USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 47
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" Gentlemen, Nothing could give me more surprise than yours of the 8th inst. How you became acquainted with my particular sentiments with regard to the Church of England I am at a loss to determine. But upon the closest and most critical examination, I frankly confess that for several years past I have had, and still have the highest esteem for that venerable church."
In conclusion, he requests them to make their proposals explicit, and they may be assured of a speedy and decisive answer. This was followed, third, by a formal invitation from the wardens and vestry to the rectorship of their church, engaging to give him a sala- ry of £200 per annum, to provide him a house and to be at the charge of his removal to Boston and his visit to England to be re- ordained. This last letter had been received that very day. After the reading of these documents, Mr. Byles observed that this sum- mons to Boston was not a thing of his own seeking, or brought about by the influence of his friends, but manifestly a call of Providence inviting him to a greater sphere of usefulness, and plainly pointing - out to him the path of duty. The brethren of the church, however, did not view the matter in this light, and a discussion somewhat re- criminative followed.' In the course of the debate, Mr. Byles de- clared that he had no objection to make to their church ; he believed
1 A sketch of this debate was taken down the same evening by a person present, and afterward published.
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it to be a true church of our Lord ; the churches of Old and New England were equally churches in his view, and he was in perfect charity with all the New England churches, but that he preferred the government, the discipline and the unity of the Church of Eng- land. In doctrine he was unchanged, and had not preached a ser- mon in that house which he should hesitate to preach in the Episcopal church, but his views in regard to the church ritual had changed. He had read many volumes of controversy and had been for three years an Episcopalian in heart.
Upon being further questioned Mr. Byles frankly acknowledged that he had other reasons for leaving, and he even urged that his dismissal was desirable on their own account. Another minister might do much better for them than he had done or could do, for his health was infirm, the position of the church very bleak, the hill wearisome; moreover they desired a minister who would often visit his parishioners and hold lectures here and there, which he could not do-he was not made for a country minister, and his home and friends were all in Boston. He also complained bitterly of the per- secutions he had suffered from the Quakers, and the negligence of the authorities in executing the laws against them. They surround- ed his house on the Sabbath and insulted him continually, both in and out of the pulpit.
In reply the brethren adverted to his great popularity, the love they had cherished for him, the harmony that had always subsisted between him and his people, and the suddenness and indifference with which he was about to dissolve these ties. Why had not these grievances been mentioned before? When he settled, he was aware of the bleak and tedious hill, he knew that the Quakers were trouble- some, that his salary was small, that his friends lived in Boston, yet he had accepted their call and voluntarily brought himself under ob- ligation to walk with them and watch over them.
It is not surprising that in the course of this debate some pointed and harsh remarks should have been made on both sides. The breth- ren ridiculed their pastor's fear of the Quakers, whom they called a few harmless old women sitting at his gate; alluding to the volumes of controversy which he had read, they observed that they could never before understand how he spent his time, since he so seldom visited his parishoners and preached so many old sermons, and they rather bitterly reminded him of a passage in his father's charge at ordination, relative to studying and watching to promote the welfare of his flock, "that his candle must burn when midnight darkness
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covered the windows of the neighborhood"-but now it appeared that instead of watching for the good of souls, he had been studying rites and ceremonies.
This debate was productive of no good; the next day, April 2d, Mr. Byles made his application in due form, requesting " an immedi- ate and honorable dismission," and engaging on his part to refund the £240 which had been given him at settlement-"in case you give me this day such a generous discharge as I have now desired, and put me to no further difficulty." The society record preserves no comments made on the occasion, but simply records that Mr. Byles having requested an immediate dismission and discharge from his contract as their minister-
" Voted, that this Society do fully comply with his request." The church record is equally brief and explicit.
April 12th, 1768. "The Rev. Mr. Mather Byles dismissed himself from the church and congregation."
