USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818. Vol. I > Part 33
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The privileges granted by the Toleration Act (24th May, 1689) in Eng- land, " which relieved Protestant dissenters from the requirements of the Act of Uniformity (1662) & gave them liberty to worship with open doors, & also freed them from the penalties of a non-attendance at church " as before stated, had its influence in New England. In conse- quence of this the General Court, " finding to their sorrow, that instead of the reformation aimed at," vice and corruption increased more than ever; " & fearing if the Lord in his mercy & sovereign grace" did not prevent the growing evils, " they might at length prove an incorrigible people, & so a generation of his wrath without remedy, ripened for deserved desolation, so obvious to all by cruel war & sick-
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ness," resolved once more not only to recommend all the magistrates, select-men and commissioners of the several plantations in the colony, as well as the constables and grand juries, to carefully attend and carry out the orders and reformed laws passed in 1684, with " other good & wholesome laws, that so our government & rulers may be a terror to evil doers, as in our first times, that the Lord may yet take pleasure in us as a people." The court also further recommended the ministers in all the churches, " by their holy labors " to further to their utmost endeavor the great work of reformation. Thus the magistrates of Connecticut sought to cleanse Fairfield, as well as all the other towns in the colony, of every evil provoking to the wrath of the Most High. The Bible being their daily companion, and regarding themselves like the Israelites of old, a chosen people, led by the guiding hand of the Almighty into a wilder- ness, to establish a church and government upon the principles of truth and righteousness, they sought to govern the colony according to these principles, and to purify every individual family, from that of the richest planter to the humblest cottage of the poor man, even to the wigwam of the savage, from every social and moral vice. In the breast, however, of every son and daughter of America dwelt the one great principle of religious and political liberty, which, with the New England colonists, had been the watchword of every civil and ecclesiastical movement, since the dawn of the Reformation. At no previous time, since the Reforma- tion had all classes, except the Romanists, enjoyed a greater degree of freedom in England than at the present. The dissenters, who had been compelled to worship with closed doors in the mother country, now not only assembled with open doors, but were protected from moles- tation. In Connecticut, however, none, as yet, were free to worship openly, save in the established church of the colony. Nor is this a matter of surprise, when it is considered that the aim of the early New England planters was to make this country a home for all who dissented from the Church of England and from the fiery rule of Catholicism. They had much yet to struggle through, and much to contend with.
At the General Court in May, a petition was presented by the inhabit- ants of Pequonnock, or the east farmers, " that they might have liberty to procure a minister among themselves, & be freed from paying the minister at Fairfield."* This petition was presented to the court by Lieutenant James Bennet, of Pequonnock, and signed with forty-six names. + Major Gold and John Wakeman objected, upon the ground that * Col. Rec. Conn., IV., 29.
+ Ecclesiastical Records, State Archives, I., 105-130.
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the Pequonnock planters had not first applied to the magistrates of Fair- field, and as Lieutenant Bennet did not make it appear that he had been empowered to petition in behalf of Fairfield, the court recommended, " the town of Fairfield & the people of Pequonnock to meet lovingly together about the matter," and they would confirm or ratify what should be mutually agreed upon.
Particular attention was paid by the Assembly at this time to further educational interests in the several towns in the colony. It appears that notwithstanding the orders requiring all children as well as servants to attend school, there were many persons unable to read in English, and thereby incapable of reading the Bible or " the good laws of the colony," in consequence of which the court decreed " that all pastors & masters should cause their respective children & servants to read dis- tinctly the English tongue;" and that the grand jurymen in each town should once a year visit each family, and satisfy themselves whether all children under age and servants, were making due progress in learning. If it was found that parents, guardians or masters neglected this law, their names were to be sent in to the county court, where they were to be fined twenty shillings for each child or servant who had not been sent to school, " unless the child or servant was proven incapacitated to learn." Town schools were to be kept up where such had already existed, and were exempt from fine, provided they were open six months in the year, for the education of all such children and servants as were engaged in the summer months in the fields. Two free schools were ordered to be main- tained by the colony, one at Hartford and one at New Haven, for all such scholars who could " first read the psalter," to be taught "reading, writing, arithmetic, Latin & Greek." The masters of these free schools were to be chosen by the magistrates and ministers of the counties of Hartford and New Haven, and their salaries were fixed at sixty pounds in county pay, thirty pounds of which was to be paid out of the school revenue of Hartford and New Haven, but first by the gifts of individuals as far as they would go. These schools were the first Latin schools of Connecticut.
