Barnstable County, Massachusetts - Chapter 10: The Society of Friends, 1890 (part 1 of 2)

General View of the Rise and Course of their Principles in Barnstable County. - The Society inSandwich. - Newell Hoxie. - The Society in Ytirmouth. - David K. Akin. - The Society in Falmouth. - The Dillingham Family.

MINISTERS of the Society of Friends first made their appearance in this county in the year 1657, ten years after the rise of the society in England, chiefly under the ministry of George Fox. These were Christopher Holder and John Copeland, who, having landed at Rhode Island, proceeded soon to Martha's Vineyard. Their religious ofi^erings being unacceptable to the governor of the island and to Mayhew, the priest, an Indian was ordered to convey them across the sound. They stepped upon the (now called) Falmouth shore on the 20th of Sixth* month, 1657, and proceeded to the town of Sandwich. There they found a number unsettled in their church relations, doubtful of the propriety of stated preaching, and believing in the duty of Christians without human ordination to exercise their own gifts in the ministry. Thus the seed of what was nicknamed Quakerism found a soil to some extent prepared. The spiritual doctrines preached by Christopher Holder and John Copeland were hailed with feelings of satisfaction by those who had found little food in stated preaching or in forms of worship. Not less than eighteen families in Sandwich were on record the next year as professing with Friends.f

This was not the first arrival of Copeland and Holder on New England shores, but they were of the first cargo of Friends who succeeded in getting a foothold on New England soil, to propagate their views of gospel truth. They had first arrived from London in Boston f " They have many meetings and many adherents; almost the whole town of Sandwich is adhering towards them. . . The Sandwich men may not go to the Bay [Boston colony], lest they be taken up for Quakers." - Letter of James Cud worth, a Puritan, in 1658.

bay one year before, together with six fellow laborers in the same cause. The.'5e arrived only two days after the sailing away of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, who had been the first of that society to come to New England; and who, after five weeks' imprisonment, had been sent to Barbadoes on the vessel in which they came. Now, these eight other Friends appearing in place of the two just banished, brought no small consternation to the minds of the authorities, who had them imprisoned for eleven weeks, and subjected to many hardships in jail, before they were shipped back to London.

The aged Nicholas Upshal, who had been touched by the sufferings of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin as prisoners, and had given them provisions, now raised his voice in protest against the treatment of Quakers and the laws enacted against them. Banished from his home in consequence, he proceeded southward in hope of finding shelter at Sandwich. But the governor of Plymouth had issued a warrant forbidding any of the people of Sandwich to entertain him The inhabitants of Sandwich, which even then began to appear as the cradle of religious liberty for Massachusetts, were mercifully disposed to ignore the governor's order summoning him to Plymouth. But such was the pressure brought to bear on them by the governor, that when spring-time came, they advised Nicholas Upshal to seek refuge in Rhode Island. Succeeding in reaching the free soil of Newport, doubtless there as during his sojourn in Sandwich, he served to prepare many minds for the reception of the doctrines which he had learned in Boston through the persecuted Friends. The story of the old man's wrongs being a theme of general conversation at Newport, an Indian chief was heard to exclaim, " What a God have the English, who deal so with one another about their God ! "

It was while this topic was fresh that Robert Fowler's vessel, the Woodhouse, arrived at Newport, landing six of the eleven Friends whom he had brought from England, - the other five of his passengers having disembarked at New Amsterdam (New York). Of the six who proceeded to Newport, Christopher Holder and John Copeland remained there nearly a fortnight. No doubt the exiled Nicholas Upshal, who had passed the preceding winter in Sandwich, had much conference in Newport with these welcome brethren; and much that he could say to them about the fields being ready for a harvest in Sandwich, may have been instrumental in turning the course of Copeland and Holder toward the Cape, by way of the Vineyard. But Copeland, in a letter to his parents, names only the next station immediately in view: " Now I and Christopher Holder are going to Martha's Vineyard in obedience to the will of our God, whose will is our joy."

tinguishing doctrines inculcated by the Friends * in order to understand a little of their public, though invisible influence on the life of the western half of the county, especially in Sandwich, Falmouth and Yarmouth, where societies of them were early gathered and still remain. This influence has been due, not to their numbers, but to their character. And their character, so far as it is the outcome of their doctrines, is traceable to so much of the Spirit of Christ, not as they have professed as a foundation doctrine, but as they have admitted into their hearts to live by and obey.

As the immediate beginning of modern Protestantism sprang up in the revelation livingly opened to Luther while performing a Romish penance, that " The just shall live by faith," so a similar beginning of that more distinct testimony for the spiritual nature of the Christian dispensation, as the second wave of the reformation, by some

* The first written declaration of faith, representing some of the leading doctrines of Friends, is believed to be the following, issued by Christopher Holder, John Copeland and Richard Doudney, soon after the first visit of the two former in Sandwich. It is dated: " From the House of Correction, the 1st of the Eighth month, 1657, in Boston."

" We do believe in the only true and living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all things in them contained, and doth uphold all things that he hath created by the word of his power. Who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days hath spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath made heir of all things, by whom he made the world. The which Son is that Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin; who suffered for our offences, and is risen again for our justification, and is ascended into the highest heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. Even in him do we believe; who is the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And in him do we trust alone for salvation; by whose blood we are washed from sin; through whom we have access to the Father vrith boldness, being justified by faith in believing in his name. Who hath sent forth the Holy Ghost, to wit, the Spirit of Truth, that proceedeth from the Father and the Son, by which we are sealed and adopted sons and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. From the which Spirit the Scriptures of truth were given forth, as, saith the Apostle Peter, ' Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' The which were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come; and are profitable for the man of God, to reprove, and to exhort, and to admonish, as the Spirit of God bringeth them unto him, and openeth them in him, and giveth him the understanding of them.

" So that before all men we do declare that we do believe in Grod the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; according as they are declared of in the Scriptures; and the Scriptures we own to be a true declaration of the Father, Son and Spirit; in which is declared what was in the beginning, what was present, and waa to come. » » « [The only doctrinal matter which follows is contained in an exhortation to turn to the Spirit] that showeth you the secret of your hearts, and the deeds that are not good. Therefore while you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of the light; for, as you love it and obey it, it will lead you to repentance, bring you to know Him in whom is remission of sins, in whom God is well pleased; who will give you an entrance into the kingdom of God, an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified."

denominated as Quakerism,* dates from the moment that George Fox, after sore struggles and wanderings in search for the living truth, heard the words as by a declaration from heaven, " There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."

From that time, Jesus Christ, not only as " once offered to bear the sins of many," but as the inspeaking Word of God and Mediator between man and the Father; the " true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world "; the Leader, by the witness of his Spirt, into all the Truth; and the practical "head over all things to his church," even head over every individual exercise of true public and private worship, - -has been the foundation of the system of doctrines and testimony, which seemed to the early Friends clearly to proceed from Christ by the witness of his spirit to their hearts.

They reverently owned the Holy Scriptures to be written words of God, but were careful to observe them just as reverently in their own confinement of the title " Word of God " to Christ himself. Satisfied that the Scriptures were written by inspiration of God, they dared to open or interpret their spiritual meaning under no other qualification than a measure of that in which they were written. Knowing that a prophecy of Scripture is of no private interpretation; but, as it came not by will of man, no more can it be so interpreted; and " as holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," so in the light of the same Spirit must the sayings, as all the other "things of the Spirit of God," be spiritually discerned; and, when rightly called for, so declared to others.

Now, since " a measure and manifestation of the Spirit of God is given to every man to profit withal," and " the grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching them," if they will heed it, the essentials of life and salvation, God hath neither left himself without a witness for Truth to every man's heart, nor man any where with availing excuse. Since "sin is the transgression of the law," and " all have sinned," all must have had the law, or evidence of the divine will, - some in the Scriptures, and all mankind by the Spirit, witnessing in their hearts against sin. " For where no law is, there is no transgression." But by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit, sin is disclosed to each man as sin; whereby Christ fulfills his promise, if he should go away, to come again and " convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." And if under this conviction for sin there is a faithful repentance toward God, a saving faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is imparted by the same Spirit (even to such sincere penitents as may not have been informed of his outward

*A nickname, as in most cases ha,Dpens, more persistent than the adopted name, and started by Greorge Fox's bidding a magistrate to " Tremble at the word of the Lord."

history, yet they experience the spiritual mystery) to give us to feel our transgriesson forgiven and iniquity pardoned, not for works of righteousness that we may have done, but according to the Father's mercy in Christ Jesus, who laid down his life, " the just for the unjust," a " Propitiation for the sins of the whole world," that we " being reconciled by his death," may be " saved by his life."

