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Savage, who surely will not be considered a partial judge, says, “So well employed had been his short life, that no loss of a public man in our country was more lamented, except that of Gov. Winthrop a few months before.”
1 It is much to be regretted that no monument marks his grave.
Almost a year elapsed between the death of Mr. Shepard and the ordination of his successor.
In the mean time, a new meeting-house was erected.
Of the style and dimensions of the old meeting-house we know nothing.
Doubtless it was very plain and humble; yet it was rendered glorious by the manifestation of divine power in the preaching of Hooker and Shepard, two of the most brilliant lights of that age, insomuch that to the congregation of worshippers it became as “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven.”
2 It was built, however, of perishable materials, and although it had stood less than twenty years, it had fallen into decay; it would seem also that it was not sufficiently large.
At first, it was proposed to repair the house “with a four-square roof and covered with shingle,” and Edward Goffe, Thomas Marrett, John Stedman, Robert Holmes, and Thomas Danforth, were appointed, Feb. 18, 1649-50, to superintend the repairs.
But shortly afterwards, March 11, 1649-50, “At a general meeting of the whole town, it was voted and agreed, that the five men chosen by the town to repair the meeting-house shall desist from the same, and agree with workmen for the building of a new house, about forty foot square and covered as was formerly agreed for the other, and levy a charge of their engagements upon the inhabitants of the town.
It was also then voted and generally agreed, that the new meeting-house shall stand on the watch-house hill.”
3 The new house was erected immediately, as appears by the following extracts from the Town Records: Jan. 13, 1650-51: “The Townsmen do consent that one of the ”
2 In this house also were probably gathered the whole body of reverend and learned divines in New England at the first two Synods for the determination of vitally important questions both of doctrine and of church polity: 1. In 1637, when through the prophesyings of Mrs. Hutchinson and others, the religious community was violently agitated, and the two parties, styling each other Antinomians and Legalists, were on the brink of civil war, a Synod, composed of all the teaching elders in the country and delegates from the several churches, assembled at Cambridge, and condemned eighty-two opinions adjudged erroneous. 2. In 1646, a second General Synod assembled at Cambridge, and after sundry adjournments was dissolved in 1648, having adopted a system of church discipline called “The Cambridge Platform.”
3 The watch-house hill was in the southwesterly corner of the present College yard, and extended several feet into Harvard Square, which has been enlarged since that meeting-house was erected.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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