORIAL OCCASION.
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER, N. H. 1633. 1883.
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1883.
Memorial Serbice at half past Cho o'cloth, p. m.
1. ORGAN VOLUNTARY.
2. RESPONSIVE READING OF PSALMS.
3. ANTHEM :
Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, by Stainer.
4. PRAYER.
5. IIYMN :
Windsor, by Kirby, 1615. I O Gon, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home !
2 Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame, From everlasting thou art God, To endless years the same.
3 Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away ; They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day.
4 () God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Be thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home !
6. MEMORIAL DISCOURSE :
By REV. ALONZO H. QUINT, D. D.
7. PRAYER.
8. IlYMN :
St. Ann's, by Dr. Croft, 1677.
I OH, where are kings and empires now Of old that went and came ? But, Lord, thy church is praying yet, A thousand years the same.
We mark her goodly battlements, And her foundations strong ; We hear within the solenin voice Of her unending song.
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THE FIRST PARISII IN DOVER.
3 For not like kingdoms of the world Thy holy church, O God ! Though earthquake shocks are threatening ber, And tempests are abroad ; -
4 Unshaken as eternal hills, Immovable she stands, A mountain that shall fill the earth, A house not made by hands.
9. BENEDICTION.
Ebening Serbice, at half past Sehen o'clock, p. m.
1. ORGAN VOLUNTARY.
2. SCRIPTURE READING.
3. ANTHEM :
Call to remembrance, O Lord! by Richard Farrant, about 1560.
4. PRAYER.
5. IlYMN :
All Saints, by Knapp, date unknown.
I O Gon, beneath thy guiding hand, Our exiled fathers crossed the sea ; And when they trod the wintry strand, With prayer and psalm they worshipped thee.
2 Thou heard'st, well-pleased, the song, the prayer ; Thy blessing came; and still its power Shall onward through all ages bear The memory of that holy hour.
3 Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God Came with those exiles o'er the waves; And where their pilgrim feet have trod, The God they trusted guards their graves.
4 And here thy name, O God of love, Their children's children shall adore, Till these eternal hills remove, And spring adorns the earth no more.
6. ADDRESSES :
ASA TUTTLE, minister of the Society of Friends, organized in 1680. Rev. JESSE M. DURRELL, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, organized in 1824. Rev. SULLIVAN 11. MCCOLLESTER, D. D., pastor of the Universalist church, organized in 1825.
7. HYMN :
St. Martin's, by Tansur, date unknown. I LET children hear the mighty dools, Which God performed of old, - Which in our younger days we saw, And which our fathers told.
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TIIE MEMORIAL OCCASION.
2 He bids us make his glories known, His works of power and grace ; And we'll convey his wonders down Through every rising race.
3 Our lips shall tell them to our sons, And they again to theirs, That generations yet unborn May teach them to their heirs.
4 Thus they shall learn, in God alone Their hope securely stands, That they may ne'er forget his works, But practise his commands.
8. ADDRESSES :
Rev. HENRY F. WOOD, pastor of the First Free Baptist church, organized in 1826. Rev. WILLIAM R. G. MELLEN, pastor of the First Unitarian church, organized in 1827.
Rev. ITHAMAR W. BEARD, rector of St. Thomas' church, organized in 1839.
Rev. FRANK K. CHASE, pastor of the Washington Street Free Baptist church, organized in 1840.
9. ANTHEM :
Out of the deep have I cried unto Thee, by Mozart, about 1780.
IO. LETTERS FROM FORMER PASTORS :
Rev. BENJAMIN F. PARSONS, Rev. AVERY S. WALKER, D. D.
II. ADDRESS:
By Rev. GEORGE B. SPALDING, D. D., former pastor.
12. ITYMN.
Dundee, Scottish, date unknown.
I LET saints below in concert sing With those to glory gone ; For all the servants of our King In earth and heaven are one.
