USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Barrington > A history of Barrington, Rhode Island > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
1
JOSEPH MAURAN.
193
ACTION OF GENERAL COURT.
The General Court hears the parties and though the mem- bers are on the side of the petitioners in their sympathies, the way does not seem clear to oppose so large a majority of the people, and the following order passed :
Oct. 24, 1711. - IN COUNCIL.
On Consideration of the Pleas and Papers offered on the part of the Petitioners, and on the part of the town, This Court see not reason to divide Swansea into two distinct towns, but approve the good & Laudable Inclinations of the Petitioners to Encourage Religion in that part; and recommend to them the Establishment & Support of a learned orthodox minister of good Conversation and to Endeavor a subscription for his comfortable and honorable maintenance.
Sent down for concurrence.
J. L. ADDINGTON : Secretary.
Again in 1712, our petitioners for a new town appear before the General Court, as appears by the following record of the Massachusetts General Court, June 18, 1712 :
"Upon reading a petition of the Inhabitants of the lands on the West side of the town of Swansea, praying to be made a township, concurred with the order passed thereon in the House of Representatives, which was that Nathaniel Byfield, Esq., Joseph Brown and Mr. Edward Fobes be a Committee with such as the Honorable Board shall appoint to go upon the place, inquire into the circumstances of the Town and consider the Reasonableness of the desire of the petitioners and report to this Court at their session next fall what they apprehend most expedient to be done in the affair."
Thomas Leonard was added to the Committee.
They are opposed by their fellow townsmen and the selectmen of Swansea as before, and are for the second time allowed to withdraw their suit, with the advice already given. For the next five years, the establishment of a Con-
13
3
194
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
gregational Church under "a learned orthodox minister of good conversation," in accordance with the advice of the Court, engages the attention of the people. Probably a religious organization was soon formed and public services held, when, where and for how long we knew not, as there are no direct records to which we can appeal to sustain an opinion. The first meeting-house of this Church, of which definite knowledge can be obtained, stood on the corner south of the great elms near the present residences of the Fishers and Gladdings, but the date of its erection is un- known. The new Church did not flourish on the voluntary principle as its friends and founders hoped and expected, and on the 14th of May, 1717, the town of Swansea is called to consider " an answer to a petition presented to ye town at sd meeting by some of ye Inhabitants on ye west side of New Meadow river in sd Town proposed to Rais six score pounds to support the ministrey or devid sd Town or that they might be a precinct." The town records report that after reading the petition and the foundation settlement of the town and " after a considerable fair and loving confer- ence with said petitioners upon the premises, it was agreed, voted, and concluded that all the inhabitants of the town of Swansea 'should enjoy their conscience liberty, according to sd foundation settlement of sd town, and are obliged to up- hold, maintain the ministry and worship of God in ye several Churches or congregations where they respectively belong or assemble in sd town, and not oblidged in any other Church or Congregation but where they partak of the teaching as it is expressed in said foundation settlement. This vote passed at a full meeting, no man objecting."
It is something wonderful in our degenerate day to note how those stern old Puritan consciences of Swansea stood in the way of the organization of a new town or the support of a ministry on any other basis than that of the absolute inde- pendency of Church and town. They were right as we see the matter to-day, but absolutely wrong as the subject was seen at Boston, and by the General Court of that day.
195
PETITIONS OF THE PEOPLE.
Neither do the people on " the westward end of Swansea," as a whole, see the matter in the same light as do those on the eastward end, and this. troublesome body of would-be se- ceders continues to vex the old town by its suit again pre- sented to the General Court of the Bay in October, 1717, as appears by the following petition : "A petition of Saml Humphrey, Josiah Torrey and Zachariah Bicknell, agents for the society of the West part of Swansea, showing that the said society are in great Difficulties with respect to their publick affairs, especially as to the supporting of the public worship of God amongst them, that they have long ago built a meeting house for that service and for the most part maintained an orthodox minister among them, yet by reason of the Difference of opinion between them, and the most part of the great town of Swansea, and their not being sett off from the said Town as a district Township and Precinct, they are not able to settle a minister among them ; They therefore pray this Honorable Court that their case may be taken into consideration and that they may be sett off as a Township, Containing the lands of Phebe Neck, New Meadow Neck and Brook's Pasture, and for as much as many petitions have been put up by the Petitioners to this Honorable Court, praying the same favor and that in the year 1711 or 1712, a Committee was appointed (whereof the Honorable Nathaniel Byfield was one) who returned their opinion that they ought to have near twice the land that they now pray for, the Petitioners doubt not but that ye Court will think ye Prayer reasonable."
