F 74 
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 Copy 2 
 
 ■»^^^ 
 
 THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS. 
 
 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN NORTHBOROUGH, JUNE 1, 1846, 
 
 IN COMMEilOBATION OF THE 
 
 OUGANIZATION OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN THAT PLACE, 
 
 ORDINATION OF THEIR FIRST MINISTER, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX 
 
 \ By JOSEPH ALLEN, 
 
 ) TMB THIRD MINISTER IN SUCCESSION OP SAID CHURCH. 
 
 PUBLISHED DV REQUEST. 
 
 BOSTON: I 
 
 WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS, 
 118 Washington Street. 
 1846. 
 
 -*^^^i 
 
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS. 
 
 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN NORTIIBOROUGH, JUNE 1, 1846, 
 
 IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN THAT PLACE. 
 
 ORDINATION OF THEIR FIRST MINISTER, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX. 
 
 By JOSEPH ALLEN, 
 
 THE THIRD MINISTER IN SUCCESSION OF SAID CHURCH. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUES' 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS, 
 
 118 Washington Street. 
 
 1846. 
 
Fn^ 
 
 
 '"OM 
 
 CAIM BRIDGE: 
 
 M t T C A L F AND COMPANY, 
 i'RINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 Who hath despised the day of small things'? — Zechariah iv. 10. 
 
 It is not wise to despise the day of small things. 
 Momentous issues often arise from circumstances oi 
 the most trivial nature. Great enterprises have had 
 their origin in the meditations and consultations of a 
 few obscure individuals. Revolutions in church and 
 state have sprung from the workings of some single 
 mind into which a new thought had been introduced. 
 
 Who could have anticipated the result of the land- 
 ing from the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock, in 1620, or 
 of the expedition of the Genoese sailor, in 1492? 
 Luther had no conception of the magnitude of the 
 work he had undertaken, when, in 1517,* he set at 
 defiance the authority of the pope. It was a day of 
 small things, when, eighteen centuries ago, a little 
 band of Christian disciples met in an upper chamber 
 in the city of Jerusalem, waiting in faith and hope for 
 the fulfilment of the promise of their ascended Master. 
 And, if I may be allowed to compare small things with 
 
4 
 
 great, it was a daj of small things, when, one hundred 
 years ago, this day, there was a gathering of other 
 disciples in an unfinished building, that, in the midst 
 of difficulties which it is impossible for us to appre- 
 ciate, had just been erected near this spot, for the 
 organization of a church and the ordination of its first 
 minister. 
 
 The building (forty-six feet by thirty-six) was at the 
 time without pulpit, or galleries, or pews, or even per- 
 manent floors, and was lighted only by openings in the 
 unplastered walls. Here were gathered, as members 
 of the ordaining council, venerable divines, with their 
 delegates, from the neighbouring churches : Parkman 
 of Westborough, Prentice of Lancaster, Gushing of 
 Shrewsbury, Loring of Sudbury, Hall of Sutton, Gard- 
 ner of Stow, and Barrett of Hopkinton. 
 
 Here they sat, in the costume of the day ; some 
 relics of which continued till a period within the mem- 
 ory of some of my hearers. Here the ceremonies of 
 ordination took place, in the presence of a multitude 
 whom the occasion had brought together. The text 
 chosen by the preacher, Parkman of Westborough, at 
 least the first clause of it, pronounced as it doubtless was 
 in tones of dignity and authority, was well suited, as 
 it was intended, to impress the hearers with the sacred- 
 ness of the pastoral ofiSce, and to secure for him who 
 was just entering upon it deference and honor due. 
 It was from Hebrews xiii. 17: — "Obey them that 
 have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for 
 they watch for your souls as they that must give ac- 
 
count, that thej may do it with joy, and not with 
 grief." * 
 
 The Charge, by Prentice of Lancaster, from the age 
 and character of the man, must have been grave, 
 weighty, apostolic, yet breathing a gentle and catho- 
 lic spirit ; " for they that knew" him," says a contempo- 
 rary divine, Hancock of Lexington,! " esteemed him 
 for his piety, his probity, his peaceableness, and gen- 
 tleness, and for his commendable steadiness in these 
 uncertain times." He was of the old Puritan race, 
 his father having been, it is said, one of Oliver Crom- 
 well's body-guard. He was at this time sixty-four 
 years old. 
 
 The Fellowship of the Churches was by Cushing 
 of Shrewsbury, " a man distinguished," to borrow the 
 words of Dr. Sumner, his venerable successor, " for his 
 prudence and general exemplary deportment." J 
 
 We are not informed to whom the other parts of the 
 ordination service were assigned ; but, from the char- 
 acter of the men in the council, we may conclude that 
 those services were able and appropriate, and con- 
 tributed to the interest and solemnity of the occasion. 
 
 A church had been gathered on the same day, con- 
 sisting of ten brethren, besides the pastor elect. Their 
 names, in the order in which they stand in the church 
 records, are as follows: — John Martyn, the pastor 
 elect, Ephraim Allen, Joshua Dowsing, alias Tovvnsend, 
 
 * Mr. Parkman was then in the prime of life, being forty-four years old. 
 t See Willard's History of Lancaster, Worcester Mag., Vol. 11. p. 321. 
 X Sumner's Half Century Sermon. 
 
John McAllister, Jonathan Livermore, afterwards Dea- 
 con Livermore, Gershora Fay, father of the late Thad- 
 deus Fay, Matthias Rice, afterwards Deacon Rice, 
 Samuel Allen, father of the late Samuel Allen, Jacob 
 Shephard, John Carruth, grandfather of the late Joseph 
 and John Carruth, Silas Fay, a brother of Gershom 
 Fay. The Covenant is as follows : — 
 
 " JVestborough Second Precinct Church Covenant, 
 May2\, 1746. 
 
 « We, whose names are hereafter subscribed, inhab- 
 iting the Second Precinct in Westborough [now North- 
 borough] in New England (knowing that we are very 
 prone to offend and provoke the most high God, both in 
 heart and life, through the prevalency of sin that dwel- 
 leth in us, and manifold temptations from without us, 
 for which we have great reason to be unfeignedly 
 humbled before him from day to day), — 
 
 " Do in the name of our Lord Jesus, with dependence 
 upon the gracious assistance of his Holy Spirit, solemn- 
 ly enter into a covenant with God and with one 
 another, according to the will of God, as foUoweth : — 
 
 " 1st. That, having chosen and taken the Lord Jeho- 
 vah to be our God, we will fear him and cleave to him 
 in love, and serve him in truth with all our hearts, giv- 
 ing up ourselves to be his people, in all things to be 
 at his direction and sovereign disposal, that we may 
 have and hold communion with him, as members of 
 Christ's mystical body, according to his revealed will, 
 to our lives' end. 
 
"2ndlj. We also oblige ourselves to bring up our 
 children and servants in the knowledge and fear of 
 God according to his holj institutions, and according 
 to our best abilities, and, in special, by the use of or- 
 thodox catechisms, that so the true religion may be 
 maintained in our families while we live, and among 
 such as shall live when we are dead. 
 
 " 3dly. We promise to keep close to the truth of 
 Christ, endeavouring, with lively affection toward it in 
 our hearts, to defend it against all opposers thereof, as 
 God shall call us at any time thereunto ; and for our 
 help herein we resolve to use the Holy Scriptures as 
 our platform (whereby we may discern the will of 
 Christ), and not the new-found inventions of man. 
 
 "4thly. We also engage to have a careful inspection 
 over our own hearts, so as to endeavour, by the virtue 
 of the death of Christ, the mortification of our sinful 
 passions, worldly frames, and disordered affections, 
 whereby we may be withdrawn from the living God. 
 
 " 5thly. We, moreover, oblige ourselves, in the faith- 
 ful improvement of our abilities and opportunities, to 
 worship God according to all the particular institutions 
 of Christ under the gospel administration, — as, to give 
 reverent attention to the word of God, to pray unto 
 him, to sing his praises, and to hold communion with 
 each other, in the use of both the seals of the cove- 
 nant. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " 6thly. We likewise promise that we will peaceably 
 submit unto the holy discipline appointed by Christ 
 in his church for offenders, obeying them that rule 
 over us in the Lord. 
 
8 
 
 " 7thly. We also bind ourselves to walk in love one 
 towards another, endeavouring our mutual edification ; 
 visiting, exhorting, and comforting, as occasion serveth, 
 and warning any brother or sister who offends, not 
 divulging private offences irregularly, but heedfully fol- 
 lowing the several precepts laid down by Christ for 
 church dealing, in Matthew, 18th chapter, 15th, 16th, 
 17th verses, willingly forgiving all that manifest unto 
 the judgment of charity, that they truly repent of 
 their miscarriages. Now the God of peace, that 
 brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant make us all perfect in every good 
 work to do his will, w^orking in us all that which is 
 well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to 
 whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." * 
 
 And now let us pause for a few moments to con- 
 template the scene, as fancy, aided by the scanty 
 records that remain, calls it up before us. 
 
 The day, according to the New Style, was the first 
 of June, the season of unrivalled beauty; — June, the 
 queen of the months, when the earth is clothed with 
 her brightest honors, and heaven smiles most benig- 
 nantly on the forests and the fields. 
 
 The rocky knoll, on which the foundations of this 
 church rests, had not been shaped into its present 
 graceful form. Yon green meadows were then, and 
 for many years afterward, an unsightly swamp, cov- 
 
 Appeiidix, Note A. 
 
ered with birches and alders, through which " Cold 
 Harbour Brook," the name by which it had been known 
 for more than half a century, before a settlement had 
 been made upon its borders, flowed peacefully, unin- 
 terrupted in all its course by the obstructions of art. 
 The beautiful eminence beyond, bearing its ancient 
 name of "Liquor Hill," since exchanged for the more 
 dignified title of " Mount Assabet," was clothed on all 
 its sides with forests of oak and chesnut. Where now 
 stands our pleasant village, then stood one or two 
 small dwelling-houses : one built by Jacob Rice (grand- 
 father of Asaph Rice), near the site of the centre 
 school-house ; and another, occupied first for a garrison 
 and afterward for a tavern, owned by Captain James 
 Eager, and but recently taken down to make room for 
 the elegant mansion of Mr. Horace Fiske. Only two 
 other dwelling-houses were in sight : one belonging to 
 Mr. Simeon Howard, on the side of the road, a few rods 
 west of the meeting-house common ; and the other built 
 and occupied by Nathaniel Oakes, which afterwards 
 came into the possession of the Rev. Mr. Martyn, and 
 subsequently of the Rev. Mr. Whitney, who, in 1780, 
 erected the house which is still standing embosomed 
 in the shade of lofty elms and sycamores, which com- 
 mend the elegant taste of those who once inhabited 
 that spot. No other dwelling-houses were in sight. 
 All within our borders was a wilderness, save 
 where, at distant intervals, a clearing had been made 
 and buildings erected for the accommodation of the 
 forty families of which the precinct then consisted. 
 
10 
 
 These were scattered over the whole extent of ter- 
 ritory now included within the limits of Northborough. 
 As many as four families, at least, had settled in the 
 remotest corner of the town, on what is called " Ball 
 Hill," — namely, the two brothers, James and Nathan 
 Ball, Deacon Jonathan Liveraiore, whose first wife 
 was a sister of the Balls, and Joseph Wheeler, whose 
 daughter married James Eager, Jr. The descend- 
 ants of the two former, James and Nathan Ball, are 
 still numerous in this and other towns, — one being the 
 grandfather of Doctor Stephen Ball, the other the 
 father of the late Nathan Ball, the son of his old 
 age, the father being seventy at the birth of the son. 
 
 A mens the most active and influential members of the 
 new society over which a minister was to be ordained, 
 besides those already mentioned, were Lieutenant Wil- 
 liam Holloway, son of Adam Holloway, who built the 
 house now in the possession of the heirs of the late Ste- 
 phen Williams, Esq. One of the daughters of Lieuten- 
 ant Holloway, Mary, was married to the late Jonathan 
 Bartlett, and died since the commencement of my min- 
 istry, at the advanced age of ninety-five. The mother of 
 Mrs. Bartlett was Mary, daughter of Simeon Howard, 
 who died in 1788, also at the age of ninety-five. Ger- 
 shom Fay, the grandfather of the late Nahum Fay, Esq., 
 whose house stood a short distance east of the west 
 school-house, was another of the first settlers of this 
 town. His wife, Mary, daughter of Jolin Brigham, 
 the first white man who took up his residence within 
 the limits of this town, and who erected a hut and 
 
11 
 
 built a sawmill where now stands the mill owned by 
 Messrs. Haynes and Bush, was the person who had so 
 narrow an escape from the Indians, at the time of the 
 tragical fate of Mary Goodenow, with the particulars 
 of which most of you, I suppose, are familiar. 
 
 At the time of the formation of this church, the sons 
 of Gershom and Mary Fay, namely, Gershom, Tim- 
 othy, Silas, and Paul, the last a young man of twenty- 
 six, were among the acting members of this society. 
 Their descendants are numerous, some of whom occu- 
 py the soil which their ancestors reclaimed and tilled. 
 Hannah, wife of Gershom Fay, Jr., was the daughter 
 of Nathaniel Cakes, and died in 1806, wanting but a 
 few months of having completed a century of years. 
 They lived on the farm now in the possession of Ben- 
 jamin Rice ; and, as I was informed by her son, the late 
 Thaddeus Fay, who died in 1822, at the age of ninety- 
 one, the young mother, leading her little son by the 
 hand, was accustomed to walk on the Sabbath to 
 Westborough to attend public worship, a distance of 
 five miles, the meeting-house at that time standing 
 near the village of Wessonville. 
 
