In colonial Truro, democracy was the order of the day; freedom of religion was the practice (so long as it was Puritan); and there was no separation between the two—both the township and the church held court inside the local “Meeting House.”
On July 16, 1709, “…AN ACT FOR MAKING PAWMET, A DISTRICT OF EASTHAM WITHIN THE COUNTY OF BARNSTABLE, A TOWNSHIP CALLED TRUROE. …Be it therefor enacted by His Excellency the Governour, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled, …provided that the inhabitants of the said town do procure and settle an Orthodox learned minister to dispense the word of God…”
Back when, Truro’s Town Clerk recorded the municipal decisions—the Pamet Proprietors until 1709, and Truro’s Selectmen thereafter—it was often left to the church to supply the details for births, marriages, and deaths. And it did help to be learned; Harvard College having been established as early as 1736 “…dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches.”
It took another year for the Harvard-educated blacksmith John Avery to answer Truro’s call. His salary was voted to be 60 pounds per year; another 20 pounds to build a dwelling-house on the 34 acres of “Ministerial Land”; 10 acres of hay meadow at East Harbor; and 60 cords of firewood, cut, split, and delivered to his door (per annum). Mr. Avery also practiced law and medicine.
By all accounts, before Mr. Avery was ordained in 1711, Truro had built a Meeting House on the “Hill of Storms”, on the high ground, both closer to God for the faithful, and defensible in case of attack. There was no bell to ring, the congregation was summoned by drumbeat. In 1712, Truro Selectmen laid out a road between the Meeting House and Avery’s 34 acres; in 1713, a burying-ground was consecrated north of the Meeting House (today’s Old North Cemetery).
Then, on Oct. 3, 1720—“Said town agreed to build a meeting house …22 feet in the height of the walls and 40 feet in length and 36 feet in width and finished within the space of one year …350 pounds to be taxed on the polls and estates of the inhabitants… According to Shebnah Rich, “the house of 1720 was built on the original site, or where stood the first house”—but there’s no mention any worshiping while the construction proceeded, which, of course, overran the budget. Aug. 14, 1721—“The town voted that all money paid for the privilege of building a pew, should be improved towards building said house…to be sold not less than 30 pounds nor more than 40…” 9 days later, 39 pounds of “privileges” were sold and Mr. Avery was “voted liberty to build his own pew.”
By 1730, Mr. Avery’s salary was raised to100 pounds per year, and Massachusetts law required that each town maintain a militia. “A True List of The Military Company of Truro” survives from Feb. 28, 1731—Captain Thomas Lumbard, Lieut. Thomas Paine, Ensign Jeremiah Bickford, 3 Sergeants, 3 Corporals; in all, 70 bodies strong, assembling every Sunday after worship at the parade grounds next to the Meeting House, mandatory attendance.
John Avery’s ministry lasted 44 years; when he died in April, 1754, he’d outlived 2 wives, married for a third time, and fathered 9 children. Mr. Avery was also one of several slave-owners in Truro: his will bequeathed his Indian Girl Sarah to his daughter Elisabeth, and the 3 children of his deceased daughter Ruth inherited his negro Girl Phillis. “Further, it is my will that my two negroes Jack and Hope have the liberty to choose their master among all my children …and that they not be sold from my children to any person whatsoever.”
When The French and Indian Wars broke out one month later, militia or not, Truro was feeling under-defended.
“A Petition of the Select Men of Truro setting forth the Weakness and Poverty of the said Town, and that they are by their Situation exposed to the landing of the French in the Time of War, and praying for the grant of Twenty small Arms & a suitable Quantity of Ammunition & one small Cannon for their Defence.”
Read and Ordered, “That the Prayer of this Petition be so far granted, And that the said Town of Truro be furnished with one four- pound piece of Ordnance, with Twenty small Arms, one barrel of Gun Powder, and one hundred Wt. of Lead to be put into the hands of Mr. Joshua Atkins & he to be accountable for the same when demanded: And That his Honour the Lieut. Governor be desired to give Orders Accordingly.”
An engraving of Truro’s first meeting house on the ‘Hill of Storms’, ca. 1800. The building was taken down in 1840.