Parson Noble       G
  Parson Noble
   
  G. O. Bent
   
  As soon as the first English-speaking settlers on the St. John River, at 
  Maugerville, had established themselves, they followed their New England 
  custom and organized a church. For ten years they had no settled minister, but 
  by 1774, finding themselves numerous enough and prosperous enough to support a 
  regular minister, they extended a call in June of that year to Mr. Seth Noble 
  to settle in the work of the ministry among them.
  Seth Noble, who received this call from the River St. John, was a native of 
  Westfield, Massachusetts, a descendant of a Thomas Noble who came to the 
  Massachusetts Colony about 1653 and settled at Westfield.1 The house where he 
  was born, April 15, 1743, built by his grandfather, Deacon Thomas Noble, in 
  1727, upon land originally granted the emigrant ancestor, is still standing at 
  Westfield, though not in possession of the Noble family for upwards of a 
  century. With its plastered front, fourteen inch square hewn timbers, paneled 
  partitions, wide boards, huge fireplaces, and chimney twelve feet or more 
  square, the ancient mansion, now somewhat dilapidated, is an interesting relic 
  of "the old Colonial day."
  Seth Noble's relative, the Reverend Oliver Noble, was contemporary minister at 
  Newbury, Mass., where Seth, as his letters show, was well acquainted. Newbury 
  and Newburyport (anciently the port of "Ould Newbury," set off as a separate 
  town in 1764) were parts of the old home territory of most of the earliest St. 
  John River settlers. There they traded and got supplies, and there they appear 
  to have turned for a supply of the gospel.
  Seth Noble joined the Congregational Church at Westfield in 1770, but when or 
  where he was ever ordained to the ministry does not appear to be known. Dr. J. 
  G. Holland, in his "History of Western Massachusetts," published in 1855, 
  refers to him as "not a liberally educated man, but he was a divine of a good 
  degree of talent, and some not unpleasant peculiarities."
  The terms offered Seth Noble by the St. John River settlers were liberal for 
  those days. They were promptly accepted. He was duly installed in his first 
  charge as minister of the Congregational Church at Maugerville — first 
  Protestant church and minister of the St. John River — and the building of a 
  meeting-house was begun.
  He was no sooner fairly settled in his new ministerial office and dignity 
  than, following further good old New England custom, he took unto himself a 
  helpmate. He chose youth, and, evidently, beauty. Imagination might conjure up 
  a very pretty story of the courtship and marriage, in this primitive 
  settlement, of blue-eyed Hannah Barker, daughter of Joseph and relative of 
  ruling elder Squire Jacob Barker, aged sweet sixteen, and the new parson, a 
  handsome man of thirty-two. Their nuptials were celebrated November 30, 1775.
  But all was not to be sunshine and joy for Parson Noble. Troublous times 
  loomed in church and state.
  The following letter, written by the Parson to a nephew at Westfield, who had 
  spent some time on the St. John River, shows something of the stress of 
  religious and political feeling at Maugerville.
    Dear Kinsman:
    I received yours of the 7th and 10th, with joy. Had you been more particular 
    respecting the national difficulties, it would have been an addition to my 
    joy. I have enjoyed a usual state of health. I took a bosom companion the 
    last of November. She has been pressed down under a weight and burden of her 
    sins, almost ever since we entered into that near relation, but I trust, 
    within a few days past, has happily taken sanctuary in Christ, the only ark 
    of safety.
    There is at present a considerable shaking of the dry bones among us, and 
    several have happily put on Christ, which is life eternal. Simeon Towns is 
    daily rejoicing in the rock of his salvation. Asa Kimball and wife are 
    brought out into marvellous light. John Watson was greatly troubled in mind 
    during his absence. It was pressed upon him to return to this place, which 
    he did with Capt. Lovet, and is now almost incessantly praising and adoring 
    the lowly Jesus. Andrew Tibbetts and wife, Mr. Gellison's wife, Thomas 
    Saunders, Sarah Coy, and Alice Potter seem under the preparatory work of the 
    Spirit. . . . . . . 
