James Walker's Facts in Regard to the Difficulties at Marshpee

Facts in regard to the Difficulties at 1 Marshpee

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Dr. Daniel Williams, an eminent divine among the English Dissenters, died January 26, 1716, bequeathing a sum now amounting to thirteen thousand dollars to the College at Cambridge with a direction in his will as follows:

I give the remainder of my estate," (meaning his estate in Essex) "to be paid yearly to the College of Cambridge, in New England, or to such as one usually employed to manage the blessed work of converting the poor Indians there, to promote which I design this part of my gift.

Two thirds of the income of this fund, varying from $390 to $433, is annually paid to the Reverend Phineas Fish, as minister of the Mashpee Indians, by the College Treasurer. This salary Mr. Fish expects will continue to be paid him, as agreed upon between him and the Corporation, in lieu of that stipulated in the original terms of settlement, which were "Mr. Fish to receive $520 annual salary, to be paid quarter yearly, and $250 as a settlement, said salary to be paid him, so long as he should continue in the service above named," to wit, 2 the pastoral 3 charge of the Indians at Marshpee and Herring Pond. Mr Fish does not consider himself as missionary to the Marshpees but as their pastor and regularly ordained minister, being ordained over them by an Ecclesiastical Council, convened by letters missive from the College Corporation, September 18, 1811.

The College acted in this affair in the understanding that the measure was desired and entirely concurred in alike by the Indians themselves, their overseers, and Mr. Fish, 4 and after Mr. Fish had 5 been preaching to the Indians more than a year as a missionary, deriving his support from the Williams fund. There is evidence that 6 six Indians, namely, Solomon Francis, Jeremiah Babcock, Gideon Nautumpum, Abraham Squib, Richard Cabot, and Nathan Pocknet, waited on Mr. Fish 7 to express to him, in the name of the rest, their desire that he might be ordained over them 8 as the successor of Mr. Hawley,9 their former minister. The great body of the Indians were also present at the ordination and appeared to concur in the proceeding, and one hundred and eighty-three of them dined at Mr. Hawley's with the council.

On the other hand, it is not pretended that any note was taken on the subject, either in the congregation or church, by the Indians. It is also denied that the Marshpee people constituted a regular congregation in law; and if they did, it is further denied that the Corporation of Harvard College had a right to settle a minister over them or to call a council for that purpose. A question arises, therefore, respecting the validity of that ordination.

In order to judge of the probable usefulness of Mr. Fish, at present, among the Indians, the following facts deserve attention. Of forty-five male proprietors on the Plantation, the whole number as reported by the District Clerk, thirty are decidedly opposed to Mr. Fish, four decidedly in his favour, and eleven neutral or uncertain. His usual congregation on pleasant Sundays consists of from twelve to thirty Coloured persons, and from forty to one hundred Whites. The Whites pay nothing towards Mr. Fish's support, but this number, it is said, is not increased but rather diminished, compared with what it was in the days of his predecessor, Mr. Hawley. The church consists at present of four Coloured persons (the only male, a Negro, not a proprietor,) and about fifteen Whites. At the time of Mr. Fish's ordination, the church consisted of five Indians and fourteen Whites, and during his ministry, he has admitted twenty Persons of Colour, and sixteen Whites. The whole number of Indian and Coloured persons on the Plantation of Marshpee is reckoned at about three hundred and twenty. Of them, only two men, namely, Isaac Symonds and William Amos, and six women, namely, Marcy Henson, Mercy McGregor,10 Patience Allen,11 Bathsheba Richards, Hannah Freeman,12 and Desire Attaquin,13 claim to be of pure blood. The rest are mixed, of various degrees, with White or Negro blood, by intermarriages with Negros, Hessians and others. Mr. Fish, since settlement, has changed his sentiments from Unitarian to Orthodox, but it does not appear that the Indians like him any the less on this account or make this change a ground of complaint.

But they do complain that their feelings were not respected as members of the congregation, that they were less regarded than the Whites, that they were not visited by Mr. Fish as frequently as the Whites, and above all, that Mr. Fish gave his whole influence against them in their late successful exertions to obtain their liberties from the Legislature. They do not bring any very serious and definite charge against Mr. Fish's moral or ministerial character, which seems to be unimpeachable; but they allege that 14 in his preaching and his general habits, he is unsuited to them, and that he has from various causes entirely lost 15 the confidence of the Indians, as a body, and is never likely to recover it. Mr. Fish and his friends, on the other hand, say that his present unpopularity is to be ascribed to the notorious fickleness of the Indians, to the agency of strangers who have stirred up the Indians against him, and to unavoidable grounds of dissatisfaction growing out of the late changes in their civil affairs; and that if he is sustained in his place, he will be likely in a short time, after the present occasions of uneasiness have passed away, to regain his ascendancy over his scattered flock.

