"""s.* >? ~^*^' J^X ^HONVSOl^ ^E-UNIVERfrA .vlOS ^ - ^ 85 H' A Fifth Bishop of Connecticut. Consecrated in Trinity Church, New Haven, October 28, 1897. of Cut* JSife in Connecticut BEING THE STORY OF THE TRANSPLANTING OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND INTO FORTY-TWO PARISHES OF CONNECTICUT, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPA- GATION OF THE GOSPEL WRITTEN BY MEMBERS OF THE PARISHES IN CELEBRA- TION OF THE 200TH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE SOCIETY EDITED BY LUCY GUSHING JARVIS NEW HAVEN, CONN. : THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY 1902 Copyright, 1902 by LUCY GUSHING JARVIS StacK Annex ft Sable of Contents LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 5 PREFATORY NOTE. Rt. Rev. C. B. Brewster 7 ENDORSEMENT. Committee on Parochial Archives 8 CONNECTICUT CELEBRATION OF 2OOTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE S. P. G. Editor 9- 12 THE PLACE OF AMERICA IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY. Editor 13- 16 OUTLINE OF THE S. P. G. IN CONNECTICUT. Rev. Samuel Hart, D.D. 17- 21 PAROCHIAL HISTORIES: Bloomfield 75- 79 Branford 118-120 Bridgeport 105 Brooklyn 151-156 Cheshire 125-130 Danbury 140 Derby ' 61- 63 Easton 144-146 Greenwich* 107-108 Guilford 93 96 Hartford 141-144 Hebron 54- 58 Huntington 105-106 Litchfield 98-100 Middletown 108-113 Milford 149-151 New Haven 114-118 New London 32- 38 New Milford (Rev. Joseph Hooper) 88- 92 Newtown 39- 40 Northford (no paper) 146 North Guilford 103-105 North Haven 122-124 Norwalk 59- 60 Norwich 101-102 * Greenwich, to all intents and purposes a parish from 1749, was not regularly organ- ized as such until 1833. It claimed a place, however, in this Colonial record. Several other places, such as New Canaan, Monroe and others, could also be thus included. 4 CONTENTS Oxford 146 Plymouth 65- 67 Poquetanock 41- 52 Redding 53- 54 Ridgefield 63- 65 Roxbury 68- 70 Sharon 121-122 Southport 28- 32 Stamford 82- 85 Stratford 22- 26 Tashua 131-139 Wallingford 79- 82 Waterbury 86- 88 Watertown 147-148 West Haven 26- 28 Weston 96- 98 Woodbury 71- 75 ANNIVERSARY SERMON, WEST HAVEN. Rev. Edwin S. Lines, D.D. Appendix A. 157-170 BISHOP BERKELEY'S INFLUENCE IN CONN. Editor. Appendix B. 171-172 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRE-REVOLUTIONARY CLERGYMEN. .Editor. Appendix C. 173-175 ADDITIONAL LIST OF MEN ORDAINED FROM CONN. BUT WHO DIED OR RETURNED TO OTHER COLONIES. Editor. 176 LIST OF REVOLUTIONARY CLERGYMEN. Editor. Appendix D. 177 SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF MEN WHO HAVE GONE INTO THE MINISTRY FROM CONNECTICUT. Editor. Appendix E. 178-182 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF COLONIAL PARISHES. Editor. Appendix F. 183-184 PAROCHIAL GENEALOGY OF CONNECTICUT. Editor. Appendix G. 185-189 X10t of UUuetrations PORTRAITS : PAGE Rt. Rev. C. B. Brewster, D.D., LL.D Frontispiece Rt. Rev. John Williams, D.D., LL.D 108 Rt. Rev. T. C. Brownell, D.D., LL.D 117 Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D., LL.D 112 Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., LL.D 74 Bishop Berkeley and His Household 170 Rev. Henry Caner, D.D 59 Rev. Bela Hubbard, D.D 167 Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D 24 Rev. George Keith, D.D 32 Rev. Richard Mansfield, D.D 61 CHURCHES : Greenwich, Horseneck Chapel and General Putnam's Escape 107 New Haven, Trinity Church 114 Poquetanuck, St. James's Church 41 Plymouth, St. Peter's Church 65 Stratford, Christ Church 22 West Haven, Christ Church 26 HOUSES : New London, Bishop Seabury's House 36 Woodbury, The Old Glebe 73 CUTS: Prayer Book with Erasures (Greenwich) 93 Prayer Book with S. P. G. Title Page (Southport) 28 S. P. G. Seal (Southport) 17 prefatory Iftote The editing of this book has been a labor of love on the part of a worthy descendant of the Second Bishop of Connecticut For myself this history of beginnings has a peculiar interest, because my own service in the priesthood was begun just over the New York border in the old parish of Rye, which sent forth the Rev. George Muirson and Colonel Heathcote on their missionary journeys to the shores and hillsides of Fairfield County, and was thus the mother parish of us all. But a higher than any personal interest attaches to this story. In the early history of our American Church there is no chapter more interesting and none, I venture to assert, more important than that which relates to Connecticut. In her colonial clergy, many of whom had come into the Church because of conviction and at no little sacrifice, was illustrated a type distinctively characteristic of Connecticut. Her churchmanship was rooted the more deeply and firmly by battle with the winds of opposition and adversity. Hers is our most venerable see and hers our first Bishop, whose consecration, moreover, links us with the romantic history of the Scottish Church. Hers has been the richest contribution to our Prayer-Book, and hers an unfailing championship of primitive truth and apostolic order. For a parish or for a diocese it is an excellent thing to have hon- orable traditions. But it is an inheritance that brings with it respon- sibility. As we face the problems and the tasks of a new century, it is well thus to have reviewed the days of old. The Connecticut Churchmen of the Eighteenth Century were worthy of commemora- tion. May those of the Twentieth prove themselves worthy of their heritage ! CHAUNCEY B. BREWSTER, Bishop of Connecticut. 33 HARVARD ST., WORCESTER, MASS. June n, 1901. Dear Miss Jarvis: Your letter came duly to hand and at our meeting of the Com- mission on Parochial Archives the subject was presented and the following resolution passed. "Resolved, That this Commission approves cordially the plan of Miss Jarvis for a memorial volume upon the Diocesan Commemora- tion of the Bicentennial of the Venerable Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel." The members were all greatly pleased that these historical papers were to be so carefully preserved and am sure would be glad to assist you in any way in their power to make the effort a success. Sincerely, FREDERIC W. BAILEY, Sec. C. P. A. Explanatory preface THE CONNECTICUT JUBILEE FOR THE BICENTENARY OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL 1701-1901 EARLY in the year of 1901 the Bishop of Connecticut appointed the octave from the Wednesday before Whit-Sunday to the Wednesday after, to be observed as a solemn jubilee in all the Diocese, for the two hundredth^anni- versary of the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which during the Colonial days was so largely instrumental in planting the Church of England ** within its borders. The celebration was opened by the Missionary Commit- tee of the Diocese, Rev. Storrs O. Seymour chairman. A service was held in Trinity Church, New Haven, con- ducted by the Bishop, at which memorial addresses were made by the Bishop, Dr. Lloyd, and the Rev. Mr. Bodley of New Britain. On Thursday the Junior Department of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Diocese held a meeting of the Inter- Parochial Missions Study-Class, in Christ Church, Bridge- port. Holy Communion was celebrated at nine o'clock, followed by the reading of historical papers from the forty- two parishes of Colonial origin. Mrs. Colt, President of the Auxiliary, presided and much of interest was elicited. A luncheon was then served in bounteous hospitality to three hundred guests. An exhibition of Colonial and other Church relics of great value and unusual interest then fol- lowed. 10 At two-thirty the people reassembled in the church for a Thanksgiving service. A jubilee procession of the Bishop and clergy of the Diocese, together with banner bearers from each of the Colonial parishes, preceded the solemn offering of prayer and praise. Addresses commemorative in character were made by the Bishop, Dr. Hart, and Dr. Lloyd. Two descendants from two of the prominent Colonial clergy were present in the chancel: the Rev. Samuel Fermor Jarvis, grandson of Abraham Jarvis, second Bishop of Connecticut, and Rector of Brooklyn, Conn., the last parish organized prior to the Revolution ; and Arch- deacon Johnson, great-grandson of Samuel Johnson, one of the pioneers of Episcopacy in Connecticut. On Friday the Daughters of the King and the Girls' Friendly held a joint service in Christ Church, Hartford, while on Saturday the Sunday School Auxiliary held its service in Trinity Church of the same place. Nearly every Sunday School of the Diocese was represented by a delega- tion and a banner. A thousand children were gathered and the occasion was an inspiring one. The Brotherhood of St. Andrew also observed the occa- sion in their annual meeting in New Haven on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday all the rectors were asked to preach histori- cal sermons and use prayers for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Monday was observed in New London by the Diocesan Missionary Society, while Tuesday was set apart for the Church Club to meet in New Haven. On Wednesday the Jubilee closed by a Quiet Day of solemn assembly for the Woman's Auxiliary, conducted by the Rev. Dr. Riley of the General Theological Seminary. This volume preserves the historical papers written by members of the Colonial parishes, and two of the addresses of the Junior meeting, on the Thursday of this week of Thanksgiving. II The Church Club sent $50 as a token of remembrance to the Venerable Society, and the Junior meeting in Bridge- port sent the offerings of that day, together with some sub- sequent gifts (15. 15. 2), with the following letter: "To the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, all greeting in the Lord: The Diocese of Connecticut sends to you, fathers and brethren, at the opening of your fourth jubilee year, its hearty congratulations, with a renewed acknowledgment of its debt to you for fostering care during Colonial days and the assurance of prayers for God's continued blessing on your work. Before this can reach you, you will have heard that toward the close of the year, at the Whitsuntide, we kept a week of memorial services, in which each of the mis- sionary organizations of the Diocese bore a part, that we might not only remind ourselves and tell our children of our wonderful history, but might also quicken our zeal and theirs for the years that are to come. At one of these services, held under the special auspices of our Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions, and for its junior branch, at which the several parishes organized in Connecticut while it was a colony were represented and the early history of each was told in outline, an offering was made for your present work. We have great pleasure in transmitting it to you, not as feeling that you stand in need of a gift from us, and certainly not as hoping to express by it our appreciation of what we owe to you, but that we may testify to our sincere interest in your labors and bear an humble part in the thank-offering of this jubilee. With the prayer that Almighty God will have you, fathers and brethren, and your Venerable Society ever in His holy keeping, we have the honour to subscribe ourselves your servants for Christ's sake. ST. PETER'S DAY, 1901." The letter was signed by the Bishop of the Diocese; by the Rev. Dr. Grint, Rector of St. James's Church, New London, the first place in Connecticut in which the mis- sionaries of the Society preached ; by the Rev. N. E. Corn- wall, Rector of Christ Church, Stratford, the first mission of the Society in Connecticut and the first parish organized 12 in the colony; by Archdeacon Johnson, of Richmond, New York, a lineal descendant of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, leader of the Church in Connecticut in Colonial days; by the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, grandson of the distinguished presbyter of the colony who afterwards became second Bishop of Connecticut; and by Mrs. Elizabeth H. Colt, President of the Diocesan branch of the Woman's Auxiliary, under the auspices of which the service at Bridgeport was held. SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS. 19 DELAHAY STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 4TH OCTOBER, 1901. My dear Lord Bishop: The Registrar of the diocese of Connecticut forwarded on S. Peter's Day a letter, signed by your lordship and other representa- tives of the diocese of Connecticut, reporting on the observance of the Society's Bicentenary, and forwarding a thank offering of 15.15.2. For the latter a formal receipt was at once sent. I am now directed to acknowledge the letter, and in doing so to say that the Standing Committee of the Society have received it with much satisfaction. Thanking you for this latest addition to your acts of kind and brotherly love to the Society, I am, my dear Lord Bishop, Yours very faithfully, E. P. KETCHLEY. The Right Rev d - The Bishop of Connecticut. EMtor'e Untrofcuction [BEING THE FIRST ADDRESS AT THE JUNIOR MEETING.] THE PLACE OF AMERICA IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY. THE "United States" is not only the union of many states under one government but the welding of many peoples into one nation. So in religious history every form of Christianity has sought refuge within its borders, and already the cry for "unity" is ascending as nowhere else in the world. Let us trace the stages in the story. Before the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock, almost before they were dreamed of in the Church of England, the religious contest for the possession of America began. The Pope drew a line dividing the Atlantic Ocean, giving all new discoveries east of it to Portugal, in recognition of Vasco da Gama and his discovery of the "new way to India," while all west of that line the Pontiff "gave" to Spain as reward for the westward voyage, from that coast, of Christopher Columbus. Thus the whole New World was laid out as papal territory. England heard. She drew no line. She acted. "No peace with Spain beyond the line" drawn by the Pope became the national motto of the day. No sooner had Christopher Columbus landed on the West Indies than John Cabot sailed out from England, bearing a charter which claimed not only all lands he should touch upon in the New World as territory of England, but also claiming all souls living in those territories for conversion to the Church of England ; and services were celebrated on the east coast according to the rights of the Church of England before Americus Vespucius landed on the continent, and 14 named it. Drake landed in San Francisco bay and cele- brated the first Holy Communion on that western coast. The Virginia settlers in 1607, coming to Jamestown, held service and began to convert the Indians to Christianity before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. This followed in 1620; and after the Puritans, an army of religious refugees sought and found an asylum free from persecution on these shores. Meanwhile the Church of Rome, by the Jesuits in the Northwest, the Franciscans and Dominicans in the South, and the English Romanists in Maryland, maintained a claim to a share in the religious life of the country. By a series of events reaching over many years (the cession of Florida, the Louisiana purchase, the acquisition of the Northwest, California, Texas, and New Mexico) this share of the Church of Rome has been limited to spiritual not temporal power. She has been wel- comed as one of many religious bodies, but not placed over any. The "Monroe Doctrine" holds good in the religious world. The recent planting of our rule in Cuba and the Philippines, together with the consequent proclamation of religious liberty in each of these sections, form separate links in the same great chain. Our land has been made the home of religious liberty. Hence it is that religious pioneers are prominent among the settlers of each portion of its terri- tory. All along the eastern coast, and on the plains of the Missouri, bands of Puritans and Quakers, Huguenots and Moravians have sought in the great openness of the New World liberty to worship after their own manner the one God of their fathers, while across the Rocky Mountains it is the Methodist missionary Whitman and his wife who crest the wave of emigration that claimed the northwest coast from the savage and the trader. With this great freedom for our cornerstone, a reverence for God and respect for man made in His image, the motto that crowned the triumphal arch at the World's Fair in 15 Chicago ("Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"), is an inspiring prophecy of possibility for our country. To us come all peoples and all tongues. They come together in voluntary peacefulness for the first time since the scattering of nations at the tower of Babel. They come for freedom and they grow towards unity. Begin- ning with individual freedom in one country, under one flag, one ruler, one law, they grow to speak one language and more and more to realize that we are all worshipping one God. One baptism into one holy name is beginning to mean more to us than east or west, Roman or Protestant. It is then, most fitting that we, members of the Anglican communion, who took the initiative in claiming this land for freedom, should look to our beginnings and our brave struggle in one spot in New England where the Puritan tried to become a Pope. Life to-day in Connecticut is better understood when we realize its growth out of the conflicts of the past. The story of the introduction of the worship of the Church of England by the missionaries of the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel is indeed an astonishing one. From the time that, in the southwest, Col. Heathcote fully armed escorted the clergyman at Rye into Stratford to celebrate a Prayer Book service, to the day when, in the northeast corner of the State, in the town of Pomfret, old Godfrey Malbone built a church upon his farm land to escape com- pulsory taxation for the salary of the Congregational min- ister, the story is one of opposition on the one hand and bravery on the other. This will be no less surprising to the broad-minded Puritans of our day than to ourselves, for those times are forgotten in the days that are. Yet happily we shall rise from a study,, of these pages with a greater enthusiasm for the heritage won for us, not by favour, but by struggle and in the fear of God a heritage not only of the Prayer Book and of the Episcopate, but of the principle of religious freedom, and, as we believe, in the end, of the realization of Christian unity. Had any one religion, or any one race obtained sole authority in our land, it could never have become what it is becoming now, the harmonizer of the human family. State union was bought by the Revo- lution; race equality before the law, by the awful throes of the Rebellion; and doubtless Christian harmony, in the same broad sense of unity in fundamentals without com- pelled uniformity of externals, will not come without "great searchings of heart." But that it will come we can see in promise by, not only our integral diversity, but by our national character of "arbiter" and "peacemaker," which we have established as our portion among the nations of the world. More and more will the Christian bodies of America come to realize that they "Members, by Baptism of the One Body of Christ," are, not one day may be, one Church. Let us then turn to the story of the rescue of Connecticut in Colonial days from the cramping hand of an "establishment" through the work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. a blacksmith, and he thought because he used leather mit- tens in his work in the blacksmith-shop, that the proper thing to do was to put on his leather mittens for the service ; it was called the "leather-mitten ordination." One result of this was, that sober-minded men and women began to think that perhaps, after all, the Church of England was in the right, that it might be best to follow the example which had been prevailing in the Church for many hun- dreds of years, that no one should be considered to have the right to preach the word of God or minister the sacra- ments unless he had been ordained by a bishop. There were other things that set people to thinking, and called up recollections of what they had learned in old Eng- land. Three or four copies, perhaps more, of the Book of Common Prayer (which Bishop Williams once said was the first and best missionary of the Church) had been brought to Connecticut. One belonged to Samuel Smithson of Guilford. It fell into the hands of a young man who was then preparing for college, or perhaps had entered college, Samuel Johnson. He read it, studied it, learned from it some things that he had not known before, and thought seriously of what he had learned. He came to the conclu- sion that the teachings of the Prayer Book were the teachings of the word of God ; and when he became a Congregational minister, he used the prayers which he had learned and the people thought that he was peculiarly "gifted in prayer" and wondered how he could express himself so well. He became, under God's providence, the founder of the Church here in Connecticut. There was another Prayer Book in Plymouth ; and this led to the establishment of two or three parishes in Connecticut, one or two in western New York, and one or two in Ohio. But let us go back to the time of the foundation of this Society "the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." We may well call it venerable 19 now because it is two hundred years old, but it was often called venerable when it was very young indeed. Its foundation was due to the Rev. Dr. Bray, who had come to this country that he might inquire into the state of relig- ion here. In the very next year after it was founded, a few Churchmen who were in Connecticut, at Stratford, asked the Society to send them a clergyman of the Church of England. In the self-same year, the first two mission- aries came, Mr. Keith and Mr. Talbot, and they spent a Sunday in New London. The minister of the Congrega- tional society there, who was afterwards Governor of this Colony, Mr. Saltonstall, received them very courteously; and one of them preached from his pulpit in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I do not suppose that they read the service out of the Prayer Book; but this was cer- tainly the first time that clergymen of the Church of Eng- land officiated as such in this colony. Four years after- wards came the time when the missionary from Rye, Mr. Muirson, under protection and patronage of Col. Heathcote, preached and baptized in the towns from Greenwich to Stratford. The result was the establishment of the first parish of Connecticut in Stratford in 1722, and Mr. Pigot was settled there as its first clergyman. Now, you should remember the year 1701 in which this Society was founded, but you should remember also the year 1722, not alone because it was the year in which there was the first settled clergyman here in Connecticut, but because the most remarkable thing in our Church history happened in that year. Seven young men, Congregational ministers of good learning, men of influence and of repu- tation, were in the habit of meeting in New Haven, to read the books in the college library and to talk over what they read. As they read and studied, and as Mr. Johnson, who was one of them, remembered what he had learned from the Prayer . Book, they came to consider seriously whether it 20 was right for them to undertake to minister to their con- gregations any longer, unless they could first be ordained by a bishop; and they united in sending a document to the "fathers and brethren" who were assembled at Yale College commencement in the year 1722. It led to much excite- ment and discussion ; and the result was that of these seven young men, four made up their minds that they must cross the ocean and ask the Archbishop of Canterbury to ordain them. I do not suppose that a thing like that ever hap- pened before or since. Here were some of the picked men in the community, honored for their learning and their character, going across the ocean three thousand miles in a sailing vessel, because they were satisfied that they could not any longer minister to their people without receiving ordination from a bishop. Three went in the first year, Dr. Cutler, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Johnson; and Mr. Wetmore followed a year later. Yale College at this time had a faculty of two, the Rector and the Tutor, or the President and the Professor; these were Dr. Cutler and Mr. Brown. Dr. Cutler came back to be Rector of Christ Church in Bos- ton, Mr. Johnson to be, as I said, the real founder of the Church here in Connecticut. Mr. Wetmore also ministered here; but Mr. Brown died of the small-pox in England. Then for about fifty years, other young men followed the example of these four. Forty-three candidates crossed the ocean before the Revolution ; and of these six lost their lives in the venture. It was not an easy thing in those days to cross the ocean and to return; and besides, England was continually at war with France, and the small-pox was a terrible scourge. From Hebron they sent out four men, one after another. One pined away in a French prison, one died of the small-pox, and one was lost at sea; only the fourth was able to come back to minister to the parish which had sent him. It was in this way that the Church was founded in this colony. The War of the Revolution 21 broke out, as you remember, in 1775; and the independence of the colonies put an end to the work here of the Society 'for the Propagation of the Gospel. But no sooner was the Revolution over than Dr. Seabury crossed the ocean and was consecrated the first Bishop of the Church in Con- necticut the first Bishop of the Church in this land. I want to say but two things more ; and one is this : that this history shows what it is that has made the Churchmen of Connecticut, both those of older and those of later years, so strong in their attachment to the Church into which they have been baptized and to which they have professed their allegiance, and has kept them firm in their belief in the faith and order and sacraments and scriptures which have been handed down to us from the Church of ancient times. And lastly, as to the word "Propagation." I have been speaking of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. We understand, of course, that this means the spreading of the gospel, but I wonder if you have ever heard of the original meaning of the word propagation as applied to a vine. If you bend down a branch and bury a little bit of it in the ground, so that it may take root and become a new vine, this is propagation. It was very much in that way way that the gospel was first extended and is now extended. A branch was bent down and took root here in our Con- necticut soil, and by and by it did not need the nursing care of the mother Church, but became itself the mother of Churches. It depends upon these boys, those who have car- ried the banners of their parishes, and others like them, whether there shall be the same strong, true vine of the Church of God growing here in Connecticut as long as they live and for the generations hereafter, with all the strength and power with which God has blessed it here in the past, since that venerable Society began its fostering care at the beginnings of the Church here in Connecticut. Parochial Ristorics of Colonial Connecticut Christ Church, Stratford 1690 (1707). ABOUT the year 1690, there were in the town of Stratford "a. considerable number of professors of the faith of the Church of England and desirous to worship God in the Liturgy of their forefathers." But there was no clergyman in the State, so no one was found to minister to their spiritual needs. In 1702 an application was made to the Bishop of London for a missionary, but without suc- cess. Not meeting with any response, in September, 1705, a request was sent to the Rev. William Vesey of Trinity Church, New York, that he would visit them "to preach and administer the rite of baptism." The distance was so great that he did not personally comply, but the request bore fruit; for one year later, on the second of September, 1706, there came riding into the town two men, whose coming aroused the greatest hostility among the Congre- gational element. The one was the Rev. George Muirson of Rye, N. Y., a man, we read, having a very happy way of preaching, and considering his years (but 31), wonder- fully good in argument, and his conversation without blemish, held by the people in great esteem for his piety and virtue. The other, the Hon. Colonel taleb Heathcote, a leading man in the Province of New York, a member of the first vestry of Old Trinity, ever active in promoting the interests of the Church at large. Though threatened with prison and hard usage, Mr. Muirson preached to a considerable assembly, and baptized CHRIST CHURCH, STRATFORD. Second Building, 1744. 23 about 35 persons, principally adults. This visit was fol- lowed by two or three others in the space of a few months. We read with amazement of the open hostility of those who, while advocates of religious freedom, were unwilling to extend it to those who walked not with them; of how, on the second of Mr. Muirson's visits, a member of the council, on the Lord's day, "stood in the highway and empowered several others, to forbid any person to go to the assembly of the Church of England and threatened them with a fine of five pounds." The parishioners sub- sequently complained that their members had been seized and imprisoned in the county jail for refusing to pay the sum demanded for the support of the Congregational minis- ter. About the first of April, 1707, the parish was organized by the election of wardens and vestry, and in 1708 the S. P. G. granted their request that the Rev. Mr. Muirson be appointed their missionary, but before the intelligence reached this country the loved priest of God had rested from his labors. In 1712, the Rev. Francis Phillips was sent out by the Society to take charge of the parish, but remained only a few months, "being," wrote Colonel Heathcote, "of a temper very contrary to be pleased with such conversation and way of living as Stratford affords." In 1718, the vestry again wrote the Society, bewailing their sad condition without a shepherd, concluding with these words: "As to our outward estate, it may very well be said we are inconsiderable, but as to our number, we have had at least one hundred baptized into the Church, and have had thirty-six at one time partakers of the holy communion of the Lord's supper, and have several times assembled in our congregation between two and three hundred persons." After four years more of waiting, the long desired minister of God came among them in the person of the Rev. George Pigot, and a brighter period dawned for the struggling parish. The good seed sown -7X ~"t by Muirson and the preaching of Pigot awakened a spirit of inquiry among the Congregational minsters of the State, two of whom the Rev. Timothy Cutler, Rector of Yale College, who for ten years previously had been the minister at Stratford, and the Rev. Samuel Johnson, then a minister at West Haven gave up their positions (in 1722) and went to England for Holy Orders. Great was the consternation. "I suppose," wrote Presi- dent Woolsey, 150 years later, "that greater alarm would scarcely be awakened now, if the Theological Faculty of Yale were to declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in transubstantiation and pray to the Virgin Mary." In 1723, the Churchmen petitioned the town for leave to erect a church, which petition the town "found clothed with great difficulty." Timbers, however, were prepared for raising on Meeting House Hill, and one dark night they were drawn to the foot of the hill the site of the church burying ground and there the church was erected with its "Sabba-day House" near by for the midday rest, refreshment, and interchange of ideas, spiritual and temporal. Meantime, Rev. Mr. Johnson had been stationed at Stratford, and under him the first church building in Connecticut was completed and opened for service on Christmas day, 1723. In 1724, wardens and vestry were chosen for Stratford, Fairfield, Newtown, and Ripton (now Huntington) two wardens for the home parish and one for each of the other towns. Notwithstand- ing the organization of Fairfield as a distinct parish, "so mightily grew the Church of God and prevailed" that a larger edifice was necessary, and in 1743 measures were taken to erect a more commodious building and a sum representing about $10,000 was subscribed for that pur- pose. The church was opened July 8, 1744. The weather- cock was placed in position at this time and our famous "rooster," bearing scars inflicted by British soldiery, has REV. SAMUEL JOHJJSQN, D.D. Ordained 1722. 2 C faced the tempest to this day. About this time a clock was placed in the tower. The bell was the gift of the Rector, Dr. Johnson, was cast in Fairfield and cost 300 pounds. For five generations it has summoned the people to wor- ship, added its jubilant tones to those of the general rejoic- ing over the news of the Declaration of Independence, rung its benediction over those "whom God had joined together," and tolled a requiem for those "departed hence in the Lord," and to-day is a priceless possession of the old parish. In 1754, Dr. Johnson, having been chosen the first President of King's (now Columbia) College, N. Y., resigned the parish and was succeeded by Rev. Edward Winslow. The only clergyman for some years in the State, finding but one parish organized and no church building completed, Dr. Johnson left ten or eleven clergy and twenty-five small churches; justly has he been termed "the Father of Episcopacy in Connecticut." An agreement was made in 1756 with Mr. Gilbert Delbois of Boston, Mass., for the purchase of an organ, costing sixty pounds and "payable in six annual payments without demand of interest." The organ was the first instrument of its kind in a place of public worship in Connecticut. So good was its construction, that it was used till 1879, a period of almost 125 years. In 1766, Dr. Johnson, who had resigned the presidency of King's College and was living at his home at Stratford, again took charge; four years later Mr. Kneeland, a son-in-law, was chosen assistant to the venerable Rector and succeeded him when Dr. Johnson passed to his rest in 1772, just as the clouds of the Revolution were gathering ominously. When the storm broke, came troublous times for the ministers of the Church, who were bound by an oath of allegiance to loyalty to the king. Having prayed so long for our "excellent King George," they found it difficult to leave off the familiar supplication. In Stratford Church, the old prayers were 26 cut short by an arbitrary patriot who had no notion of uttering "Amen" to such heresies. On the Sunday after the battle of Lexington, when the prayer was read for the royal family, Mr. Benjamin rose in his pew and declared no such prayer must be uttered in Stratford that the name of George III. was the name of the worst enemy of every one in the colony. Mr. Kneeland closed his Prayer Book, rose from his knees, pronounced the benediction, and the church was closed till the end of the war, the Rector dying in 1777. After the consecration of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury, his first Episcopal visitation, and hence the first administration of the rite of confirmation in America, was in the historic church at Stratford. Christ Church, West Haven 1723- THE venerable and historic Christ Church at West Haven may well claim an honored place among the Colonial churches in this country. In 1723, ten or fifteen families conformed to the Church of England and organized the parish. The Rev. Samuel Johnson, the first Congregational pastor, located in West Haven, became convinced of the invalidity of his ordination and, not with- out great self-sacrifice, sailed for England in 1722 to receive Holy Orders in the Mother Church. He returned in 1723 and commenced his labors in this little mission at West Haven. Being the only Church clergyman in the colony, he could only hold occasional services here. Still the Churchmen were staunch and true, and waited patiently for his successor, the Rev. Jonathan Arnold, another pastor of the Congregational flock near by, to conform to Epis- CHRIST CHURCH, WEST HAVEN. Oldest church building in Conn. Built 1741. 