USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > The First Church of Christ in New London : Three hundredth anniversary, May 10, 17, 31 and October 11, 1942 ; 1642-1942 > Part 5
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The First Church of Christ in New London
in 1681 and was buried in St. Philips' Church in that city. Five letters of his to Increase Mather from the year 1677-78 are to be found in the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc. 1792.
The immediate occasion of his coming to New England was an invitation extended to him by Edward Winslow at the instance of Gov. Winthrop, Sr., of Mass. Colony. Leaving England early in 1640 with a small band of loyal followers, presumably English-speaking Welshmen, he settled in Marshfield, removed shortly thereafter with most of his flock to Cape Ann (renamed Gloucester, probably after Blinman's birthplace) and established there (1642) in integral con- nection with the town one of that score of historic churches of New England destined to survive for three centuries or more-that is- this Church of Christ.
During the first fifty years of the history of New England, more than one religious community migrated entire from one place to another in the hope of improving its condition. The famous Thomas Hooker and his church, for example, which had been organized in Cambridge,-later (1636) migrated almost entire to Hartford to be- come there the First Church of Christ. So with this church. In the late summer of 1651, we find Mr. Blinman with some twenty families setting out for Pequot, perhaps having been invited hither by Gov. John Winthrop, Jr. himself and attracted also by the report of more fertile soil. Among those who emigrated from Gloucester with Mr. Blinman were Christopher and James Avery, William Addes, William Kenie, Andrew Lister, William Meades, Ralph Parker, William Well- man, Obadiah Bruen, Hugh Caulkins, John Coit, Sr. and William Hough.
That the first pastor of this church was not only a zealous, godly and scholarly man, as the records indicate, but also had a practical bent and was interested in the general welfare of the community was driven home to me just a few weeks ago when I happened to be in Gloucester. I was glancing over a map of the city and its environs, when my eye suddenly fell upon the words: Blynman Bridge. Yes- there is in Gloucester a bridge named after the first pastor and founder of this church. It is no giant cantilever structure under which ships can sail, but a low drawbridge on the street level over the Annisquam River or Estuary. You may recall that Cape Ann, on which Gloucester
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( Courtesy P. F. Taylor, Gloucester, Mass.) .
BRIDGE OVER BLYNMAN CANAL IN GLOUCESTER.
BIYNMAN BRIDGE 1907 IN HONOR OF RICHARD BLYNMAN FIRST MINISTER AND LEADING CITIZEN OF GLOUCESTER WHO IN 1643 DUG THIS CANAL UNITING RIVER AND BAY G. H. S.
(Courtesy J. B. Benham, Gloucester, Mass.) .
TABLET ON GLOUCESTER CANAL BRIDGE.
The First Church of Christ in New London
is located, is connected with the mainland by a very narrow neck of land and that the cape itself then expands quite extensively, flanked on one side by Gloucester Bay and on the other by the Annisquam River. To go from the river to the bay, therefore, or vice-versa, a boat would have to round the cape. Mr. Blynman conceived the idea of cutting through this narrow isthmus of land separating river and bay, thus making a canal or "Cut" through which ships might pass directly up and down the jagged coast line without going around the cape. This made the cape virtually an island. That the project met with the approval of the town and served a useful purpose is indicated by the fact that in 1907, the Gloucester Historical Society saw fit to commemorate his engineering feat with a bronze plaque which reads as follows:
BLYNMAN BRIDGE 1907 In honor of RICHARD BLYNMAN First minister and leading citizen of Gloucester who in 1643 dug this cana! uniting river and bay G.H.S.
That was one year after the founding of the church and two or three years after his arrival in Massachusetts. Thus we receive a glimpse of Mr. Blinman as a sort of colonial Nehemiah, who did not build the walls of a city to be sure, but who did dig a canal which was instru- mental in building up the structure of commercial Massachusetts.
II
-into the land of Canaan they came-and there builded he an altar.
