UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 1Mb ISO 
 
 Che 
 
 Colonial 
 
 Parson 
 
 of 
 
 Dew 
 
 Cngland 
 
ntoer0itg of d 
 4 4 California 
 
The Colonial Parson 
 
 OF 
 
 New England 
 
 (picture 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK SAMUEL QHILD 
 
 Author of " An Old New England Town " 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1896^ 
 
 BY 
 FRANK SAMUEL CHILD. 
 
TO 
 
 THE DESCENDANTS 
 OF 
 
 OUR COLONIAL PARSONS 
 
 THE NOBLE MEN AND WOMEN OF TO-DAY 
 
 WHO TRANSMIT THE SPIRIT AND 
 
 MAGNIFY THE POWER 
 
 PECULIAR TO 
 
 THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTORS 
 
 101949 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE, 
 
 PARSONS AND PARSONS, n 
 
 BOYHOOD AND ORDINATION, . . . .45 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL PARSON, . . . .59 
 THE POLITICAL .?4nsoN, , 73 
 
 THE LITERARY PARSON, . . . .91 
 THE PARSON AS A SCHOLAR, .... 105 
 
 THE PARSON AS A PREACHER 121 
 
 THE PARSON AS A MAN, 139 
 
 THE PARSON AS AN ANCESTOR 159 
 
 THE COMPOSITE PARSON, 199 
 
FORE-WORD. 
 
 THE author expresses his thanks to various 
 writers who have contributed to the litera 
 ture of this subject. He owes them a large 
 debt. 
 
 Biographical sketches of the New Eng 
 land ministers are numerous. They appear 
 in books like Mather s " Magnalia" and 
 Sprague s "Annals of the American Pul 
 pit," or in separate works like the "Life of 
 Brainerd" and the "Life of Edwards." 
 Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Alice Morse 
 Earle, Mr. William Root Bliss (three indi 
 viduals to whom the author is under special 
 obligations) have written delightful chap 
 ters upon the parson. 
 
 The task of gleaning from original 
 sources, as well as from the later writings, 
 
io Fore-word. 
 
 has been an agreeable one. Many of the in 
 cidents woven into this characterization of 
 the parson are necessarily familiar to readers 
 of our history. But when these illustrations 
 seem hackneyed, it must be borne in mind 
 that they are used because they are believed 
 to throw light upon the subject, irrespective 
 of their freshness or currency. 
 
 A great many names and anecdotes that 
 might profitably have been wrought into 
 the picture will occur to the reader. Their 
 omission may be explained by the fact that 
 the author has sought to make his statement 
 of the case as brief and compact as the cir 
 cumstances permitted. 
 
 FAIRFIELD, CONN,, Sept, ist, 1896. 
 
THE COLONIAL PARSON 
 OF 
 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
PARSONS AND PARSONS. 
 
 IT is Mr. Barrie, writing " The Little Min 
 ister," who says: "In these days the first 
 question asked of a child was not, Tell me 
 your name, but What are you to be? And 
 one child in every family replied, A minis 
 ter. " While the parson has generally been 
 well esteemed, and Scotland has done him 
 especial honor, yet it is our own land that 
 has afforded him the broad field for achieve 
 ment. 
 
 It was a commercial impulse which led to 
 the settlement of New Amsterdam by the 
 THE Dutch. But religion had share 
 
 DUTCH 
 
 DOMINIE in the enterprise. These honest, 
 prudent, adventurous traders inherited the 
 spirit dominant in the Fatherland. They 
 
 had fought with sublime fidelity in behalf of 
 13 
 
14 The Colonial Parson 
 
 religious liberty and civil independence. 
 They measured the joy, they counted the 
 cost, of a Christian home. So when they 
 came to America they brought their religion 
 with them. It was not long ere the little 
 colony on Manhattan Island had a church 
 and a school. 
 
 The dominie was an important personage 
 in the home country. He was the occasion 
 of not a little martial energy and achieve 
 ment among his people. When he sailed 
 across the sea, it was to fill the same office 
 in the new land that had been consecrated 
 by his zeal and wisdom in the old. Dominie 
 Megapolensis was a man of intelligence 
 and character. The Dutch were good schol 
 ars. They mixed with their book learning 
 a fair proportion of experimental knowledge 
 gleaned in garden, field, and street. We 
 may therefore credit the statement that the 
 dominies were wise counsellors in secular 
 
of New England 15 
 
 affairs as well as in sacred. No sooner were 
 they settled and the broad field of pioneer 
 opportunity spread before them, than they 
 proceeded to make themselves felt in the 
 various departments of the New World 
 activity. 
 
 It is to be taken as a matter of course 
 that they attended strictly to their church 
 tasks. Organization, missionary service, 
 various institutions connected with religion, 
 these all received proper attention. The 
 schools also became a common object for 
 their watchfulness and direction. It was 
 accepted without argument that the chil 
 dren must be trained into intelligent citi 
 zenship. Success in trade demanded a fair 
 degree of help from books. So the school 
 flourished. 
 
 But the general affairs of the colony in 
 terested the dominie. And he was not 
 afraid to preach about them or to discuss 
 
1 6 The Colonial Parson 
 
 them on the street and in the tavern. 
 Dominie Bogardus observed certain disrep 
 utable tendencies on the part of some mem 
 bers in his church. "What are the great 
 men of the country but vessels of wrath 
 and fountains of woe and trouble?" he said, 
 one day, in his sermon. "They think of 
 nothing but to plunder the property of oth 
 ers, to dismiss, to banish, to transport to 
 Holland." Such plainness of speech did 
 not pass unnoted. A state of worldliness 
 that occasioned an onset of this kind from 
 the pulpit was quite sure to answer back 
 without fear or favor. Some of the breth 
 ren stayed away from church, others said 
 the dominie was drunk, while a third party 
 had the drums beat and the cannon fired 
 during divine service. 
 
 It was not strange that a charge of intoxi 
 cation was preferred. For the times were 
 sorry, indeed, when it came to questions of 
 
of New England 17 
 
 liquor consumption. According to Stuyve- 
 sant, "Almost one full fourth part of the 
 town of New Amsterdam" was devoted to 
 " houses for the sale of brandy, tobacco, and 
 beer." And these people dearly loved to 
 meet in the tavern, Rip-Van- Winkle-like, 
 and hold the sweet converse of smoke-blue, 
 dram-spiced fellowship. Irving has immor 
 talized these characteristic scenes and con 
 ditions. But the dominies, while they were 
 willing to share a pipe and bowl and partici 
 pate with moderation in the good cheer of 
 social life, still felt compelled to raise their 
 voices against the popular forms of dissipa 
 tion and call a halt to the vice which rioted 
 through the colony. 
 
 While we think of them as lovers of free 
 speech and champions of freedom of worship, 
 it is but just to remind the reader that the 
 Dutch did not like other doctrine in the New 
 Netherlands than "the True Reformed." 
 
 2 
 
i.8 The Colonial Parson 
 
 At one time a proclamation was issued, for 
 bidding " preachers not called by ecclesiasti 
 cal or temporal authority to hold meeting." 
 The penalty for disobedience was one hun 
 dred pounds. And there was trouble for 
 certain obnoxious sects, which shows that 
 even the Dutch failed to live up "to their 
 lights." Nevertheless, these old domi 
 nies, like Megapolensis, Backerus, Drisius, 
 Schaats, Polhemus, Selyns, are an interest 
 ing company of men. Their knowledge, 
 manhood, service, rendered them conspicu 
 ous in the colony. Dominie Jonas Michael- 
 ius, the first minister of the church in New 
 Amsterdam, wrote: "I keep myself as far 
 as practicable within the pale of my calling, 
 wherein I find myself sufficiently occupied. " 
 But his successors broadened their offices 
 and shared generously in all the affairs of 
 the colony. 
 
 Selyns was even considered something of 
 
of New England 19 
 
 a poet. The quality of his verse may be 
 judged from certain lines on " Scolding 
 Wives and the Third-Day Ague" : 
 
 "Among the greatest plagues, one is the third-day 
 
 ague; 
 
 But cross and scolding wives the greatest evil are. 
 With strong and prayerful minds the first will cease 
 
 to plague you, 
 
 But for the last I know not what advice to dare 
 Except with patience all to suffer, 
 And ne er the first assault to proffer." 
 
 The early settlers of Virginia and the 
 contiguous territory were gentlemen. They 
 THE naturally brought with them the 
 
 VIRGINIA 
 
 CLERGYMAN English clergyman. It was a 
 free, untrammelled life which featured the 
 colony. Thackeray has made a rough sketch 
 of it in the first part of "The Virginians." 
 But that which particularly interests us is 
 the "setting out" which he gives to the 
 gentlemen " of the cloth. " 
 
20 The Colonial Parson 
 
 " The habits and preaching of the Estab 
 lished clergy were not very edifying/ the 
 novelist observes. "The clergymen were 
 paid by the state and had glebes allotted to 
 them ; and there being no Church of Eng 
 land bishop as yet in America, the colonists 
 were obliged to import their divines from 
 the mother-country. Such as came were 
 not naturally of the best or most eloquent 
 kind of pastors. Noblemen s hangers-on, 
 insolvent parsons who had quarrelled with 
 justice or the bailiff, brought their stained 
 cassocks into the colony in hopes of finding 
 a living there. " 
 
 And Thackeray gives point to his obser 
 vations by creating the character of Mr. 
 Ward, chaplain and tutor in the family of 
 the Virginians. Ward was a loud talker, a 
 poor scholar, a dull fellow, a subtle flatterer, 
 a shallow sycophant. And when George 
 Warrington wanted to fight with him, it be- 
 
of New England 21 
 
 came evident that Chaplain Ward was no 
 gentleman. 
 
 Such a presentment prejudices one against 
 the class named. We have something of 
 the feeling peculiar to the Colonel, a " sus 
 picion of all cassocks." And yet truth com 
 pels us to confess the injustice of such an 
 opinion or the lack of charity in such a feel 
 ing. The gentlemen who settled the South 
 land imparted character to their religion. 
 While they did not profess any surplus of 
 piety, they showed that with all their indul 
 gence, carelessness, freedom, love of sport, 
 and sociability, they were still men of pro 
 nounced convictions upon the subject of re 
 ligion, and their clergymen did very good 
 service in their matter-of-fact and conven 
 tional way. 
 
 There was a Puritan flavor to portions of 
 the colonial legislation which strikes us with 
 surprise. Magistrates were instructed to 
 
22 The Colonial Parson 
 
 enforce attendance upon church services, a 
 fine of one hundred hogsheads of tobacco 
 being imposed for the first breach of this 
 law, and severer fines for later contu 
 macy. Such a condition was in part the 
 result of good service on the part of the 
 clergy. 
 
 There was a scarcity of parsons in the 
 South, quite in contrast to the abundance of 
 the same class in New England. And 
 when ministers came to these vast Southern 
 parishes, they soon were infected by a 
 certain indolence native to the climate. 
 As a consequence, the "Church" did not 
 thrive to any marked degree. Education 
 was sadly neglected. The select and 
 favored minority enjoyed the ample life, 
 but the neglected and poverty-stricken 
 majority did not rise to any high plane of 
 living. 
 
 Religion became affected with the scepti- 
 
of New England 23 
 
 cism peculiar to England and her colonies. 
 It resulted that the clergymen grew indiffer 
 ent to a degree in the discharge of their du 
 ties. The law compelled them to preach in 
 the forenoon and catechize in the afternoon. 
 They were also ordered " not to give them 
 selves to excess in drinking, or riot, play 
 ing at dice, cards, or any unlawful game; 
 but at all times convenient hear or read 
 somewhat of the Holy Scripture, always 
 doing the things which shall appertain to 
 honesty. " 
 
 We infer that these companionable and 
 susceptible brethren yielded to the seduc 
 tions of their parishioners, and gave way 
 freely to the tide of worldliness that threat 
 ened to flood all society at this period. At 
 the same time, it will not do for us to sin 
 gle out the clergy of the South and stamp 
 them alone with these objectionable char 
 acteristics. 
 
24 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 "The times" had more or less to do with 
 the state of things in the ranks of the 
 ministry. We are told how one Virginian 
 clergyman became so angry with his 
 vestry that he pulled off a vestryman s 
 wig, and then preached the following Sun 
 day on the text, "And I contended with 
 them, and cursed them, and smote cer 
 tain of them, and plucked off their 
 hair." But the incident is paralleled by 
 more than one show of temper among the 
 Dutch dominies and the New England 
 ministers. 
 
 Take them all in all, and we must con 
 clude that the English clergymen in Amer 
 ica proved themselves useful, worthy, im 
 portant, acceptable. They did not share in 
 public life to the extent that the brethren of 
 the profession did in the North. Conditions 
 were such that their functions were re 
 stricted to the tasks which centred in the 
 
of New England 25 
 
 church. They were not averse to politics, 
 but the opportunities did not come to them. 
 The gentlemen laity kept matters under 
 their own control. The clergy were es 
 teemed in proportion as they minded their 
 own business and contributed to the social 
 life of the community. 
 
 The Dutch dominie, on the other hand, 
 was an individual who gave himself to 
 many tasks. His opinion in trade was not 
 considered a thing to be ignored. He was 
 a careful student and kept himself abreast 
 of the times in scholarship. He preached 
 politics on such occasions as suited his 
 fancy. He was agreeable company and 
 men sought his fellowship. Yet, while his 
 part was more conspicuous than that of the 
 English clergyman in the South, he failed 
 to make the impression upon his people 
 which was made by his clerical brethren in 
 New England. 
 
26 The Colonial Parson 
 
 The parson has not been especially con- 
 THE spicuous as a figure among the 
 
 PARSON 
 
 IN literary creations of our writers. 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 LITERATURE * et "& makes various appear 
 ances. There is Longfellow s 
 
 " Theologian, from the school 
 Of Cambridge on the Charles, 
 Skilful alike with tongue and pen, 
 He preached to all men everywhere 
 The gospel of the Golden Rule, 
 The New Commandment given to men, 
 Thinking the deed and not the creed 
 Would help us in our utmost need. 
 With reverent feet the earth he trod, 
 Nor banished nature from his plan, 
 But studied still with deep research 
 To build the Universal Church. 
 Lofty as is the love of God, 
 And ample as the wants of man." 
 
 Perhaps the work which first suggests it 
 self in this connection is Hawthorne s 
 "Scarlet Letter." Arthur Dimmesdale is 
 representative of none but himself. There 
 
of New England 27 
 
 is never a suggestion that the sin of this 
 struggling and condemned soul means a 
 taint common to the Puritan ministers. 
 Hawthorne made no attempt to draw a man 
 who was typical of a class. The portrait is 
 tragically individual. Yet this introspec 
 tive, deeply sensitive, highly susceptible 
 man impresses one with the fact that the 
 bias and training peculiar to New England 
 belong to him. There is so much in Arthur 
 Dimmesdale (aside from his loss of virtue) 
 which belongs distinctively to his environ 
 ment, that he comes to be acknowledged as 
 in one sense an expression of the life which 
 featured his day and his class. As a conse 
 quence, his crime, casting its hideous shad 
 ow upon the picture, becomes an element in 
 the prevalent conception of the colonial par 
 son. The impression is made that these 
 men were "no better than they should be," 
 a current phrase applied with a certain curl 
 
28 The Colonial Parson 
 
 of the lip and a suggestive intonation of the 
 voice. Not that any crime is imputed to 
 them. Simply that they were not the high- 
 minded, noble-spirited individuals we have 
 been taught to believe them. " The Scarlet 
 Letter" has, therefore, wrought to the detri 
 ment of truth and the perversion of fact to 
 this extent. While it is the work of genius, 
 it is a work in which genius has uncon 
 sciously or unintentionally contributed to 
 the dissemination of erroneous opinions. 
 We do gather vivid and lasting impressions 
 of the ministerial character peculiar to the 
 early days of New England while we read 
 "The Scarlet Letter," but these impres 
 sions are not favorable to the class which 
 now commands our consideration. 
 
 " The Minister s "Wooing," by Mrs. Stowe, 
 stands first in this service of literary revela 
 tion or photography. Dr. Hopkins is quite 
 as much an historic study as he is the off- 
 
of New England 29 
 
 spring of a sympathetic imagination. " The 
 doctor was a philosopher, a metaphysician, 
 a philanthropist, and in the highest and 
 most earnest sense a minister of good on 
 earth. . . . His early training had been all 
 logical, not in the least aesthetic. . . . The 
 gospel he was preaching constantly, by his 
 pure, unworldly living, by his visitations to 
 homes of poverty and sorrow, by his search 
 ing out of the lowly African slaves, his 
 teaching of those whom no one else in those 
 days had thought of teaching, and by the 
 grand humanity, outrunning his age, in 
 which he protested against the then-ad 
 mitted system of slavery and the slave- 
 trade. . . . Whoever looked on the fore 
 head of the good doctor must have seen the 
 squareness of ideality giving marked effect 
 to its outline. As yet, ideality had dealt 
 only with the intellectual and invisible, 
 leading to subtle refinements of argument 
 
30 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 and exalted ideas of morals. But there was 
 lying in him, crude and unworked, a whole 
 mine of those artistic feelings and percep 
 tions which are awakened and developed 
 only by the touch of beauty. " 
 
 Now this is fine. It is true. The whole 
 setting-forth of this preacher of righteous 
 ness is the work of a master. But Dr. 
 Hopkins is the representative of a few 
 marked characteristics. There were par 
 sons that answered to his description. But 
 when we think upon the one-sidedness of 
 the good man, his strange ignorance of life, 
 his weakness in face of prosaic difficulties, 
 the utter abandonment of mind to deep 
 problems so that nature was altogether ig 
 nored, we reach the conclusion that he fails 
 us in our search for the typical parson of 
 early New England. He swings as far to 
 one extreme as does Arthur Dimmesdale to 
 another extreme. While Dr. Hopkins car- 
 
of New England 31 
 
 ries with him a large amount of flesh and 
 blood, he seems so nearly unconscious of it 
 that we are forced to question the reality of 
 his existence. A deep impression is made 
 Upon the reader; but we demand a larger 
 manhood, a broader nature, a richer sympa 
 thy, a keener insight. We are seeking that 
 sort of parson who voices universal desires, 
 emotions, experiences. Dr. Hopkins teaches 
 us to think upon the parson as a man consti 
 tuting a third class, set apart to pursuits 
 and associations altogether spiritual. This 
 conception fails to square with the facts in 
 the case. 
 
 "A Singular Life," by Elizabeth Stuart 
 Phelps, is a book which presents one por 
 trait drawn with a marked insight, vigor, 
 fidelity. For the character of Bayard ap 
 proves itself not only to the high standard 
 of taste, but likewise to our moral instincts. 
 He is the sort of individual that we feel is 
 
32 The Colonial Parson 
 
 called of God to serve in the ministry. The 
 matter of theology will occasion considera 
 ble diversity of opinion; but in respect to 
 the important matter of soul, affection, 
 character, he commends himself as the ideal 
 parson. He is a man, and manhood is a 
 prime requisite for the noblest efficiency in 
 a parson. 
 
 It is not only pleasant to have an author 
 emphasize this fact in a beautiful character, 
 but it is a stroke of genius to impress upon 
 the reader that such holy ideal of service is 
 cherished by the fraternity. For whatever 
 may be said in respect to clerical shortcom 
 ings and delinquencies, it still remains true 
 that men push with fervent eagerness to 
 ward this exalted conception of ministerial 
 worth. And literature appears deficient in 
 giving the parson credit for this great, in 
 spiring ideal. 
 
 " Bayard stood bareheaded in the color of 
 
of New England 33 
 
 the red sun. " They were holding a beach 
 service, just on the borders of the waning 
 day. " He was pale, notwithstanding the 
 warmth of the evening, and had a look so 
 worn that those who loved him most felt 
 unspoken fear like the grip of a hand at 
 their hearts. . . . Was it magic or was it 
 miracle? Was it holiness or eloquence? 
 Did he speak with the tongue of man or an 
 gel? Where was the secret? What was the 
 charm? . . . Bayard s manner was quiet, 
 finished, and persuasive; it must have ap 
 pealed to the most fastidious oratorical 
 taste; any instructor in homiletics might 
 have seen in it a remarkable illustration of 
 the power of consecrated education over ig 
 norance and vice. ... It would be difficult 
 to say what it was in Emanuel Bayard that 
 most attracted them : whether his sincerity 
 or his intellect, his spirituality or his manli 
 ness; or that mystical charm which comes 
 
34 The Colonial Parson 
 
 not of striving, or of prayer, or of education, 
 the power of an elect personality. Perhaps 
 it would be nearer the truth to say that the 
 fishermen loved him because he loved 
 them." 
 
