USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Southport > Annals of an old parish : historical sketches of Trinity Church, Southport, Connecticut, 1725 to 1848 > Part 5
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* A charitable layman, Mr. St. George Talbot, residing in the Province of New York, favored with his patronage the effort to plant the seeds of Episcopacy in a community of divided religious sentiments. He dedicated the energies of an active life and the resources of an ample fortune to strengthen its influence in New York and Connecticut, and his liberal benefactions are associated with the early history of the Church in Fairfield County. In 1763 he was present at the Convention in Ripton, and wrote of the Rev. Mr. Johnson's sermon : "It was excellent, pathetical, spirited, adapted to the occasion, and acceptable to the clergy and all who had the pleasure to hear him. " Beardsley : History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, vol. i, p. 212.
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THE REV. JOSEPH LAMSON'S RECTORSHIP.
wrote to the Society that the Church at Stratfield would cost as much more. In the same letter he remarked, that " the people of his mission seemed more solicitous concerning the Church than ever." Altogether it may be inferred from the statistics contained in one or two reports which are preserved in the archives of the Venerable Society, that Trinity parish continued, upon the whole, in a state of constant advance, until the time of Mr. Lamson's death, which took place in 1773. Thus, the long ministry of this faithful servant of God came to an end. He found the parish in rather a depressed condition, but from no fault of his able predecessor. Wisely, but energetically, he led his people, until blessed by the Holy Spirit, he was enabled to see the ebbing tide turn, and flow in again. For controversy he had no desire. He rather cultivated peace with the conflicting elements with which he was surrounded, confining himself to the simple truths of Christianity, and of the Church, so necessary to us all. There are many ways of following our Lord, and doing His work. The Church has need of every gift ; it is well that some of its clergy should be eloquent, argumentative, able to force its claims upon the gainsayers, showing that every talent which God has given to man, may be used to His glory ; but still more needful for the Church's welfare are ordinary clergymen like Mr. Lamson, who by quiet presentment of its worth, show to those who differ, without contention or bitter side-glance, that within its fold the soul can find all the spiritual help and sustenance it needs. Such men are its stanchest pillars ; and no gift is a cause of greater blessing, thankfulness, and fruit to God, than they.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP-THE BURNING OF FAIRFIELD BY GEN. TYRON, 1774 TO 1779, A. D.
REV. JOHN SAYRE.
Shortly after the Venerable Society learned of Mr. Lamson's death, the Rev. Mr. Marshall, of Woodbury, was appointed to Fairfield, but he deemed it inexpedient to leave his field of labor in Litchfield County. In 1774, the Rev. John Sayre, who had been for several years a successful missionary at
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
Newburgh, in New York,* was assigned to the cure. The new Rector came to a united and prosperous parish. The Church edifice was one of the finest in the Colony; and a commodious parsonage added greatly to the comfort of the incumbent and his family. Shortly after Mr. Sayre's arrival, the impressive service of Induction, or as we now term it, Institution, took place. According to its rule, on the Sunday fixed for the ceremony, the Church was closed ; the ponderous key was left in the door ; the people stood around in the Church-yard. The minister came, accompanied by the Wardens and Vestry, and stood before the closed door. The inducting person, usually a prominent parishioner, designated by the congregation for the purpose, took the minister's right hand and placed it on the key, and pronounced the words : "By virtue of the authority given unto me, I induct you, Reverend Sir, into the real, actual, and corporal possession of the parish Church of Fairfield, called Trinity Church, with all the rights, members, and appur- tenences pertaining thereto." The officiant then opened the door, and "put the minister in possession," and henceforth the Church was his for all sacred services and uses. The minister then proceeded to toll the bell, and immediately afterwards entered the Church, followed by the people. The Order for Morning Prayer was then said, and at its close the minister solemnly declared his assent to all the doctrines
* In 1768, the Rev. John Sayre was appointed missionary at Newburgh-on-the- Hudson, by the Venerable Society, at a stipend of £30 a year. Settling back in the country, he preached alternately at Newburgh, Otterfield, Wallkill, and New Windsor. "He was," says Cadwalader Colden, Jr., "a popular preacher, and gathered large congregations, and raised up a spirit of building Churches." In 1773, a conflict of opinion arose concerning'the location of a new Church building. The Vestry preferred Newburgh, holding that the glebe, situated within its limits, would be claimed by New Windsor, which was in the next town, if the Church should be built in the latter place. Mr. Sayre was strongly in favor of New Windsor, because it had been the field of the earlier missionaries, and was known to the Society in England as the centre of the missionary work in that locality. Newburgh was successful; and Mr. Sayre was much disturbed and discouraged at the conclusion of things. Shortly after he obtained a transfer to Trinity Church, Fairfield. Newburgh Historical Society Proceedings for 1895, p. 40.