27 copacy. The Congregationalists had, by this time, become thoroughly alarmed, and stipulated, that if he, like his predecessor Samuel Johnson, should embrace the Episcopal faith, the money paid him as a settlement should be refunded. Still undaunted in his decision, in 1734 he was dismissed from his pastoral charge among the Congre- gationalists, and in 1735 went to England for Holy Orders. He returned in 1736 with the appointment as "itinerant missionary for Connecticut" of the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel and resided in West Haven. He also labored faithfully to sustain the missions in the neighboring towns of Milford, Waterbury, and Derby. It was thus that this little mission at West Haven became the mother Church of New Haven Colony. In 1740 Mr. Arnold left West Haven for Staten Island. His successor was the Rev. Theophilus Morris, an Englishman by birth. The Churchmen welcomed him with much pleasure, fearing they would be without a missionary. He speaks of the Church people as being intelligent, and well read as to the princi- ples of Church government. Like his predecessor, Mr. Arnold, Mr. Morris ministered to the people in surrounding towns and laid the foundations of the churches at North Haven, Wallingford, and Simsbury. He remained in West Haven but two years, but during that time the present church edifice was built and almost completed. Can we fully appreciate the faithful labors and self-sacri- fice of that little band of Churchmen "who builded better than they knew." After Mr. Morris's departure, the Rev. James Lyons had charge of the parish for a time then the ministries of Dr. Mansfield, Rev. Messrs. Pttnderson and Palmer bring the history down to 1767. Dr. Mansfield resided at Derby and gave West Haven parish one third of his time. Rev. Mr. Punderson and Mr. Palmer resided in New Haven and sustained the importance of the parish at West Haven. In 1767 the Rev. Bela Hubbard came to 28 New Haven and assumed the charge at West Haven as well as the mission at New Haven. In 1771-2 Mr. Hubbard writes that "he was able to perform his Sunday duty to a decent and sober congregation, which people, even in the opinion of dissenters, were a regular and good sort of people ; steady and exemplary in their attendance upon public wor- ship that he was pleased and happy at the situation and his congregation in five years increased one-third and num- bered 220 souls." But the dawn of the American Revolu- tion is at hand and we must leave the further history of these children of the Mother Church of England to a future time. Suffice it here to add that they remained in her faith, unchanged and unchangeable, through all political change, and kept faithfully to her sublime and beautiful ritual that answers all the spirit's needs ; that ritual "that age cannot wither or custom stale," dear from the associations of child- hood, and divine from the experiences of life. Trinity Church, Southport 1725- IN the commonwealth of Connecticut, as late as 1818, those who worshipped after the same manner as those of the Church of England were subject to fines and imprison- ment. The town of Fairfield in those days covered a much larger area than it does at present, and until 1727 there was no settled Rector of our communion within its confines. Occasional services were held in private houses by mis- sionaries sent over at different times by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Of those who came to Fairfield were the Rev. Messrs. Muirson, Talbot, Sharpe, and Bridge. Among those who PAGE FROM PRAYER BOOK, TRINITY CHURCH, SOUTHPORT, SHOWING INSCRIPTION OF THE S. P. G. 29 were baptized during Mr. Sharpe's visit, in the year 1712, which lasted nearly a month, was an aged man said to have been the first white person born in the colony. About the year 1722 the Rev. George Pigot who had become Rector of the parish at Stratford began to hold regular services at Fairfield. After Mr. Pigot resigned the charge of the Stratford parish, services were still car- ried on in Fairfield by a devout layman, Dr. Laborie, a Frenchman, who, previous to his arrival in this country, had conformed to the Church of England. The Rev. Samuel Johnson, of famous memory, who had left the Congregational Church, and had crossed the ocean to enter Holy Orders, followed Mr. Pigot at Stratford. Shortly after his return Mr. Johnson described himself "as being alone, and surrounded by enemies." His house in Stratford had been branded, and for some- time he was obliged to send to Long Island for the actual necessities of life. While Rector at Stratford, Dr. Johnson did not fail in his ministrations at Fairfield. As a result the first Church edifice was built on Mill Plain, which was the second Church of our communion in the colony. This building, the first home of Trinity parish, was set apart for divine worship November 10, 1725, Thanksgiving Day, and was followed in a few years by a much larger edifice, which had become necessary for the increasing con- gregation. One of the features of this later edifice was a goodly- sized bell, which was a decided novelty, for up to that time all religious and other meetings were called together by means of a drum. The Rev. Mr. Caner followed Rev. Dr. Johnson as the first Rector. He settled in Fairfield in 1727, and according to Dr. Trumbull, a noted historian of that period, he was 30 the son of the Mr. Caner who built the first college and Rector's house in New Haven. By this time the parish had extended until it was fifteen miles in length and six miles in width. In 1747 the Rev. Joseph Lamson succeeded Rev. Mr. Caner as Rector of the parish, and it is due to his missionary spirit that services at Stratfield were begun which have resulted in the establishment of St. John's Church in what is now styled Bridgeport. The towns visited by the Rectors of Trinity Church in those early years were Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich, Red- ding, Ridgefield, Easton, Wilton, New Canaan, and Strat- field (now Bridgeport). About twelve years before the Revolutionary War a large number of these towns had their own churches and rectors which greatly reduced the missionary labors of the parent parish. It was at this time that it was proposed that those of the Church of England in Fairfield should devote a part of their money by will to the perpetual endowment of Trinity Church. Already several small sums had been left by devoted communicants who had departed, which were fol- lowed later by several bequests of much larger size. Rev. John Sayre became Rector upon the death of Mr. Lamson in 1773. Shortly after his appointment to the parish by the Ven- erable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel the first service of induction ever held therein took place. According to the custom of the time the Church door was closed and locked with the key outside. One of the prominent parishioners, very likely the senior warden at that time, after declaring Mr. Sayre to be the Rector duly commissioned and appointed, opened the door for the new incumbent, after which the Rector rang the church bell, and the regular service followed. The Rev. Mr. Sayre then declared himself to be Rector, and renewed his allegiance to the doctrine and teaching of the Church of England. This was an important epoch in the history of Trinity Church and of the country as well, for the Revo- lutionary War was already at hand. In conducting divine service during that trying period Mr. Sayre felt himself bound to omit the prayer for the King in the Liturgy. This begot great opposition from the majority of the people. On the eighth of July, 1779, Gen. Tryon's fleet appeared off the Fairfield coast. A large force of troops were landed, and during the night many houses and stores were burned, and by the next morning the conflagration had become general. In a letter of that time it is said that Mr. Sayre had implored Gen. Tryon to spare the town. Especially the two places of worship, the Episcopal and Congregational, but everything was destroyed, including the Church records previous to that time. After the burning of Fairfield Mr. Sayre departed for New York with his family for a much needed rest; this he shortly afterwards concluded to make final, so far as Fair- field was concerned, by resigning. He finally settled in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. Soon after the Rev. Mr. Sayre's departure, a prominent Churchman of Greenfield, Mr. Hull Sherwood, called a meeting at his residence. A resolution was passed to the effect that having heard that Mr. Philo Shelton was purposing to enter Holy Orders he be appointed "to read and to officiate" for Trinity parish. Mr. Shelton accepted the invitation and after his ordination was Rector from 1785 to 1825, a period covering forty years. The work of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the United States ended upon the Declara- tion of Independence. 32 After the great fire services were held at private houses until a more convenient time when the use of the town house was secured, and used until 1790, when a meeting was held to vote upon the site of another Church. The result of this was the erection of the third Church edifice on Mill Plain, not very far from the site of the first building, which had been dedicated as was stated above by Dr. Johnson. St. James's Church, New London 1702-1725. IT was nearly sixty years after John Winthrop on a May morning in 1646 had led his company of settlers to the banks of the Pequot river, and there founded a town which he fondly hoped would be to the new world what London was to the mother country, that the first recorded service of the Church of England was held in New London. There had been, indeed, among the early settlers a clergy- man in English orders, but he had become a non-conformist, and officiated as the first Congregational minister of the new settlement. There seem to have been very few, if any, Churchmen in New London until the eighteenth century. No effort was made by the Church at home to seek out Churchmen stranded among the Puritan colonists of New England, and it was not until the formation of the Propaga- tion Society, that there was any systematic attempt to establish missions of the Church wherever there was any probability of growth and permanence. To those brave missionaries of the Cross, those pioneers in the good work of the Catholic Church of Christ in the American colonies, the Rev. George Keith and the Rev. John Talbot, belong the honor of being the first clergymen of the REV. GEORGE KEITH. First Missionary of the S. P. G. to preach in Conn. He preached in the Congregational Church in New London, Sept. 13, 1702. 33 Church to visit New London. They had undertaken for the Propagation Society a tour of investigation from New Hampshire to North Carolina. They were men of earnest zeal, great energy and persuasive eloquence. They were able to search out the land and from their reports missions were established and missionaries sent by the Venerable Society. To them the American Church owes a debt of real gratitude, although their work was not always perma- nent; certainly in Connecticut no result of their ministra- tions was apparent. After a delightful visit to the Churchmen of Newport, they had crossed Narragansett Bay, that is still the glory of Rhode Island; they had passed through the "prodigious rocky country" around Stonington, and on Thursday, September loth, 1702, crossed the ferry to New London. Here they were received with kindness and courtesy by all, and especially those in authority. Their own words can best give the record of that historic service on the following Sunday : "September I3th, Sunday, Mr. Talbot preached there in the forenoon, and I preached there in the afternoon, we being desired to do so by the minister, Mr. Gurdon Salton- stall, who civilly entertained us at his house, and expressed his good affections to the Church of England. My text was Rom. viii : 9. The auditory was large and well affected. Colonel Winthrop, Governor of the colony, after forenoon services, invited us to dinner at his house, and kindly entertained us, both then and the next day."* Dr. Hallam in his valuable "Annals" says of this ser- vice : "Thus it appears that the text of one of the first two Episcopal sermons ever preached in New London, probably in Connecticut, was this: 'But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. * Quoted on p. 10 of Hallam's "Annals of St. James's, New London," from Keith's "Journal." 3 34 Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His'; a not unpleasing preface to that protracted course of Christian teaching which has succeeded it, with a faithful maintenance of the same precious doctrine." We have another glimpse of Mr. Talbot in the history of the Church in New London, for on October 24th, 1724, he baptized "Lauzerne, son of Richard and Elizabeth Wilson." Had he not found his life-work elsewhere, he might have been able to do for Connecticut what he did for New Jersey. His long rectorship of St. Mary's, Burlington, his pleading for the Episcopate, his visiting and strengthening all the parishes of the Church in that province, his gifts to his parish, which are still doing good, his probable consecration by the non-jurors as a Bishop in the Church of God, make him one of the most attractive as he certainly was one of the most fearless of the Colonial clergy. In 1723 Mr. Pigot, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, baptized in New London a little child, and the following year two more little ones were received into Christ's flock. Like the delicate, pure snow- drop that heralds the spring and the time of growth, these young lives gave token of a movement and awakening in things spiritual in a field which had hitherto lain fallow, but which was now to bear abundantly. Dr. Johnson in 1724 writes to the Society that he has preached in New London to sixty hearers, with promise of increase if they had a minister. Dr. James MacSparran, missionary of the Society in Narragansett, extended his ministrations to the incipient parish in New London, and visited it from time to time, giving encouragement and advice. The early members of the growing parish were many of them Englishmen, who had come hither from England to engage in maritime and commercial business, and who were interested in establishing the mother Church in their new home. September 27, 1725, was the birthday of the parish, the day that it took practical form in a written agreement signed 35 by seven men. Negotiations were at once begun for build- ing a church. A lot on the lower part of State street, called the Parade, was presented by a friend, and a church edifice was erected thereon of stout oak timber, 32 by 50 feet, with a bell. The original number of pews was twenty-two, and new pews were added as the congregation increased. Samuel Seabury of Groton, a descendant of John Alden, and a Harvard graduate, ordained in England by the Bishop of London, was commissioned in 1732, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to exercise his priestly office at New London on a salary of sixty pounds, with an arrear- age "from the feast day of St. John the Baptist, which was in the year of our Lord 1730." His ministry was wise and faithful, and there was a gradual and steady increase of strength in the membership. He remained in New London about eleven years, and was then transferred by the Society to Hempstead, Long Island, where he died in 1764. The parish was first designated as St. James's parish in 1741, having previously on the records been called the Episcopal Church of New London. Four years elapsed after the departure of Mr. Seabury before the parish had again a settled minister. Occasional services were held in the meantime by Dr. MacSparran and others. The wardens sent earnest appeals to the Society already mentioned, that they might not be left as "sheep without a shepherd," and by the desire of the Society a lot was secured, the gift of one Samuel Edgecomb, and a parsonage built. In 1747, the Rev. Matthew Graves was sent from England by the Society, and he ministered to St. James's parish for about thirty years. He was a man of zeal and devotion, genial by nature, but at times somewhat hasty, and when the whole country was stirred by the War of the Revolution, the problems he had to face were greater than his wisdom in dealing with them. He did not recog- -36- nize the momentous hour of the birth of a republic, but thinking only of himself as an Englishman, and perhaps also of the indebtedness of the parish to English aid, he faltered in patriotism, and incensed his parishioners by his obstinate disregard of their dearest convictions. In a final painful scene he was driven by them from the parish, never again to return. He was ultimately sent, under a flag of truce, to New York, where he died in 1780. Such a crisis, so far-reaching in its relations, could not be passed over in a month, or in a year. But as time went by, and the independence of the United States became more and more a fixed fact, the parishioners of St. James, long- ing to renew the Church services, sought for a leader who should be both a pastor and patriot. And such a one they might have found, had peace been restored, but fire and sword were still laying waste the land; and by the treachery of Arnold and the burning of New London, September 6th, 1781, St. James's Church was reduced to a smouldering heap in the general conflagration. The parsonage, situated at a distance, and not in the track of the troops, escaped. The church had never been formally consecrated, for as yet there had been no Bishop on this side of the Atlantic. But when, a few years later, a new "St. James's Church" was built, on a new site near the parsonage, it was conse- crated by Bishop Seabury, who had already become a resi- dent of the town, and had begun to hold services in the court house. He was the second son of the first settled clergyman, Rev. Samuel Seabury. He had gone to Eng- land for ordination, and had returned to America as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. After the Revolution, received Episcopal consecration in Scotland and came home to America as Bishop of Connec- ticut. The foundation stone of the new church, on Main street, was laid July 4, 1785, and the church was conse- H g 9 S 37 crated by Bishop Seabury, September 20, 1787. In 1790 his Diocese was enlarged to include Rhode Island, but New London remained his home, and his parochial labors here continued until his death in 1796. He was buried in the old churchyard at New London. His remains now lie under the chancel of the present "St. James," and on a brass plate above the tomb is a Latin inscription which, translated, is as follows: "Under the pavement of the altar, as in the final place of rest until the judgment of the great day, now repose the mortal remains of the Right Reverend Prelate, Samuel Sea- bury, D.D. Oxon., who first brought from Scotland, into the Anglo-American Republic of the new World, the Apos- tolic succession, November 27, 1784. His diocese, never forgetful of the labors and trials of so dear a person, in the new Church of St. James the greater, of New London, for- merly his see, now at last, after so long a time, have taken care to place this monument to his honor, in the year of our salvation, 1849." He was succeeded in 1796 by his son, the Rev. Charles Seabury, who discharged the duties of the parish until May 26, 1814, when he resigned his charge and removed to Setauket, Long Island. The Church services were now for a period conducted by a lay reader until, in 1815, the Rev. Solomon Blakeslee became Rector, and so remained for three years. During his ministry, an organ was for the first time placed in the church. The music before this time had been simply vocal. The people sat during the singing and rose only at the "Gloria Patri." Two important anniversaries have been observed. One, in 1896, was the centenary of the death of Bishop Seabury, in thanksgiving for the work he did, both in his parish and in the Diocese. There was, on this anniversary, a Diocesan celebration, Bishop Williams being celebrant. Bishop Coleman of Delaware preached in the morning, and - 3 8- Rev. Dr. Seabury of New York, a great grandson of Bishop Seabury, in the evening. More than forty of the clergy were present, and the choir was assisted by the choir of Christ Church, Westerly, in recognition of the fact that Bishop Seabury was Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island, his Diocese including both states. In 1900, on St. Barnabas's Day, the fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of St. James's Church was observed. A number of the clergy were present. There was an early celebration, Rev. Dr. Binney, assisted by Rev. Mr. Punnett, a former assistant, being celebrant. There was later a full choral celebration, Rev. Dr. Grint being celebrant. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Grosvenor. Thus, St. James's parish looks back over great periods of time fifty years to the consecration of its present church building, one hundred years to the death of its third Rector, Bishop Seabury, one hundred and seventy-eight years to that first baptism of a little child by Mr. Pigot, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and one hundred and ninety-nine years to the preaching of the first missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Connecticut. 39 Trinity Parish, Newtown 1732. NEWTOWN Parish was founded in 1732, the Rev. John Beach being its first Rector. He had labored here for eight years as Congregational minister; until, compelled by his convictions to give up his position, he became a communicant of the Church at Stratford and was soon admitted to Holy Orders in England, 1732. He was appointed missionary at Newtown and Redding by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and began his work alone in northwestern Connecticut in the face of bitter opposition and with a small flock of five families. Having no church building, the services were held in his own house. In those days Churchmen came from New Milford and other remote places to worship at Newtown, sometimes coming on Saturday with their needful supplies, while their brethren gave them house room. Down to the end of 1734 there were in Connecticut four missionaries and five houses of worship one of these at Newtown. The first church building was 28 by 24 feet. It was raised on Saturday, the roof boards put on the same evening, and the next day the faithful few assembled for divine service, sitting on the timbers and kneeling on the ground. The second church building, finished in 1746, was double the capacity of the first. Mr. Beach divided his time between Redding and Newtown, reporting to the Venerable Society at one time an attendance of over three hundred at Redding and over six hundred at Newtown. At the beginning of the Revolution the communicants numbered three hundred. These were trying times for Churchmen,' yet the Church was winning its way in spite 40 of much opposition, sufferings and dangers. Warnings were repeatedly given to cease praying for the King; but the Rector at Newtown, alone of all the clergy in the colony, continued his services without interruption through the entire Revolutionary period. It is related on one occasion that soldiers entered the church and threatened to shoot the Rev. John Beach if he read the prayer for the King and the royal family. Mr. Beach, however, went on as usual with no change, while the soldiers, struck with such quiet cour- age, stacked their muskets and remained through the ser- vice. Mr. Beach died in 1782 and his successor was the Rev. Philo Perry. During his rectorship the third church was erected. It was formally named "Trinity Church," and was consecrated by Bishop Seabury. This Church stood for seventy-seven years, until replaced by the present beauti- ful stone edifice. Mr. Perry was Rector for twelve years. On August 5, 1799, the Rev. Daniel Burhans, D.D., was chosen Rector, remaining with the parish more than thirty years, when the infirmities of age obliged him to resign. Thus a period of one century was covered by these first three rectorships, marking three different periods in the his- tory of the Church in this country. The first takes us down to the Revolution, through the times when Holy Orders could be obtained only by incurring the dangers of three thousand miles of ocean travel, when the baptized went unconfirmed for want of a bishop. The influence of Trinity Church, Newtown, upon the Church in other places cannot be measured. While in recent years, it has lost many in numbers it looks back with pride upon its noble history, and less than fifty years ago a Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, declined a call to New- town because it was a "larger and more arduous work than he was then engaged in !" TWlffil - : >:nBH > s H 3 U ^ -g 41- St. James's Parish, Poquetanuck 1734- IT is much to be regretted that the early history of this parish is so very meager, owing to the fact that the parish register and other records were cast away with his furniture, after the decease of the Rev. Mr. Punderson. Especially is this to be regretted at this jubilee anniversary, when, on account of its antiquity this venerable parish might stand in the front, with an interesting report of its early missionary work. It is very difficult almost impossible in this age of broad and liberal thought, to realize the position of the followers of the Church of England in the colonies. The Puritans came here for "freedom to worship God," as the poet hath it, but it was freedom for themselves, not for those who differed from them. Presbyterianism was, in fact, the State religion, and all the people were compelled to pay taxes for its maintenance. And no other ministry or Church could be entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any town or plantation, under penalty of a fine of five pounds for every offense. This was previous to 1727, when a "Relief" law was passed by the General Assembly, exempting the members of the Church of England from such a fine, provided there was a regularly ordained minister established and perform- ing the duties of his office. But little difficulty, however, was found in evading this exemption where public opinion was against the Church. One of our former rectors (Rev. Mr. Welton) compiled a fragmentary history of the parish from Church documents and letters, costing him much time and labor, and which form the basis of this sketch. Mr. Punderson's letters to the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel tell of his trials and perplexities bravely 42 met and endured. One to the Bishop of London describes the strange excitement and actions of the people who came under the influence of the "vagrant preacher," Daven- port of Long Island, and the anxiety of some of them for his conversion, as "he was leading his people down to hell," as they expressed it. After this period of wild fanaticism had passed away, and people came to their senses, it resulted in many of them conforming to the spiritual and sober ways of the Church. In a long letter to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel he relates one of his missionary journeys in Connecticut, and sums up by saying that, "in the space of nine days I travelled near two hundred miles (a long and tedious journey at that time), baptised twelve children, preached nine sermons (probably of the goodly length of old times), and had near one thousand persons attend divine service in the several places." This is only one of many similar journeys. It may not be amiss to mention here, that, during the absence of Mr. Punderson to obtain ordination in England, the Rev. Mr. Seabury, afterwards our first Bishop, had the care of Mr. Punderson's new converts: no parish having been organized at that time. How interesting it would be if we could have some knowl- edge of the personal appearance of our first missionary, but no likeness of him has descended to us. Probably he had the staid and solemn appearance of the ministers of that time; possibly he w r as awkward in his ways, and too frank in his manner of speech, for although a brother minister speaks of him as "an honest and laborious man," he laments his "want of politeness," which detracted from his work in New Haven. It matters not if his manners were not those of a Ches- terfield; like St. Paul, he endured hardships as a soldier of Christ, and has entered into his reward. The following sketch of his life was written by the Rev. Mr. Welton, one of his successors at Poquetanuck. 43 New England ecclesiastical writers have sometimes com- plained that missionaries of the Church of England "in- vaded," when these colonies were under charter govern- ments, the home which the Puritans had made for them- selves as the asylum of religious freedom. Yet this charge of "invasion" of privilege is a tacit confession that what they call religious liberty was real religious tyranny to all others than those of the dominant sect: for if all were to have liberty of the same kind and degree, there could be no invasion of privilege, or trespassing upon others' rights. Civil war is never called invasion in any true sense. A late apologist for the New England Puritans, says: "This is a point concerning which there has been a great deal of popu- lar misapprehension and there has been a great deal of non- sense talked about it. It has been customary first to assume that the Puritan migration was undertaken in the interest of religious liberty, and then to upbraid the Puritans for forgetting all about religious liberty as soon as people came among them who disagreed with their opinions. But this view is not supported by history. It is quite true that the Puritans were, to a certain extent, chargeable with intole- rance : but it is not true that in this they were guilty of any inconsistency. The notion that they came to New England for the purpose of establishing religious liberty, in any sense in which we should understand such a phrase, is entirely incorrect. It is neither more nor less than a bit of popular legend: If we mean by the phrase religious liberty, a state of things in which opposite or contradictory opinions on questions of religion shall exist side by side in the same community, and in which everybody shall decide for himself how far he will conform to the customary religious obser- vances, nothing could have been further from their thoughts. There is nothing they would have regarded with more genuine abhorrence. If they could have been warned by a prophetic voice of the general freedom or, as they would have termed it, license of thought and behavior which pre- 44 vails in this country to-day, it is not unlikely that they would have abandoned their enterprise in despair, and would have remained in England. ... In such a scheme of theo- retical government as theirs, there was no room for religious liberty." Harper's Monthly, December, 1882, p. 116. But if it could be conceded as it certainly cannot that the country belonged exclusively to them, and that therefore no Churchman, Quaker, or Anabaptist, had a right to settle here ; the coming of the missionaries of the English Church was only the administration of the ordinances of Christ, by natives of the country, most of whom had been ministers of the established order, or candidates for that ministry, educated in Puritan colleges, and if it were right, for con- science's sake to separate from the Church of England, who will say it was wrong to return to that Church for con- science's sake? It is a matter of interest in the history of the mission at North Groton, that the first two dissenting ministers who, in eastern Connecticut conformed to the Church, viz: Samuel Seabury, Sen., and Ebenezer Punderson, had both preached as Congregationalists in that parish ; the former as a temporary supply, the latter as the first settled pastor. Mr. Punderson began his work as missionary of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" a voluntary society dispensing only voluntary contributions in the latter part of the year 1734. It is but fair to state that those who went from America for ordination, had been led to believe through the reading of the scriptures, and ancient authors, that "from the Apostles' days there had been" and therefore there ought always to be, "these three orders of ministers in Christ's Church," commonly called "bishops, priests, and deacons" ; and that themselves had no right to administer the sacraments of Christ without having been Episcopally ordained. , Mr. Punderson was a native of New Haven, and a grad- uate of Yale College in the class of 1726. He was (Pres- 45 byterially) ordained at North Groton, at the age of twenty- one. On the first of January previous to his dismission, (after less than five years' service) he made a communica- tion to the Society, avowing himself a conformist to the Episcopal Church of England. This communication was received, it is said, with amazement and sorrow ; and a com- mittee chosen, "consisting of Robert Geer, Christopher Avery, and Benjamin Gallup, to reason with him, and see if he might not be persuaded that his ordination was good and that he might return to his people again." They also sent a petition to the General Assembly in May [1734], asking them "to do something for their relief" though what they could have done is beyond the comprehension of this genera- tion. In this petition "they mention their happiness under Mr. Punderson for about two years and a half; when it pleased God in his providence to leave him to believe and hold some things which they thought erroneous; and not- withstanding many private conferences, associations and counsels of Rev'd ministers in the neighborhood, 'together with fasting and prayer for his recovery/ Mr. Punderson still persisted in his views, and ten or twelve of the people of the parish and heads of families had signed his papers and contributed money to bear his expenses to England." It seems to have been a surprise to his old parishioners gen- erally, that, he, an educated and trained theologian, who had examined carefully the question of ministerial authority, was not convinced by a committee of layman who had not. One of the committee of three, Robert Geer, followed his pastor into the English Church. The Rev. Mr. Seabury, who was then stationed at New London, officiated statedly in North Groton, for Mr. Pun- derson's new converts, while he was absent in England. He returned in orders in the autumn of the same year [1734] , and immediately entered upon his mission. It is said that a church was built there "soon after"; but there is no cer- tain date of its building. We only know from his report dated June, 1739, that a church had been built, for it was used on the preceding Christmas day [1738] when, he says, he had a congregation of four hundred persons, but does not state what proportion of them were his stated hearers. It is not probable that his people waited four years for a house of worship. The building stood on what is still called "Church Hill," a mile and a half northeast of the meeting house at the centre, and some three miles from the head of Poquetanuck cove, where it was re-erected in 1785, on "Shingle Point." Mr. Punderson's house stood at the foot of "Church Hill," nearly opposite the present "Bill Parsonage," where the cellar walls, and some fragments of the building are still to be seen. This was the first Church parsonage in eastern Connecticut. In it Bishop Seabury was born, November 30, 1729. Among the State papers at Hartford, there is a nearly full list of all the male members of the Church of England in Connecticut, over sixteen years of age, six hundred and thirty-six in all, one hundred and four of whom were under Mr. Punderson's pastoral care in North Groton and Nor- wich. There are five each of the names of Williams and Rode [Rood?], three each of the names of Ames, Geer, Hide, Minor, Park, Rose, Pelton, Spicer, Starkweather, Stoddard, and Waterman; two each of Capron, Crouch, Forsec [Forsyth?], Killam, Lee, Turner, Wilkinson, and Willoughby. The single names are: Allyn, Ashcraft, Bar- ker, Bassett, Barnard, Bennett, Bordish, Button, Cleveland, Cramer, Davis, Dean, Dickinson, Dood, Downing, Doyle, Fanning, Fountain, Frink, Gray, Grist, Hancock, Holdridge, Holly, Houghton, Hutchinson, Larkin, Lancaster, Leeds, Malason, McCloughton, Meach, Norton, Nuton [Newton], Parish, Randal, Ranger, Raynolds, Rouse, Samson, Thiton, Utley, Welsh, Wickwire, and Weeks. These names are signed to a petition to the General Assembly, asking for the Church of England and her 47 schools, their rightful proportion of certain public moneys accruing from the sale of three townships in the western part of the colony ; and which, it had been proposed, should be appropriated for the benefit of the Congregational [or Presbyterian] Churches and schools. The petition was not granted : but the vigorous protest of the Connecticut Churchmen resulted in the setting apart of the whole sum as a fund for common schools. Mr. Punderson, in the first of his reports that have been published in this country, dated June 18, 1739, says that there has been a great increase in the number of his par- ishioners, and a corresponding change in the temper of dissenting brethren; many of whom, he says, from being haters and revilers of the Church and her clergy, have been brought to occasionally attend her services. On the pre- ceding Christmas, and on a Lord's Day afterwards "more than four hundred persons of sober and devout behavior, were present in Church, many of whom had been bitter enemies." No description of the first church edifice can be found. It was probably nearly square, perhaps forty by sixty feet with galleries, and without a steeple. Probably also it had arched windows, as it certainly had after it was removed to Poquetanuck. In 1741, the missionary says his labors were greatly in- creased in consequence of the surprising disturbing results of the preaching of Whitefield and his followers ; the par- ish of North Groton [or that part of the town of Groton now Ledyard] being for the time, the centre of the excite- ment. Soon after Whitefield's visit, says Mr. Punderson, a number of wandering [itinerant] preachers the chief of whom was one Davenport, of Long Island went about the country, boisterous in manner, uncharitably denouncing the Church and her clergy. Those who were "struck" were first seized with horror and distress. There were screamings, faintings, convulsions,, visions apparent death for twenty or thirty hours ; and, as some afterwards confessed, actual 48 possession by evil spirits. The spirit of all was remarkably bitter against the Church of England. The New-Light preacher and his followers declared that Mr. Punderson and all those under his pastoral care, were unconverted, and going straight down to hell. There were from twenty to thirty of these preachers or exhorters within ten miles of his residence. Incredible pains, he says were taken to seduce the members of his congregations, but with little success. Some were lost, but more were added. His labors for a while became so incessant, in consequence of the popular frenzy, that he was scarcely allowed a whole day with his family. Mr. Punderson seems not to have doubted that some persons were actually "possessed"; and, in another letter he says that one such, while thus possessed, actually burned about 1,200, probably in paper currency. On one occasion he says, "the dissenting teacher, Mr. Croswell, came, with a number of attendants, singing to my house pronounced me unconverted yet confessed that he did not know me guilty of any crime. I assured him, that in my opinion, it was a greater crime for him thus to murder my soul, usefulness, and reputation, than for me to attempt his natural life." The Rev. Mr. Tuttle in his "History of the Ledyard Church and Society," says, "Mr. Croswell was a man of ardent temperament, coinciding readily with the 'New Light' movement, in sentiment and action ; upholding and defend- ing by his writings, the enthusiastic wanderings of Daven- port." In 1750, Mr. Punderson's labors as an itinerant were greatly extended. The members of the Church of England in Middletown, North Guilford [then called Cohabit], Guilford, Wallingford, and other places, submitted them- selves to his pastoral care; and whatever ministerial taxes they had been assessed to pay, he ordered to be applied towards the building of churches and maintaining lay- 49 readers, . . . without appropriating any part thereof to himself. In October of the same year, he sent a letter to the Secretary of the Society, which contains the following summary of his ministrations on one of these journeys, which may be presumed also to represent many others : "The 5th of September, rode to Middletown [forty miles] and preached there next day : the day following at East Haddam, on Sunday at Middletown (whose church was unfinished), in the town-house, it being quite full, and administered the two sacraments ; . . . the next day in a small church in Wallingford: the day following gave private baptism to a poor weak child, as I went to my native place, New Haven ; the Sunday after the Commencement, preached in the State House in that town, to a numerous assembly. . . . The day following, at Branford; upon Tuesday, in the church at Guilford to abundance; the next day at Cohabit; upon Friday at Millington (a part of East Haddam), added there two more to our communion: the next day, christened three children. I travelled in this journey about one hun- dred and sixty miles, preached eleven sermons, christened seventeen children. The Sunday before last, was at Charles- town (in Rhode Island), and the last, at Norwich. The Church greatly increases at both these places." (Beardsley, I, 166-7.) His stipend from the S. P. G. in England, as Missionary at North Groton and Norwich, was seventy pounds sterling. Ten more were added on account of his labors as an itinerant in all about three hundred and forty dollars. What he received from the people is not stated. The cur- rency of ..he colony being in paper, varied considerably in relative value at different periods. In 1761, 40 of it was equal to 30 sterling. Once, in 1746, Mr. Punderson went as far as Litchfield, to preach. In September, 1747, he says, "they are build- ing a church in Norwalk, the largest and most flourishing 4 town in this Colony. There are about thirty families of conformists. This town has always had the character of the most rigid Congregationalists in the government. 