The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 103

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 103

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TTNFORTUNATELY the records of town votes and town acconuts, the first fifteen years, have crumbled to dust, and we have no record of the meeting-house during this period, except this simple reference to it on the Colony records. Probably the records once told its cost, and perhaps its dimensions ; but we have built a theory from such facts as we gather under later dates, and feel confident that we know nearly its dimensions, how it was covered, how it was seated, who sat in the wall slips, who sat in the body of the house, and who sat in the Great Pew.

Eighteen years after the house was built, we find among the recorded acts of the Townsmen, now called Selectmen, the following item : 1658 "The Townsmen being met on Monday, the 13th, September, Lieut. Newbury is desired to get such sills 1 for the meeting-house as are wanting and to bring them to the water-side."? In the town accounts. 1639-60, is a credit to Mr. Newbury, " For the remainder of the work to the silling and underpinning of the meeting-house, £10 9s Gd." They evidently dispensed with underpinning at first, and probably built the house without sills, resting the posts on some temporary foundation. It seems improbable that sills could have decayed within eighteen years.

January 7, 1660-1, " The Townsmen met and agreed that the meeting-house shonkl he shingled, all the gutters on both sides of the lanthorn, and not alter the form of the roof." A few weeks after we have the following entry : "The Townsmen made a bar- gain with Samuel Grant to shingle the inside roof [west side] of the meeting-house, from end to end, on both sides of the lanthorn, with 18-inch shingle. He is to get the shingle in the woods, and cut them and hew them, and lay them on one inch and a quarter thick, generally, and seven inches in breadth, one with another, and he is to have 48. per 100 for all plain work, and for the gutters, because of the more difficulty of laying these, he is to have what he shall in equity judge to be worth more than 4x. per 100 ; and for the time, he is to do the north side of the lanthorn before midsummer next, and the other side by October following." Like the Dorchester meeting-house. this one was at first thatehed. The contractor was given from February to October to

1 Sills were not always used as a support for the floor, but in early times the floor was often on a level with the bottom of the sills, making a step down from the door sill into the room. An example of this style of house was the Gaylord House of Windsor Locks, built about 1711, and pulled down about 1820 The sills projected into the rooms, as the corner posts and "summer beams" did, the sills forming a low, narrow seat, very convenient for children. Mrs. Albert Denslow, of Windsor Locks, still remembers this house, and the seat along the side of the room in which she and her little friends played.

2 Town Records, Bk. I. 36. The " water-side" here referred to is the rivulet, or Little River, bank.

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APPENDIX B.

shingle one side, and this twenty-six years after the house was built We are not sur prised that they did not shingle it at first.

But what of the lantern spoken of, on the roof ? It has been referred to be fore. On December 13, 1658, at a meeting of the five men [i. e. the Towns men previously appointed] "it was determined that provision should be made upon the top of the meeting-house, from the Lanthorn to the ridge of the house, to walk conveniently, to sound a trumpet or drum to give warning to meetings." This lantern was an architectural ornament, a little dome set on the ridge. in the middle of the house. They had no bell for it, but built a platform out from it on the ridge of the house, for the convenience of the man who " bent the drum to give warnings to meetings on the Lord's Day, twice in the morning, season ably, and once after dinner."? I think you still follow their example. - " giving warnings to meetings on the Lord's Day, twice in the morning, seasonably, and once after dinner." You have simply substituted a bell for their drum or trumpet.

Farther extracts from the town records are as follows :

1667. "The Townsmen agreed with Benjamin Griswold to get some good timber fallen and eloven into bolts, and brought home by the latter end of the week following. for the use of the meeting-house, and Samuel Grant is to cleave them when brought home and fit them, and nail them about the meeting-house. Benjamin was to have for his timber, when fetched and brought home in bolts, one length with another, 3x. 6d. per 100 as they would rise in number when cloven by Sammel Grant."

1668. " Also, George Griswold is to get somebody to clap up the walls of the meeting-house that are broken."

1669. Among the town expenses are these :

" To John Grant, for carting bolts from Pipe-stave Swamps for the meeting house, 7x. 6d."

"To John Owen, for the clabbing he did the meeting house before winter, tx. 4d."

