USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > An old New England church, established religion in Connecticut; being an historical sketch of the first Church of Christ and the Prime ancient society, Fairfield, commemorating the two hundred and seventieth anniversary of public worship in the town > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
Gen. Silliman was a lawyer of eminent ability-a gentleman,
85
RELIGION AND POLITICS
of noble christian character, an ardent and self-sacrificing patriot, a person of distinction and wide influence.
Another important man in church and state was Hon. Thad- deus Burr, High Sheriff, Deputy, member of the war committee, member of the Governor's Council and servant in various other capacities. A gentleman of the old school, genial, refined, cul- tivated-affluent in circumstances and intimate with the various leaders of his day, the society of his home was sought by men and women far and wide. He contributed in most generous way to the advance of all church interests and the prosperity of town and colony, Mr. Burr numbered among his friends the leading patriots, scholars, statesmen and ministers of his generation. The artist Copley, the poets Humphrey, Barlow. Dwight, the Adamses, the Quincys, the Hancocks, Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, Trumbull and the large company of fellow workmen, all enjoyed the hospitality of the Burr homestead and enriched the life of Fairfield with their presence.
Another stalwart helper in the church and the state was Mr. Jonathan Sturges, secretary of the Sons of Liberty for Con- necticut, member of various town committees, Deputy, member of Congress, Judge of the Superior Court and active laborer in several other public offices. Judge Sturges was associated with Col. Silliman, Andrew Rowland, Job Bartram and Thaddeus Burr in representing the town at a county Congress which con- sidered the subject of Independence and War. Mr. Sturges stood upon the porch of Thaddeus Burr's house with Mr. Burr and Mr. Silliman when a sealed packet was brought to them by a Boston messenger announcing the fight at Lexington.
Col. Abraham Gould bore his honorable part in the activi- ties of the day, giving life itself in behalf of his native land. And there were the Smedleys, the Rowlands, the Squiers, the Dimons, and a goodly company of people in addition to those already named, who shared richly in the history of those excit- ing, strenuous days.
86
RELIGION AND POLITICS
These people were members of Mr. Eliot's flock-their names appear frequently in the records-their labors in respect to parish affairs were not less noteworthy than in respect to the affairs of state. Judge Silliman, Col. Silliman, Hon. Thaddeus Burr, Hon. Jonathan Sturges, Doctor John Allen, Deacon Nathan Bulkley, Captain Wheeler, Captain Abraham Gould, etc., were the committee to "take care and provide some suitable person to supply the Pulpit " when Mr. Eliot was called to the church. Judge Silliman seemed to be the favorite moderator for the meet- ings of the parish, through a long period of years. Patriotic Capt. Job Bartram appears as the trusted treasurer. Captain. Abel was frequently asked to inspect the school bonds. Ezra Jennings succeeded Ephraim Jennings as collector. Andrew Wakeman, Eben Burr, David Allen and Daniel Osborn acted as committee "to take care of and manage the prudential affairs"' of the parish.
In the roster of patriots these and a large company of com- rades shine. It was a happy circumstance in the life of Mr. Eliot that he came to a people so broad in culture, so true in life and so loyal to the interests of the colony. Pastor and people worked together in hearty sympathy and fellowship until death parted them.
The church life at this period seemed largely to merge in devotion to the cause of Independence. Ministers, deacons and congregations of the Established Religion gave an intensely patriotic trend to their religious life. Sermons on diverse phases of taxation, government, resistance to constituted authority, rights of man and the freedom of the colonies rang throughout the land. Men preached politics on the Lord's Day and lecture day. They talked politics in the home, on the street, at parish meetings, under the wayside elms.
As an inevitable consequence the cleavage between people of the Established Religion and the people of the Church of Eng- land became more and more distinct. Feeling ran high in the
87
RELIGION AND POLITICS
town. The loyalists were members of the missions supported by the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel. So emphatic was this political turn given to religion in the community that children took it for granted that a patriot was a Congregational- ist while members of Trinity Church must necessarily be loyalists. This explains to a degree the bitterness of strife which mani- fested itself between the two religious organizations at this time.
