USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Christ church, Hartford, Volume I > Part 5
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The organ was the first in Hartford, and for several years the only one in this part of the State. It was built by George Catlin, at his shop lately standing near the first milestone on the Windsor road. It was but a small affair, not more than five or six feet wide. On the front was a large spread eagle, through the shield on whose breast the pipes appeared. The vestry agreed to pay Mr. Catlin two dollars a week for the use of the organ, on condition that he provided an organist to play on the same to their acceptance on each whole Sunday and on public days. Mr. Ely Roberts was also hired to instruct a singing-school.
Parish officers were chosen in October, 1801, and there seems to have been no renewing of the choice until Easter Monday, 1803. William Wellert was present as a lay dele- gate at the diocesan convention in 1802, but there is no entry of any appointment on the parish records. With the foregoing exception, the parish was unrepresented by a lay- man until the convention held in Hartford in June, 1812, although delegates were appointed in 1803, 1808, and 1809.
The usual mode of supporting ecclesiastical societies was by taxation; but as it was thought unadvisable to resort to
* This continued until the pews were altered into slips in 1822.
+ William Weller, Lancellot Place, Rainbow Mills, in 1801, advertises that he pays cash for grain. Later advertisements, in 1803-4, by not specifying any other place imply that he resided in Hartford.
.
58
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
this if it could be avoided, the sittings were rented, and as the receipts from this source did not pay the yearly expense, a contribution was taken up on every Sunday and other days when services were held. The treasurer's book shows the amounts received on each occasion from October, 1801, to March, 1818, when the practice was discontinued. At Mr. Rayner's desire, the collections were intermitted in 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808. The sums gathered were but small. On the 4th of October, 1801, the amount was $5.15; on the IIth, $4.14; on the 18th, $4.39, and on the 25th, $4.63; on the second Sunday in March, 1818, $3.22; on the third, $2.38; and the whole received during the year 1817-18 was $121.15. To meet deficits subscriptions were made in 1802, 1807, and 1808. The first parish tax was laid in 1809, to raise the sum of $400. These subscriptions and the tax lists are entered in full on the records, and enable us to learn who composed the parish at the respective dates.
In 1807* an endowment fund was begun; for the support of the church depended upon a very few individuals, most of the parishioners being blessed with but little wealth. Four hundred and forty-five dollars were raised by Mr. Morgan in New York city, to which was added the proceeds of a small piece of land sold, and other donations, bringing the sum up to eight hundred dollars. This was invested in stock of the Hartford Bank in pursuance of a vote passed December 7, 1807, which provided "that no part of the principal or inter- est be applied to any purposes of this parish, save only to establish a Fund: And whenever the principal and interest accumulating therefrom shall amount, with any other sums given or subscribed thereto, to a capital the annual
* The annual meetings of the parish had been held somewhat irreg- ularly and at different seasons of the year. Being advised that their proceedings in strictness of law were invalid in consequence of the time for the annual meeting not having been fixed by vote, upon the petition of John Morgan in behalf of the parish the General Assembly, in Octo- ber, 1807, authorized a meeting to be held to confirm the doings of former meetings; which meeting was held December 7th, and it was then voted that Easter Monday thereafter, annually, should be the day for holding a parish meeting for the choice of officers, etc.
59
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
income of which shall be Five hundred dollars, then the interest accruing may be applied to the support of a clergy- man in this parish, a parish school, or such other purposes for the support of this episcopal parish as the wardens and vestry may think proper. The wardens and clerk were appointed a committee to take care of the fund. In 1810, the parish adopted a constitution for the future management of the fund, in which the vote of 1807 was declared irrevo- cable, and very careful provisions were made for its safe- keeping and administration according to the intent of its institution. It was provided that "the Bishop shall in all cases have, and is hereby invested with a power over the doings of the parish in relation to this fund, which doings shall not be valid excepting they have the Bishop's concur- rence and approbation."
The General Assembly in May, 1829, incorporated the wardens and vestry by the name of the Trustees of the Epis- copal Church Fund, authorizing them to hold property to an amount not exceeding $10,000.
