USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > Annals of St. James's Church, New London : for one hundred and fifty years > Part 2
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At the aforesaid Committee meeting, the members then present chose the Rev. Mr. McSparran, of Narraganset, Treasurer, to Receive the Subscriptions for Building said Church.
JOHN SHACKMAPLE. JOHN MERRITT. WALTER BUTLER. THOS MUMFORD. WILLM NORTON. JAMES STERLING.
The particularity and redundancy of these documents exhibit the style of the day, and also the importance which the actors attached to the work they had taken in hand. They were to build a house to the honor of the Lord. It was an arduous work in itself to men in such circumstances as these. It was a serious and solemn work in itself, and they entered upon it with care and circumspection.
In the documents just given, Dr. McSparran is consti- tuted the treasurer of the building fund. From this we infer that the work had been undertaken with his knowledge and approval, perhaps at his suggestion and by his advice, and that he stood pledged virtually, if not explicitly, to aid it with his influence and cooperation to the extent of his
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
power. Doubtless, before this, he had visited the Church- men of New London, and given them, to some extent, the benefit of his ministrations. When such ministrations began, and how extensive and regular they were, it is now impossible to ascertain. The first trace of them to be found is the record of a baptism performed by him at Groton, in the ancient register of the old Narraganset Church, under date of July 14, 1723, three months after the baptism of a child by Mr. Pigot, which has been spoken of before.
This baptism by Dr. McSparran took place on the eastern side of the Thames, at Groton, in the house of Thomas Mumford, who was, it appears from the documents given above, a prominent actor in forming the parish at New London, and one of the members of the original build- ing committee. From this time on, till the year 1744, there are occasional entries of official services rendered by Dr. McSparran at New London and Groton, in the register of St. Paul's, Narraganset, extending on far beyond the erec- tion of the church at New London, and the establishment of a minister there; but there is nowhere any mention of his ministrations in the records of New London. These are the only facts known on which Dr. McSparran, in his " America Dissected," grounds his declaration : . "I myself began one church, by occasional visits among them, at a place called New London." On which Miss Caulkins, in her history, comments : "The claim which Dr. McSparran thus advances to the honor of having formed the Episcopal Church in New London, is, undoubtedly, valid. He was, probably, at first invited hither by the English residents of the place, and his zeal and energy soon enlarged the num- ber of adherents to the Church."
That English residents were its original members, and the nucleus to which its subsequent growth was added, is
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
apparent from what we know of the individuals who sub- scribed to the erection of a church, and formed the begin- ning of a congregation.
A principal actor in these incipient measures, perhaps he may be justly denominated the foremost, was John Shackmaple, whose name stands at the head of the building committee. At his house the meeting of the committee recorded above was held, and there, it is believed, the infant congregation met for worship until a church was ready for occupation. John Shackmaple was an English- man, who, in 1707, was commissioned by the Surveyor- General, "Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher for Connecti- cut," and, in 1718, was confirmed in that office by the " Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations," his district includ- ing Connecticut, Fisher's Island, Gardiner's Island, and the east end of Long Island. His residence was at New London, where his office and position made him a person of
consequence. He died about 1730, before the completion of the church, and was succeeded in the office of collector by his son, a second John Shackmaple. The house of Mr. Shackmaple, where service was originally held, stood at the northeast corner of what are now Douglass and Bradley streets, and was known as the Shackmaple House. It was afterward called the Wilson House, from a daughter of Mr. Shackmaple, who had married a Mr. Wilson, and resided in it. Fifty years ago, a portion of the house was standing, and inhabited by an old colored woman named Juno, who had been a servant of the Wilson family.
