
 
 <tii. 
 

 
 A MEMORIAL 
 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 Carlton Chase, D. D. 
 
 FIRST BISHOP OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 1844 TO 18TO. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 PRESS OF THE 
 
 CLAREMONT MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
 
 I. 
 
 IN the midst of a Winter of almost unexampled 
 mildness and beauty, and after a week unsurpassed 
 even under the bright skies of New-England, the 
 morning of the twenty-fifth of January opened 
 dismal with cloud and storm. For a time the 
 fleecy snow, pure and white as the robes of the 
 righteous, fell lightly upon the earth, but soon 
 followed the dropping rain symbol of sorrow, 
 although GOD'S instrument of life and filled the 
 hour with gloom. 
 
 Such was the burial day of the first Bishop of 
 New-Hampshire. 
 
 At an early hour the earthly form of the de- 
 ceased, clothed in his official robes, was laid in a 
 plain casket and placed upon the table in his 
 study, whither his friends, the spiritual children 
 of -a long life of pastoral faithfulness, with many 
 of his brethren in the Church, came to bid a last 
 farewell. The Masonic fraternity came also, to 
 honor the remains of their late brother and com- 
 panion.
 
 At three o'clock, the procession was formed at 
 the house, consisting of the Rev. Drs. Haight and 
 tlubbard; the pall bearers, Rev. Drs. Herrick and 
 Eames and Rev. Messrs. Smith and Renouf ; the 
 remains ; the family and immediate friends, The 
 Clergy of the town were next called representa- 
 tives of Trinity Church, Claremont, and Imman- 
 uel Church, Bellows Falls Classmates at Dart- 
 mouth College, and other graduates Masonic 
 bodies and citizens generally. These, entering the 
 Church, filled it to its utmost capacity. 
 
 The remains were met at the Church door by 
 Bishops Williams of Connecticut, and Bissell of 
 Vermont the latter reading the sentences. Be- 
 side those already mentioned, there were present, 
 of the Clergy, all in surplices, Rev. Dr. Parker 
 and Rev. Messrs. Haughton, Brown and Binet of 
 this Diocese, Rev. E. M. P. Wells, D, D, and Rev. 
 H. L. Jones, of Massachusetts, Rev. Dr. Jackson. 
 President of Trinity College, of Connecticut, Rev. 
 Dr. Douglass, and Rev. Mr. Hale, of Vermont, 
 Rev. Dr. Twing, of New York, Rev. Messrs. Hop- 
 kins and Walnwright, of Albany, and Rev. T. 
 F. Davies of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Church was elaborately and tastefully 
 draped in black and white those mournful em- 
 blems producing a most solemn and impressive 
 effect, especially in the gas-lighted chancel. 
 
 Upon the platform, just without the altsir rails, 
 on the very spot where, but one month previ-
 
 ously, when the, Christmas services were ended, he 
 sat to witness the baptism of his grand-daughter, 
 rested the casket which contained all that was 
 mortal of the departed Prelate. 
 
 The Canticle commencing "LoRD, let me know 
 my end and the number of my days," was chanted 
 by the choir and congregation. The Lesson was 
 read by the Rev. Benj. I Haight, D. D. of New- 
 York. The Hymn was the one hundred and 
 forty-second of Hymns Ancient and Modern : 
 
 "Brief life is here otir portion; 
 
 Brief sorrow, short-lived care ; 
 The life that knows no ending, 
 
 The tearless life, is there. 
 
 Oh happy retribution ! 
 
 Short toil, eternal rest : 
 For mortals and for sinners 
 
 A mansion with the blest. 
 
 And now we fight the battle, 
 But then shall wear the crown 
 
 Of full and everlasting 
 And passionless renown ; 
 
 And now we watch and struggle, 
 And now we live and hope, 
 
 And Sion in her anguish 
 With. Babylon must cope;
 
 6 
 
 But He whom now we trust in 
 Shall then be seen and known ; 
 
 And they that know and see Him 
 Shall have Him for their own. 
 
 The morning shall awaken, 
 The shadows shall decay, 
 
 And each true-hearted servant 
 Shall shine as doth the day ; 
 
 There GOD, our King and Portion, 
 
 In fulness of His grace, 
 Shall we behold forever, 
 
 And worship face to face. 
 
 O sweet and blessed country, 
 The home of GOD'S elect ! 
 
 sweet and blessed country, 
 That eager hearts expect ! 
 
 Jesu, in mercy bring us 
 To that dear land of rest; 
 
 "Who art, with GOD the FATHER, 
 And SPIRIT, ever blest." Amen.
 
 The Bt. Eev. John Williams, D. D., Bishop of 
 Connecticut, then delivered the following 
 
 When the House of Bishops met at the last gen- 
 eral Convention, with for the first time in nine 
 years every diocese represented, a shadow was 
 cast upon the great joy of their reunion by the 
 remembrance, that in that nine years' interval, 
 sixteen of their order had passed away from the 
 scenes and labors of their earthly stewardships. 
 Death had, indeed, been busy in their ranks. And 
 well might their Pastoral letter say. " A mortality 
 so unusual impresses your Bishops with a deep 
 sense of the shortness and uncertainty of their 
 own future upon earth." 
 
 It was not, however, to the past alone that 
 thoughts were turned by the impressive warning. 
 They struggled onward also towat-ds the unknown 
 and silent future. Memory recalled the well re- 
 membered forms and features of the departed, 
 and filled with them, for the moment, the places 
 where they should never more be known. The 
 bodily eye rested upon those who held the stations 
 left vacant by the dead. And both what was 
 remembered and what was seen waked in many 
 hearts the question with solemn recollection of 
 their own relation to it, with searching application 
 of it to themselves 
 
 "Who next shall drop and disappear?" 
 
 That question the providence of God has answered 
 in the bereavement which has now fallen upon a
 
 s 
 
 household, a diocese, nay, on the Church at large. 
 And the answer brings us here to-day, to commit 
 to its long home all that was mortal of the first 
 Bishop of New-Hampshire. It is the third time 
 in five years, that, here, in New-England, the new 
 year's first month has witnessed such a service. 
 And it is, perhaps, even a more striking coinci- 
 dence that this day which brings the last rites of 
 honor to one who has laid off the armor of the 
 episcopate, sees another girding it on for a distant 
 field of the warfare of the militant Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 May I dare, my brethren, to say, for myself, 
 that I come to join you in this sad service, with a 
 heart full of love for my venerated brother who 
 has been taken from us, as well as of living sym- 
 pathy with those on whom the weight of this day's 
 sorrow rests ? The memories of an unbroken 
 friendship of more than a score of years come back 
 as I speak, with a deeper tenderness. Nor can I 
 forget, as I stand beside the honored dust of my 
 dear brother, uttering words which his ear can 
 no longer hear, how in the most solemn moment 
 of my life he once stood at my side, and joined 
 with the lamented Burgess I almost seem to hear 
 their voices now in presenting me to the revered 
 and sainted Brownell, to be set apart for the work 
 of the episcopate. Pardon me, my brethren, these 
 words so wholly personal. " Out of the abundance 
 of the heart the mouth speaketh." 
 
 The eye runs back to-day over a lengthened 
 life. "With a physical constitution always delicate, 
 and so severely shaken in early manhood as to 
 give little hope of long-continued labor, Bishop 
 Chase still lived six years beyond the allottedage 
 of man. Nor has he been taken, till gathering
 
 
 infirmities had made it plain that had more years 
 been granted him, they must have been passed 
 under those conditions in which men are " afraid 
 of that which is high," and " fears " are " in the 
 way," and " the grasshopper " becomes "a burden," 
 
 Doubtless " they serve who only wait and pray." 
 And such a service, in its patient suffering and 
 almost literally unceasing prayer, is a very precious 
 service; bringing to the Church gifts and minis- 
 trations which enter into its deepest life, and share 
 in its grandest achievements for the Cross. Still 
 these are, and ever will be, the exceptional cases ; 
 and it must, as a rule, be counted a merciful dis- 
 pensation of GOD, when any man, and beyond all 
 other men a bishop, is not required long to sur- 
 vive his ability for active service. It is, at least, 
 a blessing to himself. " To depart and to be with 
 CHRIST is," indeed, " far better." 
 
 The life of which I am speaking was also a 
 peaceful, and as men would say, an uneventful 
 life. By far the larger part of it was passed among 
 "the green pastures " of this lovely valley of the 
 Connecticut, and " beside the still waters " of its 
 queenly river. One rectorship of a quarter of a 
 century in duration, from 1819 to 1844, and then 
 an episcopate, with which was held, conjointly, 
 for many years, the rectorship of this parish, cov- 
 ering a little more than another quarter of a cen- 
 tury, these with one temporary exception are 
 all the changes which Bishop Chase's ministerial 
 life presents. These how strangely the statement 
 sounds in these worrying, tortured days of inces- 
 sant change sum up the fifty years of faithful 
 service in the Church of GOD. 
 
 Is it not a privilege, greater than tongue can 
 tell, to leave behind one so fair, so pure a record
 
 10 
 
 as your Bishop, brethren, leaves, of patient, well- 
 done labor? Is it not a privilege to look and 
 meditate on such a record ? This vision of a long 
 and faithful pastorship, this " image of a long and 
 pure episcopate, left on the most sacred recollec- 
 tions in parish Churches, in Christian families, in 
 secret hearts," does one dream of lack of event- 
 fulness when lie thinks of these? What natural 
 days are those to which men love best to go back 
 in memory? Are they days marked with the 
 scenic displays of nature, resounding with the 
 crash of storm and thunders, and brilliant with 
 the glare of lightnings ? Or are they not rather 
 days' that are " bridaf days of earth and sky" in 
 which the calm morning has passed on to the quiet 
 noontide, and that again to the peaceful sunset, 
 and where all is so blended together; that even if 
 no one thing stands very prominently out, the 
 whole impression is one of blessing and of peace? 
 "What streams bear fullest floods to join the ocean? 
 Are they those that dash and scatter themselves 
 away with foam and fury in headlong courses? 
 Or are they not rather those, that with a gentle, 
 placid flow, so gentle that a superficial gazer hard- 
 ly thinks they move at all, so placid that in their 
 quiet depths they mirror all the beauties and the 
 glories which the hand of GOD has spread on 
 earth or scattered in the skies sweep onward 
 with their brimming fulness to the sea? And as 
 it is with them so is it with human lives. O ! in 
 this age of reckless change, and noisy pretension, 
 and bustling self-assertion, and pushing after 
 notoriety, place, influence, the spectacle of a calm, 
 quiet life of contented discharge of duty which 
 shuns the observation of the world ; which bears 
 its own burdens, and does its own work, seeking
 
 11 
 
 no changes, but only taking those which God may 
 send ; which does not strive to create duties for 
 itself that may bring it before men's eyes, but 
 does quietly, in its Own place, the duties which 
 GOD allots to it ; which thinks not of itself more 
 highly than it ought to think, but loves to think 
 soberly, to take the lowly place and do the humble 
 work; such a life is indeed a blessed thing to look 
 upon. When we contrast it with that other style 
 of life, it is like leaving some gaudy, man-made 
 spectacle with its coarse daubing, its glare of gas- 
 light, and poisoned atmosphere, and coming out 
 upon some peaceful, rural scene, swept over by 
 the fresh, pure airs of heaven, and bathed in God's 
 own sunlight. If this age has fewer of such lives 
 to show than some others may have had, and I 
 fear it is even so, then let us be the more thankful, 
 and the more bless and praise the GOD of every 
 grace, that our departed Father lived, in his ele- 
 vated station, such a life, and left its record and 
 its memories to his children, to his Diocese, and 
 the Church of GOD. 
 
 We recognize in every Christian life, primarily 
 and above all other things, the grace of GOD ; but 
 we also recognize, along with it, the working of 
 the individual besides. And so it comes to pass 
 that while there is one pattern, even the Blessed 
 Lord, and one grace, that of the Holy Ghost, still 
 all GOD'S servants have their own separate and 
 distinguishing notes of character. And it has 
 always seemed to me that there was in my depart- 
 ed brother's character that same balance and 
 proportion that I have been noting in his life. 
 Calm, equable, judicious, acting from well-consid- 
 ered convictions and not from hasty impulses, a 
 man of more thoughts than words, not eager to
 
 12 
 
 push forward his opinions, but ready with them 
 when the proper time for their expression came 
 as his character commanded respect, so his 
 decisions commanded confidence. And the same, 
 balance that marked him intellectually, marked 
 him also as a Christian man. All was quiet, well 
 poised and placid, nothing fitful and spasmodic. 
 Not much moved or flashed, perhaps, on the sur- 
 face; there were no very striking emotional 
 demonstrations; but down in the depths where 
 GOD'S eye looks, though man's cannot, there was 
 a life, that was strong, and vigorous, and true 
 a life that controlled the man a life that had its 
 being from the grace of the Holy Ghost, and that, 
 for its ultimate result, its glory and its crown of 
 achievement, brought him, body, soul, and spirit 
 into subjection to the law of Christ. His was not 
 one of those natures that take light and passing 
 impressions from all that comes and goes. It took 
 on impressions quietly and slowly, but what it 
 took it held. Above all other words, the word 
 that I think best describes him is steadfast. 
 
 And this character, which I have so briefly 
 sketched, as it shaped his life, so, also, it shaped 
 his episcopate. It gave it cohesion and consist- 
 ency. He had no delight in ecclesiastical experi- 
 ments. He rode no hobbies. He spent no time in 
 trying to invent labor-saving schemes for achiev- 
 ing great spiritual results at the least possible 
 expense of individual exertion. He set himself 
 to discover no wonderful panacea by a single 
 administration of which all the diseases of the 
 Church, perhaps of the world, would be cured on 
 the instant. He entered into no plan to pull away 
 from the Church what does belong to it, nor to 
 patch on what does not belong to it. But as a
 
 13 
 
 true-hearted and loyal Churchman, for that he was 
 in his whole soul and life; as a humble, self-sacri- 
 ficing Christian, looking only to the Crucified for 
 all hope of salvation, and treading the pathway of 
 the Cross as well as resting on its unfathomable 
 merits, he walked "in the old paths;" not foolishly 
 conservative, not obstinately set against every 
 thing that might seem to involve a change of 
 method, not turning his back on any wise and 
 well-considered adaptation of the Church's modes 
 of working " to the diversity of countries, times 
 and men's manners;" but distrusting change for 
 change's sake, and setting his face as a flint against 
 any thing, however specious, that did not recog- 
 nize and place in the fore front the duty of keep- 
 ing the faith "whole and undefiled." 
 
 And all this gave his opinions weight among 
 his brethren, and in the councils of the Church. 
 He made not many words in his place in council, 
 but when he did speak he spoke to purpose, and 
 he was listened to. His quiet, gentle tones, utter- 
 ing well-considered conclusions, for he dealt with 
 them more than with argument even, far more 
 than with appeal, carried more weight than ten 
 times the amount of rhetoric and "declamation. 
 His well-weighed words impressed others all the 
 more because they were, as a rule, so few. Many 
 of his brethren have spoken of and mourned the 
 loss that has fallen upon us, in losing the aid of 
 his well-balanced judgment and reflecting mind. 
 
