tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post8999619144711747219..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: The Memory of Samuel ElyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-66386188961170189652022-04-29T11:09:01.736-05:002022-04-29T11:09:01.736-05:00Samuel Ely didn’t change his name. The Hall mentio...Samuel Ely didn’t change his name. The Hall mentioned in this posting was a historian of the late 1800s who criticized Ely. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-39147187092445898692022-04-29T08:41:38.257-05:002022-04-29T08:41:38.257-05:00Ok is Why did he change his name to Samuel HallOk is Why did he change his name to Samuel HallAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-77666448944161697292016-01-05T14:00:08.675-05:002016-01-05T14:00:08.675-05:00If you find anything about more about my rabble-ro...If you find anything about more about my rabble-rousing Ely's please email me!! (if you can!!) Samuel is one of my Grandfathers but there are so many Samuel Ely's that i do not know which this is. There is my 6th gr-grandfather Samuel 1701-1758, his father Samuel 1668-1732. His father was Samuel lol. A lot of the many children names their children Samuel or Simon / Simeon. <br />Any kin comes thru I am me - my MOM - Charles M - Charles A - Darwin S - David - Simeon - Simeon - Samuel - Samuel - Samuel - Nathaniel - Nathaniel - George (1545-1615)Nunya Carleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16060569979008271036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-12947897670833972102014-02-05T23:19:25.771-05:002014-02-05T23:19:25.771-05:00New England Congregationalism put great value on n...New England Congregationalism put great value on not having bishops, a presbytery, or other top-down authorities. Meetings were empowered to choose their own ministers, usually from New England's colleges, which had been set up to supply such men. <br /><br />Usually when a town needed a new minister it would audition a series of young men, choose one by vote, negotiate with him about the parsonage and salary, and announce a date for his ordination. That ordination ceremony involved the ministers from neighboring meetings as a sign of support, though technically they weren't necessary. The meeting itself provided the authority to ordain a man as a minister.<br /><br />In Ely's case, the congregation of Somers, Connecticut, voted rather narrowly (58-42) to choose him. The minority kept objecting and eventually overturned the offer with a new vote before Ely was ordained. Though there were some suspicions about Ely's "character," it looks like the controversy was more about his ideas, whether "New Light" or the start of his economic theology. Ely's supporters formed a separate meeting and had him ordained there in 1770; no other ministers attended. He published a couple of sermons that show his economic ideas forming. Soon Ely left Somers and moved to Massachusetts. <br /><br />Timothy Dwight later spun that controversy into Ely having failed some test of knowledge (Dwight didn't mention that Ely had graduated from Yale in 1765) and never being ordained at all. But Dwight was an orthodox Congregationalist minister who loved top-down authority as long as he was one of the men on top. <br /><br />Anyone could be an itinerant minister; the challenge was supporting oneself while doing so. Itinerants could get short-term gigs in towns that hadn't chosen a minister yet, or where the minister was ill or interested in preaching elsewhere. Usually there was only one, Congregationalist meeting in town, so preachers from other sects, such as Baptists, had limited opportunities. <br /><br />I don't know the numbers of men ready at any point to become ministers, but it was common for young college graduates to explore the possibility. Robert Treat Paine considered the profession, serving as a chaplain in wartime. The Boston school usher James Lovell was almost offered an Anglican pulpit. The job's only formal requirement, it seemed, was to be smart and genteel enough to have a college degree. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-84739446336920754692014-02-05T17:28:09.265-05:002014-02-05T17:28:09.265-05:00Very pleased to see you writing on Samuel Ely. I c...Very pleased to see you writing on Samuel Ely. I came across him a few months ago and he is fascinating. In some respects he reminded me of the group of Christian communists called the Diggers during the English Civil War. Ely certainly had a sharp wit; the remark I liked best was his explanation of his complaint against Knox: "Because the first grant of landed property ever made by the Almighty proprietor to Man was a garden containing six acres only..., not a Patent, thirty miles square nor seventy four miles long."<br /><br />Also, I wonder if you can offer or point us to an explanation of the professional status of ministers around the time of the Revolution. Above you quote/note:<br /><br />"Ely was an unlicensed and disorderly preacher, and could not obtain an ordination"<br /><br />"In fact, Ely was qualified to preach as a graduate of Yale"<br /><br />It seems to me there are several variables, and I'd like to understand how they fit together. First, one could be a college graduate or not. Second, one could be ordained or not. Third, one could be "settled" or itinerant.<br /><br />Were all ministers college graduates? That's the image, but was it universal? Even the disorderly and "unlicensed" (by whom?) Mr. Ely was a Yale man.<br /><br />How did one obtain ordination? Who conferred it? Did one have to be a college graduate before becoming ordained?<br /><br />I understood that towns generally elected their ministers -- that is, the town voted to invite a minister to become settled. Was that universal or nearly universal? For every hundred settled ministers, how many itinerant ministers were roaming the countryside?Robert J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12937384579138400443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-58883913474403611232014-02-05T10:45:22.052-05:002014-02-05T10:45:22.052-05:00The major study of that conflict in Maine is Alan ...The major study of that conflict in Maine is Alan Taylor's <i>Liberty Men and Great Proprietors</i>, which I (gulp) still haven't read. That book could tide you over until I feel like I'm on solid enough ground to say more about Knox's disputes with small farmers like Ely and Martin. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-61769105550653789212014-02-05T03:24:14.316-05:002014-02-05T03:24:14.316-05:00Hi John, I've been enjoying your reports about...Hi John, I've been enjoying your reports about that rabble-rouser Samuel Ely. In the latest you mentioned the "settlers' campaign" against Henry Knox. I wondered if you might discuss this further, as all I know about the subject is Joseph Plum Martin's battle (losing, I seem to remember) against Knox concerning property where Martin lived. (PS, I tried to send an email but it would not go through.) Best wishes, JoeJoe Baumanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11479858641297585493noreply@blogger.com