    My wife with myself desires to be remembered to you, to Mr. Granger, to your 
    mother, and all my kindred and acquaintance.
    From your friend and humble servant,
    Seth Noble.
    Maugerville, 7th February, 1776.
    P. S. I send this letter by Capt. Row, tho' it is uncertain whether he goes 
    further than Machias. I shall expect you in the spring, if there is any 
    passing. I should be glad to take Medad Noble till he is 21, except he 
    should be greatly bent on learing a trade, and if he is, I will endeavor to 
    get him a good place at Newbury Port. Pray advise with his mother and my 
    brethren about it, and especially with him. If he and they think it best, 
    pray bring him down with you. I will do as well by him as I would by my own. 
    Mr. Saunders has done considerable labor on your land. We have had something 
    of a cold season of late, though not colder than it is many times at 
    Westfield. We have about eighteen inches of snow. Mr. Makin died soon after 
    you went away, but nobody since. Jeremiah Howland and Polly Buber were 
    published last Sabbath, and Israel Esty and Salome Burpe. Josiah Whitney is 
    married.
    It seems to be still as to political affairs. If you could bring a Suffield 
    dishturner, it might be a benefit to the person and to this place. A saddler 
    is much wanted, for there have been near a dozen horses purchased here since 
    you left us. There were sundry opportunities to get a passage from New 
    England here last fall. We have a number of vessels lately come in from over 
    the Bay. We have unanimously signed a paper, to join New England in the 
    national struggle, and are making all possible preparations for war. The 
    fleet and army that went from Boston to Halifax have sailed, we suppose, for 
    England, though they pretended they were going to Quebec.
    May 20, 1776.
    To Mr. Aaron Dewey,2
    Westfield,
    County of Hampshire,
    Massachusetts Bay.
  The attempt of the Maugerville settlers, influenced largely by the Parson, to 
  throw in their lot with their mother colony of Massachusetts, was frustrated 
  by the arrival at the mouth of the river, early in May, 1777, of a British war 
  vessel from Halifax, which quickly ended the "rebellion" on the St. John 
  River. The Maugerville settlers renewed their allegiance to the British Crown.
  Parson Noble and a few ringleaders signed an abject submission to the British, 
  begging "that no distinction be made as to pardon." The Parson, however, not 
  feeling sure of the treatment which would be accorded him by the British 
  authorities, decided to flee. He left his wife and the place where he was so 
  comfortably settled, and, narrowly escaping capture, it is related, made his 
  way with Jonathan Eddy and some others, by the inland Indian route, to 
  Machias, Maine.
  He was no sooner there than he turned solidier, and, shouldering a musket, 
  started back for the St. John River, via Musquash Cove, the British vessel 
  having departed from St. John. He was with John Allen's party in this effort 
  to gain over the St. John Indians and strike a blow at the British Tyrant.
  The Parson as Soldier spent several weeks cruising on the St. John, and 
  doubtless had an opportunity to visit his young wife at Maugerville, where she 
  bore him a son, Seth, August 5, 1777.3 She did not leave Maugerville to join 
  her husband until the latter part of 1780.
  This raid on the St. John River, from Machias, necessitated another British 
  expedition from Halifax, which soon swept the river clear of the "rebels," and 
  Parson Noble once more sought refuge at Machias, by the inland route, with the 
  horde of Indians under John Allen. The Massachusetts record of revolutionary 
  soldiers has the following:
      Seth Noble, St. Johns. Private, Capt. Jabez West's Co.; enlisted May 17, 
      17777; discharged July 22, 1777; serivce, 2 mos. 5 days; company raised in 
      Machias for service on expedition against St. Johns. 
