History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 15

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390

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Mrs. Mary Brewster was severely wounded and left for dead, her scalp having been entirely removed from her head, but she recovered and after- wards became the mother of seven children, from whom most of the Brewster families in this vicinity have descended.

CHAPTER XI

PORTSMOUTH .- (Continued)

Re-establishment of Episcopacy-Rev. Arthur Brown-Dr. Burroughs- Rulers until the Revolution-Benning Wentworth-Sir John Wentworth -Principal Names in the Early Settlement-Henry Sherburn-Fohn Pickering-Samuel Wentworth-Sir William Pepperell-The Siege of Louisburg-Champernowne-A Church at the Plains-Absence of the Spirit of Persecution-Witchcraft-A New Church-Shurtleff-Clerical Anecdotes-Revival under Whitefield-The North Meeting House-The Successive Ministers of the South Parish

Re-establishment of Episcopacy .- The persistency with which persons for generations cling to their theological inheritances, even at times without being able to give any reason for them, is well illustrated in the re-establish- ment of Episcopacy in Portsmouth. This element never entirely died out here, but was cherished in a few families or individuals, ready to manifest itself at any opportunity which promised to give it an organization and a home. It was stronger in the Piscataqua than any of the historians have yet acknowledged. It was clearly a part of the early settlers' plan to make this a Church of England settlement, but the ascendency of the Massachusetts soon put all the interest here in the hands of the Puritans. The first minister, a strong defender of the Established Church, was banished simply for that reason, and for a long time Episcopacy seemed entirely destroyed. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century quite a serious trouble was brewing in regard to the boundary line between the Provinces of the Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire. As early as 1730, Col. David Dunbar was chair- man of a commission on the part of this province to meet a committee of the bay on the adjusting of this line. He was a native of Ireland, and appointed lieutenant-governor of this province in 1731, and also surveyor- general of the woods.

While Dunbar had charge of the settlement of the boundary line, which threatened to bring the provinces into open war, one Capt. John Thomlin- son, a merchant of London well known in New Hampshire, was agent for the matter of the boundary at the court of Great Britain; and in this Thom- linson, Dunbar found a zealous friend of the new church movement. Theo- dore Atkinson, one of the most prominent citizens, and whose name con- stantly appears in all political matters, was also foremost in aiding it. It was begun in 1732, and the church was finished in 1735. This church was

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a frame building, somewhat smaller than the present one, with a steeple like that of the old South, and two entrances, one on the west, the other on the south. On the north side the central of the wall pews was raised above the rest, a heavy wooden canopy built over it bore the royal arms, and red plush curtains were festooned around it. Previous to the Revolu- tion this was called the governor's pew, and in 1789 was occupied by Wash- ington when on a visit to Portsmouth. The most valuable of the many relics and ornaments of the church, the font. a beautiful piece of porphyritic marble of a brownish-yellow color, was plundered from a church in Senegal, Africa, by Col. John Tupton Mason, and presented by his daughters to Queen's Chapel.

Rev. Arthur Brown .- On the 18th of August, 1735, and chiefly through the earnest activity of his ardent admirer, Dunbar, an invitation to Rev. Arthur Brown was extended and accepted, and he became rector of Queen's Chapel, the salary being assured by the liberality of the English Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. His ministry was popular and successful and lasted until 1773, when, on a visit to Cambridge, he died, at the age of seventy-four, and was interred in the Wentworth tomb of Queen's Chapel graveyard. All the tributes offered to his memory show that he must have been a man of real culture, of unpretentious goodness, of eminent worth. It was not owing to his popular gifts and assiduous labors only that his success was so marked. The times were propitious and help- ful to second his own and the enthusiasm of a people gathered with all the interest attendant upon the establishment of a new church. Every official of the Government was expected to belong to the Established Church of England; the officers of the army and navy were all really compelled to choose that faith. The Rev. Mr. Brown was as fortunate in his death as in his labors, for it occurred just as the troubles were gathering with Eng- land, and the breaking out of the war promised for a time to crush every- thing which related to English customs and English worship. The parish. which had enjoyed great prosperity for nearly thirty years, suffered a sud- den and almost entire overthrow and extinction, and Episcopacy was reduced to a state almost as low as at the close of the ministry of Gibson, more than a century before, and for almost twenty-five years after the death of Mr. Brown the church was almost entirely neglected. After the Revolution, two or three successive rectors were not very successful in their ministrations, and in the winter of 1806 the church was destroyed by fire. At that time the South Parish was without a pastor, and the use of the church was offered to Queen's Chapel, now changed to St. John's, and for some time it was not unusual for the two societies to unite in public worship, the same clergyman frequently officiating for both parishes, reading the Book of Com- mon Prayer one part of the day, and following the simple congregational order of services for the other. The extremely feeble condition of this sect in this part of New England at that period is shown by the fact that there was no Episcopal visitation of the Portsmouth parish from 1791 to 1812. In this latter year we have the first record of the administration of the rite of confirmation.

