USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 37
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* Felt's " Customs of New England," 137.
441
COSTUME.
Shoes with silver or brass buckles were worn with the stockings or hose ; and buckles of the same materials secur- ed the small-clothes and stockings at the knee.
The coat was in partial use at the time of the emigration, but the doublet was more gererally worn. The coat then in fashion came down directly in front below the knee, and was fastened to the very bottom with buttons or clasps, and sometimes with hooks and eyes. The skirts were very full, and were made to hang off from the person by being stiffen- ed with buckram .* In 1715, and perhaps earlier, this gar- ment was made with pockets opening from the outside, pro- tected by ample flaps. The coat worn by wealthy gentle- men, and persons of official rank, was profusely decorated with gold lace. Instead of the broad collar of the present day, it had only a narrow hem that exposed to view the plaited stock of fine linen cambric, with its large silver buckle at the back of the neck.t The close-bodied coat, with its short waist and flexible skirts, was not introduced until 1790, or about the middle of the reign of George III.
Cloaks were also used by the fathers of New England. They were of a variety of colors, but the most fashionable were red.
Hats were at first for the most part made of wool, but beaver hats soon came into use, and prevailed for many years. Of whatever material, they were high-crowned, and in the form of a sugar-loaf. The brims were so broad as to make it necessary for the wearer to hold them on firmly with the hand when the wind was blowing. This fashion continu- ed until about 1700, with some slight changes. The grace- ful hat worn by Charles I., and his cavaliers, with its plume, was sometimes seen even in New England. The military cocked hat, called also the Monmouth hat, began to be worn
* Lambert's Hist. New Haven Col., 198. + Lambert, 198.
# The skins of animals were much used for garments among the early settlers. In the inventory of Mr. William Whiting, one of the wealthiest citizens of Con- necticut, (who died in 1649,) are the following items: " two raccoon coats, one wolf skin coat, four bear skins, three moose."
4.42
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
in this country about the year 1670. The average width of the brim at that date was six inches. This inconvenient width probably suggested the plan of cocking it or turning it up and fastening it against the side of the crown. It was first cocked on one side only, then on the opposite side also, and in the reign of queen Elizabeth a third side was turned up-making the three-cornered cocked hats worn by gentle- men in New England from the year 1732 to 1779. Even gentlemen's sons of the age of fourteen years, wore the trian- gular hat. When gentlemen paid their respects to ladies, or to each other in public, they took it off, or in the language of the day, " vailed it."
Watches were worn by gentlemen in New England as early as 1655; but this did not become general until about a century later.
Rings were worn as ornaments in Connecticut from the earliest times. Ear-rings and thumb-rings were also in use .*
The authorities of New England were originally opposed to the fashion of wearing long hair. In Massachusetts, long hair was made the subject of legislative enactments. But throughout New England, it is believed that laws regulating dress were not usually enforced as other statutes were. The beard was at first worn in New England by the upper class- es, but gradually diminished until 1685, when it was closely shaven except in particular instances.
Wigs were worn in New England soon after the middle of the seventeenth century. They appear to have been of various colors, patterns, and dimensions, according to the taste of the wearer or the fashion of the particular era or locality. Judges, magistrates, lawyers, and gentlemen gen- erally, were among the first to adopt the custom. Many of
* The ring presented by Charles I., to the grandmother of the Elder Winthrop, was, it will be remembered, dexterously used by the son of the latter in procur- ing the charter of Connecticut from Charles II. In the inventory of the widow of Colonel John Livingston of New London, (1736,) are mentioned, " four gold rings, one silver ring, one stoned ring, a ring with five diamonds, a pair of stoned ear-rings, a stone drop for the neck, and a red stone for a locket." Caulkins' Hist. of New London, p. 365.
