USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 13
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It contained the following specific engagements :
1. That all children from 8 or 9, to 13 years of age, should be presented in the pub- lic Congregation every Lord's Day to be catechised.
2. That after 13 years of age, while they remained under the family government of parents or others, they should attend a private meeting of religious instruction provided for them.
3. That when grown up and at their own disposal, they should be required to take hold of the Covenant of their Fathers, or at least should use means to prepare them- selves for it ; if negligent in this particular they were to be admonished ; and if obsti- nately so, to be "cut off from the Congregation by the dreadful ordinance of excom- munication."
4. That, as parents were commonly too indulgent to their children, and negligent in admonishing and restraining them, the Church should appoint certain Brethren to take notice of the behaviour of young persons, warning and admonishing both them and their parents, at first in private, but if that were ineffectual, to make public com- plaint of them.
5. That the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be observed once in six weeks.
6. That Brethren of the Church should solemnly pledge themselves to rebuke and admonish one another faithfully according to Christ's order, taking notice of all offen- sive behaviour, and suffering no sin to rest unreproved upon a brother.
7. That this Covenant should be publicly read once every year on a day of fasting and prayer, and that it should be enjoined on their children to do the same.
This Covenant appears to have been faithfully rehearsed before the church, agreeably to the last specification, and confirmed or acquiesced in for thirty years.
* Letter to the Council, March 13th. Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 417.
t A printed copy is lodged in the Pastoral Library of the First Society. See also App. to Gilman's Bi-centennial Discourse, and Sermon by Rev. H. P. Arms, Norwich Jubilee, p. 254.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
It was reviewed by a committee of the church, Nov. 10, 1706, and three clauses of limitation and explanation affixed to it, which, on being pre- sented to the church, "passed with a very full vote." These provisos were as follows:
1. " Whereas it is said in ye first particular of ye Covenant, ye Children shall be presented every Lord's day to be Catcchised,-The Brethren of this Church do now see cause to alow yt ye Children shall be Catechised upon a weck day."
2. " Whereas it is said, The Church doth appoint some Brethren to take notice of such children &c .- The Brethren doe now agree to suspend acting according to sd par- ticular, for ye present, and untill they see good cause and reason for it."
3. "Respecting ye Third Particular in sd Covenant ye Brethren look upon it to be this, That ye persons therein intended shall be exhorted and excited privately and pub- licly to take hold of the Covenant of their Fathers ; or at least yt they be in ye use of all gospel means to prepare for the same."
This instrument was again discussed and sifted at a church meeting, June 30, 1709, and a declaration made to this effect : That they and their children were bound to the performance of the duties enjoined in the Cov- enant, because they were required by the Word of God, but they were not bound by virtue of said Covenant; and that they would continue in the faithful performance of those duties, as explained and limited in 1706, but the reading of the Covenant might henceforth be discontinued.
Difficulties were soon experienced with respect to collecting the minis- ter's rates. It had been arranged that every inhabitant should himself carry in his proportion annually, on or before the 20th of March, and for a time this mode answered well. But after a few years the deficiencies became so progressive and obvious as to call for the rebuke and interfer- ence of the town.
Jau. 7, 1686.
Whereas the Select men and some others have presented to us the great need, reason and necessity for us to consider of some suitable but thorough way of doing what ye law of God and man and duty obliges to, viz. the discharge of that obligation wee lye under with respect to the maintenance of our Revd minister, and in that it appearing unto us that ye great lenitie of the Revd Mr. Fitch towards some is too much abused and in that many are got into a way of slightiness and remissness in making of due payment not only what is their just due but allsoe of what they are able, now therefore that we might all be more thorow soe as the work of God may not fail amongst us tis now unanimously agreed that for time to come the rate be put into the Collectors hands and each man to account with them and no man to be cleared until by the Collectors the rate be crossed and each one to clear his rate by the first of Feb. or March an- nually.
To be payed one third in wheat at 4s. per bu. one third in rye or pease at 3s. and one third in Indian corn at 2s, or what is equivalent.
At a subsequent period the town made an attempt to support the min- istry by monthly contributions, but it ended in a return to the legal com-
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
pulsory mode. As a general rule, the collectors were instructed to leave ont such poor men and widows as they should judge ought to be exempted from the rate.
