USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stamford > History of Stamford, Connecticut : from its settlement in 1641, to the present time, including Darien, which was one of its parishes until 1820 > Part 12
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There is no record of the seating, as above directed, but very frequently at this period the town voted as a special honor the use of the first seats to those of the citizens whose dignity would bear such promotion.
There is this special provision made in 1722, that "the town do grant that the pew at the east end of the gallery shall be for
136
IHISTORY OF STAMFORD.
the proper use and benefit of Mr. Davenport's family, forever, he bearing the charge and cost thereupon."
In 1757, the society vote that "Jonathan Waterbury, lieut. Weed and capt. Weed are ordered to set in the fore pew in the meeting house; and Caleb Smith and Joseph Webb in the sec- ond pew, and capt. Peirre Fitch, in the fore seat."
But in the growth of the town, all of the citizens still main- taining their connection with this congregation, this house, as its predecessor had done, soon became too small, so that in 1723 it was necessary to build extra galleries. At this time Capt. Samuel Hayt, and Capt. Jonathan Hayt were "to take their place to set in the second pne ;" and Samuel Weed in the fore seat.
At this date also appears the curious provision which was made to accommodate those who had come from a great dis- tance to meeting. The town gave James Slason permission "to set up a house for ye advantage of his having a place to go to on Sabbath days, at ye west end of Mr. Blachly's shop."
"The town grants to James June and all that live at Larence's farm to set up a house upon the town's land on the west side of Ebenezer Weed's lot to "a Commodate for their conveniency of coming to meeting on the Sabbath day."
It is the tradition that a part of the house, recently removed from the northwest corner of Main and Atlantic Streets, occu- pied by the Jarvis family, was originally built as a "Sabbath day house," for the comfort of families coming from a distant part of the parish.
It would seem from the records that at this period an unsteady currency was the occasion of much trouble between the pastor and the people. This seems to have been the occa sion of the only variance between Mr. Davenport and the par- ish. It was to come to some mutual understanding respecting the obligations of the parish, that, in 1725 Mr. Davenport re- quested of the town their understanding of the contraet regard- ing his pay in money-whether they were not to pay money
137
ECCLESIASTICAL.
" fully to answer two thirds of one hundred and thirty pounds, according to the known reckoning of our place." " Answered by the town: that upon the payment of the town to Mr. Davenport, eighty-six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence money, doth fully answer the town's obligation to Mr. Daven- port of a hundred and thirty pounds pay."
Again, in Feb. 1728-9, by vote, Mr. Davenport was "intro- duced" into the town meeting and allowed to state his under- standing of the contract above referred to. Dea. John Hoyt, Jona. Maltby and Jona. Bates were chosen to "Discors " with him, relating to his "Sallory." They proposed arbitration to set- tle the difference, which was negatived. They propose an addi- tion to the above sum, which was also negatived, whereupon Mr. Davenport submits in writing his statement and demand. On this, the meeting adjourned to the 14th instant. At this meet- ing they vote the additional sum, forty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence, to be paid in current bills of credit or in pro- vision at price current.
Capt. Jona. Hoyt, Samuel Blachly, Samuel Weed, Benjamin Weed, and Jonathan Pettit entered a protest against the neg- ative vote of the previous meeting.
Feb 18, 1731, fifteen days after the death of Mr. Davenport, a special town meeting was called. Capt. Bishop was chosen moderator and deacon Hoyt was to assist him. The town had been plunged into universal grief by the late sore bereavement. Scarcely any calamity of that day could compare with it. So thought, at least, the fathers of the town as they came together. They felt their need of Divine comfort and guidance. Their first vote, and every vote, showed that their only hope was in the faithful God, whose ambassador they had so recently lost. These were thoughtful and appropriate words, in which, by vote, they express this conviction : "By vote the town AGREE that there shall be a day of humiliation kept, and to call in such ministers to assist in the work as shall be thought needful."
18
138
111STORY OF STAMFORD.
They appoint the first Wednesday in the following month as the day, and appoint Capt. Bishop, Dea, John Hoyt, and Capt. Jonathan Hoyt a committee to make the needed preparations. They also impower this committee to advise with the elders re- specting a minister, and also to invite in a minister to be accepted by the town.
