USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Branford > A history of the First church and society of Branford, Connecticut, 1644-1919 > Part 3
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"To each true Church he was a loving ffriend, The care thereof he did to Christ commend. I' th' civill state he was our hordd of gold, He wisely did our lawes and orders mold.
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"God's angels attended his blessed soule, Convoy'd him to glorie, wherein the soule Of God's elect, his precious name was found; There he God's great Prayses shall ever sound. * * * *
"But sith thou'rt gon to rest, and heav'nly joy, And canst here no futher be our convoy, We leave thee on the throne at Christ's right hand, Begging a like man in thy place to stand."
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JOHN BOWERS AND THE YEARS OF FAMINE
It was probably at some time during Mr. Pier- son's ministry that the name of the settlement was changed from Totokett to Branford. No record of the exact date of that change exists. The name Branford appears to have been taken from Brent- ford, a town seven miles west of London, in Mid- dlesex County, England. Brentford is famous in history as being the site of a bloody conflict which occurred, in 1016, between Edward Ironsides and the Danes. Six Protestants were burned there during the reign of Queen Mary. The noted battle ground of Hounsley Heath lies near at hand. Tradition states that several of the early settlers came originally from this town.
Doctor Trumbull, the Connecticut historian, has been responsible for the widespread acceptance of two probably erroneous theories concerning the Branford of this time. He states, firstly, that Mr. Pierson carried with him, to Newark, the church records and that they are lost. We have already affirmed that this is probably untrue. He also states that almost all of the inhabitants went to Newark with Pierson and that the town was nearly devoid of population for about twenty-five years. This also seems not to be in accordance with the real facts. It would rather appear that not much more than half of the settlers joined the New Jer-
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sey party. The number of signatures to the agree- ment, made at the time of the removal, which is quoted above, is but twenty-three. To a "Planta- tion Covenant," which will be quoted shortly, and which was drawn up by the settlers who remained at Branford, there are forty-seven signatures ; while a purely routine matter, which came up in town meeting only two years after the removal, a meeting at which there is little probability that more than a portion of the free-men were present, a vote of twenty is recorded. Doctor Trumbull is also responsible for the tradition that the town was without church services during most of the time which elapsed between the removal of Mr. Pierson and the arrival of the Rev. Samuel Russell. The true situation would seem to be that the town was probably at no time without religious services, and that the only reason for their lacking a minister, after the removal of Mr. Bowers, was their inabil- ity to persuade anyone to accept their call.
On June 10, 1667, John Wilford, Thomas Blatch- ley, John Collins and Michael Taintor were ordered to buy Richard Harrison's place as a house for a minister. At the same meeting the following cove- nant was drawn up and signed :
"For as much as that it appears that the undertaking and the settlement of this place of Branford, was pro- cured by and for men of Congregational principles, as to church order according to the platform of discipline agreed on by the synod in '48, or thereabouts, drawn from the word of God in the main; we, that yet remain here, can say that we have found much peace and quietness, to
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our great comfort, for the which we desire to bless God; and that it may so remain to such as do continue their abode in this place, and to such as shall come in to fill up the room of those that are removed, and that do intend to remove from this place of Branford-we all do see cause now for to agree that an orthodox minister of that judgement shall be called to it and among us. The gathering of such a church shall be encouraged. The upholdment of such church officers shall not want our proportional supply of maintainence, according to rule. We will not in any way encroach upon or disturb their liberties in so walking from time to time, and at all times; nor will we be in any ways injurious to them in civil or ecclesiastical respects and this we freely and voluntarily subscribe ourselves unto jointly and severaly so long as we remain inhabitants of this place, and this we bind ourselves unto by our subscription to this agree- ment. It is also agreed that whoever shall come for purchase or be admitted here, shall so subscribe before admittance or his bargain be valid in law among us." Signed, Jasper Crane, Johnathan Rose, John Wilford, Thomas Blatchley, Samuel Plum, Michael Taintor, John Collins, Michael Palmer, John Ward, John Linslie, George Page, Thomas Gutsill, Samuel Swaine, Samuel Pond, Isaac Bradley, William Rosewell, Peter Tyler, John Adams, Moses Batchley, John Frisbie, William Maltbie, Thomas Sargent, John Linsley Jr., John Taintor, George Adams, John Whitehead, Samuel Ward, Edward Frisbie, Henry Gretwich, Matthew Bikskett, Thomas Harrison, Thomas Weeden, John Robbins, Robert Foote, Barthol- omew Goodrich, Sigismond Richalls, George Seward, Edward Ball, William Hoadley, Eleazer Stent, John Rogers, Samuel Bradfield, John Charles, Edward Barker, Anthony Howd, Daniel Swaine, John Rose, Frances Linsley. Six of these later removed to Newark.
