USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > A narrative and documentary history of St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church (formerly St. James) of Waterbury, Connecticut > Part 1
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Gc 974.602 W291k 1964015
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 5669
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
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A NARRATIVE AND DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF
St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church (formerly St. James) OF Waterbury, Connecticut
WITH SOME NOTICE OF
St. Paul's Church, Plymouth. Christ Church, Watertown. St. Michael's Church, Naugatuck. A Church in Middlebury. All Saint's Church, Wolcott. St. Paul's Church, Waterville. Trinity Church, Waterbury. (All Colonies of St. John's.)
BY FREDERICK JOHN KINGSBURY, L.L.D.
THE PRICE, LEB & ADKINS CO., NEW HAVEN, CONN. 1907
1
1964015
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, 1873.
PREFACE.
While compiling a sketch of the Episcopal Church for the "His- tory of the Town and City of Waterbury" I became aware of material which would, or should, interest the present members of the church, but could hardly be properly used in the somewhat circumscribed limits of a town history.
I had it in mind to use these materials at some future time in a fuller account, but multiplicity of duties and increasing years led to the postponement and finally to an abandonment of the plan.
Of late, however, several requests that I would do this work, and the fact that, although I have grown no younger, I seem to be rather less pressed for time, have led me to make the attempt to carry out my former undertaking.
For the greater part, the text is simply a reproduction of what appears in the History, but there are many documents which do not appear there, some added notes and commentaries and perhaps a few changes.
This history of the church, which was her's, both by long inheritance and deep affection, is dedicated to the memory of Alathea Ruth Scovill Kingsbury.
INTRODUCTORY.
The early settlers of Waterbury came from Farmington in 1677-80. Farmington was settled from Hartford in 1640, and Hartford from the towns about Boston in 1635 and a few years later. Waterbury's earlier inhabitants were therefore, histori- cally at least, the descendants of Winthrop's immigration of 1630, or of those who had joined the same Colony later. About fifty years, however, had intervened and probably most of those who came to Waterbury were born in this country.
Nearly all of the early Massachusetts settlers regarded them- selves as members of the Church of England, but they had evan- gelical leanings and were opposed to what they thought excessive liturgical and prelatical observances,-a reforming body within the church. They had, howeyer, in this country developed a decided church polity of their own, and had practically become "Independents." The government was organized on a religious basis. The early towns were really churches; the minister was "called" in town meeting, and his support was provided for by town grants and a town tax. Many of the beliefs and methods of the Church of England, as then practiced, were not congenial to the immigrants and their descendants, and these beliefs and methods were allowed as little foothold or countenance here as was deemed consistent with a due regard for the ultimate powers of the English government. Time and distance, however, while they emphasized and rendered possible a great divergence of faiths and practice, softened in some minds early prejudices, and a love and longing for the old church and her forms grew up in many hearts. Her shortcomings were forgotten, her virtues were more clearly seen, especially where they could be favorably con- trasted with the deficiencies of the New England system. In this way, or in some such way, a preparation for a reaction had for some time been going on.
The year 1722 was a notable one in the history of the Episco- pal Church in Connecticut. In that year Dr. Timothy Cutler,
vii
INTRODUCTORY.
rector of Yale college, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, a graduate and former tutor of the college and at that time pastor of the Congre- gational church in West Haven, and Daniel Brown, a tutor in the college and a classmate and intimate friend of Johnson's, all declared their adhesion to the Episcopal Church, gave up their positions and left for England to be ordained-there being no Bishop in this country until some sixty years later. On April 13, 1723, Brown died of small-pox in England, greatly mourned and lamented. The other two were duly ordained and returned to this country to pursue their work.
In this same year, 1722, James Brown, a resident of West Haven, then about thirty-eight years of age, a cousin of the father of the above named Daniel Brown, and doubtless a parishioner of the above named Samuel Johnson, removed from West Haven to Waterbury. He lived at Naugatuck on the east side of the river, was a farmer and hotel keeper and soon became a somewhat prominent man in the new settlement. Some years later he re- moved to Watertown, to the place known of late years as the Captain John Buckingham place, above Oakville.
He is said to have been the first Episcopalian in Waterbury. Perhaps he had been a fellow-student and investigator with his cousin and his pastor. He certainly sympathized with them, for his Episcopacy was of so pronounced a character, and his zeal so active, that he earned for himself the soubriquet of "Bishop Brown" from his jocular neighbors. He seems for some years to have been the only incumbent.
