History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

118 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
tor of Maldeiij was Rev. Thomas Cheever, who be-
gan to preach in 1680. He was a sou of Ezekiel
Cheever, the celebrated New England schoolmas-
ter, who had been urged years before to come to
Maiden as its first pastor. He had recently been
graduated at Harvard College, like Mr. Wiggles-
worth, at the head of his class, and, after preaching
about a year and a half, was ordained, July 27,
1681. In 1686 a charge was brought against
liim concerning certain scandalous words, the char-
acter of which is not now known, but which are
supposed to have been of a theological nature.
So much strife ensued that, at the desire of the
church, a council assembled which, at its final
meeting, advised the church to grant Mr. Cheever
"a loving dismission," it seeming probable that
his continuance would not " tend to y' peace of
that place, or to y° edification of y° church, nor
to his own comfort." Mr. Cheever retired to a
pleasant farm, overlooking the sea at Eumney
Marsh, which was in the possession of his de-
scendants many years. Here he often preached
to the sparse population gathered around him
and in 1715 he was settled as the first pastor of
the church at Eumney Marsh, afterwards Chelsea.
Here he remained during a long pastorate of over
thirty-four years, and died beloved and honored,
after having served his Master to the last, at the
mellow age of ninety-one years. Of the long line
of ministers, descendants of him alone remain in
Maiden.
Much division and many troubles appear to have
occurred after this time. Perhaps some embers
of the fire kindled in the time of Mr. Matthews
still remained ; and there are indications that Mr.
Wigglesworth was considered as one having no
claim upon the town and churcii. Although a
salary was regularly voted to Mr. Cheever, and a
provision made for his wife in the event of his
death, yet no action is recorded for many years
in behalf of the teacher ; and it was not until 1694
that a salary was voted to him, and that he was
given the use of the parsonage. The other clergy-
men had resided in the " ministry-house" ;
and Mr.
Wigglesworth in the mean time lived in his own
house, which stood in an easterly direction from
the parsonage, and the location of which could a
few years ago be readily found. It was burned in
1730, while Mr. Emerson was preaching the last
sermon delivered in the old meeting-house, having
been fired by a negro who was hung at Cambridge
in consequence of the act.
;
The parsonage, standing upon four acres set
apart for that purpose in 1651, had been occupied
by Mr. Wigglesworth in the early years of his
ministry. After his death his widow continued to
reside here a short time ; and it was occupied by
the succeeding pastors, David Parsons and Joseph
Emerson. During the occupancy of the latter it
was burned, with a large part of his substance. A
new house was built, eight or ten rods north of
the old site, which was inhabited by the successive
ministers of the First Parish until the close of the
pastorate of Rev. Sylvanus Cobb in 1837. In this
house the celebrated and noble Burman missionary,
Adoniram Judson, was born in 1788. It is now
HI the possession of George W. Wilson, who care-
fully cherishes it as an heirloom of the past to the
present age.
Mr. Wigglesworth preached at his first coming
in the building in which Mr. Matthews had uttered
his " inconvenient " words, and in which the churcli
was probably originally gathered. It stood on the
southerly slope of Bailey's Hill, perhaps a little to
the westward of Bell Rock, and near the site upon
which Job Lane contracted in 1658 to build the
second meeting-house. This "Artificial meeting
House," which had not been completed in June,
1660, was thirty-three feet square, and cost about
one hundred and fifty pounds. The contract specified
a turret in which the bell, which then hung
in a frame on Bell Rock, was to be placed ; but
it probably was not built for thirty years, as a vote
was passed in 1693 to hang the bell "one the top
of y meting-house." In the course of forty years
the congregation became straitened in the house
which they had built, and an addition of fourteen
feet was made upon the south side of the building.
The "Charlestown neighbors " contributed thirty
pounds towards the cost of the addition, and re-
ceived in return "free liberty to com jnto y* s"
metinghous to heare y" word of god." Colonel
Nicholas Paige, who, with others of Winnisimmet
and Rumney Marsh, appears to have attended
divine service in Maiden, gave six pounds to the
same object.
In 1662 Joseph Hills and other inhabitants,
complaining that "the Bounds of our Town are
Exceeding strcight," petitioned for a tract of land
" About fowre Miles Square at A place Called
Peliycooke," on the Merrimack River. This peti-
tion was not granted, as the General Court had
other views in relation to Penacook, and had re-
served it as a township for actual settlers ; and a