USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 17
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This location was upon the little elevation on which the First church now stands. Old residents remember that there was for- merly more of an aseent than now from the street to the church, which has been diminished, perhaps, by the continual raising of the grade of the road-bed and the sidewalk.
It was afterwards ordered that Captain Coffin should keep the account of the inhabitants' labor upon the meeting-house, and that men should have but three shillings a day for their work, and lads what the committee should order.
The meeting-house was completed in due time, and was, of course, much more spacious than the little building which it super- seded. It stood, perhaps, a little nearer to the street than the present First church, and had doors at the east and west ends, the pulpit on the north side, and stairs leading to a women's gallery on the south side. Round the walls were erected the pews, the
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
privilege of which was purchased by the well-to-do worshippers, and the middle space was probably occupied with benches. These latter seats were public property, and were assigned to the mem- bers of the congregation who had no pews, according to seniority and social position, probably, by a committee chosen for the purpose.
On the seventh of December, 1696, the new structure was so far completed that the first assemblage of the town for business purposes was held in it; when Joseph Smith of Hampton and John March of Greenland (?) were chosen to decide the contro- versy among the inhabitants about "seating" the meeting-house, that is, designating the seats to be occupied by the several families and individuals of the congregation who had not pews. It was a difficult and delicate task to give to every one just the place to which he considered himself entitled, and the referees were author- ized to select an umpire in case they could not agree. And in order that they might have the assistance of persons acquainted with the standing and claims of all the parties interested, the town appointed Peter Coffin, Moses Leavitt, Theophilus Dudley and William Moore, to meet the referees and "lay the case before them," within sixteen days.
But seating the meeting-house was apparently no easy matter, for it was not until more than a year had passed that the business was finally settled. At a town meeting held February 3, 1698, it was voted that "the new meeting-house should be seated by the committee now chosen, William Moore, John Smart, Biley Dud- ley, Kinsley Hall, Samuel Leavitt and Moses Leavitt, and they have full power to seat the people in their places, and to grant places for pews to whom they seem meet; and those men that have places for pews shall sit in them with their families, and ' not be seated nowhere else.'"
And on the same day the committee assigned places for pews to the following persons :
To Kinsley Hall, his wife and five children, at the west door.
To Moses Leavitt and his family, at the left hand of said Hall's pew.
To Edward Hilton, for himself and wife, and son Winthrop, and his wife and two daughters, Mary and Sobriety, on the north side of the meeting-house joining to the pulpit and Moses Leavitt's pew.
To Richard Hilton, for himself, and wife and four children, his mother and sister Rebecca, on the north side of the meeting-house joining to the parsonage pew.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
To Mr. [Humphrey ] Wilson and his wife, and his son Thomas, and two daughters. Martha Wilson and Mary, and Elizabeth Gilman, joining to Richard Hilton's pew on the east side of the meeting-house.
To Nicholas Gilman and his wife, and John Gilman, and Alice and Catharine Gilman, joining to Mr. Wilson's pew and the east door.
To Captain Robert Wadleigh and his wife, and his son Jona- than Wadleigh, at the south side of the meeting-house joining to the women's stairs.
To Robert Coffin and his wife, and Elizabeth Coffin, and the widow Coffin and her children, joining to Captain Wadleigh's pew.
To Jeremiah Gilman and his family, joining to the south door. To Simon Wiggin and his family, joining to Jeremiah Gilman's pew.
In the meantime the new minister appears to have conducted in his office in a most discreet and satisfactory fashion, so that on November 4, 1697, the town gave him "one hundred acres of land upon the neck, provided he lives in the town ten years after this, and if he should die before the end of ten years, the land to fall to his heirs." It was also voted to add ten pounds to his salary " if he take care of the parsonage [lands ] and provide him- self with wood." And on March 28, 1698, the town voted that Mr. Clark " be considered for what charge he be out upon the hundred acres of land, provided he be drowf (drove?) away out of town within seven years after the grant."
On the twenty-sixth of August, 1698, this definite arrangement was made with Mr. Clark for his stipend :
Whereas it was agreed with Rev. Mr. Clark that he should have 60 1. salary, but now voted that he shall have 101. more to find him in firewood and keep the fences in repair, being 70 I. in all, together with use of parsonage lands and meadows.
And at the same time :
Voted, That a church be gathered, and Mr. Clark ordained Sep- tember 21, and a day of humiliation be held the 7 day of same month, and Captain Peter Coffin, Captain [Kinsley] Hall and Theophilus Dudley were chosen to make provision for same.
RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCHI.
Accordingly, on the day fixed, the young minister duly received ordination at the hands of several neighboring clergymen, and
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
was placed in charge of the church, which had been re-organized on the Sunday preceding, when a covenant and confession of faith were subscribed by the following members :
John Clark, pastor
Peter Coffin
John Gilman
William Moore
Thomas Wiggin
Kinsley Hall.
Nicholas Gilman
Richard Glidden
Theophilus Dudley
Elizabeth Gilman
Samuel Leavitt
Elizabeth Clark
Byley Dudley
Judith Wilson
Moses Leavitt
Margaret Bean Sarah Dudley
John Folsom
Henry Wadleigh
Deborah Sinkler
Jonathan Robinson
Deborah Coffin
Sarah Sewell
Thomas Dudley John Serivener
Mehitabel Smith
There must have been an understanding that the town was also to furnish a habitation for the minister, which had not been com- plied with, since on the first of May, 1699, it was voted to pay Mr. Clark one hundred pounds, in consideration that he relinquished his claim for a parsonage house during his life.
The new church was not considered quite complete without some means of calling the congregation together, and on the fifth of September, 1699, it was voted that a bell should be bought of Mr. Coffin for the use of the town, and Henry Wadleigh and Samuel Thing were appointed to agree with him for it, and get it hung. From that time to the present, now nearly two hundred years, the summons to the inhabitants to assemble for public wor- ship on Sundays, and the proclamation of mid-day and of nine o'clock at night on every day of the year, have been rung out from the towers of the successive meeting-houses of the First church.
The estimation in which Mr. Clark continued to be held by his people, is shown by a vote of the town, passed the first Monday of April, 1704, that his rate be made distinct by itself, and that a contribution be forthwith set up for him. The "contribution " is understood to mean a box for the offerings of casual attendants at church. Such gifts were termed "strangers' money," and the purpose of the town was to appropriate them to the benefit of the pastor.
At the annual meeting of the town, on the first Monday of April, 1705, it was decided that the old meeting-house should be
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
sold by the selectmen, and a school-house built at the town's charge, and set below Jonathan Thing's house next the river.
DEATH OF MR. CLARK.
But on July 25, 1705, the connection so happily formed between the town and its minister was dissolved by his death, at the early age of thirty-five. Mr. Clark was a son of Nathaniel and Eliza- beth (Somersby) Clark of Newbury, Massachusetts, and was born January 24, 1670. He graduated from Harvard College at the age of twenty, and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge of Medford, Massachusetts. Mrs. Clark's grand- mother was a sister of the Rev. Samuel Dudley, and Mr. Clark's widow married the Rev. John Odlin, and was the mother of the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, both of Exeter; so that the settled clergymen of the town from 1650 to 1776, more than a century and a quarter, were connected by the ties of blood or marriage.
Mr. Clark left four children, and an estate appraised at about a thousand pounds, of which his " library of books" was valued at twenty pounds. He was a man of piety and much usefulness, and had evidently attached his people to him in an extraordinary degree. They paid to his widow the full amount of his salary, and erected a tomb over his remains at the expense of the town, and made repairs upon it, twenty years afterwards. His body reposes in the yard of the First church, and over it were inscribed these lines :
A prophet lies under this stone, His words shall live, tho' he be gone, When preachers die what rules the pulpit gave Of living, are still preached from the grave. The faith and life which your dear Pastor taught Now in the grave with him, sirs, bury not.
On the first of August, 1705, the town took the primary steps for finding a successor to the Rev. Mr. Clark, by appointing Peter Coffin, Samuel Leavitt and Moses Leavitt to "take care of the ministers who come to preach, till a day of humiliation, which was fixed for the last day of August, and to take advice of said minis- ters or of any whom they see good, where the town may be supplied with a minister suitable for the town."
On the third of September, Samuel Leavitt, Moses Leavitt, Theophilus Dudley, Simon Wiggin, Richard Hilton and Jonathan
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
Thing were chosen a committee to provide preaching for three months ; and Nicholas Gilman and Jonathan Thing, to " give Mr. Adams, Mr. Whiting or Mr. Curwin (?) a call to carry on the work of the ministry among us ;" their time and expenses to be paid by the town.
