USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Hampstead > A memorial history of Hampstead, New Hampshire, Congregational Church 1752-1902, Volume II > Part 18
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Their Christian faith and obligation was strengthened when the treaty of peace was signed in 1709, and as less fear and anxiety rested in their hearts the more thrifty and adventurous were eager to take up wild tracts of land in the dense woods in the north, the east, or the westward limits of the town, and establish homes for their families.
As each section of the town prospered, they at once petitioned the mother parish " that as, by reason of the great distance of their dwellings from the meeting-house, they undergo many and great difficulties in attending the public worship of Almighty God," and asked " that they might be permitted to hold meet- ing by themselves."
In 1730, seventy-six members from the First Parish Church
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had selected homes among the neighboring hills and valleys at the north, and were organized into a church body, since known as the " North Parish and Plaistow Congregational Church," with the Rev. James Cushing as their teacher. Two-thirds of those members were residents of what is now Plaistow, Atkinson or Hampstead.
Many of those hardy pioneers, who had separated from the parent church, " gentlemen and yeomen," skilled in all trades, were eager for more land, and the tide of migration rested not near the North Parish meeting house, for in 1733 twenty- five families, from that and neighboring parishes, had braved the hardships and cleared their lands from four to eight miles north from Rev. Mr. Cushing's parish. They had found an ideal loca- tion for their homes in the midst of the valuable timber lands, where the lakes and ponds glistened in the sunlight, where the streams abounded in fish, the excellent mill privileges and the rich soil assured them of prosperity and of happiness. They had prepared a house for worship-a simple log building, where Daniel Emerson's house now stands, and humbly asked the North Parish committee to permit them " to hold meetings by themselves during the winter months." This permission was granted them.
Study reveals to us very little concerning their mode of wor- ship for the next fifteen years, or of the exact date when the Church of Christ in Timberlane was gathered ; but, as " from the character of the father that of the son may be anticipated," we can readily believe that the families of Little, Hazen, Heath, Johnson, Bailey, Emerson, Stevens, Webster, Eastman, Gile, Morse, Hale, and others, strengthened by the influence of the great religious revival which spread over the settlement in 1741, were as faithful to their Christian obligation and duties of wor- ship, and as earnest to be gathered into a church body, as were their grandparents one hundred years before, when they brought from England their austere rules of worship.
July 29, 1746, Daniel Little, in behalf of the inhabitants, sent a petition to the Governor and His Majesty's Council, giv- ing as a reason for asking to be set off into a distinct parish or township, that " we are so compactly situated, and by the
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blessings of God have made such improvements, that we are now able to support a gospel minister amongst ourselves," and that " most of us now live far from ye public worship of God (unless carried on amongst ourselves), that we cannot possibly attend upon it without the utmost difficulty and hazard."
The petition of Richard Hazen, May 12, 1748, says : "We have for the greater part of fifteen years, at a very great cost and charge, hired a minister to preach amongst ns," and " we have now a suitable place for worship, and ask to be freed from all support of the North Parish minister."
These petitions lead to the belief that three years before the granting of the township or parish of Hampstead, January 19. 1749, the people had their meeting house (our present town house) raised and covered, and perhaps used for public worship.
In the warrant for the first town meeting, called by " Daniel Little, Justice of the Peace," January 24, 1749, as a former historian has said, " every line but one was penned to take measures for the enjoyment of increased privileges in the wor- ship of God and to provide a permanent preacher of His Word."
The history of the town was the history of the church in those days. The church was maintained and the minister sup- ported by rates levied upon the whole town, under the charge of the selectmen. Therefore it was a town meeting question of settling a minister and providing for his support.
The first three years after the incorporation of the township of Hampstead, articles were inserted from time to time in the warrant for town meetings, to " see if the town would vote to extend a call to either Mr. Parker, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Merriam, or other preacher to settle as a gospel minister in town," or "to supply ye pulpit with ye advice of ye neighboring ministers." The voters decided, however, at each attempt to settle a minis- ter, " to provide preaching, with ye advice of ye pastors in ye neighboring parishes." It may seem remarkable that, with their meeting house ready, and with a people able and willing to support a minister, that they did not unite and settle a preacher before three years.
