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 25
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 25
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 25
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 25
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 25
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 25
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? By appointment of the Court. See Col. Rec., i. 288.
8 Trumbull in his Hist. of Conn. (i. 471), says the Half-way Covenant was first in- traduced by the Hartford Church (under Mr. Woodbridge) in February, 1696. But Trumbull was not aware of the existence of this Windsor Church record, from which we quote the above. This conclusively entitles the Windsor Church to the honor (?) of being the first church in Connecticut to adopt the Covenant.
197
THE HALF-WAY COVENANT, IN WINDSOR.
concerning the baptizing of members' [chi]ldren. that he could not get through at present, and could not go on as he had done without seruples of conscience. Therefore [he] must forbear, until he had weighed argu- ments and advised-with those that were able to give [advice]. Not that he intended to cast off the practice wholly, but only to delay it for a time, till he could be better able to answer his present seruples, for if he should act, and not of faith, Romans 14th [chapter] would be sin in
What the arguments were which so sorely troubled the faithful and conscientious pastor, we do not know. The fact is evident from the church records, that the Half-way Covenant was not resumed until the summer of 1668. Then Mr. Chauncey, who was preaching as a supply to the Windsor Church, " set it [the practice] on again," by the follow- ing vote of the church: "June 21st, 1668. It was by vote of the ('hurch assented to, that adult persons, be it Husband or Wife, that de- sired to have their children baptized by Mr. Chauncey, should if they presented themselves to the Elders in private, and declared to their sat- isfaction, their knowledge in the principles, and owned the Father's Cov- enant, there should nothing be required of them in public, until they presented themselves for full communion."' Two weeks after, July 5th, the records of baptism under this Covenant, which had been dropped since '64, is again resmmed. " So the delay of it, from the 19th of March, '64, was three years and so much [more] as from the 19th of March to the 21st of June, [the time] that Mr. Chauncey set it on again." --- Old Church Record.
This was ouly two years before the decease of Mr. Warham, whose failing strength had for some time past incapacitated him from the active duties of the ministry. Whether his seruples had been removed, or whether the Covenant was resmed on the responsibility of the church and Mr. Chauncey, and with his approbation, does not appear. The practice, however. was continued. and the Windsor Church, having been the first to ad out, was almost the last in the State of Connecticut to re- linquish the Half-way Covenant.2
Mr. Warham, the venerable pastor, as we have before intimated, was how well stricken in years, and both he and his people felt the necessity of procuring a suitable colleague to assist him in his duties. They had sent in the summer of 1666 to the pastors of Boston, Dorchester, and
Old Church Record - which adds that " before this time it had been the practice to call such persons in public to stand forth and answer to questions of catechism pro- pounded to them, and to own the church Covenant."
? It was abandoned during the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Rowland, and it is believed that the youngest brother of our friend, Mr. Jabez H. Hayden, was the last baptized under its provisions - 1822.
198
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
Cambridge, soliciting their aid in the matter, and received the following reply, recommending Mr. Nathaniel Chauncey :
To the Reverend Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Witchfield, Elders of the Church of Christ at Windsor; these, Reverend and much beloved in the Lord.
We have received your letter by Brother Filer, and were we as capable of serving you in a matter of so great importance, as we are willing, we hope we should not be wanting to answer your desires. But it is little we can say by reason of our unar. quaintedness (especially most of us) with the persons by you named. For Mr. Nath! Chauncey we have good encouragement by what we hear concerning his learning and steadiness, diligence, hopetul piety, grave and peaceable demeanor. As concerning his voice, two of us never heard him preach, from the third [of us] you have heard an ar- count formerly. We bear that it was better and more audible the second time he preached at Cambridge, than the first. But we understand he is likely to preach again the next Lord's day, when some of yours [Windsor people] will be present, by whom you may have further information than we can now give.
For Mr. Chauncey, he is not at present in the Bay [Mass. ], but we understand he is likely to be here about a fortnight hence, and some probabilities that he will come free from the place where now he is. We learn that he hath well approved himself for uis abilities in preaching, and for piety, having been received into full communion in the church at Ipswich several years since, and carried it commendably among the people where he is. We can not discourage you from either of these two, both of them being persons of good esteem with us, but we dare not take upon us, which of these you should pitch upon (only that Mr. Chauncey is now free and serviceable to be attained at the present). But we suppose the inhabitants of yourselves and people, and the mo- tives of desire propounded, will guide you as to that.
