USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church, Hartford, Volume I > Part 3
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The Rev. Thomas Davies, who was graduated at Yale College in 1758, and had recently returned in holy orders from the mother country, was stationed as a missionary in Litchfield county. Upon invitation, he came here and preached, sometime between the middle of January and the beginning of April, 1762, and he is the first clergyman known to have conducted public services in Hartford accord- ing to the liturgy of the English church.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, sometime of Stratford, has been called the Father of Episcopacy in Connecticut. He was then President of King's College in the City of New York, but his interest in the church in his native Colony was unabated: he kept himself fully informed of its progress, and his advice was constantly asked. He held a regular corre- spondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
* Susanna, daughter of John Beauchamp. She afterwards was mar- ried to Allen McLean, and died December 5, 1742. (The date on the monument is incorrect.) John Beauchamp was an ancestor of the late Charles Sigourney.
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and it is to these letters,* in the absence of records, that we are indebted for many items of information. Under date of April 10, 1762, he writes from New York to Archbishop Secker, a prelate who had the welfare of the church in the Colonies much at heart, "I hear they are about building a church in Hartford, the chief town in Connecticut, and hope to have a considerable congregation there and several people of note ; where, if a mission were opened, it might include the care of Simsbury, fifteen miles off." A parish had been organized in Simsbury about twenty years previously. None of the missions in the Colony were self-supporting.
Measures were taken to raise money for the purchase of a piece of ground and for building, and on the 6th of October, 1762, Charles Caldwell, in consideration of £80, lawful money, paid him by John Keith, William Tiley, William Jepson, Hezekiah Marsh, and Thomas Burr, a committee of the brethren of the Episcopal church in the town of Hart- ford, deeded to them, their associates and successors forever, a piece of land ninety-nine feet three inches in width on Main street and the same in the rear, and to extend west- wardly so far as to make exactly half an acre. This purchase covered the spot occupied by the old church on the north side of Church street, which street was not opened until about 1794, and comprehended the northeast corner of the lot on which the present Christ Church stands. The lots on Main street were not originally laid out at right angles with the street.
We are not able to give the names of all the brethren who associated together for building the church, but some account of their representative men may be acceptable :
Capt. John Keith was a native of Scotland. He had been master of one of the transport vessels which carried the troops of the Colony to the West Indies in the year 1740. He had been one of the selectmen in 1754-5. He was now a merchant, living and keeping his shop in the wooden
* Some are printed in the Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, others in Hawks and Perry's Documentary History of the P. E. Church in Connecticut.
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building, still standing, Nos. 176, 178 State street. He had married, November 5, 1751, the widow Marianne Lawrence, daughter of John Beauchamp and mother of John Lawrence, Treasurer of Connecticut from 1769 to 1789. His brother, William Keith, also a merchant here, had previously married her daughter,* and they were great-grandparents on the maternal side of the late Governor Thomas H. Seymour. Another brother, Alexander Keith, was an Episcopal clergy- man in South Carolina, and is mentioned in Dr. Dalcho's History of the Church in that State.t Capt. John Keith died suddenly, February 1, 1775, aged 73, and his remains were carried to Middletown, and deposited in the tomb of Capt. Philip Mortimer, with whom he had been associated in business. His widow died January 12, 1784, aged 88. In his will, dated July 12, 1771, he directed that in case his adopted son, William Keith, should die under age or before himself, what he had therein given him should be turned into money and with it a suitable piece of ground purchased to be and remain a glebe for the use and benefit of the Epis- copal church in Middletown, as a memorial of himself for ever. Descendants of this William Keith are believed to live in Middletown or Cromwell.
William Tiley kept a shop near that of Capt. Keith, and he also had been master of a sloop, which he sold, and then kept the tavern formerly Ebenezer Williamson's, where he provided the election dinner in 1741. He was buried March 1, 1781, at the age of 69, and his widow, Sarah, Octo- ber 13, 1798. He left one son, James, a goldsmith, who died at Norfolk, Va., and a daughter, Sarah, born May 27, 1746, who married William Adams, Esq. Descendants in the female line still belong to the church in this city.
