/.-THE SAXDEMXIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. By WILLISTON WALKER, PROFESSOR, YALE UNIVERSITY. 131 http://archive.org/details/sandemOOwalk Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from I Princeton Theological Seminary Library THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. Bv Williston Walker. On December 4, 1899, a brief paragraph in the daily press recorded the death, at Danbury, Conn., at the ripe age of 84, of Miss Lucy Ely, a descendant of Elder William Brewster, of Pilgrim fame, the daughter of a prominent citizen of Danbury, and his successor in the leadership of the Sandemanian Church of that place, which was reduced by her decease to a member- ship of three. So completely has the Sandemanian movement run its course on this side of the Atlantic that, though a few scattered disciples still survive, a they were not deemed impor- tant enough for mention by Dr. H. K. Carroll in his enumera- tion of the Religious Forces of the United States; and, though relatively much more numerous in Scotland and England, they were estimated in 1879 as numbering less than 2,000 adherents in the British islands, 6 and are believed to have much dimin- ished since that time. Yet in the days when the Stamp Act oThe industry of the late Rev. Edward G. Porter, whose all-too-fragmentary notes have been kindly loaned me by his sister, succeeded in discovering several Sandemanian believers in as widely scattered regions as Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Illinois. and Iowa, but i think not more than ten or a dozen in all. Recent correspondence leads the writer to believe that these numbers fairly represent the present state of the move- ment in the United States. bEncycl. Brit.. 9th ed.. X: 637. In 1851 they numbered 6 churches in Scotland and 6 in England. (See International Cyclopaedia, VI: 731.) A letter from Mr. W. Baxter, of Dundee, under date of January 24. 1902, states: " There are only now 6 churches iu Britain connected with that order— 1 in Dundee (the parent, one might say), 1 in Glasgow, 2 in London, 1 in Edinburgh. 1 in Perth. It may be explained, however, that all the 6 are not in communion witli each other, as 1 church in London and the Edinburgh and Perth and a small number (under 12) in this city (Dundee) are separate from the other 3 churches, owing to differences iu their tenets and practices. The Dundee. Glasgow, and the other London churches, and a few 'about a dozen) in Newcastle, continue in the same doctrine, tenets, and practices, as Mr. Glasdid. and also Mr. Sandeman. his son-in- law." The eminent scientist, Michael Faraday, was an •elder" of one of the London churches, and a sermon preached by him on November 1, 1863, from John xi: 25. was printed at Danbury in 1872, in a tract entitled "A Letter by William B. Ely," etc., pp. 13-15. 133 134 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was the chief topic of American political debate, the Sande- manian movement aroused heated controversy in old England and in New England alike, gave birth to a considerable litera- ture, and enlisted the sympathies not of the ignorant only, but of a number of men and women of education and position, who viewed it as a new and helpful presentation of the gospel message and a revival of the life of the primitive churches. The Sandemanian communion, as it is called from its chief apostle in England and America, or Glasite body, as it is designated in Scotland from the name of its real founder, had its origin in a self-denying attempt of an earnest minister of the Kirk of Scotland to apply what he believed to be the pre- cepts of the Word of God to the religious conditions of the third decade of the eighteenth century. Rev. John Glas a was born on September 21, 1695, the son of the pastor of the parish of Auchtermuchty, in Fifeshire, and after graduating at the University of St. Andrews entered his father's profes- sion, being licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Dunkeld on May 20, 1718, and ordained to a ministerial charge at Tealing, in Forfarshire, a little less than a } r ear later — May 6, 1719. The time in which his early pastorate ran its course was one of comparative externalism and spiritual deadness in religion. Scottish Presbyterianism had escaped from its mar- tyrdom under Charles II and James II by the great revolu- tion which placed William and Mary on the throne. It was in peaceful possession of the land. But the national suffer- ings of a generation before Glas began his work had awakened a burning devotion to the national covenants as badges at once of Scottish patriotism and Scottish religion, and, though the Stuart menace was now a matter of history, the renewal of the "solemn league and covenant" was a frequent prac- tice at communion seasons and on other ecclesiastical occasions as a means of strengthening the sense of Scottish corporate religious unity and of quickening religious zeal among the young. But as Glas studied his Bible and explained the nature of Christ's Kingdom when he expounded the cate- chism to his flock, he came to feel that the popular use of the o A sketch of Glas and his work may be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, xxi, 417-419, from the pen of Rev. Alexander Gordon. A bibliography of his published writings, numbering 41 titles, is given in " Letters in Correspondence by Robert Sandeman, John Glas, and Their Contemporaries," etc., Dundee, 1851, pp. 23, 24. His collected works were issued at Edinburgh in four volumes in 1761-62, and reprinted at Dundee in five volumes in 1782-83. THK sand KM AM \.\s OF NEW ENGLAND. 135 covenants was without scriptural warrant and that a state church or governmental interference with ecclesiastical affairs ha\ the church of his dav. His whole aim seems to have hem a sincere, earnest, and devout attempt to bring his people into greater conformity to the precepts of the Bible as those precepts seemed to his essentially literal- istic mind to demand. In furtherance of a warmer and more scriptural spiritual life, he established <>n duly 13, 1725, a society of nearly loo members, mostly from his parish at Tealing. hut with some accessions from neighboring towns and villages. These earnestly religious men and women agreed to help one another in Christian living and to observe the Lord's Supper once a month. Two years later — in 1727— (Has set forth his new principles in a solid little treatise, entitled Hie Testimony of the King of Martyrs Concerning His Kingdom." The prime purpose of the volume was to declare the wrongfulness, in the author's estimate, of state establishments and governmental control, 6 but he intimated (dearly the conception of faith which he and Sandeman were to make the chief doctrinal peculiarity of their disciples-/ and though he did not here set forth in detail the practices of the primitive church which he held to be binding on Christian observance, he made clear his principle of literal obedience to what seemed the commands or usages of Christ and the apostles. d These stops brought down upon Glas the heavy hand of ecclesiastical discipline. e On April 18. 172S. the Synod of Angus and Mearns suspended him from the ministry; and a month later the General Assembly confirmed the sentence. ( rlas by thi^ time had renounced all belief in the rightfulness «The earliest edition to which I have access is that published at Edinburgh in 1777. which is made more valuable by an interesting preface from the pen of Glas's ministerial disciple, Rev. Robert Ferrier, once of Largo. In this preface Ferrier gives a compact summary of Glas's teachings. b Testimony, ed. 1777, 158-178. c Ibid., 182-184. d Ibid., 251-255. e These facts are mostly from Rev. Alexander Gordon's article, already cited. Glas published "A Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Controversy " in 1728. which I have not seen. 136 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. of a national church, and he therefore refused obedience to these mandates, with the natural result that the synod, on ( October 15. L728, declared him deposed; and this drastic action was approved, in spite of some protest on the part of those who knew his pastoral zeal and high Christian character, by the commission of the General Assembly on May L2, 1T^<». Yet the Assembly itself seems ultimately to have come to re- gard its action as too severe, for in 173i> it voluntarily passed a curious vote declaring Glas's restoration to "the status of a minister of Jesus Christ, but not to that of a minister of the Kirk of Scotland," thus leaving him incapable of holding a parish, while recognizing his Christian worth. In the year in which his sentence of deposition was thus confirmed (1730) Glas removed from Tealing to the neighbor- ing and more important town of Dundee and was followed thither by many of his former Tealing parishioners/' With them he continued the society begun at Tealing, which grad- ually developed at Dundee into the first church of the Glasite order. Other congregations followed, at Arbroath in 1731, Edinburgh in 1732, Perth in 1733, Dunkeld in 1735. Montrose in 1736, and later at Aberdeen in 1751, Glasgow in 17(32, and in some other towns of Scotland.* In all these churches the peculiar constitution, discipline, and worship were established which we shall have occasion, speedily, to consider in some detail. At Perth, whither Glas removed his residence in 1733, the first meeting house for the use of one of his congregations was erected/ and at Perth Glas lived, marked by decided scholarly ability and noted for his cheerfulness and Christian courage, yet called upon to endure much bereavement in the deaths of his wife and fifteen children till his own end came on November 2. 1773. Here at Perth, soon after his settlement in his new home. Glas won his most noted convert and the most eminent apostle of his views, Robert Sandeman. from whose labors the move- ment in England and America bears the Sandemanian name. a On this, see a paper by Rev. Robert Ferrierin the •'Supplementary Volume," Appen- dix, III-V, described in a subsequent note. *> These namesand dates 1 take from the unpublished notes written by Rev. (afterwards President I Kzra Btilesof a conversation had by him with Sandeman, at Newport, R. I., in L764. The manuscript is in the possession of Yale University. Rev. James Ross, " Hist. Cong. Independency in Scotland," Glasgow, 1900. 