 In the special field over which the Holy Ghost 
 had made him Overseer, it was not his to rear the 
 superstructure, to carry on to completion lines of 
 work that were already well begun and well 
 pushed forward, to lay the top-stone amid rejoicing 
 shouts, to bring home the joyous harvest at the 
 
 I
 
 14 
 
 eventide. His like, in its narrower sphere, to 
 that of the great Apostle for whom the Church 
 thanks GOD to-day was initial, not consummating 
 labor. It was his, amidst trials and discourage- 
 ments of no ordinary character, in a region from 
 which the eye of the Church was drawn away by 
 the rush of emigration westward, to strengthen 
 the things that remained from other days, to lay 
 foundations where it was possible to do it, almost 
 literally to "sow in tears." And 0! how much 
 better in such a work was patient continuance 
 than headlong haste, steadiness of movement than 
 vaster plans perpetually changing; a willingness 
 to bear with the necessities of the " day of small 
 things," than mere dreaming of some far distant 
 future. If it is not understood now, the day will 
 come when, tracing back the successive steps by 
 which this Diocese shall have reached the strength 
 which I trust and believe GOD has in store for it, 
 men will find the living source of all they rejoice 
 in and are thankful for, in the episcopate faith- 
 ful, diligent, unobtrusive of its first Bishop; and 
 so the thanks which we offer here to GOD for his 
 holy life and blessed memory, shall be echoed 
 from the lips of unborn generations, bearing him 
 witness that " he is numbered among the children 
 of GOD, and his lot is among the saints ! " 
 
 But now, the peaceful life", the faithful steward- 
 ship, are ended. Their records are closed and 
 sealed for the final reckoning. GOD be thanked, 
 that in the sorrow which clouds this day there is 
 only joy for him ; that with the tears which fall, no 
 bitterness but that of bereaved affection mingles. 
 ~No more for him the weary day or watchful night ; 
 no more the burdened heart nor mind perplexed; 
 no more the patient waiting and the hope defer-
 
 15 
 
 red; no more the chief shepherd's wearing watch, 
 and crushing load of care and responsibility that 
 he must bear alone ; no more the dread of some- 
 thing left undone that might have been accom- 
 plished. But now, gift of gifts and joy of joys for 
 him, there come on earth, the folded hands and 
 the closed eyelids, the stilled heart and the un- 
 racked brain ; and in Paradise, the rest in Jesus, 
 and the blessed antepasts of Heaven. And there 
 will come in the day of GOD, may the dear LORD 
 grant it to us all! the accepted stewardship and 
 the unfading crown 1 
 
 The Rev. I. G. Hubbard, D. t>., Rector of 
 Trinity Church, Claremont, then delivered the 
 following 
 
 It is a painful office, assigned me by my mourn- 
 ing friends and reverend brethren, to attempt to 
 give utterance to the feelings which naturally 
 oppress us all, on the death of pur beloved Father 
 in GOD, the first Bishop of this Diocese. What- 
 ever he may have been to others, to us he was 
 endeared by the sacred bonds of his official rela- 
 tionship, and by the gentle, affectionate manner in 
 which he has discharged the duties of his high and 
 holy office. Many, in other parts of the Diocese, 
 have been thus drawn toward him in love ; some, 
 to whom it is my privilege to minister, have the 
 added tie of long and most faithful pastoral minis- 
 trations. For all, I can at least speak most sin- 
 cerely, in deepest sympathy.
 
 16 
 
 He has been to me a Spiritual Father. Pursu- 
 ing my theological studies, in part, under his 
 supervision, I was among the first on whom he 
 laid his Apostolic hands in ordination, hoth to the 
 Diaconate and the Priesthood. 
 
 His long Rectorship, in this my native parish ; 
 my own ministry in his Diocese during nearly 
 three fourths of his Episcopate ; my Rectorship 
 here for the past two years and more, while he 
 still lived among us; all these circumstances 
 have brought me into frequent converse, and 
 finally into most intimate communion with him, 
 and have given me the right to speak of him, as 
 one who knows whereof he affirms. 
 
 But it is not my purpose to dwell on personal 
 considerations except as they tend to confirm my 
 testimony and commend it to your attention. Let 
 me ask you to go back with me a little more than 
 twenty-five years in the history of this Diocese, 
 when our late Bishop was consecrated in the Fall 
 of 1844, at the General Convention in Philadel- 
 phia. There were then, in the Diocese, eleven 
 clergymen besides the Bishop now there are 
 twenty-two. Then there were twelve parishes 
 now twenty-three. Then five hundred commu- 
 nicants now thirteen hundred and fifty. The 
 Church edifices then existing, with the exception 
 of St. John's, Portsmouth, which has itself been 
 entirely remodeled in the interior since, were 
 either small, temporary, wooden structures, or un- 
 suited in form and appointments for the uses of 
 Holy Worship. Since that period, Churches and 
 Chapels have been built, many of them beautifully 
 designed, and constructed in a costly and most 
 substantial manner, and consecrated to GOD'S wor- 
 ship, as follows; in Concord, two; in Claremont,
 
 17 
 
 Manchester, Keene, Nashua, Charlestown, Epping, 
 Holderness, Pittsfield, Exeter, Dunbarton, one 
 each. At Sanbornton Bridge and Hanover, houses 
 of worship have been purchased and refitted 
 for our use, and in Goffstown a Church has been 
 built but not yet consecrated, in all, fifteen. The 
 Church in Drewsville has been greatly improved 
 and beautified. Two parsonages have been built, 
 and two purchased. There have been ordained, 
 within the Diocese, twenty-five Deacons, and 
 twenty Priests, and sixteen hundred and ninety- 
 six persons have been confirmed. 
 
 The noble institution of St k PauPs School, the 
 beneficent influence of which is felt very widely 
 in our American Church, has been established 
 and fostered, so far as buildings and landed estate 
 are concerned, mainly by a single layman of Mas- 
 sachusetts, a devoted friend of our late Bishop. 
 
 All these items by no means fully express the 
 contrast between now and then, nor indicate the 
 real strength of the Church in this Diocese, at the 
 present moment. In the first place, the spiritual 
 life and power of the Church, its missionary and 
 aggressive force, have been much more than pro- 
 portionately increased. 
 
 Any one who remembers the Diocese at the peri- 
 od referred to, will understand me when I say, that 
 the Church in this region seemed then to be slum- 
 bering at her post : at most, she only thought of 
 standing on the defensive. With but a few feeble 
 parishes, scattered and isolated, having scarcely 
 any communication with one another ; without a 
 head, or any efficient missionary organization ; 
 with the impression prevalent in some parts of the 
 Diocese, that our Church had little to do with 
 the masses of the people, and little hope of
 
 18 
 
 reaching them; the older and stronger parishes 
 laid on a pillow of ease, and their energies para- 
 lyzed by endowments, so situated that any increase 
 of parishes in the towns about them would de- 
 crease their own income; the faces of Churchmen 
 generally in the country turned away toward the 
 great and growing West, averted from the sources 
 of religious influence springing up here among 
 the hills, and to a large extent by emigration leav- 
 ening the whole land""; the traditional notion cher- 
 ished generally in the community that this was the 
 aristocratic Church of Old England, the nursery of 
 pride, and the daughter of Babylon ; surely here 
 was an outlook which might well discourage the 
 heart of any man called to superintend the work 
 of restoration and invigoration, "who had not the 
 root of the matter in him, who had not the wise 
 head and the patient, untiring heart of a servant 
 of the MOST HIGH GOD. 
 
 Brethren, such a man GOD gave us in our now 
 departed Bishop. Fitted under the venerable 
 Bishop Griswold for the sacred office, he had 
 caught his spirit of calm endurance and patient 
 waiting upon GOD. His first official act was 
 the administration of the rite of Confirmation 
 in Union Church in this town. The Rev. Mr. 
 Smith, (still Rector there, and with us here to-day) 
 after the service, mentioned the interesting fact 
 that thirty-three years before, the sainted Bishop 
 Griswold held his first Confirmation in the same 
 place. Our Bishop says in his journal, "the coin- 
 cidence impressed me deeply, and I could not leave 
 the altar until I had secretly offered a prayer that 
 I might have grace to walk in the steps of his 
 most holy life, and that I might be enabled, as he so 
 eminently was, to give myseff, soul and body, health
 
 19 
 
 and strength, time and substance to the work of 
 the LORD." A hard trial of his power of endur- 
 ance was before him. For more than ten long 
 years the Church made very little progress. But 
 steady, unfailing confidence in GOD at length tri- 
 umphed. It is within the last sixteen or seventeen 
 years that all the churches I have mentioned have 
 been built, and most of the new parishes organized. 
 The Diocese generally has, in a good degree, 
 awakened to the work of the LORD committed 
 unto her, and though a great part of the land yet 
 remains to be possessed, the leaven is working and 
 the power developing more and more. 
 
 And here let me say that as our beloved Church, 
 here planted, has roused herself at the call of duty, 
 rallied around her Bishop and sustained his plans 
 for her extension, just in that proportion has she 
 gained in the respect and estimation of our citi- 
 zens generally. The prudent, considerate course 
 of our late Bishop forms a strong element in the 
 growing appreciation which is now accorded to 
 her. One of the people himself, and ever ready 
 to identify himself in sympathy with the lowly, 
 and to take a lively interest in all that concerned 
 the well-being of society, he has won for himself 
 a large place in the regard and veneration of men 
 of every calling in life, and of all varieties of 
 religious opinion. 
 
 We hardly understand yet, brethren, how much 
 we are indebted for the present position of our 
 Church in this State, to the silent, continuous, 
 firm, but conciliatory and kindly influence of her 
 first Bishop. 
 
 Here let me briefly advert to the closing scenes 
 of his long life of usefulness. 
 
 But how can I calmly speak of those intimate
 
 20 
 
 conversations, those revealings of the hidden man 
 of the heart, often under sore trial ; those disclos- 
 ures, when strength was failing, of his deep anxi- 
 ety for the Churches ; of sleepless nights under the 
 burden of care for their welfare ; of his constant, 
 tender, personal sympathy and encouragement dur- 
 ing the last two years, especially as the shadows 
 lengthened and deepened around him, the comfort 
 of which can never be effaced from my heart. All 
 these scenes have opened to me a truer estimate of 
 his character than I had ever possessed. They 
 have bound me to him with links of iron, aye with 
 far more enduring bonds, I trust. 
 
 The circumstances in which I have been placed, 
 in relation to him, have not been such as always 
 tend to draw men together, but I think it is a 
 plain evidence of his goodness of heart, that in 
 this case they have strengthened and confirmed 
 the affection and veneration previously felt for 
 him, more than I am able to express. 
 
 Let me only say in conclusion that after re- 
 peated warnings, of which he often spoke to me in 
 private, with perfect calmness and composure, and 
 with implicit trust in the Saviour whom he 
 loved, he was seized, about a week before he died, 
 by a severe attack which paralyzed in some de- 
 gree his mental faculties, and he gently fell asleep 
 in Jesus, surrounded by those dear children whose 
 unfailing care had comforted him in all his sor- 
 rows and infirmities, with the Church's prayers 
 and benediction breathed over him, commending 
 him with unfaltering trust to the mercy of GOD, 
 till the final resurrection of the just.
 
 THE KEY. BENJAMIN I. HAIGHT, S. T. D., 
 
 OF NEW- YORK. 
 
 We have met to-day, Christian Brethren, not 
 simply to commit the remains of our Right Rev- 
 erend Father in GOD, to the ground, according to 
 the solemn rites of the Church ; but also, beiore 
 proceeding to this sacred duty, to dwell for a few 
 moments on his life and character; and to draw 
 therefrom the lessons of wisdom which they so 
 impressively teach. 
 
 I stand here not to eulogize the departed Pre- 
 late ; but to present a few particulars of his work 
 as a Christian Minister and Bishop, which may 
 not be inappropriate, and by GOD'S blessing, wor- 
 thy of the occasion, and not without benefit to us 
 who survive. 
 
 I do not propose to give his biography in full, 
 but to recount simply some of the leading events 
 of his life. 
 
 The Right Reverend Carlton Chase was the son 
 of Captain Charles and Sarah (Currier) Chase, of 
 Hopkinton, New-Hampshire. He was born Feb- 
 ruary 20th, 1794, at the house of his grandfather, 
 Captain Jonathan Chase, on "Dimond's Hill." 
 He was educated at the common schools until he 
 was fifteen years of age, but then completed his 
 preparation for college at Salisbury Academy, 
 New-Hampshire, in the summer of 1813; and 
 entered Dartmouth College in September of the 
 same year. "While in college his attention was 
 strongly turned to religious subjects; and to the
 
 position and claims of the Episcopal Church; and 
 in his senior year (May, 1817) he rode fifty miles, 
 on horseback, to receive Holy Baptism, at the 
 hands of the Keverend Joseph R. Andrus, who 
 afterwards became a Missionary of this Church to 
 Africa. Though he had intended to study Law, 
 up to this time, yet now, under the counsel and 
 advice of the Reverend Mr. Andrus, he deter- 
 mined to fit himself for the Ministry of the 
 Church. 
 
 He was graduated at Dartmouth, in the summer 
 of 1817, standing second in his class, the Rev- 
 erend Doctor Marsh, formerly President of the 
 University of Vermont, a very able and accom- 
 plished man, being first. 
 
 He studied Theology under the Right Reverend 
 Bishop Griswold, at Bristol, Rhode Island, and by 
 him was ordained Deacon, in St. Michael's Church, 
 on December 9th, 1818; and afterwards Priest, 
 September 27th, 1820, at Trinity Church, Newport, 
 Rhode Island. After officiating for a short time, 
 first at Lynn, Massachusetts, and afterwards at 
 Springfield, he became the Rector of Immanuel 
 Church, Bellows Falls, Vermont, on September 
 26th, 1819, and so continued for the space of near- 
 ly twenty-five years, discharging the duties of his 
 office with singular ability, great acceptance, and 
 good success. 
 
 During the first two years of his residence at 
 Bellows Falls, he officiated, one third of the time, 
 at the neighboring village of Drewsville, New- 
 Hampshire. He was a member of the Standing 
 Committee of the Diocese of Vermont during the 
 greater part of his residence therein, and its pres- 
 ident for the last ten years. He was chosen a 
 Deputy to the General Convention from the ses-
 
 sion of 1823 to that of 1844, when he entered the" 
 House of Bishops. He received from the Univer- 
 sity of Vermont the degree of Doctor of Divinity, 
 in 1839, and subsequently was admitted " ad eun- 
 dem " at Bishop's College, Lenoxville, Canada. 
 
 On the 4th of October, 1843, he was unanimous- 
 ly elected Bishop of New-Hampshire, and was 
 consecrated at the ensuing General Convention, at 
 Philadelphia, together with Bishops Cobbs and 
 Hawks, on the 20th of October, 1844, and im- 
 mediately entered upon his duties, in which the 
 remaining twenty-six years of his life were most 
 assiduously spent. He had previously fixed his 
 residence at Claremont, having accepted the rec- 
 torship of Trinity Church in that town, which he 
 held till the year 1863, at which time he relin- 
 quished it, on account of increasing infirmities, 
 the Diocese having assumed his support* 
 
 During the years 1849-62, by invitation of the 
 Ecclesiastical Authority of the Diocese of New- 
 York, which, at that time, was deprived of the 
 services of its Bishop, he performed Episcopal 
 services for several periods of varying lengths : 
 for, so acceptable were his services that, the Eccle- 
 siastical Authority renewed their invitation several 
 times, and pressed it upon his acceptance. 
 
 The health of the good Bishop gradually failed, 
 during the latter years of his life, and at length he 
 fell asleep in Jesus, revered and beloved by all 
 who knew him, on the 18th day of January, 1870, 
 
 And, thus, you see, dear brethren, that the whole 
 life of the departed Bishop was spent in New Eng- 
 land. In this beautiful valley of the Connecticut 
 he was educated, taking high honors from old 
 Dartmouth. Here was the scene of all his manly 
 labors in behalf of Christ and the Church, Here,
 
 24 
 
 amid lovely scenery, amid fertile meadows and 
 vales, and under the shadow of its graceful mount- 
 ains he studied and taught and ministered the 
 blessed Sacraments and went about among the 
 people of his charge, "doing good" after the ex- 
 ample of his Divine Master. " But while he was 
 thus in a high sense all your own, as student, 
 preacher, pastor, bishop, he was yet, so to speak, 
 not wholly your own. In his quiet seclusion 
 amid these beauteous scenes which he knew so 
 well how to prize and enjoy, he gave his best 
 thoughts to the interests of the Church at large, 
 and laid up stores of wisdom, which, when he 
 took his seat as Counselor of the Church, whether 
 in her Diocesan or General Conventions, he was 
 ready to give forth according to the needs arid 
 requirements of the occasion. 
 
