USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 8
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Wood for the schools was supplied in various ways but the cost was always charged to the parents of the children in at- tendance at the school. A very specific arrangement appearing in the records of 1736 made provision for the supply of wood by the society and fixed the rate per cord, to be added to each "scholar's" rate bill, after the amount per "scholar" had been determined by the school committee upon receipt of the schoolmaster's record of enrollment.21 This arrangement is representative of like arrangements made from year to year for the supply of wood for the heating of the school. The plan operated both in the case of school buildings and in the case of rooms in private houses rented for school purposes.
21. "Wood for the schools to be supplied by the Society and some man be appointed near each school house and that the school masters take an account of every scholar that comes to School and Deliver it to the School Committee and where the Society Rate is made, which the wood comes to shall be added to the Rates of the Parents or Masters of the Scholars in Equal proportion and that there shall be allowed for each cord of wood twelve shillings and six for half a cord and that any man that sends a child to school may have Liberty to bring wood if pleas and giving to the man appointed." Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1721-1876, January 18, 1736.
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The length of the school term and the number of teachers employed varied considerably. The chief concern was to have the total number of months of school meet the requirements of the school law. So for example in 1736 it was voted that
School in this Society shall be kept in two several School Houses of the Society from the first of December to the first of April yearly by sufficient masters for that end and that the School Committy shall likewise provide two suitable School Dames to keep school in the several Parts of the Society according to the decission of the sd com- mittee for the space of two month in the Summer in each part of the Society.
In this manner a four months' school kept by a schoolmaster provided instruction for boys and grown girls during the bleak winter months least desirable for outdoor exercise. Similarly, a two months' school kept by school dames during the summer supplied instruction for young children. Together they fulfilled the six months' requirement stipulated in the prevailing school law. It was also voted "that one third of the charge to support sd schools shall be paid by the parents or masters of the scholars that come to school."22 This one-third was evidently the balance necessary after the other three sources of school money had been estimated or collected.
In spite of this arrangement, seemingly favorable for the times, the town voted in 1737 "that the school shall be kept from the middle of January to the middle of July in one School House and from the middle of July to the middle of January in the other school hous."23 Under this regulation we return to the earlier practice of the rotating or moving school by which, in this instance, one male teacher replaced two male teachers in winter and two school dames in summer. Also, by teaching the year round he provided a six months' school in both sections of the town. This method was no doubt less costly and might have appealed to some man definitely in-
22. Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1721-1876, Janu- ary 18, 1736.
23. Ibid., January 19, 1737. "The salary of the teacher for this year was fixed at 70 pounds."
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terested in teaching as a full-time occupation. On the other hand, its interference with the regular farm schedule during a considerable portion of both school terms created a situation which made irregular attendance inevitable.
A somewhat different plan was made for the year 1738 when school was kept for three months in winter by school- masters and during the remainder of the year in other parts of the town by women "in such places as the committee shall nominate."24 Then still another plan was introduced in 1739 when it was decided that "the school shall be kept from the first of January until the last of March in each school house in the Society and that beginning at the first of October next on to be continued until the last of December." This plan took advantage of the six coldest months of the year and made it easier for older children to have the advantage of six months' schooling. However, since the annual meeting of the ecclesiastical society was generally held in January the law became effective at that time and divided the school year rather awkwardly into two terms of three months each. In I 740 a fifth program was instituted when it was voted to keep school for eleven months in each schoolhouse. This plan is even more difficult of interpretation since no special law had been passed requiring an increase in schooling.
With such situations it is not possible to discover any gen- eral practice regarding the school term, the hiring of school- masters or the use of school dames. It evidently fluctuated with the predominant educational leanings of the shifting personnel of the society meetings, which no doubt was de- termined in large measure by the prevailing temperatures in January of those years. Knowing the bleakness of Meeting House Hill it would be difficult to estimate the amount of educational fervor that might have been required to inspire attendance.
24. It appears that during 1738 the winter schools were conducted in the schoolhouses while the summer schools were held either in different areas or, if in the same areas, not of necessity in the school building of that area. Ibid., P. 47.
