USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 42
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3. Patience,“ May 5th, 1702. 7. Sarah, March 16th, 1710-11.
4. John, " May 22d, 1704.
8. Nathaniel," July 31st, 1720.
The period of Deacon Seabury's death has not been ascertained. He was probably interred in the ancient burial-ground at Pequonuck, where sleep the two excellent ministers, Woodbridge and Owen, to whose church he belonged. His relict Elizabeth-a granddaughter of John Alden of the Mayflower-is interred at Stonington. She died Jan. 4th, 1771, aged ninety-four. It is inscribed on her grave- stone that she lived to see the fourth generation of her descendants.
Samuel Seabury, son of John, graduated at Harvard College in 1724, and being licensed as a Congregational minister preached several months in the year 1726 to the church that had been newly established in North Groton. He declared himself a convert to the Church of England in 1730, and the next year went to England where he received Episcopal ordination from the Bishop of London.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Mr. Seabury after his return to America, received a commission from the "Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," to exercise his sacred functions in New London, granting him a yearly annuity of sixty pounds, lawful money of Great Britain, with an arrearage, or payment backward "from the feast-day of St. John the Baptist which was in the year of our Lord 1730 :"
" Provided always, and on condition that the said Samuel Seabury do with- out delay at the first opportunity after the date hereof cause himself to be con- veyed to New London aforesaid, and from and after his arrival continue to reside there unless otherwise directed by the said Society and do with fidelity and diligence discharge his holy function, otherwise this grant to be void." May 19th, 1732.
Mr. Seabury met with the society at New London, April 10th, 1732. The first church officers were then chosen.
Church-wardens.
Thomas Mumford, John Braddick.
Vestry-men.
John Shackmaple, James Packer,
Matthew Stewart, Giles Goddard. Thomas Manwaring.
Mr. Mumford officiated, either as warden or vestry-man, twenty- three years; and Matthew Stewart twenty-seven years. Samuel Edgecombe and Dr. Guy Palmes were early and important members of the society : the former was vestry-man or warden, without inter- val from 1735 to 1767 inclusive.
Mr. Seabury though styled a missionary officiated in all respects as the pastor of the church. He remained in New London about eleven years. His residence during the latter part of the time was in State Street, in a house which he built in 1737, and sold in 1744 to Edward Palmes. It is now the Brainerd homestead.
The first wife of Mr. Seabury was Abigail, daughter of Thomas Mumford. She died in 1731, leaving two children-
Caleb, born Feb. 27th, 1728. Samuel, " Nov. 30th, 1729.
After his return from Europe Mr. Seabury married Elizabeth, daughter of Adam Powell of Newport, and had six other children.
Early in 1743, Mr. Seabury was transferred by the society under whose auspices he labored to Hempstead, Long Island. This remov- al was made at the solicitation of the people there and with his own consent. He lived pleasantly at Hempstead, occupying a small farm, and beside his pastoral duties engaging in the education of youth.
445
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
His last sermon is said to have been preached at New London, while on a visit to his relatives and former flock. Returning home from this excursion somewhat indisposed, he never went out again, but sickened and died, June 15th, 1764.
Before Mr. Seabury left New London the church applied to the society in England for a successor. In their letter to the secretary Feb. 26th, 1742-3, they observe-
" The very great convulsions occasioned here and in diverse other places o this Colony by the breaking out of what is called the " New Light" makes this a melancholy juncture to have our church empty and unsupplied."
Several years elapsed before a successor arrived. Mr. Matthew Graves at length received the appointment ; and his name is regis- tered as present at a parish meeting April 11th, 1748. Previous to his arrival a glebe or parsonage had been secured for the use of the pastor. Land for this purpose had been freely given by Samuel Edgecombe on Main Street, "four rods front and nine rods deep." The title was not vested in the church, but in the Society for Propa- gating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the benefit of the Episcopal church in New London. The house built upon this site about 1750 is still extant ; and though much improved in style and convenience by the present rector, retains its original frame-work and most of its old interior arrangements. In the guest chamber, on one of the panes a text of Scripture is engraved with a diamond in a neat, fair hand, " Thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful."
