USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > A history of the Episcopal church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state > Part 6
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" These ministerial lands not being claimed by any Orthodox minister, in 1702 Henry Gardner entered upon twenty acres of it, and James Bundy upon the remaining two hundred and eighty acres."
" Most of the grantees have been of the Church of England, but most of them fell off into an enthusiastic
* Potter's History of Narragansett.
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sect called Gortonians, now extinct .* And some joined the Congregationalists in other places, and others proved to be attached to them." " Perhaps at that time there were no Presbyterians or Congregationalists in
* From Gorton their leader : this sect is now extinct-it did not long servive him. " Samuel Gorton came to this country from London. In one of his printed works he adds to his name the appellation of ' Gentleman.' . In one conveyance he styles himself ' Citizen of London, clothier ;' and in another, ' Professor of the mysteries of Christ.' He landed at Boston in 1636, and from that place removed in a short time to Plymouth. Here it seems his heterodoxy in religion was first discovered, and he was complained of and required to find sureties, and fined. From Plymouth, Gorton removed to Rhode Island, and shortly after settled in Warwick. In 1642 he was seized by Massachusetts forces, and was confined in prison. After his release, he returned to Rhode Island, and then went to England, and preferred a memorial respecting his treatment against Massachusetts. In 1646, he came back to Rhode Island and settled in Warwick.
" His religious opinions were peculiar. It is impossible, perhaps, for any one at this day fully to comprehend them. During his life they were the subject of much speculation. His opponents imputed to him religious tenets which he re- pudiated; in many instances, what they considered necessary inferences from his opinions, though denied by him to be such, were without circumlocution, set down among his heresies. In a letter to Morton, in answer to reflections in his memorial, Gorton says :- ' You declare that I have spoken words, or to that effect, that there is no estate or condition of mankind after this life. I do verily be- lieve, that there is not a man, woman, or child, upon the face of the earth, that will come forth and say, that they heard any such words from my mouth. And I appeal to God, the judge of all secrets, that there never such a thought enter- tained in my heart.' The persecutions which he suffered for his religious opin- ions, did not lead him to be intolerant towards those who differed from him. That he was an enthusiast in his religious opinions, there can be no doubt, so were his opponents in theirs. Each defended his own opinions, and attacked those of his antagonists, with a bitterness that would not now be tolerated ; and each should be judged, not by what we should now deem proper, but by what was considered so in their times. Nor does it appear, that difference of opinion, in matters of religion, excluded any from his benevolence or charity.
" Of the private history of Gorton, very little can be gleaned even from tradition. The following extract is from the manuscript itinerary of the late Doctor Ezra Stiles. It is the testimony of the last of Gorton's disciples, and must put to rest every doubt of Gorton's sincerity in his religious belief, and induce a more favorable estimate of his character :
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Rhode Island; and at this time (1750,) it is said there are, in North and South Kingstown, more people of the Church of England than of the Presbyterians and Con- gregationalists."
In 1702, Mr. Niles, not ordained in any man- ner, preached in the said district for some time, but never had possession from Bundy of the two hundred and eighty acres. In 1710, he left
At Providence, Nov. 18th, 1771, I visited a Mr. Angell, aged eighty, born Oct. 18th, 1691, a plain, blunt spoken man, of right old English frankness. He is not a Quaker, nor Baptist, nor Presbyterian, but a Gortonist, and the only one I have seen. Gorton lives now only in him, his only disciple left. He says, he knew of no other, and that he is alone. He gave me an account of Gorton's disciples, first and last, and showed me some of Gorton's printed books and some of his manuscripts. He said Gorton wrote in Heaven, and no one can understand his writings but those who live in Heaven, while on earth. He said Gorton had beat down all outward ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, with unanswer- able demonstration. That Gorton preached in London in Oliver's time, and had a church and living of five hundred pounds a year offered him, but he believed no sum would have tempted him to take a farthing for preaching. He told me his grand-father, Thomas Angell, came from Salem to Providence with Roger Williams, that Gorton did not agree with Roger Williams, who was for outward ordinances to be set up again by new Apostles. I asked him if Gorton was a Quaker, as he seemed to agree with them in rejecting outward ordinances? He said, no ; and that when George Fox, (I think,) or one of the first Friends came over, he went to Warwick to see Gorton, but was a mere babe to Gorton. The Friends had come out of the world, in some ways, but still were in darkness or twilight, but that Gorton was far beyond them, he said, highway up to the dis- pensation of light. The Quakers were in no wise to be compared with him ; nor any man else can, since the primitive times of the church, especially since they came out of Popish darkness. He said Gorton was a holy man, wept day and night for the sins and blindness of the world-his eyes were a fountain of tears and always full of tears,-a man full of thought and study,-had a long walk out through the trees and woods by his house, where he constantly walked morning and evening, and even in the depth of night alone by himself, for contemplation and enjoyment of the dispensation of light. He was universally beloved by all his neighbors, and the Indians, who esteemed him not only as a friend, but one high in communion with God in Heaven-and indeed he lived in Heaven .- Ex- tracted from Staples' Gorton.
