History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford, Part 10

Author: Parker, Edwin Pond, 1836-1920
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Belknap & Warfield
Number of Pages: 496


USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > History of the Second church of Christ in Hartford > Part 10


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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


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History of the Church


manifestations. Some of Mr. Whitman's congregation with- drew from his administrations on account of his more moderate course. As movements began to be made, here and there, for new churches, by those who favored the new measures, the machinery of the Saybrook System, largely in the hands of the "Old Lights," was brought to bear for their restriction.1


Then the General Assembly interposed, and, under Governor Law's administration, passed several acts of legislation, of the most arbitrary and exasperating nature, for the suppression of "enthusiasm."


The Act of Toleration 2 was summarily repealed in 1743, so that no sober dissenters could organize themselves in


1 The chief battle-ground, at this time, was that covered by the New Haven East Association, where the revival and its sympathizers met with stern opposition. Rev. Philemon Robbins of Branford was excluded from the consociation for preach- ing to a Baptist congregation in Wallingford. Mr. Timothy Allen was dismissed from West Haven for his activity in the revival of 1740, and it was triumphantly said by his judges that they had blown out one "new light," and would blow them all out. Three other clergymen were suspended for assisting in the ordination of Mr. Lee, at Salisbury, who, with his church, chose not to accept the Saybrook Platform. The North Church in New Haven (now the United Church) was organized in 1742, by those who withdrew from the First Church on account of the opposition therein to the revival. They could not gain permission to form a society or to hold public worship, and for eighteen years they were taxed to support the old church which they had left, although they were supporting worship of their own. For attempting to preach in this new church, Rev. Samuel Finley, afterward President of Princeton College, was arrested and sent out of the Colony as a vagrant. He suffered similar outrage for preaching to a "separate " congregation in Milford. For other and flagrant cases of similar persecution in following years, see the second volume of Trumbull's History, and also the story of the Separate Churches in the admirable History of Windham County.


2 The following statement will assist one in understanding the case : - When the Saybrook Platform was established by law, in 1708, it contained an explicit proviso, called the Act of Toleration, that societies or churches, soberly differing or dissenting from the established order, should not be hindered or prevented "from exercising worship or discipline in their own way, according to their consciences." They might obtain permission to set up their own worship, though they were still taxed to support the standing order. In 1727, the Episcopalians, and in 1729, the Quakers and Baptists were exempted from taxation by the established societies, provided they taxed themselves to support their own societies. But dissenting Congregationalists were not allowed such liberty or exemption. In 1730, a case was carried to the General Assembly, which decided that persons professing themselves of the Congregational or Presbyterian persuasion could not have any benefit of the Toleration Act.


117


The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


societies, much less be exempt from taxation to support the societies from which they had withdrawn, without special permission from the Legislature, which permission Congregationalists and Presbyterians could not, for a long while, obtain. The Separate Societies were in every possible way hindered and harried. Their godly ministers were sub- jected to extreme indignities, both ecclesiastical and civil. Baptisms performed by such ministers as Solomon Paine and Thomas Marsh were pronounced "invalid". In 1742 a law was passed prohibiting any ordained or licensed preacher from preaching or exhorting in any parish but his own, except by the consent of the pastor and a majority of the parish. The penalty of an offense under this act was arrest and dismission from the Colony as a vagrant, if the offender was a stranger or foreigner. If the offender belonged to the Colony, he was to be deprived of his salary, etc. Any unlicensed person who should per- sume to exhort in any parish without the permission of the minister and a majority of said parish was liable to be bound to keep the peace, in the penal sum of one hun- dred pounds.


While things were in this state, Mr. Whitefield revisited New England, in 1745. The General Association of Con- necticut, in that year, eight members being present, passed the following remarkable resolution :


" Whereas there has been of late years many errors in doctrine and disorders in practice prevailing in the churches of this land, which seem to have a threatening aspect upon the churches, and whereas Mr. George Whitefield has been the promoter or at least the faulty occasion of many of these errors and disorders, this association think it needful for them to declare, that if the said Mr. Whitefield should make his progress through this government, it would by no means be advisable for any of our ministers to admit him into their pulpits, or for any of our people to attend upon his preaching and admin- istrations."


