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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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GENEALOGY 974.602 ST82CAM
6 THE GENESIS OF CHRIST CHURCH, STRATFORD CONNECTICUT
THE GENESIS OF CHRIST CHURCH, STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT
BACKGROUND AND EARLIEST ANNALS
COMMEMORATION OF THE TWO HUNDRED FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 1707-1957
By KENNETH WALTER CAMERON ARCHIVIST AND HISTORIOGRAPHER DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT
WITH AN APPENDIX BY CAROLYN HUTCHENS
CHRIST CHURCH STRATFORD, CONNECTICUT
1957
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7
٢
IN MEMORY OF THE FAITHFUL UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT
OF LOYAL ANGLICANS IN STRATFORD
THIS LITTLE HISTORY IS
DEDICATED
TO THE LONELY CATHOLIC WHO AMIDST UNCONGENIAL SURROUNDINGS MISUNDERSTOOD, CRITICIZED, AND EMOTIONALLY STARVED STILL, BY HIS ACTIONS, BOLDLY PROCLAIMS HIS UNSWERVING FAITH AND WHO IN A DARK PLACE KEEPS THE LIGHT OF HIS DEVOTION BURNING BRIGHTLY BEFORE HIS SAVIOUR'S EARTHLY THRONE
"But are you a Catholic?" said Cotgrave.
"Yes; I am a member of the persecuted Anglican Church."
(The House of Souls. The White People, by Arthur Machen.)
"As for my religion I was brought up in the Church of England as it is established by Law and have ever professed it; though I confess I have been an unworthy member of it in not living up to the strict and excellent rules thereof for which I take shame to myself and hum- bly ask forgiveness of God. My religion taught me my loyalty which I bless God is untainted."
(From the dying speech of Sir John Fenwick, Baronet, given in The Tryal, Attainder, or Condemnation of Sir John Fenwick, Baronet. Printed at the Hague, 1697. From a copy in the author's historical collection.)
"I profess myself and I thank God I am a member of the Church of England though, God knows, a most un- worthy and unprofitable part of it; of that Church which suffers so much at present for a strict adherence to loyalty and Christian principles."
(From the dying speech of Joseph Frind, executed April 3, 1696, for high treason. Taken from a contemporary manuscript, written at the time of the execution.)
THE GENESIS OF CHRIST CHURCH IN NEW-ENGLAND ANNALS .
Samuel Johnson, D.D.
With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light return All we have built do we discern. -Matthew Arnold, Morality
Today, as we celebrate your 250th anniversary as a parish, I intend to gather togeth- er the evidence for the underground movement which began sixty-seven years before 1707 and which ultimately defeated the "Blue Laws" of this last New England state to hold out against the Church.
1607, May 13: The first service of a permanent church in America was held at Jamestown, Virginia, up- on the landing of the Virginia Colony with the Rev. Robert Hunt as chaplain. Holy Communion was cele- brated for the first time on June 21, 1607.1
1607: The Church of England made Indian converts in the Popham Colony in Maine.
1620: The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Mass., determined to tolerate no Episcopalianism. Hence, in
1 1623 : The Rev. William Morrell, who come with Robert Gorges to found a colony at Weymouth, Mass., was forced to leave after one year. The Puritans also banished the Rev. John Lyford for his Anglicanism.2
1623 : The first settlers in the New Hampshire colony were members of the Church of England.
1629: John and Samuel Brown, two brothers, held services at their homes in Salem, Massachusetts, and were joined by neighbors, but the Puritans denounced them as ringleaders of a "faction" and sent them back to England. During this same year, Samuel Maverick, a Churchman living near Boston, was persecuted for his religious beliefs and practices.