2 One family - we dwell in him - One church above, beneath, 'Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death ; --
3 Ev'n now, by faith, we join our hands With those that went before, And greet the ransomed blessed bands Upon th' eternal shore.
4 Lord Jesus! be our constant guide : And, when the word is given, Bid death's cold flood its waves divide, And land us safe in Heaven.
13. BENEDICTION.
MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
BY REV. ALONZO II. QUINT.
HONORED with the request to give a memorial address upon this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the life of our ancient parish, I have been perplexed in deciding upon the wisest course of dis- cussion.
That this is the oldest parish in New Hampshire, and marks the point in the years where the standard of the Cross was first erected upon the soil of our ancient State, suggests one line of thought. That the period is the fourth part of a thousand years, and covers more than an eighth of all the ages since Jesus was born in Bethlehem, suggests a broader, a more exalted, a more sublime view. That this period covers the existence of the greatest development in science, in the practical arts, in the industrial and commercial activities of the world ; the development alike of skill and invention in the destruction of life on the battle-field and of skill and invention of the healing, the saving, the humanizing of life; the development of those magnificent enter- prises which Christian faith has originated and is working for the con- quering of this world to righteousness and peace, opens a still loftier contemplation, and a prophetic vision of the glory yet to come.
But I cannot take either of these lines. This occasion is local. Our fathers were the fathers who crossed the ocean, and settled here in the forest primeval. Our generations are the generations which have lived here and served God here, and gone to their reward. I must keep mostly to the local theme. And yet herein is a perplexity. I cannot give you now a history. There is no time to-day for the minute and complete record of these years. I can barely touch now on cer- tain prominent points, and leave the full narrative to other days. Nor can I include to-day much of the life of the church. That began, in its organized form, five years later, and those who are here five years hence must then note its anniversary of a quarter of a thousand years. I may perhaps now tell something of the emigration of October 1633 ; of the territorial character of this parish from that time ; of the various
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THE FIRST PARISHI IN DOVER.
houses made with hands in which this people worshipped God in the successive generations; a little of the men who have been its ministers; and may then see how much of the old blood is still perpetuated here, side by side with the old faith, and with the new men who have re-enforced the old.1
I. THE EMIGRATION OF 1633-1640.
This town and this parish were for many years coincident. But the town antedated the parish by ten years. In the year 1623 was the settlement of Dover commenced; in 1633 came the colony which established the ministry of the word of God.
Go back still further. What white man first saw the beautiful neck of land which the Indians called Wecanacohunt,2 and which we call " Dover Point"? I know not, unless it was that Martin Pring, who, in the year 1603, came exploring with a little ship of fifty tons called the Speedwell, and a little bark of twenty-six tons called the Discoverer, the former having thirty men and the latter thirteen, fitted out by men of that Bristol city which afterwards practically settled this Dover. He visited, first, apparently, the islands at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. "At length coming to the Mayne," he says, "in the latitude of 43 degrees and one-halfe, we changed the same to the South-west. In which course we found four inlets." Three of these were doubtless, from his description, the Saco, the Kennebunk, and the York rivers. "The fourth and most Westerly was the best, which we rowed up ten or twelve miles. In all these places we found no people, but signs of fires where they had been. Howbeit, we beheld very goodly Groves and Woods, replenished with tall Okes, Beeches, Pine-trees, Firre- trees, Hasels, and Maples. We saw also, sundry sorts of Beasts, as Stags, Deere, Beares, Wolves, Foxes, Lusernes, and Dogges with sharp noses. But meeting with no Sassafras, we left these places." 3
We can see the little Discoverer, of twenty-six tons, rowed up the Pascataqua. The sweep of its oars alone disturbed the solitude. It was in the leafy month of June. If they rowed up through Great Bay -the bay of Pascataquack, from which flows the Pascataqua4 - they may have entered the gentle Swamscot. If they, at the Point, kept northward, they could follow the Newichawannock,5 either to the
1 It is perhaps needless to say that but a small portion of this address was read in public.
2 So called in Hilton's patent, but sometimes Wecoliamet, and sometimes Winnichahannat.
$ Purchas, IV, 1654.