Several local associations took similar action. Rev. Mr. Whitman was Scribe of the General Association that year,


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History of the Church


and doubtless voted for the resolution. This resolution must be regarded as the serious blunder of well-meaning but mis- guided men. It was unkind in its exaggeration of Mr. White- field's indiscretions, and unwise in its counsel to ministers and churches. It was high time, indeed, that errors and dis- orders should be checked. There were dangerous excite- ments, physical manifestations, trances, swoonings, visions, and extravagances of speech and action. The great out- pouring had created a flood which the ordinary and narrowed channels of grace would not and could not contain, and which amounted to an inundation. There were "uncharitable de- nunciations of ministers," by no means confined to or begin- ning with the revivalists. The charge of " deadness of pro- fessors " was no more grievous than that of the " giddiness " of revivalists. The accusation of " frigid formality " was no more uncharitable than that of "emotional enthusiasm," and after all, as Edwards and other wise men pointed out, what was the chaff to the wheat ? What were the surface froth and seeth- ing and drift-stuff to the great stream of tendency beneath ? The "faulty occasion " of the errors and disorders that pre- vailed may be found lying back of Whitefield and the revivalists. If the "old lights " in Connecticut had, at first, welcomed instead of opposing the great awakening which roused the churches from their empty covenant-ownings and drowsy and dreadful formalities, long before Whitefield came among them ; if they had owned and made a place for emotion and enthusiasm and lay-preaching in religion; if their disposition, as well as understanding, had not been in obstinate error as to the whole spiritual movement, the gracious work might have been guided and controlled in more orderly ways. If, when Whitefield first came through this colony, stirring the popular heart and conscience by his fervid eloquence, they had been content to overlook some things in so eminent an apostle, and had stood together with Wheelock, Parsons, Whitman, Pomroy, Griswold, Bellamy, and others in furthering and guiding the work to which he


119


The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


gave such tremendous impulse, fanaticism would have had slight footing, enthusiasm would not have mounted to giddi- ness, errors and disorders might have been few and evanes- cent, and the "glorious work of God " would have been far more extensive and beneficent than it was.


From 1745 onwards, disorders spread. The separate churches sprang up and took eccentric ways under persecu- tions of church and court ; "Old Lights " and "New Lights" strove to extinguish each other, until a considerable darkness prevailed, and something akin to disgust fell upon multitudes weary of unseemly strife ; and the period of revival was suc- ceeded by a period of dismal declension, as new wars began, opening the way to Revolution and Independence.


What fruits of the revival were gathered into this church is unknown, for its records of that time have not been pre- served. But if we may judge from those gathered into the First Church, they were not plentiful.


It was in this period that Rev. Mr. Whitman preached the Election Sermon, at Hartford, May 4, 1745. His text was from the 23d chapter of 2d Samuel, at the fourth verse.


His subject was, "The Character and Qualifications of Good Rulers, and the Happiness of Their Administrations." 1 It is a well-composed, sober, and excellent sermon, but it shows the prevalent disposition to rely upon the civil author- ity for aid in administering church discipline. "Civil rulers in a Christian commonwealth are, by God's appointment, to be nursing-fathers to the church." The following passage is significant :


"It is well known that our churches have of late been sadly broken and divided ; a spirit of error, disorder, and enthusiasm has gone forth in the land. Many of the faithful ministers of Christ have been loaded with reproaches, . . separations have been made in many places, and there are those that are endeavoring all they can to pull down the standing ministry, a strange spirit of giddiness seems to pos-


1 A printed copy of this sermon has recently come into the writer's possession.


I20


History of the Church


sess the minds of multitudes, disposing them to fall in with almost any body that has either ignorance or confidence enough to pretend that they are immediately led by the Spirit."


Two other sermons by Mr. Whitman are extant, one preached at the funeral of John Ledyard, in which "the death of good men is compared to a sweet, refreshing sleep." and the other preached at the funeral of Rev. Mr. Dorr, pastor of the First church.1


During Mr. Whitman's ministry two new meeting-houses were erected in Hartford. In 1737 the First church and So- ciety began to build their brick meeting-house, which was dedicated in 1739. In January, 1749, the Second Society ap- plied to the County Court for a site for their proposed new meeting-house. The place first chosen was not acceptable, and, after considerable endeavor, the General Assembly of 1752 appointed a committee to select a suitable location. This committee reported, fixing the site "in the highway, a little north of the house of Mr. Joseph Buckingham," and there, in the highway now called Buckingham Street, the meeting-house was erected.


