USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire churches and the American Revolution > Part 3
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* This hay was from The " marsh-grass" which grows abundantly in such places( see Webster's new Intery Diety, 6.1322)
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ir aton, Cheshire, and Hillsboro Counties. This Grout Tiug of settlers was from the stable church communities of Connecticut Ana Massachusetts. Thes: newcomers added raut stren,th to the .religous forces of New Hu psaire besides oring;ing with them the political philosophy with which the puritan clergy of those colonies had
Concernin; this political philosophy, so thoroughly imbued their Congregations. 1 Van Tyne nis said that the New England fory pra chers "often stated Locka's the- ories mora clearly than Locke himself! And Dunnin; dres to say that "the idea of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, Wis congirod 3 In Contrenational Churches".
Or mization of the New Hampshire Congregation lists.
The est. blishnout of so many new Congregational churches suggests the question of how they were organized among themselves. The Piscataque Association had already been organized, in 1747, and it is very doubtful that it took into its membership any of these new churches which wore est .olished during the period uf the Great Migration. On the Contrary, it consisted uf only twenty to twenty-five ministers from the oluor towns naar the co.st. In its minutes it is design .. tod 4 as "The New H. panire association of Ministers", But we have ascertained that it is identical with the "Piscataqua association" of which Sprague says that Samuel 5 Langdon of Portsmouth was the lenain ; memoor. Other than this, there was no Association to which tho lur,;e group of churches on the western anu northern front- 6
ier belonged uurin; the Revolutionary Period. But we should not overlook the fact that local "Councils" of congresstional Churches often met for the installa- ? tion of a new Pastor, or for deciding disputes between Pastor and People, Of the
1. Se Foreword, p. 1.
2. Van Tyne, "The Influence of the Clersy', etc., A.i.E .; XIX, 56.
3. Dunning, Con-ro ; tionslists in America, p. 265.
4. Collections of the Haw H. Hist. Soc., IX, 1-67.
6. Sprawa, Annals of the Amarian Pulpit, I, 456.
6. Lawrence mentions the Windsor association as existing; in 1796 (p.639) but Thompson gives the date as 1822 (ist, of Kamiont, p. 177).
7. Lawrence, The Hier H. Churches, pp. 277-8, 615, 349, anu 51.
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Councils for Ordination, the English observer, Nell, wrote in 1747, as fullora,
" The Ordination of Ministers in Nas Englund is performed oy the Impositions of the Hinds of the naimnoorin; Churches, iftar the mander of the Peasoytarians in England . . . They have one peculi- rity in their Ordinations, which is no where else to os met with tnt is, the Lapaties of tho several Churches bein; assembled in Council, before the solemnity is performed, commission one of their ministers to tika tho ordained fator by the il nd immediately After nig Investiture into his office, and in their n cas ;ive him the Right Hand of the fellowship of the Churchas".+
(7) Tha ional 3-sis of the Con rational Church.
The legal basis of the Congregationil Church establishment was pro- vided by the 1.w of 1714. this wis entitled "An ict for the zinten.co Am 2
supply of the Ministry within this Province".
by the terms of this iot it vec mo lunful "for the freeholders of Svory Respective Town within this province Convened in pablick Down Meeting, as often w thay shill see occasion, to make choice of . . a Minister; and the Minister . . . so mide Choice of .. . shall be accountsd the vettleu Minister of such Town. na the corectnen · shall make Rates mu Assessments upon the Inhabitants of the Towa for the payment of the Minister's ulary . . . in such minner inu forms 38 they Joe for uefraying; other Town Charges".
We were not able to find the n me 'Congregation.l' in any of these surlier church laws. It was not until 1763 that we found the New Hampshire Legislators using; this torm in order to distinguish the established church in Pembroke (i.e., the Congregationilists) from the Presbyterian group which had Esthered there. The soove low exempted the Presbyterians 'from paying towards the support of the Congregational Minister' and Gave them power to raise money 3
to support one of their own persuasion. Armitage, however, says that when Han Hampshire was separ .ted from Mass onusetts, in 1679, sne retained the 14333- causatts law which compelled all citizens to support Con riational churches oy publio tuz. 4 But whether or not Con rationalism was specifically
1. Nell, Hist. of No England . . . Civil and Soclesistic_1, p. 250. 2. Laws of Ss .. H., II (1702-1745), 143. It .: lios are mine. 5. Ibid., III (1745-74), 337.
