Corwin, and Captain Price, of the old parish of Salem, to make the rate; and gave ample power to the constable of the village or the marshal of the county, to enforce the collection of it, by distress and attachment, if any should neglect or refuse to pay the sum assessed upon him.  To make it still more certain that Mr. Bayley should get his money, they ordered “that all the rate is to be paid in for the use of the ministry unto two persons chosen by the householders to supply the place of deacons for the time, who are to reckon with the people, and to deliver the same to the said minister or to his order.”  The arrangement as to the agency of deacons was “to continue until the Court shall take further order, or that there be a church of Christ orderly gathered and approved in that place.”  This procedure of the Court was a pretty high-handed stretch of power even for those days; and giving the appointment of officers, with the title and character of deacons to mere householders, and where there was no church or organized body of professed believers, was in absolute conflict with the whole tenor and spirit of the ecclesiastical system then in force and rigidly maintained elsewhere throughout the colony.  The Court seems itself to have been alarmed at the extent to which it had gone in forcing Mr. Bayley upon the people of Salem Village, and fell back, in conclusion, upon the following proviso:  “This order shall continue for one year only from the last of September last past.”  The date of the order was the 15th of October, 1679.  It had less than a year to run.  In fact, the order, after all, before it comes to the end, is diluted into a mere recommendation of Mr. Bayley.  “In the mean while, all parties,” it is hoped, will “endeavor an agreement in him or some other meet person for a minister among them;” but the General Court takes care to wind up by demanding “five pounds for hearing the case, the whole number of villagers equally to bear their proportion thereof.”

While the power thus incautiously conceded to householders was duly noted, the apparently formidable action of the Court did not in the least alarm the opposition, or in the slightest degree abate their zeal.  The householders continued, as before, to manage all affairs relating to the ministry in general meetings of the inhabitants.  They proceeded at once to elect their two deacons.  “Corporal Nathaniel Ingersoll” was one of them; and he continued to hold the office, in parish and in church, for forty years.

As no attention was paid to the order of the General Court, so far as it attempted to fasten Mr. Bayley upon the parish; as the church in Salem would not take the responsibility of recommending his ordination in the face of such an opposition; and as it was out of the question to think of reconciling or reducing it, Mr. Bayley concluded to retire from the conflict and quit the field; and his ministry in the village came to an end.  As evidence that the heat of this protracted controversy had not consumed all just and considerate sentiments in the minds of the people, I present the substance of a deed found in the Essex Registry.  It will be noticed, that the most conspicuous of Mr. Bayley’s opponents, Nathaniel Putnam, is one of the parties to the instrument.