  He was at Machias when a British squadron, under Sir George Collier, made an 
  attack and destroyed stores accumulated there, August 14-15, 1777, and the 
  following Sunday preached a sermon on the event. He wrote a letter to General 
  Washington, urging the importance of getting control of the St. John River and 
  the Bay of Fundy, but Washington had too many other irons in the fire, and the 
  British were strong at Halifax. Further efforts for the conquest of old Acadia 
  were abandoned. Parson Noble took his departure from Machias, and his future 
  warfare was confined within the limits of the Church Militant and a struggle 
  for existence.
  During the remaining years of the war he appears to have ministered at various 
  places in New England, not far distant from Newbury. He was careful not to get 
  too far down-east, within reach of British cruisers, as the following letter 
  shows:
    Woburn, June 7, 1777.
    Honorable Gentlemen:— 
    I received an order for a mission to the eastern settlements, yesterday, by 
    the hands of Col. Baldwin, but find its contents so much different from what 
    I had expected, must decline the undertaking. I was informed the mission was 
    to be on the River Penobscot only, but find I was misinformed. There are 
    such a variety of islands, and other inhabitants contiguous to the water — 
    those seas are so much frequented by their cruisers, that I think it is too 
    dangerous for a proscribed person to accept of. I suppose you are not 
    unacquainted with the amazing scarcity of the necessaries of life, in those 
    parts. Add to this, the reward offered me, when laid out in provision or 
    clothing, will not purchase more than one dollar would in 1775.
    From a friend to those liberties which God and nature has bestowed on 
    mankind.
    Seth Noble
    To the whole Court.
  In 1784 Parson Noble wrote an extraordinary letter — a good specimen of 
  old-time "Yankee" audacity — to the church at Maugerville, claiming arrears of 
  pay, etc. The brethren of Maugerville sent him a complete and well-rounded 
  reply, which is printed in publications of New Brunswick Historical Society.
  In 1785 he received, as a Nova Scotia refugee, a grant of 300 acres of land at 
  the new plantation of his friend, Jonathan Eddy, on the Penobscot River, and 
  in the spring of 1786, he appeared there with his wife and family, and met 
  some of his old Maugerville associates, now refugees. His friends there and at 
  the Kenduskeag plantation (Bangor) succeeded in getting a guarantee signed for 
  a salary of 70 pounds, and engaged him as minister for the Penobscot River 
  settlements. On September 10, 1786, under some spreading oak-trees, in the 
  vicinity of what is now the corner of Oak and Washington streets, Bangor, he 
  was installed, by Rev. Daniel Little, as a "minister of the people" — the 
  first settled preacher on that part of the Penobscot.
  There, for between eleven and twelve years, he led a severe and strenuous 
  life. Times were hard and the people poor in those early days on the 
  Penobscot. In 1786, the year in which Parson Noble started preaching the 
  gospel there, the whole settlement signed a petition to the "General Court," 
  original of which is extant, asking to be relieved of their taxes, as they 
  were unable to pay them. The Parson lived, at first, in a log house. He had no 
  organized church, but preached about the country in barns, etc., and travelled 
  by birch-bark canoe. An entry in his diary reads: "Apl. 8, 1794. Fixed my 
  canoe."
  The Kenduskeag settlement received the name of Sunbury, doubtless bestowed 
  either by Parson Noble himself or some others who went there from Sunbury 
  County — the early name of the St. John River territory. This name the 
  Kenduskeag settlement bore for several years.
  In 1790 the Massachusetts General Court was petitioned for the incorporation 
  of this settlement as a town. The inhabitants had voted that it be called 
  Sunbury. Parson Noble bore the petition to the Legislature at Boston in the 
  summer of 1790, but instead of Sunbury, inserted in the petition the name 
  "Bangor." The Parson was a great singer, and said to have been partial to the 
  old hymn-tune called Bangor. Dr. Watts' hymns were then being substituted in 
  the congregations for the Psalms of David as so spiritedly rendered in the old 
  Bay Psalter. The tune of Bangor was commonly sung to the inspiring words of 
  the hymn called "A Funeral Thought:"
      Hark! from the tombs, a doleful sound. 
