USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 56
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their own worship, bore very heavily upon the lower classes, and often caused much suffering. Instances of special cruelty and barbarism were not lacking, when the poor man's only cow and the grain and meat laid up for winter sustenance were forcibly seized by the merciless collectors. When goods failed, the body was taken. Most disgraceful scenes occurred at these seizures of goods and persons. The maddened Separates resisted with tongue and fist, refused to walk or ride to the prison, and held by main force on horseback would often be carried there, " crying and screaming till the blood ran out of their mouths." The story of their imprisonment is best told in the following letters, "sent from Windham Prison " to the Assembly, by the good minister of Voluntown, Alexander Miller, his brother Peter, and Joseph Spalding of Plainfield :-
" Whereas, we are rendered incapable upon the account of sickness and imprisonment, of sending a petition, we take this opportunity of informing your Honors of the difficulties we have met with as to our outward man because we are constrained to observe and follow the dictates of our own con- science, agreeable to the Word of God, in matters of religion, looking upon it to be God's prerogative to order the affairs of his own worship. We are of that number who soberly dissented from the Church established by Conn. and though we have no design to act in contempt of any lawful authority, or to disturb any religious society, but only to worship God according to the rules he has given us in his Word in that way now called Separation, yet have we suffered the loss of much of our goods, particularly because we could not in conscience pay minister's rates, it appearing to us very contrary to the way that the Lord hath ordained even the present way in which ministry are main- tained-Poor men's estates taken away and sold for less than a quarter of their value, and no overplus returned, as hath been the case of your Honor's poor informers ; yea, poor men's cows taken when they had but one for the support of their families, and the children crying for milk and could get none, because the collector had taken their cow for minister's rates. Neither have they stopped here, though we have never resisted them, but when our goods could no longer suffice we were taken from our families and cast into prison, where some of us have lain above two months, far distant from our families, who are in very difficult circumstances. Yea! and here we must unavoidably lie the remainder of our days unless we consent to such methods for which we can see no warrant in God's Word. No! surely it never came into his mind, neither hath he commanded that it should be so, that the Gospel of Peace should be so maintained ; he hath told his ministers how they shall have their maintenance, but not a word of imprisoning men for refusing to maintain them, surely the best things corrupted form the worst. And now, we pray you to take notice of our difficulties, and grant us relief from bondage that we may enjoy the privileges other dissenters enjoy.
Windham Prison, May 13, 1752."
No notice was taken of this representation, and the prisoners were kept in jail till the authorities thought proper to release them. Two years later, they again presented their case to the Assembly : -
" We, whose names are subscribed, because we could not in conscience pay minister's salary, which we find neither precept nor example for in the Word of God, as we understand the same, and after we had once and again suffered the loss of much of our substance, being taken from us by collectors, our bodies were taken , and cast into prison in said Windham jail, where we were closely confined, some of us above twenty miles distant from our families- where we lay some of us ten weeks in most distressing circumstances as to
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our bodies, and our families reduced or exposed to difficulties too affecting to your Honors to hear, could they be related. During which time we wrote to you to inform you of our difficulties even while we were in prison, but having been informed that said letter was never read publicly and cannot be found, offer this to you.
ALEXANDER MILLER. PETER MILLER. JOSEPH SPALDING. JOSEPH WARREN."
Elisha Paine, after accepting the charge of a church at Bridgehamp- ton, Long Island, and removing his family thither, was again made to feel the power of the Church Establishment in Connecticut. Return- ing to Canterbury for his household goods and provisions, he was arrested by Samuel Adams, collector, for rates due the society, and again imprisoned in Windham jail, greatly to his personal inconve- nience and detriment and the suffering of his family. With his usual serenity and patience under such trials, he thus wrote to a friend :-
" I cannot but marvel to see how soon the children will forget the sword that drove their fathers into this land, and take hold of it as a jewel, and kill their grand-children therewith. O that men could see how far this is from Christ's rule; that all things that we would have others do unto us, that we should do even so unto them! I believe the same people that put this authority into the hands of Mr. Cogswell, their minister, to put me into prison for not paying him for preaching, would think it very hard for the church I belong to and am pastor of, if they should get the upper hand and tax and imprison him for not paying what he should be so unjustly taxed at; and yet I can see no other difference only because the power is in his hands, for I sup- pose he has heard me as often as I ever have him. Yet he hath taken by force from me two cows and one steer, and now my body held in prison, only because the power is in his hands."