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
and usages of the Church of England, as contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The people then saluted and wel- comed their Rector, and bade him God speed. Hence- forth he was theirs and they were his; both being bound together by a tie as sacred as that of marriage.
Under different circumstances, no doubt Mr. Sayre's rector- ship would have been very successful. In his "Sketch of Trinity Parish," prepared in 1804, the Rev. Philo Shelton says of him: " that he was a man of talent, a good preacher, an agree- able companion, a pious Christian, and that during his stay the Church flourished." It was Mr. Sayre's lot, however, to begin his labors at Fairfield at a critical time in the nation's history-just after the destruction by the populace, of 840 chests of tea in Boston harbor-by which action, the whole country was thrown into a patriotic ferment. . In a brief space, the impending storm of the Revolution burst upon the Colonies, and the Episcopal Church had to bear the popular odium against England's rule. Congregations were broken up, and many Churches were closed. Numbers of the clergy were exiled or imprisoned, or were watched and harrassed as suspects. Mr. Sayre, a native Briton, soon became obnoxious to the " Committee of Inspection," and on refusing to sign the articles prescribed by the Continental Congress, which obliged those who signed them, not only "to oppose the King with life and fortune," but also "to withdraw all offices of justice, humanity and charity, from every recusant," was banished to the village of New Britain, in Hartford County. After an absence of seven months he was permitted to return, on condition that he would not go beyond the parish limits, above four miles. This lasted eighteen months, when the area in which he might move was made co-extensive with the County. From this time on, Mr. Sayre maintained the regu- lar services in the three parishes, Fairfield, Stratfield, and Easton, until 1779; always omitting the Liturgy, preferring to
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
worship, for the time being, for peace sake, according to a way that would meet the approval of all men, whether in heart they were rebels or tories.
And now a momentous event came to pass, that was freighted with great calamity for the Church at Fairfield. In the summer of 1779, the movement of Colonial troops south- ward, through New Jersey, towards Philadelphia, stripped Connecticut of a large portion of its able-bodied men. The royalists in New York, realizing that the Colony was left in an unprotected state, promptly resolved to strike a blow that should inspire their enemies there with something of a distaste for war. The Fourth of July fell on Sunday, and the good people of New Haven had made their arrangements to celebrate the Declaration of American Independence on the day after. On Monday morning, before the exercises had begun, the tidings came that Gen. Tryon's fleet, numbering over forty- eight vessels, had dropped anchor near West Haven, at five o'clock, and that his troops, 3,000 strong, were marching towards the city. They came in two detachments of 1,500 men each; one straight from West Haven; the other, by a slightly diverging route, to attack and capture a small fort, located at Black Rock. The first of these met with some opposition, but by noon, all resistance had been overcome, and the invaders united and flushed with victory, were ready to plunder and de- stroy. Happily, they spared the public buildings ; but even as it was, a money loss of £25,000 was inflicted. Departing next day, the marauders sailed along the coast, and on the morning of July 8th, appeared off Fairfield. Gen. Tryon had visited the village more than once ; had been the frequent recipient of its generous hospitality, and knew the locality well. About four o'clock in the afternoon the troops began to land. In the course of the night, several houses were consumed, and nearly all were plundered. Early the next morning the conflagration became general ; over two hundred buildings, forty eight stores and many barns, were turned to
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
smoking heaps of ruins. As a climax, on leaving, the enemy set fire to everything that up to that time had escaped the flames. Both houses of worship, the Episcopal and the Congregational, were burned to the ground.
