USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Dover > The first parish in Dover, New Hampshire : two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, October 28, 1883 > Part 3
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THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
ing, unto which came most of the Priest's hearers, when truth gave the Priest such a blow that day," says Bishop, " that a little while after the Priest left his Market place, and went to the Isles of Shoals, three leagues in the sea."
The people at Oyster River, being dissatisfied, sent a petition to the General Court at Boston, 17 May 1669, signed by John Bickford and thirty-eight others, desiring incorporation as a town. They represented " the intolerable inconvenience of our traveil many myles, part by land, part by water, manie tymes by both, to the public worship of God and the necessarie stay of manie of us from public worship, who can- not undergo the difficulties of traveil to it"; that they comprise two hundred and twenty souls, near fifty families, and seventy and "odd " soldiers, and they hope the Court would find " our hearts and hands strengthened in the work of God, our case more vigorous for an able, Orthodox minister, our families instructed according to law, ourselves growing in truth and peace to God's glory." A strange argument this would be with which to appeal to a modern legislature in behalf of a division of a town.
The movement was successful only in causing the town by action 6 October 1669, to decide that Oyster River may "build a meeting- house " at their own expense, and appropriate their tax for the ministry.
It was agreed in 1675 that two of the five selectmen should be selected from Oyster River. Under this arrangement the people there for many years had their own minister, who was paid by the town, but with the taxes imposed upon that people for the purpose. John Buss was both physician and minister from, perhaps, 1684. He was living there at the time of the great Indian and French massacre of 18 July 1694, when ninety-four of his parishioners were killed or carried cap- tive. He was not at home that morning, and his family escaped to the woods ; but his valuable library was burned. In his petition laid before Governor and Council in 1718 are the words "your petitioner who for forty years successively has labored in the work of the min- istry in that place "; and, "But being now advanced to seventy-eight years of age, and unable to perform the usual exercise of the min- istry, the People have not only called another minister, but stopp'd their hands from paying to my subsistence, whereupon he is greatly reduced, having neither bread to eat nor sufficient clothing to encoun- ter the approaching winter."1 He had, indeed, been in some straits
1 The result of this petition was an order that Dover pay him (20 per year, in quarterly instalments. John Buss was born in 1640 ; perhaps he lived early in Concord, Mass. It does not appear that lie was ever ordained. He was preacher and physician, beloved as such in Wells, Me., in 1672, and would seem, by their records, to have remained until near 1684; the petition above conflicts with this date,; but is doubtless incorrect. He died in 1736.
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
earlier. Fifty-five ) persons in Oyster River petitioned the General Assembly, 11 November 1715, stating that "whereas by mutual agree- ment the inhabitants of Oyster River have for many years past made choice of their own minister and paid his salary . . . and that the selectmen of the town in generall (two whereof have been annually chosen within the district of Oyster River) have all along made rates [i. e., taxes] for the several ministers," and, as there has been lately some neglect either in making or collecting the tax, they ask that they have, practically, parish powers. The papers show that there was a division of sentiment at Oyster River. But the result was an order that the selectmen of Dover "call to an account " Joseph Davis, the last year's constable in Oyster River, and oblige him to pay the money he should have collected ; and that the selectmen make the legal assess- ment " as formerly, on the inhabitants of Oyster River, for the support of the present minister, Mr. Buss, until another minister be called and settled in his room."
On the 4th of May 1716, Oyster River was made a parish, -"the new meeting-house built there [to] be the place of the public worship of God in that district." That parish was incorporated as Durham, 15 May 1732, and took from parish and town the present towns of Dur- ham and Lee and part of Madbury, - all then Durham.
