USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 7
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and in order to nullify their efforts a vote was taken at the regular town meeting "respecting a certain convention of some few persons at the house of Mr. Tinker in this town on the present day under pretence of a proper town meeting." It was voted that no vote, conclusion nor transaction of theirs which might be construed to be of public concern should be admitted into the town book.
The trouble did not clear itself within the town, however, for on January 11, 1714, some nine months later, the specific differences between the Lyme factions became the occasion of a special hearing before the governor and committee in New London. The hearing was devoted to a difference in Lyme over the admitting of inhabitants. The resolutions presented both the problems and the conclusions, and indicated clearly which persons might be considered for election and how their election was to be conducted. This ruling supplemented and substantiated the previous vote of the town taken on Decem- ber 26, 1698, relative to the "Qualifications of Proprietors," and, leaving out the term proprietor, introduced three classi- fications of persons that ought to be esteemed as admitted in- habitants of the town and qualified to vote for town officers. The differences which arose came, no doubt, as an inevitable result of sudden population increase and their settlement was fundamental to orderly town government. This was provided in the four resolutions which were prepared for the town of Lyme.
Resolved that the sd selectmen, viz: Thomas Lee, Abraham Broun- son, John Lee, John Colt and William Minor do lead on to the choice of Town officers according to the aforesaid order at the sd adjournment meeting and continued by adjournment if need be till the sd worke is perfected.
Resolved, that such as have been formerly admitted Inhabitants of the sd Town, according to Direction of the law, that such as have been admitted and Declared to be Inhabitants of the Town by any act of the General Court and particularly by the patent of the sd Towne and that all sons born of Inhabitants so admitted who have lived in the sd Towne till they are come to the age of 21 years and still live there are and ought to be esteemed as Inhabitants into sd
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Town and in that Respect qualified to vote in the choice of Town officers.
Resolved, that all those who are in either of the sd Respects ad- mitted Inhabitants of the sd Town may vote in the admission of other persons to be Inhabitants of the sd Town who shall propose themselves in a Town meeting for that End.
Resolved, that at the aforesaid meeting on Monday next or at any other Town meeting if any persons do present themselves to be ad- mitted Inhabitants as aforesaid the before named Electors ought to confer their proposals and accordingly their best judgment and direction of the Law to pass a vote for their admission or otherwise if they are thought fit for admission they may in that Regard prosead to the im- mediate exercise of the privelege of voting in said meeting according to Law-and that it would be very fit, just and proper that such as present themselves for admission at the sd Town Meeting on Munday next be considered and admitted by vote as aforesd before the election of Town officers that they not loose the privelege of voting in the electing of such officers for the want of their admission being put to vote.
By order of the Governor and Comm Don accordingly Wm. C. Christophers Clerk of Court.5
Another complaint of long standing which was a part of the general dissatisfaction over land allotments was presented by William Borden relative to his boundary line. A special committee was chosen to hear the matter for the last time. At the same meeting in 1719 Lieutenant John Colt was em- powered to represent the town at a court hearing in New Haven at which the east quarter of the town of Lyme applied for the right to set off in a society by themselves. This indi- cates the extent of the spread of the population away from the Black Hall area and suggests the type of community need which brought on the general legislation of 1727. This legis- lation provided for the division of ecclesiastical societies with a consequent reduction in the areas served by the school com- mittees of these several ecclesiastical societies. Between 1719 and 1727 constant demands were presented by the east quar- ter in support of this original request, but not until the need
5. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724, January 11, 1714.
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Educational History of Old Lyme.
became general throughout the colony was their wish realized. In the meantime they were equally ardent in their efforts to strengthen the local situation and to withdraw their support from the central ecclesiastical control. These conditions aided in devitalizing both the church and the school and contributed toward the decline of education in Lyme between 1700 and I725.