Consistently with this adherence to Christ as the Word of God " speaking to our condition," as we reverently wait on Him to know his voice, no ministration but that of his spirit is needed, whether vocally through the minister or " in the silence of all flesh," for the performance of worship acceptable to God, - a worship which stands not in words, or forms or emblems, but must be " in spirit and in truth." Here no words of man are a part of worship, except under a fresh requirement of the " Head overall things to his church "; whose charge through the apostle Paul was, " If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth." Ministry, whether it be exhortation, teaching, praise or prayer, under such immediate putting forth of Christ's Spirit, requires no previous intellectual study or preparation; but may be exercised according to the anointing and gift whether by learned or unlearned, male or female. For " There is neither male or female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." And the dispensation has been introduced when the Spirit was to be " poured out on all flesh," and " your sons and your daughters. - servants and handmaids - shall prophesy." (Acts ii: 17, 18). And Paul who forbade women to speak or teach in the church, in the human sense of the word, was careful to tell how women should appear wht . they should speak in the divine sense, - when they should publicly pray or prophesy.

The Friends took note of the command of Christ: " Freely ye have received, freely give," in its application to the ministry of the gospel. Especially as, during the seasons of public worship, ministers in common with the flock were to " wait for a fresh anointing for every fresh service," no sermons had to be prepared outside of the meetings in any such way as to prevent ministers earning their own living, after the example of the apostle Paul. Pastoral care, the watching over one another for good, was the common duty of all the brethren. So, conscientiously unable to " preach for hire, or divine for money," and concerned to avoid even the appearance of doing so, they brought down upon themselves, chiefly by this one testimony against a " hireling ministry," the most alarmed vituperation of the salaried clergy; at whose instance the bulk of their persecutions thus most naturally came.

was to come; and that he, when he said on the cross, " It is finished," became " the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth "; and that every outward ordinance of the former dispensation was obsolete because fulfilled in Christ himself, the living Substance, to whom all types and shadows that went before pointed ; - they believed it to be his will that the spirit and not the forms of those ceremonials, - the heavenly things themselves and not the images of those things, - should be maintained and cherished by living experience. The Jewish rite of water baptism and the passover supper, as outward observances, ended like all the others, with the Old Dispensation, - the baptism of John as a prophet under that dispensation belonging there, while he with his master distinctly declared that Christ's own baptism, under the incoming dispensation of " One Lord, one faith, tf«,? baptism," should be the baptism of the " Holy Spirit and of fire." Also that no obligation for the continuance of the last passover supper, as an outward form, is found in any more definite command than this, - in the fuller sentence as quoted by Paul: - "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me "; - a condescension to a formed habit, with the command resting on the spiritual side, - the remembrance of him. The Friends taught, that inward submission to Christ's spirit as the bread of life and the wine to be drank " anew with his disciples in his kingdom," is the table of communion at which he would " sup with us and we with Him."

When the details of one's outward conduct or speech are referred to his secret sense of the pure will of Christ in his heart, the consistent attempt to carry out the light of truth into practice, must separate the servant of Christ from many ways and modes ol lose whose chief guidance is the prevailing fashion and practice of the times. So looking at pure and simple truth as a guide, the Friends could not address to one individual the plural pronoun " you," - especially when they saw that the use of it had its root in vanity, to flatter a person as amounting to more than one; but they kept to the original thou and thee in addressing an individual. This gave offense to magistrates, confirming the Friends in their conviction that it " pricked proud flesh." Regarding also the appellations Master (or Mr.), Mistress (or Mrs.), Sir, Honorable, His Grace, Excellency, or Holiness, etc., as springing from the root of pride in man, tending to feed the same, and usually not founded in real truth, their spirit shrank from these and all merely complimentary expressions and flattering titles, as inconsistent with the Spirit of Christ. Yet in the exercise of genuine courtesy, William Penn testifies that George Fox was " civil beyond all forms of breeding." They could find no spiritual warrant in making obsequious distinctions between fellow-beings in what they termed " hat-honor," and would retain their hats on their heads before king and peasant alike. It also seemed to them beneath a Christian to borrow his names for days and months from heathen worship, as, to call the fourth day of the week Woden's day or Wednesday, or recognizing y"?^«o'j right to be worshipped in what is now the sixth month, or Augustus to be adored in the eighth. The Puritans felt the same scruple about calling the first day of the week Sunday. Accordingly Friends have observed the numerical names of days and months, as Third-day, Fifth month, etc. Christ's command to " Swear not at all," seems to them imperative against swearing at all, whether in courts of justice or elsewhere, with any manner of oath. And their sense of his spirit as the Prince of Peace and the exponent of divine love, forbids in their minds any participation in war or retaliation, or capital punishment. Plainness of dress, as of address, must follow from their principles; and while they prescribed no form of garb as a rule, yet, by ceasing to follow the changing fashions, they found themselves ere long left behind in a garb peculiar to themselves; which, on finding it served as a hedge against the spirit and maxims of the world, and served as a visible testimony of their principles before the public, Friends have even yet to some extent retained, in proportion to their strenuousness for the original principles.

Such was the attempt of the " Friends of Truth," as they frequently styled themselves, to get back out of the corruptions of the church at large to first principles in Christ : or to represent what William Penn, one of its noble converts, claimed to be "primitive Christianity revived " ; - not a revelation of a new gospel, but "a new revelation of the old gospel." Theirs was certainly not a .superficial doctrine, and as it insisted on a corresponding practice, it could not be expected to be popular ; or to escape that general misunderstanding which exposed its adherents to persecutions. And as little general openness for the understanding of it is found now, in the present day of sensations, when entertaintnent is as much mistaken for worship, as stated observances were formerly.

Barnstable county appears foremost in early Massachusetts history as a representative, - imperfectly so, it is true, but most creditably for the times, - of the spirit of religious toleration. In what other county could such a church thus early and numerously have gained so firm a foothold ? And what was the state of the community so preparatory for the Friends' doctrine, that, within a year from the signal being sounded by Holder and Copeland, a larger number of families in -Sandwich gathered to the revived standard, than can be found professing with Friends there now ?

The " ten men of Saugus " who began the settlement at Sandwich in 1637, do not appear to have been imbued, as were their Puritan neighbors whom they left behind, or the Puritanized successors of the

Pilgrims whom they passed by at Plymouth, with determined zeal for a theocracy, - or establishing on the Cape a church-state. Had they felt most thoroughly at home in the intolerant sectarian atmosphere of the Salem community, why did they separate themselves unto a distinct locality ? Religious, indeed, they evidently were, - but less tied down to 'dogma, and of a freer spirit; adventurous enough to seek new homes again ; and a little more liberal than the stayers behind to take new scenes, new comers and new doctrines on their merits.

Dissensions were fermenting in the Sandwich church for several years before the Friends appeared. Fines and penalties were imposed on many who neglected or set at nought the stated worship. Some professed to " know no visible worship." A growing movement in favor of religious liberty and toleration, though strongly opposed by the government, could not be set back. And for three years before the arrival of Holder and Copeland, the stated pastorate of the church in Sandwich had been discontinued. The pastor, William Leverich, himself also said to be tinctured with toleration, found it expedient, in consequence of the existing unsettlement, to leave the flock at Sandwich in 1654 for Long Island. Yarmouth also was without a pastor. And in 1659 we find the court still censuring the neglect of some in Yarmouth to support the ministry. The people in both towns are said to have become " indifferent to the ministry and to exercise their own gifts." The doctrine of Friends had but to step in upon this prepared ground and say that vocal ministry, and regulation preaching at that, was not essential for worship in spirit and in truth ; and all ministry spurious except that proceeding from the immediate anointing of the Head of the church, whose messages could be declared, as by the fishermen-disciples of old, without the learning of the schools except the school of Christ ; - the Friends had but to sound this word, to discover they had told their eager hearers nothing, but had only clearly formulated what they had already vaguely believed. So the thoughts of many hearts being revealed, neighbor was disclosed to neighbor in mutual recognition, resulting in open fellowship in a new church profession.

The more distingfuishing principle of the society having once found entrance in Sandwich on the question of worship and ministry, it legitimately followed through all their other lines of faith and practice. Just as in this latter day from the same society the same principles and consequently testimonies begin to go out at the same door, - namely, the practice of worship and ministry, - at which the}' came in. It is also but natural that the easy acquiescence in traditional principles or in no principles, which is the weakness of merely birthright membership, should be but as a rope of sand to bind members to the original profession ; in comparison with that strong, individual convincement of truth by which new members, experiencing the original cost, join the faith. In addition to this, and to prevailing worldliness, the emigration of younger members from the meetings of Sandwich, Yarmouth, and Falmouth, to seek livings in cities or in the West, has largely contributed to the present reduced numbers of the society in these parts.

But emigration is not a sufficient explanation, else the neighboring churches should be found similarly diminished. "Thou hast left thy first love," is the verdict which explains the thinning out of Friends' ranks, even in cities of Massachusetts to which country-Friends' children go. The movement of late years in Friends' meetings to borrow modes and principles of other denominations in a hope of holding the interest of the younger members, has served to direct the young people to the churches and systems from which these alleged improvements came. So that Friends' meetings thus popularized in our cities not chargeable with emigration, have not been found holding their own.