They adjourn to the first Tuesday of April. At this meeting they vote to give Mr. Sherman " something further of tryall in order to settlement." There were ninety-four votes and twenty- one blanks, making at that meeting one hundred and fifteen voters on the question of settling a minister. One more meet- ing was held by the town in May, and the committee was in- creased by adding Capt. Samuel Hoyt and Jonas Weed. This enlarged committee were authorized to hire a minister "for a day or more as there shall be occasion."
And now occurs a change in the administration of civil and ecclesiastical affairs. They are separated in 1731. The former are managed in what are henceforth called society meetings, and the latter in town meetings. The same book, however, contains, down to 1759, the records of both meetings. The same moderator presides, and the same scribe officiates at both. The same page will show, in two separate records, what was done in the town, and what was done in the society meetings. In 1760 a new book was procured, and from this time the records of the society are kept separately from those of the town. Joseph Bishop, who, since 1738, had been clerk both of the town and society, is continued still for one year as clerk of the society, when his office was given to Abraham Davenport, who was sworn in to the faithful performance of its duties.
The first of the meetings of the society proper was held July 28, 1731. It had been orderly warned according to law. Dea- con Hoyt was its moderator and Samuel Weed its clerk. It was called on the minutes a "Sosiatys " meeting.
"Mr. Right " was, by an "almost unanimous " vote, invited to become the minister of the town. In September, at an
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ECCLESIASTICAL.
adjourned meeting the vote was unanimons in favor of Mr. Right. They engage to buy him a homelot and build him a " credable Decent Dwelling house," and pay him a salary of 150 pounds. This meeting adjourned to the annual town meet- ing in December. Mr. Ebenezer Wright accepted the call thus made to him. In the December meeting arrangements were made for his settlement. They set apart the third of the following May as a day for humiliation and prayer, and the seventh, for the ordination of Mr. Wright, now pastor elect.
The society now takes upon itself, also, the care of the schools. This year the record shows there were five schools in the town : the center school, the one over the Norotou, the one west of Mill river, the Simsbury, and the Newfield schools. At the society's meeting, in December 1733, Mr. Wright being now fairly installed, a new "seating" of the people was ordered. The committee, in discharging this trust, were to consider the former charge of building the house, and the charge of making the galleries, and also the age and dignity of persons, and still further, the present list of estates, and others foregoing.
Those persons that pay the minister at Five Mile river were discharged from paying Mr. Wright, for three months, if they bring sufficient proof that they pay as much there. In 1734 the society grants to the people at the Five mile river, and at Woodpecker Ridge their proportion of the minister's rate for three months in the winter, provided they hire a minister to preach for them. The next year they extend the time at the Five Mile meeting for four months.
In 1735 the society saw " cause to seat Mr. Abraham Daven- port and Mr. James Davenport in the foremost pew, on the west side of the meeting house."
At this meeting they also provide for repairing the house. At their meeting in May 1736, on a proposition to give the people at the east end of the town the right to organize a society, they voted promptly in the negative; and Capt. Jonathan Hoyt and Mr. Jonathan Maltby were appointed their agents to appear at
140
HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
the general assembly and show why the separation should not be made. In 1736, the society grant the people east of Stony Brook their minister's rate for four months; and the people of Newfield, as low as Josiah Hoyt's sonth; and also the people of "Shitten " plains, as far as Joseph Hunt's. In 1838, Capt. Jonathan Maltby was "ordered to set in the fore pew and his wife to set answerably thereto." It was also " per vote agreed that the committee that formerly seated the meeting house should at their diserision advance sum elderly parsons in the seting in the meeting house." This, I think, is the last instanee in which the town or society are reported as seating the meet- ing house.
Again the Stamford first ehureh are called to part with their minister. Mr. Wright, who had served them with great acceptance, was removed by death in May 1745, and the society appointed the 18th of June as a day of fasting and prayer. Again the ministers of the county are ealled in to advise in the selection of a new candidate.
By September a candidate had been so far "tryed " by them that a society meeting was called to consider his claims. The form of the vote will illustrate the gravity of the question be- fore them. With Col. Jonathan lloyt in the Chair, it was " put to vote, whether the society were so well satisfied in what they have already experienced as to Mr. Noah Well's ministe- rial qualifications so as to proceed further to the settlement of him forthwith." "Voted in the affirmative one hundred and four votes, and in the negative twenty-three votes, and many more sent their desires in the affirmative."
Whereupon the meeting instruct their committee to "dis- course " with Mr. Welles regarding his wishes on the subject, and report at a meeting to be held in four days. The report being favorable to the settlement, arrangements are made to con- sumate it.