Rev. John Kelly used the expression, "Hampstead had the name of being a difficult people." Their delay in uniting in the
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choice of a pastor, while numerous candidates came and went, may not have been due to the fact that the people were hard to please. Fifteen families had come to Hampstead from Old Salisbury, Massachusetts, and were watching the progress of their beloved friend, Henry True. Twenty other families were in the Hampstead parish, having come from the First Church in Haverhill, where, under the guidance of their pastor, Rev. Edward Barnard, their friend, Henry True, of Salisbury, fresh from a four years' course at Harvard College, was teaching the village school, and faithfully pursuing his studies for the minis- try. When Henry True, the young man of twenty-six years, was ready for the work, the inhabitants of Hampstead were ready to extend to him a unanimous call to become their first settled minister. He sent his letter of acceptance May 3, 1752. He was dismissed from the church in Salisbury, May 31, 1752, having been admitted a member of the Second Church in 1746. The pastor, Rev. Edmund Noyes, granted him a letter from that church, " in order of his being incorporated with ye church of and at Hampstead."
June 3d, 1752, the church was organized with sixty-eight members, fifteen from the First Church in Haverhill, twenty from the North Parish Church, and fourteen from the Second Church of Amesbury and Salisbury, Massachusetts.
Ordination day June 24th, 1752, was doubtless observed with the usual festivities of the times. We do not find a complete record of the event. Rev. Edward Barnard preached the ordination sermon from the eleventh chapter of Acts and the twenty-fourth verse, " For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost."
The church records of Salisbury, under date of June 21, 1752, read, " It was proposed to ye church whether ye would comply with ye church in Hampstead, to assist in ye ordination of Mr. Henry True which was voted in ye affirmative." The names of Rev. Edmund Noyes, Pastor, Moses Merrill, and Nathaniel Fitts are given as delegates, and doubtless they were present. We also find mention of Rev. Ebenezer Flagg of Chester, Rev. Abner Bailey of Salem, Rev. Stephen Bachelor of West Parish of Haverhill, and Rev. James Cushing of the North Parish be- ing present.
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The first church in New Hampshire was organized at Dover, in 1700. The Church of Christ in Hampstead was the thirty-second in the Province, but no church had been gathered with more members or with persons of greater influence.
They were Nature's noblemen and women, possessed of cour- age, integrity, and perseverance. The various votes of the free- holders, as recorded on the town and church books, show the members of the parish to have been unwearied in their efforts to found the system of common schools, to improve and make more comfortable their house of worship, and to firmly establish the principles of the Puritan Congregational faith in town, which have proved such a rich inheritance to their descendants.
The first votes by the early members of the church, under date of August 16, 1752, were the choosing of two deacons, Daniel Little and Peter Eastman, and at the same time voting " that a levy should be made on each communicant to pay five shillings annually for providing for ye elements." November 12, 1753, it was voted "that ye overplus of money that had been raised for ye procuring vessels for ye use of ye church should in part be disposed of to buy a church book ; " " that there be five sacraments a year, one every other month, omitting one in ye winter season," and that " ye sing Dr. Watts hymns at sacra- mental seasons." July 9, 1754, it was voted " to procure ye bury- ing cloth ; " and that " Lieut. Peter Morse, Moses Hale, Stephen Johnson and John Muzzey be chosen a committee to inspect ye lives of professing christians, and if any be found absenting themselves from ye communion table, to know ye reason why."
From Amesbury, Salisbury, Newbury and Haverhill young men and their families came to the town. Most of them had been baptized in their infancy, and at once united with the church, by profession or by letter. Others went before the church officials and accepted certain doctrines. Those that are thus recorded, " Owned the Covenent " and were placed into such re- lations to the church as to give them rights of citizenship, and their children the ordinance of baptism. One hundred and forty-six persons were so accepted by Rev. Henry True, from 1752 to 1782, and termed " half way members," many of them n later years became members in full communion.
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And now that the church in Hampstead is well established, let us in imagination go back and visit the town, and keep Sab- bath with its people in their new meeting house, that we may record our observations.
