epilogue - solving the mystery of the move
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Busting historical legends and myths can be a daunting task, particularly if you and everyone else had accepted the anecdotal version as fact. But that is what local history buff Bob O'Hara and I managed to do some twenty-five years ago, although that is not what we set out to do. It seems appropriate to revisit this adventure one more time and share it with a whole new generation of readers.
Our self-assigned task was to determine when the Friends' or Quaker Meetinghouse, located at the intersection of Routes 53 and 139 in Pembroke was erected on that site. You see, there was an accepted story that the meetinghouse was moved to its current location from the estate of Michael Wanton, a Scituate Quaker. Michael Wanton's father, Edward Wanton, had been a member of the King's Guard and had witnessed and participated in the persecution of Quakers in Boston. Edward was so moved and impressed by the peaceful and stoic demeanor of the Quakers, he is quoted as saying to his mother, "Alas mother! We have been murdering the Lord's people." He became a convert, left Boston and settled, with his family in Scituate on the banks of the North River. The year was 1661. |
Photos by Elizabeth A. Bates
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In 1678, Edward Wanton, along with John Rance, purchased a small piece of land from Henry Ewell for a site to build a meetinghouse. Later yet, another meeting house was built on land owned by Edward's son, Michael. This was the meetinghouse that was long believed to be the building moved to Pembroke and located at the comer where "Scoosit Road" joins the Plymouth road.
The belief that the Quaker Meetinghouse was moved had been reinforced over the last century and a half by excerpts from several 'local' histories. The most common source of this is Henry W. Litchfield's Ancient Landmarks of Pembroke, published in 1909. Litchfield wrote: "Later, another Friends' meetinghouse was built, in the year 1706, on the Michael Wanton estate and this was the one moved to Pembroke.” Litchfield went on to write: "Briggs in his Shipbuilding on the North River states that, according to tradition, the was moved up the North River to its present location on “gundaloes.”
Over time, Bob O'Hara and I had several discussions about how and when the 'moving' of the meetinghouse actually took place. It was apparent that none of the local histones could pinpoint the date or method of transport. So, we decided to start in the archives at the Pembroke Historical Society. We spent several hours going through a very meager folder devoted to the Friends Meetinghouse, which deeded to the Society in 1974. Among the documents, we found a letter from Thomas J. Battey of Providence, Rhode Island to Horace T. Fogg of Norwell, dated October 25, 1929. Fogg, was the president of the Rockland Trust Company and in the midst of a restoration project on the meetinghouse. The letter refers to the first volume of the Pembroke Records. Wow!
There are Quaker records from Pembroke. But, where were they? No one in Pembroke had ever seen them and no local historian had ever referred to them. Fifty-eight years had passed. No Google in 1987. Where do we start? Directory assistance! I called this number for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and asked for the headquarters of the Society of Friends. Sure enough, I was connected with, I surmise, a Quaker. The person told me that they did not keep those kinds of records there but suggested that I call the clerk of the Newport, Rhode Island meeting of Friends, and gave me a telephone number. Little pieces began tumbling into place. While I don't recall the name of the Newport Meeting clerk, I do recall that she suggested that I call the Quaker archivist at the Rhode Island Historical Society, a woman by the name of Rosalind Wiggins. I called and spoke to Mrs. Wiggins and told her what we were looking for and why we believed they existed. An elderly woman, Mrs. Wiggins asked me to wait a moment and she would go and check. A short time later, she came back on the line and said that there was one volume of the Pembroke Quaker records in their collection. Bingo! And off to Rhode Island, we go. Road trip!
Several days after receiving this information, Bob and I found ourselves sitting in a tiny room reading through pages on a single role of microfilm. A thousand pages beginning in 1674! There we were, a couple of thirty-something history buffs, acting like a pair of little kids that had just hit the jackpot. l recall, that at one point, we got so excited that the librarian politely asked us to "keep it down." Mrs. Wiggins showed us the original handwritten records which were quite fragile. Apparently, in 1950, the Mormons microfilmed the records as part of their genealogical research.
Well, this was all terrific, but we couldn't camp out in that little room to read a thousand pages of handwritten records. Back to the telephone, and this time to the headquarters of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), in Salt Lake City, Utah! Yes, they had the original microfilm of the records and yes, for the modest sum of $12.00, the Pembroke Historical Commission could purchase a copy. Several weeks later, the microfilm arrived and Bob and I spirited the town hall microfilm reader out of town hall and into my kitchen. I spent the next several months reading the records and cataloging the chronology of the meeting and the meetinghouse starting in 1674 and concluding in 1876 when the meeting was disbanded. The microfilm reader was returned to town hall and I needed glasses after that. Subsequently, print copies of the records were created from the microfilm by Weston Reprographics.
