USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Canterbury > History of the town of Canterbury, New Hampshire, 1727-1912, v. 1 > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
Pallet, Nathaniel. Enlisted from Canterbury Sept. 18, 1776. Train Band. Signed association test.
Perkins, Nathaniel. Age 20. Capt. Gordon Hutchins' Co. at Bunker Hill. Train Band and Alarm List. Signed associa- tion test. Tax list 1776.
Perkins, William Adams. Age 18. Capt. Gordon Hutchins' Co. at Bunker Hill. Volunteer at Bennington. Train Band and Alarm List.
Peterson, John. Age 21. Capt. Jeremiah Clough's Co.
Randall, Daniel. Capt. Jeremiah Clough's Co. With Capt. Clough in Canada. Train Band. Tax list 1776.
Reid, John. Age 30. Negro. Capt. Ebenezer Frye's Co. at Valley Forge January 10, 1778. Also given as of Canterbury but enlisting for Chichester. (N. H. State Papers, Vol. XIV, page 606.)
Rines (Rhines), William. Capt. James Shepard's Co., North- ern Army. Canterbury returns of enlistments 1781. Tax list 1776.
Robinson, Simeon. Age 23. Drummer Capt. Clough's Co. With Capt. Clough in Canada. Train Band. Signed asso- ciation test. Tax list 1776.
Rowen,1 Andrew. Capt. James Gray's Co. Col. Alexander Scammel's Regt. Col. Thomas Stickney's Regt. Enlisted for 3 years or war, 1777.
Rowen,1 John. At Bunker Hill. Capt. Benjamin Sias' Co., destined for New York 1776. Capt. James Gray's Co., Col. Alexander Scammel's Regt. Col. Thomas Stickney's Regt. Enlisted for 3 years or war 1777. Signs association test.
Sanborn, Simon. Age 19. Capt. Clough's Co. With Capt. Clough in Canada. Capt. Benjamin Sias' Co. 1776. Train Band. Volunteer at Bennington.
Sargent, Aaron. Age 20. At Bunker Hill. Capt. Henry Dearborn's Co. Quebec Expedition. Taken prisoner. Train Band. Tax list 1776. Signed association test.
1 Claimed as Sanborton soldiers. History of Sanbornton.
166
HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
Shannon, George. Age 32. Capt. Gordon Hutchins' Co. Killed at Bunker Hill. Tax list of 1774.
Shepard, Capt. James. At Cambridge with company, 1776. Commanded a company in the Continental Army 1776. Capt. Canterbury Train Band. Tax list 1776. Signed association test.
Shepard, George. Capt. Jeremiah Clough's Co. Capt. James Shepard's Co. Northern Army. Col. Thomas Stickney's Regt., enlisted for 3 years or war 1777. At Camp Danbury Dec. 8, 1779, Capt. McGregore's Co. Capt. Dennet's Co. 2d N. H. Regt. Feb. 15, 1781.
Shepard, Morrill. Canterbury returns of enlistments 1781. U. S. Census of 1790.
Sherburne, James. Age 24. Capt. Jeremiah Clough's Co. With Capt. Clough in Canada 1776. Volunteer at Bennington. Tax list 1776.
Simons, Eli. Age 40. Capt. Jeremiah Clough's Co. Signed association test. Hogreeve 1775.
Simons, William. Capt. James Shepard's Co., Northern Army. Relief of Ticonderoga 1777. Capt. Ebenezer Webster's Co. 1777. Field driver 1776. Tax list 1776.
·Sinclair (Sinkler), Noah. Age 21. At one time of Epsom. Enlisted for Loudon. Capt. Henry Dearborn's Co. 1775. Field driver 1787. Tithingman 1788.
Soper, Lieut. Joseph. Age 38. Lieut. in Capt. Gordon Hutchins' Co. With Capt. Clough in Canada 1776. Sealer of leather 1775.
Stevens, Jesse. Relief of Ticonderoga 1777. Train Band.
Sutton, John. Capt. Nathaniel Head's Co., Col. Reynolds' Regt. 1781. Directs wages as soldier paid to Capt. Laban Mor- rill 1781. Son of widow Margaret Sutton who was on tax list 1776.
Sutton, Michael. Canterbury returns for enlistments 1781. Col. Cilley's Regt. 1st Co. enlisted for 3 years or war. Train Band. Son of widow Margaret Sutton who was on tax list 1776.
Sutton, Stephen. Capt. James Shepard's Co. at Cam- bridge 1776. Capt. Benjamin Sias' Co., destined for New York 1776. Volunteer at Bennington. Train Band. Hogreeve 1786. Son of widow Margaret Sutton who was on tax list 1776.
