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 6
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 6
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 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
As to relief under the laws of 1727, Missionary Punderson writes in 1750, that the law is " expressed in such limited and ambiguous terms as to be the occasion of many disputes and difficulties to the messengers of peace to whose care they belong." There is no doubt but that many Episcopalians were released from taxes that could not have been released had the law been strictly and rigidly enforced. It was the general rule
€
70
THE CHURCH
that collectors accepted certificates of the missionaries as to the payment of rates, the same as if they had themselves collected them and paid them over to the missionary, provided the amount so paid was equal to the tax assessed and that no question other than such payment was involved. After 1728, there was no trouble within those parishes where the missionaries resided. No matter how long a society had been organized, nor how large a parish they had, if no missionary abided among them they were by law compelled to pay rates to the Standing Order, while under the law these rates were always assessed even when the Standing Order had no minister to support. Under date of March 30, 1750, Dr. Johnson writes to the Secretary that " the people must be forced to pay the dissenters till they have ministers of their own in orders." That the law was so con- strued has also been stated by missionaries Gibbs, Graves, Pun- derson and others, some of whom had been advised by lawyers who were Churchmen. The minister's rates for the Standing Order that was paid over about 1763 to Missionary Winslow at Stratford amounted to thirty pounds sterling per annum. Missionaries Gibbs, Wetmore and others sued collectors of the Standing Order for the rates of their parishioners outside of the parish where the missionary resided, and in each case were defeated. Mr. Gibbs refused to pay the cost and was put in jail according to law, and so barbarously treated by the officer . who took him to Hartford, that he was incapacitated for life. The cases of Episcopalians put in jail for non-payment of eccle- siastical taxes of the Standing Order are too numerous to men- tion. The people of Wallingford about 1740, or before, peti- tioned for redress to the Governor, who had proved a strong opponent to them, and they say that " when the other party hath applied to him for advice how to proceed against us, he hath lately given his sentence to enlarge the gaol and fill it with them" (that is, fill it with Churchmen). They even followed a Churchman for ecclesiastical taxes after he was dead. The Society of North Guilford laid taxes for building the meeting- house in 1748 and for minister's support for four years against Samuel Fowler "a Professor of ye Church of England ", but failed to collect the same in his lifetime. They sued his execu- tors in the New Haven County Court and it was decided that
-
1
71
IN CONNECTICUT.
action did not lye against them. A special act was passed by the General Assembly in 1753 to enable these taxes to be col- lected from the estate. [Colonial Records, Vol. X, p. 182.]
In 1738, forty-one Churchmen of Greenwich and Stamford who attended worship in the borders of New York petitioned for exemption and were refused, although such exemption was granted to Connecticut Quakers who worshipped in the borders of New York. In 1740, Samuel Johnson, J. Wetmore, Henry Caner, John Beach, Jon. Arnold, Samuel Seabury and Ebenezer Punderson, ministers of the Church of England, renewed their petition for relief. In 1742, twenty-seven Churchmen of Sims- bury petitioned for exemption and organization. In 1743, forty-five Churchmen of Simsbury renewed this petition. In 1744, thirty-eight Churchmen of Waterbury petitioned for relief. In 1745, thirty-three Churchmen of Redding petitioned for relief. In 1748, thirty-eight Churchmen of Redding renewed their petition, reciting the favor that the General Court had extended to the Presbyterians of Redding for twenty years, and "disclaiming any suspicion that the Assembly will be partial or their charity confined to Christians of one denomina- tion to the exclusion of all others. Nor can we suppose that their wisdom will account our worshiping God in the manner established in our mother country such a crime as to forfeit and render us unworthy of enjoying for a short season that charity which our fellow parishioners have ever and do enjoy." Nega- tived in both houses. [Ecclesiastical Mss., Vol. 10, Docs. 334, 336, 337, 339, 340 and 341.] Other petitions of a similar character failed to receive any favor.