4 The Pascataqua (not the Piscataqua) flows out of Great Bay, and not from South Berwick.
5 The Newichawannock is the river which comes down between Maine and New Hampshire, and empties into the Pascataqua at Dover Point. Some works erroneously call this the Pascataqua, and modern usage unfortunately misspells the word itself. " Pascataqua " has a meaning ; Piscataqua ha; none. Winthrop's " Pascataquack " shows rudely the harsh guttural of the last syllable.
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THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
foot of the falls where Quamphegan rests, or they could go up the Cochecho to its unbridled falls, -its name " the rapid, foaming, water." There, certainly, they would find the ashes of fires gone out with the end of the spring fishing, whence the Indians had departed for the planting grounds of Pequaket or Ossipee Ponds. "Ten or twelve miles " would have taken them either way, and in either case they saw the Point, where our fathers afterwards settled, and saw that division of the rivers which gave the Indian name " Pascataqua," - "one water parting into three." We know that on the Point were "goodly Groves and Woods." But the explorers went away, and left it all to silence.
The town antedates the parish by ten years and a half. Doubtless it was in the spring of the year 1623 that Edward Hilton, probably of the old baronial family of that name, though then in trade, settled upon Dover Point. Here there joined him that year his brother William and that brother's son William, these being " the first English planters there," says the second William, whose own deposition relating the fact of their coming- a deposition recently found in Massachusetts archives - has dispelled all doubt as to the settlement of Dover by the Hiltons in the year 1623. Their associates in England were merchants of Bristol, Shrewsbury, and other western towns, but principally of Bristol; the same Bristol some of whose men had sent out Martin Pring just twenty years before. ' Little increase was had in the next ten years. In 1630 there were, we are told, but three houses on the banks of the upper Pascataqua, including both Dover and Newington shores. March 12, 1629-30, Edward Hilton, for himself and his associates, procured from the great Plymouth Company in England a patent or patents, commonly called the Dover and Swamscot patents.1 This was the origin of the English title to the lands of old Dover up to the lines of Barrington and Rochester ; of Newington, and of part of Greenland and Stratham, - all of this territory being covered by this patent.
In 1631, the year following that of the patent, Capt. Thomas Wiggin came hither. He acted, says Hubbard, for " the Shrewsbury men and others," and "began a plantation." In 1632 he returned to England for more supplies. While in England that year, he had opportunity to show his friendship for the Puritan government of Massachusetts. "Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. Mason," says Winthrop, Feb. 21, 1632-33, "had preferred a petition to the lords of the privy council against us, charging us with many false accusations; but through the Lord's good providence . . . and the good testimony given in our
1 Printed in full in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXIV, 364.
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
behalf by one Capt. Wiggin, who dwelt at Pascataquack, and had been divers times among us, their malicious practice took not effect."
Dover was called " Bristol " on a map so late as 1634; but on the 25th of March 1633, Edward Howes, writing from London to Gov- ernor John Winthrop, of Massachusetts, says : " There are honest men about to buye out the Bristol mens plantation in Pascataqua, and do propose to plant there 500 good people before Michelmas next. T. Wiggin is the chief agent therein." And again, June 22, 1633, " he intends to plant himself and many gracious men there this sommer. . . . I have and you all have cause to blesse God that you have soe good a neighbour as Capt. Wiggin."