Weeks, Joshua. Age 27. Given as of Loudon in Capt. Clough's Co. Enlisted at Canterbury Sept. 18, 1776. Train Band. Signed association test. Tax list 1776.
Williams, William. Capt. Shepard's Co. at Cambridge 1776. Tax list 1776.
Young, Jotham. Capt. Gordon Hutchins' Co. At Bunker
167
ROSTER OF ENLISTMENTS FROM CANTERBURY.
Hill. With Capt. Clough in Canada 1776. Relief of Ticon- deroga 1777. Tax list of 1776.
Wadleigh, Jonathan. Bunker Hill. Train Band and Alarm list.
NOTE-In the History of Northfield, Part I, pages 71 and 72, the following who are enumerated above and whose identity with Canterbury is not other- wise shown are claimed as citizens of Northfield which was set off from Can- terbury in 1780: Elias Abbott, Abraham and Theodore Brown, Moses Cross, Parker Cross, Ezekiel Danforth, Samuel Goodwin, Jacob Hancock and Thomas Lyford.
CHAPTER VII.
CONDITION OF THE MEETING HOUSE. EFFORTS TO SECURE A SETTLED MINISTER. THE REV. FREDERICK PARKER. HIS SUD- DEN DEATH. CALLING OF REV. WILLIAM PATRICK. PROTESTS AGAINST CHURCH TAXATION. THE "SHELL CHURCH" AND ITS HISTORY. CARE OF THE POOR. PETITIONS FOR A NEW COUNTY. THE MILITIA. PUBLIC CEMETERIES.
It was towards the close of the Revolutionary War when the Rev. Abiel Foster "laid down preaching" in Canterbury. "The state of religion was low," according to the Rev. William Patrick.1 Twelve years were to intervene before the town had another settled minister. Of the contributing causes to this condition perhaps none was more discouraging than the condition of the meeting house which the proprietors had been so long in building. For more than two decades after its acceptance by the inhabitants in 1756 nothing had been done to improve its appearance or enhance its comfort. When it was turned over to the town, the building was at best a crude affair. It had been boarded and the roof shingled, but the sides had not been clap- boarded. Within there was neither plaster nor sheathing upon its walls. There must have been many a crevice in the rough boarding through which the cold winds penetrated. So long as it was used for church purposes, which was as late as 1824, there was no way of heating it. If after a quarter of a century of serv- ice the roof did not leak during the summer shower, it cannot be said to have afforded more protection to its inmates during the inclement winter season than the settlers' barns did to their cattle.
Large, square pews, "pen-like affairs," as described by one who saw them, had been built, but not all of the floor space was taken by these, for as late as 1789 it was voted "to sell the pew ground not heretofore disposed of at public vendue" in improv- ing the external and internal appearance of the structure. The high pulpit with its sounding board alone distinguished its reli-
1 Historical Sermon, Rev. William Patrick, October 27, 1833.
169
CONDITION OF THE MEETING HOUSE.
gious use from the secular affairs that were conducted within the portals of the building. A more cheerless sanctuary seldom greeted a congregation and preacher. Small wonder that those who were called to minister to these people came, saw and sought other fields of labor, or that, of the inhabitants residing in those distant parts of the town which in 1773 and 1780 became Loudon and Northfield, none was counted in the membership of the church.1
Yet the faithful few struggled on to complete the meeting house and add to its convenience and appearance. At the annual meeting in 1780, the town was asked to erect galleries. A committee was appointed to look up the money received from the sale of the pew ground in the body of the house and apply it for this purpose. The pews in the galleries were to be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. The work evidently pro- ceeded slowly, as five years later, when the question of the repair of the meeting house came up for consideration, it was voted "To lay the gallery floor, put rails on the breast of the galleries and put pillars under the gallery girths." The town also voted at this time "To shingle and clapboard the foreside of the meet- ing house and clapboard the west end and repair the east end."
How the building was viewed by the inhabitants is shown by articles in the warrant for the town meeting, February 1, 1785. They read as follows:
"Secondly, to see if the inhabitants will take measures for repairing the meeting house in said town and, if so, how much they will do towards repairing and fitting it up, and, if not,
"Thirdly, to see if they will take it down and build a new one."
The town voted to repair and to move the building across the road if it could be done by subscription. Lieut. David Morrill, Nehemiah Clough and David Foster were the committee ap- pointed to make repairs.
The work does not appear to have been done at this time, for a town meeting was called February 26, 1789, "To see if the town will vote to raise a sum of money to repair the meeting house and to build another house for the purpose of public wor- ship in the northeast part of the town,2 and, if not, to see if they will vote to take down the old meeting house and build a new house for that purpose."
