USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bristol > Bristol, Connecticut : "in the olden time New Cambridge", which includes Forestville > Part 16
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
No. 10, SOUTH, Sam'l Mackie, Wm. Torp, Damaris Lewis, Miles Lewis, Joseph Byington No. 11, NORTH, Silas Gridley, Arron Norton, Mrs. Fanny Newell, Dea. Chas. G. Ives. Ephrain Cluver. No. 11, SOUTH, Elisha Stephens, Joseph Ives, Sybel Steele, Wife of Asahel Norton Joel Norton Jr., David Root.
No. 12, NORTH, Isaiah Norton, Sheldon Rich, Roger Norton, Mark Norton, Sam'l Benham. No. 12 SOUTH, John Case, Wm. Lee Jun., D. R. Wolcott, Seth Gaylord, Martin Hart, John Birge, Wife of Lemuel W Parker.
No. 13, NORTH, Clark Carrington, Elisha Horton, Shadrach Pierce, Wife of Lot Newell, Dan Hill, Rosannah Bradley, Levina Lewis.
No. 13, SOUTH, Chester Lewis, Tracy Peck, Alva Gridley, John Bradley, Sally Peck. No. 14, NORTH, Sam'l Botsford, Truman Larcum, Cyrus Lewis, James Hart, Horace Adams, Betsey Bradley.
No. 14, SOUTH, Richard Peck, Benj. H. Rich, Alonzo Thompson, Chauncy Boardman, Lurena Brown.
No. 15, NORTH, Theodore Lewis, Reuben Hough, Jeremiah Royce, Newell Byington, Geo. Bulkley. No. 15, SOUTH, Russell Richards, Wells R. Byington, Roswell Brainard, Chauncey Ives, Jerusha Johnson.
No. 16, NORTH, Dana Carrington, Orrin Hart, Chauncy F. Andrews, Wm. Rich, Dennis Rich.
No. 16, SOUTH, John Cowles, Dill Darrow, James Adams, Barnabas Churchill, Emily
Hinsdale.
Richards. No. 17, NORTH, Major Churchill, Norman Lewis, Joel Root, Asahil Hooker, Bryan No. 17, SOUTH, Eber. Hart, Elisha Brewster, Charles Sage, Wm. Darrow, Ephraim Wilcox. No. 18, NORTH, Dr. Pardy, Wife of Alonzo Hart * David Munson, SHELDON LEWIS, Phillip Barns. * There is a word before David Munson which seems to be "& ( ts" (and others).
No. 18, SOUTH, Wm. Hubbell, Dana Beckwith, Asa Thompson, Titus M. Roberts.
No. 19, NORTH, Nehemiah Peck, Sylvester Peck, Asahel Mix, Alpheus Bradley, Major S. Wilson, Bryan Churchill, Benona Thompson.
No. 19, SOUTH, Allen Birge, Geo. Hooker, Harry Henderson, John Bacon, Theoph'ls Smith, Angustus Hart.
RESIDENCE R. K. LINSLEY, HIGH STREET.
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OR "NEW CAMBRIDGE."
Seats were made in the "alleys" for the children, and the young men were assigned the pew next the east door, till the galleries should be finished.
So you can form your mental picture of the quaint little room; the pulpit high in majestic dignity towering above all, the deacons and older men and women in the nearer pews, Deacon Manross and some other elders wearing white starched caps, the other pews filled with grave adults, young men in the gallery or rear pew, children in benches in the aisle; where the young women were the record saith not, but I suppose in the opposite side of the gallery from their brothers and beaux.
