MARY WEBB ^
MOTHER SOCIETY

A. L. VAIL

'I give thefe Books ,
j_/<w- the fjijindbig of a College zsidhq^oleny}'

Gift of
Dr. D. Bryson Delavan
1924

MARY WEBB
AND
THE MOTHER SOCIETY

MARY WEBB
AND
THE MOTHER SOCIETY

BY
ALBERT L. VAIL mi
Author
' The Morning Hour of American ESaptlst Missions "
" Baptists Mobilized for Missions "
"Stewardship Among Baptists," etc.

PHILADELPHIA
AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
1914

Copyright 1914 by
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary
Published October, 1914

APOLOGY AND FORECAST
God moves through the ages on noiseless feet. He,
indeed, sometimes treads thunderously, so that the
earth shakes at his going forth; and among his
stormy voices are strong men, leaders of the forum
and the field, whose eloquence and gallantry are
the custodians of destiny. But it is his gracious
pleasure very often to work through those whisper
ing ministers who shrink from the public arena
and toil aside from the tornado's path.
The purpose of this publication is to rescue from
an oblivion, almost as complete as it is undeserved,
the name of one of those humble and suffering
little ones who wrought greatly on foundations, and
whose strong will and high character dwelt in an
exceptionally hampered body and amid lowly con
ditions. Her lot was with a people then of but
small renown among the eminent of the earth, and
even there she was a little one. But it is conserva
tively proposed, a proposal whose justification may
appear in the following pages, that she holds a
place without a peer as pioneer in the realm of

APOLOGY AND FORECAST
arousing, organizing, and unifying women and chil
dren in America for missionary and charitable en
terprises. Rev. Edward G. Porter, a highly es
teemed Congregationalist, in his volume entitled
" Rambles in Old Boston," 1887, mentions her as
" a woman of rare character and great practical
benevolence, although of humble means and a help
less cripple, who, by the energy of her will and
the promptings of her heart, was able to do a chari
table work among the poor which is deserving of
high praise. Before the development of our city
missionary societies, our Sunday-schools, and the
organized charities of the present day, Mary Webb
was a society in herself, devising plans and execu
ting them with surprising facility; and the enter
prises which she began in feebleness grew to large
proportions by the generous support of the Chris
tian public."
Readers may be induced into closer sympathy with
the author's appreciation of his subject by a glimpse
into the process by which he came to the present
writing. He had long known, what is commonly
reported, that in 1800 a few women, Congrega
tionalists and Baptists, founded in Boston the first
woman's missionary society in the world, and he
shared the general impression that it was only a

APOLOGY AND FORECAST
collecting agency in aid of the more general organi
zations of the denominations with which those
women were associated. In his search for the
sources of the earlier missionary movements among
American Baptists, he discovered that Mary Webb
held a precedent and prominent place in relation to
the receipts of the Massachusetts Baptist Mission
ary Society, and that she appeared to be the author
of several addresses issued by the original woman's
Society; and chiefly that those addresses and the
correspondence clustering around them constituted
the most significant feature, historically, of the
Society, which itself directly, however, took on in
other particulars more significance than had ever
been recognized in any general way. That the sug
gestions of these things appeared in the Baptist
literature and nowhere else, together with some
other indications, made him morally certain that
Miss Webb was a Baptist before he had any definite
information on that point. This opening informa
tion took on accumulating significance in relation
to the larger study he was prosecuting, and he there
fore set out to learn all he could about her. Thence
forth, personally in Boston and variously through
correspondence, particularly with a group of sym
pathetic women whose memories went back to Miss

APOLOGY AND FORECAST
Webb or some of her associates, he gathered the
materials on which the tribute following is based,
and which to some extent are incorporated in it.
Since at least one of these helpful assistants has
requested that her name be not mentioned in this
connection, and none has intimated a disposition to
be so recognized, they are used and thanked anony
mously. (With like inadequate recognition, the
author is constrained to leave others who kindly and
efficiently aided him.)
One of these ladies writes, " We are a little too
late." That is indeed true in some measure; this
work should have been done fifty years ago, and
was done partly in a fragmentary and ephemeral
way; but we are not altogether too late, and such
tribute as we are able to bring is gladly brought as
a chaplet for a humble but wise and brave brow,
and for the heartening of the like-minded, especially
among women.

CONTENTS Page
I. Mary Webb  i
II. The Boston Female Society for Mis
sionary Purposes  25
III. Other Organizations and Enterprises 91
IV. Eventide and Nightfall  102

MARY WEBB
Mary Webb was born March 12, 1779, in Boston,
Mass. The precise location of her birthplace is
given in an article in the " Watchman " of August
29, 1862, of which Dr. Baron Stow, long her
pastor, was almost certainly the author. He locates
it in Newberry Street, " since a part of Washington,
near where the Liberty Tree Block now stands,
opposite the Boylston Market." But since this was
written the locality has so changed that the informa
tion is of but little value. The place was on what
is now Washington Street, not far from either
Faneuil Hall or Copp's Hill.
Mary's father was Samuel Webb, of whom we
J<now only that he was a bookbinder. Her moth
er's name was Margaret, a member of the Old
South Congregational Church. Of other members
of the family we are not informed except an elder
sister, Sally, with whom Mary's home was estab
lished after the death of her parents.
Mary's physical appearance in early life is left to
inference from slight references to the same in
later life. She was small in stature and probably
frail physically before the great affliction fell on

2 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
her. This came when she was a little past five
years of age. A " severe sickness," of which we
learn nothing particularly, so " disabled her lower
limbs " that afterward, through more than three-
fourths of a century, she could neither walk nor
stand. For seventy-seven eager years her loco
motion was wholly on wheels or in human arms.
What she accomplished would have been great for
one woman of physical vigor and free movement;
and for her, with these physical limitations but
slightly relieved by financial resources, it seems to
take on aspects of mental superiority and moral
grandeur. When Mary was thirteen years old, 1792, her
father passed away, leaving presumably but small
means of maintenance for his family. It is safe
to assume that the widow and her daughters were
confronted with the necessity of self-support,
partly at least. An undated scrap of paper in •
Mary's writing states that for a considerable time
she and her mother conducted a school, apparently
in their own home. But prior to this the family
removed to Hartford, or possibly only went there
on a visit to relatives. Of this absence from Boston
nothing now seems to be known except touching
Mary's religious life, as will be noticed later.
After the return from Hartford, the daughter lived
with her mother until the decease of the latter, in
December, 1813, after which she went to the home
of her sister, Sally, Mrs. Edward Hartt, 24-26 Hull

MARY WEBB 3
Street; and after the death of Mr. Hartt, in 1823,
the sisters continued the home. Mr. Hartt was an
enterprising boat-builder, his business being exten
sively on the Western rivers, and his life closed in
Kentucky. the religious girl
When Doctor Stow wrote his article in memory
of Miss Webb he had her diary, and what we record
concerning her early experience is from that source.
The limits of the space at his disposal compelled
great compression. We have no information of the
dimensions of the diary or of the dates at which it
was begun and closed, but evidently it began quite
early. The first note of religious concern relates an ex
perience when its author was two years old. In
the second paragraph of the diary she wrote : " The
first thing I remember I took a pleasure in doing
because I knew it was wrong, was playing on a
Lord's Day." Her view of the source and quality
of this conduct is expressed in these words : " My
little depraved heart was gratified in doing it on that
very account." At six years of age " her mind was
deeply affected by her sense of sinfulness, and while
reflecting on the fall of man, she ' wished that Adam
had not sinned, and thus entailed so much misery on
his posterity.' " This is the only glimpse given us of
the working of her mind on religious subjects until
she came under a new influence seven years later.

4 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Through what channel these earlier impressions
reached her we do not know, except her mother.
Mrs. Webb is reported to have been a positively re
ligious character, and faithful to her daughter in
religious instruction according to the standards of
Congregationalism in Boston at that time. That was
before the Sunday-school, and when presumably
those serious views of life and respect for the
church and authority which characterized the ortho
doxy of early New England Congregationalists were
still supreme in that home. We may safely imagine
the frail little cripple, with the " little depraved
heart," and the busy, sober head, trained strictly by
her mother in the special intimacy between them,
which the helplessness of the one and the sympathy
of the other would induce.
When she was about thirteen a new and mighty
influence flowed into her life and never ceased to
mold it. It was the influence of Thomas Baldwin,
pastor of the Second Baptist Church. Near Mary's
home its meeting-house stood, in the center of the
block, its front door reached from Salem Street
through a narrower way. On this the pastor lived ;
for him it was later named, and the name of the
church, following that of the " Place " by which it
was approached, became " Baldwin Place." We use
this name from this time, though not always accu
rate chronologically. Mr. Baldwin became pastor of
this church in 1790. His coming ushered in a new
era for it, inaugurated by a powerful work of the

MARY WEBB 5
Spirit, flowing on into substantial edification through
many years. More than usually, the dignity of the
teacher and the gentleness of the shepherd united
in him. About two years after he became a neigh
bor of the Webbs, Mr. Webb died. No indication
appears of intimacy or even acquaintance between
these neighbors prior to this event. But about that
time the pastor found the home, and between the
strong man and the frail girl a friendship arose
which grew with the years. Doctor Stow states that
she " was much impressed by conversation which
he had with her on personal religion." The affliction
of the family may have drawn him to its threshold,
and the younger daughter's prostrate body and pre
cocious mind combined to stir toward her the good
man's natural sympathy and spiritual solicitude.
In 1793 the family went to Hartford where,
through association with Baptists, Mary " was led
to examine the word of God with reference to their
distinctive principles." As a result she was not
only convinced of their soundness, but also became
troubled about her own spiritual state, and " after
a season of deep distress, in view of her lost condi
tion," she found peace and joy. Doctor Stow adds :
" Her own account of the work of the Spirit in her
heart is deeply interesting."
After about a year in Hartford, Mrs. Webb and
her daughters returned to Boston, and Mary seems
to have begun to attend the Baptist church.
Whether she was joined in this by either of the

O MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
other members of the family does not appear, but
probably she was by her sister, who also became
a member of Baldwin Place. The Baptist meeting
was much more accessible than the other, especially
for the one who must be wheeled everywhere. But
the new convictions that had come to Mary, and
perhaps to Sally, would doubtless have taken them
there without regard to convenience. " In her
diary of that period, she mentioned in strong terms
the pleasure and profit she derived from the visits
of ' Pastor Baldwin,' and reckoned among her
' most useful and pleasant associates,' two pious
young men of about her own age, Heman and En
sign Lincoln." These young men, who were
cousins, united with Baldwin Place about the same
time that Mary did, and became not only active
helpers in her good works, but very valuable and
widely known in the larger affairs of the denomi
nation. THE PORTAL OF FELLOWSHIP
Turning now from Doctor Stow's article to the
church records, we come to the story of Mary's
baptism and union with the church. These records
reveal the item that when she was twenty years
of age she was so commonly called Polly that this
name is used in the first, and some subsequent,
references to her in the church book. She always
appears as " Polly Webb," in connection with her
reception and a little beyond, then she becomes

MARY WEBB 7
always "Mary Webb." The nickname, Polly, I
find nowhere else applied to her. That it went
into these records in this form, seems clearly to
indicate that at that time it was common; and we
may indulge the fancy that it in some measure
voiced the tender sentiment of the community to
ward the frail and helpless, but bright and brave
girl. In these records, under date of March 26, 1798,
we find that the church " conferred on a proposition
of Polly Webb's to join the church, and several
other matters." The meaning beneath this confer
ence on Polly's proposition, and the fact that it
was not acted on until a month later, is that it in
volved a course that the church had never taken,
so far as the records show, and never repeated, as
a search of the same authority through a series of
subsequent years shows. Possibly in some yet later
year something of this kind was done ; but in those
earlier times the instance of Polly Webb stands
alone as the occasion of a business meeting at a
private house to accommodate an applicant for
membership, or for any other purpose. The record
does not state this as the point under consideration,
but the next succeeding entry seems to show that
it was : " April 29. Agreed to meet, on Friday eve
ning next, at Mrs. Webb's to hear the relation of
Miss Polly Webb, who wishes to offer herself as a
candidate for baptism." This business is finished
in the record by the two entries here following:

8 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
" Friday evening, May 4, met at Mrs. Webb's,
opened by prayer. Then proceeded to hear the re
lation of Miss Polly Webb with regard to God's
gracious dealing with her, after which the church
unanimously gave her fellowship and received her
as a candidate for baptism. Dismissed by prayer
and singing " ; and this in conclusion, " July 1, 1798,
Polly Webb was baptized and received into the
church the same day."
If we should seek for a reason for this deviation
from the custom of the church to hear such rela
tions in the more public way, we would probably
find it correctly in the fact that the applicant
shrank from the ordeal of being wheeled into the
meeting at the meeting-house and relating her
experience there, whether seated in her vehicle or
not. The reception of members by Baptists then
was a much more searching process than it is
usually now; and this strictness began in the ex
perience on which the applicant was accepted. It
may be well doubted whether any one would have
been received by that church when Mary Webb
came in, on such experience as that on which most
of our applicants are now welcomed. Our present
views of sin and salvation are superficial as com
pared with those of that time, and our experiences
of grace are correspondingly shallow and ashamed.
And now if, guided by imagination in small part,
we enter the Baldwin Place meeting-house for the
morning meeting of the Lord's Day, July 1, 1798,

MARY WEBB 9
we will see the baptistery open " near the head of
the broad aisle," " where it continued in use more
than forty years," having been -enlarged twice, once
in 1788, and again in 1797, the year before this
occasion. As we wait amid the serious congrega
tion, stirred doubtless to more than its accustomed
interest at baptisms, partly by the peculiar incidents
in connection with the reception of the present sub
ject, and more by tender sympathy with the deli
cate girl, known and loved by all, and possibly by
the knowledge that her shrinking from the ordeal
has held back her application — as we wait the pastor
and a deacon descend into the liquid grave, bear
ing a helpless form which might be mistaken for
that of a child, but is in fact that of a person of
nineteen, whom her pastor of a later date character
ized as a woman of " great mental energy." Doc
tor Stow says of an effect of the event, " Her joy
was great," arid quotes from her writing of the
occasion : " The ordinance was made so exceedingly
sweet and precious to me that I thought on the
next Lord's Day morning I should have delighted
to go again." THE FAITHFUL CHURCH-MEMBER
Coming from the church associations of her
mother, over what protests, if any, we can only con
jecture and making her public confession in a way
so peculiarly difficult and trying Miss Webb gave
promise of steadfastness in her church relations and

IO MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
diligence in maintaining them. This promise was
kept abundantly. With but meager materials, we
are still clearly informed of this in two particulars —
attendance and discipline.
Attendance. As to her attendance on the regular
services of the church, Doctor Stow, who was her
pastor for sixteen years says : " The manner in
which she overcame difficulties in reaching the meet
ings made her an example that often rebuked the
wealthier but less conscientious members." He also
states that she labored in all departments of Chris
tian activity contributing readily to all church and
denominational enterprises. Her relation to the first
Sunday-school in the church will be considered in
another connection. As we proceed we will see her
projecting her earnest life into so many missionary
and charitable channels beyond her own church and
denomination that we may be in danger of thinking
of her as slack in denominational conviction and
church devotion; but such thought would falsify
her. Through the more than sixty years that she
was a member of Baldwin Place her fidelity never
flagged. An aged lady remembers that " the pew in which
Miss Webb was placed on the Sabbath was always
filled between the services [forenoon and afternoon]
by friends who went there to chat with her."
Another correspondent writes : " I have heard my
mother tell of her and other children's interest in
watching for Miss Webb's chair to be rolled up the