 Among the heads of families at or about this 
 time were the Goodenows, Samuel senior and junior, 
 and David and Jonathan, two sons of the latter, 
 who lived in the east part of the town. Also Dea- 
 con Isaac and Hezekiah Tomblin, — the former liv- 
 ing on the farm afterwards owned by Deacon Isaac 
 Davis, and the latter on Tomblin Hill, so called from 
 its first occupant. Deacon Matthias and Pelatiah Rice, 
 
12 
 
 both worthy members and benefactors of the church, 
 whose names are inscribed on the silver cups used in 
 our communion service, — the one living on the farm 
 now in the possession of William Stratten, the other 
 on the farm belonging to the heirs of the late Ephraim 
 Barnard, but formerly in the possession of Thaddeus 
 Fay, who married Thankful, a daughter of Pelatiah 
 Rice ; the other daughter, Sarah, married Adam, 
 brother of Thaddeus Fay. Jotham and Jonas Bart- 
 lett, sons of Daniel, and grandsons of Henry, of Marl- 
 borough, the latter an emigrant from Wales, came into 
 possession of the Goodenow farms, now owned by 
 Stephen Howe and Ashley Bartlett; Jonathan, another 
 son, who married Mary HoUoway, lived on a part of 
 the Hollo way farm, now in possession of Albert Rice. 
 
 Two of the largest landholders at this time were 
 Jesse Brigham, grandfather of Henry, who lives on the 
 same spot formerly in the possession of his father 
 Artemas and grandfather Jesse, and Josiah Rice, 
 grandfather of the late Ezra Rice, whose house stood 
 on the site of the dwelling-house of James Davis, and 
 whose numerous acres were sufficient to constitute sev- 
 eral large farms. To Josiah Rice, however, the occasion 
 which we are commemorating was not one of joy or 
 of hope. He was one of the disaffected ; and, though 
 one of the wealthiest men in the precinct, refused, 
 till compelled by law, to bear any part of the public 
 burdens. Mr. Rice was, at this period, forty-six, and 
 he lived to the advanced age of ninety-two. 
 
 Bezaliel Eager, grandfather of the late Colonel 
 
13 
 
 William Eager, was another of the active men in the 
 settlement of the first minister, and in the subsequent 
 doings of the society. He lived on the farm occupied 
 in succession by his son Francis and grandson Wil- 
 liam, and now in the possession of Charles South- 
 worth. 
 
 Thomas Goodenow, father of Asa Goodenow, who 
 lived on the farm now owned by John F. Munroe, was 
 a person of some distinction, being the first that was 
 employed by the town as an instructer of youth. 
 And long before any school-houses had been erected, 
 Master Goodenow was accustomed to teach from 
 house to house, a few weeks at a time in each ; the 
 precinct paying him four shillings a week for his board. 
 He was at this time thirty-seven years old. He died 
 in 1790, at the age of eighty-one. 
 
 But time would fail me, should I dwell on the names 
 of Warren, and Beeman, and Gamwell, and Bowker, 
 and Billings, and McAllister, and Hudson, and Briggs, 
 and Townsend, and Babcock, and Carruth, and the 
 Goddards, Josiah and Solomon, and the Oakeses, 
 John and George, and others who were heads of fami- 
 lies in this place one hundred years ago. I must not, 
 however, pass over, without some slight recognition of 
 their worth, such men as Colonel Levi Brigham, son 
 of David Brigham, and father of the late Judge Brig- 
 ham of Westborough, and of Winslow Brigham of this 
 town, — who was chosen in 1775 to represent this 
 district in the assembly which convened in Watertown 
 to consult on the state of public affairs at that critical 
 
14 
 
 juncture ;^ and Deacon Paul Newton, father of Mar- 
 tyn Newton.f He was respected as a man of worth 
 and an exemplary officer of the church. J 
 
 I must not omit to mention also the name of Seth 
 Rice, father of the late Deacon Seth Rice, whose de- 
 scendants are numerous and respectable. Seth Rice 
 Sen. was born in 1705, the year after his two infant 
 brothers, Silas and Timothy, while in the field with 
 their father at Westborough, were taken by the Indians, 
 and carried into captivity, where they lived, married 
 Indian wives, acquired their habits, and lost all knowl- 
 edge of their native tongue. Their Indian names 
 were Tookanowras and Oughtsorongoughton, — the 
 latter being one of the chiefs of the Cagnawaga tribe, 
 in the time of the old French War. This chief visited 
 his native place, Westborough, in 1740 ; but chose to 
 return to die, as he had lived, among the barbarians, 
 " who had shown him no litde kindness." Seth Rice 
 Sen., and his son. Deacon Seth Rice, lived on the 
 farm now in the possession of Calvin Hastings. His 
 wife Dorothy died in 1801, aged ninety-three. 
 
 Samuel Allen, one of the ten names affixed to the 
 church covenant, was at that time a young man of 
 twenty-six ; thus setting an example, which his de- 
 scendants have not been backward in following, of 
 an early dedication of himself to Christ and the 
 
 * At the time of the settlement of Mr. Martin he was thirty years old. 
 f Named for the minister, who was buried on the day the child was born. 
 X He was twenty-eight years old at the time of the ordination of Mr. 
 Marty n. 
 
15 
 
 Church. Ephraim Allen, his father, was another of 
 the ten. They lived on the spot now occupied by Dea- 
 con Lewis Allen, one of their descendants. Ephraim 
 Allen came from Roxburj, and erected the first grist- 
 mill in town, on the Assabet river. 
 
 Samuel Wood, father of the late Abraham and Sam- 
 uel Wood, came from Sudbury soon after this time,* and 
 set up a fulling-mill in the town. His son Abraham 
 was skilled in music, and composed several pieces 
 which were popular in their day. His other son, 
 Captain Samuel Wood, commanded a company and 
 received a wound at the battle of Bunker Hill, and 
 was a man of great firmness and decision of character. 
 He died in 1818, at the age of seventy-five. 
 
 Such were the men that founded our little republic. 
 They were for the most part plain, unlettered men, 
 who had enjoyed but few advantages for intellectual 
 culture. But most of them were of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, and the blood of the Covenanters and Puritans 
 ran in their veins. They were men who thought and 
 acted with freedom and independence, and sometimes, 
 it may be, with pertinacity and dogged obstinacy. 
 They were not timeservers, nor were they " carried 
 about by every wind of doctrine." At the period re- 
 ferred to, many of the churches of New England were 
 in a very distracted state, torn by intestine divisions 
 threatening their dissolution, owing partly to the ex- 
 citement produced by the preaching of George White- 
 field, the eloquent enthusiast, and his followers. I am 
 
 * He was chosen Precinct Clerk in 1750. 
 
16 
 
 not aware that the controversy reached this church, 
 or that the first minister took any part in it. From 
 the circumstance mentioned in the Records of the 
 Precinct, that that part of the ordaining council 
 which was selected by the pastor elect consisted of 
 the Rev. Messrs. Barrett of Hopkinton and Gard- 
 ner of Stow, both of whom were sound, stable, 
 and judicious men, and opposed to the JYew Lights, 
 as the enthusiasts of that day were styled, I infer that 
 Mr. Martyn, who, at the time of his ordination, was 
 upwards of forty years old, was himself a sound, 
 stable, and judicious man.* 
 
 I wish I could present a true picture of the women 
 of that generation, the wives and daughters of the 
 first settlers, the mothers of the men who have risen 
 up in their fathers' stead. They were an industrious, 
 hard-working, thrifty race, and better answered Solo- 
 mon's description of a good wife, I suppose it will be 
 conceded, than some of their granddaughters and re- 
 moter descendants. For they " sought wool and flax, 
 and worked diligently with their hands." They 
 " girded their loins with strength, and strengthened 
 their arms." They " laid their hands to the spindle, 
 and their hands held the distaff." They " looked 
 well to the ways of their household, and ate not the 
 bread of idleness." Methinks I see them now, as 
 they appeared on the memorable day which was to 
 witness the consecration of their new minister, wend- 
 ing their way on foot, or mounted on pillions behind 
 
 * Appendix, Note B. 
 
17 
 
 their husbands or brothers, dressed in homely gar- 
 ments, made for use and not for show, through nar- 
 row, crooked lanes, impassable for carriages, had such 
 luxuries been in use. They come from their scattered 
 homes, — all who can leave, — and gather to the 
 house of prayer to witness the imposing ceremony. 
 They take their places on the " women's side," while 
 the men occupy the seats opposite. And all are 
 attentive while the services of the ordination last. 
 
 But I feel that I cannot give life to the picture, 
 and so I let it pass, while I attempt a sketch of the 
 man to whom all eyes were directed, who formed the 
 chief object of attraction, on the occasion referred to. 
 
 The Reverend John Martyn, the first minister of 
 Northborough, was the son of Captain Edmund Martyn 
 of Boston, who was the master of a vessel, and led 
 a seafaring life. The father died before the son 
 entered college, leaving him to the care of his excel- 
 lent mother, whose circumstances enabled her to give 
 him the best advantages of education which were 
 afforded at that time. He became a student at Har- 
 vard College, where he graduated in the class of 1724. 
 After leaving college, he devoted himself for some 
 time to secular pursuits, residing in Harvard, in this 
 county. At length, at the age of forty, — about 
 twenty years after he was graduated, — he engaged 
 in studies preparatory to the ministry, and, having 
 completed his course, was employed as a candidate in 
 this place, in the winter of 1745 or 6, — according 
 3 
 
as the beginning of the year is reckoned from 
 the twenty-fifth of March or the first of January. 
 Two other candidates, agreeably to the advice of 
 neighbouring ministers, had been heard during the 
 winter, but the preference was given to Mr. Martyn, 
 who was chosen, if not with entire unanimity, yet, as 
 it is recorded in the Precinct Book, " by a clear vote." 
 As none of Mr. Martyn's sermons are known to 
 be in existence, and as many may be desirous of know- 
 ing something of the views and character of the first 
 minister of Northborough, I cannot doubt that his an- 
 swer to the call he received from the town will be 
 listened to with interest. 
 
 " For Messrs. Nathan Ball, Matthias Rice, and 
 Jonathan Livermore, the Committee chosen by 
 the Second Precinct in Westborough to present 
 me, the subscriber, with a call to the pastoral 
 office in said Precinct. To be communicated to 
 the inhabitants of said Second Precinct in West- 
 borough. 
 
 "I have spent much time and much thought in 
 seriously considering your invitation to me to settle 
 with you in the relation of a pastor to you, and have 
 asked advice of those I thought most proper and capa- 
 ble to give it ; and I hope I have not been negligent 
 in seeking to the throne of grace for direction in this 
 important affair. I am sensible, that, as the apostle 
 says in 1 Timothy iii. 1, ' if a man desire the office of a 
 bishop, he desireth a good work.' So also as that text 
 
19 
 
 implies, 2 Corinthians ii. 16, that none is thoroughly 
 sufficient for these things. But yet, as God hath 
 been pleased to commit the treasure of the gospel to 
 earthen vessels, to men like ourselves, and to make 
 it necessary there should be a standing ministry in his 
 church, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
 of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 
 so although all are not apostles, prophets, or teachers, 
 though all indifferently may [not ? ] take upon them 
 the work of the ministry, yet it is necessary that some 
 be taken from men to be ordained for men in things 
 pertaining unto God. And as we have not a divine 
 oracle to consult, nor any way to come at the knowl- 
 edge of God's will, but by observing his providences 
 and comparing those with his word, so when persons 
 of sobriety, learning, and orthodoxy, disposed to the 
 work of the ministry, have a clear and regular call 
 from the people and from God, it is the duty of such 
 to comply with such a call, trusting in God that his 
 grace shall be sufficient for them, and that his 
 strength shall be made perfect in their weakness. 
 
 " And now, brethren, as the Providence of God 
 seems to have singled me out from amongst others, to 
 commit unto me a dispensation of the gospel, and as 
 you have manifested unto me so much respect as to 
 count me worthy to rule, guide, and teach you, by 
 calling and inviting me to labor amongst you in this 
 part of the Lord's vineyard, so I do now testify my 
 compliance with your invitation. My brethren, I 
 think that I can say that it is not for the sake of 
 
20 
 
 filthy lucre that I am moved hereunto ; for I can see 
 no prospect of any great worldly advantage to be in 
 the ministry, especially in country parishes ; neither 
 do I expect a life of ease and pleasure, for I am 
 sensible that, as to the work I am engaging in, it is 
 painful and laborious; and, as the temper of mankind 
 is at present, whoever engages in it must expect to 
 meet with contempt, reproof, sorrow, and trouble ; 
 but I trust in the grace of God to grant me those 
 supplies of strength and grace which may be neces- 
 sary to enable me to perform any work and to bear 
 any sufferings he may have appointed for me, and to 
 arm me with that patience, self-denial, and meek- 
 ness, which should be eminent and conspicuous in 
 the ministers of Jesus Christ, who should be patterns 
 of every grace and virtue, and who, above others, 
 had need to abound in these things. And I am not 
 without hope that you yourselves, brethren, will con- 
 tribute what you can to lighten my burthen, and to 
 comfort me under it, by manifesting a readiness to 
 receive instructions, by your endeavouring to live a 
 holy, harmless, blameless, circumspect, shining life ; 
 and that you will take part with me in whatever 
 sorrows and sufferings God hath determined to lay 
 upon me. My brethren, our interests are now to be 
 united. It will become us, therefore, to seek and en- 
 deavour each other's welfare in all proper methods. 
 Your offers to me, as to temporal support and main- 
 tenance, are not large ; but yet, as I now comply with 
 them with an honest intention, and not desiring to 
 
21 
 
 make a gain of you upon account of the uncertain 
 foundation of our medium of trade, so I hope, if I 
 should be in need of any further assistance from you 
 in any matters which might be much to my advantage 
 and nothing to your damage, you will readily afford 
 me help. I know very well, that, as the salary is set- 
 tled upon silver, and that as our paper bills are daily 
 depreciating, so it seems, on a transient view, and 
 considering the present state of trade and living, as if 
 you had given me a considerable advantage over you ; 
 on the other hand, if it had not been thus settled, it 
 appears that I might have been subjected to many 
 difficulties, and have been a continual complainer or 
 sufferer. But, as I hope, had there been any seeming 
 disadvantage on my side, you would have endeavoured 
 to ease and relieve me, upon proper remonstrances and 
 representations of my case, so I assure you, though 
 the advantage at present may seem to be on my side 
 (and, indeed, it does but seem so, for none can tell what 
 turn affairs may take with respect to the medium of 
 trade) , — therefore, I say, though it may seem so, yet it 
 is not my design to take any advantage of it to your 
 prejudice; and if there should ever happen any diffi- 
 culty upon this account, I shall be very free and wil- 
 ling to leave it to any impartial judge. 
 
