USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
In the year 1722, the Society heretofore alluded to, estab- lished the Rev. Mr. Pigot as a missionary at Stratford. He soon had twenty communicants and about one hundred and fifty hearers.
While the early clergy of the episcopal church were thus struggling to establish the foundations of the church in the colony, and laboring to overcome those prejudices with which they were compelled to contend, the alarming intelli- gence burst upon the public ear, that the Rev. Timothy Cutler, the rector of Yale College, which was then the strong-hold of congregationalism in New England, had de- clared for episcopacy. The news flew as if it had been borne by carrier-pigeons, into every hamlet, and to every farm-house in the northern colonies. It was of course an event which could not escape the notice of the trustees of a seminary, which had been founded for the avowed object of supporting the religion of the colony, and of educating minis-
543
`JOHNSON, CUTLER, AND PIGOT.
ters to perpetuate the institutions of puritanism. Mr. Cutler was not surprised, therefore, when he was informed, by a vote of the board of trustees, that he was " excused from all further service as Rector of Yale College." It was a vote ap- parently characterized by little of the bitterness that usually attends ecclesiastical controversies, and his retirement from the official station was the occasion of keen regret on both sides. During the following November, Mr. Cutler, in com- pany with Mr. Johnson, of West Haven, and Mr. Brown, one of the tutors of the college, sailed for England, and in March of the year 1723, those gentlemen were all ordained by the Bishop of Norwich. Soon after, Mr. Cutler received, both from Oxford and Cambridge, the degree of doctor of divinity.
Few men of that day, enjoyed a higher reputation for scholarship and intellectual gifts than Dr. Cutler. His per- sonal popularity at Yale, while at the head of the institution, was almost unbounded. He was also fortunate in being eulogized even by his successors, who were opposed to him in his ecclesiastical views. One president of Yale College* has left his written testimonial, that "Dr. Cutler was a gentle- man of superior natural powers and learning." while another, the Rev. Dr. Stiles, no insignificant authority in such matters, and a person not lavish of compliments, wrote of him as fol- lows : "In the philosophy, metaphysics, and ethics of his day, he was great. He spoke Latin with fluency, and with great propriety of pronunciation. He was a man of extensive reading in the academic sciences, divinity, and ecclesiastical history, and of a commanding presence and dignity in govern- ment. He was of a lofty and despotic mien, and made a grand figure at the head of a college."
In 1723, Christ Church, the oldest episcopal church in the colony, was founded by the Rev. Mr. Samuel Johnson, who was appointed to succeed Mr. Pigot. Mr. Johnson is desig- nated by Dr. Dwight as "the father of Episcopacy in Con- necticut, and perhaps as the most distinguished clergyman of that description who has been settled within its limits."
* Dr. Clap.
544
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
He was born in Guilford, October 14, 1696,* and graduated at Yale College in 1714. From 1716 to 1719 he remained in the college as a tutor, and during the year 1720 he was ordained minister of the Presbyterian church in West Haven. Having embraced episcopacy, he sailed from Boston for England, and was there ordained. Mr. Johnson, on his re- turn to this country, was settled as above stated, at Stratford, where he remained until his appointment to the presidency of King's College, in New York, in 1754. He received the degree of doctor of divinity from the university of Oxford. He published A System of Morals, in 1746; A Treatise on Morals, and A Treatise on Logic, which were republished to- gether in 1772; and A Hebrew Grammar, in 1767, which was reprinted in 1771, with additions and improvements.
Dr. Johnson was regarded as a learned, diligent, and faith- ful preacher of the gospel. He possessed a remarkably placid temper, and a benevolent and charitable disposition, which together with his unfeigned piety, manifested them- selves in unwearied efforts to do good. Even in his contro- versial writings, these delightful traits of the Christain charac- ter are strikingly observable. He died January 6, 1772.
The Rev. James Wetmore, the congregational minister of North Haven, became an episcopalian about the same time with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Cutler, and he also went to Eng- land for the purpose of being re-ordained. The Rev. John Beach, who had been for seven years the approved pastor of the congregational church in Newtown, seceded from the established church, and proceeded to England, where he was
* Dr. Johnson was a son of Samuel Johnson who was born in 1670 and died in 1727; his father, William Johnson, settled in Guilford where he died in 1702, aged 73; his father, Robert Johnson, was one of the founders of New Haven.