30, adds to these, as founded then or later. Paisley. Leith. Cupar, and Galashiels. cDict. Nat. Biog., XXI. 117. THK SANDK.M A MANS OF \KW ENGLAND. l.')7 Sandeman a was born in L718, the eldest son of David Sande man, a merchant of sufficient standing to be oneof the magis trates of Perth. After a brief apprenticeship to the main Perth industry, thai of weaving, the young man went to the University of Edinburgh, uncertain whether to become a minister or a physician; but before his studies were far advanced he 1'ell under the influence of Glas, accepted that leader's views, and in L736 became a member of the Glasite congregation at Perth. The next vear Sandeman married (ilas's daughter Katharine, and about the same time estab- lished himself in partnership with a brother 6 as a linen weaver on a considerable scale. The year 1744 saw Sandeman's election as an "elder" of the Perth congregation, and he now gave up active business in order to devote himself entirely to religious work. His abilities as a preacher were considerable, and his services much promoted the Sandemanian cause at Perth. Dundee, and Edinburgh/ It was during this ministry at Edinburgh that he wrote the most noted exposition of the cardinal theological tenet of Sandemanianism, its doctrine of faith. This treatise was his "Letters on Theron and Aspasio," published origin- ally in 1 Tr>7.' / a work which reached a fourth British edition by 1768.' and commanded wide attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Its occasion was the popular " Dialogues between Theron and Aspasio,"^* in which the excellent Calvinist and evangelical rector of Weston Favell and Collingtree, James Hervey, had defended the doctrine of the imputed righteous- ness of Christ, in 1755, and had set forth the ordinary evan- «A brief sketch of Sandeman from the pen of I). M. [itchelson] is prefixed, with a portrait, to a volume printed at Dundee in 1857, and entitled "Discourses on Passages of Scripture, with Essays and Letters, by Robert Sandeman." Much valuable matte*- i» con- tained in "Letters in Correspondence, by Robert Sandeman, John Glas, and their con- temporaries; Twenty-two Discourses, by R. Sandeman; Thirty-nine Notes on Scripture Texts, by John Glas; Ten Discourses, by W. Lyons; Notes, by Gabriel Russell." Tins was "privately printed" in an edition of 250 copies at Dundee in 1851. It will he cited Here- after in these notes as " Letters in Correspondence." In 1865 there was published at Perth a "Supplementary Volume of Letters and other Documents, by John Glas, Robert Sande- man. and their contemporaries," in continuation of the Letters in Correspondence. This will be cited hereafter as the ••Supplementary Volume." b. William Sandeman. ••The letters printed in the Supplementary Volume abundantly show this. d At Edinburgh *So given on the title-page. This edition was printed at London. Other British edi- tions were 1759 and 1762, and it was reprinted at Boston in 1765, so these editions might more properly be reckoned five. A later edition was put forth at Boston in 1838. /At London in 3 vols. Several times reprinted. 138 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. gelical conceptions of the nature and operations of true faith and of the means which aid in its acquisition. To Sandeman's thinking, who in this matter simply devel- oped thoughts original with Glas, the error of Hervey and of those whom he constantly describes as the ; * popular preachers" of the day was not in any under-emphasis of the sufficiency of Christ's work or of the completeness of its im- putation to the believer. Rather, their fault lay in not em- phasizing this truth adequately. As was concisely expressed on Sandemaifs tombstone, he affirmed that "the bare work of Jesus Christ, without a deed or thought on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief of sinners spotless be- fore God." rt Hence to urge men to do or feel anything as an aid to faith is to substitute something for the gospel. " Every doctrine.*' says Sandeman. " which teaches us to do, or endeavor, anything toward our acceptance with God stands opposed to the doctine of the apostles.'* 6 Nor does it help the matter, according to Sandeman. to ascribe to God the impulse toward our search for Him, " for whatever I do, how- ever assisted or prompted, is still my own work,*' and to de- pend in any way on my own work is " to look for acceptance with God by our own righteousness." ' Such current expres- sions as "the terms of the gospel" are "shifts" which preachers employ to disguise the truth that "the least attempt to do in this matter is * * * damnably criminal." d Holding these extreme views, Sandeman had little patience with the preaching of his time or with ministers now deserv- edly honored as among the leaders of Anglo-Saxon Christianity. Regarding them he expressed himself with great bitterness, because he believed them to be fatally misinterpreting the gospel. A single illustration of this hostile attitude will suffice/ If any one chooses to go to hell by a devout path, rather than by any other, let him study to form his heart on any one of these four famous treatises: Mr. Guthrie's Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ, Mr. Marshall's ( iospel Mystery of Sanotification, Mr. Boston's Human Nature in its Four- fold State, and Dr. Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. If any profane person, who desires to be converted, shall take pains to a Copy in F. B. Dexter's edition of " The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles," New York, 1901, I, 259. b Letters on Theron and Aspasio, edition of 1768, I, 16. flbid., I, 18. rflbid., II, 13, 14. elbid., II, 234,235. THE SANDEMANIANS OF N r EW ENGLAND. 139 enter into the spirit of these t ks it will be eaaj bo Bhow from the New Testament that he thereby becomes twofold more the child of hell than he was before. Sandeman pays his respects to Wesley and Whitefield in similar fashion;" nor does Jonathan Edwards fare much better at his hands. /; The real nature of faith, which Sandeman thus holds the "popular preachers" to have misapprehended, he sets forth with great fullness:'' Everyone who believes the same truth which the apostles believed, has equally precious faith with them. He has unfeigned faith, and shall assur- edly be saved. If any man's faith be found insufficient to save him, it is owing to this, that what he believed for truth was not the very same thing that the apostles believed, but some lie connected with or dressed up in the form of truth. So this faith can do him no good; because however seriously and sincerely he believes, yet that which he believes is false, and therefore it cannot save him. Yet this belief in the truth is in no sense, save in its results, different from our intellectual assent to any other fact reported to us by testimony : a The apostles used the word " faith" or "belief" in the same sense we do to this day in common discourse. We are properly said to believe what any man says, when we are persuaded that what he says is true. There is no difference betwixt our believing any common testimony and our believing that of the gospel, but what arises from the very nature of the testimony. For thus the apostle John states the matter, (1 John, v. 9): "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater;" so must produce greater certainty or firmness of persuasion. This reduction of saving faith to a bare intellectual convic- tion of the exact truth of the gospel message — yet a convic- tion wrought by God and transforming human lives— was evidently derived, however unconsciously, from Glas and Sandeman's desire to exclude all possible tinge of human merit from salvation. It forms the staple of Sandeman's discourses. Thus, preaching at Newport, R. I., on December 1. 1764, his keen-minded hearer Ezra Stiles reports his sermons:* ^Vhich bro't him to the nature of his faith, on w c he was very brief — & to this purpose, that the Iniquities of us all being laid upon Christ, he suf- fered for them & finished all suff'g for them on the Cross when he said it a Letters on Theron and Aspasio, edition of 1768, I, 145; II, 350. blbid., II, 349, 350, i. e., the Appendix to the second edition, clbib., II, 38, 39. dlbid., II, 36. eFrom the account by President Stiles in the Stiles manuscripts belonging to Yale University. 140 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. is finished & gave up the Ghost; and whosoever saw & believed tJiis Tmtli that Christ finished a perfect Righteousness on the Cross, if this proposition stands true in thy Mind (as he phrases it) thou shalt be saved; this and nothing but this perception is true Faith. But says he, perhaps some poor distressed Soul will say, can you give us no directions for obtaining this Light of Christ and this Faith? — to which he gravely answered, no. No, says he, there are not Directions — the simple Truth is presented to you, if you see it and believe it, it is well — if not, you must perish. But you will be ready to say, is this all? Is this all? — yes, this is all — behold ye Dispisers & wonder & perish, for behold I work a work in your day, &c. Aside from this tenet of the nature of saving faith, neither Glas nor Sandeman had any serious quarrel with then cur- rent evangelical doctrinal conceptions, but this was sufficient, combined as it was with a vigorous assault on " popular preachers" and valued writers of devotional and theological treatises, such as Watts, Wesley, Whitefield, Doddridge, Bos- ton and Hervey, to draw forth abundant reply. Hervey, in- deed, was in feeble health when Sandeman critcised his Theron and Aspasio and ventured on no published rejoinder, though he seems to have written a few "Reflections" for circulation among his friends shortly before his death/' John Wesley answered promptly in a brief and peppery tract in which he affirmed that Sandeman's theory was "stark, staring non- sense," because it implied to Wesley's thinking, as its only logical conclusion, that "every devil in hell will be justified and saved." 6 Several anonymous disputants soon joined the chorus of dissent/ On the other hand, a Congregational minister in London, Samuel Pike, was induced by a reading of the "Letters" to begin a correspondence with Sandeman in 1758, that got into print in 1759, and led Pike six years later into membership, and soon after into an "eldership,' 1 in the Sandemanian communion/' This was but the beginning of the battle. The } T ear 1760 saw the publication of a sturdy volume in opposition to Sandeman by Rev. William Cudworth, a Non- aSee Sandeman, Letters, ed. 1768, II: 308, Hervey died December 25, 1758. l> "A Sufficient Answer to Letters to the Author of Theron and Aspasio, in a Letter to the Author." 