USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The churches of Mattatuck : a record of bi-centennial celebration at Waterbury, Connecticut, Novermber 4th and 5th, 1891 > Part 8
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these are therefore in his maiesty's name to warn each and every parson within ye bounds of Waterbury, known by ye name of North Bary, ye third sosiaty in s'd Waterbary, to
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atend a sosiaty meating, and forme themselves, and chuse a moderater and sosiaty clark and other nesasary bisness as they shall have need of, to apear upon ye 20 day of this instant Nouember, at eight of ye clock in ye morning at ye house they meat in.
dated in Waterbary, this 10 day of Nouem. ano domini, 1739. Signed per THOMAS CLARK, Justis Peace.
John Sutlif, Ebenezer Richason, Barnabas Ford. Inhab- itance of the 3d Sosiaty.
In response to this warning, the inhabitants met on the day designated, organized the society and transacted its first business, as appears by the fol- lowing record of the meeting:
the meating being warned as ye law derects, Mr. John Sutlif was chosen moderator, and Barnabas Ford was chosen clark for the sosiaty of North bury.
at ye sam meating, Moses Blasle, [Blakeslee], John Sutlif, and ebenezer richason was chosen commitee for ye year insuing. It appears further from the record that "att ye same meating we maid choise of Mr. Samuel todd to be our minister by a major vote." In March fol- lowing a committee was appointed "to carry the society's call to Mr. Todd, in order to receive his answer"; which answer he returned as follows:
NORTHBURY, March 3, 1739-40.
To Mr. Jeremiah Peck, Moses Blakeslee, Daniel Curtiss, committee:
Having received your call and proposals in behalf of the society to settle with you in the work of the ministry, and having weighed and considered them, I declare myself willing upon them to settle with them in the work of the ministry, provided they proceed to a regular ordination upon or before the eighth day of May next; and I pray God you may be a blessing to me and I to you. SAMUEL TODD.
The condition herein expressed the society accep- ted, voting "to proceed in the ordination of Mr.
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Samuel Todd upon the seventh day of May next ensuing the date hereof"; and Jeremiah Peck, Daniel Curtiss, John Warner, Moses Blakeslee and Thomas Blakeslee, were chosen a committee to " prosecute the design in order to an ordination."
In the meantime, a building for public uses had been erected by the inhabitants of Northbury on land given them for the purpose by the Rev. John Southmayd, their aged pastor. He was dismissed from his pastoral charge, in Waterbury, the year their society was organized, but of course retained his interest in these sheep of his, on the edge of the wilderness. Mr. Southmayd had bought the land from John How, and now conveyed it
To the inhabitants living within two miles and a half of Ford's dwelling house, and so many as shall be annexed to them, when they shall be set off for a society,-to them and their heirs and successors forever, one acre of land near said Ford's dwelling house in Waterbury, on which the said inhab- itants have already set up a house under the denomination of a school house .*
In the building designated as the "school house," which stood on a mound, since levelled, near the north-west corner of the Thomaston park, the Northbury church was organized, and Mr. Samuel Todd was ordained first pastor, May 7th,
* A part of the original deed is still in existence. It contains the signatures of Mr. Southmayd and the witnesses, is labelled on the back, "The north inhab- itants, deed of John Southmayd. received to record December 13th, 1738, entered in Waterbury records, 5th book, p. 15, per John Southmayd, recorder," and is endorsed as follows: "Waterbury, in Connecticut, October 6, 1738, then per- sonally appeared John Southmayd, the signer and sealer of the above written instrument, and ackowledged the same to be his free act and deed before me. THOMAS CLARK, justice of peace." This deed constitutes the title to the open ground, or "Park," in the centre of the village of Thomaston. The house spoken of as Barnabas Ford's stood near where the academy in Thomaston now stands. - E. B. If.
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1740. The record of the ordination, as entered in the minutes of the New Haven East Association,* is as follows:
At a council of elders and messengers, regularly convened at Northbury, the third society of Waterbury, May 7th, 1740, for the ordination of Mr. Samuel Todd to the work of the gospel ministry there:
Elders present: The Rev. Messrs. Samuel Whittlesey, Isaac Stiles, Samuel Hall, Mark Leavenworth.