When Abraham Pierson went to Newark he engaged the Rev. John Bowers to serve for the
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remainder of his uncompleted year of office. Mr. Bowers began work December 9, 1666, and con- tinued to minister to the community until February, 1678. He was the son of George Bowers, of the Plymouth Colony, where his family located before 1637. After graduating from Harvard, in 1649, ranking in social position, then much considered, the lowest in a class of five, he returned to Plym- outh and taught school there for a time. From 1653 until 1660, he taught school in New Hamp- shire. At one time he had as many as eighteen pupils, tho often only seven or eight were present. He remained there seven years and then went to Guilford, Connecticut, where he served in a dual capacity, teaching school during the week and preaching on the Sabbath. He continued in this work four or five years, and then came to Bran- ford.
At a town meeting, held February 9, 1667, it was ordered that the rate levied for the raising of his salary should be assessed not only upon the resi- dents of Branford, but also against those who had removed to Newark, but still owned éstate in the former town, the reason being "because that Mr. Pierson put in Mr. Bowers for serving out his year." On February 23, 1669, "the inhabitants of the town of Branford agree and conclude, with the consent of Mr. Bowers, to allow him forty pounds and a days work of every planter in the town, to help him as he shall have need to employ them. The forty pounds and the day's work is for the
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consideration that Mr. Bowers, with God's leave doth promise to carry on the work of the ministry here in Branford the ensuing year; and the time begining the 10th dec., 1669." The year following it was voted that he should have forty pounds, and the town house and use of the lands, if he would engage settlement and live in the town house. May 30, 1671, by vote of fourteen, out of twenty, it was decided to give him a "call." The town house, or parsonage, would seem to have fallen into bad con- dition, for it was also voted that "as for the town repairing damage, all that is granted is the mending of the chimney and walls and getting the windows glazed." Bowers did not reply to this call until the third day of the same year, when he made answer, "the town having made a motion of settlement unto me, my answer is, that God, by his providence leading and guiding so to it, and the town provid- ing for my comfortable subsistance, according to your ability, I am willing for to sit down with you." Some difficulty seems to have arisen, however, for, in the middle of the following February, Mr. Bowers requested the town to find another minister, and it was voted to comply with his request but to urge him not to leave until they could find some one else. Matters seem to have straightened them- selves out, for he remained six years longer, until 1678, when he removed to Derby. After some years of service there, he settled at Rye, New York, where he died June 14, 1687.
John Bowers was a man of far smaller calibre
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than either of his predecessors. He was by no means an eloquent preacher and was not especially popular, but he was earnest and persevering. His personal life seems to have been beyond reproach and, altho his talents were of a mediocre sort, he served the church well during this transition period. He married Bridget Thompson, a New Haven girl, who survived him several years. They had six children, one of whom, Nathaniel, followed in his father's footsteps and became a minister. There is some question as to whether it was Nathaniel, or his father, who served the church at Rye.
