V* JS& i£Sm mnr* William Henry Br An Historical Address livered at a service memorial of St. Andre ! Church, Scituate September 3, A. . 1 6X5920 MIS2 'B8 "38 38 Cljt 'Branch of <&ob'$ planting, tljt Morfs of l^isf ^anDss A MEMORIAL ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH SC ITUATE, MASSAC HUSETTS A.D. IJ30 — 1810 X Boston A. WILLIAMS AND CO. ©lo Corner Bookstore C&cp fiball inherit tbc lanto foreber, tlje brancb of ^Hp planting;, tljc tuodt of ;fflp I;antus, tljat 3f ma? 6c alortffdJ." ISA. Ix. 21. AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT A SERVICE MEMORIAL OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, SCITUATE September j, A.D. 1882 BY THE MINISTER OF THE CHURCH (WHICH, IN l8ll, BECAME ST. ANDREW'S, HANOVER) THE REVEREND WILLIAM HENRY BROOKS, S.T.D. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST BOSTON A. WILLIAMS & CO. ©lb Corner Bookstore 1882 Franklin Press; Rani, Avery, &■* Company, i-7 Fra?iklin Street, Boston. PREFATORY NOTE. ORDER OF SERVICES. Part I. Sentence. " I heard a voice," etc. (Rev. xiv. 13). Hymn 188. " Come, let us join our friends above." Nicene Creed. First Prayer est Burial Office. " Almighty God, with whom," etc. Collects for All-Saints' Day, and Easter-Even. "The Peace of God," etc. Part M. Sentence. "The Lord is in His holy temple," etc. (Hab. ii. 20) . Collects for 13TH Sunday after Trinity, and St. Andrew's Day, followed by " Direct us," etc., and the Lord's Prayer, in Office of Institution. "The Grace of our Lord," etc. Hymn 202. " The Church's one foundation." Lesson. Isa. liv. Hymn 191. "I love Thy kingdom, Lord." Historical Address. Singing of the Gloria Patri. " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," etc. Hymn 169. " Saviour, again to Thy dear name we raise." Collect. " O Almighty God," etc., in Office of Institution. "The God of Peace," etc., in Office of Institution. The Service was held at four o'clock in the afternoon of the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, on the site of the Church- edifice opened for Divine Worship, Oct. n, A.D. 1731. The weather could not have been more favorable, the rays of the descending sun being tempered by a refreshing breeze. The beautiful view of woods, meadows, and the village of Hanover (about a mile distant), with the spire, surmounted with the symbol of redemption, of the second Church-edifice of the Parish, added greatly to the pleasant features of the occasion. The attendance was large, numbering several hun- dreds of people. The graves of the two ministers, Thompson and Wheeler, with those of their wives, were, with great taste, entirely covered with ferns and golden-rod. Upon those of the former, were evergreen crosses and wreaths, and, on those of the latter, wreaths of the same material. The First Part of the Services was held . near these graves, and was conducted by the Minister of the Parish, at whose side stood one of the Church-Wardens, L. C. Waterman, Esq. (the other, Mr. Warren Wright, being absent on account of illness) ; a venerable parishioner, Mr. Luther Howland, almost eighty- six years old, who had worshipped in the old Church, and been a pupil in the Rev. Mr. Wheeler's day-school ; and the Rev. 5 Henry W. Nelson, Rector of Trinity Church, Geneva, N.Y., whose frequent ministrations in St. Andrew's Church, Hanover, are highly valued. The presence of Congregational, Baptist, and Methodist Clergymen, was a very gratifying incident in the Commemora- tion Sendee. The Second Part of the Services was held on a spot, about the centre of the site of the old Church. In front of the Reading-Desk was a large St. Andrew's cross, richly trimmed with evergreen, resting on a bed of ferns. HISTORICAL ADDRESS. We are gathered together here on the site of our old family home. Nearly one hundred and fifty-one years ago, when, in our civil relations, we were part of a Colony of Great Britain, and, in our ecclesiastical relations, a plantation of the Church of England, forming a part of the Dio- cese of the Bishop of London, the Church, which is the Mother of us all, having erected upon this spot a house for the public worship of Almighty God, ascended into what thus became the hill of the Lord, and took possession of the house in His name. On that occasion there was no consecration of the Church by a Bishop; for there was not one within the limits of what are now the United States of America until Nov. 14, 1784, when Samuel Seabury was consecrated, by three Bish- ops in the Scottish Church, as Bishop of Con- necticut. It was not until May 7, 1797, that Massachu- setts had a Bishop of her own, when Edward Bass, in early life a licensed Congregational preacher, was ordained to that office, by three Bishops in the American Church. Although this taking possession of the place where God's holy Word was to be read, His holy Sacraments cele- brated, sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving to His glorious Majesty offered, His people blessed in His Name, and all other holy offices per- formed, was not marked, as it would be now, — unless the building and the ground on which it was placed were not fully paid for, and were not free from lien or other encumbrance, — by the use of the sublime Form of Consecration of a Church by one belonging to the highest order of Ministers, it was marked by the use of liturgi- cal provisions, which for more than a century have been unknown in the services of the Church in these States: " A Prayer for the King's Maj- esty," " A Prayer for the Royal Family," and, in the Litany, three suffrages for the King, and one suffrage for the Royal Family (at that time George the Second being King, his reign com- mencing June ii, 1727, and continuing thirty- four years). On Wednesday, July 28, 1725, the Rev. Dr. Timothy Cutler, Rector of Christ Church, Boston, at the request of several of the inhabitants of the Town of Scituate, conducted Divine Service ac- cording to the Liturgy of the Church of England, and preached in the North Meeting- House in Scituate, near the Harbor ; the House standing almost opposite the place where the Hon. George Lunt, the thorough scholar and true poet, now resides. Upwards of ninety persons were present at this