John Merritt heads the subscription list of June 6, 1725, on which the name of Mr. Shackmaple does not appear. That he was an Englishman does not appear from any posi- tive proof, but, from the circumstances, is almost certainly inferred. At first he inhabited what was then called the North Parish of New London, now the town of Montville,
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where he seems to have been a large proprietor. There he libe rally aided the Congregational Society, it is presumed from a desire to support the institutions of religion, and being without any place of worship of his own Church. When, in 1725, the project of building an Episcopal Church in New London was started, he entered into it zealously, headed the subscriptions for it, and was chairman of the original building committee. He died March 7, 1732, the year the church was finished, and was buried beneath the northeast corner of the new edifice. There his remains lay undisturbed till 1871, when, in lowering the grade of State street, a part of which the site of the old church had long constituted as common highway, his bones were laid bare, and identified by a coffin-plate of thin copper in the form of a heart, which was turned entirely green and corroded by time, bearing the inscription rudely marked upon it :
I. M. Æ. 63. 1732.
His bones were transferred to a lot in Cedar Grove Ceme- tery, belonging to St. James's Parish, and the plate is preserved as a sacred relic of the past. A man of means and public spirit, we find him interested in the establish- ment of a school in the North Parish, and the ground upon which the meeting-house was there built, was a part of his farm. A grandson of his, Merritt Smith, was subsequently a warden of St. James's Church.
Peter Buor came to New London from the Island of St. Christophers, and purchased an extensive tract of land on the Niantic River, about what has since been known as the Rope Ferry. His style of farming was so superior to the agriculture of the day, that his farm became the model farm of the region. He seems to have been a" Churchman by
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birth and education, and gladly lent his aid to the enter- prise of building an edifice for the worship of the Church of England.
Thomas Mumford dwelt in Groton, on the east side of the Thames. He came originally from Narraganset, where, it is supposed, his family belonged to the congregation of the Narraganset Church, and was connected with Dr. McSparran through his wife, whose niece Dr. McSparran had married. He is repeatedly called "Uncle Mumford " by Dr. McSparran in his diary. The Doctor was a frequent visitor at his house, and there he held service and performed the various functions of the ministry. At the first choice of officers in the New London parish, in 1732, he was appointed a warden, and continued either a warden or a vestryman twenty-three years. The elder Seabury's first wife, and the mother of the bishop, was his daughter, and he was thus the grandfather of the first Bishop of Connecticut.
Of the remainder of the subscribers, James Tilley and George Smith are known to have been Englishmen. John Braddock was of English birth, his father then residing at Southold, Long Island. James Sterling was a sea-captain sailing from this port, "master of the largest ship that had then been constructed on this side of the Atlantic," and was, in all probability, an Englishman also. John Gidley married a daughter of John Shackmaple, September 17, 1726, and is supposed to have been an Englishman. He resided chiefly at Newport. Walter Butler is thought to have been a native of New London, though his parentage cannot be distinctly traced. He married Mary Harris. He subsequently removed into the Mohawk Valley, in New York, where his sons became conspicuous as Royal- ists in the revolutionary war. William Norton is, doubtless, the person whose children were baptized by Johnson and Pigot in their visits to New London in 1723.
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Who he was is unknown. Miss Caulkins simply remarks : " Norton is not a name belonging to New London, and is not mentioned after 1726." Probably he, too, was an Englishman temporarily living there. Bennett, Packer, and Goddard were Groton men. Goddard removed to New London, and was one of the vestry chosen in 1732, and a liberal and active friend of the Church. He was postmas- ter of New London, and a physician of large practice. His wife was Sarah Updike, of Narraganset, and his son, Wil- liam Goddard, a native of New London, was a printer, and one of the earliest newspaper publishers in the country ; and received from Dr. Franklin, the Postmaster-General, the appointment of Surveyor of Post-roads and Comptroller of the Post-office. The name of Goddard long continued in the parish; but there is no discoverable link to connect it with Dr. Giles Goddard, whose only son was the William Goddard mentioned above.
This brief statement concerning the founders, suffices to show to how large an extent the materials of the incipient parish were foreign, how small a part was indigenous. Dr. McSparran can be called its founder only in the sense of collecting, arranging, and organizing the materials that were ready to his hand; encouraging them with his countenance, counsel, and aid, as he had opportunity. To some extent, similar assistance had been extended to them from the missionaries in the western part of Connecticut. But Strat- ford is far -- was practically far, indeed, in those days-from New London, and the distance between them was then only traversed on horseback, by rough and rudely-constructed roads. It is not probable that the Connecticut missionaries ever accounted New London a part of their regular and stated field of labor.