 " And now, brethren, I commend myself to God, 
 and beg your prayers for me, that I may be found 
 diligent and faithful in the work whereto I am called. 
 And God forbid that I should cease praying for you 
 and myself, that both you and I, in our respective 
 
22 
 
 stations, and relations to one another, may so conduct 
 ourselves in this world, as that we may be able to 
 lift up our heads with joy another day, and may meet 
 together in the temple of God in heaven, never more 
 to go out. To conclude, brethren, be perfect, be of 
 good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the 
 God of love and peace shall be with you. And now 
 may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
 all. Amen. 
 
 " I am your sincere friend 
 
 and hearty well-wisher, 
 
 "John Martyn. 
 "Bolton, March 29, 1746." 
 
 I am not aware that any other of the writings of 
 Mr. Martyn have been preserved, but even from this 
 specimen I think we are justified in concluding that 
 he was a wise, honest, strong man, and that he en- 
 tered on his work with right views, and a just sense of 
 the responsibilities of the office he was about to assume. 
 
 In regard to his theological opinions, he did not 
 probably differ from his brethren in the ministry with 
 whom he was in habits of intimacy, as Gushing of 
 Shrewsbury, Parkman of Westborough, Prentice of 
 Lancaster, and Morse of Boylston, all of whom were 
 sound, orthodox divines, but not among the "New 
 Lights " of that time, and probably having very litde 
 to do with the peculiarities of any human creed, and 
 meddling very little with religious controversy. It is 
 worthy of remark, and it should be borne in mind, that 
 
23 
 
 the old church covenants, which were in general use 
 at that time, were not formularies of faith, embracing 
 the peculiarities of Calvinism or of Arminianism, or 
 of any other system of human origin, but covenants, 
 properly so called, — that is to say, religious engage- 
 ments entered into on the part of those who became 
 communicants, binding them, not to a fixed creed, but 
 to endeavours after a holy life. The covenant sub- 
 scribed by Mr. Martyn, and adopted by the church 
 organized on the day of his ordination, is of this 
 character. It is wholly unobjectionable on the score 
 of sentiment, although its length and style might not 
 be adapted to our fastidious tastes. The term ortho- 
 dox^ which occurs in one clause, is a very good term, 
 and ought not to be appropriated by any one denomi- 
 nation, or any body of believers, as belonging exclu- 
 sively to them.* 
 
 At the period referred to, there were not in all this 
 region any but Congregational churches and Congrega- 
 tional ministers; and though there may have been diver- 
 sities of faith among them, as there must be where there 
 is religious freedom and the minds of men are awake, 
 and though some men were then, as now, of a warmer 
 temperament and more excitable than others, and 
 though feuds and controversies broke up the peace of 
 many of the New England churches about that time, 
 which, it will be recollected, was the season of the great 
 revival produced by the labors of Whitefield, Buel, 
 
 * Appendix, Note C. 
 
24 
 
 Tennent, and other itinerant preachers, who travelled 
 through the country, reviled the standing order of min- 
 isters, and drew away from them the affections of many 
 of their hearers, yet, so far as I can learn, the churches 
 and ministers in this immediate vicinity remained unaf- 
 fected by the fanatical spirit of the times, or only 
 shared in a healthy excitement, and were animated 
 with new life. The Rev. Mr. Barrett of Hopkinton, 
 who, it will be recollected, was on the council for the 
 ordination of Mr. Martyn, as we learn from Howe's 
 Century Sermon, from his unwillingness to adopt the 
 new measures, lost the confidence and affection of 
 some of the most serious and pious people in town, 
 who for a time absented themselves from his minis- 
 try and joined other societies in neighbouring towns ; 
 " but," as we are told, " when the fervor of their af- 
 fection abated, they returned, respected Mr. Barrett, 
 lived under his ministry, and were edified." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Martyn married Mary Marrett of 
 Cambridge, by whom he had several children, de- 
 scendants from two of whom, John and Michael, are 
 still living in this town. 
 
 A venerable old man, of the stock of Israel, Rabbi 
 Judah Monis, was an inmate of Mr. Martyn's family 
 during a few of the last years of his life. He had 
 been Hebrew Instructer in Harvard College as early 
 as 1720, while yet an unconverted Jew. He em- 
 braced Christianity, and was publicly baptized at 
 Cambridge, in 1722. He continued in office forty 
 years, and after the death of his wife, in 1761, he 
 
25 
 
 came to reside with his brother-in-law, Mr. Martyn, 
 in whose family he remained till his death, in 1764. 
 I find in the town records the following vote, relat- 
 ing to Mr. Monis, and several others, who I suppose 
 were among the most aged persons in town, and who, 
 with their three-cornered hats and staves and enor- 
 mous shoe-buckles, must have made quite an imposing 
 appearance, as they came in to take their places in the 
 seat of honor allotted them: — "March 14th, 1763. 
 The precinct voted that ' Mr. Judah Monis, John 
 McAllister, Thomas Taylor, Ephraim Allen, Joshua 
 Townsend, and Daniel Mason should be seated in the 
 foor [fore] seat below.' " Mr. Monis was then about 
 eighty years old. He died April 25th, 1764, and was 
 buried in what was then the new burying-ground, 
 though that term has been since appropriated to an- 
 other, — " and his sepulchre remaineth to this day." 
 Mr. Monis was a benefactor of this church ; three 
 silver cups, bearing his name, forming part of the plate 
 used in our communion service. The verses inscribed 
 on his grave-stone are a not unfavorable specimen of 
 the poetry of the day : — 
 
 " A native branch of Jacob see, 
 
 Which, once from off its olive broke, 
 Regrafted in the living tree, 
 Of the reviving sap partook. 
 
 " From teeming Zion's fertile womb. 
 As dewy drops in early morn, 
 Or rising bodies from the tomb. 
 At once be Israel's nation born." 
 4 
 
26 
 
 The last stanza expresses a benevolent and pious 
 hope which many have shared, but which has hitherto 
 been sadlj disappointed. 
 
 Mr. Martyn had a peaceful and successful ministry 
 of twenty-five years, which, in the midst of his useful 
 labors, was interrupted by his sudden and lamented 
 death, on the last day of April, 1767. A handsome 
 monument was erected in the adjoining burying- 
 ground by his bereaved flock, bearing the following 
 inscription, which, as I have no doubt, expresses not 
 only the estimation in which he was held, but also the 
 true character of the man : — 
 
 "Under this sepulchral stone lies interred, in Chris- 
 tian hope of a blessed resurrection, what was mortal 
 of the Reverend John Martyn, A. M., the late worthy 
 pastor of this flock, son of the late Captain Edward 
 Martyn, of Boston. Educated at Harvard College, 
 Cambridge. Was ordained in this place May twenty- 
 first, 1746. Approved himself an assiduous, orthodox, 
 eminent preacher of the great redemption by Jesus 
 Christ. After a few days' illness, to the inexpressible 
 grief of his family, flock, and friends, expired April 
 thirtieth, 1767, aged sixty-one. 
 
 " Si vitam fide Christi egimus sanctam, si quid prse- 
 clare gessimus, hoc sit nostri monumentum." 
 
 A few other incidents relating to the early history 
 of this town may be listened to with interest, as 
 throwins: light on the character of the men and of the 
 times of which we are speaking. 
 
27 
 
 What is now Northboiough was for many years 
 known as the Second Precinct in Westborough, having 
 been set off as such, October 20th, 1744, which an- 
 swers to October 31st, N. S. It did not become an 
 incorporated district till January 24th, 1766, when, 
 from its situation in respect to the First Precinct, it 
 received the name of Northborough. But it was not 
 even yet thought worthy of the rank of a town ; and 
 was not allowed the privilege of sending a repre- 
 sentative to the Great and General Court till the com- 
 mencement of the Revolutionary War, in 1775, when, 
 by a general act of the Provincial Congress, all in- 
 corporated districts were declared to be entitled to all 
 the privileges and immunities of towns.* 
 
 The First Precinct officers were chosen on the 
 15th of the following November, at which time "it 
 was voted that precinct meetings for the future should 
 be warned by two notifications posted up, one at 
 Ephraim Allen's mill, and the other at Bezaleel 
 Eager's." 
 
 One of the first objects to which the attention of 
 the precinct was directed was, of course, the building 
 of a meeting-house, which, after much delay, occa- 
 sioned by differences of opinion respecting its location, 
 which were at length terminated by arbitration, James 
 Eager having generously given the land for that pur- 
 pose, was raised April 30th, 1745. It stood very 
 
 * See Ancient Charters and Laws of the Province of Massachusetts 
 Bay, — Appendix, chap. xl. p. 3. 
 
28 
 
 near the spot which forms the site of the present 
 church.* They did not, however, wait till the house 
 was built, before thej took measures to provide preach- 
 ing. Meetings for public worship were held through 
 the winter of 1745, first at the house of Nathaniel 
 Oakes, and afterwards, for three months, at the house 
 of Jacob Rice, which, as has been already said, stood 
 near the site of the centre school-house. As they 
 could not agree upon a candidate, agreeably to the 
 pious custom of those times, they appointed " a day 
 of humiliation and prayer," and sent for several of the 
 neighbouring ministers to give them their advice. 
 
 "September 12th," as the record stands, "the 
 day appointed. Rev. Mr. Parkman and Rev. Mr. 
 Goss came and carried on the work of the fast 
 day, and adjourned, giving us their advice, till the 
 23d of September, and then the Rev. Mr. Pren- 
 tice, and Mr. Gushing, and Mr. Parkman, and Mr. 
 Morse, met at the house of Lieutenant William Hol- 
 loway, and, after looking up to Heaven for divine 
 help and assistance on the occasion they met upon, 
 they heard each party, and gave us their advice as 
 followeth : — 
 
 " Westborough, Sept. 23, 1745. 
 
 " Inasmuch as the committee of the Second Precinct 
 
 in Westborough have made application to us whose 
 
 names are underwritten to give them our advice with 
 
 reference to the settlement of divine ordinances among 
 
 * Appendix, Note D. 
 
29 
 
 them, after humble application to God for direction 
 ourselves, and maturely weighing what has been laid 
 before us, do lament the appearance of misunderstand- 
 ings and uneasinesses in the precinct, and would 
 earnestly recommend a mutual condescension as be- 
 comes Christian professors, but on consideration that 
 the chief matters of grievance cannot fall under our 
 cognizance, nor can we have any prospect, from any 
 thing in our power, to redress them. But though there 
 have been such difficulties subsisting here, yet, if there 
 should be any long delay, we have reason to fear they 
 would rather increase, in such a day of temptation, 
 than be diminished, we do freely advise that they pro- 
 ceed to nominating a number of candidates for the 
 gospel ministry, to be heard by the precinct, in order 
 to a choice; that they be two, together with the gen- 
 tlemen they have been some time hearing. And we 
 (divers of us) recommend the Rev. Mr. Rand and Mr. 
 Jedediah Adams, of Cambridge, that they all be heard 
 a few Sabbaths each. Upon the whole, brethren, we 
 cannot but express our compassionate concern for you 
 in your new circumstances, and do beseech you to be- 
 ware of the many evils of strife and contention ; be 
 cautious of the snares to which your most precious souls 
 are exposed at such a critical juncture ; and may the 
 God of all wisdom and grace conduct and restrain you. 
 (Signed,) " John Prentice, 
 
 Job Cushing, 
 Ebenezer Parkman, 
 Ebenezer Morse." 
 
30 
 
 This advice was followed ; and after hearing the 
 three candidates two Sabbaths each, Mr. John Mar- 
 tjn was declared to be " chosen by a clear vote," on the 
 9th of the following December, the precinct voting 
 him a " salary of £ 50, in bills of the last emission, or 
 £ 200 in bills of the old form and tenor, with a set- 
 tlement of £300 of old tenor money " ; a pound, old 
 tenor, being equal to about 82 cents of our currency ; 
 so that his salary was $f 166-66, and his settlement 
 246. This was indeed " a day of small things " ; 
 but not, on this account, to be despised. The salary 
 was in proportion not only to the means of the society, 
 but to the price of labor and the articles of living. In 
 consideration of the rise of provisions, the precinct, 
 two years after the settlement of Mr. Martyn, made 
 an additional grant of £ 150, old tenor, to his salary 
 for that year ; and numerous grants of a like nature 
 are recorded in the Precinct Book- 
 It was not till the last year but one of the life of the 
 Rev. Mr. Martyn, namely, 1766, the year that North- 
 borough obtained an act of incorporation, that the pre- 
 cinct voted to provide schooling and to repair the high- 
 ways at the public charge. The amount granted that 
 year for the former is not stated. For the latter a grant 
 of £60, lawful money, was made. In the following year, 
 however, the grant for schooling was £ 11, which was 
 gradually increased, till, in 1776, it amounted to £20 ; 
 while that for highways was £ 40, an equal amount, 
 or £ 40, having been granted the year before to pay the 
 minute men " to learn the military art." It is worthy 
 
31 
 
 of note, that, in the following year, 1777, the sum 
 raised for schooling was doubled, amounting to £ 40 
 lawful money, while no appropriation was made for 
 repairing the highways, a fact which evinces the in- 
 terest that was taken even in those troublesome times 
 in the cause of education. Since the Revolutionary 
 War, at least during the last thirty years, the amount 
 raised for each purpose has been, I believe, nearly the 
 same.* 
 
 Having dwelt so long on the ministry and times of 
 the Rev. Mr. Martyn, I must pass hastily over the 
 subsequent period. 
 
