USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Southport > Annals of an old parish : historical sketches of Trinity Church, Southport, Connecticut, 1725 to 1848 > Part 3
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20
VISIT OF MESSRS. KEITH AND TALBOT.
His commission was, "to seek the scattered families of the Church, and awaken the people to a sense of their religious duties." The selection was an admirable one. Those who knew him well, declared Mr. Keith to be "a pioneer and propa- gandist by nature." Earlier in life, while a member of the Society of Friends, he had been sent to the Colony of Penn- sylvania, to aid its founder, but discerning dangerous tendencies in the tenets of the Quakers, and foreseeing their results, he severed his connection with his associates, and returned to England, not long after to take Holy Orders in the Church.
In April, 1702, he started on his mission to the Colonies. He came in an English warship, which brought the Govern- ors of New England and New Jersey to their provinces. The Rev. John Talbot came with them as chaplain. With them also was the Rev. Patrick Gordon, who was sent out as mis- sionary to Jamaica, Long Island.
The passengers seem to have been congenial to each other. Mr. Keith, writing to the Venerable Society, says: "Gov- ernor Dudley was so civil to Mr. Gordon and me, that he caused us to eat at his table all the voyage, and his conversa- tion was both pleasant and instructive, insomuch that the great cabin of the ship was like a college for good discourse, both in matters theological and philosophical." There was daily service, in which both the passengers and crew joined heartily and devoutly. Mr. Keith mentions the strictness of the discipline which prevailed upon the ship, and describes the punishment of the crew for " profane swearing," which was "causing them to carry a heavy wooden collar about their necks for an hour, that was both painful and shameful."*
Mr. Talbot, the chaplain, became so enthusiastic about Mr. Keith and his mission, that he begged to become a fellow laborer and a companion in his travels. His proposal was accepted and in due time, at the solicitation of the Rev. Mr.
*Ms. Letters, S. P. G., vol. i, p. 9.
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VISIT OF MESSRS. KEITH AND TALBOT.
Gordon, the Venerable Society appointed him Mr. Keith's assistant. Their ship reached Boston in June, 1702, and after a few days the two men began their journey. They went from hamlet to hamlet, and house to house, preaching wherever they could gain a hearing, baptizing hundreds, gathering the wandering sheep into organized folds, and making provision to build churches wherever that work could be done.
Everywhere there were numbers who cordially welcomed them. In a letter addressed by Mr. Keith to "the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and all others, the Honorable Members of the Society," dated the 29th of November, 1702, and giving an account of his labors since his arrival in Boston, on the 11th of June preceding, he says : " In divers places of New England where we traveled, we found many well affected to the Church, not only the people but several Presbyterian ministers in New England, who re- ceived us as brethren, and requested us to preach to their congregations, as accordingly we did. These were Mr. John Cotton ( a grandson to old John Cotton ) the Presby- terian minister at Hampton, where I preached twice, and Mr. Talbot once, having very great auditories ; Mr. Cushin, Pres- byterian minister at Salisbury, eight miles distant from Hampton westward, where we both preached on a Sunday, and had a great auditory ; Mr. Gurdon Saltonstall at New London, fifty miles west from Narragansetts, where we both preached on a Sunday ; the people generally well affected, and those three ministers aforesaid, all worthy gentlemen, who declared their owning the Church of England, and that if they were in England, they would join in external com- munion with her ; and were there a Bishop in America, we doubt not but several would receive ordination from him."*
*Church Record, vol. i, no. xvii.
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VISIT OF MESSRS. KEITH AND TALBOT.
This very circumstantial account clearly gives to the people of New London the honor of first welcoming in Connecticut the missionaries sent forth by the Venerable Society. But there is no doubt Messrs. Keith and Talbot preached in all the principal places of the Colonies. Humphrey says : * "They traveled over and preached in all the Governments and Dominions belonging to the Crown of England, betwixt North Carolina and Piscataway River in New England, inclusively, being ten distinct Governments; and extending in length 800 miles." At all events, the reception given to Mr. Keith and his companion, reveals these facts : that even at that early date, there was a strong drift towards Episcopacy; that the Congregational system, although in operation for more than half a century, without any interruption or hindrance, had begun to prove unsatisfactory to many of its prominent supporters, and that for a permanent settlement of the re- ligious question, the people, if allowed to choose, would prefer the ecclesiastical system of the Church of England. Of a visitation of Messrs. Keith and Talbot to Fairfield we have no satisfactory evidence. One tradition relates that they stopped there for a brief period, as they journeyed from New London to New York ; another that they crossed the Sound from New London to Long Island in a sloop which they hired. If New London was the only town in Connecticut visited by them, somehow they obtained in a brief space of time ample information concerning the whole Colony. Wri- ting home a few months afterwards, they reported of Connecticut that it contained "thirty thousand souls in about thirty-three towns, all Dissenters, supplied with ministers and schools of their own persuasion." One general result accrued from their protracted itineracy : numbers again had a taste of the worship of the Book of Common Prayer ; their courage to stand up in its behalf was fortified ; while their longing for a settled ministry among them was
*History S. P. G., p. 20.
