Glimpses of the Past Part 46

Female Members of the Church.

Mary Barker, Jane Pickard, Abigail Jewett, Hannah Coburn, Lydia Whitney, Lydia Jepheson, Hannah n.o.ble, Anna Coy, Elizbh. Palmer.

"The last Sabbath I preached at St. John's river," continued Mr.

Alline, "the people seemed so loth to go away, that we stopped at the meeting-house door, and sung and discoursed some time, and then I left them to go down the river." He preached at Gagetown, encamped a night in the woods, and on the third day reached the mouth of the river where he preached at "Mahogany." The next day was Sunday and in the morning a boat came to take him to "the town"--or settlement at Portland Point--where he was to preach.

Evidently the people were disposed to hold aloof from his ministrations at this time, for he says, "O! the darkness of the place! * * I suppose there were upwards of 200 people there come to the years of maturity, and I saw no signs of any Christian excepting one soldier. Yet although I was among such an irreligious people, the Lord was kind to me, and I lacked for nothing while I was there."

He returned to St. John in the latter part of August and preached on a Sunday. Major Studholme treated him with civility, and sent him up the river in his own barge. He found the church prospering. There was much interest in religion; a good many new members having been added to the roll in his absence, three or four of them upwards of fifty years of age. Two elders and two deacons were now appointed, and a formal call was extended to Mr. Alline to remain as their settled pastor. This call he did not see his way clear to accept, but promised to revisit them shortly. He got back to Fort Howe on the 6th of November, and preached there while awaiting a chance to cross the bay to Annapolis.

He returned to St. John, April 22, 1780, staid a week and preached on Sunday, after which he again went up the river. Several weeks were devoted to visiting the various settlements and great interest was manifested, crowds of people attending his preaching. In his diary he tells us that much company went with him from place to place, some times six or seven boats loaded with people. Edward Coy's daughter Mary (afterwards Mrs. Mary Bradley) who was then a child in her ninth year, gives, in her book her recollections of Henry Alline's visit.

"My parents," she says, "took me with them twice to meeting. The first text was, 'And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.' My attention was arrested, and for many days after I was engaged in ruminating and repeating over some parts of the sermon. * * After the sermon and worship was over, I was astonished to see the people talking and shaking hands as I never before had witnessed. Some looked of a cheerful, loving and happy countenance; others were in tears, and cast down. * * It soon became the common subject of conversation that such and such persons were converted."

On Mr. Alline's return from Maugerville to the mouth of the river he staid there a fortnight, waiting for a pa.s.sage, and during that time preached and visited among the people. On June 25th he sailed to Annapolis.

Two years later he again visited the River St. John. He left Windsor on the 29th April and arrived at the mouth of the river in four days.

"When I came to the river," he says, "the vessel did not go up that I was in, but G.o.d gave me speed, for there was another vessel just going over the falls to go up the river, so that without the least delay I crossed Pot-Ash[135] and went immediately on board.... I remained on the river, preaching from place to place among the people almost every day, and often twice a day until the 26th of May, during which time I had happy days and much of the Spirit of G.o.d moving among the people."

On the last Sunday of Alline's stay at Sheffield the concourse was so great that he preached in the open field. "I had so much to say to them," he writes, "and they seemed so loth to part that I was almost spent before we parted; and then I went ten miles down the river. But after I had refreshed the body, I preached again in the evening; and it was an evening much to be remembered."

[135] That is the portage to Marble Cove, or Indiantown, above the falls. This portage is shown in Champlain's plan of Saint John. It was used by the Indians long before the coming of the whites.

Mr. Alline's opinion of the spiritual condition of the community in the vicinity of Fort Howe seems to have changed but little, for he writes under date, June 29th., 1782, "When I came to the port at the mouth of the river, there appeared no pa.s.sage from thence; and I thought I could not content myself long in that dark place; but the very next day four or five vessels came in, all bound for c.u.mberland where I wanted to go."

The story of Alline's illness and death, which occurred in the town of Northampton, New Hampshire, February 2nd, 1784, is pathetic in the extreme, but we must pa.s.s on.

When Rev. Wm. Black visited Sheffield in 1792 the results of Henry Alline's labors were yet in evidence, and were not entirely acceptable to Mr. Black, who says that he found among the people "many New-Lights, or more properly Allinites--much wild fire and many wrong opinions."

In the year 1805, in answer to a pet.i.tion from Sheffield, the Rev.

James MacGregor, a Presbyterian minister of Pictou, visited the River St. John, and has left us an entertaining account of his visit. He stopped at a house not far below the Grand Lake, where the following colloquy with the good woman of the house ensued.

Woman--Who are you?

Doctor--I am James MacGregor, a minister from Pictou.

Woman--Are you a Methodist?

Doctor--No.

Woman--Are you Church of England?

Doctor--No.

Woman--Then you must be a New-Light.

Doctor--No, I am not a New-Light.

Woman--Then what in the world are you, for I do not know any more?

Doctor--I am a Presbyterian.

Woman--Well, I never saw a Presbyterian minister before, but my mother used to tell me that they were the very best in the world. But what do you hold to?

Doctor--I do not understand what you mean.