It cannot be denied that even on the Cape there was plenty of persecution to give impetus to the progress of the revival. It raised up sympathy for the victims, zeal in the members, and inquiry concerning their principles among many. Details of the convictions, fines, and penalties imposed for countenancing Quakers, attending their meetings, or advocating their doctrines, belong to our more local treatment of town histories. But the Sandwich authorities were not altogether willing executors of the harsh orders of the Plymouth government ; and the neighborhood which had the best opportunity of understanding the Quakers, became the least inclined to harm them. So we read of Holder and Copeland, who frequently visited the flock here, that the Sandwich constable refusing to whip them, a Barnstable magistrate gave them each thirty-three lashes, " with a new tormenting whip, with three cords and knots at the ends."

Though we seem to give to the Plymouth government the credit of much of the distress encountered by the Friends at the hands of Sandwich officers; yet let us make haste to clear the Pilgrim fathers from the charge of a persecuting spirit. A distinction must be made between the Pilgrims, who sailed in the Mayflower in 1620 and came to Plymouth, and the Puritans who sailed in 1629 and founded Boston. The Puritans were imbued with the principle of a state church ; the Pilgrims were Separatists, and they knew in England what it was to be persecuted by Puritans. The Puritans of Massachusetts bay had remained in the church of England as long as possible, and they continued here to believe in a union of church and state. In coming here to live by themselves, they did not mean to have such union weakened. "The order of the churches and the commonwealth," wrote Cotton, " is now so settled in New England that it brings to mind the new heaven and new" earth wherein dwells righteousness."

The Pilgrims came to these shores not primarily, like the Puritans, to secure a state of their own as a church of their own, but to enjoy religious liberty. Nevertheless they too, as Bancroft says, " desired no increase but from the friends of their communion. Yet their residence in Holland had made them acquainted with various forms of Christianity; a wide experience had emancipated them from bigotry, and they were never betrayed into the excesses of religious persecution." Thus the Pilgrims at Plymouth before they were superseded by the Puritans from Massachusetts bay, were prepared to be of the more charitable spirit which afterward appeared in those Separatists from the Lynn colony who sought new homes in Sandwich. But when Friends first appeared and were maltreated in Boston in 1656, and other Friends found a foothold in Sandwich in 1667, almost the last of the Pilgrim fathers was dead. " Plymouth had ceased to be an independent colony, and was part of the New England confederation*." There was enough of the apparent Pilgrim spirit left in Plymouth to make her milder towards dissenters than the Puritan church-state at Boston could bear for her to be; and there were enough of the descendants of the Pilgrims about Boston to get roughly handled by the Puritans "for assisting the Quakers and boldly opposing persecution." But the great battle for religious liberty in Massachusetts, of which Friends took the brunt, was fought by the Separatists of the southward shores, against the Puritans at the north. The blood of the four Friends executed on Boston common, sealed the victory for religious liberty in America.

How far the " Right arm of Massachusetts," as Cape Cod has been styled, has reaped in its own character a worthy reward for magnanimity in shouldering the cause of religious liberty in her infancy, cannot be fully measured till the secret workings of all principles are revealed. That the so-called Quaker virtues and the characteristic Cape virtues so largely coincide, we cannot presume to say is chiefly traceable to the influence passing into the county through the Friends themselves. No real Friend would so claim. " Names are nothing," said George Fox, "Christ is all." The same well-spring of life to which he pointed men only to "leave them there," has watered the land through many a human channel of spiritual influence, under whatever name. But a standard for pure truth, when exalted, is jus£ as effective a signal, whether held in few hands or in many. It is inevitable

* " And now the Plymouth saddle is on the Bay horse," says Ex-Judge Cud worth in 1658, alluding to the way in which the authorities at Plymouth were imitating the methods of Massachusetts bay towards the Friends.

that the principles held forth by Friends should have increased a disposition to look at the true inwardness of all questions and subjects; to strip off all shams and be satisfied with simple truth only; to despise show and look for genuine substance, and to render " Quaker measure " to others; to value straightforward common sense rather than brilliancy, conscience before convenience, honesty above policy, character above creed, the spirit above the letter, motives above movements, the life above the living: - to respect the divine spark in every human being, regardless of color or sex; and the equality of all. as before the law of God, so before the law of the land. Simplicity of manners, genuineness of profession, the courage of one's convictions, plain living because of "high thinking," inward retirement of mind to feel the truth of one's self, a yes that is yes and a no that is no - and so surer than most oaths, - these are virtues of which the professed " Friends of Truth " by no means held the monopoly, and in which individuals among them as in every other flock have signally failed; yet the banner which they as a people have displayed because of the truth, is one which the life and character of our county could ill aflEord to spare.

The preceding view of the establishment of the Society of Friends in the county has been necessarily, to that extent, a history of the Sandwich Society. Afterward a branch of Sandwich monthly meeting became established in West Falmouth, and called Falmouth Preparative Meeting of Friends; and another branch at South Yarmouth, called Yarmouth Preparative Meeting. Each preparative meeting, including one held also in Sandwich, sends representatives to each session of the monthly meeting ; which is held six times a year in Sandwich, four times at Falmouth, and twice at Yarmouth. Formerly, for a period, some sessions of Sandwich monthly meeting were held also at Rochester, on the other side of the bay. A sketch of the history of each of the Cape meetings of Friends will now be given, beginning with Sandwich.*

The Society in Sandwich. - It has already been pointed out how the Sandwich community was prepared for, and how responsively, in the year 1657, many rallied to the preaching of the Word by the newly arrived Friends Christopher Holder and John Copeland; so that in the very next year, 1658, no less than eighteen families in Sandwich appear as acknowledged adherents of the new Society.

* The writer having had but few hours' opportunity to consult the original records, has availed himself of a considerable part of the notes and extracts from them made by the late Newell Hoxie, representing careful labor on his part continued from time to time for years. He has also gleaned freely from Freeman's History of Cape Cod, and other works.

pher's Hollow, - a spot believed to have been so named from the preaching of Christopher Holder in at least one meeting which assembled in that woodland retreat. This hollow or glen may now be approached by the road which passes the alms-house into the woods. Not having visited the spot himself, the writer here presents the description of a visitor, as given in the Falmouth Local, 12th mo., 1887 :

" About a mile southeasterly of the village of Sandwich is a deep sequestered glen or hollow in the wood. There is no spot in the county of Barnstable more secluded or lonely. It is even now as primeval in appearance as it was on the day the Pilgrims first set foot on Plymouth rock. This quiet glen is surrounded by a ridge of hills, covered in part by trees, and it is some ] 25 feet deep. At the bottom are to be seen a few straggling red-cedar trees. In the spring and summer a small stream of water runs into this glen, which keeps up a perpetual murmur. For over two centuries this lonely spot has been called ' Christopher's Hollow,' in memory of Christopher Holder. . . . In 1657, immediately after the severe penal acts of the provincial legislature were passed, this small and sincere band of Christian worshippers met at William Allen's house on Spring Hill, but [afterward] adjourned to this sequestered glen to offer up in the 'darkling woods' their devout supplications to Him who is no respecter of persons. Your correspondent visited this hollow a few days ago, and noticed, particularly on its westerly side, a row of flat stones,* which are believed to be the seats on which this meagre congregation sat, and listened to the heartfelt teachings of Christopher Holder."

William Allen's house, the first or one of the fir.st meeting places of Friends, stood on the spot where Roland Fish's house now stands, the first house by the road leading southward from the present Friends' meeting house in Spring Hill. Near the southwest corner of the house is the first burying ground of the Society, now enclosed by an iron railing. On the early records we find a direction " that servants shall be buried on the side next the swamp." This is the half-acre given by the town in 1694. William Newland's house, another of the first meeting places, was opposite the old town burying ground, on the road from the village toward Stephen R. Wing's. [Of other Friends prominent in that day, William Gifford is said to have lived near the house of late years known as Russell Fish's; Edward Perry near Joseph Ewer's swamp, or opposite his house ; and Edward Dillingham, (one of the original "ten men of Saugus" to whom Sandwich lands were granted), to have lived on the hillside east of the upper pond, which is southeast from Stephen R. Wing's. The cellar is said to be still there, and a pear tree set out by Edward Dillingham. The late Newell Hoxie, being able to designate the situation of seventeen of the Friends' houses of 1658, once remarked to the writer, that when by failing health he was laid aside from attending his meetings for public worship, he would often carry himself in fancy more than two hundred years back, and trace in his mind's view the goings of each of those seventeen families from their respective homes, as they took their several paths to William Allen's house, to meet for divine worship after the manner of Friends.]

In 1657 (to quote from Freeman) complaint was make to the general court against divers persons in Sandwich " for meeting on Lord's days at the house of William Allen and inveighing against ministers and magistrates, to the dishonor of God and the contempt of government." Jane, the wife of William Saunders, and Sarah, the daughter of William Kerby, complained of " for disturbance of public worship .and for abusing the minister," were, on being summoned to court, sentenced to be publicly whipped. William Allen, William Kerby, and the wife of John Newland were also involved in these difficulties. John Newland was warned by the court to suffer no Friends' meeting to be kept in any house in which he had an interest. It was also ordered that "Nicholas Upsall, the instigator" of all this mischief, "be carried out of the government by Tristum Hull, who brought him." William Newland, a prominent citizen, was, "for encouraging Thomas Burges " to let Christopher Holder, a Quaker, occupy his house, sentenced to find sureties for his own good behavior. Ralph Allen, " for entertaining such men and for unworthy speeches," was also arrested and laid under bonds. Henry Saunders was arrested and committed. Edward Dillingham and Ralph Jones were also arrested ; Jones was fined and Dillingham was admonished. Burges expressed his sorrow for what he had done, and was released. This year, on account of increasing sympathy with the Quakers throughout the community, a marshal was provided by the general court in Plymouth to do service in Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth.