service. Although Dr. Cutler, in pursuance of the duty of his office, conducted this service upon invita- tion, and in a very quiet and inoffensive manner, his action was most uncharitably represented in "The Boston News-Letter," No. 1725, as " shew- ing the doctor's fervent zeal and indefatigable pains to make proselytes to the cause, and promote CEREMONIES BY DESTROYING SUBSTANTIALS IN RELI- GION." How narrow, how censorious, how un- lovely, appears the spirit which found expression in these words, when contrasted with the spirit which moved the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, whose large heart throbbed with great pulses of joy whenever, wherever, and by whomsoever, the gospel of Christ was preached, even when it was preached in a temper, and from motives which were blameworthy, as indicated by his declaration to the saints in Christ Jesus which were at Phi- lippi : " Some, indeed, , preach Christ, even of envy and strife ; and some, also, of good will. The one preach Christ of contention, not sin- cerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds ; but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. "What then? notwithstanding, every way, IO whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and zvill rejoice" How forcible are the right words of Archbishop Bramhall, " It is charity to think well of our neighbors, and good divinity to look well to our- selves " ! Dr. Cutler was ordained and installed Pastor of the Congregational Church in Stratford, Conn., on the nth of January, 1710. He had a very high reputation as a preacher, and was regarded as one of the most influential clergymen in the Colony. In 17 19 he became Rector of Yale College. In 1722, in consequence of his doubts concern- ing " the validity of Presbyterian ordination in opposition to Episcopal," he was excused from all further service as Rector of the Colleg-e. At that time there was not one Episcopal Church, and but few Episcopal families, in Con- necticut. In November of that year (1722) he sailed from Boston to England, and, in March of the following year (1723), was ordained both Deacon and Priest by the Right Rev. Dr. Thomas Greene, Bishop of Norwich. The university at Oxford and that at Cambridge both honored him with the decree of Doctor of EKvinity. In November of that year (1723), returning to Boston, he began his labors as a Missionary of the II Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- eign Parts, in Christ Church, which had just been established in that city. At the beginning of his ministry there, his con- o-regation usually consisted of about four hun- dred ; but it gradually increased to nearly double that number. He continued in the diligent discharge of his ministerial duties until he was far advanced in life. He seems to have had little to do with the con- troversies of his time, though he always showed himself a consistent and earnest Churchman. About the year 1756, his labors were interrupted by an attack of illness, from which he never recov- ered. "After he had served his own generation by the will of God," in August, 1765, at the age of eighty- two years, he " fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers." Endued with singular gifts, — an excel- lent linguist; a good logician, geographer, and historian ; a man of extensive reading in the aca- demic sciences, divinity, and ecclesiastical history ; great in the philosophy and metaphysics and ethics of his day, —he had grace given to him to use these manifold gifts always to the glory of God, and the benefit of His holy Church. ^ ^ What was said by Robert Nelson of John Ket- tlewell, may truthfully be said of him : " Learned, without pride; wise and judicious, without cun- 12 ning ; he served at the altar without either covet- ousness or ambition ; he was devout, without affectation ; sincerely religious, without morose- ness ; courteous and affable, without flattery or mean compliances ; just, without rigor ; charitable, without vanity ; and heartily zealous for the inter- est of religion, without faction." In these short and simple statements concern- ing him we must feel a profound and lasting in- terest, for the reason that the parish with which, in the good providence of God, we are connected, and which has been doing the work of the Lord for more than a century and a half, had its origin in the disinterested labors of this faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though it has had many " instructors in Christ, yet it has not had many fathers ; for in Christ Jesus he begot it through the Gospel. " Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of him," " even as he also was of Christ." In that day, for which all other days were made, as the spiritual father of this Parish, with joy and not with grief giving account of the ministry which he received in the Lord, surrounded by all those who here have been savingly born of water and of the Spirit into the Kingdom of God, who, in a qualified sense, may be regarded as his own children in the faith, he will, with feelings of hum- ble, adoring gratitude, present himself and them before the presence of the Divine glory with ex- 13 ceeding joy, saying- to Him whom he faithfully served in this life in his vocation and ministry, " Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Although his name and work are here not re- corded in tables of stone or metal, let not all-sub- duing time obliterate the remembrance of them, but grave them in letters, deep and large, in the fleshly tables of your hearts, that they may endure forever. The Rev. Ebenezer Miller, S.T.D., who, as Mis- sionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for Braintree, entered upon his ministry over that Church (now Christ Church, Ouincy) Dec. 25, 1727, at times con- ducted public worship for the people of the Church of England in Scituate in a private house, where he had as large a congregation as the house could well contain. These people erected a Church-edifice on this spot, known as " Church Hill," now within the borders of the Town of South Scituate (set off in 1849 from the Town of Scituate), about a mile from the location, in the Town of Hanover, of the present Church-edifice (the second) of St. Andrew's Parish. It was placed conveniently for the accommo- dation of the Churchmen within several of the neighboring towns, as well as for that of those in Scituate. The Church was first opened upon the 14 nth of October, 1 73 1, when Dr. Miller conducted the services, and baptized eight children, thus receiving them into the congregation of Christ's flock. There were such numbers of people pres- ent that some could not get into the Church. The building was of wood, churchly in style, had a bell-tower and a bell, and would accom- modate about one hundred and fifty persons. In 1699 the Town of Scituate ordered a piece of land to be appropriated for a Common, " sur- rounded with ways;" etc. This was on the south side of the hill where St. Andrew's Church was erected. In, 1725 ten acres more were ordered to be laid out for a Burying-Place and a Training- Field. This was an enlargement of the same Common. On the 30th of the November following, being the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (the Patron Saint of the Parish), Dr. Miller officiated here again. Although the weather was very cold, and the Church very open (not being finished), the build- ing was almost full ; and the people present, who before were unacquainted with the service of the Church, seemed to be much interested in and pleased with it. Dr. Miller offered, in case the Honorable Society should not think it best to send a Missionary to Scituate, to continue with all readiness to serve i5 the people here, as far as he could. He was the first Rector of Christ Church, Braintree (now Ouincy), and, after faithful and useful service as Pastor of the flock in that place for more than thirty-five years, died Sept. n, 1763, at the age of sixty years. When the clouds of death gathered around him, and the light of Heaven's eternal year began to dawn upon his soul, doubtless his testimony, had any been given, would have been of the same nature as that given by the saintly and sainted Bishop Thomas Ken, who said, in his last will and testament, "As for my religion, I die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith professed by the Whole Church before the disunion of the East and West. " More particularly, I die in the communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross." His death was unkindly noticed in one of the newspapers, which gave occasion to a heated controversy between the Episcopalians and the Independents. He was received into Holy Orders as Deacon at London, June 29, 1726, and ordained as Priest by the Bishop of London, the Right Rev. Dr. Edmund Gibson, July 9, 1727. In 1747 he was honored by the University of Oxford with the decree of Doctor of Divinitv. i6 Let us " give thanks to God always for him, making mention of him in our prayers ; remem- bering without ceasing his work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." The Church in Scituate having petitioned the Honorable Society to send, as Missionary there, Mr. Addington Davenport, who had just gone to England for Holy Orders, the petition was granted ; and he became the first resident Minis- ter of the Parish. His stipend from the Society was sixty pounds per annum. He received from the Society a grant of books for libraries, and of devotional books for distribu- tion among the poorer members of his mission. Nov. 10, 1735, he states that his services on the first and second Sundays after entering upon his work in Scituate were attended by large con- gregations, but that the other religious teachers thereabouts persuaded many who had attended upon these services that the Church of England could not prevail, without the destruction of their civil as well as that of their religious liberty ; so that, upon the first administration there, by him, of the Holy Communion, there were but three recipients. The attempt to plant the Church was ridiculed and bantered, its worship traduced and vilified, its discipline with acrimony inveighed against, its doctrines disputed and condemned ; thus making 17 it a " reproach to its neighbors, a scorn and a deris- ion to them that were round about it." It has been truly said, in relation to the Evan- eelical character of the Church of England, — and it is equally true of her daughter, the Protestant- Episcopal Church in the United States of Amer- ica, who has not departed from the Mother- Church in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, as she declares in the Preface to her Book of Common Prayer : — " The Gospel or Evangelical Religion, in its pure elements, was restored by the blessing of God to England, and to the English race, by the Reformers of the National Church. " It is a vain pretence that any must go out of the Church of England to find the Gospel. " Faults there may have been, and there may now be in it, and its governors may, at times, have been specially faulty ; but where is the Church without sin, that may cast the first stone ? " We are not called to write an apology for it ; but we know well, and are ready to bear witness, that in its standards is found the body of Evangelical doctrine. . . . " All the Evangelical truth received in England among Puri- tans, Non-Conformists, or Dissenters, can be traced up the line of testimony to the original Protestants of that land. " An English Evangelical Protestant, going out of this Church into some other to find the Gospel, denies, on his part, his own religious parentage. " No body of Protestants of English descent can be found, which did not receive its faith through the hands of the fathers of the Church of England. " This precious faith is, in that Church, the gold thread, which cannot be separated without destruction of the tissue. i8 " It is the marrow, which cannot be taken out till you have gone into the very middle of the bone." How much better it would have been for those who endeavored to prevent the planting of a branch of the Church of England here, to have refrained from these Churchmen, and to have let them alone : for if their counsel, or their work, originated with men, they would have come to nought ; but, if they originated with God, they could not have overthrown them, lest, haply, they should have been found even fighting against God. 1 The Druses and Maronites of Mount Lebanon exterminate rather than convert their enemies in faith, because of a belief that their heaven is a small place, which it would not be well to over- crowd." Is there any reason why we should forbid any who are doing the Master's work in the Master's name, because they follow not with us ? for are not those that are not against Christ on His part ? Why should those who profess and call them- selves Christians, instead of fighting against sin the world, and the devil, and these three only' ever turn their wounding and destroying weapons against any who are the friends of Christ, because they company not with them, — " Dealing damnation round the land On each they deem their foe " ? 