"In the House of Representatives read and ordered, that a copy of petition be served on the town of Swansea, that they may be heard before the Court, only the prayer be not granted on Friday next, November 1, 1717. Adjourned hearing from Friday 8, to November 15. Hearing had that day, Nov. 18, 1717."
Selectmen Mason, Anthony, Carpenter, Chase, and Allen must again answer the arguments for a division of the town, in the same manner that they had done six years before. A
1
1
196
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
petition of James Brown and others living on Phebe's Neck and New Meadow Neck, praying that they may not be com- pelled to maintain a minister not of their own choosing, was also presented to the Council. As " a faint heart never won a fair lady" so faintness of spirit in town, state, or church is an element of weakness, a characteristic not manifest in either party to this town division. The third effort succeeds and the Court announces after so long a struggle, the birth of a new town, Barrington, comprising the lands of New Meadow Neck and Phebe's Neck, in the following order :
November IS, 1717. IN COUNCIL.
"Upon a full hearing had before the Court upon the petition of Josiah Torrey, Z. Bicknell, and Samuel Humphrey, &c., agents for the society in the west part of Swansea, the 15th currant ;
Resolved, That Phebe's Neck and New Meadow Neck within the town of Swansea be, and hereby is, erected into a township by the name of Barrington, and the inhabitants thereof are vested with all powers, rights, and privileges that other towns within this Province have or by law ought to have and enjoy.
Sent down for concurrence.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Read and concurred. Consented to SAMUEL SHUTE."
The act of the Massachusetts General Court which divided old Swansea and created the town of Barrington gave the new town only a small part of the territory, but made her rich in the historic memorials of the founders of ancient Swansea, and the sites of the historic church and the home of John Myles. For fifty years the people have braved the hardships of frontier life, the severe criticisms of their enemies, amounting to ostracism and persecution for
BẮT
197
BARRINGTON INCORPORATED.
religion's or conscience's sake, and have borne their burdens manfully and heroically. The romance of their real life was stranger than modern fiction. Their common toils, trials, and triumphs are the heritage of both Swansea and Barring- ton and can never be forgotten, but will become more con- spicuous in the future. We of this day are proud of our relations to the old town of Swansea and Barrington and can never be forgotten, but later generations will rise up to honor our ancestry in truer measure as we do not. We fancy that the name of John Myles and the historic church and town which he planted in this wilderness will become wonderfully luminous in the clear white light of Truth and Righteousness as they shall be revealed to the men and women of the twentieth and later centuries.
We are at liberty to conjecture as to the origin of the name of the town. One theory is that the town was named in honor of Lord Barrington, an English nobleman, born in 1676, a distinguished theologian, who stood at the head of English dissenters, when Barrington was incorporated. On the accession of George I. he was a member of Parliament, and in 1720 was raised to the Irish Peerage, by the title of Viscount of Barrington. He was an advocate of religious toleration and died in 1734. His son, the second Viscount of Barrington, was born the same year that Barrington was set off from Swansea.