 The Rev. Peter Whitney, the successor of Mr. Mar- 
 tyn, was the son of the Rev. Aaron Whitney, of Peters- 
 ham, where he was born, September 17, 1744, the 
 year the Second Precinct was set off from Westbor- 
 ough. He also was educated at Harvard University, 
 Cambridge, where he was graduated in 1762, and 
 where he pursued the study of theology, preparatory to 
 the Christian ministry. Mr. Whitney received a call, 
 September 21, 1767, to fill the vacancy occasioned 
 by the death of Mr. Martyn, with the offer of a 
 salary of £ 60 lawful money, afterwards increased to 
 £66-13-4, about ^220, and a settlement of ^£160 
 lawful money, or $ 533.33i ; and on the 4th of the 
 following November, was ordained as the pastor of 
 the church in this town, only six months and four days 
 after the death of his predecessor in office. 
 
 Appendix, Note E. 
 
32 
 
 It was during his ministry, namely, in 1808, that, 
 at an expense of more than 11,000, this house in 
 which we are now assembled was erected near the 
 spot occupied by the old meeting-house. 
 
 Mr. Whitney's ministry was long, peaceful, and 
 prosperous, and was terminated by his sudden death, 
 February 29, 1816. He is still remembered by many 
 with affectionate respect, and his Christian deport- 
 ment and useful labors contributed not a little to the 
 harmony and strength and respectability of this relig- 
 ious society as it was at the time when the speak- 
 er first became connected with it. Mr. Whitney, 
 at the time of his death, was in the seventy-second 
 year of his age and the forty-ninth of his ministry. His 
 mortal remains, and his monument, and the remem- 
 brance of his many virtues, are still with us. Of his 
 descendants, with a solitary exception, all have gone 
 from the former home of their honored ancestor, and 
 some have gone to their last home.* 
 
 And so, after a few short years, it will be with the 
 family of his successor, into which, by a most remark- 
 able providence, death has not yet entered, and the 
 places which now know them will know them no more. 
 The present incumbent entered on his office, Octo- 
 ber 30th, 1816, so that he has now nearly completed 
 the thirtieth year of his ministry among the people 
 of his first and latest love. He has never aspired to a 
 higher place or a better fortune ; and he hopes to 
 
 * Appendix, Note F. 
 
33 
 
 spend the evening of his days, if not in the office that 
 he loves, yet " among his own people," for whom he 
 has so long labored, and from whom he has experienced 
 so constant and considerate kindness. 
 
 This church has now existed a century, during 
 which time it has had only three pastors, including 
 the one who now fills that office, and has been desti- 
 tute of a settled minister only about fourteen months,— 
 " a fact," as he took occasion to say in his account of 
 Northborough, published twenty years since, " highly 
 creditable to the members of the society, as an evidence 
 of their regard for the institutions of religion, and of 
 the union and harmony which have long subsisted 
 among them." I may be allowed to quote the rest of 
 the paragraph from which the foregoing extract is taken. 
 " It may be justly considered," the writer remarks, 
 " that the town is indebted to the spirit of union 
 which has hitherto so generally prevailed among us, 
 for the respectable rank which it now maintains. It 
 would be easy, however painful, to predict the conse- 
 quences of the prevalence of an opposite spirit. Large 
 and opulent societies can bear to be reduced by division ; 
 but in societies small as this, and whose resources 
 are no greater than ours, union should be the watch- 
 word of all who wish well to the cause of human im- 
 provement." 
 
 These sentiments were entertained by the speaker 
 twenty years ago ; they are retained and cherished by 
 him still. Union is strength ; and though separation 
 is better than strife, it is not unattended by many 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 painful circumstances. In our own experience the 
 evils of division have been less grievous than in the 
 case of many of our brethren. A good degree of har- 
 mony has ever existed between the parent society and 
 the two that have been formed out of it. The speaker 
 has lived in good fellowship with all, and in habits of 
 intimacy with some, of those who from time to time 
 have sustained the pastoral office in the other churches ; 
 and he can truly say that he has, with very few excep- 
 tions, been treated with all the respect and kindness 
 he could ask or desire by those wdio went out from 
 us, as well as by those who have since united with 
 them in the maintenance of religious institutions. In 
 return, he has cherished only the most friendly feelings 
 towards them ; and, while he has scrupulously en- 
 deavoured to avoid all improper interference and all 
 attempts to proselyte, he has, he can truly say, sought 
 opportunities to benefit the rising and the risen gene- 
 ration, without regard to sect or denomination. 
 
 Especially has he sought to know nothing of sect or 
 party in his connection with the subject of education ; 
 and teachers and scholars in our public schools will 
 testify, that, in his intercourse with them, he has shown 
 no partiality in favor of the advocates of a particular 
 religious creed. I call on others, — I call on you, my 
 hearers, — I call upon this whole community, to pur- 
 sue the same righteous and honorable course, and 
 never to allow a sectarian spirit to enter those sacred 
 retreats, consecrated to learning and science, where 
 the tender minds of our children receive their earliest 
 and deepest impressions. 
 
35 
 
 The early records of this church, together with the 
 house of the pastor, were destroyed by fire in 1780. 
 In consequence of this calamity, some items of infor- 
 mation, which we should be glad to possess, are irre- 
 coverably lost. 
 
 From the Rev. Mr. Parkman's account of Westbor- 
 ough, we learn, that, in the year of Mr. Martyn's death, 
 this church consisted of twenty-one males and twenty- 
 three females. The number admitted during the min- 
 istry of Mr. Whitney, as nearly as can be ascertained, 
 was 204 ; while 201 have been received into the 
 church since I became its pastor, of whom about one 
 half remain with us to this day. Our church at pres- 
 sent consists of about 120 communicants. The num- 
 ber of baptisms, from the year 1780, when the 
 records were destroyed, to the time of the decease of 
 Mr. Whitney, was 661. The present pastor has bap- 
 tized 318; while ten received baptism in the interval 
 between the death of Mr. Whitney and the 30th of 
 the following October. During my ministry, I have 
 solemnized 208 marriages. I have thus united in in- 
 dissoluble bonds 416 persons ; of whom about 70 or 
 75, as nearly as I can learn, are no longer numbered 
 amonji; the livins;. The survivors, with the descend- 
 ants of the 208 couples, would make a great congre- 
 gation, and I have often thought that I should like to 
 see them all assembled in one place, to learn their va- 
 rious fortunes, and to speak to them words of congrat- 
 ulation, and sympathy, and Christian counsel. The 
 whole number of deaths within the borders of this town, 
 
36 
 
 since the beginning of my ministry, has been about 
 500; making the average iGf. I have probably at- 
 tended about the same number of funerals, in this and 
 the neighbouring towns. 
 
 The scenes and occasions that the recital of these 
 facts calls up before me are, some of them, of the 
 most deeply affecting character, and have left impres- 
 sions on my mind which will remain while life or 
 memory lasts. 
 
 Eight persons only, besides the present incumbents, 
 have sustained the office of deacon in this church since 
 its organization ; and it is but justice to add, that, so 
 far as I have learned, they were all men of great moral 
 worth ; respectable and respected. Of the first four I 
 had, of course, no personal knowledge. Jonathan Liv- 
 ermore and Matthias Rice were the first that held that 
 office. The former, who came from Watertown, and 
 who lived to the great age of one hundred years and 
 seven months, was, in his day, probably the best edu- 
 cated man in the place, and for many years in succes- 
 sion was clerk of the precinct. After the death of his 
 first wife, the mother of his children, he married a lady 
 of Irish extraction, a widow (Mrs. Jane Dunlap), who 
 lived in Milton, and was a member of the Congregational 
 church in that place, and who, from letters of hers in 
 my possession, addressed to the church, with which 
 she had a protracted controversy, as well as from other 
 sources, I should judge to have been a woman of 
 strong intellect and of great independence, associated 
 perhaps with some acerbity of temper, and, it may be, 
 
37 
 
 other faults of character. Certain it is that the church 
 received her communications, of which she sent sev- 
 eral, in no very courteous manner, — voting, on one oc- 
 casion, (Nov. 23, 1784), "unanimously, not one hand 
 up," as the record reads, that her communication was 
 not satisfactory. 
 
 Deacon Matthias Rice was a good man, " in sim- 
 plicity and godly sincerity having his conversation in 
 the world " ; and such were, by reputation, the two 
 successors of Deacons Rice and Livermore, — Dea- 
 cons Paul Newton and Seth Rice. They all lived 
 to a good old age, leaving behind them the savor of a 
 good name. Of the other four I can speak from per- 
 sonal and intimate knowledge. Deacon Isaac Davis 
 and Deacon Nahum Fay were in office at the time 
 of my ordination, and during several of the first years 
 of my ministry ; and I may add, that, though differing 
 from me on points of doctrinal belief, they were my 
 personal friends, from whom, so long as they lived, 
 1 experienced uniform kindness. Deacon Jonas Bart- 
 lett and Samuel Seaver, Sen., have so recently ceased 
 from their mortal labors, that few among us need to 
 be informed that they, too, possessed the public confi- 
 dence and respect. Of the present incumbents it 
 does not become me here to speak. 
 
 I shall dwell but for a few moments on the pres- 
 ent condition and prospects of this religious society. 
 I cannot use the language of exultation and boastful 
 confidence ; — it is unbecoming at all times; it would 
 be especially out of place at this time. When I think 
 
38 
 
 of the strong pillars that stood here thirty years ago, 
 on which our social fabric and this church rested, and 
 consider how they have fallen, one after another, till 
 only here and there a decaying shaft remains, I have 
 no heart to exult; I am more inclined to commune 
 with my own heart and be still. 
 
 True, we have ample resources and many encour- 
 agements ; and it were weakness and a criminal dis- 
 trust of Providence to despond, as, when I think of 
 the past, I am sometimes tempted to do. Once we 
 were, certainly in respect to worldly wealth, much 
 stronger than now. By death and removal, and those 
 changes that are common in this changing world, 
 many of the best estates that once belonged to us have 
 passed into other hands ; and although there has been 
 a considerable increase of population in the town, 
 especially within the last ten years, only a small pro- 
 portion of those who have removed hither from other 
 places have become members of this religious society. 
 One main purpose of our respected friend and bene- 
 fiictor (Henry Gassett, Esq., of Boston), whose bounty 
 we have so liberally shared, has thus been in a manner 
 frustrated. He had hoped that his large donation, 
 (^3000,) intended principally for the support of the 
 ministry, would prove a bond of union, so that all 
 might partake of the fruits of his liberality. In other 
 times it might have been so. And the day may come 
 when sectarian strifes and party names shall be done 
 away; and when that bounty, which was intended 
 for all, shall be shared by all who shall then dwell 
 
39 
 
 within our borders. In the mean time it will be, I 
 trust, a bond of union to us who remain connected 
 with this ancient Congregational church ; and the 
 memory of the donor will be dear to our children's 
 children. 
 
 We have received other benefactions ; among which 
 is the valuable clock lately placed in the tower of our 
 church (the gift of Mr. Jonas Ball), which, so long as 
 it remains, will remind us of the source whence it 
 came, and of the hours as they fly. 
 
 And now my parting word ; for it is quite time to 
 relieve your exhausted patience. My ministry has 
 ■been protracted, and my labors among you have been 
 blessed, far beyond my most sanguine hopes. Ac- 
 cording to the order of nature, which, if I might, I 
 would not subvert or alter, I have seen my best days. 
 I am deeply sensible that it is so ; and I submit, with- 
 out a murmur, to the great law of life, — that, while 
 others increase, " I must decrease." 
 
 Receive, then, the word from my lips. As though I 
 stood on the borders of the grave and in the prospect 
 of the eternal world, — in the earnestness of a spirit 
 that yearns towards you with a strong affection, I be- 
 seech you, dear brethren and friends, in the words of 
 the apostle, adopted by the first minister of this church: 
 "Be perfect ; be of good comfort; be of one mind; 
 live in peace ; — and the God of love and peace shall 
 be with you." Amen. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 NoRTHBOROuGH, being originally a part of Marlborough, may lay claim 
 to considerable antiquity ; Marlborough having been incorporated as early 
 as 1660, only forty years after the landing from the Mayflower, and thirty 
 after the settlement of Boston. 
 
 It was, indeed, in this very year (1660) that certain meadow lands lying 
 within the borders of this town were surveyed, and the names given 
 them (Three Corner Meadow, Stirrup Meadow, Crane Meadow, &c.) 
 which they now bear. Cold Harbour Meadow, then bearing its present 
 name, was taken up and laid out in thirty-four lots as early as 1672 ; 
 and in the same year, a grant of land was made to John Brigham (who 
 went by the name of Doctor Brigham, and was a noted land-surveyor) " on 
 Licor Meadow Plain," probably the plain extending north and north- 
 west from Liquor Hill (now Mount Assabet) to the farm of Mr. Jairus 
 Lincoln. On what I suppose were the eastern borders of this grant, 
 near the site of the saw-mill owned by Messrs. Haynes and Bush, Mr. 
 Brigham erected a small cabin, in which he lived several years, remote 
 from any human habitation, tending the saw-mill which he had built on 
 Howard Brook, till at length the fear of the savages induced him to 
 retire to a place of greater security. 
 
