USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > Annals of St. James's Church, New London : for one hundred and fifty years > Part 6
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Thomas Allen was another of the wardens of those days. He was a native of Boston, says Miss Caulkins, though old traditions say he was from the West Indies, and some, more particularly, from the Island of Antigua. He came to New London when quite young, and married Elizabeth, the daughter of Richard Christophers, and widow of John Shackmaple. He was a man of substance and extensive business, and, for a long time, a foremost man in the Epis- copal Church. His descendants have continued here, and the name is not yet extinct. His descendants have always been Churchmen.
This second church is still standing, but so transformed as to bear little resemblance to the original edifice, and, indeed, to contain little of the old building but the frame
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and part of the outside covering. That frame was of stout oak timber, and, in quality and quantity, such as to secure its long endurance. It was a respectable structure, and not unchurchly, according to the ideas of the time. Its round- headed windows, which were then the distinctive mark of an Episcopal church, declared its character, and work on its cornices and mouldings gave evidence that beauty and ornament were not wholly disregarded in its erection. It was, at first, without a steeple; the cupola that crowned its front was added subsequently. No doubt it was fair and comely in the eyes of those whose " desire to enter into the courts of the Lord " saw in it, at last, the completion of " hope deferred." But it is evident that our narrative is running far in advance of the course of events. More than two years before the completion and consecration of this church, Bishop Seabury had entered upon the charge of the parish, and taken possession of the parsonage-house, which continued to be his home till the day of his death. On his arrival from England, after his consecration, he came at once to New London, and became rector of St. James's. In coming to New London, he returned, not, indeed, to his birthplace, but to its vicinity, and to the haunts of his childhood, where his father had lived and ministered. No formal call to the rectorship is recorded in the parish book. Perhaps there was none; but he entered without ceremony on this portion of his diocese as that in which he chose to dwell, and was content to add to the duties of the episco- pate the humble labors of a parochial pastorate. And the people welcomed him gladly, " esteeming him very highly in love for his work's sake," and glad and honored to have, as their more immediate pastor, one to whom they owed also the higher affection and respect due to him as their bishop. As the church was not, at this time, erected, the bishop held his services in the court-house, which then stood near the
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old meeting-house, at the southeast corner of the lot on which the Bulkeley School now stands. But he is said, I know [not on what authority, to have celebrated the Holy Communion every Sunday, after morning service, in the large parlor of the parsonage where he lived. For this purpose, in 1786, he set forth a Communion Office for use in his diocese, more in accordance with his views of that sacred ordinance than that of the Church of England, and in fidelity to his engagement with the Episcopal Church of Scotland, from which he had received his consecration.
Its title-page in full is :
THE
COMMUNION OFFICE,
OR ORDER
For the Administration OF THE
'HOLY EUCHARIST, OR
Supper of the Lord.
WITH Private Devotions.
Recommended to the Episcopal Congregations in Connecticut By the Right Reverend BISHOP SEABURY. New London.
Printed by T. Green. MDCCLXXXVI.
It was printed in a small pamphlet form for cheap and easy diffusion. How extensively it was adopted in the diocese is not known. It has become very scarce. When the present rector came into his charge at New London, he found half a dozen copies of it lying about in the pews of the church. These he gathered up and preserved. He has never seen any others. The service is substantially the Scotch service, agreeing with it mostly in the arrangements
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of the parts, and particularly in the prayer of consecration, which has passed into our own present Communion Service, with the alteration of some phrases thought by many to savor too strongly of prayers for the dead. I am not one of those who think the form of the English service essentially deficient, but I cannot but consider the fuller and more explicit language of the Scotch, and of our own, at once more impressive and more beautiful. In a folio English Prayer Book, which was used in the Church after the Revo- lution, is our present prayer for the civil authority, written out, I suppose, by the bishop's hand, and pasted over the prayer for the sovereign, after the Ten Commandments in the Ante-Communion, as though to be used as a substitute for it. Such, I infer, was his usage before the establishment of our Prayer Book.
