USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Southport > Annals of an old parish : historical sketches of Trinity Church, Southport, Connecticut, 1725 to 1848 > Part 4
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
Faithful Dr. Laborie was serving as lay-reader there, whenever the Lord's day came round, and Mr. Johnson's duties called him elsewhere. Thus continuity and vitality were imparted to the infant parish. The Church at Fairfield at this time numbered about twenty families: Mr. Johnson writing in 1724 to the Secretary of the Venerable Society says : "The whole town would, I believe, embrace the Church if they had a good minister. I have a vast assembly every time I visit them. We have, however, no abatement of persecution and imprisonment for taxes, which sundry people, and those of both sexes have unreasonably suffered." In spite, though, of the harsh treatment to which it was subjected-so strong was the feeling against the Church, that by common consent Fairfield at this time, and for years afterwards, was styled " the chief seat of opposition to Episcopacy"-the young, but militant parish, decided upon the erection of a Church edifice. After much legal fencing, an eligible site was secured on Mill Plain, a central location, about a mile from the village of Fairfield and the work was begun. This Church building, the second Episcopal Church erected in the Colony, was set apart for divine worship, with a suitable discourse by Mr. Johnson, November 10th, 1725, the Thanksgiving-Day that year for Connecticut.
It is difficult for us at the present time, to conceive how humble and plain this edifice was. Although designed for Episcopal worship, it varied little in size and appearance from the usual type of meeting-house of that day. The windows were hardly more than openings for light and air, their size being reduced by the scarcity and cost of glass ; there was no plaster on the walls; no cushions took the hardness off the narrow benches; artificial heat was unknown, even in the bitterest weather; there was the merest suggestion of a pulpit, and a rough carpenter-made reading desk, balanced it on the other side. Seats were provided for the colored people apart by themselves. In the early days in all the Connecticut
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
towns, religious and other meetings were called by the beat of the drum ; one of the inhabitants making an annual contract for the service. It was considered a decided novelty, and a sign of great progress, when the enterprise of the congrega- tion connected with Trinity Church, caused a bell to be hung in the steeple of the second Episcopal Church erected thirteen years later. 1359839
Who were the donors of the funds wherewith this first Church was built? We cannot tell. The records, if there were any, were all destroyed by the fire of 1779. One thing
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THE FIRST CHURCH ON MILL PLAIN.
we know, the space about the edifice, began to be utilized in a very short time as a burial ground, and this fact has preserved for us the name of a worthy parishioner, whose benefactions to the parish must have been of a generous character. As late as 1881 there were seven tombstones, worn and disinte- grated by the passing years, still in place, on the site of the first Mill Plain Church. In that year they were removed by the
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
citizens of Fairfield village to the old burying ground of that place, where they are now. The most important in size and state of preservation is that of Abraham Adams, who died August 9th, 1729. in the 80th year of his age, having been a worthy Founder and Liberal Benefactor to Trinity Church.
Here Lyes Buried y Body of Mr. ABRAHAM ADAMS Who Dec Auq= 1729 in y 80 th Year of His Age Having been a Worthy Foun d & Liberal Benefactor to Trinity Church.
TOMB OF ABRAHAM ADAMS.
The other stones are :
No. 1. JOHN APPLEGATE, DIED 1712. No. 2. AVIS APPLEGATE, DIED 1717.
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THE REV. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
No. 3. REBECCA BROWN, DIED 1730. No. 4. BENJAMIN LINES, DIED 1732. No. 5. DAVID JENNINGS, DIED 1735. No. 6. ESTHER LORD.
The existence and location of these tombstones up to 1881, clearly remove the exact site of the first Church erected by Trinity parish, from the uncertainties of mere tradition. The tombstones, within the recollection of many living witnesses, were taken from the spot marked No. 1, on the map of Church sites, which has been prepared for this work, and that, beyond dispute, is where the first Church built by the parish was situated.
CHAPTER VI.
THE REV. HENRY CANER, THE FIRST RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, AND THE BUILDING OF THE SECOND CHURCH EDIFICE, 1727-1747 A. D.
REV. HENRY CANER.
