USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Southport > Annals of an old parish : historical sketches of Trinity Church, Southport, Connecticut, 1725 to 1848 > Part 6
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FUFF
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SITE OF OLD ST. ANDREW'S, ABERDEEN, WHERE BISHOP SEABURY WAS CONSECRATED.
mencement of Yale College, in 1785, and when some one men- tioned the fact to President Stiles, and suggested that he should be invited to a seat among the distinguished personages," he replied that "there were already several bishops upon the stage, but if there was room for another he might occupy it." With joy did the clergy of Connecticut assemble in convention
* Wilberforce : Hist. of the American Church, p. 213.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
at Middletown, on the 3rd day of August, 1785, and publicly welcome and recognize their Right Reverend Father in God. A Concordate, """established in mutual good faith and confi- dence' at Aberdeen, and the pastoral letter of the Scottish Bishops, were laid before the clergy, and excited in them the
THE REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D. D .. FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT.
warmest sentiments of gratitude and esteem." * At this Convention, Bishop Seabury admitted to the order of Deacons, the Rev. Philo Shelton ; it being the first ordination ever held in the United States by a duly consecrated Bishop .; Mr.
* Beardsley : History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, vol. i, p. 367.
t Rev. Mr. Shelton was one of the four admitted to the Diaconate by Bishop Seabury at his first ordination, held in Middletown, on the 3rd of August, 1788. Mr. Ashbel Baldwin, another of the four, who afterwards became his nearest neighbor and friend and associate in efforts to build up the Church, used to say that the hands of the Bishop were first iaid upon the head of Mr.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
Shelton was now in a position that enabled him to take charge, as Rector, of the Church at Fairfield. Sometime earlier, in anticipation of his speedy ordination, a committee had been appointed by the parish, and the following agree- ment had already been entered into : "We, the subscribers, being appointed a committee by the several Episcopal Churches in the Township of Fairfield, and being fully em- powered by them to agree with Mr. Philo Shelton to settle with us as our minister, are empowered to give him for his maintenance One Hundred Pounds Lawful Silver Money, together with the use and improvement of a piece of land lying in Fairfield, at a place called the Round-Hill, containing about eight acres, which sum is to commence as soon as he shall become an officiating minister, and to continue as long as he shall perform Divine service among us, which sum shall be annually paid. And by the Powers delegated to us we do bind ourselves and the several parishes, to see the above agreement fulfilled. And until he is in Orders, we do agree to give him twenty-eight shillings lawful money, for every Sunday he shall officiate among us. And whereas there are three several places where Episcopal members assemble for public worship, viz : Fairfield, North Fairfield and Stratfield, Mr. Shelton is to hold Church at the places according to the list of members that attend, and belong to the several Churches. In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 24th day of February, 1785.
Ezra Kirtland,
Ozias Burr,
Thomas L. Collyer, Calvin Wheeler,
Elijah Burritt,
Moses Burr,
Committee for Stratfield.
Committee for North Fairfield.
Daniel Meeker, Seth Sturges,
John Sherwood,
Ruben Beers,
Ebenezer Nichols,
Josiah Bulkley,
Committee for Greenfield. Committee for Fairfield.
Shelton, so that his name really heads the long list of clergy who have had ordi- nation in this Country by Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Rev. E. A. Beardsley : The Churchman, August 1, 1885.
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
Joshua Jennings,
Shubael Gorham,
Peter Bulkley,
Jonathan Coley,
Committee for Saugatuck.
Committee for Green's Farms. As Committee of the Old Society of Fairfield.
From this time onwards, Mr. Shelton's ministrations were given without interruption, save during a brief period, two years after his ordination, when he was disabled by a serious illness. Even then the services in the three Churches were not
I Beck of Records
haga
FIRST PAGE OF THE BOOK OF RECORD OF TRINITY PARISH, CONTAINING ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING HELD AT MR. JOHN SHERWOOD'S HOUSE, AUGUST 20, 1779.
discontinued, for the people held a meeting and took measures to supply his place. The quaintness of the original record may provoke a smile; for the meeting being warned, " to hire some suitable person to 'carry on' instead of Mr. Shelton, until he should get better," it was voted that the moderator of the
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MR. PHILO SHELTON, LAY-READER.
meeting, Mr. Jonathan Bulkley, should "carry on ; " and still later a definite arrangement was authorized with the contigu- ous Churches to " hire a man to 'carry on ' for three months."* There are several votes of this kind, which plainly show that " carrying on" was the old-time expression for conducting Divine service.