The first use to which the committee put the powers with which they were entrusted, was to negotiate with Trinity
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Church, Newport, for their church, which it was proposed to take down, remove to New London, and rebuild ; a pro- ject which, however strange and unwise it may seem in our day, was evidently not regarded as preposterous or obviously injudicious in those early times. Newport was then rapidly growing in population and business, and the church erected there in the latter part of the preceding century had already become insufficient for the wants of the growing congrega- tion. Then it was that the present spacious edifice still occupied by the parish was erected, which is now regarded with such veneration, and so carefully preserved. The only trace of this proposal that remains, is a letter on the subject from Dr. McSparran to the committee, preserved in the old record book, and which is here given :
NARRAGANSET, March 21st, 1725-6.
GENTLEMEN,
Pursuant to ye advice of Feb: 25th, I went to Newport ye next mon- day, and the Committee for building their new Church being acquainted with my business, met yt evening at Mr: Honeyman's house, to whom having Proposed when and upon what Terms they would Part wth the old Church, they came to this unanimous Result, that, Provided the Gentle- men of New London would take down, Transport, Erect, and Finish the Church at New London, and Expect no other assistance from them, they should have it and all its appurtenances Gratis; except the alter-piece, which was expected to be given to Narraganset. Next day one or Two at most yt are not of the Committee objected against parting with it but upon Terms; wt Those Terms will be when their Congregation meets (if ever it meet) to Consult upon yt affair, I am as yet unable to advise you of. In ye mean time, Gentlemen, I would have you make no Offer, for should the few yt are for parting with ye old Church upon Terms Prevail (wch I can hardly think), yet must the price they Set be governed by ye advantage their old Church will be to themselves, if you have it not; and not by the Benefit it will be of to you if you have it. These things, therefore, Let me Propose to be distinctly and maturely Considered by you the Committe.
(I.) If you have their Church you must Send the Carpenters you
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
Intend to Raise it to pull it down for the Timber must be marked all anew, and Some new ones there will be wanting in the roof and other places; and although the Carpenter I Consulted, viz., Monday, Said the Charge of pulling it down would be £50, yet the Gentlemen themselves conclude it will be more, and I believe you may Venture to Lay the Charge of takeing Safely down, Carting to ye water, putting aboard, and Transportation, at £500.
(2.) You will by this Church, whether Given or Sold, save no Board Nails, Plank Nails, Clift Board Nails, Shingle nor Lath Nails. It's like a few, and but a few, Plank and Boards will be Saved; it will Save you no Shingles, Clift Boards, Laths, lime, nor window Frames.
(3.) If you have the New Port Church you will then be under an absolute necessity of conformity to ye dimensions of said Church, both as to the House and Belfry. Now, it may be, Gentlemen, you will think a less Fabrick will do you ye Turn, wch, if Built Square, may in Time be Lengthened and Enlarged.
(4.) By this Church you will Save Something in the Pews, Pulpit, and Communion Table. You will do well, therefore, to Consider of the Di- mensions of ye Church (in case you Cannot obtain this), and See wt ye frame and materialls of all Sorts will Cost, and wt the workmen will Demand to Finish ye same, without wch you cannot Know when you are well offered, Should the Gentlemen here send you up their Terms. As to a Subtreasurer, I have determined Mr. Shackmaple for yt Trouble, and you will, wth all Convenient Speed, I hope, Pay in the Severall Sums annexed to your Names, yt there may be a beginning ; you have given a good and Encouraging Example in ye Subscriptions, and the like is Equally needfull in paying them In to the Treasurer; by this others not of ye Committee will be animated, not only to Subscribe, but to make ready pay, for I must beg leave to tell you yt I think it absolutely neces- sary there be some money Lodged before the building is begun, Leest if Some Consequences yt may Reflect Dishonor upon ye undertaking in So Captious a Country as yours is. The motion made by the Committee hindered me from any Farther Progress then, you See, with ye Subscrip- tion Paper, but I may Venture to assure you yt should the old Church be Denied you Gratis, Severall of ye Gentlemen will think themselves bound in honor to Contribute to ye Assistance, and, for wt I know, yt method may be Equally beneficial to You.
