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First Meeting House in Connecticut.
The above is believed to be a correct representation of the first house ever erected in Connecticut for Christian worship, built in 1635 Some of the lumber of the first house is still in existence, a portion of it being used in the construction of the Centre Congregational Church.
Rev. Thomas Hooker's House.
The above is a front view of the house of Rev: Thomas Hooker, first minister of the gospel in Connecticut. The projection in front (A) was called the porch, and was used as his study. The building stood on the north side of School street, and the drawing was taken immediately before it was taken down.
Meeting House and Main Street
ity, but with the same joys and sorrows, problems and needs, as the little village of long ago.
What changes, too, has this Meeting House of today seen in the manner of life in the town, what cherished cus- toms discarded, what new foibles adopted ! Until the middle of the nineteenth century the Meeting House itself spoke daily to those who lived within the sound of its voice, ring- ing out its signal for a noonday pause in the day's work, and again a curfew in the evening. For many years the bells of the First and Second Churches rang out their message together, striking alternately, each waiting for the other, and then joining to tell with one voice the day of the month. The differences which one hundred years have brought: in the life of the townspeople are too familiar to need repeti- tion, and yet amazing when we pause 'to consider them. From stage coach to aeroplane, from post rider to tele- phone, from singing school and quilting party to night club and moving picture, from the little red schoolhouse to the huge modern high school and business school, from simple home industry to giant factory and modern office, through all the years that have brought about these changes, the Meeting House has stood on the Main Street and watched, eagerly welcoming some of the changes, and stoutly opposed to some which it could not approve. All the complicated organization of modern city life for the welfare of the people and for the relief of suffering and poverty, for edu- cational and cultural opportunities, for civic beauty and order-all this is the development almost wholly of the last century. The hospitals, the Christian Associations, prac- tically all of the charitable institutions and funds, the libra- ries, the museums, the parks-all have come long since the present Meeting House was built. .
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Hartford's First Church
These Meeting Houses which through all the years have watched over the Main Street, how have they been com- panioned on the way by other houses of worship ? For over thirty years from the settlement of the town, the small crude structure of the second Meeting House stood alone on the square, the center of the religious, political and social life of the town. In 1670, the first daughter of the First Church, born of much travail of soul and some bitterness, erected the Meeting House of the Second Church, and through all the two and one-half centuries since, the two, called for many years the South Meeting House and the North Meeting House, have stood together on the Main Street. In 1702 another daughter church was set off in East Hartford, and in 1713 one in West Hartford, but still the two Meeting Houses stood alone in the town. Not until some time after the Revolution were churches of other denominations fully organized, and other church buildings erected. Dr. Hawes records in his bicentennial address, "A little more than forty years ago there were but two places of public worship within the limits of the city; now there are eleven." During the nineteenth century four daughter churches were organized in the town, the North Church in 1824, the Fourth in 1832, the Pearl Street in 1852 and the Asylum Hill in 1865. It was after the formation of the North Church that the Meeting House of the First Church, which had long been known as the "North Meeting House," came to be familiarly called "Center Church." In a sermon in 1836 Dr. Hawes says, "The mother rejoices to see her children springing up and prospering around her-and she prays that grace, mercy and peace may be multiplied to all of every name, that love our Lord Jesus Christ."
During the latter half of the nineteenth century probably a dozen church buildings stood on the Main Street, between
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Meeting House and Main Street
the South Green and Morgan Street. More than fifty years ago, the population of the city was rapidly spreading west- ward, the residence centers were moving farther and far- ther from the Main Street, and there was a growing feel- ing that the churches must follow. Before the close of the century this feeling found expression in action. One after another the churches took their stand farther out, or united with other congregations, until the number on the Main Street has been very much reduced. But still the Meeting House of the First Church, though its parish extends for miles in every direction, stands at its post, guarding the graves of the first settlers and sending out its call to wor- ship. Still it watches the life of the city and lends its gra- cious presence to the Main Street, giving its blessing to all who pass its stately old porch, remembering the past, inspir- ing the present and hoping for the future.