Dr. Burroughs .- Mr. Charles Burroughs, then in deacon's orders, had

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been the minister of the parish for three years, but never had the oppor- tunity of being confirmed. The records show that on the day preceding his ordination to the priesthood he received confirmation, together with 150 of his congregation, and in order to be ordained as deacon he had been obliged to journey to Philadelphia.

With the establishment of peace and liberty of conscience, and under the attractive ministrations of Dr. Burroughs, St. John's again took its place among the flourishing churches of Portsmouth. Dr. Burroughs was born in Boston on the 27th of December, 1787, and there his early boyhood was passed. He enjoyed and improved the best opportunities of that day for a classical education, in which he made great attainments, and all through life enriched a mind of fair proportions with all the elegant literature of ancient or modern times. He came to Portsmouth as a reader in 1809, and such was his reputation for entering into and rendering the beauties of the church service, and the entire satisfaction he gave as a writer, that many from other parishes, being occasional listeners, confessed to a willingness to remain permanently if Mr. Burroughs could be induced to take the care of the parish. Among all the distinguished men of Portsmouth in his long ministry, Dr. Burroughs was still eminent for his rare gifts of conversation, for his ample culture, for his elegant hospitality at his beautiful home, for his inborn and acquired grace of manner, for his unfailing liberality, for his daily walk in harmony with his altar professions. He was rector until the year 1857, a citizen of Portsmouth until the 5th of March, 1868, when he became a fellow-citizen with the saints.

Rev. Mr. Burroughs was succeeded by Revs. Hitchcock, Armitage, Davies, Bingham, Clark, Holbrook, Hovey and the present minister Rev. Harold M. Folsom. The cornerstone of the present church was laid June 24, 1807, by the grand master of the Masonic Fraternity of New Hampshire. Cast in relief in the bell which hangs in the belfry is the following: "This bell brought from Louisberg by Sir William Pepperrell, A. D. 1745. Recast by Paul Revere, A. D. 1807; again recast 1896."

An interesting pamphlet has been written by Franklin W. Davis entitled "Old St. John's Parish." The chapel on State Street was erected in 1832. It contains the old Brattle organ made in 1709.

Rulers until the Revolution .- In 1717, after a good deal of rivalry and disturbance between the governor, the lieutenant-governor, and the assembly, the king removed Vaughan from office, and John Wentworth was appointed lieutenant-governor in his place.

John Wentworth .- John Wentworth was the grandson of William Went- worth, the first of the name in this country, whose son, Samuel Wentworth, of Portsmouth, has been already referred to. William was an elder of the church at Dover, and occasionally preached there. John was born in Ports- mouth in 1671. Under his rule the town had a period of peace and steady prosperity until 1730, when again a disturbance arose from the appointment of Belcher as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, who from some petty displeasure turned out of office the friends of Wentworth; but the lieutenant-governor died in this same year and Dunbar was appointed in his place, and retained the place under constantly-increasing opposition

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until 1741, when the great dissatisfaction against him as well as Governor Belcher resulted in the erection of New Hampshire into a separate province, with the appointment of Benning Wentworth as governor in 1741.

