USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Barrington > A history of Barrington, Rhode Island > Part 15
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At the adjournment the meeting voted to put to vote whether Elder Samuel Luther should be minister of this town, and proceeded to vote, and chose Elder Samuel Luther minister for the town of Swansey."
The original charter of the town of Swansea under date of March 1, 1667, established its bounds as follows : "This Court have granted unto them ; all such Lands that Lyeth betwixt the salt water, and river, and the bounds of Taunton and Rehoboth not prejudicing any man's particular Interest,"
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The second charter bears date July 23,-1689, in which the bounds are more definitely stated.
" Butted and bounded according to Court grant towards ye West, upon ye great salt water Bay and River that goeth up towards ye Town of Providence; even so farr up ta- wards ye North as ye south line or bounds of ye Town of Rehoboth; and upon that line towards ye East, upon ye Bounds of Rehoboth aforesaid ; and then Northerly untill it come to ye Bounds of ye Township of Taunton, on which it also bounds ; Along upon ye River called Taunton River ; & likewise towards ye South is bounded upon the North line of ye Towne of Bristoll, that runneth cross Mount hope neck to ye River of Swanset aforesd towards ye West ; according to ye Grant of ye Court of New Plimouth aforesd."
1699. The town " confirmed the agreement made by the selectmen with Mr. Jonathan Bosworth, to be School-Master for the town of Swansea, for the year ensuing, and to teach School in the several places in the town by Course and to have as his salary £18 per year, one quarter in money and the other three quarters in provisions at money price."
The Selectmen subsequently, January 12, 1702, agreed with Mr. John Devotion, school-master, to give him £12 cur- rent money of New England, to be paid quarterly, and the town to "pay for his diet ;" and he was ordered to remove, each quarter, to different places in the neighborhoood, while the Selectmen agreed with the school-master to allow him 20s. ster., to be paid by the town, towards the keeping of his horse. Afterwards, at town meeting, Dec. 28, 1713, it was "voted and agreed that the school-master's abode (boarding) shall be paid after the rate of 4s. per week, in provisions at money prices."
March 23, 1707.8, it was agreed "that if any of the inhabi- tants of this town shall at any time hereafter kill a grown wolf or wolves within this township, they shall be allowed ten shillings a head out of the town treasury, over and above the allowance of the law." At another time, March 3, 1708,
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TOWN AND COLONIAL LEGISLATION.
the town taking into consideration the great destruction of Indian corn by crows, blackbirds and squirrels, agreed that every householder in the town should kill or cause to be killed six of the great sort of blackbirds or six squirrles and one crow should pass in law for two blackbirds or squirrles ; and they were to be killed and their heads brought in, by the Ioth of the following June, to men appointed for the purpose of counting them ; and if any householder should neglect or refuse this duty, as aforesaid, he shall for his defect, pay two pence for every head that is wanting of the number, at the Ioth of June; and the committee appointed to count the heads were empowered by the town to prosecute the order and dispose the fines as the law directed.
Massachusetts Bay Colony, less liberal than Plymouth, made demand on the town in 1712 for the establishment of a gospel ministry, when the people gave answer at a full town meeting, by a unanimous vote, " that all the inhabi- tants of this town shall enjoy their conscience liberty, agree- able to the foundation settlement of said town, and are not obliged to uphold and maintain the worship of God else- where than where they choose respectively to belong or to assemble."
True to the same principles of conscience liberty as the founders of the town, the people of Swansea, in 1717, prior to the separation of Barrington, made declaration of the same great truths by the following vote: "After consider- able fair and loving conference with said petitioners upon the premises," it was voted, "that all the inhabitants of the town should enjoy their conscience liberty, according to said foundation establishment of said town; and are obliged to uphold and maintain the ministry and worship of God, only in the several churches or congregations where they respectively choose to belong or to assemble, and not obliged to support any church but where they partake of its teaching."
These are noble words for the town to utter in the first years of the 18th century, when " conscience liberty " as to.
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
religious worship was not well understood or its spirit prac- tically applied by the people of New England.
DEPUTIES FROM SWANSEA TO THE GENERAL COURT OF PLY- MOUTH COLONY.