The fund had been carefully and well managed by Charles Sigourney, a man of excellent judgment and the most scru- pulous accuracy and integrity, and in 1830 consisted of eighty-five shares of stock in the Phoenix Bank, of which the par value was $8,500. Pursuant to a vote of the vestry, February 27th, of that year, the money was withdrawn from the bank and invested in scrip issued by the parish for the purpose of building the present church edifice. This step was vainly opposed by Mr. Sigourney, who foresaw, what the event proved, that the fund would vanish. When the scrip became due, in 1837, a parish meeting, held April 10th, authorized the wardens and vestry to continue the loan for a further term, not exceeding ten years, and to cause new scrip to issue. The rents of the pews were pledged as security for the payment of the interest, subject, however, to a prior lien for the payment of the interest on $20,000 borrowed of cer- tain individuals. At a vestry meeting, October 2, 1847, Cyprian Nichols was appointed to investigate the condition of the "old church fund," and at the next meeting he was
60
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
appointed a committee to receive the scrip belonging to it, then in the hands of Samuel H. Huntington. It seems that Mr. Nichols did not get it; for September 14, 1850, Zepha- niah Preston was authorized to receive the scrip from Mr. Huntington and deposit it in the Phoenix Bank for safe keep- ing, where it is now supposed to be; and this is the latest entry concerning the Episcopal Church Fund to be found on our records.
In 1809, the rector of this parish was constituted a mem- ber of the Hartford Library Company, and his successors continue to enjoy the privileges of the Hartford Library, into which, by the name of the Hartford Young Men's Institute, the Hartford Library Company was merged in 1839, after an existence of about sixty-five years.
Mr. Rayner resigned the rectorship October 14, 1811, and took charge of St. Paul's Church, Huntington, in Fairfield county, where he remained for about sixteen years. There had been dissatisfaction with him on the part of some mem- bers of the parish, who thought that he lacked that dignity and propriety of conduct which become a clergyman. It seems also that some did not then regard his teachings as quite orthodox.
Mr. Rayner was born in South Hempstead, L. I., Nov. 23, 1770. He did not receive a collegiate education, but at the age of twenty was ordained a Methodist preacher by Bishop Asbury, at Lynn, Mass. Having conformed to the church, he was ordained in New York by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Provoost, and was settled over the parish of St. Johns, Elizabethtown, N. J., for about six years before he was called to Hartford. He was an active man in the diocese, an able controversialist, and in many respects a good pastor. He preached the convention sermons in 1805 and 1815. Several of his sermons preached while rector here were printed .* In 1807, to assist in sup-
* He published while rector:
Christ's Mission. Hartford, 1806. [Having mislaid this sermon, I cannot now give a fuller account of it.]
A sermon delivered in the parish of Orford, town of East Hartford,
.
LEASE OF PEWS. IBOS
.Jus. Ward $ 20.00
16
-
Amas Ransom $ 2000
Jna Morgan 2000
15
N
Knox Thas Lloyd 2000
H"."Il hnlav 2000
14
Mr: Garner $ 11 35
42
w
Jos. Goodwin 1150
41
John Hall S 1390
Mich? Olcolt 2000
13
Il.Pour 1200
40 19
Joseph I'llcy 1250
A
R.Wadsworth 2000
Elij Boardutan 12.50 39 20
Lydia Royce 1000 Hin. Watson
Jos. Pinlt 1350
12
.J.W.'McLean 1000
38 21
Jona. Ramsey:925
5
Dan! (coll 16:00
Med 'leuver 1150
Capl. Sill 975
Sum! Lodlie 1000
6
Michl. Bull " 50
Jabez Perkins 700
Cyprian Nichols 925
O
Timothy Hatch 525
Ilezekiah.Bull 675
Wadsworth li.
W!" Wier /4:50
32 33
Ino Morgan 450
Mr. Stoun 100
31
28
Mr. Stade 450
30 29
.
8
D.Bissell 535
25 26 27
WLr: Stuwly 350
7
6
22 34 35 36 37 23 24
Nathan! : Jones 1100
Chas: Sigourney 850
17 18
Sam! Tudor 20%
61
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
porting himself, he taught the north district school. In 1827 he resigned the ministry of the Episcopal church, and Sep- tember 25th of that year was called to the Universalist church in this city, where he remained until August, 1831, after which he was settled in Portland, Me. In a letter to Rev. Hosea Ballou, dated Hartford, Feb. 5, 1828, after stating that he had been for some time persuaded of the truth of the Universalist doctrine and for several years had taught nothing contrary thereto, he says : "In whatever light my principles and proceedings may be viewed by my brethren of the Epis- copal church, I shall still cherish for them sentiments of respect and Christian charity, and especially the uniform candor and kindness with which I have been treated by the excellent Bishop of this diocese merit the acknowledgment of my gratitude and esteem."*
Mr. Rayner died in New York, November 22, 1850.
