HE CmiHCH n MAllE ClasK 93 C. C S 4 Book D ^ ' Columbia College Library Madison Av. and 49th St. New York. Beside the main topic this hook also treats of Subject No. On page I Subject No. On page ^'/y. x THE EARLY HISTORY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, DIOCESE OF MAINE REV. EDWARD BALLARD, A. M., KECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, BRUNSWICK, ME. PORTLAND: PBINTED BY BROWN THURSTON. 185 9. _x« EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. The early history of the " Protestant Episcopal Church." in that portion of our country now known as the diocese ot Maine, records many events of varied interest and value. It affords examples of perseverance against discouragement; of opposition, which might as truly be'called by a severer name ; in some cases, sadly successful for the hindrance of her progress. Yet as time passed lingering on, her fea- tures assumed a more cheerful aspect, and her present prosperity furnishes the assurance of a greater prosperity still in reserve. After the discovery of New England, its coasts were often visited long before the well known landing on Ply- mouth Rock. Some vessels came to perfect the discoveries ; but more came attracted by the fisheries on its waters, and the peltry of its forests, and therein found a rich induce- ment to hazard the perils of a voyage to the newly found regions. As early as 1577, in one season three or four hundred fishing vessels came to the Banks of Newfoundland, among which the Frencli and Spanish were more numerous than the Portuguese and English. ^ In process of time 1 1 Belknap, Biog. Art. Gilbert, 197. Savalet, an old mariner, had made forty-two voyages to these parts before 1609. Purchas, p. 1640. 57611 4 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. these voyages were extended to New England, and the ac- quaintance with its coast thus acquired, prepared the way for its permanent occupation. Maps or charts, still pre- served, were made of the shore line with its islands and the mouths of its rivers ; and names were given to the various localities, either derived from the natives, or suggested by the taste of the person interested in the survey. At the time of these events, and in the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the aflfairs of the English nation had attained an extent of prosperity that animated all de- partments of its business ', and bold and hopeful men were stimulated to turn their efforts to this distant quarter, by the novelty of exploration, and the prospect of a plentiful reward to their enterprise. In the latter part of her reign, a royal patent was granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, ^ which authorized him to take possession of any countries, " re- mote and barbarous," not occupied by Christian people, and to ordain laws and ordinances in agreement with the civil institutions of England, and in harmony with " the true Christian faith or religion professed in the Cliurch of Eng- land." Failing in his first attempt, the intrepid navigator was successful in his second. He landed on the shores of Newfoundland in 1583, and took formal possession of the territory, extending two hundred leagues in every direction. Acting in the name of his sovereign, he promulgated three principal laws : the first of which established the Church of England in the newly occupied domain, which, by the terms of the grant, embraced all that was then known of North America. ^ This impressive fact has a significancy in three interest- ing relations. It was the first formal religious act in the 1 Hazard, 24. 2 1 Belknap, Biog. Chron. Detail 37. This action was several years an- terior to the claim set up in behalf of Neutral Island. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 5 whole region of the Atlantic coast. It was intended to give a direction to the religious character of its future pop- ulation; and it affords an important aid in the interpreta- tion of the subsequent grants of a similar nature, in regard to their religious bearing. ^ After the lapse of several years, a voyage of discovery was planned, and placed under the charge of George Wey- mouth (1605), who landed on the coast of Maine, explored • " the most excellent and beneficyall river of Sachadehoc," ^ and, on one occasion, had " two " of the Indians " in pres- ence at service, who behaved themselves very civilly, neither laughing nor talking all the time." The attendant circum- stances show this to have been a religious " service " of the English Church, the first mentioned on the coast of New England, not improbably by a chaplain, and doubtless not the only one on shipboard on this coast, in connection with this enterprise, in which the setting up of crosses, at points deemed proper, was one distinct feature. ^ /t^Uv ^ ^ ^iM*/\ 'i'>--p^9i,oa 1 The religious design of these early voyages of occupation, as connected Vit PTII with the Episcopal Church, is also apparent in the narrative of Frobisher's ' .'. '' landing on a point north of Labrador, in 1578, five years before Gilbert's act. Here public services were held, the communion administered, and ser- mons preached during a part of the year, by the Rev. Mr. Wolfall, accord- ing to the usages of the Church of England, and were the first " ever knowu in these quarters." — 3 Hackluyt 74, 9], quoted in Erobisher^ Mis- sionary, p. 244, 245. y , . ^ • iS sacred office'irom ordination by the hands of a Bishop of the same church : and that these acts were performed at 1 Rosier intimates the like in the time of Weymouth's voyage, p. 1 39. 2 In Hosier's account of Weymouth's voyage (]). 139) he says, ihat Wey- mouth had the Indians " in presence at service, who behaved themselves very civilly, neither laughing nor tallving all the time." This would seem to have been a religious service of the English Church. — 3d seiies, Mass. H. Coll. v. 8. 6 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. The next attempt at colonizing this portion of our conn try. then known as Northern Virginia, was made as a sequel to this voyage, under the first charter of James ; which was granted, among other purposes, to extend the Christian re- ligion among the natives. As no other form of religion was then recognized, the Church of England was to afford the means of worship and instruction to the settlers, and be the means of enlightening and reclaiming the savages. ^ Un- der the protection of this charter, with " a true zeal of pro- mulgating God's holy church, by planting Christianity,'* ^ a colony of a hundred and twenty-four persons left Plymouth in England, in June, 1607 p and sailed for the Kennebec, under the command of George Popham. On their arrival on the coast they came to " a gallant island," as it is quaint- ly termed in the ancient narrative ; which proceeds to re- cord, that on Aug. 7, they came to another island, where " they found a crossc set up ; " and on " Aug. 9, Sonday, the chief of both the shiftps with the greatest part of all the company landed on the island where the crosse stood, the which they called St. George's Island, and heard a sermon delivered unto them by Mr. Seymour, his preacher, and so returned aboard againe." On the 19th of the same month, " they all went ashoare where they had made choise of their plantation," on the Sachadehoc, '* and there they had a ser- mon delivered unto them by their preacher, and after the England in the newly occupied domain, which, by the term? of the grant, embraced all that was then known of North America. ^ This impressive fact has a significancy in three interest- ing relations. It was the first formal religious act in the 1 Hazard, 24. 