Another and more reasonable theory is that the name Barrington was imported from England, as were the names of Swansea, Boston, Weymouth, Dorchester and other American towns, to commemorate the birthplace or home town of the settlers. If we turn to the map of the British Isles, we find Swansea on the south of Wales on the sea or bay of the same name. Forty miles to the south, across the Bristol Channel, is the County of Somerset, from which many of the settlers of Plymouth County came. Note the familiar names of towns which here meet and welcome us. Here is Bristol and Taunton, there Somerset, Bridgewater, Barnstable, Plymouth, Dorchester, Truro, Falmouth, and
THE
1
198
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
other names which have been transplanted to American soil. Sometimes to distinguish the new town from the mother town, the prefix New was given it, as New York, New Bed- ford. In the case of smaller towns, where no confusion would be likely to arise, the name was transferred as a souvenir of the earlier home which they still loved, the more because separated from it by a broad ocean which they never expected to recross. Whatever the New World had in store for them and their children, these pioneers could not forget the dear old hearth-stones and the village scenes, and they clung to the household names which street, parish, and town bore as a part of the wealth which could be brought with them. In Somersetshire, thirteen miles from Taunton, four from Ilminster and ten from Ilchester, all of which places are mentioned in the Myles Church records, is the little parish of Barrington. As Parson Hull's Company of 1635 contained many family names of New Barrington, we may safely assume that some of these,- the Humphreys, the Pecks, the Chaffees, the Tiffanys, the Adams, the Mar- tins, the Vialls, the Bicknells, or the Bosworths came from old Barrington in England, near which this Colony was re- cruited and that they selected this name in honorable remembrance of their old home in the mother country.
The word Barrington is of Saxon origin and is made of the two Saxon words Boerings and tun, the town of the Boerings or Boerington, changed to the present spelling, Barrington.
2601 70
but ady
CHAPTER XVII
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
The Nucleus of the Congregational Church in Rev. Mr. Myles's Church - Influence of Rev. Samuel Luther - Congregational Meeting- House and New Town - Rev. James Wilson, First Pastor - Rev. Samuel Torrey - Rev. Peleg Heath - His Ministry - Church Mem- bership -- Marriages - Half-way Covenant - Ministerial Records - Rev. Solomon Townsend - His Remarkable Ministry - Rev. Samuel Watson - Rev. Luther Wright - Great Awakening - Organization of the Sunday School -Rev. Francis Wood-Rev. Thomas Williams - Rev. B. R. Allen - Rev. Charles Peabody - Rev. Forrest Jefferds - Rev. Silas S. Hyde - Rev. Francis Horton - Rev. William House - Rev. John Colwell - Rev. Norman Plass-Officers of the Church and Sunday School.
T' `HE early history of the Congregational Church in Bar- rington is associated with that of the Baptist Church organized by Rev. John Myles, and six others in 1663, which was, as we have seen, liberal in its policy. Its " Holy Cov- enant " declared, "As union in Christ is the sole ground of our Communion each with other, so we are ready to accept of, receive to, and hold communion with all such, as by a judgment of charity we conceive to be fellow members with us, in our head, Jesus Christ, though differing from us in such controversial points as are not absolutely and essen- tially necessary to Salvation." Arrested, fined, and forbid- den by the laws of Plymouth Colony to meet for worship in Rehoboth, the small company of Baptists organized a church and built their first meeting-house a short distance from the southerly line of Rehoboth, on the north side of Hundred Acre Cove, within the present Town of Barrington. The neighborhood to Providence was favorable to the spread of the principles of religious toleration through Rehoboth. That town, though of the Congregational order, showed its
-
-
200
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
respect and sympathy for Mr. Myles later, by employing him to preach there nearly all the year 1666, "once a fort- night on the week day, and once on the Sabbath Day." They also gave him permission to purchase land and reside within their bounds. His catholic spirit, and the influence of Thomas Willett, James Brown and other members of his church, formerly prominent Congregationalists of the Ply- mouth Colony, led the Plymouth Court to grant them a large tract of land, embracing the present towns of Barrington, Warren, Swansea, and Somerset, and parts of Seekonk and East Providence, in which the new church was allowed full liberty of conscience in worship. The new town was called Swansea, from the town in Wales whence Mr. Myles was driven by the Act of Uniformity (1662). They established the principle "that the minister or ministers of the said town may take their liberty to baptize infants or grown per- sons as the Lord shall persuade their consciences, and so also the inhabitants to take the liberty to bring their chil- dren to baptism or forbear." Evidently the mode of bap- tism was left to the individual conscience. As usual in other towns of the colony, church and town affairs were largely united. Their opposition to "the union of Church and State" was mainly confined to the Plymouth mode of raising the minister's salary by the town and the legal sup- pression of other churches. The church and town were in unison so far as to call the minister, and raise money for building a meeting-house, and by vote of the town Rev. John Myles was called " Pastor of the Church and Minister of the Town." .