MARY WEBB II
aisle to the pulpit stairs." Another, in seeking ma
terial toward this work, " called upon an old gentle
man who, when he was young, used to assist each
Sabbath in carrying the little carriage up to the pew,
and of course often chatted for a while; but fifty
years is a long while for any of us older people, who
are not now so strong in our memories as in the days
of yore, to carry words, though we know they were
full of love and wisdom." And another eighty-six
years of age writes: " All I remember of Miss Webb
was seeing her brought into Baldwin Place Church
in a small carriage by a man. I think it was a minia
ture of a larger carriage, covered top. I think she
was quite heavy, of course looked short." Still
another reports her interest when a little girl in
watching Miss Webb's carriage coming down Salem
Street, and the eagerness of the young men waiting
at the door to carry her in. And one more tells us :
" I went once with my grandmother when I was a
little girl, to see the little old lady crouched in her
wheel-chair, who had been the means, though so
feeble and afflicted, of starting many of the most
philanthropic, and body and soul-saving societies, in
Boston." From all these we learn that she was
borne in her carriage or chair (perhaps at one period
a " miniature carriage," and at another period a
chair similar to those now in such use), wheeled or
carried by a man to her seat and placed in it, after
which the conveyance stood by the pulpit stairs.
And this was the regular order while two genera-

12 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
tions of young men, competing for the privilege,
grew into old men.
Discipline. After Miss Webb's baptism no refer
ence to her appears in the church records for about
a year and a half, when this entry comes into view,
for Monday evening, December 30, 1799 : " The
church met at the meeting-house, but as the evening
was wet under foot the meeting was thin. Opened
by prayer. Read a letter from Miss P. Webb.
Conversed on several things relative to the peace
of the church, but transacted no business of im
portance." This scrappy record is suggestive. At
that time women were but little known in the busi
ness of the church, and a letter from a woman of the
church was doubtless a rare affair, though quite
likely if she had expected to be present her commu
nication would have been in this form, but she may
have been absent on account of the wet winter
night, if for no other reason. What this letter was
about is left to conjecture, but it may safely be
assumed to relate to some interest of the body,
and the immediately following statement that the
informal discussion related to the peace of the
church, suggests that that was its subject. The
church was then much more a family than now. Its
business was largely devoted to the conduct of the
members, particularly toward each other, and pre
sumably the letter from "Miss P. Webb" led to
the conversation.
But our little friend was not long in bringing

MARY WEBB 1 3
forward a case of discipline clearly her own. She
herself got into trouble, and appealed to the church
to help her out. The case as it rambles through
the records is semicomical, and may also deserve
a moment of our attention here because of the
light it throws on methods of discipline then as
well as on the character of Mary Webb. It is so
far away from the entry just passed that we could
confidently assume it not to be the same, if we
were less acquainted with the dilatory progress of
church business in those times; and perhaps it is
safe anyway to make that assumption. We need
to remember that, at the date now reached in the
records, Miss Webb had considerably advanced in
those philanthropic enterprises in which her genius
shone, and into that high place in the esteem of
the church and the community that might have
made it easy and excusable for her to disregard her
duty to a troublesome sister and go on her way in
silence. It was on July 4, 1806, that in church
meeting " a letter from Mary Webb [no longer
Polly] was read, stating that a difficulty subsisted
between her and Mrs. '  ,' that she had
taken the first and second steps, and wished the
church to attend to it." A deacon on the committee
died before the close of the month and a successor
was named " to visit Mary Webb and ' — ¦  ,'
who have had some misunderstanding with each
other." But up to December fifth the committee
seems to have neglected its duty, for then it was

14 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
requested " to attend to the business, so as to report
at the next church meeting." But nearly two years
pass before this affair appears again, when, " after
some remarks by Brother Oliver, one of the com
mittee, it was proposed that they wait upon the
parties once more, and that Deacon Rainsford be
joined to the committee, which was voted." Evi
dently something had been doing, but it had not
reached a satisfactory conclusion. And that is the
last of it in the records. But some five years later,
others arraigned before the church a woman of
the same family name, but whose first name is not
given in the second instance. Labor was under
taken, but dragged. The committee was curiously
slow to get at business, until finally the disclosure
was made that the culprit's husband had objected to
the committee visiting her. The upshot was her
appearance in the church meeting, where she spoke
in a way that put an end to her career there. She
acknowledged her bad temper, exhibiting a sample
of it that distressed the maker of the record, and
claimed that it was given to her for self-defense,
thus justifying herself in the use of it. There
upon she was excluded.
These two disturbers were probably one, and she
was a terror. An easy inference is that her sharp
tongue had cruelly cut the sensitive saint going
about on errands of mercy, who did not shirk her
duty to a sister in the church, but having taken the
steps prescribed by the Master, left her vindication

MARY WEBB IS
with the church. In this view of it, the incident
reveals a sidelight on her character.
A glimpse given us by Doctor Stow, showing
Miss Webb as a watcher for souls in personal re
lations, may close this study of her fidelity as a
church-member. His statement, seeming designed
to cover her whole life, is that, " for her family
connections and many others," she felt " tender
solicitude," and " led some of them to Christ for
salvation." And here we leave our subject in her
more private life and local relationships, to return
to her in some of these aspects many years later,
after she had become a " shut-in," while we pro
ceed to seek her acquaintance in affairs of wider
reach. Perhaps we may profitably get a clearer impres
sion at this point of her as a voluntary and effective
charity worker. Or, if our impression is clear, a
reminder may not be amiss before we proceed. Mr.
Porter, as already quoted, seems to mean that Miss
Webb had begun to be " a society in herself "
earlier than this, possibly earlier than her union
with the church. She sought out the suffering poor,
and solicited means for their relief personally " be
fore the development of our city missionary so
cieties, our Sunday-schools, and the organized
charities of the present day." She devised plans
for this purpose and executed them " with surpri
sing facility." Her " great mental energy," and
other natural endowments to this end, were no
B

1 6 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
doubt much aided by her physical helplessness and
her financial limitations. Her weakness for this
work reenforced her appeals to others. If we are
to appreciate properly her character in originating
and operating organizations, we must first realize
her as a rare individual worker in these fields before
organizations, and perhaps before she reached
womanhood. THE MISSIONARY LEADER
When Miss Webb united with the Baptist church
the first missionary society in New England had
not been organized. The same was true throughout
the country, except for a few undenominational
societies, led by that in New York in 1796. Of
these she probably knew nothing. Her acquaintance
with Christian activities up to that time had pre
sumably been limited to what she saw among the
Congregationalists and Baptists in Boston. In
both these fellowships the missionary mind had
expressed itself limitedly in various ways, individual
and local. A difference between these two parties
was that, in a general way, the Congregationalists
were losing that soundness in the faith and zeal
in religion that had formerly characterized them,
while the Baptists were more steadfast on the fun
damentals and more zealous in evangelism, their
missionary endeavor, after the individual, having
been expressed through churches and Associations.
In 1799, within a year after the baptism of Mary

MARY WEBB 1 7
Webb, the agitation for a missionary society among
the Congregationalists in Boston and vicinity re
sulted in the origin of " The Massachusetts Mis
sionary Society." This action was opposed by the
less orthodox leaders in the denomination on the
ground that no such organization was needed there,
Massachusetts being already Christian. Partly as
a concession to this sentiment, the purpose of the
Society was declared to be to operate where Christ
was not preached; and one of the leaders in the
movement commented on this clause, that it in
cluded Boston because Christ was not preached
there. To a very serious extent that was true in
the Congregational churches in which the Univer-
salist-Unitarian element had become strong. In
fact, the rising tide of heterodoxy among them
selves was one of the sources of the desire of the
sounder element to inaugurate the missionary move
ment; and thence onward the defenders of the
faith and the promoters of missions were the same.
Dr. Nathanael Emmons, of Franklin, Mass., was
the first president of this Society. He was a
preacher of marked ability, known chiefly as a
great theologian, of inflexible logic, whose sermons
are probably regarded as dry doctrinal essays, and
himself as lacking in sympathy and evangelistic zeal.
But the choice of him as the chief officer of the
missionary Society was not a mistake. As the
President of the Society he preached its first annual
sermon in May, 1800. This sermon comes into our

l8 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
story significantly, because it was the flint that
struck fire in the mind of Mary Webb and started
the flame of what she called her " passion for mis
sions " that steadily burned for sixty years.
Preliminary to the consideration of the effect of
the sermon on the young woman's mind, we should
pause long enough to catch a glimpse of the prepa
ration for this effect. Doctor Baldwin, who had
been her pastor for two years and her spiritual
guide longer, was the leading force in the mission
ary movement among the Baptists in that vicinity,
and second to none throughout the denomination
in that interest, from that time onward for a quar
ter of a century. That Miss Webb had imbibed
from him sentiments and sympathies predisposing
her to respond as she did to the sermon of Doctor
Emmons, may be regarded as certain. The Baptist
mind of that date had been affected beyond any
other in America by the foreign mission movement
in England, and nowhere had that influence found
a more open field than in the Baldwin Place
Church in Boston. It was the central source of
the streams that emerged two years later in the
" Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society." With
her predisposition to philanthropy, under the guid
ance of Pastor Baldwin, Miss Webb's response to
Doctor Emmons' sermon , was natural. On this
point Doctor Stow makes a statement, quoting a re
mark of Miss Webb, as follows : " In the summer
of 1800, reading a sermon of Doctor Emmons, she

MARY WEBB 19
' first conceived a passion for missions,' and imme
diately set herself at work with both tongue and
pen to awaken in others a similar interest." But
before we proceed to particulars about the result
of her awakening, we may well pause to make the
acquaintance of the sermon itself, which, fortu
nately, is preserved in the pamphlet form in which
the receptive reader first saw it. It is well worth
reading, not only for its own sake, but particularly
now for the light it sheds on the mind and heart of
Miss Webb. It shows the kind of discourse that
most effectively reached her understanding and
most powerfully moved her will.
" Sermon before the Massachusetts Missionary
Society, at their annual meeting in Boston, May 27,
1800. By Nathanael Emmons, D. D."
2 Chronicles 15: 7: " Be ye strong therefore, and
let not your hands be weak: for your work shall
be rewarded."
The sermon opens with a statement of the situa
tion of Israel at the time the text was spoken, by
way of which the preacher reaches his theme : " The
friends of God have good ground for unshaken reso
lution in promoting the cause of religion."
I. " Necessity of resolution in promoting the
cause of religion." Resolution is necessary in all
" great things." True in religion. Illustrated from
the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the
Reformers.

20 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
II. " The friends of God have good ground for
such unshaken resolution in profnoting such a great
and good design."
i. " They have often succeeded in their sincere
attempts to promote his glory in the conversion of
sinners." Illustrations from the Bible and modern
times. " There is something extremely animating
in the prospect of success. It always inspires the
mind with irresistible zeal and fortitude in seeking
a desirable object. This alluring motive God, in
his providence, holds up to the view of his friends,
who are sincerely engaged to promote his cause."
2. " The promotion of religion is such a noble and
laudable design that it is even glorious to fail in the
attempt." Failures are common to mankind and to
the friends of God. " But in all cases, in which the
failure has not been owing either to negligence or
the unfaithfulness or the despondency of those em
ployed in concerting and executing the design, their
attempt has always met with general approbation
and applause." After illustrations comes the in
junction to consider that there is " nothing to lose,
but much to gain by most zealous and bold
attempts." 3. " They have reason to expect the peculiar pres
ence and assistance of God." His cause enlists his
heart, and he enlists every creature and directs
every event in the universe for its attainment, and
gives express promises. Having noted examples,
the author proceeds : " Such peculiar promises of

MARY WEBB 21
divine support, protection, and assistance apply to
all those who are heartily engaged to spread the
knowledge and blessings of the gospel among the
perishing children of men, and are designed to in
spire them with resolution and zeal in the great
undertaking." 4. " Their benevolent desires and exertions will
be . . . attended with the approbation and pray
ers of all good men. . . Here the distinction of dif
ferent denominations ceases to operate, and admits
an entire union in sentiment and feeling."
5. " They are equally sure of the .esteem and
affection of all those whom they shall be instru
mental in converting. This consideration may well
support and animate them in suffering all the re
proach and suffering they may meet with."
6. " All the sincere endeavors and extraordinary
exertions in favor of religion shall finally meet a
glorious recompense of reward." God has promised
it. What better use can be made of the blessings
of providence ? " This is the most important de
sign carrying on in the world, and even in any part
of the universe; and, therefore, to be instrumental
in promoting this, is to do the greatest good which
lies in the power of man to do." Illustrations.
" These promises . . . ought to animate good men
at this day as they animated Moses, the prophets,
the apostles, and even Christ himself, to the most
bold and vigorous exertions in the cause of religion."
Thus is opened the way for " Improvements "

22 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
and " Applications." " The friends of God have
been very negligent." If they had been diligent the
state of the world would have been very different.
Having expanded this thought, the preacher pro
ceeds : " Nothing has been wanting, since the revival
of learning, the invention of printing, and the dis
covery of the magnet to prevent the universal spread
of the gospel, but merely Christian resolution and
zeal " ; and having urged that this fact calls for
humiliation, he adds that " the present melancholy
state of Christianity throughout the world re
proaches all its friends for their past irresolution
and negligence."
" None will ever do much to forward the work
without a large share of Christian zeal and resohn
tion." Piety and good will are worthless or worse,
" if destitute of a truly missionary spirit." This1
means beginning at home, personally and nationally;
The heart must " glow with love to God and a ten
der concern for the souls of men, must be weaned
from the world, stripped of mercenary motives, will
ing to deny self and take up the cross," before the
possession of the necessary spirit.
" It is not yet too late to attempt the propagation
of the gospel throughout this extended country . . .
though the enemies of religion have within a few
years greatly increased in numbers and strength,
though they have set every engine in motion to
spread error, deism, and even atheism, through
every corner of our land. . . If the few friends of

MARY WEBB 23
God in this country, therefore, were only awake,
united, and possessed of proper zeal and fortitude,"
they might check " vice and infidelity," and extend
the Redeemer's kingdom " where Satan is now
reigning without control." " God arises to defend
his cause in discouraging times. He is so doing now
throughout the world." Here follows a survey in
brief, in which the preacher raises and refutes in
few words some possible objections, proceeding:
" The United States are abundantly able, in respect
to numbers and wealth, to spread the gospel through
all North and South America. And we were, there
is reason to believe, raised up and formed into a
civil and religious community to perform this serv
ice for God, in grateful return for his distinguishing
and protecting mercy."
" But let us turn from the dark to the bright side
of the work. What if the set time to favor Zion
should be at hand ? What if there should be a gen
eral effusion of the divine Spirit upon all our re
ligious societies? What if the attention of both
ministers and people should be awakened to the
object we are pursuing, and they should, like the
men of Israel, fall in to our assistance in abun
dance ? What if the numerous inhabitants of the new
settlements should generally be formed into large
and flourishing churches ? What if the poor heathen
[Indians] should have an opportunity and a heart
to embrace the gospel? In a word, what if this
whole continent should be both civilized and gospel-

24 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
ized, through the instrumentality of this and other
missionary societies? Who would not have reason
to rejoice? And who wquld have more reaspn to
rejoice than those who were the most sincere, active,
bold, and zealous in bringing about such happy
event? These are not imaginary prospects. If God
intends to make us a happy, he will make us a holy
people ; and if he intends to make us a holy people,
he will employ the proper means to effect his pur
pose. Let us, then, my brethren, take courage; let
our hearts and hands be strong; for there are cer
tainly prospects within our view, which, whether
realized before or after we are laid in the dust, will
abundantly reward us for all that we can do to
build up the kingdom of our Divine Redeemer."

