USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church, Hartford, Volume I > Part 4
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* A part of his journal while a prisoner is printed in Vol. I of the Col- lections of the Connecticut Historical Society.
+ In 1800 he visited his old friends in Connecticut, where in the towns of Simsbury, Granby, Windsor, and Hartford, between June 19th and July 14th, he baptized 105 children and adults. Mr. Viets was born in Simsbury, son of John and Lois [Phelps] Viets, and uncle of Bishop Alexander Viets Griswold, whose baptism he records May 25, 1766. He was graduated at Yale College in 1758, and is said to have been a man of refined taste and a good scholar. The writer's maternal grandfather was fitted for college by him.
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
south corner of Sheldon street; but I find no tradition of any ministration here by him .*
After the superior court had declared the conveyance from Jepson to Sanford to be invalid, the latter made application to the General Assembly as a court of chancery, which, as he states, decided that Jepson had an equitable lien upon the land for the sum of about £60 lawful money, which ought to inure to the benefit of the said Sanford and to be paid to him by the professors of the church of England, in order to their being fully quieted in the enjoyment and possession of the land. Samuel Talcott, Jr., on the 2d of January, 1778, had reconveyed to Robert Sanford that portion of the lot which he had bought of him, and having received the £60, Robert Sanford, on the 15th of January, 1785, released by deed his claim upon the land to William Adams, Esq., Messrs. John Morgan and John Thomas, and to the rest of the asso- ciates and professors of the Episcopal church in the town of Hartford, and to their successors forever.
Of those who had associated in 1762, some had died and others removed ; but the number was more than made good by those who had come from other places to reside here. A new parochial organization was effected the next year, as follows :
HARTFORD, November 13, 1786.
We the underwritten do, by these presents, associate ourselves into a Religious Society, by the style and title of the Episcopal Society of the City of Hartford, under the direction and government of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Seabury and the Episcopal clergy of the State of Connecticut.
William Adams, Stacy Stackhouse,
Jno. Morgan,
Cotton Murray,
John Thomas,
Isaac Tucker,
* Abraham Beach was born in Cheshire Sept. 9, 1740. He was the step-son of Dr. Jonathan Bull, and after graduation at Yale College, in 1757, went into trade and was a sutler in the army. It is said that he wrote the prospectus for the Connecticut Courant, in the earliest number of which, October 29, 1764, he advertises to exchange salt for flax seed. He was ordained deacon and priest in London in May and June, 1767, and was settled as the Society's missionary at New Brunswick in New Jersey. After the peace he was assistant minister of Trinity church, N. Y. He died in 1828.
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ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
Jacob Ogden,
Wm. Burr,
Sam'l Cutler,
Elisha Wadsworth,
Thomas Hilldrup,
John Avery,
Jno. Jeffery,
Aaron Bradley.
George Burr,
William Adams was chosen clerk, William Imlay and John Morgan church-wardens, Samuel Cutler, John Thomas, Jacob Ogden, and John Jeffery vestrymen. These are the oldest recorded acts of the parish.
William Adams, son of William and Freelove [Arnold] Adams, was born in Milford, August 18, 1742. He studied law with Dr. Wm. Samuel Johnson and removed to Hartford, where Mr. Viets enters him as a conformist, Dec. 31, 1764. He married, Feb. 22, 1767, Sarah, daughter of William Tiley. He was a cousin of Benedict Arnold, and in the Revolution served as paymaster or as lieutenant from Jan. 1, 1777, to Jan. 1, 1781, in the 4th Connecticut regiment. He was the first city clerk of Hartford, chosen June 28, 1784, and con- tinued in office till his death, June 24, 1795. His widow died Feb. 25, 1818, aged 72. He had one son, who died an infant, and six daughters, one of whom, Abigail, born Sept. 5, 1772, baptized by Mr. Jarvis, married Horace Wadsworth ; another, Sarah, born April 6, 1785, baptized in the old court-house, died a few years since a member of the parish.
William Imlay, son of John and Elizabeth Imlay, was born at Bordentown, N. J., Nov. 12, 1742. He had been in busi- ness as a merchant in New York city, and upon its evacuation by the Americans, September, 1776, "left with the rest of his friends, upon the principle of an attachment to his country." Upon the resignation of John Lawrence, he received, in November, 1780, from the General Assembly, the appoint- ment of Commissioner of the Continental Loan Office, and on the organization of the federal government was made Commissioner of Loans, holding that office at the time of his death, August 5, 1807. Jonathan Bull was his successor. Mr. Imlay married Mary, widow of Joseph Church and daughter of Robert Nevins. Three of his sons, William H., John, and Richard, were baptized by Mr. Jarvis at Middle-
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
town. The former is remembered as one of the wealthiest and most enterprising of our citizens. John died at the age of 25, the next month after the death of his father. Richard lived in Philadelphia and New York. He invented a valuable improvement in railroad carriages, but died poor.
