The Norwich jubilee. A report of the celebration at Norwich, Connecticut, on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town, September 7th and 8th, 1859. With an appendix, containing historical documents of local interest, Part 5

Author: Stedman, John W comp
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Norwich, Conn.
Number of Pages: 346


USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > The Norwich jubilee. A report of the celebration at Norwich, Connecticut, on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town, September 7th and 8th, 1859. With an appendix, containing historical documents of local interest > Part 5


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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


We have always been taught, most worshipful governor, to honor the Rev. Mr. Fitch. Let us ask how you esteemed him ?


If I answer this inquiry, you must let me use strong language. Through an eventful period of twenty-five years he was my friend. I saw him first in Hartford, a mere boy just arrived from England, beginning his studies for the ministry with the Rev. Mr. Hooker. A few years later, he became, as you know, our first pastor at Say- brook, and we were his first church. When we talked of coming here, he said he would go or stay as the major part of the church should decide. We brought him with us. For years our free will gifts were more than enough for his support, and well did he deserve them. He was deeply concerned that all our enterprises should be begun in the fear of the Lord, and he used to warn us in most solemn words that, a colony by ourselves, we should not neglect in the least, that public and private worship to which we had been accustomed. They called him once to Hartford, but his only answer was, With whom shall I leave these few sheep in the wilderness ? In learning, wisdomy patience and purity of life, he was a model to us all,-" a burning and a shining light."


You may know that he married my daughter, but though I


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called him son, he seemed to be my father. To him I owe it that amid all my varied duties I could never forget, however I fulfilled, my responsibilities to the Court on High. Of his power as a preacher you may judge for yourself in the sermons which were printed. That which he preached at the funeral of my own be- loved wife, was the most tender and appropriate of them all .*


But if we were to engage in friendly talk with major Mason upon all the topics of interest which are associated with his name, the lengthening shadows would soon tell us that the day is gone. There are various subjects connected with the original settlement, on which we could not expect him to inform us, for he was sixty years of age when the town was organized, and during the twelve years more which were added to his life, he was often called. away on business imposed by the general court. So let us close the conversation and return to simple narrative.


Although Norwich, at the outset, was within the jurisdiction of Connecticut, yet its early settlement and history do not indicate the exercise of much control on the part of the general court. The town sovereignty was undisputed. To be sure, May 20, 1659, we find the record that the general court " haueing considered the petition prsented by the inhabitants of Seabrook, doe declare y& they approue and consent to what is desired by ye petitioners, respecting Mohegin, prvided yt within ye space of three yeares they doe effect a Plantation in ye place prpounded."+


But there is no recognition of Norwich as a town, until October 3, 1661, when the court orders "ye secretary to write a letter to Norridge, to send vp a comittee in May next, invested wth full [power] to issue ye affair respecting setling that plantation vndr this gouerment."#


In 1662-3 (March 11,) it is furthermore voted that "the convey- ance of nine miles square made by Onkos wth other Indians, to Norwich plantation, is ordered to be recorded, with this proviso, that it shal not preiudice any former grant to or worl gouernor or others," and in May, 1663, "the court orders that those freemen that were presented to the court in October, from Norwidge, shall be accepted and sworn by or worp11 Deputy Gour."§


* See note I. + Trumbull, Col. Rec. i, 336.


# Trumbull, Col. Rec. i, 374.


§ Ibid, i, 406.


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In this independent republic of Norwich, everything appears to have been managed by the whole body politic. We can hardly consider Mr. Fitch as an ecclesiastical head, for he was so thor- oughly imbued with the principles of congregationalism, that at his ordination in Saybrook, the lay brethren laid hands upon him, although two ministers, Rev. Mr. Hooker and Rev. Mr. Stone, were present. Much less can we consider major Mason as the civil head of the town, for during the early period of the Norwich settlement, the nominal governor, John Winthrop, was absent in England, soliciting a charter for Connecticut, and of course the actual governor was major Mason, who thus, and otherwise, was so much engrossed with the affairs of the general court, that he could not even attend to the local duties of a townsman.


