USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stratford > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 28
USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 28
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" That Mr. Gold, then pastor in Stratford, was cordially interested in the work of grace attending Mr. Whitefield's preaching, is evident from his signature to the testimony of of the Fairfield County ministers in favor of the revival, given in October, 1743. Of the eleven signers of that paper, there were of ministers in Stratford, Mr. Cook, of Stratfield, Mr. Gold of Stratford, and Mr. Mills of Ripton.
" The sermon by Mr. Whitefield was heard by Mrs. Ann, wife of John Brooks, grand-daughter of post-master Daniel Brooks, who, herself, narrated the matter to Miss Polly Tomlinson, who related it to me in 1859, and she was so much interested that, with her infant in her arms, she went to Fairfield to hear him again the same day.
‘ Manual of the Stratford Congregational Church 9.
306
History of Stratford.
" Mrs. Brooks was probably a subject of grace on that occasion, for in the January following, she united with the church.
" Mr. Whitefield certainly had access to the Church, but a tradition preserved by Mrs. Victory Wetmore-daughter- in-law of the Rev. Izrahiah Wetmore, and given me by her in 1859, represents a Mrs. Burritt who lived on the wood end road below Main street, as being in the yard of her dwelling, farther down, than any house now stands, and a mile nearly from the Meeting House Hill, where she distinctly heard Mr. Whitfield name his text from Zechariah ix. 12: 'Turn ye to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope ;' and repeated it to her husband on his return home. Hence, it is probable that this sermon was delivered in the open air.
" Mr. Whitefield, after preaching, was the guest of Mr. Gold, who lived on the spot now occupied by Captain Ster- ling's house.
" Dr. Johnson is said to have called on Mr. Whitefield here, and desired some account of his principles, but he declined any discussion, saying he had already announced his principles in his sermon, and speedily departed for Fairfield.
" Mrs. Wetmore relates that a daughter of Mr. Jeremiah Green, who lived on Old Mill road, just beyond the railroad crossing, heard Whitfield preach, was convicted, and in the overwhelming excitement of her mind, swooned and fell into a sort of trance, or insensible state, which lasted one or two days."
In the winter following, Mr. Gold's settlement in Strat- ford a movement commenced, which resulted in securing a parsonage for the first society, for the use of the minister. The deed for the property so purchased was dated February 8, 1722-3, and was in consideration of £67. The money was secured by voluntary subscription, the largest amount paid by one person being £1. Ios., there being 123 subscribers to the fund.9
9 " Stratford, November, 1722. We, the subscribers hereunto being desirous to propagate the gospel by the Presbyterian ministry among us ; and in order there- unto, being sensible that it may be of great service to purchase a parsonage lot, and sequester it forever to remain a parsonage lot for the use of a Presbyterian
307
Mr. Gold's Ministry.
A New Meeting house was built during Mr. Gold's ministry according to the following directions of the society :
" Second Monday, February, 1742-3. Voted that it was necessary to build a meeting house for said society for the carrying on the public worship, by more than two-thirds of voters present.
" Voted, that Captain Theophilus Nichols, Mr. Robert Walker, Jr., Sergeant Daniel Porter, make application to the General Assembly in May next to appoint a committee to affix a place where the said society shall erect their meeting house."
" February 21, 1742-3. Voted that the meeting house shall be sixty feet in length, forty feet in width, and the posts twenty-six feet in length.
" Voted that the society will build a steeple, 130 feet high.
" June 27, 1743. Voted that Capt. David Judson, Lt. John Wilcockson and Sergt. Daniel Porter shall be the com- mittee for building and furnishing the meeting-house on the place appointed by said society by the General Assembly in May last."
The location of this house was a few rods west of the old one, on the public green, where the academy afterwards stood, and was the one burned by lightning in 1785.
Mr. Gold's Dismission was a serious matter, although it had been sought by some parties in the church and par- ish several years.
Mrs. Nancy Wells, widow of John Wells, and previously of Doctor Ezra Curtis, was the daughter of Samuel Ufford, and born in 1772. She was living in 1862, in her S9th year, and gave to the Rev. B. L. Swan some ministerial reminis- cences. "She was a grand-daughter of the Rev. Hezekiah Gold, but was born under Rev. Izrahiah Wetmore's ministry and baptized by him. She said Mr. Gold's first wife was a Rug- gles, of Guilford, who died, and Mr. Gold married the widow
ministry in Stratford for the benefit of succeeding generations ; do freely give the particular sums prefixed to our names for the purchasing of Captain David Bos- tick's lot, called Harvey's lot, for the use aforesaid, and for no other."