Even before the church was built, Joseph Benton and David Gay- lord were successively elected choristers, and afterward, in 1761, Elisha Manross to assist Deacon Gaylord in setting the psalm; that is, I suppose, in announcing the tune to be used, after the minister had announced the psalm, giving the key and lining out the verses; in 1774, Gideon Roberts, the father of clockmaking .here, was chosen chorister, "to serve upon the same Regulations & with ye same restrictions as appointed by the church in their Last act in that affair." What these regulations and restrictions were we know not, for the church records of that time are gone; but that they had to do with the conflict of that time between those who wished to sing by rote, that is, by their memory of the few familiar old tunes, and those who preferred to sing by note, that is, from printed notes of the music, we cannot doubt. To the conservatives singing from printed notes was as bad as reading from printed prayers.
I may add here that this first church was sufficient for the needs of the growing society only a few years. It had only been completed thirteen years, when in 1766, it was voted "to do somthing in prepration for building a new meeten hous." In June, 1768, it was voted to build at once, by a vote of sixty-three to six. New taxes were evidently coming, and a new departure to the Church of England took place.
In 1770 the second meeting-house was raised, and finished the next year. It was sixty-five by forty-five feet in size, had some striving for architectural beauty in its arched door and round window, and was of highly cheerful color. . "Voted to Colour the above sd meeting-house viz: the Body of sd house spruce yellow and the Dores and windows of said house white.
Voted to Colour the Roof of our new meeting-house Spanish Brown."
There were forty-one pews on the floor, of the old-fashioned square type, reached by aisles that ran transversely, instead of from the door to the pulpit. The custom of dignifying the pews, and seating the congregation by their respective dignities, still existed and was continued as long as the second church was used. I have in my hand a "dignifi- cation" of that building, and a report of the seating committee of about 1830 .* To this building a steeple was added, considerably altering its appearance, in 1797, and a bell for the first time called the people to- divine service. This meeting-house was occupied till 1832, when additional room was again needed and the body of the present church building was built. Then for the first time the old-fashioned pews were given up, and the modern narrow pews, or "slips," as they were then called, were used.
If we could be taken back to the days of that first little meeting- house, its surroundings would seem no less strange to us than its interior. The little Episcopal church opposite, the sabba'-day houses where the worshippers might be warmed and refreshed during the noon inter- mission, the whipping-post and stocks at the head of the green, the vacant fields stretching in every direction, would make a picture quaint indeed to our eyes. Two dwelling houses at Doolittle's Corner, and three on Queen street, were the only ones within a circuit of nearly a mile. Parson Newell's house, at what you know as the Dr. Pardee place,
*See Facsimile of Plan and Designation List here mentioned on pages 179 and 180. .
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BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT
was quite handy to the meeting-house, according to the roomy ideas of the time.
Parson Newell served the church as its pastor forty-two years. He came here at the age of thirty-three, a recent graduate of Yale Col- lege, and died in the harness on February 10, 1789, at seventy-five years of age. His tomb is prominently situated at the very front of the old cemetery on Downs street, bearing an epitaph which has been often quoted for its stately beauty.
We have unfortunately no likeness, nor even a personal description of him .* But enough has been preserved by tradition, and can be read
VSERMON,
PREACHED at NEW-CAMBRIDGE, in BRISTOL, FEBRUARY 12th, 1789,
AT THE FUNERAL
Rev, SAMUEL NEWELL,
place
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH THERE.
гов
Who departed this Life the roth of February, 178; in the 75th Year of his Age, and 4ad of his Mi- niftry.
pe
BY TIMOTHY PITKIN, A, M,
Death ! great proprietor of all | 'tis thine, To read out Empires, and to quinch the Stars,
HARTFORD. PRINTED BY HUDSON AND GOODWIN.
M.DCC.XC.
FACSIMILE OF PARSON NEWELL'S FUNERAL SERMON. (Owned by Judge Peck.)
* Rev. Timothy Pitkin, in his sermon at Mr. Newell's funeral, thus characterized him:
"It was the pleasure of the Creator of all things to furnish Mr. Newell with a good genius, strong mind, and solid judgment; he was well acquainted with books, things, and men; a sociable and faithful friend, of a steady and firm fortitude of mind; yet had tender feelings in his own, and in the distress of others; was an open, plain-hearted, honest man; spake his opinion freely and without flattery, gave every one his due; and do not know that I ever saw the man who was a greater stranger to envy. As to his theological knowledge, was a good and thorough Divine, especially in practical divinity, and experi- mental. Sound in the faith, willing all should know his principles.