II

THE BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY FOR
MISSIONARY PURPOSES
The available materials for a history of this So
ciety fall into four divisions or periods. This analy
sis strictly taken is neither accurate nor complete.
But it seems to yield itself as easily as any other
to the present purpose, and possibly more easily
than any other. The four periods may be named
the germinal, the expansive, the Boston, and the
Baptist. THE GERMINAL PERIOD
l800-l802
The germinal process in the mind and character
of the founder of the Society has been already
traced. We come now to the germination of the
Society itself in that group of minds among whom
hers was central and primary. This proceeds
through several stages.
Consultation. Mary Webb read the sermon of
Doctor Emmons in the summer of 1800. Its seed,
falling into prepared soil, began 'at once to ger
minate. It produced what she called her " passion
for missions." In her fortieth annual report to
25

26 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
the Society she refers to this sermon as the means
by which " a flame was kindled up in the bosom
of an individual, which resulted in the organiza
tion of the Society now present." How her mind
worked in details we do not know, but something
is revealed in the same report, where she says:
" When the subject was proposed to the considera
tion of friends, it instantly met the cordial approval
of some, while others smiled or stood aloof. But
with the hearty approval of several judicious minis
ters and brethren " the organization was effected."
In seeking to identify these " ministers and breth
ren " we get a little light from the same source.
In close connection with the preceding quotation,
she tells the story of the origin of the " Massachu
setts Baptist Missionary Society," which arose on
the application of a young men's meeting or so
ciety in the Baldwin Place Baptist Church, which
was presented to the pastor, Dr. Thomas Baldwin,
" in the winter of 1802." The young men had been
sustaining this meeting for religious purposes, and
at that time were so much impressed with their duty
to push out into wider activity that they went to
their pastor with their burden, expressing to him
their conviction that the time was ripe for the Bap
tists to start a missionary society. He replied that
he had been thinking the same thing and would con
fer about it with " Brother Stillman," pastor of the
First Baptist Church, and see what could be done.
Thence resulted the Baptist Society in the May fol-

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 27
lowing. That Miss Webb placed this account of
the meeting of the young men and its awakening to
a larger duty, in connection with the origin of her
own Society, seems to show that she was thinking
of a close connection between the two, which indi
cates the conclusion that these young men in the
Baldwin Place Church were prominent in her
memory of her advisers at that time. This con
clusion is confirmed by her reference, in her report
for 1833, to the then recent decease of Mr. Ensign
Lincoln, to which special reference was made. Of
him she said : " Mr. L. was a warm friend of this
Society from its commencement. He was among the
first gentlemen whose opinions were consulted with
reference to its formation, and although at that time
but a youth, he was then, what he ever afterward
continued to be, a prudent counselor." In her for
tieth annual report, where she speaks of the devo
tional union of the women of the two denominations,
she says : " This delightful union, taking place as it
did when there were but two Baptist churches in
Boston, and not more than one Congregational
church that stood fully upon evangelical grounds,
proved, as it were, a little central point, around
which devout women clustered in holy concert to
pray for the enlargement of Zion." All these items
together warrant us in saying that in Boston then
were only three pastors whom she would consult —
two Baptist and one Congregationalist. If she con
sulted any others, they were in adjacent country

28 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
churches. The other men consulted were no doubt
most of them in her own church, officers and others,
especially those earnest and judicious young men
with whom she was most intimate. She says that
Doctor Baldwin encouraged the woman's Society
when he knew that all of its funds for a while would
go to the aid of another denomination. This seems
to have been true of all the Baptist men whom she
consulted. In the light that we have accumulated, we can
readily imagine with considerable confidence the
process at this juncture. We imagine that when
Miss Webb finished reading the sermon, with its
closing appeal ringing in her soul, her alert mind
sprang to the conclusion that she must do some
thing toward the end to which it pointed, and that
her bold will resolved and her practical ingenuity
began to devise. The best place seeming to her to
get hold practically was with the Society that had
sent out the sermon, the only organization of that
character then existing in New England. Her rela
tions were intimate with some members in both
denominations. Why might she not unite some of
her friends, especially the young, in gathering funds
for the aid of the Congregational Society, at least
until the Baptists opened the way for such aid by
a similar organization? It was not in her to pro
ceed far in such a course without conference with
her pastor. She was blazing a path, perilous for a
young woman, through an unbroken wilderness, and

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 29
she had no spirit of revolt against the prevalent
views among Christians concerning the sphere of
woman. It is morally certain that if Doctor Bald
win had discouraged the proposal on the ground
of impropriety, that Society would not have begun
in 1800. But he did not object. On the contrary,
he approved heartily and supported his approval
practically in every available way. He saw in this
little cloud one of the sources of that larger mis
sionary rain for which he was looking.
Constitution. Who wrote the constitution? No
answer comes except from probability and internal
evidence. The probability is that Miss Webb car
ried the problem of a constitution to her pastor, as
well as that she examined the constitution of the
only missionary Society of which she then had any
definite knowledge, probably, and to which she had
access. These two sources were open to her for
suggestions, and she presumably utilized them.
Some terms in this document are very similar to
the corresponding terms in the coordinate document
of the Baptist Society soon following. These terms,
if nothing more, are naturally traceable, directly or
indirectly, to Doctor Baldwin. But his modes of
thought and expression in this field were familiar
to his devoted parishioner, and she may have used
them here unconscious of their likeness to the way
that her pastor expressed the same ideas. Or it is
not incredible that some of it was literally written
by the sympathetic pastor. But much of it reminds

30 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
us of the way in which the like thoughts are ex
pressed in those addresses and reports known to
have been written by Miss Webb. Without going
into details on the internal evidence, we have some
confidence in our opinion that this constitution was
substantially the joint product of Mary Webb and
Thomas Baldwin.
Two issues of it are available, one printed in
1809 and the other in 1816. The first of these may
be seen in the volume entitled, " Woman's Mission
ary Societies," by Mrs. L. H. Daggett, Boston, 1879.
The second was printed by Nathanael Willis, in
Boston, and seems not to have been ever repro
duced. Whether the one of 1809 was identical with
the original, which was printed gratuitously by the
Society's good friend, Ensign Lincoln, is not known,
though probably it was or nearly so ; but a compari
son of the copies of 1809 and of 18 16 shows that
the latter was a revision of the former. The
changes are not important unless two of them may
be so construed. One of these is the insertion of
a relatively long reference to the success of mis
sions to date, as a justification and encouragement
of this Society. The other is a declaration of its
purpose as being " foreign and domestic." It had
begun as what we call a home mission society, de
voted to our own country in the larger sense; the
opening of Asia to missions had drawn its activities
in contributions to that work ; and now it was about
to find its chief field in Boston " city missions," but

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 3 1
not necessarily its exclusive field. All this is put
into the phrase " foreign and domestic," recording
the past and opening the way to the developments
of the future.
The preamble of the 1809 constitution, almost cer
tainly the same as the original, was as follows:
" Animated by the noble exertions which are ma
king in the various parts of the Christian world,
to spread the knowledge of divine truth, and by the
success which the great Head of the church has
seen fit, in many instances, to crown the united en
deavors of his dear people, a number of females,
feeling interested in the glorious cause, and desirous
of promoting it, have formed themselves into a
Society to collect a sum for the express purpose of
aiding missions. The destitute and afflicting situa
tion of thousands of our fellow creatures calls aloud
to charity; and while a needle can be instrumental
of spreading the knowledge of a Saviour's name,
shall a Christian female forbear to exercise it in the
best of causes? No, in imitation of those who
ministered to the necessities of our divine Lord,
we will offer our mite to the relief of his elect body.
[Here the 1816 issue added the references to suc
cess.] With the view to promote the objects of the
Society, the following articles are adopted for its
regulation." Summarizing the thirteen articles we get this:
The Society to consist of any number of females
disposed to contribute to its purpose; to meet on
c

32 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
the first Monday afternoon in every month; two
dollars required annually from each member, with
liberty to contribute more for those able and will
ing; opportunity open to non-members to contrib
ute with or without solicitation; separate lists of
Baptists and Congregationalists to be kept, and the
contributions of members to be distributed denomi
nationally as the donors desire ; additional condition
of membership, "good moral character and right
views and motives " ; any member to introduce new
members, through the Secretary, on evidence of
their fitness ; membership continuous " until circum
stances occur to render it inexpedient " ; any mem
ber failing " to exhibit the character required " to
be excluded by a majority present ; annual choice of
a secretary and treasurer; meetings to be at the
homes of the members, for the sake of economy, on
invitation from meeting to meeting, invitations and
acceptances to be free without offense ; " the time
not occupied by the business of the Society shall be
devoted to religious exercises." (One item not
mentioned in the constitution, but understood from
the first, was that the specific method of mission
ary procedure was to be the distribution of Bibles,
Testaments, and other religious books through the
missionaries of the general societies. We will see
that soon and increasingly this good literature ele
ment, though having the whole field at first, gave
way to others, and the anticipation of such change
probably caused the omission of mention of the

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 33
field of operations which at the beginning was the
only one, practically.)
Organization. The Society was organized in the
residence of Mrs. Webb, with whom Mary lived,
October 9, 1800, the founders being eight Baptists
and six Congregationalists. The membership fee
was two dollars, as was also the annual require
ment for the continuance of membership. This set
the financial standard at the highest point known at
that time and for a decade or more subsequently.
It was the same as that of the Congregational So
ciety instituted in Boston a year earlier, and as
high as any of the few union societies then in ex
istence in America. When the Massachusetts Bap
tist Society arrived, eighteen months later, its stand
ard was one dollar; while half a dollar was the
amount required in the earlier Baptist woman's or
ganizations ; and the " Cent Institute," which soon
arose among the Congregational women, took its
name from its basis of one cent a week. This made
this pioneer woman's Society quite a financial aristoc
racy. Probably this reduced the number of its
founders, for two . dollars was a considerable sum
in the sight of many women then. If a more modest
money condition had been made, more members
might have been secured at the beginning, especially
among the Baptists, who doubtless averaged lower in
financial ability than the Congregationalists, and
were less accustomed to taxation, or anything look
ing like it, in religion than the others were.

34 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Life-memberships come into view later, on a
basis of twenty dollars, but when they originated
does not appear. Also life-directors are known to
have been a feature quite early, but their details
are obscure, and presumably they were related to
the life-memberships. An item in the annual report
of 1825 shows that very young girls were eligible
to life-membership. It is in the obituary part of
the report. Reference is there made to efficient
workers gone hence, particularly Mrs. Larkin and
Miss Lincoln, both on the Board of Directors and
distinguished for philanthropic activity. In this
connection the Secretary wrote : " And should the
cold-hearted professor, whose attention is engrossed
with business and parade, ask the departed spirit
of Elizabeth Lincoln if she now regretted having
spent so many hours in the Alms House, conversing
with its miserable tenants on the glories of the
world she now inhabits, probably she would say,
' Go thou and do likewise.' We have before us this
afternoon a living testimony of the attachment of
the latter to the cause of Christ. At her request, a
sister and five little nieces are made life-members
of this Society. May her much-coveted mantle rest
on them." In the same connection, when expressing
pleasure at the coming of new members, she con
tinues : " and among them we are happy to recognize
a number of our juvenile friends. May these youth
ful, we may almost say infant, members rise up and
more than fill the places of those who preceded

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 35
them." Some of these " almost infant members,"
possibly all of them, were presumably the nieces of
Miss Lincoln, and the inference is suggested that the
cost of their life-memberships had been provided
by her.
It is not possible to learn much definitely about
the founders. They were mostly young women, but
not wholly so, and presumably were intimates of
Miss Webb, whom she would first seek as associates
in this enterprise and who would be the most ready
to encourage her in it. They were well aware that
it would encounter criticism as presumptuous and
unbecoming in a company of young women, or older
for that matter. They were sensitive to such criti
cism, but they were moved by a sober and cour
ageous sense of duty. Of them Dr. Daniel Sharp
said, at the fiftieth anniversary of the Society, when
only Mary Webb and one other of them were
present, " They were women who feared God more
than men." The imagination may find an interest
ing field in that group of two sevens, the thirteen
gathering about the crippled girl, who was also
" a woman of great mental energy." In the twenty-
fifth annual report the Secretary indulged in remi
niscences which furnish some light on the points
just mentioned. She wrote : " With much diffidence
and many obstacles to encounter we commenced our
career. . . To aid the cause of missions by permanent
combination was a thing unprecedented among
females. And as an association for this specific

36 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
purpose we stood alone for several years." The ages
of the departed at their decease, as given in this
connection, were from eighteen to seventy-eight
years. This makes it certain that at least one of
the founders was fifty-three years of age in 1800.
May we not guess that Mary's mother was another,
though not so old? And to guess again, that
another, though still living in 1825, was her sister
Sally, who in 1800, if not earlier, was a member of
Baldwin Place, with her husband, to whom she was
married on " Christmas Day, 1796," would probably
be correct. Two additional persons of whom we
are certain are Mrs. J. Parke and Miss Mary Doubt.
The first of these was President for several years,
and her decease is mentioned in this same report.
The second, whose departure is recorded in the re
port of 1846, was the daughter of a " respectable
physician," a very useful member, who if she had
had the literary privileges " might have shone in
almost any circle." She became a Baptist in 1789,
and passed away in 1846, " at the advanced age of
eighty-three years," " in the same habitation in
which she was born and lived, with the exception of
a short interval." This makes her age when she
united in the founding to have been thirty-seven
years. When we recall that in 1825 only four of
these founders remained in the Society, and that
the earlier reports now available are fragmentary,
we see reason for the paucity of the information in
this field. If all that the accurate and appreciative

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 37
Secretary doubtless recorded at some time had been
preserved, this list might be enlarged.
Probably the only officers at first were president,
secretary, and treasurer, though the original consti
tution seems not to have required the first of these.
But with growth and more complexity of operations,
additional officers were provided as needed. A list
of them in 1825 gives president, three vice-presi
dents, secretary and treasurer in one, two assist
ants, and a committee of nine. The two assistants
being listed next after the secretary-treasurer seem
to have had close relation to her, while the commit
tee of nine coming last may be understood as more
general in their relations. From the same source
we learn of five directors. None of the names of
officers given are duplicated, but the names of the
large committee, which are not given, might show
duplications. The constitution of 1816 provides for
a committee of fourteen, including the officers, to
meet monthly to examine the correspondence and do
other necessary business. All this indicates a prac
tical adjustment to changing conditions from time to
time. But amid all changes one abides at the cen
ter. Mary Webb was treasurer from beginning to
end, forty-six years, and secretary for the same
time except the first two years. The statement has
been published that she was secretary also from the
first. This seems to be an error. The natural course
would have been to give one of these offices to each
denomination, which appears to have been done.

38 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
But not later than the third year the two were
brought together in the one person who was the
chief spring of the whole movement. At first the
treasurership was the working office, but as the cor
respondence grew the secretaryship became even
more important. What this means will appear more
clearly as we proceed.
For the first fourteen years the Society met at
the homes of its members, afterward in the vestry
of the Park Street Congregational Church until
its division into two organizations in 1829. The
earlier plan avowedly had economy in view. The
change may have been made for greater conve
nience or better distribution of denominational
honors. Although the constitution mentions the needle as
a source of income, or a form of service, in the
original design, the monthly meetings were not
sewing-circles for any purpose, but provision was
imperative that all of the time after attending to
the business should be given to devotional exer
cises. When and how the needle came in is not
told. Other methods of securing funds arid doing
good are reported, but the needle in both connec
tions is ignored. That it was used, at home prob
ably, is incidentally involved in some statements,
but directly or distinctly it appears nowhere in
available records except in the constitution. Inci
dental assurances of it are in the " Fragment So
ciety," in the " Priscilla Society," in the original

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 39
Society itself for the Indians in the West, and by the
same women for the wardrobe of the Sunday-
school, but never anywhere as a means of securing
money. THE EXPANSIVE PERIOD
l802-l8l6
The organization of the " Massachusetts Baptist
Missionary Society," May 26, 1802, unclasped the
bond holding in one fund the contributions of all
the members of the " Female Society," according
to the original agreement. It turned the fund pro
vided by the Baptist members into the treasury of
the Baptist Society ; but the organization, the name,
the officers, and the worship, the whole fellowship,
remained as at the first. The one treasurer handled
all the receipts, but kept separate denominational ac
counts. This arrangement continued for fourteen
years. Those years give name to the second period.
It is called " expansive " because it witnessed the
expansion of the operations of the Society. In the
appropriation of funds the expansion was from one
denominational home mission society into two, sub
stantially the same in plan and field of operations.
Closely following this, another expression was from
home missions into foreign. A third expansion
might be fairly recognized in the application of the
women's funds, from the provision of literature for
the use of missionaries to the whole compass of the
work of the two denominational organizations.