2 1 Belknap, Biog. Chron. Detail 37. This action was several years an- terior to the claim set up in behalf of Neutral Island. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 7 sermon the President's commission was read, with the laws to be observed and keept." " Ri : Seymour preacher " was chosen one of the assistants, and took the oath of office : '• and so they returned back againe." On the 4th of October, certain Indians being present, ^ were detained un- til the next day, " which being Sondaye the President car- ried them to the place of publike prayers, w^h they were at both morning and evening, attending y* with great rever- ence and silence." The record in the journal for the 6th of October states a " fort was trencht and fortified with twelve pieces of ordinaunce, and they built fifty houses therein, be- sides a church and storehouse." The valuable testimony of this coteniporaneous journal establishes these following facts : — that the first known act of religious homage on the shores of New England was the erection of a cross, by an earlier navigator, who had respect for tliat symbol of the Christian faith, and who, by the same testimony, is known to have been Capt. George Weymouth, of England, and a member of the English Church; — that the first religious services, of which any knowledge has been preserved, as having taken place in New England, were performed by the chaplain of this col- ony j^ — that these services were held in accordance with the ritual of the Church of England ; — that the minister who celebrated this worship and preached these sermons was a clergyman of that church, deriving his authority for his sacred office from ordination by the hands of a Bishop of the same church : and that these acts were performed at J Rosier intimates the like in the time of Weymouth's voyage, p. ] 39. 2 In Rosier's account of Weymouth's voyage (]). 139) he says, that Wey- mouth had the Indians " in presence at service, who behaved themselves very civilly, neither laughing nor tallying all the time." This would seem to have been a religious service of the English Church. — 3d seiies, Mass. II. Coll. V. 8. 8 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. first on an island, and in the open air, and afterwards con- tinuously in a church near the Kennebec River, on the west side of one of the peniasulas of the coast, in the year 1607, ^ thirteen years before the landing of the colony on Plymouth Rock, and sometime before the Puritans left England to reside for a season in Holland. - If the fact of first occupation is conceded to give the right of continued possession, and if chartered privileges add strength to the right, then surely the Episcopal Church may peacefully en- ter any part of our wide domain. Much might the early settlers have rejoiced if this happy introduction of the gospel had been followed by permanent results. But the enterprise failed. The intense cold of the first winter, noted as extraordinary in Europe also ; ^ the absence of all experience in the life of the colonist ; no mines discovered, nor hope thereof, which were the chief expected benefits of this plantation ; the loss of the great- est part of their buildings and stores by fire ; and the ma- ny unforeseen hardships of their condition, increased by the death of their President ; these troubles, with fears of oth- ers, equal or greater, constrained the whole colony, the next year, to embark in a newly arrived ship, and " sett saile for England. And this was the end of that northerne colony uppon the river Sachadehoc." * Twenty-eight years passed away, after this ineffectual at- tempt to found a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec, before we find a historic notice of any effort to support the institutions of religion in this quarter. The endeavor was then renewed by means of the Episcopal Church, to supply the wants of the first permanent settlers on the coasts 1 Sirachey, Hist. Travaile, c. vii. — ix. ■2 1608, 6 Mass. Hist. Coll., 155. v 3 Prince, 117. < Stracbey. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE, 9 of Maine. These pioneers came from the counties of Dev- onshire and Somersetshire in the south-western part of England, ^ while the far-famed Pilgrims to Plymouth and Massachusetts came from another quarter, in the north of England, as Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire, '^ " where they bordered nearest together." So that this fact, of different starting points for the emigration, shows why the first occupants of Maine were, from the beginning, of a different mode of thinking from the people of the other northern colonies ; and the opinion, that the Puritans were the common fathers of all New England, appears to be un- founded. Here, too, we see reason why the first dwellers in our region had but little interest of feeling and action in union with the neighboring colonies, as was afterwards de- clared by the ambitious aims of the latter, and the ineffect- ual resistance of the former. In the spring of 1636, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, under the sanction of a royal grant, established at the settlement at Winter Harbor on the Saco River, ^ by the agency of his nephew, the first organized government within the present State of Maine. The rights granted to the patentee of this territory, authorized the establishment of the services of the Church of England, and gave him the power to nomi- nate the ministers to all churches and chapels which might be built in the province. * The Episcopal character of this colony, thus intimated in advance, is inferred also from other recorded facts. It ap- pears in the design with which all the early charters, pat- 1 1 Belknap Biog. 364. 2 Morton extracts in 1 Hazard, 350. Prince, 99. The two principal towns for their gathering were Gainsboro' and Serooby. Palfrey, 132, 133, note. 3 Folsom's Saco, 24, 33. 4 1 Hazard, 443. 1 WilliamsoB, 264. 