'Tis really surprising how much their dispositions are softened toward the Church ; and indeed 'tis so almost everywhere." (B. I, 232.} In 1750, after sixteen years of missionary work, he first speaks of the oppression of his people, who were compelled to pay taxes for the maintenance of the Congregational or Presbyterian ministers, and for the building of meeting- houses. The original law, which established the Presby- terian order, enacted that in opposition to this order, there should be "no ministry or church administration enter- tained or attended by the inhabitants of any town or planta- tion, upon penalty of the forfeiture of five pounds for every breach of this act." (Branson's Hist. Waterbury, p. 315.} In 1727, in response to the earnest petition of Church- men, backed by the danger of losing their charter, the Gen- eral Assembly enacted the following relief law : "All persons who are of the Church of England and those who are of the Churches established by ye laws of the this government, yt live in the bounds of any parish allowed by this Assembly, shall be taxed by ye parishioners of ye said parish, by ye same rule and in ye same proportion, for ye support of ye ministry in such parish : but if it so happens that there be a Society of the Church of England, where there is a person in orders according to ye Canons of ye Church of England, settled and abiding among them, and performing divine service so near to any person yt had declared himself of the Church of England, that he can and doth attend ye public worship there, then the collectors, hav- ing first indifferently levied the tax, as aforesaid, shall deliver ye taxes collected of such persons; which minister shall have full power to receive and recover ye same, in order to his support in the place assigned to him, . . . and the parishioners of ye Church of England, attending as aforesaid, are hereby excused from paying any taxes for ye building meeting-houses for ye present established Churchs of this government." (Ch. Documents, Ct., I, 282-3.} This law seems sufficiently plain ; but in practice, after the fear of losing their charter had measurably passed away, the acting magistrates found little difficulty in evading it where public opinion was to sustain them. Mr. Punderson undertook to have it enforced in favor of some of his parishioners, by suing the collectors for his rates; but was "cast" and compelled to pay costs. He gave as a reason for undertaking these suits, that he looked upon his parishioners as his children ; and that, if it be the duty of the true pastor to give his life for his flock, it must be his duty to give his money freely for their defense. At some of his stations, his rates were paid, as he had ordered, to his lay-readers and others, but in some other places, he says, "they have been in the most vile manner distressing and imprisoning the members of the Church of England: while the Quakers and Baptists fare better, being univer- sally exempted from paying taxes to their establishment." After the removal of Mr. Seabury from New London, which station was for some years thereafter vacant, Mr. Punderson was the only missionary in the county, having charge also of Charlestown in Rhode Island. It cannot be precisely determined when he removed to New Haven; but, in a letter written not long before his death, he alludes to the fact that he had been in the Society's service upwards of nine years at New Haven, Guilford, and Branford; which would bring him to his charge in that vicinity before the close of 1752. The proceedings of the Society in 1753 contain the following record: "The Rev. Mr. Punderson, the Society's itinerant missionary in Con- necticut, having petitioned the Society to be settled mission- 52 ary, with only part of his present salary (which was seventy pounds sterling), to the members of the Church in New Haven, the place of his nativity (where a new church is built, to which Mr. Punderson gave the greatest part of the timber) and to those of Guilford and Branford, the Society have granted his request." (B. I, 172.) It is quite possible he was made to feel, at New Haven, the truth of our Lord's saying that "a prophet is without honor in his own country;" for his congregation increased but slowly, while at other points there was encouraging growth. Dr. Johnson of Stratford, writing to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury in 1760, says, 'Mr. Punderson seems a very honest and laborious man ; yet the Church at New Haven appears uneasy under his ministry, occasioned, I believe, partly by his want of politeness, and partly by his being absent so much, having five or six places under his care. I wish he was again at Groton, and some politer person in his place." (B. I, 198.} So his friendly critic himself confesses that he was sufficiently "polite" for Groton. He was transferred to Rye, New York, where, notwithstanding his "want of politeness," his ministry was "eminently successful." There he died in 1771, aged sixty- three. After his death, his widow returned, to spend the remainder of her days amid the scenes of his earliest min- istry. A table-monument erected to her memory stands in the yard of Christ Church, Norwich. The grave of her son Ebenezer is in Poquetanuck cemetery. But of the devoted and laborious missionary, who, in troublous times, laid the foundation of this spiritual edifice and labored upon it almost a score of years, there is in the parish, neither sepulchral monument, window, or mural-tablet. To him it matters not, for his record is on high ; but might it not be good for us of the present generation, if we cannot build a Memorial Church, at least to remember him in a chancel window? A new church was built in 1896, in this old parish, but its first missionary was not thought of. 53 Christ Church, Redding 1734- r I ^ HE present town of Redding is one of the few places JL in the old colony of Connecticut where the Episcopal ministry is entitled to the distinction of having been first on the ground, laying foundations and not building upon those already laid. In 1723 Rev. Samuel Johnson of Stratford took charge of all the missionary work of Connecticut and in 1727 sent the Rev. Henry Caner to Redding, who became (1733) the first minister of the parish. After a pastorate of five years he was succeeded by Rev. John Beach, who served as a faithful missionary for a full half century, his pastorate being the longest of all the ante-Revolutionary clergy. Through his instrumentality the first church on Redding ridge was built in 1734, the year following his taking charge of the parish. The structure was quite small and in 1750 was replaced by a larger one, surmounted by a turret which in 1777 was replaced by a steeple in which was placed the first bell. In 1873 this steeple was repaired and a handsome gilded cross substituted the old weather cock imported from Eng- land, whose legs had been shot off by one of Tryon's soldiers in 1777. This venerable bird is one of the care- fully preserved relics of the parish. On the interior the church, according to the style of the period, was furnished with square high backed pews, with seats on their four sides, obliging some of the occupants to sit with their backs to the minister. It was in this year that the bullet (still preserved) was fired by "rebel" soldiers, at the Rev. John Beach while he was preaching, lodging in the sounding board just over his head. The venerable preacher's composure is shown by 54 the way he addressed his congregation as they were about to rush from the church in consternation. "Don't be alarmed, brethren," he said. "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." During the next eighty-three years nothing of great importance happened. St. Peter's Church, Hebron 1735- TO understand the local situation at the time this parish of the Church of England was formed, it is necessary to go back still earlier in the history of the town, and if I mistake not, we shall find reasons leading to this almost revolutionary action of our ancestors, which date years before its actual occurrence. The town was first settled in 1704, and as usual in New England communities, among the first things was making provision for a church and school. The progress of the settlement of the town was remarkably slow, owing to diffi- culties arising from rival claimants to the land and the conse- quent difficulty in getting titles that were unquestionably sound. A petition to the General Court in 1708 recites that there were but nine families in town, and another in 1712 complains that then the families were few and scattering. Nevertheless the town, in 1712, appointed a committee to procure a regular minister, and occasional preaching had been enjoyed earlier than this, though the General Court did not authorize them "to gather a church and ordain an orthodox minister amongst them" till October, 1716. But when the location of the meeting-house for the town came 55 up for decision, then arose the beginning of the factional war which continued for thirty years or more and resulted in a division of the town into four religious societies of the standing order, and the organization of a parish of the Church of England whose early history is the subject of this sketch. The Rev. John Bliss, Yale 1710, was ordained minister of the town of Hebron, November igth, 1717, and evidently sympathized with those who wished the location of the town's meeting-house changed, known as the "Northern Party." Says an early historian, despairing of being able to reconcile the differences, he resigned his charge and was dismissed by council in 1734. He had been accused by his enemies of sundry immoralities, chiefly intemperance, but was acquitted of the charges by the Hartford County South Con- sociation which met in Hebron, November i6th, 1731. How far this cause contributed towards his final dismissal it is impossible at this date to determine. His friends, chiefly of the Northern Party, adhered to him and met at his house for religious services, claiming that the action of the council in dismissing him was illegal and that he was consequently the only regularly ordained minister in town, in fact his successor was not ordained until December i6th, 1735. This holding of schismatic services was not to be tolerated by the town authorities, and Mr. Bliss and five of his most promi- nent supporters were presented before Hartford County court, June I7th, 1735, charged with having "carried on divine worship contrary to the statutes of this Colony." They were found not guilty, but the costs of court were taxed against them, amounting to about five pounds to each person. They appeared before the General Court, 1735, for redress, and one-half the costs were remitted. I have been somewhat lengthy, perhaps, in relating these occurrences, but it seems necessary in order to understand the causes that lead up to the organization of this ancient -56- parish of the Church of England, the sixth one in the colony according to Dr. Beardsley. There was now but one thing for Mr. Bliss and his friends to do, to put themselves under the protection of the Church of England, and tradition says they did this in 1734, but it is hardly probable that it was done until 1735, for had it been done in 1734 they would not have been prosecuted for holding schismatic meetings then. It cannot be supposed that all were influenced by the desire to have their own way, contrary to the wishes of a majority of their neighbors ; but as many of them were born in England it is very likely that such were influenced by genuine love for the Church in which they were educated. Here then, was the beginning of St. Peter's parish, how formally organized at that time we know not, but tradition says they put themselves under the care of the Rev. Samuel Seabury, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at New London. He writes home to the Society August nth, 1736, that his success was "something remark- able at Hebron," where he visited June 2Oth, of that year, and that there were twenty families who professed adher- ence to the Church of England. The church building was begun in 1735 upon land deeded to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel by Mr. Bliss himself, but it was many years before it was thor- oughly finished, in fact it was in 1766 that the missionary reported it finally completed. In 1738 a petition was preferred to the General Court in behalf of the members of the Church of England throughout tb.2 colony, and thirty-two names from Hebron are found among the signers, representing themselves as "under the pastoral care of the Reverend Mr. Samuel Seabury of New London." Mr. Bliss continued to read services as a lay reader under Seabury's supervision for several years and died on the eve of his departure for England to receive Episcopal ordination, February ist, 1741-42. 57 In 1743 Mr. Seabury reports to the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel that "the prospect at Hebron was not so good as formrly, because the followers of Mr. White- field do extremely abound there." In 1746 the care of the parish appears to be in the hands of Rev. Mr. Punderson of North Groton, who visited them twice a year and reports forty communicants, and six bap- tisms during the year, also that the parish had "purchased thirty acres of exceedingly good land for a glebe." In 1748 Rev. Mathew Graves reports having spent a fortnight at Hebron, preaching nine sermons, etc., and in 1751 he writes that "Mr. Thompson, a man of great estate, will give a glebe of twelve acres of good land and build a house for a minister." These offers of land for the support of the ministry indi- cated their strong desire for a settled clergyman, but still more significant was the fact that they sent four candidates to England to receive Holy Orders, before they succeeded. Barzillai Dean, Yale 1737, was ordained in 1745, but the ship was lost at sea on the return voyage. Jonathan Colton, ordained 1752, and died of smallpox on shipboard. James Usher, sailed for England in 1757, the ship was captured by the French and he died in captivity. A Mr. Fairweather, of Boston, went to England soon after and was ordained, but returning by way of the West Indies, died there. But the church still persisted in their efforts, though regarded as no better than madmen by their neighbors, who looked at these repeated failures as demonstrations of divine interposition to prevent the growth of prelacy in this western land. At last, hearing that their townsman, Samuel A. Peters, Yale 1757, then a tutor in a New York College, had decided to take Holy Orders, they elected him as their Rector. He sailed to England in 1758, was ordained Dea- con March nth, 1759, and advanced to the priesthood August 5th, of the same year. After a serious illness in - 5 8- England he returned and took charge of the parish in 1760. Financial aid was given them by the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel and a church library sent them, rem- nants of which remain to this day. Peters writes to England, April I3th, 1761, returning thanks from his people for the care of the Society, and for the books, and reports that the church building, 58 by 30, is repaired in part. December 27th, 1764, he writes that ninety pounds are subscribed to finish the inside of the build- ing, which now only needs plastering and is to be done in the spring. May I2th, 1766, he writes that the church is finally completed by help received from a legacy given by will of Mrs. Cursell, of Boston some years before, the existence of which had been lately discovered, and notes .that eight of his flock have been lately prosecuted and fined for working upon the fast day appointed by the civil authority during Easter week. As events occurred foreshadowing the War of the Revo- lution, we can easily imagine that the situation of this old parish became less pleasant, for Peters, their Rector, was a pronounced loyalist, and doubtless many of his flock sympathized with him. In those troublous times all our ancestors were men of stern convictions who never allowed comfort or convenience to interfere with their principles. At last, after several visits from the "Sons of Liberty," who threatened vengeance on him for his loyalty, Rev. Mr. Peters left the colony in the early fall of 1774 and fled to England, leaving the church without a rector. The history of their struggle for existence during the War of the Revolution is a sealed book, no records remain, tradi- tion even is silent, but that they did exist is only known by their existence to-day the old parish of St. Peter's, Hebron, a sketch of whose colonial history I have the honor to present. REV. HENRY CANER, D.D. Ordained 1727. 59 St. Paul's, Norwalk '757- ST. PAUL'S parish, Norwalk, has an existence which dates back to 1737. The first steps to form a parish here were taken by Rev. Henry Caner, a Yale graduate of 1724, who held occasional services in private houses, but it was not until several years later that the parish was regularly organized and a church built. In 1737 services were regularly held under the direction of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- eign Parts, which sent over from England books for "ye use of ye Missionary in Norwalk" that are still preserved. For over forty years the sturdy little parish steadily grew and prospered, but, like all else in these old New England states, it then fell under the shadow of the mighty struggle for liberty. Then it came to pass, that on a fatal day in the year 1779, the British General Tryon sat in his chair on Grummon's hill and complacently watched his troops burn Norwalk, watched the flames as they greedily lapped up dwelling after dwelling, until finally they reached that sanctuary which had so often echoed with the voice of loyal worshippers, and laid it in ashes. The Rev. Dr. Learning, who was then the missionary in charge, suffered grievously at the hands of both English and Americans, and, beside being left destitute and homeless, he was lamed for life and driven to flee to New York. In 1780 the people, although "impoverished and scattered by this disaster, and the removal of their pastor, with a rare but characteristic devotion to the cause of religion, while their own dwellings may be said to have been smoking in ruins, constructed a temporary place of worship, and in 1785, rebuilt upon the former foundation." This church was the first one consecrated by Bishop Seabury, and there- fore the first one consecrated not only in our Diocese but in all the United States. Dr. Smith, one of Dr. Learning's successors, wrote the Institution Office, the only one in the Book of Common Prayer that can be denominated an office of the American Church. One of the most illustrious of the Rectors of this historical old parish was the distinguished Jackson Kemper, D.D., the first missionary Bishop of America, and who resigned his charge in Norwalk to become the pioneer of church work in the northwest (1835). He now sleeps beneath a granite shaft in the shadow of the old church he loved so well. From what was originally St. Paul's parish there have been set off five distinct parishes: St. Matthew's, Wilton; St. Mark's, New Canaan ; Church of the Holy Trinity and Christ Church, Westport ; and Trinity Church, South Nor- walk. In 1840 the corner-stone of the present building was laid on the ancient site, and, to-day, the venerable church still stands in the midst of the graves of its beloved departed, hallowed by the memory of many noble souls and self- sacrificing deeds which are not forgotten on earth and are surely remembered in Heaven. REV. RICHARD MANSFIELD, D.D. Rector of St. James's Parish, Derby, Conn. 1748-1820. 61- St. James's Parish, Derby 1737- TO the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts the Episcopal Church in Derby owes its origin. The parish was established in 1737, under the leadership of the Rev. Jonathan Arnold, who began the erec- tion of a church, but before its completion left Derby to take charge of another parish. He was succeeded by the Rev. Theophilus Morris, who, after a period of service of less than two years, tired of his charge and returned to England. Then the Rev. James Lyons came from England to take charge of the parish, but after a short time he was transferred to another. The Rev. Dr. Richard Mansfield was the next clergyman in Derby, and the parish was then called Christ's Church, it being the custom to so call all churches at that time, that had not been consecrated by any other name. Dr. Mansfield was born in New Haven, 1724. His parents were Congregationalists, and he, therefore, was educated in the faith of his parents. He graduated from Yale College in 1741, but remained there two years after his graduation. It was during these two years that he became an Episcopalian. Dr. Mansfield was the Dean's Scholar at Yale, and this uni- versity conferred on him the honorary title of D.D., he being the first Episcopal clergyman to receive this title from Yale University. In 1748 Dr. Mansfield went to England and was ordained on August 7th of that year, in London. His first charge was Derby, with which several other towns were connected. His life was not an easy one, in fact so many dangers beset a clergyman in those days that when he went to England to receive Holy Orders, his sister prayed that he might be lost at sea. 62 Dr. Mansfield had as his assistants the Rev. Edward Blakeslee and the Rev. Calvin White, the latter of whom was one of the first converts to the Roman Catholic Church when it was established in Derby. Dr. Mansfield had charge of this parish for seventy-two consecutive years, from 1748 to 1820. He died in Derby, April 12, 1820, aged ninety-six years. There is a tablet in St. James's Church to his memory, bearing this inscription : To the glory of God and in memory of Richard Mansfield, D.D., Born in New Haven, 1724, Graduated at Yale College in 1741. Ordained Priest by the Archbishop of Canterbury Aug. 7th, 1748. Placed in charge of this Parish by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1748. Continued Rector of the Parish for 72 years, and until his death, which occurred in Derby, April 12, 1820. Age 96 years. Since Dr. Mansfield there have been fourteen Rectors, the present Rector being the fourteenth in succession. The first church edifice in Derby was commenced in 1738, and complete in 1746, taking nine years to build. On September 21, 1746, a Convocation of the Clergy of Connecticut was held, at which time Bishop Seabury admitted four candidates to the Diaconate, and also delivered his second and last charge to the Clergy of Connecticut, and set forth his Communion Office, which is substantially the office which we now have in our Book of Common Prayer. On June 7th, 1797, the annual convention of the Clergy of Connecticut was held, at which time the Rev. Abraham Jarvis was elected Bishop. -6 3 - The second church edifice was consecrated as St. James's Church by Bishop Jarvis, November 20, 1799. At this time a Convocation of the Clergy was held, at which the Office of Institution was set forth, and it was presently used for the first time in this church. The present church edifice was consecrated on April u, 1843, as St. James's Church, by the Rt. Rev. T. C. Brownell. At Derby (now in Ansonia), Conn., the house is still standing which was bought for the use of a Rector in 1747, and was the home of the Rev. Dr. Mansfield during his long life in Derby. St. Stephen's Church, Ridgefield 1739- THIS parish was founded as a mission in 1725, by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Conn., who often officiated until 1727. With the blessing of God, he was instrumental in bringing many families into the Church. His successors were two brothers, the Rev. Henry Caner of Fairfield, and the Rev. Richard Caner of Norwalk. Their ministry continued till 1735, when the Rev. John Beach of Newtown became missionary in charge. This clergyman reported to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at London, England, that he often officiated and admin- istered the sacraments in Ridgefield where, in 1735, there were twenty families of very serious and religious people, who had a just esteem of the Church of England and desired to have the opportunity of worshipping God in that way. Between 1740 and 1776 the parish was in charge of five consecutive priests, of whom the Rev. Epenetus Townsend was the last. He began his ministry -6 4 - in 1768, and in connection with the missions at Ridgebury in town of Ridgefield, and Salem, N. Y. After the Declara- tion of Independence, Mr. Townsend was appointed Chaplain to one of the loyal battalions then stationed in New York City, which in 1799 was ordered to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Soon after leaving New York a severe storm arose and the vessel in which he, his wife, and five children had embarked was foundered in Boston Bay and every soul on board per- ished. From 1725 till 1776 eight different priests of the Church of England officiated and they were sent by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Each of these clergymen received an annuity of at least twenty pounds sterling, in addition to the tax levied for his support. This tax, as received by the Rev. Joseph Lamson in 1744, was 40. us. ud. This sum seems to have been the annual ministerial rate. During the colonial period the Rev. Jeremiah Learning of Norwalk often served the church. This is the priest, who, at Stratford, Conn., in 1772, delivered a sermon in commemoration of the acquirements and Chris- tian character of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, the founder of St. Stephen's parish. The first church building was erected in 1740 upon a site which was granted by the proprietors of the town, January 4th, 1739. During the Revolutionary War it was taken by a commissary of the American Army, as a building in which to deposit the public stores. In April, 1777, it was set on fire by the British forces in their retreat from Danbury. Though not consumed, it was rendered unfit for divine service. In 1785, it was voted to erect another edifice; but so impoverished were the people generally, because of the war, that it was not completed and furnished until 1791. In 1820 the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut was petitioned to indemnify the parish for the loss it sus- tained, because of the burning of its former church by the ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PLYMOUTH. Built 1796. -65- British. This petition was based mainly on the fact that the building was destroyed because of the use to which it was put during the British occupancy of Ridgefield. The application, however, proved unsuccessful. The new church was not consecrated until 1831 and then by the name of St. Stephen's Church. The consecrator was the Rt. Rev. Dr. Brownell, Bishop of the Diocese. The third and present edifice was built on the old site and con- secrated in 1842. At the organization of the parish in 1739, the Rev. James Wetmore was minister in charge, having been appointed by the Venerable Society. St. Peter's, Plymouth 1740. THE principal recorded events of the early history of St. Peter's Church, Plymouth, are told in one of the Junior Auxiliary Round Robins, The Story of a Hill-top Parish, that being part of a sermon preached by Dr. Hart on the one hundredth anniversary of the consecration of the present church building, and to that I am chiefly indebted for the brief history contained in this sketch. Dr. Hart says that he thinks "there is no other town in Connecticut in which the organization of 'the professors of the Church of England,' as they were called, followed so closely upon the settlement of the place and its organization as a separate community." The present town of Plymouth was originally a part of Waterbury. In 1737 the people of that section were "granted winter privileges" and released from parish taxes for three months of the year, that they might "maintain the dispensing of the word in a place accessable." Soon 5 they petitioned the General Assembly of the colony to make them a separate ecclesiastical society, representing that "to reach the only meeting-house in the town, they had to drive seven miles or more, cross the river nine times and take down bars or open gates at ten different places." In consequence of this, in 1739 the Society called North- bury (now Plymouth), was set off. Very soon a contro- versy arose as to the location of the meeting-house to be built. There is not time to go into the details of this dispute now, but the result was the organization in 1740 of an "Episcopal Society" consisting of eleven families under the care of the Rev. Theophilus Morris, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Although this disagreement might seem an unfortunate reason for the beginning of church life, it is said other causes were at work which made this "a readily accepted occasion for the breach." Some of the settlers of Northbury were from North Haven, where there was already a church, and, in one family in the community was a Prayer Book, which we are told had considerable influence, the members of two other families being in the habit of meeting with the owners of the Prayer Book for the use of its services. Tradition says the same Prayer Book was afterwards taken to Pennsylvania and was the occasion of starting a parish there. The year 1740 was a time of great religious excitement, during the preaching of Whitefield, when the teaching of the Church was all the more welcome to sober-minded people, and that this had influence with those who became Churchmen in Plymouth, we know from a letter which they addressed to the "Honorable Society" in England, in which they say: "We were prejudiced strongly against the Church of England from our cradles until we had the advantage of books from your reverend missionaries and others; and -6 7 - Mr. Whitefield passing through this land, and his followers and imitators brought in a flood of confusion amongst us, whereupon we fled to the Church of England for safety." Before the Revolution, three men of Connecticut birth, who are still remembered and honored served the parish as mis- sionaries; the Rev. Richard Mansfield, for seventy-two years Rector of Derby, Rev. James Scovill, whose home was in Waterbury, and the Rev. James Nichols, the last Connecticut man to be ordained in England. The parish possesses a Bible and Prayer Book bound in one volume printed at Oxford in 1738. Also another Prayer Book, in beautiful, large type, printed in London, 1742. Both volumes bear the seal of the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel with the words underneath, "The Gift of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts." The books will remain a valued reminder of the debt the parish owes to the Venerable Society through its mission- aries. In later years no less than five parishes were formed by people who went out from this one, two being in Ohio, and it may be said that, "St. Peter's, Plymouth, became in a sense of which it can be said of few other country parishes, 'a Mother of Churches.' " Christ Church, Roxbury 1740. ROXBURY is one of, if not indeed quite the oldest parish within the limits of Litchfield County, dating its organization as far back as the year 1740, a period earlier than that of any other parish in the county of which we have any written records extant. It was organized by the Rev. John Beach of Newtown, and for a considerable time was the only Episcopal parish within the limits of Woodbury, to which Roxbury at that time belonged. The account of the organization of the church is specific and interesting. Thus recorded: Captain Jehiah Hawley and Mr. Joseph Benedict of Milford; Messrs. Zenas Ward and David Squires of Southbury ; James Masters of Woodbury ; Messrs. Ebenezer Thomas, Joseph Weller, David and Isaac Castle, Nathan Squires and Titus Beach, agreed to form themselves and their families into an Episcopal congrega- tion and to meet in a private house at Roxbury, as being the most central place. Fully persuaded in their own minds that God would bless this undertaking, the Church being an establishment of His own instituting, and having no prospect of soon obtaining a person in holy orders to minister among them, they made choice of Captain Haw- ley to be their Reader for the ensuing year. Zenas Ward and Daniel Squires were nominated to act as Wardens. Captain Hawley was an excellent reader, a man of unblem- ished character, and of clear understanding and of exem- plary purity. His Christian conversation and persuasive manner of gaining the doubting and of winning men to the Church who had ignorantly opposed themselves, brought in fresh accessions to this newly begun worshipping assem- bly; and it was not long before they found themselves in a situation for building a house for public worship. This edifice was erected contiguous to the then Congregational house of worship, on the hill about a mile east from the present centre, which site is soon to be marked by a suit- ably inscribed stone. The Rev. Thomas Davies, speaking of this church in a letter to the Society in England for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, says: "In Roxbury there is a pretty church neatly finished." The first clergyman regularly connected with the parish as its stated minister was the Rev. Solomon Palmer in 1754. He was one of the first converts to Episcopacy. He was settled at Cornwall, as a Congregational minister, some time about the year 1742. After the lapse of some ten years from the time of his settlement, and before his people were at all aware of his intentions as to the course he was design- ing to pursue, he made to them a communication on a Sunday, informing them that by investigation and reading he had become convinced, and felt it his duty to conform to the Episcopal Church. Obtaining a dismission from them he went to England and was ordained by the Bishop of Bangor, at the request of the Bishop of London, who was then disabled by sickness from attending to the duties of his office. Some time in the year 1754 he was received into the service of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and became the Society's mis- sionary, making his place of residence in New Milford. His mission included New Milford, where he resided, and several of the neighboring parishes in Litchfield County. About 1760 he resigned his mission and removed to Litch- field. Under his ministrations the parish of Roxbury increased somewhat in numbers. The Rev. Thomas Davies succeeded Mr. Palmer by appointment of the same Society, which appointment was communicated to him, and in the following words: Agreed the i8th day of September, 1761, that Mr. Davies be appointed to the churches of New Mil- ford, Sharon, New Preston, New Fairfield, in Litchfield County. Litchfield parish was soon included in his charge, the Rev. Mr. Palmer having resigned and moved away 70 in 1762. The first recorded service in Roxbury by Mr. Davies was on the 25th of November, 1763. On that occa- sion he lectured from Matthew ix, 13, and as appears from extant records of his acts, kept by himself. By these rec- ords also it appears that he officiated in this parish one Sunday in five until his health gave out under arduous and accumulated labors. His last recorded notice in the par- ish was January I2th, 1766. He died suddenly, in the bloom of life's usefulness, at New Milford, where he resided, on the 1 2th of May, 1766, where he was buried, and a tablet marks his resting-place. He died in the 3Oth year of his age and the fifth of his zealous ministry. Under his ministrations the church increased considerably. His rec- ords show 32 baptisms, 36 communicants, 34 families. A few Episcopal families resided at the centre of Woodbury, whom he occasionally visited and preached to in the Town House, they having at that time no house of worship. In the year in which Mr. Davies died the Rev. Richard Clark took the parish in charge, in connection with New Milford and several other neighboring parishes. He continued to officiate in the parish until about the year 1770, when Rev. John Rutgers Marshall was appointed missionary to the churches of Roxbury and New Milford. During his min- istry the period of the American Revolutionary War the parish experienced sundry vicissitudes of trial, but being a man full of patience and steadfast in the Gospel, for the space of ten years he faithfully watched over the spiritual interests of his mission field, from 1771 to 1780. After Mr. Marshall's death the parish was vacant for a number of years. The foregoing was written by the late Rev. Mr. Cooley for the Archdeaconry Record. The matter was taken from records then extant. These have unfortunately disappeared, but there are persons still living in the parish who have seen them. Particular attention is called to the founding of the parish, 1740. It was incorrectly given in some accounts of its bicentenary. 