THE STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AT THE TIME OF THE
FOUNDING OF ATTLEBOROUGH
(A talk by Rev. John Fisk to the Attleboro Historical Preservation Society, April 19, 2012)
During the time I was minister of the First Baptist Church, Attleboro, I researched and wrote a
family history of my own. One of the interesting things I discovered was that my great
grandparents, Arthur and Mary Fisk, lived in the villages of Coddenham and Debenham, in the
county of Suffolk, just over the line from Attleborough, in the county of Norfolk. The
surrounding towns sound familiar: Dedham, Boston, Framlingham, Sudbury, Ipswich. My great
grandfather raised horses but had to give up that line of work
when WWI came and the government took all his horses, a theme
in the movie War Horse. I did visit Attleborough, England, in 1998
during a sabbatical when I was researching early Baptists at the
library at Regents Park College, Oxford. Today, Attleborough is a
very pleasant suburb of the city of Norwich.
As I look back over my own life I see a pattern of movement
Attleborough, England
physically, psychologically and spiritually away from a restricted
environment towards a more free expression. In a small way I
have followed in the footsteps of the first English settlers in America, seeking more freedom for
my soul. There’s a wonderful text in Psalm 119:5 “God has brought me into a broad place.” In
other places that phrase “broad place” is translated as liberty. In the Book of Genesis that
broad place where the people would find room to flourish was called Rehoboth, and
Attleborough was founded as the northern section of Rehoboth in the Plymouth Bay Colony, a
place for people to find freedom and flourish.
I’d like to explore with you the religious context of the early settlers who founded Attleborough
and surrounding communities. You probably know that the very first settlers in Attleborough
came from the settlement at Rehoboth, located in today’s Rumford section of East Providence
(see map on p.5). The boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts was not
finalized until much later. The group that came to Rehoboth and subsequently to Attleborough
in the mid to late seventeenth century was from the Plymouth Bay Colony. They were of a less
restrictive frame of mind than the Mass Bay Colony in Boston, leaning towards less interference
by civil authorities in matters of religion. They felt that having more space might lead to less
religious friction.
One of the central questions debated hotly by the early 17th century English was whether
freedom of religion might be allowed. Preserving law and order and the authority of the king
was paramount. The Tudors in the 16th century had thrown off the authority of the Pope for
political reasons, but they were not about to let go of their own religious authority as rulers.
The idea that a society could separate religious faith and practice from enforcement by the civil
authorities was unthinkable, except to a tiny minority. That minority grew substantially in the
early 17th century. Amongst Protestants the shades of opinion on this subject were roughly as
follows (see handout):
1. The Church of England proclaimed it was the state church into which all English people
were born. The duties of membership were enforced to varying degrees by civil
magistrates (established church).
2. Most Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England to eliminate abuses in the
episcopal form of government, to replace it either with a presbyterian or congregational
form of government, to strengthen the role of good preaching and the Bible, especially
as it applied to the disciplined life of the Christian. They still wanted religious
observance enforced by civil authorities but did not want to break with the C of E.
Hence Sabbath keeping, taxes to support the church, and clergy provided by the town
were all standard fare. The colonists of the Mass Bay Colony were this brand of Puritan.
3. A smaller group of Puritans, known as Separatists, wanted to break with the Church of
England and begin new churches with a congregational form of government. Church
members should be exemplary in their conduct and live like saints, but religious practice
was still to be enforced by the magistrates. Those in the Plymouth Bay Colony were this
brand of Puritan. A subset of this group did not want enforcement of religious
observance by the civil authorities. Some were known as Independents and some were
Baptists who rejected infant baptism also. The people who founded Rhode Island and
towns like Rehoboth, Swansea and Attleborough were part of this sub group.
It was just a few thinkers in England who advocated the separation of state and church in the
early 17th century. But the leaders who came to this part of the
world were strongly influenced by them. And many of them came
from the Eastern areas of England. John Smyth (c.1570-1612) was
a clergyman who came from Lincolnshire (Gainsborough) and was
educated at Cambridge. He was the first Baptist theologian and
one of the earliest theologians to support the separation of church
and state: “The magistrate should leave Christian religion free, to
every man’s conscience, and to handle only civil transgressions”
(Shapers of Baptist Thought, p.28). The followers of Smyth,
Thomas Helwys, and John Murton also advocated for separation of
government from religion. Helwys told King James in 1612 that
John Smyth, Baptist Theologian
the King had “no power over the immortal souls of his subjects”,
for which Helwys ended up in Newgate prison. In 1615 Murton wrote,
“earthly authority belongs to earthly kings, but spiritual authority
belongs to the one spiritual King who is King of Kings.”
Smyth was also a friend of John Robinson (1575-1625), the first
theologian of the Congregationalists. Both of them took their
congregations to Holland to escape persecution in England. From
Robinson’s congregation came the first pilgrims to Massachusetts at
Plymouth.