The Lord direct your way before you, with a choice blessing, yea with one, who may come unto you in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. With dear- est express [ions] and desire of mutual prayers, we take leave, and remain Your loving Brethren in Jesus Christ, JOHN WILSON [Boston]. RICHARD MATHER [Dorchester], JONATHAN MITCHEL [Cambridge].
Boston, 7º of the 4th month, 1666 [July 7th].
There was, however, a want of unanimity among the people on the question of giving Mr. Chauncey a call ; and the legislature then in ses- sion attempted to settle the difficulty, by the following compulsory order of October the 10th, 1667 :
"This Court doth desire and require the Town of Windsor, to meet on Monday next, at the Meeting House, by sun an hour high in the morning, and all the freemen and householders within the limits of said town and Massaco [Simsbury] are to bring in their votes to Mi. Henry Wolcott; Those that would have Mr. Chauncey to be the settled Minister for Windsor, are to bring in a paper to Mr. Wolcott, a paper with some writing on it, those that are against his continuance are to bring a white paper to Mr. Wolcott. And Mr. Wolcott is desired to take the account of it, and make a report thereof to the General Assembly. And this court doth hereby require and command all and every of the inhabitants of Windsor, that during this meeting they forbear all discourse and agitation of any matter as may provoke or disturb the spirits of each other; and at the issue of the work that they repair to their several occasions [occupa- tions] as they will answer the contrary. If any should object against the vote of any person, Mr. Henry Wolcott is to decide it. This is to be published on the sabbath day. after the morning exercise."
1 Col. Rec., ii. 73.
·
199
THE REV. NATHANIEL CHAUNCEY'S SETTLEMENT.
The question produced nmieh excitement and probably called forth the entire strength of the " freemen and householdlers." One hundred and thirty -six votes were pollel, with a result favorable to Mr. Chauncey.
" Mr. Wolcott returns that this day. being the 14th of October, the Town hath met, and that there was eighty-six voted .or Mr. Chauncey's continuance, and fifty two voted against it." 1
- nntitioned the Assembly to authorize them to proeure another minister for themselves. This, together with permission to the church to settle Mr. Chauncey, was granted by the fol- lowing order :
"This Court having duly weighed the case presented by the church at Windsor re- -pecting the uncomfortable contentions there in reference to Mr. Chauncey's reception, and the dissatisfaction of a considerable number of the inhabitants as to his settling. Do therefore, upon the earnest solicitation of the dissenting party, as an expedient to their mutnal peace and settlement, gran liberty to those inhabitants that are unsatisfied and can not close with Mr. Chauncey, if they sec meet, to provide or procure an able orthodox minister, such an one as the General Assembly shall approve of; and this court leaves the Church at Windsor at liberty for settling Mr. Chauncey and calling him to office; and in the mean time and until another be procured and resident in the work of the ministry at Windsor by the aforesaid inhabitants, this court expects and orders that all persons at Windsor shall contribute according to their proportions to the maintenance of Dir. Chauncey.
Among the names of those added to the Church, year by year, we have this entry, under date of January 12, 1667[-68],
"Mr. Nathaniel Chauncey made public declaration of his faith in Christian princi- ples and the manner of God's workings in his soul " -- Old. Church Rec.
by which we infer that he then united with the Windsor Church, since he was not settled as its pastor until some time later. But since he mast have been a member somewhere else previously. it would seem as if members were not then received by letter from one Church to another, but entered a Church only by profession of faith.3
The Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey was the fourth son of Rev. Charles Chauncey, second president of Harvard College, the emigrant ancestor of the American family of Chauncey, who was the son of George Channeey of Newplace and Yardly-Bury, Hertfordshire, Eng. Nathaniel was born about 1639 at Plymouth, Mass., but was baptized at Scituate,
' Ibid.
2 Col. Rec., i. 76.
' Rev. G. C. Wilson, in Hist. of Church at Quarter-Millennial Anniversary, March 30, 1550, who also adds this note: "Letters of recommendation were given by this church as early as 1685, as appears from the following record in the old books of the Fir -. ( hurch, Hartford, under tha' date: 'Daniel Clark, upon letter of recommenda- tion from the Christian Church in Windsor, owned the covenant,' from which it appears also that the letter did not do away with the necessity of a covenanting with that church oh admission."