The first meeting house of the pilgrims from Gloucester, who together with a number of settlers already here constituted the first congregation, was the barn of Mr. Robert Parke on the South corner of what is now Hempstead and Granite Streets, adjacent to the Antientest Buriall Place. As might be imagined, the ecclesiastical appointments fortunately by choice as well as by necessity were not luxurious. The seats were doubtless rough wooden benches, but services were held here from 1651 to 1655. No church bell, but the town drummer called the armed worshippers to church until at least 1675. The name
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of Peter Blatchford has been preserved as the first drummer. (The church's first bell was purchased in 1691 for the Bradstreet, 3rd, meet- ing house upon Gurdon Saltonstall's assumption of the pastorate of the church. Altogether, at least six different bells have rung the wor- shippers of this church to its services.) The first real house of worship was the Blinman meeting house, graced with a lookout tower for the town watchman and with a gallery. It was located in what is now Bulkeley Square.
During the church service it was customary for the men to sit on one side of the building, the women on the other, the youth and the servants in the gallery. The deacons sat on a low platform in front of the pulpit facing the congregation, the ruling elders above them on a higher platform. As to the order of divine service in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the records of this church are silent. But if the general procedure given in John Cotton's Way of the Churches and followed widely in the New England churches be any clue, it went something like this:
1. The notices which any of the neighbors had put up, desiring a remembrance in the public prayers and praises, we read. 2. The pastor offered a solemn prayer of about fifteen minutes duration. 3. The reading and exposition of a chapter from the Bible followed. If the church had two ministers, as in the case of the South Meeting House, Boston, this was done by the assistant minister or teacher, and was one of the leading parts of the service, designed especially to instruct, a sort of foreshadowing of the later Bible School. 4. Then came the singing of a Psalm from one or more of the eight or nine metrical versions (some with, some without tunes) which were then available, including The Bay Psalm Book. Which one or ones (if any) were used in this church, the records do not state. In any case, there were seldom enough psalmbooks to supply the whole congregation, and in some communities not all the people could read. So the psalm was set or pitched and dictated by the precentor line by line to the congregation, who then sang it line by line more or less under his direction. (There doubtless were churches however in which this "lining-out" process was not used. Cotton Mather (1662-1728) states with evident satisfaction that "more than a score of tunes are heard regularly sung in our assemblies. They did not favor the
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The First Church of Christ in New London
Te Deum or any merely human composition." He also adds that "grave tunes were the most used in our nation." By the end of the eighteenth century general dissatisfaction had grown up with this pra- tice of "lining-out" or "deaconing" the psalms, and it is not difficult to understand why! By this time too a number of books for instruction in psalm-singing had been published. Between 1797 and 1825 the records of the church show that various moneys were set aside for the encouragement, support and improvement of psalm-singing in the First Ecclesiastical Society, and various leaders of the singing school are mentioned. The use of musical instruments in the Puritan churches was at first banned as being too papist and anti-Scriptural (cf. Amos 5:23)-if not indeed Satanic. However, this prejudice came to be gradually outgrown, and by 1820 our records indicate that musical
instruments were used to lead the singing in the church. Specifically, there are references in the church minutes to a "bass viol" (probably a 'cello and presumably owned by the church), expenditures for repairs and strings for which are listed. In 1824 money was voted for an organ-the first in the history of the church. A sort of military tra- dition adheres to First Church choir. An annotation of 1808 names Major John P. Trott as director of the choir, and one of 1818 shows Col. William Belcher as occupying the same post; to which we may add the name of our own Col. Allen B. Lambdin.
And here I should like to interpose a word about the office of the precentor in the New England church of the seventeenth and eight- eenth centuries. This was a very important and a difficult office to hold. The precentor was usually a deacon, chosen for the position because he had a good ear for music and a strong voice. But more was required for setting the pitch than these. There were no instruments, and there are no indications that any sort of mechanical pitch-setter was used. Hence the musical results were not always happy ones. The diary of Judge Samuel Sewall of Boston records certain mishaps which befell his well-meant efforts to set the tune in the South Meeting House, and be it recorded that Judge Sewall was fond of singing and was probably better. qualified than most deacons. Here are some anno- tations from his famous diary on this matter:
December 28, 1705. Mr. Willard spoke to me to set the Tune; I intended Windsor and fell into High Dutch, and then
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essaying to set another Tune went into a key much too high. So I pray'd Mr. White to set it; which he did well, Litch. Tune.