There were, however, doubtless a few persons already here who knew something of the Episcopal Church and were well dis- posed towards it. Witness the following: The Rev. X. A. Welton writes, "Mr. Stephen Hopkins Welton has an old prayer-book containing the following inscription, which I copied from it myself":
"This book was first the property of my great-grandfather, Richard Welton, who was the first male child born of English parents in Waterbury and one of the first Episcopalians in said town. At his decease it became the property of my grandfather, Richard Welton, Jr., and at his decease it became my property.
viii
.
INTRODUCTIORY.
I gave it to William S. H. Welton, the oldest son of my nephew, the Rev. Alanson W. Welton, deceased. Said Samuel (sic) is the fifth generation from the original proprietor of this book and the sixth from the only man of this name that was ever known to cross the Atlantic and settle in these British Colonies.
All by the way of primogeniture. Attest:
Abi Welton."
Richard Welton, first named above, was born, according to town record, March, 1680, and by family tradition September 27, 1679, and died in 1755. So he may not have had this book until after Mr. Brown came here and the possession of the book is not to be taken as proof of his opinions, but from the fact that he lived at Bucks Hill, at the extreme end of the town from Mr. Brown, and that the Weltons were among the first to join with him it seems likely that they were already well affected.
It is recorded that in 1734 Mr. Johnson, then rector at Strat- ford ascended the valley of the Naugatuck as far as Waterbury and baptized an infant son of Nathaniel Gunn .* Dr. Beardsley in his History of Episcopacy in Connecticut says of this service: "This was undoubtedly the first instance in that town of the dedication of a child to God . by our office and ministry,' and the first occasion on which the forms of the liturgy were used by a clergyman of the Church of England."
All organized work of the Church of England in this country at that time was under the charge of an English Missionary society founded in 1701 and styled "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." In later years the society was styled "Venerable," and became so well known that for ordinary purposes the initials "Ven. S. P. G." were a sufficient description. This society continued to have charge of all church work here up to the time of the Revolution. It appointed the clergy, paid their stipends or supplemented them, and received their reports.
* Presumably Abel, born August 12, 1734.
ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
E:
DEDICATION
·
V
INTRODUCTORY
. vii
.
. xiii
CHAPTER I.
THE MISSION PARISH OF ST. JAMES
.
.
·
.
1
CHAPTER II.
THE PARISH OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JOHN
. 20 . TRANSITION PELIOD
CHAPTER III.
THE NEW ERA
.
.
·
35
CHAPTER IV ..
ADDITIONAL MEMORANDA
.
CHAPTER V.
THE LAITY
CHAPTER VI.
.
.
. 76
MUSIC
.
.
CHIAPTER VII.
.
.
79
TRUST FUNDS .
CHAPTER VHI.
EXTRACT FROM RECORDS
.
.
.
CHAPTER IX
REAL ESTATE .
CHAPTER X.
CHURCH OFFICERS
.
CHAPTER XL.
.
.
. 127
TAX RATES AND BAPTISMS BY MR. MANSFIELD
.
. 133
.
.
64
. 71
.
.
. S6
.
111
ILLUSTRATIONS
CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII.
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PLYMOUTH . 139
CHAPTER XIII.
CHRIST CHURCH, WATERTOWN . 144
CHAPTER XIV.
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, NAUGATUCK . 149
CHAPTER XV.
A CHURCH IN MIDDLEBURY
. 153
CHAPTER XVI.
ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, WOLCOTT . 154
CHAPTER XVII.
ST. PAULS' CHURCH, WATERVILLE 160
CHAPTER XVIII.
TRINITY CHURCH, WATERBURY . . 162
xii
ILLUSTRATIONS.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH 1873 .
Frontispiece
1797
26
1839 . . 14
1843 .
10
AFTER THE HIGH WIND, JANUARY 19, 1857 .15
Finn, DEC. 24, 1868 .
. 50
PLOT OF ST. JAMES' CHURCH LOT, 1743
PORTRAIT OF REV. JACOB L. CLARK, D.D. .
. 36
¥ EDMUND ROWLAND, D.D.
57
" JOHN N. LEWIS, JR. .
53
¥
FRANCIS T. RUSSELL, D.D.
165
170
ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL, WATERVILLE ·
. 100
TRINITY CHURCH, 1900
RICHARD W. MICOU, D.D.
=
יו FREDERICK D. BUCKLEY
. 162
xiii
CHAPTER 1.
THE MISSION PARISH OF ST. JAMES.
1732-1799.