The church was organized 26 March 1718. "This day (through the smiles of Heaven upon us)," wrote Nathaniel Hill and Stephen Jones to the Boston News Letter of that time, " we had a Church gath- ered here, in the Decency and Order of the Gospel, and our Teacher, the Reverend Mr. Hugh Adams2 was then consecrated and Established the Pastor thereof, who then preached from that Text in Cant. 3, 11 ; we being then favored with the Presence and Approbation of some Reverend Pastors of the next Neighboring Churches, with the Honored
1 The petition presented by Nathaniel Hill was signed by Jeremiah Purnham, Stephen Jones, Elias Critchett, Sampson Doe, Joseph Dudley, Elias Critchett, jr., James Nock, John Tompson, Joseph Jones, John Chesley, John Burnham, David Davis, Abraham Bennick, John Gray, John Rawlins, James Bickford, Samuel Perkins, William Duly, John Doe, John York, Joseph Chesley, John Cro- mell, John Buss, jr., Philip Chesley, Joseph Davis, John Tompson, sen., John Smith, William Jackson, David Kincaid, Jonathan Chesley, Valentine Hill, Ichabod Chesley, jr., Thomas Alin, John Sias, Job Renholds, Samuel Chesley, jr., Samuel Chesley, Cornelius Drisco, Robert Burnham, Peter Mason, Jonathan Simpson, Robert Tompson, Samuel Hill, John Renalls, Joshua Davis, Moses Davis, jr., William Leathers, Francis Pitman, Ely Demeritt, Naphthali Kincaid, James Jackson, Thomas Willey, James Burnham, Robert Huggins, Jonathan Woodman.
2 Hugh Adams was born 7 May 1676; graduated H. C. 1697 ; was ordained pastor of the church in Braintree, Mass., 10 September 1707, the day on which the church was organized; dismissed 22 August 1710. At Chatham, Mass., then without a church, the town, 25 April 1711 offered him 650 salary and £100 settlement. He seems to have accepted in the summer. The town voted, 13 January 1715, " not to employ Mr. Adams in the work of the ministry any longer," - the petitioners for such action alleging that he " did so imprudently, unsteadily, and contentiously behave himself m many respects." His labor at Oyster River ceased 20 January 1739. Ile died there in 1750.
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Messengers thereof at the said Solemnity, in our New Meeting-House, wherein they gave the Right Hand of Fellowship."
The first meeting-house in Durham was built by the town of Dover in 1655, near the lower end of Durham Point. The second, "new" in 1716, was farther up, on land now owned by Hamilton A. Mathes, and under its pulpit was concealed a portion of the powder taken from Fort William. and Mary, 14 December 1774, in the daring attack on that royal fortress by John Sullivan and others, of Durham, in connection with John Langdon, and from which place the powder was taken to Bunker Hill and used in that battle. The third house was the huge one built at Durham Falls in 1792, which was taken down in 1848. It was noticeable for its immense windows and general lack of beauty. It stood upon the triangular piece of ground just south of the bridge, now used as a lumber yard. The fourth and present house was dedi- cated 13 September 1849.
Newington. - The beautiful lands on the south side of the Pascata- qua as it flows from Great Bay past Hilton's Point, long known as Bloody ' Point, formed the first territory, in point of time, actually sep- arated from this parish. As respects attendance upon public worship, the people were always in peculiar difficulty. They had to cross in their boats the deep and rapid Pascataqua, - at its narrowest point, four fifths of a mile wide, -and at that point especially turbu- lent and dangerous as the great tides roll in and out. In times of storm attendance was impossible. But even these difficulties were greatly increased when a new meeting-house was built at Cochecho, and an inhabitant of Bloody Point must travel five miles upon the land after crossing the wide and rapid river. A petition to the Governor and Council 15 July 1713, from the " inhabitants of Bloody Point, . with some from the outskirts of Portsmouth," asked incorpora- tion as a parish. They had "of late erected a meeting-house and obtained a tract of sixty acres of land for the Accommodation of a minister among them."' The petition was granted upon a hearing
1 So called because Capt. Neal of the Portsmouth plantation, and Capt. Wiggin, of the Dover plan- tation, in 1631 disputed about the ownership of this beautiful territory, and would have shed blood if they had proceeded to extremities. " So, as in respect," says Hubbard, " not of what did, but of what might have fallen out, the place to this day retains the formidable name of Bloody Point."
