Zechariah Symmes

Having helped to formulate the laws by which the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the Colony were interwoven, throughout his long ministry he strongly upheld the conservative Puritan orthodoxy of his own Church, and of the Congregational collective, against doctrinal threat or dissent.

Even in his passage to America he was confronted with the Antinomianism of Anne Hutchinson, and having urged and participated in the proceedings against her party which led to their banishment, he played an active part in the many unfolding controversies against the Baptists, the Quakers, and other subversive tendencies.

[17] James Cudworth, who had settled shortly before this in Scituate, referred to the arrival of his "cosson" Symmes there in a letter to his stepfather Dr. John Stoughton, active in the promotion of the emigrant ministry.

The arrival of Thomas James (who had studied at Emmanuel College between 1611 and 1617, and after ordination had for some years ministered in the Lincoln diocese[25]) provided the opportunity for Charlestown to have a separate church: its members were detached from Boston in October 1632, and its covenant formed, with Revd.

[34] At her first church trial Symmes showed his impatience with her sympathizers, remarking: "I am much grieved that so many in the congregation should stand up and declare themselves unwilling that Mrs Hutchinson should be proceeded against for such errors."

[40] However, on 14 September 1638 Harvard died of consumption, and gained his worldly immortality by leaving nearly £780, half his estate, together with his valuable library, towards the foundation of the College or School at Cambridge, Massachusetts which bears his name, for training young men for the ministry.

Although accounts of the foundation emphasize the role of Thomas Shepard, who had advocated the project since 1636,[41] for many years Symmes was an Overseer of the college, which arose only a short distance from Charlestown, and his son Zechariah was among its early graduates and Fellows.

[42] The vacancy left by Harvard's death was supplied by Thomas Allen, a graduate of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, ordained in March 1633/34, who had a ministry in his home city of Norwich until silenced by Bishop Wren in 1636 for nonconformism.

The idea gained so much favour that the church hesitated, fearing too large a departure: but in February the Convers Bridge was built, and a site was chosen for the town, from which however the intending settlers were dissuaded by Nowell and Symmes as being unsuitable, and another was decided upon.

As the town was a-building, a pastor was sought, and after two disappointments hopes were renewed in Thomas Carter (of Hinderclay, a graduate of St John's College, Cambridge[50]) now an Elder at Watertown, Massachusetts.

[59][60] John Winthrop had noted in 1638 that the Hutchinson troubles had delayed such replies,[61] but by 1642 the turmoil then arising in England, and Cotton's observation that "this kingdome is now in consultation about matters of that nature" (referring to the Westminster Assembly), provide the context.

In Charlestown, however, Thomas Allen, while raising his young family, was preaching on the theme of Justification by faith from the words of John the Baptist,[62] and settling down to construct his Chain of Scripture Chronology,[63] preferring (as it was said) to compute than to dispute.

[73] After Allen's departure for England in 1651 the Charlestown congregation was without a teacher for eight years, during which the more conservative figure of Symmes had sole care, John Green being the ruling elder.

Faced with this inflammatory heresy, a Boston court in session seized the whole print-run as it arrived, sent an immediate letter of denunciation to England, and set proceedings against Pynchon in motion.

After he had partly acquiesced to a counterblast commissioned from John Norton,[76] a plea by many English ministers that Pynchon should be treated leniently was answered by Cotton, Wilson, Symmes, Richard Mather and William Thompson,[77] who attempted to show the severe actions of the court in a moderate light.

What was admired of Symmes was expressed in 1654 in verse by Edward Johnson:"Come Zachary, thou must re-edifieChrist['s] Churches in this desart Land of his:With Moses' zeale, stampt unto dust, defieAll crooked wayes that Christ['s] true worship misse;With spirit's sword and armor girt aboutThou lay'st on load, proud Prelate's Crown to crack,And wilt not suffer Wolfes thy flock to rout,Though close they creepe, with sheepe skins on their back..."[89]It was therefore under Dunster's successor Charles Chauncy that the Elders of the Churches of Christ in New England (including Symmes) made their petition to Lord Protector Cromwell, that he should enlarge his "pious and princely heart and hand to the affording of more settled and comfortable subsisting and maintenance to our English College in Cambridge".

[90] The character of Symmes appears strongly in the narrative of Thomas Gould of Charlestown (a prominent citizen and associate of Dunster's), whose objections to infant baptism came to the fore in 1655.

[94] Thus excluded by conscience from the communion, Gould thereafter attended meetings in Cambridge, and in June 1658 received a second admonition from Symmes directly (Elder Green having died), on the grounds of schism by departing from the covenant.

During July and August 1657 Christopher Holder and his companion John Copeland carried their mission successfully through several townships, including Charlestown, until arrested in Salem, where they were imprisoned and whipped, and after further infractions had their right ears cut off.

The puritan legislature issued a demand to the Assembly of Rhode Island that measures be taken to prevent Quaker incursions into the United Colonies of the New England Confederation, which was stoutly rejected.

[100] Symmes's cousin James Cudworth of Scituate (who alone as a Commissioner had refused to sign this letter[101]) was soon deemed to be a favourer of Quakers and was deprived of his military command and magistracy.

[114] There followed the royal Mandamus of 9 September 1661, addressed to Endicott and his ministers, against any corporal or capital sentence being carried out against Quakers: which, though it tempered the puritans' severity, did not weaken their purpose.

The King's declaration, issued 28 June (shortly after the beheading of Sir Henry Vane the Younger), upheld the Bay Colony's Charter, but in freedom of conscience, requiring no disadvantage for observation of the established Prayer Book, and admission for all leading upright lives to The Lord's Supper, and their children to baptism, though supporting sharp laws against the ungovernable Quakers.

Accordingly, in September the Halfway Covenant was re-formulated: in October the King's letter was brought into the Massachusetts Court, and Wilson, Mather, Symmes and John Allin entered with the Result of the Synod,[120][121] for which they together wrote the preface in its published form.

[122] In 1663 Zechariah Symmes junior was preaching in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, and sharing duties with John Myles,[123] who in that year departed to found the First Baptist Church in Swansea.

Gould maintained he was no schismatic, but had been excluded because he would not disavow his objection to infant baptism (i.e. to the doctrine of the heritable Elect Seed of righteousness) to gain readmittance, and remained upright in life and worship.

[128] The Charlestown church proceeded to excommunication in late June or July 1665, and in September–October Gould, Osborne and three others, having presented a confession of faith,[129] came before the General Court and were condemned as schismatics and disfranchised of their freedom of the Colony, under threat of immediate imprisonment.

), which was left to Zechariah junr., including all his written books (manuscripts and notes of sermons), none of which he had ever prepared or intended for print, but which were in bound volumes, and which he asked might be loaned among his children at their desire.

[140] As in Plymouth Colony the death of Thomas Prence ushered in more lenient times towards Quakers under Josiah Winslow, so Symmes's determined defence of his doctrines had played its part in shaping the future of the Baptist movement.

His cousin James Cudworth, rehabilitated in his Plymouth military command, joined with Thomas Savage (whose first wife was Faith, daughter of Ann Hutchinson) leading the Massachusetts men, in their march to relieve Swansea in June 1675.