And what did we find? We found details of two hundred years of Quaker life in Pembroke; births, deaths, marriages, mundane details of day to day living. Among these mundane details we found all of the details of the construction of the meetinghouse. And guess what? It was built exactly where it stands today and has since 1706. It was never moved here from anywhere. It was built by Robert Barker Jr, a Pembroke Quaker and father-in-law of Michael Wanton. He was paid one hundred and eleven pounds to do so. In 1707, the records state that a schedule for the yearly meeting was set for the "upper meeting" (Pembroke) and the "lower meetinghouse" which was the Wanton meetinghouse that continued to be used until 1730. Throughout the period 1706 through 1730, both meetinghouses remained in use. The Scituate meetinghouse was referred to as the house of Michael Wanton and the Pembroke meetinghouse was referred to as the house of Robert Barker. This period contains numerous references to both meetinghouses regarding such things as scheduling of meetings and financial statements. Yet, throughout this period, the Quakers who utilized these two buildings considered themselves the same meeting.
So how did the confusion arise? Well, I have a theory about how this story of the meetinghouse being moved began.
In 1831, in Samuel Deane's History of Scituate, he writes that the original meetinghouse built by Edward Wanton and John Rance was sold and converted to a stable. He then states that another was built in 1706, a half mile south of Barstow' s bridge, the current site of the Pembroke meetinghouse. the 1830s, J.S. Barry wrote a history of the town of Hanover. In this text, he refers to the Quakers of Scituate and their dwindling numbers and stated that the meeting was moved to Pembroke. He did not say the meetinghouse was moved, he said the ‘meeting,’ which refers to the membership. In 1889, L. Vernon Briggs in his book Shipbuilding on the North River makes reference to Barry and speculates about how the meetinghouse was moved. In 1900, Dr. Francis Collamore in an article entitled The Quaker Meeting House in North Pembroke compounds the mistake by taking Briggs speculation and reports it as fact. Finally, Harry Litchfield comes along and writes his anecdotal book on historic sites in Pembroke and pretty much cements this myth into fact.
But I have to admit, these earlier historians are not the only ones guilty of perpetrating this myth. In 1987, Bob O'Hara and I co-edited a booklet commemorating the 275th anniversary of the town of Pembroke. Oops ... and guess what? We did it, too. In an article about the meetinghouse, Bob speculated about how the building was moved. And it was from that article that we began our odyssey to find the truth. And we did!!
As a postscript to this story, I'd like to add that this is the 300th anniversary of the Town of Pembroke and once again the town has come to the rescue of this important historic building. The story of the Pembroke Quakers is the story of Pembroke. Many of the leaders of the community which petitioned the Court to become a township were these same hardworking and honest folks often referred to as Friends. How appropriate. ~
The belief that the Quaker Meetinghouse was moved had been reinforced over the last century and a half by excerpts from several 'local' histories. The most common source of this is Henry W. Litchfield's Ancient Landmarks of Pembroke, published in 1909. Litchfield wrote: "Later, another Friends' meetinghouse was built, in the year 1706, on the Michael Wanton estate and this was the one moved to Pembroke.” Litchfield went on to write: "Briggs in his Shipbuilding on the North River states that, according to tradition, the was moved up the North River to its present location on “gundaloes.”
Over time, Bob O'Hara and I had several discussions about how and when the 'moving' of the meetinghouse actually took place. It was apparent that none of the local histones could pinpoint the date or method of transport. So, we decided to start in the archives at the Pembroke Historical Society. We spent several hours going through a very meager folder devoted to the Friends Meetinghouse, which deeded to the Society in 1974. Among the documents, we found a letter from Thomas J. Battey of Providence, Rhode Island to Horace T. Fogg of Norwell, dated October 25, 1929. Fogg, was the president of the Rockland Trust Company and in the midst of a restoration project on the meetinghouse. The letter refers to the first volume of the Pembroke Records. Wow!