 A sober-minded, discreet, thoughtful man of 
 rare independence of character, swayed by no pas- 
 sions, trammeled by no party, his words in council 
 were words of wisdom, which always commanded 
 the attention, and almost universally the hearty 
 assent, of those to whom they were spoken. Prob- 
 ably, there was no one in the House of Bishops in 
 which he sat for twenty-five years, who was ever 
 listened to by the assembled prelates with deeper 
 and more respectful attention. And most touch- 
 ing was the homage which was paid to him as he 
 entered the House on the last occasion of his pres-' 
 ence, in the general Convention of 1868. He did 
 not arrive until some days after the commence- 
 ment of the session, and it was not known that he 
 was in the city, when he entered the room in 
 which the Bishops were assembled busily engaged 
 in deliberation. As he walked into their midst 
 the speaker paused, the business was suspended,
 
 25 
 
 and every bishop arose from his chair to do him 
 reverence as he walked with trembling steps 
 towards his seat near the President. It was an 
 involuntary act of homage to an honored brother 
 for whom they entertained the deepest regard. 
 
 During one portion of his life he was several 
 times called away from the quietude of his own 
 diocese to enter upon busier scenes, amid much 
 greater excitement, in another section of the 
 Church. During the three years from 1849 to 
 1852, he made, by request of the ecclesiastical au- 
 thority of New- York, five distinct visitations amid 
 its parishes. It was during the time of a very 
 sore affliction of that diocese. Its Bishop was in- 
 definitely suspended. The excitement among his 
 clergy and the people was very deep. There was 
 angry controversy and bitter contention, rendered 
 the more acrimonious by the doubt and uncer- 
 tainty which hung over the future. It was, indeed, 
 a time which tried men's souls. To enter the 
 diocese under such circumstances for the perform- 
 ances of Episcopal Services, to go about among 
 its clergy and parishes, preaching, confirming, or- 
 daining, and to do this so prudently, and wisely, 
 and lovingly, as not only not to add to existing 
 excitements, but to allay them, and to be recog- 
 nized as a Minister of peace and blessing, required 
 no ordinary qualities of heart and mind. And 
 yet this he accomplished, never leaving behind 
 him any other result of his ministrations but 
 grace and truth. The Diocese of New- York thus 
 became very largely his debtor, and I am here 
 to-day as its representative, by his open grave to 
 acknowledge our indebtedness, and to witness to 
 our high sense of the dignity and wisdom of his 
 character, and the value of his services. And I
 
 bear with me from his friend, the Bishop of New- 
 York, the following letter, in which he utters the 
 same testimony. 
 
 NEW- YORK, 38 EAST 22o ST., Jan. 22, 1870. 
 MY DEAR DOCTOR HAIGHT: 
 
 I am very thankful that you have 
 it in your power to attend the last offices to the mortal 
 remains of our dear departed friend and brother, Bishop 
 Chase of New-Hampshire. It is a painful thing to me 
 that I am denied the privilege of accompanying you on 
 that sad journey. I can hardly express how highly I 
 valued him for the soundness of his judgment, for the 
 manly frankness and integrity of his character, for his 
 whole-hearted devotion to the best interests of the Church, 
 and for the kindness and sincerity of his dispositions. It 
 seems to me that in his death I have suffered a great per* 
 sonal loss, and I feel, if possible, still more deeply, that 
 the House of Bishops has suffered a great loss. 
 
 While he was never inclined to make himself obtrusive 
 in the Councils of the Church, and was averse to much 
 speaking, yet his judgments were so calm and so deeply 
 founded in reason and principle that his opinions always 
 had great weight with his brethren. 
 
 When I heard of his election to the Episcopate of 
 New-Hampshire, I at once wrote to him, expressing my 
 earnest hope that he would accept the heavy responsi- 
 bility. I knew his habits as a thoughtful student and an 
 affectionate Christian pastor, and I feared that he might 
 shrink from the change. 
 
 From that day to this I have ever thought of him with 
 reverence and love ; and it is now a consolation to me
 
 27 
 
 that I wrote to him, to express my feelings, just previous 
 to his last attack, and that I had, in return, through his 
 son, a most kindly response. 
 
 When I came myself into the Episcopate, and en- 
 tered upon my visitations in this Diocese, I met, almost 
 everywhere, warm expressions of respect and regard for 
 Bishop Chase, who had made extensive visitations in this 
 Diocese, during the years in which we were deprived of 
 the services of a Bishop of our own. Everywhere he 
 had made warm friends, and in all parts of the old Dio- 
 cese of New- York the news of his departure will be 
 received with lively sensibility. 
 
 In that day you were in a position to see more of him 
 than I could, and to observe more closely his powers of 
 administration, and his admirable qualities as a Christian 
 Bishop. His health and spirits were then unbroken. 
 The partner of his joys and sorrows, the soother of his 
 cares, the light of his house, was yet with him ; and I 
 have often heard you speak of the pleasure and satisfac- 
 tion you had in transacting business with him in those 
 days. 
 
 To me, in later years, was reserved the pleasure of 
 hearing his praises as my visitations led me to place after 
 place, to Parish after Parish, to family after family where 
 he had been before me ! And a great pleasure it was, 
 the feeling of Clergy and people toward him was so warm 
 and abiding. Sure I am that our Standing Committee, 
 and our next Diocesan Convention will express in no 
 feeble or doubtful terms the veneration and affection 
 which he awakened in all our hearts. 
 
 May GOD in His great mercy be gracious to his family 
 and to the bereaved diocese, and by His Holy Spirit
 
 28 
 
 guide the mourning flock to the things that are wise 
 and right for the future. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 HORATIO POTTER. 
 To THE REV. DR. HAIGHT. 
 
 It remains for me to say but very few addi- 
 tional words. Bishop Chase was a man of no 
 common intellectual endowments, and these had 
 been ripened by severe study and close application. 
 His scholarship was varied and accurate. He 
 prosecuted the study of Theology with deep inter- 
 est, and became a sound and admirable Divine. 
 He was one of the most upright of men, thor- 
 oughly honest and truthful in all his words and 
 deeds. He was a wise man, very rarely making 
 a mistake as to the course proper to be pursued, 
 whether in domestic, civil or religious matters. 
 He was a kind man, not ostentatiously so, but 
 unobtrusively kind, in thought, and word, and 
 deed to all men. He was a Christian man; a 
 meek, gentle., faithful follower of the blessed Jesus, 
 believing in Him, trusting in Him with his whole 
 heart ; living to honor, and serve, and obey, and 
 follow that adorable Redeemer. And he was a 
 Churchman, true and loyal to the Communion of 
 which he was an honored servant; prizing her holy 
 ways beyond his highest joy, arid ever praying 
 and striving for the increase of her peace and 
 prosperity. And yet while holding his own 
 principles firmly and decidedly, he failed not to 
 see and respect and love the good qualities of 
 those from whom he was constrained to differ. 
 His charity was of the widest kind, embracing 
 within its range all who loved the Lord Jesus
 
 29 
 
 Christ in sincerity, and who followed Him in 
 humility and truth. 
 
 Such was the beloved Father in God, whose 
 mortal remains are now to he consigned to the 
 tomb, with our tears and prayers, and yet in the 
 sure and certain hope of his glorious resurrection 
 at the last day, to receive the reward of a good 
 and faithful servant. 
 
 On account of the storm, which raged with vio- 
 lence, the remainder of the service was said in the 
 Church by Bishops Williams and Bissell, Bishop 
 Williams pronouncing the committal. 
 
 The Bishops and Clergy then repaired to the 
 door of the Church, and through their lines was 
 borne all that was mortal of him whom they had 
 loved and revered. The people saw, with moist- 
 ened eyes, the form of their chief-shepherd carried 
 forth from the portals which he had so often 
 entered to minister to them in the things of GOD. 
 
 Silently, amid the rain, his mourning family, 
 the Clergy, friends, and Masonic brethren carried 
 him to the place appointed for all living, and laid 
 him in the earth, whence, by the all-conquering 
 power of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he shall, 
 in the fulness of time, be raised, and his corrupti- 
 ble body made like unto Christ's own glorious 
 body.
 
 II. 
 
 THE life of a man whose official course covers 
 more than half a century, in the formative period 
 of this Church and Nation, can not but be of 
 value and interest to the world. Such was the 
 period and extent of the life of Bishop Chase, 
 The history of his official career is a portion of 
 the history of the growth and development of the 
 American Church from the feebleness of infancy 
 to the well-compacted strength of an institution 
 which now commands universal respect from a 
 condition of apologetic weakness among the 
 religious societies of this land to one of solidity 
 and power. The compilers of this sketch feel, 
 therefore, that they need offer no apology for 
 having entered upon the work which they here 
 propose to themselves. 
 
 Carlton Chase was born at Hopkinton, !N". H., 
 on Dimond's Hill, so called, on the road to Con- 
 cord, and about five miles from that place. 
 
 The Chases were among the first settlers of the 
 region where they lived. Thomas and Aquila 
 Chase, known to be brothers, and William Chase, 
 whose kinship is uncertain, are supposed to be 
 the progenitors of all now bearing their name in 
 this country. These came from England with
 
 SI 
 
 some of the earliest bands of emigrants. Wil- 
 liam died in Yarmouth, Mass., in the year 1659. 
 Thomas and Aquila, from the latter of whom the 
 subject of our sketch was descended, came to 
 Hampton, N". H. in 1639. From Aquila, also, was 
 descended the late Bishop Philander Chase ; he 
 being the fourth from Moses the youngest, while 
 Carlton Chase was the fourth from Daniel the 
 fourth son of Aquila. 
 
 Carlton Chase's great-grandfather moved to 
 Concord, N". H., when his family was nearly grown, 
 and bought a farm his house standing on or near 
 the present site of Abbott & Downing's carriage 
 shop. Jonathan, the second son, moved, about a 
 year after his marriage with Sarah Stickney, to 
 Hopkinton, where, on Dimond's Hill, he built a 
 small house, in which all his sons were born. 
 Charles Chase, son of Jonathan, lived on a farm 
 comprising a large portion of the homestead, 
 where he married Sarah Currier. Carlton, their 
 oldest son, was born February 20, 1794. Shortly 
 afterward, the house in which the family resided 
 was sold to the town for a Poof House, they re- 
 moving to another portion of the same farm. Re- 
 ferring to Charles Chase's birth-place being after- 
 ward turned into a pig-pen and his own into a 
 poor-house, the Bishop used playfully to say that 
 while his father was born in a pig-pen, his own 
 birth took place in a poor-house. 
 
 Sarah Currier was from a strong Baptist family,
 
 32 
 
 consequently the Bishop's early influences and 
 associations were connected with that denomina- 
 tion. Late in life his father joined himself to the 
 Episcopal Church at Hopkinton. 
 
 Carlton was of an exceedingly feeble constitution 
 one of those children of whom the good moth- 
 ers are wont to say " it was a miracle that he was 
 raised." "While an infant he had a very severe 
 attack of scarlet fever, from which it was only by 
 the best of loving care that he recovered. He 
 remained for years afterwards puny and unable 
 to endure hard work. The labors of the farm 
 were distasteful, being of too severe a nature for 
 his physical system. He had little taste for the 
 ordinary rough sports of the hearty farmers' boys 
 of his own age, and seldom mingled in them, 
 enjoying, however, an occasional frolic with his 
 brother and sister. 
 
 He had no early advantages for study but those 
 afforded by the district school. This he attended 
 regularly till eleven years of age, and after that 
 during winters, until he was fifteen. In the month 
 of February, 1808 he went to live with his uncle, 
 Dr. Stephen Currier, at Hopkinton village, where 
 he attended a private school kept by Amos Allen, 
 who afterwards practiced law in Newton, Mass. 
 In the winter following, at Mr. Allen's sugges- 
 tion, he took a small district school. In the 
 spring he returned to his father's house for the 
 summer's work on the farm.
 
 33 
 
 Now occurred an event which proved the turn- 
 ing point in his life and one which seemed to 
 be a direct interposition of divine Providence. 
 Of this remarkable circumstance he wrote " I 
 returned in the spring to my father's house, with- 
 out the least idea of ever following any other 
 pursuit than that of farming. One pleasant day, 
 in the month of May, as we were planting corn in 
 the field, I observed John O. Ballard, Esq., of 
 Hopkinton, (Goo bless him), enter the field and 
 hold a long conversation with my father. That 
 conversation decided the course of my life. In 
 consequence of it I undertook, in a few days, to 
 instruct a small family school for Mr. Ballard and 
 his friend, the Hon. John Harris; while it was 
 arranged that during spare time I should attend 
 to the study of Latin, under the direction of Mr. 
 Harris, who was an excellent scholar in that lan- 
 guage. The winter following, I took charge of 
 a common district school, in which I continued 
 several months, and returned in the spring to 
 pursue my studies with Mr. Harris, with whom I 
 continued till the school-keeping season of the 
 next winter. To the gentlemen above named, I 
 owe all that I know or am. By their habitual 
 care for correctness in first principles, and their 
 patient attention to elementary accuracy in every 
 thing, they were the means of throwing my mind 
 into a position which it has never lost nor left. 
 And I often think how fortunate it was for me to
 
 34 
 
 have commenced my education under the eye and 
 influence of such men." 
 
 In school-keeping, Carlton Chase was remarkably 
 successful, though so young. He was an excellent 
 penman, and retained the same habit and style, 
 almost precisely, to the last. Some of the latest 
 entries in his record are in the same carefully 
 executed, plain and distinct chirography which 
 appeared in his earliest manuscripts. His second 
 term was taught in Concord " street," where an 
 unruly school was put into his charge. His father 
 tried to dissuade him from attempting so difficult 
 a task, while yet comparatively without experience. 
 He nevertheless took the school and commenced 
 proceedings by appearing in the room on the open- 
 ing day while the young fellows, heroes of many 
 a rebellion, were clustered about the stove, waiting 
 to see who was to be master there, he or they. 
 Young Chase was then quite tall, but slender, with 
 dark hair and firmly set features. When he fast- 
 ened the door and ordered all to their seats, the 
 boys discovered that the days of their rule were 
 over. Mr. Chase quietly laid down the laws 
 which were to govern the school during that term, 
 and it is needless to add there was no disturbance 
 during that winter. 
 
 Mr. Chase completed his preparation for college, 
 at Salisbury Academy, in the summer of 1813, 
 and in September following entered Dartmouth 
 College. The class commencing that year num-
 
 35 
 
 bered sixty, most of them younger than Mr. Chase. 
 Of him, at that time, Hon. Amasa Edes, of New- 
 port, N". H., writes "His personal appearance 
 then was good; tall, straight, rather spare and 
 slender, but of good form, with countenance much 
 as in later life, except being expressive of more 
 spirit and vivacity." 
 
 Rev. Horace Fletcher, of Townshend,Vt, speaks 
 of him as follows "My recollections of your 
 father when in college are very distinct and vivid. 
 There is no one of our large class whose personal 
 appearance I can more readily and distinctly recall. 
 Although fifty years, and more, have fled away 
 since we trod the Halls of College together, and 
 went the rounds of college studies and exercises 
 in company, yet I can recollect with strange dis- 
 tinctness his appearance in the class. I seem to 
 see him standing near the head of the class, as we 
 were placed alphabetically, tall and pale with 
 study, reciting coolly and with great self-posses- 
 sion and accuracy, the lesson of the morning. I 
 have no recollection that he ever came to recitation 
 without thorough preparation. My impression is 
 that mathematical and philosophical studies were 
 his favorites, though he was by no means deficient 
 as a linguist. 
 
