work was done by Benjamin Eustis and

Crafts; one quarter by Benjamin Sumner, jun. and James Sumner; and the other by John Stutson and Nathaniel Call, on an agreement that these two companies should proportionably admit William Flagg, James Robbins, Benjamin Sumner, Joseph Eustis and Appleton to a part of the work at the same rate.' Capt.

John Gore and Mr. Daniel Rae were the painters.

There were seventy-five' free gift' subscribers. The most liberal subscriptions were those of Gov. Hancock and Gov. Bowdoin. The latter gave £200. The former gave £1000, reserving to himself the particular disposition of the sum, and the beginning and completing a mahogany pulpit, with its full furniture, a mahogany deacons' seat, and communion table, under his own direction,' and the providing for the accommodation of poor widows and others, belonging to the Society, who are reputable persons, and unable to furnish themselves with seats, &c.' In addition to this, he gave a bell. A temporary pine pulpit was first erected, that which was engaged by him of Mr. Crafts not being finished when the house was occupied.

Some approximation to an estimate of the size of the Society, at this period, may be made from the circumstance, that eighty-one voters are recorded by name to have been present at a meeting in 1773, and it is added, that there were several others.

In part of the years 1775 and 1776, a regiment or two of British troops were quartered in the church, a sugar-house which stood north of it, and other houses in the neighbourhood. Dr. Cooper was not seldom a subject of their notice in passing into the church at service time, while they were paraded in the square. Divine service continued to be performed till 'April 16, 1775, when, by the cruelty and oppression of an infamous administration, the congregation was dispersed, and the house improved as a barrack for the British soldiery, till, by a most remarkable interposition of Divine Providence, the troops were obliged to evacuate the town on the 17th March, 1776. Gen. Gage had his head quarters in the house opposite the church. He told Mr. Turell, he had no fear of the shot from Cambridge, for his troops, while within such walls. The morning on which the British left the town, Deacon Newell and Mr. Turell went into the church, and quenched the fires, which they had left burning. A shot struck the tower the night before. It was picked up by Mr. Turell, and preserved by his family till the committee for making the late repairs had it fastened in the tower where it had struck.

When the British were about to occupy the church, Deacon Gore and Deacon Newell were permitted to case up the pulpit and columns, and remove the body pews, which were carried to the paint loft of the former. The soldiers defaced the inscription of Gov. Hancock's name, mentioned p. 64, and the stone remains in the condition in which they left it. A

similar inscription, unmutilated, appears on one of the rustick quoins in the south-west corner of the tower. This was probably made after the house was reoccupied, which took place May 19, 1776. A similar inscription, which appears on the north-west corner of the tower, bears the name of Dr. John Greenleaf, who, with Gov. Bowdoin, advanced the money for refitting the church, it having been grossly polluted by being improved as a barrack for the British troops.'

The following extracts from a MS. journal kept by Deacon Newell during the siege, I have been kindly permitted to take from a copy among the papers of the late Dr. Belknap :

14 Sept. 1775. Messrs. Auchinclosh, Morrison, and another person, came to me, as three Scotchmen had been before. They shewed me a paper, -directed to me, setting forth, that the Rev. Mr. was permitted, by his excellency Gen. Gage, to preach, and desired he may have the use of Dr. Cooper's meeting-house: Signed by about thirty Scotchmen and others, viz. &c. I desired they would leave the paper for my consideration. They did not choose I should keep it, and began to urge their having the house. For answer, I told them, I looked upon it a high insult upon that Society, their proposing it, and turned my back upon them, and so left them.