The following vote shows the eare taken for securing to the minister his full pay.
141
ECCLESIASTICAL.
" Whereas this society at their meeting on Sept. 22, 1746 did agree to give Mr. Noah Welles seventy-five pounds silver money at eight shillings per ounce, for his yearly salary, or the equivalent in the old or new tenor cur- rency; and lest there should a difficulty arise to know what should be the equivalent above, the society do now agree, per vote, that their committee for the time being shall have full power yearly to agree with him, what the equivalent shall be; and if they can't agree, then the committee are hereby impowered to leave the matter to some indifferent men, whom they and Mr. Welles shall chose iu the 'naibourwood,' which agreement and judg- ment as above shall decide the controversy."
But by this time the process of dividing the territory into separate parishes had commenced; and already there were many indications that these parishes themselves could not long con- tinue to worship together under the old denominational stand- ard.
For nearly a century one parish and one creed had sufficed. The few who could not heartily subscribe to either condition of the infant settlement, seemed to yield, with some sort of grace, to the manifest propriety of a quiet submission to the only " standing order " known, and await the coming time for an open assertion of their cherished theories, either in the doctrine or in the government of the church. The necessity for the two- fold division which so soon resulted in so many separate par- ishes and distinct churches, could not by any expedients have been long postponed.
Practically, already, the dwellers on the outskirts of the town had been gradually dropping out from attendance on the public worship of the people, held only at the center of the town; and for years occasional services in the more distant neighborhoods had endeavored to supply their want. Practically, also, the germs of new ecclesiastical organizations were begin- ning to show themselves; and under the liberal indulgence granted by the easy civil administrations of the day, nothing could hinder their rapid growth.
It will be the object of the following chapter to exhibit the progress of this disintegration and its results. We shall first indicate the territorial division into three distinct parishes and the fragments of three others, and, in a following chapter, exam-
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
ine the denominational organizations, which, in the process of time arose on the ground which, from the settlement of the town had been held, and not unsuccessfully improved, by the one puritan church of the congregational order.
CHAPTER VIII.
-
SEPARATE PARISII ORGANIZATIONS.
At the settlement of the town, and for many years after, the entire territory embraced in the grant received from the In- dians, about eight miles wide east and west and sixteen long north and south, constituted but one eivil ecclesiastical juris- dietion. This was under the control of the town. By the town the church of Christ was supplied with a place or places for worship, and to the town every citizen was responsible for at- tendance upon the worship for which provision had been made, and for meeting his share of its expenses. In the progress of settlements in the vicinity where the dwellers on the outside of the town could be more conveniently accommodated elsewhere than at any place within this traet, special permission was given to them to embrace such opportunity, and a special vote released them from the legal support required here. These special votes are very numerous all along the early history of the town for more than a hundred years ; and this method was resorted to to obviate the necessity of permanently cutting off any portion of the jurisdiction. Of course, as the population increased, and the central congregation became so full that the absence of large numbers would scarcely be missed, it became an easier thing for the most distant families to get away. It would seem that there was no need of an apology or a very earnest plea, for Thomas Potts and Noah Parketon, who must have lived about eleven miles north of the village, and their neighbors living still further north, to obtain permission to attend meeting at Pound-
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
ridge, as late as 1771. And yet, such permission was sought and granted for several successive years. But no strength of ecclesiastical bond could hold in perpetual unity the broad traet with its increasing population ; and we shall find it resolving itself into at least six territorial jurisdictions.
OLD SOCIETY OF GREENWICH.
The first step towards alienating any portion of the old ec- «lesiastical territory of Stamford, seems to have been taken on the southwest corner of the parish. Down to about 1678 no regular and permanent society had been organized at Greenwich. That the people of Greenwich were regarded as belonging to the Stamford parish is abundantly shown by our early records. As late as March 2, 1774-5, in town meeting, it was voted "the town do iudge it meet that Grinwich while they have the bene- fit of the ministry among us, yt thay allso should pay to ye ministry." Indeed, the General Court or Legislature of Con- necticut had decided ten years before this, that the only condi- tion upon which Greenwich could become a township, " intire of itself," was that they "procure and maintain an orthodox minister ; and in the meantime, and until yt be effected, they are to attend ye ministry at Stamford, and to contribute propor- tionably with Stamford to ye maintenance of ye ministry there."