 His demeanor through his college life was 
 characterized, as it now seems to me, by a certain 
 gravity and dignity of carriage. I have no re- 
 membrance of ever seeing him engaged in the
 
 36 
 
 sports in which the students sought relaxation. 
 I have often seen him sitting on the steps of the 
 college building while some twenty or thirty of 
 the students eagerly engaged in the game of foot- 
 ball, on the common before him. He seemed to 
 look on with interest and be amused, but I cannot 
 recollect his engaging in the sport. This gravity, 
 and keeping aloof from the sports of the students, 
 may be attributable, in some measure, to the fact 
 that he was the senior in age of a majority of the 
 class." 
 
 The quietness of his bearing, thus described 
 by Mr. Fletcher, probably arose also in some 
 degree from the feebleness of his physical frame, 
 discouraging him from engaging in the rough-and- 
 tumble contests of the more hardy and robust. 
 
 Mr. Edes thinks " his standing, as a scholar in 
 his class, was by some considered as first, by others 
 as second. Opinions were divided between him 
 and the late President James Marsh of the Uni- 
 versity of Vermont." In speaking of those times, 
 the Bishop used to say that " he considered Marsh 
 the first, while Marsh insisted that he had a better 
 right to that position." Mr. Marsh was appointed 
 valedictorian, Mr. Chase having the next appoint- 
 ment the philosophical oration. 
 
 " During the months of July and August, 1815," 
 writes the Rev. Jacob Scales, of Plainfield 1ST. H., 
 " a terrible typhus fever prevailed among the stu- 
 dents, of whom many were sick and some died.
 
 37 
 
 Chase, rooming with a kinsman of a lower class, 
 in a private house, near the Medical College, was 
 very sick, and, for four weeks, did not stand alone 
 on his feet. His room-mate and I took care of 
 him, providing watchers, &c. I wrote his father, 
 at Hopkinton, who mounted his horse and came 
 directly to Hanover. It being haying season he 
 could stay but one day. He handed me some 
 bank-bills, seeing which, Carlton raised his head, 
 saying to me * you take care of that Pierce feels 
 so bad because he has no money.' Pierce was a 
 fellow-student who died the next day." 
 
 The end of the term having come, Mr. Scales 
 and Mr. Chase's room-mate borrowed a wagon, in 
 the bottom of which they placed a straw bed, and 
 on the bed the weak and sickly student. They 
 drew him to the house of a Mrs. Chapman, in 
 whose care they left him. The room-mate went 
 home, was taken down with the fever and died. 
 How long a time elapsed before Mr. Chase was 
 sufficiently recovered to return to Hopkinton is 
 not recorded ; but from a minute account of col- 
 lege expenses, which he kept, it appears that on 
 September 27th he paid Mrs. Chapman for his 
 board during his sickness. The entries for medi- 
 cine, &c., would indicate that this illness lasted 
 from about the twenty-third of August to the 
 above date. 
 
 While he was at home spending the summer 
 vacation of 1814, a report reached Hopkiuton that
 
 British vessels had appeared off Portsmouth har- 
 bor, meditating an attack. This roused the pat- 
 riotism of all the farmers' sons, who, Mr. Chase 
 among them, volunteered at once for the defence. 
 Their company marched to Portsmouth, spent a 
 few days in moulding bullets, and then returned 
 home, the enemy having disappeared. 
 
 Mr. Chase was elected a member of the Phi Beta 
 Kappa Society in the summer of 1816. 
 
 In relation to his first religious impressions, his 
 being drawn to the Episcopal Church and his 
 choice of a profession we find the substance of the 
 following in his own handwriting. He says that 
 until the latter part of his college course it was the 
 expectation of both himself and friends that he 
 would follow the profession of the law. The spring 
 of 1815 was distinguished at Dartmouth College by 
 a remarkable religious revival. This gave an im- 
 petus to the pious influences which, surrounding 
 him from infancy, now produced their effect by 
 inducing in Mr. Chase a new and fuller apprecia- 
 * tion of his duty to GOD, and by inspiring him with 
 a resolution immediately to fulfil it. He did not, 
 at this time, for good reasons, join himself to any 
 religious organization. He says, " In the winter 
 of 1816 17, I was engaged in a school at the vil- 
 lage of Hopkinton, where was, and still is, an Epis- 
 copal Church. My attention was attracted by its 
 solemn forms and regular ministrations, and by the 
 faithful preaching of the Rev. Joseph R. Andrus,
 
 39 
 
 the officiating minister. I had now found a 
 Church which answered my idea of what a Chris- 
 tian Church ought to be. I dismissed the inten- 
 tion of studying law, and determined to devote 
 myself to the ministry of the Episcopal Church." 
 
 With characteristic determination, on the four- 
 teenth of May following, he mounted a horse and 
 rode from Hanover to Hopkinton, about fifty miles, 
 where he received Baptism at the hands of Mr. 
 Andrus* This clergyman afterwards devoted him- 
 self to the Christianization of Africa, where he 
 died among the first of those who served under 
 the Colonization Society. 
 
 At Commencement, in July, 1817, he received 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and departed from 
 his Alma Mater, leaving the reputation of a thor- 
 ough student and a man who, if somewhat austere 
 in his intercourse with his fellows, was yet " a 
 perfect gentleman." If they feared, " they cer- 
 tainly loved him, regarding him as scrupulously 
 conscientious." " Distinguished in College for 
 his scholarship and dignified bearing, and for his 
 honorable course throughout, he occupied a proud 
 position in the estimation of the Class and of the 
 Faculty." 
 
 It was early in the winter of 181617, that Mr. 
 Chase determined to devote himself to the min- 
 istry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and, 
 accordingly, made immediate application for ad- 
 mission as a candidate for orders in the Eastern
 
 40 
 
 Diocese. The request was granted in January 
 1817, as appears in a letter from Bishop Griswold 
 dated "Bristol, January 30th. 1817," and running 
 as follows : 
 
 DEAR SIR: Tt gave me no small pleasure to 
 learn from Mr. Andrus and yourself, your wish to 
 devote yourself to GOD, in the work of the sacred 
 ministry. Though we are yet strangers, from the 
 testimonials forwarded and your own declaration, 
 I have no doubt that your motives are truly 
 Christian and that the LORD will make you a 
 useful Minister of His word. Your determination 
 to labour in the Protestant Episcopal Church, is 
 not, I trust, without the Divine Counsel. There is 
 a very great call for able and pious ministers 
 among us, and to the present state of our Church 
 may be applied the words of our Divine Master ; 
 "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers 
 are few." I presented your testimonials to our 
 Standing Committee, and, on their recommenda- 
 tion, have enrolled your name as a candidate for 
 Holy Orders. That the LORD may direct and bless 
 your studies, and fit and prepare you for that 
 important work, is the humble and earnest prayer 
 of your affectionate friend, 
 
 ALEXANDER Y. GRISWOLD." 
 
 Very shortly after his graduation, Mr. Chase 
 proceeded to Bristol, Rhode Island, where, as was 
 the custom in those days, he pursued the study of 
 Theology, in company with two or three other 
 students, under the direction of the venerable 
 Bishop. His life there was an exceedingly pleas- 
 ant one. The town was old, and the society of the
 
 41 
 
 best. As might be expected, the company and 
 conversation of an intelligent young man were 
 by no means despised. Accordingly Mr. Chase 
 passed through the ordinary experiences of young 
 men, whether they be clerical or lay. To the end 
 of his life, Bishop Chase spoke often and kindly 
 of the good ladies of Bristol, remembering them 
 always with the greatest interest. 
 
 In consideration of the circumstances of the case, 
 his term of study was shortened so that, on the 9th 
 of December, 1818, he was ordained Deacon, by 
 his venerable preceptor, in St. Michael's Church, 
 Bristol. 
 
 The first winter he spent, under the direction of 
 the Eev. Thomas Carlisle, of Salem Mass., in car- 
 rying out plans for raising up a Church in Lynn. 
 At the end of four or five months' service, matters 
 had not prospered sufficiently to warrant a perma- 
 nent engagement. A letter from the projectors 
 of the parish speaks in the highest terms of Mr. 
 Chase's faithful labors, but regrets that they were 
 not in position to offer a salary. 
 
 About the first of May, 1819, at the recommen- 
 dation and by the advice of Bishop Griswold, Mr. 
 Chase left Salem and went to Springfield, Mass., 
 where, it seems, the Church was scarcely more ad- 
 vanced than in Lynn the services being held in 
 the Armory Chapel and under the auspices of the 
 Commandant. This arrangement lasted but three 
 months, terminating the last of July.
 
 42 
 
 On the 26th of September, Mr. Chase entered 
 into an engagement with Immanuel Church, Bel- 
 lows Falls, Vt., and St, Peter's, Drewsville, N. H M 
 by which he was to officiate two thirds of the time 
 for the former and one third for the latter parish. 
 
 The Church at Bellows Falls was founded, in 
 the year 1789, by Samuel Cutler, a physician^ who 
 came, in that year, to Buckingham, from Hart* 
 ford, Connecticut He was a staunch Episcopa- 
 lian^ and immediately organized a parish, having 
 services at the " Old Town," as it was called. 
 Through his exertions the glebe lands in Rocking- 
 ham were taken up, rented, and the proceeds ap- 
 plied towards paying for the services of a clergy- 
 man. Dr. Cutler read the Church service on Sun- 
 days, obtaining, as means allowed, occasional visits 
 from neighboring clergy. Reverend Virgil Bar- 
 ber, of Claremont, afterwards a pervert to Rome, 
 was one of those most frequently called upon. 
 Thus the services of the Church were kept up, the 
 people baptised) the dead buriedj and the Holy 
 Communion occasionally administered, while, once 
 in a year or two, the hearts of the faithful were 
 gladdened by the visit of their chief pastor, the 
 Bishop of the Diocese* 
 
 About the year 1816 a Church building was 
 erected at Bellows Falls, whither Dr. Cutler had 
 removed, and where several other warm-heart- 
 ed Church people had settled. The Reverend 
 George T Chapman, now living, at a venerable
 
 43 
 
 old age, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was the 
 rector, and the only one, who preceded Mr. Chase. 
 He, in the year 1818, reported eleven commu- 
 nicants as belonging to Immanuel Church. 
 
 Mr. Chase, on arriving at Bellows Falls, went 
 to board in the family of Dr. Cutler who resided 
 in a large, low house situated where the Island 
 House now stands. In this sound, true-hearted 
 household he found Harriet Cutler, the woman 
 who, on the 13th of September, 1820, became his 
 wife. They were married in Windsor at the house 
 of Miss Cutler's brother-in-law, E. R. Campbell, 
 by the Rev. George Leonard, rector of the Church 
 in that place. They proceeded directly to Bristol, 
 where, on the 27th, Mr. Chase was admitted to 
 Priest's Orders by Bishop Griswold. Having re- 
 turned home, they boarded with Dr. Cutler until 
 his death, Oct. 30th, 1821, after which they kept 
 house in the same dwelling, till the year 1830, 
 when, having erected a house of his own, on the 
 hill, near the Church, he made that his residence 
 till his removal to Claremont, in April, 1844. 
 
 About the year 1819, he became a member of 
 the order of Free-Masons, and, June 3, 1820, he 
 took three of the Chapter degrees at Trinity Chap- 
 ter then located at Hopkinton, N". H., being exalt- 
 ed to the degree of Royal Arch Mason at the same 
 place Sept. 2, 1826. He ever held the Order and 
 its tenets in high esteem, delivering Masonic 
 addresses on several occasions.
 
 44 
 
 After fifteen months, St. Peter's Church, not 
 having obtained certain expected allowances, from 
 Church Lands, gave up its share of ministerial 
 service. In Oct. 1821, Immanuel Church made 
 provision for the entire support of their clergyman, 
 at a yearly salary of five hundred dollars. In his 
 record, Mr. Chase wrote " At the beginning of my 
 residence here, the sum of five hundred dollars 
 was proposed by the vestry as my salary. This 
 sum, from that time to this, neither the parish has 
 proposed to lessen nor I to increase. Though 
 small, the kind providence of GOD, has enabled 
 me to live within it, and indeed, to relinquish very 
 large arrearages at different .times. My receipts 
 have not averaged four hundred and fifty dollars, 
 per year. To be economical without meanness, 
 and liberal without profusion or extravagance is a 
 lesson which every minister of the gospel ought 
 diligently to study." 
 
 Mr. Chase found Bellows Falls a pleasant little 
 village with wild natural scenery both of mountain 
 and river, and, what was more to his purpose, settled 
 mostly by families of refinement and culture. The 
 canal, constructed around the falls in the Connecti- 
 cut, was owned by an English family by the name 
 of Atkinson ; several members of which, in their 
 various connections, resided in the neighborhood. 
 Moreover, these people were Churchmen. They 
 were born and bred in the Church and trained up 
 their families to walk in the same " old paths."
 
 45 
 
 Of course such society attracted new comers of 
 like principles and tastes; wherefore, during the 
 entire fifty years, which have now elapsed, since 
 the Reverend Carlton Chase commenced his minis- 
 trations in ImmanUel Church, a solid influence, 
 always perceptible and active, in the midst of the 
 amenities of refined social life, has existed there, 
 in favor of the Episcopal Church. At his first 
 undertaking the rectorship, the village being new, 
 with its population still unsettled, this sentiment 
 had hardly taken shape. But with a learned, 
 enterprising and industrious pastor, fresh from 
 contact with some of the best and brightest men 
 and women of the time, acting upon and with such 
 material, there could not fail to result just such a 
 united and harmonious Christian community as it 
 was this clergyman's happy lot to minister unto 
 during twenty-five of the best years of his life. 
 
 Although the Church edifice was already con- 
 structed when the new rector took possession, it 
 was hardly completed, and was burdened with a 
 debt, which, in those times of scant currency, was 
 heavy indeed. This incumbrance was paid off by 
 contributions of parishioners, aided by a legacy 
 from a friend in New York, whose munificence 
 was commemorated on a marble slab placed upon 
 the front of the altar. 
 
 Mr. Chase found on the records of the parish 
 the names of eleven communicants; these in- 
 creased, with remarkable steadiness and regularity,
 
 46 
 
 notwithstanding cbnstant losses by removals, to 
 one hundred and forty-six, as reported to the Con- 
 vention in 1843. In 1826 the Church was im- 
 proved and furnished with an organ. In 1833 an 
 important enlargement was effected. A Sunday 
 School library was gathered; while a parish 
 library, commenced in 1828, reached, during this 
 rectorship, above five hundred volumes. In 1839 
 a lecture room was built, and in 1842 the Church 
 was again repaired and painted. In contributions 
 for missionary work, and other benevolent enter- 
 prises, this parish was one of the most prominent 
 and reliable in the Diocese. All this was owing 
 to the quiet, systematic and judicious labors of 
 the pastor, seconded by a people among whom it 
 was a constantly increasing pleasure to live and 
 work. 
 
 It is related that at one time during this period 
 the Reverend Mr. Burchard, a leading revival 
 preacher among the Baptists, was holding a series 
 of meetings in a neighboring town. One evening, 
 according to custom, he invited the members of 
 his congregation to suggest subjects for prayer. 
 Among several who responded was one man who 
 called for prayers for Bellows Falls. No notice was 
 taken of this for some time : and the man loudly 
 repeated his request, till Mr. Burchard was obliged 
 to attend. Stretching his long arm out in the 
 direction from which the voice proceeded, he ex- 
 claimed, " Our brother need not trouble himself at
 
 47 
 
 all about Bellows Falls the LORD will take care 
 of Bellows Falls." 
 
 From the beginning of the pastorate of Mr. Chase 
 at Bellows Falls, till the year 1832, Vermont was 
 included in what was termed the Eastern Diocese, 
 presided over by Bishop A. V. Griswold, whose 
 memory will ever be affectionately preserved among 
 Churchmen. Bishop Griswold was an able admin- 
 istrator, and possessed the faculty of keeping in 
 mind and providing for every portion of his exten- 
 sive jurisdiction. This comprised the united dio- 
 ceses of Massachusetts, (which included Maine,) 
 New-Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode-Island. He 
 seemed to regard with equal care and solicitude 
 the few Churchmen in the obscure villages of New- 
 Hampshire as it were cast away on an island 
 amid the sea of Puritanism and the wealthy and 
 conspicuous parishes of Massachusetts and Rhode- 
 Island; and as often as circumstances permitted, 
 he visited them personally at their churches and 
 homes. 
 