As a preacher, his sermons well composed and methodised, aimed not so much at the ornaments of language and beauties of style, as the truth, for he determined to know nothing among his people save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. He did not daub with untempered mortars, nor play around men's consciences as if he was afraid to give them pain and uneasiness, but thundered forth the law to rouse up and alarm sinners, and displayed the glorious wonders of redeeming love; in short, was a plain, fervent, experi- mental preacher; for he appeared to preach those truths which he felt in his own heart, and that Jesus whom he knew."
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OR "NEW CAMBRIDGE."
between the lines of the record book, to give a good conception of his personal character. I think of him as the typical Puritan divine; strongly orthodox in a time whose liberalism would be thought almost medieval today, standing by virtue of his sacred office in a position of awful superiority to his flock, incarnating in his stately figure, human dignity and divine authority alike.
.When he entered the church, the people rose and reverently saluted him, and he mounted the pulpit, and then gracefully returned the salu- tation; when he passed the children in the street they hushed their plays, uncovered, and made their deepest bows and curtseys; when his death was announced, an unspeakable solemnity filled the community, and one little girl is said to have asked her mother with trembling lips, "Mamma, is God dead, too?"
It is quite certain that he was not so absorbed in divine things as to neglect those of this world. He understood his rights and could assert them vigorously, as you will see. He was an extensive land owner, and made many purchases and sales. In his later days he seems to have been one of the substantial property owners of the town. At least one of his sales, evidenced by a bill of sale still in existence, was of a slave boy, Job, fourteen years of age.
His financial relations with the society were sadly tangled by the fluctuating currencies of the time. The salary offered him in the original negotiations of 1745 was fixed at a sliding scale to increase from one hundred pounds to two hundred and forty-five pounds, in bills of the old tenor, "which shall be mr Newels standing salery;" besides a set- tlement of five hundred pounds. At the next meeting the provision was added, that the bills should be rated at thirty-two shillings to the ounce of silver. This ratio of silver is at least four or five to one. At the next meeting a guarantee was added that they would always make good the discount of money, "so that thirty-two shillings shall be as good as one ounce of silver." These careful provisions against loss by the depreciation of the paper bills were, I have no doubt, required, or at least suggested, by the shrewd business sense of the pastor-expectant.
In 1747, when the final call was given, a new currency was extant, which for the moment was good, and a salary was offered of thirty pounds of the new currency, and to rise as the list rose until it reached seventy pounds, which might be paid in grain at stated prices. Probably Mr. Newell did not approve of the smaller amount and better money, for two weeks later the basis was changed to bills of the old tenor, be- ginning at one hundred and forty pounds a year, and increasing to three hundred pounds, "which we covenant and agree to make as good to him then as 3 hundred pound now is and further we agree that if mr newel and we shall not agree as to the value of our Paper bills on consequnely with Respect of the unstaidyness of our Paper bills that then and from time to time as ofen as occation shall Require will mutially Choose a Committee of uninterested persons to ajust the matter Between us."
It will be noticed that in changing from the new currency to the old the amount was increased nearly five times; and that there was an evident expectation of still further depreciation to be adjusted.
In 1759 the expected crisis had come, and the society appointed a committee of conference with Mr. Newell, and on their advice passed a new vote. "Whereas the medium of trade is altered," to pay him thereafter, instead of the three hundred pounds old bills to which he was then entitled, fifty-five pounds "Lawful Mony that is silver at six shillings and eight pence per ounce or an ekuevelent in Connetocut Late emishons."
With this scaling down to a hard money basis peace was restored till the early days of the Revolution, when Parson Newell demanded an equivalent for the new depreciation, and the people, who were doubtless just as much distressed by the shrinkage of their money as he, refused.
