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 5
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 5
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 5
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In 1768, the Church wardens of Guilford tell a long story about having tried in vain, since 1744, to have a minister settled among them, but could get nothing but transient service, although some came and staid long enough to greatly encourage them, and left soon enough to grievously disappoint them. They conclude as follows :- " We have labored under the
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greatest discouragements for upwards of twenty-three years and built a church, purchased a Glebe and " obtained everything that we have so " long struggled for except the Society's patron- age." We "are stripped of our minister and left to mourn our loss, and to be the derision and scoff of the dissenters." They asked to have Mr. Tyler, who was going home for orders, sent to them. But still again they were disappointed, for Mr. Tyler came back as missionary to Norwich and adjoining parts. He opened the church at Pomfret, (Brooklyn,) April 12, 1771, the last church built in the Colony, and which is now, (1906,) standing. [Mention is made of this old church by the Rev. George Israel Browne, with illustrations, in the Conn. Magazine, Vol. X, p. 69, etc.] It was built by Mr. Godfrey Malbone, an ardent Churchman, who for years had without murmur paid one-eighth of all the taxes in the parish. When he began, in 1769, to build the church, there were but two Churchmen that he knew of besides himself. The Standing Order decided to build a new meeting-house, which Mr. Malbone objected to as unnecessary, but he was told that they would build it and compel him to pay for it. His lawyer, a Churchman, advised him that as the laws stood he could not help himself, unless the Episco- palians had a church and minister of their own .. Consequently Mr. Malbone decided to have both a church and a missionary. In October, 1770, this Church was legalized by the General Assembly. With a little outside aid the building was ready, as before stated, in 1771. About twenty heads of families, brought up in the Dissenting way, joined with them before the church was completed, and more joined later, for there was not another church nearer than Norwich, twenty-two miles away.
But the great difficulty which Mr. Malbone encountered was to get a missionary. He applied for one in 1769 and engaged to pay one hundred pounds annually. Without a minister settled there the people were bound by law to pay for the meeting- house and minister's rate of the Standing Order. Failing to have a missionary sent to him by the Society, he employed the Rev. Mr. Moseley, a chaplain in the British Navy, but still they were not freed from taxes as the Dissenters would not admit that Mr. Moseley was "in orders in accordance with the Canons of the Church." In 1772 Mr. Moseley withdrew in favor of
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the Rev. Daniel Fogg, a missionary of the S. P. G., and then the Churchmen in the parish of Brooklyn were relieved from further taxes to the Standing Order.
There never were in the Colony half as many missionaries as were being earnestly begged for, and all the while that this cry for more ministers was heard throughout the land, the Dis- senters were complaining about the S. P. G. sending ministers where they were not wanted. Dr. Blake's "Separates " of New England says that the S. P. G. was a society for aiding the Church of England in America and for planting "its Churches where the ground was abundantly occupied and supplied with the ministrations of the Gospel, though not after the Episcopal order." The great Anti-Episcopal Convention, 1766 to 1775, complained of the S. P. G. for paying considerable salaries to missionaries where the Convention thought they were not wanted. There was no minister of any denomination at Red- ding, when Mr. Henry Caner first ministered to the people there. At the present day it is hard to realize how much the S. P. G. did for the Church in Connecticut. The Rev. John Beach in 1743 said : "I bless God for the pious care and charity of the venerable Society and had it not been for that, we have reason to think there would not have been at this day as much as one congregation in this Colony worshiping God according to the Church of England."
The missionaries frequently represented to the Society the great want of schools for the instruction of children in the principles of religion and convenient learning. The Society from the first paid salaries to several catechists and school masters, particularly in the Provinces of New York and Massa- chusetts.
The school masters were to instruct the children in reading, writing and arithmetic, also in the Catechism, reading the Holy Scripture and in the use of the Prayer Book. They were required to frequently consult and advise with the ministers ; to take all their scholars regularly to Church, and to teach them to join in the worship.
They were to teach the children special morning and evening prayers for use in school, and also for private use at home; a short prayer for every child to use when they first come into
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their seats at church and before they leave their seats. Also " A Grace before " and " after Meat."
