USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 16
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No doubt even the light burden which the town had assumed in their contraet with their minister weighed somewhat heavily upon some of the poor parishioners, for an order was agreed upon, December 5, 1650, that the townsmen should have power to "make a rate upon all such of the inhabitants of the town as do not voluntarily bring in according to their abilities, for the satis- fying of the town's engagement unto Mr. Dudley for his main- tenance."
On the same day the town authorized Francis Swain or Henry Roby, if they could, to bargain with some able merchant in the Bay, to furnish Mr. Dudley, in exchange for hogshead and pipe staves, forty pounds' worth of good English commodities, in the following May, for his year's maintenance.
Before Mr. Dudley had lived a year in the town he had so won the favor and confidence of his people, that they volunteered to defend his reputation when it was assailed by the tongue of slander. On the nineteenth of February, 1651, they authorized " the present townsmen, Henry Roby, Thomas King and John Legate, to vindi- cate the eredit and reputation of Mr. Dudley against the reproach- ful speeches and calumniation of John Garland, by proceeding against him in law, according to the demerit of his [offence]." This John Garland had, a few months before, been accused of taking the town's timber as an inhabitant, without sufficient war- rant. It is not at all unlikely that Mr. Dudley, who stood up
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manfully for the rights of his parishioners, was forward in making the accusation, and thus incurred the ill-will and "reproachful speeches" of his defamer. It is not known that a suit was brought; but is more probable that the slanders were retracted and apologies made.
On the first of September, 1651, it was determined that John Warren should "go into the Bay to receive the town's pay of Mr. Kimball for Mr. Dudley." The repeated negotiations for the forty pounds' worth of English commodities had, therefore, been brought to a successful termination.
NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP.
The meeting-house, which was resolved upon more than a year previously, was not yet built, but it was now voted to complete it, by the primitive expedient of requiring all the inhabitants to contribute their personal labor for the purpose. The order was passed September 1, 1651, as follows :
That the meeting-house shall begin to be built upon the next second day [Monday], and a rate to be made how much work every man shall do towards it, and so be called forth to work upon it by Thomas King and John Legate, as need shall require ; that the work be not neglected till it be finished ; and that every man that neglects to come to work upon a day's warning shall pay 5 shillings the day, to be forthwith seized by the constable.
In spite of this peremptory vote, however, the meeting-house was not erected, nor apparently even begun, for more than three- fourths of a year afterwards.
The following order was therefore passed, July 8, 1652 :
It is ordered that a meeting-house shall forthwith be built, and that every man, both servants as well as others, shall come forth to work upon it, as they are called out by the surveyors of the work, upon the penalty of 5s. a day for their neglect ; and teams are to be brought forth to the work by the owners, as they are called for by the said surveyors, upon the penalty of 10s. a day for their neglect. And the surveyors or overseers appointed for the said work are Mr. Edward Gilman, Thomas King and Edward Hilton, Jr., and they are to see the work finished and not to have it neglected.
There is little doubt that this attempt proved successful, and that the meeting-house was substantially completed within the
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year. On the twenty-third of October, 1652, John Robinson and John Gilman were chosen as overseers of work on the meeting- house in place of Edward Gilman aud Edward Hilton, the former of whom was about to sail for England, and the latter was im- mersed in his private business ; and in August of the year follow- ing, a return of commissioners appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts to lay out the western bounds of Hampton, refers to the " Exeter meeting-house " as an accomplished fact. It is, however, a pathetic illustration of the narrow resources and pov- erty of the early settlers, that though their purpose was to build merely the most primitive structure, only twenty feet in extent, probably of squared logs, and furnished with rude benches of boards as they came from the saw-mill, yet in order to accomplish it, they were obliged to impress the services of every inhabitant and servant, and to occupy more than two years of time. The poor building, however, with some additions, had to serve them as a place of worship for over forty years.
DIFFICULTY OF PAYING SALARY.
