History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 48

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 48

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" Feb. 27, '72-3.

" Upon demand made by Hugh Calkin for money due to Mr. Leake, of Boston, for improvement of a barn of Goodman Rogers, which said Calkin stood engaged for to pay, this town dotlı promise to pay one barrel of pork to said Calkin some time the next winter."

On the north of the meeting-house was the lot re- served for purposes of sepulture. The ordinance which describes its bounds and legally sets it apart for this use is dated June 6th, 1653, and declares "it shall ever bee for a Common Buriall place, and never be impropriated by any." This is the oldest graveyard in New London County.

" March 26, 1655.

" Goodman Cumstock is chosen to be grave-maker for the town, and he shall have 4s. for men and women's graves, and for all children's graves 3s for every grave he makes."

" Feb. 25, 1661-2. Old Goodman Cumstock is chosen sexton, whose worke is to order youth in the meeting-house, sweep the meeting-honse, and beat out dogs, for which he is to have 40s. a year : he is also to make all graves; for a man or woman he is to have 4s., for children, 2s. a grave, to be paid by survivors."

The earliest notice of the first pastor, Mr. Blinman, in this country is from the records of Plymouth colony, March 2, 1640.

Governor Winthrop mentions Mr. Blinman's arrival and settlement without giving the date.

"One Mr. Blinman, a minister in Wales, a godly and able man, came over with some friends of his, and being invited to Green's Harbour [since Marshfield], near Plymouth, they went thither, but ere the year was expired there fell out some difference among them, which by no means could be reconciled, so as they agreed to part, and he came with his company and sat down at Cape Anne, which at this court [May, 1642] was established to be a plantation and called Gloucester."

It is not known that Mr. Blinman was ever in- ducted into office, or that any church organization took place under his ministry, yet he is uniformly styled "pastor of the church," which is strong evi- dence that a church association of some kind had been formed in the town. The period when he re- linquished his charge can be very nearly ascertained, for in January, 1657-58, he uses the customary for- mula, "I, Richard Blinman, of Pequot," and in March of the same year, "I, R. B., at present of New Haven."

The second pastor was Rev. Gershom Bulkley, in 1661. Mr. Bulkley was a son of the Rev. Peter Bulk- ley, the first minister of Concord, Mass. His mother, the second wife of his father, was Grace, daughter of Sir Richard Chitwood. It has been often related con- cerning this lady that she apparently died on her passage to this country. Her husband supposing land to be near, and unwilling to consign the beloved form to a watery grave, urgently entreated the captain that the body might be kept one day more, and yet another and another day, to which, as no signs of decay had appeared, he consented. On the third day signs of vitality were observed, and before they reached the land animation, so long suspended, was restored, and though carried from the vessel an in- valid, she recovered and lived to old age. Her son, Gershom, was born soon after their arrival, Dec. 26, 1635. He graduated at Harvard College in 1655, and married, Oct. 26, 1659, Sarah Chauncey, daughter of the president of that institution. His father died in 1659. His widowed mother, Mrs. Grace Bulkley, fol- lowed her son to New London, where she purchased the homestead of William Hough, "hard below the meeting-house that now is," and dwelt in the town, a householder, so long as her son remained its minister.

Mr. Bulkley, after having freed the town from their engagement to build a parsonage, purchased the homestead of Samuel Lothrop, who was about re- moving to the new settlement of Norwich. The house is said to have stood beyond the bridge over the mill brook, on the east side of the highway towards Mohegan. Here Mr. Bulkley dwelt during his resi- dence in New London.

The second meeting-house was built near the old one, on the southwest corner of what was called the meeting-house green (now Town Square).

The contract for building the meeting-house was made with John Elderkin and Samuel Lothrop. It was to be forty feet square, the studs twenty feet high, with a turret answerable, two galleries, fourteen win-

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

dows, three doors, and to set up on all the four gables of the house pyramids comely and fit for the work, and as many lights in each window as direction should be given ; a year and a half allowed for its completion; £240 to be paid in provisions, viz., in wheat, peas, pork, and beef, in quantity proportional; the town to find nails, glass, iron-work, and ropes for rearing ; also to boat and cart the timber to the place, and provide sufficient help to rear the work.