John Robinson,
Congregational Theologian
Robinson was born in Nottinghamshire. He was educated at Queen
Elizabeth's Grammar School, Gainsborough (same town as Smyth),
and at the age of about sixteen, he entered the University of
Cambridge. He remained there for the next twelve years, first as a
student, and then later as a teacher.
The year 1606 was a very important one in his life for it was then that he left the Church of
England and became a Separatist. Though vigorously persecuted, Separatist congregations had
been active, especially in London, for a number of years. Later that year, a group of Puritans in
the nearby village of Scrooby formed a Separatist congregation that came to number about one
hundred members. Robinson, it appears, returned to Gainsborough and became a member of
John Smyth's Separatist congregation that met in secret. However, at some point, he seems to
have joined up again with the Separatists in Scrooby.
The congregation met at Scrooby Manor, the home of William Brewster (one of the Mayflower
Pilgrims). Brewster was an old friend of Robinson as well as a Cambridge alumnus. The
congregation left England for Leiden, Holland in 1609 (the home of Rembrandt), and under
Robinson’s teaching formed the nucleus of the first pilgrims to come to America at Plymouth.
The first settler in what later became Attleborough was Rev, William Blackstone, born in 1595
in County Durham and educated at Cambridge University. He came to Boston about 1625 but
found the same intolerance there amongst the “Lord’s brethren” as he had left behind in
England amongst “the Lord’s bishops”. So he then moved to the banks of the Pawtucket River
(later renamed the Blackstone), and lived where the Ann and Hope Mill is today. “It was not
that he hated people but that he loved solitude more,” wrote Daggett in his history of
Attleborough. He had good relations with Native Americans and was friends with Roger
Williams, but he typified the desire the get away from the religious quarrels and enjoy peace
and solitude.
Roger Williams was not the first person to advocate the separation of church and state, as we
have seen from earlier Baptists like Smyth, Helwys and Murton. But he was the first to put it
into practice, by establishing a colony where people could practice their religion according to
their own views without interference by the authorities. This was quite radical because it
meant throwing off the authority of the king over religion. The accusation against the early
non-conformists like Smyth, Helwys and Williams was that they were revolutionaries, like the
Anabaptists who had taken to arms in Munster, Germany, in the mid 16th century. But the
Baptists were at pains to protest that in matters civil they
were obedient to the laws of the king and parliament. But
their point was that In matters spiritual no ruler had the
right to interfere in the relationship of each person with
their God.
Roger Williams (1603-1683) came to New England
seeking refuge from persecution for his views. Born in
London, Smithfield, apprenticed to Edward Coke, lawyer,
Statue of Roger Williams
educated at Cambridge, married to Mary Barnard at High
Laver, Epping, Essex, (near where I grew up) he came to Boston then to Salem and Plymouth
and back to Salem and then was banished. He questioned the King’s right to grant charters
and said the land belonged to the Indians and should be purchased from them. He criticized
the Plymouth Colony for not going far enough to separate from the Church of England. He
challenged the authorities in Boston over the taking of oaths in God’s name. He even objected
that someone who was an unbeliever should not have to take an oath in the Lord’s name.
Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants were all entitled to religious freedom, he later said.
After escaping during a bitter winter he founded Providence in
1636 as a refuge from persecution.
Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) followed Williams and founded
the town of Portsmouth. She gave a lot of weight to her own
experience of the Holy Spirit and her own revelations, like the
Quakers who were to come a few years later. Even though
Williams did not agree with many who came to settle in Rhode
Island he fought for their right to hold different religious views.
Williams co-founded the First Baptist Church in America in 1638.
Anne Hutchinson
He and John Clarke of Newport secured a charter in 1663 from
Charles II for the colony which included religious freedom. The strange thing was that only a
year earlier an Act of Uniformity was passed to enforce loyalty by all clergy to the Church of
England. Also in 1662 Henry Vane, former governor of Mass Bay Colony and friend of Williams
was executed in London. Perhaps the RI Charter was slipped past Charles on the sly, or
because RI was so insignificant, or because Charles wanted to show himself flexible. Who
knows? It was a tumultuous time after the English had fought a civil war over these issues.
For Charles declared that it was his royal will and pleasure "that no person within the said
colony, at any time hereafter shall be any wise molested [harassed], punished, disquieted, or
called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually
disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every person and persons may, from
time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own
judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments, … they behaving themselves
peaceable and quietly..."
The Baptist insight that all religion is voluntary and cannot be enforced by secular authorities
was the genius that showed a path towards not only greater freedom for a democracy, but also
for peaceful relationships between religious people. Everyone’s opinion matters and is
deserving of respect . I belong to an Interfaith group that meets in Attleboro today where
people from the main world’s religions respect and listen to each other in order to learn more.