Of the eminent man of whom I have just spoken, it is not my intent to write an extended account. It seems needless. The main facts of his life and agency are suffici- ently well known. He, perhaps, as much as any one, some would say more, has left his impress on the service and offices of the American Church. His was the distinguished honor of bringing the episcopate into the New World, and planting on the shores of this western continent a genuine branch of that Apostolic tree, whose "leaves are for the . healing of the nations," and whose spreading boughs have now stretched from sea to sea. He was, to a large extent, the conservative element in the Church in his day, useful to restrain the impetuosity of some, and stiffen the flexibility of others, and so keep the Church from drifting away from those ancient landmarks which the Fathers had wisely set. Yet, while he was a firm man, he was not an obstinate man. While he could frankly and earnestly adhere to his settled convictions, and hold unflinchingly to them in all matters of essential truth, he knew how to yield gracefully when his
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views were overborne, and not waste his time in whimpering over losses, and wound himself and the Church by ineffectual resistance or defiance. Such a man deserves respect from all, whether they sympathize with his opinions or dissent from them. Bishop White, than whom it would be difficult to find a man wider from him in constitution of mind and habits of thought, bears testimony of the most honorable sort to his worth when he says, in his "Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church :" "To this day there are recollected with satisfaction the hours which were spent with Bishop Seabury, on the important subjects which came before us; and especially the Christian temper which he manifested all along." Yet this great and good man it has been the habit, in some quarters -- alas that it should be in our own household of faith !- to decry and ridicule, to make the butt of obloquy and detraction, to represent as a weak and vain man, vaporing with the conceit of his dignity, aping English state, strutting in the paraphernalia of office, holding, with a blind and unreasoning tenacity, to obsolete traditions, and imposing his own personal convictions on men with a narrow and bigoted imperiousness. It was the fortune of the writer to be born and grow up among his contemporaries, while his memory was yet fresh in many hearts. Not one of these imputations was ever heard among those who knew him best. True, he sometimes wore a mitre, and wrote himself Samuel Connecticut; but, in the latter particular, he did but conform to the ordinary usage, and the mitre he did not use at first, nor did he bring one with him when he came home, after his consecration ; but when he found many of the non-Episcopal ministers about him were disposed to adopt the title of bishop, in derision of his claims, he adopted a mitre as a badge of office which they would hardly be disposed to imitate. The mitre worn by the bishop is still preserved in the library of
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Trinity College. This mitre is a bifurcated cap of black satin, displaying on its front a metallic cross.
He was at home among his parishioners and fellow- citizens, a man of simple, quiet, unpretending ways, per- forming the humble duties of a parish minister with exem- plary assiduity and faithfulness, social and affable, sometimes witty and jocose, benevolent and charitable, always ready to use the medical skill which he had acquired in early life gratuitously for the benefit of the poor and needy, doing good with his narrow income to the utmost extent of his ability ; so that when he died, he had " a tune of orphans' tears wept over him,"-sweetest and most honorable re- quiem that can attend the bier of any man. Yet he pos- sessed a native dignity of appearance and manner that constrained universal respect, and repressed every attempt at undue or flippant familiarity. He was always the minis- ter of God, and, as a Congregational gentleman once said to me, every whit a bishop. An honest, brave, fearless, conscientious man was the first Bishop of Connecticut. It is sometimes alleged, evidently in the way of disparagement, and as though it were a slur on the genuineness of his com- mission, that his consecration came from the non-jurors. In any such sense as would reflect the slightest doubt on the legitimacy of his episcopal office, this is not true. His
consecrators were not English, but Scotch non-jurors. The English non-jurors might be accounted schismatical on account of their setting up a rival hierarchy when dispos- sessed of their sees on the accession of William and Mary, but the Scotch non-jurors were simply the disestablished Church of Scotland, ejected on account of their romantic adhesion to the rejected Stuarts. Bishop Seabury was not in person very tall, but stout, robust, and massive. His presence and bearing inspired reverence, and his clear and sonorous voice added much to make him impressive and
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commanding. Such he was; and I will only add that it is time pitiful detraction should come to an end, and all Churchmen should unite in that tribute to his memory which his character and services justly deserve.