The members of this infant church were the first to expe- rience the horrors of King Philip's War (1675). Most of their houses were burned. Many were slain and the rest scattered. After three years, the survivors having returned and others with them, the town invited Mr. Myles, who had found refuge in Boston, to come back and resume his ministry. On his return he found the population centering around Tyler's Point, several miles south of the meeting-
-
concoll
JOHN J. ALLIN SUMMER COTTAGE, ANNAWOMSCUTT.
201
SEPARATION OF CONGREGATIONALISTS.
house. Here the town built a new meeting-house in 1680, which continued for nearly a quarter of a century, the only place of worship.
Pastor Myles died in February, 1683, universally beloved and lamented. Elder Samuel Luther was his successor, 1685. He caused changes in the Church Covenant, with reference to baptism and communion, which destroyed the basis of Christian fellowship between Anabaptists and Pedo- baptists enjoyed by Mr. Myles and his associates, and made the church distinctly Baptist. This change, so distasteful to the Congregationalists, opened a religious controversy which, twenty-five years later, split Swansea, on sectarian lines, into two townships. The first response to this change in the Covenant came from Boston Quarter Session, August 28th, 1693, requiring Swansea to choose a minister accord- ing to law. Swansea came (1692) under the new government of the united colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, and was no longer under liberal Plymouth. Led by their able Elder, Samuel Luther, Swansea people fought heroically for their rights of conscience.
About the year 1700 the Baptist meeting-house was moved from Tyler's Point to North Swansea, to accommo- date the majority. of the people. This left the southwest portion of the town, where the Congregational element was centered, without a place of worship. Here, soon after 1710, a Congregational Church was formed, and a meeting-house was built a little north of the present residence of the late Mr. George Gladding. Very little is known of this early Church, all records having been lost. The name of only one Pastor, Rev. James Wilson, has come down to us. New life and vigor were shown in a petition to the General Court in Boston, made on the thirtieth day of May, 1711, and signed by Samuel Low and twenty-eight others, asking for the "inhabitants on the westward end of Swansea," "a township according to the limits of Captain Samuel Low's military company, thereby enabling us to settle and main-
. tain a pious, learned and orthodox minister for the good of
.
202
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
us and our posterity." Rev. Samuel Luther heads a remon- strance, signed by seventy-eight others, "of ancient first proprietors," "of their posterity," and "of new comers," against the division of the town, on the ground that " in the foundation settlement of this town " the minister should be maintained by a mutual agreement," that "according to the said agreement the worship of God is and hath been main- tained in this town, and in that part the petitioners would have you be a township," and that " our neighbors, the petitioners, always enjoying the same liberty according to covenant, have no reason to complain."
On the 24th of October, 1711, the Council passed the fol- lowing order : "That this Court see no reason as yet to divide Swansea into two distinct towns, but approve the good and laudable inclination of the petitioners to encourage religion in that part, and to recommend to them the estab- lishment and support of a learned orthodox minister of good conversation, and to endeavor by subscription for his com- fortable and honorable maintenance."
The question of the division of the town continued to occupy the minds of the people of old Swansea, and the third petition to the General Court, in 1717, was heard and answered by the formation of a new town, and Phebe's Neck and New Meadow Neck were " erected into a town- ship by the name of Barrington," on the eighteenth of November, 1717.
Under the ancient rule in Massachusetts, the business relating to the settlement, support and dismission of the ministers was transacted by the town in town meeting as- sembled, and the town records now relate that at the second town meeting of the town, held April 21, 1718, the inhab- itants of Barrington chose Rev. Samuel Torrey to be the minister of the town.
"For the labor the town voted to give one hundred pounds as a settlement to the Reverend Samuel Torrey. Those that have paid anything already as to a settlement, to be reck- oned towards shares so far as it will go, and what any person
203
CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS.
has payed over and above, to be returned to him, and this hundred pounds as a settlement to be his property if he con- tinues to be our minister for the space of ten years, otherwise to be returned to the town again, and it is farther voted that if it should please God to take him away by death before the said term of ten years is out, that then his heirs shall have out of said sum the value of ten pounds a year so long as he shall labor as our minister." "Voted that whatever money is given in that is not marked shall belong to the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey." "Voted that the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey have seventy pounds a year as salary for the labor as long as he continues our minister, the said sum to be collected by the constable yearly, and payed into the town clerk, and by him to be payed to the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey."
