The Reverend Jacob Bailey, Maine Loyalist: For God, King, Country, and for Self

Four. The Politics of Religion

d 77 four The Politics of Religion The Reverend Jacob Bailey could hardly have arrived at Pownalborough at a more propitious time, or one more filled with potential disruption . The final act in the British conquest of French Canada during the Seven Years’ War occurred in 1760 with the fall of Montreal, something of an anticlimax after the dramatic capture of Quebec the year before. Peace negotiations might drag on for three more years, but British colonists were euphoric in this triumph of British liberty and Protestantism over French despotism and Catholicism. God was surely Protestant. But a Protestant God did not preclude quarrels among the faithful. Coinciding with Jacob Bailey’s arrival, there returned to Boston from his studies in England another young SPG missionary, the Reverend Mr. East Apthorp, a member of one of Boston’s most prestigious and well-connected mercantile families. Almost immediately, Apthorp became the eye of a religious storm that was sweeping across New England and forcing many colonists to reconsider their connections to Old England .1 Reverberations of that storm would reach all the way to the town of Pownalborough on the eastern frontier of Massachusetts and into the life of its new missionary preacher. East Apthorp’s arrival was the latest episode in a controversy that had been simmering for years over whether the Church of England should appoint bishops in the American colonies. The rapid growth of Anglicanism throughout the northern colonies in the past several decades had intensified the issue. On practical grounds, it made sense to eliminate the need to send provincial candidates for holy orders all the way across the dangerous Atlantic, a voyage that had claimed at least nine lives by 1765. Furthermore, American bishops would serve to improve discipline and 78 Chapter Four maintain order among the increasing number of Anglican churches throughout the colonies.2 In England, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Secker, made no effort to hide his enthusiasm for the project of creating American bishops and missionaries to further increase the number of converts , clergy, and churches. The archbishop’s zeal inspired one of Bailey’s former mentors, Rev. Henry Caner, rector of King’s Chapel in Boston, to suggest the audacious scheme of establishing an Anglican mission in Cambridge, close to Harvard College, to be served by the cultured and scholarly SPG missionary East Apthorp. Quickly approved by authorities in England, the elegant Christ’s Church, designed by Peter Harrison , was erected in Cambridge with remarkable speed, opening its doors in 1761. Meanwhile Rev. Apthorp, newly married into the prestigious Hutchinson clan, constructed on the edge of Harvard Yard a personal residence so magnificent as to be dubbed “the Bishop’s Palace.” Indeed, it was widely assumed that Apthorp, with such impressive professional and personal credentials, was being groomed to be the first American bishop. To young men at Harvard reared in rustic Puritan simplicity much like Jacob Bailey, the attractions of this genteel, elegant Anglican tradition would appear almost irresistible. That at least appeared to be the intent of the Anglican Churchmen and also the fear of the Congregational clergy who viewed the Church of England’s intrusion into Cambridge as “a dagger aimed at the heart of the Puritan tradition in America.”3 Their fears were heightened yet further when, in January 1761, there appeared in the Boston Gazette an article attributed to Apthorp that was distinguished by its effrontery. In it the author congratulated his countrymen on their good fortune in being presented with the opportunity to escape the intolerance of the Congregationalists by uniting with the Church of England. The article went on to suggest that Harvard should open up to the Church of England by holding one of its two customary Commencement Day exercises in the new Christ Church, and furthermore, that Anglicans be invited to sit on the college’s Board of Overseers.4 New England Congregationalism, led by Rev. Jonathan Mayhew of Boston’s West Church, reacted to this apparent Anglican invasion with a flood of vehement newspaper articles and pamphlets pointing out the dangers to New England liberties, both religious and political, contained in the Church of England’s diffusion and its intended American episcopate. Indeed, New England’s Puritan forefathers had departed from England over a century ago precisely to escape enforced confor- The Politics of Religion 79 mity to the Church of England’s popish rituals and the corrupt...