1630: The Rev. William Blackstone, of Boston, under pressure from the Puritans, sold his prosperous farm there and moved to Rhode Island, establishing himself in a meditative retreat a few miles north of Providence.3
1633, Autumn: Connecticut was first settled at Windsor by explorers from Plymouth Colony in Massa- chusetts. 4
163 John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, fortified the mouth of the Connecticut River. 5
1638, Spring: John Davenport and his associates settled New Haven. At this time there were two jurisdictions within the state -- rivals until 1665.6 Laud planned to send a bishop to New England. 7
1639: Seventeen families under the leadership of the Rev. Adam Blakeman or Blackman, an ordained priest of the Church of England, took up residence in Stratford. Congregationalist historians have kept alive a rumor that he came to America because he had been suspended from officiating at home, but they offer no evidence. [See the Appendix by Carolyn Hutchens for quite different possibilities. ] A11 agree that his people were Episcopalians of sorts, carrying certificates of their communicant status with them. Under Blakeman, however, they gradually conformed to the Protestant traditions which they soon discovered in Hartford and elsewhere, finally coming under the yoke of a Congregationalist legis- lature. " But there is no evidence !!! Of the seventeen original families, four surnames stand out : Peat, Blakeman, Beardsley and Wilcoxson. A descendant of the first John Peat, acting with the ardent underground movement, signed the petition to the Bishop of London on April 1, 1707; descendants of the others, as Episcopalians, signed the petition to the Assembly in May, 1738. [See below. ] Apparently the first immigrants kept alive memories of the Book of Common Prayer and preserved copies of it along with certificates of baptism, confirmation and marriage.
1641 : New Hampshire came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, which began to oppress Church-of- England colonists. 9
1642: In the mother country, the Puritans began to seize power, ultimately executing King Charles I, discarding the bishops, and making it a high crime to use the Prayer Book. Celebration of Christmas Day and other festivals was forbidden. The twenty years of this reign of terror strengthened the Puritan re- gime in New England and drove Anglicans into hiding. 1º
3
4
1642: The Rev. Richard Gibson of Portsmouth, N. H., was tried in Boston for baptizing infants and solemnizing marriages according to the Book of Common Prayer. For nearly ninety years after his banish- ment from the colony, Portsmouth is said to have had no ecclesiastical history. Strict Congregational- ism permitted the baptism of only the children of the inner circle of covenanted believers. Such a poli- cy left thousands of infants uncared for.
1643: When, during this year, the so-called New-England League against the Indians was formed, Maine and Rhode Island were not included-the delegates of the former being Churchmen; those of the latter be- ing Baptists. The Congregationalists had not the slightest interest in toleration.12
1644: Massachusetts law assigned heavy penalties for the use of the Church-of-England Prayer Book 13 in public or private worship and required that all copies in the colony be delivered up for destruction. The Congregationalists suspected what we all have come to believe-that the Prayer Book was then and is now the best missionary the Church has ever 'had.
1650, May: The Connecticut General Court established the famous "Blue Laws," requiring every person to attend prescribed Congregational services on each Lord's Day with heavy penalties for neglect. A fine of five pounds sterling (about $100 today) was assigned those who showed contempt or obstinacy. An alter- nate punishment was being placed on a stool in a public place with a printed sign around one's neck. 14 These laws were still unrepealed fifty years later when Stratford Churchmen began to organize this parish, and a few of our forefathers endured their full rigors. [See Document I. ]
1650: Stratford's earliest land records show the names of Daniel Titerton and Joseph Hawley, whose descendants were to be active in the establishment of his parish in 1707. The first Daniel Titerton (or Titharton) was a prominent representative from this community in the General Court until his death in 1661.15 (Witness the signatures of his descendants under May, 1738.)
1650 and thereafter: Back in the mother country, though the Church of England clergy and laity were forbidden by law to practice their religion, they were not idle. They began writing a series of devo- tional books which began to circulate in the colonies and made lapsed Anglicans homesick for the old-time Anglican faith and practice. Here are some of the titles:
Richard Allestree, The Whole Duty of Man, with Private De- Totions [23 editions before 1700] Richard Allestree, The Causes and Decay of Christian Piety [Many editions] John Cousin, A Collection of Private Devotions, London, 1655; [9 editions by 1693]
Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying, London, 1651. [17 editions by 1695] Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living, London, 1650. [18 editions by 1700] Jeremy Taylor, The Worthy Communicant, London, 1660, 1661, 1667, 1671, 1674, 1683, 1686, 1689, 1695, etc.
- Anonymous, The Deyout Communicant Exemplified, In his Behaviour before, at and after the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, London, 1671. [5th ed., 1682; others dated 1683, 1688, 1700.] 1
These and such books as appeared at the same time and under the same auspices will be found in the inventories of the es- tates of your forefathers, the earliest laity of Christ Church in Stratford. (Their original wills and other papers are available to you at the State Library in Hartford.)
1660, May 8: Charles II proclaimed king. With him came the restoration of the Church of England, to the great relief of most in the British Isles, but in New England the Congre- gationalists became fearful and enforced their Blue Laws with greater severity than ever. 16 For example, the Rev.