This is said to have been done by Rev. John Graves of Provi- dence,1 brother of Matthew, while lodging in the chamber, and was doubless intended as a gentle admonition to his sister, Miss Joanna, who presided over the household concerns.
Mr. Graves remained in New London more than thirty years ; exercising his functions discreetly, and living a blameless life. He preached often in Groton, Hebron and Norwich; was assiduous in his attentions to the sick, the poor and to prisoners in jail, and fre- quently united in worship with Christians of other names. Rev. Eli- phalet Adams, the Congregational minister, of the town, in acknowl- edging the kind attentions of friends and neighbors at the trying
1 Rev. John Graves as a preacher had a higher reputation than his brother Mat- thew. Mr. Hempstead writes, Nov. 23d, 1755, "I went to the Church to hear Mr. Graves's brother-a famous man."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
period of his wife's illness and death, observes : "The Reverend Mr. Graves prayed with us again and again with much sympathy."
It was said also that after the death of Mr. Adams he zealously encouraged the settlement of his successor. This was given as a reason by the wardens of St. Paul's Church in Narragansett, why they did not wish him to be transferred to them, as the successor of Dr. McSparran, in 1757.
" He has lately given great offence to his brethren and us, by being officious in settling a dissenting teacher at New London, and injudicious enough to be present at his ordination."
After the commencement of the Revolutionary War, Mr. Graves gave umbrage to the citizens at large, and even to a majority of his own parishioners, who were ardent whigs, by continuing to read the prayers for the king and royal family. No entry appears on the par- ish records betwixt April 17th, 1775, and November 13th, 1778. During this period the regular course of parish business was inter- rupted ; no church officers were chosen, and no service was per- formed in the church. From the recitals of the aged we learn that Mr. Graves had been respectfully requested to desist from reading the obnoxious part of the liturgy, but with this request he declared that he could not conscientiously comply. It was then intimated to him that if he persisted it was at his peril, and he must abide the consequences. Accordingly the next Sunday a determined party of whigs stationed themselves near the door, with one in the porch to keep his hand on the bell rope, and as soon as the minister, who was aware of the arrangement, began the obnoxious prayer, which he did with a firm voice, the bell sounded and the throng rushed into the house. They were led on, it is said, by the brothers Thomas and David Mumford, both men of commanding aspect and powerful frame, who ascended the pulpit stairs, and taking each an arm of the minis- ter, brought him expeditiously to the level of the floor. Some great outrage might have been committed, for mobbing was then frequent, and the rage against toryism unmitigated ; but two resolute matrons belonging to the church, rushed forward, and placing themselves in front of the unfortunate clergyman, declared their intention of stand- ing between him and harm. The Mumfords relinquished their pris- oner, and the women protected him from the populace till he escaped by a side door and found shelter in a neighboring house. "He fled in his surplice to the house of a parishioner, who though a warm
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
whig, was his personal friend, and protected him from the violence of the mob.1"
This was the last time that Mr. Graves officiated in New London. After the mob dispersed, the doors were locked, and it was regarded as too hazardous to attempt the renewal of the services for the next three years.
" At a parish meeting Nov. 14th, 1778.
" Put to vote, that no person be permitted to enter the church and act as a pastor to it, unless he openly prays for Congress and the free and independent states of America, and their prosperity by sea and land."
The vote on this question stood fourteen to eleven, but several being challenged as having no right to vote, the issue was ten on each side.
" Voted, that the church-wardens wait on the Rev. Mr. Graves and let him know of the foregoing vote, and if it be agreeable to him, he may reassume the church of St. James, and officiate as pastor thereof, he praying and conform- ing to said vote. If so, he may be admitted to-morrow, being Sunday, 15th Nov. Agreeable to the above, we the church-wardens waited on the Rev. Mr. Graves, and acquainted him with the resolve of the parishioners, to which he replied, he could not comply therewith.
THOMAS ALLEN, Church- JOHN DESHON, S Wardens.
This determination rendered Mr. Graves so unpopular that it was considered undesirable for him to remain at New London. In Au- gust, 1779, Mr. Shaw, the naval agent of the port, sent a flag of truce to convey him to New York, where he died suddenly, after only two days' illness, April 5th, 1780. He was never married ; a maiden sister who had always resided with him in New London, went with him to New York, and returned lonely and disconsolate after his death.
