The political aspects of this closer organization of the representatives of the English Church did not escape the watchful notice of the Puritan leaders of Massachusetts feeling; but the ominous distrust with which they regarded it was hardly justified by any public utterance of the Convention. It has been. reserved for this generation to bring to light its confidential communication to the authorities in England. The Clergy in Convention to the Secretary. ... BOSTON IN NEW ENGLAND, Sept 22nd 1768. The general state of the Churches in this part of America are indeed in as good a condition as can reasonably be expected under the present troublesome state of the Colonies. All that we are able to do in these times is only to cultivate among the people committed to our care a spirit of peace & patience under the various insults to which they are exposed for refusing to join in the popular clamours that now prevail. We are neither allowed to speak nor scarcely to be silent unless we join with those whom we believe to be laboring the destruction of our constitution, civil & religious. The civil government is too weak to afford us protection; & ecclesiastical superior we have none on this side the Atlantic, from whom we may receive timely advice or direction under our present trials. We can only look up to God & cast ourselves upon the divine Providence for protection & for a happy issue to our distress.1 The only communications of the Convention with which the public had to do, were the Sermons with which it was opened each year. These were preached in King's Chapel in successive years as follows: Sept. 220. 1768. Yesterday, (21st) a Convention of the Episcopal Clergy was held in this town, when the Rev. Arthur Browne, of Portsmouth, N. H., preached the Sermon on the occasion at King's Chapel.2 Sept. 21st, 1769. Yesterday (20th) was held in this Town the Annual Convention of the Episcopal Clergy of this and the neighbouring A Sermon was preached at King's Chapel, by the Rev. Mr. Thompson of Scituate. Sept. 19th. 1770. Wednesday a Convention of the Episcopal Clergy was held in this Town, when a Sermon was preached in King's Chapel on the Occasion by the Rev. Mr. Troutbeck, King's Chaplain, from the text "What is Truth?" 4 Sept. 18th, 1771. On Wednesday the 18th inst., a Convention of the Episcopal Clergy was held in this Town, when a Sermon was preached at King's Chapel, on the occasion, by the Rev. Mr. Bass, of Newbury. 5 Sept. 14th 1772. Wednesday being the Annual Convention of the 1 Church Docs. Mass., p. 541. 2 Boston Post Boy, Sept. 26, 1768. 8 Mass. Gazette, Sept. 21, 1769. 4 Boston Post Boy, Sept. 24, 1770. 5 Ibid., Sept. 30, 1771. Episcopal Clergy of this and the neighbouring Provinces, a Sermon was preached on the occasion by the Rev. D! Byles, Rector of Christ Church in this town, from these words in Psalm cxxii. 3: "Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compact together." 1 Sept. 6, 1773. Sermon by the Rev. Edward Winslow of Braintree, from Gal. iv. 8, "But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing." Sept. 14th 1774 The Convention Sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Serjeant of Cambridge, from these words, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John xiii: 17). General Gage was present, and dined with the Clergy at D. Caner's house. Convention sat again, and unanimously made choice of the Rev. M Fayerweather to be their preacher on the second Wednesday of the next Sept. 1775 the Rev. Mr. Bailey to read the prayers on that annual and much to be esteemed occasion.2 The peaceable voice of " that much to be esteemed occasion," however, was silenced by the siege which closely beleagured Boston before the anniversary returned; and though several of the clergy were imprisoned within the sheltering town, there is no record of their holding any special meeting. The Rev. Samuel Fayerweather, who wrote the foregoing record, has preserved for us a few glimpses into King's Chapel in its common Sunday worship. He preached there Dec. 2, 1761, "His Excellency Gov. Bernard present; "3 and again, June 4, 1766. Mr. Fayerweather attended the Convention of the Episcopal Clergy at Boston, and the Rev. Dr. Caner preached in King's Chapel from these words, - Follow Me. Sunday after, I preached for the Doctor and baptized a child, which was registered in their church books; and again June 28, 1772, "for the Rev. Dr. Caner." 