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Kingstown and settled in Braintree, in Massachusetts Bay.
"In 1719, George Mumford bought of Bundy the pos- session of the two hundred and eighty acres.
"Several inhabitants of the Narragansett country hav- ing petitioned the Bishop of London, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for a Missionary, Mr. McSparran was appointed, in 1721, and Mr. Gardner delivered the twenty acres which he had possession of, to the Church of England incumbent. Mr. Guy, before Mr. McSparran's time, had been ap- pointed missionary, but soon left it. Mr. McSparran, upon a writ of ejectment, in 1723, recovered possession against Mumford for the two hundred and eighty acres, grounded on the confirmation of 1679, and the laying out of 1693, the original grant of 1668 being secreted, was cast in two trials. He appealed to the king in council, but the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel refusing to meddle with the affair, the matter rested and Mumford kept possession.
" The Presbyterian incumbent minister, Mr. Torrey, the first incumbent of ordination, brought an action against Gardner for the twenty acres, but was cast, and Mr. McSparran, the Church of England minister, brought an action against Robert Hazard, the tenant of Torrey.
"In 1732, Torrey brought an action of ejectment against Mumford ; both inferior and superior courts gave
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it for Mumford; but upon Torrey's appeal to the king in council, the verdicts were disallowed, and possession ordered to the incumbent, Torrey, in 1734. The mem- bers of St. Paul's, Narragansett, April 7th, 1735, ad- dressed the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, &c., for their assistance in advice and expense, but to no purpose.
"In 1735, by advice from England, Mr. Torrey con- veyed the two hundred and eighty acres, which he re- covered of Mumford, to Peter Coggshall and five others in fee, and in trust for himself and his successors in the Presbyterian Ministry. The Trustees leased the same to Hazard for a few years.
" In 1737, the original deed of the ministerial land in the Petaquamscut purchase, which had been secreted, coming to light, Doctor McSparran, in behalf of himself and successors in St. Paul's Church, by the advice of his lawyers, Captain Bull, Colonel Updike, and Judge Auchmuty of Boston, brought a new writ of ejectment against Hazard, the occupant or tenant of the said two hundred and eighty acres, and was cast in the courts of Rhode Island, but allowed an appeal to the king in council."
· Upon a full trial before the king, in council at White- hall, the following judgment was rendered :
" At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 7th of May, 1752.
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PRESENT,
Their Excellencies the Lords Justices.
Arch Bishop of Canterbury, Duke of Argyll,
Lord Chancellor,
Marquis of Harlington,
" Steward,
Earl of Holdernesse,
" Anson, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Lord President, Horatio Walpole, Esq.,
Earl of Cholmondely,
Sir William Yonge,
« " Halifax,
" John Bushout,
" " Buckinghamshire, George Dodington, Esq.,
Lord Bathurst, William Pitt, Esq.,
" Edgecombe, Sir George Lee.