In 1694, Mr. Fitch was suddenly disabled from preaching by a stroke of the palsy. This led to the following action :
At a town meeting Sept. 12, 1694.
Inasmuch as it hath pleased God to lay his afflicting hand upon our Reverend pastor Mr. James Fitch that at present he is disabled with respect to the work of the ministry among us-Wherefore the towne appoint Left. Thomas Leffingwell, Left. William Backus, Simon Huntington Sent. Thomas Adgate and Richard Bushnell a Committee to treat with Mr. Jabez Fitch with respect unto his succeeding of his father in the work of the ministry among us.
Mr. Jabez Fitch had just completed his course of study at Cambridge, and was twenty-two years of age. He consented to occupy the pulpit of his father on trial. A vote was passed "to pay the charge of sending for him from the Collidge," and a rate allowed for his salary. After remain- ing with the people more than a year, the town declared themselves well satisfied and invited him to become their permanent minister. He declined a settlement, though his reasons are not found on record. A second invi- tation was extended to him in August, 1696, but with no better success. It is probable that he wished for a longer course of preparation before taking charge of a parish .*
After Mr. Jabez Fitch, several other candidates were tried. The most popular was Mr. Henry Flint, a graduate of Harvard in 1693. His min- istry was so highly acceptable and useful, that a record was made in the town books, acknowledging him as a special gift of Providence, in the fol- lowing words :
" The good providence of God succeeding our endeavours hath sent Mr. Flint unto us, for which we have reason to bless God, and doe desire he may abide with us half a year more or less, that he may have further tryall of us, and wee of him ;- and that he may stay as long as may be judged expedient for probation."
The next April, by "a full and free vote," he was invited to settle as a permanent pastor, upon the following pecuniary conditions:
TERMS OFFERED TO MR. FLINT IN APRIL, 1697.
Fifty-two pounds per year and his board while he remains without family. When he hath a family, 60 loads of wood annnally and 70 pounds : that is 50 pounds in money and 20 in work or grain. If it please God to prolong his life after the death of Mr. Fitch then to increase his salary as his circumstances may need and as it shall be
* Mr. Jabez Fitch was subsequently elected Tutor and Fellow of Harvard College, which may be considered honorable testimony in favor of his scholarship. In 1703 he was ordained at Ipswich as colleague of the Rev. John Rogers, but removed afterward to Portsmouth, N. H., where he died in 1746.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
esteemed the providence of God enableth the town. One half the annual salary to be paid Dec. 1 and the other May 1 .- 150 acres of land to be given to him at Plain Hills.
These offers were not accepted. They were repeated in September, and again declined. The correspondence was not recorded, but left on file, and in the lapse of time has disappeared, leaving us in ignorance of the grounds of Mr. Flint's refusal .* Not long afterward, a special rate was Jevied to defray "the expense of sending hither and thither for min- isters, and also to pay arrears due to Mr. Jabez Fitch, Mr. Emory, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Flint."
Aug. 29, 1698. The preamble of a vote alludes to the melancholy fact that the town is "yet destitute of a preaching minister ;" and nine persons were designated as a committee, who, in concert with the Rev. Mr. Fitch, were authorized to look out for a pastor.
This reference to Mr. Fitch shows that his mind still retained its vigor, and that his people were in the habit of resorting to him for counsel and direction. Nor were they unmindful of his support. After he was disa- bled from service, a rate was annually collected for his use, amounting to forty, fifty, and one year to seventy pounds. There can be little doubt that he was favored also with many free-will offerings, and that his people were studious to please and gratify him in the choice of a successor.
During this interval, measures were again taken for enlarging and re- pairing the meeting-house. A Leanto was added, in which several new pews were made, and these not being sufficient to accommodate the inereas- ing congregation, leave was given to twelve persons, who petitioned to that effect, "to build a seat on the Leanto beams, for their convenient sit- ting on the Lord's dayes." All these improvements being completed, in March, 1698, the Townsmen and Goodman Elderkin, the carpenter, were engaged to arrange the pews into eight classes, according to their dignity. This being done, five of the oldest and most respected inhabitants, viz .: Lt. Thomas Leffingwell, Lt. William Backus, Deacon Simon Huntington, Thomas Adgate, Sen., and Serg. John Tracy, were directed to seat the people with due regard to rank : " the square pue to be considered first in dignity ; the new seats and the fore seats in the broad ally next, and alike in dignity ;" and so on through the eight classes.
