USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Wethersfield > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 2
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 2
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > New Britain > History of Saint Mark's Church, New Britain, Conn., and of its predecessor Christ Church, Wethersfield and Berlin : from the first Church of England service in America to nineteen hundred and seven > Part 2
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About 1702, a church was built near Eden, N. C., and Dr. Bray sent the Rev. Daniel Brett there as the first minister of the Church in that Province. In the same year the Rev. Samuel Thomas was sent to South Carolina as the first mis- sionary there of the S. P. G. The Rev. George Keith, Rev. Patrick Gordon, and Rev. John Talbot arrived in Boston, June II, 1702. The two former were missionaries of the S. P. G., and Talbot joined with them. Gordon went to Jamaica and organized the first parish of Long Island. Keith and Talbot made a tour of nearly all the colonies. Talbot became Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, N. J., but continued to work in various places.
Prior to 1700 there were but few Churchmen in New Jersey. The Rev. George Keith arrived and held his first service of the Church at Amboy, Oct. 4, 1702. Prior to his coming the Rev. Alexander Innes had officiated in the Jerseys. Mr. Keith first came to America in 1682 and was a Quaker preacher at Monmouth, N. J. The line of reading and argument which he pursued with reference to Quakerism led him into the Church of England. In 1694, he went to England for holy orders, which he received in 1700.
In 1702, the Church in Maryland was established by law and the Book of Common Prayer was required to be read in all the churches having an income from the Government. A
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prior act had required the use of the Prayer Book in every place of public worship in the Province. This was repealed for the benefit of the Roman Catholics and Quakers.
In 1704, the Rev. James Honeyman was appointed Mission- ary of the S. P. G. and sent to Newport, R. I. This was the first place in New England that the Society provided a minister for.
A petition for a Bishop in America was signed by fourteen clergymen of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at Bur- lington, N. J., 1705.
The second church in Rhode Island was erected in the Narragansett country in 1707, where there had been Churchmen since about 1700. This church is still standing (1906), and is believed to be the oldest Episcopal church in the northern part of the United States.
In 1713, the ministers, wardens and vestrymen of Trinity Church, Newport, R. I., petitioned the Queen for the establish- ment of Bishops in America.
In 1715, the S. P. G. Society repeated its request for Bishops with the proposition to establish four Sees, two in the colonies, one of which was to be at Burlington, N. J., and the other at Williamsburg, Va. About the same time bequests of £2,000 became operative towards the settlement of two Bishops, one of which was for America.
It is claimed that John Talbot of New Jersey and Dr. Robert Welton of London were consecrated Bishops by the non-juring Bishops in England. Talbot returned to New Jersey and Dr. Welton came over and was Rector of Christ Church, Philadel- phia, 1724 to 1726. It is certain, however, that they never exercised Episcopal jurisdiction.
A most remarkable event took place at New Haven, Conn., in 1722. Dr. Samuel Johnson, formerly the tutor at Yale Col- lege and then Congregational pastor in West Haven, met other ministers of the Standing Order and joined them in the study of questions suggested by the Prayer Book. The result of their studies appeared the day after commencement, in 1722, when seven ministers made a declaration that some of them doubted the validity of Presbyterian ordination. Messrs. Samuel Johnson, Daniel Brown, the tutor, and Timothy Cutler,
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the Rector of the College, determined to seek holy orders at the hands of a Bishop. They were soon followed by Mr. James Wetmore. These men were promptly removed from their posi- tions and hotly abused by their former companions. They were called " cudweds," "highflyers," and other names. On Oct. 2, 1722, the committee of Christ Church, Boston, wrote to Dr. Cutler, congratulating him and his friends on account of their recent declaration in favor of the Church, and invited Dr. Cutler to settle in Boston. They also promised to pay for the passage of Messrs. Cutler, Johnson and Brown to England for holy orders and to provide for the support of Mr. Cutler while there. They were ordained in 1723 and Dr. Cutler arrived in Boston to take charge of Christ Church, Sept. 24, 1723. Dr. Johnson settled at Stratford, Conn., and Mr. Brown died in England. This Episcopal accession from Yale College brings to mind that Elihu Yale doubted " whether it was well in him being a Churchman, to promote an academy of dissenters, " but on reflection concluded " that the business of good is to spread religion and learning among mankind, without being too fondly attached to particular tenets."