* Rev. N. E. Cornwall's Historical Discourse 1851, p. 42.
CHAPTER X.
THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP. THE BUILDING OF THE THIRD CHURCH AT MILL PLAIN, 1785-1825, A. D.
After the destruction by Gen. Tryon's troops, of the second Church erected by Trinity parish, the congregation, so much of it as was left, met for worship in private houses, first, as has been stated, at Mr. John Sherwood's, in Greenfield ; then at Capt. Hezekiah Sturges', in Fairfield. This arrangement continued until the Prime Ancient Society of Fairfield village had finished its new sanctuary, and thereby vacated the Town-House, which in turn, was used by the Church-people until 1790. During the decade that had elapsed since the fire, two questions had begun to agitate the minds of those who were interested in Episcopacy in the Town of Fairfield ; when and where shall the new Church be built ? Financially and numerically, the village of Fairfield was at a low ebb. Its former prosperity had departed. That many of the old inhabitants were scattered abroad by the calamity which had befallen them, and that the social and business aspects of the community were greatly altered, are manifest from the language of a certain vote in 1783, concerning, "all persons formerly inhabitants of the town, who had been so long gone from this to any other town, that they might be presumed to have gained settlement there." This is a language which plainly implies that an extensive dispersion of the former inhabitants had taken place. And such was the fact. A formidable rival, the near-by city of Bridgeport, formerly Stratfield, was rapidly growing in importance. Already the Courts of the County, which formerly had helped to make
69
THE REV. PHILO SBELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
Fairfield a great legal centre, had been absorbed by it. Besides, the harbor advantages of Mill River, here in our own village of Southport, as it is now called, were attracting attention ; while Greenfield Hill, Green's Farms, Saugatuck, were all becoming more and more populous. Upon the rate list for 1799, preserved in the records of the parish, fifty names are found, which were not upon that of 1789. Of
THE THIRD CHURCH EDIFICE, MILL PLAIN.
these fifty, nineteen lived in Fairfield, including what is now Southport; twenty-onein Greenfield ; three in Green's Farms ; and seven in Saugatuck. The question then as to where the new Church edifice should be erected easily became a burning one. There were those who favored building upon the former site, on the highway, near the Old Field Gate, eighty rods west of the Prime Ancient Society's Meeting- house ; while there were those who insisted upon going to Mill Plain, almost a mile distant, quite close by the spot where the
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
first Church was built, for the reason that that neighborhood was more convenient to the larger proportion of the parish- ioners. At first the advocates for the old site prevailed. At a meeting held at the Town-House, Jan. 9th, 1799, a " clear," that is, a unanimous vote, was passed "that a Church be built and erected for Divine worship on the ground where the late Church stood, and which was unhappily consumed by fire." On April 10th, of the same year, at a meeting held at the house of Mr. Nathaniel Perry, another "clear" vote was passed, "that a Church be built on Mill Plain, so called, where Jonathan Sturges, and Thadeus Burr, drove the stake by appointment of the Town, and that all former action with regard to building a Church be null and void." There was no change of purpose after this. The parish forthwith, began preparations to build. Dimensions of the edifice were ordered to be forty-eight, by thirty-five feet. Ichabod Burr was appointed a committee to get the timber for said house, and deliver it on Mill Plain. It was voted to have 8 x 10 window glass ; shingles three feet in length, and a circular roof ; the steeple was also to " go on " with the rest of the building. This, the third Church-structure, described by Mr. Shelton, in his brief Sketch of the Parish as " a pretty decent building, with a steeple and bell, and a gallery accross the end," was dedicated the 5th of September, 1790, when a sermon suitable to the occasion was preached by the Rector. The completion of the Church, and its consecration by Bishop Jarvis did not take place, however, until October 18th, 1798 .* The Instru- ment of Donation is still extant, and is replete with the true Church spirit :
"At a meeting of the Church-Wardens, Vestrymen and Parishioners of Trinity Church in Fairfield, on the 2nd day of May, 1795, it was unanimously resolved and voted that as Almighty God had been pleased to put it into their heads to
* For location see map of Church-sites, p. 33.