308
History of Stratford.
of John Prynn, who came from the West Indies to Stratford, where he resided some years [and died November 23, 1751, æ. 51]. He brought some negroes with him and practiced the breeding of them for sale.
" He and his wife were Episcopal Church people of very high pretentions.
" After Mr. Gold married the widow Prynn, he was com- pelled to wait on her to the door of the Episcopal Church ; and after his own service in the Congregational Church was out to return thither and receive her at the door, into his car- riage again.
" This marriage and her conduct offended many in Mr. Gold's church-among them Colonel Robert Walker-a man who came to Stratford as a weaver, but married Rebecca Lewis of Old Mill Green, who had property, and he soon rose to be Justice of the Peace, then Judge of the County Court, and became an influential man.
" Through his instrumentality Mr. Gold was dismissed from the service of his church, and Mr. Wetmore became pastor. He was a young man, and married Colonel Walker's daughter. Mrs. Wells' remembrance of Mr. Wetmore was very distinct. He was very tall, with colorless, inexpressive eyes, red and close curling hair -- the homeliest man, she said, she ever saw. He was the tallest man, except one, in the place.
" Mrs. Wells remembered well when wooden trenchers and wooden tea-cups and saucers were used.
" A Miss Tomlinson living at the same time with Mrs. Nancy Wells, said that the marriage of Mr. Gold, and the aversion of a party to his evangelical preaching-in which party Colonel Walker was prominent, were, together, the occasion of his being dismissed. She said, also, that this dis- mission caused the elderly Mr. Hezekiah DeForest, and others, to remove from Stratford to Huntington, New Haven, and other places."
There is an error in the above statement concerning the Walker family. Hon. Robert Walker, whose daughter Mr. Wetmore married, was born in Stratford, in 1705, and was not a weaver. It was his great uncle, Jacob Walker, brother of
The Great Revival. 309
the Rev. Zechariah, who married the widow Elizabeth Blake- man and who may have been a weaver, but became a large farmer in Stratford.
The excitement in Stratford, as well as throughout New England, was very great, for several years following Mr. Whitfield's preaching. That preaching was very severe as to true conversion. Those persons, members of any and all churches, who had not experienced definite and remarkable exercises at the time of their professed conversion were rep- resented as never having been converted, and as having no assurance of heaven. Mr. Gold, who had had an unusual revival for those days, soon after his settlement here, the spirit of which still continued, received Mr. Whitfield as a brother minister, and favored the public interest taken in the revival of religious interests in New England in 1741, 2 and 3. This season of unusual religious interest has since been termed "The Great Awakening." Many persons became greatly interested in religion in the specific form of a wonder- ful, or miraculous conversion, claiming that it was directly accomplished by the invisible power of God; and that this power was exerted upon those only who were the elect. Hence, in this movement, there was the revival of the Cal- vinistic doctrines. There grew out of it, also, a strong sentiment against the union of church and state as it then existed in New England; and hence there were two parties in the Congregational Churches, which resulted a few years later in the organization of what were called New Light Churches, but these churches called themselves Strict Con- gregational Churches.
There was another influence which affected Mr. Gold's parish very seriously. The Rev. Richardson Miner, settled pastor at Unity (now Trumbull), was a very successful phy- sician as well as pastor, and practiced throughout Stratford, and largely in Stratford village, and hence attained a large popular influence. He, it is said, and with corroborating evi- dences, held more to the old ways of religious life than Mr. Gold, and hence, a movement sprang up about 1742 and 3, to have Mr. Gold dismissed and Mr. Miner called to Stratford ; but when, in 1744, Mr. Miner joined the Episcopal Church,
21
310
History of Stratford.
there was great disappointment and great excitement in this region of country, and quite a number of influential families withdrew from the Congregational communion and united with the Episcopal Church. The same was true in several adjoining parishes.
In the parish of Stratfield, although there was an Epis- copal Church at Fairfield, some persons in 1751, under the New Light teachings, objecting to the levying of taxes to support the gospel, withdrew and organized a Baptist Church at Stratfield.
Some further notice of Mr. Gold's controversy with the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., may be found in the next chapter of this book, in the biographical sketch of Dr. Johnson.