 And as this great soul moves on to the 
 tragic end, what homage to the "Christ- 
 man" and his brother workmen do we pay? 
 
 Mr. Aldrich s " Parson Hawkins" and the 
 "Dr. Johns" of Donald G. Mitchell are ex 
 cellent contributions to this literature of 
 parson life. There are many traits of Puri 
 tan character reflected in them. We are 
 constrained to think that men of such spirit 
 did notable service for their people and the 
 world. 
 
 Without naming further examples of the 
 parson in fiction, it seems & propos to ob 
 serve that American writers generally show 
 a finer appreciation of his work and man 
 hood than English. 
 
of New England 35 
 
 But the parson seems to hold a quite sub 
 ordinate place as a literary creation. Is it 
 because historians often fail to give him 
 credit for his active, fruitful services? 
 
 There are numerous general acknowledg 
 ments of his eminence and leadership ; but 
 THE too seldom do writers enter upon 
 
 PARSON 
 
 IN details. Prof essor Park, in " In- 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 HISTORY debtedness of the State to the 
 Clergy," observes that the name of a pastor 
 is seldom mentioned by an historian. He 
 also quotes a remark of Dr. Channing, that 
 history " has not a place even in the margin 
 for the minister and the school-mistress. " 
 
 The parson is one who has had to do with 
 the inner life and the immediate experiences 
 of his people. Not the less on that account, 
 however, has he been a tremendous influ 
 ence and a vital factor in all the events of 
 his day. While there are writers who con 
 tend that the parson in New England made 
 
36 The Colonial Parson 
 
 himself offensively predominant, yet we be 
 lieve that such writers misinterpret history. 
 He was " the power behind the throne" on 
 many of the great occasions. It was not 
 modesty so much as expediency that held 
 him in reserve. He was at one time some 
 what like Savonarola at Florence, a sort of 
 dictator. But he was wiser than the Floren 
 tine leader. The parson kept himself dis 
 creetly in the background; shaped affairs 
 through his heedful servants, the magis 
 trates ; did not obtrude his interference in 
 state matters; taught, inspired, moved, di 
 rected the state at the same time that he 
 was simply identified by the popular mind 
 with the church and religion. Ministers 
 refused on occasions without number to go 
 into the active conduct of political affairs. 
 
 There were instances when the parson 
 yielded his sacred office and served his col 
 ony in some other capacity. Jonathan 
 
of New England 37 
 
 Trumbull was educated for the ministry, but 
 he went into business and then studied law. 
 Such cases, however, were exceptions. The 
 parson was quite as efficient at second-hand, 
 working through the constituency which 
 was dominated by his preaching and in 
 struction. But the fact of his prominence 
 is easily minimized by the historian without 
 the slightest aim or thought to do him in 
 justice or mis-state the case. 
 
 Is it not true, also, that the colonial par 
 son of New England does not receive his 
 full meed of praise and appreciation, for the 
 reason that the Puritan character itself is 
 misconceived on the part of many writers? 
 Mr. Howells, in "The Minister s Charge," 
 gives us Sewall, a parson of good spirit and 
 excellent parts, a man with whom we should 
 like to make friends. Yet Mr. Sewall " de 
 clared that he envied the ministers of the 
 good old times, who had only to teach their 
 
38 The Colonial Parson 
 
 people that they would be lost if they did 
 not do right. It was much simpler than to 
 make them understand that they were often 
 to be good for reasons not immediately con 
 nected with their present or future com 
 fort." It is true that eternal punishment 
 was a favorite theme among the colonial 
 parsons ; but the man who thinks they nar 
 rowed their preaching to such themes or 
 kindred themes, is mistaken. The variety 
 of topics treated and the manifold ways of 
 setting forth the subject in hand, are assur 
 edly marked features of the colonial period. 
 
 A recent book, which sketches in a bright 
 way the colonial parson under a variety of 
 circumstances, gives what might be termed 
 the popular conception of the Puritan in 
 " good old colony times, when we lived un 
 der the king. " 
 
 Palfrey wrote that the Puritan stands for 
 the "manliness of England;" but this writer 
 
of New England 39 
 
 observes, " It is truer to say that he repre 
 sented the obstinate wilfulness of the Eng_ 
 lish race." "It is well known," he con 
 tinues, " that here [New England] they be 
 came intolerant and unmerciful." This is 
 accounted for "by the fact that they were 
 disciples of John Calvin." What this writer 
 is pleased to call the composite Puritan is, 
 according to his definition, " a peculiar mix 
 ture of human beings." Middle-class Eng 
 lishmen that had no representatives of art, 
 science, literature, statesmanship, or social 
 life; a few merchants and lawyers, with 
 yeomen, mechanics, servants, and idlers; 
 "mixed Huguenots, Germans, Scotch pris 
 oners sent by Cromwell, and white slaves 
 imported from Ireland to be sold;" and the 
 "abundant offspring of miscegenation be 
 tween the Indian and the white races." 
 This is termed the composite Puritan. 
 The parson, of course, is counted not only 
 
40 The Colonial Parson 
 
 an element in this result, but the result of 
 such elements. 
 
 The portrait of the minister is, therefore, 
 not altogether pleasing. One feels a certain 
 repugnance as he continues to look upon the 
 picture. And the opinion seems to gain 
 currency that the colonial parson of New 
 England was an individual inheriting nu 
 merous disagreeable traits of character, liv 
 ing out his narrow ideas with rigid and un 
 compromising doggedness; given over to 
 severe and cruel treatment of the young, 
 the weak, the bad, the contrary; shutting 
 out the sunshine of life from the home and 
 the community; creating an atmosphere of 
 gloom like to the most dismal November 
 weather. 
 
 Not only has the word " Puritan" come to 
 be associated in the minds of many among 
 us with repellant and objectionable charac 
 teristics, but the Puritan minister has been 
 
of New England 4 1 
 
 identified with about all that was painful 
 and unhappy in the life of our respected, 
 hard - pressed, misinterpreted ancestors. 
 "The poor parsons" is a current phrase. 
 Imagination is given the privilege of taking 
 the word " poor" just as it pleases. 
 
 Now there are few more interesting and 
 suggestive characters in the history of New 
 England. The parson lived a life that was 
 uniquely conspicuous. He wrote himself 
 with strong, deep lines into the conditions 
 and the events of this land. " Who patient 
 is and right, his day shall yet arise." 
 There never before came to him such 
 an opportunity. And the fact is wrought 
 into the tissues and fibres of our social 
 fabric that the colonial parson was a 
 match for his singular and pre-eminent 
 opportunity. 
 
 The very name applies with noteworthy 
 fitness. Parson is simply another form of 
 
42 The Colonial Parson 
 
 person. Parson was emphatically and ac- 
 creditedly the person. Not in this case be 
 cause he had submitted to any prelatical im 
 position of hands and by virtue of his office 
 was the chief personage of the community ; 
 but the parson was the person generally 
 speaking, for the reason that he inherently 
 stood for the things of chief concern. He 
 was elected to his position by virtue of his 
 worth and fitness. 
 
 Among the company of emigrants that 
 settled New England during the first twenty 
 years, there were seventy-seven ministers 
 and sixteen theological students. These 
 men were graduates of the universities, men 
 endowed with rare gifts, coming from hon 
 orable families. They represented the 
 worthiest stock of the mother country. 
 The percentage of this class was so large 
 that it occasioned the oft-quoted remark of 
 Cotton, that "there was nothing cheap in 
 
of New England 43 
 
 New England but milk and ministers. " But 
 the large proportion of educated parsons 
 was a fortunate and important circumstance 
 connected with the settlement of our land. 
 
THE 
 
 PARSON S 
 
 BOYHOOD 
 
 AND ORDINATION 
 
THE PARSON S BOYHOOD AND 
 ORDINATION. 
 
 " THE May-morn of his youth" is a period 
 bound to be bright and songful. And the 
 boys in the Puritan family enjoyed their 
 peculiar sports and associations. They 
 might not have the means of entertainment 
 that had been left in Old England ; but they 
 had nature, wild beasts, Indians, perilous 
 times, love-making, and various other means 
 of an active, interesting experience. 
 
 Boyhood under these conditions was favor 
 able to merit and success. Home became a 
 nursery of that which was best and most 
 promiseful in character. The native bent of 
 the boy was investigated with loving scru 
 tiny. The unfolding personality was be 
 dewed with the prayers and the influences of 
 
 47 
 
48 The Colonial Parson 
 
 godly parents. And yet we are not to think 
 of these sons of the colonies as puny, in 
 offensive, effeminate young people. The 
 times were such that rugged traits of char 
 acter abounded. Pioneer struggle fostered 
 the manly virtues. 
 
 Although children were what might be 
 termed the absolute property of their par 
 ents, yet the exuberant and masterful nature 
 was just as common and quite as difficult 
 to train as two hundred years later. 
 
 Joseph Webb was fourteen years old when 
 he entered Harvard College. He had been 
 reared near Boston and had enjoyed the 
 privileges of excellent Christian nurture. 
 Nevertheless he was noisy, mischievous, 
 self-conceited, and domineering. When he 
 reached the sophomore year, he abused the 
 freshman that did fag service for him. The 
 result is found in the history of the college : 
 41 Whereas great complaints have been made 
 
of New England 49 
 
 and proved against Joseph Webb for his 
 abusive carriages in requiring some of the 
 freshmen to go upon his private errands 
 and in striking such freshmen, and for his 
 scandalous negligence to those duties . . . 
 he is therefore sentenced in the first place to 
 be deprived of the pension hitherto allowed 
 him, and also to be expelled from college. " 
 
 No wonder that he was brought to time 
 by such a severe penalty, and that he wrote 
 the authorities : " I do, with grief and sorrow, 
 humbly acknowledge these my great offences 
 and the justice of your proceedings against 
 me for them, and crave pardon and pray that 
 I may be restored unto my former standing 
 in the college. 1 This was in 1684. Some 
 sixteen years later this young man was one 
 of ten ministers here in Connecticut engaged 
 in the organization of Yale College. 
 
 It is true that these Puritan youth were 
 reared with solemn strictness. Nathaniel 
 
 4 
 
50 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Mather might whittle on the Sabbath-day 
 behind the door, and then feel that a " great 
 reproach of God" was upon him for such 
 conduct. But " youth is a continual intoxi 
 cation," and this spirit of lively satisfaction 
 in growing powers and expanding opportuni 
 ties cannot be repressed. 
 
 "How beautiful is youth, how bright it gleams 
 With its illusions, aspirations, dreams, 
 Book of beginnings, story without end, 
 Each maid a heroine and each man a friend." 
 
 We must therefore discount the impres 
 sions which old chroniclers of our colonial 
 days make upon us. Youth will infuse its 
 own spirit of buoyancy into the routine of 
 life, and Cotton Mather writes that "the 
 youth in this country are very sharp and 
 early ripe in their capacities. " 
 
 We see, then, our parson that is to be, 
 reared in a Christian home, surrounded by 
 healthful relations, encouraged to share in 
 
of New England 51 
 
 all manly acquirements and activities, gath 
 ering into his responsive personality the 
 streams of influence which make for truth, 
 patriotism, independence, intellectuality. 
 
 While the ministers that emigrated to 
 New England did not have to experience in 
 boyhood the hardships and disciplines pecul 
 iar to pioneer life, yet they were subjected 
 to restraints and instructions quite as varied 
 and fruitful. The boyhood of such men as 
 Cotton, Stone, Williams, Hooker, Daven 
 port, was a period filled with striking and im 
 portant incidents. These men and their fel 
 low-ministers were blessed with a rare home 
 training. And they enjoyed the fine privi 
 leges of the English universities in the years 
 of ferment and transition. Such influences 
 manifest themselves in the work done by 
 these great leaders through the later years. 
 
 But we are not to think that boyhood and 
 youth in New England passed without its 
 
52 The Colonial Parson 
 
 fair share of characteristic opportunities. It 
 was soon after the settlement of the country 
 that Harvard College was founded and a 
 school cherished in order to prepare the 
 youth for the important mission of the par 
 son. 
 
 President Dwight described what he calls 
 " the progress of every clergyman . . . until 
 he arrives at the desk. . . . From infancy 
 to manhood his whole character is subjected 
 to the inspection of his parents, of his 
 school-master, of the parish in which he is 
 born and bred, of the government of the 
 college in which he is educated, of the 
 church to which he is united, and of the 
 clergyman by whom he is instructed in 
 theology." 
 
 It certainly was a feature which had much 
 to commend it, that the young man was 
 placed in the family of some good minister 
 and there received a training for his work 
 
of New England 53 
 
 that was thoroughly practical. He might 
 not get the breadth of culture which charac 
 terizes our modern schools of divinity, but 
 he was enabled to get swiftly into the heart 
 of the people and come to an early compre 
 hension of his great life task. He was 
 licensed to preach when his studies were 
 completed, and then began the peripatetic 
 experience known as candidating. 
 
 But the event of prime importance was 
 his ordination. These occasions inter 
 ested the family of the candidate, the parish 
 which he was to serve, and the neighboring 
 churches affiliated with his particular church. 
 The records give us very fair pictures of 
 these noteworthy events. The young man 
 having candidated, the ecclesiastical society 
 and the church-members unite in giving him 
 a call. A letter of acceptance is written. 
 The day is set for ordination. A council 
 assembles on the appointed occasion. 
 
54 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 Neighboring churches are represented by 
 pastor and delegates. The work of exami 
 nation is first taken in hand. This may con 
 sume an entire day. They were thorough 
 in these matters some generations past. On 
 the second day the public services occur, 
 with the order something as follows, accord 
 ing to the description of Dr. Dwight: A 
 psalm, a prayer, a psalm, a sermon, a conse 
 crating prayer, a charge to the minister, 
 a charge to the people, a right hand of fel 
 lowship, a prayer, a psalm, an evangelical 
 blessing. 
 
 These were solemn occasions, we know. 
 The diaries of various men record the im 
 pressions made upon them and the great 
 aspirations and purposes stirred within 
 them. We would not detract by one word 
 from the significance of these memorable ex 
 periences. But truth compels us to say that 
 the ordination was considered a great social 
 
of New England 55 
 
 event, so that much of its spiritual character 
 was obscured so far as the general public 
 were concerned. It was an occasion of gen 
 erous feasting. Provisions were supplied 
 with a devout and loving amplitude. The 
 hearty eating and the abundant talking ex 
 cited the thirst of hosts and guests. It must 
 not surprise one, therefore, that among the 
 bills run up on these occasions was one 
 of large proportions for drinks. Cider 
 was always abundant and acceptable. 
 It was taken as a matter of course that 
 one might drink any amount of it. But 
 other beverages than cider were fur 
 nished. Here is a bill for an ordination 
 in 1785: 
 30 Bowles of Punch before the People went 
 
 to meeting. 
 
 10 Bottles of wine before they went to meet 
 ing. 
 44 Bowles of Punch while at dinner. 
 
56 The Colonial Parson 
 
 1 8 Bottles of wine. 
 
 8 Bowles of Brandy. 
 
 Cherry Rum (quantity not mentioned). 
 
 Now it is manifest that when the congre 
 gation had disposed of such an amount of 
 drink exclusive of cider, a certain measure 
 of free-and-easy fellowship must prevail, the 
 social instincts of young and old would re 
 spond to the favorable conditions, and there 
 must ensue lively times. It was quite 
 natural that the young people should desire 
 to work off the excitement of festivity by 
 such a curious anomaly as the ordination 
 ball. These frivolous conclusions did not 
 always follow. There were times not a few 
 when the seriousness of the occasion per 
 vaded the people ; but we get the impression 
 that at ordinations the social features were 
 emphasized to such extent that people 
 learned to look with gladsome anticipation 
 and remembrance upon the event which 
 
of New England 57 
 
 called them tog-ether in such delightful fel 
 lowship. 
 
 We must bear in mind that the use of 
 liquors was universal through those days. 
 When the fathers met in synod at Cam 
 bridge in 1648, there was a liquor bill in con 
 nection with the expense of the meeting. At 
 the ordination of Edwin Jackson in Woburn, 
 1729, the town paid for six and one-half 
 barrels of cider, twenty-five gallons of wine, 
 two gallons of brandy, four gallons of rum. 
 Thomas Smith wrote in his diary, January 
 1 6, 1765, concerning what might be called 
 the personal aftermath of Samuel Foxcroft s 
 ordination in New Gloucester: "We had 
 a pleasant journey home. Mr. Long 
 fellow was alert and kept us all merry. 
 A jolly ordination. We lost sight of de 
 corum." Such a note in one journal may 
 be matched by another from the diary of 
 John Emerson, of Con way: "Oct. 2oth. 
 
58 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Put in the cellar for winter use, 38 barrels 
 of cider. " 
 
 Now it may be well for us to recall these 
 festive occasions, if for no other purpose, to 
 the end that we may feel how our ancestors 
 were not opposed to good-cheer and agree 
 able fellowship. We deplore the excesses 
 which occasionally get recorded in the jour 
 nals of these men, at the same time we are 
 taught that a fair measure of sociability pre 
 vailed. 
 
THE 
 AGRICULTURAL 
 
 PARSON 
 
THE AGRICULTURAL PARSON. 
 
 IT was once the custom to consult the 
 minister concerning agricultural matters. 
 Parsonage land was often given him as a set 
 tlement gratuity. This necessitated a famil 
 iarity with the soil. The parson to-day is 
 perhaps the last man in the community that 
 would be able to assist in the tasks of farm 
 ing, yet we are convinced that his former 
 apprenticeship to such pursuits was a gain to 
 him rather than a loss ; not only by way of 
 living but also by way of influence. Farm 
 ing was common to the large portion of the 
 community. The minister had much in 
 common with the majority of his parishion 
 ers, therefore, when it came to agriculture. 
 A fellow-feeling was engendered. And 
 without doubt the health of the minister was 
 
 61 
 
62 The Colonial Parson 
 
 preserved to an extraordinary degree by his 
 contact with the soil. 
 
 There were numerous model farmers 
 among the parsons. Their reputation was 
 widespread. Jared Eliot, of Killingly, was 
 one of them. Dr. Goodrich, of Durham, was 
 another. William Robinson, of Southington, 
 was a third. Probably these men would 
 have been placed in the front had the county 
 fair been organized at the time. Certain it 
 is that their opinions were considered worth 
 careful heed, and on many occasions these 
 brethren turned from the strain of theologi 
 cal warfare to the more quiet and peaceful 
 setting forth of ideas and experiences con- 
 nected with the breeding of cattle, the rais 
 ing of grain, and the culture of fruit. 
 
 Such relief was invaluable to parson and 
 people. It saved the parson from complete 
 absorption in the abstruse and disquieting 
 questions of predestination, sovereignty, 
 
of New England 63 
 
 hell; it saved the people from the deeper 
 darkness and the more perplexing uncertain 
 ties of too-frequent and insistent preaching 
 along these lines. For the vigor of the 
 farmer-preacher was apt to show itself in his 
 sermon work, although at times it showed 
 itself in quite unexpected and extraordinary 
 ways. Mr. Morgan, of Greenwich, gravitated 
 between farm and pulpit until he finally 
 settled down permanently upon the farm. 
 A company of church-members was discuss 
 ing the comparative merits of their ministers. 
 At length one venerable deacon observed: 
 " Wa ll, our minister gives so much attention 
 to his fajrm an^/orchard that we get pretty 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 poor sermonSjJbut he is mighty movin* in 
 prayer m_caterpillar and cankerworm time. " 
 This agricultural experience gave the par 
 son many opportunities to point moral in 
 struction; he often gained a practical in 
 sight into character that proved of incalcul- 
 
64 The Colonial Parson 
 
 able benefit to him; he learned the 
 crookedness of the human heart; he con 
 ceived remedies and corrections that fre 
 quently served with fine effectiveness. 
 One straight-spoken minister was annoyed 
 because his neighbors helped themselves 
 with unstinted liberty to the fruits of his ex 
 cellent orchard. There came a time when 
 he felt constrained to speak of it. He there 
 fore gave notice from his pulpit that the 
 yellow sweet apples in the northeast corner 
 of his orchard would be ripe by next Wed 
 nesday. The individuals in the habit of 
 picking his apples were requested to wait 
 until that date ere they gathered them. 
 Tradition has it that such public announce 
 ment put an end to the unneighborly busi 
 ness. 
 