Upon reading, at the board, a report of the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council for hearing appeals from the plantations, dated the 2nd of this instant, in the words following, viz :
Their Excellencies the Lords Justices, having been pleased, by the order of the 10th of July, 1740, to refer unto this committee the humble petition of James McSparran, Doctor in Divinity, setting forth, among other things, that the petitioner is the complete in- cumbent, regularly licensed, of the Church of England, called by the name of St. Paul's Church, within the Petaquamscut purchase in the Narragansett Country, in his majesty's colony of Rhode Island ; and as such has filled the said church ever since the year 1721, and had
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the constant possession of part of the lands given for such a minister, and has defended his title thereto on repeated trials thereof. That on the 4th day of June, 1668, at a meeting of the partners in the said purchase, they drew up and signed a deed, or agreement, in wri- ting, concerning the said purchase and the affairs there- of, whereby they gave and granted forever, three hun- dred acres of their said purchase for an Orthodox Min- ister, in the following words: "That a tract of three hundred acres of the best land, and in a convenient place, be laid out and forever set apart as an encouragement, the income and improvement thereof, wholly for an Or- thodox person that shall be obtained to preach God's word to the inhabitants."
That on the 5th day of December, 1679, another deed was executed, whereby the said three hundred acres, for the ministry, was allowed and made good. That about 1692 a plan of the Petaquamscut purchase lands was laid out by Smith, a surveyor, and the words " ministry " ordered to be wrote upon the plan of said three hundred acres. That, on the petitioner's arrival there, he was put into and has ever since enjoyed, twenty acres, part of the said three hundred acres, as of right belonging to the said church. But Mr. George Mumford, who was in the occupancy of the remaining two hundred and eighty acres, refusing to deliver the same to the petitioner, he, in July, 1723, brought his
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writ of ejectment against the said Mumford, to recover the same; but the original vote of the 4th of June, 1668, being concealed from the petitioner, he, for that reason only, failed in recovering said lands in that action. That Mr. Joseph Torrey, pretending himself to be an ordained settled preacher of God's word to the inhabi- tants of South Kingstown, of the Presbyterian persua- sion, in June, 1732, brought his ejectment against the said George Mumford for the recovery of said two hundred and eighty acres of land, on trial whereof, he produced his said original vote of 1668. On trial of which action in the Inferior Court, the verdict and judg- ment was against the said Torrey, and in the Superior Court, a special verdict was found, that if the said Torrey was an Orthodox Minister according to law, then they found for him, otherwise for the defend- ant. On which special verdict, the said; Superior Court gave judgment for the defendant against the said Torrey, both of which judgments, on an appeal, brought therefrom by the said Torrey, were by his majesty's order in council, reversed, and possession there- of was accordingly delivered by the said Mumford to the said Torrey, who assigned the same to six trustees, who leased the same to Robert Hazard, gentleman. That the said original vote of 1668 being now brought to light, the petitioner was advised it was his duty to sup- port the rights of the Church of England, so far as to
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have one real suit upon the whole title, whether the said two hundred and eighty acres did, or did not belong to the Church of England, as by law established. And in order thereto, the petitioner on the 2nd of December, 1735, sued out a writ against the said Robert Hazard, the terre-tenant, for the recovery of said two hundred and eighty acres of land, and afterwards filed his declara- tion before the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for King's County, in Rhode Island, setting forth the said original grant to an Orthodox person in 1668, and in- sisted on the petitioner's title thereto as incumbent of the Church of England, called St. Paul's, within the Petaquamscut purchase, and in right of his said church he being regularly licensed thereto. That the said defendant, Hazard, put in his plea and an- swer thereto, thereby insisting on two pleas in abate- ment, three pleas in bar, and finally on the general issue of not guilty. That on the 6th day of January, 1735, the said Inferior Court overruled both of the defendant's pleas in abatement, but at the same time barred the pe- titioners action upon the first of the pleas in bar. That the petitioner appealed therefrom to the Superior Court in Rhode Island, who overruled the defendant's first plea in bar, and consequently reversed the judgment of the Inferior court, but they likewise gave a like judg- ment in effect, for they finally barred the petitioner's action. That his majesty in council, on the petitioner's