19 Is there not abundant room for all in the Father's house on high ? It was nobly said, by the Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, " Against the enemies of the Lord I can lift up the spear with good will ; but with the friends of Jesus Christ I cannot find it in my heart to enter into controversy." Why not rather labor to allure to brighter worlds, by leading into the way of truth, than to exterminate those thought to be walking in error ? Every true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ should be regarded and treated as a friend and a brother. Men should remember that it is as true in the spiritual as in the natural world, " that the moun- tains must be of different outlines and of varying hues ; but it is the one light of heaven which streams upon their uplifted brows." May the Lord mercifully grant unto us such a measure of His grace as may enable us to say truthfully, with the seraphic Bishop Ken, " I love God above all things with my whole heart and soul ; next to Him, all good men and women in the world, because they bear His image." Mr. Davenport — instead of entering into pub- lic controversy with those who were " grieved ex- ceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel,"- imbued with the spirit of the Perfect Exemplar, "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suf- 20 feed, threatened not ; bnt committed Himself to Him that judge* righteously "-went quietly on hisappo .nted way, inculcating the fundamental duties of Christianity, taking every opportunity ; : ;~«oo b ™ teth ec„» no%tlM : The Church people were compelled bylaw to pay public taxes for the support of non-Episcopal worship, or to suffer imprisonment, as di/tworf the Church-Wardens, who, for not paying their rate towards the Congregational Meeting-House MisSr 1 " ^ ° f the tOWnS fa the &ta Mission), were put in prison. One of the Church-Wardens, on his way to prison for non-payment of this tax, was delivered by the constable's violent wresting of his money from him. One of the Communicants, for not paymg his rate towards the support of the non- Episcopal Minister in MarshfieH (a neighboring T v i:t rought {i i sight ° f the ^ b — p"d Se^irs a gentieman - wh ° iaia d °- thJ'chlt ing ^ th; , hard and iin J ust tax «p- he Church people, that the Church-edifice in '735 remained unfinished, and that then it could not be said when it would be completed u ess n ' end were put to this oppression" which was the Tl e h > r^ V° tHe gl ' 0Wth ° f the Mission, everv J , Churchmen,-" troubled on every s.de, yet not distressed ; p e rp, exe d, but no" 21 in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed," — when the time to favor Zion, yea, when the set time, had come, had the unspeakable happiness of seeing the Church, weighted with hinderances and difficulties, rise in triumph over all opposition. It prevailed to such a degree that the prospects of its future increase were so full of promise, that, two years before this improved condition of affairs, no one in reason could have expected the like, had he been acquainted with the deep prejudices against it, or the unwearied labor taken to confirm those prejudices. The troubles and adversities by which the Scituate Churchmen had been oppressed, by God's good providence having been brought to nought, so that His servants were not hurt by the persecutions they had endured, made it their bounden duty evermore to give thanks unto Him in His holy Church for His loving-kindness to them. In all their sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of God's truth, doubtless they were supported and comforted by steadfastly looking up to Heaven, and, by faith, beholding the glory that shall be revealed. In 1735, Mr. Davenport stated that he had baptized fourteen persons, that the number of Communicants was twenty-eight (eighteen men and ten women), and that the congregation num- 22 bered about seventy or eighty, most of whom belonged to Scituatc and Hanover; the others being scattered through the neighboring towns of Pembroke, Marshfield, Halifax, and Bridge- water, at the last of whicji places he had pi twice to a considerable congregation. That Mr. Davenport, after his removal to Boston, had the people of his first charge in his mind and heart, is pleasingly indicated by the fact that h<- gave to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in trust, for the iis<-, forever, of the Minister, of St. Andrew Church, S< ituate, seven acres of land, with dwell- ing-house, barn, and other buildings thereon ; in the instrument of I om i I ing to his having been the first resident Minister of the Parish. The frame of this dwelling-house was blown down early in the present centur) ; and the other structures disappeared very long sin This glebe-land is that whose ap< I the junction of River and Common Si " [*he village preai her's modest mansion " stood near this apex, on one side of which now stands the dwelling house erected by Mr. Samuel < >. Stetson, and, on the other, that by Mr. Thomas Waterman. 