At a town meeting held on the 23d of March, Thomas Morehouse was given liberty to erect a mill at the foot of the creek, near the house of John Davis. Thomas Merwin was also granted a piece of land near the same place, to erect a tan vat. At the May election Major Gold and Major John Burr were elected assistants, Jehu Burr and Samuel Ward deputies, and Captain Jehu Burr commissioner for Fairfield. Jehu Burr was also appointed to administer the commissioner's oath to the newly elected commissioners of Stratford, Norwalk, Stamford and Greenwich.
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Owing to a great scarcity of salt and other importations during the late war, for the encouragement of salt-making, the Assembly offered to give an exclusive patent for ten years, to any person familiar with the art, and possessing a sufficient estate, for establishing salt works. Small quantities made in families for private use, were exempt from this law. A long dis- pute between Dr. Isaac Hall and his brother Samuel, was at this time brought before the Assembly. The complaint of Samuel Hall was to the effect that his brother, Dr. Isaac, had seized certain lands belonging to him, and had not only used high language, " but many violences & threat- enings," and also resisted all means used in the common law for his pro- tection. The Assembly ordered a summons to be issued and served upon Dr. Isaac Hall, for his appearance before the next court of assistants. Considerable delay having been experienced in cases of appeal from the county courts to the court of assistants held after the General Court in May, it was voted that the court of assistants should be held the Monday before the General Court of election, " whereby all appellants from the court of assistants might be more speedily issued." No change was made in the October term.
Mr. James Porter, of London, had been employed in the interests of the colony, and several letters had been received from him ; also one from the Rev. Increase Mather; therefore a vote of thanks was ordered to be sent them, and also a request that they would present the former letter of Connecticut to their majesties, acquaint them with losses they had sus- tained in the defense of their colonies in America, which had prevented them from sending a more liberal supply of money for proper agents to represent their cause, and, if not already done, to endeavor to procure the favor of the king and queen in accepting them under their charter .* The Bill of Rights, which was passed in England on the 13th of February, 1689, provided that no charter granted before the 23d of October should be impeached or made invalid by the passage of this bill, but remain of the same force and effect in law, " & no other than as if this act had never been made." + The charters of the city of London and other corporations were restored. Upon the question being raised as to the legality of the charter of Connecticut, the following questions were submitted to some of the most learned legal gentlemen in England :
"Query, Whether the charter belonging to Connecticut, in New England, is, by means of their involuntary submission to Sir Edmund Andros's government, void in law,
* Col. Rec. Conn., IV., 52, 54. State Archives, Foreign Correspondence, II., 22-27.
+ Students' Hume, p. 548.
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so as that the king may send a governor to them, contrary to their charter privileges, when there has been no judgment entered against their charter, nor any surrender thereof upon record ?
I am of opinion, that such submission, as is put, in this case, doth not invalidate the charter, or any of the powers therein, which were granted under the great seal ; and that the charter not being surrendered under the common seal, and that surrender duly enrolled of record, nor any judgment of record entered against it, the same remains good and valid in law ; and the said corporation may lawfully execute the powers and privileges thereby granted, notwithstanding such submission, and appointment of a governor as aforesaid.
EDWARD WARD.
2nd. August 1690.
I am of the same opinion.
J. SOMERS.
I am of the same opinion ; and as this matter is stated, there is no ground of doubt. GEO. TREBY." *
This gave great joy to all the Connecticut planters, and to none more than to the planters of Fairfield. The second Thursday in June was appointed a day of general fasting and prayer that God would bless their designs upon their enemies and the disturbers of the progress of their religious peace ; and that he would bless their Majesties and prosper their councils in behalf of the colony.