40 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
For facts in this period we are dependent entirely
on the " Baptist Missionary Magazine," which origi
nated in 1803, and for several years appeared only
quarterly or less frequently. Its space was quite
limited and its contents were general as well as mis
sionary. Consequently the women were necessarily
restricted to very modest accommodations unless
the editor granted them special favors. Neither de
nomination had a weekly, or more than a monthly,
publication during this period. In the same general
class of literature as the " Baptist Magazine " the
Congregationalists were better supplied than the
Baptists. But in these years their periodicals did
not recognize the women in whom we are now in
terested. The earliest report of the Society, except
those in periodical literature, that this writer has
seen, is that of 1817. It was found in the Athe
naeum Library, Boston. When the first printed re
port, in more permanent form, appeared is not
known, possibly earlier than 1817 and in the same
form as the one of that year, pamphlet, but if it
exists I failed to find it. The Magazine was edited
by Miss Webb's pastor, whose special sympathy
with this Society and its Secretary helps us at this
point. Preliminary Progress. The financial feature of
the " Female Society " comes to view in the reports
of the receipts of the Baptist Missionary Society,
which began to appear in the Magazine during this
period. Beyond the financial items and the three

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 41
addresses sent out by the women, the Magazine
gives us nothing except the assurance, in September,
181 1, that " the Society has lately received such large
additions as to suggest the expediency of dividing
it into two branches " ; but beyond this nothing more
appears until eight years later.
The Magazine began to record the receipts of the
Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society in Sep
tember, 1810, with a report for the three preceding
months. The first item in this report is sixty-one
dollars and fifty-eight cents from the " Boston Fe
male Society for Missionary Purposes " (that is, the
Baptist section of it), " per Miss M. Webb." What
the women had given during the preceding eight
years we know not, except as later statements tell
of aggregates from the beginning. But now we find
consecutive annual statements as follows: In 1812,
fifty dollars; in 1813, twenty-two dollars; in 1814,
eighty-three dollars; in 181 5, one hundred and thirty
dollars; in 1816, one hundred and thirty-one dollars.
Of this last entry, eighty-eight dollars " was col
lected from members of the Second Baptist Church
and Society, Boston," meaning probably that this
amount was collected from individuals by Miss
Webb, with or without assistants, and loosely re
corded in connection with the Society's offering.
The small amounts here appearing for home mis
sions in 1812, 1813, and 1814, are explained by the
fact that in these years the contributions were
turned largely to foreign missions, responsive to

42 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
the calls from Judson and Rice, this Society being
the first in America to make such response in cash.
The Congregationalists started their first mis
sionaries to the East in February, 1812. Simulta
neously a campaign occurred in America to secure
funds for the Baptist translation work in India.
In this Congregationalists shared generously. It is
therefore not surprising that the " Female Society "
appropriated all its funds, substantially, if not
literally, in that year to that work. This was perhaps
easier because the majority of the members were
Baptists. But also the fact that the Baptists were
providing Bibles in Eastern languages for the use
of others as well as themselves, was an urgent ap
peal to others to help. This appeal came to Congre
gationalists with peculiar power at that juncture.
So true was this that the general " Boston Asso
ciation of Ministers " sent out an appeal, in No
vember, 181 1, for the translation work on this
ground. The contributions of the women in those
years for the Eastern missions were these: In 1812,
two hundred dollars; in 1813, one hundred and
fifty-nine dollars; in 1814, one hundred and one dol
lars; in 181 5, one hundred and ninety-five dollars;
in 1816, one hundred and thirty-one dollars. It is
not clear how far these sums came from the Bap
tist women alone or from both parties. It is quite
clear, however, that to some extent, especially in
1812, the original process was reversed, and both
parties " contributed to the Baptist enterprise. It

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 43
may be of interest to record here that in 1815
Luther Rice, in his report to the Baptist General
Convention for Foreign Missions, in connection
with references to aid from irregular sources, said:
" I cannot deny myself the pleasure of recording
a grateful testimony to the excellent Boston Female
Society for Missionary Purposes. The liberality of
this Society toward the foreign mission already dis
plays itself, and will be probably followed by such
annual donations as should entitle this praiseworthy
Association of Ladies to hold a place among the mis
sion societies which compose the Baptist Mission
ary Convention."
The Addresses. The most distinctive distinction
of this Society historically is its successful endeavor
to arouse and combine women in missionary prayer
and activity. In this field particularly it was the
pioneer and preeminent educator. To this end it
expressed itself chiefly through two channels, ad
dresses and correspondence with societies and in
dividuals. The correspondence began earlier than
the first address and continued much later than the
last one, which was during the period now under
consideration. We therefore turn our attention first
to the addresses, keeping in mind that the two acted
and reacted on each other and combined into a cu
mulative effect, the continuance of which extended
far beyond this period and the. quality of which will
appear as we proceed.
1. The first address, calling women to a union

44 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
in prayer for the increase of the spiritual life and
the spread of the gospel universally, was issued
under date of February 3, 1812, the same month in
which the first missionaries to the East left these
shores. It was the first paper of this character
ever sent forth. Its call was on the plan of one
of the several systems of concerted prayer which had
then arisen, proposing the same dates as the general
union did, but its peculiarity was that it was issued
by women and addressed to women exclusively.
That it was despatched with trepidation, in the
recognition of the fact that it was an innovation and
therefore liable or certain to meet criticism, is evi
dent in it, and in both of its successors the same sen
sitiveness is evident though modified. At that time
women were silent in the churches, and the views
prevalent concerning female publicity and leadership
were strenuous beyond the easy comprehension of
this generation. Even the best informed among us
may find it difficult to realize the audacity of this
break in the silence, especially by women who were in
no sense strident reformers, reckless of the proprieties
as defined in the prevalent Christian judgments of
the time. They shrank from even the suggestion of
immodesty, and were impelled to lead out in this
way only by a great conviction of the need of the
hour. Their simplicity is manifest in the postscript's
solicitation of communications only when they can
be had " free of postage." Postage was a problem
in those days, and they were not disposed to waste

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 45
any money on it. Presumably that correspondence
for the most part at least was conveyed in the
pockets of occasional travelers. This partly explains
the constant announcement of the business house in
Boston, which acted as the post-office of the central
Society. Having now got ourselves into some sym
pathy with those women, and some understanding of
their situation, we proceed to read the first address,
which, on account of its historic significance, we
give in full and in the exact form of the original, as
it appeared in the " Baptist Magazine " of March,
1812:

" Address of the Female Society, in Boston, to the
Female Friends of Zion.
" ' Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ' is the in
junction of the devout psalmist ; with the animating
promise annexed, ' they shall prosper that love her.'
Nor is there a duty more specially enjoined through
out the sacred Scriptures than that of prayer. And
the privilege is no less than the duty. Those who
live much in the exercise, find ' it is good for them
to draw near to God.' But to females the privilege
is peculiarly invaluable. Though destined by the
Parent of nature to fill more retired stations in life
than our brethren, we are nevertheless permitted to
repair to a throne of grace (and even to unite in a
social manner) to plead for the salvation of sinners,
and the prosperity of Zion.

46 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
" It affords us much pleasure, to hear from time to
time of the constitution of female societies in va
rious parts of the United States, for the purposes of
prayer and of aiding missionary exertions. And the
Lord, we trust, has condescended to use these insti
tutions as a means of extending the triumphs of the
cross. " The members of the ' Boston Female Society for
Missionary Purposes,' believing that a more exten
sive and particular knowledge and acquaintance with
these societies of a similar nature would be promo
tive of the divine glory and their mutual edification,
beg leave to address them through this medium.
" Engaged as we professedly are, dear sisters, in
the cause of God, and the pleasing work of en
deavoring to advance the spread of the gospel, we
have thought that it would add greatly to our happi
ness could we be indulged the privilege of corre
spondence with you by letter. We think it would
have a tendency to cement us together in the bonds
of Christian fellowship, and establish a union never
to be dissolved.
" We likewise think it desirable (as far as may
be convenient) that we should all hold our meet
ings on the same day. The idea that many of our
dear sisters, in different places, were met at the
same time, and engaged in the same delightful
employment of praying down blessings on man
kind, would tend to strengthen our faith, increase
our union, animate our hopes, and cheer our pros-

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 47
pects. And we have every reason to believe, that
He who has promised to be with two or three
who are met in his name; and that if two shall
agree in asking any thing it shall be done for them ;
would hear our united supplications, if presented
in faith. We therefore recommend it to you col
lectively (and also to our female friends whose
local situations may render it impracticable for
them to meet together), to set apart the first Mon
day afternoon of every month, for solemn prayer
to God, for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit; a
general revival of pure and undefiled religion, and
a universal spread of the gospel. Particularly that
he will send forth laborers into his harvest, and
crown all institutions, which have his glory and
the good of souls for their object, with his special
blessing. Should we, beloved sisters, engage in
this solemn undertaking with our hearts rightly in
fluenced, as the lips of eternal truth and faithful
ness have promised ' that they who sow in tears
shall reap in joy,' we feel confident that it will not
be long before some part of his weary heritage
shall experience refreshing showers. How do we
know but the favored period foretold by Zecha
riah is at hand? Zech. 8 : 20, 21, 22: 'Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, It shall come to pass, that
there shall come people, and the inhabitants of
many cities: And the inhabitants of one city shall
go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray
before the Lord of hosts : I will go also.'
D

48 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
" Though we sincerely wish to avoid an ostenta
tious or pharisaical spirit, we honestly confess that
we are not ashamed to acknowledge that we pray,
that we meet in praying circles, and that our heart's
desire and prayer to God is, that Israel may be
saved. And though we wish ever to preserve our
place as females, we can not view it inconsistent
with that modesty and shame facedness enjoined by
the apostle, thus openly to come out on the Lord's
side. We have the approbation of good men of
different denominations; we believe that angels
smile on our endeavors to communicate the knowl
edge of salvation to those souls at whose repent
ance they rejoice. God himself has disposed us to the
work, and is engaged in our defense ; and if he ' be
for us, who can be against us ? ' Though we may
meet the scoffs of an unthinking world, let this only
increase our zeal, for more are they that are for
us than they that are for them. And while we hear
of wars and rumors of wars, and some even of the
citizens of our own country are penetrating into the
wilderness with the sound of the trumpet and alarm
of war ; be ours the pleasing privilege (through the
medium of the faithful missionary) to resound those
joyful strains which once echoed through the plains
of Galilee, ' Peace on earth, good will toward men.'
" Dear sisters, permit us to remark, that it will
be highly important that we not only pray, but that
we ' watch and be sober.' That we be careful not
to undo at home what we attempt to do abroad ; but

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 49
that we manifest by a uniform life and conversa
tion that we are pilgrims and strangers on earth.
Thus when the great Shepherd shall appear we may
have confidence and not be ashamed before him at
his coming.
" In behalf of the Society, " MARY WEBB, Sec'y."
" P. S. Should any of the above societies con
cede to the proposals made by this, they will have
the goodness to communicate the information as
soon as they have opportunity by conveyance, free
of postage. Letters directed to M. W. to the care
of Lincoln & Edmands, No. 53, Cornhill, Boston,
will be received by the Society, and answered when
opportunity presents.
" Boston, February 3, 1812."
2. Within ten months " information " had been
received from seventeen societies, one each in New
Hampshire and Connecticut, two in Rhode Island,
the others in Massachusetts, " of different denomi
nations." This success called forth a second ad
dress, longer, stronger, bolder, and in some respects
finer. It was addressed to " Females professing
godliness," dated December 7, 1812, signed as was
the first, and published in the same Magazine,
March, 18 13.
Its opening reference to its predecessor is fol
lowed by this confession : " It was with much trem-

5© MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
bling and diffidence we took this public step; but
from the success which has attended our feeble
efforts, we have reason to believe that we were
directed to it by unerring wisdom." This commu
nication was in response to the desire of corre
spondents, who " profess themselves quickened and
animated by our exhortation," of some of whom,
individuals and societies, the Bostonians had never
heard before. They are solicited to continue their
correspondence and others are invited " to come
forward and participate in those refined enjoyments
which result in an enlargement of Christian fellow
ship." " Allied by the tenderest and strongest of
ties, we rejoice to hear of the welfare of any
branch of the household of faith, and feel it a
privilege to sympathize with those who are in
heaviness through manifold temptations. A line
from any of our dear sisters scattered in the wil
derness would be peculiarly gratifying. We are
aware that by thus coming out, we lay ourselves
open to the remarks of the enemies of religion; but
believing the path of duty to be guarded on the
right hand and the left, we feel safe. Our object
is not to render ourselves important, but useful. We
have no wish to go out of our province, nor do we
undertake to become teachers in Israel; it is our
pleasure to see our brethren go before, and we are
content to glean after the reapers and follow by
our earnest prayers their more extensive labors ;
this privilege we must covet."

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 5 1
The vision of the demands of the times next open
ing to the Secretary, rouses her to write like a
prophet : " In a day when iniquity abounds and the
love of many is waxing cold; when the most im
portant and fundamental doctrines of the gospel are
controverted and held in contempt by many who call
themselves Christians; when our beloved country,
which has long been the seat of peace, and an asylum
for the wretched of every description, is involved in
the horrors of war; when the ocean is discolored
and the land crimsoned with the blood of our fellow
men, it more than ever becomes the real disciples
of Jesus to pray without ceasing that the Spirit
of the Lord may lift up a standard against those
floods of error and infidelity, and cause a reforma
tion of heart and life, both in the church and in
the world." They are not to go to war, but to " arise
without delay, and besiege a throne of mercy — par
ticularly to bear on our hearts the ministers of the
gospel; especially our missionary brethren. When
we consider how much wisdom, prudence, faith, pa
tience, and grace they need, to qualify them for the
office; how much they need the supports and com
forts of religion in their own souls in order to render
them faithful to the souls of others ... we must
feel culpable if we are not engaged in holding up
their hands. Let us then unitedly plead for them, and
though seas may roll, and mountains and valleys in
tervene between them and us, they will feel that
their Father's children are praying for them."

52 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Next comes an appeal to extend the hand of
charity to those near them : " The embarrassed state
of our country may require that we study prudence
and economy, but let persevering endeavor to pro
mote the spread of the gospel, by contributing our
mite, be the last gratification that we deny our
selves. Yea, let us double our diligence. If our
talent be small, if our sphere be contracted, if our
circumstances be narrow; let all the energies and
abilities we do possess be employed in the cause of
God. If every Christian considered the support
and propagation of the gospel his first expense, and
measured his others accordingly, what an increase
of means would soon be found to disseminate the
knowledge of divine truth. Suppose, beloved sis
ters, we try the experiment," etc.
The closing appeal is for the Bible translation
work in India. No man of that time sent out a
more rigorous and exalted call to Christian heroism
than this frail woman. It was a disheartening time
in New England, when men were cast down, but
Mary Webb, stirred afresh by the consciousness of
a little like-minded company rallying " in the wil
derness," in the hamlets and among the hills, knew
no fear and was determined that her associates
should not falter. This clarion call went forth in
an equally stirring setting. The same Magazine
contained a survey of Eastern missions, an account
of the fire that destroyed the mission publishing
house in Serampore, and the letters of Judson

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 53
announcing his change of connections and offering
himself as the missionary of American Baptists.
3. The third of these documents, the last of
which we know, was issued after the close of the
war with England, dated March 6, 1815, and pub
lished in the Magazine of June following. It car
ries the caption, " grateful acknowledgement."
Referring to the former addresses, it announces suc
cess in the effort to bring women into this fellow
ship far beyond what had been anticipated. It
had exchanged letters with " near sixty societies,
besides some solitary individuals, who are secretly
sighing for the abominations of the land." Its pur
pose still is to plead the " great cause of missions,"
now that the return of peace opens the way for
free activity. The prospect touches the pen into
a poetic strain : " Has the silver trump of peace once
more been heard ? Does the ocean already begin to
whiten with canvas, and the peaceful signal wave
over the great highway of nations ? Does the mari
ner spread his sails, to stretch to the distant poles
in the pursuit of gain? Is the faithful missionary
waiting, impatiently waiting, to set his foot on the
benighted shores of Asia, to unfold the banner of
the Prince of Peace and proclaim salvation by
grace? Then, dear sisters, let us arise," etc. . . " It
is no longer a question whether it is proper for
females to serve the church; God has too mani
festly owned their labors. And since Miriam and
Deborah, Priscilla and Phebe have led the way, it

