Medfield, Mass. First Parish Unitarian Church records, 1697-1970.
Scope and Contents
The records of the First Parish Church in Medfield include a broad array of both church administrative documentation and some personal records such as legal and financial materials. There is a single bound volume of church records dating from 1738-1880. Other administrative documentation includes a folder of loose records found inside the volume, official church correspondence, membership records, meeting minutes, relations, and a collection of 17th-18th century prayer requests. Also included are records relating to the ministry, including correspondence from ministers, and a volume of sermons spanning several decades from the 1740s-1780s. Personal records include legal and financial records, and a single item of personal correspondence regarding provisions for a ship. Additionally, a small volume of printed materials consisting of a 19th-century order of service and a newspaper cutting from 1970 detailing preservation of the colonial-era relation of faith documents within the collection.
Dates
- 1697-1970
Creator
- Baxter, Joseph, 1676-1745 (Person)
Restrictions on Access
Access to this collection is unrestricted and open to the public.
Restrictions on Use
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Historical Note
The First Parish Church dates back to the beginning of the town of Medfield in 1649, in which settlers from Dedham and Braintree, Mass. requested the incorporation of a new town by the General Court which was subsequently granted in May of 1651. They founded the Medfield Church of Christ in the same year, calling Rev. John Wilson as their first pastor.
The second minister was Rev. Joseph Baxter, a Harvard graduate and native of Braintree, Massachusetts, who served from 1697-1745. During his ministry the church membership grew from 65 to 375, and a second meeting house was constructed in 1706.
During the pastorate of the fourth minister Rev. Thomas Prentiss, which lasted from 1770-1814, a third meetinghouse was built, dating to 1789. As of 2019, a heavily remodeled version of this building is still standing, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The specifications for the wooden frame of the building are given in detail in the town records and include details of the heavy timbers used in construction, which were hand hewn oak measuring 14 inches square. The building's tower was 52 feet high and surmounted by a belfry and cupola. In 1809 the inside of the church was refurbished, with seats in the body of the meeting house being taken up and replaced with pews, as well as the creation of a segregated gallery seating area for non-white parishioners.
In 1813 the town and the parish began to be legally separated. The members of the church incorporated as The First Parish. In 1816 the trustees of the Medfield Ministerial Fund, Inc. were granted a charter and by-laws by the General Court. The first Sunday school was organized in 1818, officiated entirely by women, with the wife of Rev. Thomas Prentiss playing an active role in its administration.
In 1827 a group of members of the First Parish petitioned for permission to withdraw from the First Parish, which was becoming increasingly Unitarian, in order to form an Orthodox church. An ecclesiastical council was called and granted their request. The Orthodox Church of Medfield was organized officially on February 6, 1828 with 17 total members, and is still active today as the United Church of Christ in Medfield.
The original First Parish church was subsequently known as the First Parish Unitarian church from 1828 onwards. The meeting house was extensively remodeled again in 1839, including a complete reorientation of the front of the building from east to south, and the construction of a larger spire. During the hurricane of 1938, the taller spire which had been added when the building was remodeled in 1839 was destroyed, and remains un-replaced.
By the 1970s the congregation had diminished to 10 members and was in danger of dissolution. Growth increased in the following decades, however, to the extent that the Unitarian Universalist Association granted the church an award in recognition of their revitalization. The church continues to serve the Medfield community today.
Ministers
- John Wilson Jr.
- 1651-1691
- Joseph Baxter
- 1697-1745
- Jonathan Townsend
- 1745-1769
- Thomas Prentice
- 1770-1814
- Daniel Clarke Sanders
- 1815-1829
- James Augustus Kendall
- 1830-1837
- Charles Robinson
- 1839-1850
- Rushton Dashwood Burr
- 1852-1857
- Solon Wanton Bush
- 1857-1865
- James Henry Wiggin
- 1867-1873
- Charles Chauncy Sewell
- 1873-1877
- Granville Pierce
- 1877-1881
- Joseph Nelson Pardee
- 1882-1884
- James Johnson Twiss
- 1884-1887
- William Willis Hayward
- 1888-1892
- John Arthur Savage
- 1892-1907
- Albert Hague Spence Jr.
- 1908-1913
- Horatio Edward Latham
- 1913-1916
- Leonard Cushman
- 1917-1919
- Franklin Zeiger
- 1919-1921
- Manly Bacon Townsend
- 1922-1926
- Anita Trueman Pickett
- 1926-1928
- Harold Lionell Pickett
- 1926-1928
- Paul Leicester Muder
- 1929-1931
- Cicero Adolphus Henderson
- 1931-1933
- Francis Galarneaux Ricker
- 1936-1939
- Eric Alton Ayer
- 1939-1948
- Kendrick Raymond Lee
- 1948-1951
- Albert Nicholas Kaucher
- 1951-1955
- William R Moors
- 1956-1965
- Donald Vaughn
- 1965-1967
- Robert Thayer
- 1968-1977
- Glenn Snowden
- 1979-1984
- Virgil Murdoch
- 1984-1986
- Alice B Lane
- 1987-1989
- Judith Deutsch
- 1991-2000
- Robert William McKetchnie
- 2001-2011
- Meg Soens
- 2013-2016
Extent
0.84 Cubic Feet (3 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The First Parish Church was founded in 1751 shortly after the incorporation of the town of Medfield. Rev. John Wilson was the first pastor. A second meeting house was constructed in 1706. The third and current meetinghouse was built in 1789. In 1813 the town and the parish were legally separated with members of the church incorporated as The First Parish. In 1827 a group of members of the First Parish petitioned for permission to withdraw from the First Parish, which was becoming increasingly Unitarian, in order to form an Orthodox church. The original First Parish church was subsequently known as the First Parish Unitarian church. The records of the First Parish Church include both church administrative documentation and some personal records such as legal and financial materials.
Arrangement
Files have been arranged in chronological order by start date, and their contents are ordered chronologically, except in the case of the relation of faith documents, which are ordered alphabetically by surname.
Technical Requirements
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Acquisition Information
Materials were permanently loaned to the Congregational Library & Archives by the First Parish Unitarian Church (Medfield, Mass.) in April 2018; 2018-09
Accruals
Additional accruals are expected for this collection in the form of full-text transcription. There is no anticipated date for this accrual.
Digital Copies
Records within this collection were digitized as part of the New England's Hidden Histories project. Digital reproductions may be accessed online through our digital archive.
Bibliography
"Our History." First Parish UU of Medfield, MA. Accessed August 13, 2019. https://www.firstparishmedfield.org/our-history/
Processing Information
Processed and described by Jules Thomson, August 2019, using DACS Second edition.
Creator
- Baxter, Joseph, 1676-1745 (Person)
- First Congregational Church (Medfield, Mass.) (Organization)
- First Parish Unitarian Church (Medfield, Mass.) (Organization)
- Prentiss, Thomas, 1747-1814 (Person)
- Title
- Medfield, Mass. First Parish Unitarian Church records, 1697-1970.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jules Thomson
- Date
- 2019-08-14
- Description rules
- 3
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- 2022-03-03: Some adjustments made to the physical arrangement of materials; "Miscellaneous records, circa 1700-1799" added to the finding aid.
Repository Details
Part of the Congregational Library & Archives Repository