2 This petition was signed by George Huntress, Edward Row, John Dam, Wm. Hoyt, Joseph Richards, Samuel Rawlings, Joseph Rawlings, Samuel Tompson, Richard Downing, William Furbur, Jethro Bickford, Clement Meserve, Thomas Bickford, John Fabyan, Samuel Huntress, Nathan Knight, John Hodsdon, Johu Pickerin, 3d, Henry Lankst ir, Benjamin Richards, John Downing, John Knight, Thomas Trickey, John Downing, Andrew Peters, John Kuight, 2d, John Warenfol, john Bickford, John Rawlins, Hatevil Nutter, William Whith un, Jame, Rawlings, Clement Meserve, Moses Dam, Alexander Hodsdon, Henry Nutter, William Shackford, Thomas Leighton, Richard Pumery, Joshua Crocket, John Hutson, John Nutter, Abel Peavey, Thomas Row, Edward Pevey, John Quint, John Trickey, James Gray, John Carter, Henry Bennet, Benjamin Bickford, Richard Nason, Thomas Downs.
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THE FIRST PARISII IN DOVER.
the next day, "they forthwith establishing an able, Orthodox, and Learned minister among them." 1
Somersworth. - The Somersworth, which became a parish 19 De- cember 1729, not only included Rollinsford, but Rollinsford was largely Somersworth. Its centre of population was at the present Rollinsford Junction. The present generation remembers the venerable meeting- house' (third in time there), which stood in the burial ground, and was destroyed by an incendiary.
But Rollinsford was an ancient settlement when the waters were running to waste at the Great Falls. Its south line was the present north line of Dover until it met Fresh Creek easterly, and then it fol- lowed that stream to the Newichawannock. Its soil began, therefore, but a mile from Walderne's mills and trading post. Anthony Emery's farm is mentioned, over that line, before 1646, and a grant of marsh to him 2 May 1642. The mill privilege on Fresh Creek was granted 6 December 1652, for £6 annual rent, to William Furbur, Elder William Wentworth, Henry Langstar, and Thomas Canney. In that year Elder William Wentworth received land in that vicinity, and may have been living there in 1653 on land a part of which is still in possession of his descendants, on the turnpike to South Berwick. The river lots, from St. Alban's Cove to Quamphegan, were granted in 1656, and ranged upward as follows: Lieut. Ralph Hall, John Roberts, Deacon John Hall, Henry Magoun, James Grant, Thomas Canney, Joseph Austin,2 Henry Tebbets, John Damme, and Thomas Beard ; and there they reached the land of Thomas Broughton. In 1658, a second and interior range was granted, going northward : Jeremey Tebbets, Thomas Hanson, Ralph Twombly ; and, interior of these, Job Clements. While only a fraction of these persons settled on these lands, their children did to a great extent, and not a few names are recognized there to-day.
Saw-mills at Quamphegan and at the now Salmon Falls gathered a population. It was at that latter place occurred the savage massacre by French and Indians, 18 March 1689-90; surprised in the darkness before dawn, when, as the then pastor of this parish wrote in his sad journal, "The whole place was destroyed with fire, twenty-seven per- sons slain, and fifty-two carried captive." It was less than nine months
1 This condition was speedily complied with. The first meeting of the new parish, held 6 August 1713, voted to offer a salary of {80 to Rev. Mr. Fisk, who, however, declined the offer, and received pay for fifteen Sabbaths. Rev. John Emerson preached three Sabbaths and on Thanksgiving day, for which he received £4; but he declined to settle. Jo:ph Adams accepted the invitation, and was ordained 16 November 1715, the church having been organized on the preceding day. Mr. Adams re- mained in the pastorate until January 1783, and died 26 May following his distaission. He was born in Braintree, Mass., 1 January 1690, graduated H. C. 1710, and was uncle of John Adams, afterwards President of the United States.
