Theoria to practica and Congregational Independency: From John Singleton Copley's portraiture of ‘Liberty,’ Rev. Jonathan Mayhew identified, to Rev. Lemuel Haynes's Liberty Further Extended, c. 1776

As part of the Lemuel Haynes Anniversary Project in Granville, MA, Theoria to Practica . . . by Corey Phelon Geske commemorates Juneteenth 2023 and the 270th anniversaries of the July 18, 1753 birth of Rev. Lemuel Haynes and the incorporation of the district of Granville, Massachusetts, January 25, 1754.

Also recognizing ‘America250,’ the Nation’s Semiquincentennial, July 4, 2026, this work is published by the Granville History Digital Collection, sponsored by the Mabel Root Henry Historical Museum at the Granville Public Library and the Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation, Granville, MA.

For the content in this document most relevant to Rev. Lemuel Haynes please refer to pp. i, ii, v, 2, (Section: "Theoria to Practica: Rev. Lemuel Haynes extends ‘Liberty’ to abolition of enslavement") 38-49, 63.

For the first time, Haynes’s unpublished writings circa 1776, Liberty Further Extended and his poem, The Battle of Lexington, are presented herein as very possibly having been composed in Granville, MA where precepts of ‘Liberty’ seemingly existed as early as 1754 with Haynes’s arrival at five months old.

Haynes' subsequent education, fostered his unprecedented life story becoming the first Black man ordained a minister in the United States -- in the Congregational church, bespeaking that Faith’s 'independency' breaking out of the colonial paradigm as did a new Nation.

For the first time in publication, John Singleton Copley's portrait (1767) of Congregational Boston minister Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, is herein identified. Having preached, “Britons will not be slaves . . . Let us all learn to be free," Mayhew was respected by John Adams as one of the men most responsible for setting the groundwork of the American Revolution. His emphasis upon ‘Liberty,’ is found in Haynes's unpublished essay Liberty Further Extended . . . the first to apply the precepts of the Declaration of Independence to the abolition of enslavement, bringing to the forefront the hypocrisy of any who supported ‘Liberty’ without extending it to “mankind” in bondage. Copley’s portraiture bears evidence of his effort to do so and his iconology of 'Liberty' extending to the abolition of Black enslavement, is examined and interpreted here.

‘Congregational Independency’ in Massachusetts provided the theoria of ‘Liberty’ that guided the iconology of Copley, an Anglican, who put theory to practice, compassing his portraiture with subliminal messaging of ’Liberty.’
From Mayhew to Haynes, the theoria of ‘Liberty’ evolved from considering the rights of white American colonists to the Black enslaved population, all “mankind,” as Thomas Hollis V had inscribed upon Mayhew’s etching by Cipriani after Copley.

This extension of theory to practice and ‘Liberty’ to the abolition of enslavement, as proposed by Haynes, whose lifetime paralleled that of the young nation, was rooted in the Independency of the Congregational church.

Corey Phelon Geske

Granville History Digital Collection, Granville, Massachusetts

May 30, 2023

© Copyright May 30, 2023, Corey Phelon Geske. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without the permission of the author. Images used herein with permission for publication in this document from Boston University Libraries; Cleveland Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum; Harvard University Portrait Collection; Houghton Library, Harvard University; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; New York Public Library; The Library Company of Philadelphia; Princeton University Art Museum; and Yale University Art Gallery.

As cited in the text:
See the Daniel Rose, Lt. Jacob Baldwin, Rev. Joel Baker . . . Phelon House for additional information: CLICK HERE for Daniel Rose . . .  Phelon House Part One. Part One includes links to Parts 2-5 and Addenda.
For mention of Thomas Holllis V, CLICK HERE for Addendum 1, "Baker Quilt: West Granville Needlework at the F.G. (Rev. Joel) Baker House inspires the historic Deerfield Arts and Crafts Movement."