9

'P. M. Messrs. Black, Dixon and Hunter came and told me his excellency the general had consented they should have our meeting-house, and desired I would deliver them the key. I told them, when I see such an order, I should know how to proceed. One said to me, So, you refuse to deliver the key? I answered, with an emotion of resentment, Yes, I do. 15. As I was attending a funeral, the provost, Mr. Cunningham, came to me, and told me, it was his excellency the general's command, I should immediately deliver him the key of Dr. Cooper's meeting-house. I replied, I must see the governour. He told me, he would not see me till I had delivered the key. I told him, I must see the general, and refused to deliver the key. He left me in a great rage, and swore he would immediately go and break open the doors. I left the funeral, and proceeded to the governour's, calling on Capt. Erving to go with me. He excused himself, and so I went alone. The governour received me civilly. I addressed myself to him, and most earnestly entreated him, that he would be pleased to withdraw his order, urging, that Dr. Eliot, in order to accommodate our people, was to preach in said meeting-house the next Sabbath, or the Sabbath after, and that the person they proposed was a man of an infamous character, which, had it been otherwise, I should not oppose it, &c. and I desired his excellency would consider of it. He told me he would, and that I might keep the key, and if he sent for it, he expected I would deliver it. So left him. I had not been, I believe, twenty minutes from him,

before the provost came with a written order to deliver the key immediately, which I did accordingly.

"When I at first urged the governour to excuse my delivering the key, for the reasons given, he replied, that a number of creditable people had applied to him, and he saw no reason why that house should not be made use of, as any other. Gen. Robinson (when I mentioned the preacher being of an infamous character) said he knew no harm of the man; but this he knew, that he had left a very bad service, and taken up with a good one.

'The next day the provost came to my shop. I not being there, he left word, that he came for the apparatus of the pulpit, and that he must have the key under the pulpit, supposing the curtain and cushions were there. The provost, the same day, came again. I chose not to be there. He left orders to send him the aforesaid, and swore most bitterly, that if I did not send them, he would split the door open; and accordingly I hear the same was forced open; and that if Dr. Cooper and Dr. Warren were there, he would break their heads; and that he would drag me in the gutter, &c. &c. &c. This being Saturday afternoon, I chose not to be seen. Spent the evening at Major Phillips's; consulted with a few friends; advised still to be as much out of the way as possible. Dr. Eliot invited me to come very early in the morning (being Lord's day) and breakfast with him, and also dine; which I did, and returned home after nine at night; found a sergeant with a letter had been twice at our house for me. Thus ends a Sabbath, which, exclusive of the perplexities and insults before mentioned, has been a good day to me.

'P. S. Capt. Erving and myself being the only persons of the committee remaining in town, I acquainted him of the demand of the general, who advised me, that, if the general insisted on the delivery of the key, to deliver the same. The next week several of our parish thought proper to petition the general. I advised with Foster Hutchinson, Esq. who thought it very proper, and accordingly, at my desire, he drew a petition; but, upon further consideration, and hearing of the opinion of the general, he thought it best not to present it.

'Oct. 13. Col. Birch, of the light horse dragoons, went to view our meeting-house, which was destined for a riding school for the dragoons. It was designed to clear the floor, to put two feet of tan covered with horse dung to make it elastick. But when it was considered, that the pillars must be taken away, which would bring down the roof, they altered their mind; so that the pillars saved us.

27. The spacious Old South meeting-house taken possession of' by the 17th regiment of dragoons for this purpose. The pulpit, pews and seats all cut to pieces, and carried off in the most savage manner as can be expressed, and destined for a riding school. The beautiful carved pew,

with the silk furniture of Deacon Hubbard's, was taken down and carried to's house by an officer, and made a hog-stye. The above was effected by the solicitation of Gen. Burgoyne.

'Nov. 16. The keys of our meeting-house cellars demanded of me by Major Sheriff, by order of Gen. Howe.

1776. Jan. 16. The Old North meeting-house pulled down, by order of Gen. Howe, for fuel for the refugees and tories.'

Nov. 1780, the Society 'voted, that the deacons get the house repaired, the bell fixed, and frame painted.' Nov. 1781, the committee 'directed, that screens be put up to secure the belfry against the weather.' Stoves were introduced in the winter of 1782-3.