Borne with indescribable velocity on the wings of fancy, through the current of time, we suddenly alight on the Thomas Hale farm, of which the Daniel Ayer homestead is now a part.
It is daylight of a fine Sabbath morning in June, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. We stand for some moments lis- tening to the howling of the wolves and wildcats over in the " Kingston woods " and as the gruesome sound dies away, and the rosy hue of the morning light spreads up into the heavens, we slowly wend our way along the beaten path towards the meeting house.
A solemn stillness presides over the bright scene which Nature has spread around us. The motions and joyous songs of numerous birds, together with the fragrant odor of the wild blossoms, seem like a morning offering of praise.
Giant trees of oak, elm, chestnut and ash are on each side, broken branches, masses of briers, and often huge logs, lie where storm or decay had strewn them, showing marks of extreme age. Now and then we come to a low framed house of rough boards, and log sheds or other out-buildings, stone walls in pro- gress of making and garden patches in the clearings, where the surface of the meadows and grass lands are clad in richest green.
We silently pass the homes of the Harrimans, Grandmother Copp, Ebenezer Gile, Col. Jacob Bailey, Lemuel Tucker, the Hutchens home with the sycamore tree in the doorway, and the stately elm opposite, the Merrill lands, the Hazen homestead, and over the log bridge across "Flaggy meadow," from which loads of sweet flag are yearly taken to the ports of Salem and Newbury.
The families are all astir, for on Sabbath mornings the needed work is early done. The warmth of the morning has caused the windows and doors to be opened, and at some dwell- ings we hear from within, the voices of prayer, at others, groups
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of little boys and girls are reading to their pious mothers from the Testament or Book of Psalms, or promptly answering the questions of the Puritan Catechism.
Impressed with the sacredness of the scene, we leave the meadows to the right, and enter a narrow bridle path, through a dense forest, with the waters of Rowell's pond glistening at our left. Nearing the ledgy hill with the meeting house in sight, we meet Stephen Johnson, the aged sexton, on his way to open the house of worship. We explain to him that we have come to worship with them for the day, and to learn their way of wor- ship, but our observations will not be disclosed till one hundred and fifty years have passed away.
With a kindly smile he places a massive iron key in the lock of the solid plank door, which springs wide open as if to bid us welcome, and as we stand on the rocky eminence admiring the beautiful landscape before us, he makes several loud blasts from an ox horn, which doubtless are heard to the distant parts of the parish.
He fervently surveys the plain honse, newly clapboarded, and with part of the windows glazed, but solid enough to with- stand the storms of centuries, remarking, " our house was raised and covered by willing hands, and we have dedicated it to God, and His praise forever."
Several couples come up the hill to the stone horse-mount where the women dismount and the men lead their horses to the stakes among the trees behind the meeting house. "The Morses, Williams, Johnson, and Kezer families from Amesbury Peak, though farthest from the sanctuary," said he, " are always first to arrive. We are thankful to be permitted to be here, and few are late for morning prayer." We are given prominent seats in the meeting house.
A few solemn women glance at us as if we are subjects for church discipline, as we take the opportunity to look about, while the people are gathering. We see the pulpit high up, with its glazed window behind it, the winding stairway leading to it, the octagon shaped sounding board suspended above it, the deacons' seat beneath it, with the sacramental table on hinges in front, the rows of plank seats, the deep box pews and hasped
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doors, the galleries supported by marble painted pillars, the un- plastered walls and ceiling showing the substantial timbers of which the house was builded.
Ebenezer Gile, Jonathan Hutchens, Moses Hale, Samuel Worthen, and James Graves had been chosen a committee to " seat the meeting house " and the selectmen, Benjamin Emer- son, Benjamin Philbrick, and Nathaniel Heath were to seat the committee and their families.
The sittings had been assigned with regard to the amount of taxes each paid, the social position, or according to age.
Facing the pulpit at the east of the broad aisle are the selectmen's seats. Behind them are seated those whose white locks and bending forms betokened them to be the surviving few who had come to Hampstead to take possession of the land. Among them are Michael Johnson, James Mills, Bartholomew Heath. Henry Hale, Stephen Emerson, and Jonathan Eastman.