71- St, Paul's, Woodbury X740- AT the extreme southern part of Litchfield County, stretching out over the beautiful valley of the Pom- peraug to the hills beyond, lies one of the oldest parishes in Connecticut, St. Paul's, Woodbury. It is supposed that services were held in the town as early as 1722 or 1723, by Rev. Mr. Pigot of Stratford, and Rev. Dr. Johnson, missionaries of the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel. This early date does not seem strange when we remember that ancient Woodbury was settled by people from Stratford and it is not at all improbable that there should have been among the early settlers, members of the Church of England, or that they should have desired church services held in the town where they were living. In the year 1732, a Congregational minister in the south part of Woodbury, now Southbury, engaged in a contro- versy with the Rev. Dr. Johnson; that was carried on for some time. It excited much inquiry among those who inves- tigated the question, and several families were convinced by Dr. Johnson's arguments, and were led to connect them- selves with the Episcopal Church. These scattered families were organized into a parish by the Rev. Mr. Beach of Newtown, about the year 1740. The church was built about that time. Most of the church families living in the south and west part of the town, the church was built on the hills west of the village, in what is now Roxbury, then Woodbury ; the people of the valley going up to the hill to worship there being no place to hold service in the center of the town until the year 1747. The Congregational Society having then (to quote the words of the clerk, informing the General Assembly at 72 New Haven) "set up a meeting-house, that for its big- ness, strength and architecture Does Appear Transcendantly Magnificent," had no use for the old meeting-house and from that time on it was used as the town hall and by the church people as a place of worship until the church was erected in 1785. From 1740 to 1771, occasional services were held by the clergymen of surrounding parishes. These were notably the Rev. Thomas Davies, that noble young missionary who did a great work for the Church in Litchfield County; and the Rev. Mr. Clark of New Milford, with others. In the autumn of 1771, the Rev. John Rutgers Marshall became the first Rector of St. Paul's, Woodbury. Rev. Mr. Marshall was born in New York in 1743, reared in the Dutch Reformed denomination, but came into the Church and prepared for the ministry under Dr. Johnson. The Rev. Mr. Marshall was the last but one of those candidates from Connecticut who went across the ocean for Holy Orders, being ordained Deacon by the Bishop of London, July 25, 1771, and ordained Priest on the 28th day of the same month. He received from the Bishop a testimonial that he had obtained "License and Authority to perform the office of a Minister or Priest at Woodbury, or elsewhere within the province of Connecticut in North America." On his return from England he went to Woodbury in the autumn of 1771, as a missionary of the Society for Propagat- ing the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and commenced his minis- try in St. Paul's parish. The church in the western part of the town was united with it, both churches together constituting one parochial cure. We know very little of the first few years of Mr. Mar- shall's ministry no records of that time existing at the present day. From a scrap of a letter, found long ago, we learn that a convention was held in Woodbury in 1774. For Mr. Marshall in a letter to his aunts in New York, dated April 12, 1774, writes: . S3 3-S"5 o = w _ D ^ -g - 6p bc.2 ts 5S S -u o ^5= E-o .2 v > ci-a c^^- . -T^- 2 P U r < U4-> r< x 73 "The Convention is to be held at my house this spring, Aunts promised me some wine, if Aunts intend sending any, there can be no better opportunity than this." Soon after Mr. Marshall came to Woodbury a glebe was purchased and occupied by the Rector, but afterwards he bought a home for himself and the glebe was sold, the pro- ceeds being used for building the church. The eighteen years of Mr. Marshall's rectorship were trying years to the country and the Church. He was a staunch American as well as a staunch Churchman, as events afterward proved. At the time, however, he was regarded with such animosity by many townsmen, because of his connection with the Church of England, that twice he was left in the road beaten so his assailants supposed to death. Tradition says that the man most instrumental in this affair, repented and united himself with the Church. At last Mr. Marshall became so suspected he could not leave his house in the day time, except on Sunday; the old Puritan law forbidding arrest on the Sabbath being his protection. He would hold service on Sunday, and on Monday the Committee of Patriots would go to the glebe to arrest him, search the house, but could never find him. Where he could be hidden was a great mystery to the people who so carefully searched for him. Years afterwards it became known that the old glebe contained a secret hiding place; a sliding panel in a closet, moving so as to afford direct entrance to the cellar. There Mr. Marshall was obliged to spend many days, leav- ing his hiding place only at night. This entrance may be seen now at the glebe house in Woodbury. When the war cloud broke and the colonies were severed from England, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel withdrew its aid from the parish; notwithstanding this, Mr. Marshall labored on, holding services in many parishes, from Milford on the south to Great Harrington on the north. In 1785 the present church was built, Mr. Marshall fur- nishing the glass and nails. 74 On March 25, 1783, a most important meeting was held at the old glebe house, by ten of the fourteen clergymen of Connecticut. "The meeting was kept a profound secret even from their most intimate friends of the laity." No records even of that meeting were kept, for Mr. Marshall well knew that in holding that meeting he took the life of himself and even of his family in his hands. In consequence of this there is no mention of it even among the family letters. The only account we have of it is in a letter of the Rev. Mr. Fogg, Rector at that time of Trinity Church, Brooklyn, who was one of the ten clergymen present. The church has not an official record, but it has the result of the meeting; for there was elected the first Bishop of Connecticut, and the first Bishop of the Church in America, Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury. The church in Woodbury still treasures the first com- munion set, the semicircular table that was used for the altar, and at the Marshall home in Woodbury may be seen the first communion linen spun and woven by Mrs. Marshall. There also, may be seen a chair in which probably the presid- ing officer of the secret convention of March, 25th, 1783, sat, and in which tradition says all of the Bishops of Connecticut from Seabury down, have since sat ; and most interesting of all, the Prayer Book, used in the church in which, before the Prayer Book was revised and the revision adopted, Mr. Marshall made all the alterations in use. These alterations are in his own handwriting and cor- respond with the accepted Prayer Book, which would go to show he had something to do with the alterations, even if he did not originate them. He died before the convention which revised the Prayer Book was held. Hard work and cruel treatment had undermined Mr. Marshall's health, and in January, 1789, he "laid down his armor and went to his rest." KIC1IT REVEREND SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D., LL.D. First Bishop of the American Church. Consecrated Bishop of Connecticut, Aberdeen, Scotland, Nov. 27, i 7 f 4. 75 With the death of Rev. John Rutgers Marshall ends the colonial history of St. Paul's, Woodbury, and the work of a faithful missionary for the Society of Propagation of the Gospel. St. Andrew's, Simsbury, and Parts Adjacent (now Bloomfield) 1740. AS, when we look for the beginning of the Christian year, we must find on what day of the week falls the Feast of St. Andrew; so, when we would know of the Colonial Churches in the inland regions of Connecticut, we must turn, first, to old St. Andrew's earliest of them all. Details as to the formation of the parish are meagre, but it is believed that the organization was effected in 1740 with six members. In 1741 the Rev. Mr. Morris of Derby, who visited it, reported about thirty families, and added that they had prepared some timber for a church. In 1742 members of the Church of England in other places helped them to raise funds for the purchase of a glebe of fifty acres, and the land was deeded to the infant parish with the stipulation that it should never be alienated. In 1743 the church was built. It is said that it was never finished; but, for the remainder of the century, it served the congregation, gathered from all the region round as a place of worship. The chosen site was under the hills of the Talcott range and near the Tunxis or Farmington river, which made its way over a rocky course with a dull roar. One wonders what the worthies engaged in hewing the massive beams for the building would have said to any man -76- who had foretold that, in this present year of grace, steam- driven trains would pass the spot, and that the neighboring river would be made to furnish for Hartford, ten miles away, power to propel its cars and light its streets, to say nothing of offering to heat its houses, cook its food, and freeze its ices? Giant oaks and chestnuts, left from the primeval forest, guarded the rustic temple and threw their broad shadows over the green churchyard which still serves as a "God's Acre." For more than a century they waved their branches over the sacred spot, and then yielded to a blast of the north wind that might not longer be withstood. Application had been made to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for assist- ance and promises had been made, on condition of their acquiring a glebe. In 1744 an arrangement was made with Mr. William Gibbs of Boston, a graduate of Harvard, to take charge of the struggling parish and he crossed the ocean to obtain Holy Orders. Among some letters to his home friends, found last year in Simsbury, where they had probably lain since the settle- ment of his estate, is one describing his voyage and telling of his ordination, in which he mentions that the Society had made a formal appropriation for his support and had kindly added a goodly sum for his expensive journey. He was sent as Missionary to "Simsbury and Parts Adja- cent." Each of the ponderous folios standard theological works sent over by the Society, as a gift to the Mission, bears to-day that inscription with the book plate of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Now in 1744, Simsbury, which had been quaintly described as "an appendix to the town of Windsor," whence its first settlers migrated, embraced the towns of Bloomfield, Canton, Avon, Granby, and East Granby; and the "parts adjacent" 77 easily included Hartford, Windsor, and Farmington, not to mention portions of Fair-field County as well as of Berk- shire and Hampden counties in Massachusetts. The territorial extent of the field was indeed wide, though the number of his people could not have been large. The change from Boston to a region where fields were more numerous than aught else must have been a marked one for the young clergyman. His sister, Miss Elizabeth Gibbs, came to share his home and staid with him to the end. For ten years he ministered to his scattered flock and then, because of his refusal to pay a tax laid for the support of the Congregational minister in Simsbury, he was arrested and taken to Hartford jail, thrown across a horse with his hands and feet so bound together as to make a human girth for the animal. His wardens paid the tax and procured his release, but he never recovered from the nervous shock, and for the well- nigh twenty-three remaining years of his life, he was mildly insane and unable to officiate. A portion of his stipend was continued by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and till death gave him release he remained at his post. He died amid the stormy days of the Revolution and was buried under the chancel of the church at whose altar he had ministered. The insanity of Mr. Gibbs made it necessary to have an assistant and Mr. Roger Viets, a Simsbury man and a grad- uate of Yale, after officiating as lay reader for four years, went in 1763 to England and was ordained. Returning, he took up the work of the parish and for twenty-four years went in and out among its people. He, too, saw the inside of Hartford jail, being arrested on suspicion of aiding in the escape of some Tories who were confined in the dungeons of Newgate. By way of emphasizing the suspicions he was put in irons. He was -7*- doubtless made of sterner stuff than Mr. Gibbs, for he eventually came out without permanent injury. Of Mr. Gibbs's official acts no written record remains, but a portion of the one kept by Mr. Viets is in existence, and a perusal of it shows that he made many visits to the "parts adjacent," officiating frequently in Granby, occasion- ally in Hartford, where in the Court House he adminis- tered the communion to six or to nine communicants, sometimes in Westfield, Springfield, and Great Harrington, sometimes in Litchfield, New Milford, and Danbury. In all these places he evidently found children of the Church who gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to have their children baptized. In 1787 Mr. Viets removed to Digby, Nova Scotia, and it was intended that his nephew, Alexander Viets Griswold, should accompany him. Something prevented and the young man remained to become the first and only Bishop of the "Eastern Diocese." At the time of his departure, Mr. Viets issued a "Serious Address and Farewell Charge to the Members of the Church of England in Simsbury and Parts Adjacent," copies of which are still in existence, from which may be gathered a summary of his work. He gives the number of Church families in the mission in 1759 as 75. In 1787 there were 280 "exclusive of the many that had emigrated and the few that had apostatized." He had baptized 122 adults and 1,749 infants, a total of 1871, giving an annual average of very nearly 67. During the ministry of Mr. Viets a church was built in the northern part of his field, now North Granby, called St. Ann's. This was, later, given up, and in its stead St. Peter's was built at Salmon Brook, somewhat nearer the mother church. Still later, this became a separate parish, though they were unable to support two incumbents, and it was generally under the care of the Rector of St. Andrew's, until 1845 or thereabouts. 79 The second St. Andrew's was built soon after the begin- ning of the nineteenth century, and was located nearly two miles south of the old site; but after a score or more of years it was moved to its present position only a few yards from the spot hallowed by the first one, and where, like that, it guards the last resting place of the generations of Churchmen "laid away in holy trust." The earliest inscription in the churchyard was placed on a tiny stone to mark the resting-place of "Robin, son of John," a little Indian boy; and one wonders whether John was the earliest red child of the Church. St. Paul's, Wallingford 1741. r I ^HE early history of St. Paul's parish, Wallingford, J- is closely connected with that of St. John's, North Haven. Lay services were held in the latter place as early as 1723, and some kind of an ecclesiastical organiza- tion was formed in which "Professors of the Church of England, inhabiting in Wallingford," which then included Cheshire and a part of the present town of Meriden, had a part. In 1740 a closer organization was brought about under the direction of the Rev. Theophilus Morris, missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, as witness the following minutes : "March ye 2ist, 1740. At a meeting of the members of the Church of England inhabitating in Wallingford and North Haven, Rev. T. Morris made choice of Thomas Ives, and the parishioners of North Ingham, as Church Wardens" and six vestry men were selected. 8o "March ye 2ist, 1740. At a Vestry held at the house of Mr. Thomas Ives, Voted, That the parishioners of Wal- lingford and North Haven be united into one church, by the name of Union Church." They soon built a suitable church-house in the southwest- ern portion of the town, convenient to the members scat- tered over so wide an area. Probably one reason for the choice of this location was to place the church on a tract of glebe land of about twelve acres that a board of trustees, of which the Rev. Mr. Mansfield of Derby was a member, held in trust for the use of the church in Wallingford from the S. P. G. The number of communicants is not known, but in a report sent from Wallingford to England in 1744, four years after retirement of Mr. Morris, the following statement is made: "There are twenty-five masters of families, mem- bers of the church, who in the absence of a clergyman, meet together every Lord's day and edify themselves as well as they can by reading." The Rev. James Lyon followed the Rev. Mr. Morris, and the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson succeeded him. In 1752 the Rev. Ichabod Camp, a native of Middletown, and a graduate of Yale College, who had gone to England for Holy Orders, returned to Middletown and the Union Church was added to his charge. Under his ministrations the church so increased in numbers and strength, that it was thought best to make different arrangements. So the Union Society was dissolved in 1757, and the Wallingford parishioners took steps towards the formation of an inde- pendent organization and the erection of a church building in the village. This was finished in 1762, and is said to have been handsome in appearance and quite churchly in style of architecture and in its appointments. At first the title by which the Wallingford parish was designated was "The Old Society," the name St. Paul's not appearing on record till 1765. 8i The funds for the erection of the church came in part from subscriptions of the parishioners and possibly in part from the proceeds of the sale of the glebe land in 1765. It was used until 1832, and we have three mementoes of it in our possession: one, a mahogany table, which served as an altar : another a Prayer Book of the Church of Eng- land, and the third a silver chalice dated 1767, which was presented by Capt. Titus Brockett, then senior warden, and which has been in continuous use ever since. There is also in existence a Royal Coat of Arms, but it was taken to St. Andrew's, New Brunswick, after the Revo- lutionary War, where it still remains. The following record is found : "Jan. 29, 1761. Voted, That there shall be preaching a proportionable part of the time, according to what they pay, at the old society in Wallingford, Cheshire, and North Haven." This action probably had in view the return of the Rev. Samuel Andrews of blessed memory, who had acted as lay reader here, and who at the time was in England to receive Holy Orders at the hands of Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of London, under whom were all the colonial parishes. He was a native of the town, brother of the Junior Warden and a graduate of Yale. He returned the follow- ing year as missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Wallingford, North Haven, and Cheshire, where he remained for about twenty-five years, an able, faithful, and successful clergyman, winning the warmest affections of his people and the honor and esteem of all who knew him. Being while here a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he received a stipend from that source of 30 sterling per annum. In addition to this the three parishes jointly stipulated to give him 50 ster- ling per annum, a house, and a glebe of fourteen acres for his better accommodation. 6 82 Under his ministrations the Church in all these places grew exceedingly and received from his strong character, his staunch churchmanship and his wise and abundant labors an impetus and impress that long governed them. We have no means of knowing the strength of the parish at his return, but eight years afterwards we find in the century discourse delivered before the people of Walling- ford in 1770, by Rev. Mr. Dana, pastor of the Congrega- tional Church and his own warm personal friend these words : "There are sixty- three families of Episcopalians within the original limits of the Historical Society: 86 communi- cants, and baptized (by Mr. Andrews), 165. In New Cheshire, the families are 47, communicants 64, baptisms 86. In Meriden 6 families, 14 communicants, 20 baptisms." Mr. Andrews remained in charge until after the close of the Revolutionary War, when he transferred his labors to St. Andrew's, New Brunswick, where he died, honored and lamented, in 1820. St. John's, Stamford 1742. THE first notice of the Church of England services in' Stamford was in 1705, when the Rev. George Muir- son, being inducted Rector of Rye, made excursions east- ward into the towns within the Connecticut colony, being licensed to minister to the Church of England people in the towns of Greenwich and Stamford by Lord Cornbury, Gov- ernor of the New York Colony, which had been founded three years before by the efforts of Col. Caleb Heathcote to extend the Church in the colonies of Great Britain. -83- Owing to the condition of the country at that time, it was necessary for Mr. Muirson to be escorted on these ecclesias- tical incursions of Col. Heathcote, "fully armed." They seem to have had occasional ministrations from other clergy- men, but no settled minister. They felt a desire for liberty of conscience, which the government sometimes hindered and sometimes helped. The Puritans regarded this to be an unwelcome intrusion, but they were received by many, especially by the more recent emigrants. In 1742, the Episcopalians made an appeal to the town for a grant of land on which to build a church. As the result of this appeal, the town agreed to give the professors of the Church of England "a piece of land to set a church upon." The lot was to be forty-five feet long and thirty-five feet wide. The lot granted as above was the southwest corner of the present lot held by St. John's parish, about where the transept of the new church stands. "It was at that time a rude ledge of loose rock, bounded on the north and east by an almost impassable swamp," from which it would appear that the town did not much favor the Church of England. The Episcopalians, however, thanked the town for the omen, that they were founded upon a rock. The corner-stone was laid in 1743, and the church was so far finished in 1747 that it could be used. The wardens then wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in London, asking it to help them in their effort to get a clergyman of the Church of England to minister to them; hoping it would look favorably on their desire that Mr. Ebenezer Dibblee, a Congregational minister from Dan- bury, who had been lay reader one and one-half years, should receive Holy Orders in England and be sent by the Society to the Church. To go to England in those days was con- sidered extremely perilous, as the voyage was necessarily long, besides the many dangers that might suddenly arise. One man sent out from Stamford was captured by the -84 French, imprisoned by them and finally died of fever in England, while another, had smallpox and also died. Mr. Dibblee was the third to be sent out. He returned in 1748, and became Rector of the church, holding that position fifty-one years. His immediate charge included Green- wich, Bedford, New Canaan, Darien, and Stamford. He was a genuine missionary, however, and made excursions to Rye, White Plains, Peekskill, Northcastle, Salem, Ridge- field, Danbury, Norwalk, Redding, Newtown, Huntington, and as far north as Litchfield, Sharon, and Salisbury. Much of his ministry was through the troublous times of the Revolutionary War, troublous especially to members of the Church of England, for many of the clergy were loyal to the King. One incident is told of a fearless Rector, who read the prayer for the King's Majesty with the muskets of American soldiers leveled at his head, having been for- bidden to do so under peril of his life. During these days came General Tryon's raid and there was some fear of the British attacking the town of Stamford; the story has come down to me of my great-great-grandmother, sitting on the beach with her baby asleep on her lap, watching the British ships and waiting anxiously to see if they would pass a certain rock, knowing if they did so they could not land and the town would be safe. We know they did "pass that rock," going on to Norwalk, which they burned. Mr. Dibblee was the first member of the College of Doc- tors or Council of Advice to the Bishop, and almost to the end he was often in the adjoining towns, preaching and baptizing. From the Mother Church of St. John's have grown the parishes of Christ Church, Greenwich, with the churches at Round Hill, Glenville, Byram, and Riverside in that town; the parish of St. Mark's, New Canaan ; St. Luke's, Darien ; St. Andrew's, Stamford, and Emmanuel and St. Luke's chapels in Stamford. -8 5 - Mr. St. George Talbot, a parishioner and intimate friend of Dr. Dibblee, came to the colonies from England in the early part of the century, and employed his time and ample fortune in laboring to promote the growth of the Episcopal Church. He made a number of trips to the neighboring parishes with Dr. Dibblee when he was one hundred years old. He gave the glebe lands to St. John's, also a "silver tankard and salver for the use of the Holy Communion, to be kept for that use and no other forever," and they have been so kept and used for a period of one hundred and thirty years. He contributed largely towards the completion of the first church, also the old chapel in Greenwich which stood at the top of "Put's Hill," down the steps of which was the famous ride of Gen. - Putnam, when the British troopers were balked in their pursuits. The Lloyd library, composed of two hundred and fifty volumes, was presented about this time to St. John's by Henry Lloyd, another benefactor in the last century. Dr. Dibblee died in 1709 and was buried in the old church- yard near St. Andrew's Church. Three facts stand out in the history of St. John's parish: First, That it is the mother of many parishes, six daughters and five grand-daughters; second, the harmony of its life has been only once broken by parochial discord ; and third, it has been a parish of long rectorship, having had only five Rectors in a period of one hundred and fifty years. 86 St. John's, Waterbury 1142. WHEN the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull of North Haven was collecting material for his History of Connecticut he wrote letters to various persons throughout the state inquiring after certain historical facts which he wished to incorporate in his history. Joseph Hopkins, Esq., was then the leading citizen of Waterbury. He was Judge of the County Court and represented the town for many years in the General Assembly. To him Dr. Trum- bull wrote, inquiring after the history of the Episcopal Society. Judge Hopkins was not an Episcopalian and he turned the inquiry over to Capt. John Welton. Captain Welton was one of the leading men of the town. For years he and Judge Hopkins together had represented the town in the General Assembly. He was one of the leading men in the Episcopal Society. The letter which he wrote in reply to this inquiry shows him to have been a man of excellent judgment as to what was essential in a letter of this sort: of remarkable memory as to facts and of much skill in their arrangement. This letter has been the basis of the history of St. John's parish ever since. The parish was first called St. James's and did not receive the name of St. John until 1797, about two years before this letter was written. Two years after the writing of this letter Judge Hopkins died. Perhaps in any event Capt. Welton would have been called upon for these data, but we cannot help feeling that it was fortunate that Judge Hopkins was called upon to select the man and that he selected Capt. Welton to reply to Dr. Trumbull's inquiries. The letter is as follows: -8 7 - WATERBURY, March 15, A.D. 1799. Dear Sir: The following is the best answer I can give to your questions : In the year of Our Lord 1732, I was then about ten years old, I believe there was not more than three or four Churchmen in town. About that time or before there was one Arnold, I suppose an itinerant preacher, preached to them a few times. What became of Arnold I know not. Afterwards Dr. Johnson of Stratford and Mr. Beach of Newtown officiated occasionally a few times in Waterbury. The state of Episcopacy was much the same with the addition of a few names until about A.D. 1742 or 3 when a considerable number of families came over to the Church and a house for worship soon after began to be built. In the meantime one Morris from Europe was sent over by the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel and etc. to St. James of Waterbury and several other Churches, but he soon returned to Europe. Morris was succeeded by one Lyon, another of the Society's missionaries. He was over Derby and Waterbury, did not reside in Waterbury, but officiated there about one-third of the time, but I believe in one or two years was removed to Long Island. After Lyon was the Rev. Dr. Mansfield. He came into the mission about A.D. 1749, resided at Derby and officiated at Waterbury one third of the time, until about the year 1758, when the Rev. Mr. Scovil came into the mission of Waterbury and New Cambridge. He resided in Waterbury, officiated there one half of the time until about 1771 when the mission was divided and Mr. Nichols took New Cambridge and Northbury, now Plymouth, and left Waterbury and Woodbury, now Watertown, to Mr. Scovil, where he officiated until about 1785, when he removed to Nova Scotia. All the above clergymen received their ordination in London. In the year 1792 we settled Mr. Hart. He continued in the mission until 1795, then removed to Wallingford. In the year 1797 the Rev. Mr. Bronson came into our service: he has since been settled and is now rector of the Episcopal Church in Waterbury. Thus sir, I have done the best I could to answer your questions not having many memorandums or records to direct me, but I believe the above facts are stated nearly right. I am Sir yours to serve and etc., JOHN WELTON. Joseph Hopkins, Esq. There is a library in the first Society in Waterbury composed of about 116 volumes, consisting of books on Divinity, History, 88 Geography, and Novels, and the proprietors have laid a tax which is also proposed to enlarge considerably. Also one in Salem and one in Middlebury. JOSEPH HOPKINS. Rev. B. Trumbull. As this brings the history of the parish down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, perhaps nothing further is necessary at this time. In the History of the Town and City of Waterbury, published in 1896, Mr. Welton's letter is expanded and some account is given of the clergymen whose names he mentions ; the history of the Church is also brought down to the date of the book. St. John's Church, New Milford 1742. Written by Rev. Joseph Hooper, by request. NEW MILFORD was one of the earliest towns to be settled within the present county of Litchfield. In the person of John Noble of Westfield, Massachusetts, it received in 1707 its first actual settler. In 1712 it was organized as a town by twelve men of sterling character and abundant energy. In religion they were strict conform- ists to the polity and order of the Congregational societies of the colony. Daniel Boardman, who was a young man of great promise, became its pastor soon after its incorporation. He was faithful and beloved, and under him the church and society were prospered. He received, as was the cus- tom of the day, a large tract of land as "a settlement." There seems to have been no attempt by members of the Church of England who may have been in the little com- munity to separate themselves, as was allowed to "sober dis- 89 senters" by enabling acts of the Colonial legislature. The well-informed Congregational minister of the town, the Rev. Stanley Griswold, in his "Century Sermon," declares there were Churchmen in the settlement in its first period. It is well known that after the conformity of John Beach to the Church and his settlement at Redding and Newtown, his missionary zeal caused him to extend his labors into all the surrounding country. It is known that. he officiated at a marriage in New Mil ford in 1739. It is probable that his visits to individuals and families brought about an informal organization, and the appoint- ment of one of the small company of Churchmen to read prayer and a sermon to his associates on Sundays. It is in 1742 that we first find any special notice of the Churchmen of New Milford as a distinct and separate congregation. A letter of the Rev. John Beach to the Venerable Society from "Reading in New England, October 2Oth, 1743," men- tions his perplexity concerning the persecution and prosecu- tion of members of the "twenty families professing the Church at New Milford and New Fairfield, which are about fifteen miles."