 The difficulties attending a visitation, over this 
 part of New-England, in those days, can hardly be 
 appreciated now; an expedition from Bristol 
 through the Northern portions of his diocese being 
 more of an undertaking than would now be a 
 trip to Portland, Oregon. We find an interesting 
 letter written by the Bishop to his late pupil, 
 probably while the latter was at his father's house, 
 between the time of his leaving Springfield and
 
 48 
 
 commencing service at Bellows Falls, in which he 
 lays out the plan for a visitation in New-Hamp- 
 shire. 
 
 " August 23d, (BRISTOL) 1819. 
 REVEREND AND DEAR SIR : 
 
 I have received your favour of the 16th, and 
 thank you for the information it gives. As I hope 
 soon to see you, it will suffice, at present, to make 
 you acquainted with the arrangements of my in- 
 tended journey, as respects the parishes in your 
 vicinity. My intention is, the Lord permitting, to 
 go in the stage from Boston to Concord, Monday, 
 the 6th, of September next. Tuesday, the 7th, ( if 
 requested) will officiate in Concord. Wednesday, 
 the 8th, go to Plymouth, the 9th, officiate at Hold- 
 erness, the 10th, return to Concord, the llth, shall 
 be able to officiate in Hopkinton, or other place, as 
 shall be thought expedient. Sunday, ye 12th, may 
 be at Hopkinton except it shall be thought better 
 that I should be at Bradford. Monday, I intend 
 going to Bradford when ( if not before) services 
 may "be held there. Tuesday, the 13th, I would 
 go to Claremont. I have delayed giving this in- 
 formation longer than was intended by waiting for 
 some necessary information from Boston. If you 
 shall not be otherwise engaged I shall be glad of 
 your company to Holderness. Perhaps you will 
 also find it convenient to go with me to Claremont 
 and over to Bellows Falls. I have no conveyance 
 provided after reaching Concord. You will oblige 
 me by giving attention to that business. If some 
 of our kind friends there will let us a horse with a 
 chaise or small wagon, I will gladly pay for the 
 use of them. I wish also that you will give all
 
 49 
 
 the information respecting the above arrangement 
 which shall be useful and in your power. 
 
 Your friends, here in Bristol, are generally well 
 and I remain most affectionately your friend 
 and brother, 
 
 ALEXANDER V. GRISWOLD." 
 
 Under date of Boston, April 9, 1842, we find 
 another letter, in which a visit to the Western 
 portion of New-Hampshire is planned. After this 
 is one dated at Claremont, May 16, 1842> in which 
 the Bishop mentions being attacked, at that place, 
 with an illness, which necessitated a return to 
 Boston, leaving his intended work unfinished. 
 His venerable form was never seen among those 
 people again. 
 
 We introduce these matters without apology, 
 for they belong to the history of a period full of 
 interest to the Church, the sources of which are 
 fast passing away. 
 
 From his first appearance at the Diocesan Con- 
 vention of Vermont, to his election to the Episco- 
 pate of New-Hampshire, the Reverend Mr. Chase 
 bore a prominent part in the councils of the 
 Church. He was made a member of the Standing 
 Committee in 1820, and continued as such, by an- 
 nual election, one year excepted, when he intended 
 a visit to Europe, till he left the diocese ; and was 
 president of that body from the year 1834. He 
 attended every annual Convention of the Diocese 
 during his residence therein, excepting the year
 
 50 
 
 1824, when sickness prevented. He was an active 
 member of several committees appointed at differ- 
 ent times for the revision and improvement of the 
 Constitution and Canons of the Diocese. 
 
 At the early settlement of the country certain 
 lands were reserved in each township, by the Eng- 
 lish Government, for the use and benefit of the 
 Church. These were glebe lands and propagation 
 rights, which from lack of care, on the part of the 
 authorities of the Church, were now mostly occu- 
 pied and held by individuals, or in some cases, by 
 the towns in which they were situated. Thus 
 they were apparently lost to the sacred uses for 
 which they were originally set apart. In 1831, 
 Mr. Chase was appointed, by the Propagation 
 Society in England, one of its agents, to recover 
 and protect its rights in these lands. Accordingly, 
 he, with the Hon. Jonathan H. Hubbard, of Wind- 
 sor, and others, commenced a course of litigation 
 for this purpose. The distinguished Daniel Web- 
 ster being engaged as counsel, Mr. Chase and his 
 associates were entirely successful, and thereby 
 secured to the Church a property which yielded a 
 yearly income of over three thousand dollars a 
 very important help in carrying on the missionary 
 enterprises of the diocese. 
 
 In the course of one of his journeys, while 
 engaged upon this business, he was as effectually 
 scalped as though he had fallen among Indians 
 and been operated upon by their dexterous hands.
 
 51 
 
 He was, one night, crossing the Green Mountains, 
 in company with Judge Hubbard, when the coach 
 in which they rode was overturned and fell down 
 the side of the mountain, rolling completely over. 
 Mr. Chase's head coming in contact with the sharp 
 corner of a rib in the roof of the vehicle, his scalp 
 was torn up and turned forward nearly over his 
 eyes. He supposed himself to be fatally injured, 
 and so announced in a loud voice to his compan- 
 ion; which, however, was not the case, for the 
 skin being replaced and skilfully dressed, adhered 
 and grew on again perfectly the scar remaining 
 through life. This was really a narrow escape, for 
 had not the coach been stopped by a tree it must 
 have gone a very great distance down, in which 
 case death would have been almost certain. 
 
 At the very important Convention of 1832, at 
 which time Vermont separated itself from the 
 Eastern Diocese, or rather Province for such it 
 really was and the first Bishop of Vermont was 
 chosen, Mr. Chase's activity and influence were 
 employed most wisely and usefully. He led in 
 the legislation by which the separation was ef- 
 fected; and, being chairman of the committee, 
 prepared the touching and admirable parting ad- 
 dress of the diocese to the venerable Bishop 
 Griswold. 
 
 The clergy were almost equally divided in their 
 choice of a new bishop, and the feeling was at 
 first so strong that it threatened to break out in
 
 52 
 
 opposition to the result of the ballot. A lay mem- 
 ber of that convention, a man of excellent mem- 
 ory, attributes much of the fraternal acquiescence 
 which followed to the "conciliatory course of 
 Mr. Chase * * * * his manner of meeting 
 the opposition, cool, quiet, dignified, at the same 
 time firm; not once losing the Christian deport- 
 ment which followed him through life." 
 
 To him Vermont is indebted for the first sys- 
 tematic attempt to collect and arrange the mate- 
 rials for a history of the Church in that State. The 
 task of gathering up and arranging the scattered 
 and often disjointed fragments was assigned to 
 him, by the convention of 1837. This movement 
 resulted in the collection of letters, from different 
 rectors in the diocese, containing parochial history 
 now of great value, and in his preparing the 
 sketch of the history of the diocese and its sev- 
 eral parishes which was printed in Thompson's 
 Gazetteer of Vermont. 
 
 Mr. Chase was chosen delegate to the General 
 Convention of the Church for many successive 
 years, but attended only in 1823, 1832, 1835 and 
 1838. At those sessions, however, his business 
 tact, as well as his soundness of judgment, were 
 so remarkable that he was brought into contact 
 with all the leading men in the Church, and thus 
 became intimately acquainted with very many 
 distinguished persons, both clergymen and lay- 
 men, from all parts of the country.
 
 53 
 
 About the year 1837, the Diocese of Vermont 
 was agitated by troubles which some, who talk of 
 the "good old times," are wont to consider as 
 belonging only or chiefly to this present. A cler- 
 gyman named Perkins, who was settled at Arling- 
 ton, was so ill-advised as to attempt to substitute 
 his own wisdom for that of the Church, in the 
 Order for Public Worship. Mr. Perkins was 
 brought to trial for his disorderly practices. Mr. 
 Chase was appointed Proctor, and attended to his 
 duties with marked ability. The same captious 
 advantage was taken, by Mr. Perkins, on techni- 
 cal points and there was the same working up of 
 sympathy, and the same cry of persecution which 
 attend similar trials now; but the law of the 
 Church was so vindicated, and irregularities so 
 checked by this act of discipline, that peace has 
 reigned in the diocese ever since. 
 
 In the year 1839, Mr. Chase received the degree 
 of Doctor in Divinity from the University of Ver- 
 mont. This honor was peculiarly grateful to the 
 recipient, coming as it did through the hands of 
 his classmate and constant friend, the Reverend 
 President James Marsh. 
 
 On account of his connection with Hopkinton 
 and Concord, Doctor Chase was, of course, inti- 
 mately acquainted with the affairs of the Church 
 in New-Hampshire, while his reputation as one of 
 the first men in Vermont could not be unknown 
 to the churchmen of that diocese. Moreover the
 
 54 
 
 growing and united parish of Iramanuel Church, 
 just across the dividing line, was a constant 
 witness to his success in the pastoral relation. 
 Accordingly, after the death of Bishop Griswold, 
 in 1842, the thoughts of many New-Hampshire 
 churchmen were turned towards bringing Doctor 
 Chase back to the State of his birth, to admin- 
 ister in that diocese, the aifairs of the Church 
 in which he had been for a quarter of a century a 
 successful and honored presbyter. 
 
 At a special convention of the Diocese of New- 
 Hampshire, held at Concord on the 4th day of 
 October, 1843, Doctor Chase was, with most sin- 
 gular and gratifying unanimity, elected Bishop. 
 Having consulted his own diocesan, Bishop Hop- 
 kins, and maturely considered the subject, he gave 
 the following answer to the communication of the 
 committee appointed by the convention to an- 
 nounce his election. 
 
 To the Eeverend Charles Burroughs, D. D., 
 President of the Standing Committee of the Dio- 
 cese of New-Hampshire. 
 
 REVEREND AND DEAR SIR: 
 
 Through a committee of 
 
 your convention it has been announced to me that 
 on the fourth day of October instant I was unani- 
 mously elected to the Episcopate of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in that diocese. 
 
 In answer, I respectfully beg leave to say, that 
 I received this communication with humble and
 
 reverent submission to that Divine Redeemer who 
 appears to have ordered it, and, if it please Him 
 to spare my life and health till the canonical time 
 for consecration and to interpose no forbidding 
 obstacle, I will, in devout reliance on His grace, 
 hold myself in readiness for the further solemni- 
 ties necessary to the consummation of this act of 
 your convention. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Reverend Sir, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 CARLTON CHASE. 
 BELLOWS FALLS, Vr., Oct. 25, 1843. 
 
 The severance of his ties to Immanuel Parish 
 caused him no little pain. A letter written home 
 from the General Convention of 1838 contained the 
 following : " I often think of home and Immanuel 
 Church, and I can truly say that I see no clergy- 
 man here, whom I believe to be more happily sit- 
 uated in the midst of an affectionate people than 
 I am." 
 
 He wrote the following touching letter to the 
 Reverend Doctor Sprague, afterwards of Drews- 
 ville, under date of October 9, 1843 : 
 
 REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER: 
 
 I thank you most sincerely for 
 your kind letter, and wonder greatly how you 
 could have got the news (of the election to the 
 episcopate) so soon. Yes, the brethren in New- 
 Hampshire have solicited me to become their chief 
 pastor. And the election has come about in such
 
 56 
 
 a manner, and attended with such circumstances 
 as to affect me very deeply. I am informed that 
 though the members of Convention came together 
 without preconceived agreement, each one, almost, 
 having his candidate; yet upon conference they 
 settled into a unanimous decision, hoth clergy and 
 laity, in favour of your unworthy brother and fel- 
 low laborer. And with the LORD'S blessing, on 
 my doing what in me lies, they shall not have oc- 
 casion to regret it. Whether I shall accede to the 
 election I do not yet decide. Most probably I 
 shall, if satisfactory arrangements can be made on 
 the point of subsistence, though it will necessarily 
 involve the sacrifice of comfort and ease, and the 
 long cherished feelings of love for a home reared 
 and" arranged by my own hands, and pastoral ties 
 and attachments most dear; yet there are consider- 
 ations urging to it which have much force. * * 
 I love Vermont, and shall to the last hour of my 
 life: 
 
 " For her my tears shall fall; 
 
 For her my prayers ascend;" 
 
 and I would that I might, by an exchange of field, 
 be able to add the other two lines of the stanza, 
 
 " To her my cares and toils be given 
 Till toils and cares shall end." 
 
 But probably it is not so to be. In twenty-four 
 years I have done much for Vermont, and she has 
 dealt kindly with me. GOD bless her, and bless 
 her Church, and guide and bless her Chief Shep- 
 herd. ******! have been a sad man 
 from the moment this matter was announced to 
 me. I find my roots have run deep in this spot, 
 and the pulling them up is dreadful. Too much
 
 57 
 
 for my own comfort hereafter have I loved this 
 flock, and too much have they loved and indulged 
 me. l^ever, never was a pastor more blessed, and 
 few are the Churches so united, consistent, faith- 
 ful, prosperous and happy. I never can look upon 
 its like again. There is not a soul under my 
 charge, old or young, for whom I do not entertain 
 a personal affection, and from whom I do not 
 receive tokens of affection returned. GOD bless 
 Immaimel Church "and all her children within 
 her," and send her a Shepherd who shall faith- 
 fully dispense to her the bread and water of life. 
 Soliciting another letter, and begging the help of 
 your prayers, I have only time to add howjiffec- 
 tionately I am 
 
 Your brother in Christ, 
 
 CARLTON CHASE. 
 REVEREND N". SPRAGUE. 
 
 In the book in which, for years, the records of 
 the alms and offerings at Holy Communion were 
 kept, at Bellows Falls, is the following entry: 
 
 "April 7, 1844, Easter Communion, $6.15 
 Here ends my blessed and happy connection with 
 Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls. I go with hope 
 of a blessing from GOD, to labor in another field. 
 Claremont is henceforth my home, and Trinity 
 Church the field of labor to which Providence 
 calls. So farewell dear flock of Immanuel Church. 
 The LORD be with you." 
 
 Owing to his election's occurring within the 
 year before the meeting of the General Conven- 
 tion, the consecration of Doctor Chase could not 
 canonically take place till October, 1844. It was,
 
 58 
 
 however, thought best that he should connect 
 himself with the diocese at an earlier day. The 
 choice of a residence lay between Concord and 
 Clareraont. The latter place was decided upon. 
 It being arranged that with his bishopric he 
 should assume the rectorship of the Church where 
 he might reside, he took charge of Trinity Church, 
 Claremont on the first Sunday after Easter in 
 1844. This parish was organized as a corpora- 
 tion separate from Union Church, whose church 
 edifice was in West Claremont, in the summer 
 of 1843 Doctor Chase being consulted in regard 
 to the movement while under consideration *and 
 the Reverend E. A Greenleaf was engaged to 
 officiate until the new rector, in the person of the 
 Bishop elect, should arrive, which he did in the 
 following spring, and spent the summer of 1844 
 in labors among the people of his new charge, 
 and in preparing a home for his large family. 
 
 The church edifice, which was purchased from 
 a "union" organization, and which had been in 
 use for several years, as a chapel to Union Church 
 was a curiously constructed brick building of six* 
 teen sides, with windows in two stories thickly 
 set in. The roof rose to a point in the centre, 
 whence a nondescript sort of cupola seemed to 
 sprout. There was originally no provision made 
 for warming in winter, people depending on foot- 
 stoves and a vigorous action of the feet when the 
 cold was too intense to be endured in quiet.
 