Besides Mr. Fish's congregation, there are two others, at present, on the Plantation; one of which is under the pastoral charge of a Native, Joseph Amos, or Blind Joe, as he is commonly called, who is regularly ordained over his church and society as a Baptist 16 minister. He is blind from birth and but very imperfectly educated; but he is evidently a well-meaning and pious man, and his influence, in general, is good, and he is also at this time in much favour with the Indians, his congregation consisting, on fair Sundays, of from fifty to seventy hearers, all Coloured, who hold their meetings in one of the school houses.  His church also consists of from twenty to fifty members. The other society, worshipping in the other schoolhouse, and consisting of from twenty to forty hearers, with about 17 fifteen communicants, all Coloured, has for its minister, at present, William Apes, a Pequot Indian from Connecticut, formerly a Protestant Methodist preacher, but now of no particular denomination. This man figured greatly in the late disturbances at Marshpee, which made the interference of the government necessary, and he was popular among the Indians for a while but 18 is now understood to be rapidly loosing their confidence, and not without good reason.

Reverend Mr. Merrick, of Sandwich introduced me to several gentlemen in his society, all of whom concurred in think that Mr. Fish's usefulness at Marshpee was at an end. On the contrary, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Ezra Cocker, and the gentlemen generally at Cotuit Village, in the immediate vicinity of Mashpee, concurred in thinking that Mr. Fish ought to be sustained.19 The leading gentlemen in Barnstable and Falmouth were understood to accord, in general, with the latter.

The great majority of the Marshpees now wish that if consistent with Mr. William's will, the proceeds of his charity now paid to Mr. Fish should go to the support of a competent White schoolmaster to reside among them. Otherwise, on account of their religious differences, and for other reasons, their petition is that the income of the fund may not be bestowed on them, but be given to some other body of Indians by whom it will be received more thankfully, and to whom, from a difference in the circumstances, it will be likely to do more good. The Selectmen of Marshpee have sent up a memorial to this effect, and now desire to be heard in it, 20 and by their counsel, Mr. Hallett,21 before the corporation. In regard to the education of the Marshpees, it may be observed that the State has appropriated one hundred dollars a year to them from the School Fund, that they have two good school houses, and as much schooling, as to time, as other country towns of the same magnitude; and that in effect, the children on the Plantation generally, are taught to read and write decently well, and some few have attended a little to arithmetic. They depend at present, however, on Native teachers, who, as they allege are incompetent properly to instruct the higher classes.

Mr. Fish preaches every seventh Sunday at a small Indian settlement at Herring Pond in Plymouth, distant almost ten miles from Marshpee. Here there is but one pure-blooded Native, Clarissa Conant, and his congregation consists of not more than twelve or fifteen persons; and but very little interest is taken in his ministrations, though no objections are made to his character or his services, except that his preaching is cold and dull.

In view of these facts I come to the following conclusions.

1. If practicable, it would be desirable on all accounts, and more in accordance with the will of Mr. Williams, to have the entire trust transferred to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North America.

2. If this cannot be done, the Corporation had better continue to pay Mr. Fish as heretofore, until the question respecting the validity of his ordination is settled by due process of law, it being understood that the people of Marshpee will soon commence such a process on account of the hearing of that question on Mr. Fish's claim on the Meeting House, Parsonage Lot, etc.

3. If however the Corporation think that some steps should be immediately taken towards the removal of Mr. Fish, the best course to be pursued, as it seems to me, is this: I do not think it would be well for the Corporation 22 to be foremost in deciding that the doings of the Council which ordained Mr. Fish, called by them as it was, and acting as it was supposed at the time in their name and under their authority and sanction, are null and void. But the Corporation may propose in concert with the other parties the calling of a mutual council; or they may, in case that proposal is rejected, call an ex parte council, to be composed of representatives from the same churches as the former one; and to the decision of this body all the difficulties in the case may be referred.

Meanwhile both Mr. Fish and the Indians are to be given distinctly to understand, that the Corporation of the College have nothing whatever to do with any questions touching the civil or religious rights of the Indians, or with Mr. Fish's legal title to the Marshpee Meeting House, or the Parsonage Lot, or any other perquisites or immunities claimed by him, save the annual salary stipulated and agreed upon as above.

All which is respectfully submitted,

James Walker

October 17, 1835

• 1. Deleted Text in the margin: Memoranda respecting the Difficulty with Mr. Fish at Marshpee
• 2. Deleted Text: in his
• 3. Deleted Text: relative to
• 4. Deleted Text:  who
• 5. Deleted Text: previously
• 6. Deleted Text: a committee of
• 7. Deleted Text: as a deputation from the tribe
• 8. Fish was ordained at Mashpee on Sept. 18, 1811.
• 9. Gideon Hawley
• 10. Mercy Moses McGregor
• 11. Patience Keeter Allen, in the margin next to her name, Walker notes: ince dead.
• 12. Hannah Pocknet Freeman
• 13. Desire Mingo Attaquin
• 14. Deleted Text: from various causes
• 15. Deleted Text: their
• 16. Deleted Text: preacher
• 17. Deleted Text: twenty
• 18. Deleted Text: he
• 19. See Petition of Certificate of Rowland Crocker and Others in Favor of Phineas Fish
• 20. Deleted text: and through
• 21. Benjamin F. Hallett
• 22. Deleted Text: arbitrarily to