There are Quaker records from Pembroke. But, where were they? No one in Pembroke had ever seen them and no local historian had ever referred to them. Fifty-eight years had passed. No Google in 1987. Where do we start? Directory assistance! I called this number for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and asked for the headquarters of the Society of Friends. Sure enough, I was connected with, I surmise, a Quaker. The person told me that they did not keep those kinds of records there but suggested that I call the clerk of the Newport, Rhode Island meeting of Friends, and gave me a telephone number. Little pieces began tumbling into place. While I don't recall the name of the Newport Meeting clerk, I do recall that she suggested that I call the Quaker archivist at the Rhode Island Historical Society, a woman by the name of Rosalind Wiggins. I called and spoke to Mrs. Wiggins and told her what we were looking for and why we believed they existed. An elderly woman, Mrs. Wiggins asked me to wait a moment and she would go and check. A short time later, she came back on the line and said that there was one volume of the Pembroke Quaker records in their collection. Bingo! And off to Rhode Island, we go. Road trip!
Several days after receiving this information, Bob and I found ourselves sitting in a tiny room reading through pages on a single role of microfilm. A thousand pages beginning in 1674! There we were, a couple of thirty-something history buffs, acting like a pair of little kids that had just hit the jackpot. l recall, that at one point, we got so excited that the librarian politely asked us to "keep it down." Mrs. Wiggins showed us the original handwritten records which were quite fragile. Apparently, in 1950, the Mormons microfilmed the records as part of their genealogical research.
Well, this was all terrific, but we couldn't camp out in that little room to read a thousand pages of handwritten records. Back to the telephone, and this time to the headquarters of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), in Salt Lake City, Utah! Yes, they had the original microfilm of the records and yes, for the modest sum of $12.00, the Pembroke Historical Commission could purchase a copy. Several weeks later, the microfilm arrived and Bob and I spirited the town hall microfilm reader out of town hall and into my kitchen. I spent the next several months reading the records and cataloging the chronology of the meeting and the meetinghouse starting in 1674 and concluding in 1876 when the meeting was disbanded. The microfilm reader was returned to town hall and I needed glasses after that. Subsequently, print copies of the records were created from the microfilm by Weston Reprographics.
And what did we find? We found details of two hundred years of Quaker life in Pembroke; births, deaths, marriages, mundane details of day to day living. Among these mundane details we found all of the details of the construction of the meetinghouse. And guess what? It was built exactly where it stands today and has since 1706. It was never moved here from anywhere. It was built by Robert Barker Jr, a Pembroke Quaker and father-in-law of Michael Wanton. He was paid one hundred and eleven pounds to do so. In 1707, the records state that a schedule for the yearly meeting was set for the "upper meeting" (Pembroke) and the "lower meetinghouse" which was the Wanton meetinghouse that continued to be used until 1730. Throughout the period 1706 through 1730, both meetinghouses remained in use. The Scituate meetinghouse was referred to as the house of Michael Wanton and the Pembroke meetinghouse was referred to as the house of Robert Barker. This period contains numerous references to both meetinghouses regarding such things as scheduling of meetings and financial statements. Yet, throughout this period, the Quakers who utilized these two buildings considered themselves the same meeting.
So how did the confusion arise? Well, I have a theory about how this story of the meetinghouse being moved began.
In 1831, in Samuel Deane's History of Scituate, he writes that the original meetinghouse built by Edward Wanton and John Rance was sold and converted to a stable. He then states that another was built in 1706, a half mile south of Barstow' s bridge, the current site of the Pembroke meetinghouse. the 1830s, J.S. Barry wrote a history of the town of Hanover. In this text, he refers to the Quakers of Scituate and their dwindling numbers and stated that the meeting was moved to Pembroke. He did not say the meetinghouse was moved, he said the ‘meeting,’ which refers to the membership. In 1889, L. Vernon Briggs in his book Shipbuilding on the North River makes reference to Barry and speculates about how the meetinghouse was moved. In 1900, Dr. Francis Collamore in an article entitled The Quaker Meeting House in North Pembroke compounds the mistake by taking Briggs speculation and reports it as fact. Finally, Harry Litchfield comes along and writes his anecdotal book on historic sites in Pembroke and pretty much cements this myth into fact.
But I have to admit, these earlier historians are not the only ones guilty of perpetrating this myth. In 1987, Bob O'Hara and I co-edited a booklet commemorating the 275th anniversary of the town of Pembroke. Oops ... and guess what? We did it, too. In an article about the meetinghouse, Bob speculated about how the building was moved. And it was from that article that we began our odyssey to find the truth. And we did!!
As a postscript to this story, I'd like to add that this is the 300th anniversary of the Town of Pembroke and once again the town has come to the rescue of this important historic building. The story of the Pembroke Quakers is the story of Pembroke. Many of the leaders of the community which petitioned the Court to become a township were these same hardworking and honest folks often referred to as Friends. How appropriate. ~