During the meeting of the Assembly in May, Captain Jehu Burr pre- sented a petition for increasing the number of free grammar or Latin schools in the colony, by granting one in each of Fairfield and New Lon- don counties ; but the court, after twice hearing the bill read, decided that they saw no reason to make any alteration in the law passed for two free schools in the colony. At the same time the Pequonnock planters reso- lutely pushed their efforts to establish a church and school within their limits. From the following town record, it does not appear that they carried out the advice of the General Court in " discoursing lovingly together" :
" April 27. 1691, We the inhabitants of Pequonnock being warned to a town meet- ing held in Fairfield, & notwithstanding that one end for which it was warned is to hire a school-master in the town of Fairfield, we the inhabitants of Pequonnock, at a general meeting thereof, have thought & met to declare our own protest against a dislike of such a thing, & that for many reasons inducing thereto, & instead of many that might be men- tioned, let these two satisfy, because the law hath enjoined to half a year only, & as to a grammar school totally freed us ; we moreover have already hired a school-master among ourselves for the instruction of children, which are not able to come to any school that is served in Fairfield. Wherefore the inhabitants of Pequonnock do desire that this our protest may be entered & recorded, that this is our protest against having a school in the town of Fairfield, we do set our hands, Signed. May 6. 1691 ; Mathew Sherwood jr,
* Trumbull's Hist. Conn., I., 407.
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Samuel Gregory, Joseph Seely, Richard Hubbell sr, Moses Jackson sen, John Odell jr, Timothy Wheeler, Ephraim Wheeler, Samuel Hall, Samuel Treadwell, Nathaniel Sher- wood sen, James Bennit sen, Richard Hubbell jr, James Bennit jr, Thomas Morehouse sen."
They renewed their petition on the 14th to the May Assembly, when opposition of the strongest character was raised by Major Gold, Captains John and Jehu Burr, and Deputy Samuel Ward. Nothing daunted, the same month the petitioners of Pequonnock renewed their application to be made a separate society, and also asked that a minister might be settled among them. The General Court recommended that both parties should meet and arrive at "a loving agreement among themselves, with the best advice they can come at in the mean time." Before the adjournment of the court, however, the petitioners were so successful as to receive liberty "to procure & settle an orthodox minister among them, if they found themselves able to do so, provided they paid their just proportion of the ecclesiastical tax towards the maintenance of the ministry in Fairfield, until they could obtain freedom from the town of Fairfield or the General Court." In October they were still more successful, as the General Court released them from paying towards the support of a minister at Fairfield, provided they paid their just dues to that church up to the 8th of the same month.
Party feeling ran so high that no less than twenty-four questions, of a most remarkable nature, were presented to the court. They were in the hand-writing of Judge Gold, remonstrating against such a separation, and were as follows :
I. " Whether laws, charters or grants are of any value, or whether corporations, socie- ties or peculiar persons can call anything their own ?
2. Whether the town of Fairfield be outlawed, or whether or no it hath any right or interest in that grant to townships ?
3. Whether leaping over the laws & trampling down the liberty of the subjects be not tyrannical power ?
4. If laws, charters & grants may be broken at will & pleasure, are we any longer safe in our lives, liberties or estates, but by it lie open to the furious invasion of all that is ruinous & calamitous ?
5. Whether that grant unto townships be not one of the sweetest flowers in the gar- den of the laws, to whom we owe the flourishing prosperity of a well governed town ?
6. Whether it be according to rules on equity, that this, one of your first born, a lovely beautiful child, should be disinherited & lose its birthright to an inferior brat ?
7. Whether it be not horrible & ridiculous to bring grants, liberties & privileges, on record into a Chancery or Ecclesiastical Court to be determined ?
8. Whether it be not opposed to equity, law & justice that any persons or courts should be pulling down ye walls of God's Providence, in which their own hands were
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building, & that endeavors should be made to call down those privileges with which your- selves have enriched us, whether this be not laying the ax to the root of our liberties ?
9. Whether the king may, without infringement on our liberties, enjoin us to enter- taine an Episcopal minister in every town, & the one half of every town to contribute to his maintenance ?
IO. If we dare be clipping the privileges of our recorded grants, may not the king take the example against us, & we cannot but say in our own mouths, for such measure as we measured shall be measured to us again ?
II. When kings & princes have openly violated their plighted faith to their sub- jects, whether their subjects have not frequently thrown up their allegiance ?
12. When the will governs & directs where no law provides, whether that be not arbitrary power, or else the apostle misses it when he saith, where there is no law there is no transgression ?
13. Whether arbitrary power be not a contagious, ketching distemper, & whether the most & best of men in authority are not apt to be tainted & infected by it, without good looking after ; & is it not observed where arbitrary power predominates, it either makes the subjects slaves or enrolls the kingdom in blood ?