The records of the Society for that time have perished, and until recently it has been impossible to determine just when the house was begun, completed, and occupied. The " Memorandum Book " of Thomas Seymour, " A. D. 1747," containing a variety of entries from 1745 to 1774, has recently come into the writer's possession, and the following entry is to the point :


" Be it remembered .- The new meeting-house built in the South (Congregational) Society, in the town of Hartford, was begun in the fore part of the year of our Lord, 1752, was three years in building, and finished about the latter end of the year 1754.


And the Rev. and Pious George Whitefield ( providentially here ) preached the first sermon that was ever preached in it, and this was on Monday, the 2nd day of December, Anno Dom., 1754-a good omen for a new meeting-house."


1 Quotations from this latter sermon are made by Dr. Walker in his History of the First Church, page 330, and the "curiously archaic and mechanic style" of Mr. Whitman as " compared with the utterances of Mr. Dorr" is noticed.


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BELFRY


GROUND PLAN OF THE SECOND MEETING-HOUSE


I21


The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


Another entry in the same handwriting is as follows :


" The first Sabbath in January, 1755, was the first time we left the old meeting-house and began to meet in the new one in a constant way."


Whitefield's fifth voyage to this country was made in 1754, and, as the foregoing memorandum shows, he visited Hartford at that time, and doubtless good Mr. Whitman was glad enough to have him preach in the new meeting-house.


This meeting-house is distinctly remembered by several persons now residing in Hartford, some of whom attended worship there as boys and girls. It was a wooden structure, and, like that of the First Church, stood sidewise to Main Street, with an entrance on the east side and also at either end. There was a porch under the steeple at the north end. On the west side stood a structure for housing a rude apparatus for use in case of fires. Within were galleries, square pews, and a pulpit on the west side overhung by a sounding-board.1


Recently discovered documents shed some light on the meeting-house affairs, and show who were the leading men in the Society. In 1752 Mr. William Hooker was collector, and in the year following Jonathan Wells and William Stanley were collectors. Jonathan Seymour, Thomas Sey- mour and Daniel Bull (Deacon) were on the Building Con- mittee. The following bill of a Hartford lawyer explains itself :


1 The following document has recently come to light :


We the subscribers promiss to pay unto Col. Nath'l Stanley the several sums respectively to our names annexed for the use of the South Society, in Hartford, and to be improved for the building a steeple to the new meeting-house, now about to be built for Divine Worship in s Society, provided said Society shall agree to build sd steeple. Witness our hands August 18, 1752.


Thomas Seymore, £ 50


Ebenezer Webster, 30


Jonathan Seymore,


50


Jeams Steel, 20


Joseph Hosmer,


30


Thos. Noble, 15


Dan'1 Bull,


40


Jared Seymore, IC


Win Hooker,


40


Zebulon Mygatt, IO


Daniel Steele,


30


Jona. Wells,


15


Elijah Clapp,


35


Jos. Sheldon, 30


Jos. Church,


20 Nath'I Hooker, 40


I22


History of the Church


Hartford Youth Society to I Buckingham Doft" april Court AD1752 paid to Pant Woolcol In Park for Drawing a momionaland pleading y ant. L 5. 0.0 To y Clenhl for. 10 12. 0


att the Gonozal Apombly In May 1752.


To Drawing a memorial to the afrombly -- $0.0 0 120


To Drawing Sundry Copys. and my own Time ?. 6.00 and Expostos In Byt and may. Novem ? y. 28" 1752 To latour work fter 29 Juin 30/ 6. 0.0 Item Downb" y I' Ite 2. att 25 per day .- 19 40


Buckingham 18: 4:0.


of fate, look


allow 18: 4:0


FAC-SIMILE OF JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM'S BILL.


It appears from sundry bills that a workman's wages were often higher than "Cato's" in the foregoing account. Isaac Seymour charged for "seven and a half days work at raising the meeting " at the rate of thirty-four shillings a day.