Messengers from the churches: Mr. Jacob Johnson, Wal- lingford, Mr. John Gaylord, Cheshire, Deacon Todd, North Haven, Timothy Hopkins, Esq., Waterbury, Deacon John Warner, Westbury.
At which council Mr. Whittlesey was chosen moderator; Mr. Leavenworth scribe.
Then Mr. Todd was examined and approved.
Then voted, that Mr. Hall should preach, Mr. Whittlesey introduce the affair by taking a vote of the church, etc., and also should make the prayer before the charge, and give the charge; that Mr. Stiles should make the prayer after the charge, and Mr. Leavenworth give the right hand of fellow- ship.
According to which Mr. Todd was ordained, with imposition of the hands of the presbytery.
Test, MARK LEAVENWORTH, Scribe.
The society and the church were now fully organized, and provided with a " settled minister;" but as yet they had no meeting house. In connec- tion with the establishment of a meeting house troubles arose which distracted the society for years, and came near ruining it. As has been said, the earliest settlers located on the west side of the Naugatuck river, in what is now the village of Thomaston. There the first public ground was laid out and the first public building erected, with
* Now in the library of Yale University.
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the expectation, no doubt, that when the society came to be organized, it would adopt these as its meeting house green and meeting house. But the course of events disappointed this expectation. The settlers that came in afterward took up their farms on the east side of the river, and soon out- numbered the west-side settlers. Some of them living as far east as Town Hill, they naturally did not fancy going, all their lives, over to the west side to meeting, and it was this feeling that began the division between east side and west side which ultimated, a century and a quarter later, in the par- tition of the town.
The public building on the west side of the river, though used at first for public worship, was not the meeting house of the society, having been built before the society was organized, and being owned by a company of private persons. Aside from the objection to its location on the part of those on the east side, the tenure of it was an inse- cure one, being subject to the will of a majority of the owners, independent of the control of the society. The question of building a meeting house was, therefore, early agitated. The first action of the society was taken at a meeting held October 6th, 1740, when it was voted to apply to the General Assembly " for a committee to stake a place to set a meeting house." The vote seems to have opera- ted like a charge of dynamite. With the date of October 6th, the record of the society in the hand- writing of Barnabas Ford abruptly closes. The society had gone to pieces, shattered (like so many other ecclesiastical societies) on Meeting-house Rock. But although thus for the time dissolved, it
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was not to remain in a state of dissolution. The Gen- eral Assembly had power to reconstruct it, and to the General Assembly appeal was made, at the May session, 1741, by Moses Blakeslee, Thomas Blakeslee .and John Bronson. A remonstrance against being involved in additional expense through the building of a meeting house had in the meantime been drawn up, but had apparently not been presented to the Assembly. The appeal just referred to was duly presented, May 30th, set- ting forth that the circumstances of the parish were "truly distressing," and that it was "alto- gether unable to extricate itself out of the dif- ficulties under which it was laboring," and pray- ing " that your honours would take the same into your wise consideration and in your great wisdom and goodness find out some redress for our great grievances although we are unable so much as to hint to your honours in what way and manner." The response was as follows:
This Assembly being informed of the broken and confused circumstances that the parish of Northbury in Waterbury are at present under, in all their public affairs, not having any reg- ular society meeting or officer, and that the said society may not be further involved in difficulties and ruined, it is resolved by this Assembly that Colonel Benjamin Hall (of Wallingford) and Captain John Riggs (of Derby) be a committee to repair to said society with full power to warn said society to meet together, and to lead and conduct said society in the choice of proper officers for the same, and to advise and direct them where they shall meet on the Sabbath for public worship in said society and for what term of time; and the said society and all the inhabitants thereof are hereby warned to conform themselves to the advice and direction of said committee in every respect on pain of incurring the great displeasure of this Assembly. And the said committee are directed to view the
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circumstances of the said society, and hear the parties con- cerned in the premises and give them their opinion what is best to be done with respect to getting a place affixed for them to build a meeting house upon, and at what time, and to make report of their opinion on the whole of the premises to this Assembly in October next.
