Nathan Webb

For other people named Nathan Webb, see Nathan Webb (disambiguation).

Nathan Webb, an early American Congregational Church minister, was born on April 9, 1705, at Braintree, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. He died on March 17, 1772 at Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts^[1]

Early life

Nathan Webb was born to Benjamin Webb (1667–1739) and Susanna Ballentine. He married Ruth Adams in Braintree on November 23, 1731. The Reverend Nathan Webb was the first called minister of the new Congregational Church in the newly incorporated (1727) Town of Uxbridge. The Uxbridge Congregational Church was officially split from the church at Mendon. Reverend Webb was called on January 6, 1731.^[2] This church was the first church to be built in the new town of Uxbridge.

Ordination and career

Congregational Church, 1731, first new Congregational Church in Massachusetts during The Great Awakening Period

Webb was ordained at the Uxbridge First Congregational Church, then within Suffolk County, on February 3, 1731. The Uxbridge Church is the first to be mentioned in a list of 45 new Congregational churches in New England which were started in the decade beginning in 1731.^[2] The churches of this period were attributed by the text cited below to the Great Awakening, an early American historical religious movement that sprang up in the Connecticut River Valley, led by ministers such as Jonathan Edwards, another Congregational minister.^[2] Reverend Webb spent his entire career in the ministry at Uxbridge, spanning over 41 years of service. Shortly after Rev. Webb's ordination, the new town of Uxbridge became part of a newly established Worcester County.

Members of his Congreation included America's first woman voter, Lydia Taft and Lt. Col. Seth Read, who fought at Bunker Hill, was instrumental in adding E Pluribus Unum to US coins, and founded Erie, Pennsylvania. Many members of the early American Taft family were members of Webb's Congregation. Peter Rawson Taft's son, Alfonso, started the Ohio family branch which rose to prominence in American politics. Deacon John Hall and Sarah had 4 children. Their son Baxter Hall drummed the first musters in the American Revolution.

Young Samuel Spring was mentored closely by Nathan Webb. Samuel Spring, born 1746, became a Revolutionary War Chaplain. Shortly after Nathan Webb's death, Spring served in the Siege of Boston, and the Invasion of Canada (1775).^[3] Spring later founded the Massachusetts Missionary Society and the Andover Theological Seminary. Spring has many published sermons and works to his credit. He was considered a Congreationalist fundamentalist. He had trained under the Rev. Nathan Webb, and later at Princeton Theological Seminary.

It appears that Nathan Webb and his ministry was the longest to ever serve this parish. Some early histories of the town record the prominence of this church and the role that he and the church played in this new pioneer community. His ministry spanned the pre-Revolutionary War period of Uxbridge, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Death and afterwards

Rev. Webb served in Uxbridge until his death at the age of 66 in 1772.^[1] The Worcester County history text reports that he "continued in the faithful service of the Master" until his death.^[1] "He bequeathed 16 British Sterling Pounds to the church for the purposes of purchasing 3 silver cups to be engraved with the names of Nathan Webb, Ruth Webb, and Elizabeth Webb. He then bequeathed 26 Pounds, 13 Shillings, and 4 cents to be invested and improved forever toward the work of the learned, pious and orthodox Congregational ministry of said church forever".^[1] The title of the sermon given on his death was, "The godly fathers and a defence to their people [electronic resource"] : A sermon delivered at Uxbridge, April 19, 1772, occasioned by the death of the late Reverend Nathan Webb, Pastor of said church and people: containing a summary of his character. : And now published, at the desire of many of the hearers, to revive and perpetuate the memory of their said pastor. / By Ebenezer Chaplin, A.M. Pastor of a church in Sutton." Rev. Webb's funeral was held on April, 19, 1772, exactly three years before the battle of Lexignton and Concord.^[4]

The present location of the Congregational Church, in the Uxbridge Common District, changed from the 1830s due to a split with the more liberal Unitarian Church tradition.

Quakers come to town

Friends Meeting House(1770), Quaker Highway at Route 98, Uxbridge, MA

Abby Kelley Foster, of Friend's Meeting House, led Susan B. Anthony to abolitionism

Three years before Nathan Webb's death, Rhode Island Quaker abolitionists, with ties to Moses Brown, built a local meetinghouse on the outskirts of Uxbridge. The Quakers and the Congreationalists lived peacefully together and both supported the abolition movement. This was among the first Quaker meetings in Massachusetts after their expulsion, in the 1600's by Puritans, (later known as Congregationalists). Abby Kelley Foster, (a later radical abolitioinst), and her family, were members of the Friend's Meeting House at Uxbridge, up until at least 1841. She led Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony into the abolitiion movements. Many houses in Uxbridge later served as part of the Underground railroad. Concerns for women's rights and human rights were among the legacies of the early religious traditions at Uxbridge. The famous American hymn writer, Lowell Mason, of Medfield, MA, came to Uxbridge, sixty years after Nathan Webbs death, and wrote the classical hymn tune, "Uxbridge", one of 1600 hyms composed by Mason. It appears that the ministry of Nathan Webb helped to begin a lasting religiious legacy in this part of the Blackstone Valley.

Significance in American History

Nathan Webb pastored the first new Congregational Church in Massachusetts started during the Great Awakening period for over 41 years. His parishioners made a mark on America and its early freedoms. The eulogy of his death was given by Rev. Ebeneezer Chaplin, of the church at Sutton, to embody the character of Nathan Webb, for posterity. The sermon was delivered exactly three years before the Lexington Alarm. Young Baxter Hall of this church answered the Lexingon Alarm as a drummer in the first muster of the American Revolution.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Perkins, Abijah Marvin (1879). " History of Worcester County; Embracing a Comprehensive History of the County from it s Earliest Beginnings;. CF Jewitt and Company. p. 429. http://books.google.com/books?id=Rj4WqxsQu5UC&pg=PA429&lpg=PA429&dq=rev+nathan+webb+year+of+death&source=web&ots=2p6rv6sZG1&". 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Historical Sketch of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts from 1731-1740" by Joseph Sylvester Clark page 148. Congregational Church Board. http://books.google.com/books?id=L7yETClx8EUC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=great+awakening+uxbridge+mass&source=web&ots=Hb8cssL38Q&sig=h6xIX6g-iJXqsD6tLuFhTz6NiE0. Retrieved 2007-10-20. 
3. ^ "Samuel Spring from Uxbridge, Revolutionary War Chaplain". blackstonevalleytribune.com. http://www.blackstonevalleytribune.com/pdf/BLA.2008.12.05.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-07. 
4. ^ to published sermon delivered upon the death of Nathan Webb, April 19, 1775 by Reverend Ebeneezer Chaplin, of the Church at Sutton

Persondata
Name	Webb, Nathan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1705
Place of birth
Date of death	1772
Place of death