Pulpit

Pulpit
Attributed to William Crafts (1736-1800)  and William Burbeck (1716-1785) 
Boston, 1772-73
Mahogany, pine
Gift of the Massachusetts Historical Society 

Brattle Street Church was a site of worship for Boston’s elite families, counting John Hancock, Joseph Warren, and John and Abigail Adams among its parishioners. 

From this handsomely carved pulpit, Reverend Samuel Cooper (1725-1783) infused his sermons with revolutionary sentiments. After British soldiers occupied Boston in 1768, Cooper preached: “I pray that our Brethren separated from us by the ocean would cherish a fellow feeling for us; and allow us to enjoy those rights, of which they justly boast. . . . Rights, which are not constituted by human compact, but by the immutable Rule of Equity, and the eternal laws of the God of Nature.”