USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Cheshire > History of Cheshire, Connecticut, from 1694-1840, including Prospect, which, as Columbia parish, was a part of Cheshire until 1829; > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
IIO
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
to pray the general assembly to appoint a Comite to fix and as- sertain the plais for the said society to build a meeting house upon." At the same meeting Mathias Hitchcock, Ephraim Cook, Benjamin Moss and John Hulls were chosen a "Comtee to measure ye bounds of said society in order to know whare ye senter thereof would be upon that road on which ye meeting house now stands."
At the May meeting of the Assembly, 1736, a committee was appointed to fix a site for the new meeting house, and at the ses- sion of the Assembly held in New Haven, October, 1736, the fol- lowing action was taken: "Upon the report of Messrs William Wadsworth (of Farmington) John Riggs (of Derby) and Jon- athan Allyn (of New Haven) being a comite appointed by the general Assembly holden at Hartford in May last to repair to the Parish of New Cheshire in the town of Wallingford :to view the circumstances thereof and satisfy themselves as to the most suit- able place for the said parishioners to build a meeting house upon and make report, etc. : : said Comite according to their direction, having attended said service on the 16th September last, and set up a stake with stones about itt:on the North East Conner of the Revd Mr Halls lott, near his dwelling house by the highway that runs North and South, and at the end of the Highway that comes in from ye East, which said place said committee report to be the most suitable place for the said parishioners to build their meet- ing house upon :: This assembly do, therefore, accept the above- said report, and establish said place accordingly."
The site for the new meeting house being thus settled to the satisfaction of all concerned the New Cheshier society, Novr 16, 1736, "by thair voat Agreed to buld A meeting house 64 foots in length and 45 foots in wedth : : and 24 foots between joynts" and appointed Sargent Edward Parker, Caleb Matthews, Jr., Benjamin Dutton, John Hulls and Joshua Hotchkiss a "Comtee to manage ye work of the meeting house." The Sosiaty voted "twelve pence in ye £ for ye new meeting hous." In the March following, 1737, they "Agreed to claboard the meeting house with sawed clabords : : agreed ye meeting house clabords be of white pine,
III
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
Agreed to give Mr. Cook five pounds a thousand for good whit pine clabords to be delivered at the plais for ye meeting hous at A convenient tyme." "by thair voat they agreed to rais ye meet- ing house gratis." "By thair voat Agreed to buld a territ" (tur- ret) and before the meeting adjourned they "Agreed to warn Sociatys meetings by beeting of the Drum on ye tuseday night :: from Abraham Barnes to Captain Thomsons: : and ye tuseday next insuing to be Sosiatys meeting."
The building of the meeting house occupied the people for more than one year ; then they sold what was left of the old build- ing to "Decon Hotchkiss for £8," and afterwards released him from the payment, and at the same meeting they chose "Decon Joseph Ives, Capt Benjn Hall Deacon Stephen Hotchkiss, Mr. El- nathan Beach, and Mr. Samuel Cook a Comtee to seet, the meet- ing house," and they were also appointed a "Comtee with the joyners to dignifie the seets of the new meeting hous," and "con- sider those they thought needful for thare age": : and "to seet all the young men that thair heds was payd for."
At this "seeting" no old men are mentioned for preference "on account of their age." The venerable Thomas Beach had re- moved to Meriden and his name is on the monument to the early settlers of that city. Mr. Twiss had been dead three or four years, and Mr. Cook had died that year.
To "dignifie the seats" in those days meant to put rows of seats on either side or in front of the pulpit, which would all be equal and as places of honor to those who should be assigned to sit upon them. It had been found that the high places (in the old meet- ing house), had not been sufficient for those entitled to sit in high places ; and as the women were to be seated on their side of the house in seats as high in dignity as those of their husbands, it was important that enough seats should be so placed that all per- sons entitled to honor, might feel that no one of lesser dignity sat above them.
This "dignifying" of seats was extended to the young men and maidens, and even the boys and girls in their respective "galires" were, to some extent, "dignified" by the seats allotted to them.
II2
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
Nearly every time the meeting house was "seeted" some per- son's dignity was disturbed. One entry reads "Decr 4th 1753, they agree that Mr. Jahalel Laws and his wife : : shall have dure- ing this seeting : : the same privilege as Richard Baldwin and his wife had : : in ye 2nd pue north ye pulpit."