The Bristol men held two-thirds interest in the double patent. It was sold, apparently in 1633. "Whereas," says the Massachusetts govern- ment in 1641, " some lords, knights, gentlemen, and others did purchase of Mr. Edward Hilton and some merchants of Bristol two patents." The declaration of John Allen and partners in 1654 says that the Bristol men sold to Lord Say, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Sir Arthur Heselrig, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Willis, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Hewell, and others, for {2, 150. "Whereas," says an okl conveyance on record in Boston, dated 13 May 1648, "Lords Say and Brooke obtained two patents, now commonly called and knowne by the name of Swamp- scott and Dover . . . and whereas Robert Saltonstall hath bought twelve shares of the twenty five into which the patent is divided ; that is, of Lord Brooke four, of Lord Say one share, of Sir Richard Salton- stall and Mr. Boswell three, of Messrs. Burgoyne, Holyoke, Makepeace, Hewell, one share each." " The Lords Say and Brooke," wrote Winthrop in October 1634, " wrote to the governor and Mr. Bellingham, that how- soever they might have sent a man of war to beat down the house at Kenebeck, . . . they desired that some of ours might be joined with Capt. Wiggin, their agent at Pascataquack, to see justice done." "Capt. Wiggin," says Winthrop's Journal, 14 February 1635, "governor at Pas- cataquack under the Lords Say and Brook." The patent or patents, therefore, were divided into twenty-five shares; and these were bought and sold, as by conveyances on record still, as shares in modern land companies are bought and sold. In this company it is clear that Lords Say and Brooke held the controlling interest. How many shares the first-named had does not appear ; but Lord Brooke certainly held eight, eventually selling four to Henry Clarke and four to Robert Saltonstall, who also purchased the four from Clarke. " Honest men," as Howes said, were these owners; that is, they were in sympathy with Massa- chusetts and in the coming opposition to Charles and his court. "They, being writ unto," said the memorial of Allen in 1654, " by the
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THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts, who encouraged them to purchase the said lands from the Bristol men, in respect they feared some ill neighbourhood of them, as some in this honored court may please to remember." The Lords, says Hubbard, "likewise em- ployed Mr. Wiggin to act in their behalf, for the space of seven years," " the Shrewsbury men still retaining their own share."
Lords Say and Brooke, therefore, were substantially the second founders of Dover; the patrons of Thomas Wiggin and the moving power of the emigration of the year 1633,- that emigration which made this First Parish. It is well, therefore, to glance at these founders.
Robert Greville, second Baron Brooke, was a descendant, through female line, of a brother of the great Earl of Warwick, the "King- Maker." His predecessor in the barony was born in that same Alcester, in Warwickshire, in which Richard Walderne, famous in our Dover and New Hampshire history, was born. A thorough Puritan, an ad- herent of the great Cause of English liberty, he was a soldier rather than a statesman. His name in the current histories of that time is remarkably often coupled with that of Lord Say, as if they were in close sympathy and action. Equally is it so to-day on the map, where Saybrook, in Connecticut, unites the two. Lord Brooke held important commands in the war with the king, lieutenant-general in rank, but fell in the attack upon the massive cathedral at Lichfield, in 1643. An engraved portrait is in Clarendon's " History of the Rebellion," edi- tion of 1732. A descendant is now Earl of Warwick, whose eldest son bears by courtesy the title of Lord Brooke, borne by his eminent ancestor.
William Fiennes, whose portrait also appears in Clarendon, was the eighth baron Say and Sele, and the first viscount. He was then forty- eight years of age. Few men were more prominent in the contests which produced the civil war. "At his house at Broughton," says one writer, "the secret discussions of resistance to the court took place." Whitelocke, Cromwell's ambassador to Sweden, calls him " a states- man of great parts, wisdom and integrity." On the other hand, Clarendon, the historian of the court, calls Lord Say "a man who had the deepest hand in all the calamities which befell this un- happy kingdom, though he had not the least thought of dissolving the monarchy." "He had much authority with all the discontented party throughout the kingdom, and a good reputation with many who were not discontented, and who believed him to be a wise man, and of a very useful temper." "A man of great parts and of the highest am- bition." " He had always opposed and contradicted all acts of State and all laws and impositions which were not strictly legal." "The
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THIE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
oracle of those who were called puritans in the worst sense, and deter- mined all their counsels and designs." He lived until Charles the Second was crowned, and died in the following year, 14 April 1662. A descendant is now the thirteenth Baron Say and Sele, the higher title having become extinct.
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