Historical Sermon, Rev. William Patrick, October 27, 1833.
2 This clause refers to the old "Shell Church" at Hackleborough.
-
170
HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
At this meeting it was voted to repair the meeting house and to choose a committee to see how much the pew holders should pay towards the repairs. At an adjourned meeting, this com- mittee having made its report, it was "Voted Benjamin Blanch- ard to clapboard and shingle the foreside of our meeting house for thirty-four dollars worth of neat stock at cash price and have the work done by the last of June next." A further committee was appointed to see that the work was done "workmanlike."
It was also voted that the meeting house "be removed on the north side of the road back of the meeting house." The build- ing then stood within the present limits of the cemetery at Canterbury Center. The inference drawn from this vote is that the back of the building faced the present highway. It was removed to where the present watering trough stands.
Two more town meetings that year were necessary before the work was fully outlined. At that held June 9, 1789, it was voted to sell the pew ground "for four pews in the front, one in each front corner, and the wall pews in the gallery" and to lay out the money in making two porches at each end of the meet- ing house and in fitting up the building. At the second meeting this month £18 additional was voted towards repairs. In 1790 two more pews in the gallery were sold and the proceeds applied to repairs, and again in 1792 a further appropriation was made for improvements. This ended the struggle, and for the next generation the building was not disturbed by sound of ax or hammer or changed in any respect. An account of the trials and tribulations incident to the transformation of this meeting house into a town house is reserved for a subsequent chapter pertaining to a later period.
Coincident with the efforts made to finish the meeting house were the attempts to maintain preaching. At the annual meet- ing in 1779 it was "voted to raise five hundred dollars to hire preaching at present," and Lieut. Laban Morrill, Capt. Jeremiah Clough and Archelaus Moore were appointed a committee to expend the money. The value of the dollar at this time may be judged by another vote of the town to raise four thousand dollars for highways to be worked out at the rate of eight dollars per day. The Rev. Mr. Cummings was employed to preach until the following May.
At a special meeting the following October the town voted to
171
EFFORTS TO SECURE A MINISTER.
raise an additional fifteen hundred dollars for preaching, and Masten Morrill, Dr. Josiah Chase and Samuel Haines were appointed a committee "to lay out the money."
In May 1780, a committee was appointed "to treat with the Rev. Mr. Prince to see if they can hire him for one year." He was to have six bushels of Indian corn or its equivalent in money "for each and every day he shall supply the desk in our meeting house within one year from this time, he finding himself." The use of the parsonage "on the fore side of the meeting house" was also given to him. Whether Mr. Prince showed any inclination to accept the offer does not appear, but a year later the town voted not to settle him for any length of time. In the follow- ing March it was voted "to raise so much money for preaching this year as will pay for 26 days preaching." September 11, 1781, the Rev. John Strickland was invited to preach with a view to settlement, and December 3 he was given a call. His com- pensation was to be £70 annually for salary and £90 additional for his settlement. Negotiations with Mr. Strickland continued for about three months. While these were pending, ministers from the neighboring towns were invited to assist in framing a plan for uniting the people in support of the gospel and a day of fasting was appointed. Although the plan of union submitted by these ministers was accepted and additional offers made to Mr. Strickland, including a vote that his salary should be paid once in six months, notice that he had declined the call was received February 25, 1782.
At a meeting held a month later, an article in the warrant "to see if the town will raise money to hire preaching or to take any measures to provide for supplying the desk" was voted in the negative. Until the annual meeting in 1783 the people were without the services of a minister, unless voluntary itinerants appeared or the Rev. Abiel Foster supplied the pulpit. Small sums were voted in 1783 and 1784 for preaching, and in July the latter year the town "voted that Mr. (Tilly) Howe be improved here in this town, to supply our pulpit as a probationer for settling with us in the ministry, for three months yet to come." Mr. Howe supplied the pulpit for about a year, but a call to settle in town was declined July 20, 1786.
The next minister to be engaged was the Rev. Ebenezer Allen. He appears to have preached in Canterbury about nine months,
172
HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
from the summer of 1787 to the last of February 1788. The town voted to call him, paying him £60 per annum, with an offer of "£90 lawful money, to be paid in neat stock, for settle- ment." He was also to have "cut and hauled for him at his place of residence 20 cords of wood 12 feet long," as the record reads. A committee was appointed to propose a subscription in behalf of Mr. Allen's salary.