These items for repairs, made twenty-five to thirty years after the meeting-house was built, show us that the outside was at first covered with clapboards, or, as they were at first called, cloveboards, because they were eloven or split. They were to be brought from the woods in "bolts"-logs of suitable length for splitting : then " cleave them " and " fit them,"-split and how them. - and " nail them about the meeting-house," and so "clab up the walls that are broken." This must have made a somewhat rough exterior, which coukl not have been marred by whittling. Possibly the innocent indulgence of this propensity on the clapboards early crept into the boys' gallery, and remained there through half a dozen generations.

1668. Deacon Moore is to speak with John Gibbard to get him to come and mend the glass of the meeting-house windows."

The next year " Win. Buel came and brought two new casements for the corner windows of the meeting-house." ] have as yet been unable to learn the number or style of the windows.

We have now given you a rough outside view of the first meeting-house. It stood about the middle of Palisado Green (as it then was), in front of the General Pierson place. It had a thatched roof with a cupola on the ridge. The sides were covered with (Japboards split from the log. Let us now go inside.

I find this item in the town accounts in 1661.

1661. "For Jath and nails for meeting-house, 55." The house had not all been plastered before, and probably none of it.

1663. " For other work done, as carting of timber out of the woods to the pit, and from the pit to the meeting house." Now the pit was a saw pit, such as I think is still

I See, also, item from Torn Records. p. 176, date, September 1, 1656.

2 Town Records, Bk. i., 37.

3 Pipe-stave Swamp, near the southwest corner of the town, as now bounded

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

used in ship-yards for some special work. A pit was dug, timbers laid across it to sup- port the log when rolled over the pit. One man stood below, the other on top of the log, the two performing in a small way the work of a modern saw-mill. We readily see that it required long and patient toil to produce one thousand feet of boards. 1

Let us premise that the churches in which they had worshiped in England had no seats for the common people, or, at most, but simple benches. The gentry, at their own expense, put in pews for themselves. So here, the town built the meeting-house, and laid a tax on the grand list to pay for it, but laid a poll-tax, a given sum on each house- holder, or man and his wife, to meet the expense of putting in the seats. But let us first learn where they were to get the lumber to make pews and slips. The eloven boards would not answer this purpose; they must have sawn humber, - something they could plane both for ceiling and for seats.

Our first item relative to the provision for seats in the house bears date 1652. twelve years after that first notice that a meeting-house was being built. "Accounts made with Wm. Buell for work done on the meeting-house. The Elder's Pew, Deacon's Pew. Magistrate's Pew, and their wives' Pew, formerly paid, and for the four rows of seats in the house, when the doors are up we find the work comes to .

£28 19%. 0d. And for the new work about altering the Magistrates' wives' Pew, and

others in that range, come to 4 3 ×

The whole sum is €33 28. xd. Of which he is paid £27 58. 2d."2

At a later date, but referring to the same " four rows of seats." we have a note of explanation, showing how many seats there were, and who had neglected to pay the carpenter for his work.

Jan. 18, 1659-60. " A note [was] taken what dwelling-houses are in the town, that the owners of them have paid for seats in the Meeting-house, and how much and by whom; for those that have been placed in the two rows of long seats were first seated by five in a seat, and were to pay Wm. Buell 3s. a person, or 6x, for a man and wife ; and that made up his pay when he had finished them with doors. Also those that were placed in the short seats, at the first were to pay 3x, a person, as they in the long seats ; but when it was agreed that those seats should be raised higher, for more con- venient hearing, they were to pay Wm. Buell 64. a person more ; so that for a man and his wife 7x."

" 9 long seats with six in a seat." " 13 short seats with 3 in a seat."

" First I set down those that have paid, and were placed in the long seats when they paid." 3

Then follows a list of fifty-five men, one more than the seating capacity; nearly all of these paid 68.

" Those that were placed in the short seats, what they have paid."

Then follow the names of thirty nine men, just the seating capacity; about half of these paid G&., others smaller sums. These men take the whole seating capacity of one side, and I suppose their wives occupied corresponding seats on the other side, - the

) In the inventory of Rev. Mr. Huit's estate, 1644, we find this item : " Two thou- sand planks at Elias Parkman's and 500 feet at the falls, 98 10x." " Elias Park- man's" was in the northwest corner of the Palisado, where there was certainly no water-power for a saw mill, and the 500 feet at the falls were probably sawn there because of some excellence of the timber which grew there. In a memorandum of his property Mr. Huit says, " A rafte of Plank is going down, I think will be €40."