Benning Wentworth .- Governor Wentworth was a son of the former Lieutenant-Governor John Wentworth, and was born in Portsmouth in 1696. He became a merchant of prominence and a person of much influ- ence in the colony, and his appointment was received with great satisfac- tion by the people. He married for a second wife Martha Hilton, his house- keeper, upon which incident is founded Longfellow's story of Lady Went- worth. The expedition against Louisburg was the principal and exciting event during his term of office, which ended in 1766, just as the Stamp Act was arousing the indignation of the American people.

Sir John Wentworth .- Sir John Wentworth, a nephew of Benning, was appointed as governor in 1766, and also as surveyor of all the king's woods in North America. He was born in Portsmouth in 1736, and, while on a visit to England, became a favorite of the Marquis of Rockingham, through whose influence he received his important offices and entered upon them in 1768, landing at Charlestown, and crossing from that port by land to this town. But the times were growing troublesome for all the English officials; the sense of oppression and the desire for liberty were rapidly spreading, and in 1774, because of the aid the governor rendered to General Gage, the excitement of the people was so great that he was compelled to take refuge, first, in the fort at New Castle, and then upon an English man-of-war in the harbor. He remained in England until peace was declared, became lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, and died in 1820. He was a friend to education, and gave 46,000 acres of land to Dartmouth College, and also a grant to each member of the first graduating class. After he left the country and the War of the Revolution secured the independence of the United States, this settlement, whose history we have sketched in its most important events, became, with New Hampshire, a part of the American Union, and entered upon that marvelous prosperity which has won for this country the admiration and envy of the world.

A FEW OF THE PRINCIPAL NAMES IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENT

Henry Sherburne .- Among those who were very prominent in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of this colony was Henry Sherburne, from the begin- ning an active churchman and a warden of the first church of the Piscataqua settlement. His associate warden, Walford, appears some years later as the husband of the witch Goody Walford, and there may be some reason for the supposition that the charge of witchcraft had a connection with the ani- mosity existing between the Independents and church party. Sherburne appears in this settlement as early as June, 1632, when the Bay Colony came into rule here and it was evidently no longer possible to maintain Episcopacy. Sherburne still took an interest in supporting public worship, as approved by the majority, although by no means to his own mind. We find him appointed by the town to go in search of a minister, and also engaging to entertain the minister when he came. All this was in the faith that the re-establishment of

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Episcopacy might occur at an early day, and in this faith it doubtless was that we find him in the first list of the subscribers to the support of Moodey while officiating at the old South in 1658; but when his faith by force of circumstances grew less, and it was evidently the intention of the Bay to establish their ecclesiastical system here, with all its vigor, then Sherburne refused altogether to contribute towards the support of doctrines he did not accept, for in a list of subscribers to the maintenance of Moodey in 1671 we find annexed to the names of Henry Sherburne and Richard Sloper, his son- in-law, the note "will not subscribe."

John Pickering .- In the list of inhabitants of Portsmouth who, in 1640, made a grant of fifty acres for a glebe land for the use of the ministry we find. the name of John Pickering, who in himself and his descendants was to play a conspicuous part in town matters, both civil and ecclesiastical.

The first John Pickering appears in Portsmouth as early as 1635, perhaps as early as 1630. He came here from Massachusetts, and probably was the same person spoken of as being at Cambridge soon after that town was settled. He died on the 18th of January, 1668-69, leaving a large family. It was his son John who became so prominent in church and town affairs. He was born about 1640, and died about 1721. He first comes into notice as a military man, for which his character and talents seem eminently to have qualified him. As captain, he had a command in Portsmouth for a number of years. When John Cutt was appointed first president of the separate government of New Hampshire, in 1680, Capt. Pickering was a representative for the town of Portsmouth, and he was also a member of the assembly called by Cranfield and dissolved in great wrath because it would not raise the money he desired.