The first mention found of a catechist in Connecticut is Nov. 6, 1722, when the Rev. Mr. Pigott asks to have a French gentle- man of Fairfield appointed as catechist. He refers to Dr. James Laborie, a Hugenot who was ordained at Zurich, Oct. 30, 1688, removed to England, and was licensed by the Bishop of London for teaching grammar and catechising in the parish of Stepney. He officiated in several French churches of London for nine or ten years and in 1698 came to America and was settled in the ministry at "New Oxford", Mass., with a commission from Bishop Compton to instruct the Indians there, which he did with great success. He removed to New York and had charge of the French Church there from Oct. 15, 1704, to Aug. 25, 1706. He then engaged in the practice of medicine and removed to Stratford, Conn. about 1709. He was Surgeon for the Colony at Wood Creek, 1709, and in the expedition to Port Royal and Nova Scotia, 1710, being also Chaplain on the Brigantine "Mary." He removed to Fair- field about 1716. Here, without any salary, he continued his labors and began to teach both Whites and Indians. He says he was interrupted by Lieut. Gov. Nathan Gold, “ a mortal enemy to the Church and violently compelled to surcease my endeavors" on the ground that " my commission extended no farther than Boston Colony." After the arrival of missionary Pigott in 1722, he worked with him and instructed the people at his own house on the Lord's Day when Mr. Pigott could not be present. On Jan. 13, 1723-4, the latter writes that "Dr. Laborie's industry there, (Fairfield,) takes off the present necessity of a missionary for that town. He is an excellent preacher, but Episcopacy cuts off his practice in physic." Although he became a Churchman, he does not appear to have ever received Episcopal ordination. His name is not found in the annual reports of the S. P. G. and although called a cate- chist his work was in the nature of a missionary. Sometimes lay readers who were preparing for the ministry were called catechists when not in the employ of the S. P. G. This was the case with Mr. Ebenezer Thompson of Simsbury, 1742. The only other record we have of a catechist is that Dr. Johnson
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was paid ten pounds a year for a catechist at Stratford, from 1746 to 1755, inclusive.
Rev. Samuel Johnson of Stratford writes, June 23, 1724, to the Bishop of London "that this town, and indeed the whole colony, is destitute of any Episcopal school, by which means our youth are trained up in prejudice against the established Church, and since your Lordship hath expressed so pious a care as to enquire concerning the state of schools, I have been encouraged to recommend this honest gentleman, the bearer hereof, Mr. Thomas Salmon, to your Lordship and the honor- able Society ; he is one of our Church wardens and is well quali- fied for an English school master, and hath kept the school for several years in this town to the universal satisfaction of both the Church people and Dissenters." It does not appear that he was ever appointed.
Mr. Johnson writes to the Secretary, Sept. 16, 1726, that Mr. Henry Caner of Fairfield "designs about two years hence to wait upon the honorable Society for orders and a mission, " meanwhile the people would be very thankful if the Society would " grant him a small encouragement for the pains he takes in instructing that people and their children in the principles of religion as catechist." Instead of waiting two years, Mr. Caner was ordained and returned as missionary at Fairfield within a year. Mr. Johnson writes Sept. 20, 1727, that he " should be very glad that the same salary which was allowed to him, (Mr. Caner,) as school master at Fairfield, might be allowed for a school in this town, (Stratford,) where there is great need of one, and it might be of good service, not only for forming the minds of children to a sense of religion, but likewise for a resort for such young gentlemen, successively, as from time to time leave the College here. . They might while they keep school, improve themselves in the study of Divinity, till they are qualified for higher business." And so Mr. Caner was paid a school master's salary in remuneration of his ser- vices to the Church at Fairfield until he could be appointed as missionary. His service as schoolmaster was less than one year and hence does not appear in the annual reports of the S. P. G.
In the same letter, Mr. Johnson says, " The Dissenters have two poor schools in this town, but the Church hath none."