Dr. Samuel Johnson was married to Charity Floyd, Sept. 26, 1725. She died in New York, June 1, 1758, and was buried under the chancel of the old English church. Their only sons were William Samuel Johnson, LL. D., who was born Oct. 7, 1727, and the Rev. William Johnson, a promising young clergy- man of the church of England, who died of small-pox in London, Sunday, June 20, 1756, " and was buried under the church of St. Mildred, in the Poultry, in Mr. Manley's vault."
545
EFFORTS TO PROCURE A BISHOP.
episcopally ordained, in September, 1732. He became a missionary in Newtown and Reading, where a church was erected in 1734, and two years after he reported one hun- dred and five communicants. In 1751, the ordinary congre- gation in each place was between two and three hundred, and the communicants between ninety and one hundred. In 1762, Mr. Beach was able to report that the churchmen in Newtown had become more numerous than all others combined-a fact which remains good to this day.
Besides the parishes under the immediate care of Mr. Beach, those of Roxbury and New Milford* were organized by him. Those of Lanesborough, in Massachusetts, and Arlington, in Vermont, also owed their existence mainly to emigration from the parishes under his care.t
From 1707, when the first prayer was read on the bank of James river, invoking the divine blessing upon the emi- grants, who were to level the forests of the old dominion, down to the day when the British sceptre was cut in twain by the edge of Washington's sword-a period of one hundred and seventy years-the scattered flock belonging to the American branch of the English church was left to wander in the wilds of the west without an episcopal shepherd. Again and again did the pious missionaries who had been sent to this continent by the Society for Propagating the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts, address letters to the Bishop of London, and others in authority at home, begging that the episcopalians in America might have a bishop of their own, who should
* It is stated that certain churchmen in New Milford were fined for refusing to attend the meetings of the established church. These fines were, by recommen- dation of Mr. Beach, paid, and copies of the proceedings taken to be forwarded to the king and council. The fact becoming known, the authorities refunded the money and granted permission to build a church, which before had been refused. Church Review, vol. ii. p. 317.
+ Mr. Beach was born in Stratford in 1700; graduated at Yale College in 1721, and was settled over the congregational church in 1725. He died March 19, 1782. He published several sermons and pamphlets, mostly of a controversial character, which evince a candid spirit and much more than ordinary talents. He was an indefatigable laborer in the vineyard of his Master. The name of Beach had always been a good one in Connecticut. The Beaches of Litchfield, New Haven, and Hartford counties, are from the same family.
67
546
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
have power to add to the number of the clergy, and to estab- lish that church upon a basis that would enable her to enter the field of labor on an equal footing with the other denomi- nations of New England ; but these solicitations fell upon the ears of the establishment with as little practical effect as if they had been made to the General Court of Massachu- setts or the General Assembly of Connecticut. The House of Stuart was followed by the Protectorate, and that again gave place to the House of Stuart ; Lord Clarendon gave the authority of his name to the prayer of the missionaries, and even the king approved the design so far as to order a patent to be made out ; Queen Anne favored the applica- tion ; eminent doctors and learned clergymen pleaded for it upon their knees ; but all in vain. State policy, that fruit- ful nurse of so many persecutions and proscriptions, turned a deaf ear to the prayer of the suppliants, and "refused to let the people go." The House of Hanover succeeded, with no better promise for this result. Meanwhile, as dynasty after dynasty passed away, the patient missionary, stationed at a remote point on the border of some colony whose in- habitants sympathized little with his teachings, or opposed them either by argument, as in Connecticut, or by legislative enactments, as in Massachusetts, kept on the even tenor of his way, sprinkling with water and signing with the sign of the cross, such as would receive the rite at his hands .*
* The first effort to procure the consecration of a bishop for New England, was made in 1638, but the scheme was thwarted by the outbreak of troubles in Scot- land (" Missions of the Church of England," p. 376.) In the revolution which soon followed, the matter was apparently forgotten. Soon after the Restoration, however, in 1660 the subject of an American bishop was revived, and a patent was actually made out, constituting Dr. Alexander Murray, bishop of Virginia, with a general charge over the other provinces and colonies. The project was defeated by the accession to power of the "Cabal Ministry," (Hawkins, p. 376.) Secker states that the failure was owing to the endowment being made payable out of the customs. Boucher, however, says on this subject, " By some fatality or other, (such as seems forever to have pursued all the good measures of that unfortunate family,) the patent was not signed when the king died." Soon after the establishment of the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701, the American missionaries began to urge upon that society the importance of having a bishop in the colonies. In 1705 a me-
547
SPECIAL PLEADING.