Messrs. Zachariah Bicknell, James Adams, and "Sergeant Peck " were appointed a committee " to treat with the Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey about what the town had voted with re- spect to himself," and to report at an adjourned meeting, "this day fortnight at five o'clock in the afternoon at the house of Mr. Zachariah Bicknell."
A protest was entered against the action of the town, signed by twenty-one persons, probably Baptists, who had stoutly opposed the formation of the new town, and also as earnestly opposed taxation for the support of the church and minister of another sect. While we of this day agree that the Baptists were right in their position as to the public tax for the support of the ministry, it was undoubtedly a source of great annoyance to the founders of the new town to be confronted with so strong a sentiment against the current cus- tom of the other towns of the Colony. We honor the Baptists of Old Swansea and of New Barrington for their advanced stand in matters of civil and religious liberty, but had we been of " the standing order" in those days, we should prob- ably have regarded those apparently fanatical people as ex- ceeding sharp thorns in the flesh.
The first ministerial business of the town was not settled until the fourth day of August, 1718, " When the Rev. Mr.
-----
.
-
204
THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
Samuel Torrey appeared at the town meeting, and signified to the town that he accepted the call the town gave him to be their minister for the futor, and also the voats that the town passed about him, both as to the settlement and salary which voats were passed by the town, the twenty-first day of April last." The Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey thus became the first minister of the new town and Church, as one body. There is no written record of this pastorate, but we must in- fer that it was not satisfactory to the public, from its brevity and also from the fact that in December, 1725, the town re- fused to increase Mr. Torrey's salary, and, in June, 1726, on a renewal of the request for an increase of salary, through a Committee consisting of Lieut. Nathaniel Peck, Samuel Kent and Samuel Humphrey, the town refused the request a sec- ond time.
On the 16th of August, it was voted that the town would not concur with the Church in raising Mr. Torrey's salary, and at the same meeting it was voted "that the town concur with the Church in dismissing the Rev. Mr. Torrey from be- ing their minister, provided a Council advise it."
The town records of that date show copies of Rev. Mr. Torrey's receipts for salary, attested by Josiah Humphrey, town clerk, and a copy of his receipts for £100 as a settle- ment, as follows :
" Whereas the town of Barrington on April the 21st, 1718, voted me one hundred pounds as a settlement, I do acknowl- edge that particular persons in the town and out of the town did liberally bestow upon me an hundred pounds to encourage me to settle in the ministry here and further I do by these acquit the town from ever paying me or my heirs the said hundred pounds that they voted me or any part of it ; they (who) never paid it to me as a town.
As witness my hand this 19th day of January, 1725-6."
SAMUEL TORREY.
The Rev. Mr. Samuel Torrey was dismissed by an ecclesi- astical council and candidating for a new minister for Church
-
--
205
CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS.
and town began. At a town meeting held November 16, 1726, " It was voted that the town see cause to hear another minister after Mr. Whitmarsh's time is out that is agreed for." The town then raised forty pounds to be placed in the deacon's hands for defraying the necessary charges of paying a minister or ministers which may be employed by the town to preach the Gospel, and John Torrey and Josiah Humphrey were chosen a Committee "to procure a minister from time to time as need shall require." A month later the acts of this town meeting relative to a minister were declared void, and "it was voted that the town raise forty or rather fifty pounds for the support of the minister and that James Adams, Benjamin Viall and Zachariah Bicknell be a Committee to supply the pulpit from time to time with a minister."
In March, 1727, a call was given Rev. Moses Hale to be the minister of the Church and town at a yearly salary of £100 and a settlement of £100, and Messrs. Timothy Wads- worth, Deacon Humphrey, Lieut. Adams, Samuel Allen and Nathaniel Peck were chosen a Committee to make report to Mr. Hale. The records are silent as to the reply, but Mr. Hale did not become their minister. He receipted for £51 for supplying the pulpit in the town of Barrington.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.