The task of raising Mr. Dudley's stipend was found no easy one. Not every person who had the means, had also the disposi- tion to contribute. Captain Thomas Wiggin, as has been else- where stated, resided in what was known as the Squamscot patent, which was not within any township. He was, however, presuma- bly a member of Mr. Dudley's congregation, being rated as such. But he was not prompt in paying his rates, and on the fifteenth of December, 1653, the town voted that "the selectmen have power to take some course with Captain Wiggin about Mr. Dudley's rate, as they shall see meet." How the captain adjusted the matter at the time is unknown ;* but a few years afterwards, on May 6, 1657, he induced the General Court of Massachusetts to pass an act making his house and property taxable in the town of Hampton. This gave him such vantage ground over the people of Exeter that they could not take any legal "course" with him, however delinquent he might prove ; and they were fain to resort to negotiation. On March 4, 1658, they empowered Mr. Dudley and Mr. [Edward] Hilton "to treat with Captain Wiggin, and to agree with him what annual payment he is to make to the town
* As the captain was a large holder of land, it is possible that he turned over to the town some tracts of it, to balance the account. The town certainly received from him certain "land and meadow," for which no other consideration is known.
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towards bearing the charges of the public ministry." Thereafter, of course, the captain paid no more than he chose to pay. But this episode has carried us a little in advance of our main story.
After the expiration of five years the charge of maintaining a minister was found almost too onerous for the town, which had lost some of its inhabitants, and was otherwise incapacitated, and on June 13, 1655, a new agreement was made with Mr. Dudley to this effect :
By reason of the town's decreasing and other disabilities, the town cannot well bear the burden of paying him forty pounds a year as their minister, and he is not willing to urge from them what they could not comfortably discharge, therefore, the contract between them, recorded on the town books, is annulled, and he lays down his place as a minister ; and what exercises he shall perform on the Sabbath day he does as a private person ; for the present summer he promises to perform them constantly ; after- wards he is to be at liberty. But so long as he continues at Exeter he promises to be helpful, what he may with convenience, either in his own house or some other which may be appointed for the Sabbath exercises.
The inhabitants of the town have sold Mr. Dudley that dwelling house wherein he lives, cow-house, house lot and meadow with the commonage and the appurtenances for which he pays fifty pounds, twenty of which being half of the rate due him the present year ; fifteen for which the town is behindhand for former rates ; and fifteen pounds "in respect of what labor shall be performed this present summer."
And shouldl said Dudley remove his family from the town he promises to offer the said premises to the town for the same price of fifty pounds to be paid in corn, and English goods, or in neat cattle at an appraisal ; and in case of his decease his family may occupy the premises for a year and then the town shall have the said offer.
Said Dudley will require nothing of the town for what pains he shall take in performing Sabbath exercises after this summer.
Any cost or charge laid out upon the house by said Dudley after he pays for it, shall be reimbursed to him to the extent of the additional value thereof, in case of purchase by the town.
The contract signed by
SAMUEL DUDLEY, JOHN GILMAN,
THOMAS PETTIT,
for the
WILLIAM MOORE, town.
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In the following spring the people made a new attempt to insure a suitable support to their minister. On the twenty-eighth of April, 1656, it was agreed that for the maintenance of the public ordinances, all the saw-mills belonging to the town should be rated, as follows : the old mill upon the fall, seven pounds ; Hum- phrey Wilson's mill, seven pounds ; the new mill of Jolin Gilman, six pounds ; Mr. Hilton's mill, five pounds. Those who made pipe staves should pay three shillings a thousand, and those who made barrel staves two shillings a thousand therefor ; all for the maintenance of the ministry. And in case any maker should send away any staves without acquainting the town therewith, he should forfeit to the town ten shillings for every thousand so sent away. In consideration of the saw-mills being so rated, they were to be freed from the rate which they formerly were to pay the town ; " but when the ministry faileth, the old covenant to be of force."
FEARS OF LOSING MR. DUDLEY.
In the autumn of the same year the people of Portsmouth made an attempt, in which they were nearly successful, to induce Mr. Dudley to quit Exeter and settle in that place. They voted, on the twenty-seventh of October, to give him an invitation.to be their minister, and to pay him a salary of eighty pounds a year. Their selectmen were appointed a committee to present him the vote, and to close a contract with him. On November 10 they waited upon him and acquainted him with the proposal.
