USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire churches and the American Revolution > Part 2
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3. Characteristic Za turen of Church Growth
(1) than we come to the period of church growth and expansion on the westera frontier, we find that the 'nascent energy' of new sittlements was an important factor, i.s. the desire to be in right. The best example of this is at Conoord: It is related that when, in 1725, the surveyors and chain-men want to the site of the old Indi am Camping-Ground, At Penacook, they took with them Reverond 3och Coffin who preached twice, on the Jibbath, in a tont pitobed on
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sugar Ball plain.
la this was the place 'where satan, some yours ago, hid his
seit, it was most fitting that it should tims be fumigsted of its evil associations
1. "(4) Journal of tas proceedings of the Committee", oto., in Bouton's ilst. of Comcort, p. 70.
2. Bacon says that, in all probability, these surveyors completed the church- fort that all in readiness for the sellers when they came to Penacook (Cinconl) Old Gen England Churches p. 3.40
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before the arrival of the Puritan settlers. afin, at Newport, tra first arrivals were eight young men fros Connecticut wno, on their very first un- day at their new home, met together for divino worship under a tree and thus set 1 & precedent which wis not to be broken in all the tom's later history. Plymouth, New Hampshire, we hure an example of a church which was puthered "not on the ground, but at Rollis, and which wont into the wilderness under 2 the bummer of Christ as their avowed leider and King" And scarcely a decado after the first families settled at Rochester, the town voted to raise 150 pounds 3
for the support of the gospel, and fire pourle for other tom purposes
(2) One of the most common { nd confusing) factures of early low Hampshire towns was that they were often strung out for mileg. along some pleasant stro m. * This led sooner or later to the dividing up of the older settlements into several smaller townships as ( for example) Hmaten, which can amco Horthampton, south Hampton, and Hampton Fills as its offspring. In the peti- tions by which the inhabitants socured such subdivisions, the reason given for the desired change is almost invariably fiks tho following (fras a petition fra cort .in inh bitants of Duxoury Farm and Vile trip. ) :-
""e are not sufficiently mineroua to settle and maintain a gospal minister, wd it is not likely va evar "ill be. 5 To ura at sob a distance from the meetingwhouss thit the aged ini infirm sre utterly unable to attend public worship and it is & greut inconvenience to the rest".
This dividing up of the towns often caused a growth in the member of churches without any real growth in membership.
(3) another rather common element of confusion is the fact that a
maaber of towns sometimes joined forces in the support of public worship - thus mixing it difficult to locate the church, it Effingham the towns-people "voted
1. Inwrence, The lir: E. Churches, p. 466.
2. Ibid., p. 571.
3. Ibid., pp. 340 and 527.
4. Town Papers of Now H., XII, 605. (signed by four Crosbys, et al. ]
5. Italics iro mino.
. 800 stackpole, 11, 304.
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to unita with othar adloinin; towns in the support of Reverend John Ad ms -8 pre char'. But we are left quite ut sen as to where this roup should be placed 1 on our map. In the case of the Cornish - Windsor ( Varmont) church, the mutter is simple: for the "indsor folk raised only one-third of the Pastor's salary, so 2 wo located the church at femish, where the Pastor resided. The situation is exactly reversod in the case of the Haverhill-Newbury (Vermont ) church; so wo did not include Haverhill on our Tables of New Hamshire Churches, but placed it in the Supplementary Let of Congregational Proups - even tho the Register of Non Hampshire for 1768 includes Reverend Peter Powers, of H.verhill, in its list 3 & 4 of ministers.