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Returning to review the general activities which supple- mented this fluctuating school program, our interest falls upon a record which gives "The Names of the [sixty-one ] Freemen belonging in the Town of Lyme on April 28, 1730." We have previously recorded the division of the citi- zens of the colony into "freemen" and "admitted inhabit- ants." This record brings us to an appreciation of the im- portance of the same dual classification of the citizens of Lyme. In 1667, when thirty proprietors were required for town incorporation, all the householders were proprietors al- though some of them were given their land allotments in order to complete the requirement. Then again in 1688, when Thomas Lee prepared the tax list for Governor Andros, he presented the names and property holdings of the sixty-seven proprietors of Lyme. With the turn of the century there were great increases in the population, and by 1714 the method of "admitting inhabitants" became the occasion of a court hear- ing. The differentiation of the inhabitants in Lyme into free- men and admitted inhabitants is stated here for the first time. Then by 1735 the population of Lyme is believed to have been more than seven hundred, so again this list of the names of freemen in Lyme, appearing in 1730, indicates the pre- vailing political division of the citizens of the town. This list of sixty-one freemen refers to that smaller group of the in- habitants so designated by the general court and therefore eligible to vote for colony officials and to hold office in the government of the colony. It includes representatives of all the earliest families in Lyme and suggests the origin and political rating of many of the present families. These men made up the ruling class and their names constantly appear among the officeholders of the town and of the ecclesiastical societies. One also finds in this list the names of "new-comers" scattered among the sons of the first families of the town. A deference to social position might at the same time be as- sumed from the fact that all titles are grouped early, while of the three names given without title, two appear at the very end. We observe here another factor in the social structure
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that had much to do with the character and control of public education. 25
The next two decades, 1740 to 1760, were occupied with commerce, agriculture and general internal improvements. Together they changed the movement and character of local affairs and hastened the development of the district school system.
Between 1736 and 1740 many items on highways were brought before the town meetings. A number of open high- ways were made pent-ways and a new highway was planned on the north side of Rogers Pond, over Grassy Hill. A com-
25. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, April 28, 1730:
Capt. John Coult
The Names of the Freemen belonging to the Town of Lyme, April 28, 1730: C.G. Mr. Moses Noyes Esq. AR. Capt. Renold Marvin Mr. James Beckwith
Mr. William Borden
Mr. Aaron Huntley Senior
Mr. William Warman
Mr. Samuel Peck
Mr. Joseph Peck Ensign Daniel Lay
Mr. William Ely
Mr. John Harvey
C.B. Ensign Timothy Mather
Mr. Peter Person
Mr. William Lee
AR Mr. Joseph Sill
Capt. Stephen Lee
Mr. Richard Ely Junior
Mr. John Lee
Edward Lay
Mr. Richard Brockway
Mr. Edwin Robins
Mr. William Rathbone
Mr. George Way Mr. John Lewis
Mr. Edmund Dorr
Mr. Robert Miller
Mr. Aaron Huntley Junior
Mr. Samuel Smith
Mr. Samuel Selden
Mr. John Smith
Mr. Frances Smith
Mr. Henry Roulon (?)
Mr. Samuel Mott
Mr. John Reed
A.I.N Mr. John Mack
Lt. Griswold
Ensign Waterous
CA~Mr. Richard Lord
Mr. Joseph Lee
Mr. Lewis DeWolf
Mr. Jonah Beckwith
Mr. Benjamin Dewolf Mr. John Banning Mr. John Brockway Mr. Jonathan Mack
Mr. Richard Roulon (? )
Mr. Jacob Burnham
Mr. Thomas Giddin
Mr. Thomas Champion
Mr. John Lord
Mr. Nathaniel Matson
Mr. William Brockway Daniel Clark
Wm. Brockway Junior
Thomas Way.