In his report to the convention in 1812, he gave the follow- ing statistics of this parish : Families about 80, 12 of 14 of which live in Windsor and East Windsor.t Baptisms in 1802, 17 ; 1803, 20 ; 1804, 17; 1805, 15; 1806, 20; 1807, 12; 1808, 17 ; 1809, 19; 1810, 20. Marriages, 1802, 4; 1803, 1; 1804, 3; 1805, 5; 1806, 8; 1807, 7;1808, 10; 1809, 14; and 1810, 16. Number of communicants in 1801, 6; in 1811, 34. From the bishop's addresses we learn that there were 58 confirmed here in 1808, and 62 in 1811.
May 18, 1806. Published by request. Hartford, printed by Lincoln & Gleason, 1806, pp. 15.
A charity sermon delivered in the North Presbyterian meeting-house in Hartford on Lord's day evening, September 15, 1811, at the request of the Female Beneficent Society. Hartford, Charles Hosmer printer, 1811, pp. 16.
While he was Universalist minister at Hartford, he printed on a half letter sheet, with the title " The Dunning Letter," some good-natured verses addressed to the wardens and vestry during his rectorship, asking for payment of arrears of his salary.
* Whittemore's Life of Ballou, ii, 360. In his letter to the Bishop, Oct. 9, 1827 (Beardsley's Hist. of the Church in Conn., ii, 453), he writes: " I shall still humbly claim to be considered as a member of the church, entitled to all its common privileges."
+ Rev. Ezra Stiles reckons that in 1762 there were perhaps five or six families of Episcopalians in Windsor.
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CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
The Rev. Philander Chase had recently returned to the North from New Orleans, where he was the first settled Protestant clergyman, and fixing his residence at Cheshire had placed his sons at the Episcopal Academy there. He began to preach in Hartford on Sunday, October 27, 1811. On the Ioth of December in that year, the parish voted unanimously that the vestry should make proposals to him to take charge of the parish as their minister, at a salary of eight hundred dollars a year. Mr. Chase accepted the office, with the stipulation that after two years his salary should be one thousand dollars per annum. He was instituted June 23, 1812. The sermon on the occasion was by the Rev. Henry Whitlock of New Haven, on I Tim. iii, 15, 16, and was printed. On the same day the first ordination here to the diaconate was held-that of the Rev. Birdsey G. Noble, soon after settled at Middletown - and on the next, the first diocesan convention which ever met in this city.
The church had no bell. When Hartford was settled the immigrants brought with them from Newtown, now Cam- bridge, a bell which I suppose was the first in New England. The Second or South Ecclesiastical Society had a bell by the will of William Stanley, who died in December, 1786. ยท There was a third bell on the grammar school. These were all which were then in Hartford. In the parish accounts is an entry of twenty-five cents paid, in 1802, to Mr. Burkett, sexton of the North, now Centre, Church, for ringing the bell on Christmas and New Year's Day. _ When the old meeting-house of the first society was taken down in Decem- ber, 1805, the bell and clock which had been in its steeple were removed, until their new edifice should be completed, to the steeple of Christ Church. The clock was the only public one in the city .* To defray the expense of this
* A clock, to strike the hour by day and by night, was procured by pub- lic subscription in 1752. I have been told that the date was painted on the dial. Within my remembrance the old works were in the steeple of the Centre church, and perhaps they are still there.
It is claimed that Guilford had the first public clock in the colony, as well as the first steeple, about 1726.
63
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
removal and of some necessary alterations in the steeple, a subscription was made among the inhabitants of the north- ern part of the city. Papers on file show that the money was raised in very small sums. In the latter part of the year ISII, steps were taken toward procuring a bell. After some negotiations with the committee of the First Ecclesiastical Society, which was willing to dispose of its old bell and pro- cure one of larger size, one was cast for the parish by Ward & Bartholomew,* which weighed seven hundred pounds and costs fifty cents a pound. Sundry persons not members of the parish subscribed towards it. After the tower of this church was completed, nearly forty years ago, this bell, not being thought heavy enough, was sold for $193 to the church in Hitchcocksville.
A new organ was procured in 1812, built by Catlin & Bacon in this city, at a cost of $500, as by contract ; but some additions were made, which brought the price up to $511.52. For the old instrument $150 was allowed, and the remainder was raised by subscription. The organ was con- siderably enlarged in 1817.
A parish library was begun in 1812. Messrs. T. & J. Swords of New York, well-known church booksellers, sent on consignment a number of Bibles, prayer-books, and other religious books particularly illustrative of the ordinances and doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A parish
* Church bells were cast in Hartford at least as early as 1787, by Jesse Goodyear and Enos Doolittle. Goodyear, in an advertisement, says that he had cast bells weighing 2,400 pounds. Doolittle and his son cast many bells for Ward & Bartholomew, and continued in the business until about 1841.
