USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens > Part 14
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There is preserved a letter of one William Vaughan, who was imprisoned
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about the time, containing a journal with comments of current events. He writes, "Above all, our minister lies in prison, and a famine of the Word of God is coming upon us. No public worship, no preaching of the word. What ignorance, profaneness, and misery must needs come." Under date of February 10, 1684 :
"The Sabbath is come, but no preaching at the Bank nor any allowed to come to us. Motions have been made that Mr. Moodey may go up and preach on the Lord's day, though he come down to prison at night, or that neighbor ministers might be permitted to come and preach, or that the people might come down to the prison and hear, as many as could. But nothing will do; an unparalleled example amongst Christians, to have a minister put out and no other way found to supply his place by one means or other. Good Mrs. Martin was buried, being not able to live above one Sabbath after the shutting up of the doors of the Sanctuary."
How many would die for that reason now? Mr. Martyn, one of the first seven members of the church, was also imprisoned, and this journal is authority for the remark that the governor said to him, "I want money and will have it." "But," said Martyn, "I have none." Then said the governor, "I will take you home," adding also that Martyn was a church-member, and he would watch him and all such and be sure to pay them off if he could catch them. In April, after they had been "nine Lord's days without a sermon," Mason, in absence of Cranfield, gave leave for any minister to come and preach at the Bank, whereupon Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Rowley, came for two Sundays, the 13th and 20th of April.
We find this item under date of September 12th: "Mr. Joshua Moodey, being to take a journey out of the Province, was forced to give a recognizance of £200 to return in three weeks, if alive and well."
Mr. Moodey underwent imprisonment with a courageous spirit, and writes during his confinement :
"I told the court that I should go to prison with much more peace than they sent me thither, and particularly applied myself to Roby, a church- member, and told him that I had done nothing but what he was by solemn covenant engaged to maintain, and wished him to provide against the day when these things should be overhauled. But blessed be God for Jesus Christ, I am quiet and at peace. Thus I have many things that are matter of repentance and shame to me, yet in this matter I am abundantly satisfied in my lot, and hope shall be a gainer, and that the cause of Christ will gain by my sufferings. Only methinks I find it a hard matter to suffer in a right manner. Something of stoutness of spirit, some other sinister ends are apt to creep in and spoil suffering work. The Lord grant that I may have grace so to carry it as not to lost aught that I have done and do now suffer! I beg your hearty prayers for me, that with integrity and sincerity I may cheerfully and patiently bear my cross till the Lord shall give me a discharge."
There is another letter dated "From the prison, 27th Ist Mo., 1684," i. e., March 27, 1684, in which he writes to Rev. Mr. Phillips, of Rowley, urging him to come to Portsmouth and preach :
"Oh, consider that my poor flock have fasted about forty days, and
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must now be an hungered! Have pity upon them, have pity upon them, and thou, my friend! And when you have taken your turn we shall hope for some other. You will thereby not only visit me in prison, but feed a great multitude of the hungry and thirsty little ones of Christ, which will be accounted for at that day. Pray come early enough in the week to give notice to the people. (I do also in behalf of my dear and tender wife, thank you for yours to her.) Now pray for me, that I may have an humble heart, and that my whole soul, body, and spirit may be sanctified and kept blame- less to that day."
Mr. Moodey was once allowed to leave the prison and make a short visit to his family. He was released after thirteen weeks' imprisonment under a strict charge to preach no more within the province on penalty of further imprisonment, whereupon he removed to Boston, and was at once called to be assistant minister with Rev. John Allen at the First Church, and at once occupied a prominent place, and was held in the highest regard during the eight years of his ministry. Mr. Moodey seems to have followed the course of the justices who condemned him with a keen vision, and he interpreted the disasters which befell them as a divine retribution for his imprisonment, and in the church records he writes of them as follows: "Not long after Green repented, and made his acknowledgment to the pastor, who frankly forgave him. Roby was excommunicated out of Hampton Church for a common drunkard, and died excommunicated, and was by his friends thrown into a hole near his house for fear of an arrest of his carcass. Barefoot fell into a languishing distemper, whereof he died. Coffin was taken by the Indians at Cochecho, 1689, his house and mill burnt, him- self not being slain but dismissed. The Lord give him repentance, though no signs of it have yet appeared."
