USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Dover > The first parish in Dover, New Hampshire : two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, October 28, 1883 > Part 5
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1 Richard Tripe was a noted builder. The old Court House, erected in 1789, was one of his works. ? It is now occupied by Reuben H. Twombly.
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
with the church, 25 July 1869, in calling Rev. George B. Spalding, at a salary of $2,300 ; made it $2,700, 25 March 1872 ; and $3,000, 26 August 1874, and added the use of parsonage (save taxes), 27 May 1879.
The present parsonage, whose use is given to the minister besides his salary, is the result of a bequest of Miss Sarah Green, daughter of Dr. Ezra Green. Miss Green was born in Dover 19 October 1788, and died there 2 November 1874. Her will was dated 26 October 1868. A codicil, 22 February 1871, revoked the " second item " of said will, and substituted a provision giving to the deacons of the church, viz., Peter Cushing, Edmund J. Lane, Nathaniel Low, James H. Wheeler, and Alvah Moulton, and to their successors in office, in trust, $3,000, - $300 of which to be invested, and the income annually used "for the purchase of books for the library of the sabbath school," - the remaining $2,700 "to be appropriated and expended for the purchase of a suitable parsonage for the minister of said church and society." The amount of the legacy (including interest) paid to the deacons 24 December 1874 was $3,204.12. To this money was added, by sub- scription for the purpose, $1,960.00, and the present parsonage house was purchased of Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D., 27 May 1879, for $5,000.
The system of taxing the whole people, by law, for the support of the ministry, and of enforcing that taxation by the officials of the law, was contrary to the spirit of the gospel of Christ. The gospel asks for willing offerings only. When a colony consisted solely of Christians, and of Christians of one mind in doctrine and polity, and of Christians who were willing to give according to their property, the tax was but a convenient and formal way of collecting the means willingly given to the support of the church. But when society came to include not only Christians of different faiths or polities, but also persons without religious belief, the injustice of taxation for one form of faith inevitably came to view. The church had no right, even under the specious pretext of the public good, to levy its support upon unbe- lievers or upon believers of another form. The church was sadly weakened not only by its injustice, but by depriving itself of all pos- sibility of personal sacrifice. The experience of Jeremy Belknap in this very parish, nearly a hundred years ago, taught him this les- son. In a letter which he read to the congregation, 30 April 1786, when he announced that his contract, depending upon such a law, was henceforth ended, he said : -
"The law, indeed, authorizes the use of force to compel those who are delinquent to their duty; but the Execution of such Law naturally tends to defeat the design
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for which the Gospel is preached, to promote discord, hatred, and envy, instead of peace and good-will, and to involve a minister in distress and perplexity, if he has any feeling."
But Jeremy Belknap was in advance of his age.
The war of the Revolution should have overturned this system, but it did not do so while the war continued. Doubtless the better under- standing of liberty secured, in the Bill of Rights of 1792, this declara- tion : -
" And no person of any one particular religious sect or denomination shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the teacher or teachers of another per- suasion, sect, or denomination. . . . And no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law."
With this provision in fundamental law, it is difficult to see how persons of other denominations could be taxed to support the ancient "standing order." Yet they were. The statute of 1791, " for regulat- ing towns and the choice of town officers," continued the authority by saying : -
"The inhabitants of each town in this State, qualified to vote, as aforesaid, at any meeting duly and legally warned and holden in such town, may, agreeably to the constitution, giant and vote such sum or sums of money as they shall judge necessary for the settlement, maintenance, and support of the ministry, schools, meeting-houses . to be assessed on the polls and estates, in the same town, as the law directs."
This injustice could not last. Men were taxed to build houses whose thresholds they never crossed. They were taxed to support a ministry whose teachings, it may be, they regarded as fatally erroneous. Relief had to come ; and a partial relief was had by certain legislative concessions. The Free Will Baptists were declared to be a denomina- tion by act 7 December 1804. The Universalists obtained the same recognition 13 June 1805, and the Methodists, 15 June 1807. Yet such was the strange perversity of the adherents of the decaying sys- tem that some eminent lawyers believed these acts to be unconstitu- tional, and the Supreme Court had actually, in 1802, decided that Universalists and Congregationalists were but one denomination. And, on the other hand, the Congregational churches blindly upheld a system which drove thousands away from their altars into other denominations.
