Re: Abel Holmes

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>]

>   1785:  Rev.  Abiel  Holmes ordained, ``Mr. Holmes having signified his
>   acceptance of the call, in August following (1784) commenced preaching
>   among  them,  and  being  only  a  licentiate,  in the following year,
>   September  15,  1785, was, upon the request of the church, ordained in
>   the  chapel  at  Yale College, Rev. Levi Hart preaching the ordination
>   sermon,  from  Galatians  I:10,  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  offering the
>   ordaining prayer, Rev. Dr. Williams giving the charge, and Rev. Warham
>   Williams  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.'' -- Stacy in his History.
>   Source: Stacy-H

He was ordained at Yale because he was a Yale graduate.
He was pastor of Midway Congregational Church from 1785 to 1791.
Afterwards he was pastor of Congregational Church, Cambridge, Mass.,
for 40 years.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., the physican and writer,
(Old Ironsides; The Chambered Nautilus) was his son.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the Supreme Court Justice,
was his grandson.

Abiel's brother, Liberty Holmes, married Susannah Quarterman,
sister of Rev. Robert Quarterman, pastor at Midway a generation
after Abiel Holmes left Midway, and while he was still at Cambridge.
Liberty was born in 1776, which may explain his name.

 http://www.quarterman.org/who/owholmesjr.html

Abiel's brother Lathrop died 13 April 1801 on the schooner Sally,
which was in transit from Newport, Georgia, to New York City.
See the book, Quarterman Family of Liberty County, Georgia, and Relatives:

 http://www.quarterman.org/book.html

And it seems Abiel himself was a writer, of The History of Cambridge,
finished in 1800, published in 1801.  It includes biographical sketches
of the previous pastors at Cambridge, including Thomas Shepard.  This
book would certainly have been known in Midway.

It contains a chapter about the years of Thomas Shepard.

 http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/chistory/section3.htm

He mentions a sizeable exodus in 1836 of Newtown (it was renamed Cambridge
in 1638 in honor of Harvard becoming a college after John Harvard's bequest)
people to Hartford, Conn.  1836 is the same year as many Dorchester people
moved to Windsor, Conn.  What convinced both those groups to move in that
year?

Rev. Holmes makes it clear that Shepard was one of the principal opponents
of Anne Hutchinson.  He gives the impression that it was Shepard's arrival
from England to New England that turned the tide which otherwise would have
caried Ms. Hutchinson's views in the colony.

In case you, like I, had to look up what they were arguing about,
here's a summary.
She stood for Antinomianism, which meant that Christians were not
subject to moral law, i.e., they could perform evil acts with no ill effects.
He was a Legalist, who held that Christians were subject to doctrine.
This is essentially a Protestant dispute, so here I'll reference a
Catholic description of it that includes Luther's invention of the
term Antinomianism and cites predecessors back to Marcion:

 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01564b.htm

Here is Abiel Holmes' description of the meeting held at Newtown to
deal with the controversy:

``Such was the warmth of the controversy, that it was judged advisable to
call a Synod to give their opinion on the controverted points. A Synod
was accordingly holden at Newtown on the 30th of August, 1637, at which
"all the teaching elders through the country," and messengers of the
several churches, were present. The magistrates, too, attended as hearers,
and spake occasionally, as they saw fit. Of this Synod Mr. Shepard,
who opened it with prayer, "was no small part." (29) After a session of
three weeks, the Synod condemned eighty-two erroneous opinions, which
had become disseminated in New England. The proceedings of this Synod
appear to have been conducted with fairness and ability. "Liberty was
given to any man to dispute pro or con, and none to be charged to be of
that opinion he disputed for, unless he should declare himselfe so to
be. The clearing of the true sense and meaning of any place of scripture,
it was done by scripture."''

 http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/chistory/section3.htm

What does all this have to do with Midway?  Well, we know that the
Holmes family was intermarried with and admired at Midway, and
we have some reason to believe that Thomas Shepard was, as well.
If so, what they thought in Cambridge may give us some ideas about
what people may have thought in Midway.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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