* He speaks of preaching to them several times a year, but seldom on the Lord's Day. He says that "they frequently come to church at Newtown, but by reason of the distance they cannot attend constantly." On other Sundays "they meet together in their own town and one of their number reads some part of the Common Prayer and a sermon." The Congregational Society were unwilling to release them from payment of the rate levied for the minister's salary, and as they had not been formally certified to be under the pastoral care of Mr. Beach, resolved in town meet- ing on February 6, 1743-4 "that the Churchmen shall be * Hawks and Perry's Connecticut Church Documents, I, p. 199. New York, James Pott & Co., 1863. brought into the list to make up the minister's rate accord- ing to the directions of the law." Mr. Beach asked the Society that he might be accredited to New Milford and New Fairfield, thus relieving the Churchmen from fine and imprisonment for non-payment of ministerial rates. This was, after inevitable delay, granted by the Society. In the spring of 1743 the town change its attitude and granted the petition of these twelve men of honest and good report among their townsmen : HENRY GARLICK, DANIEL PRINDLE, THOMAS NOBLE, GEORGE MECUEN, JOHN WELLER, CHARES DUNCOMB, OBADIAH WHEELER, DANIEL PICKETT,. JOHN PRINDLE, WILLIAM HUTCHINS, SAMUEL PRINDLE, PARTRIDGE THACHER, "to grant them a piece of land in the street, east of Mr. Samuel Prindle's house upon the hill near where the old pound used to stand, sixty feet in length and forty feet in breadth, in order to build a Church of England upon and for no other purpose." The town appointed as a committee to lay out the land, Nathaniel Bostwick, David Noble, and Daniel Bostwick. A small church was built upon this plot and was well filled by the fifteen or twenty families com- posing the congregation. Mr. Beach speaks in 1750 of visiting three small congre- gations under his care at New Milford and New Fairfield. The work, however, was too much for him, and he sought to be relieved from the burden of all the churches in the upper part of Fairfield and all the towns of Litchfield County. The Rev. Solomon Palmer, who had been a Con- gregational minister at Cornwall and conformed to the Church, took charge of the mission in 1754. He was most earnest and persistent and went everywhere in the neighbor- hood. He was the first resident clergyman and secured the good will of his former co-religionists. After five years of constant effort he reported in August, 1760, that "the Church here was greatly increased. It is now in a good state and is continually increasing, for besides the three congregations to which I was at first particularly appointed I have three, viz., at Roxbury, Cornwall, Judea." Mr. Palmer's health did not allow him to continue in this extensive missionary circuit. In the fall of 1760 he resigned the charge of New Milford and its vicinity to a "young gentleman who designed the next spring to come home for orders with a view to become a teacher in these parts, if the Society shall think fit to divide this mission." Thomas Davies was then a candidate under Dr. Samuel Johnson. He was remarkable for the depth and fervor of his religious convictions, his rare and persuasive eloquence in f the pulpit, his ceaseless and well-directed energy, and his tact and skill in laying foundations. He went, as Mr. Palmer had done, beyond the limits of the colony into southern Berkshire and at Great Barrington brought into order as a mission the persecuted Churchmen of that town. After his ordination, in 1761, he continued to grow in favor with all who knew him and by his exertions the Church both in New Milford and other places was strengthened. The church building became too small, and in 1765 the frame of a larger one was erected, which was within a year finished and dedicated, not consecrated, for bishops had been denied, largely on political grounds, to the Colonies. Mr. Davies' life was brief and brilliant. He died at his home at New Milford on May 12, 1766. His memory should be kept green, for he was a skillful and wise master- builder upon the foundation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The course of Church life ran smoothly under his suc- cessor, the Rev. Richard Clarke, whose incumbency of twenty years included the period when the political horizon was dark and lowering, patriots asserting their independ- 92 ence, and Churchmen who were inclined to sympathize with the mother country were harshly treated. His work here as parish priest ended in 1787. He was followed by the Rev. Truman Marsh, whose work was acceptable, and con- tinued until the opening of the nineteenth century. The parish of St. John's, New Milford, has shown in its whole history a commendable degree of activity and liberal- ity. It has realized its duty to the Diocese and the whole Church, both at home and abroad, besides providing for its own necessities. From it went forth under the inspiration of Mr. Palmer and Mr. Davies a remarkable missionary, the Rev. Gideon Bostwick, a native of the town, who became lay reader and afterward missionary at St. James's, Great Harrington, Massachusetts. A sketch of his life would show that all heroic work is not done in foreign lands. He went everywhere through Berkshire, southern Vermont, eastern New York. His ministry of twenty-three years was passed in preaching, baptizing and confirming the churches. He baptized more than twenty-three hundred children and adults in his twenty-three years of active ser- vice, preached almost daily and established congregations in many places, some of which are strong parishes to-day. This is but an instance of the good work done by the Church in Litchfield County. I he * o PAGES FROM THE PRAYER BOOK OF CHRIST CHURCH, GREENWICH, SHOWING ERASURES OF PRAYERS FOR THE KING. 93 Christ Church, Guilford 1744. /CHRIST CHURCH was gathered under the blessed V_x influence of the Venerable Society that we commemo- rate this year, and received ministrations from its mission- aries and laymen as a part of their field of labor. Guilford was never a distinct mission, nor received financial aid directly from the Society. Mr. Samuel Smithson came to Guilford about 1707, and, though a member of the Church of England, he worshipped here with the Church of New England. In the same church was a youth of studious habits, and to him in 1716, Mr. Smithson loaned his Book of Common Prayer. This we believe was the means of directing Samuel Johnson to the strong course of his later life, and the establishment of our parish. We look back to Samuel Smithson as, in a real sense, its founder. With such a man as Samuel Johnson, a native of and frequent visitor in Guilford, it may seem strange that a church was not gathered here earlier ; but we find a strong desire on his part, sympathized with by many of the "Dis- senting ministers," for a general adhesion to the Church of England a comprehension of the colonists under Episcopal government, but "without all the ceremonies and constitu- tions of our Church"; and we can easily believe Samuel Johnson would hope thus to be in fellowship with the Church and pastor of his boyhood, rather than to promote a separa- tion from them. The Guilford Congregational Church had also accepted the "half-way covenant" whereby the sacra- ments of baptism and the Lord's Supper were made acces- sible to many, who at earlier times and in some churches even now had been denied them. 94 In 1738 three Guilford men were enrolled as members of the Church of England, under the care of Mr. Jonathan Arnold of New Haven, whose cure was virtually New Haven County, and it is quite certain that he ministered in Guilford that year. Mr. James Lyons of Derby, and Dr. Samuel John- son of Stratford, held services here before there was a parish. In 1744 Mr. Lyons reported to the Venerable Society that there were eight families in Guilford who had declared their conformity, and on September 4, 1744, he organized this parish at the house of William Ward, Nathaniel Johnson being "appointed" warden and Samuel Collins clerk to lead or make the responses and lead the singing. Until a church was built, services were held in private houses, some of which are still standing. With ministrations from clergy- men, who included Guilford as part of their charge, occa- sional visits from others, and the constant services of faithful and zealous laymen the worship of God and religious instruc- tion were maintained in the parish for almost a century, without a clergyman of its own. In 1746 it was decided to build, and in 1747 the "Proprie- tors of the Town" voted to allow a church to be built on the Green. Some money was given by non-residents, nota- bly the sum of ^113, from friends in Trinity Church, New- port, R. I., in response to an appeal from Nathaniel Johnson, who rode to Newport on horseback to make it! But the expense of building was principally borne by the parish. Of the missionaries of the Venerable Society, and the lay- readers who ministered to the Colonial Church in Guil- ford there is time only to speak their names. Mr. Lyons of Derby, who, being with them at the organization of the parish was regarded as their minister; Ebenezer Pun- derson the first to preach in their church in May, 1751, (though it was not opened for service till March, 1751, when Dr. Samuel Johnson preached from the text, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness") ; Samuel Andrews, -95 Wallingford who was faithful in his frequent ministra- tions till his loyalist sympathies limited his journeys; and Bela Hubbard. Mr. William Samuel Johnson (son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who later became the accomplished Ameri- can statesman), Mr. Edmund Ward, Peter Beers, and John Tyler, were lay-readers. Of the ministers who have been reared within the terri- torial limits of "old Guilford" at least one-third have taken Episcopal orders. Those most notable from the Colonial Church were Dr. Samuel Johnson, Rev. Bela Hubbard, Rev. Bethuel Chittenden, Rev. Andrew Fowler, and much earlier, the two sons of John Hoadly, who after their return to England took orders in the established Church. One of them, Samuel, became the father of two Bishops John, who died Primate of Ireland, and Benjamin, who was a still more distinguished man. Of these, Rev. Bela Hubbard was our only resident min- ister in the eighteenth century. Returning from England in 1764, he came to Guilford, but not as a missionary of the Society. The one mark of its favor which Mr. Hubbard probably brought with him, was the folio Prayer Book which we have among our interesting relics. His cure consisted of the two Guilford parishes, and that of Killingworth (now Clinton). The ministry of Bela Hubbard, a native of Guilford, must have more than passing notice. He was lay-reader for both Guilford and North Guilford parishes from 1761 to 1763, while preparing to take orders, and was invited to return to them as priest. At this time there were fifty families of the Guilford conformists, and as many communicants the North parish probably being the larger. When in 1767 he took charge of the mission in New Haven, his Guilford people were heart-broken. Repeated appeals were made to the Venerable Society for the establishment of a mission at Guilford, but the Society was inexorable and refused to respond partly on the ground that the parish had no parsonage or glebe. Loyalist sympathies prevailed in this congregation to its detriment ; but when the war broke out some Episcopalians were found among the patriot soldiers. During the war the parish must have lost ground, and it is said the church building suffered from lawless violence. But the services on Sunday never ceased ! The lowest point of depression in the life of the parish must have been during the last decade of the century, when, tradition says, only two families were left to sustain the services of the Church. But in 1798 we find Dr. Hubbard again visiting Guilford, and from that time the church seemed to revive, and in 1806 our parish numbered forty families. Having outlined our history to the beginning of the nine- teenth century, I must leave the blessed record of the past one hundred years untouched. Gilbert Town, North Fairficld (now Weston, J744, and Easton, J763) r I "HE history of the formation of this parish is unique. -1. In a letter written by the late associate Justice Brad- ley of the United States Supreme Court, addressed to a late aged resident of this vicinity, he says, "How comes it, that I find that on ground donated by my grandfather Bradley for the use of a Congregational Society, an Episcopal Church was built and used for many years as a place of worship?" This is how it happened. In 1740 the residents of Gilbert Town, some seven miles north of the Mill Plain Church at Fairfield, and about six miles south of Christ Church, Redding Ridge, desired to 97 build a convenient place of worship. At the same time the Congregational friends also wished for a house of prayer. This desire was so strong in the Bradley family and neigh- bors that Bradley gave about two acres of land; others near at hand contributed timber and the foundation was built and frame made ready for the Congregational building. Then some good Congregational brethren at what is called Easton Centre, two miles north of Bradley lot, called a halt ; saying, "Why place a meeting-house among a lot of Church of England folks, and leave us out in the cold ?" It appears that what is now Easton Centre was the principal place of residence for Congregationalists, while Gilbert Town was the home of many Church of England people. Providence in this instance ruled, for it appears the officer of each society held a meeting, and an agreement was made whereby the Bradley lot with its foundation and frame for building was transferred to the Church of England Society, who made some return in cash. This church at Gilbert Town was in the form of a Methodist edifice, about square, without spire, tower, or other external marks to indicate that it was an Episcopal Church. It had centre box pews, side aisles, and over hang- ing gallery on three sides with a high pulpit at the west end and a chancel. This building was open for worship accord- ing to the Church of England form from about 1744 until 1776, Sunday services being held by the Rector of Mill Plain. From 1776 to 1783 services were held irregularly. Then services were held by Dr. Shelton and other clergymen, which were more regular. The parish records of 1783 are in the care of the clerk of Christ Church, Easton Centre. The building of the Gilbert Town church was on the High road leading from Fairfield north to Danbury, Newtown, and other, then important, inland towns. There can be no doubt but that its location was a wise selection, as it was the center for miles around for Church of England people. Its 1 -98- influence was far-reaching. The old burial ground just north of the church on the east side of the highway contains tombs of some of the founders. Tryon on his sail to Dan- bury slept within gun shot of the church, but, as many mem- bers were Tories, he ordered the church saved from fire. Thus from 1744 to 1855 this building, consecrated by prayer and praise, was a monument to the zeal and devotion of the Church people of Colonial days in this place. St. Michael's, Litchfield 1745- IN the year 1735, Mr. John Davies came to Litchfield from Winton, England. He was a devoted member of the English Church, but did not find many here who agreed with him in sentiment. His wife, writing home to her friends in England, declared that "she was very lonely, having no society except that of Presbyterians and wolves." In 1745 Mr. Davies found a number of people, who, owing to the disturbances arising from the preaching of the Rev. Mr. Whitfield, were discontented with their ecclesiastical surroundings. Thirteen heads of families met together in the house of Mr. Jacob Griswold, about a mile west of the village, to consult about establishing divine service according to the rites of the Church of England. It was determined to build a church, and this was done in 1748. In the meantime services were held in private houses. The Rev. Drs. Johnson, Cutler, and Beach all at different times visited the church people and read the ser- vice. The church was built on the hill a mile out of the village, and was used for services until 1810, when a new building was erected in the village on the site occupied by the present church. During the Revolutionary War the church was closed for a time. A body of soldiers in pas- sing it threw stones to break in the windows, but were reproved by General Washington, who was with them, say- ing, "that is the Church of which I am a member." In 1754 Mr. Solomon Palmer, a Congregational minister in Cornwall, where he had served for thirteen years, to the great surprise of his people announced that he had "become an Episcopalian in sentiment." Immediately after he went to England and was ordained Deacon and then Priest. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel appointed him Missionary for Litchfield, Cornwall, and Great Barring- ton, Massachusetts. He preached here till 1763, when he was called to New Haven to take charge of Trinity Church. At this time the Rev. Thomas Davies, a grandson of Mr. John Davies, who was graduated from Yale College in 1758, and in 1761 had been ordained by Archbishop Seeker, was appointed to succeed Mr. Palmer as Missionary in Litchfield County. New Milford and Litchfield were where he chiefly labored, but he went into almost all the towns in the county. He travelled on horseback. Through winter storms and summer heat he executed the duties of his office wherever opportunity offered. One of the entries in his private register reads, "officiated at Litchfield on St. Pompion's Day." This was what he called the annual Thanksgiving Day, and by pompion he meant what is more generally known as "pumpkin." Mr. Davies's ministerial life was a short one. He died in New Milford, May I2th, 1766. At this time the Rev. Mr. Palmer came back from New Haven and again took charge of the work here under an appointment from the S. P. G. and here his earthly labors came to an end in the year 1771. In 1772 the Rev. Mr. Mosely was sent by the Society as Missionary, but for some reason there was objection made to receiving him and he withdrew. In consequence of this, IOO the home Society refused the next year to make any appro- priation for Litchfield. But through the good offices of the Rev. Mr. Bostwick' of Great Barrington, the grant was renewed. At some time in its history the mission received a library from the Venerable Society, but the books have none of them been preserved. The only missionary in charge here during the Revolu- tionary war was the Rev. James Nichols, a Yale graduate of the year 1771, who that same year went to England for ordination. He resigned his charge in 1784. At that time a parish was organized under the laws of the State. The first Rector was Ashbel Baldwin, who was the first clergy- man to receive Episcopal ordination at Bishop Seabury's hands. This event occurred at Middletown, Aug. 3d, 1785. This parish was named St. Michael's, at the request of Mr. Davies, who gave fifty acres of land for the support of the Missionary on condition that if lawfully demanded by him- self or his heirs one pepper-corn should be paid by way of rent on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. The last time this rent was offered was on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. At this time the Rev. Thomas F. Davies, Jr., now Rector of Christ Church, Norwich, son of Bishop Davies of Michigan and descendant of John Davies, assisted in the service. To him the rent was offered and declined. 101 Christ Church, Norwich 1731-1747- WHILE it is certain that there were earnest Church- men among the residents here, during the first years of the eighteenth century, historians agree that the early history of the Church is obscure and "Tradition is the only source from which anything has been ascertained respecting the first rise of the Episcopal Church in Norwich." Among the names of "Inhabitants allowed" are found those of Thomas Grist and Edmund Gookin as early as 1726, and it is more than probable that there were gatherings of Churchmen before 1731, the earliest date at which we have any record of Church services, which, it states, were held regularly three times a year. At these services the Rev. Samuel Seabury of New London officiated until 1734, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson. Mr. Brown says: "It is a singular coincidence that the clergyman who followed the Rev. Samuel Seabury in ministering to the Church of Eng- land, in Norwich, was the same man who, as a Congrega- tional minister succeeded Mr. Seabury in charge of the Second Ecclesiastical Society of North Groton, and who subsequently pursued the identical course of Mr. Seabury, in resigning the charge of that Society, to sail to England for Holy Orders." From an extract of a sermon preached in Christ Church Sept. n, 1859, is called the following: "Norwich was settled in 1659 by Puritan pioneers. Puritanism grew and flourished, without stint or abate- ment for nearly eighty years, when Episcopacy came, shot into its midst by the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." IO2 "A missionary named Punderson, an earnest indefatig- able man, duly ordained in the Church of England, arrived in this region, sent and sustained by the same missionary spirit which now sends workers to other shores, and estab- lished the beginnings of a parish." Despite the fact that Norwich was but one of the many charges of this energetic man, his work was blessed, and in the winter of 1746-47, we find a record of a meeting to consider the building of a suitable house of worship and the names of eighty-seven subscribers affixed. It was nearly three years before this structure was com- pleted, small, plain, and unplastered, as it was. This edifice stood upon the site now occupied by our present beautiful Christ Church. Mr. Punderson became its first clergyman, ministering to its people in rotation with those of his other charges until 1751, when he was transferred to New Haven. For eleven years after Mr. Punderson's departure the parish had no regularly officiating clergyman, but the Church was not forsaken. A lay reader furnished the old, familiar, much loved prayers and occasionally Mr. Seabury and his successor, Mr. Graves of New London, ministered to the little flock. In 1760 a subscription was raised towards defraying the expenses of Mr. John Beardsley to England for Holy Orders, and an agreement entered into with him. to become their minister on his return, for which he was to receive the annual sum of 33 pounds towards his support. He returned in 1763, remaining about five years, when he was transferred to Poughkeepsie. In 1768 a young man, John Tyler of Wallingford, by arrangement and contribution of the eighty-six members of the parish went to England for ordination, and entered upon his duties the following year. Under his ministra- tions the parish took on new life, and the close of the first year shows a record of in families, with 23 communicants. 103 St. John's Parish, North Guilford 1747- THE historical material from which this story is com- piled is first a record of christenings and secondly a record of parish meetings. In September, 1747, under the head of "A Register of the Persons who were christened according to the Litargy of the Church of England," is a "christening" by the Rev. E. Punderson. From this date until August, 1752, there were 15 persons christened by him. From 1752 till 1753 there were three christenings by the Rev. Ichabod Camp. From 1753 to 1762 there were a number of christenings by the Rev. Mr. Mansfield, Samuel Andrews, and Rev. Mr. Palmer. Of these christenings, one was of "Abigal, daughter of Tooley, Negro," another is recorded as "Peggy, Maid to Abraham Hubbard." In 1764 Rev. Bela Hubbard's name appears for the first time and on October 7 of the same year he christ- ened "Chandis, a negro belonging to Mr. E. Scranton, himself and wife being Sureties." From 1764 to 1768 we find no other names but Mr. Hubbard's, after this date a number of clergymen's names appear. Abraham Jarvis's name appears for the first time in 1771 ; he appears to have officiated at all christenings with one or two exceptions, until the year of 1784. In 1785 the Rev. James Say re officiated at all christenings. In 1786 Rev. H. Van Dyck's, Abraham Jarvis's, and Ashbel Bald- win's names are on the record, and after this date various other names appear. In 1792 we find the word Baptized instead of Christenings. The Baptismal Record is com- plete to date. IO4 In 1761 a record appears of a "Vestry" held at Lieut. John Hubbard's, at which meeting it was voted that we unite with the church people in the old Society in employ- ing the Rev. Bela Hubbard. The above is the first record of a meeting of any kind. The first that appears concerning a salary is in 1784, when it was voted to "lay a tax of one penny, farthing, on the pound to pay the Rev. Mr. Jarvis for his Ministerial Services in the year past." On June 14, 1784, it was voted to unite with the Episco- pal Church in Branford and old Guilford to "hire the Rev. Mr. Sayre and to pay him according to the Rateable lists of our Estates." It was also "voted to raise the sum of twenty pounds lawful money to pay the Rev. Mr. Sayre for his Ministerial Services one-quarter of the time Sundays and holidays, for the year ensueing," and December 12 the same year it was "voted that we will pay our rates as they are set in our rate books and not bring in our accounts for work to settle them." "Voted that Mr. Nehemiah Gris- wold and Abraham Hubbard be in the immediate use of means to collect money due the Church from Mr. Daniel Chittenden." In 1786 it was "voted the Rev. James Sayre twenty pounds for his Ministerial Services one fourth part of his time the ensueing year and also some to be paid quarterly in cash." Also "voted if the Rev. James Sayre will live in Guilford the ensueing year that we will find the half keeping of one horse and cow and half his fire wood and one quarter of his house hire." Many items of the same nature could be given. There is no record of when the first church was built, but it is recorded that it was "voted to sell it" in 1814 and to "lay out the avails on the new church." The new church was opened for services on the first Sunday in November of the same year. The church is the same as now used, with some additions and altera- tions. 105 As to relics of the Parish, we have a Bible printed in Oxford, England, and presented to the parish by the Venerable Society in England for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. St. John's Church, Bridgeport 1748. THE first church built in Stratfield 1748. The first rector was the Rev. Philo Shelton, ordained by Bishop Seabury in 1785, the first to receive Episcopal ordination in this country. His rectorship extended from 1785-1824. The first church building in Bridgeport was erected in 1801. The present building, built 1873, is the fourth of the parish holding. No records of Colonial days apart from the story of the church in Southport are now extant. St* Paul's Parish, Ripton (now Huntingdon) 1749- THE parish of Ripton, in Huntington, and the parish of New Stratford, in Monroe, were originally part of Christ Church parish, Stratford. St. Paul's Church was built about 1740. Ripton parish was set off from Christ Church parish in April, 1749. The first missioner was the Reverend Christopher Newton, one of a small number who went to England for ordination. He was ordained both Deacon and Priest in July, 1755, and was appointed Mis- sioner at Huntington the same year. Mr. Newton died in io6 1787. The Rev. Abram Lyson Clark succeeded him in 1787, and resigned in 1792, to go to Providence, R. I. He was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Seabury, the son of Bishop Seabury, who served as Rector for one year. In 1811 the old church was burned down, and the present building was begun soon after the fire and completed before Easter, 1812. Among the leading laymen of Ripton parish in its early days was Mr. Daniel Shelton, a wealthy landed proprietor, who was a sturdy opponent of the tax for the State Establish- ment, and subscribed largely for a minister in his town. It was at one time one of the leading parishes in the Dio- cese ; and there is a tradition that one of the early Rectors of Christ Church, Hartford, came to St. Paul's Church, Hunt- ington, "on his way up the ladder." So long as the town of Huntington retained its position among the towns of the State, the parish held a high position in the Diocese. When industrial conditions changed, especially after the Housatonic railroad was built, the population gravitated towards the railroad center, as elsewhere, manufactures were given up, one by one, and the town became almost entirely a farming community. The history of St. Paul's Church ran parallel with that of the town. Little by little it has declined, both numerically and financially, until now it is on the list of "aided parishes." And this record can be duplicated over and over again in the case of the Colonial parishes. We are now engaged in the usual task of the country parish, that of training the young people for life and work in the city parishes. Much of the strength of our large city par- ishes is owing, in great measure, to the faithful and efficient work of the remote and almost forgotten country church. 107 Horseneck Chapel (now Greenwich) 1749-1833. THE first Church clergyman to visit Horseneck (now Greenwich) was the Rev. George Muirson, Rector of Parish of Rye, who, about the year 1708, accompanied by Colonel Caleb Heathcote, made a missionary tour through Greenwich and Stamford, preaching and adminis- tering the Sacraments. Later on, about 1727, occasional services were held by Rev. Henry Caner, missionary at Fairfield. In 1739 Rev. James Wetmore of Rye Parish officiated over a month, and people from this place attended service at Rye. In 1748, Mr. Ebenezer Dibblee was ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and appointed Missionary to Stamford and Greenwich. He entered upon his duties on Oct. 26th of the same year. An immediate result of his work in Greenwich was the erection of Horse- neck Chapel. Writing to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, under date of Sept. 29, 1749, Dr. Dibblee stated: "I preach at Horseneck the second Sunday in each month, about six miles from Stamford ; have had some converts to the Church there, and the people have zealously exerted themselves to build a small chapel, of about 36 feet in length and 25 feet in breadth, to accommodate our assembly at these times, which they have enclosed and glazed. And if they could be favored with a Bible and Common Prayer Book for that Church, it will be a very welcome present." The request for the Bible and Prayer Book was granted, and these are now in the possession of Christ Church Parish. Horseneck Chapel was built upon the brow of the hill, afterwards made famous by the daring ride of Israel Putnam in 1778, and which since then has borne the proud title of Putnam Hill. In this little chapel, Dr. Dibblee io8 officiated regularly; and we read that the building was oft overcrowded. When the trying times of the war of the Revolution came, Dr. Dibblee remained at his post, min- istering as best he could. When the war was over, and the support of the English Society was withdrawn, the Church people of Stamford and Greenwich undertook to provide for their clergyman's maintenance, it being agreed that the former place was to have two-thirds of his service and the latter one-third. After Dr. Dibblee's death in 1799, Rev. George Rogers officiated in Stamford and held services in Horseneck Chapel. But the building was neglected, and at last in two gales in 1821 or 1823 it was unroofed and demolished. The door was preserved by some devoted church people, and half of it is now in the possession of the Rector of Christ Church. From this time to the building of the new church in 1832, and the organization of the parish of Christ Church, few if any public services of the Church were held in Greenwich. Christ, now Holy Trinity, Middletown THE first services in Middletown according to the ritual of the Church of England were held in a room (which served as a chapel for some time) in a large house which formerly stood on the north side of Washington Street, on the ground now known as "Wetmore Place," and named after the original owner. The date of these services was prior to 1730. Here the interest was created which fur- nished the "one hundred sober-minded people" which met the Rev. Mr. Punderson at his first service here in 1739. In Dr. Beardsley's history we find that at the end of the year : Fourth Hishop of Connecticut. Consecrated St. John's Church, Hartford, October 29, 1851. Lived in Midclletown. log I74 2 thirty families earnestly desired the favor of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," and that "a missionary might be sent to them," and in March, 1749, that "the raising of the church was near at hand." The then town officials having reluctantly given them liberty to build, and staked out a plot on the east end of the South Green, a little north of the head of Union Street, the building was raised, with the entrance and tower at the west end and the chancel at the east. "When the frame was completely raised, there was a shout given so long and loud, that one who lived at the time often remarked 'that it could be heard perhaps the distance of a mile.' " The tower was, in later years, blown down in the night during a September gale, and as the road then crossed the Green diagonally, the stage driver boasted the next morning that "he had driven over the Episcopal steeple." It was in this edifice, on the 2d of August, 1785, that the first Bishop met his clergy after his consecration in Scot- land. Three of the clergy (for political reasons) had removed to the British Provinces ; but eleven were present, with the Rev. Benjamin Moore of New York, and the Rev. Samuel Parker of Boston, when four persons, viz., Messrs. Henry Vandyke, Philo Shelton and Ashbel Baldwin, with Colin Ferguson of Maryland (who came on for that pur- pose), were ordained Deacons. Thomas Fitch Oliver was admitted to the same order four days afterward, and Colin Ferguson was admitted to the Priesthood. Thus in one week were both orders, for the first time in the United States, administered in this parish, known at that time and afterwards as Christ Church. The present name was authorized by an act of the Legislature in 1848. This was rendered necessary in carrying out certain provisions of the will of a most liberal benefactor of the church, Mrs. Martha Mortimer Starr, who died May 8, 1848. The first wardens were Philip Mortimer and Caleb Wetmore. no Colonial Clergy associated with Holy Trinity, Middletown REV. JAMES WETMORE (who may justly be called one of the pioneers of the Church in New England) was born, of Congregational parents, in Middletown, December 31, 1695; "entered Yale College and took the degree of A.B. in September, 1714, and of Master of Arts in 1717. He studied with Rev. Noadiah Russell for the ministry; was called in 1718 to North Haven, Conn., and in the fall of that year was ordained in the First Congrega- tional Church in that place." He continued his labors four years, when he became convinced that the ordination under which he was ministering was invalid; whereupon he, with Dr. Cutler, Rector of Yale College, Dr. Johnson, Presi- dent of King's College (now Columbia) of New York, in 1721 declared publicly their belief in the Divine origin and perpetual obligation of Episcopacy. As soon after this declaration as arrangements could be perfected, Mr. Wetmore sailed for England, where he was ordained Priest by the Rt. Rev. Edmund Gibson, D.D., Lord Bishop of London. His certificate of ordination is dated July, 1723. While there he received from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, etc., the appoint- ment of Catechist and Assistant to Trinity Church, New York, September, 1723, and at once entered upon his duties in that capacity. In 1726 he was called to the Rectorship at Rye, N. Y., and appointed thereto by the above-named Society, April 25, 1727. On October 3, 1745, he writes to the Secretary of that Society thus : "I was three weeks ago at Middletown, in Connecticut, the place of my nativity, which I have been used to visit annually while my father lived, and have not only preached among them, and baptized many children, and some adults, Ill but taken pains in connection with my relations and acquaint- ances to give them just notions of religion, and beget in them a liking for the Church of England ; and I am rejoiced to see very hopeful prospect of a good church gathering in that place, promoted chiefly by some brethren of mine." The large red two-story house, on the north side of Washington Street, standing there in 1832, upon the ground now mapped as "Wetmore Place," has been proved to be the residence of his brother Ichabod (for many years a warden of this parish), and undoubtedly the place where Mr. Wetmore first preached, baptized and taught the tenets of the Episcopal Church. In his reports to the above-named Secretary in 1735, 1736 and 1738 and 1739, he states that, in addition to his own parish, he had been doing duty at North Castle, White Plains, and Bedford, Westchester County, and Stamford, Horse Neck and Greenwich in Connecticut. His pilgrimage on earth was closed May 15, 1760. "Worthy, learned and faithful." Dr. Johnson. 112 RT. REV. ABRAHAM JARVIS was born at Norwalk, Conn., May 5 (O. S.), 1739. His father had con- formed to the Church of England two years before the birth of the future Bishop. He was, therefore, from the beginning trained to the highest office to which he was in time to be called. His early studies were pursued at Stamford, under the charge of the Rev. Noah Welles, the Congregational minister of the town, who was a noted instructor in his day. From Stamford he passed to Yale College, where he was graduated in 1761, and in the autumn of that year com- menced his services as lay reader at Middletown. Early in 1763, by tax and subscription, a sufficient sum was raised by the parish to defray his expenses to England for orders. In the autumn of 1763 he sailed with Bela Hubbard, who had studied with Dr. Johnson, reaching London in January, 1764. He received Deacon's orders from Dr. Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, February 5, and Priest's orders from Dr. Littleton, Bishop of Carlisle, in St. James's Church, West- minster, on the I9th of the same month. He sailed for home on the 2oth of April, arrived in Boston in June, and on the ist of August was settled as Rector at Middletown. His residence was located on the southwest corner of South Main and Church Streets. This property, consisting of a house and one acre of land, was conveyed to this parish as a glebe by Philip Mortimer and Widow Mary Alsop. It was sold by vote of the parish, June 13, 1809, to Thomas Mather, who erected the present house thereon, known in later years as the home of Lieutenant-Governor Benjamin Douglas, deceased. In 1780, Mr. Jarvis was invited to the charge of St. John's Church, Providence, R. I., but declined the offer. He received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from Yale College, New Haven, A. D. 1796. At a convention held at Wallingford on the 27th of February, 1787, he was RIGHT REVEREND ABRAHAM JARVIS, D.I)., LL.D. Second Bishop of Connecticut. Consecrated Trinity Church, New Haven, Sept. 18, 1797. From a water color painted by his son, Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, D.D. Owned by his grandson, Rev. S. F. Jarvis. appointed to proceed to Scotland for consecration as Bishop, but the necessity was obviated. In 1796 Bishop Seabury died, and at the convention of the diocese in May of that year, Dr. Jarvis was elected his successor, which he declined, but in the August con- vention, when he was elected by the unanimous vote of both clergy and laity, he accepted, and was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut in Trinity Church, New Haven, on the i8th day of September, A. D. 1797, by the Rt. Rev. William White, D.D., assisted by the Rt Rev. Samuel Provost, D.D., and the Rt. Rev. Edward Bass, D.D. Bishop Jarvis served his parish in Middletown two years after his consecration as Bishop in all thirty-five years. He then removed to Cheshire, where he had already placed his son at school, and built himself a house. Bishop Jarvis's episcopate covered a period of a little less than sixteen years, and extended through the time of the deepest depression of the church. Under God, however, he carried his diocese safely through the period of dis- couragement and trial, though he lived to see the first beams of a brighter day, which, after 1811, began to dawn upon the church. On the third of May, 1813, at his residence, then in New Haven, after a short but severe illness, he rested from his labors, having nearly completed his seventy- fourth year. "He was buried," says Dr. Beardsley, "in the public cemetery then recently opened ; but upon the erection of Trinity Church in that city, his remains were disinterred and deposited beneath the chancel of the edifice which he had hoped to see erected." 