Next, in crowded ranks. sit the rugged young farmers and mechanies of the town-David Dodge, Josiah Davis, Timothy Goodwin, Samuel and Joseph Little, John Hunkins, Thomas Williams, Otho Stevens, Jr., and many others.
The box pews are occupied by Richard Hazen, Jacob Bailey, Esquire Plummer, Charles Johnston, John Webster, and Edmund Sawyer, whose dignity of bearing and finer clothing are em- blems of their importance in the parish.
In the corresponding seats at the west of the aisle are the wives and mothers and sisters, dressed as suited to their rank, many in homespun gingham, with tidy aprons of purest white. The young men and maidens are opposite each other, in the east and west galleries, and on the long benehes against the wall are the boys of the parish, David Copp, the tything man, with his rod in hand, near them, to suppress any smile, whisper, or wink, by a rap on the ear.
Nearly three hundred people have arrived, as every inhabitant, not excused for sufficient reasons, must attend public worship.
As the Rev. Mr. True enters the house the whole congrega- tion rise and stand, until the sexton escorts the minister to the pulpit and seats himself on the broad stair. It is nine o'clock. All heads are bowed. Rev. Mr. True rises, and with a clear,
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earnest voice, commences the service with a short invocation, praising God for the light and privileges of another of His holy days, and fervently imploring His presence and aid in the prayers and praises to be offered, and humbly asking His bless- ing upon His Word now to be dispensed.
A half hour of reading and explaining the nineteenth Psali is followed by Deacon Little reading the five stanzas of the fifth Psalm, from the " New England Collection of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs." Repeating the first line of the Psalın-" Jehovah, to my words give ear "-Deacon Little com- menees singing in a tremulous voice, to the tune of Windsor," as Deacon Eastman "pitched the tune," when instantly the whole congregation, old and young, without rising, join in the singing. He reads the second line, " My meditation weigh," and the words are eanght from his lips, and so on separately, line by line.
There is no harmony in the singing, no perfect keeping of time, yet it is exceedingly interesting and impressive. It is much like a roar of thunder, or the voice of many waters, but the seriousness of the appearance and manner of the people cause a deep solemnity to pervade the whole congregation. " They sing to the Lord, with spirit and understanding."
The sexton passes from seat to seat while the people are rising for the long prayer, and collects the letters or little notes, which are read by the pastor. Widow Elizabeth Johnson wishes prayers from minister and congregation that she may be reconciled in her recent bereavement ; Ebenezer Gile would render thanks for manifold mercies which had been given him and Mrs. Gile for the birth of a daughter; John Muzzey and wife wish prayers for relief from the depredations of wild beasts ; Nathaniel Heath and his relatives would give thanks to the Lord for relief from the dreaded throat distemper in his family ; Ruth Atwood asks prayers for help and wisdom in guiding her family of step-children, and that her troubles may cease ; Benjamin Kimball requests prayers that he may be more fully prepared to commune at the Lord's table; and so on till every event of life is made an occasion of prayer and praise.
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The prayer commences with acknowledgments of dependence, guilt, and spiritual necessity. The minister spreads before the Lord all the wants, trials, sins and temptations of the people, all of the joys and sorrows in the town during the past week, and with special minuteness of description the thanksgivings and requests of those who have expressly desired particular men- tion in the prayers of the sanctuary this day, and finally prays that they may be prepared for the final change that awaits them, that they may meet it in peace, with the hope of pardon and acceptance to eternal life, and felicity beyond the grave.
When the long plank seats, which are hung on hinges, and are raised up as the people passed in or out of the pews, or rise for the long prayers, fall into place, the resounding clatter of " click, click, click," from all parts of the room for several seconds, is amusing to our imagination.
The congregation, without any visible signs of weariness or impatience during the long prayer, catch the tune from Deacon Little, as he reads line by line four verses of the sixth Psalm, commencing :-
" Lord, in thy wrath, rebuke me not, Nor in thy hot wrath chasten me. Lord, pity me, for I am weak ; Lord, heal me, for my bones vex'd be. Also my soul is vex'd sore, How long, Lord, wilt thou me forsake ? Return, O Lord, my soul release, O, save mne, for thy mercy's sake."
