The Puritans and Christmas

On the first Christmas in the New World, 25 December 1620, the Mayflower passengers stranded in Plymouth, Massachusetts spent the day working on building their new settlement, building homes and finding food. There was no celebration.  The following year, in 1621, a group of laborers were seen playing "stoole-ball" (an early version of baseball), and Governor William Bradford punished them. He believed that his conscience could not let them play whilst others were working.  In his journal he wrote "One the day called Christmas Day, the Governor called [the settlers] out to work as usual. However, the most of the new company excused themselves and said it went against their consciences to work on that day.  So the Governor told them that if they made it [a] matter conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed". When he later found them playing stoole-ball he confiscated their ball, forbade reveling, and sent them home. 

We can't confuse the Separatists with the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, but remember that like the Presbyterians and other religions, all were Calvinists. All believed in a strict interpretation of their religion, which included turning away from "Papist" holidays.  None celebrated any religious holidays - no Easter, no Christmas, no Lent.  And believe it or not, no other holidays, religious or civic.  Why? 

1659 Massachusetts statute:   "For preventing disorders arising in several places within this jurisdiction, by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries to the great dishonor of God and offence of others; It is therefore ordained by this Court and the authority thereof, that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas and the like, either by forbearing labor, feasting, or any other way upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for each such offence, five shillings as a fine to the Country."  

In 1712 Reverend Cotton Mather gave a famous anti-Christmas sermon.  He argued against play, excessive drinking, and inappropriate behaviors, but allowed for the possibility of marking the day. 

A quote from Judge Samuel Sewell's (1652 - 1730) diary:  "Decr. 25, 1685.  Friday.  Carts come to town and shops open as is usual.  Some somehow observe the day; but are vexed I believe that the body of the people profane it, and blessed be God no authority yet to compel them to keep it."  The following year, on Christmas of 1686 the Royal Governor, an Anglican no doubt, Sir Edmund Andros, held a Christmas service in Boston with prayers and Christmas hymns. He was escorted by redcoats to assert his authority in the matter. 

In 1722, also from Judge Sewell's diary:  "Decr. 19. His Excellency took me aside to the South-east window of the Council Chamber to speak to me about adjourning the Gen. Court to Monday next because of Christmas.  I told his Excellency I would consider it."  

However, Judge Sewell had already made up his mind to not keep Christmas, but he remained very diplomatic, see his diary entry the next day:  "Decr. 20.  I invited Dr. Mather to Dine with me.  After Dinner I consulted with him about the adjournment of the Court. We agreed that 't would be expedient to take a vote of the Council and Representatives for it." 

Of course, in 1722, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts was Samuel Shute (1662 - 1742), and was of course a member of the Anglican church. Shute argued for keeping Christmas. He was a controversial figure in Puritan Boston due to his attendance at Anglican services, and his habit of hosting many parties at his mansion.  [Michael Batinski, Jonathan Belcher, Colonial Governor, 1996 University Press of Kentucky, p. 29] 

The matter was argued in the Council the following day, with both sides giving their opinions.  In the end, the governor proclaimed a Christmas holiday.   This only set up decades of controversy in New England.  Shute soon left the colony and returned to England in January 1723, where he was free to celebrate Christmas. He never married, and died in England on 15 April 1742.  [Henry Wilder Foote, John Carroll Perkins, Warren Winslow, 1882, Annals of Kings Chapel, Little, Brown Co., p. 267]  

Why did the Puritans dismiss Christmas?  Was it because it was based on a pagan holiday? Because it was no biblically based?  No, it was because it promoted play and waste at a time when people should be working.  Thus, they had no holidays except Sundays, and on days of fasting, and days of Thanksgiving.  The matter became controversial again at the time of the American Revolution, when the colonials in Boston saw Christmas as a royalist celebration.  The King, as the head of the Anglican church, represented everything the Patriots were fighting against. 

The Massachusetts senate gathered for work on Christmas Day in 1797.  In New England school was held on Christmas day until the 1850s.  But soon after, the Puritan sentiment against making merry began to wane.  In 1856 Christmas became a holiday in Massachusetts.  