It is true that members of Trinity Church had been impris- oned for non-payment of taxes in Mr. Webb's day and later. " I have just come from Fairfield," writes Johnson in 1727, " where I have been to visit a considerable number of my people in prison for their rates to the dissenting minister, to comfort and encourage them under their sufferings." By "dissenting ministers " in this case he means of course men of the Estab- lished Religion. Mr. Johnson was himself, however, the dis- senter in Connecticut.
It is also true that many annoyances were visited upon the people who chose to worship according to the way of the Prayer Book. Public services had various unhappy interruptions. Children became petty tormentors to their elders. Friction existed between families and individuals. But these earlier phases of conflict, like the later ones, were largely political.
It remained for the period of the American Revolution how- ever to illustrate in the greatest force and intensity this antagon- ism between the two religious bodies ; and the conflict reduced itself practically to political issues. Patriots and Congregation- alists were identified as one and the same ; so were loyalists and members of the "Episcopal Separation." The success of the Brit- ish-according to common belief-signified the overthrow of the Established Religion and the introduction of Bishops and the rule of a Hierarchy as well as the suppression of democracy and the strong grip of the mother country upon a defeated and hum- bled colony. So Mr. Sayre the rector of Trinity Church was forbidden-as were other ministers of the Church of England in
88
RELIGION AND POLITICS
Connecticut-to pray for the King. This omission signified a mutilation of the ordered form of Worship and disloyalty to his Majesty the Head of the Church.
Writing on Nov. 8th, 1770-some four months after the burning of Fairfield-Mr. Sayre explained to the Society in Lon- don the course which he had been pursuing in his parish. "We did not use any part of the Liturgy lately," he says, "for I could not make it agreeable, either to my inclination or my con- science, to mutilate it, especially in so material a point as that is wherein our duties as subjects are recognized. We met at the usual hours every Sunday, read parts of the Old and New Testa -. ments and some Psalms. All these were selected in such a man- ner as to convey such instructions and sentiments as were suited to our situation . . . On Sunday mornings I read the Homilies in their course, and, on the afternoons I expounded either parts of the Catechism or some such passages of Holy Scripture as seemed adapted to our case in particular or to the public calami- ties in general."
The feeling ran high against Mr. Sayre and his people. It was believed that they were a menace to the cause of Liberty- that they secretly aided the enemy-that one or another mem- ber of the flock played into the hands of the British. Mr. Sayre was at one time sent as an exile back into the country. When permitted to return he was put upon limits. The tradition is that feeling ran so high on one occasion that he would have been sub- jected to rough personal treatment and his house stripped bare except that a fortunate circumstance diverted the angry crowd of men and made them stay their hands.
When we recal what issues were at stake on both sides -- how the success of the British must result in the punishment of rebels to the King and a possible annihilation of the Established Religion here and prove a fatal blow to American liberties- how the success of the Americans must result in the banish- ment of many loyalists or their forfeiture to Connecticut of
89
RELIGION AND POLITICS
estate or life, how it must be a serious set-back to the progress of the Church of England in America-when we recall these things is it surprising that the clash of individuals, interests and churches brought to the surface of society much which we de- plore ?
Established Religion represented the interests of Connecti- cut. It was opposed to the craft of kings and the tyranny of Parliaments. It stood for the democracy which had been charac- teristic of the colony. It identified itself with American Inde- pendence. So far as I can interpret the situation, it was not a fear on the part of our ministers that they might lose their parishes and be thrust helpless upon the world. These men were able to support themselves. They had farms-they taught school-they inherited a fair measure of ingenuity and large measure of self-reliance. What these men chiefly feared was English aggression in both church and state-the loss of that which the fathers had gained through exile, impoverishment and rigid sacrifice. They feared the fresh riveting of chains in bond- age civil and ecclesiastical ; so they fought to the finish the mighty struggle which engaged them and in that close, tragic conflict they believed that the Church was involved equally with the State.