The next decade in the history of Branford Church has for its only distinction the fact that it was a ten years period of candidating. Again and again the town endeavored to secure a minister but without success. Sometimes they repeated their call, to the man upon whom they had fixed their choice, six or seven times before finally being induced to take "no" for an answer. The town was a small one, and does not seem to have offered much inducement to the ministers of that day. They were supplied by a Mr. Stowe, Daniel Rus- sell, John Harriman, John Wise, Jonah Fordham, a Mr. Oakes, a Mr. Younglove, Mr. Woodruff, Mr. Emerson, and others. Once they seemed almost at the point of success. Mr. Samuel Mather preached for them a number of times, was very favorably received, and was finally induced to locate in the town. How long he remained we do not know, but the town records state that it was voted
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to build him a barn, so he must have stayed some little time; it may even have been as long as four years. But, just as their difficulties seem happily settled the General Court intervened and ordered Mr. Mather to become minister of the church at Windsor. The Branford people remonstrated, but without avail. In despair they turned to the neigh- boring ministers for help and advice, and also set apart a day in December of 1681 as a "Day of Humiliation and Prayer in their deplorable state not having a minister." During these years of candidating the minister's house, which had reverted to the town at the removal of Mr. Bowers, was rented "at on outcry by a piece of candle." This was an old New England method of dealing with such matters. A short piece of candle was lighted, and the auctioneer "cried up" the property and received bids, until such time as the candle burned out, when the highest bid obtained the property.
Despite their ill success in obtaining the services of a minister, the church appears to have grown and to have increasingly prospered. At the time when Samuel Mather was considering their call, and his friends were remonstrating against his accepting it, because of the smallness of the place, he assured them that it was a very considerable one. About this same time the Meeting House appears to have become too small for their increasing mem- bership. They talked of building a new one or of enlarging the old, and December II, 1679, they voted that "ye meeting house shall be enlarged, viz
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to have an addition to it so as to make it as great again as now it is." They also increased the salary which they offered from forty to sixty pounds, and they petitioned the legislature for permission to "embody in a church estate," but their petition was refused. Finally their persistence was rewarded and, early in 1686, they prevailed upon the Rev. Samuel Russell to become their minister.
IN THE DAYS OF SAMUEL RUSSELL
In the early years of the Cambridge settlement a young man, named John Russell, located there and became one of the first students at Harvard Col- lege, from which he graduated in 1645. The young man then became pastor of the church at Wethersfield, from which church had gone forth, a few years previously, the band of Pilgrims which settled Totokett. He remained at Wethersfield until 1659, when he and all but six of his church removed to Hadley in western Massachusetts. It was in this historic town that his son, Samuel, the future pastor of the Branford church, was born.
It seems to have been quite the regular thing for Russell parsonages to have been linked with inter- esting episodes in history. Every one knows the part which the Branford parsonage had in the founding of Yale College; it may not be so gen- erally known that it was in the Russell house in Hadley that the regicides Goffe and Whalley were concealed for several years, while Samuel Russell was a young lad, or that Whalley died in that house (about 1676-8) and was entombed in the stone wall of the cellar. It was from the friendly concealment of John Russell's home that Whalley and Goffe, patriarchal in their flowing beards of white, are said to have emerged, that Sabbath morning when the town was threatened with massacre, and to have led the surprised settlers to a victorious
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repulse of the Redskin hordes; and it was into that same kindly shelter that they afterwards returned, never to be seen again, by the people of the town. Dramatic indeed, to us, is this legend of old New England, but young Russell must have known these aged refugees very well.
After graduating, in 1681, from Harvard, the college of his father, Samuel Russell returned, for a time, to the home of his youth and taught the village school in Hadley; doubtless spending his spare hours in the study of theology, under his father's tutelage. But not all of these spare hours were devoted to Hebrew and to Metaphysics, for it was during these years that he met and courted Mistress Abigail Whiting, whose father was, also, a minister. He married her in the year 1685.
It was in February of the year following that Mr. Russell made his first appearance in Branford. He found favor in the sight of his hearers, and they extended to him a call to become their pastor, offering him sixty pounds salary (in provisions), the use of the town house and lands, and his fire- wood. They would seem to have extended the call more than once, for we find it recorded (June 7, 1687) that "Whereas motion hath been made to Mr. Samuel Russell respecting his settlement or taking office in a church way, and having also applied and solicited to the General Court of liberty to embody, and being granted as also it being moved to Mr. Russell by those that are members of churches, the town agreed to renew their motion
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and desire, leaving it to a committee to prosecute the work as they and Mr. Russell shall agree."