One of the foremost advocates for an Episcopate was John Checkley of Boston. He was in England with Johnson and Cutler in 1723. To counteract the baneful influences of infi- delity which he encountered he published, first in 1719 and second in England, 1723, Leslie's famous " Short and Easie Methods with the Deists" together with his "Discourse con- cerning Episcopacy." He urged that a Non-Episcopal minis- try was "not only invalid, but sacrilege and rebellion against Christ." His book was denounced by the Puritans as a " false and scandalous libel." In the lower court he was adjudged guilty without a hearing and on appeal he was fined £50, impris- oned and ordered to keep quiet. In 1727 he was in England for ordination but was defeated by reason of letters from two Congregational ministers of Marblehead, Mass. At last he received holy orders in 1739 at the age of 59 and was appointed missionary of the S. P. G. at Providence, R. I., where he remained until his death in 1753.
A reprint of his book, together with an account of his trial, was published at Windsor, Vt., in 1812.
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In 1725, Samuel Johnson, Dr. Cutler, and other clergymen of New England, petitioned the S. P. G. for Bishops. In 1727, largely through the efforts of Dean Berkeley, a charter and a grant for a Bishop in America was obtained, but the king died before it was sealed.
In 1732, Queen's Chapel at Portsmouth, N. H., was begun. The Rev. Arthur Brown was its Rector from 1736 until his death in 1773. Of the six hundred families in Portsmouth, less than sixty were Episcopal, but all the Churchmen in New Hampshire were Mr. Brown's parishioners. In 1767, his church was the only one in the Province.
Georgia was the first and only Colony where the Church was founded wholly by charity. General James Oglethorpe obtained a charter for a colony and with the first emigrants landed there in 1733. Twenty-one disinterested noblemen and gentlemen constituted its trustees and over one hundred minis- ters received commissions to take up collections in England in behalf of Georgia. In December, 1735, John and Charles Wes- ley came there, full of zeal for the conversion of the Indians. Mr. John Wesley was made Rector of Christ Church, Savannah, and here he established the first Sunday School, nearly fifty years before Robert Raikes established them in England. In 1738, George Whitefield, as missionary of the S. P. G., started for Georgia to assist Wesley, but they crossed each other on the way. Whitefield arrived at Savannah, May 7, 1738. It was not long before he instituted such a series of irregularities as to lose the sympathy of the more pronounced Churchmen. In 1748 the Rev. Bartholomew Zouberbudler, Rector of Christ Church, Savannah, was the only minister in Georgia.
Those who opposed the appointment of Bishops in America argued that it would lead to a separation of the Colonies from England. A letter to the Bishop of London from Dr. Samuel Johnson, Nov. 3, 1738, says there is no " disposition towards an independency on our mother country from our general desire of Bishops to preside over us, the reverse of this is the truth · we must patiently submit and wait upon Provi- dence till it shall please God to enlighten the minds of men, and send us better times."
In consequence of the unreasonable opposition of the Anti- Episcopal ministers to the appointment of Bishops in the
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Colonies, the Bishops in England, who in 1750 advocated such appointment, took pains at the outset to disarm all possible hostility by having the authority of Colonial Bishops specifi- cally limited to the Church of England congregations, and that no taxes be laid upon the people for the Bishop's support.
The first missionary of the Church to Africa was the Rev. Thomas Thompson, who left New Jersey for Africa in 1751.
Funds were raised for King's College of New York, (now Columbia College,) in 1746 to 1751. In the latter year these funds were vested in ten trustees, one Presbyterian, two Dutch Reformed, and seven Episcopalians. In 1753 Dr. Samuel John- son of Stratford was elected its first President. On July 17, 1754 he opened the College with a class of eight in a vestry room belonging to Trinity Church, New York.
In 1755, all of the students of Yale College were compelled to worship at the College Chapel, so that Episcopal students could not attend Trinity Church on Sunday. The two sons of Missionary Punderson were forced to comply with this rule. Scholars were fined for attending Church of England service, communicants only being excepted and that only on Christmas and Sacrament days.