4. 'mitage, Hist. of the Baptists, pp. 762-3.
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designited by the earlier I ws as the established system - walch wo doubt - cort in it is that the law of 1714 coas not refer to it by numa. Thus thers wus, strictly speaking;, no "Est blished Jourch" in Now Rshire. example of how the law worked out we would mantion Londonderry, where the Presbyterians so far outnumbered other sects thit - u :til 1783 - the Presbyterian church was the "Established Church" of Londonderry; for "all who lived within 1 the limits of this town were accounted members of the Presbyterian Society". (e) The Preponderance of this Denomination.
In 1776, eighty-four of the 118, or nearly taras-fourths, of the 2
How Hapshire Churches were Congregational. In other words, only one-icarta of the churches were 'dissenters' from the 'dissenters'. In a subsequent chapter we will discuss the significance of this great preponderance of Con;rogiti quists, as raggards the molding; of public opinion during the critical hours of Lecision - just prior to the revolt in Now Hampshire - when leading mer wore still winning the momentous question of loyalty, or disloyalty, upon the delicate bilanoss of their individual consciences.
3. THE EPISCOPALANS AND THE "3. 2. 3."
(1) The Portsmouth Church; day the Paso.tagna Parish,
Then wa remember that in Episcopal ciersyn cinistared to the colonists it Strawberry Bank as early as 1638, it is an zing to find that they Diocese of New Hampshire was not erected until the same year as that of Missouri (1884)1 te shall now trace the slow development of this church in early Colonial days. (a) After the suppression of Richard Gioson and the first Spisoop .lian church at the Bank, there was an interlude of 90 years before this denomination Was assin introduced into New Hampshire. Durin; this Interval the Pascata;is
1. Laurease, Tho dw H Thurshas, p. 91.
2. 3ee Taolo II in the Appendix.
George
was twice visited by the ... P. G. Missionary, Keith, whose travels az-
tended 'between North Carolina und Pisoutaway River, inclusive'. 1 Thore 18 also said to have been an Episcopal Church on Jowell's Hill, Kittery, urin; this 2
period, (from 1728 on).
(b) when the Church of England was re-introduced into New Hampshire, it was under the auspices of the "s. 2. "" (society for the Propagation of the Gospel) in London. £ As orly 8 1702, the Bishop of london had received a petition from 3
"a Church in law Hampshire" for a minister to be sent to it. Before Juy ald had been received from the Society, however, a number of Portsmouth sontlemon . 4 got together and ersoted . mest suffice which they a med queen's Chapel. Its name was chingel to st. John's Carch it in eurly u_te (1702 vr 4) nd in 1756 the London Society sent out Mir Arthur Brown is their missionary to Portsmouth - doubtless is the result of : second peition fron the parish; for some ei ht or 5 ten tomms in New England petitioned the S. P. G. for missionirios from 1702 on. Brown hid a peaceful ministry lasting 57 yours, wurin; sil of which time his salary was supplied by the Society in London.
(a) In Brown's first letter to the Society, Jated 1641, he says that about sixty of the six hundred families at Portsmouth were 3piscopilian, and 'il the rest Inispendenta' (1.0., Congregationalists), 'there osing; neither uaksr, 6 Baptist, Papist, Heathen, nor infidel that he knows of mon; tham'. He reported
1. Humphreys, An Historical Account ... of the . L'e ., p. 74.
2. Kittery was just foross the river in Line. stackpole, the historian, 109s not believe that this was a ro jalurly constituted dosicopal Church, 'thon Kr. Eveleth may have read the Episcopal service'. (soo Qld Kittery and Haz Families, p. 192-3. )
3. Humphreys, in Historical Account .,, of the s. P. j., p. 62.
Humphreys also says that (in 1728-30) there were some 600 Church af in ;land ,cople "in Boston ind Piscataway government" of whom woout 120 wore Communicants.