14. Whether it be not our concern to look about us that it creep not insensible upon us, & whether or no that hand deserves to be cut off that is held up to vote arbitrary power ?
15. Whether it be not more honorable & just to give a shilling of a man's own, than 20{ of another person's, or whether the proverb be not false that saith, some persons will cut large thongs out of other men's leather ?
16. Whether or no the lopping off of a fruitful limb at an unseasonable time of the year, will not endanger the life of the flourishing tree ?
17. Whether the casting up of plantation shreds, & making priests of the meanest of the people, be not the way to bring down the reputation of religion ?
18. Whether the sitting up of a Court order (with a not withstanding) in opposition to a fundamental grant, will not make civil wars amongst our laws ?
19. Whether those freemen of whom (the body of this Court is made up) can grant other oaths to the laws of this colony with any safety, if they should let any law lie dor- mant or unregarded, whilst other orders be made to cut that short ?
20. Whether or no if you take this branch of our privileges from us, may we not take another, & so to the end of the chapter, & our so much boasted of privileges will be no more than a vain shadow or an emty shell ?
21. If this honorable Court should, out of extraordinary zeal, discharge those of Pe- quonnock from paying any of our town dues, whether or no the wholesome laws enacted by the same power, still in force & vigor, are repealed, will not help us to our money & credit again ?
22. If the settling of plantations & gathering churches be found a powerful way & . means to advance God's glory, & the people's good, what may be thought of those, who, instead of gathering churches, make havoc & shipwreck, pull them in pieces, & instead of making two churches of one, they mar both ?
23. Whether religion can thrive when the peace of a place is lost ?
24. Whether there be not a woe pronounced against them by whom offences come ? "
The Rev. Charles Chauncey, son of the Rev. Israel Chauncey, of Strat-
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ford, and grandson of President Charles Chauncey, of Harvard College, preached to the people of Pequonnock, either in the school-house or in the dwellings of the planters, from about the year 1688, when not engaged as a chaplain and surgeon in the expeditions sent out against the French and Indians. He became very popular among them, and they invited him at this time to take upon him the office of a permanent pastor. Without delay they proceeded to erect a small church. The spot selected was, according to the custom of those days, on one of the most prominent hills in the village, which commanded a fine view of the surrounding country and Long Island Sound, and was situated on Division street, a short dis- tance south of the king's highway, still known as Meeting-House hill. The members of this first church of Stratfield were as follows :
"The names of those who have renewed the Covenant, & personally subjected them- selves to the government of Christ in His church, & particularly in this Church ; together with ye time of yr doing it."
Edward & Mary Treadwell 23. Dec. 1695. Mary Bennet ye wife of James Bennet ye shipwright 10. May 1696. | Sarah wife of Ephraim Wheeler 31. Jan. 1696. Samuel Wells. Benjamin Fairweather. Mathew Sherwood jr. Daniel Beardsly. Elijah Crane. Nathaniel Porter. William Beardsly. Samuel Smedly. Samuel Summers. John Beardsly. John Tredwell. Samuel Wheeler. Samuel Odell. Ebenezer Beardsly. Benjamin Beardsly. Samuel Gregory. Joseph Bennet. Nathaniel Knap. Jonathan Wakely. Mary Sher- wood to 8. Feb. 1697. Rebecca Sealey, John's wife. Mary Odell. Sarah Hubbell. Joanna Walker. Abigail French. Elizabeth Jackson. Rebecca Beardsly. Hannah Odell d. of John Sr., wife of Nathaniel Seely, & 1706 of Isaac Sterling. Abigail Summers. Mary Beardsly. Ruth Treadwell. Abigail Gregory. Ruth Wheeler. Ruth Wakely. Samuel & Martha Tredwell 1698. Isaac Bennet & wife. John & Deborah Burr 1700.
COMMUNICANTS.
The names of such as have been received to full communion in this church who were not before in full communion elsewhere.
Joseph & Sarah Seely 8. Dec. 1695. Hannah Sherman & Susanna Hall 5. Jan. 1695-6. Edward Preston 29. March 1696. Abel & Elizabeth Bingham 10. May 1696. Joanna Sherwood 21. Sept. 1696. Rebecca Wheeler 25. Oct. 1696. Sarah Chauncey 20. Dec. 1696. James & Sarah Bennet 7. Nov. 1697. Samuel French 8. March 1697-8. John Odell Senr & Samuel Tredwell sr. 20 Feb. 1697-8. Mary Odell jr. 29. May 1698. Rebecca Wheeler & Isaac Wilson 28. Aug. 1699. Abigail French 22. April 1699. Mary Crane 22. Oct. 1699. Jane Hall 7. April 1700.