John Morgan, son of Theophilus, born at Killingworth June 27, 1753, was graduated at Yale College in 1774. He came here as early as 1781, and was a public-spirited mer- chant, connected with almost every undertaking for the pros- perity of our city in its infancy. The bridge across the Connecticut was projected by him, and on the street leading to it, opened by him and called by his name, he built what was in its day the finest block of stores in the place. His residence at the upper end of the same street was one of the handsomest here. He was warden until 1820, and to his zealous labors and liberal contributions the parish was indebted for its temporal prosperity more than to those of any other individual. He married Sally,* daughter of Capt. Samuel and Sarah [Stillman] Lancelot, of Wethersfield, and had but one child, a daughter, who married Thomas Glover of New York. Mr. Morgan's last days were spent in New York in straitened pecuniary circumstances, and he died in that city Sept. 19, 1842. His wife died June 21, 1840, aged 76. His half-brother Elias, baptized at Killingworth by Mr. Viets 20th October, 1771, was also a member of this parish. He
* A cousin of Mrs. Morgan deserves to be commemorated. Mrs. Emily Phillips, daughter of Samuel and Meliscent [Riley] Stillman, was born July 14, 1779. She was married Oct. 2, 1804, by Rev. Mr. Rayner, to George T. Phillips, who died in New Orleans about 1808. She was a devoted disciple of the church, and about 1815 exchanged some letters with Judge Daggett of New Haven on the Episcopal controversy which were circulated in manuscript and won for her the title of Defender of the Faith. She died at Middletown, April 15, 1843, leaving to the parish a legacy, with which was purchased the paten used in the communion ser- vice, and to Trinity College most of what little she possessed. She was buried in the tomb of the Rileys in her native town. Capt. Riley, of African fame, was a relative of hers.
+ He was one of the proprietors of the "New Theatre " on Temple, then called Theatre street. It was opened August 3, 1795. He died in the West Indies, May 15, 1812.
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ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
built the house now occupied by George M. Bartholomew, on Prospect street.
John Thomas was the father of the late James Thomas, Comptroller of Public Accounts from 1819 to 1830. Upon some disgust he left the church. He was buried Sept. 4, 1799, aged 66.
Jacob Ogden was born at Newark, N. J., Nov. 10, 1749. His grandfather and father, both bearing the name of David, were lawyers in that place. David, the father of Jacob, married his cousin Catharine, daughter of Col. Josiah Ogden, a prominent citizen of Newark who had become an Episco- palian about 1734, on account of dissatisfaction with some proceedings of the Presbyterian church against him .* Hav- ing lost his father when about a year old, he was brought up in the Episcopal church by his mother. He married, in 1772, Jerusha, daughter of Joseph Rockwell of Colebrook. He had gone there as clerk for one Smith, an Englishman, who had iron-works there. At the beginning of the Revolution Smith returned to England and Ogden took the works, which were accidently burned August 30, 1781, soon after which he removed to Hartford. Here he was a merchant of enterprise. He built the long wooden block on the south side of Ferry street, and for his residence the building on State street formerly known as the Exchange Hotel - burned a few years ago. He lost considerable money in connection with the building of the State House, and removed to Washington Bridge, between Milford and Stratford, where he kept a pub- lic house. In 1804 he opened in New Haven a hotel, for twenty years celebrated as the Coffee House. Mr. Ogden was a very active and social man, witty and quick at repartee. He died March 30, 1825, his wife having preceded him some thirteen years. He left several children. One son was a Congregational minister.
Samuel Cutler was born in Brookfield, Mass., March 18, 1740-I, and graduated at Harvard College 1765. He studied medicine in Edinburg, and on his return to America settled
* Stearns' Historical Discourses relating to the First Presbyterian Church in Newark.
4
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
at Edenton, N. C., but was obliged to leave that place on account of the prejudices of the people against an establish- ment which he had opened for inoculating with the small- pox. He removed to Hartford, and here married Jennette, daughter of Capt. James Caldwell, by whom he had two sons and three daughters .* One of these daughters was the wife of Rt. Rev. Carlton Chase, Bishop of New Hampshire. About 1790 he removed to Vermont. The Episcopal church in Bellows Falls owes its foundation to him. He died in November, 1821.