Under the impetus given by the possession of a permanent building wherein the people could gather without hindrance for worship and Sacrament, the continued progress of the Church at Fairfield became assured. One need there was, however, that became more and more apparent, that of a
1
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THE REV. HENRY CANER.
settled minister. Inasmuch as Mr. Johnson, though actually Rector at Stratford, was practically missionary to all the parts adjacent, it was not to be expected that he could give the growing parish at Fairfield as much of his time as it required. It is true it had been favored for a number of years, with the invaluable services of Dr. Laborie, but about this date he had felt compelled, owing to bodily infirmity, to sever his relation with it as lay-reader. Providentially, a fit person was found to succeed him in that capacity .* Henry Caner was a recent graduate of Yale college, a communicant at Stratford, and a candidate for Holy Orders. He was, according to Dr. Trum- bull, " the son of the Mr. Caner who built the first college and Rector's house at New Haven." After having materially assisted in keeping up the services, as lay-reader, under Mr. Johnson, for twoyears, Mr. Caner crossed over to England, and having been ordained, was forthwith appointed missionary at Fairfield, by the Venerable Society. The second and most important stage in the history of Trinity Church was now reached. It had not only its proper Church edifice, but also for the first time in its history, a Rector whom it could rightfully call its own. Instead of coming at intervals from without to minister to the congregation, henceforth there was one who would make the parish itself the centre from which his influence would radiate. As was to be expected, a new era of prosperity ensued. In 1733, Mr. Caner informed the Venerable Society that "the Independents, who formerly thought it a crime to join with the Churchmen in worship, now freely came to Church, and joined with seeming sanctity and satisfaction in our service." Later he reported that in Fairfield, as well as elsewhere, the Church was in a growing
* The name of "Henry Canner" was enrolled in the "registry-book " of Mr. Pigot, upon the list of communicants at Stratford, "Septr. 2d, 1722," and that of "Henry Caner, Jr." by Mr. Johnson, "March 28th, 1725." It may be well to observe that while the original orthography of Mr. Caner's name was that which is here employed, the received pronunciation of it was doubtless indicated more precisely by Doctor Trumbull, who wrote it Canner, and by the early Churchmen of Fairfield, who sometimes wrote it Conner.
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THE REV. HENRY CANER.
condition, and never in as flourishing a state as at present." Early in 1736, exhausted by his arduous duties, Mr. Caner was induced by his physician to journey to England, for rest and recuperation. Writing to Mr. Johnson from London under date of March 9th, the Bishop of Gloucester said : "I wish Mr. Caner, who has the character from you, and every one, of a very deserving man, might acquire a better state of health by his journey hither." The Bishop's desire was realized. Change of scene, freedom from that "sameness that doubles care," speedily restored him to his normal condition, and in the autumn of the same year he was back at work in Fairfield, ready, if that were possible, to make greater sacri- fices than ever in its behalf. During all this time the parish was steadily advancing. The attendance on the Lord's Day had grown larger ; more than one parishioner had remembered the Church by will; while better than all, there were numerous indications of an abatement of the persecuting spirit and temper of those who, up to this time, had been bitterly hostile. About a twelve-month after Mr. Caner's return from England, the Church edifice, erected in 1725, on Mill Plain, had become, it was discovered, "much too little for the congregation ;" besides, the location was inconvenient for many of the parishioners, being nearly a mile from the town-centre, which was Fairfield village. At this period, Fairfield was a port of entry, and the seat of the Courts for the whole County. Shops and dwellings were multiplying, and the population increasing rapidly in numbers and importance. A Church located close by, rather than over a mile distant, it was felt was a want of a pressing nature, even though a considerable part of the congregation might have to travel somewhat further to reach it. The project meeting with favor, at a town meeting held July 27th, 1738, a vote was adopted * giving " liberty to
* This action of the town was in its civil capacity. We hear it sometimes inti- mated that the Prime Congregational Society of its own kindliness and good will graciously permitted the Episcopalians to organize and build. Beginning with 1827, the meetings of the Prime Ancient (Congregational) Society of Fairfield.
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THE REV. HENRY CANER.
the members of the Church of England " to build their pro- posed Church, upon certain conditions,* " on the high way near the Old Fairfield gate, about eighty rods eastward from the Prime Society's Meeting House."t
This second Church, though built in the infancy of the parish, was a very substantial and comparatively elegant structure. It was fifty-five feet in length, thirty-five feet in breadth, and twenty feet in height, " with a handsome steeplet
THE SECOND CHURCH, FAIRFIELD VILLAGE.
and spire of one hundred feet, and a good bell of five hundred weight." It had also capacious galleries.
according to its own record. were entirely distinct from " Town-Meeting," That was a different affair. Moreover, the meeting referred to above, was held at Greenfield, not Fairfield.