 It is fitting to observe that the apple-tree 
 was cultivated with uncommon zeal. It was 
 not alone that the fruit became an important 
 
of New England 65 
 
 article of diet, but it was also that the juice 
 of the fruit was squeezed into a popular 
 form of drink. This fact occasioned the 
 public gratitude of one simple-minded and 
 business-like parson, who said in his harvest 
 prayer: "We thank Thee, we thank Thee, 
 also for the many barrels of cider Thou hast 
 vouchsafed us," a form of thanksgiving 
 which has been relegated to the days of the 
 past. 
 
 Some years ago when one of our promi 
 nent ministers retired from his parish, after 
 a long period of successful service, it was 
 currently reported that he still had on hand 
 some fifty written sermons which he had 
 never preached. It had been his custom to 
 anticipate sermon work and keep a goodly 
 stock of carefully prepared discourses for 
 various occasions. 
 
 The devotion to agriculture which charac 
 terized one of the colonial parsons was 
 
66 The Colonial Parson 
 
 that he did all his sermon work between 
 December and April. Having completed 
 his one hundred discourses within the five 
 winter months, he was free to give his mind 
 unto the farm for the rest of the year. As 
 these were the days when men laid out large 
 schemes of divinity and frequently stuck to 
 the beaten track of theological discussion for 
 many months, it is conceivable that such a 
 method might be adopted without the rebel 
 lion of the parish. So far as intellectual 
 effort was concerned, this mode of procedure 
 was equivalent to a seven months summer 
 vacation. Doubtless the good man returned 
 to his sermon work in December with the 
 same freshness and zeal which manifested 
 themselves when he plunged into agricul 
 tural pursuits in May time. 
 
 These were the days of small things. The 
 salaries, as we observed, were meagre, one 
 hundred pounds being considered a fair 
 
of New England 67 
 
 stipend. But there were many parsons who 
 did not receive even so modest a sum as this, 
 so that necessity compelled them to turn the 
 hand to secular pursuits. 
 
 It was before the days of life insurance, 
 therefore the parson did not have that allur 
 ing and elastic sphere of usefulness. He 
 might run a mill, as did Samuel Danforth, 
 of Taunton. The real-estate business had 
 already suggested itself as a vocation, so 
 that he might combine the transfer of houses 
 and lands with the oversight of souls, as did 
 George Shove, of Teucton (this parson was 
 likewise a husbandman) ; but farming pre 
 sented the largest inducements and the most 
 tangible results. 
 
 In old En^land^ the : clergyman rented his 
 landsand rjceiyed_tithes L _But in NewJEng- 
 land^theland given to 
 
 erally land that he cultivated for a living. 
 He did not engage in gentleman-farming, a 
 
68 The Colonial Parson 
 
 thing which grows in popular favor to-day. 
 He was a practical laborer. His occasional 
 writing upon the subject was eminently 
 serious and instructive. While the agricul 
 tural paper or the agricultural column of the 
 weekly journal did not exist, he still contrib 
 uted certain literary results. 
 
 Dr. Jared Eliot wrote " Essays upon Field 
 Husbandry in New England," and it was 
 most excellent and suggestive writing in be 
 half of agriculture. He won enviable fame 
 by it. 
 
 When the father of Timothy Dwight 
 suddenly passed out of life, a family of thir 
 teen children was left bereaved and depend 
 ent. The young parson moved to North 
 ampton with his mother and the brothers 
 and sisters ; and there he threw himself with 
 zeal into farming. Preaching hither and 
 thither as opportunity came on Sundays, he 
 spent not a little portion of the week days in 
 
of New England 69 
 
 the management and cultivation of his land. 
 This service was continued until the call to 
 Greenfield Hill was accepted and the family 
 removed with him to that beautiful rural 
 parish. 
 
 That such experience contributed to the 
 usefulness of the minister is generally con 
 ceded. We see that it was invaluable to him 
 in the matter of health. It certainly added 
 to his income. 
 
 One faithful parson was severely handled 
 by his people because he made some eight 
 hundred dollars by selling produce from his 
 land. There were numerous examples of 
 generous and hospitable living which re 
 verted to the honest and efficient labors of the 
 parson and his family on the farm. The 
 days of homespun gave the farmer-parson 
 just as good an opportunity to provide for 
 himself as it did his neighbor the deacon. 
 
 But it is also to be remembered that the 
 
70 The Colonial Parson 
 
 minister s acres afforded his boys a fitting 
 opportunity to expend their surplus energy. 
 When John, Samuel, Thomas, Jeremiah, and 
 the rest of them felt the workings of youth 
 ful spirits within them, there was nothing 
 safer and more profitable by way of generous 
 outlet than a few days hard work upon the 
 parsonage land. It did not take a long time 
 to reduce the riotous fury of boyhood and 
 youth to reasonable and seemly bounds of 
 decorum. Meanwhile the parson s family 
 was becoming inured to work and yielding 
 the peaceable fruits of righteousness in ways 
 eminently satisfactory to parents and the 
 parish. 
 
 It is also to be noted that such familiarity 
 with nature on the part of thoughtful and 
 observant children had its helpful, refining 
 influences. While the Puritan did not have 
 the means of culture common to the mother 
 country, yet the lessons which are taught us 
 
of New England 71 
 
 by a beautiful flora, a varied landscape, the 
 moods and passions of changeful nature, 
 these were all distributed with prodigality. 
 They did more and more to nourish fine 
 sentiments and develop good taste through 
 the years. These results are therefore to 
 be counted among the benefits of rural life 
 and agricultural pursuits. 
 
 " Beneath the open sky abroad. 
 
 Among the plants and breathing things, 
 The sinless, peaceful works of God, 
 I ll share the calm the season brings." 
 
 Is it too much for us to believe that such 
 associations, rendered suggestive by ac 
 quaintance with books and scholars, had 
 much to do with shaping the later character 
 and development of the sons and daughters 
 of the Puritans? 
 
 "That delicate forest flower, 
 With scented breath and look so like a smile, 
 Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould, 
 An emanation of the indwelling Life. 
 
72 The Colonial Parson 
 
 A visible token of the upholding Love 
 That are the soul of this wide universe. 
 My heart is awed within me when I think 
 Of the great miracle that still goes on 
 In silence round me, the perpetual work 
 Of Thy creation, finished yet renewed 
 Forever. Written on Thy works I read 
 The lesson of Thy own eternity. 
 
 "Be it ours to meditate 
 In these calm shades, thy milder majesty, 
 And to the beautiful order of thy works 
 Learn to conform the order of our lives. " 
 
THE 
 
 POLITICAL 
 
 PARSON 
 
THE POLITICAL PARSON. 
 
 IT was the natural course for the minis 
 ters to pursue this taking active part in the 
 politics of the new country. The situation 
 in old England had taught them to have a 
 hand in affairs. The parson s interest in the 
 future of his adopted land was not less keen 
 than that of any other citizen. He had 
 made political matters a study in connection 
 with things ecclesiastical. The little state 
 on board the Mayflower became a little 
 church. It was inevitable under the circum 
 stances that the parson should exert control 
 ling influence in state life. 
 
 ^M 
 
 It was said of John Cotton " that whatever 
 he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into 
 an order of court, if of a civil, or set up as a 
 
 practice in church, if of an ecclesiastical con- 
 
 75 
 
76 The Colonial Parson 
 
 cernment. " It was in the mind of the set 
 tlers to rear a theocracy. The Bible was 
 the one book to which constant reference 
 was made. It furnished the basis for law 
 and procedure, and the minister was the 
 man best versed in the Scriptures, so that 
 constant reference was made to him by way 
 of help to an understanding and application 
 of God s Word. 
 
 Dr. Walker has illustrated very forcibly 
 the importance of the parson as a statesman 
 in his sketch of Thomas Hooker. The letter 
 of Hooker to Winthrop and the sermon 
 preached by Hooker at an adjourned session, 
 probably of the April court in Hartford, 
 1638, witness to the fact that he proposed 
 and outlined that system of government 
 which has proved infinitely important to 
 this land and the progress of the world. 
 
 It was Hooker that said t " The foundation 
 of authority is laid in the free consent of the 
 
of New England 77 
 
 people," and that "the choice of magistrates 
 belongs unto the people by God s own allow 
 ance" and that "they who have power to ap 
 point officers and magistrates, have the right 
 also to set the bounds and limitations of the 
 power and place unto which they call them. " 
 The constitution which resulted, observes 
 John Fiske, was the " first written constitu 
 tion known to history that created a govern 
 ment, and it marked the beginnings of 
 American democracy, of which Thomas 
 Hooker deserves more than any other man 
 to be called the father. " Such service and 
 eminence in this domain of thought were 
 enough to evoke the gratitude of the ages 
 for the New England parson. 
 
 It was another minister, Nathaniel Ward, 
 of Ipswich, that prepared for Massachusetts 
 " The Body of Liberties," the earliest written 
 code of the colony, adopted by the General 
 Court in 1641. John Cotton had also been 
 
78 The Colonial Parson 
 
 appointed by the General Court in 1636 to 
 prepare a scheme of laws for the govern 
 ment of the colony, but Ward s " Body of 
 Liberties" was preferred. The Mosaic code 
 was always kept in mind by these godly 
 men, and they endeavored to conform to it 
 in so far as it was practicable. 
 
 It was John Cotton that preached to the 
 deputies in 1634. They were to elect the 
 officers who were to conduct the affairs of 
 the little state. What more reasonable than 
 that they should seek the wisdom and guid 
 ance of the minister? He was just as deeply 
 interested in the political phases of their life 
 as in the religious. Indeed there was no 
 distinction made between the two. This 
 preaching to the deputies by John Cotton 
 set the fashion of election sermons. It soon 
 became the customary way to assemble the 
 men who were to attend upon this important 
 business and give them over to the instruc- 
 
of New England 79 
 
 tions of the parson. On one of these occa 
 sions it is said that the Rev. Mr. Wilson 
 climbed into a tree and converted it into a 
 pulpit. From such lofty perch he gave his 
 election message, and thus gained the satis 
 faction of reaching a large and interested 
 throng of listeners. 
 
 When the Indian chief, Miantonomo, was 
 put in the hands of our ancestors and the 
 question of procedure in the case troubled 
 the men in office, it was the natural thing 
 to refer the matter to a committee of minis 
 ters, picked from the members of the synod 
 convened at Cambridge. They were a sort 
 of ultimate authority in many a complex 
 question of state. 
 
 John Davenport was not afraid to hide the 
 regicides Goffe and Whalley in his own 
 house in New Haven, when they came to 
 him in 1661. And when their pursuers were 
 expected, he was not afraid to preach from 
 
8o The Colonial Parson 
 
 the text, " Hide the outcasts, bewray not him 
 that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell 
 with thee, Moab ; be thou a covert to them 
 from the face of the spoiler" (Isaiah xvi. 
 3, 4.) Such a course was political testimony 
 of the most effective character. 
 
 These men dealt with public affairs in a 
 masterful way. They were neither timid 
 nor reserved in respect to their course. 
 While it did not seem wise for the parson to 
 take the actual administration of political 
 matters into his own personal control, and 
 serve the colony or community as magis 
 trate, law-maker, governor, nevertheless ap 
 peal was made to him on important occa 
 sions and his were the shaping influences 
 manifest in the trend of things. Increase 
 Mather, of the North Church, Boston, was 
 bitterly opposed to the government of 
 Charles II. During the Revolution of 1688, 
 he was busily engaged with affairs of state 
 
of New England 81 
 
 in England. When he returned to Amer 
 ica, he brought back with him a new royal 
 charter and he had the privilege of nominat 
 ing his friend, Sir William Phips, as gov 
 ernor, to the King. 
 
 When we consider the peculiar relations 
 which sacred and secular affairs bore to each 
 other, how town meetings were frequently 
 or regularly held in many of the meeting 
 houses, how such assemblages were often 
 called in connection with the mid-week lec 
 ture, how the same men generally consti 
 tuted the two meetings, how religious pur 
 poses dominated the people whether they 
 met for Christian worship or political action, 
 when we consider these things, it becomes 
 quite apparent that the parson was in the 
 majority of cases pre-eminently the leading 
 man in the community, the individual that 
 embodied the highest ideals and set forth 
 
 the vital principles of common activity. 
 6 
 
82 The Colonial Parson 
 
 In Connecticut, as late as 1708, it was 
 ordered that "the ministers of the Gospel 
 should preach a sermon on the day appointed 
 by law for the choice of civil rulers, proper 
 for the direction of the town in the work 
 before them." We know that in many cases 
 such presentation of truth and such wisdom 
 of counsel was given as to determine the 
 policy of the little community. For every 
 question that bore upon the moral, civic, 
 political, social life of the people was consid 
 ered with a minuteness of detail that would 
 appal a modern congregation. The minister 
 was not only present at town meeting but he 
 was expected to open it with prayer, and the 
 occasion might arise when he took quite as 
 large a part in the discussion as any other 
 citizen. 
 
 It is true that with the generations there 
 came changes in respect to the parson s share 
 in the life of his times. But it is well for us 
 
of New England 83 
 
 to remember that he never arrogated to 
 himself power or authority. Dr. Stephen 
 West, of Stockbridge, had six judges of 
 the Massachusetts courts among his par 
 ishioners. His influence upon them was 
 one of the notable features of his minis 
 try, a remark which might be truthfully 
 repeated concerning a large proportion of 
 these ministers. 
 
 The elder President Dwight puts it wisely 
 when he says : " The real weight of clergy 
 men in New England, particularly in Massa 
 chusetts and Connecticut, consists wholly in 
 their influence; an influence derived from 
 their office and their conduct. " And we find 
 no more vivid and beautiful illustration of 
 this fact than in the years which preceded 
 the struggle for American Independence and 
 the years of that conflict itself. One Con 
 necticut parson raised a volunteer company 
 within the bounds of his own parish and 
 
84 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 then entered the war as captain of it a 
 ^ Bradley of Branford. 
 
 Many of the ministers became chaplains 
 and made themselves of inestimable value to 
 the cause of liberty. Judah Champion, of 
 Litchfield, who entered the army as chaplain 
 later, was conducting divine service in his 
 church when he was interrupted by the en 
 trance of a courier. A scrap of paper was 
 put into the parson s hand. He read it: 
 "St. John is taken." "Thank God for the 
 victory !" he exclaimed. " Amen and amen," 
 replied the chorister. Then the patriotic 
 parson recited the needs of our troops, pic 
 turing their sufferings, kindling the enthusi 
 asm of his hearers. It was Sunday, but 
 such a flame of practical loyalty had been 
 kindled that people went home to spin, 
 knit, sew, and do all sorts of things to 
 alleviate the sufferings of their precious 
 countrymen. 
 
of New England 85 
 
 The spirit manifest by Dr. Daggett, of 
 New Haven professor in the Divinity 
 School was a characteristic spirit. When 
 Tryon, of contemptible memory, burned the 
 city, Dr. Daggett was observed standing in 
 a little clump of bushes blazing away at the 
 British with all his might. Soldiers were 
 sent to investigate the single-handed and 
 solitary warrior. When the commanding 
 officer and his small band came upon him, 
 the officer exclaimed: 
 
 " What are you doing there, you old fool, 
 firing on His Majesty s troops?" 
 
 The busy doctor of divinity replied, " Ex 
 ercising the rights of war. " 
 
 This astonished and amused the British 
 officer, so he said with some indulgent ap 
 preciation of the thing : 
 
 " If I let you go this time, you rascal, will 
 you ever fire again upon the troops of His 
 Majesty?" 
 
86 The Colonial Parson 
 
 "Nothing more likely," grimly answered 
 the clerical hero. 
 
 So they took him prisoner, made him 
 march through the heat and the dust to 
 another part of the town, and finally cast 
 him one side. 
 
 It was Dr. Goodrich, of Dunham, who said 
 from his pulpit during these eventful days : 
 " Let the young woman refuse to give her 
 heart and hand to the young man who will 
 not give his heart and hand to the war for 
 the independence of the state." And many 
 a man did what Andrew Eliot, Jr., did in 
 Fairfield, namely, relinquish a part or the 
 whole of his salary on account of the com 
 mon poverty, and still continue to minister, 
 battling with circumstances to the best of his 
 ability. 
 
 Great work was done by the parsons in 
 arousing public sentiment and firing the 
 souls of men with patriotism. Mark Leaven- 
 
of New England 87 
 
 worth, of Waterbury, was one of these ear 
 nest men. It was he that came to his church 
 under the conditions of a ^500 bond to be 
 paid to the church in case he should become 
 an Episcopalian any time within twenty 
 years. The bond was cancelled after a few 
 years. Mr. Leavenworth served as chap 
 lain in the French war, and he was appointed 
 in 1776 by the General Assembly of Con 
 necticut "to arouse and animate the peo 
 ple." We may well believe that he did his 
 part in that important task. 
 
 Their very prayers were colored by the in 
 tensity of their patriotism, although an occa 
 sional slip is recorded. One of these good 
 men, passing unconsciously into the stereo 
 typed petition for "our excellent King 
 George," corrected himself by adding par 
 enthetically, " O Lord, I mean George Wash 
 ington," which proved satisfactory to his 
 watchful congregation and emphasized the 
 
88 The Colonial Parson 
 
 fact of his prayer for the cause of Independ 
 ence. 
 
 /^^Gurdon Saltonstall was another of these 
 parson-statesmen. A man of large culture, 
 excellent spirit, keen insight, broad sympa 
 thies, he was often consulted by his friend 
 and parishioner, Governor Fitz John Win- 
 throp. When the man of government be 
 came ill, Mr. Saltonstall aided him in the 
 conduct of public affairs. His help was of 
 such character that, on the death of Win- 
 throp, he was chosen to succeed him. For 
 sixteen years Governor Saltonstall remained 
 in office, discharging his many duties with 
 eminent ability and leaving to his people the 
 inheritance of many agreeable memories. 
 
 ** *. 
 
 The Synod of Saybrook was convened in ac 
 cordance with his wishes. The first print 
 ing-press in the colony was introduced by 
 him in 1709. 
 
 Elisha Williams, minister in Wethersfield, 
 
of New England 89 
 
 represented his people in the legislature and 
 was also made a judge of the superior court. 
 Daniel Hopkins, one of the Salem parsons, 
 was a member of the Provincial Congress in 
 1775 as well as the Council of the Conven 
 tional Government in 1778. 
 
 But the parson s best work was done by 
 way of incentive and persuasion. In Gor 
 don s "History of the American Revolu 
 tion," there appears the following letter: 
 
 "Rev. Sir: We cannot but acknowledge 
 the goodness of Heaven, in constantly sup 
 plying us with preachers of the Gospel, 
 whose concern has been the temporal and 
 spiritual happiness of his people. In a day 
 like this, when all the friends of civil and re 
 ligious liberty are exerting themselves to 
 deliver this country from its present calami 
 ties, we cannot but place great hopes in an 
 order of men who have ever distinguished 
 themselves in their country s cause; and do 
 
90 The Colonial Parson 
 
 therefore recommend to the ministers of the 
 Gospel, in the several towns and other places 
 in this colony, that they assist us in avoiding 
 that dreadful slavery with which we are now 
 threatened." 
 
THE 
 
 LITERARY 
 
 PARSON 
 
THE LITERARY PARSON. 
 
