P8A2L1 
 
 Adams 
 
 Historical Discourse Delivered 
 at the Celebration of the 
 Two-Kimdreth Amiiversarj-' of 
 the Forn^tion of the North Chxvrch
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ex Libria
 
 ■rt. '. 
 
 /<^ 
 
 . / 1 1^ ^ i I c^ ^ I. 
 
 An Historical Discourse 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 TWO-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OP THE FORMATION OF 
 
 THE NORTH CHURCH, 
 
 <^sLMt^^' 
 
 PORTSMOUTH, N.H., 
 
 P 
 
 ^.AT . ..7/. / 
 
 M. ADAMS, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHL'RCH. 
 
 ^.2k.m^. REV. GEORGE 
 
 f'UBLlSHED FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 , '' CJm^^ ^ /.^ f^^^^j^jW^j^yW.' -^ 
 
 ' PORTSMOUTH : 
 
 FRANK W. ROBINSON. 
 1871.
 
 ^-63 S 
 

 
 OLD NORTH MHFTIKCHOI'SB. RHECT. 1713; REMOD. l8'(7 ; TAKK\ DOWN' 1S54.
 
 An Historical Discourse 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE 
 
 TWO-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE KOKMAl ION OF 
 
 THE NORTH CHURCH. 
 
 PORTSMOUTH, NH., 
 JULY 19, 1S71, 
 
 By rev. GEORGE M. ADAMS, 
 
 PASTOR Oh' THE CHURCH. 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 PORTSMOUTH : 
 
 FRANK W. ROBINSON. 
 
 1871.
 
 MEMORIAL SERVICES. 
 
 THE North Church in Portsmouth, N.H., celebrated 
 the second centennial anniversary of its formation 
 on the nineteenth and twentieth days of July, 1871. A 
 Committee of Arrangements from the church and parish 
 was appointed some weeks previously, to whom was given 
 the entire charge of the celebration, and by whom were 
 appointed sub-committees on Invitations, on Hospitality, 
 on Music, and on Decorations. 
 
 Invitations were sent to the former pastors who were 
 living, and to former members and their families, so far as 
 they could be ascertained, to be present ; also to many 
 churches and clergymen in this city and other places. 
 There were present of the former pastors of the church, 
 Rev. Henry D. Moore of Cincinnati, O. ; Rev. Lyman 
 Whiting, D.D., of Janesville, Wis., and Rev. William L. 
 Gage of Hartford, Conn. ; and a large number of former 
 members and friends of the church, and clergymen from 
 abroad. 
 
 -4 r^/-»/~»MMf-'j.,-w
 
 6 Memorial .Services. 
 
 The Meeting-house was elaborately and beautifully deco- 
 rated with evergreen and flowers ; festoons and wreaths 
 were suspended from the ceiling and the galleries, the 
 organ, and the ends of the auditory ; and in the recess 
 back of the pulpit was an emblematic device, with the 
 name of the church, the date of its organization, and the 
 names of the pastors. 
 
 The singing was by a volunteer choir of about forty 
 singers, conducted by the <jrganist of the parish ; and con- 
 sisted of anthems and ancient chorals and fugues. In 
 some of the tunes the congregation joined, and the effect 
 was very grand. 
 
 The Memorial Services were as follows : — 
 
 WEDNESDAY, AT 2.30, P.M. 
 
 VOLUNTARY ON THE ORGAN. 
 
 ANTHEM. 
 "Sound the Loud Timbrel." 
 
 SELECTIONS OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Psalms Ixxvii. i, 5, 11-15; Ixxviii. 2-7, 72; anT) cxxii. 
 
 Read hy Rf.v. Henry D. Moore, from the Bible which belonged 
 
 ID .Samukl Haines, first Deacon of the Church. The Bible 
 
 WAS OP THE Geneva version, trinted in 1699.
 
 Memorial Services. 
 PRAYER. 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM L. GAGE. 
 
 HYMN. 
 HY THE CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. —TuNr, Mrah 
 
 Oh ! 'twas a joyful .sound to hear 
 
 Our tribes devoutly say, 
 •' Up, Israel, to the temple haste, 
 
 And keep your festal dav ! " 
 
 At Salem's courts we must appear, 
 
 With our assembled powers, 
 In strong and beauteous order ranged, 
 
 Like her united towers. 
 
 Oh, pray we then for Salem's peace ! 
 
 For they shall prosperous be, 
 Thou holy city of our God, 
 
 Who bear true love to thee. 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE M. ADAMS, 
 
 TWEt.FTH PASTOR OF T»K CHfRCK. 
 
 In the niidst of the discourse the pastor paused, and 
 Rev. Edward A. Rand read, and the choir and congrega- 
 tion sang, to the tune of Old Hundred, —
 
 Memorial Services. 
 
 All people that on earth do dwell, 
 Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice ; 
 
 Him serve with fear ; his praise fortli tell ; 
 Coine ye before him and rejoice. 
 
 Oh ! enter, then, his gates with praise ; 
 
 Approach with joy his courts unto ; 
 Praise, laud, and bless his name always. 
 
 For it is seemly so to do. 
 
 PRAVER. 
 
 1!V RF.V. DR. LYMAN WHITINT,, 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 Rk.\d by Rev. William \V. Dow of Waterford, Me, suno by 
 THE Choir anp Congrkgatio.v. — Tune, St. Martin's. 
 
 Lf.t children hear the mighty deeds, 
 
 Which God performed of old, — 
 Which in our younger years we saw, 
 
 And wliich our fathers told. 
 
 Our lips shall tell them to our sons. 
 
 And they again to theirs ; 
 That generations yet unborn 
 
 May teach them to their heirs. 
 
 Thus they shall learn, in God alone 
 
 Their hope securely stands ; 
 That they may ne'er forget his works. 
 
 But practise his commands.
 
 Memorial Services. 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE E. ADAMS, D D. 
 
 On Wednesday Evening, at 7 o'clock, there was a 
 social levee and festival in the Chapel on Middle Street ; 
 the company consisting of the guests of the church and 
 members of most of the families of the parish, — two 
 tickets being furnished to each family. A blessing was 
 asked by Rev. Dr. C. W. Wallace of Manchester, N.H. ; 
 after which, a sumptuous collation, provided by the ladies, 
 was partaken of At 8 o'clock the doors were thrown open 
 to all ; and a large party enjoyed an hour of social converse 
 with old friends and new. The levee was closed with 
 prajer by Rev. J. H. Stearns of Epping, N.H. 
 
 On Thursday Morning, at 10 o'clock, there were ser- 
 vices in the meeting-house, consisting mainly of addresses 
 and reminiscences by former pastors, interspersed with 
 singing, as follows : — 
 
 SINGING. 
 
 " Strike the Cymbal." 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 BY REV. EPHRAIM W. ALLEX OF HAVERHILL, MASS. 
 
 SCRIPTURE READING. 
 
 Psalm cxxvi. 
 
 From Rev. Josiiu.\ Moodev's Bible, by Rev. S. H. Winkley of Boston.
 
 lo Memorial Services. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 RtAii liv Kkv. Wiii.i.iAM A. Rand of Seabrook, N.II. — Tu.ne, Lknox. 
 
 Ye tribes of Adam, join 
 
 With heaven and eartli and seas, 
 And offer notes divine 
 To your Creator's praise : 
 Ye holy throng of angels bright, 
 In worlds of light, begin the song. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY REV. HENRY D. MOORE. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY REV. LYMAN WHlTlNli, D.D. 
 
 SINGING. 
 The Lord will comfort Zion." 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM L GAGE. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY REV. RUFUS \V. CLARK, JuN., 
 
 RBCTOKOPST. JOIIN*S CHUKCII IN THIS CITY, SON OF THE EIGHTH PASTDK OF THE CHURCH.
 
 Memorial Services. 1 1 
 
 SINGING. 
 
 Ancient Fugue. 
 From the third heaven, where God resides, — 
 
 That holy, happy place, ^- 
 The New Jerusalem comes down, 
 
 Adorned with shining grace. 
 
 How long, dear Saviour ! oh, how long 
 
 Shall this bright hour delay ? 
 Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time ! 
 
 And bring the welcome day. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY HON. EZRA A. STEVENS OF MALDEN, MASS. 
 
 POEM. — "A Tea-P.\rty in the Old North Church." 
 
 BY REV. EDWARD A. RAND OF BOSTON. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 r.V JOHN STAYERS, ESQ. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE E. ADAMS, D.D., OF ORANGE, N.J.
 
 1 2 Memorial Services. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 BY THE CIlUlK AND CONGRKGATION. — Tune, Peterhorouch. 
 
 O Lord ! our fathers oft have told, 
 
 In our attentive ears. 
 Thy wonders in their days performed, 
 
 And eider times than theirs. 
 
 For not their courage nor their sword 
 
 To them salvation gave ; 
 Nor strength that from unequal force 
 
 Their fainting troops could save. 
 
 As thee, their God, our fathers owned. 
 
 Thou art our sovereign King : 
 Oh, therefore, as thou didst to them, 
 
 To us deliverance bring ! 
 
 PRAYER AND BENEDICTION. 
 BY REV. GEORGE E. SANBORN OF HARTFORD, CONN. 
 
 Oil TiiURsnAY Afternoon, in the meeting-house, the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered : — 
 
 SCRIPTURE READING AND INTRODUCTORY 
 REMARKS. 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM I. GAGE. 
 
 PRAYER, REMARKS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
 THE BREAD. 
 
 BY REV. LYMAN WHITING, D.D.
 
 Memorial Services. 13 
 
 PRAYER, REMARKS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
 THE CUR 
 
 Vr\ REV. HENRY D. MOORE. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 BY THE PASTOR. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 SUNG BY THE CONGREGATION. 
 
 Now to the Lord, who makes us know 
 The wonders of his dying love. 
 
 Be humble honors paid below, 
 And strains of nobler praise above. 
 
 'Twas he who cleansed our foulest sins, 
 And washed us in his precious blood ; 
 
 'Tis he who makes us priests and kings. 
 And brings us rebels near to God. 
 
 To Jesus, our atoning Priest, 
 
 To Jesus, our eternal King, 
 Be everlasting power confessed ! 
 
 Let every tongue his glory sing. 
 
 BENEDICTION.
 
 i
 
 ^-M. 
 
 ^^^^V^ 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 WE attempt, this afternoon, to trace the history of this 
 church from that summer's day in 167 1, when the 
 church was organized, to the present time. 
 
 It will be interesting, however, to glance at the religious 
 history of the Piscataqua Colony for the half-century which 
 preceded the formation of the first church in it. 
 
 The colony was planted in the spring of 1623 ; but the 
 number of the colonists was quite small for the first eight 
 years, perhaps not exceeding twenty or thirty. ' In 163 1, 
 fifty or si.xty new immigrants arrived, including twenty-two 
 women. The custom of the other colonies in New Eng- 
 land would lead us to suppose that now, with numbers 
 approaching a hundred, the colony would have its regular 
 religious institutions ; but there is no evidence of any 
 movement in that direction till seven years later. 
 
 It is to be remembered, in explanation of this delay, that 
 
 ' Hubb.ivd, chap. x.\.\i., says there were only three houses here in 1631.
 
 i6 Ilisloriial Discourse. 
 
 the settlement was less compact than the most of the other 
 ci)lonies. The first landing had been made at what is now 
 Udiorne's Point, three miles from this place. There the 
 manor-house, afterwards called " Mason's Hall," was built, 
 and salt-works and fisheries were established. 
 
 Tiie " Great House" was erected in 163 1 in this vicinity. 
 Its site is now the corner of Court and Water Streets. The 
 larger number of the colonists were divided between these 
 two localities, three miles apart. Some of the settlers 
 were also on Great Island, and some, probably, within the 
 present territory of Greenland and Newington. 
 
 But no doubt there must be added to any other reasons 
 ft)r the delay in establishing public religious worship in the 
 colony, this weighty one, — that the minds of the first set- 
 tlers were not much inclined towards religion. This has 
 been the current opinion ; and there are some hints in con- 
 temporary writers which tend to confirm the tradition. 
 Thomas Dudley, afterwards governor of the Massachu- 
 setts Colony, writing in March, 1 631, from Boston, to the 
 Countess of Lincoln, in i'.ngland, says, in speaking of some 
 unruly spirits in their colony, "Others, also, afterwards 
 heareing of men of their owne disposition, which were 
 planted at Pascataway, went from us to them, whereby, tho' 
 our numbers were lessened, yet we accounted ourselves 
 nothing weakened by their removeall." ' Gov. Winthrop 
 makes a like complaint against " those of Pascataquack," 
 saying that " it was their usual manner (some of them) to 
 countenance all such lewd persons as fled from us to 
 them." • 
 
 The Puritan governors rnay not have been entirely free 
 
 - N.II. Ilisl. Coll., iv. 2J2. * Winthrop, i. 269.
 
 Historical Discourse. 17 
 
 from prejudice in their judgment of tliis colony, but here 
 and there an incident has been preserved which makes it 
 hard for us to combat their representations. 
 
 We are told that, in December, 1633, "one Cowper, of 
 Pascataquack, going to an island upon the Lord's Day to 
 fetch some sack to be drank at the Great House, he and a 
 boy coming back in a canoe (being both drunk) were 
 driven to sea, and never heard of after." ^ The author of 
 " The Annals of Portsmouth " is authority for the well-known 
 story that a reverend divine, at a later day, preaching here 
 against the depravity of the times, said, " You have for- 
 saken the pious habits of your forefathers, who left the ease 
 and comfort which they possessed in their native land, and 
 came to this howling wilderness to enjoy without molesta- 
 tion the exercise of their pure principles of religion." He 
 was interrupted by one of the congregation, who said, " Sir, 
 you entirely mistake the matter : our ancestors did not 
 come here on account of their religion, but to fish and 
 trade." It cannot be doubted that the religious and moral 
 tone of the colony was very different from that of the 
 Plymouth and Bay Colonies. 
 