Nevertheless there was a contemporary increase in general agriculture and local industry. Community responsibilities are shown by the extended list of town officers elected on Decem- ber 28, 1725,6 while the several industrial grants allowed by the town reveal their hospitality toward industrial enter- prise. To Edmund Dorr they granted the use of the dam on Mill Brook for a fulling mill to make and sell cloth, and directly after they issued a contract for a sawmill to Thomas Lee, John Lay, Stephen Lee and John Lee. Under this con- tract the town granted to these four persons, to their heirs and assigns, for fifteen pounds in current money, to be paid in three amounts, the privilege of damming Bride's Brook for the use of a sawmill to saw timber from the common land in the town and to transport any sort of sawed timber provided that they supply the town with boards, planks and slit wood at three shillings per thousand cheaper than the market price.7
At the same meeting a grant was made to Samuel South- worth, then living near the falls on Marvin's Pond, for the erection of ironworks.8 These are the same ironworks which
6. This list of town officers includes representatives of many of the present families of the town of Old Lyme: "Moderator-Mr. Richard Lord; First Townsman-Lieutenant Richard Lord; Second Townsman-Lieutenant John Colt; Third Townsman-Mr. Daniel Sterling; Fourth Townsman-Mr. Sam- uel Marvin Junior; Fifth Townsman-Mr. Sam Peck; First Constable-Jabez Waterus; Second Constable-Daniel Ely; Surveyors-4; Listers-2; Grand- juryman-Mr. William Minor; Collectors-4 Ministers and Town Rate; Leather Sealer-1; Pound Keeper-1 Benjamin De Wolfe; Fence Viewers-2; Leather Sealer-Jacob Burnham." Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664- 1724, December 28, 1725.
7. Ibid., January 10, 1726.
8. "The sd Samuel Southworth hath hereby liberty granted and such as shall be partners with him in erecting the sd Iron Works and also to set up Iron Works where the sd Southworths saw mill now stands and for the incoridgment of sd Southworth and his partners in erecting the sd works they have hereby
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were purchased by Isaac Hall in 1736 and conducted by his son Abel Hall until 1796. Here they did much forging for the government during the Revolutionary War and furnished iron for vessels which were built in the neighborhood. They also had a wide general trade.9
That the original grant was not unanimously supported is shown by the succeeding vote of January 10, 1726, when Joseph Brockway, Stephen Champion, Joshua Champion, William Borden and others protested against the town's pro- ceeding "in disposing of anything belonging to the proprietors of sd Lyme, interest or lands."
Intermittent among the records of industrial opportunity appear other records of agricultural perplexity. In the first settling of the plantation emphasis was given to the great ad- vantages of wild game and wild life. Their disadvantages ap- pear more frequently now and with them a need for more venturesome and dexterous youth. Many citations scattered through the records of this period show the great prevalence of wildcats, wolves and foxes. A memorandum entitled "an account of fox heads brought to Mr. Samuel Marvin, Town Treasurer in the year 1727 from under the constables hands," found on a loose leaf and tucked in the back of the Town Meeting Book, contains a long list of names with bounties paid for foxes' heads. Similarly in 1733 there appears a long account of wildcats and foxes' heads. A few items from this account are listed:
E
S d
William Waller 4 pair of wild cats
00
08 00
Elisha Lee 7 fox heads
00
14 00
Richard Smith
I fox head
00
02 00
Uriah Roulde (? ) 4 fox heads
00
08 00
Robert Miller Junior 16 fox heads
00
I2
00
Captain Lee 12 fox heads
00
24
00
Sam Peck 6 fox heads
00
I2
00
Samuel Sanders 4 wild cats
00
08
00.
liberty granted for the getting so much from mine, on common lands, and highways as they shall be able to use at the iron works." Ibid., January 10, 1726.
9. Salisbury, Family Histories and Genealogies, Vol. I, Introduction.
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Educational History of Old Lyme.
Again in 1744, when wolves were devastating the country- side, it was voted that twenty pounds in old tenor be paid to any person or persons who should kill a grown wolf within the town and one-half as much for the whelp of a wolf dis- covered in the town and pursued outside the town.
In this manner we sense the complexity of pioneer life: the need of highways and bridges, the friction of dominant inter- ests, the strife between church societies, the drive of economic opportunities and the pressure of natural adversities. These were the conditions through which colonial legislation forced its way in an effort to provide those essentials of education whereby its citizens might become intelligent participants in the civil and religious life of the community.