2 Toin Recordx, i., S.

3 This interesting document will be found in full on p. 178-180.

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APPENDIX B.

men and women sitting apart as they were known to have done three quarters of a century later. Then 13 men are named, who sat in the pews, and 3 aged widow women, Goodie Denslow. Goodie Gibbs, Goodie Hoskins, and Dea. Gaylord s wife.

It will he remembered that the short seats were " raised higher for more convenient hearing." Let us suppose these short seats are the wall slips a little raised, as your wall slips are now. We learn elsewhere that the magistrate's pew was " raised cittal with the short seats." Let us place 13 slips 3 ft. 2 inches apart along the south wall occupy ing 61 ft., an aisle 4 ft. between them and the magistrate's pew, and 5 ft. the width of the pew, and we have the length of the room, 70 ft. There are sittings for 3 in cach of the wall slips, and six each in the long seats, 18 sittings abreast: allowing 19 inches for a sitting, and we have 28 ft., with two aisles of 4 ft. each, and we have a width of 36 ft., - an audience room of 36x70. If we put the magistrate's pew on the south side of the pulpit, we put their wives' pew on the north side : these pews extended from the side walls nearly to the pulpit, and afterward cach pew was made into two. We have still to locate the elder's pew and the deacon's pew. We have four more wall slips than we have slips in the center. Let us put the two pews in front of the long seats (they are not raised like the magistrate's), then leave a space between them and the pulpit to be occupied by the communion table and chairs or a bench ; - and we have the fathers and the mothers provided with seats, but where are the children and the servants ? There is a unique order 1 in 1650 relative to children and servants crowding into the ferry-boat before the elders and magistrates on their way home from meeting, - so we know they went to meeting.

When we come down to 1665, we find a number of young men who have married recently, paying for seats, several of them " in the gallery." -so that first house had galleries - and it was in the gallery that the boys and girls and servants sat. So long as the meeting-houses were seated, the boys and girls had no seats assigned them beside their parents, and the custom prevailed to a considerable extent long after the custom of seating the meeting-house had gone out of date.

When a lad I sat in this front ship, and on one occasion received a sharp reprimand at home for not sitting still. I had climbed so far over to see who sat directly under me, that my mother was alarmed, lest I should lose my balance and intrude myself among the old people below. The little boys occupied the front slip on the south side. and the little girls the one on the north side; those of larger growth occupied the pews which were ranged along against the wall. In due time I was promoted by some unwritten law from the front slip to the pews. 1 fear if I should tell of the carvings which ornamented those pews, so like the carvings to be seen in the schoolhouses of those days, the modern boy would judge ns harshly. Tything-men were a necessary provision for the well-being of the galleries, yet their authority was rarely exercised. I remember the first piece of anthracite coal I ever saw, I saw in one of those gallery pews, - a big boy brought it in his pocket, but none of us believed that would burn.

This seating the boys by themselves was a crying evil continued through two centuries. Its origin is found in the measures adopted to secure a seat for each adult. according to his official dignity, his age, personal worth, and estate. Possibly " there is yet light to break out " on this question of seating the meeting-house, and the historian of the semi-millenial of this church may have occasion to speak of an old-time custom, of selling seats at auction to enable each man to rate himself according to his own estimate.

The first notice I find of " Seating the meeting-house," bears date of 1655. when " The townsmen met and appointed somewhere to sit in the meeting-house. "2 It seems a little strange that it should have been thought necessary to carry these distinctions

1 See p. 172.

2 Sec p. 175.

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

nto the church - into a church which knew no distinctions among the brotherhood. The dignitaries of the church and the State had their pews, which were conspicuously placed, and into which they were duly promoted when elevated to office. In 1651 Mr. Clark was elected a magistrate, and at once the Townsmen met, and Mr. Clark was appointed to sit in the great pew." 1

But the seating of the common people was a more difficult task, which taxed the wisdom and patience of the committee. The difficulty was largely owing to the fact that individuals estimated their own rank higher than the committee or their neighbors rated them ; and we must bear in mind that all the community must have a voice in the matter, for the meeting-house belonged to all, and all were taxed for the support of the ministry. After one or two generations had passed away, there was a large class who were not members of the church, who had a pecuniary interest in the matter which took them to meeting, and who were likely to be tenacious of their rights to a proper recognition when there.