 In the same year, several other grants of land, now within the borders 
 of this town, were made by the proprietors of Marlborough ; — one to Sam- 
 uel Goodenow, father of Thomas, and grandfather of the late Asa Good- 
 enow ; and to Thomas Brigham, father of David, and grandfather of the 
 late Judge Brigham of Westborough. Another grant still was made to 
 John Rediat, " west of Assabeth River, north-west side of the Chauncey 
 Great Pond, bounded on the east by a Spruce Swamp." Another " on 
 the Nepmuck road, that formerly led toward Coneticoat," which was 
 probably on the eastern borders of Little Chauncey Pond, — the Nepmuck 
 road from Marlborough to Grafton (then Hassanemesit) leading through 
 Westborough near Great and Little Chauncey Ponds. Nathaniel Oakes, 
 the person mentioned in the Discourse, married for his first wife a 
 daughter of John Rediat, through whom he came into possession of a 
 
42 
 
 large estate. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Oakes married Mary, 
 daughter of Adam Holloway, by whom he had several children, descend- 
 ants of whom, by his daughter Hannah, who was married to Gershom 
 Fay, Jr., are still with us. Three granddaughters of Hannah Oakes, 
 namely, Zilpah, Zeviah, and Thankful, daughters of Thaddeus Fay, were 
 married severally to Joel and Asa Parmenter and Deacon Jonas Bart- 
 lett. One of the grandsons, Thaddeus Fay, Jr., married Abigail, a 
 daughter of John Martyn, Jr. ; she died in 1840, in the eightieth year 
 of her age. 
 
 The tragical fate of Mary Goodenow is alluded to in the Discourse. 
 The following particulars may be interesting to those to whom the story 
 is not familiar. It took place August 18th, 1707. Mary Goodenow, 
 daughter of Samuel, who then lived near the present 'dwelling-house 
 of Mr. Stephen Howe, in a house which was used for a garrison, was 
 gathering herbs in the adjoining meadow, in company with Mrs. Mary, 
 wife of Gershom Fay, who then lived in the east part of the town, when 
 a party of Indians, twenty-four in number, all stout warriors, were seen 
 issuing from the woods and advancing towards them. Mrs. Fay escaped 
 to the garrison, having barely time to fasten the gate of the inclosure, 
 before her pursuers came up.. Mary Goodenow, being retarded by lame- 
 ness, was overtaken, seized, and dragged by the savages to the east side 
 of the meadow, where she was killed and scalped, and where her man- 
 gled remains were afterwards found and committed to the dust, and 
 where her grave was visible a few years since. 
 
 Some other particulars respecting this event may be found in the his- 
 torical notice of Northborough, contained in the second volume of the 
 Worcester Magazine, published in 1826. 
 
 Before the incorporation of Westborough, in 1717, the western part of 
 Marlborough, including what is now Westborough and Northborough, 
 went by the name of " Chauncey " or " Chauncey Village," — so called, 
 according to the Rev. Mr. Parkman of Westborough, from the circum- 
 stance, " that in early times a person of that name was lost in one of the 
 swamps here." The name is retained in connection with two beautiful 
 sheets of water, — " Great Chauncey Pond," in Westborough, and 
 " Little Chauncey Pond," in Northborough. 
 
 The names given respectively to the three towns which were taken 
 from Marlborough were strictly appropriate, at the times when they were 
 assigned. Thus, in 1717, the whole of the western part of Marlborough 
 was incorporated by the name of Westborough ; and in 1720, the 
 southern part of what remained, was incorporated by the name of South- 
 borough ; and, finally, in 1766, the northern part of Westborough was 
 incorporated by the name of Northborough. 
 
 Before the incorporation of Marlborough, in 1660, the English planta- 
 
43 
 
 tion which was commenced there in 1656 was called by the Indian name 
 of Whipsuppenicke, or, as it was sometimes written, WhipsufFeradge. 
 The Indian plantation in the neighbourhood went by the not unmusical 
 name of Ockoocangansett, corrupted, in Yankee dialect, into Agogang- 
 gomisset. The name originally belonged to the beautiful hill back of 
 the Academy, as Whipsuppenicke was the name of another hill south of 
 the former. 
 
 NOTE A. Page 8. 
 
 I find by examination, that this very church covenant, with a few 
 slight variations, had been adopted by the church at Sterling about 
 eighteen months previous, namely, December 19th, 1744, at the time 
 of the ordination of their first minister, the Rev. John Mellen. It is not 
 unlikely that it was adopted in other places. 
 
 NOTE B. Page 16. 
 
 The excitement on the subject of religion, about this time, in many parts 
 of New England, was unprecedented. George Whitefield made his first 
 visit to this country in 1740, and was followed by admiring crowds 
 wherever he went, and his eloquent declamations produced the most 
 astonishing effects. Many of the clergy welcomed him to their pulpits ; 
 while others refused to give him their countenance, and more than ques- 
 tioned the wisdom of his measures, and the perfect integrity of his con- 
 duct. 
 
 So strong, however, was the conviction in the minds of many of the 
 clergy of the value of his services in awakening a religious interest in 
 the community, that a meeting of pastors of churches was called at 
 Boston, the day after Commencement, July 7th, 1743, to bear their tes- 
 timony and to give their advice in relation to " the late happy revival 
 of religion in many parts of the land," &c. 
 
 In the copy of the doings of that convention now in my possession, I 
 find that but four ministers of Worcester county, namely, Webb of Ux- 
 bridge, Seccomb of Harvard, Prentice of Grafton, and Goddard of 
 Leicester, were willing to affix their names (and one of these with quali- 
 fications) to "the testimony and advice," while the name of Parkman 
 of Westborough is associated with the honored names of Colman, and 
 
44 
 
 Checkley, and Andrew Eliot, of Boston, with ten or twelve others, who, 
 "while they concur with " the testimony "for the substance of it," 
 object to it, on the ground that it did not use sufficiently strong language 
 in testifying against "itinerancy, or ministers and others introducing 
 themselves into other ministers' parishes without their consent." 
 
 In the following year, namely, October 28th, 1744, in an occa- 
 sional discourse delivered to his people, on the twentieth anniversary 
 of his ordination, from the text. Genesis xxxi. 38, Mr. Parkman uses 
 the following language : — " There have been, at several times, some mov- 
 ings of the spirit of God among us. But as to the outward tokens 
 thereof, by persons joining to the church, I have not been very fond of 
 promoting and countenancing great multitudes of these, when it has 
 been plain to me, either that it has been very much out of form, or, when 
 they have been too raw and unqualified, as being too inexperienced in 
 the practical and spiritual part of religion, or not been so much as in- 
 doctrinated and instructed in the necessary principles of Christianity." 
 And not long after, namely, September 6th, 1747, Mr. Parkman, in a 
 funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Col- 
 man of Boston, one of the soundest and most judicious ministers of that 
 generation, introduces his subject in the following eulogistic strain : — 
 "When principal pillars fall, the fabric shakes! When great and 
 eminent men are taken away, the whole land feels a shock ! Our spiritual 
 fathers are the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof; — our glory 
 and our defence. But our fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, 
 
 do they live forever? One of the very brightest lights that ever 
 
 irradiated the Western world has lately been extinguished ; and how 
 gloomy and sorrowful hereupon is it ! What a sensible and general loss 
 is the death of the excellent, the faithful, and venerable Dr. Colman ! " 
 President Quincy, in his "History of Harvard University," thus speaks 
 of Dr. Colman : — " This liberal and distinguished man, who was second 
 to none of the clergy of that day in character and influence, departed 
 full of years and honors, his intellectual light and moral worth un- 
 clouded, and his Christian charity brightening to the last ; yet none of 
 the active, able, professional brethren by whom he was surrounded, 
 except his colleague, Samuel Cooper, ever preached, so far as can now 
 be ascertained, and no one ever published, a funeral sermon or eulogy 
 m token of respect for his memory." — Vol. II. p. 76. 
 
 It seems, that, if he was unnoticed by his brethren in the metropolis, 
 a tribute of respect was paid to the good man by a retired country 
 minister in the heart of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Every one is at liberty to draw what inference he pleases from the 
 facts I have collected. They may serve to throw some light on the char- 
 acter of the times, if not on the character of tlie first minister of North- 
 borough. 
 
45 
 
 Just as I was preparing to send these notes to the printer, I met 
 with the following letter, which I had carefully laid away, enclosed in 
 an envelope, some thirty years ago, the very existence of which I had 
 forgotten. I think it worth preserving, as a precious relic of olden 
 times. All must admire the manly and independent tone of the letter ; and 
 I have no doubt, that, while, as we know, it brought the people to see and 
 to repair their injustice, it increased their respect and veneration for 
 their minister. Some churches in the nineteenth century might be 
 profited by the timely reproofs it conveys. 
 
 I may add that the letter was followed by action on the part of the 
 precinct, on the 6lh of the following August ; and in December, the 
 sum of eight pounds, in addition to the hundred pounds already assessed, 
 was granted " to the Rev. Mr. Martyn, our worthy pastor." 
 
 " To Bezaleel Eager and others. Committee of the North Precinct in 
 Westborough. 
 
 " Gentlemen, — You are not strangers to the terms or conditions 
 upon which I settled in this place, neither need I tell you that they have 
 never yet been complied with on the part of the precinct ; and as you 
 have the management of the public affairs of this precinct, I thought it 
 therefore not improper to inform you of my uneasiness with respect to 
 my salary from year to year. It is an old saying, that sufferers have 
 leave to speak ; and as I have been a very great sufferer upon account 
 of the non-fulfilment of the contract from year to year, I think this, if 
 there was nothing else, would be sufficient to justify me in my present 
 complaints, without telling you that I look upon it a real injury to the 
 people themselves to make no conscience of fulfilling their engagements. 
 For let me tell you, if you have a house for the worship of God, a min- 
 ister, and ordinances, only for fashion-sake, you had better be without 
 them ; but if you really intend by them to get that good which God de- 
 signs by bringing his kingdom so nigh you, how can you expect to reap 
 those benefits, while you injure him who is appointed to bring you the 
 messages of peace and salvation? Is it likely that any success will attend 
 the means of grace among a people who show a manifest slight and con- 
 tempt of them by their backwardness and unwillingness to maintain and 
 encourage those that wait at God's altar? For is not the laborer worthy 
 of his hire? Don't you acknowledge this in temporal things ? for if you 
 have a laborer for the lowest, meanest sort of work, has he not at least 
 his food from day to day ? And why must a minister maintain himself, at 
 least nine or ten months of the year, which has all along been the case 
 here, or suffer? Is the work of the ministry of so much less value than 
 digging in a ditch? and can you suppose that persons will always think 
 that any body they deal with should be better paid than the ambassador 
 
46 
 
 of Christ ; and that, if they keep their word and make good their prom- 
 ises to others, no matter whether they are kept with ministers or not? 
 Is it not likely that this is oftentimes the easel If there had been fewer 
 instances of it, even in this place, the conditions upon which I settled 
 here had been better performed than they have been. And one great 
 reason, though not the only reason, why the payment of my salary hath 
 been delayed from year to year hath been the putting off making the rates 
 in proper season ; and what apprehensions they that are concerned have 
 of public trusts and sacred oaths is very strange to me. 
 
 "Gentlemen, you know something of the difficulties and charges I 
 have been put to to settle here, and the very small matter of assistance 
 I have had from the people ; and I must needs tell you, that, after all this, 
 I take it very hard that I am obliged to take the very money which I 
 should make use of to pay the debts I have contracted towards my build- 
 ing, to buy the necessaries of life ; and not only so, but to be obliged 
 through mere necessity to injure those I owe ; whereas, if the precinct 
 was faithful and just to their engagements, I need not be brought to this. 
 I am very sorry I am obliged to write thus ; but how can I avoid it, when 
 I am a continual sufferer, and those whose business it is will not move 
 in my behalf? It is a hard case, when a minister is obliged thus to com- 
 plain, and what I wish there was no occasion for, but necessity puts me 
 upon it; for four years have now passed, and though every year, accord- 
 ing to agreement, I was to have my salary at two equal payments, yet 
 more than half a year hath always run away, and sometimes more, be- 
 fore any rates have been made, and then some months after hath been 
 taken up before I have even had any thing of value, which has been 
 to my damage one way or other at least forty or fifty pounds a year. But 
 if the contract was never intended to be kept by the people, why did they 
 ever make it? How vastly different do this people deal with others 
 from their dealings with me ! I do not intend any thing I have writ to 
 be by way of reproach to you or any particular person, for I write in 
 sober sadness ; for it is designed as an introduction to a petition which 
 I have to make, and that is, that you would be just to yourselves and me 
 for the time to come, and that I may have no more reasons for complaints 
 of this nature. I have told you before, and tell you now, that I owe a 
 considerable sum yet towards my buildings, and the money I should have 
 took to have paid my debts, and which I never had of the people, I was 
 obliged to lay out for the necessaries of life ; and do now buy all that 
 I expend in my family, which is very discouraging to me. I wish these 
 matters might be seriously thought of by you, and not only so, but that 
 a meeting may be called and proper steps taken to bring things under a 
 better regulation. I know some may say, the times are hard and diffi- 
 cult, and if the rates should be made in season, the money could not be 
 
47 
 
 gathered. To this I answer, I am as sensible of the hardness of the 
 times, and have as much reason, under my present circumstances, to 
 lament it, as any body ; but the times are not equally hard with all ; some 
 have money, though others han't ; and if the generality would deal as well 
 with me as they do with their shoemakers, tailors, smiths, and the like, 
 I doubt not, though the times are hard, I should be better paid this year 
 than I have been in any year past. But supposing the times to be never 
 so hard, do you think this reason sufficient for the committee to betray 
 their trust, or for the assessors to trifle with a sacred oath? You must 
 remember that I am one party in the covenant with this people, and I 
 never yet consented to any alteration of it; and until I do, it ought to be 
 fulfilled as near as possible. And were the rates made sooner, from year to 
 year, it might be an advantage to the people as well as to me ; for, as I 
 have something of a farm, a considerable part of my salary might be paid 
 in labor, without injuring any body ; but so it is that nobody cares to 
 ease their burthen this way till perhaps a year and a half is gone, and 
 when they have nothing to do at home they may offer their service to 
 me ; and what is still to my damage, some that I have hired to work, 
 though there hath been near or quite six months of the year gone, and 
 sometimes more, have insisted upon their wages, which I have paid them 
 in money, when there has been no reason for it but because there was no 
 rate made. Many more grievous things of the like nature I could tell of, 
 were it likely to do any good. Upon the whole, I pray you would take 
 this matter into consideration, and let what is amiss be rectified as soon 
 as possible. 
 