July 5, 1713. I try'd to set Low-Dutch Tune and fail'd. Try'd again and fell into the tune of the 119th Psalm.
Feb. 2, 1717/18. Lord's Day. In the Morning I set York Tune, and in the 2nd going over, the Gallery carried it irresistibly to St. David's which discouraged me very much. I spoke earnestly to Mr. White to set it in the Afternoon, but he declines it. p. m. The Tune went well.
Did anything like this ever happen in the early history of the First Church? I should not like to be compelled to maintain that it did not.
But to return to our order of service. After (1) the opening reading of requests for prayer, (2) the long pastoral prayer, (3) the Bible exposition, and (4) the singing of the Psalm, came (5) the sermon. A sermon lasting merely an hour would have been consid- ered unworthy of the preacher; and there were occasions when the hour glass on the pulpit was turned two or even three times. (6). The sermon was followed by a shorter prayer (offered by the teacher, if any), and (7) a closing psalm and (8) a benediction, unless there were children to be baptised, and/or the monthly celebration of the Lord's Supper, after which an additional psalm would be sung and the benediction pronounced. The normal service lasted from 9 a. m. until about noon.
The afternoon service began at two o'clock. There was (1) an opening prayer, (2) followed by the singing of a psalm, (3) the exposition of a chapter of the Bible by the preacher of the morning, and (4) the singing of another psalm; then (5) the sermon, delivered by the "teacher" (if such) of the morning. In the case of this church, however, the frequent annotation of Joshua Hempstead in his diary (which runs from Sept. 1711 to Nov. 1758) is significant: "Mr. Adams preached all day"-i.e., morning and afternoon. Preachers were men in those days! After the sermon, (6) a deacon announced the offering. And we have one of the old formulae in common use: "Brethren of the congregation, now there is time left for contribution. Wherefore, as God hath prospered you, freely offer." The members of the congregation then came forward by order of standing, magis-
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The First Church of Christ in New London
trates, chief gentlemen, elders, etc., and presented their gifts, not only of money, which was exceedingly scarce. (7). The admission of new members, and cases of discipline were attended to next; after which (8) came a closing psalm, (9) prayer, and (10) benediction.
In the year 1730, the Congregational churches in New London and in Groton were honored by being selected as two of the thirty-nine churches to receive a gift of Richard Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest (4 vols.) from the Hon. Samuel Holden, Esq., of London. For a time, this devotional classic was read aloud in the meeting house dur- ing the "nooning" period, while the church members were partaking of their lunches. As Mr. Blake reminds us, with such a work at hand, there could have been no good excuse for the men of the church, after the morning service, to profane the Sabbath by gathering in the horse- sheds to discuss the last town meeting, or the state of the crops; nor for the women to retail the latest bit of neighborhood gossip or scan- dal. These books are still in the Parish House, not at all badly worn!
In the first (1670) records of the church, Mr. Bradstreet lists as members in full communion (i.e., exclusive of those who may not have been in good standing at that time, or who may have been con- nected with the church by some lesser ties) the following: Lieut. James Avery and wife, Thomas Miner and wife, James Morgan, senior and wife, William Meades and wife, Mr. William Douglas and wife, John Smith and wife, Mr. Ralph Parker and wife, William Hough and wife, William Nichols, John Prentice, Goodwife Gallop, of Mystick, Goodwife Coyte, Robert Royce, Mrs. Rogers, Goodwife Keeny, Goodwife Lewis. Mr. James Rogers was not long after owned a member here, being a member in full communion in Milford Church.
By this time, we may have reached the (correct) conclusion that worship meant a great deal to these early Puritans of New London- consider only the bad roads, or none at all, the long distances to be traversed to meeting either on foot, horseback, or by horse or ox-drawn vehicle with constant exposure to attacks from savages or wild animals, the cold winters and the unheated churches. To walk four miles to and four miles from the church services was a matter of common occurrence in those early days, and many members lived still further away. Let me add an item in this connection which is rather timely in these days of "share-your-car." By the middle of the eighteenth cen-
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tury the "ride-and-tie" system had come to be largely practised. Miss Caulkins reports that "it was no uncommon thing for a farmer who had a good family horse, to take his wife behind him and ride about half the distance to meeting; then dismount and walk the remainder of the way, leaving the horse fastened to some bar-post, for the use of a neighbor and his wife, who were privileged to share the accom- modation, and were on the road behind."