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VISIT OF MESSRS. KEITH AND TALBOT.
aroused. The proof of this is found in the announcement the Venerable Society was shortly compelled to make: "that it was unable to respond favorably to one half of the appeals from the Colonies, presented to it for its consideration."
After an absence of two years, Mr. Keith returned to England, and became incumbent of Edburton, in the pleasant County of Sussex. It was in March, 1716, that he finished his earthly labors, and the simple record in the parish register under date of March 29th, reads: "Then the Rev. Mr. Keith, Rector of Edburton, was buried."
The Venerable Society sent out no missionary more successful and self-sacrificing, than this godly man. He began the work and laid the foundations on which others built. Mr. Talbot was an effective and faithful coadjutor. The two labored together, harmoniously and enthusiastically, throughout their extended tours. After Mr. Keith's de- parture, Mr. Talbot became Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, New Jersey, of which he was the founder. When he retired he was the oldest missionary in the Colonies, and in influence he stood first among the Churchmen of his day .*
*Mr. Talbot has been the subject of a curious story. It is alleged that after twenty years of faithful service at Burlington, he went to England, and was consecrated to the Episcopate by the non-juring Bishops. McConnell : History of the Ameri- can Episcopal Church, p. 103, says : " Anderson, Hawks, Wilberforce, and Caswell affirm that he did. The Rev. Dr. Hills, in his ' History of the Church in Burlington,' discusses the same subject exhaustively and maintains the same assertion. In Vol. I. of Bishop Perry's ' History of the American Episcopal Church' is a Monograph by Rev. John Fulton, D. D., in which he re-examines the whole case, and arrives at the conclusion, that Mr. Talbot never received such consecra- tion ; and that the tradition arose from confounding his name with that of another person."
CHAPTER IV.
THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON ; THE REV. MESSRS TALBOT, SHARPE, AND BRIDGE ; AND THE REV. GEORGE PIGOT, OFFICIATE AT FAIRFIELD, 1706-1723, A. D.
In 1704, the Venerable Society established a mission at Rye, in New York, and sent over the Rev. George Muirson to take charge of it. He wrote thus to the Society in 1706 : "I have baptized about two hundred young and old, but mostly grown persons. I have now above forty communi- cants, though I had only six when I first administered the Holy Sacrament." The fact of Mr. Muirson's settlement at Rye, and his successful labors there, soon became known in many of the shore-towns of Connecticut, and repeated and urgent petitions to visit them were sent by the Church-people. Possessed with the missionary spirit of St. Paul, Mr. Muir- son determined to comply with their request. In the sum- mer of 1706, in company with Colonel Caleb Heathcote, a zealous and affluent layman, at that time residing in West- chester county, he set out upon a journey, which it was pur- posed should extend as far as the Housatonicriver. They rode to Fairfield, and thence to Stratford. The missionary, though " threatened with prison and hard usage," preached to large congregations, and "baptized about twenty-four, mostly grown people." Writing to the Society, on his return, he says : "I have been lately in the Government of Connecticut, where I observe some people well affected to the Church ; so that I am assured an itinerant missionary might do great service in that Province. Some of their ministers have privately told me that, had we a Bishop among us they would
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THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON.
conform and receive Holy Orders, from which, as well as on the Continent, the necessity of a Bishop will appear."
