More Images
An agreement first proposed at N. Port (Mass.)...for ye purpose of lifting our devout prayers to ye Father of Mercies. [opening lines of a 1794 Manuscript Articles of Agreement for a millennial religious revival; with a list of New England subscribers, women and men].
An agreement first proposed at N. Port (Mass.)...for ye purpose of lifting our devout prayers to ye Father of Mercies. [opening lines of a 1794 Manuscript Articles of Agreement for a millennial religious revival; with a list of New England subscribers, women and men].
An agreement first proposed at N. Port (Mass.)...for ye purpose of lifting our devout prayers to ye Father of Mercies. [opening lines of a 1794 Manuscript Articles of Agreement for a millennial religious revival; with a list of New England subscribers, women and men].

An agreement first proposed at N. Port (Mass.)...for ye purpose of lifting our devout prayers to ye Father of Mercies. [opening lines of a 1794 Manuscript Articles of Agreement for a millennial religious revival; with a list of New England subscribers, women and men].

“That God would pour out his spirit & cause a revival of Religion to take place throughout our Land…”


Manuscript articles of agreement, first proposed in 1794 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, for the organization of an upper New England-wide millennial church; subscribed to by a significant number of women. The Agreement asks “[t]hat God would pour out his spirit & cause a revival of Religion to take place throughout our Land & world; & make way in ye opperation [sic] of his al[l]wise Providence, for [a] Glorious Millennium to Commence.” (Article 4)

The names of 25 women, eight of whom are unmarried, are among the list of 46 subscribers to the Agreement. These women comprise over 54% of the Agreement’s named individuals. Remarkably—not counting the nine clergymen—they comprise 67.5%—over two-thirds—of the laity in this new ecclesial community.

The Agreement’s four articles comprise one page and is followed by two pages of subscribers’ names from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. The manuscript does not contain the autographs of the signatories; we consider it to be a circular, one of others produced for regional distribution.

The list of subscribers is led by Rev. Daniel Merrill (b.1765) of Sedgwick, Maine. Merrill served three years in the Continental army during the American Revolution before graduating from Dartmouth College in 1789 and subsequently becoming a Congregationalist minister in Hudson, New Hampshire as early as 1793.¹

Other ministers from New England: from Maine, Rev. Otis Crosby of New Gloucester, Rev. Elip[hale]t. Gillit [Gillet] of Hallowell, and Rev. Kiah Bayley of Newcastle; from New Hampshire, Rev. Eli Smith of Hollis and Rev. John Smith of New Salem, Rev. Abel Gage of Pelham; from Massachusetts, Rev. Andrew Beattie and Deacon William Hackett of Salisbury and Rev. Paul Litchfield of Carlisle; and one Rev. William Riddel, place unspecified.

The present 1794 manuscript—with its reference to a “Glorious Millennium”—may relate to some intermediate stage in Merrill’s ultimate conversion to the Baptist faith and certainly documents an upper New England-wide ecclesial movement.

The First Great Awakening’s legendary evangelist George Whitefield would find his final resting place in Newburyport in 1770.


Description: An agreement first proposed at N. Port (Mass.)...for ye purpose of lifting our devout prayers to ye Father of Mercies. [opening lines of a 1794 Manuscript Articles of Agreement for a millennial religious revival; with a list of New England subscribers, women and men].

[“N. Port (Mass)” i.e. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1794]. [3]pp. Articles of Agreement. Bifolium. Approx. 7¼ x 6 inches. English laid paper, dated 1794. Folds; foxed; very good.

[3729133]

Note. 1. Webster, History of Hudson, N.H. (Manchester, N.H., 1913), pp435–436. Rev. Daniel Merrill served three years in the Maine legislature and was also one of the governor’s counsel of Maine. See: Merrill, “Early Life in Nebraska” in Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society. Volume V. (Lincoln, Neb., 1893), p213.

The named laity are listed as follows, viz.,
From Newburyport, Massachusetts: Mrs. A. Bayley; Lydia Noyes; Sarah Goodhue; Mary Boardman.
From Franklin, Massachusetts: Haman Metcalf; Martha Emmons (wife of Nathaniel Emmons, the noted Congregational minister); Beriah Lawrence; Petronella Blake; Sally Williams. 
From Dunstable, Massachusetts: Dr. Zebedee Kendall (noted in the records as being a minuteman during the American Revolution); Edward Kendall; Sarah Kendall; Molly Kendall, Deborah Parkhurst; Mary Swallow; Betsy Woods; Caty Woods; Alathea Woods, Stephen Woods.
From Groton, Massachusetts: Nabby Woods.
From Carlisle, Massachusetts: Molly Spaulding; Mrs. A. Litchfield. 
From Salisbury, Massachusetts: Mrs. Hackett; Ruth Stockman; Nancy Wells; Elizabeth Chase; Sally Currier. 
From North Plymouth, New Hampshire: Capt. Jonathan Cummings. 
From Pelham, New Hampshire: Josiah Gage; Martha Gage; Jonathan Gipson. 
From Salisbury, New Hampshire: Jemima Moody.


Sold