Thomas Hilldrup was a watch repairer, bred to the finish- ing branch in London. He settled here about 1772. He was married to Susanna Hull of Wethersfield, January 30, 1777, by Mr. Jarvis, at Middletown, and had a son (Thomas J.) baptized by the same, September 27th of that year. He was appointed postmaster of Hartford as early as 1777,t and held the office till the close of 1794. He was buried September 21, 1795, aged 55, and his widow, November 4, 1796, aged 44.4
John Jeffery came from Rhinebeck, N. Y. He married, October 28, 1766, Sarah Nichols. He at one time kept a private school for teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, and wrote in the Treasury or Pay-Table office in Hartford. He was father of the late Anthony Jeffery. John Jeffery died November 10, 1801, aged 59, and his widow, December, 1809, aged 62.
George and William Burr were sons of Thomas. The former was married by Mr. Jarvis at Middletown, March 19, 1775, to Sarah Joyce of that place. Both left children.
Stacy Stackhouse was a maker of Windsor chairs. He
* An infant child of Dr. Cutler was buried May 23, 1787. Two letters of Dr. Cutler are printed in Iredell's Works, ii, 127, 130, and there is reference to him on p. 444 of the same volume.
+ William Ellery was postmaster of Hartford in 1770.
# William Hilldrup was connected in the West India trade with Ezekiel Williams, his father's successor in the post-office. In 1801, and subsequently, he went master of the schooner Catharine, and was murdered at Nevis in 1803.
51
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
came from New York about the beginning of the year 1786, and returned to the same State about 1795 .*
Cotton Murray came here from New Hampshire. He advertises as a tailor in the Courant, Jan., 1774, and after- wards kept a tavern at the sign of the Globe,t just north of the church - perhaps the present St. John's Hotel. His house was the usual place for parish meetings. Cotton Murray died October 21, 1813, and his wife at the age of 55, August 15, 1798. His daughter kept a school here for forty- five years.
Isaac Tucker was one of the associates in 1762. He was a blacksmith, and served as an armorer in the French war. I suppose he came from Taunton, Mass. He had only two sons, Isaac and James. Both fell "in battle nobly contend- ing in the cause of their country,- Isaac being shot dead in an instant by a cannon ball at the White Plains in A.D. 1776. James was shot through the body in the action of Sept. 19, 1777."> Isaac Tucker was buried October 17, 1799, aged 82. His wife was buried September 1, 1776, aged 54.
Elisha Wadsworth was the father of that Elisha Wads- worth who kept a tavern at the corner of Albany avenue and Prospect Hill road, and grandfather of Sidney Wadsworth, who now lives in the same place. He died June, 1803, and his widow, Annie, died February, 1815, aged 83.
John Avery advertises in the Courant of April 10, 1786, genteel private lodgings and the best of stabling for horses, next door to John Trumbull's, Esq., nearly opposite Mr.
* A license for the marriage of Stacy Stackhouse and Catharine Cal- low was issued in New York, July 15, 1775.
+ Samuel Mattox had formerly occupied the house. He came from New Haven, and here married, March 14, 1763, Sarah Bidwell. At his request, being a member of the Church of England, he was admitted to the First Congregational Church, in order to have his children baptized. He entered the revolutionary army in 1776 as an ensign, served as cap- tain in the Connecticut line, 1777-9, and soon after removed to Tin- mouth, Vt. In that State he held various public offices, among others, that of treasurer, from 1786 to 1800. His youngest son, John, became governor of Vermont. Samuel Mattocks died at Middlebury, Vt., about 1804, aged 65.
52
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
Samuel Burr's, and also offers for sale an assortment of dry goods and groceries, etc.
Aaron Bradley came from Guilford about 1772. He was a blacksmith, and afterwards kept a tavern in Ferry street, then a more important avenue than at present. He died September 15, 1802, aged 61. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Chittenden, of Guilford, died January 21, 1819. Several of his descendants in female lines are connected with the parish.
At an adjourned society or parish meeting held at Mr. Cot- ton Murray's, November 20, 1786, it was voted that a commit- tee be appointed and chosen for the purpose of getting a sub- scription paper and procuring signers to the same, either in money, labor, or any specific articles, payable to them for the purpose of building an Episcopal church in this city.
The original subscription paper, dated November 28, 1786, is on file among the parish papers, headed with a sub- scription by John Morgan for £36, Jacob Ogden £24, John Thomas £20. 10s., Samuel Cutler £10, all payable in materials for building. Money was extremely scarce at this time, and trade was carried on to a great extent by barter. Most of the subscriptions were payable in materials for building, labor, or West India goods. As specimens of some of them: Major John Cadwell subscribed fio in pure spirit, John Chenevard one hogshead of molasses, 110 gallons, Barnabas Dean £1o in materials for building or in rum, Noah Webster, Jr., £3, which he paid in seven dozen spell- ing-books. There was quite a number of subscribers who were not Episcopalians, and the whole amount raised was a little more than £300.