The missionaries and others complain that "it is found by repeated experiments, that a poor Churchman can expect no redress in any court here ; " that, " the Independents by force and under pretence of authority, have carried away our estates, to support their teachers, to build their meeting houses and to procure their parsonages, " that "The Church people, your Lordship's sons, are imprisoned, arrested and non-suited with prodigious cost, contrary to the laws of God and man ; a cruel injustice and usurpation imposed on no other society ; " that they are "totally discouraged and discredited " but " had our religion the same privileges throughout this Colony, that
72
THE CHURCH
the Baptists have, we would flourish and increase like the lily of the valley and the cedars of Lebanon." Complaints of this character, it is said, arrived in London almost with every ship. The complaints about unfair decisions and biased judges came largely through a belief that the law of 1727 was for the relief of Churchmen, whereby relief was expected in cases for which the law gave no relief. As the Colony laws were framed, we do not know of a decision as to taxes that was improperly rendered against Churchmen. Missionary Punderson had grievances, but was advised by a lawyer who was a Churchman that he had no case. However unjust the law may seem to have been, its enforcement did not show that antagonism to Episcopacy that was shown at Stratford in the early days of the Church. Missionary Caner says, in 1733, that "the spirit and temper of the people formerly so hot against us very much abates and that they begin to treat us in a much more friendly manner than they were wont." Missionary Seabury says, in 1735, that "the dissenting party are very civil and obliging to me." Missionary Punderson says, in 1739, that the dissenting brethren, many of them, " are brought to have a good opinion " of the Church "and occasionally attend our worship." Mis- sionary Johnson says, in 1746, that " there seems a very grow- ing disposition towards the Church in the town of New Haven as well as the College." In 1746 there was no dissenting minis- ter at Stamford and Missionary Dibblee was given the use of the meeting-house, where the people of all sorts generally attended when he preached there. Missionary Hubbard, in 1772, says : "I have the happiness to see the greatest unanimity reigning amongst us and the denominations with whom we live." Missionary Beach says: "The rising generation of the Independents seem to be entirely free from every pique and prejudice against the Church."
In 1752, the law makers began to look upon Episcopalians with more favor when special privileges were granted to the Churchmen of Newtown. The parishioners of Trinity Church, Fairfield in 1761, those of St. John's Church, New Milford, and of the Church in Brooklyn in 1770, were incorporated in Church estate by acts of the General Court, with substantially the same rights as Churches of the Standing Order. No other
73
IN CONNECTICUT.
favors were granted until 1784, when it was enacted that upon filing a proper certificate and attending church, all Churchmen could be relieved from paying Congregational taxes, Before this more than half of all the Churchmen in the Colony were compelled to pay double taxes.
One of the most unreasonable accusations ever made against the Churchmen of the Colony was that imputing to them the insincerity of being Churchmen for the sake of smaller taxes. And strange to say, these charges sometimes came from Churchmen, instead of their enemies.
The first record found of such a charge is in the letter of missionary Philips to the Society, dated Sept. 9, 1713, excusing himself for leaving Stratford so abruptly, and in which he says that he found " the greatest part of those who pretended to be of the Church way were only so to screen themselves from taxes imposed on them by Dissenters." On Dec. I, 1725, Gov. Talcott of Connecticut wrote to the Bishop of London, saying that there are some few persons, outside of Stratford " who cannot well be judged to act from any other motive than to appear singular, or to be freed from a small tax, and hence have declared themselves to be of the Church of England." Prior to 1727, the particular denomination of Christians a person belonged to, or did not belong to, made no difference whatever as to the amount of his taxes to the Standing Order, and hence it is utterly inconceivable how these charges could have then been made. After the law of 1727 which purported to grant relief, the charge does not seem so strange, but was still unreasonable. It was often made by people who ought to have known better, as for example the Rev. Elizur Good- rich of Durham, who in his report on Connecticut to the Anti- Episcopal Convention in the year 1774, says of Episcopalians that their ministers " as may be feared sometimes beguile them with promises of discharging their rates, if they become Churchmen." It is true that some men will do mean things in order to lessen their taxes, but when there is no possible chance for one to accomplish that object there is no reason for imput- ing to them any such motive. All persons throughout the Colony were assessed alike without regard to what denomina- tion they belonged. Episcopalians, under the law, were com-
74
THE CHURCH
pelled to pay this assessment and no collector would cancel their rate until he knew that it had been paid in full. The amount was the same whether the rate went to the Congregational or Episcopal minister, so that it was utterly impossible for any one to reduce the amount of their ecclesiastical taxes by being a Churchman, even when they had the full benefit of exemption from taxes to the Standing Order. But only a few Churchmen could have this exemption, so that most of them paid double rates for the privilege of being Churchmen, one rate to the Church and one rate to the Standing Order. The Standing Order was large and strong, and received substantial aid from the Government, while the Church was small and weak and . received aid from a charitable society that helped only those who helped themselves. Consequently the demands of the Church on its members were greater than those of the Standing Order even when Church rates only were paid, so that it cost more to belong to the Church than it did to be a sinner, or belong to the Standing Order. The Rev. John Beach of New- town and Redding writes to the Society in 1746 that "it is very certain that our people generally expend more by far for the support of religion than their neighbors of the dissenting per- suasion." He also certifies to this before the General Court in 1748, as to the members of the Church at Redding and also that he holds "in the utmost indignation " any "insincerity in mat- ters of religion in order to save purses. " The taxes raised by the Standing Order from non-professors and from professors of all denominations, together with other benefits from the Government, made the religion of that order, in a financial sense, the cheapest religion in the Colony and consequently it was the only religion of which a person's motive for adoption could be reasonably imputed to a desire to save purses.