10 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. ents, and f^rants were made, and in the persons to whom the royal favors were dispensed. The Dean of Exeter, Dr. Matthew Suttcliffe, ^ was engaged in the enterprise as one of its friends, which secured liis interest because of its reli- gious bearings. In the names and stations of others, we see reasons for the like interest. This is especially mani- fested in the fact, that when Robert Gorges was commis- sioned, at an early day, by the council of Plymouth, to be the *' General Governor of New England," at the same time the Rev. William Morrell, an Episcopal clergyman, was sent over with authority to superintend the churches. - Though this office proved ineffectual, it nevertheless shows the in- tention of the patentees in England. At Saco, one of the first measures was a provision for religious instruction. A subscription (X31 15s) was raised for the support of a sacred teacher. These settlers came to enjoy the customs of their fathers peacefully, in a new land; and therefore they were glad to receive (1636) the Rev. Richard Gibson, an Episcopal clergyman ; who, though not taking the name, performed the duiies of a missionary in the new settlements on the sea-coast. He could not be a missionary in the strict sense, as he came over about eleven years before any Protestant missionary society had been formed. His first and principal labors were bestowed at Saco, where the first Episcopal church in New England was established with any permanence, and the first of any kind in Maine after the attempt on the Sagadahoc. It also ap- pears that he resided (1637) on Richmond's Island, near Cape Elizabeth. This " was an Episcopal plantation," ^ where was a settlement of enterprising men, who found 1 2d charter of Va. 1 Hazard, 60. 2 1 Belknap's Biog., 367. 3 Thornton's Pemaquid, 208, 5 Maine Hist Coll. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 11 here, for a term of years, a profitable business in connec- tion with the fisheries, and furnished a market for cargoes of goods sent from England every year. The tradition has been preserved, with great probability of its truth, that a church was established on this island. The tradition is confirmed by the fact that in 1G48, twelve years after Mr. Gibson's arrival, and in the time of his successor, vessels for the service of the communion, and cushions, were enu- merated iu an inventory then made of property belonging to this island, with other articles appropriated to the use of the minister. In extending his labors to the neighboring plantations, lie became well known at Portsmouth, N. H., where the church people had " set up common prayer " as early as 1639, ^ and had already organized a parish, with fifty acres of land for a glebe, and a chapel with a dwelling for the minister. - He was elected its first minister in 1640. In this new field of employment, he spent a portion of his time in places out- side of his immediate charge. He was bold and decided in the utterance of his opinions, and particularly in regard to the claims of Massachusetts for control beyond her proper limits. A Puritan minister of Dover, by the name of Lark- ham, provoked a controversy with him by preaching a *' ser- mon against such hirelings," supposed to be aimed at Mr. Gibson, which called forth a severe reply, " wherein," Win- throp says, " he did scandalize our government ; " who also adds, that "he, being wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England, did exercise a ministerial function in the same way, and did marry and baptize at the Isle of Shoals, which found to be within our jurisdiction," ^ where- in the practice of clerical duties had been forbidden to the Episcopal clergy, by the laws of Massachusetts. 1 1 Winthrop, 327. ~~ 2 Belknap's N. H. 3 2 VVintbrop, 66. 12 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. For these offenses he was taken into custody 5 and after several days' confinement in Boston, he was constrained to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the offended government. Being a stranger, and about to depart from the country, where the spirit of persecution still lingered, he was al- lowed to go without any fine or other punishment. Larkham, his enemy, soon after followed to avoid a punishment for his bad morals. Mr. Gibson, the first permanent pioneer of the church, was described by those who had no ecclesiastical relations, to give a bias in his favor, as " a good scholar, a popular speaker, and highly esteemed as a gospel minister, by the people of his care." ^ Others have represented him " as a man exceedingly bigoted." - This opinion, when properly understood, may mean no more than his open and distinct avowal of his attachment to the Church of England, of which he was a minister. He liked the prayer book better than any other form of worship, (and doubtless said so,) as well as the order of bishops ; and quite as honestly said that New Hampshire ought to have her own government, against the grasping claims of her southern neighbor. He was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Jordan, who, as it appears from the genealogy of the family, was probably or- dained in the diocese of Exeter. ^ He came over from England about the year 1640, at the age of twenty-eighty and at the instance of Robert Trelawn}*, who at that time possessed Richmond's Island. He took charge of the dis- trict, which had been occupied for about four years by Mr. Gibson, and thus ofiiciated in the present Scarboro,' Casco, (now Portland) and Saco. "* 1 2 Winthrop, 66. 1 Williamson, 291. 2 Greenleaf Conf. Sketches, 223. 3 Hist. Mag., 1857, p. 54. 4 Hist. Saco, 80. EPiscoPiVL ciiuRcn m maine. 13 Here he was a welcome laborer. For the religious con- dition of the community at this time, east of the Saco, was decidedly, if not exclusively, in favor of the Episcopal form, of f^overnment and worship. Indeed, it has been asserted by a writer, whose sympathies arc not with this church, that •' Maine was distinctively Episcopalian, and was intended as a rival to her Puritan neighbors." ^ The charter of Charles I. was designed to perpetuate the same order and usages as existed in the mother country. Even the Ply- mouth company's charter was based on the hypothesis, that the same church and king were to be obeyed in both coun- tries. ^ It was therefore but a natural fear of these inhabitants, that their privileges would be diminished, when they saw the beginning of the encroaching spirit and overbearing ac- tion of Massachusetts, "^ whose emulous aspirations, arising from a colonization of unexampled energy, had reached even to Pegypscot. * '' This wary government, ever watchful of its own interests, had already conceived the idea of pushing its limits into the heart of Maine," ^ by the same special pleading as it had already done into New Hampshire. ^ For this reason the people here began to protect themselves from interruption in their enjoyment of the usages of their church, as they looked for hostile demonstrations against the customs of their fathers. Anxieties were thus awak- ened, which following events increased, rather than allayed. Many of the early settlers doubtless came over in the mere spirit of adventure. But it would be a stinted measure of 1 Thornton's Pemaquid, 175. 5 Maine Hist. Coll. 2 2 Anderson Colon, ch. 145. 3 Josselyn in Sullivan, 288. 4 1 Williamson 290. Purchas. 5 Hist. Saco, 60. 6 2 Anderson Colon, ch. 142, 147. 