54 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
cannot be dangerous for succeeding professors to
follow them. . . We live in an age in which God
is doing wonders, and in which all the influences
and energies of his people are called for." (The
attention is specially directed to heathen lands, and
there is no sign of the turning to the city work
which occurred a year later.)
The Correspondence. The Boston Female So
ciety for Missionary Purposes did not long stand
alone. One composed of Baptist women seems to
have arisen in Boston in 1802 or 1803, and others
followed elsewhere. The Congregational women
rallied to their denominational work simultaneously,
though their earlier activity seems to have been less
in formal organizations and more through their
pastors and churches ; but they had " mite societies,"
locally, at an early date, and the " Cent Institute,"
sometimes called " Society," as the designation of
a general movement gathering up local contribu
tions made under whatever name and plan. The
earliest acknowledgment by the American Board
of contributions from women with which this
writer is acquainted, was in 1802, from the Cent
Institute. This plan would provide a channel for
the earliest contributions of the original woman's
Society, and for its Congregational section after the
Baptist members had diverted their gifts into their
denominational channels. Manifestly the pioneer
Society held a unique position for drawing the
women of the two denominations into an undenomi-

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 55
national cooperation in prayer and the cultivation of
the missionary spirit and knowledge. This fellow
ship would be free to overflow beyond these two
parties as occasion might arise.
How early correspondence began between the
Boston Society and others, or unorganized groups
or individuals, is not known. All the records of this
nature during the first decade, or longer, are in the
" Baptist Magazine," from which we have already
taken those addresses with which this correspond
ence was intertwined. About twenty Baptist wom
en's missionary societies, from Maine to South
Carolina, are known to have existed prior to the
date of the first address, and some communication
among them, by personal visitation and direct cor
respondence, had occurred. Getting started so early
and in such a simple way, this correspondence per
sisted for a long time, possibly not ceasing entirely
during the life of the original Society, but the high
tide of it appears to have been reached about 1817,
in which year the report says : " In answer to a
circular to similar societies . . . communications have
been received from ninety-seven societies . . . and
many more have united in the prayer meeting."
The next year's report adds twelve. But the high
est number ever claimed, so far as now discovera
ble, was an aggregate of one hundred and twenty.
These items seem to warrant us in finding the golden
era of this correspondence about this time. It was
in the midst of a great flowering of the missionary

56 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
spirit into a multitude of benevolent organizations
in Boston and vicinity, more than were able to live
long. This necessarily deprived the pioneer of
much of its prominence and drew away its constitu
ency more or less. It, however, need not operate
unfavorably, but rather otherwise, on the corre
spondence between societies. As to the individual
correspondents not much appears. Mrs. Judson
was one of them, though not a member of the So
ciety, so far as known. Several others of the
earlier Baptist women who went to the East were
members of the Boston Society before leaving this
country. Doctor Stow says that Miss Webb conducted this
correspondence. This statement needs modification
if 'taken in application to the whole time. It is
almost certain that at first she was the sole force.
But she could soon secure excellent helpers, and
with the growth of this work, no doubt, she was re
lieved, more or less, before constitutional provision
to that end was made. This, however, appeared in
the revised constitution of 1816. It provides a com
mittee of fourteen, including the officers, the whole
number being equally divided between the two de
nominations, to meet monthly for the examination
of letters received and written, as well as to trans
act other business; and individual writers of let
ters were appointed whose work was inspected by
the committee. This suggests the Society's under
standing of the magnitude and importance of this

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 57
department of its work. The writers were selected,
more or less, in view of special adaptations. The
only letter of this class that I have seen was that to
the Warren, R. I., " Mite Society," in May, 1813.
It was written by Mary Bradford, who had ac
quaintances in Warren, to whom she sent personal
messages distinguished from those intended for the
Society. Of responses to these communications from Bos
ton we have three, each with some elements pecu
liar to itself, the three together giving a quite com
plete representative view of the whole, perhaps suf
ficient for the present purpose.
First comes the Warren, R. I., Female Mite
Society. It was founded, September 26, 1808, " to
assist the missionaries that are, or may be, em
ployed by the missionary society connected with
the Association, with which the Baptist church in
Warren is, or may be, united." On May 12, 1813,
it wrote to the Boston Society : " In compliance with
your proposal and request, we . . . have set apart
the first Monday, P. M., in each month, for the pur
pose of prayer and supplication on our feeble en
deavors." The letter written by Mary Bradford,
just noted, was in reply to this.
The second of the three letters preserved was
from the Philadelphia, Pa., Baptist Female Mission
Society, dated October 11, 1813. It is of consider
able length, and is preserved in a memorial of its
author, Mary Hallman, who was Secretary of the

58 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Society. Let her speak for herself : " We have ob
served, through the medium of the Missionary
Magazine, your affectionate and pious address to
female missionary societies throughout our beloved
America. We have the pleasure to acknowledge
ourselves interested in such a communication; and,
as we have been, in some measure, urged on by
your excellent example, to the formation of our lit
tle society, we feel no hesitation in giving you such
information respecting our rise and progress, as
may be, at any time, necessary or important. . .
Before it was known to us that a female missionary
society existed, several among us were impressed
with the thought of forming such an organization. . .
In the year 1810, our blessed Lord in his providence
sent among us our mutual friend and brother,
Doctor Baldwin, whose zeal in his Master's cause,
with the testimony he bore to your missionary exer
tions, stimulated us to action. While he was ex
horting we felt our hearts burn within us to be
engaged in so honorable employment. The zealous,
laborious, and pious missionaries bearing the stand
ard of the everlasting gospel along the benighted
frontier of our highly favored country, claim our
sympathies. . . With these feelings, on the ninth of
November, 18 10, sixteen females assembled in a
private room, frequently occupied for purposes of
prayer, and where the Master had often met us.
At this meeting we were favored with the presence
of our respected and beloved brother, Doctor

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 59
Staughton, . . and under his auspices we organized.
. . We have hitherto considered ourselves as auxil
iary to the Philadelphia Baptist Missionary Society.
. . The first year we obtained three hundred and
thirty subscribers, whose subscriptions, with some
donations received, enabled us to pay into the gen
eral fund two hundred and forty dollars and eighty-
one cents, besides five dollars and forty-four cents
collected by a number of little children, whose exer
tions in the cause of our Lord ought not to be for
gotten by us. . . We rejoice to hear that our be
loved sisters possess so much missionary zeal. Oh,
that we might partake more of the same spirit. . .
Oh, that the Sun of righteousness may arise with
healing in his beams, the celestial dawn break in
upon those who dwell in the region of the shadow
of death, and the enlightened nations shine, because
their light has come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon them; that destitute churches by our
exertions may be supplied with heavenly manna,
and ' drink of the brook in the way.' "
The last of the letters comes from Montville,
Conn. It was dated December 29, 1814, and opens
with : " Agreeably to your request, the young ladies
of Montville have formed themselves into a So
ciety to meet in conjunction with yours; to pray,"
etc. At once it announces : " Viewing that glorious
time now at hand when the spiritual temple is to
be built up ... we have thought the example of
the holy women of Israel highly worthy of imita-

OO MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
tion. We have accordingly contributed our golden
ornaments to aid in spreading the glorious gospel;
and we earnestly entreat ' the daughters of Zion,'
and especially our sister societies, to take this sub
ject into serious consideration. We would humbly
ask if it is consistent with Christian benevolence
to wear those useless ornaments while millions of
our fellow creatures are perishing for. the word of
life?" (This evidently alarmed the editor of the
" Baptist Magazine," in which the letter appeared,
for he attached to it a note, thus : " As this commu
nication is inserted by particular request, it is de
voutly hoped that it may not occasion any unhappy
disputing about things of less moment, and thereby
divert the mind from weightier matters." From
whom the particular request came can be easily
guessed, and it is certain that she liked that part of
the letter.) The writer proceeds to tell a story of
blessing :
"The ways of Zion here had long mourned; we
had mourned a seventy years' captivity, it being
seventy-three years since there had been any general
attention to religion in this place ; though there had
ever from time to time been small additions to the
church. Within a few years it has experienced great
bereavements from the removal and death of its
members; iniquity seemed to abound and the love
of many to wax cold, so that the righteous trembled
lest the foundations should be destroyed. But oh,

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 6l
magnify the Lord with us. Instead of saying to
us as he did to the church at Laodicea, his language
was, Arise, shine, for thy light has come. The Sun
of righteousness has indeed risen upon us, and at
his presence the stubborn hearts of his enemies have
melted like wax before the sun. . . The Society is
small, but the awakening has been very general;
it commenced the first of April, 1814, since which
time forty have been added to the church, and
thirty more give hopeful evidence that they have
passed from death to life. . . Dear sisters, can our
hands hang down, or our hearts faint, while we wit
ness the reign of the Prince of Peace, and read the
promise, which from the signs of the times we have
reason to believe is soon to be fulfilled, when his
kingdom shall extend from sea to sea, and from the
rising to the setting sun?
" In behalf of the Society, " M. R., Secretary."
The pastor of the Congregational church in Mont
ville kindly examined the church records bearing
on the historic statements in this letter. He thought
that the letter made the history of the church darker
than the records do. He found that seasons of re
freshing had come during those seventy years with
considerable additions of members. Whatever dif
ference appears between these two reporters is
mostly in the point of view. " M. R.," wrote in the
enthusiasm of youth, full of the delight of her first

62 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
experience of revival and presumably under the
impression of the past coming from what she heard
from the older Christians; consequently she un
consciously may have seen the awakening of her
time as more significant, relatively, than it really
was. But the difference between the two views is
not serious for any purpose, and especially for the
purpose of this work.
THE BOSTON PERIOD
l8l6-l829
In 1816 the Society began its city mission work,
which it continued, and to which chiefly it was de
voted, throughout its united life and its Baptist
period. At this time.it returned nearly to the unity
which originally characterized it. For the first two
years it had been one, next it had been two in one
for fourteen years, now it will continue more closely
one for thirteen years, after which it will be entirely
two and no more one for twenty-seven years. This
statement is general and open to exceptions nearly
all the way, as we have seen in the earlier years and
will see in the later. Its constitution gave it liberty,
which it used from time to time to extend its help
ing hand where it heard a plea seeming to it the
most pertinent and urgent.
Recalling our remark, that the report for 1816
shows an absorbing outward look with no intima
tion of local enterprise, immediate or remote, we
may be surprised to find that in that year the

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 63
Society was transformed into a city mission, concen
trating substantially its whole endeavor in Boston,
where it had done nothing before, and there soon
assuming an independence previously unknown by
appointing and supporting its own missionaries. It
may itself have been unconscious of the radicalness
of this transformation, but thefe the transformation
stands distinctly. What caused it?
The answer to this question comes out completely
and clearly in the report of 1817. Its summary now
made of appropriations from the beginning shows
at a glance the original specific, the subsequent ex
pansion, and the new field with its new independ
ence. These are its words : " The purchase of Bibles,
Testaments, and other religious books, for distri
bution by missionaries in destitute places; to home
and foreign missions of both denominations; to
the translation of the Scriptures into the Oriental
languages; and to the support of a mission in this
town." Then follows this explanation : " During
the past season the attention of the Society has been
particularly turned to the state of our own town.
The multiplied exertions in favor of more distant
objects have at length led us to look at home (where
charity is usually said to begin)." Attention has
been directed to certain classes " whose poverty
forbids their appearing decent at public worship,"
and " who have abandoned themselves to every
species of vice." In view of small accommodations
" in our houses of worship, free of expense, we have
E

64 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
thought it our duty to try the practicability of a
new plan; and have accordingly appropriated the
whole income of the year ... to the support of
two missionaries (for a few months as an experi
ment) to visit and labor with the above descriptions
of people." The Baptist women of Rhode Island
had preceded it in appointing missionaries.
The report proceeds to consider the problem of
" those poor unhappy females who have wandered
into the paths of vice and folly." No place or help
for them is provided when they wish to reform.
The founding of an asylum for them " where they
should be suitably employed and the proceeds of
their labor go to their support," was considered;
but the cost was too great to be undertaken, and the
Society " would cheerfully help as far as consist
ent," if those more able would lead in the enterprise,
and a box was provided to receive contributions for
this purpose. Appeal was made to other communi
ties to help, in view of what Boston had done for
others, and the fact that but a few of these un
happy people were natives of the city. The state
ment is made that " there are several institutions
of this kind in Europe," but the Society seems not
to know of any in America. The spirit of the wom
en appears in these words : " To check the torrent
of vice, which is flowing with increasing impetu
osity, and restore the wanderer to her father's house,
must be truly gratifying to the benevolent mind.
And if the great Redeemer condescended to notice

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 65
and reclaim such characters, his disciples must view
it a privilege and an honor to follow his example."
The new alignment, then, contemplated the poor
whose poverty separated them from religious asso
ciations appreciably, including those whose vices
ostracized them still more. The focus of the in
terest in them was on their rescue from sin. What
we now call the " social evil," with those evils that
group about it, had become an outstanding shame
and peril to Boston. In the language of the Secre
tary just quoted, the women were aroused " to
check the torrent of vice which is flowing with in
creasing impetuosity." This is strong language
from one who used words with discreet restraint.
But it was justified by what appears from other
sources ; for they show that at this time an unprece
dented increase of poverty and vice inundated Bos
ton. Manifestly it was a serious task for a society
of women, many of them young, to attempt any
thing in that field, much more serious then than it
would be now. How were they to get at it ?
First, they employed two ministers as their mis
sionaries. These seem to have sought to touch the
various elements in the situation as best they could.
One of them, Mr. Davis, " arrived in town and com
menced his labors " within a month of the annual
meeting. The other, Mr. Rossiter, followed four
months later. Both appear to have been called
from outside of Boston. Their labors continued
" with but little interruption " till the next annual

66 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
meeting, when their success resulted in their con
tinuance. Religious meetings and a school had
been established among " colored people at the
north part of the town," amid very bad conditions,
and one woman had been converted. The report
observes that " this unfortunate people were in
troduced into our country by the cruel hand of
avarice and barbarity; and if there be a race of
human beings which have a right to demand our
charity, next to the descendants of Abraham, these
must have a claim." Acknowledgment is made of
a gift of thirty dollars by the " selectmen," from
Mr. Abiel Smith's legacy in aid of Africans. The
implications seem to be that this was the first work
in this field, and that Mr. Smith had left a fund for
Negro benefit which was still in the hands of the
civil authorities. Mr. Davis had found Southack
Street " in horrible condition," and reported that
some who had been ensnared into evil ways would
reform " if any place could be provided for their
accommodation and means for their assistance,"
encouragement having been given to expect aid on
assurances of sincerity of the applicants. He also
had labored among the sailors, and writes an ample
and able report. Mr. Rossiter's report is in the
same vein, and adds that a few women had been
rescued by the aid of respectable friends. These
reports are followed by " remarks " of the Secre
tary, consisting chiefly in a reply to objections to
the work of the Society on the ground that it is

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 67
not necessary because the churches are available.
She says that the churches are not sufficient and
do not welcome these people, who themselves are
not disposed to attend religious meetings. There
fore they must be sought out separately. She uses
a simple illustration by way of retort, in which
may be detected a note of scorn for the critics.
Substantially it is this: If a neighbor's house is on
fire, he asleep and half suffocated, " indisposed "
to escape, is it not our duty to alarm and persuade
him? The Congregational part of the Society had
ventured abroad, having sent " Mr. Hubbard, a
young man of piety and talents," as a missionary to
destitute parts of Virginia, but the enterprise had
been thwarted by his death. Reference is made to
communications, quite evidently from the Secretary,
that had appeared in the city papers during the
year, seeking to arouse the public to the moral perils
of the community, and acknowledgment is made of
personal work and contributions by " respectable
brethren." Note is also made of the fact that two
of the Baptist members, Mrs. Colman and Mrs.
Wheelock, had gone as missionaries to India, " who
still remain members of this body," to whom " we
have given the parting hand, expecting to see their
faces no more in the flesh."
The report of 1818 reaches us only through the
" Baptist Magazine " of January, 18 19, which com
bines extracts from the reports of the mission
aries and editorial remarks. The editorial part tells