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CHAPTER III The Ministers
Thomas Hooker
THE FIRST MINISTER of the Church was called by Cotton Mather in the "Magnalia", "the light of the western churches." His name and fame have come down through three hundred years of history bringing a vivid impression of a strong personality, an able preacher, a magnetic leader, and a far-seeing statesman of both Church and State.
Thomas Hooker was born at Marfield in Leicester County, England, on July 7, 1586. There is little informa- tion available as to his family or ancestry. His mother lived in the parish of Tilton, within the bounds of which Marfield is located and died in that parish in 1631. His father died in 1635, and the registry of these deaths and burials in the records of Tilton Parish is the only knowledge we have of his parents.
The young man who had grown up in his native village set himself to secure an education. Emmanuel College at Cambridge was sympathetic toward the Puritan movement among the churches in England, and to this college he came as a candidate for education in 1604 to undertake his uni- versity course. He completed his work for the bachelor's degree in 1608 and for the master's degree in 1611. He continued at Cambridge as a resident Fellow of Emmanuel
The Ministers
College during the immediately succeeding years. He was associated there with several men who later served as ministers in New England while he was rendering his ser- vice in the ministry in Newtown and in Hartford.
While resident as a fellow at Cambridge, Mr. Hooker rendered some service as an occasional preacher or lec- turer in parish churches of the vicinity and presumably ex- pected to be ordained to the regular ministry of the Church of England and to complete his life work as a parish minister.
The temper of the times, however, was such that he was led far afield from this early expectation. Before 1620 he was appointed to serve as rector in the small parish of Esher in Surrey, about sixteen miles southwest of London.
Here the young minister, trained by his years of study and association at Cambridge, began his life work. He was received into the home of a certain Mr. Drake, a man of some importance in the community, and to Mrs. Drake he rendered the service of pastor and friend during a long illness which she suffered. In this home he found his wife Susanna and here he was married. Mrs. Hooker, a woman of grace and cultivation, cast in her lot with the young minister, perhaps being won to an appreciation of his quali- ties by perceiving the sympathy and strength with which he ministered to Mrs. Drake.
After a period of service at Esher, Mr. Hooker ac- cepted an invitation to serve as Lecturer in the Church of Saint Mary's in Chelmsford in the County of Essex. Chelms- ford was a market town, twenty-nine miles east of London, and here in the historic parish church of the town, which has in recent years been raised to the dignity of a cathedral church, he rendered service in connection with the rector of the parish.
Such a lectureship as that to which he was appointed was a feature of many churches of this period in those parts
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Hartford's First Church
of England where the Puritan movement had reached some strength. It had become the practice for those who sym- pathized with the Puritan position to unite in supporting a lecturer who might be attached to the parish and who preached on Sunday afternoons and on market days. The sermons of such lecturers were expositions of the Christian teaching and way of life from the Puritan point of view. The authorities of the established Church were not sym- pathetic to the practice of the employment of lecturers. In 1622 an injunction had been set forth by the Crown through the Archbishop forbidding any lecturer under the standing of "a bishop or dean to presume to preach in any popular auditory on the deep points of predestination, election, reprobation, or of the universality, efficacy, resistibility or irresistibility of God's grace." The injunction further re- stricted the preaching of such lecturers to the "Catechism, Creed or Ten Commandments." Later, in 1626 a further injunction was set forth by the Crown at the instigation of the ecclesiastical authorities forbidding discussion of any opinions not specifically set forth in the Articles of the Church.
Mr. Hooker's work as lecturer in Chelmsford attracted no little attention in that town and in surrounding towns. He spoke with vigor and with power, denouncing the evils of the times, declaring the imminent judgments of God for the wrongs that were being committed on the part of the government and on the part of the people and set forth a conception of the Christian life which appealed greatly to the conscience and the intelligence of his hearers. It was in his ministry in this lectureship that he was described by one who heard his preaching, as a man "who while doing his Master's work would put a king in his pocket."