III
The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.
It would be of interest to go into the history of the various struc- tures which have served this church, the reasons for their erection and their description so far as data are available, but space does not permit and we must content ourselves with a brief enumeration of its six meeting houses. With their high regard for worship, we may imagine that the new congregation would not long remain satisfied with the makeshift place of worship set up in Robert Parke's barn. Nor did they. The year 1655 sees the construction of the first real (Blinman) . meeting house in what is now called Bulkeley Square. Succeeding this in 1682 came the Bradstreet meeting house, built on the same site, and later destroyed by fire; this in turn was followed by the Saltonstall Church, built in 1698 also on the same site. The first church to be built on the present site (1787), the Channing Church, was featured by square box-pews, as in the old Congregational Church in Benning- ton, Vt. This made it necessary for a large part of the congregation to sit with their backs to the preacher. The sixth and present church was built in 1850. Taken together, this procession of edifices testifies to the continual growth and expanding needs of the church, to the desire to adorn the doctrine and to glorify the Lord.
IV
Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee.
However, we must linger for a brief tableau having to do with the erection of the first church on this site, the Channing Meeting House of 1786, in connection with which Masonic Street was laid out. In 1785, only four years after the impoverishing war of the Revolu- tion, the Saltonstall Church in Bulkeley Square being in a dilapidated
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The First Church of Christ in New London
condition, the need of a more worthy building more advantageously located was felt. This site, then known as Bolles' Hill, by 1830 as Zion's Hill, was chosen. The majority of the subscribers could not pay in cash, hence we find contributions of the following kind listed: Thomas Shaw headed the list with four hundred pounds in labour and lumber, and there were lesser gifts in this category; there were dona- tions made in goods, or West India goods, or dry goods, or English goods, quite a few consisting of so many pounds in rum, some in sugar, some in victualing and iron work, some in freight, some in materials for building. Robert Manwaring contributed twelve pounds in shoes at cash price, Gurdon Saltonstall subscribed twenty pounds in State Money including interest, and Michael Rice closed the list with ten thousand shingles. But even so, the contributions were not suffi- cient to complete the building, and in 1787, a petition was addressed to the General Assembly of Connecticut for permission to raise a lottery for the purpose, a procedure not at all uncommon in those days. I mention this fact expressly to state that although permission was secured to issue a lottery, the more Christian conscience of the church eventually prevailed, and the remaining funds were raised by further subscriptions. "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient." And so the Channing Meeting House, the fifth, was erected on this Zion's Hill. "Upon this rock I will build my church."
V
For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The absence of any church records until October 5, 1670, at the beginning of Mr. Bradstreet's pastorate constitutes one of the many problems in the history of First Church. Was it that the fathers of this church were indifferent, negligent or illiterate? Scarcely any of these. Probably the best explanation of it is that in those founding days of both church and town, these were regarded not as two but as one. We had here a religiously based community in which life was very homogeneous. Town equalled parish, and the chief business of the church was done in town meeting. The welfare of the church was
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(H. W.F.)
MEETING HOUSE OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST.
1787 -1849
The First Church of Christ in New London
the concern of the town, and the church acted to give religious sanction to the establishment and support of law and order. The town raised the money to build the first church buildings and to keep them in repair, and paid the pastor's salary. Much the same relationship obtained constitutionally between the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut and the (Puritan, i.e. Congregational) church. Mr. Blake states that until 1784 the Connecticut legislature was legally a sort of Congregational presbytery, and had the oversight of the churches materially as well as spiritually.
