jecture whether the humble Elder knew that he was of the same blood with that Margary Wentworth who married Sir John Seymour, and was mother of that Jane Seymour, wife of King Henry VIII., whose son reigned as King Edward VI. The old Dover blood was mixed. Thus, Francis Champernown, who lived on Great Bay, had in his veins the blood of the Plantagenets. All this availed little where a sturdy yeoman's muscles were more than high blood in subduing the forests. Elder Wntworth lived simply, uprightly, manfully. He himself became ancestor of three Governors of his name, who governed New Hampshire from 1717 to 1776; of the John who was President of our rebellious Legislature of 1775; of the John who signed the old Articles of Confederation in the Continental Congress; of the John, now of Chicago, long in Congress; of Tappan, another Congressman. Even our present Senator, Edward H. Rollins, is a descendant of the Elder. That blood has given Colonels and Generals innumerable; and, in literary lines, Mrs. Gore, the English novelist, and Mrs. Sigourney, the American poet, loved to trace their descent from the Elder of the Dover First Church. THE YEAR 1638. When that still visible fortification was building, the First Church was in the twenty-ninth year of its age. We go back, then, to that date, December, 1638. In that month Hanserd Knollys organized the Church which has now had an uninterrupted life of two hundred and thirty nine years. The church undoubtedly, in point of age, ranks second in New Hampshire. The church in Hampton precedes it by several months. Occasional attempts have been made to give the Exeter church also a priority, but without success. For, first, the original Exeter church was made up of members whom the records of the First Boston Church show were dismissed for that purpose only in January, 1639, or a month later than the actual organization of the Dover church. Secondly, that first Exeter church became extinct in 1642, when Wheelwright and his friends, who con stituted that church, felt obliged to quit Exeter and take refuge in Maine, on account of the extension of Massachusetts authority over this territory. In 1644, some Exeter people attempted to organize a new church, but Massachusetts forbade it. There was thereafter no church in Exeter until its present First Church was organized, namely, Sept. 21, 1698; whose records commence thus: The order of proceeding in gathering a particular Church in Exeter." Yet the Congregational annual reports give to the present First Church in Exeter the date 1639, a date belonging to an organization dead and gone fifty-six years before this present one was gathered. History is frequently written in this way. The ecclesiastical history of the First Parish, the successor of the town, dates still further back. Its first meeting house was erected in 1633, and it had " an able and worthy Puritan minister," William Leverich, the first minister of New Hampshire. That appears to have been the first church edifice built in this State. George Burdett was the next succeeding minister in Dover. Then came Hanserd Knollys, founder of the Church. Knollys was a Cambridge man in education; had been a minister of the Church of England, but resigned his living from Puritan convictions; was harassed by imprisonment and persecution, and left England; was forbidden by the Massachusetts government to remain in that Colony because thought to be Antinonian; and at the age of forty found refuge on the free Piscataqua. Here he found a settlement originated under Episcopal auspices,-Edward Hilton always a Churchman,-although enlarged under other influences; a people mixed in character, but none of them emigrants for conscience' sake, and even the Puritan portion not of the severe Bay type; the colony a northern refuge of liberty for men who could not endure the Massachusetts arbitrary rule, as Rhode Island was the southern refuge; no church organized after fifteen years of colonial life; and a minister, George Burdett, who, a Churchman, was in correspondence with Archbishop Laud, and who had succeeded in getting himself made "Governor," by the voice of the people. But Knollys succeeded in organizing a church" of some of the best minded," which, written by a Puritan, meant Puritan. Burdett, whose letters to Laud, still existing in the Public Record office in London, told altogether too much truth as to Massachusetts policy to suit Massachusetts, became guilty of misdemeanors, or at least a Massachusetts historian said so, and went to Agamenticus, where he became Governor again. For two years, Knollys remained in peace, with Capt. John Underhill, an old soldier of Count Maurice in the Low Countries, and at this period Governor of Dover, as his main coadjutor. But in 1640, came hither Rev. Thomas Larkham, also a graduate of Cambridge. The Puritan historian has thrown obloquy on his name, but a careful student of New Hampshire history soon learns to distrust such accounts, when Massachusetts policy was concerned. Larkham was, in spirit, still in sympathy with the English church. It was an age of religious confusions, and of yet unsettled conditions. The people of Dover cast aside Knollys, and received Larkham. This is easily understood, by remembering that the prelatical party was in existence. Then came dissensions. "The more religious," Winthrop says, adhered to Knollys; which in his mind meant the Puritan element. Larkham received to the church "the notoriously scandalous and ignorant, so they would promise amendment;" which meant, in Puritan minds, the practice of the Church of England. "These two fell out," says Lechford," about baptizing children, receiving of members, and burial of the dead," which means that the