1757. See Tyerman, "Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley," New York, 1872, II: 293. c(l) Animadversions on the Letters on Theron and Aspasio; and (2) A Plain Account of faith in Jesus Christ. On these, see Sandeman, Letters, ed. 1768, II: 351. d "An Epistolary Correspondence between S. [amuel] P. [ike] and II. [obert] S. [ande- man] relating to the Letters on Theron and Aspasio," London, 1759. Pike gradually adopted Sandeman's views and usages; and, his church having become divided, he resigned its pastorate on December 14, 1765, became a Sandemanian "elder" in 1766, and continued in that office till his death in January, 1773. THE SANDEMAKIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 141 conformist of London." who. not content with this onslaught, followed it with a pamphlet in the succeeding year. * That year was also marked by replies t<> Sandeman from the pene of Rev. Colin Mackie of Montrose, and of two anonymous critics, one of whom was. or took the guise of. "an old woman."' 7 This real or pretended feminine antagonist charged Sandeman with'— (>mis>inn <>i' the great work of regeneration, as previous to any act of faith in u> for salvation; deficienc) in definition of justifying faith; 0. ?>"The Polyglot, or Hope of Eternal Life, according to the Various Sentiments of the present Day," London, 1761. i- "The true Comer; being the substance of a sermon preached in July and August last, upon John VI. 45: To which is annexed, A Detection of the spurious faith in the Letter on Theron and Aspasio," etc., Dundee, 1761. '•A Letter from a Friend in the Country to a Friend in Town," London, 1761. The other tract was '-An Inquiry into the Spirit and Tendency of the Letters on Theron and Aspasio," Edinburgh, 1761. e Quoted by Sandeman. Letters, ed. 176s, 359, 360. /Ibid., 359. ;/•' Palaemon's Creed Reviewed and Examined," etc., London, 1761; Edinburgh. 1762. >< "^Twelve Sermons." etc., Boston, 1765. I "An Impartial Examination of Mr. Robert Sandeman's Letters on Theron and Aspa- Boston, 1765-1769. j "True Faith will produce Good Works." etc., Boston, 1767. A" Strictures on Sandemanianism in Twelve Letters to a Friend." In Works, ed. Bos- ton. ls33, 1,553-619. 142 AMERICAN HISTORICAL 'ASSOCIATION. To all the early part of this mass of condemnatory attack Glas and Sandeman opposed a confident and vigorous defense. issuing Glas's collected Works" and repeated editions of San- deman's Letters on Theron and Aspasio, to which the author added appendices answering the principal charges of his oppo- nents with ability. And besides these more public expositions of his faith, Sandeman wrote many private letters to inquirers and preached much. One such correspondence with a Con- gregational lay preacher at London. John Barnard, begun a year later than his exchange of letters with Rev. Samuel Pike, of the same city, and aided by a personal interview between Barnard and Glas, resulted in a visit of a Scotch delegation to London, with Sandeman at its head, in April, 1761, and the establishment of a Sandemanian church there that still exists. h At about the same time a similar correspondence was begun which led to the formation of a Sandemanian church in Not- tingham, in April. 1768/ Other churches of this order were formed, or small congregations gathered, between 1761 and 1769, at Liverpool, Colne, Whitehaven, Newcastle, Gayle, Newby. Kirbv-Stevin. Kirby-Lonsdale, and in Norfolk/* and also at Swansea, in Wales, besides little unorganized groups of believers in Salisbury, Trowbridge, and Weathersfield/ In Ireland a church was in existence at Dublin by 1768, though, as it was reputed Arian, it was not in good odor with the other churches of the Sandemanian faith. f Yet most of these churches were very small, 9 and Sande- man himself was compelled to tell Rev. Ezra Stiles at New- port, in 1764. that his communion numbered "only Eighteen Chhs in the World, nine in Scotland and nine in England. * * * Perhaps 600 [members] in Scotland and 200 in England/* 7 ' This was certainly a scanty growth for a movement which had aroused wide controversy and was then more than thirty years old. There is much reason to suppose that Sandeman's view of faith had won much wider acceptance than the bounds of a Edinburgh, 1761-62. &Much of this correspondence is given in the "Supplementary Volume." o Supplementary Volume, 65. d At Banham, ibid., 64, but generally spoken of as " the church in Norfolk." « These facts are gathered from various letters in the "Letters in Correspondence" and "Supplementary Volume." /Supplementary Volume, 67. f/The Supplementary Volume shows that in 1768-69, while London counted 149 members, Colne and Norfolk had 37 each. Nottingham and Liverpool 18 each; that at Newcastle ua> very "low." /' Stiles MSS.. in possession of Yale University. THE SANDKMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 14H his fellowship. The Scottish Baptists were far from being Glasites, yet Andrew Fuller found them much influenced l>\ the Glasite theory of (li« i way of salvation, and a number of instances can be citc Supplementary Volume, 47. r Ibid., Appendix, iii-v. dOn its authorship, see a letter of John Barnard of June 28, 1766, "Supplementary Vol- ume," 64. The copy from which quotations are here made is entitled "A Plain and Full Account of the Christian Practices observed by the Church in St. Martin's-le-grand, London, and other Churches (commonly called Sandemanian) in Fellowship with them, in a Letter to a Friend," Boston, 1766, pp. 28. This treatise was reprinted as recently as 1879, or 1880, as "An Account of the Christian Practices observed by the Church in Barns- bury Grove, Barnsbury, London (formerly in Paul's Alley, Red Cross street), and other Churches in Fellowship with them, in a Letter to a Friend." elbid., 4. / •• We dare not esteem any of the Precepts or Duties of the Gospel trivial or punctilious- * * * Knowing that Man fell at first and ruined all his Posterity, by the Breach, not of a moral, but of a positive Precept; even such an one as our Reason would be apt to judge punctilious, trivial and circumstantial." Ibid., 4. 144 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 2. We think ourselves hound to follow the Practices of the primitive Disciples and Churches as far as we can learn from the New Testament how they walked, while the Apostles were with them, beholding their Order and Steadfastness in the Faith. ."». We think ourselves also hound carefully to avoid all the Things for which they were reproved, by Our Lord or His Apostles. In their organization the Sandemanian churches were Con- gregational, and each was to he presided over by not less than two "elders," since they deemed a "plurality of elders" a Scripture requirement. An "elder'* must have the "scrip- tural qualifications" laid down in the First Epistle to Tim- othy, and no man who has married a second time can till the office, though that prohibition was not believed to extend to the ordinary membership. But "human learning" is not part of the necessary equipment of an "elder," since the Scriptures do not demand it. On the contrary, the Scriptures encourage "elders" to engage "in trade and merchandise, or any lawful employment in life." "Elders" were to be chosen to office by the membership of the church they served, and ordained by other "elders" by laying on of hands and the " right hand of fellowship." 6 The Sandemanians rejected a paid ministry.' With the "elders " were associated deacons, who were chosen and ordained in very similar fashion, though without the "right hand of fellowship."' 7 The membership was received on profession of faith and examination by the entire church, and was welcomed with "imposition of hands" and the "holy kiss."* Members were cut off by excommunication by vote of the whole church, and. though to be restored once on repentance, could not be received again after a second excommunication/ All church action must be unanimous*/ 7 and, that this un- animity be real, each member was summoned by name to give his opinion. If unanimity did not appear, " the reasons of the dissent are thereupon proposed and considered. If they a •• We therefore think it necessary that there should be two elders, at least, present in every act of discipline, and at the administration of the Lord's Supper. Ibid., 15. b These fac),s are gleaned from Ibid., pp. 15-17. cSuch was the aversion of Hon. Daniel Humphreys, a Yale graduate of 17n7, who became United States district attorney for New Hampshire, to a paid ministry that he would not stay in court while such a minister offered prayer. Dexter, -Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," II, 472. (>X Plain and Full Account, etc.. p. 17. 'ibid., 18. f [bid., 18-21. " If this person should incur the censure of the church after this second reception and be cast out, we dare not receive him again." g Ibid., 22, 23. THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 145 are scriptural, the whole church has cause to change it- opin- ion; if not, and the person persists in his opposition to the Word of God, the church is bound to reject him." a This drastic method of securing united action by the excommuni- cation of dissenters was a constant drain on the Sandemanian churches/' and led more than any other single cause to their rapid decline. The religious services of the Sandemanians attempted, in a similar spirit, to reproduce their conception of the worship of the primitive disciples. Prayer they emphasized by call ing on many to lead the congregation in supplication/ It being the unquestionable Duty of a Church to continue instant in Piaver, not only the Elders or Pastors of the Church are ingaged in this Duty ; but likewise the Brethren are called upon by Name, three or four, and sometimes more, to ingage in it. * * * At the conclusion of every Prayer, whether pronounced by the Elders or the Brethren, the whole Church say Amen. In singing they made "use of the Psalms of David in a metrical translation that is nearest to the original; "<* yet they did not confine themselves to these versified portions of Holy Writ, but at certain services sang from a collection of hymns of their own — the "Christian Songs." The reading of the Scriptures occupied a large place in their worship, "no less than four or five Chapters being