USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 39
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was the ancestor of the Wrights of Hartford and Litchfield, and of most of the name in the Western and Middle States. There are now living, of his descendants, two senators, three members of Congress, three governors, and two judges of the supreme court.
John Edwards, Sen., was often a juror of particular courts, and was a deputy in 1643.
Captain John Chester was frequently a deputy and commissioner, and was one of the most eminent citizens of Wethersfield.
Samuel Boardman was a leading man in the colony for nearly thirty years ; he was " custom-master," colonial grand juror, and member of the General Court.
Sergt. John Kilbourn emigrated from Cambridgeshire, England, with his parents in 1635, at the age of ten years. He was occasionally a deputy to the General Court, was a colonial grand juror from 1662 until the organization of the counties in 1666, and was appointed to run the boundary line between Hart- ford and Wethersfield, and between Middletown and Wethersfield. He died in 1703.
Richard Treat was often a deputy and magistrate, and was one of the paten- tees of the colony. He was the father of Governor Treat.
Sergt. John Nott was a juror of the particular Court at Hartford as early as 1640, and was subsequently a member of the General Court at twenty semi- annual sessions.
John Riley was on the jury of the particular court in May 1649 ; was on the list of freemen in Wethersfield in 1669, and in 1675 was "postman" between Hartford and Saybrook.
James Treat (a son of Richard,) was a deputy from Wethersfield in May, 1672, and at several subsequent sessions.
Henry Crane was a deputy from Killingworth in May 1675, and at other times.
* J. II. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 323.
1
465
THE WETHERSFIELD CONTROVERSY.
[1559.]
to repair unto Mr. Russell in behalf of Lieutenant Hollister, and in the name of the court, desire and if need be require of him and the church of Wethersfield the particular charges or offences for which Mr. Hollister was censured, and hav- ing received the said charges from Mr. Russell and the church, forthwith to deliver them to Mr. Hollister for his help and conviction,"* and inasmuch as "Mr. Treat, Mr. Hollister, and John Deming, were desirous and willing to attend some regular way for the composing their differences," the Court desired the church at Wethersfield to devise some way of reconciliation between the parties, if that were possible. t
When the court met in October 1659, it was found that the same "tedious differences and troubles still existed between Mr. Russell and the lieutenant," and that some more decisive measures must be taken.
The court therefore desired the churches of Hartford and Windsor " to send two or three messengers apiece to meet in Wethersfield, on the 1st Tuesday in November 1659, to give such advice in the premises as God shall direct them unto by the light of scripture and reason." Even this expedient failed.}
The quarrel ended with the removal of Mr. Russell to Hadley, with his adherents, where he spent the remainder of his days.§ At this remote day it is impossible to say who was most in fault in this unhappy controversy. The more charitable conclusion is the one that has been arrived at by all the authors who have written upon it, that the conduct of neither party could be justified, and that each was too rash and unforgiving in his behavior. T This was certainly the opinion of the General Court at the time.
* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 330, 331. + Ibid.
#J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 342.
§ Mr. Russell was a graduate of Harvard College, and was highly esteemed by his cotemporaries for his learning and piety. It was at his house that Whalley and Goffe, two of the Judges of Charles I., were concealed for several years, and there, it is supposed, at least one of them died. Mr. Russell died Nov. 10, 1692. T Vide Trumbull, Chapin, Cotton, Mather, and others.
30
466
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
In 1659, a violent feeling began to manifest itself in the church at Middletown against their pastor, the Rev. Mr. Stow, which resulted in his dismissal.
In October 1666, the General Court, in order " to consider some way or means to bring these ecclesiastical matters, that are in difference in the several plantations, to an issue," ordered that a synod should be called, to which all the pastors in the colony, and certain clergymen in Massachusetts, should be invited .* The ministers, however, objected to meet as a synod, and in consequence, the legislature at a subsequent session judged it expedient to alter the name of the council, and to call it an assembly of the ministers of Connecticut. The assembly met early in the summer of 1667, and, after conversing upon the subjects and appoint- ing committees, adjourned to meet again in the fall and make their report.