 The first house of worship in Portsmouth was erected as 
 early as 1638. It stood where the house of Mrs. John K. 
 Pickering now stands, on Pleasant Street. The first minis- 
 ter was Rev. Richard Gibson. He was of the Church of 
 England, and, no doubt, represented the religious views of 
 the leading inhabitants at that time. He officiated in the 
 chapel in August, 1638, and continued here as late as 
 November, 1640.' 
 
 * Wintlirop, i. 120. 
 
 * Dr. George G. Brewster, in Portsmouth Journal, July 8, 1S54. But 
 Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford says, " At the close of 1640, 
 
 3
 
 1 8 Ilislorical Discourse. 
 
 On the 2Sth of May, 1640, twenty of iIk- inhabitants " of 
 the lower end of Pascataquack " conveyed by deed to 
 Thomas Walford and Henry Sherburne, " Church-wardens 
 of this Parish," and their successors, the " parsonage house 
 with a chappell thereto united, as alsoe fiftie acres of glebe 
 land." "And forasmuch," the deed continues, "as the said pa- 
 rishioners have founded and built ye said parsonadge house, 
 chaple with the appurtinances at their owne proper costs 
 and charges, and have made choyse of Mr. Richard Gibson 
 to be ye first parson of ye said parsonadge, soe likewise 
 whensoever the said parsonage happen to be voyd by death 
 of ye incumbent, or his time agreed upon expired, that then 
 the patronadge pr.sently and nomination of ye parson to be 
 vested and remane in ye power and election of ye said pa- 
 rishioners or ye greater part of them forever." The glebe 
 land conveyed by this deed was in two parcels. Thirty- 
 eight acres of it was " thus to be taken, lliat is to say, ye full 
 tenth part of ye fresh marsh lying at ye head of Strawberry 
 Banke Creeke, and that being meetcd and bounded to take 
 the remainder of the thirty-eight acres next adjoyning to ye 
 said marsh." Strawberry- Bank Creek is still known as " the 
 Creek ; " and the land here given lay probably some distance 
 west from the creek bridge. The smaller and more valuable 
 
 or c.irly in the following year, Mr. Gibson removed (from the vicinity of 
 -Saco) to Portsmouth." The deed of 1640 shows that Folsom cmnot l)e quite 
 right. 
 
 Winthrop (i. 327), under date Feb 20, 1639-40, speaks of "some gentle- 
 men at the ( P.iscataquack) river's mouth, who had lately set up common 
 prayer." 
 
 In an inventory of goods at Piscataway, made July, 1635, arc the following : 
 "For Religious Use: i great ISible, 12 service-books, i pewter fl.igon, I 
 communion cup and cover of silver, 2 fine table-cloths, 2 napkins." — Prm. 
 Papers of N. //., i. 1 16.
 
 Historical Discourse. 19 
 
 portion of the glebe was twelve acres in what is now the 
 central part of the city. It is thus described in the town 
 records : " The twelve ackers of land belonging unto the 
 meeting house doth take its beginning from the great pine 
 by the sayd house, west and by south towards Goodman 
 Humpkins, his hous which he bought of Roger Knight, full 
 thirty polls : from the end of the sayd thirty polls, up the 
 hill, north and by west, full fifty-six poll : from the sayd fifty- 
 six polls end diu east forty-six, unto a forked pine marked 
 with three noches : from the said forked pine, south and 
 by east full forty-four polls, unto the befor menshoned 
 great pine." As the great pine and the forked pine and 
 Goodman Humpkins's house are no longer available land- 
 marks, the glebe maybe described as a square lot of land, of 
 which the boundary ran from the east corner of this church, 
 up Congress Street, to a point a little beyond Chestnut 
 Street, so as to include the Kearsarge House ; thence 
 southerly, parallel with Chestnut Street, to the South Mill- 
 pond ; thence easterly, passing this side the Universalist 
 Church, to Pleasant Street, and up Pleasant Street to the 
 east corner of this house. 
 
 The glebe land was in later years controlled by the town, 
 which was then identical with the parish ; and early in the 
 eighteenth century the larger part of this twelve acres was 
 disposed of upon long leases, very little to the advantage of 
 church or parish. 
 
 After Mr. Gibson left Portsmouth, the chapel and glebe 
 seem to have been used, without any question or protest, in 
 maintaining such forhi of worship as the majority of the 
 inhabitants, that is of the parish, saw fit ; and that was the 
 Congregational form.
 
 20 Historical Discourse. 
 
 But some have questioned whether, under the deed, the 
 chapel and glebe ought not to have been reserved exclu- 
 sively for Episcopal services. The intention of the persons 
 who subscribed the deed of 1640, can at this day be learned 
 from two sources only, — from the language of the deed, 
 and from the acts of the subscribers. The deed provides 
 that the majority of the parishioners shall choose the " par- 
 son." This rule seems to have been followed. But, it is 
 said, the clergyman who was officiating when the deed was 
 given was of the Church of England, and the leading men 
 of this colony were attached to that form of worship. This 
 is very true. But there is no evidence that all who sub- 
 scribed the deed were attached to the Church of England. 
 It is, on the contrary, altogether probable, that some of them 
 were not, and that the deed was purposely drawn so as to 
 lay a foundation for public worship in the colony, but to 
 leave the choice of the clergyman, and so, of course, the 
 form of worship, to be determined by the vote of the in- 
 habitants from time to time. But there is another and 
 very important source of information as to the intention of 
 the subscribers to the deed ; that is, their own acts with re- 
 spect to the form of worship maintained in the colony. 
 Twenty men signed the deed. They conveyed the chapel 
 and glebe to two church-wardens. One of the wardens 
 was a subscriber to the deed: the other was not. Adding 
 to the twenty subscribers the warden who was not a sub- 
 scriber, we have twenty-one men concerned in the deed, 
 probably the entire adult male population of the colony 
 who were not servants. 
 
 There is, on the town records, a list of the inhabitants 
 of Portsmouth, who, in 1659, subscribed to the maintenance
 
 Historical Discmirse. 21 
 
 of Mr. Moodey ; and there is a similar list of the subscribers 
 in 1671. Of the twenty-one men who \vere concerned in 
 the deed of the glebe, five had died before 1659 ; one had 
 gone from the country ; the names of eight others do not 
 appear in a list of the inhabitants in the year 1657, and 
 these eight therefore had, no doubt, either died or removed 
 from Portsmouth. Seven only of the twenty-one were liv- 
 ing here in 1659. Of these seven, six, including both 
 the church-wardens named in the deed, subscribed to the 
 maintenance of Mr. Moodey. It is uncertain whether 
 the seventh subscribed or not. In 1671, three only of the 
 twenty-one connected with the deed of thirty years before 
 were living in Portsmouth : two of these subscribed then to 
 Mr. Moodey's support. The third refused to do so : he had 
 subscribed in 1659, and had previously been active in 
 measures for obtaining Congregational ministers to preach 
 in the chapel. The fact, that, almost without exception, the 
 men who gave the chapel and glebe, so far as they were 
 still here, co-operated in sustaining Congregational worship 
 on that foundation, does not show of necessity that they 
 were not adherents to the Church of England ; but it does 
 show that they assented to the use which was made of the 
 glebe, and it implies that they saw in that use no perver- 
 sion of the gift.* 
 
 In 1 64 1 Portsmouth and Dover put themselves under the 
 jurisdiction of Massachusetts ; and in May, 1642, the au- 
 thorities of Massachusetts suspended, so far as these towns 
 were concerned, the law restricting the right of suftrage to 
 members of the church, and provided that " each inhabitant 
 
 '' Two of the .signers of the deed (apparently) became afterwards members 
 of this church.
 
 2 2 Historical Discourse. 
 
 of Piscataqiia who was ])reviously free " should have "the 
 liberty of a freeman in the management of municipal affairs 
 and election of deputies to the General Court, though he 
 be not a church-member." ' 
 
 Mr. Gibson was, so far as is known, the only Episcopal 
 clergyman who officiated here in the early history of the 
 colony. Soon after he left, Mr. James Parker, who was of 
 the Congregational church, but who had not before been a 
 minister, came by invitation of the town, and preached with 
 much success. Gov. Winthrop says, in December, 1642, 
 " those of the lower part of the river Pascataquack inviti'd 
 one Mr. James Parker of Weymouth, a godly man and a 
 scholar, one who had been many years a deputy for the 
 public court, to be their minister. He, by advice of divers 
 of the magistrates and elders, accepted the call, and went 
 and taught among them this winter; and it jileased God to 
 give great success to his labors, so as above forty of them, 
 whereof the most had been very profane, and some of them 
 professed enemies to the way of our churches, wrote to the 
 magistrates and elders, acknowledging the sinful course 
 they had lived in, and bewailing the same, and blessing God 
 for calling them out of it, and earnestly desiring that Mr. 
 Parker might be settled amongst them." But Mr. Win- 
 throp adds, " most of them fell back again in time, embra- 
 cing this present world." " Mr. Parker probably remained 
 here about three years, as a letter of his to Gov. Winthrop 
 is preserved, dated, " Straw Berrie Bancke the 28th of the 
 5th '45 ;"" and, by another letter, he appears to have been 
 at Barbadoes in April, 1646. It is not known who preached 
 
 ' Felt's Ecclcs. Hist, of New Eiigl.iiul. * Winthrop, il 93. 
 
 • IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 441, ff. Hutchinson I'apcrs, 155.
 
 Historical Discourse. 23 
 
 here from 1646 to 1653 ; but the town records have entries 
 respecting " the rate for the minister's wages," &c., which 
 indicate that rehgious services were not altogether sus- 
 pended through those years. 
 
 The number of inhabitants in this plantation, including 
 the present territory of Portsmouth, Newcastle, Rye, 
 Greenland, and Newington, had risen in 1653 to about two 
 hundred. 
 
 The third preacher in Portsmouth, of whom we have 
 knowledge, was Mr. James Brown. It stands in the town 
 records, that, " at a publique meeting held the eleventh of 
 Aprill, 1655, the inhabitants do generally acknowledge that 
 they are willing that Mr. Browne should continue their 
 minister as he hath been, if he be so pleased." Mr. Brown 
 was from Newbury, of which he had been one of the first 
 settlers, having come over from Southampton in 1635. He 
 preached in Portsmouth probably from 1654 or earlier to 
 1656. He was, like Mr. Parker, not an ordained minister ; 
 and it is not known that he continued to preach after his 
 service in Portsmouth. Both Mr. Parker and Mr. Brown 
 were laymen of mature years and approved Christian 
 character, who were induced to supply for a time this 
 destitute field. 
 
 The town records give account of repeated efforts to 
 secure a minister during the two years after Mr. Brown left. 
 Oct, 7, 1656: "It is agreed upon that Henry Sherburne 
 is to goe to the westward in behalf of the whole town to 
 seek and inquire for an able and sufficient minister, the 
 town paying him for his pains." Oct. 27, 1656: "It is 
 agreed upon this town meeting and voted to send to Mr. 
 Samuel Dudlow to give us a visit to treat with him to bee
 
 34 Historical Discourse. 
 
 our minister." Nov. lo, 1656: "This day the townsmen 
 have agreed with Mr. Dudlow to be our minister, and to 
 come unto us this ne.Kt spring, and to have fourscore 
 pounds the yeare." This was Rev. Samuel Dudley of 
 Exeter, son of Gov. Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts. If 
 he came to Portsmouth in the spring of 1657, according to 
 the agreement just named, his stay was brief He had 
 been preaching some years at Exeter, and remained there 
 till his death in 1683. In September, 1657, "The selectmen 
 sent Henrie Sherburne to goe to Mr. Woster with a call 
 from the towne to be our minister, in case the town and 
 he can agree, he giving us a visit." This was probably 
 Rev. William Worcester of Salisbury, Mass. ; but he did 
 not permanently leave his parish there. 
 
 All the ministers in Portsmouth, down to this time, had 
 preached in the chapel on Pleasant Street. In August, 
 1657, '" the town authorized the selectmen to build a new 
 meeting-house, which was erected on the rise of ground a 
 few rods south-east from the South Milldam, on the spot 
 where the house of Francis S. Roberts now stands. 
 
 In Rockingham County Records, vol. ii. folio 34, is the 
 following document : " — 
 
 '" In 1657, the citizens of Portsmouth above twenty-one years of age num- 
 bered eighty-two, indicatmg a population of perhaps three hundred. 
 
 " This agreement is dated.2d_iflt,h ^Mo. 1659 , i.e., Dec. 2, 1659. I suspect 
 some mistake in this date. For Pendleton, t he Cutts . Sherburne, and Seavey 
 were the selectmen, authorized in 1657 to build the meeting-house ; and they 
 we re not selectme n in 1659. Moreover the tqwn records, under date of 
 M arch 1, 16 58-59, speak of difficulty with an individual, " conserninge some 
 affronts in giving distast conser ninge plac ingjhejejg hhnrs in th<- se.i ts in the 
 new meeting-house." 
 