In 1778, he wrote in the society's record book, his receipt for "£65
184
BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT
MAPLE ST.
2
3
5
---
--
7
(1) No. 5, Mrs. A. E. North O; (2) No. 19, J. E. Andrew R, No. 21, Wm. Muir R; (3) No. 23, M. B. Rohan O, No. 25, W. F. Stone R; (4) No. 31, Henry E. Cottle R; (5) No. 67, Geo. A. Thomas O, James R. Hughes R; (6) No. 77, Rev. Calvin B. Moody R (Parsonage First Congre- gational Church); (7) No. 78, Eugene Fairchild R, R. Baldwin R; (8) No. 83, Theo. C. Root O; (9) No. 84, G. E. Abbott O.
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OR "NEW CAMBRIDGE."
Continental bills, which is equal to about one-sixth part of what is justly due to me."
The next year they seem to have admitted the justice of his claims, and voted to pay him three hundred and ninety pounds "of the Present Curency" instead of the sixty-five pounds; but, alas for our financial record! a week later they reconsidered this vote, and resolved to pay sixty-five pounds of the present currency for salary.
The result was the following remarkable receipt :- "New Cambridge Decbr 1 1779 Altho the Society of New Cambridge as a Society have not rendered to me what was Justly Due by Covenant-yet a Number have been Just & Generous another Number have done Something Considerable a Considerable Number have done but a Small matter toward Justice yet to prevent trouble in the present world I Do Give a full Discharge to sd Society for what was due to me-& Refer them to the Last tribunal where impartial Justice will be Enquired after.
SAML NEWELL."
This summons of his parishioners to the bar of divine justice seems to have been effective with them, and in 1780 it was voted "that the People be at their own Liberty to pay mr Newels Rate Either in Silver or Continental money viz if in Silver their Equal part of 65£ and if in this Courancy their equal part of 1300£." Probably no one had any silver to pay, and Mr. Newell's receipt is for the magnificent salary of thirteen hundred pounds, received in money worth five cents on the dollar. Such is the history of depreciated money in the affairs of this society.
The nine men who seceded from the church before Mr. Newell's ordination, with their families, and some others who followed them later, formed the pre-Revolutionary Episcopal church whose history is so tragic and interesting, and so closely connected with the history of this church, that I will ask your indulgence in a digression of a few minutes to sketch it. The Episcopal church had at that time no American bishop, and but very few settled clergymen in New England. The church maintained a feeble existence by the labors of traveling missionaries and clergymen, who performed sacred offices in several parishes in rotation. Such offices were now obtained by the New Cambridge "churchmen;" a regular record of baptisms, beginning in 1747, is still in existence. The first of these officiating clergymen, who came here from Simsbury for several years, was Rev. William Gibbs .* Afterward, as has been said, Messrs. Camp and Newton, who had been candidates for the Congregational pastorate, served them, then Rev. Richard Mansfield occasionally from 1756 to 1759, Rev. James Scovel for about fourteen years, and, from 1774 until church services were suspended Rev. James Nichols. In 1754 they completed and opened for service a little church standing across the highway from the Congregational meeting-house where the north wing of the schoolhouse now stands. In 1758 they voted to have six days' preaching for the year ensuing, probably a bi-monthly communion; at other times they paid a quarter or a sixth of the salary of a clergyman, who gave them corresponding service.
For several years the society refused to release them from its eccle- siastical taxation; they evidently refused payment, and the society, in 1749, instructed its collector "to collect the Rates of them that call themselves of the Church of england among us and we will defend them." This instruction was evidently acted on, for, a year later, the collectors presented a bill of charges for collecting the rates of "those that call themselves Churchmen," and it was allowed.