In the meantime, it was ascertained that a decision was not likely to be obtained in unison with the wishes of a majority of the legislature, and an effort was commenced to prevent the re-assembling of the ecclesiastical council. This was accomplished by procuring an order from the commis- sioners of the united colonies, that "all questions of public concernment about matters of faith and order, should be referred to a synod or council of messengers of churches, indifferently called out of the united colonies, by an order of agreement of all the General Courts ; and that the place of meeting should be at or near Boston."+
The general convention was never called, and no further attempt was made to bring the questions in dispute into a public discussion. The great point at issue between the two parties appears to have been, the conditions of church mem- bership.
The people of Windsor had for a long time been in an unquiet state respecting the settlement of a colleague to assist Mr. Wareham in the work of the ministry, he having become advanced in years. Mr. Chauncey, who was invited
* J. H. Trumbull, ii. 53, 54. + Trumbull, i. 357, 358.
467
DIFFICULTIES IN WINDSOR.
to preach there, met with bitter opposition. The General Court finally interfered, with the hopes of bringing matters to a crisis. It enacted that " all the freemen and household- ers in Windsor and Massacoe," should assemble at the meet- ing house at a given day and hour, and express their minds by ballot for or against Mr. Chauncey. The result was, eighty-six for, and fifty-five against, Mr. Chauncey. The legislature then decided that the majority might settle their favorite, and that the minority had liberty to call and settle an orthodox minister among themselves, if they thought expedient .*
The minor party thereupon immediately called Mr. Wood- bridge to preach among them. Both of these ministers con- tinued to preach in Windsor, one to the one party and the other to the other, from 1667 to 1680. Several councils were called to consider the matter. One in 1677, and another in 1680, advised that Messrs. Chauncey and Woodbridge should both leave the town, and that the two parties should unite in calling one minister-but without effect.
In October of the last mentioned year, the legislature con- firmed the advice of the council, and called upon all the good people of Windsor to assist therein, "and not in the least to oppose or hinder the same, as they will answer the contrary to their peril."t
The Rev. Samuel Mather was soon after called to preach in Windsor, and in 1682, he was ordained to the pastoral office over the whole town. He gave good satisfaction to all, and the affairs of the society flourished under his ministry until his death in 1726.
The fruitful topics of controversy, which had disturbed the harmony of so many churches in the colony, again began to agitate the church in Hartford. Stone and Goodwin were no more; but a like difference of opinion seems to have characterized their successors. Mr. Whiting and a part of the church zealously adhered to the opinions and prac- tices of the congregational churches since the emigration to
* Trumbull, i. 460. t Col. Records, MS.
468
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
New England. On the other hand, Mr. Haynes and a majority of the congregation claimed to have adopted more liberal views. The difference became so great, that a divis- ion of the church was effected in 1669 .* Contentions also occurred in the church in Stratford about the same time, which resulted in a division, and in the removal of one of the contending parties to Pomperaug (now Wood- bury.)+
Previous to 1708, the Cambridge Platform had been the gen- eral plan of church fellowship and discipline in New Eng- land. Divers opinions had long existed as to the policy and efficacy of some of its provisions and omissions. In obedi- ence to repeated requests and memorials, the legislature, at their May session, 1708, passed an act requiring the minis- ters and churches of Connecticut to meet and form an ecclesiastical constitution. They accordingly assembled at Saybrook, on the 9th day of September 1708, and after due deliberation adopted the celebrated "Saybrook Platform," together with a confession of faith. A uniform standard of faith and action being thus agreed upon, a period of harmony and good feeling followed, such as had not been before ex- perienced for many years.
The first serious ecclesiastical disturbance after the union thus effected, occurred in Guilford in 1728. Mr. Thomas Ruggles, the minister of that place, had died, and the church and society proceeded to call his son of the same name to preach for them, and finally procured his ordination and set- tlement, much to the dissatisfaction of a respectable minority who had opposed him from the beginning. The minority, consisting of about fifty members of the church and many others belonging to the society, separated ; they declared their dissent to the Saybrook Platform, invited a young clergy- man, Mr. Edmund Ward, to preach for them, and petitioned the legislature to make them a distinct ecclesiastical society. The legislature denied their request ; whereupon they appealed to the court at New Haven to be qualified, according
* Trumbull, i. 461. + Col. Records, j. 177. # Col. Records, MS.