 THE literature of colonial days was nar 
 row and meagre, but the minister was gen 
 erally the creator of the few books circu 
 lated. It was not that he was the only 
 educated man among the people, but rather 
 that his mind seemed to move in the way of 
 literary expression. He lived among books, 
 although the number of books in his library 
 was necessarily small, and he was pre 
 eminently a man of one book, so that all his 
 literary tasks were colored by his devout and 
 suggestive familiarity with the Bible. Then 
 he made a large use of classical literature, 
 which was the staple material used in 
 university instruction. Copious quotations 
 93 
 
94 The Colonial Parson 
 
 from Greek and Latin authors were mingled 
 with frequent passages from the Sacred 
 Scriptures in all the books and pamphlets 
 which these scholars wrote. 
 
 The realm of theology claimed first atten 
 tion. Discourses from the pulpit often 
 made a complete system of Christian doc 
 trine, the course of sermons continuing 
 months or years. 
 
 Various important works were first pre 
 sented in this way. The multiplicity of 
 books upon doctrinal and metaphysical 
 themes was simply appalling. Increase 
 Mather left behind him eighty-five publica 
 tions. His son, Cotton Mather, bequeathed 
 three hundred and eighty- two unto posterity ; 
 and they were predominantly theological in 
 character. Above his study door were the 
 words, " Be short. " This was a prime neces 
 sity with visitors, else the diligent writer 
 had never finished his many books and at- 
 
of New England 95 
 
 tended to the common details of life and the 
 pastorate. One feels little drawing toward 
 this mass of literary matter, but the " Mag- 
 nalia" is certainly an interesting and valu 
 able work, characteristic of the man, rich in 
 quaint phraseology, witty sayings, curious 
 quips, and suggestive figures of speech. 
 
 The most famous among these theological 
 writers was Jonathan Edwards. His work 
 survives upon the shelves of scholars to 
 day. It is truly monumental in character 
 and elects him to a place among the great 
 minds of the ages. It is with peculiar in 
 terest that we think of him. The work 
 which he had faithfully done in North 
 ampton seemed to end prematurely and with 
 disaster. As he went into the isolation of 
 missionary service among the Indians, hope 
 burned dimly within his soul. But his lone 
 liness and disappointment did not trammel 
 him in the great work to which God called 
 
96 The Colonial Parson 
 
 him. The book on " The Freedom of the 
 Human Will" was written, and the advance 
 ment to the presidency of Princeton College 
 followed, so that when he forfeited his brief 
 life through devotion to science, a majestic 
 task had been achieved and an imperishable 
 fame assured. We count him the great 
 thinker of New England and the new 
 nation. We count him one of the great 
 thinkers of the English-speaking world. 
 
 Not a little of the writing done by the 
 colonial parson was ecclesiastical in its na 
 ture. The policy of the churches was ex 
 plained, illustrated, and defended. Many a 
 controversy waged with furious earnestness. 
 Mr. Hobart attacked Episcopacy when it 
 began its inroads in the country, and the 
 controversialists did not mince matters when 
 personalities were broached. 
 
 We speak of these men as lacking imagi 
 nation. Charles Chauncey, the second, used 
 
of New England 97 
 
 to say that he wished somebody would trans 
 late Milton s " Paradise Lost" into prose so 
 that he might understand it. But when it 
 came to heated discussion upon religious or 
 political matters the writers of the various 
 ages were manifestly fertile and ingenious 
 in all sorts of curious fancies and conceits. 
 Many a strange and original turn was given 
 to language by these men. It is an interest 
 ing study their versatility of expression and 
 their striking mastery of phrases. 
 
 The parson was not devoid of poetical sen 
 timent and aspiration. We must bear in 
 mind that pioneer struggles are not favor 
 able to the muses. There were more seri 
 ous and important tasks on hand than writ 
 ing songs and gathering flowers of rhetoric. 
 Nevertheless some of these men claimed the 
 title of poet. The " Bay Psalm Book" was 
 their most important and influential contri 
 bution to this department of literature. It 
 7 
 
98 The Colonial Parson 
 
 had not a little to do with forming public 
 opinion and quickening mental impulse 
 favorable to the writing of poetry. 
 
 Although many of these men adventured 
 into rhyme, yet they did it with a certain com 
 mendable reserve and modesty. Nathaniel 
 Ward, of Ipswich, speaking of their propen 
 sity to attempt poetry, observes, " I can im 
 pute it to nothing but to the flatuousness of 
 our diet." "The Simple Cobbler of Aga- 
 wam" is the interesting product of this poet- 
 preacher. One would scarce put it in the 
 same category as Milton s " Comus" or 
 Butler s " Hudibras," but it did well enough 
 for a vent to the so-called poetical impulses 
 of the author. 
 
 Michael Wigglesworth, described as "a 
 little, feeble shadow of a man," believed that 
 he was writing poetry when he composed 
 "The Day of Doom." Its success did not a 
 little to encourage his contemporaries and 
 
of New England 99 
 
 successors to immolate themselves upon the 
 "Altar of Song." 
 
 These good men had a way "of falling 
 into poetry," as it has been feelingly and 
 graphically described. The grave-yards 
 were full of it ; and truth compels us to say 
 that it were hard to find a more congenial 
 and more fitting place for it than the ceme 
 tery. Here it did less evil by way of asso 
 ciation and more good by way of emotional 
 outlet. Mr. Woodbridge s eulogy on John 
 Cotton is a very good example of the work 
 done in this peculiar and popular line of 
 composition. The poet speaks of the emi 
 nent man as 
 
 "A living, breathing Bible, tables where 
 Both Covenants, at large, engraven were. 
 
 O what a monument of glorious worth 
 When in a new edition he comes forth, 
 Without erratas, may we think he ll be 
 In leaves and covers of eternity." 
 
ioo The Colonial Parson 
 
 The literature of eulogy and " epitaphy" in 
 New England is peculiarly rich and " mov 
 ing," although the moving element which 
 abounds favors laughter rather than tears. 
 Not a little of our modern wit finds its gene 
 sis in the ancient graveyard. 
 
 David Humphries and Joel Barlow were 
 both ministers, although they gave the 
 strength of their genius to other pursuits 
 than that of the ministry. But with all that 
 can be said in respect to the poetry of colo 
 nial life we speedily reach the conclusion that 
 the less said the better so far as the good of 
 poetry is concerned. 
 
 These parsons were interesting writers of 
 history. The narrative flowed along without 
 much regard to consecutiveness of events or 
 balance and proportion of discourse ; but it 
 made an invaluable record, and we are quite 
 dependent upon these quaint and original 
 excursions into the field of reminiscence and 
 
of New England 101 
 
 observation. The State of Massachusetts 
 paid Mr. Hubbard, of Ipswich, ^50 for his 
 history of New England. It is a mine from 
 which we still gather more or less treasure. 
 
 The " Magnalia" of Mather is of course 
 like to no other work ever printed. 
 
 It is sweet to be remembered even with 
 such a portraiture as that given of Mr. 
 Ralph Partridge. Mather starts with the 
 text, " Twas as when one doth hunt a par 
 tridge in the mountains." "Among the 
 many worthy persons who were persecuted 
 into an American wilderness . . . there was 
 one that bore the name as well as the state 
 of a hunted partridge. . . . This was Mr. 
 Ralph Partridge, who for no fault but the 
 delicacy of his good spirit, being distressed 
 by the ecclesiastical setters, had no defence 
 neither of beak nor claw, but a flight over 
 the ocean. . . . This partridge had not only 
 the innocency of the dove . . . but also the 
 
102 The Colonial Parson 
 
 loftiness of an eagle, in the great soar of his 
 intellectual abilities. . . . The church of 
 Duxbury had such an eagle in their par 
 tridge. . . . Mr. Partridge was, notwith 
 standing the paucity and poverty of his con 
 gregation, so afraid of anything that looked 
 like a bird wandering from his nest, that he 
 remained with his poor people till he took 
 wing to become a bird of paradise, along 
 with the winged seraphim of heaven. " 
 
 These parsons were admirable writers of 
 adventure. They had the adventures in the 
 first place, which insisted upon being written 
 up for the coming generations. Then they 
 had the spirit and the imagination to deal 
 with the material in their possession. A 
 strict study of the times inclines one to think 
 that imagination played not an insignificant 
 part in these papers. I do not mean that 
 there was ever a purpose to mis-state or con 
 vey wrong impressions ; simply that nature, 
 
of New England 103 
 
 surroundings, events assumed startling, sug 
 gestive forms to their minds, and they wrote 
 with the frankness and simplicity of children. 
 The books upon witchcraft and the wonders 
 observed during these early days are good 
 illustrations of our meaning. 
 
 But the works which strike us as most in 
 teresting are the journals kept by these men 
 and the fragments of biography transmitted 
 to us. Brainerd revealed his very soul in his 
 diaries. The pictures of the days in which 
 he lived are exceedingly vivid. It is like 
 standing at some window which commands 
 an endless stretch of landscape and viewing 
 " the landscape o er" until the eye tires of its 
 straining. 
 
 While George Eliot may feel that bio 
 graphies are the bane of literature, yet 
 we believe Carlyle has the right of it in 
 saying that they are the most universally 
 profitable of books. So the reader has sim- 
 
104 The Colonial Parson 
 
 ply to turn to the numerous reminiscences 
 which embalm the memory of these old par 
 sons and there rises before him the goodly 
 company of worthies, instinct with the spirit 
 of their age, alive to the needs of men, faith 
 ful to reflect the life common to their kind. 
 Dr. Dwight portrays the parson in the fifth 
 part of his poem on Greenfield Hill : 
 
 "His face, the image of his mind, 
 With grave and furrow d wisdom shined ; 
 Not cold ; but glowing still and bright ; 
 
 Yet glowing with October light. 
 
 His cure his thoughts engrossed alone ; 
 
 For them his painful course was run : 
 
 To bless, to save, his only care ; 
 
 To chill the guilty soul with fear ; 
 
 To point the pathway to the skies, 
 
 And teach and urge and aid to rise ; 
 
 Where strait and difficult to keep, 
 
 It climbs and climbs o er Virtue s steep." 
 
THE 
 
 PARSON 
 
 AS A SCHOLAR 
 
THE PARSON AS A SCHOLAR. 
 
 A STORY is told concerning Thomas Parker, 
 of Newbury, which illustrates the condition 
 of scholarship among the parsons. The 
 theological opinions of this minister did not 
 altogether approve themselves to his breth 
 ren. The brethren therefore visited him 
 and engaged in argument. They spoke in 
 English and he replied in Latin. They 
 took up the argument in Latin and he 
 answered it in Greek. They continued it 
 in Greek and he fled to Hebrew. They 
 followed him into Hebrew and he clinched 
 the matter in Arabic. This was truly a 
 clincher for them, since Arabic was be 
 yond their acquirements. The incident 
 gives a fair conception of the scholastic con 
 ditions which prevailed among the parsons. 
 107 
 
io8 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Many of the clerical emigrants had ranked 
 among the ripest students of the old country. 
 When they settled in New England, they 
 not only continued their labors in these con 
 genial fields, but they speedily set to them 
 selves the tasks of rearing an educated 
 ministry and fostering the instincts of study 
 among the people. No one will deny that 
 they were the primary forces in this impor 
 tant movement. An examination into the 
 history of our schools and colleges shows 
 that the parsons furnished the vitality and 
 the impulse for the founding and the con 
 duct of many important institutions. 
 
 Cotton Mather was called the most learned 
 man of his day, but Thomas Prince came 
 close to him in the competition for scholar 
 ship. The ancient languages seem almost 
 as familiar to these parsons as the vernacu 
 lar in the home and on the street. John 
 Cotton was called " a most universal scholar 
 
of New England 109 
 
 and a living system of the liberal arts and a 
 walking library. " (I wonder if this descrip 
 tion of Cotton suggested to Sydney Smith 
 his mot on Macaulay " a book in breeches"?) 
 Peter Bulkly was an excellent scholar, and 
 he showed his interest in education by giv 
 ing his library (or a part of it) to Harvard. 
 These men were always earnest in their 
 efforts to foster learning and diffuse intelli 
 gence. Education was a part of their creed, 
 Its encouragement was a religious obligation 
 resting upon the ministry in an especial 
 way. 
 
 The meeting together of ten Connecticut 
 parsons and their small gifts toward an in 
 stitution of higher learning in the colony 
 was an incident typical of the purpose and 
 method of these men. Not only did Har 
 vard, Yale, Dartmouth, and the swift-suc 
 ceeding colleges owe their inception and 
 organization largely to the ministers, but 
 
no The Colonial Parson 
 
 they were also manned and managed by 
 them. Not that we wish to detract from the 
 creditable part which the laity took in the 
 matter. The parson and his people were in 
 harmony respecting the founding and sup 
 port of the colleges. But it is a fact that 
 the minister was given the leadership in the 
 important business. 
 
 The governing body of the various insti 
 tutions had a goodly proportion of parsons 
 in it. They were esteemed especially fit to 
 perform such tasks as must fall to them in 
 this public capacity. When it came to the 
 work of instruction ministers did large part 
 of it. The teaching office was identified to 
 a marked degree with the ministerial pro 
 fession. A larger supply of well-educated 
 preachers native to the soil being the chief 
 object in mind, it necessarily followed that 
 the parsons took the chief hand in the con 
 genial labor of instruction. 
 
of New England 1 1 1 
 
 The common schools likewise interested 
 them. There were numerous parishes 
 where the parson always served on the 
 " school committee. " The intimate relation 
 existing 1 between the town and the church 
 would be sufficient reason for this thing, 
 but an added explanation lies in the fact 
 that the parsons were insistent upon the 
 education of the people and sought every 
 helpful means to encourage the multiplica 
 tion and support of schools. When Horace 
 Mann, in one of his reports to the Board of 
 Education, urged the ministers to interest 
 themselves in the schools, he simply re 
 curred to the early habits and customs of 
 the colony. 
 
 It was not an infrequent thing to employ 
 the parson as a teacher. Whenever the 
 community found it impracticable to secure 
 a school-master, the people still had a last 
 resort in the educated man of the parish. 
 
ii2 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Although such double duty was burdensome 
 and harassing, yet the ^parson conformed 
 uncomplainingly to circumstances and 
 served according to the best of his ability. 
 Many of the teachers came from the ranks 
 of young divinity students. Jeremiah Day 
 was an example. Samuel Williams taught 
 school in his native place between the time 
 of his graduation from college and his licen- 
 sure to preach. These opportunities were 
 coveted for the reason that they helped the 
 impecunious students to the means neces 
 sary for the independent start in life. 
 
 Another form of service in behalf of edu 
 cation was performed by the parsons in 
 their taking boys and youth into the family 
 and preparing them for college. Many a 
 minister eked out his income this way and 
 filled the shelves of his library. The gram 
 mar schools established through New Eng 
 land were not so numerous as current opin- 
 
of New England 113 
 
 ion suggests. For in various instances 
 communities that had been instructed by 
 public vote to establish and conduct these 
 schools found it impossible to do so by rea 
 son of limited means. As a result the min 
 ister received ambitious pupils into his home 
 and did for them the service that the town 
 refused to do. 
 
 Moses Hallock, of Plainfield, Mass., and 
 Dr. Wood, of Boscawen, N. H., fitted about 
 one hundred men each for college. Two 
 of the men instructed by Dr. Wood were 
 Ezekiel and Daniel Webster. Other min 
 isters wrought in this same way, one man 
 preparing one hundred and thirty pupils 
 for college. The record of Dr. Elizur 
 Goodrich was even more remarkable, for he 
 received nearly three hundred into his 
 family ; and by good management he lived 
 in a generous way, educated his own five 
 
 sons for public life, and left an estate of five 
 8 
 
ii4 The Colonial Parson 
 
 or six thousand dollars at his death. His 
 library was one of the famous collections of 
 New England. 
 
 This familiar and domestic form of in 
 struction was especially favored in the pur 
 suit of theological study. While the colleges 
 had for their primary object the nurturing 
 of an educated ministry, the training that 
 was distinctively for the church was done by 
 the individual parson. Dr. Bellamy had a 
 long succession of college graduates in his 
 home. These men sought theological train 
 ing under his guidance. Aaron Burr was 
 an inmate of his home for a season, and 
 many were the arguments and discussions 
 which these two famous men held during 
 the weeks of their intercourse. 
 
 Professor Dwight, of Yale, bears a notable 
 name and transmits to this generation many 
 precious inheritances. A signal illustration 
 himself of the debt which scholarship owes 
 
of New England 115 
 
 to the parson class, we find in his famous 
 grandfather, of the same name, a very 
 worthy embodiment of the best and largest 
 services rendered to the general prosper 
 ity of the country. The elder President 
 Dwight had for a mother Mary, third 
 daughter of Jonathan Edwards, a woman 
 of rare spirit and intellect. The early 
 years of his life were memorable by her 
 faithful instructions and blessed influ 
 ences. As scholar, poet, chaplain, farmer, 
 and preacher, he~ made ^an_en viable J*epu- 
 tation. 
 
 His great work, however, was that wrought 
 in the domain of the teacher. While pastor 
 at Greenfield Hill he conducted a school 
 which became famous in the land. Declin 
 ing invitations to larger fields of labor, he 
 remained in his country parish until elected 
 president of Yale College. This gave him 
 the opportunity to do the supreme task to 
 
n6 The Colonial Parson 
 
 which he was appointed and for which 
 he was fitted; and he achieved a work 
 which identified him with the progress 
 of New England as few men have been 
 identified. 
 
 The indebtedness of education to the par 
 son class is also seen in the many evidences 
 of scholarship which appear in the history 
 of learning here in New England. Dr. Ed 
 ward Wigglesworth, teacher and preacher, 
 was one of the original members of the 
 American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
 The various societies designed to foster 
 study and research were adorned by the 
 membership of many a learned parson. 
 Linguistics, natural philosophy, history, 
 there were ministers who gave themselves 
 with zeal to the cultivation of these pur 
 suits. Medicine itself was enriched by 
 the services of many parsons. Doctor 
 Jared Eliot was one of the most noted 
 
of New England 117 
 
 cases, and his contributions to botany 
 and other departments of science were sig 
 nificant. 
 
 Eliphalet Adams, of New London, was a 
 marked scholar. When the rectorship of 
 Yale was offered to him, a town meeting 
 was called (April 16, 1714) and the matter 
 being referred to his people, they voted that 
 he decline the honor and remain with 
 them. Doctor Timothy Cutler, of Yale, was 
 one of the famed Oriental scholars of his 
 day. 
 
 It is apparent that scholarship and the 
 ministry are congenial. Did one attempt to 
 state in detail the support which the parson 
 gave to the cause of education the task would 
 be almost endless. When an association for 
 the improvement of schools was formed in 
 Middlesex, William Woodbridge, a minister, 
 was made president of it. This is a simple 
 illustration of the confidence reposed in the 
 
u8 The Colonial Parson 
 
 parson. It was believed that his interest 
 in education was such that he would do all 
 in his power for its best development. And 
 he courted the responsibilities peculiar to 
 the trust. 
 
 Now that teaching has become an impor 
 tant profession in itself, distinct from other 
 intellectual services, the relations of the 
 minister to its history are not emphasized. 
 There is also a feeling common to many 
 people to-day that education (in the techni 
 cal sense) must be independent of the par 
 son and the church. It is not for us to dis 
 cuss the question in this connection, but it 
 is for us to remember that the individual 
 who served most efficiently as inspiration 
 and leader in the matter of education here 
 in New England during the early gener 
 ations was the colonial parson; while the 
 testimony of two prominent educators re 
 minds us that the minister has proved an 
 
of New England 1 19 
 
 invaluable factor in the diffusion of knowl 
 edge these later days. 
 
 Professor Stowe, who was connected for 
 years with the educational system of Ohio, 
 writes : " My experience has taught me to 
 despair of establishing, with any perma 
 nency, even a good district school where 
 there is not a good church and an intelligent 
 ministry to watch over and sustain it." 
 And Professor Sears, once secretary of the 
 Massachusetts Board of Education, while re 
 ferring to the help given him by various 
 professional men, continued : " It may, 
 however, be said, without any injustice to 
 others, that the clergy of every name, in 
 the Commonwealth, have been second to 
 no other men in respect to an enlightened 
 policy and energetic action in promoting the 
 education of the people." 
 