I have Enclosed the Deed, there being no Difficulty in Drawing a proper Conveyance from Mr. Mumford to the use of the Church, for the
2
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
Deed from him must be to 3, 4, 5, or 6 of you by name, in trust, for said use; with a Clause therein inserted obligeing the Gentlemen therein named, yt so soon as a Minister of the Established Church comes and is Settled amongst you, and has Erected and Incorporated a Vestry, they make Conveyance of said land and Edific thereon built to the Church Wardens by name, and their Successors for Ever in Said Office for said Use. I should have Waited on you My Self the Last Sunday of yt In- stant, but haveing no Horse, and being Shortly to go for Boston, hope you will Excuse my Absence. I have no more to add, but the tender of my Best Respects, wch please to Accept from, Gentlemen, yr most Obedient Humble Servant,
JAMES McSPARRAN.
The language of this letter implies previous consultation, and expresses, on the part of Dr. McSparran, but a partial and qualified approval. The project was never carried into execution, from what cause is unknown. But it is probable that the doubts of its expediency and advisableness ex- pressed by Dr. McSparran prevailed, and the plan, upon mature thought and consideration, was abandoned. The movement remains on record only as a curious fact in our early history.
On the failure of these overtures, from whatever cause, the committee determined to proceed without further delay to the erection of a church. For this purpose a lot of land was purchased, and a contract entered into with Mr. John Hough to place a suitable building upon it. This lot was situated on the north side of the lower part of State street, that broad space which is still called the Parade, so called, it is supposed, because it had formed the parade-ground of a fortification which lay to the east of it, on the bank of the river. It contained about twenty square rods, and was of a wedge-like form, the east side coinciding with the west line of Bradley street, tapering to a point in the west, and leaving a passage of considerable width between the church and the north side of State street. It stood out apparently
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
unenclosed, and surrounded on all sides by the public street. The area of the church itself was used for the pur- poses of burial, the graves being made beneath the floor, after the custom prevailing in England. The recent dis- covery of Mr. Merritt's grave, who was known to have been buried in its northeast corner, has helped to determine its location. From time to time, in various excavations that have been made for the public convenience and improve- ment, human bones have been unearthed, and the remains of the early Churchmen of New London exposed to view. A negligence that might seem unpardonable, is only to be explained by the fact that, when the church was consumed by fire at the time of the revolution, there were no green mounds to mark the sepulchres of the dead; and when the débris came to be removed, all traces of them were obliter- ated, and "their memorials perished with them." And the poverty of survivors, and, in many instances, too, the politi- cal odium which attached to the memory of the sleepers as unpatriotic, and enemies to the cause of freedom and inde- pendence, prevented any endeavor to save their remains from dishonor. The number of these interments was not great. The early Churchmen who had relatives and friends, were buried with their kindred in the ancient burial-ground north of the meeting-house, where mouldering stones, with quaint devices like those around them, still mark their places of repose. The names of those who are known to have been buried beneath the church may properly be recorded here, to preserve them from utter oblivion.
Mrs. Janet Merritt was laid beside her husband nine years after his death. Mrs. Gibbs, of Newport, a relation of Mrs. Matthew Stewart; John Seabury, a brother, it is sup- posed, of the first minister, 1753; Matthew Stewart and his wife, an Irish gentleman whose wife was a Gardiner, of Nar- raganset, and several small children of theirs. Mr. Stewart
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
died in 1779, and was, doubtless, the last person laid under- neath the church. Being an ardent Royalist, he became obnoxious to public feeling, and was a virtual prisoner in his own house. And tradition says that his death was con- cealed to avoid popular violence, and his body interred by torchlight, on a Sunday evening, under the old church. The lot had been the property of Amos Richardson, of whose heirs it was purchased by Edward Hallam in 1725, and it was now sold by him, for £50, to Thomas Lechmere, of Boston, who conveyed it to the committee as a free gift. The purposes of the gift assigned in the deed are "to erect thereon a church or decent edifice for the worship of God according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, to be forever devoted to this sacred and pious use, to keep up a church thereon and bury their dead therein." The date of the deed is June 26, 1726.