" June 25th, 1780.
" Voted, that Mrs. Joanna Graves has liberty to enter the parsonage house after the 29th August next, and enjoy one bed room and one lower room, until a minister is called to officiate in the church of St. James."
This venerable lady afterward removed to Providence.
Officers of the church were again chosen in September, 1779:
1 Rev. R. A. Hallam. See His. of Narragansett Church, by Updike. Many versions of this event, the dragging of the English minister from the pulpit, and the locking up of the church, have been current. The author has endeavored to give a clear state- ment; but being drawn from discordant materials, it may not be entirely correct.
448
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Thomas Allen, first warden ; John Hertell, second. These are the last on record under the old order of things, and continued nominally in office until the torch of the invader laid the greater part of the town in ruins.
The church was again opened, though not for Episcopal service, in January, 1780. The Congregational society, to whom the Rev. Wil- liam Adams was then preaching, was allowed the use of the church for their services, by a vote of the parishioners, "during the severity of the season, and the pleasure of the church." This was an accom- modation, as the Congregational edifice was on the summit of a bleak hill, and that winter one of unprecedented severity.
The next year and the next, attempts were made to revive the Epis- copal service.
" At a parish meeting June 25th, 1750, Thomas Allen, moderator, voted that the church wardens call on the Rev. Mr. Tyler, of Norwich, to officiate in the church, or any gentleman that will officiate as he does, respecting the pray- ers, as Mr. Lewis, or H. Parker, of Boston, or Mr. Freeman."
" April 16th, 1781.
" Voted that the wardens call on some Rev. gentleman to officiate in the church of St James, i. e. as Rev. Mr. Jarvis, or Mr. Hubbard do."
No pastor was, however, procured. The church was destroyed in · the general conflagration of September 6th, 1781. We may suppose that of the numbers who after this catastrophe stood in sad contem- plation gazing upon the ruins, very few felt a sharper pang of grief than John Bloyd, who had been for many years the sexton. He had kept the key, and taken charge of the edifice during the whole period of the war; to him doubtless it was a cherished object of affection, and the view of its smoldering heap must have carried desolation to his heart.1
1 A subscription for Bloyd's benefit was circulated by the wardens in 1786. He was afterward the first city crier.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
The Great Awakening of 1741 .- Preaching of Tennent, Davenport and others. Act of Assembly in May, 1742 .- Separate society formed .- The Shepherd's tent .- Accessions to the church .- Burning of the books .- Trial of the book- burners .- Descriptions of the scene by Trumbull and Peters .- Whitefield's visits .- Ministry and death of his friend Barber, of Groton.
THE years 1740 and 1741 were distinguished by the greatest re- vival of religion ever known in New England. Great was the power of preaching. The state of society was very much renovated by its influence. But the stream did not flow every where in a clear and smooth current. Sometimes it was turbid, and often lashed into a foam. Most of the leading ministers and magistrates of Connecticut beheld its progress with distrust and fear. Hence arose divisions in the churches ; the seceders being at first called New Lights and Congregational Separates, but most of them coalescing afterward with the Baptist denomination.
In New London the fervor of excitement commenced with the preaching of three sermons by Mr. Gilbert Tennent, March 30th, 1741 ; at noon, at three P. M. and in the evening. Night-preaching, as it was termed, was at that period very unusual. Mr. Tennent had large congregations ; not only the whole throng of the town's people attended, but the farmers came in with their families. The next day he preached four times, to still increasing numbers, the assembly be- ing swelled by accessions from the neighboring towns. April 1st, many from this throng accompanied him to East Lyme, to hear him again, and others joined the train along the road.
Meetings now became very frequent : the neighboring clergymen assisted each other in weekly lectures, being all greatly enlivened in their exercises ; and the assemblies unwontedly large and devout. On the 19th of May, the children of the town were assembled, and short sermons were addressed to them in terms adapted to their com-
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
prehension ; they were arranged in ranks according to size and age, the boys in one company and the girls in another. Toward the end of that month, Mr. Mills, of Derby, arrived in town, and Mr. Eells, of Stonington, came over; these joining Mr. Adams, a scrics of lec- tures were preached, forming what would now be called a protracted meeting. "The whole week," says Hempstead, writing on the 6th of June, " hath been kept as a Sabbath, and with the greatest success imaginable. Never was any such time here, and scarce any where else. The wonderful works of God have been made evident in the powerful conviction and conversion of diverse persons in an extraor- dinary manner."