 It is literally true that the typical parson 
 of colonial New England was not only the 
 
120 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 friend of education, but he was likewise an 
 embodiment of scholarship. 
 
 "The calm delights 
 Of unambitious piety he chose, 
 And learning s solid dignity." 
 
THE 
 
 PARSON 
 
 AS A PREACHER 
 
THE PARSON AS A PREACHER. 
 
 THE parson occupied a remarkable position 
 when he proclaimed his message from the 
 pulpit. The intellectual as well as the moral 
 and spiritual life of the community was 
 nourished by the preacher. Professor Fisher 
 has observed that " the height of the pulpits 
 from which they preached on the Lord s Day 
 is a symbol of the elevation conceded to 
 them by the general sentiment of the peo 
 ple." Any interruptions were considered 
 disgraceful; and the people that had the 
 temerity to disturb a meeting were visited 
 with condign punishment. 
 
 One can scarcely imagine the excitement 
 which must have prevailed during the witch 
 craft delusion, when the minister was inter 
 rupted by girls shouting, "Parson, your 
 123 
 
124 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 sermon is too long!" (which was undeniably 
 true, however), or "There is a great yellow 
 bird sitting on the parson s hat in the pul 
 pit." Such hysterical ebullitions were a 
 feature of the troublous times. Occasionally 
 some man would contradict the minister, but 
 such events were rare. There was a law 
 against this sort of thing in some of the col 
 onies which read as follows : " If any one in 
 terrupt or oppose a preacher in season of 
 worship, they shall be reproved by the mag 
 istrate, and on repetition shall pay ^5 or 
 stand two hours on a block four feet high 
 with this inscription in capitals, A Wanton 
 Gospeller. " The criticism of ministers was 
 a perilous business, words spoken against 
 them being punishable with whipping, fines, 
 and other ways. 
 
 The length of sermons was proverbial. 
 Mather Byles used to preach his one hour; 
 then taking the hour-glass in hand and turn- 
 
of New England 125 
 
 ing it over, he would say, " Now we will take 
 a second glass." (This witticism was prob 
 ably borrowed from an English preacher). 
 The second glass was something that the 
 people took as a matter of course, and little 
 objection was made to it. 
 
 While censure and contradiction were not 
 permitted, people could not refrain from 
 talking about the preacher and his preach 
 ing. Nathaniel Ward tells of a little child 
 who observed that the minister moved about 
 in the pulpit with a sort of Talmadgian 
 manner (as we might describe it to-day). 
 "Mother," exclaimed the child, "why don t 
 the people let the man out of the box?" Mr. 
 Ward applies the anecdote in writing to a 
 young minister, by saying, " I entreat you to 
 behave thyself in preaching, lest men say, 
 This is a Jack-in-a-box. " 
 
 People took note of voice and manner 
 quite as seriously in early days as they do 
 
i26 The Colonial Parson 
 
 in this age. Samuel Neal preached for his 
 father-in-law, Samuel Willard. But the 
 people did not like the preaching of the son- 
 in-law, and Mr. Willard was requested not 
 to invite him to preach again. A little later 
 father-in-law Willard borrowed son-in-law 
 Neal s sermon and preached it with excellent 
 effect. The people were so delighted with 
 it, that he was requested to prepare a copy 
 for publication. His merry satisfaction may 
 be easily imagined. 
 
 There was a great deal of drollery in the 
 pulpit and out of it among these good men. 
 John Cotton observed on one occasion that 
 he wanted light upon a certain subject ere he 
 delivered himself of it, so a friend sent him 
 a pound of candles^ <&r. George Phillips 
 became so witty and jestful in his preaching 
 that it was said he failed to maintain the dig 
 nity of his profession. Even John Eliot had 
 quaint ways of putting things, so that the 
 
of New England 1 2 7 
 
 souls of his hearers must have sometimes 
 smiled even if their faces did not. His 
 preaching was described as quite " plain so 
 that the very lambs might wade into his dis 
 course on those texts and themes wherein 
 elephants might swim. " 
 
 The mirthful Mr. Phillips was accustomed 
 to read the Bible through, from Genesis to 
 Revelation, six times every year. He was 
 also conversant with the original languages, 
 and he never needed or used a concor 
 dance. 
 
 In their preaching the early colonial 
 parsons dwelt chiefly upon doctrines and 
 wonders. This was the result of training 
 and association. The later colonial parsons 
 emphasized doctrines with the same ampli 
 tude and elaboration, but they became subtle 
 metaphysicians. The mental acuteness of 
 these men was well-nigh matchless. They 
 were the peers of the best dialecticians in 
 
128 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Europe. Sermons were arguments, chains 
 forged with the set purpose to hold in sub 
 jection the minds of men. The philosophi 
 cal discrimination manifest in these pro 
 ductions confounds the man of to-day who 
 goes to church that his weary brain may 
 take a rest. And yet the effect produced by 
 these preachers was often a marvel. Ed 
 wards usually read his sermons. We are 
 told how he kept his eyes upon the manu 
 script ; how he followed his line of discussion 
 with quiet, intense manner ; how he did not 
 lift his voice to any high, dramatic intonation 
 but simply interpreted his message with the 
 calm assurance of unconquerable conviction ; 
 how the very serenity and decorum of his 
 manner served to emphasize the importance 
 of the truth, so that at the last the waves of 
 emotion passed tumultuously back and forth 
 over his congregation, and people were com 
 pelled to give vent unto their pent-up feel- 
 
. 
 
 England 1 29 
 
 ings by means of groans, cries, shakings, 
 distortions, and kindred exercises. 
 
 Dr. James W. Alexander calls to mind the 
 incident of Edwards taking the place of 
 Whitfield, "the darling of the people," who 
 failed to appear when a multitude were 
 gathered to hear him. Edwards, unknown 
 to most in person, with unfeigned reluc 
 tance, such as a vainer man might feel, rose 
 before a disappointed assembly and pro 
 ceeded with feeble manner to read from his 
 manuscript. In a little time the audience 
 was hushed; but this was not all. Before 
 they were aware, they were attentive and 
 soon enchained. As was then common, one 
 and another in the outskirts would arise and 
 stand ; numbers arose and stood ; they came 
 forward, they pressed upon the centre ; the 
 whole assembly rose; and before he con 
 cluded sobs burst from the convulsed throng. 
 "It was the power of fearful argument." 
 
130 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Whittier has set him before us in the 
 greatness of his mind and heart : 
 
 " In the church in the wilderness Edwards wrought, 
 Shaping his creed at the forge of thought ; 
 And with Thor s own hammer welded and bent 
 The iron links of his argument, 
 Which strove to grasp in its mighty span 
 The purpose of God and the fate of man. 
 Yet faithful still, in his daily round 
 To the weak and the poor and sin-sick found, 
 The schoolman s lore and the casuist s art 
 Drew warmth and life from his fervent heart." 
 
 Charles Chauncey, the great-grandson of 
 Harvard s president of the same name, was 
 opposed to Whitfield and his style of 
 preaching. He used to say that he prayed 
 God he might never be an orator. A wit 
 remarked that his prayer had been answered. 
 So that we see the same diversity of views 
 and tastes prevailed generations ago that do 
 these modern times. 
 
 The occasions which called forth sermons 
 
of New England 131 
 
 were more numerous than to-day. At one 
 period there was such a thing as wedding 
 discourses. Parson Smith s daughter, Mary, 
 married Mr. Cranch (ancestor of the artist). 
 She had her father preach on the text, 
 " Mary hath chosen the better part, which 
 shall not be taken away from her." Her 
 sister, Abby, married John Adams, who was 
 not popular with Mr. Smith or his family. 
 Mary suggested that her father preach a 
 wedding sermon for Abby on the text, " John 
 came neither eating bread nor drinking 
 wine, and ye say he hath a devil." 
 
 Every event suggested a discourse. The 
 pulpit was the place where all that concerned 
 the individual or the state must be discussed. 
 We hear something said about the seculari 
 zation of the sermon to-day. One needs 
 simply to adventure into these broad, rich 
 fields of pulpit literature during the colonial 
 days and he will come back to the present 
 
132 The Colonial Parson 
 
 with a feeling that the times are not so 
 changed as he has imagined. Many of these 
 ancient discourses are simply world-wide in 
 the largeness with which they embrace every 
 topic of interest peculiar to the day. One 
 sermon which I have read, preached in 
 Hartford by Samuel Wakeman, contained 
 some fifty-six divisions and subdivisions. 
 And each separate portion of the discourse 
 was treated with a fair degree of elaboration. 
 One of Cotton Mather s sermons was en 
 titled "Brantologia Sacra." He divided it 
 into seven thunderbolts, filled with sharp 
 lightnings from the Scriptures. We are 
 told that while preaching a tremendous 
 storm burst above the congregation. As 
 Mather exclaimed, " In the thunder there is 
 the voice of the glorious God!" a messenger 
 came and told him that his house had been 
 struck. The quick-witted parson was swift 
 to improve the incident and put into the 
 
of New England 133 
 
 discourse a few additional thunderbolts. 
 At the conclusion the people must have 
 felt that between the storm within and with 
 out they had been severely handled. 
 
 On April 20,1768, the young ladies of the 
 parish of Newbury met at the house of Mr. 
 Parsons, the parson. (We quote from an 
 old record.) He preached to them on the 
 text Prov. xxxi. 19: " She layeth her hands 
 to the spindle, and her hands hold the dis 
 taff." The guests then proceeded to illus 
 trate the text by "spinning two hundred 
 and seventy skeins of good yarn." The 
 narrative says : " They drank Liberty Tea. " 
 This was made from an herb called rib-wort. 
 Doubtless the instructions and encourage 
 ments of the preacher were acceptable. 
 The fruits of the spinning-bee were pre 
 sented to the parson s wife. 
 
 This mild and charitable form of dissipa 
 tion was quite popular. The Connecticut 
 
134 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Journal of April 12, 1775, contains the fol 
 lowing news: "We are informed from the 
 Parish of East Haven, that the last week the 
 women of that parish . . . presented the 
 Reverend Mr. Street . . . with upwards of 
 130 run of well-spun linen yarn. . . . And 
 the generous guests, after some refreshment 
 and taking a few dishes of coffee, agreeable 
 to the plan of the Continental Congress, . . . 
 dispersed with a cheerfulness that bespoke 
 that they would be well pleased without a 
 sip from that baneful and exotic herb (tea) 
 which ought not so much as to be named 
 among the friends of American Liberty." 
 Which narrative shows that the spinning- 
 bee was a nursery of patriotism at the same 
 time that it yielded the practical fruits of 
 domestic life. 
 
 Sermons did not always accompany these 
 exercises. But at one time or another ser 
 mons touched every phase and condition of 
 
of New England 135 
 
 activity. Mr. Williams stigmatized veils; 
 Mr. Eliot frowned on wigs, long hair, and 
 tobacco; Mr. Wilson disapproved of treaties; 
 Mr. Colony discussed the governor s salary; 
 Mr. Peters exploited the subject of a stock 
 company in fishing. And whatever theme 
 the preacher chose as the object of his illu 
 mination and eloquence, he left little doubt 
 in the minds of his hearers in respect to his 
 meaning. Tennyson s "Northern Farmer" 
 explains : 
 
 "An I hallus corned to s choorch afoor my Sally 
 
 wur dead, 
 And eerd un a bummin awaay loike a buzzard-clock 
 
 ower my yead, 
 An I niver knaw d whot a mean d but I thowt a ad 
 
 summut to saay. 
 An I thowt a said whot a owt to a said an I corned 
 
 away." 
 
 The congregation of the colonial parson 
 in New England did not take the message 
 
136 The Colonial Parson 
 
 in this blind way. Men " sensed" it. The 
 appeal was made to their understanding. 
 One expected to think about it and weigh it 
 in his own private scales. Any deficiency 
 which might be detected was sure to be re 
 ported to the parson and made the occasion 
 for further discussion and explication. 
 
 "For the preacher s merit or demerit, 
 It were to be wished the flaws were fewer 
 In the earthen vessel holding treasure 
 Which lies as safe in a golden ewer ; 
 But the main thing is, does it hold good measure?" 
 
 The Puritan congregations generally con 
 sidered that they had good measure. " There 
 is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present 
 inflicted on mankind in civilized and free 
 countries, than the necessity of listening to 
 sermons," says the author of " Barchester 
 Towers." Such a statement must be re 
 ceived with a great deal of allowance for 
 the prejudices and peculiarities of Trollope. 
 
of New England 137 
 
 But however much of truth there may be in 
 it to-day, it is quite certain that our ancestors 
 had another mind, and for generations were 
 conspicuously appreciative of preaching. 
 
THE 
 
 PARSON 
 
 AS A MAN 
 
THE PARSON AS A MAN. 
 
 THE parson was by no means devoid of at 
 tractions as a man. He not only showed 
 himself a competent person on various occa 
 sions, but a spirit of real manliness flamed in 
 his life. The old saying that people are 
 divided into men, women, and priests had 
 little force in his case. He did not lord it 
 over God s creation because he was chosen 
 to the headship of the local church. His 
 superiority was largely personal. It belonged 
 to the man. 
 
 "Self is the man. Who crown and throne would 
 
 claim 
 Must personally be worthy of the same." FAUST. 
 
 We are therefore to think of him as a man 
 among men. The caricatures which set 
 
 forth the priest of the mother- country and 
 141 
 
142 The Colonial Parson 
 
 the misinterpretations which have been 
 handed down through the centuries strike 
 wide of the mark when it comes to a dis 
 criminating 1 examination of facts. 
 
 The parson was a manly man. He came 
 into daily touch with the men of the parish 
 and the colony. His life was no ascetic or 
 celibate life. The experience helpful to 
 trade and agriculture was quite as likely to 
 be found among the ministers as among the 
 laymen. There was a masculinity about this 
 individual that harmonized perfectly with 
 his environment. Many of these men were 
 like Nimrod, famous hunters before the 
 Lord. They enjoyed that out-of-door ac 
 tivity which signifies healthy blood, exu 
 berant spirit, sanguine disposition. 
 
 The pastor of the church in Ellington, 
 Conn. , climbed to the top and fell to the bot 
 tom of the meeting-house tower, a distance 
 of seventy feet. But it did not interfere ma- 
 
of New England 143 
 
 terially with his ministry. He was not to be 
 laid. one side by any such small incident. 
 His fibre was such that an occasional strain 
 of this kind was a mere passing event. 
 These men were well constructed and wisely 
 tempered so that they were able to with 
 stand many a hard knock and make a tran 
 quil way through many a wild tempest. 
 
 They were genial individuals. It is hard 
 to find better company than a coterie of 
 ministers to-day. They inherit this spirit 
 of good-fellowship. The starch which these 
 men had about them was scarce ever deeper 
 than the spotless shirt-bosom. The dig 
 nity of manners was not a chosen barrier 
 to keep aloof their fellow-men. On the 
 contrary we must think of it as the fashion 
 of the times, common to all gentlemen, 
 the sign-manual of social standing and 
 service. There were men that became ab 
 sorbed in the higher pursuits of learning and 
 
i44 The Colonial Parson 
 
 became known for their absent-mindedness. 
 John Eliot was a mild, generous, simple 
 gentleman and one that walked with this ab 
 stracted demeanor. His good wife one day 
 jested with him about his cows. The ani 
 mals passed before his door and she demure 
 ly asked him whose they were. He was 
 obliged to confess that he knew them not. 
 But the typical parson was not such an one 
 that he lived above the care and turmoil of 
 daily life. He touched society at every 
 point and he moved among people with a 
 certain largeness of experience and ease of 
 adaptedness that are taken for the character 
 istics of the man of the world. 
 
 Life was intensely prosaic. Ministers 
 were compelled to give a practical turn to 
 things in general. The phrases used to de 
 scribe them smacked of daily experience. 
 The Puritans said that the ship which car 
 ried Cotton, Hooker, and Stone brought 
 
of New England 145 
 
 three great necessities, Cotton for their 
 clothing, Hooker for their fishing, Stone 
 for their building." A quotation from the 
 elegy on John Higginson, of Salem, runs as 
 follows : 
 
 "For rich array cared not a fig, 
 And wore Elisha s periwig." 
 
 This was one way of saying that Mr. Hig 
 ginson possessed great good sense and was a 
 thoroughly practical man. 
 
 There was nothing in the community that 
 did not concern them. Increase Mather 
 took a deep interest in the introduction of 
 inoculation for small-pox in this country. 
 And another minister, Benjamin Coleman, a 
 poet as well as preacher, wrote a tract upon 
 the subject in 1721 and did all in his power 
 to mitigate this dread disease which made 
 such havoc in the land. 
 
 The parson was also a man of courage. 
 It was not only that he had the courage of 
 
 10 
 
146 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 his convictions, but he had the courage of 
 his actions. One night Mr. Hooker heard 
 some peculiar sounds proceeding from his 
 cellar. It might be a thievish bear or a 
 wicked man. He quickly dressed and went 
 quietly down into the subterranean regions. 
 
 The visitor was an unholy individual that 
 lived near the parson, and he was taking 
 away Mr. Hooker s last piece of pork. 
 "Neighbor," said the parson, "you act un 
 fairly. You ought to leave a part for me." 
 The frightened thief fell upon his knees 
 and begged Mr. Hooker s pardon, but Mr. 
 Hooker divided the pork with him and sent 
 him home a conscience-scourged and repent 
 ant man. 
 
 It was very sensible advice which this 
 particular parson gave on the occasion 
 when a young minister proposed to go into 
 the parish where there dwelt an old, mali 
 cious preacher for they did have occasional 
 
of New England 147 
 
 black sheep in the days of old as well as the 
 days of new. " It is dangerous and uncom 
 fortable," remarked the wise parson, with 
 commendable frankness and courage, "for 
 little birds to build under the nests of old 
 ravens and kites." 
 
 One gets the impression that these colo 
 nial parsons were plain-spoken in their deal 
 ings with the people. Mather Byles was a 
 rank Tory. He made himself particularly 
 offensive to the congregation of Hollis Street 
 Church, Boston. Then the town itself took 
 up the subject of his Toryism. In 1777 he 
 was publicly denounced and arrested. Still 
 he continued the free use of his tongue and 
 budged not one inch from the position which 
 he had originally assumed. Referring to 
 the way that soldiers had been sent to re 
 strain him and then dismissed from the in 
 teresting business, he observed that he " had 
 been guarded, re-guarded, and disregarded." 
 
148 The Colonial Parson 
 
 But through the whole process he was 
 fearless and jestful. When the British 
 troops, the lobsters, passed his door, he ex 
 claimed : " Ah, now our grievances will be 
 red-dressed!" So we see that this eminent 
 minister did notable service in his vocation, 
 and retained, like his many predecessors and 
 contemporaries, an intrepid spirit. 
 
 They were also courageous in the pulpit. 
 They had a plain way of freeing the mind 
 on all sorts of matters. Not alone grave 
 concerns of state or education or spiritual 
 life, but light and trivial things gave fre 
 quent occasion for speech in the meeting 
 house. The frank way in which Dr. Bellamy 
 corrected his choir is an illustration. " You 
 must try again, for it is impossible to preach 
 after such singing, " said this good man on one 
 Lord s Day. What temerity and fearlessness 
 does such an act show! Many a preacher 
 has been metaphorically beheaded for a 
 
of New England 149 
 
 smaller criticism and interference, although 
 there comes to mind a later incident of this 
 kind which shows that some of the preachers 
 in this century inherited the same impulse 
 to frank speech. For when Captain Brookes 
 and some of his associates slipped out of the 
 choir gallery during sermon time, they were 
 greeted on the return with a most solemn 
 rebuke on the part of their pastor, albeit the 
 captain publicly explained that a neighbor s 
 filly had gotten her legs over the thills and it 
 was fly-time. 
 
