Deacon Samuel Dow

• General Notes
  • New Hampshire state records show his month of birth to be September.
    Samuel, while not the equal of his father in any way, unless in devotion to the church, was a man of great activity and as prominent as any in Hampton. He, too learned land surveying and assisted his uncle Joseph in the survey to fix the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line. He succeeded his father as town clerk, holding the office until his death; was once representative to the General Court; selectman six years in all. He carried on the home farm, owned shares in vessels, notably the 40-ton home-built brigantine. Most prized of all was his diaconate, which came in 1711. A subscription of 32 pounds 1s was raised for additional communion silver, and Dea Dow was chosen to go to Boston by ship and select it. He was voted 20s for the expenses of the trip. He bought eight silver beakers or cups for 29 pounds, and these are still in possession of the successor church, a bone of contention when it split a century later into a Congregational and a Presbyterian. The meeting house being constricted, he was on a committee "for to give Liberty to those men that wil Apeare for to build Puese in the Hinder Seates in the meeting house." In 1711 he layd off twelve acres for a parsonage for the Quakers, not a pleasant task for the orthodox deacon, although his cousins were all leading Quakers. The church arrangements were that Deacon Samuel Dow was to tune the psalm in the forenoon, Dea John Tuck and Dea Dow to read psalms in the afternoon. Now, Dea Tuck was a small man, with high-pitched voice, Dea Dow burly and deep of tone: One may imagine the rendition of the then used version of 102nd Psalm,--Dea Tuck bordering on falsetto:
                              "I'm like unto a pelican."
    
    Dea Dow in basso profundo:
                              "And like an owl am I."
    It was at a later date that the attempt was first made to sing the hymn without lining it but by the congregation all together. The first results were painful. One aged man arose and addressed the minister: "Reverend sir, do you allow all this?" Another shrieked: "Toll the bell, ye devils, toll the bell." The most aged of the vociferous protestors against the innovation felt so badly at his won temerity that, after a night's reflection, he went voluntarily before a magistrate, complained of himself for a breach of the peace and was fined 1s.
    To compete with the junior deacon was no eas task, for Dea Tuck was greatly devoted to the scriptures. He was a carpenter, later a miller, and cultivated a farm at the same time. Yet, he found time to read the Bible from cover to cover twelve times during his diaconate. In his diary, still preserved, is an entry: "The 13th day of February, 1677, I began to read ye Bible through and I read it all through from ye 1st chapter of Gennesis to ye last chapter of Revelations: by ye 18th day of December, John Tuck."
    The one appearance of Dea Samuel in law was as deputy to contest the claim of one Allen, inherited from Mason on an old royal grant of all the land in Hampton (for that matter, all of New Hampshire). It was in the line of his surveying that he was on the committee to divide up the west common into lots, and to ascertain to date the rightful owners of the much confused Cow Commons. For fifty years that pasture was the most troublesome land in the province, never free from litigated claim.