Ephraim Little, born September 27, 1676, was the son of Ephraim and Mary (Sturtevant) Little of Marshfield. His grandmother was Anna Warren, daughter of Richard Warren, the Mayflower passenger and signer of the Mayflower Compact. His wife, Mary Sturtevant was the sister of John Sturtevant, who married Hannah Winslow, the widow of William Crowe. Ephraim Little replaced Rev. John Cotton Jr. in 1699 after Rev. Cotton left Plymouth to head the First Church of Charleston, South Carolina.
At college, Ephraim was a normal undergraduate, except that on one occasion in his senior year at Harvard College he was fined 3s 9d for some infraction of the college laws. During his senior year he purchased of Mr. Tutor Brattle a well-thumbed copy of John Milton’s Artis Logicæ Institutio which had already belonged to William Vesey (A.B. 1693).
Facing the title-page of this book is what appears to be the tally of some sort of game between Little and his classmates Hubbard and Smith, the final score being Smith 20, Little 18, and Hubbard 15.
A year after taking his first degree, Sir Little was teaching school at Plymouth. The church at Plymouth was in difficulties, and in October, 1697, the minister, John Cotton (A.B. 1657), asked for his dismissal. The church prayed “that god would send a labourror into his harvest in this place; which god graciously answered by sending Mr Ephraim Little whose labours in the minstrey was to grat sattisfaction to all generaly both Church and town. . . .” The church called Sir Little on probation in October; the town approved in November and provided that he be paid at the rate of 60l a year; and on April 11, 1698 “the Inhabitants of said towne did very unanimosly agree to give Mr. Ephrame Litle a Call to setle in said towne to Carrey on the Worship of god as ther Minister. . . .” His salary was continued at the same rate, and he was granted the land upon which the county buildings now stand.
The young minister returned to Cambridge to take his A.M. at Commencement 1698, putting the unregenerate in their places with the quæstio “An Irrenati opus vere Bonum Possint præstare? Negat Respondens Ephraim Little.” On November 29 of that year he was married to Sarah, daughter of William Clark. The lady was probably strong-minded, for she was not baptized or admitted to the church until ten years later. On April 25, 1699 “the Church beng Mett did very Joyntly Expres them selves every Man present . . . their desires to Mr Ephraim Little to take the office worke vpon him . . . ” and proceeded to the ordination on October 4. The town contributed to the building of a house for the Littles, and raised his salary to 70l in 1706 and to 80l in 1711. On one occasion he was granted for the improvement of the parsonage property “some moneys Raised by Contribution in this Town Towards the Redemption of som then in Captivity in Tirke . . . their Redemtion being obtained some other way. . . .” His estate was improved when, upon the death of his father, he inherited considerable real estate and a negro boy named Elisha.
When Little was preaching on probation, Judge Sewall arrived and sent for him to pray at the opening of the court. This began a friendship that endured for the rest of the Judge’s life. When on circuit the Judge made it a point to dine at the parsonage, with his customary bounty leaving such gifts as “a pound of Chockalat,” “each of them a good pair of Gloves,” and “an Angel Bill of Credit” (10s). Of course the minister benefited by the inexhaustible pocketful of printed sermons which the Judge spread broadcast over the colony, but on one occasion when Mr. Little was impressed to act as clerk of court he received another angel bill, and the sermons were unloaded on the sheriff’s attendants.
Mr. Little was sincerely religious, and worried about the irreligion of the rising generation. He applied religion to life in a way that must have pleased his parishioners, praying that “the Lord make Queen Ann A Deborah and if it be his Will sell the french Sisera into the hands of a Woman.” He showed liberal views by his support of John Leverett for the Harvard presidency, and by this note which he attached to the record of a baptism: “by the Way some Scrupled the baptizing of it because a bastard. but I think their scruples are groundless and unscriptural, and seems to be a revival of that proverb which God Said should be no more used in Israel, the fathers have eaten sour Grapes &c: to deny it baptism would be to punish the Child for the Iniquity of the parent and to punish the parent after reconciliation which is unjust and unchristian.” On another occasion he defied precedent and the congregation by privately baptizing an infant. The child was dying and the minister did not intend to risk its departing without the Sacrament by waiting for Sabbath meeting.
The internal peace which the Plymouth church enjoyed in these years was due to the fact that this firmness on Mr. Little’s part was coupled with a feeling that quiet and order were more important than fine points of theology and church government. On one occasion he “told the church that he would not have them choose the Deacons under a Certain Expectation of his Ordaining them for as To that Matter he was not well satisfyed about it,” but after a clash with the congregation expressed his willingness to compromise. He would not compromise with injustice, however. The wife of a parishioner deposited with him a document which she said was her husband’s will. Chancing to open and read it some time afterwards, the minister noted that the parishioner was cutting off his only son. Indignant, he went to the man “and gave him his thoughts about it,” only to discover that the wife had forged the document.
