Book Description

Excerpt from Records of the Church of Christ: At Cambridge in New England, 1632-1830, Comprising the Ministerial Records of Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths, Admission to Covenant and Communion, Dismissals and Church Proceedings The records of the First Church of Cambridge are contained in two books, both of which are in a fairly good state of preservation. The first of these is two hundred and ten years old, having been begun by Rev. William Brattle at the time of his ordination. This first book was rebound by direction of the church during the ministry of Dr. Abiel Holmes at about the time the second book was purchased, and at this time there was bound with it, the list of members of the Church prepared by Rev. Jonathan Mitchell and a copy of a letter from Rev. Ezra Stiles giving an account of the early history of the Church extracted from Winthrop's "Memoirs." The first settled pastor of the Church chin Cambridge was Rev. Thomas Hooker, but he in 1635 removed with the majority of his congregation to the new town [now Hartford] on the Connecticut. Some of the Church members remained in New Towne [Cambridge] and they united with others in extending a call to the Rev. Thomas Shepard, who was settled in 1636. Mr. Shepard remained the pastor until 1649, when he was "Translated hence unto the church triumphant." He was succeeded by his student, the Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, who not only took charge of the Church, but married the Pastors widow, and took charge of his property. Mr. Mitchell died in 1668. He compiled a list of the members of the Church and their children in 1658, in which he gave many items relating to the time when they joined the Church or were baptized. He continued to note changes in this record till the time of his death. This list was lost to the Church for many years, but was recovered from the Prince Collection by Dr. Holmes. This manuscript is very much worn and has evidently been in a damp place. It is very difficult to read both on account of the fading of the ink and the way in which the later items have been interlined. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.