114 Trinity Church, New Haven 1752. THE representatives of Trinity Church, New Haven, take a very modest position on this historic occasion. We do not even know with precision the date of our birth- day as an Ecclesiastical Society. But we know that we are more than forty years younger than Stratford, the pioneer of Connecticut parishes; we know that our first church was built in 1752, although services had been held in New Haven prior to this time; and that on these grounds we can claim only the twenty-seventh place in order of precedence amongst parishes of Colonial foundation ; but there is no record of the exact date of the organization of the parish. One of the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Rev. Jonathan Arnold (a Connecticut man), was in London in 1734, and evidently hoped on his return to begin systematic work in New Haven; for he tried to obtain funds for the building of a church and parsonage in that city. He was appointed to work in Con- necticut, but at that time the influence of Congregationalism, and of its stronghold, Yale College, were unfavorable to the planting of the Church in New Haven. The latter institution had taken alarm at the secession of its president, Doctor Cutler, who with several friends had declared for Episcopacy in 1722 and the few very few scattered Church people had to encounter much opposition when they conceived the idea of building a church. They made their venture of faith, however, as above stated, in 1752, when they numbered, all told, men, women and children, but eighty-seven souls. Scarcely any one can visit New Haven, and no one can live there, without passing the site of the first Trinity TRINITY CHURCH, NEW HAVEN. First Building, 1752. Church. The humble little wooden edifice, contemptu- ously named a "reading-house" by a local historian, stood about one hundred feet north of the present post office on the other side (the east) of Church Street. It was dis- tinguished from the meeting-house of the period by its chancel and by its spire. This was the first spire built in New Haven, and was said by a vestry-man, whose enthus- iasm blinded him to a sense of the ludicrous, to symbolize "good Mother church, with one foot on the apostolic rock, and the other (!) pointing to the skies." The sentiment, however quaintly expressed, seems to have been adopted by other religious societies in New Haven, for within twenty years steeples adorned three meeting-houses in the city. If imitation is the sincerest flattery, the little Epis- copal congregation must have observed this growth with some complacency. The weather-vane on Trinity Church was in the form of a crown, but this was removed after the Revolution. The church was correctly orientated, with the altar at the east end, thus conforming to the immemorial custom of the mother country ; whether this was done by accident or design is an open question. The church was built by one Thomas Davis ; and tradition says that "when the frame of the building was raised, the heads of all the Episcopal fam- ilies in New Haven sat down on the door-sill, and spoke hesitatingly of their future growth." The workmen were taken to board by the church families in rotation ; and within a few years an aged person was living who remem- bered hearing from his grandmother that she took her turn with others in rendering this practical service to the infant parish. Missionaries of the Venerable Society, including the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, who had contributed liberally to the new building, ministered in this church until 1767, when the Rev. Bela Hubbard became the first Rector. n6 The names of many of the faithful laity are also known. Every member of Trinity parish should honor the memory of one Enos Ailing, whose sagacity, prudence, and fore- sight secured for the church a valuable endowment. A bequest of a plot of land, to be used for Ecclesiastical pur- poses, had been made some years before the church was built, by the non-resident heir of one of the early settlers. The bequest was invalid; but Enos Ailing (in those days often called "Bishop Ailing," on account of his zeal for the church), recognized the value of the land; he bought it, and transferred it in 1765 to the wardens and vestry of Trinity parish, for the sum of $1,356 a price which would now be minute considering the central situation of the property, but which then, probably, represented its fair market value. The parish prospered under Doctor Hubbard's ministra- tions. The people were poor, yet they managed to pay their debts, to afford the then rare luxury of an organ for their church in 1784, to contribute their share towards Diocesan expenses, and to provide a modest income for their Rector. In this matter they had some help from West Haven, where a part of Doctor Hubbard's time was spent. There is no record of the consecration of the original Trinity church, although Bishop Seabury visited it several times, and the first completely organized Diocesan conven- tion, with bishop, clergy, and laity, met within its walls in 1792; and five years later Bishop Jarvis was consecrated there. The building was enlarged twice, once by an addition, once by the erection of galleries ; but the congre- gation grew apace, and early in the nineteenth century the new Trinity church, the one we all know, was built on New Haven Green. It was finished and consecrated in 1816, soon after the appointment of the Rev. Harry Croswell as Rector. Three of the five bishops of our diocese are asso- ciated with this church ; the remains of Bishop Jarvis rest RIGHT REVEREND THOMAS C. EROWNELL, D.D., LL.D. Third Bishop of Connecticut. Consecrated in Trinity Church, New Haven. beneath its Chancel, and Bishops Brownell and Brewster were consecrated before its Altar. Trinity parish is still young. What is a century and a half in the history of the Catholic church the Holy Church throughout all the world, of which our diocese and our parishes form an integral part? Her members, who have the honor to represent her here to-day, can desire noth- ing better for their own or for their sister parishes than that they may be permitted to uplift the Cross during succeeding centuries, as it has been uplifted during the years that lie behind us, until the world ranks itself beneath this standard, and the Kingdom of our Lord is established. One of the founders of Trinity parish was Isaac Doolittle. The following interesting note in regard to him has been furnished by one of his descendants. Recorded in original charters in archives of La Manche, Abbey of Mont St. Michael for Benedictine monks in Diocese of Avranche, France, A. D. 1085-1087 is found the following: Ranulphus de Dolieta, Testemonio : "For forgiveness of misdeeds of himself and his predecessors and successors he grants in the time of William, King of England, to the Monks of St. Michael for the brotherhood and the prayers of St. Michael and the Monks, his servants, all the dues on his lands." Rudolph of Dolieta, a Norman noble who accompanied the Con- querer, is honored as being the progenitor of the family well known in England's annals by the prosaic name of Doolittle, so did the practical English tongue deal with the elegant Norman cognomen. The history of this family in England may be clearly traced, and it is well known among the early settlers of the American colonies. In the Revolutionary days we find that one of the family known as Isaac Doolittle had become an enthusiastic citizen of New Haven Trinity Church, of which he was a member, was the object of his warm and earnest attachment. His generous contributions greatly aided in the building of the first house of worship for the parish, and he was chosen a member of its vestry. He was a man of varied interest he was a manufacturer of brass hall-clocks, and was engaged in the business of casting bells. iiS When the Revolutionary War came he belonged to a company that made great quantities of gunpowder. This business brought upon him the disapproval of the congrega- tion of Trinity parish and he was dropped from the vestry "because he had aided the king's enemies by making powder." At the conclusion of peace, Mr. Doolittle was reinstated in the "hearts of his countrymen" and in the vestry he became one of the wardens. He was, finally, buried at New Haven, near the State House. Trinity Church, Branford 1752. IT was in the year 1748 that the Rev. Matthew Graves, missionary in New London for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, received an urgent invitation to visit the town of Branford. The invitation was accepted, and the Rev. Mr. Graves gives us a most flattering report of his first visit to our parish. He says, "I performed service at Branford to a most agreeable sight of auditors, who behaved very well, and some of the chief Presbyterians came to my lodgings and returned me thanks." This is the first church in our town of which we have a definite record; but Dr. Johnson had probably visited here before, as he writes that during the previous summer he "had preached to large numbers, both in Guilford and Branford." In 1752 a parish had been organized and the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson placed in charge. His services were however necessarily irregular, as he had, all together, the three parishes, New Haven, Guilford, and Branford, and often found difficulty in crossing the ferry, "where," says our historian, "he must often have passed the house where Governor Saltonstall, the stout champion of Congregational- ism, had lived and held services." He was succeeded by the Rev. Solomon Palmer, a native of Branford, who had, for fourteen years, been a Congrega- tional minister at Cornwall in this State, when one Sunday he surprised his congregation by declaring for Episcopacy. His labors were very acceptable to all, and he so strength- ened the little flock in Branford, that in 1776 the parish had much increased and decided to build a church and to keep Mr. Palmer as "resident minister to themselves alone." "But we now enter the clouds of the Revolution," says our historian. "It was impossible that Episcopacy could have flourished in America at that time. The names Tory and Churchman were often synonymous. The little town was alive with preparations for war, sending detachments to the field, making and storing gun-powder, and setting watches on the coast, at Branford Point, Indian Neck, and Stony Creek. In troublous times the interest in affairs of state becomes supreme and interest in religion diminishes. Obscurity settles down then over our parish until 1784, when it emerges with a great promise of strength and prosperity. The next year, we have it recorded, that the Rev. James Sayre be invited to come to Branford and open the church, that is, to have an initial service, as it were, of the new parish, for there was even then no church edifice. This same Mr. Sayre was evidently in charge of the parish during the erection of the first church building, and a few years later he speaks affectionately in a letter of his "little former flock in Branford." In December, 1784, a subscription paper was started to build the church. A part of the subcriptions was paid in labor and goods, and in due time the timber was drawn, the frame finished, and the next year a contract was given to one Jacob Tyler of Southington, to complete the church. A part of this contract was to be paid in cattle and cash I2O and a part in West India rum and dry goods. The work was now progressing rapidly, and between the months of December and May, 1786, the church was ready to be occupied. This old church was a most unpretentious edifice, being built very much after the school-house model. Dr. Beardsley, in his History of Connecticut, very aptly describes this old building, when he says that an "ill-proportioned edifice was erected in Branford and occupied as early as May, 1786." But although a homely structure, it repre- sented much devotion and toil on the part of the parish. There are many people now living who remember this quaint old church, where the Sunday school used to gather about the wide rail to be catechized by the Bishop, where the pulpit was high and stood against the wall, having a small dark robing room under it, and the altar stood just below. Over the entrance was a semicircular gallery, where the choir sang old-time music to the tones of the bass-viol, flute, and violin. For about forty years there was no way of heating the old church, but afterwards a stove for burning wood was put in, the pipe going through the window, in right primitive fashion. The seats were free, while expenses were paid by a direct tax. From this time on, the sources of the church were kept up by resident ministers and others, with some irregularity. The corner-stone of the present church was laid in April, 1851, very near the site of the old church on the green, where to this day its line of foundation stone appears through the turf. It is indeed fitting that we should join in this 2OOth cele- bration of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, for from the first rare visits of its missionaries have arisen the foundations of our church and parish, and from them has come the inestimable privilege of hearing proclaimed in our midst, the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace. 121 Christ Church, Sharon 1754- FROM the settlement of the town of Sharon in 1738-9 there had been resident here several families of the communion of the Church of England, but they were never sufficiently numerous to form a separate congrega- tion or to maintain public worship until about the year 1755; in this year, on the I4th day of April, leave was given by the town to those of that communion "to erect a church at the corner of the highways that come from the upper end of the town and the Iron works Hollow." This was at the head of the present Green. The building was erected and stood for nearly forty years. It is mentioned as a singular circumstance in regard to its construction that its external covering was a coat of mortar. Public worship was maintained in it for a number of years; the desk being supplied by missionaries sent out by the Honorable Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first of the missionaries who labored here was the Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee, whose permanent home was at Stamford, but who had the care of many of the churches in the west- ern part of the Colony. After Mr. Dibblee, the Rev. Solo- mon Palmer and the Rev. Thomas Davies had the charge of the churches of New Milford, Roxbury, New Preston, and New Fairfield. The leading churchmen in the town were Messrs. Joel Harvey, Job Gould, Elnathan Goodrich, John Pennoyer, Simeon Rowley, Samuel Hitchcock, Solomon Goodrich, and perhaps some others. At one time during his- ministry Mr. Davies reported the number of families belonging to the parish to be twenty-two and the number of communicants to be nineteen. During the Revolu- tionary War the church building was deserted, turned into 122 a barrack, and never again used as a place of worship. Mr. Richard Clark succeeded Mr. Davies in this mission and resided in New Milford until the close of the war. Extracts from Sedgwick's History of Sharon. St. John's, North Haven (1722) 1759. THE first date in the history of St. John's Parish may be said to be in the year 1722 when a few families met in the house of one Ebenezer Blakeslee, a blacksmith in accordance with the following resolution, "Agreed on by ye society that they will accept of ye house of Ebenezer Blakeslee for ye publick worship of God, until ye major part of ye society shall see cause to lay it aside." This society was only carrying on the work begun by the Rev. James Wetmore, who had been pastor of the Congregational Church in North Haven, but together with Cutler and Johnson had declared for Episcopacy in 1722, and gone to England for orders. In 1740, North Haven, Wallingford, Cheshire, and North- ford founded a "Union Church," and a rude building was erected at "Pond Hill", about a mile from North Haven center. For about seventeen years the worshippers gathered here, and then disbanded not for lack of interest, but because the growth of Episcopacy warranted the organ- izing of parishes in Wallingford and North Haven. In 1759, St. John's Parish was organized, with Ebenezer Blakeslee as senior warden. The first church was erected the following year under the ministry of the Rev. Ebenezer Punderson. The dedication took place on St. John's Day, December 27, 1761, and the church was elaborately decorated 123 with evergreens, an unusual custom then in these staid New England towns. The church was not established in North Haven without struggles and difficulties. The Churchmen were sadly in the minority, but bravely withstood the opposition which the Church of England had to fight against at that time. The Rev. Isaac Stiles, father of Ezra Stiles, Yale's well known president, spared the Churchmen here the serious troubles experienced elsewhere, on account of his conserva- tism. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, Connecticut's historian, his suc- cessor, was not as lenient, though he showed his feelings of enmity in words, not deeds. Many of his sarcastic remarks rankled in the breasts of St. John's parishioners. He it was who remarked, when he heard that the Episcopal church was to be built on some land he wanted, that "it did not matter much, he would soon have the church for a barn." It was he who called attention to the fact that the reason for the continuance of Episcopacy was the size of certain Episcopal families. There were eighty-three persons in the ten families representing St. John's Parish. The Rev. Samuel Andrews was really the founder of Episcopacy in North Haven and the surrounding towns. He went to England for ordination, returned in January, 1763, and delivered his first discourse, February 14, at St. John's Church, North Haven, to an audience of one hundred people. The music of the church at that time was most remark- able. It was under the direction of Titus Frost, a lame chair-maker, who proved himself worthy of the position. He made for the church the first piece of chancel furniture, a chair ; on the day it was presented he, together with a few friends, put it in its place, and coming back down the aisle, Titus Frost limping at the head of the procession, they all sang "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." This 124 was the first processional hymn in the history of St. John's Church. The first Episcopal visitation was by Bishop Seabury, for confirmation on October 3, 1786. This is the oldest pre- served exact date of any confirmation in the United States. The most trying period in the whole history of St. John's Church was from 1785 to 1790, after the Revolution. The Rev. Samuel Andrews and many of his parishioners were Tories, and this fact aroused a bitter feeling against the church here and elsewhere. As there were but fourteen Episcopal clergymen left in Connecticut, it was impossible for the parish to secure the services of a clergymen even for an occasional Sunday. So "lay services" were the necessity for five long years, and it was just here that Titus Frost and his choir came to the rescue and took a large share in brightening the services and keeping up the interest of the people. We are told that the music of St. John's, North Haven, was unsurpassed in the State. Chanting was introduced in 1820, and in 1832 the first organ was purchased from St. Paul's, Wallingford. It was the second of its kind brought into the State and was imported from England in 1762. Since then St. John's has prospered in spite of the hard- ships with which it has had to contend, and this prosperity is due, not only to the clergy, but to the interest shown by the laity and the harmony with which they have worked together. St. Peter's, Cheshire (1729) 1760 IN 1723, when the "West Farmers," as those living in what is now Cheshire, then a part of Wallingford, were called, formed the "new Cheshire Parish," there were thirty- three families "all of the Congregational belief" it was said. It is probable that among these were some, who at heart loved the Prayer Book and its services ; but, if we call to mind the restrictions under which Church of England people rested, and the lack of clergy, it will not seem strange that the two or three let themselves be counted in as Congrega- tionalists. To be sure the Commissioners of Charles II, in 1665, were assured that the "Colony will not hinder any from enjoying the Sacraments and using the Common Prayer Book, provided they hinder not the maintenance of the public minister," yet it was not until 1708 that any legal provision was made for such liberty. Then they were allowed "if they soberly dissented" from the Congrega- tional order to have public worship in their own way, but were still obliged to pay for the support of the Congrega- tional Church, in the places of their respective residences, and not until 1727 were they relieved from this restriction and also excused from paying taxes for building meeting- houses for the established church 'of the colony. The absence of these restrictions and the ministrations of Mr. Johnson (the only Episcopal clergyman in the colony) quickened slumbering hearts, and in 1729 we find the first written evidence of an Episcopalian in Cheshire. In that year a letter was sent from Wallingford to the Bishop of London, which closes with these words: "And now that God may bless your Lordship, and the charitable endeavors of the honorable Society and enable them to send more 126 laborers to a harvest truly plentiful, is the sincere prayer of Your Lordship's most dutiful and obedient servants." Among the fifteen signers appears the name of Matthew Bellamy, who was a resident of New Cheshire Parish from 1708 until his death in 1752, and whose name later appears among the vestrymen of the Union Church in 1740. This Union Church was built in that year at a place called Pond Hill in Wallingford, and its members lived in that place, North Haven and Cheshire. The Episcopalians in Cheshire travelled this long distance to church until 1751. Davis's History of Wallingford says: "In 1751 the Rev. Ichabod Camp formed an Episcopal Society in Cheshire, and for a time services were read by a layman named Moss." On this point Dr. Beardsley's sermon says: "Mr. Joseph Moss was one of the warmest and most zealous defenders of its worship; and to him, more perhaps than to any other layman, you are indebted for all you have been and all you are. He it was who first gathered some of his friends and neighbors in the house of Zachariah Ives and read to them the service of the Church. In 1760 he bought the ground on which the present building stands; and with the aid of Henry Brooks, Sen., Zachariah Ives, Dr. Benjamin Lewis, Amos Matthews, Ebenezer Tuttle, Moses Tuttle, and Isaac Tyler erected a small church for the accommodation of the Episcopalians in Cheshire." The deeds he gave conveying the land on which the church stands and the burial ground, are still in existence and bear the respective dates of 1765 and 1767. The first regular clergyman who ministered in this parish was, as before mentioned, the Rev. Ichabod Camp, who, returning from England after his ordination, in 1752, acted as mission- ary in Middletown, Wallingford, and Cheshire until his removal to Virginia, eight years later. In 1761, the Rev. Samuel Andrews, born in Meriden in 1737, the youngest of eight sons, returned from England 127 with the appointment of missionary to Wallingford, Ches- hire and North Haven. One fourth of the time he preached in Cheshire and the congregation increased so much under his ministry, that, in 1770 the parish proceeded to the erection of the church which answered until 1839. This building was at first without a steeple and being a square forty-two feet by forty-two feet, and very high, presented an awkward appearance. An anecodote, illustrative of this point, is told of Bishop Seabury. Being here, on a visita- tion to the parish, some one of the leading members remarked that they were contemplating erecting soon a stee- ple to their church. The Bishop looked at the building and very good naturedly replied, that he thought they "had better build a church to their steeple." Later we read that "such was their prosperity in 1795, that they enlarged this house of worship, and added the steeple." From 1770 until the break- ing out of the Revolutionary War, harmony and prosperity continued in the parish. Then, in common with many Episcopal parishes in the land, this suffered much from the persecution of those who sought to enfeeble and destroy whatever savored of the king and his country. 123 Cheshire Academy 1796. [This school is so thoroughly the result of the Colonial period, that it is has been thought best to preserve this record of its founda- tion in this place. ED.] THE history of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut is so closely interwoven with the parish history that it is most fitting mention of it should be made in this paper. The first record relating to its establishment was made in 1792, when, at the convention of the clergy, it was voted "that the several clergy make inquiry of their neighboring towns and see what can be done toward erecting an Episco- pal Academy and report at the next convention." And at a subsequent convention a committee was appointed to receive proposals from various towns and to establish the institution in that place, which should be considered by them the most eligible. They selected Cheshire, and, in 1796, the Academy was built by thirty proprietors at a cost of 702 lawful money, and by them conveyed to the Board of Trustees, to be "forever applied to the use of an Institu- tion conducted upon the principles of the Protestant Episco- pal Church." Some of these proprietors were from the Con- gregational Society ; but by far the greater majority were Episcopalians, who contributed not merely with a view to the benefit of the town, but of the Church throughout the diocese and country. That these proprietors made sacrifices in order to subscribe, is shown by the following true story. Hearing of her husband's subscription, the wife of one of these proprietors said she thought "he ought to buy some windows for his house first." It was no doubt owing to the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Ives that Cheshire responded so liberally. "It was the first 129 institution of the kind strictly belonging to the Church of England," says Dr. Beardsley, "and one of the first in the country." "The care which was shown in framing a code of laws for its temporary government and also in forming a constitution upon the most liberal and beneficial plan" proved that it was the design to erect it into a college ; and under Dr. Bowden, its first honored and accomplished Prin- cipal, chosen by the convention, the design was fostered and ripened ultimately into repeated applications to the General Assembly for an "enlargement of its charter to Collegiate powers." By referring to the seventh and eighth articles of the original constitution, we find that the principal and his assistant were required to teach "the English Lan- guage, Philosophy, Mathematics, and every other science usually taught at colleges; likewise the dead languages, such as Greek and Latin. And whenever the finances of the Academy will admit, the Trustees shall procure an Instructor in the French language, purchase a Library and Philosophical apparatus at their own discretion." The Academy seems to have made encouraging progre'ss and its merits had begun to attract the attention of Church- men in all parts of the country the number of students consequently increasing, when an unexpected shock was given to the friends of the Institution by the resignation of Dr. Bowden. Among the efforts made to increase the funds one then regarded as perfectly consistent with the dictates of Chris- tian morality was a petition to the General Assembly for a lottery to ra'ise the sum of 4,00x3. In 1802, an act was finally passed, granting a lottery, to raise the sum of $15,000. After considerable delay, and no little loss in the sale of tickets, the managers closed their drawings, and the net proceeds amounted to $12,000. There is now, at the Academy, a book containing unsold lottery tickets, and among our Parish records, dated 1803, is the following: 9 130 "On motion that two tickets in the Episcopal Academy Lot- tery be purchased by subscription Agreed to and money advanced." A list of names and subscriptions amounting to $10, follows, with this statement : "With the above Cash two Tickets were accordingly purchased, No. 4741 and No. 4742." During Dr. Bronson's term as Principal, young ladies were admitted to the Academy and many came from other towns to receive instruction here. Among them was one, Mrs. Polly Logan Ford, of Washington, Ct., who so far as known was the oldest living "E. A. C." at the time of her death, Feb. 28th, 1901. Of the later history of the Academy, not properly belong- ing to this paper, reference need only be made to its several new and commodious buildings, its long and honored list of graduates, to prove that those who labored for its establish- ment builded wisely and well, and that the object for which the Academy was started has not been forgotten, its pro- moters still believing "that the greatest good that can be done is to educate the heart in accordance with the teachings of the Divine Law." Christ Church, Tashua 1760. THE history of Christ Church, Tashua, is not merely of local interest, but must be interesting to the whole diocese, because Tashua was a part of the first parish in this colony. In writing this short history, I am indebted to an old book of records, still in possession of the parish, dating back to 1787, and an old parish register, also to an historical sermon, preached by Rev. David B. Sanford, the rector, on the occa- sion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the consecration of the present church building. From these sources I have endeavored to cull and present in the briefest form possible the most important facts connected with the life of this parish the hundred years and more since the first church building was erected and consecrated on these sacred grounds. The first Episcopal parish was established in the village of Stratford in 1707, and this was the only church of our communion in this colony for some years.* I will speak incidentally here of the new era that dawned upon our church in 1718, when friends in England sent a donation of books to Yale College. These books treated with great ability of Episcopacy and of other distinctive doctrines. They were eagerly read and the result was that the presi- dent, Dr. Cutler, the tutor, Mr. Brown, and a former tutor, Mr. Johnson, with one other minister, Mr. Wetmore, declared for Episcopacy, and soon went to England to take orders. Mr. Johnson returned and settled in Stratford as rector of the Episcopal church, in 1723. The town of Stratford then embraced the present towns of Stratford, * See Appendix A. 132 Huntington, Monroe, Trumbull, and Bridgeport. In 1746 Rev. Dr. Johnson organized the parish of St. Paul's, Ripton, now Huntington, and he officiated there four Sundays in the year; and his son, a lawyer, read service at other times. In 1748 they petitioned the venerable English "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," for a clergyman. I will state here that Rev. Dr. Johnson was the first president of King's College and his son the first president of Columbia College. In 1750 the society sent over to Rip- ton Rev. Christopher Newton. A letter of his to the Vener- able Society, dated 1760, is interesting as containing the account of the founding of the parish at Tashua, then called North Stratford. In speaking of his labors, he says : "I have reason to think there has been good effect on a number of families about eight and ten miles from Ripton, to whom I have often preached and of late they have been more ready to hear than formerly and seem to be religiously disposed and sensible of the importance of attending public worship. They have accordingly built a church thirty-six feet long and twenty-six feet wide and in about six weeks so far finished it that we met in it for public worship. A large congregation attended." This was the first of the three church buildings that have been erected here. It was seated with rough slab boards and probably never plastered, for twenty-seven years afterward a committee was appointed to attend to this, but probably nothing was done because measures were taken soon after for the erection of a new church. The first building stood within the present church yard near the north gate. The first grave was dug in the church yard in 1766, six years after the erection of the church. It was the grave of Mrs. Eleanor Morrow. The gravestone of black slate is still standing near the north gate. The grave was probably dug directly in the rear of the church. Mr. Newton says : "These people live at a great distance from public worship; and others, it seems by their conduct, 133 chose to spend the Sabbath in ^hunting and unnecessary visits, and these are not only dilatory in religious matters, so that many of them live but little above the Indians, and are destitute of the comforts of life. This melancholy pros- pect influenced some that were able to build a church as one declared to me, who had been a professor of the church for some years, that he thought it his duty to expend part of his estate in building a church to prevent their becoming heathens. These people," he adds, "since have attended worship and seem very highly to prize the worship of the church, and have desired me to take the care of them and I have preached every fourth Sunday to them." The mis- sionary asked of the Propagation Society, in conclusion, an additional allowance for the labor and expense of coming hither from Ripton every fourth Sunday. They granted him 10 per year, which was continued probably to the close of the year 1782, or twenty-two years, making the sum of 220, or about $750, which was bestowed upon this parish in its infancy by their Christian brethren across the Atlantic. Of the missionary himself, the Rev. Dr. Johnson, then rector of Stratford, writes in the highest terms as laborious and worthy. The first Episcopal clergy labored zealously to gather the neglected and scattered. They preached in school houses and private houses and visited from house to house. They catechized the children, distributed tracts, Prayer Books, Bibles, and other religious books received from the Society in England. They were very successful, for as early as 1760 there were in Connecticut thirty Episcopal churches and fourteen clergymen. Three of these churches and two of the clergymen were within the ancient limits of the town of Stratford. In 1762 Rev. Mr. Newton writes to the Venerable Society in England that he has reason to bless God that seriousness, peace, and charity appear to prevail in two parishes; that he has at North Stratford and Stratfield about thirty com- municants and about one hundred at Ripton. 