Josiah Cotton, a graduate of the Class of 1698 and a member of the Plymouth congregation, has left an intimate and unflattering picture of Mr. Little: “He was a gentleman more inclined to the active than the studious life, but yet did a great deal of service here as a minister; being one of good memory, a quick invention, having an excellent gift in prayer, and in occasional performances also excelling. But what can never be sufficiently commended was his liberality and readiness to help all that were in distress etc. . . . I could wish that I had [not?] occasion to add anything different concerning him. But as it has been said of some that ‘when they are in the pulpit it is a pity they should ever come out, they perform their part so well there,’ so some things in his conduct abroad and specially in his latter time were somewhat unaccountable and uncomfortable to the town and country too; and had like to have unhinged him here, but a written confession of some erratas concluded the matter.”
Like too many New England ministers of the period, Mr. Little devoted a great part of his time to secular business. He was constantly buying and selling real estate and dickering with the town about its lands. Instead of regarding him with affectionate reverence, the town watched him closely, for example warning him against “Imprudent thining” of the parsonage wood-lot. He was one of those who undertook to keep and develop the town pasture, entering thereon twenty “shepe.” He was one of those who applied for permission “to make a Triall on Som of the flatts in plimouth bay for the making of some beds of oysters.” They were empowered to organize to “make such Rules and orders for the management of said oysters and oyster beds as they or the major part of them shall Judge proper and necessary. . . .
Mr. Little died suddenly on November 24, 1723. He was childless, but was admitted guardian for Joseph, Samuel, and Lidia Bartlett, children of Joseph Bartlett. His wife survived him, and in 1731 had to be rescued by the town from an action for debt. Twice thereafter the town made her small grants, the only record of the annual pension which it has been accredited with giving her.
Works
The Congregational Library has two Ms. sermons. The Records of the Plymouth Church, published as Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts XXII-XXIII, and separately, New York, 1920-1923, are partly in his hand.
Preface, pp. iv, in: Daniel Lewes, Of Taking Heed to, and Fulfilling the Ministry, Boston, 1720. AAS, BA, BPL, JCB, MHS, Y.
Adapted from Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 4:248-252.
Ephraim Little, born September 27, 1676, was the son of Ephraim and Mary (Sturtevant) Little of Marshfield. His grandmother was Anna Warren, daughter of Richard Warren, the Mayflower passenger and signer of the Mayflower Compact. His wife, Mary Sturtevant was the sister of John Sturtevant, who married Hannah Winslow, the widow of William Crowe. Ephraim Little replaced Rev. John Cotton Jr. in 1699 after Rev. Cotton left Plymouth to head the First Church of Charleston, South Carolina.
At college, Ephraim was a normal undergraduate, except that on one occasion in his senior year at Harvard College he was fined 3s 9d for some infraction of the college laws. During his senior year he purchased of Mr. Tutor Brattle a well-thumbed copy of John Milton’s Artis Logicæ Institutio which had already belonged to William Vesey (A.B. 1693).
Facing the title-page of this book is what appears to be the tally of some sort of game between Little and his classmates Hubbard and Smith, the final score being Smith 20, Little 18, and Hubbard 15.
A year after taking his first degree, Sir Little was teaching school at Plymouth. The church at Plymouth was in difficulties, and in October, 1697, the minister, John Cotton (A.B. 1657), asked for his dismissal. The church prayed “that god would send a labourror into his harvest in this place; which god graciously answered by sending Mr Ephraim Little whose labours in the minstrey was to grat sattisfaction to all generaly both Church and town. . . .” The church called Sir Little on probation in October; the town approved in November and provided that he be paid at the rate of 60l a year; and on April 11, 1698 “the Inhabitants of said towne did very unanimosly agree to give Mr. Ephrame Litle a Call to setle in said towne to Carrey on the Worship of god as ther Minister. . . .” His salary was continued at the same rate, and he was granted the land upon which the county buildings now stand.
The young minister returned to Cambridge to take his A.M. at Commencement 1698, putting the unregenerate in their places with the quæstio “An Irrenati opus vere Bonum Possint præstare? Negat Respondens Ephraim Little.” On November 29 of that year he was married to Sarah, daughter of William Clark. The lady was probably strong-minded, for she was not baptized or admitted to the church until ten years later. On April 25, 1699 “the Church beng Mett did very Joyntly Expres them selves every Man present . . . their desires to Mr Ephraim Little to take the office worke vpon him . . . ” and proceeded to the ordination on October 4. The town contributed to the building of a house for the Littles, and raised his salary to 70l in 1706 and to 80l in 1711. On one occasion he was granted for the improvement of the parsonage property “some moneys Raised by Contribution in this Town Towards the Redemption of som then in Captivity in Tirke . . . their Redemtion being obtained some other way. . . .” His estate was improved when, upon the death of his father, he inherited considerable real estate and a negro boy named Elisha.