The names of those that were afterwards received by letters dismissary or recom- mendatory from other churches were as follows. From Fairfield :
Mary Sherwood. Ann Wheeler. Mary Odell. Rebecca Gregory. Ruth Tredwell. Mercy Wheeler. Abigail Wells. Elizabeth Sherwood. Sarah Odell. Their letter was accepted & accepted Anno. 1695. From Stratford : Abigail wife of Richard Hubbell senr. Mary wife of James Hubbell. Abigail Beardsley wife of Samuel. Abigail Wakely dau. of Henry, married Paul Gregory Jun' | Temperance wife of Richard Hubbell jr. Their letter read & accepted 10. July 1693. Concord-Joseph Wheeler 20. Dec. 1697 &
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accepted 20. Dec 1697. | Mary Jackson of Norwalk, her letter read 20. Dec. 1697, & accepted 20. Dec. 1697. | Concord - Stratford-Hannah Fairchild 10. Sept. 1699. read & accepted 10 Sept. 1699. | Thomas Hawley, his letter read & accepted. | Mary wife of John Beardsly of Fairfield, her letter read & accepted 26. July 1702. | Woodbury-Abi- gail Tredwell of Woodbury accepted 24. Nov. 1704. | Concord-Sarah Whitacus 17. June 1705. Charleston -- Zacheriah Ferris 9. Sept. 1705. Stratfield Parish Records.
At the October term of the Assembly, Captain John Wakeman, and Eliphalet Hill acted as deputies in place of Jehu Burr and Samuel Ward. Eliphalet Hill was appointed on a committee to perfect the lists of persons and estates in the several towns in the colony. Major Gold and Captain John Burr were appointed to audit the constables' account of Stratford. A tax of three pence on the pound was levied on all the towns to defray the expenses of the colony, to be paid as follows : in wheat, peas, Indian corn, and rye ; winter wheat, 4s. 6d. ; peas, 2s. 6d. ; Indian corn, 25. 6d. per pushel ; pork, £3, 10s. per barrel, and beef 40s. per barrel; or one-half of the above value in current money of New England. A portion of this tax was to be appropriated towards paying the Connecticut soldiers, who had been sent to protect Deerfield and Northfield from the ravages of the Indians. The case of Dr. Isaac Hall and his brother Samuel, was sub- mitted to the hearing of Governor Treat, Major Gold, and Captain John Burr.
Upon application from Governor Bradstreet, for assistance in maintain- ing a garrison in the frontier towns of Maine and New Haven, a special Assembly met at Hartford on the 19th of November, when the ministers of the several towns in the colony were recommended to call upon the people to contribute liberally towards this purpose. These contributions were to be sent to the deacons, and by them speedily conveyed from the seaport towns to the garrison and poor families left in the exposed towns.
On the 8th of March, 1692, Fairfield was called upon to mourn the death of its second pastor, the Rev. Samuel Wakeman. His life had been one of great usefulness, not only in the town but in the colony. His opinions in the leading ecclesiastical questions of those times were sought and valued. Intellectually he was a man of superior ability. He possessed great energy of character, which was zealously and unwearingly used for the good of both church and state. He was highly honored and beloved by his parishioners, among whose descendants his memory is cherished to this day. It now became necessary to settle a new minister. Among the town records is to be found the following vote :
" Whereas the Rev. Samuel Wakeman of Fairfield is deceased, who died on the 8. of March 1692, which bereavement is for a lamentation, ye said town of Fairfield for to endea-
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vor to supply in the ministry, being met together on the 31. of March 1692, do order by vote to nominate a person for the ministry by papers, which being done the nomination fell to Mr. Harriman."* A letter of invitation was ordered to be written to this gentleman, " to come over (probably from New Haven) to Fairfield, for a further discourse in reference to settling him in the ministry." Nathan Gold, John Sturgis and John Osborn were appointed to write the letter ; and John Thompson was chosen " to be sent as the messenger."
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