Happy are we, my friends, to-day, at the opening of a third cen- tury, that the successor of Mason as the chief magistrate of Con- necticut, is another citizen of Norwich; happier still are we to know that none could fill that chair more worthily. Since the conqueror of the Pequots was the governor of the state, one other Norwich man has held that honorable post, and he was a signer of the declaration of independence.


But although Fitch and Mason were not the rulers, they were certainly the leaders of the infant settlement. To them we are chiefly indebted for the plans which shaped the early institutions of the town, and still affect, far more than we usually remember, our social organization. Plymouth may point to elder Brewster and Miles Standish ; Hartford to Hooker and Haynes; New Ha- ven to Davenport and Eaton ; it is our privilege to remember that the pastor and the statesman of Norwich were kindred in spirit, and not inferior in power to any of the early worthies of New England. The rude stones which marked the graves of the original settlers buried in this town, have been permitted to per- ish. Is it not that the loss may incite the present generation to erect a more fitting memorial of our forefathers, and especially of those two men, the representatives of church and state, the chosen guides of a brotherhood of freemen ?*


You are all aware that the infant colony made choice of what we know as the "meeting house 'rocks," as the central point of their settlement. At the foot of this cliff they set apart, for the


* See Note K.


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house of God, land which forms a part of the present "up town green." To this, more land was afterward added, while the other significant buildings of a New England town, the court house, the school house, and the house of entertainment, in due time were grouped around it. From this point of departure they projected one road near the banks of the Yantic, up toward what we call " Bean Hill," (sometimes called, on the early record, the "road to Connecticut,") and another toward the cove, which, on account of swamps, was necessarily directed at a greater distance from the river, and passed along in front of the Coit and Lathrop houses. Near the site appropriated to the meeting house, the home lot of Rev. James Fitch was placed, and across the road was the land of major Mason, on which the old court house now stands. To the east of Mr. Fitch's land, were the home lots of Simon Huntington, and Thomas Tracy, and (on the corner) of Christopher Huntington. Then, on the road leading south, were the home lots of Adgate, Olmstead, Backus, Bliss, Reynolds, and opposite the Bliss lot was that of Thomas Leffingwell.


Returning to major Mason's lot on the town plot, we find, in succession, between the road leading to Bean Hill and the water, the lands of Waterman, Bingham, John Post, Birchard, Wade, Bowers, Gager, Thomas Post, Edgerton, Backus, Caulkins, Gris- wold, Allyn, Royce, Baldwin, Tracy, and Pease. Several of these homesteads have never been deeded, and remain in the pos- session of the original families, although in some such cases the name of the first proprietor has disappeared. On one home lot, at least, and possibly more, the original name is found to this day. I refer to the homestead of Bliss. Bliss in 1659; Bliss in 1859; no bad motto for a Norwich home.


A new division of land was made in April, 1661; another in 1663 ; still another in 1668; and the final division was made in 1740. The present road running near the river, in front of the resi- dence of Hon. John T. Wait, was at first only a foot way, six feet broad, laid out by town order.


New families soon came to identify their fortunes with those of the prosperous colony, and many names, still held in honor among you, were added to the roll of proprietors. It is interesting to find that the son of Miles Standish, the son of governor Bradford, the grandchildren of elder Brewster, the niece of governor Wins-


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low, and still others of pilgrim fame at Plymouth, were early en- rolled as inhabitants of Norwich. A little later came the son of the Rev. John Lothropp, pastor of the first congregational church in London, and long a prisoner for his faith .* So, too, came the descendants of another martyr, not less famous, Rev. John Rogers, the precise number of whose children having long been disputed by the students of the New England primer, has at last been de- termined in chancery by our distinguished "cousin," late chancel- lor of New York. Bushnell, Rockwell, Knight, Perkins, Elder- kin, Roath, Rudd, Flint, and Coit, are among the other names which may be mentioned as early found in town.


It is not difficult to imagine the simple occurrences of the first half century, aided by the facts which come to us on the records of the town. Early encouragement was given to the miller, the fuller, the smith, and the ferryman, to pursue their respective oc- cupations, and in 1680, for the first time, a merchant is spoken of. The church had frequent meetings, and at periods not far apart the accepted freemen assembled to deliberate on such important business as the laying out of roads, surveying boundaries, investi- gating the character of new men who desired to be received as citizens, negotiating with the Indians, electing delegates to the general court, or appointing fit incumbents to the local office of townsmen. Occasionally, major Mason would come home from a distant journey with interesting stories of the people he had met, or the whole community would be excited by the printing of a sermon by Mr. Fitch.