From early in 1788 until the March meeting in 1790 there is no reference in the town books to preaching. At the latter date £30 was appropriated for the support of the gospel, and again in October it was voted "that meetings be held at the east part of the town1 every fourth Sunday that there is preaching until the next annual meeting." As the Rev. Frederick Parker was called at this latter date for settlement, it is fair to presume that he had been preaching on probation prior to that time. He was given £75 salary and "the use of the parsonage adjoining the meeting house except those parts on which grain is now sown." For a settlement he was voted "the school lot or £80 lawful money at the rate 6 feet oxen at £12 per yoke." Mr. Parker accepted in a letter dated November 23, 1790, which is spread upon the records of the town. It is apparent from his reply that the people of Canterbury had at last become somewhat united in their support of the gospel and were most earnest and cordial in invit- ing Mr. Parker to settle among them. He was installed Jan- uary 5, 1791. The pastorate of Mr. Parker continued for nearly twelve years and was satisfactory to the people, although dissent to the doctrines of the Congregational Church began to be man- ifest before its close.
Mr. Parker was born in Shrewsbury, Mass., May 4, 1762, and graduated at Harvard College in 1784. After graduation, he taught school about two years in Portland, Me., where, after the reestablishment of Episcopal worship in 1785, he was em- ployed to read prayers, and continued nearly two years in that service. Later he joined the Congregational Church and was ordained in its ministry, preaching in several places as a candi- date before he came to Canterbury. He died very suddenly at Canterbury, April 21, 1802. His death was a shock to the com- munity, by whom he was highly respected. The town voted to pay his funeral expenses and to give to his widow the use of the
1 At Hackleborough.
173
CALLING OF THE REV. WILLIAM PATRICK.
parsonage for the remainder of the year. The Rev. William Patrick says: "From all that I have been able to learn of Mr. Parker, I conclude that he was a man of strong intellectual powers, a quick discerning apprehension, having a good acquaint- ance with human nature. His religious sentiments were mod- erate Calvinism. His death occurred in the fortieth year of his age, and his funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Joseph Woodman of Sanbornton."1
At a meeting held in May, 1802, a committee was appointed to hire preaching. The pulpit was supplied until July, 1803, when a call was given to the Rev. William Patrick to become the settled minister of the town. The yeas and nays were taken on this call and the vote was unanimous. As there was soon to be open dissent to both the support of the gospel by public taxa- tion and to the doctrine of the Congregational Church, it may. be interesting to read the record of the names of those who were present at the town meeting and who voted to call Mr. Patrick. The following is the list:
Nehemiah Clough, Aaron Sargent, Jr., Dea. Asa Foster, Stephen Moore, William Moore, John Greenough, William Glines, Ben- jamin Bradley, Capt. Jonathan Foster, Zebadiah Sargent, David Foster, Reuben Morrill, Moses Cogswell, Abiel Foster, Jr., Jona- than Kittredge, Shubael Sanborn, Enoch Gerrish, Capt. John Palmer, John Carter, Elijah Sargent, Ebenezer Greenough, Daniel Randall, David Ames, Joseph Kimball, Jr., Reuben Moore, Jere- miah Clough, Jr., John Clough, Jeremiah Pickard, Jr., Nathan- iel Foster, Joseph Gerrish, Jesse Stevens, Jonathan Knowles, Abiel Foster, Esq., John Kimball, Benjamin Heath, Morrill Shephard, Robert Forrest, Nathaniel Batchelder, David Foster, Jr., Asa Foster, Jr., Nehemiah Clough, Jr., John Foster, Moses Long, Samuel Morrill, Ezekiel Moore, Thomas Ames, Samuel Moore, Jr., Leonard Whitney, William Foster, Abel Wheeler, David McCrillis, Samuel Gerrish, Obadiah Mooney, Jr., William Moore, Jr., Samuel Mooney, Masten Morrill, Stephen Hall, Obadiah Clough, Nathan Emery.
With the arrival of new settlers, land in distant parts of Can- terbury was taken up and homes were built. The late comers had now penetrated to the northeast part of the town as far as Hill's Corner, in which locality there were several pioneers in 1782, while in the Hackleborough district quite a number had located at an earlier date. The lack of highways made it a task