 This meetinghouse was not built without some difference of opinion in the 
 town. In the records of the General Court of Massachusetts, May 6, 1657, it
 
 Historical Discourse. 25 
 
 " Articles of agreem! made \v'^ Jn. Huchins of y' one party & 
 Cap.' Brya. Pendleto" J ohn Cutt & RIcVk CuU Hen : Sherburne 
 W!" Seauy in y' behalfe of the Towne of portsmouch y' other 
 partie fo' y" building of a Meeting houfe & re pairing y' old mee t- 
 ing ho ufe & to finifh it & fitt it up for a D welli ng houfe f o'' our 
 Minister. The Meeting houfe to be made & finished of thefe 
 demencons following — 40 ffeete square & 16 ffeete wall plate 
 high — A fl at Ruff & substanciall turrett w"' a g aller)- about it. 
 substanciall Grownd fills, wall plates & fide posts of oake. A 
 maine piller w"* braces of oake to be futably carved & y" Arch 
 worke. A piller to y* Rooff w"* fufificient braces, the fides to be 
 of Loggs 9 Inches thick, let into y' fide posts w"" a rabbet — 12 
 windowes well fitted 3 fubstanciall doers, a complete pulpet to 
 reach y' two midle posts, the fides of y' houfe plained 6 foot high 
 y* flowers to be lade w* oke sleepers. & to be finished with 
 planke Alfoe y' s'? Huching hath engaged hemfelfe to repair the 
 old meeting houfe & to make it a fit dwelling houfe in manner as 
 foUoweth (i) 3 grownd cills to Lay 2 at y° sides of one p' of y' 
 houfe & one at y^ end of y*^ same. (2'') to board y" out fide of 
 y" houfe fro fill to plate & y° gable ends, & y" boards to be 
 champard. (3'-') to fitt timber worke for fouf chimneys. (4'*) to 
 make 2 p' of staires one to y° chambers y' oth' to y' celler. (5'*') 
 A Garret flower & window at y* east end of y"' chamber. (6'^) all 
 dores & carpenters worke for finnifiiing & cielling the Inside to 
 
 stands : " In answer to the petition of several inhabitants of Portsmouth, it is 
 ordered in answer to this petition for the settling of a minister, as also meeting- 
 house at Portsmouth and for prevention of further inconveniences touching 
 the same, that the petitioners nominate and choose one man, the rest of the 
 inhabitants another, and the County Court at Dover a third, who are hereby 
 authorized to eoe on the place, and to heare what on both sides shall be al- 
 Icdged in the premises, and determine the same as they shall judge best condu- 
 cing to the peace and welfare of the town." — Prffv. Papers of N. H., i. 22S, 
 from Mass. Ket'ords. 
 4
 
 26 Historical Discourse. 
 
 y' plate and fitting y* place for y* fower brick chimneys & cut y' 
 coller beanie & make dore wayes in y' chambers & dores from 
 y' wall plate to y* garret floores, flfor w"" s' worke the pties abouef 
 doe bind themfelves in behalfe of y* Towne to pay to y' f Hutch- 
 ins 140 : pounds in shop goods purtion & some money to y' uallue 
 of 5 pounds & cattle In witnifs whereof we all have fet to o' 
 hands this 2": 10'!" mo 1659 The said pay before exprefsed is to 
 be p* according to time as follow"" To say when y' old meeting 
 houfe is repaired & y' timber fo' y' new meeting house brought in 
 place there is on fowerth part to be p* to y* workman (2'^) w° y' 
 new houfe is all framed then one quarter p' is to be p* more (3'^) 
 when the houfe is raifed & couered then is y' third part to be p* & 
 Lastly wheh it is finished the last paym* is to be p'' to y' said John 
 Huchins to all w'"" we have Joyntly sett to o' hands the day and 
 yeare before exprefsed. the boards navies & plankes Loggs and 
 Timber is to be brought in place at y' charge of y' Towne. 
 
 Witnefs John Huggin Brian pendleton \ Hen : SherbureI 
 Ei)W:Melcher J ohn Cirr MVSeauv J 
 
 Rich : CuTr ) 
 
 JoHiN Huchinson IH his marke." 
 
 Not far from the time when the new meeting-house at 
 the South Milldam was completed, a young man, twenty- 
 six years of age, came to Portsmouth to preach, who was to 
 have a much larger share in shaping the religious character 
 of the town than any who had preceded him. 
 
 Joshua Moodev was born in Wales in 1632, and was 
 brought to this country in the following year by his father, 
 William Moodey. '* The family spent a year or two in Ips- 
 
 '■' I am much indebted for the early history of Joshua Moodey to Bio- 
 graphical Sketches of the Moody Family, by C. C. P. Moody, and to a 
 manuscript lecture on Joshua Moodey, by the late Rev. Tobias H. Miller.
 
 Historical Discourse. 27 
 
 wich, and removed to Newbury with the first settlers of 
 that town in 1635. Among these settlers, William 
 Moodey was the blacksmith or the saddler of the colony ; 
 and it is not unlikely that he united the two trades. His 
 wife's name was Sarah. 
 
 Joshua Moodey received his early education at Newhury, 
 graduated at Harvard College in 1653, and studied theol- 
 ogy. While at Cambridge, he had made a public profession 
 of religion, and joined the church in that town. Mr. 
 Moodey probably came to Portsmouth near the close of the 
 year 1658, or early in 1659." Mr. Moodey, while at Cam- 
 bridge, had formed acquaintance in the family of "a good 
 ma n called ("Edward] Collins , the Deacon of the church." 
 There were five sons and three daughters in the family. 
 One of the sons, named John, graduated at the college in 
 the year in which Mr. Moodey entered, and was afterward 
 a celebrated preacher in London, where he looked after the 
 interests of the Massachusetts Colony.'* Another son, 
 Nathaniel, was the " much-esteemed minister " at Middle- 
 town, Conn. The oldest daughter, Sibyl, became the wife 
 of Rev. John Whiting, first pastor of the Second Church in 
 Hartford. But our interest, as was Mr. Moodey's, is spe- 
 cially for a younger daughter, named for her mother, Martha. 
 She came to Portsmouth, probably in the year 1660, a bride 
 twenty-one years of age, perhaps the first minister's wife 
 that Portsmouth had seen. The housekeeping began in 
 
 '^ Adams's Annals makes Mr. Moodey commence his labors here in the 
 beginning of 165S ; and all later historians have copied his statement. But 
 the date of the subscription for his support, in the town records, is " 14 : 12 
 mo. 1658," i.e., Feb. 14, 1658, e.xpressed, of course, in old style, which, in the 
 present method of dating, is Feb. 14, 1659. . 
 
 •^ Hutchinson Papers, 435.
 
 2.S Historical Discourse. 
 
 tlic parsonage, into which the chapel on Pleasant Street 
 had been converted.''* 
 
 The congregation increased from year to year under Mr. 
 Moodey's ministrations. When he had been here two 
 years, the meeting-house was crowded, and it was proposed 
 to put in a gallery.'* Two years more passed before the 
 change was actually made ; but in April, 1664, the select- 
 men agreed with I lenry Sayward of York, to repair and 
 finish the meeting-house, build galleries, and hang the bell ; 
 and the work was promptly completed. I'>ut in a few- years 
 tlic house was crowded again. 
 
 In 1669, there was granted to " Mr. ffryer " the towne's 
 right of twentie foote square of land between the path and 
 Mr. Coming's fieence neere the meeting-house to sett up a 
 house and keep wood in for to accommodate himself and 
 family in winter time when he comes to meeting." This 
 record gives a suggestion of certain peculiar structures near 
 the meeting-house, which were common in New England 
 one or two centuries ago. There was no fire in the meet- 
 ing-house ; and, in severe winter weather, those who came 
 from a distance needed some refuge in the intermission be- 
 tween the services. Some, of course, went to neighboring 
 
 " This building had passed througli repeated changes. First it was de- 
 scribed .IS a " parson.ige house with chapel attached," when the number of 
 inhabitants required but narrow accommodations for public worship. Then 
 later, all of It appears to have been used for a chapel, or meeting-house, as the 
 colony increased ; .ind at length, when the meetinghouse at the .South Mill- 
 dam w.as built, this was changed again into a dwelling-house for the pastor. 
 
 '" Sept. 25, 1662. At a town-meeting, " ordered that a cage be made to 
 punish such as sleepe or take tobacco on the Lord's Day out of the meeting, 
 in time of publiqiie e.tercise." 
 
 '■ I'robablv Nathaniel Krvcr of Newcastle.
 
 Historical Disconrsc. 29 
 
 houses of their friends. Others built for themselves what 
 were called " Sabba-day Houses," or " Noon Plouses." 
 Sometimes four or more persons imited in building one 
 with four rooms, each ten or twelve feet square, and contain- 
 ing a fire-place. On sabbath morning, the family came 
 early, built a fire, and warmed themselves before the morn- 
 ing service. At noon they returned to their little room, 
 with invited friends, to eat their luncheon with cider from 
 the cellar, to discuss the morning sermon, to read the Bible 
 or some other religious book, and perhaps to unite in prayer. 
 At the close of the services of the afternoon, if the weather 
 was severely cold, they returned to the noon-house to warm 
 themselves before going home. The fire was then extin- 
 guished, the saddle-bags gathered up, and the house locked 
 up till the next sabbath.'" 
 
 It was not till Mr. Moodey had preached here twelve 
 years, and had gathered a congregation which could hardly 
 find room in the meeting-house, that steps were taken to- 
 wards the formation of a church. The oft-quoted " account 
 of the gathering ye Church of Christ in Portsmouth," which 
 may still be read in Mr. Moodey's clear hand in the first 
 volume of the records of this church, is too important to 
 be omitted or condensed here. It is a model of simple 
 Christian narrative. 
 
 "Portsmouth, N.E. Anno 1671. 
 
 " After many serious endeavors wch. had been used by ye then 
 minister of ye place (since ye pastor of ye churcli tliere) in pub- 
 
 "* These details are condensed from an Historical Discourse by Rev. 
 George H. Morss of Townsend, Mass. One of tliese relics of the olden time 
 is still standing at Townsend, occupied as a dwelling-house.
 
 30 Historical Discourse. 
 
 liq. and by several! of ye Inhabitants in Private ; ye Lord (without 
 whose p.sence and Blessing man builds but in vaine) was pleased 
 at length to lay ye Foundation of an House for himself in this 
 place, 
 
 " Of ye Beginning and progress whereof here followes a briefe 
 but true Account. 
 
 "In ye \Vinter Time of ye foregoing yeare (viz. 1670) there 
 were severall meetings together of ye minister with sev'll. of ye 
 Inhabitants (who were Members of other Congregations in ye 
 Country and by providence settled Inhabitants in Portsmo.) to 
 discourse and confer about yt. greate worke & Necessary Duty of 
 entering into Church Fellowship, yt. themselves might enjoy all 
 ye ordinances of ye Lord's House, & theyr little ones also might 
 bee laid neer God's Altars & brought up under ye Instruction and 
 Discipline of his House. Nor could they yt. were members of 
 other churches any longer satisfy themselves to live without ye 
 enjoyment of those edifying & strengthening ordinances yt. theyr 
 soules had in some measure formerly tasted ye good of, tho. now 
 for some yeares been kept from ; Others also, well affected to ye 
 worke, professed theyr longings after those fatt and marrowed 
 things in God's house, & theyr readiness to joyne with ym. in 
 helping to build, if they should be found fitt for ye same. 
 
 " Hereupon sev'll. assembled in Private & sought ye Lord by 
 fiisting and prayer yt. hee would discover to us a right way (there 
 being many feares & discouragements before us) for ourselves & 
 little ones (Ezra 8:21, 22, 23), & wee hope wee may say hee was 
 entreated of us, as ye Event hath in some measure (blessed bee 
 his name) made manifest. 
 
 " It was agreed yt. those wch. were in Full Communion with 
 other Congreg'ns. already, should acquaint ye respective churches 
 to wch. they did belong with ye motion on foot, & desire theyr 
 Advice, approbation, countenance & prayers therein, wch. was
 
 Historical Discourse. 31 
 
 accordingly clone. There was a meeting appointed in a private 
 House, wherein all that had given in theyr names for ye worke 
 were to assemble, & to rend'r. each to other a reason of ye hope 
 yt. was in them, by giving account of theyr Knowledge & Experi- 
 ence, yt. so they might bee satisfied one in another, & bee capable 
 of joyning together as members of ye same bodj-. Several! dales 
 were spent in this exercise, to ye mutuall refreshing & endearing 
 of ye speakers, & to ye awakening & warning of others of ye 
 Neighbors that were (as any had liberty to bee) present at those 
 exercises. 
 
 " In Fine, there was another meeting, to enquire whether all 
 that had made Relations were so satisfied one in another as to 
 theyr Relations & Conversations, as that they could with Free- 
 dome of Spirit joyne in a body together, & unite in ye same So- 
 ciet)', according to )e Rules of Christ. What ground of scruple 
 lay upon ye spirits of any with reference to one or other of the 
 fore-mentioned Company, was lovingly and plainly propounded, 
 & Satisfaction was Ingenuously tendered on ye one Party & ac- 
 cepted by ye other. 
 
 " Furthermore, wee did discourse of & discov'r. our Apprehen- 
 sions & perswasions concerning ye Order & Discipline of ye 
 House of God, & there was a unanimous Consent unto what had 
 been publiq.ly dd. in many Sermons in ye latter end of )'e yeare, 
 1670 & ye Beginning of ye yeare 167 1 from Ezek. 43 : 10, 11, 12, 
 about ye Lawes, ordinances & Formes of ye House, with ye goings 
 out thereof & ye comings in thereof. Of such high concernment 
 did & doe we account it to bee for ye Peace & Edification of ye 
 whole, yt. both Pastor & People should in those matters (at least 
 for ye substance, & as neer as may bee in mere Circumstantialls 
 also) speake ye same things. Hereupon there were some ap- 
 pointed to acquaint ye Civill Authority (according to ye law of ye 
 Country) with what was thought on among us, yt. by the good 
 likeing & Incouragem't. of ve same wee might make an orderly
 
 32 Historical Discotirsc. 
 
 & comfortable procedure in ye worke before us, which being 
 (ion 
 
 " Severall churches were sent to and intrcatcd to send theyr 
 Elders & Messengers upon ye wch. \vs. ap- 
 
 pointed for ye Gathering of ye Church & Ordination of officers 
 therein. The church of Cambridge was sent to, because ye Pas- 
 tor did belong to that church, they brought Jiis Dismission. Also 
 ye church of Ipswich, Rowley, & Hampton. 
 