He is said to have acceded to it, and agreed to visit them the next spring. But the prospect of losing their minister stimulated the people of Exeter to renewed exertions to retain him. This is the record of their action :
At a full town meeting in this place legally warned the 8 day of June 1657, it was ordered and agreed that so long as Mr. Dudley shall be a minister in the town, the town is to pay him fifty pounds yearly in merchantable pine boards and in merchantable pipe staves at the current price ; if the boards and staves do not reach the said sum, the remainder to be paid in merchantable corn. Furthermore the dwelling house, house lots and other lots and the meadow on the west side of the Exeter river, all formerly Mr. Wheelwright's, shall be confirmed unto Mr. Dudley, his heirs and assigns from this time forever, notwithstanding any promise or engagement to the contrary.
The selectmen of the town shall yearly, as aforesaid, gather up the said sum, and in case they be defective herein, to be answer-
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able to the town for their default, and to pay themselves what is not gathered up by them.
This last provision certainly indicates that the office of select- man, in the olden time, was no sinecure ! The action of the town, however, indneed Mr. Dudley to forego any design he may have had of leaving Exeter, and he was content to accept the smaller stipend and continue among his old parishioners. The people were not ungrateful, as the numerous grants of lands and privi- leges from time to time made him by the town bear testimony. And that they had implicit confidence in his integrity may be gathered from the final proviso in the following resolution, passed in town meeting March 4, 1658 :
It was granted to Samuel Dudley that tract of land between Griffin Mountague's house lot and Mr. Stanyan's creek, lying all on the right hand of the path next to the river, upon consideration of drawing out all the grants in the town book or any other neces- sary orders contained in the same, which grants or orders are to be fairly written ; provided that if there be any grant or order recorded formerly in any town book to hinder this grant, then this grant to Samuel Dudley to be of no effect, otherwise to stand in force.
From time to time, afterwards, orders were adopted by the town for the purpose of facilitating the collection of Mr. Dudley's salary.
On the twenty-cighth of March, 1662, it was ordered that for every thousand of heading and barrel staves that were got out, there should be eighteen pence allowed to the town's use, " that is, to the ministry."
On the twenty-fifth of April, 1664, it was voted that Captain John Clark's mill should pay five pounds annually to the public ministry.
And on the same day it was determined that " a lean-to " should be added to the meeting-house, with a chimney, which should serve as a watch-house.
A lean-to, in the parlance of the time, was an addition, usually of one room, with a single sloping roof, like a shed, such as used to be often attached to the rear of old-fashioned houses.
On the fifteenth of March, 1668, it was voted that Lieutenant Ralph Hall have full power given him to arrest and sue any inhab- itants who refused to pay to the rate of the ministry, which he was authorized to gather up or to collect by distraint.
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On the tenth of July, 1671, it was ordered that "instead of the selectmen gathering up the minister's rate, Mr. Dudley is from this time forward to gather up his rate himself, and instead of £40 yearly as heretofore, there is now granted to him £60 in such kind of pay as hath been formerly agreed of." The selectmen were to make the rate yearly, and in case any inhabitant should refuse to pay his rate, the selectmen were to empower Mr. Dudley to " get it by the constable."
Matters were now so well arranged between parson and people that no further action of the town appears to have been necessary for a considerable period. But only five years after the last entry, a most surprising and unaccountable thing was done at the Hamp- ton court ; the town of Exeter was presented for " letting their meeting-house lie open and common for cattle to go into," and the selectmen were ordered under a penalty of five pounds to cleanse the house, and have the doors hung, and shut tight, etc. This accusation has a formidable sound, and on the face of it would convey the impression that the town was guilty of gross negli- gence, nearly approaching to sacrilege. But that cannot be believed of a people who were maintaining at no small cost, a minister of high character and much energy and influence. It would rather seem to be the result of an accident of a day, exag- gerated to the court by some malicious mischief-maker. Those were days of few door fastenings, and of many indictments. Nothing further being heard of the present case, it is to be pre- sumed that all suitable amends were made for the misadventure, whatever it might have been.