While Mr. Moodey was at Boston he became a fellow of Harvard College, and upon the death of Rev. John Roger, the president, the dis- tinguished honor of that office was offered to him, but declined.
It had doubtless been greatly owing to Mr. Moodey's interest in educa- tional matters that in May, 1669, the inhabitants of Portsmouth sent to the General Court of the Massachusetts the following address, to which Mr. Moodey's name is appended :
"To the much Hond the General Court of the Massachusetts assembled at Boston, 20 May, 1669 :
"The humble address of the inhabitants of the town of Portsmouth humbly sheweth that seeing by your means (under God) we enjoy much peace and quietness, and very worthy deeds are done to us by the favor- able aspect of the Government of this Colony upon us we accept it always and in all places with all thankfulness. And tho' we have articled with yourselves for exemption from publique charges, yet we never articled with God and our own consciences for exemption from gratitude which to demon- strate while we were studying, the loud groans of the sinking College in its present low estate came to our ears. The relieving of which we account a good work for the house of our God, and needful for the perpetuating of knowledge, both religious and civil, among us and our posterity after us, and therefore grateful to yourselves, whose care and study is to seek the
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welfare of our Israel. The premises considered we have made a collection in our town of £60 per annum (and hope to make it more), which said sum is to be paid annually for these seven years ensuing, to be improved at the discretion of the Hond overseers of the College for the behoof of the same and the advancement of good literature there, hoping withal that the example of ourselves (which have been accounted no people) will provoke the rest of the country to jealously ( we mean an holy emulation to appear in so good a work), and that this hond Court will in their wisdom all meet vigorously to act for divesting the sad omen to poor New England; if a College begun and comfortably upheld while we were little should since now we are grown great, especially after so large and profitable an harvest, that this country & other places have reaped from the same. Your acceptance of our good meaning herein will further oblige us to endeavor the approving ourselves to be your thankful and humble servants.
"JOHN CUTT. "RICHARD CUTT. "JOSHUA MOODEY.
"in the name and behalf of the rest of the subscribers in the towne of Portsmouth."
This address from the inhabitants of the town of Portsmouth was pre- sented by Mr. Richard Cutt and Joshua Moodey, May 20, 1669, and grate- fully accepted; and the governor, in the name of the whole met together, returned them the thanks of this court for their pious and liberal gift to the college therein.
The town of Portsmouth had then become the richest town, and the occasion of the subscription was a general collection for the purpose of erecting a new brick building at Harvard College. Dover gave thirty-two and Exeter ten pounds for the same purpose. This interest in Harvard College and the recollection that besides the election of Mr. Moodey to its presidency, Dr. Langdon, of the North Parish, was also called to the same . office at a later period, Dr. Peabody, of the South Parish, fulfilling the same duties temporarily at a still later period, and that Dr. Stiles, of the North Parish, was called to the same office at Yale College, show how greatly the strength and substantial character of our parishes were due to their appreciation of and demand for an able, cultivated, and learned minister, and how greatly the congregations have departed from so general and deep an interest in true scholarship.
Mr. Moodey and Witchcraft .- But the one thing for which Mr. Moodey deserves the highest credit, and which shows a mind enlightened and liberal beyond the current opinions of his day, is the part he took in the witchcraft delusion, a delusion which, as we shall see at another time, hardly found any spread or reception in our settlement. While he was settled over the First Church in Boston, Salem was very much excited upon the subject, and Philip English, an eminent merchant of Salem, with his wife, were sent to the Boston jail by reason that the one at Salem was crowded with the victims of this terrible persecution. Mr. Moodey took an early occasion to call upon them and invite them to his church (they having the liberty of
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the town by day, on condition of returning to the jail at night), and preached from the text, "When they persecute you in this city flee ye into another," in which he justified every attempt to escape from the forms of justice when justice was violated in them. After service he visited the prisoners and advised them to flee, and offered himself to assist Mrs. English to escape. After much reasoning he induced them to go, and had provided, with the consent of the governor, for their escape from the prison at mid- night. They reached New York and remained until the danger was over, and yet so universally was witchcraft believed in, even by many of the best, that Mr. Moodey was severely denounced for opposing it.