(28.) p. 19. As this transaction is recent, and many of those, whose judgments differed upon it, survive, I do not give a detailed account of it. Some coarse, though not altogether insipid wit, called forth by it, on both sides, and in prose and verse, may be found in the Centinel of December 11, 1784, and January 12 and 15, 1785.

(29.) p. 19. THE council consisted of the First, Second, West, New North, New South, Old South, Hollis Street, and Dr. Mather's churches in Boston; the First Church in Roxbury; the churches in Cambridge and Medford, and the Third Church in Dedham. The services of installation took place in the afternoon. Rev. Dr. Osgood preached the Sermon, from Eph. iii. 8. The Charge was given by Rev. Dr. Lathrop, and the Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. Dr. Clark. Rev. Mr. Thacher of Dedham made the Introductory Prayer; Rev. Mr. Hilliard of Cambridge the Prayer of Installation; and Rev. Dr. Eliot the Concluding Prayer.

(30.) p. 20. DR. THACHER's parents lived in Boston; but, at the time of his birth, they were in Milton, the small pox then raging in the former place. He was born March 21, 1752. At the age of thirteen, he lost his father, who was a man of great and increasing eminence. He was graduated in 1769, kept a school afterwards some months in Chelsea, preached his first sermon in Malden, January 28, 1770, and was ordained there, September 19, 1770, when Rev. Mr. Robbins of Milton delivered the Sermon; Dr. Appleton of Cambridge gave the Charge; and Dr. Eliot of Boston the Right Hand of Fellowship. During his residence in that town, he took a deep interest and an active part in the measures, which brought and carried on the revolution; and was a member of the convention, which sat in Cambridge and Boston, to form the state constitution. He was opposed in that body to the continuance of the office of governour, and, when this question was decided against

him, still objected to connecting with it the title of Excellency. Some of his political, however, as well as his religious views, he afterwards saw reason to change. He closed the sitting of that convention with prayer. He was dismissed, at his own request, from his pastoral relation to the church in Malden, December 8, 1784.

Dr. Thacher had his degree in divinity from Edinburgh in 1791. He was secretary of the Society for propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America; a trustee of the Humane Society; a counsellor of the Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society; and a member of the Historical Society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the seventeen years, that he was settled in town, he was fifteen years chaplain to one or both branches of the general court.

He sailed from Boston November 15, and arrived at Savannah Decem ber 3, 1802. His funeral obsequies, like those of his predecessor, were solemnized at the lecture preceding the first communion of the year. His remains were not present, as is erroneously intimated, p. 28. They arrived, and were deposited in the family tomb the Sunday night following. At the funeral service, Rev. Mr. Howard and Rev. Dr. Lathrop prayed, and Rev. Mr. Emerson preached, from John v. 35. The ministers, who attended in the place of pall holders were Drs. Howard, Lathrop, Eliot, Morse, Eckley, and the Rev. Mr. Porter.' The following are extracts from the sermon, which was published:

'He was illustrious for his natural powers. His soul was lodged in a person possessing the advantages of a noble stature, a commanding mein, a full and steady eye, a countenance pleasing and expressive, a mouth formed for ready utterance, and a voice of wonderful sweetness, variety, and strength. With these qualities of body, so eminently useful to a publick speaker, the Father of Lights had united a sound understanding, a fancy of uncommon sprightliness, a tenacious memory, and a correct judgment.

'He was illustrious for his early proficience in learning, in piety, and in the studies and duties of the sacerdotal office. The dawn of his days afforded promise of a brilliant life. Love of knowledge, and of the distinction which it brings, discovered itself among the first passions of his breast, and was conspicuous in every stage of his education. It accelerated his progress through the school, and enabled him, at an earlier age than usual, to receive academical honours. He was even more remarkable for his pious disposition. Faith in God and in Christ was planted in his heart in the morning of life, and increased in strength with the number of his years.'

'He was illustrious as a preacher. The light of his own understanding he communicated to that of his hearers, and enkindled their affections from the warmth of his. In doctrine he was lucid, and in exhortation, fervent. He was considered a disciple of the Calvinistick school;