After waiting vainly for some weeks for his release, Mr. Paine thus addressed the Canterbury assessors :-
" To you gentlemen, practitioners of the law, from your prisoner in Wind- ham gaol, because his conscience will not let him pay a minister that is set up by the law of Connecticut, contrary to his conscience and consent.
The Roman Emperor was called Pontifex Maximus, because he presided over civil and ecclesiastical affairs ; which is the first beast who persecuted the Christians that separated from their Established religion, which they called the holy religion of their forefathers ; and by their law, fined, whipped, imprisoned and killed such as refused obedience thereto. We all own that the Pope or Papal throne is the second beast, because he is head of the ecclesiastical, and meddles with civil affairs; and for which he is also styled Pontifex Maximus or High Priest. He also compels all under him to submit to his worship, decrees and laws, by whips, fines, prisons, fire and faggots. Now what your prisoner requests of you, is a clear distinction between the Ecclesiastic Con- stitution of Connecticut, by which I am now held in prison, and the aforesaid two thrones or beasts, in the foundation, constitution and support thereof. For if by Scripture and reason you can show they do not all stand on the throne mentioned in Psalin xciv : 20, but that the latter is founded on the Rock Christ Jesus, I will confess my fault and soon clear myself of the prison. But if this Constitution hath its rise from that throne, then come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty ; for better is it to die for Christ, than to live against him.
From an old friend to this civil constitution, and long your prisoner, Windham Jail, Dec. 11, 1752.
ELISHA PAINE."
This keen suggestive query effected what entreaties and denuncia- tions had previously failed to accomplish- Unable to make manifest
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the " clear distinction " requested, the assessors replied by releasing him from prison, Memorials from Separates seldom gained such prompt attention. Their usual fate was utter neglect or unconditional rejection. The most affecting statements and moving appeals were un- heeded. Petition after petition from individuals and churches was laid before the General Assembly only to receive " a negative from both Houses." The petition of the brothers Cleveland, praying that they might be restored to their privileges in College, was dismissed without any action upon it in either Hose. For a Separate to gain a suit at law was quite out of the question. Whatever the case, it was sure to be decided against him. Legal decisions took the meeting-houses from both the Canterbury and Plainfield Separates, though a majority of the church were Separate in the one town and a majority of the town in the other. A church majority in Canterbury were doomed to pay rates for the support of Mr. Cogswell, and a town majority in Plainfield compelled to satisfy the executions gained by Mr. Rowland. Injustice and oppression increased the opposition and bitterness of the Separates and aroused them to more united and determined efforts to gain a hearing. A most earnest and forcible petition, drawn up by Solomon Paine and signed by Caleb Hill, Aaron, Josiah, Ebenezer and Elisha Cleveland, Josiah and Daniel Brown, Thomas Bradford, William and Obadiah Johnson, Elisha Paine, Benjamin Smith, Samuel Parish and other respectable citizens, was laid before the Assembly, October, 1747, viz. :-
"We acknowledge that civil authority is ordained of God for to be a terror and to punish evil doers, and a praise to those who do well-but that no body, neither single person, nor church, nor even commonwealth has any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion ; that the contrary, viz., to make use of penal laws in this Colony to force men to believe or to profess to be of this or that religion or form of divine worship, or to force them to pay for the support of it when they can not in conscience receive it as religion, having no other ground for it than that the magistrates or major part of the people believe or profess so and say they have the Word of God to support it-is directly contrary to the Law of God and the Act of Toleration made in the reign of King William and maintained by our gracious King George ; doth nourish the seeds of discord and war, and furnish men to hatred, rapine and slaughter. But notwithstanding all previous acts, the collectors of Canterbury society have taken of our estates to the value of four or five hundred pounds and still go on to take and sell at the sign-post ; have stript several poor families of the creatures they had got for meat for their families, and left some of them without any meat for their poor children; selectmen have denied the privilege of freemen to those who did not attend the stated ministry, and there is no remedy by the law of the Colony against this dreadful oppression. Whereupon your memorialists, depending upon the faithfulness of the great and dreadful God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who hears the cry of the oppressed and has promised to relieve them, either mediately by making their rulers peace and their exactors righteousness, or immediately by his own awful and dreadful hand of vindictive justice, destroying cold and merciless oppressors ; that they may not have a hand in pulling down so awful a judgment upon this land by their neglect to apply to your Honors under God, as those who are appointed and commanded by God to restrain