[1753.]
Objections were started, metaphysical obstacles were pleaded, old precedents were set up, and delay followed delay, until the heart-sick laborer was ready to faint in the field.
At last, in the little town of Groton, on the eastern bank of the Thames, there grew up, nourished by the invigorating air of the sea and of the hills, a dark-eyed, thoughtful boy, who was destined to break the chain of this political bond- age. He was the son of a congregational clergyman, and like Johnson, Cutler, Beach, Wetmore, and Brown, was of the good old colonial stock. The name of that boy was Samuel Sea- bury. When the boy was a year old, his father, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, gave up his charge at Groton, and declared for Episcopacy ; soon after which he sailed for England for orders. Master Seabury, like his father, was entered a student at Yale College, and graduated there with distinc- tion in the year 1748. Three years after, he went to Scot- land for the purpose of qualifying himself for the practice of medicine. He was soon induced to turn his attention to the study of theology, and was ordained by the Bishop of Lon- don, in 1753. Not long after he returned to America and filled the post of missionary at New Brunswick, in New
memorial to the archbishops and bishops of England, was signed by fourteen clergymen assembled at Burlington, New Jersey, praying for the " presence and assistance of a suffragan bishop, to ordain such persons as are fit to be called to serve in the sacred ministry of the church." It was urged that many persons were deterred from entering the ministry, in consequence of the dangers and expense of a hazardous journey of 3,000 miles. A writer in the London Gentleman's Magazine of that day stated, that "out of fifty-two or fifty-three who have come hither for holy orders, forty-two only have returned safe. There never was a persecution upon earth," he adds, "that destroyed a fifth part of the clergy." The venerable society joined in the appeal to Queen Anne in 1709. The subject was finally brought before a meeting of the bishops, on the 20th of January, 1711 ; " but as the Bishop of London, who had a right to be con- sulted, was not there, the thing was dropped." (" Life of Archbishop Sharpe," i. 352.) Several other petitions and memorials were presented, and the prayer of the applicants seemed about to be granted, when the death of the queen and the accession of a new sovereign gave an entirely different aspect to affairs. From this time, appeals and petitions, not only from missionaries, but from men high in authority, were frequently made upon the crown, for a resident bishop in America, but without avail, until the consecration of Dr. Seabury.
-
548
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Jersey, until 1757. His next pastoral charge was at Jamai- ca, on Long Island, where he remained until 1766, when he went to Westchester, and had the care of St. Peter's church for ten years. In December, 1776, he removed to New York, on account of political disturbances in Connecticut, and continued to reside there until the peace of 1783 .*
As soon as peace was restored, the clergy of Connecticut and those of New York held a private meeting in that city, and chose the Rev. Dr. Leaming bishop of the diocese of Connecticut. Dr. Leaming did not accept the place as- signed him, and on the 21st of April, 1783, a second vote resulted in the unanimous choice of Dr. Seabury. A letter was immediately addressed to the Archbishop of York, reiterating the old request that an American bishop might be consecrated. " The person," say they, "whom we have prevailed upon to offer himself to your grace, is the Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury, who has been the society's worthy mis- sionary for many years. He was born and educated in Con- necticut, he is every way qualified for the episcopal office, and for the discharge of those duties peculiar to it in the present trying and dangerous times."
The bishop elect sailed for England shortly after he was chosen. The Archbishop of York was not in London at the time of his arrival there, but the Bishop of London gave his ready assent to the proposition, and said he would cheer- fully cooperate with the Archbishops of York and Canterbury in bringing about the results so long desired.