In his account is a charge of twenty-three pounds for " eleven and a half gallons of rum for framing." At two pounds a gallon, rum seems expensive stuff "for framing."1


1 The original account book of a rustic named Jehoshaphat Trescot, who lived near Boston from 1707 to 1725, is in the writer's possession. He frequently visited Boston, taking there cider, fowls, butter, walnuts, and other stuff to sell, and carry- ing home things purchased in the city, now a chisel, and now a catechism. The entries show that Jehosophat often bought rum. The price varied. One day he paid fourteen cents a quart and had " a fit on horseback going home." Another day he paid eighteen pence a quart, and " did see a lion in the town." But the average price was at the rate of five shillings a gallon, or one-eighth as much as was charged in Hart- ford in 1753.


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The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


It is simply necessary to remember the large amount of greatly depreciated paper currency in the Colony, at that time. From a memorial presented to the General Assembly, in 1751, by numerous merchants and traders, it appears that this paper currency was not worth one-eighth of its face value. Two years later, as the papers in my possession, relative to the meeting house, indicate, the currency was still more depreciated.


Mr. Jonathan Wells's account, endorsed, "settled and done," shows "the sum-total of his meeting-house rate " to have been £832:5:10. The individual rates vary from seventy-one pounds to fifteen shillings. Among the larger rates were those of Mr. Daniel Bull, Ensign John Cole, Jona- than Bigelow, Daniel Hinsdale, Jacob White, Ebenezer Ben- ton, Ebenezer Webster, Daniel Steele, Joseph Buckingham, Jonathan Seymour, Thomas Seymour, Zechariah Seymour, and Isaac Tucker. Mr. John Ledyard seems to have been connected with the Society. In 1756 the Society voted to raise by taxation the sum of two hundred pounds towards defraying expenses incurred in finishing the meeting-house, and a rate- bill amounting to one hundred and nineteen pounds was put into the hands of Ebenezer Benton, Jr., at that time the collector. He collected and paid over twenty-seven pounds, and then, owing to unexpected and great difficulties, was ordered "to cease further collections for the present". Four years later he was ordered to resume the collection, but was soon disabled by illness from doing anything. The Com- mittee took legal measures to collect from him the residue of the rate, and his father paid it, with the assurance that he should use the rate-bill to reimburse himself. The Society appointed a new collector and called in the rates, much to the injury of Mr. Benton, as he claimed, for he carried the matter to the General Assembly, where judgment was found in his favor, and the Society was obliged to pay him forty pounds and costs-in all sixty pounds. How or when the debt of the Society was finally paid does not appear.


124


History of the Church


In 1753 a general contribution was ordered and taken in all the churches of the Colony, to raise funds for the support of an orthodox professor of divinity in Yale College.


In 1757 the need of money by the government was so urgent that collections in its behalf were ordered in all the churches, and liberal contributions were earnestly solicited. A public lottery, to be managed by a committee appointed by the General Assembly, was ordered for the same purpose.


In 1756 the population of Hartford, including the East and West divisions, was only a little more than three thousand.


Several autograph letters of Mr. Whitman to the Soci- ety of which he was pastor have recently come into the writer's possession, from which it appears that he was seriously hampered by the insufficiency of his salary, and by the tardy payment of that which was due him. In 1758 he addressed the Society, showing how inadequate to his necessities his salary was, and what embarrassment he suffered from lack of promptitude in its payment, and urging a kindly consideration of the facts set before them.


Five years later he had occasion to write the following letter :


To the South Society in Hartford at their meeting, April 11, 1763.


GENTLEMEN : - It is with reluctance that I say anything to you respect- ing my support, but as I find by Experience that the Necessities of iny Family call for an addition to my salary in order to my being enabled to live in a decent manner, which I presume you are willing your minister should do, I find myself obliged to desire that you would take this matter into your Consideration. Encouraged by the vote which you passed at my first Settlement among you, I always depended upon it, that you would afford me an honorable and sufficient maintenance according to my Necessities; and I doubt not you are willing to do so. What you have hitherto granted me is considerably less than the other Ministers of the Town have had, and I suppose less than most of the Ministers of the Neighborhood have. I desire no more from you than what with Prudence and good Economy will be sufficient to


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The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


answer my Neccessities, and enable me to meet the great Design of my Ministry, without the Embarassment of worldly Cares, which I cannot doubt you will be willing to afford me.