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
build a new Church for the Celebration of His Worship according to the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, and had in the course of His good Providence enabled them so far to finish it as to render it fit for public use according to their best abilities, it was their full purpose and earnest desire that the said new Church be
THE RIGHT REV. ABRAHAM JARVIS, D. D., SECOND BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT.
called Trinity Church, and be dedicated to the worship and service of Almighty God according to the Liturgy aforesaid. We, therefore, the Church-Wardens, Vestrymen, and Parish- ioners of Trinity Church, do for us and our successors, dedi- cate, appropriate, give and grant the said Church by us erected unto Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, to be conse-
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
crated and used for His Service and Worship according to the Liturgy aforesaid, divesting ourselves of all right and title and disclaiming all authority to employ it hereafter to any common or profane use. And we, the Church-Wardens, Vestrymen, and Parishioners aforesaid, do further resolve and vote that the two Church-Wardens, Mess. Reuben Beers and Samuel Meeker, do in our name and in our behalf, sign and seal this Instrument of Dedication, and do acquaint the Right Rev. Dr. Jarvis, our Diocesan Bishop therewith, and request that he would consecrate the said new Church to Almighty God and set it apart to be forever hereafter in His Service and His Worship, promising, so far as in us lies, to take care of the repairs of said Church, that it may be left, together with its furniture, sacred utensils, and books in a decent state for the Celebration of Divine Service: and also that we will, as God shall enable us, endeavor always to preserve and support a minister in Priest's Orders to Celebrate God's Holy Worship according to the Liturgy aforesaid. In witness whereof, we, the said Church-Wardens, have herewith set our hands and seals the day and year before mentioned.
Reuben Beers, Samuel Meeker.
There are those still with us who worshipped in this Church on Mill Plain, and who remember well the primi- tive arrangements that characterized it, and which made it so vastly different from the commodious edifice in which we worship at the present time. At first it had no stove. Stoves were a rare luxury in those days, for the use of anthracite coal began at a farlater date. The women used " foot-stoves," ( which may yet be found as relics, in the attics of old houses ; the writer has one which he prizes highly, which belonged to the late Mrs. Francis D. Perry), or heated bricks, or stones, to warm their feet. Certain of the parishioners, living close by, took upon themselves to make extra fires on very cold Sundays, to supply the foot-stoves with live coals. A simple but high
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
reading-desk, held the great Bible, and Book of Common Prayer. Behind and above the reading-desk was the pulpit, which was reached by a short flight of stairs. The Commu- nion-Table stood quite in front. During the service the con- gregation remained seated; and it required the action of the House of Bishops in 1814, to free those who desired to stand during the act of praise, from the imputation of introducing "a dangerous ritual innovation." Further than this simple modification, the service was precisely that in which Church- -people now participate every Sunday. The Church's Worship, in its essentials, never alters. The fathers drew near to
FOOT STOVE USED IN THE MILL PLAIN CHURCH.
God in Litany, Collect, and General Confession ; they praised the Most High in Venite, Jubilate, and TeDeum, and could they be in the flesh again, they would behold their children's children using the same old Prayer Book, un- changing and unchangeable "amid the wrecks of time; " and finding its words as did they, not mere "forms," but full and satisfactory expressions of the soul's deepest needs.
There is nothing in the Parish Record anterior to the year 1800, that touches upon other matters than Church-rates and Church-building, save one: In 1786, a committee was ap- pointed "to make inquiry and endeavor to find out what
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
became of the plate,* for Communion Service, which belonged to the Church, and was taken from the Rev. Mr. Sayre, and take method for recovering the same; also the iron taken from the Church, with the stone; also the stone from Mr. Sayre's house, the parsonage." Andrew Eliot, in a letter, 1779, to his brother, the Congregational minister at Fairfield, no doubt explains the disappearance of the silver. "The Hessians were first let loose for rapine and plunder. They entered houses, attacked the persons of Whigs and Tories indiscriminately ; breaking open trunks, desks, closets, and taking away everything of value. They robbed women of buckles, rings, bonnets, aprons, and handkerchiefs. Looking- glasses, china, and all kinds of furniture were soon dashed in pieces. Another party who behaved badly, were the American refugees, who, in revenge for their confiscated estates, carried on the same direful business."
