Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities has
interested itself in the protection of the property.
XIV
THE COLONEL JEREMIAH LEE HOUSE, MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS
THE HOME OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST MARTYRS TO THE CAUSE OF THE COLONIES
Marblehead was a comparatively insignificant port when Jeremiah Lee
came to town. At once he made a place for himself among the humble
fishermen and other seafaring men of the place. He was a member of the
Board of Firewards in the town's first fire department, and he served
on important committees.
When, in 1768, he built a wonderful mansion that cost more than ten
thousand pounds, the most wonderful house in Massachusetts at the
time, his townsmen knew him well enough to understand that he was
their good friend, even if he did have much more money than any of
them.
The Lee Mansion was a hospitable home. The Colonel and his wife Martha
entertained lavishly, not only the people of the town but famous men
from abroad. In 1789 Washington was entertained in the house. But it
was one of the glories of the mansion that the humblest mariner in the
place was not slow to go there if he wished to have a chat with the
bluff owner or if he desired to go to the quaint cupola from which it
is possible to look far out to sea. To this outlook Colonel Lee
himself often went, for his ships were sailing to Marblehead from all
parts of the world, and he was as eager as any one to turn his eyes
seaward.
The house is sixty-four feet by forty-six feet, and the walls are of
brick, though they are covered with wooden clapboards two feet by one
and a half feet. There are fifteen rooms, in addition to the great
halls that make the house seem like a palace.
In these rooms the Colonel conferred with other patriots as to the
welfare of Massachusetts and all the colonies. From the house he went
out to the town meetings where the men gathered to talk over the
Boston Port Bill and the Boston Tea Party and questions of Taxation
without Representation.
He rejoiced to serve as a representative in the General Court and on
the Committee of Safety and Supplies of the Province. He was chosen to
represent the town in the Continental Congress, and when he was unable
to go, Elbridge Gerry, who later became Vice-President of the United
States, was sent in his place at the expense of the town.
On the night of April 18, 1775, in company with Elbridge Gerry and
Azor Orin, who were members with him of the Committee of Safety and
Supplies, he was attending a meeting at Weatherby's Black Horse Tavern
just outside of Cambridge. The meeting adjourned so late that the
three men decided to spend the night at the tavern. The eight hundred
British soldiers who were on their way that night to Lexington learned
of the presence in Cambridge of the patriots. Some one rushed to the
tavern and roused them from slumber. They did not even have time to
put on their clothes, but ran at once from the house and hid
themselves at some distance from the tavern. When the disappointed
troops had gone on, the hunted men returned to their room.
Three weeks later Lee died as the result of the exposure. He has been
called one of the earliest martyrs to the cause of the Colonies.
Before he died he left directions that five thousand pounds should be
given to the treasury of the provinces.
Mrs. Lee, who was Martha Swett of Marblehead, lived on in the mansion
with those of her eight children who had not gone already to homes of
their own. Under her guidance the hospitality for which the house had
become noted was maintained.
Those who pass between the beautiful porch pillars and enter the
chaste colonial doorway are amazed at the remarkable hallway and the
stairs. The hall is fifteen feet wide and extends the length of the
house. It is heavily wainscoted with mahogany. On the walls hangs
remarkable panelled paper whose designs, depicting ancient
architecture, are in keeping with the majestic proportions of the
place. The stairway is so wide that four or five people can climb it
abreast and the balustrade and the spindles are of exquisite
workmanship.
The rear stairway is far more ornate than the best stairway in most
houses, and the rooms are in keeping with the hall and the stairways.
The cupola is one of the most striking features of the house. Here six
windows give a view that is worth going far to see.
When Mrs. Lee died, the property descended to her son. Judge Samuel
Sewell was a later owner. But the day came when it was to be sold at
auction. All Marblehead feared that the historic place would be
destroyed. Fortunately the Marblehead Historical Society was able to
raise the fifty-five hundred dollars needed to secure it.
Since July 9, 1909, the Society has owned the mansion. For six months
of every year it is open to visitors who throng to see the choice
collection of china, portraits, embroidery, and furniture that has
been gathered together by the Society.