For the truly curious:

The Not-Quite Puritans, by Henry W. Lawrence, 1928, Boston, Little, Brown Co. 

"Christmas in Early New England, 1620- 1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word", by Stephen W. Nissenbaum, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 106: 1: 79 (January 1996) 

Are you curious about how the early Presbyterian Scots Irish settlers celebrated Christmas in Nutfield?  Click on this 2014 blog post to read all about it!  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-did-scots-irish-celebrate-christmas.html  

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To cite/Link to this post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Puritans and Christmas", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 22, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-puritans-and-christmas.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ LONGFELLOW of Newbury, Massachusetts

SITE OF GARRISON HOUSE BUILT BY
CAPT. JONATHAN LONGFELLOW
IN 1743
THE FARM PAID FOR IN SLAVES
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BOUGHT IN 1785 BY
MAJOR SIMON MARSTON
WHO SERVED DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
AND SINCE OCCUPIED BY HIS DESCENDANTS
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ERECTED BY THE ELSE CILLEY CHAPTER DAR IN 1908

This monument is in Deerfield, NH

My 9^th great grandfather, William Longfellow, was born in Horsforth, Yorkshire, England about 1650, well after the Great Migration of Puritans to New England.  Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans had control of the government, and Puritans no longer had to flee persecution.  He was the only one of his siblings who left England for New England, and he probably did not flee for religious reasons.  He appears for the first time in the Newbury, Massachusetts tax records around 1676. 

William Longfellow appeared in quite a few Essex County court records for misdemeanors and for debt.  In one case in 1677 he was found guilty of stealing wine.  In one 1677 case he was unable to pay his debts and so the court made him a servant for seven years.  In 1679 he was in court for fighting.  In 1681, the most curious court case had Longfellow confess to killing a steer. 

He married Anna Sewell and had six children.  Her brother, Samuel Sewell, was a famous chief justice involved in many famous early cases including the Salem Witch Trials. His diary contains a lot of information about his family, including the Longfellow family.  This diary states that there were eight Longfellow children, but the Newbury records only have six Longfellow births. 

In 1687 William Longfellow returned to England upon hearing of his brother’s death.  This left him the only male heir, and perhaps he was hoping to bring back an early inheritance from his father, who was still alive.

In 1690 William Longfellow joined the Newbury Company that went with Sir William Phips to Canada in an expedition against Quebec.  There were 32 ships with over 2000 men.   The New Englanders were driven back and encountered several storms on the way to Boston.  Many ships were wrecked, and four never returned, including the ship with William Longfellow which disappeared off Cape Breton near Anticosta on 31 October 1690.  Another 1000 died from an illness that was probably smallpox.  The expedition was a disaster. His wife was left a widow with six small children, and a large debt that William had accumulated during his lifetime.   Anna remarried to Henry Short in 1692.

I descend from William’s youngest son, Nathan (1690 -1731), my 8^th great grandfather, who was only a year old when his father died.  He must have been raised by his step-father, Henry Short, who had another eight children with his mother, Anna.  Nathan removed from Newbury, Massachusetts to Hampton, New Hampshire where he accumulated many lots of land.  He married Mary Green in 1713 and had nine children. 

Nathan Longfellow was the constable and tax collector for Hampton.  The ongoing border war between the province of New Hampshire and the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to blows during his tenure of collecting money from residents who had already paid taxes in Massachusetts.  He was arrested by the town of Salisbury, Massachusetts over this border dispute.  See my blog post about the Shapley Line:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-shapley-line-one-of-old-borders.html 

Nathan Longfellow died young in 1731 at age 40.  His widow, Mary, remarried to Joseph Macress.  I descend from the oldest son, Jonathan, who was of legal age upon the death of his father and did not require a guardian like the rest of his siblings.  He was eventually given guardianship of his brother Jacob, age 14, and they together inherited their grandfather’s (Jacob Greene) estate in Hampton. 

Jonathan, my 7^th great grandfather, was a wealthy landowner, who removed to Nottingham, New Hampshire.  This town is now called Deerfield because of some deer that Jonathan Longfellow  gave to Governor Benning Wentworth, the governor of New Hampshire, in 1765 as a bribe to separate their town from Nottingham.  He was wealthy enough to own several African slaves which he sold to buy his land in Nottingham.