The law under which the Dissenting minister of Middle Haddam attempted to keep the Episcopal ministers out of his parish was made in 1742 to suppress the great number of vagrant preachers and sundry illiterate persons that appeared after the coming of Whitefield, and some of which had no authority whatever as preachers. Missionary Punderson of New London wrote in December, 1741, that " there are at least twenty or thirty of these lay holders-forth within ten miles of
75
IN CONNECTICUT.
my house, who hold their meetings every night except Satur- day." Even Whitefield's preaching was not pleasant to many, as is shown by a letter of six members of the Church in Ply- mouth, 1744, who were formerly Dissenters, but who say they " fled to the Church of England " after reading the Prayer Book and hearing Whitefield's " extemporaneous jargon." Several missionaries write in substance that the wild enthusiasm drove many Dissenters into the Church.
In 1742, there were fourteen churches built and building, and seven clergymen. When Dr. Johnson came to Stratford there " were not one hundred adult persons of the Church in this whole Colony, whereas now (1742,) there are considerably more than two thousand, and at least five or six thousand young and old." At the commencement at New Haven in 1748, " there were nine of our Clergy together " there and "among the candidates for their degrees there were no less than ten belonging to our Church."
At the beginning of 1756 there were twelve missionaries of the S. P. G. in the Colony. In 1760, Dr. Johnson says there were thirty Churches in the Colony, though but fourteen minis- ters. President Stiles' sermon on Christian Union of the same date gives twenty-five parishes and fourteen ministers. In 1761, the Rev. Mr. Beach says that in twenty-nine years the Church " is increased more than from one to ten, and what is of much greater importance, their conduct for the most part, is a credit to their profession " and is also an advantage to the " Independents, for they who live near to the Church of Eng- land acquire juster notions of religion and become more regular in their worship." In 1766, Mr. Viets said that "the propor- tion of Church people to the Dissenters in Simsbury is nearly as one to three." In 1768, he writes that "there are 52 Congre- gational ministers in this County, viz., Hartford, (which then included Middletown, the Haddams, Chatham, Colchester, Bol- ton, Somers, Tolland, Willington, Hebron and Stafford). In all the four New England Colonies there are 586 Congrega- tional ministers, 38 of the Church Clergy, 39 Anabaptists, 10 Presbyterians, 30 Quaker assemblies and about 50 congrega- tions of those called Separatists, somewhat resembling the old Independents. "
76
THE CHURCH
In 1769, Mr. Beach says: "There are in these two parishes, (Newtown and Redding,) about 2400 souls of whom a little more than half profess the Church of England. Here are about 50 negros most of whom have been baptized. Here are no heathens or infidels, no Papists or Deists." Of Newtown, he says: " It is of some satisfaction to me to observe that in this town of late in our elections, the Church people make the major vote, which is the first instance of this kind in the Colony, if not in all New England."
In the annual report of the S. P. G. for 1777, the missionaries of Connecticut were Ebenezer Kneeland, Stratford and Mil- ford; Christopher Newton, Ripton and North Stratford; John Sayre, Fairfield ; Ebenezer Dibblee, Stamford ; Matthew Graves, New London and Charlestown; John Beach, Newtown and Redding; Bela Hubbard, New Haven and West Haven; Wil- liam Gibbs, Simsbury and Hartford; Roger Viets, assistant to Mr. Gibbs; Richard Mansfield, Derby and Oxford; Richard S. Clark, New Milford, Woodbury, Kent, New Fairfield and Sharon; James Scovill, Waterbury and Westbury; Samuel Peters, Hebron; Samuel Andrews, Wallingford, Cheshire and North Haven; John Tyler, Norwich; Daniel Fogg, Pomfret, Plainfield and Canterbury. Dr. Beardsley's list of clergy at this time gives all the above except Mr. Gibbs, and adds the Rev. John Rutgers Marshall, of Woodbury; Rev. Gideon Bostwick, of Great Barrington, Mass., (who was reckoned as with the Connecticut clergy ;) Dr. Samuel Seabury of Westchester, N. Y. and Rev. James Nichols, Plymouth and Bristol, a graduate of Yale 1771, and the last missionary of the Society that went to England for ordination. Abraham Jarvis of Middletown should also be added.
