By Jude Seminara
Freedom of worship was not commonplace in the early history of Massachusetts. While the first colonists at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay left England because their right to worship was restricted by the Church of England, they created what was in essence a theocracy in the New World. The government of the colony was wed to the church. Religious dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were disarmed and banished from the colony. Quakers were whipped and banished, or in the case of the so-called Boston Martyrs Mary Dyer, Marmaduke Stephenson, Willam Robinson, and William Leddra, publicly hanged for their adherence to their faith.
Gloucester is the home of the first established Universalist Church in America. Adherents of Universalism, led by Reverend John Murray, adopted on New Years Day 1779 a covenant declaring themselves independent of the established Congregational Church in Gloucester’s First Parish. On Christmas Day 1780, the first Universalist public worship was conducted in their recently built meeting house on the corner of Spring and Water Streets (about where Walgreens and the Veterans Administration clinic is today).
Universalist doctrine was at odds with the established Congregationalist church, in that Universalists believed in the universal salvation of mankind through Jesus’ death. The established church was concerned that if people believed that God would not judge sinners then morality would decay, and morality was the underpinning of a civil and orderly society. The church’s responsibility was to maintain “the good order of civil government” and to that end, ministers should “thunder out the doctrine of everlasting punishment.” Universalists countered that this was not the role of religion; only when the church was “illegally wedded to state-policy, that men in power dared to hurl the Thunders of the Most High at offenders against government” did Christianity’s role become to keep the populace in good order.
In a twist of irony, as American men were dying in the fight against unfair British taxation and the Second Continental Congress was debating independence from the Crown, followers of Reverend Murray stopped worshiping at the First Parish Church. Discord brewed in the community, and Murray’s followers were subject to insults and abuse. In 1777, the selectmen voted that Murray should leave town, but he refused. In 1778, Winthrop Sargent, Judith Stevens, Epes Sargent, David Pearce, and eleven others were suspended from the First Parish. The following year, they organized themselves into the Independent Church of Christ and erected the Water Street meeting house.
Taxation in Gloucester at the time included providing for the established church, in this case the First Parish Church. As the Universalists did not attend this church, believing themselves an independent and established sect, they refused to pay taxes that supported a church that was not their own. They believed that they were protected under the bill of rights appended to the Massachusetts Constitution that was adopted in 1779. The town of Gloucester was not of the same opinion, believing that the Universalists were not a legitimate sect, were led by an unordained minister, and thus outside of the protections of the bill of rights. The town’s argument was undoubtedly bolstered by the discord between the First Parish and Universalist churches.
Because the Universalist congregants did not pay the taxes levied upon them to support the First Parish Church, the town seized their property. This seized property, including silver plate belonging to Epes Sargent, linens from Winthrop Sargent, and the anchor from a vessel owned by David Pearce, was sold at auction, a move that resulted in the Universalists filing a suit in the name of Mr. Murray to recover the property. William Pearce, a prominent member of Gloucester’s elite merchant class and formerly an opponent of Reverend Murray before converting to Universalism, was jailed for his refusal to pay the tax.
The Massachusetts Constitution expressly stated that all taxes paid for the support of public worship could be paid to support one’s “own religious sect or denomination.” This was fundamental to the Universalists’ case. The dispute lasted for three years, through a series of litigious trials and appeals. Trial after trial ended in favor of the First Parish, but the Universalists were dogged in their opposition.
In June 1786, the Supreme Judicial Court heard the case. Despite the judge’s instructions to the jurors to rule on the basis of the constitutional question, the jury returned in disagreement. The judge sent them back to continue deliberations. Historian Babson states that the foreman of the jury made an impassioned plea in favor of the Universalists and their right to worship as they saw fit, and exhorted his fellow jurors to decide with compassion and tolerance and an adherence to the natural right of all individuals to worship as they chose. He then went to bed with instructions to wake him when they had agreed. Agree they did, and the following morning they presented their verdict to the court.
This case did not signal an easy road ahead for Universalism in Gloucester; Reverend Murray had his detractors and even the Supreme Judicial Court did not view his as an ordained minister. His struggles continued in Gloucester until he was induced in 1793 to become the minister for the Universalist Church in Boston. The case did however affirm the fundamental precedent of the separation of church and state and the right to the free exercise of the religion of one’s choosing.
Sources
Babson, History of Gloucester
Eddy, Universalism in Gloucester
McKanan, Documentary History of Universalism
Copeland & Rogers. Saga of Cape Ann
Pringle, History of Gloucester
Good Morning Gloucester 