134 , The present parish of St. John's, Bridgeport, and, of course, all of the Bridgeport parishes, grew out of the little mission station at Stratfield, which is here spoken of as con- taining together with this parish, then called North Strat- ford, thirty communicants. North Stratford parish then embraced the ground now covered by Tashua and Long Hill parishes and part of the parish of Monroe. There was no separate parish at Monroe until after the year 1800. The old Stratfield church stood about a mile and a half northwest of the present St. John's Church, Bridgeport, and near the old town line of Stratford and Fairfield. That church remained there until 1802. Soon after the Revolu- tionary War and the death of Rev. Mr. Newton, the station at Stratfield was connected with Fairfield church and so remained until 1827. In July, 1762, our parish sent to the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel a letter of thanks for their gift of a folio Bible and Prayer Book, for the use of their church, and also for small Bibles and Prayer Books and Catechisms, and for the frequent and very acceptable administrations of Mr. Newton, who, notwithstanding the distance of eight miles on a bad road, and the excessive cold in winter and heat in summer, has been very constant for several years, in admin- istering the Lord's Supper to them once in two months, and performing divine service once in four Sundays, and in catechizing and instructing their children. The large Bible and Prayer Book are still in the possession of the parish, and are in good condition. The Bible was printed in London in 1750, the Prayer Book in 1760. There are in the Prayer Book four petitions added in the Litany, three for King George and one for "Queen Charlotte, Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family" ; over these were pasted in later years the petitions "That it may please thee to endue 135 the Governor and Rulers of this state with grace, wisdom, and understanding. "That it may please Thee to bless and keep the judges and other magistrates, giving them grace to execute justice and to maintain truth." There are also special services of prayer and thanks- giving: one "For the happy deliverance of King James and the Three Estates of England, from the most traitorous and bloody massacre by gunpowder; and also for the happy arrival of his Majesty, King William, on this day, for the deliverance of our church and our nation" ; another to be used January 3Oth, "being the day of the martyrdom of the Blessed King Charles the First" ; one for May 29th, a thanksgiving for the restoration of the Royal Family; and also one for the day on which his "Majesty began his happy reign." The constitutions and canons are specially interest- ing, showing the quaint customs of those days. One on the dress of the clergy reads, "That all ecclesiasti- cal persons shall usually wear in their journeys cloaks with sleeves commonly called priest's cloaks, without guards, welts, long buttons, or cuffs. And no ecclesiastical person shall wear any coif or wrought night-cap, but only plain night-caps of black silk, satteen, or velvet. In private houses and in their studies, the said persons ecclesiastical may use any comely and scholar-like apparel, provided that it be not cut or pinct ; and that in public they go not in their doublet and hose, without coats or cassock; and that they wear not any light-coloured stockings. Likewise poor beneficed men and curates (not being able to provide them- selves long gowns) may go in short gowns of the fashion aforesaid." The canon on the duty of school-masters show how in those days they combined the religious and secular education of the children. It reads as follows: "All school-masters shall teach in English or Latin, as the children are able to 136 bear, the larger or shorter catechism heretofore by public authority set forth. And as often as any sermon shall be upon holy and festival days within the parish where they teach, they shall bring their scholars to the church where such sermons shall be made, and there see them quietly and soberly behave themselves ; and shall examine them at times convenient after their return, what they have borne away of such sermons. "Upon other days, and at other times, they shall train them up with such sentences of holy scriptures, as shall be most expedient to induce them to all Godliness; and they shall teach the grammar set forth by King Henry the Eighth and continued in the times of King Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth of noble memory, and none other." The book concludes with the whole Book of Psalms collected into quaint English metre. In 1764, Rev. John Beach writes from Newtown: "My congregation at Redding has increased very little for some years past, by reason that many who were wont to attend there, tho' living at a distance of six, eight, or ten miles, have lately built the small churches nearer to them, where they can more conveniently meet, viz, Danbury, Ridgebury, North Fairfield, and North Stratford, which has very much retarded the growth of the congregation at Redding. For- merly people attended church at Redding, from such a dis- tance, that they were obliged to frequently come to the place on Saturday night and stay at the house of their brethren, in order to have the privilege of attending church on the Lord's day." The North Fairfield church was the one aftenvards known as the Gilbert-town Church, since divided into the present parishes of Easton and Weston. The parishes of Tashua and Easton are now connected under one rector. 137 Rev. Mr. Newton wrote to the Venerable Society in 1766 that his parishes are increasing notwithstanding the perils of the times. The perilous time to which he refers was occa- sioned by the Stamp Act and other measures of the British government which soon after caused the American Revolu- tion. The attachment of the Episcopal clergy and people to the old country was strong, and they were much indebted there for assistance in the support of the Gospel, and so the difficulty of those times pressed most heavily upon the faith- ful in the historic church. Another hindrance to the growth of the church at that time was the fact that candidates had to go to England to be ordained, and few were able to bear the expense, and as many as one in ten of those who undertook the voyage died before they could return. Petitions for a Bishop were una- vailing because the Bishops of England could not consecrate a Bishop from abroad without the consent of Parliament, and that was withholden in deference to the remonstrances of the standing order of Congregationalists in New England. New York and Connecticut petitioned for Bishops in 1766, and one mentioned was Rev. Christopher Newton, of this church. It is needless to say that no Bishop was granted the American church until after the Revolution. Rev. Mr. Sanford writes : "I have been able to find no report from Mr. Newton later than 1766, but he survived the Revolution and continued probably to serve this parish and Ripton until 1785, for in the parish accounts there is a record of the appointment of a committee to settle with the heirs of the Rev. Mr. Newton for services rendered. That committee was appointed in 1787, and Mr. Newton must have died in or before that year." I will say here that we are indebted to Rev. David P. Sanford for many of the statistics furnished here, not to be found elsewhere. He must have had recourse to documents not now available. -138- Soon after Mr. Newton's death, Rev. Abraham L. Clark, who was ordained by Bishop Seabury in 1786, came to this parish, and was engaged to serve one third of this time during his life. In 1788, it was voted to build a new church by subscrip- tion and Capt. Abel Hall, Nathan Summers, and David Mallett were appointed a building committee. Amos Van Nostrand was appointed to draw plans for the new church. It was not to exceed fifty feet in length and thirty feet in breadth and twenty-four feet in height. There were to be twenty- four windows of 6 x 8 glass, thirty panes in each window. The next spring they obtained land for the church on the north side of the highway. The church was built there and remained until the present edifice was erected. The same year it was voted to call this parish Trinity Church. In June, 1790, the pew-spots were sold at auction, each buyer to build his pew within a year. The pews were to be in uniform style, as in the North Fairfield meeting-house. There were sixteen square pews next to the wall going around the building, except where there were doors, gallery stairs and chancel. There were doors on three sides, the chancel on the south side, and a tower and spire were built on the west end. In the body of the church there were long open seats free to all. The original purchasers of the pew spots were Henry Beardsley, Josiah Sanford, Isaac Wakelee, Zachariah Mal- lett, Nathan Summers, Andrew Lyon, William Prince, George Chambers, Zachariah Beach, Joseph Mallett, John Edwards, Capt. Abel Hall, William Osborn, and Agur Edwards. The church was completed in 1790. Rev. Mr. Clark con- tinued in charge until 1792, when he accepted a call to St. John's Church, Providence, R. I. He was undoubtedly a man of note in his day. 139 The first convention of this diocese of which there is any record was in 1792. This parish was represented by Capt. Abel Hall. After this Rev. Ashbel Baldwin officiated here every third Sunday for many years. He was one of the three ordained by Bishop Seabury at the first ordination held in this country in 1785. He was a talented man with a powerful voice, and was called a popular preacher. He was prominent in both diocesan and general conventions. He officiated here regularly until 1815, and at intervals until 1828. A history that carries one into the remote regions of the past must ever be interesting to all men, and especially is it interesting to all Christians, when it recounts the triumph of Christianity from an early date to the present time. The charm of this narrative lies in the fact that it portrays a continuous progress which the historic Church made in a time when there was a deep seated prejudice against her, amounting almost to hatred, on account of her connection with the mother country, then at arms against the American colony. We are thankful to-day that she has weathered the gale, and that by her good works, her beauty and her holiness, she is making a steady advance in winning the love of the American people ; and that she is constantly gaining ground and preparing to take her proper position as "The American Church." 140 St. James's, Danbury 1762. early history of this parish, gathered from various J- sources, is substantially as follows. In 1727 the Rev. Henry Caner, a graduate of Yale, went to England for Holy Orders, and on his return in the autumn of that year, became a missionary to Fairfield. He sought out the Churchmen in the adjacent regions, and in his first report to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in the year 1 728, he mentions a village to the northwest of Fairfield, about 18 miles, containing 20 families. This is Chestnut (now Red- ding) Ridge. He also mentions Ridgefield and Danbury, and visited these places where he found ten or fifteen families professing the doctrines of the Church of England. About 1763 the first church building was erected in Dan- bury and on its partial completion was opened by the Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee, a native of Danbury, and a missionary to Stamford and Greenwich. Occasional services were held here by the Rev. Mr. Learning and the Rev. Mr. Beach of Newtown. In 1769 the missionary at Newtown speaks of the new church at Danbury as "with a decent steeple, and large enough to accommodate 400 to 500 people." This "decent steeple" was given by John McLean, a notable citi- zen of Danbury. In 1777, at the burning of Danbury, Gen- eral Tryon and his troops took the military stores from the church and burned them, but saved the sacred edifice. In 1797 the Rev. David Perry of Ridgefield resigned the pas- toral charge of Ridgefield, Redding, and Danbury. The Rev. David Butler succeeded him and the Rev. Elijah G. Plum was rector from 1808 to 1812. On October 6th, 1802, the church was consecrated by Bishop Jarvis. This build- ing was occupied until 1844, when it was abandoned and a new building erected on the site of the present fine stone church. Hi Christ Church, Hartford 1762. THE Colonial history of Christ Church, Hartford, which I set out to write, appears upon investigation not to exist, strictly speaking. Until a number of years after the Declaration of Independence there was no church building, no Rector, not even a regular supply, and only a very weak and temporary parochial association. The story of that associa- tion such as it was consists principally of a none too edifying struggle with the established Congregationalism. A struggle graphically depicted in a certain local legend con- cerning the erection of the first Church building. Even in Connecticut, after a scant three hundred years of occupation, we have our own legends, well worthy of preservation and far more easy to remember than the dislocated dry bones of historical details. Thus runs this story, told to me years ago by an old resident of Hartford : Near the end of the i8th century the Episcopalians of our city became numerous enough to undertake building a church. They bought a lot on the west side of Main Street, including what is now the head of Church Street, as well as the site of the present church, and being too poor to hire help, such of the men as owned wagons hauled stones all day to build a foundaticfn. By evening enough for the purpose were deposited on the proposed sight, the volunteer teamsters retired to rest well satisfied, and planning to convert them- selves into stone masons on the morrow. Then the outraged Congregationalists took their turn, hitched up their wagons, and spent the whole night in hauling the stone to the bank of the big river and dumping it into the channel. Next morning not one stone was to be found, and the intended builders deemed it prudent to postpone their design for a period of years. 142 This legend like most others while not strictly accord- ant with the facts of authentic history, does fully express their spirit, and that in a far more concise and picturesque form than the real story, which, nevertheless, I am here bound briefly to repeat. Some have thought that almost from the first a few mem- bers of the Church of England were included in Hooker's colony, since some thirty years after its foundation certain citizens appealed to the General Assembly for relief ; setting forth that inasmuch as the pastors of the neighboring churches refused alike to baptize their children and admit themselves to the Communion, they, the petitioners, prayed to be no longer obliged by law to contribute toward the support of said pastors, who were no pastors to them. Whether they were so relieved I know not. Tolerated at least they were, since about an hundred years later, in 1762, they had gained sufficiently in actual numbers, and even more essential point in the estimation of their fellow towns- men, to contemplate the organization of a parish. At that time Hartford, notwithstanding her official prominence, stood numerically below many other towns in the state, the population dwelling within what are now the city limits num- bering less than two thousand souls. A small village that would make to-day. Being so small and at the same time such a stronghold of Congregationalism, the S. P. G. declined to assist the infant association as it assisted the other parishes in the state, alleging that more good could be done elsewhere; so, although a church site had been purchased, a stone foundation prepared, two-thirds of the necessary support subscribed and not only the few communicants but a number of dissenters as well were described as "very zealous" in the cause matters progressed no further than occasional services held and sacraments performed by the missioners from Simsbury and Middletown. Naturally enthusiasm waned, sympathizers dropped away, then, as the agitation against the mother country increased, 143 political animosity joined hands with ecclesiastical against her church, until services ceased altogether, not only in Hartford but elsewhere, because it was judged too dangerous to hold them. Now the famous stones had been left on that Main street lot much longer than overnight, so a certain well-to-do, influ- ential, and bigoted Congregationalist, having acquired a doubtful title to a portion of the land, carted off, assisted by a mob, the building stone, not indeed to dump into the river, but to make for himself a cellar. This aroused some of the dormant churchmen : he was charged with trespass, the case carried to several courts, and, doubts having risen about the influence of the trespasser, finally decided in favor of the church. Then, when the colonies were really free, and the Tories amongst whom to be just one must number most American churchmen no longer formed a danger to the state, public opinion became more mild, a larger association was estab- lished in Hartford, and, after considerable financial diffi- culty, a small wooden church was finished in 1795 and a resident rector secured in 1801. That is now 100 years ago. In this century's time Christ Church has inhabited three houses of worship, each much larger than its predecessor, while substantially on the same ground ; has given six of her rectors to the Episcopate, and is acknowledged the "mother church" of all the parishes in the city. A century ago our dissenting neighbors carried off our building stone to make themselves houses thereof : now they adopt copious selections from our ritual to decorate their service withal ; and imitation ancient wisdom assures us is the sincerest flattery. [Facts taken almost entirely from, and in no case contradicted by, Dr. Russell's History of the Parish. F. W. C.] 144 * Extracts from a historical sermon preached in Christ Church, Hartford, Conn., by Rev. Hermann Lilienthal, M.A., February 9, 1902. The beginnings of Christ Church parish date back to 1762, when the Rev. Thomas Davies, a graduate of Yale, and a missionary of the S. P. G., was invited to hold a service in Hartford. This he did some time between January and April, and in October of this same year certain adherents of the Church of England associated them- selves together, and for 80 bought a piece of land on what is now the northeast corner of Church street. Stones were purchased, and a foundation was laid for a church, but a period of depression set in, and the few Episcopalians found themselves unable to raise money sufficient to erect a church. Further, they had to contend with the bitter prejudice of Congregationalists and Presbyterians, who were strongly opposed to what they deemed "prelatical" churches, and hindered their establishment by all means possible. To add to the distress of this little band, one of them illegally sold the lot that had been bought, and the purchaser, relying on his legal rights, entered the property, "broke up the foundations of the church, and carried away the stones, which he used for the foundation of a house he was then building." The land eventually was restored in 1785 to the "professors of the Episcopal Church," but not until they had paid 60 additional for renewed possession. Christ Church, Easton 1763. THERE are very few records of the early history of the old Gilbert-town Church, as the old church in Easton was called. The record reads as follows : "At a general assembly of the Governor and company of His Majesties English Colony of Connecticut holden at New Haven in said colony on the 2nd Thursday of October Anno Domini 1761, Whereas, upon the memorial of John Gilbert and others, inhabitants of the parish of Greenfield and of the parish of 145 Stratfield and North Stratford, all in the county of Fairfield, praying to be made a distinct ecclesiastical society. The General Assembly holden at Hartford in May, 1762, did appoint Comfort Starr, Richard Fairman, and Joseph Clatt, Esq. a committee to repair to and view the circumstances of the memorialists and make report to this assembly, which committee have reported that the inhabitants being within the following bounds and limits," the record goes on to give the exact bounds of the parish. "Resolved by this Assem- bly, That the memorialists and all other inhabitants living within the limits and boundaries aforementioned be and they are hereby made and constituted a distinct ecclesiastical society, with all the powers, privileges and immunities by law belonging to the other ecclesiastical societies in this col- ony, and shall be called and known by the name of the society of North Fairfield." The church building was raised November, 1762. The parish was organized as early as 1763 under the care of the London Missionary Society, and was supplied with minis- terial services by it for about 20 years. Rev. Philo Shelton, the first Episcopal minister ordained in the United States, was then called as rector in 1784 and continued until 1818. The first church edifice was a rude structure and was never completely finished. It was never plastered in the inside and never painted. It had large galleries on three sides and in early days was always filled. It stood until about 1850. There are a few people still living in what was then North Stratford, now Tashua parish, who can remember going in large sleigh loads to the Gilbert-town Church to Illumination, as the Christmas eve service was called. The church was decorated with Christmas greens and lighted throughout with candles ; candles being arranged in all the small panes of glass of the windows above and below the galleries, mak- ing the church beautiful without and within. It was known as the North Fairfield Episcopal Church at Gilbert-town. 146 In 1873 a new chapel was built near the academy at Easton center, the old parish having been divided into Easton and Weston parishes. The chapel at Easton has always been rather a missionary station than an independent parish. It has a fund which was given as a memorial of the Rev. Philo Shelton, first rector of the church from 1784 to 1812. This chapel is open every Sunday for service and is kept in good repair. The exterior is being painted this summer. St. Andrew's, Northford, 1763 (No paper.) St. Peter's, Oxford 1764 (1769) IT appears from the records of Derby that before 1764 Episcopal services were held in Oxford, and that it was regarded as a Mission of the Parish of Derby, and that the minister from Derby either went to Oxford occasionally or sent a supply. In 1764 it was decided to make this mission into a parish, giving it the name of S. Peter's Parish. The Rev. Richard Mansfield assisted in forming the parish. At first services were held in private houses, but before long a small church was built on "Governor's Hill." Land was given to the Episcopal Society by Joseph Davis of Derby, and in 1770 the church was completed and service held. A cemetery was also prepared by the side of the church on Governor's Hill. In 1832 the first church was taken down and removed to the Green, and when built was a much more suitable build- ing than the former one. In 1835 the parish was visited by Bishop Brownell and the church was then dedicated by him. The Rev. Chas. Smith was rector at the time of the visit by Bishop Brownell. 147 Christ Church, Watertown 1764. WATERTOWN was originally a part of Waterbury (Waterbury included the whole or parts of seven of the now surrounding towns, and was considered suffi- ciently large to support thirty families). For many years no settlements were made in the outlying country, the danger from Indians leading the people to settle closely together ; but later, as the colony grew stronger, some of the descendants settled within the limits of the present Water- town, and, in 1739, a society was organized by the name of Westbury. In 1759 the Rev. James Scovill was sent by the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to the Waterbury Mission. He resided at Waterbury and offici- ated one-half of the time there and the other half at North- bury and New Cambridge (now Plymouth and Bristol). Family tradition states that Mr. Scovill was born at West- bury, in the part called Nova Scotia Hill. He was educated at Yale and went to England for ordination. Through the labors o Mr. Scovill, the number of Churchmen within the limits of his mission so greatly increased that a separate parish was formed in Westbury. This was in 1764, when twenty people agreed to hold worship in Westbury on those Sundays when there was no preaching in Waterbury, and also to make arrangements to erect an Episcopal church in Westbury. They met in the house of James Doolittle in winter, and of Ensign David Scott in the summer. In the following May, 1765, the first Episcopal church was erected, on a piece of ground donated for the purpose, by Capt. George Nichols of Waterbury. It was near the present old cemetery, the business part of the town being 148 in that locality years ago. The building was 45 by 36 feet, with a steeple. In the latter part of October it was so far completed, that services were held in it. It was named Christ's Church. The Rev. Samuel Andrews delivered the dedicatory sermon. An arrangement was made by which Mr. Scovill was to officiate every sixth Sunday. This con- tinued until 1771, when the parish had grown so strong that a new arrangement was made. Mr. Scovill agreeing to give one-third of his time to the Westbury Mission. The society continued to prosper, and in 1773 .they finished the lower part of the church, together with the pulpit, chan- cel, canopy, etc. ; but they never entirely completed the building, for the war between the mother country and the colonies began, and most of the Episcopal clergy in Connec- ticut suffered they being opposed to the war. A Presby- terian deacon said publicly, "that if the colonies carried their point, there would not be a church (English) in the New England States." The windows of Christ's Church were demolished and the principal members were confined to their farms, and not allowed to attend public worship. There is a tradition that Mr. Scovill was imprisoned in his barn for several weeks, to escape persecution as a Tory. He had the courage to stay with his people through the war, though it is believed he did not preach. After the war, the church people were much discouraged, but in a few years they again pros- pered and built another church. The present Christ's Church was built in 1854, and the parish continues to prosper. 149 St. George's (now St. Peter's) Church, Milford 1764. r I ^HE story of the church in Milford during the Colonial JL period is the story of a struggle with adverse circum- stances. The first glimpse of the field in this town is given us in a letter written September 22, 1736, to the Secretary of the Society by the Rev. Thomas Arnold, an itinerant missionary, in which he reports : "Last Sunday I performed divine ser- vice in Milford, one of the most considerable towns in Connecticut Colony, where the use of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the ten Commandments, or the reading the Scrip- ture in divine service was never before known. There was a very numerous auditory, most attentive and desirous to be instructed in the worship of the Church of England. Those who are looking toward the Church are commonly the poorer sort of people." On January 27, 1764, Edward Allen and thirty others from Milford, being desirous to worship God according to the established form of the Church of England, drew up and signed an obligation taxing themselves one penny upon the pound on the list of 1763, to be appropriated to the use of procuring and supporting the reading of divine service in Milford. An additional sum of eleven pounds was also subscribed for the same object. As a result of the above subscriptions, Mr. Richard Clark, a gentleman of liberal education, and a candidate for Holy Orders, was engaged to read divine service at the rate of twenty pounds per annum. At a meeting held July 26, 1765, it was agreed by way of donation to have Mr. Clark board around among the Church people, remaining quarterly with each family. An applica- tion to the Society to have Mr. Clark appointed with a salary _i 5 o as catechist at Milford is declined, by the Rev. Dan Burton, in a well-preserved letter now on file among the church papers in Milford. In October, 1765, St. George Talbot, a charitable and well-to-do layman of New York, came to Milford and gave his note for four hundred pounds to the professors of the Episcopal church, payable to them at his decease, on condi- tion that they erect a house for the purpose of public worship, which they did in June, 1770, and named it St. George's Church, in memory of the donor. Though at this time the building was merely enclosed and provided with windows, lay reading, by Mr. Tingley of New York, was provided under the direction of Dr. Johnson. In 1774 Dr. Kneeland of Stratford took charge of the parish and officiated every fifth Sunday until November, 1776, when Dr. Johnson became rector. At a meeting of the Wardens and Vestry and other mem- bers of the parish, in March, 1775, authority was given to any member to build a pew, of which "he must keep a just and true account, and might use the pew for the interest of his money. If disposed to sell, the wardens or vestry were to have the prior right to purchase at the original cost. If they refuse to purchase, then any member might have the opportunity. In the month of March, 1775, the church building was dedicated by the Rev. Bela Hubbard of New Haven, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Kneeland and the Rev. Richard Mansfield of Derby, and a numerous auditory was convened on that occasion. A severe disaster now befell the little struggling church. Mr. Talbot died and a large portion of his bequest was paid in depreciated continental money to Major David Baldwin, a warden, who did not dare to refuse the same for fear of personal abuse, and a large sum was lost to the church. The name of the church was thereupon changed to St. Peter's. From 1776 to 1786 during the Revolutionary War, there was seldom any assembling in the church either for prayer or for preaching, and matters were in a very depressed con- dition. In 1786 the Rev. Henry Van Dyke officiated one year, succeeded by the Rev. John R. Marshall, both zealous missionaries of the Society. From this time to the close of the century we find very little more of interest to record. I will close by mentioning the fact that in building the new beautiful stone church of St. Peter's in 1848, respect and honor to the memory of Dr. Johnson were shown by placing a full-length representation of him in the stained glass win- dow in the chancel. Trinity Church, Brooklyn 1770. THE history of Trinity Church, Brooklyn, is one of many vicissitudes. Its beginning in 1769-70 was a protest against the tyranny of the local establishment, which tried to compel Colonel Malbone, a landholder and a mem- ber of the Church of England, to pay taxes for the building of a new meeting-house. His assessment was two hundred pounds, an eighth of the entire cost. Such a sum was an outrageous, though legal, imposition. He protested against the demand, but was answered, "Build we shall, and you shall bear your part. You Churchmen make us pay elsewhere, and you shall pay here." He resorted to the only possible measure of relief, by himself building a church; as a Colonial law would then permit the Society taxes to go for the support of Church services. Some twenty heads of families were secured, all persons of moderate circumstances, 1 5 2 who signed a declaration of conformity to the Church of England, with the condition that Col. Malbone would build a Church, and get a missionary established. Thus, in November, 1769, this parish was organized. Considerable help was given from abroad ; one of the people gave a lot. The plan was from a recollection of other edi- fices, especially King's Chapel, Boston. Col. Malbone calls it "neat, plain, and elegant," 46 by 30 feet. It was raised in June, 1770, and the work went on with fair speed to completion. The chief burden fell on Col. Malbone, a heavy one, as he was determined to have no debt, and was often seriously distressed to meet the payments. However he struggled on, the building was finished, and entirely paid for. He named it Trinity Church, for his old Parish Church of Trinity, Newport, R. I. The altar was at the east wall of the church. The pulpit surmounted by a sounding board, and the reading desk and clerk's desk were a third down the alley. The Bible was a folio Baskett edition of 1759, and is still in perfect preservation, and used at all services in the church. While the church was building, Colonel Malbone read the service on Sundays in his own house, with a ser- mon, substituting for the Absolution, a prayer from the Commination Office. He apologizes for invading the sacred office of the priesthood by pleading the need of instructing the new pledged Churchmen in the service, "most of them being as ignorant of it, as so many Iroquois." He dis- tributed devotional books, "especially those preparatory to the Lord's Supper." In February, 1771, one of the services held in Mr. Ashcraft's house (still standing), so many came they were obliged to sit in each others laps, "an infant congregation lusty for its age." April 1 2th, 1771, the church was formally opened by Rev. Mr. Tyler of Norwich, Rev. Samuel Peters of Hebron present and assisting. The sermon was on the Sanctity of the Christian Temple. Mr. Tyler remained several days, 153 and on one of them baptized the infant daughter of the church warden, Dr. Walton; some outsider made a rhyme on the occasion of which the following is a verse: Last Wednesday sen'night don't be surprised Miss Polly Walton was baptized. The good old Colonel sponsor stood, T' insure the infant should be good. His lady too and Mrs. Aplin All did their parts, so did the Chaplain. Through five months following, Parson Tyler, as he was called, officiated occasionally; the rest of the time Colonel Malbone himself. It was difficult to procure a missionary. The Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had determined some years before not to establish any new missions in New England, but finally by the urgency of Malbone's friends, Dr. Caner and the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Egerton, they granted a stipend of thirty pounds if the people would raise as much more. In September, 1771, a Rev. Mr. Mosely applied for the place, but "his manners were too free to be suitable." In his stead, Rev. Dr. Caner and the worthy Mr. Learning and others recommended the Rev. Daniel Fogg, who was then officiating as assistant to Dr. Caner in Bath, North Carolina. Mr. Fogg came in April, 1772. There were twenty-five families belonging to the church then, and their number steadily increased until the Revolution. The Church was closed during that time. Mr. Fogg and his brethren could not omit the prayers for the Royal Family, on account of their Ordination vows. Services were con- ducted, however, throughout the war in Colonel Malbone's house in the presence of a few persevering Church people. There were thoughts of putting a stop to these services, but Colonel Malbone being popular with his neighbors, and taking no part in the contest, they let him alone. Near the close of the war, 1782, the missionary petitioned the -154 Assembly for leave to go to New York to collect the seven years arrearages of his missionary stipend. It was not given him. When the war was ended, the clergy were absolved from the claims of English allegiance and pub- lic services were resumed. The Church had one firm supporter in the founder, Colonel Malbone, but he could do little more than give the minister a home. The friends of the Church were few, and his support was scanty. In 1785, Colonel Malbone died, seemingly near a death-blow to all hopes of continuance. He was a man of great strength of intellect and very highly cultivated. Numerous anecdotes of Malbone's eccentricities have floated down the stream of time. Tradition says that once when called upon to attend a dissenting meeting, he caused twelve oxen to be yoked to a sled, their horns decorated with ribbons, a slave with each yoke of oxen, and he himself rode in state to the meeting- house, mounted in a chair upon the sled. At another time he received a deputation of some village people, who came to give him some orders as to his conduct, by placing himself between them and marching them up to a mirror saying: "Look here, Do you suppose the Almighty made such as you to lord it over me?" They slunk away in silence, and troubled him no farther. He was always ready to befriend a needy neighbor. Someone in his presence expressed much sympathy for a poor man who had lost his cow. How much are you sorry? His informant hesitated, "Well, I am sorry twenty dollars," he said, taking the amount from his pocket- book. After the death of Colonel Malbone, Mr. Fogg meditated removal, but being persuaded that it would be ruinous to all hope of further life to the struggling parish, he put away that thought forever, and labored on as best he might. His salary was less than forty pounds a year, and was paid mostly in kind. So many were the legs of veal and quar- ters of mutton that his wife was sore bestead how to dispose 155 of them. His farm produce and prudent husbandry and housewifery helped him to a comfortable living, but his successor he feared, without these helps, would hardly obtain a subsistence. So he urged the endowment of a fund for the support of the minister. $2,000 were pledged, but never realized, and after Mr. Fogg's death the subscribers mostly declared they only did it to please the "Old Gentleman," and it fell through. Mr. Fogg was one of the ten clergymen who met at Wood- bury and chose Seabury to the Episcopate, and the only definite information concerning the action they took in the matter is in a letter from him to Parker, afterwards Bishop of Massachusetts. "We clergy," he writes, "have even gone so far as to instruct Dr. Seabury, if none of the regular Bishops of the Church of England will ordain him, to go down to Scotland, and receive Ordination from nonjuring Bishops." In 1791 Bishop Seabury visited this church, and con- firmed several. Once again he officiated in the Rector's absence. Bishop Jarvis also visited the parish. No names are given of the confirmed. One convention report, 1812, says: Communicants, 27; baptisms, adults, i; infants, 10; burials, 2. At Mr. Fogg's death, he left 31 communicants. He died in 1815, after a rectorship of more than 43 years. In 1865 expediency dictated that the Church should be nearer the centre of population, so a new church building was planned and the cornerstone laid June gth, 1865. The last service in the old church was held on Easter Day, 1866, and on April 4th the new church was consecrated by Bishop Williams, who preached the sermon on the occasion. The old building still remains in perfect preservation, and occasional services are held in it. Annually on All Saints' Day, her widely scattered children assemble in her time- honored walls to thank God for those departed in this faith and fear, and in the Holy Eucharist enjoy the communion -156- of saints, and the hope of the life everlasting. The graves of those buried in God's acre around the holy temple are decorated with a profusion of flowers which have previously been consecrated upon the ancient altar. Also those are called to mind who have lived and died far from this their Christian birthplace, who cherished in their memory this sacred spot where they were born again in baptism, ratified their vows in confirmation and received the tokens of their Saviour's dying love in Holy Communion. From time to time her faithful children are brought to her sacred courts, where the beautiful burial service is said over them, and they are laid to rest in the lovely churchyard. The dear old mother watches over them now as she has done for more than a century. It should be mentioned that St. Alban's, Danielson, which was oragnized about 1865, is a child of old Trinity ; Christ Church, Pomfret, and St. Philip's, Putnam, are also descended from the old parish. Trinity Church, Brooklyn, was the last parish organized before the Revolution, and so the last of the Connecticut parishes to have a Colonial history. Its present rector is the grandson of one of the Colonial clergy and Connecticut's second bishop, the last of the clergy of the Diocese who is connected with its Pre-Revolutionary days. HppenMi a. One Hundred and Sixtieth Anniversary of the Building of Christ Church, West Haven, Conn. ADDRESS BY REV. EDWIN S. LINES, D.D. The first organized parish of our Church in