 " They met accordingly, & Gov'r Leveret came also. He yt. 
 was Appointed for Pastor preacht. in ye morning out of Ezek. 48 : 
 ult. After sermon some Intermission ws. made, & on theyr meet- 
 ing again, the Pastor with all those who were to be the Beginners 
 of the church, made theyr Relations, & those who were Members 
 of other churches had theyr dismissions (& all made theyr Rela- 
 tions whether members or non-members) & they wr. approved of 
 by ye Messengers of churches, & Imbodied into a church by an 
 e.xplicite covenant. Then ye Pastor was ordained after ye unani- 
 mous vote of ye church for ye choice of him, & liberty given to 
 all ye Congreg'n. to object if they had ought to say. He was 
 ordained by severall of ye Elders (at ye desire of ye church) Mr. 
 Cobbet giving him his charge, & Mr. Wheelwright the right hand 
 of ffcllowship. 
 
 "Then ye Pastor ordained Sam. Haines Deacon, with imposi- 
 tion of Hands & pray'r. A Psalm was sung, & ye Congregation 
 dismissed by ye Pastor with a prayer and Blessing. 
 
 " The names of them yt. first imbodied. 
 
 Joshua Moodey. Cn. Elias Stileman. Cn. James Pendleton. 
 
 Mr. )no. CutL Mr. R. Marty n. Mr. J no. ffletcher. 
 
 Mr. R. Cutt. Sam. Haines. lolin Tucker.
 
 Historical Discourse. 33 
 
 " The Cluirch-Covenant that those who first imbodicd did on 
 yt. Day publiq.'ly & solemnly enter into. — 167 1 
 
 " Wee doo this Day solemnly &: publiq.'ly in ye presence of 
 God & his people avouch the one only living cSc true God, ffather, 
 Son & Spirit, to bee our God, &: his Word or revealed Will to be 
 our Rule, & doo with ourselves give up our Children to be the 
 Lord's. We doo also professedly & heartily subject ourselves to 
 Jesus X' as ye Head of his church, & doo covenant & promise 
 yt. we will submit ourselves to ye Government of XJ in this par- 
 ticular church according to ye lawes of his House, that we will 
 watch over our Brethren & be watcht over by ym. according to 
 Rule, & yt. we will in althings so demean ourselves towards our 
 Pastor & fellow-members as also tow'ds. all others as becomes ye 
 Gospell, yt. ye Lord may dwell among us & blesse us, & we may 
 be a peculiar people to his service & glory. And all this we 
 promise by ye Help of Jesus Christ, & in his Name, looking up 
 to him for his Assistance, as being of ourselves capable of doing 
 nothing. 
 
 " Subscribed by ye above mentioned Persons." 
 
 In Mr. Moodey's account, which I have read, there is a 
 blank for the date. At the time of writing, which may have 
 been some years after 1671, he apparently did not remember 
 the date, and purposed to insert it at his convenience. The 
 tirne never came ; and we have no original evidence on 
 what month and day the church was formed. But there is 
 no doubt the month was July ; and it is well-nigh certain the 
 day was either the eleventh or the twelvth (old style). Add- 
 ing ten days to bring the date into conformity with the 
 present style, we have either the twenty-first or the twenty- 
 second of July as our exact anniversary-day. Next I'~riday 
 5
 
 34 Historical Discourse. 
 
 or Saturday completes two hundred years since the larger 
 part of the six hundred inhabitants of Portsmouth were 
 gathered, forenoon and afternoon, in the old meeting-house 
 at the South Milldam, to hear nine men of their neighbors 
 tell their Christian experience, and bind themselves to one 
 another and to God in solemn covenant, and to witness the 
 ordination over the infant church of its first pastor and 
 deacon. We are anticipating, on this occasion, the exact 
 anniversary, by one or two days, for reasons of con- 
 venience. 
 
 Those nine men who formed this church were almost all 
 men of mark in the colony. J ohn and Ricii.\kd Cutt 
 were brothers (like Mr. Moodey, natives of Wales), the sons 
 o f Richard Cutt , a member of Cromwell's Parliament in 
 1654. They were both opulent merchants, Richard being 
 the wealthiest man in New Hampshire. J ohn Cutt was, in 
 1679, appointed by royal commission. President of the Pro- 
 vince. He left by his will one hundred pounds to the town 
 of Portsmouth for the purpose of erecting a free school. 
 
 Capt. Eli.vs Stilkm.\.\ came from Salem, and settled 
 on Great Island in 1658, or earlier. When this church was 
 formed, he brought a letter from the church in Salem, which 
 was granted June 25, 1671. He was, at different times. 
 Secretary of the Province, Member of the Council, Com- 
 mander of the Fort at Great Island, and Chief Justice of 
 the Court of Common Pleas. 
 
 Mr. RicH.\Rn M.\rtvn was Treasurer of the Province, 
 Councillor, Speaker of the Assembly, and Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court. 
 
 Samuel Haines, first deacon of the church, came to. 
 New-England in the ship "Angel Gabriel," which sailed
 
 Historical Discourse. 35 
 
 from I?rist()l, England, in 1635, and was wrecked at 
 Pemaquid (now Bristol), Maine, in the great hurricane of 
 Aug. 15, in that year. 
 
 He settled in Greenland, then a part of Portsmouth, in 
 1650. His farm was on Great Bay, and is now in the 
 possession of Nathaniel Chapman. Deacon Haines was 
 one of the selectmen of Portsmouth for many years." 
 
 Capt. James Pendleton removed to Stonington, Conn., 
 a few years after the formation of this church, and served 
 in the war against King Philip in 1676. • 
 
 Mr. John Fletcher was a physician. He was after- 
 wards a deacon of the church, and died Sept. 5, 1695. 
 
 John Tucker was a man of considerable property, and 
 joined with the great body of the inhabitants in asking 
 the Massachusetts authorities to assume the government 
 and protection of this province in 1689. 
 
 Mr. Moodey's salary was fi.xed at this time at one hun- 
 dred pounds, besides house-rent and the contributions of 
 strangers.^" Seven years later, the one hundred seems to 
 have risen to one hundred and forty pounds.'-' 
 
 In 1674, Mr. Moodey was heavily afflicted by the death of 
 
 1' Andrew M. Haines of Galena, 111., a descendant of the deacon in the 
 seventh generation, has thoroughly investigated the history of his ancestor, 
 both in this country and in England. 
 
 -' In 1693, the town agreed to pay Mr. M. twelve pounds yearly, in lieu of 
 the contributions of strangers. 
 
 ^1 Voted, Town-meeting, March 12, 1671-72, "that if any shall smoake to- 
 bacco in the meetinghouse at any public meeting shall pay a fine of five shil- 
 lings for the use of this town." 
 
 March 12, 1671-72 (same meeting) " Nehemiah Partridge and five or si.\ 
 more people have free liberty to build a payre of stayres up to the westward 
 beame within the meetinghouse and a pew upon the beame, &c "
 
 36 Historical Discourse. 
 
 his wife, Martlia Moodey. A provision in Mr. Moodcy's will, 
 at a later date, indicates the place of her burial, — " If I die 
 in Portsmouth," the will runs, " my body shall be laid in the 
 burying-place there, under the great stone by the side of 
 the oak, where I buried my first wife and the deceased 
 children I had by her." This was probably in the burial- 
 place at llic I'ciint (if Graves. Three- children of Mr. 
 Moodey are known to have lived to adult years, — Martha, 
 who married, about 1680, Rev. Jonathan Russell of 
 Harnstablc, Mass.; Sarah, who married, May 5, 168 1, 
 Rev. John I'ike of Dover. N. H. ; and Samuel, who was 
 graduateil at Harvard College in 1689, i:)reached for a time 
 at Newcastle and at the Shoals, was afterwards a military 
 commander in the Indian wars in Maine, and was known 
 as Major Moodey. All these were no doubt the children 
 of Martha Moodey. Mr. Moodey afterwards married 
 Widow Ann Jacobs of Ipswich, wlio survivctl him. Rev. 
 Samuel Moodey of York, who was widely known, and noted 
 for his eccentricity, was a nephew of Joshua Moodey. 
 
 When Mr. Moodey came to Portsmouth in 1658, the 
 towns within the territory of New Hampshire were united 
 with Massachusetts, and governed by her laws, in accordance 
 with a compact made some years previously. But, in 1679, 
 King Charles II. of England erected New Hamjishire into 
 a separate government ; and, in 1682, Edward Cranfield 
 came out with commission as Lieutenant-Governor and 
 Commander-in-chief of the Province. Cranfield had left a 
 profitable oflRce in England, apparently in the ho])e to make 
 his fortune in this new country. He was a man of an arbi- 
 trary temper, and he soon came in conflict with the sturdy 
 
 -'- T II. Miller spe.iks also of .-i daughtci Hannah.
 
 Historical Discourse. 37 
 
 spirit of independence which had been growing in the col- 
 ony through years of self-government. Baffled in many 
 of his purposes, and suspecting Mr. Moodey to be one of 
 the chief obstacles in his way, he determined to crush him. 
 In connection with a trial for some infringement of the 
 revenue laws, a member of the church '-' was accused of 
 perjury. He was called to account by Cranfield, but found 
 means to settle the matter with the governor : so that the 
 affair was hushed up. This did not satisfy Mr. Moodey. 
 The governor commanded him not to pursue the matter 
 farther. But Mr. Moodey called the offender to account 
 before the church, and at length led him to an open and 
 humble confession of his sin. This enraged the governor.'''' 
 
 A few months after this (Dec. 10, 1683), Cranfield 
 passed an order in council, that, after the first day of Janu- 
 ary following, all the ministers in the province should 
 admit all persons of suitable years, and not vicious and 
 scandalous in their lives, to the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, and their children to baptism ; and that, if any 
 persons should desire to receive either sacrament accord- 
 ing to the liturgy of the Church of England, it should be 
 done accordingly, in pursuance of the laws of the realm 
 of England.-'' 
 
 The governor also, a few weeks later, sent word to Mr. 
 Moodey, that he himself, with four others (three of whom 
 
 -^ The name is given in Adams's Annals of Portsmouth as George Jan- 
 vrin. That is not the true name. 
 
 -* The result of Mr. Moodey's faithful discipline was eminently satisfactory. 
 The oflfender became afterwards one of the most active and useful members 
 of the church. 
 
 -'> See copy of the order in Belknap's New Hampshire, vol. i. appendix.
 
 38 Historical Discourse. 
 
 were Messrs. Mason, Hinckes, and .Chamberlain of the 
 Council), intended to receive the sacrament at his 
 hands the next Lord's Day, and requiring him to be 
 prepared to administer it according to the rites of the 
 Church of England. Mr. Moodey refused. In a letter 
 written at the time, he says, " I told the marshal I durst 
 not, could not, should not, do it." The governor had him 
 summoned before the Court of Quarter* Sessions at Great 
 Island, where he was convicted of the crime of adminis- 
 tering the sacraments contrary to the rites and ceremonies 
 of the Church of England, and was sentenced to imprison- 
 ment for six months without bail. The court consisted of 
 six justices. Eour only could be induced to sign the 
 warrant for Mr. Moodey's imprisonment. The two who 
 refused were soon dismissed by Cranfield from all public 
 offices. Mr. Moodey, at a later period, finds evidence of a 
 providential retribution following his unjust judges. He 
 says of the four who condemned him : " Not long after, H. 
 Green repented, and made his acknowledgement to the 
 pastor, who frankly forgave him. Roby was excommuni- 
 cated out of Hampton Church for a common drunkard, and 
 died excommunicate, and was by his friends thrown into an 
 hole near his house, for fear of an arrest of his carcass. 
 Barefoot fell into a languishing distemper, whereof he died. 
 Coffin was taken by the Indians, and his house and mills 
 burnt, himself not slain but dismist. The Lord grant him 
 repentance, though no signs of it have appeared. (Psal. 9, 
 16)." Mr. Moodey was committed to the sheriff, and 
 confined in the house of Capt. Stilcman at Great Island. 
 A letter from Wm. Vaughan, Esq., who was also unjustly 
 imprisoned at this time, though on a different pretext, and
 
 Historical Discourse. 39 
 
 who was confined with Mr. Moodcy, gives a picture of the 
 anxious condition of the church and community under 
 Cranfield's reckless measures. " But, above all," he says, 
 " our minister lies in prison, and a famine of the Word of 
 God is coming upon us. No public worship, no preaching 
 of the word : what ignorance, profaneness, and misery must 
 ensue ! " And under a later date, " The sabbath is come, 
 but no preaching at the Bank, nor any allowed to come to 
 us. Motions have been made that Mr. Moodey may go up 
 and preach on the Lord's day, tho. he come down to the 
 prison at night ; or that neighbor ministers might be per- 
 mitted to come and preach ; or that the people might come 
 down to the prison and hear, as many as could. But 
 nothing will do." " If they go on thus we are utterly 
 ruined. I question whether any age can parallel such 
 actions." " I am credibly informed, and you may believe it, 
 that the Governor did in the open council yesterday, say 
 and swear dreadfully that he would put the province into 
 the greatest confusion and distraction he could possibly, 
 and then go away and leave them so ; and then the devil 
 take them all. He also then said that Mr. Mason said he 
 would drive them into a second rebellion, but himself 
 would do it before, and I wonder he has not ; such actings 
 are the ready way, but God hath kept us hitherto, and I hope 
 will do so still." '^'^ There are also three letters preserved 
 which were written by Mr. Moodey during his confine- 
 ment. They breathe a resolute but Christian spirit. One 
 dated " 12, 12, 1683," i.e., Feb. 12, 1684, is addressed to 
 Thomas Hinckley , Governor of New Plymouth, in reply to 
 one Mr. Moodey had received from him before his iniprison- 
 
 ••"i N. II. lliit. Coll., viii. 1S2, ff.
 