Bishop Seabury was born in North Groton, now Ledyard, the 30th of November, 1729, the son of Samuel Seabury, the first minister of New London, born while his father was officiating at North Groton as a Congregational licentiate. He passed the days of his youth in New London, where his father was ministering. At an early age he entered Yale College, and graduated with credit in 1748. He went to Scotland and studied medicine in the University of Edin- burg; whether with a view of devoting his life to the medical profession, or merely as an amateur, is not known. But it is known that, in his ministry, he made large use of his medical knowledge as a means of doing good. He soon at any rate, put aside medicine for the study of theology, and, after acquiring the requisite proficiency, was ordained deacon by Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln, acting for the Bishop of London, December 21, 1753, and priest by Dr. Richard Osbaldeston, Bishop of Carlisle, acting for the same prelate, December 23, 1753; Dr. Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, being then disabled by infirmity, and near the close of life. On his return to America, he served several parishes in succession in New Jersey and New York, and settled finally in Westchester, where he continued to officiate till the breaking out of the Revolution. His loy- alty, founded on the deepest convictions of duty, drove him from his parish; and during the remainder of the war he resided in New York, serving as chaplain to the King's forces, and eking out his living by the practice of medicine. Soon after the establishment of independence, the clergy of Connecticut moved to obtain the episcopate, and made choice of Dr. Seabury for their bishop. To obtain conse-
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cration, he sailed for England in 1783. He had been hon- ored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Univers- ity of Oxford, 1777. Political difficulties prevented his success in England; the English bishops were unable to dispense with the oath of allegiance to the sovereign, which their ordinal contained, and the British Parliament was ยท backward to pass an enabling act, for fear of exciting the displeasure of the young republic, jealous of any encroach- ment on its newly-acquired nationality. Under these cir- cumstances, Dr. Seabury bethought himself of the Scotch bishops, identical in polity and authority with the English bishops, but disconnected with the State, in consequence of the disestablishment of their Church for its fidelity to the House of Stuart, and lying under the ban of political pro- scription. By them he was cordially welcomed, and by them, November 14, 1784, consecrated at Aberdeen, in Bishop Skinner's oratory, the consecrators being Robert Kilgour, Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus, Arthur Petrie, Bishop of Moray and Ross, and John Skinner, Coadjutor Bishop of Aberdeen. With these prelates, representatives of the Episcopal remainder in Scotland, he entered into a Concordat to maintain in America, as far as in him lay, the peculiarities of the Scottish Church, and, in particular, the prayer of consecration in the Communion Office. With his divine commission he returned to his country, and landed at Newport, June 20, 1785, preaching, on the following Sunday, the first sermon of a bishop in this country, in old Trinity Church, from Hebrews, xii. 1, 2. He was soon estab- lished at New London as the rector of St. James's Church, which was then in process of erection, where he continued to dwell, in the faithful discharge of his duties as bishop and priest, till his very sudden death, February 25, 1796.
In the formation of our institutions and the establish- ment of our Prayer Book, he acted a conspicuous and
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influential part. True to his engagement with the Scottish Church, he resisted the tendency to innovation that in many quarters displayed itself, and steadfastly exerted himself to procure the insertion of the consecration prayer in the Communion Office, and with success, most men will now admit conferring a decided benefit on the Church. He set his face firmly against what was termed the Proposed Book, and fought for the retention of the Catholic Creeds and the preservation of their integrity. For a few years, prejudice and misunderstanding, and diversity of views on some points of polity, kept him and his diocese separate from the body of the Church. But the difference was at last happily settled, and it was his honor to die the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
He married, early in life, Mary, the daughter of Edward Hicks, of New York, who died before his consecration. He did not marry again. His house in New London was under the charge of his daughter Maria. At last, after a tour of visiting in his parish, he remained to take tea at the house of Mr. Roswell Saltonstall, a warden of the parish, whose daughter Ann had married his son Charles. When he had just risen from the tea-table, he fell with an attack of apoplexy, and soon expired. His funeral was attended without pomp, the only record of it in the register book of the parish being the simple words : "February 28, 1796. Buried, by the Rev. Mr. Tyler, of Norwich, Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island." Soon after his entrance upon the discharge of his episcopal functions in Connec- ticut, the Churches in Rhode Island placed themselves under his jurisdiction, whence he derived the double desig- nation of Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island, which is often applied to him. He was buried in the public burying- ground in New London, and a table of gray marble placed
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over his grave, with the following inscription, written by the Rev. Dr. Bowden, of Columbia College, N. Y. :
Here lieth the body of
SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island,
Who departed from this transitory scene, February 25, 1796, In the sixty-eighth year of his age. Ingenious without pride, learned without pedantry,
Good without severity, he was duly qualified to discharge the duties of the Christian and the Bishop. In the pulpit, he enforced religion ; in his conduct, he exemplified it. The poor he assisted with his charity; the ignorant he blessed with his instruction. The friend of man, he ever desired their good ; The enemy of vice, he ever opposed it. Christian ! dost thou aspire to happiness ? Seabury has shown the way that leads to it.