The worthy minister, in addition to his labors as pastor of the church, acted continually as a missionary to the Indians. He mastered their language and preached in it,-at times encouraged in his apostolic labors "for the heathen," as he called them; and at other times almost if not quite discouraged. An interesting ac- count of his work, written by himself in 1674, and addressed to Rev. Daniel Gookin, may befound in print.t Can any one doubt that the interest in foreign missions for which this town has been noted, was awakened by Mr. Fitch, and has been fostered ever


* For a sketch of the life of this excellent man, see Dr. Sprague's Annals, vol.


1. Rev. Dr. J. Waddington, who lately visited Norwich, is the present pastor of that venerable church.


t See the Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st Ser: i. 208.


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since by the sight of that needy band still taught in the mission chapel at Mohegan ?


I have already said that the first manuscript records of the church have perished. One curious printed document has lately been discovered, bearing date in 1675, which is interesting in its bearing on the history of these times. The only complete copy with which I am acquainted, belongs to Mr. George Brinley, of Hart- ford, who has kindly permitted me to bring it before you. It is an old fashioned duodecimo of 133 pages, printed in 1683, bearing on its title page the autographs of Increase Mather and of Mather Byles. It contains three distinct treatises ; the first, "an expla- nation of the solemn advice, recommended by the council in Connecticut colony to the inhabitants in that jurisdiction ;" and the third, "a brief discourse proving that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath." Both of these are attributed to Mr. Fitch. Appended to the former is "THE COVENANT, which was solemnly renewed by the church in Norwich, in Connecticut colony, in New England, March 22, 1675." The volume is intro- duced by a letter from Increase Mather "to the reader," in which he says that "the reverend and worthy author had no thought of publishing these brief and nervous discourses until such time as others did importune him thereunto," and proceeds to comment on their scope and character.


The circumstances which attended this "renewal" are worthy of mention. The war with king Philip was then raging. Norwich, though much exposed by its situation on the frontier, had freely contributed more than its quota to the active army ; so freely, in- deed, that the general court sent on from Hartford ten men, from New Haven eight, and from Fairfield eight, "to lye in garrison at Norwich," as a guard to the inhabitants. So great was the danger in those days, that the watch in each plantation was ordered, " at least an hour before day, to call up the inhabitants, who should forthwith rise and arm themselves, march to the fort, and stand guard against any assault of the enemy until the sun be half an hour high in the morning." Under these circumstances, on the 13th of March, Mr. Fitch thus writes to the council in Hartford .*


After acknowledging the receipt of a letter from the council,


* Trumbull, Col. Rec. ii, 417.


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with their order for a fast day, he continues, " blessed be the Lord who hath moved your hearts in so necessarie and seasonable worke. We intend, God willing, to take that very daye, solemnly to renew our covenant in our church state, according to the example in Ezra's time, and as was sometimes practised in Hartford congre- gation by Mr. Stone, not long after Mr. Hooker's death. If other churches doe not see cause to doe the same, yet wee hope it will not bee offensive; but doe verily conclude if yr be rule for yt prac- tise, this is a time wherein the Providence of God does in a knock- ing and terrible manner call for it."


The covenant evinces the same spirit, and to some extent it employs the same phrases as this letter. After a general recog- nition of the displeasure of God, as displayed " by blasting the fruits of the earth and cutting off the lives of many by the sword, laying waste some plantations and threatening ruin to the whole," the covenant is renewed in seven particulars, which may be condensed as follows :


1. All the males who are eight or nine years of age shall be presented before the Lord in his congregation every Lord's day to be catechised, until they be about thirteen in age.


2. Those who are about thirteen years of age, both male and female, shall frequent the meetings appointed in private for their instruction, while they continue under family government or until they are received to full communion in the church.