14 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. charity, which will not allow that in all the families risking their fortunes in the enterprise, there were some persons who cherished the spirit of religion, and attended to its practical duties, as well as its customary forms. ^ The de- sire to have " a goodly minister," (1641) by the people, finds a place in the records of these times. They renewed the institutions and laws of their native country, designed to promote the moral and religious character of the people. Penalties like those at home were inflicted on profanity, Sabbath-breaking, and other immoralities. 2 They forgot not the salutary restraints of their fathers. A law was passed for the encouragement of the baptism of children. ^ A community strictly English in its character was estab- lished on our shores, and continued to exist until changed in its features by the extension of the power and principles, both civil and religious, of the Puritan colonies. This community, of course, preferred the ways of their early ed- ucation, and had no wish to change them for the usages of the persons who left England that they might avoid the cus- toms of the church and enforce their own decisions. As they increased in numbers and strength, they endeavored to widen the area of their power. The occupancy of this province came within the range of their wishes, and both the civil and religious opinions of the people in this prov- ince were arrayed against the effort. ^ Mr. Jordan was the leader and counselor of the persons who clung to the old ways of their fathers. He and his friends were resolute in purpose, and confident in their view of the right. Sustained by the favoring judgment of his many friends in the community, who were at first the major- 1 Hist, Scarboro', 153. 3 Maine Hist. Coll. 2 1 Williamson, 367. 3 Gorges in Sullivan, 320. 4 Greenleaf, 224. 1 Willis's Portland. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 15 ity, and possessing great influence with them, he encouraged them as long as there was any hope of success, to resist the manifest design of Massachusetts, with a singular but not unusual mixture of religious zeal and worldly policy, to sub- jugate the colony, ^ as well in its religious as its political relations. In order to have the pretense of right, a new survey of her northern boundary was ordered, beginning at Aqucdahtan at the outlet of Lake Winnepisiogee, and ter- minating on an island in Casco Bay, three miles east of the present Portland. But his readiness to act, and the prompt aid of his friends, did not ward off the control of the grasping colony. For in 1654 ^ he was committed to prison in Boston. The spe- cial reasons for this procedure do not appear. They may have been political. But from subsequent events it is easy to infer that his religious views and practices were both the cause and occasion. Emigrants had come in from that en- croaching quarter. ^ Some of the people were weary of the contest, and as is usual, some hoped indefinitely for bene- fits from a change of rulers. Thus in the midst of the agita- tions that were aimed at the ascendency, by persuasion, by promised benefits, by military force, and the aid of the new comers, an agreement was made in 1658,* which gave to Massachusetts the authority to rule in the province of Maine. ^ It was not long before Mr. Jordan's decision of character and ready action exposed him to a new assault. It is on rec- 1 Sullivan, 323, 324. 2 Willis's Portland, 57. Sullivan, 369, says it was 1G57 ; though this might have been a subsequent imprisonment. 3 Willis's Portland, 62. 4 Willis's Porthnd, 59, 60. ^^ . ^- ."i 5 Josselyn considers that the Puritans in Maine asked the submission to Massachusetts. — Sullivan, 70. 16 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. ord that he was frequently censured for exercising his minis- terial office, in marriages, baptisms, and other acts. In 1660 he was called by summons, from the new and intolerant gov- ernment to appear before the General Court at Boston, to answer to the charge of baptizing three children in Falmouth, " after the exercise was ended on the Lord's day ; " and was required to desist from such practices in future. ^ Five years afterwards his friends complained, in writing to the royal commissioners, that the General Court " did imprison and barbarously use Mr. Jordan for baptizing children." A few years later (1671) a warrant was ordered to be sent out against him, requiring him to present himself at the next court, " to render an account why he presumed to marry Rich- ard Palmer and Grace Bush, contrary to the laws of this jurisdiction;" when there is no evidence that he did any- thing at variance with the customs of his own church or the laws of England, under whose protection the colony had al- ways been placed. But the sectarian spirit was strong against him and his friends, and the power of the government gave it support. Sullivan says, " the Episcopalian party dreaded the tyranny of Massachusetts Puritanism." ^ And the fear was not with- out cause. For though the second charter of James (1609) declared that all English subjects and their children, in the granted territory, should have and enjoy all the liberties of free citizens, which were guaranteed in any other part of the royal dominions ; ^ though in the agreement recently made, it had been stipulated in the sixth article, that " civil 1 The baptismal font, brought by Mr. Jordan from England, and used by him in this sacred rite, is still preserved in the family of one of his descend- ants in Scarborough, where he had his house, and is a vivid remembrancer of the troubles that met him in his walk of duty. 2 Hist. Me., 321. 3 1 Minot, 31. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 17 jtrivile^es should not he forfeited foi' religious differences ;^^ and though the king of England, on hearing the cries of the oppressed, had given instructions to insure a more libaral treatment; yet the protection of the charter, the terms of the agreement, and the tones of the order, were violated, with a dexterity which gave au apparent obedience, while in effect it evaded the obvious meaning of each provision. This treatment proceeded from a class of persons, who had professedly left England for the American wilderness, to enjoy liberty of conscience, but whose exactions declared, that the liberty could be allowed to others only according to their own rule, in which church and state were united ; and whose conduct, in these particulars, was more distinguished for its boldness, than its consistency or its justice. It was in reference to this spirit and practice, that New England's most accomplished historian had deemed it prop- er to record, that '' base ambition " was mingled with the schemes of church government, which ^Massachusetts was then devising, and " gave a false direction " to the legisla- tion of her state government; that "the creation of a na- tional uncompromising church led the Congregationalists of that province to the indulgence of the passions which had disgraced their English persecutors, and Laud was justified by the men he had wroiigedJ^ ^ Therefore, under the influence of this state religion the sufferers found no effectual relief. Their just complaints were heeded abroad, but denied at home. The Episcopa- lians, in the places where Mr. Jordan was received as their minister, were not likely to be soothed by this treatment, so unlike what Gorges - and his followers had exhibited in this quarter. They waited for the time when they could enjoy their rights and preferences, free from the capricious 1 Bancroft, 450, 451. •i I Williamson, 306. 