This most important matter settled ; Mr. Hall's salary was made £ 150 per annum "provision pay at markit pris : : or money :" and for a year or two the society collected the minister's rates, and received school money from the town, which had voted "the scoole should surcolate" by which vote the "north farms" had a school some part of the year, as well as the "west farms" (which had a school house of their own), and the teacher, was to be paid "in provision pay" as "might be agreed."
When the town, Feb. 9, 1741, "voated they would build and maintain a good substantial cart bridge over the Great River in Wallingford near Tyler's Mill :: att or near the place where ye road now goeth over ye river near said mill"-Capt Benjamin Hall, Elnathan Beach, Samuel Cook and others in the central and south part of New Cheshier desired to be relieved of some of the burdens of taxation that would be laid upon them to defray the cost of the new bridge, which was of little or no use to them. Failing to get any satisfaction from the twon the Society's drum was beaten, and at a meeting held Dec. Ist, 1741, it was "Agreed to apply themselves to the townd that they might have townd privileges." Then they appointed "decon Stephen Hotchkiss, decon Timothy Tuttle, Capt. Benjamin Hitchcock, Sargt Caleb Matthews, Senr, John Galard, Capt Elnathan Beach, Lieut Sam- uel Cook, Capt Joseph Thomson, Sargent Isaac Moss, Ensign Edward Parker and Ensign John Hotchkiss a Comtee to make ap- plication to the town that they might injoy townd privileges." "At the same meeting they chose Colonel Benjamin Hall for thair Agant to pray the generall assembly that they have town privi- leges."
This application to both town and Assembly appears to have been acted upon only by the town of Wallingford, which ap- pointed an imposing committee of eleven prominent men, whose report on the matter, if made, does not find a place in the pro-
II3
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
ceedings ; and for the time being the subject of town privileges was absorbed by other more pressing affairs.
In the following year Captain Elnathan Beach died, leaving to the parish a sum of money with which to purchase a bell for the meeting house and £ 100 in "money" for the use of the poor. This fund is still serving the purpose for which it was designed, and the memory of Mr. Beach's services is perpetuated by a hand- some table tombstone in the burying ground.
It was now rumored throughout the English colonies that King George was about to declare war in which the men of New Eng- land would again be called upon to fight in an expedition against the fortress of Louisburg, located on the Island of Cape Breton, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river.
Connecticut was called upon for a quota of men, and Walling- ford furnished ten or fifteen, but it is impossible to distinguish among them any that went from the Parish of New Cheshire. They embarked at New London, and after many hardships by land and sea the fortress was captured on 28th June, 1745. It was built of stone; the strongest fortified place on the American continent and the French determined to recapture it. The fol- lowing year they sent a formidable fleet to threaten the English coast settlements. Col. Benjamin Hall was chosen one of the Commissioners for Connecticut, "authorized and impowered, for and in behalf of Connecticut, to meet, and treat with commis- sioners of his Majesties other governments on the. continent" "and with them in such meeting to concert meas- ures for our mutual security, defence and conduct during the present war."
Colonel Hall, no doubt, ably represented his parish and town upon this commission, whose work did not end until 1748, and then there were so many claims for services rendered and hard- ships endured, that the colony was compelled to issue a new class of paper money worth on their first issue, more than the bills of "old tenor." "Provision pay" rose in value, and silver money was out of sight. Parson Hall's salary, for some time in arrears, was doubled, trebled and quadrupled. The "new tenor bills," although they were made a "legal tender" were not taken with
II4
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
any confidence that they would ever be redeemed. The "legal tender" clause in the Colony money was soon repealed by the English government, and so many new issues of paper money per- mitted, that the inhabitants of the parish of New Cheshier, in their business affairs, resorted almost wholly to a barter-like trade. In fact individuals did not hesitate to use their own paper. There was for a time in possession of the writer ; one of these due bills on a small bit of paper, which reads as follows :
Wallingford May 2nd 1744
For value Recd I promis to pay- Abm Stanley Four Shillings-00- by the first of Novembr if not then paid Intrist till paid. As witness my hand Elihu Yale
On the back is endorsed "Recd two shillings 04d by a formr Order" and across one end is written "Elihu Yale" "his note" 0.04.00.0 0.02.04.0
£0.01.08.0
This balance was probably never paid, as Yale was killed or died at Cape Breton, on the French Expedition December, 1745. This note became one of the valuable papers belonging to the Stanley family connected by marriage with the Yales.