Such bold preaching was not long tolerated by the authorities of Church and State without vigorous protest
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and demands for suppression. The authorities sought to silence the preacher and in response his own spirit rose and he spoke even more boldly. In turn this stirred the people to yet greater devotion to him and to his ministry. The Chancellor of the Archbishop in 1629 reported concerning a visit which was made to Chelmsford and an effort to per- suade the preacher to change the tenor of his message. The messenger, who was Vicar of Braintree, the Reverend Samuel Collins, reported to the Chancellor, "Since my return from London I have spoken with Mr. Hooker, but I have small hope of prevailing with him. All the favour he desires is that my Lord of London would not bring him into the High Commission Court but permit him quietly to depart out of the Diocese. All men's ears are now filled with the obstreperous clamours of his followers against my Lord, as a man endeavouring to suppress good preaching and advance Popery. All would be here very calme and quiet if he might depart. If he be suspended it is the resolution of his friends and himself to settle his abode in Essex. Mainte- nance is promised him in plentiful manner for the fruition of his private conference, which hath already more im- peached the peace of our Church than his publique ministry. His genius will still haunte all the pulpits in the country where any of his scholers may be admitted to preach. There be divers young ministers about us that spend their time in conference with him and return home and preach what he hath brewed. I have lived in Essex to see many changes, and have seen the people idolizing many new ministers and lecturers, but this man surpasses them all for learning and some other considerable partes, and gains more and far greater followers than all before him. If my Lord tender his owne future peace let him connive at Mr. Hooker's departure."
On November 10 of this same year, 1629, forty-nine
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Hartford's First Church
ministers of the district about Chelmsford sent to Arch- bishop Laud a petition favorable to Mr. Hooker in the following terms, "Whereas we have heard that your honour has been informed against Mr. Thomas Hooker, preacher at Chelmsford, that the conformable ministers of these partes desire his removal from the place, we, whose names are here under written, being ministers of the partes adjoin- ing, all beneficed men obedient to His Majesty's ecclesi- astical laws, doe humbly give your lordship to understand that we all esteeme and knowe the said Mr. Thomas Hooker to be, for doctryne orthodox, and life and con- version honest, his disposition peaceable, no wayes turbu- lent or factious, and so not doubting but he will contynue that good course, commending him and his lawful suite to your lordship's honourable favour, we humbly take our leave and remain your honour's, humbly at command." These records show us how marked an impression Mr. Hooker's preaching had made in Chelmsford and its vicinity.
The Archbishop's mind was set against Mr. Hooker and his opinions, and he was forced by ecclesiastical author- ity to give up his lectureship in Chelmsford and to with- draw from the town to a small village called Little Baddow about four miles away, where he conducted a school "in his own hired house." It was here that John Eliot became his pupil. In the "Magnalia," Mather quotes Eliot's testimony as to his teacher, "To this place I was called through the infinite riches of God's mercy in Christ Jesus to my poor soul; for here the Lord said unto my dead soul 'live,' and through the grace of Christ, I do live and I shall live for- ever. When I came to this family I then saw, and never before, the power of Godliness in its lively vigour and efficacy."
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In the following year, 1630, Mr. Hooker was sum- moned to appear before the High Commission Court. Knowing the penalties that would be visited upon him if he should give himself up to this Court in their prejudiced state of mind, he decided to flee from England and take refuge in Holland where the Pilgrims and so many Puri- tans had found safety in the preceding years.
From 1629 to 1633 Mr. Hooker lived in Holland, at first in Amsterdam, later in Delft, and in Rotterdam. He engaged in some preaching in the Puritan colonies in these Dutch cities but like other Puritans from England, found himself ill at ease in the strange country, surrounded by men of a different speech and under some suspicion even on the part of some of his own fellow countrymen whose theological and political opinions were not altogether in sympathy with his own.
Meantime his former supporters in Chelmsford, a con- siderable group gathered by their interest in him and his preaching, had formed a determination to make the great adventure of emigration to the new world. It is probable that they had projected such an understanding before Mr. Hooker left them in 1629. At any rate they determined to seek his leadership and through messengers entered into negotiations with him during his residence in Holland. They secured his consent to follow them to New England and in 1632 they made the journey across the sea. His personal influence was dominant among them, as is witnessed by the fact that when they arrived in Massachusetts Bay and were assigned to make their settlement at Newtown, they were known as "Mr. Hooker's Company." They awaited his coming and in the following year, 1633, he followed them and arrived in Boston on September 4, accompanied by Samuel Stone, who was the choice of the Newtown Church
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as his associate in the office of Teacher of the Church, John Cotton, who became the Minister of the Church in Boston, and John Haynes, who later became governor both of Massachusetts and of Connecticut.