W HEN the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, of North Haven, was collecting material for his History of Connecticut, he wrote to Judge Joseph Hopkins of Waterbury, who was at that time presiding judge of the New Haven County Court and the leading citizen of Waterbury, for information relating to the history of the Episcopal Church in that town.
Judge Hopkins was not an Episcopalian and he turned the inquiry over to Capt. John Welton. Captain Welton was a pros- perous farmer who lived in the North part of the town on Bucks hill. He was one of the leading men of the town. For years he and Judge Hopkins together had represented the town in the General Assembly. He was one of the leading men in the Epis- copal Church. The letter which he wrote in reply to this inquiry shows him to have been a man of excellent judgment as to what was essential in a letter of this kind : of remarkable memory as to facts and of skill in their arrangement beyond what we could expect in one of his practical habit and training. This letter has been the basis of the history of the parish ever since: indeed we know very little about it up to that date, beyond what this letter tells.
The parish was first called St. James and the name was not changed until the erection of the new (second) church edifice in 1797, about two years before Captain Welton's letter was written.
Two years after the writing of this letter Judge Hopkins died. Perhaps in any event Captain Welton would have been called upon for these facts and dates but we cannot help feeling that it was fortunate that Judge Hopkins was called upon to select the man and that he should have selected Captain Welton to reply to Dr. Trumbull's inquiries. The letter is still among the Trumbull papers in the library of Yale College and is as follows:
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2
HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
WATERBURY, March 15, A. D. 1799.
DEAR SIR :- The following is the best answer I can give to your questions. In the year of our Lord 1732, I was then about ten years old, I believe there was not more than three or four churchmen in town. About that time, or before, there was one Arnold, I suppose an itinerant preacher, preached to them a few times. What became of Arnold I know not. Afterward Dr. John- son of Stratford and Mr. Beach of Newtown officiated occasionally a few times in Waterbury. The state of Episcopacy was much the same with the addition of but few names until about A. D. 1742 or three, when a considerable number of families came over to the church and a house for worship soon after began to be built. In the meantime one Morris from Europe was sent over by the Society for the propagation of the Gospel, etc., to take in Waterbury and several other churches, but he soon returned to Europe. Morris was succeeded by one Lyon, another of the Society's missionaries. He was over Derby and Waterbury, did not reside in Waterbury, but officiated there about one-third of the time, but I believe within one or two years was removed to Long Island. After Lyon was the Rev. Dr. Mansfield. He came into the mission about A. D. 1749, resided at Derby and officiated at Waterbury one-third of the time until about the year 1758, when the Rev. Mr. Scovil came into the Mission of Waterbury and New Cambridge. He resided in Waterbury, officiated there one-half the time until about 1771, when the Mission was divided and Mr. Nichols took New Cam- bridge, now Bristol, and Northbury, now Plymouth, and left Waterbury and Westbury, now Watertown, to Mr. Scovil, where he officiated until about 1785, when he removed to Nova Scotia.
All the above clergymen received their ordination in London. In the year 1792 we settled Mr. Hart. He continued in the Mission until 1795, then removed to Wallingford. In the year 1797, the Rev. Mr. Bronson came into our service. He hath since been set- tled and is now rector of the Episcopal Church in Waterbury.
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THE MISSION PARISH OF ST. JAMES.
Thus Sir, I have done the best I could to answer your inquiries not having many memorandums or records to direct me, but I believe the above facts are stated nearly right.
I am, Sir, yours to serve, etc.,
JOHN WELTON.
JOSEPH HOPKINS, EsQ.
(Added to the above by Judge Hopkins.)
There is a library in the first Society in Waterbury composed of about 116 volumes consisting of books on Divinity, History, Geography and Novels, and the Proprietors have laid a tax which is also proposed to enlarge it considerably. Also one in Salem and one in Middlebury.
JOSEPH HOPKINS.
REV. B. TRUMBULL.
This note by Judge Hopkins, evidently in reply to an inquiry, is inserted here because it is thought worth preserving.
The "first society" here means the First Ecclesiastical Society, geographically. The Second Society was "Salem Bridge" now Naugatuck. In the early history of the State the Ecclesiastical Societies (Congregational) were incorporated by the General As- sembly and set off by metes and bounds, and when a society was incorporated as a town the same geographical lines were usually followed. Thus the Society of Northbury became Plymouth, that of Westbury became Watertown, that of Salem Bridge, or, as it was called many years in all legal papers, the "Second Society" became Naugatuck, and Middlebury became Middlebury. Wolcott was taken partly from Waterbury and partly from Southington, Pros- pect was taken partly from Waterbury and partly from Cheshire, and Oxford partly from Waterbury and partly from Southbury and Derby.