This is but a single instance of hundreds of similar pieces of paper being given by men in good circumstances, who frequently paid the "collectors of ministers rates," in paper of this charac- ter, for sums as low as "ninepence," and in one instance ; a paper promise for "one shilling," had endorsed upon it a payment of "four pence in straw."
The issues of paper money by the many different colonies, for the payment of war material, or to replace damages done by the enemy, became so large, and were of such differing values in the several colonies, that the Connecticut Assembly more than once warned the people not to receive the bills of the Providence Plan-
II5
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
tation, and later on passed a stringent enactment against the cir- culation in Connecticut of the "bill sof credit issued by the Rhode Island and New Hampshire Plantations" ; and no contract or pur- chase was binding within the limits of the Colony of Connecticut if it expressed that payment was to be made in the bills of credit of the Providence or New Hampshire Plantation.
The money troubles of Connecticut began about 1740, and con- tinued until after the French War. Many different financial ex- periments were tried. An Act of Assembly would provide a sys- tem of finances, which the "King in Council" would interfere with, and so mix up values that it is difficult to arrive at the pres- ent day value of the various kinds of so called "money" in cir- culation in our Colonial days.
"Skin paye" or furs; "Provision paye" and "Lawful money" held their own purchasing power ; while the "old tenor bills" and the "new tenor bills," being "Proclamation money" or the "fiat" issues of the Colonies ; rapidly depreciated until in 1753 the As- sembly voted to receive a certain percentage of the state taxes in "old tenor bills" at the rate of $8.50 for one dollar of "lawful money"; and $2.50 of the latest issue of "new tenor bills" were to be received on taxes as one dollar of "lawful money," (some of the other "new tenor" bills, had become "old tenor" by this time).
This "lawful money" was one ounce troy of silver ; of the nom- inal value of $1.30, but in reality debased in the coinage to a present day value of about one dollar. The standard gold pound was divided into "golden guineas" and "golden ducats," or twenty shilling and ten shilling pieces. These were sub-divided into "sterling" silver parts, called crowns, half crowns, shillings and sixpences, with pennies and half pennies in copper. These coins were in circulation in all the colonies, and in some places where they were not readily obtainable, rose or fell in value according to supply and demand, Assembly laws to the contrary notwith- standing.
The inhabitants of New Cheshier were not "rolling in wealth," but every time any of them got hold of a silver or gold piece, no
II6
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
doubt they put it away where it would do them the most good when the tax collector came around.
The following table, translates the "Pounds, Shillings and Pence" of Colonial days, into the better understood currency of the present time. It is derived from existing records, and, leav- ing out fractions, is approximately an accurate statement of the fluctuations in the money market in the Parish of New Cheshier for twenty-five years.
Bushel
I730
1740
1750
1755
Wheat
$1.00
$1.66
$5.83
$6.33
Rye
.72
$1.00
$3.33
$4.66
Indian Corn
.40
.66
$1.33
$2.40
Pork, 1b
.06
.08
.16
.36
Beef, 1b
.04
.05
.IO
.24
"A man's labor" per day
.66
$1.07
$3.00
$3.30
"Ye parsons pay-"
$333.00
$297.00
$250.00
$300.00
In & old tenor
£ 100
£ 1 50
£600
£800
In 1757 Parson Hall was paid in "lawful money," and it took only £80, or $267 to discharge the debt. A year or two later, England repaid in "lawful money" a portion of the war expenses of the Colonies ; and in consequence prices dropped until wheat could be bought for sixty-six cents a bushel and a man's labor be obtained for eighty-three cents per day. A considerabble change from the years when a day's work would only buy half a bushel of wheat.
CHAPTER FIVE.
CHURCH SERVICES DESCRIBED-WAR DECLARED, 1753-COPIES OF OR- DERS AND PROCLAMATIONS-THE STAMP ACT-TAX LISTS.
For several years, after the capture of Louisberg and other dis- turbances that followed, a comparative peace, with few rumors of war, gave the inhabitants of New Cheshire an opportunity to fix up their new meeting house with stone steps, and lay out "hiways" for the accommodation of church attendants from all parts of the parish.
In 1748 Capt. Samuel Cook died, leaving to the church a sum of £60 "for the support of the poor of the parish." We are not told whether it was in "money" or "old tenor" bills. It was cred- ited as "money," and to our day has been doing the work its donor intended.