[Illustration: OLD SOUTH CHURCH, NEWBURYPORT, MASS.
_Photo Furnished by Rev. A. McDonald, Newburyport, Mass._
See page 75]
XV
THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS
WHERE GEORGE WHITEFIELD, THE GREAT EVANGELIST, IS BURIED
More than one hundred years after the organization of the First Church
of Newburyport, Rev. George Whitefield, then a young man of
twenty-six, preached in the community. "The Great Awakening," which
followed, spread all over New England, and more than thirty thousand
were converted. Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, the Tennents, and others
led in the work that had such wonderful results.
Five years after Whitefield's visit to Newburyport the Old South
Church was organized, most of those who became members having been
converted under Whitefield's preaching. The new church was actually a
Presbyterian church from the beginning, though it did not finally
adopt the Presbyterian form of government until 1802.
The members of the new church were called "a misguided band," and "new
schemers." Their first pastor was called a dissenting minister. Their
protest against these aspersions took the form of a petition to "The
King's Most Excellent Majesty," which was a prayer for that "equal
liberty of conscience in worshipping God" that had already been
granted to others. The petition recited the desire of the people to be
relieved of taxation "for the support of ministers on whose ministry
they cannot in conscience attend," and stated that, because of their
refusal to pay what they felt were unjust taxes, "honest and peaceable
men have been hauled away to prison to their great hurt and damage."
When the petition was presented to the king by Mr. Partridge, their
agent, he declared that they were not "a wild, friekish people," and
cited as an argument for relief from double taxation that, while they
had some wealthy members, there were among them "more poor widows than
all the other congregations in town put together." He said those who
protested against double taxation had been "dragged about upon the
ground," dressed up in bear skins and worried, and imprisoned.
The protest did not bring relief at once; it was 1773 before the
General Court granted the plea of the members. For more than twenty
years more the town tried to collect double taxes, but in 1795 the
rights of the members of Old South were conceded.
The first building, erected in 1743, gave way in 1756 to the structure
still in use. Alterations made since that time have not made any great
change in its appearance, except in the tower, which was repaired in
1848, because it was thought that the timber must be decaying.
However, to the surprise of the carpenters who undertook the repairs,
they were found as sound as ever. A half-hour was required to saw
through one of them!
The bell in the new tower was cast by Paul Revere. Surmounting the
spire is a cock which was perched on the original tower. When this
tower, after the carpenters had done all they could with their saws,
was pulled over by horses and oxen, the cock broke loose and fell at
some distance. The man who picked up the figure was surprised to find
that it was of solid copper, instead of wood, as had been thought, and
that it weighed more than fifty pounds.
In the original pews there was a central chair, surrounded by seats
hung on hinges. Over the pulpit was a sounding board. At the head of
the pulpit stair a seat was provided for the sexton, that he might be
on hand to trim the candles during the evening service.
The official history of the church, written by Dr. H. C. Hovey, gives
interesting facts concerning the heating of the old building:
"For seventy years those who crowded this church depended on
footstoves altogether for warmth in winter; while the
minister preached in his ample cloak, and wore gloves with a
finger and thumb cut off to enable him the better to turn the
leaves. A law was made allowing the sexton twenty cents for
each footstove that he had to fill before service and remove
afterward. A great sensation was made in 1819 by the
introduction of wood stoves at an outlay of $100. The first
day they were in place the people were so overcome that some
of them fainted away and were carried out of the house; but
they revived on learning that as yet no fire had been
kindled in the new stoves. The doors of the stoves opened
into the ample vestibule, where the custom continued of
ranging the many footstoves in a wide circle to be filled
with live coals from the stove."
On the Sunday after the battle of Lexington Dr. Jonathan Parsons made
an appeal in the name of liberty. After this Captain Ezra Lunt stepped
into the aisle and formed a company of sixty men, which is said to
have been the first company of volunteers to join the Continental
Army.