'I he annual income derived from the glebe- land alone, amounted to about twenty five dollars, meral Court of the Commonwealth, by 23 a special Act passed Dec. 14, 18 16, authorized the sale, at public auction, of the glebe-land. On the 8th of February, 18 17, a part of the land (five acres and sixty-three rods) was sold to Benjamin Palmer for $302.05 ; and the remain- der (one acre and seventeen rods) was sold to Elisha Tolman for $161.52, — in all, with interest, $466.69. The proceeds were invested in stock of the State Bank, Boston ; the income, in accordance with the design of the donor, to be for the support of the Ministers of the Parish in perpetuity. This investment was added to a " Fund," established in 1815, "for the Support of Religious Worship in the Episcopal Society of St. Andrew, in Han- over." To this Fund was also added the sum of $183.82, derived from the sale of the first Church- edifice, and other sources. The stock of this Fund was sold ; the proceeds of which sale, together with cash on hand, amount- ed to $1,274.20, and were invested, with addi- tional gifts of 51,315.70, in the purchase of land, and the erection thereon of a Rectory, the total cost of which was 52,589. 90. The Rectory was first occupied July 13, 1849. The thoughtful gift of Mr. Davenport to this Parish, in its early days of scant)' numbers and means, was the nucleus around which, a hundred years later, an amount gathered, sufficient to erect a suitable dwelling-house for the use of his sue- 24 cessors here in the saered office which he magni- fied and adorned. >«*gni 'Think upon him, our God, for good accord- ing to all that he did for this people." Mr. Davenport was the son of the Hon Ad dmgton Davenport, of Boston, and was born May 10, 1 701 He was educated for the law and epresentmg one of the oldest and most honored famd.es m the Province, a brilliant future opened before ,m at his entrance upon his professton Gen a, W "* ** ^ Ch ° Sen A «°™ey- ^eneral ; but ,t seems doubtful whether he ever entered upon the discharge of the duties of h omce. Havmg satrsfied himself that "it was , zt::^i Epi r pacy ' in the •*£££ sense, was the form of government in the Church Church of £T7 e T S -" he C ° nformed to thf Cfturch of England, and, turning his thoughts to ward the m nistrv of that ru 1 " uu » nts to- u 1 r ^ . y at Church, went to Fno- land for Episcopal ordination g " ter A of"L I5 K ,W' ? ^ e ^T* Ae Assistant Minis- ter oi the Kmgs Chapel, Boston (the first Enisco Pal Church ln that city), and May 8, I74 o became verStfoS' m T honored b y the Uni- Dec l° xford " ,th the degree of M.A. ec - »3, 1729, he married Jane, daughter of 25 Grove Hurst, of Boston. She died before 1738. The second resident Minister of the Parish was the Rev. Charles Brockwell, a Missionary of the Venerable Society. The date of his entrance upon his duties here is not known. From the communications made by both Mr. Brockwell and the Mission in Scituate to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, it appears that their mutual relations were exceedingly in- harmonious and unpleasant. He left here about September, 1737, and went to Salem, Mass., where he ministered most accept- ably and usefully to a large congregation. Subsequently he became Assistant Minister of the King's Chapel, Boston. The Rev. Ebenezer Thompson was the third Missionary for Scituate appointed by the Honora- ble Society, and received from the Society a sti- pend of forty pounds per annum. In 1763 he stated that in Scituate, Hanover, Marshfield, and Pembroke (the towns in his Mis- sion), there were seven hundred families of various religious beliefs, — Presbyterians, Independents, Congregationalists, Anabaptists, Quakers, — and some that made no profession of any form of religion. The number of those families professing them- selves of the Church of England was fifty, who, after proper instruction, came into the Church 26 from the different non-Episcopal bodies of Chris- tians. The number of Communicants was fifty, three of whom were Indians. In 1766 he stated, that, by the blessing of God, he had preserved his people from the murmurs and disorders that had lately prevailed in some parts of the Province, and that he could, with truth and justice, say that his people were most true and faithful subjects of their most gracious Sovereign, and honest and sincere professors and members of the Church of England. In 1771 he stated that there had been a hand- some addition made to the east end of St. An- drew's Church, in Scituate, to accommodate with pews families added to the Church. It is said that Mr. Thompson resided for about thirty years on the glebe given to the Parish by Mr. Davenport ; but a few years before his death, which occurred Nov. 20, 1775, he purchased and occupied the house on Mill Street, upon the site of which now stands the dwelling-house of Mr. Israel Hatch. In a letter, dated Jan. 14, 1776, of the Rev. Henry Caner, D.D. (the Rector of the King's Chapel, Boston), to the Secretary of the Honor- able Society, is this statement: "It is said that the death of the Society's faithful and very wor- thy Missionary, Mr. Thompson of Scituate, was owing partly to bodily disorder, and partly to some uncivil treatment from the rebels in his 27 neighborhood ; " to which is added, "The Parish are earnestly desirous of being re-supplied ; but I can hardly think any Gentleman would undertake the Mission in these troublesome times." At the time of Mr. Thompson's death, George III. was the reigning British Sovereign. His reg- nal years (sixty) exceeded those of any other sovereign of that realm. The going-down of the sun of this godly, labo- rious, patient servant of the Lord Jesus was over- shadowed by the dark clouds gathering around the relations of the King of England, and of the Church in that realm, to the Colonies in America. Of the King, he was a loyal subject : of the Church, he was a devoted minister. " As a great mountain on a stormy eve, After a stormy day, stands dimly shown, — How many times we saw the gray mist weave A murky mantle for his crest of stone ! " Now a brief sunset-splendor wraps his brow, A crimson glory on a field of gold ; Yet the wild tide is breaking dark below, Nor from its shaggy side the cloud has rolled, — " So dim, so beautiful, we see thy form, Conqueror and saint, man sinning and forgiven, Around thee wrapt earth's shadows and its storm, With here and there a glimpse of purest heaven. 