Presbyterians in Stratford.
As far as has been ascertained by careful search, Presby- terians have existed in Stratford only in the name as applied to Congregationalists, after the establishment of the Saybrook platform of ecclesiastical government.
When in October, 1666, the General Court of the Colony ordered all the ministers to meet in convention to discuss and settle a number of ecclesiastical matters, it gave the name
ynod to that meeting, but this term was so unwelcome, as being a Presbyterian name, that the Court changed it the next May, and styled the meeting " an assembly of the min- isters of this Colony."
The order of the Court in May, 1708, in decreeing the delegated convention at Saybrook to remedy "the defects of the discipline of the churches of this government," used no terms that were Presbyterian or that indicated that form of government ;7 nor did the convention itself, except in the title
7 "May, 1708. This Assembly, from their own observation and from the complaint of many others, being made sensible of the defects of the discipline of the churches of this government, arising from the want of more explicit asserting the rules given for that end in the holy scriptures, from which would rise a firm establishment amongst us, a good and regular issue in cases subject to ecclesiastical discipline, glory to Christ our head, and edification to his members, hath seen fit to ordain and require, and it is by authority of the same ordained and required, that the
3II
The Saybrook Platform.
given to the Articles of Discipline, in which it said the minis- ters were "formerly called Presbyterian and Congrega- tional."
In 1679, the Governor of the Colony and his Assistants, in answer to inquiries made by the King's Council Chamber as to what persuasion in religious matters is most prevalent," said : "Our people in this Colony are, some strict Congrega- tional men, others more large Congregational men, and some moderate Presbyterians ; and take the Congregational men of both sorts they are the greatest part of the people in the Colony."
Therefore, there were, probably, at that and up to 1708, a few " Moderate Presbyterians " in the Colony of Connec- ticut.
The result of these conventions was the formation and adoption of the Saybrook platform, or system of church gov- ernment.
Upon the adoption of the Saybrook platform in 1708 it became the custom to call these churches Presbyterian, which term grew more and more acceptable until the New Light movement began in 1741, when the name became objection- able; quite a number of churches refusing to be known as Presbyterian.
The Consociations established by the Saybrook Plat- form-being composed of ministers and laymen-and the authority which they were intended to exercise, were the only principles which conformed to the government of the Presbyterian Church. The Halfway Covenant, which was
ministers of the churches in the several counties of this government shall meet together at their respective countie towns, with such messengers as the churches to which they belong shall see cause to send with them, on the last Monday in June next, there to consider and agree upon those methods and rules for the manage- ment of ecclesiastical disciplinc, which by them shall be judged agrecable and conformable to the word of God, and shall, at the same meeting, appoint two or more of their number to be their delegates, who shall all meet together at Say- brook, at the next Commencement to be held there, where they shall compare the results of the ministers of the several counties, and out of and from theni to draw a form of ecclesiastical discipline, which by two or more persons delegated by them shall be offered to this Court at their sessions at New Haven in October next, to be considered of and confirmed by them, and that the expenses of the above mentioned meetings be defrayed out of the public treasury of this Colonie."
312
History of Stratford.
only confirmed, not instituted by that Platform, had nothing Presbyterian in it, but was clearly in harmony with the usages of the Episcopal Church, in as much as it opened the way for the baptism of all children, by the parents becoming sponsors for their own children, in the form denominated owning the covenant.
The specific object of the Saybrook convention was to establish a more thorough system of ecclesiastical govern- ment ; or in the words of the call for that meeting, to remedy " the defects of the discipline of the churches of this govern- ment."
When the Consociations were organized under it, in the western part of the State, at least, this matter was carefully confirmed and authorized, so far as those bodies could do it.8 This was the action taken by the ministers of Fairfield County, and the form of this Consociation government was strongly Presbyterian.
8 ** Sigillum Consociationis Fairfieldensis.
At a Consociation or meeting of the Elders and Messengers of the County of Fairfield at Stratfield March 16, 1708-9. The Revd. Mr. John Davenport chosen Moderator.
Present from ye
The Revd Mr. Joseph Webb. Messengers. Deacon John Thomson Mr. Samuel Cobbet.
The Revd. Mr. Charles Chauncey Scribe. After Solemn Seeking of God for divine guid- ance, direction and blessing the Councill convened. The Acts of ye Councill at Saybrook, September 9, 1708 were read the first time as also ye general Assembly's approbation and sanction thereof, Oc- tober 1708.