Eng Lo Fahr a . Andrews
Jonathan Edwards Engraved For Hothialet's Hmoty of Connecticut
Princ" by Wilsond' Danset:
469
THE GREAT REVIVAL.
[1735.]
to the act of William and Mary, for the ease of sober con- sciences, to worship by themselves. The court deferred the matter until their next meeting, in April-on which day several of the dissenters, together with Mr. Ward, appeared in court and qualified themselves according to the act of parliament and the laws of the colony.
They now renewed their request to the legislature to be · freed from paying taxes to the first society, and to be made a distinct ecclesiastical body. On a full representation of the facts in the case, their first request was granted. Efforts were now renewed to effect a reconciliation between the parties, but they proved unavailing. The breach grew wider and wider, until, on the 30th of June 1731, the church under the care of Mr. Ruggles, suspended from communion forty- six of the dissenting members.
The contention continued with unabated violence until May 1733, when the friends of Mr. Ward were finally made a distinct ecclesiastical society by the legislature .*
In 1735, there began a most remarkable religious awaken- ing under the preaching of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, which has since been designated as the "great revival."t It spread into many towns in Connecticut, and the feeling and interest manifested on the great themes of religion were intense and absorbing. This appears to to have been followed by a period of great religious declen- sion and formality until 1740; when a still more general and extraordinary revival commenced, which spread throughout New England and some of the more southern and western colonies. Childhood, manhood, old age-the learned and the ignorant-the moralist and the skeptic-men of wealth and the highest official position, as well as paupers and outcasts- were numbered among its converts. We are told that even
* Trumbull, ii. 115, 134.
+ At the request of Dr. Watts and other English divines, Mr. Edwards wrote a narrative of the " great revival," which was published in London, and has since been frequently republished.
470
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the Indians, on whom no impression could previously be made, became humble inquirers after the truth .*
Among the most zealous and efficient laborers in the work, were Whitfield, Edwards, and Tennant, from abroad; and Wheelock, Bellamy, Pomeroy, Mills, Graham, Meacham, Whitman, and Farrand, among the pastors of Connecticut. Many of the clergy of the colony, however, strenuously opposed the measures employed and the effects produced ; and many of the magistrates and other leading men joined with them in denouncing the "itinerating clergy" and their converts as enthusiasts, new lights, and ranters. Laws were passed, with severe penalties, against any clergyman or exhorter who should attempt to preach in any parish or town without the express desire of the pastor or people thereof.t
It is not to be denied that many gross errors and irregu- larities followed in the train of this remarkable moral revolu- tion. Many of the most enthusiastic of its subjects forsook their pastors and their usual places of worship, and followed the "itinerants" from parish to parish and from town to town. Some of the preachers and exhorters encouraged the most boisterous manifestations of feeling during the public worship, on the part of the audience, and sought to arouse them by raising their own voices to the highest key, accompanied by violent gestures and the most unnatural agitations of the body. Some claimed to know, by a divine instinct, who were christians and who were sinners; and in particular cases, took it upon themselves to declare openly that their pastors and other christian friends were hypocrites or self-deceivers. They grew pharisaical, uncharitable, censorious, bitter, self- sufficient, and finally claimed that they had been regenerated
* Trumbull, ii. 144.
t Any person not an ordained or settled minister who should attempt publicly to teach or exhort without the express desire and invitation of the pastor or a major part of the church and congregation, should be bound in the sum of one hundred pounds lawful money not to offend again.
Any foreigner or stranger not an inhabitant of the colony, whether ordained or not, who should so offend, was ordered " to be sent as a vagrant person, from constable to constable, out of the bounds of the colony."
471
OPPOSITION TO THE "NEW LIGHTS."
and could not sin. Some of them took delight in denouncing and vilifying the established religion and its ministers, as well as the civil government and all in authority under it .* ,
The assembly not only passed laws against these alleged irregularities, but the several ecclesiastical bodies interposed their authority to check the innovations of the "new lights." After numerous attempts to discipline the refractory preachers, the consociations and association, proceeded to suspend or expel all the "new light" pastors in the colony. The pretexts for this summary action were various. In some instances the offenders had repudiated the Saybrook platform, in others, they were charged with violating the statute which prohibited them from preaching in other parishes without the requisite consent ; while in other cases they were suspected of danger- ous heresies.t The trial of the Rev. Philemon Robbins of Branford, who was charged with all these offenses, com- menced in 1742 was continued till 1747, and resulted in his deposition from the ministry. He, however, continued to preach to his people as before, to their general satisfaction; they increased his salary, and encouraged him by various acts of public and private liberality.