 59 
 
 In 185}, after strenuous efforts, a new church 
 was built, which still challenges the admiration of 
 many visitors. Of the cost, considerably over a 
 thousand dollars was contributed by Churches in 
 New- York, out of personal regard for Bishop 
 Chase. Meanwhile the parish grew steadily in 
 strength and character, and was one of the most 
 vigorous of country Churches. This rectorship 
 Bishop Chase held till the year 1863, when his 
 infirmities and the needs of the diocese rendered 
 it necessary that this portion of his cure should be 
 relinquished. The diocese, being now of sufficient 
 ability, assumed the entire burden of the modest 
 salary agreed upon the sum of nine hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 Thus ended a pastorate of forty-five years, di- 
 vided between only two parishes, which in mutual 
 love, respect and esteem never faltered, and which 
 was accompanied with regular and abundant suc- 
 cess. 
 
 In October the General Convention met at Phil- 
 adelphia where, on the 20th, in Christ Church, 
 with Doctors C. S. Hawks and N. H. Cobbs, he 
 was consecrated to the holy office of a Bishop 
 in the Church of GOD by the Right Reverend 
 Philander Chase, assisted by Bishops Browiiell, 
 Onderdonk (of New- York), Ives and Smith. 
 
 From motives of delicacy, having but just been 
 consecrated, he would not sit on the trial of 
 Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, but returned home to
 
 60 
 
 commence his work for the Church in Few- 
 Hampshire. The first entry in his official journal 
 is, " October 28, 1844, I received from the presid- 
 ing Bishop the sentence pronounced by the House 
 of Bishops against the Right Reverend Henry 
 Ustick Onderdonk, and immediately communicat- 
 ed the same to the clergy of the Diocese. I am 
 sorry to begin my work with such an entry." 
 
 It is proper to remark here that Bishop Chase, 
 many years after, that is to say, at the Convention 
 of 1865 held at Philadelphia, had the satisfaction 
 of aiding materially in the restoration of Bishop 
 Onderdonk, and of communicating the grateful 
 news to the loving family of the penitent and long 
 enduring Bishop. 
 
 Under date of November 2, 1844, he records the 
 transfer of I. G. Hubbard, a candidate for orders 
 from Connecticut, to the Diocese of Few-Hamp- 
 shire; whom he afterwards ordained, and for 
 whom, during many years, as a faithful presbyter 
 in his diocese, he felt the heartiest affection; in 
 whose judicious counsels he had the greatest con- 
 fidence, and upon whom, as Rector of Trinity 
 Church, Claremont, during the three years before 
 his death, he constantly leaned for advice and 
 assistance. Doctor Hubbard's respectful, consid- 
 erate kindness Bishop Chase ever acknowledged ; 
 and of his affectionate solicitude during the last 
 illness the family of the Bishop now desire to 
 record their grateful appreciation.
 
 Gl 
 
 Bishop Chase's first visitation was made No- 
 vember 6, 1844, at Union Church, West Clare- 
 mont; of which he records, "This, my first Con- 
 firmation, was held in the same church where 
 that sacred rite was first performed by the late 
 venerable Bishop Griswold." 
 
 On the seventh of December he received notice 
 of the trial of Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, to take 
 place at New- York on the tenth. The notice was 
 so short that, perhaps not unwillingly, he was 
 prevented from attending the trial. Without un- 
 dertaking to pass judgment in a cause which he 
 had not heard, he always, afterwards, indulged 
 the kindest feelings to wards his suspended brother; 
 and sympathized with him in the galling bondage 
 under which he lay during the rest of his life. 
 
 It is impossible in this connection to introduce 
 a history of the Diocese of New-Hampshire during 
 the Episcopate, more than twenty-five years ill 
 length, of Bishop Chase. Upon his accession he 
 found but twelve organized parishes with eleven 
 clergymen ; while on the first of January, 1870, 
 the churches numbered twenty-three, and the 
 clergy, twenty-two. 
 
 The field which now lay before him in the Epis- 
 copate was far different from the Pastorate he had 
 left. At Bellows Falls the Episcopal Church was 
 the Church of the village. A small Methodist 
 society managed to live, indeed, but public opinion 
 was so strong in favor of the Church and its ways,
 
 62 
 
 that the clergyman's work for it was always com- 
 paratively pleasant and easy. New-Hampshire, on 
 the other hand, was at that time like a sterile, 
 rocky pasture, where the cultivated plants strug- 
 gled feebly for existence, and almost apologized for 
 not absenting themselves altogether. The Church 
 but just existed. In its progress there was no head- 
 way, no momentum. Every movement involved a 
 steady, continuous pull. There was everything to 
 be done, and also nothing to do with. The laity 
 in the diocese were unused to paying their money, 
 and the attention of those outside was directed to 
 the more inviting prospects for building up the 
 Church amid the new countries of the West. 
 
 In the presence of all these difficulties, however, 
 the work was diligently carried on. The various, 
 Churches were visited once, and often twice, each 
 year. The old parishes were encouraged, and 
 indications of new openings judiciously and ar- 
 dently followed up. Thus year by year, with 
 little change, the work went on. Now and then 
 some old parish would give evidence of increasing 
 life and vigor, or an especially favorable opening 
 would appear for a new one. Many a time was 
 the Bishop called upon for help when he had none 
 to give ; and he found the slenderness of the means 
 at his disposal the chief hindrance to the mission- 
 ary operations he desired to set forward. The 
 daily mail brought its never-ending round of cares. 
 Difficulties and disputes, which in larger dioceses
 
 63 
 
 are of necessity settled at home, were sent to be 
 laid before the. Bishop for adjudication. No one 
 except the Bishop of a small diocese can under- 
 stand how near the labor of its administration 
 approaches to that of a large one. 
 
 On Sunday, September 16, 1849, Bishop Chase 
 visited Keene, where the Reverend H. K Hudson 
 was officiating. He succeeded, though suffering 
 great pain, in preaching in the morning, but kept 
 his room during the afternoon. The next day he 
 was hardly able to make the journey home, and 
 when he reached there, immediately betook himself 
 to his bed, entirely prostrated by an attack of in- 
 flammatory rheumatism. Here he was confined 
 for three or four weeks, not recovering strength 
 until the last of the month following. 
 
 The Bishop of the Diocese of New- York being 
 at this time under disability, the necessary episco- 
 pal services were performed by various Bishops, 
 acting at the request of the Standing Committee. 
 On the 5th of October Bishop Chase was invited 
 to take temporary charge of that large and im- 
 portant jurisdiction. One reason, doubtless, for 
 his selection to perform this duty, was the fact, 
 mentioned before, that Bishop Chase had np part 
 in the Onderdonk trial; and, consequently, was 
 not obnoxious to any persons or parties in New- 
 York, 
 
 In compliance with this request, though before 
 he had fully recovered his strength, he started for
 
 64 
 
 the scene of his labors on the thirty-first of Octo- 
 ber. He was met by his friend, the Reverend 
 Benjamin I. Haight, D.D., Secretary of the Stand- 
 ing Committee, at whose house he was most hos- 
 pitably and kindly cared for. 
 
 He rapidly recovered his health in traveling 
 from parish to parish, during a series of visitations 
 which lasted six weeks, without interruption. 
 During this time he officiated nearly every day, 
 and some days twice, mostly in the Churches on 
 Long Island and Staten Island, and in West Ches- 
 ter County. This duty was unaccompanied by 
 remarkable events, but was lightened by many 
 circumstances of the most agreeable nature. The 
 excellent and hospitable people whom he met, and 
 at whose homes he staid; and the hours of pleas- 
 ant, social intercourse among cultivated people, 
 became never-ending sources of pleasing remin- 
 iscences, and were often spoken of by the Bishop 
 with cordial appreciation and gratitude. While 
 on this visitation he held service in forty-one 
 churches and chapels; confirmed five hundred 
 and forty persons ; ordained two priests ; conse- 
 crated five churches, and delivered nearly fifty 
 sermons and addresses; besides administering Bap- 
 tism and the Holy Communion on several occa- 
 sions. No untoward event of any kind befell him 
 in his constant journeys, and he returned home 
 with re-established health and strength. 
 
 On the 22d of the following February he again,
 
 65 
 
 by request, entered upon service in the same 
 diocese, his visitation lasting till the end of March. 
 Of this second visit he records that he " officiated 
 on thirty-three occasions in thirty-two churches 
 or parishes : pronounced sentence of degradation 
 against three clergymen; gave the 'laying on of 
 hands ' to eight hundred and ninety-three persons 
 in Confirmation ; delivered forty sermons and 
 addresses; and traveled between six and seven 
 hundred miles." He adds, "I feel humbled at 
 the thought of the little gratitude which warms 
 my heart in remembrance of the mercy and good- 
 ness which carried me safely and happily through 
 so great an undertaking. Not the slightest fail- 
 ure, disaster, loss or disappointment of any kind. 
 Nothing could exceed the kind attentions and 
 hospitable assiduities of this people in all places. 
 Again I must bear testimony to the piety, devo- 
 tion, zeal and active Christian life of our brethren, 
 clerical and lay, in New York. Again I enjoyed 
 the hospitality of that learned, laborious, and 
 admirable minister of Christ, the Reverend Doc- 
 tor Haight, and his blessed family. My grateful 
 heart will ever warm towards them all. How 
 much they ministered to my happiness and con- 
 tributed to my useful ministration, GOD only 
 knows. The arrangements made for the meeting 
 of the various appointments, by the Eeverend 
 Doctor Haight, were perfect in all their parts. 
 With no trouble nor anxiety'to myself, at the
 
 proper time a carriage was sent for me by the 
 clergyman whose church I was to visit; service 
 being ended, I was immediately taken to whatever 
 place I chose. My only care was to be prepared 
 for each appointment at the proper time. My 
 conveyance depended upon others. Oil the whole 
 I reckon the last half year as a most delightful 
 portion of my life." 
 
 Bishop Chase was again placed in charge of 
 this important field doing duty there from the 
 first of May, 1852, in which time he performed 
 the following services: Confirmed, in forty-six 
 churches, eleven hundred and seventy-two per- 
 sons; Ordained four priests and two deacons; 
 Consecrated three churches; delivered fifty-nine 
 sermons and addresses. 
 
 He continued in charge till the Diocesan Con- 
 vention in September, having spent from the twen- 
 tieth of June till the ninth of July, and from the 
 fourth to the nineteenth of September. 
 
 On the tenth of November he was present in 
 Trinity Church, New- York, at the consecration of 
 the Eeverend Doctor Wainwright, as Provisional 
 Bishop of that Diocese. He records of this ser- 
 vice, "The sermon, at the urgent request of Bish- 
 op Brownell and of Doctor "Wainwright, though 
 quite against my own judgment, and inclination, 
 was delivered by myself. It was a day of surpass- 
 ing interest. There were ten bishops and two 
 hundred clergymen present, and a congregation
 
 67 
 
 of two thousand people. Thus happily the affairs 
 of the Church in New- York are settled. In this 
 event I sincerely rejoice." 
 
 This sermon, one of the best from the pen of 
 Bishop Chase, was received with the heartiest en- 
 comiums and was published. 
 
 On the seventh of October, 1852, Bishop Chase 
 attended the first trial of Bishop Doane, at 
 which time the complaint was dismissed. Of 
 the re-opening of the case, September 15, 1853, 
 when, after an examination of thirteen days, the 
 complaint was again dismissed, he records : " The 
 decision was unanimous. None were dissatisfied, 
 apparently, except the presenters and those per- 
 sons, enemies and revilers of Bishop Doane of 
 whom there is but a small class in the Diocese 
 who had long been virulent and bent on destroy- 
 ing the Bishop. With a most noble, manly and 
 Christian bearing, and with an ability of the most 
 transcendent order, he managed his own case. 
 Thus this troublesome business has been finally 
 disposed of, and can never be brought up again. 
 It is not for a moment to be supposed that the 
 presenting Bishops were governed by bad motives, 
 but, at the same time, I have no hesitation in 
 recording that, in my opinion, they greatly erred 
 in judgment. They listened too readily to scurril- 
 ous tales ; and they ought to have rested satisfied 
 with the proceedings of the year before. I can- 
 not comprehend the views of duty which engaged
 
 68 
 
 them in this second prosecution. It is wonderful 
 how united the Churchmen of New-Jersey are in 
 their Bishop." 
 
 In the year 1852 an act of incorporation was 
 procured from the Legislature, by which a board 
 of Trustees was empowered to hold property for 
 the benefit of the Church in New-Hampshire. 
 This was an important step, and laid the founda- 
 tion for the accomplishment of much good in 
 future years. The Bishop writes of it, " I think 
 we can now manage the pecuniary interests of the 
 Church in this Diocese to good advantage." 
 
 In October, 1854, movements were initiated, 
 which ended, by the munificent liberality of Doc- 
 tor Shattuck, of Boston, in the establishment of 
 a boys' boarding school, at Concord, under the 
 title of St. Paul's School, which stands second, in 
 sound scholarship and in reputation, to none in 
 this country. In this institution and its affairs, 
 the Bishop took the greatest interest; and his 
 pains, with those of the other Trustees, of the 
 Founder, and of him who has been from the be- 
 ginning the Eector of the School, have been fully 
 rewarded by the marked success which has attend- 
 ed the enterprise from the very beginning. 
 
 During the early portion of his Episcopate, the 
 only mode of communication with the middle and 
 eastern portion of the Diocese was by a toilsome 
 journey of fifty miles by stage. One had to rise 
 long before daylight to avail himself even of that
 
 69 
 
 conveyance. Several times each year the Bishop 
 undertook this labor, and never spared himself 
 any exertion necessary to the performance of his 
 duties. The project of connecting Claremont 
 with Concord by a railroad was often debated, 
 and indeed, one was constructed, over a portion 
 of the distance. At the beginning of the year 
 1870, the full completion of the enterprise seemed 
 near, and it was thought that Bishop Chase might 
 yet live to enjoy its benefits. This however was 
 not granted him. To the end of his active life, in 
 all weariness and pain, a long detour, or a stage 
 ride, greatly dreaded by him in his weakness, was 
 necessary in order to cross the State to the east- 
 ern portion of his charge. 
 
 Bishop Chase attended the General Convention 
 which sat at Richmond, Virginia, in the fall of 
 1859. There he made many friends, Mr. Botts, 
 Mr. Rives, and others, with whom he afterwards 
 had much correspondence, in relation to the 
 troubles in which the country was then involved. 
 It is well known that, in Virginia there were, at 
 that time, many men who, after their own fashion, 
 were ardent lovers of the Union. The Bishop 
 had frequent communication with them, in the 
 winter of 1860-61, in the course of which they 
 begged him to endeavor so to influence action 
 at the North as to enable them to hold the South 
 to duty, and thus to save the Country. Bishop 
 Chase, though never sacrificing his just pride in
 
 70 
 
 the rectitude of the North, did all that was pos- 
 sible at the time. The difficulties were not to he 
 settled in that way. These people were but try- 
 ing to put the new wine of the public opinion of 
 1860 into the old bottles of 1789; consequently, 
 after several patchings, the old bottles utterly 
 failed. The new will now probably hold the wine 
 for many, many years. 
 
 During the winter of which we have spoken, 
 the Bishop was much troubled at the condition of 
 the country, and in a sermon, on the occasion of 
 the National Fast, in April, 1861, labored to as- 
 suage the excitement and wrath of the multitude. 
 He was by nature and from long habit unable to 
 believe that all the good was to be found on one 
 side, and had many words of warning for men at 
 the North as well as for those at the South. After 
 the war fairly opened, however, his patriotic zeal 
 for the Union was without stint or measure, and 
 he lived to see her fully and triumphantly restored. 
 The officers of government who were stationed near 
 his residence, have spoken warmly of the assist- 
 ance they derived from his counsel and example. 
 
