The next house immediately west of the James Bartlett house, stands on the site of a house built by Return Waite, which when the present house was built not many years ago, was removed to Seaside, and now stands a tenement house on the easterly side of the road on land belonging to the heirs of the late Barnabas Hedge.
As I have stated the land on Leyden street extending from the estate of Wm. R. Drew to the centre of LeBaron’s alley, was given in 1664 by Bridget Fuller, widow of Dr. Samuel Fuller of the Mayflower, and her son Samuel, to the church in Plymouth for the use of the minister. A parsonage was built on the easterly end of the lot, which was finally sold to Rev. John Cotton, the pastor of the church. The house built by Lazarus LeBaron on the site of the parsonage, which was in turn succeeded by the house built in 1832 by James Bartlett, Jr., and now occupied by Wm. W. Brewster, and also the house adjoining the Bartlett house have been referred to, leaving to be considered of the original Fuller land only that part which is now occupied by the house of the late Harvey W. Weston. When Rev. Chandler Robbins was settled over the Plymouth Church in 1760, the Parish agreed to pay him a salary of one hundred pounds, to give him the privilege of cutting wood on the parish lot, and to build for him a parsonage. The Weston house is the parsonage, built at that time. It was occupied by Mr. Robbins until 1788, when he built a house on the other side of the street, which he occupied until his death, June 30, 1799.
Rev. James Kendall, the successor of Mr. Robbins, was ordained January 1, 1800, and occupied the parsonage until his death, which occurred March 17, 1859, and it was sold the next year to Mr. Weston. Of Dr. Kendall, whose pastorate extended through a period of sixty years, I cannot forbear to speak, as his life was one of the most important passages in the history of our town. It is difficult to realize that more than a generation has been born, and has lived to nearly middle age, without a knowledge of his personality and a daily observation of his character and virtues. He was born in Sterling, Mass., in 1769, and after graduating at Harvard in 1796, occupied the position of tutor in Latin at Harvard until he received an invitation to settle in Plymouth. At his ordination the sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. French of Andover, and the other parts of the ceremony were performed by Rev. Dr. Peter Thatcher, Rev. Dr. Tappan, Rev. Mr. Shaw and Rev. Mr. Howland. In 1825 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard, by whose government he was esteemed one of the distinguished incumbents of the ministry. I was in my early youth impressed by the benignant traits in his character and the purity of his life, as it was my fortune when nine years of age to be for a few weeks a member of his family, while my mother was passing a summer with her father in Nova Scotia. I remember him sitting in his study in the back west room, where if I happened to enter I was always greeted with a kindly smile and a cheerful word; I remember him in the front east room on a chilly day sitting by a Franklin stove, and often in the garden, which he tended with loving and faithful care. There was a vein of humor in his composition, which, unlike that I have often seen repressed on the Sabbath by ministers of the olden time, was too much the overflow of a contented and joyful spirit to be concealed on a day to him the happiest of the week. As long as I can remember he always carried a cane, which had descended to him through James, his father, James, his grandfather, and Samuel, his great-grandfather; from Thomas, son of Francis, who was born in 1649 in Woburn. This cane is now owned by his grandson, Arthur Lord of Plymouth, and represents an ownership by seven generations of the same family.
I remember him in the old meeting house, which was taken down in April, 1831, officiating in black gloves with a sounding board hanging over the pulpit, which I was in constant fear would fall on the dear man’s head. I remember well the church itself, a large, square building with doors on three sides, and a steeple surmounted by a copper rooster, the like of which I have never seen since the day when in April, 1831, while workmen pulled the steeple over, it slipped off the spindle and took its unaided flight to the ground. I remember the square pews with seats, which were turned up in prayer time, and let down with a slam when the prayer was over, and I especially remember the spokes in the pew rails which we boys turned in their dowels and made to squeak when we thought that James Morton, the sexton, sitting at the head of the pulpit stairs, was either not looking or was asleep. And then there was the choir, with Webster Seymour leading the singing, and I can see even now Simeon Dike, father of the late Mrs. Samuel Shaw, drawing his bow across the bass viol, which I think, with the violin and clarinet performed the instrumental music.
Of Dr. Kendall, it may be appropriately said as was said of another:
“Pure was his walk, peaceful was his end;
We blessed his reverend length of days,
And hailed him in the public ways,
With veneration and with praise,
Our father and our friend.”