Puritan buried the dead without scripture, prayer, psalm or word; while the prelatist buried with the forms of the English church. Two parties finally appeared in arms. The magistrates supported Larkham; got help from the Episcopal settlements at Portsmouth and across in Maine, and gave Larkham the supremacy. Then Massachusetts sent men ostensibly to mediate, but really to pave the way for annexation. The existence of a free colony on the northern border was irksome. Tired of strugglings, the people, after considerable delay, and exacting terms which guarded their liberties, finally consented to come under Massachusetts authority. Both Knollys and Larkham left, the one in 1641, the other in 1642, and Daniel Maud, in that year, was sent to Dover as minister of the First Church, where he peaceably remained until his death in 1655. And thenceforward this church had a peaceful life, even to this day. We give this more particular account of the real cause of the dissensions here in 1638-42,-the existence of the irreconcilable Puritan and prelatic elements,— because Belknap fails to do so, and because, until some cotemporary hints suggested, no such solution, we believe, ever appeared. Knollys and Larkham alike returned to England. Each became eminent in religion and good lives. Knollys became a Baptist, Larkham an Independent. Each suffered greatly from the established church, and each died in great esteem. It is also remarkable that engraved portraits of each are still in existence, a copy of that of Knollys being in Dover. It is somewhere stated that Knollys was of the ancient family of that name, and was allowed to visit King Charles I. in his imprisonment. The line of ministers of the First Parish is as follows: 1. William Leverich, 1633-35. His descendants are numerous on Long Island, where he died. 2. George Burdett, 1637-'8. 6. John Reyner, 1655-'69, dying in office. 7. John Reyner, Jr., 1669-'71, son of the last preceding, dying in office. 8. John Pike, 1678-1710, dying in office. 9. Nicholas Sever, 1711-'15. Afterwards a Judge in Massachusetts. 10. Jonathan Cushing, 1717-1769, dying in office, and the last minister of this church dying in its pastorate. 11. Jeremy Belknap, D.D., 1767-1786, the faithful historian of New Hampshire. 12. Robert Gray, 1787-1805. 13. Caleb Hamliton Shearman, 1807-'12. 14. Joseph Ward Clary, 1812-28, 15. Hubbard Winslow, D.D., LL.D., 1828-31. 16. David Root, 1833-'39. 17. Jeremiah Smith Young, 1839-'43. 18. Homer Barrows, 1845-'52. 19. Benjamin Franklin Parsons, 18531856. George Burley Spalding was the seventh of nine children. He graduated at 20. Elias Huntington Richardson, D.D., the University of Vermont in 1856, being 1856-63. 21. Avery Skinner Walker, 1864-'68. 22. George Burley Spalding, 1869-. THE YEAR 1877. GEORGE BURLEY SPALDING, the present pastor of the First Church, was born in Montpelier, Vt., August 11, 1835, son of Dr. James and Eliza (Reed) Spalding. Dr. James Spalding was son of Deacon Reuben Spalding, one of the early settlers of Vermont, whose life was not more remarkable for his toils, privations and energy as a pioneer in a new country, than for his unbending Christian in twenty-one years of age. He read law one year in Vermont, and then went to Tallahassee, Florida, where he read law another year. While in the South, he was a regular correspondent of the New York Courier and Enquirer, of which his brother, James Reed Spalding, was one of the editors. As such he attended the noted Southern Commercial Convention in Savannah, in 1858, where Yancey, Rhett, Barnwell and De Bow poured out their hot inyective. In the following year he mingled with the great Southern leaders, on the eye of the great events ecessor, Dr. Jeremy Belknap. which were soon to burst upon the country. Doubtless in his law study and in his intercourse with men in different phases of society, he acquired that practical acquaintance with human nature which made available his instinctive and common-sense power of meeting all classes of men. Circumstances led him to change his purpose. He returned north, abandoned the law, and began the study of Theology in the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Here he remained two years. Here, also, he did regular editorial work on the New York World, of which his brother was founder, and subsequently wrote for the columns of the New York Times. This experience enabled him, later, to write for five years, a large portion of the editorial leaders of the Watchman and Reflector. Leaving New York, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, where, after one year's study, he graduated in 1861. On the 5th of October of that year he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Vergennes, Vt., a position which he resigned August 1, 1864, to accept a call to the Park Church, Hartford, Conn., formerly Dr. Bushnell's, where he was installed September 28. He resigned that charge, and was dismissed March 23, 1869, and was installed pastor of the First Church in Dover, September 1st, following. Mr. Spalding's literary work has been extensive, but mainly upon current newspaper periodicals. This has given him, of course,a valuable directness and clearness of expression. Five sermons have been published: A sermon on the death of Gen. Samuel Strong, of Vergennes, Vt. A sermon on God's Presence and Purpose in War. A Discourse on the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Dover. A Memorial of John P. Hale,a fine specimen of judicious analysis, in which he does justice to the pioneer of the anti-slavery cause in the U. S. Senate-a justice now latelyjapparently purposely ignored out of a desire to magnify a brilliant but later laborer. A Centennial on the Dover Pulpit