The difficulty arising out of the settlement of Mr. Whit- tlesy at Milford, partook largely of a personal character, and deserves little notice from the historian. It resulted in a division of the church in that town, and in the settlement of Mr. Prudden by the minority.
Mr. Noyes, pastor of the first church in New Haven, had
* Rev. John Owen of Groton, and Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron, were brought before the legislature in May 1744, for scandalizing the laws and officers of the government, &c. The former made some concessions, and was dismissed on his paying the costs of prosecution ; the latter was bound to keep the peace, in a bond of fifty pounds, and was made to pay the cost of prosecution, amounting to £32: 10 : 8.
+ In 1744, the Rev. Messrs. Leavenworth of Waterbury, Humphreys of Derby, and Todd of Northbury, were suspended by the consociation for assisting in the ordination of the Rev. Jonathan Lee, at Salisbury, because he and his church had adopted the Cambridge platform.
1
472
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
been one of the violent opposers of the religious excitement of the times. He excluded the "revival preachers" from his pulpit, and openly approved of the laws that had been passed to suppress or regulate the extravagances and alleged fanaticism that had grown out of that excitement. As a consequence, many of his parishioners became disaffected towards him; and, as they failed to secure that redress from the consociation, to which they felt themselves entitled, they withdrew, organized themselves under the "toleration act," and were formally recognized as a distinct and independent church and society by a council called for that purpose .* For several years the new church was without a pastor, but in the meantime enjoyed the ministrations of many able preachers. In 1751, an ecclesiastical council met at New Haven and installed to the pastoral office the Rev. Mr. Bird.t This is still known as the second or north church in New Haven.
The "Wallingford controversy" agitated the churches of Connecticut from 1758 to 1763, and was frequently the sub- ject of comment long thereafter. It commenced in a spirit of hostility to the Rev. James Dana, who was called to preach in that town, and was finally settled there in opposi- tion to a large proportion of the members of the society. It was contended by his opponents that he was not orthodox in sentiment ; that he had evaded the enquiries of the com- mittee as to his views on important doctrinal points, and finally replied impertinently ; and, after his alleged ordina- tion, it was claimed that the ordination was not valid inas- much as it was not done in accordance with the provisions of the Saybrook platform. The members of the ordaining council were excluded from the association and were never restored. The individuals who withdrew from the church in
* The council convened at New Haven in Sept. 1751, and consisted of the Rev. Messrs. Philemon Robbins, Joseph Bellamy, Eleazer Wheelock, Samuel Hopkins and Benjamin Pomeroy, together with lay delegates from their respective churches.
+ Trumbull.
473
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.
[1644.]
Wallingford formed a new society, which was incorporated at the May session of the legislature, 1763. The Rev. Simon Waterman had become their pastor some time before that date .*
The religion of the colony was established by law at an early date. In October 1644, the General Court adopted the proposition of the united colonies relative to the support of ministers. This proposition, which was enacted as the law of the colony, provided that each individual should " volun- tarily set down what he is willing to allow to that end and use ;" and if any man refuse or neglect to pay his proportion, he should be rated by authority, and the amount collected by due course of law as in the case of other just debts. This principle was borrowed in part from the institutions of Eng- land, though it was greatly modified and softened in its prac- tical application. Here, it will be seen, as in the father- land, all adults whatever may have been their own religious views, were obliged to contribute to the support of the established church. Instead, however, of a system of tithes, taxation was resorted to. In addition to this, the whole population was obliged to attend the regular meetings on Sun- days, fasts, and thanksgiving days.
At the same time, with a liberality not at all in accordance with the example set them in England, provision was made for those who dissented from the mode of worship thus estab- lished, and "all sober, orthodox persons" who did not fall in with the usages of congregationalism, were allowed, after having made their wishes known in a public manner to the General Court, peaceably to worship in their own way.t
The practical operation of this system was much more lenient than one would infer even from the statutes them-
* Trumbull.
t In May 1669, after expressing their full approval of congregationalism, the General Court say-" Yet forasmuch as sundry persons of worth for prudence and piety amongst us are otherwise persuaded, This court doth declare that all such persons being also approved according to law as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of the christian religion, may have allowance of their persuasion and profession in church ways or assemblies without disturbance."