Mr. Byles hastened his departure from town with a rapidity that almost made it a flight. He conveyed his house1 to his friend Dr. Moffatt, the English controller of the customs, in pledge for the re- payment of the £240 to the society, and ere a Sabbath had returned since his first tender of resignation, he had embarked with his family and all his movables on board of a packet for Newport. He was to have sailed on Saturday, but the vessel was wind-bound and he was obliged to remain over Sunday. He offered to preach a last sermon but his services were declined. He however ascended the wearisome hill, once more, entered the bleak church, and sate silent and de- jected, as a listener, In one week a great revulsion of feeling had taken place, and a gulf was opened between him and a people by whom he had been greatly admired and affectionately caressed. He had never been more popular with his congregation than at that moment when his request for a dismission came upon them with the suddenness of an electric shock.
The duration of Mr. Byles' ministry in New London was ten years and a half. During that period he recorded 362 baptisms ; 198 marriages, and sixty admissions to the church, of whom eight were by letter.
The change of sentiment in Mr. Byles was soon an affair of noto- riety all over New England, and explanations and remarks were
1 Built by Mr. Byles in 1758 on Main Street at the north corner of Douglas, and now Dr. Bartholomew Baxter's.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
published on both sides. At New London, the forsaken congrega- tion displayed the usual buoyant and versatile character of the place ; instead of brooding over the matter, they set it up as a mark for the shafts of wit and ridicule. A song was made, embodying the facts, called " The Proselyte," and sung about the town to the tune of the "Thief and Cordelier." They published also a " Wonderful Dream," in which the spirit of the venerable Mather was introduced to rebuke his descendant for his apostasy from Puritanism.
Mr. Byles went to England to receive Episcopal ordination and after- ward exercised the ministerial function in Boston, till the Revolution. In that trying time he was a royalist and refugee, and one of those prohibited from returning to the state by act of the Massachusetts legislature in September, 1788. He died in St. John's, New Bruns- wick, where he was rector in March, 1814. The children of Mather and Rebecca Byles, on the record of baptisms, at New London are --- Rebecca, Jeremiah and Elizabeth, baptized together in 1762 ; Mather in 1764; Walter in 1765; Anna and Elizabeth, 1767. The births are not registered.
The successor of Mr. Byles, and seventh minister of the church, was Rev. Ephraim Woodbridge, grandson of the first minister of Groton. The Woodbridge family can boast of a succession of wor- thy ministers reaching lineally backward to the mother country. First, Rev. John Woodbridge, minister of Stanton in Wiltshire, England. Second, his son Rev. John Woodbridge, first minister of Andover, Mass ; ordained 1645, married Mercy, daughter of Gover- nor Dudley, and died at Newbury, 1695. Third, Rev. John Wood- bridge, (son of the preceding,) of Killingworth and Wethersfield, Conn. ; dying at the latter place in 1690. Fourth, Rev. John Wood- bridge, son of the preceding, first minister of West Springfield, ordained 1698. Fifth, Rev. Ephraim Woodbridge, brother of the last named and first minister of Groton, Connecticut.
In this line the ministerial vocation passes over one generation, and falls upon Ephraim, oldest son of Paul Woodbridge, which Paul was second son of the minister of Groton. This second Ephraim Woodbridge was born in Groton, in 1746, graduated at Yale College 1765, and was ordained in New London, Oct. 11th, 1769. His mar- riage, with Mary, only surviving daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Shaw, took place, Oct. 26th, fifteen days after his ordination. Seldom have a youthful couple commenced a household under happier auspices. Their residence was on Main Street, in a house built by Capt. Shaw, expressly for his daughter, upon the south end of the Shapley house-
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lot, which he had purchased for that purpose.1 It is probable that the married life and the house-keeping commenced on the same day and that the following inscription still remaining on one of the win- dow panes, was engraved by Mr. Woodbridge on that auspicious morn :
" Ephraim Woodbridge Hic Vixit. Hail happy day ! the fairest sun that ever rose, 1769."
These fair promises of life and usefulness were soon overshadowed. Mrs. Mary Woodbridge died of consumption June 10th, 1775, in the twenty-fourth year of her age. Rev. Ephraim Woodbridge died of the same disease, Sept. 6th, 1776, aged thirty years.
" Zion may in his fall bemoan A Beauty and a Pillar gone."2
They left two young children, a son and a daughter ; precious legacies to the brothers of Mrs. Woodbridge, who had no children of their own.