Woman--Do you hold to conversion?

Doctor--Don't they all hold to conversion?

Woman--No, the Methodists and New-Lights holds to it, but the Church of England holds against it.

Doctor MacGregor was very hospitably entertained by Squire Burpee and his family, who informed him that they were a colony from New England, and that of course they were Congregationalists in their religious profession. The Doctor said that he had long wished to see one of their congregations and hoped that they were a fair sample of a New England church. The squire replied: "I am afraid that we are degenerated." Mr. MacGregor says, "I preached two Sabbaths to them in a respectable place of worship, and to Methodists and Baptists. They heard with apparent attention and satisfaction. Many of them stayed and conversed a good while after public worship was over."

In the course of his missionary tour Doctor MacGregor visited the settlement on the River Nashwaak founded by the disbanded soldiers of the 42nd regiment. Not having been visited by a minister of their church for many years, a few of them had turned Baptists and Methodists, but "the best and worst of them," he says, "continued Presbyterians."

The glimpses we have of life at the mouth of the St. John, during the last two or three years of the Revolutionary struggle, are of some local interest, though not of a thrilling or exciting character. The proximity of the garrison seems to have proved detrimental to the morals of some of the inhabitants. At least this is the inference we should draw from the following notice posted up by order of the chief magistrate of the community.

NOTICE.

Whereas complaint hath been made to me by the Commanding Officer of the King's Troops at this place that several Irregularities have lately been committed here by his Troops, proceeding from the quant.i.ty of strong Liquors sold them by the Inhabitants: To prevent any disturbance for the future, I publickly forbid any person or persons at this place selling Strong Liquors, under the penalty of the Law made and provided in such cases, except those who have Licence or Permits from authority for that purpose.

Given under my hand at Fort Howe this third day of July, 1781.

JAMES WHITE, J. P.

The civil authority at this period was vested in the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the County of Sunbury, which used to meet regularly at Maugerville, and of which James Simonds, James White, Israel Perley, Gervas Say and Jacob Barker, Esquires, were members.

One of the notices issued by order of the court was as follows:--

PUBLIC NOTICE.

Application having been made to the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for the County of Sunbury and Province of Nova Scotia, held at Maugerville on the Second Tuesday of October, A. D., 1781, setting forth the necessity of having a Publick House of Entertainment kept near the Harbour of the River St.

Johns:--Therefore by virtue of the Authority vested in the said Court by the Laws of the said Province, Licence is hereby given to Philip Newton to keep a Publick House of Entertainment and to retail Spirituous Liquors for the s.p.a.ce of one year at the place aforesaid, he the said Philip Newton keeping and maintaining good order agreeable to the Laws of this Province.

By order of the said court, BENJ. ATHERTON, Clerk Peace.

It is not improbable that Philip Newton, mentioned above, was a relative of Hon. Henry Newton, member of the Council of Nova Scotia, and Collector of Customs at Halifax. His stay at St. John was evidently brief, and this is the only known reference to him.

In 1782 the disturbed condition of affairs, consequent upon the Revolution, had so far improved that St. John was made a Port of Entry, with James White as Deputy Collector, under Henry Newton of Halifax. It was truly the day of small things with the future Winter Port of Canada. The following is a list of the vessels that entered and cleared in the year 1782.

Entered. Tons. Cleared. Tons.

Rosanna 17 Rosanna 17 Betsy 10 Peggy 8 Escape 10 Betsy 10 Polly 10 Escape 10 Sally 10 Polly 10 Lark 18 Sally 10 Ranger 12 Lark 18 Prosperity 10 Ranger 12 Unity 10 Prosperity 10 Speedy 7 Unity 10 Little Tom 30 Little Tom 30 --- Monaguash 20 Total tonnage 144 --- Total tonnage 165

The emoluments derived by James White from his office as Deputy Collector of Customs were small. William Hazen's position, as commissary of the garrison of Fort Howe, was something better. Most of the supplies of fuel, meat and vegetables for the garrison were furnished by Messrs. Hazen & White, and the profits were considerable.

In the year 1782, for example, they furnished 172 cords of firewood for which the price paid them was 20 shillings a cord.

An event was now to transpire which marks an epoch in the history of St. John and which in the course of a few months served to transform the little community at the mouth of the river from the dimensions of a hamlet to those of a respectable town. The war between Great Britain and the old Colonies was over and the colonies had gained their independence. Had they been wise they would, as Dr. Hannay well observes, have tempered their triumph with moderation. They would have encouraged those who had espoused the Royal cause to remain and a.s.sist in building up the new nation which they had founded. Instead of this, they committed one of the most stupendous acts of short sighted folly ever perpetrated by a people. They pa.s.sed edicts of banishment against the persons, and acts of confiscation against the estates of the Loyalists. They drove them out, poor in purse indeed, but rich in experience, determination, energy, education, intellect and the other qualities which build up states, and with their hearts fired and their energies stimulated with hatred of republicanism. They drove them out 70,000 strong to build up a rival nation at their very doors which perhaps would never have had an existence but for the rash folly of those who persecuted the Loyalists.

CHAPTER x.x.x.