. ..
CHAPTER XI.
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
THE burning of Fairfield by the British on July 7th and 8th 1779, was a turning point in the history of the town. The county capital was reduced to heaps of smoking ruins. Desolation and sorrow prevailed on every side. "In the morning," writes Mr. Eliot, " the meeting-house, together with the Church of England building, the Court House, Prison and almost all the principal buildings in the Society were laid in ashes. Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire and all our pleasant places are laid waste.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Alleluia ! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Amen. "
It was an invincible spirit of heroism which manifested itself under these tragic circumstances. A goodly proportion of the men belonging to the town were away from home, engaged in the defence of native land. The havoc of fire and assault crippled the community to such an extent that it took years to recover. Poverty forced itself upon many a household.
Mr. Eliot lost his books and all personal effects and freely resigned his salary. The taxes for maintenance of army and state were so large that our people submitted to the most meagre fare and the most distressing conditions, yet without complaint or any relaxing of effort. It was verily a trial by fire.
Three days after the destruction of the village " the church and society met and with the pastor carried on religious services as usual at the house of Deacon Bulkley."
1
14
Congregational Church, fairfield, Conn. Built 1747. Burned by the British 1779.
91
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The sermon which Mr. Eliot preached on this first occasion of public worship after the loss of the meeting-house was pre- served and placed in the corner-stone of a later structure. What a scene arises before us? Grief, indignation, resolute purpose, exalted hope-they all contended for supremacy in the hearts of that stricken company. Charred and smoking ruins, tall, senti- nel chimneys, masses of broken and ash covered furniture, singed and blackened vegetation-these were the things seen on that Lord's Day morning when the patriots gathered for wor- ship. But there was no minor note struck in that service. It was a full rounded chorus of praise. The minister taught that God led his people day by day through all the riot of storm and that a bright star of hope shone strong and clear above the horizon.
Worship was held in various private houses for more than a year. When the new Town House was complete the congrega- tion gathered beneath its roof and continued their services in that place until the new meeting-house was covered and pre- pared for use. The strong men of the parish rallied at the call of the minister and work soon assumed something of its former character.
But it became speedily evident that Fairfield had lost its prestige and glory. Business was diverted to Newfield the adjoining town. That enterprising settlement had a fair harbor and manifested a lively spirit of thrift. Fairfield's extremity proved to be Newfield's opportunity. The older settlement was never to regain the leadership which it had once enjoyed. Nevertheless the First Church of Christ continued its activity, improving the days in faithful service to the parish, stimulating the energies of the patriots and co-operating loyally with the government.
Trinity Church was described as in "a sinking condition." The "indiscreet Mr. Sayre " had deserted his people and sailed away with the British. His work in Fairfield did not add to the
92
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
strength of the "Episcopal Separation." It emphasized the antagonism between members of the Established Religion and the loyalists belonging to the Church of England. For a time it appeared that Congregationalism, identified in Connecticut with national independence, had won a signal victory over Epis- copacy.
It was problematical what would become of the churches organized and supported through the agency of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. We catch the occasional notes of triumph on the part of our people. But any such feeling was short lived. The political interpretation which had been given to the activity of this Missionary Society was seen to be a mis- take. Whatever may have been in the minds of some of the leaders in the English Society, the expectation that the Church of England would enter into the civil life of Connecticut as a shaping force did not prevail to any large extent among the members of that church in the colony. And when Independence was achieved any expectation of that kind was forever shattered.
The believers in the Standing Order immediately manifested a more generous and fraternal spirit. All peril from the inroads of the English Missionary Society was now ended since the sup- port of the churches on the part of sympathizers in England ceased. It "was largely the heat and bitterness of political strife that had divided the people of Fairfield.