John Allin, 1668, 1670; James Brown, 1669, 1671, 1672 ; Hugh Cole, 1673, 1674, 1675, 1680, 1683-87 ; Nathaniel Paine, 1676; Samuel Luther, 1677, 1678, 1679; Obadiah Bowen, 1681, 1682 ; Timothy Brooks and William Hayward, 1689; James Cole and Thomas Wood, 1690.
REPRESENTATIVES FROM SWANSEA TO THE GREAT AND GEN- ERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY.
Capt. John Brown and Mr. Samuel Newman, 1692; Eben- ezer Brenton, 1693; Ensign Joseph Kent, 1697; Ephraim Pierce, 1700-1705, 1709, 1710, 1713; Hezekiah Luther, 1706 ; Joseph Mason, 1707, 1708 ; John Thomas, 1711, 1712; John Rogers, 1716, 1717.
CHAPTER XVI
INCORPORATION OF BARRINGTON.
Swansea Foundation Principles - The Congregational Element - Reasons for a New Church and Town - Attitude of the Bay Colony - Petition of People on " The Westward End of Swansea "- Oppo- sition of Swansea - Remonstrance of Town -Hearing Before the General Court- Decision Adverse - Second Petition - Action of Town - Final Action of Court in 1717 - New Town Called Barring- ton - Why so Named.
S WANSEA was incorporated in 1667, on the broad prin- ciples of civil and religious freedom ; the town protected religious institutions but did not maintain them. The sym- pathy for Mr. Myles and his associates, who had suffered persecution in Wales and in the Bay Colony, had allied to his church many of Congregational beliefs and tendencies. Of these were the Browns, the Willetts, and others who were drawn to the support of the church by Mr. Myles's liberal views, inasmuch as he not only tolerated, but practised infant baptism and received pedobaptists to the sacraments of the church. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had protested with- out avail to her sister colony, Plymouth, whose mild treatment of the Baptists was occasion of great anxiety to the orthodox brethren at Boston, including the Mathers and the Wilsons. With the exception of Governor Prince, who was not as lib- eral as the others, the government at Plymouth was in gen- eral accord with the experiment of a Baptist Church in the colony and was willing to tolerate it, provided it did not menace the rights and privileges of "the standing order " in the community. The Browns and Willetts stood as a pro- tecting wall between Mr. Myles and his enemies in both col- onies. They saw the injustice of requiring the whole people to be taxed for the support of any church, as was the cus-
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tom and law in both colonies, and Mr. Brown insisted on paying the deficit of those refusing to pay taxes assessed against them for that purpose.
During Mr. Myles's life, the church and the town of Swansea got on well together and there was comparative unity and peace between them. As we have seen, later, even the Rehoboth Church used its good offices on various occasions and learned that even non-conforming Baptists might be good neighbors as well as respectable Christians. At the time of Mr. Myles's death, in 1683, the church and the parsonage were at the lower end of New Meadow Neck, south of the road connecting the two ferries then, the two bridges now. This was called " The Place of Trade," and was the centre of business for people of Swansea and South Rehoboth. As the population increased, the western part of Swansea (now Barrington) grew rapidly as did the north- ern and eastern parts, and the church on the Neck was not conveniently located for the attendance of the remote set- tlers, then separated by rivers without convenient bridges or ferries. About the year 1700 the people of North Swan- sea agitated the removal of the meeting-house to their neigh- borhood. The majority of votes decided the matter in favor of the northern part of the town, and the meeting-house was removed to that section, as tradition says, across the ice from New Meadow Neck. This removal of the meeting- house, while for the time a sore trial, proved in the end a great blessing to the people living on the west side of Swan- sea River, for it was the occasion of securing both a church and a town of their own. Another strong reason influenced the action of the Barrington people besides the change of location of their meeting-house. and this was the new policy adopted by the Baptist Church on the accession of its new pastor, Elder Samuel Luther. Captain Samuel Luther was one of the most influential townsmen of Swansea, and a member of the church from its founding. He was ordained to the work of the ministry in 1685, and became pastor of the church as the successor of Rev. Mr. Myles. He was
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ATTITUDE OF THE BAY COLONY.