In 1658 Robert Harper, Ralph Allen, sr., John Allen, Thomas Greenfield, Edward Perry, Richard Kerby, jr., William Allen, Thomas Ewer, William GiflFord, George Allen, Matthew Allen, Daniel Wing, John Jenkins, and George Webb, " none of them," says Freeman, " professed Quakers at the time, though several of them afterward became such," being summoned to court to give a reason for not taking the oath of fidelity to the government, professed that they held it unlawful to take the oath, and all were fined. Friends' view of the unlawfulness of all swearing, or oaths, is founded on Christ's command, " Swear not at all ; " which is amplified in the epistle of James, " But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath ; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." Their firm adherence to this command was much misunderstood by oflBcers of the government, and even by the clergy ; and was the pretext for a long list of fines and dreary penalties. Some of these Friends, alluding to their sufferings for not swearing, remarked, that oath-taking was "contrary to the law of Christ," "whose law," they add, "is so strongly written in our hearts, and the keeping of it so delightsome to us ; and the gloriousness of its life daily appearing, makes us to endure the cross patiently, and suffer the spoiling of our goods with joy."*

The earliest meetings of Friends in Sandwich, even in 1657, included six of the brothers and sisters of Ralph Allen. They had resided upwards of twenty years in Sandwich and were much respected by their neighbors. But their joining the new sect was " peculiarly annoying" to the government, and they were among the first to be tested by the oath of fidelity. William Newland and Ralph Allen, on refusing to relinquish the keeping of meetings in their houses, " were committed to the custody of the marshal, and kept close prisoners for five months. When half the period had expired, they were offered their liberty on condition of engaging not to receive or listen to a Quaker; but the request was met by an immediate and decided negative."t

Under the law now prohibiting the frequenting of Friends' meetings, William Allen was fined forty shillings for permitting a meeting at his house. Cudworth says of another session of the court, that " the court was pleased to determine fines on Sandwich men for meetings, sometimes on First-days of the week, sometimes on other days, as they say: They meet ordinarily twice in a week, besides the Lord's day, - 150 pounds, whereof William Newland is 24 pounds for himself and his wife at Ten Shillings a Meeting, William Allen 46 pounds," etc. William Allen's other fines and distraints amount apparently to 113 pounds. " They left him but one cow," says Bishop, " which they pretend is out of Pity; but what their pity is, more than a Robbers on the Highway, that takes away all a man hath, and then gives him a penny, I leave to be judg'd. Also they took from William Allen one Brass Kettle, - which the Governor put upon him for his Hat." - He also went to Boston prison. When the marshal took the goodwife's kettle he said with a sneer, " Now, Priscilla, how wilt thou cook for thy family and friends? Thee has no kettle." Her answer was, " George, that God who hears the ravens when they cry will provide for them. I trust in that God, and I verily believe the time will come when thy necessity will be greater than mine." This marshal, George Barlow, would boast, " That he would think what Goods were most serviceable to the Quakers, and then he would take them away, when he went to distrain for the fines.'" " But now," says Bishop afterward, " being grown exceedingly poor, he presumes to say, ' He thought the Quakers would not let him want.' And truly, it is said, they relieve his Children, notwithstanding all the Villany that he hath shown unto those people." (New England Judg'd, p. 389). This drunken marshal and tool of Plymouth's blind policy is said to have lived to fulfil abundantly Priscilla Allen's prophecy.

The following scale of penalties which the Plymouth government required Sandwich magistrates to exact, is given by N. H. Chamberlain in his interesting article on Sandwich and Yarmouth in the New England Magazine, 11th mo., 1889: - " Entertaining a Quaker, even for a quarter of an hour, cost £^, or the year's pay of a laboring man. If any one saw a Quaker and did not go six miles, if necessary, and inform a constable, he was to be punished at discretion of the court; for allowing preaching in one's house, 40 s., the preacher 40 s., and each auditor 40 s., though no Quaker spoke a word. The Quakers were fined for every Sunday they did not go to the Pilgrim meeting, and for every Sunday they went to their own. In three years there were taken from them cattle, horses, and sheep to the value of ;^700, besides other punishments."

Other names and cases, equally as interesting as William Allen's, cannot here be detailed with the same fulness; but similar recitals, with more or less suffering, may be understood with each name on the following list of distraints made about this period from Friends in and near Sandwich: - The list is preserved by Besse, as follows: -

On the other hand we cannot say that unwise provocations were not sometimes given by individuals reckoned as Quakers. Some expressions made to magistrates and others, whether the speakers had been goaded into them or not, we would not now approve as proceeding from the principles or spirit which they themselves professed. And some extravagances of conduct, in exceptional instances, would in this and should for that day, be attributed to derangement of mind, from which members of no denomination are found exempt.

lost his place by entertaining some Friends at his house), written in 1658, says of the Friends " They have many Meetings, and many Adherents; almost the whole Town of Sandwhich is adhering towards them. . . . Sandwich men may not go to the Bay [or Boston colony] lest they be taken up for Quakers. William Newland was there about his Occasions some Ten Days since, and they put him in Prison 24 hours, and sent for divers to witness against him; but they had not Proof enough to make him a Quaker, which if they had he should have been Whipped."

In 1659 an order was given by the general court to arrest Quakers repairing to Sandwich " from other places by sea, coming in at Man- - now Monument. Also George Barlow, marshal, was ordered to take with him a man or two and make search in the houses of William Newland and Ralph Allen of Sandwich and Nicholas Davis of Barnstable for Friends' books or writings.

In 1661 William Newland " for entertaining a strange Quaker -called Wenlocke Christopherson " was fined five pounds, and said Christopherson was .sent to prison and afterward sentenced " to lay neck and heels." He was then whipped and sent away.* Afterward in Boston he was sentenced to death, but was released. "William Allen was again summoned to the court at Plymouth and charged with Christopher Holder, a Quaker; and Wm. Newland and Peter Gaunt were similarly charged; and Lodowick Hoxy was fined ^0 shillings for not assisting marshal Barlow. The following were fined ten shillings each ' for being at Quaker meetings ': Robert Harper and wife, John Newland and wife, Jane Swift, Matthew, William, Joseph, and Benjamin Allen, William Gifford,, William Newland and wife, the wife of Henry Dillingham, Peter Gaunt, John Jenkins, Richard Kerby, sr., Richard Kerby, jr., Obadiah and Dority Butler."

This year, 1661, marks the deliverance of Friends in the colonies from further danger to their lives by hanging in consequence of their profession. William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary Dyer and William Leddra having thus been executed in Boston, Charles II. was induced to send a mandamus to New England, commanding Governor Endicott to send to England all Quakers who were under con- or imprisonment. This put a stop to executions, but not to persecutions. The Act of Toleration under William and Mary was not passed till 1689.

In 1674 " Priest John Smith " and others are said to have caused Friends to be recorded as non-townsmen, - probably because they not take the oath of fidelity. It was because it was an oath, and not because it meant fidelity, that Friends felt forbidden to swear it. As faithful observers of the law of the land, where that does not con- travene the divine law, they have proved themselves exemplary citizens. In 1675 they were invited by the treasurer of the town to substitute something for an oath. The firmness of this Society in refusingto take oaths in any form, has since been respected by legislative bodies both in America and in England, which have authorized a form of affirmation to be taken by Friends and others instead of an oath. By substituting passive for active resistance to oppressive laws, thev have on other subjects also converted oppression into concession: as in the requirement to bear arms or otherwise to deny their testimony for the Prince of Peace, also in the matter of taxes for the support of a paid ministry. In 1686 Edward Randolph, who had some sixteen times been sent over from England in consequence of complaints made by Friends and others, wrote as follows to Governor Hinckley: " Perhaps it will be as reasonable to move that your colony be rated to pay our minister of the church of England who now preaches in Boston and you hear him not, as to make the Quakers pay in your colony." Thus the stand made by Friends on the Cape was steadily opening the way for liberty to all. In the words of Brooks Adams on the " Emancipation of Massachusetts," referring to the Friends by whose suffering he says " the battle in New England has been won ": - " At the end of 21 years the policy of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited, and a general toleration could no longer be postponed; but the great liberal triumph was won only by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating torments."

We may leave our fragmentary specimens of the period of intolerance, with the acknowledgment that their townsmen in general appear to have taken no pleasure in the hardships inflicted on Friends. They elected Friends to responsible offices even while the sect seemed outlawed by the Plymouth court; whose marshal, Barlow, had none of their sympathy in his unsavory doings. Freeman characterizes the Friends as regarded at heart by their Sandwich neighbors, as " ever among our best and most esteemed citizens, benevolent and kind, pure in morals, and most deservedly honored."