It is mentioned in the early records that during the suspension of govern- ment consequent on the imprisonment of Andros in 1689, Capt. John Picker- ing, a man of "a rough and adventurous spirit and a lawyer," "went with a company of armed men to the home of Richard Chamberlain (who wrote the book called Lithobolia, or Stone-throwing Demon at Great Island), who had been secretary of the province under Andros & clerk of the Superior Court, & demanded the records & files wh. were in his possession, & upon refusing to deliver them up without some warrant or security, Pickering seized them by force, carried them off, and concealed them, and in turn was by force compelled to deliver them to Lieutenant-Governor Usher." Voluntarily or by selection he seems to have been engaged in several such enterprises about records of both church and state. He was a member of the convention which in 1690 recommended a reunion with Massachusetts, and was chosen a member of the assembly which met at Boston for a number of successive years, and was several times chosen its speaker. As a lawyer he could not have been without popularity and confidence, for in 1707, when the great cause of Allen vs. Waldron, involving Allen's title to the Province of New Hampshire, was tried for the last time, and all the strength of each side was brought out, embracing some of the first men in the province, Captain Pickering was selected as one of the counsel to defend the houses and lands of the inhabitants. In the affairs of the church it was this Captain Pickering who was appointed to build the stocks and pillories for the punishment of offenders, and on account of his 8

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remarkable strength, of which stories apparently fabulous were handed down, was chosen at the time of Mr. Moodey's settlement to keep the congregation in order, reserve seats for the distinguished guests ; but he let all in before the time, on the theory that at church one person was just as good as another. When the difficulties began in regard to the site for the new church, which ended in the formation of a new parish and animosities which disturbed the peace of the whole province for a generation, Captain Pickering was the leading spirit in the old South Parish, who carried everything as he willed at the town-meetings, either by persuasion or by force, strenuously opposed building the new meeting-house so far up as the site of the North Church, carried the matter again and again to the General Court, and generally with success for his side; was foremost in all matters concerning the old parish, and when at last the old church could be no longer repaired he devised to the South Parish a lot of ground for a convenient site for another meeting- house to be set off to the said parish, "on the highest part of his neck." He was a large real-estate owner at the south end of the town, and what was called "Pickering's Neck" was a part of the land on which the fourth place of worship for the Town of Portsmouth was built, being the church of the South Parish until the present stone church was built in 1824.

Samuel Wentworth .-- In the list of subscribers to the support of Mr. Moodey, and so, of course, among the worshipers at the old South, we find the name of Samuel Wentworth. This is the first of the family, afterwards so prominent in public affairs, who appears in our town. At that time the vicinity of Point of Graves was the principal part of Portsmouth. For a while Samuel Wentworth lived at Great Island, and afterwards built by Puddle Dock, on the south side of the dock, at the north end of Manning Street, the first Wentworth house, still in good preservation. It was in this house that the first lieutenant-governor, John Wentworth, his son, lived, and here was married in 1693, and owned ali that part of the town as far as the South Church.

After the gathering of North Parish some of the family of Samuel Went- worth are found in that, while to others belonged an active part in the forma- tion of the Episcopal Parish.

When Great Island became a town, under the name of New Castle, in 1693, several of the prominent parishioners at the old South became identi- fied with the church at New Castle, and some still retained a nominal connec- tion and even an active interest in the old parish, as well as in the North after its establishment in 1714. Among these were Cranfield and Barefoot, Robert Cutt and Pendleton, Stileman and Fryer, Atkinson and Story, Sheafe and Jaffrey.

Sir William Pepperell .- I have now to notice two persons who in a day - when titles of nobility or birth in the aristocratic families of Old England conferred a real eminence upon men were conspicuous figures in our early history. William Pepperell became a communicant at the old South, Novem- ber 5, 1696; and his son, who was afterwards created a baronet for the taking of Louisburg, was the last baptism recorded by Mr. Moodey, May 9, 1697. I am indebted to a careful and valuable manuscript life of Sir William Pepperell, by the Rev. Dr. Burroughs, which is far better than the printed

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life of the distinguished merchant by Parsons, for much of the following biographical and historical matter.