The Reverend Andrew Eliot came of stock historic. He was the great, great grandson of Andrew Eliot who emigrated from Somersetshire, England, the latter part of the seventeenth century and settled in Beverly, Massachusetts-which town he represented in the General Court, 1690. The grand-father of our Andrew was another Andrew who prospered as a merchant in the prosperous city of Boston. The father of our Andrew was another Andrew, the famous Dr. Eliot of the New England capital, long time pastor of the New North Church. A man of learning-eloquent, industrious and popular-a leader of men
93
1
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
and a generous public servant-his influence extended far and wide through city and country. In 1767 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Edinburgh University. In 1765 he was chosen a member of the Corporation of Harvard University. In 1769 he was earnestly solicited to become presi- dent of Harvard, which honor he declined. In 1773 he was act- ually selected for the office and again refused it, preferring to remain pastor of the church to which he devoted his life. When Boston was blockaded he remained in the city in order to minis- ter to his people and the isolated beleaguered citizens of the place-his family tarrying here in Fairfield during the period. A volume of his sermons is one of the treasures of our Historical Society. It was the custom in those days to distribute mourning rings among the friends of the deceased. The pastor of the New North Church possessed a large and curious collection of these strange funeral emblems.
This man of marked worth and distinction bequeathed a precious legacy of helpful associations and impulses to his son, the pastor of this parish during the formative period of the American Republic.
Our Andrew was born in 1743 and was educated in Boston and Cambridge, graduating from Harvard in 1762. He was elected Librarian of the College and became accustomed to the ravage of fire when in 1764 the old College building was burned and he lost all his personal belongings. In 1768 as a recognition of his good scholarship, young Eliot was appointed tutor and in 1773 he was elected a Fellow of Harvard. The esteem and affection of his pupils has an historic memorial in the chaste, massive, loving cup presented to him on leaving College-a me- morial which his descendants keep to-day with tender regard and devotion.
Mr. Eliot was a collector of historical documents, a lover of literature, a student of events. The correspondence which he carried on for many years with relatives and friends covers the
94
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
discussion of numerous questions. His sermons and addresses on Election Day and other important occasions show breadth of knowledge, firm grasp of public affairs, a progressive spirit and a generous culture. Mr. Eliot gathered the published Election sermons of the ministers who had preached before the Connecti- cut Legislature and presented the collection to the Massachusetts Historical Society. He prepared various papers on learned sub- jects. He was a most genial and agreeable host, entertaining a long succession of notable guests in his home. His affability, social graces, learning, toleration, abounding charity and kindly appreciation made him a commanding figure in the life of this town for a generation.
The General Association of Connecticut met with Mr. Eliot during the troublous days of the war, June 17, 1777. In 1790 Mr. Eliot was appointed one of the Committee on Union between Congregationalists and Presbyterians.
When Mr. Eliot came to this parish, it was not in the same controversial spirit as that which moved Mr. Hobart. Mr. Eliot was a broad-minded gentleman who had through years affiliated with men of the Church of England faith. The political aspects of religion inevitably arrayed him on the side of the Established Religion and made him an intense partisan ; but when the war was over his partisanship passed and he manifested on various occasions a liberal, Christ-like spirit.
In the address which Bishop Seabury made at the primary Convention in Middletown, he refers to the changed attitude of our ministers. "They have not only manifested a spirit of benevolence, but an exalted Christian charity," he remarks, " for which our gratitude is due, and shall be paid in paying all their just demands. As the same disposition appears in the min- isters of our neighboring churches to live in Christian harmony with us, we are all ready to meet them upon the same ground, with a sincerity like their own."
Trinity Church continued a precarious and uncertain exist-
95
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
ence during these days. The desertion of Mr. Sayre, the ban- ishment of loyalists, the loss of property, the destruction of the edifice in which they had been accustomed to worship, the inev- itable prosecutions which had been aimed at various troublesome individuals identified with Trinity-these things combined to wreck the hope of such people as clung to the Church of Eng- land. And yet, there was a faithful remnant which rallied and when in 1790 Jonathan Sturges and Thaddeus Burr, members of the Prime Ancient Society, were appointed to drive a stake where the people of Trinity Church might erect on Mill Plain a new edifice, the old time spirit of suspicion and hostility had been allayed, relations between the members of the two churches had assumed a friendly character and the town rejoiced in a good degree of harmony.
