USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 31
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It is well known that the New Lights were all addicted to strange tones and violent gesticulations. With coats off and arms extended, they pre- pared themselves for a word of exhortation ; not thinking themselves suc- cessful unless they could arouse their audience to shouts, tears, ecstacies, and tremblings, ending in exhaustion. When Mr. Parsons preached in 1741, one of his awakening sermons in the parish of New Concord, where Mr. Throop was the minister, it is said, "a great number were in tears, and some cried out ; some fainted away, and one or two raged."*
The most important point upon which the two parties disagreed related to the qualifications necessary for the admission of church-members. The New Light party insisted on a satisfactory relation of experience, or a declaration of what faith had wrought in the soul. But Mr. Lord and a majority of the church stood by the ancient practice in this respect, and in January, 1745, passed the following vote:
" Though it is esteemed a desirable thing that persons who come into full commun- ion offer some publick relation of their experience ; yet we do not judge or hold it a term of communion."t
This vote expresses the current sentiment of the churches previous to that period, and at the time of its adoption. A relation of internal exer- cises had not generally been required.
It has been observed that at the time of Mr. Lord's ordination, the church refused to receive the Saybrook Platform, and assumed a position of Congregational independence. After a few years the pastor expressed a wish to join the Association of New London county, if it could be done without compromising the independence of the church and expressly con- senting to the New Platform as a model of discipline .;
On these "cautionary grounds" the church acceded to his request, and
* Denison's Notes on the Baptists.
t Mr. Lord was himself decidedly averse to making a relation of experience a term of communion. His reasoning was to this effect :
" The church has no authori y to make rules and terms of admission to bind the conscience, but only to follow the plain directions of the word of God; and if there is any scriptural law for such a term of communion to be imposed upon the conscience, where is it ? For where there is no law there is no transgression, and therefore to be no imposition."
# " I have often thought," he said, "that it was a damage to me to live as one alone upon the earth, and prevented that improvement I might make by enjoying their society."
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a proposition of fellowship, with this reserve, was made to the Associa- tion of New London county, convened at Preston, Nov. 10, 1724, and acted upon as follows :
" Whereas some have questioned whether a minister's attending upon and consent- ing to be a member of this Association has not been looked upon by the Association as his giving his consent to the articles of Church discipline established by this Colony and as binding him and his church to be governed by them :
" Resolved that it never has been nor is it now so esteemed by the Association."
After the year 1741, one of the objections brought against Mr. Lord by the New Light brethren was, that he and his party in the church had gone into fellowship with the Association, and thus abandoned the old platform for the new. This objection does not appear to have been valid, no evi- dence appearing that either pastor or church had ever consented to the Saybrook Platform. The last item on record respecting it is a protest of the church, Feb. 20, 1744-5, against Mr. Lord's attending the meetings of the Association in future, and a recall of their former consent in this particular, lest his acting and voting with them should be construed into a concurrence with their principles .* At the same time they re-affirmed their attachment to the old Platform of the Fathers of 1648, "not only in respect to doctrine and truth and form of covenant, but in respect of order and exercise of church discipline."
Feb. 19, 1745, we first become cognizant that a separation had taken place in Mr. Lord's church. The leaders in this movement were Hugh Calkins and Jedidiah Hide ; and the first Separate meetings were held at the house of the former, near Yantic bridge at the west end of the town- plot. A committee was appointed at that date to inquire into the reasons of their separation, and endeavor to bring them back to the church.
In July, thirteen members were cited to appear and answer for their continued withdrawal from the regular meetings and communion of the church, and for attending a Separate meeting on the Sabbath. Various committees were appointed, and private conferences held with the seceding members. Some of them declined all discussion, but others frankly stated the grounds of their dissatisfaction.
"Better edification," or " the gospel better preached elsewhere," was the prevalent reason given.
"Not making regeneration the only term of communion."t "Opening
* Backus in his Church History asserts that in 1744 Mr. Lord openly declared his attachment to the Saybrook Platform, and gives this as the chief cause of the Separa- tion. It was also stated as one of the reasons of dissent by a suspended member in 1758, that the church had gone off from the Old Platform, that is, of 1648. The ree- ords of the church, however, do not afford any evidence of this change.