Ward & Bartholomew were goldsmiths and coppersmiths. The silver bowl formerly used for baptismal purposes (which disappeared in 1879), was presented by Mr. Bartholomew, as was also the arm-chair formerly used for the bishop's chair. He died in April, 1830, and was the first per- son buried from the new church.
Until within a few years it was the custom to ring Christ Church bell at noon, and the bells of the Centre and South at nine o'clock in the evening.
When, in 1816 and 1867, the funerals of Rev. Dr. Strong and his suc- cessor, Rev. Dr. Hawes, passed Christ Church, the bell was tolled.
64
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
meeting, March 30, 1812, authorized the vestry to receive these with others thereafter to be consigned, to keep them in some suitable place and use their influence to promote their sale ; * and it was voted that the commission allowed should be invested in books suitable for a parish library, of which the rector, wardens, and vestry were appointed man- agers and directors, and they were also requested to solicit donations for the library. Thomas Glover, son-in-law of John Morgan, was the first librarian, and was succeeded by Seth Whiting at Easter, 1813, and by William DeWitt in 1815, when it was ordered that the library should be opened every Saturday afternoon. The arrangement with the Messrs. Swords continued some six years. Papers and accounts on file show what books were sent and sold. A list of donors and donations to the parish library in 1818 is inserted at length in the parish records. Rules and regula- tions for the use of the library were adopted in 1820, which the rector was requested to read from the desk. In 1832-3, a subscription was made for the benefit of the library, since which time but few books have been added to it -the estab- lishment of the college and other public libraries in this city, and the greater ease with which church books can now be procured, having in some measure superseded the necessity for a parish library.
Chimneys were built and the church first warmed in the winter of 1815-16. Stoves were also introduced into the Center Church the same winter.
Bishop Chase's Reminiscences afford but few incidents of his life in this city. He says, "I returned to the Northern States, and in the fall of 1811 was, with uncommon felicity to myself, fixed as rector of Christ Church, Hartford, Con- necticut. My residence in this city continued till 1817. During this period the number of the faithful greatly increased ; the attendants at the Lord's Table, from a very
* Rev. Mr. Rayner kept church books on sale, as appears by an advertisement of his in August, 1808.
65
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
few, became a great number. I rejoiced to see the blessed effects of the gospel of peace and the many examples of a faithful and holy life. In the bosom of an enlightened society, softened by the hand of urbanity and gentleness, my enjoyments, crowned with abundance of temporal blessings, were as numerous and refined as fall to the lot of man. Of the time I spent in this lovely city I can never speak in ordinary terms. It is to my remembrance as a dream of more than terrestrial delight. Of its sweets I tasted for awhile and thought myself happy."*
There is an anecdote told in Samuel G. Goodrich's (Peter Parley) Recollections,t that Mr. Chase declined to pray before the Hartford Convention in 1814-15, on the ground that he knew no form of prayer for rebellion ; but this cannot be authentic, whatever his political sympathies may have been, for the journals of that body show that he did open several sessions with prayer.
Bishop Jarvis died May 3, 1813. Several unsuccessful efforts were made to fill the Episcopate. Some of the friends of Mr. Chase desired his election. In 1816, the convention requested Bishop Hobart of New York to take charge of this diocese, an invitation which he accepted in October of that year. On the 12th of February, 1817, Mr. Chase addressed a letter to the wardens and vestry, requesting them to join with him in procuring a canonical dissolution of his connection with the parish. Diocesan and not parochial relations, he said, induced him to take this step. To the Standing Committee of the diocese he wrote, "The reasons which have led me to this determination are not founded on any disagreement with the people of whom I have had the parochial charge. On the contrary, I take this opportunity to testify my entire satisfaction with them as a parish and
* He published, while rector, A Sermon preached at the commence- ment of the year, to the young people of Christ Church, Hartford, and presented unto them by their affectionate Pastor. Hartford, Hale & Hosmer, 1814, 12mo, pp. 21.
+ Vol. ii, p. 53.
5
66
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
my gratitude for the many kindnesses I have received from them as individuals. My reasons for leaving them are couched in this one sentence : I am persuaded that I can be more useful to the church of Christ and more happy in my own person elsewhere than in the diocese of Connecticut." He preached his farewell sermon March 2, 1817.