Death of Mr. Moodey .- The long ministry of Mr. Moodey over the parish at Portsmouth created an attachment which is revealed by the words of tenderest sympathy while he was ministering to the First Church at Boston. He writes that during his residence there "the church were often visited by the pastor, and kept up theyr private meetings, and so held together, tho' some removed and others were taken away by death."
In a letter to Increase Mather, then in England, he writes, "If you can, in all your opportunities of waiting on his Majty find a season to thrust in a happy word for poor N. Hampshire, who are under lamentable circum- stances. Mason is dead. but his sons survive, and possibly may be worse than hee. You know how the poor people have been unreasonably harassed, and to raise one family on the ruins of half a dozen considerable Townes looks hard. 'Tis my affection to my people that has drawn this hint fro. mee. I leave it to your consideration and pray for God's presence to be with you." And again he writes, "If something could be done for the poor province of N. Hampshire & Mein, it would be a good work."
The year after Mr. Cranfield drove Mr. Moodey to Boston he was him- self removed from his office here, and though the opportunity was offered, and Mr. Moodey constantly expressed the deepest interest in the parish here, it was not until 1693 that he returned. The explanation is very easy and satisfactory, if only we keep in mind the Episcopal element, which has been so steadily ignored, and which must have been brought to the surface, and probably was more important and influential than it had been since the ministry of Gibson. The want of harmony in the parish was doubtless such as to make him question the usefulness of his ministry, although never without the cordial, earnest support of a large portion of the parish. In July, 1688, Mr. Moodey wrote to Mather upon the subject, "I need exceed- ingly your advice about going to Portsmouth, which is vehemently urged by my church and people, and the next week we are to take counsell about it. The church is dear to mee, and I could bee glad to be with them, but the circumstances of my removing hence and being there are tremendous to mee. Pray for mee daily." At length he removed his pastorate here, and continued it for four years, when a dangerous illness seizing him from his wearying labors he went to Boston for medical advice, and died there on Sunday, July 4, 1697. His funeral sermon was preached by Cotton Mather, from the text, "Looking steadfastly on him they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel," in which for all the virtues and gifts of a clergy- man he is placed among the foremost of his day. "The church of Ports-
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mouth," he says (a part of the country that very much owed its life unto him), "crys out of a deadly wound in his death."
That Mr. Moodey had an impressive manner, which left an influence upon his hearers, I should judge from a trifling incident, that during the time of rebellion under Cranfield, one Waldron, talking by the road with another of the subject, said he had been thinking of a sermon he heard that Mr. Moodey preached at Dover, and his text was "in the time of adversity consider." That he hesitated not to bring all the influences of religion upon the politics of his day may be judged from the deposition during the Corbet conspiracy of one who testified Corbet had said Mr. Moodey's prayers were but babblings, but withal he must be regarded as a man of distinguished abilities, ceaseless industry, fervent piety, and during a long ministry in a difficult field resolute in his sense of right, full of kindness and sympathy, foremost in every good work, devoted to his parish, and faithful unto the end.
The Ministry of Rogers .- The long ministry of Moodey ended in 1697, and after several attempts to settle a clergyman, on the 3d of May, 1699, Nathaniel Rogers was ordained minister of the town of Portsmouth. He was born at Ipswich, February 22, 1669-70, and graduated at Harvard in 1687.
His work was quiet, faithful, and successful, but although repeatedly solicited to publish some of his sermons he always refused, and we have nothing by which to judge of the character of his writings; and the influence of his ministry, which in all respects appears the best, was unhappily greatly lessened by a serious disturbance in regard to building a new church, which for a long time embittered the whole neighborhood, and even extended throughout the province.
After being the minister of Portsmouth for fifteen years, preaching in the old South, Mr. Rogers was directed, by a vote of the church-members, to officiate in the new meeting-house which had just been completed on the northeastern corner of the glebe land, the site of the present North Church. Here he remained preaching with acceptance and success for nine years until his death, on the 3d of October, 1723, making a total pastorate of twenty-four years five months. He was buried at the "Point of Graves."