President Dwight, who lived at Greenfield Hill, thus de- scribes the scene: "While the town was in flames, a thunder- storm overspread the heavens, just as night came on. The conflagration of near two hundred houses illumined the earth, the skirts of the cloud, and the waves of the Sound, with a union of gloom and grandure at once awful and magnificent. At intervals the lightning blazed with a lurid and awful splendor. The thunder rolled above ; beneath, the roaring of the fire filled up the interval with a deep and hollow sound. Add to this, the sharp cracking of muskets occasionally discharged, the groans here and there of the wounded and dying, and the shouts of triumph; then place before your eyes, crowds of the miserable sufferers, mingled with the bodies of the militia, taking from the neighboring hills a farewell prospect of their property and their dwellings, their happiness and their hopes, and you will form a just but imperfect picture of the burning of Fairfield."
A similar destruction was wrought at Green's Farms ; scarcely a building of any description was left unharmed. The enemy crossed the Sound on the 9th, to Huntington Bay, and remained there until the 11th, when they re-crossed to Norwalk, and re- peated their work of destruction there. By this time, the popula- tion of the interior was mustering in great force to meet Tryon at his next landing, when he prudently returned to New York. He had, however, inflicted upon Connecticut a loss of about £250,000, as appears by the proven claims, for which the General Assembly allotted 500,000 acres of northwestern lands, to the sufferers, in 1792. He had not, though, broken the spirit of the people; and his own loss in men, nearly three hundred, was enough to convince him that he had lost more than he had gained by his dastardly act. During the destruction of Fair-
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
field, Mr. Sayre, in conjunction with Mr. Elliot, the Congrega- tional minister, was constantly among the people, doing his utmost as a faithful pastor, to succor the distressed, and if he possibly could, to avert the ruin that was impending.
In a letter written from the scene of desolation, on the fifteenth of July, just a week after the event, Mr. Elliot says : " Mr. Sayre, the Church of England missionary, begged Gen. Tryon to spare the town, but his request was denied. He then begged that some few houses might be spared as a shelter for those who could provide habitations nowhere else ; this was also refused." At length, according to the same authority, he procured a protection, under the hand of Gen. Tryon, for the houses of Mr. Elliot and Mr. Burr, and a promise that the houses of worship should be spared. All were, however, consumed, not excepting Mr. Sayre's own dwelling; he thus found himself, his wife, and eight children, thrown upon the street, destitute of everything except the garments in which they were clad. Under such circumstances, the parish for the time being completely prostrated, the Church building destroyed, the parishioners ruined, he de- parted to New York, where he remained several months, recrui- ting his health and strength, both of which he alleged, had been seriously impaired. Would it could be recorded that Mr. Sayre had remained in Fairfield, and had proved faithful to his charge ! Mr. Elliot's spirit certainly, was more commendable. "Not a house for my shelter ; two-thirds of my personal estate plundered and consumed; a wife and three small children dependent on me for their maintenance ; I feel myself in a state of uncertainty as to many of the necessities of life. And yet I am willing to undergo any difficulties in the work of the ministry for your sakes." Thus he wrote immediately after the fire. Mr. Sayre, when he had sufficiently recovered, although he failed to return to Connecticut, frequently assisted his brethren, the Rectors of the parishes at Jamaica, Newtown, Flushing, and Huntington, on Long Island. Later he emigrated to Nova
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THE REV. JOHN SAYRE'S RECTORSHIP.
Scotia. In a letter from thence, dated Oct., 1783, he informed the Venerable Society, that he had an intention of settling upon the river St. John, where a large number of refugees had fixed themselves ; that he had procured two rooms for his household, and had "officiated in the meeting-house of the Congregational- ists, with their approbation, to a numerous audience, consisting partly of the refugees and partly of the old settlers." He added, that when he left Connecticut, "he had not a change of raiment for himself or his family, and had been obliged to borrow money to enable him to remove to Nova Scotia." And not long afterwards, it was apprehended by the Society that his health was in a very dangerous state; and "a gratuity was granted him of £25." He died in New Brunswick in 1790.
CHAPTER IX.
MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER, AND THE ELECTION OF BISHOP SEABURY, FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT, 1779-1785, A. D.