read in the Morning Service and as many in the Afternoon; so con- ducted, that in a Course of Time, no part of the sacred Word is omitted." e Every Sunday afternoon, as a part of the serv- ice, a collection was taken, the Lord's Supper administered, "in the most simple Form, according to the Scripture,"^ a a Plain and Full Account, etc., 23. '<]•:. g., John Barnard wrote to Robert Sandeman, January 14, 1709, " The church in London has put away nine in about rive months, and received but one." Barnard him- self was " pul away " in 1771. See Supplementary Volume, 67, 107. <■ A Plain and Full Account, etc., 6, 7. rflbid., 7. James Cargill, a Glasite "elder" who accompanied Sandeman to America, told Ezra Stiles at Newport that they preferred the Scotch psalms, but at the "Love Feast" they sang "a hymn of their own composition." (Papers in Yale University.) A Sandemanian hymn book was early published. The only edition I have been able to Bee is the twelfth— -Christian Songs," Dundee, 1841. Some of these hymns in their earliest form, by Sandeman and others, are printed in the often cited Supplementary Volume, Appendix xlvi-1. e A Plain and Full Account, 7. Cargill told Stiles, " There are read three Chapters out ot the Law and three Chapters out of the Prophets:— by Law they mean only the Pente- teucb all the rest of the Old Test, beginning with Joshua is Prophets." /Ibid., 10. H. Doc. 702, pt. 1 10 146 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. and the "Christian Duty'- of " Exhortation " fulfilled— "the Brethren [being] called upon to exhort one another: or to propose a Question for Edification, on some Portion of Scripture."" Between the morning and the afternoon services the weekly ' k Love Feast" was held, in which every member was ex- pected to share unless prevented by reasons of very special force, and these common meals were held in turn at the " Houses of such of the Brethren who live sufficiently near" 8 to the church, or where the congregation was large it was divided into convenient groups and met in several houses at the same hour. Preaching or expounding, the sermon being ;; about an hour*' in length, was also a feature of the services both of the morning and the afternoon/ And beside this prolonged wor- ship on Sunday, the church met "on Tuesday and Friday evenings at six o'clock"^ for a briefer service. It is evident, from what has been said, that a Sandemanian Sunday must have been a very busy day when the church was in a flourishing state. Not less than six hours, or if the love feast be reckoned, not less than eight hours, were de- voted to public worship. A less confused conception of the order of a Sandemanian service than that which has probably been left on the mind of the reader from the consideration just concluded may be gained from an outline drawn up by Ezra Stiles after a talk at Newport, in 1764. with James Cargill. one of Sandeman's most trusted companions, which pictures the Sandemanian public worship with substantial accuracy. « A Plain and Full Account, ete., 10. b Ibid., 7. Cargill told Stiles: •• The Intermission is spent in the Love Feasts; for which End they divide into as many Companies as convenient (a Chh of 60, for Instance, into 4 parts) for each of which a house & Dinner is ready — for the Chh of Edenburgh about four houses provide every Sabbath, 4 others the next Sabbath, & so on in Succession thro' all the families except poor & Servants &c. for whose Turns the Chh Stock makes provision. At Dinner they converse on divine Subjects & sing a Hymn of their own Composition." ••Ibid., 7. The length is given in Cargill' s conversation with Stiles. ''Ibid., 11. At Danbnry the weekly meeting was on Thursday. e From the conversation already often cited, the notes of which are preserved in the Stiles manuscripts in the possession of Yale University. THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 147 FORENOON. Lordsday. IX A Begin with Singing. An Elder prays the Lord's Prayer. Sing. Then the Elders call up 4 Brothers in succession. First Brother prays. Sing. Second Brother prays. Sing. Third Brother prays. Sing. Fourth Brother prays. Sing. The doors thrown open [to t lie general public]. X h An Elder asks a Blessing on the Word read. Three Chapters of the Law read. Three Chapters of the Prophets read. Singing. XI h An Elder prays for a Blessing on the Word preached. A n Elder preaches about an hour, And makes a short prayer. Sing. Noon Xll Assemby dismissed with a Blessing. Intermission spent in the Love Feasts, closed with a Hymn of their own composition. AFTERNOON. II A Begin with Singing. Open Doors. The Lord's Prayer. Sing. An Elder asks a Blessing on the reading of the Scriptures. Three Chapters read out of the New Testament. Singing, I think. III >' An Elder asks a Blessing on preaching the Word. A Sermon about an hour. The Assembly dismissed: and Chh stay & Doors shut, I V >' Fellowship or Contribution of the Saints. An Elder blesses and consecrates the Sacramental Ele- ments. The Elements carried about by the Deacons. Partici- pation. After Sacrament they sing. An Elder asks a Blessing on the Word of Exhortation. Every Male Member rises and gives a short Word of Exhortation. And this they call the Nursery of their Ministers, as here are exhibited each ones Abilities and Aptness to teach. An Elder dismisses the Chh with the Blessing. 148 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Aiming thus at an extremely literal conformity to all the usages and hints of usages of the early church, they were marked by some peculiarities that provoked the ridicule of those who were without. Such a custom was that of the fc 'holy kiss," which was observed as a " divinely appointed Mean for promoting that mutual Love which is essential to true Christianity." It was used " not only at the Love Feast (when each Member salutes the Person that sits next him on each side) but at the admission of a Member, and at other times occasionally. " a A custom similarly open to criticism, as prac- ticed in the conditions of modern society, was that of ''wash- ing one another's Feet;" 6 but there can be no doubt that this usage, like that of the kiss, was adopted from a most simple- minded desire to follow what they deemed the divinely appointed model of the Apostolic Church. Of course the eating of "Blood & Things strangled" was likewise pro- hibited; c but a more unusual feature of this discipline was their firm belief that it is ""unlawful to lay up Treasures on Earth, by setting them apart for any distant, future, uncer- tain use. But think it incumbent ... to la> T up Treasure in Heaven, by giving Alms. ... A Reluctance to this, we esteem one plain Effect and Evidence of Covetovs)iess." d This was a prohibition of saving foreign alike to the Scotch and the New England temper, and it led to more church discipline among the early Sandemanians than any other arti- cle of their creed/ A strict interpretation of the Scriptural injunctions to obedience to rulers -^ led them to emphasize lo} 7 alty to the King in a way that not only made Tories of most- early American Sandemanians, but exposed them to the hostility of those who did not regard submission to the British monarch as so binding a duty. And it must be said, also, that undoubtedly sincere as the Sandemanians were in their zeal for a literal conformity to the teachings of Scripture, they carried with it a conscientious «A Plain and Full Account, etc., 9. Though the Account speaks of this custom as "divinely appointed," Sandeman told Stiles that they "did not observe these customs [kiss and foot-washing] as divine institutions, but rather as exemplary institutions of the primitive Christians." b Ibid., 12. c Ibid. d Ibid. ,13. eThis is expressly asserted by James Morrison in the preface to the " Supplementary Volume," p. iv. A curious illustration may be seen in Sandeman's letter of warning and exhortation to his own father, Ibid., Appendix, XV. /A Plain and Full Account, etc., 13. THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 149 and separatist spirit of exclusiveness that forbade them to have any Christian fellowship with those who did do! think exactly as they did. Confident that fchey alone possessed the truth and were fully followers of Christ, they refused all communion with any outside their fold. Their charity in almsgiving was great. They would oot allow even the poorest of the flock to become public charges if they could help it by gifts. But charity toward differing views they repudiated. As Sandeman remarked: " Modern charity, however benevolent it may seem, bears the same aspect towards the real interest of mankind, as the insinuating address of that spirit, who first taught, and still continues to teach mankind, to disregard the words of their Creator with hopes of impunity. * * * What avails it what set of principles we choose to stamp as properly our own, while we join in the friendly alliance of charity with determined promoters of impiety and inhumanity? Samuel Pike, in setting forth the principles of the Sande- manian body, said:* We are obliged to separate from the Communion and Worship of all such religions Societies, as appear to us to be not professing the simple Truth for their only Ground of Hope, or not walking in Obedience to it. And this spirit of exclusiveness was characteristic of the whole Sandemanian communion. The Glasite and Sandemanian movement had taken on all its characteristic features, and the larger part of its literature had been published before Sandeman came to America. That missionary journey was induced by hopes of planting Sande- manian churches in New England, which correspondence with New England readers of the Letters on Theron and Aspasio had aroused/ Chief among these correspondents was Rev. Ebe- nezer White, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1733, who had been pastor of the church in Danbuiy, Conn., since March 10, 1736. d As far as New England had been affected by Sande- n Letters on Therou and Aspasio, ed. 1765, II: 298. b A Plain and Full Account, etc., 2G. c Stiles says in a manuscript of 1764, preserved in the Library of Yale University: "These letters in 2 volumes 12° came to New England, 1760, brought hither upon the recommen- dation of Rev. Mr. dimming, of Boston. They had an effect on Rev. Mr. White, of Dan- bury, in Connecticut, who, 1763, wrote Mr. Sandeman upon them." Rev. Alexander Cumming, 1726-1763, from February 25, 1761, to his death was colleague pastor of the Old South Church, Boston. riSee F. B. Dexter, " Biog. Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," 1:499-502; and J. L. Hough, "The First Cong. Church in Danbury," Danbury, 1876, p. 5. Two undated letters to Sandeman, the first signed by Rev. David Judson, pastor of the church in New- town, Conn., from 1743 to 1776, and the second signed by Rev. Ebenezer White and his sons, Joseph Moss White and Ebenezer Russell White, are printed in the " Letters in Cor- 150 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. man's teachings, it had been his doctrine of faith rather than his ecclesiastical practices that had won assent. This had been true of White, who seems to have adopted Sandeman's theory of the way of salvation as early as 1762, and who certainly had suffered for his views before Sandeman's coming-. More than a year before Sandeman sailed from Scotland a council of the local Congregational Consociation, met at Danbury on August 1, 1763/' had put White on probation as a man charge- able with heresy. On January 3, 1764, a joint council com- posed of both the consociations of Fairfield County had assem- bled and found White guilty of unsound doctrine; and in March following a second meeting of this joint council had declared White dismissed from his pastorate. That decision the pastor and a majority of his flock refused to accept, and White, with a fraction of this sympathetic majority, then formed the "New Danbury Church." Nor was White the only minister influenced by Sandeman's views. His clerical neighbor, Rev. James Taylor, of New Fairfield, a graduate of Yale in the class of 1754, was suspected of a sympathy with Sandemanianism so positive that it led to an ecclesiastical trial in May, 1763, and his silencing by the Fairfield East Consoci- ation. 6 Another neighbor, Rev. David Judson, of Newtown, like White and Taylor, a son of Yale, had written to Sande- man a guarded letter early in 1763, c and the Whites, in their cor- respondence, had claimed four other ministers of the vicinage, apparently with less justice, as full sympathizers. d Sande- respondence," pp. 71-74. Internal evidence agrees with Stiles's statement, above quoted, that this correspondence was early in 1763. They speak of having read the Letters on Theron and Aspasio "about two years since." Judson refers to White as "under difficul- ties and trials on account of his religious sentiments." The Whites express their satis- faction with Sandeman's "sentiments of religion," and ask for further books of which they have heard to the value of "£20 or £30." a Dexter and Hough, as cited. l> Dexter, Biographical Sketches, 11:350. c Already mentioned in these notes. It is in the Letters in Correspondence, pp. 71, 72. For his biography see Dexter, Biographical Sketches, 1 : 602, 603. He was of the class of 1738. dThe Whites, Letters in Correspondence, 73, say: " But we are not the only persons who rejoice in the light which has been communicated in these letters [on Theron and As- pasio] ; for there are some few others, viz, Messrs. Judson, Beeba, Whetmore, Taylor, Brooks, and Gregory, pastors of the churches in Newton, Stratford, Newf airfield, Newberry, and Philippi, that live near us, who have expressed themselves as much edified by them as ourselves." Besides Judson and Taylor, already spoken of, those here mentioned were Rev. James Beebe, Yale, 1745, of what is now Trumbull; Rev. Izrahiah Wetmore, Yale, 1748, of Stratford; Rev. Thomas Brooks, Yale, 1755, of what is now Brookfield, and Rev. Elnathan Gregory, Princeton, 1757, of the parish then known as Philippi, but now South East, Putnam Co., N. Y. Notices of Beebe, Wetmore, and Brooks may be found in Dex- ter, Biographical Sketches, 11:20, 194, 366. All these remained in office, though Wetmore was thought "for a while" to be too much of Sandeman's way of thinking. See letter of Rev. Nathan Birdseye, in Dexter, Ibid., 11:194. THE SANDKM A MANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 151 man might well count on a friendly reception in New Eng- land, though it docs not appear thai a formal invitation was sent to him to cross the Atlantic." Moved thus by the sympathy with which his views had already been received, Sandeman sailed from Glasgow on the "new ship George," August 10, 1704, accompanied by James Cargill, "elder" of the church at Dunkeld, and landed at Bos- ton on the 18th of October following. 6 After a week's stay in Boston r he went to Portsmouth, N. H., where he had en- couragement; but by November JO Sandeman and Cargill were back in Boston determined to go to Danbury. On November 19 they reached Providence, R. L, where Andrew Olifant, a Scottish Glasite, then resident in that place, joined them/ On the 28th they reached Newport. There Sandeman preached in the hearing of Rev. Ezra Stiles/ then a pastor at Newport, and afterwards president of Yale; and Stiles improved the opportunity to learn what he could of the views and meth- ods of these Sandemanian apostles. At Newport they em- barked on December 6, intending to go to Norwalk by water, as the quickest route to Danbury, but head winds forced the vessel into Stonington Harbor, and Sandeman embraced the opportunity to preach at Groton. About December 20 they were in Norwalk at last, and thence reached Danbury prob- ably four days before Christmas. Here they "met a kind reception from Mr. White and his friends,'' and "tarried near two months."-^ a Rev. Alexander Gordon, Diet. National Biog., L:256, following D. Mitchelson's state- ment in his Biographical Sketch of Sandeman, p. xi, says that Sandeman came by invi- tation; but Sandeman told Stiles that he was not invited, and a letter of John Glaa to Sandeman, dated May 16, Jt7G3, says: " I can not help thinking your motion toward New England is from the Lord calling you by what they wrote and by inclining your heart toward the writers." Letters in Correspondence, p. 75. The reference seems unquestion- ably to the letters of Judson and the Whites, already cited; but those letters, though warmly appreciative, contain no invitation. b The ship and date of sailing is given in a letter of Thomas Sandeman, Letters in Cor- respondence, p. 80. The date of landing I take from an admirable paper by Mr. Henry H. Edes on the '•Places of Worship of the Sandemanians in Boston," published in the "Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions." VI :109-130. '•This and the following dates and itinerary are from Stiles' s manuscript dlbid., Stiles reports that olifant had come to New England about 1740. Before mak- ing his home in Providence he had lived at Dedham. e Sandeman was 46 years old. Stiles, ibid., thus describes his appearance: "He is of mid- dling Stature, dark Complexion, a good Eye, uses accurate Language, but not eloquent in utterance, has not a melodious voice, his expressions governed by Sentiment, his Dialect Scotch, not graceful in his Air and Address, yet has something which deforces attention, and this is chiefly by the Sentiments he infuses or excites in his Auditory,— generally grave and decent, and not a noisy speaker." / Stiles' s manuscript. In a letter of Jan. 20, 1765, they speak of having then been in Dan- bury "thirty days."— Letters in Correspondence, p. 78. 152 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. But though Rev. Ebenezer White sympathized with Sande- man's view of faith, he did not approve of his church disci- pline/' and therefore, though Sandeman sowed seed in Danbury which was not long after to ripen into a harvest, no Sandema- nian church sprang up there at once, as the Scotch missionary may have well expected. But Connecticut was considerably stirred. A letter from Rev. James Dana, of Wallingford, Conn., to Ezra Stiles, written January 18, 1765, gives a glimpse : * We don't much expect a visit from him [Sandeman] in this county. Mr. Clapp c suspends his judgment of him. Mr. Bird^ anti-preaches him, Mr. Williston e appears to be in his scheme as far as y e times will permit. Mr. Woodhull/ resents what you w r rote of him [Sandeman] to broth r Chauncey Whittelsey. Q By the following summer, President Clap had so far made up his mind as to force not only the Richard Woodhull men- tioned in this letter, but Rev. Ebenezer White's son, Ebenezer Russell White, h from their tutorships at Yale College on account of their sympathy with Sandeman's opinions. Not being immediately successful, Sandeman left Danbury about the middle of February, 1765/ and on the 19th or 20th was in New York. Thence he pushed on to Philadelphia, but found the prospect there discouraging, and on March 13th or 14th was in New London, Conn., where he spent a fortnight. The first week in April, 1765, saw him in Providence, and from thence he journied to Portsmouth, reaching there on April 20. At Portsmouth, on May 4, 1765/" the first Sande- manian church in America was formed, and though the body a Sandeman, Cargill, and Olifant declared their regret that though " the Scripture doc- trine of justification by grace through faith" was held at Danbury, yet it "was not attended with the proper fruits," nor by "Christian separation to observe Christ's com- mand of brotherly love, and the rest of the ordinances practised by the first churches." See their letter of Jan. 20, 1765, to their Danbury friends, in D. Mitchelson, Discourses, xii. xiii. See also Letters in Correspondence, 97-99. b In possession of Yale University. c Thomas Clap, President of Yale, 1739-1766. dRev. Samuel Bird, of the " White Haven," now " United" Church in New Haven. eRev. Noah Williston, Yale, 1757, pastor at West Haven. See Dexter, Biog. Sketches, etc., II: 502-504. /Richard Woodhull, Yale, 1752. He lived a Sandemanian, at New Haven, till his death, Dec. 7, 1797. See Dexter, ibid., II: 301, 302. gRev. Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church, New Haven. h Yale, 1760. See Dexter, ibid., II: 679, 680. Of him there will be further occasion to speak. i These dates are from Stiles's manuscript. 3 D. Mitchelson, Discourses, xiii, Letters in Correspondence, 99. THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAOT). 