200
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
1641. He took his first degree at Harvard College, 1661, with his [twin ] brother Elnathan and his brother Isaac, and tradition credits hits as having been a distinguished scholar. He took the degree of A.M. at Harvard, 1664, and maintained the affirmative of the thesis, " Ctrun: detur idea omnium entium, in primum ente ?" He was afterwards : Fellow of the College. On the title page of the New England Almana for the year 1662, the year after his graduation. his name appears as the author, with the following motto : " Felix qui potuit rerum cognostore causas." being engaged at Windsor during a period of much public ex- citement concerning things ecclesiastical, it is not strange that he ro- mained there only twelve years - the only pastor during the Windsor Church's first two centuries of existence. who did not remain and die among the people of his charge. He was invited, Nov. 10, 1679, to Hat- field, Mass., where he was settled January 21, 16-0, and died Nov. 4, 1685.
He belonged to a scholarly and intellectual family ; his brother, Rev. Israel, settled as pastor at Stratford, Conn., 1666, had a son, Rev. Charles, born 1668, graduated at Harvard 1686, who was first pastor of Stratfield Church, Conn., and married for his second wife, 16 March, 1698, Sarah, daughter of Henry Wolcott of Windsor. Another son of Rev. Israel, Rev. Isaac, was schoolmaster at Stratfield, Conn., 1695, and was finally settled at Hadley. Mass. The Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey's sister Sarah married Rev. Gershom Bulkley, pastor at Wethersfield, Conn., from 1667-1676.
Accordingly the dissenting party having made choiec of the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, requested permission of the Assembly to enjoy his services as their minister. Whereupon May the 18th, 1668, the "Court declares that they shall not disapprove of Mr. Woodbridge's con- tinuance as a lecturer there, and that if the church and Mr. Warham shall so far condescend for peace as to give liberty for Mr. Woodbridge to preach once a fortnight on the Sabbath, as well as on the week day, until some further time be obtained to improve some other way as an expedient for the peace of Windsor, it shall be acceptable to this Court." 1
Also, Mr. Warham having enquired of the assembly, whether they had intended by their order of the previous October, to authorize the withdrawal of any members of the church, was affirmatively answered " that the dissenting party mentioned in the order are those that have liberty granted them."
The dissenting party, however, could not long remain contented with the limited functions allowed to Mr. Woodbridge; and it is also quite probable that Mr. Warham had not " seen fit to condescend for peace sake," that Mr. Woodbridge should officiate on the sabbath. That the adherents of the latter made strenuous efforts to secure a town vote
1 Ibid., ii. 58.
3
201
ECCLESIASTICAL. 1669-1684.
in his favor, and that public feeling ran high on the subject, is suffi- cently evidenced by the following entry on the town records, in a strange hand, to which is appended the formal protest of the town clerk :
August 8th. At a town meeting warned by the townsmen, by the desire of several tlebitants, to see the desires of the town concerning giving Mr. Woodbridge a call to preach once on the Lord's day. and it was voted by a full vote.
This as a proviso: I here express to clear myself from having any hand in assenting : the warning of the town meeting. so called. as George Griswohl has entered in this Book. Auz't, the 8th. - 68- for he and some others came [my] house after they had ben topeitter. aug Gtst th . day. that Mr Woodbridge shall have liberty to preach on the Sabbath. I tokt him i would not have no hand in the business, nor enter their vote. Then he desired me to let him have the town Book wherein I used to euter such things. He being a towns- man I laid the Book upon the table, and there he wrote himself what is entered by his own hand. This I testify.
MATTHEW GRANT. Augt. 17th, 1668.
Sept. 28th. Also Voted that the townsmen should get the meeting house to be set in good repair, every way that it needs, and to be made comely, upon the town cost.
Dissension, however, continued to reign supreme, and the assembly then had resort to that most unsatisfactory of all resorts. at ecclesias- tical council.