 40 Historical Discourse. 
 
 mcnt. After recounting the facts that have already been 
 mentioned, he says, " I told the court that I should go to 
 prison with much more peace than they sent mc thither ; 
 and particularly applied myself to Roby a church-member, 
 and told him that I had done nothing but what he was by 
 solemn covenant engaged to maintain, and wished him to 
 provide against the day when these things should be over- 
 hauled. . . . But, blessed be God for Jesus Christ, I 
 am quiet and at peace. Tho. I have many things that are 
 matter of repentance and shame to me, yet in this matter 
 I am abundantly satisfied in my lot, and hope shall be a 
 gainer, and that the cause of Christ will gain by my suffer- 
 ings. Only, methinks, I find it a hard matter to suffer in a 
 right manner. Something of stoutness of spirit, some other 
 sinister ends, are apt to creep in, and spoil suffering work. 
 The Lord grant that I may have grace so to carry it as not 
 to lose aught that I have done, and do now suffer ! I beg 
 your hearty prayers for mc, that with integrity and sinceri- 
 ty I may cheerfully and patiently bear my cross till the 
 Lord shall give me a discharge." ■' 
 
 In another letter, addressed to Rev. Samuel Phillips of 
 Rowley, and dated, " From the prison, 27th. ist. mo. 1684," 
 i.e., March 27, 1684, he urges Mr. Phillips to come to Ports- 
 mouth, and preach to the people for one or two sabbaths at 
 least. Cranfield being absent in New York, Mr. Moodey 
 has obtained from Mr. Mason, who presides in the gover- 
 nor's absence, the permission to make such an arrangement. 
 " Oh, consider," he writes, " that my poor flock have fasted 
 about forty days, and must now be an hungered ! Have 
 pity upon them, have pity upon them, O thou, my friend ! 
 
 ■" Hinckley I'apers, IV. Mass. II. C, v. 116-121.
 
 Historical Discourse. 41 
 
 And when you have taken your turn, we shall hope for 
 some other. You will thereby not only visit me in prison, 
 but feed a great multitude of the hungry and thirsty little 
 ones of Christ, which will be accounted for at that day. . . . 
 Pray come early enough in the week to give notice to the 
 people. I do also, in behalf of my dear and tender wife, 
 thank you for yours to her. Now, pray for me, that I may 
 have an humble heart, and that my whole soul, body, and 
 spirit may be sanctified, and kept blameless to that day ! " * 
 Mr. Phillips came and preached for Mr. Moodey two sab- 
 baths, the 13th and 20th of April. 
 
 After lying in prison thirteen weeks, in May, 1684, Mr. 
 Moodey was released, with an injunction to preach no more 
 within the province on penalty of further imprisonment. 
 He accepted an invitation to preach for the First Church in 
 Boston, as temporary colleague with their pastor, Rev. John 
 Allen, and remained there eight years. A few months 
 after his removal to Boston, Rev. John Rogers, President 
 of Harvard College, died, and Mr. Moodey was elected his 
 successor, but declined the position. 
 
 In the latter part of Mr. Moodey's ministry at Boston, 
 the Witchcraft delusion was raging at Salem. The part 
 which Mr. Moodey took with reference to it is eminently 
 honorable to his judgment and to his Christian intrepidity. 
 Philip English and his wife were among the persons accused 
 at Salem, but were confined at the jail in Boston, on ac- 
 count of the crowded condition of the Salem prison. " In 
 Boston, upon giving bail, they had the liberty of the town, 
 
 -* Biographical Sketches of the Moody Family, 29, 30. See also a letter 
 
 from Mr. Moodey in prison to Rev. Increase Mather, in Mather Papers, 
 
 IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. viii. 
 6
 
 42 Historical Discourse. 
 
 only lodging in prison. On the day before they were to 
 return to Salem for trial, Mr. Moodey waited upon them in 
 the prison, and invited them to the public worship. On 
 the occasion he chose for the text, the words. ' If they per- 
 secute you in one city, flee into another.' In the discourse, 
 with a manly freedom, he justified every attempt to escape 
 from the forms of justice, when justice was violated in 
 them." After service, he visited the prisoners in the jail, 
 and frankly told them that they ought by all means to flee. 
 After much persuasion, he induced them to yield to his 
 plans. With the concurrence of the governor, he had pro- 
 vided for their escape from the prison at midnight, and 
 their conveyance out of the colony. They went to New 
 York with recommendations to Gov. Fletcher, and remained 
 there till the next year. " In all this business, Mr. Moodey 
 openly justified Mr. English, and in defiance of all the pre- 
 judices which prevailed, expressed his abhorrence of the 
 measures which had obliged a useful citizen to flee from 
 the executioners. Mr. Moodey was commended by all dis- 
 cerning men ; but he felt the angry resentment of the 
 deluded multitude of his own times, among whom some of 
 high rank were included." -" 
 
 Mr. Moodey writes, in the records of this church, that, 
 during his residence in Boston, " The church were often 
 visited by the pastor, and kept up theyr private meetings, and 
 so held together ; tho. some removed, and others were taken 
 away by death." Rev. Gilbert Laurie came from Boston, 
 
 -■' From an account by Mr. Bcntley of Saiem, drawn up early in the pres- 
 ent century from communications by Madam Susanna Ilarthornc, great-grand- 
 daughter of Mr. English. Eliot's Biograph. Diet, p. 328. Mr. English fled 
 from Boston about the 1st of June, 1692.
 
 Historical Discourse. 43 
 
 and preached here six months or more, commencing Nov. 
 I, 16S6. Rev. John Cotton, who was afterwards settled 
 at Hampton, a grandson of the distinguished John Cot- 
 ton of Boston, preached here three months or more in the 
 winter or spring of 1692. 
 
 It is pleasant to read in letters of Mr. Moodcy, during his 
 ministry in Boston, indications of his tender interest in his 
 own church and people. In October, 1688, he writes to 
 Rev. Increase Mather, who was then in London, " If you 
 can, in all your opportunities of waiting on his Maj'-'', find 
 a season to thrust in a happy word for poor N. Hampshire, 
 who are under lamentable circumstances. Mason is dead, 
 but his sons survive and possibly may be worse than hee . 
 You know how the poor people have been unreasonably 
 harassed, and to rai se one family on the ruins of half a 
 do zen considerable Townes look. s hard . Tis my affection 
 to my people that has drawn this hint fro. mee. I leave it 
 to your consideration, and pray for God's presence to bee 
 with you." And three months later (Jan. 8, 1689), he 
 adds a postscript to a letter, to say, " If something could 
 be done for the poor Province of N. Hampshire and Mein, 
 it would be a good work." ■"'• 
 
 Gov. Cranfield had been obliged to leave New Hamp- 
 shire, almost as a fugitive, in May, 1685, the year after he 
 had driven Mr. Moodey to Boston. It is not easy to un- 
 derstand why Mr. Moodey did not then return to Ports- 
 mouth. The question was many times discussed between 
 him and the people here. He writes to Mr. Mather in July, 
 1688, " I need exceedingly your advice about going to 
 Portsmouth, which is vehemently urged by my church and 
 
 ■■" IV. Mass. Hist. CciU., viii. 357, ft".
 
 44 Historical Discourse. 
 
 people, and the next week we are to take counsell about it. 
 The church is dear to mee, and I could bee glad to be with 
 them, but the circumstances of my removing hence and 
 being there are tremendous to mee. Pray for mee daily." 
 
 The difficulties, whatever they may have been, were at 
 length surmounted; and, in June or July, 1692,"' Mr. 
 Moodey left the church in Boston, and returned and la- 
 bored here five years, until his death. In 1697, he went to 
 Boston for medical advice, and died there on Sunday, July 
 4, 1697, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. 
 
 Mis body was laid in the tomb of the worshipful John 
 Hull, in the Granary Burying-ground. Rev. Dr. Cotton 
 Mather preached a sermon upon his decea.se, from these 
 words, — " Looking steadfastly on him, they saw his face, as 
 it had been the face of an angel." He says, "The church 
 of Portsmouth (a part of the country that very much owed 
 its life unto him) crys out of a deadly wound in his death. 
 Ilis labors in the gospel were frequent and fervent. And 
 unto his cares to edifie his flock by sermons, he added 
 more than ordinary cares to do it by visits ; no man per- 
 haps being a kinder visitant. He was not only ready to do 
 good, but also to sufter for doing it. . . . When the last 
 summons of death came to be served upon him. he had 
 neither time nor strength to speak very much. Unto a 
 minister who visited him the day before his expiration, he 
 signified that he was ' rejoicing in the hope of the glory of 
 
 " In 1692, the number of families in this parish was two hundred and 
 thirty-one, viz., at Strawberry Bank, one hundred .ind twenty ; at Greenland, 
 sixty-eight ; at Great Island, forty-three. (Dr. Stiles in North Church Rec- 
 ords.) In this enumeration. Strawberry Bank probably included a part of 
 Newington ; and Greenland included all south of Sagamore Creek.
 
 Historical Discourse. 45 
 
 God ; ' that he was ' longing to go to the precious Christ, 
 whom he had chose and served ; that the spirit of Christ 
 had comfortably taken away from him the fear of death.' " 
 
 One hundred and sixty persons united with this church 
 during Mr. Moodey's ministry. The record of those whom 
 he baptized is given only for the last four and a quarter 
 years of his life. The number during that time was one 
 hundred and ten. The last baptism by Mr. Moodey, as re- 
 corded in the church-book, is that of " William Peperill," 
 under date of May g, 1697. This child was afterwards the 
 distinguished merchant of Kittery, who was created baro- 
 net in consequence of his success in leading the expedition 
 of 1745 against Louisburg. His father was one of the 
 first settlers at the Isle of Shoals (about 1676). It is said 
 that he, with a Mr. Gibbons, carried on fisheries there for a 
 few years, when they "found it too limited for their views, 
 and concluded to remove to some part of the main. To 
 ilctermine them whither they should go, they each set up a 
 stick, and let it fall as Providence should direct." Mr. Pep- 
 perell's fell towards the north-west, and he took that direc- 
 tion, and settled at Kittery Point : Mr. Gibbons's stick fell 
 toward the north-east ; and he accordingly, so runs the tra- 
 dition, found a home near the Penobscot River.*- Mr. Pep- 
 perell, the father, joined this church, Nov. 5, 1696. 
 
 Nearly two years after Mr. Moodey's death. May 3, 1699, 
 N.\TH.\NiEL Rogers was ordained .second pastor of this 
 church : '•' " the good Mr. Rogers," he is called in some of 
 
 *- I. Mass. Hist. Coll., vii. 242. 
 
 •'" The church numbered seventy-nine niembeis at the time of Mr. Rogers's 
 ordination, — twenty males, fifty-nine females. 
 
 Mr. Rogers preached at Salem vill.age from February to .September, 1697, 
 and received a call to settle there, but declined. — Idt's Amuih of Saltm, 328.
 
 46 Historical Discourse. 
 
 the records of that clay. He was the youngest son of Rev. 
 Jolin R()<;ers, President of Harvard College, was born at 
 Ipswich, Feb. 22, 1669-70, and was graduated at Harvard, 
 in 1687. 
 
 His wife was Sarah Purkiss, a niece of Rev. Ebenezer 
 Pembcrton of Boston. Mrs. Rogers's mother, after tlic 
 death of her second husband, whose name was Elatson, 
 came to live with Mrs. Rogers. In October, 1704, the an- 
 cient parsonage took fire in the night, and was burned to 
 the ground. Mrs. Elatson was so much injurctl that she 
 survived only a few weeks. An infant child of Mr. Ro- 
 gers's, and a negro woman, perished in the flames. This 
 house was no doubt the old first chapel, which had been 
 refitted for a parsonage when the meeting-house at the 
 South Milldam was built. The ne.\t year, the town voted 
 Mr. Rogers one hundred and fifty pounds to assist in build- 
 ing a house upon his own land. 
 
 In 1707 (.April 21), "at a church meeting legally con- 
 vened, it was voted, that [any] person having a competent 
 knowledge and making a serious pro. of ye Xian Religion, 
 and being of a conversation void of scandal, upon yr own- 
 ing ye covenant and subjecting themselves to ye govern- 
 ment of X in this churcli, shall be admitted to baptism, and 
 have a like priviledge for yr children." 
 
 This " Half-way Covenant," as it was termed, was intro- 
 duced in a large part of the Congregational churches of 
 New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
 but proved a great injury to their spirituality and success. 
 Its object was, to draw into a certain partial relation to the 
 Church, men of upright lives who made no claim to religious 
 character, in the hope that they might, by this means, be
 
 Historical Discourse. 47 
 
 led to repentance and faith. Its result was, to veil the ne- 
 cessity of a change of heart, and to lead men to satisfy 
 themselves in putting a formal and reserved profession of 
 religion in the place of one that should be hearty and entire. 
 The custom prevailed in this church down to the end of 
 Dr. Buckminster's ministry, but was not continued by Dr. 
 Putnam or his successors. 
 
 " At a Generall Town Meeting held at Portsmo. this 
 24th day of September, 171 1, Voted that a new meeting- 
 house be built in the Town. Voted ihai the new meeting- 
 house be built on the corner of the minister's ffcild, on ye 
 place formerly appointed by ye comittee, and tlvit it be ye 
 stated meetinghouse of ye Town. Voters for the meeting- 
 house are si.xty-five, against are fourty-five."''^ A committee 
 was chosen at the same meeting " to carry on ye affaire of 
 building sd House ;" and the selectmen were empowered to 
 raise money by way of a town-rate for the said house. 
 " The corner of the minister's ffield," in this vote, refers to 
 the locality on which this church now stands ; and the meet- 
 ing-house built here, in accordance with the vote, was the 
 one taken down in 1854, after standing more than one hun- 
 dred and forty years. 
 
 The opposition to building the meeting-house in 171 1 
 arose from local feeling ; the people in the vicinity of 
 Pickering's Dam being unwilling to have the house placed 
 so far north. When the house was completed, the church 
 voted, under date of Jan. 7, 1714,'' "That Nathaniel 
 
 ■" Town Records, ii. 25. 
 
 ^' In the Records, "Jan. 7, 1 713 ;"but, of course, it should be written now, 
 " 1 714." By omitting to make this correction, Aldcn in his Account of the 
 Religious Societies in Portsmouth, and all later writers, have failed to show 
 the true succession of facts in the controversy.
 
