USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > South Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bloomfield > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor Locks > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
USA > Connecticut > Tolland County > Ellington > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 24
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Also, Thomas Parsons had a musket, August 19.
And John Parsons had a musket, August 21.
And Thomas Eggleston had a musket and a sword with scabbard. August 23.
All by Captain Newbary's allowance, and told me John London has a musket that was at his sons Jolm Madgly's [Mosely's).
(Same date). A count given of the locksmith of his work done to some of the town guns.
All the particulars he did to the guns of the town.
Nathaniel Pond, had, he put down,
For a gun Thomas Parsons had, he put down. . 5x 0
For a gun John Parsons had, his work about it, 2.v firl
And for a great spring and cock pin for a town lock, 3× Od!
And mending a lock, Captain Newbury brought,
1× 0.
All,
£1: 08: 04
189
EXTRAITS FROM TOWN ACTS, 1650-1675.
.March 24 .- The town met to give information to the persons chosen to run the line between Windsor and Simsbury. First, you must understand that our south bounds betwist Hartford and Windsor extend half a mile beyond the Chestnut tree west ward, and extends itself something beyond the foot of the mountain where you will find a tree marked, and from there you are to traverse a way by your compass North and by West, which is the line to be set out between Windsor and Simsbury, and you are carefully to extend this line till you meet with our North bounds."
"MATTHEW GRANT, SAMUEL MARSHALL, JOHN LOOMIS, JACOB DRAKE. THOMAS STOUGHTON." (Bk. ii. 37.)
Items in Grant's estimate of town debts. (Bk. ii. 38.)
Here I set down what town debts will be to be paid this year.
There must be pay ordered to make two new pounds,
C6: 00x: 0d
Nathaniel Bissell, for three days himself to run lines, and a quart of rum demanded, £0: 10x: 0d There must be pay looked for the meeting- house drum. . £1: 00: 0d
For 2 quarts of rum, and 2 quarts cider.
For 3 quarts of rum, and a bottle and 2 quarts of cider, £0: 8x: 0d John Bissell, for himself and horse 4 days east side river, £0: 108: 0d
And for 2 gallons cider he will have, £O: 2x: Od
Account of Tahan Grant, of iron work done for the town;
A scourer for the great gun; [probably the " saker " or cannon referred to on page 18], two extra pins and washers for the new carriage; 3 binders for the ferry boat, all are " £0: Ts: Od
" Thomas Powell, packer, his mark on meat cash. His mark with two P. P. with a racing iron on the head if it be good. If not then only with an X on the belges." (Bk. ii. 46.)
16:3. Windsor contributed 38 to a troop of horse ( "dragoons " ) of which Benja- min Newberry was commander.
1683, July 20. "A considerable Hood unexpectedly arose, which proved detrimental to many in that colony [Connectieut]. But. on August 13, a second and more dreadful flood came. The waters were then observed to rise twenty-six feet above their usual bowlaries; the grass in the meadow, also the English grain was carried away before it; the Indian corn, by the long continuance of the waters, is spoiled, so that the four river towns, viz., Windsor. Hartford, Wethersfield. Middle town are extreme sufferers. They write from thence that some who had hundreds of bushels of corn in the morning, at night had not one peck left for their families to live upon " - Mather's Remarkable Provide .. ex. p. 223. Offer's edition, London.
1688. Of nine train-bands in the county, Windsor had two : train-bands contained 64 men under a Captain: 32 under a Lieutenant; or 24 under a Sergeant.
1692-3. From a controversy wherein Timothy Palmer of Windsor sued a Middle- town man for a stray black horse which he claimed as his property, we learn that said Palmer and Nathaniel Winchell (æ. 32) were soldiers together, under Captain John Whiting at Deerfield, some three or four years previous to 1696-7. - Affidarits, vol. 22, 1696-T, State Archives.
CHAPTER IX.
AN EPISODE OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
1663-1684.
WIE harmony and efficiency which had hitherto characterized the churches of New England, now began to be. seriously threatened and disturbed by questions of church membership, discipline, and bap- tism. Commencing first in the church at Hartford, shortly after the decease of Mr. Hooker, the dissension spread into the neighboring churches, and finally the whole colony, as well as all New England, became warmly engaged in the dispute.