 The circumstances were different but the 
 manhood was the same, that we note in 
 the case of Charles Chauncey. In 1747 he 
 preached an election sermon before the gov 
 ernor and legislature of Massachusetts, that 
 did not altogether please numerous hearers. 
 It was upon the fluctuations of paper money, 
 and he handled the subject in such a way 
 that some of his audience became very in- 
 
150 The Colonial Parson 
 
 dignant and censorious. It was told him 
 that the legislators would not publish the 
 address as had been the customary way. 
 "It shall be printed," said Mr. Chauncey, 
 "whether the General Court prints it or 
 not." Then by way of castigating his op 
 ponents the preacher observed, " If I wanted 
 to initiate or instruct a person in all kinds 
 of iniquity and double-dealing, I would send 
 him to our General Court." A sentiment 
 which shows that legislators were not always 
 considered spotless and unblamable a cen 
 tury and a half ago. 
 
 One cannot follow the course pursued by 
 these men without feeling the largeness of 
 their humanity, the breadth of their sym 
 pathies, and the richness of their experience. 
 They had their faults like other people. 
 The sentiments and conditions of the times 
 had much to do with their personal charac 
 teristics just as with the great majority of 
 
of New England 151 
 
 the people. But there was a rare and gener 
 ous manhood manifest through all the trying 
 situations in which they were placed. 
 
 Mr. James Davenport was caught by the 
 wave of emotionalism which passed over 
 New England the middle of the last century. 
 Under the spell of his strange enchantment 
 people brought to him their wigs, cloaks, 
 breeches, hoods, gowns, rings, necklaces, and 
 other precious or beautiful articles, that he 
 might destroy them by fire and thus save 
 them from further temptations to worldli- 
 ness. On March 6th, 1743, he gathered 
 many people upon the wharf in New London. 
 They brought with them such books as he 
 had anathematized, books of travel, amuse 
 ment, poetry; books that interpreted the 
 worldly sentiments and experiences of men. 
 A sort of funeral pyre was constructed. 
 Then the valuable mass of literature was 
 fired. Meanwhile the throng gathered about 
 
152 The Colonial Parson 
 
 the blazing books singing "Hallelujah!" 
 and "Glory to God!" Now Mr. Davenport 
 was " a very fair sort" of a man. The error 
 of his way was made manifest to him at a 
 later date. He therefore changed his course, 
 came forth bravely into the public gaze to 
 set the matter right, and sought by manly 
 conduct to undo the harm which had been 
 wrought by his strange vagaries. 
 
 There were many occasions on which these 
 men made mistakes and fell into grievous 
 errors. They never claimed infallibility. 
 At the same time one observed a laudable 
 and fruitful readiness to acknowledge faults 
 and rectify mistakes. 
 
 The difficulties that beset the parson in his 
 domestic affairs have been narrated with ex 
 haustive particularity. But we are not to 
 think of him as worse off than many of his 
 parishioners. People lived according to 
 their "means," and that signified a certain 
 
of New England 153 
 
 narrowness that was not without its compen 
 sations. The poverty of the minister was 
 often a fair example of the poverty that 
 featured the day. The coin in which the 
 minister received his pay was simply the 
 "current coin of the realm," namely, com 
 mon produce of one sort or another. When 
 James Pierpont was called to New Haven it 
 was voted to pay him annually, " while he 
 shall preach the word of God to us, the sum 
 of one hundred and twenty pounds in grain 
 and flesh," and "to supply him with fire 
 wood annually." 
 
 Many of the parsons were quite " well-to- 
 do." They had a fair proportion of this 
 world s goods. By inheritance, by mar 
 riage, or by management they came into 
 possession of goodly properties so that their 
 estates appear to advantage on the records 
 of the probate court. Joseph Webb had ex 
 pensive clothes. The inventory of his estate 
 
154 The Colonial Parson 
 
 mentions a black broadcloth coat worth six 
 pounds ; vest and breeches, two pounds and 
 a half; vest with silver buckles, three pounds 
 and four shillings and sixpence, and other 
 personal gear to match. 
 
 The inventory of the estate left by Charles 
 Chauncey, of Strathfield, reveals the fact that 
 he was a man of substance. His cloak was 
 valued at four pounds, his black coat at three 
 pounds, two nightcaps and two gowns at two 
 pounds eleven shillings and sixpence, a look 
 ing-glass and silver-headed cane at three 
 pounds and ten shillings. There are also 
 silver spoons, cups, tankards, and gold rings. 
 The inventory comes to nine hundred and 
 sixty-five pounds. 
 
 Samuel Cooke, of Strathfield, seems to have 
 worn better clothes and gathered a larger 
 property than the majority of his minis 
 terial brethren. His estate amounted to 
 twenty-seven hundred and eighty-five pounds 
 
of New England 155 
 
 sterling, with thirty pounds of tobacco 
 added. 
 
 The pair of "lether" breeches with silver 
 buttons must have been very substantial 
 and elegant, for they were valued at nine 
 pounds and ten shillings. Fine stockings 
 were evidently a weakness with him, 
 for several kinds are enumerated. His 
 preaching Bible was set down at three 
 pounds and fifteen shillings, his large 
 Bible at four pounds, his Hebrew Bible 
 at five pounds, his Concordance at six 
 pounds. 
 
 Such records do not give one the impres 
 sion that these parsons were poverty- 
 stricken. When Washington on one of his 
 trips through Connecticut stopped for sup 
 per at Milford, they gave him a broken 
 pewter spoon with which to eat his 
 bread and milk. So he handed the wait 
 ing-maid two shillings and bade her go 
 
156 The Colonial Parson 
 
 to the minister s house and borrow a silver 
 spoon. 
 
 True it is that eccentricity sometimes 
 manifested itself among the ministers. 
 There was the parson who preached in his 
 stocking-feet, and the one who preached in 
 his study coat ; the parson who ran a distil 
 lery and the one that covered his face with a 
 black handkerchief ; there was the lazy par 
 son who made his people sing the longest 
 psalm while he withdrew and rested under 
 the trees on a summer s day; and the one 
 who did not venture into his pulpit through 
 some haunting impression that he would die 
 in it, escaping this peril by preaching in 
 front of the desk. But it would not be fair 
 to say that eccentricity was an especial char 
 acteristic of the parson class. Queer peo 
 ple get into all vocations. The conspicuous 
 station of the minister made his eccentrici 
 ties more noteworthy and memorable. 
 
of New England 157 
 
 "... The elements 
 
 So mix d in him, that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, This was a man." 
 
 Although the trials and besettnents of his 
 position were great, he still retained his alle 
 giance to a noble ideal of character. His 
 office was not allowed to belittle his man 
 hood. Just as he was counted simply a 
 brother workman in the local church, so was 
 he kindred spirit in the social fabric of the 
 land. 
 
 "A minister, but still a man." 
 
THE 
 
 PARSON 
 
 AS AN ANCESTOR 
 
THE PARSON AS AN ANCESTOR. 
 
 AN atmosphere of romance pervaded the 
 life of many a parson. The love experiences 
 of these staid, decorous individuals were 
 marked by the same fascinations that draw 
 us to the story of every passionate lover. 
 
 The feeling prevailed through colonial 
 society that the maiden was well married 
 who married a minister. There were excep 
 tions. The father of Priscilla Thomas, of 
 Marshfield, did not wish his daughter to 
 marry Noah Hobart, a poor theologue, pre 
 ferring that she form an alliance with a man 
 of property like John Watson, of Plymouth. 
 But the majority of people were well dis 
 posed toward the parson when he came to 
 court some daughter in the family. It was 
 
 taken as an honor that he showed such inter- 
 ii 161 
 
1 62 The Colonial Parson 
 
 est and discrimination. The parson being 
 the chief individual in the parish, it was con 
 ceded that a sort of social leadership be 
 longed by right to his wife. There were 
 ladies, not a few, who were glad to submit to 
 poverty as part of the price for a position in 
 the parsonage. 
 
 Then it was a life with numerous sweet 
 and peculiar compensations which was led 
 by the parson s family. There was scarcely 
 anything of private or public concern which 
 occurred that the minister and his family 
 did not share liberally in it. If there was 
 one class of people through all these days of 
 colonial life that kept unweariedly in the 
 current of events it was the parson class. 
 Who does not feel the attractions of such 
 opportunity? 
 
 It is also true that many of the amenities 
 of life centred in the minister s home. It 
 seems to us that it was a bare and repug- 
 
of New England 163 
 
 nant experience into which our forefathers 
 plunged, but they never reckoned it in such 
 terms. The few books ; the household stuff 
 that spake of refinement ; the prevailing at 
 mosphere of high thought and devout aspi 
 ration ; the healthful activity of body, mind, 
 and soul characteristic of the parson s home 
 life; the manifold good influences which 
 became synonymous with the parsonage 
 household; these things all served to com 
 mand the respect and win the friendly inter 
 est of the community. If there was one 
 family more than another that belonged to 
 everybody, that had its concerns thoroughly 
 discussed by the general public, that was 
 subjected to incessant and especial watch- 
 care on the part of all classes and conditions 
 of men, that particular family was sure to 
 be the minister s. 
 
 While such oversight and interference 
 might prove objectionable to some people, 
 
164 The Colonial Parson 
 
 it was not only taken as a matter of course 
 by the parsons, but it soon came to be 
 reckoned as partial compensation for his 
 labors. People felt that they did him 
 honor and put him tinder loving obligation 
 when they proceeded to advise him in re 
 spect to domestic as well as parish matters. 
 It is not every man that is worth such con 
 sideration that all his movements and expe 
 riences (the family being included) have 
 vital interest for an entire community. 
 
 Last, and by no means least, in this enu 
 meration of attractions we mention the par 
 sons themselves. They were rugged, hearty 
 individuals ; thoroughly educated (according 
 to the opportunities of the day) ; disciplined 
 into a fair command of circumstances ; pos 
 sessed of the many virtues which made 
 manhood genuine and esteemable; withal 
 consecrated to the supreme tasks of a relig 
 ious ministry, a thing which makes insistent 
 
of New England 165 
 
 appeal to the finer and nobler instincts of 
 womankind. And it were needless to say 
 that these parsons averaged well with their 
 brother men in respect to the gracious 
 and beautiful impulses of the purest affec 
 tion. The love history of these men, 
 therefore, is one that glows with a singular 
 charm. 
 
 What a sweet love story is the courtship 
 of Jonathan Edwards! It was when Sarah 
 Pierpont was only thirteen years old and 
 Edwards twenty that he wrote his exquisite 
 characterization of the rare maiden. 
 
 " They say there is a young lady in New 
 Haven who is beloved of that great Being 
 who made and rules the world, and that 
 there are certain seasons in which this great 
 Being, in some way or other invisible, comes 
 to her and fills her mind with exceeding 
 sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for 
 anything except to meditate on Him; that 
 
1 66 The Colonial Parson 
 
 she expects after a while to be received up 
 where He is, to be raised up out of the world 
 and caught up in heaven, being assured that 
 He loves her too well to let her remain at a 
 distance from Him always. There she is to 
 dwell with Him and to be ravished with His 
 love and delight forever. Therefore, if you 
 present all the world before her, with the 
 riches of its treasures, she disregards and 
 cares not for it, and is unmindful of any 
 pain or affliction. She has a strange sweet 
 ness in her mind, and singular purity in her 
 affections ; is most just and conscientious in 
 all her conduct ; and you could not persuade 
 her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you 
 would give her all the world, lest she should 
 offend this great Being. She is of a wonder 
 ful calmness, and universal benevolence of 
 mind. She will sometimes go about from 
 place to place singing sweetly, and seems to 
 be always full of joy and pleasure, and no 
 
of New England 167 
 
 one knows for what. She loves to be alone, 
 walking in the fields and groves, and seems 
 to have some one invisible always convers 
 ing with her. " 
 
 What a lofty conception of character was 
 this on the part of the lover ! And when the 
 proper time comes he wooes her with all the 
 passionate devotion of the most ardent soul. 
 Urging a speedy marriage, he writes her 
 that " patience is commonly esteemed a vir 
 tue, but in this case I may almost regard it 
 as a vice." 
 
 She was only seventeen when married; 
 but it was one of the most notable and 
 happy unions in colonial days. She filled 
 the home with sunshine, she made an at 
 mosphere of gladness, she quickened every 
 heart that came within the circle of her 
 gracious and noble influence. " A sweeter 
 couple I have never seen," wrote "Whitfield 
 after a visit to them at Northampton. And 
 
T68 The Colonial Parson 
 
 Whittier, in exquisite verse, dwells upon 
 this sweet and blessed experience : 
 
 "Had he not seen in the solitudes 
 Of his deep and dark Northampton woods 
 A vision of love about him fall? 
 Not the blinding splendor which fell on Saul, 
 But the tenderer glory that rests on them 
 Who walk in the new Jerusalem, 
 Where never the sun nor moon are known, 
 But the Lord and His love are the light alone. 
 And watching the still, sweet countenance 
 Of the wife of his bosom rapt in trance, 
 Had he not treasured each broken word 
 Of the mystical wonder seen and heard ; 
 And loved the beautiful dreamer more 
 That thus to the desert of earth she bore 
 Clusters of Eschol from Canaan s shore?" 
 
 The love-story of Nathaniel Appleton is 
 more dramatic. He became infatuated with 
 the daughter of Parson Gibbs, of Watertown. 
 It is said that her attractions invited other 
 suitors, so that young Appleton became dis 
 tressed. One day he called and saw a rival s 
 horse fastened nigh the gate. It took him 
 
of New England 169 
 
 but a moment to set the animal loose and 
 scourge it into a wild gallop off toward the 
 woods. He then entered the house and in 
 formed the owner of the departed horse that 
 he saw the animal running with all his might 
 into the dim distance. Thus rid of the in 
 truder, he proceeded to finish his business, 
 and exact a promise of marriage from the 
 object of his affections. 
 
 One is impressed with the fact that love s 
 ways or impulses are much alike the world 
 over, and that these young parsons, and often 
 these old parsons, thoroughly appreciated 
 the witchery of a lively, adventurous court 
 ship. 
 
 We note an occasional exception. Wil 
 liam Adams, son of Eliphalet (also a par 
 son), preached for more than sixty years, 
 but he never married or submitted to ordi 
 nation, saying that he would not be bothered 
 with a wife or a parish. 
 
170 The Colonial Parson 
 
 A good many of these favored men mar 
 ried into the parish. They were settled, 
 and then came the time when they might 
 wisely consider the choice of a helpmeet. 
 The natural supposition would be that the 
 young ladies who paid closest attention to 
 the sermon and took most active part in par 
 ish work would win the heart and hand of 
 the new minister. But love is a very curi 
 ous and inexplicable spring of action. It 
 was the unexpected that happened on many 
 of these interesting occasions. 
 
 Many of the young students took a course 
 in love as well as theology when they tarried 
 in some minister s family preparatory to set 
 tlement. The parson s daughter was an 
 especial favorite with the theologue in his 
 matrimonial arrangements. 
 
 Three of Thomas Hooker s daughters mar 
 ried parsons. Edward Taylor, of Deerfield, 
 married a minister s daughter, and he had 
 
of New England 171 
 
 five daughters that became ministers wives. 
 These girls, reared in the minister s house 
 hold, knew all the ins and outs of his life, so 
 we infer that a parson s life had peculiar at 
 tractions for them, else they had given the 
 mitten to their parson suitors. 
 
 The discipline characteristic of training in 
 the parsonage was a thing of incalculable 
 advantage to the young minister. It is a 
 fact that many a parson began his work with 
 far less practical knowledge of the difficul 
 ties in the way than that possessed by his 
 parsonage-bred wife. She brought him a 
 wealth of experience infinitely helpful. Had 
 she not heard parish matters discussed, had 
 she not heard these things talked over with 
 all wearisome detail until she grew tired 
 of the strain and grew wise in self-control? 
 So she brought him as part of her dowry a 
 certain accumulation of experiences. The 
 young couple drew upon this treasured re- 
 
The Colonial Parson 
 
 serve and showed themselves on numerous 
 occasions " wise as serpents and harmless as 
 doves. " 
 
 Moses Hemmenway, of Wells, whose pas 
 torate extended through fifty-five years, 
 married the daughter of his predecessor. 
 They had five sons and six daughters. 
 Jason Haven, of Dedham, married Catherine 
 Dexter, daughter of the former minister. 
 An examination of old records might lead 
 the uninitiated to infer that there was some 
 thing obligatory in this marrying of minis 
 ter s widows or daughters, but in reality it 
 was simply an illustration of free-will and 
 foreordination most happily blended in the 
 lives of its chief antagonists and apostles. 
 
 If the new minister could not marry the 
 widow or the daughter of a parson, he was 
 quite sure to take the lady that had not 
 been elected to the position of parson s 
 wife by the people. Happy the man who 
 
of New England 173 
 
 brought his spouse with him when he moved 
 into the parish and assumed his duties. 
 
 The parsons not only married into the 
 "best families," but the "best families" be 
 longed to the parsons. Not that they made 
 much of this fact or said a great deal about 
 it, but it came to be accepted as one of the 
 conditions of life here in the New England 
 colonies. The leading men other than par 
 sons came to be the parson s father-in-law 
 or son-in-law or brother-in-law, or his close 
 blood kinsman. This occasioned the criti 
 cism in the mother, country that New Eng 
 land was run by the parsons and their fami 
 lies, a fact which could not be refuted, which 
 the majority of the colonists did not wish to 
 evade or change. 
 
 Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, married the 
 daughter of England s Chief -Justice in 
 Cromwell s day. William Hooke, of New 
 Haven, was cousin by marriage to Cromwell 
 
174 The Colonial Parson 
 
 and brother-in-law to Whalley the regicide. 
 John Rogers, of Ipswich, took for a wife 
 Elizabeth, the daughter of General Denni- 
 son. 
 
 Bearing these things in mind we see that 
 he was a very important person when con 
 sidered simply as an ancestor. 
 
 The early days were times when children 
 flocked to the homes of the colonists some 
 thing as doves flock to the towers of Venice. 
 John Sherman, who came to Connecticut in 
 1634, was twice married, and he is said to 
 have been the father of twenty-six children. 
 Was not this a literal fulfilment of the 
 Psalmist s words, " Lo, children are a heri 
 tage of the Lord. . . . Happy is the man 
 that hath his quiver full of them!" 
 
 One can but feel that the cup of joy 
 must have continually overflowed for these 
 respected ancients, since their families were 
 almost uniformly large. Peter Bulkly had 
 
of New England 175 
 
 fifteen children ; Peter Hobart, eleven ; Presi 
 dent Chauncey, eight ; Increase Mather, ten ; 
 Samuel Danforth, twelve; John Higginson, 
 nine ; Samuel Treat, thirteen ; Edward Tay 
 lor, fourteen; Cotton Mather, fifteen. We 
 might continue this enumeration, but it is 
 enough to observe that while the usual vari 
 ations occurred in these families they were 
 almost uniformly families of large dimen 
 sions. 
 
 This was an important fact considered 
 from the view-point of intellectuality. The 
 parson s numerous offspring had the use of 
 his books, the influence of his studious ex 
 ample, not less than an inherited bias toward 
 the intellectual life, and resources that were 
 wisely and consistently developed. We 
 therefore feel assured that conditions favor 
 able to a high type of manhood resulted. 
 
 It is one of the fanciful opinions current 
 in society that the sons of ministers do not 
 
176 The Colonial Parson 
 
 turn out well. They average better than 
 their competitors. Consider how many of 
 these sons entered the ministry. Four 
 sons of John Eliot studied theology, one of 
 them dying ere he entered the pastorate. 
 Two of Cotton s sons and two of Hooker s 
 became parsons. Thomas Shepard reared 
 three parsons; Peter Bulkly, four; Peter 
 Hobart, four ; Samuel Whiting, three ; Rich 
 ard Mather, four. These are a few worthy 
 examples of a large and interesting number 
 of cases. The sons followed the ministry 
 with a faithfulness that evokes our praise 
 and gratitude. 
 
 It is pleasant to note that the ministerial 
 bent was manifest in these families to such 
 extent that it resulted in what might be 
 termed the parson caste. Fathers, sons, 
 grandsons, with their ministerial associates 
 formed a cultivated and influential class in 
 the state. With all the difficulties that beset 
 
of New England 177 
 
 the minister in his work, he managed to hold 
 his own among* the people and impress him 
 self with energy upon the mind and heart of 
 society. Any revolt against his leadership 
 was generally individual. The colonists put 
 their confidence in him and it was honored. 
 