153 was small, a the presence in it of one or two men of menus and position, like Nathaniel Barrell, a merchant and member of the Governor's council, 6 enabled it speedily to ereel a meeting- house, which was first occupied on July 28, L765." From Portsmouth, where he spent but a few weeks. Sande- man went to Boston, being in that town by May 30, L765. d This visit seems to have resulted in the immediate formation of a church in Boston, which met at first in the house of Edward Foster, but by 1769/ if not earlier, had a meeting- house of its own. Its membership, though never large, speedily included a number of "persons of high social and political standing. "^ It would seem to have been at an uncertain date, not far from the time of the formation of the Boston church, that Rev. ,Ebenezer White's son, Joseph Moss White,? gathered from his father's separatist congregation at Danbury a small society, fully Sandemanian in practice as well as in doctrine, that constituted the beginning of the organized Sandemanian church at Danbury. The successful inauguration of this congregation in the town where Sandeman had most anticipated a following and in a region where his earliest and most numerous American sympa- tic zers dwelt seems to have decided him to make it his residence. In May, 1766, he was still in eastern New England engaged in preaching at Portsmouth; 7 ' but by September following he a Writing to Ezra Stiles. Sept. 7. 1766, Rev. Dr. Samuel Langdon said: "I am informed that 16 Communicants now make up this Chh. They all discover a very malevolent Spirit, and high Enthusiasm very much like that of the hottest New Lights, however frigid Sandeman's notions may seem to his readers." Dexter, The Literary Diary of Ezra Btiles, New York, 1901, II: 171. D. Mitchelson, Discourses, xiii, says: "Exactly a year after its erection it numbered eighteen men and nine women." The list on which this statement is based may be found in Letters in Correspondence, p. 99. fr Born 1732, died at York, Me., April 4, 1831. He was a recruiting officer under Governor Shirley, and in 1760 visited England and was presented at court. He became a deacon of the Portsmouth Sandemanian church in 1766, but on the outbreak of the Revolution he retired to a farm in York, Me. He represented York in the Massachusetts legislature. His brother, Colburn Barrell, was an elder of the Portsmouth church, and afterwards prominent in that at Boston. '•Stiles's manuscript: " the new Edifice lately erected in Divinity Street." dlbid. e Henry H. Edes, in paper cited above, pp. 114, 117, 120. /Henry H. Edes, ibid., 114. Mr. Edes gives a list of persons prominent in this church and many interesting biographical details. g Yale, 1760. He was licensed to preach by the Fairfield East Association, on Oct. 28, 1761. He was the first of the White family to become a Sandemanian in practice. He lived all his life at Danbury, and died July 10, 1822. See Dexter, Biographical Sketches, II: 681. h Letter in Correspondence, 99. 154 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. was once more in Connecticut; a and though we find him again at Portsmouth in November, 1766, it seems probable that he was established in Danbury soon after, and thenceforth made that place 4 his headquarters. 6 Here he lived, for a time at least, in the house of" Asa Church, a blacksmith." But his strong sense of the obligation of loyalty to the -British Crown rendered him unpopular in the days of political ferment in which his New England mission fell. Much hostile feeling was shown toward him, and his missionary labors met with many hindrances/ 7 In the midst of these difficulties he died, on April 2, 1771. in the house of a disciple, Theophilus Cham- berlain/ at Danbury, at the comparatively early age of 53. Yet, in spite of Sandeman's early death, the movement which he had inaugurated continued to spread slowly in New England. By 1771 (largely, we may conjecture, through Olifant's influence) there was a small church at Providence, R. 1/ The next year a portion, at least, of the Danbury a Rev. Samuel Langdon, letter of September 17, 1766, to Ezra Stiles, in Dexter, "The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles," II, 171, says, '"about thirty persons are his constant Hearers, including the Chh. His Hearers, I said, but as he himself is now in Connecticut," etc. &An unpublished letter of Rev. Samuel Langdon, among the Stiles papers in Yale Uni- versity, dated November 18, 1766, says that on November 8, previous, Sandeman had returned to Portsmouth to attempt to heal a dispute in the church there. f Letter of Robert Sandeman to his brother William, of March 27, 1770, in Letters in Correspondence, 102. Other letters show that he was in Danbury on January 7, and December 2, 1769; in New Haven on December 27, 1769; and again in Danbury on January 5 and January 27, 1770. Ibid., 104-113. d A letter of Robert Sandeman to his brother William, dated " Danbury, March 27, 1770", and printed in Letters in Correspondence, 102-104, gives an account of an attempt to drive him away by legal prosecution. On February 28 his host, Asa Church, was fined £40 "for keeping Bob and me a fortnight in his house." Church appealed to the county court, to meet at Fairfield April 18. The "Bob" referred to was Sandeman's nephew and name- sake, Robert, son of his brother William, and now a boy of 14. Pending the hearing of Church's appeal by the county court, Sandeman and his ardent disciple, Theophilus Chamberlain, of whom more will be said, were brought before Thomas Benedict, long an honored justice of the peace and probate judge at Danbury, charged "as liable to pay £40 each, because being strangers and transient persons, we had remained in town four weeks after being warned to depart. They did not choose to charge us with staying more than four weeks, for that would have made the fine too high for the sentence of a single justice." The hearing was March 19, 1770. The selectmen " were the plaintiffs." Sandeman made along and vigorous defense, urging that the law "was intended not against harmless strangers but against persons of ungoverned and dishonest conversa- tion". The justice, with some hesitation, found against Sandeman and Chamberlain, but took no steps to put his decision into execution; and Sandeman wrote to his brother: "We said nothing on hearing judgment given, making no appeal. It is thought, how- ever, they will scarcely have courage to put the sentence into execution". el owe this fact to Prof. F. B. Dexter. Other facts regarding Chamberlain will be found in a note below. /Stiles records, under date of November 17, 1771: "There is a small Congreg a of Sandemanians of 3 or 4 families which meet every Ldsdy in a private house." Dexter, "The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles," I; 184. THE 8ANDEMANIAN8 OF NKW KN'ci.AND. L55 congregation removed to New Haven, where they, with cur- lier sympathizers and oew converts, formed a compact little group, including several men of position and education. Of this church two Yale graduates Titus Smith, of the class of 17C.4, and Thcophilus Chamberlain, 6 of L765 were "eld- ers;" and within the next five years its membership included three other sons of Vale— Daniel Humphreys c and Joseph Pyncheon, d of the class of 1 757. and Richard Woodhull, of 17.V_\ In 1774 the Danbury Sandemanian Church received a great increase of strength by the formal adhesion to full Sandeman- ianismof Rev. Ebenezer Russell White, Vale. L760'/who, since 1768, had been colleague pastor with his father, lie v. Ebenezer nj. W. Barber, "Conn. Historical Collections," 369. Stiles's manuscript records, under date of September 13, 1772: "There are about a Dozen Sandemanian Families settled here last Spring," and adds, a little later: " Mr. Chamberlain, Elder of the Sandemanian Chh in New Haven | Mr. Smith is another Elder), told me they had but Twelve Brethren (Elders included) and one Sister." bThrough the kindness of Prof. F. B. Dexter, of Yale. I am able to give the following facts: Titus Smith, 1734-1807, was highly esteemed at college, and after graduation went to Wheeloek'a school at Lebanon to fit himself for missionary labor among the Indians. Tn this study and preparation Theophilus Chamberlain, 1737-1824, accompanied him. They were ordained together on April 24, 1765, before Chamberlain's graduation, and in the summer of 1765 went to the Six Nations in central New York. Smith returned to New England that year. Between 1768 and 1771 he settled at Danbury. and about this time became a Sandemanian. At the loyalist exodus, at the close of the Revolution, he went to Halifax, where, or at Preston, close by, he resided till his death. Chamber- lain had a picturesque career. Sprung from very humble circumstances, he served in the old French war, was imprisoned at Montreal and Quebec, and on his return settled down till his ambition was suddenly aroused to obtain an education. After ordination. as already described, he served as a missionary till July, 1767, when he resigned, having been converted to Sandemanianism by reading one of Sandeman's books. In 1768 he opened a school in Boston, but in February, 1769, he removed to Danbury and enjoyed the warm friendshipof Sandeman. He removed to Halifax at the close of the Revolution, where he became a magistrate and a man of position, and resided till his death at Preston. • c Daniel Humphreys was born at Derby, Conn., May 18, 1740. After graduating, he studied law and was admitted to the New Haven bar. In April, 1769, he owned himself a Sandemanian at much personal cost. In 1774 he went to Portsmouth, but in Novem- ber, 1776, he opened a school in New Haven. He had trouble on account of his Tory principles, but after the Revolution settled at Portsmouth, where he won distinction at the bar, and from 1804 to his death was United States district attorney for New Hamp- shire. He was a faithful Sandemanian and an excellent man. More will be said of him later in this paper. He died September 30, 1827. See Dexter, Biog. Sketches of the Grad- uates of Yale, II; 471-474. dJosepb Pyncheon was born October 30, 1737. Lived at Guilford after graduation and represented the town in the legislature in 1766-1769. Became a Sandemanian in 1771. Tory in the Revolution. Had to seek British protection, and went to Nova Scotia in 1781, but returned to Guilford in 1785, and died there November 23, 1794. See Dexter, Ibid. II; 488, 489. eSee ante, note. /Ebenezer Russell White was born at Danbury, December 22, 1743. From 1762 to his dismissal for Sandemanian views, in 1765, he was a tutor at Y'ale. In July, 1774, he be- came fully a Sandemanian. was a respected citizen of Danbury, held the office of post 156 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. White, over the "New Danbury Church," which has already been described as Sandemanian in its view of faith, but not in its practices. With White a considerable number of the church of his recent pastorate joined the Sandemanian body, a and sympathizers now, or soon after, organized churches in the adjacent towns of Bethel and Newtown. 