The parish at Fairfield, after the havoc wrought by the senseless raid of Gen. Tryon, was reduced to great straits. The Church edifice, and its contents ; also the parsonage house and furniture ; the parish records, and library of more than a hundred volumes were destroyed. Added to this was the unlooked for defection of the Rector. In such a crisis, his
presence and influence would have been of inestimable value. What was especially needed was some one who could serve as a rallying point about whom the remnant could gather. A month passed by, and the faithful few that were left, esteeming it not manly "to hang their harps upon the willows," but re- lying upon the promise of God, that his Church should never become extinct, called a meeting, which was held at the house of Mr. John Sherwood, at Greenfield, a Churchman whose zeal no amount of disaster could dampen. On this occasion it was mentioned that Mr. Philo Shelton of Ripton, now Huntington, in this State, who had recently graduated from Yale College, was purposing to enter Holy Orders, and was even now ready to serve as lay-reader should any congregation desire his services .* The result was, a committee was
* Rev. Philo Shelton was a grandson of Daniel Shelton, (one of a family of fourteen children ) and was born in Ripton, now Huntington, May 7th, 1754. He graduated from Yale College in 1775, just after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and soon became a candidate for Holy Orders. While waiting for ordination, he married, in 1781, Lucy, daughter of Philip Nichols, Esq., of Stratford, a strong Churchman, and the first lay-delegate chosen to represent the Diocese of Connecti- cut In the General Convention of the Church.
THE REV. PHILO SHELTON. Æt. 30.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
appointed to hire Mr. Shelton " to read " and " to officiate " one-third part of the time at the dwelling of Mr. Sherwood, one-third of the time at Stratfield, and one-third of the time at Weston .* We thus see Trinity Church begin its new life under entirely different conditions. Hitherto it had been nurtured by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but henceforth it was to go forward depending solely upon the generosity of its own members. Naturally, the
A.Brandt DEL
HOUSE OF MR. JOHN SHERWOOD AT GREENFIELD WHERE THE FIRST SERVICES WERE HELD AFTER THE FIRE OF 1779.
operations of the Society in this country were ended by the Declaration of the Independence of the United States. Its work was, as it is to-day, to aid in the extension of the Gospel in
*"At a meeting of the Episcopal Society, on the 24th of August, 1779, at the Dwelling House of Mr. John Sherwood, in Greenfield, voted, Mr. Ezra Katlin, Moderator of said meeting, also voted, Hezekiah Bulkley, Junr., Clerk; voted, Messrs. Daniel Wheeler, Peter Bulkley, and Ezra Katlin, a Committee to apply to Mr. Shelton at Ripton, in order to hire him to Efficiate for them if Mr. Shelton will please to come ; voted also the first Sunday that we have a Church, it is to be at Mr. John Sherwood's Dwelling House, the next at Stratford, the next at North Fairfield." This is the first entry in the Parish Record, begun after the fire in 1779.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
the dependencies of Great Britain. Every Episcopalian in this Country, and especially this Diocese, owes it, however, a debt of the weightiest character, for the wise and lavish efforts it put forth to plant the Church of the Living God in these Colonies. Its ministers were self-sacrificing and Christ-like men. They had a reason for the hope that was in them. They preached sound doctrine ; they taught the young their Cate- chism; they instructed the people in that Faith which "was once delivered to the saints." They believed that the Church is of God, and not of man: that it is the Ark of God, into which Christians enter at their Baptism, and in which, if they are faithful to the end, they shall safely ride the billows of this tempestuous sea, and at last reach the Haven where they would be. May we of this generation, show our gratitude for what was done for us in the past, by giving as willingly on our part of our means, and our efforts, to extend our Apostolic Church everywhere, abroad as well as at home !