Mr. Josiah DeWolf
Mr. Thomas Way
CAI Mr. Henry Champion
C.G Mr. Thomas Lee Samuel Marvin
Lieut. Richard Ely
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mittee was also chosen to examine the right of Jonathan Rogers to land in that region and soon after, on February 10, 1743, a committee was chosen to answer the memorial of Samuel Mott and others praying for a highway across "Joshua Town." At the same meeting Lieutenant Marvin was given liberty to erect a sawmill upon the brook near his house. Twenty years had passed since the last period of intense high- way construction and another generation was pushing its way into the outlands. 26
The increasing demands of the sloop trade are to be seen in the act of January 15, 1739, when it was voted "that Captain Elisha Sheldon, Lieutenant Renold Marvin, Barnabas Tut- hill, John Sill and John Tinker shall have liberty to build a wharf of forty feet wide on the out side of Lieutenant River below the tole bridge."27
Just what the nature of this sloop trade was in 1739 is not certain, but Lyme's accessibility to New London, the custom- house port of Connecticut, gave her a very real advantage. Timber and livestock were abundant and much in demand for the coastwise trade. Besides, the Connecticut River was in- creasingly a highway for the transportation of people and goods. It was but natural that enterprising men should see the advantage of their location.
Commerce with the West Indies was early established. Small cargoes of home products including wheat, peas, beef, pork, pipe staves and horses were shipped for exchange. Also, after 1700, a regular traffic in beef, pork and general provi- sions was gathered in small boats along the Sound and at river towns to be reshipped at the larger ports.28
The ships used in this coastwise trade are variously referred to as barques, boats, ships, vessels, brigantines and ketches. These varied in size from twenty to fifty tons. No reference to a three-masted schooner appears until after 1700 when two of this description are reported to have sailed from New London. Of the smaller types of boats many were built
26. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, February 10, 1743.
27. Ibid., January 15, 1739.
28. Harwood, History of Eastern Connecticut, II, 424-428.
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through the ingenuity of individual owners while certain shore and river towns early attracted attention as shipbuild- ing centers.
The more diversified needs of the farmers also appear in a group of grants to tradesmen, issued in 1748 and 1749. To "Mr. Benjamin Hyde the Town by their vote did give . all that land which belongeth to this town which lyeth be- tween the new dwelling house of Mr. John Wade and Mr. Noah Miles: Provided that said Hyde build a Dwelling House on said land and carry on the Sadlers Trade on said Land four years for the Towns benefit and all to be done within six years of this date." To Simon DeWolfe they also gave a grant provided he build a house within two years and carry on the blacksmith trade.
Petitions were also received: from Jabez Smither came a request for a part of the landing place for a dwelling house and cooper's shop and from Stephen Jerom a request for per- mission to build a dam in Three Mile River to protect his salt works. This latter was no doubt encouraged, since salt was such a basic and, at the same time, expensive commodity necessary in the curing of fish and meats.
The long period of peace and comparative prosperity dur- ing the first half of the eighteenth century, coupled with a steady growth of population, brought with it an increasing coastwise trade. In this Lyme had a considerable share. Land- ing places and ferries were more numerous and in 1752 the reconstruction of the Lieutenant River bridge, at public ex- pense, was considered by the town. Elisha Sheldon was paid 1 80 pounds for the timber in the old bridge and a committee was appointed to see that the bridge be built forthwith ac- cording to the act of the general assembly. "Sd bridge shall be built with water course of not less than twenty-four feet wide and sd bridge to be made wide enough for a cart bridge."29 Wharves were also built for the landing of the ships engaged
29. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876. Record for 1752 (no page given).
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in the West India trade, the cargoes of which were stored in large warehouses on the shore.30
Two years following, the town voted the privilege of the ferry across the Connecticut River to Richard Lord, Richard Wait and Uriah Roland who were appointed as a committee to proceed with the building of a wharf and a boat in order to transport travelers. The funds for this project were not so easily secured, however, since the saleable common land of the town had all been taken up. Finally, a practice started in a small way in 1746 was resorted to and a committee was chosen "to proceed to sell some strips of Highway as may be spared." In this manner, through a series of such sales, the funds for the wharf and boat, for the keeper's house and later for the road from the "Great Bridge" across Mather's Neck to the ferry were provided. Similarly in succeeding years, the sale of strips of land in the original highways supplied funds for public enterprise. The roadsides of today bear witness to these encroachments.