Later Newburyport supplied a number of companies. But the call came
for still another company. "Day after day the recruiting officers
toiled in vain," Dr. Hovey writes, "Finally the regiment was invited
to the Presbyterian church, where they were addressed in such spirited
and stirring words that once again a number of this church stepped
forth to take the covenant, and in two hours after the benediction had
been spoken the entire company was raised."
During the war twenty-two vessels and one thousand men, from the towns
of Newbury and Newburyport, were lost at sea. The first American flag
seen in British waters, after the cessation of hostilities, was
displayed in the Thames by Nicholas Johnson of Newburyport, captain of
the _Compte de Grasse_.
Among the treasures of the church is the Bible which Whitefield used.
The evangelist, who died Sunday, September 30, 1770, is buried in the
crypt under the pulpit where he had planned to preach on the very day
of his death, as he had preached many times during the years since the
building of the church. To this dark crypt thousands of reverent
visitors have groped their way. One, less reverent, removed an arm of
the skeleton and carried it to England as a relic. No one knew what
had become of it until, after the death of the thief, it was returned
to Newburyport, together with a bust of Whitefield. This bust is also
one of the treasures of Old South.
Those who love this old church at Newburyport delight in the lines of
John Greenleaf Whittier:
"Under the church of Federal Street,
Under the tread of its Sabbath feet,
Walled about by its basement stones,
Lie the marvellous preacher's bones.
No saintly honors to them are shown,
No sign nor miracle have they known;
But he who passes the ancient church
Stops in the shade of its belfry-porch,
And ponders the wonderful life of him
Who lies at rest in that charnel dim.
Long shall the traveller strain his eye
From the railroad car, as it plunges by,
And the vanishing town behind him search
For the slender spire of the Whitefield Church;
And feel for one moment the ghosts of trade
And fashion and folly and pleasure laid,
By the thought of that life of pure intent,
That voice of warning, yet eloquent,
Of one on the errands of angels sent.
And if where he labored the flood of sin
Like the tide from the harbor-bar sets in.
And over a life of time and sense
The church-spires lift their vain defence,
As if to scatter the bolts of God
With the points of Calvin's thunder-rod,--
Still, as the gem of its civic crown,
Precious beyond the world's renown,
His memory hallows the ancient town!"
XVI
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
THE OLDEST BAPTIST CHURCH IN AMERICA
When Roger Williams, Welshman, left England for America because he
could not find in the Church of England freedom to worship God
according to his conscience, he came to Salem, in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. There he joined others who had sought America for the same
purpose, but to his disappointment he found that his ideas of liberty
of worship did not agree with theirs, and he was once more adrift. On
October 9, 1635, the authorities of the Colony ordered that he "shall
depart out of this jurisdiction." He was later given permission to
remain until spring, on condition that he make no attempt "to draw
others to his opinions."
On the ground that he had broken the implied agreement, the Governor,
on January 11, 1636, sent for him to go to Boston, from whence he was
to be banished to England. Williams sent word that he was ill and
could not come at the time. A force of men was sent to seize him, but
when they reached his house he had departed already, turning his face
toward the southern wilderness. He was "sorely tossed for fourteen
weeks in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did
mean."
On April 30, 1636, he came to the country of the Wampanoags, where the
sachem Massasoit made him a grant of land. Within a short time some
of his friends joined him, and primitive houses were built. Then came
word from the Governor of Massachusetts Bay that he must go beyond the
bounds of the Plymouth Colony. Accordingly, with six others, he
embarked in canoes and sought for a location. When this was found
Canonicus and Mantonomi agreed to let the company have lands, and soon
the new settlement was made and named Providence, in recognition of
God's care of him during his journey. Then others joined him and his
companions.
Two years after the settlement of Providence twelve of the citizens
decided that they must have a church. One of the company, Ezekiel
Hollyman, baptized Roger Williams and Williams baptized Hollyman and
ten others. The twelve then baptized were the original members of the
first church of Providence, Rhode Island, the first Baptist church in
America, and the second in the world. Roger Williams was the first
pastor, but he withdrew before the close of the year in which the
church was organised. During the remaining forty-five years of his
life he remained in Providence as a missionary among the Indians,
whose friendship he had won by his scrupulously careful and honorable
method of dealing with them.