 " From your suffering pastor, 
 
 " Jno. Martyn. 
 " Westhorough, June 23, 1750." 
 
 NOTE C. Page 23. 
 
 The term "orthodox " is found in the original church covenant, sub- 
 scribed by the Rev. Mr. Martyn, and others, at the formation of this church ; 
 and I have said that it was a very good term, and ought not to be appro- 
 priated by any one denomination, or any body of believers, as belonging 
 exclusively to them. I do not doubt, however, that it was, at tbe time, 
 commonly applied to the doctrines of Calvinism, or of the Westminster 
 Divines, which were received, at least theoretically, by ministers and 
 churches generally, throughout New England ; and which were publicly 
 controverted or openly rejected but by few, till a somewhat later period. 
 To some ministers of that day these doctrines were peculiarly dear, and 
 
were preached with great vehemence and power. By others, probably, 
 they were held with no very tenacious grasp, — were seldom introduced 
 into their public discourses, or were so softened down and modified as to 
 lose much of their sternness and repulsiveness. I have read several of the 
 manuscript sermons of the Rev. Mr. Parkman of Westborough, which I 
 found, to my great surprise, almost unobjectionable on the score of doc- 
 trine. Mr. Martyn may have been a Calvinist of the strictest sort, but 
 I have had no evidence to convince me that such was the fact ; and I have 
 never supposed that strict Calvinism extensively prevailed in Northbor- 
 ough, either during the ministry of Mr. Martyn, or that of his immediate 
 successor. I learned, by tradition, when I first came to this place, that, 
 in the earlier part of Mr. Whitney's ministry, a few who held Calvinistic 
 views were dissatisfied with Mr. Whitney, on account of his leaning to 
 Arminianism ; and I have understood, that, at a subsequent period, an 
 attempt was made by several young men of Calvinistic views to intro- 
 duce those views by appointing religious meetings at private houses, in 
 opposition to Mr. Whitney's wishes; but I believe that they found little 
 sympathy with the public, and that liberal sentiments continued to pre- 
 vail till the commencement of my ministry. Great efforts were then 
 made, chiefly by persons in neighbouring towns, to prejudice the people 
 here against Unitarianism, and to prevent my settlement on that ground ; 
 the result of which may be gathered from the fact, that only eleven votes 
 out of one hundred and eight were cast against the candidate for set- 
 tlement, and several of those were given by men who afterwards 
 proved to be among the firmest friends and supporters of the man whom 
 they opposed. 
 
 If the Rev. Mr. Martyn and his people generally were Calvinists, which 
 is not proved by their use of "Orthodox Catechisms," — since I doubt 
 whether there were any other catechisms in use in the New England 
 churches of that day than those of the Westminster Divines, which in many 
 churches were not laid aside till long after the peculiar doctrines of Calvin- 
 ism had been discarded both by ministers and people, — if, I say, Mr. Mar- 
 tyn and his people were Calvinists, there must have been a great, and, con- 
 sidering the staid habits of the people, a most surprising, change in the sen- 
 timents of the latter, within a brief period, in order to account for the state 
 of things during Mr. Whitney's ministry, to which I have adverted. But 
 the truth is, Calvinism and Orthodoxy are not convertible terms. The 
 ■popular theology is accounted Orthodoocy. And this, as is well known, 
 varies from age to age. Calvinism cannot vary. It is one thing, and not 
 many. There is, properly speaking, no high or low, strict or loose, ex- 
 travagant or moderate, Calvinism. For the term applies to what is fixed 
 and definite, namely, to the system of theological dogmas held and taught 
 by John Calvin of Geneva. Now Calvinism may be orthodoxy in one 
 
49 
 
 age, but it is not orthodoxy here and everywhere, now and always. 
 The theology of the Westminster Catechism, which I studied, but never 
 understood, when I was a child, nor believed then, or since I became a 
 man, was accounted orthodoxy among the New England churches a cen- 
 tury ago ; but is it received fully, in all its length and breadth and depth_ 
 of meaning, by those who would appropriate that title now ■? I think not. 
 The term orthodoxy literally means right doctrine or opinion, and ortho- 
 doxy has had so many mutations and phases, that it seems to me that I 
 should not be chargeable with unpardonable arrogance, should I claim for 
 the sentiments, which I honestly hold and openly advocate, the title of 
 orthodox. Should I make that claim, however, I should do it with the 
 express recognition of the equal claims of my Christian brethren who as 
 honestly hold and as openly advocate other views, — holding as I do, that 
 no denomination, no section of the Christian church, monopolizes the 
 truth, and that, if I have a right to differ from my brother, he has as good 
 a right to differ from me, — that we both have one Master in heaven, and 
 that to his own Master every man standeth or falleth. 
 
 One thing is certain, — the church of which I am the pastor has never 
 had a Calvinistic, or even a Trinitarian, covenant or creed. I have in my 
 possession, not a copy or a fac-simile, but the identical church covenant, with 
 the autograph signatures of the original ten members, following that of 
 Mr. Martyn himself, to which were added afterwards three other auto- 
 graph names, namely, Josiah Bowker, Paul Newton, and William Hol- 
 loway. It was put into my hands, with the church records and other 
 papers, by the late Deacon Nahum Fay, who had acted as clerk of the 
 church after the death of Mr. Whitney, and while it was destitute of a 
 pastor. Tn this venerable document, the second article, which prescribes 
 the use of orthodox catechisms, is stricken out by a mark of the pen ; 
 when, or by whom, I am unable to say. Neither can I tell how it es- 
 caped the flames which destroyed the other church records, together with 
 the house and goods of the Rev. Mr. Whitney, in 1780. That it ivas 
 preserved, and that it is the original document, and not a copy, is evident 
 on the slightest inspection. 
 
 This covenant was superseded by the one which was in use at the 
 commencement of my ministry, and that again by the one that was intro- 
 duced by the present pastor, in 1817; neither of which is more or less 
 liberal than the original covenant, and to either of which I suppose any 
 conscientious Trinitarian or Calvinist might assent. 
 
 Our church is not, and never was, a sectarian church ; and there is 
 nothing in its organization or constitution which requires that either the 
 pastor or the members of it should hold this or that particular system of 
 religious belief. It admits of change. It is an Independent Congrega- 
 tional church. It professes to adhere to the two great principles of Prot- 
 7 
 
50 
 
 estantism — the svfficiency of the Scriptures, and the right of -private judg- 
 ment. It does not aim to secure a uniformity of faith among its members; 
 all of whom are allowed and encouraged to examine for themselves, and 
 who are subjected to no church censure, and no loss of caste, and no 
 social disadvantage, in case they should depart from the views which are 
 'entertained by the pastor or by the majority of the brethren. We hold 
 to freedom and progress in religion as well as in other matters, and be- 
 lieve, that, much as religious freedom has been infringed upon, there has 
 been progress in religious knowledge, not in this church only, but in the 
 churches of New England generally, during the century which we have 
 been reviewing ; and further, that progress should continue to be the ob- 
 ject and aim of all the disciples of Christ. We do not doubt that those 
 who shall come after us will have clearer, more enlarged, and rational 
 views of the doctrine of Christ than any to which the human mind has 
 yet attained. We would not take any system of theology that has 
 been embodied in human creeds, or that has been advocated by the most 
 eminent divines, even of our own faith, and transmit it, in a stereotyped 
 form, to future generations. For we believe that " more light is yet to 
 break forth from God's holy word," which the darkness of the nine- 
 teenth century comprehendeth not, but which shall illuminate and bless 
 future generations. The Christianity of Christ is immutable ; but the 
 Christianity of the church, the Christianity of creeds, varies from age to 
 age ; and it may be late, if ever, that the one shall be brought into an 
 exact conformity with the other. 
 
 I trust I shall be pardoned, if I add to this extended note the following 
 sentiments of the venerable Robinson, of Leyden, taken from his cele- 
 brated farewell discourse to our Pilgrim fathers, as reported by Governor 
 Winslow, who was present and heard it ; and which appeared in print, 
 for the first time, in 164G, just two hundred years ago. 
 
 "He charged us before God and his blessed angels to follow him no 
 farther than he followed Christ ; and, if God should reveal any thing to 
 us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever we 
 were to receive any truth by his ministry ; for he was very confident the 
 Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word. 
 He took occasion, also, miserably to bewail the state and condition of the 
 reformed churches, who were come to a period in religion, and would go 
 no further than the instruments of their reformation. As, for example, 
 the Lutherans, they could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ; 
 for whatever part of God's will he had further imparted and revealed to 
 Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And so also, saith he, you 
 see the Calvinists, they stick where he left them ; a misery much to be 
 lamented ; for though they were precious shining lights in their times, 
 yet God had not revealed his whole will to them ; and were they now 
 
51 
 
 living, saith he, they would be as ready and willing to embrace further 
 light, as that they had received. Here also he put us in mind of our 
 church covenant, at least, that part of it whereby we promise and cove- 
 nant with God, and one with another, to receive whatsoever light or 
 truth shall be made known to us from his written word ; but withal ex- 
 horted us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to examine 
 and compare it with other scriptures of truth before we received it. For, 
 saith he, it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out 
 of such antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge 
 should break forth at once." 
 
 " Words," said Dr. Prince, of Boston, one hundred years ago, " al- 
 most astonishing, in that age of low and universal bigotry." Would that 
 the spirit which they breathe might be infused into all the New England 
 churches of the nineteenth century ! 
 
 NOTE D. Page 28. 
 
 The following votes of the precinct, passed at different dates, may re- 
 mind us of our superior privileges, while they carry us back to " a day 
 of small things." 
 
 " December 31st, 1744. Voted to build a meeting-house. 
 
 " Voted, that the meeting-house should be set on the most convenient 
 spot on a corner of land between the road coming from Nathaniel Oak's, 
 and the road coming down from Benjamin Lull's, and leading down to 
 Cold Harbour Bridge. 
 
 " Voted, that the meeting-house should be forty-six feet in length, and 
 thirty-six feet in wide, and twenty feet post. 
 
 " Voted and granted the sum of fifty pounds lawful money [$ 166.66], 
 to be paid in money, labor, or timber for building the meeting-house." 
 
 "April 26ih, 1745. Voted to raise the meeting-house on Tuesday 
 next, to begin at nine o'clock in the morning. 
 
 " Voted, that every man should provide according as he was spirited.'''' 
 
 " August 26th, 1745. Voted and allowed six shillings [twenty-five 
 cents] for scoring timber, and six shillings and six pence [twenty-seven 
 cents] for hewing, and eight shillings [thirty-three cents], per day, for 
 framing, boarding, and shingling." 
 
 " November 17th, 1746. Put to vote to see if they would lay the 
 meeting-house floor. Passed in the negative. 
 
 " Put to vote to see if the precinct would glaze the meeting-house 
 forthwith, or as soon as glass can be provided. Passed in the negative. 
 
 " Desolved the meeting." 
 
62 
 
 " December 29th, 1746. Voted and allowed to Lieutenant William 
 Holloway, for entertaining the council at the ordination, £ 20, 16 s." 
 
 " June 8th, 1747. It was put to vote to see if they would buld the 
 pulpit, past in the nigitive. 
 
 " Voted and granted the sum of £ 150, old tenor, for glazing and fin- 
 ishing the meeting-house." 
 
 " September 4th, 1747. Voted to build the pulpit, the deacons' seat, 
 and the minister's pue." 
 
 " January 30th, 1748. It was put to vote to see if the precinct will have 
 as many pues as can be built by the walls of the meeting-house with 
 conveniency, and fouer more in the hind part of the body of seats. 
 Past in the affirmative. 
 
 " The precinct voted to build the body of seats in the meeting-house 
 by the last day of May." 
 
 " September 4th, 1749. It was put to vote to see if the precinct would 
 build the gallary stairs and lay the gallary flors, and build the brest 
 work of the gallary by the last of next October, come twelve months. 
 Past in the affirmative. 
 
 " It was put to vote to see if the precinct will grant the pue ground in 
 the meeting-house to those who have paid most on real and personal 
 estate, and one poll only, to what hath been already don to the meeting- 
 house, they building them by the last of next October, come twelve 
 months, or forfeit the ground to the precinct's use again. Past in the 
 affirmitive." 
 
 " November 13th, 1749. Voted, that they would have twenty pues in 
 the meeting-house." 
 
 August 13th, 1752. A committee, chosen for that purpose, reported 
 the following list of persons, who were the highest payers on real and 
 personal estate, &lc., to whom, in the order they are named, the choice of 
 pew ground in the meeting-house was allotted. 
 
 Lieut. William Holloway. Lieut. Bezaleel Eager. 
 
 Capt. James Eager. Jesse Brigham. 
 
 James Ball. Gershom Fay. 
 
 Samuel Gamwell. Samuel Allen. 
 
