Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

"My kind loue and affection to you remembered; hauinge not a convenient
opertunety to see and speake w'th you soe oft as I could desier, I
therefore make bold to take opertunety as occassione offers it selfe to
vissit you w'th my letter, desiering y't it may find acceptance w'th
you, as a token of my loue to you; as I can assuer you y't yours have
found from me; for as I came home from you y'e other day, by y'e way I
reseaued your letter from your faithfull messenger w'ch was welcom
vnto me, and for w'ch I kindly thanke you, and do desier y't as it is
y'e first: so y't may not be y'e last, but y't it may be as a seed
w'ch will bring forth more frute: and for your good counsell and
aduise in your letter specified, I doe accept, and do desier y't we may
still command y'e casse to god for direction and cleering vp of your way
as I hope wee haue hitherto done; and y't our long considerations may at
y'e next time bring forth firme concessions, I meane verbally though not
formally. Sweete-harte I have given you a large ensample of patience, I
hope you will learn this instruction from y'e same, namely, to show y'e
like toward me if euer occassion be offered for futuer time, and for
y'e present condesendency vnto my request; thus w'ch my kind loue
remembered to yo'r father and mother and Brothers and sisters w'th
thanks for all their kindness w'ch haue been vndeseruing in me I rest,
leauing both them and vs vnto y'e protection and wise direction of y'e
almighty.

"My mother remembers her love vnto y'or father and mother; as also
vnto your selfe though as it vnknown.

"Yo'rs to command in anything I pleas.

"JOHN CAPEN."

In this connection may very properly be given another letter written at about the same date. Punkapoag, the summer residence of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the poet editor of the Atlantic, was a part of colonial Dorchester and one of the points where the famous John Eliot began his missionary labors among the Indians. In the interest of the natives at that station he wrote the following letter to his friend, Major Atherton, in 1657:

"Much Honored and Beloved in the Lord:

"Though our poore Indians are molested in most places in their meetings
in way of civilities, yet the Lord hath put it into your hearts to
suffer us to meet quietly at Ponkipog, for w'ch I thank God, and
am thankful to yourselfe and all the good people of Dorchester. And
now that our meetings may be the more comfortable and p varable, my
request is, y't you would further these two motions: first, y't you
would please to make an order in your towne and record it in your towne
record, that you approve and allow y'e Indians of Ponkipog there to sit
downe and make a towne, and to inioy such accommodations as may be
competent to maintain God's ordinances among them another day. My second
request is, y't you would appoint fitting men, who may in a fitt season
bound and lay out the same, and record y't alsoe. And thus commending
you to the Lord, I rest,

"Yours to serve in the service of Jesus Christ,

"JOHN ELIOT."

Following this missive a letter on quite a different subject, dictated by the redoubtable Indian chief, King Philip, may be interesting. It bears date of 1672, and is addressed to Captain Hopestill Foster of Dorchester:

"S'r you may please to remember that when I last saw You att Walling
river You promised me six pounds in goods; now my request is that you
would send me by this Indian five yards of White light collered serge to
make me a coat and a good Holland shirt redy made; and a p'r of good
Indian briches all of which I have present need of, therefoer I pray S'r
faile not to send them by my Indian and with them the severall prices of
them; and silke & buttens & 7 yards Gallownes for trimming; not else att
present to trouble you w'th onley the subscription of

"KING PHILIP,

"his Majesty P.P."

One of the best commentaries on the lives and characters of the chief actors in the history of the Dorchester Plantation may be read on the tombstones that mark the places where their precious dust was deposited. From Rev. Richard Mather, the most noted pastor of the church of that period, to the humblest contemporary of his who enjoyed the rights and priveleges of a free-holder, none was so mean or obscure that a characteristic, if not fitting, epitaph did not mark the place of his sepulture. From the many well worth perusing, the following are singled and transcribed for the readers of this sketch.

Epitaph of James Humfrey, "one of y'e ruling elders of Dorchester," in the form of an acrostic:

"I nclos'd within this shrine is precious dust.
A nd only waits ye rising of ye just.
M ost usefull while he liu'd, adorn'd his Station,
E uen to old age he Seur'd his Generation.