Important changes, it must be remembered, had taken place in the country since its first settlement. The ancient pastors were mostly dead or removed, and the worthy fathers who had followed them hither had given place to a generation who neither inherited their spirit of self-denial nor perhaps their strict piety. There were many, also, who had imini- grated at a later period, and with different motives and principles. In this manner a large party had arisen who favored the admission of all persons of " an honest life and conversation " to the full comannion of the churches, upon their profession of the Christian religion, without regard to any change of heart. Some even claimed that all those who had been members of the Established Church of England, or who had belonged and contributed to the support of regular ecclesiastical parishes there, should be allowed the privileges of full communion in the churches of New England.
The right of all baptized persons to the privileges of church mem- bership, and of baptism for their children, though they partook not of the Lord's Supper, was also much desired and insisted upon. The first settlers came to this country as church members, regularly embodied in a church state, and their children, of course, were all baptized. But, says Cotton Mather, " when our churches were come to between twenty and thirty years of age, a numerous posterity was advanced so far into to the world that the first planters began apace in their several families to be distinguished by the name of grandfathers; but among the imme- diate parents of the grandchildren there were multitudes of well-disposed persons who, partly through their own doubts and fears, and partly
191
ECCLESIASTICAL. 1663-1684.
through other culpable nogleets, had not actually come to the covenant- ing state of communicants at the table of the Lord. The good old gen- eration could not, without many apprehensions, behold their offspring excluded from the baptism of Christianity, and from the ecclesiastical inspection which is to accompany that baptism; indeed it was to leave their offspring under the shepherdly government of our Lord Jesus Christ in his ordinances that they had brought their lambs into this wilderness." 1
Thence arose a very natural and general desire to extend to this class of respectable persons who could not conscientiously feel that they were regenerated, and who were otherwise unable to comply with the rigid terms of congregational churches, the privileges of church member- ship for themselves, and of baptism and church watch for their children.
Involved with these questions was another, as to the exclusive rights of the churches to choose a pastor for themselves and the congre- gation. It was argued that as all the inhabitants of a town had an equal interest in the qualifications of a pastor, and were all obliged to contribute to his support, they had an equal right to vote in his election.
The innovations thus proposed met with mneh opposition from a large number of the clergy and most of the churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Church, with perhaps a too exalted idea of its sphere and privileges, yet with an honest desire to return to the purity of its earlier days, was battling with the world, whose war ery was " Expe- dieney, Democracy !" The public mind was greatly agitated. The General Court became interested, and endeavored to interpose its judicial author- ity to adjust the dispute. Councils were called, but so far from quieting the unhappy Church of Hartford, they ouly spread the flame into every part of the colony. Scarcely a church in Connecticut escaped the eon- tagion. As Dr. Mather quaintly observes : " From the fire of the altar there issued thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes through the colony." The civil authorities of Massachusetts and Connecticut now decided, although in the face of a strong opposition from many churches in the latter colony. to call a council at Boston to decide upon the sub- jeets in dispute. The council met June 4, 1657, and, after a session of some two weeks, returned an elaborate answer to twenty-one questions which had been referred to them. Several of these questions are involved in each other, and were sufficiently answered by the reply to the princi- pal one concerning baptism and church membership. On this point the council asserted that it was the duty of those who had been baptized in infancy, " when grown up unto years of discretion, though not fit for the Lord's supper, to own the covenant they made with their parents by entering thereinto in their own persons," and that, having so done, they
1 Magnalia Americana, ii. 238.
192
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
had a right to claim baptism for their children. This was, " in effect," says Trumbull, "an answer to the other respecting the right of the towns to vote in the election of ministers : for if they were all members of the church by baptism and under its discipline, they doubtless had a right to vote with the church in the election of their pastor."
All the painstaking and wisdom of the learned Boston Council, how- ever, served only to inflame rather than reconcile the churches. Weth- ersfield partook of the general disturbance, and. together with Hartford. refused to be comforted. until about 1660, when the disturbing elements were withdrawn by the removal of many of the disaffected of both churches to Hadley, Mass.