On the twelfth of November, 1705, Peter Coffin, Samuel Leavitt and Moses Leavitt were appointed a committee to call a minister, in order to a full settlement, if the town and said minister agree ; and at a town meeting on the first Monday of April, 1706, it was voted to give Mr. [John] Odlin a call "to carry on the work of the ministry in this town, and that the following persons be empowered to make full agreement with Mr. Odlin about salary and other things needful, viz. : Peter Coffin, Winthrop Hilton, Theophilus Dudley, Richard Hilton, Samuel Leavitt, Moses Leavitt, Simon Wiggin, David Lawrence, Theophilus Smith and Samuel Thing."
ENGAGEMENT OF MR. JOIIN ODLIN.
The committee agreed with Mr. Odlin that he should receive seventy pounds a year salary, with the use of the parsonage lands and meadow, and the "strangers' contribution money," and two hundred acres of land on the commons, and one hundred pounds besides, in three payments within one year ; also five pounds yearly for wood, " if the town see it convenient." And on the next annual meeting on the first Monday of April, 1707, it was voted that " the contribution be set up, and begin next Sabbath, and the inhabitants to paper their moneys with their names upon the paper ; and they that don't paper, it shall be accounted strangers' money."
The Rev. Mr. Odlin was ordained over the society on the twelfth of November, 1706, being then in the twenty-fourth year of his age. As he had on the twenty-first of the preceding Octo- ber married Mrs. Elizabeth Clark, the widow of his predecessor, it is probable that he had preached in Exeter for some time before. For some years after his settlement, very little appears upon the records in relation to parochial affairs ; evidence that minister and people were well satisfied with one another.
At the annual town meeting in 1711, it was determined that the minister's rate be made single by itself, for time to come ; and in 1713 ten pounds were added to Mr. Odlin's salary, making it
12
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
eighty pounds a year. Again in 1718 the town voted another increase of ten pounds to Mr. Odlin's salary, and the selectmen were empowered to make a rate for the same. There were two very good reasons for these increments of salary ; first, the enlargement of the minister's family by the birth of four or five children, and second, the introduction of paper currency, which raised the prices of the necessaries of life. The latter cause went on increasing, as we shall see later, for a generation and more.
In 1720 the town voted to add still another ten pounds to Mr. Odlin's salary ; in 1722 to make the minister's rate by itself, to be paid in cash, and that the selectmen raise money to repair the meeting-house, what is necessary ; and in 1725 voted another increase of twenty pounds to the salary.
PARISH OF NEWMARKET SET OFF.
Up to the year 1727 the whole township of Exeter was a single parish. Its dimensions, if it had been a perfect square, would have been more than nine miles on every side. The labors of the minister, in performing his pastoral duties throughout such an extent of territory, must have been extremely arduous ; while the scattered inhabitants in the more distant parts of the town were often deprived of the privilege of attending religious worship. It is not strange, therefore, that the little communities of outlying inhabitants, as soon as they were strong enough to maintain min- isters for themselves, desired to be cut loose from the mother parish. But as the law then stood, all residents in a town were liable to taxation to support the established ministry in it, unless they were released from the obligation by the consent of a majority of the inhabitants, or by a legislative enactment.
The first part of old Exeter to ask a separation for parochial purposes, was the northeastern quarter, the territory which now constitutes in the main, the towns of Newmarket and South New- market. A petition for that object, subscribed by upwards of thirty of the residents of that section, was in the early part of the year 1727 presented to the seleetmen ; and at a meeting of the town held on the ninth of October, 1727, it was
Voted, That the petitioners of the north part of the town (being more than 30 in number) shall be set off to be a parish by them- selves, and bounded as follows : beginning at the south side of Major Nicholas Gilman's farm, next to the town, beginning at the
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
salt river and from thence to run a cross northwest line 4 miles into the woods, and from thence to run a north and by east line while it comes to Dover line, and so bounding upon Dover line east and by north to the extent of the town's bounds, and so bounding upon the salt water to the bounds first mentioned ; pro- vided that the above said parish do settle an orthodox minister and do pay the minister themselves at their own charge, that then the said new parish shall be excused from paying to the ministry of the old parish.
The new parish, which received the name of Newmarket, was incorporated December 15, 1727. But apparently it was not till more than five years afterwards, that it was fully emancipated from its obligations to pay taxes to Exeter for municipal purposes.
A NEW MEETING-HOUSE.