4. Spoon Caroline sont the parish a silver communion servico Mod _ 31010 - 003 of four copies known to collectors Js"The Vinegar Bible" ( "ilin ton, His torio Inarchos of america, p. 1421.
5. Humphreys, op. cit., pp. J16-42.
6. (Stabbing) Jarmon delivered before the s.P.v. (1742), p. 45 of the appended Abstracts.
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fifty-three communie ints at that time. In cadition to sixty manus which the society prin him for his services at the Portsmouth church, na received fiftoen pounds for ministering to the little church across the river it Kittery, "Line,
1 and the cave salary of seventy-five pounds for amen was continued to him . ith- out a single shilling's riise util his death in 1773 ? Boxaver, the society granted hin something; better thin a False; i.e., they appointed his son Zurnaduxe to be nis assistant und to itinerito the Province, in 1754. He had Just gr _mated ut Trinity College, lublin, and returned at once to Los Hampshire to assist in the 2 arduous duties of the Pescataqua parish. But as he was called way soon after (1761) to minister to the Newport ( Rhode Island) church, he did not leave nach 3
impress on the Pascitaqua.
(d) That this saft Father Brown"with his hands more than fill, is evidenced * by nis letter to the society, in 1765, in which he complained thit 'in the sixty- sixth
six year of his age . . . he is obliged - for want of mother missioniry in this province - to travel through the country at the solicitation of many people ... and has, since nis last account, baptized, as follows;
at Canterbury 19
:t Boscawon 6 ¿t Pomoroko 3 At Nottingham € besides 29 in his own (regular) parish'. These laria nom ads upon Reverend Brown resulted in too appointment of Moses Badgor us the itinera.t missionary for How 4
Hampshire in 1767-8. Hg was a grutu te of ILirvard College and served a term of
seven pars in this wide field.
5 That it was indeed wide, is shown by the fast
1. ( Megtett, N.), Farmen delivered before the . R. C. (1737), p. 66 of the appended Abstracts,
4. Sarame, Amils of the American Pulpit, 1, 76.
3. (Arcos, R.) Simon preached o for the 3. 2. C. (1761), p. 42 of the appended Abstracts.
4. "Register of New Hampshire for 1768", in Collections of the New H. Hist. son. I, 281.
5. Pascoa, Two Hundred Yarn of the . P. C., II, 282.
. Loa fellow refers to him in his "Tales of a "aysiaj Inn", Perry, Fist. of the ther. Colonial Church, I, 677.
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that he extended his itineraries as far west is Claremont ud other towns on the 1
Connecticut River. And, that the number of his parishioners wod communicants increased rapidly, is shown in the unmal report for 1769 which says that 'the number of souls under Reverend Budger's care mount to 1132, at present, which 2 at nis first going out uid not exceed 740'. But the fot thit in eleven months no only baptized one adult (a female), one negro, and one hundred seven children, mikes his success appear rather slight, after all. However, Reverend Brown re- ported to the society that Moses Badger "gives universal satisfaction wherever 3 he goes", and tout "his mission koops him continually on horseback". This con- stunt jogging to And fro finally wore the good man out, and in 1774 he wrote to the society that he had quitted the itinerant mission of New Hampshire "through inability to porform so arduous a task", and hid engaged himself As assistant to Reverend Caner of Boston.
(e) After 37 years of faithful service - during which he had lived on good terms with the Congregational Clergy, and had uispensed hospitality. to some of 5 them journeying from inland towns - Reverend arthur Brown passed away in the Portsmouth homo where he and his Irish wife had raised ning children on a magro salary. In the New Hampshire Gazette of June, 1773, may be found the following notice regarding the death of tha aged Portsmouth pastor Arthur Brown: "the death of so respectable a pastor mast, to his parishioners, be a most Afflicting stroke of Providence . . . His death is universally lamented by all who had the 6 happiness of his acquaintunos". But Reverend Brown, himself, was quite fortuite
in passing from the scene of his pouceful isbors Just prior to the outora.k of
1, Granite Monthly, XII, 144.