New difficulties now presented themselves. It was neces- sary that the candidate for episcopal consecration should take oaths of allegiance to the king, and of obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Prudential considerations as well as acts of parliament were also interposed. If the bishops of England should consecrate an applicant from Connecticut, what warrant had they to believe that the state where he was to exercise his functions, would give her con-
* For a copy of Mr. Seabury's memorial to the General Assembly of Con- necticut, see Hinman, 548-551.
549
SHIFTING THE RESPONSIBILITY.
sent, and how could they know that the functionary thus created would be obeyed ? More than all, how was he to be supported ? Besides, it was urged, had they not good cause to anticipate a renewal of that opposition which had kept Dr. Seabury from his native state during the whole period of the revolutionary war ? Thus, with one objection after another, did those cautious dignitaries lead this fearless knight of the cross from cavern to cavern and grove to grove, as if for a more perfect trial of his virtue and his faith. But firm as the rocky bank that rises above his native river, with a soul unruffled and deep as the waters that glide under its shadow, this son of the west, unabashed in the pre- sence of mitres and pontifical robes, with one great purpose swelling in his bosom and beating at his heart, was not to be thwarted from doing his Master's work. He wrote to the clergy of Connecticut, who were now on tiptoe with expecta- tion, stating the fear entertained in England, that the General Assembly of the state would prevent a bishop, should he be consecrated, from entering on the discharge of his episcopal labors.
A convention of the clergy was forthwith called at Walling- ford, to determine what was to be done. As the assembly was then in session at New Haven, a committee was appointed to confer with the principal members of the legislature, and solicit the passage of an act authorizing a bishop to re- side in Connecticut, and to exercise the episcopal func- tions there. The gentlemen to whom this request was made, replied, as they well might, that it was not necessary to pass such an act, as the law of Connecticut was already in conformity with their wishes .* Certified copies of the statutes of the colony in relation to this matter, were made out and forwarded to England without delay.
This evidence was, of course, conclusive on the point in question. Other objections were then started, and new pleadings were filed, that were likely to keep the matter
* See page 21 of "The General Laws and Liberties of Connecticut Colony," edition of 1672 ; also statute of 1727, ante.
550
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
pending until half a dozen generations of men should be mouldering in their graves. A legislative act might have been passed in a month, removing all objections that could be raised on account of any informality in relation to the required oaths, but the parliament refused to interfere in behalf of the applicants. It was idle to attempt any longer to shift the responsibility from the shoulders of the English authorities and lay it at the door of the General Assembly of Connecticut.
If there ever was an instance where " hope deferred " made a sick heart, the matter now presented to the conside- ration of the episcopal clergy of Connecticut, and of their bishop elect, affords an illustration of it.
With the advice of the clergy, Dr. Seabury finally aban- doned these fruitless negotiations, and hastened to Scotland to seek the consecration that had been denied him in Eng- land. Here the doors were at once thrown open to him. On the 14th of November, 1784, the ceremonial took place at Aberdeen, under the direction of Robert Kilgour, bishop of Aberdeen, Primus, with the assistance of Arthur Petrie, of Ross and Moray, and John Skinner, coadjutor of Bishop Kilgour. It was an occasion of the deepest interest, and called forth many warm congratulations and fervent prayers .*
Thus by the kindly aid of Scotland, after a struggle of so many years, the victory over English exclusiveness was won, and Connecticut, let us rather say the western world, had at last a bishop.
Hastening homeward with a heart buoyant as the wave that floated and the wind that wafted him, Bishop Seabury repaired immediately to New London, and on the 3d of August, 1785, entered upon the discharge of his high and responsible duties. ; Nobly did this great and good man lay
* Dr. Chapin's sketch of Bishop Seabury, in the " Evergreen," of Jan. 1844. + On the day referred to, a special convention was held at Middletown, Con- necticut, on which occasion the following candidates were admitted to the holy order of deacons ; viz., Messrs. Colin, Ferguson, Henry Van Dyke, Ashbel Baldwin, and Philo Shelton.
551
BISHOP SEABURY.
wide and deep the walls that were to stand around the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island .* Brave without any ostentatious show of moral courage, modest without the least abatement of self-possession or firmness, with all the lofty zeal of a martyr tempered with the forbearance that is the fruit only of Christain charity ; discreet in counsel, with a hand that never trembled in executing his ripe purposes ; never advancing faster than he could fortify his progress, Bishop Seabury had no superior, probably no equal, among the episcopal dignitaries of his generation.