The ministry of Mr. Woodbridge was less than seven years in duration ; the admissions to his church were only twenty-three, of whom six were by letter. In the first four and a half years he re- ceived twelve, and baptized seventy-nine. This was in a ratio of not more than one to four, compared with the statistics of Mr. Byles' ministry. But it must here be noticed, that Mr. Woodbridge was the first of the New London ministers who refused to admit persons to the church, upon owning or renewing of their baptismal covenant, nor would he baptize the children of such half-way members. He required a profession of faith; and would allow of no church mem- bership not founded on a change of heart. His congregation soon became divided on these points ; very few thoroughly sympathized with the views of their pastor, and he was sustained in his position
1 Now owned by William D. Pratt, in whom it reverts to the Shapley line, he be- ing descended from that family. After the death of Mr. Woodbridge it was purchased by Edward Hallam and has been known as a Hallam house, or the Long Piazza house, but the Piazza having been removed as an encroachment on the street, it has lost this distinctive mark.
2 From the monumental tablet to his memory, where he is called "sixth pastor of the First Congregational Church in New London." He was more accurately the seventh pastor, and fifth ordained minister. The order of succession is Blinman, Bulkley, Bradstreet, Saltonstall, Adams, Byles, Woodbridge. Bradstreet was the first ordained in the town.
1
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barely by personal popularity and a general indifference in regard to doctrines. Religion was at a low ebb; there had been no revival in the church since 1741. At the time of Mr. Woodbridge's decease, there were but five male members in his church. After his death the decline was still greater. Posterity will scarcely believe that whilst the old perambulating revivalists were still warm in their graves, their forefathers were reduced to such deadness and ignorance on scriptural subjects. The preaching was formal and infrequent, and conference meetings, prayer meetings and family worship almost wholly unknown. The Episcopal church had very much dwindled ; the Baptist was extinct. And over this sad state of things came the sweeping flood of the Revolution.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The measures of the town relating to the Revolution, sketched in chronological order, from 1767 to 1780 .- Early supporters of the Revolution .- Extracts from Shaw's Mercantile Letter Book .- Expedition of Commodore Hopkins .- Departure of the English Collector.
CONNECTICUT, in 1774, contained seventy-two townships, twenty- eight of which were east of Connecticut River, in the counties of New London and Windham. The commerce of the district shows an increase since 1761. It was estimated at seventy-two vessels, three thousand, two hundred and forty-seven tuns, four hundred and six seamen, and twenty sail of coasters, with ninety men.' New London had nothing but her commerce ; this was her life, her all. In the grand list of 1775, she was rated at £35,528, 17s. 6d., which was less than half the rate of New Haven, and little more than half that of Norwich. Stonington was ahead of her in the value of prop- erty. Groton returned a list of £26,902, 6s. 3d.
So copious are the details connected with the Revolution, that may be collected from one source and another, that even after the lapse of more than seventy years, the historian is embarrassed by the afflu- ence of materials. He is in danger of losing the thread of his nar- rative in the labyrinth of interesting incidents presented to him. In the present case, however, there can be no doubt but that it will be proper to notice first what was done by the town in its corporate ca- pacity. This will not require a long article. The records are mea- ger. The Revolution, as it regards New London, was achieved by
1 Jeremiah Miller, of New London. Answer to queries, Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d series, vol. 2, p. 219.
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public spirit and voluntary action, rather than by organization and law. From the town records we learn but little of the contest in which the inhabitants were such great sufferers.
A letter from the selectmen of Boston inclosing the famous resolu- tions of October 23d, 1767, was laid before the town Dec. 28th, and the subject referred to a committee of fifteen of the inhabitants, viz.
Gurdon Saltonstall,
Nathaniel Shaw, Jun.,
Daniel Coit,
Ezekiel Fox,
William Hillhouse,
Samuel Belden,
Richard Law,
Winthrop Saltonstall,
Jeremiah Miller,
Guy Richards,
Joseph Coit,
Russell Hubbard,
James Mumford, Nathaniel Shaw,
Titus Hurlbut.