Later, more peaceful counsels prevailed, and the churchmen were released from the "minester Rates as long as they do bring a Recept from their minester provided they will al of them Quit their Right in
* For the tragic history of his later years see "Historical Papers Concerning the Early Episcopal Church of New Cambridge," by Rev. X. A. Welton, Ms., Bristol Public Library
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BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT
MAPLE ST-NO.2
-
13
14
15
17
(10) No. 95, Titus E. Merriman O; (11) No. 96, Mrs. J. T. Peck O; (12) No. 104, E. E. Stockton O; (13) No. 115, W. H. Nettleton O, W. E. Wightman R; (14) No. 116, James T. Case O, A. B. Way R; (15) No. 126, D. T. Ogden O, H. G. White R; (16) No. 125, W. O. Perkins O, A. R. Nettleton R; (17) No. 130, M. H. Smith R, Andrew L. Carlson R, L. Norton R; (18) No. 139, F. A. Gates O, John Walton R.
187
OR "NEW CAMBRIDGE."
the meeting-house;" they had already been released from the tremendous meeting-house rate. Thereafter, the relations between the two churches, were friendly, the churchmen still acting in society meeting and holding office on non-ecclesiastical subjects; in 1774 and afterward it even ap- pears that the society appointed collectors for each body of believers, the churchmen's payments going to their rector and that of the Congre- gationalists to Mr. Newell; so that the society seems to have really acted as the legal ecclesiastical organization serving both churches.
But with the outbreak of the Revolution all this changed. The natural sympathies of the churchmen, who deemed themselves under oppression in the Congregational colony, and looked to the established church of England as their mother and protector, were with the crown. Mr. Nichols was an ardent loyalist, and his people almost unanimously followed him. Chippin's Hill, where most of them lived, became a rendezvous for Tory gatherings from all over the state, where soldiers were enlisted for King George, officers appointed, and information gath- ered to be sent to New York. Not far from there was the famous "Tory" den," where a few loyalists whose lives were not safe abroad, lay in concealment, their wives bringing them food at night .*
The Congregationalists, on the contrary, with Parson Newell at their head, were stout patriots .; Naturally, the flames of hostility raged against the church that was deemed the hotbed of toryism.
Let me read an extract from the printed state records of 1777, vol. 1, page 259: "On report of the committee appointed by this Assembly to take into consideration the subject matter of the memorial of Nathl Jones, Simon Tuttle, Joel Tuttle, Nathaniel Matthews, John Matthews, Riverus Carrington, Lemuel Carrington, Zerubbabel Jerom junr, Chaun- cey Jerom, Ezra Dormer, Nehemiah Royce, Abel Royce, George Beck- with, Abel Frisbee, Levi Frisbey, Jared Peck, and Abraham Waters, all of Farmington, showing that they are imprisoned on suspicion of being inimical to America; that they are ready and willing to join with their country and to do their utmost for its defence; and praying to be examined and set at liberty, as per said memorial on file, reporting that the said committee caused the authority, etc., of Farmington to be duly notifyed, that they convened the memorialists before them at the house of Mr. David Bull on the 22d of instant May and examined them separately touching their unfriendliness to the American States, and heard the evidences produced by the parties; that they found said persons were committed for being highly inimical to the United States, and for refusing to act in defence of their country; that on examination it appeared that they had been much under the influence of one Nichols, a designing church clergyman who had instilled into them principles opposite to the good of the States; that under the influence of such principles they had pursued a course of conduct tending to the ruin of the country and highly displeasing to those who are friends to the freedom and independence of the United States; that under various pretenses they had refused to go in the expedition to Danbury; that said Nathaniel Jones and Simon Tuttle have as they suppose each of them a son gone over to the enemy; that there was, however, no particu- lar positive fact that sufficiently appeared to have been committed by them of an atrocious nature against the States, and that they were indeed grossly ignorant of the true grounds of the present war with Great Britain; that they appeared to be penitent of their former con- duct, professed themselves convinced since the Danbury alarm that there was no such thing as remaining neuters; that the destruction made there by the tories was matter of conviction to them; that since their imprisonment upon serious reflexion they are convinced that the States are right in their claim, and that it is their duty to submit
* See "Historical Papers" above cited; also, "Moses Dunbar, Loyalist," by Epaph- roditus Peck, Ms., Bristol Public Library.
t See his patriotic letter in the Connecticut Courant, Jan. 2, 1775, Conn. Hist. Soc. Library.