William Pepperell was born in 1647, in Cornwall, England, and became a settler at the Shoals in 1670, attracted to the commercial advantages of Appledore and the prominence of its fisheries. Here, about 1680, he married a daughter of Mr. John Bray, one of the leading islanders, who had for some time refused the offer of marriage from Pepperell, but, says Dr. Bur- roughs, "relented in proportion to the increase of his property." As his business increased the Shoals offered too small a field for his enterprise, and he and his partner, a Mr. Gibbins, resolved to leave the weather-beaten islands, and to resort to chance and determine their separate destination. The story runs that they each set up a long pole and left it to fall as Providence should direct. Pepperell's fell towards the northwest, Gibbins' towards the north- east. Following with obedience and enthusiasm the plan they had adopted and the course pointed out by the fallen sticks, Pepperell established himself on the Kittery side of the mouth of the Piscataqua, and made large purchases of land there, while Gibbins obtained that tract on the Penobscot afterwards known as the Waldo patent. As early as the year 1681 we find the name of Pepperell and his father-in-law, Bray, on the town records of Kittery, then a province of Massachusetts, and here Pepperell spent the remainder of his days. His business enterprises were so successful that in 1712 there were but three persons in Kittery, then including Eliot & Berwick, whose property was estimated to be of more value than his. In this year Pepperell interested himself in organizing a church at Kittery, whose inhabitants attended worship under serious inconveniences of distance, weather, and tide at Strawberry Bank. He was chiefly instrumental in the settlement of the Rev. Mr. New- march at Kittery, not far from his own mansion, in 1714, and was one of the first signers of the covenant. Up to this time, William Pepperell, at age of almost seventy, and his son, afterwards Sir William, at the age of eighteen, had been constant worshipers at the old South. William Pepperell died in Kittery, in 1734, leaving Sir William the principal heir, and with the care and responsibility of a large property. But even before this he had mani- fested remarkable enterprise and sagacity as a merchant, and his ships were found in all parts of Europe and the West Indies. One of the first things he did was to build the family tomb, still standing in that open field not far from the old family mansion. In 1722, at the age of twenty-six, Sir William married Miss Hirst, of Boston.

Sir William had no opportunities for an education, except such as came from a multiplicity of relations with men in all ranks of society; but Dr. Stevens, his pastor, who preached a sermon upon his character soon after his death, says, "Such were his abilities and virtues, so distinguished and admirable his social qualities, that he soon drew the notice and engaged the affections of all." "So elevated were his principles and disinterested his views, and so active was his benevolence, that his fellow-citizens considered him as their patron and friend, and bore towards him the sentiment of filial venera- tion and affection." To the various duties and large responsibilities of one of the greatest merchants of New England, Sir William had added a number

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of important civil offices, but it was reserved for his military success to give to him his title of nobility.

Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William, was married to Nathaniel Sparhawk, in 1742, and here is her father's letter ordering from England a part of her wedding outfit :

"PISCATAQUA, in NEW ENGLAND, October 14, 1741.

"Sir: Please send me by first opportunity, for this place or Boston, silk to make a woman a full suit of clothes, the ground to be white paduroy and flowered with all sorts of colours suitable for a young woman. Another of white watered taby and gold lace for trimming of it; twelve yards of green paduroy : thirteen yards of lace, for a woman's head dress, two inches wide, as can be bought for 13s. per yard; a handsome fan, with leather mounting, as good as can be bought for about 20 shillings; two pairs of silk shoes, and clogs a size bigger than ye shoe.

"Your servant to command, "WILLIAM PEPPERELL."

The Siege of Louisburg .- The siege and capture of Louisburg were the great warlike achievements in our early history, and the command and success of the whole enterprise belonged to Sir William. Upon his return he was received at Portsmouth, entertained, and escorted to his boat, as it departed from our shore to his mansion at Kittery, with an outburst of enthusiasm from the inhabitants and an oration, both civil and military, even greater than were paid to Washington. As in our late war, there were in this adventure some rivalries and jealousies as to whom belonged the credit of the expedition, and Col. William Vaughan, a grandson of Maj. William Vaughan, who came to Portsmouth about 1650, is said to have first prepared a plan of the capture and proposed it to the Government, and Governor Wentworth and others were disappointed, not being given the charge of the enterprise; but all eyes turned to Colonel Pepperell, as of well-known and eminent moral worth, of acknowledged military skill, of tried statesmanship, of elevated rank in the confidence of the community, and the best fitted to command the expedition. If the success of an engagement might be always predicted from the char- acter of the principal supporters, we might have foretold the capture of Louis- burg, for the number of persons prominent in Portsmouth, under the command of Pepperell, was certainly large.

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 15

Author: Hazlett, Charles A Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390