His personal appearance was calculated to inspire univer- sal respect. His features were not regular, nor indeed could they be called handsome; but there was an intellectual strength, a force of character and of will, written in every line of his open countenance, that could not be misinter- preted. Added to this, was that indescribable air of refine- ment which belongs to the well-bred gentleman, and consti- tutes a part of his presence. Bishop Seabury was about the middle height, portly and well-proportioned. His eye was dark and piercing, and his motions as well as his utterance were slow and dignified. His voice was not a sweetly modulated one, but deep-toned and powerful, and expressed as did his whole manner, decision of character and boldness of thought. He had besides, a strong good sense that never forsook him, a very lively wit, and conversational powers at once natural and graceful. In the words of a congregational minister, contemporary with him, "Bishop Seabury looked as a bishop ought to look."
As a writer, his distinguishing attribute was comprehen- siveness and strength, and his style was limpid as a crystal well. His thoughts were all marshalled like a well-trained
# " The influence of Bishop Seabury, in the revision of the Liturgy," says Dr. Chapin, " was very considerable, in some important points. The invocation and the prayer of oblation in the communion service, and which are not in the present English service, and even the words of oblation omitted in king Edward's time, were restored at the urgent desire of Bishop Seabury. The descent of Christ into hell, mentioned in the apostle's creed, seems to have been retained at his instance." "Evergreen," January, 1844.
552
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
troop of cavalry, performing their evolutions without fatigue, and with that certainty of result which belongs only to discipline. He avoided all metaphysical skirmishings and whimsical niceties, and cared little for the husks and shells of disputation, while the grain and the kernel were within his grasp. His intuitions were also delicate, and prescient of good to be sought or danger to be shunned. Sophistry, and all the little arts of little men, to plume themselves with the feathers of rhetoric, or hide their heads in the clouds of mysticism or the drapery of inflated declamation, his noble nature had no need to employ, and would have scorned to practice.
Such, as seen by the light of history, were some of the principal attributes of Bishop Seabury. His name is still re- vered throughout the whole continent for his unaffected piety, his uncompromising principles, and his spotless life ; and wherever that name is spoken, it seems to be echoed by the hills of his native state, and repeated by the voice of the ocean waves that bore him from her free shores to the old world, and brought him safely back to lay himself down to die in the maturity of his fame and the ripeness of his faith on the bank of the Thames. His death took place in New London, February 25, 1796. He was succeeded in the episcopal office by the Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D .*
Bishop Jarvis was born in Norwalk, May 5, 1739, and graduated at Yale College in 1761. In November, 1763, he went to England, where he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Exeter, and priest by the Bishop of Carlisle. On his return he entered upon the duties of the ministry in Middletown on a salary of ninety pounds per year. In 1797, he was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut, and at the annual commencement of Yale College of the same year, he received the degree of doctor of divinity. In 1799, he removed to Cheshire, and subsequently to New Haven, where he died,
* Dr. Seabury was succeeded in the office of rector of James' Church, New London, by his son, the Rev. Charles Seabury, who continued in the rectorship for seventeen years.
553
BISHOP JARVIS.
May 3d, 1813, aged 75 years. He was much esteemed by his contemporaries, for his learning and piety. His only son, the Rev. Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D.D., was born in Middle- town, and graduated at Yale College in 1805. He became the rector of the episcopal church in his native town, April 11, 1837, having previously been rector of the church in Bloomingdale, N. Y., and of St. Paul's, in Boston. He was also a professor in Trinity College. Dr. Jarvis died in Middletown, March 29, 1851, aged 64.
OLD CHURCH AT STRATFORD.
CHAPTER XXV.
OTHER RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
THE rise and progress of Methodism in America, from the humblest beginnings to its present condition as one of the largest and most influential denominations in the country, would of itself afford ample materials for a much larger work than mine. Were proofs of this assertion needed, I might refer to the handsome volumes of Bangs, Stevens, and other historians of the sect, which do honor to themselves, and to the cause in which they are so zealously engaged.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.