  The Parson, who was considerable of a wag, was liable to do odd things, 
  especially when under the influence of a slight overdose of the favorite New 
  England cordial of that day. Some ascribe this sudden change of name to an 
  accident, but probably the Parson concluded that the name Sunbury flavored of 
  the British Tyrant. Bangor the settlement became, and is now the city of that 
  name. Incorporation was granted in February, 1791, and in 1792 Squire Jonathan 
  Eddy issued the warrant to organize the town.
  While Parson Noble was in Boston on this matter, his wife, the blue-eyed 
  Hannah Barker of Maugerville, suddenly died. A full reading of Dr. Watts' hymn 
  would almost furnish a belief that the Parson had a prescience of his loss.
  The Parson found it very difficult to eke out an existence for himself and his 
  family in those pioneer days on the Penobscot. He farmed, taught school, 
  including singing — singing-schools being then in great vogue — and had to 
  collect his own salary wherever he could get it. About this time he appears to 
  have become well-nigh desperate, and wrote the following letter:
    Penobscot River, August 21, 1790.
    Gentlemen:
    Sundry attempts have been made for a settlement between the people and 
    myself; but all to no effect. When I settled here I consented to accept 20 
    pounds less than what was really necessary to support my family, because the 
    people said they were poor. Still, to relieve them of the burden, I have 
    been at the expense to collect a great part of what has been collected. Very 
    little thanks have I had for the trouble that I have been to. I was desired 
    to draw a bond for the people to sign for my support, which was rejected, 
    and another drawn (unbeknown to me) which hath deprived me of one-half of 
    the sum proposed. I am willing to do in this and all cases, as I would be 
    done by; but necessity compels me to say, I must have my pay.
    I must further tell you I shall look to no other persons for a settlement, 
    but that committee which covenanted with me on June 7, 1786 to give me 70 
    pounds annual salary. What you then did, is as binding as a note of hand. I 
    am sorry to take any coercive measures; but I tell you again, I must have my 
    pay immediately.
    I am, gentlemen, with due respect,
    Your most obedient,
    Humble servant,
    Seth Noble.
    To the Committee.
  In 1791 he visited the place of his first settlement, on the St. John River, 
  and spent part of the summer and fall of that year preaching and visiting old 
  acquaintances on the river. He may have been taking notice again of the fair 
  sex, tho he did not get his second partner on the St. John River, but in the 
  Bangor district, where he wedded, in 1793, a widow Ruhamah Emery, who had been 
  his housekeeper before she became wife. Despite his antipathy to the British 
  Tyrant, he appears to have cast longing eyes toward the fertile vales of old 
  Sunbury during his many years of wandering and deprivation. Tho he did not 
  succeed in his various efforts to again establish himself there, he took his 
  two young and only surviving sons, of his nine children, to the St. John, 
  presumably in his visit of 1791. They were brought up by their maternal 
  relatives at Maugerville or Sheffield, where they settled, and have numerous 
  descendants in New Brunswick.
  By 1797 the Parson's living had become so reduced, with gossips' tongues 
  a-wag, that he was compelled to leave the Penobscot. For a time he supplied 
  various pulpits in New Hampshire. In 1799 he returned to his native place, 
  Westfield, Mass., and for sixteen months remained among his kindred, and 
  supplied a large list of pulpits in that vicinity. He is described as "a man 
  of great activity." A mere list of the places where he preached and taught 
  singing-school during his career would appear something like a gazetteer of 
  New England. In 1801 he was installed as the first minister of Montgomery, 
  Mass., a territory originally included mostly within the boundaries of his old 
  home, Westfield. There he ministered for about five years, and had the usual 
  difficulty in collecting his stipend in a new and poor settlement.
