Love History? Read a bit of ours - more on the current Steeple Resoration here
The first worship service was held under a tree on Gale's Point in 1630, when the first settlers landed in Manchester in 1630. From 1635 to 1716 they worshipped with the Salem and then with the Beverly churches. Our church was founded on November 7, 1716 with a membership of nine men and ten women. The church grew rapidly in the 1700's.
Our present building is the fourth in a series of meeting houses. It was completed in 1809 at a total cost of $8500. The townspeople rallied around to help build it in the fashion of an old barn-raising. The building was then jointly owned by the proprietors and the town. In 1844, members of the parish scraped together $3000 and purchased the building. It was refurbished in 1846, and again in 1890. The latest renovation was in 1975.
The church school of the First Parish Church was started one day in June 1810, when four young women of Manchester, Abigail Hooper, Eliza Tuck, Martha Lee, and Mary Bingham gathered under the inspiration of Ann Haseltine and Harriet Atwood in an upper room in a selling house near the site of the G.A. Priest School. Harriet Atwood married Samuel Newhall, a classmate and friend of Adoniram Judson to whom Nancy Hasseltine was married. The marriages preceded the ordination of both Samuel and Adoniram at the Tabernacle Church in Salem on February 6, 1812 and their commissioning as two of the original five missionaries to leave America aboard the ship Gillespie for the Orient. Harriet Newhall gave birth to a baby girl during the voyage but, both mother and daughter died shortly afterward. Harriet and her daughter were buried in Port Louis, Isle of France. She was considered the first American Christian martyr in the foreign missions field. Nancy and Adoniram Judson spent their mission career in Burma securing their first convert, Maung Nau, six years after their arrival.
In 1857 about two-thirds of the church members seceded and held services in what is now our chapel. They settled their differences and reunited twelve years later. Since then the church members have worshipped together in harmony with few setbacks.
Since the 1950's, a steeple lighting fund has supplied the money to keep the steeple lit at night. In 1983, the steeple began to tilt dangerously, so it was removed and repaired. At the same time, the rooster weathercock was re-gilded and returned to its roost atop the steeple spire where it has been since 1809.
The Steeple Bell
Manchester’s first Meeting House bell was presented to the town in 1695, but could not be hung until a steeple was built for it the following year. In 1719, it was transferred to the newly-built second meeting house. In 1785, a larger bell was purchased by the town and it could be heard at a greater distance. More decibels were needed as the community grew and houses moved farther from the center. Besides, it had been agreed that the Meeting House bell was the only source of alarm for fire and for warning of a possible attack by British naval raiding parties during the War of 1812. On at least one occasion, it proved its worth as a feature of the town’s Homeland Security system during the war. It also summoned volunteer firefighters every time there was q mill fire at one of the town’s furniture factories (which was not infrequent in the days of live flame lighting and heating before electricity), as well as calling people to worship services on Sundays.
In 1845, thanks in large measure to a generous gift of $500 from Captain Benjamin Allen as well as donations from others, a new and larger bell was installed in the tower. That bell lasted until 1915 when it was cracked by a shot fired from the old cannon on Powder House Hill in celebration of the Fourth of July. It has never been established whether a shot actually hit the bell or whether it was cracked by the concussion of the gun.
The damaged bell was removed and taken to be recast, but its silver was reported stolen when it was melted down to be poured into the mold. There was reportedly a great furor, especially when it was found that Selectman had their names inscribed upon the bell when it was recast. In righteous anger, an unidentified citizen went to the belfry and chiseled the names off. Without silver in the alloy, the harmonious C-sharp tone the bell once had was no more and it now sounds more like a skillet being struck and its note cannot be found on the musical scale. Still it calls parishioners to worship and sounds the hour.
The tower bell has proclaimed many joyous events from local weddings to the end of the Civil War, peace on the Western Front in 1918, and V-E Day and V-J Day in 1945. The bell also tolled in honor and memory of Abraham Lincoln following receipt of the news of his assassination in 1865, and the shooting of President John F. Kennedy in 1964. At one point, a striker was attached to the bell which rang automatically when a fire alarm box was pulled. The lights, which illuminate the bell tower at night, were given in loving memory of Ida Capello Sweeney, wife of P. Edward Sweeney, Superintendent of Streets in Manchester for many years.
The clock faces and the clock mechanism (which still functions today) were acquired and installed in the steeple by the Town in 1882.
In 2013, the Steeple Bell was no longer rung and striking the bell on the hour was also stopped because the bell cradle was deteriorating. Steeplejack George Burgess of Rockport, ME secured the bell with rigging cable back to the main structure to keep it from toppling as extensive work was completed. The repairs made, included replacement of the steeple roof & bell cradle, refurbishment of the bell strikers and restoration of the steeple clock faces & elements.
More about the Weathercock can be read here
Manchester, Massachusetts. First Congregational Church records, 1717-1881 Read more