wanting in the scholarship of the first pastor as well as in his broadly Catholic spirit. The Congregational element found the new minister less ready to grant the same liberal privi- leges as to church fellowship, infant baptism, etc., as had been accorded in the earlier years. The new version of Baptism and Christian Communion, as given by Elder Luther, was not acceptable to the Pedobaptists of the town, and, whether intended or not, helped to establish the divid- ing line of denominationalism between the hitherto united parties. The liberal policy of Plymouth Colony had allowed the Baptist Church an existence on New Meadow Neck, much to the distress of the Bay Colony, and the near- ness of the church and town to Providence, where Roger Williams was establishing the principle of soul liberty in matters relating to state, had been helpful to that policy. When, however, Sir William Phipps brought the charter which united Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colonies in 1692, a new order was instituted which interfered with the policy of our Swansea people in religious concerns. The government was now more strongly on the side of the Con- gregational body, and had little sympathy with the Baptists, though it had learned to tolerate them. The attitude of the colony, the policy of Elder Luther and the removal of the Baptist meeting-house from Tyler's Point to North Swansea, were the chief causes for the foundation of the new church and town of Barrington.
That we may clearly understand the reasons for the re- ligious and municipal contests of the time, and of the suc- ceeding fifty years, it is important to note the legislation of that period. In October, 1692, the General Court of the Province enacted "That the inhabitants of each town within this Province shall take care, from time to time, to be con- stantly provided of an able, learned, and orthodox minister or ministers of good conversation, to dispense the word of God to them ; which minister or ministers shall be suitably encouraged, and sufficiently supported and maintained by the inhabitantsof such town." Whenever the inhabitants of
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a town should, for the space of six months, fail for any reason to provide for a minister or a schoolmaster, and to make suitable provision for their support " according to the estate and ability of the town," complaint could be made to the Court of Quarter Sessions of the County, and the Court could command the delinquent town to secure and properly maintain a minister or schoolmaster for the town, and cause a tax to be levied for his support.
It was also enacted "that every minister, being a person of good conversation, able, learned, and orthodox, that shall be chosen by the major part of the inhabitants of any town, at a town meeting, duly warned for that purpose (notice being given to the inhabitants fifteen days before the time of such meeting,) shall be the minister of such town ; and the whole town shall be obliged to pay toward his settlement and main- tenance, each man his several proportion thereof."
This legislation struck the axe at the life of the Baptist Church in Swansea, for it was not a Church recognized by the ruling faith of the Province ; the minister had not been chosen by the town ; the Church was not supported by the taxable estates of the town, nor did it have " an able, learned, and orthodox " minister in Elder Samuel Luther, who was a layman, one of the common people of the town, who had never been educated or ordained in the orthodox sense for the ministry.
Puritan Massachusetts expected each town to support by tax a Church and minister of the Congregational faith. Bap- tist Swansea did not intend to do any such thing. The town had enjoyed the benefits of its Church and minister for forty years, by the free contributions of the people, and it proposed to continue on the same plan, notwithstanding the law of the General Court, and it maintained its position in the matter at issue.
Plymouth Court had already recognized Elder Luther as the authorized minister of Swansea, but the Bristol Court could not easily overlook nor overturn such an endorsement and recognition. The Court was empowered to see to it that
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PETITION FOR A NEW TOWN.
the ratable inhabitants of every town should settle a minister in accord with the ruling faith, and it might, on the neglect of any town require a fine of forty shillings for the first of- fence, and four pounds for every subsequent conviction. The power was in its hands to overthrow the Baptist Church and the polity of the old town, but neither act was attempted, and the Baptists continued to hold Swansea as one of their strongholds.
It will be seen that the essential difficulty between the two parties in the town grew out of fundamental principles of civil and religious government, which had been at issue in Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies, almost from their first planting. The doctrine was really that of per- sonal freedom in religious concerns, which Mr. Williams had the honor of first declaring on American soil, but which found ardent advocates and defenders in the Browns and Willetts of Plymouth and the Swansea foundation of 1667. One resort was open to the Congregational body of inhabi- tants and that was the division of the old town of Swansea and the formation of a Church "on the westward end of Swansea," where most of that sect resided. The dwellers on Phebe's Neck and New Meadow Neck who favored a new Church agitated the incorporation of a new town, which should support the ministry and church by the taxation of the ratable estates of the people. History is silent as to the various debates and movements which culminated in the following petition presented to the General Court of Massa- chusetts Bay, Province, in Boston, which met on the thirtieth day of May, 1711 :
A PETITION.