The church met in private houses or under the trees, for more than
sixty years. The first meeting house was not erected until 1700. The
builder was Pardon Tillinghast, the sixth pastor of the church, who,
like his predecessors, served without salary. However, he urged that
the church should begin to pay its way, and that his successor should
receive a stipulated salary. The Tillinghast building was in use for
fifteen years after it was deeded to the congregation, in 1711. The
deed, which is on record at the Providence City Hall, calls the church
a "Six-Principle church."
The growth of the congregation called for a larger building. This was
erected in 1726 and was used until 1774. An old document gives an
interesting side light on the building of the meeting house. This is
an account of Richard Brown, dated May 30, 1726, which reads:
The account of what charge I have been at this day as to the
providing a dinner for the people that raised the Baptist
meeting-house at Providence (it being raised this day,) is as
followeth:
One fat sheep, which weighed forty-three lbs. L0,14,04
For roasting the said sheep, etc. 8
For one lb. butter 1
For two loaves of bread which weighed fifteen lbs. 2
For half a peck of peas 1,03
When the building was planned the Charitable Baptist Society was
incorporated, that it might hold title to "a meeting-house for the
public worship of Almighty God, and to hold Commencement in." Nearly a
third of the L7,000 required for the new building was raised by a
lottery, authorized by the State. The architects modelled the church
after the popular St. Martins-in-the-Fields in London, whose designer
was James Gibbs, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren.
In the two-hundred-foot spire was hung the bell made in London, on
which were inscribed the strange words:
"For freedom of conscience this town was first planted;
Persuasion, not force was used by the people:
This Church is the eldest, and has not recanted,
Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple."
The pastor at the time the new church was first occupied, on May 28,
1775, was president of Rhode Island College, an institution which had
been located in Providence in 1773, in consequence of the generosity
and activity of the members of the church. The institution later
became Brown University. Every one of the presidents of the college
has been a member of the First Church.
A church whose building was dedicated "midway between the battles of
Lexington and Bunker Hill" should have a patriotic history. The story
of Providence during the Revolution shows that the members were keenly
alive to their opportunities. The first suggestion for the Continental
Congress came from Providence. Rhode Island was the first State to
declare for independence. Pastor and people were ardent supporters of
these movements. Many soldiers were furnished to the army by the
congregation.
Naturally, then, people would be interested in a man like Stephen
Gano, who became pastor in 1792. He had been a surgeon in the
Revolutionary Army, and had been taken prisoner, put on board a
prison-ship, and bound in chains, which made scars that lasted for
life. His pastorate of thirty-six years was the longest in the history
of the church.
The stately building erected in 1774 is still in use. The gallery long
set apart for the use of slaves has given way to a square loft, the
old pews have been displaced by modern seats, and the lofty pulpit and
sounding-board have disappeared. Otherwise the church is much as it
was when the first congregation entered its doors in 1775.
TWO: WHERE PATROONS AND KNICKERBOCKERS FLOURISHED
_Where nowadays the Battery lies,
New York had just begun,
A new-born babe, to rub its eyes,
In Sixteen Sixty-One.
They christened it Nieuw Amsterdam,
Those burghers grave and stately,
And so, with schnapps and smoke and psalm,
Lived out their lives sedately._
_Two windmills topped their wooden wall,
On stadthuys gazing down,
On fort, and cabbage-plots, and all
The quaintly gabled town;
These flapped their wings and shifted backs,
As ancient scrolls determine,
To scare the savage Hackensacks,
Paumanks, and other vermin_.
_At night the loyal settlers lay
Betwixt their feather-beds;
In hose and breeches walked by day,
And smoked, and wagged their heads.
No changeful fashions came from France,
The vrouwleins to bewilder;
No broad-brimmed burgher spent for pants
His every other guilder._
_In petticoats of linsey red,
And jackets neatly kept,
The vrouws their knitting-needles sped
And deftly spun and swept.
Few modern-school flirtations there
Set wheels of scandal trundling,
But youths and maidens did their share
Of staid, old-fashioned bundling._
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.