3. Adults who do not endeavor to take hold of the covenant shall be excommunicated.


4. Brethren shall be appointed to admonish those parents who are negligent of their children.


5. The Lord's supper shall be celebrated once in every six weeks.


6. Erring brethren are to be rebuked.


7. Finally, "seeing we feel by woful experience how prone we are soon to forget the works of the Lord, and our own vows; we do agree and determine, that this writing or contents of it, shall be once in every year read in a day of fasting and prayer before the Lord, and his congregation; and shall leave it with our children, that they do the same in their solemn days of mourning before the Lord, that they may never forget how their fathers, ready to perish in a strange land, and with sore grief and trembling


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of heart, and yet hope in the tender mercy, and good will of him, who dwelt in the burning bush, did thus solemnly renew their covenant with God: and that our children after us, may not provoke the Lord and be cast off as a degenerate off-spring, but may tremble at the commandment of God, and learn to place their hope in him, who although he hath given us a cup of astonish- ment to drink, yet will display his banner over them, who fear him."


Such was the spirit of Norwich, in 1675.


Who among this audience has not had his enthusiasm quickened by the glowing tributes of Macaulay to the puritans, or the eloquent eulogies by Bancroft ? But this little volume, a library in itself, shows that your own ancestors were men of the character whom these historians describe. "In his devotional retirement the puritan prayed with convulsions, and groans and tears. He was half maddened by glorious or terrible allusions. He heard the lyres of angels or the tempting whispers of fiends. * * * But when he took his seat in the council or girt on his sword for war, these tempestuous workings of the soul had left no perceptible trace behind them."


There is abundant reason for believing that Mr. Fitch and his associates were men of action equal to their faith. In the colo- nial records, their names appear continually in connection with measures for protecting this portion of the country. The Norwich soldiers were numerous and brave, and the record of their various achievements, during the exciting times of king Philip's war, will always be an interesting chapter in the history of the town.


At the close of the century, after a ministry in Saybrook of fourteen years, in Norwich of almost forty years, unbroken by dissension or separation, supported by the grateful sympathy of devout and faithful men, Mr. Fitch gave up his pastoral duties, under the infirmity of age and weakness, retired to his children at Lebanon, and in 1702, at the ripe age of four score years, was gathered to his fathers. The Latin epitaph on his tombstone at Lebanon well indicates his character, and Cotton Mather, in all his affluent use of epithets, could apply to him none truer and more fit than "The Holy and Acute !"


We may here consider that the first period of Norwich history terminates. Forty years had passed, a new generation had


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entered upon the stage, the fathers were gone. We pass accord- ingly from the settlement to the development of the town.


Mr. Fitch had been unable to preach regularly for some years before his death, and much difficulty had been experienced in ob- taining a successor in the ministry. There were candidates enough -perhaps as many in proportion as in these later days-but the church had been too well served to be readily contented with an untried pastor, and besides, unless I mistake the allusions of the early records, the spirit of pure congregationalism, fostered by Mr. Fitch, and displayed unmistakably in later days, was even then so apparent that a minister, inclined to favor the presbyterian order, might hesitate before accepting the pastoral office in that church. A son of Rev. James Fitch, afterwards distinguished as Rev. Jabez Fitch,* of Portsmouth, was first sent for and brought home from " the college," but he did not decide to remain. Mr. Henry Flynt,t another recent graduate of Harvard college, was also invited to become the minister; and so was Mr. Joseph Coit,¿ a little younger in college than the two just named; but they both declined. Mr. Emery and Mr. Morgan were likewise spoken of as candidates. At length, (December 6th, 1699,) Rev. John Woodward,§ of Dedham, Mass., was ordained as pastor, and remained in that office for seventeen years. It was during his ministry (in 1708,) that the famous Saybrook platform was adopted, and he was a scribe in the synod by which it was drawn up. On returning to Norwich, he naturally desired to have his own church adopt with heartiness this platform, and acknowledge a system of consociation among churches which would render them less inde- pendent and more presbyterian than they had previously been.