2» 18 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. interference of their rulers. But there was not much room for liopc, when the United Colonies of New England had declared, that " no colony, while adhering to the Episcopal church-communion of England, could be admitted to mem- bership." ^ The severe restrictions, however, to which they were called to submit, at length produced a reaction. By a peti- tion to Charles II. (in June, 1664) a royal order was pro- cured, requiring the Massachusetts government to make resti- tution of the Province of Maine to Ferdinando Gorges, grand- son to the first patentee, - or his commissioners, into his or their quiet and peaceable possession. This order was reluct- antly and slowly obeyed. For about three years the change was favorable to the wishes of Mr. Jordan and his friends. The. power then reverted to Massachusetts, and there re- mained for a long term of years. Amid all these fluctuations, Mr. Jordan resided in the present Cape Elizabeth, and extended his ministerial care to Scarborough and the Casco settlement, now Portland, and elsewhere. For thirty-six years he here attended to the employments of preaching, of baptizing, of marrying the living and burying the dead, and the administration of the Lord's Supper, except when he was " silenced " by the ruling power. Complained of himself, he, in turn, with the aid of a leading man in the colony, brought a complaint to the Court, that the Puritan minister of Scarborough " preach- ed unsound doctrine to the settlers." " It is not improba- ble that this action hastened the measures for his punishment 1 Williamson, 297, (anno 1644). This enactment was made in that spirit •which led a person in high position for literature and theology (the Presi- dent of Harvard College, 1673) to say, that he " looked on toleration as the mother of all abominations." — 2 do. 277. Sullivan, 314. 2 Sir F. Gorges died about 1647. (Hist. Saco, 6')). 3 Hist. Scarborough, 154, (anno 1659.) EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 19 for baptizing the children of his parishioners in Casco ; at a. time, too, wlicn there was no minister but himself in the settlement ; as indeed there never had been before, except Mr. Gibson, his predecessor, and was not till ten years af- ter the act for which he was punished. So far as history or even tradition speaks, he was the only minister in Portland during the long period of his service ; ^ and yet he could not do his ministerial duties witliout rebuke, and sometimes a separation from his family and imprisonment, to satisfy the demands of the offended powers in another province. In the Indian war excited by King Philip, he was attacked in his house by the savage enemies. He barely escaped with his family to Great Island, now Newcastle, near Ports- mouth, N. H., leaving his dwelling house to be burned with all its contents. In 1677 he was invited by the Governor of New York to settle at Pcmaquid, where he had secured the friendship of Giles Elbridge, with whom he harmonized in religious and political sympathies. ^ But he declined the proposal. Old age had now crept upon him ; and he de- cided to remain in the quiet retreat, which afforded a relief from liis vexations, though he had been driven to it by the violence of the common enemy. In the memory of his past troubles and hardships, and his increasing infirmities, he did not return with the people to the resettlement of the deso- lated town, which began in about three years after the flight. After a residence of four years at Great Island, he died in the sixty-eighth year of his age, (1679), so enfeebled in the use of his hands as to be unable to sign his will. ^ 1 Smith's Journal, Appendix, 437. [Rev. George Burroughs preached on the Neck, now Portland, previous to 1676, and was there at the destruction of the town by the Indians, in that year. — W.] 2 Thornton's Pemaquid, 259, 230. 3 Willis's Portland. A letter was written to him, from New York, by Gov. Andros, Sept. 15, 1680, after his death. — Pemaquid Papers, 42, 5 Maine Hist. CoU. 20 EPISCOPxVL CHURCH IN MAINE, The cares of his active and uneasy life were largely in- creased by his attention to the great property acquired by marriage, and preserved by his prudence for the benefit of his numerous family. On this account his devotion to the proper duties of the ministry was proportionally less; and it was still more diminished by his occupation in the civil affairs of the people, as one of their leaders and mag- istrates. His enemies were on the alert to find charges against him ; but never in relation to his preaching, his doc- trine, or his conduct, except in the ritual acts of his sacred ofiice, and his words. Their accusations before the court were grounded on his expressions of hostility to the gov- ernment whose authority he regarded as encroachment, and the movements he made against its claims. But the charges found little proof, even from the lips of his partisan foes, and before a court composed of judges representing the authority which he had offended. His activity and en- terprise, combined with an education much in advance of the people among whom he lived, made him prominent in the doings of those early days. The measures that bore the features of a bigoted, if not revengeful spirit, on the part of his opposers, prompted him to take an attitude which, under kinder treatment, he never would have assumed. The moral state of the colony, through all thi:- period, was deplorably low, and the flame of piety shone with a feeble light. Different individuals strove to improve the people in these relations. But little good could be done among per- sons who largely depended for their livelihood on hunting and fishing. In an age of little zeal j with no brother in his ofiice in all New England, to counsel and assist him in his solitary labors, and not finding or expecting aid from the sect whose forms and theology were of a different school, the minister had little to encourage him in his toils and tri- als. We may lament the difficult circumstances in which EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 21 the active portion of his life was spent. These vexations gave his faults prominence, when under the favorable condi- tion of the present day they would hardly have been known. A long term of years now passed away, in which period, Indian wars produced their bloody devastations. In 1690, after the siege of a week, the last fort in Falmouth surren- dered to the united forces of the French and Indians. Many of its defenders were killed. Others were carried to Que- bec, and the settlement destroyed. Mather truly described the desolation of the sad scene in two words, — "Deserted Casco." It lay in ruins about sixteen