Jonathan married Mercy Clark in 1731 and had twelve children.  They removed to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia during the planter movement in 1764 but only stayed 5 years.  They sold their land in Canada to their son, Nathan, and removed to Machias, Maine with the 3 youngest sons.  Mercy is buried in Cornwallis, and Jonathan is buried in Machias.   I descend from his daughter, Mary (1735 – 1814), who married Nathaniel Batchelder.  Her sister, Sally (1739 – 1811), married General Joseph Cilley, a hero of the 1^st New Hampshire Regiment with Robert Rogers during the French and Indian War. 

Mary Longfellow and her husband Nathaniel Batchelder, my 6^th great grandparents, had eight children born in Deerfield.  Nathaniel at Valley Forge in 1778. Mary received a Revolutionary War widow’s pension.  In the pension papers there was a testimony sworn by a Benjamin Page which stated “in Scammel's Regiment about one year until he died at Valley Forge in March 1778.  Stephen Batchelder, a brother of Nathaniel, Senior, and an uncle of Nathaniel, Jr. also served in Scammel's Regiment with me until he died in the fall of 1777. I further testify that Nathaniel Batchelder, senior, who served with me in Scammel's Regiments was a sergeant, and my recollection is that his son, Nathaniel Batchelder of Cilley's Regiment, was a corporal."

The Granite Monthly newspaper ran a short note "Nathaniel Batchelder, who was a brother-in-law of Col. Cilley [Joseph of Nottingham] fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, under Capt. Dearborn and was Adjutant in Col. Drake's regiment which did brave service in the battle of Stillwater, Saratoga, and the surrender of Burgoyne.  He died of fever at Valley Forge, March 18, 1778"

Some Longfellow resources:

The Garrison: Built by Jonathan Longfellow in 1743, by John Scales, 1966 (16 pages)

History of Nottingham, Deerfield, and Northwood, by Rev. Elliott C. Cogswell, 1878

A Longfellow Genealogy: Comprising the English Ancestry and Descendants of the Immigrant William Longfellow of Newbury, Massachusetts, Russell Clare Farnham, 2002

My Longfellow genealogy:

Generation 1:  William Longfellow, born about 1650 in Horsforth, Yorkshire, England, died July 1690 at sea off the coast of Anticosta, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; married on 10 November 1678 in Newbury, Massachusetts to Anna Sewell, daughter of Henry Sewell and Jane Dummer.  She was born 3 September 1662 in Newbury, and died 18 December 1706 in Newbury.  Eight children.  Anna remarried to Henry Short.

Generation 2:  Nathan Longfellow, born 5 February 1690 in Newbury, died 15 January 1731 in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire; married on 28 May 1713 in Hampton Falls to Mary Greene, daughter of Jacob Greene and Sarah Unknown.  She was born 17 April 1693 in Hampton and died about 1763 in Nottingham, New Hampshire.  Eight children.  Mary remarried to Joseph Macress/Macrest.

Generation 3: Jonathan Longfellow, born 23 May 1714 in Nottingham (now Deerfield), died 1774 in Machias, Maine; married on 28 October 1731 in Nottingham (now Deerfield) to Mercy Clark, daughter of Henry Clarke and Elizabeth Greenleaf.  She was born 26 December 1714 in Nottingham, and died 1798 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.  Twelve children.

Generation 4:  Mary Longfellow, born 15 July 1735 in Hampton Falls, died 1814; married Nathaniel Batchelder, son of Stephen Batchelder and Jane Lamprey.  He was born 9 June 1732 in North Hampton, and died 1778 in Valley Forge.  Nine children.

Generation 5:  Nathaniel Batchelder m. Mary Perkins

Generation 6:  Jonathan Batchelder m. Nancy Thomson

Generation 7:  George E. Batchelder m. Abigail M. Locke

Generation 8:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 9:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 10:  Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ LONGFELLOW of Newbury, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 3, 2018, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/11/surname-saturday-longfellow-of-newbury.html: accessed [access date]).