68 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
that " between thirty and forty persons are said to
have been hopefully converted." This seems to mean
among the more respectable poor, for it continues im
mediately : " Several deluded females have also been
induced to abandon their infamous practices, and re
turn to their friends or the places of their former
residences." The reports of the missionaries, Davis
and Rossiter, are quoted principally in relation to
the dissolute women. Mr. Davis tells of one of
these from a " respectable family," with the result
that " it appears the snare is broken and the young
immortal is escaped." Mr. Rossiter tells of the
conditions at the center of vice, in West Boston,
near the present State House, on the hillside ap
proximately adjacent to Cambridge and Hancock
streets. It was known as " The Hill," this term
designating the center of the worst life in Boston.
The missionary says of it, when reforming effort
was first attempted there : " It is impossible for
any one not acquainted with the circumstances to
imagine, or for me to describe, the awful deeds of
darkness which are committed with impunity in
that most horrid sink of pollution."
No light from the Society directly falls on the
next two years, but the report of 1821 comes to the
rescue with a summary of the first five years of
the city work, from which some items are gleaned.
Six men, besides Andover students, had been em
ployed, for terms "making a total of five years
and nine months for one man." One year and

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 69
twenty-nine weeks of this time had been occupied
by students of Andover Seminary, who served dur
ing vacations. Labors had been carried on, not
only among the poor and wretched, but in the jail
" in this town " and in the Mariners' Hospital in
Charlestown. " The efforts of this Society have had
their influence " in securing the erection of a work
house under government control. The Congrega
tional ladies rejoice in a consummation of their
former enterprise in Virginia. The fund designed
for the missionary who died, had accumulated, and
was now applied, with some additions, to " assist
ing a feeble infant church in Morgantown, Va., in
completing their meeting-house." Six years ear
lier, in 1816, at the inception of the work in the city,
Miss Webb had proposed the erection of a build
ing specifically for preaching the gospel to the poor.
Some thought the idea chimerical, it was dropped;
but when missionaries Davis and Rossiter opened
their work, some young ladies pushed it further, a
fund was started, the enterprise went into other
hands, and now the building was nearing comple
tion. Evidently Miss Webb and a few at least of
those like-minded never abandoned the idea, and if
her reference to it after the six years has in it a
modest note of triumph, we need not be surprised ;
and we may be gratified as we read these last sen
tences in her reference to it. " The whole is at the
disposal of infinite wisdom and almighty power. It
is easy for Him to work with or without means,

70 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
and we may safely confide in his mercy and faith
fulness." Having filled out our survey of the first five years
of the Society's city mission work, we turn back to
bring up the story of the special part which in
volved the most perplexing problem. Already, in
view of this perplexity, we have raised the ques
tion, How were they to get at it? This we have
partly answered by stating that they sent two judi
cious ministers into the worst quarter of the city
as a part of their field. One might think that that
was enough for them to undertake, if indeed they
could not be persuaded to let it alone entirely.
What they did was this: On the report of their
missionaries revealing the need of larger attention
to that specialty, they appealed to the good men
of the community to come to their aid. What re
sulted, let another tell in part at least. In 1824,
Francis Wayland, then a pastor in Boston and
afterward president of Brown University, was sec
retary of the " Penitent Females' Refuge." In his
report of that year he relates : " For many years, it
is generally known, there was in the midst of this
city a settlement composed of persons, principally
females, given up to the practice of every enormity.
About eight years since, a highly respectable So
ciety for missionary purposes, composed of ladies
of the Baptist and Congregational churches in this
city, sent two missionaries into that abode of hor
rors. In consequence of the report they made, a

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 71
large number of gentlemen of piety and benevolence
were convened, to whom the question was solemnly
put: Cannot something be done to remedy these
dreadful evils, especially to reform abandoned
women? They, after repeated consultation and
much inquiry, deliberately returned the melancholy
answer, ' Nothing can be done.'
" The missionaries, however, were sent back to
labor, religious meetings were appointed and the
gospel was preached. Most of them mocked, but
some listened and forsook their courses of sin.
Several were returned to their friends. Others
were ready to reform, for whom there was no
refuge to which they could flee." A building was
rented for five years at two hundred and fifty dol
lars a year, and labor continued " with a good
degree of success." " They have shown so clearly
the practicability of their plan as to convince gen
tlemen who have been incredulous, that immense
good may in this way be accomplished. They have
laid the foundations of the Penitent Females' Refuge
strongly in the favor of the public." This " Refuge "
Society was incorporated, a larger building was se
cured by purchase, costing seven thousand five hun
dred dollars, five thousand dollars borrowed and
two thousand five hundred dollars contributed, with
seven hundred dollars annually for five years sub
scribed. The Refuge has received eighty-one and
honorably discharged fifty-four, all of whom con
tinue moral and some are pious. This report closes

72 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
with an explanation of its purposes and an appeal
for aid.
In the same year an article appeared in the
" Boston Recorder " (Congregational) as " commu
nicated," the style of which shows with sufficient
clearness that Mary Webb was the author. It is
an argument against the pessimistic view of this
work, drawn from the example of our Saviour and
the experience of similar societies. It is also an
appeal to any one whose sister or daughter may
have been led into error by deception and then
abandoned to despair, but to whom " the awful
course she had entered was abhorrent," and who
was " willing to pursue any respectable means of
support," an appeal for aid in meeting the obliga
tions resting on the property of the Refuge.
Four years later, 1828, the report of this same
Refuge Society says : " Perhaps no institution for
charitable purposes was ever founded under cir
cumstances more discouraging, . . and none whose
success calls for more devout aspiration." This
is followed by an eloquent tribute to those women
whose courageous persistence reversed the judg
ment of the men and induced them to organize for
promoting the work from which they at first re
coiled as hopeless. This is signed by Samuel Hub
bard, corresponding secretary.
Although we have no reports for the years 18 18
and 181 9, we are able, with the above materials, to
trace the joint movement of the Female Society

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 73
and the Refuge through this period. On the first re
ports of the Female Society touching the need and
promise of the work among fallen women, a large
company of men came together to consider what
more extensive could be done than had been done.
These men, after ample deliberation, said that noth
ing could be done, the enterprise being hopeless.
This was probably early in 1817. By persistence
in doing the impossible, the women had convinced
the men that the impossible was possible so far
that in 18 18 they organized " The Penitent Females'
Refuge," and projected this work on a larger scale
with more money. But before this the women had
got a footing in the slum field with a mission and
refuge house. Now, when a larger building and
stronger support had been secured, the originators
did what they had formerly proposed, became assist
ants. As requested by the men, the women co
operated through a committee until an auxiliary so
ciety composed of married women was organized in
January, 1826. This assault on " The Hill " led to
a fierce conflict. Money was provided secretly and
offer was made to pay a larger rental than the re
formers might offer for any building that they
tried to secure. This occurred in 1821 or earlier.
But continued success followed, until the whole
situation in that neighborhood was changed, and
such conditions as characterized it a few years pre
viously did not exist anywhere in Boston. They had
been as bad as in any port.

74 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Rev. William Collier was an able and highly es
teemed Baptist pastor, whose public service began
in 1779. He came from a pastorate in New York
City to one in Charlestown, Mass., in 1805. After
sixteen years here, serving more or less as chaplain
of the State prison and in other charity work, he
retired and became the missionary of the woman's
Society in 182 1. In this position he continued with
but little interruption, and sometimes in conjunction
with other similar work, until 1838, when on ac
count of physical infirmities he retired, as he sup
posed, permanently. His report at this time was
naturally somewhat reminiscent. From it some of
the materials we have used are taken, but we may
profitably draw on it for filling out this paragraph.
He refers to Saurin's sermon on the penitence of
the unchaste woman, as having been printed, or
reprinted, by these women for use in this field,
proving to be very effective. This seems to have
occurred early, possibly before the enlargement of
the enterprise. He also makes acknowledgment of
cooperation by Congregationalists in a mission so
ciety, the two missionaries working together at an
early period, more or less. Cordial acknowledgment
is also made of the helpfulness of the city govern
ment. He draws a striking picture of conditions as
he found them at first, and records his admiring
gratitude in view of the great success which had
been granted, and says : " Whoever may be unac
quainted with, or indifferent to, what has been

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 75
done in that part of the city by this Society, we
cannot be."
In 1825, the Society reported that, on recommen
dation of a city missionary, it had undertaken the
maintenance of a charity school in the north part
of the city, " for indigent girls whose age excludes
them from the primary schools, and who are suf
fered to grow up in almost total ignorance of those
branches of female education so essential to the
comfort and respectability of families." The ef
fort had not succeeded as fully as desired, but it
had not been abandoned, and the hope was ex
pressed that " a wise and benevolent public " will
appreciate and patronize the plan, " and in the issue
establish free schools of this description; and
thus complete a system of free school education,
already so excellent."
This report presents an appreciation of Dr.
Thomas Baldwin who had recently passed away,
on which we have already drawn to some extent.
Doctor Stow says that this event was one of the
greatest sorrows of Miss Webb's life. The report
also summarizes items of membership, stating that
five hundred have enrolled in these first twenty-five
years, fifty-two have deceased, and about two hun
dred remain, adding this sentence : " It is somewhat
remarkable that during the first nine years not a
single death occurred; and of the fourteen ladies
who constituted the Society, nine are still living,
though only four continue their membership."

76 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
THE BAPTIST PERIOD
1829-1856
The reason for the division of the Society into
two seems to have been solely the hope of a more
efficient work in the same field as that previously
cultivated by the one. An editorial in the " Bap
tist Magazine" of January, 1830, states that funds
had not been sufficient in recently preceding years
to support one man all the time ; and it adds : " Of
late the friends have become increasingly impressed
with the duty of securing the entire time and atten
tion of some faithful minister in this great and im
portant field. Having this in view, the two denomi
nations have recently agreed that in the future they
will hold their meetings separately." This is con
firmed and clarified by the statement of Miss Webb,
in her first annual report under the new order, that
" it was agreed to meet separately, with the ex
press desire of attempting such an enlargement as
would enable each to support permanently a mis
sionary in this city." This expectation was realized
promptly, though not permanently, on the Baptist
side. We do not attempt to follow the Congrega
tional sisters, being destitute of data for that pur
pose, but that they began at least as well as the
Baptists seems certain; and evidently Congrega
tional city missions in general, in some years and
groups of years subsequent to this time, surpassed,
and sometimes greatly surpassed, the Baptist. How

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY ff
far this difference in general prevailed between the
two groups of women of whom we are thinking we
do not discover.
Some slight references in early Congregational
periodicals may refer to the " Boston Female So
ciety for Missionary Purposes," but none does so
clearly, either before or after the denominational
division. My search in these publications did not
find the name anywhere. Some other explorer may
succeed better. This, however, seems doubtful for
this reason: In 1913 I corresponded with the Con
gregational House in Boston, editorial and mission
ary, asking for light on the name and history of
the Congregational part of the Society after the
division. The response stated that the investiga
tion there, which no doubt was sympathetic and
reasonably thorough, as it certainly was courteous,
stated that nothing was discovered on either point.
The fact that the Baptist women kept the original
name with the word Baptist inserted, suggests that
the Congregational women adopted the correspond
ing course; but if so, the best informed Congrega
tionalists now in Boston have no knowledge con
cerning it.
The editorial quoted above relates the process of
getting the new machine in motion, as follows:
" After taking the requisite previous measures, a
general invitation was given from all the Baptist
pulpits in the city, to the ladies friendly to this

78 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
object, to meet at the large lecture-room of the First
Baptist Church, on Union Street, the fifteenth of
December, 1829. The several pastors were present,.
and addressed the meeting in the most affectionate
and encouraging manner, after which they retired,
and the ladies proceeded to take the names of new
members, alter a few particulars in their constitu
tion, choose officers, etc. The results were most
gratifying; more than one hundred names were
added to the list on the spot, each giving two dol
lars, or more or less, according to their circum
stances. There is every encouragement to believe
that many more ladies purpose to join the Society.
The question whether the entire services of a com
petent minister may now be obtained is considered
settled, and the managers are prayerfully waiting to
be directed to the proper person." This makes clear
that support had been dwindling, and many women
had been holding aloof under the conviction that
better results could be secured on the plan now
adopted. Rev. William Collier was engaged and
began work February 6, 1830. He had been with
the union Society for five years, 1821-1826, and
now returned for a longer service under the Bap
tist organization. As has already been indicated,
he was eminently equipped for the task.
Twenty-seven years still lie before the Society,
For most of them reports of the Secretary and the
missionaries, together with editorial references in
Baptist periodicals, contribute something to our

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 79
purpose. We adopt the simple plan of taking the
years in their order and collating from these sources
items of interest, avoiding repetitions, and ad
justed to the purpose of giving a concise view of
the course of events. The years omitted are those
which yield no materials under this plan.
1830. The working year was only nine months,
in which the missionary had " endeavored to per
form an amount of labor equal to three public serv
ices on the Lord's Day," preaching in the hall in
Milton Street, for the African church, the Penitent
Female Refuge, in the primary schoolroom in Ann
Street, the House of Correction, and, " in a few in
stances," in church buildings. He had held " oc
casional meetings " in different parts of the city ;
he had visited many vessels, conversing, praying,
and distributing tracts among the seamen, " and
urged them forward to the temple of the Lord " ;
he had visited families " in secluded situations," for
conversation and prayer, this last a few times with
the Congregational missionary, " finding, as ex
pressed in Scripture, that two are better than one " ;
he had led neighborhood meetings for prayer
among the neglected, maintained afternoon Bible
class and evening preaching among the Negroes,
family worship at the Female Refuge, and an eve
ning " biblical exercise " there, with " literary in
struction," preaching in Peck Lane, and praying in
the Marine Hospital. Some of these services were
continual, others intermittent, and still others only

80 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
occasional. He had recorded three hundred visits
where he expected to call again, but he did not
know how many others. He had given special at
tention to children and young persons, in relation
to Sunday-schools, Bible classes, and week-day
schools. In these last fields he acknowledged the
" efficient aid of the Priscilla Society, established
for the express purpose of . . . furnishing need
ful articles of clothing, to enable the poor to attend
public worship and Sabbath-schools," auxiliary to
the woman's Society. He had also inaugurated a re
ligious reading-room for Lord's Day mornings. In
some of these enterprises he had been much aided
by voluntary assistants of both sexes.
The secretary's report for this year tells that
more than two hundred members had been enrolled
since the preceding December, making more than
three hundred additions during the preceding twelve
months. But she holds that a larger support is
necessary if the hope of an adequate success is to
be realized. Her ideal is a missionary supported
by every church. She meets inquiries about fuller
details of success by pointing out that much of the
work being done cannot be judiciously published,
as it can be by foreign missionaries among a remote
people. Recalling the previous correspondence with
other societies, she announces its continuance and
gives directions to promote it.
1832. " We hail " a missionary provided by the
Baptist " Evangelical Society " to work with Mr.

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 8 1
Collier. " To see our brethren coming up to the
help of the Lord against the mighty is encoura
ging." Gifts of " self-denial in dress " and jewelry
reported, some anonymous.
1833. " Nothing peculiarly new or striking."
Five members have died, among them Mrs. Dr.
Howard Malcom, wife of an eminent minister.
The death is recorded of Mr. Ensign Lincoln, a
wise friend of the Society from its origin, " and
not only did he afford his advice, but his assistance
also by his prayers and donations, and gratuitously
printed its first constitution." " Once during the
year we have had the pleasure of receiving at our
place of meeting the much loved Society with which
for so long a time we were happily connected."
Here appears the first formal treasurer's report
available. It shows receipts from one " life sub
scription," " various friends," committee collections
in all the Baptist churches, " Female Tract So
ciety," annual subscriptions, and the " Executors of
Mrs. E. H. Jones." Total, six hundred and twenty-
five dollars and twenty cents. Mrs. Jones had been
a missionary in India, and " this was bequeathed by
her will, which she left in that country. That re
ceived two years since from her was in articles
she brought with her when returning to America."
The amount here recorded from the executors was
fifty dollars, which " assisted in commencing our
course of operations another year." Was not this
the first home mission legacy from Asia ?