years. During this interval the religious interests of the people at Peniaquid were not overlooked by the friends of that settlement. In the instructions for that place given in 1683, it is declared to be " requisite for the promoting of piety, that a person be appointed by the commissioners to read prayers and the holy scriptures." ^ At this time a large portion of the residents had come from New York, under wliose government the plantation was placed, and these in- structions show the Episcopal character of the people at Pemaquid. The proof that this purpose was carried out is found in a manuscript petition still preserved, addressed to Gov. An- dros, when he stopped at Pemaquid, in April, 1688, on his expedition to Castine. From this it appears that John Gyles, the petitioner, " ever since June last, had read prayers at the garrison, on "Wednesdays and Fridays, and had not received anything for it." He therefore solicited the gov- ernor's aid, and a compensation, that he might continue to officiate as before. Tliese duties to the soldiers appear to have been additional to the regular services on the Lord's day. ^ 1 Pemaquid Papers, 79, 80. 2 MS. petition in possession of John McKeen, Esq. 22 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. The first notice of the renewal of the services of the church in Falmouth, now Portland, occurs in the journal of the Congregational minister of the place in 1754, seventy- nine years after the departure of Mr. Jordan, a period of more than two generations. Four times had peace been followed by war during this space ; and the place was now peopled by a large number of settlers, notwithstanding the former changes and discouragements. At this date, the Rev. Mr. Brockwell, rector of Trinity Church, Boston, attended Governor Shirley as the chaplain of his expedi- tion, to hold a council with the Norridgcwock Indians at Falmouth. He preached in the Congregational house in the morning; and it is added quaintly in the- journal, '-'he carried on in the church form." A fortnight after he preached again, and the record reads, '' he gave great of- ense as to his doctrine," which might have been expressive of the views of his own church. Ten years then elapsed without a record ; and then (1764) we find that a large number of persons declared in writing their desire that the new meeting-house about to be erected in Falmouth should be devoted to public worship according to the Church of England. This movement was made by the Church people, and a portion of the Congregationalists who were dissatisfied with the settlement of a colleague to their minister. At this juncture of affairs, the Rev. Mr. Hooper of Trinity Church, Boston, made a visit to the place. He preached, and baptized several children. The congregation at once entered on their plan of operations, with a decision both unexpected and fruitful in results. The accession to their numbers occurred on the twenty-third of July, and on the third of September the corner stone of the first Episcopal church was laid by the wardens, who, with the other officers, had been chosen in the earlier part of the same day. From this beginning there appeared the next EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 23 year the fiaislied structure, witli tower and bell. In close relation to this prosperity, an event occurred which oc- casioned great surprise to the community, and added new strength to the part of the church. The Rev. John Wiswall, a graduate of Harvard University, who had been settled (in 1756) over the New Casco Parish, suddenly de- clared for the Church of England, and immediately accepted a call to be tlie minister of the collected Churchmen. ^ Many, and indeed the majority of the people uniting in this act, had been attendants on his ministrations ; and the church people had previously, as well as now, endeavored to persuade him to the change, which he made without pas- sing through " the usual ecclesiastical formalities." ^ For a few Sundays he conducted the worship as well as he could, without Episcopal ordination. On the eighth of October he "sailed in the mast ship " for England. He there re- ceived autliority to administer the ordinances of religion according to the order of the English Church. He returned in May following, and was the first rector of the parish, as a missionary, aided to the amount of twenty pounds per annum, by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in For- eign Parts. A hundred pounds, lawful money, was voted by his people for his support. At first the persons who had seceded, were required to pay the usual tax to the old society ; but after bearing this burden for eight years, and one hundred persons reclaiming against it, a vote of that society was passed, by which the money thus raised was re- funded to the parish where the tax justly belonged. The increase of the church is indicated by the amount of this taxation. In 1765 it was forty- three pounds seven shillings 1 " There is a sad uproar about Wiswall, who has declared for the church.'* Smith's Journal, 200. ^Greenleaf, 41. 24 EPISCOPAL CIIURCH IN MAINE. ten pence; in 1774 it was one hundred and nine pounds six shillings nine pence. The next year after the rector's return, he reported to the society in England, that his congregation had increased to seventy families, who constantly attended worship, with a considerable number of strangers and twenty-one commu- nicants. It is not purposed to pursue the history of the mission in Portland any further. It would be interesting to de- scribe its progress through its various fluctuations of pros- perous and adverse changes, — the destruction of its church by the fire of the British war-ships, followed by the disper- sion of the congregation, — its rebuilding twelve years afterwards, when only twenty persons subscribed for a weekly payment to support a clergyman, who was allowed to preach three Sundays in a year at Windham, ^ where some of the members of the church resided; — its incor- poration as a parish in 1791, — the exchange of this building for a new brick structure, (1802) and the later improvement and enlargement to accommodate its increasing congrega- tion. Another church has sprung from it as an offshoot, in strong and efficient growth, with its impressive edifice of stone ; while both parishes now have a condition of pros- perity, in marvelous contrast with the hardships and trials endured by the friends of the church through the chief part of the previous two centuries. From the settlement on Casco Bay we now turn to the Kennebec. Efforts had been made by the Romish priest, a missionary to the Indians near the present Augusta, to persuade the settlers at Frankfort on this river, to remove to an abode near to his influence and instruction. As an inducement, he ofiered each man two hundred acres of land. They refused 1 Greenleaf, 225. EPISCOPAL CHURCH DT MAEsTl. 