" To His Excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-chief in and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in N. E., the Honorable Council and Representatives in General Court assembled at Boston this thirtieth day of May :
" The petition of us the subscribers, inhabitants on the westward end of Swansea, most humbly sheweth, that
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among all the outward and external blessings with which the God of all mercy blesseth any people with all in this world, that of the House of God is among them ; the Gospel purely preached and the ordinances of Christ's kingdom duly administered and fathers and children settled under pastoral watch care and government, under pious learned orthodox ministers being in our esteem the greatest.
"And we, your petitioners, being under the deplorable pri- vations thereof, do must humbly and earnestly petition this Honored Court that some methods may be taken (as in wis- dom may be thought best) for our relief, we being assured of this Honorable General Court's power and good will to help in such cases, from their repeated acts of the like nature, do the more freely open our malady which bespeaks pity and cure. Not to mention the ill circumstances, which our different opinions (in matters of religion from our neighbors) bring our estates under, in whose power they are in all taxes (though bad enough of itself) is yet little and light compared with the bitterness we feel at present, and fear for the future for the very mention of no settled min- ister, learned and orthodox, no Church of Christ settled in order, no pastor to feed Christ's lambs among us ; this as we believe is an uncomfortable thought unto all the holy and reverend ministers of Christ that know our state. So it is a heart-breaking. thought to us to think, that when we are called out of this world to consider in what state we leave our posterity exposed to a ruinating enticement from pure gospel and gospel ordinances. All which sorrow and misery either felt or feared, if the Honorable General Court do in- mercy and pity prevent by granting us a township according to the limits of Capt. Samuel Low's military company in Swansea, thereby enabling us to settle and maintain a pious, learned and orthodox minister for the good of us and our posterity, God will be glorified, Christ's kingdom enlarged and will oblige your most humble peti- tioners ever to pray.
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ACTION OF THE BAY COUNCIL.
Signed,
Samuel Low,
John Chaffee,
Daniel Allen,
Josiah Ticknor,
Benj. Viall,
Daniel Allen, Jr.,
Israel Peck,
Obadiah Pettis,
Samuel Humphrey,
Elisha May,
Zachariah Bicknell,
William Corbett,
Nathaniel Peck,
John Toogood,
James Smith,
Samuel Jay,
Benj. Carey,
John Rogers,
Simon Davis,
Joshua Phinney,
Thomas Turner,
Wm. Salisbury,
Joseph Chaffee,
Wm. Salisbury, Jr.,
Thomas Tiffany,
Jonathan Phinney,
Jonathan Viall,
Ebenezer Tiffany."
Ebenezer Allen,
This petition was the voice of earnest men. It set forth in the clearest language the sad condition of the people and their temporal and spiritual necessities. The reference to " the deplorable privation of " pious, learned, orthodox min- isters," had special point from the fact that the Baptists did not as a rule require an educated ministry and that the Swansea minister, Elder Luther, though a lineal descendant of the great reformer, was only an unlettered layman who had been promoted from the plough to the pulpit.
The Bay Council read the petition on the 7th of June, 17II, and ordered that the selectmen of Swansea be served with a copy, and that the parties should be heard thereto at Boston, on the second Wednesday in the next session of the Court.
The selectmen of Swansea, Messrs. Carpenter, Anthony, and Mason, issued their warrant for a town meeting to be held on the 7th of July, 1711, to consider the prayer of the would-be seceders, and to give answer thereto if occasion should warrant. The town meeting was a full one as one might suppose, and after a heated debate, and "after due
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
consideration it was proposed and put to vote, if they would comply with the said petition, and it passed in the negative almost unanimously." Our petitioners either did not attend the meeting or did not vote. It was then voted "that the town remain as now bounded, one town as it is and hath been enjoyed," and the selectmen were authorized "to defend, vindicate, and maintain the town as it is now en- joyed," Voluntary subscriptions were taken in the town's behalf to raise money for the selectmen to defend the town, and William Anthony received £1% for his services. The following remonstrance was sent to Boston against granting the prayer of the petitioners for a new town :
To His Excellency, &c .:
" Some humble reasons from all the Antient and first pro- prietors and inhabitants of the town of Swansea now living, and the posterity of the first proprietors which are deceased *and other inhabitants of said town, who settled here upon the same encouragement as the first, (being all freeholders), shewing our minds referring to a petition from some of our neighbors, preferred to your Excellency and Honored Court. And we having received a copy of said petition in which said petitioners request that they may have a township granted them out of our town, by dividing said town of Swansea, and the Honored Court have been pleased to grant to said petition a hearing, and that our selectmen should be served with a copy of said petition, in order to answer therewith, &c.