H ow great a Blessing this Ruling Elder be
U nto the Church & Town: & Pastors Three.
M ather he first did by him help Receiue;
F lynt did he next his burden much Relieue;
R enouned Danforth he did assist with Skill:
E steemed high by all; Bear fruit Untill,
Y eilding to Death his Glorious seat did fill."

When Elder Hopestill Clapp died his pastor, Rev. John Danforth, composed the following verses for his grave stone:

"His Dust waits till ye Jubile,
Shall then Shine brighter than ye Skie;
Shall meet and join to part no more,
His soul that Glorify'd before.
Pastors and Churches happy be,
With Ruling Elders such as he;
Present useful, Absent Wanted,
Liv'd Desired, Died Lamented."

William Pole, an eccentric citizen of the village, before his demise, composed an epitaph to be chiseled on his monument, "Y't so being dead he might warn posterity; or, a resemblance of a dead man bespeaking y'e reader;" so under a death's head and cross-bones it stands thus:

"Ho passenger 'tis worth your paines to stay
& take a dead man's lesson by ye way.
I was what now thou art & thou shall be
What I am now what odds twixt me and thee
Now go thy way but stay take one word more
Thy staff for ought thou knowest stands next ye door
Death is ye dore yea dore of heaven or hell
Be warned, Be armed, Believe, Repent, Fairewell."

The virtues of one who was "downright for business, one of cheerful spirit and entire for the country" are recorded in this fashion:

"Here lyes ovr Captaine, & Major of Suffolk was withall:
A Goodley Magistrate was he, and Major Generall,
Two Troops of Hors with him here came, svch worth his loue did crave;
Ten Companyes of Foot also movrning marcht to his grave.
Let all that Read be sure to Keep the Faith as he has don.
With Christ his liues now, crowned, his name was Hvmfrey Atherton."

The following was written on the death of John Foster, who is mentioned in the old annals as a "mathematician and printer":

"Thy body which no activeness did lack,
Now's laid aside like an old Almanack;
But for the present only's out of date,
'Twill have at length a far more active state.
Yes, tho' with dust thy body soiled be.
Yet at the resurrection we shall see
A fair EDITION, and of matchless worth.
Free from ERRATAS, new in Heaven set forth.
'Tis but a word from God the great Creator,
It shall be done when he saith Imprimator."

The clerk of the old Dorchester Church seems also to have been a maker of elegiac verse; for after the decease of Rev. Richard Mather, the pastor, and one of the ablest divines of colonial New England, the church records contain the two complimentary stanzas quoted below, the first being an evident attempt at anagram:

"Third in New England's Dorchester,
Was this ordained minister.
Second to none for faithfulness,
Abilities and usefulness.
Divine his charms, years seven times seven,
Wise to win souls from earth to heaven.
Prophet's reward his gains above,
But great's our loss by his remove."

Sacred to God his servant Richard Mather,
Sons like him, good and great, did call him father.
Hard to discern a difference in degree,
'Twixt his bright learning and his piety.
Short time his sleeping dust lies covered down,
So can't his soul or his deserved renown.
From 's birth six lustres and a jubilee
To his repose: but labored hard in thee,
O, Dorchester! four more than thirty years
His sacred dust with thee thine honour rears."

This couplet to three brothers named Clarke must suffice for epitaphs:

"Here lie three Clarkes, their accounts are even,
Entered on earth, carried up to Heaven."

Before taking leave of these fascinating old records, so rich in facts and the stuff that fiction is made of, it will be interesting to have an estimate of the growth of the Dorchester Plantation; for this purpose the valuation of the town is given, a century from the date of its settlement:

Houses, 117
Mills, 6
Acres of orchard, 250 1-2
Acres of mowing, 1834 1-4
Acres of pasture, 2873 1-2
Acres of tillage, 518 1-2
Male slaves, 10
Female slaves, 1
Oxen, 157
Cows, 661
Horses, 207
Sheep and goats, 661
Swine, 251

Value of feeding stock, etc., £431

Decked vessels, tons, 64
Open vessels, tons 68
====
132

Ratable polls, 252
Not ratable, 24
====
276

The tax for that year, assessed on real estate, was £72 16s 6d; on personal estate, £9 14s 11d.