Sandwich has the distinction of being the first town on the continent of America to establish a regular monthly meeting of the Society of Friends. That meeting, set up in the year 1658, has continued its monthly sittings in unbroken succession, so far as we know, ever since. They are still (though changes of the time have been tried for brief periods) held at the same hour of the same day of the week on which they were appointed to be held by the first minute of the first existing record book of the meeting. The said minute is as follows: " At a mans meeting kept at Will'm Aliens house ye 25 day of ye 4th mo'th in ye year 1672. At w'h meetting it is concluded and ordered y't for ye future a mans meetting be kept ye first six day of ye week in every itio. and for friends to come together about ye eleventh hour." A marginal note written beside this minute says: " This was ye first mans meeting that was kept by flfriends in sandwich that is recorded."

Accordingly we may understand that no records of the monthly meetings between the years 1658 and 1672 were kept; or if the min'- tites were made, they were not kept in book form. It was in the 7th month of this year that " It was ordered y't Will'm Newland buy a book for friends use and truths service." Edward Perry appears to be the clerk, and his hand-writing in these minutes very creditable.

It may be that Edward Perry was earliest in the annals of Sandwich authorship. His published religious writings bear date between the years 1676 and 1690, and titles like the following: - "A Warning to New England " ; " To the Court of Plimouth, this is the Word of the Lord"; "A Testimony concerning the Light"; " Concerning True Repentance," etc. He died in 1694. We are not aware that more than one copy of any of his writings remain in print.

The second entry for 4th mo. contains an appointment of John Stubs and Robert Harper to know and report the reasons why Peter Gaunt "absents from friends' meettings." His answer reported next month was : " That he doth not know any true publick vissible worship in ye world." This was the same answer which he had given sixteen years before to the Plymouth court, before any of the Quaker name had arrived in Sandwich. For we read that Peter Gaunt being -called upon by the court to answer for not frequenting the public worship of God, affirmed that he"knew^ no public visible worship"; and Ralph Allen, whose seven children were among the first to join Friends, took similar ground. The answer oi another who had been likewise waited upon by a committee the same month, " forasmuch as he was once convinced of the truth," was " That his ground and reason was knowne unto himselfe and he was not willing y' it should ^oe any further at present." Next month his answer was "much as it was before : or as a man Gon from truth." And we find this same delinquent patiently dealt with even for two years ; for his answer in 1674 was, " That he could not come amongst us till the power did make iim or work it in him." In 1673 the answer of William Allen's brother was, " That he was not so convinced as they might think he was." But in process of time some of these and similar cases were restored to .attendance of meetings. Even Peter Gaunt was fined more than once for attending them.

The following curious minute has been handed down as issued by Sandwich monthly meeting in one of its occasional sittings at Falmouth: "20th of the 9th mo., 1688. It is concluded that the Friends .appointed in every particular meeting shall give notice publicly in the

In 1688 a clergyman by the name of Pierpont, of Roxbury, who on invitation preached at times in Sandwich, records in his diary:- - "I had inclined to go to Sandwich, first, because I saw there was an opportunity to do service for Christ in that place; second, the generality of the people, except Quakers, were desirous of my coming amongst them ; third, the young men of the place were in danger of being drawn away by the Quakers, if a minister were not speedily settled among them." - During the preceding pastorate mention is found of one man, " a member of the church, proselyted to the Quakers by one John Stubbs." In 1696 the town assigned a salary of ;^80 to Roland Cotton as pastor of the church, "provided he shall remit yearly tte proportion of all those neighbors generally called Quakers." And yet, by a monthly meeting's minute of 3d mo., 1712, it is recorded that John Wing and Daniel Allen " gave account that they had found out the proportion between Priest Rate and Town and County, and the Priest part, which Friends cannot pay, is near one half, lacking one half of one third of the whole."

Of a history of the Friends' meeting houses in Sandwich, we have materials for a concise account. In the 7th month, 1672, the monthly meeting is recorded as "held at our meeting house." In 1674,4th mo., the meeting house is spoken of as enlarged ; and five years after, a record is made of finishing the meeting house. In 1694, according to the town's record, " The town did give to those of their neighbors called Quakers half an acre of ground for a burial place* on the hill above the Canoe swamp between the ways." In 1703^, First mo., a quarterly meeting's committee was instructed to pitch upon a place to set the new meeting house ; and in the 3d mo. it was concluded to get a new meeting house. In 1704, 1st mo., Robert Harper was appointed to b)uild a new meeting house for ;^111, "except the glass, plastering, and ground-pinning." One was to get the shells for lime, another wood, another stone, and " Lodowick Hoxie to Diet the carpenters for his share." In 1709 it was proposed to build " a small meeting house " ; and the next year £Q, 12^s. were subscribed to build a stable. In 1723, £28, 5s. were subscribed " to enlarge the S7nan meeting house, underpin the large meeting house, and build a shed." The work was done b)y Joseph Show. In 1740 it was concluded to hold a preparative meeting in Sandwich ; and in 1745 the preparative meeting purchase " the remainder of the gore of land, about one and one-fourth acres, near the meeting house for a cemetery which is near the old one." In 1757 it is ordered to " add 16 feet front, width and height the same, to the great meeting-house." Apparently after this date women

Friends begin to hold a preparative meeting like the tnen Friends. In 1793, 11th mo., measures were taken to build a porch to the meeting house.

The third meeting house, 48 by 36 feet in size, now in use, was built in 1810 on the site of the first, costing two thousand dollars. Sandwich Friends at first gave $723 toward it, Falmouth $24, Yarmouth $120. The old meeting house was sold for one hundred dollars. In 1822 the remaining amount of the cost, principal and interest, was paid over to the quarterly meeting's treasurer.

In 1715 Benjamin Holme, an English minister traveling in religious service, records in his journal that he "went to the yearly meeting at Sandwich, where one Samuel Osbourne, a schoolmaster, made opposition." This resulted in a pretty extensive setting forth of Friends' views on the Scriptures and on perseverance in grace.

In 1770 a voluntary payment was made by the Friends' meeting to relieve "the charge the town had been at on account of a poor woman belonging to said Meeting." It has been the rule with the Society to maintain their own destitute members without recourse to the town's provision for the poor. Also when ministers, with the approval of their proper meeting, are traveling in religious service, to provide for their expenses from place to place, if their circumstances require it. As far back as 1677 we find by a monthly meeting's minute that horses were to be provided for " Travelling Friends "at the meeting's expense.

In the conducting of these monthly meetings which appear so prominently in the regulation of church affairs among Friends, the only officer known is the one who sits as clerk of the meeting. Under the profession that " Christ is head over all things to his church," and accordingly the mind of Christ is devoutly to be referred to and waited for in deciding church affairs, Friends have presumed to name no other presidency than his over their monthly or other meetings for discipline ; but they simply appoint a clerk to record the sense of the meeting when that is ascertained. This " sense of the meeting," it is trusted, is the product of the judgment of truth, or witness of Christ's spirit, which individual members, when apprehending they have a sense thereof on any question, announce as his or her view of the case. And the clerk, without taking a vote or any reference to majorities, is to gather and record what appears the prevailing judgment of truth as expressed by the members. The Head of the church is majority enough, though he find expression through but one voice. This conduct of Christian church government throws great spiritual responsibility on them that sit in judgment, to whom Christ is promised to be " a spirit of judgment " ; and will largely be admitted to be consistent with the true theory for a pure church. But for a church, though not pure yet prevailingly sincere, this principle has been found, while helping to make it more pure, to work at least as harmoniously, peaceably and satisfactorily as the more human modes of moderatorship elsewhere resorted to in deliberative bodies.

The clerks of Sandwich monthly meeting who appear to have resided in Sandwich, have been, so far as can be gathered from the records: Edward Perry, serving 1672-94 ; another not named, 1694- 1709 ; Edward Perry, jr., 1709-12; then three unnamed clerks, serving respectively 1712-19, 1719-20, 1720-22; Humphrey Wady, 1722-42;

Doubtless there were not a few ministers in the Sandwich meeting from the first. But the list of those recorded does not begin till the year 1789, when we find Anna Allen and Samuel Bowman acknowledged ; Benjamin Percival, 1808 ; Anna D. Wing, 1838 ; David Dudley, who moved hither from Maine in 1838; Newell Hoxie, 1846; Mercy K. Wing. 1851 ; Presbury Wing, 1852; Elizabeth C. Wing, 1862; Hannah S, Wing, 1883.