28 But the morn breaks, - . morning w|thout A clear, calm shining, when the rain is o'er He heth where no mist of earth enshrouds, ' In God s great sunlight wrapped for evermore." " He is both dead and buried ; and his seonl chre is with us unto this day." Yonder P "Beneath the low green tent Whose curtain never outward swings," he, with " the desire of his eve* " /Yl, c ■ Lf i cherished co mp an io n of^Xj^' and s^ rows) awaits the g e„ eral Resur^'n •„ £ last day. On one of the stone* m , i • , where they rest , we r ^T ' "^ the S P ot "ERECTED IN MEMORY OF THE REVD. EBENEZER THOMPSON, WHO DIED NOV ER THE 20, A.D. I 77 r ™ YE 6 4 YEAR OF HIS AGE. On the other we read, — "IN MEMORY OF MRS. ESTHER THOMPSON J Y -7, 1S13, IN THE 99TH YEAR OF HER AGE. " I- ^ r , ife an d I Le^rS' J* "*"*"' -Ration. 2 9 Mr. Thompson was the son of Ebenezer Thompson, of New Haven, Conn., and was born June 21, 1 7 12. He married Esther Stevens (born May 17, 17 15), of New Haven. He was brought up a Congregationalist, but, conforming to the Church, went to England for Holy Orders, which, after passing the proper examination, he received. Mr. Winslow, who, after Mr. Thompson's death, served the Church in Scituate, said, concerning his departed brother in the ministry, " No Clergy- man of the Church maintained his character with more dignity and fidelity. " I am persuaded it was, in no small degree, owing to the difficulties he had to struggle with, from the rage of our distracted times, that the Church was deprived of so exemplary a Minister, and the Venerable Society of so valuable a Servant and Minister, when, to human appearance, our hopes seemed to be encouraged of his longer continuance." At the dying request of Mr. Thompson, and, after his death, at the earnest desire of the Mission in Scituate, the Rev. Edward Winslow, the Missionary at Braintree (now Christ Church, Ouincy), engaged to serve the Church here, while destitute, as frequently as he could. In the course he had appointed, on Sunday, June 9, 1776, he officiated here to a large con- gregation, composed of the members of the two 30 united Churches of Scituate and Marshfield ; and they rejoiced together in the appearance of so many persons united in Christian fellowship, and m affection for their profession of the faith and for the national constitution, and indulged in the pleasing hope, that, through the methods then pursued, these two Churches might be kept to- gether and strengthened, notwithstanding the disturbances then occurring. On the evening of this Sunday, Mr. Winslow was surprised by a citation to appear the next morning before a Committee of Safety, at a dis- tance of two miles from this spot, to answer to a charge of sowing discord and dissension. Taking with him one of the Church-Wardens of this Parish, he attended at the time and place appointed. When he was admitted to an audi- ence with the Committee, he found a magistrate a non-Episcopal minister, and about ten or twelve coadjutors convened. The magistrate, having a Book of Common Prayer, recited to him the four suffrages in the Litany, and then the two prayers in both the Morning Prayer and the Evening Prayer for the Kings Majesty and the Royal Family, and told him that all they had to allege against him was the using of those suffrages and prayers publicly in the Church on the preceding day, asking him whether or not he was sincere and conscientious m so doing. Upon his answering affirmatively, the magistrate said that such a practice, at that time of open rupture with the King and Parliament of England, was full evidence that Mr. Winslow was inimical to his country, and that his officiating in the Church here served to promote discord and divis- ions only. The Committee, finding him not inclined to submission, adjudged that the complaint should be referred to the Braintree Committee of Safety. Subsequently, the latter Committee resolved to present the name of Mr. Winslow to the General Court as that of a contumacious fomenter of alienation from the United Colonies, and an avowed enemy of his native country, and it was presented ; but what action, if any, in connection with this presentation, was taken by the Court, is not known. On the ist of January, 1777, Mr. Winslow stated that at Scituate, Marshfield, and Bridge- water, the Churchmen had been obliged to submit to the shutting-up of their Churches, which he had constantly attended until the month of June in the previous year, since which time he had not been able to visit those places more than occa- sionally, to administer the Sacrament of Baptism, and to perform private religious offices. He also stated that the people of those Churches, particularly those of Scituate and Marshfield, with whom chiefly, since Mr. Thompson's death, he had 32 been conversant, had held fast their profession without wavering, — unmoved, from their adher- ence to the Church, and their affection for the King and the National Constitution, by all they had either suffered, or been threatened with. In 1754, Mr. Winslow, as the Missionary at Stratford, Conn., of the Venerable Society, suc- ceeded the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., who, in 1722, was Pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, Conn., but conformed to the Church about the same time that his friend the Rev. Timothy Cutler, D.D., conformed. About 1764, Mr. Winslow became the Vener- able Society's Missionary at Braintree (now Ouincy). He died in 1780. " However we may rejoice in the independence of our country," said the Rev. Dr. William B Sprague, " it is due to historical fidelity to state that many of the Episcopal Clergy who remained loyal to the British Crown were subjected to a bitter and protracted persecution, which it is im- possible, on any principle of enlightened patriot- ism, to justify." That clergymen of the Church of England in the American Colonies should have remained loya to the British Crown should not surprise us ■ for they had taken the oath of allegiance to its wearer, sincerely promising and swearing that they would be faithful, and bear true allegiance to his Majesty the King, and were of the number 33 of those who felt that "if a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond ; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth." That there is nothing- in the Church unfriendly to republican institutions, is indicated by an in- cident