Baker v. Fales

The preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield helped to revive the churches of Dedham during the Great Awakening.

[1] The theological debates that arose as a result, however, helped bring about a split in the churches into different denominations.

[2] The parish was composed all of the residents of a geographic territory who had not joined another religious group such as the Episcopal Church.

[9] A pulpit committee of five, including Jeremy Stimson and Jabez Chickering,[a] were charged with finding a new pastor.

[6] On March 1, 1818, just days after Bates left town, the committee produced Alvan Lamson.

[10] The chairman of the committee opened with a speech praising Lamson and it was followed by a motion to contract with him for eight more Sundays.

[9] They did, however, object to his theology and found him lacking in "spirituality and knowledge of the scriptures" and displayed little of "that which fixes the attention and reaches the heart.

"[11] Lamson's initial reaction seems to have been to decline the call, given the size of the opposition, but he was persuaded to accept by Jabaz Chickering, the chairman of the parish council.

[17] Several members of the congregation angrily stormed out of the meetinghouse, a few fainted, and one woman threw a violent fit.

John Reed of Bridgewater, Kirkland, Channing, Lowell, and Davis were selected to report the findings of the council.

[14] Haven also noted that the tradition in New England had long been for a church to make a selection and then present its choice to the parish for ratification.

[24] In his ordination sermon, Ware said: It was our hope… that the love of peace and union, and order, a spirit of mutual condescension and forbearance, and a deep regard for the interests of religion, and its sense of values, might have produced a greater degree of unanimity than has been realized… It is not without much deliberation that the ordaining council have come to the determination to proceed to the ordination of the candidate, whom you have chosen in opposition to the opinion and wishes of a large and respectable portion of the church and religious society of this place.

[25] The second council, including Dr. Eliphalet Porter of Roxbury, Thaddeus Mason Harris of Dorchester, and John Pierce of Brookline, was unable to come to a unanimous decision.

[25][26] It expressed a mild condemnation of the parish for appointing a minister against the wishes of the church, though some council members pushed for stronger language.

[32] The leased land and other transactions brought in about $800 a year and without that income the church would be unable to pay Lamson.

[33] When they reported back to the liberal sect, they charged Fales with leasing the parsonage house out without the church's consent.

[27][f] Fales was also accused of not giving direct answers to their questions, including which group he considered to be the true church.

[27] As a result, the liberal group voted to remove Fales as deacon but allowed him to remain a member of the church.

[34] Haven published a book of over 100 pages outlying the argument against Lamson and included the Result from each council.

[29][20][27] Haven characterized the church meeting in which Lamson was admitted as a member as a "shocking profanation" exhibiting "scenes of wickedness… indecency and barbarity.

[42] Due in part to the long speech Haven gave in his own defense, the trial lasted over two days.

[42][g] Haven argued that he could not have possibly insulted "Alvan Lamson, pastor of the First Church and Parish in Dedham" as he did not think anyone existed by that description.

[42] As a member of that church, Haven said, he would have expected his pastor to "admonish me in the spirit of Christian meekness," but in the eight months since the pamphlet was published he had not received any such admonitions.

[5][h] During the April term of 1820,[28] they asked a court to order that the records, funds, silver, and other items be returned.

[5] Specifically, they asked for $20,000 in damages, eight silver cups, one silver spoon, one table cloth, one napkin, six metal flagons, four metal platters, one basket, four books of records, and one box of bonds, notes, mortgages, deeds, leases, and accounts.

[5] Judge Samuel Wilde, who presided over the trial, instructed the jury that as a matter of law that the plaintiffs, the remaining members of the First Church, were in the right.

[5][28][44] The defendants argued that the trial judge excluded testimony and gave an improper charge to the jury.

[28] [i] In a decision written by Chief Justice Isaac Parker in February 1821, the court unanimously ruled that "[w]hatever the usage in settling ministers, the Bill of Rights of 1780 secures to towns, not to churches, the right to elect the minister, in the last resort.

[28][50] The court held that the funds, records, and other property had to be returned to First Church, setting a precedent for future congregational splits that would arise as Unitarianism grew.

"[30] Parker has been criticized for using "legal slight of hand" in his decision and for ignoring the complex history, especially in Dedham, between the church and the society.