The old Blinman edifice,-the unadorned church and watch-tower of the wilderness,-decayed and dis- mantled, was sold to Capt. Avery in June, 1684, for six pounds, with the condition annexed that he should remove it in one month's time. According to tra- dition, he took it down, and transporting the mate- rials across the river, used them in building his own house at Pequonuck. This house is still extant, a view of which may be seen in the history of Groton.

The appointment of deacons is not registered. William Douglas may have been the first person that held the office after Mr. Bradstreet's ordination. He was at least active in the church economy, and held the box at the door for contributions. He died in 1682. In 1683, William Hough and Joseph Coite were deacons; the former died August 10th of that year, before Mr. Bradstreet's decease, and no other deacon except Coite is mentioned during the next ten years. Mr. Bradstreet died in 1683.

" At a Towne meeting November ye 19, 1683.

" Voted, that Maj. John Winthrop, Maj. Edward Palmes, Capt. James Avray, Mr. Daniel Wetherell, Mr. Christo. Christophers, Tho. Beebe, Joseph Coite, Jolin Prentis Sent., Clement Miner, Charles Hill, are ap- pointed a committee In behalf of the towne to send a letter by Capt. Wayne Winthrop to the reverend Mr. Mather and Mr. Woollard (Wil- lard) ministers at boston for there advice and counsell in attayneing a minister for the town to supply the place of Mr. Bradstreet, deceased, and that the sd Capt. Winthrop shall have instructions from the sd Comittee to manadge that affaire wth them."

This Bradstreet church building was destroyed by fire in 1694, and replaced by what was known as the Saltonstall meeting-house in 1698. This was occu- pied until 1786, when a building was erected on the site of the present church, which was occupied in 1787. The present massive and elegant stone edifice was erected in 1850 at a cost of about $50,000.

The following is a list of pastors from Mr. Brad- street to the present time : Gurdon Saltonstall,1 from November, 1691, to August, 1707 ; Eliphalet Adams, July, 1708; Mather Byles, November, 1757, to April, 1768; Ephraim Woodbridge, October, 1769; Henry Channing, May, 1787, to May, 1806; Abel McEwen, D.D., October, 1806; Thomas P. Field, June, 1856 ; Edward W. Bacon, 1877, present incumbent.

The Second Congregational Church of New London is a daughter of the First Church of Christ, in the same city. With the hearty good wishes of the pastor, Rev. Abel McEwen, D.D., the colony went out to be constituted into a church Tuesday, April 28, 1835. The confession of faith and covenant in

use by the parent church had been previously adopted, April 21st, by nineteen persons. During the repairs of the First church the mother worshiped for six months in her daughter's new house. This stood on the corner of Jay and Huntington Streets, and was completed Aug. 3, 1834. Thursday, April 23, 1835, this house was formally dedicated to God. The Rev. E. W. Baldwin, D.D., afterwards president of Wabash College, preached the sermon from the text, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- lieveth." The dedicatory prayer was offered by the Rev. Abel MeEwen, D.D. The concluding prayer was pronounced by the venerable Dr. Samuel Nott, of Franklin. On the evening of this impressive day -which but one of the original members is alive among us to recall-Henry C. Smith and Charles Butler were elected deacons, and ordained thereto with prayer by Rev. Edward Bull. The following Sunday, April 26th, the first service of the new congregation was held in the new temple. The Rev. Joseph Hurl- but preached in the morning from the text, " Who is sufficient for these things." In the afternoon the Rev. Daniel Huntington followed with a sermon based on the Scripture, "Take heed how ye hear." The same day a Sunday-school, with fifteen teachers and forty-two scholars, was organized under the superin- tendency of Thomas S. Perkins. The first celebration of the Lord's Supper took place on the first Sunday in June, 1835, and was made precious by the confes- sion of Christ of the late Henry P. Haven and of the wife of the senior deacon, Dr. Isaac G. Porter.

Thus inaugurated, and in co-operation with an ec- clesiastical society constituted April 14th, at the house of one of the original members, Hon. T. W. Williams, the Second Congregational Church began her life with the benediction of God.

The Rev. Joseph Hurlbut preached and adminis- tered the ordinances till a stated pastor could be ob- tained. This was about two years, till March 6, 1837. His labors were gratuitous. They were marked by the ingathering of one hundred and thirteen members. Mr. Hurlbut had also borne one-quarter of the ex- pense of building the first house of worship. He prayed at the last sacrament in the new house before his death, which occurred suddenly, June 5, 1875.

