Samuel Merrill, 1928, reprint 1983

Newbury in the Seventeenth Century - Chapter VI, pp55-65

A Question of Church Government

   The men who migrated from England, and made the long voyage to seek homes in the New England wilderness, were the more active and independent spirits in the communities from which they came. The law of inertia kept the less enterprising men at home. The same independence, in the new communities which they established on this side of the ocean, made them jealous of their rights, and ready to defend them if they fancied that these rights were being disregarded. They were dissenters in England, and were equally ready to express dissent in this country if they felt that their individual rights, or right in the abstract, was encroached upon. This quality of combativeness led to several long-continued contests among the settlers of Newbury, concerning both civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

   Rev. Thomas Parker, a native of Wiltshire, had been a teacher in Newbury, in Berkshire, England, before coming to New England. He was pastor of the church in Newbury, Massachusetts, from 1635 until, having become blind, he relinquished the pulpit in 1675. In his honor both Parker River and the town of Newbury received their names.

   From 1663 until 1672 Mr. Parker was assisted by his nephew, Rev. John Woodbridge. Serious dissension had arisen in the church, a large element disputing certain doctrines taught by the pastor and his colleague regarding church government. The charge was made that the minister assumed greater authority in parish affairs than he had a right to exercise.

   An issue was framed and presented to the County Court in 1669, but an appeal was taken to the Court of Assistants. Later in the same year a counoil of churches was held, but its advice was soon disregarded, and a second council had to be called. After a long hearing an agreement, which it was hoped would end the controversy, was signed by the leaders of both parties.

   John¹ Merrill and Deacon Abraham² Merrill were among those who sought to secure a larger measure of influence for the church members in ecclesiastical matters, and to curb the somewhat arbitrary power claimed by the pastor. In 1671 the case again reached the County Court, and fines ranging from one to twenty nobles were imposed on about forty of Rev. Mr. Parker's opponents. John¹ Merrill was fined a mark and Abraham² was fined a noble. (*)

(*) A noble was 6s.8d. A mark equaled two nobles.

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