474
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
selves. A sedate, calm people growing up under institutions that every individual in the republic had helped to frame, and for which he consequently felt a personal responsibility, the general desire was that there should be a sober and equable exercise of authority throughout the colony.
The difficulties growing out of a new church government, several of which have been delineated in this chapter, are just what we should have anticipated as likely to follow in the train of those struggles in the early part of the sixteenth century, when Martin Luther and his contemporaries, "wielding the hammer of the Word, wrought upon the hard metal of human unbelief, till the world rang,"* and extended down to the time when the blood, that was at once the most vital and the most conservative that then flowed in Eng- lish veins, rebelled against the arbitrary exactions of the old world and warmed with the promises of the new.
Thus I have attempted, in a very humble way, to describe the beginnings of our venerable republic. The reader has seen the seeds sown by the whirlwind taking root in the desert and growing up and blossoming with hope while "winter lingered in the lap of May." Hoping that some- thing of the fragrance of their young growth has been dis- tilled upon the last page of this volume, I close it, only to open another that shall describe the glorious fruit that those seeds have borne.
* Hoppin's " Notes of a Theological Student.
LADY FENWICK'S TOMB.
APPENDIX.
A.
PATENT OF CONNECTICUT-1631.
To all people vnto whome this present writeing shall come, Robert, earle of Warwick, sendeth greeting, in our Lord God everlasting: Know yee, that the sayd Robert, earl of Warwick, for divers Good causes & considerations him therevnto moueing, hath giuen, Granted, Bargained, sold, enfeoffed, Aliened & confirmed, & by these presents doth giue, grant, Bargain, sell, enfeoffe, Alien & confirme vnto the Right Honourable William, Viscount Say & Seale, The Right Honourable Rob't, Lord Brooke, The right honourable Lord Rich, & the Honour- able Charles fines, Esq'r, Sr. Nathaniel Rich, Knight, Sr. Richard Saltonstall, Knight, Richard Knightly, Esq'r, John Pim, Esq'r, John Hamden, Esq'r, John Humphrey, Esq'r & Herbert Pelham, Esq'r, theire heires & assignes & their associates foreuer, all that part of New England in Americah, which lyes & extends it selfe from a Riuer there called Narrogancett Riuer, the space of forty leagues vpon a straight lyne neere the sea shore towards the Sowth west, west and by sowth or west, as the coast lyeth, towards Virginia, accounting Three English Miles to the league ; & allso all & singuler the lands & hereditaments what soeuer, lye- ing & being with in the lands afoarsayd, North & South in Lattitude & bredth, & in Length & Longitude of & with in all the bredth afoarsayd, through out the Maine lands there, from the westerne oscian to the sowth sea ; & all lands & grounds, place & places, soyle, wood & woods, Grounds, hauens, portes, creeks & Rivers, waters, fishings & hereditaments what soever, lying with in the sayd space & every part & parcell thereof; & allso all Islands lying in Americah afoarsayd, in the sayd seas or either of them, on the western or eastern coasts or parts of the sayd Tracts of lands by these pr'sents mentioned to be giuen, granted, Bargained, sold, enfeoffed, aliened & confirmed ; & allso all Mines, Mineralls,- (as well Royall mines of Gold & Siluer as other mines & mineralls) what euer in the sayd lands & premises, or any part thereof; & allso the several Riuers with in the sayd limits, by what Name or Names soever called or known ; & all Juris- dictions, rights & Royalties, liberties, freedomes, Immunities, powers, priviledges, franchizes, preheminencies & comodities what soever, which the said Rob't earle of Worwick, now hath or had, or might vse, exercise or injoy, in or within [the said lands and premises or within*] any part or parcell thereof, excepting & reseruing to his Ma'tia, his heirs & successors, the fift part of all Gold & Silver oare that shall be found with in the sayd premises or any part or parcell thereof : to haue & to hold the sayd part of New England in Americah which lyes &
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