TWO: WHERE PATROONS AND KNICKERBOCKERS FLOURISHED
[Illustration: MORRIS-JUMEL HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY.
_Photo by Frank Cousins Art Company_
See page 87]
XVII
THE MORRIS-JUMEL MANSION, NEW YORK CITY
WHERE WASHINGTON ESCAPED FROM THE BRITISH BY A FIFTEEN MINUTE MARGIN
"A Pleasant situated Farm, on the Road leading to King's
Bridge, in the Township of Harlem, on York-Island, containing
about 100 acres, near 30 acres of which is Wood-land, a fine
piece of Meadow Ground, and more easily be made: and commands
the finest Prospect in the whole Country: the Land runs from
River to River: there is Fishing, Oystering, and Claming at
either end...."
When, in 1765, Roger Morris, whose city house was at the corner of
Whitehall and Stone streets, saw this advertisement in the New York
_Mercury_, he hungered for the country. So he bought the offered land,
and by the summer of 1766 he had completed the sturdy Georgian house
that, after a century and a half, looks down on the city that has
grown to it and beyond it.
In an advertisement published in 1792, in the New York _Daily
Advertiser_, a pleasing description of the mansion of Roger Morris was
given:
"On the premises is a large dwelling-house, built in modern
style and taste and elegance. It has ... a large hall
through the centre; a spacious dining room on the right....
On the left is a handsome parlor and a large back room.... On
the second floor are seven bedchambers ... On the upper floor
are five lodging rooms ... and at the top of the house is
affixed an electric conducter. Underneath the building are a
large, commodious kitchen and laundry and wine cellar,
storeroom, kitchen pantry, sleeping apartments for servants,
and a most complete dairy room...."
For nine years Roger Morris and his family lived in the mansion on the
Heights. As a member of the Legislative Council much of his time was
given to the interests of his fellow-citizens. But as time passed he
found himself out of sympathy with his neighbors. They demanded war
with Great Britain, and he felt that he could not join the revolt.
Accordingly, in 1775, he sailed for England, leaving his large
property in the care of Mrs. Morris.
Mrs. Morris kept the house open for a time, but finally, taking her
children with her, she went to her sister-in-law at the Philipse Manor
House at Yonkers.
On September 14, 1776, General Washington decided to abandon the city
to the British. He planned to go to Harlem, to the fortification
prepared in anticipation of just such an emergency. On September 15 he
took possession of the Roger Morris house as headquarters. Two days
later his Orderly Book shows the following message, referring to the
battle of Harlem Heights:
"The General most heartily thanks the troops commanded
yesterday by Major Leitch, who first advanced upon the enemy,
and the others who so resolutely supported them. The behavior
of yesterday was such a contrast to that of some troops the
day before [at Kip's Bay] as must show what may be done when
Officers and Soldiers exert themselves."
During the weeks when the mansion remained Washington's headquarters
the curious early flag of the colonists waved above it. In the space
now given to the stars was the British Union Jack, while the thirteen
red and white stripes that were to become so familiar completed the
design. This flag the English called "the Rebellious Stripes."
On November 16, 1776, Washington was at Fort Lee, on the New Jersey
shore, opposite the present 160th Street. Desiring to view from the
Heights the British operations in their attack on Fort Washington, he
crossed over to the Morris house. Fifteen minutes after he left the
Heights to return to New Jersey, fourteen thousand British and Hessian
troops took possession of the Heights, the Morris Mansion, and Fort
Washington.
The period of British occupation continued, at intervals, until near
the close of the war. Since the owner was a Loyalist, the British
Government paid rent for it.
After the Revolution the property was confiscated, as appears from an
entry in Washington's diary, dated July 10, 1790:
"Having formed a Party consisting of the Vice-President, his
lady, Son & Miss Smith; the Secretaries of State, Treasury, &
War, and the ladies of the two latter; with all the Gentlemen
of my family, Mrs. Lear & the two Children, we visited the
old position of Fort Washington, and afterwards dined on a
dinner provided by a Mr. Mariner at the House lately Colo.
Roger Morris, but confiscated and in the occupation of a
common Farmer."