Two years after this, on the first of April, 1678, Jonathan Thing, John Folsom, Jr., Jonathan Robinson and Theophilus Dudley were chosen tithing men ; the first instance of the election of such officers in the town, so far as the records show.
On the eighteenth of February, 1679, the following order was made by the selectmen, for the better accommodation of the church-goers :
At the request of Jonathan Thing, Edward Gilman, Edward Smith, Peter Folsom, Nathaniel Ladd, Moses Leavitt, for the erecting of a gallery at the end of the men's gallery, for their wives, it is granted unto them the privilege thereof, provided they build the same upon their own charge, leaving also room to build another end gallery if the same be required. Also, the gallery wherein Edward Smith, Biley Dudley, Edward Gilman and the
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rest do sit in, and have upon their own proper charges built, we do further confirm and allow of.
The " other end gallery " was soon required. On the second of July, 1680, the north end of the meeting-house was granted to Mrs. Sarah Wadleigh, Sarah Young, Alice Gilman, Abigail Wad- leigh, Ephraim Marston's wife, Grace Gilman and Mary Lawrence, " there to erect and set up another gallery adjoining the other women's."
Thus it appears that the little meeting-house of twenty feet square, which had been outwardly enlarged by the addition of a lean-to with a chimney, had had its interior capacity increased by two galleries, and was now about to receive a third. This denotes not only a larger population, but surely no diminution of religious interest.
In the year 1680 the town passed out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, under the newly established royal provincial gov- ernment of New Hampshire. The most notable effect which the change produced in parochial affairs, was to make the minister's rate payable on the twentieth of March, instead of one month later, as before.
DEATH OF MR. DUDLEY.
There was no visible sign of failure of the powers, physical or mental, of Mr. Dudley, as he drew on to old age. When he was sixty-nine, he was appointed upon a committee for the equal dis- tribution of the town lands, a duty which no feeble man would have been selected to perform. And during the four years of life which still remained to him, we do not learn that his natural force had abated, or that he failed to minister acceptably to the wants of his people. He died in Exeter on the tenth of February, 1683, at the age of seventy-three years.
In his death the people of the town suffered a serious loss. He had become to them, in his thirty-three years of service, much more than a religious teacher. He was an important member of the civil community, an intelligent farmer, a considerable mill owner, a sound man of business, and the legal adviser and scrive- ner of the entire people. The town intrusted him with its important affairs, and he in return was the stanch defender of its interests. It is true that he always had a sharp eye to his own advantage, but he had a large family to provide for, and he was
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never accused of wrong or dishonesty. He was a gentleman of " good capacity and learning " in his profession, and a sincere and useful minister. Fortunate was it for Exeter that in its feeble stage it was favored with the counsel and example of a man of such goodness, and wisdom and practical sagacity.
Mr. Dudley's remains rest in the neglected burying-ground just south of the gas-house, on Water street, and, no doubt, beneath a stone slab from which the inscription-plate has disappeared.
He was thrice married, first in 1632 or '33, to Mary, the daughter of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts, who died in about ten years ; second, to Mary Byley of Salisbury, who died in Exeter about a year after her husband was settled there ; and third, to Elizabeth, whose family name is not known. He had children by each marriage, and in all ten sons and eight daughters, five or six of whom died before reaching maturity. But several of each were married, and lived in Exeter, and their descendants are still numerous in the vicinity.
For several years after the decease of Mr. Dudley, the town was without a settled pastor. The records are wanting between 1682 and the latter part of 1689, and no tradition has survived to tell us what religious privileges were within the reach of the inhabi- tants during that period. But it is not to be supposed that a people who had recently provided increased accommodations in their meeting-house would long permit them to go unimproved. It is altogether probable that temporary engagements were made with such clergymen as could be procured, to perform clerical duty. From outside sources we learn that in the latter part of 1684 the Rev. John Cotton, son of the Rev. Seaborn Cotton of Hampton, was living, and officiating, in a ministerial capacity, in Exeter, but how long he continued there, we cannot ascertain. From that time forward we have no definite information, until October 6, 1690, when the town
Voted, That Elder William Wentworth is to be treated with for his continuance with us in the work of the ministry in this town for one complete year ensuing. The men chosen to treat with him are Biley Dudley, Kinsley Hall and Moses Leavitt.