Jonathan Arnold, who is mentioned by Captain Welton as the first incumbent, was the eldest son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Arnold, of Haddam, Connecticut, where he was born, January 11, 1700-01. His father in his will (December 1728) leaves to this son only two acres of land, "which with the expense of his edu-
3
HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
cation I account a large double portion of my estate." (It was at that time a custom, though not a law, to leave to the eldest son a double portion.)
He studied theology, and was licensed to preach by a commit- tee of the Hartford North Association in 1724 (after June 2).
Early in 1725 he was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, Connecticut,-the people stipulating that if he should (like his predecessor, Samuel Johnson) embrace Epis- copacy, the money paid to him as a settlement should be refunded.
Johnson, however, conducted occasional services within the par- ish and was able to gain an influence over the young minister, so that in December, 1733, he could report to the Bishop of London that he had reason to believe that Mr. Arnold would in a little time declare for Episcopacy ; and on the next Easter Sunday (April 14, 1734), Arnold received his first communion from the hands of Johnson, at Stratford. In May or June he was dismissed from his pastoral charge in West Haven, and in 1735 he went to England for orders. He was received with attention, and Bishop Benson, of Gloucester, to whom Mr. Johnson had commended him, sent him to Oxford to receive there (March 8, 1735-6) the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
After a tedious voyage he arrived at Boston on his return, July 1, 1736, with an appointment as Itinerant Missionary for Connecticut of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, with his residence in West Haven. The chief places where he labored, besides West Haven, were Derby and Waterbury. His salary was only £30 a year, but as he was pos- sessed of some private means he desired no more. The event by which this portion of his life was chiefly made memorable was his attempt in the fall of 1738 to take possession of a lot of land facing on the Town Green in New Haven, on the strength of a deed (dated March 26, 1736) from William Grigson, of London, to himself, by which this land was professedly given for the erection of an Episcopal Church, and as glebe land for a minister. Grigson's title was regarded as imperfect and Arnold's attempt to take possession was resisted by a mob of students and townspeople. He seems to have failed in discretion in his con-
4
1
THE MISSION PARISH OF ST. JAMES.
duct, both in this and in some other matters, and being of "a very unsteady disposition," in the latter part of April, 1740, he was transferred to Staten Island, as the missionary of the Venerable Society, in charge of St. Andrew's Church, at a salary of £30 a year. From this charge he was dismissed June 21, 1745, in con- sequence of complaints from the wardens and vestrymen.
In April, 1746, being still at Staten Island, he brought suit in the New Haven Court for the recovery of a debt.
From this date he disappears from view, except in the glimpse afforded by a letter of the Rev. T. B. Chandler, to the Rev. Dr. Johnson, dated Elizabethtown, New Jersey, February 26, 1753, as follows :-
"I had the pleasure of receiving your favor of January 29, and am sorry to tell you that Mr. Arnold did nothing in his will for his children in New England. Mrs. Arnold was left sole executrix, and everything her husband died possessed of was left to her dis- posal.
However, she says she is willing that his children in New Eng- land should come in for a share with her own child in whatsoever he left in your parts; and I believe she will not recall it. As to the temper of mind in which Mr. Arnold left the world, I find that he had his reason for some months before his death, which he retained to the last. But I have not heard what remarks or reflections he made on his past life, and what was the moral disposition of his mind."
No will appears to have been proved, either in New Jersey or New York.
His first wife, to whom he was married April 4, 1728, was Abigail, only child of the late John and Abigail (Hollingworth) Beard, of Milford, a large heiress. (In Milford town records, adjoining the entry of this marriage is also the entry of a marriage of the same bridegroom to Mrs. Sarah Miles, July 29, 1728; some inexplicable error lurks in the latter entry.) Mrs. Abigail Arnold was living in May, 1739, when she joined her husband in a deed of land in New Haven.
Whitefield, in his visit to the Colonies in November, 1739, fell in with Arnold, and was so disgusted with him as to take the trou-
5
HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
ble of writing a letter (from Philadelphia, November 27) to the Secretary of the Venerable Society, warning him that, in the writer's opinion, Arnold "is unworthy of the name of a minister of Jesus Christ." "I have been," he continues, "in his company several times and was obliged to reprove him openly for his misconduct." Arnold had already printed in New York, Novem- ber 17, a warning against Whitefield, reprinted in the Boston News-Letter; they had been thrown together in coming from Philadelphia, and Arnold had sought out Whitefield, in New York, at the house of "Mr. Smith, the lawyer" (Y. C. 1719).