William Jepson was educated in Boston as an apothecary,
* After the death of William Keith, his widow married, May 27, 1751, Rev. Jonathan Marsh, the first Congregational minister of New Hartford. By request, Mr. Marsh preached a sermon before the Episcopal church in Barkhamsted, on Christmas day, 1787, which was printed.
+ He died at Newport, R. I., January 8, 1772, aged 64. The Conn. Historical Society has a snuff-box which belonged to him.
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and instructed in the art or mystery of physic and surgery. He settled in Hartford about 1757, soon after he came out of his apprenticeship. Here, at the sign of the Unicorn and Mortar in Queen street (now Main), in partnership with Dr. Sylvester Gardner, who lived in Boston and furnished the capital, he carried on the business of apothecary and grocer,* - that is, he kept tea, sugar, and spices, as apothecaries then generally did. He married, December 2, 1756, Susanna, daughter of Daniel Collyer. She died January 1, 1772, aged 32. His second wife, Anna, survived him, and became the wife of George Loomis, November 20, 1788, and died February 14, 1831. Dr. Jepson was one of the founders of St. John's Masonic Lodge in this city in 1762. About 1769, he became embarrassed in business, through his lenity and good nature, as he alleged, and in 1771 petitioned the General Assembly for an act of insolvency, which was granted in October, 1772. In April, 1775, he was appointed surgeon of the second regiment raised for the defense of the Colony. He is said to have been a skillful physician. Thacher's Medical Biography incidentally notices him as "a prominent professional character of the last century." At one time he was afflicted with insanity, and attempted suicide. He was buried May 21, 1783, at the age of 50.
Hezekiah Marsh married, December 15, 1743, Christian, daughter of Deacon John Edwards, by whom he had eight
* Some other early apothecaries here were: Thomas Langrell, born March 6, 1727-8, graduated at Harvard College, 1751, which he entered from Lebanon, Conn. He was drowned in the Connecticut, June 15, 1757, with William Harpy of Harvard, Mass. They had gone over the river for rose leaves. His widow, whose maiden name was Mary Hyde, of Norwich, died in New Haven, December 16, 1766. Lothrop & Smith were druggists and booksellers in King street (State street), contempora- neous with Gardner & Jepson. They dissolved in 1771, and were 'succeeded by Smith & Coit. Richard Tidmarsh, physician, surgeon, midwife, and apothecary, succeeded to Dr. Jepson's shop in Queen street, August, 1774, but it was occupied by Thomas Hilldrup, in 1776, as a watchmaker. Hezekialı Merrill advertises drugs, etc., at the sign of the Unicorn and Mortar in 1775, and it seems that George Merrill had the same sign the next year.
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children. After her death, which took place June 16, 1770, he married Elizabeth, widow of Levi Jones, killed by the fatal explosion at the schoolhouse, May 23, 1766. She died October 24, 1788, and he took for his third wife, Hannah, widow of Samuel Tiley. Capt. Marsh died April 18, 1790, aged 71. Descendants reside in the town.
Thomas Burr was the grandfather of Alfred E. and Frank L. Burr of the Hartford Times. He died October 27, 1777, in his fiftieth year, and his widow, whose maiden name was Sarah King, died October 5, 1799, aged 73. Some of his descendants still worship with us.
Writing from New York to Dr. Burton, secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, under date of December 1, 1762,- after stating that the clergy in Connec- ticut had earnestly recommended Mr. Viets to be assistant to Mr. Gibbs at Simsbury, that his qualifications were good, and that above one hundred and thirty families appeared to be very zealous to have him their minister, - Dr. Johnson added: "I had thought that Hartford and Simsbury might be joined in one mission, but I find it will not do, for Mr. Viets would have his hands full in the care of three distinct districts ; and besides, the church has so increased at Hartford, not by means of any parties or contentions but by the still voice of reason and benevolence, that they are like to have a flourishing church, consisting of a number of good families - many by accession - and have founded and are zealously carrying on a considerably large and decent church, and think they shall undoubtedly raise £100 per annum procl. money for a minister. However, it being the metropolitical town of the province, they cannot well do with- out £50 sterling at least, if it could be obtained, in order to support him in a manner suitable to such a station. They are extremely desirous and purpose in a few months earnestly to apply to the Society for Mr. Winslow of Stratford to be their minister, who is indeed by much the most suitable person they could have ; and his condition is such, having a large, expensive, and growing family, that he cannot tolerably
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subsist at Stratford, though they do their utmost for him ; so that it seems indispensably necessary that he should, if pos- sible, otherwhere be better provided for."