2 Ancestor of the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who thus comes into our parish.
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after the desolation of Cochecho, 28 June 1689, when the same pastor recorded, " Killed twenty-three persons, carried captive twenty-nine." The two massacres swept everything from the edge of Cochecho to the northern line. "Heard's Garrison at Cochecho," wrote Frost, 26 March 1690, "being the frontier and the only Garrison on the north side of that River, . . . having now left three men." Such was the First Parish in 1690. But such was its people that not a foot of land was yielded in all that fifty years of war. Even when people of Dover petitioned, as in 1722, regarding the law as to grammar schools, because " For at the time fit for children to go and come from schools is gen- erally the chief Time of the Indians doing Mischief, so that the Inhabi- tants are afraid to send their children to Schoole, and the Children dare not venture." Such was once this parish.
So greatly had Somersworth (Rollinsford really) grown in 1729 that a petition for separation as a parish was presented that year. It gave the usual reasons : "That the Dwelling places of yo' Petitioners are at a great distance from the house of Publick Worship of God in the Town of Dover, where yo' Petitioners live, by which their attendance thereon is rendered very difficult, more especially to the women and chil- dren of their Families, and that in the Winter Season and in Stormy Weather they cannot pay that Honour and Worship to God in Publick as it is their hearts desire they could, therefore for the advancing the Interest of Religion," etc.1
The petition was granted, and the parish of "Summersworth " established 19 December 1729.
There had been some public service there earlier. James Pike, teaching in Berwick, preached there in 1727. On the 28th of October 1730, he was ordained pastor of the church there. "This day," said a correspondent of the Boston News Letter, "the Rev. Mr. James Pike was ordained Pastor of the Church 2 in this Place. The ceremony was
1 The signers were : Samuel Roberts, Paul Wentworth, Thomas Alden, Eleazer Wyer, Love Roberts, Jeremiah Rawlings, Sylvanus Nock, James Hobbs, Thomas Hobbs, William Streley (?), George Ricker, Thomas Downs, Philip Yetton, Thomas Nock, John Roberts, Samuel Randall, Samuel Cosen, Ma- turin Ricker, Ephraim Ricker, Joseph Ricker, Joshua Roberts, John Hall, Moses Tebbets, William Downs, John Tebbets, Benjamin Peirce, Maturin (?) Ricker, Zachariah Nock, Philip Stagpole, Thomas Miller, Nathaniel Perkins, jr., Samuel Roberts, Benjamin Wentworth, John Conyer (?), Wil- liam Busbe, Joseph Husey, Ichabod Tebbets, James Stagpole, Benjamin Varney, Ebenezer Garland, Samuel Downs, Richard Wentworth, Joseph Wentworth, John Connor, Thomas Wallingford, Moris Hobbs, Thomas Tebbets, Benjamin Stanton, Ephraim Wentworth, Samuel Jones, Joseph Pevey, Philip Pappon, James Gupey, Josiah Clark, John Mason, Benjamin Twombly, William Jones, Daniel Plumer, Jabez Garland, Hugh Conner, Job Clements, John Roberts, Edward Ellis, Samuel Ally, William Tompson.
" The date of organization of the church is not known to me. The last meeting-house was erected in 1729, and taken down in 1773. The second was erected in 1772, and destroyed by lightning 4 May 1779. The third was built in 1780, and long stood tenantless after population had gone to Great Falls and Salmon Falls, and was burnt, from the act of an incendiary, 1 May 1848. The church had
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
opened by the Rev. Mr. Tufts. The Rev. Mr. Wise preached from the 9th Chapter of Matthew, 37 and 38 verses. The Rev. Mr. Cushing gave the charge, and the Rev. Mr. Rogers the Right Hand of Fellowship." Mr. Pike remained pastor until his death, 19 March 1792, preaching his last sermon 31 October 1790. The house which he built still stands, and is occupied by his great-grandson. That house has a sacred mem- ory, in the fact that George Whitefield, to whom Mr. Pike was a warm friend, used to occupy its guest room, - the southeast chamber.