Col. Heathcote was so favorably impressed by what he saw and heard during this visit, that he hastened to give his im- pressions concerning it to the Venerable Society. He says : " We found the places we visited very ignorant of the Consti- tution of our Church, and therefore enemies to it. The chief towns are furnished with ministers, mainly Independents, denying baptism to the children of all such as are not in full communion with them : there are many thousands in that Government unbaptized. The ministers were very uneasy at our coming amongst then, and abundance of pains were taken to terrify the people from hearing Mr. Muirson. But it availed nothing, for notwithstanding all their endeavors, we had a very great congregation, and indeed infinitely beyond expectation. The people were wonderfully surprised at the order of our Church, expecting to have heard and seen some strange thing, by the accounts and representations of it that their teachers had given them." *
In a later letter, dated Scarsdale Manor, Nov. 9, 1706, Colonel Heathcote enters upon a discussion of the general affairs of the Church in New York, New Jersey and Connecti- cut. He says : But bordering on Connecticut there is no part of the Continent, from whence the Church can have so fair an opportunity to make impressions upon the Inde- pendents in that Government, who are settled by their laws, from Rye Parish to Boston Colony, which is about 35 leagues, in which there are abundance of people and places. As for Boston Colony, I never was in it, so can say little of it. But for Connecticut, I am and have been pretty conversant ; and always was as much in their good graces as any man. And now I am upon that subject, I will give the best account I can of that Colony. It contains in length about 140 miles, and has in it about 40 towns, in which there is a Presbyterian
*Humphrey: History of the Venerable Society, p. 118.
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THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON.
or Independent minister settled by their law ; to whom the people are obliged to pay, notwithstanding many times they are not ordained; of which I have known several examples. The number of people there, I believe, is about 2,400 souls. They have an abundance of odd kind of laws, to prevent any from dissenting from their church, and endeavor to keep the people in as much blindness and unacquaintedness with any other religion as possible; but in a more particular manner, the Church, looking upon her as the most dangerous enemy they have to grapple withall, and abundance of pains is taken to make the ignorant think as bad as possible of her. And I really believe that more than half of the people of that Gov- ernment, think our Church is little better than the Papists, and the truth is, they improve everything against us. Yet I dare aver, that there is not a much greater necessity of having the Christian religion preached in its true light anywhere than amongst them. Many, if not the greater number of them, being in a little better than in a state of heathenism ; having never been baptized or admitted to the Holy Com- munion."* Concluding his letter, Colonel Heathcote recom- mends that Rev. Mr. Muirson be sent on a second missionary tour throughout the Colony. It was under such circum- stances that the Episcopal Church was introduced in form, both at Fairfield, and at Stratford. The following year, Mr. Muirson came again to Fairfield by invitation of the Church- people there, and preached to a large congregation in a private house, and baptized a number of adults and children. Concerning this visit he wrote to the Society : "The Inde- pendents used means to obstruct me. The people were like- wise threatened with imprisonment, and a forfeiture of five pounds for coming to hear me. It would require more time than you would willingly bestow on these lines, to express how rigidly and severely they treat our people, by taking their estates by distress when they do not willingly pay to
* Bolton : History of Westchester County, vol. ii, p. 106.
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THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON.
support their ministers; and though every Churchman in that Colony pays his rate for the building and repairing their meeting-houses, yet they are so set against us, that they deny us the use of them though on the week days. All the Churchmen of this Colony request is that they may not be oppressed ; that they may obtain a liberty of conscience, and call a minister of their own; that they be freed from paying to their ministers, and thereby be enabled to support their own. This is all these good men desire." *
The missionary efforts of Mr. Muirson were not long in producing a satisfactory result. Early in the year 1707, the Episcopalians of Stratford, probably in connection with a few from Fairfield, "embodied themselves in a religious society," and requested that Mr. Muirson might be sent to reside among them as a settled missionary. But before they received any answer to their application, he died, in October, 1708 ; and the few Churchmen, who had begun with much hope and amid cheering prospects, to lay the foundation of the first Episcopal parish in Connecticut, were called, in the providence of God, to await with patience, through a series of untoward events, during a number of years, the coming of a resident clergyman.
After the death of Mr. Muirson, the Rev. Messrs. Talbot, Sharpe and Bridge, missionaries located in New York and New Jersey, occasionly visited Stratford and Fairfield. And at one time, Mr. Sharpe spent nearly a month, and took much pains, and baptized many ; among . whom was an aged man, said to have been the first man-child born in the Colony of Connecticut. At length, in 1713, the Rev. Mr. Phillips was put in charge of the parish at Stratford; but after a few months, during which his ministrations were very irregular, he suddenly left the Colony. And finally, to add to the disappointment of the scattered flock, not yet fully organized and settled as a regular mission, after several years of zealous
*Humphrey : History of the Venerable Society, p. 119.