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Again, Oct. 23, 1727, he says, in my "last I informed the Society of what service it might be to the interest of religion to have a school here, and that Mr. Bennett (who has for above half a year kept school among the Dissenters here, and been rejected by the greatest number of them upon conformity to our Church,) would be very serviceable and acceptable, We have already raised nigh thirty pounds per annum " and could give a good support to a school which he asks for, as " nothing could so happily contribute to the enlargement of our Church. "
Mr. Johnson writes, Nov. 20, 1729, that he finds "in the abstract of the proceedings of the Society last year, mention made of a salary for a school at Stratford but have never received any letter or otherwise any intimation from the Society about it, However, I should be very thankful if there was a salary appointed for that purpose, and there is great need of it, yet since we want ministers more of the two, than school masters, I would not desire that the providing for a school should stand in the way of providing missionaries."
An anonymous letter dated Stratford, Oct. 30, 1727, was sent to the Bishop of London, discouraging the school. It purported to have been written in the interest of Churchmen and claimed that a school would be "a prejudice and a wrong to us, " by disturbing the " friendship between us and the committee of the schools," who now employ "a man of our persuasion in one " of the schools. Mr. Bennett was not appointed, but finally the prayer for a school master at Stratford was granted and Mr. Johnson writes to the Bishop of London, Dec. 10, 1733, thank- ing him for his "interest with the honourable Society for set- tling a school in this place." The school at Stratford was prac- tically the first sectarian school for general education ever set up in the Colony, aside from the schools of the Standing Order. All the public schools of the Colony were controlled by ecclesiastical societies of the Standing Order, although other denominations were permitted to vote. Episcopalians could have no vote on school matters without attending the meetings of the Congregational Societies. In the report of the S. P. G. for the year 1733, Mr. Joseph Brown is put down as "School Master " at Stratford with a salary of fifteen pounds per annum,
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and he is so reported for twenty-one consecutive years. Mr. Brown was one of the vestrymen of Christ Church and sub- scribed thirty pounds for building the church in 1742-3.
On the first Monday in February, 1733-4, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, in behalf of the members of the Church of England in Stratford, asked for liberty to erect a " School House on the Common near the southeast corner of Lieut. Joseph Beach'es house lot," and the town voted to grant his request. [Orcutt's Stratford, Vol. I, p. 322.] Probably the house was built and this is where Mr. Brown taught.
In May, 1728, a law was passed requiring the Treasurer of the Colony to " deliver the sum of forty shillings upon every thousand pounds in the list of the respective towns " to the school committee of the said towns " to be by them distributed to the several parishes or societies in each town for the benefit of their respective schools. "
In October, 1737, a law was passed permitting certain school funds to be appropriated " to the support of the Gospel minis- try, as by the laws of this Colony established." This of course all went, said Dr. Johnson, to support ministers of the " Presby- terian or Congregational persuasion, (being those that are peculiarly countenanced by the Laws of this Government,) to be divided in proportion to their several lists and this in such manner that we of the Church of England cannot lay claim to any share of them for the support of our Ministers or Schools."
By reason of these laws, a long memorial, drafted by Dr. Johnson, was presented to the General Court at their May session, 1738, praying " that we may be secured of our propor- tion of those public monies toward the support of our Ministers & that our schools also, where we have any peculiar to our- selves, may have their proportional benefit of the said act, as also the 40 shillings on the £100o, which has hitherto been denied to the School of the Church of England at Stratford." [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, Doc. 324.] The objectionable law was repealed in 1740. This memorial gives us positive proof that there was, in 1738, an Episcopal school at Stratford, which was of such a general educational character as to warrant a demand for their share of "the 40 shillings on the f1000", given for public schools.
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Mr. Richard Caner appears in the annual reports for the years ending February, 1740 and February, 1741, as "School Master at Fairfield." In November, 1739 he reported thirty scholars. In the report for 1742 he was reported as missionary, thus showing that his salary as school master was in remunera- tion for missionary work. In 1742, the Rev. Timothy Allen was conducting a school at New London known as " The Shep- perd's Tent" and which was designed for educating young men to become exhorters, etc., for the so-called New Lights. An act passed in October, 1742, (and said to have been aimed at these "New Lights ",) imposed heavy penalties upon any one who should teach, keep, or maintain "any public school whatsoever, " other than as "established or allowed " by law. This law, (which was enacted for four years only,) was broad enough to have suppressed the Episcopal school at Stratford, but the authorities do not appear to have had any desire to do so.