 Not a few of our ministers to-day are in 
 heritors of these precious life tendencies. 
 Richard Salter Storrs, D.D., is the third 
 minister in direct descent who bears the 
 worthy name. The great-grandfather, a 
 Connecticut product, was a pastor for many 
 years and served as chaplain in the Revo 
 lution. The services rendered to church 
 and state by the present possessor of the 
 name emphasize the fact that Richard Salter 
 Storrs embodies the best traditions and in 
 carnates the vital spirit regnant in the life 
 of the past. 
 
 It is a long and interesting chronicle. 
 These parsons sons took up the work of the 
 
178 The Colonial Parson 
 
 fathers and sustained it with credit and abil 
 ity. There were generations after genera 
 tions of Cottons, Stoddards, Mathers, Wil- 
 liamses, Cleavelands, Eliots, Higginsons, 
 Emersons, Davenports, Rogerses, Chaun- 
 ceys, Adamses, Stones, Smiths, and other 
 families too numerous to mention, that con 
 tinued to serve in the ministry and still con 
 tinue their services, adding strength to the 
 nation and the kingdom of God. 
 
 What a company of magnificent men have 
 carried with them the great inheritances of 
 Edwards and Dwight! The old New Eng 
 land parson keeps reappearing with his 
 noblest instincts, his finest impulses, his 
 largest endowments, his grandest achieve 
 ments. It is told of Edwards that when he 
 was dying he lifted his soul in prayer to God, 
 consecrating his descendants to the Master s 
 service, beseeching God to bless them unto 
 the latest generations. May we not believe 
 
of New England 179 
 
 that his prayer has been a precious factor in 
 the notable services of the men and women 
 inheriting his gifts? 
 
 But we are not to think that the blessings 
 of such ancestry confine themselves to the 
 ministry. The various departments of life 
 show the enrichment of character and the 
 transmission of power peculiar to the parson. 
 The business interests of the nation are in 
 volved in these noble legacies. 
 
 It is Mr. Hackit in " Scenes from Clerical 
 Life" that observes: "I never saw the like 
 to parsons; they re al ys for meddling with 
 business, an they know no more about it 
 than my black filly." Mr. Bond expresses 
 the prevailing opinion when he says that 
 " they re too high learnt to have much com 
 mon-sense. " Nevertheless abundant proofs 
 satisfy one that parsons average well in the 
 management of affairs, that often they show 
 special aptitude for business, and that com- 
 
i8o The Colonial Parson 
 
 mon-sense is not an uncommon characteris 
 tic of the class. Sir Joshua Reynolds main 
 tained that skill in any pursuit in life did 
 not depend upon special faculties, but upon 
 the aggregate amount of mental power. 
 The colonial parson was often known as a 
 famous manager, and he transmitted to 
 many a son and daughter an inheritance of 
 capacity for business that was noteworthy. 
 It was not alone that his children and their 
 descendants achieved great things in mak 
 ing a small income stretch to large propor 
 tions, but it was likewise the fact that the 
 children took conspicuous places in the trade, 
 commerce, and enterprise of the land. 
 
 William E. Dodge was one of the success 
 ful men of the past generation. Some fair 
 measure of his success reverts to Parson 
 Cleaveland. J. Pierpont Morgan is eminent 
 among the financiers of the world to-day. 
 His given name witnesses to his heirship of 
 
of New England 181 
 
 intellectual force from the parson-poet, John 
 Pierpont, and the parson-scholar, James 
 Pierpont. 
 
 Professor Silliman, the famous scentific 
 scholar, and Benjamin D. Silliman, the emi 
 nent and venerated lawyer, number several 
 parsons among their ancestors. Jedidiah 
 Mills and Dr. David Ely, pastors for nearly 
 a century in Huntington, are among their 
 progenitors. A. M. Fish, of Stonington, 
 was another contributor to their line. Many 
 a story of service, devotion, courage, scholar 
 ship, and power, modestly told by the biog 
 raphers of these early parsons, repeats itself 
 with precious embellishment and luminous 
 commentary in the lives of these later men 
 of mark. 
 
 The parson has continued his literary 
 career not only in the person of his ministe 
 rial descendant but quite as notably in the 
 person of the man of letters. The intellec- 
 
1 82 The Colonial Parson 
 
 tital activity manifest in the New England 
 colonies was largely an expression of life in 
 the parsonage. So the children took to 
 making books. 
 
 The men that have made impressions upon 
 the literary world in America have come in 
 a majority of cases from New England ; and 
 these writers have been in the majority of 
 cases heirs of the parson. Eimerson is the 
 cultured product of a long line of ministers. 
 We render him our first homage, for he em 
 bodies much of the old-time, fresh, independ 
 ent, forceful thinking. James Russell Low 
 ell, poet, statesman, scholar, essayist, is 
 another choice plucking of parson fruitage. 
 His father was an honored minister of Bos 
 ton, and his great-grandfather was the first 
 minister of Newburyport. That fineness of 
 taste and delicacy of sentiment characteristic 
 of the poet may be counted as inheritances 
 from these men. Aaron Bancroft, father of 
 
of New England 183 
 
 the historian, George Bancroft, was for 
 many years the pastor of a Congregational 
 church in Worcester. The historian Hil- 
 dreth is the son of a minister, although the 
 line does not go back to the colonial period. 
 Francis Parkman writes with the vivid 
 ness and insight of a man who has learned 
 to master language and pierce down into the 
 hidden sources of events. His father was a 
 minister and his great-grandfather was the 
 first pastor in Westborough, serving his par 
 ish sixty-five years, dying at the ripe age 
 of eighty-six. John Lothrop Motley was 
 named for a parson grandsire of colonial 
 days; while Samuel Checkley, another an 
 cestor, served as a preacher in early New 
 England. Edmund Clarence Stedman car 
 ries with him into his prose and poesy the 
 ancestral influences of Aaron Cleveland, an 
 honored and useful poet-preacher of the last 
 century. Thomas Wentworth Higginson is 
 
1 84 The Colonial Parson 
 
 the modern representative of that staunch 
 parson, the first Francis Higginson, who 
 served the church in Salem with conspicuous 
 ability. 
 
 Edward Everett Hale, like the old parson 
 of New England, takes active part in the 
 manifold tasks of private and public life. 
 The example to such service was set him by 
 his colonial parson-ancestor, John Hale, of 
 Beverly, a man who re-appears in eminent 
 physicians, soldiers, journalists, scholars as 
 well as ministers. A. Bronson Alcott reaches 
 back through one line of ancestry to Nicho 
 las Street, the father, and Samuel Street, the 
 son. These worthy men fathered descend 
 ants that have taken very conspicuous part 
 in various spheres of service. Art, educa 
 tion, business, the law, the ministry; they 
 have all received notable contributions from 
 the Street family. In connection with the 
 inheritances of Alcott, we call to mind the 
 
of New England 185 
 
 literary success of his daughter, Louisa M. 
 Alcott, who is the sixth generation from 
 Samuel Street, of Wallingford. 
 
 Fitz-Greene Halleck was once a name 
 revered and honored among the poets. One 
 of the first singers to sound in America a 
 sweet, clear note of true poesy, he was pecul 
 iarly dear to the heart of the generation 
 past. It was a Pilgrim and Puritan ances 
 try that prepared him for his life work. John 
 Eliot, the "apostle to the Indians," was a 
 contributor to his personality on the mother s 
 side. 
 
 In his biography of Nathaniel P. Willis, 
 Professor Beers writes that "probably the 
 most noteworthy of the poet s forebears, at 
 least upon the father s side, was the Rev. 
 John Bailey," first minister over the church 
 in Watertown and later the associate minis 
 ter over the First Church of Boston. " What 
 more can a man ask for in an ancestor?" 
 
 UNiVh 
 
1 86 The Colonial Parson 
 
 continues the biographer. " No New Eng 
 land pedigree which respects itself is with 
 out one or more fine old Puritan divines of 
 this kind." 
 
 A noble stock of parson ancestors trans 
 mitted their gifts to Donald G. Mitchell. 
 Alfred Mitchell, of Norwich; Stephen Mix, 
 of Wethersfield; Solomon Stoddard, of 
 Northampton ; Gurdon Saltonstall, of Nor 
 wich; the Woodbridges, of New London, 
 Groton, Wethersfield, and Andover; John 
 Ward, of Andover; and Elder William 
 Brewster, of the Mayflower ; what a com 
 pany of great souls ! And they are worthily 
 interpreted by this son who has wrought 
 with faithful spirit in the field of letters. 
 
 These parsons did not possess the abun 
 dance of books that feature modern days in 
 New England, but they had choice collec 
 tions of standard works, and they mastered 
 the few books that came into the parsonage. 
 
of New England 187 
 
 But this literary impulse was especially 
 nourished and encouraged by thorough 
 familiarity with the Bible. The saying of 
 Emerson, that we are to beware of the man 
 of one book, brings to mind the culture 
 manifest and the power evoked among these 
 colonial parsons. The Bible was the one 
 book with them, and it was a vast, pre 
 cious, inspiring literature common to every 
 inmate of the minister s home. Its history, 
 stories, ethics, statesmanship, and poetry, not 
 less than its theology, metaphysics, and re 
 ligion fed the people, quickened lofty senti 
 ment, filled the mind with beautiful imagery, 
 fostered the spirit of intellectual and moral 
 activity. The hidden sources of mental and 
 spiritual life were continuously strength 
 ened and enlarged through these genera 
 tions of pioneer experience. A remarkable 
 energy, fruitfulness, adaptability, and leader 
 ship in letters was the natural, happy result. 
 
1 88 The Colonial Parson 
 
 We have spoken of the parson as a states 
 man. A good deal of ministerial blood has 
 flowed into numerous descendants who 
 became statesmen. The part which the 
 minister took in the control of political af 
 fairs, the office of referee to which he was 
 continually chosen when the magistrates 
 and legislators wanted advice or decision 
 upon important matters, was a sort of train 
 ing for the rising generation. The boys 
 heard much of the current discussion. They 
 manifested a growing interest in public con 
 cerns. A taste for political life was native. 
 The opportunities came for preferment. It 
 resulted that a goodly proportion of the men 
 who conducted affairs of state came from the 
 parson s family. 
 
 And then we are to consider that a certain 
 bias and tendency to public life was inher 
 ited, so that when one profession did not 
 suit the individual he naturally passed over 
 
of New England 189 
 
 into another. John Hancock, president of 
 the Continental Congress, had a parson for 
 a father and for a grandfather, both of them 
 named John. John Adams married a par 
 son s daughter, so that John Quincy Adams, 
 the second Adams President of the United 
 States, had a fair measure of ministerial 
 blood running through his veins. 
 
 Grover Cleveland, the twenty-second Pres 
 ident of the United States, is not only the 
 son of a minister, but Aaron Cleveland, of 
 Connecticut, a minister belonging to the lat 
 ter part of the eighteenth and the first part 
 of the nineteenth century, was one of his 
 ancestors, while Aaron Cleveland, of Massa 
 chusetts (who was born in 1715), was an ear 
 lier ancestor and a very conspicuous parson. 
 
 Mr. Depew is a lineal descendant of 
 Charles Chauncey, of Stratfield, and Justus 
 Mitchell who married the sister of Judge 
 Roger M. Sherman. The shining qualities 
 
190 The Colonial Parson 
 
 of Aaron Burr are universally conceded. 
 A man who swerved from the path of rec 
 titude, he nevertheless revealed rare powers. 
 The mental force of the senior Burr and the 
 grandfather, Edwards, were strikingly mani 
 fest in his character. Samuel Treat, a Con 
 necticut parson, gave to statesmanship his 
 grandson, Robert Treat Paine. Colonel 
 Humphreys, poet and soldier, close friend 
 of Washington, representative of our country 
 in Portugal and Spain, a statesman that 
 served the nation with acceptance, was the 
 son of Daniel Humphreys, a worthy Connec 
 ticut parson. Other examples are numer 
 ous. 
 
 The longevity of the parson is one of the 
 noteworthy facts in his career. " With long 
 life will I satisfy thee" was a promise well 
 kept. No other class of men, so far as we 
 know, bears favorable comparison in this re 
 spect with the colonial parson. It did seem 
 
of New England 191 
 
 on many and many an occasion that he 
 would never die. While his people were de 
 votedly attached to him, his usefulness in 
 the pulpit waned with the waxing years, so 
 that the desire was often strong on the part 
 of his people that a colleague be associated 
 with him. This was done in a great many 
 instances, and a beautiful custom it was 
 to keep the minister unto the end and care 
 for him with loyal affection until the day of 
 his final departure. 
 
 The banner pastorate of New England is 
 credited to Laban Ainsworth, of Jaffrey, 
 New Hampshire, who was wedded to his 
 church for a period of seventy years. It is 
 said that on one occasion when his salary 
 was raised, he hastened to decline the mark 
 of favor and good- will, observing that it was 
 all he could do to collect his present salary, 
 and if they increased it the consequence 
 would be such increased labor of collection 
 
1 92 The Colonial Parson 
 
 that it would in all probability completely 
 undo him. He was in the nineties when he 
 died. 
 
 There are several centenarian ministers 
 among the colonial pastors. Nathan Birds- 
 eye, of West Haven and Oronoque, is one 
 of the most interesting. He attained the 
 ripe age of one hundred and three years, five 
 months, and nine days. When he died the 
 whole number of his descendants was two 
 hundred and fifty-eight, two hundred and 
 six being alive at the time. His wife was 
 the daughter of Thomas Hawley, colonial 
 parson in Ridgefield. They journeyed to 
 gether for sixty-nine years. Illustrious 
 names are among the number of their de 
 scendants. 
 
 Nathaniel Appleton, of Cambridge, died in 
 his ninety-first year, after a pastorate of 
 sixty-seven years ; Israel Loring, of Sudbury, 
 lived ninety years, serving his church during 
 
of New England 193 
 
 sixty-six of them; Benjamin Lord, of Nor 
 wich, was ninety when he rested from his 
 labors. Eliab Stone, of Reading, died dur 
 ing the eighty-sixth year of his life and the 
 sixty-second of his ministry. Benjamin 
 Trumbull, the historian and patriot, was 
 sixty years a preacher and attained the age 
 of eighty-five. Noah Williston, of West 
 Haven, was in his seventy-eighth year when 
 he fell asleep, and his son Payson, of East- 
 hampton, was close on to ninety-three when 
 the end came. Dr. Ripley, of Greens Farms, 
 drew nigh to four-score and ten. Isaac 
 Lewis, D.D., of Greenwich, deceased at 
 ninety-four. Samuel J. Mills, of Torring- 
 ford, died in his ninetieth year. Samuel 
 Hopkins was a preacher for sixty-one years ; 
 Joseph Dana, D. D., of Ipswich, sixty-four 
 years. The pastorate of Nathaniel Emmons 
 extended through sixty-seven years, and he 
 
 passed on to the great majority when ninety- 
 is 
 
194 The Colonial Parson 
 
 five. Thomas Higginson was seventy-two 
 years in the ministry. It was Nicolas Noyes 
 who wrote of him : 
 
 "Young to the pulpit he did get, 
 And seventy-two years in t did sweat." 
 
 In 1842 it was found that one hundred and 
 eighty-nine graduates of Harvard had at 
 tained or passed beyond the age of eighty- 
 four. The most of these graduates were 
 ministers. Seventeen parsons of this com 
 pany were ninety years old and upward. 
 Such statistics might be extended; but 
 enough has been written to show that the 
 parson stands at the head of the class when 
 it comes to a question of longevity. 
 
 It is evident that the connection is inti 
 mate between the kind of a life that he lived 
 and the length of years with which he was 
 honored. Piety is conducive to health, en 
 joyment, and age. But we must not put it 
 to the account of piety alone, for some of the 
 
of New England 195 
 
 best and most-consecrated parsons were 
 short-lived. Brainerd, Edwards, Burr, Pier- 
 pont, and numerous devout and zealous min 
 isters were cut off in the midst of their days. 
 A factor that had much to do with these 
 long stretches of years was the varied char 
 acter of the parson s activities. We must 
 not forget that he farmed it ; he was often a 
 brisk man of business ; and social relaxation 
 absorbed a part of his time. We look with 
 a sort of humorous indulgence upon the way 
 that the parsonage family went out to tea 
 and mingled continuously with the people 
 of the parish. But this was not only a mode 
 of work ; it was a source of recreation. The 
 parson unbent on these occasions. When it 
 was necessary he went into the field and 
 helped about the mowing and the reaping. 
 He could turn his hand to the plough, the 
 blacksmith s anvil, the carpenter s tools. He 
 was able to teach school, assist the town 
 
196 The Colonial Parson 
 
 clerk in his business, run a mill, disentangle 
 the finances of a country store, or assist at 
 any of the common pursuits incident to pio 
 neer life. Fishing and hunting were forms 
 of out-door exercise which everybody en 
 joyed as a matter of course. As a result 
 these good men must necessarily live out 
 their days. There were churches not a few 
 that took it to heart the fact that the minis 
 ter did live so long, for it embarrassed them. 
 They scarce knew what to do with him when 
 he calmly drifted on toward the nineties. 
 
 That is a pathetic scene which Mr. Aldrich 
 describes in "Prudence Palfrey," when Par 
 son Hawkins is asked to resign after his fifty 
 years service. " We tried to let him down 
 easy," said Deacon Twembly, "but, Lord 
 bless you, you never see an old gentleman 
 so unwillin , and so hard to be let down." 
 The poor old minister went into his study 
 and there locked himself away from the 
 
of New England 197 
 
 world. As the hours sped he still continued 
 in his retirement. Finally they broke open 
 the door. "Dead, they found him sitting, 
 the Bible open on his knees, and his ringer 
 seemed to be pointing to the text (some read 
 it as they peeped over the slanted shoulder) ; 
 Well done, thou good and faithful servant; 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. " And 
 yet these old parsons were beloved by their 
 people and often were they tenderly sup 
 ported. 
 
 It is not to be inferred that they outlived 
 their usefulness when age crept upon them 
 and they were unable to serve their parishes 
 with old-time vigor. They tarried among 
 the people, scattering blessings on every 
 side. Their wonted cheerfulness was like a 
 benediction in the community. Advice was 
 all the more precious that it had been tested 
 through many years of loving service. Re* 
 ligion was identified to a large extent among 
 
198 The Colonial Parson 
 
 the young with the beloved and estimable 
 man who had baptized, married, and buried 
 a greater or less proportion of the whole par 
 ish. So the good man lived 
 
 "In his allotted home, a genuine priest, 
 The shepherd of his flock ; or as a king 
 Is styled, when most affectionately praised, 
 The father of his people." 
 
THE COMPOSITE PARSON 
 
 OF 
 COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND 
 
THE COMPOSITE PARSON OF CO 
 LONIAL NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 THE art of photography has attained such 
 development that it is possible to compact 
 the many features of a great company into 
 the one form of a typical head. 
 
 Let us take the various parsons that have 
 contributed their portraits to this our gal 
 lery of swift, rough etchings, and attempt a 
 composite picture of the colonial parson in 
 New England. While it is true that individ 
 uals are stamped with the dominant qualities 
 which difference them from their neighbors, 
 it is equally true that they possess features 
 in common that give a sort of homogeneity 
 to their class. Certain abounding character 
 istics exist which make instant and insistent 
 appeal to the onlooker. 
 