So often had the men of Branford extended a call to young ministers, during those ten years of pas- toral famine, and so frequently had their calls been declined, that it must have been an overwhelming surprise to them when (September 12, 1687) Mr. Russell accepted their invitation, and became their pastor. And fortunate did that acceptance prove to be, both for church and minister.
Altho the call was not accepted, and probably not extended, until 1687, it is likely that Mr. Rus- sell was preaching in Branford during much of the year 1686. Churches and ministers habitually lived together a probationary year or so, in those days, before permitting themselves to be united in the irrevocable matrimony of people and pastor. Pos- sibly this may partially explain the unusual length of those ancient pastorates, and the exceeding scarcity of cases of ecclesiastical divorce. At any rate Russell was a resident of the town, for (Oct. 4, 1686) the town made provision for supplying him with firewood, ordering "that every male per- son from 16 yrs. old and upwards fit for labor shall go forth to cut wood one day, and every team shall go forth one day to cart." This practice of grant- ing to the minister one or more day's work from every able-bodied man in the township was a common one in those years. The older New Eng- land ministers did not attempt, nor were they expected, to live on their meagre salaries. Most
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of them had the use of considerable land, and they raised crops and kept animals, in the same manner as did their neighbors. Consequently this practice of granting them a day's work from each of their neighbors was a very necessary and serviceable one. Their salaries were supplemented also by many gifts of groceries and of farm products. Accordingly a salary of sixty pounds, such as was given to Mr. Russell, was more than sufficient to provide a comfortable living.
The outstanding event of the early years of Samuel Russell's pastorate was the reorganization of the Branford Church. As we have noted above, the settlers had unanimously petitioned the General Court for permission to "to embody" in an organ- ized church. This was in 1681. The request was refused. But in October, 1687, the petition was renewed and the necessary permission finally obtained. In the following spring twenty-six people drew up and signed the following covenant :
"It having pleased God of his grace to call us up to ye visible profession of religion, and being now by his provi- dence called to unite together, for ye carrying on ye ordinances of God amongst us. We do therefore with selfabasement and sense of our great unworthiness, yet in obedience to ye gospel of our Lord Jesus,-We do this day before God and his people give ourselves and ours unto God and then one to another to walk together in attendance to all the duties and enjoyment of all the privileges of the covenant of grace, that are to be attended and enjoyed in particular visible ch'hs,-making the scrip- ture to be our rule. We do declare it to be our purpose (as God shall assist,) both in our principles and practice
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in all substantials, to walk in consonance with ye ch'hs of Christ with whom we hold communion."
The following twenty-six men and women subscribed their names at this time; Samuel Russell, Wm. Maltby, Eleazer Stent, Samuel Pond, Jno. Frisby, Jno Taintor, Peter Tyler, Danl. Swain, Aaron Blatchly, Thos. Sarjeant, Samll Betts, Eliz. Barker, Hannah Maltby, Sarai Blatchly, Miriam Pond, Dorcas Tainter, Eliz. Stent, Hannah Wheadon, Eliz. Pamer, Hannah Frisby, Deliverd Rose, Mary Betts, Ruth Frisby, Sarai Page, Sarai Gutsill, Jane Tyler.
This meeting took place March 7, 1688. During the month of April seven additional names were subscribed, while thirty-four more were added during the following year.
Each year of the last two decades of the seven- teenth century brought to Branford an increase in prosperity. There were frequent additions to the population, and some of the newcomers were tradesmen. A William Bartholomew built a corn mill in the settlement, and his son Isaac appears to have been Branford's first settled physician. There was also a George Baldwin, who was a black- smith, and a John Collins whose trade was that of a "cordwainer," or, as we should now say, a shoe- maker. In 1697, we are told that Samuel Russell and a few others erected a saw mill. In January of 1685, a committee was chosen to secure a patent for the town and one was granted, February 16, 1685. This charter is still in existence and is in the custody of the town clerk. The same year it was decided to have a town school for the purpose
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of instructing the children in the arts of reading and writing.