The visit of the committee was made on the 10th of June, and at the next session (October, 1741) they reported as follows:
We led them to the choice of a clerk, whom we swore, and the officers needful for the same, and we did also advise and direct them to meet on the Sabbath for ten months in the year at the house called the school house, and the other two months at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark (namely January and February), and we also viewed their circumstances and advised them unanimously to make their application to the present Assembly for a committee to affix a place for them to build a meeting house upon, and that they pray the said Assembly to direct the said parishioners not to build a meeting house at the said place when so affixt at the public charge of the said parish for such term of time as the Assembly should think fit.
The account of what had taken place, as given by the new clerk of the society, is as follows:
Northbury, in Waterbury, at a society meeting on June 10th, 1741; warned by a citation from the worshipful John Riggs and Benjamin Hall, a committee appointed and sent by the General Assembly last year to advise, direct and lead us in our society affairs. At the same meeting Joseph Clark was chosen clerk of the society of Northbury and sworn. Deacon Moses Blakeslee, Lieutenant John Bronson and Sergeant John Warner were chosen our prudential committee; Ensign Daniel Curtiss was chosen collector for the minister rate for the present year.
The society being now in the hands of the east- side inhabitants, they proceeded to apply for a new committee to locate the meeting house. Those on the west side of the river drew up an earnest pro-
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test against being burdened with "further charges at present," but their remonstrance was of no avail. A committee was appointed, consisting of Captain John Riggs and Captain John Fowler, to visit the parish and fix the place of the meeting house; the visit was made on the 24th of November, 1741, and the place of the meeting house was fixed as follows:
On the westward side of a certain swamp called the One Pine swamp, about thirty rods southward of the highway that runs from the river eastward by Isaac Castle's up the hill to William Luttenton's and Joseph Clark's dwelling houses, and near or about twenty rods west from said swamp, where we caused a stake to be set up and cast stones about it, which said stake is to be included within the sills of the meeting house.
The action thus taken seems to have decided the owners of the public building on the west side not to allow its use any longer to the society as a place for public worship. At the annual meeting in December, 1742, the society agreed by a full vote that they would "meet for the public worship of God at places as followeth ":
From this time until the first day of March next ensuing at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark; and from that time until the first day of May next ensuing at the dwelling house of the Rev. Mr. Todd; and from that time unto the first day of July next ensuing at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark, senior; and from that time unto the first day of September next ensuing at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark, junior; and from that time until our annual meeting in December next ensuing at the dwelling house of the Rev. Mr. Todd.
At a meeting held a month later, they adjourned to meet "at the dwelling house of Joseph Clark"; from which it may be inferred that the proprietors had excluded the society from the use of their building not only for public worship, but also for
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society meetings. At the next annual meeting a plan for public worship at private houses was again agreed upon. But this homeless way of living did not satisfy them, and, slowly recovering from the shock of dismemberment, they voted in December, 1744, to "build a meeting house at the stake," and in September following asked the Gen- eral Court if they might change the location to "a place called the Middle stake, or in other words, a bush marked, which the Court's committee marked to be a place to build a meeting house at, for pub- lic worship."
At this same meeting (September, 1745) it was voted to ask the General Assembly to grant a tax upon the land lying in the bounds of Northbury, at the rate of sixpence (old tenor) per acre, for four years,-"only the lands belonging to the inhabi- tants of said place that have professed to the Church of England being exempted." The crisis which had for some time been impending had arrived. "Openly, in the meeting, before the vote for taxing was passed, Barnabas Ford, Thomas Blakeslee and David Blakeslee declared their dis- sent from their land being taxed for the building a meeting house for the dissenters." A secession to the Church of England has taken place, and the little band of seceders, with a refreshing coolness, speak already of the main body of the society as "the dissenters"! Mr. John Warner, when he appears before the General Assembly, speaks of " about one-third part" of the society as having declared for the Church of England, "which leaves the rest unable to support the gospel and build a meeting house," and adds:
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We are of opinion that the reason why the place was affixed so far west was to accommodate the western inhabitants. which at that time lived thickest on the west side of said parish; and they having generally declared for the Church of England on said west side, we are of opinion that at the Black Oak bush marked by said committee, called the Middle stake, which stands by the path that goes from Deacon Blakeslee's to Isaac Castle's dwelling house, about twenty rods eastward from the brook that runs from the north end of the hill called the One Pine toward the river, which said place your memo- rialists are unanimously agreed in, is the place for them to build a meeting house upon; and we therefore pray your Honors to set aside the first mentioned place and establish the last above described place for your memorialists to build a meeting house upon, which we are desirous of, or in some other way grant relief to your memorialists, in that and in the foregoing part of this memorial.