Robert Jordan, who · persisted in baptizing children, was haled before the General Court of Massachusetts and im- prisoned. (He is reported to be the only priest in this area who continued true to his ordination vows throughout the period of the Puritan Commonwealth.
Prit Ditt Communicant
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-
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F. H .Van Hout jen :
Printed for Tho: Dring at the Harrow Quer againyt the Temple gate in Hetstreet. 1578
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1661: Charles II founded a company "for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen Nations of New England, " but nothing much came of it. (It foroshadows, however, the in- corporation of the S. P. G. forty years later in June, 1701. )18
1663: The town of Rye was founded. Though now in West- chester County, New York, Rye at the beginning was a part of Connecticut and was settled largely by people from Connecti- cut and Massachusetts. Bedford, founded in 1681, was also at first a part of Connecticut. Since the Church at Rye had an important part to play in the founding of Christ Church, Stratford, we ought to remember that both were in towns originally a part of Connecticut and under the Connecticut General Assembly. The fact that the Episcopal Society in Rye called itself "Christ's Church" may account for the name you ultimately chose for yours.
1664, Sept. 6: New Holland (now New York), with the best harbor on the Atlantic coast, surrendered to a British gar- rison which, with its Church of England chaplain, began hav- ing Prayer Book services on shore. 19 The news must havo en- couraged Churchmen in Connecticut, as evidenced, a few weeks later, on
1664, October 17, when seven Anglicans petitioned the General Assembly of Connecticut for the privileges of "Our Mother Church," especially the two Sacraments. This signifi- cant, post-Restoration paper is reproduced in facsimile, with a commentary, as Document II --- a testimony to Anglican vitality in the area of Hartford and Windsor, both of which communities, thanks to the Connecticut River, now had con- tact with the British garrison at New Holland. This docu- ment foroshadows increasing activity on the part of the Anglican "underground movement" in the Colony of Connecti- cut.20 [See the end of this paper. ]
1664, November 30: The Royal Commissioners settled the boundary line between Connecticut and New York. Rye and Has- tings were thereby clearly indicated as belonging to Connecti- cut, and the Connecticut General Assembly took steps to deal with the religious illiteracy of the people of Rye, attempting to secure a settled Congregationalist minister there."-
DEVOUT COMMUNICANT -
EXEMPLIFIED ..
In his Behaviour before, at and after THE
SACRAMENT
OF THE
LORD'S SUPPER. Practically fuited toall the Parts of that Solemn Ordinance.
But they made light of it ---- Matth 22. 5.
The Fifth Edition, much Corrected.
June 1. 1670. Imprim.1 :. Tho Tompkins.
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Dring, at the Har row next Chancery-Lane in Fleet-ffreet. 1682. .
[Note the quotation from Matt. 22:5 and its pertinence to the Puritan and Congregationalist contempt for the doctrine of the Real Presence. ]
1665: Charles II, four years earlier, had placed North American affairs in the hands of his brother James, then Duke of York, who sent a Commission to New England to determine what was best for the peace and well-being of the country and to ease, if possible, the sad lot of those Churchmen who wished to use the Book of Common Prayer without incurring penalty, reproach, or loss of civil rights. The Commission- ers were urged to investigate with caution. They had with them their own chaplain, who performed Divine Service according to the Prayer Book wherever they went --- but always privately. Upon arrival here in 1665, they were told that Anglicans might worship in their own way by petitioning the County Court for recognition, but nothing was said about the fact that they would still be required to pay taxes to sup- port the Congregationalist Church and ministry, and pay a pro-rata share of the costs of building Congre- gational meeting-houses. 22
1666, January 16: Eight persons here in Stratford, one of them Daniel Titharton (whose brother Timo- thy was a founder of this parish), mindful of the advantages they had known in the Church of England, wrote to the Rev. Israel Chauncey, asking that the heavy Calvinistic "covenant" be reduced "half way" so that their babies might be baptized and they themselves enjoy wider spiritual privileges. After being twice put off, they finally carried through the town meeting an application for a more liberal clergyman to minister to them. They secured, moreover, the right to use the meeting house on Sundays between the hours of the stricter Congregational services. This breach in the ranks of the Congregationalists is traceable to Anglican ferment --- to a desire to have the spiritual benefits normative in old England."