The religious affairs of the town, continuously under the direction of the Rev. Moses Noyes since 1666, were definitely in need of attention at the beginning of this same period. Ow- ing in part to the great spread of the population and in part to the advancing years of the minister, the people of the town were dissatisfied with the services of the church. The meet- inghouse on Meeting House Hill, built and supported by the whole town, no longer served as the central meeting place of the people. Poor roads, severe weather and long distances tended to limit and hamper the earlier practices of regular church attendance. So on February 25, 1717, "at a publick Town Meeting warned to consult concerning the ministry" it was voted, first, that Mr. Noyes should receive a salary of forty-five pounds annually and the use of the parsonage farm for life. Then Lieutenant Brownson and Reinold Marvin were chosen to consult with Mr. Russell Jr. concerning com- ing to Lyme as assistant to Rev. Moses Noyes at a proposed salary of fifty pounds.1º In the final agreement with Mr. Russell this amount was increased to seventy pounds to which was to be added the income rent of the parsonage farm after the Rev. Noyes' death. Other items provided one hundred pounds for settlement in the town, twenty-four cords of wood to be delivered to his dwelling yearly and ten acres of land.
General dissatisfaction with these terms and real difficulty 10. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724.
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Ecclesiastical Control.
in raising the hundred pounds necessary for Mr. Russell's settlement seem to have arisen, for on December 6, 1718, a special town meeting was held and on October 6 of the fol- lowing year a committee was chosen to arrange to hire Daniel Brown for three months on probation.
There is no record of the exit of Mr. Russell or of the number of candidates interviewed, but on January 22, 1722, Samuel Pierpont was hired to assist Mr. Noyes.11 He was engaged as the second minister of Lyme at a flat salary of thirty-five pounds a year and with him came his wife, the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker. His accidental drown- ing while crossing the river in March from Ferry Point to Higgin's Grove, in an Indian canoe, left the church again in need of an assistant minister.12
The ten-acre lot arranged for Mr. Russell was given to Samuel Pierpont and, when claimed by his heirs, became the center of litigation extending over a period of years. In Lyme today one often hears vague reference to the "Pierpont Lot."
The request of the people of the east quarter in 1719 for the privilege of forming a separate society was followed in 1720 by a petition from the inhabitants of the north quarter. The law requiring attendance at meeting, coupled with the great distances to be traveled by large numbers of people, made these requests inevitable. The petition clearly presents the circumstances and the attitude of the petitioners.
To the Town of Lime the humble petition of the petitioneers shew- eth that whereas the distance where we live is very far from the usuold place of the publick worship of God, which renders the case allmost or alltogether impossible for many of us, our wives and chil- dren who live in the north part of the township to attend the same, we therefore desire that the town will please to grant us Liberty to be a
II. Ibid., January 23, 1722.
12. Different stories are told of the coming of Mr. Pierpont to Lyme. Some relate that he was drowned while returning from courting in Middletown. The important fact for this review is that he was selected as assistant minister after several years' delay on the part of the committee and held his pastorate for only part of a year. Roberts, Historic Towns of the Connecticut River Valley, p. 59.
72 Educational History of Old Lyme.
Society by ourselves and call a minister amongst us so the gospell may be preached in those remote parts of the Towne and at the Deceas of the Rever'd Mr. Noyes and until the dec's of the said Mr. Noyes we will joyn freely with the rest of the Town in calling an assisting minister into the Town and be at our Just proportion of the charge both in bringing in an assisting minister and in paying our proportion towards Mr. Noyes salery. . . . We refer ourselves to the General Court to settle or state the bounds between us and the Town after the decease of the Revd Mr. Noyes.18
Some years later, by vote of the general assembly in 1727, the towns of Connecticut were allowed to divide into ecclesi- astical societies or parishes. Shortly before this the east quarter of Lyme had been set off as the second society and the north quarter as the third society. By this agreement the second society was allowed to tax all improved land within four miles of the meetinghouse in the east parish and was freed from country rates for two years. Thomas Lee later petitioned on behalf of the east parish that these country rates be discon- tinued for three or four years. Their meetinghouse was built in 1725.14 Similarly in 1726 the assembly authorized the pay- ment of the country rates, for the next two years, to the treas- urer of the third society, this money to be used toward the building of their meetinghouse.15 By this division the three ecclesiastical societies in Lyme divided the responsibilities of school administration which the law had put in their charge. These areas in later years were essentially those of the towns of Old Lyme, East Lyme and Lyme. The original area of the third society, now Lyme, was somewhat reduced, first in 1742, when a part was set off as Hadlyme Parish and later in 1746 when a part was set off as Grassy Hill Parish.
