The Deacon's Office.
The deacons in the early New England churches had, besides their regular
duties on the Lord's Day, and their special duties on communion Sabbaths,
the charge of prudential concerns, and of providing for the poor of the
church. They also "dispensed the word" on Sabbaths to the congregation
during the absence of the ordained minister. Judge Sewall thus describes
in his diary under the date of November, 1685, the method at that time of
appointing or ordaining a deacon:--
"In afternoon Mr. Willard ordained our Brother Theophilus Frary to the
office of a Deacon. Declared his acceptance January 11th first
now again. Propounded him to the congregation at Noon. Then in even
propounded him if any of the church of other had to object they might
speak. Then took the Church's Vote, then call'd him up to the Pulpit,
laid his Hand on's head, and said I ordain Thee, etc., etc., gave him
his charge, then Prayed & sung 2nd Part of 84th Psalm."
The deacons always sat near the pulpit in a pew, which was generally
raised a foot or two above the level of the meeting-house floor, and which
contained, usually, several high-backed chairs and a table or a broad
swinging-shelf for use at the communion service. These venerable men were
a group of awe-inspiring figures, who, next to the parson, received the
respect of the community. In Bristol, Connecticut, the deacons wore
starched white linen caps in the meeting-house to indicate their office,--a
singular local custom. One of their duties in many communities was
naturally to furnish the sacramental wines, and the money for the payment
thereof was allowed to them from the church-rates, or was raised by special
taxation. In Farmington, Connecticut, in 1669, each male inhabitant was
ordered to pay a peck of wheat or one shilling to the deacons of the church
to defray the expenses of the sacrament. In Groton church, in 1759, "4
Coppers for every Sacrament for 1 year" was demanded from each communicant.
In Springfield the "deacon's rate" was paid in "wampam,"--sixpence in
"wampam" or a peck of Indian corn from each family in the town. This
special tax was somewhat modified in case a man had no wife, or if he were
not a church-member, but in the latter case he still had to pay some dues,
though of course he could not take part in the communion service. In 1734
the Milton church ordered the deacons to procure "good Canary Wine for
the Communion Table." Abuses sometimes arose,--abominably poor wines were
furnished, though full rates were paid for the purchase of wine of
good quality; and in Newbury the man who was appointed to furnish the
sacramental wines, sold, under that religious cover, wine and liquors at
retail.
The deacons also had charge of the vessels used in the communion service.
These vessels were frequently stored, when not in use, under the pulpit in
a little closet which opened into "the Ministers wives pue," and which was
fabled to be at the disposal of the tithingmen and deacons for the darksome
incarceration of unruly and Sabbath-breaking boys. The communion vessels
were not always of valuable metal; John Cotton's first church had wooden
chalices; the wealthier churches owned pieces of silver which had been
given to them, one piece at a time, by members or friends of the church;
but communion services of pewter were often seen.
The church in Hanover, Massachusetts, bought a pewter service in 1728, and
the record of the purchase still exists. It runs thus:--
3 Pewter Tankards marked C. T. 10 shillings.
5 " Beakers " C. E. 6 sh. 6d. each.
2 " Platters " C. P. 5 sh. each.
1 " Basin for Baptisms.
This pewter service is still owned by the Hanover church, a highly prized
relic. Until 1753 the church in Andover used a pewter communion service,
but when a silver service was given to it, the Andover church sent the
vessels of baser metal to a sister church in Methuen. In Haverhill the will
of a church-member named White gave to the church absolutely the pewter
dishes which were used at the sacrament, and which had been his personal
property. The "ffirst church" of Hartford had "one Puter fflagon, ffower
pewter dishes, and a bason" left to it by the bequest of one of its
members. When the Danvers church was burned in 1805, the pewter communion
vessels were saved while the silver ones were either burnt or stolen. As
pewter was, in the early days of New England, far from being a despised
metal, and as pewter dishes and plates were seen on the tables of the
wealthiest families, were left by will as precious possessions, were
engraved with initials and stamped with coats of arms, and polished with
as much care as were silver vessels, a communion service of pewter was
doubtless felt to be a thoroughly satisfactory acquisition and appointment
to a Puritan church.