2. (John Green) jarmon before the i. P. C. (1769), p. 21 of the appended Abstracta.
3. Ibid., p. 20.
4. Barrington, Saute) sermon before the j. P. G. (1775), p. 22 of the appended Abstracts.
b. "Diaries of Reverend Timothy Walker", Collections of the Av H. Hist. jos .. IX, 172.
6. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, V, 76.
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troubles with myland. £ To shill take up to story of the cortanoutn enurch u; in, in Chapter VI, and will morely remark, in passing, that 'for twenty-five years after his death the Portsmouth church was wimost entiraly neglected. ' 1 (2) The largont Church on the Congact lout.
(a) Cuptuin Brooks anu sovoral of tho first settlers of CL_remont wers "Churchnon" in in 1767 they took with them into the wilderness 'a certain camel
Bolo is Lay Ro der' and school-mister. 2 But the parish was not organized until 1771, st whigh time Reverend Jamal Rotors, in itinerant 2. 2. J. missionary fra Hubron, Connecticut, visitod the tom officially. 3
This was the Rev irand Poters who was the author of the Y mous spurious collection of "Blue Las". 4 Jole conducted the services of this caurch until 1773, nu also coxuusted : Gry mar School under the tuspices of the 3. 2. .. the story of which will be told in Cuptor VI.
(b) One feature of the u. s. G. Jenool which deserves mantion hare, however, is the way in which its presence in town prou nit into evioonce the religious prejudices of the "Dissenters' (Congregationallate). In a letter to the Society in London, Cole reports the attitude of the townspeople as follows:
"jamo of the dissenters chi.longs a right to too sobool without complyin; with the oruars of it. In short, they seem desirous tout their children should leurs to read and write, und (yet ) evar setuin tho samo prejudice minst the Church which they themselves havo. I want particular directions in this iffair, for my school would be crowded if I would topoh the lostminster Cateaniam un comply with all their humors'.
But Colo was not the sole person to look after the interests of the J. P. G. at Claremont; for, is Tiffany says, "the Claremont church was first ministered
1. Hurd, Histe of Rock, my Str .fr. Counties, 76.
2. Firmy, Bist, of the Pret. Episcopal tourch in the U.S.a., 116.
Lite, Hist. x Dirmont, A.K., p. 94.
4. Delicious History of New England, p. 226. (Those are to be found in Poters. Senar I History of Somesticht, and consist of 45 Purities regulations which posterity mas dubbed "the 3:00 Laws '.)
Granite Monthly, 04 (1922), 145.
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to by itinerant missionaries of the .. '. G.", and we know that the special Itiner ant for Now Hampshire, Roverend Loses Bulgar, visited this town several times,
(0) In 1773, Reverend Rinna Cossit was 'daly collated into the parish' by Governor John Wentworth - an active member und benefactor of the 3. 2. J. - und the tomspeople began the erection of a church in the same year. In this umior taking they were assisted by his Excellonay, Governor John Fentworth, above men- 1 In the s. ?. G. Abstracts referred to above, Reverend Coseit is perskred tioned.
designated
X as 'the missionary at Haverhill'. This is pao-use - before leaving england he had been registered in the Bishop's records at Fulham Palace, onion, es
? ' incumbent of the Haverhill parish'. Re seems, however, to hiva coms almost directly to Cluresont. The Joslety's report for 1775 shows how extensive his isbors word:
"The Haverand. A man Cossit aspaints the Society that ha with preached in 13 different tovas in the Province in such of which he found some mabers of the church who had formerly been under the care of the Con- noctient clergy. Hle both baptized 44 children ant 2 adults in his own mission".3
As time passed Reverend Cossit diu not hesitate to extend his authority across the river into Vemsont, as witness the letter, dited 1765, in which, "by virtue of the ecclesiletical office which I hold by lineal succession from our Lord Christ", Cossit appointed ilexundor P.rmales to be surden of the Church of 4 Jagland for the tomas of Windsor and Reading, (Vermont). In this same year Cosait left Claremont, having been appointed missionary at sidney (Cape Breton Is. ) 5
where he died, 1815.