*One of the Certain Conditions was that Episcopalians who lived within a mile of the new edifice were granted the priviliege of paying their taxes for the support of it ; while all others were compelled to pay their taxes for the support, as of old of the Congregational Church.
tSee site marked No. 2 on map facing page 33.
#A spire or steeple, in the early days of the Colony, was considered almost an essential to an edifice belonging to the Church of England. It distinguished it as such. "The steeple house " was the common name given to one of our Churches by the Puritans.
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THE REV. HENRY CANER.
By this time, it is apparent that the parish of Fairfield had outstripped in some respects the older parish of Stratford, and taken the position of the leading parish in the Colony. It appears from original papers in the office of the Secretary of State, that of six hundred and thirty-six heads of families, men and women, whose signatures were attached to a petition then presented to the Colonial Assembly, from nine parishes under the care of seven missionaries, of these, eighty-two, or more than one-eighth of the whole, belonged to Fairfield. Some conception of the rapid advance of the Church at Fairfield after Mr. Caner became its settled minister, and assumed the full charge, may be gathered from a comparison of the small number of communicants whom he found here as lay-reader under Mr. Johnson in 1725, namely twelve, with the number of families belonging to the parish in 1730, namely forty. No doubt such a satisfactory state of things was owing, in large measure, to the tact and ability displayed by Mr. Caner. During the years of his incumbency he had acquired great celebrity as a preacher. Nor was he lacking in the least in missionary zeal ; for although Fairfield claimed and received the largest share of his attention, he still found time to extend his ministrations to the other villages and towns that called for them.
In one of his letters he speaks of his parish as fifteen miles long, and more than six broad ; and says that this compelled him to keep two horses, which he found "expensive and troublesome." Norwalk, and Ridgefield, and Northfield (now Weston), were visited regularly by him, and a great deal of effective work was done, by house to house visitations, throughout the then rough and sparsely settled country. Mr. Caner's connection with the Church at Fairfield lasted twenty years, from 1727 to 1747. In the latter year, the few communi- cants with which his ministry began had grown to over two hundred, sixty-eight of them being in Fairfield .* After this
*According to Hawkins. p. 246. there were sixty-eight at Fairfield. one hundred and fifteen at Norwalk, and twenty at Stamford. But such a statement, in view of the nature and extent of the mission, is not very definite.
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THE REV. HENRY CANER.
long period of faithful service Mr. Caner resigned his charge,* and removed, greatly to the regret of all of his parishioners, to Boston, and took the services at King's Chapel. Much has been said and written to the detriment of the Colonial clergy.t It may have been that here and there one was found who did not live answerably to his holy calling. But as a general rule it was far otherwise. In the New England Colonies especially, there was little in the positions which the Church offered to attract unworthy men. One missionary, writing to the Venera- ble Society in 1718, says: "They tried to tire me out with ill- usage. The shop-keepers would not sell me provisions. The dissenting miller sent back my grain unground, with the message to eat it whole, as the hogs did. Some of the leading people in the place never fail to avoid me when they meet me on the streets." What inducement was there to covet, except for principle's sake, such a life as that? We may safely say that in endurance, as good soldiers of Christ ; in self-sacrifice; in earnest work in the face of poverty, persecution and relentless opposition, the clergymen of the northern Colonies compared favorably with any of ancient or modern times. Such a man was Mr. Caner. He did, as all Churchmen of to-day must acknowledge, a great and lasting work in Fairfield, for which his memory will always be held in grateful remembrance.
* Mr. Caner was Rector of King's Chapel, Boston, until 1776 ; about thirty years. And though not then a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he continued to act as its confidential friend and correspondent, especially in regard to the recommendation of candidates for Holy Orders. In 1766, he received the honorary degree of D. D. from the university of Oxford. In March, 1776, he went from Boston to Halifax ; and soon afterwards sailed for England, where he " was received by the Society with the respect which he so well deserved as the father of the American clergy. The Society offered him the choice of any of the missions then vacant ; and he was appointed to Bristol, in Rhode Island, and thus through the changes and chances of life, he re-assumed in his old age, a similar employment to that which he undertook in his youth." Hawkins' Hist. Notices, p. 247. He died in England at an advanced age, in 1792.
t Thus we have this statement : It was the custom to send out to Virginia and Maryland the poorest specimens of clergymen that the mother country afforded, Men unfit for any appointment at home, were thought good enough for the Colonies .- Fiske : Old Virginia, vol. i, p. 262.
