THE TOWN OF NORTH SALEM. 751 



say : ' ' That Mr. Townsend, missionary at Salem, states his congregations to be 

 increasing. Hath baptized sixty-two infants and two adults. "« In 1775, they 

 say "that Mr. Townsend is constant in the performance of his duty in his own 

 parish and preaches frequently in the parts adjacent. From Lady Day to Mi- 

 chaelmas he baptized twenty-one infants and one adult, and admitted two new 

 communicants. " b The abstracts for 1776 add : " That one letter from Mr. Town- 

 send on September 29th, 1775, gives the same account of his mission, in which 

 he hath baptized thirty infants, buried seven, and married three couple in the 

 preceding half year." 



The last communication the Society received from Mr. Townsend was 

 in June, 1777, soon after he had been compelled to leave the scene of 

 his labors by the threatening state of affairs. 



MR. TOWNSEND "TO THE SECRETARY. 



"Salem, Province of New Yoek, June, A.D. 1777. 



" Rev. Sir: — Prom the first existence of the present rebellion, I could — give the 

 Honorable Society no account of my conduct with respect to public affairs— be- 

 cause my distance from New York, and the excessive vigilance of the Rebel 

 committees in getting and examining all letters, rendered such a step extremely 

 dangerous ; but, being now, by God's good Providence, banished from among the 

 Rebels for my loyalty to his Majesty, I think it my duty to give the Honorable 

 Society a short account of my conduct, from the beginning of these troubles, 

 and of the treatment I have met with from the Rebels. 



" In the latter part of the year 1773, and the beginning of 1774, 1 strongly sus- 

 pected that the leaders of the opposition to government in America were aiming 

 at Independence, and the Eastern Provinces, at the subversion of the Church, 

 likewise ; d and that in pursuit of those ends, they would, if possible, influence 

 the people to a revolt ; but when the first Congress approved the rebellious re- 

 solves of the County of Suffolk in Massachusetts Bay, I had no longer any doubt 

 of their intentions. In this state of things, therefore, I did every thing that lay 

 in my power, by preaching, reading the Homilies against Rebellion, and by con- 

 versation, to give my parish and others, a just idea of the sacred obligations laid 

 upon us by Christianity — to be good and peaceful subjects, even if it had been 

 our lot to have lived under wicked and oppressive rulers, and much more so, as 

 Providence hath blessed us with one of the wisest and best of princes. This, I 

 chose to do before any blood was shed — while people's tempers were yet cool ; 

 lest if the instruction had been deferred till some blow was struck, the acts of 

 misrepresentation, which had been used from the beginning, might influence 

 their passions and hurry them into criminal acts before reason could resume its 



a Soeiety's abstract from 21st February, 1772, to 19th February, 1773. 



b ditto ditto from 17th February, 1775, to 16th February, 1776. 



c Ditto ditto from 16th February, 1776, to 21st February, 1777. 



d The following extracts are from a letter of John Adams to "Dr. J. Morse, dated Quincy, 

 2d Dec, 1815:— "That the apprehension of Episcopacy contributed, fifty years ago, as much 

 as any other cause, to arouse the attention, not only of the enquiring mind, but the common 

 people, and urge them to close thinking on the constitutional authority of Parliament over the 

 colonies.". ''This, nevertheless, was a fact as certain as any in the history of North 

 America. The objection was not merely to the office of a Bishop— though even that was 

 dreaded— but to the authority of Parliament, on which it must be founded. "—" Life aud Works 

 of John Adams," by Chas. Francis Adams ; vol. X., p. 185. 