Before the end of twenty-five years after the first meeting-house was built, we find that "a request was made by some to set a housel to shelter their horses in on Sabbath days, and other day's when they ride to meeting, on one side of the street, against Begat Egglestone's orchard, about 9 or 10 feet in breadth by his fence, and in length 23 or 24 feet, and it was granted." Those who came from a distance and had horses came horseback, the man in the saddle, with his wife behind him on a pillion, and not unfrequently with a baby in her lap. Sometimes a Jed horse and two or three more children represented a single family. People also came to meeting from great distances ou foot.

1 See p. 173.

2 One-horse road wagons were not in use until since 1800. The first one owned in Windsor was made by David Birge of Windsor Locks. Pung sleighs were in general use; the runners were made of plank, the body much like a " lumber box wagon " body of to-day. Less than a hundred years ago Seth Dexter and wife of Pine Meadow [Windsor Locks] returned to Rochester, Mass., to visit their parents. She rode on a pillion behind him and carried her babe in her lap.

APPENDIX C (Page 98).

BY J. H. HAYDEN.

The Oldest Orthodox Congregational Church.

CONDENSED FROM TWO ARTICLES IN THE "PURITAN RECORDER," IN REPLY TO ONE CLAIMING THIS HONOR FOR THE CHURCH IN LYNN. MASS.

THE present Congregational Church in Windsor was organized in Plymouth, Eng. land, in 1630. The original members had assembled at that port, and while awaiting the preparation of their ship the church was organized, and the Rev. John Warham and Rev. John Maverick were chosen and installed pastor and teacher. The Rev. Mr. White of Dorchester, rector of the Church of England there, assisted in the exercises of the occasion and preached the sermon. The embarkation, which took place soon after, occurred on the 20th of March, 1630; and on the 30th of May they were landed at Nantaskett Point, several weeks before the arrival of Governor Winthrop at Boston (see Clapp's Memoirs and Annals of Dorchester). Two of the assistants of Mas sachusetts, Mr. Roger Ludlow and Mr. Edward Rosseter, were among the original members of this church. The location selected was named Dorchester, from which place, after five years, the removal "of the Dorchester people" to Connecticut com menced. The new location was also named Dorchester, which name was afterwards changed by the court to Windsor. The church organization was not left behind in Massachusetts.1 Winthrop's Journal says a council was called to organize a church at Dorchester, April 11, 1636, "a large part of the old one being gone to Conn .; " but the council not being satisfied respecting the soundness of the views of those who proposed to form a new one, "except Mr. Mather and one more," the matter was deferred. On the 23d of August a church was organized, and a covenant, subscribed to by seven in- dividnals, was adopted. (See .Innals of Dorchester ) That this was nothing less than a new church organization is farther proved by a letter from John Kingsley (one of the seven). The letter was sent to Connecticut in 1676, asking aid, after the destruction of the town of Rehoboth. (See appendix to Public Records of Colony of Conneetient, 1852.) He says: " Now being unknowne to you heloe on the river, I say I am the 1 man and onely left of those that gathered the Church that is now in Dorchester, yet of lat have lived at Rehoboth." We have a negative proof that the original church of the Dor chester people, which was gathered in England, was not disbanded, in the absence of

The Lords and Gentlemen's pioneers under Mr. Francis Stiles, and the Dorchester people, both went on to the Great Meadow in the summer of 1635. The Plymouth peo ple, who had already been in the occupation of Plymouth Meadow two years, had also obtained an Indian title to the Great Meadow, which title they claimed should be re spected. In the negotiation which followed we find the Windsor pioneers designated by the title of their church organization. Bradford tells us (page 311) that the Wind- sor people complain that the Plymouth people had said that " they had rather give up their rights [in the Great Meadow] to them [the Lords and Gentlemen] (if they must part with them) than to the Dorchester Church."