 In the spring of 1863 he was attacked with a 
 violent Pneumonia, which, though thrown off for 
 the time, so seriously affected his health that he 
 was never after entirely free from its effects. From 
 that time must be dated the decline which ended 
 in his death on the 18th of January, 1870. In the 
 summer following that sickness, he resigned the
 
 71 
 
 rectorship which, blessed with the undiminished 
 affection and regard of those to whom he minis- 
 tered, he had held for nearly twenty years. The 
 Bishop thenceforth devoted his entire time to the 
 interests of the Diocese. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1864, Mrs. 
 Chase was in feeble health, though not supposed 
 to be in a critical condition. Her husband and 
 children viewed her condition with solicitude, but 
 not with alarm. In the course of the summer, she 
 visited her friends in the neighboring towns with 
 great satisfaction; still she was not permanently 
 relieved from the unfavorable symptoms. In 
 August, Bishop Chase went on a visitation to Lan- 
 caster, in the northern part of the State, and 
 while there, visited an old parishioner in the town 
 of Guildhall, Vt., and was entreated to remain 
 several days. Though there was no apparent 
 reason for declining, yet he had a feeling that he 
 must not delay his return home. He accordingly 
 hastened thither, reaching Claremont on Thurs- 
 day, August 25. He found on his arrival that 
 Mrs. Chase had just been seized with a serious 
 attack of illness, and was sinking rapidly; so rap- 
 idly, that on the following Saturday she breathed 
 her last. The Bishop often mentioned this provi- 
 dential circumstance his being brought home, as 
 it were, when there seemed no occasion for com- 
 ing : for there was great reason for his presence 
 with his family.
 
 72 
 
 Mrs. Chase was a woman of the most excellent 
 Christian character, and of the highest and best 
 qualities both of mind and heart. Entirely unob- 
 trusive, but gentle, loving and sympathetic, she 
 was not one to excite the admiration of the crowd, 
 nor to charm the casual observer; but her friends 
 were bound to her by no ordinary ties of affection, 
 and valued her regard by no meagre standard. 
 Among them she was the pattern Christian woman, 
 to be compared with whom was deemed the 
 highest praise. The influence of her example, 
 and even of her peace-breathing presence was a 
 great assistance to her husband in his pastoral 
 relations. Her memory is inexpressibly dear to 
 her children, who can never cease to regard and 
 reverence in her the tender, even-tempered, loving 
 mother, and the best of women. 
 
 Though calm and self-possessed through the 
 whole, the Bishop felt the death of his wife 
 most keenly. His affection for her was deep and 
 tender, and his thoughts constantly dwelt upon 
 her beloved memory during the remaining years 
 of his life. 
 
 Bishop Chase attended to the business of his 
 diocese in the most prompt and careful man- 
 ner, being called upon to exercise his influence 
 and power in all sorts of affairs, many of which 
 in larger jurisdictions never reach the Bishop's 
 ear. His tact at reconciling differences was re- 
 markable, and was more effectual because he
 
 73 
 
 never moved in haste, nor on a partial view of a 
 matter. 
 
 During the remainder of his Episcopate, there 
 is little to call for special notice. His record of 
 events remains to the Church, and furnishes a 
 minute and systematic history of the administra- 
 tion of the Diocese. Up to the year 1869 he per- 
 formed in his own person the duties of his office 
 almost without exception. Though deeply feeling 
 his increasing infirmities, nevertheless he always 
 accomplished the work. But at this time, on his- 
 request, he was kindly relieved of some of these 
 labors by the Bishops of Maine and Vermont. 
 
 The last entry in his record bears date of Jan- 
 uary 1, 1870, and is in a handwriting almost a& 
 firm as the entries of twenty years before. 
 
 Bishop Chase was one of those men who live 
 on to comparative old age in a condition not far 
 removed from sickness. His health in childhood 
 was very poor, and his illness in College was 
 thought to have destroyed what little constitution 
 he had possessed. Several sicknesses afterwards 
 added to his disordered condition. When a 
 young man he set his life to end at forty, and 
 after that was constantly in expectation of an 
 early demise. During the last five or six years, 
 the physicians felt that he might be taken away 
 at any time ; this was his own belief; and in the 
 long and lonely hours of sleepless nights he 
 thought much of eternity, beguiling the time with
 
 74 
 
 the hymns and collects with which his memory 
 was stored. His mind could scarcely be said to 
 have failed, although, during the last few months, 
 the power of concentration was very much im-* 
 paired. Long continued attention exceedingly 
 fatigued him; and matters which Would have 
 seemed easy and clear when he was in health, 
 now worried him inexpressibly. His judgment 
 was still sound, and his apprehension of the re- 
 lations of things perfect. His memory of recent 
 events became somewhat treacherous at the last, 
 but as to events long past it was as good as ever. 
 
 His fatal illness commenced on Monday morn- 
 ing, the 10th of January> in the form of a slight 
 numbness of the left hand and arm, which spread 
 gradually to his entire side. This so passed away 
 in the course of the forenoon, that he spent the 
 afternoon and evening in the most pleasing and 
 easy conversation with his family. Tuesday morn- 
 ing he was unable to finish dressing without help, 
 and was assisted to a lounge in his study. He 
 lay upon this in great uneasiness, which steadily 
 increased till half-past eleven, when a spasmodic 
 attack came on. This passed away, but was re- 
 peated at two, at five, and at seven, leaving him 
 almost unconscious, and in a state of great nerv- 
 ous agitation. After seven o'clock in the evening 
 these attacks did not recur, and he gradually 
 became more quiet. On "Wednesday morning a 
 good prospect appeared of a substantial rally.
 
 75 
 
 The next day, however, typhoid symptoms set in, 
 under which he sank ; and on the following Tues- 
 day, at the going down of the sun, his spirit 
 quietly departed. 
 
 During this sickness his mind often wandered. 
 He fancied himself away from home, taken sick 
 while in attendance upon a Convocation of his 
 clergy ; and was constantly hoping to be able to 
 return to his own home, that place of comfort 
 and rest. He recognized, and was glad to see, all 
 his friends. His family find satisfaction in the 
 thought that everything which constant care and 
 watchfulness, and the skill of his physician could 
 effect, w r as done for their dying father and friend. 
 From an early hour on the morning of his first 
 attack, he was attended with unremitting assi- 
 duity; friends and neighbors most kindly adding 
 their efforts to those of the family in this work 
 of love. And his trusted friend, the rector of the 
 parish with which he himself had been so long 
 connected, was often by his bedside, and at the 
 last commended his soul to GOD in the prayers of 
 His holy Church. The Bishop was patient under 
 all suffering and affliction, and grateful for every 
 attention. He joined in the prayers which were 
 daily offered by his bedside, and at last, quietly 
 and without a struggle, gave up the ghost, his 
 form was with us, but his spirit had returned 
 to GOD who gave it. Truly, he died the death 
 of the righteous, may our last end be like his.
 
 III. 
 
 THE character of Ca'rlton Chase was singularly 
 rounded and symmetrical ; and in. this very sym- 
 etry lies the difficulty of giving it an adequate de- 
 scription. An intimate friend writes of him "In 
 a character so admirably proportioned, as was the 
 Bishop's, in a life and conversation so harmonious, 
 there could be little of the sensational or telling 
 order. Biographies of such men as he are the 
 hardest to write, for the general reader. Lives 
 that are in themselves evangels, seem to render 
 commentary and illustration alike needless and 
 unsatisfactory. Yet it is precisely such lives that 
 stir the hearts of those who have been privileged 
 to read them most closely, with the irrepressible 
 desire to lay them open to the larger audience." 
 
 Bishop Chase was rather a man of ability than 
 of genius. His was an active a working mind; 
 not rapid, but steady and thorough in its action; 
 not fitted for the easy yet brilliant exhibitions 
 which excite the astonishment and kindle the 
 admiration of the public, but for the successful 
 evolution, by diligent study, of the principles 
 which are most useful to man in all his various 
 relations. He was eminently an exact man 
 early training and long use having rendered this
 
 77 
 
 habit a second nature. Every thing he undertook 
 was accomplished in his best possible manner, and 
 at the precise time required. He was one of the 
 most punctual of men, and so strenuous was he 
 on this point that it is probable that he never, by 
 his own negligence, caused loss of time to another. 
 
 Nature endowed Bishop Chase with a well bal- 
 anced mind, and gave him energy and persever- 
 ence for its cultivation. No unusual aptitude 
 made him easily great in some conspicuous de- 
 partment in fact, nothing was easy unless it had 
 become such by previous hard work. 
 
 He says of himself "I have written a great 
 deal for magazines and religious newspapers, but 
 have published no books. Having an active 
 mind, I should probably have done something in 
 this way if chirography, or the mechanical opera- 
 tion of writing had not always been very irksome. 
 I never could see what pleasure there was in scrib- 
 bling characters on paper. Habit has, however, 
 long since reconciled me to it, in a degree, so that 
 I compose sermons with nothing very unpleasant 
 in the labor." For sermon-writing he had certain 
 days in the week set apart, and of them particular 
 hours, each of which must produce its quota of 
 manuscript. He says" As to the modus operandi 
 of executing a composition, I take leave to remark 
 here that, at an early period, I cultivated the 
 habit of getting every thought perfectly into form, 
 even to a single word, before I began to lay it on
 
 78 
 
 paper. This was painful, laborious and slow, at 
 first, but it contributed greatly to accuracy of 
 expression and distinctness of conception, and at 
 length became easy and tolerably rapid. I seldom 
 copy anything for the purpose of correction or 
 alteration, or to get rid of the necessity for un- 
 couth interlineations." He made a point of con- 
 sidering upon every thought, which he desired to 
 put into words, till he was sure he had it framed 
 in the best possible manner. Even the simplest 
 announcements in church were carefully prepared, 
 PO that he might, without peradventure, tell the 
 congregation just what he wished them to know. 
 At the same time, whether from lack of the pe- 
 culiar faculty, want of early discipline, or from his 
 habitual diligent care in the selection of words, 
 when seated at his writing table, he was not ready 
 at expressing himself extempore. 
 
 His style of composition was, ordinarily, plain 
 even to excess. On appropriate occasions it could 
 be eloquent even grand, but never ornate. He 
 employed no rhetorical tricks nor expedients for 
 gaining attention"; but, on subjects of high im- 
 port, having noble thoughts he embodied them in 
 fittingly noble words. His sermons were very 
 largely subjective dealing in argument, and in 
 appeal only as based on and growing out of the 
 argument. 
 
 His early reading, other than theological, consist- 
 ed chiefly of Shakspeare, the Spectator, and the
 
 79 
 
 metaphysical writings of the time. These works 
 taught him accuracy and nicety of expression but 
 gave him a language that was singularly free from 
 the qualities that attract listeners to itself. The 
 ideas of the preacher shone through his words into 
 the mind of the hearer the language dropping 
 instantly out of appreciation. 
 
 The philosophical speculations of Coleridge, 
 coming to him as they did, fresh from the author's 
 mind and hand, were his especial delight, He had 
 correspondence upon them and upon subjects sug- 
 gested by them with many of the leading men of 
 the time. The earlier years of his ministry were 
 rife with troublesome questionings, whereby less 
 stable souls were led off into the paths of error. 
 In all these discussions Mr. Chase bore his full 
 share, working out his own conclusions in faith, 
 but with great searchings of heart. He saw clearly 
 the danger towards which many were drifting, and 
 distinguished, from the true pointings of sound 
 philosophy and of revelation, the false lights 
 which led astray numbers, both among ministers 
 andpeople, of persons of the warmest hearts and 
 most sincere piety. The influence of his thought- 
 ful mind was powerful to stimulate and direct 
 thought in others; and several men who, coming 
 from other bodies of Christians, have adorned the 
 ministry of the Episcopal Church, owe to his 
 suggestions that impulse to study their position 
 which led to the change.
 
 80 
 
 Bishop Chase's knowledge, both of things com- 
 mon and of those not generally known was ex- 
 tensive, and surprisingly accurate. So far as he 
 proceeded with a subject, he mastered it. In his 
 best days, any question relating to the learning 
 current from his youth up to that time, would 
 receive an instructive answer. Whatever subject 
 might be discussed in the lecture-room, or else- 
 where, it had almost invariably been studied by 
 himself long before. He seemed to have read, 
 with interest and profit, works on all subjects to 
 which attention was liable to be called. 
 
 His taste for mathematics was strongly devel- 
 oped, while in Latin and Greek he was by no 
 means deficient. On one occasion, several years 
 after leaving college, he found himself able to 
 converse intelligibly, by means of the Latin lan- 
 guage, with a Pole, whom he chanced to meet in 
 a stage-coach, utterly unable to make himself 
 understood in his own native tongue, and totally 
 ignorant of ours. He was an expert mineralogist 
 and geologists His connection with Diocesan 
 business, in Vermont leading him into all parts 
 of the State, he amused himself by examining 
 its physical formations, and by gathering speci- 
 mens of the minerals which the country afforded. 
 Thus, and by exchange with other men, of like 
 tastes, he accumulated a cabinet of no mean value 
 and extent. He was, in Bellows Falls, one of the 
 original promoters and principal managers in an
 
 81 
 
 enterprise, then new and untried, for bringing 
 water through long distances from the spring to 
 the consumer. He refreshed his scientific knowl- 
 edge by such practice as the establishment, in 
 conjunction with his friend, the now venerable 
 Dr. Elisha E. Phelps, of Windsor, Yt, of a true 
 meridian line in the town where he lived; also, 
 by measuring the height of neighboring mount- 
 ains, by the aid of the barometer. 
 
 His mechanical taste was great, and his practi- 
 cal skill considerable. His " work-shop" was a 
 favorite resort when tired with the labors of the 
 study. When Immanuel Parish built a lecture- 
 room, their rector made all the settees for it with 
 his own hands. And many old friends now 
 possess tokens of his kind remembrance in the 
 shape of choice bits of furniture which he made 
 for them. Gardening and the care of fruit trees 
 was another great source of recreation and pleas- 
 ure. He kept a diary, for many years, in which 
 he recorded events as he happened to feel their 
 importance or himself in the mood for it. Of 
 keeping this record he writes "Aug. 12, 1832. 
 A long hiatus in this important journal! How 
 easily we neglect and forget what we mean to do 
 regularly. Nothing particularly memorable has 
 occurred since the last date, as I remember." He 
 added to this entry, several months after, u I did 
 not, however, exactly mean to do this regularly 
 but, simply, just as and when the humor took
 
 82 
 
 me." When he grafted his trees he recorded, 
 with care, the situation of the tree, the variety of 
 the cion, the method pursued in doing the work, 
 and, afterward, the result. At one time he set 
 down, with great apparent satisfaction, the very 
 careful and skilful manner in which he performed 
 the operation, and also his strong faith in the 
 growth of a particular cion. Against this entry 
 he subsequently wrote, with some little grim 
 humor, " It failed notwithstanding." He more- 
 over made record of the changes of the weather, 
 the extremes of heat and cold, the rains and 
 snows. The book, however, suffered seriously 
 from frequent seasons of neglect, which he now 
 and then deplored, in a serio-comic vein, saying 
 "I never could keep a journal." In another place 
 he wrote " This book is a perfect melange." 
 Sometime afterward he added " Did I say perfect ? 
 Much depends, I say, on what I meant by the 
 word. lie who produces a * perfect melange ' does 
 a good thing, so far as a perfect melange is of use. 
 But if thejnore perfect the melange the more 
 useless, he who produces it does an ill thing." 
 
 In his religious, as in his literary character, 
 Bishop Chase was unostentatious to a degree. 
 There was in it no element of noise or vehemence. 
 He had no fancy for mere "pious talk," or the 
 sort of religion which shows itself greatly through 
 movements of the tongue. Consequently, many 
 good people misunderstood him, and some, whose
 
 83 
 
 religion was of a different sort, thought he had 
 none, because its manifestations in him were dif- 
 ferent from those in their own case. 
 