These twenty-one ministers and their predecessors had regu- larly read the first and second lessons at each service, which was so pleasing to the people generally that the Congregational ministers by this time had generally adopted the custom of reading the Scripture in public. It is claimed that before the Episcopalians came, the Bible was never read in public, not even so much as the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer. Dr. Beardsley speaks of this in his history of the Church, and we find that several missionaries refer to it in their letters to
77
IN CONNECTICUT.
the Society. The Rev. Mr. Arnold, in 1736, performed Divine Service at Milford and describes the town as a place " where the use of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Command- ments, or the reading of the Scripture in Divine Service was never before known." Rev. John Beach, in 1772, writes that he has " performed divine service in many towns where the Common Prayer had never been heard, nor the Holy Scrip- tures read in public and in some places where there never had been any public worship at all, nor any sermon preached by any teacher of any denomination. "
The digest of the reports of the S. P. G. tells of two Dissent- ing ministers in New England who " put on ye courage to read the Holy Bible in the meeting and say the Lord's Prayer, a thing not done before, and they resolved to continue it tho' very much opposed. " In Solomon Palmer's " Mission, " (1754 to 1771,) one parish of Dissenters, from observing the regular method of reading the Scripture in Church, "Voted, that a new folio Bible be bought for them and that their Teacher read lessons out of it Sunday, morning and evening." Some of the missionaries who gave us these facts had for years been Dis- senting ministers and therefore were in a position to know what the custom of the Standing Order was before the Episcopalians came here. The reading of the Scripture in public was prob- ably omitted so as to avoid all appearance of everything ritualistic, and no doubt this omission was made in England at the time they left the Mother Church and made so many radical changes in order to avoid the forms which they denounced as Popish. That the Puritans and Pilgrims as early as 1624 were not accustomed to read the Scripture in public, is indicated from the fact that before that date a young woman member of the Separatists Church, at London, was the subject of dis- cipline for the offense of "attending the service of the Church of England, especially for the purpose of hearing the Scrip- ture read and explained." [John Robinson, by Rev. O. S. Davis, D.D., p. 176.] She would not have gone to the service of the Church of England especially to hear the Scripture read, if it had then been the custom to do so in the Dissenting church.
In 1765, five of the missionaries of Connecticut wrote a letter to the Society relative to what is called "the imposition of 5
78
THE CHURCH
Stamp duties : saying that "We think it our incumbent duty to warn our hearers in particular of the unreasonableness and wickedness of their taking the least part in any tumult or opposition to his Majesty's acts." As a rule the Episcopalians, remembering with the sincerest gratitude the favors they had received from the mother country, were not inclined towards rebellious conduct. For these reasons, those who were bitterly opposed to the Stamp act, (although the act was repealed about 1766,) were displeased with the Episcopalians, much of the old bitterness towards them was revived and the establishment of an American Episcopate was looked upon with increasing terror.
In May, 1766, steps were taken by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia to organize an Anti-Episcopal Convention for the sole object of opposing an American Episcopate. A fuller account of this Convention is given in the preceding chapter. Connecticut had her full share in this Convention, the Standing Order having resolved in their Association at Guilford, June 3, 1766, to accept the invitation of the Synod and join them in Convention. The first Convention was held at Elizabethtown, N. J., Nov. 5, 1766, with six members present from Connecticut the first day, and two more on the day following. The sermon was by Noah Wells. Nearly a month previous, the Episcopal clergy of Connecticut had petitioned for a Bishop. The peti- tion was dated Oct. 8, 1766, and signed by Samuel Johnson, President, and eleven other clergy. The Anti-Episcopal Con- vention met annually for ten years, 1766 to 1775 inclusive, meeting every alternate year in Connecticut. The Congre- gationalists of Connecticut had several different Associations, three of which were not represented at the first Convention, and in 1768, the Association from the Western district of New London County sent a letter to the Convention giving reasons why they declined to send delegates. The Rev. John Smalley of New Britain was one of the committee in 1768 to prepare the letter to the Dissenters in London and also one of the com- mittee to carry on correspondence with friends in London, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Rev. Eliphalet Whittlesey preached the Convention sermon in 1768, and on Connecticut matters their friends in England were to
79
IN CONNECTICUT.