It was during these few peaceable years that a number of new houses were erected near the meeting house; and we have evi- dence in the account books of this time that quite a brisk business was done by the carpenters and blacksmiths, whose bills for join- er work and "nales" were made out in both "old tenor," and "provision pay." It was also "agreed to put on a good handsome painte on ye meeting house : : in order to preserve ye same from ye wether."
The new meeting house we also know was well filled on the Sabbath. Our ancestors were "fyned" for non-attendance at church. The half-grown boys, living at remote distances were sent from home, early in the morning to light the fires in the "Sabba day houses," while the elders proceeded in more leisurely fashion, either on foot, or horseback. It was a fineable offence to ride fast, or run their horses on the Sabbath, and we may be sure the "hiways" were in no condition favorable to speedy trav- eling. The women and children rode on pillions, or cushioned seats strapped upon a horse, behind the saddle of the husband or
II7
I18
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
father. Sometimes a two wheeled ox-cart brought the family to church if the roads permitted, and in winter wooden sleds were made comfortable with chair seats and an abundance of straw.
There was no fire permitted in the meeting house, and even in the coldest of weather the only warmth the women had, was a little footstove filled with coals; replenished at noon from the fire in the "Sabba day" house or "hors house" as it was some- times called. One end of a rough little building, near the church, sheltered the horses ; and the other end (fitted with a fireplace), accommodated one or more families who warmed themselves and their provisions between the morning and afternoon services.
We get a forcible illustration of the Sabbath day services of those days when we are told that the meeting began as early as eight or half-past eight o'clock, the tything men making a note of the absentees, and regulating the boys and girls-only very young children being with their mothers.
When Parson Hall came in, all stood up until he had mounted to the pulpit. Then the deacons seated themselves at a table on a raised platform in front of the pulpit. After them the digni- taries sat down, followed in proper order by the rest of the con- gregation. A deacon having placed an hourglass upon its ap- propriate stand, the first prayer was uttered, every man stand- ing up. This prayer usually occupied from one-half to three- quarters of an hour. The scriptures were then read, and briefly expounded. A psalm was now "lined" out, either by the parson, or a deacon, to be followed by another prayer, not quite as long as the first one. The sermon came after the second prayer and other psalm. This discourse usually occupied an hour and a half-and during its delivery the tythingmen moved about the church keeping the boys in order, or the grownup people awake. The sleepy men were rapped on the head with the hard end of a long stick, and the women awakened by being tickled with a bunch of feathers, attached by a string to the other end of the tythingman's rod. These men held great authority. Their ad- monitions were always heeded and their fines were seldom re- mitted.
The Lord's Supper was usually administered every three
I19
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
months at a long table, the plates and cups being of pewter. Sometimes, in very cold weather the bread would be frozen to the platter, and we are told that frequently the wine would be congealed. It was the duty of the tythingmen to see that only "communicants" sat at the Lord's table. After this service, con- tributions to defray its expense were carried to the deacons' table by each attendant in due order of precedence. Some gave money, some gave their own due bills, others gave articles of clothing, or woolen yarn, while not a few laid bags of wheat, rye, peas or eggs, butter and other provisions on the deacons' table.
One of our good old judges writes in his diary, about this time "of an exceeding cold day when there was "Great Cough- ing in meeting," and "yet a new-born baby was brought into ye icy church to be baptized." It was an article of faith with our ancestors that their children should be carried to church for bap- tism, either the first or second Sunday after birth, even in the coldest of the winter months; and the judge who gives this ac- count of these observances appears to have been highly pleased, when one of his own "fourteen children," "did not cry out, or shrink from the water in the freezing winter weather." Let us hope the babies were warmly clad and only the least bit of them exposed during the ordeal. The judge says "at preaching the minister wore a fur skull cap, a large thic kcloak and had mittens of heavy wool, and that men in church carried muffs and bun- dled their heads and necks in comforters ; and that for three Sab- baths after this, the weather was so bitterly cold that Sabbath services were not held in the church."