The school was finally discontinued at the request of Dr. Johnson, as appears from his letter to the Society dated April 14, 1751, stating " that, as it is now much less charity to provide for a school in this town than heretofore, " and "Mr. Brown tells me he is willing to resign", he advises the Society to appoint a missionary for Ripton in place of the school master at Stratford.
Mr. Hutchinson appears in the reports of the S. P. G. as school master at North Groton, (Ledyard,) from 1745 to 1764 inclusive. A school master whose name is not given was paid for work among the Narragansett Indians from 1767 to 1777, inclusive. On June 5, 1765, the Rev. Matthew Graves of New London recommends "to the care of the Religious Society " for a school master " Mr. Bennett, the school master among the Mohawks," who designs "to return when the small pox is abated. " The Digest of the Reports of the S. P. G. says that Cornelius Bennett of the Mohawk mission, New York, labored among the Narragansett Indians for a short time.
On June, 1770, Dr. Johnson writes the Secretary from his old home at Stratford, thanking him for ordering Mr. Somas- ters to be placed at Stratford, and says: "This happily falls in with a design I have entertained of holding a little Academy, or resource for young students of Divinity to prepare them for
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Holy Orders. Have now four, Marshall, Fingley, Perry and Jones. Marshall will go next fall to Woodbury. This I shall continue while I live with the assistance of Mr. Kneeland." Mr. Somaster's name is not found in the annual reports of the S. P. G. No doubt the Somaster's Library which was trans- ferred from the Church at Stratford to the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire and then back again to Stratford, originally belonged to this teacher. The foregoing account includes all the Episcopal schools in Colonial Connecticut of which we have any record.
Referring again to the laws of the Colony, a fine of 20 shil- lings was imposed by the law of 1721, on those who should assemble in any public meeting-house without the consent of the minister and congregation. This made it more difficult for the Episcopalians to get permission to use the meeting-houses which they had helped to build.
The poorer Churches of the Standing Order were also favored by having their county rates remitted to them or by otherwise receiving substantial aid from the Colony. In 1728 the county rates were remitted to the parish of Redding, where Mr. Caner had preached when there was " no minister of any denomination whatsoever " there, and this favor was continued for twenty years or more. In October, 1730, the Society of Horse Neck, (Greenwich,) petitioned the General Court for aid, saying that " of our small number not a few have listed themselves under the banner prelatical and also not a few under the banner of yea and nay and how far the leaven may spread we fear more than we are sure of." The county rates collected in the town of Greenwich for the year 1730, (from Episcopalians and others,) were ordered to be paid over to the treasurer of this Congregational parish.
We have already referred to the withdrawal of two ministers in succession and many of the people from the societies of the Standing Order at North Groton and West Haven. The for- mer asked for aid in 1734 and fifty pounds was granted them. West Haven petitioned for aid in 1735, showing "the broken circumstances of said parish by reason of their ministers one after another declaring themselves to be of the Church of Eng- land principles and carrying from them considerable estate and
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inhabitants, whereby they are incapable to maintain the gospel." A committee was appointed to investigate. [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, Docs. 51 and 271.] Many other places were granted favors and their memorials asking for aid appear in the archives of the State. They often give the number of inhabitants in their respective parishes with a statement of how many Episcopalians, Baptists or Quakers they had in order to show how the ranks of the Standing Order had been diminished.
We have before referred to the money appropriated for schools being refused the Episcopal school at Stratford, and to the school funds belonging to the State, (including the Episco- palians,) being devoted to the support of the Gospel ministry for the Standing Order, without giving any portion of it to the Churchmen. The lengthy memoral of 1738, in protest of these practices, is very interesting reading. It gives numerous reasons as to why the Churchmen should receive their "propor- tion in the said public monies", the first reason being as follows :
" Because the Doctrines and Principles of the Church of England do professedly and most certainly tend, (at least equally with those of any other persuasion,) not only to fit and prepare men for eternal happiness in the life to come, but also to promote the public good of society in this world, by teaching them to be sober, virtuous and industrious in their callings, serious and devout towards God and just and charitable towards men, and in every respect to be good Christians, kind neighbors, upright magistrates, dutiful subjects and faithful and conscien- tious in every relation and condition of life, and consequently Her professors ought to have the like equitable and favorable treatment with those of any other denomination of Christians."
