History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

•
226 HISTORY OF MIBBLEHEX COUNTY.
Joseph Adams, Sr., who was dismissed from the
church ill Brookline. The members solemnly de-
clared their assent to the leading doctrines of the
General Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and passed
the following vote —
:
" Voted, iu order to entitle any person to either of tiie
ordinanees of tlie Cliristian Scriptures, namely, baptism
and the Lord's Supper, he shall make a public confession
of religion, and dedication of himself to God ; and that
every person so doing shall be entitled to both ordinances,
and may come to them without making any other profes-
sion of liis faith and belief."
Mr. Wilham Greenough, valedictorian of his
class at Yale College, was ordained pastor November
8, 1781, having been elected by unanimous
vote. Dr. John Lothrop, of the Second Church in
Boston, preached the sermon; Mr. Gushing, of
Waltham, gave the charge ; and Mr. Jackson, of
Brookline, the right hand of fellowsliip. One who
was present recorded the remark :
" A small house
and a handful of people." An early vote of the
church was that a portion of the Scriptures should
be read in public on each Lord's Day. The Second
Church in Boston gave to tiie new body a pulpit
Bible; Thomas Greenough of Boston, the father
of the young pastor, a baptismal font, two flagons
and two dishes for the communion service ; and the
First Church added, in token of brotherly afl'ection,
four pewter tankards and one pewter dish. Joseph
Ward and Joseph Jackson were elected the first
deacons. The first meeting-house, commenced in
June, 1764, was enlarged in 1812, altered and
improved in 1831, and again in 18-158. AVorsliip
was held in that edifice for the last time March 26,
1848. The present meeting-house was dedicated
March 29, 1848, and the dedication sermon,
preached by the pastor. Rev. Lyman Gilbert, from
Acts xxviii. 22, was printed. The former iiouse
was removed a few feet westwardly, and became the
Town House, in which at one period town meetings
were lield alternately with the meetings in the other
town liall, erected at Newton Centre. The first
pastor, Ecv. William Greenough, remained pastor
fifty years and two days, and died November 10,
1831, aged seventy-five, leaving his colleague. Rev.
Lyinan Gilbert, sole pastor. Mr. Gilbert served
the church, in all, twenty-seven years, till 1855,
when he resigned. He w\as a wise and faitiiful
])astor, and widely known and liiglily esteemed.
He w-as an active member of the seliool eommittec
for twenty years.
Dr. Gill)ert was succeeded by Rev. Joseph I'.
Drummond, who remained till November 12, 1857,
and was followed immediately by Rev. George B.
Little, formerly of Bangor, Maine. He became
pastor in 1857, and died of consumption in Rox-
bury, July 20, 1860, aged thirty-eight. The next
pastor was Rev. Henry Johnson Patrick, formerly
of Bedford, Massachusetts, where he was ordained
November 16, 1854. He was installed here September
26, 1860, and is still pastor.
IN THE REVOLUTION.
It was while Mr. Meriam was pastor of the
First Churcli that the country passed through the
earlier scenes of the American Revolution. Newton
was all alive to tiiis great occasion. The records
of tlie town show that the inhabitants were keenly
sensitive in respect to the interests of the country,
and that they w^ere not the men to submit tamely
to oppression. They entered with vigor and spirit
into tiie war, and manifested an enlightened and
unconquerable patriotism, in tiie vicissitudes which
culminated in that great struggle. They judged
rightly tliat the welfare of the country demanded
that it should rely mainly upon its own resources,
so that it might not suffer from embarrassments
occasioned by foreign wars. Moreover, they deemed
it wise not to aid the manufacturing interests of
the mother country, which aimed only to oppress
tliem, nor to promote its commercial prosperity by
receiving goods imported in British vessels. Hence
in 1765 they recorded their protest against the
Stamp Act, and in 1767 they resolved in town-
meeting not to use any gloves except of domestic
manufacture, and to procure no new garments on
funeral occasions, excejit those which were abso-
lutely necessary. Among the articles included in
their protest were also men's and women's hats and
apparel, lace, diamonds, jewelry, snuff, broadcloth,
costing more than ten shillings a yard, furs, milli-
nery, stays, silk, cotton, velvet, lawn, and cambric.
As tiie tempest of the Revolution thickened, the
town also voted, " that we, each and every one of
us, will not, directly or indirectly, by ourselves or
any person under us, purchase or use or suffer to
be used in our respective families any Lidia tea,
while sucli tea is subject to a duty payable upon
i(s arrival in America." At the destruction of the
three hundred and forty-two chests of tea from
vessels in Boston Harbor, commonly called " the
Boston tea-party," Newton had its representative
in the person of Samuel Hammond, of the east part