The Half-way Convenant .- It is somewhat remarkable that with a clergy- man so strictly of the Genevan school as was Mr. Rogers his church should under his pastorate adopt what was termed the Halfway Covenant, but in the church records under date of April 21, 1707, we find the following : "At a church meeting legally convened it was voted that persons having a competent knowledge, and making a serious profession of ye Xian Religion, and being of a conversation void of scandal, upon ye owning ye covenant, and subjecting themselves to ye government of Christ in this church, shall be admitted to baptism, and have the like privilege for ye children." It would seem that to be well informed of Christian truth, and to seriously profess to obey its requirements, to be of a walk and conversation free from all reproach, to confess the creed, and to be entirely subject to the Head of the Church would be sufficient to admit one to the questionable salvation by the form of baptism, but such was the severity of the Geneva
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school that all this was only half-way. A man might be of an upright walk beyond question, a glory of example of goodness to all the world, and yet, being without the formal test of election, redemption, and faith, all his goodness was unavailing, and even might make against him. Nevertheless this Half-way Covenant was for a time quite popular in New England, and was in use in the new parish in Portsmouth until it was discontinued by Dr. Putnam.
CHAPTER X PORTSMOUTH .- (Continued.)
Temperance-Use of Tobacco-Church Pews and Customs-Observance of Sunday-Cost of Living-Early Laws-The Massacre at the Plains
Temperance .- In matters of temperance early settlers are not apt to be the best examples. Yet there is nothing which shows so well as history the progress the temperance cause has made. The convivial habits of one hundred, two hundred years ago would not be endured for a moment any- where. Any one who will take the trouble to look up the social life of the English or Scotch, or of our own land, beyond the present or last century, is amazed at the custom of intoxication or excessive drinking. While among the greatest of the evils we have still to deal with, the change has been very marked, and the excited and unfounded statements that we are intemperate beyond all other people, or that, proportionately, the vice is greater in our day than in the past, are made in utter ignorance and the extremest party or fanatical zeal. All these settlements were well supplied with aqua vity, as it is spelled (acqua vito, water of life), being the common name of brandy, or the spirit of wine. It comes in all the inventories as a part of the goods, and sack, the name of a Spanish wine now called sherry, is not infrequently in the accounts.
In Londonderry, at the close of the last century, the evil was so great that at the installation of a clergyman a hogshead of rum was drank, and in one part of the house in which the minister lived was a tavern where spirits was sold and drank on Sunday by members of the church, and so wide- spread was the custom that on a fast-day, when the minister was supposed to be free to indulge in some special topic, he was widely denounced for preaching upon temperance.
Use of Tobacco .- The use of tobacco, then comparatively novel, but a habit which has a tendency to make its subjects forget how disagreeable it may be to others, early became subject to legal restrictions. In 1646 we find, "Whereas there is great abuse in taking tobacco in a very uncivil manner in the streets, if any person or persons shall be found or seen doing so hereafter he shall be subject to punishment;" and, again, "any person or persons who shall be found smoking tobacco on the Lord's day going to or coming from the meeting within two miles of the meetinghouse, he shall be fined." Within two miles was construed to have no bearing on such as had a mind to smoke in the meeting-house, and so the loud snapping of tobacco-
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boxes after loading the pipes; the clinking of flint and steel, followed by curling wreaths of smoke, were not infrequent in the house of worship.
Church Pews and Customs .- We have referred to the old South Church being for a long time without any pews. The church at Hampton had at first but one pew, and that for the use of the minister's family, the rest of the house being furnished with seats for the accommodation of the people. Each man was obliged to build his own pew, keep it in repair, to maintain all the glass against it, and he must build on the spot assigned him. In the town of Stratham there was an exception, where by a vote of the town "Mr. Andrew Wiggin shall have liberty to set in what seat he pleaseth in the meeting-house," while the general law was "that when the committee have seated the meeting-house, every person that is seated shall sit in these seats, or pay five shillings per day for every day they set out of these seats in a disorderly manner to advance themselves higher in the meeting-house. Persons were seated in church according to their rank or station in life or society, and Mr. was at that time a title of great distinction. The distance persons walked for worship is almost incredible in our degenerate day. They came on foot from Rye, New Castle, and Greenland to the Old South Church over the bridge, and it was no uncommon thing for women to walk six or eight miles, and sometimes carry an infant child. Before the town of Bedford was set off its inhabitants for some time attended worship at Londonderry. They performed the journey on foot, and generally carried one or two children a distance of twelve miles.