6 But the Revolutionary war proved a period of great dis- tress for the Sandemanians. Convinced for the most part, like Sandeman himself, that obedience to the King was a Christian dut\ T , the struggle entailed on many of them much sacrifice/ and on the body as a whole much popular condem- nation. The seeds planted in a number of fields, it is prob- able, were destroyed. Yet the dispersion caused by that struggle gave birth to two Sandemanian churches at least. master for several years ending, in 1808, and died May 4, 1825. See Dexter, Biographical Sketches, II, 679, 680. Through the kindness of Miss Maria White Averill, of Danbury, his great grandaughter, I have been permitted to use a manuscript account of his relations to the Danbury Sandemanian Church, written in 1814, 1818, and 1824. Reference will be made later in this paper. a Writing in 1818, White says: "Some time in 1768 or 1769 I was induced to become a fellow-clergyman with my Father and was ordained as a Collegue with him over the New Danbury Church and Society. In this situation I continued until July 1774, when I was compelled to come out from among them and be separate, with a dozen or two more, as we could not consider our former associates as walking in the ' Obedience of Faith.' " b White, ibid., speaks of " ye neighboring Churches at Newtown and Bethel." c The following curious act of the Connecticut legislature, passed in October, 1777, for some reason was not entered in the regular journal. It may be found in "The Public Records of the State of Connecticut from May, 1778, to April, 1780," Preface, Hartford, 1895 "Whereas it appears to this Assembly that Daniel Humphrys, Titus Smith, Richard Woodhull, Joseph Pyncheon, Theophilus Chamberlain, Benjamin Smith, and William Richmond, disciples of the late Robert Sandeman, residing in New Haven, have imbibed the opinion that they owe allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and that they are bound in conscience to yield obedience to his authority, and have signified their desire if they may not continue at New Haven to remove to some place under the dominion of said King. "Resolved by this Assembly, That the said persons and each of them, may be at liberty to continue in this State upon giving their parole of honor that they will not do anything injurious to this State or to the United States of America, or give any intelligence, aid or assistance to the British officers or forces at war with this or the other United States, or if they decline giving such parole, they with their families, household goods, apparel, and provisions sufficient for their passage, may remove to any place subject to the gov- ernment of the King of Great Britain, or to New York, now occupied by the said King's troops. Except the daughter of the said Richard Woodhul who is heiress to a consider- able real estate in said New Haven descended to her from her mother deceased, who shall not be removed therefrom, but she and her estate shall be under the care and guardianship of William Greenough, Esq., of said New Haven, during her minority." Several at least of those mentioned declined to give their parole, and Stiles records, under date of November 10, 1777, in his Literary Diary, II, 228: "I saw some of the Sandemanian Brethren who were lately imprisoned in N. Haven for their Declara in Favor of the King & agt America. They are embarkg for L. Isld. [Long Island] ." For a list of Sandemanian Tories at Boston, see Mr. Edes's paper already cited, p. 120. THE SANDKMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 157 One of these had a brief bistory ;it York. Ale." A more per- manent body was that established by Sandemanian loyalists on their exodus t<> Nova Scotia, known from its headquarters at that of Halifax/' During the Revolution Sandemanian missionary activity established a church at Taunton. Mass., 1 but for the Sandemanian communion generally that contest was a sadly wasting experience.' 7 No further organization of Sandemanian congregations is known to the writer, save that there seems to have been a church in Newark, N. J., in 1S44, which was not apparently in existence in L824.' The churches in active life in 1798 were those of Danburv, Portsmouth, Boston, Taunton, and Halifax/ and all of these, with the possible exception of that of a A letter ol Edward Foster, once of Boston, to Robert Ferrier, dated Halifax. May l. 1782, which may he found in Letters in Correspondence, 130-134, speaks of the time ■• when Colburn Barrell and others at York dissolved the church order there" as recent. This church was formed, I suppose, after X T athaniel Barrell retired to York, at the begin- ning of the Revolution. Sandemanianism must have been represented at York, how- ever, till Nathaniel Barrell's death, in 1831. & Foster's letter, above cited, shows that though the Sandemanians in Halifax were holding meetings in May, 1782, and their number included " four men and three women who * * * were of the church in Boston," they were not then fully organized into a church; but White's manuscript, mentioned above shows that they were a "church" by 1784. c Foster's letter, above cited, makes mention of the spread of Sandemanianism at Taun- ton in the winter of 1781-82, though it seems probable that the Taunton church was not fully organized till Daniel Brewer, an elder of the church at Newtown, removed to Taun- ton in 1785. See S. H. Emery. The Ministry of Taunton, I, 241; II, 121. In 1788 the Taun- ton Sandemanians numbered 27. A letter from Rev. William D. Fox, of Taunton, to Rev. Edward G. Porter, dated June 4, 1S92, states that "the members comprised some of the prominent business men of the town." ''The church at New Haven was practically destroyed by the Revolution, though San- demanian believers continued in the city certainly till the death of Richard Woodhull in 1797. Foster, in the letter of May 1, 1782, above cited, speaks of him as "a brother of deservedly high estimation." Though that letter shows the Providence church alive in 1782, and including " three * * * who were of the church in Boston," I am unable to discover thai it survived the Revolution long. Two, at least, of its members removed to Taunton. Foster's letter gives some glimpses of the state of New England Sandemanian- ism in the spring of 1782. "Danburv is a town in the colony of Connecticut. * * * The church there has two elders, Ebenezer Russell White and Mr. Jackson. In Septem- ber last it consisted of ten men and four women, and several have since joined them. * * * Newton * * * consisted of eleven men and five women, and several have since joined them. * * * Portsmouth [has] now only six persons of our profession. * * * Boston [where] I have seen twenty-six church members coming together in one place [now has] three persons remaining in that town who were of the church there." His references to Providence and Taunton have already been cited. el infertile existence of this church from a letter by Theodore Barrell to Abigail Barrell, dated August 29, 1844, formerly owned by Rev. Edward G. Porter, and kindly loaned to me by his sister. White's manuscript of 1824, in speaking of the Sandemanians that he then knew, says nothing of a congregation at Newark. Three Sandemanian believers at least are now living in New Jersey. /Gathered from White's manuscript. 158 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Portsmouth, were still alive in 1824. a But the church at Dan- bury was soon after their only survivor. That at Taunton is thought to have continued till "about 1835 or a little later." 6 The Boston church is believed to have ended with the death of Alford Butler, in L828. c That of Portsmouth hardly survived the death of Daniel Humphreys, in 1827, if it was then in existence. Of the end of the church at Halifax the writer is ignorant. By 1830 the Sandemanian movement in America had spent whatever feeble force it had ever possessed. Perhaps the best explanation of the almost complete col- lapse of a movement which, in spite of its crude theory of faith and its extreme literalism of practice, was based on a sincere and self-sacrificing desire to do the will of God, and enlisted men of education and character among its adherents, may be gained from a brief outline of the experiences of the Danbury church, chiefly during the first half century of its existence. We are permitted to follow its story in the nar- rative of Ebenezer Russell White. From the relatively great accession in 1771 its life for some years was one of peace/ 7 But the first considerable breach grew out of the interpreta- tion of the scriptural injunction, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." At first it was construed strictly by the Danbury church as it had been taught by Sandeman: Whenever any of y e brethren proposed to lay by their earnings to buy land & increase their property it was looked upon as an evidence of that covetousness which is Idolatry. * * * It was universally under- stood ec practised that if by our industry in business, we had more than was necessary for y e support of ourselves and families, that Surpluss must be given to y" Poor. But trouble came soon after Oliver Burr removed from Newtown to Danbury' and proved a prosperous merchant. By 1788 "he proposed to buy a Home Lot & build a home upon it. even although he could at all times be furnished with a comfortable hired house." The church at first deemed the a White omits Portsmouth in his enumeration of 1824, but the church there can hardly have died before the demise of its vigorous and self-sacrificing leader, Daniel Humphreys, unless he continued, as he certainly was at one time, excommunicate from its fellowship for reasons wholly creditable to him, that will later be mentioned. It may be that the Portsmouth church died for luck of him. Uuorganized Sand emanian believers were to be found in the neighborhood of Portsmouth till within a lew years of the present lime b Mr. Fox'- letter, already cited. Mr. Edes's paper, already cited, p. 119. In 1817 the Boston church numbered only six. d From this point on I follow White's manuscript. - Ilr removed in 1783. THE SANDEMANIANS OF NEW ENGLAND. 