We hear a slight rustling and espy the deacons, selectmen and others, who carry the pens of ready writers, preparing to take the text and heads of the discourse. Weare reminded that we may do the same, and note the text as from 2d Timothy 11 : 19, "And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity."
The discourse is divided into seven parts, namely, questions and answers, with occasional points of doctrine, but abounding in practical thoughts and suggestions.
A short prayer for the blessing of God on His Word dis- pensed and a solemn benediction closes the forenoon service.
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An hour intermission is social and of good cheer. Promptly at one o'clock minister and people are in their seats. Deacon Eastman reads the one hundred and forty-eighth hymn, and the melody of each line is caught from the voice of Deacon Little to the tune of " Old One Hundred and Forty-eighth." A long prayer follows, observing the same particularity of enumera- tion and minuteness of description of the mercies implored as the prayer of the morning. A more exact profession of the pre- vailing sins among the people, the special intercession for the country, for all mankind, for the church of God throughout the world, for the inhabitants of New England, especially those of Massachusetts Bay, that they may never forget the errand for which their fathers crossed the ocean to the wilderness, that righteousness may reign in the whole colony, for blessing and direction upon the sovereign, King George, and divine benedic- tion upon the high court of Parliament, of the realm of Eng- land. Finally the Lord is earnestly besought to hasten the end of all idolatry, superstition, and imposture.
The singing of the fifteenth Psalm is followed by a long sermon from the same text as in the morning. In the forenoon it was noticeably an explanation and defence of the truth of the text. In the afternoon it is the enforcement of it upon the conscience and heart.
When the good man closes this labor of love, Deacon East- man arises and says : " Brethren, if any among you have a word of exhortation to offer, let him say on." Several of the aged men speak a few words of admonition to the young people, telling them of the danger of longer delay, and earnestly entreating them to " name the name of Christ."
At the close of the service of exhortation, and after singing a verse of a psalm, several young men hastily arrange rows of plank tables in the long aisles and in front of the pulpit, and spread them with linen, and the long seats are moved into place by the sides of the tables.
The Lord's Supper is, by custom, the social event of the church, and many visitors from neighboring parishes had come to partake of the "elements " with them, each stranger going to the pastor or deacons holding a lead coin marked " A," which
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served in keeping any unworthy person from the sacramental table. The aged communicants are seated at the tables first, followed by the next in age or rank.
The whole service is very impressive, and amid much singing of Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns, the " elements " are passed from one to another. The pastor and deacons are favored with "elements " of a more choice flavor.
Jeremiah Eaton, who had recently moved to Hampstead from Lynn, Massachusetts, was noted for his musical talents. He had been given permission by a vote in church meeting "to set ye psalms if he saw fit." He became enthusiastic in the singing, and at the close of the supper sings in a very spirited way the interrogative verse so familiar to their parents and grandparents, as sang at their sacramental service :-
" Did Jesus ordain His supper in vain, And furnish a feast For none but His earliest servants to taste ? "
The communicants seem to vie with one another as they join Mr. Eaton with their voices and hearts in singing the following words of the chorus or answer :-
" In rapturous bliss He bid us do this ; The joy it imparts, Hath witnessed His gracious Design in our hearts. Receiving the bread On Jesus we feed ; It doth not appear, His manner of working : But Jesus is here."
Rev. Mr. True gives notice that during the coming week he shall visit the families of Ebenezer Gile, John Kezer, Peter Morse, Benjamin Emerson, Peter Eastman, and David Copp, for the purpose of questioning their children on the points of doc- trine, as required in the Westminster Catechism.
A short prayer is then in order, imploring blessings on the services of the day, and a joyous singing of the doxology :-
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" To cav'ry hill He bore my load, And there the Lamb, my Lord and God, When He came hither nailed My sin and my iniquity With His own body on the tree, And there my pardon sealed."
A scriptural benediction closes the public worship. Rev. Mr. True descends the pulpit stairs and passes through the long aisle to the door, bowing right and left to the congregation. No person moves from his seat until the minister has passed out of the meeting house. The people then begin departing to their homes, as it is nearly sundown.
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