+ Jedidiah Hyde's objection.
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the door too wide, letting in all sorts of persons, without giving any evi- denee at all of their faith in Christ and repentance towards God."
Here lay the strong point of the dissenters. It was in fact the only doctrinal point of any importance at issue. The practice of the church had been lax in the admission of members, and an invigorating change in this respect was in the end a beneficial result of the schism. When this, which seems to have been the special object of their mission, was accom- plished, the Separate churches passed away.
At a later date, when these seceding societies had been organized and 1 their doctrines and practice had been digested and settled, the causes of dissatisfaction were thus stated :
1. Neglect of church discipline.
2. Coldness and want of application in preaching.
3. The qualifications necessary to church membership.
4. Private brethren being debarred the privilege of exhortation and prayer.
5. The laws of the state.
The complaints specially preferred against Mr. Lord were mostly crude, trifling, and exceptional : "Not speaking up for that which is good;" "not praying for their meetings;" "not a friend to lively preaching and preach- ers."*
This last objection might be a fault or a virtue, according to the mean- ing attached to the term lively. It is evident that Mr. Lord and his party understood by it that passionate, denunciatory and discursive style of exhortation, accompanied with bodily seizures and excesses, which was common in the New Light meetings ; and entertaining this view of lively preaching, it is not surprising that they were among its opponents. t
"Oct. 17, 1745. The Church voted all the reasons insufficient, and the Separation uncharitable and unwarrantable ; an offence to Christ the Head of the Church, and a disorderly walking."
* An error has been circulated to some considerable extent, that Dr. Lord was un- friendly "to lowly preaching and preachers,"-the word lowly being explained to mean "the preaching of uneducated men and laymen." See Notes on the Baptists of Nor- wich, by Rev. F. Denison, p. 21, and Hovey's Memoir of the Life and Times of Rev. Isaac Backus, p. 43. This has all originated from a mis-reading of the MS. record, where the word, however, is lively, and not lowly. The error in this case is not of mo- ment, since doubtless no injustice is done to the reverend pastor, in attributing to him a want of sympathy with an uncommissioned, unlearned ministry ; but it shows the necessity of care and caution in transcribing MS. documents, as the mistake of a word may cast upon character a stigma wholly unmerited.
t Rev. Jacob Elliot of Lebanon (Goshen Society) in his Almanac Diary notices a visit that he had from a party of New Lights who came to deal with him for his oppo- sition to the work. The complaints they urged against him were chiefly these : unapt- ness to teach, and opening his eyes in prayer.
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The thirteen offending members were subsequently all suspended from the church. They were :
Hugh Calkins.
James Backus.
Jedidiah Hyde.
Isaac Backus.
William Lathrop.
John Leffingwell, Jr.
Samuel Leffingwell.
Daniel Chapman.
Joseph Griswold.
Phebe, wife of Hugh Calkins.
John Smith.
Lydia, wife of Joseph Kelley.
Widow Elizabeth Backus.
Mary, wife of William Lothrop, and Anne Hough, were subsequently suspended.
Dea. Hezekiah Huntington was also a disciple of the New Light, but it does not appear that he withdrew from the church, or was under censure. Backus says of him, "Huntington had been greatly engaged in the reform- ation, and continued stedfast therein all his days."
It was during the first four or five days of August, 1745, that White- field was first in Norwich, tarrying probably but a few hours. He held a great Indian meeting at Mohegan, and perhaps spent a day with Mr. Jewett of the North Parish, and was at New London Aug. 8th. A reso- lution had been passed by the General Association of Connecticut, the June preceding his visit, advising the clergy not to invite him to their pulpits, and the people not to attend on his ministrations. It is doubtful, therefore, whether he preached at this time in Norwich; if he did, it was probably in the open air, or among the New Lights.
The Separatists soon began to gather into churches. At Bean Hill they erected a plain but respectable house of worship. It had no spire, no bell, nor pews, but was furnished with a pulpit and comfortable seats. The church was organized with thirty male members, and Jedidiah Hide ordained their minister, Oct. 30, 1747.