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application for that purpose, was pleased to permit him to appeal from the said judgment, which the court below had refused him, and on hearing that appeal his Majesty was pleased by his order in council of the 8th of March, 1737, to direct that so much of the Superior Court's judgment as barred the petitioner's action should be reversed, and that the defendant should restore his costs which had been taxed against the petitioner, and that it should be remitted to the said court to pro- ceed to hear the results of the cause. That the said cause came on accordingly to be tried on its merits be- fore said Superior Court, at their session which began on the 27th of March, 1739, but which was contin- ued to the 2nd of April, following, when the jury found a verdict for the defendant, which the court accepted and gave judgment thereon, that the de- fendant should have and recover the petitioners costs, which was taxed at £19,12, 10. That the peti- tioner conceived himself greatly aggrieved by said ver- dict and judgment, prayed and was allowed an appeal therefrom to his Majesty in council. And the petitioner humbly prays that the last verdict and judgment of said superior court may be reversed, and set aside, with costs ; and that the defendant may restore to the peti- tioner the said £19,12, 10, the costs which the peti- tioner paid, and that judgment may be given for the pe- titioner to recover and have the possession delivered to
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him of the said two hundred and eighty acres of land sued for, and for the defendant to pay the petitioner's cost, to be taxed by the proper officer of said superior court.
The lords of the committee, in obedience to their excellencies order of reference, did, on the 25th of last month, and again on this day, take the said petition and appeal into their consideration, and hear all parties there- in concerned, by their counsel learned in the law, and do agree, humbly, to report to your excellencies as their opinion, that the said judgment of the said superior court should be affirmed.
Their excellencies, the lords justices, this day took the said report into their consideration, and were pleased with the advice of his Majesty's Privy council, to ap- prove thereof, and to order that the said judgment of the said superior court to be, and it is hereby affirmed. Whereof the Governor and company of his majesty's colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, for the time being, and all others whom it may con- cern, are to take notice and govern themselves ac- cordingly .
W. SHARPE.
The decision of this cause was a noble instance, in the history of British jurisprudence, of the triumph of principle over the sectarian partialities of the judges. By the law of England, none were considered Orthodox 10A
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but those attached to the established church ; but the king in council adjudged that the term "Orthodox" legally applied to all those who were sound in the doctrines of their own particular church, irrespective of Christian denomination. The jury having decided the fact, that the grantors were of the Presbyterian or Con- gregational denomination, the king in council deter- mined that the meaning and intention of the donors, by the term Orthodox was, that the estate given should be appropriated for the support of the ministry of their own particular religious creed or persuasion ; and this decision they made, notwithstanding a presbyter of the Church of England was the adverse party in the suit.
This estate, so long in controversy, remained in the possession of the Presbyterian or Congregational Society, yielding but trifling income, until a few years since, when it was sold. The proceeds now consti- tute a fund of over $5000, the yearly interest of which is appropriated to the support of the minister of the Congregational Church, established at Kingston.
The incessant theme of the Puritans had been, that they were persecuted in matters of religion, over which no earthly tribunal should have the control. To es- cape from taxation for the support of a spiritual tyran- ny, and to avoid assessments to maintain a ministry, whose rites and doctrines their consciences could not ap- prove, " they bravely determined to quit their native soil,
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to bid a final adieu to the alluring charm of the situa- tion, and commit their future existence to that Almighty power, whose authority they dared not to infringe, and in whose protection they could safely confide. They tempted the foaming billows-they braved, they con- quered the boisterous atlantic, and rested in the howling wilderness, amid the horrid caverns of untamed beasts, and the more dangerous haunts of savage men."* As
an example of the inconsistency of human conduct, and to show how opinions change with the change of circumstances, the following entries are extracted from Dr. McSparran's church records.
"In Bristol, New England, Feb. 5th, 1722-3, were imprisoned twelve men, of the Church of England, for refusing to pay towards the support of the Presbyterian teacher there, viz : Mr. Nathaniel Cotton. Mr. McSparran being sent for to visit the gentlemen afore- said, in prison, and in Mr. Orem's absence, preached in Bristol Church, Feb'y 10th.