On the 16th June, the Rev. Mr. Parsons, of Lyme, an earnest re- vivalist, came to New London at the express invitation of Mr. Adams, in order to reconcile if possible, the two parties which had sprung up, and threatened a rupture in the congregation. He preached two sermons, one at the meeting-house, and the other in the evening, at the dwelling of Mr. Curtis. In an account afterward published by Mr. Parsons, of the part he took in the great revival, speaking of this visit to New London, he observes:
" The success was not according to my wishes. I found mutual rising jeal- ousies, and as I thought groundless surmisings in some instances, prevailing among them. These difficulties increased afterward ; and for want of charity and mutual condescension and forbearance, they have produced an open sepa- ration."
The two parties consisted of the new converts, who exhibited a flaming zeal, and those who opposed the work, being excited proba- bly to this opposition by the imprudence of the converts.
Mr. James Davenport, of Southold, Long Island, the most ardent and renowned enthusiast of this exciting period, preached his first sermon at New London, on the 18th of July. The service was at the meeting-house, and held in the evening. Hempstead, in his diary, thus describes the scene :
" Divers women were terrified and cried out exceedingly. When Mr. Da- venport had dismissed the congregation some went out and others stayed ; he then went into the broad alley, which was much crowded, and there he screamed out, ' Come to Christ! come to Chirist! come away ! come away !' Then he went into the third pew on the women's side, and kept there, some- times singing, sometimes praying ; he and his companions all taking their turns, and the women fainting and in hysterics. This confusion continued till ten o'clock at night, and then he went off singing through the streets."
Mr. Davenport visited also the North Parish, and preached in his
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
customary violent and denunciatory manner. The Rev. Mr. Jewett, pastor of the church, declining to give him an account of his religious experience, he declared in public that it was his opinion, or at least his great fear, that Mr. Jewett was an unconverted person.
From New London the preacher passed over to Groton, where he held meetings four or five days successively, to audiences of about one thousand persons. On the 23d of July, he continued the meeting till two o'clock in the morning, and some of the hearers remained all night under the oak-tree where he preached, or in the meeting-house. " About sixty," says Hempstead, " were wounded ; many strong men as well as others."
On the 24th he preached in the west meeting-house in Stonington, where it was said near 100 persons were struck under conviction.1 The meeting was much disturbed, " hundreds crying out." The next day he ascended a rugged knoll near the meeting-house, and with a rock for his pulpit, proclaimed his message in the open air. "Sev- eral were wounded," says Hempstead, "but not like yesterday." The next day, Sunday, he made his appearance at the center meeting- house in Stonington, where Rev. Nathaniel Eells was the pastor. Not being invited into the pulpit, he took his station under the trees near by, where he condemned Mr. Eells for his want of fervor and spirituality. This severe way of judging their minister, was so dis- tasteful to his audience that it gradually melted away ; most of the people joining the regular congregation in the meeting-house.
Itinerant preaching was a new element in the Congregationalism of New England, and did not assimilate well with the ancient consti- tution. On the 24th of November, a grand council of ministers and messengers, delegated from all parts of the colony, met at Killing- worth, as directed by an act of Assembly, to discuss the whole sub- ject of traveling ministers ; the disorders occasioned by them; the odium they brought upon settled ministers, and the countenance they gave to Separatists. This council condemned as disorderly, all preaching of one minister, within the parish of another, without his leave. In conformity with this ecclesiastical decision, the General Court, in May, 1742, enacted a stringent law, directed chiefly against irregular ministers and exhorters ; entitled " An act for regulating abuses and correcting disorders in ecclesiastical affairs." The gen- eral association of ministers of the colony met at New London, in June, and endorsed this new law with the seal of their approbation.2