On April 2, 1756, the College of William and Mary con- ferred the degree of Master of Arts upon Benjamin Franklin. This was the first honorary degree ever given by the College.
The passage of the stamp act was taken advantage of about 1764 and 5 to raise a fresh clamor against an Episcopate in America.
About the last effort of the Episcopalians before the Revolu- tionary war to secure a Bishop for America was on May 21, 1766, when 14 clergymen met in voluntary convention at New York. They were from New York, New Jersey, and Connecti- cut. Samuel Seabury of Westchester, N. Y., was Clerk. They wrote a letter to the Secretary of the S. P. G. referring to the loss of Wilson and Giles, saying-" This loss brings to our minds an exact calculation made not many years ago, that not less than one out of five who have gone for Holy Orders from the Northern Colonies have perished in the attempt, ten have miscarried out of fifty-one. This we consider an incontestable argument for the necessity of the American Bishops." About
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this time, the Episcopate was largely discussed in the news- papers, in pamphlets, and in sermons, both by Episcopalians and their opponents. In the same month that this Episcopal Convention was held, the Presbyterian " Synod of New York and Philadelphia " at their annual meeting, originated a plan of concerted action to prevent the establishment of an Episco- pate. The " General Association of Connecticut," (Congrega- tionalist,) at their June meeting at Guilford, 1766, received an invitation to join the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia, in convention for "Consultation about such things as may have a hopeful tendency to promote and defend the Common Cause of Religion against the attacks of its various Enemies." The invitation was accepted and delegates appointed. Accordingly a convention was held at Elizabeth, N. J., begin- ning Nov. 5, 1766, and their organization perfected. Twenty members were present from the Synod and eight from Connecti- cut. They provided for a general convention of the pastors of the Congregational, Consociated and Presbyterian Churches in North America, consisting of delegates chosen by their re- spective bodies, to be held annually, and agreed that the next convention should be held at New Haven, Sept. 10, 1767. The general design of the convention was to gain information and unite in "spreading the Gospel, and defending the religious liberties of our Churches, keep up a correspondence throughout this united body and with our friends abroad " and to " culti- vate and preserve loyalty " to the king. It was also agreed that letters be sent to the Rev. Ministers of the Congregational and Presybterian Churches of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and the Dutch Reformed Churches of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, "informing them what we have done at this General Convention and invite them to send delegates to New Haven." Appended to the minutes of this meeting is a supposed letter from a gentleman in the Colonies to his foreign correspondent, setting forth at length what a terrible calamity it would be to have a Bishop in America and his great anxiety on that account. Also a letter from Mr. Francis Alison to Mr. Sproat, setting forth his reasons for being persuaded that there was a determination or fixed resolution in England to send Bishops to America.
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This was probably the first General Convention of any religious body ever held in America and it met annually for ten successive years. The only enemies of religion referred to in their proceedings were Episcopalians, and from beginning to end the only business before the Convention was for the pur- pose of preventing a Bishop, or Bishops, being established in this country. The invitations to attend were broad and included every religious body in the whole country who either feared or hated an Episcopal Bishop. In short, it was a great uprising of all who were opposed to an Episcopate and it may be properly designated as the Anti-Episcopal Convention.
Its Journal was printed by E. Gleason, Hartford, Conn., 1843, under the direction of a committee of the General Association of Connecticut, and entitled "Minutes of the Convention of Delegates from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and from the Associations of Connecticut held annually from 1766 to 1775, inclusive."
Their ten Conventions were held in September, October or November, as follows :- 1766, '68, '70, '72 and '74 at Elizabeth- town, N. J .; 1767 and '69, New Haven, Conn .; 1771, Norwalk, Conn .; 1773, Stamford, Conn .; 1775, Greenfield, Conn. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire were repre- sented at their second Convention and several other colonies were represented later. Committees were appointed to carry on a correspondence with " our friends," (Dissenters,) in Eng- land and the pastors of the various colonies. Long letters to and from the committee of Dissenters in London were before the Convention nearly every year. Correspondence was also extended to Scotland and Ireland, and throughout the Ameri- can Colonies. They wrote to Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas for "all instances of Episcopal oppression they can find in said colonies," to the Eastern Colonies for "instances of the lenity of their government with regard to Episcopal Dissenters therein." Committees were appointed for the various colonies, including Nova Scotia, Canada and West Florida, to examine their laws and charters relating to ecclesi- astical affairs, with reference to the religious liberties of any denomination, and particularly "to ascertain the number of
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inhabitants in each of the Colonies with the proportion of the Episcopalians to the Non-Episcopalians."