in the Revolution, for which he searched and well used the manuscript of his eminent pred Without disparagement to others, it is safe to say that public opinion accords to Mr. Spalding a foremost place among the ministers of New Hampshire. Certainly no pastor of the ancient First Church ever had a greater public respect or a deeper personal affection. Under his ministry large numbers have been added to the church, and his administration of a strong and thinking society goes on without even a ripple. He has been frequently called to attend distant councils, some of great and even national interest, and some where delicate questions required the wisest consideration; and in all cases his calm and deliberate judgment has had an influence inferior to none. In his preaching, one has to study him to get the secret of his influence. There is nothing in it to startle. There is no dramatic exhibition. It is the farthest possible from the sensational. There are never any protruding logical bones. He never indulges in any prettinesses of diction. But a critical analysis (the last thing one thinks of in listening to him) finds some elements. His themes are always elevated themes. One sees the most earnest convictions, held in perfect independence and honesty; a natural development of thought in an always fresh and orderly way; a diction as clear as a pellucid brook; illustrations drawn from wide observation, always simple and frequently beautiful; a genial, sometimes intense, glow pervading his whole discourse; and a dignified but simple manliness throughout. Fully six feet in height, and with liberally developed physique, he impresses one at first mainly with the idea of manly strength. Those who hear him, and especially those who know him, find an equal development of a generous nature which inclines always to sympathy, and with which he answers, in public and private, to every appeal to his helpful power. In doctrine he is understood to hold the main tenets of what is called old theology, but as forces rather than dogmas, and liberally instead of severely applied. Mr. Spalding was a member of the recent Constitutional Convention of New Hampshire. He is also a Trustee of the State Normal School, by appointment of the Governor and Council; and is Chairman of the Dover Board of Education. Ecclesiastically, he is one of the managers of the New Hampshire Missionary Society. ANCIENT INSTITUTIONS IN CONCORD. BY ASA MC FARLAND. 1. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT. Between the years 1790 and 1810 several weekly journals were born and died in Concord. They severally partook of the scrap-book character of the papers of that early period, and exercised very little influence upon public opinion, because important topics were seldom discussed in their pages. Poetry, anecdotes, charades, riddles, with a meagre record of domestic and foreign occurrences, marriages and deaths in the village, with a few advertisements, occupied the sheet. Indeed, the public journals of Boston, during the period here mentioned, partook somewhat of the character of those in country villages. Reference to ancient files of papers, printed in the New England metropolis during the period now under consideration, will fully sustain the assertion that the press of that day had not become a great power in the State. The NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT was established by the late Isaac Hill, Esq., and the year 1809 is the date of a new departure in journalism, so far as this State is concerned. Mr. Hill was a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and served an apprenticeship at the printing business with Joseph Cushing, proprietor and publisher of the "Farmer's Cabinet," a paper then and still living in Amherst, this State. The Patriot had been in existence a few months before it came into the possession of Mr. Hill, but its infancy was of sickly nature, and it would have gone the way of many predecessors in Concord but for a change of ownership. Mr. Hill was a gentleman of untiring industry and decided convictions; wrote with facility and vigor, and the pa per soon commenced to exercise an influence upon public opinion, not only in Concord and vicinity, but through a wider range, until it became a controling power in the State. There had been a season of much political warmth ten years before the Patriot became a vital force in New Hampshireimmediately before and during that canvass which terminated in the election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency, and the birth of the journal here spoken of was, as seen by the date above given, in a period of no inconsiderable amount of fervor, as events were tending toward a war with England. Mr. Hill entered with zeal into the discussion of public affairs, and his paper was virtually without a competitor in the central, western, southern and northern portions of the State. Like all public journals, even such as number only two or three decades-and the Patriot lacks but about two years of three-score and ten-it has been owned and conducted by several publishers. Its present proprietor is Edwin C. Bailey, Esq. 2. THE NEW HAMPSHIRE STATESMAN. This public journal was commenced in the year 1823, the first number appearing on the 6th day of January, and therefore may be regarded as one of the ancient institutions of Concord. In the early years of the present century, when the present Main Street-a mile and a half long-contained the chief residences, stores and other business buildings, there grew up a degree of jealousy between the North and South End, which exercised a disturbing influence for many years, and entered even into the social relations of the inhabitants. Little feuds |