Prof. F. B. Dexter's Yale Biographies.
In several cases I have taken Prof. Dexter's biographies entire, knowing that they were of the highest authority and usually exhaustive.
Dr. Tilotson Bronson in his article in The Churchman Magazine, Vol. 4, p. 129, says "sometime in the year 1737, a Mr. Arnold, an itinerant missionary of the S. P. G., performed divine service for the first time according to the rites of the church, when he baptized two infants, both of whom were lately living and one is still a respectable member of the church." Of course Dr. Bronson got his information from tradition and had undoubtedly confused the service performed by Dr. Johnson in 1734 at Gunntown with what he sup- posed to have been done in 1737 by Mr. Arnold. Mr. A. was the regular missionary here and any service of this sort by him would not be of particular note. The following is from the town records, vol. 5, p. 21.
Jan. 29, 1738-9. Whereas Thomas Porter was chosen at annual meeting of 1736 to collect ministers rate and had a list of the rate to be gathered com- mitted to him in which list several persons were included under the title or denomination of churchmen and so allowed in the list for the year 1736. These are therefore to certify all whom it may concern that I the subscriber have received in full of the several persons contained in said list under the said Denom, as their several sums are set down and do hereby acquit and discharge the above said collector from all demands from me or my heirs: I having I say been, I say received in full by me, Jonathan Arnold.
Attest : JOHN SOUTHMAYD,
Town Register.
The Reverend Theophilus Morris the next rector mentioned by Capt. Welton, resided in Derby. He was an Englishman. One of his contemporaries, the Rev. Mr. Johnson, wrote of him: "He is in many respects a gentleman of good accomplishments,
6
THE MISSION PARISH OF ST. JAMES.
but it does not seem likely that he will suit or be suited with the disposition of these country people, so that I very much doubt. whether he will be happy in them or they in him, and I wish that he was better provided for and that some young man previously acquainted with this country, or that could suit his disposition to it, were provided for them.
One reads between these lines pretty clearly what Mr. Morris's limitations were. He seems to have been a well meaning man with considerable energy, but his zeal was not according to knowl- edge; he involved himself in difficulties with his brethren here and he soon after returned to England apparently to his own and their relief.
Mr. Morris's successor was the Rev. James Lyons, an Irishman by birth, of whom the historian of the church says that "if he had genius and zeal, he was another example of a tiller in the field that needed a special missionary to watch him and keep him from running his plough upon the rocks." Mr. Lyons was here about four years. He resided in Derby and preached one-third of the time in Waterbury. During these years, notwithstanding some defects in the missionaries in charge, the church had greatly increased. In the year 1740 the famous Whitefield preached throughout New England, and his preaching was followed by a condition of intense religious excitement. The result of this was to turn the attention of the staid and moderate portion of the community to the more quiet and conservative methods of the Episcopal church, and there followed a great accession to the Episcopal ranks. Dr. Henry Bronson says: "The prosperity of the Episcopal church in Waterbury dates from about 1740." It is said that twenty-five heads of families transferred their member- ship at one time from the Congregational to the Episcopal Society.
The reason given was "dissatisfaction with the doctrines of that church and the exclusive views of its ministers." The point having most weight seems to have been the restricting of the privilege of infant baptism to children of parents both of whom were in full communion of their church.
Dr. Tillotson Bronson in an article in the Churchman's Maga- zine for 1807, entitled "History of the Church in Waterbury" says:
7
-
HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
"Being thus strengthened, it was resolved to erect a church. A subscription was accordingly opened; and as this document is still in being, bearing date 1742, it ascertains who were the names then considerable in the parish, which are as follows, viz:
JAMES BROWN
DANIEL PORTER
JOHN BARNES
JONATHAN PRINDLE
THOMAS BARNES
JOHN SOUTHMAYD
JOSEPH BRONSON
RICHARD WELTON
NATHANIEL GUNN
RICHARD WELTON, 2D.
JOHN JUDD
ELIAKIM WELTON
GEORGE NICHOLS
EPHRAIM WARNER
THOMAS OSBORN
EBENEZER WARNER
Most of these men left a numerous progeny who belong to the church."
This was written in 1807, and he mentions that Thomas Osborn is still living aged 91.
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