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THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON.
and patient effort to that end, the Rev. Aeneas Mackenzie, condi- tionally appointed for the supply of Stratford, was detained at Staten Island, by the offer of a gentleman to build and endow a Church there. Thus thwarted by various circum- stances, scarcely less discouraging than the opposition and hindrance presented by laws of the Colony, which were devised for the support of the Congregational system of religion, the Churchmen of Stratford and Fairfield, to whom Mr. Muirson had preached in 1706 and 1707, were not pro- · vided with a resident pastor until 1722 .* Then, to their great joy, the Rev. George Pigot was sent hither by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and located for a while at Stratford; with a general charge of all the Church-people in these parts; who seem to have been, as yet, almost confined to Stratford and Fairfield.
Mr. Pigot held his first service at Fairfield, at the house of Mr. Hanford, and preached to about six families, the 26th day of August. He arranged to officiate regularly thereafter, once a month. The other Sundays, when Mr. Pigot was offi- ciating at Stratford, or elsewhere, services at Fairfield were kept up by the aid of a faithful lay-reader. It appears from letters preserved in the archives of the Venerable Society, that in the year 1723, Dr. James Laborie, a French physician of eminence, who had left his native country towards the close of the seventeenth century, and been " ordained by Mr. Knight, antistes of the Canton of Zurich," taught and held service conformably to the usage of the Church of England in his own house in Fairfield. According to the records of the Town he resided there in 1718, having bought at that time, of Mr. Isaac Jennings, a place known as "the stone house on the rocks," probably the same concerning which he afterwards said, that he had " destinated" it to the service of the Church of England. Anyway, using the Book of Common Prayer for a manual of worship, this zealous layman invited beneath his
* Rev. N. E. Cornwall : Historical Discourse, p. 9.
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THE REV. GEORGE MUIRSON.
roof, on Sunday mornings, those who still clung to the Church of England and its form of worship. Here, then, was a nucleus, independent of a settled minister, about which the Church sentiment could gather and grow ! And doubtless it did much to strengthen Mr. Pigot's brief but successful ministry. The latter served Fairfield, in common with Stratford and Newtown but a year and a half, when he was removed by the Venerable Society's order, to Providence, Rhode Island, the place for which he had been intended when he first arrived in America. It seems quite plain then that the Church in Fairfield, actually began with the lay services of Dr. Laborie. If the date of his coming to Fairfield, 1718, is correct, that would be the year of its inception. Mr. Pigot was the first clergyman who officiated regularly, but even in his time, 1722, the continuous life of the parish can be said to have depended upon the fervor of those Churchmen who met from Sunday to Sunday, and participated in Divine worship according to the Book of Common Prayer, the officiant being more frequently one of their own number .*
*In a " Registry-book " kept by Mr. Pigot and Mr. Johnson, at Stratford, there is a record of the appointment, in 1724, of two Wardens and nine Vestrymen "for Stratford," one Warden and two Vestrymen "for Fairfield," one Warden and two Vestrymen "for Newtown," and two Wardens and three Vestrymen "for Ripton ;" the Warden for Fairfield being Dougal Mackenzie, and the Vestrymen, James Laborie, Sen. and Benjamin Sturges. At the same time James Laborie, Jun. was one of the Vestrymen for Stratford.
CHAPTER V.
THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON AND THE BUILD - ING OF THE FIRST CHURCH AT MILL PLAIN, 1723-1727.
REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
In 1723, Rev. Samuel Johnson, succeeded Mr. Pigot as rector of the parish at Stratford, and animated with the same
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
noble spirit of his predecessor, still continued to give to the Church-people at Fairfield, a generous share of his time. He it was, who having been a tutor at Yale college, and afterwards a popular Congregational minister at West Haven, and having had a Prayer Book put into his hands,* had read and re-read it until he had become convinced that "there were no prayers like those of the Church of England;" had crossed the ocean to the mother-country, and been "Episco- pally initiated, confirmed and ordained;" and was now returned to Connecticut to extend the borders of the Church of his convictions. How few Churchmen of the present day are conversant with that stirring episode in the ecclesias- tical history of Connecticut ! Dr. Cutler, President of Yale, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Brown, also a Tutor at Yale, all men of great purity of character, of profound learning, and liberal culture, became convinced that their duty lay in returning to the Church of their fathers, the Church of England. One reason was, the Congregational system was not meeting the spiritual need of the time. This was the period of controversy. The principles of Puritanism had lost their hold upon many of the people. A re-action had set in, and the moral tone of the Connecticut towns was lowered. "The complicated relations of Church and State needed disentanglement and explana- tion." f Another was, it became evident after calm, unpreju- diced study, that unless God was the author of confusion, He would establish but one Church, not many so-called churches, to extend and conserve the Gospel of His Son ; that He had done so through His inspired Apostles, and that His Church with its Holy Scriptures, Ministry, Sacraments, and Liturgy,
* A good man in Guilford, Smithson by name-blessed be his memory !- had a Prayer Book which he put into the hands of the youthful Johnson before he left his native town. Many of the prayers that he found therein, Johnson committed to memory, and afterwards used as occasion required, in public worship, alike to the comfort of himself and to the comfort and edification of his flock .- Beardsley : History of the Episcopal Church, vol. ii, p. 34.
t Child : The Prime Ancient Society, p. 20.