In 1728, November 16, at a meeting of the "First parish in Exe- ter," a vote was passed that a new meeting-house should be built and set on " some part of that land which the present meeting- house standeth on, which land the town purchased of Captain Peter Coffin for that use."
This resolution was probably rendered necessary by the increase of population consequent on the termination of the Indian wars. Men had now ceased to carry their guns with them to church, and the tide of immigration into the frontier settlements had resumed its normal flow.
But the early meeting-houses were of slow growth, and it was nearly a year later before the next step was taken. On the eighth of October, 1729, it was voted that the proposed meeting-house should be sixty feet long and forty-five feet wide, and have two tiers of galleries. And at an adjourned meeting,
Voted, That the meeting-house to be built shall stand near our present meeting-house where our committee shall order ; shall be built and finished as soon as may be with economy within two years ; that there be as many pews built therein as may be with conveniency, and sold by the committee to those that will pay down the money for them for paying for the building of the house ; that the committee shall be allowed nothing for their trouble and charge until the house be finished, and then no more than what shall be allowed them by a committee of three men chosen by the inhabitants to examine their accounts. Major John Gilman, Jonathan Wadleigh, Nicholas Gordon, Bartholomew Thing and John Robinson were chosen committee to carry on the work.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
On the next annual meeting of the town March 30, 1730, it was
Voted, That those inhabitants of the First parish who are desirous of having a steeple to the meeting-house now a-building, shall have liberty to build and join a steeple to the said house, provided it be built wholly by subscription and no charge to the town.
The meeting-house was raised July 7 and 8, 1730, and com- pleted, with due economy no doubt, within the stipulated period of two years, so that it was occupied on' Thanksgiving day, August 28, 1731. John Folsom is said to have been the master workman. The dimensions of the building were fixed by vote of the town. It had two galleries and a broad aisle running up to the pulpit, on each side of which were benches for those of the congregation who did not own pews. They were assigned seats by a committee, who took into consideration their several ages, infirmities and social standing. The pews were generally situated around the sides of the house, and appear to have been thirty-two in number, besides ten in the lower gallery. In March and April, 1731, the pews on the main floor were sold, and were purchased at the prices and by the persons named below :
No. 14 to Maj. Nicholas Gilman for £21.
24 Capt. Theophilus Smith 16.
15 Lieut. Bartholomew Thing 21.
20 Dr. Thomas Dean 15.
30 Capt. Eliphalet Coffin
18.10
19 Capt. Peter Gilman
13.10
31 Dea. Thomas Wilson
13.
13 Jonathan Gilman
23.
10 Nathaniel Webster
11.
21 Francis Bowden
12.
12 Samuel Conner
20.
32 Edward Ladd 17.
22 Capt. Jonathan Wadleigh 15.
25 Capt. James Leavitt 16.
23 Lieut. John Robinson 20.
5 Benjamin Thing 12.10
4 Nathaniel Bartlett 16.10
9 Samuel Gilman
13.
18 Daniel Gilman
13.5
6 Dea. John Lord 12.15
16 Nathaniel Gilman 17.
8 Mrs. Hannah Hall
13.5
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
No. 3 to Ezekiel Gilman for
£20.
29 Caleb Gilman 17.
27 Thomas Webster 17.
11 Capt. John Gilman, Jr. 21.
28 Jeremiah Conner
20.10
7 Col. John Gilman
13.5
2 Jonathan Conner
21.15
1 Mr. John Odlin 15.
17 Col. John Gilman 12.13
And on the seventh of November, 1731, the following sales were made of pews in the lower gallery :
No. 9 to Col. John Gilman for £ 10.
1 Nicholas Gordon 12.5
5 Bartholomew Thing 10.5
6 Jeremiah Conner 10.5
7 Richard Smith 13.
8 Daniel Thing 11.
4 Philip Conner 11.
10 Joseph Thing 10.
3 Nathaniel Webster 12.
2 William Doran 12.
Agreeably to permission given by the town a high steeple was erected upon the structure at the west end thereof, at the charge of a number of public-spirited citizens, who afterwards, on April []3- 4, 1639, transferred the ownership thereof to the town on the re-payment of the cost, about one hundred and fifteen pounds. Peter Gilman and Nathaniel Gilman were the building committee of the steeple, and the contributors thereto were
John Gilman
Daniel Gilman
Nicholas Gilman
William Lampson ™
Nicholas Gilman, Jr.
Abraham Folsom
Peter Coffin
Ephraim Philbrick
Samuel Gilman
Jonathan Gilman, Jr.