" Which said petition informs us that our neighbors com- plain that they have no Gospel minister, no Church of Christ, and that a township may be granted them that they may be enabled to settle and maintain a minister among them and reasons of the like nature.
"To which we answer it seems very strange to us consid- ering that there was care taken in the foundation of this town, how the minister should be maintained in this town of Swansea by a mutual agreement made and confirmed by those gentlemen that the General Court of Plymouth im-
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REPLY OF SWANSEA.
powed and the Church of Christ then gathered and assem- bling in said town, and confirmed by all the proprietors of said town to prevent all troubles and discords arising for the future of this nature (a copy of which is hereto annexed).
" One foundation article thereof is that a comfortable maintenance was due to the ministry from such as partook of their teaching, so careful was the first inhabitants to lay such a foundation that might effectually prevent all present and future disturbances ; that if any person denied any par- ticular in the said agreement, they should not be admitted an inhabitant in said town : and according to the said agree- ment the worship of God is and hath been maintained in this town, and in that part the petitioners would have be a township, without any assistance from said petitioners by compulsion but by free contribution, and accordingly we have been at considerable charges in building and repairing meeting-houses for our own conveniences (and constantly attending the worship of God in them) and our neighbors, the petitioners, always enjoying the same liberty according to covenant have no reason to complain. But likely said petitioners may not be acquainted with the foundation set- tlement of our town (being none of them the first proprie- tors nor but a very few children of the first, being mostly strangers, several of them lately come to town, and not all town dwellers), which if they had made the town acquainted they might have been informed. But if our neighbors expect assistance from other societies that uphold the worship of God among them as aforesaid in our town or others with them, it cannot but tend to great dissatisfaction, it being contrary to the grant given us which we and our forefathers have enforced more than forty years, and we desire so to continue. We see no advantage in breaking our town, but increasing a charge to no profit ; our township being small and granted by the General Court for our township. We desire that it so remain and every conscies person may enjoy their liberty and just rights according to the said grant, and
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the covenant and agreement pursuant thereunto which we hitherto have done.
"Furthermore, we desire your Excellency and Honorable Court, that we may enjoy our rights, which we greatly prize, without further interruption upon this account. So we sub- scribe your humble and obedient servants, the inhabitants of Swansea."
July ye 9, 171I.
The name of Rev. Samuel Luther heads the remonstrants in "the column of ancient first proprietors." James Brown, son of John Brown, Sr., was the first to sign "the column of their posterity though many of them have deceased," and John Wheaton's name heads "the list of new comers." The remonstrants number seventy-eight as against twenty-nine petitioners in favor of the new town. While our sympathies go out to the people, who suffered such trials as have been recited to the General Court, we are of the opinion that Elder Luther, Mr. Brown, and John Wheaton were correct in the principles for which they contended, and that the set- tlement of the town was made on the true foundation stone of the voluntary principle of Church support. John Brown, Sr., had stood four-square on this platform from the first, and his liberal and progressive spirit lived in his son James, and in later descendants. John Brown's record on this subject was clear and unmistakable, for had he not from the first stood for the free will of the people for the support of reli- gion ? Even as early as 1645, when Mr. Winslow, of Ply- mouth, had secured a vote of the Assembly in favor of " rating all persons by authority who refused or neglected to give what . the rulers judged to be their meet proportion towards minis- ters maintenance." The next week Mr. Brown, in a full meeting, "excepted against the entry of that order, as per- nicious and destructive to the weal of the government, and tendered a proposition, to allow and maintain full and free tolerance of religion, to all men that would preserve the civil peace and submit to government."
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