This is the best model for dealing with religious differences in this divided world.
In 1644 the town of Rehoboth was established by Rev. Samuel Newman from the Plymouth
Colony. Newman was born 1602 (died 1663) in Banbury, England (where I stayed for 2 weeks
last Fall) and graduated with honors from Oxford University. After much dissension at the
Weymouth church he moved westward and founded Rehoboth in 1643 in the Rumford section
of today’s East Providence. It was from there that the early settlers came to expand the broad
place for people to dwell, and Capt. Thomas Willett purchased land from the chief of the
Wampanoags, Wamsutta, in 1661, which comprises much of present-day Attleboro and North
Attleborough and part of Cumberland also. He like Blackstone and Williams had good
relationships with the Native Americans. It seemed that their understanding of a broad place
including tolerance for Native Americans also.
Willett was an Independent. The Independents advocated the separation of church and state
and freedom of religion for Protestants (but not Catholics – not consistent). The fourth son of
Andrew Willet, he was born in August 1605, in the rectory-house of Barley, Hertfordshire. He
was educated at The King's School, Ely. His father dying when he was only sixteen years of age,
he appears to have continued to reside with his widowed mother and maternal grandmother
till he came of age. Shortly after he went to Leyden, the city where some of the Pilgrim fathers
had escaped to, including William Bradford, Gov. of Plymouth Colony, William Brewster and
John Robinson (1575 – 1625) (as well as Rembrandt Van Rhyn (1606 -1669). Then he came to
the new Plymouth Colony in 1630, where he gained the trust of Governor William Bradford.
An ancestry.com website says that Captain Willet had all that spirit of religious liberty and
toleration that might have been expected from his early education in Holland, and was
perseveringly antagonistic to the union of church and state. He was successful in procuring for
the Welsh Baptists, who came under Mr. Myles, a home and liberty in
Swansea (first Baptist Church in Massachusetts, 1667). In this his
father-in-law, Mr. John Brown, was an enthusiastic and potent
coworker. They won their cause in the Old Colony without the
banishment that visited Roger Williams in Narragansett Bay. In every
relation of life, Willett was distinguished for his high ability and
integrity; a wise legislator, a man of reflection, of executive force and
humanity. He went on to serve as the first mayor of New York City.
Thomas Willett
Rev. Charles Hartmann, a colleague of mine and until recently pastor of First Baptist Church,
Swansea, writes about Rev. John Myles, who was also an investor in the first purchase of land
in Attleborough. John Myles, born about 1621 and raised in Wales, educated at Oxford, and
founded a Baptist congregation near Ilston, Swansea in 1649. After the Act of Uniformity 1662
he came to Plymouth colony and the town of Rehoboth, in March of the year 1665. Shortly
after, he was proposed as an assistant to the minister of the Rehoboth church, by Captain
Thomas Willet. The relationship between Myles and the established Puritan church of
Rehoboth was tenuous. Next we see that in 1666 the Plymouth Court fined Myles and others
for unauthorized religious meetings (presumably Baptist) and ordered to remove their meeting
from Rehoboth. Soon Myles, Thomas Willet and others are allowed by the leaders of the
Plymouth colony to found, in 1667, both a congregation and a town, named Swansea after
their home town in Wales.
John Myles wrote the organizing covenant for
the Swansea (Massachusetts) congregation
which was signed by six other men. This
document manifests a remarkable sense of God’s
grace and a profound character of tolerance and
cooperation. He also authored the “founding
covenants” of the town which articulated a
compromise between the Congregationalists and
the Baptists allowing them to live and worship
together in spite of theological differences.
The congregation was unique in the development
John Myles Memorial
of Baptist practice in the 17th century, allowing for
either adult or children’s baptism and practicing open communion.
Capt. Thomas Willett and Rev. John Myles and a son of Rev. Samuel Newman were all
shareholders in the first purchase of land in Attleborough, plus several other members of the
Baptist Church in Swansea: James Brown, Nicholas Tanner, Joseph Carpenter, John
Butterworth, Eldad Kingsley. Two other men, said to have come from Attleborough, England,
John Sutton and John Doggett are mentioned as founding fathers of Attleborough, in Daggett’s
history. The historians back in Attleborough, England have found birth records for Sutton but
not for Doggett. But Daggett’s assumption that several came from
the Attleborough, Norfolk area makes sense.
For many years the residents would journey to Sabbath services by
horse and wagon, quite a haul to Rumford, RI even today. By 1694
the town of Attleborough was incorporated with the object in mind
to establish its own church and ministry and a school for the
children. Soon after that church services were held, but we do not
know when. John Woodcock offered money to build a meeting
house which was completed in 1714 in the Oldtown section and the
first minister began his work in 1712, Rev. Matthew Short. This
First Congregational Church,
North Attleborough
was, of course, the First
Congregational Church in Oldtown (which is celebrating
its 300th anniversary this year – congratulations to Rev.