During this period, the same spread of the population in Lyme which required the extensive building of bridges and highways in the early part of the eighteenth century and led
13. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724, January 23, 1720.
14. Connecticut Archives, Ecclesiastical Affairs, III, 42, 43, 46. Lyme Sec- ond Society.
15. Marvin, Historical Address, pp. 8-9.
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Ecclesiastical Control.
in 1725 to the division of the town into three ecclesiastical societies also served as an impetus in the development of a decentralized school system. Certain it is that the two schools on either side of Black Hall River which served the people for four months during each of the years between 1680 and 172I made very little real contribution to the population of the town as a whole. During this time the schools were held in rooms in private houses rented for that purpose. Only once, during the year 1702, was the question of building a school- house brought before the town meeting for consideration and on several occasions the provisions for schooling fell far be- low the minimum requirements of the law.16 Also the re- moteness of the people from the common center made both school and clerical influence increasingly ineffectual.
The rapidly increasing opportunities of trade further pro- vided a new interest in outdoor occupations for all boys and girls physically able to participate. There was real competi- tion between towns and between groups and families within towns. Not only boats, but lumber, cattle, agricultural prod- ucts and men were needed in this competition. It was a period of diversified hand labor and manual skills were more to be desired than great learning. Schools were needed for the rudi- ments of knowledge and were tucked into the year's program at times when workers were least needed. Winter schools taught by men served this purpose and were attended rather irregularly by all the older boys while summer schools under the direction of school dames cared for the small boys and girls. General legislation set a minimum school term of six months and the sum of the winter term and the summer term was used in meeting this time requirement, although few of the older girls and none of the older boys profited by it.
Following rather quickly after 1721 school facilities were expanded, so that by 1766 there were eight schools organized within the first ecclesiastical society of Lyme, and of these,
16. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1721, p. 157. "On Dec. 25, 1705, it was proposed that the school be disposed of to school dames as it was last year. Of those present sixteen voted for and seventeen against."
74 Educational History of Old Lyme.
five were occupying school buildings erected for that purpose. For a long time these district schools met the minimum school requirements and conveniently served the simple needs of the people.
The school records for the first quarter of this century are all but lacking, for, with the change in school control pro- vided by the law of 1712, the schools were dropped from the town reports and are first mentioned in the ecclesiastical rec- ords under the date of January 22, 1725. It was then voted that school should be kept that year in two places and "that there should a Schoole Hous erected for the Society within twenty rods of William Borden's Hous and also another Schole hous between Wm. Noyeses and William Tinkers.")17 William Borden, a relative by marriage of the Griswold family, lived at Black Hall; while a search of the deeds of that time places the second schoolhouse on Lyme Street near the present Mueller house. It therefore appears that these two schools, built during the same year, were planned to serve the families living on the east and west sides of Black Hall River. John Griswold, Esmond Dorr and Reinold Marvin were then chosen "a cometee to hire a Schoolmaster for the yeare Insuing and to builde the School Houses at the Society's charge and the Houses shall [be ] twenty foot long and fifteen feet wide and six feet between joints."18 By these two acts the town of Lyme in 1725 built its first two district schools.
The following year it was decided to divide the town by a line so that all the families to the north of the line would at- tend the north schoolhouse and all the families at the south of the line the south schoolhouse. School was to be kept in each schoolhouse annually in the same proportion as the two groups paid annually into the grand levy.
The dual character of the first ecclesiastical society of Lyme, which had charge of these schools, is to be seen in its list of annually elected officers. These included the clerk, the mod-
17. Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society 1721-1876, Janu- ary 22, 1725.