In 1702 the house was again reseated, and "a paper vote" was taken who should sit in the square pew and the seat next to it, and the persons so seated were to arrange the remainder of the inhabitants.
A similar custom prevailed in all the settlements. When the meeting-
* Rev. Henry Flint never settled over a parish. He was Tutor in Harvard College from 1705 to 1754, and died Feb. 13, 1760, aged 84.
Mass. Hist. Co!I., 10, 165. Sprague's Annals, 1, 116.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
house was finished, a committee was appointed to "dignify the seats," and establish the rules for seating the people.
Usually the square pew nearest the pulpit was the first in dignity, and next to this came the second pew and the first long seat in front of the pulpit. After these the dignity gradually diminished as the seats receded from the pulpit. If the house was furnished, as in some instances, with square pews, on each side of the outer door, fronting the pulpit, these were equal to the second or third rank in dignity. The front seat in the gallery and the two highest pews in the side galleries were also seats of consider- able dignity.
The rules for seating were formed on an estimate of age, rank, office, estate list, and aid furnished in building the house. These lists were oc- easionally revised, and the people reseated, at intervals probably of three or four years.
Frequent disputes and even long-continued feuds were caused by this perplexing business of seating a congregation according to rank and dig- nity.
Various incidental allusions and items of expenditure furnish hints that assist the imagination in reconstructing this old meeting-house on the hill. It had leantos or wings on two sides, a porch to shelter the door in front; was furnished partly with pews and partly with benches; had a double gallery, with corner seats for the tithing-man, overlooking the whole audi- ence ; and was crowned with a pyramid for a steeple or spire .* The windows were probably formed with lead casements, and panes of glass diamond-shaped .;
Though standing on a high platform, it was partially sheltered by clumps of rock, covered with shrubs and trees, that bristled the surface of the hill at a short distance east and west of the building. We may sup- pose that it faced the Green, and presented an appearance not unlike the design on page 129.
In the latter part of 1698, Mr. Joseph Coit was engaged to supply the pulpit, and after a few months probation, was invited to settle. The committee who communicated this resolution to Mr. Coit, received from lim an answer, which they reported in town meeting, in the following words :
" We have received a writing from Mr. Coit, in which he doth expressly declare his disagreement from Norwich church, and consequently he can not walk with them, for how can two walk together, if they be not agreed ?- But he that in matters controver-
* There was an order in 1705 " to mend the pyramid and close the leanto roofs where they join to the body of the house."
t Windows of this kind long remained in a few old buildings in Norwich. They were small and of the same form as the pancs of glass,-a rhomb, or diamond-shaped. Sash casements, and glass with square corners, were of later introduction.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
sial doth set up his own opinion in opposition to the Synod Book, and a cloud of wit- nesses, will be in great danger to wander from the way of peace and truth. But as for us, let us please one another, in that that is good, and may be for edification. Voted."
Mr. John Woodward was their next candidate, and a vote was passed to "call him to office." He accepted this call, and was ordained in Octo- ber, 1699.
The church organization in the days of Mr. Fitch not only extended over the nine-miles-square, but took in the new settlements of Windham and Canterbury. Mr. Woodward's parish was at first of the same extent. The church records now extant begin with his ministry. The first per- sons who, after his ordination, "Publiekly owned ye Covenant of Grace,"" were-
Mr. John Fitch, of Windham.
Mr. Joseph Bradford.
Abigail, ye wife of Brother Thomas Baldwin. Jabez Perkins. Isaac Lawrence.
This accession was in 1700. The same year, Mr. Fitch above named was received into full communion, as were also Thomas Baldwin and John Birchard.
The first child baptized by Mr. Woodward was
Margaret ye Daughter of Brother John Elderkin, 2 d. 12 m. 1700.
This in our style would be Feb. 2, 1701. A comparison of births and baptisms shows that children were then baptized at an early date, gener- ally the first or second Sabbath after birth, being presented, when the rite was performed in public, by the father only.
The town having agreed to provide Mr. Woodward with a parsonage, purchased the house and home-lot of Samuel Huntington for his accom- modation. It was the former residence of Capt. James Fitch, and sold by him at the time of his removal to Canterbury. Mr. Huntington was now preparing to remove to Lebanon, and therefore willing to part with his recent purchase. Out of the lot the town reserved an acre and a half for "a common burial place." This was soon opened for interments, and, with an adjoining lot since purchased, is still used as the Society Burial Ground.