Somersworth was made a town 22 April 1754. Rollinsford was separated from Somersworth 3 July 1849, and its church was estab- lished 1 May 1846, Rev. Samuel J. Spalding, D. D., being ordained its pastor 28 October 1846. The meeting-house was dedicated I May 1850. The church at Great Falls, in Somersworth, was organized 16 January 1827, and its meeting-house dedicated in August 1828
Madbury. - On the 10th of May 1743, sundry persons living in the westerly part of Dover and the northerly part of Durham petitioned to be made a parish. They said that "your petitioners live at such a distance from the meeting-houses in their Respective Towns as makes it difficult for them & their Families to attend the Publick Worship there, especially in the Winter & spring seasons of the year, which induced a number of your Petitioners some years since, at their own cost, to Build a meeting-House." No success was had, but a new peti- tion, presented 17 January 1754, prevailed, and the parish of Madbury was incorporated 31 May 1755, - it being made a town 26 May 1768.
No Congregational church was ever organized in Madbury. Samuel Hyde, not ordained, officiated from about 1758 to 1770. A Baptist church was once existing, but it died long years ago. The meeting- house became a town house, fell into decay, and was taken down but a few years since.
but two pastors, the second being Pearson Thurston, born in Sterling, Mass., December 1763, grad- uated Dart. Coll. 1787, read theology with Dr. Emmons, ordained 1 February 1792, died 15 August 1819. Ilis house and the church records were burned in January 1812
Rev. James Pike was born in Newbury, Mass., I March 1703 ; graduated Harv. Coll. 1725. " He was a faithful servant of Christ." The services at his ordination were printed in pamphlet form, a copy of which is in the library of the Boston Atheneum, and another with the family at Rollinsford.
I The petitioners were : James Davis, Joseph Ryans, William Tasker, Joseph Daniels, William Fowler, Noah Young, Nathaniel Tibbets, Samuel Chesley, Job Demerit, Timothy Moses, Robert Huckins, Lieut. Emerson, John Buzzell, John Evens, Isaac Twombly, James Huckins, William Buz- zell, Thomas Bickford, Joseph Jackson, William Brown, Thomas Glovier, Ens. John Tasker, Samuel Davis, John Roberts, Henry Buzzell, John Demerit, Joseph Libbey, Zachariah Pitman, John Tasker, jr., Eli Demerit, John Smith, Charles Bickford, Zachariah Edgerley, Joseph Buzzell, Joseph Twom- bly, Benjamin Leathers, John Demerit, William Demerit, John Demerit, jr., James Crown, Antony Jones, Paul Gerrish, Thomas Bickford. Daniel Young, John B ... rell, jr., Azariah Bordey, John Winget, jr., John Huckins, Ebenezer Demerit, James Jackson, James Jackson, jr., Capt. Hicks, Ebenezer Tasker, Reuben Gray, William Twombly, jr., Timothy Perkins, William Gliden, Ebenezer Buzzell, Jacob Buzzell, James Clemons, jr., Benjamin Willey.
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Lee. - The next separation was from Durham. "The Parish of Lee," but with full town privileges, was incorporated 16 January 1766. The first meeting-house stood in the burial lot at the Paul Giles corner. Although Samuel Hutchins appears to have been minister there, it does not appear that any Congregational church was organized until 3 December 1867. Rev. John Osborne was long time minister in Lee, whose daughter became wife of Dea. Andrew Peirce, of this parish.
Thus was this parish reduced to its present bounds. The divisions were made inevitable by the increase of population. Six parishes have been taken from it, but they have left the ancestral parish more vigor- ous than at any period of its former history. Territorially, a straight line from its meeting-house to its northernmost point is four miles and a half, and five miles to its southernmost point.