O.t . 1668. " This Court hy reason of several applications, that have been made to them both by the off. ers of the Church of Christ at Windsor, and also by the dissenting party, are to the ir great grief vers apprehensive that those divisions that have been wetter them there, are not healed, and therefore can not hut declare that they are very studions to promote the publie peace of the Church and town of Windsor. And m order thereto, this Court doth desire and appoint the Revd Mr. James Fitch, Mr. Samuel Wakeman, Mr. Ger-bom Bulkley and Mr. Joseph Eliott, to meet at Windsor the Ith day of the second week in April (or sooner if they see canse) there to hear all and what- wever shall be represented to them by the Church of Christ at Windsor, or by the dis- unting brethren and inhabitants there, in reference to Mr Chauncey's invitation, recep- tion, ele- tion and or lination to office in the Church of Christ at Windsor; and also what never shall be objected against the procurement, entertainment, continuance and improvement of Mr. Woodbridge at Windsor. And when they have heard what they have to say. of both sides, they are desired and empowered to settle an accommodation between the church and dissenting brethren of Windsor, if they can attain it. But if. after all their endeavors the aforesaid Gent" can not attain an accommodation or issue to "isfaction, they are desired and by this Court ordered to make a return how they find the state of Windsor, with their advice annexed; what way in their judgments may be the most agreeable to rule to settle peace in the church and town of Windsor. But it, In any Providence of God, any of the aforementioned Gente should be hindered from mirting the aforesaid time. they are desired to take the next opportunity to attend the foresaid service, so it be before the General Court in May next. And for the mean time this Court grants Mr. Woodbridge liberty to keep a lecture at Windsor once a fort- night on the 4th day of the week. that the inhabitants of that plantation, as their oeca- win will permit, may religiously and without offence attend the same, and not on the "ahbath without liberty from the Reverend Mr. Warham; which is all at present this C'inrt sees canse to grant."1
: Col. Rec., ii. 99.
VOL. I .- 26
202
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
This council, however, was unsuccessful in its attempt to reconcile matters, and, by their advice, the dissenting party were at last permitted to embody chemistIves into a separate church organization.
May, 1669. "The precedent Court having desired and impounded Mr. James Fitch. Mr. Ger-Lom Balkley, Mr. Samuel Wakeman and Mr. Joseph Eliott, to hear all that should be presented to them by the Church of Windsor or by dissenting brethren and inhabitants there, in reference to Mr. Chauncey's invitation, reception, election and ordination, and also whatsoever should be objected against the procurement, entertain- hell, solid. inidast nato heard what they have to say of both sides, to settle an accommodation in that case, and the said Heutr bravive heard and omsidered and returned in writing under their hands the sense of that case, and their advice for an accommodation suitable to the present state of matters there. This Court doth, according to the serious advice of those said Gent", approve that both those Gen", viz : Mr. Chauncey and Mr. Woodbridge, abide in their respective improvements as formerly, till such time as either there be a greater appearance of the settlement of their peace in the enjoyment of these, or some other orderly means (to be promoted by the civil authority) may be used for the procuring of another minister, en as may be for the union and satisfaction of the whole, or till some other expedient be ordered by the Court. And it is ordered that a copy of the Elder's advice be delivered to the Church of Windsor, and another copy to the dissenting party. And it is desired they would severally declare to the next Court in October, their con- sideration about it. '
Oct. 16. 1669. "This Court finding to their great grief that the differences and dissensions at Windsor, do, after many means of healing yet continue, and no appear- ance of a mutual compliance as yet presented in their last return to what the Count recommended. therefore they see not cause to deny liberty to those dissenters to meet distinctly for the present and orderly and regularly to imbody themselves in church state, according to law, when they shall seek it." (Col. Rer., ii. 124.)
They lost no time in acting upon the consent so reluctantly granted by the court. Mr. Woodbridge was ordained over the new church on the 18th of March following (1669-70)," and the old Town House was fitted up and occupied as a place of worship. This Town House ( son p. 138,) stood in the Palisado, on the present parsonage-lot of the Cou- gregational Church. The seceders called themselves the New Society. and their place of meeting the " new meeting-house."
The " true inwardness" of this division cannot now be fully ascer- tained. "Since the Synod of 1662. which endorsed and authorized the Half-way Covenant system, proposed at first in 1657, there seems to have been a great division in the churches throughout the colonies. Not only in Hartford, but in Boston also, there was a secession of a portion of the
' Col. Rec., ii. 113.
2 In Mr. Simon Bradstreet's Journal (N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, ix 45) is the follow ing item: " March 18, '69-70. My Br. Benjamin Woodbridge was ordained minister of the Presbyterian party (as they are accounted) of Windsor." The Rev. Mr. Bradstreet of New London, was both cousin and brother-in-law of Rev. Benj. Woodbridge ( ... Gen. Reg., ix. 115), and it is hardly probable that he was either misinformed or would be apt to say "ordained " unless he meant it. I have therefore preferred to adopt ht- account, in direct opposition to that of Trumbull, who says (Mixt, Conn., i. 470) that neither Mr. Chauncey nor MIr. Woodbridge were ordained.