" The principle was from the first recognized by George Fox and his brethren, that the true call and qualification of ministers can be received only from the great Head of the church Himself, and that the church has only to judge of the reality of the call, and to watch over, encourage, and advise those who are entrusted with such gift. Even the recognition of ministers, as such, in the Society was of an indirect and informal character for many years after its establishment. Those who spoke frequently and acceptably were asked to occupy a raised seat, facing the body; but then, as now, this was adopted as a matter of convenience, not of ecclesiastical distinction or superiority. Before long it was found needful to give certificates of membership to those who removed from one meeting to another; and about the same time a necessity was felt for giving similar credentials to those who left their homes to travel in the service of the gospel. But more than one hundred years had elapsed before formal recognition was adopted. But from mention in various journals we find the number was large."

in Sandwich, eighteen families professing to be its adherents. In 1769 a committee of the town report that there are sixty families of Friends or Quakers whose rates are not available for the support of the ministry. Now, in 1890, most of the younger natives of the Sandwich membership are dispersed throughout the country to gain a livelihood, or have joined other associations: leaving fragments of about eleven families remaining, the present membership numbering 40 individuals. But the purity of a principle cannot fairly be tested by the number of its human adherents. The world will love its own; and a Society supposed to represent spirituality or self-denial, cannot easily be popular. Nor on the other hand, in the guise of an imitator, could it be respected. By divine grace to be staunch to its special message, the Society was what it was. The same grace, uncompromisingly adhered to, alone is able to keep it from falling, and give vigor yet to .shake itself from the dust of the earth.

Newell Hoxie, the youngest child of Joseph and Deborah (Wing) Hoxie, was born in East Sandwich in 1803. In 1842 he married Rebecca Chipman, of Sandwich. Both will be remembered by many as successful teachers of schools in Dennis, Barnstable, and Sandwich. Both were marked by mental endowments, literary interest, and deep thoughtfulness of no common order. With the exception of eighteen years passed in West Falmouth, he was a resident of Sandwich all his life. The impress which his life has made upon the character of the portion of the county in these two neighborhoods of his residence, has been chiefly as a leading member of the Society of Friends. In intimate knowledge of its history he stood confessedly foremost, a-nd in the maintenance of its original principles he was devoutly concerned. Perhaps no member of that Society in Sandwich monthly meeting (which includes Falmouth and Yarmouth) has for a longer period been prominent in its counsels, or more uniformly deferred to . in the conservative shaping of its course. His influence was also largely respected in the counsels of New England Yearly Meeting at large. A minister in that Society for thirty-eight years, he often visited during this time the Friends' meetings of New England, and twice those of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He died in 1884, aged 80 years. With him has departed an invaluable fund of information, which cannot now be replaced, relating not only to the history of his religious Society, but to that of his native county and its families.

The Society in Yarmouth. - The community of Friends at Bass River has so long given character to the neat and peaceful village of South Yarmouth, that it is still familiarly known as "Quaker village." But it was over the river, in South Dennis, where their first meeting house stood.

So free from molestation were the first Friends' families in this neighborhood, that no ripple in the current of history appears to have been produced by their presence here, sufficient to leave a trace of the time of their first settlement. John Wing, from Sandwich, in 1659, was building a house in the Yarmouth jurisdiction; a John Dillingham, from Sandwich, early became a landholder in Dennis and Brewster, residing near Bound Brook. It was in his house and Henry Jones' that the first Friends' meetings of which we have record were held, as appears by the following minute, - which seems to relate to bimonthly meetings for discipline or society bu.siness, rather than their probably much more frequent meetings for divine worship. If their Sandwich neighbors early began holding at least three meetings a week, - two on week-days besides First-day, - the kind of convincement which produced Friends in that day must in Yarmouth also have brought them together for worship as often as once a week: -

"At our Mens Meeting at William Aliens first day of the 2 mo. 1681. - At this meeting it was ordered concerning the setting of the meetings at Yarmouth. Whereas it was ordered to be kept upon the first day of the week in every other mo. It is now ordered at the 6th day of the week in every other month and the meeting to be kept at Henry Jones his house. The next to be kept at John Dillingham's and so continue to be kept at those two houses, and the first meeting to be at John Dillingham's which will be the 2d Sixth-day of the week in the next 3d month."

In 1683 a " monthly meeting " at Yarmouth is spoken of in the Sandwich minutes. This may have been one of the occasional sittings of Sandwich monthly meeting there, such as were sometimes held also at Falmouth, before the present division of sessions between the three towns became settled.

In 1697 the town ordered " that the Quakers be rated for the support of the ministry, but that the tax be made so much larger that Mr. Cotton may have his full salary," - probably without drawing on the Friends for their rate. And in 1717 an appropriation was made to build a meeting house for the town, - " the Quakers to be exempted from the charge." Also it was " voted that such of our inhabitants as are professed Quakers be freed from paying the minister's rate."

In 1709, 1st mo., Yarmouth Friends requested liberty of Sandwich monthly meeting to hold a preparative meeting. In 11th mo. a " Man's meeting" at John Wing's is mentioned; and 1st mo., 1710, one at John Dillingham's. As the same request to hold a preparative meeting was made one hundred years later, it would seem that the first was unsuccessful. It is the opinion of an aged Friend, judging from memory, that the preparative meeting at Yarmouth was established about the time when the present meeting house was built, in 1809. Another, of venerable age, Ezra Kelley of New Bedford, who attended meeting in the old house, believes it was not established till some years after.

In 1710 it was proposed that Sandwich monthly meeting hold a monthly meeting at Yarmouth and one at Falmouth; which was allowed for Falmouth, but naught appears as regards Yarmouth.

The meeting house in Dennis was probably built about the year 1714, as the date is estimated by so careful an authority as Newell Hoxie. Mention of the house, however, does not appear in the monthly meeting minutes, until 1720.

In 1717 John Wing was appointed to inform Yarmouth Friends that if they did not attend monthly meeting better, they would be turned over to the quarterly meeting. They promised to do better. For the past fifty years, at least, no such complaint, considering their numbers, could be made of Yarmouth members; some of whom have been among the most steadfast in keeping up the attendance of the monthly meetings. And they have made the attendance at Yarmouth, whenever the monthly meeting is held there, so very attractive by their hospitality as to need no committee to enforce attendance from Sandwich and Falmouth. Yet no longer do the wild deer of the Waquoit woods, the forest of the Mashpee Indians, the sober villages of Cotuit, Centreville, Marston's Mills, Hyannis, and South Sea, view the quaint procession of Quaker carriages wending their way of thirty miles through the sands of summer or the snows of winter, between Falmouth and Bass river, to attend the monthly meetings. No longer does Cotuit behold them halting at Hinckley's, or Heman Crocker's, as a half-way house, for a dinner and a " nooning "; or returning the day after the meeting in the same deliberate style, satisfied with the social privileges of Quakerism, and stronger for the next month's battle of life. The railroad has undone all this, and robbed these monthly meeting excursions of time for that social commingling of neighborhood with neighborhood, which, in the days when they carried their boys and girls to monthly meetings, helped to hold the rising generation to the Society.

The old meeting house in Dennis had stood for about fifty years, when in 1765 Yarmouth Friends request liberty to repair it, or rebuild. Permission was granted, and John Kelley and Hattil Kelley were appointed to attend to it. Timber was bought to repair it, and Falmouth and Sandwich contribute money for the cost. It was found that to repair the house where it stood would make a diflBculty. Committees come and go, until in 1768 some one, probably the contractor, fails, the monthly meeting gives him the lumber, and that ends the project.

Nineteen years after, however, the meeting house was repaired. A writer is quoted by Freeman, who says of this building, that there was in 1795 in Dennis " a small Friends', or Quaker, meeting house, situated on the east side of Follen's pond ; at this five families belonging to the town attended, with others from Yarmouth and Harwich."

In 1807 liberty was given to move the Dennis meeting house over to the west side of the river, near Seth Kelley's, in South Yarmouth. In 1808, 6th mo., David Kelley gave half an acre for a lot of ground for the neiv meeting house, which it had been decided to build. In 12th mo. it had cost $864. Yarmouth paid one half. Sandwich and Falmouth gave $161, and the quarterly meeting $271. Accordingly Friends' meetings began in the new house early in 1809; and next year the old Dennis meeting house " was sold to Lot Sears, torn down, put on a raft, floated down the river to a place about a mile below where the Friend's village then was, and was built up into a dwellinghouse " which may yet be standing. The money received from the sale of the old house was laid out in painting and shutters for the new house. The old Friends' burial lot at Dennis is now surrounded by and overgrown with shrubbery. There was formerly a postand-rail fence surrounding it, which having gone to decay, Ezra Kelley has had a neat board fence put up, and the graves of four of his ancestors marked by simple white stones.

In 2d mo., 1810, Yarmouth Friends request a mid-week meeting; and the next year they ask to hold a preparative meeting, and to have two sittings of the monthly meeting each year in their house. They continue thus to be held.

In 1815 Yarmouth Friends, by consent of the monthly meeting, commenced holding two meetings for worship on First-day of the week. At length the two meetings a day were confined to the summer season. But for the past fifteen years, nearly, there has been but one Friends' meeting on the First-day of the week, besides the regular mid-week meeting on Fifth-day.