This committee entered fully into the spirit of the Boston resolu- tions, and drew up a form of subscription to circulate among the in- habitants, by which the use of certain enumerated articles of Europe- an merchandise was condemned and relinquished. These articles appear to have been generally adopted, and faithfully kept.
In December, 1770, the town appointed four delegates to the grand convention of the colony, held at New Haven :
Gurdon Saltonstall, William Hillhouse,
Nathaniel Shaw, Jun., William Manwaring.
We find no further record of any action of the town relative to the political discontent of the country, until the memorable month of June, 1774, when the edict of Parliament, shutting up the port of Boston, took effect, and roused the colonies at once to activity. Votes and resolutions expressive of indignation, remonstrance and sympathy, were echoed from town to town, and pledges exchanged to stand by each other, and to adhere with constancy to the cause of liberty. The town meeting at Groton, was on the 20th of June, William Wil- liams, moderator. The committee of correspondence chosen, con- sisted of seven prominent inhabitants:
William Ledyard, Thomas Mumford,
Charles Eldridge, Jun.,
Deacon John Hurlbut, Amos Geer.
Benadam Gallup, Amos Prentice,
The meeting at New London was on the 27th; Richard Law, moderator, and the committee five in number:
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Richard Law, Gurdon Saltonstall, Nathaniel Shaw, Jun.,
Samuel H. Parsons,
Guy Richards.
The declarations and resolves issued by these meetings were simi- lar to those of hundreds of towns at that juncture. In December, the town added two other members to the committee of correspondence, viz., John Deshon and William Coit. At this time also, a committee of inspection was appointed, consisting of thirty persons, who had in- structions " to take effectual care that the acts of the Continental Congress, held at Philadelphia, September 5th, 1774, be absolutely and bona fide adhered to." Any seven of the members were to form a quorum, and in cases of emergency the whole were to be called to- gether at the court-house. From this period almost all action rela- ting to the contest with England was performed by committees, or by spontaneous combination among the citizens, or by colonial and mili- tary authority, and the results were not recorded.
Committee of Correspondence for the year 1776.
Gurdon Saltonstall,
John Deshon,
Nathaniel Shaw, Jun.,
John Hertell,
Marvin Wait, William Hillhouse.
January 15th, 1776. "Voted, that if any person within the limits of this town shall at any time between now and the 1st of January next, unnecessarily expend any gunpowder by firing at game or otherwise, shall for every musket charge forfeit and pay the sum of twenty shillings lawful money into the town treasury."
March 31st, 1777. A committee of supply was appointed to pro- vide necessaries for the families of such soldiers as should enlist in the continental battalions then raising in the state. This was in com- pliance with the orders of the governor and council of safety, and a committee for this purpose was annually chosen till the conclusion of the war. The selectmen and informing officers were enjoined to search out and punish all violations of the law regulating the prices of the necessaries of life.
At the same meeting the town-clerk was directed to remove the books and files of the town to some place of safety, reserving only in his own custody those required for immediate use.
In conformity with this vote the town records were removed into the western part of the township, now Waterford, and committed to the charge of Mr. George Douglass, by whom they were kept at his homestead until after the termination of the war. By this wise pre- caution, they escaped the destruction which swept away a portion of
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the probate records, and probably all those of the custom-house, on the 6th of September, 1781.
June 23d, 1777. " Voted almost unanimously to admit of inoculation for small pox, agreeably to a resolve of the General Assembly in May last."
The committee of correspondence for the years 1777 and 1778, consisted of three persons only, the first three named on the list of 1776. The committee of inspection was reduced to nineteen, and in Janua- ry, 1779, it was entirely dropped.
The articles of confederation agreed upon by Congress in 1777, and referred to the several states for consideration, were in Connecticut ultimately presented to the inhabitants in their town meetings, for decision. The vote of New London was as follows :
December 29th, 1777. " Gurdon Saltonstall, moderator. Voted in a very full town meeting, nem con, that this town do approve of and acquiesce in the late proposals of the honorable Continental Congress, entitled ' Articles of Con- federation and perpetual union between the United States of America,' as being the most effectual measures whereby the freedom of said states may be secured and their independency established on a solid and permanent basis."
In October, 1779, a state convention was held at Hartford; the deputies from New London, were Gurdon Saltonstall and Jonathan Latimer.