The Rev. Daniel Huntington, though never an act- ing pastor, like Mr. Hurlbut, was for a number of months acting preacher in the third Sunday service. He led the service of song. He baptized five out of forty-eight children of the church. His long minis- tries at Bridgewater, Mass., before and after this date are written on earth.

The Rev. James M. Macdonald, D.D., became now the first installed pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Dec. 13, 1837. He came from the Third Church of this order in Berlin. The public exercises at his installation included a sermon by Rev. H. Bush- nell, D.D., of Hartford; installing prayer by Rev.

1 Subsequently Governor of Connecticut.

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Mr. Tuttle, of Groton. He drew in forty-three mem- bers to the fold. He was conservative on slavery and temperance, and his healthi suffered from the collision with more radical views. At his own request he was dismissed by a Council, Jan. 7, 1840. Dr. Macdonald died in the harness as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Princeton, April 19, 1876.

The Rev. Artemas Boies was the second pastor in- stalled, March 10, 1841. The installing prayer was pronounced by Rev. Timothy Tuttle, Ledyard, the moderator. Mr. Boies had been in delicate health from childhood, yet there was nothing of sombreness in his pastoral zeal. His alertness of wit and affec- tionateness of manner made him a favorite among the young. During three and one-half years he added to the church one hundred and four members. In his last sickness he thought and prayed much for his flock.

The Rev. Tryon Edwards, D.D., was the third pas- tor settled by this church. This was March 6, 1845. At the public services of installation the Rev. Joel Hawes, D.D., of Hartford, preached the sermon, and Dr. Thomas Bond, of Norwich, gave the right hand of fellowship. Dr. Edwards was dismissed, at his own request, Aug. 4, 1857. His was the longest pastorate in the church's brief history.

Dr. Edwards baptized thirty-seven children and received two hundred and one members. He ex- erted and still exerts an influence in the line of his learned and pious ancestry with the pen of author- ship no less than the voice of preaching.

Rev. G. Buckingham Wilcox succeeded to the pas- torate April 20, 1859. Rev. Edwards A. Parks, D.D., preached the sermon before the Council; Dr. Mc- Ewen was moderator. The charge to the pastor was by Rev. William H. Wilcox, of Reading, Mass. The right hand of fellowship was by Rev. T. P. Field, D.D., of the First Church. The charge to the peo- ple was given by Rev. Dr. J. P. Gulliver, of Nor- wich.

Mr. Wilcox baptized twenty-nine children and gathered two hundred and seven members in his in- defatigable pastorate of ten years and seven months.

He established the Bradley Street Mission, Sept. 2, 1859. He laid the corner-stone of the new church, Oct. 28, 1868. Nov. 23, 1869, at his own request, he was dismissed to accept a call to the First Congrega- tional Church in Jersey City.

The Rev. Oliver Ellsworth Daggett, D.D., became the fifth pastor of this church, being installed by Council Feb. 21, 1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. S. G. Buckingham, D.D., of Springfield, Mass. The installation prayer was by Rev. Thomas L. Ship- man, of Jewett City. A responsive reading from Psalm xlviii. and Isaiah lii. was given by Rev. Thomas M. Boss, of Putnam, and the Sunday-school and congregation.

In his edifying and acceptable pastorate of nearly seven years Dr. Daggett baptized twenty-six children

and received one hundred and fifty-five members. On May 25, 1875, he preached a sermon, reviewing the first forty years of the church, from the text, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, ' Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.'" To this ad- mirable discourse the compiler of the present notice is largely indebted. Dr. Daggett was dismissed, at his own request, Sept. 5, 1877, by a saddened and reluctant Council of the neighboring ministry and laity.

The Rev. John Phelps Taylor became the sixth and present pastor of this church by installation of a Council met May 29, 1878. The sermon was preached from 2 Timothy ii. 24, by Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., of Providence, R. I., and the installing prayer offered by Rev. William S. Palmer, of Norwich. Rev. A. W. Hazen, of Middletown, gave the charge to the pastor, and Rev. Edward Woolsey Bacon, of the First Church of Christ, the right hand of fellowship.