(4) As for the rollgious life in the homes of the Puritan settlers who came up from Massachusetts and Connecticut, during the luter periods of settlement, it was nurtured mu kopt strong by the family Altar. and that the Purit ins were accustomed to unourden themselves freely to the word is wall il- lustrated in the story of the Bostoner who was a member of the Massachusetts Genaral Court. Governor shirley hud pat uil the members of the court aider an oath of secrecy regirding his plans against louisburg. But this honest member wss so impressed by the novel proposal that he babbled out the secret & fow days ister - uurin; the course of his fmily prayers. One of the most inter-
5 esting features of religion in the Puritan homes of early New Hampshire was the observance cf a sun-down to sun-down Jubbath. When 6 o'clock came on a Saturday evening, the chura and kneading-board were put away, the buzz of the Spinning wheel was hushed, the last armfuls of wood were stacked in the chimney- corner, and even the old grammy by the fireside laid aside her knitting. Through all that evening and the next day no unnecessary noise was allowed to disturb the serens quiet and holy calm of the Sabbath. mais But when the first day's sun dropped
1. No such doubtful cases appear in our Table. : See Supplementary Lists for Sich. -
2. Lawrence, Tho How E. Churches, p. 436.
3. Ibid., p. 542 and alla, Mint, of Newbury, Et., pp. 61-2.
4. Collections of the Fra H. Mist, Society, I, 281.
5. Belknap, ilist. of How H., I, 269.
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behind the western hills, the weekly round of activities waa Tudually resumed. Of this custom in English traveller observed (in 1747 ) : "They h. ve - greater veneration for the Evening of sturdy tha for that of the . ord's Day, itself so that all business is luid asido all over New England by suset, or siz 1 a-clock on Saturday night".
(5) It is easy to form a picture of the general procedure of public worship,in those early towns, from the many descriptions which have come down to us. In a frontier settlement, like Concord, we can picture the goodman and his wife starting from their distant forest home, soon after the poop o' day, with the two youngest children astrido of their necks and the older ones of their flock walking behind, along the narrow path, all eyes uni ours open against dangor of an Indian uttuck./ Arrived at the meeting-house, they join the group who are waiting outside for the bell to sound. At its first stroke, the rugged farmer- preacher, Reverend Timothy Tilkor, steps forth from the door of his house, his 2 lady on his arm, and two blucks following behind. Thon Reverend walker has entered the tall pulpit ho places nis trusty gun ( the best one in the parish) within easy reaching distance.
3 After the call to worship, the first elder gives cut the hymn, lino by line. H, also 'sets the ture', out euch worshipper joins in oz his own favorite key. Directly Reverend walker h.a given out his text, the sexton turns the hour glass and the congregation suttle wow to several hours of quiet repose, during; the sermon. But presently a gentle snors disturbs the Jabbath calm, and a wary tithin' mm slips up on the drowsy one, armed with a long wand. If the offender is a malo worshipper, he receives a stout rup on the head with the ball at one end of the wand. If a female, har sensibilities are
1. Meil, Bist, of How Arel nd-Civil no Ecclesiastical, p. 252.
2. See "Diaries of the Reverend Timothy Walker" (in the Collections of the For H. Hist. soc., Ix, 123 fr. ) for a vivid account of his daily activities on the farm given him by the Concord proprietors. These included hoying, logging, plowing, fencing, sheep and cattle raising, hos-killing, cider-brewing, fruit- raising, wheat and barley farming, etc., etc.
3. Lawrence, The New K. Churches, p. 360.
* When they reach the big tree at the foot of the M.H. hill, all stop To put on their shoes, +the women don clean white stockings, also (Bacon, b.401)
trousod by drawing the fox-tall brush, at the other end of the wand, lightly 1 across her face. (Meanwhile two tithing-man have taken it upon themselves to walk around town and discover any who were breaking the Sabbath by 'lying at home or in the fields'. For the true Puritan held himself responsible not only for his owa, out also for his neighbor's conduct Here as elswhere the seats were hinged, + were emphatically banged down at the preacher's Amen Baron, 299) (6.)) But a survey bf conditions affecting the oburobos would be fur from complete diu we not make some mention of the Great Awakening of the year 1741. This movement centered around Northampton, Massachusetts, and the powerful preaching of Jonathan Edwards in the Congregational Church there. It spread into southern Nev Himpshire and brought revival to a surge member of churches the. Edwards' groat theme was one which modern society seems to have largely forgotten- namely, our Personal Responsibility osfore Jod for cur own actions.