I am, Gentlemen,


Your affectionate pastor,


Elnathan Whitnian.


HARTFORD, April 11, 1763.


Again, in 1765, he wrote to the society on the same subject, for, as his letter shows, the Society, at a late meet- ing, had somewhat decreased the amount of his salary for the coming year.


He says that his salary has been less than that of his brethren in the ministry. The West Division "give their Minister upwards of an hundred pounds and his wood, whereas mine was never more than ninety, out of which I find my own wood." Again he says, "My sallery is not usually granted till the end of the year for which it becomes due, and at the end of another year there is commonly a considerable part remains unpaid. There is now upwards of Thirty Pounds due to me of my Sallery for the year before last, which, with the arrearages of former Rates secured by a Note given by the Society's Committee, makes forty Pounds or upwards."


From the official answers given to the queries of the Board of Trade and Plantations between the years 1748 and 1756, it appears that the trade of the Colony was yet small. Beef, pork, flour, horses, and lumber were shipped to the West Indies, and rum, sugar, salt, molasses, and some bills of exchange were brought thence. Provisions were still sent to Boston and New York to be exchanged for Brit- ish goods,- woolen cloths, linen, silks, agricultural imple- ments, cutlery, nails, glass, pewter, brass, and fire-arms. There was a little direct trade with Great Britain. Only coarse woolen and linen cloth was manufactured here. The produce of the Colony was ship timber of all kinds, boards,


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History of the Church


wheat, rye, corn, flax, cattle, horses, and swine. The popu- lation in 1756 was estimated at 130,000. There were 1,000 Indians in the Colony, and one-half of these were living in English families. The ordinary expenses of the gov- ernment, in time of peace, were about 3,500 pounds. One- fifth of the revenue was spent for educational purposes. There were seventy-four vessels belonging in the Colony, employing four hundred and fifteen men. The report for 1773 is substantially the same as the above, except that some trade with Gibraltar and Barbary is mentioned, the number of vessels had more than doubled, one-third of the revenue was devoted to education, and the population had increased to 191,000. The increase of population, notwithstanding the loss by war, is attributed to wholesome air, industrious habits, frugality of living, and early marriages. The Con- necticut Courant was founded in 1764, and its columns, though meagre, afford sufficient evidence of the energy with which many Hartford people were pushing their ventures far and near, and of the freedom of thought and speech which prevailed. Indeed, the appearance of the newspaper in this town marks an epoch in its history, and in that of all the neigh- boring towns. It came, not only to furnish intelligence of what was going on at home and abroad, and to serve as a vehicle of communication for business purposes, but to supply a growing demand for some fuller and freer expression of public opinion on the vital questions of the times. Those dingy first papers confirm what the Royalist Churchman wrote to Archbishop Secker in 1760: "Con- necticut is little better than a mere democracy.


Every man in the Colony thinks himself an able divine and politician." Every where was the hum, and often the din of vigorous, intelligent discussion.


In 1764 the Second Society came into possession of certain property of much value, known as the Buckingham estate. Joseph Buckingham, Esq., who had never married, died in 1760, leaving most of his estate, by an unwritten or


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MAP OF BUCKINGHAM PROPERTY


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127


The Ministry of Rev. Elnathan Whitman


unfinished testament, to the South Society. Certain relatives successfully resisted the admission to probate of this nuncu- pative disposition of the property which they coveted, but in 1764 the General Assembly overruled the decision of the Probate Court and of the Superior Court, to which an appeal had been taken, and appointed the testator's mother, Ann Burnham, administratrix. She had married, for a second husband, the Rev. Mr. Burnham, who died leaving her in a second widowhood. Knowing her son's intention and pur- pose, and out of "regard and consideration " for the South Church and Society, she had already, July 7, 1762, deeded to the said Church and Society her "house and homestead," containing "about four and one-half acres bounded east and north on the highway, west on the land of Aaron Bull, and South on Daniel Sheldon's land."1 It would now be described as extending from Buckingham Street southward along Main Street. This excellent woman not only thus enriched the Church and Society of which her first husband had been for many years the pastor, but gave her silver tankard to the First Church, of which her father (Isaac Foster) had been for a brief time the minister.2




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