Reports on these matters were received from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, Georgia, Nova Scotia and Barbadoes.
Their letter to the Dissenters of London in 1773 stated that the " Episcopalians in the colony of New York bear the pro- portion of about one to twenty of its present population, Con- necticut a greater proportion. In New Jersey and Pennsyl- vania their proportionate numbers are less." In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, "they are much less still." In the Southern Colonies, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, "the Non-Episcopalians are in some of them a majority, and in the rest a large and growing proportion."
The report of the Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, Conn., as to Connecticut, is the only one preserved and is printed in full in the appendix. It makes the Episcopalians of Connecti- cut in 1774 number about one to thirteen of the whole number of inhabitants.
The object of this census was to belittle the Episcopalians and show " the vast superiority in numbers of the Non-Epis- copalians," in the hopes that if such facts were known in Eng- land the chances for an American Bishop would be lessened. The numerous letters to and from their friends in England show how alarmed they were " from the restlessness of the mission- aries and their bigoted adherents," and although the Episco- palians were apparently quiet, they said, "We have reason to believe that the bigoted Episcopalians on this side of the water have by no means dropt the project, but will ever be restless in their attempts to accomplish their purpose." One letter says Dr. S. (Episcopal) "told me that they would have Bishops settled in America in spite of all the Presbyterian opposition, and added that the Quakers and Baptists would join them against us." The Convention admitted repeatedly that they would not oppose Bishops "provided other denominations could be safe from their severity and encroachments, but this we think
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impossible," and because they thought this impossible they determined to oppose the Episcopate with all their might.
They refer to our forefathers as having " seen and felt the tyranny of Bishops' courts," and added: "Such tyranny if now exercised in America would either drive us to seek new habitations among the heathen .
. or excite riots, rebel- lion and wild disorder. We dread the consequences as oft as we think of this danger." "We can not but tremble at the prospect of the dreadful consequences that could not be pre- vented from taking place upon the establishment of an Ameri- can Episcopate," and all this, they say, " without doing any real service to religion or to the Episcopal Church."
Again, they complain of the S. P. G. for granting consider- able salaries to " missionaries in the most populous parts of our colonies even where there are faithful ministers of other denominations settled, and but few families of their religious persuasion." We may here state that there is not a single instance in which this Society ever appointed a missionary to any parish in America until the parish asked them to do so.
One letter to the committee of Dissenters in London says :- "The peculiar care of the Episcopalians among ourselves, where they have influence, to fill all places of power and trust in our various governments with those of their own denomination seems calculated to promote their grand design
These considerations make it evident to us that their views are not so much to promote Christianity as the establishment of Episcopal Church government in the colonies, and therefore engage our constant watchfulness lest they should take the advantage of our being off our guard to accomplish a design, which however pleasing to them, will be attended with the most lamentable consequences to the interest of true religion and liberty among us."
The number of those who belonged to the Church in America was never so large as some supposed. At the beginning of the war there were only about 80 clergymen to the north and east of Maryland. These, except in Boston, Newport and Phila- delphia, were mainly supported by the S. P. G. There were not more than six in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. In Maryland and Virginia the Church was supported by legal
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establishment. There were more Churchmen in the other Southern Colonies than in the north, but not so many as in Virginia and Maryland.
All efforts on the part of the Episcopalians for a Bishop practically ceased in 1776. The Episcopalians were closer to the king than any other people in America, and as hatred to the king increased with the excitement and hardships of the Revolu- tion, the Episcopalians were despised, hated, persecuted with greater zeal, and finally almost silenced.
In 1782, the Rev. Dr. White, (afterwards Bishop,) believing that the war would be indefinitely protracted, published a pamphlet advocating the adoption by the Episcopalians of a Presbyterian form of government.
In March, 1783, ten of the fourteen clergymen of Connecti- cut met at Woodbury and decided to reply to Dr. White's pamphlet and to elect a Bishop. The Rev. Jeremiah Leaming was their first choice, but on account of his infirmities, they elected Dr. Samuel Seabury, who went to England for consecra- tion, arriving in London, July 7, 1783.