203
ECCLESIASTICAL, 1663-1684.
nhi church, and a new one formed, which is now known as the Old South. One party here in Windsor was called the Presbyterian party. Dr. Par- ker of Hartford, in his discourse at the 200th anniversary of the South Church, says: . Within a month from the time when the Second Church in Hartford was formed the party in the church at Windsor that dis- sented from the strict Congregationalism of old Mr. Warham, withdrew. and Mr. Woodbridge was ordained as minister of the Presbyterian party of Windsor.' It is known that the Presbyterians of England had exerted (' til at Boston, in 1648. to frame the plat- form of the New England churches in accordance with their ideas, and doubtless many within the colony were then favorable to the polity of that Church, which. under Cromwell, had been made for a time the established Church of England. But the disagreement was not - all between these two lactions of the church. There could not have been perfect peace in the main body if it be true, as reported, that . when a sermon was preached in the pulpit in the forenoon concerning doctrines to which Mr. Chauncey was opposed. he would in the afternoon preach to the same audience from the same text a regular logical refutation of these doctrines,'"'- a testimony which, however creditable to his mental ability and readiness, could scarcely have been conducive to peace among the flock.
Another fact is worthy of mention here in connection with these dis- cussions, viz., that " for two years and twelve weeks, before February, 1669 (while matters were unsettled and the minority of the church. though worshiping apart. had not yet obtained leave to form a separate church, and the General Court was holding the matter under advisement ). Matthew Giant records that the church held no communion service."
It would seem that the two churches might now have pursued their respective ways in peace and quietness. But that bitter words and uncharitable thoughts were yet rankling in the hearts of those who should have been brethren, is evidenced by the following document :
"The humble application of the distressed and grieved inhabitants of Windsor. requesting the Court to direct that the disaffected have the meeting-house their share of the time on the Sabbath and not cause a division. The experience we have had doth give us a test of the ruins of division. If there can be no union obtained by all endeav- ors that are used we are apt to think that time will bring such desolations upon us.
We thank God tis the same Gospel truths that are preached by our minister and by the others and to find out the reason why one must take all the labor upon himself, and the other must be sileut and have his mouth stopped when we have need of variety of gifts, doth puzzle other heads than ours.
[Dated] May 13. 1670.
[Signed]
THOS. STOUGHTON, GEORGE GRISWOLD, TIMOTHY THRALL, [for the rest. ]
History of the Church of Windsor, by Rev. G. C. Wilson; read at the Quarter Mil- lennial Anniversary of said church, held March 30. 1880. p. 27. 28.
* Thid., p. 28.
204
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
In the midst of these uncomfortable bickerings and disputation Mr. Warham died. He expired April 1, 1670, having been for forty vrars minister in New England, six at Dorchester, and thirty-four .it Windsor. The little that is known of him is contained in the following passage from Cotton Mather's Magnolia, 1. 442:
" The whole colony of Connectient considered him as a principal pillar and fallor of the colony. I suppose the first preacher that ever preached with notes in our \ 's England was the Rev Warham: who, though he was sometimes faulted for it by som jadiclot. med who had nevini heard him, yet when once they came to hear him, they could not but admire the notable energy of his ministry. He was a more vigorous preacher than most of them who have been applauded for never looking in a book m their lives.
" But I have one thing to relate concerning him which I would not mention if I did not, by the mention thereof, propound and expect the advantage of some that may be my readers. Know then that, though our Warham were as pious a man as most that were out of Heaven, yet Satan often threw him into those deadly pangs of melancholy that made him despair of ever getting thither. Such were the terrible temptations ami horrible buffeting, undergone sometimes by the soul of this holy man, that when he has administered the Lord's Supper to his flock, whom he durst not starve by omitting to administer that ordinance. set he has forborne himself to partake at the same time in the ordinance, through the fearful dejections of his mind, which persuaded him that those blessed seals did not belong unto him. The dreadful darkness which overwhelmed this child of light in his life, did not wholly brave him till his death. "Tis reported that he did even art in a cloud, when he retired into the glorified Society of those righteous ones that are to shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father, though some have asserted that the cloud was dispelled before he expired.
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