CHAPTER VII.
REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP, 1747-1773, A. D.
In 1745, the eloquent, but erratic George Whitefield, appeared in New England, and started a wave of emotionalism that carried not a few staid and conservative Christians off their feet .* Mr. Caner early wrote that while the religious enthusiasm had made no progress at Fairfield, it had spread extensively at Stamford, Norwalk, Ridgefield, and other places. Perhaps a little of it at this time would have been beneficial to the Church-people of Fairfield ; then Mr. Caner would not have felt compelled to give the reason he did for leaving his parish : "The present state of my parish," he said, "does not yield me all the satisfaction I could wish. A cold, Laodicean disposition, an inconsiderate neglect of the great duties of religion, a visible deadness and formality, are what at present give me most concern, and prevent the success of my administrations. " Many another faithful Priest of the Church of God has been discouraged and disheartened by the same indifferent spirit, manifested by his flock, and has felt constrained to seek else-
* In 1745, Whitefield again crossed the Atlantic; and after organizing his scheme of charity in Savannah, he traversed the Southern States,-swept like a tornado across Philadelphia,-and preached in New York and Boston. The progress of no conqueror was ever greeted with greater felicitations ; men, on horseback, poured forth to meet him, and conducted him in triumph into their cities. The Governor received him at his table, took him in his state carriage to the boat, and bade him farewell with embraces; ministers welcomed him to their pulpits ; the chapels and churches were too confined for his auditors, who followed him in thousands to the fields ; day-break and night-fall beheld crowds hanging on his words. Physi- cal power, marvellous beyond example, kept pace with this fiery energy ; a tour in America of 800 miles, during which he travelled the worst roads, left him at leisure, within two months and a half, to preach 175 public sermons, besides holding numberless private exhortations and conversations .- Colquohoun : Sketches of Notable Men, p. 227.
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THE REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP.
where, for those to whom religion is a solemn reality and not a pretence. It is apparent that Mr. Caner felt that the parish at Fairfield needed stirring up, and that some one whose methods were different from his own, might possibly succeed in accom- plishing the task. He soon found there was a clergyman of this type available, the Rev. Joseph Lamson, who had already made for himself quite a notable record. Born at Stratford, brought up a Congregationalist, he had graduated at Yale College. Soon after taking his diploma he became a Churchman, and deciding to take Holy Orders, embarked for England. He was accompanied by Mr. Richardson Minor, a graduate like- wise of Yale, and for fourteen years, (1730 to 1744 ), pastor of the Congregational Society at North Stratford, now Trumbull, who was risking a voyage across the sea for the same laudable purpose. The vessel in which they sailed was captured by the French, and both were made prisoners, and taken to Port Louis, in France. After their release from confinement, on the way to London, they reached Salisbury, where Mr. Minor was taken ill of a fever, and died, to the great sorrow of all his friends and especially of his dependent family. Mr. Johnson, on hearing of the event. exclaimed, " would to God we had a Bishop to ordain here, which would prevent such unhappy disasters." Mr. Lamson having been ordained, re- turned to this country, and his friends welcomed him " as one risen from the dead, among whom the report had for some time placed him." Soon after his arrival, the Venerable Society willingly appointed him assistant to the Rev. Mr. Wetmore, the missionary at Rye, New York, and the particu- lar duty assigned to him was to minister "to the inhabitants of Bedford, North Castle, and Ridgefield, with a salary of £20 per annum, besides a gratuity of the same sum, out of compassion to Mr. Lamson's sufferings and necessities." From this responsible charge Mr. Lamson was transferred, upon Mr. Caner's resignation, to Fairfield, where he served with great acceptableness for twenty-six years-a ministry
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THE REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP.
only terminated by his death. A romantic story is told concerning Mr. Lamson. Before entering the ministry, while still in college, he became engaged to Miss Abigail Rumsey, of Fairfield, a beautiful young girl of good family, only sixteen years of age. While on a visit to friends in Stratford, she was suddenly taken ill, and it soon became evident that there was no hope of her recovery. Mr. Lamson was summoned to her bedside to bid her farewell, and before her death she directed that her gold beads-ornaments greatly prized at that day-should be taken from her neck, and given to her lover. It is said that he never parted with them; but carried them upon his person until he died. Mr. Lamson afterwards married Miss Wetmore, daughter of the missionary at Rye.