During the long continuance of this distressing controversy, which we have thus briefly sketched, the Windsor Church, so far as we can learn, enjoyed quiet. although not unaffected by the neighboring turmoil. Yet the leaven of discontent was doubtless at work in her bosom. The minds and prejudices of her members must, of course, have been vari- ously and deeply agitated on the questions which were claiming so large a portion of the public attention. Her pastor was now becoming old and feeble. He was one of the only two survivors of all the pions and gifted ministers who presided over the first churches of Connecticut. Of all that goodly company who solemnly chose him for their pastor, in the New Hospital at Plymouth, who suffered with him in Dorchester, and accompanied han on that wilderness journey to Connectient, but few were left, and they, like sere and yellow leaves, were quietly dropping away to their graves. The children who tilled their places neither inherited their ripe experience nor. it may be, their strict piety ; and mingled with these were many new comers. in whose hearts the world overpowered the interests of the church. The church, thus weakened by the gradual decay of her pastor. and the loss of those pillars which had so lens upheld her, was exposed and rudely shaken by the storm of contention and discord which raged on every side.
Yet it is not until 1664 that we find any allusion to difficulty in the church at Windsor. In March of that year, however, we find the following :
At a Session of the Gen" A ,sembly at Hartford, March 10th, 1663/4,-
" The Church of Christ at Windsor complaynes of James Enoe and Michaell Hum- phrey, for seuerall things contained in a paper presented to the Court. Mr. Clarke, in behalf of the Church, complaynes of James Enoe and Michael Humphrey for a misda- meanor in offering violence to an establisht law of this Colony. Mr. Clarke with drawe- this charge .- Col. Rec., i. 490.
Although the complaint was withdrawn by the church, yet the court saw fit to pass, at the same session, its censure upon the agitators of public peace, as follows:
193
ECCLESIASTICAL, 1663-1684.
"This Court having seriously considered the case respecting James Ennoe and Michaell Humphrey, doe declare such practices to he offensive, and may prove prejudi- ciall to the wellfare of this Collony, and this Court expects they will readily come to the acknowledgment of their error in the paper by them presented to the Church, where- upon, the Court respitts and remits the senstite due for their offence, provided answer. able reformation doth followe, expecting that their wouity therein will winne upon the spiritts of those concerned in this case. And this Court doth approne of the pious and prudent care of Windsor, in seeking out for a supply and help in the ministry, Mr. Warham growing ancient: and do order all persons in the sayd plantation to allow their proportion towards the competent maintenance of such a supply in the ministry. And the Court desires a friendly correspond ney may be maintained at Windsor, as if this trouble had never been: this Court declaring their readyness to mayntayne all the just privileges of all the members of this Corporation."-Col. Ree , i. 490.
In spite of this withdrawal by the church and the leniency of the court, the matter was again subsequently agitated by the malcontents in a paper, which, though lengthy. is presented verbatim, in order that the subject may be fully understood. It was drawn up by the skillful hand of William Pitkin, Esq., of Hartford, and was signed by seven persons. four of whom were Windsor men. Indeed, it is probable, from the evi- dence before us, that Eno and Humphrey were the chief movers in the affair, and that the letter was aimed at the Windsor church.
To the Honte the Gen" Assembly of the Corporation of Connecticott in New England :
The Ilumible Address www! Petition of sundry persons of and belonging to the same Corporation, sheweth,
That whereas we . whose names are subscribed, Beeing Proffessors of the Protestant Christian Relidgion, members of the Church of England, And Subjects to our Souereigne Lord Charles the Second, by God's Grace, King of England. Etc .; And vnder those sacred tyes mentioned and conceined in our Couenant, Sealed with our Baptism, Hau -- ing seriously pondered our past and present want of those Ordinances, wh to us and our Children. as members of Christ's wissible Church, ought to bee administered. Which wee Apprehend to bee to the Dishonour of God, and the obstruction of our owne and our Children's good, (Contrary to the Pious will of our Lord the King, in his maine purpose in Settling these Plantations, As by the Charter and His Maties Letter to the Bay. June 20. 1662, and other ways is most evidently manifest) to our great griefe, the Sunee of our Duty towards God, the relation wee stand in to our Mother the Church, our gratefull acceptance of His Mat- Royall fauor, the edification of our owne and our Children's Souls, and many other good Christian and profit ible ends (as allso al a Late session of this HIona! Assembley hauing received a fanoraole incouragement from the Wor" Dep. Gor .: ) Hereunto mouing us, We are bold by this our address to declare our Agreuiance and to Petition for a redress of the Same.