On Aug. 13, 1783, the Churchmen of Maryland met in con- vention at Annapolis and adopted a document concerning fundamental rights and liberties " of the Protestant Episcopal Church." This is claimed by some to have been the first use of the name Protestant Episcopal, but Bishop Perry's History says that a convention met at Chestertown, Md., Nov. 9, 1780, and voted that the " Church known in the province as 'Protest- ant' be called 'the Protestant Episcopal Church'."
The first step towards forming a collective body of the Episcopal Church was at New Brunswick, N. J., in May, 1784, by clergymen from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who arranged for a larger meeting at New York in October of that year.
The Rev. Samuel Seabury, by reason of the "Erastian notions which prevailed in the Church, the machinations of English politicians, and the arguments of influential Congrega- tionalists in Connecticut," failed of consecration in England and consequently turned to Scotland, where he was consecrated Bishop, at Aberdeen, Nov. 14, 1784. On Aug. 2, 1785, Bishop Seabury met his clergy at Middletown, Conn., and four persons
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were made deacons. This was the first ordination in America. Three days later a committee was appointed to act with the Bishop in proposing necessary changes in the Prayer Book. The New York Convention of October, 1784 had agreed to " adhere to the liturgy of the Church as far as shall be consistent with the American Revolution."
The first General Convention of the Church in America met at Christ Church, Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 1785, and consisted of clergy and lay representatives from seven states. Bishop Sea- bury and his clergy declined to attend this Convention. Many radical changes in the Prayer Book were proposed. The book was published in 1786, and was known as the " Proposed Book," because the changes made therein had never been formally adopted. The Scottish Bishops who consecrated Bishop Sea- bury desired that he should use the Scotch Communion Office as far as practicable, and accordingly he prepared such Office, which was printed at New London in 1786 and distributed for general use.
The first consecration of a church in America was at Nor- walk, Conn., July, 1786.
On Sunday, Feb. 4, 1787, the Rev. William White, Bishop- elect of Pennsylvania, and Rev. Samuel Provoost, Bishop-elect of New York, were consecrated at London. A special act of Parliament had to be passed before this could take place, and this act was limited to the establishment of a College of Bishops for America. A union of the Dioceses was effected at the Gen- eral Convention held July to October, 1789, at Christ Church, Philadelphia, when the Constitution of the Church was adopted and the Prayer Book revised, thus perfecting the organization of the Church in America. The first House of Bishops con- sisted of Bishops White and Seabury, and nothing was admitted into the Prayer Book that was not approved by both. The new Book went into use Oct. 1, 1790. Methodism was first intro- duced in America at New York in 1766. This child of the Church continued to use the Book of Common Prayer until about 1790.
The Rev. James Madison, D.D., was elected Bishop of Vir- ginia and consecrated at Lambeth Palace Chapel, Sept. 17, 1790. Of the Church in America in 1790, there were 7 Dio-
.
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ceses and 190 clergy ; in 1904, 62 Dioceses, 23 Missionary Jurisdictions with 91 Bishops and 5,058 clergy.
In the year 1790 thirty Congregational families at Clare- - mont, N. H., joined the Episcopal Church in a body.
The first consecration of a Bishop in America was at New York, Sept. 17, 1792, when Thomas John Claggett, D.D., was consecrated as Bishop of Maryland.
In 1794, the Rev. Samuel Peters, D.D., formerly of Con- necticut, but then residing in England, was elected Bishop of Vermont and attempted to receive consecration in England. This was denied him for various reasons, some of which were that it was contrary to the act of Parliament of 1786, and that it would be disrespectful to the American Bishops.
Shortly after the Revolution, King's Chapel in Boston had been appropriated by the Unitarians, so that in the year 1797 there were only two Episcopal parishes in Boston, Trinity and Christ Churches.
The first Almanac designed especially for Churchmen was published in 1816, by T. & J. Swords, New York City. It contained a list of all the clergy in the United States together with the Dioceses, parishes and various organizations. It has been continued by the Swords and their successor, Mr. Thomas Whittaker of New York, up to the present time.
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