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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

any reference to a new gathering of a church by Mr. Warham and his people, after their arrival in Connecticut; and the following extracts from the old Record of the Windsor Church, taken in connection with the foregoing, leaves no room for doubt on this point. The Record to which I refer is now in possession of the Connecticut His- torieal Society, and forms Appendix A of this History. It is a copy, or rather a compi- lation, from the original Records, and was made about 1620 by Matthew Grant, one of the original members of the church. After this, from time to time, the doings of the church are added until the death of Mr. Grant, ahont 1680. The first pages of this Record Book are somewhat mutilated by the crumbling of the leaves, but enough re- mains to show why the compiler of this Record did not give us a connected history of the church from its organization, but only designed to give a record of "Church things in general [as they have occurred since our] first settling down here in Windsor, and because the Elders of the Church have [a Record?] of Church proceedings in some things, .. therefore in such things as [there] be to speak to. I shall set down here in the for]der I can. Concerning the admission of per[sons to] full communion, I could give account of [all, but] judge there is no need of such as are dead and gone from us to other places."

At the head of the list of members a part of two lines are still legible, " were so in Dorchester, and came up luere with Mr. [ Warham] and still are of #x"; then follows a list of 17 male and ? female members, and on the next page over the column of the names of the male members we read: " [Men tha]t have been taken [into fu]ll communion since we [cam]e here. I set them down facefording to the year and [da]y of the month they were [admitted and now remain "; over the other column, "Women admitted here." Near the close of the record is another list of members, headed " The account of persons taken into Church communion, and years when, that are now living, Decem- ber 21, 1677."

" Only yet living that came from Dorcluster in full communion"; then follow a list of nine males. - " Women from Dorchester," a list of six. - "Men taken in here, "- " Women taken in here." This was 42 years after the church removed to Windsor.

It now remains to show that this church has not since lost its identity. It has been claimed that the First Church in Hartford is the oldest church in Connecticut in which the ordinances have been regularly administered. This claim probably originated from the Record Book, from which I have quoted. It says : "Here I set down the times of sacraments administered. January, 1669-70, a sacrament; whieb the Church has not had 2 years and 12 weeks." This was but two and a half months before Mr. Warham's death. It is evident from the Record, which is continued seven years and a half after the above date, that it was not the practice of the church at that time to have stated communion seasons. The intervals range from "7 weeks" to "28 weeks." Our ex- planation of the withholding the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for more than two years is as follows: In the fall of 1667 the church, in consequence of " Mr. Warham becoming ancient." sent to the pastors of Boston, Dorchester, and Cam- bridge, soliciting their assistance in procuring a suitable person for a colleague, and they recommended the Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey.

There was a want of unanimity among the people on the question of giving Mir. Chauncey a call; and the legislature, then in session, came forward in its wisdom to settle the difficulty, ordering a meeting of the freemen and householders of Windsor, on the Monday following, to vote for or against giving Mr. Chauncey a call, and forbid " all discourse and agitation " at said meeting, of such " matters as may provoke or disturb the spirits of each other." The result of that ballot was 86 votes for, and 52 against, calling Mr. Chauncey. The minority now appeal to the legislature, and obtain an order authorizing them to procure another minister for themselves; and liberty was granted to the church to settle Mr. Chauncey.

The next May. 1668, Mr. Warham inquires whether the legislature intended to an- thorize any of members of the church to withdraw, which was answered affirmatively.

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APPENDIX C.

At the next session, in the fall of 1668, a council of four ministers was designated to meet the April following, and " settle an accommodation between the church and the dissenting brethren in Windsor, if they can attain to it"; and in the meantime any might, " without offense," attend the separate meetings hekt by the minority (who had obtained the services of Rev. Mr. Woodbridge). The council was unsuccessful, and in the fall of 1669 the dissenting brethren were authorized by the legislature to gather themselves in a separate church. This permission was doubtless acted upon before the 16th of the January following, which comprised the whole interval of " 2 years and 12 weeks," during all which time, we have shown, the shield of the civil authority was held over the dissatisfied members, and they were now by the same authority removed from the membership of Mr. Warham's church.

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 103

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038