In March, 1792, John Morgan and Jacob Ogden agreed with Ebenezer Clark, joiner, to inclose the church in every particular that belongs to joiner's work, except the window frames and sashes, and to set the glass ; all to be done in a workmanlike manner, he being found the materials. He was to finish the work by the 24th of November then next, for which he was to receive the sum of £90, and to take his
53
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
pay in West India goods, so far as the subscriptions were payable in said goods, and the rest in cash, and what joiner's work was subscribed towards the church he was to allow for.
There was no formal laying of a corner-stone, but there is a tradition that when sundry were gathered to see the com- mencement of the work, Prince Brewster, the mason, a mem- ber of the parish, said, "I lay this stone for the foundation of an Episcopal church, and Sam Talcott and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."*
The frame was raised in June, 1792, and there is on file a bill for nine gallons of rum, which was probably expended on that occasion. The size of the building was ninety feet in length by forty-four in breadth. The steeple fell while the work was in progress.
The church was still uncompleted in 1795, and to finish it, in June of that year there was another subscription, amount- ing to $575. A great part of the original lot was sold about this time and the proceeds applied to the same purpose.
The regular records of the parish commence in 1795, but for several years they are quite meagre.
At an adjourned parish meeting held July 10, 1795, it was voted that the society will allow Mr. Calvin Whiting, for his services for six months as a candidate for the ministry, fifty pounds lawful money and his board. The time to commence from the first of June, 1795.
Mr. Whiting was the posthumous son of Jonathan Whit- ing, born at Needham, Mass., March 4, 1771; and graduated at Harvard College in 1791. After leaving college he taught school at Roxbury, Mass., for a year and a half, when he became a student in divinity. In Hartford, besides reading prayers and sermons in the church, he kept a small school for boys in a chamber of the building next south of this church, taken down in the summer of 1875. The names of his fifteen pupils are found on a paper among the parish files. In September he was seized with the dysentery, then epidemic here, and after languishing for six weeks, expired
* See this story told by Bishop Chase in The Motto Nov. 10, 1851, p. I3I.
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
on Saturday, October 17th, and was buried on the following Monday in the ancient burying-ground, where his grave- stone is to be seen .* A funeral sermon was preached in the Congregational Church at Needham by the pastor there,t in which he is spoken of with great respect and esteem, and the newspapers of the time concur in representing him as a young man of amiable manners, a sincere Christian, and an acceptable preacher.}
What efforts were made during the next year to procure a clergyman, the parish records do not disclose.§ At this
* In memory of CALVIN WHITING Candidate for the Ministry. of Needham Mass. who died Oct. 16 A.D. 1795. aged 24 years.
+ A sermon occasioned by the death of Calvin Whiting, A.M., of Needham, who died at Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, October 17, 1795, aet. 25. Delivered at Needham the Lord's day after his inter- ment, by Stephen Palmer, A.M., pastor of a church in Needham. Bos- ton, 1795, Svo, pp. 19.
# The employment of lay preachers, or preaching candidates, was an abuse against which Bishop Jarvis protested in his address to the Dio- cesan Convention, in June, 1807.
§ Another Association, entered into at this time, supplies us with addi- tional names of parishioners:
Whereas sundry of the subscribers and other persons in the city of Hartford have formed themselves into a Religious Society by the stile and title of the Episcopal Society of the City of Hartford under the di- rection and government of the Right Reverend Bishop of Episcopal Clergy, and constituted themselves and become a society for the above purposes,
We, the undersigned, do hereby agree to join and associate ourselves into said society, and further to be governed in all meetings by the rules and regulations pointed out by the Legislature of this State for the gov- erning and regulating religious societies.
HARTFORD, Sept. 15, 1796.
Wm. Imlay, Thomas Sanford, Jr., John McCrackan,
Jno. Morgan, Horace Church,
Wm. Burr,
James Bull,
Selden Chapman, James Ward,
55
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
time the number of clergy in the diocese was considerably less than that of the parishes. March 4, 1797, Mr. John Morgan and Mr. William Imlay were appointed a committee to make in behalf of this church an offer to the Rev. Ashbel Baldwin of Stratford of a salary of five hundred dollars per annum as minister of the parish. Mr. Baldwin declined the call, regarding the salary as insufficient to support his family. The wardens and vestry were authorized, Dec. 14, 1799, to hire a clergyman to officiate for such time, not ex- ceeding three months at any time, until a suitable person should be found whom the church could agree to settle. The vestry were desired, Jan. 28, 1801, to appoint a commit- tee to write or send to the Rev. Ammi Rogers of Ballstown, N. Y., to see whether he would officiate here; but the parish was happily spared the disgrace of having that unworthy person for its first rector. On the 12th of July, 1801, it was voted that the Rev. Menzies Rayner of Elizabethtown, N. J., be requested to take charge of the church, at a salary of six hundred dollars a year, to commence from the 20th of August then next- an invitation which was accepted; and thus, after struggling for nearly forty years, the parish became completely organized.