There is now, probably, no record of the surrender of the present territory of Greenwich by this ecclesiastical society, but as the line of separation between the two towns was run by the Committee in 1681, and confirmed by the Patent in 1685, it is probable that the town limits were made also the limits of the two thenceforward separate societies. This line has probably not been materially changed since.
BEDFORD PARISH.
The first step towards setting off any of the northern part of the town was taken in January, 1720-1.
* This portion of the town had been bought with the rest of the tract in 1660 and reconfirmed in 1655, and again in 1680.
.
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PARISII ORGANIZATIONS.
The Indians who signed the last surrender, December 23, 1680, were Katonah, Stockawae, Segotah, Jovis, Tohonacogyah, Yan- nayo and Kackennond ; and the persons recognized as the occu- pants or holders of the tract, then called the Hop Grounds, were: Richard and Abraham Ambler, Daniel Weed, John Wescot, Jona. Petit, John Cross, John Miller, Nicholas Web- stor, Richard Ayres, Wm. Clark, James Seeley, Joseph Steph- ens, Dan Jones, Benj. Stephens, Thos. Tomoyou and Joseph Cheoles. The surrender was signed in presence of Joshua Knap and David Waterbury. Yet this entire tract was still subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Stamford. At the Court of Election in Hartford, May 11, 1682, the Court " grant the liberty of a plantation to the people of the Hop Ground, to be called Bedford; and appoint Joseph Theal to be for the pre- sent the chief military officer of the train band of Bedford, and Abraham Ambler is empowered to grant warrants to several officers and witnesses, and to join persons in marriage."
James White, Michael Warin, John Ingersol and John Right, living towards the northern end of Long Ridge, in January, 1720-1, were released from paying towards the ministry in Stamford for the year ensuing, they observing the following conditions, viz: "that they shall duly attend on the public worship at Bedford, and shall bear their part in proportion with the people of Bedford in the maintenance of the ministry there, they bringing a certificate from the town of Bedford of their so doing."
In 1722 the inhabitants of Chesnut Ridge, viz: Geo. Dibble, Timothy Coneklin and Thomas Corey, were also allowed to pay their minister's rate in Bedford, "if they bring Rev. Mr. Ten- nant's certificate that they have paid to him, to next town meeting."
STANWICH SOCIETY.
This society is made up of parts of the Greenwich and Stam- ford societies The first local meeting whose records I have found was that of February 5, 1730, when forty-eight men from
19
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
these two societies met and voted to call for the organization of a new society. In May, 1731, they petition the legislature for an act of incorporation, which petition was summarily dismissed. Immediately, twenty-seven of the petitioners from Greenwich and nineteen from Stamford notify the two towns that they shall renew their petitions and persist in their organization. Accordingly in October of the same year, fifty-three send in their second petition to the Assembly, which from some infor- mality in the proceedings was withdrawn, when the petitioners gave their legal notice to the two towns of their purpose to prosecute their plea.
In May, 1732, they forward their petition the third time to the Legislature, stating that they have already raised their meeting house, a suitable building forty feet long and thirty wide, and that the "most of the stuff" for it is provided.
Twenty Stamford families notified the Stamford society of their action ; and a remonstrance against it, signed by twenty- four members of the Stamford society, was forthwith forwarded by interested and influential men to defeat the project before the legislature. An agent from the society in Horseneek was also sent to the assembly to oppose the plea of the petitioners. An earnest protest was urged by both the societies on the ground that the division would weaken them, and endanger their very existence. Besides these counter appeals, another remonstrance was sent forward from the dwellers in the vieinity of Round Hill, a little to the west of the proposed society, on the ground that if the new society should be organized it would interfere with the one they were contemplating, and which was much more needed.
But after listening to the petitioners and the remonstrants, the legislature in their October session, 1733, passed the act incorporating the Stanwich society. As a part of, the new soci- ety was still within the limits of Stamford, in their town meet- ing of Dee. 14th, among other town officers, John Newman and Ebenezer Smith were appointed tything men for the new parish
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PARISH ORGANIZATIONS.
of Stanwich. These appointments were annually made until the society at Stanwich became permanently independent of the parent societies.
NEW CANAAN.