Thomas Denison was ordained at Norwich Farms, Oct. 29, 1747. A Separate Church was formed at Newent in 1750, with seven members or pillars, and Jeremiah Tracy, one of the seven, chosen to preach and ad- minister the ordinances to them,-a work which the regular Newent church, in their records, solemnly declare that they believe the Lord had not called him to do. Mr. Willoughby was afterwards their minister, but the zeal of the leaders soon declined, and the congregation gradually fell away.
In Long Society, Jonathan Story was ordained by the Separates, May 20, 1752. Meetings were held in that society, but it is not known that a church was organized.
In the society of New Concord, where Mr. Throop was pastor, no church was formed, but a Separate meeting was sustained for several 21
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years, which became the seed from whence a Baptist church ultimately originated.
Thus it appears that the Separatists gathered five distinct meetings or congregations within the nine-miles-square : at Norwich Town, Franklin, Lisbon, Bozrah, and Long Society. The two last were soon extinct, hav- ing probably no church organization. The whole eastern part of Con- necticut shared in the seceding movement, and twenty or thirty churches were organized.
The following memoranda relating to the Bean Hill Separatists are taken from a paper on file among the records of the First Congregational Church :
1745. Feb. 10. Began at Hugh Calkins the first Separation.
1747. Oct. 30. Mr. Hide was ordained.
1757. Sept. 22. Mr. Hide was deposed.
1759. Aug. 17. Mr. John Fuller was ordained.
1762. Dec. 22. Mr. Reynolds was ordained.
1766. Nov. 8. Mr. Reynolds embraced the Baptist principles and was baptized.
1772. June 9. Last time of his Communion.
Met and had meetings till 15 March, 1788, when they met in the character of Uni- versalists.
Mr. Fuller had been ordained at Lyme, Dec. 25, 1747. The service at Bean Hill in 1759 must therefore have been of the nature of an instal- lation. He was an excellent man and a good preacher, but remained in Norwich only two or three years, and then became pastor of a church in Plainfield, where he died in 1777. Under the changeful teachings of his successor, Mr. Reynolds, the Bean Hill church languished, fainted, and expired.
Its most flourishing period was from 1750 to 1754 inclusive. The fol- lowing extracts from the journal of Mr. Isaac Backus, one of the thirteen seceders from Dr. Lord's church, refer to this Bean Hill meeting :
Jan. 17, 1753. I would here review a little what I have seen at Norwich. This last year the enemies have done more at haling the saints to prison for rates, than they have donc ever before since our Separation; but it is remarkably evident that, as it was with Israel, so it has been here : "The more they oppressed them, the more they grew." This congregation, I think, is nearly as large again as it was the last time I was here before.
Sept. 15, 1754. Preached both parts of the day in brother Hide's meeting-house, to the largest auditory which I ever saw there.t
* Bliss Willoughby, one of the Separate Teachers, is supposed to have occupied the pulpit for a short time between Mr. Hide's deposition and Mr. Fuller's service.
t Memoir of the Life and Times of Rev. Isaac Backus, A. M. By Alvah Hovey, D. D. Boston, 1858.
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As the Separate churches were not recognized by the Legislature, the members were still taxed to support their former ministers, and this led to various instances of petty persecution and private suffering, imprisonment and distraining of goods, the memory of which is still hoarded and per- haps aggravated by tradition. At Norwich the number of Separates was considerable, and their influence still greater, so that at one period they out-voted the standing regular church, and declared that they would not support a minister by a tax. The other party appealed to the Legisla- ture, and obtained an order to enforce the rates. Violent commotions were the consequence, and it is said that no less than forty persons were imprisoned on this account in one season. There was perhaps no town in the colony where the conflict between the standing order, supported by the civil authority, and the enthusiasts, was more vehement and protracted than at Norwich.
An aggravated case of this kind was that of the widow Elizabeth Backus, one of the first company of seceders, and a zealous partizan of the cause. Her son had previously suffered an imprisonment of twenty days, and herself, on a dark night in October, 1752, about nine o'clock, was seized by the collector, carried to jail, and kept there thirteen days. Her tax was then paid, but without her consent, by her son-in-law, Gen. Jabez Huntington. At a subsequent period, her grandson, Gen. Jedidiah Huntington, pledged himself to pay her rates annually, that the venerable lady might not be disturbed by any solicitations for that purpose. 'This lady was mother of the Rev. Isaac Backus, of Middleborough, Mass., who, in his Church History, has preserved a letter from her, giving an account of her imprisonment, and the abundant measure of divine support that she received under it. She states that Mr. Griswold, deacon of the Separate Church, and Messrs. Hill, Sabin and Grover, were imprisoned at the same time. Mr. Backus adds, "They went on in such ways for about eight years, until the spiritual weapons of truth and love vanquished those carnal weapons, which have not been so used in Norwich since."