Deacons .- The two original deacons of the church already mentioned are fallen asleep. Of these, Henry C. Smith died Oct. 31, 1865; Charles Butler died March 13, 1878 ; Robert Coit, elected Dec. 29, 1841, died Oct. 18, 1874; Henry P. Haven, elected June 7, 1857, died April 30, 1876. Still surviving and in active usefulness are Dr. Isaac G. Porter, elected June 7, 1857 ; William H. Chapman, elected May 28, 1875; Edmund B. Jennings, elected May 28, 1875; William M. Tobey, elected April 26, 1878.

Ecclesiastical Society .- The Second Ecclesiastical Society was organized April 14, 1835. From the first it has co-operated efficiently and harmoniously with the church it was designed to aid. The current ex- penses of the society are met by the rental of the slips. In the building of two houses of worship within less than forty years the society's committee have been sorely taxed in resources of purse and of spirit, but they have risen to the occasion with an enterprise and liberality worthy of all praise.

Houses of Worship .- The first was a white wooden structure with a square belfry and four-pillared por- tico, with a fine stone basement, built at a cost of twelve thousand dollars. It stood on the south corner of Huntington and Jay Streets. Friday morning, March 13, 1868, it was burned to the ground. Ten thousand dollars had just been expended in repairs. Rev. Mr. Wilcox preached to the homeless flock the next Sunday, March 15th, in the First church, from the text, "Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire." Scraps of the scorched Bible and fragments of the old bell were guarded by the older members. The Sunday- school recited Isaiah lxiv. 11 and 2 Cor. v. 1 during the sessions of a year. In this hour of trial the hos- pitality of the Universalist society gave us a shelter which can never be forgotten.

The second and present edifice was begun by the laying of the corner-stone, Oct. 28, 1868. Rev. Mr. Hurlbut, Elder Swan, Dr. Field, Dr. Smith, of the

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

building committee, and Rev. Mr. Wilcox took part in the public exercises. The church was finished and dedicated June 1, 1870. Rev. Dr. Arms read the Scriptures, and Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., president of Yale College, preached the sermon from 2 Chron. vi.

The concluding prayer was made by Rev. Joshua Coit, a son of the church.

The chapel was dedicated July 22, 1870, with ap- propriate responsive readings and recitations, prayers and praises. The main address was by Deacon Haven, the superintendent.

The house thus built is of granite, with a stone spire surmounted by a cross, with stained windows and horse-shoe galleries. The architects were Nichols & Brown, of Albany, N. Y. The building committee were Seth Smith, M.D., chairman, Robert Coit, Jr., Jonathan N. Harris, O. Woodworth, Richard H. Chapell, Frederick H. Harris, A. G. Douglas. George Prest was the master-mason, and the late Timothy S. Daboll the master-joiner. The entire cost was one hundred and forty thousand dollars,

The first sermon preached in this beautiful edifice on the Lord's day was by Rev. Joshua Coit, from the words, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

St. James' Church .- Among the first settlers of New London no trace is to be found of any attach- ment to the Church of England. A second company of settlers came in 1650 from Gloucester, Mass., bringing with them their minister, the Rev. Richard Blinman, a clergyman in the orders of the Church of England, who had been ejected for non-conformity from his cure at Chepstow, in the county of Mon- mouth. He is reckoned the first minister of New London, and seems to have comprehended in his charge all the inhabitants of the place. But neither he nor his people manifested any attachment to the church from which a misguided conscience had led them to withdraw. For the accommodation of this new party of settlers a new piece of land was taken up southwest of the town lot, which was called Cape Ann Lane, from Cape Ann, Mass., one of the two points within which Massachusetts Bay is included, a name which it still retains, though it remains even yet thinly settled, and has ever been an inferior and unimportant portion of the town. But neither in Winthrop's company nor among the followers of Mr. Blinman is to be found any indication of attachment to the ancient Catholic Church of the English race. To find any such trace we must pass over a period of a little more than a half-century. There are no ex- tant indications of the presence in New London of

any avowed members of the Church of England until 1723, when a child of William and Mary Norton was baptized there by Mr. Pigot, the missionary of the Propagation Society in Stratford and the parts adja- cent, by the name of John. This took place on the 17th of April in that year. In the year following, Oct. 25, 1724, the Rev. Samuel Johnson baptized