From ye Chh. of Stratford. Messengers.
Voted in Council to adjourn till 8 of ye clock in ye morning.
Joseph Curtiss Esqr.
Mr. Samuel Sherman.
The Consociation being met according to adjourn- ment, after prayer made it was agreed
Imps. That all the Chhs. in ye County of Fairfield be one Consociation.
From ye Chh. of Stratfield. The Revd. Mr. Charles Cauncey
Messenger. Lieut. James Bennet.
From ye Chh. of Stamford. The Revd. Mr. Jno. Davenport. Messengers. Deacon Sam11 Hoit Mr. Jos. Bishop.
2. That ye Pastors met in our Consociation have power with ye Consent of the Messengers of our Chhs. chosen and attending, Authoritatively Judi- cially and Decisively to determine ecclesiastically affairs brôt to their Cognizance according to the Word of God and that our Pastors with the concurrence and consent of the Messengers of our Chhes. to be chosen and that shall attend upon all future occasions, have like Authorita- tive, Judicial and Decisive power of Determin- ation of affairs ecclesiasticall, and that in further
Chh. of Fairfield
313
The Fairfield Consociation.
From ye Chh. of Danbury. The Revd Mr. Seth Shove. Messengers.
Lieut. James Beebee
Mr. James Benedict.
and fuller meetings of two Consociations together compliant with the conclusions of y" sd Councill at Saybrook, there is the like Authoritative, Judiciall and Decisive power of Determination of Ecclesias- tical affairs according to ye word of God.
3. That by Elder or Elders of a particular Chh in said Saybrook conclusions mentioned in Paragraph ye first is understood only in ye teaching Elder or teaching Elders.
From ye Chh. of Norwalk. The Revd Mr. Stephen Buckingham. Messenger. Deacon Zerubbabel Hoit.
From ye Chh. of Woodbury. The Revd. Mr. Anthony Stoddard. Messengers.
Deacon John Sherman, Deacon Matthew Mitchell. j
4. That in ye 6th Paragraph of sd Con- clusions we do not hold ourselves obliged in our practice to use ye phrase of ya sentence of Non Communion but in ye stead thereof to use ye phrase of ye sentence of Excom- munication which may in our judgment be formally applied in ye Cases expressed in said Paragraph.
The Councill adjourned till half an hour past two oclock in ye afternoon.
5. That to ye orderly begining of a case before a Councill of our Chhes. ye aggrieved member shall make application unto ye moderator of the Councill or Consociation for ye time being or in case of ye moderator's death to ye free Sen" Pastor of ye Consociation who upon his desire shall receive attested copies of ye Chhs. proceedings with ye aggrieved member from their minister and ye sd. Mod- erator with the two free senr. Pastors of ye Circuit or in ye Case premised of ye death of ye Moderator ye sd 2 senr. pastors of ye circuit being satisfied there is sufficient cause shall warn ye convening of the Consociation.
6. That a Copy of a Warning to appear before ye Councill the time an 1 place being notified being read in the hearing or left in ye house of the ordinary abode of a scandalous member or witness concerning the case depending before two mem- bers of the designation of the Scribe for ye time being and signed by the sd Scribe be adjudged a regular notification.
7. That a copy of a Warning to appear before ye Pastor or Chh. ye place and time notified being read in ye hearing or left in the ordinary abode of an offending member or witness needfull in the case before two members appointed by the pastor and signed by him shall be a fair notification ye neglect whereof unless upon sufficient reason shall be reputed a scandalous contempt in our respective Chhes
8. That all persons that are known to be Baptized shall in ye places where they dwell be subject to ye Censures of admonition and excommunication in case of scandall committed and obstinately persisted in.
9. That the Moderator and Scribe now chosen be accounted to stand in ye same respective capacities for ye time being untill a new regular choice be made, and so for the future.
IO. That ye Judgment of ye Consociation or Councill be executed by any Pastor appointed thereto by ye Councill when ye Pastor that hath already dealt in ye case hath not a freedome of Conscience to execute ye same.
The above Acts and Conclusions of the present Consociation unanimously Voted March 17, 1708-9.
Signed Charles Chauncey, Scribe.
The above and foregoing is a true Copy of the Originall Compared.
pr. Samuel Cooke."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CON- TINUED.