in the life of him who was " first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his country- men." " Riding along with his suite in Westchester County, New York, he saw a house of worship shamefully dilapidated, — the Church had been riddled by musketry, battered with all sorts of missiles, its windows, chancel, and pews torn out, and unmentionable dishonors imposed upon it, — and asked why that building was so abused. " ' Because, General, that is a Tory Church,' was the reply to his question. He rose majestically in his stirrups, and, pointing to the building, ex- claimed, ' If that is a Tory Church, then I am a Tory also.' " The Records of the Parish, both as to spirituali- ties and to temporalities, prior to 1780, disap- peared long since, and are believed to be no longer in existence. The first entry in a book entitled " Records of St. Andrew's Church, in Scituate, in New Eng- land, Begun in August 1780," bearing the date of Aug. 11, 1780, is a copy of an invitation given 34 to the Rev. Samuel Parker, of Boston, to be the Minister of the Parish, earnestly desiring him to attend upon, and preach the Word, and adminis- ter the ordinances of the Gospel to its people, as often as he could, consistently wi\h his other ministerial duties. To this invitatio'i the names of fifty men, members of the Pa) sh, are ap- pended. The invitation was accepted, the relation thus entered into continuing, probably, between two and three years. On the 27th of November, 1780, it was voted to give Mr. Parker, in consideration of officiating four times in a year at each of the Churches of St. Andrew (Scituate), and Trinity (Marshfield), which were considered as one collective body so far as related to the services of a Minister, twenty- five pounds in silver money yearly. The Right Rev. Samuel Parker, D.D., was brought up a Congregationalist. Having con- formed to the Church, he went to England for Episcopal ordination, and on the 24th of Febru- ary, 1774, was admitted to the Order of Deacon by the Right Rev. Richard Terrick, D.D., Bishop of London, who, three days after, ordained him Priest. Having returned to Boston, in November of that year, he entered upon his duties as Assist- ant Minister of Trinity Church, in that city : in June, 1779, he became its Rector. 35 In 1789 he was honored by the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of Doctor of Di- vinity. Upon the death of Bishop Bass, which occurred Sept. 10, 1803, he, on the 29th of May, 1804, was elected Bishop of Massachusetts. He was, on the 16th of September in that year, ordained or consecrated to the Work and Ministry of a Bishop, but was not permitted to discharge the distinctive duties of his hio-h office ; for, almost immediately after, he was prostrated by disease, which ended his earthly life on the 6th of December, 1804, at the age of fifty- nine. The last Minister of the Parish, while it wor- shipped in the Church-edifice on this spot, was the Rev. William Willard Wheeler. On the 5th of May, 1783, he was chosen Rector of St. Andrew's Church (Scituate), and Trinity Church (Marshfield). In the Journal of the Convention of the Dio- cese of Massachusetts, for 1785, he is recorded as Rector of the united Churches at Scituate, Marshfield, Braintree, and Bridgewater. In that for 1790, he is designated as Rector of St. Thomas's Church, Taunton, as w r ell as of the two Churches in Scituate and Marshfield. During his ministry here of about twenty-six years, he administered the Sacrament of Baptism to eighty-four persons, and united in Holy Matri- 36 mony twenty-two couples. As to the number of Communicants, and the number of Burials at which he officiated, we have no information. It was characterized by amiability, sincerity, unself- ishness, and conscientious fidelity in the discharge of its duties. He departed this life on the 14th of January, 1 8 10, having reached the age of seventy- five years. My venerable friend and parishioner, Mr. Luther Howland, on my right hand, has (as an- other esteemed friend and parishioner, Capt. Nathaniel Barstow, unable to be here present, has) a distinct remembrance of the funeral of Mr. Wheeler, and states that on that occasion the Burial Office was read by the Rev. John Sylves- ter John Gardiner (afterwards D.D.), Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, who also preached a sermon from the words, " Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live forever ? " (Zech. 1.5). " Thy own loved Church in sadness read Her solemn ritual o'er thy head, And blessed and hallowed with her prayer The turf laid lightly o'er thee there, — That Church, whose rites and liturgy, Sublime and old, were truth to thee, Undoubted to thy bosom taken As symbols of a faith unshaken." 37 Mr. Wheeler married Jane, a daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Thompson, one of his pre-Revo- lutionary predecessors in the work of the ministry in this Parish. There they closely lie on their narrow couches, beneath the sods, " resting in God." " Of other words what need ? These span the broad eternal shore. From every troubled thought apart, Forgotten every earthly pain. " Sleep on : your long repose is sweet ; Tender and cool, the grassy sod. O traveller, stay thy hurrying feet ! Step softly there — ' they rest in God.' " • The stones, marking their resting-places, bear the following inscriptions : — "consecrated to the memory of REV. WILLIAM WHEELER, rector of the episcopalian church, in scituate. DtcU Jan. 14, 1S10, jet. 75 years. " What though the gloomy tyrant Death Doth God's own house invade, What though the pastor and the priest Be numbered with the dead, • The eternal Shepherd still survives, New comfort to impart. His hand still guides us, and his voice Still animates our heart " 38 "erected in memory of MRS. JANE WHEELER, RELICT OF THE REV. WILLIAM W. WHEELER, FORMERLY RECTOR OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, IN SCITUATE. ©tCtl July 30, 182 1, aged 64 years. " No pain, no grief, no anxious fear, Can reach the peaceful sleeper here." Mr. Wheeler was a son of William Wheeler, and was born in Concord, Mass., Dec. 24, 1734. He was recommended to the Venerable Society by the Clergy of the Convention