CHAPTER XXII.

SUPPORT OF PREACHING-FORMATION OF RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

1769-1800.

In former chapters we have related the proceedings at the formation of the Congregational and Episcopal churches, and have incidentally followed the history of the former to the time of the dismissal of its first pastor-the Reverend Samuel Hopkins-in 1769, and of the latter to the decease of its first permanent missionary and rector-the Reverend Gideon Bostwick -in 1793.

From 1769 to 1787, no settled minister officiated in the Congregational meeting-house, and in this period of eighteen years, its pulpit was for a great part of the time unsupplied. In 1787 the Reverend Isaac Foster was ordained over the Congregational church, but after a pastorate of only three years was dismissed in 1790, apparently for the reason that the town was unwilling to afford him an adequate support. For "Orthodox" ministers were then still, by law, supported by towns. From the dismissal of Mr. Foster to the ordination of Rev. Elijah Wheeler in 1806, another period of sixteen years elapsed, in which the Congregationalists were without a settled minister. It is not our intention, in this place, to present a detailed history of the churches, but to relate so much of the proceedings of the inhabitants, in their town meetings, pertaining to the support of Gospel ordinances, as will illustrate the spirit which moved the people, and will afford some

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insight to their moral and religious condition. acrimony of feeling, which, it will be remembered, existed before the Revolution, is visible in all the action of the town, and did not fully subside until within the present century.

In 1769, November 3d, the town voted "to hire a learned and orthodox minister to preach in the Presbyterian meeting-house in said town for the space of three months," raised £20 for that purpose, appointed Jonathan Nash, David Ingersoll, Junior, Esq., Israel Dewey, Truman Wheeler, and Elijah Dwight, Esq., a committee "to agree with and hire a minister." But the vote for even this small sum seems to have caused a commotion, and the Episcopalians, apparently—and rightfully, too-objected to the payment of taxes for the support of dissenting preaching. Two months later-January, 1770-an effort was made in town meeting, and the vote carried, for raising £30, in addition to the £20 already raised, for the support of preaching in the "Presbyterian meeting-house.' Although this vote was coupled with the proviso that the professors of the Church of England should be permitted to draw from the town treasury such part of the £50 raised as they should be assessed, nevertheless it was immediately reconsidered. The sum of £20 was then voted, and the vote reconsidered. Then £12 was voted. and finally the meeting with all its proceedings was "dissolved."

On the 21st of February following, another attempt was made to raise money for preaching; but this effort failed, and at the same time a vote was passed allowing to the professors of the Church of England the sums which they paid towards the £20 raised on the 3d of the last of November. These proceedings, unimportant as they may appear, are in evidence of the ill-feeling which existed between the two religious denominations. of the town, which we have before commented upon. The town meetings of that time were stormy ones, and the subjects discussed were productive of greater excitement than we are accustomed to witness in the larger and more decorous assemblages of the present day. In 1770, October 31, the town voted to raise

£40, to hire "a good, learned, and orthodox minister;" a committee was appointed for the purpose, and the professors of the Church of England were permitted to draw from the treasury, for the support of their own minister, the sum which they paid towards the amount raised. November 14, 1771, the town refused to raise money for preaching in the "Presbyterian meetinghouse." From 1771 to 1777-the time of the hiatus in the town records-we have no record of money raised for preaching, though we know, from another source, that £30 was voted for this purpose in 1774.

It is pleasant to know, what we learn from the memorandums of Lieutenant Gamaliel Whiting—the old weather-book-that the celebrated Rev. George Whitefield, on the occasion of his last visit to this country, and but a short time previous to his decease, preached here for several successive days. Mr. Whiting's memorandum is as follows: "1770, July 12, Mr. Whitefield preached at Great Barrington from 2d." From this place Mr. Whitefield went to Canaan, Norfolk, and Sharon, and Mr. Whiting records "Sunday July 15, went to Canaan and heard Mr. Whitefield."

During these years the pulpit in the meeting-house was very irregularly supplied, and this, for the most part by ministers of neighboring churches or by such others as could be occasionally engaged for a few Sabbaths.

In June, 1771, Mr. Hopkins-then settled at Newport-visited his old parishioners, occupied the pulpit for two Sabbaths, and on one evening preached at the jail.