In 1759 two additional highways were provided, one over Grassy Hill toward New London and the other across the Eight Mile River Bridge at Reed's Landing. From then on, for well over a decade, the records of Lyme are clouded with the burdens of the French and Indian War and the prewar rumblings of the Revolution. No industrial grants were given and neither highways nor bridges were built. On August 31, 1770, Samuel Selden and Dr. Eleazer Mather, both of Lyme, were chosen to meet with other representatives of Connecticut towns to consider plans for unity against "offend- ing ministers."31 The civil affairs became the affairs of war; and the stock raising, agriculture and maritime trade, which were enriching the thrifty men of Lyme between 1740 and 1760, withered under the devastating demands of the Revo- lution.
During these same years, 1730 to 1760, in which the com- mercial and agricultural life was expanding in response to the
30. Hurd, History of New London County, p. 559.
31. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1733-1876, August 31, 1770.
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growing opportunities of trade, there was also a marked rest- lessness in the religious life of the people. Here we find the roots of that religious differentiation which culminated at the end of the century in a statewide movement affecting the gen- eral control of education.
Shortly after the original division of the town into three ec- clesiastical societies, the inhabitants of the first parish gathered at a special ecclesiastical meeting held on January 20, 1735, and voted to erect a new meetinghouse. Two-thirds of those present voted in the affirmative.32 This vote led, however, to a hot dispute and brought forth on February 10, 1735, a memo- rial prepared for the town by Justice Lord and Lieutenant Marvin "to the Jenerale Assembly" requesting that a com- mittee be appointed "to afix and ascertain the place where a meeting house shall be erected in the first society."33 Such a committee was appointed to go to Lyme and review with the selectmen the issues and the locations favored by the oppos- ing factions. The report of this committee was presented to the assembly on June 20, 1735, and, after being approved by the lower and the upper house, was transmitted to the town. In it the committee approved the building of the new meet- inghouse on or as near the site of the former meetinghouse as could be made conveniently possible.34
Accordingly on January 17, 1736, a committee was chosen to review the bounds of the town's ten-acre lot lying where the old meetinghouse stood. The house was to be built so as to be sixty feet long and forty feet wide and twenty-four feet between joints.35 Plans moved forward until May of that
32. Connecticut Archives, Ecclesiastical Affairs, 1658-1789, V, 143.
33. Ibid., p. 144.
34. "We esteem the place where the old meeting house now stands in sd society to be most suitable for the sd inhabitants to build their new meeting house upon and would propose that the same may be sett on the place where the sd old house now stands or as near the sd house as the same may be with con- venience erected." Ibid., p. 147.
35. Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1721-1876, Janu- ary 17, 1736.
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same year, when a long memorial was received from the east part of the society objecting to this decision and requesting that a second committee be sent by the assembly to review the situation. This was done and, on May 5, 1737, after con- tinued delays, this second committee entered its report: "We cannot find any place in sd Society that on all accounts will so well accommodate the greater part of the Inhabitants of sd Society as the Hill on which the old meeting house now stands and therefore propose that the new meeting house be erected about four rods northerd of the old meeting house."36
This closed the long dispute and cleared the way for the building of the third meetinghouse on Meeting House Hill. Therefore, on September 19, 1738, a committee was chosen to agree with suitable persons to finish the new meetinghouse and to supply suitable materials for the work. A special rate of twelve pence on the pound, on the grand levy, was granted to defray the charge.37 It was also arranged that the old meet- inghouse be pulled down and that all suitable lumber from it be used toward the finishing of the new meetinghouse.
During the months that immediately followed, emergency situations arose which led to the selection of Benjamin De- Wolfe "to take care of the bords and timber and to examine and find out all such [people] as have carried away timber and bords already." At the same time Uriah Roland was paid £I IOS. 06d. for the use of his house for meetings during the overlapping period in which the erection of the new building necessitated the destruction of the old building.38 That this period was about a year in length is made clear through the records. The first meeting in the new meetinghouse was held on November 7, 1740, with the Rev. Jonathan Parsons pre- siding.39
The Rev. Jonathan Parsons had been elected in 1731 as the third minister of the Lyme church. He succeeded the
36. Connecticut Archives, Ecclesiastical Affairs, 1658-1789, V, 164.
37. Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1721-1876, Sep- tember 19, 1738, p. 41.