Dur aggreuiabre is, that wee and ours are not under the Due care of an orthodox Ministry, that will in a due manner administer to us those ordinances that we stand capable of, as the Baptizeing of our Children, our being admitted (as wee, according to Christs order may bee found meete) to the Lord's Table. And a carefull watch oner us in our wayes and suteable dealing with us as wee do well or ill, Withall whatsoeuer benefitt and Aduantages belong to us as members of Christs uissible Church, which ought to bee dispenced by the officers of the same, of wh. wee being Destitute.
We humbly Request, that this Hon'd Court would take into Serious Consideration our present state in this respect. that wee are thus as sheep scattered having no Shep- herd, and compare it with what we coneeine you can not but know, both God and our King would have it different from what it now is And take some Speedy and effectnall
VOL. 1-25
104
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
course for redress herein And put us in a full and free capacity of injoying they Try mentioned Aduantiges which to us as members of Christ, uis-ible " hurch do of ri -tp bellong. By Establishing som wholesome Law in this Corporation, by uertue whereot. wee may both claime and receive of such officers as are or shall be by Law set ouer u- in the Church or Churches where wee baue our abode or residence those foremen tioned privileges and advantages.
furthermore wee humbly request that for the future no Law in this Corporation may be of any force to make us pay or contribute the maintenance of any Minister of officer of the Church that will neglect or refuse to Baptise our Children, and to tak . egmont a o of angle meinbers of the Church ward under his or their Charge of care
Thus in hopes that yor care full and speedy consideration and Isline here of, will bee answerable to the weight of the matter and our necessity, and that matters of less moment may be Omitted till this be Ishned we waite for a good answer, and for this Honored Court we shall ever pray, etc."
Oct. 17, 1664.
[Signed by] WM. PITKIN [ Hartford], MICHAELL, HUMPHREY [Windsor], JOHN STEDMAN [Hartford], JAMES ENON [Windsor], ROBERT REFUE, JOHN MOSESS [Windsor], JONAS WESTOVER [Windsor].1
Stripped of its verbiage, the petition simply amounts to this: Michael Humphrey and James Eno, by virtue of their having been in England members of the National Church, demanded from the (non- conforming ) Church of Windsor baptism for their children, and admis- sion to full church privileges.
This, of necessity, was declined. Thereupon James Eno and Michael Humphrey, with five others, petition the Assembly, in well-set phrase, "to establish some wholesome law" by virtue of which they "may claim anl receive" of such officers "as are or shall be set over us in the churches where we have our abodes and residences these fore- mentioned privileges and advantages." And they furthermore request to be relieved from paying the minister's tax, or in any way contributing to the support of any church whose officers shall see fit to deny them these desired privileges. It was, in short, asking the Assembly to pre- scribe the terms of membership for the churches.
There were several other facts which serve to show, in a stronger light, if it were necessary, the cool effrontery of this petition. Both Mir. Warham and Mr. Maverick had been regularly ordained ministers in the Church of England, and it is well known that the main points of dissent between Puritans and Episcopalians were not so much of doctrine as of forms of church government and discipline. These fathers of the Wind- sor Church had left their homes and endured much suffering that they might establish for themselves and their children after them a system of church government which they deemed more in accordance with the New
1 State Library, Hartford, Conn., Ecclesiasticol, Vol. I. Doc. S.
195
ECCLESIASTICAL, 1663-1684.
Testament. It was not strange, therefore, that they should hesitate to throw aside or modify that system merely to gratify the wishes of advent- uters who had come after them, and who had not " borne the heat and burden of the day." For Michael Humphrey came to Windsor in 1643, and James Eno in 1646. They certainly could not have come to Amer- iva for religious liberty. If that had been their object they might better have remained in England, where Episcopacy was the rule and not the 1 " ist .pl. long civil cause of complaint. On their coming to Windsor they had been freely allowed the same priv- ileges as other citizens, and the town had even voted James Eno a plot of ground. already under cultivation, within the palisado, " to barber on." Manifestly, then, this petition was unjust and arrogant in its pretentions, as well as improper in its tone. It revealed the fact that even in the Church of Windsor there were some smoldering ashes of discontent which the surrounding agitation of the times could hardly fail, eventually. to kindle into a consuming blaze.