The "middle stake" here spoken of was on the south side of the " green," at the centre of the town of Plymouth, on the highway opposite the present town building. This was established by vote of the General Assembly as the place at which to build, and there the first meeting house was built. The Assembly also enacted:
That all the unimproved lands of said parish, exclusive of the lands belonging to such persons in said parish as have pro fessed for the Church of England, shall be and hereby is taxed at the rate of sixpence (old tenor currency) yearly for the space of four years next coming, to be paid by the owners of such lands and to be improved for the building of said meeting house and for the support of their minister.
Against this tax the owners of the land rebelled, and the Assembly was called upon to arm the col- lector of the society, Caleb Humaston, with the authority of the state; but so difficult, even then, did he find this task that at a subsequent session of the Assembly he presented a petition "praying for
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obtainment of distress " (authority to seize and sell the property), and for the appointment of some one to help him,-" it being very troublesome and diffi- cult," he adds, "for one alone to do it."
The place of the meeting house having been fixed, and a tax laid, the society at the annual meeting of December, 1745, at a session lasting "till nine of the clock at night" voted to build a "meeting house forty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and twenty feet between joints;" they selected a building committee, decided that the tax should be one shilling, old tenor, on the pound, and appointed Deacon Moses Blakeslee to secure the necessary land for the building and for the "green " which should surround it. This matter was so important that a committee was appointed by the town of Waterbury, consisting of Captain Timothy Hopkins, Captain Stephen Upson, Ser- geant Thomas Porter, Captain Samuel Hickox and Captain William Judd, “ to set out a place of parade for the inhabitants of the parish of Northbury within said town." These dignitaries repaired to the place, and marked out the grounds as follows:
Eight rods south from the stake appointed by the Court for the meeting house for said parish, and eighteen rods north from said stake, and sixteen rods west at each end from the east line of John Brinsmead's farm in said parish, and lies twenty-six rods in length and sixteen rods wide, and is as we judge conven- ient for a green, a place of parade and burying place if need be, as laid out by us.
The land thus laid out, measuring two acres and six-tenths, was owned by John Brinsmead of Mil- ford, and was purchased of him by the town. An additional piece-four-tenths of an acre-was bought by individuals, and Mr. Brinsmead added
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an acre as a gift to the society, making the green four acres in all. It was deeded to Caleb Humaston as agent for the purchasers, and by him to the Northbury society. An additional acre north of the green, purchased by Mr. Humaston for himself, was afterwards purchased by the Rev. Mr. Storrs, the second minister of the parish, and is the land upon which the residence of Mr. W. W. Bull and the present parsonage stand.
The building of its first meeting house was an arduous and protracted task for a society enfeebled by the secession of its heaviest property holders and still further encumbered by dissensions among those who remained. The means at their command were so limited, and the labor of establishing their homes in the wilderness was so exacting, that the period of a generation had nearly passed before the house of worship which the society in the first year of its existence had resolved to build, was completed. The first movement toward building was in October, 1740; the first decisive action in December, 1745. In September, 1747, the frame was up, and at a meeting held that month permis- sion was given "to any of the inhabitants to build a Sabbath-day house for conveniency, provided he sets it on the green on which the meeting house stands," and it was voted to "clear the meeting house green by cutting brush and carting it away." In December, 1750, Elnathan Bronson was ap- pointed to sweep the house-an indication that it was in use for public worship. But it was not finished at that date, nor for several years after- ward. In 1761 it was voted "to lay the floor in the galleries;" in 1763 a committee was appointed "to
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carry on the work of the meeting house," and in December, 1768-twenty-eight years after the first vote to build-a rate was laid "to defray the charge of finishing." But at length the society was fully organized, and equipped with meeting house and green and church and minister, having through much tribulation entered into its king- dom.