The partial relief given by these acts of legislation did not relinquish the theory that all persons must be taxed somewhere, nor did it remove the friction inseparable from deciding individual cases. The voluntary principle had to be established, and the State was wiser than the church. Discussion of the principle involved began, and was sometimes violent. Controversial literature of that period is plentiful; on the one hand, insisting upon liberty of conscience; on the other, insisting on the
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
alleged general good, and imbued with the gravest fears that the end- ing of taxation would destroy the churches. Frequent suits at law fed the agitation. How little could our fathers foresee that the complete separation of church and State would enable the church to rise at once into a higher and more vigorous life, and open the way to the grand achievements which are making the Christian history of this century !
The Federalist party almost entirely sustained the principle of taxa- tion. Their opponents demanded its abolition. A test came at the election in 1816. William Phuumer, the advocate of religious freedom, was chosen governor by the then largest vote ever cast for a candidate for that office. History says that it was even more to their support of the practice of taxation for church support than to their opposition to the war of 1812 that the Federalist party in this State perished.
It was not, however, until the year 1819, that the fruits of this victory were gathered. In that year, after a hard struggle, and by a small majority, while declaring the right of any sect or denomination to form societies empowered to levy taxes on the polls and estates of members, the legislature incorporated into the laws the following : -
" Provided, That no person shall be compelled to join or support, nor be classed with, nor associate to, any congregation, church, or religious society, without his express consent first had and obtained.
" Provided, also, if any person shall choose to separate himself from such society or association to which he may belong, and shall leave a written notice thereof with the clerk of such society or association, he shall thereupon be no longer liable for any future expenses which may be incurred by said society or association."
By this act the churches were emancipated from dependence upon the power of the State, and became free in Christ Jesus.
We may look at the gradual effect of the changes in sentiment upon this parish.
The record of 20 March 1810 says: "It was put to vote to Excuse several Persons which have certificates from the Baptist [Free, proba- bly] preachers from paying their taxes in the year 1809, & past in the Negative."
The warrant which called the meeting of 27 March 1811 had this : "To see if the parishioners will give the Wardens liberty to abate those Taxes charged against such Individuals as shall produce a proper Cer- tificate from any regular Society by Order of the Wardens." The vote was " to waive the Abatement of Taxes by the Wardens till the Cases now depending shall be determined."
On the 4 November 1811, a committee was appointed to " take into
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Consideration the Objections of a Number of the parishioners against paying their Taxes and make Report at their next meeting." The committee reported 2 December 1811, and was continued in office ; but at that meeting it was voted that " a certificate from the Wardens shall free them [the dissentients] from paying their taxes." The following request, signed the day following, was doubtless the result : -
A Petition to the Honorable parish Wardens of Dover or Committee of said Parish Whereas we the subscribers have not attended your meeting this Number of years and have attended other meetings, we pray your honours to take it under Consideration and discharge us from paying ministers or ministerial Taxes for we wish to have liberty of Conscience.
John Gage Joseph Waldron Joseph Waldron, jr. Job C. Waldron Saml Foss Dover, December 3, 1811.
Benja Ilayes Caleb Ricker John Bickford Thomas Gage James Gray
In the warrant for the parish meeting of 15 May 1815 was the fol- lowing article : -
"To see if said parish or Inhabitants disannex the subscribers to said Petition and others who may hereafter associate with them and their Estates from said first parish and Dissolve their Parochial Contributions therewith in such manner that they may hereafter Enjoy the Constitutional Right of worshiping God according to the Dictates of their own Conscience."
No action on this subject until 27 March 1816, and then the action was adverse.