But when the separations were completed, convenience required a more compact organization than that of the whole township. The First Parish was therefore incorporated by Act signed 11 June 1762.
It is as follows : -
Anno regni regis Georgii Tertii Magna Brittannia Franca et Ilibernia Secundo.
An Act to enable the first Parish in the Town of Dover, or that Part of Dover Town commonly so called to Choose Parish officers and to transact any matter relating to the Ministry of the Gospel Divine Worship and other Parochial affairs separately from the Parishes set off within that Township.
Whereas the Selectmen of the Town of Dover are chosen among the Inhabitants of the Town without any Regard to the Different Parishes who are obliged to Call meetings & Regulate such matters as concern only one part which is attended with Difficulties and Inconveniences and Whereas said first Parish cannot have any Parochial Affairs Transacted without a General Town Meeting is Called
Therefore Be it Enacted by the Governor Council & Assembly, That that part of the Town of Dover which still is so Called & denominated as to any affairs con- cerning the Ministry of the Gospel the Publick worship & other Matters which do not concern the other part of the Town and are in their Nature parochial be and hereby is to be considered as the first Parish in said Dover, and is hereby authorized to transact all such affairs as a separate parish and to Choose all necessary parish officers annually some Time in the month of March after the first Meeting which officers being sworn as the Law directs are hereby authorized to Discharge the Duty of their respective offices and Trusts as fully to all Intents as any other officers whatsoever and the said Parishioners also hereby fully invested with all the Powers privileges and Immunities which any other Parish and Parishioners by Law have held & Enjoy and the Select men of said Town are hereby Prohibited from having any thing to do hereafter with the affairs of said Parish and the Con- stables of said Town Dwelling in that part of the Town which is without the Limits of the parish of Madbury shall be obliged to Collect the Rates and Taxes made of that shall be made for said first Parish as he is by Law obliged to Collect and pay their Rates and Taxes saving to said Parish a Right and Priveledge of Chusing and
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
Appointing a Collector for said Parish as they shall Judge it necessary or Con- venient.
And John Gage Esqr. Capt. Richard Wald[r]on & Lieut. Shadrach Hodgdon or any two of them are hereby appointed to Call the first Meeting of the Parishioners of said first Parish to be held on any Day they shall Judge proper within the month of August Next
Province of New Hampre
In the House of Representatives June 2d 170-
This Bill having been read three times
Voted That it pass to be Enacted
ITEN SHERBURN Speaker
In Council June 11th 1762
The foregoing Bill read a third time
and past to be Enacted
THEODORE ATKINSON Junr Secry
Consented to B WENTWORTH
Benning Wentworth, whose signature as governor appears, was great- grandson of Elder William Wentworth, of this church and parish, - the second of the three governors of the name of Wentworth. Henry Sherburne, speaker of the Assembly, inherited the blood of William Wentworth and of Ambrose Gibbons, each of this parish ; and Theo- dore Atkinson, jr., secretary, was also a descendant of William Went- worth.
The first meeting under this Act was called by John Gage, Shadrach Hodgdon, and Richard Waldron, and was held on Monday, 30 August 1762 ; made up of "freeholders and inhabitants" of the said parish, for it was a territorial parish, we will remember. Col. John Gage was moderator ; Ephraim Hanson, then and onward town elerk, was chosen parish clerk ; and Nehemiah Randall, Lieut. Shadrach Hodgdon, and Deacon Daniel Ham were the first wardens.
I will give here the brief list of clerks of the parish, each serving substantially, till the date given to his successor : -
I. Ephraim Hanson, 30 August 1762, until his death, 24 March 1772. The house in which this person was born (15 June 1728) is in part still standing, being the one nearly opposite, on the south, the house of the late John R. Varney, being owned by David L. Drew.
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