(3) The Church of England Folk at Holdersoss.
There was another group of Church of England worshippers at Holuerness
on the Merrimack. The Tom chirter of 1761 provided for the support of an Epis-
1. (Law, 2. ) Jarmon before the E. P. G. (1774), p. 22 of the Abstracta.
2. Chise, Hist, of Haverhill, Miss., p. 609.
3. (Barrington) Sermon before the . 2. G., 1775, p. 23 of the Abstracta. 4. Tinisor County, Varmont ( Aldrich Mit Holmes, editors) p.324.
5. Maite, Hist. of the Town of Claremont. M. H., p. 99.
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2
copal minister, and ross says that a church was established hora in 1770. But George Hodges - the illustrious town historian - says that the church hare w:s not built until 1797. Ithought Robert forle hul haen secured s Brotor si ht yours batore that. 2 In the early years this ciirch was ministered to by itin- erant S. P. G .. missionaries, Bamel Patars, Hoses Budger, et. Al. This tom ws situated for up on the very outposts of the northern frontier - a consider.ble distance away from both of the other Aniscopulion groups . nl doubtless hud vary little communication with them either before, or during; the Revolutionary Har.
(4) Factors which tengod to pdv noe the Church of England.
(a) At the time when "the Great "i,sition" set in up the valleys of the Connecticut Mind Merrimack - after 1760 - the Royal Governors 3amming .entworth and his successors, John contworth issued a great many tom chirters und grants of land, in All of which they included a shire for the s. P. G. In the Annual abstracts of the J. P. G. for the year 1763, we roads-
"ir Browns (of Portsmouth) informe the Society that the Governor his Interested them in 106 tois, granting then three hundred acres in each, besides renting globes in each town for the support of the . ministry of the Church of England, Las h.s also printed an emuul portion or right to the first settled minister of the Church of England and his huirs, forever !. º
In a later letter, 1762, Er Brow Jogu inte the Bourd that 'bis Excellency has interested tho Joolety in twelve more tomms, mizing a total or 120.
(b) The status of Episcopley, as the "official church" of How Hampshire, was also a circumstance which should have favored its growth. "Every official of the Government", says Fund, "was expected to belong to the Episcopal Church 4
and the officers of the Army and Navy were really compelled to choose that faith".
1. 70%, statistics ni mhzetter of New H., p. 197.
2. F dras, Holgermass, p. 67.
3. ("soloty for Prop. the Gospel among the Indians" the Sercon nd Raport, 1763. p. 49. wrong Title: should be "Society for Prop"Gospel in Foreign Parts". See also Belknap, Mist. of No: H., 1, 340.
4. Hurd, Hist, of Rock, and traff. Cou .. tica, p. 76.
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Wy tike Hurd's at tenant with a liberal dash of silt, and yet there 3mn be mo doubt that the Church of England occupied a very privileged position, so mack so as to arcuse the jealousy of the Congregational demmiaation and to care their Association of Ministers to complain to Governor wentworth that "the members of the Episcopal commmions . . . in the back settlaumts mjoy the bensfito of an itinerant missionary, while a far greater number of his w.jasty's 1 Good subjects of other denominations ira destitute of gospel ministr tions'. But in speaking of Episcopacy as the "official church" we wish to mums tha rosder against confusing; it with the "ast iblished church", (Congregationalis) though the latter was 'established' aily in the sense that the luw of 1714 zar- mitted the people of any town to choose that form of church discipline (and doctrine) and to tax all the inhabitants in support of it. In a strict sense, no one church was either 'established' or 'official" in the Province of Her H mpshire. But when we scan the King's Jomission to "our trusty d zall-se- loved Benning wentworth, Esquire' in 1761 mi fini thit ho Izatracteur niz. - s well as his successor to "tico es ,solal oire that . . . the book of comma ?r yer, 1 s, by law established, be read on ouch sunday and Holiday, and the Blessed mora- 2 mont Muminister id according to the Church of England"; ani than read in one of Badger's letters thit "the Governor's (Jobs "entworth's) attention to the inter- ests of Religion and the Good of the people is so strong und consplonous that 3 several small churches are about to be erected in different parts of the Province! we cannot but admit that the S. P. G. basked in the winchine of royal favor and of official patronage and privileso.