443
FEMALE COSTUME.
the clergy subsequently fell in with it and carried it to ex- tremes ; though others talked, preached, and prayed most earnestly for the suppression of the "unchristian habit."* To a man of commanding person and features, passed mid- dle age, the full flowing white wig often gave a·venerable and dignified appearance. Such appendages, however, when donned by young men and lads, as they frequently were, be- came mere caricatures of their original design. Wigs were often powdered, and fell in long luxuriant curls upon the shoulders. Of course the supply of human hair of light color, or indeed of any color, was far from being equal to the demand. Hence, horses and goats were shorn of their superfluous appendages, and the flaxen locks of chil- dren were cut off, and the hair thus obtained was washed in a peculiar kind of bleaching suds and then spread upon the grass to whiten like linen. This singular fashion seems to have gradually died with the waning of the last century, though a few individuals retained the use of their wigs until a more modern date.
The early costume of the women of Connecticut seems to have exhibited as great a variety in style and taste as that of the other sex. Ever ready to conform to the peculiar cir- cumstances in which Providence may have placed them, the mothers and daughters of New England cheerfully submitted to the privations incident to their condition. Here, in a primitive wilderness, with little or no society except that of men and women as earnest and self-sacrificing as themselves, we may readily infer that for many years the punctilious forms of etiquette, and the spirit of fashionable display, were almost entirely undeveloped. Still, even in what has been characterized as the "home-spun age," the matrons and maidens were not wanting either in taste or skill in fitting and perfecting their own garments. Their natural love of
* Mr. Felt says of Eliot, the celebrated apostle to the Indians-" He imagined it [the use of wigs] to be an abundant source of calamities which had befallen our land."
+ Felt, 184.
·
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
neatness, order, and beauty, would of itself enable them to impart elegance and grace to the most rustic costume.
As the outward circumstances of the planters gradually improved, and the proportion of wealthy emigrants increas- ed, the wings of commerce were proportionably extended to supply their growing wants. Many of the superfluities and luxuries of the old world were brought to our shores for such as were able and disposed to purchase them. The fashions of the father-land were in a measure revived. Silks, satins, laces, and other costly fabrics, were among the articles im- ported, and were in great demand among the rich and fash- ionable ladies of those times.
I design to speak only of some of the peculiarities of dress among the women of Connecticut in former times.
Trailing gowns, were more or less in use both in England and America for upwards of a century, ending some sixty years ago. These gowns were liberally set off with flounces and furbelows, with a trail from half a yard to a yard and a half in length, sweeping the floor or street when allowed to have its full course. They were, however, often "trolloped"- that is, fastened up at each side by loops ; frequently how- ever, the trail was carried by the lady upon her arm .* Among the most exclusive class, especially in England, one or two pages were employed to carry the trail. Thus the poet Cowley, remarks-" They cannot stir to the next room without a page or two to hold it up."
During the last century, "hooped skirts" were common. The form of them varied at different periods. In 1735, they projected all around the bottom of the skirts like a wheel ; and in 1745, they were increased at the sides and lessened in front. During the latter year, a pamphlet was published in England, entitled, "The enormous abomination of the Hoop Petticoat, as the fashion now is." In 1757, after some de- pression, they expanded on the right and left. We are in- formed that they were exceedingly inconvenient for entering pew doors ; in fact, they could have no ingress or egress at
* Lambert, 200.
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FEMALE COSTUME.
such narrow apertures, except by taking a slight of hand ad- vantage of their form, which was no doubt very gracefully done .*
Towering head dresses appear to have been in use in Eng- land long before the emigration. It is stated that in 1416, the state apartments were enlarged to accommodate such kinds of attire. When reformed under Edward IV., in the fifteenth century, it was a cone two or three feet high, with a silk streamer hanging down behind. Somewhat similar head dresses, though probably not so tall, and varying in shape, were worn by the ladies of Connecticut down to the period of the revolution. They consisted of muslin, crape, lawn or lace, and constituted a chief item of ornamental attire.
Other articles of female dress might be mentioned, that would be regarded as unique at the present day, but the limits of the work will not afford room for any very extended treatise upon a topic in itself so interesting.
* See " Customs of New England," pp. 168, 169.
XII -
THE OLD WHITFIELD HOUSE.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE ESTABLISHED RELIGION OF CONNECTICUT.
WHILE the religious opinions of the early founders of the colony of Connecticut, cannot with propriety be left out of its history, still, these topics have been treated of at so great length by other authors, that I shall give in this work only a brief outline of such facts as appear to be necessary to a thorough understanding of the character of our institutions.