Connecticut was in Stratford, dating from 1/07, the result of visits of Col. Heathcote and Rev. Mr. Muirson from New York, in the preceding year. The Church did not, however, greatly prosper there until the coming of Rev. George Pigot, Trinity Sunday, 1722. He found thirty communi- cants, and many persons awaiting baptism, and the erection of the church building, long delayed, at once proceeded. But he had larger work to do than guide the fortunes of the little parish at Stratford. A company of men in and about Yale College, now happily estab- lished at New Haven, were thinking and reading about the claims of the Church of England as against Independency. There were seven men in that company of seekers after the truth in respect to Church order and an Apostolic ministry. They were: Dr. Timothy Cutler, the president; Samuel Johnson, Congregational minister in West Haven ; Daniel Browne of West Haven, a tutor in the College ; James Wetmore, minister at North Haven; Jared Eliot of Killing- worth; John Hart of East Guilford, Madison; Samuel Whittlesey of Wallingford. These men communicated with Mr. Pigot, for he soon made record "of his expectations of a glorious revolution of the ecclesiastics of this country." He doubtless gave the enquirers practical advice, but they probably worked their way to their conclusions by their own reading and discussions. At Commencement in the autumn of 1722, Connecticut was startled in a way which we can hardly describe too strongly, with the announcement that Cutler, Johnson, Browne, Wetmore, and perhaps others, had declared for Episcopacy. President Woolsey said that "greater alarm would scarcely be awakened now if the Theological Faculty of the College were to -158- declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in transubstantia- tion and pray to the Virgin Mary." Quincy, in his "History of Harvard University," writes : "This event shook Congregationalism throughout New England like an earthquake, and filled all its friends with terror and apprehension." Dr. Mather in his prayer spoke of "the Connecticut apostacie." There were conferences in the college library under the direction of Governor Saltonstall, who was counted well versed in the matter. Cutler, Johnson, Browne, Wetmore, persisted in their decision. Eliot, Hart, Whittlesey went no further. The Puritan historian represents them as convinced of the validity of their ordination by the arguments of the Governor. The decision of the four first named, to seek ordination in the Church of England, gave the Episcopal Church an assured place in the colony. The news must have been more than the scattered Churchmen could readily believe. The deci- sion meant for the four men great sacrifice, and must have the sincere respect of the right-minded. Two of these men were from the village of West Haven, John- son, the minister; Browne, the college tutor, graduate of Yale in the class of 1714, as was also Wetmore. Johnson was from 1716 to 1719 a tutor of three lower classes, and Browne was associated with him as a tutor for one year. In 1715 the long-continued efforts of "the Westsiders," so called, or "West-farmers," had been successful, and permission of the First Ecclesiastical society of New Haven, to form the West Haven Congregational parish, had been obtained. Up to that time the New Haven people had been unwilling to have "the Westsiders" leave them. In 1719 the Congregational society was duly incorporated, and Johnson became the first minister. Near the college, he remained a diligent student in its library. The friendship between Johnson and Browne must have been very close. Together they sailed for England in November, 1722, and together they were ordained deacons and priests, March, 1723, in the old church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which looked down over what has been long known as Trafalgar square. Two weeks from the day of his ordination to the priesthood, Browne died of smallpox. He was buried in the church of St. Dun- stan-in-the-West, the old church near where the Strand takes the name of Fleet street. So a man from whom much was reasonably hoped, a man whose name ought ever to be remembered with reverence in West Haven, was lost to the Church on the earth. Johnson wrote of him in his diary: "I have lost the best friend in 159 the world, a fine scholar and a brave Christian." President Stiles, writing of Browne, Johnson, Cutler and Wetmore, says that Browne was "a gentleman of the most superior sense and learning of the four." It is my hope that some day in this church there may be a memorial tablet for Rev. Daniel Browne, who was so early lost to the Church on the earth. He died a stranger in a strange land, and his body was laid under the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, where the never-ending crowd is passing between St. Paul's cathedral and Temple Bar through London's busiest street. I could find no memo- rial of him there. He died before he could use among his own people here in West Haven the ministry which it had cost him so much hardship and sacrifice to obtain. It becomes us to see to it that in his own parish and in the Diocese which reasonably expected so much from him, he is reverently remembered. Perhaps from Dr. Johnson's words concerning his "best friend in the world," a sen- tence for that memorial tablet may be taken: "A fine scholar and a brave Christian." Returning, Cutler went to Boston to spend his whole ministry, to- 1765, Wetmore to Rye, to 1760, Johnson to Stratford, Pigot having gone on to Providence. Johnson officiated at West Haven regularly, although not very frequently. Ten or fifteen families conformed to the Church of England, and the organization of the parish ought to date from 1723. Johnson was the only Church clergyman in the colony, and West Haven could claim little of his time. But there was from 1723 a considerable number of staunch Church people in West Haven. They were com- pelled to wait for a clergyman until they could get Johnson's suc- cessor in the West Haven Congregational Church, Rev. Jonathan Arnold. He was a native of Haddam and graduate of the college in 1723. Early in 1725 he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in West Haven, the people stipulating that if he should, like his predecessor, Samuel Johnson, embrace Episcopacy, the money paid to him as a settlement should be refunded. A fear of the influence of the Episcopal Church succeeded con- tempt for it. The college guarded against the repetition of the experience of 1722, when they excused "Rev. Mr. Cutler from all further service as rector of Yale college," by providing that all future rectors and tutors should, before their appointment was com- plete, declare to the trustees, "their assent to the confession of faith owned and consented to at Saybrook, September 9, 1708, and shall 160 particularly give satisfaction to them of the soundness of their faith in opposition to Arminian and prelated corruptions, or any other of dangerous consequence to the parity and peace of our churches." I believe that this statute was not repealed until the end of the cen- tury. Parishes, like that of West Haven, appear to have guarded them- selves against the loss of money paid in the settlement of a minister. It proved a wise precaution, for in 1733 Johnson could write to the Bishop of London that Arnold was likely soon to declare for the Church of England. He received the Communion at Stratford Eas- ter Day, 1734, was dismissed from his pastoral charge in West Haven in May or June, and in 1735 went to England for holy orders. West Haven is very likely exceptional in having the first two min- isters of the Congregational church the first two ministers of the Episcopal church. It is quite certain that Johnson, in his occasional services at West Haven, saw and influenced Arnold. Mr. Arnold returned in mid- summer, 1736, with the appointment as itinerant missionary for Con- necticut of the S. P. G., with residence at West Haven, and a salary of 30 a year. He had some private means and desired no more. Of the course of events in the West Haven church, while they looked to Johnson for occasional services (1723-1736), or while Mr. Arnold was in residence (1736-1740), not very much can be said. Mr. Johnson's letters were filled with accounts of work in Fairfield County. The reception of the Church in Huntington, Newtown, Redding, and especially Fairfield was remarkable. To Fairfield churchmen the honor belongs of influencing the Assembly to permit churchmen to pay their money for the support of their own churches, rather than for the support of the established order. The statute of 1727 did not, however, bring as much relief as was expected, as it was apparently interpreted in favor alone of church- men living within one mile of the church. In 1728 Johnson wrote that those living near the parish churches were exempted from paying to the Congregational ministers, but that those scattered through the country were treated as badly as ever. In the same letter he adds that he has lately been preaching at New Haven where the college is, and has had a considerable congregation, and among them several of the scholars, who were very inquisitive about the principles of the Church. Ten churchmen offered 100 towards the building of a church. But nearly a generation was to pass before Johnson's hope of seeing a church in New Haven proper was realized. He had the opinion that great pains were taken in New Haven to hinder people from coming to church. It was natural that the college should remember Johnson and use influence in the town to prevent the teaching of dangerous prelatical opinions. Yale College was, however, doing good work for the Episcopal Church, giving a suc- cession of educated men to her ministry, Pierson, Palmer, Browne from the class of 1729. Later in the year of 1728, Johnson writes that he continues to preach with success at New Haven, but that the people will neither give nor sell them a piece of land to build a church on. It is plain that Johnson kept a watchful eye upon Yale College, for in 1730 he writes that he has very considerable influence in it, and that a love of the Church gains greatly therein. Several grad- uates and some young ministers have been prevailed upon to read and are well disposed. In a letter written by Johnson in 1731 we have a special interest because of what is said of Isaac Browne, a brother of Daniel Browne of West Haven, who died in England of smallpox immediately after his ordination. Isaac Browne graduated at Yale college, as already stated, in 1729. He was under Johnson, a teacher at Setauket, across the Sound, after graduation. He went to England for holy orders i 1733- He ministered in New Jersey until the American Revolu- tion, and thereafter removed to Nova Scotia, where he died in 1787 in the midst of poverty and affliction. As a West Haven man, he is to be especially remembered here. We may believe that if Johnson was able to preach only once a quarter in West Haven, he still kept close knowledge of his old people. Although the upper road was the most direct for him in his journeys to New Haven, he would naturally turn aside to see the Church people in West Haven. New Haven was ecclesiastically attached to West Haven. No sooner was Mr. Arnold in residence in West Haven than he began to officiate in neighboring towns. In September, 1736. he was at Milford and he appears to think that the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, and reading the Scripture in Divine Service without comment, were never known there before. He had a "numerous auditory, most attentive and desirous to be instructed in the worship of the Church of England," but from among the poorer of the people. In 1737 Mr. Arnold visited Waterbury and Derby, administering the Sacraments, preaching and encouraging the Church families. In Derby, in 1738, the deed of the lot upon which the church was to be ii 1 62 built was made in his name. So from West Haven the mission- ary of the Church went to lay foundations in towns destined to be much larger than his own. This little church is in a sense the mother-church in New Haven County and to be associated with Stratford in the affection of Connecticut churchmen. The most dramatic incident, in what must have been the rather prosaic life of Mr. Arnold, was his attempt to assert his claim, for the Church in New Haven, to the so-called Gregson land opposite the New Haven public Green. He had obtained the title to it as he supposed, when in England, by a deed given by William Gregson to himself. The land was given for the erection of an Episcopal church, and as glebe land for a minister. Mr. Arnold undertook to plough this land in the autumn of 1738, and so to assert his right. The established order regarded Mr. Arnold's title as imperfect and plainly had no desire to see an Episcopal church built facing the New Haven town Green. "Arnold's attempt was resisted by a mob of students and townpeople." Mr. Arnold, his servants, and his oxen are reported to have been beaten and driven from the field. Mr. Arnold was not the most discreet of men, and possibly began his undertaking in the wrong way. The Connecticut clergy sent to England an account of the way in which the people, in a riotous and tumultuous manner, beat his cattle and abused his servants, threatening both his and their lives to that degree, that he was obliged to quit the field. One would like to have seen a New Haven mob in 1738 with Yale students as the leaders, when Dr. Mansfield, Gov. Livingston, Dr. Hopkins, author of the Hopkinsian theology, General David Wooster, etc., were undergraduates. Mr. Arnold left West Haven in 1740 and went to Staten Island. His ministry was not altogether peaceful. He lacked stability and discretion and his last days were not his best. The common state- ment that he lost his life on his way to England seems unwarranted. His successor at West Haven in 1740 was Rev. Theophilus Morris, an Englishman by birth, unable to adapt himself fully to his new surroundings. He gives a good account of his parishioners. They received him with great pleasure, fearing that they were to be left without a missionary. He adds "I must further say of them, that they are the most versed in casuistry of any people I ever met, I mean of those that can only read English. The Archbishop of Canterbury's treatise on Church government, and the late Arch- bishop of Dublin's Collection of Cases, with several other books, have been read here to good purpose; and what they are further to be valued for is, that their conforming to the Church has exposed them to many inconveniences and oppressions." -i6 3 - Casuistry would appear to have been then a subject of more popu- lar interest than in more recent times. Mr. Morris thought his par- ish large enough for a diocese. He went up the valley of the Naugatuck, as his predecessor, Arnold, had done. He laid founda- tions at North Haven and Wallingford and at Simsbury. Ebenezer Thompson of West Haven, Yale 1733, afterwards 1743, ordained in England and for more than thirty years the Church clergyman at Scituate, Mass., assisted Mr. Morris in his missions as lay reader. Mr. Morris remained in West Haven and in the colony but two years. He placed himself in opposition to the New England clergy in their desire to have Johnson made the Bishop of London's Com- missary for the sake of order and discipline. He could not enter into the life of the people as the ministers born in the colony could. But in his short ministry here the little church was built and carried far towards completion. I believe that the title to the land where the church stands, and where for many generations the dead were buried, was taken in his name. The original subscription list, carefully preserved, with the statements of the amounts of rum, molasses, mutton, etc., required at the various stages of building, is remarkable. If the tower of the church, the chancel, the side aisle and about one-fourth of the west end of the nave were taken away, the church would stand in its original form. It remains the oldest of our church buildings in the Diocese, and it is to be hoped that it will long stand to remind churchmen of the time in which the fathers bore their testimony and laid the foundations upon which the Church in Connecticut rests. To build even this small structure must have cost the little com- pany of West Haven Church people much in the way of self-sacrifice. When it stood ready for use for worship in the old way, there must have been as great thankfulness here as when any of the nobler churches of the Diocese have been finished. When a grander church stands here in the great suburb of the great city, let men take away, if they will, tower, chancel, side aisle, but let the church as it stood in the beginning remain. Connecticut people are not as a rule over- charged with sentiment, but Connecticut churchmen ought to retain some sentiment in regard to this old church in the mother parish of New Haven County. In this year of 1742, the clergy, in petitioning the Bishop of London to appoint Johnson as his Commissary, reported fourteen churches built or building, seven clergy within the colony and more daily called for, about 2,000 adult Church people, and five or six thousand young 164 and old. We reach here the time of great religious excitement. The revival associated with the great name of Jonathan Edwards, six or seven years before, had reached far beyond Northampton. But it had subsided and religious indifference again prevailed. But now in 1741-42 there came a revival which was without precedent the great awakening in New England. It is associated with the name of Whitefield above all others. But the country was filled with exhorters and enthusiasts, and there was extravagance and excite- ment almost beyond belief. It was the reaction from the spiritual deadness of sixty years. The Puritan churches were thrown into controversy and discord. The old conservative people tried vainly to withstand the new enthusiasm. The "old lights" disliked the "new lights" more than they disliked the Episcopal Church, which is saying a good deal. There is no time here to speak of the wild extravagance of some of these traveling preachers, going up and down telling the clergy that they had never been converted and that they were leading their congregations straight down to hell. The outcries and bodily manifestations, as the result of the new preaching, were almost incredible. Meanwhile the Church went on her way quietly, unmoved by the excitement. She became a refuge for those who were wearied by the religious turmoil and controversy. It was the time of lengthening cords and strengthening stakes, and it was entirely creditable to her. It must have been a blessed thing in New England between 1740 and 1750 that there was in the Episcopal Church a place where the Gospel was simply preached and the Christian life nourished. I have the impression that in these years of turmoil and confusion our Church gained greatly and took a position which would have been commanding, but for the ruin which came with the war of Inde- pendence. The Church was commending herself more and more to Connecticut people. Connecticut clergy understood their own people and were gaining a larger hearing. Permit a reference to what happened in the West Haven Congre- gational church in this year of 1742. Rev. Timothy Allen was settled in 1738, a fair financial penalty for "conforming to Episcopacy" very likely being determined. He did not go that way, but being, says Dr. Trumbull, an able and zealous Calvinistic preacher, he was not pleasing to the conservative clergy of the New Haven consocia- tion. Mr. Allen had made the imprudent remark "that the read- ing of the Scriptures without the concurring influence of the Spirit of God will no more convert a sinner than the reading of an old almanac." Mr. Allen regretted the ill-judged remark and offered -i6 5 - his confession to the association. But they would not receive it, and dismissed him with the remark that they had blown out one new light and that they would blow them all out. Mr. Allen's new light shone no more in West Haven, but fifty-eight years after, in the year 1800, in Chestef field, Mass., and even to the age of eighty- nine years, his light was shining. Rev. Nathan Birdseye was settled in the West Haven Congrega- tional church in October, 1742, and remained until 1758. He had twelve children and a small salary. It is not known that he was ever disposed to enter the Episcopal Church and so forfeit any money paid at his settlement. But other mercies than admission to the ministry of this Church were granted him. For in Northern Strat- ford, whither he retired, he lived to the age of 103 years and 6 months, dying in 1818, and leaving 258 descendants. It is the long- est life of a Yale man as far as known. Let me now follow the story of the West Haven church a little further. Rev. James Lyons had charge of the parish and of part of the work begun by Arnold and Morris. He was an Irishman and he found a prejudice against foreigners. His ministry was not altogether successful, and he was disposed to complain of the treat- ment received. Other towns were going before West Haven in importance, and the little parish must be content to be overshadowed by its children. The ministries of Dr. Mansfield, Punderson and Palmer, bring the history down to 1767. During the long ministry of Dr. Bela Hubbard, from 1767 to 1812, West Haven made with New Haven one cure. Dr. Mansfield resided at Derby and gave to the West Haven parish a part it is said one- third of his time. Rev. Mr. Punderson and Rev. Mr. Palmer lived in New Haven, but for many years the importance of West Haven was relatively much greater than one would at first think. It proved very hard to establish the Episcopal Church under the shadow of Yale College. In less important towns all about the colony a foot- hold, and indeed, considerable strength, were earlier gained. Dr. Beardsley writes, "more than twenty churches had been built in dif- ferent parts of the colony before a spade was taken to dig for the foundations of an Episcopal House of Worship in New Haven, a town, then as now, leading all others in the number of its inhabi- tants." When Arnold's attempt to possess the Gregson land as the first step towards building thereon was resisted, when New Haven and Yale College combined routed him, his servants and yoke of West Haven oxen after a pitched battle, the determination to build the little West Haven church was made. Yet Johnson writes that at the Yale commencement in 1748 nine of our clergy were together and consulted the best things for the interest of the Church. Among the candidates for degrees that year no less than ten belonged to the Episcopal Church. Among the masters were Sturges, Learning and Chandler. Among the bachelors, Johnson's own son, Ogilvie, and Seabury, the future Bishop. This letter has the following refer- ence to the first Bishop of Connecticut : "Seabury" (of New Lon- don, the elder Seabury) "has a promising son, and as he designs him for the Society's service, he desires me to mention what I know of him ; and as he has lived four years much under my eye, I can truly testify of him that he is a solid, sensible, virtuous youth, and I doubt not, may in due time, do good service." It was in 1752 that the formal beginnings of the Church in New Haven proper were made. In the winter before timber was prepared to build a church 60 x 40 feet opposite the Gregson land of still disputed title, on what is now Church street, on the east side, a short distance south of Chapel street. Rev. Mr. Punderson, up to this time an itinerant missionary in Eastern Connecticut, came to take charge of the new work in New Haven and of West Haven in 1752 or 1753, and the organization of Trinity parish dates from this time. We must not suppose that Church services in New Haven before 1752 and Mr. Punderson's coming into residence were unknown. For in 1749 Johnson had written that the Church was considerably increas- ing in New Haven and a considerable sum had been subscribed to build a church. He doubted not that between New Haven and West Haven, a village within four miles, where already there is a neat church, there will soon be thirty or forty, or fifty families. He adds : "My younger son has read all the last fall and winter, chiefly at West Haven, and sometimes at Branford and Guilford, as well as at Ripton, but as he lives at the college, the chief place of his usefulness is there, and at West Haven." The son referred to was Samuel, who died in 1756, and not the distinguished son, William Samuel, Yale 1744, who lived until 1817. Mr. Punderson, while an itinerant missionary, writes that in September, 1750, the Sunday after Commencement, he preached in New Haven, his native town, in the State House, to a numerous assembly, notwithstanding Brother Thompson preached the same day in the church at West Haven. But Mr. Punderson was not altogether successful at New Haven. Johnson wrote of him : "Mr. Punderson seems a very honest and laborious man, yet the Church at New Haven appears uneasy and rather declining under his ministry, occasioned, I believe, partly by REV. BELA HUBBARD, D.D. 1 67 his want of politeness, and partly by his being absent so much, hav- ing five or six places under his care. I wish he was again at Groton and some politer person in his place, and another at Guilford and Branford." Solomon Palmer succeeded Mr. Punderson and was quite ready to criticise his work, while not doing, I judge, much better. Bela Hub- bard came to New Haven in 1767, and while West Haven made a part of his cure, references to the little parish are not frequent. Other parishes have become more important and claim larger notice. In 1771 Mr. Hubbard writes : "I have been able, thank God, with little or no interruption, to perform my Sunday duty (besides occa- sional week-day lectures) to a decent and sober congregation, both at New Haven and West Haven, which people, even in the opinion of dissenters, are a sober, regular and good sort of people, steady and exemplary in their attendance upon public worship, and I trust most of them make a regular progress in their holy profession. The number of families in New Haven are now, I believe, nearly one hundred, and in the parish of West Haven about thirty -five." In 1772 Mr. Hubbard wrote that he was pleased and happpy in his situation, that many of the dissenters came occasionally to church, that his congregation in less than five years increased one-third. "The souls, white and black, belonging to the Church in New Haven are 503, and in my church at West Haven there are 220." Mr. Hubbard officiated regularly in West Haven, but with decreas- ing frequency in the latter part of his ministry, from 1791 to 1812. Services were plainly provided at times in connection with other parishes and by many clergymen. Mr. Chapin mentions the services of Rev. Mr. Belden of Milford, 1788-9 ; Rev. Mr. Blakeslee of Derby, 1797. The parish records show payments for services to Bishop Jarvis in 1802-3-4. 1 i&5 R gv - C. White of Derby officiated one- fifth, and in 1806 one-fourth of the time. In Dr. Sprague's annals I read that "Andrew Fowler, a native of Guilford, graduated at Yale college 1783, during the last two years he was in college read prayers two Sundays in five at New Haven and the remaining three Sundays at West Haven, by request of the rector, Dr. Hubbard, and by permission of the president, Dr. Stiles." In the same volume in the sketch of Dr. Hubbard it is said that until the Revolution he divided his time equally between New Haven and West Haven. After that time until 1791 he gave but one-fourth of his time to West Haven. From 1791 his services were confined almost entirely to New Haven. Dr. Beardsley has written : "Trinity church, New Haven, in voting a salary to the rector at the Easter meeting of 1797, allowed him 168 leave of absence seven Sundays in the year, that he might officiate in West Haven, on condition, however, that the church in that place pay to the vestry of Trinity parish the sum of fifty dollars for his services. This arrangement continued for quite a period, but as the vote shows, the leave of absence was not so much for the benefit of the rector as for the relief of the parish in New Haven." It is to be added, however, in regard to Dr. Hubbard, "Though his salary was for many years small" after the war cut off the stipend from England, "the liberality of his parishioners and the exemplary economy of his wife still rendered him comfortable." I suppose it impossible to determine the names of all the clergy and lay readers who maintained services in West Haven in the nearly half century that the parish made with Trinity church a cure under Dr. Hubbard. A convocation of the clergy was held in 1799 at Oyster River, a part of the parish where many Church families, especially of the name of Clarke, lived in former times. I have not been able to find record of what was done at that meeting, but one member of an old West Haven and, I judge, Oyster River Church family ought to be remem- bered. Rev. Richard Samuel Clarke, son of Samuel Clarke, was born in West Haven in 1737, graduated at Yale college in 1762, ordained in England in 1766. He was the Church missionary at New Milford until 1786, when with many loyalists he withdrew to New Bruns- wick. A ministry of twenty-five years at Gagetown and thirteen at St. Stephen, brought him to the end of his life in 1824, the oldest missionary at the time in the British (American) colonies. During the last century the history of the West Haven parish has been marked by little that is noteworthy. From the death of Dr. Hubbard, 1812, West Haven was separated from New Haven. Mr. Chapin says that Dr. William Smith had charge of the parish until 1820 in connection with his work at Milford, but I am not quite satisfied with the statement. For in 1817 Dr. Smith was living in retirement at Norwalk, according to Dr. Beardsley, "spending his time in writing treatises on chanting and Church psalmody." Henry Ward represented the parish at Diocesan conventions in October, 1814, and June, 1816, and Major Oliver Clark at the convention in 1819, which elected Bishop Brownell. From 1820 to 1824 the church, then called Trinity, was united with East Haven and part of the time with North Haven, under Rev. Joseph Perry. The ministry of Rev. William T. Potter followed, combinations being made in the next few years with East Haven, Hamden, Bran- ford, Milford. There was some strength in the parish in this second decade of the century. Bishop Brownell confirmed twenty-seven 169 persons April 27, 1821 ; four in 1825 ; twenty-one October 29, 1827. In 1827 there were fifty-three families, sixty-seven communicants and forty-five Sunday school scholars. But in 1830 the condition of the parish was very depressing. Death and removal had diminished numbers and sea-faring men were away from home so much that interest was broken. The little parish had come to its evil days. Services were no longer regularly maintained. The church was closed for a time and it fell into decay. To Rev. Stephen Jewett, living at Westville, the credit of resum- ing the services belongs, and the date is Whit-Sunday, 1837. Mr. Jewett remained a good friend of the parish and had much to do with the restoration of the church. There was a short rectorship of Rev. Servilius Stocking, and in 1839 Rev. A. B. Chapin came to remain for ten years. He gave the parish the feeling of permanence and gradually built up its strength. In 1841, Mr. Chapin reported that the church had been repaired at an expense of about $900, mak- ing it one of "the neatest wood churches in the diocese." In 1842 Bishop Brownell says in his annual address : "The edifice called Christ Church at West Haven was erected 103 years ago, but never consecrated. Its frame work being perfectly sound, it has recently been thoroughly repaired and renovated in a very neat manner, and was duly consecrated on the igth of May." In 1844 Mr. Chapin reported the purchase of an organ, the church debt paid, the number of communicants doubled, and divine service celebrated on all Sundays. The parochial reports during Mr. Chapin's ministry are very full, showing the editorial instinct. They are, as a rule, hopeful although be ever recognized the limitations of the parish in respect of growth. Rev. Dr. Richardson and Rev. Mr. Whitesides had brief ministries in the parish and Rev. Henry Zell was rector from 1853-63. Then come rectorships of one or two years only, Rev. Mr. Lumsdem, Rev. Dr. Gurdon S. Coit, Rev. O. S. Prescott, Rev. Dr. J. B. Flagg, Rev. Mr. Loop, Rev. C. C. Adams. The writer was rector from 1874 to 1879 five and one-half years. Rev. E. W. Worthington was rector until 1882, Rev. Jacob Streibert until 1885. Rev. A. E. Beeman was here one year, and from 1886 to 1895, under Rev. H. B. Whitney, the parish saw large measure of prosperity. The church adorned, the new organ, the improved heating and lighting, the vested choir, the beautiful rectory, the Parish house, made this rectorship memorable. Rev. R. H. Gessner was rector from 1895 to 1900, and Rev. A. J. Gammack accepted the rectorship in 1900. The latter days of this no longer little parish are its best. Surely the hearts of many who labored here in i7o the day of small things, when there was much to discourage, would rejoice if they could see what our eyes see to-day. But my own thoughts have gone back, especially to the early days of the parish when it was the mother of many parishes. I have asked your attention to the days when a place for the Church in the Connecticut colony was made by faithful men into whose places we have come. I could hope to do no more than repeat an old story, perhaps refresh the memories of some here present. But I will hope that I have led some to feel the value and dignity of our inheritance as Connecticut churchmen. New questions and move- ments in theology and Church life arise to claim our attention, but we shall be poorer for forgetting the times and the work of our fathers in the Church in Connecticut. There are traditions out of that old time to be preserved. There are lessons to be learned. Ours is a wider outlook, a more hopeful time in which to work. But the self-sacrifice, the diligence, the patience of Connecticut church- men a century and one-half ago, give this church to-day her posi- tion in Connecticut. 5-3 -=~^ o ~ ' M ^ 3 u 1> ~ ^ ^ ^ *~~* w c i~-= "i tn _r 3 e * * a *> 2 T5-- ;.= '- "o 3 '^ *~ "~ C6 tn si^j'5 j;^ 3 o a ^_ = .j - S f j^'-i-s^ | |3^|." = ^ 'f Sj o * 5 ~ ~ K 5: Hppenfcir B. Bishop Berkeley. A donation of books was a great quickener of the return to the Church of England, when Bishop Berkeley sent his library to Yale College, New Haven. A story is told of one of these vol- umes which illustrates the temper of the period. When Bishop Jarvis was a student at Yale he saw a fellow classman taking out of the library one of Bishop Berkeley's books. "Look out," he said, "that book will make a Churchman of you." "Will it?" said the student, and hastily put it back on the shelf. Bishop Berkeley lived in Rhode Island, but his work there was only general in its results on the Church. The particular way in which he gave the greatest substantial help to the Church and also to the colonies at large, came through his acquaintance with Dr. Samuel Johnson, one of the most prominent of the American clergy. Dr. Johnson, who had been tutor at Yale College and a Congrega- tional minister, became convinced of the truth of the Church's doc- trine and discipline and was now a faithful missionary in Connecti- cut. He knew of Dean Berkeley, through his writings, long before the Dean came to Rhode Island, and he had a warm admiration for his talents and learning. Naturally Dr. Johnson was among the first to welcome the noted Berkeley to America. A strong friend- ship sprang up between these two great and pious men. Dean Berke- ley strengthened Dr. Johnson's faith and through him influenced hundreds. As Dr. Johnson was deeply interested in Yale College, Dean Berkeley gave his attention to the then struggling institution. He had a rather large library, which showed, in its selection, his fine tastes, his genius, and also his deep piety. The College needed books, as all schools do. Just before he returned to England, the Dean distributed part of his books among his friends, but gave the bulk of them to Yale. As soon as he reached home, he collected, by private gifts, nearly a thousand volumes which he also sent over to the College. President Clap says it was "the finest collection of books which had then ever been brought, at one time, to America." 172 At the same time he gave the College his farm at Newport, whose income was to be given as prizes to the best Greek and Latin students who should live at Yale nine months each year. Here in this centre of Congregationalism, George Berkeley, Priest and Bishop, has had a gracious influence. Another gift which Dean Berkeley sent from England was an organ. He gave it to the town of Berkeley, Mass., which was named after him. But this seemed a dangerous gift to the worthy select- men, who decided, by a vote, not to receive it, for, as they said in their resolutions, "an organ is an instrument of the Devil, for the entrapping of men's souls." The organ then went to Trinity Church, Newport. The Bishop's name is still borne in America by the Berkeley Scholars of Yale University, by the Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown, Conn., and by the town of Berkeley, the seat of the University of California. u C C CCS rt a > o a e 2 *J O "2 m S 15 >- f c " c c .-"w ." S 2 C" t. C O c w -E a o E ^ IS* o .2 fl er with an add to other dioce le P; rr ^ I o .r o> -o ^; -o a *fl o u *^ i 1 O 174 175 a S b o c o O u. ^ > 1-3 Ob. rt Oxi 5 ^ tc C ~ M - as * "2 "5 2Q 2 . & o *- S . c -si f -2 25 rt SQ - S O rt C * 4 - 1 I^H W O o> o O.S ~ D." 3 "" OT S b ^ 1 rt u < . 3 S > Served also at atertown. vhich he was ele th Guilford, Che Nova Scotia. -0 ^ J .7 . JC SS ^ ^ cU 1 b| -al = 2 3 v2 X > yii^ii B fe a S ^ S 8 a !f*MflS Z V 3ef ia5>*^g - ch -AS5 & .C . 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