1 Historical Sermon, October 27, 1833, Rev. William Patrick.
174
HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
for the people of this section to attend church at the Center. They were taxed to support preaching, yet received but little of its benefits owing to the distance they were from the meeting house and the difficulty they had in getting there, especially in winter. Hence, it was probably upon their petition that the town was asked "to build another house for the purpose of pub- lic worship in the north east part of the town" at a meeting held February 26, 1789. If a vote was taken on this article in the warrant, it must have been to dismiss it, but in October, 1790, at the same time that a call was given to the Rev. Frederick Parker, it was voted to hold a meeting in the east part of the town every fourth Sunday that there was preaching. This con- cession did not satisfy the people of this section, for the next year they were again petitioning for a church of their own. Responding to this petition, the town voted "to build a meeting house in the east part of the town and set it at the cross roads to the south of Samuel Jackson's house." 1 An appropriation of £60 was made for the building, and Dea. Asa Foster, Nehe- miah Clough, Samuel Jackson, David Morrill, Moses Cogswell, Samuel Haines and Thomas Clough were appointed a committee to make a plan of the building. Some member of the committee must have had such a plan already prepared, for the town at the same meeting voted not to accept it and then and there decided that the structure should be "the same bigness on the ground of the old meeting house and a little higher." Winthrop Young, Joseph Ham, Thomas Lyford, David McCrillis, Obadiah Clough and Capt. David Morrill were appointed a committee to lay out the money on the building. Of the members of this committee, the first three were residents of the vicinity where the new meet- ing house was to be located.
The new meeting house was raised, boarded and the roof shingled within a year, as a town meeting was called and held there in July, 1792. At this meeting it was voted to sell pews in the lower part of the house, to build a porch and "not to stop the two end doors with pews." The porch was to be so con- structed that the stairs to the gallery could be built therein. A committee was appointed at this meeting to make a plan of the pew ground, and, at an adjourned meeting held at the same place in August, this plan was accepted. One more town meeting 1 Old Shell Meeting House.
175
THE NORTH MEETING HOUSE.
that year was held at this meeting house for the purpose of vot- ing for members of Congress and presidential electors. Various efforts were made to finish the church. In 1796 an article in reference to it was formally dismissed without action by vote of the town. In 1802 a committee was chosen to inquire into the sale of the pews, ascertain who had paid, and learn how the money had been expended. This committee was to consult with those who bid off the pews and see on what condition they would relinquish their right to said pews, to value the new meet- ing house as it then stood and report to the next annual meeting. The records do not show the information contained in this report but, at the March meeting in 1802, the town voted to give the North Meeting House to those persons who had bought pews. In July, 1803, two thirds of Nathaniel Lougee's account for work done on the North Meeting House was allowed, "including what may hereafter be made to appear has been paid." At the March meeting in 1808, there was an article in the warrant "to see if the town will grant the privilege hereafter for town meet- ings to be held one half of the time at the North Meeting House or at the Baptist Meeting House." This article was defeated when put to a vote.
This North Meeting House, which is known as the "Shell Church" because it was never finished, was located, according to the records, "at the cross roads south of Samuel Jackson's house." Myron C. Foster, recently deceased, always a resi- dent of this neighborhood, had no recollection of the building but said that, as a boy, he was informed that it stood in the corner where the road from Canterbury Center (via Hackleborough) to the Shakers is crossed by the road running north from the present Baptist Church (via Hackleborough) to Hill's Corner, on the east side of the latter road very near where the cemetery gate now is. When this cemetery was enlarged, the land on which the Shell Church stood was taken into the burying yard, but no trace of the building was then seen. It is the tradition of the neighborhood that it was blown down by a strong wind and that the framework and boards were afterwards used in the con- struction of the horse sheds back of the Congregational Church at the Center. How long it did service as a church there is no record. It is probable that religious services were held in it for several years. The late Betsey Mathes attended there as a
176
HISTORY OF CANTERBURY.
child and had a vivid recollection of the noise made by one of the old men with his cane as he walked over the loose boards of the floor.
In spite of its unfinished condition, the Free Will Baptists, whose following was then attracting attention, asked permission to use it soon after the building was erected, but, at the March meeting in 1793, the town "voted not to grant the Baptists leave to bring their minister into the North Meeting House." The next year the Free Will Baptist Church at Canterbury was organ- ized and received as a member of the New Durham quarterly meeting. Services were undoubtedly held at private houses in this neighborhood for the next few years, as Winthrop Young was ruling elder in October, 1795, and ordained as pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church, June 28, 1796. Six years later, the Baptists again made application for the use of this meeting house, but the town took no formal action upon their request, yet, when a month later they asked upon what conditions they could have the building, the town voted to give it to those per- sons who had bought the pews. This was in March, 1802, and in December that year the Baptist Society voted to build a meeting house of their own on the site of their present church, which they completed in 1803. A little broader religious tol- erance at that time might have secured the completion of this almost forgotten North Meeting House and would undoubtedly have deferred the building of the Baptist Church in another part of the town and delayed the erection of the Union Church at Hill's Corner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.