Dr. Johnson, desirous of relinquishing the care of the col- lege and of spending the evening of his days with the people of his former charge, to whom he was much attached, had so written to the archbishop, who replied March 30, 1763, " We have heard nothing directly from Hartford yet. Whenever a fit opportunity offers we shall be very desirous of doing whatever may be agreeable to you." But before that reply was written, the death of his wife had already caused the doctor at once to send in his resignation of the office of president, and to return to Stratford.
A letter from Mr. Winslow to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, dated July 1, 1763, says : "Dr. Johnson has communicated to me what you are pleased to mention to him respecting the appli- cation which was understood to be made to the Society from the people of Hartford, and the proposal of my obtaining liberty to remove there and his being reinstated here. The worthy doctor, whose residence here affords me singular comfort as well as benefit, seems of late to decline the thoughts of undertaking this or any other stated charge as too troublesome to his years ; and as to myself, I wholly acquiesce in the Society's pleasure. I have no cause for any uneasiness here but for the insufficiency of my support, which would make it needful for me to embrace an oppor- tunity of being nearer my friends, under some better circum- stances for the benefit of my family. As you are pleased in so kind a manner to ask me to be explicit on this head, I would acquaint you that, beside the Venerable Society's bounty, I receive £30 sterling per annum from this congre- gation, arising from an assessment on the ratable estates, made by virtue of a law of the Colony, which obliges the professors of the church to pay their proportion of this assess- ment to the minister under whose care they are. We are also provided here with a decent house and two acres of land adjoining, and about as much more at a little distance.
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These articles make the whole advantage of this living, which, I believe, may at the extent be estimated at £100 sterling value. But this I find too unequal to the unavoid- able charge of a family of ten children and the expense of absolute necessities to support the reputation of the church and of my office in a place of so much resort as this ; though I endeavor at as thrifty a management of my income as pos- sible. And were it not for the dependence I have and the assistance I receive from my friends in Boston, I could not live without much difficulty or with proper decency. It appeared probable I might be under some better advantages at Hartford, and I was in hopes from the general desires of the people there joined to the opinion and advice of my brethren of the clergy and other friends for my removal, that if my life has hitherto in any degree been useful to the pur- poses of my office, I might not be less so there ; and it would have brought me sixty miles nearer Boston. But I cheerfully resign myself to the conduct of God's good providence, and fully rest in the Society's wisdom, persuaded they are the best judges what measures are most expedient for the general interests of the church, and being far from desiring any sta- tion or charge merely for my own comfort without a view of being instrumental in promoting the interest of religion and the church, and willing, for sake of this duty, to submit to the inconveniences which may be my lot. It cannot but much engage all our wishes to see a church established in a place of so much consequence as Hartford. The persons concerned in the undertaking there propose carrying on the building as they are able, though this will be but slowly. They are obliged for your mentioning to Dr. Johnson the Society's intention to recommend it to Mr. Viets, if placed at Simsbury, to take some care of them, but would, with submission, rather wish that, instead of this, they might be annexed to Middletown when that mission is again supplied; as the nearness of these two towns, their continual inter- course and united commercial interests would make it much more convenient, and of greater advantage to their design of collecting themselves into a congregation, which they hope
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the Society, in the measure and manner that seem meet to their wisdom, will be pleased to favor with their patronage."