61
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oppressors and let the oppressed go free, your memorialists pray your Honor's wise and compassionate interposition and commiseration of their distress and unbind their heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free by repealing all such laws as establish and countenance such God-provoking and common- wealth-common-friendship-and peace-ruining evil as oppression to be carried on under the pretence of maintaining religion."
This petition being summarily " dismissed by both Houses," in the following spring another was presented, signed by three hundred and thirty Separates in Windham and New London counties, showing :-
" That they could not without violence to their own consciences profess to be of any of the churches tolerated by law, but are determined to worship God in spirit and in truth. although that may be called Independent or Separate, and to honor the King and superiors and governors as sent by him, in yielding obedience to them in all civil matters; and yet they are all exposed either to make shipwreck of a good conscience, or to suffer by fines and imprisonments, and many of them have suffered for preaching the Gospel and other acts of divine service in obedience to the commands and by the power of God's . Holy Spirit, and great quantity of their temporal goods with which they should serve God and Honor the King are taken from them to support that worship which they cannot in conscience uphold. And they, knowing that the doing of such violence endangers souls and also Commonwealth, and is threatened in the Word of God with public calamity or eternal punishment-' He shall have judgment without mercy that showed no mercy.' 'For they shall be judged by the law of liberty'-and seeing the judgments of Almighty God are coming upon this land and the above-said imposition and oppression still carried on; whereupon your memorialists pray that your Honors may be the happy instru- ment of unbinding their burdens and enact universal liberty by repealing all those ecclesiastic laws that are or may be executed to the debarring of any in this Colony of the liberty granted by God and tolerated by our King, or forbid the execution of said laws."
Upon hearing this petition the Assembly resolved :-
" That inasmuch as said memorial is general and uncertain and points to no particular law the memorialists are aggrieved with, and contains invectives and unwarrantable expressions relating to laws and the authority of Govern- ment, it is dismissed."
Thus foiled in every effort, the Separates were left to wage un- equal conflict, an undisciplined rabble against a powerful Govern- ment and established institutions. The one side fought for re- ligious liberty ; the other for religious order. All the might of law, learning, stability, respectability, time-honored associations, reason and common sense, were brought against the Separates. All the conserving forces of society rallied against them. Nothing was in their favor but some eternal principles of truth and justice, im- perfectly understood by them, and mingled with much that was erroneous. What marvel that in such a war, the stronger party should triumph. Weakened by internal dissensions, without fixed aim or plan, the confused and bewildered Separates were unable to withstand the powerful forces arraigned against them. Under these adverse influences their numbers diminished ; their strength and vigor declined. Zeal and spirituality were consumed in ignominious squabbles with rate- collectors. The " convicting Spirit of God was awfully withdrawn from the churches," so that few new members were gained while many
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were lost to them. Earnest, conscientious brethren became Baptists ; weak ones, wearied out with controversy and double rate-paying, relapsed to the standing churches ; false ones progressed into heresy and infidelity. Yet in face of all these obstacles the majority remained steadfast, and after five years' silence again attempted to gain relief from the Assembly. A formal memorial from agents of more than twenty three Separate congregations, declared :-
"April 16, 1753.