(7) In order to appreciate the peculiar forse with which this Awaken- ing struck society, we must call to mind the extreme excitement and hysteria with which the movement was at tended. After whitefield's first visit to How England ,there was an outburst of evangelistie activity on the part of a mmber of Congregational ministers - among them Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Parsons, and dleazer Theelock. When Parsons preached at Lyme on May 14, 1741, "great numbers dried out in the anguish of their souls. Sevoral stout men fell, as though a canson had been discharged, and a ball made its way through their hearts; come
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young woman were thrown into hysterios fits". "Though most of these evangelists word devout men", Buys Talker, "some were sheer fanatics, if not lunaties. of a certain James Davenport it is said that 'wherever he went, the scene of his preach- ing was almost a riot'". Finally the legislature of Connecticut, as well as a
1. 3.tohelder, "Ancient Church-Lore in New England", Finite Monthly, XII (1889), 293.
2. Walker, The Congregation lists, pp. 258-9.
.
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Boston Jury, pronounced him insane. 1
And Stackpole Gives un gran more larid picture of a revival meeting held at Durham, New Hampshire, as follows:
"In the midst of a sormon some parsons mide _1l manor of mouths, taming out their Lips, drawing their mouths uxry, as If convulsed, atraining their aye-balls, und twistin; their bodies in all sorts of unseemly oatures. Some were falling down, others were jumping up, catching nold of ons another, extending their ams, clapping their hands, Groaning and talking. They shouted and danced about in the church, and sang strange songs" 3".2
(8) Thesa excesses give rise to a great many criticisms, of course. In fuot such opposition was soon stirred up against ;hitefield, and other revival- ists of the Awakening, that Jonathan Edwards undertook to write a whole sock in which his main theais was to show that the revival of 1740-1 was 'traiy & worx of God'. In answer to the complaint that "too much is mide of couteriss amd effects on the body" ho 3tys;
"But for (sans ministers') spanking of such (bodily) effects es primable tokens of God's prosince . . . it seems to me they are not to te il.mod. because I think they are so, indeed . . .. because when there hema been these eateries I have found . . . . mich greater an more excellent affect".
He then goes on to answer "the complaint of too much singing as of religious moetings of Children", a3 followa;
"Thero is not so much difference before God between children wod com parsons as we are ready to imagine; we are all poor, ignorant, foolish bibes, in his sight: . . . I have soon miny hippy effects of calliran's religions meetings; and Jod nus seomed often ramirkably to om tam in their meetings and really descended from Heaven to be mmoant thar'."
(9) Crude und disgusting; as much of the hysteria of early revitils may appear to us, however, we must not forget that the people who were sps. I-sound and electrified by the eloquence of these revivalists belonged to a pismeer society which was still struggling with the rigors of frontier life. If we could gain ciesrer insight into the monotony, isolation, And social sturfatima of the
1. Salker, op. cit., p. 259.
2. Stuckpois, Hist. of New H., II, 307.
3. Edwards, They are on the Porival .. . in 1740, pp. 256-9 and 271-2.
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ually lives of many people who mido up those oxcited audiansos, wo might then soe thuit these outbursts were but a natural reaction to a very unusual stimulus. The effect of frontier conditions upon Amarioan Churchas has been made the subject of special study by a rocont writer, who says;
"a much clearer insight into what constitutes the wmoric mizing of Christianity is to be gained by roulizin; that our civiliza- tion, thus far, has been largely the civilization of a frontier. Frontier contact . . . is the one unifyin; feature in all the vicissitudes of our national development". 1
That this frontier contact was unusually potent in New Empshiro, bounded, as it was, by vast stretches of the northern wilderness-we shall see in mb- sequent chapters. 2 Suffice it to say here, that the influence of the frontier upon New Hampshire church life not only helped to bring about _ rovolt aminst the standing order, but it was a strong factor in furthering the coalescenos of the Presbyterian churches with the Congregational system - as illustrated by the "Plan of Union betwoon Presbyterian and Congres.tional Churches on the Entier", which was drawn up and adopted by the General Assembly of the Presby- terian Churches in 1801. Several other factors affecting early church life in New Hampshire h.w beon reserved until Chiptor Five.