Sarah, infant daughter of the same parents; and in recording this baptism in his parish register Mr. Johnson makes this note: "N.B .- Mr. Talbot bap- tized Lauzerne, son of Richard and Elizabeth Wilson, at New London, Oct. 15, 1724." Thus it appears that John Norton was the first person Episcopally baptized in New London, and these are the earliest signs of the church's presence here. The name of William Norton appears among those who subscribed to the erection of a church in 1725, and is appended, with those of others, to a letter addressed to Dr. McSparran on the subject in 1726. But who he was or how he came to be a churchman does not appear. And of Richard Wilson nothing is known but the record of the baptism of his son by the extraordinary and certainly very un-Puritan name of Lauzerne. All honor to their memories. It appears thus that the attention of the missionaries of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel" had thus early been directed to New London as a suitable field for their pious labors, and that they sometimes visited it and gave it a portion of their services.

Churchmen came here churchmen, and naturally sought to provide themselves with the institutions and services which churchmen love. Of those whose names appear in connection with the first steps to- wards the formation of a congregation and the erec- tion of a church here, several are known to have been Englishmen, and perhaps it is safe to infer that others whose origin is unknown were such also. At any rate, none of them can be traced by their name to the company of Winthrop or of Blinman. I think we are warranted in believing that the church in New London grew up out of the wants of a class of its in- habitants who had been drawn thither by commerce or business, and who, having brought their Episcopal predilections and preferences with them, were glad to bring them into action as soon as an opportunity was presented. Neither Narragansett on the east nor Stratford on the west planted the seed. Both gladly lent their aid to cheer and strengthen the growing blade when it began to shoot forth. The first found- ers of the parish, then, were English, not of the Puri- tan stock.

It is evident, moreover, that the young shoot start- ing into life and growth at New London did not wholly depend for its nurture on the care of Dr. Mc- Sparran. Dr. Johnson, at Stratford, still continued to care for it, and extend to it a measure of his active service. In a letter to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, of the date of June 11, 1724, he says, "I have since preached in New Lon- don, where I had sixty hearers, and where there is a good prospect of increase if they had a minister." And in a postscript to a letter written Aug. 14, 1725, he writes, "New London people are likewise going to build with all expedition. I have got considerable subscriptions, and a piece of ground to set it on." Hence it is evident that he continued to interest

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himself in the rising parish, and exert himself in its behalf. So that while there is no disposition to dero- gate from the value of Dr. McSparran's services, it may well be doubted whether he does not rather overstate matters in calling himself, in so unqualified a way, its founder. Nearer and more accessible than any other minister of the English Church, they nat- urally resorted to him for advice and help. This he willingly afforded them, and the more readily be- cause by a matrimonial alliance he was connected with some of their ablest friends and supporters.

Not till after the completion of the church and the establishment of a missionary do the records of the parish assume a continuous shape and afford mate- rials for an unbroken narrative.

The Rev. James McSparran, D.D., was in these early times the missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Narragansett Bay and all the southern and western part of Rhode Island, and in the early part of the eighteenth century his services began to be extended to the incipient parish at New London.

But to neither of these sources, the Narrangansett nor the Stratford mission, can the origin of the church in New London be properly traced, though both aided in fostering and strengthening it to the extent of their power. The church was rather the offspring of the early commercial importance and promise of the set- tlement. Of those whose names remain as the active founders of the congregation, most are known to have been Englishmen who were members of the Estab- lished Church before their coming, and were never Puritans or Puritanically inclined. Early in the cen- tury vessels began to be built and fitted out at New London, and an active trade was carried on with Newfoundland and the West Indies. There was a port of entry here and a collector of the customs. The gentlemen by whom this maritime and commer- cial business was carried on were churchmen for the most part, by whom the ministers of their mother- church were gladly welcomed and assisted; and as their numbers grew and their means increased the idea of erecting a church and making provision for the regular maintenance of Episcopal ministrations sprang up and strengthened till it reached consum- mation. Miss Caulkins, in her history, after de- scribing the early mercantile adventures and achieve- ments of the place, and the English influence by which they were promoted, adds, "The residence of these English families in the town was not without its in- fluence on the manners of the inhabitants and their style of living. These foreign residents gradually gathered around them a circle of society more gay" (she means less Puritanically precise and austere), "more in the English style, than had before been known in the place, and led to the formation and es- tablishment of an Episcopal Church." This is the true story of our beginning. The nucleus of the church was English, made up not of Puritans converted to

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 48

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317