The edifice which John Hough contracted to build was to be, in its interior length, 50 feet, by 32 in width, to have two double doors at the west side, and there was also a door on the south side, "the roof half flat, and the other arched on each side,"-a description not very clear to the writer. It was to have five windows, one in the rear and two each side. As it was constructed, according to the custom of the time, of stout oak timber, from the model farm of Major Buor, and well-seasoned stuff, it might have remained for centuries, had not the ruthless hand of war swept it prema- turely away. It stood facing west, and though a very simple structure, it was a respectable and not uncomely edifice, according to the ideas of the day.
It had a bell, and, of course, a belfry to contain it; tra- dition ascribes to it a steeple, but whether this was an original appendage, or was subsequently added, does not appear, there being no mention of it in Mr. Hough's contract. All we know of the bell is, that in 1740 a subscription was
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
solicited "to procure a new and larger bell; " by accident the bell belonging to the church having become useless, and being too small for our purpose. Such, so far as we can ascertain, was the first Episcopal church erected in New London. The beautiful photographic art was not then at hand to preserve and hand down to us its "counterfeit presentment," and without this our notions of it are but vague and indistinct. But doubtless the little flock that first "went into its gates with thanksgiving, and into its courts with praise," were as proud and exultant as those who, more than a hundred years after, hailed the completion of its present noble and costly successor. That happy con- summation was not reached, however, till 1732, the inter- vening period, long for so simple a work, being filled up, doubtless, by unknown and unrecorded struggles and anxie- ties. The first missionary writes to "the Society " at home in 1742, that on June 20, 1726, a carpenter was agreed with for a wood frame ; that on the 9th of August following the timber was brought to the ground; on the first of October the frame was raised and completed, and on the 28th of November, 1727, the house was enclosed, glazed, the under floor laid, a neat desk and pulpit finished. In this condi- tion he found the building when he arrived at New London, December 9, 1730, "in the service of the honorable Socie- ty." Miss Caulkins speaks of the building as completed and opened for worship in the autumn of 1732. Mr. Sea- bury came in 1730. Till that time, and in the years preced- ing his arrival, services were held, it would seem, more or less frequently by Dr. McSparran, and probably also by Dr. Johnson, in the house of Mrs. Shackmaple.
Contributions for the erection of the church were not confined to New London, but were obtained in considerable amounts in Newport and New York. In the latter place Governor Burnet, a son of the celebrated bishop, contrib-
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
uted £50; and we find among the subscribers the names of Duer, Bayard, Ellison, Van Rensselaer, DeLancey, and Morris, conspicuous in the affairs of the Church and of the country.
Ten pews were at first "laid out in the east end of the church," and ten more at the west end, which were ap- praised and assigned to individuals at a price ; but as there are extant votes in later years giving permission to different persons to construct a pew for themselves, it is presumed that at the outset a considerable part of the church re- mained without pews, and was subsequently provided with them by individuals acting under the consent of the parish, -a course very commonly pursued in the parish churches of England.
Miss Caulkins preserves a tradition of this old church, which may not be without interest, and should properly have a place in this history :
"The steeple or belfry terminated in a staff which was crowned with a gilt ball. In this ball an Indian arrow was infixed, which hung diagonally from the side, and remained till the destruction of the building. A delegation of Indians passing through the town, stopped to look at the church,- to them, no doubt, a splendid specimen of architecture. The leader of the party drew an arrow from his quiver, and, taking aim at the ball, drove it into the wood, so that it remained firmly fixed, and was left permanently adhering there."
Dr. McSparran had, in accordance with the vote of the committee given above, appointed John Shackmaple sub- treasurer, and the committee itself, with Dr. McSparran's consent, associated Thomas Mumford with him in that office. So it is reasonable to conclude that the church was built under the superintendence and direction of these gen- tlemen, to whom the powers of Dr. McSparran had been thus formally delegated.
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But while the good work of rearing the material temple was progressing, the providence of God was preparing for them a pastor, who should build up the nobler " spiritual house," not of "the teil tree and the oak whose substance is in them though they cast their leaves," but of "lively stones," more enduring and imperishable, " acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," "built upon the foundation of the Apos- tles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief Cornerstone."
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