" At a meeting of the Vestry, April 4th, 1723, a letter from the Rev. Mr. McSparran to the Lord Bishop of London, praying an order for our church furni- ture, which lies at Stratford, and begging that he would espouse the cause of the Church of England, at Bristol, where the Dissenters have lately imprisoned twenty persons, and distrained upon the estates of several
* Gen. Varnum's speech.
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other churchmen for the payment of the rate to support their teacher, Mr. Nathaniel Cotton, was read and con- curred in, and subscribed by all present.
" This March, 1724, are imprisoned, at Bristol, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, Captain Nathaniel Brown, one of the Church Wardens of Providence, Joseph Brown, and Mr. Carpenter, all of the town of Rehoboth, for refusing to pay towards the support of the teacher in that town, viz: Mr. Greenwood, which they refuse; supposing it criminal to contribute to- wards supporting schism, and a causeless separation from the Church of England. And I have inserted the same here, that the age to come may not forget the opposing spirit of New England Presbyterians ; and what mercy and moderation the Church of England is like to feel at their hands, whenever they have the opportunity to lord it over her, as they have too much already in this country."
Showing "as is natural, to all zealots and bigots, they fell into the same error of rigidity, which they com- plained of upon their emigration from the Church of England. At a General Synod, at Newtown, near Boston, in 1637, eighty-two erroneous opinions were presented, debated and condemned ; and by the gener- al assembly, or court of the colony, some were ban- ished, and fled to Rhode Island for safety."*
* Douglass's Summary.
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Experience had taught that the tendency of synods, or religious assemblies was to establish an independent ecclesiastical influence, which might control the civil power ; and that the clergy, "by their indiscreet zeal and sectarian heat, had rather increased than healed the distempers of the church." In Massachusetts, where synods represented and were supported by the great majority of the population, and that majority was directed and influenced by the ministry, they had exercised a degree of power dangerous to other denominations, who differed from them in religious opinion. Five synods had been holden, the first in 1637, and the last in 1687, with the permission or sanction of the civil authority. The first that assembled condemned eighty two errors of religious opinion, among which were the errors and heresies of the Antinomians and others, which occasioned the settlement of Rhode Island proper. The general court, upon the recommendation of the clergy, had enacted penal laws against Sectarians, inflicting the punishment of banishment or death, on those who differed in opinion from the dominant party. So great had been their intolerance in Massachusetts, especially towards the Quakers, that Charles II. or- dered "all penal laws, relating to them, to be sus- pended."
The easy and lax administration of Lieutenant Governor Dummer was selected as a favorable time for
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calling another synod, or clerical assembly. The min- isters assembled in order to obtain a legislative enact- ment, to sanction their convocation ; and to make the effort more imposing, they presented the following pe- tition to the legislature. It was granted in council, but the house did not concur :
" To the very Honorable William Dummer, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and commander-in-chief, &c.
To the honorable Counsellors; to the honored Repre- sentatives in the great and general court assembled in his majesty's province of Massachusetts Bay, and now sitting.
A memorial and address humbly presented of a gener- al convention of ministers from several parts of the province of Massachusetts Bay. Boston, May 27th, 1725.
Considering the great and visible decay of piety in the country, and the growth of many miscarriages, which we may fear has provoked the glorious Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us ; considering also the laudable example of our predeces- sors, to recover and establish the faith and order of the gospel in the churches, and to provide against what im- moralities might threaten to impair them in the way of gospel synods convened for that purpose, and consider- ing that about forty-five years have now rolled away since these churches have seen any such conventions.
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It is humbly desired that the honorable general court would express their concern for the great interests of religion in this country, by calling the several churches in the province to meet by their pastors and messen- gers, as in a synod, and from thence offer advice on that weighty case, which the circumstances of the day so loudly call to be considered.
What are the miscarriages whereof we have reason to think the judgment of Heaven upon us, call us to be more generally sensible, and what may be the most evangelical and effectual expedients to put a stop to those, or the like miscarriages ?
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