The deacons of course took charge of the church contributions. Lechford,
in his "Plaine Dealing," thus describes the manner of giving in the Boston
church in 1641:--
"Baptism being ended, follows the contribution, one of the deacons
saying, 'Brethren of the Congregation, now there is time left for
contribution, whereof as God has prospered you so freely offer.' The
Magistrates and chief gentlemen first, and then the Elders and all the
Congregation of them, and most of them that are not of the church, all
single persons, widows and women in absence of their husbands, came up
one after another one way, and bring their offering to the deacon at
his seat, and put it into a box of wood for the purpose, if it be money
or papers. If it be any other Chattel they set or lay it down before
the deacons; and so pass on another way to their seats again; which
money and goods the Deacons dispose towards the maintenance of the
Minister, and the poor of the Church, and the Churches occasions
without making account ordinarily."
Lechford also said he saw a "faire gilt cup" given at the public
contribution; and other gifts of value to the church and minister were
often made. Libellous verses too were thrown into the contribution boxes,
and warning and gloomy messages from the Quakers; and John Rogers,
in derision of a pompous New London minister, threw in the insulting
contribution of an old periwig. One Puritan goodwife, sternly unforgiving,
never saw a contribution taken for proselyting the Indians without
depositing in the contribution-box a number of leaden bullets, the only
tokens she wished to see ever dispersed among the red men.
Even our pious forefathers were not always quite honest in their church
contributions, and had to be publicly warned, as the records show, that
they must deposit "wampum without break or deforming spots," or "passable
peage without breaches." The New Haven church was particularly tormented by
canny Puritans who thus managed to dispose of their broken and worthless
currency with apparent Christian generosity. In 1650 the New Haven "deacons
informed the Court that the wampum which is putt into the Church Treasury
is generally so bad that the Elders to whom they pay it cannot pay it
away."
In 1651, as the bad wampum was still paid in by the pious New Haven
Puritans, it was ordered that "no money save silver or bills" be accepted
by the deacons. After this order the deacons and elders found tremendous
difficulty in getting any contributions at all, and many are the records of
the actions and decisions of the church in regard to the perplexing matter.
It should be said, in justice to the New Haven colonists, though they were
the most opulent of the New England planters, save the wealthy settlers
of Narragansett, that money of all kinds was scarce, and that the Indian
money, wampum-peag, being made of a comparatively frail sea-shell, was more
easily disfigured and broken than was metal coin; and that there was little
transferable wealth in the community anyway, even in "Country Pay." The
broken-wampum-giver of the seventeenth century, who contributed with intent
to defraud and deceive the infant struggling church was the direct and
lineal ancestor of the sanctimonious button-giver of nineteenth-century
country churches.
In Revolutionary times, after the divine service, special contributions
were taken for the benefit of the Continental Army. In New England large
quantities of valuable articles were thus collected. Not only money, but
finger-rings, earrings, watches, and other jewelry, all kinds of male
attire,--stockings, hats, coats, breeches, shoes,--produce and groceries of
all kinds, were brought to the meeting-house to give to the soldiers. Even
the leaden weights were taken out of the window-sashes, made into bullets,
and brought to meeting. On one occasion Madam Faith Trumbull rose up in
Lebanon meeting-house in Connecticut, when a collection was being made for
the army, took from her shoulders a magnificent scarlet cloak, which had
been a present to her from Count Rochambeau, the commander-in-chief of the
French allied army, and advancing to the altar, gave it as her offering to
the gallant men, who were fighting not only the British army, but terrible
want and suffering. The fine cloak was cut into narrow strips and used as
red trimmings for the uniforms of the soldiers. The romantic impressiveness
of Madam Trumbull's patriotic act kindled warm enthusiasm in the
congregation, and an enormous collection was taken, packed carefully, and
sent to the army.
One early duty of the deacons which was religiously and severely performed
was to watch that no one but an accepted communicant should partake of the
holy sacrament. One stern old Puritan, having been officially expelled from
church-membership for some temporal rather than spiritual offence, though
ignored by the all-powerful deacon, still refused to consider himself
excommunicated, and calmly and doggedly attended the communion service
bearing his own wine and bread, and in the solitude of his own pew communed
with God, if not with his fellow-men. For nearly twenty years did this
austere man rigidly go through this lonely and sad ceremonial, until he
conquered by sheer obstinacy and determination, and was again admitted to
church-fellowship.
A very extraordinary custom prevailed in several New England churches.