There is an order of public worship in Boston as follows: "It begins by ringing of a bell about nine of the clock or before." The pastor prays a quarter of an hour. The teacher reads and explains a chapter. A psalm is dictated by one of the ruling elders and sung. The pastor preaches a sermon, and sometimes gives an exhortation without notes. The teacher closes with prayer and benediction. Services begin at two in the afternoon, and proceed in the same order.
When a minister exchanged, the ruling elder said to him publicly, after the psalm was sung, "If this present brother hath any word of exhortation for the people at this time, in the name of God say on." Before departing in the afternoon one of the deacons said, "Brethren of the congregation, as God hath prospered you, so freely offer:" then the magistrates and chief gentlemen first, and then the elders and all the congregation of men, and most of them that were not of the church, all single persons, widows, and women in absence of their husbands, went up one after another one way, and brought their offering of money or chattel to the deacon's seat, and passed by another way to their seats. Persons were appointed to have inspection of the audience during the public exercises, whose frequent rounds kept the children in order. The badge of their office was a pole with a knob on one end and a tuft of feathers on the other: with the one they rapped on the men's heads, and with the other they brushed the ladies' faces when they caught them napping. Music in these early days, as in the latter, was deemed a necessary part of worship, and had its attendant criticisms and disaffections. The custom was from the earliest days to deacon the hymn, the precentor or leader of psalmody reading two lines and all singing
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them, and so on to the end; but the singers wanted to break up the old habit of "lining" or "deaconing" and have it all their own way. At Stratham the matter was settled by a compromise, the deacon by vote of the town to read half the time; but still he complained of the bass viol, saying "they had got a fiddle into the church as big as a hog's trough;" while at London- derry the precentor and choir both kept on at the same time, one reading and the other singing, until the latter gained the victory and sang the reader down.
Observance of Sunday .- The observance of Sunday was strict and gen- eral, but hedged round by so minute and constant command of the law that it is questionable if its true helpful keeping was ever so great as now. Those were good times for dull ministers, when every seat in the church was filled, without regard to weather or the difficulty of traveling, by the tenor of the magistrate more than the fear or love of the Lord, and they were pretty serious times for such as some of you who would forsake the sanctuary for a walk, a ride to the beach, or an excursion to the Shoals, or the enjoyment of a cigar.
In 1682 it was enacted,-
"For prevention of the prophanation of the Lord's day that whosoever shall, on the Lord's day, be found to do unnecessary servile labor, travel, sports, or frequent ordinaires in time of public worship, or idly straggle abroad, the person so offending shall pay a fine of ten shillings, or be set in the stocks an hour; and for discovery of such persons it is ordered that the constable, with some other meet person whom he shall choose, shall in the time of public worship go forth to any suspected place within their precincts, to find out any offender as above."
The Plains Massacre .- The most murderous attack by the Indians that our local history records occurred at the Plains two miles west of the river on the morning of June 26, 1696. They burned five houses and nine barns. and killed fourteen people; in the desperate struggle several others were severely wounded, while a number were made prisoners and taken away in their retreat through Great Swamp. The inhabitants, who were unaccom- panied, were mostly killed or taken prisoners, but those who kept together, in the main, succeeded in reaching the garrison house, the site of which is on the little knoll of rocks 660 feet northerly from the old Sherburne house, on the westerly side of Islington Road. As soon as the attack by the Indians was known in the town, a train-band under Captain Shackford was sent out to intercept them in their retreat. They overtook the savages while breakfasting in the woods, at the junction of Lafayette and Greenland Roads at what is known as Breakfast Hill. The soldiers fell upon them and recovered the prisoners and the plunder, but the Indians made a hasty escape.
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