188
BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT
MAPLE ST. NO.3
20
22
23
26
(19) No. 140,F. C. Wilcox O, (20) No. 149, H. J. Peck R; (21) No. 150, Mrs. A. D. Shiner R; (22) No. 155, M. D. Lardner O; (23) No. 162, J. H. Dunning R, J. C. Carroll R; (24) No. 165, E. F. Hubbard R; (25) No. 171, James H. Hoyt, R, C. F. Blanchard R; (26) No. 170, N. P. Stedman 0; (27) No. 182, James Nicholas R, Rev. Gustav Gille R;
189
OR "NEW CAMBRIDGE."
to their authority, and that they will to the utmost of their power defend the country against the British army; and that the said committee think it advisable that the said persons be liberated from their im- prisonment on taking an oath of fidelity to the United States :- Resolved by this Assembly, that the said persons be liberated from their impris- onment on their taking an oath of fidelity to this State and paying costs, taxed at £22 7 10; and the keeper of the goal in Hartford is hereby directed to liberate said persons accordingly."
Of these seventeen names I can identify thirteen names as members of the Episcopal church of New Cambridge, and two others as having had children baptized there; and Mr. Nichols, the "designing church clergyman," was the rector. But imprisonment was not the worst of their suffering. The Joel Tuttle there mentioned was seized by a hand of over-zealous patriots, and hanged on the green east of this building, near the whipping-post; one of the party, seized by remorse or fear, returned and cut him down, and he revived; Chauncey Jerome narrowly escaped whipping; Mr. Nichols is said to have been tarred and feathered,* and was indicted for treason before the Superior Court at Hartford in January, 1777, but escaped conviction ;; and Moses Dunbar, who was tried and convicted, and hanged for treason in March of the same year, was a brother-in-law of the two Jeromes, and four of his children were baptized in the New Cambridge church. Dunbar had been a resident of Waterbury; after his marriage to Phebe Jerome he lived in a house north of the South Chippen's Hill schoolhouse, east of the highway. He was the only tory hanged in Connecticut for trea- son. His dying statement and last message to his children, printed in the recent history of Waterbury, show him to have been a man of character, conscientious in his loyalist views, tender to his family, and of Christian spirit.#
Church services were entirely discontinued here, and we may well believe the little church to have been the target of many bitter curses, and of more material missiles. After the storm of the war was over the little parish gathered itself together again, but the church appears to have been unfit for use. Occasional meetings were held in private houses for a time. In 1784, they voted, "that we are willing to meet again in the church which haith lain desolate for some time on account of the persecution of the times, and voted that we would repair the church house." But the load was too great for the weakened company to carry. In 1792 they united with the Episcopalians of Harwinton and Plymouth to establish the little church, midway between the three towns, which is now known as East Church; and Episcopacy ceased to exist here until Trinity Church was organized in 1834.
The record of this early Episcopal church was some twenty years ago in existence in East Plymouth, bearing on the cover the significant motto, "Fear God and Honor the King," but it has since dissappeared. By good fortune an authentic copy is in existence, and has just come into the possession of the Bristol Public Library. The church building was sold to Abel Lewis, who used it many years as a barn; and the arched windows were until a few years ago in the gambrel-roofed house which stood near the site of the Swedish Lutheran church. The church- yard, in the rear of the schoolhouse, had long lain neglected, until by the public spirit of one of my auditors,* it has very lately been cleared of weeds and rubbish, and the gravestones put in order. A boulder has also been set to mark the site of the church building, on which an in- scription is shortly to be cut. Five of the nine original seceders from the Congregational church lie buried in that yard; and three of them are among those whose imprisonment I have spoken of.
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