Ever since the Council of 1657 its opinions concerning baptism had been gradually gaining ground, and many of the clergy and people were desirous of carrying them into effect. So general and formidable, how- ever, was the opposition to it that it could not be effected without a synod. Consequently the General Court of Massachusetts convened a synod of all the ministers of that colony at Boston in September, 1662. Their answer to the principal question, " Who are the subjects of baptism ?" substantially reaffirmed the decision of the Council of 1657. Their ver- diet was by no means unanimously received. Many of New England's most learned and able divines, among whom were the Rev. Charles Chauncey, president of Harvard College, Dr. Increase Mather, Mr. Mather of Northampton. and Mr. Davenport of New Haven, opposed it by word and pen ; and the churches were, as a body, more opposed than the clergy.
The General Court of Connecticut, having other important matters on hand, had hitherto taken no official action on the subject. But at their October session this year (1664), aroused by the lamentable discord which prevailed throughout the country, and especially, it may be pre- sumed, by the tone of the petition which had been presented to them by Messrs. Pitkin, Eno, Humphrey, etc., they passed the following resolve, which was evidently intended to enforce the action of the synod upon the churches of the colony.
"This Court vnderstanding, by a writing presented to them, from senerall persons of this Colony, that they are aggrieved, that they are not intertained in church tellow. ship: this Court, hauing duly considered the same, desireing that the rules of Christ may be attended, doe commend it to the ministers and churches in this Colony to con- sider whether it be not their duty to entertaine all such persons, whor are of an hottest and godly conversation, hauing a competency of knowledg in the principles of religion,
196
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
and shall desire to joyne web them in church fellowship, by an explicitt conenant - and that they hane their children baptized; and that all the children of the church !.. accepted and accol reall members of the church; and that the church excercise a due christian care and watch ouer them; and that when they are growne up, being exam ined by the officer in the presence of the church. it appeares in the judgment of charity. they are duly qualified to perticipate in that great ordinance of the Lords Supper, by theire being able to examine themselves and discerne the Lords body, such persons be admitted to full comunion
"The Court desires y' the severall officers of ye respective churches would he l'e 1. . .. .... . !. . . it Is not the duty of the Court to order the churches to practice according to the premises, if they do not practice wthout such an order.
"If any dis sent from the contents of this writing they are desired to help the Court, w" such light as is wth them, the next session of this assembly."-Col. Rec., i. 437
A copy of this was ordered to be sent to each church and minister in the colony, by the Secretary of the Court.
The measure thus proposed was what is best known as the Half-way Covenant. It failed, however, to convince the heart or to satisfy the conscience of the great mass of the people. They felt a natural dread lest such latitudinarianism with respect to baptism and church commun- ion should tend to weaken and subvert the very design for which the churches of New England were established. And in spite of the wisdom and influence of councils and synods, the uneasiness of many church members, and the plainly indicated will of the General Court, its intro- duction into the churches of Connecticut was slow and difficult. Many hesitated for years, and others utterly refused to adopt it into practice.
In the history of the Half-way Covenant, the course of the Windsor Church was peculiar and exceptional. Mr. Warham, whose views were somewhat more liberal than those of the clergy of that day,' sympathized with the resolution of the Council of June, 1657, of which he had been a member, and shortly after formally adopted the practice in his own congregation. " And the time which Mr. Warham first began this practice," says the record,3 " was Jannary 31, 1657[8] and went ou in the practice of it until March 19, 1664[5, on] which day he declared to the church that he had met with such arguments against the practice,
1 This we may justly infer from the following extract from the letter of Fuller, the Plymouth physician, to Gov. Bradford, dated June 28. 1630, wherein he says : " 1 have been at Mattapau, at the request of Mr. Warham (N. B. The Dorchester party had suffered considerably in health from their long voyage, and needed medical treatment). I had conference with them till I was weary. Mr. Warham holds that the visible church may consist of a mixed people, godly and openly ungodly, upon which point we all had our conference, to which, I trust, the Lord will give a blessing."
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