When all who took up the original claims on Allen's Plain had passed through the vicissitudes of their troubled lives and been numbered with the silent majority in the field of epitaphs, already alluded to, and their descendents were on the eve of the great struggle which was destined to sever them from the mother country, and the hearts of patriotic men began to feel the premonitory throbs of that spirit of independence soon to fire the first shot at Lexington, the Union and Association of Sons of Liberty in the province held a grand celebration in Boston, on the fourteenth of August, 1769. From John Adams's famous diary we learn that this jovial company, including the leading spirits of the time, first assembled at Liberty Tree, in Boston, where they drank fourteen toasts, and then adjourned to Liberty Tree Tavern, which was none other than Robinson's Tavern in Dorchester. There under a mammoth tent in an adjacent field long tables were spread, and over three hundred persons sat down to a sumptuous dinner. "Three large pigs were barbecued," and "forty-five toasts were given on the occasion," the last of which was, "Strong halters, firm blocks and sharp axes to all such as deserve them." The toasts were varied with songs of liberty and patriotism by a noted colonial mimic named Balch, and another song composed and sung by Dr. Church. "At five o'clock," says Mr. Adams, "the Boston people started home, led by Mr. Hancock in his chariot, and to the honour of the Sons, I did not see one person intoxicated."

* * * * *

HOLLIS STREET CHURCH.

The demolition of Hollis Street Church in this city destroys another old historic land-mark, which, like King's Chapel, the old State House, and other venerable structures, have a record that endears them to the popular heart. A brief sketch of the three buildings which have successively occupied the site, which is so soon to be left vacant, is worthy of preservation.

The name of the church and the street on which it stood was bestowed in honor of Thomas Hollis, of London, noted for his liberal benefactions; and his nephew of the same name devoted a bell for the edifice, in 1734.

The land on which the original structure was erected, was presented for that purpose by Governor Belcher, in 1731; and in April of the same year, by permission of the selectmen of Tri-Mountain, or Boston, a wooden building, sixty feet long and forty feet wide, was began, which was finished and dedicated in midsummer of the following year.

In the great South End fire, on the twentieth of April, 1787, and in response to an imperative demand, a second, and larger wooden house, was erected on the site of the first, and made ready for occupancy in the course of the following year. This building was planned by Charles Bulfinch, and in its architecture resembled St. Paul's Church, now standing on Tremont street.

Within a year the Hollis Street Society has removed to an elegant new edifice on the Back Bay, and the brick building they left behind must now disappear in the march of improvement. It was erected in 1811, in order to accommodate the prosperous and rapidly-growing society for whom it stood as a place of worship. To make room for it, the wooden meeting-house already referred to was taken down in sections and removed to the town of Braintree.

The several clergymen who have been the honored pastors of Hollis Street Church are worthy of mention in this connection. The first was Rev. Mather Byles, a lineal descendant of John Cotton and Richard Mather, who was ordained pastor, December 20, 1732. He was dismissed August 14, 1776, on account of his strong Tory proclivities. His immediate successor was Rev. Ebenezer Wright, a young divine from Dedham and a graduate of Harvard, who remained the pastor until the new meeting-house was finished, in 1788, when he was dismissed at his own request, on account of ill-health.

The next pastor was a man in middle life, who made himself an acknowledged power among the Boston clergy, Rev. Samuel West, of Needham. He died in 1808, and was succeeded by Rev. Horace Holley, from Connecticut, who was installed in March, 1809, and remained till 1818. Rev. John Pierpont, who resigned in 1845, made way for Rev. David Fosdick, who preached there two years, when Rev. Starr King was settled in 1845, and remained till 1861, Rev. George L. Chaney then took the place till 1877, and was succeeded by Rev. H. Bernard Carpenter, the present pastor.

* * * * *

ELIZABETH.[13]

A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS.

By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work."