( Supplementary Note)
The low, by which all who were able wore required to attend public worship, should not be overlooked here. Felt says that, in 1668, 26. Marston of Hapton, aged 70, was heavily fined for absence from worship aid for having 2 .uiker books in his possession.
(soa Polt, Zaples, Hist. of New England, 11, 252).
1. Hode, The Frontier spirit in american Christianity, p. 11.
2. Soe Chapter Y where we discuss several other general religions conditions.
3. Prest. . . Compiled from the Records of the General assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United states of america, pp. 297-9.
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OUTLINE OF CHAPTER TO
INPRODUCTION AND GROWTH OF THE BARLIZSA DENOMINATIONS
A. The Congregationalista 13
Page
(1) The Church at Dover
(2) The Portasouth Ohmroh es
(a) Reverend Richard Gibson at "tho Bank".
(b) The Puritan invasion and the Congregational ohmaroà
(3) John ihoolright and the Church at Rzeter
(a) The original church fron Massachusetts
(b) The General Court pats a ban on the Exeter Church
(4) The Hempton Church
(5) The period of greatest growth
(6) Organization of the Now Hampshire Congregationalists
(7) The legal basis of the Congregational Church
(8) The preponderance of this denomination
B. The Episcopalians and the S. P. G. 20
(1) The Portsmouth Church and the Passataqua parish
(a) The 90-year interinde at Portsmouth
(b) Ra~introduction of the Church of England
(e) Reverend Arthur Brown's first letter to the J. P. G.
(a) Moses Badger appointed itinerant missionary
(e) brom's death; declino of the Portsmouth Churok
(2) The Claremont Church on the Connect font
(a) Reverend Sammel Peters and Sambal Colo
(b) Attitude of Dissenters towards the j. P. G. School
(e) Reverend Ranna Cossit 'collated into the parish'.
(3) The Church of England folk at Holderness
(4) Factore which temied to advance the Church of England
(5) Factors which opposed and retarded it
(6) The Organization of New Hampshire Episcopilians
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INTRODUCTION AND GROWTH OF THE D'ALIEJT DINCRIB CIONS
4. The Contro tion.lists
(1) The church at Dover.
It was nourly twenty years after the first settlement of New & mpanire osfore the first oimreh was fully established. Although Dover zus settled under the Puritan suspices of Lords by una Brook, the early settlers wers thera for This is how in early Doverite expressed the situation - "ie ure a differ- ent race from ( tho Puritans), never h.vin; had any connection with then. Instead
of coming hore for religious purposes the object of our ancestors mus to lumber
und fish and trade". 2 This rather exaggerated stateusnt pretty well explains tha reason why the first pastor, whom Thomas higgin brought over with the settlers of 1633, did not receive adequate support. Aftor only two yours this Puritan divine was forced to remove to Boston, And the little flock there was latt opon to the ravages of several ecclesiastical wolves sno succooded alm. After those turbulent, licentious intriguers - Burdett, Knollys, and Lerxhm - hud hd their 1 day, the Dover people spoiled to Massachusetts to sand than a minister. Bostoners sont them Daniel Haud, s gruquite of Cambridge university, u.das whom they settled down to a peaceful church iife. During Reverand Zud's ministry a mew meeting-house was built and surrounded oy a wooden ourricado - built upon in gurthez antrenchment .. About this time the drum was discarded, and the Hoople were henceforth summoned to worship oy a weil which hid Jsem brought fros over-
30a9. There is no record is to when the Half-Hay Covenant was introduced into
1, Italios ura mine.