 201 
 
202 The Colonial Parson 
 
 This particular colonial parson embodies 
 the practical and the spiritual. He must 
 needs be a practical man, for he is plunged 
 into such circumstances and is forced to bat 
 tle with such conditions that the Jack-at- 
 all-trades side of human nature keeps coming 
 to the surface. Such a generalization does 
 not evade the fact that impracticable men 
 like John Eliot are numbered with the par 
 sons. We are not to be intimidated by such 
 generosity as he manifested when carrying 
 his salary in a knotted handkerchief, and 
 trying to untie it in order to help a poor, sick 
 woman, he finally gave it all to her, saying, 
 " I believe the Lord designs it all for you. " 
 
 Unpractical men are not peculiar to any 
 profession or sphere of activity. They are 
 found on all sides. The ministry must have 
 its proportion. But it is certain that the 
 colonial parson, in his typical presentment, 
 was eminently practical. He was able to ad- 
 
of New England 203 
 
 just himself to circumstances with a grace 
 and shrewdness worthy the closest imitation. 
 Quoting a phrase from Crockett, the parson 
 was one who had " a good judgment on the 
 secularities. " To be sure, when such a state 
 ment is made we do not forget the help 
 which came to him through his tactful and 
 devoted wife. Much of the credit given to 
 the minister belongs to the helpmeet. But 
 as man and wife are one, the glory of part 
 nership is not diminished when the name of 
 the husband alone is used, and liberty is 
 given to infer that the wise companion was 
 the dominant factor in management. 
 
 That the person was a spiritual man would 
 be taken for granted by many people, but 
 reports have been circulated to the effect 
 that his spirituality was a decadent thing. 
 Taking into account the fact that he battled 
 with circumstances such that spiritual life 
 was necessarily hampered; taking also into 
 
204 The Colonial Parson 
 
 account the fact that he was cumbered with 
 many cares both public and private, political 
 and religious, we are surprised how large a 
 proportion of time and how great a strength 
 of life was given to things spiritual. There 
 were periods when piety appeared at a dis 
 count. Social reactions set in and gave tone 
 to church and state. This is simply history 
 repeating itself. 
 
 When Whitfield appeared, grave charges 
 were made against the parsons and strange 
 scenes were enacted in the colonies. But a 
 dispassionate examination of the subject 
 shows that men good and true stood firm for 
 honest and worthy convictions. The work 
 of the ministry was continued in the estab 
 lished churches with fidelity and consecra 
 tion. Final results show that much of the 
 criticism offered upon the parson during this 
 period was mistaken and cruel. While the 
 contention between the " New Lights" and 
 
of New England 205 
 
 " Old Lights" often savored of injustice, mis 
 interpretation, and bigotry, yet the pure light 
 of the divine life was perpetually manifest 
 ing itself in the hearts of men irrespective 
 of party. The parson passed through the 
 scourge of criticism and anathema on the one 
 side and the other to his purification and en 
 largement. He was a spiritual man, living 
 in close fellowship with his Master, the chan 
 nel of great, vital impulses flowing into the 
 hearts of earnest men. 
 
 This composite colonial parson also sets 
 forth in vigorous form the physical and the 
 intellectual nature. It has been said by 
 others than Mr. Beecher that when parents 
 had a sickly boy here in New England, one 
 not suited to hard work or lively enterprise, 
 he was put into the ministry. Now such a 
 statement may be made as a sort of pleas 
 antry, and it is often true that the thought 
 ful, studious child seems possessed of a frail 
 
2o6 The Colonial Parson 
 
 constitution, but when it comes to an ac 
 curate statement of the case, it must be said 
 that the New England parson was a man of 
 sturdy frame, impressive figure, command 
 ing mien, abounding health, and magnificent 
 vitality. Men like Dr. Hopkins and Dr. 
 Emmons, tall, large, and robust, were com 
 mon individuals among the parsons. 
 
 Things conduced to an athletic form of 
 ministerial life. It was pioneer experience 
 that featured the colonies. The parsons 
 were just as much a part of such discipline 
 as any other member of the fraternity. The 
 New England parson did not ride to the 
 hunt like his brother, the English clergyman 
 of Virginia, but he went up and down his 
 parish on horseback or afoot, he split more 
 or less of the immense quantities of firewood 
 which he burned, he planted apple-trees and 
 gathered the fruit, he took care of the gar 
 den and managed his farm, he engaged in all 
 
of New England 207 
 
 sorts of manly exercises peculiar to the life 
 about him. He retired to rest at an early 
 hour, for it was too cold in winter for him to 
 read and study at night with any comfort. 
 When summer came he was compelled to 
 share out-of-door labors to such extent that 
 he likewise sought an early bed. Then his 
 fare was simple, hearty, and healthful. 
 Eggs, milk, fruit, vegetables, fish, poultry, 
 corn, rye, and other common, nourishing 
 foods, these gave him bone, sinew, muscle, 
 and blood in abundance. As a result these 
 old parsons were a remarkably vigorous class 
 of men. They endured all sorts of strain and 
 pressure. They could study twelve consecu 
 tive hours when the opportunity came, for 
 the reason that a good many other hours had 
 been spent in the open air walking, fishing, 
 planting, riding, harvesting, or attending to 
 similar activities. There was nothing weak, 
 frail, sickly, effeminate, or enervated about 
 
208 The Colonial Parson 
 
 the average parson of colonial days. When 
 occasion presented he was perfectly com 
 petent to go into the field, as did Mr. 
 Humphrey, and cradle not only the ripe 
 grain but the soul of the sinful laborer so 
 that both were successfully harvested. 
 
 The intellectual life is that phase of his 
 character which has probably made the deep 
 est impression upon men. The seed-corn of 
 university graduates originally planted in 
 New England was bound to multiply. Con 
 ditions were really favorable to such increase 
 and expansion; soil and climate happily 
 combined with native bent and prevalent 
 ideal. So the parson became pre-eminently 
 an intellectual minister. Any other kind of 
 a man failed to meet the common demands 
 of life. 
 
 The pulpit speedily took the lead in all 
 mental activity. Newspapers were un 
 known or few and meagre. Books being 
 
of New England 209 
 
 rare possessions and housed generally by the 
 minister, he was natually the man to bring 
 books into the service of his people. This 
 was not done so much by their circulation as 
 it was by his re-statement of their contents 
 from the pulpit. It came nigh to being an 
 intellectual imperialism. The people were 
 taught to think. Habits of close, logical rea 
 soning prevailed. But it was the parson that 
 lived among books and directed the general 
 current of thought. 
 
 There is something of charm and glory 
 about this condition of things, for these 
 parsons did not use their privileges with any 
 selfish and narrow intent. They were for 
 the times broad-minded, and they sought 
 not personal but general interests. The 
 thinking that has been characteristic of life 
 in New England during the later generations 
 traces its original impulse to the generous 
 
 and fruitful thought-life which marked the 
 14 
 
210 The Colonial Parson 
 
 colonial parson. It was foreordained that 
 this servant of the people should become a 
 prime source of intellectual power. 
 
 We therefore observe that he conducted 
 himself with singular discretion and success 
 in the various spheres of influence and ser 
 vice. Strong in body and mind, compelled 
 to be practical and disciplined into spiritual 
 ity, the colonial parson was an excellent ex 
 ample of an all-around man. As a farmer 
 he did well enough to eke out his living with 
 the products of his glebe land. When cities 
 grew and large towns sought him, there 
 was less opportunity for the parson to share 
 this delightful pastime. But if he did not 
 raise his own potatoes and apples, the salary 
 was often paid in these necessary commod 
 ities, and as it often occurred that large 
 quantities of such produce came to him by 
 way of payment, he was by sheer necessity 
 made a trader. 
 
of New England 211 
 
 This experience trained his commercial 
 faculties. Undoubtedly that disposition for 
 good bargains characteristic of many a par 
 son s descendants traces its explanation to 
 this early fact. The ministers of later years 
 may not be famous for their business capac 
 ity (although we believe that they average 
 well in this respect with men in general), but 
 it is certain that the colonial parson was 
 one quite capable of watching his own in 
 terests. It is true that he occasionally sub 
 mitted to imposition, but he was wise enough 
 to take the course which brought him, as a 
 rule, ultimate credit. 
 
 As a scholar he was an honor to any land. 
 His labors were tireless in behalf of educa 
 tion. While the means of study were quite 
 limited, he still devoted himself with note 
 worthy zeal to the mastery of such intellect 
 ual tasks as came within his sphere. There 
 resulted an acumen, an insight, a subtlety, 
 
212 The Colonial Parson 
 
 and a vigor which command universal ad 
 miration. While his original contributions 
 to scholarship may have been meagre, yet the 
 inspiration of his example and the interest 
 excited by his enthusiasm served the most 
 important purposes by way of shaping the 
 life of New England. The parson was the 
 acknowledged scholar and educator of the 
 land. He was faithful to the opportunities 
 which came to him, and fostered a love of 
 study in the home and community at the 
 same time that he did all in his power to en 
 rich the common fund of knowledge and 
 intelligence. 
 
 When it comes to statesmanship, this par 
 son must receive our common homage. His 
 services were great in what he directly and 
 indirectly wrought or suggested. Arroga 
 ting to himself no arbitrary powers, seeking 
 with single-heartedness the good of his peo 
 ple, he became on many great occasions the 
 
of New England 213 
 
 dominant political force. Questions of state 
 craft were as familiar to him as questions of 
 church order. He was often the most im 
 portant factor in public events. It was a 
 condition of things which he did not seek. 
 Circumstances shaped life into such form, 
 but through all the varied changes he re 
 tained his integrity of spirit, never seeking 
 to take advantage of his position, always 
 pressing with disinterested purpose toward 
 such issues as he deemed wisest and best. 
 He was a statesman. His political services 
 do him honor. The names of many parsons 
 are linked forever with those great state 
 movements which to-day command our grat 
 itude and reverence. 
 
 The books of these first generations have 
 the parson s name on the title-page in the 
 majority of cases. He constituted the liter 
 ary class of his times. A few other writers 
 did some work in the limited department of 
 
214 The Colonial Parson 
 
 letters, but the number is small. While the 
 results of literary handicraft during the 
 period before the Revolution are trivial 
 and scarce worth mention, yet they have an 
 historical value, and they make the humble, 
 important beginnings from which proceed 
 the fine, precious workmanship of the suc 
 ceeding ages. The parson s love of books 
 and devotion to the intellectual life signified 
 the noble company of poets, historians, and 
 literary artists that are to-day New Eng 
 land s pride and glory. 
 
 When one of these book-loving ministers 
 in Massachusetts died leaving a young son 
 and an excellect library, a Connecticut pas 
 tor (in Stratford) offered to give the orphan 
 a home and contribute to his education in 
 exchange for the use of his library. The 
 arrangement was consummated and proved 
 satisfactory. 
 
 This incident is matched by another of 
 
of New England 215 
 
 different character. A deceased parson left 
 a valuable library to his widow. An ambi- 
 ticms minister desired to purchase the books. 
 When it came to the question of price, the 
 widow informed the student that he might 
 have the library on condition that he took 
 her with it The price being set and some 
 time passed in an agreeable and varied con 
 sideration of the same, the young man came 
 into possession of the two prizes and there 
 after lived in great enjoyment of his bargain. 
 
 With this love of books there companied 
 the impulse to make books. The reading 
 and the writing of books on the part of the 
 parson quickened an impulse which com 
 municated itself to society about him. 
 
 The parson was pre-eminently a preacher. 
 His pulpit was the channel through which 
 flowed the strength of his heart and mind. 
 Contrast the custom of New England with 
 the customs of other colonies or peoples dur- 
 
216 The Colonial Parson 
 
 ing this formative period, and one is imme 
 diately impressed with the uniqueness of this 
 section in regard to the influence of the pul 
 pit over life. The people being character 
 ized with peculiar strength of intellect, 
 it was inevitable that their preachers would 
 manifest a corresponding energy and power. 
 Anything less than such mental leadership 
 and aggressiveness must of necessity have 
 been short-lived and have proved an igno 
 minious failure. 
 
 The parson was a thinker, a logician, a 
 scholar, a writer that destiny placed in the 
 pulpit. He did not have a class-room in 
 which to instruct. The newspaper did not 
 afford him an outlet for ideas. The lyceum 
 had not yet been devised. The opportuni 
 ties for conversation were restricted. So he 
 gave the strength of his mind unto pulpit 
 work. He fed the people with strong meat. 
 They received it in large quantities. The 
 
of New England 217 
 
 week was required for its proper diges 
 tion. 
 
 Graces of oratory were not especially em 
 phasized. It was solid matter of thought 
 that commended itself to the congregation. 
 A young man preaching before Dr. Emmons 
 observed later to him, " I hope I did not 
 weary you by the length of my sermon;" 
 and Doctor Emmons replied, " No, nor by 
 its depth either;" a reply which points to the 
 characteristic demand of the early days. 
 Neither length nor depth wearied people. 
 Their preachers were trained so that they 
 generally showed themselves satisfactory in 
 both respects. On the organization of the 
 church at Woburn the minister is said to 
 "have continued in prayer and preaching 
 about four or five hours. " 
 
 The colonial parson was also the gentle 
 man of his parish. He came of a good fam 
 ily. He took first stand as a college gradu- 
 
218 The Colonial Parson 
 
 ate. He was also conversant with the 
 amenities of life and ranked well with the 
 men that constituted the superior class in 
 the colony. It is true that many incidents 
 are told which put the parson in the light of 
 an ill-bred man, but such cases are isolated 
 so that they do not break the force of our 
 statement. 
 
 The comparison between the parson of 
 New England and the parson of some other 
 lands during the period results favorably to 
 the type which prevailed on these shores. 
 It is not that our parson made much of dress, 
 although he was generally the well-dressed 
 man of the community; it is not that he 
 cultivated exclusiveness or felt that he was 
 better clay than many of his neighbors. 
 But innate spirit, social opportunities, ac 
 knowledged station, familiarity with books, 
 manners, travellers, the conditions of life 
 peculiar to his profession at the time in New 
 
of New England 219 
 
 England, these things contributed to his 
 character of gentleman. 
 
 When it came to an occasion of social in 
 tercourse, the parson was present, not so 
 much because he was a minister, as by rea 
 son of the fact that he was an interesting, 
 well-informed, agreeable gentleman. The 
 clerical character did not obtrude itself upon 
 the public, but on the other hand the intelli 
 gent and companionable man was made 
 conspicuous, and considered indispensable. 
 While he did not think to become any Sir 
 Charles Grandison, yet he was the popular 
 model of gentlemanliness ; the proprieties 
 and the courtesies of life were put into his 
 keeping ; he bore himself with a grave and 
 dignified politeness, a kind and faithful 
 thoughtfulness of others, a gracious and 
 commanding mien which signified the very 
 spirit and beauty of royal Christian man 
 hood. 
 
220 The Colonial Parson 
 
 The colonial parson was undeniably the 
 "wit" of the period, and his "mots" have 
 been handed down to the generations and re 
 juvenated on all occasions. Even John Ran 
 dolph dared quote from him in the House 
 of Representatives, for it was Dr. Joseph 
 Lathrop who, when asked by a parishioner 
 if he had any religion, replied, "None to 
 speak of." 
 
 It would be difficult to discover men with 
 brighter intellects than some of the Mathers 
 or Doctor Byles or George Phillips. Had it 
 been a day for after-dinner speeches, these 
 men and many of their brethren would have 
 gone down to fame, and been remembered 
 by innumerable off-hand addresses scintil- 
 lant with wit and humor. 
 
 But this adaptability was manifest in every 
 hour of need. Many of the parishes were 
 compelled to pass years without the help of 
 a practising physician. The parson was 
 
of New England 221 
 
 equal to the emergency. What more natural 
 than that the people should turn to him in 
 case physic was needed? So he ministered 
 to their bodies as well as their souls. Eli 
 jah Wheeler, of Great Barrington, both 
 preached and practised among his people. 
 Lyman Hall served in the pulpit for a brief 
 season, then he took to medicine. Jared 
 Eliot, of Guilford, grandson of John Eliot, 
 was " for many years the conspicuous minis 
 ter of the town of Guilford, whose great 
 abilities as a divine, a politician, and a phy 
 sician were justly admired, not only among 
 his own people, but throughout the whole 
 colony." One authority says: "He was un 
 doubtedly the first physician in his day in 
 Connecticut and was the last clerical phy 
 sician of eminence, probably in New Eng 
 land. " Two sons became physicians. 
 
 It was not only a fashion with many par 
 sons to have more or less to do with medicine 
 
222 The Colonial Parson 
 
 themselves, but they had a way of raising 
 sons to serve as doctors of medicine. Occa 
 sionally a minister gave up preaching and 
 devoted all his time to the ills of the flesh. 
 John Bulkly pursued this course, and the 
 same might be said at a later period in re 
 spect to the ministry and the law. 
 
 During the early period of New England 
 history the legal profession was disapproved. 
 When people had quarrels to settle they 
 went to the minister, or the minister came 
 to them, as did John Hancock, of Lexington. 
 " Now, Reuben and Joseph, your line runs 
 there and there let it run forever. That is 
 your land, Joseph, and that is your land, 
 Reuben ; and let us have no more quarrel 
 ling about this matter." So Parson Han 
 cock settled a misunderstanding between 
 two of his parishioners. But lawyers finally 
 were suffered to dwell in the colonies, and 
 it was observed that the parsons shared in 
 
of New England 223 
 
 the conduct of legal business, combining it 
 with the ministry or demitting the ministry 
 and giving themselves wholly to the law, or 
 training sons into the unpopular profes 
 sion. 
 
 When President Stiles renounced the law 
 and became a preacher, it was observed that 
 few men imitate such an example, although 
 there were two other lawyers in Connecticut 
 who pursued that very course the same year 
 that Dr. Stiles did. The change was gener 
 ally from the ministry into the law. When 
 Mr. Wales was asked why he changed to the 
 lav/, he replied by a quotation from Virgil : 
 
 "Facilis descen 
 Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras. . 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est." 
 
 As the colonial parson of New England 
 looks into our eyes do we not feel the touch 
 of his great personality? 
 
 
 ir 
 
224 Tbe Colonial Parson 
 
 "Wide was his parish, and houses far asunder; 
 But he ne lafte not for rain ne thunder, 
 In sickness nor in mischief to visit 
 The farthest in his parish, much and lite, 
 Upon his feet and in his hand a staff. 
 This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf, 
 That first he wrought and afterward he taught; 
 Out of the Gospel he the wordes caught, 
 And this figure he added eke thereto 
 That if gold ruste, what shall iron do ?" 
 
 How manifold are the offices this parson 
 fills, the tasks he performs, the influences he 
 exerts, the blessings he commands! When 
 one reads concerning the many-sided minis 
 try of these honored men ; their dutifulness 
 in church and state, in public and private, in 
 health and sickness, in prosperity and ad 
 versity ; when one measures the richness and 
 nobility of their manhood, the shrewd adjust 
 ment of powers to circumstances, the pervad 
 ing authority of consecrated and self-deny 
 ing worth it is then that one asks justice 
 and appreciation for them. The parson was 
 
of New England 225 
 
 a true, brave, great, wise, loving, and be 
 loved man. The gentler light of his modest 
 and loyal home-life reveals him as the pure 
 spirit instinct with high and noble sentiments. 
 The scholasticism, the austerity, the stateli- 
 ness, the reserve which have come to domi 
 nate our conceptions of him retire into the 
 background where they belong; while the 
 sweeter traits of character and the brighter 
 phases of experience appear in growing 
 strength and reclaimed beauty. 
 
 We will therefore think upon the colonial 
 parson with infinite tenderness and grati 
 tude. We will rejoice in his service for 
 liberty, righteousness, manhood. We will 
 treasure ^with all loyalty of affectionate re 
 membrance his splendid contributions to the 
 material, intellectual, social, and moral ad 
 vancement of this nation. We will give him 
 a lofty niche in the temple of fame, and 
 
 render him the homage that is due such 
 15 
 
226 The Colonial Parson 
 
 unique and masterful service in behalf of 
 humanity. 
 
 " No power can die that ever wrought for Truth ; 
 
 Thereby a law of Nature it became, 
 And lives un withered in its sinewy youth, 
 When he who called it forth is but a name." 
 
3RSITY O 1 
 
 ; RABI 
 
 14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 20Nov 62GR 
 
 
 REC D LJ 
 
 
 : NOV^tj^ 1 
 
 
 
 OCT2 V4 
 
 5;an 63GRX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 JftNS 1963 
 
 
 
 
 
 <-rf 
 
 
 , cS^ 
 
 . 
 
 
 \JO^ N ^ 
 
 Ci ^ 
 
 
 &? 
 
 
 
 
 LD 21A-50m-3, 62 
 (C7097slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
YB 36637 
 
 ,. t> 
 101949