This parish was made up of parts of Norwalk and Stamford. The first notice of it as a distinct parish on the Stamford records is of date Dec. 8, 1730, when " John Bouton and others ask liberty of moving out of town to join with a part of Norwalk in order to be a society." The town voted in the negative. Yet the opposition could not have been very strenuous, because we find under date of Dec. 14, 1731, Ebenezer Seely and Nathaniel Bouton are, in town meeting, appointed tything men for the new society. The next year, John Bouton and Ebenezer Seely are chosen to the same office, and their field of service is called "Cannan Parrish."
There could not have been as much opposition to the organi- zation of this parish as there had been to that of Stanwieh. Our records have a vote passed Dec. 27, 1733, which shows good will towards the New Canaan enterprize, which is also expres- sive of the town's regard for the ordinances and institutions of religion.
" The town agree that there shall be a committee chosen to agree with those men that have land lying where it may be thought needful for a highway for the conveniency of 'Canaan parish to go to meeting,' and to lay it out where they think it may be most convenient."
Of the twenty-four members constituting this church when it was founded, eleven were from Stamford, and two of these- John Bouton and Thomas Talmadge-were its first deacons. The names of the Stamford members were: Deacon John Bouton and his wife Mercy, deacon Thomas Talmadge and his wife Susanna, John Davenport, John Finch, Eliphalet Seeley and Sarah his wife, John Bouton, jun., and Mary his wife, and Jerusha, the wife of David Stevens.
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HISTORY OF STAMFORD.
The society was incorporated in 1731, but the town continued to belong to Norwalk and Stamford until 1801.
The first meeting of the New Canaan society was held July 1, 1731, when John Bouton was made moderator, and John Betts, sen., clerk. The committee appointed were, Samuel Seymour, Zerubabel Hoyt, and David Stevens.
In 1732 the list of the Stamford portion of the New Canaan settlers, as reported on the society records of New Canaan, is as follows :
Bouton John,
.
36.00.0 Hoyt Job,
36.02.0
Bouton Nath'l,
61.11.9
Hoyt Joshua,
26.00.0
Bouton Daniel, . 22.01.0 Slason Eliphalet
41.02.0
Bouton Eleaser,
41.10.0
Seeley Eliphalet, .
32.09.0
Bouton John, jr.,
·
27.04.0
Seeley Ebenezer,
38.00.8
Davenport John,
68.08.0
Talmadge Thos., .
71.02.9
Finch John,
55.08.0 Stevens David,
54.05.0
Green Nath'l,
49.12.0 Waterbury David, .
44.00.6
Hoyt James,
39.00.0
MIDDLESEX (DARIEN.)
How early separate religious services were held in this part of the town no existing records show. Probably for years before Dr. Mather was settled here in 1744, there had been preaching, with more or less regularity.
At a society meeting, held in the first society of Stamford, Dec. 20, 1733, by vote "the society agree that those particular persons that pay to the minister at Five Mile river, shall be discharged from paying their proportion of Mr. Wright's rate, during the term of three months, provided they bring sufficient proof to the society's committee that they pay as much to the minister there, as their proportion to Mr. Wright for the time above said."
In 1734, forty-six planters on the west side of Norwalk river petition for a new society. The next notice taken of this project, as far as records show, was simultaneously in Stamford and at the May session of the legislature, in 1736. Sixty-nine petitions, representing eighty families, and a list of £5,880,
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PARISII ORGANIZATIONS.
made a formal request to be incorporated as an ecclesiastical society by themselves. The petition was negatived, only to be renewed in October of the same year, by fifty-six men. The urgeney of the petitioners led to the appointment of a special committee to examine their claims. In May 1737 the committee report favorably, assigning as proper boundaries of the society the Five Mile river on the east, and the Noroton on the west. In October of this year the aet of incorporation was passed. It is curious to note upon what frail boundaries they relied. The moment they leave the rivers, which they might presume to be permanent, they fix upon the most perishable objects, in the most indeterminate of localities, to answer as permanent bounds for the society. On the west side of the parish, to separate it from the older society of Stamford, they define, as the western- most limits of Middlesex, "an old chimney about two and a half miles east of the Stamford meeting house," and " so to run a strait line midway between Stephen Bishop's house and David Dibble's house," and thence to where the Noroton erosses the Canaan line. But this separation was not to be a peaceable one. Though no blood seems to have been shed in the struggle, there were many earnest and elamorous appeals and remon- strances between the parishes themselves and between the par- ishes and the legislature; so that the peaceful settlement of the Middlesex seceders was not accomplished before the summer of 1741, about a dozen years after the need of such a society was felt and its incorporation demanded.
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