Through it the deacons were assigned a strange and serious duty which
appeared to make them all-important and possibly self-important, and
which must have weighed heavily upon them, were they truly godly, and
conscientious in the performance of it. In the rocky little town of Pelham
in the heart of Massachusetts, toward the close of the eighteenth century
and during the pastorate of the notorious thief, counterfeiter, and forger,
Rev. Stephen Burroughs, that remarkable rogue organized and introduced to
his parishioners the custom of giving during the month a metal check to
each worthy and truly virtuous church-member, on presentation of which the
check-bearer was entitled to partake of the communion, and without which he
was temporarily excommunicated. The duty of the deacon in this matter was
to walk up and down the aisles of the church at the close of each service
and deliver to the proper persons (proper in the deacon's halting human
judgment) the significant checks. The deacon had also to see that this
religionistic ticket was presented on the communion Sabbath. Great must
have been the disgrace of one who found himself checkless at the end of the
month, and greater even than the heart-burnings over seating the meeting
must have been the jealousies and church quarrels that arose over the
communion-checks. And yet no records of the protests or complaints of
indignant or grieving parishioners can be found, and the existence of
the too worldly, too business-like custom is known to us only through
tradition.
Many of the little chips called "Presbyterian checks" are, however, still
in existence. They are oblong discs of pewter, about an inch and a half
long, bearing the initials "P. P.," which stand, it is said, for "Pelham
Presbyterian." I could not but reflect, as I looked at the simple little
stamped slips of metal, that in a community so successful in the difficult
work of counterfeiting coin, it would have been very easy to form a mould
and cast from it spurious checks with which to circumvent the deacons and
preserve due dignity in the meeting.
The Presbyterian checks have never been attributed in Massachusetts to
other than the Pelham church, and are usually found in towns in the
vicinity of Pelham; and there the story of their purpose and use is
universally and implicitly believed. A clergyman of the Pelham church gave
to many of his friends these Presbyterian checks, which he had found among
the disused and valueless church-properties, and the little relics of the
old-time deacons and services have been carefully preserved.
In New Hampshire, however, a similar custom prevailed in the churches of
Londonderry and the neighboring towns.. The Londonderry settlers were
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians (and the Pelham planters were an off-shoot of
the Londonderry settlement), and they followed the custom of the Scotch
Presbyterians in convening the churches twice a year to partake of the
Lord's Supper. This assembly was always held in Londonderry, and ministers
and congregations gathered from all the towns around. Preparatory services
were held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Long tables were placed in
the aisles of the church on the Sabbath; and after a protracted and solemn
address upon the deep meaning of the celebration and the duties of the
church-members, the oldest members of the congregation were seated at the
table and partook of the sacrament. Thin cakes of unleavened bread were
specially prepared for this sacred service. Again and again were the tables
refilled with communicants, for often seven hundred church-members were
present. Thus the services were prolonged from early morning until
nightfall. When so many were to partake of the Lord's Supper, it seemed
necessary to take means to prevent any unworthy or improper person from
presenting himself. Hence the tables were fenced off, and each communicant
was obliged to present a "token." These tokens were similar to the
"Presbyterian checks;" they were little strips of lead or pewter stamped
with the initials "L. D.," which may have stood for "Londonderry" or
"Lord's Day." They were presented during the year by the deacons and elders
to worthy and pious church-members. This bi-annual celebration of the
Lord's Supper--this gathering of old friends and neighbors from the rocky
wilds of New Hampshire to join, in holy communion--was followed on Monday
by cheerful thanksgiving and social intercourse, in which, as in every
feast, our old friend, New England rum, played no unimportant part. The
three days previous to the communion Sabbath were, however, solemnly
devoted to the worship of God; a Londonderry man was reproved and
prosecuted for spreading grain upon a Thursday preceding a communion
Sunday, just as he would have been for doing similar work upon the Sabbath.
The use of these "tokens" in the Londonderry church continued until the
year 1830.
In the coin collection of the American Antiquarian Society are little
pewter communion-checks, or tokens, stamped with a heart. These were used
in the Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, and were delivered to pious
church-members at the Friday evening prayer-meeting preceding the communion
Sabbath. Long tables were set in the aisles, as at Londonderry. In
practice, belief, and origin, the New Hampshire and Pennsylvania churches
were sisters.
The deacons had many minor duties to perform in the different parishes.
Some of these duties they shared with the tithingman. They visited the
homes of the church-members to hear the children say the catechism, they
visited and prayed with the sick, and they also reported petty offences,
though they were not accorded quite so powerful legal authority as the
tithingmen and constables.
It was much desired by several of the first-settled ministers that there
should be deaconesses in the New England Puritan church, and many good
reasons were given for making such appointments. It was believed that
for the special duty of visiting the sick and afflicted in the community
deaconesses would be more useful than deacons. There had been an aged
deaconess in the Puritan church in Holland, who with a "little birchen
rod" had kept the children in awe and order in meeting, and who had also
exercised "her guifts" in speaking; but when she died no New England
successor was appointed to fill her place.