1666, November: The Rev. Israel Chauncey was ordained to succeed the late Adam Blakeman. On this oc- casion, Elder John Brinsmead, a lay brother, while assisting in the imposition of hands, neglected to take off his mitten. (Churches were poorly heated in those times!) There is evidence that the news got about and that the Anglican underground throughout Connecticut enjoyed a good laugh about "leather mit- ten" ordinations and other rites of Congregationalists, which they believed to be invalid. 24
To The Hond Mon Gent Low : Hartford May 14th 1660 Stratford
Court, Assembled at
- The petition of the church of Christ with many of the Inhabitants, humbly Shewith,
That uncomfortable Differences have too too ling bin and yet remain amongst us in stratford, to our no final affiction and do the graf of many of ux exaings, and that many of veux Where". natt til acquainted with, and some of you canich we can not but thank tedy acknow() with great sixiongrife have frander in to your no final frountE: con sting Diferenou The remain not with standing some Essayer for varas, 702 cannot but account it our vity to Be humbly and solicitoufly urgent with you ** at this time that you with please to looks upon our condition and SEE curstate a pleased to hear us with patience for to whome should we come out to your worships as such un- ser Chrift appointed for that in by him to rielive the oppexiges es and suck we take ourselves? to the, and therefore Again bisEach you to hear and take our matters into your Julitions Confits ration, and for something for our Statement, in you will therery (we hope) give us occasion to 'Go) in you. in) shall not safe to pray that the wonderful countedit may be ffed with you the spirit of courfel upon you in the great and wrighty afaixail the I are un hide your havver ,
that you may be repairing of the beach, wi refforint of father to will in
-
Stratford 9th (3 ) 67 your unworthy petitionins
this for court **
(Compare the list under date of May, 1738.)
son, Beardsley, Blakeman, Beach, Clarke, Hawley, Boothe, Preston, Curtis and Peat -- to name only a few)
estants, were not immune to Anglican influence. The surnames on this Congregational document (Willcock-
opponents of Congregationalism. The families of the signers, however, though at this period stout Prot-
We reproduce this document because it indirectly testifies to the gathering strength of the underground
"half-way" covenanters through sympathetic aotion of the Court when it convened at Hartford on May 14.
1669: Disputes among the divided Congregationalists continued, finally reaching the General Court. On Maroh 3, the "old guard" submitted the following petition, hoping to stamp out the liberal wing of the
of this parish.
appear in the Anglioan petitions to the S. P. G. and to the Bishop of London at the time of the founding
These surnames
Joseph Hawley, Samuel Stiles and Ephraim Stiles.
and Widow Titterton, the following:
1668: "The Inhabitants of Stratford" in the records of this year included, beside Daniel Titterton
6
.25
reappear after 1725 on lists of Episcopalians11126
7
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Aseast Chauncey
Richard Bootle
William Euvitis Joseph Haropisy
(John Bringmead mora whale
Francis Hall John y racoko Aogern Cargily
Folio Hilfeoch love John tokill some John beam
Nathaniel porter Thomas ParEcht
shell prestoil.
Emmettog Nifrancson
amust BEachty
. John Bull "
SEach
Jabez hargar il vuel nuritis :
SEspesi Burrit
N . Fohn bellick
Daniell Beardsty
eliasaph
everton "
james in
Go Bon Curtis John bist PER Rogn yeats My 2 Adorn huis
8
1670, May 5: The "half-way" covenanters among the Stratford Congregationalists under the Rev. Zech- ariah Walker, organized a second society. Two years later, under continuing friction with the "old guard, " they were allowed to found a new town at Pomperaug, now Woodbury. (Among this Woodbury group was a Samuel Styles, possibly related to the Isaac Stiles who signed the petition to the Bishop of London on April 1, 1707. ) 27
1679: A petition from several persons in Boston to the Bishop of London for permission to have Angli- can services in that town was granted in spite of great local opposition, and a Church-of-England parish came into being. At this time, in North America, only four bona-fide Anglican clergymen were active. 8
1680: A report signed by members of Christ Church, Stratford, dated approximately 1710, implies that as early as 1680, there were quiet "professors" of the Church of England in Stratford, "desirous to wor- ship God in the way of their forefathers." (See Document I.)