The following potige is the first of a series : need loot
Dover. March 31, 1817. This may certify whom it may concern that the bearer Jacob Currier is/an attendant of the Methodist meeting in this town & contributes to the support of the ministry in this order & therefore should be released from the support from [of] any other Order according to the Constitution of this State.
JOHN LORD, Circuit Preacher.
The following other persons appear, by the records, to have withdrawn from membership in the parish, a few giving their new denominational relation : -
Richard Waldron, Methodist, 4 April 1817.
Amos White, 31 March 1827. Jonathan Gage, " George Andrews, 8 February 1828. George Piper, 20 March 1828. Nathaniel W. Ela, 25 March IS28. Daniel Ilorne, 66 66 Thomas T. Marston, " " William Flagg, 13 June 1825. Joseph Smith, 24 March 1827. Aaron Watson, 27 March 1827.
Amos Cogswell, 27 March 1820.
Nathaniel Watson, 20 March 1823. Simon Wingate, 31 March 1823-
Joshua Ham, 44
John Gould, 29 March 1828.
1
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
The principal withdrawal to the Unitarian society was as follows :
To Mr Philemon Chandler Clerk of Revd Mr Clary's Society in Dover. daughter Sir, We, the undersigned, having become members of the Unitarian Society in this Town, intend from this time to separate ourselves from the Kevd Mr Clary's Society and do hereby request you to take our names freon the list of its members. March 31, 1828.
Ezra Green
marti G. W. F. Mellen
James Whitehouse
E. Tredick J. B. II. Odiorne Les Frantumi th Cyrus Goss Samuel W& Carr
T. T. Tredick
Ezra Young nther
Thomas J. Palmer
George W. Kittredge
Eri Perkins
R. H. Little A. Folsom Samuel B. Stone
Matthew Bridge
John W. Mellen
Benjamin T. Tredick
William H. Kittredge
James C. Sewall
Abigail Atkinson
Stephen Toppan
Thomas Currier
J. Perkins.
Others withdrawing were, in full, as follows : --
John G. Tilton, 31 March 1828.
Mark Noble, 30 March 1829.
Henry A. Foot, "
Aaron W. March, "
William Hale, Unitarian, 20 November 1828.
Edmund C. Andrews, 24 January 1829.
Nathaniel Young, 15 February 1829.
Joshua Ham, 44
Thomas Bickford, 24 March 1829.
Samuel Horn,
Thomas W. Kittredge, 27 March 1829.
Samuel W. Dow, " 16
John Mann,
William Hale, jr., 31 March 1830.
Joshua Janes, 30 March 1829.
Obed E. Adams, Unitarian, 31 March 1829. Lucius Everett, 31 March, 1829.
To the year 1829, the parish continued to raise the moneys neces- sary for its support, by taxation on the polls and estates of its mem- bers. Perhaps the Unitarian departure of 1828 occasioned a change. The annual meeting of 1828 authorized the usual tax. The annual meeting held 25 March 1829 voted that " it is inexpedient and unneces- sary to assess a tax on the parish at this time," and "dismissed " the article in the warrant " to have a collector." The annual meetings of 1831 and 1832 were silent as to raising money, but the annual meeting held 14 March 1835 voted " to raise by subscription " $1,400 for annual expenses. It appears also by a report in 1837 that the tax laid in 1828 was the last tax for the support of the ministry. The new method of raising moneys was continued until 1878, when the method of renting pews was adopted, so simple and so successful in its working.
Benjamin Barnes, jr.
Jacob M.Currier
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I have said that perhaps the Unitarian departure partly occasioned the change in the method of collecting moneys. That departure was a marked event in the history of this parish, and gave it a shock which tested to the utmost its strength and its stability.
A great change had come over the industrial and social life of Dover. Early in this century, there was some ship-building on the lower river. Some sawmills were on the upper streams. At the lower falls of the Cochecho, the north side had a grist-mill and a sawmill, an anchor-mill for a few years, and in 1821 a nail factory. The south side of the same falls gave accommodation for a fulling-mill, an oil- mill, a grist-mill, a carding machine, and a pottery. The river high- way brought, also, supplies to a few traders for the country traffic which came, in the winter, even from beyond the White Mountains, and from Vermont. The main occupation of the people was agri- culture.