Meanwhile-in 1764-the first pastor, the Rev. Samuel Todd, had been dismissed, after a troubled pastorate of twenty-four years, and the Rev. Andrew Storrs, in 1765, had been installed as his successor. Of Mr. Todd it is to be said that he was the "apos- tle" of Plymouth. To no man in its history has the community been more largely indebted. He was the pilot under whose guidance it weathered the storm. Coming in his young manhood into the wilderness, bringing his young wife with him on horseback, when bridle paths were the only roads; the society that had called him wrecked at the outset of its history; his parishioners divided and alien- ated; his church for years destitute of a home and wandering like a wayfarer from house to house; his support inadequate; his salary, which had been small from the first, diminished by the deprecia- tion of the currency (the "sink of money," as the records have it) and because of the straitened cir- cumstances of his people difficult to secure; chang- ing his home repeatedly with the changing for- tunes of the parish; struggling with discourage- ment and in the later years of his ministry with broken health,-this good man labored on with patience and faithfulness and a spirit unembittered by trouble, his chief solicitude being not for him-
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self but for the parish in its weakness. At length, on the 12th of February, 1756, after sixteen years of labor and trial, he opened his heart to the society in a communication referring to the sub- ject of his pecuniary support, which he spoke of as "greatly threatening their ruin;" "and yet," he added, "I can truly say I am free to serve you in the work of the ministry so long as there is a hope- ful prospect of doing service to your souls." What he proposed as a means of relief was:
A public contribution once in two months, to be gathered by the deacons at the close of the evening worship; what any shall see it their duty to hand in at other times, it shall be acceptable; and if the society please, you may make a grant of the ministry money to me; record may be made thereof, and, I will serve you by the grace of God as long as God in his providence shall continue me in the work of the ministry among you.
The proposal was accepted, and they struggled on together for a few years longer. But the case was hopeless. The faithful minister had done his work, and his release from the pastoral bond was near, Application for advice was made to the New Haven Association of ministers, and a committee, consisting of the Rev. Messrs. Daniel Humphrey, John Trumbull, Benjamin Woodbridge and Mark Leavenworth, recommended that a council of the " consociation' be convened to settle their affairs or to dismiss the pastor. A council was called, and Mr. Todd was dismissed in August, 1764, after a pastorate of a little more than twenty-four years,- a pastorate which was not a failure but a success, unsurpassed indeed by any that followed it. Mr. Todd did good pioneer work, making things easier for his successors, and the record of the parish for
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a century and a half is his monument. He was, with Mark Leavenworth of Waterbury and Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem (young men together, and settled at nearly the same time), a leader of the advanced religious thought of the age, and, like leaders in every age, he endured the pains and pen- alties of "heresy" therefor. He believed in the true spiritual life, in an age of dead formalism; he believed in "revivals" as divine, in an age when those around him counted them only out- bursts of fanaticism. He believed in the volun- tary support of the gospel, in an age which com- pelled its support by law. He believed in the free fellowship of the churches in a time when the rule of consociation was an iron bondage,- anticipating by a century and a half the rejec- tion by the Connecticut churches of the Saybrook system and their adoption of the pure Congre- gationalism of the Cambridge platform instead. Dr. Henry Bronson's estimate of him, in the " His- tory of Waterbury," is an entirely mistaken one. He was not deposed from the ministry,* as stated in the "History," nor was his religious fanaticism the occasion of the formation of the Episcopal church in Northbury; for, as we have seen, that church was made up originally of "mad Congrega- tionalists " who " declared for the Church of Eng- land" as their only way of escape from the pay- ment of taxes.
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