Father Against Son: The Religious “Civil War” of Kingston

Primary Source: Drew, Emily F. “1628 – 1728 – 1828 – 1928: Three Hundred, Two Hundred, One Hundred, Years Ago.” Paper read before The Jones River Village Club Inc., December 8, 1928. Kingston Public Library Local History Collections.

One Church, One Town

For over a century after Kingston's incorporation in 1726, the First Parish Church was far more than a place of worship. It was the undisputed heart of the community — the center of civic life, social order, and moral authority. Church and town governance were inseparable: parish expenses were paid by the Town Treasurer, and church records were kept by the Town Clerk.

Every family in Kingston belonged to the same congregation. Every significant civic event took place within or around the meetinghouse. For over a hundred years, this arrangement went unquestioned. But by the early nineteenth century, a theological revolution was sweeping across New England — and Kingston would not be spared.

The Storm: Unitarianism Comes to Kingston

Across Massachusetts in the early 1800s, a growing “liberal movement” was challenging the traditional Calvinist orthodoxy that had defined New England Congregationalism since the Pilgrims. Unitarianism, with its emphasis on reason, free will, and the essential goodness of human nature, was gaining followers in town after town.

In 1828, the theological tension that had been simmering for years finally reached a breaking point in Kingston. The town was forced to vote on the liberal movement. When the ballots were counted, the majority of the parish voted to sponsor the Unitarian shift.

For the conservative “Orthodox” members — those who held fast to the traditional doctrines of their Pilgrim forebears — this was a profound betrayal. In their eyes, the parish had turned its back on the “faith of the fathers.”

What followed was not a polite theological disagreement. It was, as local historian Emily Drew would describe it a century later, a controversy more intense than any experienced since the Reformation — with a bitterness that even exceeded the early Revolutionary era.

“The roots of religious faith seemed to go even deeper than patriotic loyalty. The controversy pitted father against son, brother against brother.”

— Emily Drew, 1928

The vote of 1828 did not simply divide Kingston along political or economic lines. It cut through the most intimate bonds of family and friendship. Neighbors who had worshiped side by side for decades suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a theological chasm.