 Whatever he deemed to he his duty he did 
 inexorably. A friend writes " There is an inci- 
 dent in your fathers life, which occurs to me as 
 especially characteristic. It was told me by him- 
 self. During the early days of his ministry, he 
 became specially interested in the spiritual welfare 
 of one of his parishioners, a man of exceptionable 
 breadth of character, warmth of heart, and, as 
 the pastor thought, of unusual capacity for spirit- 
 ual growth. He was not a man of culture, not 
 a gentleman, in the conventional sense, and his 
 life was somewhat irregular. Among his beset- 
 ting temptations was a passion for cards. On one 
 occasion he had sought the rector's study for 
 counsel and comfort, when the pastor thought it 
 a good time to warn him of the danger he was 
 in through his love of play. The man heard him 
 with respect and earnest attention, and then re- 
 plied I have heard, sir, that you are very fond 
 of a game of chess ; now is there any more harm 
 in my cards than in your chess?' The pastor was 
 silent for a moment, then said, ' Look here, my 
 friend, I will make a bargain with you : if you 
 will give me your word never to play another 
 game of cards, I will pledge you mine never to 
 play another game of chess.' The man, in his 
 turn, was silent with astonishment, and apparently
 
 84 
 
 greatly moved. ' Do you mean it, sir,' he asked 
 at length. ' I assuredly mean it/ answered the 
 pastor. ' Then it is a bargain,' said the man. 
 * And from that day to this/ said the Bishop, as 
 he told me the story, ' I have never played a game 
 of chess, nor do I believe that man ever played 
 cards after his promise,' I ventured to say some 
 thing about the sacrifice of an innocent and in- 
 tellectual recreation having no analogy to the 
 putting away of an incipient vice. ' Do you 
 suppose/ he answered, 'that man would have 
 understood any such tine wire-drawing? Don't 
 you suppose it would have had the appearance of 
 sophistry, with him, though he could not have so 
 named it? And was I to hesitate at resigning an 
 amusement when it was a question of doing my 
 best towards saving a soul ? ' ' : 
 
 In his pastoral labors Bishop Chase was assidu- 
 ous in sowing the good seed, and then patient in 
 waiting for the promised harvest. He used the 
 regularly appointed means for doing the Lord's 
 work; consequently, without times of either spas- 
 modic activity or of spiritual dearth, the additions 
 to his list of communicants were always regular 
 and satisfactory. In his diocesan work he seldom 
 made haste. He believed that, in ordinary cases, 
 the movement that would not endure the test of 
 time the test of waiting till the morrow when 
 it could best be taken in hand, had better not be 
 taken hold of to-day. He never made promises
 
 85 
 
 trusting to good fortune to enable him to fulfil 
 them that rock whereon so many eminent and 
 good men wreck both themselves and the cause 
 that they have in hand. 
 
 The characteristic of his administration was, 
 having little to do with, to make the most, pru- 
 dently and diligently, of that little, Eminently a 
 careful, clear-headed business man, he carried on 
 the secular affairs of his diocese strictly upon 
 safe business principles. In his private affairs, 
 he adorned the doctrine which he preached, by 
 a life of perfect purity and uprightness. Keeping 
 his expenses rigorously within his means, he 
 always had money to pay for what he bought, and 
 never bought that for which he could not pay. 
 A tradesman, in Claremont, with whom he dealt 
 for many years, says he never differed with Bish- 
 op Chase in relation to an account except in two 
 or three instances, when, upon settlement, it was 
 found that the Bishop's private pass-book con- 
 tained several items not set down in the bill as 
 rendered. These, to the amount of several dol- 
 lars, he always paid simply because he knew 
 they were due, though the tradesman omitted to 
 charge them. He was true and just in all his 
 dealings, and consequently died, not only without 
 an enemy, but universally honored and respected. 
 
 He was habitually slow in the utterance of 
 opinions, not throwing off crude and ill-digested 
 dicta, which he must, upon reflection, modify.
 
 It may be truly said that never, even in the most 
 earnest advocacy of what he deemed right and 
 desirable, did he speak unadvisedly with his lips. 
 
 In his intercourse with his brethren he was 
 eminently a conciliator and peace-maker. He 
 was such, not by the use of persuasion or soft talk, 
 but because all parties, feeling sure that they pos- 
 sessed his sincere regard and affection, as well as 
 having confidence in the soundness of his judg- 
 ment, gladly received him as umpire in their dif- 
 ferences. He saw good among the partizans who 
 were ranged on both sides of a question ; while 
 his calm, judicial cast of mind enabled him to 
 render a just judgment in the matter at issue. 
 He, moreover, while holding his own opinions 
 strongly, could perceive the virtues of those who 
 differed with him. During his terms of service in 
 I'Tew-York, he moved among the adherents of all 
 the conflicting parties, then painfully rife, win- 
 ning the hearty regard of all, and retaining it to 
 the last. He had, at that time, a correspondence 
 with Doctor Tyng, which was characteristic of and 
 honorable to both. The Bishop's flock in Clare- 
 mont were engaged in erecting a new church. 
 Towards this enterprise the Doctor promised a 
 certain sum of money; but afterwards, when appli- 
 cation was made for it, he declined to pay, on the 
 ground that the Bishop's course in connection 
 with the Bishop Doane trial was unsatisfactory to 
 those who contributed the money, and whose
 
 87 
 
 trustee lie was. The Bishop replied that his orig- 
 inal promise was unconditional, that the parish 
 had gone on relying upon that source for so much 
 money, and he begged that his poor flock might not 
 be made to suffer from any error which he might 
 be supposed to have committed, and for which of 
 course they were not responsible. Doctor Tyng's 
 reply came quickly and to the point, "You are 
 right and I am wrong, here is your money." 
 
 As a Churchman, Bishop Chase was sound and 
 strong; holding uncompromisingly to the doc- 
 trine, discipline and worship of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. He regarded this body, not 
 simply as the Church of his affections and choice, 
 but as that to whose membership he was called 
 by all the obligations of duty and of truth. He 
 was strictly regular in the observance of liturgic 
 rules ; having little sympathy either for those who 
 exhibited their reverential devotion by unusual 
 gestures, postures and modes of performance in 
 divine worship, or for those who, from real or 
 imaginary principle, sought to prove their rever- 
 ence for GOD by an irreverent handling of His holy 
 things. He did not adopt a new practice only 
 because it was not wrong, nor did he change 
 lightly from a practically good way to a theoreti- 
 cally better one. Still, where he considered that 
 no principle was involved, he was liberal in allow- 
 ing others to follow their own tastes, though dif- 
 fering materially from his own.
 
 88 
 
 A letter, from his pen, addressed to his old and 
 greatly esteemed friend, the editor of the Banner 
 of the Cross, dated March 30, 1848, referring to 
 an article which had just appeared in the Chris- 
 tian Witness, denouncing Bishop Doane, for hav- 
 ing the Psalter chanted in Latin, in the Chapel of 
 Burlington College, expresses very perfectly his 
 mind, and shows the principles upon which the 
 practice of his life was based. 
 
 " The eminent person reflected upon usually 
 knows what he is about, and I will take leave to 
 add that when that remarkable day comes which 
 shall find him idle and no good work for Christ 
 and the Church in head or heart or hand, he 
 may 'be left' to reply to some of his rebukers. 
 There could plainly be but two objections of much 
 weight to the Latin chanting in the classic sem- 
 inary of Burlington neither of which occurred to 
 the aforesaid critics. I. Unless if it were a custom- 
 ary thing there was danger of its being regarded 
 simply as a musico-literary exercise, without the 
 proper -devotional feeling. But I could willingly 
 leave this to the judgment of Bishop Doane, and 
 not distrustingly nor captiously call him to account 
 afterwards. And, II. That it would be likely to 
 furnish occasion, for them who desire occasion, to 
 call forth such articles as that in the Witness. 
 Chanting in Latin is not to my taste, but in a Latin 
 school, where ' it is understanded of the people,' 
 it is no offence to me if others enjoy the grave and
 
 89 
 
 stately diction of that language, when uttered in 
 music. No more has the Church consecrated 
 English than Latin." 
 
 He considered that the ordinances of religion 
 were intended for man, not man for the ordinances; 
 consequently, within proper limits, not going be- 
 yond the sanctions of sound doctrine and the rec- 
 ognized usages of the Church, whatever tended 
 most to the edifying of individual souls, varying 
 greatly as they do in their capacities and their 
 needs, he allowed not imposing upon the quiet, 
 cool, phlegmatic Christian a highly wrought cere- 
 monial, nor denying to those, whose devotional feel- 
 ings crave much outward manifestation, an oppor- 
 tunity to build themselves up in Christian graces 
 by the means best adapted to produce that effect. 
 
 In his intercourse with the clergy of his diocese 
 Bishop Chase was always most courteous and 
 considerate yielding his own convenience, when- 
 ever possible, in deference to their wishes. While 
 he was unsparing in praise of the efforts of a 
 brother, blame was carefully and most gently ad- 
 ministered. At one time, when preaching in a 
 new church, he was very painfully annoyed by 
 some defective construction of the pulpit, in the 
 matter of light. After divine service was over, 
 while still suffering under the pain and fatigue 
 induced by this fault, he somewhat decidedly 
 pointed out to the rector the imperfection in his 
 pulpit arrangements insisting upon the correct-
 
 90 
 
 ness of his views. The clergyman maintained with 
 much persistency that everything was as it should 
 be. After his return home the Bishop wrote the 
 following letter, in reply to one which he had re- 
 ceived from the clergyman, which exhibits clearly 
 his character as a true Christian gentleman. 
 
 " REV. AND DEAR BROTHER : 
 
 Your letter is read by me with 
 very great pleasure, I assure you. I will not dis- 
 
 fuise that the manner in which you received what 
 said about the pulpit was very unpleasant to me 
 the more so because I felt that I had a right to 
 give advice and express an opinion about a thing 
 which affected the performance of my own duty 
 in your church. I had delivered my sermon under 
 painful inconvenience owing to the lowness of the 
 desk and the position of the light but it is no 
 matter now. I thank you with all my heart for this 
 frank, unsolicited communication. I determined 
 at the time that I would not allow the occurrence 
 to bring over me any change of feelings or conduct 
 towards you. In this I have been successful. 
 
 And now, my dear brother, let me turn the leaf 
 and make an apology myself. I have not ceased 
 to regret that I said so much. I ought to have 
 been satisfied with expressing my mind without 
 following it up so persistently. I was nervous at 
 the time, partly from loss or deficiency of sleep, and 
 partly from these noises in my head which never 
 cease and are sometimes very dreadful and thus 
 I showed impatience. 
 
 Very truly and affectionately 
 
 Your brother, 
 
 C. CHASE."
 
 91 
 
 While Bishop Chase acted truly and justly in all 
 his dealings he was also solicitous leat he should 
 come short of his duty towards GOD. He very 
 early determined that the old rule of tythes was 
 equally binding upon us as upon those to whom 
 the direction was especially given. Accordingly 
 he set apart one tenth of his income, small as it 
 was, and devoted it to charitable and religious 
 purposes he gave it to the LORD. So, year by 
 year, not trusting to a tardy testamentary bequest, 
 bestowed when the giver can no longer use his 
 means, he gave of his substance continually; thus, 
 we trust, laying up treasure in heaven, where 
 moth and rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break 
 through and steal. 
 
 Bishop Chase, as he says of himself, wrote 
 much, but chiefly articles of an argumentative 
 character, on theological questions. Of formal 
 charges and addresses to his clergy, he made very 
 few. In the year 1857, he wrote several papers 
 of great weight on the subject of Baptismal Re- 
 generation. His views were highly regarded by 
 many of the best minds in the Church, yet they 
 excited but little general remark. This was not 
 much to be wondered at, considering the abstruse- 
 ness of the matter, under discussion, and of its 
 treatment; and considering the fact that the ten- 
 dency of thought in these days is rather in the direc- 
 tion of things objective than of those subjective. 
 In 1837, he compiled a history of the Church in
 
 92 
 
 Vermont which was published in Thompson's 
 Gazetteer. He left, also, in the archives of the 
 Diocese a collection of sketches and statistics which 
 the Reverend Dr. Bailey, Historiographer of the 
 Convention, declares to be of very great value. 
 
 He was, in 1832, elected an honorary member 
 of the New-Hampshire Historical Society. His 
 services in the promotion of sound literature were 
 also acknowledged by other testimonials of an 
 honorable nature. 
 
 In writing poetry Bishop Chase was not a pro- 
 ficient. Among his papers was found a scrap 
 marked" My first and last attempt at poetry." 
 He, perhaps, lacked the imaginative quality of 
 mind, or, possibly, the power to use it; yet his 
 taste in both poetry and music was delicate, cul- 
 tivated and reliable. Joking he seldom indulged 
 in ; though of humor he had a considerable fund 
 which shone out on genial occasions, and in very 
 many friendly letters, which he wrote most charm- 
 ingly. His numerous correspondents can testify 
 that no one could better clothe a fine thought in 
 beautiful and dignified language than could Bishop 
 Chase. 
 
 It was with men of thought men who were 
 able to evolve original ideas from their own minds, 
 or with those who were intelligent observers of 
 that which was new in nature, science and art, 
 that Bishop Chase felt most at home ; and it was 
 such, who best understood and most truly appre-
 
 93 
 
 elated the strength and capacity of his mental 
 endowments. 
 
 His thoughtful, practical Wisdom was very much 
 relied upon by his parishioners and fellow-citizens, 
 who were accustomed to go to him for advice on 
 the greatest variety of subjects; from buying 
 land, planning houses, and investing money, to 
 healing the sick and cultivating the mind and 
 heart. He was invariably found a kind and judi-> 
 cious adviser. 
 
 The personal appearance of the Bishop was 
 most striking. He had a handsome, manly fig* 
 ure, slightly over six feet in height, and well pro- 
 portioned; with a head and face finely shaped, 
 His bearing was dignified, and his manner, espe- 
 cially when performing the public duties of his 
 office, exceedingly impressive. His countenance 
 was indicative of intellectual strength, and of a 
 character self-contained and Well poised. Few saw 
 him without receiving an impression which they 
 never forgot. 
 
 Although always disliking to leave home, and 
 returning to it at the earliest moment consistent 
 with his duties, he thoroughly enjoyed the hos- 
 pitality of his numerous friends, and, as a guest, 
 no one was ever more heartily welcomed than he. 
 His sincere appreciation of the kindnesses be- 
 stowed upon him, his genial conversation, spiced 
 with rare and entertaining anecdotes, his dignified 
 presence and manner, and, withal, his unaffected
 
 94 
 
 simplicity made him a desirable inmate in every 
 house where he had once sojourned,, His infirm- 
 ities greatly increased during the last few years 
 of his life, and, though the hand of age was heavy 
 upon him, his humble patience grew stronger to 
 the end. His considerateness in his family was 
 such that it was often difficult to learn his wishes; 
 he fearing to add to the cares of his children, who 
 sought to fill their mother's place in solacing his 
 declining years. It is pleasant for those who had 
 that privilege, to remember the confidence and 
 love with which he repaid their efforts. 
 
 Thus we have attempted a sketch of the life, 
 services and character of Carlton Chase, first 
 Bishop of New-Hampshire. It is and must be 
 imperfect, for he was a man of a mind and charac- 
 ter so justly rounded and filled out in every part, 
 that the salient points whereon to hang vivid 
 descriptions and glowing accounts, can hardly 
 be discovered, A mind like his, to many seems 
 possessed of no important powers; just as the 
 human figure, when perfectly proportioned, ex- 
 cites less remark than when a single member of it 
 is extraordinarily developed. As was eloquently 
 said of him "Bishop Chase was a man and a 
 Bishop of an antique mould. In him was no 
 weakness, no littleness. Calm, self-centred, faith- 
 ful and true, of a grand simplicity, he stood four- 
 square to every wind that blew." 
 
 So in the fulness of time, at the ripe age of
 
 95 
 
 seventy-six years, the oldest prelate on the bench, 
 with the exception of the venerahle Jackson Kem- 
 per, just now gone to his rest, died Carlton Chase. 
 What he accomplished GOD knows. His work is 
 done and the record of it is laid up in Heaven, 
 and when the great day of reckoning comes, by it 
 alone will he be judged. He is in the keeping of 
 a merciful Redeemer Who will raise him up at 
 the last day. And in His just and loving care we 
 who loved and mourn are content reverently and 
 trustingly to leave him.
 
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