Mr. Fitch, so early as 1668, had been at the head of a council ap- pointed by the general court, for the regulation of ecclesiastical af- fairs, which appears to have been pacific in its influence, and to have confirmed the pure congregationalism of the day. | But the synod of 1708 was very different in its influence, and the Saybrook plat- form led to unfortunate discussions, both here and elsewhere, be- tween ministers and people. In Norwich, notwithstanding the


* Harvard Coll. 1694. t Harvard Coll. 1693. # Harvard Coll. 1697. § Har- vard Coll. 1693. These were the days when Connecticut contributed men and money to the institution at Cambridge. Yale college was founded in 1700.


I Trumbull, Col. Rec. ii, 84, 109.


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authority of the general court, and the influence of the scribe of the synod, the church remained true to the Cambridge platform, and decided to acknowledge no ecclesiastical authority but God and their own decisions. I will not attempt to go over the details of this unfortunate controversy. It resulted (in 1716) in the with- drawal of Mr. Woodward from his connection with the church, and his removal to East Haven, where he lived in retirement till his death in 1746.


The troubles in the church were healed by calling to the pas- toral charge a singularly judicious man, the Rev. Benjamin Lord,* a native of Saybrook, who had been a student and tutor in Yale college. He was ordained in this place in 1717. A man of learn- ing and wisdom, as well as devoutness of heart, he succeeded in securing the confidence of all parties to such a degree, that we have his own assurance of his inability to tell which was most friendly to him. "In his pastoral intercourse," says Dr. Samuel Nott,t "he was an example of dignity, affability, affection, and fidelity."


During the ministry of Dr. Lord, two religious excitements per- vaded the community. The first to which allusion is made was caused by the Rogerenes, who originated in New London, and deemed it their special mission to abolish priestcraft and Sun- day.# Their feeble influence in Norwich is worthy only of this passing mention. Not so with "the separates," who, at a later day, made serious trouble, not in Norwich alone, but throughout east- ern Connecticut, in the churches of the established order. The general history of this movement has been so often described that I shall only refer to those incidents which are of interest in connec- tion with this town.§


When "the great awakening" of the last century began, Dr. Lord visited Northampton, in 1735, that he might listen to the eloquence of Jonathan Edwards, and be an eye witness of the re- sults which followed his powerful sermons. Upon his return to Norwich, he reported what he had seen and heard, to his people, " on whom," says Dr. Trumbull, "it had a great effect." An ex-


* Yale Coll. 1714. t Letter to Dr. Sprague. Annals, i, 300. # See Dr. McEwen's Half Century Discourse, New London, 1857, and Miss Caulking's New London.


§ See Note L.


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hortation for the communion service, preserved by one of his de- scendants, is indorsed, in his own handwriting, with a record which clearly shows the depth of his own feelings in December, 1735. Five years later, Whitefield began his preaching in New England, and the revival of 1740 followed. Dr. Lord is mentioned by Trumbull* among "the reverend gentlemen who most favored the work in Connecticut," at this time, " while others opposed it with all their power;" but he is not included among the four clergymen "who were most zealous and laborious in the cause, who took the most pains and spent the most property in the ser- vice of their master." He was probably one of the moderate men, really desirous of the advancement of religion, who neither ap- proved of the extravagance sometimes displayed by Whitefield and often manifested by his indiscreet follower, James Davenport; while, on the other hand, he heartily rejoiced in the awakening of careless men, to a concern for their highest welfare. In his own church he appears to have taken a medium position between those who displayed fanaticism and those who were repelled to the other extreme of coldness and displeasure. Many of the proceedings of the zealous were injudicious, and some of them appear to us irrev- erent, if not blasphemous.


The church endeavored to check these irregularities; but those who were censured were only driven to a farther distance. They refused to pay their rates for the regular minister or to attend the services which he conducted. They openly opposed the existing laws of the state, and determined to hold " separate" meetings. We therefore find that not only an ecclesiastical but a civil arm was raised against them.


As early as 1742, there are indications of this determination to interfere with the established church order. The church records of this year have a reference to "the dreadful expressions" made by an excited zealot at a night meeting ; and some imprisonments were made by the civil authorities.


But it was not until 1745 that the controversy between the new lights and the old lights assumed a serious character. A sepa- rate meeting was then begun at the house of Hugh Calkins, and attended by several members of the church, male and female. Among the number were Elizabeth Backus, (widow of Samuel,)




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