1 Great Awakening, p. 155.
2 Trumbull.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Under this law, Mr. Thatcher, (probably Rev. Peter Thatcher, of Middlebury,) was arrested for preaching at the house of Mr. Curtis, in New London, on the 24th of June, carried before a justice and sen- tenced to be sent from constable to constable out of the colony. In execution of this sentence he was forwarded, June 26th, to the Groton constable, who allowed him to return to New London the same night, where he pursued the same course of preaching and exhorting as be- fore, though more privately, and no further notice appears to have been taken of him by the authorities. The law was a violation of the rights of conscience and of personal freedom, so manifest and un- justifiable, that it could not be long enforced.1
At this period, New London county was regarded abroad as the focus of enthusiasm, discord and confusion. A letter to Mr. Bellamy, from Rev. David Brainerd, often himself classed among enthusiasts, alludes to the false zeal and disorderly condition of the churches in New London and Stonington. He writes from Saybrook, February 4th, 1742.
" Last week I preached for Mr. Fish, of Stonington ; the Lord helped me to be all love there, while I was [pleading] for religion, so that if they had any intention to quarrel with me, the Lord helped me to love them all to death. There was much false zeal among thiem, so that some began to separate from that dear man. He desired me if I wrote to you to remember his affectionate love to you, and tell you he wanted to see you in those parts more than any man on earth ; and indeed I believe you might do service there if the Lord should help you to softness. There is, I believe, much false religion in sundry of those eastern towns. I preached also at New London, where I conceive there is wild confusion, too long to mention ; if you should see Mr. Pierpont, of New Haven, he could tell you something."2
At the communion service on the 29th of Nov., 1742, it was no- ticed that five prominent members of Mr. Adams' church were absent ; viz., John Curtis, Christopher and John Christophers, John and Peter Harris. This was the nucleus of the party that assembled by themselves, at each other's houses. The deadness of the church and the legal preaching, as they termed it, were the reasons they gave for secession. They and others associated themselves into a separate society, and were qualified by the county court to hold meetings and worship together, without molestation. Mr. Timothy
1 " It fell in a few years and buried the party which enacted it in its ruins." Great Awakening, p. 239.
2 Extracted from the original unpublished letter furnished the author, by Rev. Tryon Edwards, of New London.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Allen from West Haven was their teacher.1 Mr. Jonathan Hill was an exhorter, and many others took a similar part. .
After a time the house of Samuel Harris (Truman Street, corner of Blinman,) was fitted up for this society, and called "The Shep- herd's Tent." It was intended to be an academy or institution for educating young men to become exhorters, teachers and ministers. How many resorted to it, is not known. Mr. Allen resided with his family in the same building and kept his school for initiates in the upper part.
In the meetings of the Separates at the Shepherd's Tent, laymen and women were allowed freedom of speech, and a relation of Chris- tian experience was usually expected from those who attended.2 There is no doubt but that in most cases, all things were done decent- ly and in order, but sometimes when the excitement was great, preaching, praying, singing and exhorting, all went on together, and confusion was the inevitable result. The whole number that with- drew from the congregation of Mr. Adams was afterward estimated at 100.
All the churches in New London county participated more or less in the great awakening. Mr. Jewett of the North Parish of New London after a time entered into it with glowing zeal. The revival in his congregation began under the instrumentality of Mr. Parsons of West Lyme in December, 1741. He preached there two suc- cessive days, and about twenty persons were regarded as converts. In the evening of the second day, just after the blessing was pro- nounced and the usual service closed, (Mr. Parsons observes), "a wonderful outpouring of the Spirit" was experienced. Mr. Jewett had returned from Lyme where he had been to supply the pulpit in exchange with his friend, and coming in to the assembly during the exercises, received a new baptism from on high. "He seemed to be full of life and spirit from the Lord."3 From that time all dissen-
1 " July 10th, 1742. I was at Mr. Miller's with the rest of the authority to speak with Mr. Allen a suspended minister who is come here from New Haven west side, and sets up to preach in private houses." Hempstead.
2 " Feb. 2d. Nath. Williams of Stonington lodged here. He went over in the eve- ning to the Shepherd's tent and there related his Christian experiences in order to have their approbation, but behold quite the contrary, for they upon examination, find him yet in an unconverted state, and he confesses the justice of their judgment, and says that he hath judged others diverse times, and though he is unwilling to be- lieve it, yet like others he is forced to bear it." Ibid.
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