On October 11, 1633, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone were formally recognized as Pastor and Teacher of the Church at Newtown. Their recognition was a virtual ordination and they were established as the leaders of the new com- munity in its ecclesiastical organization.
Here at Newtown Mr. Hooker took leadership among the people and represented them as minister in any assem- blies of representatives of the churches of the Massachu- setts Bay Colony. In 1636 Mr. Hooker came with the greater part of the Newtown community to the Connecticut Valley and located with them as their Pastor in Hartford. This pilgrimage has become famous in the history of New England and is a remarkable witness to the courage both of the Minister and of the people who followed him upon this adventure.
Mr. Hooker's leadership of the Church in Hartford is part of the history of the Colony and of the State. His own description of the spirit of the migration and of the hopes with which they came was given in a Thanksgiving sermon preached by him in 1638, "It was a sad, sharp winter with us in these western parts, that many lost their lives, not only cattle, but men. But the Lord delivered us. Men concluded it, many confirmed it, never any vessel came to these parts but the Lord brought it safe. It was the Lord, brethren, that brought it; it was the Lord that guided it, and truly, had it not been for the Lord we might have perished. If anything could have hindered, either by truth or falsehood, to keep men from coming to these parts hitherto, it had been done; but yet, men's minds informed,
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The Ministers
their consciences convicted, their hearts persuaded, to come and to plant."
Mr. Hooker retained the respect and high regard of the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was summoned back to Boston for the synod which was held in 1637 to consider the case of Ann Hutchinson and was one of the moderators chosen at that synod. Again in May 1639, in September 1643 and in July 1645, he made the journey to Boston upon business connected with the welfare of the churches.
In the Hartford community Mr. Hooker's vigorous preaching sustained the courage of the Church and Colony, and his leadership in the community led to the establish- ment of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639, of which mention has already been made.
Mr. Hooker died at the age of sixty-one, honored and beloved by all his people and by all the scattered com- munities then established in New England. The Church grieved for his loss and set itself to face the future in- spired by his brave spirit.
He left a considerable number of published volumes, chiefly sermons, some of which were preached in Chelms- ford before his coming to America and some in Hartford. These interesting volumes give his characteristic message which was the interpretation of the Gospel applied to the experience of life. He left also a manuscript published after his death, entitled, "A Survey on the Summe of church Dis- cipline," which was a description of the way of the Churches of New England, showing them to have been formed and guided by Scriptural principles in their organization and conduct. It is an amazing thing that he should have been able to accomplish so much writing and publication in con- nection with the arduous duties of his pastorate.
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Hartford's First Church
An excellent biography of Thomas Hooker has been provided in the work of Dr. George Leon Walker, the historian of the Church. A complete and adequate account of his preaching and of his influence upon the political ideas and ideals of his time, is yet to be written.
The Church which was gathered around his influence and under the leadership of his personality remembers him with profound gratitude and honors him with a loyal and abiding devotion to the principles which he so ably pro- claimed.
Samuel Stone
Samuel Stone, associated with Thomas Hooker as the first Teacher of the Church and the only man so definitely recognized in its history, became the second Minister. Upon the death of Mr. Hooker, it was natural that the Church should turn to him in whom they had already learned to have great confidence and ask him to carry on the work which was left by Mr. Hooker. Samuel Stone was born in Hertford, England, in 1602. He graduated from Emman- uel College, Cambridge, with the bachelor's degree in 1624 and received his master's degree at the same college in 1627. He studied for the work of the ministry at Aspen in Essex, near Braintree. In 1630, Mr. Stone, a young man of twenty- eight years, was appointed Lecturer for the Puritan commu- nity in the parish of Towcester. Here he served until he joined Mr. Hooker on the journey to New England, upon invitation of the community which was to become the Church in Newtown and in Hartford.