But the "Dover Cotton Factory " was incorporated 15 December 1812, largely of Dover men, with a capital of $50,000, and built a cotton mill at the fourth falls of the Cochecho. It came down to the lower falls in 1822, with a capital of $500,000 (so made 21 June 1821), which became a million 17 June 1823 (as the "Dover Manufacturing Company "), and a million and a half 20 June 1826. These additions of capital were made mainly by Massachusetts wealth. The "Com- pany " utilized the " Nail Factory" on the north side for mechanical work connected with the mills, but built an iron shop and a "wood " shop in place of the old grist and saw mills. On the south side, it swept away fulling-mill, pottery, and every other industry; it built a great mill in 1822, another in 1823, and another in 1825 ; and it erected buildings with the means of printing its own cloths. The "Cocheco Manufacturing Company," incorporated 27 June 1827, purchased all these interests, but it made no essential changes.
With these great works, a new population came in. In the ten years following the year 1820, nearly twenty-five hundred inhabitants were added to the "village" alone. Some came from the country towns. Some, skilled labor generally, came from England. Officials of the new enterprise were mostly sent from Massachusetts.
There were Methodist services held at "Upper Factory " before 1820, and Methodists dedicated a meeting-house here in 1825. A Universalist society was organized in 1825, and a Free Will Baptist church was organized in 1826. These organizations scarcely affected the parish church.
But in the new population was a different element. The Unitarian question had already accomplished a division in Massachusetts. The
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influential men who came here with the cotton work were generally Unitarian. James F. Curtis, the " agent," who had been a naval officer, and was such on board the Constitution when that vessel captured the Cyane and the Levant; Matthew Bridge, out-door superintendent, Benjamin Barnes, chief clerk, and others employed, were all Unitarians. There was a similar element, perhaps but partially developed, in the old parish. The call to Martin L. Hulbert in 1806, afterwards a Uni- tarian, resisted because of doubts as to his doctrinal soundness, and who, nevertheless, had a majority in his favor, indicated this drift.
Joseph W. Clary became minister of this parish in 1812, and was its minister during the transition epoch. He was a man of great ex- cellence of character, and a thorough believer in evangelical doctrine, but of the then severe Andover type, having graduated at Andover in 1811. He was conscientious, and his conscientiousness made him un- compromising. He saw, as he believed, even in the church, a laxity in belief, and a lack of the religion of experience. He set himself quietly to the work of indoctrinating the people. He succeeded; that is, he made a portion of the people resolute in the old faith ; but what secured this success dissatisfied another portion of his people. It is, perhaps, a useless question whether even the less rigorous preaching of the present day, if it had then existed, could have prevented this separation without compromise of principles on some side. I think there were radical differences, and these differences were made no less plain by Mr. Clary's style of doctrine and vocabulary of state- ment.
The separation eame in 1827. The dissentients from the old faith made no attempt to control the parish, but quietly withdrew. Their first meeting with reference to organization was held on Sunday, 28 August 1827, and on the 4th of September following, being Sunday, " The First Unitarian Society of Christians in Dover " was organized.1 Their first meeting for public worship was held in the Court House,
1 The present clerk, George H. Henderson, kindly accedes to my request and gives me the list of those who, in the language of the record, "became members up to January 30, 1828," viz. : Ezra Green, Daniel M. Durell, Jacob M. Currier, John B. H. Odiorne, Edward Tredick, William F'lagg, John W. M. Men, Cyrus Goss, Brackett Palmer, Bet-jamin Barnes, jr., Benjamin T Tredick, James C. Sewall, I. T. Tredick, Jonathan Brown, Stephan Toopan, D. J. Frothingham, Thomas J. Palmer, Enoch H. Nutter, Samuel W. Carr, Samuel B. Stone, George W. F. Mellen, Eri Perkins, J. L. Fol- som, Nathaniel R. Hill, Jonas C. March, Samuel Goodwin, Jeremy Perkins, Stephen S. Stone, John Dyer, John T. Gibhs, Joseph B. Turner, George W. Ki'tredge, H. W. March, Lorenzo Rollins, James Hill, oseph Hervey, Nathaniel Willand, Samuel Ham, Elsha Woodbury, T. B. Kittredge, George W. Prince, Caleb T. Jacobs, A. Folsom, R. H. Little, Sherburn Sleeper, Leomdas V. Badger, How- ard M. Henderson, Thomas Currier, James Whitehouse, Frederick Folsom, Matthew Bridge, Forest Eaton, Samuel Dunn, John S. Durell, Thaxter Russell, William N. Andrews, N. R. Long, Woodbury T. Prescott, Ezra Young, John Mann, Lucius Everett, George Piper, William Hale, George Andrews, John Watson, jr.