So far as is known, no trace of the ancient Communion Service has ever been found. A silver paten, long in the possession of the parish, and thought by certain parishioners to be, possibly, a part of it, was given, it has been ascertained, by Mrs. Jeremiah Sturges, as a memorial of her father, the late Rev. Philo Shelton, Easter Day, 1826.
* A solid silver Service presented to the parish by Mr. St. George Talbot in 1762.
CHAPTER XI.
REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP CONTINUED : THE LOTTERY FOR THE RELIEF OF TRINITY PARISH, AND THE FOUNDING OF THE BIBLE AND PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY. BISHOP HOBART'S VISITATION, 1817- 1820, A. D.
Quite a notable event, bearing upon the history of Trinity Church, to which reference should be made, was the organiza- tion of a lottery, for the replenishment of the parish treasury. This was permissible under the Colonial laws, and does not appear to have done violence to the religious sentiment of the age. Indeed, lotteries were then greatly in vogue .* In 1774, "a lottery of £4,000 was projected to purchase a piece of ground, and erect a Church thereon for a congregation of the Church of England, which now assemble in Horse and Cart street, ( now William's ), New York." A month after, another lottery " was devised to erect a Church in Brooklyn, under the patro-
* Money was much needed. Taxes the people would not bear. To issue bonds would have been useless for the authorities could not have insured the interest on them for a week. Lotteries, therefore, sprang up, and in a short time there was a wheel in every city and in every town. Wherever there was a bridge to be thrown across a stream, a school-house built, a street paved, a road repaired, a manufac- turing company to be aided, a church assisted. or a college treasury to be replen- ished, a lottery bill was passed by the Legislature, a wheel procured, a notice put in the papers, and often in a few weeks the needed money was raised. It was with the money collected from the sale of lottery tickets that Massachusetts encour- aged cotton-spinning, and paid the salaries of many of her officers; that the City Hall was enlarged at New York ; that the Court House was built at Elizabeth ; that the library was increased at Harvard ; that many of the most pretentious build- ings were put up at the Federal city. The custom, indeed. continued for several years, and the "State of the Wheel " became as regular an item in the papers as the ship news or prices current. McMasters : History of the People of the United States, Vol, i, p. 588.
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
nage of the Rector and Vestry of Trinity Church." This was the beginning of St. Ann's Church. Later a lottery was arranged for at Hempstead, called the "Church Glebe Lottery" with " not two blanks to a prize."
The fact was, that although quite two-score years had passed, Trinity parish had not recovered from the severe losses which befell it, by the destruction of Church and parsonage, and library in 1779 ; nor had it, in its impoverished condition, ceased to feel the financial strain caused by the erection of a new Church edifice, and its proper equipment for Divine worship. It was for these reasons that the authorities of the parish applied to the Legislature of the State, in the year 1818, "for the grant of a lottery, with liberty and authority to raise thereby the sum of six thousand dollars, as a remuneration for the Losses sustained by the parish, at the burning of the town." The application itself, explains and justifies the step thus taken so fully, that it is herewith reproduced : "Jeremiah Sturges, the present Clerk of the Episcopal Society at Fairfield, after considering the very low state of the Church, without any friends, and the great difficulty of raising money enough by Taxes on the members, to support the clergyman in the one-third part of his services, notwithstanding his small pittance of one hundred and eleven dollars and eleven cents per annum, and deeming it almost impossible to raise even that small sum by taxes, at a meeting of the parish held March 23, 1818, drew up the following petition " which was presented to the Hon. Gen. Assembly by the Gentlemen Representatives from this Town, ( viz.) Gideon Tomlinson, Esq., and Mr. Thos. F. Rowland.