It closes with a prayer for equal rights and then says: "In hopes of which, (as in duty bound,) we shall ever pray for the health and happiness of your Honors and all the members of this Assembly and for the peace and prosperity of this Colony."
The memorial was signed, (so says the document,) "to the number of about 636." [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, 324.] We thus have the autographs of nearly all the Episcopalians over 16 years of age residing in the Colony in 1738. Dr. Johnson says more names could have been added if there had
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been time. The names are arranged as from Greenwich and Stamford under Rev. Mr. Wetmore; of Groton under Rev. Mr. Punderson ; of New London under Rev. Mr. Seabury; of Hebron under Rev. Mr. Seabury; under Rev. Mr. Arnold ; under Rev. Mr. Beach; under Rev. Mr. Johnson of Stratford; and under Rev. Mr. Caner at Norwalk and Fairfield. Nothing was granted.
The law as to attendance upon the worship of the Standing Order was of course applicable to Churchmen who did not attend a service of their own, but we do not think that it was generally enforced against them. Mr. Morris, in 1740, writes that two warrants were issued before his time "to take up two men in Waterbury for not attending their meetings, and when one of them offered to give his reasons why he could not go to their extempore prayers he was silenced and ordered to prison or pay his fine." Under the law the accused could be fined unless he should "make it appear that he did attend or was necessarily detained therefrom." Mr. Beach writes, in 1743, that the people of New Fairfield when they had no preaching on the Lord's day meet together "and one of their number reads some part of the Common Prayer and a sermon " and that they were "lately prosecuted and fined . for their meeting to worship God according to the Common Prayer."
" The case of these people is very hard, if on the Lord's day they continue at home, they must be punished; if they meet to worship God according to the Church of England, in the best manner they can, their mulct is still greater, and if they go to Independent meeting they must hear the Church vilified. "
They could have been lawfully prosecuted for staying at home, or for leaving home except to worship “in some Con- gregation by law allowed ", or in " some place by law allowed for that end." After 1727, every Church of England congrega- tion and place of worship was "by law allowed", but by a narrow construction of the law, a private house with service by a lay reader, might have been held not to be a place or con- gregation allowed by law, inasmuch as the law of 1727 legalized the societies of the Church of England only " where there is a person in orders according to the canons" of that Church
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" settled and abiding among them." There was no such minis- ter at New Fairfield and hence the laws which were passed in 1721, to prevent noisy itinerant persons, who had no authority whatever to preach, from preaching in private houses and on the streets, were made to do duty against this devout band who from necessity were without a minister. This is the only in- stance we have found of prosecuting those who attended Prayer Book service by a lay reader, and perhaps this circumstance was the cause of adding the proviso to these laws in 1750: "That this act shall not be taken or construed to hinder the meeting of such Persons upon any Religious Occasion. "
The law of 1740 forbade "any person not a settled and ordained minister " from holding services in any parish without being expressly invited by the minister of the parish, and in 1767 the Rev. Mr. Boardman of Middle Haddam unsuccess- fully tried to use this law to keep Episcopal ministers out of his parish.
The most serious grievance the Churchmen had was the failure of the law of 1727, or any other law, to give relief from taxes for the Standing Order. Such relief was asked continu- ously from 1727 until 1775.
The first relief from ecclesiastical taxes of the Standing Order came from New London in 1726, when the rates of all other denominations in that town were paid by voluntary con- tributions. This was continued for three years and in Octo- ber, 1729 the selectmen of New London petitioned the General Court for permission to leave out of "the minister's rate " all those who are of the Church of England, the First and Seventh- day Baptists, and some " which we call Quakers." The peti- tion was granted in the Lower House provided that persons so exempted cannot vote in "Society Meetings, " but it was dissented from in the Upper House.
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