From year to year as the war continued, the population decreased, estates diminished, and the burdens of the town grew heavier. The difficulty of furnishing the proper quota of men and provisions for the army, annually increased. Large taxes were laid, large bounties offered for soldiers to serve during the war, and various ways and means suggested and tried to obtain men, money, clothing, provisions, and fire-arms, to keep the town up to the proportion required by the legislature. Much of the town action was absorbed by this necessary but most laborious duty.
June 27th, 1780. A bounty of £12 per annum, over and above the public bounty, was offered in hard money, to each soldier that would enlist to serve during the war; £9 to each that would enlist for three years ; and £6 to each that would enlist to serve till the 1st day of January next.
In December, 1780, a committee was appointed to collect all the fire-arms belonging to the inhabitants, and deposit them in a safe place, for the benefit of the town. Only extreme necessity could justify an act so arbitrary.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
So many of the inhabitants of New London had been trained as fishermen, coasters and mariners, that no one is surprised to find them, when the trying time came, bold, hardy and daring in the cause of freedom. In all the southern towns of the county, Stonington, Gro- ton, New London, Lyme, the common mass of the people were an adventurous class, and exploits of stratagem, strength and valor by land and sea, performed during the war of independence, by persons nurtured on this coast, might still be recovered, sufficient to form a volume of picturesque adventure and exciting interest. At the same time, many individuals in this part of the country, and some too of high respectability, took a different view of the great political ques- tion, and sided with the parliament and the king. In various instan- ces, families were divided; members of the same fireside adopted opposite opinions, and became as strangers to each other ; nor was it an unknown misery for parents to have children ranged on different sides on the battle field. At one time a gallant young officer of the army, on his return from the camp, where he had signalized himself by his bravery, was escorted to his home by a grateful populace, that surrounded the house and filled the air with their applausive huzzas ; while at the same time, his half-brother, the son of the mother who clasped him to her bosom, stigmatized as a tory, convicted of trade with the enemy, and threatened with the wooden horse, lay concealed amid the hay of the barn, where he was fed by stealth for many days. This anecdote is but an example of many that might be told, of a sim- ilar character.
It would be of no service now to draw out of oblivion the names of individuals who at various times during the eight years of dark- ness and conflict, were suspected of being inimical to the liberties of their country. Many of these changed their sentiments and came over to the side of independence, and all at last acquiesced in their own happiness and good fortune, growing out of the emancipation of their country from a foreign scepter. It is an easier as well as more pleasing task to mention names that on account of voluntary activity, sacrifice of personal interest, and deeds of valorous enterprise, ex- erted for the rights of man, lie prominent upon the surface, illumina- ting the whole period by their brightness.
Those who came earliest forth in the cause demand our especial admiration, since it is emphatically true that they set their lives at stake. In a civil capacity the early names of note and influence were those of Deshon, Law, Hillhouse, Mumford and Shaw.
Capt. John Deshon served as an agent in erecting the fortifications
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
at New London, and as commissary in various enlistments of troops. This was under the authority of the governor. In July, 1777, Con- gress appointed him one of the naval board of the eastern depart- ment.1
Richard Law2 and William Hillhouse were members of the govern- or's council, and each carried a whole heart into the Revolution. Hill- house was also major of the second regiment of horse raised in the state.3 Law had been nominated as a member of Congress, but in June, 1776, just at the critical period of appointment, he was confined in a hospital with the small-pox. His name was thus deprived of the honor of being affixed to the Declaration of Independence. In Octo- ber, 1776, he was elected to Congress, and excused from further ser- vice in the council.
Thomas Mumford, of Groton, belonged to that company of gentle- men, eleven in number, who in April, 1775, formed the project of taking Ticonderoga. This undertaking, so eminently successful, was wholly concerted in Connecticut, without any authority from Con- gress. The company obtained the money requisite (£810,) from the colonial treasury, but gave their individual notes and receipts for it. The Assembly, in May, 1777, canceled the notes and charged the amount to the general government.4 In 1778, Mumford was one of a committee appointed to receive and sign emissions of bills, and also an agent of the secret committee of Congress.5
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