25 the solicitation. Tliis movement led to the construction of the forts at Augusta and Winslow. ^ The date of the commencement of the enterprise on this river, carries our thoughts back to the year 1754, when the people at Georgetown, aided by their friends at Frankfort, now Dresden, sent a petition to " The Society for Propa- gating the Gospel," asking for the services of a missionary. •The Rev. Mr. Macclenachan was appointed, with a stipend of fifty pounds from the society. He had already officiated in the first of these places as a Presbyterian minister. He had afterwards received Episcopal ordination in England, and soon after came to supply the wants of these two scat- tered plantations. He arrived on the Kennebec in the spring of 1756, having been recommended on account of his " uncommon fortitude, and- mind cheerfully disposed to imdergo the difficulties and dangers of the mission." He went to Fort Richmond, ^ on the west side of the river, just north of the present village of the same name. This place was the most convenient point from which to prosecute his labors. The building was old and uncomfortable, where the wind, rain, and snow had a free passage. The next year he wrote to the society that he had often preached on com- mon days, as well as on the Lord's day, to an increasing congregation ; and lamented that there was no church in either of the places, nor glebe, nor house prepared for his occupancy, as had been promised ; and that he had made his dwelling in an old, dismantled fort, where he had been wonderfully preserved from a merciless enemy, to whom he was often exposed ; and added that his head, his heart, and . his hands were all employed in directing, encouraging, and 1 3 Maine H. Coll , 274. 2 Fort Frankfort was on the east side of Kennebec River, about a mile and a half above Fort Richmond, and afterwards called Fort Shirley. — 1 Williamson, 51. 26 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. fighting for his people. ^ Late in the next year he left the mission. His subsequent career showed, that though he possessed great powers of pulpit oratory, they were not sustained by the solid qualifications of a character suited to his sacred calling. For a year and a half the shores of the Kennebec were left in their original destitution of the ministrations of the gospel, except in such form as protestants could not adopt.- But the people at Frankfort were not inactive. They sought aid again by petition to the society in England, whose " nursing care and protection," for a long period, the church- es in this country enjoyed. In response to their wishes, the Rev. Jacob Bailey was appointed to occupy this vacant mission, for which he had been recently ordained in Eng- land, after his graduation at Harvard University. The town had now received the name of Pownalborough ; but his arduous and long continued care extended through a large territory, containing more than seven thousand inhabitants, in which the majority were extremely poor, very ignorant, and without any means of instruction. The new missionary arrived in the summer of 1760. Here he toiled with untiring zeal for the welfare of his charge ; extending his efforts to Sheepscote, Harpswell, Damariscotta, and Georgetown, where in 1761, the commu- nicants had increased from seventeen to fifty ; preaching among people of different languages,^ and eight different persuasions ; and, amid many discouragements, finding much satisfaction in witnessing the good effects of his efforts on many hearers. After ten years of pastoral care, he had the happiness to see an edifice reared, thirty-two feet by sixty, including the chancel, and though not completed, rendered serviceable for 1 Hawkins, 225. 2 Hawkins. EPISCOP^VL CHURCH IN MAINE. 27 public worship in the fall of 1770. Near the beginning of the winter of the next year he moved from Fort Richmond with his family into the parsonage, near his church, where he had " one room very comfortable," but was obliged to board Ihe workmen till another room could be finished. In liis labors applied away from his special care, he preached at Gardiner, where, in two years after liis own church was occupied, he saw a church and parsonage erected at the expense of the liberal individual from whom the town has derived its name, and who had generously aided in the similar enterprise at Pownalborough. Amid the discourage- ments of changing times, and with a growth, sometimes feeble, and finally vigorous, it has found a firm friend in the inheritor of the name of its founder, and has been the help- er of almost every parish in the diocese, as well as many others out of it, and the dwelling place of the first resident bishop. It would occupy a long time to speak of all the work of this "frontier missionary," among the people of his charge, where he found but few inducements for perseverance be- yond the labor of love. But it would be interesting to repeat how devotedly he attended to their welfare ; how he traveled up and down the river, sometimes to the distance of sixty miles, by water, or on the ice, or through the wil- derness, and most often alone, to supply the religious need of the scattered population ; how he received little or no salary from the people ; how his friends in both towns were compelled by tax to support a worship which they did not like ; how he solaced himself with his books and ready pen, and the care of his garden, which he adorned with the taste of skillful cultivation ; how the peace of his life was con- stantly embittered by the falye and malicious representa- tions of two persons, of opposite religious sentiments, in official stations, with the addition of the most contemptuous 28 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. language and actions ; how, under legal advice, he made concessions to them for the sake of securing his church and dwelling from their rapacity ; how he continued in his parish duties in tlie midst of all these difficulties from outside forc- es, and the various trials of his patience and hope, within his pastoral limits, until he came into the power of the civil excitements connected with the war of the Revolution ; how unhappily for his comfort, but honestly for his conscience, he decided to make no change in his allegiance to the ruling powers ; how the enemies of his church and king harassed his daily life, already afflicted with the most pinching pov- erty, amid the heart-rending scenes of the like suffering among many of his parishioners ; how he lived on, looking for better times in faith, with a few clams for his breakfast, hoping to find a dinner with some of his better provided parishioners, and disappointed there, had refused an invita- tion in other places, where the " starving children were staring on him with hollow, piercing eyes, and pale, languid faces ; " how he was compelled to flee from his house to es- cape from the violence of his opposers, and was waylaid near his own house, and muskets fired on other persons in the dark, which were intended to hit or frighten him ; how, after enduring these and other like calamities and insults, not for any moral offenses, but for his religious and political opinions, he was glad to receive permission from his adver- saries to leave the home and the people to whom, by the