After locating at Fairfield, Mr. Lamson continued to preach for a while at Ridgefield. He is also mentioned in the pro- ceedings of the Venerable Society for 1748, as "serving Norwalk," which had become, with the parts adjacent, a parish " of one hundred and five families, exceeding in number any other Church, except that at Stratford." The Church was also growing eastwardly. At Stratfield, now Bridge- port, Church-people had become so numerous, that under the guidance of Mr. Lamson, in 1748, they proceeded to erect a house of worship, which was called St. John's Church. This was the eighteenth Church edifice built in the Colony. In writing to the Venerable Society, in the autumn of this year, Mr. Lamson says : " I have formerly mentioned a Church built at Stratfield, a village within the bounds of Fairfield, in which they are very urgent to have me officiate every third Sunday, because we have large congregations when I preach there." This was the beginning of the now flourishing mother-parish of Bridgeport, St. John's, which owed its beginning and early growth to the fostering care of Mr. Lamson, and his successors in Trinity Church, Fairfield. It should be a source of pride for the present members of
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THE REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP.
Trinity Church, to remember that their venerable organization in the past was the foundress of many of the Churches that now exist in Fairfield County. It is a matter of record that the Rector of Fairfield, besides serving his own cure, officiated at stated times, through successive years, at Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich, Chestnut Ridge, (now Redding) Ridgefield, Easton, Wilton, New Canaan, and Stratfield, a district which now embraces twenty flourishing parishes, and in which, within one hundred and sixty-three years past, not less than thirty-five Churches have been built by Churchmen, in addition to the first small edifice erected by Trinity parish at Fairfield, in 1725. Of course, as the congregations in the outlying villages grew stronger, they came to have their own settled clergymen, and thus it came to pass that about twelve years before the war of the Revolution, Trinity parish was greatly reduced in numbers ; the Churches at Stratfield and Easton only, continuing to be dependent upon it for regular services. From this time onwards, it may be, because its ministers had fewer demands for his ministrations elsewhere, the home work appears to have grown steadily. In the records of the Venerable Society, very little mention is made of Fair- field during Mr. Lamson's rectorship. One reason was, the period of struggle and opposition attendant upon the estab- lishment of the parish was successfully past; another, that it had become largely self-sustaining. Even in Mr. Caner's time, it was a matter of pride that the parishioners had "tried to help themselves, manifesting, always, a willingness to contribute according to their ability." It was while Mr. Lamson was rector, that it was proposed and recommended " that every professor of the Church of England should, by his will, devote a certain sum to the support of this particular Church ; to be used by the Church-wardens, for the purposes designated by the Church." Already, while Mr. Caner was in charge of the parish, certain small bequests had been made, but this was a formal movement, intended, if possible, to
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THE REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP.
bring about the speedy endowment of the parish, and thus facilitate the perpetuity and enlargement of its usefulness in the future. Very soon two parishioners had left £100 each, and two supposed to be at the point of death had ordered, the one £100, and the other £50, to be appropriated out of their estates. In addition to this, Dougal Mckenzie, the father-in- law of Mr. Caner, ordered in his will that the whole of bis property, comprising besides his homestead in the village of Fairfield, a large tract of land on the eastern bank of Mill River, and two or three other valuable tracts in the vicinity, should be taxed forever for the support of the Church at Fairfield. In 1747, a member of the parish, Mrs. Jerusha Sturges, left it a legacy of £50. And in 1762, Mr. St. George Talbot, a very liberal benefactor of several Churches in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, gave not only a solid silver communion service, which was a munificent present for this era, but arranged that on his death, the parish should receive £200, to be laid out in buying a glebe for the use of the Rector .* It thus came to pass that in 1767, upon the decease of Mr. Talbot, a glebe of nine acres of pasture and wood-land at Round-Hill, was purchased of Jonathan Sturges, executor of Samuel Sturges, in the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, "in trust forever, for the use, benefit and improvement of a minister of the Church of England, having charge of Trinity Church for the time being." Meanwhile, in 1764, the parishioners of Trinity had repaired their Church at an expense of nearly £100 sterling, about five hundred dollars; and Mr. Lamson
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