This table, since the removal of the Bishop's remains, has been placed within the enclosure on the north side of the present church. Within the church a tablet, in the form of an obelisk, stood originally at the left side of the pulpit, afterward directly over it, bearing the following inscription :
SACRED May this marble long remain (The just tribute of affection) to the memory Of the truly venerable and beloved Pastor of this Church, THE RIGHT REVEREND SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island, Who was translated from earth to heaven, February 25, 1796, In the sixty-eighth year of his age and twelfth of his consecration ; But still lives in the hearts of a grateful diocese.
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This tablet now stands in the basement chapel of the pres- ent church. The epitaph is not to be much admired, and one expression in it is justly open to criticism. When, in 1849, the Bishop's remains were placed under the chancel of the church, then in process of erection, at the joint expense of the diocese and parish, a handsome monument of freestone, in the form of an altar-tomb, underneath a canopy surmounted by a mitre, was placed over his final resting-place. On the slab above the tomb, this simple record was engraven :
The Right Rev. Father in God, SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D., First Bishop of Connecticut, And of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States ; Consecrated at Aberdeen, Scotland, Nov. 14, 1784 ; Died Feb. 25, 1796; aged 67. The Diocese of Connecticut recorded here its grateful memory of his virtues and services, A.D. 1849.
And, on a brass plate inserted in its upper surface, this inscription :
A
Sub pavimento altaris Ut in loco quietis ultimo usque ad magni diei judicium Exuviae mortales praesulis admodum reverendi nunc restant, SAMUELIS SEABURY, S.T.D. Oxon., Qui primus in rempublicam novi orbis Anglo Americanam successionem apostolicam, E. Scotia transtulit XVIII. Kal. Dec. A.D. CIDIOCCLXXXIV. Diocesis sua laborum et angustiarum tam chari capitis nunquam oblita in ecclesia nova S. Jacobi majoris Neo Londinensi olim sede sua hoc monumentum nunc demum longo post tempore honoris causa anno salut. nost. CIDIOCCCXLIX ponere curavit.
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ST. JAMES'S, NEW LONDON.
Of which the following is a translation :
Under the pavement of the altar, as in the final place of rest until the judgment of the great day, now repose the mortal remains of the Right Rev. Prelate, Samuel Seabury, D.D., Oxon., who first brought from Scot- land, into the Anglo-American Republic of the New World the Apostolic succession, Nov. 27, 1784. His diocese, never forgetful of the labors and trials of so dear a person, in the new church of St. James the greater, of New London, formerly his see, now at last, after so long a time, have taken care to place this monument to his honor, in the year of our salva- tion, 1849.
The rectorship of the Bishop presents few incidents of special interest or importance. It flowed on with a quiet discharge of the ordinary duties of a parish priest, till it was abruptly terminated by his sudden death. Many came to him for Orders from various parts of the country ; some even from the remote south, there being, until the consecra- tion of Bishops White and Provost, no other bishop in the land; and, for this reason, admission to Deacon and Priests' Orders not unfrequently took place on two successive days. His son Charles, who had been admitted to Orders, chiefly passed his diaconate with his father at New London, until the Bishop's decease. The Rev. William Green, a son of Deacon Timothy Green, of New London, was ordained deacon by the Bishop, October 18, 1793, being the first New Londoner ever admitted to Holy Orders. His health was delicate, so that it is believed that he never assumed a pastoral charge; but, being the teacher of a young ladies' school in New London, he also rendered the Bishop such assistance as he was able to afford, and, being a man of peculiarly gentle and amiable character, was greatly beloved by his pupils, who long held him in affectionate remem- brance.
The Bishop's income, from all sources, was but scanty. The parish paid his small salary; and the diocese, at the
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convention in 1788, feeling the necessity for such action, passed the following vote :
That we grant, as a salary to the Right Reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury, our Diocesan Bishop, the sum of one halfpenny on the pound on the grand levy of the Episcopal Churches of the State of Connecticut, and that we agree to recommend to the several Churches which we repre- sent a confirmation of said vote, at their first society meeting, and that they continue said grant annually for two years, if said committee shall see fit.