During the sojourn in Newtown from 1633 to 1636 and during the ministry of Mr. Hooker in Hartford, Mr. Stone served as the Teacher of the Church. The distinction between the pastor and the teacher presumably was not
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The Ministers
very clear. It was defined by Richard Mather in the fol- lowing terms: "And for the teacher and pastor, the dif- ference between them lyes in this that one is principally to attend upon points of Knowledge and Doctrine though not without application, and the other to points of practice, though not without doctrine." Dr. Walker observes, "It is obvious that the distinction between these two offices was an obscure one and that each was likely to be continually taking on the features of the other. The pastor could not preach much without dealing with matters of doctrine, and the teacher could not instruct long without dealing with matters of practice." A contemporary record gives us a contrasted impression of the two men who served the Hart- ford Church as "grave, godly and judicious Hooker" and "rhetorical Mr. Stone."
During Mr. Hooker's ministry, Mr. Stone's influence was naturally much less than that of his senior, but it is a witness of the devotion of the people to him that when they came to choose a name for the new community on the banks of the Connecticut, they chose the name of his birth- place and the name Hartford, slightly changed from the Hertford of old England, is a memorial to Samuel Stone.
Mr. Stone continued his ministry after the death of Mr. Hooker in 1647 for thirteen years in sole charge of the Church, for it was not until 1660 that an associate was secured to share the work with him. Meantime several others were asked to serve the Church as associated with Mr. Stone, but no one of these arrangements resulted in a permanent engagement.
Mr. Stone was a man of broad sympathies and spritely mind. Some few writings from his hand remain to us and the impression made by him upon his contemporaries was that of a generous, humane spirit which was able to overcome
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Hartford's First Church
even the difficulties of a long dissension which shadowed his ministry and which resulted in the removal of a small part of the Church to Hadley, Massachusetts.
John Whiting
John Whiting became Pastor of the Church in associa- tion with Mr. Stone in 1660. His father was a citizen of Hartford and had been intrusted with public responsibility as treasurer of the Colony. Mr. Whiting was born in 1635 and went to Newtown for his education in one of the early classes of the newly established college. He graduated from Harvard in 1653 and was married in Cambridge to the daughter of a deacon of the Church which had succeeded to the place left by the Hartford Church upon its migration. Mr. Whiting served as assistant minister in the Church at Salem from 1657 to 1659.
He came to enter into association with Mr. Stone re- viving the practice of the Church in having two ministers, one to serve as Pastor and one as Teacher in the congrega- tion. The condition of Mr. Stone's health was such that Mr. Whiting took over upon his arrival the greater part of the work of preaching and so did not distinguish his ministry from that of the Pastor by attempting to serve as Teacher in distinction from the pastoral office. In 1663 upon the death of Mr. Stone, the Church promptly chose an associate for Mr. Whiting in person of John Haynes. Mr. Whiting and Mr. Haynes then entered upon the dual ministry, which it was hoped would be as happy as the joint service of Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone in the first years of the settlement.
This fair hope was disappointed for within a short time after the dual ministry had been established a dispute arose in the Church and unfortunately the Ministers were
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The Ministers
divided by the issue which developed. Through the years from 1666 to 1670 this dispute troubled the Church with its turmoil. The question had to do with the admission of members into the Church and the development of the so- called Halfway-Covenant. Dr. Walker has described the issue of this division. It was the Puritan theory of the Church as stated by Mr. Hooker that "visible saints only are fit matter appointed by God to make up a visible church of Christ." "But," says Dr. Walker, "the founders of these churches had come from lands where a different theory of membership prevailed. All the baptized inhabitants of an English, German or Geneva parish were accounted mem- bers of the there existing church even without manifesting Christian character. This was the condition of things against which the New England fathers desired to guard. They attempted to do it by vigorously applying at the door of the churches which they established, tests of visible saint- ship found in general character." But the tests that were applied became in practice so stern that a considerable num- ber of people felt that they could not submit themselves to such tests or were found unequal to them when applied, and the membership of the Church tended to be but a limited group within the community. Since in some New England communities civil rights were in part dependent upon church membership, there was a definite desire in many churches to provide some form of membership for which the tests should not be so severe. As early as 1649, Thomas Shep- pard of Cambridge is reported as saying, "that children are members of the visible church and that their member- ship continues when they are adult, and that the children of believers are to be accounted of the church until they positively reject the Gospel, and that the membership of children hath no tendency in it to pollute the church any
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