1. "limites of the New H. Assoc. of Ministers" (Joe annual meeting in 1770; Collections of the How E. Fist, jog., 1%, 37.
2. May Marching Ihave, I, 274.
3. (Rappel, Fred) sermon before the inceli720), p.9 of the Abstracts.
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(5) Zictom which opposed nl retarded it.
(a) Thors wors, however, several factors which definitely tended to retard the spread of the Episcopal system in this Province al which furnish, perhaps, an adequate explanation as to why it took root in only three or four toumc (i.e., in only ono per cent of the 300 toums in which the . P. G. bad received grants of land). First, and probably strongest, was the fact that 'anyone, or any organization, which stood for unification was suspect in America before 1774'. 'nd, as Humphrey points out, "The Church of England was at a dis- advantage in America just because it possessed a traditional centralized organiza- tion". 1 It is an undisputed mitter of history that the thirteen original colonies wore more afraid of consolidation thu the xother Country was of having then consoli- dated, and were only driven to it by the sheer necessity of mutual defanso! In the King's Chapel lecturas, Holgos says that the benefactions of the J. ?. G had been a greit help, but also a serious hindrance to the Episcopal Churchos of
"The Society was most generous, und by its assistance, building;s were procted and salaries wer; paid; but the effect wis to provide parishes vith ministers who hiu bean bora, brought up, und oduc ted in Bag;lind; . The result was that the merican revolution brought the Episcopal though in the vary verge of extinction" 2
(b) Then the hatred of the Puritans for this church no doubt hent Im towards retarding it; we can beat show their attitude by illustrations from in- madiatoly adjoining fields. Take, for instance, Reverend J. Bouch's letter from Newton, Massachusetts, in 1733. He says,
" .. hon I first arrived I intended to visit the Indians . . . but many of the English here that Are bittor onasles of tra Czech antidotod then ; ingt the Church by insimuitin; them with a jealousy that, if thay received mo us their minister I would, in time, jot their Land fron them, Ani they must be obliged to pay me a salary. This pat 3 them into a great rage, for these Indians are a very jealous people".
1. Humphrey, Lution lism ni Religion in America, p. 3.
2. Religious sist. of Her mansland, p. 227. ( Italios are mine)
3. Livost of the Records of the , P. G., p. 46.
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And the Reverend Usher, another i. P. G. missionary at Bristol, Kina, wrote home to the Society, in 1730, that 'sundris nogroes had made application for baptism that were able to render a very good account of the hope that was in ther', but that mo had not beel permitted to comply with their requests, "being 1 forbid by their misters'. This in a colony - Mine- which wis considered 2 "distinctly doiscopalian and was intended Jo a rival to her Muritan neighbors".
(o) And finally, we should not forget to note the purt which Reverend
- arthur Brown of Portsmouth took in the Mayhew Controversy regarding the proposed establishment of an Inglican Spiscopate in merica. In 1763, Reverend Brown wrote . reply to Mayhew which Cross hus characterized is interesting on two rounds; first, as an illustr .. tion of the methods of argumentation employed by a class of men of that day, who mistook pugnacity for plety, and second, on account of the charming frankness of the author.
3 In Browa's "Incidental Reflections relative to the
Church of England", he readily admitted the trath of the design charged to the 3. P. G. ( that it was seeking to settle bishops in North America) and Justifies it on the ground that bishops are an indispensable limb of the Church of England system. Regarding Mayhew's apprehension that Episcopacy, once firmly established,
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