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
existed just as really and as manifestly in the year 1722, as at the day of Pentecost. With this conviction born within them they could not rest where they were; so they came out boldly and announced their resolve to seek valid ministerial authority in England. Their action, which found numerous imitators, shook the Congregational Church like an earth- quake.
No one can doubt the sincerity of Mr. Johnson's course, or that of his companions. Everything in the way of honor and preferment tempted them to stay where they were; while to obtain the ordination they sought, the terrors of the deep, and the dangers of pestilence, demanded a courage unsur- passed by that exhibited by the most valiant on the battle- field. Mr. Johnson's diary, written for his own, and not the public eye, immediately after the College Commencement of 1722, shows what was the inner mind of this holy man. He says: "Being at length brought to such doubts concerning the validity of my ordination, that I could go no further without intolerate uneasiness of mind, I have now at length, after some private conferences with ministers, made a public declaration of my scruples and uneasiness. It is with great sorrow of heart that I am forced to be an occasion of so much uneasiness to my dear friends, my poor people, and indeed to the whole Colony. O God, I beseech Thee, grant that I may not, by an adherence to Thy necessary truths and laws-as I profess in my conscience they seem to be-be a stumbling block or occasion to fall to any soul. Let not our thus appearing for Thy Church be any way accessory, though accidentally, to the hurt of religion in general, or any person
* Ex-President Woosley in his Historical Discourse, 1850, says : A departure for the first time in the Colony, and of so many at once, from the views of the New England Churches, and a return to that Church from which the Pilgrims had fled into the wilderness, filled the minds of men with apprehension and gloom-feelings which extended into the neighboring Colony. I suppose that greater alarm would scarcely be awakened now, if the Theological Faculty of the College were to declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in Transubstantiation, and pray to the Virgin Mary.
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VILLAGE OF SOUTHPORT
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"VILLA ỌC OF FAIRFIELD'
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LONG ISLAND
SOUND
MAP OF A PORTION OF THE TOWN OF FAIRFIELD SHOWING THE VARIOUS LOCATIONS OF TRINITY CHURCH SINCE ITS ORGANIZATION
COMPILEO EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK BY ·LORA & PALMER 1690
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RIVER
MILL
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
in particular. Have mercy, Lord, have mercy on the souls of men, and pity and enlighten those who are grieved at this accident. Lead into the way of truth all those who have erred and are deceived, and if we in this affair are misled, we beseech Thee, to show us our error before it is too late, that we may repair the damage. Grant us Thy illumination, for Christ's sake-Amen."
Immediately after his return from England on November 4th, 1723, Mr. Johnson took charge of the Church at Stratford; and Mr. Pigot hastened to his charge at Providence. Mr. Johnson's position was somewhat like that of an itinerant preacher, as he officiated at Fairfield one Sunday in the month, and at Norwalk, Newtown and West Haven, frequently on week days. He describes himself as "alone, surrounded with bitter enemies, so that if he had not been of a very sanguine temper, he would have scarce avoided growing melancholly." It certainly would not have been strange if he had grown "melancholly," if the tradition is true which is told of his reception and residence at Stratford. The house which was procured for him was branded with a hot poker, by the good woman who vacated it, on the fire-boards and every available piece of woodwork, with large crosses-a vigorous protest against Popish invasion. It is also stated that for some time he was obliged to send to Long Island, fourteen miles across the Sound, for provisions which the excellent townspeople would not furnish. Writing to the Bishop of London shortly after his arrival at Stratford, he says : " There is not one clergyman of the Church of England, besides myself, in this whole Colony, and I am obliged in a great measure to neglect my cure at Stratford, where yet there is business for one minister, to ride about to other towns, when in each one of them there is as much need of a resident minister as there is at Stratford, especially at Fairfield and Newtown." This is true, but Fairfield had one incalculable advantage over other places in which he officiated.
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