SAMUEL NESBITT, Secretary.
How much he received from this source is not known. He is also supposed to have received a small pension for his former services as an army chaplain. His means of living were small, but his benefactions were large in propor- tion to his means, for he was a large-hearted man. It shows the change in public opinion, that, at a meeting held May 3, 1791, this resolution was passed :
That the Wardens and Vestry prefer a petition to the General Assem- bly, at their session in October next, in behalf of the Church, for a Lot- tery, to raise the sum of three hundred pounds, for the purpose of building a steeple, purchasing a bell, and paying arrears of debt due from the same.
It is pretty evident that the Bishop was at least doubtful about the validity of lay baptism, for in the register is one entry, in which the person baptized is said, in a note, to have been previously sprinkled by a Congregational minis- ter; and another, in which the recipient of baptism is said to have been sprinkled by a lay clerk in the West Indies.
A cupola was added to the church in 1794, containing a bell. This was a French bell, brought to New London from the West Indies, by Captain Hurlbut. It was small, but remarkably clear-toned and shrill, and its plaintive and wailing notes seemed peculiarly suited to a funeral knell.
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Two months after the Bishop's death, his son Charles was chosen to succeed him in the rectorship by the follow- ing vote :
March 28, 1796. Voted : That Mr. Charles Seabury be our minister for the following year.
He accepted the invitation, and entered at once upon the charge of the parish, the duties of which he continued to discharge until May 26, 1814, when he resigned his charge, and removed to Setauket, L. I., where he continued to reside during the remainder of his life. He died at the advanced age of seventy-five, even more suddenly than his venerated father, December 29, 1844. His wife died at Se- tauket, and he subsequently married the widow of the Rev. Henry Moscrop, who was the mother of Bishop B. T. Onder- donk's wife. He was the youngest child of Bishop Seabury, and was born at Westchester, N. Y., of which his father was then rector, May 29, 1770. The disadvantages under which young men were supposed to labor at Yale College on account of their religious opinions, deterred his father from seeking for him the educational privileges of his own Alma Mater. In consequence of this determination, he pursued a course of private study, first under the venerated Dr. Mansfield, of Derby, and subsequently with the Rev. Wm. Smith, D.D., of Narraganset. His theological studies he pursued under the immediate supervision of his father. He was ordained deacon at Middletown, June 5, 1793, and priest at New York, by Bishop Provoost, July 17, 1796. June 13, 1799, he married Ann, daughter of Roswell Salton- stall, of New London. The late Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., of New York, was his eldest son, and the Rev. Wm. J. Seabury, rector of the Church of the Annunciation, New York, is his grandson, being the fifth in order, in successive generations, who have exercised the ministerial office in the
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Episcopal Church. His ministry in St. James's Church presents few materials for our annals. Few events of im- portance occurred in his time. He was fully occupied with the quiet, patient, and diligent performance of the ordinary duties of a parish priest. His compensation was small, for the parish was poor, not having as yet recovered from the shock and loss of the Revolution. The prestige of his father's name acted rather to his disadvantage than other- wise. He was not eloquent, and possessed none of those arts which ordinarily attract and fascinate men. He was simply a sensible and faithful minister of the Word. The support which his father derived from the diocese, to some small extent, at least, and from his pension abroad, had ceased with his death. His salary from the parish, small in itself, and often irregularly and grudgingly paid, was quite insufficient for the needs of a growing family. His was the fate of too many of our clergy even now, whose life is but a trial of the varieties of starvation, and it is believed that his removal to Setauket brought with it little alleviation of his condition ; so that his whole life, that of a good, kind- hearted, sensible, and faithful man, was but a prolonged struggle with adversity, which, after being "maintained for more than half a century, with a zeal and ardor which trouble and privation could not abate, and age could scarcely dull," has ended at last, we doubt not, in a better and enduring substance. The picture here drawn is suffi- ciently dark and unhopeful, but I believe it is not untruth- ful. The barrenness and want of interest that prevailed, pertained not so much to the man as to the times. It was a transition period. The tone of feeling and course of action that had characterized the ante-revolutionary times, had much of it passed away, and the Church was but slowly learning to live under the new republic. The clergy of that time were few, and generally not very thoroughly
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