After a brief period of lay-reading, the name of Jonathan M. Wainwright, instructor of rhetoric in Harvard College, at which institution he was graduated in 1812, was suggested. He preached his first sermon here April 20, 1817, having been, on the Sunday before, at Providence, admitted to the diaconate by Bishop Griswold. At a vestry-meeting, May 28, 1817, the wardens (John Morgan and Michael Olcott) and Mr. Sigourney were appointed a committee to wait on Rev. Mr. Wainwright, to converse with him respecting his disposi- tion to settle in this parish, and make report to the next vestry-meeting. He was ordained priest in Hartford, on Saturday, August 16, 1817, by Bishop Hobart, who on the next day confirmed twenty-two, but he was not regularly settled by the parish until October 18, 1817, when his salary was fixed at $1,000 a year. He was instituted or inducted rector by Bishop Hobart on Friday, May 29, 1818.
The new rector was an accomplished gentleman, of a genial disposition and winning manners, and was quite popular with the young men of the city .*
* * About this period - that is, in 1819-" says S. G. Goodrich in his Recollections of a Lifetime, " I was one of a literary club, of which J. M. Wainwright, Isaac Toucey, William L. Stone, Jonathan Law, S. H. Huntington, and others were members. . I published three or four numbers of a small work entitled 'The Round Table,' the articles of which were written by different members of the club."
This publication, with others to which it gave rise, are all now extremely rare. They were:
The Round Table: by George Bickerstaffe, and others. 16mo, pp. 72, in three numbers. No. 1, Hartford, August 23, 1819- No. 3, March 1, 1820.
The Square Table, or the Meditations of Four Secluded Maidens seated around it. 16mo, pp. 34, in 2 Nos. No. I, undated - No. 2,
67
ANNALS OF THE PARISH.
Sunday-schools were established in 1818. A society was formed, called the Hartford Sunday-School Society,* the object of which was stated to be "to communicate religious instruction to those who shall attend its schools, and to teach the rudiments of learning so far as may be necessary for the attainment of religious knowledge."
At a meeting of the board of managers, May 12, 1818, the committee appointed for the organization and management of the schools, consisting of the Rev. Messrs. Wainwright, Hawes, and Cushman, and Messrs. S. Terry and J. R. Wood- bridge, reported the following, which was accepted :
"That all the subjects for instruction in the Sunday- school be collected at the North Conference Room on Sunday, the 24th of May instant, at 4 o'clock, P.M.
"That they then be divided into four different schools, and be numbered. That they meet at the following places : No. I, at the North Conference Room. No. 2, at the Epis- copal Church. No. 3, at the Baptist Meeting House, and No. 4, at the South Chapel.
" That they meet on the morning of each sabbath at nine o'clock, and in the afternoon at half-past one o'clock, and that the exercises of each day be commenced with prayer.
" That there be one superintendent to each school, whose duty it shall be, to admit all the scholars and register their names and ages, to class them, to govern the school and keep order, to assign to the teachers their tasks, and gen-
November, 1819. Mrs. Sigourney was the author or leading contributor to this. It is referred to in her Letters of Life, p. 326.
The Stand : By a Society of Young Men. 16mo, pp. 74, in 7 Nos. No. 1, December 18, 1819-No. 7, August 14, 1820. This was the pro- duction of a set of men younger than the contributors to the Round Table.
The Candle, or an Answer to the Stand. January 27, 1820. 16mo, pp. s.
The Extinguisher : By Donald Doughhead, the Printer's Devil. March, 1820. 16mo, pp. 7.
* In 1858, the late Zephaniah Preston published a pamphlet entitled Statistics of the Hartford Sunday-School Society, organized May 5, 1818. Compiled from the Records. 12mo, pp. 23.
68
CHRIST CHURCH, HARTFORD.
erally to regulate and superintend the school, and to report to the board monthly.
" That there be two visitors to each school, whose duty it shall be to visit their respective schools on the sabbath next preceding the monthly meeting of the Board, and at such other times as they think fit, and report monthly to this Board.
"The superintendents, in all their duties respecting the schools, to be regulated by this Board."
James M. Goodwin was appointed superintendent of the School No. 2, and John Morgan and Charles Sigourney visitors.
The teachers were :
Miss Maria Nichols,
Miss Betsey Canfield,
Miss Esther M. Bull,*
Miss Sally Adams,
Mr. Joseph Wheeler,
Miss Cornelia Warner,
Mr. Hezekiah Seymour,
Mr. James A. Canfield.
The schools were commenced in April and closed in Octo- ber of each year. After about three years it was thought best that the labors of the Society should cease, and that each parish should manage its own schools. Mr. Goodwin remained superintendent for the first four years, and Mr. Allen C. Morgan the fifth year.
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