The last instance of distrainment that is remembered to have taken place, was in the case of Mr. Ezekiel Barrett, who died in 1838, at the age of ninety-five. He had refused to pay the usual rates, and was arrested at the court-house, just at the close of a town meeting. He made an obstinate resistance, and it took the constable and six other men to convey him to jail. He was considerably bruised in the scuffle, and by being dragged upon the frozen ground. After a week's imprisonment, he gave his note for the sum demanded, and was released. Subsequently he refused to pay the note, alleging that it was forced from him by oppres- sion. It was sued at law, and his cow taken and sold at the post to pay the rate and costs.
It is undoubtedly this instance which has given rise to the reports that
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these taxes were always rigorously exacted, even to the seizure of the poor man's cow and his last bushel of grain. The cases above mentioned are believed to be the only ones that occurred in which great severity was exercised. Dr. Lord always treated the Separatists with kindness and respect, and this led the way to the restoration of a considerable number of them to his church.
Before the final extinction of the Separate church, a small party seceded from these seceders, and embraced the doctrine of the universal salvation of all mankind, or the final restoration of all to a state of happiness. They held their meetings in the large front kitchen of the house then occupied by Mr. Ebenezer Grover, and still known as the old Grover house. Here Mr. Hide used occasionally to hold meetings, and after him Mr. Gamaliel Reynolds. The latter was a stone-mason by trade, a man of no educa- tion, but of considerable native talent. He was one of that original class . of men,-keen, witty, and observing; famed for humorous sallies, and those apt remarks that are treasured up and retailed as sayings, of which the present day seems to exhibit fewer specimens than of yore. Norwich in former days possessed many of these original characters, both of the whimsical and shrewd species. Mr. Reynolds died May 7, 1805, aged eighty-one.
After the introduction of Universalism into the Separate meetings, a considerable number of the members returned to their old home in the Congregational church, and were received with cordiality. Among these was the venerable Joseph Griswold, deacon of the late Separate church, who had been an early and zealous advocate of the New Light, and before his suspension had interrupted Mr. Lord in the midst of one of his ser- mons, to declare his dissent from something that he said. It was scarcely expected that he would ever re-connect himself with his former associates, and it created considerable emotion in the meeting-house, when, for the first time after his secession, his gray locks were seen in the old man's seat. As he was somewhat deaf, he soon afterward asked permission of the young pastor to go up the pulpit stairs and leau over the door while he was preach- ing, that he might hear more distinctly. Mr. Strong immediately invited him to take a seat in the pulpit, which he ever afterwards did, when able to attend meeting.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
MISCELLANEOUS GATHERINGS.
THE first person who set up a chaise in Norwich was one Samuel Brown; he was fined for riding in it to meeting. In those simple and severe days, the rolling of wheels through the streets was considered a breach of the Sabbath. It would undoubtedly have a tendency to attract attention, and cause the thoughts to wander from the peculiar duties of the day. If a man at the present time should arrive in town on Saturday night in a bal- loon, and go to meeting in it on Sunday, it would be a similar case. Brown died in 1804, aged ninety. Col. Simon Lathrop also rode in a chaise at a very early period, but his effeminacy in this respect was excused on ac- count of the feeble health of his wife. At the period of the revolution, only six chaises, or as they are now called, gigs, were owned in the place. The owners of these six were, Ist, Gen. Jabez Huntington ; this gig was large, low, square-bodied, and studded with brass nails that had square and flat heads,-it was the first in town that had a top which could be thrown back. 2d, Col. Hezekiah Huntington. 3d, Dr. Daniel Lathrop ; this was regarded as a splendid vehicle,-it had a yellow body, with a red morocco top, and a window upon one side. 4th, Dr. Theophilus Rogers. 5th, Elijah Backus, Esq. 6th, Nathaniel Backus, Esq., of Chelsea; this afterwards belonged to Capt. Seth Harding. Within the same limits, at a later period, between three and four hundred gigs were owned at the same time. Probably no town in the Union, of equal size, could turn out as many. Mechanics, farmers, and in general every thriving, well-to-do householder, owned a horse and chaise. This species of vehicle has since given place to the wagon, buggy, and other four-wheeled carriages.