82 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
1834. Eight members died this year, several in
early life. But one was " our venerable and highly
endeared friend, Madame Grew, the oldest member
of this Society, and one who united not long after
its organization." She was in her seventy-seventh
year. " Although she resided out of the State more
than twenty years, she retained her membership and
regularly transmitted her subscription, as she did to
various other societies in the city." She was con
stant in attendance when practicable, and " at the
meeting preceding her decease her place was filled,
and those who were present will not soon forget
the humble boldness and fervor of her supplications
at a throne of grace." Mrs. Wayland, wife of the
president of Brown University, was another of
those mourned this year. She was the first life-
member to pass away. The cry of the children had
been long recognized by the Society, but hitherto
adequate means with which to respond had not
appeared. Now, however, " a variety of provi
dences " flowing together made what before had
been impracticable, to " appear comparatively easy."
The " Children's Friend Society was formed in less
than two months after our last annual meeting, and
will be fairly recognized as the legitimate offspring
of city missionary operations. A house is open, and
twenty-one children have been admitted under its
hospitable roof."
1836. Preaching has been less than usual on ac
count of inadequate places for meeting, but much

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 83
work has been done by the active missionary
from house to house, " in the abodes of poverty,
vice, and wretchedness," where the mission
ary " feels perfectly at home." His attention has
turned particularly to the promotion of memori
zing passages of Scripture in the various institutions
touched by him, a system of general interest at that
time. He had distributed a hundred copies of the
" Christian Watchman," a Baptist weekly paper,
" among the shipping and small craft in our har
bor." The secretary urges the importance of more
spiritual results, in harmony with which preaching
had been instituted in the western part of the city,
J. N. Parker, of the Newton Theological Institute,
preaching and visiting there for several months.
1837. A legacy of five hundred dollars is re
ported from Mrs. N. R. Cobb, which relieved the
year from special soliciting and left a balance in
the treasury. One of the seven members who had
died had not " enjoyed an evidence that she was
prepared to meet God." This induced an appeal
to those " who are assisting to send the gospel to
others while they do not themselves embrace it
with their whole hearts." One of the seven was
Mrs. Heman Lincoln, long a valuable member and
manager. Two members had " been sent far hence
to bear the tidings of salvation to the ears of the
Greek and the barbarian, and we should be grate
ful for the loan of such members, that we may have
the privilege of giving them to Him when he is

84 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
pleased to call them to work in his vineyard."
Mention is made of the decease of Mr. Samuel
Ganch, " the tract man," with appreciation of his
diligent helpfulness in that field of service.
1838. Missionary Collier resigned on account
of increasing years and feebleness, but was con
tinued with more privilege of relaxation. Antici
pating entire retirement, he made his report, the
only source we have for this year, largely reminis
cent in those parts now available, and from it we
have already taken substantially all of it. One pas
sage, however, relating to an early stage of the con
flict with the vicious elements, may be fitly placed
here. He wrote: "Often have the tears gushed
into my eyes as I have thought of the benevolent
zeal of a lady of the first respectability, as one day
I said to her, ' We may as well retire from the
work,' she, with a countenance filled with anguish,
in view of the scene around us, exclaimed, ' They
are my sisters, and I must have them.' We perse
vered, and by the help of your missionary, upon one
occasion, she snatched a child as a brand from the
burning, ordered a carriage, and took it herself to
South Boston."
1839. The continuance of the missionary, which
seemed to be demanded by his great hold on the
poor and the vicious, was accomplished, on a re
duced salary, by special gifts from some of the
ladies and men of the Baldwin Place Church, and
others.

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 85
1840. Naturally the fortieth anniversary was
utilized by the secretary for historical purposes.
Consequently much of its material has been used
in earlier connections. But one item may be of in
terest, the recent decease of Doctor Emmons, whose
sermon struck the spark, the flame from which we
are contemplating. He reached the great age of
ninety-six years. Reviewing the whole period, the
secretary rejoices in " the happy conversion of
quite a number who joined while in an unrenewed
state." 1842. " The Society would gratefully record the
goodness of God in preserving it such a length of
time in great harmony and sisterly affection. It is
composed of members from the Baptist churches
and congregations in the city, and forms an interest
ing bond of union between them." So says an
editorial in the " Christian Watchman," which con
tains a report of the missionary's work, now greatly
reduced by serious illness. But his support con
tinues. 1845. Here appears for the first time a " Board
of City Missions," whose missionary is " Rev. Mr.
Howe." This Board holds a joint meeting with
the Baptist Woman's Society, whose missionary is
" Rev. Mr. Caswell." At the meeting Doctor Stow
preached and Doctor Sharp spoke. The house was
" crowded to overflowing " and the meeting highly
interesting! Whether this " Board of City Mis
sions " had any connection with the " Evangelical

86 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Society " mentioned in 1832, or was a more re
cent organization, does not appear, but both were
Baptist and in cooperation in these years with the
Baptist Woman's Society for Missionary Purposes.
1846. Missionary Caswell's salary has been in
creased from three hundred dollars to five hundred
dollars. He was invited to repeat his report at the
City Mission Society's meeting, at which time a con
tribution was made for the women's work. The re
port is largely obituary, especially referring to Miss
Doubt (one of the founders), and from it we have
already taken information concerning her. Refer
ence is made to " a short interview enjoyed at our
meeting in July last, with the highly honored and
useful Elder Judson," to whose aid " this Society
contributed while organization for foreign missions
was in its incipient stages." Having observed his
course for thirty-three years, they now welcomed
" himself and his companion " with great gratifica
tion. 1847. Missionary Caswell has been much engaged
in relieving the needy, especially sufferers from the
sea and from fires in the city. Funds from various
sources have been committed to him for this pur
pose, amounting to two thousand and ninety-nine
dollars. This service has been accompanied by re
ligious work, but preaching has been reduced be
cause of lack of places for meeting.
1850. Mr. Caswell continues missionary in about
the same fields, visiting a thousand destitute families

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 87
and using funds from various sources. He calls
attention to rapid changes, old residents giving
place to foreigners, who now are one-third of the
population. " A very large portion of the thirty
thousand who have landed in our city from Europe
during the twelve months past are now beggars
and vagrants in our midst." The gospel must be
carried to them. He has found homes for chil
dren of these vagrants in country towns, and pro
poses that a house be secured for the use of five
hundred such on the way to the country.
1852. The same missionary and processes are
still in view, but the formerly proposed facilities
seem not to have been secured. The secretary la
ments inability to meet the missionary's salary, and
asks, " What shall be done ? " She has been pros
trated by illness. Tried helpers have passed away,
one of them being Mrs. Ward Jackson, a member
over forty years, more than half of that time a
manager. " In various other institutions Mrs. J — > —
will long be remembered. Of the Fragment Society
in this city she was the mother . . . associated with
a few pure-minded, sympathetic Christian females,
she was one of the founders of the Fatherless and
Widows Society, and labored assiduously as one of
its trustees for a score of years." She was a
teacher from its beginning in the first Baptist Sun
day-school in Boston, in the Charles Street Church,
1816. " The last sixteen years of her life she was
persevering as one of the Board of the Children's

88 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Friend Society. In the abodes of the poor, and at
the bedsides of the sick and dying, she was a fre
quent and welcome visitor." Miss Webb is now
seventy-two years of age, her former helpers nearly
all gone, her " ever-dear Society " in financial straits,
she saying that this may be her last report (as in
deed it was the last for us), and yet she closes in
this strain : " It becomes us to reflect for a moment
on the goodness of God to this Society during all
its continuance. Repeatedly has he permitted us to
share in the shedding down of his holy influences,
and to witness the conversions of souls. . . The
poor and suffering have in thousands of instances
been relieved and encouraged, and the hearts of
widows and orphans been made to sing for joy.
True, our pecuniary prospects have sometimes been
darkened, but again the clouds have disappeared,
and light has shone upon our path. The divine com
mand is, ' Trust ye in the Lord forever.' "
1856. This was the year of the disappearance of
the " Boston Baptist Female Society for Missionary
Purposes." In the three preceding years we have
no communication from it. But in 1854 the " Watch
man and Reflector " contained an editorial on " City
Missions," in which it " laments Baptist neglect in
comparison with the good work of the Congrega
tionalists," saying that we have but one missionary
while they have twenty, and the funds for his sup
port have not been secured. It asks, " Will the
city churches abandon an enterprise so noble and

BOSTON FEMALE SOCIETY 89
Christlike ? " and declares that prompt and ener
getic action is demanded. The preferable interpre
tation of the editor's reference to the one Baptist
missionary in Boston, in 1854, seems to be that he
was Mr. Caswell. If this is correct, the City Mis
sion had collapsed or suspended. But possibly, in
writing of denominational work, he thought it not
necessary to mention the women whose status was
generally known, and his reference is to another.
However that may be, the " Watchman and Re
flector " in 1856 published the last report of the
Woman's Society through its missionary, Mr. Cas
well. It carries a tone of despair. He had been in
this service for twelve years, which he reviews ;
one item being that the total received and distrib
uted by him had been two thousand and sixty-four
dollars and forty-two cents, and then he summarizes
the whole as if he felt that the end was at hand, but
he indicates once more the pressing needs, and does
not say that he is done, closing with these words:
" Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in
deed and in truth. We are assured that Christ, the
great missionary from heaven, went about doing
good in alleviating human misery." This is accom
panied by an editorial note : " We are sorry to learn
that it is feared the Society will not be able to
support Mr. Caswell another year. A large number
of destitute widows and families, many of them too
among the Baptist household of faith, will be suf
ferers should our brother be withdrawn from their

90 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
service. We hope this will not be. Are there not
devoted females in our churches . . . who are will
ing to sustain this Society by taking the places of
the devoted ones formerly connected with it, whom
God has called to their reward above ? "
While we may regret that the Society disappears
so obscurely, such disappearance is not surprising.
Soon after its origin the rising tide of charitable
and missionary interest expressed itself in an ex
cessive multitude of similar organizations, only a
part of which survived the competition that was
inevitable. The romance of the original increas
ingly ceased to appeal to the young, who had rea
sons for enlistment elsewhere among women, and
the financial aid of men was also drawn away. Miss
Webb's personality undoubtedly explains its con
tinuance in its later years, and with her retirement
its sustenance failed, to her great grief.

Ill
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND
ENTERPRISES
Turning now from the Boston Female Society for
Missionary Purposes, we follow Miss Webb into
other organizations of charitable and missionary
character, some of which were denominational, but
others not.
i. The Female Cent Society in Boston. Doctor
Baldwin preached the annual sermon before the
Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society in May,
1804. In it he said : " From two female societies,
composed chiefly of young women, one hundred and
thirty-two dollars and eighty- four cents have been
received. One of these societies is called the Cent
Society, that sum being the weekly subscription of
each member." More definite information con
cerning the constituency of this body is not at
hand, but as soon as the receipts of the Massachu
setts Baptist Society began to appear in the Maga
zine, they included this Cent Society as a contribu
tor, and it continued to appear in this connection
from September, 1810, to January, 1823, Miss Webb
being always recorded as the custodian of its funds.
Only one conclusion seems possible, which is, that 9i

92 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
not later than 1803, Baptist women founded this
Society as auxiliary to the general denominational
organization in Massachusetts. If we assume that
she held the same relation to its finances that she
held to those of the original woman's organization,
the assumption seems to be necessary; and if we
proceed to assume that she held a corresponding re
lation to its origin, we meet with no resistance in
any record. The strong probability is that she was
intimately concerned in its inception. It cannot be
accounted for reasonably except as a Baptist insti
tution, probably composed jointly of some Baptist
women in the Society for Missionary Purposes and
others not so connected. The lighter financial re
quirement, one-quarter of the other, looks to the
enlistment of a larger number of Baptist women
than were in the older one. Granting these things,
we have here the first Baptist woman's missionary
society in America, with Miss Webb its treasurer
and possibly chief founder and worker. Usually
the other brought in more money for Baptist mis
sions than this one did, though not always. The
Magazine of September, 181 1, says' editorially that
up to that time the Massachusetts Baptist Society
had received from the Baptist part of the Boston
Female Society four hundred and sixty-four dollars
and forty cents, and from the Cent Society three
hundred and fifty-five dollars and seventy-seven
cents. Except in the last year of this period, both
seem to have given all their funds to the one cause.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES 93
2. The Children's Cent Society. Running parallel
with the two contributions from the Baptist women,
and brought in by the same person all the time, gifts
from a children's society appear. It is recorded as
a " society " first in 1811, but in 1810 record appears
of ten dollars and eighty-nine cents " from chil
dren." These were almost certainly the same,
whether formally organized in the earlier year or
not; therefore we may assume at least that this
Children's Cent Society originated not later than
18 10, and that it had been instituted by Mary /Webb.
As we explore a little farther, however, we seem
compelled to carry the origin of this movement
among the children still farther back, on this
ground : An editorial note in the Magazine of Sep
tember, 181 1, credits the Children's Cent Society
with fifty-six dollars, presumably from its origin.
But the total assigned to it for 1810 and 181 1 is
only thirty-seven dollars and eighty-nine cents.
This leaves eighteen dollars and eleven cents to
have come in prior to 1810. If we allow the chil
dren to have given before that year about as they
gave in it, this eighteen dollars and eleven cents,
not mentioned elsewhere, carried the first of their
contributions back two years farther, 1808. And
if they had given less in preceding years than in
1810, the origin of their movement is pushed still
farther back again, to 1807 or beyond. This was
the first children's missionary society in America,
so far as I know ; and taking into consideration the

94 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
sentiments of the time, both with reference to chil
dren and missions, it is safe to regard it as the first
until evidence to the contrary appears. The total
credited to the children in the seven years, from
1810 to 1817, was one hundred and sixty-three dol
lars and forty-three cents.
But we are not yet quite done with these young
sters. Wedged into the middle of a paragraph, in the
original secretary's book of the Massachusetts Bap
tist Missionary Society, is a modest sentence giving
us another view of them as pioneers in another
style of missionary enterprise now universally
prevalent. This, under date of May 29, 181 7, is
the sentence : " Read letter from M. Webb, re
questing that the money contributed from the chil
dren's mite society be devoted to Sunday-schools
in some destitute parts." The amount was twenty-
four dollars. It was designated to Sunday-school
missions. The Sunday-school was then barely born
in America, the first Baptist in Boston originating
about nine months earlier. Probably a Sunday-
school missionary society had not even been
imagined; this Baptist society had nothing of that
nature in its plans; nevertheless here is this con
tribution from these children asking that it be ap
propriated in aid of needy Sunday-schools. This
seems to have been the primal note of the whole
conception of contributions from Sunday-schools, or
any other organizations of children, in aid of
Sunday-schools. The record gives no intimation of

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES 95
what was done with this money. Probably the
Board was bothered by it, although it is not probable
that "M. Webb" did this without the knowledge
of one of its members^ her pastor, unless she
wished to surprise him. That in this item lay an
advanced conception of Sunday-school missions is
evident. How its author moved as a Sunday-
school worker in her own church is next to be
considered. 3. The Sunday-school. The first Baptist Sunday-
school in Boston was begun in June, 1816, in the
Charles Street Church; the second one a month
later. It was for girls only, as was its predecessor
in Charles Street. The men of Baldwin Place opened
one for boys the next spring. These two were kept
separate for twelve years. From a history of this
church we quote : " A large number of the ladies
of the church and congregation, with the approval
of the venerable and beloved pastor and the breth
ren, organized themselves into a society, agreeing
each to pay one cent a week for the support of the
school. At that period there were no primary
schools in Boston. The Sabbath-schools were es
tablished exclusively for the children of the poor.
Clothing suitable for their attendance on public
worship had to be provided for them. This was
taken charge of during the week by a lady appointed
by the society as keeper of the wardrobe. It was
the duty of the teachers to instruct the scholars, if
necessary, from the alphabet ; also to teach them to
G

96 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
read and spell, as well as to require them to commit
to memory and recite portions of Scripture, Bald
win's Catechism, hymns, etc. The hours for open
ing the school in the summer were 8 a. m. and
i p. m.
" On a delightful morning, July 2f, 1816, says one
who witnessed the scene, the school was commenced
with thirty-seven children, attired in neat habili
ments, provided and made up by the industry of
the society. It met on the floor of the meeting
house. . . The pastor being at that time in rather
feeble health, Deacon J. C. Rains ford . . . im
plored in earnest prayer the divine blessing. . .
The first class of colored children ever brought
under Sabbath-school instruction in Boston was
taught in this school." The society was officered
by six managers, a secretary, a treasurer, and a
keeper of the wardrobe. It seems that these had
nothing to do directly with conducting the school;
for this others were designated : three directresses —
first, second, and assistant. Mary Webb was the
" first directress." That is, she was the first officer
in the government and instruction of the school,
the superintendent, as we now say, so far as that
term was applicable to any one. Her sister, Mrs.
Hart, with whom she lived, was the first keeper of
the wardrobe, which was doubtless kept in her house.
This society did not confine its benefactions, in
the wardrobe line, to this school, but more or less
sent them abroad. This is shown by the record