1683, November 28: Much against their will, the towns of Rye and Bedford were ceded to the Province of New York by Connecticut through an intercolonial agreement. Both communities continued to look in the direction of New Haven, Stratford, and Hartford for trade and cultural opportunities. 29
1685: The Rev. James Blair was appointed Commissary to represent the Bishop of London on the Atlantic seaboard, with headquarters in Virginia. (He did not come as far north as Connecticut, but his presence on the American Continent gave encouragement. ) 30
1686, May 23: The Rev. Robert Ratcliffe read from the Prayer Book and preached in his surplice in the Town House in Boston before a large group[31
1687: The first New England Almanac with the holidays of the Episcopal Church noted throughout was published by John Tulley of Saybrook, Connecticut, for the year 1687. It appeared more or less regular- ly, indicating Anglican festivals, until 1702. Though published and distributed from Connecticut, it was printed in Boston, there being no printing press yet in this state.32
1688: Another revolution in the home country, and James II was obliged to flee. For a few months, there was no head of the English government until the Whigs invited William and Mary, requiring them to approve a Toleration Act and a Bill of Rights, theoretically applicable to the British colonies, .but ac- tually effective only in the British Isles. Nevertheless, the news of these concessions to Dissenters in England emboldened Anglicans in Connecticut to try for a degree of toleration here. (The "Act" is da- ted 1689.)
1689, June 30: King's Chapel, which had been erected on the site of the present edifice, was opened for services. .33 The Church of England was at last firmly planted in Boston!
1690: Church-of-England sympathizers in Stratford were now becoming more vocal than ever. One was Daniel Shelton, an important merchant and one of the richest landowners, whose name appears on all the early parochial petitions from this parish. Isaac Knell was another, concerning whom we shall hear some- thing of interest later. Richard Blackleach or Blacklach, an able merchant, was another. In 1707, he and his son formed the inner core of Episcopalians, and a descendant, Samuel Blackleach, became the first parish clerk here. There were also Timothy Titharton and John Peat. New arrivals in Stratford from England and Long Island seem to have increased this number, though we may never know their names. 34
1690: That the Stratford-Fairfield Congregationalists were becoming alarmed at Anglican gains largely through policies and laws in the home country is demonstrated conclusively in a set of twenty-four ques- tions which Judge Nathan Gold [? Nathaniel Gould] composed and presented at the General Court. Items 4, 11 and 13 foreshadow the battle cries of the Revolutionary War eighty-six years later.
Items 7, 9, 17, 22 and 23 reflect the growing power of the Anglican underground. 38
1691: 1. " Whether laws, charters or grants are of any value, or whether corporations, socie- ties or peculiar persons can call anything their own ?
2. Whether the town of Fairfield be outlawed, or whether or no it hath any right or interest in that grant to townships ?
3. Whether leaping over the laws & trampling down the liberty of the subjects be not tyrannical power ? 4. If laws, charters & grants may be broken at will & pleasure, are we any longer safe in our lives, liberties or estates, but by it lie open to the furious invasion of all that is ruinous & calamitous ?
5. Whether that grant unto townships be not one of the sweetest flowers in the gar- den of the laws, to whom we owe the flourishing prosperity of a well governed town ?
6. Whether it be according to rules on equity, that this, one of your first born, a lovely beautiful child, should be disinherited & lose its birthright to an inferior brat ?
7. Whether it be not horrible & ridiculous to bring grants, liberties & privileges, on record into a Chancery or Ecclesiastical Court to be determined ?
The Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D.
- 8. Whether it be not opposed to equity, law & justice that any persons or courts should be pulling down ye walls of God's Providence, in which their own hands were
building, & that endeavors should be made to call down those privileges with which your- selves have enriched us, whether this be not laying the ax to the root of our liberties ?
9. Whether the king may, without infringement on our liberties, enjoin us to enter- taine an Episcopal minister in every town, & the one half of every town to contribute to his maintenance ?
10. If we dare be clipping the privileges of our recorded grants, may not the king take the example against us, & we cannot but say in our own mouths, for such measure as we measured shall be measured to us again ?
11. When kings & princes have openly violated their plighted faith to their sub- jects, whether their subjects have not frequently thrown up their allegiance ?
12. When the will governs & directs where no law provides, whether that be not arbitrary power, or else the apostle misses it when he saith, where there is no law there is no transgression ?
13. Whether arbitrary power be not a contagious, ketching distemper, & whether the most & best of men in authority are not apt to be tainted & infected by it, without good looking after ; & is it not observed where arbitrary power predominates, it either makes the subjects slaves or enrolls the kingdom in blood ?
14. Whether it be not our concern to look about us that it creep not insensible upon us, & whether or no that hand deserves to be cut off that is held up to vote arbitrary power ?
15. Whether it be not more honorable & just to give a shilling of a man's own, than 20{ of another person's, or whether the proverb be not false that saith, some persons will cut large thongs out of other men's leather ?
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