159 purchase wrong, but gradually a majority was won over to Burr's way of thinking, including White himself, and the house was built. Benjamin Hoyt, an elder of the church, and Joshua Benedict, one of its deacons, remonstrated "against this conduct as forbidden by the holy Scriptures;" and. as church action and belief according to Sandemanian principles must be unanimous, they were excommunicated. This was a pretty radical departure from Sandeman's teach- ing, and "several of the brethren in Boston & Taunton" pro- tested against the action of the Danbury majority. A council was called of "representatives from all y e Churches," which gathered at Taunton in February, 1789, and included dele- gates from Danbury, Newtown, Taunton, Boston, and Ports- mouth. The Danbury view was approved after protracted discussion, and under this new interpretation Daniel "Hum- phreys of Portsmouth bought a large house there, & furnished one spacious room in it with new & costly furniture.'' But nearly four years later the suicide of Isaac Winslow." a prom- inent member of the Boston church, madeadeep impression on the small Sandemanian body. To many at Boston and Ports- mouth it seemed a divine call to repentance. Daniel Hum- phreys "sold his house & costly furniture * * * discharged his debts & distributed to y e poor." But some of his fellow- members at Portsmouth not only opposed his action, but rep- resented him to the Danbury church as insane. In March, 1793, delegates of the churches at Danbury and Boston, with a Sandemanian brother resident at New Haven/' met with the Portsmouth church and Humphreys was excommunicated. The Danbury church had grown to a membership of " 60 or 70," but it was much divided in spirit; among other points on the question, "Whether we must all be of one mind about every article of present sin & duty ? " The neighboring churches of Bethel and Newtown labored with the Danbury church, and not without results. Hoyt and Benedict were restored to membership and to their former offices. Many now returned to the original view of the sinfulness of laying up treasure on earth. Several repented of their '"covetous- ness" and labored with those who had bought lands or built houses with their savings, but in vain. Mr. White and others " Mr. Edes, in the paper already eited, p. 130, says that his death was ascribed to reli- gious melancholia. &6turgesBurr. 160 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. felt ••therefore compelled to separate ourselves from such a corrupt society," in March, 1798, and to renew their fellow- ship with those who had remained true to strict opinions at Portsmouth, Boston, and Taunton. Their separation soon led Mr. White and his friends to further modifications of view. They now looked upon their former baptism as " into anti-Christ," though still holding, like all early Sandemanians, to infant baptism. They felt that a repentant brother should be restored, if necessary, more than the single time permitted by early Sandemanian prac- tice. And they now considered "that an Elder or Deacon upon y e death of their Wives may marry again. & yet be y e husband of one Wife." But the question of baptism once started, it is not surpris- ing that its discussion went further, and Mr. White records that: In 1817 we were called to a new trial by the secession of Levi Osborn & his wife & Mr. Wildman « & his wife, who then went out from us very unexpectedly. They could no longer walk with us as brethren, because we held to the discipleship & baptism of the infants of a believing Parent. These, and other persons who have since joined with them, deny this, & insist upon it that the One Baptism belongs to those only who are able to make the good Profession. The separation led by these four dissenters had a somewhat fruitful history. Believing "that sects were sinful" and also "that all creeds of human formation should be rejected," * they learned 4; that a small band of Christians in New York City conformed to these views." c Osborn therefore sought them out in 1817, and was immersed by Henry Errett at New York. On his return to Danbury, Osborn administered the rite of baptism in the same form to his wife and to Mr. and Mrs. Wildman. Known as the "Osbornites" for some years, they trace a continuous existence to the present, and are reckoned one of the earliest of the churches of the Disciples of Christ, usually known as ••Christians" or Campbellites. d Of this «Uz Wildman. The question arose regarding Wildman's infant daughter. l>The Disciples of Christ, by Rev. E. J. Teagarden, in Bailey, "History of Danbury," New York, 1896, 314. clbid. d Alexander Campbell's indebtedness to the Sandemanians has been often asserted. Undoubtedly a good many features of the •christian'' churches are similar to those of the Sandemanians. But there are wide differences — on baptism, to mention a single one. Campbell was familiar with Sandcman's discussion of faith, and his own definition ap- proached it; but he vigorously repudiated any dependence upon Sandeman, and he THE s.\N in: M\ mans OF NK\v ENGLAND. L61 Danbury church Osborn was the presiding officer till his death, in L851. It has steadily grown and has long been a positive force in the Danbury community. Ebenezer Russell White and \\'\s associate-, in the separation of March, L798, being thus abandoned by their companions in thai separation, Osborn and Wildman, continued in independ- ence both of theoriginal Sandemanian body from winch they had come out and of the " Osbornites," and were known till alter White's death, in L825, as " White's Church." Deprived of bis leadership, the little congregation, composed "mostly of old ladies," "gradually faded out," and has long since ceased to exist." As for the main Sandemanian community at Danbury, it survived these 4 successive shocks and schisms, but with steadily diminishing vitality. Its members were respected in the com- munity, hut it did not grow. For a number of years, till his death in IS;")!, the leader was " Elder" Nathaniel Bishop/' Diminishing numbers compelled the abandonment of that plu- rality of " elders" on which Sandeman had insisted; but from the death of Mr. Bishop to his own decease, in 1889, the elder- ship was held by William B. Ely. On his demise the head- ship of the fast-waning Danbury Hock fell to his daughter, Miss Lucy Ely, in whose house — the '* fellowship house" which had once belonged to Levi Osborn, the few members met every Sunday morning till she. too. passed away on Decem- ber 3, L899. With the flight of time certain of the earlier customs were abandoned. The kiss of charity was omitted some years ago. But till Miss Ely's death the members met regularly to read the Scriptures, though more formal services were discontinued about 1890/ The church building, for which the meager congregation had no further use, was sold and converted into a stable in the year last mentioned:' 7 and seems to have taught that heart-fell trust is an important element in true faith toa degree which Sandeman would not have approved. On these matters see Richardson, ••.Mem- oirs of Alexander Campbell," Philadelphia, 1868, I: 177. 178, 422: II: 132. a Letter of Miss Maria White Averill, dated Deeemher 13, 1901. b These facts are gathered from Bailey. " History of Danbury." and from correspondence. (•Letters of Miss Maria White Averill, dated December 3 and December 13, 1901. "The meetings proper were suspended about 1890, though until Miss Ely's death those few old Indies met with her every Sunday morning in the "Fellowship House" (her home just torn down) to read the Scriptures together, but they did not call it a regular meeting, as there was no man to expound to them." 4 George W. Eallock, "The Sandemanians," in "NewEngland Magazine" for April, L896, 241. H. Doc. 702, pt. L 11 162 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. in the closing months of 1901 the "fellowship house/' where the latest love feasts have been held, was torn down. The Danbury San&emanian church seems but the flickering of a burned-out candle; yet it is not quite extinguished, for it still numbers three aged women, who have been long of its mem- bership, and within a year past a fourth member, a man well advanced in years, has been added to the pathetic group that represents all that remains on New England soil of a move- ment which, however narrow, uncharitable, and impracticable, attracted earnest, educated, and devoted men a century and a third ago as being a revival of primitive Christianity and a faithful illustration of obedience to Biblical precepts. Though in attempting to observe the letter it lost much of the spirit which alone gives life, one can hut feel a measure of regret that so much self-sacrificing effort has come to no more wor- thy or enduring fruitage. a Miss AverilTs letter of December :;. 1901. ANNUAL REPORT American Historical Association FOR THE YEAH 1901 IN TWO VOLUMES. Volume I. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1902. CONTENTS VOLUME I. Page. I. Report of Proceedings of Seventeenth Annual Meeting at Washington, D.C., December 27-'M, L901, by Charles II. 1 1 ask ins, corresponding secretary 17 II. An Undeveloped Function. Inaugural address by Presi- dent Charles Francis Adams 47 III. The Massachusetts Public Record Commission and its Work, by Robert T. Swan 95 IV. The Relation of the National Library to Historical Research in the United States, by Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress 113 V. The Sandemanians of New England, by Prof. YVilliston Walker 131 VI. James Madison and Religious Liberty, by Gaillard Hunt... bio VII. The Chronology of the Erasmus Letters, by Prof. Ephraim Emerton 173 VIII. Moses Coit Tyler, by Prof. George L. Burr 187 IX. Herbert B. Adams, by Prof. John M. Vincent L97 X. Maryland's First Courts, by Dr. Bernard C. Steiner 211 XL Southwestern History in the Southwest, by Prof. George P. Garrison 231 XII. Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution, by Dr. Edward D. Collins 243 XIII. Jay's Treaty and the Slavery Interests of the United States, by Frederic Austin Ogg 273 XIV. The Legislative History of Naturalization in the United States, L776-1795, by Dr. F. G. Franklin 299 XV. The Influence of Party upon Legislation in England and America, by Prof. A. Lawrence Lowell (with four dia- grams ) 319 XVI. London Company Records, by President Lyon G. Tyler ... 543 XVII. The Relation between the Virginia Planter and the London Merchant, by Prof. John s. Bassett 551 VOLUME II. Georgia and State Rights, Prize Essay by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. Report of the Public Archives Commission. 15