ISTORY in church matters for many years in Connecticut, is very largely the history of the people, socially and politically. There is no nation in which religion had a larger part in its formation than the American nation of the United States, and the ecclesi- astical form in which this religious influence and teaching were prominently and success- fully propagated for nearly one hundred years, was Congregational. Whether right or wrong, better or worse, or whatever the final result, this is historical fact, so widely recorded as to be beyond the possibility of change.
It is, therefore, proper, in the further delineations of history, to recognize the religious element, in its movings and effect, in such a degree as to show its force in the formation of the national life and character. In local history especially is this true, for in it is seen more directly the democratic elements of a free people.
Some notice of the churches in Connecticut, and espe- cially as developed in Stratford, under the name of Congrega- tional and Presbyterian has been given, as constituting largely the settlement and organization of the place.
The second denomination recognized by law and largely by the people of the state, was the Protestant Episcopal, at that day denominated the Church of England, and the place of its first organization in this State was Stratford.
315
Ecclesiastical Relations.
The Episcopal Church in Stratford.
Stratford was settled by persons who had been commu- nicants in the Church of England to the time of their sailing for America. The Rev. Adam Blakeman had been regularly ordained in that church, and had served in it as priest for several years under the Bishop, but had been silenced for non-conformity. He and his associates dissented from sev- eral requirements of the Bishop; not from the doctrines or existing ritual of the Church;1 and as regular members of that church received their certificates from the minister of the parish where they had resided and " attestations from the Justice of the Peace," according to the order of the govern- ment, upon which they were allowed to sail as emigrants to America.
They came to America with no other name than dissent- ing members of the Church of England, and as such were organized into a local body and called the "Church of Christ in Stratford."
It is not a supposable thing that these persons, although placed in church organization, without the approbation of a Bishop, could at once forget, or wholly forsake the religious training received, or their affection for the church and its usages, from which they were separated. Hence, in 1666, when some questions of church discipline arose there were found those who desired to maintain and be governed by rules which had been familiar to them in England.
The eight persons who were the minority in the division which finally went to Woodbury, were all born in England, with only one exception, if any, and four of them-Richard Butler, Henry Wakelyn, Samuel Sherman and Daniel Tith- arton, had been, probably, communicants in the Church of England before coming to this country. They desired, when received under the Halfway Covenant, to be examined
1 Those who fled from England to this country were compelled to do so or ob- serve certain rites and ceremonies of the English Church, which they believed un- scriptural, and therefore wrong. They objected to the cap and surplice, the ring in marriage, the cross in baptism, the rite of confirmation, kneeling at the Lord's supper, etc."-New Haven Historical Society Papers, iii. 307.
316
History of Stratford.
alone by the minister-or minister and elder-and to be al- lowed to partake of the Lord's Supper, and their children, when baptized, to be members of the church in the sense entertained then in the English Church. Hence, this church at Woodbury did admit the halfway covenant members to the communion for many years after its organization.
Nor is it to be supposed that all kindly remembrances and feelings of attachment for the Episcopal Church had died out in Stratford at the year 1700, while their numbers had been increased frequently by emigrants from the Church of England, yet it is doubtful if before 1706 there were any fam- ilies in Stratford who stood aloof from the Congregational Church, claiming to be adherents of the Episcopal Church. This is a conclusion, after careful examination, of every fam- ily name, as to births, baptisms, civil and social relations and owners of property, to that date. It has been claimed that Daniel Shelton was an Episcopalian from 1687, onward, but if so, he was, as may hereafter be seen, a very good " pillar " in the Congregational Society as late as 1717, for his name was the first on the petition in that year for society privileges in Ripton for the Congregational Church.
Isaac Knell has been represented by the Rev. Samuel Peters as an Episcopalian as early as "about 1690," but he was a Congregationalist and took an active part in that soci- ety's proceedings, in settling a minister in 1698; and ten years later he was so much attached to Mr. John Reed when he had closed his labors in Stratford, that the following deed is found in the land records: " July 13, 1708, Isaac Knell and John Clark for good will and affection," deeded to "Mr. John Reed for the space of ten thousand years, the day of this date forward . . . all our undivided lands in Stratford." Mr. Peters calls him "Mr. Knell," but there was no other Mr. Knell than Isaac, in the town, at that time ; and he died only a few months later-November 2, 1708. He was a prom- inent, active man in the town, but probably was never an Episcopalian.
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