  In 1806, when 63 years of age, he struck out for what was then the "far west," 
  Ohio. He was one of the refugees who received grants of land in the section of 
  Ohio set off by the United States Congress for some revolutionists of Nova 
  Scotia and Canada. Upon a part of this "refugee land" stands the city of 
  Columbus, the capital of Ohio. His grant was in Franklinton, now part of 
  Columbus. There he built a cabin, and is said to have been the first 
  Congregational or Presbyterian preacher in that part of the country. For 
  fifteen months he preached at different places in Ohio. The last sermon he is 
  known to have preached was at Franklinton, August 9, 1807, from Matt. xi, 28: 
  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
  rest. His earthly career came to an end at Franklinton, September 15, 1807, 
  when 64 years of age, and his remains were interred there, but the westward 
  sweep of civilization left no trace of the place of his sepulchre.
  A few months before his demise he had married in Ohio a third wife, a widow, 
  Mary Riddle, who it is stated had been previously of New Brunswick.
  Of his grant of 640 acres in Ohio, which might have enriched his descendants, 
  portions were disposed of for trifling sums. His sons, Benjamin and Joseph, 
  resident in New Brunswick, probably never claimed their shares. Many of the 
  largest of the sixty-nine original grantees of these refugee lands, who were 
  mainly of Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, parted with their titles for little 
  or nothing. Some settled on the land, and doubtless have descendants in Ohio 
  at the present day.
  Some who knew him have left interesting pictures of Parson Noble, who was a 
  man of lively parts, and considered by some of his parishioners as "airy."
  Mrs. Howard, a good lady who was his near neighbor at Bangor, has left record 
  that the Parson was
    a very airy man, preached well, gifted in prayer, a good neighbor and a good 
    gardener; a very industrious man, excellent in sickness, and very moral.
  William Hasey, one of the earliest settlers at Bangor, wrote in 1844:
    Rev. Mr. Noble was settled in Bangor some six or seven years after I came 
    here. He was a pretty good preacher, a most gifted man in prayer, especially 
    on funeral occasions, he excelled. Indeed I have never heard his equal, so 
    touching, so affecting. A most excellent singer. He could drink a glass of 
    grog and be jovially merry. When out of the pulpit he ought never to go in, 
    and when in never to go out. His religious friends had scruples of his vital 
    piety, and after Mr. Noble went away, he wrote to Deacon Boyd, saying he had 
    never experienced religion till after he left Bangor. A very handsome man, 
    of middle stature, dark brown hair, quite a gentleman.
  From Williamson's annals, etc.:
    Deacon Wm. Boyd has often talked with me about "Parson Noble." The Deacon 
    who came to Bangor in 1791, says Mr. Noble was too light and frothy in his 
    conversation, did not sustain the gravity of character becoming a minister, 
    would drink a dram with almost anyone who asked him, laugh and tell improper 
    anecdotes. Yet in his religious performances he was able and pathetic — no 
    doubt, pious as he was truly an orthodox and faithful preacher. He is 
    described as a man thin-faced, spare, not tall, of light complexion and of 
    fresh countenance. He was active, quick, smart and nervous. He preached with 
    notes and sometimes they were pretty old. His head was covered with a 
    remarkable, white, powdered wig.
  Thus may end these chronicles concerning a pioneer preacher in New Brunswick, 
  New England and Ohio, who was an ardent hater of the British Tyrant, but a 
  very genial person, and something of a sport.
   
  ___________________
   
  1. Seth Noble became familiar with the St. John River. Was Westfield on this 
  river so named by the first minister, from his old home, Westfield, Mass., 
  beautifully situated on Westfield River?
  2. Descendant of an immigrant, Thomas Dewey, who was ancestor of Admiral Dewey 
  of Manila Bay fame. Deweys and Nobles were pioneer settlers at Westfield. See 
  Dewey genealogy, by Mr. L. M. Dewey of Westfield, and Noble genealogy, by Hon. 
  L. M. Boltwood. From latter above letter is taken.
  3. This son was drowned in 1798 when on a voyage from Bangor to Boston.
   
  Index  
  [Published in Acadiensis Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1907]