 Cornet Simeon Hay ward. Thomas Billings. 
 
 Pelatiah Rice. James Eager, Jr. 
 
 Deacon Matthias Rice. John McAllister. 
 
 Nathan Ball. Deacon Jonathan Livermore. 
 
 Jacob Rice. Thomas Goodenow. 
 
 Timothy Fay. Seth Hudson. 
 
 Ensign Rice. John Oak. 
 
 Jonathan Bartlett. George Oak. 
 
 Josiah Bowker. Seth Rice. 
 
53 
 
 Finally, on the 11th day of March, 1754, the question was put to see 
 if the precinct would finish the meeting-house, and it passed in the 
 affirmative. Although it appears, from subsequent votes, that leave was 
 given to diiFerent individuals to build pews, at their own expense, for 
 their own use, in parts of the gallery that were unoccupied. 
 
 November 11th, 1765. The following ^ema/es petitioned for leave to 
 build a pew " behind the long gallery seats in the east end " : — Hannah 
 Wood, Dinah Fay, Sarah Rice, Beulah Wood, Mary Brigham, Betty 
 Tenney, Abigail Keyes, Anna Goodenow, and Mary Fay ; and leave, of 
 course, was granted. 
 
 And, September 6th, 1756, the precinct voted and granted the sum 
 of six pounds, ten shillings, and six pence, three farthings, to pay for 
 finishing the meeting-house. 
 
 " TantBB molis erat Romanam condere gentem." 
 
 Up to the date of the incorporation of this town, in 1766, nearly all 
 the votes of the precinct recorded in the Precinct Book relate strictly to 
 parish or ecclesiastical affairs. I do not find a single vote relating to 
 schools, highways, bridges, &c. ; and it was not till April, 1766, that a 
 proposition was made " to build a pound," and "to provide a reading 
 and writing school-master," and, in the following November, " to repair 
 their highways by a rate." It seems too, that, even at this date, the 
 pew-ground had not all been taken up, as that " over the women's 
 stairs " was granted at this time to John Martyn (son of the minister), 
 Henry Gaschett, Timothy Brigham, Silas Rice, Jonathan Bartlett, and 
 Gideon Hay ward. 
 
 NOTE E. Page 31. 
 
 I have learned, since the delivery of this Discourse, by an examination 
 of the Town Records of Westborough, that, after Northborough became 
 a separate precinct, till its incorporation in 1766, the inhabitants of the 
 precinct continued to exercise their rights as citizens of Westborough, 
 and received their share of the appropriations that were made from time 
 to time for the support of schools, for repairing the highways, and for 
 other objects of public utility. Hence, there was no necessity for making 
 any appropriations, as a precinct, except for the support of public wor- 
 ship. 
 
54 
 
 NOTE F. Page 32. 
 
 I cannot forbear adding, in a note, a more extended notice of the Rev. 
 Mr. Whitney, taken from my " History of Northborough," which is now 
 out of print. 
 
 " The services at his ordination were performed by the following per- 
 sons : — Rev. Mr. Morse, of the Second Church in Shrewsbury (now 
 Boylston), made the Introductory Prayer ; Rev. Mr. Whitney, of Peters- 
 ham, the father of the candidate, preached from Matthew xxviii. 19, 20 ; 
 Rev. Mr. Parkman, of Westborough, made the Consecrating Prayer, 
 and gave the Charge ; Rev. Mr. Smith, of Marlborough, expressed the 
 Fellowship of the Churches; and Rev. Mr. Bridge, of Chelmsford , made 
 the Concluding Prayer." 
 
 " Distinguished for the urbanity of his manners, easy and familiar in 
 his intercourse with his people, hospitable to strangers, and always ready 
 to give a hearty welcome to his numerous friends ; punctual to his en- 
 gagements, observing an exact method in the distribution of his time, 
 having a time for every thing, and doing every thing in its time, without 
 hurry or confusion ; conscientious in the discharge of his duties as a 
 Christian minister, catholic in his principles and in his conduct, always 
 taking an interest in whatever concerned the prosperity of the town and 
 the interests of religion, he was, for many years, the happy minister of 
 
 a kind and an affectionate people He was extensively known by 
 
 his ' History of Worcester County ' ; a work highly valuable for the facts 
 it records, many of which would probably have been lost, had they not, 
 with great pains and fidelity, been collected and embodied in this work. 
 
 The other printed writings of Mr. Whitney, so far as they have 
 
 come to my knowledge, are, two discourses, delivered July 4th, 1774 ; 
 a sermon delivered at a lecture, July 4th, 1776, on publishing the Declar- 
 ation of Independence ; a half century sermon, preached June 1st, 1796 ; 
 a sermon at the ordination of his son, Rev. Peter Whitney, of Quincy, 
 February 5th, 1800; a sermon preached at Shrewsbury, February 16th, 
 1810, at the funeral of Mrs. Lucy Sumner, wife of Rev. Joseph Sumner, 
 D. D. ; and a notice of a remarkable apple-tree, in the first volume of 
 the ' Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.' 
 
 " Mrs. Whitney [formerly Julia Lambert, of Reading] survived her 
 husband nearly five years, and died at Quincy, while on a visit to her 
 children, January 10th, 1821, aged seventy-nine years. All who knew 
 Madam Whitney will bear testimony to her worth, and admit that she 
 possessed, in no common measure, dignity of manners, sprightliness of 
 mind, and goodness of heart. She was, indeed, a most pleasant compan- 
 ion and a most valuable friend." 
 
 The writer now adds, that, with a very moderate income, Mr. Whit- 
 
55 
 
 ney brought up a large family, giving all his children a good education, 
 sending one of his five sons to college (Rev. P. Whitney, of Quincy), 
 and fitting others for various useful walks, in which some of them still 
 continue. Of his four daughters, one died soon after her marriage ; the 
 other three, with two of the sons, settled in Quincy, were all well mar- 
 ried, and all survive to this day. Soon after the death of Mr. Whitney, 
 a tomb was built by his family, a part of the expense being borne by the 
 town, in which his mortal remains were deposited, and a marble slab, by 
 a vote of the town, placed over it with the following inscription : — 
 
 "In memory of the Rev. Peter Whitney, pastor of the Religious 
 Society in this town, who died February 29th, 1816, in the 72d year 
 of his age, and the 49th of his ministry, 
 
 " The esteem and veneration of his flock have devoted this monu- 
 ment." 
 
 The present pastor gave some account of his own stewardship in a dis- 
 course delivered on the completion of the twenty-fifth year of his min- 
 istry, which was printed. 
 
 In preparing the following notice of the Celebration, at the request of 
 the Committee for Publication, we have availed ourselves of portions of 
 the account published in the " Boston Daily Advertiser," written, while 
 the memory of the occasion was fresh, by one who was an interested par- 
 taker in it. 
 
 " NoRTHBOROUGH, Mass., June 1, 1846. 
 
 " This day is the centennial anniversary of the gathering of the first 
 church in this town, and the ordination of its first pastor. Rev. John 
 Martyn. As Northborough was politically, for many years after this 
 event, the Second Precinct of Westborough, the collecting of the church 
 is naturally considered the epoch which most properly marks the begin- 
 ning of the independent existence of this beautiful and flourishing town. 
 The members of this church and society, therefore, with their friends 
 from abroad, have united to-day in a centennial celebration, which has 
 passed off, in every regard, most agreeably. 
 
 " If the early settlers of Northborough chose the day for their ordina- 
 tion from any regard to the beauty of nature and of the season, it must 
 be owned that they were men of quick and pure taste. For Northbor- 
 ough itself, beautiful as you know it to be always, can never appear to 
 such advantage as in this ' queen of the months,' when all the hills 
 around it, and the whole valley, are in the very richest verdure. The 
 long storm of last week had brought every thing to perfect freshness, and 
 
56 
 
 we felt to-day, as one of our friends reminded us, that the very arch of 
 heaven was newly opened for the solemnity, — in the sudden dispersion 
 of a week's clouds and rain. 
 
 " At eleven o'clock, a large congregation gathered in the church, which 
 stands finely on a rising knoll overlooking the village. It is a good old 
 New England church, of the older fashion, having been built near the 
 site of the first meeting-house, in 1808. Its large dimensions were put 
 fully into requisition by an interested audience." 
 
 The following was the order of services. 
 
 ANTHEM. " THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE." 
 ORIGINAL HYMN. BY M. W. L. 
 
 Almighty power ! whose sovereign grace 
 
 Hath kindly led us on our way ; 
 Whose guardian care hath blessed our race. 
 
 And brought us to this happy day ; — 
 
 Thou, whose protecting hand hath led 
 
 Our exiled fathers to a home. 
 When from their native land they fled ; — 
 
 With grateful hearts to Thee we come. 
 
 Inspire our hearts with sacred fire. 
 
 To warm and gladden all our life. 
 That we like them may never lire. 
 
 Till we have conquered in the strife. 
 
 Father ! accept the prayer we raise, 
 
 And humble praises which we bring; 
 And, through the remnant of our days. 
 
 Thy love and goodness may we sing. 
 
 One hundred years have passed away. 
 
 Since first our fathers gathered here ; 
 We meet to celebrate the day 
 
 Which to our souls is justly dear. 
 
 And when in dust this house shall lie, 
 
 O, may our spirits, God of Love ! 
 Receive a temple in the sky, — 
 
 A heavenly home with Thee above ! 
 
57 
 
 PRAYER, BY REV. W. BARRY, OF FRAMINGHAM. 
 
 HYMN. "in PLEASANT LANDS ARE FALLEN THE LINES," &C. 
 
 DISCOURSE, BY REV. JOSEPH ALLEN. 
 
 CENTENNIAL HYMN. BY L. C. A. 
 
 One hundred years have passed away. 
 
 Since first, where now we stand, 
 To form a Christian brotherhood. 
 
 There ntiet a feeble band : 
 " Ten righteous men " alone stood forth 
 
 To consecrate the shrine. 
 By holy ties together bound, 
 
 In days of Auld Lang Syne. 
 
 Then met, in that " unfinished hall," 
 
 The matron and the sire, 
 To bring their humble offering, 
 
 And light the altar fire : 
 Aged and venerable forms 
 
 On benches rude recline, — 
 The seats of honor for the men 
 
 That lived in Auld Lang Syne. 
 
 For miles along the untrodden way. 
 
 And through the forest wild, 
 In summer's heat and winter's cold, 
 
 The mother led her child 
 Far to the plain old meeting-house, 
 
 To hear the word divine ; — 
 That was their zeal to worship God, 
 
 In days of Auld Lang Syne. 
 
 But now our fathers, where are they, 
 
 The glory of our youth, — 
 The honored pastors of our sires. 
 
 Their guides to heavenly truth ? 
 Their children's children, here we meet 
 
 Around this sacred shrine. 
 To honor those who bravely toiled 
 
 In days of Auld Lang Syne. 
 8 
 
58 
 
 And now the dark and gloomy " day 
 
 Of our snnall things " is o'er, 
 And we will reach the helping hand 
 
 To those who need it more : 
 So children's children, in their turn, 
 
 In future years shall join 
 To bless the friends that strengthened them 
 
 In days of Auld Lang Syne. 
 
 PRAYER, BY REV. J. H. ALLEN, OF JAMAICA PLAIN, ROXBURY. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 After the services, the congregation went in procession to the hotel, 
 where an entertainment had been liberally provided by Mr. Blake for 
 the large company that were assembled. We were gratified by the pres- 
 ence of several strangers, among whom were S. F. Haven and J. C. B. 
 Davis, Esqrs., of Worcester, and the Rev. Messrs. Alger of Marl- 
 borough, Barry of Framingham, Hale of Worcester, and Brigham of 
 Taunton. Many sons and daughters of Northborough had also gathered 
 to pay this tribute of affection and respect to the venerable church which 
 had blessed their infancy and instructed their youth. 
 
 The following sentiments, with the remarks accompanying, make the 
 only record we are able now to give of the intellectual entertainment 
 that followed the collation. 
 
 1. The Day, — which calls together fathers, mothers, and children, 
 grateful to those who established the institutions of religion here, and 
 pledged to sustain and transmit them to ages yet to come. 
 
 2. The Memory of John Marty n and Peter Whitney. They labored 
 in the vineyard of their Master ; they were faithful servants ; they have 
 gone to give an account of their stewardship. 
 
 To this the Rev. Mr. Allen replied, by speaking, in a few appropriate 
 and respectful words, of his two predecessors, whose labors had laid the 
 foundation and prepared the way for the religious education of the town ; 
 and of the duty which now devolves upon us, of preserving faithfully 
 the heritage we have received from our fathers. 
 
 3. The Memory of Jonathan Livermore, — the first deacon of this 
 church, and the first clerk of this precinct, — a faithful public servant, a 
 true man, and one that feared God, with his household. The fidelity 
 and piety of the old man have been transmitted to his children's children. 
 
 The Rev. William Barry, of Framingham, responded to this, regretting 
 the absence of the Rev. A. A. Livermore, of Keene (a descendant of Dea- 
 
59 
 
 con Livermore), and expressed his interest and gratification in the pro- 
 ceedings of the day. 
 
 4. The Me77iory of Deacons Isaac Davis and Nahum Fay, — whose 
 integrity, piety, and religious trust are worthy of the imitation of every 
 religious community. 
 
 This sentiment called forth F. W. Gale, Esq., of Worcester, a native 
 of Northborough, and grandson of Deacon Davis. He spoke of his for- 
 mer desertion of New England for the West, as if a better home could 
 be found anywhere than in old Massachusetts ; and earnestly besought 
 the young men of his native town to remain faithful to their duty to the 
 place of their birth. 
 
 5. Hon. John Davis. Though reared among us, we are too generous 
 to claim him for our own. He belongs to his country. The people ap- 
 preciate his worth. 
 