2. Limrence, The Ses H. Churchos, p. 12.
¢ "Out of this enclosure the settlers made many a sortie to arivo off Inulane that had surrounded the meeting-house". Tallin ton, Historia Courchas of Auyrics, p. 170.
the Dover church, but we do know that it was not polished until the Revolutionary period, during the pastorite of the illustrious Jeremy Jelka.p.
(2) The Portsmouth churches.
() Here ws find the Episcopalian mu congres tional interests so Internoven that it is impossible to write the history of the one without touch- ing upon thit of the other. Then Jom ison, the principal patron of tho Lovor Plantation, died in 1635, he left a thousand acres of land for the mintenice of 'un honest, somly, md religous pre char of God's word'. And as ILson Was
1 a loyal Churen of England min, ns are not surprised to find Rien.rd Gibson, in Spiscopilian, as minister to the Infant colony at Strawberry Bank, in 1638. of the earliest supporters of the Church of ingland, here, was sir Francis Champernowno, s young nobleman who settled it Greenland about 1638. "From his residence on the Piscataqua he was (doubtless ) a constant .orshipper at the first sharel in Portsmouth". But Gibson injudiciously opposed the extension of #838- chusetts' authority over the Piscataqua na was soon ousted through the influence
of the Boston Puritans. 3 "Thereiftar", says Tiffany, "church interest in How
Hampshire faded out". Ho doubtless means Church of England interest. For we find that tho earliest public act found on record in the Portsmouth Town 300ks 4 is the granting of the glass, in 164); i.e., a certain portion of the land was set apart for the use of the churon. and unuer april 17, 1664, se rend; "It is ordered this day that; Mr Richard Cut: John Pickaring And Thos. ilford Ara to place the inhabitants in thear soats in the meeting house. the which is to be don ut their best discretions".
1. Balknap, Hist. of HAM H., 1, 15.
2 . She ilurd, Hist. of Rockingham Au strafford Counties, p. 86.
3. Tiffany, A list. of the Prot. 6:iss. Church, p. 89.
4. Hackett, Portsmouth Recurda, p. VIII.
b. Ibid., p. 28 ·
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(D) Meanwhile Portamouth nuu suffered from un inv sion uf joston - Furit ins, soca iftor 1641. By hook or oy crook, tusse orthies possessed thom- salves uf the principal offices of trust and power, and _lotted umon; their 1
oun mumber a ;ood part of the town's comon lands. Thus it came out that when a church was finally astaplished here - in 1640- it sus on the Puritan
order (Conrajation.1). Du.min; says that no provision was made for public 4 worship until 1640, and no charen or; aized until 1671 - 'though a minister 2 was resident there a food part of that time'. This : +3 Josias Koody, who Was chosen by vote of the tony in loot. and as evidence of their Food fita, * und resuiness to pick their minister up, the town orugreu , care to be made for 3
those who slept or took tobacco on the Lord's Day, urin; the public service. Jut in 1884, Ecody was banished by the Church of npland governor, saward Cran- field. £ The people continued, however, to employ Con reistional ministers And
4 in 1708-12 the famous "Old North Metin ;- house" was erected. Nellie Tilin ;ton
says that this little church is the scene of Al the town metin_s, "und even its ledger nus culled into requisition to record the number of wolves' 13.08 tout were brought in for bounty. Thesa hids wars nailed on the asut in ;- house door". After several aaondea ortasouth became one of the wellinieat und most distinguished of the Colonial ;pit.is: "ne sie;ince ind splendor of the old country wore rsproduced in this ,art of the new. Cockad nuts and cold- nouded cunas, embroidered waistcoats .d. guld-l.c.d costa ciidod up the Listes
of the ola Meeting-house; while chariots with liveried footman wor, atinuing at 5 the door'. It was urin; this period that the people sit user the ministry of Samuel Langdon - who (after twenty-seven years of faithful service haraj was
1. Fry, few H. 8 - 10yıl Province, p. 30
2. Dunning, Concre ; cionalista in america, p. 160.
3. - Brewster, Rumbles around portsmouth, pp. cb-s.