The deacon, in the early days of our church, was usually or- dained by being called up into the pulpit, where Parson Hall laid his hand upon his head saying, "I ordain thee to the office of Deacon in this church," etc., etc. Then the minister gave him "his charge." Then he prayed and the congregation usually sang part of a psalm. In some churches the deacons wore starched white linen caps ; while in the meeting house, to denote their office, which was one of great dignity. In addition to their duties within the church, the deacons during the week, vis-
I20
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
ited the homes of the church members to hear the children recite their catechism; and they reported to the tythingmen all offenses committd by either men, women or children, against the church discipline. These latter (called by the irreverent boys "holy snooks") seldom "let up" on those youngsters whose conduct in church was but little better than it was upon weekdays. It seems that at all times, and in all places, the tythingmen had authority to punish all infractions of ecclesiastical law, whether committed by young folks or grownup people, drunk or sober ; and the whipping post in New Cheshier probably served often for the punishment of an offender. It does not appear that our church had a "stool of repentance," like the one erected in Farm . ington ( in the central aisle), where offenders sat during meeting labeled with the name of some offense, such as "slander" or "pride," or "slothful attention to God's word," "being drunk," etc. But it does appear that Parson Hall, the deacons ,and the tythingmen, were prompt in calling sinners to repentance. On conviction the culprits signed a written confession, and then came before the church and humbly acknowledge their trans- gressions.
The parish of New Cheshier was no exception to similar vil- lages and other New England towns. Crimes committed here were either adjudged at Wallingford or summarily disposed of by our only magistrate, Colonel Benjamin Hall. As this great man was in demand most of the time on public business else- where, and our stock of magistrates was limited, frequent re -- course was had to the parent town, with, if the court convicted, the almost certain recommendation that the delinquent "thief," "drunkard," or "prophane blasphemer," be whipped at the "post" or "ye cart's tail," "nere ye church of ye west society." Sometimes when "fynes" were inflicted, or church rates were not paid, and there was no property for the constable to levy upon, the delinquent's services were sold for a certain number of days or weeks to whosoever would pay the debts, for the short- est term of service ; and the purchaser could compel the labor of the debtor by whipping or imprisonment.
The year 1753 was inaugurated by a notice sent throughout
I2I
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
all the New England colonies that King George had declared another war against the French, who claimed jurisdiction over the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. It was in this war that George Washington first attracted the notice of his countrymen. In fact he was one of the first persons to be sent by Gov. Dinwiddie of the Colony of Virginia with a message to the French com- mander at Venango (now Erie, N. Y.) demanding an evacua- tion of territory King George claimed as his own. It was in the fall of the year and Washington was nearly six months upon this journey, but he had learned enough of the hostile designs of the French to put the English colonies imme- diately on the defensive. Messengers were despatched to the other colonies warning them of the threatened dangers, and the Virginia Colony at once raised a large force, which under Wash- ington as one of its commanders, marched in April, 1754, to- wards a point on the Ohio river (now Pittsburgh, Pa.), where the English had commenced the erection of a fort. When the Virginians arrived there, they found that the French and Indians had driven off the English and captured the works. Two days later the command of the Virginian troops devolved on Wash- ington, by the death of his senior commander. He had only 400 men, while the enemy had 1,500. Washington fell back and erected a fort, which he called "Fort Necessity." This was at- tacked on the 3rd of July, and after a conflict lasting ten hours the French commander proposed an honorable capitulation and Washington marched out of his stockade, with the honors of war, and safely conducted the remnant of his troops to Virginia.
This first campaign served as an eye-opener to all of the Eng- lish colonies, and Benjamin Franklin submitted to the colony commissioners a plan of Confederation, which was discussed and finally rejected. This left each of the colonies to protect theni- selves, with the help of the regulars sent over by the English Government. The Indians, incited by the French, had been com- mitting depredations on the borders of Massachusetts and New York. The Governors of those states lost no time in requesting the colony of Connecticut to help in the defence against a com- mon enemy. Connecticut responded by calling out 500 men, and
122
HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
voting the necessary money for their equipment. Arrangements were also made by the commissioners of all the New England colonies (of whom Col. Benjamin Hall of New Cheshier was one) for the consolidation of a force of ten thousand men to as- semble on the frontiers of New York, at Crown Point, where a fort and other outworks were to be erected and garrisoned by troops from the respective colonies, under their own officers. Meantime the English colonies further south were making as vigorous arrangements, and were already skirmishing along their line of defence. The Connecticut contingent, largely increased under command of Colonel Phineas Lyman, erected a strong for- tification at the foot of Lake George, N. Y., fifty miles north of Albany, at the head of Hudson river navigation. General Ly- man held this post during the rest of the campaign of 1755, be- ing frequently reinforced by new recruits who were sent from Connecticut to the front from time to time, to replace those who had been either killed or wounded.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.