Because of this increased prosperity it became evident that the old Meeting House, even in its enlarged form, was too small for the growing con- gregation. Accordingly, on the twenty-eighth of September, 1699, it was unanimously voted to build a new Meeting House. But, altho everyone recog- nized the necessity for a new building, opinion was strongly and almost evenly divided as to the form of the new house. Some were in favor of erecting a square house, while others favored a long, rec- tangular one. In their desire to settle this difficulty they had recourse to the usages of the Old Testa- ment and, November thirtieth, 1699, it is recorded that "whereas it hath been agreed upon by the town to build a new meeting-house, and there being different notions respecting the form, some being for a square house and others for a long brick house with leanto, it is agreed by the town that a lott shall be drawn to decide the matter, and it is agreed that Benj. Harrington shall draw the lott." When the lot was drawn it decided the matter in favor of the square house.
Possibly the decision to build at this particular time may have been due to a certain legacy then received by the town.
The will of John Taintor (August 15, 1699) contained the following clause: "I do give to ye town of Brandford that part of my homelott lying between Steven Foots Homelott and what was
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formerly my father Swains and so this to ye street on ye north side of sd Land and which I do give to sd Towne to build a publick meeting house upon, and to continue for that use so long as they shall maintain a meeting house there unles ye town See cause to build elsewhere and then that land to by to ye common or what other use ye town see meet." He also bequeathed "to ye Church of Christ in Brandford five pounds to be paid out of my moveable estate to be disposed of for ye use of ye Church as Mr. Russell and Eleaz-r Stent shall see meet." The land bestowed in the above legacy is the present Green, and on it the new Meeting House was erected, in accordance with the wish of the donor. Previously to this the church had received at least one other legacy, that of Robert Rose who, dying April 4th, 1665, left his church the sum of six pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence.
The Green of those days differed somewhat from its present appearance, being much more rugged and broken in configuration. Steep little hillocks and hollows were everywhere visible, and huge boulders were scattered here and there upon its surface. One of these, rivaling a house in size, was situated nearly in front of the present church edifice. The main street of the town was on the southern side of the common and the new meeting house faced the south-west. The stocks and pillory and whipping-post were transferred, at this time, to a hillock located on the spot where now stands
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the Baptist Church, which hillock became known, in consequence, as "Whipping-post Hill." The village smithy was situated near another hillock, a sandy one, which appears to have occupied a posi- tion in the rear of the present Trinity Church, tho well over towards Montowese Street. This hillock was known as Baldwin's Hill; George Baldwin being the smith and also one of the first deacons of our church.
Once the decision as to its form had been arrived at, by sacred "lott," work upon the new house of worship began in earnest. There were no contractors in those days and the townsfolk were dependent on their own labor and skill in the rearing of the new edifice. Accordingly it was ordered that every inhabitant of the town should bear his share in the common task and to each was assigned some part in the actual building opera- tions, according to the nature of his skill and strength. It was further provided that those who came to work late should be fined for their lazi- ness. Evidently there were slackers even in that day.
Quite pretentious must the lines of the new Meeting House have appeared to the men and women who had worshipped for so many years in the building of logs. "Forty foot square-and upright wall from the ground to the plate" were the specifications agreed upon; and a point just in front of the present town hall was the site chosen. The work pushed steadily forward and we read,
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"June 27, 1701. It is agreed that the congregation in Branford do meet together to worship in the old meeting-house next Lord's day, and that the next following we meet in the new house." So upon the second Sunday of July the drum was beaten from the tower crowning the pyramidal roof-the call to worship-and the inhabitants proudly gath- ered in their new house and raised within its walls, for the first time, their psalms to God.
Within a few years' time the new building proved too small for the growing congregation and, January 8, 1706, it was voted "that there should be one gallery built on the front of the meetinghouse this next summer." But before the summer months arrived even this added seating space seemed not enough and so the town took further action, providing that "Where as at a town meet- ing January 1706 it was agreed there should be one gallery in the meeting house but upon futher con- sideration it is thought to be more convenient to have three galleries, It is therefore now ordered that there shall be three galleries." A three penny rate was laid upon all the eatable effects of the townsfolk, for defraying the expense of building the galleries.
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