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES 97
that it gave clothing, valued at three dollars, to the
Carey Indian Mission in 1824. This mission was
in Michigan, and the Boston Baptist Female Society
and the Children's Society contributed to it at the
same time with the Sunday-school Society.
4. The Corban Society, instituted in 181 1 and
incorporated in 18 16, was composed of women in
Boston. Its purpose was to aid candidates for the
gospel ministry. Its aid was restricted to those
who " are orthodox according to the Westminster
Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and who are recom
mended by some minister of the Congregational or
Presbyterian order." Membership was conditioned
by moral character, friendliness to the Shorter
Catechism, and the annual payment of two dollars.
For a Baptist student its aid seems to have been
very improbable, if not impossible. But in 1817
Mary Webb was an annual subscriber, and one of
the eight assistant directors. How long she had
been, or continued, in either of these relations is
not known.
5. " The Fragment Society," instituted in 1812
and incorporated in 18 16, designed "to assist in
clothing the destitute, more especially destitute chil
dren, and to loan bedding and infants' garments
to such mothers as are not able to procure things
necessary for their comfort during the period of
their confinement." It was quite evidently undenomi
national, but its " mother," Mrs. Jackson, was a
Baptist (see the 1852 items of the Baptist Society

9<5 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
for Missionary Purposes), and at an early date
three prominent Baptist women — Mrs. Doctor Bald
win, Mrs. Heman Lincoln, and Miss Mary Webb —
were members.
6. The Fatherless and Widows Society is men
tioned by a personal correspondent as one of those
that were " thought of and born in Mary Webb's
little room."
7. " The Children's Friend Society had its be
ginning in her room, and was designed to care for
the babies of working mothers, during the hours of
that servitude. Ladies — my grandmother was one
of them — would have their days of going to the
North End, and, in a small room at first, take the
babies, keep them clean and happy and well fed,
while the mothers were out washing or house-
cleaning." The author of this statement does not
wish her name in print, but she is a competent wit
ness. We have modern instances of care for the
children of mothers who depend on such aid in
order to attend worship, but Mary Webb long ago
rallied women of leisure to a more arduous service
for the poorer women, with her own little room as
the original base of operations.
Another friend, at the age of eighty-six, writes:
" I recall one evening my mother sent me to tell
Mrs. Burns to keep a little girl till they could find
a home for her, which led to the formation of
the Children's Friend Society, and Miss Webb be
came the secretary." These two reporters seem to

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES 99
produce a contradiction concerning the cause or oc
casion of the origin of the society. But this is not
necessarily so ; the two may have cooperated in the
initial influence; and at the worst we have only a
slip of memory touching a detail on the part of one
of them.
Fortunately, as an aid in clearing this little cloud,
we have an early document printed by the Society
itself. It states that the organization occurred De
cember 4, 1833, and the incorporation March 25,
1834. It further says that such an organization
had been contemplated for considerable time by
individuals, who hesitated because so many chari
table institutions were appealing to the public. But
none of those existing met the needs of children
who had lost one parent, and whose remaining
parent was not able to provide. This society pro
posed to come to the rescue in such cases, provided
that the child be surrendered to the control of the
society while in its care, to be educated by it, in-i
dustrially and otherwise, and " religious instruction
shall be considered of primary importance." The
incorporators were Ann Lee, Margaret D. Bald
win, Susan D. Reynolds, and Mary Webb. Most
of these certainly, and all of them probably, were
Baptists. The meeting at which the constitution
was adopted was in " the lecture-room of Rev. Mr.
Malcom's meeting-house " (Baptist). Membership
was open to both sexes, at two dollars annually for
adults and one for children, life-membership twenty-

IOO MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
five dollars. Control was by a board of lady
managers, and Mary Webb was secretary.
The probability seems to be that the meeting of
ladies to care for the children of working women
made opportunity for the discussion of the other
form of helpfulness closely allied, with doubts about
its practicability, and that a specific case of a child
that must be cared for by some one crystallized the
discussion into action.
8. Missions to the Jews. Recall that in 1818
Miss Webb's plea for the Negroes in Boston recog
nized them as having first claim on Christian effort
" next to the descendants of Abraham." Her senti
ment here was not solitary. At that time and ear
lier, as well as later, the Hebrews were subjects of
the helpful sympathy of Christians. Societies were
instituted in this interest specifically. I have not
seen a direct statement that Miss. Webb was a mem
ber of one of these, but other evidence that she was
is available. In 1840 two dollars reached the Bap
tist General Convention, " per Miss M. W.," from
" a late member of the Boston Female Jews So
ciety," and designated for " American Indians."
This locates a Jews society in Boston and seems to
mean that a recently deceased member of it had
left these dollars in care of Miss Webb for the
Indians through this channel. In the next year
the same custodian delivered to the same convention,
for the same purpose, seven dollars and twenty-five
cents, from the " Chelmsford Female Jews Society,

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND ENTERPRISES IOI
Mrs. Sarah Osgood, treasurer." Here was a Jews
society outside of Boston, whose treasurer used
Miss Webb as channel for transmitting to the con
vention a fund for use among the Indians, this so
ciety having previously sent money the same way
directly. This is something of a " mix up." For
us now, in connection with the foregoing, it indi
cates the good standing of our subject as a working
friend of the Jews, as well as an all-around mission
ary collector and distributor.
9. Individual and Voluntary. The place held
by Miss Webb in this period of her life, extending
indefinitely backward and forward, as an individual
and voluntary solicitor and custodian of aid for
good causes may be sufficiently indicated already.
But other items of the same character are not
lacking in the meager and scattering records of that
time. We noted that in 1816 more than half of
the funds coming to the Baptist Missionary Society
through her hands was from members of the church
with which she was connected, though not of the
Society of which she was the treasurer, suggesting
that it was secured by her personal solicitation. In
1836 Baptist receipts for foreign missions con
tain this item, " a friend, to be appropriated ex
pressly for the benefit of schools in Africa, per
Miss M. Webb, thirty dollars." In 1837 this comes:
" Last tribute to Burman mission, of an aged mem
ber of Second Baptist Church, per Miss M. Webb,
ten dollars." Other items might be added.

IV
EVENTIDE AND NIGHTFALL
Almost nothing is known of the closing years of
Miss Webb's life. Doctor Stow gives a general
statement of gradual physical decline, accompanied
by sustained interest in those institutions to which
her active life had been devoted, and with a special
service of sympathy and advice for those active in
the service which was often sought and freely given.
Others contribute incidents confirming this general
statement of spiritual interest sustained to the close
and illustrating it. But not much comes into view
touching dates in connection with the decline of
physical powers or her confinement to the house.
The time of the incident soon to be related is
placed by the writer at seven or eight years before
the end, at which time Miss Webb was " very fee
ble " and needing company through the night.
Whether that illness was permanent is not intimated.
In her own report at the fifty-second annual meet
ing she said : " Your unworthy secretary and treas
urer has again been prostrated by illness, and al
though measurably restored, yet increased infirmity
and advancing years indicate that she too must
shortly lay down those offices to which you have
1 02

EVENTIDE AND NIGHTFALL IO3
successively elected her, and which she has de
lighted (though so feebly) to fulfil for more than
half a century. This may be the last communica
tion of this kind that shall drop from her hand."
This was four years before the death of the Society
and nine years before her own departure.
A letter in response to a published inquiry for
information is such that it may better be given in
full and left to carry its own impression:
" Reading in the ' Watchman ' your article re
garding Miss Mary Webb, a flood of memories and
recollections of long-ago days passed through my
mind, and filled my heart anew with praise and
gratitude. I may not be able to furnish anything
that may be of use, or available in your memorial,
but I feel moved to write a few lines. I was bap
tized into the same old Baldwin Place Church in
January, 1854. Miss Webb was then very feeble
and needing some one to be with her at night, so it
was suggested to me, as a young Christian wanting
to do some slight service for the Master, to watch
with her half of the night. I had never seen her
face very clearly until then, although I had watched
the wheeling of her little white, chairlike vehicle
down Salem Street to the door of the church, and
noted the eager readiness of the young men to
assist in bearing her into the church building. She
impressed me as being very small of stature, with
a placid, loving face full of gentle kindliness.
Special features I cannot recall over these many

104 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
years, for I was then a young girl scarcely sixteen/
and am now a white-haired old lady of sixty-six.
After making her comfortable on this occasion of
my half -night with her, I sat by the window looking
upon the stars and thinking. I felt a weight of re
sponsibility, for this was my first service of this
nature. Suddenly her gentle voice broke the still
ness with the quietly spoken words, ' My dear, will
you pray?' Oh, I can feel now the throb of my
heart. I had never prayed with or before another,
was not accustomed to the sound of my voice, for
I had prayed to my Father in secret ; but there was
something in that sweet, compelling voice I could
not refuse. I knelt. The Lord was there, un
doubtedly hearing the inward, silent petition of his
aged saint for me, the young, ignorant girl, but I
trust his own child. That night was a mile-stone
in my Christian journey, and I have felt that dear
Miss Webb purposely helped me to this service,
that my mouth might be opened unto the Lord for
future usefulness. I have been and am a very un
profitable child of the King, but if I have ever
helped another by ' prayer and supplication,' I think
my first inspiration came from that humble room,
kneeling there by the bedside of one of the Lord's
own saints. I feel I have wearied you and do not
know that any thing I have written will at all
serve your purpose, but it has been a pleasure and
helpful to me thus to recall this night of the long
ago."

EVENTIDE AND NIGHTFALL I05
The writer of the above secured from another an
account of a similar surprise given by Miss Webb
to a visitor : " A gentleman who was not a member
of the church, but who often visited her, was
asked by her to pray. He was perplexed, but knelt
and offered the Lord's Prayer."
Another correspondent writes : " I used to hear
a great deal about her and remember her death, for
she was considered a saint by those who knew her—.
an uncanonized one, but worthy to be. . . My
grandmother always said that Mary Webb, from
her wheeled chair, brought forth more good to the
needy than any other one woman in Boston."
Some other sentences from " Rambles in Old
Boston," perhaps may be appositely inserted here:
" Many of the former generation can remember
her little hand carriage, covered with green baize,
in which she had herself wheeled about town on
her errands of kindness to the needy and suffering.
Such an example could not fail to inspire others
with her spirit of devotion; and the enterprises
which she began in feebleness grew to large pro
portions by the generous support of the Christian
public. . . The case is somewhat like that of Anna
Gurney. . . The life of neither Mary Webb nor
Anna Gurney has ever been written, and the two
probably never heard of each other ; but their trials
and their triumphs were singularly alike."
Turning again to Doctor Stow's tribute we find
this : " In the later years of her life, though she

106 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
seldom went abroad except to the sanctuary of
worship, she saw much Christian society at her
house, and was the admiration of every visitor
for her cheerful piety and her serene confidence in
the Rock of her trust." He states that she read
good books, especially the Bible, with which she
was very familiar; and he adds, after some state
ments concerning her activity in certain charities:
" But growing infirmities admonished her, and she
became content to work by influencing such as she
saw to go on with every good work. . . Her de
cline was gradual; her mind was peaceful. . .
Nothing but sin troubled her." And he closes thus :
" The foregoing is a meager sketch of one who
was worthy of a better memorial. But though much
might have been written, especially with respect to
her inner life, yet the record could not have been
briefer without a culpable neglect of one who
eminently honored the Christian profession. Mary
Webb was a gem of precious worth among the
stones of Zion, and she now glows in the Saviour's
diadem of beauty. The most prominent lesson of
her life is the amount of service possible in the
face of discouraging circumstances. She did more
good than a stranger to her spirit could have sup
posed possible. Though physically weak and almost
helpless, she would always be doing something."
The "Watchman and Reflector" of May 30,
1861, contained a brief editorial notice of her de
parture, pronouncing her " invariably an ornament

EVENTIDE AND NIGHTFALL IO7
of the Christian profession," and promising to fur
nish later a fuller account of her life. This appeared
in the issue of August twenty-ninth next follow
ing, and was signed " S." We have used it in
several connections, attributing it to Dr. Baron
Stow. His delay in performing the service asked
by the editor probably resulted from his absence.
Mary Webb died on May 24, 1861, at 26 Hull
Street, where she had lived with her sister since
the death of her mother in 1813. The city records
show that her death was caused by cancer of the
breast, and that she was interred in Woodlawn
Cemetery. There she lies side by side with her
sister " Sally." The mounds above the graves are
of the same length, and with the plain stones at
their heads are twins in appearance. The writer
of this reverently copied from one of these stones
the following words, preserved here in the same
arrangement which they have there :
Mary Webb
daughter of
Samuel & Margaret
Webb,
born March 12, 1779,
died May 24, 1861.
She was one of the originators of the first
female Missionary Society ever established
of which she was the faithful treasurer for
fifty-six years.

108 MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
Thus it appears that the full number of the days
of her earthly pilgrimage was eighty-two years,
two months, and twelve days. It is recorded that in
1854 only five of those who had united with the
church before her remained, and these all had come
in not later than 1793, six years preceding her.
Therefore the strong probability is that on her de
parture she left no member who had been in the
fellowship of the church as long as she had.
At noon on the Lord's Day, May 26, 1861, her
funeral occurred in the house of worship of the
Baldwin Place Baptist Church. This funeral, at
the close of the morning church meeting, was not
wholly exceptional at that time, such arrangement
being then customary to some extent. Sixty-two
years, ten months, and twenty-six days before she
had been borne into the same place and buried in
the symbolic tomb.
Quite evidently not many who had witnessed her
burial in the baptistery were now present. The
conditions were not favorable to such attention to
the last tributes to this remarkable life as would
have been fitting. For a long time she had been
shut in from the notice of the public, and one so
situated passes out of the thoughts of those who
do not see the " shut-in " with startling rapidity.
In the fields in which she had once been so much
a pioneer, a solitary toiler, and an admired leader,
known at every turn of the town, many effective
workers were gathered in many organizations that

EVENTIDE AND NIGHTFALL IO9
had lived while her " ever-dear Society " had failed
with the failing of her strength, and died five
years earlier than her own decease. Besides this,
it was at the opening of the Civil War, when, as
the papers, religious as well as others, show, all
minds were engrossed with the impending national
conflict, already begun indeed, and charged with its
great excitement. But still we may safely assume
that in the Baldwin Place meeting-house that Sun
day morning gray heads from all directions, some
of them not accustomed to be there, might have
been seen; of those who amid the din of the strife
and the lapse of the years had not forgotten the
former days, and whose hearts were still stirred
with the old loyalty to the life now come to its
rest. But with it all, very quietly, obscurely, and as
the world goes, appropriately, the exhausted form
was borne to the rest that it had won.
But the imagination may be permitted to enter
tain the thought that nature was less unmindful of
the deeper proprieties of the scene than were some
who might appropriately have given more heed to
her going away. For the behavior of the elements
appear to have been adjusted to a fitting symbolism
of her life. The local press preserved a record of
the weather which we appropriate to our own use.
" The day," it says, " was one of the finest as
well as the warmest days of the season. Copious
showers the previous evening laid the dust and
cleared the air. At sunrise the thermometer stood

IIO MARY WEBB AND THE MOTHER SOCIETY
at fifty-seven degrees; at noon, seventy-four. A
brief shower fell about twelve o'clock." May we
not trace a parallel, if not a symbolism, a fitness in
the face of nature as so recorded, to the course and
the culmination of the earthly experience and exit
of Mary Webb. The heat and dust of the day
through which she rested in the casket may symbol
ize the heat and dust of her long life of toil and
pain; the refreshing rain of its evening the crown
ing of that life with peace and fruitfulness; and
the brief shower at the noon hour of the final part
ing of her face from the eyes of earth may token
to us the gentle graciousness and the fructifying
power of her spirit while here and of her influence
when gone.

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