-
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4 November following, when the scholarly Henry Ware, jr., of Boston, officiated. In the following year their meeting-house was erected. The church1 was organized 16 February 1829, and on the next day their house was dedicated, and the brilliant young orator, Samuel K. Lothrop, since the honored pastor of Brattle Square, in Boston, was ordained pastor.
The Unitarfan society was strong. Much of the wealth and influ- ence of Dover were represented upon its rolls. It had the leading officials of the mills, whose letter-book shows how minutely they informed the directors in Boston of progress in the new society. Mer- chants like George Andrews, J. B. H. Odiorne, George Frost, Obed E. Adams, Joseph Smith, Enoch H. Nutter; public men such as William Hale, a former congressman ; five physicians, - Ezra Green, deacon of the old church, the surgeon in the Ranger under John Paul Jones, Asa Perkins, George W. Kittredge, Jacob Kittredge, and Samuel W. Dow ; lawyers, - Judge Daniel AL Durell, later a con- gressman, James Bartlett, and later the eminent John P. Hale; and the editors and proprietors of both the newspapers of the town. Such were the men. And they built an attractive brick church in modern style, and listened to an eloquent and cultured minister.
The parish was greatly depleted. Its wooden meeting-house was old, in an old style, whose very stove sent its smoke through a pipe which ran out of a gallery window. The minister, though faithful, could not compete in attractiveness with the young orator at the head of Kirkland street. But there were left John Wheeler and his son John H. Wheeler, Asa A. Tufts, John Riley, William Woodman, Andrew Peirce, Peter Cushing, Asa Freeman, Moses Paul, Daniel M. Christie, Philemon Chandler, William Plaisted Drew, William Picker- ing Drew, Oliver S. Horne, Michael Whidden, John J. Ilodgdon, John B. Sargent, William Palmer, George Pendexter, Dr. Arthur L. Porter, William P. Wingate, Joshua Banfield, James Davis, and others whose names are fresh in memory. Many of these were young men then ; only one - Asa A. Tufts - survives in this October.
These men, and the godly women whose faith never failed, had no fear. Their pastor sadly withdrew from this church and parish, but with a generous provision. This parish welcomed to its pastorate, in 1828, the gentle, earnest, brilliant preacher, Hubbard Winslow, not inferior to Clary in the essentials of the faith, and not inferior to
1 The original members of the church were, Ezra Green, Daniel M. Durell, James F. Curtis, George W. F. Mellen, Abigail Atkinson, Sophia Williams, Deborah Green, Mary S. Durell. Per- sons added up to May 1830: Howard M. Henderson, Elizabeth Kinsman, Mary A. Woodbury, William Hale, Lydia Hale, Mary Tredick, Mary Abbott.
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THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
Lothrop in the graces of the orator. The men of this parish, before the close of the year 1829, had dedicated a new church, not inferior at least, in architectural beauty, to any in this town. Under the brief four years' ministry of Mr. Winslow, including the time prior to his successor's installation, one hundred and eighty were added to the church, and the future of the parish was assured.