That we do carry on the worship of God as we in conscience think agree- able to the Word of God, and think it unequal to be compelled to support others. It is against our consciences that ministers' salaries be dependent on human laws. We pray for the benefit of the Toleration Act; we are im- prisoned, our property is taken, from which burdens we pray to be released."
Those signing this memorial in Windham County were John Fitch and Joseph Waldon of Windham, Thomas Stevens and Thomas Pierce of Plainfield, Solomon Paine and Obadiah Johnson of Canterbury, Edward Waldo and Samuel Bingham of Scotland, Alexander Miller and John Hinman of Voluntown, Samuel Wadsworth and John Eaton of Killingly-yet, though men of excellent character and position, their request was disregarded. Convinced of the uselessness of farther attempts to move the Colonial Government, the Separates were compelled to apply to the Throne of Great Britain. Twenty Separate churches adopted a memorial, stating that they were deprived of the benefit of the Toleration Act granted by the King to dissenters, and praying that they might be allowed to share in its privileges. This memorial, confirmed by legal evidence and the Colony seal affixed by Governor Fitch, was carried to England in 1756, by Messrs. Bliss Willoughby and Moses Morse, and first exhibited to the Deputation and Committee for the Dissenters. That body received the report with amazement, and could scarcely believe that the children of men who had fled from England to escape ecclesiastic tyranny should thus restrict the liberties of others ; that Dissenters from the Church Establishment of Connecticut should be denied the privileges granted to those in Great Britain. This denial they believed a plain violation of the Charter rights of the memorialists, and feared that should their petition be presented to the King it would endanger the Charter of Connecticut. The agents were therefore advised to return home with- out carrying the matter farther, and a letter was written by Dr. Avery, chairman of the committee, severely censuring the conduct of the Government. Governor Fitch attempted to excuse it by recounting the follies and extravagances of the Separates, to which Avery replied, that civil penalties were not the appropriate remedy for spiritual disorders, and advised the sufferers to commence a civil process for the establish- ment of their rights, appealing it to England for final decision. This
a
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unfavorable judgment of English Dissenters, and the disturbed condi- tion of public affairs somewhat changed the policy of Government. With a foreign war waging, it had less time and strength for domestic broils, and its extreme severity towards the Separates slightly relaxed. The first Separate petition to gain a favorable hearing was from South Killingly. These brethren, after enduring "difficulties too affecting to be fully related, and not fit to be named by such as profess Christi- anity," procured " a considerably unanimous " discharge from rate- paying from the society with which they were connected, in 1755. Upon persistently representing to the Assembly "that their design was not to indulge idleness or immorality, but to maintain the worship of God among themselves by a free liberality," they were released from the burdens under which they had long labored, and freed and pro- hibited from paying any rates in said society, and also from voting- and after this date exemption from rate-paying under favorable com- binations was not impossible of attainment.
This modification of treatment came too late to save the Separates from decay and dissolution. Their most prominent leaders were already gone ; their churches greatly weakened and demoralized. The Moses, who they hoped would have led them from the House of Bondage- their beloved father, Elisha Paine-had removed to Long Island. The " beloved brother and pastor, Solomon Paine,* a faithful pastor of the church in Canterbury, having finished his minister's work, after twelve days' sickness, fell asleep in the Lord, October 25, 1754." The ardent and devoted Stevens, yielding to, the entreaty of young men of his flock to go out with them as chaplain in the campaign of 1755, con- tracted disease, and only returned home to die at his father's house. Much of the vigor and vitality of the Separate movement passed away with these leaders. The churches lingered on but their aggressive power was gone. Still blindly battering the churches and church establishment, their blows were unheeded, their efforts ineffectual. Soured by failure and persecution, the remaining Separates grew more violent, factious and impracticable. While some among them con- tinued good and orderly citizens, maintaining their Separate worship and opposition to the Government with sobriety and decency-a far greater proportion became outcasts and Pariahs, "wild Separates" and
* Letters and documents left by this faithful pastor and earnest Christian laborer, have furnished many of the facts comprised in this sketch of the Separates. A short time before his death he published, " A Short View of the Constitution of the Church of Christ, and the Difference between it and the Church established in Connecticut," in a pamphlet of seventy pages, now almost unattainable. This work, the Mansfield Covenant, and an Historical Narrative and Declaration, adopted in 1781-are believed to be the only published utterances of the Windham County Separates now in ex- istence.