Kelly Thibeault and her congregration!) I noticed that a
Rev. Fiske was called to preach at the church in 1707 but
did not apparently take up the call – must have been one
of my unreliable ancestors! A new Meeting House was
built in 1728, and because of the 70 square miles size the
parish was divided in two, creating the East parish in
Second Congregational Church, Attleboro
1743. The first meeting house was finished in 1748, and the first pastor called to the East
Parish was Rev. Peter Thacher. That was Second Congregational Church.
As early as 1734 Attleborough allowed exemption from taxes for those of different
denominations – another indicator of a more tolerant attitude to be found in these parts. Also
Henry Barden commented that there was much exchanging of
pulpits amongst Congregational and Baptist ministers in the early
days.
Henry Barden wrote an account of the forming of the Baptist
Church in Attleborough. Baptists had worshipped with other
Baptists churches in Providence, Swansea, Warren or Bellingham
and had been around a long time. Daggett says the Baptists were
meeting in Attleborough from 1747, their covenant as a Baptist
church in open communion was written in 1769 and the church
was formally established in 1771 and became a member of the
Warren Association. This was today’s First Baptist Church, North
Attleborough. The ties with Rhode Island were strong. The
First Baptist Church, North
church was ecumenical and practiced open communion. The
Attleborough
church had some illustrious founding members including (acc. to
Daggett) Rev. Jonathon Maxey, President of Brown University, and Rev. Wm Williams, founder
of an excellent school in Wrentham, and Rev. Tingley who co-founded the Free Will Baptists.
Also some of the Daggetts were members of the Baptist church. Their first pastor was Elder Job
Seamans in 1773, who was born in nearby Swansea in 1748.
There was also a South Baptist Church started around 1760, which lasted until 1798 when it
was dissolved. One preacher was Elihu Daggett who died in 1769 and was buried in the North
Burying Ground with the inscription on his gravestone:
What we left behind, others possess. What we gave to
the poor, we take with us.
First Baptist Church, Attleboro
Present First Baptist, Attleboro began in East Attleboro
in 1895, established by parishioners from First Baptist,
North Attleboro, who wanted to expand the ministry to
the growing area. The church sanctuary was built in
1898, which you are going to tour in May. I had the
honor of serving the church for nearly 22 years of its
116 years of service to the community.
So, our ancestors in Attleborough, both Congregationalists and Baptists, were in the avant
garde of the movement towards religious freedom and the separation of church and state. It
was a lonely place to be but an exciting and rewarding one. Ultimately it was also the only
viewpoint that made sense. The essence of Christian faith is that all should come of their own
free will to God. Religion cannot be forced upon people. But today the field of separation of
church and state is still hotly contested. Some of the people of Cranston recently got very hot
under the collar about a prayer banner in the High School gymnasium that was removed under
order of a Federal judge, no less. It is not the government’s role, rightly said the judge, to
endorse or promote religious beliefs. Religion flourishes best when it is not tied to the reigns of
civil authorities. No matter how nice it might feel to proclaim America as a Christian nation, it
has never been true. The US Constitution is based on principles that derive from several
sources, including Ancient Athens, the Bible, English common law, and the philosophy of John
Locke. It was never the intent of the Founders to establish Christianity as the state religion of
America. That’s why we have the first amendment to the constitution which forbids the
establishment of any religion. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. In this way the Constitution sets the tone for
mutual respect and the tolerance of diverse viewpoints in our society. Our ancestors in this
area played an important part in bringing this about.
Sources:
Freedom and Authority by Gerald R. Cragg (Westminster, 1975)
Liberty of Conscience by Edwin Gausted (Judson Press, 1999)
Shapers of Baptist Thought by James E. Tull (Judson Press, 1972)
Sketch of the History of Attleborough by John Daggett (1834)
Studley’s History of Attleboro (1992) by A. Irwin Studley
A History of Rehoboth by Leonard Bliss and George Tilton (1918)
Pages from a Sketchbook of the History of First Baptist Church, North Attleborough
by Henry Barden (1952)
A Short History of the Second Congregational Church by Leland Sanford & Ted Moxham (1998)
A History of First Baptist Church, Attleboro by Lola Jess and John Fisk (1995)
A History of East Providence by Joseph Conforti (Monarch Publishing, 1976)
Attleborough (England): the Evolution of a Town by Philip Bujak (Poppyland Publishing, 1990)
Website of First Baptist Church, Swansea: http://www.firstbaptistinswansea.org
Website of the First Congregational Church, North Attleborough: http://www.oldtownucc.org
Rev. John Myles and the Founding of the First Baptist Church in Mass. by Henry M. King (1905).
Thomas Willett article at http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgibin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=butchrose&id=I03136