When Little was preaching on probation, Judge Sewall arrived and sent for him to pray at the opening of the court. This began a friendship that endured for the rest of the Judge’s life. When on circuit the Judge made it a point to dine at the parsonage, with his customary bounty leaving such gifts as “a pound of Chockalat,” “each of them a good pair of Gloves,” and “an Angel Bill of Credit” (10s). Of course the minister benefited by the inexhaustible pocketful of printed sermons which the Judge spread broadcast over the colony, but on one occasion when Mr. Little was impressed to act as clerk of court he received another angel bill, and the sermons were unloaded on the sheriff’s attendants.
Mr. Little was sincerely religious, and worried about the irreligion of the rising generation. He applied religion to life in a way that must have pleased his parishioners, praying that “the Lord make Queen Ann A Deborah and if it be his Will sell the french Sisera into the hands of a Woman.” He showed liberal views by his support of John Leverett for the Harvard presidency, and by this note which he attached to the record of a baptism: “by the Way some Scrupled the baptizing of it because a bastard. but I think their scruples are groundless and unscriptural, and seems to be a revival of that proverb which God Said should be no more used in Israel, the fathers have eaten sour Grapes &c: to deny it baptism would be to punish the Child for the Iniquity of the parent and to punish the parent after reconciliation which is unjust and unchristian.” On another occasion he defied precedent and the congregation by privately baptizing an infant. The child was dying and the minister did not intend to risk its departing without the Sacrament by waiting for Sabbath meeting.
The internal peace which the Plymouth church enjoyed in these years was due to the fact that this firmness on Mr. Little’s part was coupled with a feeling that quiet and order were more important than fine points of theology and church government. On one occasion he “told the church that he would not have them choose the Deacons under a Certain Expectation of his Ordaining them for as To that Matter he was not well satisfyed about it,” but after a clash with the congregation expressed his willingness to compromise. He would not compromise with injustice, however. The wife of a parishioner deposited with him a document which she said was her husband’s will. Chancing to open and read it some time afterwards, the minister noted that the parishioner was cutting off his only son. Indignant, he went to the man “and gave him his thoughts about it,” only to discover that the wife had forged the document.
Josiah Cotton, a graduate of the Class of 1698 and a member of the Plymouth congregation, has left an intimate and unflattering picture of Mr. Little: “He was a gentleman more inclined to the active than the studious life, but yet did a great deal of service here as a minister; being one of good memory, a quick invention, having an excellent gift in prayer, and in occasional performances also excelling. But what can never be sufficiently commended was his liberality and readiness to help all that were in distress etc. . . . I could wish that I had [not?] occasion to add anything different concerning him. But as it has been said of some that ‘when they are in the pulpit it is a pity they should ever come out, they perform their part so well there,’ so some things in his conduct abroad and specially in his latter time were somewhat unaccountable and uncomfortable to the town and country too; and had like to have unhinged him here, but a written confession of some erratas concluded the matter.”
Like too many New England ministers of the period, Mr. Little devoted a great part of his time to secular business. He was constantly buying and selling real estate and dickering with the town about its lands. Instead of regarding him with affectionate reverence, the town watched him closely, for example warning him against “Imprudent thining” of the parsonage wood-lot. He was one of those who undertook to keep and develop the town pasture, entering thereon twenty “shepe.” He was one of those who applied for permission “to make a Triall on Som of the flatts in plimouth bay for the making of some beds of oysters.” They were empowered to organize to “make such Rules and orders for the management of said oysters and oyster beds as they or the major part of them shall Judge proper and necessary. . . .
Mr. Little died suddenly on November 24, 1723. He was childless, but was admitted guardian for Joseph, Samuel, and Lidia Bartlett, children of Joseph Bartlett. His wife survived him, and in 1731 had to be rescued by the town from an action for debt. Twice thereafter the town made her small grants, the only record of the annual pension which it has been accredited with giving her.
Works
The Congregational Library has two Ms. sermons. The Records of the Plymouth Church, published as Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts XXII-XXIII, and separately, New York, 1920-1923, are partly in his hand.
Preface, pp. iv, in: Daniel Lewes, Of Taking Heed to, and Fulfilling the Ministry, Boston, 1720. AAS, BA, BPL, JCB, MHS, Y.
Adapted from Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 4:248-252.