18. Ibid.
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Ecclesiastical Control.
erator, a committee for the society, a committee for the schools, a collector for the society rate and a collector for the school rate. This indicates quite clearly the general service rendered. The order of business at the society meetings is given in the report of 1746 and was used without deviation for many years: "Moderator chosen, Minister's salary voted, Clerk chosen, Committee men for the Society chosen, Treas- urer chosen, Collector for Society Rates, School Committee, Society Rate voted, School Program voted, School Rate voted, Treasurer's fee voted, Fee to caretaker of the meetinghouse." With these matters attended to it is easy to appreciate that the people of Lyme left their annual meeting feeling that certain very fundamental community needs had been soberly and adequately provided for.
The money for the support of the schools was accumulated from four sources: from the money provided under the law of 1700, from the transfer of forty pounds of the parsonage account to the school account, from interest on two hundred pounds "sequestered" for the use of schools and the balance from a society rate voted to defray the cost of schools.19 The total for teachers' salaries in 1733 was not to exceed sixty pounds and this was the chief source of expense. Wood was regularly charged on the rate of parents while books and equipment, if there were either, were supplied by the parents also.
In connection with the question as to the sources of money for the support of schools, the report of the receipt and divi-
19. The inaccuracies in the collection of the country money in Lyme led to the appointment of a committee "To search and sea if there be not some money due this Town of the School Money" collected in the years 1721, 1722, 1723. Similar inaccuracies throughout the colony inspired the passage of a law re- quiring that all country money be sent to the colonial treasurer and redis- tributed to the towns.
Sequestered money was also under consideration at the meeting of January 1732, when several persons moved that land in the town be sold and the money invested so that the income therefrom might be used to the support of the schools of the town. Ibid., December 28, 1731.
76 Educational History of Old Lyme.
sion of the "Country Money" for 1732 and 1734 is here sig- nificant.20
Lyme Feb. 26 1732/3 they rec'd of Capt. Stephen Lee the Schoole money for the year 1731 by the List of that year, the sum of thirty one pound thirteen shillings thus divided :
£
S
d
To the First Society
I7
7 O
To the North Society
08
I2 0
For the East Society and New Salem
07
I4
O
SAMUEL MARVIN, Town Treasurer.
Lyme Feb. the 26th 1732/3 they received of Dea. Marvin the sum of 7-14-00, it being the whole of the school money that belong- eth to the East Society of Lyme Including New Salem Parrish, I say, rec'd for JOHN LEE, Selectman.
Lyme Feb. the 26, 1732, they Rec'd of the Town Treasurer the sum of seventeen pounds, seven shillings of school money gathered by the List of 1732. I say, received as selectman, REYNOLD MARVIN.
Lyme February the Last Day 1732 they Rec'd of Samuel Marvin, Town Treasurer, the sume of eight pound, twelve shilling, it being the whole of the school money which belongeth to the North Society in Lyme. I say, Rec'd by me
JOHN MACK Com
man
The Schoole money due to the Scholars in Lyme on the list in the yeare 1732 is 30-00-00. The rate by constables list thus divided- viz:
The First Society's part is 14-12-07 The North Society's part 08-02-08
The East Society's part 06-09-07
New Salem's part 00-16-00
The above division was made by Capt. Lee constable, and Samuel Marvin, Town Clerk and Lt. Reynold Marvin Society Treasurer, April 29, 1734.
20. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, February 26, 1732/3.
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Ecclesiastical Control.
These records indicate very clearly the relative importance of the lists in the several parishes of the town, the method followed in the reception and distribution of country money and the part played by this country money in determining the balance to be raised by the society rate. They are also the only detailed reports of this nature to be found in the early rec- ords of the town.
A school committee was elected annually at town meeting from 1695 to 1712 and thereafter at the meeting of the ec- clesiastical society. This committee was generally given the entire responsibility of the schools for that year. Its member- ship fluctuated both in number and in personnel but a com- mittee of three tended to be the more common practice. At one time a school committee of four members was elected, two to run the west school and two to run the east school. These are the same schools which were previously referred to as the south and north schools.
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