Mr. Winslow was transferred to the vacant mission at Braintree, Mass., toward the close of the year .* Archbishop Secker wrote to Dr. Johnson, "It grieves me to concur in postponing any of the new missions which you would have us establish. But, indeed, some of those which we have established already in New England and New York have so few members of our church in them, and there are so great numbers in other parts destitute of all instruction, whom we may hope to secure to our church by sending missionaries to them before other teachers get among them, I mean the new and frontier settlements, that I think we cannot avoid pre- ferring the latter. Would God we could effectually assist both." To this the doctor replied, August 10, 1763, "I am sensible of your difficulty in making new missions, and for the reasons your grace gives, which I have often used to repress the forwardness of people to expect. And this, among other things, has abated the forwardness of Hartford, who have of late gone on but heavily. They are, however, building, and I hope will in time be a flourishing church." December 20, 1763, he wrote again to the archbishop, “It would be well Hartford (who desire it, and is but 12 miles off) should be joined with Middletown under the care of Mr. Jarvis lately gone for orders." "As to Hartford," he wrote to the Society, "the clergy think to take turns there once a month, so that they may not be quite discouraged."
The records of the Rev. Roger Viets of Simsbury show various services performed by him here between 1764 and 1775. The first baptism mentioned is that of William, son of Timothy Phelps, January 16, 1764; the first marriage, that of Julius Jones to Elizabeth Dickinson, both of Hartford, December 16th, in the same year; the first administration of the Lord's Supper, March 2, 1766, in the court house, to six communicants; the first funeral with the full services of the
* There is a manuscript sermon by Mr. Winslow in the library of Trinity College. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1741, and died in 1780.
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church, that of William Gardner, June 9, 1766, one of the victims of the terrible explosion which occurred at the school- house while preparations were making to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Rev. Samuel Peters, the Society's missionary at Hebron, reports, May 31, 1764, that he preaches at Hartford, Coventry, Mansfield, and Bolton, as often as he could consistently with his other avocations. The Rev. Mr., afterwards Bishop, Jarvis, of Middletown, also from time to time officiated here.
The French war, like other long wars, was naturally fol- lowed by a period of financial depression. Land had been bought and stone foundations for a church had been laid, but it was found inpracticable to raise money to erect the super- structure. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had declined making any more missions in New England, and the churchmen here were not able to support a clergyman without assistance. Dr. Mayhew and others had vehemently attacked the conduct of the Society in encouraging the growth of the Church of England in these parts, and succeeded in stirring up much bitterness. Political disputes with the mother country arose. Men's minds were exasperated by the claims put forth by the British Parliament, and there were civil commotions in parts of the Colony. The Episcopal clergy counselled obedience to the law and loyalty to the crown, and exerted themselves to discourage rebellion: but by those without her pale the progress of the church was viewed with a jealous eye as dangerous to the civil and ecclesiastical liberties of the country.
Under these circumstances John Keith and William Tiley on the 12th of July, 1765, executed to William Jepson a quit- claim of the land which had been purchased for the church. Dr. Jepson had advanced some part of the purchase-money and seems to have believed himself at liberty to dispose of what he had assisted to acquire; for, on the 16th of July, 1768, in consideration of £100, he undertook to transfer by deed of warranty to Robert Sanford the land with the stone lying thereon. On the 19th of January, 1769, Sanford executed a bill of sale of the stone lying on the church lot to Samuel
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Talcott, Jr., in consideration of the sum of £26. On the 8th of October in the same year, for £16, Sanford sold to Samuel Talcott, Jr., the northern part of the lot, containing sixteen rods or one-fifth of the land. On or about the 23d of April, 1770, Talcott entered upon the land, broke up the foundations of the church and carried away the stones, which were used for the foundation of a house which he was then building. Thereupon Thomas Burr, one of the members of the Episcopal church in the town of Hartford, and the rest of the members and brethren of said Episcopal church, brought an action of trespass against Talcott before the adjourned county court on the third Tuesday of June, 1770, laying their damages at £500. The Rev. Messrs. Peters and Viets, among others, were witnesses in the case, which was decided adversely to the plaintiffs: but on appeal to the superior court they recovered, at the adjourned session on the last Tuesday of December, 1771, the sum of £35 L. M., damages, and their costs taxed at £11 5 6 L. M. Immedi- ately after this, Thomas Burr, etc., entered suits in the county court held on the fourth Tuesday of January, 1772, against Robert Sanford and Samuel Talcott, Jr., to recover seizin of the land, and upon an appeal to the superior court held on the fourth Tuesday of December, 1772, obtained a decision restoring the land to the church with nominal damages and costs .*
A letter from the Rev. Ebenezer Dibblee, the Society's missionary at Stamford, to the secretary of the Society, dated October 8, 1770, says: "At the earnest request of the church-wardens, etc., at Hartford, eighty miles distance, I preached there on Trinity Sunday last to a numerous con-
* Compare the account given by Peters in the General History of Con- necticut: In 1760, a foundation of quarry stones was laid for an Episcopal church in this town, at the Expense of near £300, on which occasion the Episcopalians had a mortifying proof that the present inhabitants inherit the spirit of their ancestors. Samuel Talcott, Esq., one of the judges of the county court, with the assistance of a mob, took away the stones, and with them built a house for his son. What added to so meritorious an action was, its being justified by the General Assembly and the Consocia- tion.