Under the territorial parish system, naturally a system of coercion as then administered, the people of the parish were forced by law to attend public worship. Penalties for absence were inflicted. Of this parish, it may be said that I find no traces of such laws except in the period while the Pascataqua was under Massachusetts govern- ment. But even the Massachusetts law was no novelty. It was the law in England also. In the Episcopal colony of Virginia, the same law prevailed as early as 1610, there requiring attendance twice on each Sunday, with a penalty of a fine for the first offence, whipping for the second, and death for the third. Our forefathers were subject sim- ply to the enactments of the age. Yet here the law was seldom enforced. Rigidness seems to have been only occasional. In 1656, James Rollins was admonished for neglecting " the public meeting," and was sentenced to pay fees, -- two shillings and sixpence. In 1663, there was a decided enforcement of penalties. The court records show in that year that William Roberts, of Oyster River, had been absent twenty-eight Sundays, the penalty being five shillings for each absence ; William Follett, sixteen; Thomas Roberts, thirteen; Mary Hanson, thirteen ; Richard Otis, wife, and servant maid, thirteen ; Jel- lian Pinkham, thirteen, but, as her husband refused to pay the fine, she was set in the stocks one hour; James Nute, sen., wife, and son, twenty-six days, and, for entertaining Quakers four hours in one day, forty shillings per hour; James Smith confessed to have been once at a Quaker meeting, and was fined ten shillings for that heinous offence ; John Goddard, four days and twice at the Quaker meeting; Robert Burnum had been to Strawberry Bank to meeting, and explained matters, "which showed him to the Court not to be obstinate "; but Humphrey Varney "pleaded non-conviction," which shows that he was inclined to the Quaker heresy, "unto whom the Law was this day read, and he was admonished." It is evident that this sudden awaken- ing in favor of enforcing the law was caused by the presence of Quakers. But the law grew obsolete, and died. The tithingman, however, continued into the last century to prevent travelling on Sun- day, and to enforce order in church.
The territorial system, because it united church and state, also nat-
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urally made such religious persecution as is found in our American annals. Our own share is due to our subjection to Massachusetts from 1641 to 1679. Its first instance applied to Baptists. Massachu- setts had a poor opinion of this kind of people. Associating our Bap- tists with the Anabaptists of the preceding century in Europe, the Massachusetts law of 1644 says : “ Forasmuch as experience has plen- tifully and often proved that since the first arising of the Anabaptists a hundred years since, they have been the incendiaries of common- wealths and the infectors of persons in the main matters of religion, and the troublers of churches in all places where they have been," and some such in New England have "denied the ordinance of magis- tracy and the lawfulness of making war"; therefore any person shall be banished who "shall either openly condemn or oppose the bap- tizing of infants, . . . or shall purposely depart the Congregation at the administration thereof." It is somewhat difficult to see the con- nection; but the statute goes on to explain that it is because "they that have held the baptizing of infants unlawful have usually held other errors and heresies together therewith," often "concealed till they spied out a fit advantage to vent them." Such were the dangers of denying infant baptism. I find, however, but one instance of com- plaint here. Our first ruling-elder, Edward Starbuck, fell into this heresy. On the 3d of October 1648 he was fined and admonished for "disturbing the peace of the church." At the same time the grand jury presented him for " denying to join with the church in the ordi- nance of baptism"; he was thereon obliged to recognize to appear at the next court of assistants in Boston to answer to complaints of his violating the law against Anabaptists, and "furthermore that he will be of peaccable and good behaviour towards all men, and especially towards the Reverend Teacher of Dover." Elder Starbuck remained in Dover, however, and not molested, I think, until the year 1659, when he, Thomas Macy and family, James Coffin, of Dover (then a youth of nineteen years), and Isaac Coleman (a boy of twelve years), sailed for Nantucket in an open boat. Mr. Starbuck came back the next year for his family, most of whom removed with him. He was a valuable citizen, both here and there. His descendants became, many of them, Quakers. Whittier's poem, "The Exiles," perpetuates the memory of Thomas Macy and his wife, but omits, for poetic reasons, the mention of the others in the open boat. But to these exiles from Dover, also, who thus settled Nantucket, will apply his verses : -
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