 A letter was here read from the Hon. John Davis, expressing his re- 
 gret at not being able to attend our celebration, his strong sympathy with 
 the spirit of the day, and his interest in the place of his boyhood. His 
 son, J. C. B. Davis, Esq., of Worcester, being present, spoke modestly 
 of his connection with our distinguished townsman, and claimed a share 
 in vvhatever concerns the town to which he is bound by so wide a rela- 
 tionship. A letter was also read from S. Greele, Esq., of Boston, who 
 was unable to join (as he had been invited to do) in the festivities of 
 the day. 
 
 6. Marlborough, — the ancient plantation incorporated in 1660. She 
 comes by her representative, to congratulate her children that Christian 
 institutions are sustained in their purity amongst them. 
 
 This was responded to by the Rev. Mr. Alger, of Marlborough, whose 
 remarks harmonized well with the spirit of the time and occasion. 
 
 7. The American Antiquarian Society. In its birth, the pride of our 
 county ; in its youth, an honor to our State ; in its maturity, an ornament 
 to our country. 
 
 S. F. Haven Esq., of Worcester, Secretary of the Antiquarian So- 
 ciety, being called forth by this sentiment, spoke at some length of the in- 
 terest and value of antiquarian pursuits ; of the services rendered in this 
 regard by the New England clergy, among whom he made honorable 
 mention of the ministers of this town ; and of the true respect to our 
 ancestry, as distinguished from the foolish imitations sometimes found of 
 the emblems of European heraldry. 
 
 8. The Clergy, — set apart to minister at the altar, and to offer the 
 sacrifices of the people ; — may they always be found with clean hands 
 and with pure hearts, and devoted to the great work of their Master. 
 
 The Rev. C. H. Brigham, of Taunton, a descendant of one of the old 
 families of this neighbourhood, replied to this sentiment in a strain of 
 
60 
 
 pleasant remarks, — speaking in particular of the harmony and stability 
 by which the church in Northborough has been honorably distinguished, in 
 contrast with many others, as shown by the fact, that no minister has been 
 dismissed, and that the present is only the third of those whose united 
 ministries have already filled a century. 
 
 9. The Gassett Fund, — a noble gift from a cheerful giver; — may it 
 never prove a source of dissension, but be the means of propagating a 
 true faith that shall be a little leaven to leaven the whole lump. 
 
 10. New England, — the best country God ever gave to a people ; — 
 may we, who have received it from the hands of our ancestors, transmit 
 it to posterity, with its customs, laws, and government, improved with 
 the advancement of the ages. 
 
 The Rev. E. E. Hale, of Worcester, here spoke with great interest of 
 his recent establishment in Worcester county, truly regarded as the heart 
 of New England, and of his pleasure in being thus entitled to respond to 
 that call. After some remarks characterized by hearty good feeling and 
 earnestness, he called our attention, by a bold and striking figure, to the 
 great thought of that progress of the human mind through centuries, 
 indicated in this centennial celebration. The middle of each century has 
 been said to be marked by some great epoch in history, — as the sixteenth 
 by the Reformation, the seventeenth by the struggle for liberty in Eng- 
 land, and the nineteenth by the wide diffusion of freedom and general 
 ideas. As in the great trigonometrical survey of our State, by a con- 
 certed series of observations, a signal, shown upon Mount Adams in the 
 extreme west, is repeated on Wachusett in the centre, and so seen from 
 the Blue Hills near the shore, spanning the Slate in two great strides ; 
 — so the eighteenth century, marked by the founding of New England 
 churches, serves as a middle station, interposed between the seventeenth 
 and nineteenth, to transmit the reflected light of the past. 
 
 11. Our Pastor, — a watchful sentinel, always at his post; a good 
 shepherd, leading his sheep into green pastures; a faithful steward, al- 
 ways ready to give an account of his stewardship. 
 
 In the course of some miscellaneous conversation, the chair abruptly 
 called on the Rev. J. H. Allen, of Jamaica Plain. With an allusion to 
 the well-known anecdote of Lamb, who said to Coleridge, •' I never heard 
 you do any thing else but preach," he expressed his regret at being 
 known only as a preacher and an unfamiliar guest, where in his boyhood 
 he had found a welcome at every fireside ; and his joy at being able now 
 to testify his warm personal interest in that spot which would always be to 
 him a home. Two places, Northborough and Boston, were with him iden- 
 tified with the name of New England ; for their good name he was jealous 
 as for his own. And though there seemed cause for fear, sometimes, lest 
 the best blood of New England should be all drawn away and poured 
 
61 
 
 into the great opening veins of the gigantic West, and its ancient pros- 
 perity should fail, yet here every thing was so open, generous, fresh, 
 and hospitable, that there could be no room left for fear, only for grati- 
 tude and hope. He concluded with urging the need of individual char- 
 acter, intelligence, and manly independence, as the only safeguard for 
 the true well-being of our country. 
 
 12. The Inhabitants of Northborough. May they vie with each other, 
 not as followers of Paul, of Apollos, or of Cephas, but as the advocates 
 of the great principles of Christianity, not by profession merely, but in 
 life and conduct. 
 
 13. (Volunteer, by Mr. Anson Rice.) The Day. This day witnesses 
 the church organized by our fathers one hundred years ago, divided into 
 three. May the next centennial witness our descendants united in one, 
 with one creed, and that founded on the abiding principles, faith, hope, 
 and charity. 
 
 14. (Volunteer, by Mr. G. H. Williams.) Our next Centennial,— 
 may it dawn on a world without a slave. 
 
 " And may that centennial be the town's centennial in 1866," — was 
 the response given, amidst the welcome which this sentiment received 
 from the assembled guests. 
 
 Mr. T. P. Allen, of the Cambridge Theological School, being sum- 
 moned by an allusion to Dr. Prentice, of Lancaster (mentioned in the 
 Discourse), spoke with the design of enforcing the idea of this last 
 Christian wish. His remarks were directed to the need of holding up 
 that lofty spiritual view of the Christian faith, making religion an affair 
 of the character and life, not of creeds, and thus reconciling diversities 
 of opinion in real unity of the spirit. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, of Northborough, being called up by a humorous allusion 
 to his English namesake of the last century, spoke briefly, but earnestly, 
 of that especial object of a true education, to unfold and train the indi- 
 vidual character, and develope the characteristic strength and excellence 
 of each person. When he sat down, he was greeted by the followino- 
 encomium : — 
 
 " The Dr. Johnson of a hundred years ago, we are sorry to say, some- 
 times preached better than he practised ; our Dr. Johnson, we always 
 thought till now, practised better than he preached." 
 
 We regret that the sketch offered above is so imperfect, and that we 
 cannot give a more distinct account of the remarks which were made. 
 They were in a tone corresponding with the spirit of the whole occa- 
 sion, and aided to sustain the interest, which did not seem to flao- in the 
 least, even at the close. Among the speakers were Mr. Nahum Ball, of 
 Harvard University, and Messrs. Wood, Lincoln, and Rice, of North- 
 borough. Nor should we omit to notice the readiness and skill with 
 
62 
 
 which the chairman, George C. Davis, Esq., performed the duties of his 
 place, or the music which was agreeably interspersed, under the direc- 
 tion of Mr. Jairus Lincoln. 
 
 The general direction was given to the remarks by the series of 
 " Sentiments " which we have copied above; but besides these, many 
 humorous allusions and pleasant sayings came spontaneously with the 
 occasion, and cannot be given here. The whole afternoon, from a little 
 after one till nearly six, was spent in the free interchange of kind feeling, 
 and interesting, sometimes eloquent, remarks ; so that it was the univer- 
 sal acknowledgment of those present, that " they had never seen a public 
 dinner where the spirit of all was so perfectly kept up, and where every 
 speaker entered so fully into the cordial, friendly, hospitable lone of the 
 whole celebration." After nearly five hours spentatthe table, the whole 
 assembly sang, 
 
 " From all tliiit dwell below the skies," 
 
 and, having adjourned to meet at the centennial of the town's incorpora- 
 tion, in 1866, separated to their several homes. And thus ended a suc- 
 cessful and agreeable celebration, the auspicious beginning of a new 
 century. 
 
 Invitations were extended to the other religious societies in town to 
 unite with us in the celebration, which, to our very great regret, were 
 respectfully declined. It was proposed by the pastor of the First Church, 
 at the Parish Meeting in March, that we, as members of the First Parish, 
 should waive our right to appropriate the day to ourselves, and that the 
 celebration of the first establishment of religious institutions in this town 
 should be made a town aflfair ; and this proposition was seconded by 
 the unanimous consent of the persons present, and a committee was ap- 
 pointed to confer with individuals of the other societies on the subject. 
 
 In the hope and expectation that our desires in regard to this matter 
 might be accomplished, a meeting of the citizens of Northborough, with- 
 out distinction of sect, was called just two weeks before the day of the 
 celebration, to make all the necessary arrangements for the occasion. 
 No members of the other societies attended, and, accordingly, a com- 
 mittee of arrangements was chosen from the First Parish. 
 
 Unwilling, however, to leave the matter here, the pastor called per- 
 sonally on the Rev. Mr. Wakefield, of the Baptist Church, and addressed a 
 note to the Rev. Mr. Houghton, of the Evangelical Congregational Church, 
 which, with the reply, are published with the consent of the writers. 
 
 " Northborough, May 29, 1846. 
 Dear Sir : — I intended to call on you, but, as the weather is stormy, 
 
63 
 
 1 have concluded to write what I have to say. Without preface, then, 
 I hope you will come to our celebration next Monday, and I hope your 
 people will come. I was never more in earnest in my life than when I 
 expressed my desire that it should be a town affair, and that arrange- 
 ments should be made for it in a meeting of the citizens of Northbor- 
 ough, such as was called a few days since. Circumstances, over which 
 I have no control, have somewhat changed the character of the celebra- 
 tion ; but, so far as I have any influence in the matter, it will not be sec- 
 tarian in any sense, and I sincerely believe that my Discourse, especially 
 what relates to the Rev. Mr. Marty n, will be as acceptable to your peo- 
 ple as to mine. 
 
 " I shall be glad to have you make one of the prayers on the occasion. 
 I have invited the Rev. Mr. Day, as he is fond of antiquarian lore, and 
 as he is the pastor of the church which is the ' mother of us all.' 
 
 " It will give me pleasure to have your people generally with us, on 
 that occasion. 
 
 " Perhaps it is as well that the celebration should be conducted by our 
 society. The proper centennial /or the town viWl be in 1866, which I 
 do not expect to witness. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 Jos. Allen." 
 
 " NoRTHBOROUGH, Mouday moming , June \st, 1846. 
 Rev. Mr. Allen. 
 
 " Dear Sir : — Your polite note of the 29th inst. was received on 
 Saturday evening, and I am happy of this opportunity to express my 
 hearty acknowledgments of your courtesy towards me and my people, 
 in this whole matter of the celebration. So far as my own feelings are 
 concerned, it is exceedingly unpleasant to be constrained, for any reason, 
 to keep aside from an active part in the proceedings of this day. I think 
 all my people feel it unpleasant to refuse the courteous invitation which 
 has been extended to us by your society, to join them in the commemo- 
 ration of the founding of the first church in Northborough. So far as 
 the act of commemorating that particular event is concerned, we feel that 
 we could do it with all propriety. All know, of course, that that church 
 was a Calvinistic church, embracing the same views as those on which 
 the church to which I minister is also founded. It is known, also, to the 
 world, that we, as a denomination, regard such a foundation as essentially 
 different from the foundation of the churches which are now called Uni- 
 tarian. And it seems, in our view, — rather in my own, for I have heard 
 no expression of opinion from my people, — it seems in my view, after 
 much deliberation, to be quite inconsistent with our convictions of truth, 
 
64 
 
 for us to say, as the proposed union would, as I look upon it, make us 
 say, that either foundation for a Christian church is equally good. For 
 it is known, of course, that the characteristic views of the original church 
 are rejected by the church now standing in their place. It seems to me, 
 moreover, that any proper celebration of the founding of a church should 
 be specifically religious in its character. And in the present case, were 
 I to take any part, I should be compelled by courtesy to refrain from 
 expressing what I should feel the occasion called for, and could only 
 with difficulty avoid a virtual acknowledgment that views which I hold 
 to be essentially different are equally deserving of our cordial sanction. 
 
 " I may be mistaken as to the language or import of a union on our part. 
 But feeling as I do in respect to it, I must respectfully decline an accept- 
 ance of your polite invitation. 
 
 " Wishing you and your people a pleasant and agreeable time in the 
 celebration proposed, I am, 
 
 " Respectfully, your humble servant, 
 
 " W. A. Houghton, 
 
 " Rev. Jos. Allen." 
 
 It was a sad disappointment to many that we could not harmoniously 
 unite in the celebration of the day. We trust, however, that the refusal 
 to accept our cordial invitations does not indicate unkind feelings on their 
 part, and will not be suffered to interrupt that harmony which has so 
 generally and so happily prevailed in our favored community. 
 
 The note addressed to the Rev. Mr. Day received the following answer : 
 
 " Marlborough, June 8th, 1846. 
 " Dear Sir: — Your favor, inviting me to attend the centennial cele- 
 bration of the foundation of religious institutions in Northborough, 
 reached me on Saturday, consequently not in season for me to return an 
 answer before the day arrived. 
 
 " I take the earliest opportunity which my engagements have per- 
 mitted, to acknowledge your politeness, and to express the satisfaction it 
 would have given me to be present on the occasion. I was called out of 
 town, however, in another direction, by the illness of a friend, considered 
 near her end. In the hope that the address you delivered will be given 
 to the world through the press, 
 
 " I remain very respectfully and truly 
 " Yours, &LC., 
 
 " George E. Day." 
 
CONGRESS 
 
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