associations of nineteen years, he had become affectionately attached ; and how, at length, with his wife and little child- ren, cheerless and persecuted, taking a final leave of his once happy home, in the needs and in the garb of extreme penury, dependent on charity, walking several miles to a boat, which was to bear them down the river to the vessel which was to carry them away, and with many a long, lin- gering look of love for his native country, he went, in the EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 29 spirit of a martyr, into a permanent exile, to a land where he knew no persons, except such as, like himself, had fled from troubles, which their honest interpretation of their principles would not allow them to escape in any other way. We cannot dwell on these and many other severe trials ; but we can see, what he could not see, how the seed that he had sown was not lost ; how his desolated parish and church, destroyed by ruinous hands, have revived in these last years, and give the hope that they will not again be molest- ed ; while other churches have risen around, to prosper under the guidance of a Chief Shepherd who has his home in the hearts of a united people. Could he have foreseen all the present, he might the more willingly, but not the more patiently, have borne his bitter bereavements, in the joy of having an agency in accomplishing these once distant results. He was a pioneer to be long and gratefully re- membered. "We cannot read the rich pages of his life prepared by his faithful biographer, ^ without the feeling that the hardships of the present day are but lightness when compared with the weight of his ; and we cannot go to the place where his feet once trod the busy path of his varied duties, without yielding a brother's tribute to the memory of Jacob Bailey. The people at Georgetown and Harpswell, where for some years he had officiated, and a portion of the time every third Sunday, were supplied with a missionary by the Society in 1768. ^ He was thus relieved from a portion of distant cares. The Rev. Mr. Wheeler was thus his nearest counselor and aid. But four years afterwards he withdrew from the mission, where the members of his little flock were 1 " The Frontier Missionary," by Rev. W. S. Bartlet. 2 Boothbay at this time had some church people. — Greenleaf, 134. 30 EPiscorAL cnuiicii m i^lmke. obliged to pay taxes for the " support of dissenting minis- ters," and therefore could not be liberal in the maintenance •of their own. The whole burden of its wants, therefore, was thrown back upon the person who had borne it patiently and long. An edifice had been erected for religious wor- ship ; but, like the congregation that used it, it has passed away, to be revived in times near our own day, in the more prosperous parish in the city of Bath. Not far from these last dates a church was built in that part of Kittery, now known as Elliot, and fifteen communi- cants were reported, as belonging to the congregation. The services were continued at intervals for many years, by the minister at Portsmouth, and appear to have ceased at his death in 1773. And about the same time a small chapel of brick was erected in Prospect, near Fort Pownal, with the promise of an Episcopal minister, under an arrangement with the pro- prietors of the Waldo grant. But it is not now known that it was ever occupied for this purpose. ^ For a long time after the Revolutionary struggle had hap- pily terminated, in securing our independence, the church in Portland, after its revival, and in Gardiner, where the serv- ices had received some interruption, were the only two in the District. At intervals the former was closed, at one time for years, and was apparently dead. But it has passed through all its difficulties successfully. The latter was kept open perseveringly (when the number of persons attending it were included in about twelve families, who were all the active friends of the church in the State,) by lay reading, for a number of years, in the absence of a clergyman. It was also regarded as the place where application could be suitably made for assistance, when the services of the church I 2 Williamson, 565. Thurston's Anniversary Discourse, 1859. EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE. 31 were desired elsewhere. Thus about the year 1810, the people at Waldoborough solicited advice from this parish to carry out their wish to secure an Episcopal clergyman to fill the vacancy in the Lutheran pulpit in that town. But those were the days when the ministers of the church were few; and the opportunity for tlie establishment of a pros- perous Episcopal parish was lost, for want of a laborer to occupy the promising field. ^ When the State was again separated from Massachusetts in its civil relations, the ecclesiastical separation from the Eastern Diocese followed soon after. The Convention held its first meeting at Brunswick, several years before the church was organized in that place ; and directed its early action to the interests of the missions within its jurisdic- tion. In 1823 the Protestant Episcopal Missionai-y Society was formed, and made its first effort at Saco in 1827, one hundred and ninety years after Richard Gibson had been thie first preacher of the gospel in that part of our country. Other parishes in various parts of the State have since been formed, and are now generally in a prosperous condition. An account of their origin and condition has been published during the past year, ^ and renders further mention here un- necessary. This sketch of the early history of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Maine is far too brief to do justice to the wortliy individuals who gave their time, counsels, labors, prayers, and means for its introduction and support. These early days of the ecclesiastical history of the province, were the days when European cupidity was stim- ulated by the marvelous reports, carried out from^.Avild shores by voyagers, to enchant the imaginations of their employers and friends at home. The spirit of adventure 1 MS. letter, R. H. Gardiner, Esq. 2 By R. 11. Gardiner, Esq. 32 EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN MAINE, was aroused in the hope of speedy affluence. The highest rank in society yielded to its attractions; and the people at large were filled with exciting hopes of sharing the antici- pated gains. Hence, during a long period, we see but little of the earnestness of the Christian life, as we wish to see it at the present hour, when we are favored with a settled government, the privileges of peace, brotherly influences, social counsels, saintly examples, and a gratifying prosper- ity. ThcirC pioneers had little to cheer them in these re- spects; and in their hard circumstances may find a plea against any censure of their deficiencies. If they had been favored with the greater blessings of later days, we may believe a brighter light would have shone upon the history of their times. DUE DATE W ' nrT2^i9 8/. V> 201-6503 Printed in USA I J < s =^IS a J r^ (-D« oos Si ^g H=1 < a Z 3 : « BRITTLE DO NOT fHOTOCOPY