 48 Historical Discourse. 
 
 Rogers, minister of this church, should come to the new 
 meeting-house erected at ye Bank, on ye next Sabbath- 
 seven night, and jireach there, and continue preaching there 
 as formerly at ye old Meeting House, and perform all other 
 offices which appertain to his function." 
 
 The people at the South End claimed that the vote fur 
 locating the house in this place was obtained unfairly ; and 
 they were not willing to submit to it. After Mr. Rogers 
 began to preach in tlie new house, they obtained Rev. John 
 Emerson to preach in the old house. The controversy ran so 
 high, that it was referred to the legislature ; and the follow- 
 ing vote was passed by the Council and General Assembly 
 of 'the Province of New Hampshire, at Portsmouth, May 
 II, 1714 : " Upon the hearing of all parties referring to the 
 meeting houses of this Town, and having seen the grants, 
 agreements and votes of the said Town of Portsmouth, 
 referring to the settlements of the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the 
 present minister of the said Town or Parish, — voted that 
 the said Mr. Rogers be established the minister of the said 
 Town, and be confirmed in the possession of the Glceb 
 land or Parsonage Lands according to the agreement with 
 the Town." Provision is also made in the same act for the 
 support, by the town, of the minister at " the other Meet- 
 ing House at the Mill Damm."^'^ 
 
 Hut this did not bring peace ; for we find, that, two 
 months later, there are two sets of town-officers in Ports- 
 mouth, — one elected by a town-meeting at the old meeting- 
 house, the other chosen at the new ; and the interposition 
 of the legislature is again requested, with the following 
 result : — 
 
 '"' Prov. Papers of N. H., iii. 559.
 
 Historical Discourse. 49 
 
 House of Representatives of New Hampshire, 28 July, 
 
 1 7 14, "Voted a concurrence with the order of the Gov- 
 ernor and Council, and considering the Regularity of the 
 Town Meeting at the New Meeting House the seventh 
 of June, confirm the Town clerk and all other officers then 
 chosen, and the votes then passed about the new Meeting 
 House." '' 
 
 Rev. Mr. EVnerson was settled over the church and 
 society worshipping in the old meeting-house, in March, 
 
 1 71 5. There was not full harmony between the two socie- 
 ties until twenty or thirty years later, when Mr. Fitch and 
 Mr. Shurtleff began the occasional interchange of pulpit 
 services, which was continued by their successors down to 
 the year 18 19. 
 
 Aug. 18, 1719, "At a church meeting Lawfully warned, 
 it was unanimously voted that we give our consent to ye 
 reading of ye holy Scripture in the publick worship ; yt is 
 a chapter in ye forenoon and a chapter in ye Afternoon 
 service." 
 
 Mr. Rogers died on the 3d of October, 1723, in the fifty- 
 fourth vear of his age, and was interred in the ancient 
 burial-ground called the Point of Graves. An old record 
 says of him, that he was a minister of the Geneva School, 
 that he had a very agreeable manner of preaching, and was 
 very elegant in person and deportment. Rev. Dr. Stiles 
 says of him, in our church records : " He was a most excel- 
 lent minister ; and his ministry, as well as that pf that holy 
 man of God, his predecessor, was eminently owned and 
 
 ^' Prov. Papers of X. H., iii. 573. See also Prov. Papers, ii. 6SS, and 
 iii. 569, 571, 643, 6S4, 715, 729. 
 7
 
 50 Historical Discourse. 
 
 blessed of the great Head of the Church." Mr. Rogers 
 had nine children, some of whom became eminent. 
 
 The third pastor of this church was Rev. J.xncz Fitch, 
 who was installed here in the spring or summer of 1725.'' 
 He was one of the fourteen children of Rev. James Fitch 
 of Norwich, Conn., and was born in April, 1672. He was 
 graduated at Harvard College in 1694, and was chosen a 
 Fellow of the Corporation and a Tutor of the College. 
 He was ordained at Ipswich, as colleague with Rev. John 
 Rogers, in 1703, and resigned on account of inadequate 
 support in 1723. His wife was Elizabeth Appleton, daugh- 
 ter of Col. John Appleton of Ipswich, and niece of Rev. 
 Nathaniel Rogers, second pastor of this church." 
 
 During his mmistry here, in 1740 and the following 
 years, the great revival with which the names of Whitefield, 
 Pres. Edwards, and the Tennents, are connected, extended 
 through New England. There was unusual religious 
 interest in Portsmouth, in which bdth the churches shared. 
 Sixty-three members were added to the South Church in 
 the year 1742. By the loss of our records for the period 
 of Mr. Fitch's ministry, it is impossible to speak as defi- 
 nitely of the results in our own church. Mr. Whitefield 
 preached here in one or both the churches in October, 
 1740, in November, 1744, and in February, 1745. A very 
 interesting letter from Rev. Mr. Shurtleft", pastor of the 
 South Church, is preser\'ed in Prince's "Christian History" 
 for January and February, 1743-44. The letter is dated at 
 Portsmouth, June i, 1743. "You are doubtless in some 
 
 " See earliest Parish Account Book, page 103. 
 
 •^ Steps were taken to form an Episcopal church in Portsmouth in 1732; 
 and, in 1736, Rev. Arthur Brown became rector.
 
 Historical Discourse. 51 
 
 Measure acquainted with the Character which the People 
 of this Town have heretofore generally sustained. They 
 have, I think, been remarked by Strangers for their Polite- 
 ness in Dress and Behaviour ; have been thought to go 
 beyond most others in equal Circumstances, if not to ex- 
 ceed themselves, in their sumptuous and elegant Living and 
 Things of the like Nature ; and while they have been justly 
 in Repute for their generous and hospitable Disposition, and 
 for many social virtues, Diversions of various Kinds have 
 been much in Fashion, and the vices that have been usual 
 in seaport and trading places have been common and 
 prevalent among us. We have, I trust, never been without 
 a number of sincere and serious Christians ; but even 
 these wise Virgins have slumbered and slept ; and, as to 
 the generality of Professors, they have seemed for a great 
 while to content themselves with an empty form, and there 
 has been but little of the life and power of Religion to be 
 seen. . . . Mr. Whitefield's coming among us and also 
 Mr. Tennent's was, I am perswaded, blessed of God." He 
 goes on to speak of the first special exhibition of religious 
 feeling, which was in connection with a Fast observed in 
 this town on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1741, some of the 
 ministers from neighboring towns coming to assist in the 
 services. The interest was so great that " the People did 
 not care to disperse ; insomuch that there was another 
 sermon in the evening ; and a great Number of them 
 stayed till it was late in the Place of public Worship. The 
 ne.Kt day a Sermon was again preached in public and had 
 an unusual Efficacy upon the Hearers. The Day after, we 
 had two or three Exercises, and the Congregation, great 
 Part of it, continued together till late at Night.
 
 52 Historical Discourse. 
 
 " This Friday was the most remarkable Day that was ever 
 known among us. The whole Congregation seemed deeply 
 affected ; and there was such a general outcry, in some 
 from a distressing Sight of their Sins, and in others from 
 a joyful sense of the Love of Christ, that could not but put 
 a great many in Mind of the appearing of the Son of Man, 
 and of tiie different Exclamations tliat shall be heard from 
 the Inhabitants of the World, when they shall see Him 
 coming in the Clouds of Heaven, in Power and great 
 Glory." 
 
 Speaking of the results of the revival, he says, " As to 
 the place in general, that there is an Alteration in it for the 
 better, must I think needs be owned by every unprejudiced 
 Observer. There is not that profane Cursing and Swear- 
 ing which has formerly been usual. The Sabbath is more 
 strictly observed. Family Worship, where it was neglected 
 in a variety of Instances is now set up. Some that were 
 manifestly of a narrow, selfish, and worldly Spirit, and 
 seemed unwilling to part with any thing of what they 
 possessed to any good and charitable Use whatsoever, 
 appear now to have their Hearts much enlarged. Many 
 that have dealt dishonestly, have not only acknowledged 
 the Wrongs they have done, but made Restitution for them. 
 Musick and Dancing seems to be wholly laid aside. Where 
 you might formerly have heard jovial, and it may be profane 
 and obscene songs, you may now hear Psalms and H)mns 
 of Praise sung to God, and to our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 This special! interest continued, Mr. Shurtleff says, through 
 the winter of 1 741-43, and was renewed in the following 
 winter. At the time he writes, "numbers meet together 
 to supplicate the Throne of Grace upon the Evening of
 
 Historical Discourse. 53 
 
 every day in the Week but Saturday, when there is no 
 publiclv Lecture." ^^ In a later note, Mr. Shurtlefif .say.s, 
 that, " among the very many that have been awakened and 
 deeply convinced, there is a goodly Number that are giving 
 all the evidence that can be expected of a real and saving 
 Change." *' 
 
 Mr. Fitch was advancing in years, and his health was not 
 good. On the 6th of Novemljer, 1745, the parish voted, 
 " that Mr. Samuel Langdon, the Schoolmaster, be invited 
 to settle among us as an assistant with the Rev. Mr. Jabez 
 Fitch in the work of the Ministry, and that he shall have 
 and hereby has the consent of the Parish, to take the care 
 and charge of the Grammar School in this Town, in Ease 
 of the Parish with respect to the Salary to be paid him, so 
 long as Mr. Fitch shall be able to perform his Ministrations 
 as usual." Mr. Langdon was to " preach once every other 
 Sabbath, and as much oftener " as would consist with his 
 " care of said school, [his] ability and agreement with Mr. 
 Fitch." But this arrangement was not to continue long. 
 A year later, on the 22d of November, 1746, Mr. Fitch 
 died of a nervous fever in the seventy-fifth year of his 
 age, and was buried, like his predecessor, at the Point of 
 Graves. It is recorded of him, that " his mind was strong 
 and richlv stored with learning. His heart was swayed by 
 benevolent affections, and eminently sanctified by the Spirit 
 of Grace." ^- He had a taste for historical researches, 
 and made a collection of facts relative to New Hampshire, 
 of which Dr. Belknap availed himself in writing his history 
 of the State. 
 
 ■"' Christian History, 1743, p. 3S3, tT. " Ibid., p. 173. 
 
 ■•2 Felt's Ipswich, 237.
 
 54 Historical Discourse. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Langdon was ordained fourth pastor of this 
 church on the 4th of February, 1 747. The church consisted 
 at that time of one hundred and sixty-four members, — forty- 
 eight males, one hundred and sixteen females. Mr. Lang- 
 don was born in Boston in the year 1722, was graduated at 
 Harvard College, 1740, and soon removed to Portsmouth to 
 teach the grammar-school. In 1745 he went, as chaplain 
 to the regiment from New Hampshire, on the expedition 
 which Sir William Pepperell led to the capture of Louis- 
 burg. It was soon after his return from that expedition 
 that he became assistant to Mr. Fitch. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Clark, one of his successors here, in a sketch 
 of Dr. Langdon in Sprague's " Annals of the American 
 Pulpit," says, " As a preacher and pastor he was much 
 respected and beloved. His sermons were prepared with 
 great care, and evinced no small ability. In the Piscataqua 
 Association, consisting of twenty-five highly respectable, 
 and some of them decidedly able men, he was regarded as 
 standing quite at the head." In the year 175 i, there was 
 a powerful revival of religion in this church and parish ; 
 and forty-five were added to the church. 
 
 The Independent Congregational Society was formed in 
 1757 ; and in 1761 Rev. Samuel Drown became its pastor. 
 This society originated in a desire on the jjart of some 
 members of the North and South churches for more rigid 
 terms of church-membership and more stringent disci- 
 pline. They purchased a meeting-house at Durham, and 
 removed it to the site now occupied by the chapel of the 
 South Church, on Court Street. After Mr. Drown, Rev. 
 Joseph Walton was pastor. Both these men were emi- 
 nently earnest, devoted ministers. Neither of them had
 
 Historical Discourse. 55 
 
 received special education for the ministry. The society 
 was not large or wealth}' ; and, at a later day, Gov. Langdon 
 of the North Church paid a considerable part of Mr. 
 Walton's small salary. Soon after Mr. Walton's death, in 
 1822, the society was merged in the Calvinistic Baptist 
 Society. In 1761, the meeting-house of the North Parish 
 was enlarged by carrying the west side back twelve feet. 
 
 Jan. 25, 1762, the parish passed the following vote : 
 " Whereas it has long been complained of, as a great 
 Grievance and Indecency as well as an Imposition on this 
 Parish that the House appropriated for their public 
 Worship of God which every one attending that Service 
 there ought to look upon with a kind of Reverential Awe 
 and Esteem on the Account of that Appropriation and 
 Use, should yet upon all occasions be made the Scene of 
 transacting the public Business of the Town, and the Place 
 for holding all the Town Meetings where frequently 
 warm Debates and Contentions arise and such Passions 
 fomented as are very unsuitable to such a Place, and 
 which the sanctity and reverence due to holy Time may 
 not always be sufficient reasonably to allay, besides the 
 Damage done to the Pews, Seats, and other Parts of the 
 House. Therefore, voted, that hereafter no public Town 
 Meeting for transacting the civil Affairs and Business of 
 the Town be permitted to be kept and held in the Meeting 
 House, in this Parish in which the Parishioners usually 
 meet for the public Worship of Almighty God for the 
 Reasons above hinted." The next town-meeting was, 
 however, appointed in the North Meeting-House. The 
 door was found locked. A moderator was elected upon the 
 doorsteps ; and then, by vote, the door was broken open,
 
 56 Historical Discourse. 
 
 and the business was transacted in the meeting-house as 
 usual. But this was probably the last time that the town- 
 meeting was appointed or held here. 
 
 About the year 1764, Robert Sandeman came to this 
 country, and preached his peculiar tenets ; and a society 
 called by his name was formed in Portsmouth, which 
 existed for several years. They erected a small house of 
 worship on Pleasant Street, nearly where the house of 
 Mark H. VVentworth now stands. 
 