When the church was first opened for divine service the records do not inform us, but it was probably some time in 1795. Before it was ready for occupation services were held in the old wooden State-house. It was consecrated on the IIth of November, 1801 - a very rainy day .. The Courant of the 16th gives the following account of the exercises: "On Wednesday last the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese of the
Jacob Ogden,
Michael Olcott,
Sam. P. Jones,
Aaron Bradley,
John McKnight,
Francis Pratt,
James Cook, Spencer Whiting,
Joseph Utley,
George Burr,
John Lee,
Joseph Wadsworth,
William Wetmore,
John Indicott,
Roger Wadsworth,
Cotton Murray,
Francis Brown,
John Cook,
Prince Brewster, Jno. Jeffery,
James Wadsworth.
Theodore Hopkins,
Elias Morgan, P. Sanford, Aaron Hosford,
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
State of Connecticut * assembled in this city at the house of the Rev. Menzies Rayner, and went in procession to Christ's Church, and the same was consecrated to the worship of Almighty God by the Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D., Bishop of this State. The Rev. Mr. Seabury performed the morning service; the Rev. Mr. Burhans read the deed of consecration; } the Rev. Mr. Rayner was inducted into the cure of said church by the Rev. Mr. Shelton, according to the rites of the Protestant Episcopal Church of this State; } the Rev. Mr. Baldwin delivered a discourse well adapted to the occasion from the 2 Chronicles, vii chap., from the 12th to the 17th. The solemnity of the performances was highly gratifying, manifested by a decent audience, considering the inclemency of the day. The music was well performed, with the assistance of the organ, under the direction of Mr. Elias Morgan. The whole concluded with the administration of the Holy Eucharist."
Mr. Jacob Ogden had been engaged to furnish a dinner for the clergy, for which his bill was £4 13.
The church was of wood, and the handsomest then in the place. When it was erected it is believed that there were less than a dozen brick buildings in Hartford. It had a steeple adorned with four urns and surmounted with a spire. It contained on the ground floor eight square pews on the north and south sides, respectively, and twenty-six
* Besides Bishop Jarvis, were present Rev. Dr. Bowden, Rev. Messrs. Fogg, Tyler, Shelton, Baldwin, Prindle, Seabury, Marsh, Burhans, Gris- wold, afterwards Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, Rayner, Butler, War- ner, E. Rogers, Jones.
| The instrument of dedication was presented to the Bishop by John Morgan, church warden. The deed of consecration, signed Abraham Bp. Connect., is on file.
# In 1799, the diocesan convention desired Dr. Wm. Smith "to pre- pare an Office for inducting and recognizing Clergymen into vacant Parishes." He complied, and the office was adopted by the bishop and clergy in convocation the next year, and this is supposed to have been the first occasion of its use thereafter, but it had been used in Newtown and Ripton, December, 1799, and January, 1800. Beardsley's W. S. Johnson, 161-2. The office was adopted by the diocesan and general conventions in 1804.
Be'id known unto all whomit may- concern, that on the 11th day of November P 1801 the above infrumin ho Dedication CONNE Abraham, C/ bonne! was presented in to us the Bishop of- Connecticut at theholy table, by In. shin Morgan church worden, and openly read byfor the congregation. there alombled and that in consequence thereof the said church called christ church, was, on that day, duly consecrated, and with apart for the worship and services of tomichty Goel forever. Ith Wilne's whereof, we have hereun to afixedour Enriscos -hal Seal; the day and I can above wie them, and in the fifth year of our consuration ..
1
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ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
slips. One of these pews had a canopy over it, and was called the Governor's pew .* There was a like dignified pew in the First Congregational Church, for the legislature sat here in May, annually, and as facilities for traveling were not so great as at present, most of the members remained in Hartford during the whole time of the session. How- ever, there was no Episcopal Governor or Deputy Governor to occupy this pew until 1816, when Jonathan Ingersoll was elected to the latter office. There were galleries sup- ported by square Ionic pillars. The windows were round arched. There was but one doorway, which was in the centre of the steeple, and this was ornamented with some carved work.
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