Prior to 1819 we are at a loss to know who of the members of the Yarmouth meeting were ministers; except one Joshua Weekson, who in 1731 is mentioned as a " public Friend." " Our meetings in the old house," says Ezra Kelley, " and for some years in the new, were usually silent, except when visited by ministering Friends from away. We did occasionally hear a few words from Abby Crowell (formerly Kelley) but had no approved ministry before Russell Davis." About 1819 Russell Davis moved from New Bedford to South Yarmouth, having a remarkable gift in the ministry of discerning and addressing the states of individuals and meetings. With but little human learning, and regarded as inferior in manner and appearance, he was often enabled, both in public and in private, to reveal to individuals their thoughts and spiritual conditions, to their own astonishment. He became known as a true seer ; and such was the general confidence in his declarations as being from the true source of authorized ministry, that the attendance of the South Yarmouth meeting grew in his day to its greatest number. He died in 1847, aged seventy-five years. The subsequent acknowledged ministers have been : Jacob H. Vining, whose residence here was contemporary with the oil-carpet manufactory which he conducted ; Ruth H. Baker, acknowledged in 1843 ; and Elizabeth Stetson, 1889.

The religious concern represented by the meeting house near Georgetown, a short distance northward from the Friends' meeting house, is attributed to Friends, though having no official connection with the Society. In 1868 her Christian interest in the welfare of families of fishermen and others led Rose Kelley, the beloved daughter (now deceased) of David Kelley, with Rebeeca Wood (now Howes) to read the Bible to them in their homes, and at times to gather as many children as would assemble for instruction in the contents of the Scriptures. The attendance soon outgrew the capacity of any of the Georgetown houses, and encouraged David Kelley, in 1873, to build a plain, commodious building for the good of all who would assemble there rather than in one of the denominational houses for worship. One and another non-clerical laborer has been raised up to work in this mission, and a decided change for good has been wrought in many lives, and in the neighborhood. At the close of Friends' meetings, visiting ministers often repair to this house, as if in continuation of their service. The beloved elder still lives to acknowledge, in view of remarkable results which have followed, the reward of peace with which the erection of his building has been blessed.

There would be no easy stopping place were we to begin giving credit to the estimable lives of men and women among the South Yarmouth worthies. The memory of these just, though blessed in the scale of virtue, has only its invisible record. As to public note, the riame which stands in the writer's memory as most conspicuous in the affairs of Yarmouth Friends forty years ago is that of Zeno Kelley. His most widely known successor in public prominence and esteem was the late David K. Akin, a sketch of whose life has been furnished by other hands as follows :

David K. Akin. - This valued citizen was bom 1st mo. 5, 1799, and departed this life 8th mo., 23, 1887, at his homestead in South Yarmouth. Of his ancestry it is only known that a widowed lady named Akins came from Scotland to Dartmouth early in the last century, and from her two sons the name descended. Other branches of the name exist at Dartmouth and New Bedford, but Abiel, son of Thomas, was the first known in Yarmouth. Abiel Akin was born at Dartmouth and came to South Yarmouth, where he married Catherine Kelley, 6th mo., 12, 1794. She was the sister of Zeno and Seth Kelley, the latter being the father of the present David Kelley. The children of the marriage were: Rebecca, Thomas, David K., Joseph, Seth K., Phoebe, and Catherine. The mother died, and Abiel for his second wife married Mary Wing of Sandwich.

David K. Akin, the third child, was married 6th mo. 23, 1824, to Rachel W. Peckham of Westport, Mass., who died 6th mo., 17, 1848, leaving her surviving, a husband and two children, - Hannah P., who married David Kelley and died 2d mo., 21, 1872, without issue; and Peleg P. Akin. This son is the only surviving male representative of this branch of the Akin family, also of his mother's family. He was born 6th mo., 30, 1832, and married Mary A. Leonard, who died without issue. He married 1st mo., 7, 1866, Rebecca B. Howes, and their only child, Mary L. Akin, resides with them.

David K. Akin learned clock-making and commenced for himself in this trade at South Yarmouth in his early married life. When the manufacture of salt became a leading industry he erected works which, although in decay, are now owned by his only son. He was an early merchant of South Yarmouth and with his brother, Thomas, conducted a store many years under the firm name of David K. Akin & Co. For years he was secretary of the first Marine Insurance Company of the town, and a director of the Barnstable County Fire Insurance Company, in which he succeeded Amos Otis in the presidency. He was director in the affairs of the Yarmouth National Bank, being elected to his fiftieth term the year he died, and was its president from 1871 to 1879. He was also one of the prime movers in the organization of the Bass River Savings Bank, of which he was a trustee. Other responsible positions he satisfactorily filled in his active life; but those civil relations which would absorb too much of his time, he declined. His generous nature induced him to serve a term as overseer of the poor, and he once served as a county commissioner with his republican contemporaries, Seth Crowell and John Doane.

He adhered to the faith of the Friends, and was a leading member and an elder, aiding greatly in its material and spiritual maintenance. He was a valued counsellor of the Representative Meeting of the Friends of New England, and for twelve years (1849-61) served as the clerk of the Sandwich monthly meeting. For his second wife he married, 10th mo., 5, 1849, Betsey Crowell, who died 1st mo., 18, 1881. To his social relations he was strongly attached. To his purity of life in all its phases his associates attest. He was liberal in his views, sympathetic and kind, and among the first in every good enterprise. He possessed physical strength, energy of character, and great moral courage; all of which, united with his generous nature and conscien-

The Society in Falmouth. - In our general survey, we have seen that Sandwich was the first town in America where a society of that people was established, and that this took place in 1657, only ten years after the rise of the Society in England.

Turning our eyes now three years later southward to the Succonesset shore, we are struck with the view that Quakerism appears an occasion of the first settlement of Falmouth*; and that, too, in the person of no less a character than Isaac Robinson himself, the son of that distinguished pastor of the Pilgrim fathers, John Robinson, whom on embarking in the Mayflower they left in charge of the church at Leyden. The Pastor Robinson having died in 1626, Isaac, his son, came over in 1631. In 1639 he removed from Scituate to Barnstable. For twenty years he was a highly respected citizen there, being deemed " an excellent and sensible man "; and was some time in the service of the government. In the year 1659, as we are informed in Cogswell's historical sketch in the Barnstable County Atlas, " the General Court of Plymouth by special order permitted Robinson and three others to frequent the Quaker meetings 'to endeavor to seduce them from the error of their ways.' But the reverse effect followed. Robinson became a sympathizer with the Quakers, and June 6, 1660, a year less one day, he was pronounced a manifest opposer of the laws." In the statement of another we read: " Instead of convincing the Quakers he became self-convicted, embraced many of their doctrines, and consequently rendered himself so obnoxious that he was dismissed from civil employment and exposed to much censure and some indignity."

This was enough to make Isaac Robinson, now ostracised as a Quaker, feel no longer at home in Barnstable, and incline to .seek a new residence. Thirteen other men with their families, and probably having religious toleration as their bond of sympathy, accompany him in boats on Vineyard sound, and sail westward, till they find at Succonesset satisfactory land and a fresh pond,- which determine them to settle there. The first house built in the town was Isaac Robin-

-The opinion of Charles W. Jenkins, in his lectures on the history of Falmouth, is confirmatory of this view. He says: " One of the first and leading settlers was Isaac Robinson; and what were the lessons he had learned from his Puritan father? They were the following: ' Follow no man any farther than he follows the Lord Jesus Christ.' 'I am confident God has yet much truth to break forth from His holy word; and follow the truth whenever and by whomsoever taught.' These lessons of the pious, catholic, and learned Robinson were not lost on the son; and when persecution in the New World lifted its arm, he was the first who dared openly to avert the blow. For this he sacrificad the favors of the government, and it was this that led him and his associates, who probably sympathized w^ith him, to commence a new settlement at this place."

son's. He lived in continued good esteem to the venerable age of ninety-three; but appears, after keeping " an ordinary at Saconesset for the entertainment of strangers " to have moved before the year 1673 to Martha's Vineyard (where it had been his intention to sail when he left Barnstable), and to be residing there in 1701. He was proprietors' clerk at Tisbury in 1673, and 1678-84 was selectman.

It is not known how soon actual members of the Society followed their forerunner, Isaac Robinson, into Succonesset, or Falmouth. But the prominence and undenied influence possessed in his new colony by their former champion, doubtless early turned the eyes of some Friends to Succonesset as a safe abiding place for themselves also. In his lectures on early Falmouth history, Charles W. Jenkins thinks it probable that the " first founders of the Society of Friends in this town arrived about six years after the first settlers, and that William Gifford and Robert Harper were of this number, and that their meeting at West Falmouth was established about 1685. Probably Isaac Robinson, jr., a son of the first settler, joined this meeting, - he settled at West Falmouth, - and Isaac Robinson is one of the first names to be found on the records of that Society."

This Robert Harper, who afterward, in 1685, took up lands in the eastern part of the township, had been a prominent sufferer in Sandwich from the first rise of the Society there. In 1659 he was sentenced in Boston to fifteen stripes, also suffered imprisonment there; and his fines in Sandwich (for not swearing, etc.) are recorded* as amounting to £4:4; namely, " all the cattle he had, his house and land "; leaving him and his family " one cow, which was so poor that she was ready to dye." Robert Harper was one of the four Friends, who, when William Leddra, the last of the four Friends thus executed, was hanged on Boston common, and his body was cut down, as says the chronicler,t " attended the fall of it; and heaving catch'd it in their Arms laid it on the Ground, until your Murtherer had stripped it of the cloaths; who, when he had so done, confesst he was a comely Man."