William Wentworth, when just arrived at man's estate, was one of the original settlers of Exeter. After a residence there of five years, he quitted the place, in company with Mr. Wheelwright, and tarried a while in Wells, and then established his permanent
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home in Dover. There he had become a leading elder in the church. And now, after near half a century's absence, he was called back to the scene of his earliest American experience, to occupy the honorable and responsible post of religious teacher. How long he had already so officiated in Exeter we have not the data to determine, but as he was to be employed to " continne " his work there, it is clear that this was not the beginning of it. Nor was it the end ; for on October 6, 1691, William Moore and Peter Coffin were chosen to treat with Elder Wentworth to supply and carry on the work of the ministry in the town the ensning year ; and on March 30, 1693, after having voted that the salary payable to the minister shall be accounted a necessary town charge, the town agreed with Mr. William Wentworth " to supply and perform the office of a minister one whole year, if he be able ; and if per- formed, the town do promise to pay him the sum of forty pounds in current pay, or proportionable to any part of the year."
But Mr. Wentworth had reached the age of seventy-eight years, and, though his life was still somewhat further prolonged, he had probably become unable, by reason of natural infirmities, to comply with their proposal. It soon became necessary, therefore, to look elsewhere for a minister.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRST SOCIETY AND ITS OFFSHOOTS.
THE first step which the town took for the purpose of finding a suitable minister was highly characteristic of the simplicity of the times and of the deference then paid to the judgment of the clergy. On the twenty-third of June, 1693, John Gilman and Biley Dudley were selected in behalf of the town "to go to the neighboring ministers and take their advice for a meet person to supply the office of the ministry in the town of Exeter."
In less than three months the desired person was found, and on the eighteenth of September, John Gilman, Peter Coffin and Robert Wadleigh were appointed to "treat with Mr. John Clark, and procure him to come to this town to be our minister." A month later, it was voted to empower the same committee to " agree with Rev. John Clark to be our minister, and what salary they do agree with him for the first half year, the town do engage to pay."
There is every reason to believe that Mr. Clark was at once engaged, and that he performed satisfactorily his clerical functions in Exeter during the stipulated six months ; for at the end of that period, on the twentieth of April, 1694, the town began to take measures for securing a parsonage.
Peter Coffin, Robert Wadleigh and Richard Hilton were chosen in behalf of the town to treat with and buy from Captain John Gilman, Moses Gilman, Sr., Humphrey Wilson, Samuel Leavitt, John Folsom, Peter Folsom, Jonathan Thing and John Wadleigh, "a certain house and land lying and being near unto the present meeting-house, and to be improved by the town for the use and benefit of the ministry of the town for the time being ; and what they agree therefor, the town will pay by way of rate upon the inhabitants, as the law directs ; and the committee is empowered to finish the house and make it habitable for the minister forth- with, and to repair the fences about the land, and to inquire the
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expense of redeeming the marsh at Wheelwright's creek, common- ly called the town marsh ; and whatever the committee judge to be due for the premises to report to the selectmen, and they to make rate for the same upon the inhabitants."
A later record, however, renders it unlikely that the authorized purchase was ever made. The house referred to was situated near " the present meeting-house ;" but it was soon after determined to build a new place of worship, which the town located at quite a distance from the former ; and in view of that contingency the committee very probably thought the selection of a parsonage were better postponed.
On the twenty-fifth of April, 1695, the town gave authority to the selectmen to make a " Ratt (rate) for the use of the ministry according to the province law."
A NEW MEETING-HOUSE.
In the following January the important question of erecting a new house of worship was mooted ; and at a town meeting held on the twentieth day of that month, after debate in the matter, the major part of the freeholders of the town voted that there was great need to build a meeting-house, "where the worship and service of God may be performed, and that the same should be erected on the hill between the great fort and Nat. Folsom's barn." Peter Coffin, Samuel Leavitt and Moses Leavitt were appointed building committee.
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