Title

"Praying stool"

Date1795

MediumPine

Dimensions43 × 19 1/2 × 24 7/8 in. (109.2 × 49.5 × 63.2 cm)

Donor credit lineGift of Mrs. Mary East Coggeshall

Object number1912.3

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionThis is a plain wooden stool with a back. The brass tablet on the back says: "Praying stool used at the First Methodist Meeting in New Bedford. Held at the home of George East, 1795." When it was donated to the Society in 1912, Anne Seabury Wood, ODHS Secretary declared: "Historically, one of the most interesting is a kneeling stool used at the first Methodist meetings in New Bedford. At the foot of Mill Street, which took its name from a windmill standing at the top of the hill there still stands a plain, old, two storied house. The house was built by George East during the Revolution and was afterwards known as East’s Tavern. It became a great center for ministers, and as there were at that time no churches, religious services were often held there. On the eastern slope of the roof of the house is a scuttle and here, it is said, Mrs. East, a woman noted for her piety, used to screech and shout to the good people across the river to announce a meeting. In 1795 Jesse Lee preached in this house, the first Methodist sermon ever listened to in New Bedford. The landing on the old stairway where he stood remained unchanged within, but the praying stone upon which he knelt has found a home in the rooms of the society. It is a plain old piece of work, guiltless of paint and absolutely without ornamentation, made apparently by rather unskilled hands with rather crude tools, and it is now somewhat shaky from age. A brass tablet, suitably inscribed, has been affixed to it by its donor, Mary East Coggeshall, a great grand-daughter of George East." ProvenanceGeorge East, 1795; by descent to Mary East Coggeshall

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