Freeman says that in 1668 William Gifford, Thomas Lewis and John Jenkins became inhabitants of Succonesset. William Gifford's fines in Sandwich, in 1658 and '59, had been fifteen head of Cattle, " half a Horse " and " half a Swine " - all amounting to ;^57,19s. " For no other cause," as says George Bishop, " but for Meeting with the People of the Lord; and for that in Conscience to the Command of Christ, he could not Swear."

In the oldest existing book of minutes of Friends' monthly meeting held at Sandwich, the earliest entry being for 25th of 4th mo, 1672, we find Robert Harper (then of Succonesset) among the first to be em- ployed on committees for services requiring tact and good judgment. Two months later, William Gifford is one of two named to speak to Thomas Johnson, also of Succonesset, " to know how it is with him in respect of his outward condition." And the care of the meeting month after month for the guardianship and relief of Thom. s Johnson's family, makes interesting reading. Before leaving Sandwich to take up land in Succonesset he had had his house and land seized by the marshal for fines.

The following has been preserved as the record of a monthly meeting held at Falmouth the 2d day of 11th mo., 1673: " Friends having met together in the fear of the Lord, found all things well and in order, and so departed in love, giving God the glory, who is blessed forever."

In 1678 lands were laid out at Oyster pond; also at Hog island and Great Sipperwisset " where the early settlers were William Gifford, Senior; William Gifford, Jr.; John Weeks, and William Weeks." This is the first recorded beginning of the settlement at West Falmouth, and Quaker names head the list, - William Gifford, sr., having become an inhabitant of Succonesset ten years before. He was evidently a prominent character, and employed in useful services in town as well as in Society affairs.

In 1681, 2d month, the monthly meeting at Sandwich ordered that a meeting (probably a session of the monthly meeting) be held " at Joseph Hull's at Suckonessett, the last 6th day in 3d mo. next." Like Robert Harper, Joseph Hull afterward took up lands in the eastern part of the township. This Joseph Hull is traced, in notes left by Newell Hoxie, as a son of Joseph Hull who came from Weymouth to Barnstat)le in 1639, and in 1641 went to Yarmouth to preach without approbation of his brethren, and was excommunicated. Afterward he made satisfaction and was restored. "His son Joseph moved to Falmouth and bought of Zach. Perkins the estate which Zach. bought of William Weeks, sen., for /"lOS in 1678. His uncle, Tristum Hull, who moved to Newport, was father to John, captain of the first packet to England, and from him came Commodore Hull." Tristum Hull was blamed by the Plymouth authorities for bringing the persecuted Nicholas Upshal to Sandwich, and was ordered to " carry him out of the government." It appears that Newport became the home of both.

In 1682 a meeting, - probably another transferred sitting of the monthly meeting, - was ordered to be held at William Gifford's at Sipperwisset (West Falmouth) the 20th of the month and 6th day of the week. In 1683 Robert Harper informed that Friends at Succonesset desired that Friends might have meetings among them. And in the 8th month . a meeting was appointed to be held at Succonesset the

16th of this month, 3d day of the week. Of siach occasional monthly meetings held at Falmouth, and sometimes at Yarmouth, there is no record of the business.

In 1685, by a minute of the monthly meeting, " Friends of Suckonessett were encouraged to meet together." This may be regarded as the date of the official establishment of the Friends' meeting in West. Falmouth; though no doubt, according to their principles, they had been regularly holding meetings for worship from the time when but. " two or three " began to reside here. Before moving from Sandwich to Falmouth, Cudworth says of them: "They meet ordinarily twice in a week besides the Lord's day." Since worship in spirit and in truth; cannot, in the Friends' view, be treated as if dependent on the services of a minister, or hearing of words, their meetings for that purpose must have been the earliest regularly held in the township.. Though the town voted land in 1687 for the support of any who might be found fit to " teach the good word of God " in Falmouth, it was not until 1701 that Samuel Shiverick was settled upon as the town minister.

The relations between these first two churches which grew up side by side in Falmouth - the Congregationalist and the Friends' - seem to have been amicable or mutually tolerant, from the first. The leadingpioneer or first settler of the town, Isaac Robinson, seems to have been a representative of both societies in his own person.* The thirteenfamilies who joined him in the Falmouth colony were no doubt irr sympathy with his spirit. Though all were Congregationalists, so as^ early to identify that church with the town government, they started the town on its general course of giving fair play to the Quaker refu- from the rigors of the Plymouth rule. There are traditions that Friends were made to suffer even here by orders from Plymouth, - for instance that Daniel Butler " was tied to a cart and whipped through the town." But leaving tradition for history, the records of the town contain an application from the " persecuted Quaker Daniel Butler " to the town, to be released from liabilities to the minister on account of his being a Friend. The request was granted, thus showing, as Jenkins observes, " that if Butler was persecuted it was not. the result of town action." " There are many instances recorded," says the same author, " where individuals made it to appear that they had conscientious scruples on this subject [of paid ministry] and their tax was promptly remitted. . . . It is to be hoped that our worthy

* " Our habit of toleration began with Isaac Robinson in 1660, who with his father^ the Leyden minister was taught ' to follow truth whenever and by whomsoever taught.' Intercourse with the Quakers had undoubtedly much to do with the liberal and tolerant ways of the community. This liberality and humane disposition is seen in the just treatment of Indians, with whom Falmouth was always on the kindest terms." - John. L. Swift (Falmouth Bi-ceutennial Oration).

neighbors of this sect, when thinking of the cruel persecutions of the Quakers, will not forget these acts of liberality on the part of the good people of this town."

In 1688 lands in Falmouth were laid out to Thomas Bowerman. In 1705 a Thomas Bowman (whether the same Friend or not, it is not clear) appears on the monthly meeting record as being in prison for priest's rate, and Friends send him a bed and bedding. As Friends could not contribute to a paid ministry in the form of taxes or otherwise, neither could they vote with their fellow-townsmen for the supporting of a stated minister. In 1731, the following voters, being members of the Society of Friends, dissented from a call to Samuel Palmer to serve as the town's minister with a stated support : Stephen Harper, Benjamin Swift, Richard Landers, Samuel Bowerman, Thomas Bowerman, jr., Amos Landers, Justus Giflford, John Landers, Thomas Bowerman, William Gifford, sr., William Gifford, Seth Giflford, and William Giflford, younger. But the record states that "in November the town voted ;^170 for Mr. Palmer's settlement and salary - to clear the Quakers."

In 1703 Falmouth Friends are so remiss in attending the monthly meeting that it appoints a committee to look after them ; - likewise Yarmouth.

In 1709 the monthly meeting held at Sandwich conferred the powers of a meeting for discipline, or preparative meeting, upon that held in Falmouth ; and the ne^tt year a monthly meeting for Falmouth was proposed. Sometimes when no business appeared in the Falmouth preparative meeting to report up to the monthly meeting, it is stated that " Friends sent their love."

The need of a regular meeting house, for a better accommodation of public worship than private houses could afford, soon began to find expression. In 1717 Richard Landers was appointed by the monthly meeting to dig graves for Friends in Falmouth ; and at the next monthly meeting those who had promised to pay money for fencing the burying ground were requested to bring it to him. This grave yard, though now grown up with trees, may still be found in the woods eastward of the houses at present occupied by Judah Bowman, or Maria F. Hamblin. Traces of the stone wall which in 1730 John Landers and Stephen Bowman were appointed to build about the burial ground are still to be discerned; but all marks of the graves are obliterated, except such rude natural stones as might be found by <iigging. Here were the remains of West Falmouth Friends gen- buried, until the second grave-yard surrounding the present meeting house facing the new road below, was laid out.

be traced in places in the woods for a mile or two. The ground over which the first Friends' meeting house stood is marked at its central spot by a stone post, chiseled with the figures " 1720," and erected by the late Daniel Swift and others. The building, which was begun in the year 1720, was thirty feet square on the ground, and one story high, having a " hopper roof," - that is, coming to a point like a pyramid. On meeting days in cold weather an attempt was made to warm the room, or at least some of the worshippers' feet, by a large pot of charcoal standing on the ground or floor in the middle of the room. For the escape of the fumes, an opening was made in the roof. Meetings were regularly held here for fifty years. Of all the Friends traveling in the ministry who preached in this house, Samuel Fothergill, from England, seems remembered as the most eminent.

The building of this meeting house was authorized by the following minutes of Sandwich monthly meeting: "At our monthly meeting, at our meeting house in Sandwich the 2d of the 7th month, 1720, were the several weekly meetings belonging to the same, called on : For Sandwich John Wing and Edward Perry present, for Falmouth Richard Landers and Stephen Harper present, for Yarmouth none appears. At this meeting it is agreed and concluded that there be a meeting house built at Falmouth, and Friends subscribed towards the building of it as follows :