38. Ibid., p. 52.
39. Ibid., November 7, 1740, p. 52.
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Rev. Moses Noyes who died in 1729. Coming from Spring- field, he settled in Lyme and soon after married Phoebe Gris- wold. This was at a time of general religious revival during which the fundamental doctrines of orthodox Congregation- alism were being variously challenged. His dramatic speech and fine clothes distressed his Puritan parishioners and his close friendship with the Rev. George Whitefield impaired his position in the community.4
The general decline in religious life which developed in the early part of the century as a result of increasing secular interests gave place to various innovations in the religious program of the colony. Baptists began to cross the border from Rhode Island and Rogerines and Adventists prospered within the colony in spite of persecution. Quakers at the same time were excluded as an obnoxious and determined sect and, though present, refrained from organization. Anglicanism then swept the colony between 1723 and 1733 making great inroads upon the student body at Yale. Anglican churches un- der native-born ministers penetrated the countryside.41 The second quarter of the century then gave way to a strong and rising tide known as the Great Awakening. This movement began in Massachusetts in 1734 when Jonathan Edwards, a native of Windsor, started preaching in Northampton ser- mons which startled all New England. This revival influenced both Indians and whites and under its influence Ben Uncas was Christianized and thirteen of his followers were admitted as members of the church at Lyme.42 The revival was renewed in 1740 by George Whitefield, who had experienced the re- vival movement of the Wesleys in England. He was spoken of as one of the world's most powerful preachers since Peter the Hermit-a man whose great dramatic power would bring
40. Hurd, History of New London County, p. 549. Also, Mitchell, The Great Awakening, Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut, Com- mittee on Historical Publications.
41. Green, The Development of Religious Liberty, pp. 158-165.
42. Morgan, Connecticut as a Colony and as a State, I, 486.
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tears to the eyes of his parishioners.43 Jonathan Parsons jour- neyed to New Haven and to other places where Whitefield preached with the result that, at the age of twenty-six, White- field became his lifelong friend and fired his religious teach- ing in ways entirely distasteful to the quiet flock at Lyme. Parsons also traveled widely as an itinerant preacher, seek- ing to spread the "Word" and to establish harmony in the churches. Under his preaching the people of Lyme were pos- sessed with a singular mania which led to the public reading of confessions in the church. These confessions in many in- stances remain as a part of the ecclesiastical records of the time. 44
Conditions in Lyme were representative of conditions in Connecticut and in other considerable parts of New England. A great religious fervor, which ministers were quick to sup- port or oppose, gripped the people. This led immediately to a revolt against conventional religion and brought on a great schism in the established church. This revolt marked the be- ginning of the decline of Congregationalism and of the in- crease of sectarianism in Connecticut. It is indicative of the causes which led to the weakening of the educational influ- ences of the ecclesiastical societies and to the strengthening of the demands for a secular public school system.
Two hundred and eight persons were received into the church at Lyme during the Rev. Mr. Parsons' fifteen years of service. It was also under his influence that the town voted in 1741 to allow husbands and wives to be seated together in church. Yet in spite of this effective leadership, the contin- gent increase in church membership and Parsons' connection with one of the most influential families of the town, his con- tinued friendship with Whitefield brought about his dismis-
43. Osborn, History of Connecticut, III, 288-294.
44. "Thos. Graves offered a confession for breaking the peace and contemn- ing the church; Jan. 9, 1732 - made and offered a confession for giving way to passion, evil speaking and intemperate drinking offending members upon expression of their penetence were received again into its charity." Lyme Records, Meetings of the Ecclesiastical Society, 1721-1876, July 11, 1733.
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sal in 1744. The town records of January, 1745, include his last financial statement.45
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