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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 50, no. 1 (Winter 2001), p. 19-22

A Brief History of Religion on Nantucket
by Georgia Ann Snell


AS THE REFORMATION SPREAD THROUGH Europe in the early sixteenth century, the Protestant interpretations of belief and scriptural validity brought chaos to religious life. When Henry the VIII established the Church of England it became the basis for the Protestantism that not too long after came to America. The Puritans, who were in existence by 1559, attempted national reform in England, but the Catholic Stuarts made things difficult for them and many fled to Holland. In the 1630s the Puritans began coming to America.

The New England colonies were founded predominantly by the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts and Connecticut, who then established communities in Maine, New Hampshire, and on Long Island. Under the leadership of Roger Williams, who fled from the Bay Colony, Rhode Island became a refuge for those seeking freedom of conscience, Baptists, Quakers, and other independent spirits flocked to Rhode Island, including those who were seeking freedom from religion.

Beginning in 1642, Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard made missionary forays to Nantucket, and in addition to claiming pasturage for his sheep managed to "Christianize" a good number of the native population. By the time the first settlers came to Madaket Harbor that winter of 1659, many of the Indians were already converted. The Proprietors came to Nantucket in search of economic opportunities and a desire to be outside the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Puritans. They rejected religious politics and preferred nonconformist religious practices. They opposed the Puritan idea of collective discipline, and were advocates of toleration and sectarian diversity.

The Nantucket native population of between 2,500 and 3,000 welcomed the English settlers. During the early years, the Indian Christian movement grew, led by Peter Folger, who had settled on Martha's Vineyard and moved to Nantucket as a religious teacher, among his many other occupations. By 1674 there were nearly 300 "Praying Indians," as they were called, in three churches. One at was at Oggawame (or Jephtha's town, northeast of Gibbs Swamp); one at Wammasquid (Quidnet); and one at Squatesit (Polpis). Daniel Gookin, supervisor of the New England missionary effort, reported that there were four teachers at that time: John Gibbs (Assasamoogh), pastor; Caleb (Weekochisit); and two others, Joseph and Samuel. The Praying Indians evolved from the Anabaptist beginnings fostered by the Mayhews.

Because Nantucket was then a part of the New York Colony, the separation of church and state was already an accepted tenet of Nantucket's religious life. Even after the island was ceded to Massachusetts, this ethic was strongly adhered to by the settlers. At the end of the seventeenth century, nonconformity, diversity, and religious pluralism prevailed; private and public worship services were held but they were not formalized congregations with settled ministers.

In 1702 the English Quaker, John Richardson, came to Nantucket and addressed a large group of Quakers and other interested citizens at the home of Mary Coffin Starbuck, who was already committed to Quaker ideals. That meeting is considered to be the beginning of the highly influential Quaker movement on Nantucket. At about the same time, Congregationlists were meeting in homes in the old town of Sherburne. Oral tradition has it that the first Congregational house of worship may have been in existence in 1711, an assumption based on a bill for lumber that cannot at present be located. It is known, however, that in 1725 town records ordered that notices be posted at two meeting houses, presumably the Friends Meeting House on upper Main Street and the Congregational Meeting House, the Old North Vestry, which by then had been moved to Centre Street.

On June 24, 1799, the Reverend William Beauchamp organized the Methodist Society in an upper back room in the Pearl Street residence of Ebenezer Rand. Methodism had arrived two years earlier when Rev. Jesse Lee visited in April and preached sixteen sermons. In 1798, when Rev. Joseph Snelling of Boston came to preach on Nantucket, there was such a large group of black people who wanted to attend but could not that Rev. Snelling went to the open air on Mill Hill where all classes, rich and poor, white and black, assembled. Nineteen people organized the Methodist Society, and services were first held in the Town Hall at the corner of Main and Milk Streets, until 1800. A new meeting house, built to seat 1,000 people, was erected on Centre Street at Liberty Street in 1823, at a cost of $14,000.

In 1809, a division in the First Congregational Church resulted in the Second Congregational Society being formed and a new meeting house erected on Orange Street. Reasons for the break are unclear but they may have been a protest against undue strictness, differences in matters of church governance, and the need for more space for a growing community. Calling their church the South Meeting House, the congregation became Unitarian in 1837, after a majority of the members signed a covenant used for admission into the Church of Harvard University, the old First Parish of Cambridge.