In 1715 the town ordered this new burial-place to be surveyed, and its boundaries marked by mere-stones. It remained long uninclosed. The first persons known to have been interred here were Deacon Simon Hunt- ington, and his grandson of the same name, a young man who was killed by the bite of a rattlesnake. According to tradition, the venomous ser- pent darted its fangs into his foot while he was mowing in the meadow, near the spot where he was interred. The weather was hot, the blood of
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
CHURCH ON THE HILL,-1676-1715.
the youth inflamed with exercise, and the poison exhibited its deadly power almost instantaneously. His body became swollen, his flesh turned purple, and he died in a few hours.
Head-stones of rough granite, standing as sentinels to these graves, have their inscriptions still legible, and, with a similar memorial to the memory of Thomas Adgate, are the oldest grave-stones in the town.
DEACON SI MON HUNT INGTON DY ED JVNE ye 28. 1706 A. 77.
HERE LIES THE BODY OF DEACON THOMAS ADGET WHO DIED JVLY 1707 IN ye 87th YEAR OF HIS AGE.
SIMON HUNTINGTON DYED JVLY 2 9 . 1707 AGED 21 YEARS.
Three others of the first proprietors were interred in this ground, and have their graves indicated by legibly inscribed stones : Thomas Water-
9
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
man, Jolin Post, and Stephen Gifford. The first Thomas Leffingwell was undoubtedly buried here, but he has no memorial.
Before the purchase by the town of this Huntington lot, the only place in Norwich known to have been used as a cemetery was that which is called the
POST AND GAGER BURIAL GROUND.
Sarah, the wife of Thomas Post, died in March, 1661, and is supposed to have been the first person who deceased after the settlement of the town. She was buried on the home-lot of her husband, and the place of her interment was soon after sequestered and appropriated by the town authorities, for the common burial-place of the inhabitants. It was re- corded Dec. 16, 1661.
Memorandum.
The Towne hath purchased a burying place of Thomas Post, vide a parcell of land eight rod one way and five and a half rod the other way in the home lott of the said Thomas Post towards the reare of his lott ajoining to the west side of goodman Gadgers lott, the said Thomas Post allowing a highway of six feet broad to the burying place.
To this area an addition was afterward made from the adjoining lot of John Gager, and in 1693 the burying-place was recorded as an irregular oblong plot, the extreme length eleven rods, and the greatest breadth seven.
In 1697 the town granted to Samnel Gager "twelve acres of land on Connecticut Plains, in consideration of the land taken out of his father's home-lot for a burial-place."
The Post home-lot remained in the possession of the family for one hundred and twenty-five years. It was then sold by Joseph Post of Leb- anon to Ezekiel Barrett. The deed of conveyance, dated April 14, 1775, after describing the bounds, has this clause :
" Excluding about 32 rods of land within the said bounds, belonging to the town of Norwich, being the old burying ground, with liberty of a pent way across my other land, from the town street to the above bargained premises, to pass and repass."
This is perhaps the latest record respecting the old Grave Yard. It seems never to have been fenced or separated from the adjoining lots, and becoming gradually identified with them, has been occupied as private property.
After the year 1700, very few interments were made in this ground. The Gager family lay in a group near the south-east part of the plot. Several rude head-stones, with initials and perhaps a date, were formerly to be seen here, but the only regular grave-stone known to have been set in this burial-place was that of Mr. Samuel Gager, who died in 1740, and
.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
in accordance with his special request was laid here by the side of his ancestors. His monumental slab, with a broad-winged face graven at the top, and overshadowing the inscription, was standing, though in a broken and leaning condition, tottering to its fall, in the year 1825, when the fol- lowing epitaph was taken from it:
By the Bodies of his Parents Here lies the Body of MR. SAMUEL GAGER.
A steady counsellor, a friend to piety ;
was an enemy of vice, a lover of pure publie worship, and being blessed -
with long life left this world with a comfortable hope of life eternal,
on the 11th day of June 1740, In the 86th year of his age.
A few fragments are all that now remain of this stone, and no other inscribed blocks, or even the suggestive memorials of grassy hillocks, remain to indicate the treasures that have here been deposited.