One of the imperative requirements of the Church in America, for many years, was a Bishop. Before the Revolution, it had been the custom for those desiring Holy Orders to resort to Eng- land for ordination, thus necessitating a long journey, which was not only costly but full of perils. As the Episcopate is the centre from which all effective administration of the Church issues ; as without it there can be no confirming of those who have come to years of discretion, no ordaining of clergy, no consecration of Churches, the question arises, why did not the Church in England send a Bishop into these Western parts long before? The Rev. Mr. Pigot, writing to the Venerable Society in 1722, plead for such a boon; the Rev. Dr. Cutler, and especially the Rev. Mr. Johnson, followed up his effort at a later date, with even more fervor. In a letter to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury written in 1766; the latter says: "I have the great mortification and grief to inform your Grace, that those two hopeful young men who were ordained last, had the misfortune to be lost on their arrival on the coast, the
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
ship being dashed to pieces, and only four lives saved out of twenty-eight. These two make up ten valuable lives that have now been lost, for want of ordaining power here, out of fifty- one, (nigh one in five) that have gone for Orders from hence. I consider the Church here for want of Bishops, in no other light than as being really in a state of persecution. Will the mother-country have no bowels of compassion for her poor depressed destitute children of the established Church (prob- ably a million of them) dispersed into these remote regions?" The Rev. Matthew Graves writing to the Venerable Society, 1771, says : "The blessing of a Bishop would make true religion overspread the land. Hasten, hasten, O Lord! a truly spirit- ual overseer to this despised, abused, persecuted part of the vineyard, for Christ Jesus' sake, Amen ! Amen !"
It must be borne in mind that the importance of sending at least one Bishop to America, had engaged the attention of the Venerable Society, from the very beginning of its existence. As early as 1712, "a draught of a bill was ordered proper to be offered to Parliament, for establishing Bishops and Bishoprics in America." In 1717 the Bishop of London, reported to the Society, a benefaction of £1,000 sterling, toward the mainte- nance of a Bishop in America, from a person who desired to be unknown. In 1718, the Hon. Elihu Yale of London, the principal benefactor of Yale College, from whom the institution derived its name, had subscribed £50 towards the same object. What stood in the way of sending a Bishop to America? The English Parliament: it is a fact of history that a majority of its members were always ready to listen to those opposed to the welfare of the Church across the sea. They were told it would "Episcopize the Colonies; beget rebellion on the part of those who would hazard everything dear to them, their estates, their very lives, rather than to suffer their necks to be put under that yoke of bondage which was so sadly galling to their fathers;" and the result was they legislated against it. Many Bishops and Clergy, were heartily in accord with the
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
project, but the Church was tied hand and foot by its con- nection with the State. The successful issue of the Revolution, while it was a "bridge of sighs" so far as further financial aid from England was concerned, speedily solved this problem. Those of the clergy of Connecticut who still held their parishes, met at Woodbury, in the last week of March following the publication of peace, and elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury to be their Bishop. That he might receive consecration, the Bishop-elect journeyed to England ; and after nearly a year of opposition and discouragement, such as would have appalled an ordinary man, realizing that success could only be achieved in a different quarter, he turned to the Non-Juring Bishops of the Church of Scotland; and on the 14th of November, 1784, he was consecrated a Bishop of the Church of God .* No words can measure the importance of that act. It ultimately forced the English Parliament to do for the Church in America, that which was absolutely necessary for its existence, and which should gladly have been done long before. Bishop Seabury was absent from this country two whole years; and in the letter which he wrote from London to the clergy of Connecti- cut, after his return from Scotland, he said: "My own pov- erty is one of the greatest discouragements I have to bear with. Two years' absence from my family, and expensive residence here, have more than expended all I had. But in so good a cause, and of such magnitude, something must be risked by somebody. To my lot it has fallen : I have done it cheer- fully, and despair not of a happy issue." He reached New London, June 29th, 1785. No noise attended this first and undisguised entrance of a Bishop upon the soil of New
* Bishop Seabury was consecrated in old St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, presentibus tam e clero, quam e populo testibus idoneis; and the edifice where the consecration took place was built for Bishop Skinner. It stands in an obscure part of the city, and is reached by a narrow lane, where no large carriages pass,-just the spot which one might suppose the Non-Jurors, in a time of distressful persecution, would select to offer their devotions, and escape the observation of their enemies. It was abandoned almost forty years since, on the erection of a new St. Andrew's in a better locality. Rev. E. A. Beardsley : The Churchman, August 1, 1885.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
England. He came as a simple Christian citizen, and not in any outward pomp and dignity, such as before the war for Independence had commenced, the adversaries of the Church had apprehended. "The Presbyterian ministers," says Wilber- force : " appeared to be rather alarmed ; and in consequence of his arrival, assumed and gave one another the style and title of bishops, which formerly they reprobated as a remnant of Popery. "* Bishop Seabury was present at the Annual Com-
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