In March 1824, a meeting was held at Aaron Mitchell's house to form a Universalist Society. The cornerstone of the new meeting house that resulted from that meeting was laid at the corner of Federal and Pearl (now India) Streets. A scroll with the names of the proprietors and principal builders, memoranda, a copy of the Inquirer, U.S. coins, and a lock of hair from the late lamented John Murray were placed in the cornerstone. It was a simple gothic structure, sixty by fifty feet, with ten gothic windows, each eighteen feet high. The sixty-four pews were painted a delicate straw color. The Universalist Society survived only until 1834 when the building (completed in 1826) was purchased by the proprietors of the Nantucket Atheneum. The original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1846 and replaced by the existing library building.

The African Baptist Society was formed in 1825 and built its meeting house at Five Corners, the center of the segregated community. It was designed from the start to be a multipurpose space — primarily as a school and church, a lecture hall, and a social center. The Black Anti-Slavery Society and the Colored Temperance Meeting used it as well. The deed specified that a schoolhouse be erected on the lot — with the intent to keep it there forever — confirming the importance of education to the black community. In 1835 another black church was founded, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as the Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. The first known minister there was an escaped slave named Arthur Cooper. He and his wife Mary were protected by abolitionists on Nantucket when agents from Virginia came looking for them.

The First Baptist Church was organized in 1839, and first met in Franklin Hall on Water Street until the Summer Street meeting house was built. The first pastor was the Reverend Daniel Round Jr. The congregation, as happened several times on Nantucket, split in 1896. One group removed to a York Street location, while issues were discussed. Eventually the group that had moved out was reinstated in the Summer Street building upon approval and recognition by the Massachusetts State Convention. A group that had been forced out formed the People's Baptist Church in 1897, which lasted until 1902 when their Centre Street meeting house (formerly a Friends meeting house) was sold to John Roberts. The building became an annex to the presentday Roberts House.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Episcopal Church came to Nantucket when the Reverend Moses Marcus came to Nantucket to perform the wedding ceremony of his son, who was living here after serving on a whaling ship and then being employed by the newspaper, the Inquirer. Rev. Marcus preached at the Methodist Chapel, the Second Congregational, and the First Congregational all on the same day. Realizing that he was the first preacher of the Episcopal faith to be on the island, he stayed and ministered to a new group that was interested in the denomination. The group organized and created Trinity Episcopal Church. A building was erected in 1839 on Broad Street, and was the last building on the north side of Broad Street to be destroyed in the Great Fire. For two years the congregation met at the First Congregational Church, but it essentially dissolved as Trinity Episcopal. Discussion among the trustees resulted in the change of name to St. Paul's Episcopal Church (by vote of seven to six over St. John's), the church reorganized. A new building was built on Fair Street and used until 1901 when the current building was built on the same site.

The Roman Catholic faith came to Nantucket in 1849 when Father Thomas McNulty of New Bedford celebrated Mass in three locations: Town Hall at the corner of Main and Milk Streets; the Quaker school-house on Broad Street; and in Pantheon Hall. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (formerly Harmony Hall) was consecrated on Federal Street in 1858. The present structure was erected in 1897.

Worship services were held in the Siasconset school-house as early as 1875. In 1883, when the Union Chapel was erected, Roman Catholic services were held in the morning followed by a nondenominational service in the afternoon.

The twentieth century brought a number of other faiths to Nantucket's rich and varied religious history. An Assembly of God Church was established early in the century and the Christian Science Society in 1903. There is a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and the Baha'i both have a presence on Nantucket today. In 1985 Congregation Shirat Ha Yam was formed for the Jewish population.

The Nantucket Interfaith Council is a thriving and active society that is made up of clergy and laity from all interested denominations today on the island. The Nantucket Emergency Food Pantry was founded by the Interfaith Council in 1989, and in 2000 a Housing Coordinator was hired to help with the housing shortage for year-round people. The Nantucket Interfaith Council sponsors a Thanksgiving Eve service, a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service, and a Baccalaureate service for Nantucket High School graduates. Members of the council also take part in the Christmas service held during Stroll Weekend at the Methodist Church. The diversity of Nantucket's religious history is continuing with a spirit of cooperation and ecumenism that has been characteristic of the twentieth-century religious community. The story continues.

 

The Reverend Georgia Ann Snell was associate minister at the First Congregational Church and was one of Nantucket's five Selectmen

Ed. Note — This article is based on research conducted over a period of years by NHA historian Helen Winslow Chase, in preparation for a history of Nantucket's religious communities. Documentation is available on request.