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schismatics ; their hand against every man and every man's hand against them. To all outward appearance, their "movement " was an utter failure. Pioneers in the great battle for religious freedom in Connecti- cut, they perished by the way without even one glimpse of the Promised Land, and nearly twice forty years passed before the principles for which they had struggled were established. The fate of the Separates was in literal accordance with the Saviour's parable. In attempting to force new wine into old bottles, the bottles were marred and the wine perished.
*
BOOK IV. 1745-60.
I.
WOODSTOCK'S REVOLT. CONTEST BETWEEN MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT.
W HILE neighboring towns in Windham County were absorbed in ecclesiastic controversies and operations, Woodstock was agitating the question of a transfer of civil allegiance. Her subjection to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was in many respects inconvenient and burdensome. That Province was now " groaning under sore ca- lamities "-demoralized currency, heavy debt, foreign and domestic quarrels-and the interests and sympathies of the people drew them strongly to Connecticut. Their taxes would be lighter ; their privi- leges greater. A new generation was now in public life, less personally connected with the mother colony. The death of Colonel Chandler severed the strongest tie that bound Woodstock to Massachusetts. The Rev. Mr. Stiles warmly favored annexation to Connecticut, and was ever ready to remind his people of the burthens laid upon them, as part of this afflicted Province. That the grant of the King gave Woodstock territory to Connecticut was admitted by all parties, although an agree- ment between the Colonies had yielded it to Massachusetts. The Woodstock people maintained that this agreement, which had never been confirmed by the King, was invalid ; that a title of land could be annulled or transferred only by the power which had granted it, and that they were thus within Connecticut limits, and entitled to the privileges of its Government. A report that the other " Indented towns " were preparing to assert their right to the Charter privileges of Con- necticut, incited them to action, and after much preparatory dis- cussion the question was brought before the town, March 31, 1737, by asking :-
" ' If a person should be chosen to join those chosen by Suffield, Enfield and Somers, in trying to get off to Connecticut.' A large majority voted in the affirmative, and chose Colonel William Chandler to lay the affair before the General Assembly of Connecticut. Fourteen persons dissented, 'as not likely to prove successful and costing more expense.'"
The committee from the Indented towns appeared before the Assembly in May, representing that said towns were within the bounds
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granted by royal charter to Connecticut, and humbly claiming the rights and privileges of members of its corporation-
"I .. Because Commissioners could not transfer or alter the jurisdiction of lands granted by royal charter, and that the doing of the same is an infringe- ment on the rights of the subject.
II. Because the stipulation and settlement were made without the consent and to the great hurt and detriment of the memorialists."
The Assembly thereupon appointed Messrs. Jonathan Trumbull, John Bulkley, Benjamin Hall and Roger Wolcott, to confer with gentlemen to be appointed for this purpose by Massachusetts. The report that Connecticut had consented to consider the matter inspired Woodstock with fresh courage, and it unanimously voted, "To go on with its efforts." Colonel William Chandler was appointed, " To prefer said affair to the Province ; Thomas Chandler and Henry Bowen to go on with the Connecticut movement, and in the most moving and effectual manner lay their case before that Colony, and if not succeeding there, send to ye Great Court of England." Colonel Chandler's mission was unsuccessful. Massachusetts was indignant at the projected secession, and refused to appoint gentlemen, or give the affair the least considera- tion. It was evident that the rebellious towns would not be released without a struggle. With greater earnestness, they adjured Connecticut to consider their case, showing :-
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