In very few instances are the graves of the first generation of our set- tlers distinguished by coeval monuments. The men of that age, encom- passed with labors and privations, exhausted in laying the foundations of society, had no leisure to cultivate the monumental arts, and rear tombs and columns over their falling companions. But the more favored inhab- itants of a later day, the prosperous sons of these laborious fathers, have a debt of grateful reverence to pay, which should lead them to preserve the sacred dust from dishonor and cherish with reverent awe the sepul- chres of the fathers.
An opinion has been current of late years, that the persons interred in this ancient Cemetery were principally friendless people, infants, Indians, and a few individuals of the Post, Gager, and other neighboring families, that died soon after the settlement. But where then, it may be asked, are we to look for the graves of nearly the whole of the first generation of settlers? The second ground was not opened for interments till forty years after the settlement. It would be a very moderate computation to assume that during this period the deaths of all ages in the town-plot averaged three per year,-more probably it was four or five,-and we know of no other place where even one of them was laid but in this com- mon burial-ground.
Several of the proprietors emigrated to new towns in the neighborhood, but of those who were undoubtedly laid in the grave at Norwich, and who died before 1700, we may name the following :
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
William Backus, the elder, dying before 1663.
Francis Griswold, 1671.
Major John Mason, and his wife, Mrs. Anna Mason, both dying in 1672.
Capt. John Mason, son of the Major, fatally wounded at the Narragan- sett fort fight in December, 1675, and dying in 1676.
John Bradford, 1675.
Samuel Hyde, 1677.
William Hyde, 1682.
Nehemiah Smith, 1685.
Lieut. Thomas Tracy, 1685.
John Elderkin, 1687.
Thomas Bliss, 1688, and his son,
Thomas Bliss, Jr., 1681.
Jonathan Royce, 1689.
John Olmstead, the first physician of the town, 1689.
Hugh Calkins, 1690.
The first Christopher Huntington, 1691.
John Baldwin, (unknown.)
Richard Edgerton, 1692.
CHAPTER X.
TOWN CLERKS. PATENT. NEIGHBORING TOWNS. MAJOR FITCH.
JOHN BIRCHARD has been already mentioned as the first Town Clerk or Recorder of Norwich. The second, and first of whose appointment any record has been found, was Christopher Huntington, elected in 1678, and retained in office until his death in 1691. Richard Bushnell was chosen his successor in December of that year, and between him and Christopher Huntington, 2d, the son of the former Christopher, the office alternated irregularly, to the 6th of December, 1726, when Isaac Hunt- ington, the son of the second Christopher, was chosen to the clerkship, and retained the office till removed by death in 1764. During this period of thirty-five years, at the annual meetings, the question was regularly put by the moderator-" Will the town now proceed to the choice of a Clerk ?"-and uniformly decided in the negative; it being understood that the then incumbent was to be continued until a successor was ap- pointed.
After the death of Isaac Huntington, the clerkship was assigned for one year to Benjamin Huntington, Senr., of the same generation with Isaac, but the next year it came back to the family of Isaac, and was awarded successively to his son Benjamin, and his grandson Philip, and his great-grandson Benjamin, continuing in this line to the year 1830, when the records were removed to Chelsea, and a Clerk chosen from that society. Thus six generations of Huntingtons, in a right line, held the clerkship, from 1678 to 1830,-152 years; with a single exception in 1778, when Samuel Tracy was chosen to office for one year .*
The Town Clerk was also generally, if not uniformly, the Clerk of the First Ecclesiastical Society, from the first formation of that society, as distinct from the town, to the year 1828.
In 1684, the list of estate as returned to the General Court was £6,265. Number of taxable persons, 115.
* The experience of New Haven furnishes a similar instance of perpetuity in office. Three successive Samuel Bishops-father, son and grandson-held the office of Town Clerk of New Haven for 85 years, from 1717 to 1801. Elisha Munson, nephew of the last of these Samuel Bishops, who had acted as his clerk, succeeded him, and continued in office till 1832. The four held the office 116 years.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
In 1685, a patent was obtained which confirmed to the town the original tract of nine miles squarc, to be an entire township, "according to the tenor of East Greenwich, in Kent, in free and common soccage, and not in capite, nor by Knight's service."
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