The visits of the first Governor Trumbull to Norwich were customarily made in one of these square-bodied, square-topped, two-wheeled, one- horse carriages, almost as substantial in structure as a house. His equi- page was well known to the inhabitants, and there was always a great running to the doors, and bowings and curtseyings as the grand old chaise rolled steadily along, with the Governor and usually one of his family at his side,-Madam Trumbull, or a young daughter, for after 1770 he had two children : Joseph Trumbull, the young merchant, and Faith, the wife
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of Jedidiah Huntington, settled in Norwich. They had also other friends and relatives in the place, with whom visits were often exchanged.
This Governor Trumbull was the original " Brother Jonathan,"-a name casually given by Washington, but which has become the familiar pass-word abroad for all Americans.
The first druggist in Norwich, and probably the first in Connecticut who kept any general assortment of medicines for sale, was Dr. Daniel La- throp. This gentleman graduated at Yale in 1733, and soon afterward went to Europe, where he prosecuted his medical studies in London. On his return, after an absence of several years, he brought with him a large quantity of medicines, as well as various other merchantable goods, and established himself in business in his native place. His shop was on the main street, near his family residence.
Dr. Lathrop furnished a part of the surgical stores to the northern army in the French war. He often received orders from New York. His drugs were always of the best kind, well prepared, packed and forwarded in the neatest manner. This was the only apothecary's establishment on the route from New York to Boston, and of course Dr. Lathrop had a great run of custom, often filling orders sent from the distance of a hund- red miles in various directions. It is related that in 1749, when a malig- nant epidemic was prevailing in several of the western towns of the col- ony, the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, pastor of the church in Waterbury, incited by the suffering condition of many of his people for want of suit- able medicines to arrest the distemper, came to Norwich on horseback to obtain a supply, performing the journey hither and back in three days .* This fact alone is sufficient to show that no drug-store then existed either in New Haven or Hartford, and corroborates the statement often made by aged people in Norwich, that Dr. Lathrop's was the first establishment of the kind in the colony.
Joshua Lathrop, a younger brother of Dr. Daniel, after graduating at Yale in 1743, became connected with him in business, and no mercantile firm in this vicinity had a more solid reputation than the brothers La- throp.t They imported not only medicines, but fruits, wines, European and India goods, directly from England ; one of the firm, or a skillful agent, often crossing the ocean to select the stock. After a few years
* Bronson's History of Waterbury, p. 325.
t With Dr. Lathrop commenced the change of orthography in the name, which soon became universal among the descendants of the proprietor Samuel Lothrop. The new form will be henceforth used in this work, except when speaking of those early settlers that never wrote their names otherwise than with the o.
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they relinquished the trade in miscellanous merchandise, and confined themselves in a great measure to the drug business .*
Benedict Arnold, Jr., and Solomon Smith were apprentices to Dr. La- throp at the same period. Arnold subsequently set up the business in New Haven. Smith went to Hartford and established a drug-store in connection with Dr. Lathrop, who furnished the first stock. This was in 1757.
The following is one of their advertisements :
"Just imported from London in the last ship, via New York, and to be sold by Lothrop & Smith, at their store in King st. Hartford, Ct .- A large and universal assort- ment of medicines, genuine and of the best kind; together with complete sets of Sur- geon's Capital and Pocket instruments ; very neat instruments for drawing teeth, metal mortars, small scales and weights ; all sorts of spice and choice Turkey figs ; a variety of painter's colours and many other articles."t
In 1776 the firm in Norwich was changed from Daniel & Joshua La- throp to Lathrops & Coit; their nephew, Joseph Coit, Jr., having been associated with them in business. The younger partner died in 1779, in the 30th year of his age, and the former title was resumed.}
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