So far as New London is concerned, it was not until 1726 that the organization in the town of churches of other "orders" or "persu- asions," notably Anglican and Baptist in 1725 and 1726, made this identity of town and church illogical and unfeasible, and prompted the separate organization of the First Ecclesiastical Society of New London. While this meant the loss of religious and social homogeneity in the community, and that this church became henceforth one among others instead of being the church, yet we may be glad that she did take this step. For it was an affirmation of the Protestant, the American, the democratic way of life. Not to have done so would have been to perpetuate the identical principle and status to escape which the Puri- tans had fled from England, namely, the union of the civil and the ecclesiastical, of church and state and the mutual abuses to which such a situation is heir, abuses to which the history of the Continent and England give abundant testimony. And indeed the history of the Massachusetts Colony is not without instances of the very same sort of religious persecution by the state as that which caused the Puritans to emigrate to these shores. However, the action of this church in the early eighteenth century proclaimed its espousal of the principle that if Protestant, American, democratic independence under law is good and right for the Puritan, it is good and right also for the Anglican, the Baptist and others. And First Church throughout, in its relations with churches of other denominations has consistently exemplified this Protestant, American, democratic way.
Yet, even so, there is something to be said in extenuation of this early integration in New England of church and state, of parish and town. 1. In the first place, it witnesses to the intensity of the Puritans' abhorrence of religious tyranny and to their will to assure to them-
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selves the right to believe and to worship according to their deepest Christian convictions without let or hindrance. That the logic of their stand in themselves using civil power to prevent the introduction of Romish (or at first, of any different) beliefs and practises and on the other hand to guarantee their own might be called into question doubt- less never occurred to them. This illogicality may be charged to their Protestant religious fervor and to their abhorrence of the sort of situa- tion obtaining in England under Charles I and Archbishop Laud, the remembrance of which was still all too vivid and fresh in the minds of the early Puritans. 2. In the second place, this integration of parish and town, of church and state took place here under a representative form of government established in the spirit of freedom and not under an absolute monarchy. 3. Thirdly, as in the case of the old Hebrew theocracy, and indeed throughout the entire history of the biblical Hebrews where a remarkable religious and civil homogeneity was evident, it witnessed to a religious conception of society, the state and civic life, of which our present godless, secularized life stands in supreme need-the God-orientation of all of life. The early Puritans as a whole had it, not only the New England parson, a very con- spicuous person in civil life. 4. Lastly, this integration of church and civic life enlisted in a much more direct and closer way than at present the moral and spiritual backing of the church and religion in support of civic morality. If First Church has stood forth as promoter of the Protestant, American, democratic way of life, it has no less been throughout the champion of law, order and decency in the community. And while the conduct of certain members of the church in the course of the exasperating Rogerene disturbances may not have been entirely above reproach, it is yet true that on the whole its actions were deter- mined by the concern that reverence, law, order and decency should prevail.
Illustrative of this desirable integration of church and civic life is the fact justifiably dwelt upon in this celebration that this church furnished three governors of the state: John Winthrop, Jr., Fitz John Winthrop and Gurdon Saltonstall. Its pastors on several occasions were called upon to preach the gubernatorial election sermon, a great honor. To which may be added John Winthrop, Jr.'s notable utterance on the eve of his departure for New England, "I shall call that my
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The First Church of Christ in New London
country, where I may most glorify God, and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends."
VI
Such as have brought tidings in prophecies:
Leaders of the people by their counsels, And by their understanding men of learning for the people.
A more extensive tableau than time permits could be given over to presenting the succession of the fourteen able leaders of this church, who taken together constitute a ministry of distinction. For details, I can only refer you to Mr. Blake's history of the church and to Miss Caulkin's History of New London. I shall mention some of them in other connections shortly, and hope soon to prepare a digest of their separate pastorates covering the three hundred year period.
A like tableau could be presented of the ministers who have gone out from this church, three of them sons of ministers of the church, and of its worthy diaconate, for both of which I must again refer you to Mr. Blake's history (Vol. I). To one deacon, however, I must devote a few words. I have reference to Gen. Jedediah Hunt- ington, two of whose sons and one grandson entered the ministry. Deacon Huntington served throughout the Revolutionary War, part of the time as an aide on the staff of George Washington, whose personal friend and adviser he came to be, as well as an intimate friend of his family. He also served with Washington at Valley Forge. "In 1789 Pres. Washington appointed him first collector of the port of New London, which position he held through four different administra- tions." He was the first president of the Union Bank and Trust Co. of New London, Connecticut's oldest bank, founded in 1792. It is said that "his munificence, for its profusion, its uniformity, its long continuance, and for the discretion by which it was directed, was without an example or a parallel in his native state." Altogether, he stands as the most illustrious deacon in the church's history.
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