assembled in Boston, June 17, 1767. In the latter part of that year, he went to England for Holy Orders ; and having accomplished his object, and been desig- nated by the Society as the Missionary for George- town (which then included all the territory within the present limits of Bath, Woolwich, and Phips- burg), Me., he returned to this country in May, 1768. He remained at Georgetown till April, 1772, when he went to Newport, R.I., as Assistant to the Rev. George Bissett, Rector of Trinity Church, in that Town. At a meeting of the Parish, held April 24, 18 10, it was voted, " that the Society are willing to attend public worship in Hanover, provided indi- viduals will build a new church in said Hano- >> ver. A Church for the use of the Parish having been 39 erected in the adjacent Town of Hanover, and been consecrated by the Right Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold, D.D., June n, 1811, services in the orioinal Church were discontinued. Subse- quently it was sold, and taken down. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, now in the one hundred and eighty-second year of its existence, to which we are indebted for our foundation as a Parish, and for a long continuance of nursing care and protec- tion, is the oldest Missionary Society in the world, having been instituted under a Charter granted June 16, 1701, by King William the Third. It is a river the streams whereof have made glad the city of God. By the labors and ministry of its Missionaries, a great flock in all parts of the world has been gathered together. For all its benefits toward us, our hearts should be unfeignedly thankful. The Holy Bible, printed in 1723, from which the Lesson for this Service was read, and which is always used in reading the Lessons in Divine Service in the Parish Church, was the o-ift of this Venerable Society to this Parish, and came over probably about the time of the opening of the Church on this Hill of the Lord. On one of its leaves is a printed cut, represent- ing the Seal of the Society. Beneath are the words, " The Gift of the Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign parts." 40 On one of its covers are the words, in gilt letters, " St. Andrew's Church." The curiously carved box on which it now rests, is that in which it was brought from England. The Book of Common Prayer, which came with the Holy Bible, is not in the possession of the Parish. What became of it is not known. The Book of Common Prayer, used in conduct- ing - the liturgical services on this occasion, and which is always used in the Parish Church in the Celebration of the Holy Communion, bears on its title-page the imprint, " New York: By Direction of the General Convention, Printed By Hugh Gaine, At the Bible, Hanover Square. MDCCXCV." Of the eight Clergymen who ministered to the Church people in Scituate (the Indian name was Satuit, from Satuit Brook, in the eastern part of the Town), seven — Cutler, Miller, Davenport, Brockwell, Thompson, Winslow, and Wheeler — were sent forth as Missionaries by the Venerable Society. The following statement as to the dates of their ministerial service is approximately correct : Timothy Cutler, 1 725-1 730; Ebenezer Miller, 1730-1735? Addington Davenport, i735~ I 737 ; Charles Brockwell, 1737; Ebenezer Thomp- son, 1 762-1 775; Edward Winslow, 1 775-1 776; Samuel Parker, 1 780-1 783 ; and William Willard Wheeler, 1783-18 10. Of these eight, four — Cutler, Davenport, 4* Thompson,. and Parker — received their religious training- among the Congregationalists. " And what shall I more say ? for the time would fail me to tell of" the lessons which maybe learned from the history of this branch of God's planting, the work of His hands. This is no disadvantage ; for the narrative it- self, without note or comment, teaches the lessons produced by its facts with such clearness and dis- tinctness, that they may be known and read of all men. How can it better end than with the grateful, trusting words, "The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers : let Him not leave us, nor forsake us : that He may incline our hearts unto Him, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments." And now, before we depart from this hallowed place, we take a tender and affectionate look at the green mounds, beneath which our spiritual fathers, and our brethren in the household of faith, are sleeping in the Lord, " where no troubles distraction can bring." " Hark ! how the sacred calm that breathes around Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease, In still small accents whispering from the ground A grateful earnest of eternal peace. " No further seek their merits to disclose, Or draw their frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repose), The bosom of their Father and their God." 42 With the upward-turned ear of faith, may we not hear a voice from heaven, saying - to all con- nected with this ancient Parish, concerning their fathers and brethren resting in this Hill of the Lord? — "Remember them which have" had "the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of god, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." " be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." \ I St. mnbrcw's <%ird), Qonoucr, jJlomoull, Kounto, ifl.issarljusttis. a.D. i72s-t8r». X " l'^ J 8 ^ llinMt1 ^ ^forever, the hvaru-h of My Planting, the work of Hu hand* thm i , .' i.i nanas, that I may be glorified." Isaiah 60: 21. As in Egyptian cerements, dank and cold, The grain of wheat Ion- ages can survive And newly planted in fresh earth wiU live To thrust its bearded stalk from virgin mould So, m this rigid soil, our Church of old A century slumbered, but Faith's vital seed Kept life in death: and in its hour of need rhe Heavenly Shepherd watched His feeble fold, Nor ait, nor violence of bigot foes Could check the pious hope thai winged . I,, soul 1,11 m haven's face this decent temple rose And on God's altar flamed its living coal. ' ■'-till the good pastor fans the fervid u l,,u U\ from that spark, how many a year ago ■ Sritttatr, fflass., Easter-Tide, A.I). 1878. George Lunt. ) / V ft! PHOTOMOUNT PAMPHLET BINDER Manufactured ty eAYLORD BROS. Inc. Sy«cm», N. Y. Stockton, Calif.