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gregation (whose attention and behavior was good; the principal part being dissenters,) and baptized. They have applied for advice and assistance, being involved in a conten- tious law-suit in defence of the rights of their church, an encroachment having been made on a piece of land lately bought and sequestered to build a church upon and a beauti- ful foundation of hewn stone laid in place of the one removed. It appeared to us in Convention to be a wicked design of a powerful family, so to demolish the church there that it might never rise; and as we judged the claimant had no right, in law or equity ; and as such conduct, as we were told, was disapproved by many of the dissenters, we could not but approve of the professors of the church seeking a redress of such a sacrilegious alienation. In the meantime, to support their efforts, the Rev. Mr. Leaming preached there Sunday after convention, and the clergy in general engaged to take their turns; but we particularly recommended them to the care of the Rev. Mr. Peters."
From the year 1766 to 1775, inclusive, there was held an- nually a convention of delegates from the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia and from the Congregational Associations of Connecticut. The main object of these conventions was the preservation of the liberties of their churches, threatened, as they thought, by the attempts made by the friends of Episcopacy in the Colonies and in Great Britain for the establishment of bishops in America. To prevent their establishment the convention entered into a correspondence with the Committee of Dissenters in England, and made arrangements for ascertaining the proportion of Episcopalians and non-Episcopalians in the Colonies, as well as for collecting the charters, laws, and customs of the same so far as they respected religious liberty. The Rev. Dr. Elizur Goodrich of Durham made a report in which he esti- mated that in the year 1774, out of a population of 4,881 whites in Hartford, there were but I11 Episcopalians.
During the war of the Revolution it is doubtful whether any services of the church were held in Hartford, nor do we know that any parish organization was kept up. Mr. Peters,
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the Society's missionary at Hebron, by his imprudence ren- dered himself so obnoxious to the Sons of Liberty that he was obliged to flee, and he took refuge in England, where he revenged himself by writing a book which he called a General History of Connecticut.
Mr. Viets of Simsbury, for secreting and aiding Major Christopher French* and Ensign Joseph Moland, prisoners of war who had escaped from Hartford jail, was arrested and imprisoned, bail being refused. In January, 1777, he was brought to trial and sentenced to pay a fine of £20 and sutf- fer a whole year's further imprisonment; but upon his petition to the General Assembly in May following, he was released from the jail and restricted to the town of Simsbury during the remainder of his sentence, and put under bonds of £1,000. After the peace he removed to Digby, Nova Scotia, where he died in 1811.t
At Middletown, " Mr. Jarvis only read some chapters in the bible and preached a sermon in his own clothes, not daring to read the church service." Soon after the Declara- tion of Independence the clergy of Connecticut, at a conven- tion held at New Haven July 23, 1776, resolved to suspend the exercise of their ministerial functions. They could not, consistently with their views of duty and the obligations of the oath of allegiance which they had taken, omit from the liturgy the prayers for the King, and to use them was to invite almost certain destruction.
On the map of Main street in the time of the Revolution, in Barber's Connecticut Historical Collections, Abraham Beach, Episcopal minister, is put down as residing on the
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