In 1772-3, Mr. John Hubbard preached here a few times, and, as Lieutenant Whiting's memorandums inform us, at a town meeting December 17th, 1772, “it was agreed to call Mr. Hubbard."

In 1773, the Rev. Daniel Grosvenor officiated for eight Sabbaths. The church voted to give him a call to settle here. But the inducement to settle in a town which did not willingly pay its ministers was perhaps uninviting. For his services at this time, Mr. Grosvenor did not obtain payment until eleven years afterwards. In 1779, the town voted to pay him the sum due, stated at £8, "but agreed to pay him £64, on account of the depreciation"-that is of the Continental

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money. But this seems not to have been paid; and in 1784, it was, again, voted to pay him £9 12s, for preaching in 1773, and to allow interest after one year.

In 1777, a committee was chosen to invite and provide a minister to preach in the meeting-house, but no money for the purpose was raised. The next year the town having voted to raise money for preaching, immediately reconsidered the vote.

April 1, 1782, the town "voted to raise £60 for preaching" and appointed Deacon Daniel Nash, Deacon Israel Root, and Josiah Phelps a committee to hire a minister. This committee apparently employed the Rev. (Caleb?) Alexander and a vote was passed the next year authorizing them to draw money from the treasury to pay him "for the time he has preached," and directing them "not to employ the Rev. Mr. Alexander any longer." This last clause was apparently distasteful to the good Deacon Nash, who peremptorily declined serving.

The sum of £75 was raised in 1783, to repair "the old meeting-house and the Church meeting.house," and also £60 for the support of preaching in both religious denominations.

Twice, in 1784, the town refused to raise money for preaching, but in June 1785, voted to raise £80 "to pay for preaching in the Church and in the Congregational meeting-house," and later in the same year raised the further sum of £80 for the repair of both the Church and Meeting-house.

In 1787, April 24th, the town having previously extended a call to the Rev. Isaac Foster to settle here in the ministry, offering him a salary of £115 ($383.33) which call had been accepted, the inhabitants voted "to proceed to settle Mr. Isaac Foster in the work of the Gospel ministry agreeable to their former vote." Mr. Foster was accordingly ordained on the 4th of May following. In voting the salary of Mr. Foster, it was specified that he should have £115 over and above what was voted for the Episcopal minister. This indicates an understanding, that in voting a given sum for preaching each denomination should have a certain proportion of the money raised, an arrangement just and equitable to both parties. The town, soon after,

raised £200 to pay both Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Foster for preaching, the latter to have the sum of £115, and at the same time assigned to him the second pew east of the pulpit, in the old meeting-house-the pew the same which, forty-one years before, had been set apart by the parish to the use of Mr. Hopkins and his successors forever.

The next year--1788-the same amount, £200, was raised for the support of both ministers. But in April, 1789, an article in the warrant, for raising money for the support of both the Congregational and Episcopal ministers, was "passed over;" and although, in the last month of the year, the town, already in arrears with Mr. Foster, voted to raise £365, for the support of both ministers, still, a week later, it annulled this action by instructing its assessors not to lay a tax for the sum voted.

Mr. Foster-after a ministry of exactly three years -was dismissed May 4th, 1790, for the reason that the people failed to support him, and as his predecessor had done, twenty-one years before, sued the town for arrearages of his salary.

The necessity for the support of an orthodox minister by the town, was soon after obviated by the division of its inhabitants into legally constituted religious societies, and thereby the one great cause of contention which for thirty years had marred the town meeting proceedings, was removed. This was effected-on the petition of the town--by an act of the legislature, passed June 18th, 1791, by which Thomas Ingersoll, Elijah Eggleston and sixty others with their families, polls, and estates were incorporated into a Parish by the name of the Protestant Episcopal Society of Great Barrington," while by the same act it was provided "that all and singular, the other persons with their estates, within the said town of Great Barrington, shall continue and remain a religious society by the name of the Protestant Congregational Society of Great Barrington;" "to which shall belong the estates of the nonresident proprietors in said town."

From the dismissal of Mr Foster, as we have before remarked, for the space of sixteen years, no settled