 Mr. Whitcficld was here in 1770, immediately before his 
 death, and preached one of his last sermons on this spot. 
 On Sunday, Sept. 24, and Monday 25, he preached in Dr. 
 Haven's meeting-house. Tuesday forenoon he preached in 
 " the great meeting-house," i.e., the North, from the text, 
 " This man receivcth sinners." Wednesday he j^reached at 
 Kittery, Thursday at York, Friday again at Portsmouth 
 for the last time, Saturday at Exeter; and Sunday morning 
 he died at Ncwburyport. 
 
 The year 1771 completed one hundred years from the 
 formation of this church ; but I can find no evidence 
 in church, parish, or town records, or in the files of the 
 New Hampshire Gazette for that year, that any notice was 
 taken of the anniversary. 
 
 An interesting fact in the history of Portsmouth at this 
 time may find its place here, on account of the participa- 
 tion in it of Gov. John Langdon, a prominent member of 
 the North Church. The king had passed an order in coun- 
 cil, forbidding the farther exportation of gunpowder to these 
 colonies. It was well known to the patriots of Portsmouth 
 and the vicinity, that a large quantity of gunpowder was
 
 Historical Discourse. 57 
 
 stored at Fort William and Mary, now Fort Constitution. 
 The report of the king's order reached New England in 
 December, 1774. A plan was at once formed at Ports- 
 mouth to seize the gunpowder in the fort. On a moonlight 
 evening a company, led by Capt. Thomas Pickering and 
 Major John Langdon, went in a gondola at midnight to the 
 vicinity of the fort, waded ashore, and, surprising the small 
 garrison, took possession of one hundred barrels of powder, 
 which they carried up the river to Durham. There the 
 powder was concealed in the cellar of the old Congrega- 
 tional meeting-house. A few weeks later the most of it 
 was taken to Cambridge, and is said to have been used by 
 the patriots at the battle of Bunker Hill. This gallant and 
 successful exploit, which preceded by several months the 
 fight at Lexington, may claim to be one of the first acts of 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 In 1774, Dr. Langdon was elected President of Harvard 
 College, and dismissed from his pastoral relation here on 
 the 9th of October, much to the regret of the church and 
 parish. 
 
 The oppression of Great Britain was now preparing the 
 minds of the American colonists for the coming struggle. 
 Dr. Langdon was one of the foremost in maintaining the 
 rights of the people. In 1775, he preached the annual 
 Election Sermon before the Provincial Congress of Massa- 
 chusetts. Gen. Gage had control of Boston, and the 
 Congress was in session in Watertown. The sermon was 
 preached on the 31st of May, six weeks after the first blood 
 of the war was shed at Lexington. It breathes the most 
 earnest patriotic spirif*'' By special vote, a copy of it was 
 
 " See the sermnn in Thornton's Pulpit of the American Revolution. 
 8
 
 58 Historical Discourse. 
 
 sent to each minister in the colony and to each member of 
 the Congress. In 1780, Dr. Langdon resigned the presi- 
 dency of the college, and the following year was installed 
 pastor of the church in Hampton Falls. " In 1788, he was 
 chosen a delegate to the State Convention, where he mani- 
 fested great ability as a debater, and did much towards 
 removing the prejudices that then existed against the Fed- 
 eral Constitution." He died Nov. 29, 1797, having nearly 
 completed the seventy-fifth year of his age, and was buried 
 at Hampton Falls. 
 
 Dr. Langdon married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Rich- 
 ard Brown of Reading, Mass. They had nine children, 
 four of whom died in infancy. Mrs. John K. Pickering of 
 this city is his grand-daughter, and now resides in the house 
 which Dr. Langdon built previous to 1762. Dr. A. P. Pea- 
 body says, in a private letter, " I knew, in the early part 
 of my ministry, several [persons at Hampton Falls] who 
 remembered Dr. Langdon. He left his library for the use 
 of his successors in the ministry there. I was quite familiar 
 with it. It indicated a man curious in the more recondite 
 provinces of theological literature, and contained a good 
 many books that I have never seen elsewhere." Dr. Lang- 
 don received his degree from the University of Aberdeen 
 in 1762. He was the first doctor of divinity in New 
 Hampshire. 
 
 In 1775, the population of Portsmouth was 4,590. 
 
 In 1776, Rev. David McClure was invited to become 
 pastor of this church ; but he declined, and was afterwards 
 settled at East Windsor, Conn. 
 
 The next minister, Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., makes 
 tlie following record in the books of the church : — 
 
 '
 
 Historical Discourse. 59 
 
 " After about twenty years' ministry in the Second Con- 
 gregational Cliurch in Newport, R.I., it pleased God, that, 
 by the calamities and dangers of a most unnatural civil 
 war, my church and congregation and myself should be 
 broken up, dispersed, and scattered abroad. The provi- 
 dence of God opened a door for my labors in the evangeli- 
 cal ministry and in the pastoral office, in the First Church 
 in Portsmouth. I came here, and preached my first sermon 
 April 6, 1777. I removed, and settled here with my family 
 May 29. 1777. At my coming here, I found the church to 
 consist of about eighty communicants, while the congrega- 
 tion is said to be two hundred and fifty families." 
 
 Under date of March 18, 1778, he says, " The church and 
 congregation of the First Parish in Portsmouth having, by 
 their vote of 27th January last, given me their unanimous 
 call to settle with them in the work of the ministry, I re- 
 turned them my most respectful thanks for the honor and 
 affectionate importunity shown me upon this occasion ; 
 and this day gave my final answer, that, upon serious 
 deliberation and extensive advice, I had concluded and 
 determined it to be my duty to accept the Presidency of 
 Yale College, to which I had been elected the loth of 
 September last." His labors here terminated June 7, i TJ%. 
 
 Mr. Payne Wingate preached for this parish twenty-nine 
 sabbaths, probably in the year 1778. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Buckminster was ordained fifth pastor of 
 the church, Jan. 27, 1779. He was the son of Rev. 
 Joseph Buckminster of Rutland, Mass., and was born Oct. 
 3, 1 75 1. His mother was a cousin of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards. He was graduated at Yale College in 1770, was 
 elected in the Berkeley foundation as one of the three best
 
 6o Historical Discourse. 
 
 scholars of his class, and was afterwards tutor in the 
 college for four years. Very persistent endeavors were 
 made to induce him to become the pastor of the Second 
 Church in Hartford ; but he declined, and came to Ports- 
 mouth. He was twenty-eight years of age. He had a 
 strong and musical voice, of such quality " that its lowest 
 tones could be distinctly heard in the remotest corner ot 
 the vast, old, double-galleried meeting-house. He could 
 take either part in the singing ; and the pure, bell-like 
 tones of his voice could always be distinguished in the full 
 choir. His appearance in the pulpit was dignified and 
 graceful. His whole manner in preaching had a peculiar 
 pathos, that illumined his countenance, and trembled in 
 the earnestness of his voice." It is not strange that he 
 was almost idolized by his people. Rev. Dr. Whiting, in 
 the sermon preached at the dedication of this house of 
 worship, mentions the tradition in Dr. Buckminster's native 
 town, " that, when he went year by year to the home of his 
 youth, the meeting-house of his father on the highlands of 
 Worcester County would be crowded, and all the windows 
 filled by eager groups standing outside to hear his marvel- 
 lous eloquence." " 
 
 Two years after Dr. Buckminster's ordination, he married 
 Sarah Stevens, only child of Rev. Dr. Stevens of Kittcry 
 Point. She was the mother of Joseph Stevens Buckmin- 
 ster and of two daughters. Her death, after eight years 
 at Portsmouth, brought upon Dr. Buckminster a severe 
 attack of the mental depression to which he, like many 
 
 '* The Universalist Society in Portsmouth was formed about the year 
 17S0. Their first meeting-house was built on Vaughan Sireet ini7S4: the 
 present church was erected in 1808.
 
 Historical Discourse. 6i 
 
 men of such extreme sensibility, was always subject. He 
 ceased to preach for a time, and even discontinued the 
 family devotions.'" 
 
 After three years, in 1793, he married Mary Lyman, the 
 daughter of Rev. Isaac Lyman of York, Me., who became 
 the mother of eight children. 
 
 It required much care and economy to make the salary 
 meet the expenses of so large a family. But it was Dr. 
 Buckminster's rule never to incur a debt. His salary had 
 been adjusted, at his suggestion, in a peculiar way, so that it 
 might not vary with the changing value of money in those 
 days. He was to receive " Such a sum of money annually 
 as will be sufficient to purchase three hundred bushels of 
 Indian corn, and four thousand eight hundred pounds 
 weight of fresh beef at the current market-price, as it may 
 be settled in the month of October annually." Corn was 
 then four shillings per bushel, and beef three pence per pound. 
 If the prices should be less in any year, he was still to re- 
 ceive one hundred and twenty pounds. He was also to 
 have the use of a house and garden, the keeping of a horse, 
 twenty-five cords of wood annually, and " the free contribu- 
 tion." 
 
 The church numbered, in the year 1 802, ninety-two mem- 
 bers, — sixteen males, seventy-six females. 
 
 A Baptist society was formed in Portsmouth in Septem- 
 ber, 1802, by the instrumentality of Rev. Elias Smith ; and 
 a church was gathered in March, 1803. The present 
 
 *'' Dr. Buckminster probably lived at first in Dr. Langdon's house. The 
 parish paid the rent of that house for several years, and no doubt for Dr. B.'s 
 use. In 1792, the parish built a parsonage ne.\t north of Dr. Langdon's 
 house. It is the same house now occupied by the pastor, though no longer the 
 property of the parish.
 
 62 Historical Discourse. 
 
 Christian church and society worshipping on Court Street 
 now represent that society. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Buckminster died in the year 1805, and 
 plunged Dr. Buckminster again into the deepest grief. 
 The whole of the night and day following her decease, he 
 walked to and fro in his study, so overcome with his sor- 
 row that even his children feared to approach him. 
 
 His domestic affections, as might be supposed from his 
 e.xtreme sensibility, were very strong and tender. He 
 entered with all familiarity into the thoughts and sports 
 of his children. His daughter says, "The moment his 
 clear and musical voice was heard the children were wild 
 with impatient joy to be in his presence ; and then the 
 infant was in his arms, the smaller children were climbing 
 his knees ; and, in their infantile complaints, no one had 
 the power of soothing like himself" 
 
 Dr. Buckminster married, in i8io, Mrs. Ladd, the widow 
 of Col. Eliphalet Ladd. At the same time he left the par- 
 sonage, and removed to the house now occupied by George 
 Tompson, which was the property of his wife. A year 
 later he had a severe illness, which left him in a state of 
 debility and mental depression. He preached with diffi- 
 culty through the winter ; and on the last sabbath in May, 
 1 8 12, administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
 feeling that he should never be permitted to do so again. 
 On Tuesday he started, with his wife and two members 
 of the church, for Saratoga Springs. A week later they 
 reached a retired and solitary inn at Reedsborough, Vt. 
 He was extremely ill through the night, which he spent 
 mostly in prayer. In the morning he said to Mrs. Buck- 
 minster, " My son Joseph is dead." She, supposing him
 
 Historical Discourse. 63 
 
 to have been dreaming, answered, " No : he was well a few 
 days since; and we shall see him when we return." — "I 
 have not slept or dreamed," he replied : " he is dead." He 
 was right. The son had died, in Boston, the evening pre- 
 vious ; and the father followed him before twenty-four hours 
 had passed. He was buried at Bennington, Vt., Rev. Dan- 
 iel Marsh of that place preaching the funeral sermon. A 
 week later, on Friday, June 19, the North Church was filled 
 with a mourning congregation. The pulpit, the chandelier, 
 and the galleries were draped in black ; while Dr. Parker of 
 the South Church, the valued younger friend of the deceased 
 pastor, preached an appropriate funeral discourse from the 
 text, " But none of these things move me : neither count 
 I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course 
 with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the 
 Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God." 
 (Acts XX. 24.) 
 
 A monumental stone was placed upon the grave at Ben- 
 nington, with this inscription : — 
 
 " In memory of the Rev. Joseph Buckminster, D.D., 
 pastor of a church in Portsmouth, N.H., who died sud- 
 denly in this vicinity, while on a journey for health, loth 
 June, 1812, atatis 61. He was a fervent and devoted 
 Christian, an eloquent and evangelical preacher, a faithful 
 and indefatigable pastor, an affectionate son, brother, hus- 
 band, father, and friend. His bereaved people have erected 
 this memorial of his eminent worth and of their tender 
 and respectful grief 
 
 " O ever honored, ever dear ! adieu : 
 How many tender names are lost in yon ! 
 Keep safe, O tonil) ! thy precious, sacred trust, 
 Till life divine awake his sleeping dust."
 
 64 Historical Discourse. 
 
 Among Dr. Buckminster's parishioners here were some 
 men of special note, of whom it would be interesting to 
 speak if time would permit, — Gen. William Whipple, one 
 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ; Judge 
 William Parker, a deacon of the church, the father of Bishop 
 Samuel Parker of Massachusetts, and the ancestor of Hon. 
 Jolin P. Hale ; Col. Eliphalet Ladd, to wliom we are indebted 
 for the introduction of the pure aqueduct water which adds 
 so largely to the healthful ness and convenience of this city ; 
 his son William Ladd, afterwards the eminent advocate of 
 peace ; Dea. Amos Tappan ; and Mrs. Tappan, a sister of Dr. 
 Buckminster, whose unwearied benevolence among the 
 poor and neglected, as well as in other departments of 
 Christian labor, has consecrated her memory in many 
 hearts ; Daniel Webster, who came to Portsmouth in 1807, 
 married in the following year Grace Fletcher, and com- 
 menced housekeeping in tlic house on Vaughan Street, 
 opposite Raitt's Court, now occupied by Mrs. Robert Gray. 
 Mr. Webster was one of the wardens of the North Parish 
 in the years 1814 and i8i5,and removed to Boston in 1816. 
 Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster has already been referred to, 
 one of the most gifted and scholarly men that New Eng- 
 land has iinuluced. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church in Portsmouth was 
 formed in 1808. Theirprcsenthouseof worship was erected 
 in 1827. 
 