It has been said in a preceding chapter, that the main motive that led to the settlement of New England, was a desire on the part of the emigrants to worship God, in a way that they believed would be most acceptable to Him. The doctrines held by at least a large number of the divines, who lived and died in the faith of the established church of Eng- land, and whose writings are among the brightest ornaments of biblical literature, did not differ materially from those that formed the basis of puritan belief. There were many as strong Calvanists in the episcopal church of that period as the emigrants were .* The grand points of dispute, the wedges that split off the emigrants from the main English trunk, took their shape and edge not so much from differ- ences in doctrine, as in the forms of church government. The English church had the arm of the nation to enforce conformity, and those puritans who could not yield to the demands made upon them, had no refuge but in flight.
The organization of the churches in Connecticut was very simple. The ministers, as has been stated in a preced-
* Brande (Encyclopedia, p. 88,) says-" The articles of the English church have been represented by different parties, as including both to Arminianism and Calvinism." Bishops Davenport, Sanderson, Hall, and the archbishops Ussher and Leighton, were Calvinistic in their doctrines, though among the staunchest of episcopalians. (See Coleridge's " Aids to Reflection," pp. 208, 209.) Bishops Taylor, Whitby, Ward, and others, maintained the Arminian tenets, and wrote and preached against Calvinism.
447
+
THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT.
ing chapter, were the leaders each of his own people. Most of the pastors brought their churches with them from Eng- land, and of course had a personal acquaintance with their members and with their families. This was true of Hooker, Davenport, Whitfield, Blackman, Wareham, and others of the principal divines of this colony. These cap- tains of hundreds and captains of fifties were men of no ordinary mould. Every one of them possessed some strik- ing traits of character, that have left their impress upon the age in which they lived ; not distinctly defined to the eye of the careless observer, but to him who has familiarized him- self with the figures that people the cloud-land of the past, these shepherds, standing upon the eminences whence their flocks could be seen and called by name, as they fed upon the green slopes, and cropped with the sweet nutri- ment ; the herbs medicinally bitter that grew close by the poisonous flowers of temptation, these good shepherds, no longer shadowy, are seen through the long twilight of his- tory to retain their characteristics of form and feature, as if they were still in the midst of those labors that ripened them for immortality. So subtle and keen is the vision of the true and faithful scholar, whose whole heart is in his work, that it can pierce beyond the curtain that darkness lets down before the eyes of other men ; can penetrate through the vapors of prejudice and ignorance, as the rainbow seems to penetrate the less ethereal sphere of the storm- cloud that it illuminates. To him, and to him alone, is it given, to see as in a mirror, the great and the good pass in slow review before him, so that he shall be able to distinguish them and sketch them upon a canvass that shall be imper- ishable. To him they are not all to be set down in the dead and despised catalogue of fanatics. On the other hand, to him the fearless Davenport, with his noble bearing and unshaken resolution ; Hooker, with his beautiful face, deep- toned voice, and hand that "could put a king in his pocket ;" Wareham, whose self-accusing, shrinking eye was often averted from the battlements of the heavenly city,
448
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
whither his finger pointed the way for others ; Blackman, at the sound of whose farewell the sensibilities of his people gushed out in sparkling tears, as the rock that was smitten by the prophet ; Whitfield, whose clear, contemplative soul resembled a mountain lake, reflecting all the objects, wild or tame, that help to form its solitary margin, yet never darken it, so as to conceal its calm depths from the dreamer who wanders there ; and Stone, who alternately disputes upon points of church discipline, and prays for more copious show- ers of God's grace ; to such a scholar, and to him alone, all these and many more who might be named as conspicuous members of the great household of faith, are seen as indivi- dual men setting up the standard of civil liberty, by the entrance-gate of the temple that they reared to the Most High. It is difficult to estimate the influences of such men, as the early clergymen of Connecticut, in laying the foundations of a nation like ours.
In every church organized according to the old puritan plan that prevailed from the first in Connecticut, there was a pastor, a teacher, a ruling elder, and deacons .* In some of their churches there were exceptions to this rule, growing out of the necessities or peculiar situation of the people ; but the prin- cipal settlements all had a full complement of these several functionaries. If the church had only a few members and very limited resources, it was sometimes obliged to content itself with a ruling elder and deacons. The pastor, teacher, and elder were all ordained with equal solemnity.
