Note 77 — II HISTORICAL DISCOURSE

Page 67, note 2. The Rev. Daniel Bliss has left the name of having been an earnest, good man, evidently emotional. His zealous and impassioned preaching gave offence to some of the cooler and more conservative clergy, and indeed bred discord in the church of Concord. The “aggrieved brethren” withdrew, and, for want of a church, held public worship at a tavern where was the sign of a black horse, hence were called “the Black Horse Church.” Their complaints preferred against Mr. Bliss resulted in councils which drew in most of the churches of Middlesex into their widening vortex. Yet he remained the honored pastor of the town until his death. His daughter Phebe married the young William Emerson, his successor; he was therefore Mr. Emerson’s great-grandfather.