1 Boston Post Boy, Sept. 14, 1772. Mather Byles, Rector of Christ Church, was a son of the more noted wit, humorist, and Tory, Mather Byles, minister of Hollis Street Church. 2 Updike, 356, quoted from Rev. Mr. Fayerweather's parish records. The Rev. Samuel Fayerweather, here mentioned, son of Thomas, of Boston, H. C. 1740, became minister of the Second Congregational Church in Newport, R. I., in 1754, being predecessor of Rev. Dr. Stiles. He was ordained presbyter in the Church of England and received the degree of M. A. at Oxford in 1756. Before succeeding the Rev. Dr. McSparran at Narragansett, he had been missionary of the Venerable Society at Wineyard, S. C. "At the end of 1774, his refusal to omit the prayers prohibited by Congress led to the closing of his Church. . . . He continued also to officiate occasionally in the private houses of his friends, until his death, in 1781; and the records of the Society show that the payment of his stipend was still continued." He was a humorist, who brought into the pulpit methods usually considered more modern than his time. On one occasion, reprimanding his parishioners for not attending church, he said: "You have a thousand frivolous excuses,” naming several, "but there is none more common with you than the plea of foul weather; but come here and you will always find Fayerweather."- Updike, p. 270. An derson, Col. Church, iii. 458. 8 Updike, p. 290. August 22. Paise Cazneau As a memorial of some old Boston families, we here copy from a partial list of burials from King's Chapel during the period under review: 1759. Feb. 12. 1760. Jan. 17. Estes Hatch Esq' BRIGADIER GENERAL . June 3. June 5. 1761. September 28. John Cutler Physician November 11. Alice Quick. Widow & Shopkeeper . December 16. Edward Whitmore Esq: MAJOR GENERALL & Governor of Louisburg 1762. May 12. Thomas White. Tallow Chandler July 7. Ann Deblois Wife of Stephen Deblois 1763. February 22. Thomas Pearson Baker. Oct. 26. Mary Widow of Co" Estes Hatch 1765. June 3. Thomas Lechmere Late Survey' Gen" of the Customs November 30. Co" Francis Brinley 1766. April 11. James Freeman. Sea Captain August 13. Sarah Forbes Wife of Cap' James Forbes Sept 12. Samuel Wentworth Esq' Merchant. 1767. March 26. August 21. 1768. January 14. 53 51 October 8. 1769. August 7. Powers Marriot Powers Marriot Shopkeeper James Smith Sugar Boiler August 8. James Forbes Shopkeeper 1770. February 17. William Rulleau, formerly. Sexton May 24. James Gordon August 15. Nathaniel Rogers Merchant 1771. April 1st May 22. July 31. Thomas Bunch one of his Majests Counc1. 1772. January 13. John Gould Merchant 1773. March 9. John Burchell, Midshipman of the Fowey 40 34 72 Clerk of the Revenue 31 Thomas Cockrain Leather Breeches Maker 45 We shall not attempt to tell the story of the great events of which Boston was the scene and centre, in those momentous years from the time when it heard its last king proclaimed by trumpet from the Old Town House balcony, and rejoiced over in King's Chapel, to the day when these walls echoed to the retreating drums of the British troops and saw the Continental army enter the town in triumph. Three representatives of royal authority in this stormy time attended worship in this Church, and sat in the Governor's pew, -Sir Francis Bernard, General Gage, and Sir William Howe. Governor Hutchinson was a member of the Brick Church at the North End, but he was friendly to this church; and it is recorded in our records, Dec. 1, 1772, that he received its thanks "for procuring the King's Donation for a Service of plate and pulpit Furniture for the King's Chapel." The last service in this Chapel before the Revolution, of which any special record is preserved, took place on the 18th of September, 1774. General Gage, who came in May of that year, as Captain General and Governor of Massachusetts, had been a good church-goer, and doubtless his successor was the same. Gage heard here one sermon the text of which at least, wellpondered, would have saved seven years of war and hundreds of thousands of lives; for, on the date above given, Rev. Mr. Fayerweather, of Narragansett, records in his diary that he preached in King's Chapel, Boston, "before General Gage & his officers & a very numerous & polite assembly, from the text Be kindly affectioned one toward another in brotherly love."" The commentary was written at Lexington and Bunker Hill. |