The specific duty of the pastor was to exhort or preach to the people ; or, in the language of that day, "to work upon the will and the affections." He was expected to possess the gift of eloquent speech, and to cultivate the win- ning graces of oratory ; most of all, the sinewy, athletic strength that could make effective use of the fire and the hammer to break the flinty heart.t
* Owen's " Gospel Church," pp. 86, 116, 120, 128, 129 ; Hooker's " Survey," part ii. pp. 4, 20.
t Hookers Survey, part ii. pp. 19, 21 ; Cambridge Platform, chap. vi.
449
CHURCH OFFICERS.
The teacher, on the other hand, was the private expounder of the divine law, the counsellor whose learning, deep piety, calm judgment, and refined experience could be depended upon in doubtful matters. He had immediate charge of all compli- cated and knotty doctrinal questions, and difficult cases of conscience. He was the nursery teacher, who prepared the feeble reason and illuminated the darkened understand- ing for the school of church-fellowship. He also recalled the backsliding christian, and set his face toward Zion. If there was no teacher in any particular church, the pastor supplied the offices of advocate and counsellor .*
The ruling elder represented that part of the executive power that did not fall specifically within the province of the pastor. He was a kind of vice-executive officer. His business was to keep strict watch over all the brethren and sisters, and see that they demeaned themselves in an orderly and godly manner. It was his duty to warn the careless, admonish the wayward, and to present the incorrigible be- fore the proper tribunal for discipline. He was also to go from house to house like a ministering angel, and visit the sick and the afflicted, and pray with them. In the absence of the pastor and teacher he was also to pray with the con- gregation on the sabbath, and other stated days of worship, and expound the scriptures to them.
The office of deacon is frequently alluded to in the new testament, t though different denominations have differed as to the position and duties of the officer called by that title. Among the English puritans and their successors in New England, the specific duties of the deacons were, as stated by Owen, to provide for the poor of the parish, and to man- age all other affairs of the church of a secular nature ; such as providing for the place of the church assemblies ; pro- curing and distributing the sacramental elements ; "keeping, collecting, and disposing of the stock of the church, for the maintenance of its officers, and incidences, especially in the
* Owen's " True Gospel Church," 121, &c.
+ Acts, vi ; 1 Tim. iii. 8, 13, &c.
29
450
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
time of trouble or persecution."* It was furthermore the duty of these officers, according to the same author, "to acquaint the church of the present necessity of the poor ; to stir up particular members of it into a free contribution according to their ability ; to admonish those who are neg- ligent herein, who give not according to their proportion ; and to acquaint the elders of the church with those who per- sist in a neglect of their duty."t
In regard to the qualifications of persons for this office, those specified in 1 Tim. iii. 8, 13, were deemed requisite and indispensable. The candidate having been duly ap- proved, was solemnly set apart by prayer and the imposi- tion of hands, according to the directions contained in Acts vi. 6.
The number of deacons was not uniform, but was regula- ted mainly by the size of the church and congregation. Two or four were the more usual numbers ; though in some of the churches there were seven-usually styled the "seven pillars," whose duties appear sometimes to have partaken of those of elders as well as of deacons.
During the first twenty years after the settlement, there was little or no difference of opinion among the ministers and churches of Connecticut, as to the requisites and terms of church-membership. The applicant was not only required to give his solemn public assent to the confession of faith, and to enter into covenant with God and His peo- ple faithfully to discharge all public and private christian duties, but he must give a minute account of his religious experience, and of the radical change that had taken place in his heart and life.
About 1655, however, a strong party began to manifest itself, who were for admitting all persons of regular life to a full communion in the churches, upon their making a gene- ral public confession of their belief in the christian religion, without any inquiry with respect to their experience, and
* " The True Nature of a Gospel Church and its Government," by Rev. John Owen, D.D., p. 184.
+ Owen, 185.