write to Messrs. Whitman and Wells, and in 1769 to Wells and Mather. In 1769, Connecticut had a majority in the Conven- tion, there being eleven members from Connecticut and only seven from New York and New Jersey. In 1770, Rev. Nathaniel Taylor was president of the Convention and Messrs. Hobart and Ross were appointed to " collect instances of lenity of their government with regard to Episcopal Dissenters therein." In 1771, Mr. Wells was appointed to canvass Nova Scotia and Mr. Goodrich to canvass Connecticut and report the character of the laws relating to ecclesiastical affairs, and the number of Episcopalians and Non-Episcopalians in these prov- inces. From this we see that no less than nine Congrega- tional ministers of Connecticut were prominent in, and received special honors from this Anti-Episcopal Convention. The General Association of Congregationalists in Connecticut also voted their support and sympathy from time to time, and at Watertown, June 16, 1772, instructed their delegates to "heartily concur with the Southern Gentlemen in counteracting any Motions that have or shall be made for sd. Episcopate."
The report of the Rev. Elizur Goodrich, D.D., of Durham, is the only one of the several reports that has been printed. His essay on the ecclesiastical laws of the Colony attempts to show how good the "religious Establishment " of the Colony was ; that the hardships which the Episcopalians complained of did not exist, and that the laws regulating taxes were made for their benefit and at their request. He also appears to think that the Established Churches would not be adverse to an alteration of the law so as to make the Episcopalians " altogether disconnected " and to enable them "to do their own business without any concern" of the Established Churches. His census was as follows :-
80
THE CHURCH
An account of the number of the inhabitants of Connecticut, Jan. I, 1774, and an estimate of the proportion of the Episco- palians and Non-Episcopalians :
HARTFORD COUNTY.
Town.
Epis.
Non-Epis.
Total.
Bolton,
994
994
Chatham,
90
2289
2369
East Haddam,
88
2655
2743
Enfield,
I353
I353
Farmington,
244
5719
5963
Glastenbury,
1992
1992
Haddam,
23
1690
1713
Hartford,
III
4770
488I
Simsbury,
914
2757
3671
Somers,
1024
IO24
Suffield,
1980
1980
Tolland,
5
I242
I247
Wethersfield,
6
334I
3347
Willington,
1000
1000
Colchester,
No report.
3057
East Windsor,
2961
Hebron,
66
66
2285
Middletown,
4680
Stafford,
.
I333
Windsor,
·
·
2082
I to 22. Total,
I47I
32806
50675
NEW HAVEN COUNTY.
Town.
Epis.
Non-Epis.
Total.
New Haven,
942
7080
8022
Branford,
86
1852
1938
Derby,
725
1094
1819
Durham,
6
I025
IO3I
Guilford,
213
2633
2846
Milford,
I53
1812
1965
Wallingford,
626
415I
4777
Waterbury,
No report.
3498
I to 7. Total,
275I
19647
25896
81
IN CONNECTICUT.
NEW LONDON COUNTY.
Town.
Epis.
Non-Epis.
Total.
Preston,
22I
2034
2255
Groton,
222
3266
3488
Killingworth,
68
1889
1957
Stonington,
32
4924
4956
Saybrook,
33
2595
2628
New London,
No report.
5366
Norwich,
7032
Lyme,
66
3860
I to 25. Total,
596
14708
31542
Town.
Epis.
Non-Epis.
Total.
Danbury,
420
2053
2473
Greenwich,
443
22II
2654
New Fairfield,
87
I20I
I288
Newtown,
1084
1084
2168
Norwalk,
792
345I
4243
Redding,
478
7II
1189
Ridgefield,
329
I344
1673
Stamford,
710
2793
3503
Fairfield,
No report.
4544
Stratford,
520I
10 to 34.
Total,
4343
14848
28936
WINDHAM COUNTY.
Town
Epis.
Non-Epis.
Total.
Coventry,
II
202I
2032
Pomfret,
.
·
55
2186
224I
Kilingly,
30
3409
3439
Lebanon,
36
3805
3841
Mansfield,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.