Francis James
Jonathan Folsom
Dudley James
Robert Light
Cartee Gilman
Thomas Webster
Joseph Thing
Nicholas Gordon
Moses Swett John Lord Benjamin Thing
John Leavitt
Daniel Thing
Theophilus Smith Thomas Dean
Josiah Gilman
Nathaniel Ladd
Henry Marshall
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
John Folsom
Josiah Ladd
Oliver Smith
Joshua Gilman
Benjamin Folsom Jeremiah Calfe, Jr.
Abner Thurston
Peter Gilman
Kinsley James John Baird
Nathaniel Gilman
This steeple stood till 1775, when it was blown down in a heavy gale, and afterwards was rebuilt at the expense of the town.
On the twenty-eighth of September, 1731, the town voted to take down the old meeting-house, which had been left standing while the new one was built beside it, as soon as it could be done with convenience, and to construct a court-house with the materials thereof, and appointed Theophilus Smith, Benjamin Thing and Jeremiah Conner a committee to " discourse with workmen " about taking down the one and putting up the other, and make report.
The expected occasion for a court-house proving illusory, the materials taken from the old meeting-house were used in building a town-house, which was located on the opposite side of the street, near the site of the present Gorham Hall.
Those who are conversant with the construction of the early churches in this country, are aware in what a high box of a pulpit the minister used to be perched. It must have been hard for him to establish any link of sympathy with hearers so far away. And it seems that some of the people of Exeter realized this truth, and wished to diminish the distance between people and pastor. On March 26, 1733, the town voted that "any particular person or persons that are desirous of having the pulpit lowered, have liberty to lower it eighteen inches, provided they do it at their own charge, and leave it in as good order as it now is."
As early as 1735, the dwellers in the western part of the town, who were now becoming somewhat numerous, and were at an inconvenient distance from the meeting-house, made petition to the town for help to support a minister among themselves. But the town declined the request, probably on the ground that the inhabi- tants of that section were not yet strong enough to set up a religious establishment of their own. It will appear, however, that the petitioners were persistent, and eventually succeeded in creat- ing not only one, but two new parishes in that territory.
The value of the paper currency had declined in 1736 to such an extent that, on the twenty-ninth of March of that year, the town voted an addition of fifty pounds a year, for five years next
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
ensuing, to Mr. Odlin's salary of one hundred and fifty pounds, payable in good public bills of credit on either of the provinces, " he acquitting all further claims for the time past."
In 1737 the town books show that an hour-glass was purchased, at the cost of four shillings and six pence. This, undoubtedly, was to be placed upon the pulpit, not as an admonition of brevity to the preacher, but simply to serve the purpose of a clock.
In 1737 forty-two of the inhabitants of the southwestern part of the town petitioned the selectmen to call a town meeting, to con- sider their request to be set off as a separate parish, with the following bounds, viz. : "Beginning at old Pickpocket upper saw- mill, and from thence running south to Kingston line, thence west and by north by Kingston line four miles ; thence north four miles ; thence easterly to Newmarket, southwest corner bounds ; and so bounding by Newmarket south bounds so far till a south line will strike Pickpocket mill, and then to run from Newmarket line south to said mill, the bound first mentioned." These bounds are very nearly those of Brentwood, as it was afterwards incorporated.
But the town was not yet prepared to consent to the separation, and at the meeting held on November 14, 1738, voted not to grant the request of the inhabitants of the west end of the town for a new parish.
At the annual town meeting, the twenty-sixth of March, 1739, a vote was passed to pay the cost of the steeple to the contributors to the erection thereof, as has already been stated, and the select- men were instructed to hang the bell therein. This was probably a new bell, bought by individual subscriptions. For two or three years previously the subject of the purchase of a new bell, to be placed in the steeple of the church, had been pending, and the town repeatedly refused to make the order. In the meanwhile, however, the people were not without the means to call them to public worship, and to give them the hour for retiring at night. The bell which had been purchased of Peter Coffin in 1699 was still in the steeple of the old church, and, after the demolition of that building, was hung upon the town-house, no doubt, as the old account books show that it continued to be regularly rung. Very likely the reason for the refusal to procure a bell for the new meet- ing-house was, that the steeple was not the town's property ; for, as soon as it became so, all objection seems to have ended. It is said that the old bell of 1699 was afterwards removed to Pick- pocket, and long did duty upon the factory there in calling the operatives to their work.
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