451
OWNING THE COVENANT.
were for treating all baptized persons as members of the church, upon their " owning the covenant." *
This subject, was carried to the General Assembly, and that body applied to the General Courts of the several neigh- boring colonies for advice. The result was, a general council was called, which assembled at Boston, June 4, 1657. This council gave an elaborate answer to the twenty-one questions that had been propounded to them concerning the matters in controversy-the principal of which had special reference to church-membership and baptism.t The sub- stance of their decision was, that it was the duty of adults, who had been baptized in infancy, "to own the covenant they made with their parents, by entering thereinto in their own persons ;" that the church was obligated "to call upon them for the performance thereof;" and in case of refusal, they were liable to be censured by the church. Those "own- ing the covenant," and not scandalous in their lives, were allowed to have their children baptized.
This decision seems not to have been acceptable to the churches of Connecticut, and certainly did not end the con- troversy. In 1662 the General Court recommended the same measures to the churches ; and many of them subse- quently adopted the practice, though others opposed it stead- fastly to the last.
This was the origin of what has since been known by " the half way covenant," which a hundred years later was so powerfully opposed by Edwards, Whitfield, Buel, and other eloquent "reformers" of that day.
The churches of Connecticut acted upon the belief that the bishops and presbyters were only different names for the same office, and that all pastors who were regularly devoted to the ministry of the gospel were bishops in a scriptural sense. They also held that in accordance with the early
* Trumbull, 297, 298.
t These answers were afterwards printed in London with the title, " A Disputa- tion concerning church members and their children."
Trumbull, i. 303, 304.
452
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
practice of the church, every pastor was for the most part confined to his own church and congregation, whom he could keep under his own eye, and who might have the ben- efit of his personal example. This rule, however, did not prevent the pastor of one church from exchanging with his neighbor of the next settlement at convenient intervals ; but even this exchange was only for the ordinary religious ser- vices. It was for some time after the emigration held to be irregular for any minister to administer the sacrament or the rite of baptism, except in his immediate jurisdiction .*
The churches of Connecticut did not look upon ordina- tions as constituting the essentials of the ministerial office. Ordination was nothing more than inducting the pastor elect into office, or recommending him and his spiritual labors to the blessing of his Divine Master. The form of ordination was very simple. If there was a presbytery in the church where the ceremonial was to be performed, the laying on of hands was done by them; if not, the church selected from its members a number of the most venerable and exemplary to act as elders for the occasion. This mode of ordination and these views as to its relative importance and signifi- cance, were by no means peculiar to the Connecticut churches. They were supported by the high authority of St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Zanch, Bucer, and even by the great Melancthon himself, an interpreter of the scrip- tures unsurpassed since the days of Paul for close ratiocina- tion, and dispassionate, calm judgment. t
The Connecticut churches were congregational. In other words, they held that the right to choose and to settle its own minister, discipline its own members, and to perform all juri- dical functions, was vested in each individual church, and that no external organization, whether under the name of presbytery, synod, general council, or assembly, had any power to interfere with the exercise of that right. They might advise and counsel, and their opinions were held to be entitled to reverence ; but they could neither command
Hooker, Trumbull, Owen.
+ Hooker's Survey.
453
THEIR REGARD FOR THE BIBLE.
nor compel. The individual church, through its regular channels of communication, and with the bible for its guide, was, under God, to be the ultimate arbiter of all matters arising within its own jurisdiction .* Whether they always rightly interpreted the bible, is to be settled by men who are most competent to judge of matters too mysterious and solemn for the pen of the historian. However this may be, I suppose it will not be questioned, even by their bitterest enemies, that they read it with as much avidity as any class of men ever did, and earnestly sought to follow its teachings. Indeed, the bible was the constant companion of the early inhabitants of Connecticut. The emigrant studied it by day and by night. He taught it to his children with the same constancy that supplied them with daily food, and the burden of his prayers was, that they might understand it in its deepest, most spiritual significance. The bible was the pole-star of the colony. Its precepts are written in letters of light upon our early records. Its doc- trines were discussed in the field where the laborers bent over the ridges of the corn; and in the heart of the great forest, while the woodman sat in the still noon leaning against the trunk of the oak that he had felled, he pondered its precepts in secret. It was carried into the battle field by the soldier, and with an honest joy when the victory was won, its promises were read anew. Children were named from its great prophets, poets, and heroes.
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