4. Historio Churanas of Myria, p. 18. intronco, The New d. Trumpass, p. 121.
* "His preaching must have been powerful, for families came many miles thro the coldest winters-regularly- to hear him preach. (Bacon, p.362)
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Called to the Presidency of Harvard Joiles in 1773. Jars utiles, of Sowyort, succeeded him for one your, pril, 1777 - Jose, 1776, Mid town vodimo President 02 7.19.º
[3]
(+) Although the first :murah or ilzod it szetor only Listod troo yours, it p03883838 . peculiar interest through tis chr ster ud nistory of its forumher ?- John halright was an Oxford University main waring the ways what Oliver Cromwell wis ilso . stuuant shore. fromall's Fanns that 'he was moro ifrid of muoting hetri ht .t foot) .il tan u nd pinco veen of moting un 1 stay in the field' shows us tat imss foumer of xxuter wis a fit en to help
o wilderness, to a louer fra st commonzenith on tas
f urthermost
Puesmirent frontiers of civilization. .La the four towns cuos under the
watpority of Massachusetts, in 464%, hwsiri_at _nu dis closest wingrunts ro.Loved to .: . in0.
and he returned to New Hampshire It was ator of the Hampton church for LA
(o) After hadriait's departure, the water folk tried to of juice anothor couron in their community: worauson the Massachusetts Jsmeril Court stayed in and sent them 'a salama condition from formin; a church until they 2
hud ;ivon ditisf.ctory evluanco of their reconcili tion u fitness'. fter
newly ten yours the townspeople u ited in chilin; Reverend mes cals. But though ne ministered to them for thirty-taras jours, no church is known F. n.V3 3 It . . not until logg that one was or; s-
existed in Exeter in iil int tino. -
Po. ized; ut wich time their third minister - Arared john Il ik - . ora.ind. Things wont don; psicofully ustil nous si mi.dle of the next century. Then,
2. Ball, Hist. of Gator, p. 2.
2. Salkaap, Mist, of Na. H., I, w.
S. Ltaranco, The iss Hle thursnos, p. 47. for data re the Old South Church of Portsmouth, sve Tiolo I, tupeux.
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under the influence of "The Great is kening", - split occurred and the second church _t Exoter was formed, with Reverend Daniel Rogers us Pastor. without it was mmy yours before hirmonious relations were re-established between the two congregations, both of these churches ;row ad flourished, And wither cf them seems to have suffered from the effects of the Revolution.
(4) The Hampton Jhurgh.
The principal inducement to the surly settlement of Hampton zus the very extensiva sult-marshes found there. This was routly needed by nil the four original towns for the curing of their fish n. for furnishin; Lay for * cittle. T But A mpton w.s not sittlod from commercial motives, uringrilz. The people were Puritans who brought their .stor mu their church or; ciza- tion with them to Hapton, ( like the Pilgrims when they settled it :iymouth. ) This man - Reverend Stephen 3schiler - 'may be resurded as the father mu fou der of the town'. 2 He was well advanced in years when he reached the shores of the Few orld; so he nw not been but one year at Exeter when Reverend Timothy Dalton was associated with him in the ministerial office. He amours to have become rather foolish or flirtatious in his old age; at any rate he was viamissed in 1641 - it the ripe age of eighty yours - und Reverend Timothy Dalton tuok full churga of the church for the next twenty years. This church grew ind flour- ished; and by the beginning of the Revolutionary period, two branch churches had grow up and been separated off from it.
(5) The Period of Gro test Growth.
The period of routest growth umon; Congregational Churches nas after the Great MirAtion hud set in, in 1760. Table I. in the Appendix snoss thit naurly half of the emrenes wer, organized after that uste - especi ily those in
1. Fox, Statistics and Cazetter of Box i., p. 4. 2. Larance, The Nos H. Churches, p. 63.
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