" To the Hon. Gen. Assembly of the State of Connecticut to be holden at Hartford, in said State, on the second Thursday of May next. The petition of Abraham Bulkley, Walter Sherwood, Hull Sherwood, Jesse Banks, and David Jennings, Wardens and Vestry of the Episcopal Church in the Town of Fairfield, in the County of Fairfield, and the rest of the
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
subscribers hereunto, members of said Church, humbly showeth that the Church in Fairfield, together with the Parsonage House, Barn, and Out Houses, was burned by the British Troops, under Tryon, in the Revolutionary War, at the time that the Town of Fairfield was burnt in the year 1779, and that the plate to a considerable amount, belonging to said Church, was at the same time carried away by the enemy ; now your petitioners would further inform the Hon. Gen. Assembly that with the funds that they heretofore held, and the small Grand List of less than one thousand dollars, they have been about twenty-seven years engaged in building another small house for public worship, but have been unable to complete the same, and in doing it they have been obliged to dispose of all their funds, and sell the principal part of their glebe lands, which was heretofore appropriated for the support of their clergyman, which altogether, has proved a Loss, or Burthen to the said Church, in conse- quence of which the members, with all their Zeal and Exertion find it very difficult and almost impossible for them to finish said Church, and at the same time to support their clergyman. Now your petitioners would further inform the Hon. Gen. Assembly that notwithstanding all Individuals and many Ecclesiastical Societies, that suffered Losses by the fire of so barbarous an enemy in the Revolutionary War, have by the Bounty of the Hon. Gen. Assembly, in some measure, been Remunerated, and knowing that all Societies and Indi- viduals who suffered Losses by the fire of the enemy are equally entitled to the Bounty of the Hon. Legislature, to whom they have never applied in vain.
Your petitioners never intended, nor would they ask for any indemnity for their Losses, could they possibly surmount them by their own exertions.
Wherefore your petitioners appeal to the Hon. Gen. Assembly as the only Resource from which they can expect any Relief for their great Losses, and Burthen, and praying
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
your Honours to take their case into your wise consideration and grant them a lottery to raise the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars, not as a Remuneration for their Losses, or, in some other way grant Relief, and as in Duty Bound will ever pray. Dated at Fairfield, this Abraham Bulkley, sixth day of April, 1818. Walter Sherwood,
David Jennings, Jesse Banks, Hull Sherwood,
Jeremiah Sturges,
Wm. Robinson,
Abel Beers.
BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT.
No:
7240 Fairfield Episcopal Society Lottery, CLASS II.
THIS TICKET shall entitle the possessor to such PRIZE as may be drawn to its' & #number, in the above named Lottery, according to the terms of the Schemse- Subject to a deduction of fifteen per cent.
Fairfield, August 1, 1820.
FAC SIMILE OF LOTTERY TICKET.
The answer to this appeal was permission to organize a lottery scheme that would give the parish a net sum of six thousand dollars, and a committee was appointed to carry out the project. February 9th, 1825, Jeremiah Sturges, the clerk of the parish, upon whom the chief part of the labor connected with the administration of the lottery, it would seem, had devolved, made his final report concerning it, which was duly accepted. He figured the total proceeds at $4,752.13, or thereabouts. The interest of the lottery fund was voted year after year to Mr. Shelton, in payment of salary. Subsequently portions of the principal were used to pay parish debts ; by the time the next Rector came in, it had all disappeared !
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THE REV. PHILO SHELTON'S RECTORSHIP.
In the same year that the lottery was applied for, an undertaking of a different nature, and with more promise of lasting results, was brought to a successful issue. When the Rev. Mr. Johnson, clarum et venerabile nomen, who has been mentioned before in these pages, was a Congre- gational minister at West Haven, it will be remembered that he committed to memory, and used, as occasion required, in public worship, portions of the Book of Common Prayer, to the comfort of himself, and the edification of his flock. So much were they admired that, we are told, "it was common for persons belonging to the neighboring churches to come to West Haven on purpose to hear them. To this day it re- mains true that there is no better advocate for the Church, in any household, than the Prayer Book. Possessed with this view, a number of laymen, members of Trinity Church, met on the first day of January, 1818; and under the guidance of the Rector, Rev. Philo Shelton, formed " The Bible and Prayer Book Society of Trinity Parish." The object was stated to be the gratuitous distribution of the two volumes mentioned, first, in Trinity parish ; next, in Fairfield County ; afterwards, if the funds warranted such expenditure, in the Diocese of Connecticut, or in the Church at large. A constitution was adopted, officers elected, subscriptions received, and the work of distribution at once begun. No better thing, the present Rector of Trinity parish, who writes these Annals, feels con- strained to say, has ever been done by it, than the founding of this admirable Society. The common complaint is, the masses are ignorant of the Church. It is then, the highest wisdom for us to circulate the Prayer Book among those to whom the Church is unknown. When people read those sublime prayers, which have been offered by king and peasant, as well as by martyrs going joyfully to the stake, and still are as applicable to their wants as if composed yesterday; and become imbued with their chaste language and terse style, and compare them with mere extemporaneous efforts, they
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