Opposition to the Standing Order had taken a fresh aspect after the new states were confederated in the Union. The Sep- aratists in Connecticut became an active force. Baptists and Methodists began to multiply. These people trained with the Episcopalians in a vigorous campaign which had for its object the dis-establishment of the Established Religion. The conflict did not evince that rancour and hatred which darkened the for- mer relations existing between men of the Standing Order and men of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; but the purpose to bring about a separation between church and state in Connecticut was a common bond between men of the most con- tradictory creeds and it awakened the brethren of the Congrega- tional Faith to the fact that the very genius of their democratic church was inherently and logically opposed to the union which had flourished in Connecticut since the Fundamental Orders of 1650 had been enacted. It required years of incessant attack and varied warfare to open the eyes of our orthodox, conservativ people to the truth, and during this protracted and vexations struggle temper, patience, charity were subjected to a severe strain in both ranks of the contestants.
1
96
INFLUENCES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
When the new order of things came and all churches in the commonwealth stood on an equal footing in the eyes of the law, many brethren in the Establishment felt that religion had received a shock from which it might never recover. "The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we then supposed," writes Dr. Lyman , Beecher at a later date " was irreparable. For several days I
1 , suffered what no tongue can tell for the best thing that ever hap- pened to the State of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on state support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God."
On the occasion when church and state separated in Con- necticut the faces of the people upon the streets of Fairfield betrayed the party to which they belonged. The air of mourn- ing and a sense of defeat prevailed among the members of the Congregational Church. It was a glad day however for the people of Trinity for they now had an equal opportunity with their former antagonists and they cherished a secret hope that the impulse lost during the trying days of the American Revolu- tion might re-assert itself and push to leadership in the town and the commonwealth.
$
CHAPTER XII.
LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL REFORM.
WE have observed that this church actively identified itself with the various important movements in the religious life of the colony and state. It stood for the Fundamental Orders of the United Colonies in 1650. It agreed to the Principles of the Cambridge Synod. It received into high favor the Saybrook Platform. The system of Consociationism had no other sup- porter more loyal and true. It opposed the Separationists with all the force of its life. It frowned upon the irrational methods of the New Lights. It fought unflinchingly the battles of the Established Religion as against the encroachments of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. And it put the force of its life into a loyal support of the Standing Order-Rev. Andrew Eliot, A. M., Judge Jonathan Sturges, Hon. Roger M. Sherman, and Rev. Heman Humphrey D. D., the representatives in this later conflict.
We also note that it entered with characteristic energy into the reform movements which mark the first years of the nine- teenth century. Mr. Eliot and Timothy Dwight had been con- genial and intimate neighbors for many years before the latter gentleman accepted the presidency of Yale College. The influ- ence of Dr. Dwight was felt in all parts of the town where he preached and conducted his school. It was his helpful impulse which did so much to arouse the spirit of the new century and push forward the evangelical movement. The sermons which kindled the fires of faith in Yale College were flames of truth which had illumined Greenfield Hill and the larger territory of the Prime Ancient Society.
When Rev. Heman Humphrey came to Fairfield, the oppor-
?
98
LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL REFORM
tunity was ripe for an agressive movement. The churches felt the need of revival. One of the first acts of this young courage- ous man was to attack the old Half-Way Covenant. This people had been loyal to it so long as it was believed that it contained any certain good for the church. But that period had passed away. Intellectual assent to a creed and the purpose to lead a clean life did not meet the requirements of the occasion. The New Light spirit communicated its grace to the Old Light dis- ciple. It was voted in this church that christian experience was a necessary credential for admission into the fellowship of Christ. So Mr. Humphrey set about preparing a new church roll-purg- ing the old register of waste and dead material-gathering together into a vital relation of fraternity and service such people as were glad to come forward and bear witness to the love of Christ in the heart.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.