 After Dr. Buckminster's dcatli, the cliurch was nearly 
 three years without a pastor. This arose from a radical 
 difference of views in the parish, which was nearly equally 
 divided between the evangelical doctrines held by the 
 church, and what was known as " Liberal Christianity."
 
 Historical Discourse. 65 
 
 Two ministers were invited to settle, but declined, — Rev. 
 William Jenks, who became a Professor in Bowdoin Col- 
 lege, and Mr. Matthew R. Dutton. 
 
 In 1 8 14, the church and parish extended an invitation to 
 Mr. Israel W. Putnam of Danvers, Mass., to become 
 their pastor ; and after some hesitation on his part, in con- 
 sequence of the division in the parish, he was ordained, 
 on the 15th of March, 1815. Some of those who did 
 not sympathize with his doctrinal views left the parish : 
 others remained, and became, in later years, his firm 
 friends. The church was united in sustaining him from 
 the first. The number of the church at the time of his 
 ordination was ninety-seven, — fourteen males and eighty- 
 three females. Of the ninety-seven, fifteen were non-resi- 
 dent. The church steadily increased during his ministry, 
 and had more than doubled its numbers when he left. 
 
 One of the earliest enterprises of the church, after his 
 settlement, was the erection of the Brick Vestry on Fleet 
 Street, which was accomplished largely through the liberal- 
 ity of Gov. John Langdon, an honored member of the 
 church. The building was dedicated on the 6th of Au- 
 gust, 1817 ; and the fifty-three years of its religious history 
 mark a period of rapid increase in the numbers and influ- 
 ence of the church. 
 
 In June, 181 8, a sabbath school was established in the 
 Brick Vestry. It was afterwards held in Jefferson Hall, 
 and included the children of the city, witliout respect to 
 denominations. Dea. Amos Tappan of this church was 
 the first superintendent, from 18 18 till his death, in 1821. 
 Timothy Farrar, also a member of this church, succeeded 
 him as superintendent. It seems probable, from the early 
 9
 
 66 Historical Discourse. 
 
 records, that other churches in the city afterwards estab- 
 lished separate schools, and that the original union school 
 passed under the entire control of this church. This, how- 
 ever, was not, strictly speaking, the first sabbath school in 
 Portsmouth. Many years earlier, Mrs. Amos Tappan, of 
 whom mention has already been made, collected the numer- 
 ous negro children in town at her house every sabbath, and, 
 with the aid of her daughters, gave them religious instruc- 
 tion. This was continued for several years, and constituted 
 probably, the first sabbath school in New England.'" 
 
 The house of worship of the Middle-street Baptist 
 Church was erected in 1828. The society was formed a 
 year or two earlier. 
 
 In 1827 and 1828, there was a powerful revival of religion 
 in this church and parish, which continued more than a 
 year, and led to the addition of more than one hundred 
 members to the church. The church and congregation 
 had now become so large, that, after careful deliberation, it 
 was decided to form a new church ; and the Pleasant-street 
 Church was organized, in September, 1828, forty members 
 having been dismissed from this church for that purpose. 
 
 Rev. Jared B. Waterbury was the first pastor." He was 
 dismissed after three years' service, and Mr. Joseph H. 
 Towne was ordained.'" He, however, remained only a year 
 and a half; and Rev. Parsons Cooke, who succeeded him, 
 was pastor less than a year.''^ The pecuniary reverses 
 of the times, with other causes, hindered the success of the 
 
 *'• Mrs. Lee's Memoir of the Buckminsters, p. 44. 
 *■ Inst.illed March 18, 1829 ; dismissed March 6, 1832. 
 *' Ordained June 13, 1832 ; dismissed Nov. 7, 1833. 
 *'•' Installed May 13, 1835 ; dismissed Dec. 7, 1835.
 
 Historical Discourse. 67 
 
 enterprise; and in 1836 (July i) the church was dissolved, 
 and the members of it united again with this church. 
 
 It was in order to facilitate this re-union of the churches, 
 that Dr. Putnam, in 1835, resigned his position, and was 
 dismissed (March 15) at the close of just twenty years' ser- 
 vice. In that period, three hundred and one members had 
 been admitted to the church. 
 
 Dr. Putnam was born at Danvers, Mass., Nov. 24, 1786, 
 was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1809, and com- 
 menced the study of law at Salem, Mass. Soon after his 
 conversion, in 18 12, the ordination at Salem of the first 
 American missionaries to the heathen turned his attention 
 to the gospel ministry ; and, after prayerful consideration, 
 he relinquished his previous plans of life, and entered upon 
 theological studies at Andover. Tliis was his first parish. 
 
 After his dismission from this church, he became, within 
 a few months, pastor of the First Church in Middleboro', 
 Mass., and remained in that relation more than thirty years, 
 till his death. May 3, 1868. 
 
 The First Freewill-Baptist Church in Portsmouth was or- 
 ganized Jan. 23, 1832, and was divided and scattered in 1843. 
 Feb. 17, 1851, the present Pearl-st. Freewill-Baptist Church 
 was formed. Their house of worship was erected in 1859. 
 
 Rev. Edwin Holt was installed seventh pastor of this 
 church on the 2d of October, 1836. He had previously 
 preached for some months at the Pleasant-street Church. 
 
 In the following year, the old meeting-house, which had 
 stood on this spot more than one hundred and twenty 
 years, was remodelled, and fitted to serve the parish for 
 seventeen years longer. 
 
 A memorable revival of religion was enjoyed under Mr.
 
 68 Historical Discourse. 
 
 Holt's ministry, in the year 1840, and eighty-five members 
 were added to the church. Many of these were heads of 
 families. Mr. Holt was dismissed March 2, 1842. The 
 whole number admitted to the church during his ministry 
 was one hundred and eighty. 
 
 Mr. Holt was born in New London, Conn., April 17, 
 1805, and was graduated at Columbia College in 1821. He 
 commenced the study of medicine, but exchanged that for 
 theology when his religious life began, and was ordained 
 at Westfield, N.Y., in November, 1827. After a ministry 
 of two years there, he was for a time Secretary of the 
 Southern Board of Missions, and then pastor of a church 
 at Macon, Ga. After leaving Portsmouth, he was pastor in 
 New -York City, in Greenland, N.H., and in Madison, Ind. 
 He died at Evansville, Ind., June 26, 1854, at the age of 
 forty-nine years. He was an eloquent, earnest, and suc- 
 cessful minister. 
 
 The remaining five pastors of the church are still living, 
 and laboring in the ministry ; and I- shall be expected to 
 give only the briefest sketch of the history of the church 
 in these later years. 
 
 Rev. RuFUS VV. Clark, eighth pastor of the church, was 
 installed here Nov. 16, 1842, and dismissed in November, 
 1851. In those nine years, one hundred and fifteen members 
 were admitted to the church ; fifty-four of them in the year 
 1 843, and twenty-eight in the year 1 849. The whole number 
 of the church at the close of his ministry here was three 
 hundred and forty-five. Ur. Clark is now pastor of a 
 church in Albany, N.Y. It is a matter of regret to us all 
 that he is not with us on this occasion. 
 
 The church was without a pastor nearly two years after
 
 Historical Discourse. 69 
 
 Dr. Clark left. In the spring and summer of 1853, there 
 was unusual religious interest among the people. Rev. Dr. 
 Lyman Beecher preached here for eight weeks, and many 
 of the young were led to the Saviour. Thirty-one united 
 with the church in that year. 
 
 Rev. Henry D. Moore, ninth pastor of the church, was 
 installed Aug. 17, 1853. In the year 1854, the old church, 
 which had stood for one hundred and forty years, was taken 
 down, and the building in which we are now met was 
 erected upon the same spot. The religious services of the 
 society were held in the Temple between the time of leav- 
 ing the old church and entering the new. 
 
 Aug. 7, 1855, Rev. Mr. Moore resigned his position here, 
 and soon after became pastor of a church in Portland, Me. 
 He has since been settled at Pittsburg, Pa., and is now pas- 
 tor of the Vine-street Church in Cincinnati. 
 
 This house of worship was dedicated on the first day of 
 November, 1855 ; and, on the same evening, Rev. Lyman 
 Whiting, tenth pastor, was installed. During his ministry 
 here, the great religious awakening of 1858 swept over the 
 country, reaching, with greater or less power, every evangel- 
 ical church in the Northern States. This church enjoyed 
 a share of the blessing, and welcomed forty-two members 
 to its fellowship in that and the next following years. 
 
 Dr. Whiting was dismissed in 1859. He has since been 
 pastor of churches in Providence, R.I., in Dubuque, Iowa, 
 and in Janesville, Wis,, which is his present field of labor. 
 
 Rev. William L. Gage became the eleventh pastor of 
 the church, Oct. 17, i860. His ministry here was inter- 
 rupted by imperfect health, and continued only till Jan. 24, 
 1863. Mr. Gage was a graduate of Harvard College, in
 
 JO Historical Discourse. 
 
 the class of 1853. He has devoted much time to literary 
 pursuits, and is the author of several valuable works. He 
 is now pastor of the Pearl-street Church in Hartford, Conn. 
 
 The present pastor was installed over this church, June 3, 
 1863. There was more than usual religious interest in the 
 church and congregation in the years 1864-65, and sixty-six 
 members were added to the church ; and also in the years 
 1869-70, when ninety-three members were admitted. 
 
 In 1870 -the church, with the aid of many members of 
 the parish, erected a new and commodious chapel, which 
 was dedicated on the 24th of February of the present year. 
 An honored name,* which it may not bo allowable to men- 
 tion to-day, is as closely associated with the beginning and 
 completion of this chapel, as the name of Gov. Langdon is 
 linked with the building of the Brick Vestry. May God 
 grant to the prayers and self-forgetting labors of this 
 church lliat the glory of tlie latter house may be greater 
 than tliat of the former! Little more in this respect could 
 be asked for the church than that the scenes of devotion, 
 of penitence, and of faith, upon which the narrower walls 
 have looked down, may be repeated, in the larger measure 
 of our multiplied numbers, within the more stately edifice. 
 
 The whole number of the names of members of this 
 church from the beginning, now standing upon its records, 
 is more than seventeen hundred. The lists are imperfect, 
 in some of the earlier pastorates ; so that it is probable 
 that nearly two thousand of those who call Christ Lord and 
 Master have in these two hundred years been identified 
 with the body of which we have here traced the history. 
 The present number of the church is four hundred and ten. 
 
 '" Miss M.iry C. Rogers. Miss Rogers died Aug. 15, 1871.
 
 Historical Discourse. 71 
 
 "The memory of the just is blessed." The heroic lives, 
 the Christian self-denial, of the fathers, drawn out into the 
 light to-day, send down to us, the living members of 
 the church, new impulses to Christian devotion and cour- 
 age. They did their work quietly and simply, in their day. 
 It was not a period of celebrations and reminiscences. 
 They little anticipated the honor with which we recall their 
 names at this end cjf the centuries. They maintained the 
 truth as it had been made known to them, at. cost some- 
 times of personal freedom, at cost often of the esteem of 
 men, but with the sure gain of God's approval, and with 
 the unfailing joy of conscious loyalty to the truth. 
 
 It is a privilege to be counted in such a succession. It 
 is the easier to bear reproach for the name of Christ, or to 
 resist the inward foes which assail our Christian integrity, 
 when our names stand beneath the names of Moodey and 
 of Rogers, of Cutt , of Stileman, and of Haines, and their 
 successors in this goodly fellowship, and when the inter- 
 ests of the church which they planted and nurtured are 
 committed to our fidelity. A thousand sacred thoughts 
 and tender recollections touch the hearts and re-enforce the 
 faith of all who join hands with those good men. 
 
 The very ground on which we here stand is redolent of 
 ■sacred associations. In these spaces, through which our 
 words and our prayers and our songs echo to-day, have 
 vibrated the utterances of faithful appeal, of devotion, and 
 of praise through five generations of worshippers. Let the 
 appeal never be less earnest, or the testimony to the truth 
 less faithful ! Let the petitions of devout hearts here rise 
 in ever-renewed supplication ! Let new voices, in joyful 
 love to Christ, take up the strain of grateful praise,
 
 72 Historical Discourse. 
 
 till earthly worship shall give place to heavenly adora- 
 tion ! 
 
 And now upon this Mother, who for so many of us has 
 nurtured in its bcf!;inning or in its growth the Christian 
 life, to whom we owe under Christ so much of what we 
 are and of what we hope to be, and who gives us to-day, 
 in the heroic examples of her cider sons, fresh impulses 
 to Christian duty and devotion, — upon this ancient and 
 honored church we invoke the renewed affection of all her 
 children, and the rich gifts of heavenly grace. May they 
 to whom it shall be permitted in other centuries to enjoy 
 her protection and guard her interests catch the spirit of 
 her most devoted children, and carry forward to larger and 
 higher successes that which has been already attained ! 
 
 And may He for whose glory, and for the advancement 
 of whose kingdom among men, the Church exists, be pleased 
 to bestow upon us, and upon those who come after us. His 
 constant guidance and benediction ! 
 
 O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou King of Zion, thou 
 Redeemer and Saviour of men ! grant unto this thy church 
 the illumination of Wisdom, and the quickening of the 
 Holy Spirit. From generation to generation be thou her 
 strength. Let no weapon that is formed against her pros- 
 per. May many sons and daughters arise up and call her 
 blessed ! , Let her priests be clothed with righteousness, 
 and let her saints shout aloud for joy. 
 
 So WE, THY PEOPLE AND SHEEP OF THY PASTURE, WILL 
 GIVE THEE THANKS FOREVER: WE WILL SHOW FORTH THY 
 PRAISE TO ALL GENERATIONS.
 
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